PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — In Haiti, trying to overthrow the government apparently takes less time than cutting through government bureaucracy.
Almost two months ago, a ship filled with approximately 2,800 tons worth of food docked in Haiti, ready to be unloaded and distributed to hundreds of aid centers supported by Catholic Relief Services.
It took about seven weeks of working through red tape before customs finally cleared the shipment, said Dula James, the Catholic Relief Services country representative for the Caribbean nation.
Meanwhile, in a wave of insurgency that began in early February, well-armed rebel forces met with little resistance from police as they torched, killed and looted their way across the country, hoping to overthrow the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
They achieved their goal by the end of the month. Aristide resigned Feb. 29, boarding a plane first to other Caribbean nations and then to the Central African Republic.
But the violent upheaval put the country on the brink of a humanitarian crisis before Aristide's resignation, Catholic relief workers said.
President Bush ordered the deployment of U.S. Marines to the island as rebels arrived in the Haitian capital and looters hit shops, police stations and the homes of Aristide supporters. The United Nations on Feb. 29 approved an international peacekeeping force for the island for up to three months.
One of the biggest obstacles facing relief agencies in the week before Aristide's departure was a lack of access to the cities controlled by the rebels, said James, who is based in the capital of Port-au-Prince. Gunmen blocked roads, and telephone lines had been cut, she added.
“Whatever supplies remain up there, the prices have increased,” James said. “There is a shortage of gasoline and food.”
Catholic Relief Services officials were concerned about the violence, looting and the breakdown in normal economic activity, which led to a lack of food, shelter and medical supplies for those who live in villages and towns.
“Catholic Relief Services, along with other government and private relief organizations, is pressuring the Haitian government and rebel leaders to open a secure humanitarian corridor for food and basic relief supplies,” said Jed Hoffman, Latin America regional director for the organization.
The day after Aristide's departure, an official in the agency's Baltimore headquarters said Catholic Relief Services was hopeful that civil order would soon be restored and that the corridor would be opened that week. “We're ready to start moving food as soon as possible,” said Malone Miller of the Catholic Relief Services Latin American and Caribbean regional office.
At their recent annual meeting in San Antonio, the Bishops of the Church in America — a consortium made up of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Canadian bishops' conference and the Latin American bishops' council — expressed sentiments of solidarity with the Haitians along with hopes for peace and reconciliation.
“Every day brings new accounts in our media about the violence that is afflicting Haitian society and causing additional harm to so many Haitian people, already afflicted by intense poverty and other social ills,” the bishops wrote in a Feb. 23 statement. “We wish to express our solidarity with them and with the many faithful priests, religious and lay leaders who minister to them.”
Long-Suffering People
Most Haitians were suffering greatly before the rebellion began. Statistics show that 95 out of every 1,000 children die before reaching their fifth birthday. Most people — about 80% — live in poverty. More than half the population suffers from malnutrition. Only those living in Somalia and Afghanistan are hungrier, according to a report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
The 1990 democratic election of Aristide, a former Salesian priest whose preaching on behalf of Haiti's poor was seen as helping to end the Duvalier family dictatorship, was viewed by many as a positive step. The country had endured years of bloodshed and terror under military rule.
The military tried to regain control of the country in a 1991 coup. Three years later, faced with an imminent invasion by U.S. forces, the military regime relinquished power, leading to Aristide's return and the disbandment of the army. Another president was elected in 1995, but Aristide returned to power in 2000 in an election in which voting irregularities were alleged.
The rebels this year cited government corruption, mismanagement and police violence as justifiable reasons to remove Aristide from power.
The Church in Haiti has been trying to play the role of peacemaker. Last November, the bishops issued a plan that called for a reform of the country's police department and the creation of a council of advisers that would include members of the opposition party, human-rights groups and clergy. The advisers would then select representatives who would help set up legislative and presidential elections.
The insurgents, however, resorted to using guns to get what they wanted. In mid-February, the Haitian bishops released a statement pleading for a halt to the violence.
“It is not for the Church to say which actions should be undertaken, but it is urgent that something should be done to stop the violence,” said the bishops, who called on all Haitians to “respect the life of all human beings, the moral integrity of the human person, the flow of authentic information and the constitutional right of citizens to freely express opinions as well as demonstrate in a peaceful and respectful manner.”
Different Opinions
Ecclesial leadership in Haiti differed regarding the best course for their country. Bishop Guire Poulard of the Diocese of Jacmel favored Aristide's ouster, according to Catholic News Service.
“We do not have any other option but to continue the mobilization,” Bishop Poulard said in a radio interview, according to the news service. “All the people who are protesting should continue to do so, because otherwise, we may have to undergo a long period of dictatorship.”
“We have a president who is committing numerous crimes,” Bishop Poulard said. “Does that mean we have to tolerate him as our leader? If we have a head of state who is a fool, does that mean we have to tolerate him as our leader because he is head of state?”
Father Jomanas Eustache, a Haitian priest and dean of the Catholic Law School in Jeremie, Haiti, said it's not easy to have a dialogue for peace in Haiti because it's a country of extremes.
“The society is extremely divided,” said Father Eustache, who has been a visiting professor at Seton Hall University in New Jersey since last summer. “You can't sit down and talk about compromise. People can't accept that you have a different point of view. People say, ‘You have to believe whatever I believe.’”
Yet even with all the uncertainty, the people's faith has not been shaken, said Father Andre Pierre, the spokesman for the Conference of Haitian Bishops. Masses have been well attended, said the priest, who is also the permanent secretary for the conference.
“Faith has become the fundamental resource of the Christians and that provokes the solidarity among them,” Father Pierre said from Port-au-Prince. “This faith maintains the Christian person throughout the conflict.”
But because of the turmoil, he predicted that the grim situation faced by many Haitians will only become grimmer.
“The conflict has changed a lot of things in the country,” he said. “Aside from the fact that people can't travel, the poverty will grow rapidly. The people will not receive the necessary medical attention. A lot of people won't be able to eat and receive the proper nutrition. There was poverty. Now there will be misery.”
Carlos Briceño writes from Seminole, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: Amid Conflagration, Church Focuses on People's Suffering ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carlos Briceņo ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bush Revs Up Marriage Amendment Debate DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — In a Roosevelt Room speech on Feb. 24, President Bush endorsed a constitutional amendment to protect marriage, defining it as between a man and a woman.
“If we are to prevent the meaning of marriage from being changed forever,” the president said after months of speculation that he would come out in support of some version of a federal marriage amendment, “our nation must enact a constitutional amendment to protect marriage in America. Decisive and democratic action is needed, because attempts to redefine marriage in a single state or city could have serious consequences throughout the country.
“Today I call upon Congress to promptly pass, and to send to the states for ratification, an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of man and woman as husband and wife.”
A constitutional amendment would have to pass the U.S. Congress by a two-thirds majority in both houses and then ratified by 38 out of 50 states.
Polls show most Americans oppose homosexual marriage but are split on federal action.
Bush made his announcement at the same time the mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, continued to defy state law and allowed officials to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples (to some 3,200 couples by press time).
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has also mandated the state do similarly come May and has recently in an advisory opinion denied the state Legislature the option of legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples as an alternative to redefining marriage, calling the alternative discriminatory.
Following in Newsom's footsteps, a county in New Mexico issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples just days before the president's announcement.
Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, was among the first congressional leaders to applaud the president's announcement.
“We can't let activist judges in Massachusetts and public officials in San Francisco redefine marriage for the rest of America,” he said. “After Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, 38 states enacted similar measures, reflecting an overwhelming consensus in our country for the preservation of traditional marriage.”
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, opposes the amendment.
After the president's endorsement speech, Kerry, a Catholic, declared: “I oppose this election-year effort to amend the Constitution in an area that each state can adequately address, and I will vote against such an amendment if it comes to the Senate floor.”
Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, protested the president's announcement.
“It is wrong to write discrimination into the U.S. Constitution, and it is shameful to use attacks against gay and lesbian families as an election strategy,” he said.
Last year, a committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops offered “general support for a federal marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution as we continue to work to protect marriage in state legislatures, the courts, the Congress and other appropriate forums.”
“We strongly oppose any legislative and judicial attempts, both at state and federal levels,” their statement said, “to grant same-sex unions the equivalent status and rights of marriage by naming them marriage, civil unions or by other means.”
Bush Compromise
Though the president's endorsement of a federal marriage amendment was widely seen as having been encouraged by his conservative base, not all conservatives were supportive of the announcement.
While Jan LaRue, chief counsel for Concerned Women for America, said her pro-family organization is “grateful for the president's strong statement in support of marriage,” she noted, “he said the amendment he proposes ‘should fully protect marriage while leaving the state legislatures free to make their own choices in defining legal arrangements other than marriage.’ An amendment that implicitly endorses and allows state legislatures to create and benefit same-sex relationships to the full extent of marriage does not ‘fully protect marriage.’”
Robert Knight, director of the Culture & Family Institute, an affiliate of Concerned Women for America, added: “We're only sorry that he left the back door open with closing comments suggesting states ought to be able to enact civil unions. He should defend marriage, period, without quietly signaling that homosexual unions are fine, too, as long as people vote them into the law on the state level.”
Stanley Kurtz, a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University who has been active in the marriage-amendment movement, is more reflective of social-conservative sentiments.
“Conservatives must realize what's at stake here,” he said. “Not only are we talking about the institution of marriage, we are talking about our last real opportunity to put a check on activist courts.… It is incumbent on all conservatives to write their representatives and put serious effort into support for [a federal marriage amendment]. In the absence of a truly serious national campaign, conservative influence in this country will seriously wane.”
At his State of the Union address in January, Bush said, “Activist judges … have begun redefining marriage by court order without regard for the will of the people and their elected representatives. On an issue of such great consequence, the people's voice must be heard. If judges insist on forcing their arbitrary will upon the people, the only alternative left to the people would be the constitutional process. Our nation must defend the sanctity of marriage.”
Recent Events
In his late-February amendment-endorsement speech, Bush made clear the amendment was necessary, based on recent events.
“After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization,” he said. “Their actions have created confusion on an issue that requires clarity.”
“Judicial activism has made the defense of marriage a national issue that can only be addressed at the national level,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. “Defense of marriage is no longer an abstract issue, no longer an issue that can be addressed merely with campaign platitudes. The right of the people, not the courts, to decide what is best for families must be addressed and defended.”
“The president's endorsement of the federal marriage amendment turns this into a real battle …” Kurtz said. “Marriage will be defined as the union of a man and a woman. The courts will be barred from using federal or state constitutions to impose gay marriage. And legislatures will be free to set up civil unions or weaker domestic-partnership benefits. That doesn't mean that all states will pass such benefits. It simply means that the battle over whether to approve any arrangements short of marriage will play out state by state.”
United in the interest to preserve marriage, Concerned Women for America's Knight said: “In the days ahead, we are going to encourage Mr. Bush and the congressional backers of the [federal marriage amendment] to strengthen the language to protect not only the name but also the essence of marriage.”
In his Feb. 24 speech, Bush emphasized the need to conduct the whole debate in a civil tone.
“We should conduct this difficult debate in a manner worthy of our country, without bitterness or anger,” he said. “In all that lies ahead, let us match strong convictions with kindness, good will and decency.”
Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor of National Review Online.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORDS: News ------- TITLE: Supreme Court Denies Money For Theology DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 25 overturned an appeals-court ruling that said Washington state discriminated against a college student when it denied him a scholarship because his major was in religious studies.
Writing for the majority in a 7-2 ruling in Locke v. Davey, Chief Justice William Rehnquist said, “Training someone to lead a congregation is an essentially religious endeavor.”
“Indeed,” Rehnquist wrote, “majoring in devotional theology is akin to a religious calling as well as an academic pursuit.”
Joshua Davey, a student at Northwest College in Kirkland, Wash., was awarded a state Promise Scholarship based on academic success and financial need. The scholarship was revoked when he chose to declare a double major in pastoral ministry and business management.
Rehnquist addressed concerns that Washington's decision was based on discriminatory, anti-Catholic Blaine amendments, which can be found in 36 states, passed in the late-19th and early-20th centuries to deny taxpayer funding of religious education.
“We find nothing in either the history or text of … the Washington Constitution, nor in the operation of the Promise Scholarship program, anything that suggests animus toward religion,” he said. “Given the historic and substantial state interest at issue, we therefore cannot conclude that the denial of funding for vocational religious instruction alone is inherently constitutionally suspect.”
There was no celebrating from school-choice advocates and religious-school sponsors.
“We are very disappointed with a decision that clearly sanctions religious discrimination,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, which represented Davey.
“It is troubling that the decision is irreconcilable with more than a half-century of Supreme Court precedent regarding the free exercise of religion,” Sekulow continued. “In this case, Josh Davey simply wanted to be treated equally on the same terms and conditions as other scholarship recipients. The decision does not prohibit states from structuring scholarship programs to permit the pursuit of a degree in devotional theology. The Supreme Court, however, missed an important opportunity to protect the constitutional rights of all students.”
Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State celebrated the decision.
“This is a huge defeat for those who want to force taxpayers to pay for religious schooling and other ministries,” he said. “This maintains an important barrier to efforts to fund school vouchers and other faith-based programs. Americans clearly have a right to practice their religion, but they can't demand that the government pay for it.”
