TITLE: Feliz Navidad From the City of St. Anthony DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

San Antonio, Texas, is steeped in Hispanic culture and, with it, the Catholic faith. That's probably why there's no better time to visit the city than Advent and the Christmas season.

To fully appreciate what's going on around you — all the festive sights, smells and sounds — you need to know a little of the city's colorful history.

Franciscan Father Antonio Olivares founded San Antonio on May 1, 1718, when he established Mission San Antonio De Valero on the banks of the San Antonio River. This mission would later gain fame when it was converted to a military fortress: The Alamo.

Four other missions dot the river for eight miles downstream. The intention of the Franciscan priests and brothers was to incorporate American Indians into the Spanish empire, making them Christians through education, protection and evangelization.

Among these evangelizing outposts, Mission San Jose Y San Miguel de Aguayois, built two years after the Alamo, is known as “Queen of the Missions.”

The beauty of Mission San Jose's Spanish colonial architecture and stone artistry ranks it among the most outstanding in the country. Intricate carvings of symbols and statuary cover the façade, and many observers consider its famous rose window to be the most outstanding example of Spanish colonial artistry in North America.

Of these five San Antonio missions, four are active Catholic parishes as well as National Historical Parks. The Alamo serves as an historical monument and no longer has an active parish.

Air of Advent

I grew up exposed to many cultural celebrations connected to the Catholic faith, moved many times by the Mexican culture's live re-creations of Gospel events.

For example, Los Pastores is a Mexican Christmas play about the Incarnation of Our Lord. Members of local parishes, including those from Mission San Jose, play the parts of Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus and the three wise men. There's also a good angel — and a bad one.

La Posada, meanwhile, is a novena celebration. It's acted out and celebrated in Hispanic churches beginning Dec. 16 and ending on Christmas Eve. Here again parishioners dress up as the Holy Family. Only now they travel each evening to the home of a parishioner, knocking on the door asking for shelter. Of course, they are turned away. Prayer, song, refreshments and piñatas follow each evening's mini-drama.

On Christmas Eve, the weary travelers finally find refuge and a robust celebration follows.

The Gran Posada de la Ciudad takes place on Christmas Eve and begins at the Mercado, where actors dressed as Jesus and Mary ask for shelter only to be — you guessed it — turned away. The parade goes to the next stop at City Hall, where again, Jesus and Mary ask for shelter. This time, it's the mayor of San Antonio who turns them away. They continue to the Riverwalk hotels — the “inns” of our day — whose managers now turn them away.

Finally they come to San Fernando Cathedral. Here San Antonio Archbishop Jose Gomez humbly welcomes the weary travelers.

I was in my teens when I made my first trip to the missions of San Antonio. I remember my parents taking us to Mission San Jose for the Noon Mariachi Mass, celebrated in Spanish with traditionally costumed mariachi musicians playing horns, guitars, acoustic bass and accordion.

Meanwhile my return to Mission San Jose last month brought so many emotions and thoughts about my faith. I found a new appreciation for the Hispanic culture, and was awestruck over the history I once overlooked. Most impressive of all was finding at the center of all the activities Christ's words, ringing out at every Mass through all these centuries: “This is my body; this is my blood.”

Christmas Cheer

Here and elsewhere around the world, the Franciscan missions served a twofold purpose. They honored God and they gave the Franciscans a way to teach natives the faith through simple visual displays.

On my recent visit to Mission San Jose, I was reminded of both purposes as I approached the front of the church. Here I was greeted by six elaborately carved statues: St. Joseph (San Jose), St. Francis of Assisi, St. Dominic, Sts. Anne and Joachim — and, floating above all, the Virgin Mary. She appears in the manifestation of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico.

Stepping through the heavy wooden doors into the three-domed sacristy brought me back in time. The stucco walls are painted white, no longer the colorful frescoes used to teach stories through images to the natives. Mass was said by a Franciscan, Father Rojelio Martinez, clad in liturgical vestments; his simple hooded, brown robe and sandals were visible underneath.

I thought of all the people who have come to this church to pray — of long ago, when generations of American Indians, Franciscan friars, soldiers and generations of families came to worship, baptize their children, marry and bury their dead. I thought of the thousands of pilgrims who have sat in the same wooden pew I was in, kneeling and praying to Jesus really present in the Blessed Sacrament.

Following Mass, Franciscan Brother Tom Eisenmenger unlocked the iron door to the bell tower and permitted me to walk up the hand-carved wooden steps to the balcony so I could snap a photo between Masses. Once again, noting the age of the steps, I stepped back into the past — and ahead, into my own future.

With Advent well underway now, not to mention the hustle and bustle of the secular “holiday season,” my family and I are looking forward to our Christmas pilgrimage to San Antonio. I can think of few other places that evoke, with such simplicity, joy and expectation, the sense of wonder we ought to allow ourselves to feel this time of year.

The God of all Creation could have come to us any way he chose. He chose a humble manger on a chilly night.

Zeta Angelich writes from Austin, Texas.

Planning Your Visit

Sunday Mass is celebrated in the San Jose Mission Church Saturday at 5:30 p.m. and Sunday at 7:30 a.m. (Spanish), 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and noon (mariachi). The missions are closed to tourists Christmas Day and New Year's Day. For more information on the missions, go to nps.gov/saan/home.htm on the Internet.

Getting There

Mission San Jose Church is located at 701 East Pyron Ave. in San Antonio, Texas. For additional information, call (210) 922-0543 or visit SanJoseMissionChurch.org on the Internet.

----- EXCERPT: Mission San Jose Church, San Antonio, Texas ----- EXTENDED BODY: Zeta Angelich ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

‘Great Challenge’

NEWS.COM.AU, Nov. 25 — “This is the great challenge: … to give life to a true Catholic university, one that excels for the quality of its research and teaching and, at the same time, for its faithfulness to the Gospel and to the Church's magisterium.” So said Pope Benedict XVI during a visit to Rome's Sacred Heart University.

In reference to the graduates of Catholic universities, he pointedly asked: “How do they leave? What culture did they find, assimilate, develop?”

Citing longstanding tradition, he said Catholic education revolves around the hope of higher learning fused with formation in faith in God and the pursuit of the logical connection between faith and reason.

Abortion Survivor

GALWAY ADVERTISER, Nov. 25 — Gianna Jessen, a 28-year-old woman who survived a saline abortion when she was seven months in utero, was prevented from speaking at Ireland's largest university, University College Dublin.

“Ultrasound,” the pro-life student group, sponsored Jessen's tour of Irish colleges, where she was mostly welcomed by large and supportive crowds.

On the morning of Jessen's talk at UCD, however, Ultrasound was told that insurance it had been instructed to obtain for the event was not sufficient, and that the talk could not go ahead.

Missing Homework

UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL, Nov. 24 — Hales Franciscan High School, a Chicago boys’ basketball powerhouse, has been barred from competition and could be stripped of its 2004-2005 state title.

The failure to complete basic paperwork — due since 2003 — has meant the loss of recognition by the Illinois Board of Education. Hales is the only historically black, all-male Catholic college-prep school in Illinois.

The paperwork included checking boxes indicating whether the school's policies were in writing and whether it was open 176 days.

Hales will seek special permission to keep playing until the issue is resolved.

Hoya Example

FEMINISTS FOR LIFE, Nov. 23 — Representatives of Georgetown University were honored with Feminists for Life's Elizabeth Cady Stanton Award for holding the first Pregnancy Resource Forum in 1997.

The forum has inspired similar events at a host of other Catholic and non-Catholic colleges across the country.

The Georgetown forum — now an annual event — led the university to set aside endowed family housing near campus, establish Hoya Kids Day Care, establish an assistance hotline for pregnant students, and to train counselors to address pregnancy and parenting resources.

Tops in Mobile

MOBILE REGISTER, Nov. 24 — Jesuit Father Gregory Lucey, president of Spring Hill College in Mobile, was honored as 2005 Mobilian of the Year during a banquet on the college campus.

The priest was awarded the title by the Civitan Club of Mobile, which annually recognizes a local citizen who has contributed to Mobile's economy, education or cultural development.

The honor is not for “just one individual,” Father Lucey said. “I represent the men and women who are Spring Hill College today, and I stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us.”

This year mark's the 175th anniversary of the Jesuit-run college.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Truth and Courage DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

EDITORIAL

The new Vatican document is courageous.

Just look at the swift, loud reaction against the Church for daring to ban (once again) the ordination of homosexuals.

One prominent online journalist, a homosexual who is a pro-life Catholic with a reputation for fairness on a number of topics, distilled the criticism to its purest form. On his website, he decried “the Vatican's attack on the dignity and integrity of all homosexual persons — our alleged psychological sickness, our inability to relate to men and women, our affective ‘immaturity,’ our clannishness, our selfishness, our insufficiently ‘masculine sexual identity.’”

It is easy to sympathize with him. The Catechism itself sets a tone of respect for homosexual people when it says (in No. 2358), “The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”

How does this respect for homosexuals jibe with the Vatican's ban on homosexual priests? The Catechism hints at the answer. The new Vatican document elaborates when it says a priest must be mature in such a way that “will allow him to relate correctly to both men and women, developing in him a true sense of spiritual fatherhood toward the Church community that will be entrusted to him.” Because of the disordered inclination, homosexuals “find themselves in a situation that gravely hinders them from relating correctly to men and women.”

That sounds unfair to many people in our culture today. It sounds unfair to the homosexual journalist we quoted, a man who says he has a loving life companion and a rich prayer life. But we don't have to go far to find evidence for its truth. In fact, the evidence is right there in an ad on the journalist's own website.

It sounds inappropriate in a family newspaper to even mention the ad, but the details of the homosexual subculture are too often off-limits in discussions about homosexuality. There, next to his impassioned defense of the maturity of homosexual men, is an advertisement for “Gay.com” featuring a photo of a man's bare feet. His red, white and blue underpants hang loose around his ankles. The ad announces that sexual encounters with other men are just a click away.

Should mainstream homosexuals really be so surprised at questions about the maturity of their lifestyle?

One might argue that heterosexual men are hardly free from sexual excess. True. But who would respect the opinion of another online journalist, Mark Shea, a married man, if he featured a woman's panties in a similar ad on his own website, alongside his arguments in favor of the Vatican's document?

Here we see the strange double standard and willful blindness of society's attitude toward homosexuals. We are rightly concerned that homosexuals should be treated with respect; we wrongly conclude that this means we have to take a “don't ask, don't tell” posture toward the homosexual subculture.

Why is it that Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is broadcast in full, but Gay-Lesbian Pride Day parades are too indecent to be shown on television? Why is it that a Canadian cable channel about the day-to-day struggles of homosexuals tanked, but when it replaced its content with homosexual pornography, it boomed?

The Vatican is right to say, “One must in no way overlook the negative consequences that can derive from the ordination of persons with deep-seated homosexual tendencies.”

When the John Jay College of Criminal Justice thoroughly researched clergy sex abuse for the U.S. bishops, they found not a pedophilia crisis, but what Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, described as “homosexual predation on American Catholic youth.”

From the song “YMCA” to the Showtime program “Queer as Folk,” homosexuals have long celebrated sex with teenagers. In The Gay Report, by homosexual researchers Karla Jay and Allen Young, the authors report data showing that 73% of homosexuals surveyed had at some time had sex with boys 16 to 19 years of age or younger. John Jay's report found that 81% of sexual abuse by clergy was homosexual.

McHugh called that information a “bombshell” and said, “I'm astonished that people throughout America are not talking about it, thinking about it, and wondering about what the mechanisms were that set this alight.”

The Church is right to draw a line in the sand and say, “Not here, not any longer.” We tried the other option. It was a disaster. It's a difficult stand for the Church to take, but courage is needed, whether it's praised or jeered.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: The Night Watch DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

For the first five years of his life, our youngest child, John, had severe asthma — a side effect of his premature birth. Almost anything could make his breathing labored, but the worst were the colds. Nearly every virus caused a crisis. Most of them landed us in the emergency room.

Through countless nights, my husband Mark and I would take turns watching over John, administering his medication and monitoring his breathing. Hour after hour we listened to his wheezing and gasping, praying that morning would come soon. Even though John is now 9 years old and doing quite well overall, we still half-jokingly refer to those long nights as “the night watch.”

The worst part of those nights for me was being surrounded by total darkness with the clock moving so slowly that, at times, it seemed not to be moving at all. I was suspended in helplessness, waiting for my prayers to be answered and the night watch to end.

This Advent, consider this: In one form or another, we're all on night watch.

Waiting certainly isn't the strong point of our culture. As a whole, we're not a very patient people. It's difficult to wait for things to make sense. It's difficult to wait for a stressful situation to be resolved. It's difficult to wait for a closed door to open. It's difficult to wait for the suffering to be over. We don't like to wait, especially when our very fate seems to hang in the balance.

And yet, paradoxical as it sounds, waiting itself is an essential part of the process of moving forward because in waiting, there is hope. Think about these words of the psalmist: “I wait with longing for the Lord, my soul waits for his word. My soul looks for the Lord more than sentinels for daybreak. More than sentinels for daybreak…” (Psalm 130:5-6).

