COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Churches across Sri Lanka lit 40,000 candles June 26 to remember the 40,000 lives that were snatched away six months earlier when tsunami waves pounded the island nation.
The following day, during an interreligious prayer meeting at the office of Caritas Sri Lanka in Colombo, 40 tsunami orphans were given bank accounts of $50 each in the presence of several senior government officials and leaders of political parties.
However, Father Damian Fernando, executive director of Caritas Sri Lanka, the Catholic aid agency, said the inability to coordinate the relief effort has resulted in prolonged delays of aid to the Sri Lankan people.
“There is nothing to rejoice. We are far from happy in getting help to the tsunami victims,” Father Fernando said.
$40 Million in Aid
Despite undertaking several measures involving emergency food and medical supplies and temporary shelters, Father Fernando said, “Things are moving very slow. We have not been able to achieve even one quarter of what we wanted to do by now.”
In fact, Caritas Sri Lanka had set an ambitious target of erecting temporary shelters for 26,000 families and livelihood programs for the tsunami victims in the island nation where nearly 1 million people were displaced.
That was after the international Caritas network extended assistance of $40 million to Sri Lanka from the $350 million it had mobilized for tsunami relief work in more than a dozen countries in Asia and Africa. That included $5 million from Catholic Relief Services’ $35-million tsunami fund.
“In many places, we are still waiting for the government to allot lands for us to construct even transitional houses, let alone permanent houses,” Father Fernando said. “This is not certainly what we had expected when we started the relief work.”
The Register accompanied a team of Church workers to the village of Chinnathottam near Kinniya — 16 miles from the port city of Trincomalee on the east coast of Sri Lanka. In the lagoon region where the tsunami had claimed more than 200 lives, a local Caritas field worker took Father Francis Dias, Caritas coordinator in Trincomalee, to a land the government officials had allocated for Church workers to build temporary houses for the tsunami victims.
When the Caritas team reached the spot, they found that the land had been occupied by a dozen families many months before the tsunami. Father Dias, who heads the Trincomalee unit of Eastern Human and Economic Development Center — the social action department of the Batticaloa-Trincomalee Diocese, said they'll have to go “another round with government officials” to secure another parcel of land.
As the Caritas team walked back to the van along muddy road, Father Dias said, “This is turning out to be real test of patience. They should have really checked whether the land is free before allotting it to us. The buffer zone is at the root of all this chaos.”
Under the strict tsunami rehabilitation norms, the Sri Lankan government has ordered a buffer zone of 125 miles from the sea on the eastern side and 62 miles on the western side of the island, banning repair or reconstruction within this area as a precaution against future killer waves.
Helpless Feeling
This has forced non-government organizations and charity groups to build shelters only on sites approved and earmarked by the government agencies.
“We are feeling a bit helpless,” Bishop Kingsely Swampillai of Trincomalee-Batticaloa said in a June 22 interview. “If the government had allowed the people to repair or rebuild their houses, half the problem would have been over now.
“The buffer zone has only added to the misery of the people living on the shore,” Bishop Swampillai said. “We have seen their suffering, and want to make shelters for them at the earliest. But, we do not know yet where we can build these. The government has to allot the land for this.
“We have no dearth of funds but getting the land is a real bottleneck. It is time for the government to speed up the system. Otherwise, everyone will run out of patience,” the bishop said. His diocese suffered the worst devastation and casualties, accounting nearly half of the 40,000 deaths in the island.
Meanwhile, the buffer zone imposed by the government has caused much distress and dissent among the people along the coastline — most of them poor fishermen using traditional catamarans and nets.
“How can we live far from the sea and go fishing?” Shiv Prasan, a fisherman who follows traditional fishing methods without mechanized boats, said. “Earlier, we used to keep our nets in our houses [along the beach], and even our women would help us mend the nets. Now, we have been forced to leave our lands and live in no man's land.”
He added, “It seems the officials are more concerned about preventing future tsunami destruction than helping the fishermen restart their lives.”
Anto Akkara is based in New Delhi, India.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Anto Akkara ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:Armed With Faith
U.S. MILITARY ARCHDIOCESE, June 23 — A Boston College Jesuit, Father Daniel Sweeney, has compiled a pocket-size book of prayers and Catechism lessons specifically for men and women serving in the military that is already in its third edition.
The 64-page waterproof booklet, designed to fit in the pocket of a battle uniform, is being distributed free of charge by the Knights of Columbus in conjunction with the military archdiocese.
The book includes prayers, devotions, sacramental theology, catechetical information and hymns, along with a brief outline of just-war theory in the Catholic tradition.
There are 200,000 copies already in circulation and a Spanish-language edition is under development.
Simple Advice
ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 1 — Holy Cross Father John Jenkins became the 17th president of Notre Dame University on July 1.
He told the Associated Press that he would be guided by “great advice” from Father Theodore Hesburgh, who served as Notre Dame's president for 35 years beginning in 1952.
“He said, ‘Look, be thoughtful, take in all the points of view, take in all the evidence you can, then make the best decision you can, then don't worry about it. Don't listen to the criticism, don't listen to the praise, just make the best decision you can,’” Father Jenkins said. “That's what I'm going to do.”
Venerate Truth
He spoke on fidelity to the truth to 458 students who received bachelor's degrees and 58 who received master's degrees with some 3,000 parents and friends on hand for the celebration.
The former president of the University of St. Thomas in Houston urged the graduates to “venerate the truth … and bring that reverence to every future endeavor.”
Parents Banned
A group of Catholic parents, which has filed suit to reverse the ban, argues that teen pregnancy and other problems actually stem from programs like Glasgow's graphic sex-ed curriculum.
The Times’ coverage highlighted that the Tory health spokesman in the Scottish parliament, Dr Nanette Milne, is opposed to forcing children to take classes over the objection of parents.
Stepping Down
HILBERT COLLEGE, June 25 —Sister Edmunette Paczesny, the president of the college in Hamburg, N.Y. since 1975, will retire at the end of the 2005-2006 academic year.
A Franciscan Sister of St. Joseph for the past 50 years, Sister Edmunette, 72, said she thinks “it's time for a new leader.”
During her tenure, Hilbert moved from a two- to a four-year institution, increased its undergraduate degree programs from five to 12, dramatically increased its enrollment and added such academic innovations as a forensics training lab.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: From the Arena to the Altar DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:John Morales has interviewed some of sports’ greatest athletes, including Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, Pete Rose and Jack Nicklaus.
But the former sports broadcaster has a story of his own. The child of Colombian immigrants, Morales worked his way up in sports broadcasting and worked independently with ESPN, Fox Sports and CBS Radio Sports. Yet, after 19 years he gave it all up to serve the Church.
Morales is network correspondent for Green Bay, Wis.-based Relevant Radio. He and his new bride, Cindy, received a blessing from Pope Benedict XVI in Rome. Morales spoke with Register staff writer Tim Drake from his home in Chicago.
Tell me about yourself.
I grew up on the north side of Chicago. We attended St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church. I attended school with the Sisters of Christian Charity. My parents emigrated from Colombia. My father was an attorney, but couldn't speak the language. It was very difficult for him. He started drinking, and by the time I was 13, he left us. Not having a father figure left a huge void. The last time I saw him, he was in a cab headed for Colombia. The last thing I asked him was for $5 to buy a Willie Mays baseball bat. That was the last time I saw him until I was 27.
I attended the Marmion Military Academy and I owe my life to those people. They planted the seeds of who I am today. I was a sports nut. At the age of 11 or 12 I fell in love with baseball and had dreams of being a major leaguer. I was a Cubs fan and used to ride my bicycle to Wrigley Field. In 1972 I was watching the last no-hitter at Wrigley Field on TV. I knew it was going to be historic, and decided I just had to be there. On my way, my bicycle broke in half, so I ran the rest of the way, making it to Wrigley in time for the last inning.
I understand that there was a time when you fell away from the faith?
I never lost my belief in God or my affection for the Blessed Mother. It's like I went on vacation from God.
When I got into college, I started chasing girls. I was looking for love in all the wrong places. That resulted in a pregnancy when I was 25. When my girlfriend consulted me, I got down on one knee and begged her not to have an abortion. In the end, she sought an abortion.
The years when I started broadcasting were difficult years. I was hanging out in nightclubs. I was out there, lost. I made broadcasting my God.
What brought you back?
In 1983, I was working in the insurance business looking for fulfillment. I thought that if I were “rookie of the year” I would be happy, but there was always something missing. That year I met former Detroit Tiger minor league pitcher-turned insurance salesman, Joe Gandolfo. He had taken all of his talent and redirected it to the insurance business. He had sold $1 billion in insurance in a single year. I called him to get some advice, and I met with him in Cocoa Beach.
When I walked into his office, amid all of his trophies was a statue of the Blessed Mother behind his credenza and a crucifix on the wall. I knew he was for real. I wanted to know what made this guy tick.
After talking with him, he said, “Son, you're not at peace with yourself because you've made materialism your god. You'll never be happy until you're right with the man upstairs in your own way. It sounds to me like you want to be a movie star or a baseball player.” I started crying right there in his office.
When I left his office, the sun was shining. That meeting changed my life. He gave me a wakeup call. Shortly thereafter, after watching Bob Costas doing a show, I realized that what I really wanted to be was a sportscaster. So, I took courses with Midwest Broadcasting School. One year later I was covering the Cubs in Spanish for Channel 60. That was the beginning of my broadcast career.
From there I went to doing work for CBS. In 1987, I was asked to do a voice-over for a production trying to raise money for Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico. Seeing that video touched my heart. It renewed my interest in the faith. The Blessed Mother was pulling me by the ear and bringing me back home. I began stopping in to church on my way to the stadium to say prayers.
I also did my first faith reporting for a feature on Fatima for ABC. That opened my heart to doing religious reporting. I realized that you can reach a lot of people through the media. These were all building blocks to working full-time in Catholic media.
By 1993, I got hired by ABC in Houston. When I got down there, I started going to Mass on my days off. I returned to Detroit after a year, and continued going to Mass and saying the Rosary.
After Chicago closed its network, I was out of work for a year. I wondered, “What am I supposed to do?” I was considering the priesthood. A Franciscan friar told me, “Do whatever gives you peace.”
In secular media, I covered some of the greatest moments in the history of sports, and interviewed some of the greatest athletes, which is why I felt at peace about leaving sports broadcasting. I thought, “What more is there to do?”
I had the opportunity to interview with ESPN in 1999 and auditioned on the set. It was as if God was giving me a taste to see what it was like, but by that time I no longer had that desire. I wanted to work in Catholic media. He was redirecting my obsession to do work for the Kingdom.
You've interviewed dozens of sports celebrities. Do you have a favorite?
I have two — one young and one old. Mike Sweeney of the Kansas City Royals has the heart of a seminarian with the body of a baseball player. He touched me with his love of the Lord and the Blessed Mother. The other, Jack McKeon, manager of the Florida Marlins, I was with when the Marlins beat the Cubs. I interviewed him many times during the playoffs. He carries his rosary in his pocket and has a devotion to Therese, the Little Flower. Prior to Game 6, he went to Holy Name Cathedral. The priest said, “I know who you are.” He felt that was a sign that the Marlins would come back and beat the Cubs in Games 6 and 7 [and eventually go on] to win the World Series.
Do you have any favorite stories of athletes?
In November 2002, I went to Rome with my mother. While waiting to meet the Pope, I realized that Mike Piazza, the All-Star catcher for the New York Mets, was sitting next to me. He didn't have a rosary, so I pulled one out and gave it to him to have it blessed by the Holy Father. I'll never forget the look on his face. He was in The New York Times the next day.
What are you doing now?
I'm network correspondent for Relevant Radio and contribute to the “Drew Mariani Show.” Last week we did a video on the priesthood. I feel like the Lord has been using me like a pen. I'm also speaking on sports and giving my pro-life witness, particularly for men.
Tim Drake is based in Saint Joseph, Minnesota.
Information
jmorales@relevantradio.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Invasion of the Podcasters DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:PALESTINE, Texas — When Darren Cary tires of listening to music at work, he uses his computer to download “The Catholic Cast,” a program several states away in Cincinnati, Ohio. The program isn't broadcast by any of the secular or Catholic radio networks. It's recorded and uploaded onto the Internet from educator Jayson Franklin's home.
Welcome to the world of podcasting.
“Podcasting is extremely entertaining as well as informative,” said Cary, a quality assurance specialist with a document conversion company. “They are creative and witty, and that really wins me over, as opposed to other more traditional programs.”
Merging technology with faith, Catholic pods are turning individuals into “broadcasters,” just as blogs turned them into online journalists.
Pods, short for podcasts, allows individuals the ability to record their own radio-style programs, interviews and commentaries on their Apple iPod (a portable digital audio player), and then post them online, allowing listeners around the world to download and listen to them at their convenience in their cars, on their home stereos, or on their computer at work.
One of the most popular Catholic podcasters is Father Roderick Vonhögen, a priest from the Archdiocese of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Listeners at the Web portal Podcast Alley (www.podcastalley.com) have consistently rated his program among the Top 10 for the past three months. It reached No. 1 in April.
As Pope John Paul II was laid to rest and Pope Benedict XVI was elected, Father Vonhögen gave listeners a first-hand report on Rome's goings-on through his podcast, “Catholic Insider.” In addition, Father Vonhögen comments on popular culture and teaches about the faith. More recently, he has introduced a popular “praystation podcast” that provides listeners with morning and evening prayers taken from the Liturgy of the Hours.
Largely unheard of just a year ago, podcasts have risen dramatically in recent months. Listeners can now choose from more than 12,000 shows on topics ranging from farming to religion. Even the Vatican has jumped into the fray, making its “Vatican 105 Live” broadcast available through a podcast feed.
Listeners access the podcasts through directories such as Podcast Alley, where listeners can subscribe to and download new programs as they become available. What they lack in professionalism, they often make up for in homespun charm.
Jayson Franklin's foray into podcasting began shortly after Christmas.
“My wife wanted an iPod, so we pooled our various money gifts and I purchased one,” said Franklin. While doing research on the Internet for a way to convert Internet Real Audio files for mp3 players, Franklin stumbled onto podcasting.
“There were some cool evangelical Christian non-denominational shows, commentary and sermons, but there wasn't anything Catholic,” said Franklin. “I thought that was a shame.”
Franklin coupled his computer skills with his knowledge of the Church and put together his podcast, “The Catholic Cast.” The program first aired in January and has been airing weekly ever since.
“I was the first Catholic to do a specific Catholic show,” he said.
Franklin estimated that he has more than 200 subscribers. Father Vonhögen has more than 2,000.
“Personally, it's a synthesis of my love for gadgets and my love for Jesus,” said Franklin. “It allows me to have an outlet to share my love for Jesus and the Church.”
Franklin uses his podcast to introduce listeners to new Catholic music and for guest interviews —among them, his grandfather who is neither Catholic nor Christian — to talk about issues of faith.
“Jayson often has debates with his grandfather who is stubborn yet intelligent. I enjoy the banter between them,” said Cary, a convert from the Church of God. “He also introduces me to a lot of music that I wouldn't know of otherwise.”
