REDBANK, N.J. — Christmas has been called the first all-night adoration. Joseph and Mary did their time; the shepherds also got called for special nighttime duty adoring the new Savior.
Members of the Nocturnal Adoration Society imitate the Christmas watch, all year long — especially this year.
“We hope that the Year of the Eucharist generates new interest in Eucharistic adoration,” said Henry Ballasty, nocturnal adoration coordinator at St. James Catholic Church in Redbank, N.J., “and we hope that the NAS can be responsive to what the Pope has advocated in his proclamation.”
Ballasty has been a member of the society for more than 30 years. He was drawn to the group's mission to respond to the Lord's call to watch and pray.
“When we pray before the Blessed Sacrament,” he said, “we're reminded that the host in the monstrance on the altar was consecrated by a priest during Mass who followed the same ritual as Jesus did at the Last Supper, the night before he died.”
Each month, the organization's 122 chapters — with nearly 8,000 members — meet at parishes throughout the country to adore the Eucharist during the night, usually on the first Friday. During holy hours, they use the Office of the Blessed Sacrament, the society's official prayer book. Chapters set their own schedules, according to the abilities of their members; the average length of adoration is eight hours, with members taking hours that systematically rotate by month.
Why do members of the Nocturnal Adoration Society go out in the middle of the night to adore Christ in the Eucharist? To provide a fervent response to Christ's invitation to keep prayerful vigil with him, as written in the Gospel of St. Matthew: “Then he said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.’”
“Adoring Christ in the Eucharist during the night gives you a chance to really meet with the Lord in quiet and without interference,” said Herman Casamatta, chapter president at St. Paschal Baylon Catholic Church in Highland Heights, Ohio, and a member since 1965. “It's very moving. It's the fastest hour of the night.”
‘Need It Badly’
The group's statutes list two additional reasons for nocturnal adoration: “To deepen the experience of communion with Christ Eucharistic, as he continues his self-offering and saving influence” and “to live more consciously and actively the full significance of the Eucharist as the sacrament of charity and unity for the Church and world.”
Father John Garrett, pastor of St. James Catholic Church, laments the fact that increasing numbers of Catholics doubt the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. He sees the work of the Nocturnal Adoration Society as a testimony to the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ in the Eucharist and applauds the way nocturnalists unite the needs of society and the universal Church with the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.
“Any organization that brings that reality back deserves encouragement,” he said.
Membership is open to all Catholic men and women, and the conditions for membership are few. Members are welcomed into the society with a formal reception, and their names are inscribed in the chapter's official register. The group's principal obligation is to observe one hour of adoration before the exposed Eucharist during the night. There are seldom meetings outside of the monthly adoration hour. When a chapter does meet, it's usually for a social event or to encourage continued member participation and boost morale. The chapter arranges and attends a Mass for the deceased when a member dies. Members also receive a monthly newsletter.
The Nocturnal Adoration Society is headquartered at St. Jean Baptiste Catholic Church in New York and led by national chaplain and director Father Anthony Schueller, and a layman, Paul Monette of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Lowell, Mass. Chapters elect their own officers, who take charge of sending out reminder postcards, collecting donations (there are no dues), organizing and moderating holy hours, and recruiting new members.
Monette took over the chair-manship in 2000. His wife, Gabrielle, and youngest daughter, Anne, help him with administrative duties. During the past three decades, he's seen the mission of the society grow in importance although its membership has declined. Older members have become too frail or have died. Younger people feel they haven't time in their busy lives for Eucharistic adoration. Monette is determined, however, to recruit new members.
“We need Eucharistic adoration in our culture so badly,” he said. “We're surrounded by moral pollution — pornography, divorce, homosexuality and a self-sufficient conviction that we don't need Christ.”
‘The Greater the Sacrifice’
Patricia Williams, chapter president at St. Helen Parish in Vero Beach, Fla., can testify to the benefits of Eucharistic adoration. “We receive so many blessings. Good things happen to you when you adore Christ in the Eucharist. The later the hour, the greater the sacrifice and yet the greater the blessings.”
The society is the inspiration of Father Giacomo Sinibaldi, a Roman priest who gathered groups of men to pray in the presence of the Eucharist in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Soon groups were meeting every night in the churches of Rome. The Nocturnal Adoration Society was established as an archconfraternity in Rome in 1810. From there, it spread throughout the world, coming to the United States in 1882. Today, there are more than 1 million members in 36 countries. Chapters are autonomous, and each must be canonically approved by the bishop of the diocese and have its own constitution. A chapter can be from either one parish or many.
“When we pray before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, we're given graces, not just for ourselves, not just for our parish, but for the whole Church,” said Father Paul Clifford, pastor of St. Marguerite D'Youville Parish in Lowell, Mass.
Father Clifford is actively pursuing the formation of a chapter at his parish and encourages other pastors to do the same.
Like that first Christmas, he says it isn't just monks and cloistered nuns who are called to watch in the night. Like he did with the shepherds, he calls all of us, wherever we are, to come and adore the King.
Marge Fenelon is based in
Cudahy, Wisconsin.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Marge Fenelon ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bush's Supreme Test DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Now that the dust has settled from the battle over the presidency, the next bare-knuckled fight between Democrats and Republicans may be over the replacement of a Supreme Court justice, with abortion likely to be an issue during the nominating process.
The battle is not far off. The health of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who is undergoing treatment for thyroid cancer, may force him to resign within weeks, legal experts said.
At stake: the possible start of overturning Roe v. Wade — especially because an aging lineup of justices may allow President Bush to replace several others before his term ends in 2008.
“In general, the pro-abortion people are on target in recognizing that Roe v. Wade is very fragile,” said Father Richard John Neuhaus, president of the Institute on Religion and Public Life.
Overturning Roe v. Wade may take some time, however. Sean Rush-ton, executive director of the Committee for Justice, which promotes constitutionalist judicial nominees, pointed out that Rehnquist is known for his conservative opinions. If he is replaced by another conservative, the court retains its status quo in terms of its current balance of opinions.
“Down the road, if there is another retirement … when one of the more moderate or more liberal justices retires, then the president will have the opportunity to change the court in some meaningful way,” Rushton said.
Realizing they have an opportunity to shape the nation's highest court, Republicans have come up with an elaborate plan to counter what they expect will be intense opposition by liberal groups and Democratic allies, such as People for the American Way and NARAL Pro-Choice America, during the nominating process.
“You can nominate Mother Teresa, and she'll be painted as a racist or she's against affirmative action,” said Manuel Miranda, chief architect of the plan. Miranda was a senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., when he came up with the three-pronged response to any opposition of the president's nominee.
The first occurs immediately, during the day of the nomination; the second occurs during confirmation hearings; and the third takes place when the nomination is debated on the Senate floor, said Miranda, an attorney and consultant.
“The goal is not to depend on a couple of shepherds to protect the nominee, as in the past, but at each level to have all the leadership involved at the first stage, and all the (Senate) Judiciary Committee involved and coordinated at the second stage,” he said. “And have all 55 Republican senators involved in defending the nominee on a constant basis. You don't let any amount of time wait before an allegation or charge is given a response.”
It is the first time Republicans have had a sophisticated plan in place before a Supreme Court justice nominating process, Miranda said. He cited previous extended battles, such as over Justice Clarence Thomas' nomination, as one reason to have a plan in place.
“The American people are more in tune today that their value system is in the hands of unelected elite judges, so Republicans will have an opportunity to bat out all the balls the Democrats throw at them,” he said.
‘Fire Away’
In pro-life circles, there has been much speculation about potential Supreme Court nominees. Hopes are high that the president's choices will be favorable to the movement.
The timing is especially right for the president since his party is the majority in the Senate — 55 Republicans, 45 Democrats — and since the presidential election signaled that Democratic stances on cultural issues, such as same-sex “marriage” and abortion, are not in tune with the majority of Americans, said Robert George, professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University.
“The president has a lot going for him here if he plays his hand correctly,” George said. “I think he should fire away and send his best nominees up there. People he has the most faith in. Don't worry if they have paper trails. If he's going to be concerned about that, then make sure they are people who present themselves very well in the hearings.”
During the campaign, President Bush indicated he would not have a “litmus test” for his nominees; their views on the Constitution seem to be of utmost importance to him.
“What the president has promised to do is to appoint someone who will respect the distinction between interpreting the law and making law,” George said. “If he does, in fact, successfully get someone like that through the process, then that person will strike down Roe — not on pro-life grounds, but on the ground that the Constitution leaves the issue of abortion for determination by the state legislatures.”
It takes a majority to overturn Roe, so the appointment of someone who may be referred to as a constitutionalist may not be enough to do the job. But, even if the court eventually votes against Roe, abortion won't become illegal, George said. The matter would then return to the states, changing the debate into an even more political one, he said.
“I don't think anybody whom the president is going to appoint is going to write an opinion making the case for the personhood of the unborn child,” George said. “They're going to make the case that, as Justice (Antonin) Scalia has argued, the Constitution is silent on the question of abortion. It doesn't prohibit it; it doesn't require states to permit it. And therefore it's a matter to be resolved democratically and not by judicial fiat. That's the best we can hope for.”
What Makes Pro-Life?
If the nominee is faithful to the Constitution, there is only one answer to how he will think on the subject of life, said Douglas Kmiec, professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine University Law School.
“If you are faithful to the text, you will come out with the right answer on this question because our founders didn't write into the Constitution the destruction of life,” he said. “Quite the contrary; they drafted the Constitution for its preservation for ourselves and, as they put it, our posterity. When they make reference to our posterity, who else could they be referring to but succeeding generations of children?”
Patrick Mullaney, a Catholic pro-life lawyer from New Jersey, believes that what may be considered a pro-life “victory” — the court one day deciding to give the states the power to set abortion policy — shouldn't be considered as such because abortion likely will remain legal in some states.
“That means that this entire class of humanity under our system of law has to win elections to be protected,” Mullaney said. “So if you're in a state which would pass affirmative abortion legislation, then you've gained nothing. If you're willing to make the democratic process your king, then you have to live in its kingdom.”
In the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, the court decided that unborn babies do not have due-process rights, he said. But Mullaney's view is that the Founding Fathers believed there are certain rights that need to be protected against the will of the majority, and those are individual rights. Under the 14th Amendment, life is declared one of those rights, he said.
In the end, what makes a judge pro-life is recognizing that there is a “moral interface between law and truth,” Mullaney said. He added that the point of law is to deal with that issue and not pass it on to someone else. He defined a pro-life judge as someone who finds life to be “a gift from God whose relationship to the law is to be guaranteed unconditionally, and that unconditional guarantee is found as an enumerated right in the due process clause” (in the 14th Amendment).
“The right to life is already there,” he said. “It simply has to be recognized for what it is.”
Carlos Briceño writes from Seminole, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: Will High Court Turnover Mean the End of Roe? ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carlos Briceño ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bearing Gifts From Bethlehem DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:MILFORD, Conn. — Bethlehem is safer than it has been in years. But many pilgrims don't realize that.
They're swayed by recent years' news reports focusing on trouble in the little town where Christ was born.
If the world is avoiding Bethlehem, Mudar Qumsieh is taking Bethlehem to the world.
He's a Bethlehem-born 22-year-old Eastern-rite Catholic who came to study in the United States four years ago. Last July, he hatched a plan to sell Holy Land crafts in the United States in order to help artisans make up for lost revenue as pilgrims grew scarce. The result was Bethlehem Christians, Inc.
Carving olive wood is a generations-old custom for Palestinian Christian families to support themselves.
Qumsieh has been visiting parishes in the United States to describe the plight of his countrymen and to sell their olive wood rosaries, crucifixes, Nativity scenes and images of Jesus, Mary and the Holy Family.
“Many, many Christians carve the olivewood,” said Qumsieh, who works from Milford, Conn., and is assisted by his two brothers and a cousin. “This is one of the prime ways of making a living. From generation to generation, people kept carving.”
In fact, the Palestinian Christians have been carrying on this craft since the fourth century. “We believe the olivewood is a very blessed tree,” he explained. “Jesus prayed by one of these trees.”
The difficulties in the Holy Land have forced many people to emigrate.
“This is a crisis that the church is facing,” said Franciscan Father Peter Vasko, president of the Jerusalem-based Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land. Citing 55% unemployment, he said: “If they can't work and can't get an education, they can't exist, so they're thinking of going to the United States, Canada and South America.”
Qumsieh wants to help Christians in the Holy Land earn a living and maintain their presence there. He noted that 30 years ago, approximately 20% of the population was Christian. Today, they're a mere 1.8% of the population.
Although Father Vasko isn't familiar with Bethlehem Christians, he said, “If it's an association that's helping many, many people in Bethlehem, then it's a great service because it's giving jobs in Bethlehem at this time. There are over 100 small factories in Bethlehem that do olive wood carvings. If they have a vehicle such as this, this gives work to a lot of young people who would (otherwise) be out of work.”
‘Virtual Prisoners’
There's another rub for the olive wood artisans in Bethlehem. They can't bring their carvings to Jerusalem, a short hop away.
Palestinians are “like virtual prisoners in this town of 72,000 people,” Father Vasko noted. “They're surrounded, they're isolated, they can't leave the town to go to Jerusalem. It's very frustrating to the Palestinian Christians … and a lot of these families trace their roots back 1200 years.
“We need more support from the Christians around the world and … from the Catholics in the United States.”
Qumsieh is finding “people are very receptive when we tell them that your brothers and sisters are struggling in the land of Christ, and you ought to help them,” he said. “They leave the parish with different ideas. Before, they didn't even know there are Christians living in the Holy Land.”