Richard Garnett, a professor at the University of Notre Dame's law school, said of the decision: “I believe the court has (a) uncritically embraced a sectarian version of ‘separationism’ and (b) has authorized discrimination by state actors against those who take their religious faith seriously.”
Dissent
In his dissenting opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote: “Let there be no doubt: This case is about discrimination against a religious minority.”
“The indignity of being singled out for special burdens on the basis of one's religious calling is so profound that the concrete harm produced can never be dismissed as insubstantial,” he said.
“What next?” continued Scalia, who was joined in dissent by Justice Clarence Thomas. “Will we deny priests and nuns their prescription-drug benefits on the ground that taxpayers' freedom of conscience forbids medicating the clergy at public expense? This may seem fanciful, but recall that France has proposed banning religious attire from schools, invoking interests in secularism no less benign than those the court embraces today. … When the public's freedom of conscience is invoked to justify denial of equal treatment, benevolent motives shade into indifference and ultimately into repression. Having accepted the justification in this case, the court is less well equipped to fend it off in the future.”
The U.S. Catholic bishops had signed onto an amicus brief in the case, where it was argued, “For the state of Washington to deny a Promise Scholarship to the respondent, who met all the neutral criteria to receive such an award, solely because he declared a major in pastoral ministries clearly presents just such a case of governmental discrimination.”
“The court's decision unfortunately failed to recognize the overt anti-Catholicism that was at the root of measures like Washington's mini-Blaine amendment, and it will undoubtedly steer some people away from religious studies in order to retain scholarships that are available to everyone else,” said John Eastman, associate professor and director at the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence at the Chapman University School of Law. “But by weaning themselves from the public fisc, one hopes the religious schools will find themselves in a better position to chart their own course in an increasingly hostile cultural world.”
Voucher Question
“When are Christians and conservatives going to wake up to the fact that all vouchers are a form of socializing the fund-raising of tuition?” asked Marshall Fritz, president of HonestEd.com, a project of the Alliance for Separation of School & State. “Why do so many want to render to Caesar something that does not belong to him, that is, financing education?”
Despite the Locke ruling, a 2002 decision upholding Cleveland's voucher program was unaffected. Though the case was considered by some to be a test case for school-choice measures, Clint Bolick of the Institute for Justice is not too worried.
“Davey was disappointing, but fortunately the decision was so narrow that choice advocates will live to see another day, when we will squarely place the issue of exclusion of religious schools before the court,“ he said. ”Until then, we will have to fight those legal questions state by state.”
Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor of National Review Online.
----- EXCERPT: CHURCH AND STATE ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Report Chastises Bishops for Abuse Crisis DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — The bishops of the United States received an official reprimand from a board of prominent lay Catholics for allowing and in some cases abetting an epidemic of sexual abuse of minors by priests and deacons during the past two generations.
It also targeted homosexuals in the seminaries as key contributors to the problem.
A landmark study found that since 1950 a total of 10,667 young people — more than 80% of them boys and most of them ages 11 to 14 — reported sexual abuse by more than 4,392 clergymen — or 4% of all priests in active ministry. The figure includes a small number of deacons.
The study was conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, and its results were released Feb. 27 by the National Review Board, a panel established by the bishops in the midst of the 2002 sexual-abuse uproar.
The John Jay study sought to be as comprehensive as possible, including even the estimated cost to the Church for victim assistance, treatment of offenders and legal settlements related to the crisis — $572 million. But that figure does not include at least one high-profile settlement of $85 million in Boston and unresolved amounts from at least 13 other dioceses.
“Much blame, unfortunately, at least as to the Church, must be placed on the higher-ups,” said review board member and Washington attorney Robert Bennett, who chaired the committee that wrote a second report evaluating the causes of the crisis. “Many bishops, certainly not all, breached their responsibilities as pastors … and put their heads in the sand.”
Bennett addressed a roomful of reporters the day the board released the two reports, which are available in their entirety on the Web site of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (www.nccbuscc.org).
In response, the bishops' conference president, Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, Ill., told Catholic Americans that the crisis is past, young people are safe and no known offender is in active ministry. Since the bishops approved a “zero tolerance” policy two years ago for any clergyman with a single accusation of having molested a minor, 700 U.S. priests have been removed from ministry.
“On behalf of the bishops and the entire Church in the United States, I restate and reaffirm our apologies to those who have been harmed by those among us who violated your trust and the promises they made at their ordination,” Bishop Gregory said at a press conference. “The heartfelt sorrow we feel at this violation and the often ineffective ways in which it was dealt has strengthened our commitment to do everything possible to see that it does not happen again.”
Hot-Button Issues
Among the recommendations of the National Review Board was a renewed focus on the selection, screening and formation of candidates for the priesthood, with special attention to two hot-button issues — homosexual orientation and celibacy.
“While the board believes that whether a candidate for the priest-hood is capable of living a chaste, celibate life is the paramount question for determining selection to the priesthood — and that his sexual orientation is not a requirement one way or the other — given the reality that a seminarian is entering what is essentially a male culture, it is important that care be taken in the selection and formation of seminarians so that every priest can honor his commitment to living a chaste and a celibate life,” Bennett said. “While I think a litmus test would be inappropriate, we must look at the reality of what we are dealing with.”
As for the discipline of celibacy, the board is also leaving that question for further study, Bennett said.
“Celibacy is a great gift to many priests. It makes them better priests. As one said, it's a great gift of God,” he said. “But for those who are unable to live it, it is an albatross that leads to other problems, problems of loneliness, problems of alcoholism and problems of crossing the boundaries.”
In addition to analyzing the fact of child predators in the priesthood, the review board looked at why bishops allowed abusers to remain in ministry and harm other children. The report noted such problems as denial — an unwillingness to believe a priest could commit such crimes — and governance procedures that kept bishops from knowing and sharing information with each other that would have allowed them to see a pattern.
Some bishops put the institutional concerns above universal concerns, some did not give the issue high priority, some relied too much on mental-health advisers and some, Bennett said, responded to victims not like pastors but more “like risk-assessment managers of an insurance company.”
From now on, the review board advised, bishops should exercise more “fraternal correction” to ensure their brother bishops follow their national charter to protect children. There is, however, no procedure in place for fraternal correction among bishops. No bishop has been publicly admonished by other bishops during the crisis.
That charter was adopted in 2002. In addition, he suggested, they might be liable under civil authority.
“I have no doubt that if the evidence were presented that if a particular bishop or cardinal or whoever knowingly allowed a predator to do their mischief, that person should not only have action taken against them, but it should be far more serious than that,” Bennett said. “But those facts would have to exist. This board, we didn't conduct a grand-jury investigation.”
Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan, chairman of the bishops' conference committee on priestly ministry, said seminaries are already doing better screening and formation but that they will benefit from “apostolic visitations.” Such on-site inspections by Vatican officials were ordered by Pope John Paul II in 2002 but have yet to take place.
Archbishop Dolan described today's seminarians as a new breed.
“When you see the wholesomeness, and when you see the dedication, when you see the resolve, the fervor and the maturity of those young men,” he said, “it would give you a good reason for hope that these men know what they're getting into and the future of the Church is bright as far as priestly service is concerned.”
Ellen Rossini writes from Richardson, Texas.
The Numbers
The statistical study and evaluation of the causes of the sexual-abuse crisis contain both expected information and sobering surprises.
Because of the high response rate of 98% of dioceses and because of the anonymity of the survey — no victims, offenders or dioceses were named — the information reported can be assumed reliable, said John Jay professor Karen Terry, head researcher for the study.
Sexual abuse by clergy occurred across all regions and sizes of Catholic populations, Terry said. Most of the alleged offenders were diocesan priests, and most of the abuse — which ranged from touching outside clothing to common and much more serious offenses — occurred in the priest's home. Many offenders socialized with the family of the victim. Most of the victims lived with both parents. The average age of the victimized child was 12.6.
The majority of the priests had one allegation of abuse, but the victims of the 3.5% of the predators who were guilty of molesting 10 or more young people represented 26% of all victims. Of priests who were accused, 615 were investigated by the police, 217 were charged, 138 were convicted and 100 served time in prison, Terry said.
Seventy-five percent of the alleged incidents of abuse occurred between 1960 and 1984, with the greatest number of reported incidents occurring in 1980. Terry said, however, that because of a common time lag between incidence and reporting, some offenses occurring in the 1990s might not have yet been reported.
Another factor in reporting is the victims' perception of safety in doing so, according to the review board report on causes. One-third of all the cases were reported in 2002, the year the epidemic received widespread media coverage.
Nearly 10% of priests ordained in 1970 were alleged to have offended against a minor. That rate declined to fewer than 8% among those ordained in 1980 and fewer than 4% of priests ordained in 1990. More than 80% of all victims were boys.
- Ellen Rossini
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Rossini ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Objections to The Passion: Is It As It Was? DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:Legionary Father Thomas Williams, dean of the school of theology at Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome, was a theological consultant for Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ.
In the following interview with the Register, Father Williams spoke about the historical and theological points of the film.
Is it true, as asserted by some biblical scholars and media pundits, that
Gibson's film has been subjected to unprecedented scrutiny in efforts to find fault with his depiction of Christ's passion and death. This was to be expected, given the importance of the subject matter. Despite these efforts, however, the picayune quibbles expressed by many of his critics border on the ridiculous. Complaints concerning the languages spoken, the height of the cross, the length of Jesus‘ hair, the size of the crowd in Pilate's praetorium and the placement of the nails in Jesus’ hands seem strangely trivial in the face of the larger message of the film.
Many of these details we simply do not and cannot know with absolute historical certainty, and with such cases of doubt, different interpretations are legitimate. The fact is that the only source we have for most of these items are the Gospel accounts themselves. We have no photos of Jesus, no contemporary biography of Pontius Pilate and no explicit records of Jesus' trial outside of the Gospels themselves. Other theories as to the way events might have transpired open interesting avenues of speculation but do not exact intellectual assent.
On reading some categorical affirmations as to how things must have gone you would think scholars had uncovered compelling historical data concerning Jesus' death. Yet if you scratch beneath the surface you will find that some exegetical hypotheses rest on surprisingly sparse textual sources and a good deal of conjecture.
Could you give some examples? What about the placement of the nails at the Crucifixion? Weren't they really nailed into his wrists?
Gibson did not just shoot from the hip here but researched this question thoroughly before deciding to go with the palms of the hands. Many scholars today think the nails might have been driven through Jesus' wrists and not his palms, mainly because the weight of a human body cannot be supported by the flesh of the hands.
The Shroud of Turin lends credence to this hypothesis, since blood seems to be concentrated around the area of the wrists. On the other hand, John's Gospel has Thomas declaring that he will not believe unless he sees the nail marks “in his hands” and further along Jesus invites Thomas to examine his hands. Some ambiguity remains, however, since the Greek word can also be used in a more general way to describe even the hand and arm together.
Throughout history, stigmatics such as Francis of Assisi or Padre Pio have received the wounds of Christ in the palms of their hands, and traditional Christian iconography almost always places the nails in Jesus' palms rather than his wrists.
Furthermore, a human body could be supported by nails through the palms, provided ropes were used along with them. In the face of this inconclusive data, Gibson opted to show the nails piercing Jesus' palms rather than his wrists.
And the size of the crowd at Pilate's praetorium? Some scholars have stated that only a handful of people were present, nothing like the crowd Gibson shows.
Again, no one knows for sure how many people were present. The only thing we have to go on are the Gospel narratives. St. Matthew speaks of a “crowd” or “throng,” employing the same broad Greek term that he uses elsewhere, for instance, to describe the multitudes that gathered to hear Jesus teach or at the feeding of the 4,000 (Matthew 15). This term is sufficiently vague as to leave much room for interpretation.
Matthew also states that a riot was beginning at the praetorium, which gives the sense of a fairly sizable gathering, since 20 or 30 people can hardly generate a riot. The other synoptic gospels, Mark and Luke, similarly speak of a “crowd,” using the same Greek term, while John speaks merely of “the Jews,” without offering further numeric details. Given the data available, Gibson's portrayal seems to be a plausible representation of what actually happened.
Isn't it unfair and unscientific to pull data indiscriminately from the four Gospel accounts?
Remember that when presenting a single visual portrayal of a historic event, one has to draw from the best sources one has, which are, in this case, the four Gospel narratives. Christians believe the four Gospels together give a good idea of what actually occurred. From these four texts one can sketch a pretty good composite picture of Christ's last hours.
Moreover, Gibson did not intend to produce a documentary on Christ's suffering and death but rather a historically based artistic rendering of these events, emphasizing their spiritual and theological value. He has repeatedly affirmed that The Passion of the Christ reflects his personal vision of the passion and not the only possible vision.
What Mel does here is nothing new. This blending of elements from the different Gospels enjoys a venerable tradition. The pious practice of meditating on the “seven last words” of Jesus pulls out the various utterances of Jesus on the cross from the different Gospel accounts into a single meditation.
The centuries-old devotional exercise of retracing the Stations of the Cross likewise proposes for the meditation of the faithful different scenes from the four Gospel narratives as well as from extra-biblical tradition. Such is the case, for instance, of Veronica's cloth and Jesus' falls along the Via Dolorosa, which Mel also included in the film.
