SAN DIEGO — Nick Cannon's voice seems to be everywhere in the popular media. He raps in music videos. He cracks jokes on an MTV improv comedy show. He delivers his lines in the movies Men in Black II, Shall We Dance? and Underclassman.
And now he has given a voice to the most vulnerable: unborn children.
I'll always be a part of you Trust your soul, know it's always true
If I could talk I'd say to you
Can I live?
Can I live?
These lyrics, written by Cannon, are the chorus to “Can I Live?” the first single from his sophomore album from Jive Records that tells the true story of how he was almost aborted. Cannon's song has become an unintentional anthem of the pro-life movement, communicating in a matter of minutes what many have been trying to for decades.
But Cannon claimed in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer that when he wrote the song, “I wasn't really trying to make a political statement. I wasn't trying to be pro-life or pro-choice. I was just trying to be pro-Nick.”
Though an atypical topic for a rap song, the video — which Cannon directed — made its debut at No. 1 on Black Entertainment Television's countdown show, “106 & Park,” and spent almost a month in the top 10.
A book of testimonials about the struggles of single motherhood is set for release in September under the same title.
In 1979, Cannon's mother — 17, unmarried and two months pregnant — went to a San Diego abortion site to have an abortion, but reconsidered.
“She said she was in the clinic and heard a voice,” Cannon, 24, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I said, ‘Yo, that was me.’”
I am a child of the King
Aint no need to go fear me
And I see the flowing tears so I know that you hear me
When I move in your womb that's me being scared
'Cause who knows what my future holds?
Cannon's song is written from his perspective as an unborn baby, begging his mother to choose life. In the video, the present-day Cannon, appearing as an ethereal presence, follows the woman portraying his young mother past pro-life and pro-abortion protesters into a clinic. He pleads his case as she writes a check, fills out paperwork and struggles with her decision.
300 dollars, that's the price of living what? Mommy I don't like this clinic Hopefully you'll make the right decision And don't go through with the knife decision
At the last minute in the operating room she sits up, climbs off the table and runs out of the abortion clinic into the light.
Your friends will look at you funny but look at you mommy
That's a life inside you
Look at your tummy, what is
becoming
Ma, I'm Oprah-bound
You can tell he's a star from
he ultrasound
Our spirits connected,
doors open now
Nothing but love and respect
Thanks for holding me down
She let me live
A flash-forward seven months later shows his smiling young mother showing her son to family and friends. During the last chorus, Cannon is backed up by a crowd of kids wearing T-shirts that say “Can I Live,” and he embraces his present-day mother.
A Voice for Life
Human Life Alliance, based in St. Paul, Minn., focuses on revealing the truth about abortion to young people, primarily through pro-life supplements in college newspapers.
“The younger generations are rarely receptive to truth claims — they either outright reject them or just write them off,” said Jennifer Maas, former director of campus outreach for Human Life Alliance and a national pro-life speaker. “But they will listen and be open to someone's experience. The song ‘Can I Live?’ is just that — it's Nick Cannon's story.”
Maas pointed out Cannon's special niche.
“Lots of powerful pro-life speakers are out there, making their way across the nation and helping to turn the cultural tide toward life, but none of us have the stage or the audience that someone like Nick Cannon has. He is sending a cultural tidal wave with the beautiful message of life and sacrificial love to so many we could never reach.”
Rev. Clenard Childress Jr., senior pastor of New Calvary Baptist Church in Montclair, N.J., told the Register that he hopes “Can I Live?” will inspire youth to think seriously about abortion.
“I'm not asking Nick Cannon to be a national poster boy for the pro-life cause, but I think God is giving us an opportunity to reach people with the truth about abortion,” Childress said. “We want to point to ‘Can I Live?’ as much as we can while it's fresh in their minds. The dialogue we begin may have an eternal effect.”
In response to Cannon's refusal to publicly take a stand on either side of the issue, Childress said, “His reluctance doesn't surprise me, even though I don't like it. I think he was just making a tribute to his mother — he isn't ready to make divisions. Whatever he says, we just need to use what he gave us to gain the ground we can in the African-American community.”
Childress founded the website blackgenocide.com three years ago in response to the alarming statistics about blacks and abortion, and the “obvious decimation” of his community by the abortion industry.
‘Thanks for Listening’
Cannon fan Katrina Beck, 26, appreciates that “Can I Live?” doesn't get into the politics of the abortion issue. She was 15 when she found out she was pregnant with her first child. She eventually married the father; then they had a son together and have made a home in Walhalla, S.C.
Beck said in an e-mail interview with the Register that she was moved to tears when she saw the video for “Can I Live?”
“It was one of those deep cries where your chest hurts and it's just hard to breathe — you're so emotional and in shock to have seen that being aired,” Beck said.
She said she was also impressed how Cannon addressed such a sensitive subject with compassion.
“He had a lot of courage to let his opinion be known,” Beck said. “I applaud him for not being preachy, mean or pushy, but just simply saying ‘This is how I feel — I hope you listen [but] if not that's okay.’”
It's uplifting for real, y'all
I aint passing no judgment
Aint making no decisions
I'm just telling y'all my story
Beck stressed the importance of the rap's message to Cannon's young audience.
“This song needs to be heard because it may help young girls realize they're not alone — that it's okay to not take the easy way out,” Beck said. “Though it may be a hard life to follow there's a lot of good to come from it all.”
I love my mother for giving me life
We all need to appreciate life
A strong woman that had to make a sacrifice
Thanks for listening
Thanks for listening
Mama, thanks for listening
Annamarie Adkins is based in St. Paul, Minn.
Information
To hear the recording and watch the video for “Can I Live?” visit:
www.NickCannonMusic.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Annamarie Adkins ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: ST. MONICA, Pray for Mixed Marriages DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:A Catholic who is married to a non-Catholic bears a heavy burden. In fact, it is precisely for this reason that the Church strongly urges the faithful to avoid entering into a mixed marriage to begin with.
A Catholic seeking to marry a non-Catholic must obtain “the express permission of ecclesiastical authority” and must further agree to “preserve his or her own faith and [ensure] the baptism and education of the children in the Catholic Church” (Catechism, No. 1635).
Yet, mixed marriages do happen, of course, often with the Church's approval.
Catholics striving to answer the call to holiness in mixed marriages can find encouragement in the example of St. Monica, whose feast the Church celebrates Aug. 27.
Mother of St. Augustine and patron of wives and mothers, Monica was married to a belligerent non-Christian. She remained steadfast in her own Catholic faith and, eventually, through persistent prayer, she helped bring about the conversions of her pagan husband, her mother-in-law — and, of course, her famously wayward son.
By imitating St. Monica's patience and perseverance, modern-day Catholics can help bring about conversions in their own families as well.
Prayer Power
When Jennifer Stuckey of Fort Scott, Kan., first dated Steve, the man who would become her husband, she made certain he understood that she was Catholic and that her faith was important to her. Although he was not a believer himself, Steve did not object. When they decided to get married, although Steve showed no sign of sharing his wife's faith, he remained supportive of her Catholic faith.
“He said he respected my faith and that it was important to him that I be able to continue practicing my faith,” recalls Jennifer. “He had some friends who were less understanding, so for him to be so open for my faith to continue was a real blessing.”
As it turned out, that one small “real blessing” was all the encouragement this wife needed to storm heaven on her husband's behalf — and all the room the Holy Spirit needed to work in his heart.
“I always wished that Steve would convert, and I desired that for him very much, but I did not push it,” she says. “I prayed for his conversion constantly but I knew that it had to be something he wanted for himself.”
When the couple were expecting their third child, Steve decided he wanted to know more about the faith in which his kids were being raised. Jennifer saw an opportunity in this new interest, and she took it.
“I pointed out that our parish was offering an inquiry class that summer and offered to attend with him,” she says. “He was very interested in the classes and he seemed to really enjoy and agree with a lot of the things we were learning.”
Then, after the death of his father the following December, Steve finally made the decision to join the Church.
“It was very exciting for me,” Jennifer explains. “My prayers were being answered. The best advice I can offer [to someone in similar circumstances] is to use St. Monica as a role model. Pray constantly and be patient — God's time is not our time. And prayer is our most powerful tool.”
Re-Lapsed Catholic
When Denise Mantei of Apple Valley, Calif., met her husband Steve, he was not attending any church at all. His parents were former Catholics who had converted to a non-denominational church while he was still a child. Though not ready to embrace it yet himself, Steve was open to Denise's Catholic faith. In fact, even before they were married, he occasionally attended Mass with her.
“The first time we went to Mass together was for Easter Vigil,” says Denise. “Now that I think about it, it was rather appropriate on account of all the ‘newbies’ coming into the Church. I was so glad he called me back even after how long the Mass was.”
The priest at the parish where Denise and Steve were married was helpful in making Steve feel comfortable about the Catholic Church.
“I am so glad Father Ed was so intuitive. He made Steve so comfortable,” says Denise. “I know Father had a lot to do with Steve coming back to the Church and staying. Over the years it has amazed me how Catholic Steve stayed while his family was at the other church. His views are so very Catholic.”
It took 10 years of marriage and his wife's continual prayer before he finally felt comfortable enough to be confirmed.
“I told him that it was totally his decision to make,” says Denise. “That was one of the most joyful Masses of my life. He was so happy walking back to his pew with the chrism dripping off his nose after being confirmed.”
New Relationship
Cathy Freitas's husband Wade was a non-believer when they were first married. Cathy, a cradle Catholic, has taken her obligation to their three children in the faith very seriously throughout their 14-year marriage. She always took the children to Mass alone and made sure they received Catholic instruction and the sacraments.
“He quietly let us do our thing, while never really participating,” explains Cathy. “I had been bombarding heaven with prayers for so long and then last year, my prayers were answered.”
It was when the couple's marriage was going through a “rough patch” that Wade finally turned to God for help.
“He has been on fire for God ever since,” she says. “You cannot imagine the thrill of sitting next to your husband in church while he prays if you had never experienced it, and had been praying for it for years.”
While he is not yet ready to fully embrace the Catholic faith, Wade is unquestionably a Christian believer now and is eager to learn more about the Church.
“We pray together and we discuss things together that I had always before just kept to myself,” says Cathy. “I didn't realize how much I was missing by not being able to share that most important aspect of my life with my husband.”
And does this patient wife think 14 years has been too long to wait for an answer to her fervent prayers?
“I trust God's timing. And I am still bombarding heaven with prayers,” she says.
“I know St. Monica must be smiling,” she adds, “because she knows what it's like to pray for years for the conversion of someone you love. It's like we have a whole new relationship now, and I'm loving it.”
Danielle Bean writes from Belknap, New Hampshire.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Danielle Bean ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: STUDY SHOWS ABORTION DRUG DANGERS DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:PROVIDENCE, R.I. — As a professor of pharmacology for almost 40 years, Dr. Ralph Miech said it was his job to teach students how a drug works.
“Once you know that, you have a big insight in terms of how to use them properly, how to prevent any of the serious side effects,” said Miech, a medical doctor and an associate professor emeritus at the Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Biotechnology at Brown University's medical school.
Sometimes taking a drug can be fatal, and it was the death of Holly Patterson, a California teenager who died in September 2003 after taking RU-486 in an attempt to abort her child, that sparked Miech's curiosity and led him to research the drug.
His findings, which are to be published in the September issue of The Annals of Pharmacotherapy, led him to state that RU-486 may cause the rapid onset of septic shock, a serious bloodstream condition that can lead to death.
The Food and Drug Administration announced in mid-July that it was issuing a health advisory to inform the public that four California women have died from septic shock following abortions with RU-486 — the latest one occurring in June.
Also known as Mifeprex, the drug already has the FDA's highest level black-box label warning, indicating that it is especially dangerous. In two of the cases, the bacterium that caused the septic shock was found to be Clostridium sordellii. The FDA also updated its prescribing information, medication guide and patient agreement for RU-486 to convey information about Clostridium sordellii, a bacterium that is difficult to identify because the patient usually does not have a fever or other signs of infection.
The FDA said that it is investigating the two other cases, and is collaborating with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state and local health departments and RU-486's manufacturer, Danco Laboratories, to determine the causes of the septic shock.
The drug blocks progesterone, a key hormone needed to establish and sustain a pregnancy. When used in combination with another medicine during an early pregnancy, misoprostol, RU-486 induces abortion.
During the 25 years he worked part-time in an emergency room, Miech said he saw many cases of septic shock. But most of them involved elderly patients who also had high fevers, he said. However, Holly Patterson did not have high fever, so that led him to read medical literature on RU-486.
‘Re-Examine Safety’
He found something that startled him, he said. RU-486 was originally developed to lower the excessive production of glucocorticoid hormones in patients who had Cushing's syndrome, a disorder of the adrenal glands. He also found out that these glucocorticoid receptors are extremely important to the innate immune system, so he theorized that the drug impairs the body's defense system, decreasing its ability to destroy the Clostridium sordellii invasion, he said.
“I was startled by the fact that this was in the literature, and no one had put it together or proposed it as the mechanism for the possibility of actually causing septic shock due to infection,” he said.
In his article, Miech said that RU-486 causes cervical dilation, which allows Clostridium sordellii to contaminate the uterus. With the innate immune system malfunctioning, septic shock occurs.
Some women cause more damage without realizing it, the article stated, because they sometimes experience severe pain during the abortion and take codeine. The interaction of RU-486 and codeine results in a prolonged effect of both drugs, resulting in an even higher decrease in the body's immune system to fight off the invasion of the bacteria, according to the article.
“I think at this particular point and time the whole safety issue with regard to RU-486 has to be re-examined,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Danco Laboratories did not respond to several phone calls. But the drug company did issue a press release in mid-July, saying it was modifying its labeling for RU-486 to include updated safety information.
The press release added that “childbirth, menstruation and abortion, whether spontaneous, surgical or medical, all create conditions that can result in serious and sometimes fatal infection, and there is no evidence that Mifeprex and misoprostol present a special risk of infection.”
It went on to say, “Clostridium sordellii is a common soil and enteric bacterium that has presented in a very small number of obstetric and gynecologic cases, including following childbirth [vaginal delivery and caesarian section], medical abortion and in other gynecologic and non-gynecologic conditions.”
Several calls to several abortion providers, Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America, also were not returned.
James Sedlak, vice president of the American Life League and founder of Stop Planned Parenthood, was not impressed with Danco's public statements.
“We all remember the disclaimers issued by the tobacco companies in the early days of people going after the tobacco companies for having addictive products and causing all kinds of health problems,” he said. “When the manufacturer of the product comes out with statements like that, it has to be taken with a grain of salt.”
He said American Life League's position is very clear: RU-486 should be taken off the market.
“The fact that it will harm a woman is an additional reason,” he said, “but the main reason is it kills human beings in the womb.”
‘Adverse Events’
Wendy Wright, the senior policy director for Concerned Women for America, said she was grateful for Miech's article because he explains, in logical fashion, why the deaths have occurred.
“It shows that this drug was not adequately tested,” she said.
Wright's organization filed Freedom of Information Act requests in order to gain access to the adverse events reports, which are filed by patients or doctors and details side effects caused by drugs.
She said it took months to get the reports on what adverse effects RU-486 has caused to patients, but the numbers show that about 600 adverse events were reported from 2001 until September 2004, and about 260 were reported from September 2004 until July 2005.
Meich said he predicts the five deaths are only the “tip of the iceberg.” He said he hopes his article creates an awareness of the dangers of RU-486.
“If physicians and patients are properly informed of the manner in which [RU-486] can cause the rapid onset of septic shock,” he wrote in his article, “perhaps both groups will be more sensitive to any early warning signs, which would allow earlier treatment of this otherwise potentially lethal complication.”
Carlos Briceño is based in Seminole, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carlos BriceņO ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:‘Hall of Shame’
BLOOMBERG NEWS, Aug. 6 — What's in a name? Sometimes, heavy baggage. At one point, New Jersey's Seton Hall University — named for St. Elizabeth Ann Seton — had three buildings bearing the names of indicted or convicted felons, reported the news wire.
Faculty and students have complained that they don't enjoy hearing such quips as “Seton Hall of Shame,” and that it is not appropriate that two of these buildings remain with names unchanged, including the business school, named for recently convicted Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski.
And the university of the Archdiocese of Newark “is not alone,” said Bloomberg, which offered a long list of schools in similar situations, including the Franciscans’ St. Bonaventure University, whose Olean, N.Y., campus includes the Rigas Family Theater named after John Rigas, the convicted founder of Adelphia Communications Corp.
Going Home
WDBJ7.COM, July 21 — Washington & Lee University President Thomas Burish has resigned the post he held since 2002 to become provost of Notre Dame University, his alma mater.