I've found that so much can be learned in the waiting itself. It's an opportunity to dig far down into our inner depths. It makes us pause and re-evaluate the present so that we can prepare for the future. It makes us appreciate and utilize what lies in the palm of our hands right now rather than plotting for what might be there someday. It makes us realize that we're not in control; our heavenly Father is. And he never lets us down.

“Let Israel look for the Lord, for with the Lord is kindness, with him is full redemption, and God will redeem Israel from all their sins” (Psalm 130:7-8).

During Advent, our collective “night watch,” we wait for Jesus, the fulfillment of God's promise of redemption. We anticipate the peace and love that he brings into the world. It's the waiting through four weeks of darkness that makes Christmas so great.

Thinking back on my night watches over my son, I realize that we experience our own private Advent whenever we have to endure a time of waiting — yet every Advent is followed by a Christmas morning.

The Word Incarnate is as present to us today as he was to the shepherds in Bethlehem. Our Lord will show his steadfast love to us when our souls wait in hope for him during the darkness of the night watch.

And when we rise to find him on that morning — in the manger and in our hearts — our hope has been fulfilled.

Marge Fenelon writes from Cudahy, Wisconsin.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Marge Fenelon ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Christmas WARS DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

NOVI, Mich. — They fled Iraq 25 years ago, and the first Christmas they lived in the United States, they set up a Nativity scene on their front lawn.

But this year, it wasn't so easy for the Samona family, who are Chaldean Catholics living in Novi, Mich., outside Detroit. This year, their crèche brought threats of fines from a housing management company that supervises their home in a newly built community.

It's all part of a strong cultural tide assaulting the only religious federal holiday in the United States. To wit:

— The city of Boston caused a furor when it recently renamed the giant tree in its city park a “holiday tree” instead of “Christmas tree.” The Nova Scotia logger who had cut down the 48-foot tree was furious when he discovered the name change, and said he would never have donated the tree if he had known. Public outrage caused the city to name the spruce a “Christmas” tree again after a few days.

— Companies such as Target, Kroger, Office Max, Walgreens, Sears, Staples, Lowe's, JC Penney, Dell and Best Buy refuse to use the word “Christmas” in this season's promotions, using the term “holiday” instead. The American Family Association is organizing an internet petition which will be sent to all of these companies to voice the displeasure of Christian customers.

— In malls and supermarkets across the country, it takes effort to find real Christmas cards. Many are simply called “holiday cards” now.

— Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Ill, told the press Nov. 29 that the decorated tree outside the U.S. Capitol has been officially designated a “Christmas tree” again, after several years with the title “holiday tree.” Last year, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger lit what he termed a “Christmas tree” at a state ceremony. Only the year before, he and former Governor Gray Davis had presided over the lighting of a “holiday tree.”

Various Catholic and Christian groups have asked for an end to these slights to Christmas. Even a coalition called Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation formed a few months ago under the auspices of Don Feder, a Boston Herald columnist. The group was established to combat anti-Christian bias in government, news media, Hollywood, public education and from activist groups.

On Dec. 1, the group announced at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., that “Jews Say it's OK to Celebrate Christmas.”

Feder wrote in a recent column, “The secularist assault on Christmas… is one front in the war on America's Judeo-Christian heritage.”

Another member of his group, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, president of Toward Tradition, has said, “Christianizing the culture is not a problem for Jews. Secularizing it is.”

“There is a vocal minority who is offended by the use of the word ‘Christmas’ and Nativity scenes,” said Kiera McCaffrey, director of communications for the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. “The problem is that this vocal minority speaks out, and other Christians are eager not to offend.”

This movement of sanitizing Christmas into a generic and meaningless holiday also makes presumptions about Jewish people, she said. “It assumes that Jewish people are not secure in their religion, and that they have no tolerance for other religions. But that's not the case,” said McCaffrey.

“It also assumes that some people will feel excluded,” she said. “But people get excluded all the time. I'm not a veteran. If I feel excluded on Veterans’ Day, should we abolish Veterans’ Day? What if a white child feels excluded during Black History Month? Do we abolish Black History Month?”

Another group which has taken a stand is the Knights of Columbus.

Every year, the Knights do public service announcements for TV and radio with the message: keep Christ in Christmas. These PSAs have been viewed by 21.2 million people on TV, and heard by 27 million people on radio.

Displays in Public

Meanwhile, the Samona family, in Novi, Mich., had to fight for the right to keep Christ on their front lawn.

Three years ago they moved to a new house in a newly built community of homes. The day before Thanksgiving this year, they received a letter from their home's management company which told them to remove their Nativity scene because it violated a code about outdoor displays. If they refused they would have to pay a fine of $100 per week.

“They called us on a Monday. I drove out on a Tuesday,” said Edward White, a trial attorney for Thomas More Law Center — a national public interest law firm dedicated to promoting the religious freedom of Christians and the sanctity of human life. “By the time I arrived the news media was already on their front lawn covering the story.”

White heard a local radio station talking about the incident on his drive to the house. The story had already made the front page of the Detroit News. White later discovered that the couple's 16-year old son had called the media.

“We went to the management office and after explaining the situation to a woman behind the desk, she called the group's lawyer. After a few minutes she came back to us and said, ‘We are so sorry, but the rule doesn't apply to religious displays.’”

White stresses the fact that all Americans have the right as individuals to decorate for Christmas any way they want to. Within the public sphere, the issue becomes a bit more complicated.

“The Supreme Court has never given clear guidance on this,” he said.

If a government structure, like a city hall, has a nativity scene, it must include elements of other faiths or secular images — like Santa Clause — for it to be legal. If it had only a Nativity scene, it might seem as if that government was favoring one religion.

What many people do not realize is that every town has a designated public forum.

“Any citizen can fill out an application and put up any decoration they want,” said White regarding these public fora. For example, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights puts up a Nativity scene in New York City's Central Park every year — with the city's permission.

The Samona family did receive a prompt response from the management company after their complaint — and the widespread media attention. The company sent a written apology and a gift basket to the Samona's to make amends, with a statement that the gift was a “token of our remorse, in the spirit of this holiday season.”

The Samonas asked that the gift basket be forwarded to the St. Vincent DePaul Society in Pontiac, Mich.

Sabrina Arena Ferrisi is based in Jersey City, New Jersey.

----- EXCERPT: Holiday trees, seasonal greetings and hardly a créche in sight ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sabrina Arena Ferrisi ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: So Many Campuses, So Few Catholic-Friendly Choices DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

Timothy O’Brien is thrice-blessed: He's Irish, Catholic and a Notre Dame graduate.

None of those ties, though, necessarily make it automatic that he'll ship his son Finbar off to South Bend after high school. For one thing, O’Brien says his own education at Notre Dame in the 1970s eventually led him to forsake the Catholic faith.

O’Brien returned to the Church a dozen years later, but believes that the Golden Dome remains tarnished. Notre Dame today, he points out, is a campus where The Vagina Monologues has become an annual affair, incoming freshmen are required to attend a lecture on homosexuality and binge drinking is commonplace.

“We needed to be told the truth about Notre Dame,” says O’Brien. “It needs to be published to everyone, especially Catholics.”

Truth be told, the truth's been told. O’Brien and Finbar read a candid review of Notre Dame in Choosing the Right College 2006, the fifth such edition published by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) of Wilmington, Del. First published in 1998, Choosing the Right College evaluates schools with an announced agenda: promoting its perspective that students are best served by a genuine liberal-arts education grounded in traditional humanities and mandated through a rigorous core curriculum that utilizes classic texts written by great minds.

That benchmark is applied to 134 schools — 75 of them the most selective national universities and liberal-arts colleges, the rest having “special emphases, unique virtues and distinctive missions.”

There was a time, notes Choosing the Right College editor John Zmirak, when most schools offered the traditional education his book espouses. But, he says, when Harvard ditched its core curriculum in the 1970s, “a bunch of schools lemming-like ran over the cliff.”

And while many schools today may claim to offer a core curriculum, mandatory requirements often can be satisfied with fluff. A Harvard student, for instance, can fill his foreign culture credits by studying “Nazi Cinema.”

“Basically, they've transformed what used to be a carefully thought out menu by a chef… into the buffet bar at Shoney's,” says Zmirak. “Students can just fill their plate with bacon and the school doesn't care. We're looking for schools that still serve healthy food and require the student to eat it.”

Zmirak points to just two well-known schools with true core curricula — Columbia and the University of Chicago. Others come close, but even more fall short. For such schools, Choosing the Right College constructs a suggested core with classes that students can take on their own. The guide's academic probes also identify best and worst professors, departments and programs, the prevalence of teacher assistants, whether research or teaching is emphasized, and whether professors allow true dissent of thought — conservative or liberal — or merely indoctrinate.

Choosing the Right College also puts student life under the microscope, critically evaluating housing (are there coed dorms/bathrooms?), campus crime, how much studying vs. partying the students do and so on. The book also offers vital statistics, such as tuition, room and board costs, average test scores, class sizes, student-faculty ratios and enrollments.

Zmirak notes that one of the guide's greatest challenges was getting schools to provide or admit to accurate data. Information also comes from interviews with students, faculty and grads (promised confidentiality), studies, investigative journalism and analyses of curricula.

Recognizing Excellence

Unlike many other college guides, though, this is not a book of numbers or of “advertorials” written by the schools themselves (as some guides allow). Instead, the 134 evaluations are presented through cheeky, entertaining and sometimes cutting essays that may not be for everyone. A hint, for instance, of what is to come in Georgetown University's review is signaled by its first subhead: “Ignatius wept.” (Georgetown is a Jesuit institution.)

Simply reporting such facts, though, imply to some that Choosing the Right College is merely a right-wing attack on higher education. And, not surprisingly, the book comes with conservative seals of approval. William Bennett penned the book's introduction; its cover is adorned with thumbs-ups from Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Michael Medved, Thomas Sowell and other popular conservative commentators.

Such names sounded alarm bells for a college counselor in California who posted a critical review of the guide on Amazon.com. “The reviews of the schools inside pretty much criminalize intellectualism, freedom and the Young Democrats,” wrote the counselor, who declined to be interviewed by the Register.

Zmirak counters such criticism by saying that the guide recognizes excellence whether it comes with a lean to the right or left. For example, the aforementioned University of Colorado, though otherwise roundly criticized, is praised for an honors program that “is one of the strongest in the country.”

Says Zmirak: “If they have a serious curriculum and academic freedom where they don't use a classroom as a bully pulpit to indoctrinate students with any political view, we treat them very generously.”

Parents and students are encouraged to gather their own information on schools by asking questions and considering issues as suggested in the back of the book.

Anthony Flott writes from Papillion, Nebraska.

Information

Intercollegiate Studies Institute Inc. (800) 526-7022

isi.org/college_guide

----- EXCERPT: Choosing the Right College 2006 is an eye-opener for campus shoppers ----- EXTENDED BODY: Anthony Flott ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: A Visit Inside an Abortion Clinic DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

To get into the abortion clinic in Little Rock, Ark., a woman must first pass an armed security guard as well as a metal detector.

The first obligation is payment up front to the cashier.

The charges range from $525 to $1,800. No checks accepted. Cash or credit card only.

Then the women will add to the almost 46 million children who have been killed since the Roe v. Wade decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973.

The New York Times published an essay on an abortion clinic. It ran Sept. 18, 2005. It was called “Beyond the Slogans: Inside an Abortion Clinic.” It began prominently on the first page and then continued on the whole of page 28. The tale was told in several thousand words.

We owe the author John Leland gratitude. While many of us have picketed abortion clinics, few of us have ever been inside one.

The Arkansas clinic was studied over a weekend. In that time frame, 26 women had abortions. They are among the one million women expected to secure abortions in 2005. There has been a drop in abortions in the past 15 years among teens and educated, affluent women. This is owed to their easier access to increasingly sophisticated forms of contraception.

But abortion remains one of the most prevalent surgeries for women in the United States. The author estimates that more than one in five pregnancies terminate in abortion.

Some of the would-be patients had to travel a good distance. There are but two abortion clinics in the entire state of Arkansas. Two drove in from Oklahoma and Mississippi. There are only three doctors in Arkansas who regularly assist in abortions. The youngest is 59 years. It is not a young doctor's medicine of choice. Presumably abortion is likewise unpopular among doctors in Oklahoma and Mississippi.

While the doctors had no reluctance in giving their surname, their staff and patients did. The head doctor calls himself a “provider.” The families of some staff do not know they work in an abortion clinic. Others have been shunned by kin.

One of the clients was a teacher. Another a sales clerk. A third was a high school student. One was a soldier. The soldier's boyfriend was jailed for beating her up after learning she was pregnant.

One 17-year-old brought her mother for encouragement. A 39-year-old was accompanied by her daughter.

A college student was having her third abortion. Another woman at age 26 was also having her third.

An 18-year old college student was aborting twins. No doubt she had to pay for two procedures.

The women were principally in their 20s. They were generally more poor and black than the families surrounding the clinic. The large majority already had children. Some were single mothers.

Leah was five weeks pregnant. The surgical procedure took but a few minutes. Presumably her charge was the minimum of $525.

Karen, at 29 and the mother of a child, had a 20-week-old pregnancy. Her abortion was performed over two days. She paid $1,375. At 20 weeks, doctors in Arkansas are required to tell women that their unborn child will feel pain. The author notes that the pain question is disputed among doctors.