Podcasting is more than a personal audio show. Catholic podcasters are using their skills to bring attention to current news, just as Catholic bloggers shed light on topics such as the sexual abuse crisis.
In the weeks and months leading up to Terri Schiavo's death on March 31, podcasters joined their efforts to highlight Schiavo's plight. A group of podcasters known as Disciples With Microphones banded together to produce “Podcasts for Terri.”
Michael Kreidler, a homebound man who suffers from the effects of Lyme's disease, was able to record and air a personal audio reflection on Terri Schiavo from his home. Disciples With Microphones hopes to do more of that, bringing National Public Radio-style broadcast standards to Catholic radio for the purposes of evangelization.
Podcasting also allows for the creation of regional shows, such as Cross Signals, a weekly podcast from Seattle that is directed at youth, or a program with broader appeal such as Brian Noe's daily Scripture readings.
“As limited as Michael McNamara's Cross Signals is, there are only a limited number of people in Seattle,” said Franklin. “If his show catches on, he could have millions of listeners.”
Short-Lived?
Those inside and outside of radio question the future of podcasting, and what impact, if any, it may have on radio broadcasting. While those in Catholic radio are optimistic about the possibilities, they are also cautious.
“I think that podcasting could help Catholic radio,” said Mike Jones, vice president and general manager of Ave Maria Radio, which produces programming that is carried on more than 80 stations across the country. “We, as Catholics, need to embrace every media platform possible. We're so far behind the eight ball, and the secular culture and media platforms are so expensive to acquire and maintain, that we need anything we can use.”
Jones, a programmer, said that technologies such as the iPod allow listeners to customize what they listen to.
“Someone could download just the first hour of Dr. Ray Guarendi's radio program for playback later,” explained Jones. He added that it's possible that iPods could die a quick death because of emerging cell-phone technology. With the advent of roaming wireless connections, it will eventually be possible for audio to be streamed from the Internet to almost anywhere.
“Using my cellular phone, eventually I'll be able to audio stream nearly any radio station in the country, 24-7,” said Jones.
In response to podcasts’ popularity, some radio stations have developed podcasts of their own, as have some print publications, corporations, and politicians.
“Podcasting is decentralizing audio and where we get it from,” said Franklin. “It takes media out of the hands of the few and puts it into the hands of the many. With new media, for better or worse, everyone has a voice.”
“If there's a platform, we should stand on it and scream the Gospel,” said Jones. “Whether podcasting can sustain itself, that's up to the future.”
Tim Drake is based in St. Joseph, Minnesota.
EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: WEEKLY DVD/VIDEO PICKS DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:Bride and Prejudice (2005)
Due to the cultural and religious context in which they flourish, Indian films tend to be refreshingly free of unchaste behavior, explicit violence and other objectionable content. Instead, Indian filmmakers focus on other ways of spicing up their pictures.
The typical “Bollywood” film is a gonzo blend of song and dance, romance and humor, melodrama and action. Most are musicals, full of swirling silk and flowing colors, characters bursting into song and bystanders joining in. Most are also romances featuring beautiful, chaste heroines (sexy attire and dance are permitted, but even onscreen kisses and implied immorality are taboo). Starring reigning “Bollywood” queen Aishwarya Rai in her first English-speaking role, Bride loosely follows Austin's story of first impressions and romantic intrigue.
There are flaws. The plot relies too much on contrived misunderstandings, and the second half drags somewhat. While the romance is chaste, one sequence — a music-video style stage number featuring half-naked hip-hop star Ashanti — is out of place and overly provocative.
Content advisory: Some sexual references, crude language and mostly minor profanity; a provocative dance sequence; a brief fisticuff. Teens and up.
Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (1965)
Forget the Disney cartoon with the singing mice. Rodgers & Hammerstein's made-for-TV Cinderella is the classic musical version of the timeless fairy tale set in stone by Charles Perrault, and the best way to introduce children to the story. I'll take R&H's fairy godmother singing “Fol-de-rol and fiddle dee dee and fiddley faddley foddle” over “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” any time. The best-known version of R&H's Cinderella, and in some ways the best, is the classic 1965 version starring Lesley Ann Warren — though the long-neglected 1957 original starring Julie Andrews (newly available on home video, see below) is also well worthwhile.
Though the songs are the same, the scripts differ in the two versions, and each has its charms. I like the prologue in this version, featuring the first, anonymous interaction between Cinderella and the Prince, which adds depth to their relationship. And there's no substitute for the classic final scene in Cinderella's home.
Content advisory: Nothing objectionable.
Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (1957)
Despite the formidable star power of no less than Julie Andrews, this original version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's made-for-TV musical Cinderella has been astonishingly neglected until now, but is finally available on DVD and VHS for the first time.
Julie Andrews as Cinderella is a no-brainer, and the 1957 version is worth seeing for her alone. At the same time, as a 22-year-old star Andrews lacks the wide-eyed ingénue quality the 19-year-old Warren brought to her debut role in the 1965 version.
Other virtues of the 1957 version include charming material involving the Prince's family cut from later versions. On the other hand, Edie Adams’ baton-twirling fairy-godmother-as-cheerleader dates poorly, and moving the glass-slipper scene from Cinderella's house to the palace was a bad idea. But I like the way the climax softens Cinderella's stepfamily and their ultimate fate.
Content advisory: Nothing objectionable.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Judging Bush DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:Is President Bush a man of his word?
We're about to find out.
In the last election, a majority of Catholic voters told pollsters they had very different views from Bush's on a number of issues, including war and capital punishment. But then a majority of them cast their ballots for Bush anyway. The reason was obvious enough for a Newsweek headline to put it this way: “It's About Abortion, Stupid.”
Catholics voted for Bush because of abortion — and, specifically, because of the Supreme Court. Ever since the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, the battle for abortion has been taken out of voters’ hands and put in the high court's. That means that perhaps the greatest power presidents wield on the issue is their power to appoint Supreme Court justices.
In the months leading up to the last election, Sen. John Kerry pledged again and again that, if he were elected, he would use abortion as a litmus test, appointing to the Supreme Court only those justices who reject the right to life.
For his part, President Bush promised that he would appoint only justices who were “like Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas” — two men who are considered the surest pro-life votes on the court.
Now that Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has retired (as this goes to press, no other justice has joined her), we'll see just how hard the president and the GOP are willing to fight to keep that promise.
Catholics will see this appointment as a crucial test both of President Bush and of the Republican Party he leads. Catholics have trended toward the GOP only relatively recently. If Bush breaks his promise, Catholics could leave the party as quickly as they entered it.
But the replacement of Justice O'Connor isn't crucial to the GOP's political future only. It's crucial to the future of America, as well.
Justice O'Connor served in the Supreme Court for 24 years. She began to be known as the swing vote on the court — the one whose vote decided key issues. More than any other justice, when decisions came down with a 5-4 vote on the nine-person panel, Justice O'Connor was on the winning side.
In June, Justice O'Connor and four others on the Supreme Court ruled that the Ten Commandments cannot be displayed on public property if there is a religious intent behind the display. Not only did Justice O'Connor's vote make it illegal for a community to publicly reverence the basic moral code of our land — it did so by dictating from on high, regardless of the wishes of voters.
Two years ago, a 5-4 majority paved the way for same-sex “marriage” by striking down sodomy laws. Again, the court decided that the laws we make in our communities were irrelevant: The court would decide what was right and what was wrong. Again, Justice O'Connor's vote was decisive.
Amazingly, Justice O'Connor and four other justices wouldn't even allow states — or the U.S. Congress — to outlaw the gruesome practice of partial-birth abortion, in which a full-term baby is killed with scissors during birth. Because the O'Connor majority said so, lower courts had to overturn the ban on partial-birth abortion that the majority of Americans wanted, and that our elected representatives enacted.
What can we do? We can ask the president (WhiteHouse.gov) to keep his promise. We can ask our representatives to urge him to do so as well. (Find out who they are and how to contact them by typing in your zip code at Vote-Smart.org).
We can also pray. Priests for Life is joining Gospel of Life Ministries in asking Catholics to say the following prayer daily.
Prayer for Our Nation's Courts and Judges
Lord God, I thank you today for the gift of our nation.
You alone rule the world with justice,
Yet you place in our hands the solemn duty
Of participating in the shaping of our government.
I pray today for our president and senators
Who have the responsibility of placing judges on our courts.
Please protect this process from all obstruction.
Please send us men and women of wisdom,
Who respect your law of life.
Please send us judges with humility,
Who seek your truth and not their own opinions.
Lord, give all of us the courage we need to do what is right
And to serve you, the judge of all, with fidelity.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: TV Subtracts DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:FACTS OF LIFE
A new study shows that children who have televisions in their bedrooms consistently score significantly lower on math, reading and language-arts tests. The study, published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, also says the TV-bad scores correlation may have less to do with what kids are watching than when they're watching: most of the time they're in there. (Tim Rauch illustration)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Secret Formula DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:Dear Adrienne and Lance,
Since being struck Catholic a few years ago, I've done lots of reading about my faith. That's because I hunger to understand our beliefs. And, like most every human being in history, I have a smoldering desire to find and comprehend the truth.
For Catholics, there is no shortage of reading material that can help you understand our religion, interpret biblical writings and learn how to live a Christian life. People like John Paul II, Fulton Sheen, Thomas Aquinas and Augustine wrote tens of thousands of pages of spiritual wisdom. It will take me a lifetime to read what each of them wrote, so I have trouble understanding how they wrote this stuff in a lifetime.
Assuming I accomplish this task, I expect I'll still have a lot to learn. So, I've often wished it could all be reduced to a simple formula: X + Y = Salvation.
Oh, I know. There is the golden rule, the admonition to love God, the Ten Commandments — all very helpful. Of course, there also is the ever-popular What Would Jesus Do? (WWJD?), which you can get on hats, T-shirts, buttons and temporary tattoos.
A priest friend (who humbly requests anonymity) tells me that when we ask WWJD? we are asking the wrong question. He suggests we should be constantly asking ourselves what we can do for Jesus. And from that simple question, he has crafted the secret formula for us to use if we want to live a life of service to Christ and His Church:
O + E + DSPI = S
In case it isn't immediately evident what these letters mean, here it is in English: Organization + Efficiency + the drive for Success, tempered by purity of intention = sanctity.
There you have it — everything you need to know about personal sanctification reduced to a simple formula that would fit on a couple lines of an index card. For people like me who work for the Church, having such a formula is reassuring. If I can just keep the formula in mind when I'm doing my daily work and interacting with other people, my chances for eternal salvation rise geometrically.
Notice, however, that I suggest the formula is simple — which is different from easy. In fact, some very simple things are very difficult to accomplish. For example, I know the formula for running a four-minute mile. The formula for that is simple: Just run four consecutive quarter miles in a minute or less. Simple, but not easy.
Notice, too, that I referred to my priest friend's formula as “secret.” Obviously, it can't be secret in the conventional sense of being unknown or undisclosed, since I've published it in this newspaper.
However, the formula remains an apparent secret because few people are using it. An even smaller subset of people is using it effectively. Sadly, knowledge of the truth is not enough; you have to do something about it, to take action.
There are big rewards for action — happiness, eternal salvation, never-ending life, meeting Christ face-to-face, a place in heaven. Those are Christ's rewards.
Yet our culture tells us to use a different formula. One we see presented in various forms on television, in advertising and in movies: “He who dies with the most toys wins.”
Many people are living by this formula. That's sad. We need to pray for them — that they will turn their hearts from transient treasures on earth to eternal treasures in heaven (see Matthew 6:19-21).
Jim Fair writes from Chicago.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jim Fair ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Parents Key to Developing Children's Video-Game Habits DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — If there was any doubt about the popularity computer and video games have in society, one need only look at sales numbers for 2004. According to the Entertainment Software Association, consumers set a record with sales of $7.3 billion for computer and video games in the United States alone.
Researchers continue to explore the effect computer video games have on the behavior of children and teens, especially when exposed to violent themes and action. While not everyone agrees that those games lead to aggressive behavior, they do agree that parental monitoring is critical.
In May, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, created in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Association, released the results of a telephone survey in which a majority of U.S. parents say they “never” allow their children to play Mature-rated computer and video games. The “M” rating designates that a video game is suitable for age 17 and older.
In June, however, research in the United Kingdom from Swiss consultancy firm Modulum concluded that while children and parents are aware of ratings, parents “divorce themselves” from active involvement in deciding what their children play.
How teens and children get their hands on M-rated games is less ambiguous. The software association notes in its 2005 sales, demographic and usage data that parents are present 92% of the time when games are purchased or rented; 87% of the time children receive their parents’ permission before purchasing or renting a game; and 32% of parents play games with their children weekly.
Beyond the ratings, parents also can obtain more information on video games from PSVratings Inc. (www.psvratings.com), which monitors and collects information and incidents of profanity (P), sexuality (S) and violence (V) in the media, including movies, TV and video games.
The firm uses a traffic light logo to rate the entertainment of red, yellow or green, categorizing the extent of profanity, sexuality and violence. The rating system is developed and evaluated by PSVratings’ board of child psychologists and psychiatrists, said founder and Chief Executive Officer David Kinney, “based upon the available research as to the potential negative sociological or psychological outcome of exposure to a child.”
Violence Issue
While the International Game Developers Association opposes any effort to restrict creative freedom on any form of art or entertainment, the association's Executive Director Jason Della Rocca said that the issue of violent video games and the possible effect on players does concern fellow game developers.
“They want to better understand if they are having a negative effect,” Della Rocca said. “If they are, they want to understand the effect and what people are concerned about. At the same time, there are developers who say, ‘I am an artist. I am creating art, so tough luck. That's the way expression works.’”
Della Rocca warned against parents taking an “It's-just-a-game” approach with their children's game play.
“One of the reasons that we have this panic over games is that too many politicians, adults, teachers and the media still view [video] games as toys for children,” he added.
Some warned against parents using video games as a babysitting tool.
“If parents are looking to games to raise their children, they have the wrong idea,” said Brock Dubbels, a Minneapolis middle school and high school teacher and researcher at the Center for Human Factors Research and Systems Design at the University of Minnesota. “Violent games are very provocative, because of the way they have been presented as forbidden fruit. What [parents] don't know is that many games are designed for adult consumption.”
At the same time, Dubbels said that society tends to generalize that all video games are aggressive and violent, but that concept is far from the truth.
“There are games that have questionable content,” he said, “but there are games that have interesting content and provide learning experiences for children.”
Jeanne Funk, professor of psychology at the University of Toledo, has evaluated five studies on the effect of violent video games and found that, in every case, a preference for aggressive games was associated with lower empathy and strong pro-violence attitudes.
“I am in agreement with active researchers that think violent video games are one factor that increases the relative risk of aggression in both kids and adults,” Funk said. “There are other risk factors that have a greater impact, such as poverty and abuse, but playing violent video games is something that is more controllable than some other variables.”
A German researcher recently found similar patterns in the brains of young men who were playing a violent video game and subjects who have had brain scans during other simulated violent situations.