But doesn't modern scholarship hold that Jesus' passion and death didn't occur as portrayed in the Gospels? One writer in the
We have to be careful in referring to modern scholarship as if it were a monolithic block or as if all scholars were in perfect accord. Many schools of thought exist on this and countless other scriptural questions, and no one theory commands absolute allegiance.
Thus while theories questioning certain aspects of the Gospel narratives of Christ's death do indeed exist, one could cite numerous contrary exegetical studies that affirm the historicity of the Gospel accounts of Jesus' trial and subsequent passion.
Among the works in English, one could mention N.T. Wright's Jesus and the Victory of God, B.F. Meyer's The Aims of Jesus and R. Brown's The Death of the Messiah. Quite helpful, too, is an older essay by the very respected critical scholar D.R. Catchpole, “The Problem of the Historicity of the Sanhedrin Trial” (in E. Bammel [ed.], The Trial of Jesus: Festscrift for CFD Moule, 1970).
For its part, the Catholic Church has authoritatively made clear its own unflagging belief in the historicity of the Gospels in the Vatican II dogmatic constitution
Dei Verbum.
“Holy Mother Church,” we read, “has firmly and with absolute constancy maintained and continues to maintain that the four Gospels just named, whose historicity she unhesitatingly affirms, faithfully hand on what Jesus, the Son of God, really did and taught for their eternal salvation until the day that he was taken up” (DV 19). Moreover, no ancient texts call into question the basic facts of the Passion narratives.
Modern scholarship provides important studies and theories to better understand the Scriptures, but they hardly carry more weight than the canonical text itself. And I say this not only regarding Christian belief and theology but as historical texts. We simply have no better historical sources for what went on in Jesus' life and passion than the four Gospel accounts. Good biblical exegesis always has the canonical text as its point of reference, which is what Gibson endeavored to do.
What of the Feb. 26 Associated Press report that Gibson rejects the Second Vatican Council's reversal on teaching regarding the Jews' collective responsibility for Christ's death?
This accusation is inaccurate in at least two respects. First, the fathers of the Second Vatican Council didn't see themselves as reversing any prior teachings on this question. The council categorically reaffirmed perennial Catholic teaching that all of humanity's sins, and the sins of Christians in particular, are responsible for Christ's death, as stated, inter alia, in the catechism of the Council of Trent.
The Vatican Council document states: “Even though the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ, neither all Jews indiscriminately at that time nor Jews today can be charged with the crimes committed during his passion” (Nostra Atate, 4).
Second, Gibson embraces that teaching wholeheartedly and has repeatedly stated his belief that the sins of all mankind are responsible for Christ's suffering and death, his own in the first place. He even chose to be filmed holding the nail driven into Jesus' hand as a reminder of his own part in Jesus' passion. The film reflects that teaching, making a clear distinction between the individuals that pressed for Jesus' death and the Jewish people as a whole.
Nonetheless, a Feb. 28 essay in
Quite the opposite. With few exceptions the Romans come across as cruel and violent, whereas Mel was careful to depict the Jews in a much more nuanced way. He includes contrary voices at the Sanhedrin trial who denounce the proceeding as a travesty. These correspond to the Gospel figures of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, two followers of Jesus among the Jewish leaders.
Gibson shows a number of Jewish women weeping for Jesus along the way of the cross, as recounted in the biblical narratives. The Jewish figure Simon of Cyrene, initially conscripted to help Jesus carry his cross, eventually does so willingly and defends Jesus from the Roman soldiers. His Simon, a very sympathetic character, is disparaged by one of the soldiers with the epithet: “Jew,” evidencing the Roman disdain for all things Jewish and evoking empathy for the Cyrenean on the part of viewers.
The Jewish Veronica offers Jesus a cup of water and gives him her cloth to wipe his bloody face. All of this without even mentioning the fact that all of Jesus' disciples were Jewish as well.
Comparing the Gospel narratives with Gibson's rendering, one finds a very faithful correspondence, more so than any other cinematic representation of Jesus' life to date. If anything, Gibson tilts things in favor of the Jews and softens the Gospel's sometimes-blanket depiction of the “Jews” as opposed to Christ.
No one can walk away from this film with any sense of Jewish collective guilt for the death of Jesus. The empirical evidence confirms this, since time and time again viewers speak of heightened awareness of their personal responsibility for Christ's death after seeing the film.
But what of Gibson's decision to only show Christ's passion, without locating it in the larger context of his life and teachings?
In the midst of justifiable hand-wringing over Hollywood's inclination to glorify ugliness and evil, Gibson has plied his trade to depict Jesus Christ in the moment of his supreme sacrifice of love. Surprisingly, Gibson has been able to draw out the inner beauty of Christ even in this moment of ignominy, when “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Constantinple, Canterbury, Rome - and Houston? DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:HOUSTON — The Catholic Church might soon have a new platform for ecumenical dialogue in the United States.
Fifty U.S. religious leaders, including several from the Catholic Church, met in Houston Jan. 7-9 as part of efforts to form a new ecumenical group called Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A., said Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, chairman of the interim steering committee of Christian Churches Together.
Catholics attending the Houston meeting included Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, Calif., chairman of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops' Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, and Father Ronald Roberson, associate director of the bishops' confer-ence's Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.
Participants were mainly “fine-tuning the arrangements that were put forth a year ago in Pasadena, [Calif.],” when religious leaders interested in Christian Churches Together developed an organizational plan for the group, Father Roberson said.
Bishop Blaire, who is on the interim steering committee of Christian Churches Together, presented the group's organizational plan to the plenary meeting of the bishops' conference in November. He expects the committee to present a formal proposal to the conference this year or next.
Whether the proposal will recommend that the Catholic Church join Christian Churches Together is “up to our committee,” Bishop Blaire said. “But it is certainly the mind of the Holy Father that we participate in these types of organizations.”
Five Families
Christian Churches Together is intended to consist of five “families” — Roman Catholic, Orthodox, evangelical/Pentecostal, historic Protestant and historic racial/ethnic, according to Granberg-Michaelson, who is also general secretary of the Reformed Church in America.
Asking churches to become formal participants in Christian Churches Together began after the meeting last year in Pasadena, he said. This is when Phase I of Christian Churches Together started.
So far, the Greek Orthodox Church, four historic Protestant denominations and the American Baptist Church, which considers itself both evangelical and historic Protestant, have joined formally, Granberg-Michaelson said.
More than 30 denominations are in the process of considering whether to join as formal participants, he added.
Phase II of the group's existence will begin “when at least 25 denominations from an adequately representative group of the five families … have formally decided” to join Christian Churches Together, the organizational plan states.
In Phase II, the group expects to develop a modest infrastructure of one professional and one support staff member.
“We want this to be what the churches do together rather than … them deciding to form a separate organization,” Granberg-Michael-son explained.
Father Roberson said there has been “a long-standing feeling among Christians in the United States that we needed a broader organization” than the National Council of Churches.
“The Roman Catholic Church and evangelical/Pentecostal churches don't belong to the National Council of Churches,” Granberg-Michaelson said, and there was “never any indication that they would be willing to join.”
Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor of the journal First Things and an observer of the ecumenical scene, characterized the National Council of Churches as primarily an organization of “mainline or old-line liberal Protestant churches.”
Bishop Blaire said there was a “long history” of why the Catholic Church never joined the National Council of Churches.
Father Roberson said the National Council of Churches “has often been taking positions not to the liking of Catholics and evangelicals.”
The current president of the National Council of Churches, Bishop Thomas Hoyt Jr. of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, stated more bluntly that “the National Council is anathema” to some religious groups because of certain positions it has taken in the past.
Not a Good Mix
For example, the council supported the preparation of gender-inclusive lectionaries with Bible readings to be used in church worship, Bishop Hoyt said. The lectionaries use the words “human beings” instead of “men” and “realm of God” instead of “kingdom,” he said. They also allow optional use of the word “mother” in the version of the Lord's Prayer from the Gospel of St. Luke.
And although the council originally joined Catholics and evangelicals in signing “A Christian Declaration on Marriage,” which declared marriage to be between one man and one woman, the council's general secretary later withdrew his signature, according to the National Council of Churches news service.
The general secretary said he withdrew his name out of concern that the declaration “may be used by some as a pretext for attacks on gay and lesbian persons,” the service reported.
Granberg-Michaelson agreed it “wouldn't be feasible for the evangelical/Pentecostal churches and the Catholic Church simply to say they want to join the National Council of Churches — there is too much history, too many divisions, too many stereotypes.”
“It had to be a fresh start,” he said.
Father Roberson said the creation of Christian Churches Together “would allow us to be a forum for contacts with churches we don't have right now,” such as the evangelical/Pentecostal churches.
The new group could serve as a “facilitator … for coalitions to be built around particular issues, such as pro-life issues,” by bringing the Catholic Church together with the evangelical/Pentecostal denominations and the various Orthodox communions, he said.
The group's organizational plan anticipates such coalitions will develop out of discussion forums sponsored by Christian Churches Together, but these coalitions will act in their own names, not in the name of Christian Churches Together.
It is still an open question, however, whether evangelical/Pentecostal denominations will join Christian Churches Together, Father Roberson said.
At least four evangelical/Pentecostal churches — the Evangelical Covenant Church, the Christian Reform Church, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the International Pentecostal Holiness Church — are in the process of considering whether to join as formal participants, according to GranbergMichaelson.
But Father Neuhaus wrote in the August/September 2002 issue of First Things that he would not consider evangelical participation to be significant unless it included such major communions as the Southern Baptist Convention and the Assemblies of God.
Granberg-Michaelson acknowledged that although the Southern Baptist Convention sent an observer to the Pasadena meeting, “They're probably going to be on the sideline.”
Bishop Blaire nevertheless expressed hopes for “wider participation” in Christian Churches Together, including participation by evangelical denominations.
“We hope,” Bishop Blaire said, “that this will be a structured forum … [in which] every church that believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and believes in the Trinity will find a home.”
Katherine Santos writes from Garden City, N.Y.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Katherine Santos ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:Sex Abuse Among Protestant Clergy Not Well Studied
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Feb. 22 — It is unclear whether or not sexual abuse by clergymen in Protestant churches is a widespread or persistent problem, reported The Associated Press, which noted the release of reports by the National Review Board appointed by Catholic bishops to investigate such abuse among Catholic priests.
There “have been few such efforts by Protestants,” according to the Associated Press.
The wire service did locate one source of information, www.reformation.com, which has compiled 838 allegations of abuse by Protestant clergy, some dating from 1933.
The Associated Press noted that the effort among Protestants to chronicle such abuse is only beginning. It cited Michael Smith, a Lutheran who single-handedly collects these reports for Reformation.com, who said he thought Protestant clergy probably showed a similar rate of misconduct as Catholics.
However, since their churches are so much less centralized, have fewer financial resources to attract lawsuits and receive less coverage by the media, such abuse is underreported.
Catholics Respond to
THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, Feb. 19 — Despite warnings about the extremely graphic nature of the violence depicted and the fact that the movie is subtitled, Catholic moviegoers in New York City lined up to see Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, the New York Daily News reported.
The daily noted that church and youth groups from across the city had arranged to attend the movie as groups — even as the American Bible Society distributed 4,000 free tickets to local churches.
One Catholic school principal, Father Philip Eichner of Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale, N.Y., told the paper that more than 1,000 of his school's upperclassmen would be making a two-mile “pilgrimage” to see the movie.
“It's a meditation on our own inhumanity to each other and how this doesn't destroy God's love,” said Father Eichner, who'd seen a cut of the movie months before.
He called it a powerful statement of redemption, saying, “We want our students to see that redemption.”
Catholic-Rights Advocate Issues Open Letter to Jews
CATHOLIC LEAGUE, Feb. 4 — Defending the film The Passion of the Christ, William Donohue of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights took issue with what he called “the sheer demagoguery” of the film's opponents, citing numerous examples.
One was Boston University theology professor Paula Fredriksen, who said in The New Republic: “When violence breaks out, Mel Gibson will have a much higher authority than professors and bishops to answer to.”
Donohue pointed to suggestions by Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, who said publicly that the film might “trigger pogroms against Jews” and who called Gibson's promotional strategy of previewing the film to church groups “dangerous.”
“To say the film is dangerous because the people who are previewing it are churchgoing Christians is an insult to practicing Christians,” Donohue responded. “The subtext of this remark is that churchgoing Christians are latent anti-Semitic bigots ready to lash out at Jews at any given moment.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: U.S. Agency Promotes Abortion Abroad, Peruvian Congressmen Charge DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — For years, Peruvian pro-lifers have alleged the U.S. Agency for International Development has been too supportive of feminist organizations trying to legalize abortion in Latin American countries.
And for years the agency's office in Peru has strongly denied the charge.
But now, a video of an event sponsored by the agency in which legal abortion was openly promoted has proved the pro-lifers correct.
The event, financed by the Peru office, took place on Oct. 11 in the northern city of Piura under the title “The Situation of Reproductive Health in Peru.” The gathering included only pro-abortion leaders such as left-wing Congressman Víctor Velarde, who recently introduced Bill 7869, which would legalize abortion despite it being forbidden by the Peruvian Constitution.
Also on hand were Delicia Ferrando, local representative of Pathfinder International, a U.S.-based nongovernmental organization that is one of the largest providers of contraceptives in developing nations; Cecilia Arismendy, a representative in Peru of the U.N. Population Fund; and Jeannie Dador of the feminist organization Daniela Ramos.
