July 16 is the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Do you know where your brown scapular is?
The traditional practice of wearing the two small pieces of wool connected by string has been largely neglected and often misunderstood in the Church's recent history. But did you know that Mel Gibson wears one? Or that Pope John Paul II never left home without his?
Our Lady first presented the scapular in an apparition to St. Simon Stock, father general of the Carmelite Order, on July 16, 1251. St. Simon reported that the Blessed Virgin spoke the following words regarding the scapular: “Receive, my beloved son, this habit of thy order: This shall be to thee and to all Carmelites a privilege, that whosoever dies clothed in this shall never suffer eternal fire. … It shall be a sign of salvation, a protection in danger, and a pledge of peace.”
Tradition tells us that, in order for a layperson to receive the spiritual blessings associated with the brown scapular, he or she needs to be formally enrolled by either a priest or a layperson who has been given this faculty. The enrollment is for life.
The Church further teaches that, in order for its wearing to be spiritually efficacious, three conditions must be met. Along with wearing the scapular, the individual needs to observe chastity according to his or her state in life and pray the Rosary regularly.
Contrary to popular misperception, the scapular is not a “Get Out of Hell Free” card.
“It's an outward sign of devotion to Our Lady,” explains Joanne Lavis, co-owner of the Rose Scapular Corp. (rosescapular.com), based in Oxnard, Calif. “It's not about superstition; it's about faith. When I wear the scapular, I am always thinking of Our Lady and she in turn is always thinking of me.”
Having grown up in the midst of the family scapular business, Lavis has had ample opportunity to witness the power of this devotion firsthand.
For example, she relates the story of an elderly woman who once came into their California store to buy some religious items. Lavis noticed that, despite the heat of a summer day, a man remained behind in the woman's car waiting for her. When Lavis asked if he would be coming in, the customer explained that her husband would not enter the store because he was a fallen-away Catholic who had been bitter in his rejection of the Church for more than 30 years.
“I suddenly felt inspired to talk with him,” Lavis explains. She went to his car and offered him a scapular. He responded positively, accepted the scapular and put it on before the couple left. Later that day, the elderly woman returned to the store to offer Lavis a tearful thank-you. She explained that, immediately upon leaving the store, her husband insisted on finding the nearest Catholic church and locating a priest who would hear his confession.
“I told her that I wasn'd the one who did it,” says Lavis. “It was Our Lady.”
Humility Helper
Alicia Fazio of Stoneham, Mass., a young wife and mother of three, was first introduced to the scapular as a freshman in college. At the suggestion of a friend she met at daily Mass, she put one on and has worn it ever since. Specifically, Fazio feels that wearing a scapular is a continual reminder of her faith and a tangible connection to other Catholics around the world.
“It helps me to keep a certain level of humility,” she says. “It unites me with many religious communities around the world that all wear a scapular of some sort. I feel the guarantees that come with this devotion are not superstitious, but more of a guide on how to live. You will not be spared hell just by wearing it, but, because you wear it, you will desire to practice a level of humility that will help you avoid the pains of hell.”
Mary Ann Smith of Muscatine, Iowa, cites similar reasons for wearing her scapular, and adds that wearing it occasionally presents an opportunity to evangelize.
“Sometimes people see it and they ask what it is,” she says. “I am always glad to tell them the story of Our Lady's promise. It has led to some great discussions with people about my faith, about Mary, and about purgatory and hell.”
Smith is clear, however, about the importance of not thinking about the scapular as a magical item or Catholic good-luck charm. She points out that, in order to receive the scapular's benefits, one must be willing to live a devout Catholic life according to his or her vocation.
“I love to wear my scapular because, as Our Lady's garment, it gives me signal graces and ties me close to Mary,” she explains. “It helps me remember that she is my mother and she is taking care of all my needs. I feel entrusted and very close to her. Through the scapular, I have entrusted myself and my family to Mary and none of us has strayed from the Church.”
Modesty Magnet
Fazio also appreciates the connection the scapular gives her to the Blessed Virgin, but points out an even more practical use of the scapular as a guide to appropriate dress.
“By seeing it around my neck,” she says, “I am reminded to pray or at least think of Jesus throughout the day. I also use the scapular as a guide to modesty. The same woman who introduced me to the scapular also explained to me that she uses the cord as a check when buying tops. If a shirt doesn'd cover the scapular, it's cut too low. I now follow this advice when choosing clothes as well.”
Joanne Lavis reports that the Rose Scapular Corp. is in the process of compiling a collection of stories from people who have experienced miraculous cures and conversions through the scapular
There appears to be no shortage of these.
“When you wear the scapular, the Blessed Mother just doesn'd let go of you,” she says. And to those who remain skeptical about the value of devotion to the scapular, she offers a simple suggestion:
“Put it on and see what happens.”
Danielle Bean writes from Belknap, New Hampshire.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Danielle Bean ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: They're Coming to Cologne DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:COLOGNE, Germany — When Pope Benedict XVI visits Germany this summer, some will remember words he uttered during his inaugural Mass in St. Peter's Square in April.
“The Church is alive. And the Church is young!” the Pope said then, alluding to the vast numbers of young people who had poured into Rome to pay tribute to Pope John Paul II.
In August, Pope Benedict will carry on the World Youth Day tradition begun by his predecessor and meet upwards of 400,000 young people from around the world, including at least 23,000 from the United States.
It promises to be an emotional encounter. The Pope will be returning to the land in which he spent his own youth, by all accounts a happy one — except for the war years. He will see in all the young faces the future of the Church.
Doubtless on his mind will be the fact that in many respects Europe is dying. Year after year, the birth rate falls: In Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Britain, families get smaller, the numbers of abortions rise and marriages decline.
Commentators note with increasing frequency the effects this has on social policies: the need for more and more immigrants, the pension crisis, the emerging problems in welfare provision, and health care.
Churchgoing, meanwhile, is a minority option: Serving Germany's glorious baroque churches are a diminishing number of clergy; numbers of baptisms and confirmations decrease; committed Catholics seem few and far between, and groups voice dissent from Church teachings.
But there are signs of hope. Movements, such as Communion and Liberation, Focolare and Catholic Action, and the groups that have gathered around new religious orders such as the Brothers of St. John and the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, are beginning to make their presence felt.
Youth 2000, which began in Britain and spread to other countries, will be sending a large delegation to Cologne. One of its founding members, Robert Toone, now married with a young family, described its aims as encouraging young people “to take an active part in evangelization, and be courageous witnesses to the Good News.”
His wife Amanda added that Youth 2000 aims to take seriously Pope John Paul's call to youth “Do not be afraid to be the saints of the 21st century.”
Summer Gatherings
Youth 2000 runs missions in schools, prayer groups, retreats, and conferences. Its members are active with many social and educational projects and have been particularly active in the pro-life movement. Its massive summer gatherings at Walsingham — the national shrine to Our Lady in Norfolk near the east coast of England — bring together young people in a format not unlike World Youth Day, with prayer vigils before the Blessed Sacrament, priests hearing confessions, open-air Masses, and teaching sessions on a range of subjects.
Annette Murphy, who runs a Youth 2000 prayer group, was part of the vast crowd paying tribute to Pope John Paul in Rome.
“I just had to be there,” she said “A friend sent me a text message suggesting we go, and I thought, ‘Why not?’ We stayed up all night waiting near St. Peter's. It was a wonderful experience — so many people from all over the world, I just can'd describe the beautiful atmosphere. I wouldn'd have missed it for anything.”
The Faith Movement also will be a presence at Cologne. Small, but growing steadily, it draws 200 to 300 young people to its annual summer conferences in Britain, and more through the year at its retreats, study days and local faith forums. It has produced a notable number of vocations, and its message is centered on a vision of a “new synthesis” of faith and science, offering a coherent and challenging message to those who ask the most searching questions about God, the natural world, and human existence.
“We are directly challenging the idea that you can put God and religion into one compartment of life and seal it off. This idea is at the core of secular culture and is profoundly wrong,” said Father Hugh Mackenzie, a member of the movement and pastor of a busy London parish “We are saying that every experience we have of material things points to God. All creation is sustained by him.
“One of the things that the Faith vision gives is that every part and moment of our experience points to the existence of a divine Creator, and this same Creator comes personally to us in the sacraments and in the life of the Catholic Church,” he said.
Preparing to Go
Father Dominic Allain, a priest in a London suburb, said that the death of Pope John Paul and the election of Pope Benedict created a renewed interest in the faith among people.
“There is enthusiasm about Cologne,” he said. “It's partly the idea of meeting young people from different countries, of taking part in something large connected with the faith. But somewhere in there, too, is something of a pilgrimage of discovery, a personal journey for each person.”
He's responded to the new interest by holding regular meetings Sunday evenings after Mass for a group of young people planning to go to Cologne. The gatherings include Benediction, silent prayer and a social hour — and catechetical teaching.
Young people “have a lot of questions,” he said, referring to a “state of confusion” in religious education in recent years. “They have a sort of cultural base connected with Catholicism but need much more.”
His group will join other busloads of youth from their diocese, Southwark, led by Archbishop Kevin McDonald. There will be a special commissioning service at the cathedral before they leave. Like all those attending from Europe, their participation fee for the event includes a special donation to help a young person from a poorer part of the world to attend.
Young people will be traveling to Cologne from all points of Europe by train, bus or plane. Some will be staying with local families to get a taste of local culture and traditions, and there will be a range of activities, talks and Masses for different language groups. The highlight will be arrival of the Holy Father for a large open-air Mass at an airfield just outside Cologne.
“It is my experience, and that of so many other priests, that if you present young people with something like this — an opportunity to discover Christ and the Church — they will respond,” said Father Allain. “Already the events of this year have awakened a great interest in the Church among young people: This is great cause for hope.”
Joanna Bogle is based in London.
----- EXCERPT: WORLD YOUTH DAY ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joanna Bogle ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: CAMPUS WATCH DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:Sisters Lead
ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 18 — The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet gave the largest single gift to the current fundraising campaign of Minnesota's College of St. Catherine.
The sisters, the college's founding religious community, led some 16 donors who gave in excess of $1 million each. The campaign has raised $85.6 million, setting a new fund-raising record for a Catholic women's college.
The money will go toward improving facilities, endowing faculty chairs in biology, education and nursing, and increasing financial aid.
Drowning Castro
The summit included a series of events in the Mobile area, and was slated to conclude with a discussion at the Jesuit college on religion and society in Cuba.
College officials said their involvement was not an endorsement of the Cuban ruler and that they would not be pressured into canceling the event. That was accomplished by Arlene.
Good Start
Founded in 2000, the school's 61 graduates include two with jobs in the White House, and six are on the staffs of members of Congress. The magazine said eight others are employed by federal agencies.
About 85% of the grads were homeschooled, earning the college the nickname “Harvard for the Homeschooled.”
‘Continual Service’
She was diagnosed and treated for the disease when she was 54, and it returned when she was 59. The weekly magazine of The New York Times featured Sister Mary Andrew in a 2004 cover story because of her willingness to undergo experimental, oftentimes painful, cancer treatments for the benefit of others.
She saw her participation as a natural fulfillment of her vows to her order. She told the Times, “As a sister, a member of a religious order … I want to be of continual service to others. I wouldn'd be alive today if other women hadn'd been in clinical trials.”
An Opening
Founded in 1840 by the Sisters of Providence, the college remains “committed to preserving the campus-based program for women, only, and to serving women's unique needs,” said one official.
Not everyone agreed with the change, said Alice Shelton, a 1987 Woods graduate and outgoing president of the alumni group. “There were folks who had strong feelings on either side.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: THERE IS STILL REASON TO HOPE DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:Gerardo Flores was convicted in Texas of double homicide in June. He had kicked and punched his girlfriend's abdomen at her request, causing the miscarriage and death of her twins. She had been punching her own abdomen “for several weeks,” but the babies had survived.
Gerardo was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Erica was not charged as she had a “constitutional right” to an abortion.
Almost a century ago, German doctors Binding and Hoche, a physician and a lawyer, co-authored The Release and Destruction of Life Devoid of Value. It became the Nazi bible, and its programs of sterilization, abortion and euthanasia were vigorously enforced.
In America, Margaret Sanger's Birth Control League — which became Planned Parenthood — set about implementing these programs among immigrant and minority groups.
The 20th century became the bloodiest century in history. Nazis murdered 20 million persons. Communists murdered a hundred million. But through abortion, the 21st century may soon surpass the 20th. In our nation alone the number of reported abortions since 1973 is almost 50 million.
After World War II the World Medical Association, including the American Medical Association, voted to require all doctors to swear to “maintain the utmost respect for human life from its beginning to natural death.”
But in the universities of Europe and America the philosophical assumptions that Pope John Paul II called the “culture of death” continued to grow, and now the triumph of legal killing has not come primarily from dictators but from the Supreme Court, which our nation's founders established to protect the lives of all Americans.
In 1973, a majority of Supreme Court justices looked in the Constitution and found shadowy “penumbras” instead of clarity, and “emanations” instead of clear English words. Roe v. Wade ranks as one of the strangest decisions in the history of jurisprudence. Only persons have rights, said the Supreme Court, and after searching among the bizarre “emanations” that lurk in the Constitution's “penumbras,” a majority of justices were unable to find the meaning of the world person. (Webster: “A human being; a particular individual.”)
Another mystery beyond the court's ken was embryology.
“We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins,” wrote the bewildered Justice Blackmun. “The judiciary at this point in the development of man's knowledge is not in a position to speculate as to the answer. … If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant's case, of course, collapses, for the fetus’ right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the [14th] Amendment.”