One of Qumsieh's visits was to Immaculate Conception Church in Hampton, Va., whose pastor, Father Robert French, knew exactly what he was talking about.
“I spent a sabbatical year in Israel and have been back many times. Bethlehem, even in peaceful times, is in need of a lot of help,” Father French said. “Now, dear God, they must be in dire straits. So his work here sure gives them hope somebody has remembered them.”
Father David Borino, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Waterbury, Conn., which hosted Qumsieh in October, noted that some parishioners “were very impressed with him being a young man in his 20's willing to stand up and share his experiences, reminding us we are a united Church, one body in Christ.”
Qumsieh pointed out that 60 to 70% of the money from sales (only operating costs are deducted) is sent back to the carvers. He takes no salary himself.
As for the carvers, “We have many suppliers back home,” he said. “We're trying to deal with all of them, not just a few, so we can help as many as we can.”
Family Connection
Father Majdi Siryani, legal advisor to the Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem, doesn't know Qumsieh. But, he said, “His uncle Samir, however, owner of Al Mahed station, is very well known to us at the Patriarchate and his station is highly recommended.”
He refers to Al-Mahed (Nativity) TV, the only Christian station in the Holy Land. It broadcasts Sunday Mass and programs to keep the Christians rooted in the land and to spread the Christian message.
Samir Mudar inspired his nephew's efforts when the young man asked his advice about starting Bethlehem Christians. Now Bethlehem Christians is also helping the station with all proceeds from a DVD the elder Qumsieh made called “A Tour in the Holy Land.”
He said, though, that the only such program linked directly to the Church is the one run by the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation called “Holy Land Gifts.” Rateb Rabie, the foundation's president, said the organization is endorsed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and works with the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem. It has offices in Bethesda, Md.
As one way to help Palestinian Christians, the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation sells some olive wood items through churches and Christian volunteers in places like Washington, Detroit and San Antonio. People can buy some products online. And the foundation sells the carvings to churches on a consignment basis.
“This is a Christian tradition,” Rabie stressed. “We want to help maintain that vital Christian tradition in the Holy Land. Only Christian crafters carve the olive wood.”
Ultimately, Qumsieh wants himself put out of business.
“I would love to see more Christians going back to the Holy Land,” he said. “I hope the situation would get better so we wouldn't need to do this work anymore because people would be doing their selling back home. We all look for peace and stability in the Holy Land.”
Joseph Pronechen writes from
Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Artisans from Christ's hometown travel with their wares ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Our Weekly Mission DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — We would like to think the two events were connected, but they really weren't.
On Nov. 30, publisher and editor-in-chief Father Owen Kearns presented the Register to Pope John Paul II during an audience in Rome.
One week later, the Holy Father spoke in another context about the mission of Catholic weekly newspapers.
“He could have been speaking about the Register,” Father Kearns said. And, in a way, he was.
John Paul II appealed to Catholic newspapers to be agents of the “civilization of love” when he met with Italian journalists Dec. 4.
“The contribution of Catholic journalists is more precious than ever today, both at the pastoral as well as the cultural and social level,” the Pope said during an audience with 200 participants from the assembly of the Italian Federation of Catholic Weeklies.
“Thank you for the service that you offer, with your newspaper publications, to building a civilization of love,” the Holy Father said.
According to the Pope, Catholic weeklies “breathe into families, parishes and cities the Christian values that form a great part of the spiritual patrimony of the Italian people.”
“I am thinking, in particular, of the protection of human life in its integrity; of marriage and the family, which in a misunderstood culture of ‘personal rights’ tends to denature; I am thinking, finally, of the values of truth, justice and solidarity,” he said.
“Continue resolutely to proclaim the Gospel of truth and of hope from those pulpits which your diocesan weeklies are, remaining always open to the wide perspectives of the universal Church,” the Pope said.
Father Kearns said the Pope's words describe the mission of the Register.
“There's no such thing as neutral media,” he said. “Every media outlet has a point of view that shapes how they present the news. Anybody who thinks that The New York Times and CBS, for example, are objective and impartial needs to take remedial classes on the media.”
The Catholic media, while not giving in to a mistaken notion of objectivity, should be more fair and balanced than its secular counterpart, Father Kearns said.
“Certain media are masters at presenting those with principled stands as conservative and hopelessly out of touch with the direction of contemporary culture,” he said. “Those who abandon the truth only to cave in to media and political pressure are presented as courageous and enlightened. Catholic media have more to contribute: the wisdom of the Church. Truth and grace are more powerful than any sophisticated media manipulation.”
New Evangelization
Father Kearns said the Pope was calling the Catholic media to join the New Evangelization.
“If Catholic media were to wake up, en masse, to their mission to promote the New Evangelization, then we would have a far greater impact on the culture,” he said. “Catholic media can have a disproportionate impact on the culture, precisely because of the one they ultimately represent: Jesus Christ, ‘the more powerful one.’”
“The Holy Father blessed the Register,” Father Owen Kearns said, “and with it, the staff of Circle Media, our writers and readers, and the donors who make it all possible.”
Before taking leave of journalists at the Dec. 4 gathering, John Paul II gave them two pieces of advice.
“To be able to carry out your mission fully, pay attention first of all that you yourselves are not lacking the necessary spiritual food of prayer and of an intense sacramental life,” he said.
“Be concerned as well with enriching your ethical and cultural formation, so that your convictions are kept in harmony with the Gospel and are not diverted by the prevailing pernicious tendencies of a certain modern culture,” the Pope added.
Archbishop John Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, also addressed the assembly.
He expressed his closeness to the participants and mentioned that he was once director of a U.S. diocesan newspaper.
“People need sources of information on the Catholic Church that are complete and authentic,” he said. “Catholics must be constantly updated on the teaching of the Church and on the way it adapts in our life of today.”
Father Kearns agreed: “That's our weekly mission.”
----- EXCERPT: POPE JOHN PAUL II BLESSES THE REGISTER AND LATER SPEAKS ABOUT WEEKLIES ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: A Regular Catholic Guy - With an Edge DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:William Donohue's no-holds-barred style has won him friends and enemies — and victories.
He's president of the Catholic League, an organization that gets its reputation from high-profile fights about anti-Catholicism but has built its resume with smaller, sweeter wins that don't always make the front page.
Responding to complaints that he tends to be brash, Donohue said that off-camera, he's quite different. Last year, for example, Donohue and Bishop Thomas Doran of the Diocese of Rockford, Ill., saved a beloved church from being torn down. This year, Donohue put out a statement congratulating U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, for a bill giving federal money to restore 21 Spanish missions in California. Last November, a high-school student near Rochester, N.Y., told Donohue the school newspaper refused to print his article about religion. Donohue contacted the principal and resolved the matter via email.
He spoke with Chicago seminarian Raymond Cleaveland about his work.
Tell me what the Catholic League is trying to do.
Our role is fairly narrow, but it must be understood for what it is: to make certain that the Catholic voice is heard. If people disagree with what the Catholic Church says, that's okay. All we Catholics want is a fair hearing, without people throwing church-and-state arguments at us and telling us to shut up. So we see ourselves kind of like the Marines — we go in to clear the forest.
Our role is to get in front and make it easier for the bishops, priests and nuns to have a fair hearing in the media. And it must be a lay group because, as a layman, I can go out into the foray first; I can have an “edge” to me, and then it becomes easier for the bishops to take positions.
You described yourself as having an “edge.” Some even say you have a “chip on your shoulder.” Do you?
Let's put it this way. When you do talk on TV, as I do frequently, you're engaged with some bright people, generally on the left, and I think it would be a mistake to project an altar-boy, blue-nosed, nerdy kind of image of Catholics — which is precisely the stereotype that our adversaries have of us — and I'm not that way. Look, I'm a regular guy who's just fed up with the attacks on our Catholic Church. I'm New York Irish and, yeah, there is a tough edge to me when I'm on TV, but when people get to know me, I don't think they would say I have a chip on my shoulder. But I'll say one thing, when I'm in a debate on TV, I go in prepared and I go in to win.
What exactly do you deem “anti-Catholic”?
Take the movies or the theater, for example. I don't care if they portray one priest in a movie as a drunk or as a sexual predator — that's not anti-Catholic. It's anti-Catholic if the only priests that the audience meets are dysfunctional and you never see a good-guy priest. Like the 1995 Miramax movie Priest. In that movie, the audience meets five priests and all of them are dysfunctional, and they explain their dysfunctionality as a result of their being Catholic.
Do you respond to every anti-Catholic claim you get?
No. If I shoot wide and call everything “anti-Catholic,” my credibility will disappear. When in doubt, we leave it out. Let's say there is an art exhibit with five offensive portraits, but there are gradations of offense. Do we go after all five? No, we go after the one that's the most outrageous; that way we win the argument.
Does the Catholic League just respond defensively and “put out fires,” or are you also playing offense?
We usually put out fires, but sometimes we're arsonists. By that, I mean that we don't just settle scores — we go to win. Mel Gibson was the subject of the most vicious attack I've ever seen on a public person, and all he wanted to do was put out a movie about Jesus Christ. Gibson had a lot of cheerleaders in the Christian community, but not at the Catholic League. We weren't cheerleaders; we were gladiators. We went straight at his most vociferous enemies and we took them on directly: on TV, in the press, in an open letter to the Jewish community. Mel Gibson didn't need another pat on the back. He needed someone to come to his defense in a very strong way, and if you weren't strong, the other side would have run you over.
Do you just take high-profile cases like that of Mel Gibson?
Not at all. Let me give you one example from Spencerport High School up near Rochester, N.Y. We were contacted by a student who alleged that he was not allowed to write about his religion in the student newspaper. I contacted the principal via email and told him that if this was true, he (the principal) had no grounds to stand on. I showed him the 1996 memo from Richard Reilly, secretary of education under President Clinton, which supports the right of students to express themselves. It ended amicably. Now, all it cost me was an email. And, there it is — this kid's rights have been secured.
Are the people in the “blue” states more anti-Catholic, more secular?
No. It's not the average guy who is a union worker and wants better health care or wages and thinks that the Democrats can deliver on these issues. Those aren't the people who are anti-Catholic. It's the playwrights, the artistic community, college professors — principally in the humanities, social sciences and law schools — people in the major media — not small-town newspapers — the entertainment industry, Hollywood and the publishing world. So, I'm not talking about blue-state or red-state people. I'm talking about a small segment of very influential people who are profoundly hostile in their thinking to the Catholic Church.
Will anti-Catholicism ever disappear like other prejudices have?
I don't see it in the near future, but hopefully anti-Catholicism will wane. But there are really two genres of anti-Catholicism. One is toward the individual; the other is toward the institution. I think that in this country we have made tremendous progress in the former. Not too long ago, for example, Ivy League schools wouldn't even accept Catholics. But we've gone backwards in the way that the institutional Church is treated in the media and by the cultural elites who will not stop until they “sanitize” our society of religion.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: William Donohue's ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Assisted Suicide Acquittal Sparks Review of Canadian Law DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:DUNCAN, (British Columbia) — A jury had scarcely finished acquitting a proponent of assisted-suicide charges in this western Canadian province when supporters were calling on the Canadian government to decriminalize assisted suicide when performed by “professionals.”
Evelyn Martens was cleared of two counts of assisting suicide Nov. 4, and the Canadian government announced it would revisit the country's law against the practice.
“Put it in the hands of specialists,” Martens' lawyer, Catherine Tyhurst, told reporters outside the courtroom in this small, Vancouver Island mill town, seconds after her client's not-guilty verdict. “Put it in the hands of doctors. Put it in the hands of people other than members of the public, but regulate it in some fashion.”
Spokespersons for the disabled and right-to-life organizations swiftly warned that the law must stay in place to protect the vulnerable from those with selfish or misguided reasons for wanting their death.
Two weeks later, on Nov. 18, Canada's justice minister, Irwin Cotler, told the House of Commons Justice Committee that the chamber should hold a “take-note” debate without a vote to instigate a public discussion.
“I think it may be appropriate to offer the opportunity for this discussion,” Cotler said. “I don't think there should be a rush to judgment until we say we are as properly informed as we deserve to be to make the most appropriate principled judgment in this regard.”
Two years of investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the testimony of dozens of witnesses were not enough to bring a conviction against Martens, the 74-year-old membership director for the Victoria-based Right-to-Die Society. She was charged with helping two women asphyxiate themselves in 2002: Ley-anne Burchell, a teacher with terminal stomach cancer, and Monique Cha-rest, a death-obsessed and depressed former nun.
Despite the presence of the society's custom-made helium “exit bags” and helium tanks found in Martens' car immediately after Burchell's death — and an eyewitness account of Cha-rest using the gear to kill herself with Martens at her side — the jury apparently believed the defense argument and medical testimony that the cause of the two deaths was uncertain.
All Martens had done, Tyhurst said, was provide emotional support.
“It's unbelievable,” said Beverly Welsh, a right-to-life activist in British Columbia, who took daily notes for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition at the three-week trial. “It's all misplaced sympathy. The defense and media made Martens out to be acting from compassion. But what Charest needed was professional help for her depression and medical help for her ailments.”
Vulnerable and Dependent
No definitive cause of death could be shown in either case, though a Right-to-Die Society associate testified in the Charest case that she left Martens in the room with Charest after the latter had connected the plastic bag to the helium and pulled the bag over her own head. And police who were investigating Martens for Charest's death found Burchell's body right after she was paid a visit by their suspect.
Welsh believes the jury should have inferred that Martens tightened the bag around Charest's neck.
The prosecution, moreover, argued that the evidence that Martens was the supplier of both the technology and technical expertise was enough to convict.
Charest was convinced — in spite of what her doctors told her — that she was doomed to die of porphyria, a rare disease that killed her father at age 64, her own age when she died. Medical practitioners testified they were treating her for back problems, a blood clot on her lungs and depression.