The website of the CBS affiliate in Richmond, Va., reported that Burish said Notre Dame “aspires to be both a great academic institution and a great Catholic institution.”
He added: “[It] being a Catholic institution is why I went there as an undergraduate, and is a major reason I am now drawn back.” Combining “this faith-based heritage” with the quest for academic excellence is, “for me, a special dream.”
Keeping Faith
Each participant received a Miraculous Medal that Bishop Jenky said he hoped the students would use to help them through these “years of transition,” and as an aid to prayer.
Jenna Powers of Spoon River College in Ohio said the medal will remind her of the need to “keep the faith.”
Bishop Jenky recalled how he once clung to a rosary during a difficult exam during his own college days.
College to University
“University” better reflects the school's mix of undergraduate and graduate-level programs, said officials, who added that the new name will distinguish it from the growing number of two-year colleges that have dropped “community” from their names.
In addition to its new name, Saint Martin's has a new president, Douglas Astolfi. He replaced David Spangler, Saint Martin's longest-serving president who retired in June after nearly 20 years in office.
Workplace Misconduct
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 5 — St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., says it fired a senior computer programmer for engaging in serious workplace misconduct, not because the man was planning sex-reassignment surgery and to return to work as a woman.
Robert Blanchette, 53, sued in federal court in May claiming he was fired after telling the college he was “transgender.”
The college's lawyer argued that the suit was prohibited by St. Anselm's constitutionally protected freedom of religion.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: American Students Walk to World Youth Day DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:They were tired when the reached the Cologne cathedral. Who can blame them?
The 38 Crossroads World Youth Day pilgrims from the United States walked to World Youth Day from the cathedral of St. Michael in Brussels, Belgium, on Aug. 9 and arrived at Cologne five days later. They averaged 35 miles per day and passed through three countries, walking a total of 150 miles.
Several Crossroads members spoke with Register staff writer Tim Drake in Cologne.
Where did the Crossroads walk begin, and what route did you take?
Jim Nolan, president: It began at the Cathedral of St. Michael, near the European Parliament, on Tuesday, Aug. 9. We went from Brussels to Sint Trüiden, Belgium and then to Maastricht, Netherlands. From there we went to Aachen, Germany and then into Cologne.
Why do a Crossroads walk in addition to World Youth Day? Isn't the World Youth Day pilgrimage enough?
Jim Nolan: Crossroads started in direct response to Pope John Paul II's call in Denver. Crossroads was our original answer to that call, so we feel that going to World Youth Day is continuing that call to spread the message, “Be Not Afraid.”
When we set the walk up last fall, we were told that the pro-life message is kind of stifled here. We're used to the U.S. where a strong pro-life movement has built up over the past 15 years. That has not happened here. The people we met said that we need someone to desperately spark that over here. They are desperately waiting for something like John Paul II's 1993 call here.
J.D. Flynn, director: In the U.S. we pray and consecrate our country to the Culture of Life. Europe needs that just as badly as we need it in the U.S. The biggest blessing of being here is to pour out the blood of Christ into the soil of Europe.
What inspired you to get involved in Crossroads?
Daniel Mull, 23, walker from Jacksonville, Fla.: Learning about the Theology of the Body inspired me to want to do something for the pro-life movement. Walking is one of my favorite things to do, so this was a way to be a pro-life witness and get others involved. After meeting people face to face through our walks, we can honestly say that the majority of America is pro-life.
What is the general European attitude towards abortion?
Martha Nolan, national director: We met more indifference than outright animosity.
Mark Thomason, 29, walker from Denver: Every doctor's office and hospital does abortion here. It's just a procedure, so it's a real uphill battle. There are other issues as well, such as euthanasia in Holland.
What was the high point of your European walk?
J.D. Flynn: Finishing the walk, knowing that we had done something concrete to bring Christ to the countries we visited.
Where there any frustrations along the way?
Dave Bathon, 21, walker from South Bend, Ind.: We got lost a lot. That was pretty depressing.
Carrie Cusik, 25, walker from Grand Blanc, Mich.: It hasn't been what we expected. It's been a different sort of sacrifice. It's been more about surrender.
What have you learned from the experience?
Thomason: I've learned that we need to be missionaries in our own lands. We need to be prayers and workers. World Youth Day is here in Cologne. Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI are calling us to be active pro-life missionaries in our own lands.
Matt Maes, 21, walker from Atlanta, Ga: This walk, being the first in Europe, is a testing of the water. To reach out to Europe we need Europeans to walk.
How will Crossroads participate in World Youth Day?
Sara Lockwood, public relations: We've been invited to be part of Domus Vitae (The House of Life) in Düsseldorf. For the first time the Vatican is attempting a real effort to promote the Culture of Life through World Youth Day. Domus Vitae is supposed to be a house of healing for those who have been hurt by abortion.
Elizabeth Hoisington, 21, walker from Fort Meyers, Fla.: I didn't come to World Youth Day for the praise and worship music. I came to see the youth of the world gathered together loving the Holy Father and reminding the world that young people are Catholic and that we love the Church, the Holy Father, and our faith.
Why do you think Cologne was chosen as the site for WYD?
Christine O'donnell, public relations: Pope John Paul II was prophetic.
Flynn: The young people of Denver were transformed by World Youth Day. Now there's this whole Denver scene. Europe is facing such a strong tide of secularism.
Sorena Perry, 34, walker from Atlanta, Ga.: You can see why it was chosen from the advertisements. Everywhere you see ads for condoms. At convenience stores explicit pornography is clearly visible and 8-year-old boys are looking at it. It's needed here. We need to be here. Our presence says a lot.
What do you look forward to?
Jenna Wilson, 19, walker from Omaha, Neb.: I look forward to seeing the new Holy Father. We'll all be gathered together and I imagine it will be very loud with everyone screaming “Benedictum.” When we met some U.S. soccer players at a hostel in Holland, they told us, “Say hi to Papa Benny D.”
Maes: It's exciting to see the worldwide community of faith and to hear all the different languages and discover the fullness of what it means to be Catholic and universal. There's also the excitement of the youth. It's like a celebration. Seeing the pope is a plus — it's the icing on the cake. What we are here to do is celebrate Christ.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Cologne Pilgrims Line Up for Mercy DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:This is staff writer Tim Drake's first report from Cologne. Find his Reporter's Notebook on page 10. Read his World Youth Day blog at www.YoungandCatholic.com.
COLOGNE, Germany — One of the signature sights at past World Youth Day gatherings has been the long lines of young people waiting for the sacrament of reconciliation. Cologne is no exception.
In the confession lines you can find many youths, like Annie Marx of Canton, Mich., who are attending the sacrament for the first time in years.
“I get scared and nervous about it,” said Marx, a sophomore at Eastern Michigan University. She is attending World Youth Day with five others from her parish, St. John Neumann. “It's been a couple of years since I've been to confession,” she added.
As she saw others entering the confessionals in the line in front of her, she looked forward to the opportunity to cleanse her soul.
“If I see a confessional, I'll go,” Marx said. “I look forward to seeing someone that I'll probably never see again.”
Pope John Paul II made the promotion of confession a signature message in his final years, repeating again and again that confession of serious sins is required before a Catholic can receive Communion. He saw the return of young people to confession as one of the chief fruits of World Youth Day events.
“The problems that others cause me are nothing like the problems that I cause others through my sin,” said Daniel Mull, a little farther back in line. The Virginia Tech graduate from Jacksonville, Fla., said, “Many Catholics have forgotten about the sacrament of reconciliation. I'm eager and excited to see so many people ready to be reconciled with Jesus in Cologne.”
There are plenty of opportunities for pilgrims to partake of the sacrament. In addition to daily offerings of reconciliation in most of the parishes where the young are staying, World Youth Day is also holding confessions in multiple languages at the “Reconciliation Center” — a dedicated space in the Cologne convention center where many of the week's activities are taking place.
There, in one of the center's halls is the World Youth Day pilgrimage cross, Bibles and a depiction of the Way of the Cross and various artwork. In addition, the center — open from 8 in the morning to 10 at night — contains a room where pilgrims may give thanks afterwards before Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
Various religious orders also are taking advantage of the vast numbers of pilgrims seeking the sacrament. The Franciscan Friars of Renewal and the Legionaries of Christ are offering the sacrament at separate venues during the week.
“In Toronto, 15,000 pilgrims per day participated in the Youth 2000 and Franciscan Friars of Renewal Eucharistic adoration,” said Franciscan Brother Crispin. “We had more than 50 priests hearing confessions. In Cologne, we expect to offer confession nearly 12 hours per day.”
Again in conjunction with Youth 2000, nearly 45 Franciscan priests and brothers will be leading the Liturgy of the Hours before the Blessed Sacrament at St. Maria Himmelfahrt — Our Lady of the Assumption Church — just blocks away from Cologne's massive Cathedral. Father Heiner Koch, general secretary for World Youth Day, serves as pastor at the church.
Elsewhere, the Legionaries of Christ will be offering the sacrament in a hotel where they are hosting a Vocation Café. Nine confessionals, complete with kneelers, screens and boxes of tissues, are set up in the hotel's lower level.
“The hope would be that we will have more than nine confessional lines going simultaneously,” said Danny Gonzales, national director for vocation.com. “On Friday we expect 300 young people from the archdiocese of Melbourne, Australia.”
Reconciliation
The offering of confession has grown over the past World Youth Days. It was first offered on a large scale during the Jubilee Year 2000 in Rome. There, more than 2,000 priests were stationed in Rome's Circus Maximus. In Toronto in 2002, many confessions took place in “Duc in Altum” park alongside Lake Ontario.
“It keeps getting bigger and better,” said Mark Thomason of Denver. Thomason has attended the World Youth Days in Denver, Manila, Paris, Rome, Toronto, and now Cologne. “It grows in response to what the young people want.”
“Confession is so beautiful,” said 19-year-old Jenna Wilson of Omaha, Neb., as she waited for her turn. “It's humbling to admit that you're not perfect, and that you have to go to God and lay your mistakes down before him.”
The Cologne pilgrim handbook encourages pilgrims to avail themselves of the abundant opportunities for the sacrament at the daily catechesis sessions being offered by bishops from around the world, at the Reconciliation Center, or at Marienfeld — a piece of farmland where coal was once mined. Named after a sculpture of Our Lady of Sorrows found in the Assumption Church, it is the site for the Aug. 20 vigil and Aug. 21's final Mass with Pope Benedict XVI.
As an added bonus, those who attend the sacrament are also eligible for a special plenary indulgence offered by Pope Benedict XVI just for World Youth Day. According to an Aug. 2 decree of the Apostolic Penitentiary, the indulgence is available to the faithful who attend the sacred functions of World Youth Day and “attentively and religiously” participate in its conclusion on Aug. 21.
In addition, the penitent must also receive sacramental confession, receive holy Communion, pray for the intentions of the Holy Father, and be free from attachment to any sin.
Carrie Cusik, a World Youth Day pilgrim and associate editor with Emmaus Road Publishing, agreed.
“World Youth Day is first and foremost a pilgrimage,” Cusik said. “When you get to the place you've wanted to get to, you want to leave a bit of yourself. You want to leave your weaknesses and burdens behind.”
Tim Drake filed this story from Cologne.
A Rough Start
International travel is always fraught with challenges. “Getting to your destination” isn't supposed to be among them.
Northwest Airlines, perhaps because of the impending mechanics’ strike, was flying late out of Minneapolis. The afternoon flight was four hours late, as was the 6 p.m. flight. I made it to Cologne much later than I expected.
En route, my luggage was lost, making it impossible for me to charge the batteries on my equipment. Prayers for a speedy arrival of my baggage would be most appreciated.
Argghhh … along with the frustration of my continued lack of luggage (razor, batteries, charger, adapter) is the frustration of having to use a German keyboard in the press center.
Now, this might seem like a small pebble to carry around in one's shoe, but let me demonstrate the problem.
On the German keyboard the keys for y and z are reversed. Once you've taught a person to type, it's very difficult to re-teach him.
So, if I had my druthers, my text would read like this:
It's been raining on and off for the past couple of dazs here in Cologne. With mz lost baggage is mz lost raincoat.
As one of the zouth daz pilgrims told me, “It's all about surrender.”
Jesus Rocks
I talked with some members of a group from St. John Neumann Parish in suburban Detroit. They sported light blue “Jesus Rocks” T-shirts, WWJD wristbands, and two of them proudly wore blue baseball caps that read “The Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club.”
There was a lot of life around the Cathedral of Cologne on Saturday (Aug. 13) evening. Young people were gathered on the stairs, sitting in groups singing and clapping.
In front of the Cathedral are two large posters one bearing the image of Pope John Paul II, a composite image made up from thousands of photos sent in by people around the world.
The other poster bears the image of Pope Benedict XVI.
This is my second visit to Cologne. The first was 10 years ago as a new Catholic. The Cathedral never fails to impress. I attended Mass there this morning in the Marian Chapel.
It is a fitting place for the youth of the world as they “Come to Worship Him.”
Melbourne 2008?
One blessing of the late flight is that it allowed me some time to talk with Melbourne, Australia, Archbishop Denis Hart at the airport in Amsterdam as we waited for our flight to Cologne. He had just attended a meeting of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy in England, and was going to Cologne to spend the week with approximately 300 pilgrims from his archdiocese.
He wouldn't confirm the rumors that World Youth Day 2008 will be held in Sydney, but seemed excited about the possibility. “Let's wait and see,” he said.
St. Edith Stein,
pray for us!
Among the patron saints of World Youth Day, is the convert and martyr St. Teresa Benedict of the Cross — Edith Stein. Of course, Cologne was home to her Carmel convent. There is a moving statue dedicated to her located just a few blocks away from the Cathedral. Although a description of the statue won't do it justice, here it is:
The statue depicts Edith at three points in her life. At one point, she is still Jewish, holding the Star of David. Later in life, she is depicted as a nun, carrying the cross of Christ.
Before her lies a path that has been trodden by many feet.
A cross is visible in the path before her. Tucked into the cross, but not visible in the photos, is a crown of thorns. Also at the end of the cross is a pile of shoes.
That pile of shoes reminds me of another pile of shoes.
Some years ago I toured the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.
There were two points in the museum when I couldn't stop the tears from falling. One was an exhibit that showed hundreds of photos of families and individuals from a particular town. Later, you learn that every one of them perished at the hands of the Nazis.
The other point was when you come to an enormous pile of shoes left behind by those who were murdered. A poem along with the shoes says that because they were made of leather and not skin, they were saved.
It was most moving, and seeing the Edith Stein statue reminded me of that.
These are excerpts from Tim Drake's World Youth Day blog,
www.YoungandCatholic.com.
----- EXCERPT: Reporter's World Youth Day Notebook ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Radio Wired In to the New Evangelization DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:QUAD CITIES, Iowa — Brian Porter, who works in industrial sales, was a fan of Catholic radio. The problem was that the only way he could receive it in Long Grove, Iowa, was through a short-wave radio. He would listen to WEWN, the EWTN-affiliated radio system, while doing projects around the house. So, when the opportunity became available to put several low-power FM (LPFM) stations on the air, Porter jumped at the chance.
“Catholic radio helped me build my faith,” said Porter. “This is one method for teaching the faith.”
Largely through Porter's efforts, eastern Iowa is now served by seven different LPFM stations. Like full-power FM stations, low-power FM stations have a frequency on the FM dial.
Overall, the total number of religious radio stations in the United States has increased 14% over the past five years. Catholic radio has tripled over that same time period, increasing from approximately 40 stations to a total of 138, 102 of which are currently on the air.
Low-power stations are one of among a number of recent initiatives that are making Catholic radio available to more and more communities across the country.
Unlike their full-powered counterparts, they have a more limited range, often between seven and 15 miles, making them ideal for small and medium-sized cities such as Clinton, Davenport, DeWitt, Iowa City, and the other cities in Iowa where they are found.
While the major Catholic radio networks — Ave Maria, EWTN, Immaculate Heart and Starboard — dominate the market, the vast majority of radio startups are small, independently-owned stations run by individuals like Porter who feel called to get into Catholic radio.
Joseph Flanders was operating a landscaping business when Porter called him two years ago wondering whether he would be interested in starting a station in Muscatine.
“I was in favor of doing it, but wasn't sure how,” said Flanders, station manager for KTDC in Davenport, Iowa. “I wanted to do whatever I could to promote holy mother Church and the wonderful teachings that the Church has.”
