BEIRUT, Lebanon — “The Truth” has become almost like a national slogan ever since the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. It appeared on posters, bumper stickers and flags across Lebanon — a demand to know the truth about the incident that shook the country.
With the long-awaited results of the international investigation into Hariri's murder, the Lebanese people feel that their cries have been answered.
The 54-page “Mehlis Report,” named for the German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis who directed the probe, affirmed what the Lebanese have always believed: “The decision to assassinate former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranking Syrian security officials, and could not have been further organized without the collusion of their counterparts in the Lebanese security services.”
Hariri and 22 others were killed in a massive blast as his convoy passed through downtown Beirut in February, 2005.
A month after Hariri's assassination, an outraged Lebanese public — more than 1 million Lebanese Christians, Muslims and Druze — took to the streets in a historic peaceful protest demanding freedom, sovereignty and independence from Syria. By the end of April, Syria had withdrawn the last of its troops, ending its nearly 30-year occupation of its tiny neighbor. About 33% of Lebanon's approximate 3.5 million people are Christian.
Syria Retaliates
However, it was soon obvious that Syria's intelligence apparatus had not been completely dismantled from Lebanon and that Syria would not go quietly. Christian areas were targeted in a series of blasts, including the Voice of Charity Catholic radio station in apparent retaliation for the broadcaster's campaign for the release of Lebanese detained in Syria's prisons.
During the five-month Mehlis probe, 30 investigators from 17 countries interviewed more than 400 witnesses and suspects, reviewing some 60,000 documents, and producing more than 16,500 pages of data.
A week before the Oct. 20 release of the report, Lebanese Member of Parliament Saad Hariri, son of the slain leader, had a closed-door meeting with Maronite Patriarch Nassrallah Boutros Sfeir in Rome during the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist.
Afterwards, Hariri said, “His Eminence and I are optimistic because Lebanon has a golden opportunity that we must grasp,” referring to the first chance for true Lebanese sovereignty in decades.
Upon his return to Lebanon after the synod, Cardinal Sfeir remarked, “We support the results of the report, but there are certain points in the report that need to be studied carefully.”
He added that the document “raises many questions,” in apparent reference to certain identities which have yet to be identified.
“This report gives us the way of the truth,” said Father Joseph Mouannes, secretary general of the Commission of Communications for the Catholic Church in the Middle East. “It [the report] is not the end, but it is the beginning of the walk for the real truth.
We cannot cover a mountain with lies.”
Probe Extended
On Oct. 31, the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1636 — sponsored by the United States, France and Britain — ordering Syria to cooperate fully with the U.N.'s investigation. Hours later, Mehlis returned to Beirut to continue the probe that the U.N. had extended to Dec. 15 at the request of Lebanon.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's brother, who commands the presidential guard, and his brother-in-law, the head of military intelligence, were implicated in an unedited version of the Mehlis report.
“The Christians, in particular, are pleased to see the Syrians, who ruled Lebanon with an iron fist for 29 years and brought corruption and persecution to them, are at last on the ropes with the rest of the international community,” said Habib Malik, a Roman Catholic with a Greek Orthodox background. He teaches history and cultural studies at the Lebanese American University's Byblos campus.
The Hariri investigation has, in effect, become a cause of international and national unity, with all members of the National Security Council in agreement, as are Lebanon's Christian, Muslim and Druze communities in their support of the Mehlis report's findings. Even Hezbollah, the fundamentalist Islamic political and military party in Lebanon, has not denounced the report.
The Mehlis report alleged that a call was made by one of the suspects to Lebanese President Emile Lahoud's mobile phone minutes following the assassination, which has escalated the outcries among the Lebanese for his resignation.
Cardinal Sfeir, however, cautioned against accusing the president: “The investigation team neither interviewed President Lahoud as a witness nor as a suspect, so it is not the right time to raise the presidency issue,” the cardinal said.
“We must show more respect toward the presidential post,” the cardinal pointed out, insisting it is Lahoud's decision whether to stay in office or resign. The Maronite archbishop is making an effort to preserve the legitimacy of the presidency, a post which has become severely tarnished during Lahoud's tenure. (The Lebanese Constitution stipulates the post be held by a Maronite Catholic.)
Emile Lahoud was appointed president by Syria in 1987. In September 2004, through a Syrian-orchestrated constitutional amendment, his term was extended. Rafik Hariri resigned as prime minister in protest over the extended mandate and was signaling that he might align himself with the opposition.
Currently, Christian politicians widely viewed as potential presidential candidates have individually met with the patriarch since the release of the Mehlis report. Cardinal Sfeir is urging that they be unified.
Despite the fact that President Lahoud essentially no longer has any power without the support of his Syrian backers, it appears that an advantage of his remaining in office is that it would allow time for the formation of a new election law to replace the one imposed by Syria. It would also give the Christian political parties time to unify and become organized.
“Moral chaos has reached its pinnacle and we stand at a crossroads,” said Cardinal Sfeir during his homily Oct. 30. “We should be cautious and patient in judging people, positions and events.”
He pointed out that national unity is the only way to reinforce Lebanon against divisions and strife.
He said, “In light of the situation we are witnessing, there is no room for personal gain.”
Doreen Abi Raad writes Bikfaya, Lebanon.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Doreen Abi Raad ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:Major Expansion
CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY, Nov. 4 — Ground has been broken for a substantial expansion of the highly successful Newman center at the University of Illinois’ Champaign-Urbana campus, including a full residence hall with cafeteria, and a colonial-style church.
“The St. John's Newman Center is not only the largest of its kind in the country, but it has been called the standard [after] which many other Newman centers and ministries model themselves,” reported the news agency.
Msgr. Stewart Swetland is the driving force of St. John's, directing the work of six full-time priests and three religious sisters at a center that serves 2,500 students at weekend Masses.
Religion Disappeared
The process that led to the decision began when local Muslims asked that Islamic students be similarly given a day off for Eid al-Fitr, the day marking the end of Ramadan while school remains in session.
Christian and other community leaders faulted the district for effectively promoting secularism and failing to accommodate the religious needs of students.
None Dare Call It ‘Gay'
INSIDEHIGHERED.COM, Nov. 10 — Georgetown University will provide health insurance for same-sex partners of faculty and staff members, starting Jan. 1.
“More colleges each year provide some benefits for gay professors’ partners, but the trend is notably less evident at Catholic institutions, making Georgetown's move significant,” reported the website.
The policy covers “legally domiciled adults” and avoids language that would seem to approve the homosexual lifestyle, which everyone interviewed seemed to understand was a necessary — but meaningless — accommodation of the university's Catholic and Jesuit origins.
Rosary Ban ‘Hasty'
The ban “may have been too hasty,” reported the newspaper as several students refused to shed their beads — with the backing of their parents and clergy.
School Superintendent Jim Busey said the ban was poorly communicated and that “expressions of faith” will be accommodated.
“We're going to get it resolved,” he said.
New Institute
UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS, Nov. 7 — The university's Graduate School of Management has established the M.R. & Evelyn Hudson Not-for-Profit Leadership Institute with a $20,000 grant from the Hudson Foundation of Dallas.
The new institute will complement the university's MBA program for those who work in the not-for-profit sector, one of only eight such programs in the nation.
The Leadership Institute will seek to offer applied research and management ideas and solutions for the non-profit sector.
Its first initiatives will be a writing competition for undergraduate and graduate students and a one-day conference for not-for-profits in the spring.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: A Dead Frenchman Reads Today's News DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:James P. Kelly III sees modern examples of Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain's thought put into action.
Some examples: The U.S. Supreme Court, the potential for democracy in Iraq, and UNESCO. An Atlanta attorney, he founded the Solidarity Center for Law and Justice, a public interest law firm specializing in religious liberty. He is director of international affairs for the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies and is the editor of Christianity, Democracy, and the American Ideal, a collection of passages from Jacques Maritain's works on political and social philosophy.
Kelly, who represents the Federalist Society as a member of the U.S. National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), spoke with Register correspondent Joseph D'Agostino.
What inspired you to compile writings of Jacques Maritain?
In 1996, I left the private practice of tax and corporate law to serve as a legal adviser and philanthropic consultant to the Hanna Family Foundation in Atlanta. Initially, the work of the foundation focused on the issue of increasing parental choices in education, including charter schools and publicly funded school choice.
Jacques Maritain was one of the earliest proponents of having the state provide support for private religious schools, a practice that is common in most Western European nations. In his book, Education at the Crossroads, Maritain explained that education was as much a moral undertaking as an academic one. He wrote that the government should not have a monopoly over the moral education of children.
Instead, the state should support families who desire to educate their children for character in accordance with the dictates of their different religions.
As I read more Maritain, I came to appreciate the fact that he had spoken out and written a lot about matters pertaining to Church and state relations and the positive relationship between Christianity and democracy. He realized and noted the dangers of what he called anthropocentric, or atheistic, humanism.
I kept reading one book after another, highlighting important quotes that supported our work on religious and educational liberty. As a matter of fact, I was able to incorporate, directly or indirectly, Maritain's views on these matters into three amicus curiae briefs that we filed in religious liberty cases heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Over time, I read about 22 of Maritain's books — twice in many instances — and highlighted about 500 paragraphs relating to issues of relevance to the relationship between Church and state and the connection between Christianity and democracy.
You are a delegate to UNESCO.
Yes, I serve on the National Commission as the representative of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, a law association comprised of approximately 35,000 lawyers, judges and law student members.
The Federalist Society has been in the news lately. New Chief Justice John Roberts is a member, and the society's opinion was sought as part of the vetting process for Harriet Miers and now Samuel Alito. Is the Federalist Society an ideologically mainstream association, or is it well to the right of the mainstream trying to pull the mainstream rightward?
The Federalist Society is a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order. It is founded on the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be. The society seeks both to promote an awareness of these principles and to further their application through its activities. These activities include the convening of debates and seminars at which speakers holding a diversity of viewpoints are presented, including those that conflict with the society's philosophical principles.
Is there much receptivity to a Christian worldview at UNESCO?
At best, what you're hoping for is a neutral public square, a neutral platform. That's at best.
Wasn't the 20th century Thomist philosopher Jacques Maritain one of the founders of UNESCO?
Maritain had an influential role in the creation of UNESCO and the drafting of the Universal Charter of Human Rights, but then so did Julian Huxley, who was one of the first avowed secular humanists. This is what made the founding of UNESCO so interesting as sort of a benchmark of the start of the culture wars.
On the one hand, you had Jacques Maritain, who believed that UNESCO should pursue its educational, scientific and cultural agenda with due regard for the Christian and other religious and philosophical views of its participants. On the other hand, you had someone like Julian Huxley, the first director-general of UNESCO, who approached UNESCO as a totally secularized undertaking. In the middle, you had someone like Teilhard de Chardin.
Maritain thought that Christianity was not only supportive but essential to any kind of human democracy?
Yes, absolutely. So while rejecting the idea of a Christian state, Maritain believed that a liberal democracy would not long survive in the absence of Christian inspiration and influence. He called for Christians to become “prophets of the people” in a democracy, prophets who would awaken their fellow citizens as to the need for contemplation, love, and action.
What would he think of the call today, by President Bush on down, for vibrant human democracies in the Muslim world? Is that really possible in non-Christian societies like that?
Honestly, I think Maritain would say that, but for the grace of Christ, it's not possible to build a credible democratic society. There is little chance that, after spending a lifetime articulating a theory of integral humanism that is rooted in Christianity, Maritain would just shrug his shoulders and say “whatever” when it comes to the relative value of different religions as means to democracy-building.
Maritain saw the Christian faith as being indispensable to the need for democratic citizens to properly order their society and to avoid the feelings of resentment or envy that naturally result in a free-market, capitalist society. Of course, Maritain would be the first to defend the right of all religious groups to pursue freedom and build a democratic system that respects human liberty and justice.
Also, in fairness to Maritain, his development of a theory of Christian democratic citizenship left him no time to even partially examine whether the Islamic faith and democracy are compatible.
For a long time, Christian societies were monarchical, or feudal or perhaps aristocratic republics. Did liberal democracy grow out of Christianity or in opposition to Christianity?
True liberal democracy grew out of Christianity. A false liberal democracy grew in opposition to Christianity. Let me explain that distinction.
Liberal democracy is philosophically rooted in natural law, which is divine in its origins. Throughout history, the Catholic Church has been the foremost authority on the rights and responsibilities emanating from natural law. Regardless of how they might classify their religious or philosophical beliefs, whether deist, Unitarian, or agnostic, 18th- and 19th-century democratic philosophers were profoundly influenced by Christian teachings on natural law. This is what I refer to as “true” liberal democracy.
On the other hand, in opposition to Christianity, 19th-century social scientists developed a form of liberal democracy that, while taking advantage of Christian sentiments still generally existing in society, called for a planned society that would address social problems with strictly scientific approaches.
Positivism in 19th-century France and progressivism in 20th-century America sought to build a just, democratic and, eventually, secularized social order. I label this a “false” liberal democracy in that, in order to achieve a monopoly over the management of society, adherents in academia, government, and secular charitable agencies denied religious groups equal access to funds for the promotion of their programs for social renewal.
In my opinion, this situation is being rectified through President Bush's efforts, consistent with Maritain's earlier writings, to level the playing field by insisting that faith-based organizations not be discriminated against in the federal funding of education, health, and social service programs.
Why did Maritain believe it wasn't possible to have a society governed only by reason and science and relegating faith to the private sphere? What happens to the human personality when that takes place?
The answer to this question relates to the final end of the “false” liberal democracy I just described. Government leaders and social scientists, who interpret as their mandate the building a perfect society, over time are inclined to view citizens as individuals subject to their techniques, rather than as persons whom God has created, in freedom, to pursue revealed Truth.
Maritain fully explored this distinction between the individual and the person in his book The Person and the Common Good, as well as in his other writings. For Maritain, a person has both temporal and transcendent ends, the latter of which should never be subordinated to the former. For this reason, Maritain lamented the standardization that arises from excesses in social planning, scientific experimentation, and vocational education.
I think that Maritain's writings in this area have significant importance in recent debates about embryonic stem-cell research and cloning.
Other than your own compilation
Well, let me start by saying that I know what they should end with, The Peasant of the Garonne. It's an amazing — on the one hand, hopeful, but, on the other hand, despondent — look back by Maritain on what had transpired in the few years since Vatican II. He was distraught, but not defeated, over the early trend of Catholics, especially clergy, to distort the teachings of Vatican II as an excuse for what he referred to as “kneeling before the world.”
As for the first book to read by Maritain, I suggest either Integral Humanism for those ambitious enough to tackle Maritain's foundational religious philosophy or Man and the State for those more interested in Maritain's political philosophy on the proper role of the state in the modern world.
Joseph A. D'Agostino is
Vice President for Communications at the Population Research Institute (www.pop.org) and a Washington correspondent for the Register.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph D'Agostino ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Unleash the Laity DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:EDITORIAL
A pre-Vatican II spirit remains strong in the Church.
But it might not be the one you first think of.
The Second Vatican Council sought to change Catholics’ understanding of their vocations. The message: Lay people aren't adjuncts to priests; lay people are to sanctify the world. What happens inside church walls shouldn't be the be-all and end-all of Christian life — the Mass is the source and summit of a faith life spent elsewhere.
Simply put: Vatican II sent lay people to take the Gospel to the great wide mission field outside church walls.
But many in the Church had a hard time adjusting to this change in paradigm. Perhaps they still thought of what happened inside church walls as the most important thing. At any rate, when the Council called for more lay involvement, they assumed it meant more lay involvement inside the church.
At their November meeting in Washington, D.C., the U.S. bishops approved “Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord: A Resource for Guiding the Development of Lay Ecclesial Ministry.” The document is not particular law in the Church, but a set of suggestions and optional guidelines.
A guide on how to treat lay people who work for the Church is fine and needed. After all, there are more than 30,000 lay men and women working in American parishes, and the number is growing. They are the lifeblood of parishes — and thus of the faith.
But we should be careful to avoid conflating lay and priestly roles. If we steer lay people who want to do more for the Church toward priest-like roles, we send a pre-Vatican II message: “If you want to be more active as a Catholic, you need to be a minister, like a priest.”
Just as bad, we say to young men who may have vocations: “You don't need a radical commitment to a new form of life to be a minister.”
We need to learn the language of Vatican II that says: “Lay people needn't imitate the priest or duplicate his efforts. They are to bring Christ to the world they live in, socialize in and work in.”
