WASHINGTON — Warning: Safe sex is not so safe — and the Bush administration wants to make sure the public knows that.
“We are exploring new opportunities to best inform condom users about important limitations,” said Dr. Daniel Schultz, the director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Devices and Radiologic Health, during a recent hearing on Capitol Hill.
Current labels on condom packages usually contain a warning that says if used properly, condoms will reduce the risk of the transmission of AIDS and many other sexually transmitted diseases.
By revising the warnings, Schultz said he hopes the end result is “a balanced view of the risks and benefits in condom labeling, being careful to neither encourage [condom] use in circumstances where it may not be medically appropriate nor to discourage device use in circumstances where it is.”
The new warnings should be completed later this year, he said.
The March 11 hearing examined the government's attempt to treat cervical cancer and prevent infection from human papillomavirus, the virus that causes it. Infection by certain strains of HPV is the primary cause of almost all cervical cancer, medical experts say.
HPV might not be as well known as HIV; however, it's just as deadly, according to the American Cancer Society. Each year, the same number of women — about 4,000 — die from AIDS as they do from cervical cancer. Currently, 20 million Americans are infected with HPV. Teens and young adults are particularly prone — approximately 4.6 million of the estimated 5.5 million Americans who become infected with HPV every year are between the ages of 15 and 24.
In reviewing data about HPV, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported there was not enough evidence to recommend condoms as a means to prevent HPV infections, said Dr. Ed Thompson, the CDC's deputy director for public health services.
“It is clear condoms aren't 100% effective in preventing the human papillomavirus,” he said. “Our recommendations aren't new because we've always been saying — or we've been saying as long as I'm aware of it at CDC — that the only sure way to avoid STDs is through abstaining from sexual contact.”
Encouraging Chastity
The revised warning labels, which will probably undermine the confidence some people have in condoms, could lead to more people leading chaste lives, said Austin Ruse, president of the Culture of Life Foundation.
“The [more] the HPV message gets out there, I think we increase the chances of people not using condoms and therefore being chaste,” he said.
The Church's position on the subject of condoms — and birth control in general — is clear. The Catechism says “every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible is intrinsically evil.”
Several organizations, including the U.N. Population Fund and the World Health Organization, criticized the president of the Pontifical Council for the Family last year for his comments about the ineffectiveness of condoms.
“One cannot really speak of ‘safe sex,’ leading people to believe that the use of condoms is the formula to avoid the risk of HIV and thus to overcome the AIDS pandemic,” Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo said in response to the criticism during a Vatican Radio interview last November. “Nor should people be led to believe that condoms provide absolute safety. They do not mention that there is a percentage of grave risk, not only of AIDS but also of the different sexually transmitted diseases, and that the rate of failure is quite high.”
By promoting abstinence, the Church's approach is to view the person as a whole and not as “commodity” to be experimented with, said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Pro-Life Secretariat.
“The Catholic Church advocates and teaches a lifestyle that is frankly 100% effective against STDs and that is abstinence outside of marriage,” she said. “And this teaching affects the whole person: physical, emotional, moral, spiritual. It really is not surprising that science and common sense support the Catholic Church's teaching.”
‘Need to Know’
Although the Bush administration promotes abstinence-only education, some lawmakers are convinced condoms are still the answer when dealing with diseases.
“It is true that condoms have not been proven to reduce the risk of HPV infection,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., during the March 11 hearing. “However, what is more significant is that condoms are associated with less cervical cancer — which is, after all, the key reason we care about HPV infection.”
Waxman admitted that condoms were not perfect, but he added that abstinence-only education rarely works.
Rep. Jo Ann Davis, R-Va., disagreed with Waxman on the issue of abstinence.
“If you have 20 teen-agers who say they will abstain, and let's say only five do abstain, that's five that you have saved from contracting HPV or AIDS or anything else,” she told the Register.
She said she favors the revised warning labels because condom users, especially young women, need to know there is still a risk of contracting a disease such as HPV.
“[They need to know] they're not protected just because we, the taxpayers, provide them a condom through school,” she said. “Personally, I would like to see them abstain.”
Carlos Briceño writes from Seminole, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: White House Calls For For Warning Labels ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carlos Briceņo ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Mementos of the Day He Died DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Joseph Vitale does just what St. Paul said to do. He preaches Christ — crucified.
Months ago, that meant organizing a showing of The Passion of the Christ for Catholics. Now, it means showing people the real deal.
During Holy Week, an exhibit of relics and artifacts related to the Passion will visit Washington on the way to a show in St. Louis.
Vitale will be there. “The relics are another way for Catholics to connect themselves to the reality of the crucifixion,” he said. “Relics are a reminder of the reality of our faith. And, for us, the cross was not simply an instrument o torture, but also the pathway to the greatest triumph of all.”
Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis also sees the relics as an opportunity to follow up the success of the movie.
“Even as Mel Gibson's movie has helped us to focus on the violent nature of Christ's death,” he said, “these relics that are reproductions of the Passion or actual relics of the Passion help us to focus on the historical reality of the redemption.”
Archbishop Burke acknowledged that venerating relics is largely outside the experience of American Catholics.
“There's always been in the Church the tradition of having relics of saints. We always place some relics of the saints in the altar,” he said. “I think in recent years, that's been put on the side a little bit.”
But Archbishop Burke thinks that's starting to change. While serving as bishop of La Crosse, Wis., he hosted a portion of the tilma from St. Juan Diego that was transformed by Our Lady of Guadalupe outside Mexico City in the 16th century.
“I find that people are really interested in a spiritual way reverencing a relic of the true cross,” Archbishop Burke said. “When we had the relic in La Crosse there was quite a turnout of people. People were really pleased to have that opportunity.”
The Crucifixion relics are being brought to the archdiocese by the Los Angeles-based Apostolate for Holy Relics, which also took the tilma relic on tour. The apostolate sees its mission as reacquainting American Catholics with the history of the Church through relic tours.
“Last year when we did the tilma tour, more than 140,000 people in 21 dioceses came to view and venerate the relic,” said Tom Serafin, president of the Apostolate for Holy Relics. “The response was outstanding. We had 25,000 people show up in San Antonio. The line was several hours long.”
Planned Before Film
While he said plans for the current tour began long before the theatrical release of The Passion of the Christ, Serafin said that the movie would likely spark additional interest in the tour.
“There's currently a lot of interest in Christ's passion, and that's a good thing,” he said.
For those who were moved by watching the movie, Serafin suggests they go a step further and see the actual instruments used in the death of Christ.
The tour will display a small piece of wood from the cross. Also on display will be reproductions of the nails made with some shavings of the originals believed to be the ones used on Jesus, as well as relics from the column of flagellation, the Holy Sepulcher and other places and people associated with Christ's final days on Earth.
Msgr. Father Francis Weber serves as archivist for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and has written numerous books on Church history. He sees the relic tour as an important tool to help Catholics grow in their faith.
“They're not sacraments, but they are a means of intensifying our faith,” Msgr. Weber said. “The saints can really be defined in the Church as heroes. They are exemplars. Pieces of their bodies are very dear to us because they encourage in us a deeper devotion.”
And relics relating to Jesus, he said, are clearly of greater importance.
“The Passion was just awful,” he said. “When we think and pray about it, we have a deeper understanding of his suffering.”
Serafin said that throughout history the saints have counseled keeping an image of the crucified Lord for meditative purposes. It is a reminder of the extent of his sacrifice, he said. That is why Serafin sees such an importance in representations of the crucified Christ in artwork and statuary, including Christ on the crosses people wear.
Not Museum Pieces
When the relics come to the John Paul II Cultural Center in northeast
Washington, D.C., they won't be displayed in an exhibit hall but installed in the center's chapel.
“These aren't museum pieces,” said Dan Callahan, director of publications and programs at the center, “as much as they are devotional items.”
Having relics from the Crucifixion helps remind people of our religion's history, Callahan said.
“We are the only religion where God became tangible,” he said. “It's what, who, why and how God became one of us.”
Some people will likely be skeptical this wood sliver or a portion of a nail came from the actual death scene 2,000 years ago. But Andrew Walther, vice president of the Apostolate for Holy Relics, is ready to answer any such questions.
“Most of these were brought back by St. Helen in the fourth century,” said Walther, who is also a Register correspondent. “According to long-standing tradition, she brought back the true cross and several other pieces. Several experts in history in ancient texts have investigated the inscription from the cross, which is kept at a basilica in Rome, and have found it likely that it is a first-century artifact from Palestine.”
Such work has been documented in at least two books and has even been shown on the Discovery Channel.
“If that sort of relic can be ascertained with the best of modern methods, then why not believe it?” Walther added.
But “what matters most is the faith of the individual,” he said.
Walther, who has two degrees in classics from the University of Southern California, said such rampant skepticism rarely arises when speaking of secular artifacts, like when a vase from ancient Greece is discovered.
He suggested people who refuse to believe it's possible that a portion of the cross could be preserved refuse to accept the facts.
“There are some people,” Walther said, “who think we didn't land on the moon.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: Crucifixion Relics Come to St. Louis and Washington ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Stymied in South Dakota DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:PIERRE, S.D. — The demise of South Dakota House Bill 1191, which would have banned most of the state's abortions, has left many pro-life supporters scratching their heads wondering what went wrong.
“Just the day before, we were certain it was going to pass,” said Ben Eicher, a religion teacher at St. Thomas More High School in Rapid City. Students, faculty and administrators at the school signed petitions, made telephone calls and sent e-mails to state legislators in support of the bill.
“I was sitting in an office when a fellow religion teacher came in looking like she had seen a ghost,” Eicher said. “She said, ‘I can't believe this. It [the bill] didn't pass.’ It had originally passed the Senate by such a large margin that we were legitimately shocked.”
“We're deeply disappointed,” Eicher added. “The shoe dropped somewhere. The feeling is that we got sold out somehow and that we can't trust the system to do the right thing. People are walking around wondering what really happened.”
What really did happen?
State Rep. Matt McCaulley introduced the bill on Jan. 22, the 31st anniversary of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade. Baptist by background, McCaulley approached the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Thomas More Law Center, a Catholic law organization, for assistance in drafting the bill and worked to solicit support from his colleagues in both the House and Senate. At the time of the bill's introduction, it was cosponsored by 47 of his House colleagues and 18 state senators.
The bill would have made abortion a class 5 felony, punishable by a $5,000 fine, five years in prison or both.
After the bill's passage by a 54-14 vote in the House on Feb. 10, it went to the Senate State Affairs Committee. There, the bill was amended with language that would keep abortion legal but require doctors who perform abortions to provide more information.
“The bill had been gutted,” McCaulley said, “but Sen. Lee Schoenbeck was able to amend the bill, restoring it to a form substantially similar to what passed through the House. An opponent of the bill added a provision that would have allowed an abortion when the pregnant mother was facing a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function. That motion tied 17-17. The lieutenant governor, Dennis Daugaard, who was presiding, voted to put that amendment on the bill.”
Governor's Action
That bill passed the Senate by an 18-16 vote and was sent onto Gov. M. Michael Rounds, who vetoed the bill, asking for technical changes to it. Rounds wanted to ensure the state's existing pro-life laws would remain on the books if the legislation were declared unconstitutional.
Sen. Jay Duenwald wrote a letter to Rounds urging him to veto the bill.
“Without an objective standard for health, [nothing will] prevent this exception from turning into a gigantic loophole,” Duenwald said.
“The governor could have signed the bill that was delivered to him,” McCaulley said. “It was in proper form. It would have become law had the governor signed it, but he sent it back with technical corrections, and that is when one of the senators switched their vote.”
On March 15 the House approved the governor's changes, but the Senate did not, voting against the bill 18-17.
A Movement Divided
The bill's death had offered a living example of the very real divisions that exist within the pro-life movement. Pro-life supporters say the bill's defeat has created divisions across the state. Both sides in the debate have been blaming one another for the bill's failure.
Those who supported the bill have argued that South Dakota Right to Life's lobbying efforts were tantamount to siding with Planned Parenthood.
“One of my staff overheard a Planned Parenthood lobbyist saying, ‘We can go home for the weekend. Right to Life is going to kill this bill for us,’” said Leslee Unruh, director of the Sioux Falls-based Alpha Health Services pregnancy-resource center and longtime member of South Dakota Right to Life. Unruh's husband was one of the original founders of South Dakota Right to Life.
“It's torn apart our whole pro-life community,” she said.
“Right to Life has from the very beginning opposed this bill,” McCaulley said. “I tried to accommodate the position of Right to Life, but in the end they didn't want to compromise, they wanted the bill dead.”
Opponents of the bill claimed it wouldn't reduce abortions. Led by Duenwald, they argued the health exception gutted the intent of the bill.
Duenwald described the bill as “well-intentioned but naïve.”
“The reason the bill lost is because of the merits of the bill,” said Duenwald, a board member with National Right to Life and South Dakota Right to Life. “The bill didn't do anything to prevent abortions. It allowed abortion at the discretion of the abortionists.”
Duenwald also questioned the potential cost to the state and the bill's timing.
“The timing was terribly wrong,” he said. “We're not going to get a pro-life person appointed to the court and approved within a year. If we could get rid of U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle and reelect Bush, then we would have a fighting chance. If we succeed there, then we can look forward to bringing legislation.”
Daschle, the U.S. Senate minority leader, represents South Dakota.
‘A Mortal Sin’
“As a Catholic, in good conscience I could not support the bill. It would be a mortal sin for me to support it because it helps the abortionists,” Duenwald said. “The bill did exactly the opposite of what it purported to do.”
Yet the bill had the support of the state's Catholic lobbying arm, the Catholic Advocate Network and both of the state's bishops. Sioux Falls Bishop Robert Carlson and Rapid City Bishop Blaise Cupich released a joint statement to the legislators in support of the bill.
That statement read: “We obviously want to see the outlaw of all abortions, with no exceptions except to save the life of the mother. But we are also for laws that limit the number of abortions in South Dakota. Each step closer to a total ban saves more lives and helps to protect the health and dignity of women. As for the legal issues surrounding this particular bill, it is outside our ability to predict the outcome.”
In addition, the Sioux Falls Diocese's Respect Life Office had worked directly with the primary sponsors of the bill through the entire process as the bill moved to the Senate floor.
“Had I not had the support of the diocese and the Thomas More Law Center, I would not have brought the bill forward,” McCaulley said. “I wanted a bill that people of all walks of faith could support.”
“This fight was not over abortion but over trying to destroy South Dakota Right to Life,” Duenwald said. “They brought a bill that we had to oppose and they knew that.”
Richard Thompson, executive director of the Thomas More Law Center, who worked with McCaulley in drafting the bill's language, disagreed.
“This bill had been vetted by a lot of people early on,” he said. “Notre Dame professors Charles Rice and Gerard Bradley both testified that it passed constitutional muster.”
“This was a comprehensive ban,” Thompson said. “We were one vote away from having a bill for the first time in 31 years that would have directly challenged Roe v. Wade. To have pro-life attorneys purposefully work to defeat this bill was a betrayal.”
Unruh wonders whether the politics of personality didn't play a role in the bill's ultimate demise.
“There were some who didn't want McCaulley to be the one bringing this up,” she said. “They wanted to be the ones bringing this forward.”
Rapid City teacher Eicher said the politics of personality aren't uncommon in a state as small as South Dakota.
“When you're in a small state, people are very protective of their territory,” he said. “There are those who will oppose anything that hasn't gone through them first.”
Whatever the reason, pro-life supporters see it as a loss.
As soon as the bill had passed in the House, Unruh said her pregnancy center began receiving telephone calls from young women who thought abortion had been made illegal.
“We were even able to save a baby,” Unruh said. “Eight hundred babies will die in my city next year. Imagine how many babies could have been saved if this had become law.”
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: Pro-Life Bill Was 'Sure Thing' ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Holy Land Christians Decry Assassination DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:JERUSALEM — Israel's assassination on March 22 of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of the militant group Hamas, greatly shocked Christians in the Holy Land.
“This assassination will only lead to more violence,” said Nagi Mansour, the owner of a small coffee shop in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.
Mansour, in his 40s, insisted that Yassin “was not a violent person. He was simply demanding what was rightfully his.”
Handing out steaming glasses of sweet coffee to some friends seated at his eatery's only table, Mansour said, “Hamas has made a mistake by killing innocent Israelis. As a Christian, I don't support the organization. Fanatical ideas are evil and dangerous. But to kill such a man was a mistake.”
Like their Muslim counterparts, many Christian Palestinians viewed Yassin as a staunch advocate for the Palestinian cause, even if some personally disapproved of his organization's violent tactics.
Christians in East Jerusalem and elsewhere shuttered their shops during the three days of mourning for Yassin ordered by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Some Christian schools and organizations were also closed.
Yassin, who became a quad-riplegic in an accident at age 12, never physically pulled a trigger or booby-trapped a bomb. He was, however, Hamas’ chief ideologue and encouraged his followers to destroy the state of Israel and to create a nondemocratic Islamic state in its place.
According to the Israeli government, Hamas attacks committed during the three years the Palestinians have been waging their uprising have killed more than 400 Israelis and wounded more than 2,000. The organization's bombings — in public buses and family restaurants — have often been timed to disrupt peace negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority or during Jewish holidays.
The U.S. government defines Hamas as a terrorist organization.
The Holy See condemned the assassination, as did the United Nations, the European Union and many individual nations.
“The Holy See joins the international community to reprove this act of violence that cannot be justified in any state of law,” said Vatican spokesman Joaquín Navarro-Valls in a statement immediately after the killing. “Authentic and lasting peace cannot be the fruit of a mere ostentation of force. It is above all the fruit of moral and juridical action.”
The patriarchate of Jerusalem, the local arm of the Church, did not issue a statement, despite the fact that Michel Sabbah, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, is a Palestinian nationalist and outspoken critic of Israel.
“We want to calm down the situation, not inflame it,” a representative of the patriarchate said in explanation.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon justified the killing, stating that Yassin was a “mastermind of Palestinian terror, a mass murderer who is among Israel's greatest enemies,” the Associated Press reported.
Support for Israel
Though most Holy Land Christians, especially those who are Palestinians, criticize Israel, there are some who side with Israel.
“Hamas asked for it,” said Jan Willem van der Hoeven, director of the International Christian Zionist Center, an evangelical organization in Jerusalem.
“From everything I've heard, Hamas didn't want a dialogue with Israel,” he said. “It has consistently declared that Palestine belongs to them and only them, that the Jews should go back to the places they came from. And if the Jews don't graciously leave, Hamas will terrorize Israelis until they all leave or are all dead.”
“I agree with the Israeli prime minister,” van der Hoeven added, “when he said that Ahmed Yassin was the brother of Osama bin Laden.”
Christians Angered
At the Melia Center for Art, an Old City store run by the Arab Orthodox Society to help local Christian and Muslim women earn a livelihood by creating beautiful hand-embroidered items, the mood was more thoughtful.
“The assassination was not a good idea. It will open the door to more violence,” said Hala, one of the store's workers, who declined to give her last name.
She said Christians are as upset as their Muslim neighbors about Yassin's death.
“Do people expect that we would be happy [about the killing] because he was a Muslim and we're Christian? We're all Palestinians,” she said.
Hala, who looks to be in her 50s, then told how her parents fled their home in Acco, near Haifa, in 1948, when Arab countries attacked Israel at its founding.
“We moved to Lebanon and my father spent 14 years working in Yemen, away from his family. We lost our father during this period,” she said.
Even now, living in East Jerusalem, Hala says she feels displaced.
“We lost our house, our land, and even now I never feel safe,” she said. “I'm afraid when my son goes to Jaffa Road [the main street in West Jerusalem] because if there's an explosion the Israeli police round up the Arabs and beat them. Soldiers demand to see their identity cards. It humiliates them.”
Such events, as well as the severe financial crisis, are taking their toll on the Christian community, Hala said, despair creeping into her voice.
“Our young people want to emigrate. We're losing our children,” she said.
Despite the situation, Hala said, “I don't believe in violence and terror. But when I go to the rural villages and see what's happening there, I realize that if I were in their position, I might do the same thing. They feel they have nothing to lose.”
Voicing the opinion of most Palestinians — both Christian and Arab — in the Holy Land, Hala said, “There can be no peace without justice, and justice means giving the Palestinians the chance to have a free country.”
Michele Chabin writes from Jerusalem.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michele Chabin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: At Passover, He'll Celebrate the New Covenant DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:Roy Schoeman, growing up a devout Jew in a New York suburb, never expected to be a Catholic one day.
The author of Salvation Is from the Jews, spoke to Register correspondent Patrick Novecosky about his book, becoming Catholic and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.
Tell me about your upbringing.
My parents were Jewish Holocaust refugees who came from religious backgrounds in Germany. My Jewish identity and my Jewish faith practice were of primary importance to my parents.
When I was in my late high-school years, I linked up with Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and became part of his entourage for a while, traveling with him and sitting at his feet as a disciple. He would sit in the center of a circle, play guitar, leading us in repetitive Hasidic hymns and dancing, lifting us up to an ecstatic worship of God. I had a taste of the sweetness of the Lord through that experience.
What led to your conversion to Catholicism?
At 30, I was a junior rising-star professor at Harvard Business School — quite a success in my own eyes. I had achieved, in an external sense, all that I had hoped to achieve. It didn't begin to address the emptiness inside, which led to quite an interior darkness bordering on despair.
In that state of mind, I was walking alone early one morning when I fell into heaven and found myself in the immediate presence of God, looking back over my life as though I were looking back on it after death. I knew from one moment to the next that the purpose of my life was to serve this loving God.
I was baptized on the feast of the Epiphany in 1992. I didn't want to wait until Easter. I said that if Epiphany was good enough for Jesus to be baptized, it was good enough for me to be baptized.
What led to your book,
I am Jewish and I am Catholic. They're both equally important in salvation history. I thought this was the most interesting topic in the world. When I exposed myself to the Jewish-Catholic dialogue, I found out that was not its direction.
On the Catholic side, it sometimes runs the risk of denying the truths of the faith — the unique role of the Catholic Church in the dynamics of individual salvation. On the other hand, the dialogue doesn't do justice to Judaism if it's stripped of the importance it gains by being the religion of the Messiah. When God took flesh and became man, he became a Jewish man. When one strips that away from Judaism, one strips away the true glory of judiasm
I thought this dialogue would be the celebration of both, but it was something that denied the glory of both. The book is an antidote to that.
You saw
Yes. But when a Jew sees the movie, he thinks the Jewish characters in the movie are Caiaphas, the other Sanhedrin members and the mob that cries out, “Crucify him!” He thinks that Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Peter and even Simon the Cyrenian are Christian characters and therefore not Jewish.
In an extra-biblical scene, Mel Gibson gave it a very pro-Jewish touch with Simon of Cyrene. He sees Jesus as this very patient and gentle man being brutally abused. He puts his life on the line. … The close of that scene is the Roman guard spitting out the words of a curse to Simon saying, “You Jew!” making Simon every-man-Jew like the unknown soldier. Simon was representing, in some sense, the average Jew, the real Jew as opposed to the corrupt leaders.
There is no way that the movie can justifiably be called anti Semitic. But, that's not to say that some Jews might not find the movie offensive to their sense of themselves as Jews. I think this is being mistaken for anti-Semitism. For example, most of the villains in the movie are Jewish. Of course, so are the heroes including Jesus, but a Jewish viewer probably won't see it that way.
It's intrinsic to the story that the Jews of Jesus' day divided themselves into two camps - those who were right and recognized him as the Messiah, and those who took him for a heretic and blasphemer. Naturally, those who accept him come across as the “good guys” and the latter as the “bad guys.” However, a Jewish viewer might tend to identify himself with the latter, thus seeing the movie as putting Jews in a bad light and thus “anti-Semitic.”
Also, the setting of the movie is overwhelmingly Jewish, even down to the use of Aramaic. Simply because the movie is so authentic, it makes it painfully evident that Christianity is all about Judaism - that it is the fruition, in the coming of the Jewish Messiah, of the promise of Judaism. As the movie in its startling accuracy makes clear, Christianity came originally to the Jews in the person of the Jewish Messiah born of a Jewish virgin in the heart of the Jewish home-land. Gibson, by being so tactless as to accurately portray the world in which Jesus lived and died, has brought this uncomfortable fact into the full light of day.
Are you sympathetic to Jews who find the film anti-Semitic?
One has to consider what is anti-Semitic in Jewish eyes and in Christian eyes. In Christian eyes, anti-Semitism is a hatred, disdain or contempt for Jewish people. There isn't the slightest hint of that in the movie.
In Jewish eyes, however, if somebody were to say, “I love you dearly, my Jewish brothers, but I have some bad news for you. For the past 2,000 years, your religion has been in error and you are relatively in the dark about what your own religion is all about, but I as a devout Catholic know what it's all about and let me tell you what it's all about.” That sounds very antiSemitic to Jewish ears. That's what the movie does. It has to because it's preaching the Gospel.
Patrick Novecosky writes from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Patrick Novecosky ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Rebutting the 'Catholic but ...'; DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:Bishop Thomas Olmsted was installed Dec. 20 as bishop of Phoenix. He wrote the following commentary in the March 18 issue of The Catholic Sun, the Phoenix diocesan newspaper.
“I am a Catholic businessman but I don't let the Church influence what I do at the office or in the boardroom.” But Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord, — will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
“I am a Catholic politician but I don't let my Catholicism impact how I vote or what legislation I promote.” But Jesus says, “Everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined” (Matthew 7:26-27).
“I am a Catholic physician but I don't let my faith mold my decisions regarding abortion, contraception or other medical practices.” But Jesus says, “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one” (Matthew 5:37).
“I am a Catholic talk-show host but I don't let the Church inhibit my right to say whatever I want on the air.” But in the Letter of James, God says, “Faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (2:17).
“I am a Catholic priest but I don't let magisterial teaching keep me from dissenting from moral or doctrinal points nor let it limit my own ‘pastoral solutions.’” But at ordination each priest professes a solemn oath: “I believe everything contained in God's word, written or handed down in tradition and proposed by the Church. … I also firmly accept and hold each and every thing that is proposed by the Church definitively regarding teaching on faith and morals.”
Lent is the time to kick the “Catholic but …” out of our own daily lives. It is the time to expunge rationalization from our minds and to root out compromise from our hearts. Lent is the time to say a determined No to the temptation to water down our faith for personal gain. It is the time to say a much larger Yes to Jesus and his gospel of life. Lent is the time for Totus Tuus, the time to renew our commitment to love God with all our mind and heart and strength.
The “Catholic but …” syndrome stands in direct contradiction to Jesus' clear and unequivocal demand, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” (Mark 8:34-36).
The “Catholic but …” syndrome is not without precedent in history. The fact that Jesus himself directly and frequently opposed such rationalization shows its prevalence 2,000 years ago. How often we are tempted to separate what we do in church from what we do at home, to isolate what we believe from how we vote or what we do at work or at leisure. How easily we can compartmentalize our lives, thus keeping our adherence to Christ from shaping all that we say and do. This is why the formation of conscience holds such a pivotal role in our effort to grow to full maturity in Christ.
Each Lent, the Church urges us to rekindle our love for Jesus and to take a closer look at how completely we are taking up the cross that fidelity to him entails. This means we need to examine our consciences and to insure they are formed on the solid foundation of the Gospel.
During these 40 days before the Easter Triduum, the Father shines new light upon our souls so we can discover (or rediscover) the essential connection between truth and freedom, and between faith and culture. When freedom is detached from truth, objectivity goes out the window, relativism reigns and ethical chaos gives rise to the “Catholic but …” It becomes impossible to establish right from wrong, good from evil. The pursuit of holiness is thrown off course.
To take the time, then, during Lent to form our consciences more fully in accordance with objective truth (known from God's revelation and the natural law) not only brings wholeness and integrity to our personal lives; it also makes it possible for us to bring healing and reconciliation to society. Let us take advantage, then, of this Lenten season 2004 to engage seriously in the pursuit of truth and freedom. Here are some concrete suggestions for doing so:
• Ask the Holy Spirit for his gifts of courage and understanding, humility and right judgment.
• Consult the Catechism of the Catholic Church to find clear teaching about the moral conscience and its correct formation (see Nos. 1776-1802).
• Consider your own family situation, your work and your civic duties, and then ask: “Do I live my whole life as a vocation and a mission from the Lord?”
• Carve out a few days for a spiritual retreat or at least set aside half a day to go apart from everyday life and examine, with God's help, how you are integrating the gift of faith in all dimensions of your life.
On the first day of Lent each year, the Lord says to us through St. Paul, “Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
Now is the time to rebut the “Catholic but …” It is the time to say “Yes” when we mean “Yes” and to say “No” when we mean “No.” Lent is the time to profess our Catholic faith with gratitude and to put every part of it into practice.
— Reprinted with permission from The Catholic Sun.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Bishop Thomas Olmsted ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:‘So Much for Kerry Catholicism’
On a recent visit to Idaho, Kerry decided to attend Sunday Mass. Two rows were roped off for him and his entourage at the 10:30 a.m. Mass on March 21 at Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church.
Not only did Kerry arrive 11 minutes late, the American Spectator noted, but also “adding further insult, Kerry arrived noisily, fully outfitted for skiing, not dressed for a religious service.” Kerry also received the Holy Eucharist, the magazine noted, even though as a senator and a presidential contender he supports legal abortion and has voiced his support for euthanasia. He has stated he disagrees with the Church in its teachings on both those issues.
“So much,” the magazine stated, “for Kerry Catholicism.”
Use of RU-486 Claims Another Teen's Life
LIFENEWS.COM, March 17 — Tamia Russell, 15, of Detroit, died earlier this year after using RU-486 for a second-trimester abortion. The drug is suspected in causing her death.
On Jan. 7, Russell confessed to her family to being six months pregnant with her 24-year-old boyfriend's child and that his sister had taken her to get an abortion. The next day, after returning from the abortion business, Russell was bleeding heavily. Before medics could get her to the hospital, she died.
It is illegal in Michigan for a minor to receive an abortion without parental consent. WomenCare of Southfield, where Russell obtained her abortion, is not known to have reported the statutory rape case, LifeNews reported. Also, the business' own policy states women must be less than 49 days pregnant when receiving a chemical abortion; Russell was in her sixth month.
The Wayne County medical examiner's office listed the cause of Russell's death as “uterine infarction with sepsis, due to status post-second-trimester abortion.” The cause is identical to that of Holly Patterson, a 19-year-old California girl who died in September after using RU-486.
Catholic Speaker's Son Killed in Auto Accident
But less than three months after he came home, the army corporal was killed March 20 after the truck he was driving jumped a median and struck a tree.
“He always said, ‘If I made it home from Iraq, I could make it home from anything,’” a friend told the newspaper.
During his six-month tour of duty in Iraq last year, Benkovic took part in numerous missions to find Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi officials. He was promoted to corporal while serving there and received five Army Commendation Medals, an honor nearly as prestigious as the Bronze Star.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Good Friday Collection Supports Christians in the Holy Land DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:JERUSALEM — The living quarters of the Child Mary Girls Home look like something out of Madeline, the classic French children's book about a little girl in an orphanage.
Second Collections
A long, sunny room atop a narrow spiral staircase contains two rows of beds, 17 in all, covered with simple white bedspreads. Here and there a stuffed animal sits on a pillow. An adjoining room contains several more beds and a private sleeping alcove for Maria Bambina Sister Anastasia Stefan, one of the nuns who care for local girls, aged 7 to 14, who have no other place to go.
“All of this is supported by the Franciscans. Without this help we would not be able to function,” said Sister Anastasia, showing a visitor around the home's 120-year-old building, which also contains the nuns’ quarters, a large kitchen, classrooms, playrooms and a simple chapel.
Fourteen girls from problematic families live at Child Mary's full time. Another 10 come during the day. All attend local Catholic schools that, like Child Mary, receive financial support from the collection for the Holy Land that takes place in parishes throughout the world every year on Good Friday.
According to the Vatican and local Catholic clergy, this support is more vital than ever this year, as the security situation in Israel and the Palestinian-ruled West Bank and Gaza Strip continues to deteriorate.
The political situation, in turn, has fueled a deep recession that has left many Christian families without the means to pay tuition or even the electric bill.
“It's very hard for a Christian here to find a job,” said Franciscan Father Angelo Ison, vice secretary of the Custody of the Holy Land in Jerusalem. “People are frustrated. They want to get married but there is insufficient housing.”
Because so many Holy Land Christians once earned their livelihoods from pilgrimages, the lack of pilgrims has left them without a steady income.
“Stores and restaurants and hotels have closed,” Father Ison said. “The rate of emigration is very high. Once, Christians comprised 80% of the population in Bethlehem. Now 80% of the residents are Muslims.”
Encouraging Christians
The Holy See is clearly alarmed by the trend, which has intensified since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000.
In a letter of appeal sent to dioceses around the world — and posted on the Vatican's Website — Cardinal Ignace Moussa I Daoud, prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, said that “the Christians in the Holy Land are in a particular way prone to feel isolated and abandoned.”
For this reason, he said, Catholics around the world are required “to give even greater attention to this Church also in material terms.”
The letter echoes Pope John Paul II's concern for Holy Land Catholics, whom he encouraged in 2000 during his Jubilee pilgrimage.
On March 22, 1981, the Pope told those assembled at St. Peter's Square that “we support the Holy Land Christians not only for the holy places, the shrines, but above all to sustain and develop the pastoral, charitable and educational and social lives of people …”
The annual Holy Land Collection traces its roots to the time of the apostles, according to Father Ison.
“St. Paul wrote a letter to all the Christians in Greece asking them to help the people in Jerusalem,” he noted.
Since 1618, the Church has dedicated Good Friday as a day to assist Holy Land Catholics who reside in Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Greece, Cyprus and Rhodes.
The Congregation for Eastern Churches coordinates the collection for the Vatican; with the funds raised, the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land maintains major shrines and holy places such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as well as local congregations, churches, chapels, schools, universities, seminaries, summer camps, housing developments and charity projects for the needy and elderly.
One such recipient is the Terra Sancta High School for Boys, which is actually coeducational in the older grades. Here, in the school's airy stone building right next to the ancient walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, boys and girls in crisp school uniforms prepare for a university education. The school has a small auditorium, an arts room, two science laboratories and even a small natural history museum with fossils and other items found in the Holy Land.
Joseph Nasrawi, the school's administrator, said 150 of the school's 400 students are on scholarships.
“Their parents can't pay the $300 per annum tuition fee, so we rely on others’ generosity,” he said.
As with other local institutions, the custody pays for the school's maintenance as well as teachers’ salaries and helps provide scholarships, books and uniforms when needed.
“We depend on the Franciscan friars,” Nasrawi said. “They help us more than most states help their citizens. If it weren't for them, people here would be suffering much more than they already are.”
‘The First Church’
The Franciscan brothers and sisters stress that they could not perform such deeds without the help of Catholics around the world, especially at Easter time.
“The Good Friday Collection covers about half our needs during the year,” said Franciscan Father David Jaeger, official spokesman of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. “The rest has to be raised through special collections and onetime donations.”
While most contemporary churches have congregants who raise funds through a variety of local projects, when it comes to the very old, famed shrines and churches, “the collection is in many cases the only source of income,” Father Jaeger said.
He stressed that when the custody maintains such holy places as the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, “it is on behalf of the worldwide Catholic Church, on behalf of 1 billion Catholics. It is natural that they be maintained. It is the will of the Pope.”
Catherine Toner, secretary of the Commissariat of the Holy Land in Ottawa, said the Good Friday Collection is her way of staying connected to what she calls “the First Church.”
“This is where Jesus was born, lived and announced the good news,” Toner said. “Most people feel very attached to the Holy Land because it is our Savior's country.”
Michele Chabin writes From Jerusalem.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michele Chabin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Change of Heart DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Sister Sara Butler, a Missionary Servant of the Most Blessed Trinity, is a theologian who in the 1960s and 1970s was one of the leading proponents for women's ordination. But she now embraces and defends the teachings of the magisterium on the priesthood with conviction and expertise.
In March, Pope John Paul II named Sister Butler to the International Theological Commission, one of the first two women to serve on this influential commission.
She spoke recently with Register correspondent Sheila Gribben Liaugminas from her office at St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie, N.Y., where she teaches systematic theology.
How did you get into the world of academia and theology?
I studied for my master's degree at the Catholic University of America. This was 1961, and women weren't admitted to theology, so I got a degree in religious education. I never felt anything like resentment over that at all, but I do remember thinking it was really quite, I don't know, remarkable.
I finished graduate school and made my final vows in 1963. I returned to Fordham University for doctoral studies, and it took me a while to write my doctoral thesis.
Those were heady days. Activism was gaining momentum. Women's ordination was becoming a big issue for Anglicans. Anglican-Roman Catholic U.S.A. invited me to join in 1973. Everyone at the time worked from a major published study with the thesis that women weren't ordained because of faulty anthropology. It grounded this argument in the patristic tradition and made a strong case that women were regarded as inferior.
Women's-ordination proponents were driven by this thesis that some inadequacy of women seemed to be the only obstacle to the ordained priesthood. And since that reason didn't hold, the discipline should be changed.
What was your position at that point?
That study and its conclusions seemed solid to me. I was working with the Church Women United ecumenical commission at the time. The Catholic Theological Society of America asked me to study the status of women in the Church and society and to head a committee on that. But everyone only wanted to talk about women's ordination.
That thinking had been going ahead full steam for some time. The council reconfirmed the equal dignity of women. Most leading liberal theologians were leaning this way. So when Pope Paul VI released [the 1976 declaration] Inter Insigniores explaining and upholding the Church's teaching against women's ordination, it hit hard.
I will say that we read that document at the time not to understand it but to refute it. We decided to give our opinion and just treat Inter Insigniores as one more report. I feel really bad about that, but at the time, that's the way we thought.
At the second women's ordination conference, I discovered that two different groups had formed: those who wanted to have women priests and those who wanted a Catholic Church without a priest-hood at all. I didn't like how things were going and felt myself pulling back more.
What actually convinced you to reconsider Church teaching?
Anglican-Roman Catholic U.S.A. asked me to do a report for them on Inter Insigniores and explain why Catholics thought women's ordination was impossible. It forced me to really read the document for the first time. What I read convinced me that the Church's teaching on this unbroken tradition is true and that we had forgotten the whole thing here.
I was sitting at my little desk reading this document and thinking, “Oh, my God. I'm going to have to change my views on this and say this in public.” It was very traumatic. I had sort of defined the crowd, and now I had second thoughts. But it ultimately meant having the grace to pursue truth or not.
What was the obstacle to communicating what you had come to understand with those who didn't yet see it?
So much of this issue was theological. I was chiefly trying to respond to faulty feminist arguments. In 1987 I tried to get an article published in a Catholic journal, which I titled “Second Thoughts on Inter Insigniores.” I was trying to announce to the world that I'd changed my thoughts on this issue. This was my witness and I wanted to get it out. But they wouldn't publish it.
I took a sabbatical from 1988-89, went to St. John's in Collegeville, Minn., and tried to understand what was the actual tradition about this issue, what fits and what doesn't. I gave a talk on my unpublished paper at St. John's, but it was not popular.
What support were you getting at the time?
I felt as if the Lord was giving me things I needed along the way — a book, a letter, whatever I needed. Then, a position opened up at Mundelein Seminary [in Illinois] for a staff theologian. I recall going to an event held by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate to celebrate the release of [the 1988 apostolic letter] Mulieris Dignitatum, the Pope's response to feminists. I met [Chicago] Cardinal [Francis] George there. He helped me understand the philosophy behind the Pope's thought.
Also, the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission got me involved in the “Gift of Authority” study in 1992 with a complete review again of the issues involving authority. The Anglican Church was ordaining women, and all possible arguments were brought forward.
I remember the moment in 1994 when I heard the news that the Pope had issued the apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (On Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone). It came like a thunderbolt! We hadn't expected it. I was overwhelmed with joy.
After that, somebody from Collegeville said to me grudgingly, “I guess you're glad you were right.” It wasn't like that. It was not vindication that I felt, just a joyful response. We don't need women's ordination to prove women's equality. Jesus instituted the sacrament of holy orders as an extension of the authority of Christ. It has symbolic value.
But I am sympathetic to people who don't see it. That's why I want to keep my relationships open and speak whenever asked. I do the best I can to return to the dialogue from deeper theological investigation. How are you going to reform a group of people if all the speakers they're hearing have dissenting opinions? You look for any opportunities you get.
Could you have imagined one as huge as a seat on the International Theological Commission?
Never! I never saw it coming! It was a total surprise. My first reaction was, “Oh, my God! This is really out of my league!” The only requirements for this that I meet are being competent and faithful to the magisterium. I've survived commissions up until now without messing up.
But this is a new commission; here's a chance to involve women with more of a voice in decision making. Now a couple of women will be at the table where the discussions will be held that will influence decisions.
Sheila Gribben Liaugminas writes from Chicago.
----- EXCERPT: Sister Butler Explains Why She No Longer Backs Women Priests ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sheila Gribben Liaugminas ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:Keep Feeding Tubes, Pope Tells Conference
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 21 — Removal of feeding tubes from people in vegetative states is “immoral,” according to Pope John Paul II, and no judgment on their quality of life could justify what he calls “euthanasia by omission.”
The Holy Father made his comments March 20 to participants at a Vatican conference regarding the ethical dilemmas involving incapacitated patients, the wire service reported. It was organized by the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations and the Pontifical Academy for Life.
Even the medical term used to describe people in a “persistent vegetative state” is degrading to them, the Pope said. No matter how sick a person is, he said, “he is and always will be a man, never becoming a ‘vegetable’ or ‘animal.’”
Giving food and water to patients is natural ordinary and proportional care, John Paul said, not artificial medical intervention.
The Real Definition of a Martyr
AGENZIA GIORNALISTICA ITALIA, March 23 — Thirty-five Catholic missionaries were killed in 2003. They are what the Vatican calls martyrs.
But the word martyr is more often being used to describe Islamic suicide bombers, and the Vatican doesn't want the terrorists to be mixed up with Christian martyrs.
“Martyrdom is mentioned in lay terms. Islamic suicide bombers are called martyrs. But the sahid, the ‘suicide martyr,’ is completely different from the Christian martyr,” according to historian Andrea Riccardi in presenting the book Faith and Martyrdom, promoted by the Congregation for Eastern Churches.
The word martyr is being misused, Riccardi said.
“The Christian martyr doesn't kill himself to kill other people,” he said. “The Christian martyr gives his life to avoid that others be killed, to avoid quitting his faith, to support other believers, for love. … The Christian martyr has its own special role, which doesn't lead to revenge.”
Cardinal Pell Takes Over Titular Church
Cardinal Pell, who was made a cardinal last year, received the church as is custom for new cardinals. The parish church, Santa Maria Domenica Mazzarello, on the outskirts of Rome, was built in 1997 and named after the founder of the Salesian Order of Sisters.
Among the guests at the Mass were Cardinal Francis Stafford and Dr. John Herron, Australia's ambassador to the Holy See.
Cardinal: End Deadlock on Anti-Terrorism Treaty
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, March 18 — Cardinal Renato Martino on March 18 called on the United Nations to approve a major anti-terrorism treaty, which has been held up for years.
Cardinal Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said the main cause of the deadlock — a definition of the word terrorism — must end.
“We have to arrive at a definition and a rapid conclusion so that the entire international community can commit itself,” he said, calling terrorism a “horrible sickness of humanity.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: In His Latest Book, John Paul Rises to Yet Another Occasion DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:ROME — Rise, Let Us Be Going is the title of Pope John Paul II's latest book, a 200-page volume of memories and reflections on his life as a bishop from his consecration in Krakow, Poland, on Sept. 28, 1958, at age 38 to his election as Pope and Bishop of Rome on Oct. 16, 1978.
The book will be published in Italy on May 18, the Pope's 84th birthday.
The announcement was made March 24 during a press conference at Rome's Excelsior Hotel presided by two representatives of Mondadori, the book's Italian publisher, and Joaquín NavarroValls, director of the Holy See Press Office. In 1994 Mondadori published the Holy Father's book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope.
Rights to the new book are held by the Vatican Publishing House, which signed in the Pope's name a contract with Mondadori, which will oversee the publication in other major languages. John Paul is personally negotiating the rights for publication of the Polish edition in Poland.
Navarro-Valls said the Pope wrote the book in Polish last year between March and August, writing part of it by hand and dictating other parts. He said the Pope's busy schedule in the fall and winter months prevented him from having time to review or revise the book or to add something to it. But, he pointed out, the Holy Father reflects at great length when it comes to penning a piece, and as a result the final product — prose, poetry or a philosophical treatise — “needs little or no revision.”
The book's title, Rise, Let Us Be Going is taken from Jesus’ words in the Gospel according to Mark (14:42) when he speaks to Peter, James and John in the Garden of Gethsemane prior to being arrested. For John Paul, this best expressed the essence of what it means to be a bishop, especially in the midst of trials: “’Rise, let us be going,’ we have work to do.”
“John Paul has written so many things on so many subjects for so many years,” Navarro-Valls said. “I'd like to say just one thing to those who have described this as his final book: I would not place a bet on that, knowing the Holy Father.”
He said it was his personal impression that the Pope was motivated to write this book because 2003 marked not only the 25th anniversary of his pontificate but also the 45th anniversary of his episcopal ordination.
When in 1996, on the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination, the Pope wrote Gift and Mystery — recollections of his life as a priest and reflections on the priesthood — letters arrived from around the world, especially from bishops, telling the Pope how moving the book was and suggesting that he write recollections of his life as a bishop.
Rise, Let Us Be Going, Navarro-Valls said, is the compendium of those “recollections and reflections. This book is a perfect synthesis of biographical elements and the Pope's reflections on those events. He even writes at one point: ‘I am in search of the source of my vocation.’”
Natural Style
“The Holy Father's style,” Navarro-Valls said, “is narrative and reflexive, direct and very natural, just as he is. There are also many touches of his wonderful sense of humor. He tells of his experiences as a bishop on a human level, of his dealings with the communist authorities, of the difficulties of trying to build a brand-new church in Nowa Huta, of his many and varied ministries such as the pastoral ministry with men and women of science. One thing he repeats in the book is that everyone — men, women and children, the old and the young — always had easy access to him as bishop.”
Gian Arturo Ferrari of Mondadori Publishers said Rise, Let Us Be Going is filled with life, enthusiasm and vivacity.
“In addition,” Arturo said, “Pope John Paul gives us interesting little personal insights when he says things like, ‘I have always loved to sing.’”
Ferrari added that the “dynamic thrust” of the title itself, which indicates action and movement, mirrors the man and his ministry. He said Crossing the Threshold of Hope “was a vision of life,” and Rise, Let Us Be Going is “a book on life.”
Ferrari said more than 250,000 copies will be printed for the first edition, close to the 280,000 copies for the first printing of Crossing the Threshold of Hope, which since it publication has sold more than 20 million copies.
All profits from the sale of the 1994 book were earmarked by the Pope for the building of churches in the Balkans, including an Orthodox church. Moneys from the sales of the new book will all also go to the Pope's charities.
Joan Lewis works for Vatican Information Service.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joan Lewis ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Peace and Joy Flow From Doing God's Will DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:Register Summary
Pope John Paul II met with 14,000 pilgrims in St. Peter's Square for his general audience March 24, the eve of the feast of the Annunciation. The Annunciation, John Paul said, is both Mary's feast and Christ's feast.
“Her fiat, which we commemorate tomorrow, echoes the fiat of the Incarnate Word,” the Holy Father pointed out. “Each one of us is called to join in the mysterious plan of God's providence with our own ‘Yes’ in intimate union with the fiat of Christ and the Blessed Virgin. Indeed, the true peace and joy we so ardently desire for our times will flow forth only through complete obedience to God's will.”
The Pope recalled his act of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25, 1984, and lamented that the unrest and uncertainty back then is still evident in the world today.
“Twenty years later, hate, violence, terrorism and war still leave their mark on the world in a frightening way,” he said. “There is an urgent need for men to open their hearts and make a courageous effort for mutual understanding.”
Our thirst for peace and hope, he said, will be satisfied if we turn to Christ through Mary.
Tomorrow we celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation, which is an occasion for us to meditate on the incarnation of the eternal Word who was made man in Mary's womb. The Virgin Mary's “Yes” opened the door for our heavenly Father to carry out his plan of salvation — a plan for the redemption of all men.
On one hand, this feast, which falls in the middle of Lent this year, recalls the beginning of our salvation. At the same time, it is an invitation to reflect on the paschal mystery. We gaze upon Christ crucified, who redeemed mankind by carrying out the Father's will to the end. On Calvary, during the last few moments of his life, he entrusted Mary to us as our mother, and he entrusted us to her as her children.
Mary's Fiat
Through her association with the Incarnation, the Blessed Virgin shares in the mystery of redemption. Her fiat, which we commemorate tomorrow, echoes the fiat of the Incarnate Word. Each one of us is called to join in the mysterious plan of God's providence with our own “Yes” in intimate union with the fiat of Christ and the Blessed Virgin. Indeed, the true peace and joy we so ardently desire for our times will flow forth only through complete obedience to God's will.
On the eve of the feast, which is both Mary's feast and Christ's feast at the same time, my thoughts turn to some significant moments at the beginning of my pontificate: Dec. 8, 1978, when I entrusted the entire Church to the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Basilica of St. Mary Major, and June 4, 1979, when I renewed this commitment at the Shrine of Jaśna Góra. I especially recall March 25, 1984, the Holy Year of the Redemption. Twenty years have passed since that day in St. Peter's Square, when, spiritually united with the bishops of the world who had been “called together” in advance, I entrusted all mankind to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in response to Our Lady's request at Fatima.
The Way to Peace and Hope
Mankind was experiencing some difficult moments of great concern and uncertainty at the time. Twenty years later, hate, violence, terrorism and war still leave their mark on the world in a frightening way. Among the many victims who are reported each day, so many are defenseless people who are struck down while carrying out their daily duties. On this day, which is dedicated to the memory of missionaries who have been martyred and to praying for them, we must not forget the priests, religious and lay people who have died in the missions during 2003. So much blood continues to be spilled in many regions of the world. There is an urgent need for men to open their hearts and make a courageous effort for mutual understanding. The longing for peace and justice throughout the world grows greater each day. How can we respond to this thirst for hope and love other than by turning to Christ through Mary? I repeat once again today the plea that I addressed to the Holy Virgin Mary at that time: “Mother of Christ, reveal the infinite saving power of the Redeemer once again in the unfolding history of this world — the power of merciful love! May it put a stop to evil and transform consciences! May the light of hope be revealed to all in your Immaculate Heart!”
(Register translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Cardinal Stafford, Major Penitentiary DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:An annual appointment on the Vatican calendar is the March course on the “internal forum” for young priests and those soon to be ordained.
I took it a couple of years ago and it was a window into a part of the Church that few ever see, even priests. It concluded this year on March 27, with Cardinal Francis Stafford presiding.
The course is organized within the Apostolic Penitentiary, which itself is something of a well-kept “secret” in Vatican press coverage. The penitentiary deals, on behalf of the Holy Father, with all matters related to the “internal forum,” matters that are secret under the seal of confession or spiritual direction.
While dating from the 12th century, its work rarely gets attention because it is necessarily secret. Or, as Cardinal Stafford likes to put it, the work is like grace, which is powerful but invisible.
The course itself devotes an enormous amount of time to quite-rare phenomena in the life of a parish priest: what to do about sins reserved to the Holy See or how to lift penalties associated with various crimes in canon law. The procedures themselves for communicating cases to the penitentiary for a judgment are careful and deliberate, developed to ensure a quick response while retaining the complete confidentiality of the penitent. I hope I don't have to consult my notes on that anytime soon.
But the lasting sense I took from the course was the seriousness with which the Church treats the sanctuary of conscience. That the penitentiary exists — a whole congregation devoted entirely to matters that might never be discussed — illustrates the lengths to which the Church will go to protect consciences in its exercise of the power of the keys.
The power of the keys. When most observers think of the Church's power, they are inclined to think of her ability to sway public opinion, run hospitals or schools, or influence leaders in society. Yet the greatest power the Church has is that given to the apostles — the power “to bind and to loose” on Earth matters that would likewise be bound or loosed in heaven. The “keys to the Kingdom of heaven” given to Peter are exercised on behalf of his successors by the Apostolic Penitentiary.
Which makes it remarkable that when Cardinal Stafford was appointed head of the penitentiary last Oct. 4 (on his patronal feast day), it was said he had been kicked upstairs or sidelined. He had become a less-powerful presence in Rome.
Cardinal Stafford himself is aware of that commentary and told me not long after the appointment that the reaction to his posting to the penitentiary could serve as a “Rorschach test” for determining different conceptions of the Church. There is no doubt that at his former post at the Pontifical Council for the Laity there was a greater public profile and the chance to speak on a wide array of topics. But in moving to the “tribunal of mercy” has he taken a step up or a step down?
It is worth noting that, at least at the level of canon law, the penitentiary is given pride of place. During a vacancy in the See of Peter, after the death or resignation of a pope, all Vatican congregations cease all business — with the exception of the penitentiary, for the dispensing of mercy and the care of souls cannot be interrupted. The challenge for many Churchmen, in Rome and elsewhere, is to see the Church as she sees herself.
Cardinal Stafford is such a Churchman. During my years as the Register's Rome correspondent, he was always kind and generous to me, both as an aspiring priest and a journalist. Many of my colleagues, though, found him too theologically nuanced in interviews and not given to pithy sound bites.
All of which is true enough, which means it was no doubt an act of Providence that he was chosen, along with Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, to address the high-octane press conference at the end of the cardinals’ summit on sexual abuse in April 2002. At that time he said the Church had “spiritual resources” with which to deal with such scandals. He spoke of mercy and penance and conversion and healing. No one paid much attention. Except perhaps the Holy Spirit.
Now Cardinal Stafford marshals those spiritual resources as the Church's chief confessor in the Church's ultimate confessional. The confessional is a hidden place, too, but hardly a step down for any priest.
Father Raymond J. de Souza writes from Kingston, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Raymond J. de Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Romania's Catholic Gypsies Still Struggle Against Poverty and Persecution DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:CLUJ-NAPOCA, Romania — In the Somesheni neighborhood in the Transylvanian capital city of Cluj-Napoca, nine Catholic Gypsy families live inside un-insulated metal boxes that act like iceboxes in the winter and ovens in the summer.
Scraps of linoleum and cardboard cover a dirt floor that Eva Elekesh says is “ice” in the winter and becomes “mushy” during the spring thaw.
For warmth the family burns plastic and other flammable materials scavenged from garbage. An iron stove leaks noxious fumes. Without electricity, light is supplied from a wick dipped in animal fats, which leaves its mark on the blackened ceiling and in the deep coughs of the Elekesh children.
Two years ago the nine families lived in the center of the city, where they held jobs and worshipped at the local Catholic parish. After a suspicious fire in the middle of the night robbed them of their homes and possessions, municipal authorities transported them here, alongside the railroad tracks just a couple hundred yards from the city dump.
The circle of corrugated metal homes sits between a group of displaced Gypsies being helped by a Baptist charity organization, which has supplied insulated homes with raised floors. On the other side is a larger community of Pentecostal Gypsies, who worship along with their Western sponsors at a church built inside the commune.
In contrast, the nearby Catholic church no longer offers services because only three elderly Catholics live in the area, said Rose Marie Stolz, director of the local Catholic Charities.
Discrimination
Gypsies (or Roma, as they are more correctly known) are negatively regarded across Europe as beggars, thieves and loveless parents, and are seldom viewed as good Christians.
A century and a half after Gypsy emancipation in Romania, discrimination is still a problem affecting many Roma in their daily lives, in employment, education and worship.
Pope John Paul II has often spoken out against Gypsy persecution.
“It is necessary to overcome ancient prejudice that leads you to suffer forms of discrimination and at times undesirable marginalizing of the Gypsy population,” he said in May 1997 at services honoring Ceferino Jimenez Malla, the first Gypsy elevated to beatification.
Yet few in Romania seem to be listening. Recent polls show that more than 75% of Romanians believe Roma to be criminals, and nearly half support segregation and the right of local authorities to expel Gypsy communes.
Fifteen years after freedom of religion returned to the ex-communist country, 5% of the predominantly Orthodox nation now belongs to Protestant religions. Adventists, Pentecostals and Baptists are today equal in number to Catholics, and many of the Cluj-Napoca Roma have turned from their Catholic faith to the welcoming new Protestant religions.
Manara Gabor, an Adventist convert, claims she now has a closer link to Christ.
“I was baptized Catholic by the priest, but who is the priest?” she said. “He is a man. As an Adventist I am married to Jesus, not with the priest.”
Florin Moisa, an official of the Resource Center for Roma Communities in Cluj-Napoca, said the Roma's relationship with the Catholic Church often depends on the local priest and his sensitivity toward their needs.
“The Roma are more receptive to these new religions,” Moisa said, “and in most cases these groups set up local pastors, someone from inside. They feel it is their church.”
Hard Life
The nine Catholic families who were forced to move to Somesheni have remained true to their faith, but they say they often feel abandoned.
“Caritas helped us immediately after the fire when we lived in the underground shelter, but we never see them anymore,” said Cristian Tsuli, who earns $75 a month as a street cleaner. At the local market, this meager income affords him a daily ration of two loaves of bread, a liter of milk, a stick of butter and a half-pound of meat with which to feed his family of five.
The Tsuli family and others in the compound compensate by rummaging through city garbage bins.
“It is not our responsibility. It is not the Catholic duty but the government who must help them,” Catholic Charities’ Stolz said. “Yes, it is true, it [the Catholic Church] is their Church, but only for the moment. Later they go to the other churches and say we are Baptist or Pentecostal because they have this style.”
Some of the Roma Catholics admit that financial aid could induce them to convert.
“Look, I am not stupid — we have been stuck here for two years. We have children here and if someone offered help I need to accept,” said Elekesh, who complained about being unable to get out the door for work in the morning because of the bodies sleeping on the floor.
The Elekesh family currently numbers 12, packed into an 8-by-12 metal container with two beds. They will be 13 by day's end, when a daughter-in-law and her newborn return from the hospital.
Their neighbor Karoly Czanka, who has worked as a puppet artist at the theater, says he would not convert.
“I am Catholic,” he said. “My mother was Catholic and her mother.”
Czanka's wife “La- La” can't speak or hear, but through signs she manages to explain that the hunger is not so discomforting so long as she has paper and pen to sketch. Her husband scolds her because she burns her drawings for heat.
Father Kadar
At the 700-year-old Calvary Catholic Church on the other side of the city, Father Istvan Kadar considers the Gypsies in his congregation good Catholics who receive the sacraments and attend church like everyone else.
The parish's 10 Gypsy families belonged to the Ligurari tribe (spoon makers) but are a part of the growing number of Roma who no longer refer to themselves as Roma or Gypsy — though everyone else does.
“They are not a problem,” Father Kadar said.
But after a pause and slight grin he added: “Well, we have a little problem with them on the Day of the Dead. Gypsies don't mourn death. They play music at their funerals and during this day while everyone sits quietly and prays, the Gypsies travel all along the road to the church singing and dancing. … But this is their tradition, and we have to respect that.”
Chuck Todaro is based in Romania, where he is researching Roma issues and culture. He can be contacted at CKBTonroad@yahoo.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Chuck Todaro ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:Aramaic at the Root of the Koran?
CHIESA.ENGLISH, March 17 — As audiences watch The Passion of the Christ and soak in the ancient Aramaic language in which much of the movie is spoken, little do they know it's also the language that was the root of the Koran, according to a German scholar of ancient languages.
Writing under the pseudonym Christoph Luxenberg, the scholar maintains that Syro-Aramaic-speaking Christians created the Koran to evangelize Arabs.
It's not a popular notion, according to the Italian Website — a few years ago, one of Luxenberg's colleagues dispensing the same ideas at the University of Nablus in Palestine was thrown out the window by his scandalized Muslim students.
In an interview posted on the Website, the author says Christians wrote the book because “at that time, there were no Arab schools — except, perhaps, for the Christian centers of alAnbar and al-Hira, in southern Mesopotamia, or what is now Iraq. The Arabs of that region had been Christianized and instructed by Syrian Christians.
Their liturgical language was Syro-Aramaic. And this was the vehicle of their culture, and more generally the language of written communication.”
United Nations Prepares to Repatriate Sudanese
FIDES, March 18 — The United Nations is set to repatriate approximately 3.6 million Sudanese refugees displaced by 20 years of civil war in their country.
The U.N. High Commission for Refugees has been sur veying refugees and the conditions of their homeland. The refugees' main concerns continue to be safety at home as well as education, medical care, access to water and the possibility of jobs.
The missionary news agency noted that progress in peace talks between the Khartoum government and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement spurred the U.N. commission to establish its presence in southern Sudan after a 14-year absence.
War in Sudan, between the predominantly Muslim-dominated northern portion of the country and the predominantly Christian and animist south, has produced 3 million internally displaced persons and 600,000 refugees in neighboring countries.
As well, 2 million people have been killed in southern Sudan during the conflict.
England Looks to Relax Pornography Laws
Mid and West Wales assembly member Glyn Davies criticized the laws proposed by Liberal Democrats the weekend of March 20-21.
A spokesman for the Church of England said it opposes all pornography because of issues of exploitation.
“For a political party to say we think 16 is an adequate age to release children on to pornography is irresponsible,” said Angela Perkins of the National Board of Catholic Women. “It's going backward to the 18th century.”
A supporter of the relaxed laws asked why 16- and 17-year-olds could be allowed to have sex, have babies, vote and earn minimum wage but not be allowed to view explicit material, according to the paper.
Currently the legal age for viewing pornography is 18.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Against Parochial Distractions DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:Catholics worry about the future of the Church and ponder what might be the best course of action for the Church to take.
Conferences are held on plans for the future of the Church. New organizations are formed of people who are worried about the future of the Church. Publications ponder out loud whether or not the time has come for Vatican III.
Meanwhile, Pope John Paul II's excellent plan for the future of the Church sits, waiting for Catholics to notice it and implement it — and these conferences might be part of the problem.
The Pope said recently that lay Catholics might be so caught up in the “distraction” of internal parish affairs that they've forgotten to promote the Gospel.
Register readers have heard us mention the Pope's plan for the future before.
It's brilliant in that it is eminently “doable” — you don't need a theology degree or hours of spare time — and far-reaching. The Pope has called for Catholics to promote four things, both to shore up the ranks in the Church already and to give people who are seeking Christ a place to go. He is promoting Sunday Mass, confession, prayer and service to the poor.
He first spelled out the program in his 2001 apostolic letter Novo Millennio Ineunte (At the Beginning of the New Millennium). He has followed up on the program with event after event: an encyclical on the Eucharist with key mentions of confession, an apostolic letter on confession, the Year of the Rosary and the beatification of Mother Teresa on the anniversary of his pontificate.
We confront a world of people who live as though God doesn't exist, he said in recent words to Australian bishops. This requires that we become new kinds of Catholics: Catholics who evangelize, not Catholics who are caught up in the world or in parochial distractions.
He began by observing that “the pernicious ideology of secularism has found fertile ground in Australia.”
“At the root of this disturbing development is the attempt to promote a vision of humanity without God,” he told the bishops. “It exaggerates individualism, sunders the essential link between freedom and truth, and corrodes the relationships of trust that characterize genuine social living.”
He cited “the undermining of family life; a drift away from the Church” and “a limited vision of life that fails to awaken in people the sublime call to direct their steps toward a truth that transcends them.”
“In the face of such challenges, when the winds are against us, the Lord himself calls out: ‘Courage! It is I! Have no fear.’ Remaining firm in trust, you, too, can dispel apprehension and fear,” the Holy Father said.