All speakers harshly criticized current laws prohibiting abortion.
The video, a copy of which is in the hands of the Population Research Institute, a U.S.-based pro-life organization, shows Ferrando speaking openly against Peruvian pro-life legislation under a large U.S. Agency for International Development logo.
“Abortion is not a medical but a social problem, mainly because of its illegal status, which imposes a heavy burden on women,” Ferrando said.
Susana Chavez of the Feminist Group Flora Tristán praised “the organizers of this gathering” (USAID) because “we cannot be silent and accept what the law says today. Instead, we need to discuss how to make these laws more according to the needs of citizens, and these kinds of events are good for that purpose.”
Velarde explained that Bill 7869 says “the attention to reproductive health in a broad sense includes the attention to people with HIV/AIDS, abortion, infertility treatment and a wide range of quality contraception.”
The bill also says “among the legal barriers to reproductive health are the laws that forbid abortion.”
Complaint Filed
As soon as the participants and content of the event were known, 10 members of the Peruvian Congress wrote to Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, highlighting the clearly pro-abortion sections of Bill 7869 and questioning the agency's support of the event.
“The funding of this conference and of organizations that are pushing for abortion on demand in Peru is a blatant violation of U.S. law,” said Population Research Institute president Steve Mosher.
Mosher cited the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, which forbids funding any organization that promotes coercive abortion or forced sterilization. Under the amendment, from 2001 through 2003 Congress withheld funds from the U.N. Population Fund after a commission proved the organization was involved in forced abortions in China. Ironically, the funds slated for the population fund were redirected to the U.S. Agency for International Development.
In 1998, USAID in Peru was involved in controversy after the Population Research Institute brought evidence that the Peruvian government, at that time under the rule of Alberto Fujimori, was using agency money to finance its campaign of forced sterilization of women.
The evidence led to the passing of the Tiahrt Amendment on Oct. 25, 1998, which determined that U.S. funds can only go to “voluntary family-planning” programs.
In a response to John Cusey, an adviser to U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., Richard Martin, USAID/Peru's chief of health services, said the references to abortion were taken only from the “exposition of motives” of the bill, not from the bill itself.
Those references are “based on a review of international documents to summarize current international treaties and resolutions on the subject of reproductive health and human rights,” he said.
Martin also responded that abortion was just one of many issues discussed at the event and that there was a “language misunderstanding” because the Spanish word aborto is not equivalent to the English word abortion since it frequently means miscarriage.
But aborto only means miscarriage when accompanied with the adjective espontáneo (spontaneous) and more frequently the word used in Spanish for miscarriage is pérdida (loss).
Moreover, in the video, Ferrando unequivocally explains the difference between miscarriage and abortion.
Outraged
Luis Santa Maria, who headed the group of Congressmen that sent the letter to Natsios, told the Register he was “simply outraged” by Martin's response and explained that the “exposition of motives” in a bill is not a separate document from the law but “an integral and critical part of it, because it determines the outcome of the law.”
“And abortion is clearly a key part of Velarde's proposed law,” he said.
In a follow-up letter, the congressmen complained that in Martin's response “the exposition of motives was represented as a mere summary of international documents relating to human rights and reproductive health.”
However, they said, Velarde added explicit references to surgical abortion “in an attempt to include surgical abortion in a legal definition of ‘reproductive health.’”
Congressman Héctor Chavez Chuchón, president of the health commission of the Peruvian Congress, also took action, writing U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., on Jan. 31 to express “outrage over the promotion of surgical abortion in Peru by USAID/Peru.” Chavez requested “the immediate intervention of the White House.”
Responding to the mounting evidence, Martin on Feb. 3 wrote again to Cusey, surprisingly presenting Velarde as a “pro-life” Congressman.
Martin wrote to Velarde “suggesting” some changes to his proposed law — changes Velarde immediately included in his new proposal.
“At this point, it is fair to ask how come a U.S. official from an aid organization can be so involved and so influential in Peruvian legislation, especially regarding life and family issues,” said Carlos Polo, an adviser to Congressman Santa María and one of Peru's top investigators of life and family issues. “It is hard not to think that USAID/Peru has a [pro-abortion] agenda and that it handles U.S. taxpayers' money in a very arbitrary manner.”
Finally, Polo told the Register that “all the persons at the event sponsored by USAID are closely associated with the infamous forced-sterilization campaign promoted by Fujimori.”
“It is hard to believe [the agency] maintains a ‘neutrality’ in moral issues,” Polo said, “when they remain associated with the culprits of one of the darkest pages in Peru's history.”
Alejandro Bermúdez writes from Lima, Peru.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Bermúdez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Hosts Another Round of Muslim-Catholic Talks DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:A joint commission of Catholic and Muslim scholars wrapped up a two-day meeting Feb. 25 at the Vatican, agreeing on the need to engage in “self-criticism and to struggle against stereotypes and generalizations.” The meeting wasn't without some generalizations of its own, however, as leaders involved in the formal dialogue agreed they must be willing to examine their own history and teaching for signs of prejudice as part of their work in promoting understanding and respect between Catholics and Muslims.
The joint committee between the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Permanent Committee of al-Ahzar for Dialogue with Monotheistic Religions met for the eighth time in six years.
The meeting is usually held around Feb. 24, the anniversary of a private meeting in 1998 between Pope John Paul II and Sheik Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, the head of Egypt's ancient al-Ahzar University.
The committee has a narrower mandate than the more institutional Islamic-Catholic Liaison Committee, which met here a month earlier.
Speaking to the Register after the meeting, Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, noted there is “a tendency today to stereotype different religions.” He said the concern at this meeting was “mainly to help the formation of religious leaders through a dialogical attitude in order to counter this stereotypying.”
“There is some way to go,” he added. “We are placing small bricks on the way to building something.”
The archbishop highlighted references made during the meeting to reconciliation efforts by the Catholic Church in the Jubilee Year and the need for “Koranic culture” to foster respect for people and human dignity. “We will keep working at it,” he pledged.
The committee's purpose is to “foster research into common values, work for the promotion of justice and peace, and for the promotion of respect for religions.”
According to Archbishop Fitzgerald, it provides “a forum for exchanges on matters of mutual interest, such as the defense of human dignity and of human rights, and the promotion of mutual knowledge and respect among Catholics and Muslims.”
One particular concern is that many Muslims continue to hold outdated views of Christians. “One has to keep in mind that in most Muslim countries the term ‘Christian’ is still identified with either colonialism or, as is the case lately, with the Crusades,” said Dominican Father Joseph Ellul, professor of ecumenical theology and Islamic studies at the Angelicum (Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome). “This holds true especially in the ongoing struggle between Islam and the West.”
Such perceptions are of particular concern to Sheikh Fawzi Fadel al-Zafzaf, president of the al-Azhar permanent committee, who said during the meeting that religious persons in particular “must be careful not to generalize” and added that “it is necessary to distinguish between the sources of religions and the particular conduct of their followers.”
Another speaker,Youssef Kamal El-Hage, a Catholic professor at Notre Dame of Lebanon University, said “self-criticism is absent between Christians and Muslims and it is a real obstacle to dialogue.”
However, he singled out the significance of the Second Vatican Council's declaration Nostra Aetate (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions), which affirms that the Church regards Muslims “with esteem,” and he underlined John Paul's special dedication to Islam.
Such conciliatory statements imply that the concerns over prejudice against each other's religion are perhaps more applicable to society as a whole than among religious leaders.
It was a point not overlooked by Archbishop Fitzgerald, who called on the help of the media “to simplify and to give serious presentations of the other religions.”
But some believe fair representations in the media of the various monotheistic religions have been all too rare. Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Yale University professor and chair of the media committee of the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, said Muslims are often “vilified” in the media, including in the United States.
“What they want to portray is that the world's 1.3 million Muslims want to massacre the Jews,” said Qumsiyeh, who is a Palestinian Christian. He said the media “tends to forget the context” in which Palestinian suicide bombers find themselves.
“You rarely hear that there are thousands of Palestinians living in enclaves in conditions worse than the Warsaw ghetto,” Qumsiyeh said.
Yet Muslim, Christian and Jewish religious leaders cannot be totally absolved of guilt in this respect, as al-Azhar's Sheikh Fawzi al-Zafzaf pointed out.
“Unfortunately, the question of making generalizations — promoting stereotypes — is very current,” the Muslim leader said, “even among religious leaders who should take more care.”
Edward Pentin writes from Rome. (Zenit and CNS contributed to this story.)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: South Korean Cloning Controversy DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:SEOUL, South Korea — Scientists in South Korea recently announced a breakthrough in research on human cloning. The research team has successfully cloned human embryos, extracting stem cells from them.
Their success was documented in a peer-reviewed journal, Science, leaving no doubt that their announcement is legitimate, unlike some previous claims from attention-grabbers.
Each of the embryos cloned was taken from 242 eggs donated by 16 women, replicating their DNA without any male contribution. Twenty cloned embryos and one stem-cell line were created.
Bishop Elio Sgreccia, vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said Feb. 12 that the mining of stem cells from embryos, which are then discarded, was a procedure “full of illicit acts.”
Bishop Sgreccia said ethically, so-called therapeutic cloning is even worse than reproductive cloning at some levels because it involves the planned creation, exploitation and destruction of human life.
“From not only a Catholic point of view, this is a procedure full of illicit acts,” he said.
“It's part of a much larger battle: whether economic profit should prevail absolutely over fundamental moral arguments, whether the survival of a human being should come first or the profits of the strongest — the industries and the multinationals that do business in this sector,” he said.
“Our impression is that this is an effort to have human embryos at one's disposal and to remove every ban against their use,” Bishop Sgreccia added, “as if they were merely merchandise or material.”
Cardinal Keeler
“I am saddened to learn that South Korean scientists have used cloning to create and destroy dozens of human embryos,” said Cardinal William Keeler, chairman of the Committee for Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “While touted as scientific progress, this is a sign of moral regress. Human cloning turns procreation into a manufacturing process, treating human life as a commodity made to preset specifications. Moreover, using this or any means to create innocent human lives solely to destroy them is an ultimate violation of research ethics.”
The ethical questions are numerous, beginning with the morality of creating, manipulating and destroying human life.
“These experimenters exploited women to harvest 242 eggs, created hundreds of human embryos, developed 30 of those human embryos for a week and callously tore apart those embryos to use their spare parts to create one stem-cell line,” said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J. “Just as we said would happen in the process of human cloning for research, women and human embryos were treated as commodities in this experiment.”
Not everyone was so negative, however.
“Our approach opens the door for the use of these specially developed cells in transplantation medicine,” said study leader Hwang Woo-suk of Seoul National University.
He emphasized at an American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Seattle that his team is “in the position against reproductive cloning.” He called for an international ban on so-called reproductive cloning, the implantation of cloned embryos in women's wombs for the purpose of raising children.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told reporters, “This is the most promising research in health care perhaps in the history of the world.”
Hatch is the co-sponsor of a bill with California Democrat Diane Feinstein that would ban only reproductive cloning.
While newspapers such as The New York Times called for Congress to expedite passage of this half-ban, opponents of cloning believe the only way to prohibit human cloning is to ban the cloning of all human embryos.
Clone and Kill
Critics of the Hatch-Feinstein bill have dubbed it a “clone-and-kill bill” since it would allow embryos to be cloned, as researchers just did in South Korea, so long as the embryos are not allowed to be born and raised as children.
Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Mary Landrieu, D-La., have an alternative bill in the Senate that would prohibit all human cloning — for research and for reproductive purposes. President Bush also supports a ban on all human cloning.
“The South Korean breakthrough is being touted as if its only use would be for medical research. But the same cloned embryos could instead be implanted in wombs,” explained Wesley Smith, author of The Culture of Death.
“Moreover,” Smith said, “since the cloning technique will be published, this research has probably hastened the birth of a cloned human baby. The only answer to this moral outrage is to outlaw all human cloning, which, ironically, South Korea was on the verge of doing when the cloning announcement was made.”
“Science and technology are great human goods when placed at the service of the human person. Here, the opposite occurred,” Cardinal Keeler cautioned in his statement. “Human beings were treated as products of technology then used and discarded. If scientists will not voluntarily turn away from this abuse of science, a national and worldwide effort to ban human cloning is more urgently needed than ever.”
(CNS contributed to this story.) Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor of National Review Online.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:Campaign for ‘Forgotten’ Irish Abroad
IRISH BISHOPS' CONFERENCE MEDIA OFFICE, Feb. 23 — Visiting London on Feb. 21, Bishop Seamus Hegarty of Derry, chairman of the bishops' Commission for Emigrants, launched a program of support for Irish emigrants, according to the Irish Bishops' Conference.
To answer the needs of sometimes-isolated and elderly Irish emigrants, he announced that the Irish bishops “are launching a nationwide campaign to coincide with St. Patrick's Day 2004 called Supporting the Irish Abroad in order to create an awareness of [their] plight. … This work involves supporting the homeless, members of the traveling community, those in need of company, those who are in recovery and many others who are marginalized within their host society.”
Italian Missionaries Assaulted in Ivory Coast
MISSIONARY NEWS AGANCY, Feb. 19 — The turbulent African nation of Ivory Coast saw brutal attacks by armed men on two Italian priests, Missionary News Agency reported.