One 17-year-old's pregnancy was later than Karen's. Her charge was $1,700. The money was provided by her angry parents. They did not accompany her.

Arkansas has surrounded abortion with a number of legal restrictions. Said one clinic doctor, “But every time a restriction is placed on us, it increases our costs, and that cost is passed on to the consumer.”

One woman, pregnant 12 weeks, studied the ultrasound of the child she was carrying. She began to have second thoughts. She concluded, “This changes my feelings, but I'm sticking by it. Damn it, $650, I'm sticking by it.”

Abortion is a big American business. The poor and the young continue to put “providers” on Easy Street.

Father James Gilhooley is the author of Reflections on the Sunday Gospels at 1-800-566-6150 or www.wlpmusic.com.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father James Gilhooley ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Supreme Court Hears Pro-Life Case for Unprecedented Third Time DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

WASHINGTON — When Joseph Scheidler left the Supreme Court on Nov. 30, he felt “pretty optimistic” that the nearly 20-year legal battle pitting him and other pro-life activists against the National Organization for Women will end in his favor.

He even dared to hope for a 9-0 victory that would end a nationwide injunction and prevent protesters from being held liable for triple damages under the auspices of the Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations statute.

“Our lawyers were really upbeat about it because the justices had done their homework. They really understood the case,” Scheidler, who heads the Pro-Life Action Network, said.

“I think the court was receptive to our argument and gave the other side a difficult time,” added Alan Untereiner, who argued on behalf of Scheidler.

The justices were particularly interested in why the case was before them for an unprecedented third time when in their 2003 ruling, they had explicitly reversed the decision of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. They also were concerned about the chilling effect the consolidated Scheidler v. NOW and Operation Rescue v. NOW could have on protest activities by any group, not just organizations in the pro-life movement.

At the heart of the matter is whether the tactics used by anti-abortion protesters can be equated to the mafia-like crimes traditionally prosecuted under the anti-racketeering law and the associated anti-extortion Hobbs Act. Extortion generally implies an exchange of money or property under the threat of violence. One of the remaining questions in front of the court is whether the protesters’ activities could be classified as extortion despite the absence of financial gain.

“The theory of NOW was that sitting down in front of a clinic is an act of physical force,” Thomas Brejcha, an attorney for the Thomas More Society and lead counsel for Scheidler since 1986, said. “The question is whether organized crime encompasses civil disobedience.”

Three years ago, the Supreme Court seemingly said No. The justices voted 8-1 to reverse all of the so-called predicate acts that the lower court said violated the anti-racketeering law and ordered that the injunction be lifted. The 7th Circuit, however, found cause to say that four of these acts had not been considered by the high court.

During oral arguments, the justices wondered whether their original mandate had been disregarded. Justice Antonin Scalia questioned why the 7th Circuit interpreted the order to mean “remand” instead of “reverse.” And, National Organization of Women attorney Erwin Chemerinsky was asked by Chief Justice John Roberts to address why “all” the predicate acts didn't include the four. “The question, of course, is, ‘What does all refer to here?” Chemerinsky said.

“It [was] Clintonese…. The implication is that ‘all’ doesn't mean ‘everything.’ That was really symbolic of their whole presentation that words mean what you want them to mean,” Scheidler said.

Justice John Paul Stevens, the lone dissenter in the 2003 decision, however, asked “Do you think it is conceivable that we just didn't realize those four points were at issue?”

As for the blanket effect the ruling could have on all demonstrations, at least 23 organizations, spanning the political spectrum, including the AFL-CIO, filed friend of the court briefs expressing concern. The justices took note of this.

“Justice [Stephen] Breyer [spoke] very strongly about the AFL-CIO saying that this would jeopardize organized labor and create the possibility that any alleged violence on the picket line could make strikes illegal because they would be prohibitively expensive under the risk of RICO,” Brejcha said.

Scheidler is hopeful that a verdict will be reached sooner rather than later, and said his lawyers estimate six weeks. In the meantime, the injunction remains in place. In addition, anti-abortion protesters already are prohibited under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act from “physically” preventing entrance to an abortion clinic. The penalties under that legislation, however, are milder than they would be under the anti-racketeering law.

The National Organization of Women holds that since the injunction was put in place violence at clinics has decreased although protesters have continued to “picket and shout.”

“They want to return to the days of using physical assault to terrorize patients and doctor, in order to shut down these facilities,” Kim Gandy, NOW's president said.

“We hope that the Supreme Court will recognize these crimes for what they are — an organized campaign to stop abortion by closing every clinic that performs them,” she added.

Scheidler said he always has advocated non-violence and weeds out troublemakers.

“We don't even yell. We are trying to win people over,” he said. The anti-abortion protest movement hasn't been slowed down by the injunction or the passage of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, Scheidler added, noting that his demonstrators “saved” seven women outside an abortion clinic recently.

The Pro-Life Action Network, expecting a positive outcome, plans to hold another national convention after the Supreme Court decision.

“We want to have this thing completely settled that we have a constitutional right to do what we are doing and not have the threat of triple damages,” he said. “We are not a conspiracy. The plan is to coordinate peaceful activities that will ultimately impress enough people that abortion is the wrong way to go.”

Monta Monaco Hernon is based in La Grange Park, Illinois.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Monta Monaco Hernon ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: A Story That Had to be Told DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

THIS SIDE OF JORDAN

A novel by Bill Kassel

Company Publications, 2005

383 pages, $14.95

Available in online bookstores

In writing this novel, Bill Kassel put himself in something of a dilemma. What non-PC publisher would want to handle a 380-page story dealing with homosexuality, and who among the politically incorrect — that is, those opposed to the agenda of homosexual-rights activists — would want to read it?

To be sure, there is a certain “ick factor” in dealing with the topic. Christian publishers and readers tend to shy away from openly discussing it. Yet Kassel realizes that there is a concerted attack on the moral values of society and the Church as the “gay” lobby tries to force its agenda on the rest of the country through the courts and the media. His contention is that we must fight back.

Kassel successfully overcomes the dilemma, and does us all a favor in the process. He encases the subject within the medium of a mystery novel, the result being not a boring, barely palatable discussion foisted upon an unwary reader, but an intriguing story driven by genuine, page-turning suspense.

This Side of Jordan, like the first book in the series, Holy Innocents (which deals with abortion), is set in a small town. An outdoor theater production, meant to help revitalize the economy of the valley, instead brings death and mystery. From the opening pages, we are told that two people have died, and then we become swept up in the tale to discover who they were and how they met their demise. Along the way, the consequences of wrong choices and the devaluing of morals in our culture are made clear in a way that a non-fiction treatment probably couldn't have pulled off.

Entertainment, not teaching, defines the book. It has to, since no one wants to sit down for an hour of pleasure reading and have to wade through the complexities and unpleasantness of the causes and manifestations of same-sex attraction.

As for this reader, I found the story so quickly engrossing that, after reading the first two chapters, where the author establishes the characters and their story lines, I had the book as my constant companion.

Whether waiting for my car to be fixed, or during moments between meetings, I snuck in a few pages to see what was going to happen next and to discover another clue to the mystery. Finally, for the last 75 pages or so, I just gave in. I lay down on the sofa, forgot about my other work, and read through to the end.

While he is entertaining us, Kassel uses his host of characters to bring out the pros and cons, the nuances, the pain and emotions of the many sides of homosexuality-related issues. These are a reality in our society, and Kassel helps us deal with that fact. Karl Muller, an old, orthodox priest, presents Church teaching clearly, at times forcefully. All the same, Christians aren't let off the hook. Throughout, judgmentalism and hypocrisy are shown to be severe handicaps in the culture wars; only truth and love will win this battle.

In places, the characters struck me as somewhat stereotypical. But I found it easy to overlook the occasional lapses in depth thanks to Kassel's ability to develop and deepen the unfolding drama.

Perhaps the most powerful section of the book is when the protagonist, Alan Kemp, a convert to the Catholic faith and music director for his parish, seeks out psychologist Bruce Bellingham in order to understand the reasons behind same-sex attraction. Bellingham's approach is key to the story as he describes the clinical aspects of homosexuality — aspects that proponents of the gay lifestyle often try to hide.

Bellingham responds to Kemp's questioning by offering a clear explanation of homosexuality, one that should be eye-opening and useful to anyone on either side of the “gay-rights” movement. I won't trace Bellingham's logical line of reasoning and compelling conclusions here. After all, this is a mystery.

Bob Horning writes from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Bob Horning ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Homosexuality and Holy Orders DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

FAIRFAX STATION, VA. — Bishops and seminary rectors would do well to follow the Vatican's new instruction regarding admission of homosexuals to seminaries, said veteran vocations director Father James Gould.

“Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations With Regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in View of Their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders” was released by the Vatican Nov. 29. It states that the Church “cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’”

According to Catholic News Service, a cover letter accompanying the document said the norms must be “faithfully observed” and taken into account in the drafting or updating of each country's seminary guidelines. It further states that while the instruction does not apply to those already ordained, priests with homosexual tendencies should not be appointed rectors or have teaching roles in seminaries.

Father Gould led one of the more successful priestly formation programs in the United States, overseeing the ordination of more than 100 priests In 15 years.

“We never saw homosexuals, or men with homosexual tendencies, as fit for the seminary, and we didn't admit them,” said Father Gould, who now is pastor of St. Raymond of Penafort parish in Fairfax Station, Va.

Father Gould said bishops and seminary rectors who implement the instruction will probably initiate fierce conversations with prospective seminarians.

“I was known for sitting the prospective seminarian down and asking a series of questions,” Father Gould said. “I asked, ‘Have you ever been married? Are there any kids out there who look like you?’ That always broke the ice.

“Then I’d say, ‘I'm sorry, but I have to ask you some serious questions now. Have you had any problems with homosexual attractions? Are you a homosexual?’ A lot of them were up-front and honest with us, and if they said Yes we didn't take them.”

Father Gould said applicants who lied were often flagged during psychological screening, and then asked again about homosexuality.

Several U.S. bishops said the document would result in no changes at their seminaries because they already prevent homosexuals and those with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” from attending seminary.

“I don't think this will change anything in the present policies of the Lincoln diocese,” Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of the Diocese of Lincoln, Neb., said. “We have used this policy already.”

“My reaction to the document is favorable,” Bishop Bruskewitz said. “At least for now it goes far enough in giving direction to bishops, rectors, spiritual directors and potential seminarians about what the Church expects in the discernment process and admissions process for vocations to holy orders.”

In Denver, home to two successful seminaries that have recently been expanded to accommodate growing enrollments, Archbishop Charles Chaput praised the new document and called on fellow bishops to implement it.

“It falls to every bishop — supported by seminary rectors and formation teams — to examine and discern the suitability of every candidate for priesthood on a case-by-case basis that respects the dignity of the individual,” he wrote in the Denver Catholic Register.

Archbishop Chaput said the Church desires to ordain only those men who can joyfully accept the theology and personal practice of Catholic teaching on human sexuality.

“Those who cannot do so should not be burdened with demands they cannot honestly bear,” he wrote. “This is simply common sense.”

Bishop John D’Arcy of the Diocese of Fort Wayne, Ind., also reacted to the Vatican's instruction by making it clear to his flock that nothing would need to change in Fort Wayne. At a Nov. 30 press conference, Bishop D’Arcy said he has been turning homosexuals away from priestly formation for 20 years.

He explained that one reason he has forbidden admission to homosexuals is his concern that they will scare away the more numerous heterosexual seminarians.

“You're very close together all the time,” D’Arcy said. “When you're living that close together it does cause turmoil, and some have left for that reason.”

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, D.C., also welcomed the statement and said it would cause no changes in admissions policies or procedures in his archdiocese.

“The seminary admissions policy of the archdiocese is in conformity with the new guidelines and has been so for many years,” Cardinal McCarrick said in a prepared statement. “The archdiocese does not accept as a candidate for seminary admission someone who is sexually active, advocates homosexuality or has ‘deep-seated homosexual tendencies,’ as the document notes.”

The Conference of Major Superiors of Men — which represents 210 religious orders — issued a statement calling the Vatican's new instructions “consistent with the tradition of the Church.”

“It is important to remind all of us that a religious vocation, including one to the priesthood, is indeed an invitation by God to commit oneself to an evangelical way of life,” the statement said.

Wiggle Room?

Shortly after the document's release, in fact, Bishop William Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told the Washington Post that the instruction is open to interpretation and would allow admission of homosexuals into seminaries. He told the Post that the document explains how a candidate's life of sacred ministry must be “animated by a gift of his whole person to the Church and by an authentic pastoral charity.”

“If that becomes paramount in his ministry, even though he might have a homosexual orientation, then he can minister and he can minister celibately and chastely,” he said.

Bishop D’Arcy said that some bishops and seminary leaders will misinterpret the instructions.

“We've already heard some indications of that, and we will see some people leaving seminaries because of this,” Bishop D’Arcy said. “In the long range this instruction is going to have a terrific effect on the church. Seminaries have improved greatly in recent years, and a lot of people working in seminaries are going to take this document seriously.”

Wayne Laugesen is based in Boulder, Colorado.

