BARAMULLA, India — The local bishop and government official in the Indian side of Kashmir were about to lead 2,000 people in an anniversary celebration of a Catholic mission when the ground started shaking.
The powerful earthquake struck at 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 8, moments before the scheduled celebration of the centenary of the founding of the first Catholic mission in Kashmir at Baramulla. It left tens of thousands of people in the Himalayan valley across India and Pakistan dead and millions homeless.
There were no casualties in Baramulla, however, where Bishop Peter Celestine Elampassery of Jammu-Srinagar and the state governor of Jammu and Kashmir, S. K. Sinha, a Hindu, were about to kick off the celebration at St. Joseph's Church.
“We were really shocked, and the children started crying and running away,” the bishop told the Register. He said the school building was “swaying when we were about to start the function.”
But the area was spared any major damage, and Bishop Elampassery is sure that the quake was “a wake up call from God for us. We need to be more faithful and dedicated to our mission.”
Baramulla lies in an area where Islam is the dominant religion. It is a region that borders Muslim majority Pakistan and has been known in recent years for Islamic militancy.
The Church's numbers in Muslim majority Kashmir have remained stagnant since the Mill Hill Missionaries set up the first Catholic mission in 1905 at Baramulla, about 37 miles west of Srinagar, capital of the Indian side of Kashmir. St. Joseph's remains the lone Catholic parish in Baramulla, with only two dozen Catholic families among its 1.2 million people. Its Catholic school is the premier educational institution in the district, drawing its students from outside the region as well.
“It was a divine sign to make the Church reflect on its mission here,” said the bishop, a Capuchin Franciscan who had just returned from a two-month visit to Europe the night before the temblor.
“This [Kashmir] is a region that has witnessed much bloodshed, where healing has to take place,” he added.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since the British colonial rulers partitioned the sub-continent into Muslim majority Pakistan and Hindu majority India in 1947.
More than 30,000 people, including thousands of civilians, have been killed in the troubled region since the 1990s. This followed a rise in separatist activity in the Indian-held part of Muslim majority Kashmir with Pakistani militants crossing over the porous “Line of Control” in troubled Kashmir.
Good Out of Bad
After the quake, St. Joseph's school was turned into the operational base for the Church's relief work in the region. The quake claimed nearly 40,000 lives in Pakistan — most of them in the Kashmir region under Pakistani control. Casualties on the Indian side have exceeded 1,500, despite the thin population in the vast mountain stretch on the Indian side.
The quake brought many Church leaders to the area, noted Charlie Rath, a local Christian and active Church volunteer with the parish who runs a medical shop in Baramulla.
In spite of the tragedy, a local nun focused on the good that the event brought to St. Joseph's Hospital, run by the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary in Baramulla. The popular, 70-bed hospital had been struggling to find a full-time doctor since the death two years ago of Sister Melanie, a member of the congregation and a medical doctor.
The health commission of the Indian Catholic Bishops Conference rushed medical teams to Baramulla to attend to quake victims being brought to the hospital for treatment.
“I am very happy now because we have now three doctors at the hospital,” Sister Elaine Nazareth, superior of the Franciscan convent, told the Register Oct. 14. She considered that a kind of “resurrection” for the hospital and commented, “I have no doubt that God had his plans to mark our centenary in a special way.”
Sister Nazareth said the centenary celebration was originally planned for this August and was postponed to Oct. 8.
As the Church relief work gathers momentum, dozens of relief workers from the Bishops Conference, Caritas India, Catholic Relief Services and religious congregations, including Blessed Teresa of Calcutta's Missionaries of Charity, have rushed to Baramulla.
When this reporter left Baramulla on the sixth day after the quake, the number of volunteers and Church officials from outside has swelled the camp of Catholic relief workers to more than 60, fanning out every morning to inaccessible villages with relief material, medicines and words of consolation.
Anto Akkara is based in New Delhi, India.
----- EXCERPT: CHURCH IN INDIA FINDS 'GOD'S CALL' IN KASHMIR EARTHQUAKE ----- EXTENDED BODY: Anto Akkara ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Boston Archdiocese Making Progress, With the Help of Prayer DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:BOSTON — Scot Landry felt a need to do something constructive in the wake of the Archdiocese of Boston's sex abuse scandal.
“I was sick of the Catholic Church being under assault,” the 35-year old father of two recalled. Landry, a software executive with an easy smile and a can-do attitude, already drew strength from his men's prayer group. They were “just a group of regular guys searching for a closer relationship with God” who met at St. Paul's in Cambridge.
“Remember last year?” Landry said. “The Red Sox were down 3-0, but fans kept saying, ‘Why not us?’ We started saying the same thing — why not us?”
The Sox went on to win the World Series, and the faithful in Boston have started to make a “comeback” as well.
Almost three years since Boston newspapers made the archdiocese's failure to deal with sexual abuse by clergy into a national scandal, there are signs that prayer and faithfulness are helping the archdiocese to get back on its feet.
Landry and five friends hoped that a men's conference could lift the gloom that demoralized Catholics in Boston, the nation's fourth largest diocese. But then as now, many were telling Archbishop Sean O'malley how to shepherd 2 million people.
How could these six men discern if they were the right team with the right idea?
“We prayed concretely that the archbishop would confirm this if it was meant to be,” Landry said. “If it was, he would say okay and if not, he would redirect us.”
He said okay.
“For a speaker we got Jim Caviezel [the actor who played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ] — a minor miracle. We expected 500 men. It became a bear; we had 2,200,” Landry said. “Everything fell into place. There was a need that just resonated. Priests had tears in their eyes at the closing. They’d heard confessions all day.”
From that March event, 25 new men's prayer groups were created. The Boston Catholic Men's Conference was one signal grace among several recent bright spots for the archdiocese, weakened by scandal and disheartened over the closing of one-third of its parishes.
Another hopeful sign: the public witness of young men from St. John's Seminary with rosaries in hand at an October pro-life rally on Boston Common.
Despite lawsuits and parishioner occupations of churches slated to close, hints of renewal can be gleaned where the faithful have concluded that they are strongest when on their knees.
Archbishop O'malley urged all 300 parishes to hold Forty Hour devotions during the Year of the Eucharist, and to pray for vocations.
Some parishes have complied with and exceeded this request by expanding Eucharistic adoration. Some now have committees to encourage vocations.
“We began with one day of adoration for life,” said Father William Salmon, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Weymouth. “An incredible feeling of peace hit me that day — in the church, even in the parking lot.”
His church now holds adoration six days a week.
While the archdiocese was down, the culture war kicked it further as Massachusetts judges imposed homosexual “marriage,” and lawmakers legalized cloning and human embryonic stem-cell research. There is political pressure for the Church to close its mouth on moral issues but open its books to state scrutiny (a proposed law would force all churches to report their finances to the state attorney general). The media continues to feed on bad news and foment controversy.
This year, the Church is making an organized effort to defend the family in the legal arena. All four Massachusetts dioceses are collecting signatures for a ballot initiative, a proposed state Protection of Marriage Amendment.
The state's Knights of Columbus also are on board. Knights also backed the men's conference and another first, a Northeast Regional Catholic Family Conference in July.
“We have a statewide organization with 46,000 members. We can get the message out quickly,” State Deputy Richard Guerriero said.
Since Archbishop O'malley became archbishop of Boston two years ago following Cardinal Bernard Law's resignation, he has fielded criticism not only from those who view the Church hierarchy as an adversary. While the 61-year-old Franciscan Capuchin is widely admired for his sincerity and holiness, some supporters just don't share his low-key style.
One major frustration has been priests who have clearly and repeatedly bucked Church teaching.
“Another Straw” was the Sept. 23 posting on bettnet.com, the blog of Domenico Bettinelli, editor of “Catholic World Report”: “Father Walter Cuenin of Our Lady Help of Christians in Newton, Mass., is at it again. In this week's bulletin, he openly challenges Archbishop Sean O'malley and the Church's teaching on homosexuality and legal unions between same-sex persons. … What will the archbishop do about it?”
His answer came the next day: “The Camel's Back Broke.” On Sept. 24, Father Cuenin announced he would resign as pastor after a parish audit found financial irregularities. Bettinelli urged blog readers to thank the archbishop.
Compassion and Humility
In an interview, Archbishop O'malley spoke of the importance of working “in earnest to restore credibility.” His solution: “By always holding up Jesus Christ as the source of all truth and calling our people to receive the grace and strength of the Eucharist.”
One of his major challenges is “to speak in faith-based terms to people who may not embrace faith and religion,” he told the Register in an Oct. 11 e-mail exchange through a spokesman. The archbishop sees another challenge in carrying out the Church's mission — its regular daily work — while simultaneously rebuilding. But the witness of worshipping families and support of priests encourages him.
As for a priest's perspective, Father Mark Coiro, 38, pastor of St. Mary's in Holliston, said he appreciates the “wholeness with which the archbishop is approaching the situation.
“It's one thing to have plans and programs,” he said, “but we're first and foremost a people of faith. If we ever stop praying, we're in trouble.”
Gail Besse is based in Hull, Massachusetts.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gail Besse ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Married, Without Children DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:My husband and I are childless.
By upbringing and inclination, I do not parade personal emotions in public, and tend to get bored by people who do. But I want to send a message to my fellow Catholics who are blessed with children and may feel guilty about giving unequivocal support to Church teachings in an area that has not caused them any difficulty: Please relax.
Those of us who are without children are not without the love and support of the Church, do not believe that God's laws could or should be overturned, and are not without the means of access to grace for living our married lives with the joy that God intended for us.
Don't misunderstand me. There is a sadness about not having children. But the graces God showers on us in the sacrament of matrimony are real. And all that the Church has ever understood about love, fellowship with the saints, and God having a real and unique purpose for each one of us, is true.
The king and queen of the Belgians had to cope not just with childlessness, but with having it analyzed publicly as a national issue. In one radio broadcast, King Baudoin gently referred to it. I was touched by what he said: “Little by little, we came to know the meaning of this sorrow. … We came to understand that, not having children ourselves, we could come to love all children, truly all.”
God's sacrament of matrimony is to be lived with a sense of purpose. He delights in seeing us fulfilled. Gradually, we will see how this works in our own particular lives and marriage.
In ours, he's given us the joy of shared interests, projects that need our contribution — and blessings too numerous to list. And we have nephews and nieces, godchildren and so many young people. We have been given joy and are grateful.
Ah, but it's not the same as having your own, is it? Of course it isn't, and it isn't meant to be. But aunts and uncles have their place in the scheme of things, too.
Children are a gift. We cannot own each other — not spouses, not parents with children, not anyone. Parenthood demands sacrifice. There can be heartache involved. Those of us who have never known the joy of parenthood cannot know its tragedies, either. We are spared much. We need to remember parents in our prayers, and by offering practical help when useful.
And how many children do you have? None. It's sometimes awkward when people ask, because of course it's normal to assume that a couple has a family. I have learned how to answer with naturalness and to make the conversation ordinary.
For what it is worth, I value the prayers and thoughtful understanding of those who have gently intimated that they know we would have loved to have had children. Their quiet kindness means a great deal. But, when the whole subject of children, childlessness, parenthood, God and the transmission of life comes along, I do not, as it happens, suffer colossal anguish.
Because God is good, and because he loves us, he ensures that every individual, and every married couple, is given strength for the particular situation that faces them. (See Ephesians 4:1-6.)
In our life together, we have found that Christ has never — really, just never — let us down.
Joanna Bogle writes from London.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joannabogle ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: CAMPUS WATCH DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:Keep Campuses Catholic
In contrast to earlier periods of American Catholic history, however, Gleason does not offer how this question is being answered in a distinctively Catholic way.
Catholic colleges in the 19th century were not unique because they were religious. But “being Catholic made them distinctive,” he said.
Likewise, he said, a rise in neo-Scholastic philosophy in the 1920s provided a synthesis of faith and reason that made Catholic education distinctive.
A counter-cultural witness was provided by Catholic colleges until the 1960s when, Gleason said, a “perfect storm” of academic, social and Church currents prompted a retreat from specifically Catholic teaching and thought.
Website Lauded
The Christian Brothers’ college is ranked fifth in the nation and first among Catholic institutions, according to the group's annual Enrollment Power Index of 3,039 post-secondary institutions.
Heterosexuality Hero
While many of Australia's 38 universities have a “queer officer” to represent homosexual students, Allen is the only “heterosexuality officer” in the country, reported the newspaper.
Allen said he didn't know if heterosexuals were a marginalized minority on the UNE campus, but added that he had not seen or heard of any harassment of homosexuals at UNE that would necessitate an officer to protect them or “a queer safe space.”
Black Believers Lead
The study, conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute, said black students led white, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian and Hawaiian students in seven of 12 spirituality categories.
Black students also reported higher levels of church attendance, prayer and belief in God. One-tenth of the black students polled were Catholic.
Lawsuit Dismissed
Father Neil Roy, who continues to serve as a professor at the college, filed suit in 2004 claiming that school founder Tom Monaghan and the board were unfairly transferring the school's assets.
Judge Timothy Connors agreed that Ave Maria's move to in Naples, Fla., was necessitated by the refusal of local authorities in Michigan to grant the rezoning necessary to build a permanent campus near Ypsilanti.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Concerning Philosophers and Moths DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:If philosophy is a search for wisdom, then a true philosopher who philosophizes long enough will surely find at least a glimpse of the enticing goal that first animated his search.
Philosopher Anthony Flew, formerly known to the academic world as a leading proponent of atheism and defender of Darwinian Evolution, has told the Associated Press in a recent interview that he has now come to believe in the existence of God.
Professor Flew, who taught for several years at Toronto's York University after retiring from full professorships in England, has come to the conclusion that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. He had stated in the September issue of Philosophy Now that, “It has become inordinately difficult even to begin to think about constructing a naturalistic theory of the evolution of that first reproducing organism.”
Flew reasoned that a god or divine intelligence of some kind must exist in order to explain extremely complex biological systems, such as the DNA molecule. The recognition that the irrefutable evidence of design implies the existence of a Designer is a major step in the pursuit of wisdom.
Nonetheless, Professor Flew's god, as he explains, is the god of deism, the Enlightenment's divine “watchmaker” who, after he creates the world and winds it up, abandons it. This is a clever but heartless god, one worthy of admiration but certainly not adoration.
When we examine the evidence a little more closely, however, we will find that there is more to design than meets the mind. As St. Thomas Aquinas pointed out, in his fifth proof for the existence of God — the argument from Design — there is a purpose for the design, namely, to bring about the id quod est optimum (best result). In other words, God is not simply producing highly complex machines that reflect merely his intelligence. Rather, he is showing us how his creation works for good.
Michael J. Behe states in his marvelous book, Darwin's Black Box, that the mathematical probability of the right genetic factors getting together to help ensure successful blood clotting is one in 30,0004. If lottery ticket holders had this kind of chance of winning, and one million bought tickets each year, it would take an average of 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) years before anyone would win.
We are amazed at the complexity of the blood-coagulating process, but more importantly, we are grateful because it is good for us and prevents us from bleeding to death whenever we sustain a cut.
Our immune system contains 100 billion immunological receptors, each one of which is capable of distinguishing between the self and the non-self. The human zygote has an information content equivalent to 1,000 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica. And the amount of DNA needed to specify the genetic characteristics of all the people in the world is approximately 1/17 the weight of a postage stamp.
The highly respected political analyst, George Will, was not being either facetious or unphilosophical when he made the following comment:
“When Thomas Aquinas was ginning up proofs of God's existence, he neglected to mention the ash tree. It is the source of the Louisville Slugger, and hence conclusive evidence that a kindly mind superintends the universe.”