But don't take our word for it. Take the Pope's — not just one Pope, but two, along with eight Vatican dicasteries. In 1997, Pope John Paul II promulgated an instruction “On certain questions regarding the collaboration of the non-ordained faithful in the Sacred ministry of the priest.” Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI, was one of the Vatican prefects who signed it.
The instruction acknowledges lay roles inside the Church “in the teaching of Christian doctrine, for example, in certain liturgical actions in the care of souls,” and even allows for temporarily expanded lay roles in emergencies.
But it said that lay people's fundamental vocation is “in their personal, family and social lives by proclaiming and sharing the gospel of Christ in every situation in which they find themselves.” It even said that lay people can't properly be called ministers — except “extraordinary ministers” in certain situations.
Some suggested that the document was only meant to apply to certain European dioceses where lay people had been made chaplains. In a March 11, 1997, article in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, Cardinal Ratzinger said it was also meant for North America. Pope John Paul II reiterated that in his Jubilee-Year ad limina addresses to U.S. bishops.
It's important to get this right — because parish life is vitally important, more important than we sometimes give it credit for. Catholicism is as much about community as it is about conquering the world.
Cardinal Ratzinger said the Church must clearly define roles or risk “falling into a ‘Protestantization’ of the concepts of ministry and of the Church.” He also said that “a loss of the meaning of the sacrament of Holy Orders” and “the growth of a kind of parallel ministry by so-called ‘pastoral assistants’” is causing confusion about the special identity of ordained priests.
Cardinal Ratzinger said that the instruction explains the three types of tasks and services proper to the laity:
— making Christ present in the world through activities in society.
— working for Catholic institutions and organizations.
— temporarily performing functions normally reserved to a priest “in special and serious circumstances, concretely because of a lack of priests and deacons.”
In the end, the best way to promote the proper understanding of lay roles in the Church is to fully live our own. To that end, find the first of our four Advent Guides on the back page of this issue. Clip them out, pass them on, and spread the word.
Use them as a Vatican II lay person — the kind whose faith impacts the culture.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Advent Love DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:Every other Tuesday I get to talk, laugh, pray and study with seven of my friends. Although we call it “Bible Study,” it's a lot more. It's a chance to share our lives and grow together in our faith. We all love the Church and want to become holier women. We all accept Catholic teachings. But, as I realized one recent Tuesday, accepting those teachings doesn't necessarily mean liking them.
Heading into Advent, I think the realization — and the reactions it elicited — are worth reflecting on.
Our text had broached the subject of the all-male priesthood. Suddenly a diversity of feeling and opinion emerged in our group. Without demanding women's ordination, several of my friends expressed confusion and frustration about the Church's teaching on the priesthood. I had also wrestled with this, and had investigated the reasons for the Church's stance. So I began to explain the theological foundations of the teaching.
But I soon saw that the problem wasn't a theological one. Explaining that the priest must be male because he stands in persona Christi didn't alleviate the tension in the room. Pointing out that Jesus regularly broke social norms and yet never ordained women failed to satisfy my friends. Discussing the bridal imagery of the Church and the sacramental significance of a male bridegroom made their eyes glaze over. Even my favorite argument about the “priestly” sacrifice of childbearing — where a mother offers her body and blood to give life to another — wasn't the answer we needed. None of these logical explanations resolved the problem.
I realized we were dealing with an emotional issue of feeling bad, overlooked, undervalued, unworthy and unhappy.
Many women battle these feelings on a regular basis. Low self-esteem is too common among females of all ages.
Ever since the Fall, women have yearned for the approval of men. This ingrained longing has a multitude of manifestations. What's an underlying reason why so many a modern woman sins against chastity? Because she feels affirmed when a man desires her sexually. Why are so many young women victims of a degrading fashion industry? Because those styles promise attention from men.
Given the desire for male affirmation, it's not hard to understand why even faithful Catholic women may struggle (deep down) with the Church's teaching on ordination: It feels like rejection by men. We could list the reasons why the all-male-priesthood isn't a rejection of women and how it actually affirms them, but that wouldn't be enough.
Women need to experience the priesthood as an expression of God's love for them. That experience doesn't come through arguments or syllogisms. It comes through the charity of individual priests, to be sure. But more than that, it comes through trusting in God, our loving Father. A woman (indeed, anyone) who believes in the benevolent fatherhood of God is freed to rejoice in the goodness of the Church's teachings, which God gave us because he loves us.
The best way to embrace the teachings of the Church — regarding the priesthood, divorce, contraception or any other “tough” issue — is to embrace God: to trust him, knowing his foolishness is greater than our wisdom. This humble surrender helps us to live the Church's teachings. And to love them, too.
Now there's a Bible-study lesson to chew on for Advent.
Gina Giambrone writes from Covington, Kentucky.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gina Giambrone ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Report Starts Irish Abuse Furor All Over Again DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:DUBLIN, Ireland — The United States isn't the only country where the authority and credibility of the Catholic Church has been undermined by incidents of sexual abuse by priests.
Ireland's bishops were already struggling to come to grips with abuse that made headlines in the 1990s. But new revelations have started another media firestorm in 2005.
A recent government inquiry by retired Supreme Court Judge Frank Murphy into allegations of abuse in the diocese of Ferns in the southeast corner of Ireland has uncovered abuse charges spanning 40 years.
The report has raised serious (and, as yet, unanswered) questions about the local seminary and has led to calls for the exclusion of the Church from its role in civic society.
The 271-page “Ferns Report,” released Oct. 25 and commissioned by Ireland's health minister in 2003 after widespread reports of abuse by diocesan priests, makes for grim reading. It details the accusations of abuse in sometimes graphic detail and reveals allegations against 21 priests involving more than 100 alleged victims over four decades.
And while the government report makes no findings on the veracity of individual allegations, media coverage expresses little doubt about the overall scale of the problem.
The report strongly criticizes the handling of abuse by both Bishop Donal Herlihy, diocesan bishop from 1964-1983, and Bishop Brendan Comiskey, who served from 1983-2002. Maintaining that neither bishop removed accused priests from ministry, and instead referred them for counselling and moved them to other parishes, the report accuses both bishops of an “inadequate and inappropriate response” to the allegations.
David Quinn, the religious and social affairs correspondent of the Irish Independent, Ireland's largest daily newspaper, sees similarities between how both Bishops Herlihy and Comiskey handled the situation in Ferns and how bishops handled it in the in United States.
“A large proportion of the blame must be put on a mistaken form of clericalism that would put the interests of priests above all else,” Quinn said. “Just as in the U.S., successive bishops in Ferns wanted to avoid scandal, but in the long run their inaction has caused much more damage to the Church.”
After the report was released, Bishop Comiskey said that he wished to “apologize to those who suffered as a result of my failings and whose suffering was increased by them.”
According to the bishop, his errors were “not deliberate but rather were human failings.”
The report commended the child protection measures implemented by Bishop Eamonn Walsh, the temporary apostolic administrator of Ferns since Bishop Comiskey's resignation in 2002. Commenting on the report, Bishop Walsh praised the courage of all those who had come forward to assist with the inquiry and said he wished to “sincerely apologize” to all who had been hurt, especially where “the abuse was compounded by the response, or lack of response, of the diocese.”
Colm O'Gorman, a victim of abuse in Ferns and the founder of One in Four, a charity that offers advice and counseling to abuse victims, has also praised Bishop Walsh's handling of the issue since his appointment. But O'Gorman also said the extent of the problem in Ferns indicates particularly serious problems exist with respect to sexual abuse in Ireland.
“In the U.S. we know that 4% of priests have faced allegations,” said O'Gorman. “It is clear that the dramatically higher percentage of priests in Ferns facing allegations must be a symptom of a deeper failure on the part of both the Church in Ireland and the state.
O'Gorman is not the only one questioning the size of the problem. Ferns is a small diocese with just 133 priests currently in active ministry, and the extent of abuse uncovered suggests a much higher proportion of priests facing allegations than in other dioceses worldwide.
For Ronan Mullen, a former press adviser to the Archdiocese of Dublin and commentator of religious affairs, it is impossible to get to the bottom of this question without shining a light on St. Peter's College, the diocesan seminary that was closed in 1998. Mullen told the Register that the abuse relates to the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the period during which there was “widespread rejection” of the Church's teaching on sexuality.
“During that time, homosexual subcultures emerged in some seminaries in the U.S. and elsewhere,” Mullen said. “Was St. Peter's seminary such a place? It would appear that the problem of abuse by clergy may not be entirely separate from concerns in the Vatican and elsewhere about lax standards about sexuality and, particularly, homosexuality.”
The “Ferns Report” seems to back up Mullen's analysis. It cites one five-year period during which there were 10 priests working in St. Peter's College against whom abuse allegations subsequently came to light.
In some cases, the accused priests had faced allegations of abuse while still seminarians, and the report criticizes Bishop Herlihy for ordaining men whom he must have known had a propensity for sexual misconduct. One such priest, Father Sean Fortune, committed suicide in 1999 while facing more than 60 charges of abuse against teenaged boys over the course of his 20 years in the priesthood.
Since the report's publication, the Irish government has initiated a similar investigation into the Dublin archdiocese, which is expected to conclude in three years. And the government has indicated that similar probes into other diocese are also on the way.
The fallout from the report has split the government and sparked a renewed debate about the Church's role in society. In early November, Member of Parliament Liz O'Donnell, a member of the Progressive Democrat party, questioned the role of the Church in civic life, calling for an immediate end to all consultations with it on social policy and a state investigation into its wealth and assets.
O'Donnell's comments were broadly supported by Deputy Prime Minister Mary Harney and were quickly followed by calls from the National Parents Council for a review of the Church's role in the educational system.
In contrast, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, leader of the Fianna Fáil party, has responded with a strong public defense of the Church's contribution to Ireland's development and community life, stating that if the Church were to pull out of the educational system it would almost immediately collapse.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has pledged the full cooperation of his archdiocese with the commission that will investigate how Church and state authorities have handled complaints of child sexual abuse against diocesan clergy.
“It is vitally important that the truth of what happened regarding abuse of children by priests is brought to light,” said Archbishop Martin. “We can only begin to fully address the issue of child abuse when we establish what happened in the past. Horrendous damage was done to people, compounded by inadequate responses.”
(CNS contributed to this report.)
Patrick Kenny writes from Dublin, Ireland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Patrick Kenny ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: For Girls Only: The Steroids Double Standard DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:“He's on steroids.”
The rumors were heard nearly every time a track athlete set a new world record. They were heard again as the baseball homerun record was broken and re-broken over the past decade. Those rumors were transformed into concrete allegations last year when investigators stormed into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (called BALCO), a lab that had been providing steroids to a number of high profile athletes.
As the details unfolded, national interest in the story skyrocketed as it had all the ingredients for a blockbuster — celebrity athletes, covert drug deals, phenomenal athletic success and finally public shame. As a result, the BALCO steroid scandal was on the front of the sport pages for weeks, and spawned a number of spin-off stories chronicling the widespread steroid abuse in professional sports.
The steroid scandal even found its way to the halls of Congress.
This past spring, Congressional hearings were held on the matter and Congress threatened to impose testing programs on professional sports leagues if they didn't effectively eradicate steroid abuse on their own. For his part, President Bush spoke out against steroid abuse in professional sports during his State of the Union address.
To many, this expenditure of governmental effort to address steroid use in professional sports seemed like a colossal waste of time.
Doesn't Congress have more pressing issues than worrying about what pampered superstars do to their bodies? Why should the government get involved?
These are valid points, but the government didn't get involved in the issue out of concern for the well-being of professional athletes. Rather, the government was concerned about the effects steroid abuse in professional sports might have on American youth.
If steroids become an accepted part of the sporting landscape, steroid abuse will naturally filter on down to the high schools and junior highs across the country. Indeed, it already has, as just about any high school athlete can attest. Your average high school athlete most likely knows someone who is taking anabolic steroids, and he probably knows how to go about obtaining them for himself.
Given this widespread availability of anabolic steroids, coupled with their well-known health risks — increased risks of liver cancer, prostate cancer, testicular cancer, high blood pressure and infertility — it is no surprise that the government remains interested in combating anabolic steroid use among America's youth.
Not only have Congress and the president taken a hard stand on the issue but the National Institute of Health has gotten on board by actively funding research to combat the misuse and abuse of anabolic steroids. The effort has also been picked up at the state level, as education standards often mandate that high school health classes discuss the dangers of abusing anabolic steroids.
This concerted government effort to discourage predominately teenage boys from dumping hormones in their bodies should be commended.
However, as well organized and as scientifically sound as this approach is, it stands in stark contrast to the tactic taken with teenage girls.
While it is true that girls are likewise discouraged from taking anabolic steroids, they are not discouraged from taking related steroid hormones in the form of oral contraceptives. In fact, they are encouraged strongly to take these by any number of educators, health care providers and governmental agencies.
As early as junior high school, young girls are encouraged not only to get on the pill but they are encouraged to continue its use through adulthood, coming off only long enough to have their 1.4 kids. Once women hit menopause, they finally are given a reprieve from the pill but in its stead they are prescribed estrogen replacement therapy.
Given this medical approach, you might get the impression that the female body was poorly designed and is badly in need of hormonal intervention at all phases.
While this impression seems justified based upon current medical treatment, nothing could be farther from the truth. In reality, the woman's body is designed quite elegantly, and therefore faces serious risks as a result of all this hormone dumping. Unfortunately, society, for the most part, just prefers to sweep these risks under the rug.
That their are health risks associated with oral contraceptives is not junk science, nor is it something that is hidden deep in obscure journals. It's there for all to see — albeit one has to be willing to look. For example, a meta-analysis of 14 studies looking at the health effects of low-dose oral contraceptives was published this past spring and concluded that women on these oral contraceptives have double the risk of heart attack and stroke versus women not on oral contraceptives.
The researchers also found that the elevated risk for heart attack and stroke does not decline if you look at the newer and supposedly “safer” second- and third-generation oral contraceptives.
While heart attack and stroke are serious risks of the pill, they are by no means the only ones. Other studies have found that low-dose oral contraceptive use is associated with an increased risk of miscarriage. In addition, many women, roughly 3%, become pregnant inadvertently when on oral contraceptives. These women unwittingly expose the developing baby to oral contraceptives, exposure that has been shown to cause fetal defects in lab animals.
Another medical risk associated with the pill results from the fact that postponing pregnancy, the main use of oral contraceptives, puts women at risk for certain cancers, particularly breast and endometrial cancers. Women who have children in their 20s gain a major protective advantage against both of these types of cancers, a protective effect that many women who spend decades on the pill forfeit.
Given the severity and number of risks, one would expect to hear a public outcry, or at the very least a Congressional hearing as in the case of anabolic steroid abuse. It seems logical but when it comes to oral contraceptives, things don't work that way. Instead, many women are not told about the risks, being counseled instead about the modest reductions in ovarian cancer that occur with oral contraceptives and the beneficial effect oral contraceptives will have on their complexion.
Even more disturbing is that oral contraceptives are often prescribed to help “fix” young girls with irregular menstrual cycles. Rather than look at the underlying causes of the irregularity (maybe depression or a poor diet) which might actually demonstrate some concern about the individual, these girls are given a hormone that has well known dangerous side effects and sent on their merry way.
Given our society's different approaches to oral contraceptives and anabolic steroids, one might be tempted to think that we as a whole value the lives of young boys more than young women. Why else would we discourage young boys from ingesting steroids while actively encouraging young women to do the same?
It may be tempting to think that but the real reason for this difference is not that our society is sexist, but that it is sex-crazed. The risks of oral contraceptives are tolerated mainly because it allows for more sexual license. It just so happens that women have to bear these risks. As a result, the sexual liberation that is so championed by the radical feminist movement has been purchased with the lives of young women.
This is even more apparent if one looks at what has happened with estrogen replacement therapy (ERT). With ERT, postmenopausal women are given estrogen alone or in combination with progestin (these are the same hormones found in oral contraceptives) to combat the side effects of menopause. In 2003, estrogen replacement therapy received a lot of bad press when a National Institute of Health study revealed that estrogen replacement therapy caused anywhere from a 10-40% increase in breast cancer, heart disease and stroke respectively.
This sobering data caused the National Institute of Health to stop the study prematurely out of concern for the health of the women involved, a decision that caused all kinds of debate within the medical community.
Now it doesn't take an epidemiologist to notice that the risks associated with estrogen replacement therapy are very similar to those associated with oral contraceptives —breast cancer, stroke, heart disease, etc. Despite the similar risks though, the response of the medical community has been quite different. In the case of post-menopausal women and estrogen replacement therapy, these risks have caused the medical community to rethink the treatment, while in the case of pre-menopausal women and the pill no one has batted an eye. This is despite the fact that women on the pill are at least at a four- to five-fold greater risk than the women taking ERT. Where is the logic in that?