----- EXCERPT: Will Document Change Seminary Policies? ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Cardinal to Parents: Careful What You Buy Your Kids for Christmas DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

WASHINGTON — Cardinal William Keeler hopes parents get his message before it's too late: Christmas gifts of video cell phones, personal digital assistants or video Ipods may give teenagers the gift of unregulated, unlimited porn.

“It would be wonderful if our priests would inform the people weeks before Christmas of the potential dangers they're opening up to their children and grandchildren by purchasing these wireless devices,” Cardinal Keeler, archbishop of Baltimore, said Nov. 15 at the fall meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Cardinal Keeler, a member of the Religious Alliance Against Pornography, said the alliance detects a “perfect storm” on the horizon, in which porn will swamp the young generation. He said the storm might result from a convergence of new mobile Internet browsing technologies, a lack of filtering software for these devices and “parents about to make Christmas gift choices.”

“All of the pornography on the Internet will be available within months to all Americans — including children and teens — through the use of wireless handheld devices,” Cardinal Keeler said. “There are no filtering or monitoring devices available. This means that children and teens can access pornography with total anonymity without parents or grandparents having any monitoring.”

The cardinal said cultural encouragement of sexual expression before marriage has caused the United States to suffer the highest rate of sexually transmitted diseases in the industrialized world. He said teen pregnancies have become “the norm,” with 34% of women becoming pregnant at least once before age 20. The storm, he said, will make it all worse.

“We stand at the brink of the greatest threat yet to children,” Cardinal Keeler said.

Rob Jackson fears the cardinal is correct. Jackson, a psychotherapist in Colorado Springs, Colo., has written and researched extensively about America's porn epidemic for Focus on the Family. Jackson owns a full-time counseling service and specializes exclusively in treating porn addiction.

“Most of the clients I treat, whether they're teenagers or adults, are reporting early childhood exposure to porn,” Jackson said. “It is typically Internet porn, and now we're looking at cell phones with full Internet capability and no effective blocking software. You do the math.”

Jackson said long before the recent introduction of hand-held browsing gadgets, the Internet eliminated the barriers that historically stood between children and porn. Pornographic magazines, for example, cost money, thus creating a barrier; Internet porn is often free. Magazines were difficult for some kids to hide; virtual porn isn't.

The U.S. Justice Department estimates that nine in 10 children between ages 8 and 16 have been exposed to pornography online. The software company Symantec found that 47% of school-aged children received pornographic spam daily, and representatives of the porn industry told Congress that up to 30% of the traffic to some porn websites comes from children.

“In modern youth culture, this is considered something everyone does,” Jackson said. “They don't get ostracized as adults might, they don't lose their jobs or risk their prestige in the community.”

And once a child or teen is hooked on porn, said Jackson, he or she typically has a worse problem than someone who develops the addiction as an adult.

“Neurologists are teaching that children exposed to sexual images under the age of 14 can develop quicker, more treatment-resistant addictions than adults because neurologically they don't have the ability for discernment and setting boundaries that adults do,” Jackson said. “They see only a sexualized world, without another frame of reference.”

Seeking Solutions

Jackson, a non-denominational Protestant, said his work in counseling porn addicts has led him to a respect and understanding of Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body.

“Children today have only heard about sex in the context of biology and potential consequences, but they haven't heard any of the redemptive material John Paul II wrote about, which offers the truthful perspective on human sexuality,” Jackson said.

Paul Rasavage, a recovering porn addict and devout Catholic, was first exposed to pornography when he discovered sexually explicit magazines at age 5 when he was sent for a nap in his uncle's bedroom. Rasavage said he agrees with Cardinal Keeler's concern that porn addiction is out of control and getting worse. However, he doesn't believe parents can solve the problem by denying video cell phones and Ipods to kids.

“The approach of trying to control porn would have the same success of prohibition in the ‘30s, because we have not addressed the disorder desire,” said Rasavage, who established www.PornNoMore.com as a resource for Catholic porn addicts who want help. “The disorder desire is what the Church should attack. When that's gone, the profits will be gone and porn will go away.”

The best way to counter porn, Rasavage said, is for Catholics to take back the culture from the clutches of paganism and secularism.

“We are now missionaries in pagan territory — that's how much the culture has degenerated — and we have to teach teenagers that there is one God, he has rules, and we have to follow them,” Rasavage said.

In his speech, Cardinal Keeler emphasized the fact that he isn't trying to condemn the concept of portable Internet devices.

“The technology in itself is not evil,” Cardinal Keeler said. “The technology itself is good. The danger lies in the fact there are no safeguards or regulations in place to protect children and teens from being exposed to unwanted, explicit pornographic material through these wireless handheld devices.”

James Mackin, president of the Internet solutions company Logic Focus Inc. in Louisville, Colo., said he can't foresee a solution in government regulation.

“This isn't something a government can fix, because the technology is without borders,” Mackin said. “Something like the V-Chip, used in TV monitors, would not work because it is a U.S.-only solution and the content would not be encoded with a rating.”

Mackin believes filtration may be helpful, even though it's not successful in conventional computers. He said the best filtration solutions would result from a cooperative effort among Internet service providers and producers of hand-held Internet devices.

“Even if we get all the right pieces in place, we need to find a way to prevent pornography from being sent from device to device, bypassing the opt-in controls that we would incorporate into the devices and network,” Mackin said. “Just like the drug pushers, the porn pushers are going to give away samples to get our young people hooked.”

Wayne Laugesen is based in Boulder, Colorado.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Letters to the Editor DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

Beware Dolls Advancing Agendas

American Girls was originally a product of the Pleasant Company. For my daughter, the dolls were a wholesome, educational alternative to the hyper-sexed fluff of Barbie. Imagine my dismay when Mattel, the manufacturer of Barbie products, purchased Pleasant Company in 1998. I knew then the end of innocent American Girls was inevitable. Therefore, I am not at all surprised to hear the brand has aligned itself with a pro-abortion group like Girls, Inc.

The boycott of American Girls may not change the corporate culture of Mattel. However, it will be a powerful pro-life witness by parents to their children.

Several years ago, General Mills was a contributor to Planned Parenthood. At that point, I completely stopped buying General Mills products. This included Cheerios cereal, which had been a staple for my four young children. My boycott did not harm the General Mills bottom line. But it did provide an unforgettable lesson for my children.

Now they are teens on the verge of adulthood. They understand that being pro-life isn't something you do only when it is convenient. They know it is something you live, day in and day out. They also tell me that giving up General Mills cereals helped them understand the sacrifices their principles sometimes require.

Parents should consider the powerful pro-life statement they will make to their daughters by boycotting American Girl dolls. The corporate financial impact of the boycott may seem insignificant, but the impact on their children's moral development is immeasurable.

DENISE J. HUNNELL

Fairfax Station, Virginia

As a mother of six girls, I would like to comment on “Shopping Wars: American Girl Dolls Boycott” (Nov. 20-26).

The alternative source you suggested, “A Life of Faith” dolls from Mission City Press, includes a doll patterned after a character named Elsie Dinsmore. The first book in the series seems innocuous enough, drawing the reader entertainingly into the life of the young Elsie. However, the following books in the series feature self-righteous, evangelical-Protestant characters who are fearfully anti-Catholic.

We stopped reading these books and would not recommend them for young Catholic readers.

MICHELE KLEINER

Carrollton, Texas

Evolution Doesn't Add Up

Regarding “Design or Dumb Luck?” (Oct. 30-Nov. 5):

I have two questions re Darwin's theory.

1. Why is there absolutely no evidence of this evolution? If it took billions of years for species to develop one into another, then there would be virtually unrecognizable differences between species; one could not draw a line between them, except in the most arbitrary fashion. It seems to me we are missing much more than a link because we would not be talking about a chain or links at all, but a virtual unbroken line of minute differences between creatures along a continuous spectrum. Why is it impossible to mistake one species for another today (and through all of history)?

Which leads to the second question.

2. If species developed from lower forms gradually over time, why are lower forms not developing into higher forms today? What caused the obvious cessation of evolution from lower form to higher forms? When did it happen? Why? If we say that this occurred during “prehistory,” are we not saying that all of what history testifies to is contradicted by prehistory? And on what basis do we make such an anti-evidentiary assumption? The most minimal and indefinite signs? Is this science or science fiction? How is it we use the mind to so freely contradict the mind itself?

I cannot help but be in the party that sees every reason to believe in microevolution — changes within species determined by environment — but absolutely none to put faith in macroevolution, defined as environmental determination of species themselves.

Also, contrary to the claims of some scientists that intelligent design is not science, it is, in fact, more scientific than the theory of evolution, since what it posits can be observed even this day, and, in fact, every day in clearer sense — since the more we learn of the universe, the more complex and wonderful it becomes. And the more inexplicable.

JAMES KURT

Jersey City, New Jersey

Priests and Marriage

I noticed right away that Raymond Cleaveland seemingly confused the issues, as many Roman Catholics do, as to the two separate issues of ordination of married men on the one hand and allowing priests to marry on the other (“Why Married Priests Aren't the Answer,” Commentary & Opinion, Oct. 30-Nov. 5).

Maybe he didn't mean to, but there it was, in the fourth paragraph: “But if the Catholic Church allowed priests to marry…”

If the issue is simply about returning to the custom of ordaining both married men and celibate single men, this business about “allowing priests to marry” has no place in the article. Separate issue!

Like the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Catholic Church has held since the original seven ecumenical councils that, once ordained, a priest may not marry.

DANIEL JOSEPH BARTON

Byzantine Catholic

Fayetteville, North Carolina

U.S. Army (Retired)

Eye on Elections

The mid-term elections of 2006 will be upon us within the next 11 months. That's just around the corner. Those of us who are pro-life realize that, with all that is going on in American politics, pro-life issues may not be a major concern with many American voters.

I believe it is our responsibility to begin our prayers, our acts of mortification and sacrifice, and other works for life right now for the intention of the promotion of an intensified awareness of the danger surrounding pro-life work.

Now is the time to pray for the success at the polls next year of all candidates for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives who support the right to life. Life needs fervent supporters in the Senate and House to protect our unborn brothers and sisters from further anti-life legislation and to foster laws that support life.

RUDOLPH D. PARSON

West Islip, New York

Bravo, Brother Principal

Regarding “’Far From What Is Expected In a Christian Institution’: Why a Catholic high-school principal canceled the prom” (Nov. 20-26):

Thank you, Brother Kenneth Hoagland, principal of Kellenberg High School in Uniondale, N.Y.! You are a voice of truth in the tangled web of choices and peer pressure our children are exposed to.

Our oldest child is a senior at a local public high school after having been home-schooled through ninth grade. I am very aware of the spiritual warfare these children are exposed to daily. Even though they are almost adults, they certainly are still in their formative years and need guidance from their parents. The problem is, the parents sway just as easily to the temptations of this world because their intellects are not educated in Catholic doctrine and their hearts not evangelized to the truth.

It takes one person, like you, to stand up and not “sell out” to pressure. Then conversations begin. Parents talk to other parents, children talk to their parents and students talk among themselves. Such conversations have the potential to begin changing minds and hearts.

May God bless you for your obedience to the truth, Brother Hoagland. You are an affirmation to me to persevere in raising our children, as difficult as it can be in this secularized world — and to continue to discuss with them the reasons behind decisions we make with and for them. The next time I feel weak-kneed from the “battle,” I will certainly think of you and your courage to speak the truth. Thank you.

SUSIE SWANSON

Littleton, Colorado

Fifth Commandment, Clarified

Regarding “Shalt Thou Kill?” (Nov 27-Dec 3):

Many of us would like God to change so as to meet our moral and/or political views. But God does not change. What was true yesterday is true today — and shall be true tomorrow.

As Roman Catholics, we must always be in search of the truth.

We must also thank Father Frank Pavone for pointing out the error in translation of the Fifth Commandment as handed down to Moses. He states that this commandment refers to the taking of innocent life directly and deliberately.

G.J. WERNETTE, M.D.

Reno, Nevada

Girls on Steroids

Regarding “For Girls Only: The Steroids Double Standard” (Nov. 27-Dec. 3):

Dan Kuebler's commentary about the use of steroids by young women in the form of hormonal contraceptives is right on. Giving steroids to women is not good medicine. Health means not destroying the intrinsically good physical nature of our bodies, which were made in the image of the Triune God.

Since becoming director of a diocesan natural family planning office, I have become more aware of the damages done by the use of oral contraceptives in young women. Many are also on antidepressants.

Could it be that one thing leads to another? Might the encouragement of promiscuous behavior linked with contraceptives plunge one into despair?

JUDITH LEONARD

Natural Family Planning Office Diocese of Wichita, Kansas

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: For Benedict, 'Tis the Season To BE Busy DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

VATICAN CITY — If Pope Benedict XVI's daily schedule includes any down time, it is hard to find by looking at his December calendar.

The so-called “public” schedule — theoretically the hours from 11 a.m. to 1 or 1:30 p.m. — is packed with audiences with heads of state and government, Advent sermons, a visit to a Roman parish, and the Dec. 8 solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and Mass marking the 40th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council, to name but a few events.