The jury also heard how Charest's preoccupation with death had alienated her friends.
Charest's case is an example of the danger presented by the assisted-suicide and euthanasia movements, according to Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.
“People who are elderly and ill are vulnerable and dependent. What a caring society should do is provide help with their problems,” he said.
Schadenberg told the Register about an Ontario man suffering from dwarfism who had to fight medical practitioners for treatment for various associated ailments. The doctors wanted to treat his pain but not cure the problems. “They wondered whether it was ethical to treat him at all for his hernia, because it would just prolong his life.”
Agreed Alberta disability-rights activist Mark Pickup: “Is the issue one of choice in dying? No, it's something larger. The bigotry of utilitarianism. If Granny Martens helped a depressed, suicidal — but healthy — teen-ager commit suicide, she would be universally reviled. Are the incurably ill or disabled lives not worth living? Is it okay to assist them in death?”
Dutch Example
Schadenberg insisted the acquittal was not a test or rejection of the law against assisted suicide, but based instead on lack of evidence.
Canadian juries have delivered convictions in assisted-suicide cases: against Julianna Zsiros of Victoria last year for helping a roommate asphyxiate herself, and against Ontario doctor Maurice Genereaux in 1998.
A decade ago, a Victoria woman with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) gained national celebrity with her unsuccessful court challenge of the assisted-suicide law. At that time, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the right to security of the disabled and elderly trumped Sue Rodriguez' claim to a right to die. After her suicide, Svend Robinson, a prominent left-wing member of Parliament and supporter, was briefly investigated as a possible assistant in her death.
The same year, a Saskatchewan court convicted farmer Robert Latimer for killing his daughter, Tracey, who had cerebral palsy.
In the four years following, according to research by professor Dick Sobsey of the University of Alberta, in Canada there was a 47% increase in the number of murders of children by their parents, which he attributed to sympathetic media coverage of Latimer.
In 2001, several polls indicated that only 30% of Canadians found doctor-assisted suicide to be immoral.
Schadenberg responded to Tyhurst's call for regulation rather than criminalization of assisted suicide by noting that regulation in the Netherlands has provided no protection. He said the majority of doctors in an anonymous survey admitted they do not report when they have euthanized patients, as required by law. Moreover, many euthanize without consulting with the patient or family, also as required by law.
The Catholic Civil Rights League, a Toronto-based lay Catholic lobby group, warned that evidence from the Netherlands shows that Tyhurst's “experts” were not to be trusted with the rights of the disabled and elderly. League president Philip Horgan said, “We believe any such liberalization would only lead us down a slippery slope similar to what we have seen following the liberalization of abortion laws 35 years ago.”
Steve Weatherbe writes from Victoria, British Columbia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steve Weatherbe ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:Most Americans Believe Christmas Story
MSNBC.COM, Dec. 5 — Some Americans seem so afraid of offending those of a different religion that they are willing to celebrate the “holiday spirit” with no acknowledgment of what exactly that holiday is. But a Newsweek poll suggests that far fewer folks than suspected would be miffed by a public official or sales clerk saying “Merry Christmas.”
According to results of a poll concerning beliefs about Jesus, 79% of Americans believe the Gospel accounts of the birth of Christ — including the fact that he was born of a virgin and conceived by the Holy Spirit. “Sixty-seven percent say they believe that the entire story of Christmas — the virgin birth, the angelic proclamation to the shepherds, the Star of Bethlehem and the Wise Men from the East — is historically accurate,” the news website reported. “Twenty-four percent of Americans believe the story of Christmas is a theological invention written to affirm faith in Jesus Christ.”
Further, 93% of Americans believe Christ lived, and 82% believe he is God or the son of God.
Networks Pull Ad Implying Churches Homophobic
Whether intended or not, the ad subtly implies that some churches are unwelcoming to homosexuals and minorities. The commercial depicts what appear to be bar bouncers in front of a church, turning away minorities and men who appear to be homosexual.
“Jesus didn't turn away people, and neither do we,” the ad tells viewers. While never using the word “gay,” the spot concludes with a panorama of people, including two women, one of whom has her arm around the other.
The networks said they don't allow “advocacy advertising” and have declined numerous issue-oriented commercials in the past.
In a press release Dec. 3, the Family Institute of Connecticut's Brian Brown disputed statements that the ad was meant as a message of tolerance and inclusion. “There's a difference between faithfully upholding the scriptural prohibitions against homosexual activity and forbidding those with such inclinations from entering your church,” Brown said. “No pro-family church does the latter.”
World Youth Day Website Co-Opted
LIFESITENEWS.COM, Dec. 7 — A website that kept hundreds of thousands of young people informed about the 2002 World Youth Day gathering with Pope John Paul II in Canada is now listing abortion clinic addresses.
LifeSiteNews.com quoted website designer Anton Casta as saying the domain name www.wyd2002.org, which is linked by more than 1,300 other websites, had been “stolen.”
That might have been avoided. Father Thomas Rosica, national director of World Youth Day from 2002-2003, told LifeSiteNews that the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops directed him to close the website and ship its server to them in Ottawa. The conference assured him they would reactivate the site, but the conference failed to renew its ownership of the domain name on time. A Massachusetts company called the Tidewinds Group grabbed it.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: After 600 Incidents and Third Death, Stronger Warning for RU-486 DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — After about 600 reports of infections and excessive bleeding and the deaths of three American women — including one this summer — the Food and Drug Administration decided to strengthen the warning label on RU-486, the pill that terminates early pregnancies.
But there is no indication the agency will pull the drug from the market.
“We are concerned about any drug that is related to serious medical complications and death,” said Dr. Steven Galson, acting director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, during a Nov. 16 news conference. “We are sympathetic to those concerns.”
But, Galson said, “As you know, infections, bleeding and death may result from medical, surgical abortions and other kinds of obstetric interventions and childbirth. We feel the safety profile of this drug, along with the steps we're taking today, are adequate to allow the drug to be used safely. We will continue to monitor it.”
The FDA received a report about the latest death in August, in which a 22-year-old woman, who was seven weeks pregnant, went to the hospital with signs of an infection after taking the so-called abortion pill, which is also known as mifepris-tone and sold in the United States as Mifeprex, Galson said.
He added that the FDA did not bow to political pressure from the Bush administration, which has tried to ban partial-birth abortions. “This was a science-based decision,” he said.
But politics have entered the picture because Republican lawmakers are set to re-introduce a bill that would temporarily suspend the sale of RU-486, while also starting an investigation into its approval during President Bill Clinton's administration.
“This harmful and unethical drug was processed with a minimal amount of testing and short-circuited through the approval process due to political motivations,” said Dr. Pia de Solenni, director of life and women's issues with the Family Research Council, in a statement.
Though Galson insisted the FDA has not found any evidence to link the three deaths to the drug, the deaths have caused the agency some concern, resulting in the revised warning labels, he said.
But that concern is not enough for Monty Patterson, the father of Holly Patterson, the 18-year-old California woman who was the second American woman to die, in September 2003, after taking RU-486. He wants the drug banned.
“We feel there's more work that needs to be done,” he said. “We feel the drug has problems. We feel the FDA has not addressed all of our concerns.”
Since the controversial drug was approved in the United States in 2000, about 360,000 women have used it to end a pregnancy — despite it carrying the FDA's strongest safety alert, a “black box” label. Patients are also given a consumer medication guide.
Specific Warnings
Under the new labeling, patients are told to take the revised guides with them if they visit an emergency room or go to a doctor other than the one who prescribed the drug, so the health-care provider knows the patient is undergoing an abortion.
According to the FDA, the strengthened warning label adds new information on the risk of serious bacterial infections, sepsis, bleeding and death that may occur after any termination of pregnancy, including use of RU-486
The revised information also reminds health-care providers that sepsis, a severe illness caused by overwhelming infection of the bloodstream by toxin-producing bacteria, and bacterial infection may occur without the usual signs of infection, such as fever and tenderness on examination.
The new warning also says doctors should be on the lookout for patients with undiagnosed ectopic, or tubal, pregnancies because this condition may be missed by a physical examination and ultrasound. And, while some symptoms of an ectopic pregnancy may mimic the expected symptoms of a medical termination of pregnancy, RU-486 is not supposed to be used for the termination of these pregnancies, according to the FDA.
The first American woman who died after taking the drug — a 38-year-old who was four weeks pregnant — refused to go to the emergency room in October 2001 after complaining of bad cramping, Galson said. She had an undiag-nosed ectopic pregnancy, he said.
Holly Patterson, the California teen, died after sepsis developed.
‘Slap in the Face’
The revised labels are not enough for pro-life organizations, which seek a ban of the drug.
“It is an oxymoron to call RU-486 both ‘safe and effective,’” said Brian Johnston, executive director of the California Pro-Life Council. “It is specifically designed to be a lethal agent. Because it kills the child growing in the womb, we know that it is, for the most part, effective in its goal.
“By authorizing this ‘deadly medicine,’ the FDA should not be surprised when a drug like this is more than effective and kills the mother as well,” he said.
Cathy Cleaver Ruse, director of planning and information for the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, viewed the new warnings as “a slap in the face to women” and wondered how many more women have to die before the drug is taken off the market.
“Is three not enough?” she said. Meanwhile, the drug's American manufacturer, Danco Laboratories, reacted with less alarm to the new warning labels.
Updating labels is “standard procedure for all drugs,” said Cynthia Summers, Danco's director of marketing and public affairs.
Regarding the latest death that the FDA mentioned to the media, Summers said it wasn't clear whether the woman took RU-486. According to an autopsy report, the woman allegedly took a cancer medication that can be the cause of a terminated pregnancy. “We do not have information confirming that the woman took Mifeprex,” she said. “We are continuing to try and find out more information about this situation and will share any new developments with the FDA.”
One of the nation's leading abortion-rights groups, NARAL Pro-Choice America, did not view the FDA's new labeling as a big deal, either.
“We don't think it's a particularly monumental or a particularly noteworthy announcement,” said David Seldin, a spokesman for the organization. “All prescription drugs have occasional adverse reactions, and the FDA and the drug manufacturers work together to provide appropriate information to doctors and patients. And I don't think that this is anything more than that. The record on mifepristone is one of great safety.”
Carlos Briceño writes from Seminole, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carlos Briceño ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Warns; War on Terror Is Breeding Global `Christianophobia' DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — The war on terrorism, despite being necessary, is having a damaging side effect of increasing hostility toward Christians in the Muslim world, a senior Vatican official warned.
Speaking Dec. 3 at a conference on religious liberty organized by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See, the Vatican's secretary for relations with states, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, said that “the war against terrorism, even though necessary, had as one of its side effects the spread of ‘Christianophobia’ in vast areas of the globe.”
He added, “Western civilization, or certain political strategies of Western countries” are wrongly considered to be “deter-mined by Christianity, or at least not separated from it.”
Speaking to reporters after his talk, Archbishop Lajolo emphasized that this problem is “not only in Islamic countries,” but that hostility exists in states where Church-sponsored schools or charities were perceived as thinly veiled attempts at proselytism.
His comments came soon after the Vatican pressed the United Nations in Geneva to condemn “Christianophobia” along with “Islamophobia” and anti-semitism. They also followed remarks in a series of interviews by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who warned that parts of Europe were now so secular that Christianity was being pushed into the margins.
In an interview with Vatican Radio Nov. 24, Cardinal Ratzinger elaborated, saying Europe “undoubtedly” has something to learn from the United States in its approach to religious freedom. “It certainly is a positive way,” he said, adding that the United States has a process by which the state “makes room for religion which is not imposed” but which acts as “a public creative force.”
Secular Europe, on the other hand, is in danger of imposing an ideology that “no longer ensures the Christian's public presence,” Cardinal Ratzinger said.
Archbishop Lajolo spoke during the last of four high-profile seminars held by the embassy to celebrate 20 years of diplomatic relations between the United States and the Holy See.
‘Concordat Diplomacy’
The final seminar, entitled “Religious Freedom, the Cornerstone of Human Dignity,” opened with comments by the outgoing U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, Jim Nicholson, who emphasized how the United States and the Church “ceaselessly” strive to promote and protect religious freedom. Quoting Pope John Paul II, Nicholson described religious liberty as “the basis of all other freedoms” and a “fundamental right of the human spirit, in which man expresses himself most deeply, perhaps, as man.”
In practical terms, Archbishop Lajolo explained how the Church has sought to safeguard religious freedom for Catholics. Using “concordat diplomacy,” a process of making agreements with states, the Church has tried to ensure freedom of religious practice, of jurisdiction and of association with the Catholic Church, and cooperation with civil authorities — particularly with regard to education and charitable activity.
The archbishop said the increasing number of agreements over the past 40 years contradicts suggestions that the Second Vatican Council “marked the end of the era of relations between Church and state based on negotiated treaties.” In fact, Archbishop Lajolo stressed, 115 agreements have been concluded since 1965.
Despite these advances, the archbishop reminded delegates that religious liberty has yet to be fully realized in any nation-state. “Even in states in which the right to religious freedom is taken very seriously and in which the Church can say that she is reasonably satisfied, there is always something which does not adequately respond to her needs,” he said.
Paolo Carozza of Notre Dame Law School urged governments not to ignore the importance of religions as a requirement for peace, security and cooperation among nations. Without them, he argued, it would be impossible to forge a “universal common good.”
Other speakers included Attilio Tamburrini, Italy's director of Aid to the Church in Need; Father David-Maria Jaeger, chief spokesman of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land; Joseph Grieboski, president of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy; and Jesuit Father Daniel Madigan, director of the Institute for the Study of Religions and Culture at the Gregorian University.