Indeed, God is not merely a “mind” but a “kindly” one. Will's argument, though not scientifically detailed, leaps from the Big Bang to planet Earth and then to an atmosphere that causes rain to patter on Pennsylvania ridgetops where ash trees grow. These trees grow surrounded by other trees that protect the ashes from wind-twisting so that they grow straight and produce wood that is the ideal strength for making the musical “crack” that signals a well-hit baseball. This is the sound that fills not only a young's lad's ears but his heart as well. God is both architectural and benevolent.
Human taste buds can detect the presence of strychnine when it is but 1 part in 2,500,000. Some moths are able to pick up the scent of their female mate as a distance of a mile or more. The moth being attracted to the flame pales in comparison with the male moth that is attracted to and can find his mate over such an extraordinary distance of separation. This is a design that prefigures a love story.
Philosophers seek wisdom just as naturally and providentially as moths seek their mates. It is a step in the right direction to know that there is a design in the universe that reflects the hand of the Designer. But it is a crucial additional step to realize that this presence of design leads to the unraveling of a love story.
God is both intelligent and loving. He wants moths to find their love mates as well as philosophers to locate the fount of wisdom. And he wants his human creatures to find his Heart.
We urge Professor Flew to journey onwards.
Donald DeMarco is adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Donald Demarco ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: FCC Regulatory Window Could Triple Number of Catholic Radio Stations DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:INDIAN RIVER, Mich. — Franciscan Father Harry Speckman understands the difficulty in starting a Catholic radio station. With most of the commercial bandwidth already claimed, start-ups have to bid on existing stations. That's an expensive proposition.
“We're currently bidding on a station,” said Father Speckman, senior associate at Cross in the Woods Catholic Church and Shrine in Indian River, Mich. “The cost is one of the impediments to our acquiring something like this.”
But there may soon be a far less expensive way of increasing the number of Catholic radio stations. According to radio insiders, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to make available the non-commercial educational (NCE) band of FM sometime in late 2005 or 2006.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Steve Gajdosik, president of the Charleston, S.C.-based Catholic Radio Association. “If you look at the phenomenal lead that Christian radio has on Catholic radio — 1,700 stations vs. 107 — in large part, those licenses were obtained from the FCC when they were free. Catholics slept through all those application windows. If Catholics want a full-service AM or FM station, they have to buy it, with the exception of the NCE window.”
The license itself is free. In many cases, rather than having to put up a broadcast tower, someone with this kind of license can find a transmitter on existing towers, eliminating the costs for a “historical study” and construction.
Unlike low-power FM (LPFM) stations, which reach only a 5- to 10-mile radius, non-commercial educational stations can reach between 10 and 75 miles, depending on terrain and interfering stations.
In describing the importance of radio, Gajdosik quoted Pope John Paul II's 1990 encyclical letter Redemptoris Missio (On the Permanent Validity of the Church's Missionary Mandate). “The Holy Father wrote that, ‘The means of social communication have become so important as to be for many the chief means of information and education, of guidance and inspiration in their behavior as individuals, families and within society at large,’” said Gajdosik.
Gajdosik also stressed the urgency for those interested in starting Catholic radio. “If you want to do Catholic radio three years from now, you have to start now,” he said.
Typically, the Federal Communications Commission gives stations 30 days notice prior to the application window's opening. Once open, stations have only five days to apply. Before applying, interested parties must have an engineering study and sometimes a historical study, done to determine whether a station is possible in a given area.
Tripling Possible
Gajdosik expects that Protestants will submit thousands of applications in the competitive application process. But his association hopes that Catholics will triple the number of Catholic stations on the air.
The FCC uses a point system in approving applications. Among the criteria used are the number of listeners served, local ownership where the listening range does not overlap the contours of existing stations, geographic area covered, and those who, at the time of filing, have the fewest existing station authorizations.
In an effort to increase the number of Catholic stations on the air, the Catholic Radio Association is assisting those interested in applying for the non-commercial educational license. The association is currently working with about 50 persons and groups, including parishes, organizations and dioceses, by helping to conduct engineering studies.
Gajdosik has a track record of success in such efforts. While president of Starboard Broadcasting, he spearheaded an initiative resulting in more than 100 new Catholic low-power FM stations. In 2003, the association helped stations apply for 200 FM translators, and in 2004 it helped stations apply for 60 new AM licenses. A translator is an FM radio station that receives a signal from one channel and transmits it on another.
Attorney Dan Meara is ready to file an application as soon as the window opens. In June of 2004, Meara was talking with fellow Knights of Columbus about renting time on a local radio station to broadcast “Catholic Answers Live.”
“No one was really interested in spending the money,” said Meara. “One of them asked, ‘Why don't we start our own radio station?’”
So Meara drew up a plan for a local station at the cost of about $16,000. His Knights council was supportive.
Meara enlisted the help of the Catholic Radio Association to conduct an engineering study. The results of that study showed that the council could apply for a non-commercial educational FM license — at no cost — for a considerably larger station that would reach four dioceses — Wichita and Kansas City in Kansas, and Kansas City-St. Joseph and Cape Girardeau in Missouri.
“This would be an opportunity not only to promote a Catholic culture, but to give people an opportunity to find out what Catholics really believe,” said Meara.
Father Speckman agreed. The organization he is assisting — Baraga Broadcasting — hopes to apply for three licenses in the cities of Alpena, Houghton Lake, and Tawas, Mich., that would serve the 21 counties in the northernmost portion of Michigan's lower peninsula.
“I'm convinced of the power and ability of radio to reach people,” said Father Speckman, who turned a former student radio station at Quincy University in Illinois into a public radio station. “With the diminishing number of clergy, our ability to get the Catholic message out is vital. We have to reach out and maintain contact. This seems a good way to do that.”
Baraga Broadcasting is already providing limited Catholic radio in Michigan. A commercial station has offered sub-carrier radio (a special bandwidth through which reading services for the visually impaired is offered) so listeners can receive Catholic radio, but it requires a special radio to receive the broadcast.
The Michigan station taps into Ave Maria Radio's live feed to do that, and would do the same with any new station. The Kansas station plans to tap into EWTN/WEWN's live feed.
“People don't understand how easy or how effective radio is,” said Gajdosik. “For most people and bishops, it's not on their radar screen. This will effectively be the last opportunity to acquire any non-commercial FM license.”
Tim Drake is based in St. Joseph, Minnesota.
Information
Catholic Radio Association 121 Broad St. Charleston, SC 29401 (843) 853-2300
www.CatholicRadio Association.org
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: JOHN PAUL'S FINAL BOW DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:EDITORIAL
In a way, the last year of John Paul's pontificate is ending now.
The close of Year of the Eucharist is John Paul's final bow.
When faced with the abuse scandals, many critics complained that Pope John Paul II was asleep at the wheel. Catholic and secular critics complained that while the Church's good name was being dragged through the mud by errant priests, crony bishops and rabid reporters, the Pope was busy writing about the Rosary and Sunday Mass.
But the Pope had seen the scandals coming long before the Boston Globe did, because he knew that they were just one symptom of a much deeper crisis. The real crisis was a crisis of faith. It manifested itself in a denial of the sense of sin. Before it was in the headlines, that denial was already clear in a near-stoppage of the sacrament of confession in many places. It was there in the high divorce rate that made the Catholic population indistinguishable from the world around us. It was there in the epidemic among Catholic laity of the ultimate child abuse: abortion.
The Pope didn't need scandal stories to tell him what was going on. He was already on the case, leading the Church on a spiritual program that resembled a retreat and had the same aims as one.
First, there were the years of preparation that culminated in the Great Jubilee of the year 2000. Early on in the Jubilee came the confession portion of the retreat — John Paul's mea culpa address in which he sought atonement for past sins of the Church.
Some complained that the Pope was just jumping on the apology bandwagon that had made its rounds through many other spheres of society. In fact, John Paul was teaching us lessons that we began to appreciate more fully when the scandal tsunami hit two years later.
He was telling us that sin in the Church today is no fluke. The Church has always been made up of sinners. Our job isn't to deny the sin or to cover it up, but to acknowledge it and expose it to the light of God's mercy.
Next in our retreat came a months-long meditation on our vocations as Christians. There was the Jubilee for the priesthood, for bishops, for the laity. Then, nearly every conceivable subgroup of Catholic had its day at St. Peter's — circus performers, soldiers, pizza makers, lawyers.
John Paul was reminding us that the Church isn't simply a collection of sinners doing penance. In its many vocations, it displays the glories of God and the possibilities of grace. It was vital encouragement for the years to come.
Each year after that had its part in this “retreat.” In 2001, the focus was on apostolic action. He told us to “put out into the deep” per Luke 5:4 and gave the Church a specific program of action. We are to promote Sunday Mass, confession, prayer and service.
The Year of the Rosary followed in 2002-2003. Any good retreat ends with a celebration of the Eucharist. John Paul gave us the 2004-2005 Year of the Eucharist — and then, halfway through it, he exited in such a way that the Eucharistic focus he saw as the key to the Church's future would bridge his pontificate with the next one.
In his first television interview as Pope on Oct. 16, Benedict XVI reflected on where Pope John Paul II had left the Church, and how we are to go forward.
He said of his predecessor, “No one else in the world, on an international level, can speak in the name of Christianity like this and give voice and strength to the Christian reality in the world today.”
John Paul is his guide, he said. “The Pope is always close to me through his writings: I hear him and I see him speaking, so I can keep up a continuous dialogue with him,” Benedict said.
“This nearness to him isn't limited to words and texts, because behind the texts I hear the Pope himself,” he said. “A man who goes to the Lord doesn't disappear. I believe that someone who goes to the Lord comes even closer to us; and I feel he is close to me and that I am close to the Lord.”
As the Year of the Eucharist ends, and as Pope Benedict XVI concludes the Eucharistic synod that Pope John Paul II planned, we should follow the new Pope's example. The legacy of Pope John Paul II isn't in the past, but in the future. And it isn't his alone. It will be filled out by Pope Benedict, and will succeed or fail depending on our response.
He taught us to acknowledge the Church's sins, but to remember Christ's mercy. He taught us not to spend so much time on the defensive, but to build Christ's Kingdom in the world.
And he taught us that the Rosary and the Eucharist are the secret weapons that will transform the Church's story from sin and sorrow to triumph and joy.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: GET THEE TO A THERAPIST DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:Pope John Paul II constantly proclaimed that strong families make for strong societies.
But a lot of Catholic families are not feeling so strong these days. In fact, many are falling apart — despite faithful adherence to daily prayer and the sacraments.
Catholics, just like everyone else, are struggling mightily with depression, anxiety, mixed-up kids, anger, addictions and failing marriages.
They should not be afraid to seek psychological help, says psychotherapist Gregory Popcak, who is also an author, radio-show host and founder of the Pastoral Solutions Institute, which combines psychology with orthodox Catholic theology.
“Faith keeps people hanging in there, but it's not a convenient excuse for not doing anything about your problems,” he told the Register. “Spirituality plugs us into the power source. Psychology helps the machine run efficiently. If I'm plugged in but all gummed up, I can't work as effectively.”
Popcak also maintains that Catholic rituals and prayers alone can't substitute for healthy relationships in the home, a common issue he sees with clients.
“Too many Catholic families are collections of individuals who live under the same roof,” he says. “Christianity is about intimacy more than anything else. God created us in a community and if those relationships around us are not working, then that's where we need to be living our faith.”
Joe and Cindy, a Catholic couple from central Minnesota who asked not to be identified, found their family life in crisis after their oldest son started drinking and using drugs at age 13. His behaviors negatively affected the whole family.
“We have three other kids and we decided to be up front with them about what was going on,” says Cindy. “I remember saying to one of my kids: This is how we learn to love someone who almost seems unlovable. We didn't excuse his behavior, but we would pray for him when he wasn't there.”
The couple also had to discontinue involvement in Church activities, including marriage preparation ministry, to focus their energy on their son. Cindy found herself resenting that other families that were lax in their faith seemed so well adjusted.
“It just didn't seem fair,” she says. “I found myself asking, ‘Why us, God? We tried to live the life that you asked us to live.’”
At one point it got so bad, recalls Joe, that he was ready to drop his son off at a boot camp.
“Every disciplinary action was a crisis,” he says. “You're always wondering: If I'm more strict, I'm going to lose him; if I'm not strict, I'm going to lose him. It drove me to prayer a lot. I can only be happy about the faith I had.”
While Joe and Cindy relied on their faith, they also sought help from community resources, including counselors and chemical dependency programs. They also started being open with others about their family situation and that got others to open up to them. Cindy says she realized they weren't alone and they've learned not to worry about what other people think.
Their son, now 21, is still struggling with addiction and emotional behaviors, but he's starting to come around and frequently talks to Joe. They've also felt called to a new ministry, working with chemically dependent young men in jail, which has helped their son realize they understand him.
Communicating Is Key
Father James Burns of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is a research professor at Boston University and professor of psychology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. In his counseling with families and individuals, about one-third of them Catholic, he frequently runs into parents who want to cut off all communication with their wayward kids — a practice that, he says, isn't helpful.
“If Christ had that attitude, there wouldn't have been many sinners or tax collectors with whom he would have been,” he adds. “Rather, he maintained clear definitions about righteousness, and then invited others into it.”
On the other hand, that doesn't mean parents need to condone every part of their child's life, explains the priest. Learning how to communicate respectfully with each other and living a good example, coupled with use of the sacraments and prayers, is the best approach.
“Children will pick up quickly enough whether somebody is just talking the talk but not walking the walk,” he adds. “St. Francis of Assisi said to preach the Gospel and, when necessary, use words. That's a great model for families.”
While the culture can make it harder for Catholics to practice their faith and bring up children according to its teachings, Father Burns doesn't believe we're any worse now than any other age.
“It's hard to know if we're under greater attack now than the early Christians who were in catacombs and were not allowed to practice their faith publicly,” he points out. “That's a pretty serious attack. To a greater or lesser degree, each age has its own problems. Faith allows us to have a better sense of purpose and meaning in our lives and gives us direction. We can use the things that are available to us in our faith, and combine it with what is good in the culture.”
Popcak frequently refers his clients to the sacraments, specifically the sacraments of healing: confession and anointing. He notes that confession can give people the graces to avoid temptations to sin, like despair and hopelessness, which depression can push a person toward.
For moderate and serious emotional disturbances, he says, people should not be shy about asking their pastor for the sacrament of anointing. “We're so used to approaching our pastors as pseudo counselors and don't use them for what they're there for,” he says.
Spending time in Eucharistic adoration and frequently receiving the Eucharist is the ultimate way of plugging into God's power and love, he adds. “Obviously if you really have a true appreciation for what the Eucharist is, it's hard to doubt your worth in the eyes of God.”
Father Burns says the Eucharist is effective in helping us toward right living and helping us understand the meaning of suffering and sacrifice.
“We can't see the cross alone; we also have to see the resurrection,” he says. “The Eucharist reminds us of that.”
Barb Ernster writes from Fridley, Minnesota.
Information
Pastoral Solutions Institute
exceptionalmarriages.com
----- EXCERPT: Can Catholic families rightly receive psychological counseling? ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barb Ernster ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Down the Drain DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:FACTS OF LIFE
Women are cleaner than men. Scientists confirmed this by observing in public restrooms as 25% of the men left without washing their hands; a full 90% of the women washed up. The American Society of Microbiology used the study to promote the single easiest step people can take to stay healthy, especially during cold and flu season: spending 20 seconds washing hands with soap under the faucet.
Source: Chicago Sun Times, Sept. 22 Illustration by Tim Rauch
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Beneath Trastevere's Most Ancient Bell Tower DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:I'm sure I would never have noticed the fragile bell tower and plain façade of Chiesa di San Benedetto (St. Benedict's Church) — except for a colleague of mine who lived nearby.