“The Church's witness to the hope that she holds is especially powerful when she gathers together for worship. Sunday Mass, because of its special solemnity, the obligatory presence of the faithful and its celebration on the day when Christ conquered death, expresses with great emphasis the Eucharist's inherent ecclesial dimension,” he said. In the Eucharist, “the mystery of the Church is made present in a most tangible way.”
It's the job of lay Catholics, along with bishops and priests, to stress the importance of Sunday Mass, he said. We should be evangelizers reaching out, not organizers focused within.
“Sent by the Lord himself into the vineyard — the home, the workplace, schools, civic organizations — disciples of Christ find no room for ‘standing idle in the marketplace’ nor can they be so deeply immersed in the internal organization of parish life that they are distracted from the command to evangelize others actively,” the Holy Father said. “Renewed by the strength of the risen Lord and his Spirit, Christ's followers must return to their vineyard burning with a desire to speak of Christ and to show him to the world.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:Jesus and the Jews
I am a Christian descended from a Hasidic Jewish grandfather who came to believe the Jewish Jesus of Nazareth truly was the Messiah-Son of Yahweh-God.
To the point: What is the nature of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ?
Is it anti-Semitic? Hardly. It presents the super-heroic example of one committed Jew — the greatest that nation ever produced. It highlights the treatment Jesus chose to undergo from all sinners — from fellow Jews, both leaders and people, and from the pagan Roman gentiles who represent mankind's general guilt. All in order to establish for both a Christian Kingdom of universal love and forgiveness.
Is the film violent? Yes, realistically and historically so but not senseless or contrived. It has purpose and says: “No matter what you do to me, I forgive; no matter how much you hate, I love; no matter the extent of your injustice, ignorance or arrogance, I will submit to your game playing, to your abuse of power. But, whatever your rejection, you cannot change what I do, nor will I ever return viciousness in kind.”
Anti-Semitism does exist in present-day society, as in the blowing up of innocent people as well as in America's current elimination of the Jew Jesus from public culture, disallowing any study of his life, words and model, and ignoring that the greatest historic human was a crucified Jew. That is continuing anti-Semitic violence.
My criticism of Gibson's film? It is too masterful, too tantalizing. It makes one want to get up and shout, “Thank you, Mel, for your courage and talent. You broke the mold of Hollywood cuteness, of its superficial fictionalizing inventiveness, of its negative interpretation of history's foremost Human! Mel, The Passion was not enough. Give us more of the eyewitness Gospels!”
PASTOR ROMY SIMEONE
Our Father's House Ministry
Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Oscars in Heaven
Critics don't get The Passion of the Christ because they never got the Passion. Like Pilate, and unlike Claudia, they don't recognize truth when it stands before them. Too violent? How else could one pay for the collective sins of humanity except in an excruciating manner? Jesus Christ took it upon himself to repair the evil man has worked throughout the ages.
When one thinks about it, Mel Gibson did not go far enough in his portrayal of the passion of Christ, but if he could completely lay bare our sins, who could endure it? Make no mistake. In truth, Christ had to be given just enough strength to stay alive, until he could taste the fruits of all sins before the prophecy could be fulfilled.
Having viewed the film, I was deeply impressed with the love of the God-Man, suffering for us all the horrors that are the fruit of sin. As to the cast itself, the acting was superb — particularly James Caviezel as Jesus Christ. There can be no tougher critics than Christians, whose sensitivities and sensibilities are always tweaked when this role is taken up by anyone.
Caviezel and Gibson managed to transcend the mystery of the Word Incarnate with stunning beauty, believability and deep understanding. With due respect, I cannot see how someone from Gibson's background accomplished this film without divine help.
Who cares about Oscar? All those behind this movie will be duly rewarded, I'm sure.
PAUL GORDON
Cannington, Ontario
Tsunami of Grace
So far I have seen The Passion of the Christ four times and plan to go every week till it's gone. For me, it's a different movie every time but always deeper. At least, it touches me more deeply every time.
Many of the saints wrote that the quickest way to grow in the love of God is to meditate on the passion of Christ. Meditation can be hard work. However, here is an intense meditation on the Passion that is so accessible, so easy to imbibe. What a beautiful opportunity.
“Your heart is the altar of God,” St. Bonaventure said. “It is here that the fire of intense love must burn always. You are to feed it every day with the wood of the cross of Christ and the commemoration of his passion.”
By the way, see www.mylifeafter.com for more than 200 stories telling how The Movie (as it is known among its fans) has affected people of every age, religion, educational and social background. What a tsunami of grace!
LEE GILBERT
Lisle, Illinois
The Peculiar Party
The article “Pro-Lifers Want to Storm Party Barricades” by Bob Violino (March 21-27) avoids the subject of how Democrats should vote now. Why should they remain loyal to a party when they have to “whisper” they are pro-life? How ridiculous.
It's time to grow up and not vote for a party because you always did but for a party that represents what you value and not vice versa.
ANNA MELVILLE
Ozone Park, New York
A Bishop Beyond Boston
I am a longtime subscriber to the Register. Thank you so much for putting this paper out in the hands of Americans. I spread mine around when I am done reading it and hope some of the people have also signed on.
Regarding “For Bishops, a Flurry of Appointments, an Installation and a Death” (March 21-27): You have left out one of the bishops from the state of Massachusetts. His Excellency the Rev. Richard Malone, D.D., has been the south regional bishop for the Archdiocese of Boston, which is the region I live in. He has been appointed bishop of Portland, Maine, beginning April 1. This is a wonderful man and I personally am sad to lose him but happy for the state of Maine. Having lived there as a child for six years of my life and revisited the state many times, I know the need for him there is great. He will be a wonderful bishop for them.
Just wanted to let you know there was this one more bishop who should be recognized. Thank you again for your wonderful, truthful paper. I absolutely love reading each issue. God bless you in your work — it is so needed in this country today!
RITA L. CLASBY
Plympton, Massachusetts
Correction
In “Project's Goal: Healing by Happiness” (March 21-27), Human Life of Washington was mistakenly referred to as the Washington Right to Life office. The Center for Life Principles, from which the Life Principles program and the book Healing the Culture were launched, operates under the auspices of Human Life of Washington, the Washington state affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee. Jesuit Father Robert Spitzer, president of Gonzaga University and author of the book, serves on the board of Human Life of Washington.
Incidentally, Father Spitzer is also chairman of a new, independent organization called Healing the Culture. Headed by co-founder Camille De Blasi, it has as its sole mission promoting the Life Principles curriculum.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Time to Declare War on Porn DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:Thank you for the front-page article on pornography (“Secret Epidemic: Internet Fuels Widespread Addiction to Porn,” March 14-20).
There is emerging a new understanding of pornography, thanks to brain researchers and therapists specially trained in this area. The new brain research indicates that the chemicals released when viewing pornography make it as addictive as cocaine. It quickly becomes a habit when people seek to escape the pressures of business, personal relationships, loneliness, emptiness and other debilitating feelings. Like cocaine, it only provides temporary relief.
Studies show four stages of pornography addiction. In the first, the addict becomes powerless before the material. This effect is even more pronounced among the highly educated. It isn't just singles or celibates whom the media proclaims in need of a quick fix. It's also married men who, when addicted, would rather watch pornography than have relations with their wives.
The second stage is escalation, where the addict requires more explicit material to get a sexual response. The third stage is desensitization. Here you become convinced that “everybody is doing it,” excusing the behavior no matter how immoral or, in some cases, illegal. You feel yourself becoming a monster filled with shame and guilt. The fourth stage is sexual acting out, involving compulsive promiscuity and all that goes with it.
Confessors and counselors make a bad mistake thinking the addicted can quit “cold turkey.” That usually doesn't happen even in the first stage for men. Specialized therapy is required.
For those who are not too far gone, some very simple rules can help. Use the three-second rule: Turn off the computer or TV as soon as a tempting image appears. That rule is as therapeutically sound today as it was a century ago. Or, when you find yourself facing an image you think you can't resist, think of your sister or other female loved one. You'll want to move away quickly when you do that.
Above all, my recommendation is for some good, sound lawyer reading this to find a very addicted person with a tragic story and file a class-action lawsuit against the pornographers. It worked with tobacco and I believe it will work with pornography.
FATHER VAL J. PETER, JCD, STD
Executive Director
Father Flanagan's Boys Home
Boys Town, Nebraska
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: California Calamity DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:Insurance law, one would have thought, could not be further from the culture wars and sensitive issues of religious liberty.
That is no longer the case. On March 1, the California Supreme Court ruled that a Catholic charity was required to provide prescription contraceptives as part of its employees' insurance coverage despite Church teachings that prohibit it from doing so.
The case is sure to send shock waves through the nation. The decision opens up a new front in the battle over religion in public life: an attempt to define who qualifies as “religious” so they can be defined out of public life.
Coming on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Locke v. Davey, which ruled that a state could legitimately deny a public scholarship benefit to someone who would use it to study religion, this case clouds the future of religious liberty for both individuals and institutions.
Catholic Charities of Sacramento sued the California Department of Insurance and other state agencies for a declaration that the Women's Contraception Equity Act was unconstitutional.
The act, which became law in 1999, provides that employee insurance policies that cover prescription drugs must include coverage for prescription contraceptives. Catholic Charities operates hospitals and other charities according to Catholic religious principles. As part of its understanding of the moral and religious obligations of an employer, Catholic Charities provides prescription drug coverage to its employees, not all of whom are Catholic.
Because the act would require Catholic Charities to provide prescription contraceptive coverage in violation of Catholic teaching, Catholic Charities claimed the statute violated the First Amendment and the California constitution because it involved the state in Church affairs and excessively “entangled” the state in religion.
The California Supreme Court, with only one dissenter, disagreed.
Despite acknowledging that “[c]ertainly the [Women's Contraception Equity Act] conflicts with Catholic Charities' religious beliefs,” the court ruled that the law applied to all institutions and did not target just religious institutions. Therefore, the act did not violate the First Amendment or the state constitution despite the burdens the act places upon institutions whose religious beliefs prevent them from providing prescription contraceptive coverage.
The key to the future importance of the case lies in a small loophole for “religious employers.” A “religious employer” is exempt from the Women's Contraception Equity Act's requirements if it can show it “primarily employs persons who share the religious tenets of the entity,” has as its purpose the “inculcation of religious values” and “serves primarily persons who share [its] religious tenets.”
This language is so restrictive that Catholic Charities had no choice but to agree it was not exempt from the statute. (There is some evidence this narrow language was chosen in part due to anti-Catholic prejudice and from an effort to drive Catholic institutions from the health care industry.) Indeed, the exemption is so restrictive that it would exclude almost all social-service institutions of every religion.
In ruling that the act is constitutional, the California court has given lawmakers free reign to define “religious employer” so as to restrict them in areas of public life beyond health care. Statutes such as the Women's Contraception Equity Act and analogues in other states such as New York (where a state court upheld an almost identical bill last year) drive right into forbidden constitutional territory because they force the state to determine which parts of a religious entity are “religious” and which are simply “charitable.”
The circumscribed role for religious institutions endorsed by the California court differs sharply from the way Catholics understand the relationship between faith and life.
Part of any Catholic organization's primary mission is the spreading of the Gospel for the salvation of all people. This mission has a strong intellectual component, but it is also inextricably tied to charity and other work, which by necessity means serving people of other faiths through institutions such as Catholic Charities. By ruling that California is allowed to determine the extent to which a charity's work is “primarily” religious, the court has essentially cast into doubt the ability of any institution to act according to its religious beliefs.
The Catholic Charities case has an even more profound lesson.
It demonstrates the dangers for religious institutions in attempting to accommodate secular categories. In its brief, Catholic Charities conceded that its purpose was “not the direct inculcation of religious values” but rather “to offer social services to the general public that promote a just, compassionate society that supports the dignity of individuals and families.”
The court seized on this language to show that Catholic Charities was not “Catholic” enough under the statute. Indeed, the court defined Catholic Charities as a “nonprofit benefit corporation” rather than a religious charity. By explicitly separating its religious existence from its charitable work, Catholic Charities gave the court an opening to deny it constitutional protection.
The California Supreme Court has sent a message that Catholic institutions should now reconsider how they portray themselves to the public and how they describe their services. Merely having “Catholic” in the name is no longer enough to ensure religious liberty.
Gerald J. Russello, a lawyer, lives in Brooklyn, New York. He is the editor of Christianity and European Culture: Selections from the Work of Christopher Dawson.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gerald J. Russello ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: How the Crucifix Saved the Trinity DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:Jesus asked, “Who do you say I am?” and Peter got the answer right when he declared, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
However, Peter and the apostles, not being immortal, didn't stick around to address the million and one wrong answers that popped up during succeeding centuries — answers that, in one way or another, had at their heart the denial of Simon Peter's declaration.
So the apostles appointed bishops whose job was to “guard the deposit of faith” entrusted to them (2 Timothy 1:14). The job of the bishops was to act as a sort of spiritual Food and Drug Administration, keeping the formula for the Gospel medicine pure and helping unwary people tell the difference between the genuine and imitation-brand gospels.
Why? Because all the imitations looked real enough, but they put in a little too much of this or took out a little too much of that. And the result was poison.
Thus, when some said Jesus wasn't human and didn't die on the cross, the Church said No to that notion since 1) the apostles were quite clear about Jesus' humanity and 2) if Jesus didn't die, then he didn't rise again and the whole Gospel is utter nonsense.
Others claimed Jesus was a good God and the Old Testament God was a bad God. The Church replied, “Then whom was Jesus calling Father if not the Old Testament God of Israel?”
Some taught Jesus was an angel. The Church pointed to the Book of Hebrews (which explicitly says he isn't) and deep-sixed that notion.
And so the theorizing about Jesus went on for centuries with the Church continually acting as the FDA in the face of well-meaning (and sometimes not-so-well-meaning) attempts to make the apostolic message “more palatable.”
The Error of Arius
Then one day a guy named Arius came up with a theory about Jesus that sounded great. Jesus, Arius said, was God's first and greatest creation. He was a supernatural being (sort of like a godlet or a super-angel) made before anything else and, for our sakes, became human and died on the cross. He is so far above us and so great that we could call him a “son of God,” just as angels are called sons of God in the Book of Job.
But, Arius said, that is not to say Jesus (or the Holy Spirit) is divine the same way God the Father is. Rather, he concluded, when John says the Son (also known as the Word or Logos) “was God,” it means he was strongly identified with God just as angels in the Old Testament are sometimes addressed as God by us humans. When it says the Word was “with God” in the beginning, he means he was with God when God began to create the rest of universe, not that he is eternal like God the Father is.
In short, Arius said, the Father has always existed. The Son hasn't. And in plain Greek, that meant Jesus is not God.
In response, the Church observed, among other things, that Jesus claimed to forgive the sins of total strangers (which “God alone” can do; see Mark 2:7), was understood by all the Churches from the get-go to be fully God and not some nuanced godlet (John 1:1), and loudly asserted he would judge the whole world at the end of time (rather like God) (Matthew 25). So he was either not nice, not playing with a full deck or … he was “the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” who came (as he and his apostles said) to die for our sins and give us the eternal life of God.
Following this rather strong apostolic lead, the Church looked into its own past and noted it had clearly proclaimed for centuries that God, the Big G himself and not some godlet had died on the cross for us at Calvary.
It was okay, the Church said, to try to understand how Jesus could pray to God when he was God. It was okay to come up with explanations for Jesus' mysterious comment, “The Father is greater than I.” But it was not kosher to do so by explaining away Jesus' deity.
And it formulated this intellectually balanced view in the thing we call the Creed.
L.O.V.E.
Yeah, but what about our hearts?
Intellectual balance is all well and good, but how does it feed the hunger of the human soul? Isn't the essence of Christianity the simple truth that God is love?
To this the Church replies, “What sort of relationship does the Father have with the Son? A love relationship! And the fusion of their love is so intense that out of it proceeds a Spirit of love, who is himself God: the Holy Spirit.
This fusion of love between the three persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is what the one God is. Get rid of this love relationship (the truth of which the Creed was written to safeguard for us) and make God “simple” and you unfortunately get rid of the beautiful truth that God is love.
Which brings us back to the real world of looking for love in all the wrong places.
We do such things, as St. Augustine observed long ago, precisely because our hearts were made to be filled with God.
It is by being swept up in the dance of love that is the Trinity, by being in Christ the beloved, that we experience the Father saying to us, “My child, you are always with me and everything I have is yours.” It is only in having God to offer back to God that we can fulfill all that a heart of love longs to offer and all a God of love deserves.
Yet if, as Arius said, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are just critters (even great critters) and not God, we're left empty-hearted and empty-handed because even they cannot give what they do not have: God's own eternal life. Yet this is exactly what Jesus promises.
Therefore, if the Gospel message is to be true to our hearts as well as our heads, it can declare Jesus Christ nothing less than “God from God, Light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father.” And it can say nothing less of the Holy Spirit than that he is “the Lord, the Giver of Life” who, with the Father and Son “is worshipped and glorified.”
So in the end, the Church has done the only the thing she could, given the facts. In the language of theology, she proclaimed the strange dogma of a God who is three persons in one divine nature, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.
But those who speak the language of love know this is only another way of stating the simplest, most glorious truth in the universe: God is love.
Mark Shea writes from www.markshea.blogspot.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mark Shea ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Real Spanish Disaster DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:Almost the first spoken words of the new Spanish prime minister after his election March 13 was to call the war in Iraq a disaster.
The disaster, however, was not in Iraq but in Spain. I do not just mean the backpack bombings that killed about 200 Spaniards on Spanish trains. Rather, it is the result of the Spanish election and what it portends.
The new Spanish leader thought Spain was a target of al-Qaida attack because it supported the effort in Iraq. In this he was right. France was not bombed; Spain was. This semi-security by no means proves that France's turn will not come in one form or another. The Spanish reasoning concludes that if it had not involved itself in this war, it would not have been targeted.
The logic of this approach is that no general threat exists except in the fevered imaginations of the Americans. The defeated Popular Party bought into it. The only “enemy” is the enemy that thinks there is an enemy. Al-Qaida comes away looking like geniuses, as they are in many ways.
Not only have they caused major disruption in the United States, but they have also found an effective way to neutralize a democratic people. Panic them before an election so they will enclose within themselves. No more participation in any action that might actually stop the al-Qaida movement by the only means that movement understands.
What are we to make of all of this? First, if the Iraq war had nothing to do with al-Qaida, why does this same alQaida attack Spain except because of its connection with the war? By its own implicit admission, the Iraq invasion has plenty to do with al-Qaida.
A free people can use or be manipulated into using their freedom against themselves.
The al-Qaida operatives by now realize what a brilliant political move they made in killing those 200 innocent Spaniards. This one did not even need a suicide bomber. Several segments of al-Qaida also think they must reverse Spain's success in finally expelling Islam back in the 15th century.
Their memories are long, their ambitions great.
They realized, as they suspected, that there was little real will to confront them and their terrorist efforts. Spain was, even more than Sept. 11 in the United States, a perfect laboratory to experiment in “new weaponry.” It makes the research in New Mexico on nuclear weapons seem obsolete. Sophisticated weapons are useless to protect people who do not want to be protected or, better, do not want to take the means to protect themselves.
In the theory of the Muslim movements behind al-Qaida, the official organization that declared war in the first place, there are no “innocents.” It is interesting how this presumed line in the sand between combatant and noncombatant has disappeared. As soldiers they are simply ineffective. As cowards who deal in innocent lives, they are lethal.
But theirs are calculating minds. They know the innate unwillingness of Western peoples to see what is at stake. We can expect this new weapon, bombing innocents to determine elections, to be a regular factor of elections in Poland, Italy, England and the United States. Its political purpose will be systematically to elect into positions of power weak and cowardly leaders who will not pursue the movement with a steady and unrelenting force.
The Spanish election again reveals that, already, a world war is going on. It is not the kind of “world war” among nation-states we might expect. But it is planned and plotted to undermine the remaining forces that might prevent the ideal of the Muslim radicals from achieving their long-desired goal. It is quite possible for this movement to succeed if it reads the moral and political weaknesses and cowardice of Western people correctly.
Already the demographic war is being rapidly lost in Europe. Declining populations and unwillingness to act explain a good deal of the fear we see in Europe. A formidable enemy is in place because of the success of inexpensive terrorist tactics, together with the declaration that no innocent people are recognized in the West, that suicide bombing is a kind of martyrdom.
Some three policies seem to be open to us at this point. We can continue President Bush's policy of finding and destroying terrorist groups wherever they are found. This effort can work, but it requires a greater political cohesiveness in the West than exists. It also involves the recognition that the present governance in the Muslim world itself needs to be changed. It is an up-to-date version of making the world safe by, not for, democracy.
The only trouble is, as the Spanish election shows, we cannot expect many democracies to see what is at stake. Perhaps better, they see what is at stake and choose to drop out.
Secondly, we could, as the terrorists themselves seem to want, elect to every political office, where real opposition might be mustered, men who will not fight. Such leaders will have some elaborate rationalization, usually involving an inept United Nations, about dialogues or other modes that simply cannot work with such a determined enemy and his weapons of terror.
Finally, we could follow what I call a revised “farewell address” policy. This view would argue that these are not our problems. We do not care very much what kind of regimes exist elsewhere. No one will harm us if we withdraw from the world. We need to limit our ambitions and our interests. The world will not be safe for democracy, ever. The best policy is to stay armed at home.
If the Spanish elections mean anything, the most likely immediate future is the second. Bombings before elections will be used to elevate into power essentially weak-willed political leaders who have a mandate to do nothing in hopes they will not be terrorized.
The way to get rid of this moral obstacle is simply to declare and carry into effect the thesis that no one is innocent. This is what the Spanish election suggests. It is a war of minds. Many do not wish to see what is happening. Here lies the real disaster.
Jesuit Father James Schall is a professor of political science at Georgetown University.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: James Schall, SJ ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: True Devotion DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:As I knelt in my parish church after Mass on the second Sunday of Lent, I thought of Mary in one of the final scenes of The Passion of the Christ. Standing, Mary looks longingly at her crucified son. She speaks words of love to him, kissing his feet and allowing her face to be smeared with his blood.
By kneeling before the tabernacle, I was filled with the peaceful realization that I was just as close to Jesus as was Mary at the time of his physical death, and I tried to speak to him as she would.
I was consoled because I shared something with the Blessed Mother: her devotion to Jesus. This is vastly different from admiring Jesus, from the vague and uncertain allegiance that even many practicing Christians have to the Christ.
Devotion is more than love. It's loving madly, to the point of real pain and suffering. Wasn't Jesus denigrated as a madman by the mob? Learned from Jesus himself, devotion gives commitment to faith. It evokes fortitude and makes joyful any hardship.
God chose to suffer and die as the way to redeem man for a number of reasons, St. Thomas Aquinas says, with the primary motive being to show “how much God loved man” and to inspire a similar love in man.
Mel Gibson's Passion has been criticized for the extent of its violence and bloodshed. I am bored by cinematic mayhem, but this was probably the only truly good and worthwhile violence ever to be depicted on film because the events of that first Holy Week were — and continue to be — salvific.
I was touched by the violence Jesus endured and I took spiritual consolation from it even as I was moved to tears. My salvation comes through the shedding of the God-man's blood. All of it. Every drop is like a love poem from God to me.
Catholic people have always understood this. It's why we have a corpus on our crucifixes. And we kiss those crucifixes because we are moved to do so by a suffering savior.
In recent decades, we have seen a rise in intellectualism among believers and an emphasis on the risen Christ — a “Christ without the cross.” It has also been a time in which devotion has waned.
I once made a visit to a church in Santiago, Chile, in which people pressed close to a statue of Jesus shackled to the pillar of scourging, his body covered with blood and scars. The people knelt, lit candles and, like Mary, gazed on the figure of Christ with an intense and familiar love that was at once sorrowful and profoundly happy.
Jesus wants us to share his madness, inviting followers to “pick up your cross and follow me.” The hardships and pains of life — everything from ordinary inconvenience to major disappointments and rejections — can be joined to Christ's cross to aid the salvation of souls. We can do this because Christ did it first. The faithful in Chile, most of whom were poor, showed me that devotion is forged in suffering and is refined in prayer.
Devotion, in fact, is the point of prayer. Masters of the spiritual life say that in private prayer we should remain as long as we can on those points that inspire affection and love because this is prayer of the heart, not the mind.
This Holy Week, perhaps more eloquently than any other in recent memory, Mary shows us how to balance the joy and sorrow that come with knowing and loving her Son right up to the cross.
At Calvary, Mary was not offended by Christ's blood — even as it covered her face, knotted her hair and soiled her cloths as she folded his dead body into her own. His precious blood saves humanity and its sight, though gruesome, could only fill her with love, with devotion.
Joseph Cullen writes from Floral Park, New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Cullen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: The Well-Trod Path of the Pilgrims DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:The 4-foot-tall botafumeiro left behind a thick trail of smoke as it swung toward the ceiling, to which it was anchored by a thick rope.
As it crested and fell back toward earth, it saturated the nave with the scent of incense. Our senses thus alerted to the presence of the Holy Spirit, we were ready to pray.
The place: the Cathedral of St. James in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Beneath the altar of this mighty edifice the bones of St. James are said to rest. A strong devotion to the apostle has been in place here since at least the 10th century. For many, this devotion takes its most ardent expression in a walk — a millennium-old walk across Spain.
Santiago de Compostela, a city of 100,000 in the northwest part of the country, is the final destination. In fact, the Mount of Joy just outside the city is where the pilgrims (peregrino s) first see Santiago. A large granite monument testifies to Pope John Paul II's visit in 1993.
But, once here, the pereginos’ journey has not quite ended. First, they must enter the Cathedral of St. James, go behind the altar and hug the saint's statue from the back. Next, they stroll down the center aisle to the Romanesque sculpture of the Portico of Glory. Here they place their right thumb and another finger into the Tree of Jesse, which is 1,000 years old and has the marks to show for all the human hands that have laid hold of it.
Finally the trip is finished. The pilgrim receives a certificate, the Compostelam, written in Latin and attesting to the accomplishment. To obtain it, you must have walked at least 100 kilometers (about 80 miles). All along the way, there are stops where designated officials stamp your book, much like a passport.
Following the March 11 commuter-train bombings that killed 200 people and injured 1,500 in Madrid, I thought again about my recent Spanish pilgrimage — and the good people of the nation across the Atlantic that was once “ground zero” in the struggle between Christians and Moors (Muslims) for control of Europe.
Divine Distractions
I sought out the staff in the Oficina de Acogida del Peregrino (Office of the Pilgrim) among the rococo arches at Rua del Villar, No. 1. This is where the peregrinos go to receive the Compostelam. Near the entrance, one enterprising Santiagoan had his dog decked out in the traditional pilgrim hat with a staff thrust between its paws. For two euros you could take his picture.
I asked Oscar, a staff member, what type of person takes a month out of his or her life to walk across Spain. The answer: all types of people.
For 28-year-old Andrew Popp of the Netherlands, the trek was part of a spiritual quest. He had just completed the Camino de Pereginos (Pathway of the Pilgrims) and was standing, staff in hand, in front of the cathedral. “I would wake up in the morning and know the Lord was with me,” he told me. “You are so conscious of a higher being. I could even see him. He told me not to worry. I was even robbed, but here I am.”
Nearby, a German peregrino in a large, floppy hat and khaki shorts held the same requisite staff. His sun-burnished face scanned a map of the old city.
“Sometimes,” he said, “it would be a minute-by-minute struggle. I couldn't go 10 yards, but I could go five. I went the five, now maybe I could go another five. The urge to give up was always present for me. Other peregrinos gave me encouragement.”
At the Santiago train station, I met an American peregrino from Virginia as he was negotiating a ticket to Fatima, Portugal, in halting Spanish. A two-months’ growth of beard gave testimony to his time on the road.
“Last year I started the Camino but didn't finish. This year I went all the way back to France. It was late March and snow was on the ground. It's hard to put one foot ahead of the other against a freezing wind. I didn't give up. Now I want to experience Fatima.”
We picked up part of the Camino outside the town of Ourense, an hour's drive from Santiago. Here, the imprint of the scallop shell had been embedded into a stone pillar. We walked through farmland along a rutted dirt road lined with the burgeoning blossoms of fruit trees. A stork's nest was visible through the tree branches. At one point the crowing of roosters mixed with the buzzing of bees as if to remind us that many sights and sounds here have not changed much over the past millennium.
We followed a path that sloped down to a stream and waterfall. In the distance a farmer was hunched over with bundles on her back.
There came the realization that, by presenting us with such vast treasures of tranquility along our way, the Lord was beckoning us not to rush toward our destination with such haste but rather to rest. Stop by a stream just to hear it gurgle. Enter into the coolness of an old church. Several times, we took him up on the invitation.
A Holy Year (Ano Santo) is declared here whenever the 25th of July (the feast of St. James) falls on a Sunday. The last time that happened was in 1999. Pope John Paul II came to Santiago to open the puerta sacra (sacred door).
The next time of such special celebration is less than four months away. There's still time to book a flight.
If you can make it, chances are you'll become as convinced as we were that, in spite of the absence of concrete proof, the mortal remains of St. James are indeed in the Cathedral of St. James in Santiago de Compostela.
Such faith that inspires one of the world's greatest — and most demanding — pilgrimages could not exist otherwise.
Wynne Crombie writes from Huntley, Illinois.
----- EXCERPT: A walk to the Cathedral of St. James, Santiago de Compostela, Spain ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wynne Crombie ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
APRIL, VARIOUS DATES
The Face: Jesus in Art
PBS, check local listings
First shown in 2001 and partly funded by our U.S. bishops' Catholic Communication Campaign, this documentary surveys portraits of Christ around the world and throughout history, from the cata-combs of Rome onward, in paintings, sculpture, mosaics, frescoes and icons. Narrators include Patricia Neal, Ricardo Montalban and, yes, Mel Gibson.
SUNDAY, APRIL 4
The Ten Commandments
ABC, 7 p.m.
Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 epic is a gripping history of Moses, the first Passover, the exodus from Egypt and God's bestowal of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. This film won an Oscar for best special effects, including the parting of the Red Sea. Charlton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as Pharaoh give truly definitive performances.
APRIL 5, 7-8
Stories of Hymns
EWTN
Father George Rutler moving-ly explains the origins of the Catholic hymns Pange Lingua (Monday, 4 a.m.) and “O Sacred Head Surrounded” (Wednesday, 6:30 a.m. and Thursday, 2:30 p.m.).
APRIL 5, 7, 9
Miracles of the Cross
EWTN
On Monday at 5:30 a.m. and Wednesday at 6 p.m., Bob and Penny Lord and EWTN's Doug Keck discuss martyrs and the cross. On Friday at 2 p.m., the Lords explore what the beloved St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231) said in a sermon about the true cross.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7
Shroud of Christ?
PBS, 8 p.m.
This episode in the “Secrets of the Dead” series chronicles the work of Swiss fabrics expert and textile restorer Mechtild Flury-Lemberg on the Holy Shroud. Invited to Turin in 2002 to repair the shroud, she oversaw removal of the backing and patches. She and her team found in the shroud a style of stitching they had seen only once before: on cloth from Masada, the famed Holy Land fortress the Romans destroyed in 74 A.D. Additionally, discoveries by bacteriologists and experts in forensics suggest the carbon dating tests in 1988 were wrong and that the shroud is two millennia old after all.
THURSDAY, APRIL 8
Frontline: Diet Wars
PBS, 9 p.m.
This program analyzes the Agriculture Department's current pyramid chart of recommended food propor tions, examines today's competing diets and tries to make sense of their contradictory advice.
SATURDAY, APRIL 10
The Real Cowboy: Portrait of an American Icon
History Channel, noon
From North America's early Spanish and Mexican vaqueros up to today's working cowboys, host Bill Kurtis and historians of the Old West paint us a vivid and accurate picture of cow-pokes' actual way of life versus the Hollywood screen version.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: As the Sun Sets on Our Tired Cartoon King ... DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:Is this how it finally ends for Walt Disney feature animation — not with a bang, not with a whimper … but with a moo?
Is Home on the Range really the final entry in the canon of Disney's traditional hand-animated feature films — a body of work that goes back to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and includes such landmarks as Fantasia, Pinocchio and Beauty and the Beast?
In the long term, probably not. Chances are, sooner or later Walt Disney Pictures will return to the art form for which it is best known and in which it has done its most respected work. Still, Home on the Range represents the end of an era: For the first time since who knows when, Disney animation has no new feature film in the works and no plans to start one.
At times in the past there have been lulls of as many as four years between animated Disney features. But that was at a time when Disney animators had other projects, such as short subjects, to occupy them. This time it's different: The main Disney animation studios in Orlando have been shut down, animators have been given their walking papers and Disney is turning its attention away from traditional hand-drawn work to the animation technique in which the best work of the last 10 years has been done: computer-generated cartoons.
Disney's first homegrown computer-animated effort, Chicken Little, is scheduled for a 2005 release. (Dinosaur, released in 2000, doesn't quite count as a computer-generated cartoon, since it superimposed pixel-painted dinosaurs and other characters onto real-life landscapes and location shots.)
Until now, computer-generated cartoons released under the Walt Disney label have all been produced by the wizard-geniuses at Pixar Animation Studios, whose résumé to date includes Finding Nemo, the Toy Story movies and the still-to-come superhero spoof The Incredibles, directed by Brad Bird of Iron Giant fame.
Pixar has been the driving force of computer animation and the quality of its work has been consistently excellent: The closest it has come to making a bad film, which is not very, was the modestly charming A Bug's Life. Computer-generated efforts from other studios, including Shrek, Ice Age, Antz and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, have also managed to maintain a passing level of quality and entertainment value.
The medium's only real stumbles to date have been the video-game flop Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which approached photo-realism in its technique but used it to tell a lame, New-Agey sci-fi story, and the Christian-produced Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, which was unable to parlay the franchise's kid-video success to the big screen. But both Jonah and Final Fantasy look so different from the likes of Toy Story and Jimmy Neutron that most viewers still associate computer-generated animation with consistently successful entertainment.
Eventually, of course, that's got to change. What makes movies like Toy Story and Jimmy Neutron so successful is not just their colorful 3-D imagery but their sharp, funny writing, compelling characters and well-crafted stories. Finding Nemo wouldn't be quite as eye-popping as a 2-D hand-drawn cartoon, but it would still be a great film. Conversely, a 2-D hand-drawn flop like Disney's recent Brother Bear would be just as forgettable had it been rendered with computers.
This is significant, because what did in the Disney animation renaissance was not a failure of technique but a failure of ideas.
The animation revolution that began with the inspired newness of The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast gave way to the increasingly obvious formula and tendentious political correctness Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame before finally succumbing to the lightweight inconsequentiality of Hercules and Tarzan. At that point, the Disney renaissance was dead.
New Age Noises
But then Disney animation tried to reinvent itself again. For a while, it looked as if it might succeed. The first hopeful sign was The Emperor's New Groove, an entertainingly wacky morality tale from a studio looking for its own new groove. This was followed by Atlantis: The Lost Empire, which, though even more overtly New Agey than Pocahontas, at least represented an effort to think outside the box of musical numbers and animal sidekicks.
Then came post-renaissance Disney's biggest success: Lilo & Stitch, a kind of dysfunctional E.T. story that, given the Disney tradition of orphaned protagonists and absentee parents, was surprisingly frank about the emotional consequences of growing up in a broken home. It depicted the neediness and antisocial behavior of its young heroine.
But hopes for a new era of Disney creativity ended with the costly failure of Treasure Planet, a pretty good film that had a much bigger price tag than Lilo but did far less business at the box office.
The two last gasps of Disney feature animation, Brother Bear and Home on the Range, recapitulate the failure of the current age of Disney animation. Brother Bear, with its origins in the Lion King era, is a direct throwback to the height of the Disney renaissance with its ecospirituality and political correctness. And Home on the Range represents an effort to recapture the wacky post-renaissance energy of The Emperor's New Groove. (It even briefly brings back Patrick Warburton, who all but steals his scenes in New Groove as the culinarily inclined henchman Kronk.)
But Home on the Range, while passable entertainment, ultimately reflects Disney's failure to find its new groove. The story, about a trio of cows who leave the farm to capture a cattle rustler and save their farm with the reward money, is generic — in fact, it oddly resembles the plot of another 2004 release, the virtually unseen Clifford's Really Big Movie, in which a trio of dogs leave their homes to win a contest in order to help Clifford's owners support him.
Characters are each assigned a maximum of one character trait and one attribute: Maggie (Roseanne Barr) is brash and large, Mrs. Calloway (Judi Dench — yes, Dame Judi Dench) is straitlaced and wears a hat, Grace (Jennifer Tilly) is flaky and sings off-key. It's fitfully amusing, and there are a few goofy conceits, especially the cattle rustler's unique approach of controlling cows, which is similar to the way the Pied Piper worked on rats, except it involves yodeling instead of playing a flute. But there's nothing to compare with the inspired zaniness of Emperor's New Groove. Nor is there anything like Emperor's moral message or its warmly pro-family depiction of Pascha and his very pregnant, attractive wife and mother of two.
Home on the Range is a good argument for Disney taking a break from animated features for awhile. But if it thinks switching from hand-drawn to computer-generated is going to solve their woes, it's as mistaken as a yodeling cattle rustler trying to hypnotize a tone-deaf cow. Sooner or later somebody wil l release a computer-generated cartoon turkey. There's no reason why it couldn't be called Chicken Little.
Content advisory: Occasional obliquely risqué humor.
Steven D. Greydanus, editor and chief critic of DecentFilms.com, writes from Bloomfield, New Jersey.
----- EXCERPT: Home on the Range and the end of Disney animation, for now ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:The Passion (2003)
Not to be confused with Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, Doug Barry's Passion is a one-man stage production — not quite a one-man play but a semi-improvised dramatic meditation on the Passion. Barry, who calls his apostolate Radix, has been doing his live one-man Passion play for a decade, accompanied for most of that time by his musical partner, Eric Genuis. This version was filmed live at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, Tenn.
For most of The Passion's 90-minute length, Barry adopts the perspective of St. John to reflect upon the theological meaning as well as the events of Jesus’ passion. Barry's John isn't limited to a first-century understanding but speaks the idiom of his modern-day audience, and his reflections are informed by developed Catholic doctrine, modern medical understanding regarding the physiology of crucifixion and evils of the modern world.
An energetic, impassioned performer, Barry gives a charged performance and sweaty physicality that bring an intensity and conviction to The Passion to rival Gibson's production. In fact, Barry's Passion in some ways ideally complements Gibson's film, providing the interpretive context in which the events in Gibson's film must be understood.
The Passion can be ordered from Ignatius Press at (800) 651-1531 or www.ignatius.com. To book The Passion live, contact Barry at (402) 794-2100 or www.radixguys.com.
Content advisory: Vivid description of the Passion; references to various grave sins (e.g., abortion). Reasonable family viewing.
From the Manager to the Cross (1912)
From the Manger to the Cross was made within a decade of Vatican film list honoree The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ (1902-05), yet the differences between these two very early silent Jesus films — bundled together on a single DVD — are striking. The art of cinema had advanced dramatically in those few years, and Manger is far more sophisticated — though I find the earlier film more effective. Anyway, both are worthwhile, and they make a good double bill.
The 1905 Passion, from French company Pathé, is largely a filmed stage pageant in the Catholic tradition. Manger, an American production with more Protestant sensibilities, shot on location in the Holy Land. Production values and acting are much more naturalistic than the earlier film, and camera and editing techniques are far more developed. And where Passion is entirely visual and assumes that the images will be understood or explained, Manger relies extensively on title cards for narration and dialogue from the King James Bible.
Oddly, while the story doesn't literally start at the manger, it does end at the cross, cutting from Jesus’ death to a title card bearing John 3:16, omitting the Resurrection entirely. Whenever I watch it with my kids, we always cut back to the last two chapters from Passion for the Resurrection and Ascension.
Content advisory:Mild depiction of Jesus’ passion and crucifixion. Fine for kids.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:Sometimes, Truth Hurts
Bill Connor, dean of students, rejected the presentation, part of the Genocide Awareness project, because he said the posters are discriminatory and could incite contempt against women who have had abortions, the paper reported.
Campus Pro-Life president Christ Marple accused the administration of suppressing free speech. “Our goal is not to try to offend anyone,” he said. “Our goal is to tell the truth, and the truth sometimes hurts.”
Cities vs. Nonprofit Schools
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 16 — Spiritan-founded Duquesne University bought an apartment building for $22 million this year and converted it into student housing. The city of Pittsburgh was not pleased.
The purchase means a taxable loss for the city, and the city has decided to challenge the tax-exempt status of the residence hall. As state and federal aid to cities is being cut, cities are becoming more and more aggressive about pursuing taxes from colleges and universities, the wire service reported.
According to the Pittsburgh City Council president, approximately 40% of the property in the city is tax-exempt, costing the city about $80 million per year in property taxes.
Fine by Notre Dame?
The message on the shirts read, “Gay? Fine by me.” The 1,600 students and employees who wore the shirt said they thought the university should expand its nondiscrimi-nation policy to include homosexuals and should recognize a student homosexual group.
Earlier in March the university's Office of Student Activities rejected a homosexual group's request for recognition as a student organization, leaving it unable to advertise on campus or receive student activities fees funding.
Ave Maria Moves Forward
Despite earlier questions regarding the impact the project would have on southwest Florida, the state Department of Community Affairs on March 17 approved a preliminary development agreement for the school, which means the school no longer has to submit details about future phases of the project.
Ave Maria planners said the agreement was needed in order for the project to be completed by fall 2006.
Abortion Semantics
“I've always been confused on the labeling of people who are for or against abortion,” he stated. “The labels ‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ can easily be misinterpreted. I believe in the right of people to choose to have sex. I believe in the right of people to abstain from sex. … I actually do believe in choices. But I don't believe in abortions. … Perhaps it's just time to start going with a better label. One that is more fitting. Maybe one like pro-responsibility.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Eastern ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Party Leaders, Both Catholic University Alumni, Spar at D.C. Campus DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — The chairmen of the nation's two major political parties faced off at their old stomping grounds March 18.
Ed Gillespie and Terry McAuliffe, who head the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee, respectively — and both alumni of the Catholic University of America — debated at a forum on the D.C. campus.
When Gillespie became chairman of the Republican National Committee last summer, it marked the first time the two party heads hailed from the same school. McAuliffe has been chairman of the Democratic National Committee since 2001. Gillespie graduated from Catholic University in 1983, four years after McAuliffe.
The debate was moderated by George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC's Sunday show “This Week” and a one-time spokesman for the Clinton administration.
C-SPAN aired the těte-à-těte live on cable and Internet. The Washington Post write-up the next morning dubbed it “Eddie ‘The Kid’ Gillespie vs. Terry ‘The Terror’ McAuliffe” in a “post-St. Paddy's Day smack-down of two Irish scrap-pers.”
Pondering how two people who went to the same school could come out leading two different political parties, Gillespie quipped, “Clearly, I got the better professors.”
McAuliffe, for his part, remarked that he would be the “the second Democratic chairman to make sure that a presidential candidate with the initials ‘JFK’ gets elected,” referring to his party's presumptive nominee, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
Actually, John Bailey, who graduated from Catholic University in 1926, was appointed Democratic National Committee chairman after John F. Kennedy's inauguration.
The first half-hour of the hour-long Gillespie-McAuliffe debate focused on the war on terror and foreign policy, the second on domestic policy and politics.
Addressing a question on “the Catholic vote,” the chairmen sounded similar notes on the ability to provide for one's family. However, the parties’ differences on policy such as tax relief and moral issues, notably abortion and homosexual marriage, became clear.
Gillespie pointed out that “Catholics tend to oppose the heinous practice of partial-birth abortion.” McAuliffe referred to partial-birth abortion and marriage as “wedge issues” meant to divide.
Picking Winners
“I'd say it was a high-scoring game, not too many fouls, with a close win for the Republicans,” Dennis Coyle, professor of politics at Catholic University, said of the debate.
“I thought Ed Gillespie came across best — warmer, good sense of humor and very quick on his feet, while Terry McAuliffe seemed a little more strident, a little more contrived,” he said. “But both presented their parties’ views very ably, had some clever lines and good-natured banter and generally did address the tough questions.”
Fellow politics professor John Kenneth White, author of The Values Divide: American Politics and Culture in Transition, said, “I thought the debate was a very nice preview of what the entire country will see come October. The differences between the two parties and their candidates are profound on almost every issue. This year, the ‘party gap’ will rival all the other ones we used to talk about — e.g. gender, race, etc.”
Both the College Democrats and Republicans held rallies for their respective chairman on campus prior to the event and used the occasion to register voters.
“Over the last couple weeks and months I have seen a steady increase of people becoming interested [in politics],” said Brendan Martin, head of the College Democrats. “[Students] are registering to vote and becoming educated on the issues.”
Both chairmen emphasized to the audience of 800 people the importance of young voters’ participation in the political process.
“College grads literally determine who the next president of the United States will be,” McAuliffe said in an interview with the campus newspaper, The Tower.
Gillespie, a week away from an MTV-Republican National Committee get-out-the-vote effort, emphasized the GOP's efforts to rally college students for the November election, pointing out that committee “polling data show that 18-to 25-year-olds are more favorable toward Bush and the Republican Party. … It's a very good demographic for us.”
Catholic U. Influence?
The Gillespie-McAuliffe Catholic University party monopoly suggests the potential for the university, the only institution of higher education chartered by the country's bishops, and, by extension, possibilities for Catholics in Washington, D.C.
“It does point out how involved many CUA grads are in Washington politics and the great opportunities to build connections, be part of the political scene here and move into satisfying careers,” politics professor Coyle said. “Politics is fun and potentially uplifting, and they conveyed that. [Gillespie and McAuliffe] were so much like our students, I could see them sitting in [constitutional law class] debating the cases.”
“I am not surprised [that both party chairmen are Catholic University alumni] because the politics department is very strong and I think the program is nicely suited to students interested in real politics,” said Mark Rozell, chairman of the department of politics at Catholic University. “We have avoided some of the academic fashions, especially behavioral studies, and the result is that our students see the relevance of what we teach to the real political world.”
“Not surprisingly, our influence is in part an accident of geography,” he admitted. “We are … a mere two metro stops from Capitol Hill. Thus, many of our students interested in politics come here partially because of the D.C. location. So we begin with a core of highly politically interested students.”
“The first semester that I taught at CUA I instructed a class on the U.S. Congress,” Rozell remembered. “The first day in a large class I asked the students if anyone was interning on the Hill. I would say fully 40% of the students raised their hands.
“Many of my politics students intern somewhere in D.C. while working toward their degrees. These students have an immediate, early advantage in launching their careers in Washington as a result. We also run an off-campus master's program in congressional studies, which is quite unique. The courses are taught in the evenings on Capitol Hill and are geared toward current Hill employees. Thus, we have many current full-time Hill employees taking our graduate courses, and these students become a part of our alumni group at the Capitol.”
Graduates of Catholic University of America not only go on to work on political staffs — they run for office themselves as well. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, for example, is a graduate, as is Martin O'Malley, Democratic mayor of Baltimore.
Douglas Kmiec, a former official under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, is former dean of Catholic University's Columbus School of Law.
“My sense is Washington is open to, and in some ways yearning for, a strong, Catholic voice,” he told the Register at the end of his tenure last summer. “At a time when so much of the culture is in a tailspin, pressed on all sides to be trendy or faddish, the Catholic perspective has a clarion quality of seeking truth anchored in the created, human being and precepts that are more long-lasting and tangible, directed at the human good, whichever party may be seeking to advance it.”
Kathryn Jean Lopez is the editor of National Review Online. She is a graduate of Catholic University and majored in politics.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Adoring Him Who Washes Our Feet DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:GOD IS NEAR US: THE EUCHARIST, THE HEART OF LIFE
by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
Ignatius Press, 2003
152 pages, $12.95
To order: (800) 651-1531
www.ignatius.com
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger tends to speak in a plain yet eloquent way about the loftiest truths. This is certainly true of his latest work on the Eucharist.
The book is a collection of largely pastoral articles, conferences and sermons given by Cardinal Ratzinger for more than 25 years to various audiences as the archbishop of Munich and in his current position as prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Though definitely of interest to pastors and theologians, the insights contained here are chiefly spiritual and suitable as an aid to meditation and Eucharistic adoration for any Christian.
The cardinal not only underlines the importance of the unchanging Catholic teaching that Christ is really present in the Blessed Sacrament, but he also shows how the Eucharist is central to the Catholic faith and illustrates its connections to the Church's teachings in other areas. This extends from the Annunciation and the Incarnation to the last things and eternal life.
In the famous line of St. John's Gospel, “The Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us.” Henceforth, the cardinal says, “the holy tent of God and the cloud of his presence are found wherever the mystery of his Body and Blood is celebrated, wherever men leave off their own activity.”
He pointedly adds that this “means that the holiness is more concentrated and powerful [in the Eucharist] than it used to be in the Old Covenant.”
While most of the chapters that form the book come from the late 1970s and early 1980s, none of the material seems dated. Drawing mostly on scriptural themes and insights, this is a collection of original insights on timeless themes.
Even when the reader is prompted to take note of the historical moment of any of the author's reflections, it is not because they are in any way dated but in order to note their prescience, addressing issues and foreseeing trends that would not be prominent for years to come.
Central among these is the reverence and adoration due to the Blessed Sacrament both during and outside the Mass, and the unintended “desacralization” that accompanied the liturgical changes that followed the Second Vatican Council.
The cardinal avoids a polemical approach while showing how this trend — with its impact on everything from clerical dress to “Christian worship and church buildings” — is not consistent with a true understanding of the Gospel, its Old Testament roots and the tradition of the Church from the earliest days.
Cardinal Ratzinger seems ready in these pages to help nourish a renewed Eucharistic vitality — now apparent — that was bound to spring from the council.
He says “kneeling before the Lord: adoration” is necessary for a full communion with God and is not contrary “to the dignity and freedom and status of man … For if we deny him so as not to adore him,” there is no true freedom, only material existence.
The truth that adoration “does not make slaves of us but transforms us” was revealed by Christ on Holy Thursday. “The One whom we adore,” Cardinal Ratzinger says, “has himself knelt down before us to wash our feet. And this gives to adoration the quality of being unforced, adoration in joy and in hope, because we are bowing down before him who bowed down … We bow down to enter into a love.”
There's a meditation to kneel for all Holy Week long.
Joseph Cullen writes from Floral Park, New York.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Cullen ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: This Week: EUCHARIST DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:First week: Mary
Last week: Sin
Easter Week: Sacrifice
Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ is the fruit of more than a decade of meditation on the teachings of Scripture and Tradition about the day Christ gave his life. The Register continues its look at some of the points of theology and spirituality that are raised in the movie.
The Old Covenant
“At all times and in every race, anyone who fears God and does what is right has been acceptable to him. He has, however, willed to make men holy and save them, not as individuals without any bond or link between them but rather to make them into a people who might acknowledge him and serve him in holiness. He therefore chose the Israelite race to be his own people and established a covenant with it. He gradually instructed this people. … All these things, however, happened as a preparation for and figure of that new and perfect covenant that was to be ratified in Christ, the New Covenant in his blood; he called together a race made up of Jews and Gentiles that would be one, not according to the flesh, but in the Spirit.”
— Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 781
The movie shows that Christ's sacrifice is a fulfillment of the covenants God has made with his people in the Old Testament.
• The movie opens by quoting Isaiah's prophecy about the suffering servant and the liberation of Israel. The Gospels associate Christ with the suffering servant.
• In the first scene, Christ is deep in prayer to the Father, quoting the Psalms. It recalls the Old Testament scene when Abraham is prepared to sacrifice his only son at God's command.
• Mary's first words in the movie are, “Why is this night like no other?” This question is asked during the Passover supper each year. The answer? Because tonight is the night of the Passover. The Lamb of God is being sacrificed. His people will be saved again by the blood of the Lamb.
• The first charge laid against Jesus is that he says he will destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. The Temple houses the Ten Commandments given to Moses, a sign of God's covenant with Israel. It is destroyed in the movie, by the earthquake — and then “rebuilt” in three days insofar as Christ, the fulfillment of the Old Covenant, rises from the dead.
• Another charge brought against Christ is that he has called himself the “bread of life” and that he said, “He who does not eat my flesh and drink my blood will have no life in him.” The charge is true — he did say that. In doing so, Christ is associating himself with the manna in the desert, another covenant sign.
• Caiaphas says, “Let his blood be on us and on our children” — words that are left untranslated in the theatrical release of the movie. John, the author of the Gospel that quotes him, would have understood these words to be an ironic echo of the story of Moses sprinkling the people of Israel with blood to cleanse them.
• On Calvary, there are two thieves crucified with Christ. The soldiers break their legs to hasten their death. But Christ's bones are left unbroken. John writes that this unintentionally fulfills the Passover rule: The Lamb of God is a firstborn unblemished lamb whose bones are left unbroken.
The New Covenant
“After agreeing to baptize him along with the sinners, John the Baptist looked at Jesus and pointed him out as the ‘Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.’ By doing so, he reveals that Jesus is at the same time the Suffering Servant who silently allows himself to be led to the slaughter and who bears the sin of the multitudes, and also the Paschal Lamb, the symbol of Israel's redemption at the first Passover. Christ's whole life expresses his mission: ‘to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’”
— Catechism, No. 609
In the logic of the movie (and of the Gospel) Christ isn't only fulfilling the Old Testament covenant but is establishing a new covenant that is perpetuated through the sacraments.
• He is the new Moses. The flashbacks that show Jesus teaching dwell on the fact that he is bringing a new teaching, based on love. “I give you a new commandment: Love one another as I have loved you.”
• He is the new Lamb of God. One of the charges flung at Jesus in the movie in his nighttime trial is: “He's said if we don't eat his flesh and drink his blood, we won't inherit eternal life.” These are indeed words he said, and that many of his followers rejected, in the sixth chapter of John. He shows that he meant them literally — but not in an offensive way — when he institutes the Eucharist at the Last Supper by lifting the bread and saying, “This is my Body.”
• Jesus is even the new Abraham. Just as Abraham's sons numbered as the stars, and he's the patriarch of Israel, Christ in the movie says, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” He's the “patriarch” of the New Covenant race.
• Judas rejects the New Covenant. He is shown colluding with the Sanhedrin to betray Jesus during, or immediately after, the Last Supper. He likes Jesus in the movie. But he sides with the “Old Covenant” against the New Covenant. In the Gospel of John, Judas’ betrayal is even more closely tied to his rejection of the Eucharist. His first rejection of Christ comes when Jesus insists, “If you don't eat my flesh and drink my blood, you won't inherit eternal life.”
• Christ's side poured out blood and water in a great cascade. The event is striking in the Gospel of John — he insists on its truth in a special way — and it is certainly memorable in the movie. The waters of baptism and the blood of the Eucharist are the two primary signs of the New Covenant.
Liturgy of the Passion
“Jesus gave the supreme expression of his free offering of himself at the meal shared with the Twelve Apostles ‘on the night he was betrayed.’ On the eve of his passion, while still free, Jesus transformed this Last Supper with the apostles into the memorial of his voluntary offering to the Father for the salvation of men: ‘This is my body, which is given for you.’ ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’”
— Catechism, No. 610
Christ shed his blood once only — but it was once for all time. We have access to the sacrifice of the New Covenant to this day. Gibson portrays Christ's sacrifice in the movie in a way that consciously invokes the Mass.
• The story begins right after the institution of the Eucharist — and is in fact a continuation of it. He spoke of the blood “that will be given up for you” and then proceeded to offer himself for sins.
• Throughout the movie, the Latin and Aramaic are translated into plain English subtitles. But in the garden, Christ prays, “Let this chalice pass from me.” Not “cup” — chalice. The film thus identifies the “cup” of sacrifice with the Eucharistic cups used in Mass. (In the movie, he uses a clay dish, not a chalice, at the Last Supper).
• That night, Christ instituted the priesthood at the same time he instituted the Eucharist when he asked his apostles to “do this in memory of me.”
• Nearly all the clothes in the movie are tan, brown or black — except Veronica's veil and the folded towels used by Mary and Mary Magdalene to mop up the Precious Blood. These are white like liturgical cloths, like the purificators used at every Mass.
• Pilate's capitulation in Jesus’ crucifixion is also almost liturgical — when he washes his hands, Jesus remembers his own ritual hand-washing before the offering of his body at the Last Supper.
• The movie cuts back and forth between the Crucifixion and the Last Supper. When Christ is stripped, the film recalls the bread being unwrapped and presented. As the crucifix is raised, it recalls the host being elevated. The movie suggests the Mass is the Passion, re-presented. In every Mass, we see the Passion through a window.
----- EXCERPT: Register Guide to The Passion of the Christ ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Take Your Work (Ethic) Home With You DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:Family Matters
My job is so demanding that I often have little time or energy to spend with my family. And the commute to and from is no picnic, either. When I finally get home, I just want to relax. I don't want to have to be “on” at home. Is that so bad?
We often imagine that, if certain aspects of family life — prayer, respect, generosity, self-sacrifice — were more present in the workplace, then work would be a better place.
But what about the reverse? Wouldn't our home lives be better if we imported some of our more successful work characteristics into our home? For example:
Commitment to effective communication. Though we all occasionally say things we regret to our boss, co-workers or best customers, our success depends on saying the right thing with the effort that persuasive communication requires. When we have something important to say to important people, we modify our approach to increase the likelihood of the other person listening and acting. Don't our family members deserve the same consideration and commitment?
Follow-through. Success at work requires meeting customer demands and milestones. We often make big sacrifices for this to happen. Do we treat domestic commitments with the same respect, perseverance and self-sacrifice?
Setting and measuring goals and priorities. Every successful business establishes goals and priorities, and they check into them frequently to measure their performance. If they didn't, the business would be a disaster. Wouldn't the same be true of our family?
Training. If we don't re-engineer our knowledge of our profession every few years with continuing education, we can anticipate losing touch or providing less value. If that's true of business, it could be more true with our families — where our kids and often our spouse are constantly changing in significant ways. We should commit to forming ourselves. Do we attend retreats, read, listen to tapes or take classes on communication, child development, motivation, discipline or marriage enhancement, learning ways to integrate and better lead our family?
Doing our duty instead of what we feel like doing. Sometimes we see our home as a respite, an oasis, where we can recover from our difficult jobs. While the home should be a place of regeneration, it is not just a lounge. It's where our most important work is done. If someone only did what he or she felt like doing at work, would his or her job not soon be in jeopardy?
Treating important family events as you treat important meetings at work. If it's important at work, you will be there. Why should it be any different at home?
Let's not give the best of ourselves at work while leaving the leftovers for our families. Living our commitments at home is no easier than living them at work. But living our commitments at home with the same fervor and integrity we bring to our professional lives can ensure that our families at home are also getting our best.
Does your family deserve anything less?
Art Bennett is director of Alpha Omega Clinic and Consultation Services in Vienna, Virginia, and Bethesda, Maryland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Art Bennett ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: License Plates For Life DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:Prolife Profile
Can an automobile license plate save lives and help build families? Yes — especially if the car bearing it has a captive audience thanks to a traffic jam.
Just ask Charles and Elizabeth Rex, co-founders and directors of the Children First Foundation. Their nonprofit organization is the official sponsor of the Choose Life license plate in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. It's also part of a fast-growing effort to get Choose Life plates approved — and, thus, offered to car owners — in all 50 states.
Choose Life plates first hit the road in Florida in August 2000. Now more than 40,000 toodle along the Sunshine's State's roads, campaigning for life and raising approximately $2.2 million to promote and support adoption in Florida. And the plates have been approved in 11 other states: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee.
The Rexes worked for more than a year and a half to get the Connecticut plate approved and on the road in September 2003, making it the first Choose Life plate in the Northeast. This also carries Children First's website address, www.Fund-Adoption. org.
“It is perfect,” Elizabeth Rex says. “The Children First Foundation wants to promote and support adoption as a mature, intelligent, loving and life-giving choice for an unwanted pregnancy or newborn. It's a choice that deserves broader public understanding, appreciation and funding. Our plate in Connecticut does just that.”
The history of the Children First Foundation flowed from the Rexes’ own story. Married when both were 40, the couple was eager to have children but had trouble conceiving. After four years of trying, they decided to look into adoption. A few months later Elizabeth, at 45, unexpectedly became pregnant and gave birth to their first son.
“We were thrilled,” says Charles, a violinist with the New York Philharmonic. “We immediately began looking into adoption again.”
Over the next five years, the Rexes adopted a baby boy in 1996 and a baby girl in 1999. Both adoptions put happy endings on two difficult crisis pregnancies. The Rexes met the birth parents in both cases and were deeply moved by their mature and courageous decisions to put the lives and well-being of their babies first. “Our family will be forever grateful to them,” Elizabeth says. “They gave us and our children the greatest gift of all — the gift of life.”
In the past, the Rexes had often volunteered their time and talent by organizing benefit recitals to help raise money for one of their favorite charities, a New York City crisis-pregnancy center called Expectant Mother Care. After adopting, they looked into another way to actively raise funds for lifesaving work. So it was that the Children First Foundation was born on Good Friday in 2000.
The foundation really took shape when Elizabeth read about Florida's Choose Life effort on the front page of the Register during the spring of 2001.
“It was a picture of a cute license plate that had raised $300,000 for crisis-pregnancy centers,” Elizabeth recalls. “I immediately called [the] newspaper for more information and the rest, as they say, is history.”
Father Peter West, a priest associate with Priests for Life, sees multiple benefits from the license-plate program. “I hope [the Choose Life plates] will raise awareness of adoption as a loving alternative to abortion,” he says. “Adoption places a child with a loving family. I think it's a choice that both pro-life and pro-choice people can agree on.”
In Connecticut, the Choose Life plate has already been purchased by more than 100 members of the Children First Foundation, including Colleen Johnstone, who is a board member of Carolyn's Place, a pregnancy-resource center in Waterbury, Conn.
“It's a great way to get the message out,” she says. “You're stuck in traffic and there, on a license plate in front of you, is a happy message with two smiling children. The more people see it, the more people will want to buy it.”
That very scene helped save a baby in Florida, Amerling says. A woman wondering what to do about her unexpected pregnancy was following a car bearing the Choose Life plate with the children's smiling faces. The woman reported that the plate “spoke” to her so well that she decided to have her baby. To bring the message to others, she purchased a Choose Life plate for her own car.
The Children First Foundation has hit a few bumps in the road while trying to get its Choose Life plate approved in New York and New Jersey. In fact, the foundation is now convinced that pro-life/pro-adoption message is being unlawfully discriminated against in New Jersey. For that reason it has recently obtained the legal counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund, which is preparing a federal lawsuit to resolve the matter.
“With the Alliance Defense Fund defending our civil rights and with the help and support of the Children First Foundation's many generous and patient members,” Rex says, “Children First is confident that its Choose Life plate will soon be available for purchase in New Jersey and ultimately in New York as well.”
Once approved there, it won't be long before many thousands of drivers in the area encounter two smiling faces and those words that are so hard to argue with: Choose life. And so it will be, the Rexes hope and pray, that many will do just that.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Beyond Bunnies DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:In this year's message for Lent, Pope John Paul II urged Catholics to let this holy season be “a time of ever greater concern for the needs of children, in our own families and in society as a whole: for they are the future of humanity.”
Presenting Christ's words in Matthew 18:5 as this year's Lenten theme — “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me” — he added: “Jesus had a particular love for children because of their simplicity, their joy of life, their spontaneity and their faith filled with wonder. For this reason he wishes the community to open its arms and its heart to them, even as he did.”
There's no time like Palm Sunday to put this exhortation into long-range motion. So it is that, with this issue, we're introducing a new, regular Register feature dedicated to serving the needs of children by spotlighting new, worthwhile children's books.