The reality is that there is no logic.
The fact of the matter is that what our society seems to value most is sex detached from love and responsibility, particularly the responsibility of conception. Since post-menopausal women don't have to worry about conception, it's quite proper to be concerned and entertain the possibility that they stop taking these steroid hormones. In the case of pre-menopausal women though, the premium is placed upon preventing pregnancy even if that means jeopardizing their lives.
This risk can be justified because in the end those women that don't die, become infertile or have miscarriages, will have more fulfilling sex lives. At least that's what they have been told.
Daniel Kuebler, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of biology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Kuebler ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Bishops Debate, Renew Call for Death Penalty End DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — After hearing from a man who was found innocent while waiting on death row, the nation's bishops called for an end to the death penalty.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, at their annual fall meeting in Washington Nov. 15, voted 237-4 to approve their first comprehensive statement on the death penalty in 25 years.
“We're fallible as human beings, and this was someone whose life was almost taken, who was totally innocent,” Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, N.Y., said of the man who testified. “The use of the death penalty is not necessary today as it was in the past, when society couldn't be protected against murderers,” he told the Register at their annual fall meeting.
The statement, devised by Bishop DiMarzio's Domestic Policy Committee, describes capital punishment as a continuing sign of a “culture of death” in the United States. He said any Catholic support for the death penalty serves to undermine more serious battles against abortion and euthanasia.
“It is time for our nation to abandon the illusion that we can protect life by taking life,” the statement says. “When the state, in our names and with our taxes, ends a human life despite having non-lethal alternatives, it suggests that society can overcome violence with violence. The use of the death penalty ought to be abandoned not only for what it does to those who are executed, but what it does to all of society.”
In his encyclical The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II insisted that punishment “ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society.”
There were four bishops who rejected the statement in secret ballot voting. One observer at the meeting told the Register he hopes the statement doesn't confuse people into believing that Catholics are forbidden to support the death penalty under any circumstance. Unlike abortion, he said, Catholics can disagree on this subject.
“I would never preach what's in that document from the pulpit,” said Father Jerry Pokorsky, a finance administrator in the Diocese of Lincoln, Neb. “It encroaches too much on the rights of the faithful to form their own opinions about this important issue.”
Bishop DiMarzio said his committee took great care to make certain the statement would accurately educate readers about Church teaching. “Abortion and euthanasia are intrinsically evil, meaning we can never allow anyone to do these things,” he told the Register. “The death penalty is something different. It is not intrinsically evil. It's the state's right to protect the common good, to protect others. We're saying that the state should not use that right because it's not necessary, and they can protect society in other ways that don't involve killing.”
Death Row Witness
In a Nov. 13 study session on the statement, bishops heard from Kirk Bloodsworth, who was convicted of the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl. Bloodsworth spent almost nine years on death row before advanced DNA testing proved him innocent.
He told bishops that his story exemplifies the problems in the death penalty system.
“The same systemic flaws that led to my wrongful conviction, such as mistaken identification, inadequate representation, prosecutorial misconduct and basic human error plague the cases of innocent people in prison and on death row,” Bloodsworth said.
Bishops also heard from Mary Bosco Van Valkenburg, whose brother and sister-in-law were murdered.
“We wanted this murderer in prison for life so he could never hurt another person,” Van Valkenburg said. “Every time the state kills a person, human society moves in the direction of its lowest, most base urges.”
Archbishop Alfred Hughes of New Orleans questioned a statistic in the statement that says 119 people on death row have been exonerated.
“Is it exoneration, or is it situations in which people have been released on procedural grounds?” Archbishop Hughes asked.
“These are people who have been found innocent, not because of some procedural issue, but because they are truly innocent,” Bishop DiMarzio said.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City supported the statement but expressed concern during open debate that some anti-abortion Catholics, who favor the death penalty, might feel they're being lumped into the “culture of death” with the strong statement against the death penalty.
“I think by associating those who do not see our point of view, at this moment, with the ‘culture of death’ is not helpful to bringing them along,” Archbishop Naumann said. “Some of the pushback we receive comes from people who have a very thoughtful position on the other side. We acknowledge that there have been, and could be, circumstances in which the death penalty might be appropriate to protect society. It's a much different position than that of someone who supports an intrinsic evil.”
Bishop DiMarzio said the “culture of death” terminology in association with the death penalty comes from Evangelium Vitae.
Clear Distinction
Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb., told the Register he supported the statement because he felt it clearly identified abortion and euthanasia as intrinsic evils, unlike the death penalty.
“One can disagree with the bishops’ teaching about the death penalty and still present himself for holy Communion, but one cannot disagree with a teaching about abortion and euthanasia and present himself for holy Communion, and our Holy Father, as Cardinal Ratzinger, made that clear,” Bishop Bruskewitz said. “I'm satisfied that this document accurately reflects that.”
Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, agreed that the document does a good job of segregating the death penalty from abortion and euthanasia while still calling the faithful to counter capital punishment.
“It doesn't say it's intrinsically evil to support the death penalty, but it's an effort to lead Catholics who support the death penalty to another position,” Archbishop Chaput said.
Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Colo., who has said Catholics who support abortion and euthanasia should not present themselves for communion, supported the anti-death penalty statement.
“It's a call,” he told the Register, “for people to realize the death penalty accomplishes nothing, and it simply feeds into the culture of death.”
Wayne Laugesen is based in Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bishops' Docket: FEMA Faults, Jobs and More DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had a busy meeting in Washington, D.C., Nov. 14-17. In addition to approving statements on lay ministry and the death penalty, the bishops:
" Elected by secret ballot Msgr. David Malloy, currently an associate general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and a former member of the Vatican diplomatic corps, general secretary Nov. 15. Msgr. Malloy, 49, will take office Feb. 3. He has been an associate general secretary since 2001.
Msgr. Malloy will succeed Msgr. William Fay, 56, a priest of the Boston Archdiocese, who has been a bishops’ conference official since 1995 and general secretary since 2001.
The general secretary is the bishops’ chief staff officer overseeing their national offices at conference headquarters in Washington.
" Reviewed relief efforts in the wake of two devastating storms in the south this year. The bishops’ hurricane relief task force discussed how Church officials got the “runaround” from the Federal Emergency Management Agency when they wanted to know what federal plans were for helping the regions devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
The harsh criticism of FEMA came from Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, named earlier this year to head the task force coordinating Church aid to the regions devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
“It was clear to me that not a whole lot of help was coming from FEMA,” he said. Bishops’ conference officials had to engage in several conference calls with the White House before Jim Towey, head of the White House Office for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, was appointed as a liaison to the bishops, but still “the answers we were getting were not clear,” said Archbishop Fiorenza. “The task force believes strongly that we must continue to put strong pressure on the White House and Congress so that we get the needed answers.”
" Approved a revised Lectionary for Masses With Children. The text must be approved by the Vatican before it can be used in the liturgy in the United States. If that occurs it will replace the experimental children's Lectionary that has been in use since 1993.
The children's Lectionary features shortened Scripture readings and simplified vocabulary to adapt the texts to the shorter attention span and smaller vocabulary of its target audience, children 10 years old or younger. The responsorial psalms between the first and second readings for Sundays are typically shortened to three sets of verses, about half the length of those used by the full congregation.
" Authorized by voice vote a rewrite of their 1982 preaching manual, “Fulfilled in Your Hearing,” to acknowledge “current liturgical practice and understanding” and reflect the General Instruction on the Roman Missal issued by the Vatican in 2000, which was approved in 2002 for use in the United States.
— Wayne Laugesen CNS contributed to this report.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bishops' Debate Asks: What Is a Lay Minister? DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — A document that names laity who work in the Church “ministers” has some bishops concerned that the Church may be giving in to the vocations crisis.
Bishops in Washington for the annual fall meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 14-17 approved the new document on “lay ecclesial ministers,” titled Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord. Their 190-49 vote Nov. 15 achieved the needed two-thirds’ majority and followed two days of debate in which several bishops desired to send it back to committee for additional work.
“I'm concerned that there's this idea that we can't attract priests, so there won't be any priests in the future, and therefore we need to attract these lay ministers to perform various tasks,” Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb., told the Register.
Supporters of the document, including the National Association for Lay Ministry, say the document “affirms” more than 30,000 people working in Catholic lay ministry in the United States, 80% of whom are women.
“The big thing for us is the affirmation this provides because it's recognition of our roles by the bishops,” said Chris Anderson, executive director of the National Association for Lay Ministry in Washington, D.C. “It also clarifies some of the structure involved in lay ministry and establishes guidelines for the proper formation of lay ministers.”
The document recommends, but doesn't require, that directors of religious education, liturgy directors, general pastoral associates who assist the pastor in a wide variety of pastoral tasks, and lay parish administrators, have post-graduate educations. It calls for each diocese to professionalize the roles of lay ministers and the support systems they provide.
“We want bishops to establish standards, and this recommends that they do so,” Anderson said. “We want a professional cadre of ministers with good will. But it requires more than good will to work in lay ministry. A sophisticated background is required to deal with sophisticated issues.”
Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Colo., told the Register the initiative can be helpful if it isn't abused.
“I don't want this to be taken as a way to capitulate to the so-called ‘vocation crisis,’ which says we're not going to have priests so let's put that aside and get busy preparing lay leaders,” he said. “At the same time, clearly the Church recognizes the important role of lay leadership in catechists, liturgical ministers and all sorts of areas that a couple of generations ago we wouldn't have thought about. And if we're going to do that, we need guidelines and mechanisms for adequate formation.”
Explosion in Vocations
A new study by the National Pastoral Life Center titled “Lay Parish Ministers: A Study of Emerging Leadership,” shows that in the United States, more than 30,000 men and women serve in lay ministry roles. In 1990, professional laity helped staff 54% of U.S. parishes; in 2005 they're on staff at some 66% of all U.S. parishes. The study revealed that 74% of lay parish ministers work full time, and 80% are women. In 1990, religious sisters accounted for 41% of parish ministers; in 2005 they account for only 16%.
Common roles for lay ministers include parish associate, youth minister, and religious educator.
“I want both,” Bishop Sheridan said. “I want to see the Church cultivate religious vocations, and lay ministry. You can't have a Church without both.”
Curtis Martin, founder and director of the lay ministry known as Focus —Fellowship of Catholic University Students — said he's cautiously optimistic that bishops will work to direct and assist in the cultivation of more lay ministry in order to increase religious vocations.
“Certainly, there's a danger in encouraging lay ministry,” Martin said. “Those who have an agenda to change the priesthood may be tempted to use this in that way. But with Focus, we're finding that by engaging the laity in ministry we're seeing an explosion in vocations taking place. If done right, lay ministry can increase vocations, because we have growing numbers of laity who are on fire and they can't do their work without ordained priests and religious.”
Anderson agreed, saying, “If anything, a burgeoning lay ministry helps priests to continue in their sacramental ministries. There's no such thing as a priestless parish, and there's no possibility for that.”
In Denver, Archbishop Charles Chaput oversees an archdiocese known for attracting and building up lay ministries, such as Focus. He worries that the new document may be an effort to fix what isn't broken.
“I don't know that we need” the document, Archbishop Chaput told the Register. “There's a huge amount of lay ministry that already goes on that's well organized and well ordered, and I think this complicates matters. My biggest worry is that it might confuse volunteers about the roles they play, and it may lead to a certain kind of needless bureaucracy in the Church.”
Debate on Terminology
During debate on the issue, several bishops expressed concerns about use of the term “minister,” saying the word implies ordination in some Protestant denominations.
In response to one question, Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., chairman of the Subcommittee on Lay Ministry, who presented the document, pointed out that “ministry” was the term used to translate servitium in a 1998 Vatican document spelling out the differences between lay and ordained ministry. That document has been a significant point of guidance for Church authorities overseeing the development of lay ministries.
The new document says lay ecclesial ministry does not describe a new rank or vocation in the Church; rather, it is a generic term for a variety of positions held by non-ordained people who engage in substantial public leadership positions in Church ministry, collaborating closely with the ordained leadership and under their authority.Bishop Sheridan said he uses the term lay “leaders” rather than “ministers,” and he'll continue doing so.
“I'm in agreement with those who question whether some other term would be more felicitous,” Bishop Bruskewitz remarked. “The term ‘minister’ means everything now. The janitor is the minister of the mop. It gets silly.”
Wayne Laugesen is based in Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Shalt Thou Kill? DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Bullets whizzed by the young Catholic soldier's head, reminding him he might leave Iraq in a body bag. Explosions surrounded him. A hostile insurgent charged, and the solider shot him dead.
“Will I burn in hell?” he wondered, thinking of the Fifth Commandment's order, “Thou shalt not kill.”
During a visit home, the soldier's girlfriend heard of the killing and also worried about his soul.
If his soul is in trouble, it's not for that, says the Catholic Church (see sidebar). One unfortunate effect of the lack of catechesis is that Catholic soldiers haven't learned that theirs is a noble calling.
“I hear from soldiers and military chaplains on a daily basis” about Catholic wartime ethics, says Judy McCloskey, director of CatholicMil.org, an online support group for Catholics fighting war.
To make matters worse, some Catholic ethicists have confused the issue, and newspapers and wire services have reported their words as if they were Catholic doctrine.
Archbishop Edwin O'Brien of the Archdiocese for Military Services told the Register it can be difficult for a Catholic soldier suffering a crisis of conscience to get solid answers, based in Catholic teachings, because the Church has only 30 chaplains spread throughout Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I'm sure there are some who have qualms of conscience about pulling the trigger when another human faces them, and it should not be done lightly,” Archbishop O'Brien said. “But there is clear justification in self defense, and I think most of our troops realize they're there to defend innocents against terrorists. We're not the ones blowing up Jeeps and running car bombs into food markets. We're there to stop that, and I think that's rather obvious.”
Archbishop O'Brien said no mature Catholic, well versed in the faith, would mistake the Fifth Commandment as a condemnation of soldiers.
But that doesn't make killing any easier.
“Though a devout Catholic in that situation might still have trouble getting to sleep at night,” he said. “It should never be pedestrian or routine to kill.”
Chaplain Shortage
Though nothing's vague about Catholic teaching pertaining to the ethics of fighting war, McCloskey said thousands of soldiers probably live with needless guilt and anxiety because they're ignorant of Church doctrine, which is sometimes misrepresented by anti-Catholic activists and the mainstream secular press.
“Most of these guys in battle are young, ages 17 to 22,” McCloskey said. “They're giving their time, family life, and every comfort they've ever known to put their lives on the line for the rest of us. To even be questioned about the morality of killing in battle can be unnerving for them if they don't understand the context of the Fifth Commandment.”
But on the field, misinterpretations of the Fifth Commandment and reverence for life can be fatal.
McCloskey said hesitation to pull the trigger, in life-or-death battlefield situations, could easily cost Catholic soldiers their lives. McCloskey shared a typical e-mail sent recently to CatholicMil.org by a young solider in Iraq:
“I've killed an insurgent before, and probably will have to again when I go back,” the solider wrote. “My girlfriend thinks I've disobeyed the commandment not to kill. Have I?”
McCloskey had Catholic apologist Christopher Stefanick reply to the soldier, explaining that Church teaching views military service as the defense of innocent life and an honorable vocation that sometimes involves killing in defense of self and others.
“The Fifth Commandment does not outlaw all killing,” Stefanick wrote. “Hebrew actually has two separate words for killing. One refers to a ‘justified killing’ and the other to ‘sinful killing,’ which we often call ‘murder.’”
To make matters worse, Catholic denunciations of the justice of the war in Iraq put soldiers in a tricky position. Here again, soldiers needn't worry.
Catholic doctrine would place any guilt on the commander in chief — not the soldiers. Shakespeare put this doctrine into a soldier's mouth in his play Henry V.
“We are the king's subjects,” says a soldier, when asked about the justice of the fight the night before a battle. “If his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes
the crime of it out of us.”
“But if the cause be not good,” answers another, “the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make.”
Stefanick explained that this is because Jesus made clear the state's authority to order the taking of life — and Jesus said it clearest when he told Pilate that he had “authority from above” to order his own death.
Stefanick told of saints who served as soldiers and he quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which teaches: “Those who are sworn to serve their country in the armed forces are servants of the security and freedom of nations. If they carry out their duty honorably, they truly contribute to the common good of the nation and the maintenance of peace” (2310).