Christian Games
To see that more uplifting video games and Christian-based themes get in the hands and minds of young people, three California men created Digital Praise Inc. in 2003.
The Fremont-based company is the brainchild of Peter Fokos, a 25-year veteran of video-game development and director of engineering for the former Learning Co., where he co-created the brands of Carmen Sandiego, Reader Rabbit and Oregon Trail.
After The Learning Co. was acquired, rather than work on gambling or risqué video games, Fokos teamed with friends Tom and Bill Bean. The three men, who first met in Sunday school many years ago, were so committed to the venture that they mortgaged their homes to start the company.
“Most games today are not uplifting; there is no redemptive value to them,” said Bill Bean. “They minimize life, and encourage violence and hatred, and reduce the value of women, minorities and tolerance.”
Digital Praise began distribution in March with two Adventures in Odyssey video games. Designed for children 8 and older, the games can be played on a Windows-based PC or Macintosh computer. Bean estimated the retail price from $20 to $25.
The company plans to release five more games later this year. Both Apple computer and Amazon.com have approached Digital Praise about selling the games.
“Our games have the message of ‘Don't lie, cheat, or steal, and take responsibility for your actions.’ We feel that is what every parent wants for their kids,” Bean added. “You don't have to have Scriptures to communicate that message. Christ led by example; in our game play, we try to get the characters to lead by example.”
Wayne Forrest is based in Providence, Rhode Island.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Forrest ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Court Choice Will Define GOP DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court presents both opportunity and danger for President George Bush.
On the one hand, the president's hard-fought election victories finally give him his first opportunity to re-shape the nation's highest court.
On the other hand, depending on whom he selects for the lifetime appointment, Bush could alienate much of his political base and create a huge rift between pro-lifers and the Republican Party.
With its decisions on school prayer, pornography, the Ten Commandments, contraception, abortion and homosexuality, the Supreme Court has led the way over the last 50 years in shaping American culture. In doing so, many believe it has overstepped its bounds and become an agent of social change rather than the impartial interpreter of the U.S. Constitution.
O'Connor was usually part of the problem in this regard, said Douglas Kmiec, professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine University and former constitutional counsel to both Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
“It is not the province of un-elected judges to change the meaning of the Constitution,” said Kmiec. “Unfortunately, when the court departs from this notion, it departs grievously and often tragically. It hurts people who are least able to defend themselves, such as the unborn.”
Many voters have long viewed changes on the high court as a necessary step toward promoting a culture less hostile toward religion and more respectful of human life. But despite many opportunities by pro-life presidents to add new members to the court, the changes have not come easily.
President Ronald Reagan, who is remembered as a staunch advocate of the right to life, appointed three justices to the high court, two of whom — O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy — have not shared Reagan's view of the Constitution.
O'Connor and Kennedy have both cast critical votes on the court to nullify almost any legal restrictions on abortion, to keep “virtual child pornography” legal, and to strike down state laws against sodomy.
Then in 1990, President George H.W. Bush appointed David Souter, about whom little was known at the time. Now he's firmly in the O'Connor and Kennedy camp.
President Bush's supporters will watch very carefully this summer as he chooses someone to replace O'Connor. Several prospective candidates are being discussed in Washington (see sidebar).
“I think Bush wants to find someone who will respect the Constitution as it is written, and will not read into it rights and restrictions that are not there,” said Kmiec.
Don Stewart, a spokesman for Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said O'Connor's successor should primarily be a qualified jurist with respect for legislative intent and the Constitution. The new nominee “should interpret what the legislators have done in line with the Constitution,” said Stewart, “but not try to create new laws out of whole cloth.”
With O'Connor's retirement, however, pro-abortion groups praised her record and called on Bush to appoint someone like her.
“I think all Americans ought to be happy with a replacement similar to her,” said Eliot Mincberg, general counsel of the People for the American Way, an organization that promotes, among other things, legal abortion, same-sex “marriage” legislation, and the elimination of prayer in public schools.
Stewart rejected the idea that Bush should seek to keep “ideological balance” on the court” by nominating a judge much like O'Connor. “If that's true, then the Clinton administration didn't get the memo.”
He specifically cited Clinton's replacement of Byron White — a dissenter in Roe v. Wade — with Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who supports legal abortion.
Abortion activists fear that Bush could push the court in a more pro-life direction. More than 30 years after the Roe decision struck down practically all regulations on abortion, that issue remains the most important as Bush prepares to name O'Connor's replacement.
“There's no question that 'reproductive choice’ is a big issue in this fight,” said Mincberg. He added that his group will probably launch a major advertising campaign against Bush's nominee if they find him or her unacceptable.
Bush's nominee will require confirmation by the Senate, where Democrats have steadfastly obstructed Bush's judicial nominees for four years through use of the filibuster to prevent a vote. Although the political consequences of using the filibuster against a Supreme Court nominee would probably be devastating for the party, Democrats could well do it anyway.
Still, seven moderate Democrats swore off filibusters earlier this year, making it likely that Bush's nominee will get an up-or-down vote this summer, no matter how difficult the confirmation battle becomes.
The political stakes in the fight over the court are even greater than usual for pro-lifers. This fall, the newly constituted court will immediately have the opportunity to review two important abortion cases.
One will likely come from Virginia, where the 4th Circuit recently struck down the state's law against partial-birth abortion. The other case is Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood, which will test New Hampshire's law requiring parental consent for a minor having an abortion.
David Freddoso is based in Washington, D.C.
The Contenders
Some possible successors to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
Samuel Alito is the 3rd Circuit judge who fell on the losing (pro-life) side of Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1991. In his dissent, Alito defended a Pennsylvania law requiring spousal notification for a married woman seeking an abortion: “The Pennsylvania legislature could have rationally believed that some married women are initially inclined to obtain an abortion without their husbands’ knowledge because of perceived problems — such as economic constraints, future plans, or the husbands’ previously expressed opposition — that may be obviated by discussion prior to the abortion.” Alito is a candidate who has political allies on both sides of the aisle, making him more “confirmable” than others.
Janice Rogers Brown, District of Columbia Circuit Judge would be the first black female justice. She is a staunch pro-lifer whose nomination was held up for years by Democrats in the U.S. Senate. In her confirmation hearing, she denied that any “right to privacy” exists in the Constitution. Although it is believed that Bush would have liked to appoint her, the possibility is much less likely because she was only confirmed this year to the federal bench. Previously, she had served on the California Supreme Court, where she was the sole dissenter in a case that found Catholic Charities to be in violation of a law requiring employers to pay for insurance coverage of contraceptives.
Edith Brown Clement, after more than two decades on the federal bench, remains a relative unknown. But in her 2001 confirmation hearing to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, Brown said, “The Supreme Court has clearly held that the right to privacy … includes the right to have an abortion … The law is settled in that regard.”
Emilio Garza of the 5th Circuit wrote a 1997 decision in which he called the Supreme Court's abortion precedent “inimical to the Constitution.” Although he reportedly does not want the nomination for the high court, Garza is a strong candidate and would be the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court.
Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, often discussed as a possible nominee because of his close friendship with Bush, appeared to take himself out of consideration with comments published July 7. Pro-life groups had been distrustful of Gonzales because of an abortion decision he had made while on the Texas Supreme Court.
Edith Jones, also of the 5th Circuit, would be a strong choice. In a 2005 case involving Norma McCorvey — the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, Jones wrote, “If courts were to delve into the facts underlying Roe's balancing scheme with present-day knowledge, they might conclude that the woman's ‘choice’ is far more risky and less beneficial, and the child's sentience far more advanced, than the Roe Court knew.” She added, “That the Court's constitutional decision-making leaves our nation in a position of willful blindness to evolving knowledge should trouble any dispassionate observer not only about the abortion decisions, but about a number of other areas in which the Court unhesitatingly steps into the realm of social policy under the guise of constitutional adjudication.”
J. Michael Luttig, who serves on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, is a judge whose opinions on abortion are closely guarded. He has written that as a circuit court judge he must defer to Supreme Court jurisprudence on abortion, but he has not given any hint what he would do if he were on the Supreme Court, making precedent. He is a former clerk for current Justice Antonin Scalia.
John Roberts now serves on the District of Columbia Circuit. While working as a deputy in the U.S. Solicitor General's office, Roberts argued, “[T]he court's conclusion in Roe that there is a fundamental right to an abortion … finds no support in the text, structure, or history of the Constitution.”
J. Harvie Wilkinson of the 4th Circuit is viewed with suspicion because of his well-documented belief in the “living, breathing” model of the Constitution. Wilkinson wrote a 1998 opinion upholding Virginia's parental notification law, but his rationale was that it “imposes only the mildest form of regulation upon the fundamental constitutional right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.” He added that, “If the act were a consent statute or otherwise imposed more onerous burdens on the abortion right, we would have a very different case.”
— David Freddoso
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Freddoso ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Sen. Brownback Holds Hearings on Roe DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — A woman who was used to make abortion legal nationwide told a Senate subcommittee about how she was deceived by the lawyers whose help she had sought.
“I only sought legal assistance to get a divorce from my husband and to get my children from foster care,” said Sandra Cano, testifying publicly for the first time since her 1973 Supreme Court case — Doe v. Bolton — helped abolish state abortion regulations.
“Abortion never crossed my mind, although it apparently was utmost in the mind of the attorney from whom I sought help. At one point, during the legal proceedings, it was necessary for me to flee to Oklahoma to avoid the pressure being applied to have the abortion scheduled for me by this same attorney.”
Cano, who at the time was poor and whose husband was in jail, said she had always opposed abortion. She never did kill her child. But her court case ultimately defined the “health of the mother” as an expansive concept including physical, emotional and psychological well-being, effectively ensuring that abortion could not meaningfully be regulated at any stage of pregnancy or for any reason.
With its companion case, Roe v. Wade, it established the unprecedented basis for an inviolable right to abortion on demand.
“Doe v. Bolton was based on lies and deceit,” said Cano. “I want the case which was supposedly to benefit me to be either overturned or retried.”
Cano was speaking at a June 23 hearing on Capitol Hill chaired by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., on the effects of the seminal Roe and Doe decisions. Brownback plans to hold three or four such hearings during this Congress, which could be a monumental two-year period in the history of abortion law.
The first hearing came just a week before Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's surprise announcement that she is retiring, setting off a pitched battle over whether her replacement should be a jurist who believes in preserving Roe or not.
Although the emotion-charged hearing drew a huge audience, the mainstream news media nearly blacked the event out altogether. Based on a search of the Lexis-Nexis database, only four news stories were published on the hearing, and the Los Angeles Times was the only major newspaper to cover it.
‘Based on Lies’
In the hearing, Norma McCorvey — known as Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade — described her court experience. It was hauntingly similar to that of Cano.
“Abortion is a shameful and secret thing,” said McCorvey, breaking into tears as she spoke. “I made the story up that I had been raped to help justify my desire for an abortion. Why would I make up a lie to justify my conduct? Because abortion is based on lies.
“Abortion is not a simple medical procedure that is safer than childbirth,” she continued. “It is the killing of a human being. It produces severe psychological and emotional consequences. We can ask the children to forgive us, but the children are dead.”
Both women described how they were misled and kept in the dark by lawyers about the meaning and progress of their court cases, and how they were never allowed to testify in court.
Brownback, a staunch opponent of abortion, told the Register that he held the hearings in order to promote awareness of the flaws in the current regime of court-ordered legal abortion on demand.
“I hope judges will pay attention to the testimony,” said Brownback. “How do you celebrate such key cases when they're built on lies?”
Another of the hearing's seven witnesses, Ed Whalen of the Washington-based Ethics and Public Policy Center, testified on Roe as a constitutional legal matter, calling it a “lousy” decision.
Whalen told the Register that Roe is best compared to another infamous decision of long ago. “Roe and Dred Scott are the only cases in which the Supreme Court has distorted the Constitution to deny American citizens their power to extend basic protections to an entire class of human beings,” he said.
Dred Scott v. Sandford, decided prior to the Civil War, held that slave owners’ property rights overrode the ability of free states to completely forbid slavery within their own borders.
At one point, Brownback asked Dr. Ken Edelin, who testified at the hearing in favor of Roe, when he believes life begins.
“It began with the union of the sperm and the egg,” said Edelin. “It has a different genetic makeup and it is living. And if you would rather pass laws that would protect that over the lives and experiences and health and bodies of women, then that is what you will do in this body in all your wisdom.”
Edelin would not, however, go so far as to state that an unborn child is a human being, Brownback noted.
“That a child is alive in the womb but not a life is a legal fiction,” Brownback said. “Of course it's a life.”
Presidential Duel?
The hearing provided a forum for discussion of the nation's most compelling social issue between two possible presidential candidates — Brownback and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., the subcommittee's ranking Democrat and a strong supporter of abortion on demand.
“The Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade was indeed consequential,” said Feingold in his opening statement. “It has brought about steady and far-reaching improvements for the health and welfare of women in this country. … Roe has played a significant role in allowing women to participate fully and equally in the economic and social life of this nation.”
Another witness for the pro-Roe side was Alta Charo, a professor of law and medical ethics at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Charo said that an unborn person cannot be considered a “person” under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“There is a difference between biological life and life that is morally and legally significant in a way that requires protection, including a so-called right to life,” she testified.
Charo, who serves on an advisory board for Planned Parenthood, the world's largest provider of abortion, said that she did not consider the hearings all that significant.
“Sen. Brownback's hearing isn't going to influence the court particularly,” she said. “My personal opinion is that Sen. Brownback wants to be visible on this issue with his base, possibly for [presidential] primary voters. … It's not clear to me that it has any intrinsic value.”
In her testimony, Charo painted a dramatic picture of what a post-Roe society would look like. She suggested that without the “right to privacy” created by Roe, a Chinese-style, one-child policy could be enacted, contraception — including, she said, the “rhythm method” — could be outlawed, and the state could begin disassembling parental rights, including the choice of their children's “language of instruction” in school.
But Brownback dismissed this portrayal as a wild exaggeration.
“It's standard procedure for people who oppose Roe to instigate panic over its reversal,” he said. “But we once had a society without Roe, and none of the things she described ever happened.”
David Freddoso writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Freddoso ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Your Great Power DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:This is the latest in a series of Register articles in which author and syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher explains love and marriage to her grown son.
“With great power comes great responsibility,” as Spider-Man put it.
Sex is not a mere appetite, whatever the pornographers on Madison Avenue try to persuade you. The power of sex is not only in its procreative potential. But at the most basic level, the power to create new life — human life made in the image of God — has to inspire awe, and a sense of moral seriousness.
With great power comes great responsibility.
Especially when you pause and think for a moment: We are not here talking about the creation of just any human life — immense and wondrous as that is — but your very own child. The person who creates your fatherhood (and fatherhood we know is an attribute of God).
Certainly we have moral obligations to any human being, just by the fact that they are human. But how much more do we owe to our very own children? “Do right by your kids” may not be the highest and noblest aspiration the human soul has ever dreamed up, but surely it is the least that we can expect of any decent man or woman.
So why is it so many people these days find something so basic so very hard?