The assault happened in the rebel-controlled city of Kohrogo in north Ivory Coast on Feb. 8. A group of thugs broke into Our Lady of Fatima Parish, attacking and robbing Father Luciano Ragazzo and Father Natale Lucidi of the Sons of Divine Providence.
“They were searching for a safe that we have never had,” said Father Ragazzo, vicar general of the Diocese of Kohrogo.
The thieves pointed Kalashnikov rifles at the heads of the two missionaries and then beat the priests around the head and body with rifle butts. French peacekeeping soldiers rescued them after a half-hour of captivity.
Fresh Hope for Cardinal Newman's Canonization
Father Paul Chavasse, provost of Newman's Oratory Church in Edgbaston, Birmingham, admitted that “compared with the progress of causes like that of Mother Teresa, the cardinal moves slowly! However, there is real progress to report this year.”
He noted that “more and more people around the world are turning to the cardinal as an advocate and intercessor in matters concerning physical well-being and the search for a cure from illness. Hence it is, as I write, that there are now no fewer than three possible (and I must emphasize ‘possible’) cures on the books, all of which are being examined or are about to be examined.”
Feb. 21 marked the 203rd anniversary of the birth of John Henry Newman in London. He died on Aug. 11, 1890.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Blame and the Doubt DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:With the release of the bishops' report on the extent of the sex-abuse crisis, Catholics are asking: How could this have happened? Who's to blame? The bishops who looked the other way? The seminaries that taught “liberated” teachings about sexuality and ordained men capable of abusing minors? Is Rome to blame?
And there's a dark doubt hanging behind all of this: We know the Church is made up of sinners — but shouldn't it be better than this? Four priests out of every 100 are too many to be accused of abuse.
We painted the big picture last week, pointing out that child sexual abuse is at epidemic levels everywhere, not just in the Church. But that hardly satisfies. Shouldn't the presence of Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit produce more than a Catholic Church caught in the same child-abuse scandal as the rest of society?
This horrifying scandal can make Catholics wonder — is the Lord really involved in the Church after all?
There's an apropos old story that addresses this doubt.
It's about the prayerful Christian man whose house gets caught in a flood. First a rescue-worker's truck wades through the waters to his door. But, “Don't you worry about me,” the man says. “The Lord will save me!” As the water rises higher still, another rescue-worker's boat rows over to his upstairs window. “The Lord will save me!” the man repeats. Last, the man is on his roof and a helicopter lets down a ladder. But he waves it away. “No! The Lord will save me!” he shouts.
Soon the waters wash the man away and he drowns. At the gates of heaven, he asks the Lord why he didn't saved him. “I tried!” the Lord says. “First I sent a car, then I sent a boat, and last I sent a helicopter.”
The truth is, the Lord has tried mightily to save the Church in America, too.
In the 1940s and '50s, he gave the immigrant Church here the wherewithal to climb out of the ghetto, build universities and send Catholics to the boardrooms, legislatures and broadcast booths of the nation.
Then, in the 1960s, he gave the world the Second Vatican Council, which strongly reaffirmed traditional Church teaching while encouraging Catholic lay people to take it out of the books and unleash it in the world.
Later in the '60s, as the world was swept up in the sexual revolution, Pope Paul VI gave Catholics the antidote with his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, reaffirming Church teaching on birth control and sexuality.
In 1979, Pope John Paul II was elected pope. His pontificate is like the culmination of these rescue attempts of the Lord's. He was a former Catholic university professor and one of the fathers of Vatican II. As Pope, he gave the Church the “theology of the body” to show how Church teaching honors and guards the dignity of human sexuality.
The Lord tried to rescue us, all right. But most Catholics responded like the man in the story.
Far too few bishops insisted that Catholic universities teach Catholic truth. Far too few insisted that Vatican II was about changing the world with our faith and not vice versa. Far too few proudly proclaimed all the teachings of the Church.
Far too few lay parents demanded that the money they pay Catholic universities should support their children's faith, not weaken it. Far too few lay people worked to transform the world with their faith. And far too few Catholics have followed the sexual teachings of the Church with joy.
Now is not the time to doubt the Lord's presence in the Church or his sure guidance. It's the time to proclaim it — not just to end our own scandals, but to heal a culture that desperately needs us.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:Santorum's Mixed Signals
I was happy to read “Let There be Politeness on Earth” in the Feb. 15-21 issue highlighting Karen Santorum's book Everyday Graces: A Child's Book of Good Manners.
Being a Catholic schoolteacher and former home-schooling mom, I appreciate the need for such a book. “Increasing the civility in our culture” is of the utmost importance to me also.
As a lifelong resident of Pennsylvania, I have long admired Mrs. and Sen. [Rick] Santorum. I have worked many times for his re-election, knowing the clear pro-life message he and his wife have stood for both personally and in the public forum at great cost.
With the dawning of this most recent primary season, I was struck speechless when I witnessed, on television, Sen. Santorum endorsing the candidacy of Sen. Arlen Specter over pro-life Congressman Pat Toomey. Specter has one of the clearest pro-abortion voting records of any Republican in the Senate. I believe Sen. and Mrs. Santorum have always worked to achieve civility in our culture. The pro-life community in Pennsylvania, however, is confused by this latest conflicting signal. Confusion breeds a lack of civility.
Karen Santorum states: “The concept of politeness has … enabled civilizations to thrive.” I pray the senator will reconsider his endorsement of Specter and allow more pre-born babies to thrive.
MAUREEN BRETT Roslyn, Pennsylvania
Killer Contraception
Regarding “Post-Abortive Women Say: ‘Don't Make the Mistake We Made’” (Feb. 8-14):
In a strong effort to increase the use of “emergency contraception,” the makers of the drug Plan B are pressuring the FDA to make their drug available over the counter. They falsely contend that this “wonder drug” will prevent tens of thousands of abortions by preventing pregnancy. Sadly, the fact is that so-called “emergency contraception” will often act to cause a chemical abortion. And legislation introduced this year (Assembly Bill 170) would mandate that all Wisconsin hospitals provide “emergency contraception” to alleged victims of sexual assault upon their request.
Emergency contraception, also known as the morning-after pill, is basically two high doses of the birth-control pill taken within a 72-hour period. It can work in three ways: by inhibiting the movement of sperm, suppressing ovulation and irritating the lining of the uterus so that a newly conceived child is unable to implant in the womb, thus starving and dying. This last action is chemical abortion.
Proponents of emergency contraception contend it does not cause an abortion. They argue that it prevents pregnancy and thereby reduces the need for induced abortion. However, they intentionally (and wrongly) define the term “pregnancy” as implantation of a fertilized egg in the lining of a woman's uterus as opposed to pregnancy beginning at fertilization.
Whether one understands pregnancy as beginning at implantation or fertilization, the heart of the matter is when human life begins. Embryological science has clearly determined that human life begins at fertilization — the fusion of an egg and sperm immediately resulting in a new, genetically distinct human being. This is not a subjective opinion but an objective scientific fact. Accordingly, any artificial action that works to destroy a fertilized egg (human embryo) is abortifacient in nature.
I deeply sympathize with victims of sexual assault. It is very difficult, however, to determine whether or not fertilization has occurred at the time emergency contraception must be taken. The situation can be likened to a hunter who sees something moving in the bushes and holds his fire until he is sure it is not a person. We must act with the same restraint in protecting newly conceived human life. And we should urge our legislators to oppose a bill that would require many religious hospitals to participate in a morally objectionable practice.
CHARMAINE HERBERT Brookfield, Wisconsin
The writer is an executive board member of Pro-Life Wisconsin.
Bible-Study Mixers
Regarding “Catholic Groups Make Headway in Bible-Study Programs” (Feb. 15-21):
As a lifelong faithful Catholic and 10-year member of Community Bible Study (teaching director of our local class for the past seven years), I am appalled by the charge that nondenominational Bible studies are “leading Catholics away from the Church.” My participation in Community Bible Study has significantly deepened my faith in Jesus Christ and in what the Catholic Church teaches, too. It is unrealistic to expect Catholic dogma to be taught in this venue (neither is Baptist or Methodist, etc.). However, I have found this study invaluable in spurring me to find out what my denomination teaches on a particular issue, why they interpret it as they do and to come up with an intelligible, nonconfrontational way of explaining my beliefs to others.
I can't speak for Bible Study Fellowship, the other group mentioned in the article, but the premise of Community Bible Study — as stated at every orientation session for new members and in print in each person's notebook — is that we know we have differences in some areas but we come together to share how the word of God has spoken to us and to focus on those things we have in common. We do not allow secondary issues to break down the unity that we have on the main issues.
It is unfortunate that Ms. Melanson was reprimanded for sharing her opinion, but it might have been how she said it rather than what she said. The small groups are for sharing our answers “with gentleness and respect,” as St. Peter says in 1 Peter 3:15-16, not for convincing others of the rightness of our opinions. I personally have grown tremendously because of this study, and I think others have a better understanding of what Catholics believe because of my involvement in it.
BARBARA MURPHY Clearwater, Florida
Compensation Clarity
What a thought-provoking column by Jennifer Roback Morse (“When Jobs Are Illegal, Only Illegals Will Have Jobs,” Feb. 8-14).
Morse's question about “how many American teen-agers realistically need their own health benefits or paid parental leave?” — plus her point that “like their European counterparts, California progressives expect employers to solve all the problems of the world, including child care, health care and the tender psyches of transvestites” — certainly demands some attention. Also, surely, the issue of government mandating unsustainable compensation levels has to be seriously considered in addressing our country's ongoing immigration-policy mess.
I'm looking forward to future installments of Morse's occasional series “Clashing Views: The Immigration Debate.”
K. DALE ANDERSON Randallstown, Maryland
Pesky Russian Catholics
Regarding “‘Do Not Think I Am Anti-Catholic’” (Inperson, Feb. 1-7):
The interviewer asked Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexi II: “Why are you so concerned with the Catholics of Ukraine?” He stated that “the Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine was banned by Stalin, and those who returned to the Orthodox Church as well as those who remained uniates received pastoral care by the Orthodox Church.”
I assume he is implying that these pesky Ukrainian Byzantine Catholics should just be happy with pastoral care in Orthodox churches. Then I would have to ask the same question to him — why do the Orthodox need to build their own churches in the West when they could just be pastored by Eastern Catholic churches?
Further, why haven't the Orthodox Churches returned to Eastern Catholics all the churches stolen from us by the communists and subsequently given to the Orthodox?
DANIEL J. BARTON Fayetteville, North Carolina
(Retired U.S. Army, Byzantine Catholic Christian)
His Blood Is on
Regarding “Box Office Passion” (Feb. 22-28): When Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, viewed The Passion of the Christ, he found its portrayal of Jews “painful to watch.” In reading about his reaction, it occurred to me how little he and other nonbelievers understand Christianity.
All human beings are culpable for the death of Christ, and we should all find the movie painful to watch because of that culpability. Every time we sin we become members of the crowd yelling, “Crucify him!”
Any nationality, race or group of human beings was capable of killing Christ, but Christ told the woman at the well that “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). And so it was that the Jews were chosen to bring about our salvation in all respects — even in the death of Christ. For any Christian to hate Jews is ridiculous. The proper response is love.
BEVERLY ANN THEWES
Naples, Florida
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: The Catholic Candidate DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:Regarding “A New Kennedy?” (Feb. 15-21): Again we have alleged Catholics claiming to be in union with the Church while they support the murder of unborn children. Most of those politicians use the same excuse and get away with it because their parish priests and their bishops allow this to happen and in many cases even support them. In this case, where is the bishop of Massachusetts? Is it any wonder that non-Catholics are being skeptical about Catholics? Some of these pro-abortion Catholics receive the Eucharist regularly and even are Eucharistic ministers.
Abortions in the United States would end abruptly if bishops were not cowards, or worse, and disallowed participation in the sacraments by anyone who supports murder (abortion) and emphasized the teaching of the Church that says to support a mortal sin is also to be guilty of that sin. How can a person committing the sin of supporting abortion, without any intent to cease this activity, be allowed access to the sacraments? Cannot the bishops see that failing to stand against this sin makes them also guilty of it?
LARRY CIEJKA Meridian, Idaho
Thanks for your recent excellent article on Sen. John Kerry pointing out the chasm between his beliefs and voting record on one hand and Catholic teaching on abortion on the other.
While it amazes me that any self-described Catholic can advocate publicly in favor of the intentional killing of innocent children, I am more astonished that someone employed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (the Ono Ekeh you quote) would endorse such a politician. That Mr. Ekeh's support extends to operating a “Catholics for Kerry” Web site must please Catholics for a Free Choice no end.
DAN HICKS Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Mel's s Passion And His Dad DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:The event shouldn't be memorable to me. But it gave me a key to unlocking Mel Gibson's Passion.
I remembered it after hearing this quote: “Got to leave it alone, Diane.”
I was 11 and standing with my friend Jeff after school on a lacerating Michigan November day. I had no ride, and I was not looking forward to walking the five blocks. So I waited.
Partway into my “hope the weather changes” routine, Jeff's aunt pulled up — his ride. Jeff bounded to the car and asked if she could take me home, too. I was “out of the way,” but in my small hometown, that is a relative concept. In other words, it wasn't much to ask.