All this — and much more — is on the Holy Father's December agenda, in addition to presiding at the traditional Christmas events: midnight vigil Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Dec. 24, the Christmas Message and urbi et orbi (to the city and to the world) blessing on Dec. 25, the Angelus, which is customarily recited on the feast of St. Stephen, Dec. 26 and the celebration of First Vespers of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, and Te Deum of Thanksgiving at 6 p.m. on Dec. 31 in St. Peter's Basilica.

After a busy start to Advent, including the Dec. 8 Mass to mark the 40th anniversary of the formal close of the Second Vatican Council, Benedict's schedule only gets more hectic. At the Dec. 11 Angelus, in what has become a long-standing tradition in Rome prior to Christmas, the Pope will bless statues of the Baby Jesus brought to St. Peter's Square by children who will then place them in Nativity scene cribs in homes, schools, parishes and Roman oratories.

On Dec. 12, the third group of Polish bishops will start their weeklong ad limina visit.

The Holy See Press Office has scheduled a conference for Dec. 13 to present the Holy Father's Message for World Day of Peace, Jan. 1, 2006.

On Dec. 15, at 5 p.m. in St. Peter's Basilica, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar of Rome, will preside over a Mass for students of Roman universities, following which Benedict will greet the students, their teachers and chaplains. For this occasion the Polish icon, Sedes Sapientiae (Seat of Wisdom), will be brought to Rome and, at the end of the meeting with the Pope, will be given by a Polish university delegation to one from Bulgaria, where the icon will remain until March 11, 2006.

The next day, at the end of a Mass for the Italian Armed Forces at noon in the Vatican Basilica, the Holy Father will go to the basilica to greet everyone present.

Vatican Christmas Tree

On Dec. 17, with scant time to catch his breath, Benedict will welcome a group from Austria to thank them for the country's gift of a Christmas tree for St. Peter's Square and smaller trees for other offices in the Roman Curia. A tree-lighting ceremony, scheduled for later that afternoon, will feature authorities from Vatican City State and Austria.

The large tree, traditionally placed next to the immense Nativity scene in St. Peter's Square, has been donated by the town of Eferding which this year is celebrating the 500th anniversary of its parish church.

The Pope Dec. 18 will pay his first visit as bishop of Rome to a Roman parish, Santa Maria Consolatrice in Casalbertone. The Holy Father's ties to this church go back to 1977 when Pope Paul VI made then-Archbishop Ratzinger a cardinal, bestowing on him the titular church of Santa Maria Consolatrice. This was his titular church until 1993 when he became Dean of the College of Cardinals and thus titular of the suburbicarian churches of Ostia and of Velletri-Segni.

In a final pre-Christmas appointment, cardinals, heads of departments and other high-ranking members of the Roman Curia and the pontifical family will be received by Benedict on Dec. 22, at 11 a.m. in the Clementine Hall, for an exchange of Christmas greetings.

Which leads the Holy Father into the last week of December, the Christmas solemnities and the last general audience of 2005 on Dec. 28. And leads us into wondering how he does it all. After all, this is only the public part of his days!

Joan Lewis writes from Rome.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joan Lewis ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: WHY I THANK GOD I COULDN'T BE A PRIEST DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

The Vatican's new document on the ordination of homosexuals brings it all back.

I sat in the mental hospital for five days, reading Trollope, watching the Nagano Olympics, giving God an earful.

Why me, Lord? Why, when all I wanted was to serve God as his priest?

My desire for priesthood was born out of gratitude for my deliverance from the homosexual lifestyle and from my history of depression. Since my conversion to the Catholic faith in 1992, I had functioned for five years without anti-depressants, and I thought I had mastered my same-sex attractions sufficiently to manage as a priest.

My therapist knew I wasn't ready. I didn't listen, and unfortunately, the religious community that had accepted me to its novitiate didn't ask for extensive psychological documentation. Nor did the vocation director probe my struggles with homosexuality and depression in any detail.

There was one obstacle, however. I was expected at the novitiate in January 1998, but first I had to pay off all my debts, as this was an austere community and I would be leaving the world behind. My plan was to write my way out of debt by marketing my fiction.

As my unpublished novels remained unpublished, I grew increasingly hard to live with, and as soon as the January deadline passed, I went into free fall. Like Icarus, the mythological boy who flew to the sun on wings of wax, I had overreached. Flying too high, I crashed into the psychiatric ward, where my dream of priesthood vanished.

In the debate over the recent Vatican instruction on homosexual candidates for priesthood, many writers have already discussed the need for priests to have a healthy masculinity, so that they can act as fathers to their flocks and as husbands to the bride of Christ, the Church. Others have discussed the temptations to which homosexually inclined men may be exposed in the seminary. But the issue is broader than sexual identity.

Many scientific studies have shown that homosexuals have a much higher incidence of clinical depression, suicidal tendencies, and drug and alcohol addiction than the general public. Scholarly articles proving this point are simply too numerous to list here. In fact, the scientific literature is completely unequivocal on this point.

In my own case, I had experienced significant healing in terms of my gender identity, but my other psychological symptoms were sufficient to disqualify me from priesthood. After my collapse, a vocation director from another religious order put it to me kindly but firmly. “The priesthood is a stressful job,” he said.

To hammer this point home, he told me about a young man, a friend of the religious community, who had been killed in a motorcycle accident. At the crash scene, the vocation director had the gruesome task of “finding something to anoint.”

His point was clear. Faced with that type of priestly responsibility, I would have had a panic attack. A few scenes like that, and I would probably have ended up back on the ward, with ample time to read all 47 of Trollope's novels.

Priests tend to see people at moments of crisis: not only death, but also in their struggles with their own personal demons of addiction, crime, mental illness, and, yes, sexual brokenness (not to mention actual demons). The priest must be strong and healthy or he will be drawn into this maelstrom himself.

This is not to say that people, like me, who struggle with emotional difficulties and same-sex attractions, cannot be great, committed Christians.

Indeed, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 2358) teaches that Catholics who experience unwanted same-sex attraction, like those afflicted with any other cross whatsoever, can offer up their sufferings for the good of the Church and the salvation of others. But this does not mean, as the recent Vatican document makes clear, that people with “deep-seated” homosexual attractions are capable of exercising the ministerial priesthood.

In our culture, we have developed the absurd habit of seeing vocation in terms of rights. But “equality before the law” does not mean that everyone is equally capable of fulfilling every role in our society. The priesthood is not an entitlement, it is a calling; God gives some men, and not others, the requisite gifts to live out the priesthood.

Indeed, a moment's thought should convince anyone that this is true of every vocation, not just priesthood. Someone who panics at the sound of gunfire must not be sent into combat. People who faint at the sight of blood should not become surgeons. Narcoleptics should not be night watchmen. And so forth.

This is not discrimination. It is simple realism. It is God's deep knowledge of us, calling us to true self-knowledge, the prerequisite of wisdom.

The hue and cry over the instruction on vocations is part and parcel of the “clericalization of the laity” since the Second Vatican Council. Vatican II sought to recognize the proper, transcendent value of the role of lay people. But instead of honoring the irreplaceable call of the laity to sanctify the world, some Catholics have distorted the council's teaching, in order to justify giving lay people more and more clerical functions.

This process has now advanced to the point that some people think the lay vocation is meaningless, that lay people are somehow worthless unless they can be called to the priesthood.

This is not the way of God's Kingdom, where the last shall be first, and each calling has the proper dignity assigned to it by God.

For myself, painful as my disappointment was, I soon realized that priesthood was not the only way I could strive to do “something beautiful for God.” I should have known that my real calling was to be a writer, and shortly after I accepted my lay vocation, God gave me the opportunity to publish a book. He rescued me from a vocation to which I was ill-suited, and led me to a fulfilling apostolate in keeping with my natural aptitudes.

Since my collapse, which was really a conversion experience, I have often reflected on one of the lesser-known sayings of Jesus. “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build, and was not able to finish’ (Luke 14:28-30).”

I wish I had pondered those words before I began my misguided request for priesthood. And I wish that the instruction on vocations with respect to homosexuality had come out sooner. Thank God we have it now. It will be remembered as one of the most compassionate acts of a merciful pontificate.

Scott McDermott's biography,

Charles Carroll of Carrollton:

Faithful Revolutionary, is available

at www.scepterpublishers.org.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Scott McDermott ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Homosexuality and Holy Orders DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

VATICAN CITY — The title of the document is a mouthful but the message is clear.

The Vatican's new document is called: “Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with Regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in View of Their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders.”

The message about ordaining homosexuals: Don't do it.

The Nov. 29 instruction from the Congregation for Catholic Education restates centuries of consistent Church teachings about sexuality and the holiness of the ministerial priesthood. But that hasn't stopped it from sparking a hostile reaction from many media outlets and from Catholic supporters of ordination of homosexuals.

The document's supporters point to psychology, theology — and recent history. Studies show that the priestly sexual abuse scandal in the United States overwhelmingly involved homosexual behavior.

“It's not a new norm,” Cardinal Zenon Grochelewski, prefect of the Congregation of Catholic Education, said Dec. 1 (see the Inperson interview below). “It's not a novelty; we simply want to recall this, to highlight the teaching of the Church for all and to those who might have doubts.”

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee, rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome from 1994-2001, said that the document “makes de jure what most seminaries have de facto been doing.”

Said the archbishop, “In other words, the Holy See has codified and made precise what we all had come upon in a grass-roots style years ago.”

The Church teaching barring ordination of homosexual candidates has been addressed before.

A 1961 instruction to the superiors of religious communities on “Careful Selection and Training of Candidates for the States of Perfection and Sacred Orders” banned it. A one-page 1985 memorandum from the Congregation for Catholic Education that was circulated privately to bishops reiterated the teaching. And in a 2002 speech, Pope John Paul II said, “It would be lamentable if, out of a misunderstood tolerance, [seminaries] ordained young men who are immature or have obvious signs of affective deviations that, as is sadly known, could cause serious anomalies in the consciences of the faithful, with evident damage for the whole Church.”

The Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, in its bulletin Notitiae, Nov.-Dec. 2002, stated: “Ordination to the diaconate and the priesthood of homosexual men or men with homosexual tendencies is absolutely inadvisable and imprudent, and from the pastoral point of view, very risky. A homosexual person or one with a homosexual tendency is not, therefore, fit to receive the sacrament of holy orders.”

But the recent instruction is the most specific, comprehensive and authoritative Vatican statement yet on the hot-button issue.

The new document teaches that “the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’”

In contrast, individuals who had experienced homosexual tendencies “that were only the expression of a transitory problem” could be suitable for ordination, the document states. But, it adds, “Such tendencies must be clearly overcome at least three years before ordination to the diaconate.”

The instruction notes that its conclusions derive from Church teachings on sexuality, set forth in the Catechism of the Catholic Church in and other post-Second Vatican Council documents. The Catechism (No. 2357) teaches: “Basing itself on sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”

Much attention has been given to the document's mention of those who overcome “transitory” homosexual tendencies for at least three years. Is it a loophole?

A number of prominent Church leaders have suggested that it opens the priesthood to chaste homosexuals.

Cardinal Grochelewski emphatically rejects this interpretation.

“For people who have a transitory tendency, it's not the fruit of an internal inclination — there's a difference,” he said.

Such “transitory” circumstances might involve adolescent experimentation or experiences that occurred under the influence of alcohol, drugs or coercion, Cardinal Grochelewski said. The difference, he said, is that “they don't originate from an internal tendency but from other circumstances, those that are external, per se.”

Jesuit Father James Martin, associate editor of America magazine, also sees no “loophole” in the document.

“Over the next few months, we will hear from plenty of canon lawyers and theologians and bishops, as we have already, arguing, out of a genuine and compassionate desire to help the Church continue to accept celibate gay men into the priesthood, that the document needs to be interpreted in the most positive light possible,” he said in a Washington Post report Nov. 30. “But it is impossible, after reading the instruction, to escape the fact that when the Vatican says men with ‘deep-seated homosexual tendencies,’ it means what it says.”

According to the document, the primary reason for excluding even chaste homosexual candidates is that their homosexual inclination deprives them of the “affective maturity” required to be a good priest.

“Such persons, in fact, find themselves in a situation that gravely hinders them from relating correctly to men and women,” the instruction states. “One must in no way overlook the negative consequences that can derive from the ordination of persons with deep-seated homosexual tendencies.”

Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons, a psychiatrist and co-author of the Catholic Medical Association's handbook, Homosexuality and Hope, said that psychological evidence confirms that homosexual men have maturity problems.

“That's a very accurate assessment,” Fitzgibbons said. “In order to be affectively mature, to have a healthy adult male personality, you have to know how to address emotional pain. But the prevalence of emotional pain is three to five times greater in those with same-sex attractions.”

Father John Harvey, founder of the Courage apostolate that ministers to Catholics with same-sex attractions who desire to live chaste lives and overcome such impulses, also thinks that a man who hasn't worked free of his homosexual identity likely lacks the emotional maturity required of a priest.

“Often times, as a result of early life trauma, he has a feeling of inferiority and it's quite deep,” Father Harvey said. “And often he expresses it in self-pity.”

The Congregation for Catholic Education did not release the document specifically to address the priestly abuse scandal in the United States. In fact, it was being prepared for several years before the scandal broke in 2002. But its application to the U.S. scandals is clear.