We live in one of the richest, most creative, powerful and dynamic societies ever seen in all of human history. And yet amidst all this abundance, there is one thing children can no longer count on: the care and concern of their own father.
Nationally, one out of three children is born outside of marriage. Just under half of civil marriages are projected to end in divorce. Scholars now say in scholarly language obvious truths like this Urban Institute policy brief: “Parents who do not live with their children are unlikely to be highly involved in their children's lives.”
Only a minority of children outside of marriage see their fathers as often as once a week. Half of children living outside of intact marriages see their fathers only once a year or less, or never.
Even if fathers don't disappear altogether, when mothers and fathers aren't married to each other, it is hard to be really jointly committed to raising their kids together. Marriage means you and your child's mother will live together, love each other and be sexually faithful. It means you will have children in the future only with each other. Your heart, your money, your body, your home and your kids are all shared.
Being not married means that you and your child's mother live in different houses. Probably different neighborhoods. Eventually, maybe different states, as career and romance and family obligation inexorably diverge. Your money is separate and so are your economic interests. Your relationships with other people are more important that your relationship with each other.
Your moral obligations — not only your tastes, preferences and interests — begin to diverge in ways that make it hard to prioritize the needs of your ex-spouse. In a culture of un-marriage, you will have many loves and other sexual, personal and family relations. You may have other children whose interests diverge radically from your first set.
What marriage unites, un-marriage fragments: sex, love, parenting, money, time, energy, desire and obligation.
What happens to children when marriage no longer holds mothers and fathers together? The hard social science evidence on the consequences for children and society is now compelling.
First, there are the dismal social science casualties: higher rates of poverty, financial hardship, welfare dependency, drug and alcohol abuse, infant mortality, teen suicide, depression, anxiety, unwed motherhood (and fatherhood), sexually transmitted diseases, educational failure (high school drop outs, special education, conduct disorders, being held back a grade), juvenile delinquency and adult criminality.
Beyond that, there is what happens to most children outside of marriage, even those who don't become social-science statistics: the children who lived with stressed-out single mothers, or who compete with stepfathers and new boyfriends for their mom's time, attention and loyalty. The children whose hearts get broken again and again by a father who doesn't seem to love them, to whom they are clearly not even close to the most important thing in his life.
Why do so many people these days find doing right by their kids so hard?
We've separated sex as a concept from what sex actually is. We pretend that sex is just a simple, happy appetite that anyone should be able to indulge, with the right contraceptives. We prioritized the felt needs of adults over those of children. We deny sexual reality to ourselves, and our own children reap the consequences.
Holding together sex, love, care, marriage, money and babies is not easy. Sexual desire is not a simple appetite for pleasure, but a deeply rich and complex passion, one that often presents itself imperiously. When sexual desire is a desire for the whole person, when lust is touched by love, it becomes particularly insistent on its own importance. There is a reason why the ancient Greeks (and many other pagans) imagined Eros as a god, a god of unreason, who attacks with little irresistible arrows without warning.
Which is why making sexual love real, making it not merely about the self, but genuinely about the other, requires an enormous idealistic, heroic and disciplined commitment of reason and emotion, faith and culture.
Today, many adults just aren't willing to make the effort.
Decency says, “If someone has to suffer, it's going to be me, not my kid.” But our sexual culture reverses the formula: “If someone's going to suffer, it's going to be my kids, not me.”
Of course, adults don't say this out loud. They cover it up even from themselves with euphemisms about the inevitability of the death of love, about how children are resilient, which is true, but not a very good excuse for moral callousness about inflicting this kind of suffering on children, especially on our very own children, in order to pursue adult sexual and intimacy needs (and so vainly pursue them, it so often turns out, as adulterous affair follows adulterous affair, or divorce follows divorce).
“If someone's going to suffer, its going to be my kids, not me.” Adultery is one way of saying this. So is divorce. So is abortion. So is engaging in non-marital sex, which does not take the reality of the children you could be making seriously.
The desire for a father comes to a child very early and very powerfully. It has nothing to do with stigma or teasing. It doesn't even necessarily depend on the emotional logic of loss, the grief that comes with an end of an existing attachment (as happens when say, divorcing parents part). A child's longing for his mother and father is in its own way an elemental force. You could get mystical real fast, once you begin to take it seriously.
Here's a story about a boy. Maybe you'll recognize him.
A rather privileged young unwed mom, abandoned by the father of her child (but not her parents, a committed married couple), moves with her son to New York City to take a job as a magazine editor. Like so many young New Yorkers, she cannot afford a whole apartment, so she rents a room in a safe neighborhood. She and her boy have their own, separate living quarters, but share a hallway and kitchen with a complete stranger, the 20-something young man who holds the lease.
It seems innocent enough. Occasionally, they bump into the young man in the hall, but that's all. She has trouble even remembering his name, so little interaction do they have.
After a few months, the young man leaves on vacation for a week or two. Her 5-year-old son suddenly asks, “Mom, where did the man go?”
“I don't know, he's away for a while,” she says, absent-mindedly. Her little boy breaks into wild tears and will not be comforted. So great is his inner need, the boy has mistaken a casual male bystander for a father who will protect and defend him. So great is the undefended longing of one small human heart for fatherhood.
So tell me: Do you have the right to do such a thing to a child, to your own child? How can any decent person claim a right to engage in a sexual union which can have such consequences for his (or her) very own flesh and blood? And for what? For pleasure, loneliness, need, the fleeting satisfaction or frustration of desire?
The first rule of manhood: “If someone has to suffer, it's not going to be my kids. Not if I can help it.”
See where that takes you. With great power … well, you know the rest.
Love, Maggie aka Mom.
Readers who would like to share reactions, anecdotes, their own pressing questions on how to transmit a Catholic vision of marriage to their children, please email Maggie at AskMaggie2005@yahoo.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Maggie Gallagher ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Ireland's Bishops Crack Down on Abortion Pamphlet DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:DUBLIN — A controversy has erupted in Ireland over the distribution by Cura, Ireland's official Catholic pregnancy counseling agency, of information that would help pregnant women obtain abortions.
Four women who disclosed Cura's actions were dismissed from the organization in May, but last month the Irish bishops overruled Cura's administration and ordered a halt to distribution of the pamphlet that contained the information in question. But concerns have now arisen that the Irish government may withdraw its funding of Cura because of that decision.
In early May, four volunteer pregnancy counselors in County Donegal wrote a letter in the weekly Irish Catholic newspaper publicly revealing Cura's new policy of distributing the Crisis Pregnancy Agency's “Positive Options” leaflet.
Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin asked Cura for “more detailed information” about its approach, and put the controversy on the agenda of the national bishops conference meeting in June. The Crisis Pregnancy Agency was established by the Irish government in 2001 in response to concerns about the number of Irish women traveling to Britain for abortions. While legal in Ireland in some circumstances, abortion is not practiced because of the ethical guidelines of the country's Medical Council. However, about 7,000 Irish women travel abroad for abortions annually, and it is legal to provide information on how to obtain a foreign abortion.
Cura receives $785,000 annually from the Crisis Pregnancy Agency, and, as part of this funding, agreed to provide clients wanting abortions with “Positive Options.” The pamphlet lists agencies that provide abortion referral information, including the Irish Family Planning Association, the Irish affiliate of International Planned Parenthood Federation, the world's largest private abortion provider.
In a response in the Irish Catholic, Louise Graham, Cura's national coordinator, defended the Cura policy on the basis that it had received advice from an unnamed moral theologian that the policy was morally acceptable. Graham said that, far from facilitating abortion, Cura was providing a woman confronted with a crisis pregnancy with “an opportunity to further consider her options and the likelihood that she will make a fully informed decision.”
Others strenuously disagreed with that stance. Jesuit Father Seamus Murphy, a lecturer in moral philosophy at the Milltown Institute of Theology, dismissed Cura's defense, saying that the key issue is the morality of the actions of counselors who make use of the pamphlet.
Giving a woman who wanted an abortion the leaflet would be “unquestionably morally wrong,” Father Murphy said. “It would amount to formal cooperation with serious wrongdoing.”
Father Murphy added that morality “lies most of all in our actions, as the encyclical Veritatis Splendor makes clear. The pregnancy counselors’ moral responsibility for their own actions takes precedence over helping others with theirs.”
The controversy deepened at the end of May when it was revealed that the national executive committee of Cura had expelled the four counselors, claiming that the women — who between them have 70 years of service in the agency — had broken Cura's confidentiality agreement by publicly commenting about its policies.
Following its three-day meeting last month, the Irish bishops’ conference requested that Cura discontinue distribution of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency's pamphlet because it implied that abortion is a “positive option,” and because seven of the nine agencies listed in the leaflet provide addresses of British abortion clinics.
However, Bishop John Fleming of Killala, the president of Cura and a member of its national executive committee, said at the bishops’ press conference that distribution of the information was “not just a black-and-white matter,” and that the policy of giving it out was aimed at slowing down the decision-making process so that women could make better decisions.
The bishops did not request the reinstatement of the four volunteers, and instead asked those involved to “seek ways of achieving healing and reconciliation.” A bishops’ conference spokesman could not confirm what such a process might entail and Cura did not return phone calls from the Register seeking to discuss the matter.
Unfair Dismissal?
The spokesman for the dismissed volunteers, Seamus Farren, said that the women had not yet been contacted by Cura to commence the reconciliation process. Instead, Farren said, the situation had worsened in Donegal with another six volunteers leaving the agency, necessitating the closure of Cura's office there.
“The women will not return until there is a clear commitment to a pro-life ethos,” Farren said, adding “this will mean the resignation of the national executive of Cura. How can anyone have confidence in them when they have made a fundamental moral error like this?”
Farren also raised serious questions about the dismissal. He said that the four women met with Graham in October 2004 and had written to Bishop Fleming in January 2005 voicing their concerns with the policy, but received no response from either party until their letter of dismissal at the end of May.
“It lacks accountability and due process — if they were employed a dismissal process would have to be engaged in, and there is no reason why the same process shouldn't apply here,” Farren said.
The Diocese of Killala declined to comment on the matter when contacted by the Register.
Due to the nature of the agreement between Cura and the Crisis Pregnancy Agency, the net effect of last month's policy change is that Cura may lose its state funding. Crisis Pregnancy Agency officials sought an “urgent meeting” with Cura to discuss the matter, Associated Press reported June 16, and the agency's Executive Director Olive Braiden said that the policy change would “cause a problem, and we would have to discuss it.”
Ireland's Pro-Life Campaign has expressed concern about the Crisis Pregnancy Agency's role in the controversy. Pro-Life Campaign spokesman John Smyth said “the agency has produced a number of ideologically motivated surveys and reports, culminating in its chair, Olive Braiden, calling for abortion legislation in Ireland.”
Added Smyth, “If we are serious about reducing the abortion rate, all government agencies should be obliged to abide by principles that respect the dignity and value of every human life.”
Patrick Kenny writes from Dublin.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Patrick Kenny ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Letters to the Editor DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:The Supreme Skirmish Is On
Pertinent to “The American Pontifex” by Scott McDermott (Commentary & Opinion, July 3-9):
President Bush will soon pick a judicial nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. Because of the U.S. Supreme Court, more than 44 million pre-born babies have been killed, approximately 3,000 a year through the grisly partial-birth-abortion procedure.
Abortion groups want minors to be able to get an abortion without parental notification.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against displaying the Ten Commandments in Courthouses, which is censorship. Here's a quote from John Quincy Adams:
“The Law given from Sinai [The Ten Commandments] was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code.”
Then the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government can take any property under the guise of using it for a “public benefit.” This is what activist judges do; they simply ignore the Constitution to do whatever they please.
Call the president and tell him that you want him to pick a judicial nominee like Justice Scalia or Justice Thomas, as he promised. Contact the president by phone at (202) 456-1111, e-mail him at president@whitehouse.gov or fax him at (202) 456-2461.
BEVERLY MORAN
Corinth, New York
Helping or Enabling?
Regarding “An Open Letter to Caroline Kennedy” (Commentary & Opinion, July 10-16).
Although I agree with Father James Gilhooley's recognition of the late Gov. Robert Casey's courage in steadfastly opposing abortion within the overwhelmingly pro-abortion Democrat Party, I do not share his seeking of approbation of any sort from the Kennedy clan, whose most prominent surviving member is notoriously pro-abortion, and nominally “Catholic.”
Furthermore, I take strenuous exception to the praise heaped upon Casey's traditional tax-and-spend liberalism. Father calls “outstanding” the governor's record of promoting usual leftist programs to “help” the poor, the elderly, teen mothers, etc, etc.
My own view is that using the government as the primary agent of granting material assistance to people in unfortunate circumstances is a well-intended mistake — and, indeed, is antithetical to Christianity in practice. (See 2 Thessalonians 3:10: “… anyone who would not work should not eat.”) For the government thereby aids and abets often irresponsible behavior by subsidizing it, while at the same time punishing those taxpayers whose money is extorted from them.
The money taken by government is no longer in the possession of the people who earned it, and is no longer available to them for the purpose of practicing the virtue of giving of their own free will to the less fortunate, or even to those who brought their own misfortune upon themselves by being irresponsible.
The larger issue, beyond Father Gilhooley's immediate concerns, has to do with why so many Catholic Church leaders seem to equate Christianity with socialism. Why do so many well-intentioned priests, in particular, succumb to the siren song of socialism? Since when are socialist, government-funded “gimme” programs a legitimate surrogate for private acts of charity? Why is it right to forcibly take tax dollars from responsible people in order to subsidize dysfunctional behavior?
By all means, Gov. Casey ought to be recommended as a “profile in courage,” as ought all people who are pro-life in our culture of death — yes, including “ignominious” conservative Republicans! But Casey's own muddle-headed use of government to foster supposedly just aid to the supposedly needy ought not to be so honored. Such socialist, statist views inevitably aid and abet a community that is at its heart rigidly secularist, and rabidly anti-Catholic.
With regards for your otherwise fine publication, I remain your faithful reader.
JOHN G. BOULET, M.D.
Austin, Texas
Terri's End
The article about Terri Schiavo's autopsy, “Autopsy Leaves a Mystery: Terri's Heart” (June 26-July 2) has a neuropathologist discussing Terri's death by dehydration and stating that, “based on a clinical definition of ‘persistent vegetative state,’ Terri did not suffer.” I did not see anything in the article to dispute that.
Father Frank Pavone has said, “It is inaccurate to describe her death as peaceful and gentle. I was with her for several hours the night before she died and again the next morning until 10 minutes before she died. She was in agony unlike anything I have ever seen.”
DOROTHY STATHIS
Victoria, Texas
Amen to Exxon
Thank you so very much for your ProLife Victory, “Exxon/Mobil Alone” (June 19-25). It would be unseemly for me to use this as an excuse for promoting the company in your pages, but I cannot help but voice an “Amen” — and add a word as to why.
I joined Exxon right out of college. After 30 years, at the strong leading of the Lord, I elected to retire at age 51. At the time I signed the papers, I didn't know what I was going to do, but I had God's assurance that He'd neither leave me nor forsake me. And my wife Sheila was right behind me, though we didn't know from whence would come college expenses for four kids.