It's down toward the end of Trastevere, just off the river, on the piazza in Piscinula.
When I moved to this neighborhood for a summer years later, I remember worrying when heavy trucks jumbled along the cobblestones, oblivious to the frail treasure above them.
But, as I thought about it, I realized that my “frail treasure” had been built in 1069. It survived the sack of Rome by the Normans in 1084, centuries of war since then and even the bombs of World War II. Surely it can withstand a little motor-vehicle traffic passing by.
Naturally the church, boasting Rome's oldest and narrowest bell tower, has seen much shoring up through the years. Its age alone makes it worthy of a stop for pilgrims bopping between bigger attractions in the Eternal City.
And then there's its beauty.
Inside the remodeled façade on the piazza in Piscinula, a charming, ancient church now emerges from reconstruction, more resplendent inside than its exterior hints at.
You want beautiful marbles and frescoes, aged to perfection? Right this way.
The church was built, it is thought, in part of the house occupied by the Anici, the family of St. Benedict, father of monasticism and patron saint of Europe. (The word piscinula apparently comes from an ancient water tank of some sort that supplied Benedict's family home.)
The building was declared a domus (early house), where Christians met to worship before Constantine legalized Christianity upon issuing the Edict of Milan in 313.
Nearby are early houses dedicated to St. Francesca Romana, Rome's patroness, and St. Cecilia, patroness of music.
Heralding Holiness
As for San Benedetto, it positively glows with the sunlight streaming in on its 13th-century statues and alcoves. Its notable frescoes include one of the Virgin and Child and another depicting the life of St. Benedict. Eight antique columns contribute to its eternal feeling.
St. Benedict, born in Nursia, in Umbria, was of noble birth and spent his boyhood in Rome.
About the year 500 he used the still-visible, cross-vaulted chapel for meditation and prayer — a time that led ultimately to his establishing his famous Rule for monastic living.
The Rule is still used today, in many forms. It combines both spiritual doctrine and practical norms for daily life.
His sister, St. Scholastica, must have lived here too, although we know nothing of her early life. Carmelite sisters occupy the adjacent convent today.
In taking the saint's name, Pope Benedict XVI reminds us daily of this great tradition just by showing up.
The first section of the church to be identified was that of the Cella (chapel) di San Benedetto, according to the Roman legend of the saint's life here. The church we see today was begun probably in the 11th century.
When I was there earlier this year, a layperson knelt in devotion before the Blessed Sacrament, exposed for adoration at the tiny altar. Others prayed in the larger church area beyond.
After I had knelt there for some time, humbled by the awareness of centuries of prayer around me — and warm with the glow of the altar lights and frescoes while outside a persistent rain battered the city — I looked around toward the cracked plaster of the back wall of the church.
Suddenly a priest dressed in an dramatic habit, like a king's herald in Shakespearian times, appeared from nowhere. It seemed rather like a scene from Alice in Wonderland.
After the Mass, he told me that he was from the Order of the Heralds of the Gospel, a new international movement, Brazilian in origin. Their charism is the New Evangelization, spread with joy, beauty and music.
Their order is part of the International Association of Pontifical Right. They are busy getting the church in order, and they seem to be enjoying the task. You can learn more about these heralds, as I have since, at their American website, heralds.us.
Medieval Chic
This ethereal place, St. Benedict's, is rarely mentioned in guidebooks and if it is, just a few words are given.
Of course, part of the reason is that it was long open only for early Mass; otherwise you had to know to ring a bell to the right. Much of Rome was like that when I moved there in the ’60s.
Now this medieval area is chic — and the rents have skyrocketed. Fortunately there are rules about what must be preserved, or little Catholic heritage would remain here.
It is often said that, to appreciate Rome's enchantments, non basta una vita (a lifetime isn't long enough).
Thus far, I can attest to that adage. The heart of Christendom has many chambers.
Barbara C. Hults is based in New York City.
PLANNING YOUR VISIT
Mass is celebrated daily at 8 a.m., and at 9 a.m. on Sundays and holy days. The Blessed Sacrament is exposed for adoration on Thursdays. The Rosary is said daily at 6 p.m. In Rome, you might call ahead (06-39030517), as repairs are ongoing to preserve this unique gift of early Christianity.
GETTING THERE
It's a 10-minute walk from the major avenue of Viale Trastevere. Or take the bus along the river to Ponte Cestio. The Piazza in Piscinula is just to the right.
----- EXCERPT: Church of St. Benedict, Rome ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barbara Coeyman Hults ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Investigating the Seminaries: A Step-by-Step Look DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:Edwin O’Brien, Arch-bishop for the U.S. military, is leading the Vatican's investigations of U.S. seminaries.
He spoke with Register correspondent Wayne Laugesen Aug. 25 in a story that thrust him into the spotlight because he said homosexuals should not be admitted into the seminary. The interview was quoted by hundreds of media entitites worldwide — often out of context. Here is the original context of the archbishop's remarks:
Please explain the basic concept of this visitation, because a lot of people don't know what it's about.
It was agreed upon in April 2002, by the cardinals in Rome and the leadership of our conference of bishops in the United States. The United States hierarchy invited the Holy See to get an objective look at our formation programs in the United States, especially as they approach moral theology, questions of human sexuality, and as they help form men to the priesthood who are mature and are knowledgeable of the history and spirituality of the celibacy they undertake and are able to live that celibacy in a purposeful way.
To that end, there is a handbook of points that should be addressed in the visitations that take place. The Holy See asked if I would develop a schedule of visitations and the numbers of visitors, which consist of about 45 bishops and 60 priests.
Where are the visitors from?
They're all from the United States.
Does that raise concerns about their ability to remain objective?
No. No. The visitors are as intent as anyone else in seeing that the goals of good human formation are being realized. The guidebook to be followed is the questions and the schema that's been drawn up by the Holy See. The number of visitors will depend on the size of the institutions. The visits will conclude early in May. There will be over 220 institutions visited, some very small, both on the college and theologate level.
What happens if the visitors find seminaries that are completely out of step with the Church regarding celibacy? Perhaps they're admitting homosexuals who are not living chaste and celibate lives.
The task of the visitors is to get an objective picture of what is taking place in the classroom and in the overall formation program of a seminary or a house of formation.
And admission practices?
Yes, criteria for admission, absolutely. And what is done throughout the years of formation, in terms of spiritual direction. How strong is the spiritual formation? What kind of spiritual direction is given, what spiritual direction is given in the classroom as well as what external aids are there for formation? Every seminarian will be interviewed individually. That interview is protected by secrecy.
The team will draw up its report based on interviews with seminarians and the faculty. That report will be written by the chair of each visitation, in consultation with the visitors, and it will be sent to Rome. There will be no exit report or anything like that. I will not see it, the rectors will not see it and it will be factual. This is what is taking place. Rome will review it and if they have concerns they'll be in touch with the bishop or the religious superior about it. An evaluation will be published by the Congregation for Education, but before that's done a draft will be sent to the local superior or rector to see if there are any factual errors in the report.
So the interpretation will be done not by the visitation team but in Rome once the facts have been given in a report that says, ‘Here is what seminarians have reported.’
Is there going to be a grand, final report when this process is completed?
After all visits are completed, it's expected there will be an overall assessment, and that will go public. It will be an assessment of overall formation in the Untied States. That could be a couple of years out.
When the reports go to the Holy See, where exactly do they go?
To the Congregation for Education. If it's about a religious institution, the Congregation for Education will pass the report on to the Congregation for Religious.
As you know, some people have concluded that seminaries are largely responsible for the Church sex scandal. Some critics say the last visitation, in the ’80s, was a whitewash.
I would disagree with them.
Were you involved with that visitation?
Yes, I did make one or two visits. Probably the most valuable work is done in preparation for the visit. Seminaries know what the Holy See is looking for, and they have ample time if they're not meeting some of the standards, to make those standards a reality, and that's what happened in the ’80s. Once the visits took place, most things were in place. You'll find out that a lot of the immoral activity that we unfortunately have seen in all the headlines took place in the ’60s, ’70s and into the ’80s. Seminarians formed in the ’80s and ’90s received much more solid formation than those who were formed soon after the Second Vatican Council, when all sorts of experimentation took place.
Theology was thrown up into the air as to the meaning of celibacy, the value of celibacy, and the discipline one was sworn to as a result of ordination. Everything was thrown into question, and I think that's why visitation was called for in the ’80s. Standards were set, and I know that many seminaries didn't even require philosophy after the Council.
The idea was to get them in and ordain them as soon as possible, and I think in many places a careless academic and spiritual formation took place. The Holy See was concerned. That's why visitation was called for, and by the time it was done, many seminaries found themselves changing and coming back to more solid formation programs and academic programs.
You look at any program from ’75 and compare it to ’85 and you'll find that it became a lot more solid program somewhere in those 10 years.
Is that why the visitation is scheduled years out, to allow for preparation?
I wouldn't say it's the most important reason. But a critical contribution is made just in the preparation itself.
Is there any concern that a seminary out of compliance would prepare just to pass, and then go back to the way things were?
It would be tough to fudge. The seminarians will be key players in this whole thing.
Because they're protected by anonymity?
Yes. They'll be questioned individually, and if you get 50 out of 60 seminarians in an institution saying this was the case when I came in, and this is the way it is now, there's reason for credibility there.
How about former seminarians? Will you interview them?
Priests ordained in the last three years will be invited, should they wish, to take part. All full-time faculty will be required to participate in interviews.
Some people characterize seminaries as “liberal” or “conservative.” Would those kinds of distinctions have merit if all seminaries were brought in line with Church doctrine?
Externals can vary from place to place, but as far as the core of Catholic teachings, and expectations of the Church regarding formation in sexuality and celibacy, I think they have to be consistent from one institution to the next.
What more can you tell me about this process, that we haven't discussed?
I just want to say it's a positive program. It has been well received by people I've spoken with in seminary work. They think in the end it will be very helpful. Most I've spoken to see it as a very good time to do some self-examination. It's not an investigation, but a visit to help everyone get a clearer picture of what priesthood is and what formation toward priesthood should be.
You work with the military, where the issue of admitting homosexuals has been around for a while. Now we have this debate as to whether homosexuals should be allowed into seminaries. What's you're stand? Should someone who's ever been homosexual be denied admittance into a seminary?
I think anyone who has engaged in homosexual activity, or has strong homosexual inclinations, would be best not to apply to a seminary and not to be accepted into a seminary.
Even if he has been chaste for say, 10 years?
I would think so, yes.
You mean they should not be admitted?
Yes. And the Holy See should be coming out with a document about this before too long that should help us, too.
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:Hooray for Harriet
Regarding “Give Miers a Chance” (Editorial, Oct. 16-22):
Considering all that's been written and said lately about Harriet Miers and President Bush, you may be wondering whether Miss Miers was a good selection for the Supreme Court. Some of our pro-life friends have aggressively criticized both President Bush and Harriet Miers for her nomination. Many have said they felt “betrayed.” Here's a very important consideration in the debate over the Harriet Miers nomination.
George W. Bush is a solidly pro-life president. He has demonstrated a passion for the well-being of millions of unborn babies during his presidency. I know that the 3,200 daily deaths of preborn children haunt him as much as they do you and me. President Bush grieves the loss of their lives, as well as the emotional devastation abortion inflicts on the parents of these babies. He shares our heart on the abortion issue and fully understands the critical role he plays in ending this modern-day holocaust.
President Bush has rightly earned the trust of America's pro-lifers. Tens of thousands of pro-lifers diligently worked to reelect President Bush, knowing the next president would likely fill multiple Supreme Court vacancies. Are we now willing to say we don't trust him to fill these positions?
Look at the many excellent court appointments President Bush has already made. They include solid pro-life individuals like Janice Rodgers Brown, Edith Clement, Priscilla Owen, Charles Pickering and William Pryor.
Further, the president has reappointed many of these sterling people in the face of an obstructionist minority of senators. And he has demonstrated that he is willing to pursue the constitutional option, also known as the “nuclear” option, to confirm them on the courts.
History is working against President Bush because some of his Republican predecessors have appointed pro-abortion justices to the Supreme Court. We believe President Bush has wisely learned from their past mistakes and is steadfast in his understanding of how the Supreme Court impacts each and every one of us, including generations to come.
One advocate for Harriet Miers said conservatives and pro-lifers should “connect the dots” to get a complete picture of what this nomination means to our nation. We at Life Issues Institute believe this is sound advice. We believe the bigger picture shows Harriet Miers to be a solid, pro-life vote on the Supreme Court.
BRADLEY MATTES
Executive Director
Life Issues Institute
lifeissues.org
Preemies Feel Pain
As a subscriber to your newspaper, I am always amazed at the great information your paper gives. I read the article “‘I Don't Feel Your Pain’” (Sept. 25-Oct. 1), about infant pain, with complete amazement. How absurd for anyone, but especially the American Medical Association, to assume infants less than 29 weeks’ gestation do not feel pain.
As a neonatal intensive-care nurse, I strongly disagree with this opinion. In the Level III NICU where I work, we frequently take care of preterm babies whose gestational age is less than 29 weeks. These babies do feel pain! When we are forced to do necessary procedures that are painful, such as IV access or heelsticks, these babies react. They will attempt to withdraw the limb and many of them actively cry.
As nurses, we are so aware of this, we keep these procedures to an absolute minimum. I am appalled the AMA would take such a position. Part of the Hippocratic Oath is “First, do no harm.” When truth meets politics, the line between right and wrong becomes very blurred.
BONNIE A HOLLAND
Picayune, Mississippi
Taking Back Religious Ed
As a director of religious education, I have enjoyed your Catechism series. But I have to say, our program is on the verge of being the greatest of all. At least that is my goal.
Five years ago, our pastor took me into my new office. There was so much junk in the way that we could hardly get the door opened. My husband and I filled one dumpster with magazines that had been cut through so much that there was nothing but shredded paper left. We filled another dumpster with yarn. Later, I found much more and, feeling bad over the previous waste, I donated the new find.
You get the idea: Religious educations had been all about arts and crafts. The textbooks were, in my opinion, not worthy of our children's formation. Surprisingly, they were on the conformity list. There was almost one full chapter dedicated to the “Chinese New Year.” Most CCD and religious-ed programs only have the children for 90 minutes each week. There is no time to spare on information that does not teach Catholic doctrine, precepts, history or identity.
I have developed a new, orthodox program over the past five years and I am proud of it. But my pride is not without humbling moments, all of which I dread and feel thankful for at the same time.
The last five years have been a blessing in my life. I have grown as much as I have encouraged growth in others. My desire to understand drives me to share what I learn with those around me. I would love to encourage other programs to be as solid as ours, for the benefit of the children and the Church.
As a side note to all pastors, I have worked in this position from my home for five years while I have raised my family. We have four children. With Christ, it can be done!
KALAH WILLIAMS
St. Patrick Catholic Church
Rochelle, Illinois
Voice for Vocations
I am a very loyal reader of the Register. In fact, my bride of 19-plus years, Tori, and I are very grateful for it and pray for its continued success. The editors, writers and contributors perform admirably a good and noble service. Keep up the good work
And, as a long-time, loyal supporter of Ignatius Press and its founder, Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio, I naturally read with great interest and appreciation the recent interview, “‘Tall, Thin, Dark, Foreboding’ … and ‘Tremendously Happy’” (Inperson, Oct. 9-15). However, I can't let a comment he made in the article pass without responding in the hopes that the vocational community in general can benefit from it, or will see fit to correct me if I'm wrong, however charitably.