‘There to Protect'
Father Frank Pavone, director of Priests for Life, concurs that it's a mistake for anyone to use Catholic reverence for life as an impediment to fighting in a state-sanctioned war.
“The commandment, ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ refers to the taking of innocent life, directly and deliberately,” Father Pavone said. “The literal meaning is, ‘Thou shalt not murder.’ If a solider intentionally kills innocent civilians, he or she has broken the commandment. But if a solider carries out legitimate orders on a mission in the course of fighting combatants, that is morally different from murder.”
Lt. Colonel Brian Duemling, a Catholic from New Jersey, returned in October from a one-year tour of duty in Baghdad. His Army unit wound up in the middle of several rocket attacks, and Duemling was constantly aware that he might have to kill or be killed.
A fellow reservist in his division was a Catholic priest, and they often talked about God and Catholic morality.
“I was lucky that he was there,” Duemling said. “That factor absolutely helped me through the whole ordeal.”
Duemling said a Catholic solider in battle has not only the right, but the moral obligation to shoot aggressive enemy combatants.
“You're dealing with people who, in many cases, are evil and have no reverence for human life,” Duemling said. “Some insurgents believe they're fighting for a cause, and many others are just plain evil and they like to maim and kill. There are souls gone bad over there. We are there to protect the innocent children, husbands and wives who are trying to lead peaceful lives.”
Wayne Laugesen is based in Boulder, Colorado.
A Wartime Catechism
Duty to Defend
“ Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty,” says the Catechism, No. 2265. “T hose who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors.”
Military Honor
Not only do our fighting men and women not sin, “If they carry out their duty honorably, they truly contribute to the common good of the nation and the maintenance of peace,” says the Catechism in No. 2310.
The Draft
“ Public authorities … have the right and duty to impose on citizens the obligations necessary for national defense,” it says in No. 2310.
Limits of War
Does that mean all's fair in love and war? No. “Non-combatants, wounded soldiers, and prisoners must be respected and treated humanely,” says the Catechism in No. 2313.
Genocide
“The extermination of a people, nation, or ethnic minority must be condemned as a mortal sin,” says the Catechism in No. 2313. “One is morally bound to resist orders that command
genocide.”
Conscientious Objectors
“Public authorities should make equitable provision for those who for reasons of conscience refuse to bear arms; these are nonetheless obliged to serve the human community in some other way,” it says in No. 2311.
----- EXCERPT: They face terrorists abroad, protests at home - and their own consciences ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Letters to the Editor DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:Seeing is Disbelieving?
Regarding “Do Catholics Understand the Real Presence?” (Oct. 30-Nov. 5):
Perhaps the simplest explanations are best: When Jesus declared at the Last Supper that the bread and wine he blessed was now his Body and Blood, the apostles saw, ate and drank what appeared to be nothing more than bread and wine, just as we do today. Were the bread and wine consecrated by Jesus his body and blood? Few Catholics would dispute this.
And did he not charge his apostles and their successors to “do this in memory of me?” Why, if Jesus is not “really present,” would St. Paul warn his readers not to partake in the bread and chalice “unworthily”?
As Cardinal Avery Dulles has written, we should “not … inquire too curiously (about this unique mystery) because our minds can easily become confused in speaking about such an exalted mystery. It is better simply to accept the words of Christ, of Scripture (and) of the traditions of the magisterium.”
I might add that we might also begin to think of the events that took place in the upper room not as the Last Supper but as the First one.
JAMES BEATTY
Lompoc, California
A major concern of the October Synod of Bishops was the fact that many Catholics do not understand Christ's presence in the Eucharist (“Do Catholics Understand the Real Presence?”, Oct. 30-Nov. 5).
There are at least half a dozen biblical quotes that support our belief in the Real Presence. Matthew 26:26-29 states that Jesus took bread, broke it and said, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks saying, “Drink from it all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. In Luke 22:14-20, we have similar language proclaiming the same thing. In John 6:55-58, we have “for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”
Paul also offers the identical proof in 1 Corinthians 11:23-25, restating the same words of Christ. Further in 1 Corinthians: “Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment upon himself.”
The foregoing passages offer concrete proof that we are not merely talking about bread and wine. For the authors of Scripture to spell out such positive statements concerning mere bread and wine makes no sense. The only conclusion to be drawn is that we are truly blessed with Christ's Real Presence.
Why do we as a Church struggle to convince Catholics of this fundamental belief?
EARL HAGEN
Grand Blanc, Michigan
Intelligent Discourse
Regarding “Design or Dumb Luck?” (Oct. 30-Nov. 5):
The argument neo-Darwinists use against the theory of Intelligent Design is circular and evasive. It goes something like this: Intelligent design implies the activity of an intelligent agent, namely God. God is the proper object of religion, not of science. Therefore, the theory of intelligent design is religious and inappropriate for study in a science course.
By further confounding intelligent design with biblical creationism, they erect the “wall” of separation of church and state, and by an a priori process, protect their cherished but unproven theory of materialistic evolution from any competition. To regard teaching intelligent design in the classroom as a violation of the establishment clause in the First Amendment is laughable.
Nowhere do they refute intelligent design theory directly or indirectly by statistics or by any other means. They just want it dead. Science courses must not be allowed to contaminate the reigning orthodoxy by anything that smacks of a divine intelligence. They are locked into Darwinism and they want the students to be locked in also.
The dirty little secret is that these “scientists” are atheists first and this mindset erects formidable boundaries against the development of any scientific theory, which is not completely materialistic.
DR. ROBERT J. SHALHOUB
Vienna, Virginia
Complicatedly Catholic Colleges
Regarding “Inaugural Catholic College Survey” (Sept. 25-Oct. 2):
Thank you for your articles about the presence or absence of Catholic standards in many of our ostensibly Catholic colleges and universities, and for highlighting the small minority that is swimming against the tide.
My daughter Ann, who graduated from Santa Clara University around a decade ago (but who is still an orthodox Catholic), just sent me an e-mail stating: “An official from the Jesuit-run Santa Clara University in California told Catholic News Agency that hosting a two-day long conference, on how to promote opportunities for gays and lesbians at Catholic colleges is ‘the Catholic’ way to act, as opposed to highlighting the intrinsic immorality of homosexual acts.”
You can see an example of why I have firmly refused to contribute to that college, preferring to send my money to Catholic institutions like Christendom. Ann said she is sending a protest to that university, and I am planning to suggest that she send a follow-up to her bishop.
With regard to the list of authentically Catholic vs. formerly Catholic colleges and universities, I suggest the need for at least one other category: semi- (or quasi-) Catholic. This could include any ostensibly Catholic institution that has a major Catholic focus, but that also allows or even promotes significant violations of Catholic norms. I suspect that Notre Dame and every Jesuit college or university in the country fits into that category.
THOMAS J. CUNY
Alexandria, Virginia
Parents, Not Partners
Regarding “Boston Catholic Charities Defends Homosexual Adoptions” (Nov. 13-19):
Boston Catholic Charities is way off base in placing children with homosexual partners. Homosexuality is and has always been considered disordered. Homosexuals should get medical help, not children. Children need the nurturing environment of both a mother and father if they are to mature into normal adult males and females. Placing children in a disordered household is at best an injustice and at worst cruel.
FRANK DIORIO
Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey
Ticking Gift
Regarding “Boston Catholic Charities Defends Homosexual Adoptions” (Nov. 13-19):
The article relates how Catholic Charities in Boston is “cooperating with evil” by allowing homosexual couples to adopt children. We see yet another “Catholic” agency caving in to the rampant relativism of today and, sadly, Father Bryan Hehir is letting the ends justify the means.
His fear is that, if the agency does not bend to the political pressure being imposed, they will lose their funding and will not be able to help the countless others that various levels of government subsidize. That may be true, but is the retention of this “gift” worth what it compromises?
There is no question that, once this door is open, it will be flung wide with similar conditions on any other government subsidies given.
HANK SCHMALEN
Sleepy Hollow, Illinois
Pullman Patrol
As a teenage fan of The Chronicles of Narnia, I thoroughly enjoyed the article “The Lion, the Witch and the Christians” (Nov. 6-12). I would especially like to thank you for including the quotation by C.S. Lewis assuring those of us who have fallen in love with Aslan that we have fallen in love with Christ. I have always felt guilty that I am devoted more to Aslan than to the Christ of “our world.”
However, in the same article, you quote Philip Pullman without indicating that he is the author of the His Dark Materials trilogy. When no reference is made to the fact that his works are terribly anti-Catholic, he seems like a perfectly credible critic of Lewis’ very Catholic literature. It should first be made clear exactly who is quoted and what he stands for.
ELIZABETH BARNES
Germany
Musical Note
I am writing to comment about an article in your Nov. 6-12 issue by Gail Besse, “Where Occult is Promoted, ‘Saint Fest’ Takes Center Stage.”
It is, on the one hand, heartening to hear that young Catholics love and comprehend our holy faith enough to speak (or sing) in defense of the good, the true and the beautiful. May the Holy Spirit enlighten the minds and strengthen the wills of all those good people who organize and run “Saint Fest” in Salem, Mass.
I think the time has come, however, for us Catholics to be educated or to educate ourselves about music. I haven't heard of anything that might be called the Catholic theology of music, but I think something is developing along those lines.
Father Basil Nortz, ORC, has given a series of talks, available on CD titled “Music and Morality.” I heartily recommend them to all people. For information, go to opusangelorum.org or e-mail opusangelorum@rc.net.
LISA P. EVANS
Lynwood, Washington
Habemus
At the very least, there should be at least one Latinist at the disposal of the Register. Your caption headline on the review of George Weigel's new book reads “Habemus Papem [sic] Half a Year On” (Nov. 13-19).
“Friends,” my Latin professor, Fr. Reginald Foster, OCD, would say, “the 64 bus driver is laughing at you.”
FR. CHRISTOPHER NALTY
Rome
Mass Optimism
I was edified by the Oct. 23-29 article “Boston Archdiocese Making Progress, With the Help of Prayer.”
Congratulations to the men's prayer group at St. Paul's in Cambridge!
Congratulations to Boston's Archbishop Sean O'Malley!
Congratulations, especially, to the 25 new men's prayer groups that were created as a result of the Boston Catholic Men's Conference.
Now if they could just figure out how to get rid of a certain senior senator from Massachusetts, they would be in great shape.
ROY FORKER
Gillett, Pennsylvania
Additional Information
Readers who lack Internet access yet would like to contact Mother Mary Ministries, featured in our Nov. 6-12 Prolife Profile (“Mother Mary Comes to Me”), may write the group at 144 Dawson Drive, Castle Rock, CO 80104.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Rome's Newest Tourist Attraction: Pope Benedict DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — It is one of the main topics of conversation at Rome's coffee bars, restaurants and hotels, and with the city's taxi drivers, travel agents and tour guides: the massive numbers of visitors filling the city's piazzas and churches, art galleries and Roman ruins.
After all, it is mid-autumn, the weather fluctuates between glorious Indian summer days and torrential downpours and the “high season” for tourists ended two months ago. And yet they come.
A principal attraction for many visitors is Pope Benedict XVI.
The Pope, early in his pontificate, made it clear to close collaborators that he did not want to be the focal point for pilgrims in Rome. He hoped, rather, that visitors would come to Rome to increase their knowledge of the Church, to see the tombs of the apostles, martyrs and founders of religious orders and congregations, and to visit and pray at the patriarchal basilicas, especially St. Peter's.
Visitors to the Vatican see it differently. For Catholics, in particular, Benedict is the visible head of the universal Church. He is the Successor of Peter and the Vicar of Christ. No small matter for a Catholic — and so they come to see him.
A survey done for the Italian weekly magazine, L'Espresso, six months after Benedict's election to the papacy on April 19, showed that the new Pope — though not termed “charismatic” — is viewed by Italians as very “straightforward,” as having an extremely “understandable” way of expressing himself and, though called “conservative,” is seen as “very open to dialogue.”
Surpassing John Paul
Statistics released along with the L'Espresso survey show that the Holy Father, from May through September 2005, has seen more than twice the number of people as his predecessor, John Paul II, did in the same period of 2004. Indeed, Benedict has welcomed more than 410,000 people to Wednesday audiences and 600,000 to the Sunday Angelus, compared to 194,000 for audiences and 262,000 at the Angelus for Pope John Paul.
Why the startling difference in figures?
What the public began to see over six months of appearances at weekly audiences and the Sunday Angelus was the softer, gentler, compassionate side of an innately humble man whom the media had spent years describing as “rigid,” “doctrinaire” and “God's watchdog.” They gradually witnessed the transformation of a shy person, someone reluctant to be in the limelight, into someone becoming used to the glare of flashbulbs and the applause of amazingly large crowds.
Religious Sister of Mercy Anthony Mary Diago works at the Bishops’ Office for U.S. Visitors to the Vatican, located in central Rome at the Casa Santa Maria, the site of the original North American College. Every Tuesday afternoon, Sister Anthony Mary, together with the office director, Msgr. Roger Roensch, and North American College seminarians who volunteer their time, welcome hundreds of Americans who have requested tickets to papal audiences. In so doing, they have their pulse on the Americans coming to visit the Vatican.
“The enormous media coverage of Pope John Paul's funeral,” said Sister Anthony Mary, “and the indescribable crowds who came to Rome to see him, to participate in the funeral, to learn more about the Church, to see the election of Pope Benedict, all this awakened many people to the Catholic faith, awakened many Catholics to their faith. People came to Rome by the millions. And they are still coming in amazing numbers — to see Pope John Paul's tomb, but also to see the new Pope.
“It is a great gift to the Church,” added Sister Anthony Mary, “to have these pilgrims come because they are fascinated by the office of pope. We talk to people every week who tell us they are here to see the Pope, to discover the roots of the Church, of their Catholic faith.”
Rome's
Many taxi drivers, restaurateurs and hotel employees credit the large numbers of people who come to see Pope Benedict as “something normal when there is a new Pope.” The particularly large influx this year, they say, is due in no small part to the fact that Rome made a bella figura (great impression) last April when it handled with aplomb the more than 3 million mourners who came to the city.
Polish residents are quick to point out that John Paul II attracted enormous crowds to Rome in life, and is doing the same in death. In fact, over the last six months, at least 20,000 people per day have filed past the late Pope's burial site in St. Peter's Basilica. Many of those who file past his tomb also stay to attend the weekly audiences or Sunday Angelus.
One Polish priest said the huge crowds at the Vatican reflect continued interest in John Paul's teachings, and are a tribute to his love for the Church, his love of the priesthood as a life of service, and the life and vigor and charisma he brought to the papacy.
There is, however, one very important factor that cannot be overlooked in judging the size of the crowds who come to see Benedict XVI. Private audiences for groups on most weekdays have notably decreased since Benedict became Pope.
Whereas Pope John Paul daily received groups ranging in size from 60 to 6,000, from congregations celebrating their general chapter to members of the World Jurists Association to diocesan pilgrimages, from scouts to doctors to scientists to ecumenical groups, Benedict receives far fewer groups. Most groups requesting an audience are now included in the Wednesday general audience. Many others present themselves, waving banners of identification, in St. Peter's Square for the Sunday Angelus.
Whatever the reason, it appears that Benedict came, saw and conquered.
Joan Lewis writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joan Lewis ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Which Takes Priority, The Children or the Chores? DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:FAMILY MATTERS
My husband and I are feuding over the state of our home. He wants it to be spic and span, but my priority is our two young children. I think it's more important to be present to them than to worry about a sticky kitchen floor. Who's right?
Tom and Caroline: Both! Of course the well-being of your children trumps the sheen on your hardwood. With little ones around, a measure of contained chaos is to be expected. There are some days when it's all we can do to keep everyone warm and well-fed. Remind your hubby that, in the blink of an eye, your toddlers will be graduating high school. He'll long for the day when he could stub his toe on a toy truck or trip over a teddy bear. You'll have oodles of time then to scrub and polish.
At the same time, cleanliness is important. We have to be good stewards of what the Lord has given us. The family has to function. Dishes have to be washed. The laundry has to be put away. Our children simply do better in an orderly environment. Order even makes play more fun: When they open the block box, they find blocks. When they open their Star Wars case, they find Star Wars action figures. Order also sounds important to your husband, which is no small matter. Even if Mount Laundramore doesn't faze you, if it bothers your husband, you need to improve out of love for him.