By way of introduction, we are two sisters (birth, not religious) who work with children and the books they love. Over and over again we've seen literature offer a broad avenue into children's hearts and minds. From this open road, virtues can be imparted, lessons about life can be taught and faith can be fed.
Without further ado, let's roll the first installment of Children's Book Picks with recommended reading for Holy Week and Easter.
THE THORNBUSH
by Michael Laughlin
illustrated by Richard Stergulz
Thomas Nelson, 2000
32 pages, $12.99
To order: (800) 441-0511 or
www.tommynelson.com
In this poignant telling, the Easter story unfolds from the perspective of a little thornbush. Left to grow alone on the roadside, the lonely bush is convinced it is ugly, worthless and rejected. What need could anyone have for the thorns it bears? As the Easter drama unfolds, the bush catches Jesus’ loving eye before being plunged into shame as its thorns are used to bring pain to this great, kind man. Redemption is won when the bush finds faith, hope and love after the Resurrection — and rejoices in the knowledge that its thorns served as a crown for the King of Kings. Tender words, exquisite illustrations. Ages 4 to 10.
LOVE ONE ANOTHER: THE LAST DAYS OF JESUS
by Lauren Thompson
illustrated by Elizabeth Vyehara
Scholastic, 2000
32 pages, $15.95
To order: (800) 724-6527 or
www.scholastic.com
Jesus urges his followers to “love your neighbor, both friend and enemy.” The cost of such love is revealed as the text traces the Lord's last meal with his apostles and his arrest, abandonment, trial and death. The empty tomb and the presence of the Risen Christ assure young readers that love is greater than both hate and death. Double-page oil-on-canvas illustrations — particularly of Jesus’ crucifixion and death — provide opportunities to reflect and pray. Ages 6 to 10.
PRAYING THE STATIONS
WITH CHILDREN
by Gwen Costello
illustrated by Holly B. Bewlay Twenty-Third Publications, 2002
32 pages, $1.95
To order: (800) 321-0411
or www.twentythirdpublications. com
Children will pray these stations with their body, mind and soul. After explaining each station, the author helps children express their desire to have helped Jesus on the sorrowful way. “We would have made sure you didn't fall,” children say in praying the third station. “We would have walked beside you and given you strong arms to lean on.” Children are challenged to consider what they do “here and now” to follow Jesus. Gentle gestures such as placing a hand over their heart accompany each station. Ages 9 to 12.
THE STORY OF THE CROSS:
THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS FOR CHILDREN
by Mary Joslin
illustrated by Gail Newey
Loyola Press, 2002
48 pages, $15.95
To order: (800) 621-1008
or www.loyolapress.com
The 15 Stations of the Cross, including the Resurrection, are presented within the story of Jesus’ life, beginning with the Annunciation and ending with the Ascension. Each station's description is coupled with a short prayer. Vibrant paintings, sensitive to the young age of the readers, will engage both children and their parents. Ages 5 to 12.
CATHOLIC BABY'S FIRST EASTER
by Emily Tuttle
illustrated by Moira MacLean
Regina Press, 2001 8 pages, $8.99
To order: (800) 625-4263
The death and resurrection of Jesus are described with loving simplicity in this brightly illustrated board book for the very young. Baby-proof pages, rugged outer construction and a clever tote handle (and matching clasp) make for a fitting introduction to Easter for little eyes attracted to bright colors. Baby to age 3.
THE EASTER STORY
by Patricia A. Pingry illustrated by Mary Ann Utt CandyCane Press, 2002 24 pages, $6.95 To order: (800) 586-2572
This small board book is just the right size for toddlers’ hands and just the right length for their attention span — about 200 words. Explaining why we celebrate Easter, the simple text describes Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection. Young readers will especially treasure the illustrations showing Jesus welcoming children like themselves. Ages 1 to 3.
EASTER ABCS
by Isabel Anders
illustrated by Shelly Rasche
Concordia, 1999
32 pages, $7.99
To order: (800) 325-3040
or www.cph.org
“Angels stood in robes so bright, by an empty tomb — in a dazzling light! Bells chime out on Easter Day. ‘He is risen!’ They seem to say.” So begins this joyful, poetic romp through an Easter alphabet. The creators of this charming picture book have translated the Gospel's Resurrection message into catchy rhymes sure to captivate young readers. Don't be surprised if the little ones ask to hear it again and again. Ages 2 to 6.
THE VERY FIRST EASTER
by M. Elizabeth Tebo, FSP
and Patricia E. Jablonski, FSP
illustrated by Anna Winek-Leliwa
Pauline, 2002 32 pages, $5.95
To order: (800) 836-9723 or www.pauline.org/store
Retelling the story of Jesus’ birth, death, resurrection and ascension, the Pauline sisters behind this book go beyond colorful storytelling. They gently introduce doctrine on the dual nature of Jesus (“Jesus is God because God is his Father. Jesus is human, too, because Mary is his mother.”); sin (“the wrong things we do”) and transubstantiation (“The bread and wine were now the Body and Blood of Jesus! But, they still looked the same.”). Bright illustrations sweeten the lessons. Ages 5 to 8.
EASTER
illustrated by Fiona French
Ignatius, 2004
32 pages, $15.95
To order: (800) 651-1531
or www.ignatius.com
With words from Scripture, this attractive volume pairs Scripture with radiant illustrations, clearly inspired by stained-glass artworks. Yes it's intended for children, but readers of all ages will be moved and inspired by the beautiful images. Ages 8 to adult.
Patricia A. Crawford teaches children's literature at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
Kerry Crawford, author of In this Time of Grace: Memories, Hopes and Dreams of the Benedictine Sisters of Pittsburgh, has worked extensively with children in both public and religious education programs.
----- EXCERPT:Chilren's Book Picks ----- EXTENDED BODY: Patricia A. Crawford and Kerry Crawford ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Prolife Victories DATE: 04/04/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 4-10, 2004 ----- BODY:Loud but Legal in Oklahoma
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 15 — A pro-life Tahlequah, Okla., man has won an injunction forbidding the city of Tulsa from enforcing a noise ordinance that would have silenced his pro-life speech.
U.S. District Judge James Payne said March 12 the disturbing the peace ordinance is “unconstitutionally vague,” the wire service reported.
Gary Bowman filed the suit in May 2002 after he claimed police had stopped him from expressing his opinions near the Reproductive Services of Tulsa.
“Most troubling is the possibility,” Payne wrote in his decision, “as is suggested in this case, that one [who] is offended or disagrees with the speech or ‘noise’ used by a speaker may chill that speech and the attendant viewpoint simply by anointing the conduct as ‘loud, disturbing or unnecessary.’”
Irish Seek to Shutter Clinic
IC NORTHERN IRELAND, March 15 — Pro-lifers in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, are seeking to shut down a local sexual health clinic.
The pro-life advocates have threatened to blockade the Nucleus Youth Center and have started a petition to close it down. Their actions were sparked by news the center gave a surgically inserted contraception device to a 13-year-old girl, the news website reported.
“A school couldn't give a child an aspirin without first going through a mountain of red tape and bureaucracy, yet these health clinics can implant powerful hormones into children without either the knowledge or consent of parents,” said Bernie Smyth of Precious Life, a pro-life group. “This is the height of irresponsibility.”
Chinese Granted Asylum
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 15 — A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of the husband of a Chinese woman forced to have an abortion, stating he cannot be denied asylum because China didn't recognize the couple's marriage.
Congress has decided to grant asylum to up to 1,000 Chinese fleeing their country's forced abortion and sterilization policy. The decision includes the spouses of women forced to undergo such procedures.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Board of Immigration Appeals was wrong in denying asylum to Kui Rong Ma, who came to the United States in 1999 at his wife's urging after she was forced to have an abortion.
Impartiality in the Court?
The House members said they were concerned about the judge's connection to the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Distinguished Lecture Series, which is sponsored by the fund.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Passion Confessions DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:MESA, Ariz. — They might not have been promised paradise, but Jesus definitely “spoke” from the cross to at least four modern criminals.
Contrary to critics who warned The Passion of the Christ would spur anti-Semitic crimes, the opposite seems to be taking place. Not only has the film led Christian viewers to an improved attitude toward their Jewish brothers and sisters, but it has also provoked criminals to turn themselves in. So far the film has prompted a murderer, two thieves and a neo-Nazi to confess to their crimes.
Dan Leach of Rosenberg, Texas, was the first criminal to turn himself in. In early March, Leach walked into the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office in Richmond, Texas, with his parents and asked to see a detective.
Fort Bend County authorities first believed Ashley Nichole Wilson had committed suicide. Wilson's body was found Jan. 19 by her mother in her apartment in Richmond.
Leach said he wanted to seek redemption after seeing The Passion of the Christ. He confessed to strangling Wilson because he believed she was pregnant and did not want to raise their unborn child or be involved with her anymore. He told investigators he made her death look like a suicide. The coroner ruled that Wilson was not pregnant. The police released Leach while they investigated his claim.
A grand jury indicted Leach and he was arrested two days later. He is currently being held on $100,000 bond and is awaiting arraignment.
“He cited the film as one of the reasons for turning himself in,” said Jeannie Gage, public information officer for the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office. She said having someone turn himself in was “pretty rare.”
Just seven days later, 53-year-old James Anderson became the second criminal to fess up after seeing the film. Anderson walked into the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office lobby wearing shorts and a polo shirt and confessed to a robbery he had committed more than two years earlier.
On Dec. 4, 2001, Anderson had robbed the First Union Bank in Palm Beach Gardens, reportedly grabbing a female employee, putting his right hand into his pocket and forcing tellers to hand over $25,000. While Anderson spent the money, his guilt remained.
‘That Movie’
“I was in the lobby when he came in,” said Commander Diane Carhart, media spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. “A sergeant came over and told me, ‘You're not going to believe this. He's turning himself in because of that movie.’”
Anderson told detective Gary Martin that he had seen the film a couple of times and felt compelled to come clean. According to Car-hart, he also told the detective to see the movie.
Because the crime was committed in Palm Beach Gardens, Anderson was turned over to the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department, where he remains in jail.
There, Anderson told Sgt. Richard Geist that he was broke and in need of medical attention.
“He's looking for medical attention he doesn't have to pay for,” Geist told the Palm Beach Post. “That and he's probably tired of living out on the streets.”
“We don't care what the venue is,” Carhart told the Register. “We always hope that criminals will feel guilt for their crime.”
On March 30, a second thief confessed to several break-ins in Mesa, Ariz. Turner Lee Bingham approached police shortly after breaking into a Mesa store and apologized for stealing $80 from the cash register. He also confessed to five or six other burglaries.
“He had made some mention that after watching the Mel Gibson movie … that was his motive for turning himself in,” Mesa police detective Ruben Quesada told the Phoenix East Valley Tribune.
“It is a first,” Quesada told the paper.
A Nazi No Longer
The Passion of the Christ has had similar effects on foreign viewers. On March 27, notorious convicted killer and neo-Nazi Johnny Olsen walked into the Norwegian newspaper offices of Dagbladet and confessed to two bombings of Oslo's Blitz House, a youth group headquarters for anti-fascist and anti-racist activists.
In Oslo district court on March 29, Olsen confessed to the 1994 and 1995 bombings. Entering the courtroom for his detention hearing, Olsen told reporters that “Jesus lives” and that he was distancing himself from his past neo-Nazism.
His attorney, Fridtjof Feydt, told newspapers he was stunned by his client's confession, describing it as a “bolt of lightning” after Olsen saw the film.
“The film made him realize that he had to show his hand,” Feydt said. “He has been preoccupied with Christianity, guilt, punishment, atonement, suffering and conversion during the 10 years I have known him, but the Jesus film made the difference. Now he shows true regret and is ready to make amends.”
Olsen had previously been sentenced to 18 years in prison after the double murder of two youths in Hadeland, Norway, in 1981. He was released on probation after serving 12 years. Police suspected Olsen of the Blitz bombings but had never managed to connect him with the crimes.
Such stories have also prompted a forthcoming television documentary. The producers of “Changed Lives: Miracles of the Passion” have interviewed many viewers who say they have been changed by the film, and are currently in negotiations with two television stations.
“We've had everything from former drug addicts to atheists who have become believers as a result of the film,” said Anne Sharp, associate producer. “The movie has led to a change of heart. Hundreds of thousands of people have been touched to the point of writing their story down. There is a work of God there.”
The documentary, which will also feature Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, was set to air on Easter weekend.
Catholic psychologist Paul Vitz described the news reports as “flabbergasting.”
“It makes people better to see this movie,” said Vitz, who serves as senior scholar with the Arlington, Va.-based Institute for the Psychological Sciences and as a professor with New York University.
He explained how the film could work to make people more repentant.
“Jesus' death without guilt enhances a feeling of guilt in others who may feel guilty for what they might have done,” Vitz said. “It makes their guilt that much larger and therefore they needed to confront it and relieve it by confession.”
“We hope people see a movie or feel compelled to confess and turn themselves in,” Carhart of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said. “There are always victims out there.”
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: Criminals Come Clean After Watching Gibson Film ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Feared it Would Stir Anti-Semitism, Film Seems to Have Opposite Effect DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:Last August, after an Anti-Defamation League representative viewed a rough cut of The Passion of the Christ, league director Abraham Foxman declared the film would “fuel hatred, bigotry and antiSemitism.”
Aside from a handful of isolated incidents involving antiSemitic remarks made by school-children, Foxman's prediction has not materialized. In fact, a recent poll showed just the opposite.
A nationwide survey conducted for the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish and Community Research found that the movie changed Christian attitudes toward Jews for the better. The poll, released in mid-March, found that 9% of Americans familiar with the film were less likely to blame today's Jews for Jesus' crucifixion. Eighty-three percent said the film has made them neither more nor less likely to fault modern Jews.
“While the film may have a different impact elsewhere in the world, so far The Passion of the Christ is not producing any significant anti-Jewish backlash,” said Dr. Gary Tobin, president of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research. “The film and perhaps even more, the discussions about the film, are having something of a positive effect, which is good news.
“Some Jewish and Christian leaders have been understandably worried that the film might unleash a wave of hostility toward Jews and even erode the constructive effects of Vatican II,” Tobin added. “But this does not appear to be happening.”
Instead, the film is helping police departments solve previously unsolved crimes.
— Tim Drake
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Abortion Fans and Foes Plan April 25 Events DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Study time for finals at Ball State University will be rearranged so pro-life student Monica Moak can be at a pro-abortion March in Washington, D.C.
She plans to join a counter-protest of the March for Women's Lives planned for April 25.
“This is a totally different experience from going to the March for Life,” Moak said. “It's a chance to interact peacefully with those on the other side and to tell them that as college women we are not willing to let them represent us. Women need to feel they don't have to choose abortion.”
Randall Terry said organizers of the abortion march only secured the street portion of the walk route. So he secured the sidewalks and has organized hundreds of pro-life volunteers to line the route of the abortion march.
Pro-abortion marchers will have to walk past eight blocks organized to drive home the point that abortion is not good for women or society: Mothers and fathers with children will occupy one section, a playground filled with kids another.
Later, pro-abortion marchers will see college-age students holding signs reading, “You killed our siblings,” a reference to the fact that abortion became legal nationwide just a generation ago. Other sections will hold converted abortionists and women who have had abortions.
Organizers of the March for Women's Lives didn't return a call from the Register for comment, but they did release a statement noting that more than 1,100 organizations have joined together for their march.
One of those principal organizers is the American Civil Liberties Union. For that organization, the legal right to abort an unborn child is a matter of privacy.
“In recent years, we have witnessed an unprecedented attack on our civil liberties, and reproductive rights are a prime target,” said Anthony Romero, the organization's executive director. “It is time to stand up and collectively tell the government to stay out of our private lives.”
Randall Terry is no stranger to the pro-life cause. He ran Operation Rescue during the late 1980s but now operates a group called the Society for Truth and Justice.
“We can't allow the pro-abortion crowd to have a free ride in the media,” Terry said. “They are going to herald child killing as a woman's best friend
“Abortion kills a child and mars a woman,” he said. “The abortion experiment has failed.”
Campus Cause
Ball State's Monica Moak, who serves as co-president of Students for Life at Ball State, credits her local parish for inspiring her pro-life activism.
“My Catholic church has a good youth program and one of the things they focus on is pro-life issues,” she said.
Now Moak is busy coordinating transportation for students from three different colleges in the Midwest to make the nine-hour drive to the national's capital.
“We want women to feel they don't have to choose abortion, that they have other options,” Moak said. She noted that her pro-life group operates a baby shower every year for college women who embrace life.
Kelly Kroll, a senior at Boston College, will also be counter-protesting at the march. She's the spokeswoman for the Symposium on Woman and Children, an event co-sponsored by American Collegians for Life and Feminists for Life and scheduled for the day before the pro-abortion rally.
“If you're really concerned about women's lives, you wouldn't promote abortion, which causes women enormous physical and psychological trauma,” Kroll said.
“College women from across the country are coming to our symposium to hear the truth,” she said, “that children aren't the enemy and that college women shouldn't have to choose between their child and their education.”
The symposium will feature several women involved in the pro-life movement talking about the dangers of abortion to women, how the early feminists were all pro-life and the current progress of pro-life legislation on Capitol Hill.
Rock for Life also plans to be out in force to counter-protest the abortion march, but it won't be playing any music.
“This is not a celebration,” said Jason Jones, head of Rock for Life. “We see this as a very serious day. We have to remind them that their lies are not believed by everyone. Forty-five million dead is way too many.”
Jones predicts the abortion marchers have the potential to get unruly. That's why he had to institute a rule regarding his youth-based organization.
“They're the same folks who go to the WTO protests, so we are only allowing those 18 or older to come with us to counter-protest,” he said.
A group called the Radical Cheerleaders of D.C. is calling for “feminists, radical cheerleaders, anti-authoritarians, anarchists and all those concerned with women's autonomy” to join the March for Women's Lives. Also, the march will be preceded by protests during the IMF/World Bank annual meeting in Washington on April 23-24.
Jones also promised a boycott of all music venues that host fund-raising concerts for the pro-abortion march.
With all the counter-protests, Moak is hopeful that recent poll numbers showing a majority of women as pro-life will get even higher.
“More and more young women are rejecting abortion and that's why the folks at Planned Parenthood and NARAL are so worried,” she said. “They realize that young pro-life women are the future.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Audience Outrage Sparks FCC Crackdown DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Lee and Dawn Gohmann of St. Augusta, Minn., and their three children decided to give up television for Lent.
But a friend challenged Lee Gohmann when he said there were some shows he liked to watch without the kids. “If it's not appropriate for them, is it appropriate for you?” said the friend.
That's when he decided to give up television beyond Lent. “There are a lot of things on television that they shouldn't be showing.”
The Gohmanns aren't alone. The majority of television viewers say they're getting fed up.
In an effort to curb such indecency and answer a new flood of complaints, the Federal Communications Commission has begun an new crackdown on radio and television broadcasters.
“People were upset before the Super Bowl,” said L. Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center and Parents Television Council
“The pressure was there and it exploded,” when Jackson exposed herself, he said. “Parents were watching with their children and this was the ultimate kick in the teeth by the entertainment industry.”
Following the Jackson incident, more than 200,000 viewers registered their complaints with the FCC.
In March, the FCC levied fines against two radio broadcasting companies and also cited NBC declaring that an expletive uttered by rock star Bono during the Golden Globe Awards last year was indecent and profane.
The notices of apparent liability included a $27,500 statutory maximum forfeiture against Infinity Broadcasting for a Howard Stern show broadcast July 26, 2001, on WKRK-FM in Detroit, and a proposed $7,000 fine against Infinity station WLLD in Holmes Beach, Fla. The FCC also proposed fining Capstar, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, the maximum $55,000 for a broadcast on two Florida stations, WAVW in Stuart and WCZR in Vero Beach.
While media watchers support the FCC's recent actions, they question whether the FCC has done enough.
The Parents Television Council was particularly outraged by the FCC's decision not to fine NBC for airing the f-word during the 2003 Golden Globe Awards.
“The decision by the FCC does nothing to hold NBC accountable for this obvious breach of common-sense decency standards,” Bozell said. “Once again the FCC has made a mockery of its avowed duty to serve the public interest.”
Commission Divided
FCC commissioners Michael Copps and Kevin Martin agreed with Bozell on that point. Both thought NBC should have been fined. Two of their commission colleagues and the chairman, Michael Powell, however, thought the station needed to be given fair notice that such language was indecent.
This disagreement is one of several Copps has had with his fellow commissioners. Copps believes the FCC needs to seek license revocations, examine the rising tide of media conglomeration and enforce higher fines — a proposal that is currently under consideration in Congress.
“The commission has to be responsible,” Copps said. “They are creating a climate where broadcasters are doing this and getting away with it. Eighty percent of the notices of apparent liability have been against Viacom and Clear Channel. We haven't given them many reasons to respect the FCC.”
“While the FCC has woken up after many years of slumber, the fact of the matter is that up until the evening before I testified before the Senate last winter, it had never fined a single English-speaking television station for indecency,” Bozell said. “They not only have a legal obligation to enforce decency standards, but they also have $278 million of taxpayers' money to do it.”
Two and a half years ago, Bozell's media-watchdog organizations launched a campaign to encourage people to file complaints with the FCC. Since the campaign's launch, Bozell estimated they have delivered several hundred thousand complaints.
Still, while the FCC can enforce decency standards, the responsibility ultimately resides with the broadcasters.
“The halftime show had a galvanizing effect, particularly at the policymaking level,” Copps said. “It put the laser beam on the broadcasters to clean up the airways.”
Some broadcasters have responded positively to the call. Others have not.
San Antonio-based Clear Channel, for example, announced a new Responsible Broadcasting Initiative to make certain the material aired on its more than 1,200 radio stations conforms to the standards of the local communities it serves. Central to the initiative is company-wide training on what is and is not permissible on-air.
“If the FCC accuses us of wrong-doing by issuing a proposed fine, we will take immediate action,” said Mark Mays, president and chief operating officer of Clear Channel Communications. “We will suspend the DJ in question and perform a swift investigation. If we or the government ultimately determine the offending broadcast is indecent, the DJ will be terminated without delay.”
In addition, the company announced that all of its contracts with on-air performers were being modified to ensure that DJs share financial responsibility if they utter indecent material on the air.
In late February, Clear Channel Radio suspended the broadcast of Viacom's Howard Stern show.
“Clear Channel drew a line in the sand today with regard to protecting our listeners from indecent content and Howard Stern's show blew right through it,” said John Hogan, president and chief executive officer of Clear Channel Radio. “It was vulgar, offensive and insulting … to anyone with a sense of common decency.”
‘Out of Control’
Stern criticized the actions, complaining of a double standard. He described the FCC's definition of indecency as both “hypocritical” and “fuzzy.”
Stern posted transcripts on his website from an “Oprah Winfrey” episode that defined a number of sexual terms popular among teenage girls and asked listeners to register their complaints with the FCC. The Oprah episode originally aired on Oct. 2, 2003, and was rerun on March 18.
“If they fine me for this, they have to fine Oprah. And if they fine Oprah all hell is going to break loose,” Stern said during his show on March 19 while attempting to play a clip of the Oprah segment in question. His producers beeped out all possibly offending phrases for fear of receiving another fine.
Not all broadcasters have gone as far as Clear Channel.
“Clear Channel has been as clear cut as Infinity is being two-faced,” Bozell said. “Clear Channel has taken full responsibility for its actions and recognized where it has made mistakes. Meanwhile, Infinity's chief executive officer Mel Karmazin told Congress he would have a zero-tolerance policy, but they have been fighting every indecency fine.”
Infinity Broadcasting did not return calls for comment.
The public outrage surrounding the Super Bowl prompted an immediate response from each of the major networks. CBS used a time delay for the Grammy Awards. ABC used one for the Oscars, and NBC removed questionable material from an episode of “ER.”
Most viewers say it's still too early to say whether there will be any long-term effects from the FCC's actions.
“We've been down this road before,” Bozell said. “There was great consternation after the Columbine tragedy. Television is now more violent than ever.”
“People get acclimated to more severe content,” Gohmann said. “When I was little, my parents wouldn't let me watch ‘Happy Days’ because of all the girls flocking around Fonzie. Today that show seems like nothing compared with what they show now.”
Bozell described the industry as “out of control.”
“In years past, the driving thrust was to push the envelope a little bit more, but in recent years it's been to be as outrageous as you can be,” Bozell said. “As soon as that wall is scaled, there's a new one.”
Copps is hopeful the industry can improve.
“If we do our job and show we are intent upon enforcing the laws, we'll keep the industry focused on this,” he said. “Anyone who thinks they can return to the race to the bottom and think this will go away is vastly deluding themselves.”
Regardless of the improvement on the airways, Gohmann, who gave up TV for Lent, said he's seen an improvement at home.
“My wife feels that the two younger children are getting along better,” he said. The children also like the improvement they've seen in their father. “They told me they like that I'm not saying, ‘Kids, don't bother me during this show.’”
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Chaldeans Crusade Against Porn DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:SAN DIEGO — Alcoholic beverages aren't the only merchandise many liquor stores sell in the greater San Diego area.
Pornographic magazines and videos have a place on the shelves, too. But the picture is changing now that a couple of Knights of Columbus have stepped in.
Like in Detroit, the San Diego area is home to many Chaldean Christians, many of whom have emigrated from Iraq. Kamal Alsawaf and Keith Michael Esshaki are two such immigrants.
Both are past grand knights of the Mar Toma council of the Knights of Columbus at St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Cathedral in El Cajon, Calif. They began to meet the pornography problem head-on with their fellow Chaldean Catholics who own a number of stores.
They talked about the problem at council meetings and visited these stores one by one to convince owners to get rid of the porn. Those that did quickly found clear consciences and an unexpected bonus when business actually increased.
Take the case of store owner Zuhair Hanna, who once carried the magazines and videos, then listened to Alsawaf and Esshaki.
“One day I took the step,” said Hanna, a Knight. “‘God is watching,’ I thought. He knows what we're doing. So I took them out.”
Hanna figured to lose his $3,000 monthly gross income that meant more than $2,000 in profits from the magazines and videos. Pointing out that the profit margin is high on this material, he expected total monthly gross sales to drop from $80,000 to $77,000.
“But the very next month my business went up to $84,000 total sales,” he said. “God blessed me with something else.”
New customers came when they learned he didn't carry the porn. Now Hanna encourages everybody to do the same, like his brother who just bought a store and told the distributors he didn't want the smut.
“When brother Knights talk about it, the message is stronger,” Alsawaf said.
Ninety percent of the San Diego area's 900 or so liquor stores are owned by Chaldeans.
Alsawaf, district deputy for the Knights, explained that Chaldeans, who are “by nature a very hardworking and dedicated people,” gravitated to the liquor stores (and grocery business) for several reasons. The whole family could work in the store, they didn't mind the long demanding hours, and the business didn't require a special education or a strong knowledge of the English language.
High Profits
It was also a way of helping family members already here or immigrating. After learning the business, relatives then open a store of their own.
According to Father Michael Bazzi, pastor of St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Cathedral in El Cajon, there are about 30,000 Chaldeans in the San Diego area. At first he visited every store, frequently with a Knight.
He told owners: “It's a shame for you to be religious and spread poison around. Selling drugs and porn is giving poison to others.”
Many agreed and removed the magazines. Sometimes he found out that after he left a store, the owner would call others to tell them Father Bazzi was coming. By the time he got there, shelves were empty.
“There was that feeling of guilt. They knew there was something wrong. And that's important — to know you're committing sin,” he said. He speaks on the subject from the pulpit and lets the Knights visit the stores.
Esshaki said part of the problem is that the pornography is already in the store when people buy the business.
“They think it's part of the business — until someone brings it to their attention and steers them in the right direction,” he said.
Owners also get lots of pressure from porn distributors who lure them with high profits.
“There are a lot of challenges, a lot of financial temptations,” he said.
Yet, when his own parents bought stores, they firmly insisted offensive material be removed.
“We got blessed even more when we removed the porn,” Esshaki noted.
The men stressed that spiritual reasons to remove the corrupt materials must be first and foremost. When they recruit fellow Chaldeans into the Knights of Columbus and teach them the organization's message and what it means as a practicing Catholic, they raise the issue of the porn being sold.
“At first it wasn't easy to convince anybody,” said Alsawaf, citing the previous reasons. “But after we explained the damage it can do and the harm it can bring to a family,” he said, they began to understand because Chaldeans usually have large families and are strongly family oriented. They didn't want their own children viewing the material.
For store owner and current Grand Knight Saad Mattia, the spiritual effects are primary.
“It's not a matter of increasing business but for me feeling good I don't have that in my store,” he said. “By people knowing you don't have that, a different type of clientele is coming into the store. That's how it increases business.”
Spiritual Dangers
Before he started working in his brother's store, Mattia asked him to get rid of the porn. Although his brother noted the good profit, Mattia continued his insistent requests. His brother removed the material.
“I thought it was God who put it in his heart to get rid of them,” Mattia said.
Today, good magazines and snack foods fill those shelves. And Mattia's second brother purged the porn the first day he walked into his own new store.
Esshaki addresses the problem at every Knights meeting.
“I speak of the spiritual dangers, the dangers to their children and families,” he said. “Most have children working in the stores. And most take out the porn.”
To the handful who resist, he makes it clear that “this is a complete contradiction of our faith.” He recommends uncompromising action: Remove the material or be removed from the Knights.
With about 100 Chaldean Knights in the council, Alsawaf sees a ripple effect. All either own stores or have family members who do.
“When we talk about this, the message is going to all the store owners,” he said. “They're all related. News travels fast.”
“We control the market,” he said, “so if we get rid of the pornography, we'll clean up San Diego … people and law enforcement will support us in these issues, and the Lord will love us.”
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: What the Spirit Is Saying to the Church DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:Ralph Martin has been a central figure in the Catholic charismatic renewal for almost 40 years.
He founded Renewal Ministries and teaches at Detroit's Sacred Heart Seminary and several universities.
The noted author, lecturer and television host spoke to Register correspondent Patrick Novecosky about the growth of the charismatic movement, his meetings with the Holy Father and what the Holy Spirit is saying to the Church in our time.
How did you get involved in the Catholic charismatic renewal?
After graduating from Notre Dame and starting grad school at Princeton, the auxiliary bishop of Lansing, Mich., asked a friend and me in 1965 if we'd help him set up the first national office of the Cursillo movement.
We also started doing campus ministry at Michigan State University. Some friends at Duquesne University invited us to do a retreat. The following fall, in 1967, that same group of students and professors were the ones who had the first experience of the charismatic renewal in the Catholic Church.
In 1968, while doing ministry at the University of Michigan, we began working in the dormitories. Soon hundreds of people were coming to the student center. Out of that came a charismatic community; out of that came an international center for the Catholic charismatic community; and out of that came New Covenant magazine.
How did you end up in Belgium?
In the early '70s, we received a rather mysterious visitor — a Belgian priest named Father Michel Dubois, or so we thought. Later, he revealed his true identity. He was Cardinal Leo Suenens, the primate of Belgium — one of the four moderators of the Second Vatican Council.
He invited us to establish an international center for the renewal in Belgium. From 1976 to 1980, I lived in Brussels with my wife and two children. We had another two children there: our “Brussels sprouts.”
I was the first director of the International Council for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. In 1980, we came back to the United States and I wrote a book called The Crisis of Truth and founded Renewal Ministries. The office moved to the Vatican in 1981, where it still is today.
What does the charismatic renewal offer the Church?
Cardinal Suenens once said, “The purpose of the charismatic renewal is not to perpetuate itself, but it's a witness in the Church to what belongs to the whole Church” — that the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit are not the property of a particular movement.
The Pope talks about it as a rediscovery. In 1998, he invited all the renewal movements in the Church to come together. More than 50 different movements and 500,000 people came to Rome.
Speaking there, he said the Holy Spirit led us to rediscover the charismatic dimension of the Church at the Second Vatican Council. He quoted Lumen Gentium where it says that the Holy Spirit works to bring salvation, not just through the hierarchical institutional dimension of the Church but also by giving gifts and graces to ordinary people.
He went on to say that the charismatic and institutional dimensions of the Church are co-essential. He was saying that the Holy Spirit is bringing us to rediscover that the Church has these two dimensions and both are important for its health. The charismatic renewal has been a spark plug for a discovery of a more balanced theology of how the institutional and charismatic work together.
How does Renewal Ministries aid in that rediscovery?
Our mission is to bring about the renewal and the evangelization [expressed by] Vatican II, summed up by the Pope in [his 2001 apostolic letter] Novo Millennio Ineunte (At the Beginning of the New Millennium).
We're trying to help Catholics discover their faith in a deeper way and live it in a more committed and more wholehearted way. In the early 1980s, somebody mentioned that we could reach more people through television and radio. So we started “The Choices We Face” television program in 1984. EWTN has been carrying us the whole time. We're coast-to-coast in Canada and we're on international satellites and a lot of other broadcast stations.
We have a daily radio program, books, tapes, conferences, seminars and missions. We're also working in more than 20 countries right now establishing centers of renewal and evangelization at the request of bishops. We're mainly working in Eastern Europe and Africa, but we're also working in other countries where the Church was weakened by communism, poverty or persecution.
Is the charismatic movement in the Church misunderstood?
In some circles — which is puzzling because bishops' conferences around the world have issued all kinds of official statements recognizing it as an authentic fruit of renewal of the Church. Popes Paul VI and John Paul II have written dozens of statements recognizing the good that is happening through the renewal. John Paul regularly has people involved in the charismatic renewal to attend his private Mass and he asks them to pray in a charismatic style.
You've met the Holy Father numerous times. Which meeting was most memorable?
In 1995, I had just written a book, The Catholic Church at the End of an Age: What is the Spirit Saying? I was in Rome and had a chance to meet with him. I gave him a copy of my book and he said, “I've read it already,” which really surprised me.
Then he said, “Ralph, what is the Spirit saying to the Church?” I know he didn't want the whole 300-page answer. I felt like the Spirit gave me one word to say. I said, “Holy Father, I think what the Spirit is saying to the Church is: Jesus.”
He took my hand and he said, “Jesus.” I said, “Jesus.” And he said, “Jesus.” We just stood there saying the name of Jesus together. It was a moment of prayer, communion and like a proclamation of Jesus. It was a very moving moment — the hierarchical and charismatic dimensions of the Church uniting in the person of Jesus and proclaiming him together.
What is the Spirit saying to the Church as we move further into the new millennium?
Ever since my meeting with the Pope, I spent a lot of time studying the mystics and Doctors of the Church. John of the Cross said, “The Father has said everything he needs to say in Jesus. To want anything else except Jesus is to miss the point of the treasure that's been given.”
So, what I said to the Pope remains even more relevant because there are inexhaustible treasures in Christ. The Pope says the starting point of the New Evangelization is the person of Jesus. That's where it all begins. That's where it all ends.
Patrick Novecosky writes from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Patrick Novecosky ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Tax-payer Subsidized Embryonic Research? DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:LOS ANGELES — A proposed ballot initiative in California would provide $3 billion in state funding during a 10-year period, dwarfing any other state or academic efforts to date, and would create a state constitutional right to stem cell research — including “therapeutic cloning.”
The initiative, which is being put forward by Californians for Stem Cell Research and Cures, could force the state to subsidize the creation and subsequent destruction of clones.
The plan was outlined in the San Francisco Chronicle on March 15.
Cloning is currently legal in California, and the funding measure would appear this November if it reaches its goal of more than a half-million signatures by mid-April.
Even before it has qualified for the ballot, Catholics and ethicists have expressed concern about its implications.
The carefully worded initiative, which uses the term “somatic cell nuclear transfer” rather than “therapeutic cloning,” has also stirred up controversy over its claims it will increase the likelihood of cures to common diseases.
“Though they won't say the word, what they denote as the ‘process in which the nucleus from a human cell, such as a skin cell, is combined with an unfertilized human egg cell is cloning,” explained David Prentice, a professor of life sciences and genetics at Indiana State University, in an e-mail response to questions from the Register.
Chad Griffin, a spokesman for Californians for Stem Cell Research and Cures, did not deny so-called “therapeutic” cloning could be done under the bill but said it would “forbid human reproductive cloning.”
While that might calm some people down, there is still a moral problem, explained Dominican Father Albert Moraczewski, who holds a doctorate in biology as well as a master's degree in theology.
A senior consultant to the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Boston and its emeritus president, Father Moraczewski said from his office in Houston that by the “therapeutic cloning process” of cloning an embryo and then destroying it, scientists “are killing a human life.”
Griffin declined to comment on the morality of the issue, stating that several scientists supported his group's views. But the Californians for Stem Cell Research Website did dismiss the ethical issue, stating that the embryos are not human.
“Scientifically, the tiny dividing cell clusters involved are microscopic collections of 100 to 200 cells — not ‘babies’ or ‘fetuses’ or ‘human beings,’” it said.
Nonsense, according to Prentice. “What is created is not a group of cells but a living human embryo. This is the simple biological fact, and no reputable scientist would dispute it,” he explained.
Arguing that embryonic stem cell research holds a great deal of scientific promise, Griffin and the Californians for Stem Cell Research Website have charged that “a minority in this country have held this country captive for political reasons.”
The Website goes so far as to state that “ultra-conservative” “scare tactics” have caused the Bush administration to “cut” funding for such research.
They are wrong on both counts, according to Prentice.
First, President Bush was the first person to ever authorize such funding, he said. Second, the claims made by the proponents of the measure simply aren't supported by science.
“The published science, however, shows just the contrary,” Prentice argued. “Embryonic stem cells have yet even to be attempted for patient treatments because they have not yet worked in the experimental animals.”
“There is great difficulty in controlling development of the cells and a significant risk of tumor formation,” he added.
Father Moraczewski said he finds the emphasis on “pluripotent” — that is, embryonic — stem cells “perplexing from a biologist's perspective,” agreeing with Prentice that embryonic stem cells hold little promise over other, non-cloned stem cells.
Carol Hogan, spokeswoman for the California Catholic Conference, which represents the bishops of the state in public policy matters, said the bishops will not make a public statement until the initiative qualifies, but she added that they have been watching the bill closely.
“[The bill uses] a very utilitarian approach,” Hogan said, and she warned that such thinking can lead to unconscionable conclusions. She said killing people — though morally wrong — could be a utilitarian solution to many problems.
The Catholic position is clear.
“Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being,” states No. 2274 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
No. 2275 continues: “It is immoral to produce human embryos intended for exploitation as disposable biological material.”
And writing on cloning in 1997, the Pontifical Academy for Life stated the problems with therapeutic cloning explicitly: “In any case, such experimentation is immoral because it involves the arbitrary use of the human body (by now decidedly regarded as a machine composed of parts) as a mere research tool.”
Though Griffin of Californians for Stem Cell Research said there is “no deep pocket corporate funding” and all of the funding is by “individuals who have, or whose children have, diseases,” others disagree.
The whole proposal is financially motivated, according to author Wesley Smith, senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture.
In a March 12 article in the Bioethics and Culture Network newsletter, Smith wrote: “The national drive by the biotechnology industry to fill its nearly empty pockets with public funds for human cloning research is an audacious money grab … taxpayers should not have to pay for intensely controversial research that much of the private sector rightly sees as a dry well.”
Money grab or not, the proposal will do more harm than good if it passes, Prentice said.
“It will frankly take money away from the truly promising research, involving adult stem cells and umbilical cord blood stem cells … the cells that show real promise, and are already successfully treating patients for the diseases those pushing cloning and embryonic stem cell research can only speculate,” he said.
Indeed, researchers at the University of Florida recently cultured adult bone marrow stem cells to become insulin-producing cells, holding out a prospect of help for diabetics.
The California initiative, Prentice said, “rather than saving lives, will actually delay cures.”
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:Kerry Tells Church to Stay Out of Campaign
“I don't tell Church officials what to do and Church officials shouldn't tell American politicians what to do in the context of our public life,” Kerry told Time magazine. “As John Kennedy said very clearly, I will be a president who happens to be a Catholic, not a Catholic president.”
Also on the campaign trail, President Bush criticized Kerry for using a Bible verse to criticize leaders March 28. While not referring to Bush by name but referring to current national leaders, Kerry asked, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?”
A Bush spokesman called it “a sad exploitation of Scripture for a political attack.”
Lifelike Fatima Statue Comes to United States
The 40-pound, 46-inch-tall lifelike sculpture has traveled the world since 1947, when it was carved in Portugal. It was then blessed by a bishop and designated “a pilgrim,” the newspaper reported. The nonprofit New Jersey-based Lay Apostolate Foundation oversees the statue.
Carl Malburg, 63, and his wife are current custodians of the statue and take it “wherever the statue wants to go.” Churches around the world call almost daily requesting visits.
Malburg said he has witnessed many miracles, including alcoholism cured, vision restored and relationships mended. During speeches he gives at visits, Malburg reminds audiences the statue is just a representation of the Virgin Mary and a conduit for prayer.
Note to Hollywood: PG and G Films Do Better at Box Office
The Christian Film & Television Commission found films that emphasized “strong moral content” made an average of $92,546,413, six times that of those with “immoral, negative content.” Those films brought in an average of $14,626,234. The figures were based on an analysis of 250 movies released in America last year.
The study also found that from 2000 to 2003, movies with “no nudity” brought in an average $137.8 million compared with movies with “full male and/or female nudity,” which brought in an average $43 million.
So why does Hollywood continue to produce risky fare? the paper asks.
“The concept of affirming the basic and traditional values of flyover country is absolute anathema to these filmmakers,” said Andrew Breitbart, co-author of Hollywood Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon — the Case Against Celebrity. “They live in an isolated world, which is nihilist to the core — the more cynical you are, the hipper you seem.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: A Tale of Two Supreme Court Justices ... DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — The major media, particularly The Washington Post, have generated a lot of controversy over Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's unofficial social contact with Vice President Dick Cheney, who is a party in a case before the court.
At the same time, the media have largely ignored Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's close official relationship with the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, a group highly active in promoting abortion on demand, homosexual rights, discrimination against men and other radical stands in the nation's federal judiciary.
As recently as March 23, NOW Legal Defense — a nonprofit group that is separate from the National Organization for Women — highlighted on the front page of its web-site its close relationship with Ginsburg.
“NOW Legal Defense president Kathy Rodgers shares the spotlight with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the fourth annual Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lecture Series on Women and the Law,” says a photo caption beneath a picture of the two.
Ginsburg spoke Jan. 29 to the Association of the Bar of the City of New York at an event co-sponsored by NOW Legal Defense. As recently as two weeks earlier, she had sided with NOW Legal Defense's position in a Supreme Court case.
At least 13 congressmen thought something was amiss.
“It is well known that NOW Legal Defense engages in active lobbying on behalf of pro-abortion activists and regularly submits briefs to the Supreme Court in a variety of cases,” the congressmen wrote Ginsburg in a letter dated March 17. “As a matter of fact, an entire section of the NOW Legal Defense website is dedicated to cases that are heard before the high court. … Federal law states that a judge or justice ‘shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.’”
“As legislators, we believe your actions call into question your ability to rule with impartiality on any case involving abortion,” the congressional letter stated. “We therefore respectfully request that you immediately recuse yourself from any such cases.”
Grounds for Recusal?
“I saw what they were doing to Scalia over a supposed contact at a duck hunt,” Rep. Joe Pitts, RPa., the lead author of the letter, told the Register in explaining what prompted him to write it.
Critics say Scalia should recuse himself from the case involving Cheney because he flew on Cheney's plane to and participated in a duck hunt that included Cheney, among others. Litigants in the case are seeking to obtain information about Cheney's secret energy task force.
Scalia recused himself from a case involving a challenge to the constitutionality of saying the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools with the phrase “under God” after he publicly commented on the case. A Supreme Court justice has sole discretion in deciding whether to recuse himself from a case.
“In the case of Justice Ginsburg, this is clearly an official relationship,” Pitts said. “The media are very partial in matters such as abortion and liberal jurists.”
Scalia has refused to step down from the case involving Cheney, saying he and the vice president were not alone together on the hunting trip except for very brief periods and never discussed the case.
Asked on March 23 why The Washington Post had run so many articles on the Scalia-Cheney question but had not mentioned the Ginsburg issue, Tom Frail, a Post editor, replied: “We might do something in the future.”
He said the Post believed the Scalia-Cheney story was bigger “because Justice Scalia is on the Supreme Court and it involved the vice president of the United States.” Pressed on the question, he conceded, “You have a good point.”
There is another substantial difference between the alleged conflicts of interest involving Scalia and Cheney: Cheney is a party in his case, though only in his official capacity and not personally, whereas NOW Legal Defense has filed friend-of-the-court briefs only. Scalia himself has pointed out that the case does not involve a lawsuit against the vice president as a private individual.
But, said Rep. Walter Jones, a Republican Catholic congressman from North Carolina and co-signer of the letter, “I am very concerned about the relationship with the NOW group. How can she make impartial decisions about life issues and abortion?”
“While friendship is a ground for recusal of a justice where the personal fortune or the personal freedom of the friend is at issue,” Scalia wrote in a response to a formal motion by the Sierra Club to recuse himself from the case, “it has traditionally not been a ground for recusal where official action is at issue, no matter how important the official action was to the ambitions or the reputation of the government officer.”
Judge's Defense
“We think it's a political ploy to distract attention from the Scalia-Cheney story,” said Bill Scher of NOW Legal Defense about the congressmen's letter. He said Ginsburg's affiliation with the lecture series is innocuous.
“It's an educational event,” he said. “There is no advocacy at the event. There is no fund-raising at the event. … Justices speak before groups that file briefs all the time. They speak before the American Bar Association. The ABA files briefs.”
He also said Ginsburg receives no money from NOW Legal Defense.
Supreme Court public information officer Kathy Arberg said March 23 that Ginsburg's office had not yet received the letter and had no comment on the issue.
Ginsburg defended herself in response to questions from law students March 12.
The lecture series “is not a money-making enterprise,” she said. “I think and thought and still think it's a lovely thing. Let the lecture speak for itself. … There is no one to replace us. It makes it quite important that we not lightly recuse ourselves.”
“She certainly should recuse herself on issues relating to abortion,” said Terry Scanlon, president of the Capital Research Center, a Washington group that monitors nonprofits and their influence on public policy. He said his center was working on a report about Ginsburg's activities.
Joseph A. D'Agostino writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: And the Way the Media Tell the Story ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph A. D'Agostino ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:Israeli Visa Denials Dampen Relations With Vatican
Dr. David Jaeger said for the first time since Israel was established, Catholic clergy had been unable to renew their visas to stay in the country, the newspaper reported.
The problem began two years ago, when Eli Yishai of Shas was interior minister, Jaeger said, and Shas' worldview included fears the Jewish state was weakening. Now, however, with a new interior minis-try, the problem still exists.
“It is insufferable,” Jaeger said. “It's getting worse all the time and has international implications since the Church in the Holy Land represents Catholics all over the world.”
Foreign ministry officials agree there is “needless red tape” in granting visa requests, the paper said, and a committee appointed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is looking into the problem.
Tough Cases to Go to Doctrine of Faith Congregation
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 28 — Putting into effect a change in the way it deals with clergy sex-abuse cases and other crimes against Church law, the Vatican has begun delegating cases that normally would have gone to the Pope to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the congregation, in a March 16 letter advised the changes were going into effect. Pope John Paul II had called for a shift in the 2001 document “Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela (Protection of the Holiness),” which outlines how serious crimes against Church law should be handled.
Msgr. Charles Scicluna, a prosecutor in the congregation, said the Holy Father decided to refer such cases to the congregation because it has more experience in dealing with them.
The crimes include the sexual abuse of minors, the wire service reported, crimes concerning the Eucharist — such as the sacrilegious use of the host — and crimes concerning the confessional.
Keep Sundays for God, Not Sports, Pope Says
Rather than play sports on Sundays, the Holy Father said, Australians should attend Mass.
“When Sunday loses its fundamental meaning and becomes subordinate to a secular concept of ‘weekend’ dominated by such things as entertainment and sport, people stay locked within a horizon so narrow that they no longer see the heavens,” John Paul said.
Only 15% of Australian Catholics attend Mass each week, the newspaper noted, and during the past five years there has been a 13% drop in attendance.
One mother of three, however, agreed with the Pope.
“As a country we're sports-obsessed,” she said. “Sunday should be a family day — Mass and then a baked dinner afterward. Like it was in the 1950s.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Christ Is the Author of History DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:Register Summary
More than 14,000 people gathered in St. Peter's Square on March 31 for Pope John Paul II's last general audience in Lent. He continued with his teaching on the psalms and canticles of the Liturgy of the Hours' evening prayer by focusing on Chapters 4 and 5 of the Book of Revelation.
Several verses in the chapters describe a “glorious and grandiose heavenly scene,” the Holy Father said. In the center, he said, God himself is sitting on the throne. Around them is a chorus of heavenly figures.
A scroll is introduced, which is sealed with seven seals, and no one can look at it. “Therefore, we are talking about a prophecy that is hidden from us,” John Paul said. “The scroll contains the series of God's decrees that need to occur as human history unfolds so that perfect justice may reign. If the scroll remains sealed, these decrees will not be known and will not be acted upon, and wickedness will continue to spread and oppress believers.”
It is Christ who makes known the contents of the scroll to us, the Pope said, as he reveals “God's hidden hand at work in history as it unfolds.
The canticle that we have just heard and that is the basis for today's meditation is part of the Liturgy of the Hours' evening prayer. One by one, we have been talking about these psalms during our weekly catechesis. As it is often the custom in the liturgy, some prayers are synthesized from fragments of the Bible that are part of a larger text.
In this case, several verses have been collected from Chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation in order to depict a glorious and grandiose heavenly scene. In the center, God himself is seated on the throne, although his name is not mentioned out of reverence (see Revelation 4:2). In a later passage, the Lamb sits on the throne, a symbol of the risen Christ. In fact, a “Lamb that seemed to have been slain” is mentioned, but he is “standing” alive and glorious (see Revelation 5:6).
The chorus of the heavenly court surrounds these two figures, represented by four “living creatures,” which perhaps represent, in turn, the angels of God's presence at the four cardinal points of the universe, and “24 elders” (presbyteroi in Greek), who are the leaders of the Christian community and whose number recalls the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 Apostles — a synthesis of the Old and New Covenants.
This assembly of God's people is singing a hymn to the Lord, exalting his “glory, honor and power,” which have been manifested through the creation of the universe (see Revelation 4:11). At this point, an important symbol is introduced, a (biblion in Greek), a scroll but which is totally inaccessible: seven seals, in fact, prevent anyone from reading it (see Revelation 5:1).
Hidden Prophecy
Therefore, we are talking about a prophecy that is hidden from us. The scroll contains the series of God's decrees that need to occur as human history unfolds so that perfect justice may reign. If the scroll remains sealed, these decrees will not be known and will not be acted upon, and wickedness will continue to spread and oppress believers. This is where authoritative intervention is needed: Indeed, the Lamb that is slain and that has risen will be the one who will intervene. He will be able “to receive the scroll and to break open its seals” (Revelation 5:9).
Christ is the great author and the Lord of unfolding history, the one who reveals God's hidden hand at work in history.
The hymn continues, showing us the basis for Christ's power over history. The basis for this is none other than the paschal mystery (see Revelation 5:9-10). Christ has been “slain” and by his blood he has “purchased” (or “ransomed”) mankind, rescuing it from the power of evil. The word “purchased” recalls the Exodus, Israel's deliverance from slavery in Egypt. According to ancient law, it was the closest relative's duty to ransom. In the case of this people, it was God himself since he called Israel his “firstborn” (Exodus 4:22).
Christ, therefore, accomplishes this for all mankind. His redemption not only ransoms us from our evil past but also heals our wounds and relieves our miseries. Christ gives us a new inner being that makes us kings and priests, thereby partaking in his very own dignity.
Referring the God's words that were proclaimed on Mount Sinai (see Exodus 19:6, Revelation 1:6), the hymn confirms that God's redeemed people are made up of kings and priests, who must guide and sanctify all of creation. This consecration is rooted in Christ's paschal mystery and is fulfilled in baptism (see Peter 2:9). From it flows forth a call to the Church to be aware of its dignity and its mission.
Lamb as Christ
Our Christian tradition has always held that the image of the paschal Lamb symbolizes Christ. Let us listen to the words that Meliton of Sardis, a second-century bishop from Asia Minor, wrote in this regard in his Easter Homily: “Christ came from heaven to earth out of love for mankind that was suffering, took on our human nature in the womb of the Virgin and was born a man. … Like a lamb he was carried away and slaughtered, and thereby ransomed us from the slavery of the world. … He is the One who delivers us from slavery into freedom, from darkness into light, from death to life, from oppression to eternal grandeur; he is the One who made us a new priest-hood and a chosen people forever. … He is the Lamb who is silent, the Lamb who has been slaughtered, the Son of Mary who was the sinless lamb. He was led from the flock to his death, slaughtered in the evening and entombed during the night” (Nos. 66-71: SC 123, p. 96-100).
At the end, Christ himself, the Lamb that was slain, beckons all his people: “Come, therefore, all you descendents of men who are caught up in the snare of sin and receive forgiveness for your sins. Indeed, I am your forgiveness, I am the Passover lamb of salvation, I am the lamb who has been slain for you, I am your ransom, I am your way, I am your resurrection, I am your light, I am your salvation, I am your king. I am the one who carries you to the heavens; I will show you the Father who is from all eternity; and I will resurrect you with my right hand” (No. 103: idem, p. 122).
(Register translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:Muslim Teacher in Italy Asked Not to Wear Head Scarf
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 26 — A kindergarten in Italy has asked a Muslim intern teacher to remove her head scarf because it says the scarf might frighten children.
The issue arose in late March after the Miele & Cri-Cri kindergarten said it would agree to accommodate the intern's schedule of prayers but asked if she would be willing to remove her head scarf.
The intern told the daily Rome newspaper La Repubblica on March 25 that she couldn't understand how the veil, which covers her head but not her face, could frighten anyone.
“Everybody must be allowed to freely profess their own faith, according to their own conscience, their own traditions,” Cardinal Julian Herranz, head of the Pontifical Council of Legislative Texts, told La Repubblica.
In February, France's Lower House of Parliament voted to ban students from wearing Islamic head scarves and other religious apparel in public schools. The French government said the law was needed to ward off rising Islamic fundamentalism in that country.
Vietnamese Catholics Honor Martyred Priest
ASIA NEWS, March 30 — More than 30,000 Catholics, Protestants and non-Christians flocked to a Vietnamese parish on the anniversary of the death of Father Francois Xavier Truong Buu Diep, who was martyred March 12, 1946.
“I live among my flock and I will die among them. I will not go anywhere,” the priest said after being advised by a superior to flee the area, which had become unsafe due to political and religious conflicts.
Later, he and 30 other Catholics were captured by enemies and held in a rice paddy storehouse. The priest's body was later found in pond, though authorities do not agree on who killed him or why.
Nowadays, faithful come to visit the priest's grave and offer thanksgiving.
“Father Diep cured me soon after I visited his tomb,” said one 60-year-old pilgrim from Ho Chi Minh City. She had previously been unable to walk due to severe arthritis.
The local diocese officially recognized the church where Father Diep's tomb is located as a pilgrimage site in 1996.
Chile to Legalize Divorce
President Ricardo Lagos said he would sign the bill, which will go into effect in the fall. Chile had been one of only a handful of countries — others include Malta and the Philippines — where couples could not divorce.
The Post cited several stories of women who had been threatened or beaten by their estranged husbands and were waiting with “bated breath” to be able to divorce them. Separated women can't make a commercial transaction without the signature of their husband, the paper noted, nor do they have a right to alimony or child support.
With 73% of Chileans voicing support for divorce in a recent poll, the Catholic Church ran ad campaigns in support of keeping the ban on divorce. The ads cited U.S. statistics of drug abuse and delinquency among children of divorces.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pro-Terrorism, But Great on Other Issues! DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:If a candidate who supported terrorism asked for your vote, would you say, “I disagree with you on terrorism, but where do you stand on other issues?”
So begins an excellent recent column by Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life. We feature it here as a guest editorial. It continues …
In fact, if a terrorism sympathizer presented him/herself for your vote, you would im mediately know that such a position disqualifies the candidate for public office — no mat ter how good he or she might be on other issues. The horror of terrorism dwarfs whatever good might be found in the candidate's plan for housing, education or health care. Regarding those plans, you wouldn't even ask.
So why do so many people say, “This candidate favors legal abortion. I disagree. But I'm voting for this person because she has good ideas about health care [or some other issue].”
Such a position makes no sense whatsoever, unless one is completely blind to the violence of abortion. That, of course, is the problem. But we need only see what abortion looks like, or read descriptions from the abortionists themselves, and the evidence is clear. (USA Today refused to sell me space for an ad that quoted abortionists describing their work because the readers would be traumatized just by the words!)
Abortion is no less violent than terrorism. Any candidate who says abortion should be kept legal disqualifies him/herself from public service. We need look no further, we need pay no attention to what that candidate says on other issues. Support for abortion is enough for us to decide not to vote for such a person.
Pope John Paul II put it this way: “Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights — for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture — is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination” (Christifideles Laici, 1988).
False and illusory. Those are strong and clear words that call for our further reflection.
“I stand for adequate and comprehensive health care.” So far, so good. But as soon as you say that a procedure that tears the arms off of little babies is part of “health care,” then your understanding of the term “health care” is obviously quite different from the actual meaning of the words. In short, you lose credibility. Your claim to health care is “illusory.” It sounds good but is in fact destructive, because it masks an act of violence.
“My plan for adequate housing will succeed.” Fine. But what are houses for if not for people to live in them? If you allow the killing of the children who would otherwise live in those houses, how am I supposed to get excited by your housing project?
It's easy to get confused by all the arguments in an election year. But if you start by asking where candidates stand on abortion, you can eliminate a lot of other questions you needn't even ask.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:Movie Gift From God
The Passion of the Christ was a gift from God for our times. It was his way of saying, “It's time to sit up straight and pay attention.” It doesn't take a rocket scientist to look around and see a world that's not far from rock bottom. The only thing he ever asked us to do we're not doing: obey. Noah obeyed. Abraham obeyed. Christ obeyed. But we're not obeying. We've taken the Ten Commandments and the beatitudes to a whole new level. We've rewritten them according to our own watered-down truths.
One truth that is largely ignored in our age is that suffering is not only good but also is to be sought after. To embrace our sufferings with joy as Christ embraced his own cross in the Passion is an act of obedience. “And he said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Each time we choose to suffer for others as Christ chose to suffer for us, we are allowed by the grace of God to be a part of his passion and to share in his Kingdom. And it is precisely our suffering, our willingness to suffer, that makes us eligible for eternal life. It is not enough simply to tell the world about Christ; we must imitate him. Like it our not, want it or not, believe it or not, we were born to suffer — with him, for him, for each other — and, like him, to “make all things new.”
At creation, God the Father gave us the gift of eternal life. We lost that gift by our disobedience. God the Son, through his death and resurrection, forgave our sin and once again offered eternal life. He even provided a movie to remind us of his offer and the choice it requires. Do we live comfortably and die, or do we suffer and die with Jesus and live? What say you?
CARIN DELANCEY Fort Wayne, Indiana
Who Do
Christians say “Mel's Christ” is the Messiah, Jews say No and many say that, in any case, the state of Israel moots both the idea of a political messiah of the kind Jews in the movie were expecting as well as the idea of “chosenness” being incompatible with the democratic ideal. That leaves Jews waiting for a messiah of resurrection and redemption, as the Jewish medievalists taught, or no messiah at all.
Intellectual honesty demands that Christians learn the texts of their “older brothers” while Jews consider the Christ in relation to the text as well as subsequent events in Jerusalem, if only to reject him fairly. Certainly, honest inquiry is to be preferred to two millennia of summary dismissal, especially as he is the one Jew who perfectly fulfills the prophetic texts “objectively.” What if he is who he said?
Finally, isn't it time to end the charge of deicide against Jews and of genocide against Gentiles? After all, our common patriarch, Abraham, was neither Jew nor Gentile. In fact, he was from Iraq. How's that for location?
JOSEPH M. MAUCERI, M.D. Kingston, New York
Wide-Eyed Youth
Last Sunday I took my youth group and 50 members of my two Byzantine Catholic parishes to see The Passion of the Christ. After the movie we returned to our St. Michael Church for Sunday evening vespers and a discussion of this monumental movie. Many parishioners were quite overwhelmed by the graphic truth portrayed in the movie. The teens were quite eager to discuss the reality of what Christ did for us. Many were brought to tears by the movie and again recounted the experience. Especially poignant was the clear tie shown in this movie between the sacrifice on Calvary and the sacrifice of the holy Eucharist.
I hope Mel Gibson and others will continue to work on bringing other aspects of the life of Christ and others in the Bible to life on the screen.
May God bless their work.
VERY REV. PROTOPRESBYTER BRYAN R. EYMAN, D. MIN.
Lake County, Ohio Pastor, Byzantine Catholic Churches
Get the Kill Pills Straight
The news brief “Dad: Kill the ‘Morning-After’ Pill” (ProLife Victories, March 14-20) identifies RU-486 as synonymous with the morning-after pill. Both are abortive, but the two are not the same.
To equate the “morning-after pill” (taken in case a woman might be pregnant) with RU-486 (a two-drug regimen chemically aborting the baby of a woman who knows she's pregnant) validates pro-abortion supporters' statements that the “pro-lifers don't know what they're talking about.” We in the pro-life field are knowledgeable and deserve to be regarded as such.
To clarify: The morning-after pill does just what its nickname implies. RU-486, the two-drug regimen, kills the baby as well as injuring or causing the death of the mother. The first drug (mifepristone) is distributed by Danco. Both Danco and the FDA were forced to write letters to physicians who had ordered the drug after earlier deaths and serious complications. Searle, the maker of the second drug (misoprostol), firmly disavows abortion as a legitimate use for its drug and has written stern warnings to physicians about the drug's off-label use to induce abortions.
RITA OTT Downers Grove, Illinois
Enmity Enfleshed
Thank you for your insightful expositions on The Passion of the Christ in your four-part “Register's Guide to The Passion of the Christ.”
I just wanted to offer an additional insight. The scene during the scourging — in which Mary, the mother of Jesus, is juxtaposed with Satan — has been cited in most Catholic commentaries that I've read as an allusion to Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmity between you (the Serpent/Satan) and the woman.”
The rest of the verse continues: “and [enmity] between your offspring and hers.”
Of course, Catholic teaching has always been that the seed of Satan is sin, and that of “the woman” is Jesus. In pondering the meaning of the strange scene, in which Satan holds a gruesome “child” who laughs mockingly at Jesus, I concluded that (in addition to being a mockery of the Child Jesus, Incarnate) the child represents the seed or offspring of Satan: sin.
Just as the movie dramatically portrays the enmity between Satan and Mary, it also portrays the enmity between the Son of God and sin, by means of an intense visual exchange between the incarnational forms of the two.
Perhaps the above interpretation was not intended by the makers of the movie, but I think that it lends insight into Judas' flight from the ghastly children, who could be seen as visual portrayals of sin. It was not merely Satan (or other demons) who drove Judas to despair and self-destruction, but the torment of his own sinfulness.
ANNE SCHMIESING
Grand Rapids, Michigan
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: An Orientation Toward Common Sense DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:If Bishop Wilton Gregory includes homosexuality as an “unhealthy psychological behavior” (“The Major Factor in Abuse Study Is Homosexuality,” March 21-27) and the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines homosexuality as an “objective disorder,” then why in the world is the bishop “leaving room for the continued ordination of homosexuals”?