I am a father and educator (home-school teacher of three children) and a coach of a team of young people who are learning how to develop their speaking and elocution skills. All of them are in the process of discerning their vocation. In my research on the topic of vocational discernment, I find that sometimes, unwittingly, those involved in religious vocations fail to take advantage of opportunities to impress upon young people that vocational discernment is the responsibility of each and every Christian.
After all, vocational discernment, especially for those not called to a religious vocation, is not about doing what you decide to do with your life, but instead, it is all about being open, receptive and obedient to God's call — no matter how loudly or quietly he speaks, or in what manner he chooses to get his message across.
In the interview, Father Fessio says that, at Ave Maria University, “we have a wonderful program in which college students who are discerning live on a floor together with priests and a spiritual director, and they're able to be ordinary college students and at the same time discern a vocation.”
That statement raises the questions: What about those students who are not or have yet to discern a religious vocation? Doesn't Ave Maria University have a program that helps all students discern their vocation, be it a religious, lay or secular vocation? I'm confident that, given its sterling reputation, it probably does, although I'm not aware of the particulars.
With reverence and respect, I urge all our good bishops, priests, religious and lay people who are involved in vocations work to clearly remind people, especially young people, that vocational discernment is a very important part of being a faithful Christian — regardless of whether or not one's calling is to a religious, lay or secular (non-religious) vocation.
T.J. (TOM) O'MALLEY
Danville, California
Pink-Ribbon Blinders
Relevant to “U.N. Scientists Warn of Pill's Link to Cancer” (Sept. 18-24):
According to the American Cancer Society, 40,000 American women will die this year of breast cancer and 200,000 women will be told by their physicians that they have the disease. There has been only a slight decline of 2.3% per year in breast cancer death rates since 1990; the greatest in women under age 50, owing to earlier detection and better treatments. Who can blame women for being highly motivated to find a cure for this dreaded disease?
But the real question we should ask is: How can we find the cure if we won't acknowledge the cause?
Since studies done in 1957 on Japanese women who had abortions, science has known that there is a proven link between elective abortions and breast cancer. Five medical groups and a bioethics journal recognize the 29 international studies that have confirmed the “ABC” link and call on doctors to inform women about this highly plausible relationship.
As of 2003, 18 out of 21 retrospective studies show that women who take oral contraceptives prior to their first-term birth incur an increased risk in developing breast cancer, as documented by the Polycarp Research Institute. The World Health Organization recognizes that combined oral contraceptives are carcinogenic to humans.
Why aren't women being told? Why are they being held as hostages by the abortion industry and drug companies who profit by using their bodies as laboratories for a vast population control experiment under the façade of “reproductive choice?” Why are the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the cancer research organizations, and their own physicians complicit in the cover-up? Why do the mainstream media insist on a “black-out” of the most relevant topic to women's health concerns today?
It must be more important to protect the breast cancer research “businesses” than save women's lives. These pink-ribbon “cash cows” have no desire to either prevent breast cancer or blow the whistle on the government's 48-year cover-up of the abortion/contraceptive/breast cancer link. When will women finally wake up to the fact that they have been duped by the very organizations that they have been counting on to help them?
ARLENE SAWICKI
South Barrington, Illinois
Catholic Chief Justices
You had a good heading into the story “Roberts Is the Third Catholic Chief Justice in High Court's History” (Oct. 9-15). It is too bad you fumbled the ball and never named the two previous Catholic chief justices.
I have been a lawyer for 46 years and I didn't know there were two other Catholics who served as chief justice. My guess is that one of them was Roger Taney of Dred Scott fame. Let me know the names of the two, which I expected I would learn reading your story.
CHARLES W. O’CONNOR
New Haven, Connecticut
How did “Rita Rizzo, the sickly girl who, with only a high school diploma, fights her way out of poverty and single handedly creates the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the largest religious broadcasting empire in the world — succeed where all the bishops of the United States (and several millionaires had failed)?”
This new biography by Raymond Arroyo comes closer than anyone has yet done to explaining Mother Angelica — The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve, and a Network of Miracles (Doubleday, 2005, $23.95). It is a welcome sign of the burgeoning Catholic book market's coming of age when a prestigious house such as Doubleday picks up this biography and heavily markets it.
Arroyo is well known to many of our readers. He is host and creator of “The World Over Live” on EWTN, and has a solid resume in network and cable television. This book is based on exclusive interviews conducted in the years before Mother Angelica's incapacitating strokes, and is full of surprising insights into her life, both interior and exterior.
As Arroyo puts it, “One evening before shooting her live show, she gave me but one instruction, which has haunted me to this day: ‘Make sure you present the real me. There is nothing worse than a book that sugarcoats the truth and ducks the humanity of the person. I wish you 40 years in purgatory if you do that!’ Based on my reading, Raymond need not worry about the Calabresan curse of the extra 40 years. Arroyo says: “I have written a book that does not avoid controversy or the seeming contradictions inherent in Mother Angelica's character: the cloistered contemplative nun who speaks to the world; the independent rule breaker who is derided as a ‘rigid’ conservative; the wisecracking comedian who suffers near constant pain; the Poor Clare nun who runs a multimillion-dollar corporation.”
The first part of the book discloses the early life of Rita Rizzo, an only child from a severely dysfunctional family in a poor Italian neighborhood in eastern Ohio. Her father was an absent good-for-nothing, her mother hysterical and dependent upon Rita's mothering. In her late teens, the religiously unmotivated Rita encounters a questionable mystic/stigmatic who discerns her vocation and encourages her entry into a Poor Clare Monastery in Cleveland, against severe family opposition. In this account of her rather dismal early years, Arroyo uncovers only one hint of great things to come, captured in a photograph of the young Rita Rizzo prancing with “sass and spunk” as the first female majorette at McKinley High in 1939. You can almost hear “If They Could See Me Now” in the background. This woman was born to lead, but who could have imagined what God had in store for her?
Several years’ work follows high school, and then the cloister swallows her up as a bride of Christ. Before long, she enters the forge of intense physical suffering that continues to this day. Accompanying that suffering is schooling in contemplative prayer, and out of the two comes what can only be described as the “miracle” of EWTN and the splendid Poor Clare monastery she founded in the middle of the Bible Belt. How Flannery O’Connor, America's greatest Catholic storyteller, and a daughter of the Deep South, would have enjoyed all of this.
The story of Sister Angelica's time in the monastery in Cleveland and then later in nearby Canton, Ohio, is full of the reality of community life, reminiscent of St. Therese of Lisieux's The Story of a Soul. Someone with the temperament and personality of Angelica (perhaps not the most apt religious name for her) would naturally clash with some of her fellow sisters and superiors.
Eventually her good and kind nature, combined with her high intelligence and valuable practical skills picked up in the working world, enabled her to make her final vows, after some close calls along the way. Then came the special call.
When facing surgery that might lead to permanent paralysis, “In the darkened room, with only her fears, Sister Angelica panicked, ‘Will I be in a chair for the rest of my life? On crutches? Crippled?’ The nun thought to herself. … She tried praying her beads, hoping that repeated pleas to the Virgin would calm her. … Caught between prayer and frenzy, clawing at her sheets, Angelica struck an outrageous bargain with God, ‘Lord, if you let me walk again, I'll build you a monastery in the South,’ she pledged.”
Her original intention was to “do all in my power to promote a cloistered community among the Negroes. It would be dedicated to the Negro apostolate by prayer, adoration, sacrifice, and union with God. It would ceaselessly make reparation for all the insults and persecution the Negro race suffers, and implore God's blessings and graces upon a people dear to the Heart of God.”
This was written in a letter in 1957. Strangely enough, Mother and her sisters never developed any special apostolate with African-Americans. Her original motivation simply seems to have been God's way of putting the monastery in position for even greater evangelizing possibilities, ultimately extending to almost every nation and race.
It took several years and inter-monastery competition plus initial opposition from her bishop before Mother finally moved to Birmingham, Ala., where her well-laid plans for the monastery ran into the inevitable roadblock facing all great founders, religious or secular — an enormous lack of funds.
But through that recurring necessity to bankroll her ever more ambitious projects, Mother Angelica's talents both as a communicator and well, businesswoman, were put on display. She gave dozens of talks in the community and later throughout the country to all types of audiences, Jewish and Protestant included, speaking of the needs of her monastery and preaching the Gospel. This migrated into a book-and-tape business that eventually led her into television.
In the early days, she supplemented contributions with a business selling fishing lures (inevitably named after that great fisher of men, St. Peter) and a roasted peanut business, until direct contributions were sufficient to maintain the monastery.
Throughout his book, Arroyo relates as unsensationally as possible anecdotes of last-minute reprieves from crushing debts, mortgages about to be called in, enormous bills that must be paid. Time after time, an unexpected check arrives, a chance acquaintance turns out to be a millionaire, a foundation forgives a loan to save the day.
Unbelievers will label this coincidence; believers will recognize divine favor; the more credulous will call them miracles. The book is full of them. This woman depended totally on God's providence and the intercession of her favorite saints. And they could not turn her down.
A key moment in her story is a fateful trip to Chicago during which she visited “Channel 38, a Baptist-run television station atop a Chicago skyscraper.” There she encountered her first television studio.
“‘Lord, I got to have one of these,’ Angelica whispered in a private prayer. Then almost as soon as it was out, she hesitated. ‘What would 12 nuns do with this? I'm a cloistered nun, and I don't know anything about television.’ After being told the studio “only” cost $950,000, she said, ‘Is that all? I want one of these.’”
Following chapters tell of her early efforts to establish EWTN, making her monastery the first religious community to ever obtain a FCC license to transmit. Along with the key supporting cast of Ginny Dominick and present Chief Executive Officer Bill Steltemeier, who provided programming and legal help, she confronted the three big problems of any communications company: finding funds to finance operations, content to actually put on the air, and distribution (eventually her reach would extend to virtually the whole world).
In the beginning, funding came from loans and contributions, from deep-pocketed contributors, banks, and foundations. For a long time, Mother Angelica resisted asking for money on the air, trusting in providence, a la Mother Teresa. Finally, she began slipping in a modest request to her viewers each week at the end of her live program. Over time, her watchers have responded with millions of dollars — enough to finance not only current expenses but also the purchase of satellite dishes that beamed her signal from Birmingham to satellites circling the Earth, thus multiplying her audience to the whole world and emancipating her from sole reliance on cable for distribution.
The content grew from several hours a day to its current 24/7 broadcasting. At first, she borrowed old movies, wholesome sitcoms, and Fulton Sheen tapes. Now EWTN runs five “live” shows in the evening and dozens of television series, produced in and out of her studio, starring noted Catholics such as Scott Hahn, Father George Rutler, and most notably Father Benedict Groeschel.
One of the adjectives most often used to describe Mother is “feisty,” and Arroyo does not shrink from revealing that side of her at length and in depth. Well-known and not so well-known contretemps with bishops, cardinals, elements of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and even some of her staff and financial backers, are recounted fairly and judiciously.
I will let you read the stories on your own, but I think you can guess who generally comes out on top. There is a reason why Lee Iacocca calls Mother Angelica “a woman who may well be the patron saint of CEOs” and Tom Monahan says she is “one of the great entrepreneurs of all time.” And all of this without benefit of a MBA.
In all of her vicissitudes, she had one very important backer — John Paul II, who showed her many signs of favor in the face of her difficulties both within and without the Church. Indeed, she is the outstanding example of a person who ran with John Paul II's exhortation to carry out the New Evangelization to the ends of the Earth. Arguably, she and John Paul II proclaimed the Gospel truth to more people than any two people in history.
He last met her in Rome in 1996, where she showed her plans and a “foot print” of her satellites that were already transmitting to South America and that would soon reach into Europe, Russia and China. The Pope then pronounced for all to hear, “Mother Angelica, weak in body, strong in spirit, strong woman, courageous woman, charismatic woman!”
For a woman who spent three hours daily in Eucharistic adoration, and who was rejected by her own father, these words were a confirmation of her life-long venture of faith.
The book ends with a showdown in which Mother faces down her board, insisting that her new monastery and shrine be seen as completely separate from EWTN, thus constituting EWTN as the secular and lay-run enterprise she intended. She then resigns as CEO and retires to her new monastery and Eucharistic Shrine of the Child Jesus, surrounded by dozens of young vocations, to finish her days in prayer with her sisters before entering into eternal life.
Raymond Arroyo has written the book only he could write as an intimate friend of Mother Angelica. However, he has written more than a book — and he knows it. He has written a screenplay. Get ready for “Mother Angelica: the Movie.” (Perhaps Arroyo will prevail upon his friend Mel Gibson to direct it!)
And I would not be surprised if this book is already on file in the Congregation of Saints in Rome. Just in case it's needed.
Opus Dei Father C. John McCloskey III is a research fellow of the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington, D.C.
frmccloskey.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father C. John Mccloskey ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Where Did the Affection Go? DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:FAMILY MATTERS
Our first child is 3 months old. I'm thrilled to be a father, but my wife is always so tired from nursing that our physical intimacy is suffering. Will it ever be like it was before children?
Here's the honest answer: No. It can be even better than before children — but probably not right away.
Scripture tells us that “for everything there is a season.” In this precious season of your life, which veteran parents agree is so fleeting, your energies will be focused on this new little one. Understand that your wife is being challenged like never before on every level — physical, emotional, spiritual. Nursing a newborn and adjusting to being a mom will test her endurance, patience, perseverance and strength.
Add to the mix that her hormone levels are careening all over the place since her labor and delivery. She has not had an uninterrupted night of sleep in at least six months, since she didn't sleep well during the pregnancy. It's very likely (and very normal) that, at night, your wife barely makes it into her pajamas before collapsing onto the bed, not even bothering with the covers. It's not that she doesn't love you; in fact, seeing you in your new role as a father has deepened her love for you in ways she didn't think possible. Quite simply, she is spent.
So what's a man to do? First, remember that your wife is making that “sincere gift of self” Pope John Paul II wrote about by sacrificing her body — dying to herself by giving herself over to the needs of her newborn. In these postpartum days, you too can make a sincere gift of self by accepting graciously that for right now, physical intimacy may not happen as frequently as you would hope. The sacrifice is a mutual one.
You can also shower her with affirmation and loving words. She needs it. She may be self-conscious about her post-pregnancy body, so tell her how beautiful she is. Give her lots of unsolicited physical affection: hugs, kisses, backrubs, foot massages. Show her you love her by your deeds: Amp up your work around the house. If you polled 1,000 women they would say unanimously that the most powerful aphrodisiac is a man cheerfully doing the dishes.
For any wives sneaking a peek, for your part you must understand how difficult this time is for your husband. God wired us differently. Physical intimacy is a real need for him. So you need to take concrete steps so that it can happen, even though you're exhausted.
We find that spontaneity is not the way to go. If you're just waiting to see if it will happen, it never will. So plan it out ahead of time so that you can be ready. Take a long nap with the baby during the day so that you won't be so tired.
Have a little coffee after dinner and then maybe a little wine as you snuggle and wind down while you watch TV. Do whatever it takes so that you can be present to your husband.
The good news is that your sweet baby is definitely worth any sacrifice, and this period of adjustment is just “for a season.” If you use it as a time to grow in virtue, then you'll emerge even more in love and more attuned to each other's needs.
And yes, physical intimacy can be better than before.
The McDonalds are family-life coordinators for the Diocese of Mobile, Alabama.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tom And Caroline Mcdonald ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: NATIONAL MEDIA WATCH DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:Mississippi Diocese Receives Donation to Rebuild
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Oct. 8 — Philanthropist Joseph Canizaro and Catholic Charities USA teamed up to provide $4 million to help the Diocese of Biloxi rebuild the churches and schools that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, said the Associated Press.