Through the help of Porter, and assistance offered by the Green Bay, Wis.-based Starboard Network, Flanders was able to go through the Federal Communications Commission's application process and work on obtaining a construction permit. After approximately a year and a half, the station went on the air in December 2003, operating out of a Knights of Columbus building in Muscatine. An 8-foot satellite dish receives EWTN's radio programs and broadcasts them 24 hours a day to a potential listening audience of 30,000 people in a 10-mile radius.
“Each one of us is called, by our baptism, to proclaim the Gospel,” said Flanders. “This is a prime way to do that.”
At present, there are 22 low-power FM stations, like KTDC, on the air nationwide, with the potential to triple that number. The FCC has approved a total of 65 Catholic LPFM stations, and radio insiders say it may open the window for more in 2007.
Like KTDC, the majority of Catholic radio stations tap into existing programming, such as that offered through Ave Maria and Starboard's Relevant Radio. Independent stations have neither the budget nor the personnel to produce original programming. An Omaha-based non-profit, called New Evangelization Inc., hopes to change that by offering services and products to independent stations (www.neiradio.com).
“Up until now, the industry has been mission-driven,” said John Lillis, executive director for New Evangelization. “We hope to make it more market driven by offering feature content to independent stations.”
“When your programming is coming from outside, many people think your funding is as well,” said Joe Worthing, former marketing director with Omaha-based KVSS and a collaborator on New Evangelization Inc. “We plan to create content for local stations.”
As Worthing explained it, such programming could include a local priest, a weekly news magazine featuring a cadre of news correspondents, shows from Catholic podcasters, and possibly a three-hour morning program similar to National Public Radio's “Morning Edition.”
While Catholic radio is now available nationwide through EWTN's programming on the Sirius Satellite Network, there is still a long way to go. As impressive as the growth may seem, local Catholic radio still pales in comparison to Protestant radio stations, which number approximately 1,500.
“There are multiple Protestant stations in most markets,” said Doug Sherman, president of Reno-based Immaculate Heart Radio, which currently has eight stations on the West Coast, and will be launching its newest station in the Diocese of Albuquerque in September.
Others agreed.
“During the last FCC translator application window, the entire Catholic world submitted, at best, 250 applications,” said Steve Gajdosik, president of the Catholic Radio Association. “Protestants submitted thousands.”
The Catholic Radio Association's goal is to have 500 new stations on the air within the next five years.
The Money Problem
What's preventing Catholic radio from expanding faster?
“The fear of money is what holds back a lot of radio initiatives,” said Worthing.
Starting a station can range from $11,000 for an LPFM station to millions of dollars for a full-power station.
“Asking for money is foreign to most folks starting stations,” said Gajdosik. “That kills station after station and effort after effort. Catholics need to learn how to ask.”
In addition to the lack of Catholic stations, another problem facing Catholic radio expansion is the lack of professionally trained individuals to work in Catholic radio.
Franciscan University of Steubenville professor Jim Coyle has a plan to improve that situation. Coyle is piloting a fall online course that would help interested students learn how to plan and produce stories for radio. As part of the course, students would produce short broadcasts that they would post online. Fellow students would participate in conference-call critique, where they would offer constructive feedback on each other's work.
The course combines Coyle's interests in both distance learning and Catholic radio.
“I see a real opportunity and a need to train people in radio production who can serve Catholic radio and do new types of programming,” said Coyle. “We need to use radio to evangelize and educate people who might not be the traditional Catholic radio audience.”
Tim Drake is based in St. Joseph, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Teens Imitate TV Sleaze, Says Study DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:IOWA CITY, Iowa — Kathy Weiss keeps a watchful eye on the mainstream media's influence on her three teenagers. According to a recent study, she is right to be concerned.
“My 15-year-old daughter lives for [the television show] ‘OC’, which features young adults who are engaged in promiscuous activity,” said the Coralville, Iowa, mother. “We allow her to watch it, but with the understanding that this isn't our life.”
When her children were young, the Weiss family severely limited television viewing and screened movies for their appropriateness. They continue to do so. Weiss said that the fact that her children know that their parents are paying attention makes a significant impact on what their children choose to watch.
The study was reported in a Journal of Pediatrics. “The Impact of the Media on Adolescent Sexual Attitudes and Behavior,” was conducted by S. Liliana Escobar-Chaves and the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston for The Medical Institute for Sexual Health. It reviewed all biomedical and social science research completed between 1983 and 2004 exploring the effects of mass media upon youth.
According to the study, adolescents who are exposed to television with sexual content are more likely to overestimate the frequency of some sexual behaviors, have more permissive attitudes toward premarital sex, and initiate sexual behavior.
The study also found that 22% of teen-oriented radio segments contained sexual content, that 41% of the top-selling CDs contained sexually “very explicit” or “pretty explicit” lyrics, and that 14% of children aged 9-17 have seen things on the Internet that “they wouldn't want their parents to know about.”
“Every parent and healthcare provider should be very troubled by these findings,” said Dr. Gary Rose, president of The Medical Institute. “Our children are saturated in sexual imagery.”
Rose noted that the average teen spends three to four hours per day watching television, and that 83% of the programming most frequently watched by teens contains some sexual content.
“We have never stopped to ask what effect all this sexual content in television, the Internet and music has on young people.”
Weiss is glad she has. “They aren't that interested in television,” she said. “Recently our 18-year-old, Elliot, told his younger siblings that they shouldn't watch a certain movie if it has bad content.”
Deep Impact
One example of teen-oriented sexual content recently shook the video gaming industry.
On July 20, after significant public and political pressure, the Entertainment Software Rating Board, a self-regulatory organization that enforces video game ratings in the U.S., revoked the “M” (mature) rating for Take Two Interactive Software, Inc.'s best-selling video game “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” after it was revealed that explicit sexual content could be unlocked with an Internet download.
Take Two admitted that the sex scenes had been built into the retail version of the game. The game was last year's top-selling game, selling more than 5.1 million copies in the United States.
“There are pornography modules that can be activated in the game,” said David Walsh, author of Why Do they Act That Way? A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen, and president of the Minneapolis-based National Institute on Media and the Family. “They're not just observing pornography, they are directing it. Video games are behavioral rehearsal machines.”
Walsh said that the Journal study is consistent with the research he has done on media and teenage brain development.
“We used to think that brain development was done by age 10,” said Walsh. “We now know that the prefrontal cortex enters the peak of its wiring in the teenage years and is not done until a boy or girl enters their 20s.”
According to Walsh, the development of the brain's impulse control center and the awakening of sexual interest in teens combine to form a potent combination.
“Proper guidance is needed to help teens learn how to responsibly manage those impulses,” said Walsh. “When we don't do that we delegate sex education to the media.”
Walsh finds that dangerous.
“The real impact of media is that it shapes norms and values,” said Walsh. “Teens’ interest is heightened and they are much more malleable to the messages they are being exposed to. If advertisers spend millions of dollars to influence behavior, why wouldn't we think that media promoting promiscuity would influence teens when their impulse control centers are developing?”
In commentary accompanying the Journal article, Dr. Michael Rich, a physician and researcher at Harvard Medical School, noted, “The leading causes of morbidity and mortality are no longer infections, congenital disorders, and cancer, but the outcome of acquired health risk behaviors, including risky sex.”
What Can Parents Do?
Parents take different actions in controlling what their children see. Increasing numbers of parents simply do not have video games or televisions in their homes. Others, such as Weiss, oversee their children's purchases and decisions about what to watch.
Hattiesburg, Miss., mother Deborah Flynt maintains control over her teenage son and daughter's viewing, listening and gaming habits.
“They have to okay all movie and CD purchases,” said Flynt. “They need to get formal approval for those things.”
She added that they make most of their purchases through Wal-Mart because of the company's decision to not carry offensive material. Flynt also blocks certain channels that they receive through satellite television.
“They understand that it's not just me being a tyrant,” said Flynt. “They understand that it's for their own good, and are free to explain their own point of view.”
Weiss takes a similar approach.
“Any game purchases are overseen by a parent,” Weiss said. “I'll also offer options that might entice them away from TV like going to a water park or the mall.”
“Vigilance is the key,” said Weiss, who described her monitoring as “covert.”
“It's about being in control, but not acting that way,” said Weiss. “You want to be aware and involved, but you don't want them to know it.”
Weiss noted that as much control as parents have, there comes a time when every parent must let go.
“At some point,” she said, “we parents have to release control of our children and pray that the values we have instilled will draw them away from evil influences and into the light.”
Tim Drake is based in St. Joseph, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Weekly DVD/Video Picks DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:The Flowers of St. Francis (1950)
It's the Catholic DVD event of the year: Vatican film list honoree The Flowers of St. Francis, Roberto Rossellini's beautiful tribute to Franciscan spirituality and the best film ever made about St. Francis, arrives in the United States this week from Criterion. And it's the original, unadulterated Italian version, complete with chapter-like intertitles. It's got a U.S.-edition prologue, and bonus materials include interviews with film critic and priest Father Virgilio Fantuzzi and actress Isabella Rossellini, daughter of the director and Ingrid Bergman.
Though the film's original title is Francis, God's Jester, the real jesters are Francis’ disciples, trying with charming naiveté to stumble along in the footsteps of their master. It's an apt picture of all our efforts in the spiritual life. As portrayed by the monks of the Nocere Inferiore monastery, Francis’ followers are certainly foolish — but also joyful, and even materialistic moderns recognize here something lacking in our desacrilized age.
Rossellini doesn't pander by reinventing Francis as an eccentric free spirit or proto-flower child (as in Zeffirelli's Brother Sun, Sister Moon). Francis remains challenging to modern audiences, his childlike spirit joined to insistence on strict religious obligation and zeal for evangelization. These three principles converge with sublime perfection in the delightful climactic episode, in which Francis commands his followers “under holy obedience” to spin “like children at play” until they collapse — then strike out in whatever direction they are facing to preach the Gospel.
Content advisory: A scene of mistreatment of a friar; off-screen maiming of an animal. Fine family viewing. In Italian with English subtitles.
Witness (1985)
Debuting this week in a new special-edition DVD, Peter Weir's Witness is one of the high points of 1980s American cinema. A compelling thriller, a moving love story, a thoughtful exercise in comparative cultures and a respectful exploration of religious community and nonviolence, Witness is a study in contrasts: the sheltered Amish boy (Lukas Haas) and his widowed mother Rachel (Kelly McGillis) amid a dangerous world of urban violence and police corruption; the attraction between the demure but warm-blooded Amish widow and tough Philadelphia detective John Book (Harrison Ford); the “English” world through Amish eyes and vice versa.
Content advisory: Some deadly graphic violence; brief nudity and a sexual reference; some objectionable language. Mature viewing.
E.T. the Extraterrestrial (1982)
With earlier multi-disc editions out of print, E.T. returns this week to DVD in an affordable one-disc edition. Note, though, that it's the 2002 version of the film, with added/restored scenes and pointless PC tweaks (a reference to someone looking “like a terrorist” deleted; federal agents’ guns digitally changed to walkie-talkies). Purists wanting the original 1982 version may have to hold out awhile longer, or dig up the 2002 two-disc set with both editions.
The film, so universal in its appeal, is the director's most personal. Spielberg's childhood is mirrored by that of lonely Elliot (Henry Thomas) — abandoned by his father, raised by his hard-working suburban mother. It's a life depicted affectionately but not idyllically. The death-resurrection-ascension storyline is enhanced by religious symbolism: E.T.'s glowing finger reaching out to Elliot's like Michelangelo's Creation of Adam; E.T.'s heart glowing like the Divine Mercy image of Christ.
Content advisory: Mild menace; some crude language, including one infamous obscenity; inadvertent intoxication; problematic family situations. Discernment required for younger viewers.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: After Hiroshima DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:EDITORIAL
Nuclear effects of the atomic bomb lingered in Japan for years.
Do Hiroshima and Nagasaki's effects on our logic linger in America?
We at the Register were startled by the number of angry letters — a few of them canceling subscriptions — that we received in response to Catherine and Michael Pakaluks’ column calling America's use of the atomic bomb 60 years ago “Our National Sin.”
After all, the Church's position on this matter is clear.
Pope Paul VI called America's use of the atomic bomb “butchery of untold magnitude.” Pope John Paul II called it “a self-destruction of mankind” and named Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Auschwitz as places marked by man's sin that should now be places of pilgrimage.
The Second Vatican Council condemned our nation's use of the atomic bomb. The Catechism repeats its denunciation verbatim in No. 2314:
“Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation.”
No matter how vicious the Japanese war tactics were, and they were cruel and brutal, America crossed a line we never should have crossed.
Though we were surprised at the intensity of readers’ response, we can understand the concern that many letters expressed. The Church's condemnation of the bomb is severe and unsettling. It could seem that, by calling our use of the atomic bomb a “crime against God and man” and comparing Hiroshima and Nagasaki to Auschwitz, the Church is making America's position in World War II the moral equivalent of our enemies’.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
American sacrifices in World War II are not in the least impugned by the judgment that our president was wrong to use of the atomic bomb. Without America's contribution to the war, the world would be a very different, and much darker, place. Pope John Paul II himself said he was “personally grateful for what America did for the world in the darkest days of the 20th century.”
We can be proud that Americans sacrifice a great deal of money — and many of our troops sacrifice their lives — to lend a helping hand to our enemies when our battles are over. We did so in Japan, and we do so today in Iraq.
We would also point out that the U.S. military today champions the principle that we must do everything possible to spare civilian lives in wartime. Our country is a pioneer in the creation of accurate weapons technology that has greatly reduced the threat to civilians.
So, if our military no longer advocates, nor practices, the Hiroshima doctrine, isn't it time for Catholic Americans to own up to the evils in our past, and learn from them?
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen in his series of talks titled “What Now America?” said that, by our tacit refusal to recognize the evil of the atomic bomb, Americans became susceptible to a new notion of freedom — one divorced from morality.
“When, I wonder, did we in America ever get into this idea that freedom means having no boundaries and no limits?” he asked. “I think it began on the 6th of August 1945 at 8:15 am when we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. … Somehow or other, from that day on in our American life, we say we want no limits and no boundaries.”
Shortly before becoming Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said much the same thing.
“There no longer exists a knowing how to do separated from a being able to do, because it would be against freedom, which is the absolute supreme value,” he said in his talks about the crisis facing Europe.
He put this misunderstanding of freedom at the heart of the use of the atomic bomb, and of many contemporary problems.
“Man knows how to clone men, and so he does it,” he said. “Man knows how to use men as a store of organs for other men, and so he does it; he does it because this seems to be a requirement of his freedom. Man knows how to build atomic bombs and so he makes them, being, as a matter of principle, also disposed to use them. In the end, terrorism is also based on this modality of man's self-authorization, and not on the teachings of the Koran.”
America's greatest gift to the world, in World War II and in our founding documents, is our strong re-affirmation that freedom comes from God and that the state cannot take it away.
We can only continue to give the gift of freedom to the world if we recognize that the same God who made us free taught us that there are boundaries to that freedom — boundaries we must never cross.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Kids 'R' Thriving DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:Facts of Life
The U.S. government's annual report on children says the adolescent birth rate has reached another record low, the death rate for children between 1 and 4 is the lowest ever, and young children are more likely than ever to get their recommended immunizations. “The overwhelming majority of children — about 83% — are reported by their parents to be in very good or excellent health,” said Dr. Edward Sondik, director of the National Center for Health Statistics.
Source: MSNBC, July 20 Illustration by Tim Rauch
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Under Fire Abortion Backers Tar Roberts With False Ad DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Abortion backers are pulling out all the stops to try to sway the public against Supreme Court nominee John Roberts.
Pro-life activists say they have even sacrificed the truth.
The pro-abortion organization NARAL Pro-Choice America ran a television ad earlier this month charging that President Bush's nominee John Roberts supports abortion clinic bombers and other violent extremists. NARAL stands for National Abortion Rights Action League, which is the organization's original name. It is the leading abortion activist organization.
After days of defending the ad's contents as “completely accurate” and dismissing criticism as “far-right spin,” the group finally pulled its ad Aug. 11, claiming it had been “misconstrued.”
The ad featured footage from the aftermath of a 1998 abortion clinic bombing in Birmingham, Ala., juxtaposed with an image of Roberts, President Bush's pick to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court.
“Supreme Court nominee John Roberts filed court briefs supporting violent fringe groups and a convicted clinic bomber,” a female announcer intoned ominously.
Shortly after the ad's release, the non-partisan FactCheck.org refuted it with uncharacteristically strong language, calling it “false.”
“This really hurts NARAL's credibility,” said a spokesman for Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a supporter of Roberts and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Cornyn, in a prepared statement, called the attacks “little more than recycled slander.” He added: “I hope my colleagues can resist this low-road approach to what should be a fair, thorough and dignified confirmation process.”