In the 1992 case Stenberg v. Carhart, the Supreme Court bestowed its blessings on third-trimester, partial-birth abortions. This “medical” procedure is so gruesome that when Justice Breyer announced his majority opinion, he warned listeners that: “[O]ur discussion may seem clinically cold and callous to some, perhaps horrifying to others.”
It was indeed “horrifying.” Without anesthesia, late-term babies are forcefully and painfully turned so as to present feet-first. They are then pulled from the womb until their heads are lodged against the cervix. The “doctor” then stabs them in the back of the head or crushes their heads with forceps. Since the head is held inside the birth canal, the procedure can be called an “abortion” instead of “murder.”
Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in dissent: “The method of killing a human child … proscribed by this statute is so horrible that the most clinical description of it evokes a shudder of revulsion. … The notion that the Constitution of the United States prohibits the states from simply banning this visibly brutal means of eliminating our half-born posterity is quite simply absurd.”
Justice Clarence Thomas also dissented: “The question whether states have a legitimate interest in banning the procedure does not require additional authority. In a civilized society, the answer is too obvious, and the contrary arguments too offensive to merit further discussion.”
He noted that instead of safeguarding the mother's health, “There was evidence before the Nebraska legislature, that partial-birth abortion increases health risks relative to other procedures.”
Later, since judges in lower courts must follow decisions of the Supreme Court, Judge Richard Casey apologized when he announced that under Stenberg v. Carhart he was compelled to rule that the legal ban on partial-birth abortion, which had been carefully crafted by Congress and signed by the president, was “unconstitutional.”
Judge Casey noted that, “The abortionists’ justifications for the procedure were incoherent … false … [and] merely theoretical.” He described what he was forced to permit as “gruesome, brutal, barbaric and uncivilized.” However, “a health exception is constitutionally required.”
And according to the Supreme Court (Doe v. Bolton), the health exception encompasses “all factors — physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age — relevant to the well-being of the patient.” For a judge, that means America's Constitution requires that the barbaric procedure be allowed whenever a mother wishes.
But those who respect human life should not lose hope. The American people once again have an opportunity to confront this horror and prevent the deaths of another 50 million innocent children. Most current justices are elderly. Some are in poor health. Justice Stevens is 84 and wishes to retire. Chief Justice Rehnquist is 79 and is being treated for cancer. Only Justice Breyer is younger than 65.
With the July 1 retirement of Justice Sandra O'Connor, President Bush now has the opportunity to replace her with a person who respects life. And several justices now sitting have defended life. So there is reason to hope and above all to pray that the Court may again respect life and base decisions on the Constitution instead of on personal “feelings.”
In The History of Rome, Titus Livius wrote, “I would have the reader trace the process of our moral decline, to watch, first, the sinking of the foundations of morality as the old teaching was allowed to lapse, then the rapidly increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice and the dark dawning of our modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them.”
While Titus Livius was writing his History in Rome, Jesus Christ was crucified in Jerusalem.
Joseph Collison is the director of the pro-life office for the Diocese of Norwich.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Collison ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Look of Luminosity DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:Four years separated my two visits to Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Casper, Wyo.
The two stopovers were contrasts in dark and light, joy and suffering. Indeed, nothing could have prepared me for the differences I found on my return trip.
My first visit was to a dimly lit church, albeit for a joyful occasion — my niece's wedding. The ceremony was small and charming, but the sanctuary was nondescript. Its ambience was closer to that of an outdated cottage than to a house of God.
My second visit, last October, came during a less cheerful time. I was in town to visit my ailing older brother, Rich. Yet, this time, I noticed right away that Our Lady of Fatima had been dramatically transformed. Most notably, bright light filtered through beautiful, new stained-glass windows that had been completed just weeks earlier.
These are not any run-of-the-mill adornments: The new windows showcase the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. Surely, this is one of the first parish churches in the country to bring to its people, in such dramatic fashion, the newest Rosary mysteries.
I traveled from Minneapolis to Casper to visit my brother, who suffers from a number of infirmities. Prior to my visit, he began to have extreme difficulty breathing, which comes with the territory for those with multiple sclerosis. The visit was a chance to see his new home, as well as an opportunity for a work of mercy.
My primary responsibility during the four-day visit was just to be with him, talk and pray with him, and pass the time with one of our favorite activities: watching movies.
Oddly enough, I grew up not knowing this brother. By the working of the Holy Spirit, he came into my life only after I'd reached adulthood. He, like me, is a Lutheran convert to the Catholic faith. His sudden presence in my life at the age of 25 — with a conversion story in his recent background — played a major role in my own conversion to the Catholic faith.
Today we share a bond that is as strong as if we had grown up together.
Connected to an oxygen tank 24 hours a day and unable to move around a great deal without being exhausted, my brother was unable to attend Sunday Mass. I went to Our Lady of Fatima with my sister-in-law. As soon as I walked in, I noticed that everything was different.
“I had to get the floor off the wall,” said Father Bob Cook, who made the decision to remodel shortly after being assigned there as pastor.
For much of the Mass, I sat praying for my brother. When I wasn'd praying, or listening to Father Cook's powerful pro-life homily, I was transfixed by the large rose window behind the altar, and the way that it played with the light of the rising sun.
The window is one of the most distinct stained-glass windows I have ever seen. It features the rays of the sun penetrating the clouds. In the center of the window, Christ's burial cloth is unraveled in such a way that it circles to form a white rose. The shroud's tail takes the form of a dove looking up into the sun's golden beams.
The central placement of a crucifix directly in front of the window enhances the setting. Both the crucifix and the window serve as wonderful aids for contemplation before and after Mass; they capture both the sorrow of Christ's sacrifice and the hope of his Resurrection.
The window's designer, Michael Shields, from Creative Stained Glass Studio in Evergreen, Colo., says he came up with the idea for the window while waiting in the hospital for his wife, who was having surgery for breast cancer.
Father Cook says the window reminds him of a section in Dante's Divine Comedy, one describing the beatific vision. In it, the assembled people gazing at heaven take the form of a rose.
Vibrant and Realistic
As you enter the church, you're greeted by the Luminous Mysteries. In the first window on your right, John baptizes Jesus in the Jordan. In the next, it's the Lord's first public miracle, the changing of water into wine at the wedding in Cana. This is followed by Christ's proclamation of the Kingdom of God.
Across the nave, two windows along the east side complete the Luminous Mysteries: Jesus’ transfiguration in one, his institution of the Eucharist in the other. A sixth window tops off the series by depicting Mary and the disciples at Pentecost, the birth of the Church.
In each, the colors are vibrant and the depictions realistic. I particularly enjoyed studying the Proclamation of the Kingdom of God window, which depicts Christ on the seashore calling his people to repentance. The disciples nearest Jesus face him and have halos. Those in the distance face away and do not. Their body language is one of rejection.
In the foreground, someone is coming toward Jesus with his hands held open, representing repentance. A figure in the background looks interested, but isn'd certain. Another has his back turned, demonstrating a refusal to repent.
The window is a wonderful reminder that we are always presented with the choice of getting closer to Christ or turning away from him. It is easy to project oneself into the scene. I came away from the window asking myself, “What am I going to do?”
God's Sun(light)
Father Cook and a committee of four decided the content of the church's new windows. The parish held a contest to choose a stained-glass artist. In the end, Creative Stained Glass Studio was chosen, based on their design for the window featuring the baptism of Jesus. It's easy to see why.
It only took two weeks to raise the necessary funds — $13,000 per window —from parishioners to cover the windows’ costs.
It's also evident that the windows were designed by a committed Catholic. Each window features a border of rosary beads. God's hand holds the crucifix. The medallion of the rosary features the Church's patron, Our Lady of Fatima, and the angels in the corners of the window are patterned after the angels found in the church's Stations of the Cross.
Transmitted light, says Shields, is different from any other medium because the artist is dealing with wavelengths.
“It's God's light coming through the windows,” explains Shields. “I tried to be conscious of that. We painted the windows so that the light emanates from Jesus.”
After spending two days with my ailing brother, my union with Christ in the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at the newly renovated Our Lady of Fatima gave me strength and fortitude to return to my brother's side during his time of need for the remainder of my visit.
Christ offered light and hope for me through a physical means — a reverent church and its glorious stained-glass windows — when I needed it most.
Tim Drake writes from St. Joseph, Minnesota.
PLANNING YOUR VISIT
The Mass schedule is as follows: Saturday at 5:30 p.m. (Mass of Anticipation); Sunday at 8:30, 10 and 11:30 a.m.; and Monday through Friday at 9 a.m. Confessions are heard Saturdays from 4 to 5 p.m.
GETTING THERE
Our Lady of Fatima Church is located at 1401 Cy Avenue in Casper, Wyo. For more information, call (307) 265-5586 or e-mail churcholfat@aol.com.
----- EXCERPT: Our Lady of Fatima Church, Casper, Wyo. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: WEEKLY DVD/VIDEO PICKS DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:Minority Report(2002)
Before War of the Worlds, Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise's previous collaboration was another adult sci-fi thriller based on a story by a sci-fi novelist (Philip Dick). Part sci-fi, part whodunit noir thriller, part popcorn summer action, Minority Report touches on issues of moral and social freedom, but doesn'd get overly cerebral on the audience.
Set in a near future in which magnetically powered cars race along the sides of skyscrapers and ubiquitous retinal scanning technology is used for everything from subway access to direct marketing, the film's central conceit is an experimental law-enforcement project called “Pre-Crime” aimed at preventing crimes before they happen.
The system seems perfect — until project head John Anderton (Tom Cruise) finds himself indicted for a crime he'll allegedly commit in the near future. Brilliant action set pieces alternate with intriguing moral questions as Anderton tries to stay one step ahead of his own men.
Content advisory: Ordinary and sci-fi gunplay and other violence; fleeting depictions of real and illusory sex acts (no explicit nudity); illicit drug use; some profanity. Mature viewing.
Jaws(1975)
Newly re–leased in a new 30th anniversary DVD edition with new-to-DVD special features, including a making-of documentary and director interview, Steven Spielberg's breakout hit was also the first true summer blockbuster, and — along with Star Wars — helped shift Hollywood's center of gravity to the unabashed action-adventure thrills of movies like Superman and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
What makes Jaws work so well is a perfect storm of primal fears, emotionally riveting direction combined with sympathetic lead performances, and that immortal two-note theme from John Williams’ edgy score. Constant technical problems with the production's five mechanical sharks (real shark footage was also used) famously wound up driving one of the film's greatest strengths as the shark proved more terrifying when unseen.
Roy Scheider stars as the amiable, somewhat pliant landlubber chief of police who finds himself caught between the deadly shark and tourist-conscious leading citizens. He's aided by Richard Dreyfuss as an intellectual rich kid and marine biologist who knows what they're up against, and Robert Shaw as a burly caricature of an old salt with an Ahab-sized grudge against great white sharks.
Content advisory: Intense, bloody, somewhat graphic shark attack sequences; occasional profanity and crude language; brief shadowy nudity. Mature viewing.
War of the Worlds(1953)
Loosely based on the classic H.G. Wells story, Byron Haskin's groundbreaking War of the Worlds is the father of all alien invasion movies, offering a worst-case-scenario alternative to the more idealistic visions of films like The Day the Earth Stood Still (and Spielberg's own Close Encounters and E.T.) of benevolent, enlightened aliens who come to commune rather than to conquer.
Combining cutting-edge 1950s visual and sound effects that hold up remarkably well with a rather pedestrian screenplay and stock characterizations, War of the Worlds is often viewed as an allegory of Cold War fears. Yet mankind's utter helplessness in the face of overwhelming force, and passiveness in its eventual deliverance, make this an unsatisfying reading. Instead, the film's overtly religious themes, emphasized by Catholic producer George Pal, become the defining framework in a story about divine providence and salvation for helpless humanity.
Content advisory: Much menace and large-scale sci-fi battle violence. Okay for kids.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: SPREAD THEIR WORDS DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:EDITORIAL
It was a momentous month for homosexual “marriage.”
The relentless march of legislation attempting to redefine marriage bagged two countries at the end of June. Canada and Spain joined Holland and Belgium to legalize same-sex “marriage.”
Canadian friends were practically despondent. Author and artist Michael O'Brien spelled out some of the consequences of the new law in an e-mail: “adoption of children by homosexual parents, the enforced re-education of the young through social engineering programs in the school systems, increased harassment of the churches wherever they resist the Revolution.”
Register readers know how well founded his fears are. When Massachusetts legalized homosexual “marriage,” schools immediately began teaching it and adoption agencies enforcing it.
Worse, said O'Brien, Canadian Catholics in positions of leadership — including the prime minister — are the ones who changed the definition of marriage.
“This is the country our forefathers sacrificed so much to build, its freedoms purchased by and preserved by their courage and blood,” he said. “That country has gone, traded away by careerists and strategists, which is a sobering reminder that democracy is only as good as the moral character of its people. The lyrics of our national anthem come to mind, and die in the throat: O Canada, glorious and free.”
It's enough to break your heart — especially since the logic of the homosexual activists seems unstoppable. The culture tells us every way it can that to stand by traditional marriage is discriminatory and that to deny homosexuals the right to adopt children is narrow-minded. Movies and television shows are all lining up behind a new Prevailing Wisdom that says homosexuality is no different from heterosexuality — it's only the gender preference that changes.
A recent example is the taped-but-never-aired ABC show “Welcome to the Neighborhood,” a reality show in which competing “families” vie for a free house by courting the neighbors. One of the competitors was a homosexual couple who had adopted a child.
When evangelical groups complained that the show stereotyped them and mischaracterized their opposition to homosexual “marriage,” ABC ignored them. But then a homosexual activist group complained that they didn'd want to see anyone opposing homosexual couples on television at all — stereotyped or not. So ABC pulled the show — even though the network had already spent weeks marketing it.