A few days after signing the papers, Judie and Paul Brown of American Life League offered me a job at more than the difference between my former Exxon salary and my upcoming pension. Of course, I asked them to scale it back — I didn't retire to get rich on the pro-life movement! That was 1986 and the intervening years have been glorious.
What's that have to do with Exxon? A number of things. First off, I found it to be a highly ethical, well-managed company. I can't say that I was ever put in a difficult ethical situation and I daresay that would be difficult for most people to say. Moreover, the management training and experience I received have served me well (and I hope also the pro-life organizations I've worked for).
Upon reading your article, I asked why Exxon stockholders might be more pro-family, more supportive of a Judeo-Christian ethic in the public square. The answer has to be Exxon management, the way they've handled shareholder relations and communications over the years. It seemingly conveyed what they are and what they believe.
I'll also note that I had a sales-management job where we were selling chemical additives to other oil companies. Thus I got to know these other oil companies pretty well and I found Exxon to be clearly the class of the industry. I thanked God for leading me there. It sure wasn't my doing — I'm not that smart!
DICK REEDER
Green Village, New Jersey
Disposable Devotionals
Joseph Hiebel of East Dubuque, Ill., wondered what to do with all the unasked-for religious articles many of us get in the mail (“Mailbox Dilemma,” Letters, June 19-25).
One very constructive thing to do with them is to give them to your parish's director of religious formation, who can then use them as little prizes for the children in religion classes. Ditto for all the religious greeting cards we get: They are great craft items for class projects, etc. This is much more positive than throwing them into a trash basket or burying them.
Thank you for such a great Catholic newspaper!
JEANNETTE SCHLICHER
Director, Adult Ministries
St. Thomas Aquinas Church
Rio Rancho, New Mexico
In Persona Christi
In your May 29-June 4 editorial, “Priests Are From Mars,” there is a heretical statement: “Priests are [Christ's] representatives.” Not you, too! To make the role of the priest so understated is shameful of you. Say it ain't so! The priest is Christ.
In the same issue, I notice that Monica Migliorino Miller is mistranslating the meaning of the Latin phrase In persona Christi (“Why Are Only Men Priests?”)
I'm convinced that one of the reasons Christ came when he did was because Rome with its very precise Latin was dominant. Latin says what it says. In persona Christi means “the person of Christ” in as emphatic a way as possible.
KENNETH STUDINSKI
Albany, Wisconsin
FAMILY MATTERS
My husband and I have recreational interests that couldn't be more different, so we spend most of our free time apart. I feel like we are becoming disconnected from each other, but my husband says the point of recreation is to do what we enjoy — even if that means doing it independently. Who's right?
On one level, your husband is right. The point of recreation is to do something enjoyable, free from the stresses of everyday life. But it is even more than that: It is the chance to step back from the worries and pressures of the day and reflect on larger questions. It is during our leisure time that we share memories, make optimistic plans for the future and engage in building relationships with those we love.
We believe it can become a significant problem if married couples don't ever recreate together. If we only spend time with our spouses during the hectic work week —or when paying bills, disciplining the children or doing chores — we begin to view our spouse as a part of the burdens of life. He or she conjures up images of responsibilities and pressures. As a result, instead of just happening to have differing interests, we might actually begin to need to be away from our spouse in order to truly relax. As a solution, we look for activities that won't involve them. This results in a spiral of isolation and negativity that can only make matters worse.
What a far cry that is from the very things that brought a couple together in the beginning! Part of the excitement of new love was that the beloved provided a way up and away from the stresses of life. Even better, a man and woman in love lead one another to holiness. We can't do this when we flee from each other in our precious few moments of reflection and relaxation.
If a husband's only true way to recreate is away from his spouse, there is a problem in the relationship. One small way to work on this is simply to make time to spend with each other. Surely, there are some things you enjoy doing together. If there aren't, you would never have come together in the first place.
Go on a walk and hold hands. Do some gardening together. Attend a free summer concert or play in the park. Have a regular movie night where you watch a DVD after the kids go to bed — you can take turns choosing the movie. Even something as mundane as going out to dinner can be a great start.
Also, be open to sharing each other's interests; you might be surprised at what happens. Because of our desire to spend time with each other, we both made an effort to be open to new things. As a result, after 13 years of marriage, we both enjoy subtitled foreign movies … and college football!
The McDonalds are family-life coordinators for the Diocese of Mobile, Alabama.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tom and Caroline McDonald ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Kinsey Is Dead; Long Live Kinsey! DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:Just when we thought Alfred Kinsey was dead and buried, he turned up again, like a bad penny in the sex education curriculum of the Montgomery County, Md., public schools.
Kinsey makes a cameo appearance in this curriculum designed for use in eighth and 10th grades. According to a handout entitled, “Myths and Facts,” “Alfred C. Kinsey's landmark research beginning in the 1930s and continuing into the 1950s demonstrated that homosexual behavior occurs in this country much more frequently than people had imagined.”
Since we have no way of knowing how prevalent “people had imagined” homosexual behavior to be, this statement can't be disproved. But Kinsey's shadow hovers over the curriculum, in claims that have been disproved.
For instance, the curriculum informs the students:
“You probably don't know any who are ‘out’ to you, although a significant percentage of the population is gay, lesbian or bisexual (approximately 1 in 10). That represents approximately 60,0000 (sic) people in Edmonton.”
Overlook the fact that this work is so numerically illiterate with this misplaced comma that we can't be sure whether the curriculum is trying to say 60,000 or 600,000 people in Edmonton are homosexual.
Go to the more basic question: Where does that 10% figure come from? Political activists distilled from Kinsey's work the claim that 13% of men and 7% of women are homosexual. The advocates averaged these two numbers as part of a public relations campaign to convince the public that “gay people are everywhere.”
But Kinsey's numbers don't hold up. The most definitive debunking of Kinsey's work was done in the dispassionate University of Chicago study, The Social Organization of Sexuality, by Edward Laumann, John Gagnon, Robert Michael and Stuart Michaels, published in the 1990s. The section entitled “The Myth of 10% and the Kinsey Research” has harsh words about Kinsey's scientific method.
Kinsey's pool of study subjects “failed to meet even the most elementary requirements for drawing a truly representative sample of the population at large,” the study found.
The professor drew his interview subjects from groups of people especially likely to have had unusual sexual experiences. He recruited from prisons and reform schools, including men imprisoned for sex offenses. He recruited from homosexual friendships and acquaintance networks, thus inflating the estimated percentages of homosexual practice far above any other estimates based on representative sampling techniques.
This potential problem with Kinsey's sampling technique has been known since at least 1952, when the eminent humanist psychologist Abraham Maslow published a paper called, “Volunteer Error in the Kinsey Study.” No other study using a statistically representative sampling of the whole population has ever come close to replicating Kinsey's percentages.
The more general problem is that the concept of homosexuality is by no means clear-cut. How do we classify someone as homosexual or not homosexual? If we can't answer that question reliably, then “10% of the population is gay” is not a meaningful statement.
The University of Chicago study spent considerable effort on this question, and identified three conceptually distinct dimensions of homosexuality. Homosexuality can include same-sex behavior, same-sex attraction or self-identification as being homosexual. We can also differentiate among people predominantly attracted to and people occasionally attracted to same-sex partners.
Finally, having same-sex partners at one time in one's life does not necessarily mean the person will exclusively have same-sex partners throughout their lifetime.
Using these distinctions, Laumann and his co-authors found a core group of the population who define themselves as homosexual or bisexual, have same-gender partners and express same-sex desires. The size of this group is a very modest 2.4% for men and 1.3% for women. Nowhere near Kinsey's 10%, repeated by the Montgomery County sex ed curriculum.
The authors of the curriculum illustrate their confusion even further by making a statement that is actually true.
“Myth: A person is a homosexual if he or she has ever been sexually attracted to, or ever had sexual contact with someone of the same gender.
“Fact: Fleeting attraction or contact does not prove long-term sexual orientation.”
Very true. And a very sensible thing to mention to hormone-charged eighth and 10th graders who might jump to unwarranted conclusions about themselves.
The University of Chicago study asked about this very question of the persistence of same-sex behavior over the course of a lifetime. Even among people who have had some same-sex partners, few people have had exclusively same-sex partners throughout their lives.
For instance, 2% of men reported having exclusively had male partners in the last year, but a paltry .6% of men exclusively had male partners since puberty. While 1% of women exclusively had same-sex partners during the last year, only a microscopic .2% of women had exclusively female partners since puberty.
So while the Board of Education is to be congratulated for observing the unstable nature of same-sex attraction, their material is still misleading and inconsistent. The only way to come up with a figure of 10% of the population being homosexual is to include people who have only had fleeting same-sex attractions or contact.
If “gay” means someone who has a lifelong pattern of exclusively same-sex partners in the presence of available opposite-sex partners, the percentage of homosexual people in the general population is truly small, and certainly nowhere near Kinsey's 10%.
The U.S. District Court in Maryland threw out this sex education curriculum on religious freedom grounds, and did not examine the accuracy of the content. It is sure to be revised, to address the Court's objections.
Maybe the next revision will take a closer look at the facts about same-sex attraction and same-sex behavior, rather than simply parroting Kinsey's outdated, and incorrect, work.
Jennifer Roback Morse is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jennifer Roback Morse ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: National Media Watch DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:Cardinal: NY Deacons Should Not Run for Office
Approximately 240 deacons currently serve the archdiocese. Bishops may decide whether to apply to deacons the canon law prohibiting priests from running for office.
Archdiocesan spokesman Joseph Zwilling explained that “Cardinal Egan felt that this canon should include deacons” since they are ordained clergy.
One deacon, eight-term Clarkstown Town Board member John Maloney, currently holds office. He will be exempted from the policy.
Out of the Mouth of … a Rap Artist
BLACKAMERICAWEB, June 20 — Pro-life groups have been singing the praises of hip-hop rap singer Nick Cannon's new song and video, “Can I Live.”
The song tells the story of Cannon's mother, who became pregnant as a 17-year-old high school student. She planned to have an abortion but decided against it at the last minute. At the end of the song, Cannon thanks his mother for not aborting him.
“The song makes an undeniable appeal to women thinking about abortion to not do it,” wrote columnist David Person at BlackAmerica. “Babies that were almost aborted can grow up to become scientists, lawyers, teachers and even rappers.”
Catholic Hospital Must Remove Religious Symbols
The hospital was told that all religious items, many of which were donated in memoriam, must be removed, including statues, paintings, religious cards, and more than 200 crucifixes which adorned each hospital bedroom.
The 191-bed hospital was founded by Mother Catherine McCauley and the Sisters of Mercy 108 years ago. Cincinnati-based Catholic Healthcare Partners announced the sale of the hospital June 29 to Geisinger Health System.
Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center spokesman David Jolly said he was uncertain whether Mass would continue to be celebrated in the hospital chapel.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: To Give and Not Count the Cost DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:Dan Haverty knows how to give until it hurts. Literally.
This past spring, the 50-year-old grandfather of two donated two-thirds of his liver to Sacramento Bishop William Weigand.
As he nears the end of his convalescence, Haverty is already back to work as the assistant chief of Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District.
“I work in administration, so I'm not expected to be out climbing ladders, pulling the hose lines or bringing someone out of a building on my shoulders,” he says. “I feel 100%.”
Although his family was concerned at first, Haverty says he knew instinctively more than a year before the operation that he would be the chosen donor.
“It was still kind of a distant possibility at that point,” he explains. “Even then, when we began the process, I believed in my heart and soul that I would be selected to be the donor and I still felt this was something I was called to do for him.”
Haverty's discernment may have been spot-on.
While the fact is not widely known or reported, organ donation is warmly encouraged by the Catholic Church. Not everyone is called to be a living donor like Haverty, but all are encouraged to donate their organs after death.
Pope Benedict XVI is a registered organ donor, and Pope John Paul II called organ transplantation a way to nurture the culture of life.
“Transplants are a great step forward in science's service of man, and not a few people today owe their lives to an organ transplant,” he said in his address at the 18th Transplant Society International Congress in 2000. “Increasingly, the technique of transplants has proven to be a valid means of attaining the primary goal of all medicine — the service of human life.”
Dr. Francis Delmonico has heard that exhortation loud and clear.
Delmonico is the medical director of the New England Organ Bank and president-elect of the United Network for Organ Sharing, a Virginia-based nonprofit organization that sets policy and runs the nation's organ transplant system.
“Organ donation is part of being Catholic,” he says. “It's what we're all about as Christians.
“If there ever was a pro-life statement, it's organ donation,” the physician continues. “The great delight of my whole personal life is to be in the midst of organ transplantation because it restores life. It brings new life in instances of a specific organ failure. You can replace that organ and return an individual to well-bring. That is a promotion and validation of life.”
Integrity Intact
As medical technology has advanced, Catholic teaching on organ transplantation has developed. The Church has always been concerned about organ donors’ well-being, says Dr. John Haas, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center.
“When the idea of living donations first arose, there was initial resistance to it because of the principle of integrity,” he explains. “Then theologians reflected on this more and said it could be permitted in grave situations if functional integrity were preserved.
“One could not donate a cornea out of one's eyes because that would severely diminish one's functional integrity,” adds Haas. “But one could give a kidney; one could give part of a lung and part of a liver.”
Most people can function normally with one kidney. Liver donors will have the remaining lobe of their liver regenerate and take over the function of the two lobes they donate.
The Church views organ donation as an act of charity, fraternal love and self-sacrifice, according to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Facilities.
“The transplantation of organs from living donors is morally permissible when the anticipated benefit to the recipient is proportionate to the harm done to the donor, provided that the loss of such organ(s) does not deprive the donor of life itself nor of the functional integrity of his body,” the directives say.
Bishop Weigand was diagnosed with liver disease 24 years ago. The disease caused fibrous tissue to block the bile ducts to his liver. That caused scarring, known as primary sclerosis cholangitis, which affects liver function. Primary sclerosis cholangitis can lead to liver cirrhosis and failure. In cases that have progressed, the only treatment is a liver transplant.
The bishop was one of thousands of Americans awaiting transplants. According the United Network for Organ Sharing, 110 people are added to the nation's organ transplant waiting list each day — one every 13 minutes.
About 70 people receive transplants every day from either a living or deceased donor, and more than 87,000 people are on the nation's organ transplant waiting list. Almost 700 of them are 5 years old or younger.
Love That Acts
Knowing the great need for donors, John Paul II called on parents to be examples to their children.
“There is a need to instill in people's hearts, especially in the hearts of the young, a genuine and deep appreciation of the need for brotherly love, a love that can find expression in the decision to become an organ donor,” he said.
Interested donors should talk to their primary care physician or contact a transplant center. Most states also include organ donation information with driver's license registrations. The United Network for Organ Sharing website — unos.org — also has information for people interested in becoming organ donors.
Haverty says donating a portion of his liver has had some unexpected benefits.