NARAL's ad refers to a friend of the court brief that Roberts authored on behalf of the administration of President George H.W. Bush in the 1990 Supreme Court case of Bray v. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic. Roberts, at the time serving in the Justice Department as deputy solicitor general, wrote a brief addressing a very narrow legal question completely unrelated to clinic violence.
The brief, which was signed by Roberts and five other administration lawyers, argued that pro-lifers from Operation Rescue, arrested for blockading a Virginia abortion clinic, were not involved in a conspiracy to deprive women of civil rights.
“A conspiracy to deter pregnant women from having abortions,” Roberts argued, is not an act of discrimination under federal law. The rescuers, he argued, could not be sued as civil rights violators, even if they could be prosecuted for other criminal offenses.
“Various acts of Congress exclude abortion services from the ambit of federal medical assistance programs,” the brief stated. “A decision by this Court that opposition to abortion is a form of gender-based discrimination could bring those laws into question, on the ground that they violate equal protection principles underlying the Due Process Clause by discriminating against women.”
Court Agreed
The Supreme Court ultimately agreed with the brief's view, returning a 6-3 decision in favor of the protestors. The court found that the protestors could not be sued under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which allows plaintiffs to sue those who act on a conspiracy to violate the civil rights of a class of people.
One of the defendants, Michael Bray, had been convicted of bombing an abortion clinic — the source of NARAL's claim that Roberts supported “a convicted clinic bomber.” The ad also stated that Roberts’ “ideology leads him to excuse violence against other Americans.”
But the ad chose to run footage of a 1998 clinic bombing, which took place seven years after the Roberts brief in question.
A spokesman for NARAL did not return phone calls from the Register.
Despite the slanders contained in the advertisement, CNN agreed to run the ad and began doing so last week even as criticism mounted. The ad ran during daytime news shows, even as it was being discussed and debated by news anchors and pundits on the network.
Laurie Goldberg, a spokeswoman for CNN, refused three times to answer whether CNN takes any responsibility for the content of false or misleading political advertisements. She also declined to answer whether CNN will run any advocacy advertisement, even if it is clearly false. “I can't get into speculation,” she said.
When asked twice about the NARAL ad and its accusations against Roberts, Goldberg referred to a written statement from CNN regarding advocacy commercials on the news network.
The statement reads, “CNN accepts advocacy advertising from responsible groups from across the political spectrum who wish to express their views and their opinions about issues of public importance. So that viewers can further research the claims being made within the ads, the messages must identify the name of the sponsoring organizations, usually by displaying a website address.”
Despite NARAL's suggestion that Roberts believes in the legitimacy of bombing abortion clinics, his view on the topic may be best gleaned from a 1986 draft letter he penned while working as a young lawyer in the Reagan administration. Roberts penned a proposed reply to Rep. Romano Mazzoli, D-Ky., who had expressed concern that President Reagan planned to grant pardons to abortion clinic bombers.
Roberts, who was writing the letter on behalf of a superior, wrote, “The president unequivocally condemns such acts of violence and believes that those responsible should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. No matter how lofty or sincerely held the goal, those who resort to violence to achieve it are criminals.”
David Freddoso is based in Washington, D.C.
Roberts and
“Thankfully, President Bush has selected Judge John Roberts, a highly qualified nominee, to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. Judge Roberts understands the difference between applying laws and rewriting them. He understands that he cannot rewrite the Constitution to fit his own personal political opinions, but that instead he must faithfully adhere to it.”
— Father Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life
“I have known John Roberts for 17 years. When I talk about John Roberts with the groups, it is not theoretical, it is based on firsthand, direct experience. He and I have argued cases together before the Supreme Court — you can't get more direct than that.”
— Jay Sekulow, chief counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice, a pro-life stalwart who says he knows and trusts Bush's first Supreme Court pick.
“Roberts may have stated that he would uphold Roe v. Wade during his Circuit Court hearings in 2003, but he was simply stating what all Circuit Court nominees say because circuit court judges are required to uphold Supreme Court precedent. If Roberts is confirmed to the Supreme Court he would be free to overturn Roe.”
— NARAL Pro-Choice America's website
“I think that we do know a lot about Judge Roberts, from his life, from his record, from the things he has stood for. We believe the issues we care about will be handled carefully by this judge.”
— Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family
“John Roberts is, by all accounts, a man of deep intellect and high character who understands the proper role of the judiciary in our constitutional republic. There is therefore good reason to hope that he will be a genuine moderate who will not read his own policy views on abortion into the Constitution but who will respect the constitutional authority of the people to govern their own states and communities on this and other issues of social policy.”
— Edward Whelan, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center
“PPFA has expressed serious and grave concerns about the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court.”
— Karen Pearl, interim president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America
“So, is Roberts going to be part of the sorcery the majority of the court has employed over these past 32 years? Is he going to fabricate his own brand of gobbledygook to avoid reality? Is he going to hide behind the 14th Amendment and deny that preborn human beings even be discussed? Nobody knows.”
— Judie Brown, American Life League
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Freddoso ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Do As I Say Now - Not As I Did Long Ago DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:FAMILY MATTERS
How do you respond to an adolescent boy who, upon being disciplined or warned, says, “You did the same things when you were my age”? He's right, of course. I did do some of the things I don't want him to do.
Before we respond to your son, permit me to respond to you. How did he know you did the same things when you were his age? Who told him? Whoever it was has inadvertently made your parenting tougher. There is a point where communication from parent — or grandparent — to child can be too open.
But since he now knows, don't provide any more details. Your past, however wrong or stupd, is not his concern, unless you wish it to be. But remember: Whatever you say can and may be held against you.
Now let us respond to your son. Know above all that your moral authority as a parent does not depend one whit upon your moral conduct as a child. If it did, few of us could claim full parental status. The very process of maturing dictates that we are more foolish and shortsighted when we're young. However you wish to convey to your son this absolute truth, do so. But don't expect him to understand or agree. That's part of his immaturity. Nevertheless, by making this point — as briefly as possible, by the way — you are in essence saying, “My resolve will not be weakened, nor any guilt caused, by childhood illogic.”
Next admit that you were indeed a child. “You're right; I did teenager things when I was a teenager.” Keep any admissions deliberately vague. Even though you refuse to be manipulated, no sense giving your son more fodder to keep chewing on you.
Contrary to what your son thinks, you are not so old as to recall only in a misty haze what impulses, desires and dangers accompany youth. It is your memory of having lived once at his age that makes you acutely aware of your duty to help him safely navigate those same waters. Part of being a good parent is knowing the reality of being bad as a kid.
Now, on to your masterstroke. With no shame, tell your son that he is very lucky that you too once did wrong and bad things — though not anymore, of course. It is that very misconduct that is driving you to be the strong and vigilant parent you are today.
Through your firsthand, personal experience with wrong behavior you realize how critical it is that you protect him from potential foolishness and discipline him for actual foolishness. Whatever you might have once gotten away with was not to your benefit.
If you really want to be irksome, you could say, “You are right. I did do the same things when I was your age. But my duty right now is to raise the best kid I can. And that means raising a person who is better than I was.”
There's not much that bugs a teen more than a parent who compliments at the same time she disciplines.
There's more of Ray Guarendi's
wit and wisdom at DrRay.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ray Guarendi ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Letters to the Editor DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:Atonement and the A-Bomb
I cannot help but question your wisdom in printing the commentary “Effects of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Still Being Felt” by Catherine and Michael Pakaluk (Commentary & Opinion August 7-13). The writers may be highly educated, but their reasoning is very uninformed and misguided, to say the least.
I suspect they were not even born at the time. I was 16 years old and was very attuned to the Pacific War as I had two older brothers involved. Both fought on Okinawa and survived.
I very much doubt they would have survived the invasion of Japan. And make no mistake: The invasion of Japan would have been necessary as the Japanese people were ready to defend their country to the last man, woman and child.
I suggest the writers further their education on the Pacific War by reading War in the Pacific by Jerome T. Hagen, Brig. Gen. USMC Ret. Flags of our Fathers, written by James Bradley, the son of one of the survivors of the flag-raising at Iwo Jima, is another book that describes the Japanese will to fight to the last man.
To even suggest that I, a practicing Catholic, should feel guilty and consider the bombing a sin is very offensive to me.
ADELINO R. LORENZO
Tigard, Oregon
In “Effects of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Still Being Felt” (Aug 7-13), the Pakaluks proposal that, since Hiroshima, we are laboring under a “serious, unacknowledged national ‘sin’” suggests a collective guilt rejected by the Second Vatican Council. In the case of the Jews killing Jesus Christ, … “neither all Jews indiscriminately at that time, nor Jews today can be charged with the crimes committed during his Passion …”
I submit that this same principle applies to World War II and the decision to drop the atomic bomb.
Therefore, the responsibility rests squarely on the shoulders of President Harry “the buck stops here” Truman (God rest his soul). Faced with a moral dilemma that would have resulted in the deaths of thousands of non-combatants either way, the president and his advisers made a tough decision in a war where Japanese atrocities were legendary (especially in China). As stated by Truman biographer David McCullough: “If you want one explanation as to why Truman dropped the bomb: ‘Okinawa.’ It was to stop the killing.”
What I'd like to know is this: Do the Pakaluks consider Harry Truman a war criminal? If yes, then say so plainly.
Unfortunately, they don't say much about the president's reasons except that MacArthur and Eisenhower opposed them, leaving the bigger question:
Why would he override his top generals? Arguments for dropping the A-bomb are elicited from dinner party interlocutors, but I'd much prefer an exchange with someone, like a George Weigel, who can hold his own ground against what amounts to revisionist history and blame-America-first thinking.
Similar arguments against dropping the A-bomb were made by Gar Alperovitz in his book The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb, and were succinctly answered by George Weigel in his articles “Vulgarizing Bad History” and “Blaming Harry.”
“The revisionist attack on Harry Truman and his advisers,” he wrote, “was less a serious effort to understand and assess the decision-making at the end of the Pacific War than a last-ditch attempt to salvage the claim that the Cold War was primarily the result of American anti-communism.”
I wonder how much of what drives the Pakaluks’ proposal for national sackcloth and ashes is rooted in the “ideological proclivities” of revisionists who prefer to blame America first, last and always.
ROBERT CALL
Puyallup, Washington
Regarding “Effects of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Still Being Felt” (Commentary & Opinion, August 7-13):
Catherine and Michael Pakaluk state that recently they “attended a dinner party with about 20 pro-life Catholic friends, and only four were confident that the bombings (of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) were objectively immoral.”
I say to the Pakaluks: Thank God you have 16 pro-life friends with some sense. You say there was “no noteworthy cause” (in the 1960s) for an American culture today that has ”rampant divorce, abortion, contraception, promiscuity, pornography, homosexual activism and secularization.” Don't you think that the rejection of Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which foretold the spread of this malaise, was noteworthy?
The “teaser” headline on the front page, “Our National ‘Sin’” was, at best, a poor choice of words. Do nations sin? If yes, is the cure general absolution? Or is it that people sin, and the cure is individual confession? As for the column's conclusion: So then, if our nation were to admit that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a war crime, that would somehow be the cure for the culture of rampant divorce, etc., that we find ourselves in?
With apologies to the other four people at the dinner party who agreed with you, I think that assertion is quite a stretch.
As for the body of your essay and the argument over whether or not we should have dropped the bomb (as if we could change that now), we can exchange expert quotes and talk that over years of dinner parties and never change the past.
But if your real goal is to address the cultural malaise you so aptly describe that we find ourselves in, we're best to start with making sure every Catholic understands and strives to live the teachings of Humane Vitae, and that we make frequent use of individual confession when we fail. This action will change the future.
LOU BRUNO
Altamonte Springs, Florida
Editor's note:
Women Priests and St. Cloud
Your July 24-Aug. 6 issue featured an informative page-one story, “Activists Still Pine for Women Priests,” which highlighted groups within the Church still encouraging women's ordination to the Catholic priesthood. It also noted that the increase in activism prompts other Catholics to deepen their own understanding of the Catholic Church's teaching and to help explain that teaching to others.
Among the examples of activism and views supporting women priests, your story referenced a June 23 editorial in the St. Cloud Visitor, newspaper for the Diocese of St. Cloud, Minn., which encouraged ongoing dialogue on the topic and urged bishops to take the lead in the conversation.
As a matter of clarification, I would like to point out that the signed editorial was written by Joseph Young, a St. Cloud Visitor staff writer who was serving at the time as interim editor. That editorial did not and does not represent the opinion of the Visitor, nor of our bishop and publisher, Bishop John Kinney. Additionally, the bishop did not see and was not aware of the editorial before its publication.
In my conversations with him, Bishop Kinney has indicated that he wants our diocesan newspaper to be informative, open and balanced. At the same time he expects the St. Cloud Visitor to be unambiguously Catholic and to be clearly in support of official Church teaching.
In the Aug. 4 issue of the St. Cloud Visitor, as the paper's new editor, I have outlined the mission of our diocesan newspaper and our approach to a variety of issues. These include the editorial in question, the role of opinion in a Catholic newspaper and the Visitor's commitment to a clear expression of Catholic teaching in its pages. Your readers might want to know that this message is available on our diocesan website at stcdio.org/Visitor.
Thank you in advance for informing your readers of this, our “rest of the story,” and God's best blessings on your own important work in Catholic journalism.
PATRICIA LYNN MORRISON
Editor
St. Cloud Visitor
St. Cloud, Minnesota
Design and Discernment
Cardinal Christoph Schonborn expresses his opinion about the faith and evolutionary theory, and the educational-scientific establishment reacts anxiously (“God and Matter: The Evolution of the Evolution Debate,” Commentary & Opinion, August 14-20).
In the Tablet, our diocesan paper, we read very much the same story, but also read that prominent scientists are appealing to Pope Benedict XVI for a decision on the matter. While dissent from Catholic teaching flourishes in some Catholic universities, is this not a reversal of a trend? Unfortunately, papal infallibility does not extend to matters of science.
Darwin's theory to explain evolutionary reality is imploding before us. Some scientists are daring to think that there is no intelligent design in a theory of a universe without design. Or worse, believing they have not proved the universe has been intelligently designed, yet there are hidden within that universe pockets of intelligent design.
If there is random variation, there need not be teleonomy. However, in natural selection there must be some teleological quality, for without some such quality there is no selection. In fact, there is no theory of evolution. There are theories of evolution, and they are competing with one another for allegiance. In the meantime, Catholics should continue to pursue truth and evaluate scientific data with a sense of humor. As Chesterton said, “The only thing true about the missing link is that it is still missing.”
DEACON JOHN P. COFFEY
Brooklyn, New York
Fristian Bargain
Pertinent to the editorial titled “Betrayal” (June 12-18):
I am saddened by Sen. Bill Frist's schism from White House opinion on embryonic stem-cell research. He speaks of ethical and moral reasons for his departing from White House thought on this matter. His reasoning follows the skewed utilitarian logic that killing one to save many is justifiable. Due to the inevitable problems with utilitarian thought — i.e., those in power make the decision as to who lives and who dies for the good of society — the Church has always taught that it is never justifiable to kill (even one) innocent life to save many. The Church especially points out this truth when those being killed are the most vulnerable — those who cannot defend themselves.
All this is disturbing coming from Senator Frist, a physician. The Hippocratic Oath holds, in part: “I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.”
Frist actually promotes killing human life in order to cure others. Isn't prevention preferable to curing? In other words, he is a medical quack — not only forgetting his oath but doing the exact opposite.
The Hippocratic Oath also says, “Above all, I must not play at God.” Indeed!
All I can say to Senator Frist, MD, is, “Physician, heal thyself.”
BILL PETRO
Toledo, Ohio
Corrections
The Register's Aug. 7-13 editorial correctly stated that four justices whose votes support Roe v. Wade were appointed by Republicans — but misstated the particulars. For the record, President Gerald Ford appointed Justice John Paul Stevens and President Ronald Reagan appointed Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Also, a front-page report about World Youth Day in that same issue included a map of Germany and surrounding countries. The map was inaccurate, showing part of Germany over part of the Czech Republic and failing to identify the Czech Republic.
Due to an editing error, a story in the July 17-23 issue of the Register incorrectly described a tsunami “buffer zone” in which the Sri Lankan government bans repair or any construction. The correct distance is 656 feet (200 meters) on the east coast and 328 feet (100 meters) on the west coast.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Christophobia and Culture: Weigel Looks at Europe DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:George Weigel, the well-known theologian and papal biographer, has written perhaps his best (and shortest) book, The Cube and the Cathedral (Basic Books, New York, 2005).
His timing could not have been better. With the death of John Paul II, the startlingly apt election of his collaborator Pope Benedict XVI, and the surprising rejection of the ponderously compiled Constitution of the European Community by key member states, Weigel's analysis takes on even greater importance.