In the midst of it all, New Jersey can give us some hope. The June decision from the courts there reminds us that we're not so crazy after all. Presiding Judge Stephen Skillman not only preserved marriage in New Jersey, but he also pointed out that Massachusetts’ 2003 Goodridge decision is far from the apex of enlightenment it claims to be.
He said the decision conflicted with “the traditional and still prevailing religious and societal view of marriage as a union between one man and one woman that plays a vital role in propagating the species and provides the ideal setting for raising children.”
As the Register has mentioned before, children are bound to suffer if their parents are part of the homosexual scene. From the Village People song “YMCA” to the Showtime television show “Queer as Folk,” homosexual culture has long celebrated sex with teens. One of the most searched-for pornography terms on the Internet is a homosexual slang word for underage teen-age boys. In The Gay Report, by homosexual researchers Karla Jay and Allen Young, the authors report data showing that 73% of homosexuals surveyed had at some time had sex with boys 16 to 19 years of age or younger.
Judge Skillman added, “A Constitution is not simply an empty receptacle into which judges may pour their own conceptions of evolving social mores. To yield to the impulse to invalidate legislation merely because members of the court disapprove of public policy is to subvert the sensitive interrelationship between the three branches of government, which is at the heart of democracy.”
In a concurring opinion, Judge Anthony Parillo wrote that to distill marriage to “a close personal relationship” would strip the institution “of any goal or end beyond the intrinsic emotional, psychological or sexual satisfaction that the relationship brings to the individuals involved.”
We can take heart in the fact that we aren'd the only ones who see the obvious with homosexual “marriage.”
Spread the judges’ words. Pass them on to your representatives in state and federal government. (Type in your ZIP code at Vote-Smart.org to find out who your representatives are.)
Ask how they plan to stop the assault on marriage.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: FRIENDS FORTIFY DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:FACTS OF LIFE
In a new study, older people who reported strong networks of close friends — people other than relatives with whom participants shared a close, confiding relationship — tended to live longer than those with few or no such relationships.
Source: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, July 2005.
Illustration by Tim Rauch
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Rauch ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: CITING KIDS, N.J. COURT SAYS NO TO SAME-SEX 'MARRIAGE' DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:TRENTON, N.J. — Kristen sees the news from New Jersey as a rare victory for people like her.
Kristen, who asked that her real name not be used, is homosexual. A New Jersey Appellate Court in Lewis v. Harris June 14 said that people of the same sex cannot marry.
The New Jersey court also criticized the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's 2003 decision that made the Bay State the first in the nation to allow homosexuals to “marry” each other.
Kristen said society should treat people like her with respect and always keep in mind that “We can judge a person's actions, but we don'd always know what's in a person's heart.”
But she said creating an imitation “marriage” will do more harm than good.
“Sometimes it's difficult for those of us with same-sex attractions who are striving to live chastely, to see so much widespread promotion of homosexual relationships, including the legislative push for same-sex ‘marriage,’” she said. “It can play on our weaknesses and tempt us to follow the way of the world.”
Reserving marriage for members of the opposite sex does not violate New Jersey's State Constitution, a judge ruled.
The New Jersey case involved seven same-sex couples who based their argument for their right to “marry” on the right to privacy and equal protection.
Presiding Judge Stephen Skillman wrote in his opinion that Massachusetts’ 2003 Goodridge decision conflicted with “the traditional and still prevailing religious and societal view of marriage as a union between one man and one woman that plays a vital role in propagating the species and provides the ideal setting for raising children.”
Skillman added, “A Constitution is not simply an empty receptacle into which judges may pour their own conceptions of evolving social mores. To yield to the impulse to invalidate legislation merely because members of the court disapprove of public policy is to subvert the sensitive interrelationship between the three branches of government, which is at the heart of democracy.”
In a concurring opinion, Judge Anthony Parillo wrote that to distill marriage to “a close personal relationship” would strip the institution “of any goal or end beyond the intrinsic emotional, psychological or sexual satisfaction that the relationship brings to the individuals involved.”
Skillman concluded that these same arguments could be made to legalize polygamy.
In his dissenting opinion, Judge Donald Collester wrote, “By prohibiting them from a real right to marry, plaintiffs as well as their children suffer the real consequences of being ‘different.’”
But Kristen said that in her experience, society's acceptance of homosexuality is no help to children.
“We also have to consider the welfare of children who may be raised in such a household,” she said. “Even if such children receive lots of affection and have all their physical and material needs provided for,” she said, it's “not in the best interest of the psychological and spiritual development of those children.”
Melissa, the grown daughter of a homosexual man, agreed. She also asked that her real name not be used. She said she loves and cares for her father, but wouldn'd wish her fate on anyone else.
“Selfishness and immaturity is often a trait of people with same- sex attraction, and with not being an emotionally mature person, how can you commit sincerely to another?” she said. “I believe that the statistics show that most same-sex attraction people do not have lifelong relationships with another, but a series of partnerships.”
Appeal Likely
Groups that defend marriage applauded this decision — with caution. Though marriage is safe in New Jersey today, it could quickly change, they said.
“The New Jersey judges were an example of judicial restraint,” said Matthew Staver, president and general counsel of Liberty Counsel, which litigates around the nation defending marriage. “They did what judges are supposed to do — judge, rather than legislate.”
“The lower courts typically uphold marriage laws,” said Matt Daniels, president of the Alliance for Marriage — a group which has drafted an amendment to the U.S. Constitution defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. “Judges here are not trying to be heroes, and generally agree not to overturn state marriage laws. But at the State Supreme Court level, it may be another story. Here, judges are more likely to feel anointed to engage in social revolution.”
In New Jersey's case, the plaintiffs will appeal the decision to the state's Supreme Court. Lambda Legal's media spokesperson, Lisa Hardaway, said it would take place as soon as possible.
“It will most likely follow the way of the Massachusetts Supreme Court,” said Daniels. “The only reason it wouldn'd would be fear of a public backlash.”
“This underscores an important issue,” said Staver. “We shouldn'd have to hold our breath worrying what the New Jersey Supreme Court will do. This issue is not for a few judges to decide. It's for the people to decide. We must move forward with state constitutional amendments, and we must move forward with a constitutional amendment at the federal level.”
The effort to pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution safeguarding marriage is taking place against the backdrop of legal battles in the state's courts. Proponents of marriage would like to see such an amendment passed before a federal court decides in favor of same-sex “marriage.”
“The problem is that if we see a decision by a federal court creating a ‘constitutional’ right to gay ‘marriage’ — our ability to respond will decrease over time,” said Daniels. “This is because we will supposedly be taking away a ‘right’.”
Such has been the problem with a comparable issue: abortion.
As for now, there are no set dates as to when Congress will vote on this issue again. Both sides are watching state courts closely.
If another case is decided the way Massachusetts did — at the State Supreme Court level — public outcry could heat up significantly. Congressional supporters of marriage would be looking for that kind of moment, when public outrage is at its highest, to push for a vote.
World Implications
The driving force behind some proponents of marriage is often a sense of responsibility.
Daniels recalled a recent conversation with Cardinal Alfonso Trujillo, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family.
“His perspective was that we are fighting not just for the U.S., but for the West as a whole. He said ‘America is the empire now.’ Our influence is so great. We know that God's plan was to use the Roman Empire to spread Christianity to the known world,” said Daniels. “I believe that the Lord has a special role for the U.S. to play. We can be the causal agent that the Lord will use to break this notion of invincibility that the other side has. We can impact the trajectory of this issue in the West.”
Sabrina Arena Ferrisi is based in Jersey City, New Jersey.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sabrina Arena Ferrisi ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: An Open Letter to Caroline Kennedy DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:Dear Caroline,
One day I was scanning the New York Times’ op-ed page. An ad caught my eye in the bottom right corner. It had been placed there by your people. They were looking for candidates for your dad's prestigious Profiles in Courage Award.
Why not consider the late Robert Casey? He was governor of Pennsylvania form 1987 to 1994. He was a Democrat.
He died in 2000 at 68. He remained a Democrat even though his civil rights struggle for the nation's most defenseless humans, the unborn, caused him to become a leper in the Democratic Party. This happened at its 1992 New York convention. He had fought to have the Democratic platform state that Democrats do not support abortion on demand.
Nat Hentoff in the New Republic (6/19/00) wrote about his liberal record in Pennsylvania as its two-term governor. That record was outstanding. He established daycare programs that would take care of infants and preschoolers for the length of the normal school day. It also provided optional early-morning and after-school programs for these same children. These programs would allow their teen parents to remain in school and finish their education. It would also afford assurance to low-income parents that while working, their children were in good hands.
He put into effect a law providing health insurance for children. Their parents, working at low-income jobs, could not afford the insurance themselves. Yet they were denied public aid because they were working. A classic Catch-22.
In the days before it became trendy cause, he set aside $1 million for breast exams. Health maintenance organizations were required to give annual mammograms to women over 40. One Harvard University physician called his programs for children and women a model for the rest of the United States.
Under Casey, state contracts to women and minority owned firms increased by 1500%. He appointed the first black woman ever to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He named more women to a cabinet than any other Democratic governor.
He anticipated he had a good shot at being invited as keynote speaker at the 1992 Democratic convention. This was due to his accomplishments as governor and his loyalty as a Democrat. He was not asked. Mario Cuomo, another Catholic governor, was. His views on abortion were more palatable to convention officials. The convention organizer told Casey, “Your [pro-life] views are not of line with most Americans.”
Governor Cuomo, the keynote speaker, said, “Bill Clinton believes, as we all do here, in the first principle of our Democratic commitment the politics of inclusion.”
Governor Casey was stirred by that rousing line. He asked to speak to the convention on behalf of Democrats who agreed with his pro-life (from the womb to the tomb) views. He was denied the opportunity.
The Pennsylvania governor and delegates were assigned to what Casey called “Outer Mongolia” in the convention hall. There could be in no doubt about how the national Democratic hierarchy regarded the governor of one of the largest states in the union. There was even an attempt to humiliate him publicly.
He was persona non grata to his Democratic fellows. He had become a pariah. Still, he held firmly to his pro-life and/or civil rights principles.
Know-nothing mockery was made of his Catholicism. Lapel badges were sold on the convention floor picturing him dressed as the pope by abortion-rights advocates. He would later call the matter “anti-Catholic bigotry.”
Even personal contempt would not have him give up his civil rights convictions. He was that famous man for all seasons — a late-20th century Thomas More.
He was wooed by the Republicans. He declined to join their number even though he believed the Democratic Party “had become a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Abortion Rights Action League.”
Despite his record to the contrary, he had to suffer the ignominy of the New York Times calling him “a conservative Democrat.”
He paid a heavy price for his civil rights principles. He could not have enjoyed being publicly drummed out of the regiment by his own Democratic Party.
He was, cara Caroline, a profile in courage if ever there was one.
Please consider this letter to you a formal nomination of the late Governor Robert P. Casey for the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award. Please forward this letter to the award committee at your dad's library at Columbia Point in Boston, Mass.
My prayers and good wishes for you, your husband and your children.
Father James Gilhooley is the author of Reflections on the Sunday Gospels (World Library Publications) (available at 1-800-566-6150).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father James Gilhooley ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Aliens Attack. Viewers Jump. So What? DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:More than a century ago, H.G. Wells gave the world a new genre of fiction, the alien-invasion story.
In a way, Wells's creative situation mirrored that of his aliens, first-time colonizers taking an unprecedented step in setting out to conquer a new world.
Five decades later, director Byron Haskin, who helmed the first cinematic adaptation of Wells’ classic novel The War of the Worlds in 1953, was in a somewhat similar position. At least, alien-invasion cinema was still basically new territory, though Haskin didn'd exactly invent the genre.
In his new rendition of the Wells story, both Steven Spielberg and his alien invaders are in a very different position. In this War of the Worlds, it turns out that the aliens aren'd blindly coming to Earth. The groundwork for their invasion was laid long ago, by previous generations of aliens who first planted their deadly tripods below our planet's surface to await the day when they would return to conquer.
Similarly, Spielberg himself isn'd approaching this premise blind. By now the territory has been well explored, the possibilities of Wells’ premise extensively hashed out, by generations of storytellers of varying levels of creative skill as well as scientific and military insight.
On the screen, stories like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the TV miniseries “V” offered thoughtful takes on the alien-invasion premise. A 1996 film called The Arrival provided one of the smarter cinematic variations, though it was dwarfed that year by the silly popcorn actioner Independence Day. More recently, M. Night Shyamalan's Signs explored the spirituality of alien invasion.
Now, with the new War of the Worlds, it's amazing how far the aliens haven'd come. Spatially, of course, they're coming much farther than before; Mars is no longer a credible homeworld for invading aliens, so Spielberg's attackers have presumably crossed interstellar distances to get here. Technologically, too, the invaders’ weapons are as far beyond those of Haskin's film as the cutting-edge special effects of today are beyond those of 1953.
Yet the alien invasion makes less sense in this retelling, as does their undoing, though it is the same as in previous versions of the story. As with Shyamalan's aliens in Signs, it doesn'd make sense that these aliens would be so unprepared for what becomes their downfall. After all, unlike their counterparts in previous versions, these invaders have been to Earth before, perhaps a million years ago or even more.
Think about what this means. For hundreds of millennia, these beings have possessed interstellar travel, not to mention serious planet-conquering military hardware. They've had the will and the capability to bring heavy-duty weaponry to other planets in preparation for a conquest far in the future. And now, hundreds of millennia later, they still have the will and the know-how to come here and use it.