Caroline: I've struggled with this ever since my first son was born, trying to find the balance between being a good mom and a good homemaker. In fact, just recently I was tempted to despair. No matter how hard I tried, I could not keep the house in shape and the kids happy. I wanted to quit and declare it impossible. But a friend mused that, if God called us to be good wives and good mothers, then it can't be impossible. There is a way.
How can we do it all? First, remember that our goal is not a house ready for the cover of House Beautiful magazine; our goal is order. Second, we need a schedule — bathrooms on Monday, yard on Saturday, iron on Sunday and so on. If we're waiting until we “have the time,” nothing will happen. Consider swapping the kids weekly with a friend so that you can have a solid block of time to work. The kids will love it.
And third, consult experts and invest in some resources. Pick the brains of moms who are doing a good job. Glean the best ideas from a solid Catholic author. For example, Holly Pierlot's A Mother's Rule of Life (Sophia Institute Press) has helped me get on track.
Tom: A word to husbands: Your wife needs your help. The more you pitch in, the less stress she'll feel. Order in the home takes both of you.
Caroline: Some days we're called to sit down and play “Chutes and Ladders” for the umpteenth time; other days we're called to persevere and mop the floor. We can ask the Lord and his mother for the wisdom to know what kind of day we're facing.
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: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:Indecency Complaints to FCC Rise Fourfold
REUTERS, Nov. 10 — Complaints to the Federal Communications Commission regarding obscene programming on radio and television increased dramatically over the past three months, from 6,161 complaints during the previous three months to 26,185, said Reuters.
While the FCC did not release information on the shows that received the complaints, insiders believe that a majority of them resulted from campaigns launched by the Parents Television Council against programs on ABC and FOX.
Some critics describe the FCC's numbers as inflated because they count each complaint, whether it was sent by an individual more than once or whether it was sent through an advocacy group.
“The FCC … permits a process whereby indecency complaints appear to be artificially inflated relative to other types of complaints,” said Adam Thierer, a senior fellow with the Progress and Freedom Foundation.
On Nov. 29 the Senate Commerce Committee plans to hold an “Open Forum on Decency.”
Alito Questioned Abortion Decision
The disclosure was made through a job application released by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. The application was for a promotion Alito, a Catholic, had applied for during the Reagan administration.
Abortion supporters questioned Alito's views.
“Here, unfortunately, the memo itself created the perception of bias,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. “It will be crucial for this nominee to address the issue head on.”
Fired California Teacher Reaches Settlement
KXTV, Nov. 11 — Marie Bain, the Sacramento Catholic high school teacher who was fired in October, has reached a settlement with the Diocese of Sacramento, said KXTV.
Bain had been fired on the orders of Sacramento Bishop William Weigand after a parent of a student at Loretto High School complained that Bain had volunteered for Planned Parenthood.
Bain said that her involvement at Planned Parenthood took place prior to her being hired by the high school this fall, and that she had not participated in any activities since taking the job.
In exchange for an undisclosed sum of money for lost income, Bain agreed that she would not sue the diocese.
FDA Decision on ‘Morning-After’ Pill Faulted
The organization reported that it found four aspects of the FDA's review “unusual.” It said FDA heads Dr. Florence Houn, Dr. Jonca Bull and Dr. John Jenkins refused to sign the agency's decision, that high-level management was more involved in the decision than usual, that there were conflicting accounts among mid-level and senior managers over whether the decision to reject the pharmaceutical request was made before scientific evaluations had been done, and that the FDA's rationale for shielding younger adolescents did not follow FDA practices.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, who requested the inquiry, suggested that the FDA bowed to politics in deciding not to make the drug available.
“GAO's final report describes an appalling level of manipulation and suppression of the science,” said Waxman.
Those opposed to making the drug available over the counter argue that it would lead to greater promiscuity by teens.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Does Reason Need God? DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:Cardinal Christoph Schönborn's “Finding Design in Nature” from the July 7 New York Times, still generates a considerable stir since its publication.
Although his precisely worded statement merely reiterates the Catholic Church's critical view of evolutionism (see John Paul II, Fides et ratio, no. 54; General Audience, 27 May 1998, No. 5), some believe that Schönborn's “unofficial” clarification signals a new and worrisome development in Roman Catholic doctrine. (See Prof. Lawrence Krauss's July 12 Letter to Pope Benedict XVI [http://genesis1.phys.cwru.edu/~krauss/papalletttxt.htm].) Reacting to Cardinal Schönborn's clarification, professor Kenneth Miller, one of the signatories of Krauss's letter, issued a pointed response, “Darwin, Design, and the Catholic Faith.”
Miller's response is instructive, inasmuch as it illustrates a prevalent misunderstanding of the Catholic Church's nuanced position on evolutionary theory. In his response professor Miller declares:
“But the cardinal is wrong in asserting that the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution is inherently atheistic. … Consider these words from George Gaylord Simpson: ‘The process [of evolution] is wholly natural in its operation. This natural process achieves the aspect of purpose without the intervention of a purposer; and it has produced a vast plan without the concurrent action of a planner. It may be that the initiation of the process and the physical laws under which it functions had a purpose and that this mechanistic way of achieving a plan is the instrument of a Planner — of this still deeper problem the scientist, as scientist, cannot speak.’”
Exactly. Science is, just as Pope John Paul II said, silent on the issue of ultimate purpose, an issue that lies outside the realm of scientific inquiry. This means that biological evolution, correctly understood, does not make the claim of purposelessness. It does not address what Simpson called the “deeper problem,” leaving that problem, quite properly, to the realm of faith.”
Passing over debatable aspects of Simpson's (deistic) line of thought, I wish to rebut Miller's belief that Pope John Paul's teaching supports his, rather than Schönborn's, position. During a 1985 general audience, John Paul II offered a particularly important observation:
“Scientific proofs in the modern sense of the word are valid only for things perceptible to the senses, since it is only on such things that scientific instruments of investigation can be used. Science must recognize its limits and its inability to reach the existence of God. It can neither affirm nor deny his existence.”
That seems entirely consistent with the view defended by Miller, who is fond of citing the Pope's Oct. 22, 1996 message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The Pope added a key qualification, however:
“From this, however, we must not draw the conclusion that scientists in their scientific studies are unable to find valid reasons for admitting the existence of God. If science as such cannot reach God, the scientist who has an intelligence, the object of which is not limited to things of sense perception, can discover in the world reasons for affirming a Being which surpasses it. Many scientists have made and are making this discovery”(general audience, July 10, 1985).
The foregoing indicates that Miller has misconstrued the Pope's actual teaching. John Paul affirmed that God's existence cannot be demonstrated by relying exclusively on the methodology of the experimental sciences. It would be incorrect to infer, however, that the Pope endorsed the commonly held fideist opinion that the discovery of divine providence is restricted to the “realm of faith.”
Although a strict demonstration of the operation of divine intelligence in the natural order is not a properly scientific proof in the modern sense, human reason can use empirical scientific data to arrive at true knowledge that God exists. This is precisely the anti-fideist stance of Cardinal Schönborn,l who said:
“[F]aced with scientific claims like neo-Darwinism, invented to avoid the overwhelming evidence for purpose and design found in modern science, the Catholic Church will again defend human reason by proclaiming that the immanent design evident in nature is real. Scientific theories that try to explain away the appearance of design as the result of [blind and unguided] ‘chance and necessity’ are not scientific at all, but, as John Paul put it, an abdication of human intelligence.”
Exactly. In contrast, Miller and others seem to embrace the fideist opinion, which precludes a thorough integration of faith and reason. (See my article, “Darwin & Design,” in Truth Matters, ed. John Trapani [Washington, D.C.: American Maritain Association/Catholic University of America Press, 2004].)
Unlike Cardinal Schönborn's traditional Catholic stance, Miller's fideist opinion finds considerable support in our public schools, which typically deny the intellectual legitimacy of science instructors’ posing deeper ontological questions in the classroom.
For the sake of the common good and of scientific rationality, which depend ultimately on a divine intelligence that eludes scientism's reductionist horizon, one may hope that our public schools will soon adopt a far less benighted attitude toward the divine vis-à-vis the life of the human mind, and acknowledge Cardinal Schönborn's central insight regarding the principle of finality.
Peter A. Pagan Aguiar Ph.D. is a professor at Aquinas College in Nashville, Tenn.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Peter A. Pagan ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Faith Has No Borders DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — You might say he takes care of the vocal chords of the Vatican — Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi is the new director of Vatican Radio. This month, he succeeded Jesuit Father Pasquale Borgomeo, who had headed the Vatican's broadcaster for more than two decades.
Father Lombardi spoke Nov. 12 with Register correspondent Edward Pentin about Vatican Radio's mission and his vision for its future.
How long have you worked at Vatican Radio?
Fifteen years, always as the program director. I arrived at the beginning of 1991.
Before that you were the Jesuit Provincial for Italy?
Yes, for six years, and before that I was with Civilta Cattolica, 11 years there, and for a long period I was the deputy editor on the publication.
During the Cold War, the radio was often referred to as the voice of the catacombs — the only means by which Catholics in Soviet bloc countries could keep in contact with the universal Church.
Yes, this is a vocation of Vatican Radio, to help in particular the Churches and nations where there is no freedom, particularly no religious freedom.
I think that one of the original ideas of Pius XI was that it should speak across barriers, to nations in which there was no freedom. During his time, there was Nazism and communism in large parts of the world. The shortwave radio was the only means to speak to these people and to give them a sense of presence of the Pope and the universal Church.
From the beginning, this was a vocation of Vatican Radio, and also during and after the war with the spreading of communism being a big part of Eastern Europe. We have this tradition as an important part of our work. Naturally, we now have so many languages for Eastern Europe because we did impressive work of communication to countries which had no religious freedom, nations of Eastern Europe under the communists.
Albania was one of those nations, and the radio was awarded a prize by the country's prime minister in November.
Yes, exactly, that was very kind. The prize came from the president of the republic but it was the prime minister who came to personally give the prize. But the decision to award it originally came from a predecessor who was a socialist. So it's interesting that the decision came not from a particular party.
But it's recognition from all the people of Albania, also in recent years, because we continue our work there. They recognize that our work crosses over the parties, [Vatican Radio] tries to speak for all the nation, all the people of good will, educating and to trying to bring dialogue and not siding with one party or another.
It's very important now, after communism, for many of these nations and of these Churches to accompany them in this new situation. There are people who think that after communism, there's no need for us to broadcast, but this is totally stupid. We broadcast for people and the Church in these nations.
Under the communists they had the problem of persecution and no freedom, but now they have other problems: to cope with the new situation, to grow in democracy, to learn the message of the Church in a more secular society that now has new religious problems.
We have a lot of work to do in this case, and I am happy that the Albanians have recognized at this time the good of Vatican Radio, not only in the past but also for today.
Is Vatican Radio's outreach to China and the Middle East, where persecution can be harsh and religious freedom severely curtailed, key to the radio's mission?
Yes, but we have two major concerns: China and Vietnam. They have a long [radio] program — more than 40 minutes each day in these two languages because the Church in these nations has many problems. But the main problem is of communication, receiving materials for the good of Christian formation, and also information — good and objective — about the line of the Pope and the Vatican. So in this sense our programming for China and Vietnam is very important.
Now there is the possibility to work with the Internet. This is something new and many people listen or read on the Internet our contributions even if sometimes in China today there are obstacles preventing free use of the Internet. In any case, this is a new way of broadcasting.
For the Middle East regions, we have one program in Arabic and we also have the broadcasting of the Mass in English for the foreign workers who are there — Filipino and Indian. In Saudi Arabia they are not allowed to have possibilities for worship. Exactly for these main reasons, and in India, we need shortwave because that's the only way to reach there from here without hindrance.
What's your vision for the radio?
I would say that the mission of Vatican Radio is very clear and real: to offer good communications between the center of the Church and the universal Church, and people who are interested in knowing the service of the Pope and his teaching. This is a very real mission that we will continue to do and it's very, very important because in a world of communication it is difficult to be united for such an important mission.
And we have to continue to be very universal in our perspective, in our use of different languages, in enculturation of the same message. We're a little mirror of the universality of the Church.
What changes very much is technology and the different ways we have to communicate. We are going towards more integrated and multimedia way of communicating.
In this sense I don't see Vatican Radio only as radio — we are already on the Internet, not only with sound and written text, and I think we have to integrate that with images, to work in synergy with Vatican television, to be multi-medial, to give text, sound and image.
Also, we have to see how we can diffuse this message with different means. We have already begun podcasting. We have to keep up to date to communicate.
The mission is clear: to serve the universal Church, to serve the Pope and the universal Perspective — that is, to be at the disposition of the Church in the world.
Edward Pentin writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: Vatican Radio Reaches China and the Middle East ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Prolife Victories DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:Up With Marriage
That broad interest across political lines contributed to the highest participation in a constitutional amendment election in Texas since 1991, with roughly 18% of registered voters turning out.
“We didn't even call Republican homes,” said an organizer form a pro-family organization. “We called Hispanics, African-Americans and rural Texas voters. That's where the numbers were,” he said.
Adult-Cell Generator
Faculty at FSU's College of Chemical Engineering said the “perfusion bioreactor” was developed without using cells derived from embryos or fetuses, but only from adult donors.
Fetal Pain Info
In addition to printed material that physicians must give to women considering abortions, the new bill would require doctors to verbally inform women of the fetus's ability to feel pain at 20 weeks, and is likely to endure pain if an abortion is performed.
The printed material also includes information on agencies offering alternatives to abortion.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: What St. Catherine Laboure Saw, 175 Years On DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:The Catholic faith has deep roots in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love.
It was home to Sts. John Neumann and Katharine Drexel, and it's the birthplace of the Perpetual Novena of the Miraculous Medal.
With this Nov. 27 marking the 175th anniversary of the manifestation of the Miraculous Medal, my wife, Mary, and I headed to Philly. In particular, we wanted to visit Central Shrine of the Miraculous Medal — where the perpetual novena originated 75 years ago.
The shrine is a large, granite church in the Germantown section, away from downtown. The church was dedicated in November 1879, as the chapel for the Vincentian Fathers’ major seminary. On Dec. 8, 1901, it became a parish — the Church of the Immaculate Conception.
That was an apt name, we thought, because the official title of the Miraculous Medal is the “Medal of the Immaculate Conception.”
“Have a medal struck after this model,” our Blessed Mother told Sister (now St.) Catherine Laboure on Nov. 27, 1830, when she appeared to her in the Daughters of Charity convent on Rue du Bac in Paris. “All who wear it will receive great graces; they should wear it around the neck. Graces will abound for persons who wear it with confidence.”
The Blessed Mother herself designed the medal. And here in 1915, after Vincentian Father Joseph Skelly received special favors from Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, he founded the Central Association of the Miraculous Medal (CAMM) to spread devotion to Mary under this title and distribute the medals.
By 1927, Father Skelly began holding a novena to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal four times yearly, and Cardinal Dennis Dougherty dedicated the new shrine to Our Lady. It fills the church's huge right transept.
Father Skelly called this magnificent Chapel of the Immaculate Conception the “Center and Heart” of the Association of the Miraculous Medal — the reason for the name “Mary's Central Shrine.”
Glories of Mary
Here, in the image of a life-sized statue appearing as she did to St. Catherine Laboure in the second apparition, our Blessed Mother extends her hands to receive us and pour out God's graces to us.
This image of Our Lady is finely carved from pure Carrara marble and considered one of the finest in the world. She stands above an exquisite altar with ornamental reredos and central tabernacle, all of white-veined marble and colorful Venetian mosaics.
Delicate spiral columns outline three of the mosaics on the front of the altar. Two capture our Blessed Mother's first and second apparitions to Catherine Laboure in delicate details.
Another two mosaics to either side of Our Lady's statue bring our eyes back up to her, full of grace. The mosaics depict the front and back of the Miraculous Medal in a way that reminds one again of their meanings.
The whole shrine radiates as a glorious palace of colorful marbles and liturgical art for our Blessed Mother. The half dome glimmers with Venetian mosaics set in a luminous gold-mosaic background. In the dome's center, we studied the Holy Spirit and the eye of God the Father surrounded by a cloud of angels.
Also in the dome, our Blessed Mother appears with Sts. Vincent de Paul and Catherine Laboure to either side of her. St. Vincent founded both the Vincentian Fathers and St. Catherine's order, the Daughters of Charity.
Honors go to Mary everywhere. Even the shrine's entire marble floor is inlaid with a mosaic of several rare marbles in roses, greens and golds that surround the name Mary with several liturgical symbols of the Star of David and the Trinity.