Canizaro, a New Orleans commercial real estate developer, donated $1 million along with a $3 million grant from Catholic Charities to rebuild 30 churches and schools that were damaged. The chairman of First Bank & Trust of Mississippi & Louisiana and the founder of the Donum Dei Foundation, Canizaro also promised 10% of his profits from the first phase of a master-planned community.
“These are dark days but there are a lot of lights shining brightly,” said Biloxi Bishop Thomas Rodi.
In addition to his work in Mississippi, Canizaro has been active in the New Orleans recovery effort, spearheading rebuilding of area businesses.
Family Sues Abortion Drug Company
Tran, 21, from Fountain Valley, Calif., took Mifeprex on Dec. 23, 2003 at a Planned Parenthood business in Costa Mesa. She was sent home with instructions to take Misoprostol a day or two later. She died on Dec. 29.
“She was not given any warnings of any risk of death,” said attorney Mark Crawford, who is representing Tran's family.
Tran is one of four U.S. women who have died after taking the medication. The cases are under investigation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Los Angeles Archdiocese Releases Abuse Files
The files, some which date back to the 1930s, were released as part of civil suit settlement talks with lawyers for 560 accusers. The archdiocese provided the documents to The Times prior to their public release.
“Unfortunately, these files do not contain the full story of the participation by the Church in the manipulation and movement of these priests,” said Raymond Boucher, lead attorney in the civil lawsuit. Boucher characterized the documents’ release as a public relations move.
Spokane Diocese Plans to Sell Chancery
KVEW, Oct. 10 — In order to settle claims by those who allege that they were sexually abused by priests, the Diocese of Spokane plans to sell its headquarters and Bishop William Skylstad's home, reported television station KVEW.
The Spokane Diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last December.
The plan to sell diocesan property was included in papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The plan did not include details regarding individual parishes, schools or other Catholic property in the diocese.
Bishop Skylstad released a statement that said that the plan deals justly with the claims of abuse while still allowing the diocese to continue its ministry.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Synod Is Serious Business, but Bishops Are Enjoying Themselves Too DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Aside from threshing out weighty subjects ranging from how to attract more Catholics to holy Communion to debating whether the Eucharist is a “right” or a “gift,” there have been many other notable and colorful moments at the historic 11th General Synod of Bishops that began Oct. 3 and end today.
From the outset, a positive mood has pervaded this largest synod of modern times, according to participants who meet privately each day in the synod hall.
“The atmosphere is very good, especially when the Holy Father is there,” said one consultant speaking on condition of anonymity. “I wouldn't say it was light, but neither is there a heavy air of solemnity. There's a prayerful atmosphere, positive and even joyful. Nobody's uptight — I would say it's a very unified atmosphere.”
This mood has best been captured during the “free discussions,” a new initiative of Pope Benedict XVI's, in which an hour is set aside at the end of each day for participants to comment extemporaneously or scripted for three minutes on a subject already raised, or from a theme mentioned in the working document.
One synod father made the hall laugh when he spoke about the awkwardness of giving holy Communion on the tongue while the communicant is standing. The experience was, he said, rather like “being a dentist” about to perform surgery on someone's dentures, and would be less ungainly if the communicant was kneeling.
Cardinal Scola
Cardinal Angelo Scola, the Patriarch of Venice and as General Relator one of the central figures of the synod responsible for communicating all the discussions to the Pope, began the synod by giving all instructions and other addresses to the synod fathers in Latin. However, for some this was too hard to follow.
One cardinal pointed out good-naturedly that most in the hall only knew “ecclesiastical Latin,” not the “Ciceronian Latin” used by Cardinal Scola. Perhaps, asked the cardinal to some laughter, the General Relator could explain what he means and provide a summary. From then on, Cardinal Scola agreed to give his addresses and instructions in Italian.
During the free discussions, participants were by no means free to ramble on as long as they wish. Most participants used their full three minutes of allotted time, but if they chose to speak longer, their microphones were faded out. If they continued, the sound was faded out even further until they could no longer be heard.
This was not a concern of one speaker who simply made the point that the Holy See has set forth guidelines on inter-communion.
“Let's hear all those guidelines,” he asked.
“Is that it?” replied the session president. “Yes,” answered the speaker to laughter, after which Cardinal Scola remarked that the intervention was too short.
As he was at the free discussions, Benedict was present at many of the General Congregations, the main forum in which a speaker was scheduled to speak for six minutes. He was seen walking into the hall, cradling a black mini-briefcase laden with documents (in character for Benedict but, it was noted, unusual for a Pope), and he listened intently to the discussions, propping up his head with his hand in a manner reminiscent of Pope John Paul II.
According to Legionary Father John Bartunek, who has been briefing journalists on the events of the synod, the Holy Father sat at a platform at the front of the synod hall, facing an assembly that is laid out like a lecture hall. On a screen behind him was an image of Raphael's fresco, Dispute of the Blessed Sacrament, which portrays the defense of the Real Presence by the Fathers of the Church and the saints in the face of disputes with non-believers.
High-Tech Bishops
The synod fathers began their days praying the morning office in Latin. The Sistine Chapel choir chanted the psalms and one bishop was invited to give a homily.
The participants spent most of the rest of the day in the synod hall, listening to the interventions with simultaneous translations. There were coffee breaks before and after lunch, during which Benedict informally met participants in small rooms off the hall.
The majority of the synod fathers also used these breaks to meet one another, while others read or surfed the Web.
“There are 10 or 12 Internet stations — and they're always full,” said Father Bartunek, who explained that technology was extensively utilized in various ways, including electronic voting or using Power Point-type displays.
However, there were glitches. At the start of the synod, the electronic voting system only registered 237 out of the 256 bishops present, while to much amusement an electronic display in the hall projected a deformed map of Ireland.
Joked a bishop from the Emerald Isle, “I'm not sure I recognize my country.”
Edward Pentin writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Benedict's Jesus - and Ours DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:ON THE WAY TO JESUS CHRIST
by Pope Benedict XVI
Ignatius, 2005
185 pages, $19.95
To order: (800) 651-1531 or Ignatius.com
Walk into a trendy clothing shop and you're likely to find T-shirts proclaiming “Jesus Rocks” and “Jesus es mi amigo.” But whose Jesus is it who seems to be on the “A” list at everyone's party these days?
Pope Benedict XVI, for one, thinks the Jesus we find in today's popular culture is something of a “phantom.” He asks for nothing and threatens no one. Meanwhile, the real Jesus, according to the Pope, is “quite different, demanding, bold.”
In On the Way to Jesus Christ, his first book to be published in English since becoming St. Peter's successor, the Holy Father takes readers on a journey into the heart of Christ — the authentic Jesus Christ of the Gospels according to Sts. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — and provides a road map showing how to meet him face to face.
Drawing from Scripture, the 2,000-year-old wisdom of the Church and the experience of life in the sacraments — especially the Eucharist — the Pope creates a blueprint for building a sturdy relationship with the authentic, risen Christ.
The book is actually a compilation of essays written by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger while he was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Now that he's Pope, his call for Catholics to reach for an authentic and personal encounter with Christ seems even more urgent than when he first issued the entreaty.
“The cross has nothing to do with denying life, denying joy or the fullness of being human,” he writes. “On the contrary, it … shows us how we can find life. The man who seizes life and tries to hold onto it lives in such a way that life passes him by.”
“Losing oneself is the only way to find oneself and to find life,” he continues. “The more courageous people have been in losing themselves, in giving themselves away entirely, and the more they have learned to forget themselves, the greater and richer their lives have become. … Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, Vincent de Paul, the Cure of Ars, Maximilian Kolbe: They are all examples of discipleship who show us the way to life, because they show us Christ. From them we can learn to choose God, to choose Christ, and so to choose life.”
Throughout, the text is rich with imagery and, although a relatively dense theological work, the book moves quickly. If the reader can bear in mind the fact that the book is a collection of unrelated, independent essays, then some of the blunt, awkward transitions from one chapter to the next are forgivable. The Pope is able to move the reader through complex theological problems and ideas with grace and ease. A teacher at heart, Pope Benedict's poetic side is particularly apparent in this book.
Ultimately, it seems, Benedict is concerned with enlisting rank-and-file Catholics to bring Christ to the world.
So the problem becomes: How can everyday Christians share the Gospel with a world that is simultaneously so hungry for truth yet so full of itself?
“[T]he true apologetics for the Christian message, the most persuasive proof of its truth, offsetting everything that may appear negative,” he writes, “are the saints, on the one hand, and the beauty that the faith has generated, on the other. For faith to grow today, we must lead ourselves and the persons we meet to encounter the saints and to come in contact with the beautiful.”
Read this book and be so led.
Scott Powell writes from Denver.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Scott Powell ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: What Do You Think About That? DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:A number of years ago, my older sister's friend — let's call her Veronica — came to our family seeking help.
I remember Veronica talked nonstop and disjointedly. Our family decided she needed medical attention so we took her to a hospital.
The admitting process included taking Veronica's temperature. The nurse stuck a digital thermometer under her tongue and then left the room for a few minutes.
Being a crazy teenager at the time, I encouraged Veronica to get a higher number on the readout. It was 98-point something. Sure enough, Veronica got the readout to go up another tenth of a degree.
Egged on by this “success,” I challenged her to do it again. Sure enough, she did it again. Both she and I were delighted. (Amazing what a teenager finds amusing to pass the time, isn't it?) Although I didn't know it at the time, I was witnessing biofeedback.
The word “biofeedback” was coined in the late 1960s to describe laboratory procedures, developed in the 1940s, that can be used to train an individual to consciously control some aspect of their physiology that the body normally regulates automatically.
Examples of “biofeedback-ready” elements would be skin temperature, brainwave activity, muscle tension, heart rate and blood pressure. The three common types of devices used are:
Electromyography (EMG). This type of feedback uses a device that measures muscle tension. During monitoring, the person practices a relaxation technique such as meditation, progressive muscle relaxation or visualization.
Electroencephalograph (EEG) or neurofeedback. This type of feedback device measures brainwave activity that can be observed on a computer monitor. It is connected to the individual with sensors on the scalp and ears. Computerized games are used to help the individual change his or her brainwave activity.
Peripheral temperature or hand temperature feedback. This type of feedback uses a device that measures the skin temperature of the hands. During monitoring, the person tries to increase this temperature through the use of visualization or guided imagery. Increasing blood flow to the hands, for instance, makes the hands warmer.
What is biofeedback used for? It is used most often to control problems related to stress or blood flow. Some examples would be headaches, high blood pressure and sleep disorders.
Funny. Those are all things that can also be helped by a good prayer life!
Anyway, the Applied Psychophysiology & Biofeedback website (www.aapb.org) lists 34 disorders that are amenable to intervention by biofeedback and neurofeedback. It has been used to help control long-term (chronic) pain as well.
Brother Mark here at the monastery gets a newsletter on fibromyalgia, which produces muscle pains throughout the body. There is no cure. The newsletter talks about people who have totally gotten off pain medications for this disease using biofeedback techniques.
According to WebMD.com, learning biofeedback, unlike in Veronica's case, usually takes several sessions. By the time 12 sessions are completed, most people experience success with their conditions. Eventually, people learn to influence their muscle tension or blood flow without the need of the monitoring equipment.
People can go to a biofeedback lab for all of this. According to Dr. Dale Patterson, 10 sessions could cost you more than $1,000. Biofeedback for attention-deficit disorder and hyperactivity costs between $60 to $150 per session and can take between 30 and 100 sessions before significant improvements to symptoms are observed.
Fortunately, there is a cheaper alternative — home feedback units using your computer.
Are you reacting to daily stress in an unhealthy manner? BiofeedbackZone.com offers an inexpensive Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) monitoring device for home biofeedback for less than $200. It comes with Calmlink software that has full-feature graphics displays, multiple-tone and musical-sounds feedback, changing shapes and pictures tied to relaxation, recording and viewing of past sessions, the ability to export data to Excel, even a Pacman-style game that speeds up and slows down as you relax. You can purchase just the software for under $120.
NeuroSky at neurosky.com, a Silicon Valley company, has developed a different use for biofeedback — a non-invasive neural sensor and signal processing technology that converts brainwaves and eye movements into useful electronic signals. This will allow you to communicate with a wide range of electronic devices, consoles and computers.
NeuroSky is already working with headset manufacturers and game makers. One application is an automatic generator of “emoticons” (those little yellow smiley faces and such). While having a phone conversation, the analyzer will measure your brainwave frequency and send the information to software in the phone to generate a corresponding “smiley.”
Gamers may soon get more serious as biofeedback is used to reward or punish their choices. A more practical application is a sleep detector for truckers that detects when the driver is falling asleep and sounds a loud buzzer to wake him up.
I can see other companies using this device to monitor their workers. Hopefully I won't need to wear one in order to write for the Register.
Speaking of which, this installment wraps up my run on the Arts & Culture page. The Register will be using the space to cover the Catholic reaches of the “blogosphere.”
But I won't be going far — I'm moving over to Spirit & Life. I hope to see you there!
Brother John Raymond is co-founder of the Community of the Monks of Adoration,
based in Englewood, Florida.
Monthly Web Picks
Since October ends the Year of the Eucharist, I thought it would be good to find some Eucharistic prayers online.
The Two Hearts Network has a Chaplet to the Mother of the Most Holy Eucharist and a Novena in her honor at 2heartsnetwork.org/OLEucharist.htm.
The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has a good selection of “Prayers in Honor of the Blessed Sacrament” at theheartofjesus.org/prayers.html.
“The Chaplet of the Adorable Sacrament,” found on my community's website at monksofadoration.org/45.html, can be prayed using regular rosary beads.
“The Eucharistic Prayer: Praise, Thanksgiving and Petition” put up by St. Malachi Church in Cleveland gives food for thought at stmalachi.org/parish/special/euchpr01.htm.
Adoremus has put up prayers for the Year of the Eucharist at adoremus.org/PrayersYearEucharist.html.
The Work of God website has Eucharistic prayers by various saints and holy people at theworkofgod.org/Prayers/eucharistic_prayers.htm.
----- EXCERPT: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FINDS ITS WAY INSIDE OUR MINDS ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Safety Programs In Dioceses Raise Questions DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Child Lures. Good-Touch/Bad-Touch. Talking about Touching. VIRTUS. These so-called “safe-environment training” programs may be coming to a school or parish near you.
More than likely, one of them is already in place.
Article 12 of the 2002 U.S. Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People called for dioceses to maintain “safe environment” programs, and to conduct them cooperatively with parents, educators and others. While the programs are being praised by many as an effective way to prevent child sexual abuse, they are drawing fire from others who say they conflict with Church teaching that parents are the “principal and first educators of their children” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1653).
Critics also point out that some of the programs are secular, and accordingly do not reflect Catholic teaching. And they say such programs may be doing more harm than good by providing information that compromises the innocence of children.
Some critics have also questioned whether the bishops’ charter actually mandates the kind of classroom training that is taking place in many diocesan schools and religious-education programs.
The programs have been implemented — and evaluated — with the same urgency that fueled the quick adoption of the 2002 norms.
Teresa Kettelkamp, a former law-enforcement officer who is executive director of the bishops’ Office of Child and Youth Protection, said in a memorandum to bishops that any training programs for children left totally to parents will not satisfy the requirements of Article 12. Parents may refuse to allow their children to participate in the training, the memo said, provided they are given educational materials and sign a statement saying they declined the training for their children.
Julie and Frank Wilson withdrew four of their eight children from St. Bernadette School in Silver Spring, Md., rather than have them participate in the Child Lures program, which is being used in schools in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and more than 25 other dioceses.