Bishop Gregory goes on to say that he doesn't want anyone in the priesthood who is “selfish … or has a distorted view of himself.” He equates these [traits] with homosexuality? In the face of evidence of the root cause of the sexual-abuse scandal (homosexuality), it is unbelievable, disheartening and embarrassing that Bishop Gregory still finds it acceptable to admit homosexuals to the priesthood.
The bishops should take a lesson from the Boy Scouts of America. They used common sense in refusing to accept homosexuals as leaders. The question is: Why don't the bishops, at this juncture, face the facts about the problem of homosexuals in the seminaries and priesthood?
Furthermore, there is no evidence that a person is “oriented” toward the same sex. This suggests some genetic or involuntary response. While some, because of the environment and conditions of their childhood, might be inclined to think they're homosexual, they are not born that way. Catholics are doing just what the homosexual-rights movement wants — sympathizing with their “condition” so much so that we finally accept it as an acceptable, alternative lifestyle. Let us beware: Look what has already happened to our children! They have been preyed upon by homosexual priests.
MARSHA BRADY
Toledo, Ohio
As someone who has come out of the homosexual lifestyle and who has found victory through the Catholic faith, it goes beyond all reasoning as to why the bishops' conference and lay review board still shrink from banning homosexual men from seminary and the priesthood.
Homosexuality is a very predatory lifestyle. It's not that those afflicted are always looking for teen-age boys but that they are always on the lookout for another “conquest.” The bishops are doing these men no favor or kindness by refusing to ban them, and, more than that, they are failing the people given into their care because an important element — trust — is lacking. By this I mean trust in our parish priests to be the kind of men God and the Church have called them to be.
My heart goes out to those priests who struggle with homosexual temptation, yet with God's help they will stay true to their promise . God alone knows how hard that struggle must be. But that does not excuse the bishops from allowing men who are known to be homosexual from remaining in seminary or the priesthood when their lives are controlled not by God but by lust. As for the idea that homosexuality cannot be “helped,” how is that an excuse for these men's behavior as priests? If they mean that it cannot be “cured,” that may be true, but there is no moral sin that cannot be overcome with the help of God. Prayer, meditation, devotion to Our Lady, avoidance of temptation are also necessary in this battle. God never promised it would be easy. He did assure us that we could find victory.
Think of what was required for the sacrificial lamb. It had to be perfect and without blemish. Jesus Christ, the ultimate Sacrificial Lamb, is exactly that — a man without blemish. It would seem to me that there are many men of worthy character for the priesthood without the acceptance of so many with obvious character flaws. May God move our bishops to take a firm stand and unite on this once and for all.
LARRY A. ANDERSON
Minneapolis, Minnesota
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: The Hidden Tax On Large Families DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:Do more kids mean more taxes? In a few short years they will.
That's right — if you have two or more kids, you could be required to pay more in taxes than a childless married couple in the same tax bracket living next door. Sound unfair? Tell Congress.
Congress originally passed the alternative minimum tax in the 1960s to punish large corporations that dodged paying their taxes through tax breaks that permitted them to accumulate numerous preferential deductions and credits. Congress later amended the alternative minimum tax to apply to high-income individuals as well.
But because the alternative minimum tax has not been adjusted for inflation, it will soon be affecting middle-income taxpayers who take ordinary deductions that no one thinks of as tax shelters.
Those soon to be particularly hit are taxpayers with large families, those who claim multiple deductions for personal exemptions, those who own a second home or those who live in high property- and/or income-tax states.
Thought you were getting ahead by taking deductions for Joseph, Mary, Catherine and John and looking forward to also claiming Peter as a dependent when he is born next month? Think again. In fact, having a large family, as many Catholics do, will almost surely place you under the burden of the alternative minimum tax as early as next year!
“It is a tax that will take people unawares. There is no way to plan for it,” warned Nina Olson, the Internal Revenue Service national taxpayer advocate.
Assuming the rates and standard deduction amount remain unchanged in 2005 from 2004, a two-parent family with three kids with a gross income of $80,000 will be required to pay $1,500 more in taxes next year on account of the alternative minimum tax. A family with more than three kids can expect to pay an additional $500 per child in taxes.
The child-credit and marriage-penalty relief acts passed in 2001 will not help. Families claiming the child credit or benefiting from the marriage-penalty relief might actually pay more.
The more deductions or credits claimed the more likely the alternative minimum tax will apply. This means that married couples with many kids, a mortgage and property taxes will be hit by the alternative minimum tax regardless of the child-credit and marriage-penalty relief.
“[It] is a kind of shadow tax system, with its own rates and special deductions,” said Chris Kinnan of Citizens for a Sound Economy. “The AMT threatens to undermine [President Bush's] own income-tax cuts. Bush cut regular income-tax rates but left the shadow AMT rates the same. The result is that more people will be forced to pay the AMT, since it is the higher of the two.”
Without legislative intervention, large families will be penalized for no other reason than that they have more mouths to feed.
“Discrimination comes in many forms and from many sources, but I never thought it would come from our own federal government,” a mother of four wrote President Bill Clinton in a letter in 1999. Her family's taxes ballooned an additional $1,332.43 on account of the alternative minimum tax.
“We are paying AMT while our neighbors with similar economic income do not simply because we have four children and they have two children. If we only had two children and reported four exemptions on our tax return instead of six,” she continued, “we would not have been required to pay any AMT.”
Despite former National Taxpayer Advocate W. Val Oveson calling the alternative minimum tax “absolutely, asininely stupid,” President Clinton vetoed the 1999 bill Congress passed to repeal the alternative minimum tax.
President Bush and Congress are aware of this discrepancy caused by the alternative minimum tax but are hesitant to repeal it because it will increase the already-growing deficit.
The Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank, estimates that a repeal of the alternative minimum tax through 2010 will deprive the U.S. Treasury of $600 billion in revenue.
“I suspect we will only tinker with it to try to reduce the number of people who are affected because it is so expensive now to repeal it,” said Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La., of the House Ways and Means Committee. “If we start running huge surpluses again in a few years there is a possibility we could repeal the AMT, but with all the other problems we are going to have … I really don't expect the outright repeal of the AMT, which is unfortunate.”
President Bush's tax cuts temporarily placed a Band-Aid on the gaping alternative minimum tax wound so that this year's taxes will not be severely affected by the alternative minimum tax (only 3.3 million taxpayers will be affected).
But unless the alternative minimum tax is repealed in the years ahead or at least adjusted for inflation, middle-income earners — especially those with large families — will begin to feel its sting as early as 2005. The Wall Street Journal calculated in a December tax report that 12.3 million filers will be affected by the alternative minimum tax in 2005, 24.6 million in 2008 and more than 31.2 million by 2010.
What can you do?
Write President Bush and your representatives in Congress. Ask them to support large families by abolishing the alternative minimum tax. Ask your elected officials to vote your values. Ask them to do away with the threat to large families posed by the alternative minimum tax.
“We need to keep it on Congress' radar screen,” advised current national taxpayer advocate Olson. It's “a time bomb with a short fuse.”
Act now or you're liable to pay for it later.
Michael N. Kelsey, the Register's proofreader, is a student at Quinnipiac University School of Law.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael N. Kelsey ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Hollywood Needs People, Not Projects DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:At a recent talk in Washington, D.C., a devout young Catholic raised his hand and asked me what he should do to enter into the world of Hollywood filmmaking. He wants to be part of producing many more Passions of the Christ on the screens of the future.
I felt a little like Jesus to the rich young man in answering him, “Give away everything that you have and are now doing so that you can throw yourself into mastering the art form. Go to a top film school. Study philosophy and theology so that you have something real to say. Read lots of classic novels and write thousands of pages so that you achieve command of the language as a creative tool. Get your spiritual and moral act together. Then, come and follow us by moving to Los Angeles. And in 10 or 15 years, maybe you'll see your name on the screen appended to a movie of lasting value.”
When I was through, I looked with hope at the eager young aspiring film-maker, but his face fell, and he pretty much went away sad.
The Passion of the Christ did not come out of nowhere. It came 30 years into Mel Gibson's filmmaking experience mainly at the top levels of the industry. It came almost a decade after he produced his Oscar-winning film Braveheart. It came 15 years after his profound conversion and the reorienting of his life to Christ. The film itself took 10 years of a brooding, devastating creative journey. Many people in the Church have been asking me if in the wake of The Passion's success Hollywood will produce many more such movies. “Hollywood” can't! There will be no “other Passions” without “other Mels” to bring them into being.
In terms of renewing culture, however, even a string of movies such as The Passion of the Christ will ultimately be insufficient. The industry needs people and then projects. The ability to produce movies such as The Passion is only the bait God will use to draw more Christians to the business. He doesn't care about movies. He cares about moviemakers.
In the days immediately after Sept. 11, 2001, I received several calls from industry acquaintances who wanted to talk about God. Most just needed comfort, and they instinctively sensed that I, as a religious person, might have some to offer.
Note that these folks didn't call their local church. They are industry people. “The Business” is their church. Hollywood people tend to see themselves as separate kinds of beings. They don't follow trends, they make them. They don't buy the illusions, they weave them. They live Plato's allegory of the cave: The whole world is divided into those who throw the shadows on the wall and those who experience the shadows as real or preferable to the real.
I'm sure there were many more thousands — probably tens of thousands — of people in the industry who weathered that dark hour without anyone godly to turn to, mainly because they didn't know anyone in their circle who knows Jesus. There just aren't enough believers to go around in Hollywood. It is a mission territory.
Eventually, the industry will need overt preachers and evangelists to support the troops by teaching and ministering here. But as the first wave, Hollywood needs artists who have their spiritual, moral, emotional and professional acts together.
We need people in place who give a witness to the truth of the Gospel by their lives and by the quality of the work they do. We don't need sermons, tracts, conferences and study guides from the Church. We need people of rectitude, discernment, peace, joy, passion, mercy, kindness — artists and professionals who have been transformed by the love of Jesus — to come to Hollywood, to make beautiful things and to build bridges of friendship with the people outside their family of faith.
The Spirit of God is clearly calling the secular creative community back. We in the Church can help by being available so that when one of these Hollywood “Samuels” has an experience of God he might have an “Eli” to turn to who can help him understand it.
There is a small but vibrant community of committed Christians now working in Hollywood. We are a small community not so much because Christians don't come to the industry but because of what happens to them once they are here.
A large proportion of Christians who land jobs in the business soon lose their color as believers. They are unable to integrate their faith with their careers, so they end up letting their faith life slide. Some of these go on to becoming the angriest anti-religion voices in town. It happens gradually.
A Catholic writer friend confided to me not long ago that she had missed church on a recent Sunday because she was out late the night before at a new film premiere. Somewhere in the last few years, she has become more interested in showing up for Paramount Studios than for God.
The Lord says, “Keep holy the Sabbath.” There is no exemption for movie premieres.
A second group of Christians who find some success end up just as quickly leaving the industry because they figure out that no amount of money is worth putting up with what it takes to get something on the screen.
I have a friend who is one of the top TV writers in the business. She converted to Christianity seven years ago, and ever since then, it is all I can do to convince her to stay on the front line. She wants to retire to the Blue Ridge Mountains and write novels. She is tired of putting up with what she calls the vampires in the business.
We are never going to get anywhere in Hollywood until Christians are willing to do for God what the pagans do for money.
The reason our people leave or change is because they weren't spiritually prepared for what they would face in having a career in the entertainment world. No more than the Church would pack somebody off and send him to Uganda without any preparation should the Church send young artists into Hollywood without preparation.
We need people to be sent, but we need people who know what awaits them and have a spiritual strategy to transform the realities of an industry career from stumbling blocks into step-pingstones to deeper communion with God.
The Christians who make it in both the business and in their relationship with God are those who take seriously what the Holy Father calls “the artist's special relationship to beauty.” This is to live keenly focused on beauty in terms of mastery of their craft and then beauty of life and beauty of soul. They take Christian community very seriously, the way a man in a desert knows where the wells are.
This is a tough town in every way. Holiness in Hollywood is anything but accidental. But through God's grace, it is possible. It's nothing to go away sad about.
Screenwriter Barbara Nicolosi is the founding director of Act One: Writing for Hollywood.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barbara R. Nicolosi ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Our House DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:It survived electrical wiring that would have caused
Thomas Edison to go back to gas light, the seismic activity that Southern California is heir to and the dining room was the location of the kinds of religious and political debates that would probably have caused Bishop Fulton Sheen to seriously consider Zoroastrianism. It was our house.
It might seem strange to include what is basically an inanimate object as part of what has influenced my Catholic journey, but on further review it makes a lot of sense.
Dispensing with “a house is not a home” parables, our house truly was like another cog in the wheel of our existence. It supplied shelter — well, better to have a leaky roof than no roof at all. It gave us heat supplied by wonderfully un-vented gas heaters strategically placed in various rooms that kicked out tremendous amounts of heat and carbon monoxide. Thanks to all the cracks and slightly out-of-plum doors, there was always enough fresh air coming into the house to counter the more lethal effects of the toxic-gas-producing gas heaters.
Actually, when I come to think of it, all of that carbon monoxide might have had something to do with the politics of some in the family.
It was a big house. Built just after the turn of the 20th century, it had been a boarding house in a previous incarnation until our family got hold of it.
Before I was born, before three or four of my siblings were born, the house was purchased, for cash, by my father's father for the impressive sum of $12,000. My father, mother, brothers, sisters, grandfather and uncle moved in to this six-bedroom, two-bath California bungalow-on-steroids in the middle part of the 1950s.
The house was one block away from our parish and school, St. Elizabeth's. It had a huge front yard that was perfect for sports. There were pickup football games, (touch on the cement walkway, tackle everyplace else). There were whiffle-ball games. And there was that time-honored, daylight-savings, after-dinner extravaganza known as capture the flag.
The house had its own geography, like a self-contained autonomous state. There was the bamboo porch, cactus hill, the camping compartment and Lake Mead (our dirt driveway after a hard rain). The house also had a feature that gave all us 10 kids a certain edge over our less-fortunate neighbor friends — it had a basement.
Now a basement isn't all that uncommon a feature in most of the country, but in Southern California it remains a rarity, and the fact that we had one in our house gave us all a certain imaginary play cachet. That basement would at times serve as IRA headquarters, World War I and II command centers, and a clubhouse for a wide variety of secret societies whose secret handshakes and codes of conduct that seemed so vital when we came up with them have now drifted away from our collective memories.
The basement was also the place where our dad stored cans of Campbell soup in the event the Cold War would ever get hot.
How we were supposed to survive a thermo-nuclear device being detonated over the wood frame and asbestos shingles of our circa 1912 house, we never questioned. I'm only grateful we never found out how well or poorly turn-of-the-century house-construction materials would withstand the technology of middle 20th century military ordnance.
The sleeping arrangements of this big house speak volumes about what it meant to us to be a big Catholic family.
Six bedrooms sounds like a lot at first blush, but in our household, by the time my grandfather had passed away and I had come along to bring the number of children to a nice, even, double-digit number, those bedrooms broke down into the following allotment:
The front bedroom belonged to my oldest sister (can you say “Irish princess?” I knew you could!). The middle downstairs bedroom belonged to my parents. The back downstairs bedroom was shared by my next two sisters. Upstairs, our bachelor uncle, Uncle Rich, who lived in that house along with us for 30-odd years until his death, had the coolest room in the house. It had paneling, a kitchenette and a walk-in closet. The smaller upstairs bedroom was shared by my two oldest brothers, and finally there was the “boys” room. This room consisted of two sets of army-surplus bunk beds occupied by corresponding two sets of twins and then, under the window, sleeping on a piece of redesigned patio furniture, was me.
There — six bedrooms, filled pretty much to capacity. It was wonderful.
Added to this mix and creative living arrangements would be the periodic extended family members who would come to stay with us in that house. Rooms would be shuffled, noses would be bent out of shape, but room was always found at this inn.
The generosity of my grandfather and then my uncle would be flesh-and-blood examples of what it meant to me to be a Catholic family.
Our faith would serve to be the great linking device that seemed to hold that house together and our family together as well.
Our faith might not have always been evident when we fought and acted like jerks, but there were constant reminders strewn throughout that house to help us refocus on our better selves. The statue on the mantel of the Sacred Heart, the statue of the Blessed Virgin on our big oak dining room table, the statues of Sts. Patrick and Joseph on the piano nobody really played except for my sister Fran, who could play by ear, pictures in the front hall of the current pope (our house survived portions of five pontificates).
These were not designer accents. They were who we were. Our house wasn't a “Catholic” household because it was filled with religious iconography, it was filled with religious iconography because we were a Catholic household.
The house was so much like a living member of our family. It survived to see most of my brothers and sisters marry and start families of their own and many of those older grandchildren who have children of their own still talk about the magic qualities of that big old house that forged memories in them.
The house is gone now.
Where it once stood is now a vacant lot. The only identifiable landmark that remains is the large palm tree that was in our front yard and served as the “safe” zone for all those games of hide and seek.
I sometimes drive my own kids past that lot and tell them of all the wondrous things that used to go on there. They'll never understand what it meant to me — the joys that old house hosted and the sorrows it absorbed like some kind of cosmic filtering system. My own children will never know that joy of coming downstairs on Christmas morning and seeing the big cherry wood doors that separated the dining room from the living room shut tight, keeping us between our expectations and that Christmas tree we knew was just beyond our reach in the living room.
We had to wait. Church first, then presents.
Sometimes, I drive by that vacant lot by myself and stop awhile. I look down the block at the steeple of St. Elisabeth's and think of how fortunate I was to have been given the gift of the house that used to stand here, the family that goes on and the Church that will remain with us forever.
Robert Brennan writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert Brennan ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Hollywood, The Witch and The Wardrobe DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:As The Passion of the Christ's box-office figures continue to climb, many pundits have described the film as a cultural phenomenon. Some have gone on to say its success ensures that Hollywood is set to make additional Christian films or biblical epics. Don't be too sure.
Three years ago I wrote of HarperCollins' publishing plans to expunge C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia of all of its Christian elements.
The media giants are back at it again.
Following on the successful heels of Harry Potter and Frodo Bag-gins, it was only natural, I suppose, that a feature-length motion-picture version of the Narnian adventures would follow.
Walt Disney Co., in cooperation with Walden Media, recently announced its plans to make a big-budget motion picture of Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe scheduled for a Christmas 2005 release.
Poor Lewis must be rolling over in his grave.
Fully aware of the potential damage of such a venture, Lewis once warned against a Disney version of his book.
“I am sure you know that Aslan is a divine figure,” he wrote to Jane Douglass on June 19, 1954, “and anything remotely approaching the comic (above all anything in the Disney line) would be to me simply blasphemy.”
Mark Johnson, one of the film's producers, recently said their movie would not be a Christian project per se.
“We are intent on not making this into a Christian movie,” he said.
One can almost imagine the Disney studio executives and animators gathered around an oversized oval mahogany table.
“I absolutely love the Aslan character. He's likable but a bit frightening,” says someone.
“Agreed, agreed, but do you think his death is necessary?” asks another.
“No, it's not. It's not. It's ancillary to the story. It really adds very little,” says a third. “I say we cut that.”
“Maybe he doesn't have to be a lion at all. Perhaps he could be more lovable … a donkey perhaps,” replies an animator.
“Hey — better yet … a chimpanzee. Kids love monkeys,” chimes in another animator.
“No, no,” protests someone in marketing. “The lion works. We've got a warehouse filled with remainder merchandise from The Lion King. If the animators create a Simba-like Aslan we can unload the excess merchandise through our partnership with Burger King.”
And on it goes.
In The Last Battle, the final book in Lewis' series, Shift the ape dresses Puzzle, a donkey, in a lion's skin and attempts to pass him off as Aslan and the friend of a false god named Tash.
When a lamb questions the ape about Aslan's identity, the ape responds: “Tash is only another name for Aslan. All that old idea of us being right and the Calormenes wrong is silly. We know better now. The Calormenes use different words but we all mean the same thing. Tash and Aslan are only two different names for You Know Who. Tash is Aslan: Aslan is Tash.”
The ape's trickery is the beginning of the end. It leads to the ultimate destruction of Narnia.
Disney's attempt to pass off its “donkey” dressed in lion's clothing is bound to have similarly disastrous results, especially at the box office.
Lewis, an admitted agnostic, came to a radical conversion to Christ in 1929 at age 31. That decision colored his every thought and word thereafter, including his children's books.
Removing the Christianity from his books would be like deleting Christ from the New Testament.
As Lewis explained, the lion Aslan is a Christlike figure. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe he is bound and shorn, laid on a stone table and killed by the White Witch only to rise again.
The Walt Disney Co. might take a lesson from Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. It would likely earn more money by retaining Christ rather than by deleting him. Twenty-five million viewers have demonstrated that Christ attracts. Mr. Eisner, are you listening?
Tim Drake is the Register's staff writer.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Must Catholic Politicians Disown Their Faith? DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:There are 150 Catholics in the 108th U.S. Congress, double the number of Baptists, the second-largest group. Three candidates who vied for the Democratic Party presidential nomination are Catholic.
All three are pro-abortion. The American Life League counts 71 Catholic members of Congress as reliable pro-abortion votes and an additional 415 Catholics in state legislatures in the same category.
Pro-abortion Catholic politicians justify their rejection of the moral teachings of the Church in various ways.
1) “We represent the wishes of our voters and not the moral law of the Church.”
What does a legislator do? A good politician does not simply reflect the mood of the electorate. Since a law is instructive and applies sanctions to violators of the law, the law must point to the true and the good. If laws are purely pragmatic, then they sacrifice the common good for political favors paid back to supporters. If a law-maker is guided in his decisions primarily by what will get him re-elected, then he is not serving the common good of the community but rather his own political future.
A good politician crafts legislation that is just — that is, laws that foster the common good. The legislator is chosen for his perceived ability to fashion just laws, which are fair to everyone. A just law does not discriminate unfairly among various groupings in a society. A just law respects the rights of all citizens, especially the most innocent and the vulnerable.
We choose our candidates according to how well we think they can serve the nation (or state or county). This implies that we think they understand the best values that are enshrined in our nation and that they will struggle mightily to preserve them. They will not betray these values with compromises, pandering to gratification or convenience, or by selling favors.
But all these terms (e.g., the common good, values, justice, fairness, the true and the good) are connected to morality. And morality deals with making good choices and performing good human acts. It means knowing what enhances human flourishing and what restricts it. It requires a true understanding of a human person, a correct anthropology.
There are basic human goods that any valid moral system must respect. For example, basic human dignity is a value that is meaningful to everyone regardless of his culture, race or religion.
We all share this in common. And if we want to examine the contents of this dignity, we can do so in terms of human rights. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights promoted by the United Nations is a very good listing of human rights. The world paid a huge price for this wisdom.
Morality applies to everyone. Human dignity belongs to every person. It is an endowment, not an acquisition. It is God-given, not something we earn or receive from peers. Human rights are the same for everyone. The common good of a society includes everyone. Justice does not discriminate.
The Church is a teacher of morality. Her competence is in the areas of faith and morals. The Church teaches not her own plan for the human universe but rather God's plan. God does have a plan for human persons, the apex of his material universe. He has a plan for human life, for human love, marriage, family and peace among the nations. That plan can be known by anyone searching for the truth. That plan takes the shape of moral principles.
The Ten Commandments are examples of these. God's plan — which is the sum of “the laws of God and nature's God,” as the Declaration of Independence puts it — is always in our best interests. That plan embraces all the values that make life worth living. These values are found in the New Testament, which preserves the teaching of Jesus Christ, who is the incarnate Son of God.
The Church's teaching about the social order is laid out in her Catholic social teaching. This body of teaching has been developed over many centuries, drawing upon the Church's experience throughout the world.
The Catholic Church does not discriminate against other religions. In Vatican II's Dignitatis Humanae (Declaration on Religious Freedom), she teaches that every person must search for the truth about God, the truth about the human condition (morality) and the truth about our destiny. We must pursue this search for truth as best we know how, according to our own lights. As long as the public order is protected, no one is to be denied the right to worship as they choose, nor to be forced to worship contrary to their wishes. Everyone has a right to search for moral truth and thus also a duty to hold firmly to the truth they have discovered.
A Catholic politician should have a keen sense of morality. He or she naturally looks to the Church for moral guidance. The Church is a universal teacher and proclaims the truth about human dignity and human rights everywhere in the world. She only proposes the truth; she does not impose it.
But when dealing with her own sons and daughters, she expects that basic moral truths are firmly grasped and that basic human values are respected. She has a right to insist that any politician who claims to be a Catholic to both know sound moral principles and to be convinced of their truthfulness. She expects them to have the courage of their convictions.
If any Catholic doubts the moral principles taught by the Church, then let him challenge the Church to answer his objections. If he is still unconvinced, then let him dis-avow being a son or daughter of the Church and follow his own lights.
2) “Legislation affects people of all religions, not just Catholics, and my vote must reflect all their views.”
It is impossible to vote in such a way that all views are represented. You cannot both be for slavery and against slavery. The same applies to abortion and euthanasia. Where there is a plurality of views on a basic human value, then the task of the politician is to first understand and then explain to his constituents why he is voting in favor of the value. Politicians justify their choice in voting all of the time.
They attempt to give good reasons for their decisions and hope to persuade others of the reasonableness of their decision. People with open minds will at least consider his arguments.
Every age has its own controversial issues, e.g., slavery, abortion or same-sex marriages. Their task is to come to grips with the issue, discover the moral truth of the matter and then act in a principled manner. A true political leader helps to facilitate this process. Abraham Lincoln helped the citizens of his day discern the moral evil of chattel slavery. He took a clear position, presented cogent reasons in defense of his position and answered objections.
The moral issue of slavery was wrenching the nation apart. The Civil War was one of our darkest hours as a nation. Today President Lincoln is generally regarded as one of our greatest leaders. Moral truths transcend all denominational differences. They bind us together as a people. A Catholic politician must help people understand them.
3) “In politics there is a separation between church and state. The Church is only one lobbying group among many others. She holds no privileged position.”
It is true that there is a clear distinction between the role of the Church and the role of the state within any society. The Church attends to the eternal welfare of mankind while the state attends to the temporal welfare of her citizens. The Church deals with faith and morals, God's plan for the human universe, helping people to achieve their final destiny. The state deals with more immediate needs: taxes, security, potholes and our material needs. The Church does not do the work of the state and vice versa.
The Church must fulfill her mission of teaching true values, which are rooted in the Gospel, to every society in which she is found (Gaudium et Spes, Constitution of the Church in the Modern World, 1965, No. 76). She appeals to good reason and to conscience. She can only use methods that accord with the Gospels. She can only propose good moral principles; she cannot impose them. In a pluralist society, she is one voice among many others.
But in dealing with her own people, especially those who hold responsible positions in society, she rightly expects that the faithful have a firm grasp of good moral principles and that they are committed to pursue what is right and what builds up the common good.
When exerting her influence to shape public policy, the Church has a very indirect role. The Church must raise her voice in defense of the unborn, the vulnerable, the poor and the refugee. She must be a champion of human dignity, especially when others are denying it to certain segments of society. She must be a prophetic voice that announces God's plan for the human universe. In a democratic society, the Church has every right to bring her voice into the pubic square.
Father Matthew Habiger, OSB, PhD
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Matthew Habiger ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Easter Wings DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:You can count on Wal-Mart. Every year, beginning the day after Valentine's Day, the retail giant's aisles overflow with rabbit-ear headbands, plastic peeping chicks and talking, singing, dancing stuffed rabbits in your choice of springtime pastels. Chocolate bunnies peep out from wicker baskets and plastic hens sit smugly atop foil-wrapped candy eggs filled with caramel, marshmallow and coconut cream.
Meanwhile, the real message of Easter knows no season. In fact, one of my own favorite Easter moments took place a couple of years ago — in July.
My husband, Dan, was working late. Electric fans blew hot, humid air in all directions. The heavy odor of an overflowing kitchen garbage can hung in the air and sweat trickled down the back of my maternity blouse as I prepared dinner for the children. Gasping for breath, I plunked a plate of grilled hot dogs and chopped vegetables on the dining-room table. “Hot dogs?” one of the children moaned. “Didn't we have hot dogs already this week?” I didn't answer, but he was right.
“Do we hafta drink milk?” another child griped. “It's too hot to drink milk.”
In brooding silence, I poured lukewarm milk into four plastic cups.
Then, as 2-year-old Juliette reached across the table for her cup, she knocked over the other three. White liquid spread across the table, dripped into the space between its leaves and trickled onto the floor.
If you have ever been eight and a half months pregnant, or if you have ever endured a stifling New England summer night without air conditioning, you might find it in your heart to forgive me for the way in which I was planning to respond.
Thankfully, though, we were distracted by a sudden thump and a scuffling just outside the front door. We hurried outside and were startled to find a small black-and-white bird lying lifeless in the walk-way. I recognized it instantly as a chickadee. Instinctively, I stooped to pick it up. The children gathered around and stared with hushed amazement at the tiny creature in my hands.
“Oooooh …” Juliette's eyes grew wide and her little lips formed a perfect circle.
“It must have flown into a window and died,” I told her.
The bird was warm and almost weightless in my hands. Its eyes were closed and its miniature legs hung limply from my fingers. I extended one of its wings and examined its flawless feathers. Then I glanced toward the nearby woods and contemplated an appropriate burial ground.
Suddenly the children gasped. “Look at its eyes!” they cried. “They're moving!”
The bird's eyelids fluttered and its wings flapped. We stood in quiet wonder as the tiny creature struggled, strained and finally righted itself. Then the resurrected bird stood blinking in my cupped palms, turning its head from side to side. With a final fluttering flourish, it took to the air. We watched in silence as it arched gracefully into the sky, farther and farther away. It became a small speck on the horizon and then vanished from our view.
From time to time I like to think back on that little bird, letting him remind me that we are helpless and weak in the hands of a loving God. We are bruised and broken by our sins. At the end of a long Lent, in the midst of sacrifice and daily drudgery, the Easter message of hope, joy and new life is beautiful and real, unexpected and astonishing. Our risen Lord transcends human suffering and through him we are renewed.
At Easter, we are resurrected. A triumphant Christ enters through our locked doors. He wipes away the tears of the sorrowful, invites skeptics to examine his wounds, breathes upon the trembling to give them strength. Our Lord cradles us in his healing hands, gives us wings and urges us to fly.
Danielle Bean writes from Center Harbor, New Hampshire.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Danielle Bean ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: The Rocky Road to Redemption DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:Five Easters ago, Pope John Paul II issued his “Letter to Artists.”
It was a clarion call to “all who are passionately dedicated to the search for new ‘epiphanies’ of beauty so that, through their creative work as artists, they may offer these as gifts to the world.”
More than 75 years prior, Father Paul Dobberstein — pastor, artist, amateur geologist — discerned this very call. He responded by creating nine grottos, each aimed at bringing visitors closer to God through the beauty of creation and the story of salvation. The Grotto of the Redemption, as the nine works are collectively known, has since attracted more than 5 million visitors to its corner of West Bend, Iowa.
The idea for the site came to Father Dobberstein, a German immigrant, during his final year in the Seminary of St. Francis in Milwaukee. Stricken with a virulent case of pneumonia, he implored the Blessed Virgin for her inter-cession. He promised that, if he regained his health, he would build a shrine in her honor.
He did indeed recover. Shortly after his ordination, he was assigned to Sts. Peter and Paul Church in West Bend. Once settled in his new home, the priest began to collect geological specimens from all over the western United States and overseas. He would use these specimens to build the promised shrine for the Blessed Virgin.
In 1912, about 12 years after his arrival in West Bend, Father Dobberstein laid the first stone for the Marian Grotto. During the next 42 years, with the help of a local farmer's son named Matthew Szerensce, the priest continued collecting eye-catching rocks and using them to complete the nine grottos.
Eight years before Father Dobberstein's death, Father Louis Greving was appointed associate pastor for Sts. Peter and Paul. In addition to his pastoral duties, Father Greving took it upon himself to help Father Dobberstein and Szerensce with the grotto project. In fact, after Father Dobberstein died and Szerensce retired, Father Greving continued as director of the grotto until retiring, after 50 years of service, in 1996.
Rock-Solid Welcome
When I visited, I was repeatedly amazed by the sanctifying sights before me. I marveled over the attention, talent and commitment it must have taken for those three men to realize Father Dobberstein's ambitious and meticulous vision. I decided that such inspiration could not have come without the working of the Holy Spirit in their hearts.
Before beginning my tour, I, like so many others before me, paused at the entrance. Here a pair of pillars, both adorned with carefully placed gems and stones, support an archway. The columns are made of malachite with dots of tiger's-eye. Across the archway is a mosaic “Welcome” of turquoise and gold.
Looking into the grotto, I realized that every square inch is covered in decorative stones and gems, many of them placed together to form eye-catching designs. In fact, this geological collection is one of the largest in the world. It has been valued at more than $4 million.
As I wandered the grounds, I found agates from all over the world, along with quartz, lapis, turquoise, petrified wood, conch shells and pearl. I also saw some rubies, sapphires and a host of other rare rocks that my untrained eye couldn't identify.
Although the geological collection is a wonder all its own, you'd be missing the point if you failed to notice that it's not an end in itself. The beauty is at the service of the Gospel, as the nine grottos combine to tell the salvation story with Father Dobberstein's unique brand of evangelical zeal and catechetical flair. Count them: There's the Grotto of Paradise Lost, Mary's Grotto, the Grotto of Bethlehem, the Grotto of Nazareth, the Grotto of the Sermon on the Mount, the Grotto of the Ten Commandments, the Grotto of Gethsemane, the Grotto of the Stations of the Cross and the Grotto of the Resurrection.
For me, Mary's Grotto — the original shrine Father Dobberstein promised to Our Blessed Mother — had the greatest appeal of all. On its exterior, the words “Grotto of the Redemption” are inscribed in white marble. Above the inscription stands a life-sized marble statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, proclaiming that it is his love that saves us. The interior walls of the shrine are covered in tiny shells, rocks, quartz and stalactites.
The centerpiece of this grotto is a marble statue of our Blessed Mother holding the infant Jesus. To the left of the statue is a Bavarian stained-glass window depicting the Annunciation. Behind is a background made of dark stone; gold mosaics have been placed here to create the illusion of stars encircling her head, as described in Revelation 12:1 — “… a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of 12 stars.”
Heavenly Handiwork
On the right wall of this cave, Father Dobberstein masterfully fashioned shells and stones into a small chair symbolizing the authority of Christ, his apostles and their successors.
On the chair is a mosaic of the keys of Peter and a stole symbolizing the priesthood. Above the chair are a chalice and host, crafted with white stone to symbolize Christ's saving power and the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
The grotto is covered by a 30-foot dome. This is dotted with small mosaics of stars and circled by small marble angels who, I imagine, sing the “Holy, Holy, Holy” without ceasing.
Pausing here, I was reminded that, while we venerate our Blessed Mother for her crucial role in the story of salvation, she will always point us to her Son, who — through his own great and enduring work of art, the Church — continues to call man home to the Kingdom of God.
Joy Wambeke writes from
St. Paul, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: Grotto of the Redemption, West Bend, Iowa ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joy Wambeke ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, APRIL 11
Movies for Easter Sunday
Turner Classic Movies, all day
Once upon a time, Hollywood made many Christian and family-friendly movies; here are some. At 11:30 a.m., see King of Kings (1961), with Jeffrey Hunter. At 2:30 p.m., The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), with Max von Sydow. At 8 p.m., Easter Parade (1948), with Judy Garland. At midnight, The King of Kings (1927), a silent film.
SUNDAY, APRIL 11
Easter with the Pope
EWTN, 4:30 a.m.
You'll need to set your alarm clock early if you want to catch Easter Sunday Mass with Pope John Paul II live from St. Peter's Square, followed by his Urbi et Orbi Easter message and blessing at 6 a.m. Or you can watch encore (taped) versions of both beginning at 7 p.m.
MONDAY, APRIL 12
IRS Horror Stories
A & E, 9 p.m.
Internal Revenue Ser vice employees charge that the federal income tax agency's relentless tax-money-hungry management destroys businesses, ruins citizens' lives and refuses to reform. Re-airs Saturday at 6 p.m.
TUESDAY, APRIL 13
Civil War Journal
History Channel, 7 a.m.
This episode, “Shadows of Lightning: Jeb Stuart & the Cavalry,” recounts the Civil War exploits of the Confederate unit called “the last cavaliers, the Virginia cavalry.”
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14
Small Ball: A Little League Story
PBS, 8 p.m.
This 90-minute documentary follows the 2002 Aptos All-Stars, a baseball team of 11-and 12-year-olds from northern California, for six weeks as they beat the odds and advance to the Little League World Series championships in Williamsport, Pa. Some 2.7 million kids now play in Little League in 104 countries.
THURSDAY, APRIL 15
The Tool Bench: Hand Tools
History Channel,
1 p.m., 7 p.m.
This episode demonstrates new high-tech tools and chronicles mankind's long history of seeking “the ability to extend the hand and strengthen the arm” with tools.
FRIDAY, APRIL 16
Classroom: The Return of LST-325
History Channel, 6 a.m.
This is a true “sentimental jour -ney” saga of 31 U.S. Navy veterans, average age 73, who decided they would bring home from Greece the last working World War II LST (landing ship-tank) and turn it into a memorial.
SATURDAY, APRIL 17
The Amazing White Chimp
Animal Planet, 2 p.m.
Animal rescuers save “Pinkie,” a 6-week-old orphan chimpanzee. She is a rare albino and has one brown eye and one blue. When she is older, they introduce her to a chimp troop in the Tacugoma Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone, West Africa.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Today's Computers: Simple Enough for a 4-Year-Old DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:… but you can't make heads or tails of them, so go get a 4-year-old
Computers are still too complicated — and I thought so even before Bill Gates made the point in a recent interview.
Not long ago, Brother Mark and I were returning a van to a local couple, Nancy and Roland, friends of the monastery. We had borrowed the vehicle to haul samples from our Cloister Shop for sale at a local parish. Nancy greeted us at the door and invited us in for some refreshing, just-squeezed Florida orange juice.
Nancy does a lot of pro-life work for her parish. She recently acquired a new HP computer to help with her tasks. Their son set it up. Along with the computer came an all-in-one printer/fax/scanner/ copy machine. Nancy, not being very computer-savvy, had yet to set up the device. I told her I would take a look at it.
I turned on the computer and many screens popped up to greet me, some asking me to set up various software programs — Norton Antivirus, spam-blocking, Windows XP Updater, some type of specialized HP organizational window. Since I was here to install the multi-function printing device, I canceled and closed all those open dialog boxes. Then I settled in to take care of business.
Long story short: What looked and sounded so simple on the box turned into an ordeal of befuddling, hard-to-follow commands in real life. Turn this off. Turn that on. Plug in this and unplug that. This, I said, is a far cry from the “plug-and-play” setup Windows promised in its promotional copy. It was more like “plug-and-stay” — as in, stay around while you try to figure out what to do next.
Worse still, by the time I finished all that heavy lifting, I realized that poor Nancy would have to read through a thick and imposing user's manual just to print — let alone fax, scan or copy.
And, to top it all off, I felt sorry knowing that Nancy would have to deal with all those pop-up dialog boxes every time she turned on her computer. Famous “last” words: As long as I'm here …
I'm not sure how long I worked on Nancy's computer that day, but it took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get it and the multi-function printer device ready for daily life. Much more than anyone would have guessed just by reading the information on the outside of the box.
Computers today are more user-friendly than ever before. And yet, as Bill Gates said, they're still too complicated.
Help!
Another issue that I thought about when working on Nancy's computer was how anyone can survive using a dialup Internet connection these days. So many programs want to connect to the Internet for updates. Norton Anti-virus alone needs to download new virus definitions at least once a week.
Then, too, Windows XP (the operating system, which runs the computer) constantly has critical patches that need to be downloaded. Some of these “patches” are, in fact, very large files. And almost every other program wants to connect to the Internet to look for updates. Sometimes even logging off AOL doesn't work. Why? Because a screen comes up saying something about updating AOL files on your computer. If you are using a dialup, you may have to walk away while AOL does its thing before letting you sign off.
Microsoft is trying to make computers a little easier for nontechies like most of us. For example, Microsoft Office Assistant automatically provides help topics and tips on tasks you perform as you work before you even ask a question. For example, when you write a letter in Microsoft Word, the assistant can automatically display prompts that help you draft and format a letter.
Microsoft's idea is to allow people to work with a more intelligent computer, one that can guess what they are trying to do and help them do it.
Another avenue of help is remote assistance: A separate computer can be used to access and service yours without you doing a thing.
Until the day when computers really are smart and intuitive, people like Nancy (and those who help, like me) will face bewildering problems in setting up, maintaining and upgrading their computers.
Of course, there are companies that are glad to take your money to talk you through various procedures over the phone. If you're open to that, PC magazine highlights some of the help-desk options at pcmag. com/article2/0,1759,1544192,00. asp.
I'm looking at Microsoft Word Assistant as I write this column. I just changed my animated “assistant” from a talking paper clip to a dog. Although the dog isn't helping me get much done, his expressions amuse me. If only I could get him to write all my Register material for me. Maybe some day!
Brother John Raymond, co-founder of the Monks of Adoration, writes from Venice, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Monthly Web Picks DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:As cloning seems to be in the forefront of the news lately, let's look at some sites that explore the issue.
If you missed the latest news, scientists in South Korea have cloned humans. See the Catholic World News articles on it at cwnews.com/news/views-tory.cfm?recnum=27629 and cwnews.com/news/views-tory.cfm?recnum=27805.
“Reflections on Cloning” by the Pontifical Academy for Life at www.vatican.va/roman_curia/ pontifical_academies/acdlife/ documents/rc_pa_acdlife_ doc_30091997_clon_en.html gives the historical, biological and ethical dimensions of the issue.
“On Human Cloning” by Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, aims to set out some aspects of cloning to inform the general public at ewtn.com/ library/curia/pcfclone.htm.
“Human Cloning” by Roberto Colombo of the Pontifical Academy for Life is taken from L'Osservatore Romano, the newspaper of the Holy See, at ewtn.com/library/ prolife/clonept1.htm.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has a cloning/cloning legislation link page at usccb.org/ prolife/issues/bioethic/cloning/index.htm. It covers a wide variety of articles including “The Myth of ‘Therapeutic Cloning.’”
Other articles on this issue can be found in my online directory at monksofadoration.org/ cloningx.html.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:The Face [Jesus in Art] (2001)
The Church's sacred art is part of her repository of sacred Tradition, preserving and expressing the deposit of faith in a unique and indispensable way. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reflects the importance of the Church's art in her faith and teaching by including four-color prints of important works of religious art.
The Face, a remarkable two-hour documentary produced in conjunction with the Catholic Communication Campaign, is a visually sumptuous and spiritually rewarding exploration of Christian art that surveys the history of how Jesus Christ has been portrayed and how Christian teaching has been understood, interpreted and given different emphases by the art of different times and places.
The Face traces the figure of Jesus from the earliest third-century images in the catacombs to the lavish art of the Renaissance and into the modern era. The development of specifically Christian art forms such as the stunning wall mosaics of the patristic era and the iconography of the Christian East is explored, and an eye-opening discussion of the increasing emphasis on Jesus’ humanity in sometimes blood-drenched medieval depictions of Jesus' passion offer welcome perspective on recent historically uninformed critiques of the violence of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. (Gibson himself, coincidentally, is one of the narrators, along with Bill Moyers, Ricardo Montalban and others.)
Content advisory: A few graphic painted depictions of the Passion.
Jesus of Nazareth (1977)
Like the Bible itself, Franco Zefferelli — s epic, ambitious, made-for-television Jesus of Nazareth is often experienced in bits and pieces over the years and is commonly better known in isolated parts than in its lengthy whole. Viewed as a whole, it might or might not be the greatest Jesus film ever made; in any case it remains in some ways the standard by which other Jesus films are judged. No other Jesus film, not even Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew or Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, offers an interpretation of the Gospel story so comprehensive and definitive.
Its key assets, beyond its ample running time, are a scripturally and historically literate script, a reverently non-revisionist distillation of key Gospel stories, a distinguished and generally apt ensemble cast, and matter-of-fact realism in its approach to the miraculous.
Robert Powell's portrayal of Jesus is reverent and authoritative, though too ethereal, more successfully evoking Christ's transcendence than his humanity. The film's most glaring weakness, though, is its Resurrection episode, which feels rushed and anticlimactic. But Jesus of Nazareth's strengths more than outweigh its weaknesses. Its achievement is unique. Nothing else like it has ever been made and might never be.
Content advisory: Somewhat graphic Passion narrative violence; a few scary scenes (e.g., the slaughter of the innocents, an exorcism, etc.); a bit of discreet sexual content. Reasonable family viewing.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:Duplicitous Dalliance
LIFENEWS.COM, March 20 — Being a professor of ethics and theology for a Catholic university did not stop Daniel Maguire from giving the keynote speech at a Planned Parenthood function in Florida.
Maguire, of Jesuit-run Marquette University in Milwaukee, addressed about 400 at a dinner honoring the executive director of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida. Maguire is also a former priest.
LifeNews.com noted that Maguire has published numerous pro-abortion books, including Sacred Rights: The Case for Contraception and Abortion in World Religions.
When LifeNews.com asked about Maguire's support for abortion, which contradicts Catholic teaching, a spokesman in Marquette's public affairs department said the professor's position was protected under the school's academic-freedom policy.
Bishop Rejects Ad
The upcoming seminar, according to the paper, “gathers scholars to discuss the Catholic Church's future.”
“I was informed that the Voice of the Faithful has decided to withhold affirmation from some elements of authentic magisterial teaching, for example, the impossibility of ordaining women to the priesthood,” Bishop Vigneron wrote to Peter Davey, the group's East Bay chairman.
Davey denied the group advocated for such changes, but the ad still did not run.
Legionary Launch
The university has subleased 400 square feet of offices in downtown Sacramento and is negotiating for more. It plans to launch a master's program in liberal arts and education next year, the journal reported.
Cardinal Arinze to Speak
The Nigeria-born prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will also receive at the ceremony the St. Thomas Aquinas Medallion, which is given to those who have “demonstrated extraordinary dedication to God and his Church,” the newspaper reported.
Pro-Life Students' Win
Carolina Students for Life president Stephanie Evans was delighted last fall when the school's Women's Center agreed to let the pro-life view be heard. She negotiated with pro-life speakers and established a link with the center to Students for Life's website.
But then, on March 8, two weeks before the Women's Week kickoff, she was told her speakers would not be included and the link removed. So Evans sent a letter to the university's chancellor as well as to the media with her concerns.
The university addressed and resolved in her favor each one.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: It's the Sign of All Times DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:THE SIGN OF THE CROSS: RECOVERING THE POWER OF THE ANCIENT PRAYER
by Bert Ghezzi
Loyola Press, 2004 120 pages, $16.95
To order: (800) 621-1008
One of the most memorable scenes in Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth comes just minutes before the final credits roll.
An unlikely band of baffled soldiers and alarmed Pharisees watches from the entrance to a certain well-guarded crypt as Zerah, the fictional Temple scribe, barges alone into its depths. Finding nothing but a used burial cloth crumpled on a stone slab, he freezes. His eyes go wide.
“Now it begins,” he says ominously. “It all begins.”
I like to watch that scene every Easter and imagine myself in that man's shoes but with our 2,000 years of hindsight. And here's the question I like to mull: What would be the first thing I'd do upon verifying that Jesus' tomb was, indeed, empty of Jesus?
This Easter, following as we are on the most public Lenten observance in memory (40 days of the Stations of the Cross on 3,500 movie screens — who would have thunk it?), I hope you'll allow me to ask you that same question. What's the first thing you would do?
Now come on. If you're a Catholic, it's a no-brainer. Before you summoned the presence of mind to fall to your knees — before you drew another breath or thought another thought — you would make the sign of the cross. After all, isn't that always how “it all begins” for us?
Of course it is. And, yet, consider this. How often do we bless ourselves so hurriedly that we end up treating the gesture, for all intents and purposes, like an obligatory, if not empty, aside? Or as a requisite kickoff to something bigger and more important, whether that might be a longer prayer, a meal or an at-bat? I'd have to be first to admit that, all too frequently, I find myself going through those motions with no more thought than I give to clearing my throat before I speak.
Now comes Bert Ghezzi to clue us in. As he has it, and his case is compelling, every time we make the sign of the cross mindlessly, we brush off a fortune in spiritual benefits God wants to give us.
Following a brief recap of the sign's development in Church history, Ghezzi maps out six unseen activities we initiate every time we pray it with care and attentiveness. It turns out we do nothing less than open ourselves to God, renew our baptism, affirm our Christian discipleship, accept suffering, ward off the devil and ice our appetite for self-indulgence.
As in all his books, Ghezzi is warm and conversational in tone. Like a wise friend over a cup of coffee, he offers lots of sharp insights won from hard experience and doesn't shy from offering up his personal failings to make a point.
“I used to think that I just could not prevent myself from occasionally exploding with rage,” he writes. “I have learned that this was a convenient lie that permitted me to hang on to my pet wrongdoing. … In baptism [the Lord] gives us the sign of the cross as a means of curbing our evil tendencies. I think you will agree that it is a very practical tool.”
Personally one of the things I love best about the sign of the cross is that it allows us Catholics to witness our faith without saying a word. Even on this Ghezzi found a way to challenge me. In his introduction, he urges the reader to make the sign of the cross. As in now. “Go ahead,” he writes, “do it — even if you are reading in a public place.” Where was I when I came to those words? In a crowded service station. Right there and then, sitting among folks waiting on oil changes and tire rotations, a new thing began for me. It all began.
David Pearson is the Register's features editor.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Pearson ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Family Man Without Compromise DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:Priest Profile
If God's word is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path, then Christ's teaching in Mark 3:35 must be a white-hot halogen for Father David Hoefler: “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
“Even as a kid I always wanted a family,” Father Hoefler says, looking back at what led him to accept his vocation. “I remember praying, from when I was very young, ‘God, I'll do what you want me to do; only tell me what it is.’ I was hoping all the while it would be a family.”
Of course, God also saw his heart as he heard his words. And today Father Hoefler is the consummate “family man,” albeit in the family that is the Church. He's assistant pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church in Springfield, Ill., and he couldn't be more grateful to God for answering his prayers so generously.
Nor did God's magnanimity really surprise him. Prior to answering the call, he had only to look around his home and at the lives of his relatives to see that the family that prays together grows in grace together.
Father Hoefler grew up in a joyful Catholic family with three sisters. Their father, Ben, is a deacon at St. Aloysius Church in Springfield. Their mother, Leona, is a Third Order Carmelite. Three of Deacon Ben's uncles and a first cousin are priests. So are two of Leona's first cousins. Father Hoefler's sisters Janet and Linda are married, with seven and three children respectively, while Kathy is single.
For a while, in spite of the family's pipeline to the priesthood, it did not look like that call was in the cards for David Hoefler. He loved farming with his uncle, was a programmer with a computer science degree and had started his own successful carpentry business. But by his early 30s, dissatisfied with the dating scene, he began asking God to take away the desire for a family and replace it with an aspiration for the priesthood — if that was indeed God's will.
“At age 35, I still remember being really struck on my birthday,” Father Hoefler says. It was 1996. “I had the American dream of having my own business. Suddenly I realized all that was only temporary; I knew there was something else. I felt like I led a full life already. A feeling of gratitude came over me. I wanted to give it all back. I recognized celibacy as a gift and I felt I had it.”
While reading Pope John Paul II's Gift and Mystery and St. Thérèse's Story of a Soul, he visited Rome with his parish priest. They went to Mass at St. Peter's on New Year's Day 1997. One chance look from the Holy Father and the deal was sealed.
“Our eyes met as he was leaving,” Father Hoefler recalls. “I thought, there's my answer. I knew right then that I was supposed to be a priest. Since then I have never looked back.”
Deacon Dad
Gradually Father Hoefler came to believe that his early and strong desire for a family had been prompted by God as a way to prepare him for the familial aspects of priesthood.
“This is a different way [of having a family], but it is still the same thing,” he says. “As a husband as a father, a man makes a complete and total dedication and commitment to others. That's what a priest does, too.”
He also recognizes how God used his upbringing to teach him lessons beyond the obvious. “Dad often offered up his struggles for his family, and Mom did the same,” he says. “They were giving themselves up for us even before we were born. If I could be half the ‘parent’ my parents are, I'd be a great success.”
Father Hoefler was ordained on May 25, 2002. His father vested him when he received the deaconate; Deacon Ben also read the Gospel at his son's first Mass, bowing to receive the new priest's blessing before approaching the ambo. The deacon says the great joy of this moment was soon surpassed by an even more memorable moment.
“I was standing beside my son at the consecration, knowing that Jesus was present through his words and actions at the altar,” Deacon Ben says. “The whole idea of in persona Christi at that moment was almost an unbelievable thing. Being beside him as a priest is a gift very few fathers have an opportunity to enjoy.” (Then again, how many deacons get to baptize 10 of their own grandchildren?)
Today Father Hoefler helps tend to many families at Blessed Sacrament. Nearly 400 children attend its grammar school, where he teaches religion. And he started a parish vocations committee.
“We bought a chalice, and every week a family brings it home after Mass and prays for vocations,” Father Hoefler explains. “They take fifth-graders on trips — the girls to a Carmelite convent, the Cathedral Basilica of St Louis and then shopping; the boys to Kend-rick Seminary, the cathedral and a ballgame.”
He also launched the parish's Gospel of Life committee. Weekly, one family takes home an icon of the Annunciation to aid in prayers for an end to abortion and an increase in respect for life.
Father John Titus, vocations director for the Diocese of Springfield, Ill., and former pastor of St. Aloysius Church, where Father Hoefler was a parishioner, recognized him as “a good listener able to relate to the young kids.” What's more, he said, “the older people in the parish all loved him. He's very patient, very able to relate to folks of all ages.”
This quality showed in such simple deeds as joining daily Mass-goers every morning at a fast-food restaurant for coffee. “He didn't scurry off to work, but he took the time to visit with them, to listen to the same stories every day,” Father Titus says. “I always admired him, particularly for his patience with folks and his kindness.”
Parishioner Deena Bell concurs. “He calls a new person in the parish one-on-one to see how they are,” she says. “He's willing to take on the little issues. It's a very Carmelite touch because he does the little things with great love.”
Father Hoefler's sister Janet always looked up to her brother for his virtue. “I remember purity really standing out in my mind,” she says. “If anything wasn't pure, he wouldn't look at it or have anything to do with it. He set a great example.” She also remembers how, one time, he stood up for her against some bullies at school. What impressed her most was that even this “he did in a Christian way.”
It turns out the admiration was mutual among the Hoefler siblings. “I saw the way my sisters were all striving to be good Catholic Christians in the thick of this culture,” the priest says. It was largely from their example, he says, that he “came to realize what a special family we have. And we didn't earn it. It's all God's gift.”
And what a special gift the Church has in the faithful families that pray together, grow in grace together — and give us priests like Father David Hoefler.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Common Sense for Car Shoppers DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:Family Matters
Our family needs to replace an old car. Do you have any suggestions that will simplify the purchase process and ensure that we get the best deal?
With the cost of automobiles today, the need to replace an existing car creates a substantial impact on the budget of most families. Assuming you have already ruled out the purchase of a used car for valid reasons, there are a number of tips that will help you make a wise buying decision.
Your first step will be to determine which car you want to purchase. Chances are that, if you are buying a new car, you'll be looking for it to last a long time — so make sure you consider future needs. We are a good example of this as now, having seven children, we are finding that the minivans we have relied on for the last decade will no longer meet our needs.
The Internet can be an invaluable resource for information that will help you make your decision. But, based on my experience, the actual buying of a car through a website has a ways to go before it is completely effective and user-friendly. You can review product information online so that you can not only determine which vehicle will best suit your needs, but you can also “build” the car online with various options and begin to get a sense as to what it will cost you. I would encourage you to start your review at the actual sites of the manufacturers. It would also make sense to utilize reviews provided by independent groups such as Consumer Reports.
Once you have determined the brand, model and options you want, you can begin to get serious about finding the best deal for that particular car.
I encourage you to obtain pricing information from independent groups before you contact a dealer. When we purchased our new full-size van, I utilized the online (and free) services of www.kelleybluebook.com. I also purchased a new-car price report for our desired model from Consumer Reports for $12. This report was invaluable because it provided not only the dealer-invoice price but also what is called the Consumer Reports Wholesale Price, which shows you the amount of any rebates the dealer is expected to receive from the manufacturer.
Your next step is to contact a range of dealers in your area to let them know you are ready to purchase a car and to ask for their best offer. Once again, the website of the manufacturer comes in handy. Look for a “dealer locator” section. Here you can find those dealers closest to you. I noted contact information for the closest 15 and e-mailed a letter spelling out the details of the car I wanted, including options. Four dealers responded, and one of them had submitted what, in my view, was a fair offer. I then made an appointment with the dealer and we were done with the paperwork in less than an hour. It was nearly painless.
God love you!
Phil Lenahan is director of media and finance at Catholic Answers in El Cajon, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Phil Lenahan ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Register's Guide to the Passion DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:This week we conclude our look at the teachings of the Church and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.
The Council of Trent recommended meditation on the Passion and said it sums up the Gospel:
“In the Passion alone we have the most illustrious example of the exercise of every virtue. For he so displayed patience, humility, exalted charity, meekness, obedience and unshaken firmness of soul not only in suffering for justice's sake but also in meeting death, that we may truly say on the day of his Passion alone, our Savior offered, in his own Person, a living exemplification of all the moral precepts inculcated during the entire time of his public ministry.”
We hope these reflections can help readers better use the movie to deepen their spiritual lives.
Humility and Obedience
“Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
— Philippians 2:5-11
“‘For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous.’ By his obedience unto death, Jesus accomplished the substitution of the suffering Servant, who ‘makes himself an offering for sin’ when ‘he bore the sin of many’ and who ‘shall make many to be accounted righteous,’ for ‘he shall bear their iniquities.’ Jesus atoned for our faults and made satisfaction for our sins to the Father.”
— Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 615
The movie shows how Christ's sacrifice, because of his humility and obedience, led to his glory at the Resurrection.
• He stands up at the pillar and says, “My heart is ready, Father.” Even as he is being scourged, he is obedient to the Father.
• Christ's obedience even entails his following the rules of church and state — of Caiaphas and Pilate.
• In the flashback to the woman caught in adultery, we again remember Christ's obedience. He doesn't say, “Don't stone her — don't follow the law.” He says, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
• The movie also shows Christ's great humility. Throughout, he is in chains, submitting himself to abuse at the hands of people he created.
• The movie's flashbacks draw attention to Christ's humility, also: He is laboring to build a table for “a rich man” even though Christ is King of the universe. He washes the disciples' feet. He associates himself with the woman caught in adultery, not the religious leaders.
• Peter's failure is a failure of his humility. When he thought it would make him look good, his pride proclaimed, “I will follow you, even to death.” But when he fears it will make him look bad, he won't even acknowledge that he knows him.
• Christ is a king, but the only crown he wears is a crown of thorns. The soldiers call him “wormy king” and “king of worms.” It's a reference to Psalm 22, which begins, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Christ is humiliated in the movie — abandoned by his friends, jeered by soldiers, with only a few willing to help or acknowledge him.
• In the end, we see where this humility and obedience end — in the Resurrection, as he stands up, his flesh restored except for the holes in his hands and feet, and his look determined.
Love and Sacrifice
“By embracing in his human heart the Father's love for men, Jesus ‘loved them to the end,’ for ‘greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ In suffering and death his humanity became the free and perfect instrument of his divine love that desires the salvation of men. Indeed, out of love for his Father and for men, whom the Father wants to save, Jesus freely accepted his passion and death: ‘No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.’ Hence the sovereign freedom of God's Son as he went out to his death.”
— Catechism, No. 609
Suffering is evil in itself. It is only when it is transformed by love that it becomes something positive: sacrifice.
• The movie wants us above all to focus on Christ's love. Each of the flashbacks is a lesson in love: His commandment to love as he has and to even love enemies, his washing of the feet of the apostles, his Eucharistic offering, his mercy for the woman caught in adultery, even his loving relationship with his mother.
• In the film (and in Catholic teaching) Christ's interior sacrifice is deeper than his physical. The movie shows his suffering beginning before the violence, when he accepts the cup in the garden. And his memorable words of complaint about his suffering have to do with the mental suffering only — when, in the end, he says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The interior suffering comes from his rejection by the people he loves (including each of us) and by the abyss he felt between himself and the Father because of sin.
• Christ literally embraces his cross, the instrument of our deliverance from sin. The other man being crucified can't understand this response to suffering. Only love makes it understandable.
• The characters of the Passion are remembered by the way they responded to suffering. Judas is remembered as Christ's betrayer and not for anything else he did in his life. We remember Pilate's capitulation every time we say the Creed — the other acts of his life are lost to history. Peter is remembered as the man who overcame his failure from that day. The loving response of Simon and Veronica are depicted in every Roman Catholic Church. And, above all, Christ is depicted most often in the crucifix, the memento of his love.
• “When will you choose to be delivered from this?” Mary asks in the movie. The cross is his answer. He won't choose to be delivered until long after he's dead. His love is “to the end.”
• “Behold, I am making all things new!” It is through his loving sacrifice that Christ makes all things new. The film suggests that it's the same in our lives. Happiness isn't the absence of suffering, it's the presence of love. This alone can make suffering a transforming experience.
Take Up Your Cross
“The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the ‘one mediator between God and men.’ But because in his incarnate divine person he has in some way united himself to every man, ‘the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery’ is offered to all men. He calls his disciples to take up [their] cross and follow [him],’ for ‘Christ also suffered for [us], leaving [us] an example so that [we] should follow in his steps.’ In fact, Jesus desires to associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who were to be its first beneficiaries. This is achieved supremely in the case of his mother, who was associated more intimately than any other person in the mystery of his redemptive suffering. Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.”
— Catechism, No. 618
First week: Mary
Second week: Sin
Third week: Eucharist
Final week: Sacrifice
We are “Easter people,” but only because we follow Christ's command to take up our own cross each day. In the movie, several characters show the different possible responses to suffering. The question the movie asks is: What will yours be?
• Peter tries to stay loyal to Christ while rejecting suffering. He cuts off the ear of the soldier. If he had stayed up and prayed with Christ, as he was asked, he might have understood that this suffering is part of a higher plan.
• Judas is disloyal to Christ but accepts suffering. Without Christ, all of his penance — giving the money back and his mental anguish — become torments that gain him nothing. He becomes a suicide — the opposite of a martyr.
• Pilate foresees that he will suffer if he does the right thing regarding Christ. So he ends up multiplying Christ's suffering to prevent his own.
• Simon recoils from Christ's suffering but is forced to carry the cross. But then, by communing with Christ, he learns to embrace the cross and participate in Christ's sacrifice.
• Veronica sees Christ's suffering and tries to alleviate it. She turns suffering into an occasion of charity.
• Mary Magdalene accompanies Christ on the way of the cross, accepting his suffering for her sins.
• Mary stays close to Christ throughout the passion and shares his suffering — as Simeon had foretold she would when he told her “a sword will pierce your soul, too.”
• John, who is the author of the Gospel account that the movie is mainly taken from, follows Christ and is present in the flashbacks where Christ explains that he will suffer out of love. He will later pen the words, “God is love.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Queen's Teens Turn Conservative DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:Facts of Life
Shocking the land that perfected punk rock, a strong majority of Great Britain's teen-agers have said they want a society that respects the sanctity of life, upholds the institution of marriage and takes a hard line on illegal drugs. Helen Johnston, editor of Bliss magazine, said the survey “is [an] indictment of the damage caused by the lax attitudes of adults inflicted on children.”