Here in America, the increasing chasm between alternative worldviews evidenced by the election of November 2000 and the bitter battles over the confirmation of federal judges shows our need to learn from Europe's lesson. Whatever the outcome, the United States is at most only decades away from taking a decisive turn one way or another — either becoming a largely Christian nation, in keeping with our origins, or following Europe into a radical secularism on its way to obsolescence, overwhelmed by demographic shrinking and immigration.
Weigel offers a penetrating critique of Europe's problems, which grow ever more acute as it proceeds towards demographic extinction of its Christian population, who are being replaced by other ethnic groups, most notably adherents of Islam. A stultifying cradle-to-grave welfare state, producing high unemployment and very slow economic growth, accompanies these demographics.
Then there are the moral problems: accelerating illegitimacy; the gradual disappearance of marriage as an institution through its radical redefinition in the law; the indecency at all levels of the entertainment industry.
In short, Europe has lost its way. Over the next few decades, its influence as a great power may shrink to conform to the reality of its relatively small landmass.
Weigel opens with an observation from his 1997 trip to Paris during World Youth Day. There, two great monuments on the Paris skyline, which could not have differed more in their appearance, struck him. The first was the “Grande Arche de la Defense,” Mitterrand's monument marking the bicentenary of the French Revolution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens. Every guidebook Weigel consulted emphasized that the whole of the Cathedral of Notre Dame would fit comfortably inside the Great Arch.
Clearly, there was an ideological intent behind this image reproduced from guidebook to guidebook — the Enlightenment swallowing and digesting the centuries of Catholic culture that had made France.
Reflecting on the two different inspirations for these monuments, Weigel asked himself, “Which culture would more firmly secure the moral foundations of democracy? The culture that built this stunning rational, angular, geometrically precise but essentially featureless cube? Or the culture that produced the vaulting and bosses, the gargoyles and flying buttresses, the nooks and crannies, the asymmetries and holy ‘unsameness’ of Notre Dame and the other great Gothic cathedrals of Europe?”
This book is the result of the question he posed for himself in Paris.
Of course, Weigel writes as a convinced American Catholic with a tremendous love for all that Europe has meant. Like the great majority of Americans, he is descended from European immigrants. He has traveled throughout Europe, where he is frequently invited to lecture and teach. In addition, he both knew and wrote about arguably the greatest European of the past century, Karol Wojtyla.
At the same time, as a loyal American, Weigel is concerned for the future of the United States, fearing that the United States may follow the road Europe appears to have chosen. This book is motivated in part by his desire to help his fellow Americans avoid Europe's mistakes.
Weigel then turns to “Christophobia” — a term coined by international legal scholar J.H.H. Weiler (himself an observant Jew) to describe a phenomenon clearly prevalent in many parts of Europe, where even a mention of Christ or the Church in private conversation, much less in a public forum, is enough to cut short public dialogue or private conversation. What a contrast with John Paul's ringing proclamation in his first encyclical of Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of man!
Weigel distills from Weiler's work eight components of Christophobia. In somewhat different ways, the reader will see that they also apply to North America, affecting our culture, entertainment, media, government, education, etc.
The first factor is the “20th century experience of the holocaust,” as if the Shoah resulted from a Christian-based anti-Semitism. Second is “the 1968 mindset” that many leaders of that generation took with them as they rose to important positions in government, the universities, and the media. These aging veterans of the spirit of '68 can echo the Ecrasez l'infame (Crush the infamous thing!) of Voltaire in the 18th century, the infamy being Christ and his Church. Third among the components of Christophobia, and more particular to Europe, is “a psychological and ideological backlash to the Revolution of 1989 in Central and Eastern Europe; strangely enough, because the Revolution was largely fueled by Christians reacting against communism as the ‘embodiment’ of secularism, psychological denial followed.”
Fourth on the list Weigel recounts is “continuing resentment of the dominant role once played by Christian Democratic Parties in post-war Europe … in the creation of the Common Market, then the European Community and so forth.”
As can clearly be seen from all of the above, “Christophobia” is part of a massive rewriting of a historical past, which includes the editing out of unruly realities that contradict the secularist interpretation of history. Certainly Europe would be something quite different today if Catholic statesmen such as Charles de Gaulle, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, Alcide de Gasperi and Konrad Adenauer had not steered post-World War II Europe during the years when the Soviet threat loomed largest over their countries.
The fifth point is “Europe's tendency to parse everything right/left — and then identify Christianity with the right, which is the party (as the left sees it) of xenophobia, racism, intolerance, bigotry, narrowness, nationalism, and everything else Europe must not be.”
Similar name-calling is increasingly pervasive in the United States, with opponents throwing mud recklessly, instead of calmly discussing issues. Next Weigel lists resentment toward Pope John Paul II (now transferred to Benedict XVI) among both secularists and Catholic dissidents.
The popes and the Church are accused of being pre-modern, but as Weigel sagely points out, “The alternative possibility — that John Paul II was a thoroughly modern man with an alternative, and perhaps more penetrating reading of modernity — simply cannot be entertained.”
Seventh among the conditions conducive to Christophobia is that Europeans have been “fed by distorted teaching about European history that stresses the Enlightenment's roots of the democratic project to the virtual exclusion of democracy's historical cultural roots in the Christian soil of pre-Enlightenment Europe. Nothing new here. Since the “Whig” historians began propagating their view of the progress of human history flowing out of both the Reformation and the Enlightenment, mainstream historians have basically shrugged off the so called “Dark Ages” and Middle Ages as obscure wasted centuries full of Papist superstition and barbarian warfare.
For the eighth element in Christophobia, Weigel conveys Weiler's suggestion “that the aging children of 1968, now middle-aged and soon to be retired, are upset that, in some cases, their children have become Christian believers.”
Of all his points, this is both the most hopeful and perhaps the least realistic.
The proof of its accuracy will be the presence in 2030 of many Catholic lovers of Christ seriously influencing the culture of a newly reborn Europe.
Weigel concludes his fascinating book by laying out various scenarios for the future. He clearly is pessimistic about Europe, but shows a tremendous desire to be proven wrong. Like many, he sees John Paul II — the very best that Catholic Europe had to offer — as the emblem of hope for possible positive change, particularly as his writings are studied and implemented by the Church in the decades and even centuries ahead.
Meanwhile, every educated, committed Catholic needs to think geopolitically, grappling with the big questions opened up by the world's rapid transition, like it or not, into the “global village” of Marshall McLuhan. Only in this way can we participate fully in the “New Evangelization.”
Maybe this time we will get it as right as it is possible to get anything in our fallen, yet redeemed world.
Reading George Weigel's elegant contribution is a good way to begin.
Father C.J. McCloskey is a research fellow of the Faith and Reason Institute and a priest of Opus Dei.
Frmccloskey.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father C. John McCloskey ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: National Media Watch DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:When Is a Fetus a Baby?
“A 13-year-old giant panda gave birth to a cub at San Diego Zoo, but a second baby died in the womb,” one story reported.
“A cancer-ravaged woman robbed of consciousness by a stroke has given birth after being kept on life support for three months to give her fetus extra time to develop,” said the other, referring to Susan Torres of Alexandria, Va.
The headline on the Wall Street Journal's website opinionjournal.-com summed up the inconsistency: “Life Begins at Conception — if You're a Panda.”
But the Associated Press soon corrected itself. Later reports had the news service describing the stillborn panda cub as a “fetus,” and the live-born baby as a “child.” The latter article, however, later still referred to Torres’ unborn baby as a “fetus.”
Newspaper Misrepresents Cardinal's Remarks
The daily first reported on the cardinal's alleged comments June 17, when the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was meeting in Chicago. But in fact, the cardinal said the issue would be the subject of a document being prepared by the Vatican.
Cardinal George did say, however, that a “vocation to celibacy for life” is a prerequisite for entering the seminary, whether a man has a same-sex attraction or not. And he said that under current norms, “anyone who has been part of a gay subculture or has lived promiscuously as a heterosexual” would not be admitted to a seminary “no matter how many years in his background that might have occurred.”
Phoenix Bans Pro-Abortion Speakers
The issue made the news after a recent misunderstanding where speakers at a memorial service bowed out because they thought that they were banned.
Bishop Olmsted's actions followed the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ 2004 Statement, “Catholics in Political Life.” That document cites Catholics who do not follow Church teaching and leaves the decision regarding public speaking up to individual bishops.
An invitation “would provide them with a platform which would suggest support for their actions,” wrote Bishop Olmsted.
Napolitano, a Methodist, was forbidden to speak at a Catholic church in Scottsdale last year. She has not commented publicly on the bishop's letter.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Theologian: Benedict Must Confront European Secularism DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:ROME — Theologian and author Michael Novak currently holds the George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion and Public Policy at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. The veteran Vatican-watcher spoke recently with Register correspondent Edward Pentin about some of the emerging themes of the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI.
What is your opinion on Pope Benedict's strategy on confronting secularism, particularly in Europe?
That is the leading issue. He would be evading reality if he did not address it.
It's not simply that Europe is becoming more secular and that's not Christian. It's really that it's very dangerous to the European conception of rights. There is a humanism that has been built into Christianity since Christ, but made quite explicit in St. Augustine's City of God, which was written in 420 A.D.
But it's very clear in Aquinas — Aquinas really put the stamp of humanism on the Church well before the secular Renaissance. There's a very fine book by Professor Rubenstein from George Mason University called Aristotle's Children (Harcourt, 2003). There's a decisive moment which moves the West ahead of the Muslim world — Aquinas, the turning to Aristotle, which put the West on an empirical path that had enormous power.
You have to remember, as the sociologist Robert Nisbet said, the Enlightenment chose for itself in its own name one of the all-time high marks of bigotry — it called itself the Enlightenment, the enemy's the darkness. My goodness, how much can you stack the argument?
This was tragic because many of the best things of the Enlightenment were actually Christian values in secular terms but now without their Christian grounding. For instance, a care for the vulnerable and the needy — every progressive person feels that today. But that's not Greek nor Roman, nor is it Kantian. Even though it's described in secular terms — liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, fraternity) — it's a Christian inheritance.
How much do you think the problems of secularism could be a cause of a possible “clash of civilizations”?
If you look at the new Islam, the secular political movement, one of the main strains has been the appalling record of the secular West, which is the disdain for what happens to young Muslims when they come into the secular West and the wasteland that is the spiritual landscape.
They find themselves spiritually far superior in depth and in their sense of God to what they see in the West. And they particularly single out France for this, and Turkey. Turkey took a draconian secular model rather than the British and American way [that was] a mild kind of secularism and a tolerant sort of secularism, recognizing the role of religion.
As Pope Benedict says, they're against societies that have become godless?
Yes, to them it's a distressingly low-brow, low-value basis for civilization. It opens to hedonism and nihilism.
So when Pope Benedict calls on Europe to rediscover its Christian roots to tackle it, that's going to the heart of the same issue?
I would think so, and this will have an impact on family life, on morale, on confidence in the future, even — though it may be a little bit strong — its stability. There are pearl-like sentences in Pope Benedict's speech in Subiaco in early April.
Why is the evolution debate so prominent right now in the United States?
It is partly because the science is leading so many scientists — those who are not in biology and even some who are — to have a few questions about the overstatements of Darwin's theory, and that at so many junctures in evolution history, cosmic history even, a slight change in the conditions would have made human life impossible on earth, and at every one of those junctures a turn was taken to making human life possible.
This happened several hundred times, if you think about it, so there seems to be a pattern here. That's what they mean by intelligent design: The design was always one way and that was in the direction of human consciousness.
And the rational response of the Catholic Church gives room for debate?
Yes, for those who are willing to take it up, and more and more are.
What's really striking is the number of intellectuals who have become pro-life in the last 10 years. Take for example the Weekly Standard, but they're not alone. Quite remarkable, because once you admit to yourself that whatever it is that's aborted has its own individual genetic code, you can no longer say it's a thing. You can no longer say it's anything but a human being in general. It's an individual human being, and then the more you let that sink in, the more the logic unfolds.
What's your overall assessment of Benedict so far?
You remember how people used to cheer “John Paul II, we love you”? The new cheer is taking the Roman numeral I, “Benedict X-V-I, he's our guy.” That sort of says it. I think he's very popular so far.
Are there many surprises to come?
I think so — he's going to be a much more radical Pope than people expect.
Generally, my theory is, “Go with the brightest guy.” Bright guys don't always have their heads turned on straight, but if they do, go with that guy. I think the cardinals did that.
Edward Pentin writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Prolife Victories DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:20-Year Coma Ends
THE EARLY SHOW, Aug. 4 — For two decades, Sarah Scantlin seemed entirely unaware of the world around her. In September of 1984, she'd been hit by a drunken driver and slipped into a coma. Then, earlier this year, she shocked her parents and doctors when she began to speak.
She has since undergone surgery on her long-unused limbs and speech therapy to unlock her long-dormant tongue. Her speech is still limited.
However, it seems that throughout her 20-year coma, she could see, hear and understand what was going on around her. Shortly after she awoke, her father asked what she knew about events that had occurred years earlier. “Sarah, what's 9/11?” he asked. She responded: “Bad. Fire. Airplanes. Building. Hurt people.”
Indians and Family Size
BBC NEWS, July 23 — Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has come out against forced restrictions on family size as a way to control population growth in his country.
Addressing the National Commission on Population, Singh said state governments should improve education and health rather than try to control the number of children couples may have.
Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said the push for two-child families had resulted in cases of infanticide.
A BBC correspondent in Delhi says the central government now proclaims it a fundamental right for Indian citizens to choose the number of children they have.
States for Life
STATELINE.ORG, July 27 — More than 500 bills that would restrict abortion were introduced in state legislatures this year. A flurry of legislation was enacted, including parental-notification measures and requirements to explain abortion alternatives to mothers.
Three states passed first-of-a-kind laws that require women who want an abortion either to be told about fetal pain or offered anesthesia to help eliminate pain to the unborn child.
Meanwhile, pro-lifers had mixed results this legislative season in blocking access to “morning-after” abortion pills.
Matthew Wilson, a political scientist, said that the gradual loss by Democrats of their former dominance in statehouses has opened the way for new initiatives.
“A lot of the pro-life forces felt like, now it's time to see tangible action from these Republican majorities that they helped to create at the state level,” Wilson said.
Czech Abortions Drop
The 27,574 abortions committed in the Czech Republic last year represent the lowest number for any former Soviet block country. In the early 1990s, as many as 1 in 3 unborn children were eliminated through abortion. The abortion rate peaked in 1988 at 113,730.
In addition, most abortions in the early 1990s were carried out on women who had already had two children — approximately 40% of mothers. Now only 10% of mothers with children opt to end the life of a younger sibling.
Canadian Bishop Defended
Stephen Jenuth, the president of the association, said, “I'm not sure Bishop Henry is even discriminating. He is essentially stating what his religious beliefs are and, in a free society, he should be able to.”
Conservative Jewish rabbi Moshe Saks has also objected to the complaint against Bishop Henry as “an attack on religion,” and told The Calgary Herald: “In its own way, it's a hate crime.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Most Beautiful Church in New York? DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:St. Jean Baptiste Catholic Church in New York City anticipated the Year of the Eucharist by more than a century: It has held daily exposition of the Blessed Sacrament since 1900.
Dedicated in 1913, the church is practically pure classic Italian Renaissance. It didn't lose a note of that when it got a decade-long renovation and restoration completed in 1997.
The results are a regal palace for our Eucharistic King. All the sumptuous Renaissance-inspired art and architecture has one purpose — to bring honor and glory to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. All day every day except during Mass, Our Lord is enthroned for adoration in a gold monstrance on the altar.
Lessons on the Eucharist are everywhere, from stained glass to statues to the cornucopia of carved and painted symbols in filigreed grapes, wheat, ciboria, pelicans and angelic faces in finest Renaissance manner. It takes a book to describe them all. Indeed, a beautiful pictorial book about the parish is available.
Take the original, ornate high altar rising 50 feet above the sanctuary. (The dome above the front sanctuary rises 175 feet.) The breathtaking combination of marbles, mosaics and gold shape everything from the tabernacle that looks like a miniature Renaissance church to the images of Our Lady and saints devoted to the Eucharist, including Thomas Aquinas, Clare and Margaret Mary.
Below the tabernacle there's a high relief of Da Vinci's “Last Supper.” Above it, St. Michael the Archangel stands in a vibrant mosaic.
Inside the dome, a brilliant mosaic of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament looks down upon a six-foot gold sunburst monstrance. For years this monstrance, hand-carved in Paris, was the focal point for daily exposition. Now it's used only on the feasts of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) and Christ the King.