Jeff returned: Thumbs up. I made sure to thank his aunt profusely after she dropped me off. I didn't notice it at the time, as I was trying to present a smaller target for the wind gusts, but Jeff took longer to get approval than you'd expect. Later, he told me why: His aunt had reacted with hostility to my name.
You see, I'm Dale Jr. Jeff's aunt worked for the same employer as my dad, Dale Sr. Not to put too fine a point on it, she (and many co-workers) despised my dad — basically regarded him as Idi Amin without the culinary refinements. For that she was willing to let her nephew's friend cool his heels in bad weather. Fortunately, Jeff prevailed upon the better angels of her nature.
Jeff only told me this story months afterward — once his aunt had gotten to know me and seen that maybe her ogre was at least a father who could raise a well-mannered (for the most part) kid. Happily, after the drop-off, we got along fine. During the summer,
Jeff and I would visit, gazing adoringly at the restored Corvette in her driveway.
She even let me sit in it.
In time, I learned — indirectly — that her opinion was not isolated. Others there (and from his stint as a store manager) griped about how uncompromising and unrelenting Dad was.
I could never reconcile the criticism I heard with the man I know, love and revere. The man who poured himself out to support his family, needing a quadruple bypass in 1998. The man who worked himself out of poverty to retire at 54. The man who made sure he was at every football game his sons suited up for, especially when there was zero chance either would play.
The man who waits with his hand on the phone on Saturdays when the University of Michigan Wolverines win, knowing he's going to celebrate with his elder son. The man who lives for the opening day of deer season and the company of family and friends. The man who is never more delighted than when he gets buffeted by hugs and chants of “Papa! Papa!” when his grandkids visit. The man who was always there for his elder son and namesake, who seemed to take forever to get his life in gear. The man who was utterly stricken when he parted from his younger son going off to war.
No, I don't want to hear my dad's a jerk. Tales from disgruntled co-workers gain no traction with me. At most, others see a public face — and that impression is limited, distorted and unfair.
So, as I said, this experience when I was 11 gave me a key to unlocking Mel's “Got to leave it alone, Diane.”
Remember it from the Feb. 16 Diane Sawyer interview? Gibson's nerves and coffee-gulping manic-ness vanished in an instant. He was addressing the coverage of his father, Hutton, by The New York Times and others. Instantly Gibson's tone became hard, fiat and gunmetal cold.
The man who handed on the Catholic faith to his loving and fiercely loyal son.
In that moment, Gibson's protectiveness about his film became clear. Unquestionably, it's personal — only his hands appear, driving the nails. Yes, he fell at the foot of Golgotha in his blackest hour of despair.
But I think he only knew to fall there because he remembered it, the faith of his father. None of this is to remotely defend Hutton Gibson's many horrifying views — for example, claiming on a radio station recently that the Holocaust was fictional: “It's all — maybe not all fiction — but most of it is,” he asserted. His son put no small distance between himself and those views in the interview, however carefully and sotto voce the effort.
However, unlike us, Mel has seen the nonpublic face of his father. The man who somehow managed to raise 11 kids on a disability pension and a Jeopardy jackpot. The man who likely did other kind things for his family and others that we will never hear about.
When the abyssal night closed in and Gibson was one step from the window to the concrete, he returned to the faith learned at his father's knees — and clearly not all of that was inexcusable ranting about Jewish conspiracies.
In the hour of decision, he reverted to his cradle faith and was healed. I think he regards it as an inheritance and the film its deeply personal expression. The two are linked. By now, perhaps, they are inseparable.
In that I think he's hardly alone. How many Catholics hold on to and express their faith in terms of heritage and inheritance?
I know more than a few.
Because of the blood link, The Passion of the Christ is far more complex and personal than both supporters and critics realize.
Dale Price writes from Warren, Michigan.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Mother and Marlene: 'You Can Do' DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:Marlene Elias has many gifts. Primary among them is an incredible singing voice and a talent for writing music. She has written, produced and recorded several CDs' worth of inspirational music. But as good as her music is, what makes Marlene's life inspirational and what separates her from the rest of us is her exemplary taste in friends.
It was October 1987 and Marlene the Southern California housewife had been invited by her brother, Msgr. John Esseff, to accompany him on a special trip where he was to offer a retreat to a group of nuns. The group of nuns were the Missionaries of Charity, the place was Calcutta, and the woman Marlene was going to meet and who was going to impact her life in ways beyond her capacity to comprehend was Mother Teresa.
Marlene has admitted to me that her first thoughts about the trip and meeting Mother Teresa had more to do with a sense of celebrity and excitement than the expectation that she was about to have an epiphany.
But upon her arrival on the streets of Calcutta and her first introduction to Mother Teresa, Marlene was changed forever.
Like a lot of us “spoiled” Americans, Marlene's senses were sent reeling amid the destitution that surrounded her in Calcutta. But it all seemed to melt away when she met Mother Teresa.
It wasn't a celebrity sighting after all. From the touch of Mother Teresa's hand and the look in her eye, Marlene understood she was in the presence of someone very special.
She found herself swooped up into Mother Teresa's world, where she tagged along as Mother Teresa “did her rounds” finding the poor and the dying and showing them the dignity and compassion of Christ's love. It was here that she discovered the Gospel message is a message not for “saints” but for all of us.
Mother Teresa and Marlene Elias became fast friends. After that initial meeting with Mother Teresa in 1987, a deep bond would continue to form between the two women and evolve into another vehicle by which God's work could be accomplished.
Back home in Southern California, Marlene tried to get back to the life she knew before but soon discovered she couldn't.
Not many people living in Southern California received regular calls from Mother Teresa and even fewer had Mother Teresa's private telephone number on the speed-dial setting of their home phone. Sometimes Mother Teresa would call just to say hello, dispense a birthday greeting or inquire about the ups and downs of Marlene's family and to offer counsel and prayers.
Other times it would be to invite Marlene to join Mother Teresa somewhere in the United States where Mother Teresa would be coming. It never seemed to cross Mother's mind that Marlene might not have the time or the funds to drop everything and follow. But when Mother Teresa calls you at home and asks you to do something, you don't put her on hold.
If Marlene's life hadn't been changed enough from her initial meeting with her new best friend back in 1987, it certainly took another spiritual turn on Christmas Day 1994.
Besides delivering a personal Christmas greeting to Marlene that Dec. 25, Mother Teresa had something to ask of her American friend.
“Ask” is not quite the accurate word, since Marlene explains that when Mother Teresa got a notion in her head about something she thought needed to be done, she just went ahead and did it. The difficulty or evident impossibility of a task was never a consideration.
Marlene found herself swept up in this Mother Teresa modu s operandi on this Christmas Day when Mother Teresa asked her to do some little thing for her.
Mother Teresa had previously visited Washington and met with the Clintons.
Mother had asked the Clintons then for help in establishing a home for unwed mothers so they would have a place to go and not think their only “choice” would be abortion. The Clintons did not gush over the concept. So not having heard back from Mrs. Clinton by December 1994, Mother Teresa decided to call her good American friend Marlene and have her talk to the First Lady about that house.
Now, Mother asked Marlene to call the ardently pro-abortion first lady of the United States of America, Hillary Clinton, and ask her to help Mother Teresa obtain a home in Washington, D.C., in which unwed mothers could have their babies.
Images of biblical signposts fill the imagination as this “simple” request is put into context. Mother Teresa wanted this housewife from California with absolutely zero political connections or influence to persuade the pro-abortion wife of a pro-abortion president to help Mother Teresa save “unwanted” babies with a home for women in true crises.
Marlene was dumbfounded and tried to explain to Mother Teresa that the average Southern Californian didn't just pick up the phone and get the First Lady of the land on the other line. This time Mother Teresa was nonplussed. She just repeated her pet motto to Marlene, “You can do,” and left it up to Marlene — and God — to take care of the rest.
Not knowing exactly where to start, Marlene contacted Sister Sylvia, the Missionaries of Charity superior based on the East Coast and the one person Marlene knew was geographically close to the White House.
This led to a myriad of governmental navigations for Marlene until she finally hit pay dirt with Mrs. Clinton's personal secretary. Contact was made. Mother Teresa's request was delivered as Marlene Elias, friend of Mother Teresa, got through to Hillary Clinton.
On June 19, 1995, the Mother Teresa home for infants was dedicated. In attendance were Mother Teresa; then mayor of Washington, D.C., Marion Barry; and Cardinal James Hickey of Washington. And, of course, one Hillary Clinton. This story alone is probably all the proof any Vatican-commissioned devil's advocate should ever need to validate Mother Teresa's propensity for the miraculous.
One Last Request
Marlene has many more “Mother” stories to tell. So many, in fact, that she is presently filling up the pages of a book about them she hopes to publish in the near future. When Mother Teresa passed away in 1997, Marlene learned that even in death her friend wasn't done with her. Mother had requested a particular soloist to sing at her funeral and that person was Marlene Elias.
Again, the news came out of left field for Marlene, who was back in California with no means or time to get herself to a funeral in India.
But somehow the words “you can do” echoed in her head, she believed, and all of the dominoes fell into place. Marlene Elias arrived in time and sang at her friend's funeral Mass.
Today, Marlene travels across the map and tells people about her experiences with her friend who lived in Calcutta. But the relationship between Marlene and Mother Teresa goes far beyond giving a lecture or a concert here and there.
And it is a relationship that continues to this day.
If I had to use one word to sum up my own impressions of having met Marlene Elias, I would use “serene.”
It is not a serenity born of a lack of cares or worries. Marlene's life is filled with ample amounts of sorrow and disappointment. But Mother Teresa is a constant presence in Marlene's daily life and continues to act as a conduit to Christ.
Just as Mother Teresa did in life with the poor and dying in the streets of Calcutta, she has shown this American woman in Southern California that she is not alone and that through Christ, all things are possible.
Robert Brennan is a television writer living in Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert Brennan ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Kids Have the Right to Be Rightly Disturbed DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:It wasn't a proud moment. There I was in the Toys “R” Us checkout line clutching “the thing's” face to my thigh, trying desperately to avoid eye contact with any of the other shoppers.
As I slid the object onto the checkout counter, I deftly obscured it with a box of dominoes, just so no one watching would be confused as to my moral caliber. There I was, plunking down $14.95 to buy for my little nephew John Thomas the hideous, snake-headed villain Hydra, dastardly nemesis of action figure Max Steele.
The checkout lady picked up the toy and pronounced a guttural sentence on it: “Yehhhhck.”
I was ready with the 4-year-old wisdom that had prevailed on me to make the buy: “Auntie Barbara, you have to have a villain or there is nothing for Max Steele to do.”
You have to have a villain. Villains make heroism possible.
Later on — I admit it, after a beer — I asked John Thomas why Hydra is so ugly. Again, the thinking came back clear and unambiguous: “Because,” he said while practically rolled his eyes at me, “he's bad.”
There will be a time for John Thomas to find out about nuanced evil.
Very soon, his own nature will teach him how to say one thing while feeling another. He'll learn soon enough that evil can disguise itself as a very good and desirable thing. He'll learn to associate evil choices with an interior ugliness. Right now he is 4 and learning there is such a thing as evil. There are good choices and bad choices, and bad choices are ugly.
Apprehending nuance is a gift of maturity. It is a later step in development that, however, is dependent on these simpler truths.
There is so much smut and crassness raining down all around us in this culture that the impulse of Christian parents is to try to ward off all faces of evil from their kids. We have become victims of a reactionary pendulum, which has us resisting anything that might introduce darkness into our kids' lives.
This kind of parenting might actually cripple kids by rendering them completely inadequate to live in their own very perilous times. Kids need help to come to grips with the evil and darkness that are a constant part of life in “this valley of tears.” The Wicked Witch, Captain Hook, Darth Vader and, yes, Hydra, can all be means for kids to make sense of the evil in the world around them and even do battle with it.
At a screening of The Prince of Egypt a few years ago, I remember a critic for a Christian magazine agreeing with me that the film was an amazing work of art that had really moved her.
But then she noted, “Of course, I probably won't let my 8-year-old see it, because the images of the slaves early on were just too disturbing.”
Indeed they were.
The film opens with an extended sequence of the sufferings of the Hebrews at the hands of the Pharaohs. The Hebrew cry to God rises up out of the mud pits with a compelling desperation. I have only experienced that kind of prayer a few times in my life, but I know it was real and probably holy.
The question is, do we have a right to keep these kinds of truths from children? The story of salvation belongs to them as much as to us. It's like a doctor deciding not to tell the patient that the diagnosis is cancer. Is it really the best thing for the patient, or is it more the easiest thing for the doctor?
Being disturbed is not the same thing as being violated. When I was younger, my mother used to “disturb” us kids awake by 9 a.m. during summer vacation. She'd walk in our bedroom, snap up the shades and loudly proclaim, “What a beautiful day! How can you lay in bed?” It wasn't really a question.
There is no easy way to parent today. Get over it. It's unfair that Britney Spears has introduced sexiness to kids who should be more concerned with Elmo. It's infuriating that Clinton's Oval Office antics made unmentionable acts the stuff of “South Park” parody.
But this is the cultural hand our kids have been dealt.
These are challenging, complex times, and it is an evil to try to reduce a complex moment to a simple one just because it is easier to handle things that way.
Trying to block out the culture is absurd and futile. It is like a mouse tapped in a white room with a starving lion with the mouse saying, “I'm just going to ignore him.” Good luck with that.