Source: The Guardian, March 11 Register illustration by Tim Rauch
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Prolife Victories DATE: 04/11/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 11-17, 2004 ----- BODY:Baby Okay With New Organs
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 20 — A 7-month-old Italian baby is recovering after a successful eight-organ transplant.
Alessia di Matteo had the operation on Jan. 31 but it wasn't announced until March 18. She had been born with smooth muscle disorder, which prevented normal function of her stomach, intestines and kidneys, the wire service reported. Left untreated, the condition is fatal.
Alessia underwent surgery in Miami for a new liver, pancreas, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, spleen and two kidneys. She will undergo observation for several more weeks.
Statement Not Hung Out to Dry
TALON NEWS, March 22 — A Virginia high-school student has been given permission to wear a pro-life sweatshirt after threatening to sue.
A senior at Denbigh High School in Newport News on Feb. 18 wore a sweatshirt that said “Abortion is homicide” on the front and, on the back: “You will not silence my message. You will not mock my God. You will stop killing my generation. Rock for Life.”
The assistant principal demanded he remove the sweatshirt or turn it inside out. He obeyed but later, with his parents, decided to seek the assistance of the Thomas More Law Center, the political news site reported.
The center wrote a letter informing the school the student had a legal right to wear the sweatshirt to school and wanted it to guarantee he would be able to wear it.
The school responded in the affirmative March 19.
Defining the Unborn
The bill, which passed March 26, would make it a crime to harm or kill a baby while still in its mother's womb. It was even supported by abortion proponents.
The disagreement, however, was about the definition of a human being. Kansans for Life lobbied for the definition “unborn child,” and the original bill used those terms.
But pro-abortion Rep. Cindy Neighbor removed the language and set the definition as “the live product of human conception in utero.” It was approved by the House and moved for a vote.
Kansans for Life urged House members to reject the new language, and the bill was defeated. Brought back for further review, a compromise on the legislation was reached and the new bill passed.
Promising Stem-Cell Research
WISTV (Columbia, S.C.), March 24 — New research shows promising results in using adult stem cells — rather than controversial embryonic stem cells — in treating diabetes.
University of Florida scientists say they've cultured adult bone marrow stem cells to become insulin-producing cells, the news station reported. In tests these cells have normalized blood-glucose levels in lab animals.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Bishops Weigh Council on Cause of Crisis DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — At a week-long meeting in June in Denver, bishops will look at proposals to solve the root causes of the priest sex-abuse crisis.
One proposal is for a plenary councl (national bishops’ council) on doctrinal and pastoral concerns.
Two other approaches for dealing with the crisis will also be put out on the table in June. Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk of Cincinnati will propose initiatives within the current structure of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo, Ohio, will propose regional councils that stop short of the plenary council approach.
The bishops’ six-day June meeting will be closed to the media, said Archbishop Daniel Buechlein of Indianapolis, chairman of the assembly and of the ad hoc committee on the plenary council.
No votes will be taken in June but “By the end,” Archbishop Buechlein said, “I think it will be clear what are the concerns that our pastoral leadership must address and what consensus is developing about what’ the best way to do this.” Final votes will come in November.
Bishop Allen Vigneron of Oakland, Calif., will propose that bishops hold a national council to focus on the identity, life and ministry of priests and bishops and the Church's teaching on sexual morality and celibate chastity.
He is one of eight bishops who first recommended a plenary council two years ago.
“I continue to be confirmed in my belief that this [council] is something we ought very much to consider,” Bishop Vigneron told the Register. “What we've gone through has disclosed some significant weaknesses and challenges in the life of the Catholic Church in the United States, so I think it's a providential moment for more intense renewal of the Church's life.”
“That was the message from the Holy Father to the American cardinals in 2002 — that from this experience we should have a holier priesthood and a holier Church,” he said.
The last plenary council in the United States was held in Baltimore in 1884, the third of a series of councils, and resulted in the publication of the Baltimore Catechism and advancement of Catholic schools. In recent years, national councils have been held in the Philippines and Poland.
Such a plenary council would not be so much about doing as about listening and responding, in the model of Mary, Bishop Vigneron said.
“We need to be more wholeheartedly dedicated to listening to the word of God and then embracing that,” he said. “A religious woman who spoke to me early on as this was unfolding told me, ‘We have in the word of God the basic resources we need to respond to this time.’ And I think that's very accurate. The [council] is a good way to respond to this moment in the Church's history.”
Other Ideas
Archbishop Pilarczyk said there is a crisis, but it does not call for special councils or new structures — just new initiatives.
“I am convinced the structures of the bishops’ conference are the best way to address this,” he said. “We have committees, we have offices staffed by expert staff people, we have a whole network of communications. If a letter comes to the bishops’ conference and this letter is addressed to the question of adult faith formation, we know what mailbox it goes in. People are familiar with the bishops’ conference.”
“I'm not saying that the conference has done everything that could possibly have been done,” said Archbishop Pilarczyk, who was president of the conference from 1989-1992. “But if we're going to look to the future, we can do that with the structures we have.”
The costs, planning and organization for a large-scale plenary council are unknown, he said. So are the possibilities of a synod and whether there would be one or more than one, he said.
On the other hand, he said, “I am sure we know how to run a bishops’ conference.”
A regional synod would be a halfway measure — more involved than the present conference but more manageable than a plenary council. Regional synods are convened by the Holy See for the bishops alone, whereas under canon law, a plenary council would also require participation by the wider Church, including priests, theologians, religious women and men, leaders in Catholic higher education and other lay people.
Bishop Blair of Toledo could not be reached for comment.
“The plenary council allows for some form of representation of the Catholic community as a whole,” Catholic commentator Russell Shaw told the Register, “and since everybody has a stake in the issues the plenary council would deal with, that is as it should be.”
Avoiding Factions
The disadvantage, however, is that a plenary council would be large and unwieldy, and therefore vulnerable to special agendas and media pressure, Shaw said. The last large-scale gathering of bishops, priests and laity in the United States was the 1976 Call to Action Conference in Detroit, attended by more than 100 bishops, 1,200 other voting delegates and 1,500 observers.
In the end, the conference was taken over by factions challenging basic magisterial teaching, such as openness to life and a male-only clergy. Although the bishops never enacted the recommendations within their dioceses, a national movement of dissent was born.
“Not everybody found that [conference] to be productive,” said Archbishop Pilarczyk, who was an auxiliary bishop of Cincinnati at the time but did not attend the conference. “Apparently things did not turn out the way some had hoped.”
One alternative to an open-ended council, said Shaw, who said he heard it while at the Vatican in March, would be for the Holy See to first convene a regional synod of bishops to set parameters and ground rules for a plenary council to follow later.
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” he said.
Bishop Vigneron said there are two ways to avoid factionalism.
“One is through a kind of negotiation, where people from their different positions find a least-common denominator. But another way to avoid factions is for a clear truth to stand in the middle of the group and draw everyone's adherence,” he said. “I think the second way is the only appropriate way to avoid factionalism in the Christian community. Our unity is not something that we construct. Our unity is a gift that's given to us by Christ in the Holy Spirit, Christ who said, ‘When I am lifted up I will draw all men to myself.’”
Multiple Concerns
Even if they differ over strategies, the bishops agree that the clergy abuse scandal has resulted from deeper problems within the Church.
“I think the clergy sex abuse has shown us that we have become confused, and the difficulty that we're going through has furthered our confusion,” Bishop Vigneron said. “The way to move forward in the time of trial, the time of crisis, is to refocus on a solid goal, a clear direction, and for the Church, that has to be the direction that Christ sets for her.”
“I have a sense that some people's feeling of hope is obscured right now,” he said. “I think we need to dispel that obscurity and hold up again the clear sense that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. He's conquered all of his enemies and in him we can be serene and moving toward the future.”
Archbishop Buechlein said the bishops have other serious issues to consider as well.
“We are very concerned about two generations who have not been catechized, about appreciation for the sacramental life of the Church, particularly the Eucharist, and simply an understanding of our faith — helping people understand more the why of our doctrines. That's big stuff,” he said.
Archbishop Pilarczyk said poor adult faith formation and the growing secularization of society also need to be addressed.
“I think we have concentrated for reasons that are understandable with how lay persons are supposed to busy themselves in the life of the Church,” he said. But “the main role of lay people is to busy themselves in the world.”
Throughout the June meeting the bishops will hear talks and reflections on Pope John Paul II's 2003 apostolic exhortation Pastores Gregis (on the role of the bishop) in a kind of extended retreat.
“It's a wonderful review and very timely for us,” Archbishop Buechlein said. “As always, he's right on the mark.”
Ellen Rossini writes from Richardson, Texas.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Rossini ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pain on Trial DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Are abortionists who perform partial-birth abortions — claiming they are medically necessary — telling the truth?
The Justice Department doesn't think so and believes it can find the answers in the medical records of doctors’ patients. But abortionists are claiming the government doesn't have a right to intrude on a patient's privacy.
And is a baby being aborted during the procedure alive and feeling pain? A federal judge hearing the case in New York wants to get to the bottom of that question.
These are some of the issues in the current legal battle over the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which Congress passed last fall. The law bans an abortion procedure in which an unborn child is deliberately and partly extracted from the birth canal and then is killed, usually by puncturing the skull with a sharp instrument.
Congress called this type of abortion “gruesome, inhumane [and] never medically necessary” and also declared that it imposes severe pain on the fetus and places the woman's health in jeopardy.
Several doctors and organizations, including Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of the National Abortion Federation, filed suits to overturn the act soon after President Bush signed it into law last November. They said the act was unconstitutional and contains no exceptions for women's health. Some pro-abortion groups say the procedure is often the safest route for a mother to take.
As a consequence, several judges issued temporary restraining orders that effectively prevented the government from prosecuting anyone who performs partial-birth abortions until the courts render their decisions.
“This criminal abortion ban endangers the health of women,” said Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in early March. “We will not give up until we have defeated it.”
In response to the restraining orders, the government subpoenaed the medical records at several hospitals across the country where abortions are performed.
“In a sense, what these doctors are doing is saying that this procedure is medically necessary and that we should trust them,” said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, the director of planning and information for the Pro-Life Secretariat of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “They're not going to provide their records to prove it. They just want you to take their word for it. That's an outrageous position for these doctors to take.”
In a 1997 report, the American Medical Association said it supported a ban because it couldn't find “any identified situation” that the procedure was needed, Ruse said.
“What we know from working on this issue for so long and what we believe,” she said, “is this procedure is used for the doctor's convenience — not because there is some medical necessity for it.”
Access to Records
Federal judges in San Francisco, Lincoln, Neb., and New York City began hearing arguments in the cases March 29. One of the contentious issues in the weeks leading up to the trials was the access to medical records.
A Justice Department spokes-woman said the department respects patients’ privacy rights and has asked that hospitals or doctors delete any confidential information, such as names, Social Security numbers and addresses, before handing over the records.
“Medical records, even those of parties not before the court, are often relevant in civil discovery proceedings, and the Justice Department commonly requests this information in a way that protects patient privacy as it defends health-care laws passed by Congress and prosecutes health-care fraud cases,” said Monica Goodling, the Justice Department spokeswoman.
The National Abortion Federation, Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union declined to talk to the Register about any aspect of the trials.
In New York, federal judge Richard Casey ruled in mid-March that medical records have to be turned over to him. Another federal judge ruled in mid-March that records in Michigan have to be turned over to Casey for his trial. Meanwhile, federal judges in Illinois and California have refused the Justice Department's request for the records.
Wendy Wright, the senior policy director for Concerned Women for America, a pro-family group, said the issue of patient privacy is “a red herring.”
The abortionists are “used to being able to lie and not have to substantiate their lies,” she said.
She cited the comments of Ron Fitzsimmons, the executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, who told the ABC program “Nightline” in 1995 that the partial-birth abortion procedure was rarely used and only on women whose lives were in danger. In early 1997, he admitted he had “lied through [his] teeth” in both instances.
Baby's Humanity
Dr. Kanwaljeet Anand, a pediatrician at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and a government witness in Lincoln, Neb., testified April 6 that the unborn baby feels “severe and excruciating” pain during the procedure.
But a courtroom exchange in New York seemed to bring the unborn baby's humanity more into focus as Casey questioned abortion advocate Dr. Timothy Johnson about fetal pain.
Johnson, chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michigan, said he had not heard of any studies that say the fetus feels pain. Casey expressed surprise when Johnson testified that fetal pain never crosses his mind when he performs a “dismemberment.”
Casey also asked if the baby was still alive during the procedure and if “the fingers of the baby [were] opening and closing” and if the feet were moving. Johnson replied that there could be such movement. Casey then asked about the instrument used to remove the baby's head. Johnson compared it to salad tongs, and Casey interrupted, “Except here you are crushing the head of a baby.”
Testifying in New York on March 30 against the ban, Dr. Amos Grunebaum said many women request the fetus be preserved as intact as possible for a proper burial or so full testing can be done to determine the cause of pregnancy failure, according to the Associated Press.
Grunebaum, a specialist in maternal fetal medicine at New York Hospital, said the law was so vague that it could outlaw virtually any type of abortion performed during the second trimester because the fetus is sometimes still alive as it is brought outside the body, the news service reported.
Although the passage of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act was a victory for those who are against abortions, experts say the road to enforcing the law could be a long one. Because of appeals, which are likely from either side, the partial-birth abortion question might head to the Supreme Court, said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee.
“Obviously, the fact we have five justices still on the Supreme Court who think that even partial-birth abortion is somehow protected by Roe v. Wade poses a formidable challenge to us,” he said.
He was referring to the 2000 Supreme Court case Stenberg v. Carhart in which the court ruled 5-4 that a Nebraska law banning partial-birth abortion was unconstitutional.
Carlos Briceño writes from Seminole, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: Court Hears Partial-Birth Abortion Case ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carlos Briceņo ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: It's Official: Sisters of Life Are Now an Order DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — St. Patrick's Cathedral was packed with more than 1,200 people March 25. But it wasn't just the feast of the Annunciation that drew so many people to church on a Thursday morning in midtown Manhattan.
They came to share the joy of a group of youthful sisters who have come to be a familiar sight in the Big Apple. Cardinal Edward Egan, archbishop of New York, was about to carry out the wishes of Rome — and fulfill a dream of his predecessor, Cardinal John O'Connor — in formally making the Sisters of Life a religious institute.
Here were friends and relatives of the sisters, contributors and fans.
And young women with babies as well — women who might have aborted their unborn children were it not for their meeting a sister in a white-and-blue habit.
Saving babies’ lives is one of the works the sisters have been involved in since Cardinal O'Connor founded the group in 1991. Just across town, near theneighborhood once fearfully called Hell's Kitchen, the sisters welcome expectant mothers in need of a home where they can get the help they need as new mothers.
“Of all their inspiring qualities, what always impresses me the most is how the sisters show — not tell — us what holiness is,” said Anne Conlon, managing editor of The Human Life Review in New York, a journal devoted to life issues. “Whenever I am with them I feel submerged in serenity. How I wish I could bottle it up and take it home.”
The high attendance at the Mass, Cardinal Egan said, reflected “how much our sisters are loved and admired.
“We love to see you in the streets and in our churches,” he told the sisters from the pulpit. “We love to see you everywhere. … You tell us about life. You tell us in Mary's style.”
Two Annunciations
Until Cardinal Egan formally established the community as a religious institute of diocesan right, the Sisters of Life were, canonically, a public association of the lay faithful.
The Vatican's Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life formally recognized the Sisters of Life on Dec. 16. Cardinal Egan said the 13-year-old congregation got its recognition in record time.
“They've done things in the New York style,” he quipped. “Quickly and well.”
He added that they have had “a co-conspirator in heaven,” referring to his predecessor.
Among the faithful at the Mass was Mary Ward, sister of Cardinal O'Connor, who died in 2000.
Today the order has 32 sisters in perpetual or temporary vows, seven postulants and seven novices. They are in five locations, which include a pro-life research library in the Bronx. They were recently put in charge of the archdiocesan Family Life/Respect Life Office, which assists projects designed to promote respect for life and support family life.
The Sisters of Life dedicate themselves to a unique charism. In the words of their founder: “We need to bring the Gospel of life to the heart of every man and woman and make it penetrate every part of society. … It is the proclamation that Jesus has a unique relationship with every person that enables us to see in every human face the face of Christ.”
At the Mass of establishment, Mother Mary Agnes Donovan, superior general of the Sisters of Life, professed vows to Cardinal Egan, and the sisters in turn professed to her their vows as members of their new religious institute. They are the traditional vows of poverty, chastity and obedience as well as a fourth vow: “to protect and enhance the sacredness of human life.”
In his homily, Cardinal Egan noted that the Annunciation was celebrated this year during Lent.
“The feast of the Annunciation during Lent is exactly the feast to be celebrated” on the day of the sisters’ official establishment as a religious institute, he said. He preached on the “two annunciations.” The first, the one recalled during Advent, focuses on the visit of the angel Gabriel. The second, in Lent, reminds us that Mary became a mother again on Calvary amid “shouts of hatred,” where Christ presented her as mother of “the whole world.”
The calling of the Sisters of Life, Cardinal Egan said, is to be “an imitation of Mary.” He said “each day they make their decision to be handmaids of the Lord.” Their message to a culture that believes “if we use the word ‘choose,’ somehow it is all right to kill [an unborn baby]” is “to rethink and to recant.” Popular culture shouts the culture of death as the fashion, he said, but “the Sisters are shouting louder.”
Gospel of Life
At the celebration, Cardinal Egan presented Mother Agnes with a large Lladro statue of the second coming of Christ.
Mother Agnes said at the end of Mass that the celebration was taking place on the ninth anniversary of the issuing of Pope John Paul II's 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life).
She called her congregation “a flowering — one expression of his teaching on the human person.” Addressing the Holy Father in thanksgiving, Mother Agnes said, “You have given the Sisters of Life our Magna Carta” in Evangelium Vitae.
“In the midst of debates regarding the morality of cloning and embryonic stem-cell research,” Mother Agnes said, “the Church proclaims what it has always proclaimed, that the Incarnation of God occurred at the moment of conception in the womb of Mary: ‘And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.’”
“The day was a joyous culmination of Cardinal O'Connor's vision to promote a culture of life by founding the Sisters of Life,” said Mary Barnes, a member of the Friends of the Sisters of Life Committee, established to support the work of the sisters. “It was inspirational to see how his wisdom in encouraging the laity, priests and religious to work with the sisters for a culture of life was reflected in the day's huge turnout.”
Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor of National Review Online.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Rebuilding Columbine DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:LITTLETON, Colo. — April 20 marks the fifth anniversary of the nation's deadliest school shooting — and the Catholic response that followed it. The violence looked like a student prank when it began. It lasted only 16 minutes. But when it was over, 14 students and one teacher were dead and 21 were wounded at Columbine High School near Littleton, Colo.
Register readers at the time were greeted with the headline “Faith and Heroism Transform Tragedy.” Five years later, we revisted Littleton to see what has happened to the revival we reported on then.
St. Frances Cabrini and Light of the World, two Catholic parishes near Columbine, became heavily involved when the crisis hit.
On April 22, 1999, more than 1,200 people gathered for a prayer service at St. Frances Cabrini. The Register reported how they erupted into cheers and applause as Father Kenneth Leone, pastor, told the story of the near-martyrdom of Valerie Schnurr, an 18-year-old senior.
Schnurr was in the library at Columbine when two heavily armed students entered and opened fire. She was hit by a shotgun blast fired at point-blank range. As her assailant stood over her, she began to pray.
“Do you believe in God?” asked the young man, a member of a neo-Nazi group known as the trench coat mafia.
Schnurr replied, “Yes, I do.”
The Register also quoted Jim Beckman of Life Teen. “This is a spiritual problem,” he told students gathered at St. Francis Cabrini.
“There is a spiritual vacuum in our lives, in our society, in our world. And if you don't believe it, then you are missing the point. We have got to bring Jesus Christ back into our nation,” he shouted to wild applause from the assembly.
Five years, later Father Leone calls the event and its consequences almost overwhelming, with “fallout” still evident now. He stressed the importance of steadfast parish involvement of individuals and family members in facilitating healthy coping mechanisms.
And five years later, the Cabrini chapter of Life Teen is still thriving.
Beckman says he thinks the movie The Passion of the Christ coincides well with the fifth anniversary in giving an opportunity to contemplate God's sacrificial love and to consider it as a model for life. Beckman has been asked to give a pastoral message at an ecumenical memorial service following a remembrance ceremony April 20.
Father Jerry Rohr is pastor at Light of the World. Prior to the tragedy, the parish had already been designated as Jefferson County Mental Health's task-force headquarters in an emergency. Beginning on the evening of the crisis, it offered its grounds as a haven.
Father Rohr said the large suburban high school, one of three on the west side of the Denver metropolitan area, dealt with the violence issue with statements about zero tolerance of bullying and other awareness measures. But he still believes parents must make greater efforts to spend more quality time with offspring.
Up From Tragedy
The efforts made in the wake of the tragedy have borne fruit five years later in the students who survived Columbine.
Mike Sheehan, a Creighton University senior, was a Columbine junior during the rampage but got away unscathed. He was elected student body president in the weeks following and served as a liaison between the student body, the media and school administration.
His experience has been instrumental in his decision to consider a master's degree in youth ministry at the Omaha, Neb., Jesuit university.
In his speaking engagements nationwide, the former Cabrini parishioner has concluded that while there is increased attention to teen violence, there has been little worthwhile action to prevent kindred shootings.
“Resolution is going to come from understanding the psychology behind troubled youths and using that information before they are completely lost,” he said.
He believes various “quick fixes” that have been used so far only “offer a false sense of security.”
Frank DeAngelis, Columbine principal since 1996 and a Cabrini parishioner, said he was bolstered by his faith community during Columbine's dark times.
Five years ago, the Register quoted him as saying, “I feel so sorry and almost want to apologize for all the grief that has descended on our community. But I realize that the good Lord would not give us anything that we could not handle. I'm not sure why things happen. But they happen for a reason — this has unified our community and has unified our school. I have always bragged about how great Columbine High School is, and it is still a great high school.”
Today, he is committed to tackling teen violence. He says the job requires a “societal team effort, with every entity represented” — families, schools, communities, law-enforcement agencies and youth. Today's youth have so many options that they need reliable safeguards to better stay out of harm's way.
A visitor seeing the high school today, next to spacious Clement Park and in view of the Rocky Mountain foothills, might not be able to imagine what happened there on April 20, 1999. Only discreet remembrances can be found in the facility, including ceramic commemorative tiles.
However the legacy of the day evolves, one of its most visible and enduring symbols is a license plate commemorating the victims. It features a vibrant columbine, the state flower, shaped like a cluster of doves, and the words “Respect Life.”
“If we're not involved actively and lovingly in each other's lives, we create a world of anger and fear and ultimately violence,” Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput said. “If we don't give our children hope through an example of trusting in God and each other, we give them despair instead — and the result is Columbine and other tragedies like it.”
Mary E. Manley writes from Littleton, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: The Catholics Who Transformed Tragedy's Pain ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mary E. Manley ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Divine Mercy Changed Her Tears to Action DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:For 12 years she lived with overwhelming shame and guilt for her abortion. Nine years ago, she found healing through the Divine Mercy devotion.
Today, Cosgrove serves as director of Silent No More Minnesota, an organization devoted to reaching out to post-abortive women for healing. Cosgrove spoke with Register staff writer Tim Drake from her home in Minneapolis.
Tell me about your family growing up.
I grew up in Minneapolis in a working-class family. Both my parents were talented.
Times were tough growing up. My father drank and my mother tried to get him to stop. There were four boys and two girls. I was in the middle.
Did you grow up Catholic?
Yes, but we weren't devout. My father used to drop us off at church and give us a dollar for the collection plate and a dollar to buy a soda at the drug store across the street after church. My two younger brothers and I would skip church, grab a church bulletin and go across the street and buy ice-cream floats.
What happened next?
During my middle-school years my friends started smoking marijuana. Some of them were arrested and my parents assumed I was smoking, too, so they took it out on me and made me watch the movie Go Ask Alice. I decided that if I was going to get blamed for something I didn't do, I was going to do it. So I started smoking marijuana in ninth grade and started drinking alcohol in 10th grade.
However, in January 1976 I went down with a group of senior high school students to the federal court building in Minneapolis to protest against Roe v. Wade. I knew that life began at conception and that abortion was wrong. It was a day I would never forget.
What led you to make the decision to abort?
My boyfriend John and I were both working part time in a bar and had been doing drugs. We struggled with the decision and realizing that if I went through with the pregnancy there was no guarantee he was going to stick around. I would be a single mom, working at a bar, doing drugs.
That situation has been described as being in a foxhole with ammunition going off all around you. All you can think about is getting up and running. You deny it's happened, but you're at a point where you need to make a decision. You tell yourself, if I make this decision I can move on with my life, and you believe that … that you can move on. I got up out of my foxhole and ran, and got shot. That's what abortion is.
What do you recall from that day?
John accompanied me to the abortion business. One gal came in with a baby and I was sick to my stomach. “Why doesn't someone tell her to leave?” I remember thinking. I also remember wanting to hear John say, “Let's just leave.”
Prior to the abortion, I met with a counselor. She asked why I was doing this. I told her that I was on drugs, but the real reason was that I had no support. She told me there would be discomfort, tugging and cramping. She said I would bpleed and that there would be some pain and sadness from the pregnancy hormones, but it would go away but it doesn't.
After my name was called, the next thing I knew I was on the table with my feet in the stirrups and a white cloth over me. A doctor and nurse were standing beside me. I was so scared that I started to shake violently. I looked up toward the ceiling and said, “God forgive me for what I'm about to do.” When the doctor started the machine I said, “Help me. I'm going to faint.” He yelled and screamed at me and told the nurse to keep me awake. I told the nurse I was scared. She said, “Shhh, you're going to be okay. You've got to stay awake. You can't faint.”
I felt the darkness enter me as my baby's life was being ripped out. Afterward, I went to the recovery room and remember thinking that I would never be the same.
How did the abortion affect you later?
Whatever relationship I had with John, it ended the day the baby died. I felt even worse about myself, and I started smoking crack cocaine. A year later I moved to the Virgin Islands with the intention of getting off drugs, and I did.
John and I ended up getting married in the Catholic Church, and before our wedding, we went to confession. I asked him, “Did you confess the abortion?” He replied, “No.” Neither had I.
The pain of the abortion never went away. We had gotten pregnant, but I miscarried and wasn't able to get pregnant again. I would cry in the shower, wanting to die and scream without any sound coming out. John would ask, “Why can't you get over this?” In the end, I realized I didn't trust him. He hadn't protected his family. After five years of marriage, John left.
What brought you back to the Church?
In September 1993, my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. As she lay dying, I went to her. The priest gave her last rites and my older brother came in and told her he was sorry for everything he had ever done. She couldn't say a word but looked at him with forgiveness.
My youngest brother began praying the Our Father. Mom prayed it with us and then lay back down and died.
I felt God calling my name. I remember telling God, “I give up. I'm done. I want the life you have planned for me, because obviously my plans aren't working. Show me the truth.” I decided that if the Catholic Church was the truth, I needed God to show it to me, and I started going back to church.
How did your post-abortion healing come about?
I had been seeing a therapist for three years. At about this time, she threw up her arms and said, “You're just going to have to learn to live with this.”
I asked her, “How does someone learn to live with murdering her child?”
Three weeks later, on the evening of March 5, 1995, which would have been my mother's 62nd birthday, I read a brochure on the Divine Mercy. After reading the brochure I thought, “Here, in the privacy of my own home, I could find forgiveness,” so I got on my knees with a rosary and started praying the chaplet.
As I prayed it, I felt something being lifted up out of my soul. I was praying and sweating and crying and I thought, “If I'm going to die tonight, I'll go.” I physically felt something like a ball come out of me, and although there was no physical presence, I could physically feel something leaving me. The shame and the guilt I had felt for 12 years was gone and has never come back.
The moment this happened I could feel the love and peace and joy being poured to the depths of my soul. My arms were stretched out and I said, “It is finished,” and as I said it I thought of Christ's words on the cross. It was then that I knew he had died for me. I knew a miracle had occurred and I needed to go to confession. It just so happened that I had an appointment with a priest the following day to discuss my annulment.
As soon as I walked into his office, I said, “In 1983, I had an abortion.” The priest said, “Sit down. We'll get to that.”
Tell me about your work with Silent No More.
After that, I told Christ, “After what you did for me, I'll go anywhere and do anything.” We gather women and men who have experienced abortion and regret it to speak publicly. We're trying to educate those who don't know the devastation of abortion and let those who do know that there is healing so that others don't have to be silent.
We believe women deserve better than abortion and we believe hearts and minds can be changed. We travel to as many towns as we are able as a powerful witness to God's mercy.
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: Ann Marie Cosgrove needed mercy most. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Four Brothers Who Are Priests Discuss Movie By Cousin Mel DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:EAST CHICAGO, Ind. — Four priests by the name of Gibson have more than a religious interest in The Passion of the Christ.
The four brothers are second cousins of the movie's producer, Mel Gibson, though they'll be quick to say they have never met their famous relative and can't get free tickets to the blockbuster.
Some are not shy, however, about using their familial connection to promote the Gospel.
“I've appeared on five different TV channels and been interviewed by radio and newspapers,” said Father Steve Gibson, a priest of the Diocese of Gary, Ind. “I was grateful for the opportunity to present a positive message not only about the movie, which I think is excellent, but also about Christ's love for all people.”
“I'm proud to be a relative of his,” he added. “He has a genuine story of faith to offer.”
Father James Gibson, a member of the Congregation of the Resurrection who is studying in Rome, said that, even though The Passion of the Christ opened in Italy during Holy Week, there has been a general awareness of the movie since it was filmed in that country.
“There seems to be interest for when the film comes out, but not really much controversy — yet,” he said in an e-mail to the Register on March 24. “I was very aware that the Passion was being filmed here and even went out to Cinecitta [the Rome studio in which it was filmed] one day. But it was guarded like an embassy and I didn't even bother asking about going in.”
The other two Gibson brothers who are priests will probably not get a chance to see the movie anytime soon. Father John Gibson recently joined the Carmelites and is a novice with the order in Poland. Father Thomas Gibson is a Carthu-sian monk in England.
The four brothers grew up in a Chicago suburb in “a big, faithful family” of 13 children, Father James said. Two of their sisters are in religious life. Though none of the children ever met Mel Gibson growing up, they were aware of their relationship.
“I knew of [Mel's] father from seeing him on ‘Jeopardy,’ where he won a ton of money and was able to move his family to Australia,” Father James recalled.
‘People Will Listen’
“I was glad to hear he was making the film, because I knew of the quality of his directing, beginning with The Man Without a Face,” Father James said. “I also saw Braveheart, which was a well-told epic and also showed how capable and unafraid Mel was in showing graphic — but very human — violence. The violence always has to do with the human spirit, with justice and injustice of man to man.”
“I have a high regard for his work and his motive for making the movie,” Father Steve said. “He hopes the movie will inspire people to look seriously at their lives and foster in their hearts sorrow and repentance for sin. People will listen to him because he's right at the heart of the culture.”
Father Steve does not agree with the claim by some that the movie is anti-Semitic in its portrayal of the Jewish leaders. He says the movie is about mankind's betrayal of God and Jesus’ love for the world.
About the violence of the scourging and Crucifixion scenes, he said, “I wouldn't bring very young people to the movie, but I wouldn't bring them to an operating room, either. They just can't deal with the reality and may not be able to see through the blood to the deeper purpose of what is going on. In both cases, healing is going on.”
As pastor of St. Mary's Parish in East Chicago, Ind., Father Steve has held discussion groups with parishioners about the movie and organized large groups to see it.
“The fact that he's Mel Gibson's cousin and appeared on television has gotten a lot of people interested,” said Albert Gutierrez Sr., who has seen the movie three times. “It seems there have been a lot more people coming to the parish, and I've heard people talking about him being Mel's cousin.”
“I've known Father Steve for a long time and knew beforehand that he was Mel's cousin, so it hasn't changed my view of him,” Gutierrez continued. “He's always been a good shepherd. He's done an amazing amount of good here.”
Alfredo Flores, who helped organize a group of 150 parishioners to see the movie, said, “I agree with Father Steve when he says that this will be the definitive movie on the last hours of Christ. No director is going to attempt to surpass this movie because the Holy Spirit was involved in making it.”
‘We Still Crucify Him’
Flores, 25, said more young people have become active at the church since the movie was released.
“Every Good Friday we have a living Stations of the Cross, and this year there are more young people than ever who want to be involved,” he said.
Father James Gibson hopes the movie will be well received in Italy and throughout Europe after it is released.
“I have no doubt that the Passion is radical … If it is not comfortable, it is because the Gospel is not comfortable,” he said. “That has nothing to do with Semites or Romans but the radical nonacceptance of the Son of God, who was God's way to save mankind and make us accepted, and acceptable, to him.
“From what I have heard, the point of the movie is that all of us have crucified Christ. I would hope that the net effect would be for us to realize that we still crucify Christ every day by unjust economy, dehumanizing poverty, terror and myriad forms of violence, not only in certain countries but in every society.”
Stephen Vincent is based in Wallingford, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Stephen Vincent ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:Durbin Latest Pol to Face Church Scrutiny
Durbin recently voted against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which Congress passed anyway, because he feared it would open the abortion debate, the paper reported. Durbin is a pro-abortion supporter.
The senator lamented the recent actions of bishops — some calling for Catholic politicians who vote against Church teachings to refrain from Communion — to warn Catholic politicians of their duty as Catholics.
“It is tough to run for public office and face an opponent … then face the criticism from colleagues, voters, the press and defend yourself,” Durbin said. “Now add to that equation for a Catholic politician … one last stop. The local bishop will announce whether your vote is appropriate and whether or not you're in good standing with the Church as a result of that vote.”
Hispanic Voters More Diverse Than Thought, Poll Finds
KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS, April 4 — A surprising number of Hispanics claim to be “pro-choice,” born-again Christians who support the death penalty, according to a recent poll commissioned by the Miami Herald and Zogby International.
Hispanics overwhelmingly support the death penalty, prayer in schools and privatized Social Security, the poll found. About half also said they were “pro-choice.”
Hispanic voters are also well educated, well paid and politically moderate, the poll showed. Of those polled, 67% made more than $35,000 a year, 75% had at least some college credits and 64% described themselves as moderate to conservative. Only 30% described themselves as liberal or progressive.
The poll questioned 1,000 likely Hispanic voters at the end of March. Fifty-eight percent were Mexican-American, 10% were Puerto Rican and 3.4% were Cuban-American.
Most Hispanics also would put their families before their careers, the poll found. When asked if they would move them away from their family and community, 60% said they would turn down the offer, the number climbing to 74% if the promotion would cause them to be away from immediate family for extended periods of time.
Vatican Warns of Scandal Regarding Kerry
“People in Rome are becoming more and more aware that there's a problem with John Kerry and a potential scandal with his apparent profession of his Catholic faith and some of his stances, particularly abortion,” a senior Vatican official told Time magazine.
A team has been assembled at presumptive presidential nominee Kerry's headquarters to form a “Catholic response” to Vatican concerns, the London newspaper reported.
While campaigning in Missouri on March 28, the paper noted, Kerry “preferred to miss a Catholic service rather than risk a confrontation with the formidable Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis.” The archbishop had publicly warned Kerry not to receive Communion in Missouri unless he ended his support of abortion.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Home Missions Collection DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:NEW CASTLE, Wyo. — Father Bruce Clapham was a mail carrier before becoming a priest. So he's used to driving. That's a good thing, because as a pastor in Wyoming, he spends a lot of time in his car.
Typically, he'll begin his Sunday by celebrating the 8 a.m. Mass at Corpus Christi Church, the main parish in New Castle, Wyo. After that, he drives 50 miles north to Sundance to say Mass at St. Paul's Home Mission Church at 10:30 a.m. Then he's off to St. Matthew's Home Mission Church in Hulett, 40 miles further north, for the 12:30 p.m. liturgy. And the 5 p.m. Mass is a 60-mile drive south of there, at St. Anthony's in Upton.
Second Collections
By the time he gets home to New Castle, he said, he's “pretty played out.”
There are 240 people in his parish, which covers about 5,000 square miles, most of it forest and prairies. The parish car — a 1993 Buick LeSabre — had 180,000 miles on it when he first arrived almost five years ago. Now it has about 305,000.
Welcome to the world of home-mission ministry.
Recognizing there were parishes where Catholics were few and lacked the kind of support churches need for evangelization (schools, hospitals and retreat centers), the U.S. bishops founded the American Board of Catholic Missions in 1924. Funds were raised as part of a Mission Sunday collection, and a certain percentage went to home-mission dioceses in the United States and the rest to foreign missions overseas.
In 1997, the bishops designated the last Sunday in April as Catholic Home Missions Appeal weekend, with the funds raised going specifically to U.S. home-mission dioceses and to organizations and religious communities doing home-mission work, said David Byers, the executive director of the Committee on the Home Missions.
In 1998, the appeal raised $4.5 million. In 2001, it raised about $8.5 million, and that amount has remained steady ever since, he said. This year's goal is to regain the momentum that was lost because of the downturn in the economy and the fallout from the sexual-abuse scandal, Byers added.
“The idea is to strengthen the Church where it can't handle the situation by itself,” he said. “You can also think of it in terms of Robin Hood. We receive most of our funding from the wealthier dioceses and it goes to the poor ones.”
Where the Money Goes
The appeal helps to boost and extend the presence of the Church in the United States — mainly in Appalachia, the deep South, the Southwest and the Rocky Mountain states — and in its island territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific, Byers said. More specifically, it goes toward diocesan evangelization efforts, parish religious-education programs, seminarian education, lay ministry training and the pastoral care of growing ethnic and migrant communities.
About one-third of all the grants go to ministry of the growing numbers of Hispanics in the United States, he said. For instance, in Charlotte, N.C., the Hispanic population mushroomed by 600% during the past decade. About 25 dioceses get the office's maximum grant: $175,000, he said.
“By their own account, they would have a tough time managing without us,” Byers said.
William Dinges, a professor of religious studies at The Catholic University of America, traveled about 55,000 miles in 2002, going to 10 home-mission dioceses to do a study, which hasn't been released yet, for the Committee on the Home Missions.
“We shouldn't think of home-mission dioceses in a kind of negative way,” Dinges said, “that this is a kind of handout ecclesiology. … Yes, that's part of the reality of these dioceses, but also, in a more positive way, there are a lot of things going on in these dioceses that are, in a sense, harbingers of the future of the Church — in regard to, for example, more lay people being involved in the life of the Church, ministerially speaking. In that sense, they are the Church of the future. … The home-missions office isn't just a welfare agency. It's a vital mechanism for facilitating how the Church is emerging in the 21st century.”
Some observers of the Church in the United States think the shortage of priests will usher in a greater ministerial role for the laity.
But not the Holy Father. He recently called greater ministerial involvement by the laity in the parish a “distraction” from the real role of the laity, which is to transform the secular world.
Last year, Father Clapham received almost $17,000 from the Committee on the Home Missions that helped him pay for a part-time deacon and transportation costs, said Jim Vance, financial officer for the Diocese of Cheyenne, Wyo.
The diocese, which covers 100,000 square miles and has a Catholic population of about 50,000, also receives monetary help from the committee for its migrant-worker programs, seminarian education and religious education, Vance said.
Facing Struggles
The diocese struggles with financing operations in the face of inflation — the same struggle mission churches have across the country. In Ripley, Miss., the only Catholic presence in the county is St. Matthew's Church, housed in a former drugstore and part of a Glenmary Home Missioners outreach, said St. Joseph of Carondelet Sister Kathleen Regan, pastoral coordinator of the mission.
Since arriving at the church in 2000, Sister Regan has seen the number of parishioners — about 80% of whom are poor Hispanics — go from 15-20 people attending Mass to about 150, she said.
Two nearby priests, each of whom has to drive about an hour, celebrate Mass in English and Spanish during the month. Sister Regan conducts a word and Communion service twice a month.
Last year, Glenmary received $20,000 from the Committee on the Home Missions that helped Sister Regan pay part of her salary and the salary for a Spanish-speaking lay pastoral assistant, she said.
“It's a step in faith,” she said. “We don't know how sometimes we're going to meet these needs, but somehow we do. I keep saying if this is of God to have this mission here, we will get what we need. It's through these collections and grants from people from the larger Catholic community — that's the only way we can exist right now. We would like to be self-sufficient. You know, the American way. It's very humbling to ask for help.”
Carlos Briceño writes from Seminole, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: Helping the Church in Hard-to-Reach Places ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carlos Briceņo ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Archbishop O'Brien on Pope's Mission for Bishops DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — “He made it very clear that some terrible things have happened to us and that we are suffering through them,” said Archbishop Edwin O'Brien after his meeting April 2 with Pope John Paul II.
“We have a big mission to carry out and I think [the Pope's] sense of mission, his sense of evangelization, was a renewing force in the lives of all of us,” the archbishop said.
Archbishop O'Brien, who is archbishop of the U.S. military services, spoke to the Register after taking part in the first of a string of ad liminavisits to Rome by delegations of American bishops.
Twenty bishops from Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and the archdiocese for the military made the ad limina trip, which occurs every five years. Their delegation will be followed by many more during the next 10 months, when bishops from across the United States will attend meetings and consult with the Holy Father and Holy See officials.
Speaking to Vatican Radio, Archbishop John Favarola of Miami called the visit an opportunity to “have our faith confirmed” and to return home “renewed and rejuvenated.”
In his address to the bishops, the Pope said he hoped the meetings will “bear particular fruit in a deeper appreciation of the mystery of the Church in all its richness and a far-reaching discernment of the new pastoral challenges” of the new millennium.
Referring to the sexual-abuse crisis, he said viewed with “the eyes of faith, the present moment of difficulty is also a moment of hope.”
John Paul noted the increasing difficulty of offering a prophetic witness because of the abuse scandal and “outspoken hostility to the Gospel in certain sectors of public opinion,” yet he insisted this witness “cannot be delegated to others.”
“I am confident that the willingness you have shown in acknowledging and addressing past mistakes and failures while at the same time seeking to learn from them will contribute greatly to this work of reconciliation and renewal,” the Pope said.
“This time of purification will, by God's grace, lead to a holier priesthood, a holier episcopate and a holier Church,” he added.
And the Holy Father reaffirmed his “confidence in the Church in America,” noted with appreciation “the deep faith of America's Catholics” and expressed his gratitude for the “many contributions [of Catholics] to American society and to the life of the Church throughout the world.”
A wide range of issues formed the discussions. Of particular concern were matters concerning the new translation of the liturgy, the acceptance of Church teaching by Catholic politicians and wider society, and the extent of Catholicism in seminaries, Catholic universities and colleges.
Catholic Politicians
The subject of Catholic politicians and the exercise of their faith in the public square was, according to Archbishop O'Brien, “strong in a number of discussions,” and he disclosed that the bishops were drawing up guidelines to address the issue.
“Certainly I don't think anyone doubted what the hopes and expectations of the Holy See are,” he said, “and no one doubted that we agree with the hopes and expectations of the Holy See.”
When asked whether the decision of Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis to refuse Communion to Catholic politicians if they continued to support abortion or euthanasia was raised during the meetings, Archbishop O'Brien said Archbishop Burke's name was never mentioned.
“We didn't get into specific issues,” he said. “Obviously everyone knew there's a whole spectrum of actions a bishop can take and the bishop has to take actions as his own situation dictates.”
On the question of Catholicism in educational institutions, the subject of defining the nature of a Catholic university or college was raised, as was the upcoming visitation of seminaries.
During his address, John Paul expressed his concern at a “disturbing loss of the sense of the transcendent and the affirmation of a culture of the material and the ephemeral” that desperately needs a “witness of hope.”
“He was referring to legislative moves made to allow same-sex ‘marriage’ and other such issues,” Archbishop O'Brien said. “He is concerned about the very strong pressures to keep the transcendent out of the realms of influence.”
As archbishop of the U.S. military, Archbishop O'Brien twice has been to Iraq in the past year and during his visit to Rome discussed the current situation with the Holy Father and other officials.
“I assured them that the forces and the people are trying to build up society and hope for peace — roads are being built, people are being trained to offer protection, attempts are being made to bring about employment, hospitals and orphanages are being built,” he said.
Archbishop O'Brien said efforts are being made to “bring about a society that functions freely. The troops are working with a weapon in one hand and a paintbrush in the other.” And he added that the country's youth see a “potential for great good.”
Concerning the troops themselves, Archbishop O'Brien was delighted to relay to the Holy See a “tremendous return of the faith to the young” and mentioned that in a group of soldiers assigned to one chaplain, 56 had either returned or expressed a willingness to return to the faith.
“Such a tendency is not unusual,” he said.
Archbishop O'Brien concluded that overall the visit with the Holy See was a “friendly, reassuring visit on both sides.”
“We benefited from that,” the archbishop said, “and I would hope that the Holy See left those meetings with a sense of trust in the bishops and what we're seeking to do in the Church in the United States.”
Edward Pentin writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:Vatican Euros Sell Out in Three Hours
NEWS24.COM, April 2 — Just three hours after they went on sale, rare Vatican euro coins sold out April 2, disappointing many collectors who waited in line since the night before.
Crowds rushed to collect the coins at an office near St. Paul's Basilica. They were sold outside the Vatican for security reasons, the news site reported. The coins feature a profile of Pope John Paul II and are part of a limited series of Vatican euro coins.
Only one set of the two different sets of Vatican coins were available April 2, selling for $25-$30.
Euro coins are different in each of the 12 countries that use the single currency. The Vatican won the right in 1929 to mint its own coins and adopted the euro in 2001, the same time Italy adopted it.
He and his crew chose the town as the setting for The Passion of the Christ. They also chose about 600 locals from 20,000 who turned out to be extras — earning about $70-$110 a day — in the film. Now the location is becoming quite the tourist attraction.
Matera Turismo has begun taking reservations from Americans for its Passion Tour, which takes tourists to the sites where the Last Supper and Crucifixion scenes were filmed, the Observer reported. At the three-star Alberga Italia, guests can book the room where Gibson stayed and where the maid, Maria, can tell of how she converted the room's mini-bar into an altar for early-morning prayers.
“There's no work,” said one of the extras in the film. “So it's a good thing people like making films here. At least I can earn a bit of cash that way.”
Cardinal: Israel Treats Religious Like ‘Immigrants’
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, April 2 — A top Vatican cardinal has accused Israel of treating priests and nuns like immigrants by denying them resident visas in the Holy Land.
Cardinal Rober t Tucci, the former papal master of ceremonies for the Holy Father's trips abroad, on April 2 called on Christian members of the European Parliament to protest Israel's actions.
“I think that we need to make representations to those members of the European Parliament and European institutions who more or less officially belong to the Christian faith and who would have the duty to inter vene on a political level,” he said on Vatican Radio.
Cardinal Tucci said Father David Jaeger, the head of the Franciscan order in the Holy Land, complained the Israeli government was treating religious like “clandestine immigrants.”
“At the moment the Israeli government has many concerns,” the cardinal said. “But hindering the release of residence permits to nuns and religious workers is creating great difficulty to the development of the local Christian and Catholic churches in Israel and in the Palestinian territories.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Spain's 'Sept. 11' Shakes Europeans, But Differently Than Americans DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:ROME — A chain of explosions at the height of rush hour March 11 blasted through trains near the Madrid stations of Atocha, Pozo del Tio Raimundo and St. Eugenia.
Never before had Europe seen 190 corpses and 1,400 wounded as the result of one terrorist assault. The March 11 blasts shook Spaniards to the bones as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had shaken Americans exactly 911 days earlier.
I was in upper Manhattan when the Twin Towers collapsed. I was in Rome when the Spanish trains blew up. Being Spanish myself, did I see Spaniards and Europeans react to this tragedy as Americans did to theirs?
In some ways, yes. A kindred solidarity burst out in people's hearts, beginning with Spaniards. In Madrid, people flocked to the tragic scene to help out. Thousands volunteered to donate blood. A morgue was set up in the IFEMA exhibitions center, where several psychologists were assigned for each victim's family.
Madrid's priests sped to hospitals and centers to care for the injured. And for several days, taxi drivers, hospital staffs and hotel owners offered free rides, surgeries and lodgings for the wounded and their relatives.
The Spanish government provided millions of euros to the victims’ families, and the “ground zeroes” quickly became shrines — with pictures, love messages, flowers, candles and prayers.
The day after the attack, 11.6 million people — about 30% of the total Spanish population — peacefully demonstrated in the streets of the main Spanish cities. In Madrid 2.3 million people walked out in the rain.
“It is not raining. Madrid is crying,” people sang. “In those trains all of us went. Not all of us are here: 200 are missing.”
The demonstration was led by Spanish officials and representatives of many European and Latin American nations.
“A united Spain will never be defeated,” some participants cheered. Many waved Spanish flags with a black bow drawn in the center — the typical sign of mourning used to mark tragedy. Others bore signs reading, “Yesterday all of us died,” “We are all victims,” “No to terrorism,” “No more dead” and “Peace.”
The Old Continent reacted as one nation. A few hours after the blasts, the European Parliament declared March 11 European Day of Victims of Terrorism.
Four days later, at noon, all of Europe was paralyzed for three silent minutes in honor of the victims. Traffic, shopping, office work and classes all grounded to a halt. Pope John Paul II joined in by kneeling in prayer in his private chapel.
On March 24, a moving solemn Mass was celebrated at the Madrid Cathedral of La Almudena for the victims’ relatives. Prime ministers and presidents of most European, Latin American and North African nations attended the celebration. Secretary of State Colin Powell represented the United States.
“Your sorrow,” Cardinal Antonio Rouco Varela, archbishop of the Spanish capital, said in his homily to the victims’ families, “quickly became the sorrow of our beloved city of Madrid, of Spain and of the whole world.”
He was right. An amazing bond of solidarity united peoples from different nations, races and creeds, showing how much potential the human heart hides for the building of a civilization of love. The March 11 public manifestations of compassion echoed the ones of Sept. 11.
Political Reaction
Yet there were differences between the Spanish and American reactions to their tragedies in the religious and political spheres.
As a Red Cross chaplain for Sept. 11 victims’ relatives, I witnessed the surge of religious life in the United States. Private and public prayers, Masses and church services multiplied in the aftermath. Religious interpretation of the event — in the light of divine providence or even as God's chastisement for American sins — were not uncommon.
Not so much in Spain. In the Catholic nation, Christian funerals and burials were held in the churches and graveyards of the victims’ origin. Not many people, however, flocked to churches, nor did religious sentiment surge in the aftermath.
The reading of the tragedy was more political than religious. Most people saw it as the result of Spain's joining the United States in attacking Iraq. The war in Iraq was, by far, the most unpopular decision of the ruling Popular Party, with between 80% and 90% of voters against it.
Before and after the U.S.-led invasion, the crowded anti-war demonstrations and the opinions aired in the media left the Spanish government in no doubt about the feelings of most Spaniards. Yet until the bombings, the ruling party was still popular, mostly on account of its economic successes. Before March 11 all the polls predicted the Popular Party would attain a comfortable victory in the March 14 general elections.
The terrorist attacked changed that. The day before the elections, hundreds of thousands demonstrated in Spanish cities against the government. Popular President José María Aznar was booed when he cast his vote.
People's emotions were felt in the election turnout — 77.2% of people voted, an increase of 8.5% from the 2000 elections, giving 3 million more votes and an upset victory to the opposition Socialist Party.
The first announcement of President-elect José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was his commitment to bring Spanish troops home from Iraq on June 30 if the United Nations is not in charge of the nation by then.
Europeans, for the most part, were also anti-war and read the tragedy in the Spanish way, with the focus on trying to stop terrorism internally rather than fighting battles on foreign soil. On March 25, the European Union created an anti-terrorist task force headed by Gijs de Vries, a former Dutch politician who was immediately “Mr. Anti-Terrorist.”
The new task force will raise funds for victims of terrorism and coordinate the intelligence and the anti-terrorist resources of European governments. “All the nations [of Europe] will mobilize every instrument, including military force, to prevent terrorist threats in the land of any nation,” a European Union statement declared.
“The plague of the present world, also of our Spain, is today terrorism,” the Spanish bishops’ conference stated after the bombings.
With the tragedy, Europe now shares the anti-terrorist fears of the United States. It does not seem, however, that the United States and Europe will face their common threat in exactly the same way.
Legionary Father Alfonso Aguilar teaches at Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome. aaguilar@legionaries.org.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Alfonso Aguilar, ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:British TV Channel to Broadcast an Abortion
“My Fetus” shows an abortion at four weeks of pregnancy, an inspection of fetal remains of a seven-week pregnancy and images of a 10-, 11- and 21-week aborted baby.
The film was written and directed by Julia Black, daughter of the founder of Marie Stopes International, the country's largest abortion provider outside the National Health Service.
Black, who had an abortion at age 21, said she wants viewers to re-examine the abortion debate, the paper reported.
“It is easy to be pro-choice without challenging yourself about what that means,” she said. “I needed to be convinced that abortion is a morally legitimate procedure even after knowing what it involves and I wanted to take viewers on the same journey.”
An editor for the program at Channel 4, speaking in support of the film, said she didn't believe there was “ever an argument for total censorship.”
Venezuelan President Criticizes Catholic Bishops
VHEADLINE.COM (Venezuela), April 5 — Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez Frias criticized Catholic bishops on Palm Sunday, April 4, for “forgetting the preferential option for the poor they had promised to abide by and for their alignment with the capitalist oligarchy,” the news site reported.
During his Sunday radio address that day, the president received blessed palms and asked God to forgive the bishops because “they know not what they have done.”
The Venezuelan Bishops' Conference had issued a statement expressing concern for the human-rights situation in the country and supporting a recall referendum as the only solution for political problems.
Retired Cardinal Castillo Lara also earlier called Chavez Frias a “tyrant,” saying “there isn't a shadow of democracy” in Venezuela.
Christian Reference in EU Constitution Gains Support
EKKLESIA, April 5 — Whether or not there should be a reference to Christianity in the future European Union Constitution has been a hot topic for some time. Now, according to Ekklesia news service, the notion might be gaining support.
About 10 countries out of the future 25 support a reference to Christian values and tradition in the constitution's preamble, according to Polish deputy minister for foreign affairs Jan Truszczynski.
The purpose of the preamble, written by former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and European convention members, is to provide a quotable introduction — much like the “We the people” in the U.S. Constitution — for citizens to study and memorize, the news site reported.
Poland has been strongly pushing for a Christian reference in the preamble but other countries such as France and Belgium have opposed it. In addition to the Catholic Church, the news site noted, the Greek Orthodox Church and Italy, Spain and Portugal also appear to be lobbying for a Christian reference.
The International Conference has been negotiating an EU Constitution since October. If all member countries sign it, it still has to be ratified in national parliaments or through referenda.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: When Words Mean Everything DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:The homosexual-marriage debate is all about the meaning of the word marriage — and whether courts can change that meaning.
It is easy to forget that words’ meanings matter.
Attempts to redefine words have led to much human suffering — as when white slave owners, communists and Nazis redefined words such as “private property” and “human race.” When it came time to recover the meanings of these words, it took wars and great social upheavals. It proved a gargantuan task to restore the meaning of “all men are created equal” in America, “freedom” in Eastern Europe and “human rights” worldwide.
The homosexual movement now proposes the word marriage needs to be redefined. Traditionally, marriage has meant the lifelong union of a man and woman for the purpose of building a family. Those in favor of homosexual marriage would redefine it to mean something like “a declaration by a person of his romantic sexual love for another.”
Since this new definition includes homosexuals, its supporters think it will right an injustice, giving honor to these real relationships while causing no discernible harm to society except in the minds of those who are “homophobic” for no reason.
But the new definition immediately presents problems. For starters, it's malleable. Here are some of the forms of marriage the definition would allow.
Temporary marriage. No-fault divorce laws have already degraded the meaning of marriage — moving marriage toward a new definition even before the homosexual-marriage movement. But once the possibility of a family is taken out of the definition of marriage altogether, there is no reason for marriage to even attempt permanence. If marriage is simply a romantic sexual arrangement, how can any sexual affairs or periodic cohabitation arrangements be excluded?
Paid marriage. And if marriage isn't permanent, by what logic can it exclude sexual or cohabiting arrangements that are paid for? How do we argue that temporary unions for the sake of citizenship aren't marriages? Why shouldn't these also be recognized by law and respected as marriages?
Group marriage. Once sexual expression rather than family-building is the basis of marriage, what's to prevent bigamy or polygamy? Once marriage is redefined as romance, the courts could no longer rationally claim that marriage is essentially between two people.
The new definition of marriage is endlessly malleable because it is based on a theory of what the world could or should be. The old definition is simple and strong, because it was shaped by the moral code and real experiences of men and women through the ages.
The new definition doesn't discriminate, and so it invites abuse.
The old definition is tethered to a moral principle that is true: Human sexuality is meant to bond a marriage and build a family. Marriage is the way society ratifies and supports the decision of a man and a woman to stay together and raise children. In return, marriage then perpetuates and holds together society.
Much depends on the meaning of marriage. Defined robustly and defended doggedly, it is the basis of civilization. If it is lost, much will be lost — and it will only be recovered through years of pain and difficulty.
Pope John Paul II has said, “Families will be the first victims of the evils that they have done no more than note with indifference.” Also, Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family has recently been issuing dire warnings that the federal marriage amendment is in trouble because Christians and Catholics aren't telling their legislators that they support it. Find out who your representatives are at www.vote-smart.org and then contact them with your concerns.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:Religion and Rights
A friend of mine who is a lawyer and a student of the U.S. Constitution sent me this little note. I think it is worthwhile to spread this information and let people have a weapon in an argument about God and country:
“There can be no justification by the Supreme Court to ever determine that the Founding Fathers of this country and each and every state did not acknowledge God. There is no doctrine of constitutional construction that supports a separation of the people of this nation from God. A public recognition of this truth does not violate any so-called separation of church and state. The original decision written by Justice Felix Frankfurter was flawed. The Constitution reads: ‘Congress shall make no law regarding an establishment of religion,’ which is vastly different than his reference to the First Amendment, wherein he wrote that the Constitution read: ‘Congress shall make no law concerning the establishment of religion.’ Changing that one word has created a monster that is being used to shut down our nation from acknowledging God as the source of all our good.”
I am going to try to get as many people as possible to read this bit of wisdom.
JOSEPH M. WAGNER
Liberty, Maine
More Girl Scout Boycotts
In the March 21-27 edition of the Register, you included a caption under Media Watch titled “Girl Scout Boycott Works.” Unfortunately, I have discovered the exact opposite is true.
Though Girl Scouts in Waco, Texas, broke their ties with Planned Parenthood, similar relationships are present nationwide. Perhaps the most disturbing part of this ordeal is the fact that Girl Scouts of America openly acknowledges these relationships.
Our Girl Scout troop has been sponsored by a Catholic parish for 10 years. When we learned about the connection between Planned Parenthood and Girl Scouts in Waco, Texas, from a local newspaper, we decided to research the matter further. We found a statement by Girl Scouts’ chief executive officer Kathy Cloninger, which aired on national television as part of a “Today” show interview.
In response to the boycott in Texas, Cloninger said, “We have relationships with our church communities, with YWCAs and with Planned Parenthood organizations across the country to bring information-based sex education to the girls.” This so-called information-based sex education has been known to include booklets that mention “nine good reasons that women have abortions.”
I realize many Catholic parishes throughout the nation sponsor Girl Scout troops. CYO offers many opportunities for scouts to integrate their Catholic faith into scouting primarily through religious-medal programs. I encourage parishes to research and discuss this matter.
Though our council claims uncertainty of its own ties to Planned Parenthood, we feel that to wear a Girl Scout uniform, recite the Girl Scout Promise and Law and serve in the name of Girl Scouts shows support for a morally corrupt organization. The mane of Girl Scouts intermingled with that of Planned Parenthood blatantly disrespects the values and beliefs pro-life individuals.
After 10 years together, our troop came to the decision that as a group of Catholic young women we could no longer in good conscience participate in Girl Scouts. Perhaps the way for pro-life girls and parents to get their message across would be to boycott membership as well as cookie sales.
CRYSTAL MARINE CRUZ
Bremerton, Washington
Open Letter to John Kerry
Dear Sen. Kerry:
I am a lifelong Democrat and a Catholic. I fervently desire an alternative to the destructive domestic and global policies of our current president, and I fear the consequences for our country if he is re-elected. … But I'm disturbed by your position on abortion.
I think it's been a terrible mistake for the Democratic Party to champion what the Pope calls the culture of death. I'm not naïve enough to think that all or even most committed Republicans are pro-life in the true sense; I believe it's politically expedient for them to espouse the pro-life cause, but I doubt they want more poor children, especially black or Latino children, around. After all, Medicaid paid for abortions up until very recently, which pretty much tells the story. Still, it's no less expedient for the Democrats to champion legal abortion. To conflate the willful destruction of human life with women's and human rights is cynical at best. Why isn't our party actively seeking alternatives to abortion?
I'm wondering how you reconcile being Catholic while remaining committed to abortion rights. Abortion is the easy way out of social problems that would take time, money and committed policy study to fix, but isn't it our duty as Catholics to follow the social teachings of the Church and address those issues?
Please understand that I'm not writing to you as a right-wing, one-issue Catholic zealot. I grew up in a progressive, post-Vatican II family. I'm also a woman who has had an abortion. I can tell you firsthand that it is not the solution, and I believe women have been betrayed by the Democratic Party's fervent insistence on a woman's “right to choose.” It has hurt the Democratic Party more than helped it to espouse abortion rights — the proof is in the results of the 2000 and 2002 elections: Most Americans support pro-life candidates. The right to abort is not really a right at all, and it should not be the issue in an election on which so much else rides. What we really need is the right to raise our children without fear of poverty or neglect. I believe it's your responsibility as the de facto Democratic nominee to explore alternatives to abortion on demand.
Is there not some way that you can begin to turn toward the real support of life? I hope you will consider it and address these issues.
JULIA GRELLA
New York, New York
Palestinian-Christian Voice
In your story “Holy Land Christians Decry Assassination” (April 4-10), you stated that Christians observed the three-day mourning period declared by Yasser Arafat for Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. One deluded Palestinian Christian even stated that Yassin — who planned many massacres — was “not a violent man.”
What are Catholics in North America to think? It is hard for any of us (Americans included) to transcend our national allegiances, but the tacit support by Palestinian Christians for those who use mass murder as a political tool is disturbing.
Given the horrible oppression of Christians under Islamic rule, one wonders if Christians living under the Palestinian Authority are free to disagree with Arafat. If, for instance, the coffee-shop owner you quoted were to point out that only under Israel's control has Jerusalem been open to all three monotheistic faiths, what would happen to him?
Perhaps if the Latin patriarch were not perceived as a good friend of the terrorist Arafat, Palestinian Christians might develop an independent voice.
DON KENNER
Catholic Friends of Israel
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: The Rest of the Story on Roe DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:“Blackmun's Roe v. Wade Was Almost Overturned” (March 28-April 3) told how the 1992 Supreme Court case Planned Parenthood v. Casey nearly overturned the case that legalized abortion.
Many people don't know that the original Roe case was nearly dismissed. When Notre Dame law professor Douglas Kmiec reviewed the papers of another of the Roe justices, Justice Thurgood Marshall, he found that Justice William Douglas saw abortion as an extension of his 1965 [Griswald vs. Connecticut] opinion invalidating a Connecticut law limiting the use of artificial contraception.
The papers show that the Roe justices could not agree about what method of analysis to apply or even agree on a position clear enough to take a vote in conference.
Blackmun suggested the court declare the Texas law prohibiting abortion vague and dismiss the case. Because new members came onto the court after Roe v. Wade's original argument, the case was reargued. Douglas arranged a consensus, because he didn't want to risk losing his majority on re-argument.