Catholic commentator and conference moderator Deal Hudson welcomed the “breadth and depth” of the conference and expressed his desire to see nations intervene to protect religious liberty as a “basic human right,” using sanctions if necessary.
Ambassador Hanford
John Hanford, the current U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, told conference participants that more than half the world's population live under serious restrictions of faith. He cited Burma, China, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam as “countries of particular concern.”
Of these, Hanford reported, Eritrea is deteriorating the fastest. He said 200 Protestants and Jehovah's Witnesses are currently being held in metal containers in the Eritrean desert.
He also spoke to the delegates of gains, most notably in Afghanistan and Iraq, and alluded to the joke that “the only countries that come off the CPC list are ones we invade.” He also noted that Turkmenistan recently overturned a restrictive scheme that recognized only Sunni Islam and Orthodox Christianity.
“There are so many places where religious persecution is a severe problem,” Hanford told the Register after the conference, adding that he found his task “overwhelming.”
Edward Pentin writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:Holy Father Wins Italian Science Prize
ANSA, Dec. 5 — Pope John Paul II was awarded the 2004 Erice Science Prize for Peace at the Vatican Dec. 7 by the Ettore Majorana Science and Culture Center.
The citation praised the Holy Father for “being the greatest friend of the scientific community, for having the courage to defend science while differentiating it from its applications, for placing science on the same pedestal as the values of faith and for creating the foundation for a great alliance between science and faith.”
Previous honorees have included Linus Pauling and Edward Teller.
The Pope said the cash prize would be donated to students from the developing world and called for cooperation of “the international scientific community, public institutions and people of good will” in order to “assure humanity a future of hope and peace.”
Poles Embrace Papal Comic Book
AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS, Dec. 3 — A comic book explaining how Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II is selling briskly in the Pope's native land, Poland.
The 80-page book, written by Louis-Bernard Koch and illustrated by Dominique Bar and Guy Lehideux, was first published in France and includes a preface from Cardinal Paul Paupard, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Culture.
Jolanta Kochniarczyk of the Polish publisher Bialy Kruk of Krakow praised the book as “a biography that reads, well, like a good novel — it's not just dry facts.” Yet she worried it might be regarded as vulgar, even impertinent. However, she said, “We have not met with any criticism. Young readers who were given the book were delighted.”
John Paul Prays for Filipino Victims
The Holy Father's message to Archbishop Antonio Franco, released Dec. 5, reads in part, “With prayers for the victims and their families, (the Pope) asks almighty God to grant peace and consolation to the homeless, the suffering and those involved in the difficult task of relief.”
Donations to alleviate the suffering can be made to Caritas Internationalis at www.caritas.org. The Pope himself donated $25,000.
British Celebrate Adrian IV
Born circa 1100, Adrian was educated at St. Albans and became an Augustinian canon in France, a papal diplomat and cardinal bishop of Albano, near Rome, before his elevation in 1154, upon the death of Eugenius III. Adrian served fewer than five years and is best remembered for his alleged donation of Ireland to Henry II of England.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: A Thanksgiving Day Gift DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:Last week I reported on what took place in Rome while it was Thanksgiving week in America. But I left out an event that was in some ways the most moving.
On Nov. 30, John Paul II invited priests of the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi members in Rome to a special audience in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall.
“I am happy to meet with all of you,” the Pope told us in his address, “in the climate of joy and gratitude to the Lord for the 60th anniversary of the priestly ordination of Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder and superior general of your young and meritorious religious family.”
The Pope was close to the Legionaries during that week in many ways. First, he gave his personal and definitive approval of Regnum Christi Statutes (See below). He issued an apostolic letter motu proprio (on his own initiative) to entrust to the Legion-aries the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center, an institution of the Holy See in the Holy Land.
The Holy Father addressed a personal letter to Father Maciel for the 60th anniversary of his priesthood, Nov. 26, and sent him several gifts: a papal blessing and the chalice and vestments the Pope used for Corpus Christi.
“You are Peter,” more than 7,000 people sang in Spanish as John Paul II entered from the back of the audience hall at 11:50 am.
The Pope was visibly happy. He smiled and stretched out his hands to let himself be touched by as many people as possible. The crowd waved yellow scarves to greet him.
From the center of the hall, the Pope paused for pictures with those present: 1,200 Legionary priests and seminarians, the 1,000 Regnum Christi consecrated women, the 1,000 boys and girls from Legionary schools in Rome and Caserta (Naples), and the 4,000 friends and members of the movement who came from Europe, the Americas and Oceania.
He spoke in Italian. “In this significant meeting,” he said, “I am pleased to repeat to you what I said to you at the end of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000:? There is a need today more than ever for a confident proclamation of the Gospel which, casting aside all crippling fears, announces with intellectual depth and with courage the truth about God, about man and about the world.’”
The Bishop of Rome linked the Legion of Christ's and Regnum Christi Movement's Christ-centered spirituality to the recently inaugurated Year of the Eucharist. “Remain united around the Eucharist!” he said. “Faithful to the charism that distinguishes you, continue your evangelizing mission, nourishing yourselves on Christ and becoming his intrepid witnesses.”
After giving his blessing, the Pope greeted Father Maciel and some of the first Legionary cofounders. Bishops Jorge Bernal and Pedro Pablo Elizondo were among them.
Robert and Stephanie Donner, Regnum Christi members from Atlanta, Ga., expressed what many of us felt. “These days have been a constant outpouring of God's graces,” said Robert, and Stephanie added, “We've been spoiled by God.”
Decree Approving Regnum Christi Statutes
Here follows the text of the papal approval of the Regnum Christi Movement of apostolate. The Holy Father's approval was publicized by Archbishops Franc Rodé, and Piergiorgio Silvano Nesti, prefect and secretary for the Congregation for Institutes of Religious Life and Societies of Apostolic Life:
The Regnum Christi Movement is the specific instrument of apostolate of the Legion of Christ, with which it is indivisibly united. Its purpose is to establish the Kingdom of Christ among all people by the growth in holiness of its members in whatever state and condition in life God has called them to, and through individual and organized apostolate at the service of the Church and her shepherds. With the guidance and spiritual support of the Legionaries of Christ, Movement members — in the full exercise of their freedom — join together to help each other fulfill their baptismal commitments.
Its specific charism is the same as the Legion of Christ's and consists in knowing, living and proclaiming the commandment of love that Jesus Christ the Redeemer came to bring us by his incarnation. Indeed, the work that the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi Movement members undertake in building a civilization of Christian justice and love is well-known.
The founder of the Legion of Christ and of Regnum Christi presented to the Apostolic See the Statutes of the Regnum Christi Movement of apostolate and requested their definitive approval. The Supreme Pontiff, with fatherly affection, has accepted this petition and by his supreme authority has approved the Statutes.
The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, informed by the Secretariat of State (in Prot. N. 568.021) of this approval, by this present Decree makes it public and known to all. …
The Apostolic See warmly recommends that these Statutes, faithfully followed by Regnum Christi Movement members, be a further effective means to extend the Kingdom of Christ in the world.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Alfonso Aguilar, LC ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Rostrevor's Benedictine Monks Gift: Peace and Healing to Northern Ireland DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:ROSTREVOR, Northern Ireland — In the foothills of the Mountains of Mourne in Northern Ireland, a Benedictine community from France has taken up the challenge to help heal the wounds and sectarian divisions between Ireland's Catholics and Protestants.
The Monastery of the Holy Cross in the Kilbroney Valley, near the village of Rostrevor in County Down, opened in January. Five members of the Benedictine Congregation of St. Mary of Monte Oliveto, from the Abbey of Bec in northern France, arrived in Rostrevor in 1998. They felt called to respond to Pope John Paul's 1996 apostolic letter Vita Consecreta (The Consecrated Life) by establishing a house dedicated to peace and reconciliation in the province.
With little money and no land, they moved into a former retreat center in Rostrevor run by the Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles and put their trust in God. One day in 2000, a local farmer offered them nine acres of land. The monks began fund raising, architectural plans were drawn up, and a simple monastery with a striking church at its heart was eventually built.
In 1979, three miles from where Holy Cross Monastery now stands, one of the worst single acts of sectarian violence took place when an IRA bomb exploded under an Army bus at Warrenpoint, killing 18 soldiers and one civilian. Since the beginnings of the Catholic-Protestant hostilities in Northern Ireland 35 years ago, more than 3,300 people have been killed and over 40,000 injured.
Given the bloody background of decades of violence between Northern Ireland's Protestant and Catholic paramilitaries, Father Mark-Ephrem Nolan, the abbot of Holy Cross, knew that much healing was needed in the community but also that it would take time.
“Some people still have nightmares about events that happened 30 years ago. These are not just terrible things in the past that happened to many people — they are a living reality,” he said.
Father Nolan said the consciences of many of those involved in paramilitary activity remain troubled. “Recently, I met a man with advanced cancer, and he wanted to talk about things he had been involved in 30-odd years ago,” the priest said. “He didn't directly take lives, but he knows that he endangered lives. At the time, these activities seemed perfectly legitimate, but he wouldn't condone them today in any way.”
Despite the current peace process, fierce sectarianism still exists in some communities, as Father Nolan discovered when he visited north Belfast earlier this year. “I didn't realize how bad it was there, even though I'm from that area,” he said. “For example, during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the Protestant minister and his wife invited the Catholic priest for dinner. But they couldn't have any public celebration because they would have alienated their own congregations.”
Praying Together
On the eve of the solemn dedication of the monastery, an ecumenical prayer vigil was held. The service opened with Bishop John McAreavey of Dromore and Church of Ireland Bishop Harold Miller of Down and Dromore carrying an icon of the cross into the church. The first sermon in the church was preached by Lord Carey of Clifton, the former archbishop of Canterbury.
“During the service, we wanted to listen to each other's stories in the light of the Word of God,” Father Nolan said. “The Reverend Bert Armstrong, whose brother and sister-in-law were killed by the IRA in the Enniskillen bomb, talked about how this was a turning point in his ministry. On the eve of the funeral, he felt that he had only one message that he could preach: ‘Father, forgive them.’
“It was a transforming experience for him, and his ministry has now become a ministry of reconciliation. And Michael McGoldrick, whose only son was killed by the UVF (Protestant paramilitary) in the Drumcree standoff in 1996, also spoke about how he also learned to forgive.”
Since 1999, ministers of the local Presbyterian, Methodist and Church of Ireland churches have been meeting with the Benedictine community every two weeks to pray the Scriptures in the monastic tradition of lectio divina (divine reading). These meetings, reported Father Nolan, have done much to break down the barriers and mistrust that had developed between Catholics and Protestants over centuries of suspicion and violence. Furthermore, they have dispelled the myth that Catholics don't read the Bible.
“In July, eight new ordinands for the Church of Ireland Dioceses of Connor and Down and Dromore made their pre-ordination retreat here and left from the monastery for their ordination services,” Father Nolan said. “I led the retreat, and rather than discuss the Bible, we prayed our way through it. They all said that they thought they knew how to read the Scriptures but that lectio divina had been a radical discovery for them.”
Brother Thierry, who joined the Benedictines after reading French literature at Sorbonne University in Paris, says that before coming to Rostrevor, he knew nothing about the conflict in Northern Ireland. “I had heard that it was impossible to meet Protestants and that there was such a big division,” he said. “But, for us, it was quite easy. We have met very prayerful, open-minded people, both Catholic and Protestant, who are aware that there is a big problem and that there is a need for dialogue and prayer.”
Coming Home
Marie Dailow left Dublin for America 40 years ago and became active in ministry with evangelical churches in Texas and California. She now has returned to her Catholic roots through living in the Center for Christian Renewal in Rostrevor. “Coming to live in the North was a real eye-opener for me,” she said. “In America, people would say, ‘What are they all fighting about? They're all Christians.’ They wouldn't understand the sectarian aspect of Northern Ireland.”
Added Dailow, “I think the peace process has opened doors, and there are now many individuals and groups working for reconciliation. Churches have been coming together and listening to each other in order to try and understand how they grew up with the mindsets they did.”
Greg Watts writes from London.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Greg Watts ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:Britain to Outlaw Religious ‘Hatred’
PRESS ASSOCIATION, Dec. 7 — British Home Secretary David Blunkett faces rebellion over a bill that would make incitement of religious “hatred” a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison.
On Dec. 7, some members of the House of Commons argued that the Serious Organized Crime and Police Bill would criminalize religious disagreement, although Blunkett said this was not his intent. Democratic Union leader Ian Paisley pointed out that the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer “contains many things
“contains many things that would be absolute anathema to a Roman Catholic” and asked, “Are those things incitement?”
Labor leader Gordon Prentice said, “I am still perplexed because there is no definition of religion, and 5,015 people in Sheffield gave their religion in the 2001 census as Jedi Knight. I hate Star Wars — should I be worried?”
Bethlehem Finds Peace — Seeks Tourists
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Dec. 5 — The four-year-old Palestinian uprising against Israel has not only killed thousands but has wrecked Holy Land tourism, particularly in Bethlehem.
Bethlehem remains literally scarred by a 2002 Israeli Army incursion which left bullet holes in the Church of the Nativity after a five-week siege of Palestinian insurgents inside. As a result, monthly visits to the town of Christ's birth have declined from 120,000 to 10,000, while only 1,500 visitors are likely to attend Christmas services, a far cry from the tens of thousands that once attended.
Violence has declined significantly since the death of Yasser Arafat last month, and Israeli, Palestinian and Vatican officials have signed an agreement to promote tourism, although mourning for Arafat has meant no Christmas decorations in Bethlehem. Amin Abu Kamel, who works at the Orient Palace Hotel near Manger Square, told the Associated Press, “I would like to see people. And peace.”