Looking around, it's easy to understand why the late Cardinal John O'Connor said of this place: “This may be the most beautiful church in the archdiocese.”
Close to the King
Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament Father Anthony Schueller, the pastor, told us the church is following Vatican directives to enthrone the Blessed Sacrament not too distant or too high, hence the new location on today's front altar. This old white marble altar is intricately carved; it includes a large host placed in the center and the inscription “IHS.”
“We've tried to promote a greater sense of intimacy and connection or relationship between the Eucharist and the liturgy, and its extension in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament,” Father Schueller says. “I'm amazed with the number of people who come up on the steps and kneel (close to the monstrance).”
With the church near a subway and Lenox Hill Hospital, upwards of 1,000 people pray daily before the Blessed Sacrament. As they do, they're surrounded by other celestial reminders, like the superlative stained-glass windows that capture events prefiguring the holy Eucharist and presenting major Church events centering on the Blessed Sacrament.
The Lorin Studios in Chartes, France, crafted all 38 major windows and many minor ones between 1914 and 1919. Alongside such key scenes as the glorious Wedding at Cana, we found significant highlights like the Eucharistic Procession at Lourdes, in which a priest carries the monstrance among the sick while Our Lady looks beseechingly toward heaven.
Once we learned of the parish's history, none of its exceptional attributes were any wonder. The parish began in 1882 to serve many French Canadians living and working nearby. Ten years later, the church became a pilgrimage center when a Msgr. Marquis, carrying a bone of St. Anne given by Leo XIII for the saint's shrine in Quebec, stopped overnight. People quickly crowded the church to venerate the relic.
The monsignor had to remain three weeks while 300,000 people streamed in from many states, sometimes waiting hours outside in driving rains. Shortly after, the priest obtained another relic for this church's spontaneous shrine — soon named a national shrine to St. Anne.
Cures were countless over the years. No telling how many still are. Even Babe Ruth came here to pray.
Today, the shrine's original statue of St. Anne shows her as Mary's encouraging teacher. Her daughter smiles, pointing to her mother. The sculptor took a full year to carve it from Carrara marble.
Today the thumb-sized bone fragment from St. Anne's arm is presented for veneration in a gold reliquary.
In 1900, the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament was invited to administer the church, and on Dec. 12 the never-ending daily exposition and Eucharistic adoration began.
St. Peter Julian Eymard founded the congregation in 1856 to promote daily exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, frequent holy Communion and daily confessions.
In May 1868 he gave our Blessed Mother the title Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament (patroness of the congregation), later used by Pius X. Her feast day is celebrated on May 13, same as Our Lady of Fatima.
Adoration Station
The left side altar again depicts Mary as Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament with a magnificent Carrara statue carved in 1913 in the Vatican studios. She presents the Child Jesus to us, and he presents us with the host and the chalice.
Pope John Paul II reminded us of this awe-inspiring, simple, yet deeply profound message in his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia (On the Eucharist in Its Relationship to the Church). “Mary is a ‘woman of the Eucharist’ in her whole life. The Church, which looks to Mary as a model, is also called to imitate her in her relationship to this most holy mystery.”
St. Joseph raises thought of his relationship to our Eucharistic Lord at the other major side altar. John the Baptist does the same with a lamb at his feet in a statue original to the church.
There's a smaller side altar honoring St. Peter Julian Eymard. Ever dedicated to our Eucharistic Lord, he stands in a white marble statue holding a monstrance. Below it, the humerus from his right arm, an arm that so many times held the Eucharist, can be venerated.
It's little wonder this church calls itself the Eucharistic heart of New York. That heart beats loudly and clearly for us in this Year of the Eucharist. God willing, it will continue long after.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
Planning Your Visit
Sunday Masses are 9 and 10:30 a.m., plus noon, 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Daily Mass is at 7:30 a.m., and 12:15 and 5:30 p.m. Confessors are available daily, as is exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. For more, go to sjbrcc.org or call (212) 288-5082.
Getting There
The church is on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 76th St. From mid-town, either stroll the 25 blocks up Lexington or take a bus up Madison Avenue and walk east a few short blocks to the church.
----- EXCERPT: St. Jean Baptiste Church, New York City ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Sanity and Sex Ed DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:PROLIFE PROFILE
Sally Wallace believes that parents’ most difficult responsibility today is educating their children in the true meaning of sexuality.
“The happiness of your sons and daughters now and in the future,” she adds, “depends greatly upon whether they receive and live the truth about sexuality in a world that lies to them about sexuality every day through television, movies and our culture.”
It was with this awareness in mind that Wallace, along with her husband, Tom, of Endwell, N.Y., parents of eight grown children (and grandparents of 17) developed the Catholic Parents Program, also known as Life and Hope.
Wallace points out that the Catholic Church has long offered resources to parents who want to form their children to think with the Church on matters of love and sexuality. She notes the 1995 publication of the Pontifical Council for the Family's document The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality. In it the Church reminds parents they are the first and best-qualified teachers of their children — particularly in this area.
Prior to developing Life and Hope, Wallace was struck by how sex education was being presented in schools, including Catholic ones.
“I was concerned,” she says. “I didn't want to speak to [my youngest] too young, but when I read When Babies Are Made, he would snuggle close to me. He looked at me, awestruck. It was just the most precious moment. It created a closeness I can't describe.”
According to Wallace, the Catholic Parents Program connects mothers and fathers to the pure teaching of the Church on a practical level. The program helps parents promote, in a compelling way, the virtues of chastity and the preciousness of every human life.
The Catholic Parents Program began in 1997, when the Wallaces’ pastor had them gather couples in the parish to study Truth and Meaning.
In Spring 2000, the four-part sessions went over big at a Catholic high school. Commanding speakers, such as Mother Agnes Donovan, mother superior of the Sisters of Life, gave it to the parents straight.
“The parents really discovered what they heard was not disconnected from everyday life but essential to it,” says Wallace.
Next, writings and encyclicals like Humanae Vitae and John Paul II's Letter to Families and Familiaris Consortio (The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World) were added to the program.
In 2001, four speakers were taped presenting one segment each of Truth and Meaning: psychologist Dr. Thomas Lickona, author of Educating for Character: How Our Schools Can Teach Respect and Responsibility; Oblate of the Virgin Mary provincial Father Timothy Gallagher; Father Thomas Ward, a Franciscan University graduate and pastor of two parishes in the Syracuse, N.Y., diocese; and Father Charles Connor, who has produced several EWTN series.
The event aired on EWTN under the title “Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality” — a third title connecting it unmistakably to the 1995 pontifical document.
Today, the Catholic Parents Program offers parents and parishes lots of resources to choose from — videotapes of talks, copies of all the documents and encyclicals it promotes and several books. One of these is Talking to Youth About Sexuality: A Parents Guide. Presented in Q-and-A format, and aimed at junior-high and high-school kids, it draws all its content from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Heart of the Home
Father Joseph Blonski, pastor of St. Joseph and Holy Trinity Church in Aztec, N.M., was so impressed by Father Ward's talk when he saw “Life and Hope” on EWTN that he ordered a copy and presented it to his parishioners.
“It's so refreshing to see young priests enthusiastic about the Church's teaching, and able to convey it articulately,” says Father Blonski.
He believes the program has multiple uses.
“It would be good for priests to see with or without parishioners,” he says. “It models how priests can discuss these intimate contents, if you will, in a down-to-earth and natural fashion — in a way people can relate to.”
The EWTN spotlight also sold Leonard and Barbara DiBella of Old Saybook, Conn., parents of seven children, ages 3 to 17.
“Any type of teaching on human sexuality should be done in the heart of the home,” says Barbara.
Their prayers to find the right help were answered the night Barbara watched Father Ward's presentation.
“He was elevating the family to how God wants the family to be elevated,” she says, “explaining how sacred human sex is and how sacred the family is.”
The DiBellas lost no time getting the Catholic Parents Program. Then, with her pastor's approval, they presented it to interested fellow parishioners at St. John Church. Father Kevin Reilly of the parish was on hand to answer questions in light of Church teachings during discussions after each of the videos.
“The ‘Life and Hope’ program helps parents realize,” says Wallace, “that reading a little part of the documents at a time will open up immense truths and mysteries for them in the moral life — and will bring such joy to their whole life.”
Barbara DiBella agrees. She uses “Life and Hope” every day at home. “I'm always trying to teach what the Church teaches and I want to let the children know what God's plan is about the beauty and sacredness of marriage,” she says. “I know they listen, because they ask me and their father a lot of questions.”
From her experience with other parents, DiBella also finds “Life and Hope” deepens the parents’ own understanding and appreciation of the faith.
“This is a program,” she says, “that gives back to our generation the solid Catholic teaching many didn't get.”
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
Information
Catholic Parents Program
Catholicparentsprogram.org
(607) 754-1824
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Self-Help for the Computer-Challenged DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:Recently a new home-improvement store opened up nearby. I needed to go there to purchase wood for our new monastery.
Now, since our ministry is tax-exempt, we always have to find out how to proceed when buying something at a new store. In this case it was pretty clear-cut. One of the clerks told me to go to customer service.
When I got there, I found another man setting up a tax-exempt account. His clerk seemed to be having trouble figuring out what to do.
Meanwhile, the clerk who helped me seemed to know what she was doing. She asked me questions and typed my responses into her computer. But she hit a snag, too, when the software she was using seemed to go buggy. I stood at the counter for some time while she and another clerk tried to figure it out.
They finally did figure out my account setup. The other tax-exempt customer was still there when I left.
Now, my clerk told me I could go to any register with my purchase and just give the cashier my tax-exempt number. I was now “in the system,” so it should be smooth sailing.
Guess again. The middle-aged cashier didn't have the slightest idea what to do. Neither did the manager to whom she called for help.
Finally my customer-service clerk came over. She pulled out a little “cheat sheet,” then went through a litany of steps — push F11, select this, select that and so on. When she was all done, the cashier told her she'd gone too fast. She hadn't had a chance to learn the steps. The customer service clerk only responded, “Well, you're just going to have to get used to it!”
I felt bad for the cashier. Very few of the steps had struck me as being intuitive. Nor did the cashier have a little “cheat sheet” in front of her. Unless the cashier either took shorthand or had a photographic memory, she couldn't possibly repeat the process she'd just been shown.
Knowing that most function-key software was written years ago, I figured this store hadn't upgraded its checkouts in quite some time. They really needed a user-friendly interface at the point of sale.
I know of a competing home-improvement store that has touch-screen menus for clerks and cashiers. However, even there, the layout of the menus is dependent on the thinking of the software programmer behind it. A clerk still may not know — or be able to intuit — what to hit to begin processing a tax-exempt purchase.
Not long after, I met another middle-aged woman with computer questions. This time it was in the public library. She was looking for an instructional video on how to use the Windows operating system.
I pointed out one on the shelf, but she said she had already tried it and found it confusing. I then explained to her that, under the “Start” menu on her computer, she'll find the “Help” command. Clicking there, she would find a tutorial, perhaps even with video, of how to do various tasks on her computer. Also, I told her many software programs come with help menus.
Guys, I have found, would rather spend hours blindly clicking around than use a computer-help menu. (I guess it's like stopping to ask for driving directions.)
The Real World vs. Theory
How difficult and frustrating it can be to make sense of new software programs! It must be especially stressful for people in fast-paced work environments like retail stores, where lines back up and customers get grouchy over even a brief delay.
I am one of the few people who will actually read a software manual cover to cover. I am living proof that anyone, even people lacking a technical background (like me), can figure these things out with a little time, patience and determination.
The same goes for using the help menus that are offered in most software programs. The thing is, these depend on you entering the correct word or words to describe what you want to know how to do. It's frustrating when the responses to your query don't address the problem you're having.
Most of us use only a small percentage of the features available on the software programs we run. We are bound to need outside help at some point when we need to do something we haven't done before.
Software-support websites can be just as confusing as print manuals and desktop help menus. I was told once that the vast majority of people only drill down two levels on a website before giving up their search for help.
Charles Woodson of the educational psychology department at the University of California did two experiments examining the utility of help information as an aid to new users of computer software. In both experiments, the help information was reorganized to reflect the conceptual model or mental organization inferred from users’ response to questions, rather than the dictionary-like organization favored by programmers.
A retention test showed higher scores on questions about the program — and student ratings indicated a higher opinion of the instruction they received and greater self-confidence in their knowledge.
Woodson concluded from these experiments that the difficulties new users have with most computer manuals is the lack of correspondence between the user's schemata (“mental model” of the task), and the programmers’ conceptualization of the task upon which the manual is usually based.
This study shows that software programmers and website designers may not be the best people to decide the organization or layout of instruction manuals or websites. That is why ordinary users find these things so daunting. Online FAQs (“frequently asked questions”) are probably more realistic in helping people precisely because they are based on user problems.
So if you're a self-taught computer “power user,” and feel frustrated by software manuals and websites, know that you are not alone. It is precisely because people like you and me weren't consulted that the manuals and websites are so confusing!
Brother John Raymond is co-founder of the Monks of Adoration in Venice, Florida.
Monthly Web Picks
Annulments are not very well understood by many Catholics, so let's look at sites related to this topic.
Jimmy Akin has a FAQ page on annulments, some of which I have frequently heard on the Catholic Information Network, at cin.org/users/james/files/annulments.htm.
If you are looking for more FAQs on annulments, see Father John T. Catoir's article “Understanding Annulments” at americancatholic.org/Messenger/Sep1998/feature1.asp.
You can also read “Ten Questions About Annulments” by Msgr. Joseph M. Champlin at americancatholic.org/Newsletters/CU/ac1002.asp.
See General and Specific Impediments to Sacramental Marriage from the Church's Code of Canon Law on the Vatican's site: vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P3X.HTM.
To find your local diocesan marriage tribunal, go to your diocesan website, which you can locate through the USCCB website, usccb.org/dioceses.htm.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Consider the Crusades DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:CRUSADES: THE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY
Edited by Thomas F. Madden
University of Michigan Press, 2004
224 pages, $35
To order: (800) 621-2736 or press.umich.edu
The rhetoric of Osama bin Laden and other Islamic radicals, the current strife in the Middle East and a recent big-budget movie (Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven) have all helped bring about a renewed interest in the Crusades. Unfortunately, the newfound focus on the historic clashes has also resulted in the revitalization of old myths and polemics.
For Catholics, this misinformation is nothing new, as these medieval wars are often the basis for criticism of the Church. In his 2003 book The New Anti-Catholicism, religious historian Philip Jenkins noted the absurdity of presenting the Crusades as a singularly Western evil or a Catholic crime, suggesting, “This interpretation is so persistent because it has become so invaluable a component of the critique of Catholic Christianity.”
Ignorance of the true nature of the Crusades is also partially rooted in a failure by specialists to convey historical research to a popular audience. In fact, a novelist, a journalist and an ex-nun have written of some of the most popular mass-market books on the subject. The past several years, however, have witnessed a concerted effort by scholars to cross over into the somewhat taboo terrain of historical writing for a general audience. Crusades: The Illustrated History is one such example.
As the editor notes in the introduction, the book aims “to satisfy the popular desire for answers about the Crusades with the fruits of years of exacting historical research. The professional historians assembled here have each made significant contributions to our understanding of the Crusades — and here they have written fascinating narratives that reflect the latest conclusions of modern scholarship.”
Eight established Crusades scholars contribute to the book's nine chapters. The writing is lively and accessible; the section on the legacy of the Crusades is particularly noteworthy.
The problem with viewing these events primarily through a modern lens is also addressed. One historian explains that “to seek to force the medieval Crusades into nationalist, colonialist or racist molds is to distort their fundamental character.”
The engaging narrative is complemented by an impressive array of more than 150 full-color illustrations, photographs and maps. Chapters also feature occasional sidebars and boxes, which consider some intriguing asides — St. Bernard and the Jews, the legends of Saladin, Mark Twain in the Holy Land.
While this is the rare coffee-table book that effectively combines style with substance, there are a few minor flaws. The biggest shortcoming is probably the chapter titled “Crusades in Europe,” which gives short shrift to many of these campaigns. The discussion of crusading in Spain and the Reconquista is especially disappointing, since these wars contributed significantly to both the evolution of the idea of holy war and to the acceptance of crusades in regions other than the Holy Land.
Furthermore, they were also the most militarily successful aspect of the crusades — a success that still irks radicals like bin Laden, who refer to this as the “Andalucian Atrocity” and believe Spain should return to Moorish rule. It is regrettable that only four pages are devoted to these 700 years.