High above this shrine, the transept's rose window presents stained-glass petals encircling Our Lady; saints with special devotion to Mary seem delighted to be in her presence at last: Therese of Lisieux, Bernadette, Dominic, Simon, Jude and Louis de Montfort.
We couldn't help but wonder at the thousands — millions? — of prayers offered to our Blessed Mother at this very shrine since Father Skelly originated the perpetual novena on Dec. 8, 1930, as part of the 100th anniversary celebration of her apparitions to St. Catherine Laboure.
Never-ending Novena
Since he established the Perpetual Novena of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal on Monday nights, never has a Monday passed without this novena at Mary's Central Shrine.
Even when a 1995 blizzard shut down this city, a few hearty souls made their way here to continue the streak. Today, an average 1,100 people attend one of Monday's 10 novena services. In earlier years, the soul count reached upwards of 10,000.
At each novena service of homily, prayers and Benediction, the priest starts by reading a few of the thousands of thanks for the favors people have received — everything from conversions to family reconciliations to jobs and health; from healed marriages to help with exams and safety in travel. Today, many of the thanks are for someone's cure of alcoholism or freedom from drugs. Another biggie: couples having trouble getting pregnant.
At the shrine, they also stop at the colorful statue of the first apparition near the main altar. Many pilgrims place written petitions directly in the hands or at the feet of Our Lady and St. Catherine. Behind them is a beautiful statue of St. Joseph with Jesus, carved in Rome.
The shrine in the lower church is also well attended. We found it resplendent with brilliant, exquisite mosaics telling the stories of Mary's apparitions that have been affirmed by the Church.
Across the street, the offices of the Central Association have an extensive Marian museum of fine art. It was closed the day we visited, but primary treasures include one of the first 10 Miraculous Medals struck in France in 1832 and a piece of the cloth from the chair the Blessed Mother sat in during the first apparition.
The shrine, like the medal, reminds us constantly to always honor and petition Our Lady in the words she herself wanted inscribed around her image: “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
Planning Your Visit
The shrine, located at 500 E. Chelten Ave. in Philadelphia's Germantown section, is open daily from 7:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays it's kept open till 8:30 p.m. For a schedule of Masses and novenas, or for information on the museum, call (800) 523-3674 or visit CAMMonline.org on the Internet.
Getting There
From downtown Philadelphia, take Route 611 to Germantown Avenue (Route 422). Turn right on Chelten Avenue. For directions from other starting points, call (800) 523-3674 or visit CAMMonline.org on the Internet.
----- EXCERPT: Central Shrine of the Miraculous Medal, Philadelphia ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Miraculous Medal Turns 175 DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:PARIS — It's small and inconspicuous. It has power unknown to most people. If used properly, it could have a positive effect on this French capital, where it originated and which is recovering from recent rioting.
“It” is the Miraculous Medal, worn on a chain around many Christians’ necks for nearly 175 years — from peasants to great saints like Maximilian Kolbe.
Nov. 27 is the 175th anniversary of the apparition of Mary to St. Catherine Labouré that led to the creation of the medal. The Blessed Virgin, who had been appearing since July of that year to the young novice of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, asked her to have a medal struck that would bring great graces to those who wear it “with confidence.”
The first Miraculous Medals were struck two years later, and ever since then, the sacramental has taken on a history of its own. It is a powerful means of devotion to Christ and the Blessed Mother, a great source of graces, and a heaven-revealed route for numberless conversions, healings and favors granted.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta handed out Miraculous Medals to everyone, from devout Catholics to those with no religion.
“She would say to everyone, ‘Pray to Our Lady — here is a Miraculous Medal,’” said Missionary of Charity Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, the postulator of the cause for her canonization.
When, for example, women told Blessed Teresa they were having difficulty getting pregnant, she'd answer, “Here is a Miraculous Medal. You pray.”
“And Mother Teresa's prayer,” said Father Kolodiejchuk, “was very simple and direct: ‘Mary, Mother of Jesus, give us a child.’” Many women soon found themselves happy mothers.
There's no end to the “Thank Yous” for favors and blessings received that pour in to the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Perryville, Mo., and to Mary's Central Shrine in Philadelphia (see Travel, page 13).
Based on the people who visit the Perryville shrine or write in, Vincentian Father Henry Grodecki, president of the Miraculous Medal Association, knows there are plenty of people having difficulties. But he notices “a certain sense of serenity about them, and peace in the midst of difficulty.
“It's almost more important than the favors they're receiving,” he said.
Donna Masek of Sandy, Utah, experienced this peace in a deep way. When she and husband, John, first came to Utah, where Catholics are a minority, she was afraid to wear her medal on the outside. Mary helped her overcome that fear, she believes.
But two days later, she had a miscarriage. Throughout the experience, the refrain, “The angels will take you to paradise,” stayed with her.
“In my heart, the angels were ready to take this child back to heaven,” she said. “‘Don't be afraid,’ I thought.”
Masek sees the Miraculous Medal as a sign of Our Lady and her role in our lives. “There's nothing that we should be afraid of,” she added. “The medal helps us remember that there's a very real woman attached to it.”
Father Grodecki finds many miracles aren't of the grandiose Cecile B. De Mille variety.
“They're sort of quiet,” he says. “People pray for their children to come back to the Church, and they do. People pray operations go well, and they do. People have remission from cancer. It seems Mary's care through the ordinary stuff of life, the little miracles, so often seems to come that way.”
Her never-ending care through this sacramental she herself designed began shortly after she revealed it to St. Catherine Labouré on Nov. 27, 1830, in the convent of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul on Paris’ Rue du Bac. “Have a medal struck after this model,” the Blessed Virgin told her. “All who wear it will receive great graces; they should wear it around the neck. Graces will abound for persons who wear it with confidence.”
People immediately took the Blessed Mother at her word. By 1834, it was called the Miraculous Medal, as countless conversions took place and favors were granted.
The medal was initially called a medal of the Immaculate Conception. This was years before the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was declared, Father Grodecki said.
The front of the medal, in fact, shows Mary in the now-familiar image of the Immaculate Conception. She stands on a globe as mother and queen of mankind. Rays flow from her hands. Mary told St. Catherine, “These rays symbolize the graces I shed upon those who ask for them.”
Father Grodecki finds this key message and the devotion it generates an antidote to some of today's attitudes, especially in American culture's strong emphasis on the self-made approach to life.
“But that rugged individualism,” he concludes, “sometimes gets in the way of allowing God and Our Lady to work in our lives. And her basic message is to cast your cares on her, to be dependent. That's where the sense of well-being comes from for so many of the people who pray to her.”
History of Conversions
Wearing the Miraculous Medal is not a magical thing to make God or Mary act for us, said Father Grodecki. Rather, it's a pledge to be open to her working in our lives.
“Putting on my habit in the morning reminds me of who I am called to be,” explained Conventual Franciscan Father Stephen McKinley, guardian at Marytown in Libertyville, Ill., the national center of the Militia of the Immaculata, which was founded by St. Maximilian Kolbe. “Wearing a medal or a scapular reminds us who we are called to be and act as a child of God. It's a powerful concrete reminder that helps us get our priorities straight.”
For example, when people confess to him that they are visiting immoral websites, he has them tape the Miraculous Medal to their computer. “See if you can go places you shouldn't with Our Lady looking at you,” he tells them.
Father McKinley notes that many conversions were associated with this medal. In fact, St. Maximilian Kolbe became a great promoter of the Miraculous Medal after he read the story of the conversion of a wealthy French Jew, Alphonse Ratisbonne in 1842.
Strongly anti-Catholic, Ratisbonne accepted the medal from a Catholic convert friend and agreed to wear it and say the Memorare twice a day as “an experiment.”
A week later, Ratisbonne found himself in a Rome basilica where Our Lady appeared to him looking like the Miraculous Medal image. He immediately knew about his spiritual state and the Catholic faith. He converted, became a priest and spent his life in the Holy Land converting others.
“Maximilian thought: If Our Lady could do that with one soul, why couldn't she do it with the entire world to bring them to Jesus?” Father McKinley said. “He passed the medals out left and right and called them his ‘little bullets.’”
Father McKinley told this story to fifth graders at Holy Family Parish in Peoria, and the students were eager to pass them out everywhere.
“I would give them tons of medals,” he explained. “One little boy said he left them on the cans of soup in the supermarket so someone who needs them would find them. That's in the spirit of St. Maximilian. He believed if you can get them in the hands of the people, then Our Lady will do the work through that powerful sacramental.”
In the Miraculous Medal's 175 years, she's proven it in billions of ways.
Joseph Pronechen is based in Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: All the World's a Blogosphere DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:Twenty million. That's approaching the gnat population of the Midwest in August.
Yet that's where the blogosphere is: 20 million blogs — online personal journals — and multiplying fast.
That's a huge jump since 1999, the year free weblog software became available. Back then, there were only 30 known blogs. Now it seems like everyone's blogging.
And those who don't have a blog of their own read others’ blogs and opine in the available comment boxes.
Thirty-two million Americans were reading blogs at the beginning of 2005. Now more than 50 million — one sixth of the population — are. Many credit bloggers (or blame them, depending on point of view) for derailing John Kerry's presidential run and hastening Dan Rather's resignation from the anchor desk at CBS News.
We're living in a world gone blog. Hence this new column.
Every month or so, I'll tell you what's happening in the Catholic niche of the blogosphere. I'll point out the sites that are worth visiting and, when I'm feeling acerbic, make note of which ones aren't.
There won't be many of the latter. There are scads of Catholic blogs, and a strong majority of them are maintained by defenders of the faith rather than dissenters.
Which brings me to what qualifies me to write this column. I've labored in orthodox Catholic publishing for years, with bylined articles not only in the Register but also New Covenant, Catholic Exchange, Godspy and Our Sunday Visitor. I also edited Gilbert Magazine (aimed at devotees of G.K. Chesterton) for a short spell.
And, yes, I blog.
My site, The Daily Eudemon (ericscheske.com/blog), offers an entertaining mix of social and cultural commentary from a Catholic perspective. With a following of approximately 500 visitors a day, it's not the most popular Catholic blog on the Internet. Still, considering that many blogs scare up fewer than 100 readers, it's not invisible, either.
I also contribute to two other blogs: Chesterton and Friends (chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com), and Crux Magazine's Blogs (cruxmag.com). The former is dedicated to G.K. and his ilk (like C.S. Lewis and Hilaire Belloc). The latter is a start-up endeavor of St. John's Fellowship, publisher of Touchstone magazine.
In the course of my blog work, I surf hundreds of blogs and come across many relatively unknown but talented writers. I'll highlight as many of them as I can in this monthly column.
I hope the column proves a reliable guide to the Catholic blogosphere, because the service is needed. Quite a few blogs are junk. Many are poorly written, heterodox or suffering from other shortfalls; others aren't updated frequently enough to deserve your time.
It's estimated that fewer than 15% of blogs are updated at least once a week, and a significant number of the 20 million blogs are defunct. There is no consistently reliable way to find good bloggers, other than to slog through the crowded blogosphere — an endeavor that requires a lot of free time, plus plenty of patience.
Here's hoping — and praying — that this column will make your trips to the blogosphere enjoyable. Maybe even spiritually fruitful.
Secret Treaties
Check out SecretAgentMan's Dossier, run by Ian A.T. McLean (secret-agent.blogspot.com). McLean sets up his blog so it seems like you're looking at a spy's dispatches. On most blogs, you can click on the “Home” link and get back to the main page. At SecretAgentMan, you click on “Central Command.” You don't e-mail the McLean, you “Make Contact.”
And you don't get 100 short posts a week. You get one or two big reports (which are “transmitted,” not merely “posted”). Occasionally he transmits a short report, but mostly, he sends lengthy essays that run thousands of words.
In the blogosphere, they say length is death, but it works for McLean. He's been blogging for three years. That alone is an accomplishment, since blogging burnout often hits after a mere six months.
But it's not just perseverance. McLean is a gifted writer. He has twice won awards for “Most Insightful Catholic Blog” (2003 and 2005). Author and fellow blogger Mark Shea (markshea.blogspot.com) calls McLean's blog the “Porterhouse Steak of the blogosphere,” and says McLean is “one of the great undiscovered essayists of our times.”
If you want a trip to a more cerebral side of the blogosphere, you may want to consider stopping in at SecretAgentMan's Dossier from time to time.
Will the new box-office blockbuster The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe make us weary of C.S. Lewis? Internet Monk Michael Spencer thinks it might.
“I am afraid that the story so many Christians have loved will never be loved the same way,” he blogs, “because so many of us will be sick of those children and that lion, courtesy of marketing maniacs making sure we all have the ‘Narnia Experience’ until we're tired of it.” Check out the rest of his thinking on the matter at internetmonk.com.
Cashing Out
Bloggers like a little pay for their efforts. The Internet provides different compensation schemes, including a plan from Amazon that gives bloggers store credits if readers click on an Amazon link from their blog and purchase a book.
Domenico Bettinelli, editor of Catholic World Report magazine, used a high-tech version of this plan at his blog, bettnet.com. He gave Amazon key words (Benedict, John Paul II and so on) and Amazon posted ads to his blog with similar titles.
Unfortunately, Amazon changed the program and, instead, sent software to scan his blog's content for an indication of the type of books readers of that blog would enjoy. Bettinelli frequently writes about the homosexual culture war. Amazon's software concluded that “gay issues” must be one of his interest areas and, in Bettinelli's horrified words, “started putting up ads for books about and by gays, including some salacious covers.”
Bettinelli has since dropped that Amazon program.
See you next month.
Eric Scheske welcomes comments and suggestions at ejscheske@yahoo.com.
Visit his blog, The Daily Eudemon, at ericscheske.com/blog.
----- EXCERPT: And Catholics have carved out a noticeable niche ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eric Scheske ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Curl Up With the Catholic Faith DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:THE CATHOLIC PASSION: REDISCOVERING THE POWER AND BEAUTY OF THE FAITH
by David Scott
Loyola, 2005
234 pages, $19.95
To order: (800) 621-1008
or loyolabooks.org
Some books can be profitably read at stoplights during your commute: quick, to the point, just the facts, nothing too deep. David Scott's The Catholic Passion is not one of those. It should be read when you've got a block of free time to spare and an unoccupied armchair to fill. Add a fire in the fireplace. Maybe some Gregorian chant on the stereo.
“Most of us receive our entire education in the faith at a relatively young age,” Scott writes in the book's foreword. “But the faith was never meant to be something we ‘graduate’ from as we do from high school. Our knowledge and understanding of what we believe is meant to deepen as our relationship with Jesus deepens. The first Christians spoke of mystagogy, a kind of life-long immersion in the mysteries of the faith. This book is a small exercise in twenty-first century mystagogy.”
Rather than going deeper by way of the Catechism, the Scriptures and Church documents, Scott chooses to explain the Catholic faith “by way of the experience and faith expressions of real Catholics — saints, composers, poets, playwrights, activists, ordinary believers.” You might want to arm yourself with a notepad so you can remember to check out the paintings of Catholic convert William Congdon, the sculptures of Frederick Hart and the writings of novelist Julian Green. Scott's description of Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time piqued my interest in a composer I had never heard of before. Messiaen composed it in a Nazi concentration camp.
Broken down by topic, the chapter list is pretty standard for an overview of the Catholic faith: the life of Christ, God's pursuit of man, Christian life and morality, the papacy and apostolic authority, the sacraments, sacred Scripture, prayer, the Mass and the “last things” (judgment, heaven, hell and purgatory). But I've never seen these topics explored in quite this inviting a way.
For example, in the chapter on sacraments we hear from the memoirs of French novelist Francois Mauriac as he recalls his first holy Communion, and from the late writer Andre Dubus describing the sacramentality of the everyday task of sandwich-making.
The person I envision sitting by the hearth in his armchair reading this book is a well-read, intelligent, practicing Catholic who is secretly bored with his faith and wants to go deeper, or an intellectual who has never shown any interest in the Catholic faith because it seems to him a religion of easy answers and rote responses. The erudition and skill with which Scott writes helps the first to rediscover and the second to discover for the first time how compelling, convincing, rich, deep, satisfying and rewarding the Catholic faith really is.
“Whether you are Catholic or not, this book invites you to take another look at the Catholic religion,” Scott writes. “If there is one theme that runs through these pages, through all the Scriptures and the many Catholic lives and works we have discussed, it is this: God's passion of love continues in the Catholic Church. The Catholic passion is God's passion. In the work of the Church and in the lives of Catholics, God shares in our sufferings, offers his life to us, tries to teach us to love.”
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a fire to re-light.