Kenyan Government Blamed for Priest's Murder
CATHOLIC INFORMATION SERVICE, Dec. 7 — Archbishop Giovanni Tonucci has indirectly blamed the Kenyan government for the Nov. 25 murder of Father John Hannon. Alluding to the collapse of law and order, the apostolic nuncio said at the Dec. 3 funeral of the 65-year-old Irish missionary priest, “Bandits are free to do what they want; innocent people are not.”
Archbishop Tonucci said he “was shocked that criminals could attack a mission station, cruelly murder a priest, rape a little girl and walk away scot-free” and concluded, “Security seems to be a foreign word in this country.”
Ten people have been arrested in the case.
Food Chain Apologizes for Anti-Christmas Bigotry
MALTAMEDIA ONLINE, Dec. 4 — An Australian fast-food chain has apologized to a Sydney franchise owner for ordering him to remove a Nativity scene from his counter.
Jeff Fisher, chief executive officer of the Oporto chain, said the instruction to the franchisee, a Catholic immigrant from Malta, was “politically correct” and “overzealous.”
Australian Prime Minister John Howard has condemned the secularization of the “holiday season,” saying, “You can't have a generic approach to Christmas. It celebrates an historic event; it celebrates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth …You can't replace that.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Christmas Scares Them DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:This Christmas, thank God the culture is so set against mentioning Christ.
After you get angry about it, we mean.
Christians in 2004 America find themselves in a situation that a reader summed up rather nicely. “A few years ago we were asked to ‘Keep Christ in Christmas,’” wrote Ed Lynch of West Nyack, N.Y. “Now it seems we should ask to ‘Keep Christmas in Christmas.’”
The Catholic League has noticed the same thing — and has kept a record.
Fontana, Calif., skipped Christmas and celebrated a Festival of Winter this year. Said Catholic League President Bill Donohue, “Santa Claus, who is not associated with anything other than Christmas, was inexplicably present … and there was a tree lighting ceremony, though no one said why trees are lighted in December.”
Chapel Hill, N.C., sponsored a “Holiday Parade” and “Community Sing and Tree Lighting,” as part of “a series of holiday events.”
Glendale, Ohio, had a Holiday Walk on the Village Square.
Historic Franklin, Mich., has held an annual Holly Day Festival for years. This year, they dropped the word “holly,” because holly suggests Christmas.
In Kansas, the Catholic League found the following correction in The Wichita Eagle newspaper: “A story in Monday's paper referred to a tree that was lighted at Tuesday's Winterfest celebration as a ‘Christmas tree.’ In an effort to be inclusive, the city is actually referring to this tree as the ‘Community Tree.’”
Does it seem that there is excessive shame, or worry, about mentioning Christ's name? Does it make you angry? It made rapper Kanye West angry, too.
He was recently nominated for 10 Grammy awards. His hit song “Jesus Walks” is laced with profanity, but its basic message is summed up in lines like these: “The way schools need teachers / The way Kathy Lee needed Regis / That's the way I need Jesus.” In it, he makes the point that everybody needs Jesus.
Since he's no Christian music artist, a reporter on CBS news' “60 Minutes II” asked West how people reacted to the new song when he recorded it.
Said the rapper, “People would be like, ‘Yo, it's the best song I ever heard, but it'll never make it on radio,’ and it frustrated me, so the second verse I wrote about how they say you can't say Jesus on radio … The word Jesus was like saying [the ‘N-word’]… It's gonna offend people for you to say Jesus.”
He's right. People are very offended if you use God's name respectfully — though, ironically, it's socially acceptable to use it in vain.
But this should give us great hope.
Why? Because there was a time, not so long ago, when you could speak about Christ much more freely — in part, because fewer people took him seriously.
The word “Christmas” didn't offend the irreligious element in society back then. Nativity scenes in public didn't make agnostics rage. These things were harmless references to a quaint old story. Science was the new vehicle for answering men's questions and many people assumed it would soon eclipse religion altogether, just as it had done in Europe. In the meanwhile, why complain about old pious stories?
But it didn't turn out that way in the United States.
If anything, the past decade has seen signs of a religious revival. First it was the high school students who would burst into prayer at school-sponsored events as school officials looked on, horrified. Then it was the rise of the Christian shadow-culture, with its own music, books and videos that became such a major business force in the 1990s. Now, in 2004 alone, in addition to the success of “Jesus Walks,” The Passion of the Christ became a blockbuster movie and a groundswell of support by Christians was credited for the president's re-election.
Jesus isn't so harmless anymore. Suddenly, the word “Christmas” doesn't fall on the ear of the culture like a quaint harking back to a sweet old story. Now, it's more likely to be a direct challenge to the listener, because it refers to a particular person — a radical, polarizing person who can't be ignored.
This has actually brought our culture closer to the ethos of the first Christmas. That first Christmas wasn't so sweet, really: Christ's coming was brutally opposed by Herod, who had soldiers kill baby boys because he wanted Christ dead.
If Christ's name is making our neighbors uncomfortable again, we can thank God. It means they're taking him seriously. And it means they need to hear from us how they can overcome their fear and find much to receive from the newborn King.
----- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:Mob-Family Values
Regarding the letter titled “Shoulda Been an Anti-Catholic Contenda” (Oct. 10-16):
I was disturbed by the letter writer's pronouncement upon The Godfather as an anti-Catholic, if not the anti-Catholic movie. He mentions the last and most intensely revealing scene of the movie as the ultimate proof. The calculated killing spree cut with the scene of the baptism of Michael's nephew and godson (not child) is horrific, but this is not an attack on the Catholic Church.
There are many disturbing acts of violence in The Godfather. Having family roots in the culture of Sicily and the Mafia, I felt that the movie was brilliant in showing the hypocrisy and evil of the Mafia tradition. If the Church or its members are involved with this kind of evil, by all means, don't sweep it under the carpet and only produce movies and write books about the good ol' days and the perfection of the Church! Does being anti-Catholic mean recognizing our faults and need for improvement? I hope not; I would have to call myself anti-Catholic.
We should be aware that the Mafia is still very strong in our world. The Holy Father has spoken in strong language to the Catholics of Sicily about this, and there are individuals who are bravely standing up against the institution. The story told in The Godfather is very real. Those people were Catholic — but, unfortunately, the truth of the Gospel was not lived. All of us should take this to heart, especially at this time in our country's history.
ELIZABETH A. BURGHARDT
Steubenville, Ohio
Think-Alike JFKs
While I agreed with much of Tim Drake's column “The President and the ‘First Lady’” (Nov. 28-Dec. 4), I was surprised that he drew a sharp distinction between Sen. John Kerry and President John F. Kennedy. Remarking that, in “matters of faith, they were miles apart,” Drake implied that Kennedy was a more serious Catholic.
In the 1960 campaign, Kennedy opposed any aid to parochial schools and was against establishing diplomatic relations with the Vatican. Speaking before a group of Protestant ministers in Houston shortly before the election, Kennedy told them that he believed “in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.”
Kennedy's statements on the campaign trail led some Protestant observers to warn voters against him on account of his secularity. The Lutheran scholar Martin Marty described Kennedy as “spiritually rootless and politically almost disturbingly secular.” The theologian Robert McAfee Brown similarly thought him a “rather irregular Christian.”
On matters of faith, these two JFKs from Massachusetts seem to have much in common.
JOHN F. QUINN
Middletown, Rhode Island
An Opportunity Missed
Your editorial “Judge Casey: Pro-Life, Pro-Law?” (Sept. 5-11) lauded Judge Richard Casey for the record he is giving the Supreme Court. But Judge Casey failed to take advantage of the golden opportunity provided him. He should have declared the partial-birth abortion procedure unsafe for the mother, as it is. Also, he should have challenged one of the tenets of the Roe decision, that first-trimester abortion is safe for the mother. In fact, it is not.
WILLIAM F. COLLITON JR., M.D.
Bethesda, Maryland
Third-Party Plan
I am very curious why so many good people are silent on the concept of the formation of a third political party and the nomination of a morally solid and unapologetically Christian candidate for president in 2008.
Is it not time to re-Christianize today's “Roman Empire”? Are we Catholic Americans timid hand-wringers? Are we totally indifferent to the peril of the slippery slope we are on? Are we fearful of “rocking the boat”? Are we so enamored of our playthings that we have no time to be concerned for our collective souls? Where is our faith?
The Catholic Church has an unbeatable organization of parishes across the 50 states. Other Christian groups have the same. I'm sure the numbers add up. It should attract all good Democrats who have been disenfranchised by flaming liberals taking their party to oblivion. It should attract those who held their collective noses as they voted Republican in November.
I feel strongly that there may be a short window of opportunity to exert a Christian influence on our nation and that window would be open in 2008.
Let us not forget the lesson learned at the battle of Lepanto! Armed with Mary's rosary, strengthened, guided and nourished by the sacraments, possessing the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity — and the four cardinal virtues of fortitude, temperance, prudence and justice — God's will may be done.
JOHN H. LEE
Port Townsend, Washington
Continuous Christmas
Regarding “Think Christmas” (Letters, Sept. 26-Oct. 2):
Thank you, fellow Virginian Lauren Hall, for sharing your use of Christmas Madonna stamps throughout the year. What a wonderful idea! This Scripture came to mind: “We must consider how to rouse one another to love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24).
JEANNE MARIE MACDONALD
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Divorce and the Reformation
I would like to make some additional observations regarding the column by Jennifer Roback Morse titled “What Straight Divorce Has To Do With Homosexual Marriage” (Commentary & Opinion, Oct. 10-16).
I totally agree with Mrs. Morse that no-fault divorce has been devastating to Americans' understanding of marriage. However, I believe it needs to be pointed out that, until the Protestant Reformation, divorce was considered impossible — as is still the teaching of the Catholic Church today. The (post-Calvin) reformers, having jettisoned the sacraments, no longer regarded marriage as sacramental; they considered it no more binding than any other legal contract. As such, it could be rescinded. This, I believe, is where it all began, and we are facing the fallout. No-fault divorce is merely the law drawing to its logical conclusion.
GEORGINA BRAND
Dallas, Texas
For a
Are they still at it? In “New Mass Translation: Not Stalled, But No Final Text Yet” (Sept. 5-11), you mention three objections to providing an accurate translation of the Mass texts.
Some critics say that using “And with your spirit” instead of “And also with you” is “theologically rigid and a movement away from natural English expression.” And there's the complaint that the new translation should be “ecumenical,” which is to say, in accord with the changes that Protestant denominations put in their translations to fit their theology. Finally, feminists want to replace accuracy — not to mention “natural English expression” — with “inclusive” language. So what if one survey pointed out that 68% of Catholics oppose castrated English, while only 9% “strongly” support it? The shrillest wheel gets the most oil.
Here's an idea: Let's translate the Mass prayers in accord with Catholic theology instead of Protestant theology or feminist ideology.
DON SCHEKN
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Feeding-Tube Normalcy
I was pleased to see the explanation and diagram of a feeding tube with the article: “Terri's Life In the Balance: Florida Supreme Court Overrules Feeding-Tube Law” (Oct. 10-16). I'd like to expand on that.
A feeding tube can be “normal” to many people. The man in the drawing was lying in bed. But if a person is able, he can perform his regular duties while still dependent on this specially prepared formula. How do I know?
Our son, Bob, was born 21 years ago. He had numerous medical problems and surgeries. His early special-education teachers told us he was severely retarded. His therapists told us he would never run or ride a bike. His doctors told us his adult height might reach five feet tall, if he even survived his endocarditis, collapsed lungs, heart failures and several other medical situations.
Today our son still depends on this artificial feeding for 80% of his daily nutrition. He hooks himself up to his feeding tube for 8 to 10 hours during the night. Our doctor told us that this “formula” is the perfect food. At 6 feet 2inches tall, Bob plays on his college baseball team, lives in a dorm and is a senior studying a double-major at Franciscan Universtiy of Steubenville.
Terri Schiavo has the right to be loved. Her family has the right and duty to help her reach her potential, whatever that may be. God has a purpose for every life, no matter what the age or condition. Let's continue to pray for those who try to protect life.
MR. AND MRS. JAMES ALBRECHT
Cleveland, Ohio
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Thérèse: A Triumph of its Type DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:I have a high regard for Steven Grey-danus and his insights and advice on all the films he reviews. But I am afraid he missed the mark on Leonardo Defilippis' little jewel of a film on St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Thérèse (“Modernity's Greatest Saint,” Sept. 26-Oct. 2). While Greydanus said some good things about the film, I think his review has a couple of serious flaws in its approach to this film.
First, the approach Catholics (and Catholic film reviewers) should have to this film should not be the same as the usual films produced by larger film companies that Greydanus normally reviews. The fact that tiny, little, poor Luke Films was even able to produce such a film of this quality, and then get it into secular theaters across the country without a distributor, is just an astounding achievement. This film had no major investors or big money behind it — it was financed solely by donations from individuals who love St. Thérèse. The vast majority of donors were thousands of “little people.” This is the first feature film ever made from just private donations from individuals. This is a film made from love.
Also, how do you translate onto the silver screen an essentially spiritual story, the “story of a soul”? A daunting challenge indeed, especially in this modern age of special effects, non-stop action and staggering film costs. Few would even attempt to produce such a profound interior spiritual journey on film. The risks are so high, and the level of difficulty to make it “work” is great. Yet, in the face of those huge challenges, the undaunted Leonardo Defilippis and crew rose to the task and have produced a little gem of a film on St. Thérèse.