“It has enhanced my faith and allowed me to grow closer to the Lord in a number of ways,” he says. “Hour by hour, I see things slightly different than I did before. Things are not so urgent in my life, so I tend to be a little more reflective. Those reflections are often on the human condition and relationship with the Lord and the Lord's intervention in our daily lives. I feel much closer to the Church.”
Meanwhile, Haverty has formed a close, brotherly bond with Bishop Weigand, and he and his wife Terry have received overwhelming support from the clergy and laity throughout the diocese.
“School children would send me packets of cards that they wrote,” says Haverty. “One of the packets was a bouquet of prayers. The children had decorated their cards, painted them, used crayons and other artwork to make their cards look like flowers. Each card was signed by the child with the number of prayers they said on our behalf. It was very moving for us.”
As was Haverty's generous, life-giving act for Bishop Weigand.
Patrick Novecosky is based in Naples, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Patrick Novecosky ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Mississippi Queen DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:While many U.S. parishes are proud of their 75- or 100-year history — and rightfully so — Holy Family Catholic Church in Cahokia, Ill., can boast of more than three centuries of prayer and sacraments.
It's believed to be the oldest continuously operating Catholic parish in the United States.
John Reed, president of the Holy Family parish council and lifelong resident of Cahokia, was my tour guide as I ventured across the Mississippi River from St. Louis to visit this historic log church.
While older Catholic church structures still stand in Maryland and Florida, only the Cahokia parish has never ceased to function since its dedication. That took place in May of 1699.
A year earlier, three French missionaries had arrived in this part of Illinois from Quebec. They came in hopes of converting the Tamaroa Indians, a friendly local tribe. The missionaries established a good relationship with the them, and the parish began to plant its roots. Soon French settlers and voyagers began moving in, transforming this fertile ground along the banks of the Mississippi River into a modest trade center.
By 1760, the parish register had grown to 100 people. Twenty-three years later, a fire destroyed the log structure. Undaunted, the community got busy rebuilding.
The log church that stands today on the grounds of Holy Family was dedicated in September of 1799.
Built to Last
The church is built in the traditional French colonial style. Thick timbers of black walnut alternate with columns of chinking to give the exterior a vertically striped appearance. The original chinking, I learned, consisted of pig's hair, mud, soot, horsehair and whatever else the French could find in order to keep the logs together.
Inside, the church is small, intimate — and aged to perfection. Its worn, wooden pews shine in the sunlight pouring in; the wood floor creaks with each step you take.
An uncut center beam 110 feet long runs the length of the church. The sanctuary seats no more than 130 people.
The candlesticks on the altar were a gift from King Louis XIV of France. The frame windows are made of clear glass. Historic flags from Spain, France, Great Britain and the United States hang in the back of the church, representing the various governments this area has been under during its history.
By the 1800s, Holy Family had become a bustling center of activity. The parish has operated a school since the 1830s, when the Sisters of St. Joseph arrived from France.
In 1840, a side altar to was added to the church's square design. A statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary sits on that altar today.
In 1889, a new Gothic church was built next to the log church in order to accommodate the expanding parish. White clapboard was placed over the log church's interior and the church was used for picnics, meetings and plays.
The interior beauty of the church remained covered until 1949, when the clapboards were taken down and the church was restored to its original design for the parish's 250th anniversary.
In 1970, the log church was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Famous Folk
Holy Family has had its share of high-profile visitors, according to Reed, who dates his own family roots here to 1760.
Wealthy landowner Nicholas Jarrot and his wife settled in Cahokia in the early 1800s, joining the parish. Meriwether Lewis, who, along with William Clark, set up Camp Dubois (now Hartford, Ill.) just up the river, was Jarrot's frequent guest. (It was customary at that time to attend Mass with your host.)
A young Abraham Lincoln, working as a circuit-riding lawyer, was also a good friend of the Jarrots; he, too, stayed with them several times.
In 1999, the parish celebrated its tri-centennial and was almost visited by Pope John Paul II. The Pope was aware of this historic church and some speculated that he was going to visit as part of his trip to St. Louis in January of that year.
The Holy Father didn't make it here — but, when he celebrated Mass in the TWA Dome, he did use an original chalice from the missionaries who first arrived in Cahokia in 1698.
Today, a newer church stands next to the log church. Built in 1972, it serves as the current parish church. The Tridentine Mass is celebrated each Sunday morning in the log church. Other special Masses are held throughout the year.
To step through the wooden doors of the log church at Holy Family is to walk into the early roots of our Catholic faith here in the United States. Its worn walls are a reminder of the generations who have called this their spiritual home for more than three centuries.
May its second 300 years be as blessed as its first.
Eddie O'Neill writes from St. Louis.
Planning Your Visit
From Memorial Day until mid-August, the log church is open for tours daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., except on Sundays when it is open from 12 noon to 4 p.m. The rest of the year, please call the parish office at (618) 337-4548 to arrange a visit.
Getting There
Holy Family Catholic Church is about 20 miles from St. Louis Lambert International Airport. Take I-70 toward Illinois. After crossing the river, take IL-3 South for 2.3 miles. Take a left on First Street and a right on Church Street.
----- EXCERPT: 300-year-old Holy Family Catholic Church, Cahokia, Ill. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Comes a Churchman DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:THE RISE OF BENEDICT XVI
by John L. Allen Jr.
Doubleday, 2005
256 pages, $19.95
Available in bookstores
The day after Pope Benedict XVI's inaugural Mass, John L. Allen Jr. bumped into Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City in the Rome airport. The journalist told the cardinal he was working on a book that would look back on the conclave just past and ahead to the pontificate to come.
“Your book will be balanced, I hope,” said Cardinal Carrera.
“I hope so, too,” Allen replied.
As it turns out, balance seems to have been one of the lead priorities Allen set for himself before banging out this probing, fair — and, in the end, brightly hopeful — book, whose contents are precisely synopsized by its subtitle, The Inside Story of How the Pope was Elected and Where He Will Take the Catholic Church.
To some, this may come as a surprise. After all, this is the same John L. Allen who serves as Rome correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, the weekly newspaper based in Kansas City that has editorialized in favor of women's ordination, homosexual “marriage” and a married priesthood.
Don't judge a book by its author's employer.
What, precisely, is balance, journalistically speaking? In a story that divides people along pro vs. con lines, or supportive vs. antagonistic — or “progressive” vs. “traditional” — it's accounting for both sides’ points of view. It's getting the story straight and letting it speak for itself.
Allen has met those criteria. In the process, he's uncovered a promising papacy only the most sour and jaded could disparage at such an early date.
As the airport anecdote hints, Allen's greatest strengths are his easy access to the Church's top leaders and his ready reporting. Add to this his notable gift for sharp analysis, and the work has the makings of an unlikely page-turner.
It's clear Allen has used his years in Rome cultivating working relationships with cardinals and bishops, jotting down notes wherever he goes. A journalism professor might say he comes across as a little too chummy with some of his sources here, or that a few too many are allowed to weigh in anonymously. But Allen is not just a gadfly; he's also done his homework. For example, a chapter titled “Who Is Joseph Ratzinger?” evidences a careful reading of the former doctrinal prefect's prodigious writings. Elsewhere are summaries of colloquia, biographies and articles. Together, the pieces add up to the trail of a reporter with a healthy journalistic obsession over his subject.
Intriguingly, the more he has studied the man, the more John Allen has grown in his respect for, and understanding of, Joseph Ratzinger. Allen authored a 1999 biography of then-Cardinal Ratzinger. Its subtitle tells you all you need to know about its angle: The Vatican's Enforcer of the Faith.
Of that earlier book, shortly after Benedict's election as pope, Allen wrote in his weekly online column: “If I were to write the book again today, I'm sure it would be more balanced, better informed and less prone to veer off into judgment ahead of sober analysis.”
With The Rise of Benedict XVI, John Allen shows how far he's come these past six years as a journalist — and as a Catholic practicing the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity.
“Benedict could succeed in his teaching mission to stir anew in Europe and beyond a love affair with Truth, leading to a cultural Renaissance on a grand scale,” he writes. “With a gentle touch and one of his generation's best minds, he could inspire a reawakening of the Catholic intellectual and artistic tradition.”
Cardinal Carrera, you can exhale now.
David Pearson is the Register's features editor.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Pearson ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: A Very German Papal Vacation DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Like St. Benedict of Nursia before him, Pope Benedict XVI has sought peace and seclusion away from Rome, heading for a picturesque mountain region of Italy on July 11, the exact date of the feast of St. Benedict.
But the Pope is unlikely to spend much of his vacation time relaxing amid the beautiful scenery of Val d'Aosta in northwest Italy. This is not only because of a large workload ahead of important events and decisions in the fall that will require his attention, but also because the Holy Father likes to work and keep busy, even on vacation.
Bishop Joseph Clemens, who for more than a decade was Pope Benedict's private secretary, recently told the Register that the Holy Father is “constantly at work” and that little is done extemporaneously.
“He prepares himself for every homily,” said the German-born bishop. “He doesn't do anything without preparation — that's a good characteristic which I've learned from him. He never improvises.”
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, who visited the Pope shortly before he left for vacation, told reporters that the Holy Father would be spending his vacations in “deep reflection.” The Irish premier was not able to expand on the content of that reflection, but added he was “struck that it was all work.”
In his memoir Milestones, then-professor Joseph Ratzinger would occasionally mention vacations, but usually they would be referred to in the context of study or preparation. However, as cardinal and prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he would regularly take off the month of August, the time of year when the Vatican, as well as much of sweltering Rome, traditionally closes down and its inhabitants flock to cooler climes.
During that period, or ferragosto as the Romans call it, he would usually travel, sometimes with his brother, Father George Ratzinger, to the Bressanone seminary in Val Pusteria in the German-speaking Alto Adige region of northeast Italy. Benedict would have liked to return there this year, to a region where his maternal ancestors once lived, but he was advised against it for reasons of security.
So now he is enjoying the same mountain resort so often frequented and much loved by John Paul II. The choice was perhaps unsurprising. A Bavarian by birth, the Holy Father has, like John Paul II, long had a deep love for the mountains.
He fondly remembers growing up in an idyllic setting of Traunstein, a small town near the Austrian border. Despite lacking basic amenities such as running water, his family's house was surrounded by the Alps and lush vegetation amid scenery seemingly reminiscent of The Sound of Music.
“When we opened our eyes in the morning, the first thing we could see was the mountains,” Benedict told interviewer Peter Seewald in 1996. “In the front we had apple trees, plum trees, and a lot of flowers that my mother had cultivated in the garden. It was a beautiful, large plot of ground — in terms of location it was heavenly.”
Italian media say it is likely he will take two or three hiking trips a week into the mountains. Also like John Paul, Benedict will continue to give his Sunday Angelus address from his vacation residence.
In between these pastoral duties and recreations, the Holy Father will spend most of his time preparing for the most important decisions of his young pontificate. These include possible reforms of the Roman Curia, preparations for a consistory (a formal meeting of the College of Cardinals), and a raft of ecclesiastical appointments, all of which are expected to take place in the fall.
He will also be preparing for World Youth Day in Cologne Aug. 11-21, his first international trip as Pope. The Holy Father will then return to Rome July 28, proceeding directly to his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo in the Albano hills outside Rome. There he will resume his general and private audiences as well as other duties.
But for now, the Pope will be staying in a region that gave John Paul so much pleasure, and savoring surroundings that were the birthplace and inspiration of another great theologian of the Church: St. Anselm of Canterbury.
As Benedict — and John Paul — liked to remind Catholics, nothing happens by chance.
Edward Pentin writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Vatican Condemns Homosexual 'Marriage' in Wake of Spanish and Canadian Legislation DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Antonio Rouco Varela of Madrid, accompanied by 1,600 pilgrims, came to the Vatican July 4 — just five days after Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero's Spanish government legalized same-sex “marriage” and adoption of children by homosexual couples.
Cardinal Varela, a leader of the Church's campaign against the Spanish legislation, marked the occasion by again condemning the government's move. “Not only is the faith threatened,” he said, “but human reason as well.”
Bishop Ricardo Perez, president of the Spanish bishops’ conference, denounced the law the same day at a news conference near Madrid, saying that it “throws moral and human order into confusion.”
Pope Benedict XVI was less directly critical of the Spanish government when meeting with Cardinal Varela and the pilgrims in Paul VI Hall, but commentators interpreted his willingness to grant them an audience as a signal of support for Spain's bishops. In his remarks, the Pope called on Spanish Catholics to spread the Gospel in a “society thirsting for true human values and suffering so many divisions and fractures,” and he said that the Church should be “present in all areas of daily life.”
In an address a month earlier at Rome's St. John the Lateran Basilica, the Holy Father explicitly rejected homosexual unions.
“The various current forms of the dissolution of marriage, as well as free unions and 'trial marriage,’ including pseudo-marriage between persons of the same sex, are on the contrary expressions of an anarchic freedom that appears erroneously as man's authentic liberation,” Benedict said.
For its part, the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano delivered a forceful denunciation of Spain's new policies, calling them “violent attacks against the family” and a “defeat for humanity.”
Catholic Politicians
The July 3 article said the family “belongs to the whole of humanity because it is inscribed in nature from its beginning. And it has survived, throughout the centuries, the screening of philosophical, scientific, anthropological and social systems.”
With respect to Spain, L'Osservatore Romano said, “It is singular that a state that proclaims itself ‘secular’ and ‘liberal’ attempts to impose its own ideological system on such a complex reality.”
In late June, Canada's Parliament voted in favor of similar legislation to enshrine homosexual “marriage” (see page 1 article). In both Spain and Canada, the government is headed by a Catholic, giving rise to questions whether denial of holy Communion, or even excommunication, is warranted against Catholic politicians who promote such legislation.
A denial of the sacraments can be invoked under Church law only if an individual's action is deemed to cause sufficiently great scandal. According to the Code of Canon Law, “The external violation of a divine or canonical law can be punished by a just penalty only when the special gravity of the violation demands punishment and there is an urgent need to prevent or repair scandals” (No. 1399).
But does the promotion of homosexual “marriage” fit that requirement of “special gravity”?
“It depends on the degree of involvement of the politician concerned,” one Vatican official explained. “If he or she is spearheading the legislation and publicly contradicting Church teaching, then it's perfectly right to deny the sacraments.”
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, stressed that such an action would be a pastoral decision and not a penalty because, in his view, such politicians have already severed themselves by the Church by their actions.
In the United States, the question of withholding Communion from Catholic politicians who supported legalized abortion figured prominently in last year's presidential elections, with respect to pro-abortion Democratic nominee John Kerry.
Pastoral Guidance
U.S. bishops were divided on the subject, and Pope Benedict, then serving as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, became involved in the discussion after being asked to provide guidance by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C.
In a June 2004 memo to Cardinal McCarrick, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger outlined a process of pastoral guidance and correction for politicians who consistently promote legal abortion and euthanasia. That process could extend to a warning against taking Communion, and in the case of “obstinate persistence” by the politician, the minister “must refuse to distribute” Communion, he said.
Cardinal Ratzinger's memo did not cite any specific politicians whose actions would require a denial of Communion, however, and it did not discuss whether such a sanction is appropriate with regard to a Catholic politician's promotion of same-sex “marriage.”