The Wilsons were among a group of parents at four schools who objected to the program. When they learned about Child Lures, Julie Wilson asked for permission to opt her children out of the training, as she and her husband have done with sex-education classes offered by the school.
“I was told, ‘No, that wasn't allowed,’” Wilson said. When she appealed to the superintendent of Catholic schools, it was suggested that she find another school. She also wrote the archdiocese, but says she received no response to her Feb. 7 letter.
She now is home-schooling the children who were at St. Bernadette.
Susan Gibbs, spokesman for the archdiocese, confirmed that all children in Catholic schools and religious-education programs are required to participate in safe-environment training. “When someone sends a child to Catholic school, they entrust us to teach their children and this program is part of health and safety,” she said.
Gibbs said the number of parents who have complained about the archdiocese's safe-environment program and policies is very low compared to the number who have responded positively.
A Bishop Objects
Julie Wilson said her major objection to Child Lures, a program that focuses on the most common tactics used by predators, is “the overall idea that somebody else is teaching my children about who they can trust and can't trust and that they can step into your place as a parent.”
“The Church has asked us to be open to new life and offers us the grace we need to raise and know what's best for [our children],” she said, “but here they're saying, ‘Sorry, we know what's better for your kids when it comes to this. If you want them in Catholic schools, they'll have to go through this program and it has to come from us.’”
Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker, Ore., a member of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People, voiced similar concerns in an Oct. 6 article in the Catholic Sentinel, the newspaper of the Baker Diocese.
Bishop Vasa said in the article that because of questions he and many parents have about the effectiveness and content of safe-environment training, he does not plan to expand it to include all children under the diocese's care. He asked whether such programs:
“ Impose a burden on very young children to protect themselves, rather than insist that parents take such training and assume the primary responsibility for protecting their children.
“ Introduce children to sex-related issues at inappropriate ages and are being advanced as part of the agenda of groups promoting early sexual activity for children.
“ Invade the Church-guaranteed right of parents over the education of their children in sexual matters.
Bishop Vasa said his position may mean the diocese will receive a “not in compliance” finding as part of its annual charter audit, and that he is prepared to ignore a “required action,” should one be issued.
Advocates of safe-environment programs claim they are necessary because all parents may not be up to the task of doing it themselves.
“I don't have any problems with parents doing this, except most parents don't know how,” Pam Church, who founded Good-Touch/Bad-Touch in 1983, said. Church said, however, that her program, which she said is used by at least 10 dioceses, does provide materials for parents who want to teach their children at home.
She said she emphasizes the importance of seeking parental permission before children participate in her program, adding that Good-Touch/Bad-Touch urges children to go home and talk to their parents about what they learn in the program.
Kettelkamp, of the bishops’ Office of Child and Youth Protection, said if safe-environment training is left to parents, “Some children might not get it.”
She said she doesn't see such training as separate from the Church's support of the parent as primary educator. “I see it as providing safe-environment training in cooperation with the parents,” she said.
However, Patrick DiVietri, executive director of the Family Life Institute in Manassas, Va., said research shows that the safest place for such training is within the home, conducted by parents.
DiVietri said children's innocence can be damaged by premature exposure to information about sexual abuse, creating fear and distrust. “There's something kind of absurd about taking a 5-year-old and saying, ‘Here, I want to prepare you to protect yourself.’ You wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do that with my son. There's no way my son at 5 is going to be able to protect himself. That's why he has me.”
Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons, a psychiatrist in West Conshohocken, Pa., agreed, saying that only parents should be allowed to teach children under 11 about preventing sexual abuse.
He cited the 1995 Pontifical Council on the Family's document, Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality, which states, “Parents must protect their children, first by teaching them a form of modesty and reserve with regard to strangers, as well as by giving suitable sexual information, but without going into details and particulars that might upset or frighten them.”
Fitzgibbons said he is concerned that safe-environment programs are exposing children to information they are too young to process. At the same time, he said, such programs fail to deal with the truth about the Church's sexual abuse crisis, which primarily involved the abuse of adolescent males by homosexuals.
For children beyond 11, he said, “We need a new, specialized program that helps the victims of the crisis — adolescent males — understand homosexuality and how to protect themselves from sexual predators.”
Designing Their Own
According to the bishops conference's website, safe environment programs should have been identified, selected and underway by June 20, 2003.
In spite of the rush to meet the haste of reforms, some dioceses have responded to concerns about safe-environment programs by designing their own programs to comply with the bishops’ charter. In the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pa., for example, Father Edward Quinlan, secretary for education, and a committee of parents, educators, physicians and others wrote “Formation in Christian Chastity,” a program that reflects many of the principles found in “Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality.”
In addition to chastity, the program teaches safe-environment principles based on materials from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. To supplement classroom instruction, a list of basic safety tips from the center is sent to parents with a letter giving them teaching points for discussion with their children.
Jim Gontis, a parent and diocesan director of religious education who served on the Formation in Christian Chastity committee, said, “Our whole program is designed very much to respect the rights and responsibilities of parents and to help them have confidence in their role as first and primary educators of their children in the faith.”
Theresa Farnan, a committee member and mother of seven who teaches philosophy at Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Emmittsburg, Md., added, “In other programs, I always got the sense that parents are incompetent and unable to convey this information. I found that very troubling. As a mother, I remember talking to different school administrators about this and one thing kept coming up to me: If someone else was giving my child this information about safe environment and human sexuality, when questions came up, who was he going to go to? He was going to go outside the family.”
Gontis said Harrisburg has had calls from several other dioceses who are interested in the program. Among those using it is the Diocese of Arlington, Va.
Father Terry Specht, director of child protection and safety in Arlington, said the diocese chose the Harrisburg program after looking at dozens of others.
“Formation in Christian Chastity,” he said, met and exceeded Bishop Paul Loverde's criteria for such a program, which stated it must be parent-centered, respect the innocence of children and be Catholic from its inception.
Father Specht said reaction to the program has been overwhelmingly positive. Of some 40,000 children being instructed, he said, only about a dozen parents exercised their option to remove their children from the program.
Judy Roberts writes from Graytown, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Grinch That Stole Culture DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:Some time ago I was on a camping trip with a bunch of kids and we were stargazing.
My 9-year-old friend was sitting next to me as I pointed to Cygnus and remarked, “That constellation is called the Northern Cross.”
She replied, “What's a constellation?”
I explained the idea to her and told her that, for most of human history, there were no televisions and people sat around the fire making up stories about their gods and heroes, whom they pictured in the stars.
I don't know what she got out of that, but it got me thinking. It's amazing to realize that the closeness, warmth and happiness of a campfire and a starry night which, for us, is a fugitive event reserved only for the occasional campout was, for our ancestors, a more or less daily occurrence.
Yes, I realize that little problems like rain, freezing to death and attack by wild bears are also no longer part of the picture for us, but I still think we've lost a great deal of something that we needn't have lost: the capacity to amuse ourselves.
Culture used to be an expression of cult. That is, a people's deepest beliefs about the way things are would inevitably be expressed in the stories they told themselves, the art they made to look at, the drama they created, the music they sang.
A great deal of that art, literature and music was created “anonymously” or even as a sort of common communal act. Nobody “wrote” “Yankee Doodle” or “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” just as nobody “wrote” “Jack the Giant-Killer” or the Hail Mary. They emerged out of a mysterious process by which the heart of a whole people spoke its deepest thoughts.
In the same way, the great myths of the pagan world were not “published” by anybody and made available for sale at the Athenian Barnes and Noble. They emerged out of a sort of great stew of human creativity.
This is not to say that individual geniuses don't shine throughout history. But it is to say that there has been a relatively rapid shift in the past hundred years or so in which the arts have become “products” which are manufactured by gigantic corporations and sold for a passive audience that neither ask for nor desire a great deal of what is forced upon them.
To prove it all you have to do is turn on your TV or go to the nearest Giganto Cinemaplex and see how much of it you don't want to watch. A colossal amount of our cultural output is no longer a product of culture but of a sort of manufacturing process in which a roomful of suits sits down and fashions, not a story or song, but a sort of marketing tool by which various niche groups are fed pre-fabricated images and acoustical stimuli and told they are “hot.”
The niche groups, not owning the means to produce their own films and music, then purchase this manufactured product because what else is there? The key here is quantity more than quality. Various marketing strategies are attempted and the successful ones stick (in the best capitalist fashion).
And because enormously powerful corporations are typically the engine driving the process, stupendous works of junk like Christina Aguilera's “Dirty” or the bad-for-so-many-reasons How the Grinch Stole Christmas actually make it all the way through from initial concept to their premiere without anybody every stopping to say, “Wait! These are horrible, corrupt, demeaning assaults on the heart of childhood and human intelligence!”
Instead, they are marketed, like everything else, to a public whose only remaining power is the ability to say, “I don't want that piece of garbage.” And that power is studiously subverted at every turn by commercials which threaten, “Kids! If your Mom and Dad don't take you to see this hollow disco ball of a movie or buy you this empty candy wrapper of a CD they probably don't love you!”
And so, the landscape is filled with the mysterious phenomenon of “hit” films and music that nobody feels comfortable admitting they saw or bought.
It's just that “there was nothing else playing” and time had to be filled up somehow.
My point is this: Until quite recently in human history, ordinary people amused themselves for the most part. They did not require a TV, video game or stereo to provide amusement for them. Evenings were spent telling stories, singing songs, playing the piano in the parlor or playing games.
That faculty has not, of course, been eradicated in the human soul. But it has been greatly stifled, to our great impoverishment.
I don't hold myself up as some paragon in all this. I'm not. I'm a culture consumer like you are. But it occurs to me that perhaps a conversation about subverting the dominant paradigm might be long overdue. What do you think?
Mark Shea is senior content editor for www.CatholicExchange.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mark Shea ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: WEEKLY TV PICKS DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:VARIOUS
History Speaks:
What Makes
Democracy Work
Familyland TV
In this new series, historian William Federer discusses our American Republic's debt to Christian principles of liberty and to all, including countless Christians, who have fought and died to make us free and keep us free. Airs Sundays at 10:30 a.m., Tuesdays at 11 p.m. and Wednesdays at 2 p.m.
SUNDAY, OCT. 23
What Every Catholic
Needs to Know About Hell
EWTN, 10 p.m.
Father William Casey, Father Shannon Collins, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, and Scott and Kimberly Hahn and others explain the reality of the Four Last Things — death, judgment, heaven, hell — and supply Catholic truth about redemption, grace and how we must live. Re-airs Oct. 25 at 2 p.m. and Oct. 28 at 3 a.m.
MONDAY, OCT. 24
Signpost to Freedom:
The 1953 Baton Rouge
Bus Boycott
PBS, 10:30 p.m.
This 30-minute documentary examines an eight-day boycott that won partial success and foreshadowed later civil rights boycotts.
TUESDAY, OCT. 25
It's the Great Pumpkin,
Charlie Brown
ABC, 8 p.m.
In this half-hour animated “Peanuts” special from 1966, Linus drives his friends out of their gourd, so to speak, with his all-night Halloween wait for “the Great Pumpkin.”
TUESDAY, OCT. 25
Nova: Ancient Creature
Of the Deep
PBS, 8 p.m.
Scientists thought the coelacanth (“see-la-kanth”) was long extinct until fishermen off southern Africa caught one in 1938. This is the story of that discovery and later ones.
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 26
A Cemetery Special
PBS, 8 p.m.
“May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.” Documentary-maker Rick Sebak (“An Ice Cream Show,” “Sandwiches That You Will Like”) visits nine interesting monument-filled older cemeteries across the United States and says, “There's nothing spooky or scary in the program.” He hopes viewers will begin to visit loved ones’ graves and to reflect on “how short life can be.”
THURSDAY, OCT. 27
Life on the Rock
EWTN, 8 p.m.
Johnnette Benkovic guests, and her topic is “Yep, the devil is real.”
FRIDAY, OCT. 28
Modern Marvels:
Mountain Roads
History Channel, 11 p.m.
Drive along scenic roads such as the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Pike's Peak summit road and the “Going-to-the-Sun Road” in Glacier National Park. Advisory: TV-PG.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: VATICAN MEDIA WATCH DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:Vatican Condemns Use of Abortion Pill in Italy
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Oct. 7 — Italy's first experiment with the abortion pill RU-486 is sparking controversy in this overwhelmingly Catholic country, with the Vatican newspaper condemning the experiment this week as an “act against life,” the Associated Press reported.
“Yet another act against life,” L’Osservatore Romano said in its Oct. 6 edition. “Once again science is put at the service of death.”
Last month, Sant’Anna hospital in Turin, northern Italy, started giving out the abortion pill. On Sept. 21 — after about two weeks and after 26 women took the pill — Health Minister Francesco Storace halted the experiment, citing legal and health reasons. The hospital resumed its dispensation of the abortion pill Oct. 17.
L’Osservatore Romano said that Turin experiment “makes abortion become an increasingly easy [method of] contraception, the most tragically effective one.”
The paper said, “We have arrived to such an eclipsing of conscience that we see the act of killing the most defenseless of the innocent as an act of freedom.”
Cardinal Wants Eastern and Western Churches to Meet
REUTERS, Oct. 11 — Cardinal Lubomyr Husar of Ukraine suggested that Pope Benedict try to arrange a worldwide meeting of bishops from the Catholic and Orthodox Churches with the long-term aim of reunification after nearly a thousand years of schism, Reuters reported.
Cardinal Husar made the proposal during a speech to the Bishops’ Synod in Rome. The Orthodox Churches split from Rome in the Great Schism of 1054. Relations between the two churches have been particularly tense since the break-up of the former Soviet Union in 1991.
The Russian Orthodox Church, the largest in worldwide Orthodoxy, has accused Catholics of using new-found freedoms to woo converts away in countries of the former Soviet Union.
Cardinal Husar asked the synod members, according to a priest briefing reporters, “If the Eucharist is the source of life in the Church and we both have it, why are we not united?”
Pope Benedict Praised for Beatification of Bishop
ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE, Oct. 12 — The Anti-Defamation League expressed gratitude to Pope Benedict XVI over the beatification of World War II-era German Bishop Clemens August von Galen — known as the “Lion of Muenster” — who courageously spoke out publicly against the Nazis’ murderous policies, a press release from the organization stated.
During an Oct. 9 Vatican ceremony, Pope Benedict hailed the “heroic courage” of Bishop von Galen, and described the man who condemned anti-Semitism as a model for those in public roles today. While addressing pilgrims in St. Peter's Square, the Holy Father later praised the bishop for “protecting the Jews.”
In a letter to Pope Benedict, Abraham Foxman, the organization's national director, and Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, its interfaith affairs director, stated:
“Cardinal von Galen's life was an example of one who put doing right and good in the eyes of the Lord above political expediency. His brave battle against anti-Semitism and his protection of innocent lives should stand as a lesson for all time, not just to adherents of the Catholic Church, but all peoples and all faith communities.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: VIDEO PICKS & PASSES DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:TITANIC: PASS
(Special; edition 1997)
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER: PICK
(1958)
THE WIZARD OF OZ: PICK
(Special & Collector's Edition)
This week, two of the most popular films in history return in three new DVD editions. James Cameron's stunningly successful Titanic gets a special edition loaded with extras, while one the most enduring of Hollywood Golden Age classics, The Wizard of Oz, has been newly restored and comes in two new DVD editions.
Give Cameron his due: Whatever else can be said, and rightly said, against his bloated, pandering, at times contemptible magnum opus, Titanic, the director knows how to play his target audience like a Stradivarius, and he does so here like nowhere else and no one else.
A masterful exercise in manipulation, Titanic's celebration of forbidden love bringing liberation from social constraints resonated profoundly with a generation of young film-going romantics.