The John Jay Report, commissioned by the U.S. bishops’ National Review Board for sexual abuse of minors by priests, discovered that 81% of 10,667 allegations of abuse reported between 1950 and 2002 involved young males, mostly teens.

The report also indicated that the ratio of homosexual abuse allegations to heterosexual allegations rose sharply during the 1960s and 1970s, a period during which many American seminaries became more accommodating in admitting known homosexuals. While the ratio of homosexual to heterosexual abuse allegations was less than 2 to 1 during the 1950s, the ratio climbed to more than 3 to 1 in the 1960s and to more than 6 to 1 in the 1970s.

National Review Board member Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, recently described the John Jay Report's findings about the link between homosexuality and abuse as a “bombshell.”

“I'm astonished that people throughout America are not talking about it, thinking about it, and wondering about what the mechanisms were that set this alight,” McHugh said.

Dr. Fitzgibbons concurred that priests who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies and who subscribe openly to the homosexual subculture are implicated in the abuse scandal.

Said Fitzgibbons, “These priests do not support the Church's teachings with regard to sexual morality,” he said. “In fact, they try to undermine it in high schools, colleges and seminaries. They've been doing this for more than 30 years. This undermining of sexual morality is the cause of the crisis in the Church.”

For his part, Archbishop Dolan cited another reason why men who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies and support the gay subculture are unsuited to the priesthood.

“The definition a person has to have of himself — a person who wants to give his life to Jesus in the Church — that definition has to be as a child of God, redeemed by the precious blood of his only begotten Son, called to be a disciple of Christ at the very core of his being,” said Archbishop Dolan. “That's the definition of self that you look for. If a man's self-definition is that he is gay, he is a homosexual, then that can't be.”

At the same time, Archbishop Dolan said the new document isn't the restrictive, nay-saying document it's being painted as. He sees it as an affirmation of what's best about seminaries and the priesthood.

“This Vatican document wants to ensure that seminaries are places where what is most pure and noble and virtuous, what is on the side of light and life — that those things triumph in our seminary system,” Archbishop Dolan said. “This is a deep, passionate call to emphasize and affirm what is most noble, uplifting and virtuous in the call to priesthood.”

Edward Pentin and CNS contributed to this report.

----- EXCERPT: Will Document Change Seminary Policies? ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tom McFeely ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: National Media Watch DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

Senator Calls for Halt of Abortion Pill Sales

BALTIMORE SUN, Nov. 27 — The Food and Drug Administration will restrict sales of the abortion pill known as RU-486 if additional deaths are linked to the medication. That's what Senator Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said the FDA told him, according to the Baltimore daily.

The drug is under investigation following reports that four California women died after using it.

“Increasingly, they are aware that it is a dangerous drug,” said DeMint, who met with then-FDA Commissioner Dr. Lester Crawford during the summer and has introduced legislation to suspend sales of the drug.

Opponents say that hundreds more women's deaths and injuries have resulted from the drug, but have not been reported to the FDA.

“I don't know how many women have to die before this drug is removed from the market. I think one is enough,” said Monty Patterson, the father of 18-year-old Holly, who died from septic shock two years ago after taking RU-486.

Canadian Tribunal Upholds Knights’ Case

GLOBE AND MAIL, Nov. 29 — A Vancouver, British Columbia, Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the Knights of Columbus were entitled to not allow a lesbian couple to hold a wedding reception at their hall but that the organization should pay $2,000 to the women because it had affronted the couple's dignity, feelings and self-respect, reported the Toronto daily.

Deborah Chymyshyn and Tracey Smith had booked the hall for a Nov. 1, 2003, reception following their outdoor “wedding” ceremony. They claim that they did not know that the hall was operated by a Catholic organization. Those who confirmed the rental did not know that the event was celebrating a same-sex union. The Knights canceled the rental once the truth was discovered.

In their ruling, the tribunal said that the Knights could not be compelled to act in a manner contrary to their “core religious beliefs,” but that “that right is not absolute.”

Diocese Will Allow Celebrations Without Priests

ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov 29 — Because of a growing lack of priests, the Diocese of Belleville, Ill., stated that it will allow deacons or laypersons to perform “Sunday Celebrations” in emergency situations, said the Associated Press.

Belleville Bishop Edward Braxton wrote a letter to parishes stating that it has become more difficult to ensure that a priest will always be available on Sunday.

The special rite can include the distribution of holy Communion. It may be used only as a last resort, such as when a sudden illness leaves a parish without a priest. Also, the rite may be performed only with a written mandate from the bishop.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'Provocative' Look at History of U.S.-Vatican Relationship DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

VATICAN CITY — Italian journalist Massimo Franco is the author of the new book Parallel Empires: The Vatican and the United States: Two Centuries of Alliance and Conflict, 1788-2005. The Italian edition of the book, which will be published soon in English by Random House, was launched in Rome Nov. 18 in the company of Cardinal Pio Laghi, former Vatican envoy to Washington, Francis Rooney and James Nicholson, the current and former U.S. ambassadors to the Holy See, Italian Finance Minister Guilio Tremonti and Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni.

Franco, who is a political columnist for the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, spoke Nov. 19 with Register correspondent Edward Pentin about the complex relationship between Rome and Washington.

Why did you choose the title Parallel Empires?

First of all, because they are concepts that both the Vatican and the United States refuse to attribute to themselves, so it's a provocative title. But it is also quite true in the sense that both the Vatican and the United States have a world geopolitical projection, they are the only two to have this.

Of course, the United States is a sort of symbol of “hard power” while the Vatican, as part of its constitution and identity, is just the opposite, the symbol of “soft power.” But with its network of seminaries, nuns and missionaries, that makes the Vatican, in my opinion, an empire without a territory. It's not an official empire, but it is an empire.

About the United States: Although they refuse this definition, they are an empire. There are parts of their establishment who will say they are the new “Old Roman Empire.” So I think this is a provocative parallel but I think it's credible.

What do you hope to achieve from your book?

Usually I write books to study something I don't know well. I was stimulated to write about this subject by Giulio Andreotti [former Italian prime minister] who gave me this booklet by James Nicholson [now Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs] about the long road between the two states. So it was just intellectual curiosity.

I wanted to understand it better because it was astonishing that the U.S. and the Vatican only opened full diplomatic relations in 1984, which is really strange. So I wanted to find out why, and that led me to study all the history over the last centuries.

It's been said that caution and reluctance have marked the history of Vatican-United States relations, and that the Cold War was a temporary disruption when the states became allies. Do you agree with that view?

Yes, I do. Pope Pius XII and [U.S. President Franklin] Roosevelt, with Cardinal Spellman as a very good mediator, understood very well that there was common interest in the future of Europe against communism. They understood that the British Empire was over and that the United States was to be the next empire. So Pius XII, when war was finishing, already understood that Europe had to be built not with a Christian mentality but with an eclectic, mixed mentality against communism.

You go into some detail in the book about the irritation of certain members of the Bush administration with the Vatican in the months leading up to the Iraq War.

Firstly, I report in the book about a meeting between four American cardinals with Condoleezza Rice shortly before Cardinal Laghi's visit with Bush. This is very interesting because it gives you a real perception of the impossibility of any dialogue. There was much discontent surrounding this [Laghi's] visit. Laghi explains that when he was at the White House and he tried to convince President Bush, there was also no room for dialogue. And when he gave a letter he had brought from the Pope, Bush took it and just put it on the table without even opening it.

Laghi was very alarmed by the conversation. When he was escorted out in the garden of the White House, he was accompanied by Gen. Peter Pace, who is now chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. At that time he was vice-chairman. He patted the cardinal's back, and told him: “Your Eminence, don't worry. What we're about to do will be done quickly and well.”

At that time war had not been declared, but he told him that war was a decision that had already been made. So there was a very big miscalculation about what the consequences of the war would be.

What else did you discover when writing the book?

When former Secretary of State Powell met Laghi during the same visit, before the war, Laghi found him quite depressed and he told him about the dangers such a war would expose. Powell answered with a laconic smile: “You're telling me this? I'm a general, I know what war's like.” This is all written in the book.

Is this the first time such revelations have come to light?

I've never read it before. For instance, on the comments of Peter Pace, I remember Laghi telling this story to Catholic News Service but he didn't reveal the name of the person. But it was Gen. Peter Pace, then vice-chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States. It wasn't just a lieutenant. He was a chief of the American Army saying, “No problem, the war would be over quickly.”

What do you relations are like now between the Holy See and the United States?

There is a strong alliance on moral values, abortion, bioethics, “gay marriage” — with the government, this administration, but not the United States as a whole. This alliance has obscured all the tensions over war and peace.

This is why I think there's a parallel concern of the Vatican and the United States. The Vatican thinks there is a very deep crisis in Christianity, and they fear a double negative influence stemming from an invasion of Islamism and from inside because there is secularization of Europe and possibly in the United States. The U.S. sees Christianity as a barricade, not just against Islam but also against moral decay.

Edward Pentin writes from Rome.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: The Cardinal Explains His Document DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski is in the center of a storm.

As the prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, it is he who signed, sealed and delivered the document banning homosexual candidates from being ordained to the priesthood. He spoke with Register Correspondent Edward Pentin in Rome.

Your new document is called “Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations With Regard to Persons With Homosexual Tendencies in View of Their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders.” Does the document provide a new standard?

It's not a new norm. Practically, it's a simple conclusion of all that the Church has taught. It's been said many times by the Congregation for Divine Worship that homosexual candidates cannot be admitted. It's not a novelty. We simply want to recall this, to highlight the teaching of the Church for all and to those who might have doubts. Probably most people haven't had doubts about this matter.

How much is this document aimed at preventing sexual abuse by priests?

This document isn't about other questions outside the issue of ordination of candidates with homosexual tendencies. It isn't about the problem of someone who has abused children, but probably it is more difficult for them to relate correctly to both men and women. But per se, this document doesn't deal with that.

How optimistic are you that this document will put an end to a homosexual subculture among clergy? Will it change the so-called “pink palaces,” those seminaries where there is a prominent homosexual culture accepted by students and professors?

I think the situation that you speak about concerns certain regions. It's not something that can be applied to the whole Church. In most nations, this problem doesn't exist in the Church. Evidently, erroneous opinions are given concerning homosexuality. We know that for many years there has been the opinion that homosexuality is a normal condition, that it's natural, that it's an alternative to being heterosexual and to say that it's a disorder is a defamation, a discrimination against the person. It's then said that homosexual acts are completely justified, that there are rights to having homosexual acts. In this sense, this culture has created some confusion in the ecclesiastical environment.

To address this, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has already produced many documents.

In 1975, it published a declaration called Persona Humana that deals with questions of sexual ethics and homosexuality. Then there was a beautiful document from the congregation [1986's Homosexualitatis Persona] that called homosexuality a problem and was about the pastoral care of homosexuals — it was given to every bishop.

There were also two documents from this congregation — one of which made proposals concerning regulations concerning the non-discrimination of persons, and the other which concerned the legal recognition of unions between homosexual persons. Our document is a simple conclusion of these previous documents, a coherent statement of the position of the Church.

This clear position of our congregation should help solve problems where they exist. Certainly one cannot deal with every case because homosexuality can appear in adult life, even after ordination.

But at least one has to be able to realize the nature of homosexuality which is, above all, expressed in the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This is a summary of the doctrine of the Church which distinguishes between homosexual acts that have always been considered in the Bible and the tradition of the Church to be sins because they stop the complementarity of the sexes and the transmission of life. Speaking about homosexuality as a tendency is, per se, not a sin, but it's an inclination towards behavior which is sinful and for this reason the Church says it's a certain disorder.

How would you define the difference between a deep-seated and transitory tendency?

For people who have a transitory tendency, it's not the fruit of an internal inclination — there's a difference. For example, he might be a curious adolescent or someone tempted by someone else to try it. It might be something accidental. He might have felt an inclination under the influence of alcohol; or in certain circumstances, someone might have had such a tendency who, for many years, has lived in a prison, in the company of men, and had not had even the possibility to have sexual relations with a woman. It may have been about pleasing a superior or someone he knows, or to earn money.

These don't originate from an internal tendency but from other circumstances, those that are external, per se.

Who will be responsible for applying this instruction?

In the first place, the bishop is responsible; the bishop is responsible for ordaining candidates to the priesthood. They should have a moral certainty that the candidate is suitable. If there are established doubts, then canon law says he shouldn't ordain the candidate. But it's not only up to the bishops. In a certain sense, all the moderators in a seminary are involved — rectors, above all spiritual directors, are obliged by conscience to tell a candidate that has a tendency towards homosexuality to interrupt his seminary studies.

If a spiritual director believes a candidate has deep-seated tendencies, will he have to break the confessional oath of confidence?

A spiritual director cannot reveal what was said during confession; he cannot use what is an internal matter outside, but he can encourage the candidate to realize that he has an obligation to break off his formation. All of these issues should remain within the internal forum, they cannot be used externally.

So the spiritual director mustn't tell anyone the reasons why such a candidate must end his studies?

No. To the candidate he can explain the reason, but not to others. He has an obligation to tell the seminarian himself that he should interrupt his studies.

What happens if the candidate refuses to end his formation?