Greydanus complains about a number of things not told in the film, like not enough on her “little way” or her role as novice mistress, etc. Well, this is a 90-minute film trying to cover a lot of ground about her whole life, not a three-hour epic or miniseries. If this movie inspires many people to go and read her classic autobiography or any of the other excellent books on her life, spirituality and message, then so much wonderful spiritual fruit will be realized by this “little film.” Which it may very well do. And the mystical body of Christ in the Catholic Church will be the beneficiary.
Congratulations to Leonardo Defilippis and Luke Films for this incredible accomplishment.
ANTHONY J. RYAN
Marketing Director, Ignatius Press
San Francisco, California
Steven Greydanus replies: My thanks to Mr. Ryan for his kind words about my work. I hope he's right about the film inspiring some viewers; I fear that it will leave many more cool. Ignatius Press distributes many films, not all big-budget films, that do a better job of reaching viewers who most need to be reached.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Anthony J. Ryan ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: The Raven Still Croaks at Christmas DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:Christmas is a time of peace and merriment.
And we are most reluctant to celebrate the birth of Christ in any other way. Yet, as scholars have informed us, the first Christmas was shadowed by a power-hungry king who had no compunction about killing babies. He was, as the American poet John Richard Moreland identifies him, “Herod heedless of his people's tears!”
We want to confine Herod to the time of the Nativity and would like to believe that he is buried deep in antiquity. And yet, the painful and undeniable evidence shows that Herod is very much alive and continues to stalk our contemporary world:
If he should come tomorrow,
what marvels would he see,
White wings that soar the heavens,
great ships that sail the sea,
A million spires arising to praise his holy name,
But human hearts unchastened,
and human greed the same.
As in the days of Herod . . .
Lilith Lorraine, “If He Should Come”
Planned Parenthood offers us a most disturbing reminder of the continued presence of Herod with its new “Choice on Earth” holiday cards. Its website advertisement reads, “‘Tis the season to share with family, friends, colleagues, and loved ones the message of ‘Choice on Earth.’” It is a shameless advertising ploy not inconsistent with its previous sales of “I Had an Abortion” T-shirts and its promotion of a gift certificate for a holiday vasectomy — “Give the gift that stops giving.”
Christians do not believe that moral progress means forgetting to choose what is good and simply choosing anything one wants — life or death — in a spiritual vacuum. Light leads us to cherish life. Planned Parenthood's substitution of the word “choice” for “peace” is a mockery of Christmas and an affront to all men and women of good will. It is an institutionalized attempt to replace good will with sheer and often brutal willfulness. In addition, it is a certain way of keeping peace at bay.
Another American poet, Eleanor Slater, asks the poignant question:
Do you stop to wonder
Why men never see
How very closely Bethlehem
Approaches Calvary?
The baby Jesus escaped the wrath of Herod. Thirty-three years later, the man Jesus gave the world a witness to life after death. Two thousand years later, we find the world still very much in need of a Redeemer:
I think if Jesus should return and see
This hollow blasphemy, this day of horror,
The heart that languished in Gethsemane
Would know again as great and deep a sorrow,
With deathless words — would kneel again and weep.
Anderson M. Scruggs, “A Christmas Sonnet”
We want to join our prayer with that of the American educator Pinckney Hill:
God, save our land from that unblessed sedateness
Which arrogates to itself a greatness
Built on the rubble leavings of the past!
Beyond all empire then our eyes may scan
The coming Kingdom of the Son of Man,
Built of a dream, abiding, undefiled —
The glory of its throne, a little child.
Christmas is about life and light, two divine gifts about whose value the secular world remains curiously indifferent. Therefore, Christmas continues to be shadowed by death and darkness. The shepherds who attended the first Christmas could not have imagined the great and prodigious good that the Christ-child would ultimately bring about. Nor could they have envisioned the horror and injustice of his crucifixion.
From Henry Treece's “Christ Child”:
Who could have thought upon that hour
Those little hands might stay a plague,
Those eyes would quell a multitude,
That voice would still a rising wave?
Only the omens of the night,
The lowing ox, the moaning tree,
Hinted the cruelty to come:
A raven croaked, “Gethsemane!”
Dr. Donald De Marco is an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College & Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dr. Donald De Marco ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Merry Olde Christmas DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:For Catholics, Christmas traditions are not mere rituals. They hold a precious truth — that God, the eternal Word, truly took human flesh and came to live among us.
Those who seek to downgrade the specifically Christian significance of Christmas need to know about the company they are keeping.
The Puritans tried to abolish Christmas. In 17th-century England, Oliver Cromwell made it illegal to mark the feast — and even to eat mince pies. He and his followers disliked the very name — Christ's Mass — because, of course, it was deeply Catholic. And the traditional mince pie — a small oval or circular pie with crinkly edges — had Christian significance: It was meant to represent the manger, with Christ as the sweetness inside.
There is some historical evidence that the origins of Thanksgiving owe something to the Puritan anti-Catholic tradition: Get people feasting on turkey and cranberries in November and gradually this will squeeze out all that papist Christmas nonsense. Fortunately, the American nation had too much common sense to let that idea take hold: Thanksgiving is celebrated in style, and Christmas follows a month later with an even bigger and cheerier round of feasting.
A law passed in Cromwell's day made Christmas an ordinary working day in Britain, and people were fined if they took the day off work or encouraged their employees to do so. Later, there was an attempt to abolish the name “Christmas” and replace it with “Christ-tide.”
The restoration of the monarchy in England — with Charles II after Cromwell's death — also naturally meant the restoration of Christmas. Perhaps that is why there has always been a link between the monarchy and Christmas in England. The queen's annual television address to the nation — usually broadcast at 3 p.m. and repeated later — is a major part of a British Christmas, and some families do not open their presents until “after the queen.”
The Glastonbury Thorn — said to have grown from the staff planted in the ground by Joseph of Arimathea when he arrived on the shores of Britain after leaving the Holy Land — blooms every year at Christmas, and a sprig is sent to the queen.
Elsewhere in Europe, in traditionally Catholic lands, Christmas Eve has always been marked with beautiful traditions and ceremonies, all associated with the idea of Advent as a season of penance and the birth of Christ as a time of joy. The traditional Christmas Eve dinner is fish. In Germany, and in much of Eastern Europe, it was always carp — because Christmas Eve was a day of fasting and abstinence from meat. The next day saw the roasting of a goose — meat was allowed at last.
The idea that we mark a feast day on the night before it is now very familiar to us because for the past few decades we have had Saturday vigil Masses that fulfill our Sunday obligation. Of course, midnight Mass at Christmas is part of the same tradition — all originating in the Jewish idea that the day begins as dusk falls on the evening before — hence the traditional Jewish Friday-night celebration of the Saturday Sabbath.
We all know — or ought to know — that Santa Claus was originally St. Nicholas and that he is linked with Christmas simply because St. Nicholas' Day falls in December. But perhaps children do not know that the little golden-colored mesh bags of chocolate coins they get in their Christmas stockings have a special link with St. Nick — he dropped three bags of gold down the chimney of a poor household where there were three girls who had no money for dowries and could not get married.
St. Nicholas always does things in threes — there is a story of his rescuing three small boys from being kidnapped — because, in real life, he was the bishop who robustly defended the Trinity against the teachings of the heretic Arius in the fourth century. We have seen the Arian heresy revived in our own day — with the assertion that Christ was not truly divine, but merely a very good man — so Catholics have good reason to honor St. Nick as a saint with a very modern message.
Christmas is about the Incarnation. It wasn't just the Puritans, but the early Reformers who were troubled by the very vivid Catholic understanding of this mystery. St. Robert Sothwell — a noble and heroic English martyr who met his death on the scaffold at Tyburn in the reign of Elizabeth I — wrote a wonderful poem, “The Burning Babe,” which exemplifies the great reality of God made man, the deity actually living among us as a helpless baby. This poem became immensely popular even in his own day; it was passed around and printed anonymously. Today, it is sung and enjoyed by many people every Christmas, as it forms part of Benjamin Britten's “Ceremony of Carols,” a popular feature of school and college Christmas concerts.
When we celebrate Christmas, we should not apologize for our traditions. Whether we are roasting a plump fowl, or making mince pies, or gathering on Christmas Eve to watch the first star appear (a Polish custom) so that our celebrations can begin, we are united with our ancestors. In times past, opponents of the Church have tried to crush Christmas and failed. They will fail again. As Cromwell and the Puritans became history, people tended to recall only the well-intentioned, comic or simply whimsical aspects of their lives. Some day, our descendants will doubtless do the same as they laugh over attempts to ban the public display of Nativity scenes or the use of “God bless you” on public-school premises. Meanwhile, we should enjoy ourselves, and — in public and in private — have a merry Christmas.
Joanna Bogle writes from London.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joanna Bogle ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Virgin Birth and the Zeitgeist DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:An Anglican cleric once asked the famous scientist J.B.S Haldane what we could discern about the mind of God by contemplating creation.
Haldane, a rather outspoken atheist, replied with dry English wit: “He appears to have an inordinate fascination with beetles.”
This illustrates nicely the difference between the ways that ordinary (and, I daresay, normal) people and extremely clever people tend to see the extraordinary creativity of God. A normal person — particularly a normal child — encounters an extraordinary thing like a beetle and feels he could spend a lifetime trying to fathom the wonder of this one unlikely and unutterably complex, frightening and beautiful thing.
The clever person sees this inexplicable wonder many times and somehow decides the constant repetition of the experience makes it both explicable and unimportant. Mere repetition and large quantities of the same mysterious wonder cause him to grow numb to the fact that he is not one inch closer to knowing what the wonder is.
Pharaoh felt the same way. He walked in a world of wonders. But being a clever, pragmatic, up-to-date and businesslike person, he thought it childish and simple-minded to gape in amazement when Moses wrought wonders before his eyes. A rod into a serpent? Big deal! He'd seen it before. The magicians could do the same. Nothing interesting here. And the Nile turned to blood? So what? His court magicians could do that, too! Somehow, mere repetition of the utterly inexplicable made Pharaoh think he had explained everything.
We're no different. Our minds slip back to this habitual way of thinking because we have mental ruts — well worn by centuries of mechanistic and naturalistic thinking — that tell us natural cycles and “laws of nature” are a function of a great, impersonal machine going through its motions. And so we labor under a curious form of brainwashing that regards “laws of nature” as sufficient explanation for natural cycles of the Nile, or planetary movements, or biological phenomena.
But what we forget is that all such language about “laws” of nature is merely descriptive, not prescriptive. In short, something happens a lot (or “always” in our limited frame of reference), and we call it a “law.” But we do not, in the final analysis, know why things behave as they do. They just do. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. Why? Because it does. Hydrogen and oxygen combine to make water, and water, in turn, has various properties. Why? Because it does. However, these and many other inexplicable things happen so often that we call our ignorance “the laws of nature” and imagine we have explained something and, most importantly, declared to nature how it “must” act, thereby eliminating the supernatural.
The longer I live, the more I become convinced that this peculiar habit of mind will one day be looked back on by generations yet unborn as one of the weirdest blind spots of the 20th and 21st centuries. They will read the confident dogmatic pronouncements of our time — which declare that everything is the product of a glorious accident, or that life is merely complex chemistry and human beings are merely particularly complicated pieces of meat — and wonder how we could have made ourselves so blind to the miracle of creation and why we were so allergic to ascribing creation to a creator.
Future generations will wonder how so many people in our day could stare straight at the legion of finely tuned cosmic “coincidences” that had to happen to get a cosmos at all — not to mention to get intelligent life on our planet — and gape in incomprehension at our refusal to hear the word “DESIGN!” screaming at us. It will be a strange and fitting chastisement of our generation to have our descendants say, “Oh, yes. The 20th and 21st centuries. We don't understand how they could have made themselves stone blind to the obvious, still less how they could have thought that the supernatural had somehow been dis-proven by science.”
I always think of that this time of year as the normal rhetoric gets trotted out about how the virgin birth was “against the laws of nature, which we now understand.”
The fact is, of course, that it was not a news flash to St. Joseph or Mary that women don't normally conceive without the help of a man. They knew that law of nature as well as we. But they were also aware of something our age has forgotten: Laws of nature are no more immune from change by the Lawgiver when he thinks it's a good idea to do so than laws of the United States are immune to constitutional amendment by our lawgivers when they think it's a good idea to do so. So, Merry Christmas! It's not the law, but it's certainly a good idea.
Mark Shea is senior content editor for CatholicExchange.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mark Shea ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Jesus, Mary and Joseph in Symbol and Simplicity DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:The first time I noticed the Holy Family Shrine, it was under construction. I figured it was just another barn overlooking Interstate 80 between Omaha and Lincoln, Neb.
Each time I drove by, however, I became increasingly intrigued. As the structure took shape, I realized it had no walls — only windows.
It wasn't until the following year, as my husband and I awaited the birth of our first child, that I discovered the “glass barn” was a Catholic pilgrimage site dedicated to the Nazareth trio whose feast the Church celebrates each Dec. 26. It was fitting, then, that the first time I visited the Holy Family Shrine I held my firstborn son in my arms.
My tour of the 23-acre site began on a limestone path leading to a hillside. Hoping to escape the muted roar of the highway below, I followed the path into the shrine's underground Visitor Center.
As my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room and my ears to the silence, I noticed a spiral sculpture of stainless steel descending from a skylight in the ceiling and gently dripping water into a round pool below.
I took a brochure and quickly learned that the shrine's mission is to “create a place for travelers to pray and discover the Catholic faith.” Yet I noticed that there are few traditional Catholic images on display. The ones that are present — the tabernacle and crucifix — are particularly prominent, and I was further reassured to learn that a set of outdoor Stations of the Cross is in the works. But where were the statues, the candles, the stained glass? Where were all the things you expect to find in an orthodox Catholic shrine?