Clearly, interplanetary conquest is an immutable part of who these aliens are and what they do. How many other planets must they have visited, explored and conquered since first visiting our planet? Surely there can be very little about the potential pitfalls and hazards of this kind of work that they don'd know. To be that advanced for that long, to put in that much preparation and time — and then to make a mistake that basic — is more than a plot glitch. It's a fundamental flaw that all but defies suspension of disbelief.
This is not to say War of the Worlds is boring or uninvolving — Spielberg is far too accomplished a director for that. He knows how to keep viewers on the edge of their seats, how to play their nerves and emotions like fiddle strings, how to subordinate the most incredible special effects to the narrative so that they feel to viewers like real events, not impressive technical achievements.
Under his efficient, assured direction, this War of the Worlds is consistently gripping, even riveting excitement. Yet it's rather grim, joyless excitement, and not very satisfying in the end. Other than sheer spectacle, the film is about little more than the experience of desperation and flight in the face of unimaginable crisis.
That Spielberg dresses this up in the trappings of 9/11 imagery — the missing-persons displays, the dust-covered survivors — gives the film some topical cachet, but there's no commentary or catharsis here. Batman Begins, a far better summer film, also played (far more subtly) with 9/11 themes, but at least there the conflict was about something — the bad guys had motives, the hero fought for a principle, and the resolution was earned, not unconvincing or arbitrary.
Grim Gawking
How do human beings respond to extreme crises? War of the Worlds doesn'd slow down to ask. There's lots of running around and screaming, a few instances of mob ugliness and general human selfishness, and at least one crackpot. But in real life there's another side to this coin: Crises bring out the best in humanity as well as the worst.
Unfortunately, like James Cameron's Titanic, Spielberg's film only highlights the ugly side of human nature under pressure without managing to celebrate the capacity of ordinary human beings in crisis to put others first and even risk their lives to aid strangers.
There's no room in this relentless story for any spiritual searching or reflection, also a ubiquitous dimension of human response to crises. Churches and synagogues in Manhattan and all over America overflowed in the aftermath of 9/11, but that's one 9/11 association War of the Worlds has no interest in exploring.
I see I've gotten almost all the way through this review without mentioning the character played by Tom Cruise — an irresponsible, working-class divorcé and deadbeat dad — or his two more or less alienated children, Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and Robbie (Justin Chatwin).
There's not much to tell. Ray (Cruise) is the kind of ex-husband any responsible ex-wife (such as Miranda Otto) would dread leaving her children with every other weekend — the kind of guy who would have only peanut butter and Tabasco sauce in the fridge when the kids show up for their weekend with dad, and who invites his 10-year-old daughter to order out while he takes a nap, leaving her in the care of her older brother, who's likely as not to take the car and ditch his sister.
I understand why Spielberg wishes to tell his story through the eyes of a few particular characters — just not why he chose these particular characters, who are neither particularly interesting, sympathetic, or important.
The film has taken lumps from critics over the “happy” coda, a character-centered denouement that I found not so much calculated or manipulative as pointless; I would have had to care about the characters more to feel manipulated.
Yet, in spite of the failure of the whole, Spielberg makes the parts work well enough that War of the Worlds is almost worth it. Individual set pieces are riveting, and one seldom doubts that, if alien tripods were actually wreaking havoc on the Earth, this is indeed very much what it would be like. Afterwards, though, the viewer is left with little more than ashes.
Steven D. Greydanus is editor and chief critic of DecentFilms.com.
----- EXCERPT: War of the Worlds scares, but doesn'd challenge ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Send Junior to His Room? Oh, the Horrors! DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:FAMILY MATTERS
I've heard many people say, “Don'd send children to their rooms for punishment. It only pairs something negative with someplace that should be positive. It will do more harm than good.” Is there anything to this claim?
Wow. I must be messed up and don'd realize it. I was sent to my room countless times growing up. Whatever bad room feelings I might have developed were either repressed — at least until I uncover them on some upcoming visit to a mid-day TV talk show — or else overcome by all the good feelings created by sleep, privacy, reading and naps. I have never personally met any adult traumatized, or even residually distressed, over spending involuntary room time as a kid. You'd think with all the folks I encounter in clinical practice, I'd bump into a few with leftover room angst as at least a small part of their adult troubles.
What you've heard I will label Childrearing Cliché No. 27. It is part of a larger “enlightened” assault on traditional forms of discipline: Spanking breeds aggression. Corners are humiliating. Time out is isolating. Writing essays fosters distaste for English. Fining a child money breaks trust, as it “takes back” a promised allowance.
All of these I've encountered from “experts.” Is anything left that is psychologically okay to use? How about taking away privileges or possessions? Well, that depends, goes the argument. Are they gifts from another person? Did Macey pay for them herself? Are they related to the crime? How long will they be taken? Was Forbes sufficiently warned?
Most anything that can serve as a discipline consequence also has other uses. I like chairs — a lot. I'm sitting in one now. Do I want to sit facing a corner? No. That's boring. I'm writing at this moment, and making money doing it. Do I want to be forced to write something about my misbehavior on my own time — for free? Nope. I use rulers to measure things. They're invaluable for household repairs. Was a ruler used to measure my behind a few times as a kid? Yep. Am I afraid of rulers now? Not at all — unless they're career politicians.
Most places or things can be good or bad, helpful or hurtful, depending upon the context in which they are used. Further, except in the most extreme cases, contexts don'd overlap. One doesn'd color the other. Involuntary room time doesn'd spoil voluntary room time.
Much of what makes discipline effective is the factor of choice. If Nielson just so happens to be too busy to watch TV for two days, he doesn'd feel deprived. It was his decision. If you punish him by suspending TV for two days, he does feel the effect. If Knap retreats to his bed for a two-hour snooze, he's content. If you send him there two hours early for bed, he's discontent. Time, place and freedom of will make all the difference in seeing something as reward or punishment.
To drive the point home further, try this exercise. Next time one of your kids acts up, offer a choice: He can either wash the car or go to his room for an hour. See which he chooses. See if he's pleased to be given the option. And see if, by comparison, the room isn'd the more desirable place to be.
It's all in the timing.
For more of Dr. Ray Guarendi's wit and wisdom, go to DrRay.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ray Guarendi ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:SOCIAL SECURITY, 70 YEARS ON
Regarding “Time to Raise the Retirement Age?” (Commentary & Opinion, June 19-25):
Unfortunately, Father McNair doesn'd share with his readers the historical and substantive background of what we call Social Security, other than citing President Franklin D. Roosevelt's dream, described as “an America where no one who worked hard all of his or her life would retire in poverty.”
Then Father addresses the idea of raising the retirement age, concluding that such action would not pass the “moral” test: “Yes, we need to save Social Security. But let's do it the right way without hurting our senior citizens.”
The Social Security Act was enacted in 1935 and, prior to its repeal in 1939, provided for a minimum 31/2% return on contributions, as well as ownership of “your” account — i.e., anything remaining upon your death would become a part of your estate.
Social Security payments began in 1940 and the simple fact is that the program, as amended in 1939, is a Ponzi scheme. Today's workers pay retirement benefits to yesterday's workers and, as long as there are enough workers today paying Social Security taxes to cover those retirement benefits, all is well with the program — notwithstanding the formulas used to compute retirement benefits, which reward the low-income worker at the expense of the high-income worker.
Another term for this action is “income redistribution.” I won'd go into it, but it would be well to cover the growth of the Social Security program over the past 70 years, both in new benefits and increased taxes, to get the complete picture of this very flawed program.
How do you fix a program that is flawed in its basics? Simply stated, you can'd. That's why most politicians would like to distance themselves from the subject. The fact is that “we” must begin to transition out of the current Ponzi-scheme Social Security program. This will be fiscally painful, for sure. But, given the history of our country, I happen to believe that the American people will agree to do whatever is necessary, no matter the sacrifice required of both rich and poor, to fix a major problem such as this one.
Frankly, I think this crisis is a blessing in disguise, as it exposes the error of the socialist idea of leaving important matters in the hands of politicians, without proper oversight. Remember, this fiction of the Social Security program, sometimes referred to as the Third Rail in politics, has been operating for 70 years. What better reason to conclude that such important matters “must” be decided at government levels closer to the people, by no means at the federal level?
Father McNair, maybe you can do some more research and give your readers the benefit of a full-blown discussion of the Social Security program, its problems and prospects, covering a range of options, but always addressing the “moral” test. I, for one, would welcome such a column.
K. DALE ANDERSON
Randallstown, Maryland
Blinded by Science
Your June 12-18 article “Review Board Member Defends ‘Clonotes,’” as well as other articles on stem-cell and embryo research, provide valuable insight into some horrible errors being generated by biological research science. Particularly upsetting is the support of research cloning by Dr. Paul McHugh, a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Review Board.
As a former Army virologist and tissue-culture specialist who grew various tissue lines such as bone and uterine tissue for viral identification, I find totally erroneous Dr. McHugh's assertion that the harvesting and replication of human cells is done all the time in medicine, and that the production of clonotes may be a harmless extension of a common practice.
The making of a new human and the increase in numbers of a particular human cell type are totally different things. The new human carries the genetic identification of Adam and is made with a spiritual soul in the image and likeness of God. On the other hand, specialized human-tissue multiplication is an ongoing bodily repair mechanism and, when carried out in vitro, continues that supportive role to humans in need.
Today's problems in cloning and embryonic stem-cell research can be identified with the ongoing removal of the private procreative marriage act — from that of one man and one woman to a public exploitation position of adulteration, perversion and laboratory mutilation.
One's body should be treated as the sacred temple of God and one is morally responsible for what becomes of it. A donor woman is responsible for the egg that is enucleated and the donor person is responsible for the use of the somatic cell he or she donated. Above all, the laboratory researcher is responsible for bringing the genetic elements together that call upon God to infuse a human soul. The laboratory researcher in effect becomes the adulterous technocrat, intervening between the functional elements of procreation reserved by God for the privacy of one man and one woman.
FRANK STRELCHUN, PH.D.
Canaan, Connecticut
Hitting the Notes
A choir member just showed me “Why Catholics Can Sing — But Too Often Don'd” (Sept. 19-25, 2004). I agree somewhat with the article.
I have just completed my master's degree in choral conducting. Unlike most directors, I have been very active in learning chant and other Latin pieces abroad, including the various types of Latin dialects. (The pronunciation of Latin in Germanic/Slavic countries is very different from that heard in Italian/Western countries.)
What is quite interesting is the slant on only the traditional chant varieties. While I agree that the contemporary music in the Church is dumbing down our faith, I still believe in a balance of both traditional and contemporary forms. I find it disturbing that a choir cannot sing a simple line in Latin but can sing a contemporary song — or vice versa.
In my experience, I have found that a balance between traditional/classical and contemporary is the way not only to a satisfactory music program, but also a very prayerful Mass or service. For example, for Easter, why not sing a beautiful Latin “Gloria,” such as the one in the Mass in C by Charles Gounod — while also singing, in the same Mass, a contemporary song like “Rise Up and Praise Him,” say, for the Presentation of the Gifts?
Not only do we retain our history as Catholics but also move forward in new traditions. In all the churches in which I was music director, I have seen the choirs and music program grow under this balance. I pray that the Church sees the benefit of this balance.
JIM PRIOVOLOS
Music Director
St. Patrick Parish
Yorkville, Illinois
Dems With a Difference
Congratulations and thanks to Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life, for her courageous attempt to change her party's total and unwavering support for the culture of death (“Pushing Her Party to Protect Life,” June 26-July 2).
How great it would be if Catholics in America were able to cast their ballots based on truly political motives and not be troubled by the thought of supporting candidates whose pro-abortion position conflicts with the voter's spiritual and moral values.
At present, the Democratic Party's proud claim of being “the defender of the little man” is a complete antithesis to its leaders’ actual policy of denying any protection to the life of our precious pre-born brothers and sisters.
In spite of Ms. Day's good intentions, presenting the virulent pro-abortion Sen. Charles Schumer's support of two “pro-life” senatorial candidates is a very poor example of the great strides being made. Particularly in the Pennsylvania senatorial race, Schumer's motives are strictly pragmatic. He recognized that Bob Casey, because of his supposed pro-life claim, is the only Democrat with a chance of unseating the Republican incumbent, Sen. Rick Santorum, since all the other Democratic hopefuls were totally pro-abortion.
What a tragedy if that should occur, for Santorum has been the most faithful and effective pro-life leader in the Senate thought his terms in office.
Our prayers go with Ms. Day in the hope that we will see the day when the Democratic Party will once again become the party of the people and not one of many questionable social agendas.
DAVID AND ELIZABETH W. MAIER
Philadelphia
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: FROM THE GLITTER OF HOLLYWOOD TO THE QUIET OF A CONVENT DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:Mother Dolores Hart made her debut in Hollywood alongside Elvis Presley in Loving You.
Since 1963, she's inhabited a very different world. She caused a sensation when she became a cloistered nun at the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Conn. Mother Dolores became prioress there in May 2001. She is still a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She recently updated Barbara Middleton on her life in the cloister, where she will be celebrating the feast of St. Benedict July 11.
Your father was the actor Bert Hicks. What was your life like growing up?
I remember my mother taking me to St. Louis for the investiture of my great aunt, Sister Dolores Marie, a St. Joseph sister. It was at this time my mother asked the priest to baptize me. The priest replied. “I couldn'd do that — you're not a Catholic!”
It was nine years later that I became a Catholic. My grandparents took over my education and they sent me to school. I was attending St. Gregory Catholic School in Chicago when I told the sister I wanted to take bread with the children.
I was alone with the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel waiting for them to have their breakfast. I went back to my grandparents and said, “I want to take bread with the children. I want to become Catholic.” They said, “Okay!”