If he refuses, then the confessor can refuse to give him absolution because it's a serious problem.

What do you say to those priests who have deep-seated tendencies and are perhaps now questioning whether they ever had a vocation?

Our declaration absolutely doesn't deal with the validity of ordination. It's about the opportuneness of ordaining men for whom such problems might arise. It's our experience that these people have much more difficulty in their pastoral apostolate. If so, for those priests who are already homosexual, their ordination is valid and so they should serve as the Church says, in celibacy, in chastity.

They might have to try harder than others to avoid occasions [of sin], they might have to go more often to receive the sacrament of penance. They should use all these means. All priests should be celibate or they will have problems. Homosexuals may have more of a problem living in chastity, but they must live in chastity, uniting their difficulty with the suffering of Christ and take up the cross.

The Gospel is very clear: Jesus said, “If any one would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” He also said, “Whoever doesn't take up his cross isn't worthy of me” — he was very clear about that. Therefore, the priest is invited to take up the cross in order to exercise his ministry as well as possible.

Edward Pentin writes from Rome.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Chess: Catechism On a Board DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

What do Pope John Paul II, Benjamin Franklin, St. Theresa of Avila and Harry Potter possibly have in common?

Their love for chess, of course.

“Life is kind of chess,” wrote Franklin, “with struggle, competition, good and evil events.” It is a game that has enticed the minds of men and women for centuries and continues to rise in its popularity. It has been banned by religions, the cause of death for some, and most recently instituted in American school systems because of its positive influence on players and its power over the mind.

Invented more than 1,500 years ago, legend has it that chess was started by a ruler in India. He wanted his wise men to create a way to teach his children, members of the royal family, to become better thinkers and better generals on the battlefield.

And true to its creation, it has evolved into an essential teaching tool for developing our children's minds and can help to teach them about our faith as well.

The Catholic Church has always used symbols and art to capture the spiritual battles for our souls as seen in our cathedrals with the help of Michelangelo and Dante, and the game of chess carries on that tradition.

Jesus was and is the king with the Blessed Virgin Mary, the queen, at his side and the center of the game. Each chess piece bestows some moral attributes to the game and portrays a visual display of the Church's majesty on a game board.

The Queen, Mary, is chaste, docile and attentive to her son. “The chess queen was born in a Catholic world and grew in stature along with the devotion to Mary,” wrote Marilyn Yalom in Birth of the Chess Queen. The queen's position is the most active piece on the board and is at the king's defense.

However, the queen piece was not as powerful until the late 15th century. Before that the queen had to earn her position and started out very weak taking only one diagonal space at a time. In 1497, Queen Isabelle of Castille (wife of King Ferdinand and both avid chess players) pushed her weight around and the queen piece finally gained her power and sat at the right side of the king where she protects her lord and destroys all enemies. Isabelle and Ferdinand also began the Inquisition during their reign.

The bishops flank the queen and king and take the role of judges. They are firm, intelligent, incorruptible and wise. They are Church leaders, confessors, protectors of souls, and adhere to the king's wishes. The ornate bishop replaced the elephant that was used in India up to that time. In the 1500s, when the queen took on her new position, he initially only went three squares but was eventually given unlimited diagonal moves.

The knights are as always chivalrous, brave, compassionate, generous and true to their king. They have the potential of 122 million moves in the game, making them very formidable pieces to contend with. They are sometimes dressed as warriors for the Lord mounted on gallant steeds or just the horse is used in less elaborate sets.

The rooks represent the apostles, and were sent out to all four corners. In some instances they are dressed in fur and hold a staff in their right hand. They are on “king's business” and are envoys of the king. This position represented justice, piety, humility, patience, voluntary poverty, and generosity.

The rook is one of the most powerful pieces on the board.

Chess was considered a Christian morality play. It was not allowed to be played by Jews or Muslims because of the graven images it displayed and its implicit relationship to Christianity.

John of Wales, an English Franciscan, wrote, “All the world is a chessboard. It is not only a symbol of life and death but a metamorphic space for sin and redemption.”

Throughout the ages, many chess sets have been bequeathed to the Catholic Church and have been given respect for the quasi-religious veneration given to them. Some have been considered as sacred as rosaries and blessed crosses.

In 1550, St. Theresa of Avila, a Spanish reform nun, saw the religious dimension of chess. She was brought up in a well-to-do family and it is believed she was exposed to the game as a child. She loved the game, and when she founded the Order of Discalced Carmelites she wrote a testament to it. St. Theresa was later proclaimed the “Patroness of Chess Players.”

She wrote, “Now you will reprove me for talking about games for we do not play them in the house and are forbidden to do so. However, they say the game is sometimes legitimate. How legitimate it will be for us to play it in this way, and, if we play it frequently, how quickly we shall give checkmate to this divine King! He will not be able to move out of our check nor will he desire to do so…. It is the queen which gives the king most trouble in this game and all the other pieces support her. There is no queen who can beat this King as well as humility can.”

Paula Rivera writes from Mamaroneck, New York.

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She's only 16, but Catholic singer-songwriter Marie Miller has already made ChristianMusicToday.com's list of “Ten Independent Artists You Should Know.”

This is particularly impressive since few Catholics ever make the list at all: It's heavily dominated by evangelical-Protestant artists.

The Huntly, Va., teen started performing professionally with her family when she was 11. Not only does she sing, but she also plays guitar, piano, mandolin and a Greek stringed instrument called the bouzouki.

The home-schooled high-school senior has performed at local church events and festivals in her home state as well as at the 2003 West Virginia State Fair and the 2004 national conference of Focus, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students. She spoke with Register correspondent Amy Smith.

How did you come to realize that God might be calling you to music ministry?

I just started playing and singing, and I liked to do it. As Christians we are supposed to take everything we love to do and give it to Jesus, so I said, “Okay, God, I'm enjoying this and I feel like this is what you want me to do today.” I take it day by day. These are the very beginning steps of something.

What inspired you to start writing your own songs?

I wrote my first song when I was 12 or 13. I found a treasure. It was like, “Wow, this is fun and I can say what I want to say.” Songwriting is so good for someone like me who likes to express herself. It's a beautiful outlet for things I want to portray and say to people.

Where do you get your song ideas?

Experiences and different things. For the songs on the CD, I got help from others, but the songs are all a feeling or message I want to get across.

How does your Catholic faith influence your work?

On this CD, there's a song called “Mother Must Be Praying.” There are two elements. First, we have earthly mothers who are always praying for us. And second, we have our Blessed Mother interceding for us. When you look deeper, you can see the Catholic faith in it.

How does your family contribute to your music?

I have an amazing family. My dad has been extremely instrumental in my music, helping me along. My dad called [well-known producer] Mark Heimermann and arranged a meeting in Nashville. We gave him my demo and, 15 minutes after we left, he called. He said he liked my music and wanted to produce my album. My mom is also super supportive.

My faith is due to my parents. They're great about teaching us by example. My older sister is also super into her faith. All around me is Jesus, and that's exciting.

You've said that you want your message to be that “God is our destination toward happiness.” Is that what you want listeners to take away from your music, particularly teenagers like yourself?

There are so many things I want to say, but that's the main point. It's the old message that life, virtue, prayer and Christ bring you to your ultimate end. I feel the reason why I can say this is that I struggle, too. It's so easy to lose that thought.

When you're 16 or 17, you become aware of the world's struggles and wonder how you can be a light to others and be what you're called to be. You can be at Mass or holy hour, then see friends and end up on a different path than you were five minutes before. If we strive for Christ, people will see that joy and it will become contagious.

How would you describe your musical style?

It's acoustically based, not super pop, but it has a pop influence. With a little bit of mandolin and bouzouki, it has ethnic elements. It's kind of earthy.

What is your favorite song on the CD?

Probably “Cold.” I like the way it turned out. I wrote it when I was 13, and it was reconstructed a little for the album. I like warm weather, so I can relate to the idea that when you feel bad, you feel cold. It's good for me to sing about self-awareness and not always being the person I want to be. I also like “The Road.” It's about our path as Christians and choosing the one that leads you home. The world says, “Come here, do this or that,” and I'm saying, “I choose Christ.”

It's a theme for me, a reminder of my own promise to Jesus to keeping going on the right path. The message is especially important for young people when friends are choosing paths and not all of the paths make one happy. A lot of teenagers think romantic love or drugs, alcohol or sex will make them happy, so it's so important for young people to wake up and say, “Jesus, I choose your road. This is what I want.”

Mark Heimermann has produced highly successful acts like dc Talk, Stacie Orrico and Jaci Velasquez. What was it like having your debut CD produced by a big-name producer?

It was very exciting, of course. I love the different albums Mark has produced, so I knew it would be very good. It was a little nerve-wracking at first, but he was super nice. We had a good time in the studio. Sometimes I couldn't sing because he was so funny.

What's next?

I'm going to hold off on college for a year and see where God leads me with the music.

Amy Smith writes from Geneva, Illinois.

‘A Voice That's Pleading’

Out here in oblivion everyone's sleepwalking

Blissfully unaware of kingdoms rising and falling

I'm here in this mess living life unconscious

Painfully obvious, I need to find a way out of this

Somewhere there's a candle burning

And a voice that's pleading

Somehow the world keeps turning

One soul believing

The earth trembles and heaven moves

Love is interceding

My mother must be praying

— from “Mother Must Be Praying,” written by Mark Heimermann, Marie Miller and Judson Spence, on Marie Miller's debut, self-titled CD.

----- EXCERPT: A conversation with Catholic teen singer Marie Miller ----- EXTENDED BODY: Amy Smith ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

SUNDAY, DEC. 11

Nature: Song of the Earth

PBS, 8 p.m.

Did animals’ calls and songs influence mankind's early music? David Attenborough explains human musical structures and then lets us hear from skylarks, humpbacked whales, lyre birds, gibbons and great weed warblers. Re-air from 2002.

SUNDAY, DEC. 11

After the Storm: Religions

Respond to Nature's Fury

CBS, 8 a.m.

This 30-minute show follows various faiths’ recent national and international relief efforts. Catholic Charities of New Orleans is among the groups spotlighted.

MONDAY, DEC. 12

Feast of Our Lady

Of Guadalupe

EWTN

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us! EWTN's feast day programs begin with Our Lady of Guadalupe and Miraculous Mexico at 4:30 a.m. Later, Nuestra Senora is venerated in episodes of Our Lady in Scripture and Tradition at 6:30 a.m., Today With Father Rutler at 6 p.m. and The Many Faces of Mary at 9 p.m.

TUESDAY, DEC. 13

Independent Lens:

Seoul Train

PBS, 10 p.m.

Anyone who wants to grasp the utter cruelty and irrationality of the totalitarian mindset need only watch the North Korean and Chinese communist parties in action. This documentary by Jim Butterworth and Lisa Sleeth uncovers a North Korea starved by rigid socialism, and a people so desperate for food and freedom that they risk torture and death to escape. Those whom the North Koreans don't catch, the Chinese capture and force back. But an underground railroad now is saving at least some refugees.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 14

Inside Passage

PBS, 8 p.m.

Chenoa Egawa and Bob Simmons host this 60-minute film on the culture, history and scenic beauty of the thousand-mile waterway between Seattle and the Alaska peninsula. American Indian groups in the area include the Kwakwaka’wakw, the Lummi, the S’Kallam and the Tlingit.

THURSDAY, DEC. 15

Cherub Wings:

The Angel's Song

Familyland TV, 3:30 p.m.

Delight your children — and yourself — with this story of a cherub who follows “the star with royal beauty bright” to the little town of Bethlehem and meets the newborn King.

FRIDAY, DEC. 16

Emeril Live: Happy, Happy Holidays

Food Network, 8 p.m.

Chef Emeril Lagasse gets ready for Christmas by preparing roast beef, goose, stuffed onions and butterscotch-chocolate parfait pie.

SATURDAY, DEC. 17

Christmas Concert

Familyland TV, 5:30 p.m.

In this hourlong program, the singer Angelina gives reverent and beautiful treatment to our favorite Christmas carols and classics. Re-airs Dec. 23 at 1 p.m.

Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.

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Roman Women Are Converts to Convents

TELEGRAPH, Nov. 28 — Growing numbers of educated Italian women are throwing away their high heels and lipstick and opting for the austere life of nuns in closed convents, according to the London Telegraph.

At a conference organized by the Vicariate of Rome and Italy's Union of Superiors of Women Religious, it was found that 550 women in Rome chose to withdraw to cloisters this year compared with 350 two years ago.

“They are realizing that what the world has to offer to them is not all it is made out to be,” said Sister Pieremilia Bertolin, the secretary general of the union. “They are starting to reason with their heads and not just believing the messages advertising throws at them.”

Pope Says More Must Be Done to Stop Bloodshed

AKI, Nov. 28 — Pope Benedict XVI said “stronger international resolve” is needed to halt the bloodshed in Sudan's ethnically troubled Darfur region, according to the international news agency.

The Pope made the appeal during a Vatican audience with the Cardinal of Khartoum, Gabriel Zubeir Wako. “The horror of events unfolding in Darfur, to which my beloved predecessor Pope John Paul II referred on many occasions, points to the need for a stronger international resolve to ensure security and basic human rights,” Benedict XVI said.