Denial of Communion to a European politician — especially in Spain where Church-state relations are particularly sensitive — would probably prove even more contentious than in America. And as with disciplining pro-abortion politicians, much of the onus on whether to act depends on the judgment of the local bishop, not the Holy See.
“The bishop must first of all try and bring reconciliation between the person in question and the Church,” said Father Edmund Kowalski, associate professor of philosophical anthropology at Rome's Alphonsian Academy. “Only then would he be in a position to prohibit Communion dependent on the bishop's own interpretation of the scandal.”
‘Moral Duty’
The seriousness of publicly supporting same-sex union legislation has been explicitly noted by Benedict himself.
In a June 2003 document entitled “Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons,” Cardinal Ratzinger unequivocally stated that Catholic lawmakers have a “moral duty” to express their opposition to same-sex unions “clearly and publicly.”
“One must refrain from any kind of formal cooperation in the enactment or application of such gravely unjust laws,” Cardinal Ratzinger stated. Voting in favor of such a law, he stressed, would be “gravely immoral.”
For now, though, the Vatican appears to be indicating that it remains up to local bishops and canon lawyers to judge if any measures should be taken to rebuke public figures, such as Spain's Prime Minister Zapatero and Canada's Prime Minister Paul Martin, who have flagrantly ignored that clear articulation of their responsibilities as Catholic politicians.
(Register staff and wire services contributed to this story.) Edward Pentin writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Prolife Victories DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:Abstinence Ed Works …
FOXNEWS.COM, June 14 — Abstinence education works, according to a preliminary study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Teens who participated in abstinence programs had an increased awareness of the potential consequences of sexual activity before marriage, thought more highly of abstinent behaviors, and had less favorable opinions about sexual activity before marriage than did students who were not in abstinence programs.
The study, prepared by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., is part of a five-year study that tracks participants in four abstinence programs. An examination of how abstinence education affects behavior is expected next year.
… Knocking Abstinence Doesn't
The Heritage Foundation's Robert Rector and Dr. Kirk Johnson re-examined the data and claims as presented by professors Peter Bearman and Hanna Bruckner in the Journal of Adolescent Health, and concluded “Bearman and Bruckner's conclusions were inaccurate. … Moreover, in crucial respects they deliberately misled the press and public.”
Caution Urged on Embryo Claims
In an editorial, “Stem-cell research: hope and hype,” The Lancet warned “no safe and effective stem-cell therapy will be widely available for at least a decade, and possibly longer.”
The editors mentioned that, in contrast, dozens of diseases are currently giving way to experimental treatments derived with adult stem cells, including several forms of cancer that are routinely treated using the patient's own stem cells derived from his blood or bone marrow.
The Lancet quoted Neil Scolding, a British neurology researcher at the University of Bristol saying, “What is unarguable is that the human embryo is alive and is human, and intentionally ending the life of one human being for the potential benefit of others [i.e., for research] is not territory to which mainstream clinical researchers have hitherto sought claim — or which ethically conscious objectors could ever concede.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Whither Wireless? DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:Last year about this time, I was sitting at a long table with the contractor and architect of our new Saint Joseph the Worker Monastery (donations still needed; go to monksofadoration.org/giftshop.html).
We were discussing last-minute changes to the building.
In the house we were temporarily renting, I had run cables from our network router to all the computers in the house. Not a pretty sight. In the new building, I wanted the cables run through the walls to various Ethernet outlet locations. The architect looked at me and asked, “Why don't you just go with a wireless network?”
I answered, “Because it's not secure.”
Then I watched as the faces of the architect and contractor blanched. I could only presume that they, themselves, had wireless networks.
Now, I know it is very tempting to want to go wireless because of laptop portability and avoidance of expensive network cabling. Therefore, I can understand why people like wireless networks.
But some wireless users assume they're not doing anything important enough for hackers to care about. “All I do,” they say, “is surf the Web and check e-mail.”
Well, think again. Among the risks you'll run when you choose a wireless solution:
Unauthorized access. All your hard-disk information is wide open to hackers. You may think you don't store credit-card information on your laptop. But do you want to gamble that a credit-card number, Social Security number, account password or other personal data isn't located someplace on your hard disk?
Zombie networking. Any hacker near you can use your Internet connection in any way he or she wishes if you're unprotected. Anything he or she does would appear to have come from your computer — because it did! A hacker with a powerful antenna can use your signal from miles away.
Legal liability. If your unsecured wireless connection is used for illegal purposes, you may be held responsible. This issue of who's liable is still being worked out by courts around the world. Attorney Robert Hale II in an article for High Technology Law Journal argues that people who allow unprotected wireless connections might be found to have given “apparent consent” to anything that's done with their signal. Do you want to be the test case for this attorney?
Brian Livingston, editor of the Windows Secrets newsletter, writes, “The security of Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) has largely been a joke. Wireless vendors have routinely shipped their products with all of their security features turned off.”
He goes on to say that even the built-in security features to Wi-Fi routers, access points and adapters called WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) is useless, since common hacker tools can break in within minutes, if not seconds.
Fortunately, in October of 2003 the Wi-Fi Alliance Trade Group developed WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) and an expanded version WPA2 in September of 2004. These two methods are considered more secure for wireless communications.
Microsoft offers free client software, WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2), although only for Windows XP users, at support.microsoft.com. If you have successfully established a secure wireless connection in Windows XP, WPA will be displayed under the Start>Settings>Network Connections view window. Those without Windows XP can purchase the AEGIS WPA2 Client at meetinghousedata.com/store.
To successfully establish a WPA or WPA2 session, three of your components need to support the standard: your client software, Wi-Fi adapter, Wi-Fi router (or access point plugged into a router). Check with your vendors to see if your equipment supports WPA or WPA2. If not, you may be able to upgrade them to it.
Recently purchased equipment should already support WPA2. Finally, don't forget to choose a tough-to-crack password for your wireless connection. Try the “Secure Password Generator” available at winguides.com/security/password.php for help with coming up with it.
What about when you need to use a laptop wirelessly in a hotel or an Internet café? Most public hotspots have never turned on any security features. Hackers in these locations can display logon pages that look exactly like the ones the local hotspot displays. You then end up handing over your hotspot password and any number of other valuable passwords to the perpetrators.
WPA and WPA2 prevent this kind of identity theft. But since this security probably isn't available, your best bet is to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network). If you work for a corporation that's already set up a VPN, this step may have already been taken care of. Otherwise, you can pay a minimal fee per month to use PublicVPN at publicvpn.com or Spotlock at jiwire.com.
I am sure that wireless connections are only going to become more popular as the technology continues to develop. Many universities require their students to have wireless laptops. Municipal Wi-Fi areas are springing up even at airports.
And then you have hotspots offered by companies like Starbucks. So the temptation to go wireless is great.
Just remember that the Wi-Fi Alliance refers to client software that supports WPA/WPA2 as a “supplicant.” This word ordinarily means “someone who prays for favors.”
You may need to pray that your wireless connection isn't hacked.
Brother John Raymond is co-founder of the Monks of Adoration in Venice, Florida.
WEEKLY DVD/VIDEO PICKS
The month of July is traditionally devoted to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus. Let's look at some websites offering content on this devotion.
Start with Blessed Pope John XXIII's Apostolic Letter “On Promoting Devotion to the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ” at papalencyclicals.net/John23/j23pb.htm.
Ever heard of the “Chaplet of the Most Precious Blood?” I hadn't. You can find this devotion at catholicdoors.com/prayers/chaplets/chap09.htm.
You might also want to pray the Litany of the Most Precious Blood at catholicdoors.com/prayers/litanies/p03476.htm.
To learn about purported “Eucharistic Miracles,” where the Most Precious Blood was miraculously shed from the consecrated Host, go to therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/a3.html.
There are some religious communities dedicated to the Most Precious Blood. The Missionaries of the Precious Blood can be found at mission-preciousblood.org. Under their links, you will find other Precious Blood congregations and lay-associate programs.
----- EXCERPT: Know the risks before you toss your cords ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Between Atheism and The New Age DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:Creation is, in a certain sense, one gigantic sacramental created by God, in order to communicate his love to us.
In her beauty, we see something of the beauty of her Creator; in her vastness, something of his immensity; in her complexity, something of his creativity; in her power, something of his power.
Yet, our modern culture is caught between two extremes of oversimplification.
On the one side is the atheist who says, “Yeah, and in nature's cruelty, wantonness, and death I see the non-existence of her Creator.”
On the other side is the New Ager who claims, not only that creation is sacred but that it is our mother goddess.
The atheistic oversimplification has led to the great atheistic enterprises of the 20th century and the attempt to write our own destiny. The atheist says, in essence, “Look! There is evil! Therefore God is evil or unreal. Everything is just matter and energy going through their mindless paces. All meaning is imposed on the idiotic face of nature by the human mind, which is itself an accident.”
Yet, the atheist's case is not all that simple. There remains the ongoing sense that — somehow — nature means something. Not “means” in the sense that it is a rhebus or a puzzle which, properly deciphered, spells out the meaning of life, but “means” in the sense that, for all its pointlessness, waste and death, it is difficult to shake the sense that it does not explain itself — that its principle of existence is found somewhere else or in something — or someone — else. Nature might better be described as the shattered mirror of God.
This sense becomes even sharper when we pass from looking at non-human nature to human nature. We are incorrigible meaning-seekers. We make moral judgments as naturally as water flows downhill. And we alone do it. Indeed, even atheists do it. No other creature cries “Foul” when its rights are trampled. No coalition of British cattle arose to protest the recent mass slaughter of hoof-and-mouth victims.
It remained for the only creature in the world who cares about justice — homo sapiens — to speak for animals who can't care about justice. Only humans demand rights for other animals.
And so, paradoxically, even those non-believing humans who wouldn't be caught dead in a field with those of us who say we are made in the image of God and are utterly unique among the animal kingdom nonetheless bear inadvertent witness to this truth by their very attempts to complain about nature's (or God's) “cruelty” or to secure “animal rights” and to fight against the primacy of the human race on this planet.
Whether we want to admit it or not, we humans stand out from the background of the rest of nature in our capacity for creativity, in our ability to love, in our ability to hate, in our sense of (and defiance of) moral goodness, and in a million other ways.
In doing that, we give a hint that nature might, like us, somehow be spoiled or damaged and that the images it gives us are fragmentary and incomplete due to this damage, just as we are fragmentary and incomplete due to the damage we all seem to have suffered. Humanity adds a new dimension to the sense that things are “about” something and are not just stuff that happens. As nature is a shattered mirror, so we are the broken image of God.
It is right about here that our culture comes up against the second oversimplification. It is broadly summed up by the New Age movement which understands that nature is more than just atoms and energy, but has no clear idea of what that “more” is.
So, our culture often rushes to deify nature and to mistake its sacramental nature for a sacred one, as though nature were a goddess.
And so we rush between Carl Sagan denying that there is anything sacred and Julia Butterfly Hill insisting that Luna the Redwood is divine and our very existence is an assault on mother earth.
As Catholics, we need to present the reality: that nature is a good, though damaged, sign from God; that we are also the good, though damaged by sin, image of that God, and that sanity is found neither in denigrating nor in deifying nature, but in recognizing in her a sister creation, rather than a mother goddess.
Nature is our fellow creature, damaged by our sin and spoiled by the malice of the devil (as well as subjected to futility by her Creator, lest we be even more tempted to worship her (Romans 8:19-21). It awaits, not our annihilation, nor our heedless exploitation, but “the revealing of the sons of God.”
Mark Shea is Senior Content Editor for CatholicExchange.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:SUNDAY, JULY 17
Nature: Hippo Beach
PBS, 8 p.m.
This documentary follows a year in the lives of a “pod” of hippos — mom, pop and baby — on a beach on the Luangwa River in Zambia. Daddy Hippo is the area's dominant bull. This show first aired in October 2003.
MONDAY, JULY 18
Taming the Wild West
History Channel, 8 p.m.
Fur trader and explorer Jedediah Strong Smith (1798-1831) traversed the entire American West from his teens until the Comanche Indians killed him on his way to Santa Fe. More than once, he blazed trails into California, where he visited the missions.
MONDAY, JULY 18
Hidden Pyramids of Peru
National Geographic Channel,
9 p.m., midnight
This special investigates Peruvian pyramids from 5000 B.C. Re-airs Thursday, July 21, at 2 p.m. and Saturday, July 23, at 3 p.m.
MONDAYS, SATURDAYS
Bloomin’ in the Garden
Familyland TV
Mondays at 6 p.m. and Saturdays at 4 p.m. are the airdates for this comprehensive gardening show. George “Bloomin’” Newman and Kim “Blossom” Knight illustrate garden concepts, design, installation, care, problems and solutions.
TUESDAY, JULY 19
Journey Home Roundtable
EWTN, 1 p.m.
What with evangelical Protestants continuing to siphon many Catholics away from the faith, this 60-minute show lets Al Kresta, Rosalind Moss and Shawn Reeves explain their decisions to leave nondenominational evangelicalism and become Catholic.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 20
My Fair Lady
Turner Classic
Movies, 10 p.m.
Adapting the Lerner and Loewe musical based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, this 1964 film won Best Picture and seven other Oscars. As London phonetics Professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) teaches Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) to lose her Cockney dialect and adopt society manners, she teaches him some profound lessons of her own.
FRIDAY, JULY 22
Close Up: The Science of Free Flight
National Geographic
Channel, 9 a.m.
New Zealand paraglider Brian Moore uses his basic nylon wing to attempt a three- to four-day flight along New Zealand's Southern Alps.
FRIDAY, JULY 22
Investigative Reports:
Every Parent's Nightmare
A & E, 11 a.m., 5 p.m.
This special report says that day care centers and nannies kill or seriously injure about 1,000 children in the United States each year. What can we do about these crimes?
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Vatican Media Watch DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:Orthodox Ready to Resume Dialogue With Vatican
REUTERS, June 30 — Orthodox leaders hailed Pope Benedict's commitment to Christian unity, and said they were prepared to resume a theological dialogue that has been stalled for five years, Reuters reported.
“Our Orthodox Church shares fully the same commitment,” said Metropolitan Ioannis of Pergamum, a leading Orthodox theologian, in Rome for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.
He said their highest-ranking prelate, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, had convinced the Orthodox Churches that follow him to appoint two delegates each to the international mixed religious commission.
“This will allow us to resume our theological dialogue in the near future, concentrating now on crucial ecclesiological issues concerning, in particular, the subject of the primacy” of the pope, he said.
Benedict XVI to Visit Synagogue in Cologne
EXPATICA, July 5 — Pope Benedict XVI will visit the Synagogue of Cologne during a trip to his native Germany in August, Cologne Archbishop Joachim Meisner said on Vatican Radio.
Archbishop Meisner said he was pleased that “a German pope would be coming to visit the Synagogue of Cologne,” the oldest synagogue north of the Alps.
The Vatican has confirmed the Holy Father's August 18-21 trip to Cologne, where he will attend World Youth Day celebrations, but is not expected to publish a detailed itinerary until a few days before the departure date.