Blackmun wrote that this case was decided with “arbitrary” rationale. It was not discernment of the law of the land but arbitrary choice that accounted for the result in Roe.
Kmiec learned that none of the justices claimed there is a specific textual guarantee of abortion to be found anywhere in the constitutional document. He said the internal drafts acknowledge that the abortion claim finds no legitimacy within the background principles of common law, out of which the Constitution emerged.
COLLEEN REILLY
Lebanon, Pennsylvania
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Right to Choose Common Sense DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:As reported in the Register, Texas recently passed a law requiring increased information about abortion to women considering abortion.
Beginning Jan. 1, women seeking abortions in Texas must wait at least 24 hours after making their appointment and receiving a 21-page brochure, A Woman's Right to Know. One might naïvely think promoting informed choice would be an unambiguous good. The controversy over this law, a law that does not prohibit a single abortion, suggests something is at stake besides information.
The right to abortion is but one facet of the wider right to reproductive freedom or “reproductive self-determination,” as Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood, sometimes calls it. “Reproductive freedom” means the right to unlimited sexual activity without pregnancy.
This freedom is unlike any other. It amounts to a demand to suspend the laws of cause and effect to obtain what we want. Pregnancy is one of the natural consequences of sexual activity. The claim that we have a government guarantee of reproductive freedom is a claim we are entitled to avoid this natural consequence.
Americans don't usually think of freedom in these terms. We don't think freedom of movement means the right to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge and not die. Freedom of assembly isn't an entitlement for an entire fraternity to fit inside a telephone booth. Freedom of speech can't mean the right to say anything we want and still have friends. No court of law could grant such rights.
Eating is a good and necessary thing, and everyone is entitled to eat. But we don't think everyone is entitled to eat anything they want and never get fat, heart disease, high blood pressure or any other natural consequence of overeating. (Come to think of it, considering the number of overweight people waddling around America, maybe some people do.) Calling it “gastronomical freedom” doesn't make it realistic. It isn't any more realistic to claim a right to unlimited sexual activity with a government guarantee of never becoming pregnant.
Because every form of contraception sometimes fails, the abortion license is indispensable to this peculiar concept of freedom. This also accounts for the pro-choice resistance to information about possible negative side effects to abortion despite abortion supporters’ protestations that abortion is just another elective medical procedure. The entitlement they claim is not to abortion per se but to unlimited sexual activity without unwanted pregnancy. If there are significant side effects to abortion, what becomes of this right to reproductive self-determination?
Imagine a young woman who absorbs the cultural message that she is entitled to sexual activity without pregnancy. She becomes pregnant and comes in for an abortion. The doctor goes down a list of possible side effects and says, “You have a family history of breast cancer and a personal history of depression. As your doctor, I must inform you that there is evidence of increased risk of both breast cancer and depression associated with abortion. I advise against abortion. We ought to explore other solutions to your problem.” This woman might very well feel cheated of her “right” to sexual activity without pregnancy.
This is why evidence of negative consequences of abortion creates such consternation for the abortion lobby. There is no constitutional right to be free from depression. But there is a constitutional right to be free from an unwanted pregnancy. There is no right to choose to avoid getting breast cancer. But there is a right to privacy that amounts to a right to avoid bearing a child. The Supreme Court assured us in the 1972 case Eisenstadt v. Baird, “If the right of privacy means anything, it is the right to be free from unwarranted government intrusions into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child.”
The court says the right is about being free from government intrusion. Fair enough. But the phrase “decision whether to bear or beget a child” creates the image that fertility decisions are similar to consumer decisions that people perfectly control. I pay the money, I get the car. By contrast, the fertility decision is inherently probabilistic. Even though I can take steps to increase or decrease the odds of bearing or begetting a child, I am not truly entitled to control the outcome. But the court's language creates the impression that I am so entitled.
And that is why providing women with information became so controversial in Texas. Pro-life legislators wanted to list every reported side effect while abortion advocates wanted a much more muted presentation of these possibilities. The conflict in Texas is a replay in miniature of the conflict that erupts repeatedly over research studying negative effects from abortion. The need to defend the concept of reproductive freedom makes it almost impossible to view the evidence dispassionately.
Many, perhaps most, Americans regard contraception as the greatest thing since sliced bread. But this technology just changes the probability that conception will result from a particular act of sexual intercourse. Americans don't usually think economic freedom means getting the amount of money we want. We don't think political freedom means having our preferred candidates win every election. But we have convinced ourselves that “reproductive freedom” means getting the reproductive outcome we want. It is not contraception but unlimited, low-cost abortion that makes this claim even remotely plausible.
The possibility of serious side effects from abortion makes the idea of reproductive freedom truly unbelievable. And that is why a little pamphlet such as A Woman's Right to Know created so much acrimony. Scary information about abortion dissipates the smoke and breaks the mirrors that are so essential in creating the illusion of reproductive freedom.
Jennifer Roback Morse is a researchfellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of Love & Economics: Why the Laissez-Faire
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jennifer Roback Morse ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: How the U.S. Supreme Court Is Waging War on Marriage DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
These words, which most educated Americans will instantly recognize as the preamble to their Constitution, represent the fortuitous coincidence of great ideas and beautiful prose.
America is a society of “people.” She is not a loose aggregate of individuals. She is a “union,” not a collectivity of fragments. She wants “domestic tranquility,” not discord between intransigent individualists. She is dedicated to “posterity,” not with satiating herself in the present.
The preamble makes it clear enough, as it enumerates its list of great philosophical ideas, that it recognizes man as a social being, one who fulfills himself, attains his happiness and discovers his meaning not in isolation from others but through ordered cooperation with his fellow citizens. The Founding Fathers of the Constitution did not contemplate that it would ever be necessary to amend the spirit of the Constitution that its preamble embodies.
So it would seem. But the sword can be mightier than the shield.
In 1973, by a 7-2 vote, Roe v. Wade found something no one else had found for nearly 200 years, “implied in the penumbra of the Constitution,” namely, a woman's right to abortion established on her right to “privacy.”
It was, in the view of dissenting Justice Byron White, “an act of raw judicial power,” the kind of highly politicized judgment that Justice Edward Curtis had inveighed against. There is no such provision in the Constitution or in constitutional principle. Constitutional lawyer John Noonan Jr. states in his book that bears the intentionally sardonic title, A Private Choice, that Roe v. Wade reduced the woman to “a solo entity unrelated to husband or boyfriend, father or mother … She was conceived atomistically, cut off from family structure.” The legal and cultural processes advancing the “institutionalization of individualism” were well on their way.
Justice Harry Blackmun, who wrote the majority decision in Roe v. Wade, wrote the dissenting position 13 years later in another deeply significant case, Bowers v. Hardwick (1986). In this case, the issue before the court centered on the constitutionality of laws against sodomy. By a 5-4 vote, laws against sodomy were upheld.
Blackmun, in his dissent, citing Olmstead v. United States (1928),argued that “the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men [is] the right to be let alone.” He reiterated his own principle articulated in Roe v. Wade about the “right to privacy” and cited, approvingly, another pro-abortion decision that stated, “[T]he concept of privacy embodies the moral fact that a person belongs to himself and not others nor to society as a whole” (Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 1977).
Blackmun's willingness to reduce all human beings — or at least, American citizens — to the curious state of nonsocial individual atoms contradicts not only the spirit of the Constitution as embodied in the preamble but also contradicts what we know about the intrinsically and ineradicably social nature of the human person.
“It is not good for man to be alone” has far more than a theological ring. It is the common agreement of psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists, historians and anthropologists that the human being is a person who is simultaneously unique and communal. If there is a “moral fact” it is that a human being is not an island of liberty, an atom of autonomy, but a person who expresses his integrity and realizes his authenticity in the context of a society.
It is surely not in the spirit of the Constitution to disenfranchise people from the status of being “people” while reducing them to the status of mere individuals. The Constitution does not contain within itself a provision for self-implosion.
The majority in Bowers v. Hardwick upheld anti-sodomy laws — including those that proscribed homosexual sodomy — in part, because it was in the interest of preserving the good of the family to do so. Responding to this contention, Blackmun offered a most astonishing line of thinking, arguing, “We protect those rights not because they contribute, in some direct or material way, to the general public welfare, but because they form so central a part of an individual's life.”
“We protect the family,” he wrote, “because it contributes so powerfully to the happiness of individuals, not because of a preference for stereotypical households.”
Putting aside his impertinent and cynical description of the family as a “stereotypical household,” what is more significant in this analysis is Blackmun's facile reduction of the joys of family life to the segregated joys of its component individuals.
He speaks of “the ability independently to define one's identity,” as if a man becomes a husband without a wife or a wife becomes a mother without a partner who fathers the child and a married couple attains parenthood apart from having children.
The family, properly understood, is an organic unity. It represents shared life, what the ancient Greeks meant by the word“zoe,” as opposed to “bios,” their word for unshared life as it exists within each individual living thing.
Neither Blackmun nor his like-minded kin seem to be able to grasp the notion of a bond, as it appears, for example, in the “bond of matrimony,” in which two people willingly and often happily begin to live as a two-in-one flesh couple, or husband and wife, or as two who are joined together in wedlock in such a way that they share their life together, no longer as purely distinct individuals but as a union of two persons. A married couple is not a “juxtaposition of solitudes” but a “communion of persons.”
The absolutization of liberty conceived as independence from everything was not achieved, however, until 1992 when, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the majority informed the “people of the United States” that “at the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe and the mystery of human life.” Given such spacious and unchecked liberty, legal analysts were left to ponder whether it rendered the rule of law either obsolete or unenforceable.
Can the “rule of law” survive in a nebulous atmosphere that is simultaneously antinomian, acosmic and asocial? Did the framers of the Constitution envision the typical American exercising his freedom within a solitary dream world or by his contribution to the common good?
Justice Antonin Scalia would later refer to this allusion to unbridled liberty as the “passage [that] ate the rule of law.” Such wooly thinking, writes Robert Bork in Slouching Towards Gomorrah (1996), was “intended, though grandiose rhetoric, to appeal to a free-floating spirit of radical autonomy.”
And at the close of The Tempting of America (1990), he offered sober advice to judges who have fragmented the human being into a private and asocial atomic unit: “Those who made and endorsed our Constitution knew man's nature, and it is to their ideas, rather than to the temptations of utopia, that we must ask our judges to adhere.”
The Casey ruling rendered “invalid” the claim that a husband be notified about the impending abortion of his children in the womb. Such a claim, the court said, “constitutes an undue burden” on the pregnant woman.
“It cannot be claimed,” the court went on to declare, “that the father's interest in the fetus’ welfare is equal to the mother's protected liberty.” Here the woman's liberty to kill trumps her husband's fatherly responsibility to protect the life of his own child. In so stating, the court unravels marriage by creating such a broad disparity between husband and wife that marriage in the form of a unity of two equal persons is no longer viable.
The court emphasized this point in its declaration that a marriage in which the father should be notified about the impending abortion of his child is “repugnant to this court's present understanding of marriage and the nature of the rights secured by the Constitution.”
If this decision is not tantamount to the court's opinion that marriage is essentially unconstitutional, it is exceedingly and dangerously close. And this narrow gap was made even smaller by the 2003 Lawrence et al. v. Texas decision that overturned the Bowers v. Hardwick ruling.
Writing for the majority in the Lawrence case, Justice Anthony Kennedy cited the infamous “mystery passage” (which Scalia lampooned as the “sweet-mystery-of-life passage”) as a way of explaining “the respect the Constitution demands for the autonomy of the person in making these choices [homosexual sodomy]. … Persons in a homosexual relationship may seek autonomy for their purposes, just as heterosexual persons do.”
The Lawrence decision, by finding a right to sodomy in the Constitution (but apparently not for marriage as it is properly understood), relied on a principle of liberty so broad that it would apply equally and logically to the right to homosexual marriage as well as to polygamy and incest. Nonetheless, the court pretends that such application will not obtain and that we need not fear the judicial imposition of homosexual marriage.
To this groundless claim, Scalia warns in his dissent, “Do not believe it.” After dismantling as morally significant the difference between heterosexual and homosexual congress, what reason is left for the court to deny the benefit of marriage to homosexual partners who, in their constitutionally protected liberty, choose to marry?
For Scalia, who in reference to this point is merely applying logic, there is none, but only “if one entertains the belief that principle and logic have nothing to do with the decisions of this court. Many hope that, as the court comfortingly assures us, this is so.”
John Noonan Jr. has pointed out, “The liberty of abortion became larger than any liberty located within the family structure.” Liberty preserves its value not when it is isolated from responsibility but only when it is wed to it.
It is not good for either man or liberty to be alone. In divorcing great ideas from their complementary and vivifying counterparts, the Supreme Court has created a dynamic rift that ever increasingly separates wife from husband, parents from children, family from society and individuals from the common good. It is a self-destructive process and desperately cries out for remedy.
The Supreme Court has been usurping the democratic process. “We should get out of this area, where we have no right to be,” Scalia writes in his dissent from the Casey ruling, “and where we do neither ourselves nor the country any good by remaining.”
Donald DeMarco is professor emeritus at St. Jerome's University and adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College & Seminry.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Donald DeMarco ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Media - A Problem of Habit DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:I was speaking with some students and media professionals at a Catholic university campus recently. They were quite concerned about the censorious pressure being applied to radio shock-jock Howard Stern.
They fear the government is forcing giant radio conglomerates such as Clear Channel and Infinity to drop Stern from their stations. This, they say with heavy condemnation, is government censorship of the airwaves!
It is not only so-called liberal academics who condemn what's happening.
Some self-professed conservatives are likewise nonplussed. I have heard both Rush Limbaugh and his San Diego-based fill-in, Roger Hedge-cock, rail against any “censorship” of the airwaves beyond individual listeners switching stations or hitting the off switch.
Howard Stern is popular. For years he has drawn large audiences for scores of radio stations. The self-proclaimed “king of all media” also has an apparently successful presence on late-night cable television, and his movie, Private Parts, was a financial success. If people are watching and listening — “voting with their feet,” as we say — is it wrong for congressional leaders to pressure stations into dropping Stern? Or canceling “Bubba the Love Sponge?” Does commercial success mean an entertainer should not be held accountable by the government licensing authority for what he says?
Does congressional brow-beating amount to a violation of constitutionally-protected free speech? Is a sudden ten-fold increase in the maximum limit for indecency fines an abuse of power?
As a sometime broadcaster and student of the media, I argue No.
First, I argue as a parent. Consider Stern's standard fare. How does one describe it for a family-oriented Catholic publication? From what I have observed, Stern's program largely consists of schemes to lure young women into his studio so they can remove their clothes. He has done this so much and for so long that the young women now apparently seek him out as a way to gain media, um, exposure. Which is apparently considered a good in itself.
As a parent, do I want my son driving to school, flipping on the radio and having Howard Stern fill his imagination with lust? Of course not. Do I as a parent have any control over what my son would listen to in my absence?
Of course not. I have even less control over what my son or daughter would hear if he or she were carpooling with someone else's child.
The argument that I can simply “turn off the station” is a fantasy. As much as I try to keep the media my children consume consistent with the Catholic, Christian values we foster in our home, I lose all power in that regard as soon as they are out of my sight. Let us not forget that a short generation ago, our parents could trust that with very rare exceptions, we could watch television or listen to the radio without putting our innocence at risk. Now? No way.
I would be more than delighted if indignant congressmen could get us back to that day. I'm afraid it will take the power of about a zillion rosaries.
Second, I take issue with the notion that popularity equals acceptability. In a sense, this is what we're stuck with ever since the Supreme Court decided that matters of indecency are essentially undefinable impressions. They determined that the only viable criterion is “local community standards.”
Standards for one community, such as the New York City metro listening area, are certainly a far cry from the standards for my home, my church, my children's school — in effect, my community. And yet the omnipresence of the media renders the standards of my community meaningless. Harumph.
Finally, there is the brilliantly common-sensical logic of Aristotelian ethics. Stay with me on this one. Aristotle says we develop virtues or vices according to our habits. When a person always does what is good by habit and loves to do so, that person has acquired a virtue. If someone knows the good and does it but still struggles with temptation, that person is what Aristotle calls “morally strong.”
If a person knows what is good but does what is bad, he is “morally weak.” And when moral weakness becomes a habit, he loses any sense he is doing wrong. He has a vice.
If I listen to or view indecent programming, at first I can sense it is bad. But if I am morally weak and stay with it, it can easily become a vice. Then I lose any sense that there's a problem with the indecency I consume.
Do the federal authorities that grant broadcast licenses have any responsibility to me as a parent? You bet they do. They have an obligation to help me raise my children — or at least see that public airwaves are not abused in a way that threatens my parenting. There are plenty of other media outlets — heaven knows how many! — where indecency can have free reign. Congress and the FCC, let's please put an end to the senselessness of a broadcasting culture blinded by its own (and its viewers’) bad habits.
Jay Dunlap writes from Hamden, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jay Dunlap ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Sprit adn Life DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:Wedding Bell Blues
A colleague of mine — let's call her Beth — recently approached me with a very difficult situation.
Her brother, whom we'll call David, had come through a devastating divorce. He had spent several years praying for reconciliation, but his wife remarried and she was not coming back. He'd grieved terribly over the turn of events and turned to God and the Church for comfort.
David was still young and could not imagine living the rest of his life alone. He filed for an annulment but was told he did not have a case. It was not hard to empathize with a good man who could not believe God wanted him to live “a life of loneliness” all because of his wife's sin. He began dating a woman in his divorce-support group. They soon fell in love and wanted to marry.
Beth did not know what to say to him. She loved her brother with all her heart. Beth had told David she did not know if she would be able to attend his wedding if he went ahead with his plans. She spelled out that Christ's teaching, through the Church, was clear: David would be living in grave sin if he remarried without an annulment.
Beth came to me when she was having second thoughts. She was feeling afraid to follow through on what she had told her brother, for she knew her absence from his wedding would hurt David deeply. It would ruin a very good adultsibling relationship, too.
I gently reminded Beth that our faith does not consist of feelings or what we might personally think is right or wrong but on the reality that the Church is sustained by Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit. We must trust in her wisdom for the good of our salvation and the effectiveness of our sanctification.
When David married, he took a vow to love his wife as his own body — to love her as Christ loves his bride, the Church. Jesus suffered for those who would love him and for those he knew would reject him. David made a vow to his wife to love her through sickness and health, and for better or for worse. He vowed to be Christ to her.
Whether his wife suffers from sickness of the soul or the body, the hard truth is that he is still bound to her in marriage. If the sacrament of matrimony was validly confected and received, nothing either spouse does can undo it before God. Even David's wife's walking out on him cannot undo the sacrament in God's eyes. God respects our free will that much.
God might be calling David to take up his cross and inter-cede for his wife's soul through prayer and sacrifice. Many say this is not fair. God's ways are just, but they're not necessarily “fair.”
We condone sin by our silent acceptance of it. If Beth attends David's wedding, she is showing she supports him in his decision to sin. So it is that, in reality, to not attend is the greater act of love.
Living out our Catholic faith can be hard. To be like Christ, we must die to ourselves and accept the will of the Father, just as he did. Sadly, many otherwise good Catholics are afraid to stand up for the truth. They're afraid they might hurt someone they love. Or they fear being rejected. Yet Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for yours is the Kingdom of God.”
We are called to proclaim the truth no matter how painful it might be for us or for the people we are called to proclaim it to.
The truth is sometimes hard — but it alone can set us free.
Jackie Oberhausen writes from Fort Wayne, Indiana.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jackie Oberhausen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: 'Jesus, We Trust in You' DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:Because the feast of Divine Mercy has special significance for my wife, Mary, and me, we were eager to visit the Archdiocesan Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Baltimore.
We had heard good things about the site prior to our visit. What we hadn't anticipated was the astonishing beauty of Holy Rosary Church, in which the shrine is located. Nor had we been clued in on how the shrine connects in a unique way to Divine Mercy Sunday — celebrated the second Sunday of Easter — and St. Faustina, Jesus’ Apostle of Divine Mercy who brought his divinely merciful message to the world.
The shrine celebrated its first Mercy Sunday on the very day Sister Faustina was beatified: Oct. 5, 1993. And the miracle that got her declared a saint happened right in this very church on her Oct. 5 feast two years later. After Mass that day the pastor, Father Ronald Pytel, venerated a first-class relic of Faustina. Then he “rested in the Spirit.” Parishioners had been asking Faustina to intercede for Father Pytel, who had a seriously damaged heart that surgery had failed to repair. One of the country's top cardiovascular experts said the priest would never resume a normal schedule.
In short, Father Pytel's heart returned to normal — to that of a 19-year-old, in fact. Doctors, including the world's foremost cardiovascular expert, declared in Rome on Nov. 16, 1999 (the feast of Our Lady of Mercy, the name of Faustina's order of nuns), that the healing was medically unexplainable. Rome accepted this miracle for Faustina's canonization, which followed on April 30, 2000 — making Faustina the first saint of the third millennium. Father Pytel concelebrated the canonization Mass with Pope John Paul II.
In light of this, we weren't totally surprised to find out that Father Pytel grew up in this Polish parish, was ordained in this church and remained its pastor until he died last Nov. 3 of cancer at age 56. In fact, he designed this current Shrine of Divine Mercy, the official archdiocesan one, in a chapel off the nave. The new shrine was dedicated April 6, 1997, and includes the area in the nave that encompassed the original shrine founded in 1993.
We were delighted to learn that, during the Philadelphia Eucharistic Congress in August 1976, a certain Polish cardinal came here to pray with parishioners to the Divine Mercy. This was long before the world knew of the devotion — and more than two years before that very Polish cardinal became Pope John Paul II. A wall plaque by the shrine marks the occasion.
Rays of Hope
What a wondrous place to pray this is. From either the nave looking into the serene shrine or from entering the shrine chapel itself, we see the message of Divine Mercy captured and presented very beautifully and directly.
In a mural we see Jesus as the Divine Mercy on one side and St. Faustina on the other. Jesus has a welcoming smile as he raises one hand in blessing. With the other he points to his heart, from which emanate the rays of blood and water toward us. Faustina gestures toward Jesus, the Divine Mercy himself, as she looks toward us. Her gesture also takes in an actual golden tabernacle inserted at the center of the mural. The rays from Jesus’ heart pass through the tabernacle, which itself has golden rays radiating from the host at its center to Faustina and us. The Blessed Sacrament is reserved in this tabernacle as well as in the one behind the main altar in the church. The message of the rays and the Blessed Sacrament couldn't be clearer.
Likewise the “signature,” as Jesus defined it to Faustina, that's scripted in Polish at the bottom of the Divine Mercy mural: Jezu, ufam Tobie! — Jesus, I trust in you! There are votive candles and kneelers for prayer by the mural. One contains a first-class relic of St. Faustina for veneration.
This handsome edifice, dedicated on April 15, 1928, is a vision in granite —Woodstock granite, with twin square towers anchoring the façade. Above the three graceful arches and rose window of the main entry, our Blessed Mother holding the Child Jesus stands in a n iche. She looks so friendly, beckoning to visitors to come in.
The church made headlines in architectural magazines of the time because it was designed using steel arches that eliminated the need for pillars, except for a couple supporting the choir loft. Nothing obstructs a view of the altar for the 2,000 people filling the pews.
The unhindered views allow long and careful study of a visual catechism. We were reminded once again that there's something about resplendent Old World liturgical art that spontaneously lifts heart, mind and spirit in prayer like nothing else can. Along the ceilings, for instance, there are paintings of angels unfolding scrolls with titles of the Blessed Mother written in Polish from her litany.
Defying Description
The tall stained-glass windows that also line the nave were fashioned in Reading, Pa., of glass imported from Germany. Near them, the shining, polychrome bas-relief Stations of the Cross with Polish inscriptions practically glow.
Murals on the arches spanning the wide sanctuary and the choir loft reflect heavenly realities mirrored in earthly scenes. The stunning marriage of Joseph and Mary is a rare scene. On the other side of the arch is the holy death of Joseph, with Jesus and Mary keeping watch.
We didn't get to hear the magnificent Moeller organ encased in solid mahogany, but we did admire its regal appearance. Then we did our best to imagine what its pipes must add to the angelic ambience when played by a master musician.
There's more — too much to describe. One thing that deserves special mention is a room off the vestibule with shrines to St. Thérèse of Lisieux and St. Anthony. Between them is a purgatorial altar with a striking bas-relief, in color, of a priest saying Mass before Jesus crucified, ministering angels and holy souls.
Praying for the latter, by the way, is itself an act of mercy — one Jesus, the Divine Mercy himself, must look on with special delight in this shrine.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Archdiocesan Shrine of the Divine Mercy, Baltimore ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, APRIL 18
Mercy Sunday Shows
EWTN, all day
Jesus told St. Faustina, “I desire that the feast of mercy be a refuge and a shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. … The soul that will go to confession and receive holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment.” All-day coverage includes, live at noon, the solemn Mass from Stockbridge, Mass.
SUNDAY, APRIL 18
This Week in History: War of Independence
History Channel, 10 a.m.
This show returns us to the 1770s and 1780s when liberty-loving Americans, along with our Catholic allies France and Spain, challenged the British Empire — and won.
MONDAY, APRIL 19
My Father, the Baseball Player
ESPN Classic, 7 p.m.
Relatives of home-run kings Babe Ruth and Roger Maris, and other baseball legends such as Walter Johnson, tell about their family life. At 10 p.m., “Roger Maris, Reluctant Hero” profiles a baseball great who also was a fine Catholic and family man.
MONDAY, APRIL 19
American Experience: Patriots Day
PBS, 9 p.m.
Every April 19, re-enactors on Patriots Day in Boston salute the heroic civilians of Lexington and Concord who rose up to fight off the British Army in 1775.
TUESDAY, APRIL 20
Nova: World in the Balance
PBS, 9 p.m.
Catholic viewers won't accept many conclusions here but will be happy to hear “experts” admit that in the United States, Europe and Japan, the population rate is not only not exploding — but is, in fact, im ploding.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21
Structures of Glory, I and II
Travel Channel, 4 p.m.
This two-part, two-hour special shows us monuments, memorials and other famous sites and discusses the designers of some structures.
THURSDAY, APRIL 22
The Colorado: River of Wonders
Travel Channel, 8 p.m.
This new special guides us through the scenic six national parks that rest beside the Colorado River in the American Southwest.
THURSDAYS-FRIDAYS
Zebby's Zoo
Familyland TV
At 6:30 a.m. on Thursdays and 3:30 p.m. on Fridays, this half-hour show uses fun to help kids through age 5 absorb valuable lessons about life, including being good.
SATURDAY, APRIL 24
NFL Draft
ESPN, noon
Enjoy the suspense and surprises today (and tomorrow, same time) as National Football League teams hold their annual draft of the top college football players.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Heart of an Artist With an Eye on Evangelism DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:Cameron Smith enlisted a friend to help him answer a question:
What would Jesus have looked like from the shore as he delivered the parables in Matthew 13?
On a cold day off the North Carolina coast, Smith instructed his friend — a 32-year-old carpenter who dresses up as Jesus for his church's Passion play — to sit in a boat on the rocking water.
“Jesus wouldn't have appeared as an icon, with a halo or anything,” Smith mused. “I wanted to know how it would look as a scene to the people.”
The result is an oil painting of Jesus staring out from a boat, serene but serious, subtly beckoning. As Smith intended, everything in the painting points to one place; the waves and weeds fade to impressionistic fuzziness, but the air snaps into sharp clarity as it brushes Jesus’ face.
“What Cameron does in his art is bring an image that reflects Christ as Cameron views him,” says Father Dan Oschwald, who has watched the artist progress in faith. “But [it's] also an image that invites us who are in search of an image that speaks of who Christ is.”
Just as Christ is the center of the painting, “Christ is the center of my life,” says the young Catholic artist from picturesque Lake Waccamaw, N.C., who founded Smith Catholic Arte in 2002. “I think that even all the pieces that aren't necessarily religious come from spirituality, because I see art as being essentially spiritual. Art comes directly from the Holy Spirit, so anything that's really art is therefore spiritual.”
Catholic Vein
Two years ago Smith and wife Kristen traveled to Rome, bearing a pencil drawing of Pope John Paul II that Smith started shortly after their marriage. “The Holy Father had been such an inspiration to us,” he explains. “His teaching was a guide for our engagement.”
At first Smith just gave copies to friends, but before long he was signing prints at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., and taking orders from other churches and bookstores.
In Rome they met a priest who had seen the print in the Philippines.
That print was his first identifiably Catholic piece. His works range from impressionistic to abstract to realistic; they're painted in watercolors, oils and acrylics. His gallery includes paintings of flowers, people leaning against buildings, groves of oak trees, patterned abstracts and portraits on commission. He even carves and decorates wooden frames for some of his work.
Since that first print, Smith has continued in the Catholic vein with prints of St. Pio de Pietrelcina and two more of the Holy Father. His print “Great Warrior” was featured on the cover of the Divine Word Missionaries catalog.
Continuing to develop a larger inventory of Christian art and limited-edition prints is exactly what Smith should concentrate on doing, says Peter Children, an art dealer who represented Vatican painter Jose Fuentes de Salamanca.
He first saw Smith's works on Smith's website — www.frangelico. org — and felt called to contact him, despite nearing retirement.
“I was stunned he was in his 20s. I thought maybe he was middle-aged,” says Children, who now represents the artist. “His work has a great maturity and speaks of reverence that's gained through age.”
Smith still relies on commissioned portraits of people's children and grandchildren to supplement his religious-art sales, although his heart and attention right now are poured into a painting of mother and child — based on Kristen and daughter Amelia — in a moment of tenderness, their close faces swirled in cerulean blues.
But fulfilling a vocational call doesn't always mean financial independence will follow. Although Kristen worked as a nurse to support her husband's artistic aspirations, last fall the couple took a hard look at reality and moved on to the latest in a string of supplemental professions.
Their search landed them at the Lake Waccamaw Boys Home, which provides a family setting for at-risk boys. Every other week the couple and their daughters move onto the campus and live as teaching parents for nine teen-age boys.
“All the doors have been opening and closing very quickly,” Smith says. “God has just remodeled our lives.”
Critic, Cabbie, Clown
As Smith recalls, he was a harsh critic by age 5. As his kindergarten teacher hung the students’ art projects around the classroom's perimeter, young Cameron found his own, a decorated paper bear edged with yarn, and was horrified.
“I thought I'd done so much better,” he remembers. “I was tormented.”
That same teacher told Smith's mother he would be an artist. She was right, in a way. He is indeed an artist but also counts cab driver, carpenter and circus clown among his past professions as he struggled to create, sell and make a name for himself in the fickle world of art.
Art was the mainstay in his life through the North Carolina State University School of Design and the opening of an art gallery with friends. But the money wasn't there and neither, Smith says in hindsight, was the discipline.
Before marriage and the start of his family, he had no obligations. He jumped around, always dedicated to becoming an artist but always “a little bit restless, like I wasn't ready to just paint.”
A job designing pre-show props with Ringling Brothers Circus led to clown college and a year of literal clowning around. Daily encounters with fans gave the introverted Smith an insight into success.
“People are people everywhere, and success is more of a personal thing rather than what other people think,” he says. “If you want to be successful, be approved of by God, not other people.”
He returned to the Carolina coast and settled down. Soon, painting held his attention for six to eight hours each day. He made his first big sale.
There are days, of course, when he doesn't want to paint, when discipline wrestles with his will. But after a few strokes his mind clears, progress happens and his thoughts refocus.
“I'll think about the subject, obviously, if it's the Holy Father or Padre Pio,” Smith says of painting, “and that'll lead to different theological thoughts or moral questions that I have. My mind usually stays in a real contemplative place.”
These thoughts often turn to his wife and daughters, the “great blessings” of his life. And, he has realized, “The more I paint, the more I'm inspired.”
Dana Lorelle writes from Raleigh, North Carolina.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dana Lorelle ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Director Peter Weir brings the sea-faring heroes of Patrick O'Brian's intelligent, thrilling historical novels to the screen in a film as masterful and commanding as the novels themselves.
Russell Crowe is effortlessly commanding as Captain Jack Aubrey while Paul Bettany projects erudite intelligence and sophistication as his friend Dr. Stephen Maturin. From the creak of the timbers to the bare feet of the men on the rigging, from the shattering course of a cannonball to the wincing exigencies of naval field surgery, Master and Commander is utterly persuasive.
Anachronistic attitudes and behavior are de rigeur in period films these days; slavish obeisance to focus groups and marketing strategy aims for the broadest, shallowest possible appeal and dumbed-down moral conflicts spell out what the audience should think. But this film charts a different course.
Weir hones the story of an extended naval engagement with a larger, more powerful enemy ship to laser-like intensity but also develops the story's moral and existential dimensions, inviting the viewer to ponder the issues.
A notable part of the historical context is the film's matter-of-fact Christian milieu. Aubrey is Anglican, Maturin Catholic and, though neither is devout, their Christian heritage remains part of who they are.
Content advisory: Bloody scenes of battle violence and field surgery; a suicide; somewhat profane language, a couple of rude jokes and brief obscenity.
Places in the Heart (1984)
Robert Benton's earnest, well-crafted Depression-era drama, set in a small Texas town where the director's family has lived for generations, contains few key plot points that haven't been clichés in a dozen other films. Yet in Benton's hands they have an immediacy and authority that makes them feel like the reality behind the clichés before they became clichés — as if this is the way things really were.
Sally Field stars as Edna Spalding, a wife and mother of two whose life is shattered by a sudden, pointless tragedy.
In the aftermath, she is confronted by a bewildering array of issues and crises she would never have imagined having to deal with. She must rise to the challenge of facing a condescending banker, a possibly shifty black drifter (Danny Glover) and an unwanted and ungrateful boarder (John Malkovich), all of whom are eventually somehow touched by grace.
There's also a realistic treatment of an adulterous affair involving Edna's sister's husband (Ed Harris), but unfortunately this never ties into the main story.
A coda depicting a Baptist-style communion service involves a surprising touch of magical realism suggesting the possibility of redemption and spiritual unity. This is a touching, thoughtful film.
Content advisory: A few disturbing scenes, including an accidental death, a vigilante murder and a scene of racist menace and violence; an adulterous affair (no sex or nudity).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: The St. Patrick's of South Florida? DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:NAPLES, Fla. — Eyebrows raised from coast to coast March 24 when Ave Maria University announced its intentions to build one of the largest Catholic churches in the country, bearing the largest crucifix in the world, on its new campus in Naples, Fla.
While it will not eclipse St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York or Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles in sheer size, the 60,000-square-foot Oratory of Ave Maria will accommodate 3,300 people. This will give it a greater seating capacity than any other Catholic church in the United States — including those giants.
A 60-foot red glass cross and 40-foot bronze corpus will be embedded in the 150-foot façade.
The sanctuary will be the “spiritual and physical centerpiece” of the university and town, said Ave Maria president Nicholas Healy.
“We want it to be beautiful, to be striking, to be a fitting symbol of our desire to glorify God,” he told the Register.
Scale models show the oratory's limestone foundation opening onto 3,000 tons of structural steel welded into arches. The walls will be clad in aluminum and glass to filter light into the sanctuary and nave, an effect that project designer Harry Warren of Cannon Design describes as “a contemporary rendition of a Gothic cathedral.”
“It's very unique,” said Warren, adding that the architecture is meant to follow the natural environmental features in southern Florida. “At night you'll be able to see it from several miles. It will be a landmark on the horizon.”
In the days following the announcement, Catholic discussion boards on the Internet quickly filled with comments and critiques. Opinions were decidedly mixed and, perhaps predictably, no consensus emerged.
In an interview with the Register, Duncan Stroik, professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame and editor of the journal Sacred Architecture, said: “This looks very retro in the sense of Catholic architecture, very 1950s. I'm surprised they'd do a mid-20th-century church for the 21st century.”
Echoing the ambivalence evident in the online discussions, Stroik added that he applauds the school for making the oratory the focus of the campus but questions whether the architecture will foster a sense of transcendence.
“I'm not sure there's a lot to draw students there to pray between Masses,” said the architect, who has designed numerous chapels and churches.
Not all the students are thrilled about the design, either. Bryan Jerabek, a senior and philosophy major, told the Register that, while he likes the idea of the Gothic-style arches, he doesn't care for the glass-and-metal exterior.
“It seems like it would have a very bright interior and be very distracting, not a good place for prayer or to capture that sense of mystery,” he said.
But Healy said it's a misconception that the oratory will be simply a big glass building. “It's not going to be glass. It was never intended to be glass,” he said.
The outside of the church, he pointed out, will be covered with cladding that will greatly diffuse the natural sunlight. Possible materials for the cladding include copper, aluminum and steel.
“Everyone understands that you can't have a glass building in Florida without stupendous heat buildup,” he said. The 20-foot limestone foundation will make it impossible to see directly outside from the wooden pews, he said.
Unlike the oratory, which was inspired by the work of Fay Jones and Frank Lloyd Wright, the rest of the campus’ buildings will be tame in design — concrete structures with clear glass and coated copper roofs. Among the 15 buildings called for in the first construction phase are a library, dormitories, an activities center and a school for grades K-12.
The oratory and campus will be completed by fall 2006. Current enrollment at the interim Florida location is 122 in its second semester; Healy said enrollment should eventually rise to 5,000.
The projected cost of the oratory is $40 million. In 2002, Domino's Pizza founder and Ave Maria chairman Tom Monaghan gave $200 million to fund the university. The Ave Maria campus in Ypsilanti, Mich., was founded in 1998.
The oratory will also serve as the church for the Town of Ave Maria, which could have a population of 20,000 to 30,000.
By definition, an oratory is a place of prayer, but generally it means a structure other than a parish church set aside by ecclesiastical authority for prayer and Mass. Because the oratory is affiliated with the university and not with the Diocese of Venice, Fla., school officials have applied to the diocese for permission to celebrate marriages, baptisms and funerals, and are awaiting a response.
Diocesan spokeswoman Gail McGrath confirmed the administration is working with Bishop John Nevins and said the diocese is excited about being home to the first major Catholic university founded in 40 years.
The oratory will be at the center of the school and town, connecting the two by an oval plaza in the style of many European cathedrals. Its basement will house a Eucharistic adoration chapel and 14 confessionals, one for each Station of the Cross, as well as burial crypts.
Despite the immense size — 300 feet long by 150 feet wide — Healy said that, if anything, the oratory might not be big enough.
“I think within a few years it's going to prove too small,” he predicted. “When you have a town of 20,000 people and 5,000 students at the university, and a good majority of them Catholic, then that church is going to be too small.”
Dana Lorelle writes from Raleigh, North Carolina.
----- EXCERPT: Ave Maria University unveils plans for a massive new church and crucifix ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dana Lorelle ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Truth's Tracks Led to Home DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:AN AMERICAN CONVERSION: ONE MAN's DISCOVERY OF BEAUTY AND TRUTH IN TIMES OF CRISIS by Deal W. Hudson
Crossroad, 2003 189 pages, $22.95 Available in retail and online bookstores.
“Converts are often asked to tell their stories,” writes Deal Hudson, well known as publisher of Crisis magazine and a commentator on culture and religion. “There are good reasons for telling them as well as a few bad ones. I am telling mine now to challenge readers to recognize the necessity of ongoing conversion in their own lives.”
So begins An American Conversion, Hudson's story of his journey from the Baptist tradition to the Catholic faith. Hudson's life as a Christian began in the 1960s when he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior as an 18-year-old philosophy student at the University of Texas. He would soon find it difficult to sustain that mixture of devout evangelical-Protestant faith and passion for intellectual life and the arts.
More than once he was warned that his scholarly pursuits could lead him away from a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Fully committed to both the Baptist tradition and the study of philosophy, Hudson decided to attend Princeton Theological Seminary because it offered courses in philosophy, the history of doctrine and the arts. “In fact,” he writes, “my visit to a local Southern Baptist seminary confirmed my intuition that the Baptist commitment to education was shackled by anything that was not explicitly tied to the study of Scripture. This fear was often refracted through a pompous denial of the arts and philosophy.”
While working with youth at the local Baptist assembly, Hudson would often use movies, theater and the arts in presenting the Gospel message. When these “suspect” activities proved upsetting to many, Hudson realized something had to give. The breaking point came when he decided to go to Pittsburgh to visit a friend, whom he had not yet met in person, who shared his love for the music of English composer Frederick Delius.
Hudson visited his musical friend but never “witnessed” to him. Upon his return, he told a Baptist friend about what had (or hadn't) happened. “Once again I was informed of my probably eternal resting place and of my musical friend's as well. In the car on the way back to Princeton I wept.”
Hudson soon began reading works by St. Augustine, including his Confessions and On The Trinity, both of which opened up doors to theological and philosophical insights he had not considered before.
Hudson's interest in Thomistic philosophy and the work of Jacques Maritain drew him even closer to the Catholic Church. A written correspondence with Catholic historian Dr. James Hitchcock helped answer questions about Church history and the role of the Second Vatican Council. When Hudson finally entered the Church, he took as his patron saint Thomas Aquinas: “I now bore his name, he was a part of me.”
Written with brevity and simple elegance, An American Conversion yields insights into the nature and appeal of fundamentalism, the meaning of happiness, the place of beauty, the necessity of philosophy and the place of the natural-law tradition of the Catholic Church. But the focus always returns to conversion: “I am still converting, no longer from evangelicalism, but from the stubborn self-regard that we all share in our fallen human nature. Conversion never ends, even for those who have always felt at home in the Church.”
A cradle Catholic could not have said it better.
Carl E. Olson, author of Will Catholics Be “Left Behind”?, writes from Eugene, Oregon.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carl E. Olson ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:Mass Marks Beginning
Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio led about 200 people through several fields to the spot where the church will stand. About 400 people participated in the Mass, some huddled under a tent.
The future church, made of glass, aluminum and steel, will seat 3,300 and display a 60-foot red-tinted glass cross with a 40-foot body of Jesus. The first phase of the project will begin in the fall or winter, the paper reported, and cover 960 acres. (See “The St. Patrick's of South Florida?” on this page.)
Fund Focus?
Budget constraints have forced changes to the campus' ministry efforts, according to chaplain and campus minister Father Bob Turner.
At a March 25 meeting, some students and faculty complained Focus was “not open to the views of non-Catholics and was insensitive to Catholics who were struggling to understand their faith,” the paper reported.
Other students and faculty, however, told of how they were positively affected by Focus.
Williams at Georgetown
His speech was the opening address to the Building Bridges seminar, a three-day meeting of Muslim and Christian scholars. The address focused on how differences in perceptions of religion could help foster dialogue between faiths, the school newspaper reported.
Regarding the inter faith split in the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches, Williams said: “I hope and pray for rein-tegration someday.”
Pope Challenges Youth
ASSOCIATED PRESS WORLDSTREAM, April 1 — Pope John Paul II challenged university students to make a “radical” choice for God in an April 1 address in St. Peter's Square.
“Certainly, love the world and do good, because the world is made by man. But at one point in life, you have to make a radical choice,” John Paul said. “Without denying anything that is an expression of the beauty of God or the talents you have received from him, you must know to side with Christ.”
Tens of thousands of youth gathered for music and prayer ahead of the April 4 World Youth Day ceremony.
New Trustees
FRANCISCAN UNIVERSITY, March 30 — Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, has announced the addition of religious and lay members to its board of trustees.
Third Order Regular Franciscan Father Christian Oravec, Patricia Lynch, Diane Brown and Dr. Charles Bentz were appointed March 30.
Father Oravec has been president of St. Francis University in Loretto, Pa., for 27 years. Lynch is currently on four other boards, including St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver. Brown is founder of the Marian Servants of the Divine Providence, a Florida-based lay association. Bentz is co-founder and vice president of Physicians for Compassionate Care, which seeks to repeal assisted-suicide laws.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Think Before 'Weighing In' DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:Family Matters
My wife is a wonderful woman and a devoted mother to our children. She has gained a significant amount of weight over the years, and I worry about her health. How can I express my concern to her in a tactful, caring way?
Oh, boy. We've tackled some lightweight issues such as cohabitation and contraception in this column, but now you've hit us with a real hot-button issue.
A deft balancing act is our recommendation here. On the one hand, you have a real, legitimate concern about your wife's health. This affects not only her but also her ability to be available for you and your children. On the other hand, women (and men, for that matter) can be extremely sensitive to comments about their appearance. Any words that you might have for her, no matter how lovingly they are spoken, could result in hurt feelings and tension. So a tightrope of love linking tact and truth needs to be walked here.
Remember the Scriptural advice to pull the log out of our own eyes before pointing out the speck in someone else's? Use this to reflect upon your own health habits. Ask yourself, “Do I need to lose any weight? Could I be eating more nutritious foods and less junk? Do I exercise on a regular basis?” If the answer to any of those questions is “No,” then your first priority is to change your own habits for the better. That act alone might be enough to encourage your wife to join you in a commitment to better health, all without you ever saying a word to her about her own weight issue.
Still, this might not be direct enough to have an impact. If that turns out to be the case, try inviting your wife to join you in your exercise routine. Be sure to do something she enjoys. You might like playing tennis, but she might prefer a brisk walk around the neighborhood, so go with that. Also, offer to do the grocery shopping for the family as well as some cooking for the family from time to time. That way, you give of yourself twice: first, in reducing her workload; second, in being able to buy and prepare foods for the family that are more healthful.
Finally, if these subtle approaches still aren't working, you might have to discuss the matter more directly. Pray for guidance before you broach the subject. Frame your concerns solely in terms of her health. Tell her how much you love her, how beautiful she is and, especially, how grateful you are to her for the sacrifice she made in bearing your children.
Ask her what you can do to help. Could you buy her a gym membership and watch the kids while she goes to an aerobics class? Perhaps an exercise machine for the home? Maybe she'd prefer joining a diet group?
No matter how you parse it, all she might hear is, “My husband thinks I'm grossly fat.” Reassure her with lots of kind words and affection that you are still glad you married her — you just want her around for as long as possible.
Tom and Caroline McDonald are co-directors of the family-life office for the Archdiocese of Mobile, Alabama.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tom and Caroline McDonald ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Hug for Health DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:Facts of Life
A new study shows that brief episodes of warm contact between married couples — such as hugging or talking quietly — can have benefits beyond emotional well-being. Such contact causes the human body to release oxytocin, a calming hormone. This can improve heart health, especially in women, according to Karen Grewen of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Source: USA Today, March 7
Register illustration by Tim Rauch
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Divine Mercy Every Day DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:Not for nothing did Pope John Paul II make Sister Faustina Kowalska the first saint of the third millennium.
For the simple Polish nun was not only a model of holiness and exemplary generosity, but she was also a special messenger for Christ.
In a series of private revelations from 1931 to 1938, later deemed by the Church to be authentic and not contradictory to the public revelation of Scripture in any way, Jesus asked Sister Faustina to be his secretary of Divine Mercy.
Following through on the instructions she said the Lord gave her, she brought the world the message that Jesus’ limitless mercy is available to even the greatest of sinners. Christ also asked Sister Faus-tina to show people how to draw upon his mercy by praying a new prayer, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and by venerating an image he gave of himself as the Divine Mercy. (The popular image shows Jesus with red and white rays emanating from his Sacred Heart; underneath are the words: “Jesus, I trust in you.”)
And he asked that a new feast of Divine Mercy be celebrated by the Church on the first Sunday after Easter. This the Holy Father made official the same day he canonized Sister Faustina — April 30, 2000.
Oceans of mercy and special graces are available for the claiming on what is now known simply as Divine Mercy Sunday. But Christ never said Divine Mercy was to be a one-day deal. To the contrary, he made it clear we're supposed to live out the Divine Mercy message all year long.
“We have to be vessels and icons of Divine Mercy in our daily lives,” says Dr. Brian Thatcher, who founded the Eucharistic Apostles of the Divine Mercy in 1995. “Our niche as Eucharistic Apostles is to help people understand that.” His group is a lay-outreach ministry of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception at the National Shrine of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Mass.
Thatcher had already given up his medical practice to spread the Divine Mercy message full time after a personal conversion. He was a wealthy physician living a fast-lane life that wasn't holy. But when personal troubles sent him to rock bottom, a friend sent literature on the Divine Mercy. Thatcher said what Jesus told St. Faustina struck him to the core of his heart: “The greater the sinner, the greater the right [he has] to my Divine Mercy.”
From one small group he started for studying the diary of St. Faustina — as integrated with Scripture, the Catechism and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy — a nationwide movement spread. Today the Eucharistic Apostles of Divine Mercy orchestrate Divine Mercy ministries and activities in 21 countries from their home base near Tampa, Fla. (For more on the group, see this week's ProLife Profile.)
Marian Father Seraphim Michalenko, who served as vice postulator for St. Faustina's cause during the canonization process, says we do well to note the close linking of Divine Mercy, Eucharistic adoration and respect for life.
“Actually, the message of Divine Mercy is very Eucharistic,” he says. “It leads to the Eucharist, and the chaplet can be thought of as an extension of the Eucharistic sacrifice. Its whole efficacy comes from the ongoing sacrifice of Jesus.”
Then, too, it is significant that the Eucharistic Apostles for Divine Mercy encourage people to pray for the end of the scourge of abortion in the world, Father Michalenko adds.
Like that group, the Mother of Mercy Messengers, based in San Antonio, also a lay-outreach ministry of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception, promotes the Divine Mercy message in myriad ways. But its main avenue of communication is drama.
“The beautiful thing about our ministry is we can take it to the parish level,” says Joan Maroney, who co-founded the ministry with her husband, David. “We help educate and inspire people about this message so it affects their lives. Then they can't help but share it with others.”
Mother of Mercy Messenger presenters reverently convey the merciful words of Jesus in the heart of St. Faustina's diary using lighting, background music, narration and a Marian Way of the Cross. Through the local pastor or a Marian priest traveling along with the group, the presentation includes exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and the sacrament of reconciliation.
“The program opens up the heart,” David Maroney says. “Then we find they can open their hearts in front of the Blessed Sacrament and in confession.”
The Maroneys also tailor presentations for Catholic schools and religious-education classes of all ages. However old the audience, the program always ends with the praying of the chaplet for the sick and dying, David says.
“The [Divine Mercy] image speaks to the pre-K children, too,” Joan adds. “One little 4-year-old left clutching his image and saying, ‘This is the bestest program I ever saw and I'm going to trust Jesus forever and ever and ever.’”
What that little lad might not yet understand is that the Church makes plenary and partial indulgences available to the faithful on Divine Mercy Sunday. For a concise summary of how to obtain them, go to ewtn.com/ Devotionals/mercy/summary.htm on the Internet.
Bringing Jesus’ mercy and peace to the sick and dying prompted Marie Romagnano, a registered nurse specializing in catastrophic care in New England, to found the Nurses of Divine Mercy.
The idea hit home on Sept. 11, 2001, when she was working at a Boston hospital as a burn and trauma nurse. “I realized the only thing we could do to help these people [in Manhattan] was by praying, specifically by using the Divine Mercy chaplet,” says Romagnano, who began an affiliation with the Marians of the Immaculate Conception at the national shrine in 1984. “The other nurses didn't know what the chaplet was.”
That day prompted her to write, with the help of Father Michalenko and several priests, a pocket-sized manual called Nursing with the Hands of Jesus: a Guide to Nurses for Divine Mercy. Published by the Marians at the national shrine in Stockbridge — and scheduled for release this very Divine Mercy Sunday, April 18 — the book shows all health care workers how to apply the Divine Mercy message and devotion to the care of the sick, injured and dying.
Interest in the new booklet is so high that the sister-director at Lourdes, France, will begin distributing the nurse's manual to the approximately 8,000 nurses and hospice caregivers who accompany pilgrims there yearly.
In years of work with catastrophic injury, Romagnano has come to believe in the powerful healing properties of the Divine Mercy Chaplet and St. Faustina's message.
“I'm thoroughly convinced that, in certain cases, Our Lord directly intervened,” she explains. “Several of my patients recovered miraculously.”
Romagnano tells about a former patient who was pinned under a tractor for eight hours. During six months in the hospital, four in intensive care, “his wife and I took turns praying,” she says. “Several times he was extremely close to death. One time he went into cardiac arrest. Against all odds, he pulled through.”
Romagnano finds even non-Catholic nurses and patients open to the Divine Mercy message. One non-Catholic family of a man dying from an industrial accident had a great devotion to Jesus. When she talked to them about Divine Mercy, the man's son taped the image on his father's chest and asked her to pray the chaplet for him.
The Divine Mercy message knows no bounds.
“We need to forgive, to change, to be merciful, to trust more, to understand the role of suffering in our lives,” Thatcher says. “We have to let those rays of blood and water that emanate from his pierced heart radiate out to us and, through us, to others.”
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Prolife Victories DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:Pro-Life Student Sues School
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 31 — A 14-year-old middle-school student in Florida is suing her school district because her school told her she couldn't hand out pro-life pamphlets at an upcoming pro-life day.
The student and her mother filed the lawsuit in Forth Myers on March 26. It states the district is violating her free-speech rights by not allowing her to hand out the pamphlets April 16, a day pro-lifers have designated a “day of remembrance,” the wire service reported.
The school district's attorney says it has a “blanket policy” against students distributing literature.
Judge: Pro-Life Signs Can Stay
District Judge Robert Timlin said not allowing the group to display their signs is unconstitutional. The stationary signs are about 3 feet tall and 5 feet wide and include a picture of a live baby and an aborted fetus.
City code enforcement officials had confiscated the signs twice, saying they violated the city's sign ordinance, the newspaper reported.
“There is little doubt,” Timlin wrote in his decision, “that [the protesters’] activities — placing large stationary signs on public sidewalks to express their opposition to abortion — are protected under the First Amendment.”
Fewer Abortions in Kansas
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 29 — Women in Kansas had fewer abortions last year than in any other year since 1991.
There were 11,697 abortions in the state last year, 147 fewer than in 2002, according to state Department of Health statistics. Kansas residents accounted for about half of those, 52.7%, with 6,163 abortions. In 1991, 6,070 Kansans had abortions in the state.
Women from other states — mostly Missouri — accounted for 5,534 abortions, or 47.3%, in Kansas in 2003, the wire service reported. Abortions by women age 15 to 19 declined for the fourth year in a row, to 2,005 last year.
Mary Kay Culp, executive director for Kansans for Life, said polls have found more and more young people opposed to abortion.
‘Right to Have a Conscience’
In January, an Eckard pharmacist refused to fill a “morning-after pill” prescription for a woman identified as a rape victim, the newspaper reported.
The American Pharmacists Association is defending the pharmacist's decision, citing a “pharmacist's right to exercise conscientious refusal,” according to Michael Stewart, a spokesman for the association.
“A pharmacist,” he said, “is like any doctor, nurse or other health-care professional who has a right to have a conscience.”?
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Eucharistically Pro-Life DATE: 04/18/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 18-24, 2004 ----- BODY:Prolife Profile
Dr. Brian Thatcher gave up his medical practice to found the Eucharistic Apostles of the Divine Mercy in 1995. It wasn't long after that he realized the need to link Divine Mercy with pro-life work.
He says his own conversion started at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shine in Mexico City.
“I was a wealthy medical physician who had it all materialistically, but I was not leading a holy life,” he says. “I looked outside and saw all the poor people smiling and singing and having a joy-filled day with Our Lady, and here I was, this rich American crying and searching for meaning in my life.”
The turnaround came after he learned and took to heart the message of Divine Mercy.
“In my younger days, I was not always pro-life and had even given advice to people with children telling them to go have an abortion,” he recalls. “It took my own personal experience to see the value of life.”
Thatcher tells a dramatic story. In 1995 he and his wife were blessed with the birth of a son, whom they named John Paul. “He was the fruit of a healed marriage,” Thatcher says. When John Paul was 15 months old, Thatcher traveled to Denver to speak at a Catholic conference, returning late that weekend. The following day they were to have a Mass said in their home. We'll let the good doctor pick up the story from there in his own words.
“My wife was busy and I was tired from the trip. I went out to the porch. My oldest boy said, ‘It's time to start the lawn-mower.’ My oldest daughter said, ‘It's time to go to swim practice.’ I took her to swim practice and 20 minutes later got a call from my 11-year-old old son, who said John Paul was dead. He was found blue in the pool. Someone had left the gate open.
“I told him to call 911 and tell my wife, a nurse, to start CPR. On the way home I prayed to all the saints and Our Lady. I was hit with these major pangs of guilt. I realized I had left the pool gate open.
“I had been telling others to live the message of Divine Mercy. The hallmark of the message is, ‘Jesus I trust in you.’
“Waiting at a red light, I offered John Paul up to God and thanked him for the time he had given him to us. The Scripture of Abraham offering up Isaac came to mind. Like Abraham, I thought, I'm offering up Isaac, trusting God would provide the sacrifice.
“My wife had gotten a weak pulse. John Paul was comatose and distended.”
Later, when John Paul was in the hospital, Thatcher called his sister to ask for prayers from her prayer group. “Over the next day and a half,” Thatcher marvels, “John Paul got better and better. At the end of 36 hours, he went home totally normal.”
“That episode,” he says, “made me realize the gift — and the fragility — of human life.”
Pro-Life Pointers
Earlier episodes in his medical practice had shown Thatcher how the wounds of abortion always remain open and frequently fester. One day, a lady in her early 70s said, “Doctor, I want to share with you something I never shared with anybody. When I was 15, I got pregnant by my boyfriend and had an abortion. Do you think God could ever forgive me?”
“This lady was carrying that grief and shame for over 55 years,” Thatcher says.
Through such experiences, Thatcher saw that the pro-life component of the Eucharistic Apostles of the Divine Mercy, which became a lay outreach ministry of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception (well known in the United States for their National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Mass.), needed to become a primary focus.
“We were always under the patronage of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” Thatcher says. “As we began to speak across the country, we saw so many people in need of healing, especially from abortion. We began to hear the cries of women and men and affected family members. They all needed to hear about Divine Mercy, to understand God's mercy and grace is available for them as well.”
That's where the group's printed materials and Days of Reflection — a Divine Mercy pro-life crusade — come in. This year Thatcher coauthored Rachel Weep No More, a booklet for post-abortion healing, with Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life. It shows the power of Divine Mercy, points people to healing and, Thatcher says, “helps them really understand that quote that brought such peace in my life — ‘The greater the sinner, the greater the right to my mercy.’”
“The beautiful thing is the devotion of Divine Mercy is inherently linked to healing after abortion,” Father Pavone says, stressing the strength of the bond between the Eucharist, the Divine Mercy and respect for life. “Our Lord told St. Faustina that abortion was the biggest sin people had to make reparation for.”
“In the case of Brian, the pro-life message is so intertwined with the message of Divine Mercy. I've seen many times how Brian attracts people at these Divine Mercy conferences around the country,” observes Father Pavone, himself a frequent speaker at the events. “One of the most import dimensions is this: People in the general public need to see pro-life Catholics reflecting the fact that we who reject abortion do not reject those who have had them and that to be pro-life is to be pro-woman.”
Trish Short, also a regular speaker and singer at Divine Mercy conferences, learned of the Divine Mercy while struggling with the effects of two abortions. It was the Divine Mercy, she says, that brought her back to the Catholic Church.
“The chaplet helped me when I was most lost,” Short says. “It has been such a major force in my healing journey.”
Thatcher and the Eucharistic Apostles of Divine Mercy proved the catalyst in bringing Short to the attention of the Marians, who were struck by a song she wrote. The Marian Fathers then asked her to “write a contemporary version of the sung chaplet,” she says. Today her version airs Saturdays on EWTN.
Thatcher and the Eucharistic Apostles asked Pope John Paul II for an apostolic blessing for praying the chaplet for pro-life causes. “He read it and wanted to sign it immediately,” Thatcher says. The Holy Father granted it on the feast of the Incarnation of Jesus in 2003.
It applies not only to Thatcher's group but also to all the faithful worldwide who join them in offering the Divine Mercy chap-let for pro-life intentions, Thatcher explains.
“And the beauty of the chap-let is we're imploring mercy on us and on the whole world,” he adds. “It's in essence a Eucharistic prayer. We offer up Jesus to the Father, and that's a gift he can't refuse.”
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Faith in the Spotlight DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., doesn't understand the Catholic faith he professes to adhere to, according to Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb.
Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee in this year's presidential race, in an April 6 article in The New York Times defended himself from those who have criticized him for supporting policies that are antithetical to the teachings of the Church.
“Who are they?” Kerry asked a reporter. “Are they the legislators who vote for the death penalty, which is in contravention of Catholic teaching?”
Kerry, who refers to himself as a “practicing Catholic,” went on to say: “I'm not a Church spokesman. I'm a legislator running for president. My oath is to uphold the Constitution of the United States in my public life. My oath privately between me and God was defined in the Catholic Church by Pius XXIII [sic] and Pope Paul VI in the Vatican II, which allows for freedom of conscience for Catholics with respect to these choices, and that is exactly where I am. And it is separate. Our Constitution separates church and state, and they should be reminded of that.”
“If his quotes are accurate, Mr. Kerry misunderstands, in a most drastic way, the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and of Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI,” Bishop Bruskewitz said. “This indicates, in my view, if those quotes are accurate, that Mr. Kerry doesn't understand the Catholic faith he says he professes, and he certainly doesn't understand how conscience is related to the morality of human acts.”
In his impassioned retort, Kerry apparently confused Blessed John XXIII, who called for the Second Vatican Council, with his predecessor, Pope Piux XII. But he's also confused about Vatican II's teaching on conscience, said Alan Schreck, a professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steuben-ville, Ohio.
Schreck referred to Article 16 in the Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes (On the Church in the modern world), which states that, in the depths of his conscience, man has a law, written and imposed by God, that summons him to love good and avoid evil. Obeying the law gives dignity to man; he will also be judged according to it, Article 16 says.
“Hence, the more right conscience holds sway, the more persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and strive to be guided by the objective norms of morality,” Article 16 states.
These norms of morality are found in the natural law and the revealed law — the Bible and sacred Tradition — which are important to study and take seriously so that people don't create their own morality, which is moral relativism, Schreck said.
This is clearly stated in Article 14 of the Vatican II document Dignitatis Humanae, (declaration on religious freedom): “In the formation of their consciences, the Christian faithful ought carefully to attend to the sacred and certain doctrine of the Church. For the Church is, by the will of Christ, the teacher of the truth.”
“Too often, when people invoke conscience, what they imply is that truth is purely subjective,” Schreck said. “In other words, they mean, ‘Well, my conscience says this, and your conscience says that. But no one can say what is objectively true.’”
Gaudium et Spes also makes clear that whatever is opposed to life — including abortion — should be considered “infamies” and a “supreme dishonor” to God, Schreck added.
A spokesman for the Kerry campaign did not return several phone calls.
New Guidance
During a previous presidential campaign, another Massachusetts senator with the same initials as Kerry was also peppered with questions about his faith. John F. Kennedy's famous response set the tone for other Catholic politicians throughout the years.
“I am not the Catholic candidate for president,” Kennedy said during a 1960 campaign speech. “I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters — and the Church does not speak for me.”
The difference between then and now is that the Vatican has issued a doctrinal note to remind bishops, Catholic politicians and lay people involved in politics that “a well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program or an individual law that contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals.”
According to “Participation of Catholics in Political Life,” published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and approved by Pope John Paul II in November 2002, the magisterium does not want to flex political power or eliminate a Catholic's freedom of opinion.
“Instead,” the note said, “it intends — as is its proper function — to instruct and illuminate the consciences of the faithful, particularly those involved in political life, so that their actions may always serve the integral promotion of the human person and the common good.”
The note also reiterated John Paul's concern “that those who are directly involved in lawmaking bodies have a ‘grave and clear obligation to oppose’ any law that attacks human life.”