Then again, this book is not intended as a comprehensive history. Instead, Crusades is a first-rate introduction that dispels myths while providing a narrative grounded in current research.
We often hear the saying that history is written by the victors. Thankfully, in this instance, it's being written by the historians.
Vincent Ryan, a graduate student in medieval history, writes from St Louis, Missouri.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Vincent Ryan ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Mariaphobic Response Syndrome DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:Recently, I participated in an online conversation about the Blessed Virgin.
As an evangelical convert to the Catholic faith, I can empathize with the deep fears many evangelicals have about Mary. It's a terror that runs way down into the guts and marrow of many evangelicals. It's a deep, unreasoning and nameless fear that does not lose any of its power even when every so-called “basis” for the fear is debunked.
And like many irrational fears, it has the odd quality of distracting us from reality and clear thinking.
To illustrate what I mean, let me sum up not a few discussions I have witnessed between Catholics and evangelicals:
Evangelical: You must not worship Mary!
Catholic: Relax. I don't worship Mary.
Evangelical: Oh, but you do!
Catholic: Actually, I think I'm the only one qualified to make that call, aren't I?
Evangelical: But it looks to me like you worship her! You pray to her and ask her to intercede for you, don't you?
Catholic: Yes, I do like to talk to my mother about things. But I don't worship her and I don't think she's God. She's a creature, a fellow Christian (albeit the great one). How would you feel if I said, “You worship your barber! I know you do, because you sometimes ask him to pray for you?”
Evangelical: That's totally different!
Catholic: Actually, it's exactly the same. Which is why Scripture says don't judge by appearances. If you'd just ask me rather than telling me, I'd be happy to tell you what I worship. I worship Jesus Christ fully present in the holy Eucharist — body, blood, soul and divinity.
Evangelical: I don't think the Eucharist is Jesus’ body and blood, but simply a symbol. But let's not argue over such fine points of theology as “transubstantiation.” We both celebrate Communion in our own ways. And that's the important thing.
Catholic: Did you hear me? I said I fall down in worship and adoration before something that looks just like a piece of bread and a cup of wine. I say “Hosanna” to it. I adore it as the very God of the Universe! The Eucharist is my Lord and my God, my salvation, my life, the very source of my being!
Evangelical: Yes. I think that's a bit overboard, but let's not argue about it. You have your version of communion and I have mine. Now, about Mary worship: Don't you see how incredibly dangerous it is for you to commit the grave sin of idolizing Mary …
If this were the only time I'd seen exchanges like this, I would laugh it off as a singular incidence of obtuseness.
But, in fact, it's not at all uncommon to see evangelicals devoting weirdly disproportionate amounts of energy to the strange task of persuading Catholics to cease doing what they are not doing while cheerfully and warmly ignoring what they are doing.
To be sure, that doesn't mean I think evangelicals should get on the ball and start a campaign against Eucharistic adoration. On the contrary, I think Eucharistic adoration the highest duty of the human race and something that should be encouraged till the glory of the Lord covers the face of the earth as the waters cover the sea.
But I do think it mighty odd that somebody who doesn't believe the Eucharist is Jesus Christ cares passionately that I not fall down in worship of Mary — whom I do not adore — yet shrugs indifferently when I fall down in worship of the Host.
It gives one the strong impression that there's something other than concern about idolatry here.
That something is what I call Mariaphobic Response Syndrome: the irrational terror of the Blessed Virgin that paradoxically makes her loom much larger in many evangelical imaginations than in Catholic ones.
As a recovering MRS sufferer, I can tell you that she is perhaps the single biggest obstacle facing the potential convert to the Church from evangelicalism. The papacy? Small beer! The Eucharist? Got it. Sacred Tradition? Not a problem! Mary?
Something in the gut stirs. The terror that the whole Catholic faith is a vast charade flares up in the mind. Say what they will, the “Catholic Mary” is some terrible pretty face on the worship of Babylonian deities. Must … get … out! Must … escape! It's all a trick.
Once I'm in the Church, I'll be ushered into the secret chambers where scary Marian rites of worship take place in the secret rooms beneath the sanctuary. There'll be no escape. I will be forced to worship the Goddess!!!!!
Then you enter the Church and reality hits you: Mary gets small. Or rather, she resumes her normal place. You discover the comic fact that nobody thinks she's another God, as you feared. You discover the even funnier fact that a small minority of Catholics think she's another pope.
But more on that later …
This column is the first of two parts.
Mark Shea is Senior Content Editor for CatholicExchange.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mark Shea ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Virtues of Volunteerism DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:Heading into autumn, Jaime Rehmann could have had two semesters of medical school behind her. Instead, the 23-year-old from Knoxville, Tenn., will begin her first year.
Rehmann, who earned a biology degree from Franciscan University of Steubenville last year, postponed her enrollment at the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine in order to do a year of missions work in Ecuador.
In doing so, she joined the ranks of Catholic college graduates who are dedicating themselves to evangelical work before entering the job market or starting graduate school.
A student-led trip during spring break of her junior year was Rehmann's first encounter with Ecuador. The experience prompted her to lead the trip the following year.
“A week wasn't enough,” she explains. “God wanted something more.”
She was glad to be back with the people who had touched her heart. “It was wonderful to be with these people,” she says.
Although the Ecuadorian population is 95% Catholic, most are in need of religious instruction, notes Rehmann. She taught the Catechism, read Bible stories with the children and spoke to the adults about natural family planning, the Church-approved method to pace the rate of childbirths, which is relatively unknown there.
She was impressed by their devotion to the Blessed Mother. “They love Mary so much,” she says.
Guitar in hand, she shared Christ's love through praise songs at schools, churches, and hospitals in the capital and along the coast. “I'd visit and sing,” she recalls. “They loved it.”
During difficult times, her faith encouraged her: “I had to grow in trust of God. It was him and me.”
As much as her year in Ecuador strengthened her faith, it also reaffirmed Rehmann's career choice. She saw the great need for medical care in the eyes of the children who waited weeks to have surgery in the government hospital.
“I have the desire to learn all I can,” she says, so she can “come back as a doctor and serve them, helping them body and soul.”
Back to School
Nick Blaha has a liberal-arts degree, but the 25-year-old hasn't left college yet.
As a missionary with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (Focus), the native of Kansas City, Kan., shares the truth of Christ and his Church with college students.
After graduating from Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, Calif., in 2002, Blaha returned home to take classes for admission to medical school. He also attended a Bible study led by a former Focus missionary. That's where he first heard about the organization.
“I wasn't interested in doing anything like Focus,” Blaha admits. But that changed. “The more I learned about Focus, the more I saw that it was a tremendous way to share what I'd been given at Thomas Aquinas.”
Focus reaches out to students on Catholic and secular campuses across the country through small-group Bible studies, large group events and conferences, and one-on-one discipleship.
For the past two years, Blaha has served at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has seen how much young adults need role models.
“There's a hunger for the spiritual, a desire for true maturity,” he says. “When young people see someone who is trying to live out true manhood or womanhood, it strikes a chord.”
Blaha recalls the freshman he encouraged to attend last year's Focus national conference. The young man was attending Mass but was still into the party scene. “He got the last seat on the bus, then had a tremendous turnaround,” he recalls. “He was ready to hear something.” Now that young man is leading a Bible study of his own.
“It's very humbling,” Blaha says. “You know it's not you personally. God is working through the things we say and do.”
Now Blaha is going into his third year — many missionaries serve longer than the initial two-year commitment — during which he will be campus director at the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts.
Heading back to school, Blaha is encouraged by his generation's eagerness to follow Christ. “Christ,” he says, “brings out the greatness in people.”
Goodbye, Comfort Zone
As graduation drew near, Mary Beth Albers knew God was prompting her to serve him in a special way.
“I felt called to do something that required me to trust God and go outside my comfort zone,” says the 23-year-old from El Dorado, Kan., who studied English and mass communications at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan.
Albers looked into a variety of missions work early in her senior year, including Focus.
But when her brother, Father James Albers of St. Benedict's Abbey on Benedictine's campus, suggested she look into missions work with the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, she did.
After graduating in 2004, Albers headed off to teach English and religion courses at Our Lady of Mount Carmel High School in Benque Viejo del Carmen, Belize.
Going to Central America was definitely outside her comfort zone, in more ways than one.
“I didn't know anyone. There was no electricity, no running water,” she recalls.
Teaching was new as well.
“It was scary at first, never having taught before,” she admits.
Her journal expressed her need for Christ: “There is nothing constant in my life except for Jesus,” she wrote during her first week in Belize.
The sacraments helped her feel at home. “You rely on that to strengthen you wherever you are,” she says. She found comfort living in community with the order's religious, the other volunteers and the parishioners. “There's such a family feeling,” she says.
Dinners at students’ homes defined the people's perspective, according to Albers. “When you don't have TV, you have time for people,” she notes.
Ultimately, the students and their families taught her a lot about appreciating small blessings.
“Seeing the people, how simply they lived, but how joyful they were, strengthened my faith,” she says.
Although Albers was back in Kansas this summer, she's returning for another year.
“I love it so much. I'll always have time to do graduate school. God rewards faith, and I've seen that.”
Amy Smith writes from Geneva, Illinois.
----- EXCERPT: Catholic grads put careers on hold for the sake of the Gospel ----- EXTENDED BODY: Amy Smith ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Vatican Issues Guidelines on Use of Abortion-Derived Vaccines DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — The question of the morality of using vaccines derived from tissues obtained through abortions is a delicate one. It took more than two years for the Vatican to frame a reply to a request for guidance from Debi Vinnedge, head of the Florida-based Children of God for Life organization that campaigns against the use of such vaccines.
Now, the Pontifical Academy for Life has finally delivered its opinion: Catholics are permitted — and sometimes may even be obliged — to use such vaccines when no alternative exists.
But the new Vatican statement, entitled “Moral Reflections on Vaccines Prepared From Cells Derived From Aborted Human Fetuses,” stresses that the failure of pharmaceutical companies and health authorities to produce ethical, non-abortion derived alternative vaccines has created “a context of moral coercion” that “must be eliminated as soon as possible.”
And, it says, Catholics parents and doctors have a grave duty to pressure drug companies and health systems to develop ethical vaccines that can be used instead.
While human vaccines can be produced by other means, pharmaceutical companies often rely on abortion-derived tissues because of the relative ease of this form of production.
In the United States, according to Jameson Taylor, author of America's Drug Deal: Vaccines, Abortion, Corruption, 11 commercially available vaccines for chicken pox, hepatitis, polio, rabies, rubella, measles and mumps are currently propagated using two fetal-cell lines, known as WI-38 and MRC-5. Both cell lines were derived from babies aborted in the 1960s.
Alternatives to some of the abortion-derived vaccines are available, but no alternatives are currently available in the U.S. for vaccination against rubella, chicken pox and hepatitis A.
What's Right?
The morality of using abortion-derived vaccines has sharply divided American Catholics. A range of authorities — including the Pro-Life Secretariat of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Catholic Bioethics Center — have said they can be used under some circumstances.
“Catholic moralists have concluded that individuals, when they have no practical alternative, may use vaccines to protect their health and the health of their loved ones without serious sin, even if the vaccines were cultured in fetal cells that ultimately came from an elective abortion,” the Pro-Life Secretariat said in an August 2001 statement.
Other Catholic leaders disagree. Speaking to the Register in February about a new flu vaccine being developed by Alabama-based biotech company Vaxin using an abortion-derived cell line, Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker, Ore., said, “It is not right to see good in this vaccine simply because the good is far away from the abortion. Morally, all of the fruit of that abortion is still poisoned fruit.”
In Bishop Vasa's view, the Catholic consumer should say,” I want nothing to do with that vaccine. I do not want to benefit in any way from abortions. My conscience binds me to fulfill the law of God.”
Faced with this division of opinion among faithful Catholics, Children of God for Life's Vinnedge wrote a letter to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in June 2003, asking the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to clarify the matter.
The future Pope Benedict asked the Pontifical Academy for Life to commission a study on the topic. This June, Bishop Elio Sgreccia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, provided an English translation of the study's findings to Vinnedge, who posted it on her Web site, www.cogforlife.org, on July 18.
Degrees of Evil
The Pontifical Academy for Life document distinguishes between different degrees of cooperation with evil that result from the manufacture and use of abortion-derived vaccines. All involvement in “the preparation, distribution and marketing” of the vaccines is “morally illicit, because it could contribute in encouraging the performance of other voluntary abortions, with the purpose of the production of such vaccines,” it states.
Moreover, pharmaceutical companies and researchers who fail to denounce as evil the abortions that gave rise to the fetal cell lines that they are using to produce vaccines, and who “do not dedicate themselves together to research and promote alternative ways, exempt from moral evil, for the production of vaccines,” are guilty of illicit “passive material cooperation” with the evil of the original abortions, the document says.
In contrast, doctors and parents who consent to the use of such vaccines, when no alternative is available, are involved merely in “a form of very remote mediate material cooperation, and therefore very mild” cooperation with the original act of abortion, the Pontifical Academy for Life stated.
Such remote cooperation is morally permissible, the document said. And in the case of a disease like rubella, where a failure to vaccinate children can result in a sharply increased likelihood of a future outbreak of an ailment that can have crippling effects on unborn children, the Pontifical Academy for Life's experts said “we find, in such a case, a proportional reason” favoring the use of such vaccines.
Target the Companies
However, after noting that situations do exist in which Catholic doctors and parents have reason to use abortion-derived vaccines, the Pontifical Academy for Life document stated that they also have a “grave responsibility” to use ethical vaccines instead when they are available. In such cases, it added, “[T]hey should take recourse, if necessary, to the use of conscientious objection” in refusing to use the abortion-derived vaccine.
And where no ethical vaccines are currently available, Catholics must seek to persuade drug companies to develop them, the Vatican document states.
“In any case, there remains a moral duty to continue to fight and to employ every lawful means in order to make life difficult for the pharmaceutical industries, which act unscrupulously and unethically,” the document concludes. “However, the burden of this important battle cannot and must not fall on innocent children and on the health situation of the population.”
(Register correspondent Steve Weatherbe contributed to this story)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Our Turn DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:There's a sign in the Notre Dame locker room that says, “Play Like a Champion Today.” As part of its football team's pre-game ritual, each player hits the sign on the way out to the field.
The Fighting Irish have had many storied teams and illustrious players over the year, including Johnny Lujack, George Gipp and Joe Montana. An untested 18-year-old freshman would never be mentioned in the same breath with such luminaries. Yet it's his turn to try. He may not be a Lujack or a Montana, but just maybe he can play like a champion today. And so he hits the sign as his way of saying “Amen” to this proposition.
A few years ago, I asked myself how I could apply this motivational tool to my spiritual life. Then I realized that we had an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe hanging at the base of the stairs leading from my bedroom to the rest of the house. And so now every day, as I descend the stairs and prepare to meet the world, I strike the wall near the image and say to myself, “Live like a saint today.”
As I do this, I realize that God had a lousy recruiting year. Surely, I don't deserve to be thought of in the same breath as the many great saints who have gone before me. Yet I also realize that today it's my turn — our turn — to take the field and try. It's not too much for the Church, our mother and teacher (or, in this context, our coach and trainer) to expect us to do our best to “live like a saint today.” Otherwise, why bother taking the field at all?
The Catechism reminds us that the saints are the ones who have made the difference at pivotal moments in Church history (No. 828). Many were martyred; their very blood has been the seed of renewal in the Church. We may not be called to that level of sacrifice, but we have to understand that right here, right now, all of us are in the game.
Through the communion of saints, Christianity is truly a team sport. But it assuredly is not a spectator sport, as it's not enough to talk a good game. The call to holiness must be lived.
I find it heartening to have my active 4-year-old son Samuel run down ahead of me in the morning and hit the wall like his daddy. He even reminds me when I forget. Of course, he doesn't understand this ritual very well. But I hope that, one day, the little ritual will provide me an occasion to explain to him the call to become a follower of Christ in terms he can understand and explain to his little brother Raymond.
Athletics provides many vivid analogies for teaching the faith. This wasn't lost on St. Paul, who frequently used expressions such as “running the race,” “disciplining the body,” “winning” and “shadowboxing” to communicate sublime spiritual truths.
“Train yourself in godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:7-8).
We may not be Catholic superstars like Pope John Paul II or Bl. Teresa of Calcutta — but we're still called to bring our “A game,” such as it is. When we do, God can do remarkable things in us and through us.
Leon Suprenant Jr. is president of Catholics United for the Faith, based in Steubenville, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Leon Suprenant JR. ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:SUNDAY, AUG. 21
Nature: Leopards of Yala
PBS, 8 p.m.
Experts in Sri Lanka are trying to save these beautiful-but-deadly creatures.