Clare Siobhan writes from Westmont, Illinois.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Clare Siobhan ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Narnia and The Mind Behind DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:The December opening of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in cinemas around the world will ensure that millions meet — or renew their interest in — the mind of C.S. Lewis.
That can only be a good thing, as the writer was as gifted a Christian apologist as he was a storyteller.
Lewis published 34 books between 1931 and 1962. Since then, hundreds of books have been written about him and his writings. Why the intense interest? For one thing, Lewis is unique among Christian writers. He's able to reach readers from a variety of religious backgrounds and no religious background. His writings provide a bridge between different Christian cultures and an invitation to skeptics to explore Christian ideas.
Although Lewis, a professor at Oxford and Cambridge, remained an Anglican until his death in 1963, his books have helped many souls find their way into the Catholic Church. A list of notable converts who credit Lewis for contributing to their Catholic conversion would take several paragraphs.
That's an article for another time. For now, with the highly anticipated movie run upon us at last, here's a starter list of (mostly new) books for those who want to go deeper into Narnia — and the mind behind it — than the local multiplex will allow.
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA
by C.S. Lewis
Harper-Trophy Full Color Collector's Edition
HarperCollins, 2000
7 books, $59.99
Available in bookstores
All editions of Narnia are not alike. The words are the same but the quality, legibility and presentation differ. This boxed edition of trade-sized paperbacks has a readable typeface printed on high-quality, glossed paper. And Pauline Baynes, illustrator of the original editions of the series back in the 1950s, colored her black-and-white illustrations in 1991 especially for this edition — all of them. Adults will enjoy the historicity of the artwork while children will find it an irresistible invitation to read.
One suggestion: Read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe first rather than The Magician's Nephew, which is numbered first. Although Nephew can be read as a prequel to Lion, the former assumes a familiarity with the Narnian universe that is best gained by reading Lion first.
INSIDE NARNIA: A GUIDE TO EXPLORING
THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE
by Devin Brown
Baker Publishing, 2005
192 pages, $12.99
To order: (800) 877-2665
or bakerpublishinggroup.com
Written for the literary-minded and the Narnia enthusiast, Brown's book focuses on the most famous Narnian book with a chapter-by-chapter discussion. There are several other books this year focusing on the spiritual themes of Narnia, or specifically The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but this work avoids the all-too-prevalent tendency to preach to the reader. That's also worth noting since Baker is an evangelical Protestant publisher. The story's Christian themes as well as its literary background are explored, and the opinions of a wide range of Lewis scholars are meticulously referenced. Inside Narnia is a comprehensive and illuminating study of Lion, drawing from a variety of perspectives and presented with panache.
REVISITING NARNIA: FANTASY,
MYTH AND RELIGION IN C.S. LEWIS
Shanna Caughey, editor.
Benbella Books, 2005
240 pages, $14.95
To order: (214) 750-3600
or benbellabooks.com
This collection of essays is fascinating for the diverse viewpoints of its contributors. If you are interested in reading some of the top-notch Christian Lewis scholars, you will find Catholics (Jesuit Father James Schall, Joseph Pearce, James Como) and Protestants (Peter Schakel, Colin Duriez, Louis Markos). Of the 25 writings offered, these six alone are worth the price of the book. Also included are essays from several agnostics and even an animal-rights activist. (Where else are you going to find a chapter titled “Why I Love Narnia: A Liberal, Feminist Agnostic Tells All”?)
THE NARNIAN: THE LIFE AND
IMAGINATION OF C.S. LEWIS
by Alan Jacobs
Harper, 2005
342 pages, $25.95
Available in bookstores
There are already a dozen or so Lewis biographies in print. Yet this new entrant, written by a professor of literature at Wheaton College who is a contributor to First Things and the Weekly Standard, is a welcome addition.
If there is a theme at work in these pages, it is to link Lewis’ life and imagination with the Narnia stories. During the years Lewis was writing the series, he was also at work on his autobiography, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of my Early Life (1955). Jacobs traces his correspondences without succumbing to a version of what Lewis called “the personal heresy” — the idea that poetry is first and foremost the expression of the poet's personality. While respecting Lewis’ achievements, Jacobs avoids hagiography, is willing to question the literary quality of Lewis’ work and candidly discusses Lewis’ most significant relationships. These include his strained relationship with his father (Albert), his strong bond with his brother Warnie, his unusual arrangement with Mrs. Janie King Moore (with whom he lived for 28 years), his friendship with J.R.R Tolkien and other “Inklings,” and his late-in-life marriage to the brash American poet Joy Davidman.
Not just a derivative rehash of previous biographies, Jacobs’ book is a work of original analysis, thoughtfully and modestly offered for consideration.
INTO THE REGION OF AWE:
MYSTICISM IN C.S. LEWIS
by David Downing
Inter-Varsity Press, 2005
207 pages, $17
To order: (630) 734-4000
or ivpress.gospelcom.net
Downing is one of the most highly respected Lewis scholars writing today. His other books, Planets in Peril (a study of Lewis’ Ransom trilogy), The Most Reluctant Convert (a biography of Lewis’ early life) and Into the Wardrobe (an introduction to the Narnia stories) are all recommended. Into the Region of Awe is worth a look because of the unique subject matter it treats: the influence of Christian mystics in Lewis’ writing.
Along with an introduction to Lewis’ thought on mysticism, the book also serves up an overview of some of the great mystical writers — Augustine, Dante, Thomas a Kempis, Brother Lawrence, Julian of Norwich and others. Downing explains what separates Christian mysticism from New Age varieties and shows how Lewis portrays mystical experience as a sense of longing and awe (sometimes referred to as the numinous or Sehnsucht) in his fiction. This useful volume from one of evangelical Protestantism's biggest publishers is both instructive and intriguing.
REMEMBERING C.S. LEWIS:
RECOLLECTIONS OF THOSE WHO KNEW HIM
James T. Como, editor
Ignatius, 2005
360 pages, $16.95
To order: (800) 651-1531
or ignatius.com
Previously titled C.S. Lewis at the Breakfast Table, this collection of remembrances by people who personally knew C.S. Lewis was first published in 1979. It's been considered a standard Lewis reference for 25 years, as the insights of many of Lewis’ closest friends (George Sayers, Owen Barfield, Bede Griffiths, Roger Lancelyn Green, Austin Farrer, Adam Fox and A.C. Harwood) provide a unique perspective on the man's character and influence. Walter Hooper, one-time secretary of C.S. Lewis and the man most responsible for guiding Lewis’ literary legacy, contributes an up-to-date bibliography of all Lewis’ writings. The book's editor, James Como, is also the author of Branches to Heaven, the Geniuses of C.S. Lewis (Spence Publishing) and a founding member of the New York C.S. Lewis Society.
In the interest of full disclosure, I must note that Como is also my “Grand-godfather” — the sponsor of my sponsor — by conversion. (I was received into the Catholic Church in 1998.) The work of C.S. Lewis continues to draw followers of Christ into the Catholic Church.
Robert Trexler is editor of CSL:
The Bulletin of the New York
C.S. Lewis Society.
----- EXCERPT: RECOMMENDED C.S. LEWIS READINGS ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert Trexler ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:SUNDAY, NOV. 27
Food Network Challenge:
Holiday Cake-Off
Food Network, 10 p.m.
In this hour-long episode, six teams of cake artists compete in Sea Island, Ga., where they each have six hours to make a fantastic cake.
MON.-FRI., NOV. 28-DEC. 2
Advent Retreat
EWTN, 3 a.m., 6 p.m. daily
Father Pablo Straub conducts five daily hour-long sessions to help us along our spiritual way to the stable in Bethlehem.
DAILY, NOV. 29-DEC. 7
Novena to the
Immaculate Conception
Familyland TV, 12:30 a.m., 7:30 a.m., 5:30 p.m. daily
What a wonderful use of TV is this daily novena leading up to the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8.
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 30
Great Performances:
Renee Fleming — Sacred Songs and Carols
PBS, 8 p.m.
Mainz Cathedral (the Cathedral of St. Martin) is the majestic Romanesque setting for this 60-minute concert by U.S. soprano Renee Fleming with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Trevor Pinnock. Fleming sings “Adeste Fideles,” “O Holy Night,” Gounod's “Ave Maria,” Christmas classics by Bach, Berlioz, Handel and Mozart, and more.
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 30
Rudolph, the
Red-Nosed Reindeer
CBS, 8 p.m.
This beloved 1964 stop-animation special is based on Gene Autry's 1949 Christmas hit song, which in turn was based on Robert May's 1939 storybook for the Montgomery Ward stores. Actor-folksinger Burl Ives narrates the story of underdog (so to speak) reindeer Rudolph, whose shiny red nose made him the target of mockery until one glorious Christmas Eve when he used it to light the way for Santa's sleigh.
THURSDAY, Dec. 1
Have No Fear: The Life
Of Pope John Paul II
ABC, 8 p.m.
This two-hour premiere interpretation of the late Holy Father's life was filmed in Rome
and Lithuania and stars Thomas Kretschmann in the title role. Advisory: TV-PG.
THURSDAY, DEC. 1
Life on the Rock
EWTN, 8 p.m.
Guesting is the Register's film and video critic, Steven Greydanus, creator of the DecentFilms Guide website. Tonight he discusses the new movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
FRIDAY, DEC. 2
Santa Claus Is
Comin’ to Town
ABC, 8 p.m.
In this 1970 TV animated special, Kris Kringle/Santa overcomes a winter wizard and a grumpy mayor to bring toys to the kids of Somberville. Fred Astaire is the narrator and Mickey Rooney (real name Joe Yule Jr. — honest!) is Santa's voice. We learn all sorts of made-up “facts” about Santa, such as that he was left on a doorstep as a baby.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Vatican Media Watch DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:Work Starts on Nativity Scene at St. Peter's
ANSA, Nov. 15 — Vatican preparations for Christmas got under way Nov. 15 as workmen began erecting the traditional Nativity scene in front of St Peter's Basilica, the Italian news agency reported.
The Nativity scene has been a regular Christmas fixture in St Peter's since 1982, when the custom of building a 13-foot-high house with life-size figures in it was started by Pope John Paul II. Along with a giant fir tree which is always placed near it in the square, the creche has become a Vatican fixture, and families often make special trips to see it.
Nativity scenes were the cause of controversy in Italy last year after several schools decided against having one in order to avoid offending Muslim pupils. Amid the controversy, John Paul II stressed that they were part of Christian culture.
He said, “They are a familiar and expressive representation of Christmas. They are an element of our culture and our art.”
Iraqi President Discusses Freedom With the Pope
AKI, Nov. 10 — Iraqi President Jalal Talabani met Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican on Thursday for talks believed to have centered on religious freedoms in Iraq and the country's new constitution, the news service Adnkronos International reported.
The Vatican is seeking a commitment by the Baghdad government because it fears that the Christian community, a tiny minority in a traditionally Muslim country, may be marginalized in the ongoing political processes and forced to flee from Islamic fundamentalism.
Talabani had a brief private audience with the Holy Father, followed by a meeting with Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano. Talabani also met with Italy's top officials, including Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
The president stated, “I explained to His Holiness that the Iraqi Constitution will consider all Iraqis — Christians included — equal and will respect all religions. All kinds of freedoms will be guaranteed for all.”
Vatican Newspaper Denounces Abortion Pill
AGENZIA GIORNALISTICA ITALIA, Nov. 15 — L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's daily newspaper, claims that “a sort of contest between regions that are becoming avant-garde banners of the denial of the value of life” has developed as a result of the latest requests for authorization for experimentation on the abortion pill RU-486, the Italian news service reported.
The column “Rome Watchdog” stated the contest was “in the name of a misinterpreted lay status of the state, in the name of scientific progress that alleviates people's suffering, in the name of supposed emancipation of women.”
It is a “cruel, cynical hypocrisy, because the morning-after abortion pill aims at disguising the real nature of the abortion that it in fact comprises and remains a suppression of an innocent human life.”
Human life, the column stated, “is not something that is dispensable, something that can be the subject of banal experimentation to be used on a standardized and easy basis as a popular [and the most tragically effective] means of birth control.”
Irishman Named British Ambassador to the Vatican
GUARDIAN UNLIMITED, Nov. 15 — The Foreign and Commonwealth Office raised eyebrows in diplomatic circles when it announced an Irish Catholic in his mid-30s is to be the new British ambassador to the Vatican, the British website reported.
Francis Campbell, 35, is a former foreign policy adviser to Tony Blair.
He will be the first Irishman to represent Great Britain abroad since the partition of Ireland in 1921.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Video Picks & Passes DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:THE HAROLD LLOYD COMEDY COLLECTION: PICK
MARCH OF THE PENGUINS: PICK
(2005)
SKY HIGH: PICK
(2005)
For fans of silent comedy, it's the DVD event of the decade: Harold Lloyd, the “Third Genius” of silent comedy (Chaplin and Keaton being the other two), until now almost totally unavailable on DVD, at last enters the modern home-video age in grand style with The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection. The three-volume, six-disc set (with a bonus disc available with the full set) features all the comedian's greatest and best-known films, and then some.
Finally, movie buffs who know Lloyd only from the famous image of the bespectacled star dangling perilously from the hands of a giant clock 12 stories above the streets of Los Angeles can enjoy Lloyd's entire nerve-wracking skyscraper climb in Safety Last!, found in Volume 1. Volume 2 features two of Lloyd's best films, college football spoof The Freshman and Lloyd's all-time masterpiece, The Kid Brother, a frontier thrill comedy with Lloyd pitted against his loutish older brothers, a bullying neighbor, and medicine-show hucksters. Volume 3 includes Speedy, Lloyd's last silent masterpiece, shot in various New York City locations and featuring a spectacular trolley-car chase scene and a cameo by Babe Ruth.
Lloyd's films make wonderful family viewing. Last night I watched Safety Last! with my three older kids, and they laughed hysterically throughout. They're also great fans of The Kid Brother, and enjoyed Grandma's Boy and a number of shorts available in a previous DVD edition. I'm looking forward to introducing them to Speedy, The Freshman and others in coming weeks.
New on DVD this week, March of the Penguins was the surprise hit of the summer, another French nature documentary in the tradition of — though not quite the same league as — Winged Migration, Microcosmos and Atlantis. Narrated by the ubiquitous Morgan Freeman, the crowd-pleasing film documents a year in the love life of emperor penguins. This involves a laborious cross-country trek, grueling endurance and a delicately timed sharing of incubation and chick-rearing duties in which any mistake can mean death.
Though frank about the harsh realities of penguin life (eggs roll onto the ice and freeze, chicks die, and a mother bird is eaten by a hungry seal), the film is a rewarding portrait of the tenacity of life in even the harshest conditions.
Also new this week is Disney's Sky High. Set in an airborne high school for the children of superheroes, the story blends two genres. It takes the now-familiar family-film premise of otherwise ordinary families inhabiting a world of colorful comic-book adventure (The Incredibles, Spy Kids) and weds it to the venerable clichés of the John Hughes-style high-school coming of age films today's parents grew up with.
It's hardly inspired, but it's competent, wholly inoffensive and mildly entertaining throughout. The fusion of the two sets of conventions manages to hold together for an hour and a half or so, and the film knows better than to outstay its welcome. Measured against the summer's other family fare, Sky High, starring Kurt Russell, registers somewhere between the superior March of the Penguins and the lackluster Herbie: Fully Loaded; it's neither as visionary nor as maddening as Tim Burton's schizophrenic, inspired/self-indulgent Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
CONTENT ADVISORY: This week's picks are all generally fine family viewing. Slapstick, action violence and mild menace are common in the films of The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection, and occasionally a particular film may be less suitable for children than others. The March of the Penguins contains documentary frankness about the harsh realities of penguin life, and Sky High contains recurring stylized menace and romantic complications.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Catholics Split on Muslim Class DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:BYRON, Calif. — When Byron, Calif., public school teacher Brooke Carlin had her middle school students role-play Muslims, it stirred up a storm of parental complaints and a lawsuit.
But that was in January of 2002, with the 9/11 terrorist attacks fresh in the nation's mind.
Now, even Catholics are split on the issue.
Lawyers for parents Jonas and Tiffany Eklund told three judges of the 9th Federal Circuit Court what happened in the middle school that caused all the fuss.
Twelve-year-old students were given Muslim names and name tags that also displayed the star and crescent. They were issued instructions on Muslim piety, and asked to fast and complete other Muslim practices. They were required to recite a Muslim prayer, namely, “In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate.”
No comparable activities were used to teach other religions.