In the United States, the Church leadership has been “slow to react” to Kerry, said William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
“I am the king's good servant, but God's first.”
For instance, Kerry has voted against the Defense of Marriage Act, favors same-sex unions and — despite claiming to be personally opposed to abortion — has a 100% pro-abortion voting record, according to NARAL Pro-Choice America.
“Certainly, Catholics are looking to the bishops for some guidance on this,” Donohue said.
Meanwhile, some Church leaders have made clear their views regarding politicians who support policies contrary to Church teachings. In his April 14 column in the Denver Catholic Register, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver complained of “Catholic senators who take pride in arguing for legislation that threatens and destroys life — and who then also take Communion.”
“Candidates who claim to be ‘Catholic’ but who publicly ignore Catholic teaching about the sanctity of human life are offering a dishonest public witness,” the Capuchin archbishop wrote. “They may try to look Catholic and sound Catholic, but unless they act Catholic in their public service and political choices, they're really a very different kind of creature. And real Catholics should vote accordingly.”
In an April 15 interview with the Register, Bishop Bruskewitz said he would refuse holy Communion to any Catholic politician who is “a persistent, obstinate and public sinner” or who advocates heinous sins such as abortion.
Gunning for Catholics
But Kerry challenged Archbishop Sean O'Malley in his own Archdiocese of Boston by attending an Easter Mass at the Paulist Center and receiving Communion.
Father Christopher Coyne, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said Archbishop O'Malley has not made any public comments regarding Kerry and he doesn't know when, or if, the archbishop will do so.
“We're trying to avoid getting embroiled in the national race right now,” Father Coyne said. “There's work on the national level, the bishops' conference, for questions like these. We want to be in line with what comes out on the national level.”
Father Coyne was referring to a task force organized by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that is going to release guidelines about how the Church should treat Catholic politicians who ignore Church teachings.
Bishop Wilton Gregory, the president of the conference, declined to be interviewed for this article. A spokesman for the conference said he didn't know when the task force would issue the guidelines — or if they would be available before the November election.
The head of the task force, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., said in an April 11 interview on “Fox News Sunday” that withholding Communion from politicians is something he's reluctant to do.
“I think there are many of us who would feel that there are certain restrictions that we might put on people,” he said. “But I think many of us would not like to use the Eucharist as part of the sanctions.”
But some recent actions by the Democrats indicate that the Democratic Party wants to attract as many Catholic voters as it can. The Hill, a Washington, D.C., newspaper, reported that congressional Democrats are preparing a “Catholic Voting Scorecard” to show that Catholic lawmakers in the House of Representatives are more in line with the Church on key issues than House Republicans who are Catholic.
Meanwhile, in revising its web-site in early April, the Democratic National Committee deleted a link to Catholics for a Free Choice, a group that promotes abortion.
“The DNC deserves no credit for this action,” the Catholic League's Donohue said in a statement. “It brazenly offended Catholics for years by embracing a Catholic-bashing organization. But now that its leader, Sen. John Kerry, is in trouble with Catholics for a whole host of reasons, prudence dictates that the DNC distance itself from anti-Catholic bigotry.”
As the issue heated up in mid-April, Kerry requested a meeting with Cardinal McCarrick, and the two men met April 15. The cardinal's spokeswoman, Susan Gibbs, said the two men had never met before and described the 45-minute tête-à-tête as a “private, pastoral meeting.” She said Cardinal McCar-rick would not reveal the contents of their discussion.
Carlos Briceño writes from Seminole, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carlos Briceņo ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Consecration Changed Everything For Kolbe Follower DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:WEST COVINA, Calif. — Rossella Bignami was in big trouble with her parents. They refused to accept her phone calls or to open the door when she attempted to visit.
Bignami's offense? At age 20 she joined the Father Kolbe Missionaries of the Immaculata and embarked upon four years of formation in order to consecrate herself to Mary Immaculate — following the example of St. Maximilian Kolbe, the martyr of Auschwitz.
Lay people who consecrate themselves, Bignami explained, commit to having only one purpose in life: to focus 100% on Jesus while reaching out to others in order to share God's truth, joy and love. Missionaries take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. They practice mortification in speech, eating and drinking.
“Neither of my parents were happy about it, but my mother was really disappointed,” recalled Bignami, 45. “She wanted something different for me. She wanted me to become a doctor, and she wanted me to get married. She wanted career success and personal success for me as defined by the world.”
Her parents were churchgoing Catholics in Italy. In her early teens, however, Bignami began working every moment of the day at developing a closer relationship with God. It gave her parents the willies.
Bignami's transformation came at age14 when she saw a film about St. Francis, who as a youth battled an agenda established for him by his wealthy and materialistic father and set out on a spiritual quest.
Bignami began immersing herself in Scripture and absorbing every book she could find about St. Francis. Her own ultra-wealthy parents, fearing the girl was over the top in regard to religion, started running interference.
“Mother … would arrange for me to meet boys,” Bignami said. “She took me to parties and tried to make me appreciate earthly goods, such as new cars and fancy dresses.”
Her parents even tried to curtail the girl's personal prayer time.
“I would hide my prayer books inside my school books so they thought I was studying,” Bignami said.
After high school Bignami attended a university in Trento, Italy, and finished a degree in sociology while working through formation at the Missionaries of the Immaculata Institute in Italy. Throughout those four years, Bignami's parents had nothing to do with her.
“After four years of formation, mom finally realized I was not going to just snap out of it,” Bignami said. “I prayed for her, and after my first profession of vows, a grace seemed to come over her. She began calling me, and I was welcome to visit the house again.”
Winning Hearts
Gradually, Bignami said, her parents came full circle. At first they had rejected her decision to lead a consecrated life, then they reluctantly accepted it, and within a few years of her formal consecration, they became fully supportive and involved in her ministry.
“They were invited to hear me speak at a parish, and they were able to see and understand my work in evangelization,” Bignami said. “Little by little they began helping me in my work. At one point they basically became my chauffeurs so I could travel around Italy to speak at parishes about consecrated life and the Father Kolbe Missionaries of the Immaculata. They understood the value in what I was doing, and today they are very happy about it.”
In 2000, Bignami moved from Italy to West Covina, Calif., to join the only Father Kolbe Missionaries of the Immaculata community in the United States. The missionaries have 15 communities worldwide, ranging in size from seven to 25 members. Members of each community spend at least three hours a day in prayer, including Mass, adoration and personal silent prayer.
“Our work is to spread the good news of the Gospel,” Bignami said. “We give talks, teach Catechism, give retreats, offer counseling and take care of many aspects of spiritual formation and growth. We help people get closer to God.”
And they help the poor.
“We tend to spiritual poverty,” Bignami said. “But we also share food and clothing — things that get donated to us — with poor families we know of.”
Bignami said parental opposition to the decision to live a consecrated life is common. In fact, she said at least half of the women who join the Missionaries of the Immaculata have similar stories about intense opposition from family and friends.
“The world values power and wealth and material accumulation,” Bignami said. “Almost anywhere you live, the world tells you that those things are important. When you decide to lead a consecrated life, you are making a decision not to pursue power and personal enrichment but to serve. Most people are not conditioned to understand that, and they think you're making a huge mistake.”
Affected by Joy
Like her own story, however, Bignami said most stories of opposition to the consecrated life have happy endings. Friends and family ultimately come to appreciate the joy, peace and fulfillment exuded by Father Kolbe missionaries.
Mary Franceschini said the love and joy that's spread by the Father Kolbe Missionaries of the Immaculata pulled her out of debilitating depression, despair and loneliness.
“Three years ago my fiancé passed away unexpectedly three weeks before our wedding,” Franceschini said. “By God's good love, Rossella Bignami came along and she has had a wonderful influence on deepening my spiritual life. I'm starting to let go easier now. I love [my late fiancé] dearly and I miss him, but I am coping better now through strength I didn't know I had.”
The Father Kolbe Missionaries of the Immaculata is a secular institute founded in 1954 by Franciscan Conventual Father Luigi Faccenda in Bologna, Italy. Secular institutes are comprised of lay people who have professed the three evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience.
The missionaries have roots in the Militia of the Immaculata, a worldwide evangelization movement founded by St. Maximilian Kolbe in 1917 that encourages total consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary as a means of spiritual renewal for individuals and society.
Missionaries in West Covina helped lead Lucy Bonello to become a consecrated member of the Militia of the Immaculata in June 2003.
“I was at a loss as to what to do regarding the sex-abuse scandal in the Church,” Bonello said. “This is how I'm dealing with it, by leading a consecrated life and by praying for more priests, the Church and for more souls to be consecrated to Mary.”
Bonello, 77, does not live in community with other missionaries. In her mid-40s, her husband left her alone to care for all 13 of their children and she had no means of supporting the family. She studied to become a registered nurse, found a job and, in her words, let God handle the rest.
“Daily Mass took care of it,” Bonello said, explaining why she believes in the power of prayer. “We got by and it was 10% sweat by me and 90% God. Today I see very clearly a new springtime in the Church. You simply cannot believe how hungry people are right now. People are realizing that the material world cannot offer the fulfillment that a spiritual life can. That's why I'm consecrated.”
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Battle of the Billboards DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:MINNEAPOLIS — Two of the Twin Cities area's largest advertising firms seem intent on silencing the message of the pro-life organization Silent No More, say their critics.
The firms have rejected a pro-life advertisement by National Silent No More Awareness Campaign because it contains the word “abortion.” But one of the firms has accepted a pro-abortion ad even though it uses the word.
Early in the year, Ann Marie Cosgrove, director of Silent No More Minnesota, approached Clear Channel Communications and Lamar Advertising with a National Silent No More Awareness Campaign ad. The ad features a photograph of actress Jennifer O'Neal and reads: “I regret my abortion. If you do too, there's help” and directs callers to a 24-hour help line offered by Heartbeat International.
Both Clear Channel and Lamar rejected the ad, citing its use of the word abortion.
On Feb. 24, Cosgrove received an e-mail from Clear Channel sales representative Julie Schlosser. In it, Schlosser said, “I've finally had the opportunity to show your design to our general manager, and unfortunately we cannot accept it. As you know, anything dealing with abortion is very sensitive, and since you actually use the word, we need to decline.”
She received a similar response from Lamar Advertising sales representative Liz Scott, who suggested that perhaps the message could be rewritten.
But Cosgrove points out that Clear Channel recently put up a pro-abortion ad using the word “abortion.”
At the end of March the Minnesota Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice unveiled its pro-abortion billboard in downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul.
It states: “Abortion is a decision between a woman and her God. Pro-faith, pro-family, pro-choice” and announces the date for the April 25 March for Women's Lives in Washington, D.C. The billboard was to remain up for a month.
The Silent No More billboard already appears in approximately 20 locations nationwide, including California, Michigan, Montana, New York, Oregon and Wisconsin. In fact, in Wisconsin, the billboard sponsored by the Knights of Columbus is directly above the Madison Planned Parenthood office.
Rev. Dr. Nadean Bishop, executive director of the Minnesota Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, told the Register his group had experienced no difficulties in having the ad placed through Clear Channel. Marjorie Signer, director of communications for the coalition, concurred.
The ad is part of a campaign by the Washington, D.C.-based Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. The billboards are up in eight states.
“People like these ads and feel they are important and needed,” Signer said.
‘No Free Speech’
According to Clear Channel, policies regarding advertising are left up to managers in 50 divisions across the country.
“General managers decide what is appropriate for their local communities,” said Tony Alwin, senior vice president for creative, marketing and public relations for Clear Channel. “That's where they live and that's where their business is.” Alwin added that they have no written policy regarding issues-based advertising.
“You're not entitled to freedom of speech from a private business,” said Lee Ann Muller, president and general manager for Clear Channel Outdoor Minneapolis. “Decisions are made by me at the market level. We have a right to look at a message and how it is formatted for public display and whether it is a message that will be offensive to the public.”
The company's decision to deny an ad “never deals with whether we agree with their message or not,” she said, “but rather if the graphics or copy are inflammatory.”
Despite the e-mail from the sales representative, when asked about the Silent No More ad Muller said she did not recall the ad.
“That's not a campaign I'm familiar with,” Muller said. “I don't know who turned that down.”
Pro-life supporters have reacted strongly to the unfairness and the inability to get their message across through paid advertising.
“I'm sick and tired of not having an equal voice,” Cosgrove said. “It's not right what they did.”
Cosgrove has approached the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Thomas More Law Center for legal assistance regarding the ad. She thinks she is entitled to ad space from Clear Channel in the very same place where the pro-abortion ads appear.
Other Markets
Meanwhile, Oregon Right to Life has had no difficulty in purchasing the very same ads through Clear Channel. The Phoenix-based media company oversees approximately 150,000 billboard, airport, mall and taxi displays.
“We've had no problem placing the ads here,” said Gayle Atteberry, executive director of Oregon Right to Life. “A decision like the one in Minneapolis is an outrage.”
Another pro-life billboard pioneer, Mary Ann Kuharski, is no stranger to the billboard battle.
Kuharski serves as executive director for Pro-Life Across America, an organization committed to featuring babies and a positive pro-life message on billboards. Kuharski put up her first in 1990. Today, the organization spends more than $700,000 annually sponsoring more than 3,000 ads in 33 states.
Early on, some companies refused her advertising, Kuharski said. “They don't care if you're educational,” she said. “You're political in their eyes.”
She sometimes still has difficulty finding companies willing to run her ads. But she commented that “money is a powerful force.”
“Eventually these companies see that their competitors are getting all of this advertising,” she said.
Kuharski explained that economies of scale can also work to derail potential ads.
“Some companies don't want to fool around with one to two billboards when they can do all of Coca-Cola's and get hundreds of thousands of dollars promised to them,” she said. She has confronted such problems in California.
Clear Channel's Muller admitted this is sometimes the case.
“The smaller the program, the more the work,” Muller said. She said a typical program purchases anywhere between one and 10 ads oftentimes in as many as 40 different locations.
If that is what is hindering the Minneapolis ad, the National Silent No More office has said it has no problem helping Cosgrove finance more than one ad.
“We would be happy to help Ann Marie purchase a second ad,” said Georgette Forney, co-founder of Silent No More and president of Noel, an Episcopalian pro-life organization. “Our mission is to get the message out there.”
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: Two firms Reject Pro-Life Ad; Pro-abortion Ad Okayed ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Courts To Corporations: Can't Fire Christians For Faith DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:DENVER — Albert Buonanno loves homosexuals, cross dressers and transsexuals. During a 24-year Air Force career, two of his close civilian male colleagues wore dresses to work. At AT&T Broadband, he volunteered to help furnish the starter home of a young homosexual colleague.
No one would call him a bigot — with the possible exception of a major American corporation that fired him for failing to value diversity.
“Jesus hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors,” said Buonanno, 47, a devout Baptist. “I'm supposed to love my neighbor as I love myself. I go out of my way to find the people who are rejected by society, who are different in some way, in order that I can live up to the challenge to love them as Jesus does.”
Yet AT&T fired Buonanno because he wouldn't state in writing that he would personally “value” the differences among all people, including homosexuals and others whose conduct he considers sinful. Buonanno was happy to value the sinner but not the sin.
“They wanted me to lie, or to deny my faith,” he said. “I couldn't do that, so I got fired.”
Buonanno sued AT&T, now owned by Comcast, for violating his religious freedoms. He won, and U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger awarded Buonanno $146,269 on April 8. The award was based mostly on lost wages and benefits.
Krieger ruled that by firing Buonanno, AT&T violated Title 7 federal anti-discrimination laws that forbid workplace discrimination on grounds of race, religion, national origin and sexual orientation. In her decision, Krieger explained she would not order Buonanno reinstated at AT&T-turned-Comcast because he did not request it. Buonanno said he doesn't desire his job back, as he's happier working as a residential counselor at a Denver group home for mentally ill homeless people.
“I applaud the court for saying that if you hold personal, moral views an employer cannot force you to abandon them in order to keep your job,” said Tim Dore, an attorney and the executive director of the Colorado Catholic Conference.
‘Business Ethics’
Comcast officials did not return calls to the Register, but an unnamed executive told the Washington Times that the company might appeal. Buonanno said if Comcast appeals, he might push for punitive damages — something he didn't do the first time.
“It was never about money,” Buonanno said. “It was about taking a stand in the name of Jesus.”
Buonanno's lawyer, Jim Rouse of Denver, said the judge's decision sets precedent that should comfort any person who wishes to keep a job without having to scrap religious and moral values at the whims of an employer.
“This case shows that companies can't use their diversity and anti-discrimination policies to discriminate against religious people,” Rouse said. “In court, the top guy in AT&T's personnel division said that employees must value any alternative lifestyle conduct. It's mind control stuff. It's corporate America forcing an ideology on us — discriminating against people of moral conviction under the guise of an anti-discrimination and diversity policy that's purportedly in the interest of sales and marketing.”
Buonanno was hired Jan. 10, 1999, by TCI — an old cable TV giant that would become AT&T Broadband before getting swallowed by Comcast. Buonanno had just retired from the Air Force as a master sergeant who had overseen dispatch and transportation units and managed a fuels operation in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm. TCI hired him to dispatch cable installers.
A few months after Buonanno began his new job, AT&T bought TCI. Some two years later, in January 2001, the personnel office at AT&T Broadband handed a new employee handbook to Buonanno and the company's nearly 50,000 other employees.
The handbook included a section called “Doing What's Right: Business Integrity & Ethics Policies.” In that section was language about homosexuals and others at AT&T. It stated that “diversity is necessary for a competitive business advantage and the company is competing for customers in an increasingly diverse marketplace.”
No Choice
Then came the statement that troubled Buonanno the most: “Each person at AT&T Broadband is charged with the responsibility to fully recognize, respect and value the differences among all of us.”
Even more troubling to Buonanno was the fact he was required to sign a “Certificate of Understanding” that would have contractually bound him to abide by the “value the differences” statement.
“They wanted me to sign something that said I ‘valued’ differences, some of which I consider sinful,” Buonanno said. “I have no problem valuing the person who represents these differences, and I have shown that my whole life. But I shouldn't be required to value what I consider to be sin.”
Buonanno was by all accounts an exemplary employee without a blemish on his record — a fact acknowledged in court even by those whom he was suing. In keeping with his character, Buonanno respectfully expressed his handbook objection to his supervisor, who suggested he take it up with AT&T human resources manager Susan Batliner.
Buonanno prepared a short written objection for Batliner, explaining that the contract he was asked to sign would compromise his beliefs.
“In order for me to comply with this diversity statement in the company handbook, I would have to deny my faith; this I will not do,” Buonanno wrote. “… I can't allow any group or individual to choose for me what I must respect or place value on.”
Buonanno gave his word in writing that he would remain “fully cognizant of the fact that there is diversity” at AT&T and that he would continue to conduct himself in the professional manner he was known for. He agreed to sign any agreement that said he would not “discriminate against, harass, nor retaliate” against any employees.
None of that mattered to Batliner, who ordered Buonanno's termination for failure to agree in writing to value all differences among employees. Batliner did not return calls from the Register.
In court, David Brunick, senior vice president for human relations at Comcast, removed any doubt about Buonanno's claim that AT&T was trying to dictate his moral and religious thoughts. Brunick said he fully intended the handbook to require that employees “value” any disparate attributes, behaviors and beliefs — not just employees who represent those characteristics. In other words, it wasn't okay for Buonanno to love the sinner and hate the sin.
Brunick's demand that employees value all differences didn't win hearts and minds when he was asked in court whether a Jewish employee should “value” the difference between himself and a fellow Muslim employee who believes that Jews should die.
In a rambling reply, Brunick said the Jew would have to comply with company policy.
“This isn't Nazi Germany,” Buonanno said of Brunick's “values” dictate. “In Nazi Germany they forced beliefs on people. In America, we aren't supposed to do that.”
Compared to Race
Krieger's ruling was seen as a setback by the leader of at least one major organization that fights for acceptance of homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals.
“If this were about race, few reasonable people would balk at signing something that says we must ‘value’ people of another race,” said Jean Hodges, chair of Colorado Parents Families and Friends of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgendered. “I think he [Buonanno] wouldn't sign because he views the issue of homosexuality as a lifestyle choice, and we simply disagree that it's a behavior or a choice.”
Buonanno said his case should not be viewed as a challenge to homosexual rights.
“This wasn't about homosexuality,” Buonanno said. “That was just a small part of it because it happened to be mentioned in the handbook. It was about my concern that a major American corporation wants to force us to value differences, no matter what they are, without regard to our own personal values. I've worked very successfully for decades with homosexuals, atheists, Wiccans, Jehovah's Witnesses and others who have beliefs different from mine. Do I ‘value’ all that makes them different from me? No. Am I required to value that which would make a Satanist different from me? Not in this country.”
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Using Contractors to Engineer a 'Social Agenda'? DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:MINNEAPOLIS — A city ordinance in Minneapolis requires city contractors to provide unmarried employees and their partners the same benefits as married couples. Any company that refuses to comply cannot bid on major projects worth more than $100,000, and contractors are forbidden to hire subcontractors that don't comply with the law.
Just as a former employee sued AT&T in Denver because the company tried to force him to “value” diversity, a Minnesota construction firm is suing Minneapolis with a claim that the ordinance unfairly forces companies to value those who diverge from traditional family values such as marriage.
“The incredibly unfair ordinance uses economic power to implement a coercive social agenda to redefine ‘family,’” said a statement issued by Jordan Lorence, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal organization that defends traditional family values. “The ordinance is a classic example of political correctness run amok and must be stopped by the courts.”
The lawsuit claims the Minneapolis ordinance violates the civil rights of Titus Construction Co., requires companies such as Titus to subcontract only with firms who also comply with the ordinance, infringes on the sovereignty of other political subdivisions by regulating businesses based outside of Minneapolis and exceeds the authority of Minneapolis under state law.
The lawsuit asks the federal court for the district of Minnesota to rule that the Minneapolis law violates federal law and asks that the city be stopped from refusing bids from companies that do not comply with the ordinance.
— Wayne Laugesen
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Undaunted: Preaching From a Hospital Bed DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:One of the original members of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, he doesn't plan to stop preaching for renewal in the lives of Christians. His physical condition, however, could force him to do his worldwide preaching from home.
Father Groeschel spoke April 17 with Register news editor John Burger at the New York hospital where he's been recuperating.
I wonder if you could tell us in your own words what happened to you. What do you remember of this whole incident?
Well as a matter of fact I hardly remember anything. I had gone down to Florida to teach in a national priests program. I met there another priest and a young fellow who works at our retreat house. They were getting a rented car, and I went to buy them some Span-ish/Mexican food. And there was a large road there, and to cross the road you had to wait for the traffic to get thin. And I did wait.
You remember that.
Yes, and there was a bus coming along, or a truck, and I waited for that and walked out toward it because there was no other traffic, and I did not see that there was a car right behind it. So I stepped in front of the car not knowing it was there. And I was thrown about 40 feet.
What do your remember from that point. Do you remember feeling the impact?
I hardly remember anything for another month, probably because they give you a great deal of medication that has narcotics in it. But I can tell you what did happen. I was quite conscious until I got to the hospital, which is an excellent trauma center called Orlando Regional Medical Center.
There the doctors worked very hard on me and I began to lose consciousness, and finally I had no vital signs at all. It was hopeless. I had no pulse, no heartbeat, no vital signs like blood pressure — nothing. So they after three hours were starting to take off their gloves, and the young priest, Father John Lynch, begged them not to give up.
So they went back, and in 15 minutes they had a heartbeat. And they stayed at it for another three hours and got me upstairs. It was still touch and go. In fact, two weeks later my heart stopped, and we had another crisis, none of which I recall. I was totally surprised when I woke up and they told me what had happened.
I was then brought up here, where I've been very nicely cared for. I'm now preparing to go to an intensive rehabilitation program because I have a broken leg, broken elbow and broken shoulder.
At what point did you start to come to, to again be aware that you were alive, and start remembering the event?
As soon as I woke up that day, almost a month after, I realized what had happened. I was on a respirator, which means you can't speak or eat or even drink any liquid. No water. I've always joked about purgatory, and I'll never joke about purgatory again — because I was there. I was on that respirator, flying up in the plane and here in the hospital. They were very cautious. I stayed on the respirator almost two months.
Can you describe the experience since then, what it's been like for you, the pain, the suffering?
Of course it was not pleasant, the suffering. But what I decided to do, since I knew I was going to be silent for a month, was that I would make a rosary retreat. So I said the rosary many times every day, meditating on the mysteries. The mysteries that became very meaningful to me were the Resurrection and the Coronation of Our Blessed Mother.
Why was that?
Well, because I was looking forward. When you're on the threshold of death, it's wise to look ahead and to look ahead, and people look ahead, if they do look ahead, and they think of purgatory. But purgatory is not our goal. Heaven is our goal. That's where we're headed.
I had seen an early screening of Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ, and it struck me that there wasn't one suffering possible that Our Lord missed. All suffering seems to have come to a crescendo in that event, and why should I be different? Why should I miss something in my particular suffering? I wouldn't say that was consoling, but it gave you a motive for going on.
For years I've been telling people to trust God. I don't mean that God caused the accident. Accidents are accidents. God can use evil to do good.
St. Augustine's great phrase: “God does not cause evil but he causes that evil will not become the worst.” So here I am. And my life has changed. I probably will not be an itinerant preacher. I'll stay home and do television at home and radio broadcasts at home and give retreats at home and write books at home. So I may get more done than roaming around the airports of the world.
Has this experience changed you in any profound way?
I hope so. I hope everything that happens to us changes us for the better. I had a lot of time to meditate on my shortcomings and my sins. That's why there was a purgatorial aspect to this.
When we get to purgatory, according to St. Catherine of Genoa and Cardinal Newman, the first thing is that we find out the true spiritual state of our souls and in that silence I had an opportunity to do that — not perfectly — but it was a purgatory.
Then of course you offer things for the Church, for others, for conversion — the beautiful prayer we used to say, and which I still say: “O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you all the prayers, works and sufferings of this day in atonement for my own sins and those of the world and for the salvation of souls.” So it wasn't wasted.
You know, in my journey through the hospitals, I met very devout people who have been incapacitated for years — completely incapacitated. And we don't think about them very often. They don't move, they can't move. Their lives are meaningful to God, and some of them are very close to God. Some of them don't realize how close to God they are.
You have been preaching for some 40 years, something you love. Now you haven't been able to do it. How have you been coping with that?
Well, the best I could. We daily put a little letter from me on the friars' Internet site, www.francis-canfriars.com, as I've been trying to keep my hand into writing. And also we did a little television. Our boys home in Brooklyn have the television equipment and they know how to use it. They often do my shows. So they came here and we did some spots for EWTN and the Internet, telling people I was grateful, giving some thoughts.
I planned out a couple of books while I was there. You know, I wrote a book called Arise From Darkness, the most popular book I ever wrote, and people are very fond of that book. But one of the things the book does not face is catastrophe. Everybody has sorrows, but not everybody has catastrophes. But a lot of people have catastrophes … a member of their family is killed by a train … they're in a car and one of their relatives is killed in the car … the house burns down, children are killed.
Catastrophes are common enough, and you see them in the paper every day and we haven't seriously, I think, confronted catastrophe and trust in God. People think trusting in God means “I won't have any catastrophes.” Go look at Gibson's film. Was that necessary? Why didn't we go from the Last Supper to the Resurrection? Why did we have to go through that?
I'm sure that question must have come to the Blessed Virgin. It had to. She was the mother of Christ. A mother would not be asking why. Christ himself on the cross says, “Why have you forsaken me?” You don't get stuck with the question. Padre Pio used to say, “Don't ask why. Ask what.” What am I supposed to do? … A great many people I talk to, in their family history, there is a catastrophe.
Are there any other plans you have in mind?
My motto is, “Don't make plans,” but there are tentative plans, if I do get better, to write and to preach, mostly on television and radio. You know, you give a talk on television, you reach 10 million people; you fly to the other side of the country and you give a talk to 1,000 people. The arithmetic is rather easy. …
But always, whatever we do, Jesus tells us to seek first the Kingdom of heaven. I think if you look at the religious problem in Christianity or in the Church in this country or throughout the world, you should say to yourself, “Are we seeking first the Kingdom of heaven?” Read the history of the Church: When the Church has gotten into trouble, it wasn't seeking first the Kingdom of heaven.
You've also been involved in the cause for canonization of Cardinal Terence Cooke, the former archbishop of New York. He suffered very quietly with cancer. Do you think much about him, what he went through and what you're going through now?
His picture is up in my hospital room. It's better not to compare too many things, just to live through it. I have to confess to you that at times a sadness comes over me, and I have to renew my act of faith and confidence. People think that when you believe in God and trust God, it's all over, it's perfectly done, the door is closed. It doesn't work that way. You've got to renew your commitment daily, sometimes hourly.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Benedict Groeschel ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Abstinence Effects DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — A study conducted by Columbia and Yale universities claims abstinence-until-marriage pledges are rarely kept and have no noticeable impact on reducing sexually transmitted diseases.
The study, details of which were released March 6, was immediately critiqued by abstinence advocates and pro-family organizations.
Pia de Solenni, director of life and women's issues at the Washington-based Family Research Council, said it's important to distinguish between a young person simply signing a pledge at a rally and someone being involved in ongoing abstinence education.
The study, based on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which has been tracking 12,000 teens since 1994, found that signing an abstinence pledge is not an effective deterrent against pre-marital sex. Ninety-nine percent of non-pledgers have sex before marriage, the study says. That number only dips to 88% with an abstinence pledge.
The study notes, however, that an abstinence pledge delayed the onset of sexual activity by 18 months.
Peter Bearman of Columbia University's sociology department wrote the study with Hannah Bruckner of Yale. He said their work demonstrates the limits of abstinence pledges in preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
“The expected STD rate would be lower with fewer partners and shorter time [between first sexual encounter and marriage],” Bearman said. “It's not lower.”
The difference, he says, is in condom usage.
He noted that 59% of males who took no pledge used a condom during premarital sex. Only 40% of male pledgers used a condom during premarital sex.
The researchers did not examine whether those who pledge abstinence until marriage are more likely to date those who also take pledges and therefore are not as sexually active.
But they did track the number of sexual partners. Those who broke the pledge had multiple partners over time, though fewer than nonpledgers, Bearman said. In addition, pledgers wait a little longer to become sexually active but then “make up for lost time,” he added, leaving less time between adventures.
Need a Course
The study asked the question: “Have you ever taken a public pledge to remain a virgin until marriage?”
Bearman noted that answering Yes to that question didn't lower STD rates, but it did have other noticeable effects.
“They delay sex. They're marrying earlier. They have fewer sexual partners,” he said.
Nationally syndicated Catholic columnist Maggie Gallagher found good news embedded in the study. She noted that Bearman and Bruckner had looked at teens aged 12-18 in an earlier study and now looked at 18- to 24-year-olds.
“The amazing thing is that, six years later, the pledge taken years ago in high school appears to still have an effect: Pledgers were still less likely than non-pledgers to have initiated sex, and they were more likely to marry, too,” Gallagher wrote April 6. “Pledgers were 12 times more likely to be virgins when they married.”
Another study released in March, also based on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, gave more positive news for the abstinence movement.
Heritage Foundation researchers Robert Rector and Kirk Johnson found that young women who pledge abstinence are 40% less likely to have a baby out of wedlock than those who do not take such a pledge.
Critics of abstinence-only programs heralded the Columbia-Yale study as proof that sex education must include information about the use of condoms.
“It's a tragedy if we withhold from these kids information about how not to get STDs or not to get pregnant,” said Dorothy Mann, executive director of the pro-abortion Family Planning Council in Philadelphia.
But Leslee Unruh, founder and president of the Abstinence Clear-inghouse, says condoms aren't the answer that sex-education advocates claim they are.
“Their program is to get kids to pledge to always use condoms. But only 15% to 20% follow that 100% standard,” Unruh said. “They call it ‘comprehensive sex ed.’ We call it ‘contraceptive sex ed.’”
Unruh acknowledged that a onetime pledge of abstinence at a public rally was no reliable prevention against premarital sex.
“It might be at a park. They might have a band. It's not a program,” Unruh said. “They talk about the dangers of drugs. They mix abstinence in. It's not intended to be evaluated.”
She applauds such gatherings but says such events should be the start of abstinence education. She recommends a course of at least six to eight weeks in which parents become directly involved.
Programs Working
While Bearman said he recognized a difference between a onetime pledge for abstinence and an eight-week program, he insisted that even abstinence-only programs are insufficient. Those who pledge abstinence but later decide to have sex are left unprepared, he said.
“Most people take the pledge at 15, but the average age men get married today is 26. You're looking at 11 years [of waiting],” he said.
Unruh said the release of the Columbia-Yale study was timed to influence federal funding of abstinence-only programs. President Bush, in his State of the Union address in January, asked that funding for federal abstinence programs be doubled now and tripled by 2005.
Unruh noted that a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey showed a significant drop in teen-age sexual activity during the 1990s. Back in 1991, the percentage of students who had sexual intercourse stood at 54.1%. By 2001, that number fell to 45.6%.
“The numbers coincide with the advent of the abstinence programs all across the country,” Unruh said. “We've got programs and they're working. That's why they're so mad.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: Studies Tally the Results of Chastity Programs ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:Church Leaders Criticize Democrats
He also said the “greatest scandal” of the political party was that it had no pro-life caucus, the paper reported.
“A party that historically has been concerned about the weakest among us — why, most Catholics were Democrats historically — doesn't permit any freedom of speech around the question of abortion,” he said.
Cardinal George wasn't the only bishop to criticize Democratic politicians recently.
Bishop John Smith of the Diocese of Trenton, N.J., said in a March 27 homily that Gov. James McGreevey's politics indicate he “is not a devout Catholic,” the Associated Press reported April 10. McGreevey supports abortion and stem-cell research.
“He cannot compromise what it means to be a Catholic,” Bishop Smith said, according to the diocesan website. “I speak, as your bishop, for the devout Catholics of the Diocese of Trenton. Jim McGreevey does not.”
Priest Tells Politicians Not to Be Like Kennedy
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, April 13 — A Catholic priest giving the morning prayer April 13 at the Colorado House of Representatives called on law-makers to be the opposite of President John F. Kennedy and let religious faith guide their votes.
“Almighty God, please change and convert the hearts of all the representatives in this House,” said Father Bill Carmody, a pastor at a church near Colorado Springs. “May they be the antithesis of John Kennedy, may they be women and men of God, and may their faith influence and guide every vote they make.”
House Democrats said the prayer was an unfair attack on Kennedy, the wire service reported. Republicans, however, said it was not.
Father Carmody later acknowledged in a telephone interview that Kennedy faced opposition because he was Catholic but still should have stood up for the Church, the Associated Press said.
“This bigotry would have died eventually,” Father Carmody said, “and we wouldn't have politicians who abdicate their faith to be politicians.”
Pastor Leaves Parish Because of Teaching Dispute
Father Charles Murr of the Church of St. Francis de Sales said in a letter that he objected to Protestant and heretical Catholic teachings in the church school.
One teacher took her students to Baptist religious services, according to a parish trustee, and another refused to teach the sign of the cross. Yet another said teaching that remarriage after divorce was a sin violated the students' constitutional rights.
Father Murr said the archdiocese ordered him to renew the contracts of the teachers in question.
“Such a high turnover rate,” said archdiocesan spokesman Joseph Zwilling, “was not what was best for the school or the students.”
Father Murr wrote to parishioners that as a “pastor charged with the care of souls,” he could not in good conscience comply.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bishops Find Fault With Presidential Council's Bioethics Report DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — President Bush's Council on Bioethics' April 1 report “Reproduction and Responsibility: The Regulation of New Biotechnologies” was praised by U.S. Catholic bishops.
But it was also criticized.
The council unanimously recommended that Congress ban “the creation ex vivo of a human embryo with the intent to transfer it to a woman's body to initiate a pregnancy.”
Council members also all agreed that Congress should ban research on embryos of a certain age, though they differed on what the time limit should be — seven or 10 days.
The Council on Bioethics, which was established by Bush in 2001, is headed by American Enterprise Institute scholar Leon Kass, who is also a medical doctor and a professor on leave from the University of Chicago. Explaining the council's broad mandate, reflected in the latest report, Kass said, “Cloning is but a small part of a much larger concern.”
The concern includes “issues raised by the rapidly growing powers to intervene still further in human reproduction, adding techniques of genetic screening, genetic manipulation and sex selection to existing and expanding techniques of assisted reproduction,” Kass said. “This whole field is today largely unmonitored and unregulated. We need to find ways to govern these practices. While we seek them, we urgently need to legislate important moral boundaries and shift the burden of persuasion to those who would transgress them, while no one is paying attention.”
Most of the critics of the Kass council are routinely opposed to the commission, largely because they are in general disagreement with the White House on cloning and other hot-bottom issues. In recent months the council has received negative press, implying that the White House has stacked the deck in favor of banning cloning and other biotechnology.
Elizabeth Blackburn, a professor of biochemistry at the University of California at San Francisco and former member of the 18-member council, recently wrote that “a hardening and narrowing of views is exactly what is happening on the president's Council on Bioethics.”
‘Life Is a Continuum’
Kass dismisses the criticism as “nonsense,” arguing that the “council was and remains diverse and divided by design, for we owe the president and the nation the best arguments on the various sides of all hotly contested issues.”
But with the release of “Reproduction and Responsibility,” the council gained critics. The U.S. bishops, while praising the council for taking on these issues, had some reservations about its recommendations.
Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore, chairman of the Committee for Pro-Life Activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement that the report “deserves attention from all concerned about technological abuse of human life.” He agreed with the council's recommendations “for banning specific activities that demean human dignity: creating human/animal hybrids; placing human embryos in the bodies of animals or in women's wombs for purposes other than a live birth; buying, selling or patenting human embryos.”
But the cardinal took issue with the council's recommendation of a time limit for embryo research.
“The council favors banning the use of embryos in research beyond a certain number of days in their development,” Cardinal Keeler said. “Notably, members did not agree on the number of days or on the reason for this policy. Some believe such a ban would be better than the current situation, in which federal law does not ban privately funded embryo research at any stage. Others want to use this policy to weaken current laws on federally funded research, which respect the human embryo at every stage.
“The decisive fact is that human life is a continuum from the one-celled stage onward,” the cardinal said. “Any cutoff point after this event is arbitrary — providing no principled reason not to extend the time limit for destructive research, once the precedent is established. We should not start down this road but explore ways to discourage research that attacks any human life.”
Bad Judgment?
The bishops also object to the council's proposal that it be illegal to clone an embryo with the intention of implanting it in a woman's womb. They argue that legislating intention would be unenforceable, especially in the case of a rogue scientist.
Catholics and others on the council raised concerns.
In a statement, council members Robert P. George, Mary Ann Glendon, Alfonso Gomez-Lobo, William B. Hurlbut, and Gilbert C. Meilaender, emphasized, “We, and perhaps other members of the Council, have grave concerns about research that destroys human embryos at any stage of their development.”
“Most of the heated and often overwrought controversy surrounding the council has been generated by libertarians who regard the very idea of human reflection on the moral and political limits of biotechnological development with suspicion,” said Peter Augustine Lawler, a professor of government at Berry College in Georgia, who recently took a seat on the bioethics council. “But Catholics and other pro-lifers are worried that its compromises on issues such as using embryos for research will encourage unprincipled indifference to moral evil. I was not on the council during the time it produced this thorough and thoughtful report, but I think we can regard it gratefully and hopefully as full of rather large steps in the right direction.”
Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor of www.nationalreview.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: NAC Rector: Abuse Scandal Hasn't Stopped Men From 'Divine Call' DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:ROME — Can the Church in North America be confident of the caliber of the priests leaving the seminary today?
That was the somewhat blunt question put to Msgr. Kevin McCoy, rector of the North American College in Rome — a seminary that serves all the dioceses in the United States.
The amiable monsignor was quick to answer with humor.
“I have nothing to do with the selection process!” he said. “But certainly among these men there are capable leaders.”
The North American College has been in existence since 1859, inaugurated by Blessed Pope Pius IX, and since the 1950s has had a home a mile from the Vatican on the Janiculum Hill that overlooks the Eternal City.
The college is sometimes dubbed the “bishop factory,” with many distinguished alumni of this alma mater going on to hold high positions in the American Church.
Most of the seminarians are in their mid- to late-20s and typically spend four to five years studying at Rome's Gregorian and Angelicum universities as well as being trained pastorally at the college.
According to Msgr. McCoy, the current period is one of exceptional “tranquility” for seminarians after 40 years of upheaval following the Second Vatican Council.
Msgr. McCoy, a priest of the Diocese of Sioux City, Iowa, who was himself a student at the college, has held the position of rector since 2001, taking over from Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee. “I'm beginning to be an old hat,” he noted after three years on the job, which have had their fair share of challenges.
“Certainly, in the last couple of years when the Church has gone through so much turmoil, young men felt the pressure from society to ask themselves why they were pursuing this vocation,” Msgr. McCoy said. “When you ask them: ‘Why wouldn't you just turn away from this call in the midst of these scandals?’ they would say: ‘Because the call's divine — it's not me choosing, it's the Lord who's chosen me.’”
Formation
But that doesn't negate the importance of discernment and spiritual guidance, and Msgr. McCoy stresses that questions are asked concerning seminarians' “psychosexual development,” interior life, prayer life and intellectual formation.
“While that's mostly done at universities, we try to stress the importance of that here in the seminary as well,” he said. “So we're trying to provide a well-balanced environment where these men are exposed to the pastoral dimension as well as the human formational dimensions that they will carry back into the parish.”
Msgr. McCoy said an environment of “solid psychological testing” has been in place at the college for “some time.” In their first semester, individual candidates meet with a college counselor to interpret psychological examinations.
The counselor and the candidates' spiritual directors are both “proactive” in these areas, the rector said, with particular attention paid to ensuring that seminarians know how to deal with loneliness and to their need to develop healthy friendships with other priests and with lay people.
“Unfortunately, there's no test, as far as I'm aware of, that will say, ‘Oh! Ah-ah! Here's a man who's going to offend,’” Msgr. McCoy said. “If we could do that, we could apply it across society and we'd eliminate a problem that is not just limited to the Church but is probably a demonstrably larger problem within individual family units, other societal structures and educational institutions.”
“That's not to try and throw off an issue the Church has dealt with,” he continued, adding that “there can be a certain pride that the Church took a look at the issue and faced it head-on.”
Yet as highlighted by the U.S. bishops' National Review Board's research into abuse allegations against U.S. priests, more than 80% of such incidents involved homosexual misconduct with adolescent males. So is homosexuality in the clergy the central issue that needs to be addressed? Msgr. McCoy urges caution.
“I think one has to be careful about jumping to conclusions,” he said. “I am sure this is probably a hot topic and there are people who would say if a man is of a homosexual orientation then out he goes.”
The crucial factor, according to the seminary rector, is a full commitment to priestly chastity.
“We get them to answer the question: Have they received that charism of living the celibate life? If they haven't, then they need to discontinue,” Msgr. McCoy said. “If a man's active in the seminary, then quite frankly, whether he be heterosexual or homosexual, out he goes.”
Holy Priests
For the last decade or so, sexual issues have been at the forefront of discussions on seminaries, giving rise to concerns that other key formation issues might have been neglected.
“You know, most people want really holy priests,” Msgr. McCoy commented with a chuckle. “Yes, you can overemphasize the sexual thing — I mean if you have someone who lives quite well as a celibate but is mean, doesn't have the heart of Christ and [is] not a compassionate soul, well then, dare I say it, you're going to find him doing more harm in terms of the witness that he leads.”
Nevertheless, Msgr. McCoy doesn't believe the psychosexual issue is eclipsing other elements in formation, and he is quick to counter any accusation that the North American College's formation programs and teaching are less than completely faithful to Church teachings.
“There's no question of the orthodoxy here,” Msgr. McCoy said. “I think those labels [conservative and progressive] can get very difficult because certainly there are those truths of the faith that we darn well better conserve.”
“If someone's going to call you conservative because you're respecting the truths of the faith,” he added, “well then so be it.”
Edward Pentin writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:Vatican Exhibit Breaks Attendance Record
More than 163,000 people have bought tickets for the “St. Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of Popes” exhibit, according to attendance figures compiled through April 7. The exhibit opened Dec. 20 and was scheduled to run through April 18.
The exhibit features more than 350 objects spanning 2,000 years of papal history, the newspaper reported. Many of the objects have never been outside the Vatican or displayed for the public.
“Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit” held the previous record with an attendance of 161,000. The president of the Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau attributed a boost in leisure travelers in recent months to the exhibit.
Canadian Broadcasting Co. Releases Pope DVD
Distributed by ImaVision, Life and Times of Pope John Paul II is divided into three parts: the Pope's life, his role in the fall of communism in 1989 and coverage of his election to the Chair of Peter after the death of Pope John Paul I in 1978, according to a review in the newspaper.
“Pope John Paul II is a Pope who has been seen by more human beings than any other man in history and this is very evident in the video,” the reviewer writes.
The film features stories of the Holy Father's childhood, such as his relationship with Jerzy Kluger, a Jewish next-door neighbor and young Karol Wojtyla's best friend.
The documentary also openly presents John Paul's views on the Church teaching on sexuality, divorce, contraception and homosexuality.
“The question the viewer is left with,” the reviewer concludes, “is: ‘How will we remember the legacies of this great, spiritual world leader as seen by Catholics and non-Catholics alike?’”
KNIGHT-RIDDER, April 11 — While Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ has been a box-office sensation around the world, no distributor has picked it up for release in the Holy Land, spawning the sale of bootlegs of the film.
Bootleg DVDs and videotapes are selling all over the Holy Land, from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank to Israel — where the Aramaic dialogue in the film comes with Hebrew subtitles, the news service reported.
Yasser Arafat even viewed the film at a private screening, after which he called it “historic and impressive.” A hotel in mostly Arab East Jerusalem even held invitation-only, $5 per person screenings for about 200 people. Proceeds were donated to Christian charities for the elderly and orphans.
Black marketers say demand for the film is high, the news service reported, particularly in the Palestinian territories, where 99% of the population is Muslim and people are more likely to think ill of Jews.
While many Jewish leaders have condemned the film as anti-Semitic, other Jewish people as well as those of other religions have said it is not.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Singing Easter Together, Catholics and Orthodox DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:Under a blue sky, about 15 Orthodox priests surrounded Pope John Paul II to sing after the Gospel of the Easter Sunday Mass. Christos (Christ) and Pascha (Passover) were the only two Greek words I could recognize from their melodious Greek Easter hymn.
The reason for such an unusual choir? This year both Western and Eastern churches celebrated Easter on the same day, April 11. “A happy coincidence,” John Paul remarked.
In the second century, a sharp controversy arose within the Church about when to celebrate the Christian Passover. The churches in Asia Minor, Syria and Cilicia celebrated it on the anniversary of Christ's death, the first full moon of the spring equinox: 14th of Nisan in the Jewish calendar. It did not matter to them what day of the week it fell.
All the other Churches, led by Rome, celebrated Easter on the Sunday following 14th of Nisan.
At the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325, all the Churches agreed that the Lord's resurrection should be observed on this latter date. This remained the standard in both East and West for the next 12 centuries.
The Christian world followed the Julian calendar, established by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. To correct certain inaccuracies of this calendar, Pope Gregory XIII had it reformed in 1582. He took into account new criteria for calculating Easter day — the first Sunday after the full moon of the spring equinox, that is, between March 22 and April 25.
Claiming fidelity to Nicaea, the patriarch of Constantinople, Jeremiah II, refused to adopt the Gregorian calendar because it was promulgated without the consent of the Greek Church. This caused a discrepancy of several days between the Western (Gregorian) calendar and the Eastern (Julian) one.
The Second Vatican Council expressed willingness to come to an agreement with the churches separated from Rome on a common date for Easter in the appendix of Sacrosanctum Concilium, the dogmatic constitution on the sacred liturgy. The feast of Easter would be assigned to a particular Sunday, “provided that those whom it may concern, especially the brethren who are not in communion with the Apostolic See, give their assent.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 1170) and John Paul have expressed the same desire. “I pray to the risen Lord,” the Pope said on Easter Sunday, “that all of us baptized will soon be able to relive every year together on the same day of this fundamental feast of our faith.”
In effect, a common date to celebrate the “feast of feasts” and the “solemnity of solemnities” (Catechism, No. 1169) would visibly express and forcefully promote Christian unity. “Christ calls all his disciples to unity,” the Holy Father wrote in his 1995 encyclical Ut Unum Sint (That They May Be One).
It would also mirror the eternal Easter we are all called to enjoy together without divisions and discrepancies. As St. Augustine said, we are “Easter people and alleluia is our song.”
The enthusiastic and prayerful voices of the 15 or so Orthodox bearded priests who sang to the 100,000 faithful attending the Pope's Easter Mass at St. Peter's Square echoed St. Augustine's thought.
There was no need to understand the lyrics. The Greek melody and words were enough to inspire a dialogue with our Chris-tos (Christ), who is our Pascha (Passover).
How joyful and effective for the New Evangelization would it be to see all the members of the militant Church singing together at Eastertide around the Vicar of Christ in preparation for the triumphant Church's eternal song to the risen Lord!
Legionary Father Alfonso Aguilar teaches philosophy at Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome and can be reached at aaguilar@legionaries.org.
----- EXCERPT: VATICAN VIEW ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Joseph Alfonso Aguilar, LC ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: The Risen Christ Is the Hope of Mankind DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:Register Summary
More than 25,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square on April 14 for Pope John Paul II's first general audience after Easter. On the advice of the Holy Father's personal physician, a priest was entrusted with the task of reading the text John Paul had prepared in order to spare him any further fatigue after a week of tiring events. However, the Holy Father personally greeted the pilgrims in various languages at the end of the audience.
“The Prince of Life, who died, reigns immortal.” This joyful proclamation from the Easter sequence is the foundation and heart of the Church's faith and formed the basis for the Holy Father's catechesis. “Christ triumphs over sin and death! This is the shout of joy that bursts forth at the heart of the Church during this time,” the Pope noted. During the days immediately after Easter, he added, each person is invited to a personal encounter with the risen Lord. Christ, the innocent victim who died for our sins, revealed from the cross the depths of God's mercy and forgiveness.
This message of God's mercy needs to resound in today's world, the Holy Father noted, a world that is characterized by threats of violence and war. As Divine Mercy Sunday approached April 18, he encouraged all Catholics to join with St. Faustina Kowalska, who was chosen to be the humble messenger of God's mercy, in abandoning themselves with confidence to the risen Lord and pray, “Jesus, I trust in you.”
The Easter sequence is a renewal of the proclamation of hope that we heard during the solemn Easter vigil: “The Prince of Life, who died, reigns immortal.” These are the words that will guide our reflection during this gathering, which takes place during this glorious time of the octave of Easter.
Christ triumphs over sin and death! This is the shout of joy that bursts forth at the heart of the Church during this time. Victorious over death, Jesus gives the gift of life, a life that will no longer die, to those who welcome him and believe in him. His death and resurrection are, therefore, the foundation of the Church's faith.
The accounts we find in the Gospels relate — often in rich detail — the encounters of the risen Lord with the women at the tomb and with the apostles. As eyewitnesses, they are, in fact, the first to proclaim the Gospel of his death and resurrection. After Pentecost, they fearlessly affirm the Scriptures regarding the promised Messiah have been fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.
The Church, which is the guardian of this universal mystery of salvation, has handed this mystery down from generation to generation to men and women in every place and in every time. However, this proclamation of Christ, who has died and who now lives and triumphs through the power of his Spirit, needs to resound powerfully through the efforts and the commitment of believers.
A Personal Encounter
In order for Christians to be able to fully carry out the mandate that has been entrusted to them, it is indispensable that they have a personal encounter with Christ, who was crucified and who has risen, and that they let the power of his love transform them. When this happens, sorrow will be transformed into joy and timidity will make way for missionary zeal.
The evangelist John, for example, tells us about the moving encounter of the risen Christ with Mary Magdalene, who went to the tomb early in the morning and found it open and empty. Fearing that the body of the Lord had been stolen, she was downcast and wept. Suddenly and unexpectedly, someone, whom she at first thought was the “gardener,” called out her name: “Mary!” She recognized him as the teacher — “Rabbouni” — and, quickly overcoming any sorrow or disorientation, immediately brought the news to the 11 with great enthusiasm: “I have seen the Lord” (see John 20:11-18).
God's Mercy
“Christ my hope is arisen.” With these words the sequence highlights an aspect of the paschal mystery that mankind today needs to understand more deeply. In a world characterized by imminent threats of violence and death, men and women are seeking someone who will give them peace and security. But where will they find peace, if not in Christ, the innocent victim, who has reconciled sinners with the Father?
On Calvary, God in his mercy manifested his love and forgiveness for all. After the resurrection, when he was in the upper room, Jesus entrusted the apostles with the task of being ministers of this mercy, a source of reconciliation among all men.
In her humility, St. Faustina Kowalska was chosen to proclaim this message of light, which is particularly suitable for today's world. It is a message of hope that invites us to abandon ourselves into the Lord's hands. As she loved to repeat over and over again, “Jesus, I trust in you!”
May Mary, a woman of hope and the mother of mercy, enable us to have a personal encounter with her Son, who has died and who has risen, and make us untiring agents of his mercy and peace!
(Register translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Church Leaders Caution Indian Voters DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:NEW DELHI, India — Caution seems to be the watchword for the Catholic Church in India.
The ruling coalition led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is upbeat about its prospects of retaining power in the protracted Indian elections that were scheduled to begin April 20.
“We have to be very careful. We do not want to take sides or be identified with any political party,” Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, president of the Bishops' Conference of India, said April 13 from his arch-diocesan office in Ranchi in eastern Jharkhand state.
“Our stance is very clear. We have given the guidelines for the voters; now it is for them to decide whom to elect,” said Cardinal Toppo, apparently referring to the “appeal to the electorate” the bishops' conference issued in early March.
Reminding Catholic voters not to “abdicate one's democratic right and duty,” the bishops' conference's voter guidelines exhort the faithful to choose political parties that will ensure the fundamental rights of minorities, protect the interests of poor and avoid sectarian agendas.
The bishops' conference appeal came on the heels of the federal election commission's announcement Feb. 29 of the schedule for the national election, spread out over four days between April 20 and May 10 to allow movement of security personnel and polling officials to oversee a process with more than 650 million eligible voters.
The Church election guidelines remind voters to exercise their franchise in favor of parties that “will preserve and promote social cohesion, communal harmony and cultural plurality [and] address the social problems such as discrimination against certain sections of society and religious fundamentalism.”
The appeal to the electorate ends with a reminder to Catholic and other voters to ensure their votes will go to parties that “will promote true religious values and will not exploit religion for sectarian and divisive purposes.”
The Church voter guidelines are reflective of the steady rise in anti-Christian violence and propaganda during the tenure of the outgoing federal coalition government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party since March 1998.
“Whatever the government that is elected, we want the religious plurality and diversity of India to be preserved,” Cardinal Toppo commented when asked about the Church's hopes for the elections.
Pressed further about whether the Church would favor political parties whose ideologies are closer to the Church guidelines, Cardinal Toppo replied, “We believe in the wisdom of the people, who are very intelligent. They have thrown out governments for their failures. For us, all parties are equal.”
Beyond that line, Church officials and others have adopted a diplomatic silence amid several opinion polls and election forecasts predicting victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in combination with 20-odd smaller political parties, most of them regional entities.
“It seems everyone is now worried about the post-election scenario,” said Jesuit Father Prakash Luis, executive director of the Jesuit-run Indian Social Institute in New Delhi.
Father Luis said that though secular social-activist groups were initially enthusiastic with plans to mobilize voters and campaign against the Bharatiya Janata Party, the “disunity” among opposition parties has “disheartened” social activists.
As an example, he cited the situation in northern Uttar Pradesh state, which accounts for 80 seats to the 545-member Indian Parliament. The state, with 170 million people, will witness four-cornered contests among the Bharatiya Janata Party, the main opposition Congress party and two other strong regional parties, even though all of the last three have declared the Bharatiya Janata Party as their principal enemy.
With the opposition parties failing to reach an understanding to avoid division of secular votes in Bharatiya Janata Party strongholds, Father Luis said social activists now think the elections are “a lost cause already.”
However, several Christian groups have been openly campaigning against the pro-Hindu platform of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which promised to curb conversions in its election manifesto released in New Delhi in the first week of April. Many Christians blame the Bharatiya Janata Party — which professes the dictum “One Nation, One Culture, One People” in a diverse nation where Hindus account for nearly 80% of the total population of more than 1 billion — for fostering a climate that has encouraged persecution of religious minorities.
Concern over the prospects of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition returning to power evoked strong words of warning at the recent national convention of Catholic journalists and from groups like the All India Catholic Union and the All India Christian Council.
“In the last five years, we have witnessed political parties that were elected to govern the people fail to respect their mandate,” said the statement from the March 12-14 assembly of the Indian Catholic Press Association. The association assembly, attended by 70 leading Catholic editors and journalists, urged the voters to defeat “opportunistic alliances [that] bring ideologies of hate and intolerance.”
Earlier, the Fellowship of Catholic Professionals along with the Catholic Association and Christian Renewal Movement of India held a meeting in Chennai in south India calling for “creating political awareness among the faithful” against the hostile agenda of Hindu nationalists.
“The Christian community is divided and scattered. But it can make a significant contribution in the elections,” argued John Dayal, a prominent Catholic activist. Apart from southern Kerala state, where the large Christian minority plays a crucial role in elections, Dayal suggested Christians in tribal regions in Gujarat, Orissa, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand states could also play a “critical” role in defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party.
India bishops' conference spokesman Father Babu Joseph said Church organizations have been encouraging the faithful to ensure their names do figure in the voter list. The Catholic Sabha (Forum) of the Bombay Archdiocese persuaded 180,000 Catholic voters to enroll their names this year in the run-up to the elections. Hindu nationalists have been accused of systematically removing the names of Christians from the voter list in some areas.
Father Joseph reiterated that “as a matter of policy, the Church will not support any candidate or a particular party. It is for the voters to choose.”
Anto Akkara writes from New Delhi, India.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Anto Akkara ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:Rwandans Turn to Islam After Genocide
Catholicism has been the majority faith in the country for almost a century. However, more and more Rwandans are converting to Islam. About 500 mosques have sprung up around the country, twice as many as a decade ago.
“People died in my old church, and the pastor helped the killers,” Yakobo Djuma Nzeyimana, 21, who became a Muslim in 1996, told the newspaper. “I couldn't go back and pray there. I had to find something else.”
But despite some estimates that Muslims in Rwanda number about 1 million, or 15% of the population, Catholicism still remains deeply embedded in Rwandan culture, the Times reported.
Many embraced their faith after the massacres in 1994. “God saved me,” one woman said. “He was testing my faith. Since the genocide I've been transformed. I can endure more now. I have more of a connection with God.”
Chinese Government Detains Another Bishop
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, April 7 — Government agents in China on April 5 detained a bishop from the non-government-controlled Catholic Church, according to the U.S.-based Cardinal Kung Foundation, which monitors religious rights in China.
The agents, who said they were acting on orders, took Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo away from his home in northern China. It was not clear where the bishop was taken, the wire service reported.
Bishop Jia has long refused to associate himself with the Communist Party-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association, which rejects the Vatican and its episcopal appointments in China, instead remaining loyal to Rome.
Vatican spokesman Joaquín Navarro-Valls deplored the actions.
“Once again a member of the Catholic hierarchy has been deprived of his personal freedom without any judicial reason given,” he said in a statement.
The government's action follows a similar one in early March when Bishop Wei Jingyi, recognized by the Vatican as the bishop of Qiqihar, was taken into custody. He was released after a week.
Homosexual Man Sues Catholic Church
Now the man is suing, arguing he was discriminated against because of his homosexual orientation.
The 27-year-old social worker, who has been described as a “committed Catholic” and who wishes to remain anonymous, is citing Britain's Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations, which took effect in December, as the basis for his case. The regulations state it is illegal to deny someone a job based on his or her sexual orientation.
Religious groups, however, have fought the regulations, arguing they have the freedom to reject applicants who do not conform to their churches' teachings. They have won an exemption to the regulations, which has been challenged in court. A decision is pending in that challenge.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: How to Tell a Duck From a Fox DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:“If it quacks like a duck and looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it's probably a duck. A fox can claim to be a duck all day long. But he's still a fox.”
Thus begins Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput's column subtitled “Thinking with the Church as we look toward November.” We excerpt it here as our guest editorial.
I remembered this saying last week as I read yet another news report about candidates who claim to be Catholic and then prominently ignore their own faith on matters of public policy. We've come a long way from John F. Kennedy, who merely locked his faith in the closet. Now we have Catholic senators who take pride in arguing for legislation that threatens and destroys life — and who then also take Communion.
The kindest explanation for this sort of behavior is that a lot of Catholic candidates don't know their own faith. And that's why, in a spirit of charity, the Holy See offered its guidance and encouragement in a little document last year On Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Public Life.
Nothing in this Roman document is new. But it offers a vision of public service filled with common sense.
First, quoting John Paul II, it reminds us that, “man cannot be separated from God, nor politics from morality.” In other words, unless our personal faith shapes our public choices and actions, it's just a pious delusion. Private faith, if it's genuine, always becomes public witness — including political witness.
Second, while Christians “must recognize the legitimacy of differing points of view about the organization of worldly affairs,” they are also “called to reject, as injurious to democratic life, a conception of pluralism that reflects moral relativism.” Appeals to a phony definition of pluralism and tolerance can never excuse inaction in the face of grave evil — including attacks on the sanctity of life. Catholics can only ensure real pluralism by “living and acting in conformity” with their religious convictions so that, “through political life, society will become more just and more consistent with the dignity of the human person.”
Third, “(democracy) only succeeds to the extent that it is based on a correct understanding of the human person.” Catholic lawmakers who do not vigorously seek to protect human dignity and the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death are not serving democracy. They are betraying it.
Fourth, “those who are directly involved in lawmaking bodies have a ‘grave and clear obligation to oppose’ any law that attacks human life. For them, as for every Catholic, it is impossible to promote such laws or to vote for them.” Politics is the exercise of power. Power always has moral implications. And God will hold each of us accountable — from the average voter to senators and presidents — for how well we have used our political power to serve the common good and the human person.
“Pro-choice” candidates who claim to be Catholic bring all of us to a crossroads in this election year. Many Catholics, including some Church leaders, argue that “(we) should not limit (our) concern to one issue, no matter how fundamental that issue is.” That's true — but it can also be misleading.
Catholics have a duty to work tirelessly for human dignity at every stage of life, and to demand the same of their lawmakers. But some issues are jugular.
Some issues take priority. Abortion, immigration law, international trade policy, the death penalty and housing for the poor are all vitally important issues. But no amount of calculating can make them equal in gravity.
The right to life comes first. It precedes and undergirds every other social issue or group of issues. This is why Blessed John XXIII listed it as the first human right in his great encyclical on world peace, Pacem in Terris. And as the U.S. bishops stressed in their 1998 pastoral letter Living the Gospel of Life, the right to life is the foundation of every other right.
The humorist James Thurber once wrote that “you can fool too many of the people too much of the time.” Our job as Catholics this election year — if we're serious about our faith — is to not get fooled.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:Whither Christian Courage?
Father Matthew Habiger's commentary “Must Catholic Politicians Disown Their Faith?” (Commentary, April 11-17) is deeply appreciated and well thought out. Thank you for it.
I am concerned by the Church in this country taking an almost radical stance against political involvement. After all, most people, Catholic or otherwise, are involved at some level and it is an involvement with a dire need for direction. I think our Holy Father as bishop in Poland in some ways has shown us that political involvement is absolutely necessary to protect the flock from injustice. His involvement with the governments of the world since he became Pope is a similar kind of involvement. He has not hesitated in challenging world leaders and governments to protect people and promote their good.