The Holy Father welcomed the recent enactment of Sudan's new Constitution — the result of a peace accord between Khartoum's Muslim authorities and the mainly Christian and animist former rebels in the country's south — as an opportunity and duty for the Catholic Church to “contribute significantly to the process of forgiveness and national reconstruction.”

He told Cardinal Wako, “Though a minority, Catholics have much to offer through interreligious dialogue as well as the provision of greatly needed social services. I encourage you therefore to take the necessary initiatives to realize Christ's healing presence in these ways.”

Vatican Examines Possible Miracle by John Paul II

ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 29 — Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz said a Church tribunal will focus on a possible miracle performed by Pope John Paul II in France as the Vatican pursues the late Pope's case for beatification, Associated Press reported.

Archbishop Dziwisz, who was personal secretary to John Paul, told reporters in Rome that “there are no problems with miracles because there are many, but they have picked one because they don't need more.”

The process was “proceeding very well,” he said, and could be over as soon as March, the Ansa news agency reported.

The archbishop added, “There are many testimonies; we must choose the most accurate ones to show the personality of John Paul II.”

Vatican Defends Singer's Ban

REUTERS, Dec. 2 — The Vatican defended its decision to exclude Brazilian singer Daniela Mercury from its Dec. 3 Christmas concert, saying she had threatened to promote the use of condoms to fight AIDS during the show, according to Reuters.

The concert is a traditional fund-raiser for charities. It is not attended by the Pope but is attended by dozens of cardinals and other top Vatican officials.

It is then broadcast on Italian television on Christmas Eve.

“The Vatican decided to exclude Daniela Mercury from the cast not because of her convictions about contraceptives even if they are not in agreement those of the Catholic Church,” said Father Giuseppe Bellucci, a priest who organized the show. “She was excluded because she had announced that at the concert she would openly promote the use of condoms to fight the plague of AIDS.”

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THE ISLAND: PASS

(2005)

THE KING KONG COLLECTION: KING KONG: PICK (1933). SON OF KONG (1933), MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949)

CONTENT ADVISORY: The Island contains much strong action violence, some profane, obscene and crude language, fleeting pin-up images, a disturbing childbirth scene, an on-screen sexual encounter, a couple of toilet scenes (all non-explicit), and a couple of theologically confused remarks. Mature viewing only, if at all. King Kong contains some relatively strong violence, numerous fatalities and ethnographic stereotyping. Could be too much for younger kids. Son of Kong contains stylized violence and Mighty Joe Young contains stylized violence and drunkenness. Both Kong sequels are decent family viewing.

A sci-fi parable about human cloning, The Island is the first from Michael Bay (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys) in which ideas actually sort of matter. Even better, its ideas regarding clone-and-kill technology and human dignity are more or less in the right direction. Any film that depicts a sinister biotech company officially denying that the products of its human cloning technology (created to provide custom-tailored donor organs) are sentient beings when in fact it is murdering cloned humans while the wealthy and powerful look the other way is a film I can't entirely pan.

Unfortunately, The Island is also a typically over-the-top Baysian schlockfest with exploitative violence and trashy sexuality. Besides a PG-13 sex scene, there's a gratuitous go-go bar shot, a sleazy character (Steve Buscemi) into whose sex life the film goes way further than necessary, and yet another tiresome variation of the exhausted “comic” scenario in which two quarreling male characters are mistaken by bystanders for gay lovers. There's also lots of smashing of heads and faces with crowbars and so forth, a hand transfixed to a door by a nail gun, people shot with harpoon guns, massive loss of life and property damage, etc.

In short, it's a classic example of what happens when a decent story idea is sabotaged by the predictably offensive accessorizing directors employ when they want a film to be seen as “edgy.”

Meanwhile, here it is at last on DVD, just in time to tie in to Peter Jackson's latest December three-hour special-effects extravaganza: The King Kong Collection, featuring the original King Kong, cheapie sequel Son of Kong and the later Mighty Joe Young, all from the same creative team.

Of these, the original and still the best is the 1933 King Kong, the father of all cinematic giant monster movies — from Godzilla and his Japanese ilk, to Hollywood's 1950s’ giant bug movies like Them! and Tarantula, to more recent features like Aliens and Jurassic Park.

Of all his non-gorilla progeny, though, only Kong emerges as an expressive, evocative character capable of tragedy and pathos as well as ferocity. Although Godzilla was a hero in some of his films, no actor in a rubber suit could convey the range of feeling and emotion of Willis O’Brien's 18-inch model. Made only half a dozen years into the sound era, King Kong still has something of the unearthly magic of the silent era about it.

Rushed into production in the wake of King Kong's success, Son of Kong is a less ambitious sequel, oddly made on the cheap compared to the original, that relies more on comedy and human characters than drama or spectacle in a story about the pale-hued Kong Jr. Sixteen years later, the filmmakers went back to the well for Mighty Joe Young.

The apes, and the pictures, got smaller with each film, but they all have heart.

----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: God Hears the Cry of His People DATE: 12/11/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 11-17, 2005 ----- BODY:

Register Summary

Pope Benedict XVI met with 23,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square for his general audience Nov. 30. The Holy Father continued his series of teachings on the psalms and canticles of the Liturgy of the Hours. His catechesis focused on Psalm 137, both a lament for the destruction of Jerusalem and for the exile of the Jewish people in Babylon, as well as a prayer for deliverance and an expression of their longing for the Holy City.

“This heartfelt cry unto the Lord to free his faithful people from the slavery of Babylon also expresses the feelings of hope and expectation for salvation with which we have begun our Advent journey,” he noted.

The Pope pointed out that the slavery and sorrow on the exile in Babylon symbolically foreshadowed the death camps of the last century, where the Jewish people faced extermination. He called them “an indelible disgrace in the history of mankind.” Nevertheless, he said, God in his justice hears the cries of all those who are victims.

Pope Benedict quoted a meditation by St. Augustine on Psalm 137. He noted that St. Augustine realized that there were people among the inhabitants of Babylon who were committed to the peace and well-being of others even though they did not know God. He trusted that God would eventually lead these people to the heavenly Jerusalem, rewarding them for their pure consciences.

“He exhorts us not only to fix our eyes on the material things of the present moment but to persevere in our journey towards God,” the Holy Father said. “Only with this greater hope can we transform this world in a just way.

“Let us ask the Lord to awaken in all of us this desire and this openness to God,” Pope Benedict concluded, departing from his prepared text. “Let us pray that those who do not know God may also be touched by his love, so that all of us may journey together toward the city that is our final destination and so that the light of this city may also shine in our time and in our world.”

On this first Wednesday of Advent, a liturgical season of silence, of keeping vigil and of prayer in preparation for Christmas, we will meditate on Psalm 137, whose Latin version is famous for its opening words, Super flumina Babylonis (By the waters of Babylon). This text recalls the tragedy that the Jewish people endured during the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place in the year 586 B.C., and their subsequent exile in Babylon as a result. It is a national hymn of sorrow, characterized by a deep nostalgia for what had been lost. This heartfelt cry unto the Lord to free his faithful people from the slavery of Babylon also expresses the feelings of hope and expectation for salvation with which we have begun our Advent journey.

A People in Exile

The background for the first part of the psalm (see verses 1-4) is the land of exile with its rivers and canals, which provided water for the plain of Babylon, home for those Jews who had been deported. It symbolically foreshadows the extermination camps where the Jewish people — in the century that has just ended — were deported during those infamous death raids, which remain as an indelible disgrace in the history of mankind.

The second part of the psalm (see verses 5-6), on the other hand, is permeated with loving memories of Zion, the city that was lost yet is alive in the hearts of the exiled people.

In the words of the psalmist, the hand, tongue, palate, voice and tears all play a role. The hand is indispensable for the harpist, but it is now paralyzed (see verse 5) by sorrow. Moreover, the harps have been hung on the poplars.

The singer needs his tongue, but it is now stuck to his palate (see verse 6). His Babylonian tormentors “asked for the words of a song… a joyful song” (see verse 3) in vain. The “song of Zion” is “a song of the Lord” (see verses 3-4) and not some folk song or show tune. It can be lifted up to heaven only during the liturgy and by a people that is free.

God Hears Our Cry

In his justice, God, who is the ultimate judge of history, will understand and accept the cry of these victims, overlooking its sometimes bitter overtones.

We would like St. Augustine to guide us further with his meditation on this psalm. In his meditation, this Father of the Church introduces a surprising yet timely element. He realizes that there are also people who are committed to peace and to the well-being of the community among the inhabitants of Babylon, even though they do not share the faith of the Bible and are not familiar with the hope for the Eternal City to which we aspire. They have within them a spark of desire for what they do not know — for something greater, for something transcendent, for true redemption. He says that there are people with this spark even among the persecutors and among nonbelievers, who have some kind of faith and hope to the extent that it is possible given the circumstances in which they live.

The Eternal City

With this faith in a reality that they do not know, they are really on the way to the true Jerusalem, to Christ. With this openness to hope, both for the Babylonians — as Augustine calls them — and for those who do not know Christ and do not even know God yet desire the unknown, the eternal, he also exhorts us not only to fix our eyes on the material things of the present moment but to persevere in our journey toward God. Only with this greater hope can we transform this world in a just way.

St. Augustine expresses this in the following words: “If we are citizens of Jerusalem… and we have to live on this earth in the confusion of the present world — in the Babylon present among us where we do not live as citizens but are prisoners — we need not only to sing the words of the psalm but live them as well. This is achieved when our hearts completely and devotedly yearn for the Eternal City.”

Referring to the “earthly city called Babylon,” he adds the following words: “There are people there who, moved by love for it, strive to ensure peace — a temporal peace — and fail to nourish any other hope in their hearts, putting instead all their joy into this temporal peace without promising themselves anything else. We see them make every effort to be useful to society on this earth. However, if they do their best and their conscience is pure in doing this task, God will not allow them to perish along with Babylon. He has predestined them to be citizens of Jerusalem, provided, however, that living in Babylon they do not yearn for self-importance, fleeting riches or annoying arrogance…. He sees how they are enslaved and will show them the other city for which they truly yearn, to which they should direct all their efforts” (Esposizioni sui Salmi, 136, 1-2: Nuova Biblioteca Agostiniana, XXVIII, Rome, 1977, pp. 397, 399).

Let us ask the Lord to awaken in all of us this desire and this openness to God, and let us pray that those who do not know God may also be touched by his love, so that all of us may journey together toward the city that is our final destination and so that the light of this city may also shine in our time and in our world.

(Register translation)

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Fifty Babies Survive Abortions Yearly in Britain

THE SUNDAY TIMES Nov. 27 — Doctors in Britain, which allows abortion up to the 24th week of pregnancy, have reported that up to 50 babies survive abortions annually, according to the Sunday Times of London.

The Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which regulates methods of abortion, mounted investigations. But rather than reevaluate the fact that abortion kills babies, however, the investigations come amid growing unease among abortion doctors that could see them being charged with murder.

Paul Clarke, a neonatal intensive care specialist in Norwich, has treated a boy born at 24 weeks after three failed abortion attempts. The mother decided to keep the child, who is now 2 years old but is suffering what doctors call “significant ongoing medical problems.”

The issue was highlighted by abortion survivor Gianna Jessen, 28, who spoke Dec. 6 at a parliamentary meeting organized by the Alive and Kicking campaign, which is lobbying for a reduction of the abortion limit to 18 weeks.

She said, “If people are going to talk about abortion, then it's important for them to know that these are babies that can be born alive and survive.”

Patriarchs’ Assembly Hopeful on Christians’ Future

ASIANEWS, Nov. 28 — The patriarchs of the seven Eastern Catholic Churches convened a meeting full of hope and confidence for the future of Christians in the Middle East, AsiaNews reported.

Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, Melkite Patriarch Gregorius III Lahham, Coptic Patriarch Stephanos Ghattas, Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel Delly, Syriac Patriarch Ignace Pierre VIII Abdel Ahad and Armenian Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni gathered in Amman, Jordan, for the “Justice and Peace” conference.

Cardinal Sfeir said the meeting comes at “a critical time not only for the Middle East” since there is much talk “about clashes between different cultures, especially between Christians and Muslims.”

Archbishop Ghattas said he hoped the assembly will go well since it involves a topic that profoundly touches everyone. “In the East we suffer from the lack, if not the absence of, justice and peace.”

Liechtenstein Rejects Anti-Abortion Measure

ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 28 — Voters in the tiny, predominantly Catholic alpine principality of Liechtenstein soundly rejected an initiative would have prevented abortion, Associated Press reported.

Less than 20% of voters cast ballots in favor of a constitutional amendment, supported by the country's archbishop, seeking to protect human life from conception to natural death. Instead, nearly 80% ratified a government counterproposal, which legalized abortion. The country had previously permitted abortion only in limited cases such as when the mother's life is in danger.

Once a sovereign state of the Holy Roman Empire, Liechtenstein is about three-quarters Roman Catholic. Liechtenstein, a country nestled in the Alps between Switzerland and Austria, is the size of Washington, D.C., and has a population of 33,000. The national holiday is August 15, the Catholic feast of the Assumption.

Archbishop Wolfgang Haas called the legislation a “death melody.”

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