Even if you could block out the culture, how is that a Christian response?
A better strategy is to parent with the media, not against it.
The key is to introduce your child to a kind evil before the world would introduce it to them. Parents need to get there just a few moments before Satan does with his tricks and disguises.
Video games, music, television and movies need to be encountered in a family council. One at a time. In a painstaking process of teaching essential skills for this generation: How is this production working on me intellectually? How did it make me feel about myself, my family, my country, my faith? What are the mistaken assumptions here? What is good here? What techniques make the message of this show so compelling?
We need to recall that our children were chosen for this time by God himself. The kids God is creating today have the stuff to cope with the challenges of this time and be the Gospel to it. Our job as the breeders of the next generation of apostles (and — somebody needs to say it — of martyrs) is to nurture that stuff, not stifie it with fear masquerading as protectiveness. The emphasis should be on preparation, not protection.
Barbara Nicolosi writes from Los Angeles, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Living Lent DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:It is during Lent that I feel most closely united with the body of Christ. I do not doubt that this perception owes, in large part, to my personal sufferings due to spastic cerebral palsy. But there's more to it than that.
My confirmation name is Paul. As a 12-year-old, I chose this name in part because I aspired to be a writer — like St. Paul. From an early age, at least intellectually, I began to understand the role of suffering in our lives as a result of St. Paul's writings.
Understanding his teachings intellectually and applying them to daily life, of course, are two different things. Still, I owe my acceptance of my disability largely to his writings. In fact, I am convinced that what he had to say about the subject of suffering is as applicable to all Christians as it is to me.
One verse that has always resonated with me comes at suffering indirectly. “When I was child, I use to talk like a child, think as a child, reason as a child,” Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:11. “When I became a man, I put aside childish things.”
As a child, I thought of Lent as a time of giving up something I liked to eat — usually a snack food such as candy, cookies or potato chips. As a man I see Lent in a different light. Yes, I still believe it's good to give up something I like. But now I want to do more. Lent for me today is an opportunity to draw closer to the Lord as he draws closer to his time of suffering.
Two years go, I challenged myself to begin writing a death-row inmate as a Lenten act of mercy. That act sparked an ongoing correspondence with a condemned man. What started as a Lenten challenge has become correspondence with a man named Mark who has become a true friend. I've gotten to know a person whose heart has changed since he has been in prison. He's also a convert who has since become a Third Order Franciscan. The contact has forced me to put legs on my opposition to the death penalty. I've grown in my appreciation for the sanctity of all human life.
During Lent 2000, I began the practice of regular, weekly Eucharistic adoration. Initially my intent was to offer my time with Jesus and my going out of my way to sit with him one-on-one as an act of reparation. But it soon became a staple of my prayer life. Now I look forward to my weekly visits before the Blessed Sacrament. I've found it amazingly healing to be able to spill every-thing in my heart and on my mind before Jesus present on the altar.
Friends, relatives and acquaintances ask me to pray for them in adoration. I always say, “I will” — but, truth be told, with so much on my mind, I often forget specific names and requests. No problem! Each time I begin my time before the Blessed Sacrament, I state simply: “Lord, you know what people have asked me this week. More impor tantly, you know what they need. Part of this time is for them. Bless it and make it holy.” I know that he hears and answers this prayer — just as he hears and answers all my prayers.
I get so much out of my “face time” with Jesus. What started as a Lenten act of reparation has become a life-changing habit. It has forced me to plan transportation days in advance, work my schedule around that appointed time and go prepared as if all depended on me.
Soon after working Eucharistic adoration into my regular weekly routine, I realized that the fruit I gain from the time I spend with the Lord depends not on me but on him.
Just as Christ led me to Mark (and him to me) through a simple Lenten act, so he has led me closer to his own Sacred Heart. He'll work similar wonders in your life if you'll let him. There's no better time than this present Lent to let him get started with something new in your life.
Bill Zalot writes from Levittown, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Cathedral of St. Patrick, Norwich, Conn. DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:What does tiny Norwich, Conn., have in common with that most super-sized of all metropolises, New York City?
A cathedral named for Ireland's most famous saint (feast: March 17).
From the moment I spotted the sparkling, white-gray exterior of the Northeast's “other” Cathedral of St. Patrick, I knew it was every bit as much of a jewel as its more-famous namesake.
This St. Patrick's Cathedral occupies a prominent but quiet place in the historic town of 36,000. It went up in 1879 as a church and only became a cathedral in 1953, when the Diocese of Norwich was formed. The Gothic lines, triple spires, 216-foot bell tower and Monson granite — 1,600 stones for the walls — tell you that, right from the cornerstone ceremony, this was to be no ordinary edifice.
Providence, R.I., architect James Murphy is credited with the design. He was clearly influenced by fabled 19th-century church architect Patrick Charles Keely. And why not? Murphy was the master-architect's brother-in-law; he worked for Keely until 1875.
Today this awe-inspiring façade, the stone and grass plaza before it and the parish's memorial park across the street make for one inspiring sight. They combine to give off a peace that seems to radiate outward like ripples on a lake.
Inside, the beauty reaches heavenly heights. Light from the rows of stained-glass windows — simple designs in pastel blues and pinks, except for the monumental transept windows — fills the interior with a soft glow. Overhead, the distinct Gothic-ribbed ceiling forms graceful archways that telescope toward the sanctuary.
“Votive candles” shaped by the ends of pews follow the archways in procession down the main aisle, toward the altar. Each carved-end piece curves gracefully to a top that looks like a wooden “flame.” I could do not other but to pause long and silent to admire this extraordinary embellishment, nor could I stop myself from drinking in the sight of intricate ribbed vaults decorated with a superabundance of rosettes.
There's ornamentation of other sorts, too, such as fluted Corinthian columns. A beautiful balance and symmetry is at work here; it succeeds in lifting your heart and mind up to the Lord. Mary helps: You can ask her intercession in the shrine altar dedicated to her.
Robes of Green
Although the sanctuary was remodeled after Vatican II, the reverent and regal environment of the original remains. A carved-wood baldacchino with gold trim is every inch a fitting canopy above the cream and verde marble main altar. The eye is drawn to the rood beam above the altar with a crucifix, the Blessed Mother and St. John. It floats midway between the altar and the top of the baldacchino.
Polychrome images on columns in the sanctuary direct the attention to some important intercessors. On one, St. Anne and her young daughter Mary appear under a carved canopy. On the opposite fluted column, St. Anthony stands under a canopy of his own. And, near the top of the baldacchino, the patrons of Ireland, Sts. Patrick and Bridget, get the all-gold treatment in place of the polychrome.
At the Blessed Mother altar, Mary is honored in a white marble statue framed by a lovely, intricately carved wood screen that's highly ornamented with gold. St. Thérèse stands in a nearby transept; she seems poised to take requests to, and intercede with, her Heavenly Mistress and Lord. In the opposite transept, St. Joseph appears similarly inclined. His image in white marble occupies an honored position to the side of the tabernacle altar. This altar is the comforting place of daily Eucharistic adoration.
The nave's stained-glass windows feature a color scheme of soothing pastels. These were installed to replace the originals, which were blown out by the devastating 1938 New England hurricane. But in the transepts are gorgeous stained-glass scenes and portraits thought to be the originals, albeit with some restoration work done after the hurricane.
One major scene in glorious colors presents the Annunciation. Mary, with her eyes cast down, wears an expression of absolute humility, providing a gentle lesson in that virtue at the same time. Gabriel projects the authority of a heavenly messenger. Slightly shorter windows flank this scene with portraits of Luke, who detailed the Annunciation in his Gospel, and John, who was entrusted with Mary's care.
The other transept window shows St. Patrick, robed in brilliant emerald green, preaching to the rulers and people at Tara. From either side window, Matthew and Mark ponder his sermon.
Marching Angels
The beauty and precision of these windows is such that they might owe their origins to one of the world-renowned German studios back then — Mayer in Munich — but it's difficult to say for sure. An expert told me that the scene with St. Patrick is just like ones in other “Mayer churches,” but someone here might have copied the stained-glass expert.
In any event, they're sumptuous. Next to both side altars, smaller windows are also attention-getters. They picture four great thinker-saints — Bonaventure, Gregory, Ambrose and Jerome.
If you're an observant visitor during a tour, you might already have the answer to a trivia question guides sometimes ask: How many angels can you count on the buttresses of the cathedral? I went back and found more than 20. (I won't say the exact number.) Whether you count or just contemplate, you'll find much to admire in these heavenly beings who stand atop the fancy Corinthian capitals, their hands folded in fervent prayer. They form a parade, supporting each buttress along the aisles. At each transept corner they become triplets holding scrolls.
The construction of this grand, holy place was a remarkable feat in the 1870s. Father Daniel Mullin, a Civil War chaplain, had a “10-cents-a-week plan” that enabled working families to raise the money. The poor immigrants came through, scraping together many tens of thousands of dimes to begin the building. Parishioners even dug out the foundation themselves using only picks and shovels.
The pastor died before the first Mass was held on St. Patrick's Day in 1879. The church was officially dedicated on Sept. 28 of that same year. In 1911 it was solemnly consecrated. Then, in 1953, this rare jewel of a church became a St. Patrick Cathedral second to none.
Thinking about the history of the church built by the hard work and sacrifice of so many poor immigrants who wanted something grand for God, I found myself wondering if, from the very start, Father Mullin didn't envision St. Patrick's as a cathedral someday. If not, the pleased patron saint must have been so happy with the results that he himself put in a special word.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:Not in Kansas Anymore
THE KANSAS CITY STAR, Feb. 18 — Archbishop James Keleher of Kansas City, Kan., has called on Catholic groups not to invite pro-abortion politicians or activists to speak at their institutions.
The archbishop issued a statement Feb. 13 in The Leaven, the archdiocesan newspaper, a day after pro-abortion Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic, spoke at the University of St. Mary in Leavenworth.
“It is imperative that our Catholic churches, schools and institutions,” Archbishop Keleher said, “make ever y effort not only to support the pro-life movement but especially to ensure that the public understand our unequivocal stand on this issue.”
‘Scandal!’
THE BALTIMORE SUN, Feb. 18 — In its ongoing effort to condemn the showing of “The Vagina Monologues” at Catholic colleges and universities, the Cardinal Newman Society ran full-page ads against the play in USA Today in mid-February.
The ads' headlines stated: “Scandal! Notre Dame, Georgetown, Boston College, Holy Cross, Loyola, DePaul and 24 more Catholic colleges to host X-rated ‘play’ that glorifies child seduction and other horrors.”
The advertisements, which ran in the Baltimore-Washington, Boston and Chicago areas, also noted by name the secular schools that planned to present the play.
Packed for Passion
THE NEWS-GAZETTE (Champaign, Ill.), Feb. 23 — Members of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Fellowship of Catholic University Students planned to pack a local theater for the opening of The Passion of the Christ, which opened Feb. 25.
Elizabeth Boever, the director of the campus' Focus chapter, saw a screening of the movie at Focus' conference in Denver in January.
“It's a very accurate description of the sacrifice that Christ made,” she told the paper. “That love is expressed on the screen.”
A benefactor had contacted the campus Newman Foundation, where Boever's office is headquartered, and sent 200 tickets to Focus ministry members.
Tough Times Ahead
THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, Feb. 20 — As the first Catholic university in the former Soviet Union, Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine, has overcome some long odds.
However, it still has a way to go, according to the higher education periodical.
For example, the country's Education Ministry still will not recognize diplomas from the school, in part because of the lack of theological-education standards in the country.
“The university is issuing diplomas that it doesn't have a right to issue,” said an Education Ministry accreditation and licensing supervisor.
And recently, a government accreditation commission refused to recognize the Harvard doctorate degree held by the university's rector, Father Borys Gudziak.
Play Protesters
WNDU (Notre Dame, Ind.), Feb. 16 — Members of the local Right to Life and campus ministries stood firmly against the presentation of “The Vagina Monologues” on Feb. 14 at the University of Notre Dame.
“This has kind of been a blight on the Catholic image of the university,” Father J. Steele said.
Although the play had been presented on campus for the past two years, the news station noted, this was the first year protesters showed up outside.
Inside, however, the show was sold out.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: EDUCATION -------- TITLE: D.C. Parents Fight Win Right to Educate as They Choose DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — When President Bush signed into law the D.C. School Choice Incentive Act of 2003 on Jan. 23, Barbara Mickens rejoiced.
Mickens' 15-year-old daughter, Ashley, attends Bishop McNamara High School and her 6-year-old son, Samuel, attends Holy Name School, both in D.C. central city. To Mickens, the law represented 10 years of dedication and hard work for the cause of school choice.
The legislation, part of H.R. 2673, the Consolidation Appropriations Act of 2004 (popularly known as the “omnibus budget”) authorizes a five-year pilot program to provide $13 million for opportunity scholarships for low-income elementary and high-school students in the District of Columbia to attend nonpublic schools in 2004. An additional $1 million was authorized to administer the new scholarship program.
As a kid, Mickens disliked public school. When she had children of her own, she vowed they would never attend a public school as long as she lived. She chose to send her children to Catholic schools because of their reputation for high standards in both academics and Christian values.
According to Mickens, 99% of Catholic high school graduates go on to college.