With its populist dichotomies — repressive, arrogant, rich upper-class British vs. free-spirited, oppressed poor non-British; arrogant, contemptible or at best ridiculous men versus victimized and repressed women — Titanic is ideally attuned to contemporary cultural attitudes regarding the politics of privilege, victimization, gender and the evils of historic Western culture.
As crises often do, the Titanic disaster exemplifies both the best and the worst in human nature. Alas, Cameron's film revels in exposing cowardice and hypocrisy while robbing heroism of its nobility.
The nobility of first-class men willingly remaining behind while second- and third-class women and children got into lifeboats is almost entirely subverted. (Fewer than a third of first-class men survived, compared with nearly half of third-class women.) Even in depicting gentlemen in eveningwear calmly resigned to going down with the ship, Cameron makes them ridiculous rather than noble.
The heroic picture of the band playing on deck to help maintain calm is also sullied; Cameron depicts the musicians concluding that no one is listening to them anyway, but playing nonetheless.
For a far better portrayal of the Titanic disaster, the 1958 docudrama A Night to Remember, based on the 1955 bestseller by Walter Lord, remains the film to watch.
Though it omits the striking fact, vividly captured in Cameron's film, of the ship breaking in two as it starts to sink (an event disputed by eyewitnesses but confirmed in 1985), A Night to Remember is much clearer than Cameron's opening-act CGI “post mortem” about why this supposedly “unsinkable” ship sank, and why the bulkheads were thought to be high enough but weren't. It's also a far classier, more plausible depiction of how people in 1912 faced life and death in the fabled disaster.
Fans of The Wizard of Oz rejoice: Not only has the Vatican pick been treated to an “ultra-restoration,” but it also comes in two new DVD editions: a two-disc special edition and a three-disc collector's edition. I'll be picking up the latter, which includes the long-neglected 1925 silent feature version starring Oliver Hardy as the Tin Woodman.
Like all fairy tales, The Wizard of Oz has suffered countless attempts by critics and commentators to explain its meaning and power, from almost every conceivable angle: political, economic, religious, Freudian. But is there any “explaining” this story? Baum himself professed that his story was intended “solely to pleasure children of today.”
That it does, and will for generations to come.
CONTENT ADVISORY: Titanic includes much objectionable language, partial frontal nudity, an offscreen sexual encounter, a suicide, and much disaster violence; it is not recommended. A Night to Remember is a restrained depiction of large-scale tragedy, and makes for fine family viewing. The Wizard of Oz contains some menace and frightening images, and offers fine family viewing.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Suicide Eve? Canada's House of Commons' Halloween Killing Vote DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:OTTAWA — Canada's House of Commons is planning a Halloween vote on whether to legalize assisted suicide.
The legislative body, which broke with traditional morality earlier this year by legalizing same-sex “marriage,” will vote Oct. 31 on a bill allowing assisted suicide and, opponents charge, active euthanasia.
“You could drive a hearse through the holes in this legislation,” contended Mark Pickup, head of Human Life Matters, an Alberta-based organization that helps churches minister to the disabled.
Officially, Bill C-407 is an “orphan” (a private member's bill) introduced by Bloc Quebecois Member of Parliament Francine Lalonde. Because it lacks official endorsement from the government, it would in the normal course of events die on the order paper.
The legal picture for euthanasia is murkier. In 1994, the Supreme Court of Canada narrowly rejected a constitutional challenge to the law banning euthanasia. Since then, juries have both acquitted and convicted those accused of assisting suicides, though in recent years convictions have drawn reduced, even suspended, sentences. Parliament has rejected several attempts at legalization.
A 2003 poll showed 49% of Canadians supporting assisted suicide and 37% opposing it.
The bill would entitle a person diagnosed with a “terminal illness” or experiencing “severe physical or mental pain,” to receive help committing suicide or to euthanasia, provided a “medical practitioner” is assisting the euthanizer in some unspecified way, and provided the would-be suicide makes written requests twice over an 11-day period while “appearing to be lucid.”
“There is the appearance of guidelines,” said Pickup, a 52-year-old forced to retire from the civil service and now confined to a wheelchair by multiple sclerosis. “But this would open the door to wide-open euthanasia.”
For Pickup, a Catholic, the appearance of “lucidity” would open the door especially to those newly stricken with severe physical injuries or depression.
“Ninety-five percent of people who suffer a spinal cord injury say they would choose assisted suicide if they could get it — in the first year after the injury. But after five years, that goes down to 5%,” said Pickup. The bill, however, requires a person in suffering to hold on to their suicidal thoughts for 11 days.
In the course of his own disease, Pickup has suffered “a series of shocks,” each followed by a bout of severe depression.
“If someone had said to me 21 years ago, ‘This will be your life from now on,’ I would have said, ‘that is no life,’” he said. “But today, my life still has quality. My standards have changed. Life is no longer physical. It is more about loving and being loved.”
Pickup also worries about the “extraordinary vulnerability” of disabled people, whose lives are constantly devalued by the able-bodied, even by the medical profession who short-change the disabled when allotting scarce services or equipment on the basis their lives hold less value.
Faced with such attitudes from their care-givers and society, says Pickup, the disabled might accede to pressure to bow out gracefully if it becomes legal.
Several Canadian bishops have condemned the bill, none in stronger terms than Bishop Ronald Fabbro of London, Ontario. In a letter he had read in every church in his diocese he stated, “Whether it is called euthanasia, or mercy-killing, or doctor-assisted suicide, the reality is that this bill proposes to make murder legal in our country.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable. Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator.”
It goes on to say, “The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded.” (Nos. 2277-2278).
Alex Schadenberg, head of the Ontario-based Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said “Canadians should be very concerned about this legislation.” He worries that its backers may try to slide it past second reading as a “work in progress” that will be perfected in committee stage.
Schadenberg said the bill's reliance on “medical practitioners” is a weak spot, since this undefined category is broad enough to include anyone in health care.
He and Pickup both worry that governments will come to prefer quick and cheap terminations to lengthy and costly palliative care, if Bill C-407 opens the door.
Lalonde, however, denied that her bill will reduce efforts to upgrade palliative care. She has told reporters her bill is about showing compassion for those that medicine cannot help or for whom adequate palliative care is unavailable.
“Some situations bring with them complaints that cannot be helped,” she said. “This is not euthanasia. This is the right to die with dignity.”
“The bill honors the autonomy of the individual, the right to self-determination. But it does not go nearly far enough,” bioethicist Eike Kluge of the University of Victoria, British Columbia, said.
Even if it passed, he explained, there would still be no legislative protection for doctors who seek to provide “fair and easy passage” from life for those in a permanent vegetative state with no opportunity to take the advance steps specified in the bill.
Currently, such people are “tortured to life,” by legal requirements on the medical profession to use all possible means to sustain their lives.
Kluge, who advises the British Columbia government on bioethical issues, dismissed religious objections to the bill as automatically disqualified by the constitutional sanctions against religious discrimination.
“Any law based on such considerations would be ruled ultra vires (beyond the power or means of) by the courts,” he said.
However, it is clear that objections that are based on the dignity of the human person may not be disqualified simply because they are also religiously based.
At a recent forum on euthanasia and assisted suicide in Victoria, the predominant reason that emerged from the overwhelmingly pro-euthanasia crowd was the pain suffered by dying friends and loved ones in the hands of the apparently uncaring and undeniably overworked public health system.
The answer, according to Bishop Fabbro, is not euthanasia but “universal palliative and hospice care for the dying, more research and training in the field of pain control, better-funded home-care so that loved ones can be looked after in a comfortable environment as they face their final days.”
As Register went to press, it obtained an internal Justice Ministry briefing, indicating Justice Minister Irwin Cotler's intention to oppose the bill, principally for its lack of safeguards. In order to prevent “the unwanted death of elderly, physically or mentally vulnerable persons, a very stringent regime would have to be introduced, and Bill C-407 falls short of accomplishing this,” it states in part.
Commented Schadenberg: “We should remain concerned because the minister of justice does not state that they do not support a future bill to legalize euthanasia or assisted suicide, he only says that he doesn't support Bill C-407. Nonetheless, we must take our little victories where ever they are found and continue to persevere.”
Steve Weatherbe writes from Victoria, British Columbia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steve Weatherbe ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Faith Is a Leaven for Justice and Solidarity DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:Register Summary
Pope Benedict XVI met with 60,000 people in St. Peter's Square for his general audience on Oct. 12. Offering his reflections on Psalm 122, he continued the series of teachings on the psalms and canticles of the Liturgy of the Hours that Pope John Paul II began.
Psalm 122, the Holy Father pointed out, is one of the “songs of ascent” that ancient pilgrims sang during their pilgrimage to the holy city of Jerusalem. “‘Built as a city, walled round about,’ thus a symbol of security and stability, Jerusalem is at the heart of the unity of the 12 tribes of Israel, which converge upon the city as the center of their faith and worship,” the Pope said. Besides being the political capital, Jerusalem was also the highest judicial center, where controversies were ultimately resolved. “Upon leaving Zion, the Jewish pilgrims returned to their villages more peaceful and with a greater sense of justice,” he noted.
The Holy Father went on to explain how the psalm also defined the city's religious and social role. Religion in the Bible was neither abstract nor private, he said, but a leaven for justice and solidarity among people: “Communion with God is followed necessarily by communion between brothers.”
In closing, Pope Benedict quoted St. Gregory the Great, who taught that the holy city of Jerusalem is being built today on the tradition of the saints: “In a building, one stone supports another, because one stone has been placed on another, and the one that supports another is, in turn, supported by yet another. In this very same way, each person lends supports and is supported within the holy Church.”
Yet, we must never forget, the Holy Father concluded, “there is one foundation that supports the entire weight of the construction, and it is our Redeemer.”
The canticle we just heard and enjoyed as a prayer is one of the most beautiful and moving of the “songs of ascent.” It is Psalm 122, a lively celebration in which everyone takes part that takes place in Jerusalem, the Holy City toward which pilgrims are ascending.
Right at the very beginning, two moments that these faithful people experience fuse together: the moment in the day when they accepted the invitation to “go to the house of the Lord” (verse 1), and the moment of their joyful arrival at the “gates” of Jerusalem (see verse 2). Now, their feet are finally planted on that holy and beloved ground. Then, a festive song flows from their lips in honor of Zion, reflecting on its deep spiritual significance.
City of Peace
“Built as a city, walled ‘round about” (verse 3), thus a symbol of security and stability, Jerusalem is at the heart of the unity of the 12 tribes of Israel, which converge upon the city as the center of their faith and worship. Indeed, they go up to the city “to give thanks to the name of the Lord” (verse 4) in the place that “was decreed for Israel” (Deuteronomy 12:13-14; 16:16) and established as the only legitimate and perfect place of worship.
Another important reality exists in Jerusalem that is also the sign of God's presence in Israel: “the thrones of the house of David” (see Psalm 122:5), that is, the ruling dynasty of David, which is the expression of God's work throughout history that would lead to the Messiah (2 Samuel 7:8-16).
The “thrones of the house of David” are also referred to as the “thrones of justice” (see Psalm 112:5), since the king was also the supreme judge. Thus Jerusalem, the political capital, was also the highest judicial seat, where disputes were settled in the last resort. Therefore, upon leaving Zion, the Jewish pilgrims returned to their villages more peaceful and with a greater sense of justice.
Leaven for Solidarity
The psalm has thus portrayed the ideal picture of the religious and social role of the Holy City, showing that religion of the Bible is neither abstract nor private, but a leaven for justice and solidarity. Communion with God is followed necessarily by communion between brothers.
We now come to the final prayer of petition (see verses 6-9). Its rhythm is marked by the Hebrew word shalom (peace), which traditionally has been considered as the root of the name of the Holy City, Yerushalayim (city of peace).
As it is well-known, shalom refers to the peace of the Messiah, which includes joy, prosperity, goodness and abundance. Indeed, in the final farewell that the pilgrim addresses to the Temple, to the “house of the Lord, our God,” this “blessing” is added to peace, “May blessings be yours” (verse 9), thereby foreshadowing the Franciscan greeting, “Peace and goodness!”
It is the hope for a blessing on the faithful who love the Holy City, on the physical reality of its walls and the buildings that pulsate with the life of its people, and on all brothers, sisters and friends. In this way, Jerusalem will become a home of harmony and peace.
Christ the Foundation
Let us conclude our meditation on Psalm 122 with some food for thought from the Fathers of the Church, for whom ancient Jerusalem was the sign of another Jerusalem, which “was built as a city, walled ‘round about.”
This city, as St. Gregory the Great reminds us in his Homilies on Ezekiel, “has already been largely built on the traditions of the saints. In a building, one stone supports another, because one stone has been placed on another, and the one that supports another is, in turn, supported by yet another. In this very same way, each person lends supports and is supported within the holy Church. Those who are closest to each other mutually support one another, and in this way, through them, the building of charity is erected. This is the reason why Paul admonishes us, saying: ‘Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ’ (Galatians 6:2). Emphasizing the force of this law, he says: ‘Love is the fulfillment of the law’ (Romans 13:10). If I, in fact, do not make an effort to accept you as you are, and you do not make an effort to accept me as I am, the building of charity cannot rise between us, who are also bound by mutual and patient love.” To complete the image, it must not be forgotten that “there is one foundation that supports the entire weight of the construction, and it is our Redeemer, who alone tolerates in their entirety all our habits. Of him the apostle says: ‘For no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there, namely, Jesus Christ’ (1 Corinthians 3:11). The foundation bears the stones and is not borne by the stones; that is to say, our Redeemer bears the weight of all our faults, but in him there was no fault to tolerate” (2,1,5: Opere di Gregorio Magno, III/2, Rome, 1993, pp. 27,29).
(Register translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: AFTER THE STORM DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:It may not have made the evening news, but, when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, several Catholic colleges and universities stepped in to help survivors recover.
From second collections to benefit concerts to free tuition, the schools’ students, professors and administrators put their Gospel mission into motion.
Ave Maria University in Naples, Fla., held a benefit concert featuring the university choir as well as five guest soloists. After listening to the music of Beethoven, Corelli, Chopin and Schubert, the more than 175 people who attended the concert donated more than $6,000, according to a recent press release. The school forwarded the funds to the American Red Cross and Catholic Charities.
“In the aftermath of such devastation it is inspiring to see how incredibly giving people are, and how they are able to organize so quickly to aid their fellow man,” Ave Maria University President Nick Healy said in the statement. “I know that many members of Ave Maria University, as well as members from the surrounding Naples community were in some way affected by this hurricane, and it gives me great joy to know that everyone was able to come together in support of the relief efforts.”
Branden Blackmur, media contact for Ave Maria, said that one of the school's students, whose name he withheld for privacy reasons, had family living in Gulfport, Miss. After the hurricane, he packed up his truck with food and water and headed home to pick up his family. Once there, he withdrew from Ave Maria and offered to volunteer for Catholic Charities in Baton Rouge for the remainder of the school year.
Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, Calif., took up a second collection after their Sunday Mass — and collected four times the amount of their average Sunday collection. This money was sent directly to Archbishop Alfred Hughes of New Orleans, according to Anne Forsyth, director of college relations. She also said that each of the chaplains offered up special Masses for Katrina victims.
Joseph Wurtz, dean of student life at Christendom College in Front Royal, Va., said the campus there wrapped up a two-week, campus-wide fund-raiser that collected more than $6,000. They will be sending their money directly to Kepha, a youth group in the hurricane-affected area, started by the father of one of the students at Christendom.
Kepha (which is St. Peter's name in Aramaic; it means rock) has been reaching out directly to the hurricane victims through the local parishes. They in turn, will take the money they receive from Christendom and help a family who has lost a home or job.
Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, has opened up its doors to 10 students who were displaced by the hurricane. From a senior nursing student attending Louisiana State University who only had one semester to go, to freshmen who were evacuated in their first days of college life, they have all found a new, even if temporary, home for the semester.
Seven of the students studying at Franciscan were attending Our Lady of Holy Cross in New Orleans. According to Joel Recznik, dean of enrollment management at the university, Chris Baglow, chairman of the theology department at Holy Cross, and also a graduate of Franciscan University, contacted his alma mater to see if there was anything they could do to help out. After many phone calls back and forth, the details were worked out and Franciscan offered to let the students attend tuition-free for the semester.
Once they knew the details had been ironed out, the students had to drive 17 hours straight in order to make it in time for classes early Monday morning. Most of them came only with the clothes on their backs, having been evacuated in a rush as the storm closed in.
“One young man had been put up [during the evacuation] in a hotel,” says Recznik. “They took shelter in the hallway when the hurricane hit. When he went back to the hotel room, the ceiling had collapsed. If they had been in there, they would have been killed.”
Recznik, who was instrumental in making this opportunity possible for the students, has been deeply inspired by the optimism and joy he has seen in these transfer students.
“They have been just wonderful students. They haven't lost their joy. It's clear that their faith commitment has held strong and is solid. They're just glad that they can continue their education. Our students have welcomed them with open arms.”
‘Friendly, Welcoming’
Catholic institutions of higher learning aren't the only schools that have helped families hurt by the hurricane. Catholic grade schools and high schools also have students studying there free of charge.
In a September statement to his archdiocese, Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago, asked all elementary and high schools in his diocese to welcome students displaced by Hurricane Katrina. He also advised school administrations to waive tuition and to complete the normal admission paperwork once the students were enrolled.
According to the archdiocese's website (www.archdiocese-chgo.org), they have more than 107 Gulf Coast students studying in their schools. St. Kieran School in Chicago Heights is one of these schools. Anthony Simone, principal of St. Kieran, says his school welcomed a family whose home was only 20 feet away from Lake Pontchartrain. They lost everything when the levee broke.
The students who are in grades 1, 5 and 7 have been warmly welcomed by the school community. Simone has been impressed by the response to this family. “The kids have been dynamite,” he says. “They've been friendly and welcoming.”
Members of the school's parish have reached out to the family as well. “I can't tell you how many people have come to me wanting to know how they can help, what they can give,” says Simone. “People have been remarkably kind and generous. I think it gives you great faith in human nature that people have been so kind and open and so ready to help people in need.”
Veronica Wendt writes from Steubenville, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: Catholic schools quietly reached out to aid Katrina's victims ----- EXTENDED BODY: Veronica Wendt ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: On the Road Again DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:PRIEST PROFILE
By the time he was 17, Gregory Dean was in a rock band playing the nightclubs of Indianapolis.
The band enjoyed such success that, at the end of his junior year, he considered dropping out of high school and joining his band mates on tour. Instead, he decided to stay behind and get his diploma. After a conversion experience during his freshman year in college, Dean gave his life to Christ and consecrated himself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He was ordained to the holy priesthood for the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate in the Jubilee Year 2000.
Father Maximilian Mary, as he is now known, is father guardian of Mount St. Francis Hermitage in Maine, N.Y. Today, he uses his vocal and classical-guitar skills to spread devotion to the Blessed Mother. He has released five CDs, and a DVD of his concert is set to come out by the end of this month. He spoke with Register correspondent Veronica Wendt.
While studying classical guitar at DePaul University, you had a conversion experience. Could you tell us more about it?
My conversion actually started shortly before I left for college. Even with all the success I was experiencing in the rock band, I still was empty; I was still searching. I could see that success in the music industry wasn't going to fulfill me. So I went to DePaul searching for meaning, searching for God. I was reading everything and anything I could get a hold of, even New Age.
I also read the Gospels. I was deeply touched by the teachings and the life of Jesus, but I wasn't sure that I believed he was the eternal Son of God until I read the crucifixion. I knew then that he was innocent and that he died for my sins. Then I came to the scene of the centurion where he says, “Truly this was the Son of God.” All I can say is that, at this moment, I was given the gift of faith in Jesus Christ.
There are many churches that believe in Jesus. What brought you back to the Catholic faith in particular?
The Rosary. When I came home for Christmas break, my mom invited me to a morning Mass at a Franciscan retreat center. There I met people who were deeply prayerful because of their devotion to the Rosary. So that night, I prayed my first Rosary and Our Lady intervened. It was a set of rosary beads my mom had given me before I went away to college; they had been blessed by Pope John Paul II. It was through this rosary blessed by the Pope that I was enlightened to the truth of the Catholic faith.
After this, you transferred to Franciscan University of Steubenville and went on to join the Franciscans of the Immaculate. Did you expect to have a music apostolate with the order?
Having a music apostolate with the guitar wasn't even a thought when I joined the FIs, especially since they use organ and Gregorian chant for the liturgy. I knew I would not be using the guitar as I had in the past. It was God's will and so it was a joy.
How did your music apostolate begin?
I was making a solitude retreat in 1998 and the thought kept coming to me that I should record for Our Lady. I thought it was a distraction, or pride. I went to see my superior about it, and he encouraged me to record. I was just going to record a cassette for a catechism class I was teaching. I didn't realize at the time that the FIs had studio-quality equipment. They had studio microphones, digital multi-track recording equipment and so on. So instead of putting out a cassette, we produced professional-quality CDs.
Tell us about your concerts.
I started doing the concerts initially as a way to raise money for our missionaries in Russia. All of the concerts that I do are free, but we take up free-will offerings. My goal for the concert is to bring souls closer to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I do that through songs and reflections.
How does your music apostolate fit into the charism of the Friars of the Immaculate?
It's Franciscan in its simplicity: I just show up with a guitar and a breviary. And it's Marian: Free Miraculous Medals are given, and all are invited to know and love their Immaculate Mother more deeply. So it fits in rather nicely.
How do you balance prayer with your apostolate?
Although we give prayer pride of place, we also exercise a zealous Marian apostolate. St. Maximilian Kolbe once said, “External activity is good; but it is clearly something of secondary rank … especially when compared with the interior life.” It takes effort, but my music apostolate must always flow from prayer, from the many Rosaries prayed and hours of Eucharistic adoration made.
Have you seen your music bring people closer to Our Lady?
After a concert I did at a parish in Buffalo, N.Y., a woman with tears in her eyes came up to me and said that she almost hadn't come that night. It was the 50th anniversary of her mother's death. She had lost her mom as a small child, and had never come to terms with it. She really didn't think she could handle coming to the concert. After coming to the concert, however, she said she was finally able to accept her mother's death and had accepted Our Lady that very night as her heavenly Mother.
Veronica Wendt writes from Steubenville, Ohio.
Information
Franciscans of the Immaculate
marymediatrix.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Veronica Wendt ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: WORLD MEDIA WATCH DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:Pipe Bomb Found at Irish Primary School
TIMES ONLINE, Oct. 11 — Army bomb disposal experts defused a small improvised bomb near a primary school in Ballymena, the website of the Times of London reported.
The pipe bomb was discovered by school maintenance staff in a hedge at Harryville Primary School shortly after 9 a.m. The school and a number of adjacent houses were evacuated and the device was eventually made safe around 10.30 a.m. The device is the latest in a series of incidents affecting schools in Ballymena. Catholic schools have been attacked amid rising sectarian tensions which have also seen Catholic homes and property attacked in North Antrim.
The school's principal, Leslie Meikle, told BBC News that police later found several other devices and the pupils had been sent home for the rest of the day.
We don't believe that they're targeting the school,” she said. “It's just this back entry where they can drop stuff off.”
Brazilian Cardinal Fears for Catholic Faith
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Oct. 9 — A senior Brazilian cardinal noted the rapid growth of Protestant movements in Latin America and wondered aloud how much longer the continent could be called Roman Catholic, the Associated Press reported.
The comments by Cardinal Claudio Hummes to the Synod of Bishops reflected increasing concern in the church about the competition for souls in Latin America and Africa.
Hummes cited Brazilian government and Church statistics that found that Brazil's Catholics, who represented about 90% of the country's population during the Second Vatican Council, had fallen to 83% in 1991 and 67% today.
Pope Benedict XVI has spoken out on a few occasions about the threats to the Catholic faith posed by Protestant groups, including on the first day of the conclave that elected him Pope.
“We ask ourselves with anxiety: How much longer will Brazil be a Catholic country?” Cardinal Hummes said in the report. “Many indications say the same is true for all of Latin America, and also here we ask ourselves: How long will Latin America be a Catholic continent?”
Catholic Church Funds Stem-Cell Research
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Oct. 6 — The Catholic Church in South Korea said it will donate $9.6 million for research into adult stem cells, which has proven successful in arresting serious illnesses unlike its embryonic counterpart, the Associated Press reported.
The Archdiocese of Seoul will provide the funds to a committee that will support adult stem-cell research, which doesn't include the destruction of human life. Most of the funds will come from Church collections, with the rest raised through donations, said Bishop Yeom Su-jeong, head of the committee.
South Korea has been embroiled in debates over stem-cell research. It is home to one of the leading scientists in the field, Hwang Woo-suk, who has received international renown for extracting stem cells from killed human embryos.
“We plan to devote ourselves to saving human dignity above everything else … and raise awareness of respecting lives,” Bishop Yeom said in the report. “Keeping and saving lives … is the mission of the times that our Church must accomplish in the face of whatever difficulties.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Eucharistic Year Ends With a Bang DATE: 10/23/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 23-29, 2005 ----- BODY:OJAI, Calif. — A couple were so impressed with Pope John Paul II's dedication of a year to the Eucharist that they dedicated their own wedding to it as well.
“Since Nick and I were married at the beginning of the Year of the Eucharist, we made the connection between the Eucharist and marriage the ‘theme’ of our wedding,” said Wendy-Irene Zepeda of Ojai, Calif. “We picked readings which reflected the connection,” she said.
Those included the Song of Songs 1:2-4, which reads, “Let him kiss me with kisses of his mouth! More delightful is your love than wine”; Revelation 19:5-10 & 21:1-5 “Happy are they who have been invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb,” and John 2:1-11 — the wedding feast at Cana.
“We and the congregation sang Adoro Te Devote together at Communion time,” Zepeda said. “Our wedding favors were cards with icons of the Last Supper, the wedding feast at Cana, the breaking of bread at Emmaus, and the icon of the Trinity where it's represented as three angels sitting at Abraham's table.”
They even found a quote from Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien to put on the back of the cards: “I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament. … There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth, and more than that: death: by the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste (or foretaste) of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, that every man's heart desires.’”
“The Eucharistic Year had a sort of gala air for me — a chance to focus specially on the stupendous gift of God's intimate presence among us,” Zepeda said. “A chance to rejoice in the presence of our Joy.”
Dozens of American dioceses are marking the close of the Year of the Eucharist with Eucharistic congresses, solemn Masses and other special events.
The Year of the Eucharist, which Pope John Paul II proclaimed in his 2004 apostolic letter Mane Nobiscum Domine (Stay With Us, Lord), began last October with the International Eucharistic Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, and ends with the closing of the Synod of Bishops in Rome Oct. 23. In his apostolic letter, the Pope asked the world's bishops “to emphasize the Eucharistic dimension which is part of the whole Christian life.”
America's bishops have responded by teaching about the Eucharist, by urging their priests to offer opportunities for adoration, and by holding events that have reached their crescendo in the last month:
— In Philadelphia, Cardinal Justin Rigali led a holy hour attended by 25,000 people.
— In Brooklyn, N.Y., 9,000 were expected to take part in a Eucharistic procession, a talk by Franciscan Friar of the Renewal Father Benedict Groeschel, and Mass celebrated by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn.
— In St. Paul, Minn., 8,000 attended a Eucharistic congress Mass celebrated by Archbishop Harry Flynn.
— In Phoenix, 6,000 people attended the Mass, procession, and Rosary Sunday closing the Year of the Eucharist — with “a great showing of young families [and] youth,” according to Father Fred Adamson, vicar general of the Diocese of Phoenix.
— In an area where only 3% of the population is Catholic, Charlotte, N.C., Bishop Peter Jugis held a Eucharistic congress and led a procession of 3,500.
— The Archdiocese of St. Louis closed the celebration with a six-week “Stay With Us, Lord” observance that featured weekly holy hours and Eucharistic homilies in every parish.
Among the other events closing the Year of the Eucharist were conferences or Eucharistic congresses in Chicago, Salina, Kan., Salt Lake City, and Wilmington, Del.; processions in Green Bay, Wis., Harrisburg, Pa., New Ulm, Minn., Paterson, N.J., and Springfield, Mass.; adoration in Bridgeport, Conn., Peoria, Ill., and Wichita, Kan.; and special Masses in Altoona-Johnstown, Pa., Buffalo, N.Y., Dallas, Denver, Dodge City, Kan., Lafayette, Ind., Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Providence, R.I., and Tucson, Ariz.
Several bishops told the Register that the Year of the Eucharist led to a rekindling of Eucharistic devotion and an increased sense of generous Christian service among the faithful of their dioceses.
In Detroit, a series of parish and regional Eucharistic days and Forty Hours devotions culminated in an Archdiocesan Eucharistic Day of Mass, adoration and vespers. Cardinal Adam Maida, who wrote monthly catechetical newspaper columns throughout the year, told the Register that one-third of Detroit parishes now have 24-hour adoration.
Salina Bishop Paul Coakley has observed “an encouraging growth” in various forms of Eucharistic adoration.
“The more we are touched by the love of God in the Eucharist, the more we need to respond to this love,” he said. “Adoration leads to mission. The connection with [priestly] vocations is clear, but there is also an impulse toward a more generous stewardship of all of our gifts.”
Likewise, Bishop Michael Saltarelli of Wilmington has noticed “a rekindling of ‘Eucharistic amazement.’”
“When we rekindle our Eucharistic amazement and devotion,” he said, “then our marriages in turn are rekindled. Vocations to the priesthood and religious life are rekindled. A missionary spirit and evangelization are rekindled. … I see parents and religious educators really going the extra mile in their efforts to lead our young people to a life-changing understanding and lived experience of the Eucharist.”
In central Pennsylvania, where Forty Hours devotions took place in many parishes, Altoona-Johnstown Bishop Joseph Adamec has emphasized the connection between the Eucharist and charity.
“I have been reminding our faithful of the importance of not only believing in and receiving the Eucharist but also of living out the Eucharist,” he told the Register. “That involves presenting Christ to the world through our being, as does the Eucharist, nurturing God's people in their spiritual lives, as does the Eucharist, and allowing ourselves to be consumed in the process, as does the Eucharist.”
This dual emphasis upon service and worship has affected laity and priests alike. Phil Sutton, a psychologist and school counselor in Michigan and Indiana, has found Eucharistic adoration to be “a comforting and challenging time to offer up myself and my day, as well as my future work” so as to find the “time and energy with which to serve the Lord and whomever my life will touch.”
Bishop Saltarelli observed that the year “has helped to uplift me and so many priests I know to live their priestly consecration and mission more deeply, more vibrantly.”
Theologian Scott Hahn told the Register that the Year of the Eucharist has helped him to see “the liturgical content and context of Scripture with much greater clarity.” The Bible, he pointed out, “begins and ends with liturgy, from the Sabbath rest of Genesis to the wedding feast of the Lamb in Revelation. The story of Scripture is the story of mankind's journey to worship in spirit and truth in the presence of God.
“This true worship,” said Hahn, “is the very purpose of God's creation in the beginning.”
Jeff Ziegler is based in Ellenboro, North Carolina
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