As I read further, I discovered that understanding the symbols — impressionistic, yet reverent — is the key to encountering the Gospel here. I learned that the underground room, for example, resembles Christ's tomb and that the trickling water mirrors the Holy Spirit: It comes from an apparently invisible source, fills a small pool and flows to the chapel. Thus is the visitor led from Christ's empty tomb to his Real Presence in the tabernacle.
Living Waters
I followed the small channel of water out of the Visitor Center, down another limestone walkway and through the chapel's heavy wooden doors. Once inside, the stream splits in two and flows beneath the edge of each pew. According to my handy brochure, I should recall my baptism — along with its promises and demands — each time I cross this tiny Jordan River to enter and exit the pew.
As I knelt to pray, I watched the stream increase in volume to the point at which it “culminates to its highest beneath the altar,” where the Eucharist is consecrated weekly and held in repose in the tabernacle.
I didn't recognize it at the time, but, as I later reflected on the brief walk from the tomb to the tabernacle, I realized that I had journeyed, if only symbolically, through key parts of Scripture and the Catechism:
“By virtue of the Holy Spirit, Christian life is already now on earth a participation in the death and Resurrection of Christ” (Catechism, No. 1002).
“Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).
So it was that, like any worthwhile pilgrimage experience, my trip to the Holy Family Shrine had prompted me to delve deeper into God's word and the teachings of the Church.
After following the trickling water to its destination, my gaze was drawn upward. Directly above the tabernacle hangs a beautiful crucifix accompanied by life-size statues of the Blessed Mother and the beloved disciple.
Further up, I admired an image of the Holy Family etched into the glass. The picture comes to life when the light shines at just the right angle. Otherwise, the white outline of Jesus, Mary and Joseph almost blends in with the sky.
Overhead, gigantic wooden trusses, looking like stalks of wheat bending in the wind, support the structure. A matching pattern on the face of the tabernacle confirms that these symbolize the Eucharist, source and summit of the Christian life.
A Study in Contrasts
As I continued in prayer and contemplation, I was captured by the breathtaking view of the Platte River Valley through the chapel's glass walls. On the road below, the steady stream of traffic caught my attention; this time I noted the stark contrast between the rushing cars and the steady presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, always waiting for us to visit him.
According to the shrine brochure, the site's founders intend visitors to encounter Christ here as his apostles did at the Transfiguration. “Jesus took Peter, James and John away from their common place on a pilgrimage in order that God would reveal His Son,” the brochure explains. “Similarly, may we come from our common place to this place for Christ to be revealed.”
As I reflect once more on my pilgrimage to Nebraska's Holy Family Shrine, I realize the importance of such a contemporary but Christ-centered atmosphere. I think it is precisely this combination of uncompromising Gospel truth and modern style that makes the shrine such an effective witness to Jesus Christ and his Mystical Body, the Church.
Just as the beautiful stained-glass windows of many Gothic churches were created to teach the Gospel — boldly, yet beautifully — to those who could not read, so does the Holy Family Shrine present the truths of the faith to the spiritually illiterate of our day.
Likewise, few self-proclaimed “modern” men and women would pick up a Catechism, but many will be attracted to the lively simplicity of the Holy Family Shrine. It may be the only Catechism they ever read.
Kimberly Jansen writes from
Lincoln, Nebraska.
----- EXCERPT: Holy Family Shrine near Gretna, Neb. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kimberly Jansen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Christmas Consolations DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:For Christmas, we should strive to create magical moments by arraying our homes in magnificent splendor, giving our loved ones perfect presents and baking up the best batch of cookies ever.
Well, that's what TV commercials tell us, anyway.
Our faith tells us we should commemorate the greatest event in human history: the birth of the Christ. I recognize the superiority of the spiritual message, so I'd like to say that I shun all materialism and celebrate a purely spiritual Christmas. But the truth is that, for this earthly mother, Christmas reality falls somewhere in between.
Motherhood keeps me grounded. The details of my days are made up of diapers to change, greasy dishes piled in the kitchen sink and pork chops I forgot to thaw for dinner. There is no sense in longing for it to be otherwise: God has called me to a physically focused, far-from-contemplative vocation — and the practical focus of my duties is not going to become a meditative one simply because it happens to be Christmastime.
The good news for us simple souls is that the Christmas story doesn't exclude those of us with a more practical focus. In fact, many of the details surrounding our Lord's arrival on earth embrace and ennoble the physical reality of the human condition.
Consider Mary's pregnancy and the intimate, cherished connection between a mother and her unborn child — a very physical experience indeed. I like to think that Jesus and Mary enjoyed their own private heaven through their physical proximity during the nine months she nourished him within her body. She must have felt her baby's kicks and squirms as he gained strength and readied himself for birth. Like any mother, she must have wondered when her baby would be born, what he might look like and what it would feel like to hold him in her arms.
Likewise, the Holy Family's pre-birth voyage to Bethlehem was not a spiritual journey, but a very real and physical one. I know more than a little bit about the blessed burden of late-term pregnancy, and I can imagine Mary's rough ride on the back of a donkey. I can feel the cold night air that settled in with the darkness and understand Joseph's realistic concern for finding safe shelter for his pregnant wife as they arrived in a strange town with little money.
I can imagine the earthen floor of a humble stable and a young couple's uncertainty about its suitability for sleeping. I can smell the musky scent of animals, feel the moist warmth of their breath and hear their heavy movements in the darkness. I can feel the rough wood of a tiny manger and the scratchy stiffness of the straw.
Here would be born a baby boy — a real baby with tiny lungs to breathe in the night air and let out a gentle cry. He would have sweet, smooth skin, a tuft of hair, miniature fingers and tiny legs to kick against the swaddling. At Christmas, Jesus becomes physical reality — really human and really God in one warm and wiggly infant body.
This Christmas Day, I know I will have my share of bellies to fill, pine needles to sweep and wrappings to dispose of. But I plan to do it all with heightened alertness to Jesus' quiet presence amid the hullabaloo.
For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace …
Danielle Bean writes from Belknap, New Hampshire.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Danielle Bean ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:DECEMBER, VARIOUS
Christmas from the Cathedral of St. Matthew
NBC stations; check local listings
On Sunday, Dec. 19, NBC affiliates will receive this special from the U.S. bishops‘ Catholic Communication Campaign. Contact your local NBC station for airdates and times — and if they haven't scheduled it, ask them to. The show features Latin American music, a claymation Nativity story and, from San Antonio, Texas, a traditional Mexican re-enactment of the Holy Family's search for shelter in Bethlehem.
SUNDAY, DEC. 19
Catholic U. of America's Christmas Concert 2004
EWTN, 1:30 p.m.
In Washington, D.C., Catholic University of America's magnificent choir sings Christmas carols in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 22
Emeril's Happy, Happy Holidays
Food Network, 8 p.m.
For Christmas, chef Emeril Lagasse's goose is cooked — along with his potatoes, veggies, salad and “mile-high parfait pie.”
FRIDAY, DEC. 24
A Christmas Concert with Donna Lee
Familyland TV, 6:30 p.m.
Singer Donna Lee performs traditional carols and original compositions. Re-airs Monday, Dec. 27, at 5 p.m.
SATURDAY, DEC. 25
Midnight Mass from St. Peter's
EWTN, 6 p.m., live and NBC, 11:35 p.m.
Join Pope John Paul II as he celebrates the Nativity in St. Peter's. Re-airs Christmas Day at 8 a.m.
TUESDAY, DEC. 28
Lost Soul of the 20th Century
EWTN, 11 p.m.
The feast of the Holy Innocents is an appropriate day to view this pro-life show. Made by Amos Productions for the Irish pro-life group Family & Life, it features insights from Irish pro-life leaders and man-on-the-street interviews with Dubliners.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 29
Live from Lincoln Center
PBS, 8 p.m.
This 90-minute show features the renowned Irish flutist James Galway as he performs in the Kaplan Penthouse at the Lincoln Center.
FRIDAY, DEC. 31
Die Fledermaus
PBS, 8 p.m.
In this 2-1/2-hour telecast, the Washington National Opera Orchestra performs Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss (1825-1899). Heinz Fricke conducts, Lofti Mansour provides stage direction, and Placido Domingo makes a cameo appearance.
SATURDAY, JAN. 1
Solemn Mass of Reparation from EWTN
EWTN, midnight, 8 a.m., 7 p.m.
Join the EWTN family and ring in the New Year with prayerful reparation for our sins and those of the whole world.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daniel J. Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Gloom. Menace. Misfortune. Are We Having Fun Yet? DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is about — but not necessarily for — kids
If you prefer movie reviews about pleasant and uplifting films in which goodness is suitably rewarded, evil is suitably punished and children are not placed in excessive peril or disagreeable circumstances, you may wish to turn the page and read some other story.
While it is my duty to review Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, loosely based on the first three volumes of the best-selling series of books for intermediate readers, you might be happier not reading this review and never learning about the dreadful events that befall the three Baudelaire children in this film.
The books themselves, it must be acknowledged, are well written and easy to read, with finely constructed prose, a strong sense of style and an admirable attention to the nuances of words. The words themselves, regrettably, are seldom among the more pleasant in the English language. Book the Sixth, The Ersatz Elevator, for example, opens with a helpful discourse on the distinction between “nervous” and “anxious” — the latter of which is also often wrongly given for “eager,” a much more pleasant word that has little to do with how anyone would feel about most of the things that happen in these books.
Still, it can easily be said that these books are far superior liter-arily to that other wildly popular series of dark-themed stories for young readers, the Harry Potter stories. And, with 11 of a projected 13 volumes published so far, each 13 chapters long and none more than double the length of the 175-page first entry, A Series of Unfortunate Events also exhibits commendable consistency and literary self-discipline. This is in marked contrast to the Harry Potter books, which have increasingly become alarmingly tumid — the word “tumid” is related to “tumor” and here means “swollen” or “bloated,” as well as “badly in need of editing” — over time.
There is, however, no getting around the distressing nature of the aptly named Unfortunate Events, which have been written, illustrated, and bound in mock homage to the morally minded but often alarming novels of the Victorian era, and have been compared to such disturbing touchstones as Roald Dahl, Charles Dickens and Edward Gorey.
That the author, the pseudonymous Mr. Snicket, knows what he is about, there can be no doubt. The Baudelaire orphans' surname you may or may not recognize as an allusion to the influential 19th-century French poet Charles Baudelaire, known among other things for his French translations of Edgar Allan Poe. But, when the very first scene introduces an old family friend of the Baudelaires who happens to be named Mr. Poe, few readers will fail to sense that the Baudelaire children have unpleasant times ahead.
In spite of what would seem their abysmal luck, the Baudelaire children's unfortunate story does have one bright spot: the Baudelaires themselves, who are as plucky and likeable in the midst of appalling circumstances as Nicholas Nickleby or Charlie Bucket of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Evil Count Olaf, the Baudelaires' archnemesis, may be — to refer once again to the Harry Potter books — nearly as nasty as Lord Voldemort and the Dursleys combined. But the Baudelaire children — inventive 14-year-old Violet, bookish 12-year-old Klaus and bitey infant Sunny — are much nicer and more admirable than Harry, with none of his reckless rule-breaking or other regrettable traits.
Although the series is not yet complete, there is reason to hope that the final chapter of the Baudelaire family's story will not end as darkly as the installments we have so far seen. When I speak of their final chapter ending, I am, naturally, speaking in a purely literary sense.
Those of you who have persevered with this review will presumably now want to know how the film, directed by Brad Silberling, measures up to the books. The answer is that it is — in a phrase expounded upon at some length at the outset of chapter three of The Ersatz Elevator — a mixed bag.
A hyper-cheery, abruptly aborted animated prologue, vividly establishing what will not be the tone of this film, is rather inspired. And the book's unsettling style is well served by such Snickety lines as “This is an excellent opportunity to walk out of the theater, living room or airplane where this film is being shown” and “I will raise these orphans as if they were actually wanted.” The spirit of the books lives, too, in the semi-Victorian, semi-Gothic production and costume design, from Violet's elegant dresses to the astonishing vision of the clifftop house on Lake Lachrymose.
There is, however, no getting around the fact that fans of the books are bound to feel shortchanged by the filmmakers' decision to mix and match scattered events from the first three volumes rather than trying to follow the stories in order. If the first two Potter films went overboard trying to cram in every detail of the books, Unfortunate Events barely skims the surface, with book one, The Bad Beginning, faring the best and book two, The Reptile Room, the worst. One suspects the project might have fared better as a miniseries of 13 one-hour movies, each devoted to one book — especially if they had waited until end of the story was actually in place.
In a star-studded cast headlined by Jim Carrey as the nefarious Count Olaf, it is worth mentioning that young Emily Browning makes a fine Violet and Liam Aiken is well cast as Klaus. Twins Kara and Shelby Hoffman, who share the role of infant Sunny, are too young for much to be said about their joint performance, but they have the requisite cuteness and babble suitably. The books' conceit of attributing meaningful propositions to Sunny's baby talk is cleverly paralleled by the use of subtitles, though unfortunately the “lines” Sunny is given frequently amount to insulting one-liners, as if she were a miniature Don Rickles (“She's the mayor of crazy town”). It is due principally to Sunny's subtitles that the MPAA, in rating the film PG, noted “brief language” (“What a schmuck”; “Bite me”).
Because Olaf is an actor as well as a count, and spends much of the series adopting various disguises and identities to try to get at the Baudelaire children (and ultimately at their vast but inaccessible inheritance), Carrey's penchant for zany caricatures actually serves the story, and he succeeds in making about as much sense of the character of Olaf as any actor could. The film softens the count's menace with comedy, and attempts to eke out some sentimental uplift in a third-act tangent without abandoning the grim ending that I regret to say is required by the story to date.