Benedict vowed to improve relations with the world's Jews during a meeting at the Vatican last month with international Jewish leaders.
Vatican Teaches Tomorrow's Astronomers
REUTERS, June 29 — Summer school is in session at the Vatican Observatory, Reuters reported, and the students are glad to be there.
Established in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII, the observatory is hosting young, promising scholars for one-month courses at the papal summer palace of Castel Gandolfo.
“The Vatican wants to show its appreciation for science,” said Father Chris Corbally, a soft-spoken Jesuit from Britain who is the observatory's vice-director and dean of its international summer school. “Science is an important value in human life and therefore it is important to the Catholic Church.”
There are two giant telescopes on the roof, each covered with wood and steel domes visible for miles from the palace, built on the ruins of Roman emperor Domitian's residence.
“We have very little history in my country, but here you just breathe the history,” said Sarah Chamberlain, 25, a Ph.D. from Australia. “There are books written in 1667 by some of the people that I have only read about or have been taught about in first year physics. To be in this place is absolutely fantastic. Galileo walks here.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Uproar as Canada Redefines Marriage DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:OTTAWA — Same-sex “marriage” is coming to Canada, and parents don't like it. Neither do all homosexuals.
Toronto's John McKellar of Homosexuals Opposed to Pride Extremism (HOPE) said he speaks for the “silent gay majority” who don't want marriage and regard those who do as a “tiresome clique of activist martyrs.”
“I've always supported legislation to protect gays and lesbians from harassment and discrimination,” McKellar said, “but same -sex 'marriage’ purposely deprives children of either a male or female parent. That's an unconscionably selfish and socially harmful agenda.”
On June 28 the Civil Marriage Act passed the House of Commons. Next the bill redefining marriage goes to the Canadian Senate. That's an appointed body that rarely opposes the elected lower house. The Senate Senate's Liberal Party majority will likely ratify the legislation soon.
Dawn Stefanowicz would urge them not to — for the sake of children. She grew up in a London household where her father's homosexual activities were given free rein.
“It impacted all of us seriously,” she said. “Two of us were suicidal, my brother left in his mid-teens. I was depressed for years afterwards and needed years of therapy.”
Said Stefanowicz, “I have no hatred for gays, just a lot of compassion. But the reality of gay relationships doesn't match what the media and the sitcoms say about it. I was devalued as a woman,” Stefanowicz said. And the succession of her father's lovers “devalued all relationships, they were discarded like commodities.”
A slender majority of Canadians opposes legalization of same-sex “marriage,” but that didn't stop Prime Minister Paul Martin from promoting same-sex “marriage.” He insisted his hand was forced by several lower courts, which ruled in 2003 that marriage cannot be limited to heterosexuals under the Charter of Rights and Freedom.
Roughly 3,000 same-sex “marriages” have been conducted since then — 1,000 of them involving American couples.
To pass the bill, the governing Liberals needed the support of both the New Democrats and the separatist Bloc Quebecois, to compensate for the fact that the largest opposition party, the Conservatives, and almost a quarter of the Liberals’ own members of Parliament, opposed the legislation.
In a demonstration of the priority he assigned to passing C-38, Martin directed his Liberal caucus to cut off parliamentary debate on the bill prior to the June 28 vote in order to ensure its passage before the House of Commons took its summer break. Defending his actions, Martin said June 20, “I'm actually a very strong Roman Catholic. But I'm also a legislator, and I believe that clearly what I've got to do is take the widest perspective possible. And that perspective leads me to believe that the Charter of Rights is a fundamental pillar of our democracy.”
Catholic Opposition
Martin made passage of the bill a top priority of his government, despite forceful interventions against the bill by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“The proposed redefinition does not foster the evolution of marriage, but breaks irrevocably with human history as well as with the very nature of marriage,” the Canadian bishops said in a brief presented to Parliament May 19. “The adoption of Bill C-38 will cause irreparable damage to the basic fabric of human coexistence — the family founded on marriage — and result in a deeply wounded society.”
Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary, who said last year that he would deny Communion to Martin if Martin attended Mass in his diocese, said after the June 28 vote that passage of the Civil Marriage Act was “the triumph of political expediency over democracy. We've been hoodwinked by our government.”
A human-rights tribunal is investigating Bishop Henry because a pastoral letter he wrote taught that homosexual acts were sinful.
“The pressure will be on those of us who believe to not speak out on moral issues,” he said.
But Canadian bishops remain divided on the issue of refusing Communion to politicians. Ottawa Archbishop Marcel Gervais commented, in letters that his office has sent to people inquiring whether Martin should be denied Communion, that while Bishop Henry saw Martin as “a federal politician, to me he is also a faithful member of my cathedral parish.”
Martin, said Archbishop Gervais, “did not personally bring his party to adopt this policy,” but he believes “it is according to the plan of God for him to accept to be the leader of his party and in this arena it is acceptable for him to represent its policies.”
Church teaching on the matter is clear. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith addressed it in 2003's “Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons.”
“When legislation in favor of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral” (No. 10).
Father Thomas Lynch, dean of studies at St. Augustine Seminary in Toronto, pointed out that “Martin has said publicly, 'the Church is wrong on this issue and has to change.’”
Catholic members of Parliament should have opposed the bill or at least abstained, said Father Lynch, even if it threatened their career: “There is a cost for doing the right thing.”
What's Next?
Canada's main opposition party, the Conservatives, have promised to “revisit” the legislation if the next election puts the party in government.
Conservative leader Stephen Harper said the Liberal Party manipulated the process to speed passage of the bill.
Catholic Member of Parliament Pat O'Brien, who quit the Liberal Party in June over the issue to sit as an independent, believes the issue is important enough for Canadians to make it the sole determinant of their vote in the next election. Such an election could happen as early as this fall, if a shift of party alliances within the House of Commons makes it impossible for the minority Liberals to govern.
According to O'Brien, homosexual “marriage,” like the promotion of abortion, is a fundamental part of the ongoing campaign “to destroy the moral absolutes which are the foundation of Western civilization.”
He stated, “It is long, long overdue for Christians to take a stand. Let's do it now — let's show a little guts.”
Catholic and evangelical Protestant leaders have led an informal interfaith lobby including Sikhs, Muslims and Orthodox Jews in opposition to the legislation. The Christian-led coalition is now marshalling forces for the next election.
“The fight is just beginning,” said Rev. Charles McVety, president of Canada Christian College and one of the leaders of the Defend Marriage Coalition.
Steve Weatherbe is based in Victoria, British Columbia. (Register Staff contributed to this story)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steve Weatherbe ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: God Is Love and We Are His Children DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:Register Summary
During his July 6 general audience with 15,000 pilgrims in St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict XVI offered his comments on a canticle from Ephesians 1:2-14. The canticle is recited each week during the Liturgy of the Hours’ evening prayer.
“This hymn is a prayer of blessing to God the Father,” the Holy Father noted. “As it unfolds, it describes the various stages in the plan of salvation that has been accomplished through Christ's work.”
Pope Benedict went on to elaborate that the Father chose us to be his children, redeemed us and forgave our sins, revealed the mystery of salvation in Christ to us and gave us an eternal inheritance, even offering us a first installment in the gift of the Holy Spirit until the final resurrection.
Pope Benedict XVI then highlighted the first two stages of salvation — the call to holiness and the fact that we are God's adopted children. “In the beginning, God's grace was ready to enter into action,” the Holy Father pointed out. Departing from his prepared text, the Holy Father admitted that he still feels strong emotion whenever he meditates on this particular truth.
“From eternity we were before God's eyes and he decided to save us. At the heart of this call is our ‘holiness,’ a very important word. Holiness is participation in the transcendent purity of the Divine Being. Yet we know that God is love. Therefore, to participate in divine purity means to participate in God's ‘love’ by conforming ourselves to God, who is ‘love.’”
Pope Benedict XVI then focused on the fact that we are now God's adopted children.
“Paul exalts this sublime condition of being God's children, which implies and is derived from brotherhood with Christ, the Son par excellence, 'the firstborn among many brothers,’ and from intimacy with the heavenly Father, who can now be called Abba, whom we can call our ‘beloved Father,’ with a real sense of familiarity with God, in a spontaneous and loving relationship,” he noted.
The Holy Father concluded by referring to St. Ambrose, who wrote that God is rich in mercy because in Christ he has redeemed and transformed us so that we might be children of peace and love.
As is the norm, the audience began with a rendition of the canticle in song.
Today, instead of a psalm, we have heard a hymn from the Letter to the Ephesians (see Ephesians 1:3-14) that is repeated during each of the four weeks of the Liturgy of the Hours’ evening prayer. This hymn is a prayer of blessing to God the Father. As it unfolds, it describes the various stages in the plan of salvation that has been accomplished through Christ's work.
The Greek word mysterion, an expression that is usually associated with verbs of revelation (to reveal, to know, to manifest), resounds at the heart of this blessing. This is the great yet secret plan that the Father had kept in his heart from eternity (see verse 9) and that he decided to act on and reveal “in the fullness of time” (see verse 10) in Jesus Christ, his Son.
God's Plan of Salvation
The stages of this plan are outlined in the hymn by God's saving work through Christ in the Spirit. First, the Father chooses us from all eternity so that we might walk holy and without blemish in love (see verse 4). This was his first act. Then he predestines us to be his children (see verses 5 and 6). Moreover, he redeems us and forgives us our sins (see verses 7-8) and fully reveals to us the mystery of salvation in Christ (see verses 9-10). Finally, he gives us our eternal inheritance (see verses 11-12) and immediately offers us its first installment through the gift of the Holy Spirit until the final resurrection (see verses 13-14).
Thus, there are many saving events that follow one another as this hymn unfolds. They involve the three persons of the most holy Trinity, beginning with the Father, who initiates this plan of salvation and is its supreme Author, then focusing on the Son, who fulfills this plan within the confines of history, and ending with the Holy Spirit, who puts his “seal” on this entire work of salvation.
Let us now reflect briefly on the two first stages — holiness and our relationship to God as his children (see verses 4-6).
Called to Holiness
God's first act, which he revealed and carried out through Christ, was to choose those who are believers — the fruit of God's free and gratuitous initiative. Therefore, in the beginning, “before the foundation of the world” (verse 4), in God's eternity, God's grace was ready to enter into action.
I am deeply moved when I meditate on this truth. From eternity, we were before God's eyes and he decided to save us. At the heart of this call is our “holiness,” a very important word. Holiness is participation in the transcendent purity of the Divine Being. Yet we know that God is love. Therefore, to participate in divine purity means to participate in God's “love” by conforming ourselves to God, who is “love.”
“God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). This truth is a source of consolation which also helps us understand that “holiness” is not some distant reality far removed from our lives. Instead, we will enter into the mystery of “holiness” according to the measure to which we are able to become people who love God. In this way, agape becomes a daily reality for us. Therefore, we enter into God's very own sacred and life-giving perspective.
Children of God
Following the course we have set, we move on to the next stage, which was also envisioned in God's plan from eternity: our ‘predestination” as children of God — not merely as human creatures, but truly belonging to God as his children.
Elsewhere in his writings (see Galatians 4:5; Romans 8:15, 23), Paul exalts this sublime condition of being God's children, which implies and is derived from brotherhood with Christ, the Son par excellence, “the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29), and from intimacy with the heavenly Father, who can now be called Abba, whom we can call our “beloved Father,” with a real sense of familiarity with God, in a spontaneous and loving relationship. We find ourselves, therefore, in the presence of an immense gift, made possible by “the favor of God's will” and by his “grace,” a luminous expression of a love that saves.
In concluding, let us commend ourselves to the words of that great bishop of Milan, St. Ambrose, who, in one of his letters, comments on the words of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians, reflecting precisely on the rich content of this Christ-centered hymn.
Above all, he emphasizes the superabundant grace with which God has made us his adopted children in Christ Jesus.
“There is no need to doubt, therefore, that the members are united to their head, especially because we have been predestined from the beginning to be adopted children of God through Jesus Christ” (Lettera XVI ad Ireneo 4: SAEMO, XIX, Milan-Rome, 1988, p. 161).
This holy bishop of Milan continues his reflection with the following observation: “Who is rich, if not God alone, the creator of all things?” He concludes with these words: “But he is much more rich in mercy, because as author of life he has redeemed and transformed us, who, according to the nature of flesh, were children of wrath and subject to punishment, so that we might be children of peace and love” (No. 7: Ibid., p. 163).
(Register translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: World Media Watch DATE: 07/17/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 17-23, 2005 ----- BODY:Qatar's First Catholic Church to Open in 2006
ADNKRONOS INTERNATIONAL, June 30 — The first Roman Catholic church in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar will open next year, Father Justo Lacunza, rector of the Pontifical Institute for Islamic Studies in Rome, told the news agency Adnkronos International.
Underlining the progress that had been made regarding religious freedoms in some Islamic nations, Father Lacunza said “in Qatar the state offered the land to various Christian churches for the building of their respective places of worship. The new church will be open by 2006 and this is a very important step forward.”
The situation in neighboring Saudi Arabia, however, remains critical, Lacunza noted. “The main exception regarding freedom of worship in the Muslim world remains Saudi Arabia which does not allow any official church other than Islam.”
Two other regions at risk, he said, because of armed conflict, are Israel and Lebanon.
Uzbekistan's Catholics Welcome First Bishop
ASIANEWS, June 28 — Catholics in Uzbekistan have just celebrated a historic event: the country's first Catholic bishop, Jerzy Maculewicz, taking possession of his see in the predominantly Muslim country, AsiaNews reported.
More than 500 people attended the official ceremony at the Sacred Heart Parish in the capital of Tashkent. Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, apostolic nuncio of central Asia; Bishop Tomash Peta of Karaganda, and Bishop Theophilus Howaniec, of the Most Holy Trinity in Almaty, were among those who celebrated Mass with Bishop Maculewicz.
John Paul II in March 2004 elevated Uzbekistan to an apostolic administration, appointing Maculewicz as the first bishop.
During the ceremony, the new bishop confessed to “having known already for a year about the possibility of setting up an apostolic administration in Uzbekistan, but I never imagined I would be the one to lead it: It is God who sent me here.”
Church Will Continue Cardinal Sin's Mission
SUNSTAR, June 28 — Balanga Bishop Socrates Villegas vowed that the Catholic Church in the Philippines would pursue the late Cardinal Jaime Sin's goal of serving the poor and his call for moral governance in the country, the international news agency Sunstar reported.
Bishop Villegas, Cardinal Sin's aide for several years, made the statement in his homily during the funeral Mass for the longtime cardinal at the Manila Cathedral attended by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro.
The bishop described the cardinal as his “father and mentor” as he recalled the times he shared with the former Manila archbishop up until his death. Bishop Villegas's voice broke off when he remembered his friend's dying moments.
“He extended the invitation of Jesus to all of us to serve,” said the bishop, who then prayed that Cardinal Sin “go where God wills you to be and take your deserved rest” in asking the late cardinal to pray for all Filipinos and for the country.
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