I told the sisters, “I'd like to take bread.” Nobody asked me if I was speaking of the Eucharist. I was baptized, and my mother was thrilled.
I continued to live with my grandparents while my mother and dad went to Hollywood. I began to think very much that I wanted to join them in Hollywood. My grandfather was a projectionist, and I would go with him to the theater. We would go in the booth and he would sleep on a cot. Every 25 minutes, I would ring a bell to wake him to start the movie. I saw those movies over and over again. They had no sound. It was an amazing experience. I was being trained to be something that would be, somewhere down the line, very efficacious.
My daddy was in Hollywood, and I was always wondering when I was going to see him on the big screen. In due course, my mother and dad divorced. My mother, then, was a single parent. My grandmother would put me on a train in Chicago, and my mother would pick me up in California. It was a wonderful experience. Seeing the waving palm trees and knowing I was getting closer to Los Angeles — I can still hear the wheels of the train coming in to San Bernardino — and knew I would be seeing my mom soon.
I was 10 years old and that was “the way I got my growing up.”
Did you see your father in those years?
Yes. He was in Winged Victory, a play in New York. … I lived with my mother in Beverly Hills. She got a job at a restaurant as a greeter. Mom and the restaurant owner married and that allowed her to make a home for us. His name was Al Gordon. Al Gordon had a 9-year-old son. I was 11 at the time. My mother was happy because she had a possibility of a real home.
A mother superior was key to your becoming an actress. When was that?
In high school. I was really aiming my sights and thinking about living close to Hollywood. The idea of becoming an actress did not seem to be a “pie in the sky” thing. I dreamed about it day and night. You could be that close and yet … that far.
I lived 20 minutes from MGM and Paramount studios. How do you get an agent? When it gets down to it, how do you get yourself in the front door? I thought I would go to school and pray to God that this would happen, and then these questions would be resolved. In high school, I played St. Joan. That part allowed me to get a scholarship to Marymount College for drama.
When I was a freshman at Marymount College, a young man approached me from Loyola University to portray St. Joan. (Yes, again.) My friend, Don Barbeau, decided to take some snapshots of me. He sent letters with the photos to all the film studios in Southern California. After seeing the photographs, a talent scout came to see the play, which I knew nothing about at the time. And, I did a talent-scout show on television. So, I had my first brush with the big world.
In the middle of charm class at Marymount, I received a call from Paramount Studios. It was the associate producer of Hal Wallis, and he wanted me to come to Paramount for a meeting. The teacher didn'd want me to take the call. … She thought it was a sham.
“We've already talked to your mother and she thought it was a sham.”
“Miss Barnel, it's not a sham. I must take the call!”
“Miss Hart, just sit down.”
“Miss Barnel, it's not a sham!”
“Miss Hart. … Just take the call.”
I took the call. They wanted to meet me that afternoon. … Don Barbeau came to pick me up in a 1938 hearse. I had on my letter sweater and socks and went to see Mr. Hal Wallis. He asked me, “What do you want to do with your life?”
I responded quickly and said, “I want to be an actress.”
“We're doing a picture with Mr. Presley and we want you to start next week.”
I didn'd even know who Elvis Presley was, but next week was the final tests at school. I said, “Does it have to be next week?”
His reply, “Yes, it does!”
I was a freshman, and only seniors were allowed to try out for acting parts. Miss Barnel, indeed, told me I couldn'd go because we had our finals. I was in tears. She said I would get an F for missing finals and lose my scholarship.
I went to the dormitory and wept my head off.
Mother Gabriel, the dean of girls, came to see me and told me, “Kids in the drama school want an opportunity like what you're going for. Dolores, this is the big one. Go for it, and come back next year as an English major.”
I took her advice, did the screen test and got the part. The cameraman asked, “Miss Hart, who taught you technique on film? Where did you go to school?”
“I never went to school for such.”
“You certainly know what to do.”
Finally, the call came and I would start filming with Mr. Presley.
When you were in Hollywood, how did you maintain your faith?
I was very blessed with wonderful friends. I had a circle of friends that were really sound, which is one of the first things that helps you.
Maria Cooper [Gary Cooper's daughter] was a sound Catholic woman and a best friend. She truly was clear, and true to her faith. She lived in the most elegant and high circles. Yet, she did not bow down to anyone in Hollywood.
Maria was very straightforward in her standards and introduced me to fine persons. If I withdrew my own sense of truth, I wouldn'd be in that caliber. I never met one person that I can remember that I regret as a friend. The Lord had his hand in it and gave me wonderful friends.
Pope John XXIII was instrumental in your becoming a nun.
In 1959, I was in a play in New York, The Pleasure of His Company. A friend invited me to meet some nuns and she said, “They are very special.”
“I exclaimed, “Nuns! No, I don'd want to meet nuns.” But my friend said, “Did I ever steer you wrong?”
So, I came to Regina Laudis — after a few hours here, it has a definite call. You feel you're in a special place. Well, after the first visit, I kept coming back in between shows. Eventually, I asked the Reverend Mother if she thought I had a vocation. She said, “No, no — go back and do your movie thing. You're too young.”
I did, and then did some more films; Where the Boys Are and St. Francis of Assisi, which took me to Rome. I met Pope John XXIII, and he was very instrumental in helping me form my ideas about a vocation.
When I was introduced to the Pope, I said, “I am Dolores Hart, the actress playing Clara.” He said, “No, you are Clara!”
Thinking he had misunderstood me, I said, “No, I am Dolores Hart, an actress portraying Clara.” Pope John XXIII looked me squarely in the eye and stated, “No. You are Clara!”
His statement stayed with me and rang in my ears many times.
Would you tell us about your engagement before entering the abbey.
[It was] a very wonderful experience for Don Robinson and me. He had a feeling that I might have a “calling.” He wanted to try the engagement. “Let's give this a try.”
Several days went by, and we were driving down the road when he stopped the car. Don said, “Something isn'd right. Do you love me?”
“Of course, Don. I love you.”
He asked again, and then said, “Something in you is not with me.”
When I returned home at 1 a.m., I called and got a flight for 6 a.m. to Regina Laudis. God is far from all of us until we get into the reality of ourselves. I finally came to say — in my heart more than anything and then openly to myself — “my search for God was a marital search.”
When I spoke to Don again, he knew, because a man knows — every human being knows — when something is real. We were at supper, and I didn'd have my ring on.
Don said, “I know — I've known it. This is what you've got to do — and I've got to do this with you. We've got to do this together.”
That was an amazing gift — and all these years he's been like that.
Don says, “Every love doesn'd have to wind up at the altar.”
Many relationships can wind up a lot worse. He never married. Don comes every year at Christmas and Easter. He wants to do whatever he can for the community.
You have to be open to a larger family in a vocation. When you don'd have children of your own, you realize your children may be of a high order — as a test of faith.
What would you say to someone considering a vocation?
I can only go back to my own experience, which was a long and severe test, and it was not easy. I would say you can never allow anyone to take you out of a vocation. The fact is, there is a promise given in a vocation that is beyond anything in your wildest dreams — there's a gift the Lord offers and he is a gentleman.
I have not been profoundly missed by any means [in the outside world]. My vocation has been totally gratifying and I wouldn'd want anyone thinking that in leaving Hollywood I was disappointed.
For every generation, the call of a vocation is different because the needs of the Church are different. Young men and women today who are seeking God in this new era really have to listen to their heart. This age must have its own witness.
Barbara M. Middleton is based in Shelby Township, Michigan.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barbara Middleton ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson --------- TITLE: Help Wanted: Long Hours, Low Pay, Meet Jesus DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:Bring up the topic of celibacy at a social gathering, if you dare.
Some people will roll their eyes and proclaim it impossible, while others will tell jokes about it.
It's little wonder, though, since we live in a world where sex sells everything from cars to cookies — and many believe that living without a sexual relationship is impossible.
For decades, certain Catholics have been clamoring for an end in the celibacy requirement for priests, as a way to solve the vocation problem.
The shortage of vocations is real, especially in the United States and other wealthy nations, where it has become commonplace for Catholic school children to graduate without ever having being taught by a priest or nun.
Also, many parishes are limping along with only one spiritual father to tend the flock, while others have to share a priest on Sunday.
Allowing priests to marry is hardly the solution, though, given that vocations are also dwindling among Protestant communities, which have married clergy.
Still, you might ask: What else could possibly be keeping the numbers down? And in a nation where we call ourselves “consumers,” the answer may not be that surprising: materialism.
Think about it: The Church is not short on vocations from developing nations, where living simply is simply the way people live, while in well-heeled nations like our own, vocations are in serious decline.
It cannot be true that God has ceased calling young men to the priesthood in richer nations, but perhaps their ears are not attuned to hearing him, because other voices are louder.
One voice is advertising. Advertisers preach to little children that buying things is the path to happiness. Whether they are bored and unhappy or celebratory and joyous, children are encouraged to get more toys and games.
A simple birthday party is nearly a thing of the past, because advertisers have upped the ante on entertainment for little ones. No wonder most children think luxuries are their birthright, and clamor for their own rooms, TV sets, computers and cell phones.
The danger with consumerism is that people define themselves by what they have, not by who they are.
Pope John Paul II made it clear that consumerism was not just a sin of the rich, because poor people can be “consumed” with envy for what they lack, just as rich folks can be obsessed by their possessions.
Too often, advertisers lure adults into believing that happiness consists in owning luxury homes and driving snazzy cars. Little wonder, then, that when Johnny ponders his future, he is more inclined to look at careers in business or computers than to heed the call of Jesus.
After all, following the humble carpenter means giving up the possibility of climbing the ladder of wealth. Johnny won'd be able to impress others by the neighborhood he lives in or the flashy vacations he takes.
Of course, living a simple existence makes perfect sense for priests, who are supposed to model Jesus to the world. God himself could have chosen to be born into a wealthy family, but chose instead a poor one.
The problems of consumerism are enormous, and won'd be solved overnight. Meanwhile, what can Catholics do about the vocation shortage?
For one, we can pray for a change of attitude toward materialism, in our hearts and in the hearts of the younger generation. This means refusing to buy every new gizmo that comes along, and examining our own bad habits when it comes to money.
If parents embrace “shopping therapy” to help them when times are bad, children will mimic that behavior. Why not show children, instead, that the cure for all ills is turning to Jesus in prayer and the Eucharist?
Also, if children see their adults enjoying simple things, such as taking walks, feeding ducks at the lake, reading and playing games, the children will stop believing money is a magic elixir.
To stem the tide of me-ism that fuels consumerism, parents might encourage children to give a portion of their allowance to their parish and overseas missions. Even if it is only a few dollars, children will learn that money can do enormous good, if it is not squandered.
It seems obvious that men who understand there is more to life than spending money will be more inclined to say Yes to God if he calls them.
And surely God is still calling men worldwide to serve in the vineyard, although it may be harder to heed the call in nations like ours, where the values that Jesus embraced have been largely tossed out.
The words of Christ reveal the undying truth. He said, “Whatever you have done for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”
Which means that, when we take care of the prisoners, the lonely, the sick and the dying, when we give hope to the weary, bread to the hungry and love to the downtrodden, we come face to face with God.
These are tasks that priests perform every day. And, really, could any job on earth be more important than that?
Lorraine Murray's latest book, How Shall We Celebrate?
(Resurrection Press), illustrated by her husband Jef, is available at www.catholicbookpublishing.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Lorraine Murray ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: NATIONAL MEDIA WATCH DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:Bush Gained Hispanic Protestant Voters in 2004
KNIGHT RIDDER, June 27 — A new study by the Pew Hispanic Center showed that religion was a major factor in the Hispanic vote for President George W. Bush's re-election in 2004, said Knight Ridder News Service.
The votes did not, however, come primarily from Roman Catholics. The study found that Bush garnered 33% of Hispanic Catholic votes in both 2000 and 2004. Rather, Bush increased his share of votes from Hispanic Protestants from 44% in 2000 to 56% in 2004.
While the Hispanic baby boom will have an impact two or three election cycles from now, at present Hispanics do not represent a “powerful new voting bloc” because too many of them either cannot vote or are too young to vote, Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, said in The Washington Post.
Suro added, “Because of a combination of lack of citizenship, a big youth population and voter apathy, only one-fifth of Hispanics went to the polls in 2004.”
Pastor Drives Home Point About Mass Attendance
WABC, June 27 — In response to a lack of Mass attendance, a pastor in New York City's Staten Island borough sent a letter to hundreds of parishioners banning their children from weekly religious education classes, reported WABC.
“Without the Mass, religious education just is incomplete to such a degree that it really doesn'd make sense to have children pass on to the next grade,” said Father Michael Cichon of St. Joseph/St. Thomas Parish.
The letters went out to more than 200 families who had been attending Mass, on average, once a month. The parish monitored their attendance using donation envelopes.
One mother, Lisa LoPizzo, said that the pastor's actions punish her 6-year-old son, when the family faced several illnesses and couldn'd often make it to Mass.
“My son has to suffer because of illness?” she asked.
If parents bring their children to Mass, the families can re-register their children for religious education next year.
Majority of Physicians Influenced by Religion
“We did not think physicians were nearly this religious,” said Dr. Farr Curlin, author of “The Religious Characteristics of U.S. Physicians,” which was published in the July issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Other surprising findings included the fact that 76% of doctors said they believed in God, and that 90% of doctors in the U.S. attend religious services at least once a month.
The study's findings tend to differ from decades of research that shows that religious belief decreases as education and income levels increase.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: SECULAR FUNDIES DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:The New York Sun recently broke the story of how Dr. Timothy Shortell, associate professor of sociology at Brooklyn College, had described religious people as “moral retards.” His words created a controversy because, at the time they were published, he was hoping to move up to the top of the sociology department at Brooklyn College.