SUNDAY, AUG. 21
The Eucharist as Life-Giving Love
Familyland TV, 10:30 p.m.
Catholic mom Kimberly Hahn, a convert, offers a heartfelt talk to parents about the Eucharist, Catholic marriage and how to raise children as good Catholics. Re-airs Monday, Aug. 22, at 1:30 p.m. and Wednesday, Aug. 24, at 10:30 a.m.
MONDAY, AUG. 22
The Journey Home
EWTN, 8 p.m., live
Tonight's guest is popular Catholic author and philosopher Dr. Ronda Chervin. In the June 26 Register, she told interviewer Joseph D'Agostino how she came “to see that the Church was the completion of Judaism.” She also urged Catholics “to pray for Jews to recognize Jesus as the Messiah and find the fullness of truth that is the Catholic faith.”
TUESDAY, AUG. 23
Ice Cream Palaces
Travel Channel, 1 p.m.
This taste-tempting show takes us on a summertime tour of fabulous ice cream emporiums around our country.
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 24
Modern Marvels:
Observatories
History Channel, 7 a.m.
This show gives us a window, so to speak, into the history of astronomy from ancient times to today's Hubble Space Telescope and powerful land-based observatories. Film footage and interviews with scientists portray astronomy's greatest discoveries.
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 24
Excavators
Discovery Channel, 8 p.m.
A surge in demand for iron prompted the construction of a new, giant super-shovel.
FRIDAY, AUG. 26
Inside Vatican II:
Lumen Gentium
Familyland TV, 12 midnight
This series’ 23 episodes analyze Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, which Pope Paul VI promulgated on Nov. 21, 1964. The document cites the Bible, earlier councils and the Church Fathers and other authorities. Its topics include the mystery of the Church; the people of God; the hierarchy, especially the episcopate; the laity; and the universal call to holiness.
FRIDAY, AUG. 26
Save Our History:
George Washington's
Workshop
History Channel, 7 a.m.
Host Steve Thomas takes us a little south of Washington, D.C., on the Virginia shore of the Potomac, to visit Mount Vernon, the estate of the Father of Our Country. Experts show us his wide agricultural and scientific interests by examining his archives and artifacts and by conducting live demonstrations.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Vatican Media Watch DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:Chinese Youths Visit Pope Benedict
ASIANEWS, Aug. 10 — A delegation of 120 Chinese citizens between 17 and 30 visited Pope Benedict XVI in Paul VI Hall before leaving for World Youth Day, AsiaNews reported.
During the greetings and presentation to the Holy Father, the youths sang an Easter hymn. Only 20 of them were from the People's Republic of China; another 15 come from Hong Kong and at least another 60 from Taiwan. Youths from Japan and Korea were also present at the audience.
Among the youths, there are members of the official church, which is recognized by the government, as well as members of the underground Church, which is in communion with the Holy See. A group of 50 youths from the underground church from northern China reached Cologne yesterday. All have asked for a visa citing only “tourism in Europe.” The youths told AsiaNews that asking for a visa for “religious reasons” risked rejection.
Holy See Calls for Moratorium on Land Mines
CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY, Aug. 8 — Archbishop Silvano Tomasi called for a moratorium on the production and use of hidden weapons, especially antipersonnel mines, according to Catholic News Agency.
During his address at the 11th session of the convention for the prohibition or limitation of the use of some conventional weapons that can produce excessive or indiscriminate traumatic effects, the Holy See's representative noted that the use of certain armaments in numerous conflicts following World War II allow us today “to make objective judgments from the standpoint of humanitarian international law, as well as from a strictly pragmatic point of view, about the consequences of the use of an entire category of arms,” especially antipersonnel mines.
“We cannot help but salute this choice for precaution and responsibility,” he said, adding that the Holy See fully supported the resolution of the European Parliament calling for “an immediate moratorium on the use, accumulation, production and transfer or exportation of mines.”
Archbishop Tomasi said the Holy See supports an international dialogue to create a regulatory body that would over see the use or elimination of these arms. “The moratorium on the use of mines should be prolonged during this entire period of consultation.”
Holy See Donates to Missing Persons Commission
FENA, July 15 — The Holy See donated $5,000 to the International Commission on Missing Persons to support the activities of this institution in resolving the issues of missing persons, according to the Bosnia-Herzegovina news service.
The Holy See has been supporting the organization's activities since 2002, and its total donation to date is estimated at $25,000.
Kathryne Bomberger, executive director of the International Commission on Missing Persons, said the significance of this support is much greater than the actual material value of the donation. It shows the missing persons’ families that the international community still prioritizes the problem of missing persons in former Yugoslavia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Fear and Religion in London DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:Following the second series of terrorist attacks in London, the capital's Islamic community is in a state of alarm.
They are worried that all of the capital's estimated 750,000 Muslims will be seen as supporters of terrorism. This collision of politics and theology in such a secular country is leaving many ordinary people not just fearful, but equally alarmed.
It is odd in Britain to find religion dominating the news and political debate. It did happen following the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI, but, of course, that was different. For all the criticism the British media had leveled at Pope John Paul for his refusal to bend to fashionable ideas, they were forced to acknowledge him as a remarkable spiritual leader and a man of peace.
This time, leading newspaper columnists and all the major TV and radio stations have found themselves trying to unpack the main points of Islamic theology, while the government has held urgent meetings with leading Muslim clerics, who are seen as somehow being able to prevent young Muslims from packing explosives into rucksacks and getting on subway trains or buses.
For some Irish Catholics in Britain, however, the frenzy over the bombings has a familiar ring about it. For back in the 1970s and 1980s when the Irish Republican Army's bombing campaign was at its peak in London and other British cities and towns, to be an Irish Catholic was also to be a potential terrorist.
It is worth recalling the carnage the IRA caused in Britain back then. Attacks on pubs in Birmingham, Guildford and London in 1974 killed 28 people. In 1982, IRA bombs in Hyde Park and Regent's Park killed 11 people and wounded 50. An explosion at Harrod's department store in 1983 killed six people and injured another 50.
While the IRA never carried out suicide bombings (although they did undertake hunger strikes), and it was nationalism rather than theology that motivated it, the fact that they were Catholic ignited deep-seated fears of “Popery” among the British establishment. That some priests appeared to support their attempts to end the British occupation of Northern Ireland only fueled their suspicions that Irish Catholics were disloyal to the crown.
Although Catholic bishops in Ireland and England condemned the bombings, this wasn't enough to prevent attacks on Catholic social clubs in the West Midlands or the verbal abuse of Catholics in communities up and down the country.
Growing up in a small town in the Midlands, with a Catholic community of 50, I came to see that in the minds of many, to be an Irish Catholic was to be, at least, a sympathizer with the IRA.
Catholics, then, should be able to sympathize with law-abiding Muslims in the United Kingdom. In the week following the bombings in London, a three-day Catholic-Shi'a Conference was hosted by the Benedictines at Ampleforth Abbey in North Yorkshire. The conference had been organized by Ampleforth Abbey, Heythrop College (the Jesuit-run theology faculty at the University of London), and the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute in Qum, Iran.
The link between Heythrop, Ampleforth and the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute was established five years ago, and has resulted in several exchange visits. The first Catholic-Shi'a conference, under the TITLE: “A Catholic-Shi'a Engagement: Sharing Our Spiritual and Cultural Resources in the Face of Contemporary Challenges,” took place in 2003.
Those who see religion as divisive will be unimpressed by Catholics and Muslims sitting in a hall discussing theology. For them, the recent attacks in London only strengthen their argument that religion is at the root of many social problems. (Five days after the bombings, Northern Ireland saw some of its worst violence in recent years when Catholics attacked an Orange march in Belfast, leaving 40 police officers injured.)
For non-belivers, it makes little difference whether it is Muslims or Christians engaged in violence. Ultimately, they argue, it is religion that causes it. This is a view that you will hear increasingly expressed in Britain, especially among the young.
Spirituality is fine, but not religion. That religion is simply organized spirituality is lost on most people.
In the year that marks the 40th anniversary of Nostra Aetate (the Second Vatican Council's declaration on the relation of the Church to non-Christian religions), how to affirm Islam as a religion of Abraham and condemn those who kill in its name will be one of Pope Benedict's toughest challenges.
That Islam is not homogenous and has no pope-like figure as a focus of unity and authority makes his task all the more difficult. If he does visit Turkey in November, as some suggest he might, then we will see how he handles this challenge.
Following a meeting between Tony Blair and Muslim leaders at Downing Street this week, it was announced that a task force to tackle Muslim extremism is being set up to dissuade young Muslims from turning to extremism. Three days after this meeting, London was hit by terrorists for the second time in a fortnight.
At first sight, this task force might seem a perfectly sensible course of action. But examined more closely, it could be seen as posing a serious threat to the freedom of religion. If this can happen with Muslims over their interpretation of the Koran, we have to ask: Could it also happen to Catholics and other Christians who seek to express views contrary to those accepted by a secular democracy? Abortion and same sex “marriage” immediately come to mind. Pope Benedict has warned against the intolerance of so-called “tolerant societies.”
The attacks in London, which have killed more than 50 people and injured more than 700, affect not just the public perception of the Muslim community, but, up to a point, of Catholics and all religious communities as well.
A secular society will tolerate religion only so long as it is not seen as a threat to its social values and cohesiveness. If it is seen as being divisive, then society may feel forced to legislate against it in some way. This might seem unthinkable, but so have many things that have happened in history.
Greg Watts is a freelance writer in London and author of Laborer in the Vineyard: A Portrait of Pope Benedict XVI (Lion Hudson).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Greg Watts ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: God Loves Us With a Tender Love DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:Register Summary
Pope Benedict VXI traveled to Rome from his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo for his Aug. 10 general audience. He met with 6,000 people in Paul VI Hall, including a number of young people on their way to World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany.
The Holy Father offered his reflections on Psalm 131, which presents the familiar theme of spiritual childhood. At the center of the psalm is the image of a young child resting peacefully in its mother's arms, a scene that is in marked contrast to the arrogant attitude depicted at the beginning of the psalm.
“The psalmist clearly rejects this temptation of the proud man to be like God, the judge of what is good and what is bad, and chooses instead to trust humbly and spontaneously in the one and only Lord,“ Pope Benedict XVI pointed out. “This is the perfect parable for true ‘childhood’ of the spirit, where abandonment to God is not blind or automatic, but peaceful and mature.“
The Holy Father noted that the psalmist invites all Israel to hope in the Lord, and quoted several psalms inspired by this same theme of trust in God. He encouraged the faithful to heed the words of St. John Cassian (ca. 360-435) to guard against conceit because it destroys all virtue, and especially afflicts the powerful.
We have the few words that make up Psalm 131 — only 30 in the original Hebrew version. Yet, they are powerful words that develop the theme of spiritual childhood that is highly esteemed in all religious literature.
Immediately our thoughts turn to St. Thérèse of Lisieux, her “little way,“ and “remaining little“ in order to “be in Jesus’ arms“ (see Manoscritto C; Opere complete, Vatican City, 1977).
In fact, the image of a mother with her child is at the heart of this psalm, a sign of God's tender and maternal love that the prophet Hosea had already expressed: “When Israel was a child I loved him. … I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks. … I stooped to feed my child“ (Hosea 11:1,4).
The Perils of Pride
The psalm begins with a description of an attitude that is in marked contrast to the attitude of a child, who is conscious of his own fragile nature but trusting in the help of others. Instead, the focus in the psalm is on a prideful heart, haughty eyes, as well as “great matters“ and “things too sublime“ (see Psalm 131:1). It portrays the proud person, who is described using Hebrew words that indicate “haughtiness“ and “exaltation,“ the arrogant attitude of someone who looks upon others with a sense of superiority and considers others inferior.
The psalmist clearly rejects this temptation of the proud man to be like God, the judge of what is good and what is bad (see Genesis 3:5), and chooses instead to trust humbly and spontaneously in the one and only Lord.
Abandonment to God
It then moves on to that memorable image of a mother with her child. The original Hebrew text does not speak of a newborn child, but rather of a “weaned child“ (Psalm 131:2). It is worth noting that in the ancient Near East, children were officially weaned around the age of 3, and the event was celebrated with a feast (see Genesis 21:8; 1 Samuel 1:20-23; 2 Maccabees 7:27).
The child to whom the psalmist refers is united to his mother in a relationship that is, at this point, more personal and intimate, and not merely dependent on the physical contact and the need for food. It is a bond that is now more conscious, even if it is still immediate and spontaneous.
This is the ideal parable of true “childhood“ of the spirit, where abandonment to God is not blind or automatic, but peaceful and mature.
At this point, the psalmist's profession of faith is extended to the entire community: “Israel, hope in the Lord, now and forever“ (Psalm 131:3). Hope now blossoms amid the entire nation that receives security, life and peace from God, which extends from the present through the future, “now and forever.“
It is easy to continue this prayer by echoing other words from the Book of Psalms inspired by this same trust in God: “Upon you I was thrust from the womb, since birth you are my God“ (Psalm 22:11). “Even if my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me in (Psalm 27:10). “You are my hope, Lord; my trust, God, from my youth. On you I depend since birth; from my mother's womb you are my strength“ (Psalm 71:5-6).
Trust in the Lord
Clearly the opposite of trust is pride. A Christian writer from the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth century, St. John Cassian, admonishes the faithful of the seriousness of this vice, which “destroys all virtue in its totality and that does not take aim merely at the mediocre and the weak, but mainly at those who, through their own efforts, place themselves on the fringe.“
He goes on to say: “This is the reason why blessed David took great care in his heart to venture to proclaim before the one from whom the secrets of his conscience were not hidden, ‘Lord, my heart is not proud; nor are my eyes haughty. I do not busy myself with great matters, with things too sublime for me.’ Yet, well aware of how difficult such care is for those who are perfect, he does not presume to rely only on his own capabilities but begs the Lord in prayer to help him to succeed avoiding the arrows of the enemy so he would not be wounded: ‘Do not let the foot of the proud overtake me’ (Psalm 36:12)“ (Le istituzioni cenobitiche, XII, 6, Abbey of Praglia, Bresseo di Teolo — Padua, 1989, page 289).
In this same vein, an anonymous elder from among the Desert Fathers handed down the following words to us that echo the words of Psalm 131: “I have never overstepped my rank for a higher rank, nor has being humiliated disturbed me, since my only thought was to ask the Lord to strip me of the old man“ (I Padri del deserto. Detti, Rome, 1980, page 287).
(Register translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: World Media Watch DATE: 08/21/2005 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 21-27, 2005 ----- BODY:Biblical Pool of Siloam Uncovered in Jerusalem
The pool was fed by the now-famous Hezekiah's Tunnel and is “a much grander affair” than archaeologists previously believed, with three tiers of stone stairs allowing easy access to the water, according to Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, which reported the find.
The pool of Jesus’ time was built early in the first century B.C. and was destroyed by the future Roman emperor Titus about A.D. 70. The pool was discovered last fall by a repair team, supervised by Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiques Authority, which was excavating a damaged sewer line.
New Testament scholar James Charlesworth of the Princeton Theological Seminary told the Times, “We have found the Pool of Siloam … exactly where John said it was.”
Chapel to Enshrine Bombed Statue of Virgin Mary
The United States dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug 6 and 9, 1945, respectively.
The chapel within Urakami Cathedral opened to the public following an unveiling ceremony on Aug. 9, when the city held its annual memorial ceremony, following the one in Hiroshima Aug. 6.
‘Hotline of Hope’ Feeds Culture of Death
CHINA DAILY, Aug. 8 — An article in on the daily's website said a Harbin crisis pregnancy center said summer is “peak time” for teenagers to get an abortion.
Harbin Hope Psychology Consulting Center Director Zhang Dasheng said the center receives “about 20 calls a day for consultation.”
“The summer or winter vacation tends to be the peak time for the girls to have an abortion as they want to avoid being found out by their teachers and parents,” Zhang said. “These girls can go to the hospital for the abortion without registration as long as they have our referral letter. They get the green light all the way.”
The article's headline called the center a “Hotline of Hope for Pregnant Girls,” but the center officials made no mention of advising the young women to forgo an abortion in favor of having their babies, as if the option didn't exist.
Doctor Charged With Killing Unborn Baby
Dr. Suman Sood is also believed to be the state's first doctor to be charged with the manslaughter of an unborn baby. She allegedly gave a 20-year-old woman a drug to induce abortion, and then asked her to come back the next day. The woman gave birth early the next morning to a baby boy that lived for about three hours.
Sood faces one charge of manslaughter and one of administering a drug with intent to procure a miscarriage, according to the report.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News --------