Though not without flaws, the film manages to be a reasonably entertaining take on a series of unfortunate events that I admit I now want to follow with the Baudelaires to the end.
Content advisory: Various unfortunate events involving children in perilous and disagreeable circumstances; brief crude language.
Steven D. Greydanus is editor and chief critic of DecentFilms.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly DVD/Video Picks DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:A Christmas Carol (1999)
Patrick Stewart reprises his role as Scrooge from his one-man stage play in this faithful made-for-TV adaptation. It's been noted that Dickens' short story is an essentially non-religious Christmas fable, concerned not with the true meaning of Christmas, but with what is now called the “spirit of Christmas” — goodwill, merry-making with family and friends, perhaps charity for the less fortunate. Yet Dickens' story is not without religious references and residual Christian themes that are perhaps increasingly worthwhile in these ever more secular days.
Beyond Dickens' latent Christian themes, most film versions add their own layers of religious context to the story. For example, most versions use religious Christmas carols both in onscreen singing and on the soundtrack; this 1999 version includes “While Shepherds Watched Their Flock by Night” and “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.” It also adds a scene in which the rehabilitated Scrooge goes to church on Christmas and tries to join in the singing, though he doesn't know the words and needs to share a hymnbook. Stewart gives a carefully thought-out interpretation of the character, which will appeal to some more than others.
Content advisory: Some frightening imagery; possibly okay for older kids.
A Christmas Carol (1984)
George C. Scott (Patton) is Scrooge in this excellent made-for-TV retelling, probably the only version to give the classic 1951 version a run for its money. Besides Scott's own superb performance, strengths of this version include Clive Donner's richly atmospheric direction and an effective score that includes “Good Christian Men, Rejoice!” and “I Saw Three Ships.” This version also has the strongest emphasis on social conscience and the plight of the poor, though it also throws in a shallow, clichéd line about the departed always being with us as long as we somehow honor their memory.
Like every version of the story, this Christmas Carol retains the influence of Christian ideas and themes on Dickens' story. The shackles worn by Jacob Marley, for example, reflect the idea of judgment and punishment after death. Likewise, Scrooge's rehabilitation after his fearful encounter with the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come — the very image of death in a medieval Christian danse macabre — reflects the ancient admonition memento mori (“Remember that you must die”) with its implicit exhortation to amend your life and do good works in view of coming judgment.
Content advisory: Some frightening imagery; possibly okay for older kids.
A Christmas Carol (1951)
Alistair Sim is the definitive Scrooge in the classic Christmas Carol, perhaps the most overtly Christianized adaptation of Dickens's story. Not that Dickens left Christ entirely out of Christmas. Besides the implicit Christian themes mentioned in the previous review, there are also a few passing religious references. Scrooge's nephew (in a line not found in any screen version I know) says that he has always thought of Christmas as “a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time” — but only after first qualifying that this is “apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that.” There's also a line (found in every screen version) about Tiny Tim in church on Christmas hoping that people will see his crippled legs and be reminded of the one who healed the lame and the blind.
But it's only the Sim version that gives the Spirit of Christmas Present a line about “the child born in Bethlehem” who “does not live in men's hearts only one day of the year, but in all the days of the year.”
Content advisory: Some frightening imagery; possibly okay for older kids.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Eucharistic Eloquence DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:EUCHARIST: THE CHURCH'S
TREASURE A COMPANION
TO ECCLESIA DE EUCHARISTIA
by Barry Michaels
Pauline, 2004 66 pages, $6.95
To order: (800) 836-9723 or pauline.org/store
In convoking the Year of the Eucharist in October, Pope John Paul II encouraged the faithful to ask, “Who is the Eucharist?” It was this very question that led me into the fullness of the Catholic Church nine years ago. Kneeling in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament as a Lutheran, I was first forced to ask myself: “Who is this?”
Once I knew the answer to that question, nothing could hold me back from joining the Church. Christ had made himself known to me, as he first had to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, “in the breaking of the bread.”
In Eucharist: The Church's Treasure, the most recent entry in Pauline's Church Documents: Prayer & Study Guide series, Register contributor Barry Michaels provides valuable insights and poses thought-provoking questions on the Holy Father's 14th encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia (On the Eucharist in Its Relationship to the Church).
In concert with the Pope's encyclical, Michaels' book should be required reading for every lay Catholic during the Year of the Eucharist. It shakes the reader from his or her complacency and offers an irresistible invitation to reflect upon the place of the Eucharist within the Church — and within our lives.
The Holy Father has said, “Daily participation in the Eucharist is capable of transforming the life of believers.” Michaels' book will help to rekindle Eucharistic amazement in the reader or, as he warns readers early on, “Thinking seriously about this material may result in never being able to daydream through your parish Mass again.”
Michaels guides the reader, with appropriate analogies and sometimes humor, through the encyclical, chapter by chapter. Each chapter contains reflection questions and prayer prompts, providing helpful starting points for contemplative prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and practical suggestions for putting the information learned into action. Each chapter concludes with a Eucharistic reflection or prayer taken from the Pope, the saints and others.
In Chapter 1, “The Mystery of Faith,” Michaels writes, “By his sovereign power, he makes one event — the event so ‘decisive for the salvation of the human race’ that took place two millennia ago — present in the now. A past event becomes present in the now. It becomes our event.” Nuggets such as this brought a broad smile of familiarity to my face. As I read, I was led to rediscover why I first embraced the Eucharistic Christ found within the Catholic Church and how the discovery of that “event” propelled me inexorably toward conversion.
In addition to the mystery of the Eucharist, Michaels also addresses how the Eucharist builds the Church, the apostolicity of the Eucharist and the role of Mary — “woman of the Eucharist.”
Michaels mines the “gold nuggets” from the Pope's encyclical, revealing the glorious treasure who is our Eucharistic Lord.
Here's another nugget that provided some good reflection for me personally. “Humanity was made for communion, because we are made in the image of a God who is communion (Father, Son and Spirit).”
Thankfully, Michaels isn't afraid to tackle the difficult issues, such as intercommunion, the common irreverence shown the Eucharist and the importance of abstaining from holy Communion while in a state of mortal sin. Readers will come away with a much clearer sense of “who the Eucharist is.”
Michaels reminds us that, with Jesus inside of us, we can be transformed like so many living tabernacles. If you haven't yet read Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Michaels' book will compel you to rush out and get a copy (or download it for free from the Internet). At less than $10, the guide would be the perfect last-minute gift to give yourself for Christmas — with an eye on including an hour a week before the Blessed Sacrament in your New Year resolutions.
Register staff writer Tim Drake has just released a new book, Young and Catholic: The Face of Tomorrow's Church (Sophia).
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:Religion Award
CHRONICLE.COM, Dec. 2 — University of Notre Dame histor y professor George Marsden will receive the 2005 Grawemeyer Award for Religion for his book Jonathan Edwards: A Life, a biography of the 18th-century American preacher and theologian, reported the higher education website.
Marsden has written extensively on the influence of faith in American society and argued for more tolerance of religious viewpoints within academe. His other books include The Soul of the American University: From Protestant Establishment to Established Nonbelief. .
The $200,000 prize is awarded jointly by the University of Louisville and the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Trimming Sails
The Fort Myers daily said planners of the 956-acre campus in southwest Florida's rural Collier County will build the first phase in two stages to cope with the scarcity of steel, cement and laborers — and the rising cost of all three.
The Oratory of Ave Maria, a church that was to cover 60,000 square feet and be the centerpiece of the university, could be reduced in size or postponed to a later stage of development.
Fair (& PC) Play
The letter, issued at the start of the basketball season, encourages fans and players to stay “true to the mission of Catholic high schools” and to avoid today's trash-talking, fist-swinging sports culture.
The letter is also politically correct, specifically prohibiting cheers that make reference to socio-economic status, race, sexual orientation and “personal attacks unrelated to the game.”
Driver Silenced
CNN.COM, Dec. 2 — An elementary-school bus driver was fired after telling students that actor Mel Gibson had said embryonic stem-cell research had not produced a single human cure in 23 years, encouraging them to tell their parents about it, reported the cable network's website.
They did, and parental complaints led to Julianne Thompson's dismissal for bringing up topics that, officials said, are better left to teachers.
Not talking is not in her contract, said Thompson, 42, who may sue the suburban Buffalo district.
Case Closed
Under previous court findings, Judge Kent Jordan said Michele Curay-Cramer's role as a teacher at a Catholic school, especially as a religion teacher, made her a “minister” of the faith. To decide in her favor, he said, would be an “inappropriate entanglement of church and state.”
That is, said the judge, “short of a declaration that the Pope should pass draft encyclicals through the courts for approval.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Prolife Victories DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:Keys to Fighting AIDS
Though it is supported by the Bush administration, many have criticized Uganda's implementation of the program because it shunned the use of condoms.
Promising Research
BRITISH BROADCASTING COMPANY, Dec. 1 — Doctors at the Medical University of Inns-bruck have found that stem cells derived from a patient's own muscle tissue show promise in successfully treating urinary stress incontinence. Eighteen of 20 women in the study were still symptom-free one year after an injection with stem cells derived from muscle tissue from their own arms.
The research has been cited as another example of successful stem-cell research that does not involve using cells from aborted babies.
Malta Stands Firm
LIFESITENEWS.COM, Dec. 1 — A United Nations recommendation to legalize abortion in Malta has been rejected by Maltese Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Malta's bishops. The U.N. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had urged the state party “to review its legislation on abortion and consider exceptions to the general prohibition of abortion.”
The exceptions they refused would be for “therapeutic” abortions and when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Register's Clip-Out, Photocopy and Pass-On Guides for Advent DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:Quick Tip Own these books: The Bible (get a Catholic edition) and the Catechism of the Catholic Church (available through several publishers, first released in the 1990s).
Quick Tip Authors to try: Fulton Sheen, G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Newer: Mother Teresa (books of her sayings), Pope John Paul II (especially Crossing the Threshold of Hope). Scott Hahn, Karl Keating, Peter Kreeft.
An Act of Faith
O my God, I believe in you, and all that your Church teaches, because you have said it, and your word is true.
An Act of Hope
O my God, I hope in you for grace and for glory because of your mercy, your promises and your power.
An Act of Love
O my God, I love you above all things, and for your sake I love my neighbor as myself.
Precepts of the Church
Attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.
Confess your sins at least once a year.
Humbly receive your Creator in holy Communion at least during the Easter season.
Provide for the material needs of the Church, according to your abilities.
Observe the prescribed days of fasting and abstinence (Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and Fridays in Lent). (See the Catechism, Nos. 2041-2043.)
Season 1
Advent, starting four Sundays before Christmas, is a time to prepare for Christmas. Use it as a time to invite people to return to church.
Season 2
Christmas season lasts until Epiphany Sunday in January. Make a New Year's resolution to better follow the precepts of the Church.
Season 3
Lent lasts from Ash Wednesday to Palm Sunday. Make a daily sacrifice. Try going to Mass every day.
Season 4
Easter season is longer than Lent because Christ's resurrection is the basis of our faith. Every Sunday recalls Easter. Reserve Sundays only for your family.
Quick Tip
Family planning using moral (and effective) new methods (not rhythm) means a woman won't feel used or suffer side effects, and a man will be less inclined to think of her as a sex object and take more responsibility for the consequences of sex. To learn more: One More Soul www.onemoresoul.com (800) 307-7685
Season 5
Ordinary time includes May, the month dedicated to Mary; October, the month of the rosary; and November, the month of the dead. Get a Catholic calendar and follow special feast days.
Quick Tip
The poor are very close to Christ — and he will judge us on how we serve them.
Volunteer: Contact your parish or local Knights of Columbus.
Donate: Body and soul are one. Choose service organizations based on effectiveness and fidelity to the Church.
The Ten Commandments
1. I am the LORD your God: you shall not have strange gods before me.
2. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
3. Remember to keep holy the LORD's Day.
4. Honor your father and your mother.
5. You shall not kill.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor's goods.
Answers to your questions
Catholics United for the Faith www.cuf.org (800) 693-2484
Catholic Information Services www.kofc.org/faith/cis/cis.cfm (203) 772-2130
Catholic Answers
www.catholic.com (619) 387-7200
Content: National Catholic Register (www.ncregister.com). Art: Tim Rauch. Photo: Reuters.
The Christmas Life
Want Christmas to last all year? It can.
Receiving Gifts
A life of Mass, confession and prayer will bring you frequent gifts — and happy surprises about yourself, your loved ones and the world we live in. Guaranteed.
Giving Gifts
There are many loving sacrifices in the Christian life: in our time, money, sexuality and good deeds. Experience the incomparable joy of self-giving — year-round.
Family Happiness
at Christmas comes because Christ is the reason for our gathering.
Prayer and faith will transform family life in every season.
The Life of Jesus
The story of the humble Savior inspires us each year. His life has many stories to inspire us; enough to fill every day of the year.
More on The Christmas Life: Faith & Family, Winter 2004. (800) 421-3230
----- EXCERPT: Basics of Catholic Living ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Our Advent Guides DATE: 12/19/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Dec. 19, 2004-Jan. 1, 2005 ----- BODY:Pope John Paul II outlined a clear program for the future of the Church in his 2001 apostolic letter Novo Millennio Ineunte (At the Beginning of the New Millennium).
His plan is brilliant in its simplicity: promote Sunday Mass, confession, prayer and community service. These four things are easy to promote and life-changing.
To help Register readers take up the Holy Father's challenge we have produced four guides.
Clip, photocopy and pass out as many as you like!
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