“On a personal level, religiosity is merely annoying — like bad taste,” Shortell wrote in the online journal Fifteen Credibility Street. “This immaturity represents a significant social problem, however, because religious adherents fail to recognize their limitations. So, in the name of their faith, these moral retards are running around pointing fingers and doing real harm to others. … They discriminate, exclude, and belittle. They make a virtue of closed-mindedness and virulent ignorance. They are an ugly, violent lot.”
The comments are pathetic and bigoted. Yet Shortell was never in danger of losing his teaching job. In fact, he said he was the “victim of a political attack,” expressing anger at the “administration's ‘inadequate’ defense of his academic freedom.”
Imagine a professor using Shortell's rhetoric against homosexuals, writing that “in the name of their orientation these homosexual retards are running around pointing fingers and doing real harm to others,” and that “they are an ugly, violent lot.” He would be immediately fired, and then pilloried in the press.
Yet Shortell's remarks display the very qualities he so self-righteously condemns as a given among “religious adherents”: pointing fingers, belittling and “virulent ignorance.”
Another example of this double standard is a movie titled The God Who Wasn'd There. Written, directed and produced by Brian Flemming, described as a “former fundamentalist,” the pseudo-documentary claims that it “unflinchingly examines believers and the origins of their beliefs.”
The movie's website explains that this cinematic examination of “modern Christianity” includes a journey to the nerve center of Christianity: “An interviewer asks Christians outside a Billy Graham event if they can tell him about how Christianity spread in those early days. Astonishingly, no Christian has a clear idea. Many stammer when asked the question — as if they'd never even considered it before.”
This polemic only proves that some Christians know as much (or little) about first-century Christianity as most Americans know about the origins of the United States. When I read the claim that the movie will prove “contemporary Christians are largely ignorant of the origins of their religion,” I simply say, “Tell me something I don'd already know.”
Many Catholics admit that they know very little about early Church history. What does that prove about the origins of Christianity? Nothing.
Professor Shortell's website expresses admiration for philosopher Bertrand Russell, author of Why I Am Not a Christian. Flemming, meanwhile, is a sort of Bertrand Russell Jr.: lots of bluster, but no content. Neither man seriously engages Christian scholarship; neither seems to understand the basics of Christian theology or spirituality.
They rant, rave and unleash apocalyptic pronouncements. They adhere to a fundamentalism of disbelief. They are legion.
And they are ripe for conversion to the Catholic faith.
Carl E. Olson is editor of IgnatiusInsight.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carl E. Olson ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Cor Unum President Says Catholic Aid Must Conform to Catholic Principles DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — In recent years, the Vatican has become increasingly concerned about a troubling aspect of Catholic humanitarian relief: Too often, officials say, the secular mentality that dominates the world of aid and development overwhelms the Christian principles that are supposed to imbue Catholic aid agencies.
“Christian aid, by its essence, is a mirror for the Christian manner of living the Gospel,” Archbishop Paul Cordes, the president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the Pope's charitable arm, told the Register.
“[But] sometimes, Christ's message is reduced to that which interests public opinion: justice, peace, and quality of life. It is rare when one speaks about sin, love of God and eternal life.”
As a result, Archbishop Cordes added, the “vertical dimension of charity — that which is beyond earthly and secular humanism — is in danger of being lost.”
As the Holy See's “docking point” for Catholic charities, Cor Unum's primary purpose is to provide support to agencies. Established by Pope Paul VI in 1971, the pontifical council provides a forum for them to interact and collaborate with the Church's bishops, equipping them with human and theological guidance and direction through the “catechesis of charity.”
Secular Leanings
But the German archbishop, a friend of Pope Benedict XVI since the 1960s, said Cor Unum is “very concerned” about Catholic agencies that fail to uphold authentic Catholic charity and instead reduce it “to a very pragmatic redistribution of goods, disconnected from evangelization.”
A number of reasons are commonly cited for this tendency. The first is a growing drift towards secularism, not just within humanitarian agencies, but in society in general.
Second, the close collaboration often required between Catholic agencies and those of other denominations, religions or no faith at all, can lead to unhealthy compromises.
A third factor is governmental pressure for organizations to comply with the legislation of different countries.
But perhaps the biggest factor leading to secular leanings among Catholic aid agencies is the rapid increase in government funding of their operations, which can result in governments demanding that Catholic agencies spend their funds according to the dictates of a given government program, even if that involves violating Church teachings.
Indeed, the increase in government funding of aid and development agencies has been staggering.
In 1970, non-governmental organizations involved in refugee work received an average of 1.5% of their funding from governments. In 1997, the proportion had risen to 40%. In 2002, Catholic Relief Services received 30% of its funding from the U.S. government; the British government's Department for International Development provides 9% of the funding for the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (also known as CAFOD), the agency of the bishops of England and Wales.
“Much of this temptation to secularize stems from the often very competitive world of funding,” said Archbishop Cordes. “Agencies must struggle to obtain additional funding, whether from governments or private foundations.”
An example of the secular drift among some Catholic aid agencies was highlighted by the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development's support last year for the selective use of condoms as a prevention strategy against transmission of HIV/AIDS. While the Catholic agency does not itself distribute condoms, the organization's HIV Corporate Strategist Ann Smith said in an article published in the British Catholic newspaper The Tablet that their use was a worthwhile component of “risk reduction” for individuals like prostitutes “who may have few if any other realistic options for reducing this risk.”
Smith added that the promotion of “abstinence” as an anti-HIV/AIDS strategy was not limited to abstaining from all sex outside of marriage.
She argued that “for some young women abstinence might mean delaying the age of first sexual encounter beyond the more physiologically vulnerable teen-age years. For other women and men, it might mean waiting until they are in a more stable relationship.
“Similarly, the exhortation to ‘be faithful’ means exhorting married couples to be mutually faithful for life, as the Church teaches,” Smith continued. “But we also acknowledge that, in other contexts, this component can also mean fidelity to a single long-term partner or fidelity to a strategy of reducing the instances of casual sex.”
Criticism
By supporting such a broad interpretation of the circumstances in which condom use might be acceptable, and by stretching the Church's traditional understanding of abstinence and fidelity, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development provoked widespread criticism. For Archbishop Cordes, the condom policy demonstrated how easy it is for Catholic agencies to fail to achieve their spiritual as well as practical goals.
“It is illogical to represent the Church within the ambit of charitable aid and, at the same time, to do so without being part of the Church's mission,” he explained. “Charity, as an outreach of the Church's mandate to make the Gospel known, must necessarily operate within the framework of the Church's teaching.”
Last December's massive tsunami in Southeast Asia provided another example of Catholic charity working as it should, according to the Cor Unum president. Council staff recently returned from Asia where they saw first-hand the devastation caused by the tsunami.
Archbishop Cordes singled out local churches and Catholic Relief Services for their “heroic” response in providing “emergency food, shelter, clothing, medical aid as well as opportunities for prayer and joining together in faith.”
(Register staff contributed to this report.)
Edward Pentin writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: DIFFERENT DRUMMER DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:PRIEST PROFILE
When the people of St. Anne's Church in Broken Arrow, Okla., held their annual parish talent show last summer, the big mystery was: Who's that drummer?
It turned out to be none other than the parish's new pastor, 32-year-old Father Michael Dodd.
Since last July when he arrived, he's also played drums with the parish band for St. Anne's dances.
“It was a pleasant surprise,” says parishioner Jack Boucher. “It made a bond with the teen-agers here.”
Playing drums isn'd new for the young pastor, who's also a canon lawyer. Early in college, he was studying to be a musician and music teacher.
“I'm still very much interested in music as a listener and amateur player,” says Father Dodd. He also picks on the piano a bit and leans toward classical music, although he likes all kinds.
He's a percussionist and he loves jazz,” is what Father Charles Swett of Tulsa says. Now semi-retired, he's the priest who inspired Father Dodd's vocation and remembers it well.
“It was that precious moment when you ask someone if they ever thought about being a priest — and he said Yes,” recalls Father Swett.
Today their friendship is stronger than ever.
“I'm still able to say what I want to him, no matter what,” says Father Swett, “and he's humble enough to listen.”
Father Dodd surely did in those early college years when he was a couple of steps away from the Church, briefly, but not terribly far. But his mentor was instrumental for his full return and for his vocation.
“I didn'd think about priesthood growing up,” says Father Dodd, “but it happened pretty quickly during my junior year of college.”
His new parishioners agree it was the right choice. He quickly endeared himself to St. Anne's 500-plus families when he brought their precious icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa in solemn procession down the aisle and placed it above the altar once again. The image was originally brought to the church by the Polish Capuchins who administered the parish, once heavily Polish, after WWII.
Nor is Father Dodd a stranger to other traditional devotions. He likes being invited to go out and bless someone's home, a common practice around his area.
“We have a wonderful, beautiful store of rites in the Church that have been neglected for too long, such as house blessings, and all the wonderful blessings we have for blessing of objects,” he says, calling them “good core practices of the Church that were unfortunately neglected for awhile. I'm glad to see the people here find these things valuable.”
That includes the parish's rosary guild, which not only prays the Rosary but makes rosaries as well.
Chuck and Trish Salat of Broken Arrow find their pastor a source of real joy.
“Our Easter services are very traditional,” explains Trish. “Holy Thursday we had the procession taking the [consecrated] hosts to the chapel, the way we were brought up with it. It was very solemn.”
Chuck appreciates the young priest's organization.
“At Easter vigil Mass, all the altar servers knew what to do, when to do it, and how,” he explains. “Father obviously spent a lot of time with them explaining and going through what was going to happen and why. If a Mass goes smoothly, you tend to pay more attention to it because there are less distractions. And this Mass was absolutely one of the most beautiful Masses that happened in our church because he's so organized.”
Jack Boucher and his wife Evelyn also appreciate the reverence of Father Dodd's Masses.
“We go to daily Mass, and he's slow and precise,” says Evelyn. “His homilies at daily Mass are all very knowledgeable. And before Mass, there's silence, not talking.”
Says Jack, “With his knowledge, he doesn'd look down on you, but he responds to your level wherever you're at. For a young priest, he's well endowed with wisdom and very friendly. He listens.”
Jack helps with the Little Rock Scripture study, and when he goes to Father Dodd for help with information, the pastor gives an appreciative Jack book after book.
Basic Teachings
Helping adults learn the faith is part of the New Evangelization, which Father Dodd sees in the broad sense of re-evangelizing ourselves.
“We have to start with the people here who should be Christian,” he says, adding a comment on how important is the Church's use of the media.
“There's a need for solid adult education for the parishioners in the basics of the faith,” he says. “Somewhere along the line for some reason there's a hole there that needs to be filled in just the basic teachings of the faith.”
St. Anne's will be having a lot more adult education offered this coming year.
As a graduate of the North American College and the Angelicum in Rome, Father Dodd is also a canon lawyer — the promoter of justice and defender of the bond for the tribunal in the Diocese of Tulsa.
“All of the annulment cases come through me at one point,” he says. He loves the study of canon law, which he calls “a wonderful gift.”
“We are dealing with people who are broken, who have serious problems in their past, so by distributing justice with God's law and the Church's law, it does good for these people,” he says. “That's why it's there. It's rewarding work.”
So, too, is another part of his priesthood. “On two occasions in last few months I've been able to be with a person at the time of death,” he says. “That is a very powerful thing. It's great to be able to see a good death, and see them receive the sacraments. This has been one of the most memorable parts of priesthood.”
Ironically, when he was a seminarian, thoughts of these experiences concerned him more than just about any other aspect of his impending priesthood. He thought ministering to the sick and dying would be too difficult for him.
“As it turns out, those are such graced moments,” he says. “You really know that God is there. Besides, knowing I'm an instrument is personally enriching to my faith.”
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
Wanted: Priests
The Register needs its readers’ help in identifying noteworthy priests to profile — men of God who by their ministries show that Christ is still calling outstanding young men to serve at the altar. We are particularly interested in those who emphasize promotion of the New Evangelization called for by Pope John Paul II. E-mail your nominations to editor@ncregister.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Catholic Ethicists Support Emergent Stem-Cell Technique DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:SAN FRANCISCO — John Francis Hurlbut is only a few months old, but he's already figured out that if he drops his pacifier, his father will put it back in his mouth.
And, for Dr. William Hurlbut, one of the pioneers of a theory to create embryonic stem cells without killing embryos, the joy and love he feels for his infant son tangibly affirms the miracle of life and the rightness of his quest.
“I think it's kind of a game with him,” Hurlbut said as he put the pacifier back in for the fourth time. The whole process of becoming a father has inspired a new sense of “awe” over the way human beings develop, the veteran Stanford professor said.
Now, a team of 35 scientists, theologians and philosophers have lined up with Hurlbut to advocate animal testing of a theory they say may prove within a year that it is possible to create human pluripotent stem cells without killing an early embryo.
Pluripotent stem cells can develop into any cell in the human body, and many scientists believe that they hold the key to curing a variety of diseases. They are called “pluripotent” to distinguish them from “totipotent” stem cells, which can develop into an embryo.
Archbishop John Myers of Newark, N.J., is among the who's who of bioethicists, scientists and theologians — including some prominent Protestant and Jewish scholars — who signed a paper supporting further exploration and animal testing of oocyte assisted reprogramming (also known as OAR). The complete paper is available on the website of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (www.eppc.org).
Other signers of the statement supporting oocyte assisted reprogramming included Legionary Father Thomas Berg, executive director of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person; Jesuit Father Kevin FitzGerald, professor of Catholic health care ethics at Georgetown University; Jesuit Father Kevin Flannery, dean of the philosophy faculty at the Gregorian University in Rome; and three officials of the National Catholic Bioethics Center: John Haas, president, Father Tad Pacholczyk, director of education, and Edward Furton, an ethicist there.