The case has been in court before.
It was decided in the Byron Union school district's favor in December 2003, and it came up for appeal in late October.
The Thomas More Law Center took on the case when the Eklunds’ protests about their children's inclusion in Islamic activities fell on deaf ears.
Thomas More is the Ann Arbor, Mich., based legal advocacy organization dedicated to defending Christian rights, family values and the sanctity of human life.
The center claimed Carlin had gone beyond instruction to indoctrination, violating the constitutional rights of students Chase and Samantha Eklund, who are Christian.
Edward White III of the Thomas More Law Center said he hopes the court will be motivated to overturn the lower court's ruling out of fear of a decision boomeranging on them.
“I told the judges,” said White, “that if this decision weren't reversed, then the Thomas More Center would be back later to argue that every religion should be given the same treatment, that students should be told to become Catholics for a few weeks, wear crucifixes, role play as priests and hear one another's confession, and take the names of saints. And it would be intellectually dishonest of the court to refuse this.”
Catholics Split
The Thomas More Center customarily argues the other side on such cases, defending Christianity's presence in the public schools. Indeed, the center has been defending the Dover, Pa., public school district against parents protesting its inclusion of intelligent design references in the science curriculum on the same grounds White is using in California, that the board has violated the students’ First Amendment rights.
There are plenty of Catholics who have a different view of the case.
Father Ron Schmit of St. Anne Catholic Church in Byron is certain the lawsuit is wrong, however.
“I'm really angry at it: a bunch of outsiders coming into this small community where we all know each other, using this thing for their own political advantage,” he said.
According to Father Schmit, the course was beneficial. He was invited to participate, speaking to classes about the Catholic faith and even loaning vestments to students who were parishioners when it came time to role-play Christianity.
“Role playing is how some people learn best. And to understand the medieval period you can't ignore Islam.”
Rev. Dan Sturdivant of the Byron United Methodist Church also supports the Islamic component in the curriculum.
“It's not indoctrination. It's very secular,” he said. “But because it came out after 9/11, some parents went nuts. For most people now, this is just not an issue. The school district sure isn't trying to promote any particular religion.”
Interestingly, Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, a frequent ally of the Thomas More Center, also sides with Father Schmit on this issue.
“I have nothing but respect for them, and we've worked together before,” he said, “but I have to disagree with them on this one.”
Donohue thinks a better approach would be to try to get “equal treatment for Christians, and to expand the public expression of religion of any kind.”
For those concerned about Islam, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches about the Church's relationship with Muslims. “The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims,” it said. “These profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day” (841).
It echoes the Vatican document on the Church's relationship with other religions, Nostra Aetate, which was recently in the news on its 40th anniversary.
The Second Vatican Council taught: “The Church regards with esteem also the Muslims. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even his inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, his virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting.”
Only Pastor Steve Collins of the Grace Bible Fellowship in nearby Brentwood issued a minor caution. While it would probably “benefit” public school students to learn about world religions, he would “hope that they gave equal balance to the Christian element, especially in the founding of this country.”
“The courts have determined there should be separation of church and state,” Collins continued. “It's concerning to me that they have divorced the life and history of the country from the school.” Collins’ own children are taught in private academies or are home schooled precisely to avoid these problems, he said. But he could see how parents would be upset when their children were asked to role play as Muslims. “The prayer part would be distressing to me.”
According to White, a decision could take six months. And he is well aware of the irony.
“If this were done with Catholic material, the judge would throw it out in the blink of an eye because it was establishing a religion,” he said.
Unfortunately for policy makers, he said, the courts have applied the First Amendment in such an inconsistent manner to both schools and public facilities — in terms of displays of Nativity scenes or the Ten Commandments — that nobody can safely predict where the line between indoctrination and instruction will fall in any particular case.
“It's total confusion,” he said of religious instruction. “No one knows what's right or wrong.”
Steve Weatherbe is based in Victoria, British Columbia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steve Weatherbe ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: God's Love Is Revealed Throughout History DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:More than 22,000 pilgrims attended Pope Benedict XVI's general audience in St. Peter's Square Nov.16. The Holy Father, whose catechesis focused on the first half of Psalm 136 during his previous general audience, offered his reflections on the second half of the psalm.
The first part of the psalm, the Pope reiterated, praises God for his mighty work of creation. The second half, he pointed out, speaks about God's wondrous deeds throughout salvation history, especially during Israel's exodus from Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea and the journey through the desert.
“We know that biblical revelation repeatedly proclaims that the presence of God the Savior is manifested in a particular way throughout the history of salvation,” he noted.
“The desert and sea represent, therefore, the passage through evil and oppression in order to receive the gift of freedom,” Benedict said. Psalm 136 is, therefore, a celebration of God's loving, active and faithful mercy. God's intervention in the history of mankind culminates in the mystery of the Incarnation, as the Fathers of the Church repeatedly testified. The Holy Father emphasized that they “saw the gift of the Son, the Savior and Redeemer of mankind, as the culminating point of the history of salvation and the ultimate sign of the Father's merciful love.”
At several points during his talk, Pope Benedict punctuated his prepared text with spontaneous reflections. In one such departure at the end of his talk, he exhorted all those present: “The psalm helps to awaken within us the memory of the good, of all the good things that the Lord has done for us and that he does for us, which we can see if our hearts are attentive. Truly God's mercy is eternal; it is present day after day.”
Once again we reflect on Psalm 136, a hymn of praise which the Liturgy of the Hours’ evening prayer divides into two consecutive parts, keeping with the clear thematic distinction that is found in this composition. In fact, the celebration of the Lord's deeds takes shape within the scope of both space of time.
The first part (see verses 1-9), which was the subject of our last meditation, highlighted God's work as it is displayed throughout creation, giving origin to the wonders of the universe. In that part of the psalm, the psalmist proclaimed his faith in God the Creator, who reveals himself in his creatures throughout the universe. At this point, however, the psalmist's joyful song, which is called “The Great Hallel” (the highest form of praise to the Lord in the Jewish tradition), leads us to yet a different plane, that of history. The first part, therefore, speaks about creation as a reflection of God's beauty; the second part speaks about history and about the good deeds that God has done for us through the ages. We know that biblical revelation repeatedly proclaims that the presence of God the Savior is manifested in a particular way throughout the history of salvation (see Deuteronomy 26:5-9; Genesis 24:1-13).
God's Saving Deeds
Thus, the psalmist sees before him the Lord's saving deeds, which are rooted in that fundamental event: the exodus from Egypt. The difficult journey through the Sinai Desert, whose ultimate destination is the Promised Land — God's gift that Israel continues to experience throughout the Bible — is intimately connected to it.
The famous crossing through the Red Sea, “split in two,” torn and tamed like a monster that has been conquered (see Psalm 136:13), gives birth to a people that has been set free and called to a mission and a glorious destiny (see verses 14-15; Exodus 15:1-21), which, in the Christian interpretation, will result in complete deliverance from sin through the grace of baptism (see 1 Corinthians 10:1-4). Then, the journey through the desert begins. In it, the Lord is presented as a warrior who continues his work of deliverance that began during the crossing of the Red Sea and defends his people by striking down their adversaries. The desert and sea represent, therefore, the passage through evil and oppression in order to receive the gift of freedom and the Promised Land (see Psalm 136:16-20).
The Gift of Freedom
At the conclusion of the psalm, consideration is given to this land, which the Bible enthusiastically extols as “a good country, a land with streams of water, with springs and fountains … a land of wheat and barley, vines, fig trees and pomegranates, olive trees and honey, a land where you can eat bread without stint and where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones contain iron and in whose hills you can mine copper” (Deuteronomy 8:7-9).
This extravagant celebration, which surpasses the reality of that land, attempts to exalt God's gift, thereby directing our attention to the highest of gifts — eternal life with God. This is a gift that allows people to be free, a gift that has its origins — as the antiphon that is repeated in every verse constantly reminds us — in the Lord's hesed, in his love and faithfulness to the commitment that he made through his covenant with Israel, and in his love that continues to reveal itself through his “remembrance” (see Psalm 136:23). During the time of its “misery,” that is, of its successive trials and oppressions, Israel always encounters God's saving hand of freedom and love. Even amidst famine and misery, the Lord appears and offers food to all of mankind, confirming his identity as Creator (see verse 25).
Thus, Psalm 136 links together two dimensions of a single divine revelation — the cosmic (see verses 4-9) and the historical (see verses 10-25). The Lord is, of course, transcendent as the Creator and Judge of all that exists; however, he is also close to his creatures, having entered into space and time. He does not remain on the outside, in the distant heaven. On the contrary, his presence among us reaches its apex in the incarnation of Christ.
The Gift of the Son
This is what the Christian interpretation of the psalm proclaims clearly, as the Fathers of the Church testify, who saw the gift of the Son, the Savior and Redeemer of mankind (see John 3:16), as the culminating point of the history of salvation and the ultimate sign of the Father's merciful love.
Thus, St. Cyprian, a third-century martyr, at the beginning of his treatise on The Works of Charity and Alms, contemplates with awe the work that God has accomplished for his people through Christ his Son, eventually breaking out with passionate thanksgiving for his mercy:
“Dearest brothers, God's good deeds, which the generous and abundant goodness of God the Father and of Christ has accomplished and will always accomplish for our salvation, are many and great. In fact, in order to preserve us, to give us a new life and to be able to redeem us, the Father sent the Son; the Son, who was sent, also wanted to be called Son of Man, so that we might become children of God. He humbled himself in order to exalt the people who, at first, were languishing on earth; he was wounded to heal our wounds; he became a slave in order to lead us, we who were slaves, to freedom. He accepted death in order to be able to offer immortality to mortals. These are the many and great gifts of divine mercy” (1: Trattati : Collana de Testi Patristici, CLXXV, Rome, 2004, p. 108).
With these words, this holy doctor of the Church goes on to develop the psalm with a litany of the good deeds that God has done for us, adding to what the psalmist did not know at the time yet still awaited, the true gift that God has given us: the gift of the Son, the gift of the Incarnation, in which God has been given to us and with which he remains with us in the Eucharist and in his Word every day until the end of history.
The danger we risk is as humans is that our memory of evil, of the evils that have been suffered, is often stronger than the memory of the good. The psalm helps to awaken within us our memory of the good, of all the good things that the Lord has done for us and that he does for us, which we can see if our hearts are attentive. Truly God's mercy is eternal; it is present day after day.
(Register translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Thanks FEMA, but No Thanks DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:The Federal Emergency Management Agency has begun implementing its decision to reimburse churches and other religious organizations that have provided shelter, food and supplies to survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. If they're smart, churches will respectfully refuse such assistance.
While churches and religious groups are surely strapped for cash, and could make good use of the government funding, they should carefully weight the dangerous precedent set by such a move, especially as regards the principle of subsidiarity.
Recent bickering regarding FEMA's proposal completely missed the bigger issue at stake. Arguments against such aid, such as those voiced by civil liberties groups, predictably whirled around the question of separation of church and state. Civil libertarians, like Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, claimed that reimbursements to churches and synagogues would violate the First Amendment, which prohibits the establishment of a state religion.
Meanwhile, some churches and government officials countered with the opposing assertion. Such funding was unrelated to the religious agenda of the churches, they said, and repayment by the federal government in no way infringed upon the establishment clause.
The premises of this line of argumentation take for granted that assistance to the needy is first and foremost the responsibility of the federal government, and that the churches and volunteer associations play at most an auxiliary role.
David Fukitomi, for instance, infrastructure coordinator for FEMA in Louisiana, declared: “The need was so overwhelming that the faith-based groups stepped up, and we're trying to find a way to help them shoulder some of the burden for doing the right thing.” In other words, faith-based groups generously came forward to help the federal government in a moment of need, and should be rewarded for this gratuitous act.
This reasoning flies in the face of the logic of Christian social ethics. Catholic social thought places the burden of responsibility firmly on the shoulders of those closest to the needy, and invokes the aid of higher levels of public authority only when local associations are unable to carry out their duties.
The decentralizing notion of subsidiarity, one of the four structural pillars of Catholic social thought, is probably the least understood of all principles of Christian morality. Since “subsidiarity” looks and sounds like “subsidies,” people often think that the principle enjoins government aid, rather than limiting government intervention.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, however, states that subsidiarity “sets limits for state intervention” (1885), and adds: “In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, neither the state nor any larger society should substitute itself for the initiative and responsibility of individuals and intermediary bodies” (1894).
For their part, the American bishops wrote that “government should undertake only those initiatives which exceed the capacities of individuals or private groups acting independently. Government should not replace or destroy smaller communities and individual initiative” (Economic Justice for All, 124).
But subsidiarity doesn't just help guide the conscience of public officials. It also challenges all citizens and members of voluntary associations. The Second Vatican Council document Gaudium et spes offers the following reminder: “Citizens, for their part, either individually or collectively, must be careful not to attribute excessive power to public authority, nor to make exaggerated and untimely demands upon it in their own interests, lessening in this way the responsible role of persons, families and social groups” (No. 75).
Obviously, the principle of subsidiarity does not preclude needed government assistance. It does, however, invite circumspection in the acceptance of such aid, and reminds both authorities and individuals alike that government should never supplant private initiative and local responsibility.
Moreover, even if government were theoretically able to meet all the material needs of all citizens, it shouldn't be allowed to do so. There must always be a place for the direct exercise of charity and voluntary assistance, which should never be usurped by an overweening nanny state.
In this regard, Pope John Paul the Great cautioned in 1991, that through direct intervention “the Social Assistance State leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients, and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending. In fact, it would appear that needs are best understood and satisfied by people who are closest to them and who act as neighbours to those in need” (CA 48). He especially mentions the case of refugees, immigrants, the elderly and the sick, whose special needs “often call for a response which is not simply material but which is capable of perceiving the deeper human need.”
Fortunately, this principle has not been lost on all involved. “Volunteer labor is just that: volunteer,” said Rev. Robert Reccord, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board. “We would never ask the government to pay for it.”
It's not easy to turn down free government aid when it is dangled before your face, but if anyone should understand the need to do so, churches should.
Legionary Father Thomas D. Williams is dean of the theology school at Rome's Regina Apostolorum University, and professor of moral theology and Catholic social thought.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Thomas D. Williams ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: World Media Watch DATE: 11/27/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 27-December 3, 2005 ----- BODY:Argentinean Politician Is At Odds With Church
“The assessment does not match reality … All indexes show poverty has gone down,” cabinet chief Alberto Fernandez said in a radio interview.
In a Nov. 12 statement, leaders of Argentina's Catholic Church said the growth in social inequality may lead to outbursts of violence and recommended “firm and durable” policies to foster the creation of genuine jobs. The Catholic bishops issued their pastoral letter, titled “A Light to Rebuild the Nation,” after six days of deliberations in the Buenos Aires province district of Pilar.
During their gathering, the bishops also elected Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio the new head of the Argentine bishops conference.
Anna Santaniello, who is now 94 and lives in southern Italy, says her illness disappeared during a pilgrimage to the French shrine in 1952. The international Catholic committee that runs the shrine has now acknowledged the miracle, making Santaniello the 67th person to have officially been healed at Lourdes.
She told the daily Il Giornale that she was diagnosed with a diseased heart when she was a child and that the same illness had killed one of her brothers and a sister. “My condition got worse as I got older and after a while I was confined to bed, barely able to breathe. The doctors had lost all hope for me,” she said.
“I arrived at Lourdes on a stretcher because I was unable to walk,” she added. “The sisters there submerged me in the spring. The water was icy cold but I immediately felt something hot explode in my chest, as if life was being restored to me.”
Old Road Will Lead to Rome Again
THE TIMES ONLINE, Nov. 14 — Canterbury, immortalized in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and a former starting point for a medieval pilgrim route to Rome, will be revived if Romano Prodi wins the general election in Italy next spring, the Times Online reported.
As part of his electoral platform, the former European Commission president is promising to restore and clean up the pilgrim ways of Italy — a pledge bound to win favor among the country's millions of Catholics.
Aides said that Prodi, prime minister from 1996-1998, hoped that British and French authorities would join him in reviving the Via Francigena (the Way of the Franks), which was founded in the 10th century by Sigeric, the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time. The Via Francigena runs from Canterbury through Calais, Rheims, Besançon and Lausanne, crossing into Italy at the St. Bernard Pass. It then reaches Rome via Aosta, Piacenza, Fidenza, Parma, Lucca, Siena and Viterbo. The 1,200 miles between Canterbury and Rome recently took one modern-day pilgrim 70 days to walk.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News --------