The important issues facing our political leaders today, as you point out, are issues of deep morality — often far deeper than the teachings of any church. They are rooted in the natural law and I am disturbed that the Church seems to often have this “hands-off” attitude just because something involves politics.
Many will say, “Oh no, the Church has made many pronouncements.” But pronouncements can be most unrelated to the life of the average person where the rubber meets the road.
All we have to do is look at the yearly appeal of pro-lifers who seek to use simple fliers in an attempt to convince their fellow Catholics to support life in the next election. As a participant in those activities for a generation now, I know that most pastors rely on the false “cover” that we must not do things anywhere near their church for fear of offending the powers that be. God forbid we risk losing our tax exemptions.
Last Sunday, Sen. John Kerry boldly proclaimed political messages from Protestant pulpits whose pastors seemed to have no fear of losing their tax exemptions. What is our real problem? Sad to say, there seems to be a strong tendency on the part of our pastors to seek the safest path possible. If we as a Church do not overcome this kind of cowardice, we in a sense deserve to lose every moral battle that comes along.
MICHAEL DONNELLY
Lawrenceville, New Jersey
From Death to New Life
Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is clearly a masterpiece of Christian art, with many layers of carefully-crafted theological and aesthetic meaning. My fourth viewing on Good Friday revealed yet more of the Paschal Mystery to me.
I baptized 12 adults at this year's Easter Vigil. Some of them did not want to go under the water and all of them, once they actually felt the waters closing in over them, found it shocking. As I watched the water close over their faces, I remembered the last scenes of Christ's scourging from the movie. Gibson portrays Christ face up, receiving the lashes from above, eyes closed, and muffles the sound so that we seem to be looking down upon one as under water. In fact, he is truly undergoing that “baptism of blood” he foretells in Luke 12:50. No longer even flinching under the blows, having surrendered himself completely into the Father's hands, Christ appears almost at rest. It is a masterful and profoundly theological depiction in image and sound.
I saw this same image in the faces of those I was baptizing. I saw them ultimately submitting to their own death under the water. Once they had made the decision to enter the font, the sacramental death of baptism swept them up into the life of grace, and they did not resist. They rose from that death newly fashioned in the Father's image. Immersion in water is no longer just a symbolic cleansing, because Jesus was not play-acting during his scourging.
As a pastor of a large parish, seeing many people's lives unfolding around me, I am struck by how closely Gibson's movie portrays the sacramental life of real Christians here and now.
Father Joseph Illo Pastor, St. Joseph's Church
Modesto, California
Discussing Sin
In “Russell Shaw on the Crisis” (April 11-17), Delia Gallagher quotes columnist Shaw saying that the real crisis has been taking place for the last 30 to 40 years in Catholicism in the United States: “What about sexual abuse by clerics in the United States that is not a crime — that does not involve minors but involves consenting adults? It's not against the law, it just happens to be a serious sin. Nobody is discussing that.”
Indeed, no one is discussing serious sin, whether it be with minors or adults, by clerics or laypersons, from most of our pulpits. The only person who mentioned serious sin at the bishops' sex-abuse meeting in Dallas two years ago was Gov. Frank Keating, who said, Let's face it — we're talking about mortal sin! (He didn't last too long on the lay review board after that.)
Since the exposure of the clergy sexual-abuse crisis, we have learned that five bishops were removed because of homosexual acts not only with adolescents but also with adults. This is not being addressed; worse, some are still active not in governing in a diocese but in the dispensing of the sacraments in their own or some other diocese.
Forgiveness yes, always. Penance, yes, always a penitential spirit should be present. In Alcoholics Anonymous, the fourth step is to “make amends, wherever possible, to those you offended.” And what about all those priests who worked in the personnel departments of a diocese, then and now, who are part of the “cover-up”? We truly need to ponder Matthew 18:15-17.
DEACON JOHN M. EDGERTON
Tarpon Springs, Florida
War or Salvation
Contrary to Father James Schall's assertion in “The Real Spanish Disaster” (Commentary, April 4-10), the outcome of the March 13 Spanish election is to be applauded. If democracy is possessed of any virtue, it is the unwillingness of the electorate to tolerate bad judgment by politicians. The Iraq war was hugely unpopular with the Spanish public from the very beginning. The March 11 bombings in Madrid just brought this fact home. The transparent attempt by the Aznar government to pin the blame for the bombings on the Basque separatist group ETA only made things worse.
Before Father Schall presents us with the false dichotomy of supporting President Bush's war or of appeasement, he should reflect — as did the Spanish voters — on the tissue of lies that were presented as America's justification for starting the war. As we should have seen a year ago and as is clear to everyone now, the government of Saddam Hussein had no connection with the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, it did not possess any weapons of mass destruction nor the means of delivery to anywhere near U.S. territory and it posed no danger to anyone but the Iraqis themselves. Even Secretary of State Colin Powell now admits the “mobile biological weapons labs,” the highlight of his U.N. slide show, were no such thing.
Father Schall would have us support “President Bush's policy of finding and destroying terrorist groups wherever they are found” and recognize that “the present governance of the Muslim world itself needs to be changed.”
Well, it is our attempt to change the governance of Iraq that got us into the mess we are in now. Far from destroying the terrorist groups, the war on Iraq is breeding new terrorists and providing new targets of opportunity for them where none existed before.
The only way to crush the Iraqi insurgency is for our military to adopt tactics totally incompatible with Christian principles of just war and antithetical to American ideas of freedom. Iraq — and all of the other countries in the Muslim world — does present us with a choice. We can either serve our empire or save our soul.
LESZEK SYSKI
Brookeville, Maryland
Over the Wedge
Terry McAuliffe's assessment that late-term abortions and same-sex marriages are “wedge issues” shows how out of touch he and the Democratic Party are with reality and the American public (“Party Leaders, Both Catholic University Alumni, Spar at D.C. Campus,” April 4-10).
No, abortion is not a “wedge” issue. It is a central issue for those who have not piddled away their moral compass in order to gather votes. Taking away the sacredness of each individual life has huge societal ramifications, many of which we are experiencing right now. Same-sex marriage is also not a “wedge” issue. How could he be so patronizing about it? In what culture would a change so enormous be considered a “wedge” issue by thinking people?
I urge all registered Democrats to leave the Democratic Party, as I did, and register as Independents until the party takes back its soul and re-establishes a modicum of integrity. There is no excuse for a person of faith or intelligence to associate with and vote for people who play so recklessly with the truth.
Terry McAuliffe, you and your party's ability to think has been compromised. There is no excuse for trivializing such important issues for political convenience. Your alma mater must be truly embarrassed.
JOAN LEONARD WERNICK
Niwot, Colorado
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Lyrical Liabilities? DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:In the March 28-April 3 issue, George Weigel criticizes “We Are Jesus” hymns and mentions “Be Not Afraid,” “You Are Mine” and “I Am the Bread of Life,” adding that “the congregation (for the first time in two millennia) pretends that it's Christ.”
It is certainly in keeping with Christian tradition to pray Psalms or other verses from Scripture that use the voice of the Lord. Prayer is conversation between God and us. An important part of prayer is listening to God as he speaks to us in Scripture.
At the Christmas Vigil Mass, we sing from Psalm 89: “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant: Forever will I confirm your posterity and establish your throne for all generations.” And further along, “He shall say of me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the Rock, my Savior.’ Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him, and my covenant with him stands firm.” Many of the Psalms switch voice in midstream between God and people. Most people are smart enough to understand the poetry.
In addition, many of the Communion antiphons from the Roman Missal use the same words as “I Am the Bread of Life” from the Gospel of John. In fact, the Communion antiphon from the feast of Corpus Christi is John 6:57 — “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live in me and I in him, says the Lord.” People understand what they are singing and, in song, these words help us ponder what Jesus said and learn his words by heart.
In addition, I would like to point out that Oregon Catholic Press leaves out the offending verse from “For the Healing of the Nations” in its hymnals.
JANET NOVESKE North Olmsted, Ohio Director of Music at St. Richard Church
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Fall of a Peacock: Why Gender Matters DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:In 1972, the Pioneer 10 space probe ventured out, bearing images from Earth to distant galaxies.
To convey a sense of who humans are, we sent up a map showing our location in the galaxy and drawings of a man and a woman.
Apparently, we thought it important the aliens know human beings come in two kinds. And not just any two kinds: We didn't send drawings of a fat man and a thin man, or a tall woman and a short woman. Nor did we attempt to send one androgynous silhouette, like those eerie sexless mannequins at some of the artier clothing stores.
If any aliens have received those images by now, they know more about humans than many of us know about ourselves!
Today, one common view — perhaps even the default view at the ritzier colleges and newspapers — holds that the assumption behind the Pioneer 10 pictures is just wrong: The difference between men and women is trivial. It's interesting when you happen to be watching a Tracy/Hepburn movie but easy to ignore whenever it might prove inconvenient.
La difference doesn't make much difference when you don't want it to. Men and women are basically interchangeable, and that's great, because it means we operate under far fewer constraints.
This viewpoint spills out from the political realm through the theological and into the intensely personal. If men and women are interchangeable, children do not need a mother and a father; two mothers or two fathers will do just as well. If men and women are interchangeable, women should be ordained. If men and women are interchangeable, cultures need not develop and maintain courtship practices that recognize the sexes' differing risks and vulnerabilities.
Americans might be especially prone to this anti-gender worldview. We romanticize the unconstrained individual: the Lone Ranger. We hate the thought that accidents of birth — whether you're born a boy or a girl — should restrict your life's possibilities. We especially fear being constrained by our bodies, because every fleshly constraint is a premonition of death, the final limit our physicality places on our ambitions. Moreover, we live in a young nation born of revolution. It's only natural that we're skeptical of received wisdom and open to radical innovation.
But if Americans are unusually vulnerable to anti-gender thinking, there are two groups of people who should be unusually attuned to the meaning and value of la difference: writers and believers in a creator God.
Poets, playwrights and novelists can look back through the history of their craft and see a parade of vivid, compelling characters: Hektor, Medea, the Wife of Bath, Falstaff, all the way up through Molly Bloom and Mickey Sabbath.
And all these characters would be unimaginable in a world where gender meant little.
Many of the great characters break societal conventions; they don't conform to what their culture considered the proper roles of men and women. (After all, the clash between role and desire, or between individual and society, generates the drama that the great stories need.)
But their manhood or womanhood matters.
Medea's break from convention is shocking, horrifying — and the horror is especially great because a mother has slain her own children, a woman has taken up a knife. The men are intensely men, the women intensely women; and sexual difference, unlike (for example) class and ethnic divisions, persists at high intensity in radically different ages and countries.
From ancient Roman comedies to Gone With the Wind, He does not behave like She.
On a deeper level, literature relies on the symbolic use of real objects and features of our world. Writers rely on a belief that things in the world have particular meanings that can be understood, in at least some cases, across cultures.
The world is itself a kind of symbolic dictionary — that's the feeling writers get when they know they've hit upon the exact right image, the exact right word. When a lamppost or a sparrow turns up in a poem and you know it couldn't have been anything else, the writer has tapped into that inherent meaning in physical things. This intuitive sense understands that a sparrow doesn't convey the same symbolic meaning as a peacock; and it also knows that there is a far deeper difference in meaning between a man and a woman. Trying to write a man where the poem needs a woman would lead to results even more ridiculous than if Shakespeare had written, “There's a special providence in the fall of a peacock.”
And this belief in creatures as words in a symbolic language is also the natural perspective of anyone who believes in a creator God. For us, God is the one who speaks the words that make up the world, and by speaking them brings them into being. If man and woman are especially important, unique words, we would expect creation narratives to reflect that fact. And so they do: “Male and female he created them.”
If we hate constraint that much, we can pretend that sexual difference makes little difference. It will cloud our eyes as we read great literature. It will blind us to the fingerprints of God impressed into the world around us. It will warp our politics and our private lives. It's anti-poetic and deeply unromantic.
Which would you rather be — an autonomous mannequin or a word spoken by God?
Eve Tushnet writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: American Lessons From Europe's Fall DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:“In the middle of the journey of my life” unexpectedly I was able to take several months of sabbatical from my normal pastoral work in Washington, D.C., in order to write a book on conversions and evangelization. I am here now in London, part of a country once known as the dowry of Our Lady.
London, it turned out, was the perfect choice. As one who has spent decades voraciously reading English history and literature, what could be better than to live, work and sightsee in one of the great cities in the world? England is a country with so many ties to the United States culturally, both enemy and ally in war and peace, even unto this day.
I'm living in the borough of Hamp-stead surrounded by the houses of Beatrice and Sidney Webb (founders of Fabian Socialism and in-laws of Malcolm Muggeridge), of Sigmund Freud (founder of American modern culture, judging from what I saw of the Super Bowl halftime show) and a mile or so away from Karl Marx's grave site. All of this leads to musings on “the big picture.”
Some weeks ago, I gave a two-part talk at Oxford on the 2003 apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in Europa (The Church in Europe), a document I am sure few American Catholics have read. It makes for grim reading, but reading and musing upon it is important for us across the pond. Europe these days is “within a dark wood where the straight way was lost.“ And the question for the United States is whether, with God's grace, we are going to fight and win our own current culture wars in the decades ahead that can lead to a “new civilization of love and truth” or are we going to follow the path of Europe into the deepest abyss of the culture of death?
Europe's Rise and Fall
To put the current situation in context, we might roughly divide up Europe's history in this way: [L50776] The rise of Christianity from 33-500;
• The rise of Christianity from 33–500;
• The conversion of the Barbarians from 500-1100;
• The Middle Ages and Renaissance from 1100-1550;
• The Protestant revolution, Enlightenment and rise and fall of ideology 1550-2000; and
• The new paganism, Islamic resurgence/new Christian evangelization in the context of globalization from 2000 to the present.
The Holy Father explains in the document the current situation of Europe:
“I would like to mention in a particular way the loss of Europe's Christian memory and heritage, accompanied by a kind of practical agnosticism and religious indifference whereby many Europeans give the impression of living without spiritual roots and somewhat like heirs who have squandered a patrimony entrusted to them by history. It is no real surprise, then, that there are efforts to create a vision of Europe that ignores its religious heritage and, in particular, its profound Christian soul, asserting the rights of the peoples who make up Europe without grafting those rights onto the trunk that is enlivened by the sap of Christianity.”
This indeed is the Europe I have encountered during my travels during the last decade or so.
In many ways, it is like a huge well-run museum of Christendom complete with cathedrals, monasteries, paintings, sculptures and even folk customs and festivals. This all comes from Europe's often-glorious 2000-year run as the heart of the Christian culture and religion from which it spread throughout the world.
There are a few bright spots here and there, but generally there reigns among the people the “agnosticism and religious indifference” that is fed on one hand by the bourgeois affluence of Western Europe and on the other, by the almost 50 years of economic depression and oppressive dictatorships in the East.
Europe is tired, and its people are chiefly concerned with the present as evidenced by their lack of creativity, their embracing of the enveloping welfare state and above all by their remarkable reluctance to procreate. With the influx of Islamic workers and the current rates of fertility, one begins to see that it is not a question of whether “Europe is the faith and the faith is Europe,” as Belloc put it almost a century ago, but rather if within 50 years Europe will be at all.
The Pope seems to agree:
“This loss of Christian memory is accompanied by a kind of fear of the future. Tomorrow is often presented as something bleak and uncertain. The future is viewed more with dread than with desire. Among the troubling indications of this are the inner emptiness that grips many people and the loss of meaning in life. The signs and fruits of this existential anguish include, in particular, the diminishing number of births, the decline in the number of vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and the difficulty, if not the outright refusal, to make lifelong commitments, including marriage.”
Why has this happened?
I see it as the inevitable development flowing from the sundering of Christendom and, apart from a brief spike of recovery coming out of the Catholic reformation, a gradual decline of Christianity and its influence on culture and politics to the point that a “united” Europe cannot even acknowledge its Christian roots in the current debate on the content of the European constitution. Complete moral relativism, yes; Christ and Christendom, no. There is no real hope in a secular sense, only a vague sensual existentialism.
Now you might say, can it really be that bad? Who knows what miracles God will work over time or even quicker (John 11:43-45)? Certainly the Church never gives up on its wayward children. The salvation of even one soul is worth the effort; the greatest signs of life and hope in Europe I have seen lie in the presence of the newer ecclesial movements and institutions.
They, in their turn, can help revitalize the decreasing vocations to diocesan priesthood and religious life. They are the bright lights shining in the darkness. Movements such as Foccolare, Regnum Christi, the Neocatechumenate, and Communion and Liberation stand out among many others in the apostolic zeal in carrying out the New Evangelization.
The Pope makes special mention of them: “Such groups, in fact, help Christians to live a more radically evangelical life. They are a cradle for different vocations, and they generate new forms of consecration. Above all, they promote the vocation of the laity, and they help it to find expression in different spheres of life. They favor the holiness of the people. They are able to be both the messenger and the message for people who otherwise would not encounter the Church.”
The signs and fruits of this existential anguish include, in particular, the diminishing number of births, the decline in the number of vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and the difficulty, if not the outright refusal, to make lifelong commitments, including marriage.”
— Pope John Paul II
A Shift South?
The spiritual illness of Europe might be terminal, at least speaking in the short run of the decades ahead. This would not be the first time a great swath of Christendom came to ruin. After all, the Middle East, Asia Minor and Northern Africa were once flourishing centers of Christianity.
Could it be, as the noted historian Philip Jenkins posits, that the future of Orthodox Christianity in this century lies “south“ — in the continents of South America and Africa?
I think that might well be the case in God's providence. But that brings us back to the present-day empire — the United States — and the immense struggle we are waging for the soul of our country.
This war is more important than the war against Islamic terrorism. Our weapons are, above all, prayer, the sacramental life and our willingness to live the fullness of the Christian life in our family, professional, social and political life.
St. Thomas More, whose cell in the Tower of London I recently visited, gives us a wonderful example to follow in that regard. His example as a statesman, lawyer and man of letter was outstanding, but his devotion to his family, prayer life and to the Church is even more impressive. It may well be that we or our immediate descendants will lose our heads, but we also could be the ones who bring Catholicism back to the Europe from whence it came to us. Only time will tell.
Father C.J. McCloskey III (www.frmccloskey.com) is a research fellow of the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father C.J. McCloskey ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Neither Heresy Nor Schism DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:From the standpoint of Catholic teaching, there is no way the November action of the Episcopal Church U.S.A. in ordaining as its new bishop of New Hampshire a man living in an open homosexual relationship with another man, having abandoned his wife and family, could ever be condoned. Indeed, Pope John Paul II plainly said as much to the archbishop of Canterbury in person when the two met in Rome in October.
Catholics are not alone in deploring the ordination, however. It has been severely criticized and condemned by most of the provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion itself. Large numbers of Episcopalians similarly find themselves opposed to the ill-advised action of their communion. The Episcopal Church is currently in utter turmoil over the issue as its members attempt to try to deal with an unprecedented situation.
Catholics can only be saddened by the spectacle of what the Episcopalians are currently going through. The Catholic Church, after all, has hardly been internally free from agitation in favor of so-called homosexual rights. One of the prime casualties of this kind of turmoil, though, besides the scandal of so-called homosexual marriage itself and the ordination of a man in an immoral relationship, has been what we might call “the degradation of discourse.”
At a recent meeting in Virginia, the Episcopal bishop of Virginia, the Rt. Rev. Peter Lee, in a statement that it is hard to believe could ever have been issued from the lips of a Christian bishop, illustrated the depths to which the contemporary degradation of discourse can descend. “If you have to make a choice between heresy and schism,” Bishop Lee told the gathering attempting to deal with the crisis in their religious communion, “always choose heresy.”
“Choose heresy”? Most Christians adhering to the historic creeds of Christianity prior to the present confused age would surely never have imagined there could ever be any such thing as a “choice” between heresy and schism. The Episcopal bishop of Virginia was quite serious, however, and he tried to explain what he meant: “For as a heretic,” he told the Virginia Episcopalians, “you are only guilty of a wrong opinion. As a schismatic, you have torn and divided the body of Christ. Choose heresy every time.”
One scarcely knows where to begin to react to such a statement as this, delivered to the world, incredibly, by a man ordained to be a bishop in the 70-million-strong Anglican Communion. What the statement meant to convey, of course, was that those Episcopalians who think homosexual acts are immoral and contrary to Scripture and to the Christian tradition have somehow now adopted a “wrong opinion”; and if they act on that “opinion,” they are guilty of tearing and dividing the body of Christ! Nothing is said about the totally un-Christian innovation introduced into their communion.
Bishop Lee actually dared to continue using the figure of “the body of Christ” to describe a body that has now officially opted to go contrary to Christ's Gospel. Meanwhile, he seemed totally at sea concerning the further, and much more important, point that Christ declared so clearly to Pontius Pilate: “For this I was born and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth” (John 18:37). What the good bishop does not seem to understand is that commitment to Christ necessarily entails commitment also to Christ's truth. What Christ revealed, and what his Church necessarily teaches following him, is truth. It is not “opinion”; it is truth.
If we were to ask what the possible Scriptural basis for the bishop's position might be, we would surely have to reply that his position seems to be nothing else but that of Pontius Pilate himself: “What is truth?” (John 18:38). What indeed? Pilate, too, no doubt considered that truth was nothing more than mere “opinion.”
The Christian truly committed to Christ, however, also has to be committed to his words and has to embrace his truth. There is no “choice” between heresy and schism; the Christian, necessarily, has to be against both. The Episcopal bishop of Virginia, however, on the evidence of his own words, apparently believes that what Christ's Church teaches are mere “opinions.” Members of the Church may evidently hold a variety of views on what has been taught in Scripture and the Christian Tradition. Christians in the Anglican tradition have sometimes disclaimed Protestant “private judgment,” but it is hard to imagine a plainer example of private judgment than the one espoused by Bishop Lee.
Is this a new problem for the Episcopal Church? If we look at the famous Thirty-Nine Articles, which constitute the doctrinal foundation of the Church of England and the communions that have issued from it, we find that one of these articles states that the popes have erred in teaching Christian doctrine; another article states that the general councils of the Church have erred. What is left? If the magisterium, or teaching authority, of Christ's Church, according to the Anglican tradition, has erred — and thus can err — then what is left? Is heresy, or denial of fundamental truths revealed by Christ, mere opinion after all?
Catholics can only be thankful for the Church's magisterium!
Kenneth D. Whitehead is the author of One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic: The Early Church Was the Catholic Church (Ignatius Press).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kenneth D. Whitehead ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Anti-Catholic Passions DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:Spirit and Life
Religious bigotry. Distorted views of history. Nasty stereotypes. Fundamentalist attitudes. Dogmatism. Confrontations at the water cooler. Ugly remarks.
No, I'm not talking about the now-disproved predictions that preceded The Passion of the Christ into the hearts and minds of movie patrons. I'm talking about The Da Vinci Code, a book that is every bit as anti-Catholic as Mel's movie was purported to be anti-Semitic — at least according to his most paranoid critics.
Since The Passion was released, I've heard of exactly zero instances of angry Christian viewers confronting Jews and demanding an explanation for why they killed Jesus. But I've heard several stories of Catholics being confronted by co-workers and relatives angrily wielding a copy of The Da Vinci Code, demanding an explanation for the Catholic Church's cover-up of Jesus' marriage, the murder of millions of witches and the violent suppression of lovable, cuddly heretics.
Some of these confrontations have gotten a bit tense as those confronted are a bit irritated that they have to answer to a work of mediocre fiction filled with endless clichés and historical howlers.
But it's Passion's alleged historical inaccuracies that made the headlines for several weeks. Hordes of liberal, progressive and non-Christian scholars bemoaned the endless failings of the movie: It's too violent, bloody, Catholic, Eurocentric, obscure, obvious, raw, stilted, confusing, reliant on stereotypes, conservative. One local television station put together a special panel of experts to “discuss” the movie; the panel members included a Jew, a Muslim, a liberal Methodist pastor and a Baptist minister. Catholics? What Catholics? Bias? What bias?
Topping it off was a special commentary in my local paper, written by a retired National Public Radio host, that contained these priceless lines: “Gibson says that Jews are not singled out. Everyone is responsible for Christ's death, he says. But how many Scots are depicted? How many Australians? Or Germans? There aren't any. Everyone in the film is either Jewish or Roman.” So it is historically correct after all?
Meanwhile, The Da Vinci Code claims that the Catholic faith is a big, bloody, woman-hating lie created out of pagan cloth by the manipulative emperor of Rome. It also opines, through its thinly drawn characters, that “the Vatican power base” is the source of nearly all evil, although direct links to cancer, AIDS and global warming are not made explicit. The reaction of Time, Newsweek and other big, important magazines was swift and decisive: “Hey, this is a golden opportunity to write endless, empty articles about the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene!” And write conjecturing fluff they did, with so much ink spilled about the big (secret) wedding that I half expected some historically-challenged paparazzi to show up in Cana and start staking out wedding halls.
All of this madness reveals a couple of simple but significant truths. First, the leading bigotry of our day is not homophobia or racism but Christophobia. As long as Jesus is a mere human — a happily married hippie with a message of dewy-eyed love — he can hang out with the post-modern elitists. Safely locked in his first-century cage, he cannot come out to haunt us in our lonely hours and confront us in the quiet corners of our hearts.
Second, true Christianity is radical and scandalous. It's offensive — not because it's inherently violent, nasty or anti Semitic but because it is sacrificial, humble and bursting with truth. The Code might sell, but only the cross can save.
Carl E. Olson is co-author of The Da Vinci Hoax, due out from Ignatius later this year.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carl E. Olson ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: The Worker's Peace on the Prairie DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:It's been said that it took two things to put Sioux Falls, S.D., on the map.
One is the falls. (The Sioux River runs right through downtown.) The other is the Cathedral of St. Joseph.
The cathedral, without a doubt the most majestic building in the state, is located high on Fifth Street Hill. The stately church overlooks the city and is especially striking at night, when it is illuminated and visible from Interstate 90.
On a recent visit, I learned that the city's first Catholic church was built in what was then the Dakota Territory. Completed in 1881, the small building was located close to the Sioux River and named St. Michael's Church. It was destroyed by fire in 1883. St. Michael's Church was then rebuilt on the Fifth Street Hill and became the pro-cathedral for the diocese's first shepherd, Benedictine Bishop Martin Marty. St. Michael's Church was subsequently moved and the present cathedral was designed for the same site by renowned architect Emmanuel Masqueray. The first Mass was celebrated here on Dec. 8, 1918.
The foundation stone of St. Joseph Cathedral is Sioux Falls granite. But the church itself, a blend of Romanesque and French Gothic designs, is composed of Indiana limestone. Built to accommodate 800, it takes the shape of a cross.
I was privileged to get a firsthand feel for how instinctively the church's interior causes worship-pers to lift hearts and minds to God. I was not surprised to learn that, in the hours and days following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, many people — including many non-Catholics — were drawn here by the dozens.
Perhaps it's fitting then that the cathedral's face is framed by bold twin towers. They soar 185 feet into the sky; the north tower houses a bell from the original St. Michael's Church. An enormous bronze statue of St. Joseph watches from the plaza, holding the Child Jesus and greeting the people as they ascend the stairs to enter the cathedral.
There could hardly be a better saint for that job come May 1, feast of St. Joseph the Worker.
He Reigns
Above the front door is a relief of Christ the King. He's attended to by an angel on either side and, from the wings, Sts. Peter and Paul join him in calling the faithful to worship. Beneath Jesus is a Latin inscription: Oportet Illum Regnare. This means, “It is fitting that he reign.”
Inside, I found out that the magnificent organ had fallen into disrepair by 1987, when it was a half-century old. A former physics professor from Minnesota was commissioned to rebuild the instrument, which features an astounding 3,392 pipes.
Above the organ is the cathedral's rose window, the largest single work of stained glass in the church. It depicts Christ the King, robed in red. Surrounding the center window are four lancet windows, representing the whole of the human race, adoring Christ.
As if inspired by their example, Bishop Robert Carlson in 2002 invited the semi-cloistered Sisters of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament from Vera Cruz, Mexico, to take up residence here. Because of their red-and-white habit, the sisters are sometimes referred to as the “red nuns.” They have developed a monastery in what used to be the rectory.
But the main reason they're here is to see to it that Jesus is perpetually adored in the cathedral's new Eucharistic adoration chapel, as Bishop Carlson instituted perpetual adoration in 2003. Parishioners and other local Catholics come in to join the sisters, known for their joyful spirit, in praying before the Real Presence of Christ.
The new chapel features a floor of imported Italian marble. Pews on each side of the main aisle seat four people to a side for a total capacity of 80 adorers. On one wall are Russian icons of the four evangelists and the three archangels. Near the front of the chapel, to the left if you're facing the Blessed Sacrament, is an ambo comprising a striking bronze eagle. This symbolizes St. John the Evangelist. The eagle supports the lectionary on his back. Confessionals in the rear of the chapel were moved here from the former chapel. In the near future, I learned, a large Eucharistic mural will be painted on the wall behind the altar.
House of David
Back in the cathedral proper, the apse of the sanctuary features seven stained-glass windows that were imported from Europe in the 1940s. They have a Native American flavor.
In the north transept, in the spot that had a St. Joseph altar until 1992, is a baptismal font. A relief on the ceiling above the font depicts the death of St. Joseph.
The statue of St. Joseph and Child from the old shrine was moved to the south transept, next to the statue of Mary, to make the Holy Family Altar. Red vigil lights flicker before the family; a relief on the ceiling overhead depicts the Annunciation.
The Stations of the Cross are statues jutting out from the wall. Above, on the edge of the ceiling on either side of the nave, are medallions of the 12 Apostles.
Throughout the sanctuary are images of pelicans, ancient symbols of Christ as feeder of the faithful. (A pre-Christian legend had it that a mother pelican would strike herself with her beak in times of famine in order to feed her young on her own blood — even at the cost of her own life.)
In the south transept, the main stained-glass window pictures the Blessed Mother, patroness of the United States, holding the baby Jesus on her lap. Below are three lancet stained-glass windows with views tracing Jesus' kingly lineage back to David.
In the north transept, the main stained-glass window shows St. Joseph, patron saint of the universal Church and of the cathedral. Seated regally, he holds this cathedral in his lap.
The St. Joseph window is surrounded by windows showing 10 men at work in various occupations. I picked out a blacksmith, a farmer, a hunter, a judge, a machinist, a miner, a pharmacist, a train engineer, a scribe and a priest. Not a bad image to contemplate on the feast of St. Joseph the Worker.
Joseph Albino writes from Syracuse, New York.
----- EXCERPT: St. Joseph Cathedral, Sioux Falls, South Dakota ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Albino ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Going Through a Bad Age - Ours DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:Family Matters
My kids (ages 11 and 14) are seldom blatantly disrespectful, but lately they have begun talking back in subtle ways. It might be a “Duh,” a “Yeah, right” or a long look. My friends tell me it's just the age and it will pass. What do you say?
I agree. It's the age. But not the age of adolescence — the age of toleration and disrespect that we now live in.
Your children's “subtle” disrespect — actually no disrespect is subtle if you can perceive it — puts a face to a broader mentality that undercuts good parents today and, ultimately, hurts kids. I call it the “he's not on drugs” mentality. Because what the child is doing is not all that bad, at least compared with the major trouble some other kids are getting into, a parent needs to be more accepting. Maybe even grateful to the child for not doing worse. Besides, a little disrespect is normal kid stuff. It will resolve with time. So goes the theory.
Such reasoning ignores the core question of parenthood: What kind of people do we want to raise? For the most part, a parent can raise kids who are “not on drugs” by holding to culturally average standards. To raise a child of exceptional virtue and character, however, almost always requires adhering to standards well above the group norm. In essence, the question for really good parents is not: “Is this behavior all that bad?” The question is: “Is this behavior all that good?”
Your friends are right in one sense. As kids get older, they become ever more skilled at walking a fine line between expressing themselves and showing disrespect. Four-year-olds have little finesse. When they're mad at us, the whole world knows. Fourteen-year-olds can be so smooth that an hour goes by before it clicks in that we have been “dissed.”
To determine whether or not it's wise to tolerate your youngsters' back-looks and covert commentary, try this test. For the next month, whatever your kids do to you, do the exact same thing to your best friend, your boss or your pastor. Anytime someone says something you disagree with, say, “Well, duh!” or “Yeah, right” or the more contemporary “Whatever.” At the end of the month, ask them what they think of the new you. See if they reply, “Well, at least you're not on drugs.”
You see, when removed from the context of “that's just what kids do,” the more harmless stuff doesn't seem so harmless. Certainly kids misbehave in lots of ways, big and small, because they're incompletely socialized human beings — aren't we all, really — but that doesn't make misconduct acceptable, much less right.
My advice? Let your children know in clear terms that any expression of condescension or disdain, no matter how slight or how cleverly masked, will not be overlooked. It will be disciplined. In so doing, you will be sending a not-so-subtle message: I love you way too much to allow you to act in ways that are not good for your character.
Dr. Ray Guarendi is a father of 10, a psychologist and an author. He can be reached at www.DrRay.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dr. Ray Guarendi ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, APRIL 25
Pro-life shows
EWTN, 4 a.m.-9 p.m.
This lineup counters today's pro-abor tion march in Washington, D.C. Some highlights: At 10:30 a.m., We Are All God's Children tells the true story of a girl who chooses life for her baby. At 11 a.m., The Women's Center: Saving Lives and Changing Lives depicts alternatives to abortion in Chicago. At 4 p.m., Dear Children explores help for post-abor tion syndrome. At 7 p.m., Franciscan University Presents hosts international pro-life leader Austin Ruse. At 9 p.m., Good Counsel Homes With Father Groeschel shows Chris Bell and Joan Andrews Bell helping unwed moms with shelter, job training and apartments.
MONDAY, APRIL 26
Ultimate Treehouse
Discovery Channel, 8 p.m.
Join the fun as a special team designs, engineers and builds a just-right treehouse.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28
Secrets of Soviet Space Disasters
History Channel, 11 p.m.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the USSR's propagandists and their sympathizers in the West pretended the Soviet space program was ahead of U.S. effor ts. Declassified Soviet documents now reveal multiple hidden disasters that claimed more than 150 lives.
THURSDAY, APRIL 29
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
ABC, 8 p.m.
The makeover team gives the Hardin family a weeklong vacation and tears down and rebuilds their home to give Mr. Hardin's father more spacious quarters.
THURSDAY, APRIL 29
Live From Lincoln Center: Vivaldi, Haydn and Yo-Yo Ma
PBS, 8 p.m.
Tom Koopman leads the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and cellist Ma guests.
THURSDAY, APRIL 29
Frontline: The Jesus Factor
PBS, 9 p.m.
This hour-long special looks into the faith of President George W. Bush and of “born-again” evangelical potential voters. Catholic viewers will take this show with a grain of salt, as they do all discussions of religion by secular news media.
THURSDAY, APRIL 29
The Dark Side of Parole
A & E, 10 p.m.
Thanks to lax parole boards, plea bargains and mass early releases from prison, tens of thousands of violent criminals are free — and many commit robbery, rape and murder. Advisory: Not for children.
SATURDAY, MAY 1
Kentucky Derby
NBC, 5 p.m., live
From Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., here is the 130th running of the Kentucky Derby. “My Old Kentucky Home” and post time should be a little before 6 p.m. in this 90-minute program.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Byzantium in the Big Apple DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:“Oh, what gorgeous icons,” whispers a woman in a green suit to a friend.
The two stand rapt before the jewel-encrusted “Virgin of Hodegetria,” one of more than 350 objects that make up the current exhibition “Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557)” on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City until July 4.
Gorgeous indeed are the icons, but the elegance does not stop at these painted panels with golden backgrounds and silver revetments, or frames. Also included are fresco fragments, illuminated books, sacred liturgical vessels, textiles and mosaics. And not to be missed, two sakkos, embroidered chasuable-like vestments, one sent by the Vatican, that cause the jaw to drop in astonishment. It is, according to museum director Philippe de Montebello, “the first major museum exhibition to concentrate solely on the Palaiologan period.”
But a bit of background is in order: We Latin-rite Catholics — indeed the bulk of the educated public — still remain in a cloud of unknowing about the whole “Byzantine thing.” Who were the Byzantines? What was Byzantium? And where does this Palaiologan revival or renaissance fit in?
One would like to think that there is not a graduate who sat in social studies who does not recall 330 A.D. Constantine, the emperor who converted to Christianity, moved the capital of the empire from Rome to a city at the easternmost tip of Europe, at a point that brushes Asia Minor. He named his capital Constantinople or New Rome. Near the new capital was an older Greek colony called Byzantion.
Very much later, in 1557, a German scholar, Hieronymus Wolf, adopted the term Byzantine to refer to the people who lived in Constantinople and, by extension, to refer to the imperial court, along with the rites and ceremonies of the Church that were so intimately linked to the court. The art that was produced here was very much a Christian art and dedicated to the service of the Church.
Religious Revival
The successors of Constantine lived in Constantinople uninterrupted until 1206, a fateful year when crusaders from the West, diverted from their principal objective of the recovery of Jerusalem, turned instead to Constantinople attacking and pillaging the Queen City on the Bosporus. Thus commenced an inter-regnum of 55 years in which Constantinople was ruled by a Latin emperor. Yet in the year 1261 the Byzantines returned triumphantly to their city as Michael VIII Palaiologus processed inside the venerable walls bearing the icon of the Virgin of Hodegetria (“she who shows the way”).
From this date until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, there occurred a brilliant artistic and cultural revival under the Palaiologan dynasty. Although the empire was greatly reduced in territory and political power, its artistic production was protean. The icons from this period surpass in sheer quantity those from any other period of Byzantine history.
This was also a period where the Byzantine style impacted the nascent artistic movement in the West, “the Renaissance.” In fact a cross-fertilization process was occurring as borrowings took place on both sides.
One of the themes of the exhibition traces the influence of Byzantium on surrounding cultural centers as far distant as Novgorod in Russia and Flanders in Northern Europe. For example, “Icon of the Virgin and Child” by the Venetian Giovanni Bellini, on display in the current exhibition, is unmistakably Italianate — yet it bears the Byzantine impress. The Virgin is dressed in Byzantine garb, her blue veil or maphorion covers her half-length. Her oval face, broad cheeks and narrow nose represent Bellini's homage to the Byzantine style.
“The Holy Face of Laon,” a 13th-century icon of Slavic origin, captures a Byzantine devotion to the face of Christ. In the Byzantine account, Our Lord wiped his face on a towel (Mandylion), causing his image to be miraculously affixed. In the West, this earlier Byzantine tradition became the veil of Veronica. Viewers of The Passion of the Christ will recall Mel Gibson's treatment of Veronica and her cloth. Many, however, will be unaware that the origin of the cult of the Holy Face harks back to a Byzantine devotion and was happily exported to the West.
Faith on the Floor
Amplifying this theme of interchange between Byzantium and the West, a fascinating essay in the catalog explains that the earliest fresco cycle of the life of St. Francis is not in Assisi or in Europe — but, in fact, in the Constantinople church known as Kalanderhane Camii. Both the Franciscan and Dominican orders were active in the East, and the monks served often as intermediaries as works of art changed hands. For both Francis and Dominic, art was a vital medium in which the truths of the faith were communicated. In the present exhibition, the art connoisseur will be dazzled, but the simple believer will be rewarded, too, by the catechetical import of each art object.
It's ironic that many in the art world who are drawn to Byzantine iconography are not religious. Yet the style of painting — the apparent inflexibility of the forms, the suppression of background, the lack of shadowing, the severity, if you will — causes them to see in Byzantine painting a type of proto-modernism or abstractionism. Byzantine art is cool. Yet, according to Archbishop Damianos of the Holy Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai, writing in the catalog, the purpose of the icon is not “to caress the eyes.” Rather, the purpose is, in the first instance, “to teach” something. After that, the one contemplating the icon will be led to higher realities or “a mystical” level.
“Byzantium: Faith and Power” proceeds in an ecumenical spirit. The art-historical method in evidence seeks to show the interplay between East and West, between Rome and Constantinople. This spirit accords with that encouraged by Pope John Paul II, who has continually expressed his admiration for the East in any number of documents.
Catholic museum-goers will catch this same enthusiasm of the Slav Pope upon viewing this remarkable exhibition.
Jim Sullivan writes from Fairfield, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jim Sullivan ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:Stuart Little 2 (2002)
A thoroughly entertaining family film, Stuart Little 2 is smarter, funnier, more heartfelt and more exciting than the amiable 1999 original. In fact, it manages to be both more satisfying for adults and more kid-friendly than the original. As an added plus, Stuart Little 2 can be enjoyed without ever seeing the first film.
In the first film, the main impression created by the Little clan was of quirky retro un-hipness and preternatural good cheer. In the sequel, Stuart's parents reveal a more endearing and charming side, and make their family life genuinely appealing.
Besides standard platitudes about looking on the bright side and having confidence in yourself, Stuart Little 2 deals with the moral issues of lying (and, to a lesser degree, stealing) versus honesty and integrity. The message that lying is bad comes across with welcome clarity (contrast Big Fat Liar, which couldn't commit to anything stronger than “the truth isn't overrated”). If only all sequels were this good.
Content advisory: Mild menace; mild scatological references; recurring lying to parents.
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1959)
One of the 15 titles on the Vatican film list in the religion category and the grandest of Hollywood 's classic biblical epics, William Wyler's Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ doesn't transcend its genre: The emphasis is on spectacle and melodrama, but it does these things about as well as they could possibly be done.
Ben-Hur holds up better than such productions as The Ten Commandments in part because the biblical subject itself is reverently left in the background and another more appropriate tale is the subject of its melodrama.
Though Christ's life is traced from his birth to his passion and death, we never see his face or hear his voice.
Instead, Ben-Hur is a classic revenge epic leavened with an edifying message of forgiveness. Charlton Heston stars as Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish prince whose boyhood friendship with a Roman officer turns to enmity over politics and betrayal. The classic chariot race remains a brilliant action set piece.
Content advisory: Some action violence.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Brit Students Seek 'Something Alive and Real' - and Catholic DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:OXFORD, England — The Catholic chaplaincy of Oxford University enjoys a beautiful setting: the Old Palace in St. Aldate's.
Dating from the 14th century, the structure opens onto a bustling street in the heart of this world-famous university city. Inside there are crooked stairs, wood paneling and old portraits. A charming dining room sees convivial meals for guests under the gaze of Cardinal John Henry Newman.
Behind the Old Palace stands another vital part of the chaplaincy — a substantial and rather ugly modern building. This houses the large room used for Sunday Mass and a chapel, dedicated to St. Thomas More, where Mass is said daily and people are regularly to be found at prayer.
This mixture of old and new sums up the work of the chaplaincy, center of Catholic life for undergraduates at the various colleges that make up the university.
And if the message emerging from young Catholics at Oxford is anything to go by, there is hope for the Church in Britain.
“What young people want is real, authentic Catholicism,” says Father Jeremy Fairhead, the chaplaincy's enthusiastic and hardworking leader. “They aren't seeking something half-baked. By coming here, they are opting in to the Catholic faith. It's a choice they have made and they are seeking something alive and real.”
Approximately 400 attend Mass at the chaplaincy every weekend. The main Sunday Mass, always packed, is solemn, sung, incensed and assisted by a large group of altar severs.
“We did have a folk Mass but it wasn't popular,” Father Fairhead says. “I think the time for that is over. When we stopped the folk music, numbers attending that Mass went up.”
During the week, the chap-laincy hums with activity as various groups, including the Catholic Society (“CathSoc” to undergrads), gather to discuss theology, pray and study Scripture. A branch of the St. Vincent de Paul Society meets here, as do volunteer teams serving the local community and, of course, a vocations committee. There are pro-life activities aplenty and a bulletin board to keep everyone informed on topical issues that relate to Catholic living.
The Divine Office is said daily with good attendance. When you enter the St. Thomas More chapel, there is usually someone kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament. A statue of the “man for all seasons” keeps vigil nearby. A table has Catholic literature and a basket of white rosaries, free for the taking.
“There is a need for good preaching,“ Father Fairhead says. “We need to make Christ present; that is what a chaplaincy is for. It must be a place of stability. You know what you are getting when you come here.”
“We also emphasize the importance of study,” he adds. “After all, that is the vocation of people while they are at university. The idea is to place this in a Catholic context, to center it in the faith. Having daily adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is important and that is what gives this place life.”
Rays of Light
Father Fairhead's concern for the spiritual life of Britain's youth extends well beyond Oxford's halls. For example, he recently helped launch a new venture for young Catholics in Britain, The Catholic Student Handbook, published by Family Publications. Packed with information, advice and ideas for getting the best out of university life, it is backed up by a dynamic, frequently updated website.
Nor is Father Fairhead a lone beacon in otherwise dark surroundings.
In a setting far removed from Oxford, at the thoroughly modern campus of the University of Kent at Canterbury, Father Peter Geldard echoes many of his brother chaplain's thoughts on what a university chaplaincy should offer. It's all about consistency, orthodoxy and friendliness, he says.
“We have a good crowd here for Sunday Mass and afterward there is a potluck lunch,” Father Geldard explains. “There is also a full program of talks covering a wide range of Catholic topics. We've just had two baptisms and four people being received into full communion with the Church. I expect to get several of these every year.”
“The fact that we are on a campus and self-contained makes us different from Oxford or Cambridge or London,” he adds, “but the Catholic message is the same. One of the most important things is to have a place where they can meet and make friends and relax. We're very international, with students from all over the world. Often we'll have a Mass with hymns in French or Swahili or German or whatever, and then a meal with food from that country.”
Next stop: the heart of London, where the Newman House at London University shows another aspect of Catholic chaplaincy life.
This is a hall of residence, with more than 50 students who make it their home while studying at one of the many colleges that make up the London University system. It is also a center in which any Catholic student will be welcomed. The chapel is a simple but dignified place, where traditional-style pews have recently replaced plastic stacking chairs and where, when I arrived for a visit, a group of young people were praying.
I was recently a guest speaker at a CathSoc event and found a cheerful welcome from the chaplain, Father Peter Wilson, who, like Father Geldard, is a convert from the Anglican Church. (A number of Anglican ministers converted following the 1992 Church of England decision to ordain woman.)
A first-year student, Gregory Nash, had just taken over as CathSoc chairman for University College (part of London University) and was slightly nervous about this first meeting, for which posters had been widely distributed. He need not have worried, for attendance was good and there was a lively, cheerful atmosphere with plenty of questions and general talk afterward.
“London University is enormous,” Nash says. “It's often hard to find your niche in it and to find other people who are kindred spirits. But that's where I believe the strengths lie for a group like the CathSoc — uniting people in God.”
London University has hundreds of students from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe as well as all parts of Britain. A typical chaplaincy event will see people of many races and languages filling the room, the discussion benefiting from people's family experiences of the Catholic faith in truly diverse parts of the world.
The student union here was recently faced with an attempt to block any Christian group from affiliating on university property. Thankfully, this was soundly defeated at a well-attended meeting.
“This was quite a start to my time in charge of the CathSoc” Nash says.
And a perfect symbol of the exciting opportunities and daunting challenges that lie ahead for Catholic college students in the United Kingdom.
Joanna Bogle writes from London.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joanna Bogle ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Field Guide to the Faith DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:LETTERS TO A YOUNG
CATHOLIC: THE ART OF MENTORING
by George Weigel
Basic Books, 2004
251 pages, $22.50
Available in bookstores
While some “grown-ups” stumble whenever they try to rally young people around the Catholic faith, others just seem to have the hang of it. George Weigel is at the head of the class in the latter group.
Best known as the author of Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II, the Catholic theologian has mastered the art of articulating the Catholic faith in language accessible to contemporary Catholics. Now Weigel has aimed his gift for clarity and insight squarely at Catholics in their late teens and early 20s.
Like a tour guide leading a field trip around the world, Weigel presents 14 letters — each sent from a different location — that, together, add up to a catechesis program that is as compelling as it is thorough. From his explanation of Marian doctrines to the Church's sexual ethic to the Christian response to human suffering, Weigel shows an acute awareness of the difficulties young Catholics face as they try to understand and live their faith in today's world.
With each letter, the reader is transported to a historic Catholic site. The setting serves as a springboard for discussing some key aspect of the Catholic faith. A description of Cardinal Newman's Birmingham Oratory, for example, provides context for a discussion of liberalism's effect on religion. A walking tour of the Sistine Chapel opens a talk on the creation of man, body and soul, in which Weigel offers a beautiful description of the Holy Father's theology of the body.
Weigel attempts to reveal the Catholic faith by inviting the reader to “breathe in” the air of the Catholic faith and understand, perhaps for the first time, that there is a uniquely Catholic way of seeing the universe. He succeeds largely on the vividness of his descriptions and the depth of his knowledge.
True to the New Evangelization the book seeks to advance, Weigel puts the personhood of Christ at the center of all his explanations. Urging the reader to see all of history as His Story, Weigel says of Jesus: “He is the true measure of who we are. In his Holy Face, we meet the truth about ourselves.” Throughout, he demonstrates how Christ is “the answer to the question that is every human life.”
Letters to a Young Catholic is not just for young Catholics, and it fills a much-needed gap in Catholic apologetics today. Without anger or needless condemnation, Weigel shows how Jesus Christ is the answer to all those questions that are profoundly human.
“In Christ,” Weigel writes, “we meet the truth that man without God has lost touch with the deepest yearnings of the human heart … [W]e meet the merciful Father, whose mercy redeems our humanity and fulfills its true destiny.”
One minor distraction: Effective as Weigel's use of historic Catholic locations is, he has to stretch at times to connect a physical site with the catechesis that follows. The value of the information and the profundity of the perspective, however, more than make up for any bumpy transitions.
It's now more clear than ever that Weigel is an astute student of John Paul — that great champion of young people — and equally evident that his studies have made him a well-qualified teacher of the Holy Father's thought. This, combined with his ability to articulate ancient truths in contemporary language, makes Weigel an authentic interpreter of the vision of the Second Vatican Council. In short, Letters to a Young Catholic is, like the subject of Weigel's best-known work, a “witness to hope.”
Ryan Connors is a philosophy major at Boston College.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ryan Connors ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:Unfunny April Fooling
CHRONICLE.COM, April 7 — Officials at the Jesuit-run University of Scranton, Pa., pulled the April 1 issue of its student-run newspaper, The Aquinas, and suspended its publication after complaints the paper had published libelous material.
Officials declined to comment on the issue, the website of the Chronicle of Higher Education reported, but The Tribune, a local paper, reported the April Fool's edition contained a reference to a priest “caught fooling around with” a woman during a screening of The Passion of the Christ.
The issue also reportedly contained a spoof of MTV's “Celebrity Death Match” with current and former university presidents wearing priestly collars.
Georgetown and Kerry
CYBERCAST NEWS SERVICE, April 7 — When pro-abortion presumptive presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, a Catholic, spoke at Jesuit-run Georgetown University on April 7, pro-lifers were there to protest.
The American Life League led a “peaceful protest” outside during Kerry's speech and called on Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick to speak out against Kerry's pro-abortion views, the news service reported.
The group also called on bishops around the country to follow St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke's example of denying Communion to pro-abortion politicians.
BC Takes a Stand?
A top choice for the English department's Rattigan Professorship said department members told him his selection had been “undercut” by Father Leahy and that the chair would not be filled. Other candidates for the chair, who are also homosexually oriented, also were denied the position.
A school spokesman said Father Leahy wasn't aware the candidates were homosexually oriented until after the fact.
The Globe said Father Leahy has been a vocal opponent of homosexual marriage, however, last year he granted recognition to a “gay-straight student alliance.”
Signs of Faith
The newspaper of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln examined such students in a recent three-part series. In Part 2, the paper interviewed Marian Sister Karen Marie Wilson of the Diocese of Lincoln, who decided to take classes at the university to apply her faith to her middle-education major.
Father Brian Kane, who works at the Newman Center, attended the university from 1991 to 1994 and then joined the seminary.
Being involved with the Newman Center, he said, “made me aware of the possibility of becoming a priest, which I had never thought about before.”
Studying Peace
NATIONAL CATHOLIC STU DENT COALITION, April 5 — Catholic students from seven U.S. states and Canada met at the United Nations from March 18 to 20 to discuss the relationship between Catholic social teaching and the United Nations.
According to a press release from the coalition, the second annual “Study Session on Peace and Development” focused on the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, designed to cut world poverty in half by 2015, stop the spread of AIDS and achieve universal primary education.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Catholic Family Man DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:Priest Profile
Father Kevin Barrett didn't have an ordinary start to the priesthood. The former para-medic was ordained by Pope John Paul II and personally wished well by Blessed Mother Teresa.
Father Barrett doesn't have an ordinary parish, either. As chaplain of the Apostolate for Family Consecration in Bloomingdale, Ohio, located on the grounds of Catholic Familyland, he's on the front lines promoting the culture of life among families from all 50 states.
Father Barrett's own road to the priesthood began in a strong Catholic family in Chicago, but he lost his way for a while. “I found myself like many youth drifting away from the faith, despite attending Catholic high school and Notre Dame University,” he recalls.
He had a sophisticated education in science and math, but “religion got marginalized out of my life because of inadequate formation,” he explains. Add the influence of peers and media, and it's not hard to understand how a young man could have his ears blocked to God's still, small voice.
After college he worked first at a psychiatric hospital, then as a Chicago Fire Department para-medic — “the catalyst for my own personal conversion,” he calls it. There he came in contact with “evil at close range” and confronted death every day, seeing it in the faces of victims of violent crimes, drug overdoses, accidents and suicides.
He instinctively turned back to the rosary between emergency calls. “Our Lady completely turned my life around as a result of the ignorance and moral malaise,” he says, looking back. He also credits the prayers of his father, one of the first in the permanent deaconate program in the Diocese of Joliet, Ill., and his mother, who entrusted him to our Blessed Mother.
Next, he went with his mother to Lourdes, France. “It wasn't until I went through the bath of Lourdes that I realized I had to go to confession,” he says. “I had been years away from the sacraments.”
Six months later they were at Fatima, Portugal, on May 13, 1982, when the Pope was there thanking Mary for saving his life a year earlier.
“I had this very blessed experience being there with 2 million people for Mass with the Pope,” Father Barrett says. “It was like a premonition of heaven, like thousands of saints cheering the queen as she approaches the king.”
That did it. “After that Mass, I said, ‘Okay, dear Lady, I'm yours. Whatever you want. You want me to be a priest, I'll be a priest.’”
Papal Servant
Blessed Mother Teresa, an adviser of the Apostolate of Family Consecration, seemed to echo all this later on in his ordination. When the going gets tough, she wrote Father Barrett in a note, “Cling to Our Lady at such times. Ask her to teach you how to pray and how to love. She will keep you only all for Jesus — a holy priest of God.”
Providentially, on his return, he met Jerry and the late Gwen Coniker, who “were inspired by the Fatima message to found this apostolate to propagate heaven's peace plan through Marian consecration, the rosary and allowing her to help us live our baptismal consecration,” he explains. That was in 1982.
In 1992, John Paul ordained him in St. Peter's Basilica. Then he was assigned to a lifetime chap-laincy to guide this international family ministry.
“The Family Apostolate is so focused on John Paul II and his writings and his whole emphasis on the renewal of the Church through the hands of the family,” Father Barrett says. “For me to be ordained a priest for this family apostolate by His Holiness was a dream come true.”
Besides, while studying in Rome he sang in a choir for all the papal Masses and had the extraordinary privilege as a seminarian to serve the Holy Father's Mass seven times in St. Peter's Basilica.
The “greatest theology class I had,” he says, “was going to the Masses and watching this saintly Pope offer Mass.”
Now families such as that of John and Debbie Kukula of Omaha, Neb., find Father Barrett himself a model of reverence celebrating Mass, especially at the consecration. “A priest like Father Barrett is truly an inspiration, reminding us that the Real Presence of Jesus comes to us on earth — body and blood, soul and divinity,” John Kukula notes.
The Kukulas have traveled with Father Barrett on two pilgrimages to Rome.
“Whenever he takes us to a religious location in the city, he's not just a tour guide, he is leading us in prayer,” Kukula continues. “He reminds us of that in his actions during the entire pilgrimage.”
On the Kukula family's trips from Omaha to Familyland events, Debbie Kukula has observed that, when Father Barrett prepares to give the homily, “he always asks people to pray the Hail Mary with him for inspiration. He's always open to the Holy Spirit.”
Msgr. George Yontz, pastor of both St. Peter and St. Stanislaus churches in Steubenville, Ohio, notices the priest's “gracious gentleness” whenever appearing on “The Roman Observer,” a program Father Barrett hosts on the apostolate's TV network. Msgr. Yontz saw that goofs or something requiring retaping didn't bother Father Barrett. “It's an acknowledgment of our frailty — always a good quality.”
Besides the miracle of daily Mass, Father Barrett finds teaching families the spirituality of family consecration another “miracle” most satisfying.
He explains: “They also have the miraculous power by the virtues of their sacraments they received — baptism, confirmation, marriage — to transform the ordinary elements of their family activity — the trials, sufferings, joys, sorrows — into the most sublime divine reparation for sin.”
With a twinkle in his voice, he adds, “I always had two great desires as a little kid — to be either a priest or a fireman,” Father Barrett says. “God has a sense of humor. He let me do both. I tried to put out fires as a fireman; now I'm trying to set a few.”
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: St. Joseph, Pray for Workaholics DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:Many men can't tell the difference between a dedicated worker and a workaholic. In fact, to many minds the two are, for all intents and purposes, one and the same.
There's no time like May 1, feast of St. Joseph the Worker, for Catholic men to stop and ask: Which term comes closest to describing me?
Those brave enough to face the truth on the matter will find plenty of help from the wisdom of the Church in setting priorities back in order. And they'll find that the Church often looks to — who else?
“At the workbench where he plied his trade together with Jesus, Joseph brought human work closer to the mystery of redemption,” Pope John Paul II wrote in his 1989 apostolic exhortation Redemptoris Custos (Guardian of the Redeemer).
In other words, Joseph had a rightly-ordered understanding of the place his work had in his life. It's unlikely the concerns of Mary and Jesus took a back seat to the cares of his carpentry business. And it's hard to conceive of Joseph habitually working late into each night while his wife and son counted the hours awaiting his arrival.
Gus McPhie of Cincinnati knows what it is to struggle in this area. He tells how he used to put in long hours at the office day after day, then rush home for dinner with the family — only to have them find that his heart and spirit had sent his body ahead unaccompanied.
“We'd be sitting at the dinner table and I'd have my mind on something that went on during the business day,” McPhie explains. “Next thing my wife would say, ‘Do you know what you've just agreed to?’”
More than once he made a promise he could not fulfill due to a previous commitment. “If I had something else in the business world already scheduled, that would be a conflict,” he says. “And the work would always win those battles.”
“My priorities were out of whack,” McPhie continues. “I was pursuing the material benefits as well as the psychological rewards of achieving in the business world.”
The pattern continued to grow more deeply entrenched until he was terminated from his all-consuming job at a big, high-pressure company. “It was like getting hit in the head with a two-by-four,” he recalls. “That's what led to my conversion.”
McPhie turned to his faith, which he had neglected, and resolved to work harder at being a better husband, father and friend. He also got involved with the National Resource Center for Catholic Men (on the Internet at nrccm.org).
In hindsight, McPhie says, workaholism is “one form of idol. You're putting strange gods before you when you put your job, your career, your position before all else.”
The Working Life
Of course, workaholism isn't the only pitfall Catholic men need to avoid — or the only work-related issue St. Joseph the Worker can help with.
“My educated guess is that St. Joseph was all that a worker could be,” says Oblate Father William McSweeney, rector of St. Joseph the Worker Shrine in Lowell, Mass. “When he produced for someone else, the work would be well done. I imagine Joseph would be very friendly to his customers.”
“He would be prayerful man concerned about other people, especially about Jesus and his upbringing,” Father McSweeney adds. “We can assume he would be the perfect father present to the family and not torn away by things outside to any extent.”
Father McSweeney makes the point that, sometimes, people are “great and generous to the whole world except to their family. There's got to be a happy medium.” For St. Joseph, “as a father and a husband, the most important thing would be his family. He would not neglect his family, his wife or Jesus in any way.”
Stated another way, St. Joseph is the embodiment of the Catechism's teaching on work, including the section that states: “In work, the person exercises and fulfills in part the potential inscribed in his nature. The primordial value of labor stems from man himself, its author and its beneficiary. Work is for man, not man for work. Everyone should be able to draw from work the means of providing for his life and that of his family, and of serving the human community” (No. 2428).
Meanwhile, Father McSweeney seems to emphasize the previous catechetical teaching — “Work honors the Creator's gifts and the talents received from him; it can also be redemptive” (No. 2427) — when he notes that, unfortunately, he has seen “many fathers who are great in every way but rarely go to church. … Joseph was a prayerful man, faithful to his religious community, the synagogue. He went down to the feasts.”
There can be little doubt Jesus learned all these qualities working with St. Joseph. Father McSweeney remembers the significance of his nephew working with his son-in-law to build an addition onto their house. Important lessons about life, responsibility and manhood were imparted — word-lessly, by means of the kindness and patience of the mentor.
Fathers should make every effort to be with their children, especially on big days in their children's lives, Father McSweeney says. He remembers how one son at his father's funeral gave a beautiful witness on how much his dad had done for him. One of the main things he remembered? The mere presence of his father in his young life.
“The young man had played high-school sports,” the priest recalls. “Looking up in the stands, he would always see his father. That meant so much to him.”
Working Weekends
Maurice Blumberg, executive director of the National Resource Center for Catholic Men (which, incidentally, is soon to be renamed the National Fellowship of Catholic Men), says men need to ask themselves if their priorities and goals reflect a balance with work and family life.
“I can say God is first, my family second and work third,” Blumberg points out, “but I can be working 65 hours a week, spending one hour with God and 15 minutes with my kids.”
With a chuckle Blumberg adds he's never heard any dying person say, “Gosh, I wish I spent more time on the job and less with the family.”
Obviously, St. Joseph had a different set of challenges and opportunities in his day. But the principles haven't changed, Blum-berg says.
“St. Joseph had to balance the priorities of his life, the time devoted to Jesus and his spiritual life,” he adds. “And he must have prayed continually for the godly wisdom to achieve them. I'm sure Joseph had to continually ask for wisdom in raising Jesus.”
In his own life, Blumberg found this entreaty essential. Working on a high-pressure project for his company, he remembers wondering at the start of each week how he possibly could complete the job without working weekends.
“I would pray,” he says. “I looked at the work that had to be done differently. I stayed focused on the things that were important and didn't try to overachieve. I believe the wisdom came from God. He answered that prayer. Amazingly, I was the only person on that job not working weekends. My weekends were devoted to my family without working long hours.”
Looking back now, Blumberg believes St. Joseph played a key role in the process — just as he does today for men who will let him.
“Always turning to Joseph as the model is so important,” Blum-berg says. “He is the model of the man of prayer, dependent on God, always in tune to hear from God, open to what God wants him to do. His faith made a difference in the Holy Family's life.”
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Happy Mom, Healthy Baby DATE: 04/25/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 25-May 1, 2004 ----- BODY:Facts of Life
The happier a mom-to-be is about being pregnant, the greater her baby's chances of being born at normal birth weight. That's according to a study conducted at the University of Colorado's Health Sciences Center in Aurora, Colo., and published in Annals of Family Medicine. Low birth weight is the No. 1 cause of death in newborns in the United States.
Source: WBAL-TV (Channel 11 Baltimore)
Register Illustration by Tim Rauch
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