President Bush is receptive to funding such research, according to three lawmakers who discussed it with him, the Associated Press reported June 30.
In an essay published June 20 in the Wall Street Journal, Princeton University's Robert George, a member of the President's Council on Bioethics, and Oregon Health and Science University's Markus Grompe advocate oocyte assisted reprogramming, which would involve transferring the nucleus of an adult cell (the nucleus is the part of the cell that contains the genetic code) into a human egg without its own nucleus. The process would create a new cell.
Because of the advanced genetic alterations to both the transferred nucleus and the egg, the resulting cell would be genetically identical to a pluripotent stem cell and could immediately give rise to cells with properties identical to embryonic stem cells. Significantly, the goal of oocyte assisted reprogramming is to use the egg lacking its own nucleus to directly transform the transferred nucleus into a pluripotent stem cell by completely skipping any embryonic stages.
Oocyte assisted reprogramming “is a method that can be tested and applied very quickly, because it uses already existing technologies,” said Grompe, who serves on the board of the International Society for Stem-Cell Research. The technique takes advantage of the emerging field of “epigenetic reprogramming,” the ability to use so-called “master genes” to turn on or off certain genes in a cell.
Grompe explained that the DNA sequence is exactly the same in every cell, but that the combination of which genes are turned on and which are turned off determines how a cell behaves.
If successful, OAR might also allow the creation of pluripotent stem cells without using human eggs at all, advocates hope.
“There's nothing wrong with human embryonic stem cells. What's wrong is if they're derived in ways that a human embryo is killed,” said Dominican Father Nicanor Austriaco, who holds a doctorate in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is one of the 35 signers of the oocyte assisted reprogramming statement. “If we can derive them in another way, they are good in themselves.”
A human embryo is a boy or girl from conception to eight weeks, with unique DNA, normal life-expectancy — and the right to life.
Currently, the way researchers obtain embryonic stem cells is by cutting open a three- to six-day-old embryo and extracting his or her stem cells, thereby killing a human being.
The Church states in the encyclical letter Donum Vitae, “Medical research must refrain from operations on live embryos, unless there is a moral certainty of not causing harm to the life or integrity of the unborn child and the mother, and on condition that the parents have given their free and informed consent to the procedure” (No. 4).
But there is still opposition.
“I don'd like it. I still feel that you are sabotaging development of an embryo. Doing nuclear transfer into an oocyte, into an egg. … It starts embryonic development,” said David Prentice, science adviser to the Family Research Council, and to Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., main sponsor of the U.S. Senate's cloning ban legislation. Prentice, an Evangelical Christian, is a leading scientific opponent of human cloning. “I don'd think you can overcome the innate programming of the egg to start some kind of development.”
While opposing the idea, Prentice said he has no problem with animal testing, although he is not sure it will be able to definitively show no embryo is present.
Father Austriaco, who is a biologist and moral theologian at Providence College in Rhode Island, said animal testing, especially in mice, will show whether Prentice's worries are valid.
“Let us put an OAR-generated mouse cell into a mouse and see if it grows up,” said Father Austriaco. “If it becomes a mouse then OAR makes embryos. However, if the OAR-generated cell becomes a tumor, then OAR does not produce embryos, since organisms never become tumors. I think David Prentice has a legitimate concern, but the scientific experiments that are being planned in animals should address them.”
Prentice said efforts would be better devoted to adult stem-cell research, which has proven effective in treating conditions ranging from paralysis to blood disease, while decades of investigation into embryonic stem-cell research has yet to yield a cure.
“The people who are doing embryonic stem-cell research do not see destruction of the human embryo as unethical. They might snap up the so-called embryonic stem cells — but they want fertilized real embryos, they want cloned embryos. I don'd think we gain a thing [politically] by offering this up,” Prentice told the Register.
Oregon Health and Science University's Grompe told the Register that human embryonic stem cells were only discovered in 1998, and so research is still in its early stages. Earlier embryonic stem-cell research was used primarily in making mouse models to study genetic disorders, he said.
“I am not saying [embryonic stem] cells are superior to adult cells. I am just stating the fact that the research has not been going on long enough to know if [embryonic stem] derived cells are better or worse than adult stem cells,” Grompe said.
“We, as Catholics, should not say that adult stem cells are equal or superior to embryonic stem cells when we don'd know that in fact to be true. You can only win with the truth in the end. White lies for a good purpose get you nowhere,” Grompe said.
Richard Doerflinger, deputy director of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life secretariat, supports animal testing of oocyte assisted reprogramming.
“This new proposal addresses the Catholic Church's fundamental objection to embryonic stem-cell research as now practiced, by offering to create cells with the properties of embryonic stem-cell research without ever producing or harming an embryo,” Doerflinger said.
The policy of President George W. Bush allow federal money for embryonic stem-cell research only if it uses a limited number of stem-cell lines derived from embryos killed prior to Aug. 9, 2001. The policy denies federal funding not only for research conducted on embryos killed after that date, but also for the cloning of any human embryos or the creation of any human embryos. However, there is no ban on cloning itself.
Connecticut on June 21 joined New Jersey and California in choosing to use taxpayers’ money to fund research that kills embryos. Earlier, in May, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to expand federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research to embryos frozen in fertility clinics that were slated for destruction. Bush promised to veto the law, if it were passed by the Senate.
However, with several pro-life lawmakers voting for the bill, Father Austriaco noted, it shows how concerns about the highly touted — and so far unrealized — expectations of patient cures from embryonic stem cells is shaping the debate.
“This third option allows the pro-life side to be both pro-life and pro-patient with both pluripotent cells and adult stem cells,” Father Austriaco said.
The oocyte assisted reprogramming theory is a development of the altered nuclear transfer theory Hurlbut presented to the President's Council on Bioethics in December, and included in a white paper published by the council in May entitled “Alternative Sources of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells.” That theory would have deleted a gene during the process, and critics feared that altered nuclear transfer might produce a severely deformed embryo.
With oocyte assisted reprogramming, however, the genetic alterations would bypass this criticism by directly transforming the adult nucleus into a pluripotent stem cell. In presenting Hurlbut's and other theories in May, Council chairman Leon Kass said the group was trying to find a middle way, to defuse the polarizing debate over the use of embryonic stem cells racking the country.
In an interview with the Register, Hurlbut repeated that theme.
“I think this will turn out to be an historic occasion, because what this represents is positive bioethics instead of just nay-saying and objecting,” he said. “We assembled leading scientists, moral philosophers and theologians and defined with precision and clarity exactly what moral principles we are trying to protect and sought a creative scientific solution.”
Valerie Schmalz writes from San Francisco, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Valerie Schmalz ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Home Front DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:CHICAGO — For many Catholics in America, parish life evokes images of air-conditioned churches, well-staffed lay ministries and ever-expanding activity centers.
But for Catholics in the 80 American dioceses deemed mission areas by the Catholic Extension Society, simply organizing Sunday Mass can be a monumental feat.
In the remote outpost of Unalaska, Alaska, for example, the 200 parishioners of St. Christopher by the Sea eagerly await the twice-a-month visits by Father Leroy Clementich. The 81-year-old Holy Cross priest devotedly makes the 1,600-mile roundtrip flight from Anchorage to the westernmost parish in the United Sates, where no local priest resides.
Father Clementich hears confessions, celebrates Mass and consecrates additional hosts in case a priest cannot make the journey the following weekend.
Across rural America, from Unalaska to Appalachia, dedicated missionaries pilot small planes and drive pick-up trucks, bringing the Gospel to Catholic outposts.
For the past 100 years, Catholic Extension, the largest supporter of missionary work in America, has built churches, provided the sacraments and supported vocations in dioceses that lack the resources to provide for themselves.
Since its founding in Chicago in 1905, Catholic Extension has raised and distributed nearly $400 million to help build more than 12,000 churches and parish centers. It has provided critical financial support for thousands of priests, religious and lay missionaries.
“When Catholics think of missionary work, they picture foreign missions. They are not aware of the many missions here in the U.S. — those small Catholic communities that do not have the resources to provide what we have in our parishes,” said Bishop William Houck, the president of Catholic Extension.
Father Francis Clement Kelley, the society's founder, was similarly surprised. In 1893, the young priest was sent to Lapeer, Mich., where he first encountered Catholic poverty, witnessing local residents attending Mass in makeshift churches.
Father Kelley built a traditional Gothic church in the center of town and joined a lecture tour across America to pay off construction costs.
In town after town, Father Kelley witnessed dire conditions. He penned a letter in Ecclesiastical Review, the official clergy publication of the time, urging the Church in the United States to launch a society to provide for Catholics in rural communities.
Father Kelley secured the support of Chicago Archbishop James Quigley and founded the Catholic Church Extension Society. Five years later, Pope Pius X elevated Catholic Extension to a papal society.
Church on Wheels
From its inception, Catholic Extension has relied on ingenuity and heroism to promote the faith. In the early 1900s, railroad chapel cars rolled across states in the West and South, where only three in 10 towns had a church and a priest.
Detroit businessman Ambrose Petry donated three of these cars — affectionately called the St. Anthony, the St. Peter and the St. Paul.
The rail cars were complete with altar, pews, confessional, an office and priest's lodging. When these “churches” rolled into town, Catholics would be lined up to attend Mass and confession, have babies baptized and get married.
Catholic Extension also plied a chapel boat to serve river communities.
Today, rural towns across the United States have similar needs. In fact, Bishop Houck attested that churches require ever-greater support from Catholic Extension, as the number of priests in America has sharply declined and the cost of living has dramatically increased. Today, more than 3,000 parishes lack a resident priest.
In the diocese of Anchorage, a small core group of priests serves 22 rural parishes scattered across thousands of square miles. Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz, who flies a 1974 Cessna 206, leads them. With the help of Catholic Extension, Archbishop Schwietz completed flying lessons and logs more than 10,000 miles a year traveling to mission parishes across the rugged wilderness.
This year, Catholic Extension gave the diocese $225,000, and has contributed more then $7 million overall. The diocese also received $170,000 from the Catholic Home Mission Appeal sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Catholic Extension helped the families of St. Christopher by the Sea finally acquire a permanent home. While not a grand cathedral, the refurbished plumber's shop can accommodate the growing congregation.
And for that, parishioner Annabelle Wilt is grateful.
“Without the assistance of Catholic Extension, we wouldn'd have a church,” Wilt said.
Wilt recalled the 1970s when the Catholic community met in any location they could find — from living rooms to a non-denominational community church. Later, parishioners regularly gathered for Mass in the conference room of a local fish processing plant.
Bulletproof
More than 5,000 miles from Unalaska, in Clarksdale, Miss., Society of the Divine Word Brother Matt Connors thanked Catholic Extension for the support his diocese receives.
For Brother Connors, the mission field is a minefield. He wages a battle of peace among troubled, violent youth in the Mississippi Delta. He often places himself directly in the line of fire between rival gangs, effectively calling a truce. He has been shot at several times and attacked.
In a state whose Catholic population totals only 2.4%, Brother Connors is a lone voice for the Church. If not for the support of Catholic Extension, he contended, “Maybe I wouldn'd even be here.”
Brother Connors uses the funds provided by Catholic Extension to give work to gang members, support single mothers and bring Christ's mercy to youth. His self-sacrifice has helped turn around many lives and earned him the nickname “Dad.”
Catholic Extension features people like Brother Connors in its Extension magazine. Anyone may receive six free issues through the organization's website (CatholicExtension.org). The society continues its support of him and other unsung heroes like Father Tom Frost, who covers 270,000 miles offering Mass on the bed of his pick-up truck.
To commemorate its centennial, Catholic Extension has published a book, Mission America, to educate Catholics about home missions and has produced a historical documentary called The Invisible Church. A public exhibit featuring historical artifacts from Catholic Extension's first 100 years is currently touring the country.
John Severance writes from Chicago, Illinois.
----- EXCERPT: Catholic Extension Society Celebrates 100 Years of Service ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Severance ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: WEEKLY TV PICKS DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:SUNDAY, JULY 10
Amazing Animal Inventions
Animal Planet, 8 p.m.
Animal inventions? All right, animals actually didn'd invent these gizmos; people did. But the goofiness of some of the 20 contraptions on this show might make us wonder if humans are really the ones responsible for them. Comedienne Debra Wilson hosts.
SUNDAY, JULY 10
Cloud's Legacy:
The Wild Stallion Returns
PBS, 8 p.m.
This “Nature” installment, a re-air from 2003, is Ginger Kathrens’ sequel to her “Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies,” a documentary of the youth of a white mustang in the Rockies in Montana. In this follow-up, Cloud, his son Boulder and their herd battle fires, bad weather and a government roundup.
MON.-FRI., JULY 11-15
History of the Catholic Church in the U.S.
EWTN, 4:30 a.m., 6:30 p.m.
The first five episodes of this 13-part series of half-hour shows air this week, and the rest will run July 18-22 and July 25-27. This week: the early Spanish Franciscans and French Jesuits; Maryland and the other English colonies; the Church and the Revolution; the early national period; and the Andy Jackson years.
TUESDAY, JULY 12
Major League Baseball
All-Star Game
Fox, 8 p.m., live
Comerica Park, home of the American League's Detroit Tigers, is the site of the 76th All-Star Game. The National League leads the series, 41-32 (two games ended in ties), but the American League has won seven of the last eight midsummer contests.
TUESDAY, JULY 12
NOVA: Mars Dead or Alive
PBS, 8 p.m.
This hour-long special chronicles the U.S. space program's airbag-cushioned landing of the Spirit rover on Mars in January 2004. A re-air from 2004.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 13
Megastructures:
USS Ronald Reagan
National Geographic
Channel, 10 p.m.
With a length of 1,092 feet, a flight deck of 4.5 acres and towering 20 stories above the water, the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan definitely qualifies as a “megastructure.”
THURSDAY, JULY 14
PX-15: The Story Continues
Science Channel, 10 p.m.
The giant deep-sea research vessel PX-15 hosted six NASA “aquanauts” in a 30-day underwater simulation of space flight in 1969. Marine archaeologist Jim Delgado rescued it from a shipyard in Vancouver decades later and is now restoring it.
SATURDAY, JULY 16
Cowboys on the Trail
Food Network, 9 p.m.
Chef Tim Love and his Fort Worth kitchen crew hit the trail, buying “vittles” at farmers’ markets in the morning and cooking hearty cowboy suppers later on.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Vatican Media Watch DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:Pope Offers His Sympathy to Australian Catholics
ABC NEWS ONLINE, June 27 — Pope Benedict XVI expressed sympathy to the Bishop of Bunbury over the loss of St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
The 84-year-old cathedral, severely damaged from May's tornado in Western Australia, was scheduled to be demolished. Hundreds of people attended a farewell Mass for the building June 26.
Bishop Gerard Holohan says many parishioners were visibly moved as they remembered the cathedral as a place of worship, but also as a major landmark for the city. He told the congregation that the Holy Father was saddened to learn of the fate of the building, but had urged them to look to the future as they begin construction of a new cathedral.
Holy Father Urges Safe Travel for Vacationers
REUTERS, June 26 — Have a happy holiday, but take care on the roads as you head to the beach — that was the message Pope Benedict delivered to the faithful in his weekly blessing June 26.
The Pope told pilgrims and tourists in a sweltering St. Peter's Square that he welcomed the arrival of the holiday season in the Northern Hemisphere, but feared too many people were killed in busy holiday traffic because of carelessness.
“Life is precious and unique,” Benedict said. “It must always be respected and protected, including with correct and prudent behavior on the roads.”
In Italy, the arrival of summer is accompanied by an exodus from the main cities to the sea, causing traffic chaos.
John Paul II Sainthood on Fast Track
CBS NEWS, June 28 — Positive momentum for John Paul II's sainthood is building so quickly, the result could be that he is canonized more quickly than anyone else ever was, CBS news reported.
The process for sainthood was formally opened June 28. At press time, the Vatican had received tens of thousands of e-mails, phone calls and letters attesting to John Paul's holiness.
Pope Benedict XVI waived the rule that states beatification proceedings cannot begin for at least five years after death, and appointed a “postulator,” a priest to research the evidence and put the case to the test.
“I am convinced that the truth is that he is saint,” the postulator, Msgr. Slawomir Oder said.
But all data and claims, both pro and con, must be analyzed and weighed. According to ABC, so far it's all pro, and the volume grows daily.
Vatican Suspends Priest's Beatification
ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 17 — The Vatican put the beatification of Father Leon Dehon on hold while it investigates claims of anti-Semitism, Associated Press reported.
Father Dehon (1843-1925) had been approved for beatification in a ceremony in St. Peter's Square on April 24. That ceremony was postponed because of Pope John Paul II's death and the election of Pope Benedict XVI.
But complaints in France about some of Dehon's writings prompted the Vatican to form a commission to study the case, effectively putting it on hold, a Vatican official said.
Dehon founded the priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1877 after visiting the Italian shrine of Loreto. The Vatican commission formed to look into allegations of anti-Semitism in Dehon's writings will also consider them in the context of the time in which they were written, said Msgr. Yves Gouyou, ecclesiastic counselor at the French Embassy to the Holy See.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: THE AUSTRALIAN APOSTLE DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:GEORGE PELL: DEFENDER OF THE FAITH DOWN UNDER
by Tess Livingstone
Ignatius, 2005
491 pages, $18.95
To order: (800) 651-1531or ignatius.com
George Pell was appointed a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1990, when he was an auxiliary bishop of Melbourne.
As he rose through the Australian hierarchy, he worked for years with the congregation's prefect, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, becoming archbishop of Melbourne, archbishop of Sydney and now cardinal archbishop.
Reading Defender of the Faith Down Under, one gets the sense that the present Pope was involved in Cardinal Pell's advancement, and that the Australian cardinal was one of the new Pope's strongest supporters at the conclave. In the book, Cardinal Pell says of Cardinal Ratzinger, “His working relationship with the Holy Father has been one of the high points of papal history. The Church of John Paul II owes Ratzinger an enormous debt; his contribution has been invaluable, and the abuse heaped upon him is totally unjustified.”
It might be said that the Church in Australia owes a debt to its cardinal, though the book makes clear that too few appreciate his contribution. Indeed, it seems that orthodoxy had fallen from favor “Down Under” before Pell began flexing his impressive intellectual, theological and magisterial muscles.
With his large, footballer frame adding heft to his pronouncements, Cardinal Pell has defended the Church's teachings on contraception and sexual morality in general, promoted John Paul II's encyclicals on life, discounted the possibility of women priests, and denied Communion to “rainbow sash” homosexual activists. In addition, he has locked horns with Australian Peter Singer before the ethics scholar became a famous supporter of infanticide as a tenured professor at Princeton University, and he made major strides in addressing a clergy sexual-abuse scandal that exploded in Australia years before it hit the headlines in America.
Cardinal Pell has often done this over the objections or obstructions of an entrenched ecclesial bureaucracy with a “new church” mentality, and amid a firestorm of media attention that brands him “archconservative.”
Knowing well the trouble he would stir with his unwavering appeal to orthodoxy, Cardinal Pell took as his episcopal motto the words of Jesus to his apostles, and those of John Paul II at the beginning of his papacy: “Be Not Afraid.” Courage has been a watchword throughout Cardinal Pell's career.
Author Tess Livingstone claims that few associates would have placed Cardinal Pell on his current path, judging from his formative years and early years as a priest. As a seminarian in Rome during the Second Vatican Council, he welcomed the changes the council brought into the Church. Yet, as has been noted recently in commentary about Benedict XVI, he rejected the radicalism and anti-religious sentiment engendered by the “spirit of the Council,” which had little to do with the Council documents themselves.
As the author adroitly notes, those who criticize the cardinal for being “stuck in the 1950s” can themselves be accused of being “stuck in the 1970s.” Pell's supporters see him as intent on implementing the true reforms of Vatican II while preserving the deposit of the faith, Livingstone writes.
This long, well-documented and balanced book quotes the cardinal's critics as well as his friends. It will certainly serve as a major source for the much that will be written about this charismatic cardinal, who will continue to influence the direction of the Church for years to come.
Stephen Vincent writes from Wallingford, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Stephen Vincent ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Why Theology? Why Not? DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:When Pia di Solenni began studies at a prestigious pontifical university in Rome in 1994, she often entered class as the lone laywoman amid seminarians and religious from all over the world.
With a host of inquiring eyes trained upon her, her first panicked thought was, “What am I doing here?”
She found her purpose at Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the “Angelicum”), bonding with the few other laywomen at the school, earning a scholarship to the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Santa Croce) and graduating in 2000 with a doctorate in sacred theology. She had fallen in love with theology as an undergrad at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, Calif., but had no clear idea what she would do as a laywoman with a doctoral degree.
Today she is director of life and women's issues at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C.
“Theology is all about truth, leading to the truth,” says di Solenni. “Even if you don'd do anything professionally with your education, you will be a better person for it.”
The notion of laypersons taking advanced theology degrees — and studying in hallowed halls once reserved for men preparing for the priesthood — has gained greater acceptance since the Second Vatican Council, which stressed the priesthood of the laity that all Christians share through baptism.
At their meeting last month, the U.S. bishops acknowledged the professional role of laypersons in the life of the Church, voting to go forward with a document on lay ministry titled “Co-Workers in the Vineyard: Resources for the Development of Lay Ecclesial Ministry.”
There are some 30,000 lay ministers working in full- or part-time paid positions, such as music directors, liturgists, catechists and youth ministry, the bishops reported. In discussions about the document, bishops spoke about the need for improving qualifications and screening processes for laypersons who represent the Church in an official capacity. A demand for credentials no doubt will lead more lay ministers to pursue advanced theology.
Yet studying theology as a layperson involves certain sacrifices, and is misunderstood even by those who don'd know that STD stands for Doctor of Sacred Theology.
Called to Understand
Cynthia Toolin had a similar experience to di Solenni's when she began studies in 1988 at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Conn. She had just become a Catholic that year, with her husband and the elder of her two daughters as sponsors, and “had a hunger to know more about God and the Church.”
“Back then, there may have been another laywoman or man in your class, but everybody else was a seminarian,” she recalls.
She stuck with it, taking 90 credits in theology for a master's degree in 1995, and going to the Dominican House of Studies in the nation's capital for a licentiate in moral theology. Toolin now is back where her theological odyssey began, teaching seminarians and laypersons at Holy Apostles.
“I love God and the Church greatly,” she says, “and believe I am called to teach theology as it is supposed to be taught — in line with the magisterium.”
The story of Michael and Anna Moreland, who met while taking graduate theology courses at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass., has a different twist. Most of their fellow students were laypersons preparing for teaching positions or ministry within the Church. The students regularly gathered for discussions or to pray the Divine Office, and formed social-action groups.
Yet the Morelands, who were married in 2000 and are both short a dissertation for a doctorate, have chosen career paths that do not draw directly on their theology studies. Michael is a lawyer with a firm in Washington, D.C., and Anna is a stay-at-home mother of their two young children.
“Theology — like any discipline in the humanities — forces you to become a good reader and writer, and those are skills I use as a lawyer,” Michael says. “I also represent the Catholic Church in a variety of matters, and my theology background makes me more familiar with some of the issues I confront than otherwise might be the case.”
Anna has turned down two tenure-track teaching positions at Catholic universities in recent years.
“I spend my days between the park and the pool, so there's not much theologizing to be done in those settings,” she says. “But I imagine theology will come in handy in parenting later on.”
It already is a part of their marriage, increasing their appreciation of the sacramental aspects that set it apart from a mere civil contract, she adds. “We have recently become more intentional about cultivating Pope John Paul II's sacramental imagination — that is language that I wouldn'd have used before my theological studies.”
Practical Science
For Toolin, who holds a doctorate in sociology, pursuing theology entailed giving up her insurance job and moving with her husband to a trailer park outside Washington, D.C., so she could attend the Dominican House of Studies for two years.
Her husband had recently suffered an injury that made it impossible for him to work, and their two grown daughters were married.
“My husband said he thought I was called to teach graduate-level theology, so we picked up and moved,” Toolin recalls.
Di Solenni lived on a shoestring for six years as a student in Rome.
“The exchange rate was very good then, so it wasn'd that difficult,” she says. “But it was tough personally. There were times when I was sick of everything and ready to quit.”
After completing course work for their doctoral degrees, the Morelands decided they were not set professionally. Michael went to the University of Michigan Law School while Anna worked in campus ministry to support them.
Studying theology was impractical in some ways for a young couple starting out in life, Michael admits. But, he adds, “Most things worth doing in life — falling in love, having children, participating in liturgy — don'd fall squarely into the ‘practical’ category.”
Toolin sees the issue in terms of eternity.
“Theology deals with the things of God and his will for man,” she says. “The repercussions of theology are eternal: Where will you spend the next life? Will you see God or not — the beatific vision or hell? Theology is the most practical of sciences.”
Stephen Vincent writes from Wallingford, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Laypersons pursue advanced 'religious' degrees ----- EXTENDED BODY: Stephen Vincent ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: WORLD MEDIA WATCH DATE: 10/07/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 10-16, 2005 ----- BODY:Faithful Say No to Abortion
ALLAFRICA, June 26 — Hundreds of Catholic faithful marched through Kisumu streets in a campaign against abortion, the news service reported.
Carrying placards and singing hymns, they urged on the government to introduce tough anti-abortion laws to protect the unborn child.
The pro-life march was organized by the Dominican Laity, a group of young Catholic professionals living around Kisumu. The marchers, who included priests and lay leaders, first attended a Mass at St. Theresa's Cathedral in Kibuye before proceeding to Kondele where they held a rally.
The event's moderator, Fred Mak'Otieno, urged the government to reject calls to legalize abortion, the report stated.
“The government should not compromise on abortion,” he said. “Abortion should remain illegal and those found helping women to procure abortion should be punished.”
Australia Outlaws Using Internet to Incite Suicide
REUTERS, June 25 — People in Australia who use the Internet to incite others to commit suicide or teach them how to kill themselves, will face heavy fines, according to Reuters.
Under new laws passed by the Australian government, a conviction for using Internet to counsel or incite others to commit suicide will be met with a fine of up to $423,000.
Justice Minister Chris Ellison said, “These offences are designed to protect the young and the vulnerable, those at greatest risk of suicide.”
Use of the Internet to organize suicide pacts emerged as a grim problem for Japan last year, with dozens of Japanese killing themselves in Internet-linked group suicides.
Asylum Seekers Allegedly Tortured
England's Prime Minister Tony Blair was sent a report from human rights organizations alleging that Zimbabweans repatriated by Britain are being tortured and jailed. Catholic Church leaders joined with Anglican leaders to call for an immediate end to the deportations.
A lawyer for one refugee group said: “We just want to prove to Mr. Blair the present dangers of sending home opponents of [Zimbabwe President Robert] Mugabe. Their families are scared to protest because they, too, will suffer.”
Lancaster Bishop Patrick O'Donoghue said, “I want to reinforce the call to stop all deportations or forcible return of people, at least for the moment.”
The report said Blair had not yet decided on a course of action.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News --------