“When my children go to school, they're in a safe, Christian environment,” she said. “We have no metal detectors, no guns, no incidents with drugs and no security guards at our [Catholic] schools. When you walk down our halls, it's quiet and you just know that there's learning going on. That should tell you something.”
Her daughter, Ashley, maintains a high grade point average and can attest to the quality of the education she receives.
“If I weren't going to a Catholic school,” Ashley said, “I don't believe I would be doing as well as I am now.”
While stumping for school vouchers during a January address to the National Catholic Educational Association, Bush highlighted the importance of Catholic-school education.
“Catholic schools have a proven record of bringing out the best in every child, regardless of their background. And every school in America should live up to that standard,” he said. “We want our public schools to live up to the standard you have set in Catholic schools.”
Fight for Choice
To attain a Catholic education for her children, Mickens has spent the past decade searching the Internet and countless other resources — sometimes until 3 a.m. — for scholarship opportunities, filling out applications and seeking whatever other financial aid was available so she could give her children a Catholic education in spite of her low-income status.
“I'm a productive citizen,” she said. “I pay taxes. And yet I don't have a choice as to where my kids go to school? That's ridiculous.”
Mickens feels so strongly about this issue that she's taken up the cause as a mission not only for the sake of her own children but also for the sake of all children, especially those who come from low-income families.
That's why she's joined the ranks of D.C. Parents for School Choice and the Parent Council for the Washington, D.C., Scholarship Fund, an organization that raises funds to send low-income children to private and parochial schools. As part of these advocacy groups, she's lobbied, picketed, petitioned and given public speeches, including to U.S. congressmen. Mickens is proud, she said, to have been part of history in getting the bill passed.
“This bill was passed because we just kept pushing for years, knocking on the doors of senators and congressmen, walking halls holding signs and gathering signatures on petitions,” she said.
Mickens' activism has earned her the nickname “Queen of Scholarships” and has drawn the attention of public officials, including the president himself.
A few months ago, she received a call from the White House requesting her presence at a press event at Kipp D.C. Academy regarding the voucher legislation.
In a private audience with the president before the event, she told him that low income doesn't warrant low priority; parents with limited financial resources want a good education for their children as much as any other parents.
“We want the best for our children, for all children,” she said. “The children of our country should receive the education they deserve so they can be empowered to become leaders.”
For the Whole Family
Charlene Hursey is principal of Our Lady of Perpetual Help School located in Ward 8, one of the poorest sectors of the city. Exactly how the new legislation will impact her school and what its implementation will look like on a practical level is mere speculation at this point.
However, she's optimistic the results will be positive, allowing more children in the immediate area to attend the school.
“We educate wholistically,” she said. “We care for the spiritual, academic, social and mental aspects of each child, giving them what they can't get in a public facility. We teach as Christ did, and that means helping not only the child but also the whole family.”
Principal Dr. Thomas Simpson of Nativity Catholic Academy expects increased enrollments but says the real implications could go much deeper. An increase in enrollments means an increase in resources available to raise the quality of education at his school even higher.
“The process of education is never perfected,” he said. “It's always evolving, with new methods and techniques, and each year it gets even better. The voucher plan will allow us to offer parents diversity in education for their children.”
There are 1,228 seats available in the D.C. Catholic schools for the 2004-2005 school year and each student could receive up to $7,500 per year for tuition, fees and transportation expenses. The amount will be determined according to family income. It has not yet been determined who will administer the program.
“The commitment of Catholic education in Washington, D.C., is more than 100 years old,” said Patricia Weitzel-O'Neill, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Washington. “We've worked very hard to develop a program that contains academic, financial and social services that really focus on the specific needs of the children we serve, most of whom live in very poor neighborhoods.
“We've been seeing great success and the voucher legislation can only increase that success.”
Marge Fenelon writes from Cudahy, Wisconsin.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Marge Fenelon ----- KEYWORDS: EDUCATION -------- TITLE: C.S. Lewis: Mere Christian, Near Catholic DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:C.S. LEWIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH by Joseph Pearce
Ignatius, 2003 175 pages, $14.95 To order: (800) 651-1531 www.ignatius.com
Why did C.S. Lewis never become a Catholic? That is the question at hand in this new title from Joseph Pearce, writer in residence at Ave Maria University and author of biographies of J.R.R. Tolkien, Hilaire Belloc, G.K. Chesterton and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
As Pearce recounts, Lewis was raised an Ulster Protestant, but he accepted many distinctly Catholic doctrines and practices as he grew in his faith. Three examples are purgatory, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and sacramental confession. Yet Lewis consistently eluded questioners about, for example, the significance of Mary in salvation history. His position seems to have been clear: He wanted to be “a uniter, not a divider.”
As Lewis' renown has only expanded in the 40 years after his death, not a few biographers have recently attempted to find the “real” Lewis. Pearce, a prolific and talented biographer, here makes a significant contribution by detailing the Catholic influences in Lewis' life and writing.
It's apparent that Pearce is a great admirer of Lewis, a fact that adds considerable heft to his criticisms of the Oxford don. He begins his thesis — that Lewis was, whether he perceived it or not, progressing toward Catholic belief — by pointing out that Lewis' famous declaration of “mere Christianity” is, despite its attention to detail, not without gaps, loopholes and contradictions. Pearce calls Lewis' book Mere Christianity “a politician's approach to Christianity. The kissing of the Baby but the refusal to recognize his Mother!” (meaning the Church, not Mary).
Pulling no punches, Pearce also contends that Lewis did not follow the theological facts before him to their logical conclusion. “[John Henry] Newman genuflected before Authority and its Author,” he writes. “Lewis kowtowed before the traditions of his family and its prejudices, no longer believing what they believed but unwilling to make the break from them.”
But is it not entirely accurate that Lewis “no longer believed what they believed.” Although he abandoned many Protestant beliefs, he still shared one essential belief (or disbelief) — the authority of the pope. As Pearce quotes from a letter Lewis wrote to a Catholic priest, Blessed Don Calabria: “We disagree with nothing more than the authority of the Pope: On which disagreement almost all the others depend.”
I found the book fascinating, although I would have preferred a less-rhetorical approach. Pearce deflects this criticism when he writes in his preface: “[W]hen I have felt that Lewis has himself been culpable, I have highlighted his culpability in a somewhat rhetorical fashion.” Although Pearce draws a fine line between an argument and a quarrel, it will seem to some that his writing occasionally morphs from persuasive to polemical. Rather than change the tone, he apologizes in advance. To those who think he is “stooping” to “make points for the Catholic Church,” he says, “If this causes offense, I utterly regret that it has done so.”
Where C.S. Lewis and the Catholic Church succeeds most notably is in offering a cogent presentation of the reasons Lewis might have accepted the Catholic faith. The case for the eventual conversion of C.S. Lewis is, of course, speculative. Yet Pearce has succeeded in showing that it is plausible. And, even without this achievement, the biographical documentation and literary insights make this book worthwhile.
Robert Trexler writes from Cheshire, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert Trexler ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Who Needs Help? You and Me Both DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:Family Matters
Some people seem to manage multiple tasks so effortlessly and efficiently. It seems they're always getting bigger and more important projects. For my part, I am drowning in my work. What do they do that I don't?
I once had the privilege of interviewing Coach Morgan Wootten. He was a high-school basketball coach for more than 46 years at DeMatha High in Hyattesville, Md. He is a local legend whose lifetime record of 1,274 wins and only 192 losses is unparalleled in his field. He is the only coach at any level to win 1,200 games. He was elected to the National Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000.
My sons attended his basketball camp last summer. After the camp I stood in line with all the kids who were waiting for Coach's autograph. When it was my turn, I told him I didn't want his autograph but I wanted to interview him on a radio show I host called “Healthy Minds/Healthy Souls.”
On my show, I like to ask successful people what they do differently from others in their field. What separates them from less-successful people? When I pressed Coach Wootten on this, he talked about getting good kids of character and not just talent, highlighting the fundamentals and teamwork, even developing a strong spiritual life. But when I said, “Yes, but many other coaches do that — and none of them have won more than 80% of their games like you have. What else do you do to be so amazingly successful?”
He paused and said he always asks for help. He said a lot of people don't ask for help. They like to do things their way, independently. But he realized he had great dreams and great ambitions. And he could-n't achieve them without a lot of people helping him. The dreams were just too big for one man to accomplish on his own.
Many hard-driving leaders will delegate. But delegating might not be the same as asking for help. Delegating is telling people what to do or giving people something to do. You need not be humble to delegate. But asking for help and offering to help others — and helping others get into great colleges or attain their own coaching jobs — is a central part of Coach Wootten's success.
If we do not ask for help, then we can only take a project or dream as far as our own shoulders will carry it. And everyone's shoulders have their limits. So often we keep things close to the vest to retain control or to frame our work as an extension of ourselves. It could be pride on the one hand that convinces me that only I can do it well. Or maybe it's vanity that makes me ashamed to appear dependent. But how many great ideas, how many of God's projects, get buried because we suffer to keep everything to ourselves?
Coach Wootten shows that petitioning is not out of character for success. In fact, asking is a critical aspect of achieving. Needing help is fundamental to being a Christian. Admitting we need help is critical to growing in the virtue of humility.
This does not mean that we can dump on others when we are not prepared or that we should have others serve us. We cultivate a humble heart by turning over our abilities — and our desire to use them — to Christ. He'll always show us we need help to make the most of the gifts he's given us.
Art Bennett is director of Alpha Omega Clinic and Consultation Services in Vienna, Virginia, and Bethesda, Maryland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Contractor Who Said 'No.' DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:Prolife Profile
When Planned Parenthood rolled out a plan last year to build a $6.2 million abortion facility in Austin, Texas, Chris Danze rolled in a virtual roadblock.
The owner of Maldonado & Danze, a concrete-foundation contractor, and the president of Texas Contractors and Suppliers for Life, Danze organized a boycott of the construction project by building contractors. This led to the general contractor pulling out — which brought construction to a standstill for more than two months.
Danze spoke with Register staff writer Tim Drake about the events that led to, and followed, the boycott.
Did you grow up Catholic?
Yes, I was born and raised Catholic. I attended Catholic schools through the sixth grade and the Dominican nuns made an impact on me. There are two things that I took away from my time with them. First, that God loves every one of us. Second, that we need to be prepared to suffer to defend the faith and to defend our brothers and sisters. That's stuck with me through the years.
Were you involved in pro-life work prior to the Planned Parenthood boycott?
Yes, my wife and I have worked with the Gabriel Project for 10 years. It's a parish-based outreach to women in crisis-pregnancy situations. We've taken women into our home, we helped set up a crisis-pregnancy center in Temple, we've prayed the rosary outside of abortion centers on Fridays and have done counseling on Saturdays.
How did you go about organizing the Austin boycott?
Last February, two local abortionists quit. That precipitated this attempt by Planned Parenthood to build this huge, mega-plex abortion business. There are already three abortion chambers in Austin.
Prior to the groundbreaking, on Sept. 23, we contacted the general managers at 18 different concrete suppliers. We didn't ask them if they were pro-life. We simply said, “They're going to be doing abortions, and we ask you not to participate.” Eighteen out of 18 decided not to participate. Some of them might have been pro-abortion, but they didn't want to be on the record as being pro-abortion.
We also sent letters to the chief executive officers of 750 building-related companies in Austin and San Antonio. The result was that between 150 and 200 subcontractors and vendors decided not to participate in the project. They include contractors in lumber, cement supply, foundation building, plumbers, heating and air-conditioning, windows, hardwood floors, roofing, insulation, landscaping and fencing.
Why do you think so many of the subcontractors and vendors supported the boycott?
We tapped into the latent power of the church community in Austin. We used the boycott like smelling salts to wake them up, and enough of them responded: “Not in our city!”
When the churches and church-building committees became involved, they began communicating with vendors who were working on the project. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. The vendors didn't want to be tagged as pro-abortion companies. They might build an abortion business every 10 years, but churches are going up all the time. The math is easy; they figured, Why risk it? Churches all over the country could be doing the same thing.
We're opposing Planned Parenthood's aggressive attempt to do abortions in Austin for the first time. They refer 2,000 abortions a year to other businesses in the area and now they want to do them in-house.
Planned Parenthood is an organization with a health-care wrapper, but at its core it is a social movement that promotes sexual chaos, especially among our youth. Out of that comes the violence of abortion. When they go into neighborhoods, promiscuity, unwed pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and abortion all increase.
What's happened since your initial boycott?
On Nov. 5 the general contractor, Browning Construction Co., removed itself from the project, it said, “due to events beyond our control.” It was unable to find sub-contractors and suppliers to do the job. Planned Parenthood announced that it was going to be its own general contractor and that, within two weeks, it would be back to work on the project. It wasn't until late January that the Dallas-based contractor CD Henderson began construction again.
Unmarked vehicles showed up at the construction site. Rainbow Concrete was pressured to supply concrete for the foundation, pouring it at night, under the cover of darkness. As a result, the company's former vice president of sales resigned and took a job elsewhere. Texas Contractors and Suppliers for Life is now initiating a nationwide economic boycott of those companies listed as clients of CD Henderson.
I understand the boycott has enjoyed tremendous support even among non-Catholic churches.
Yes, a little Bible church west of town offered to stamp the 750 envelopes that we mailed to the chief executive officers. A group of home-school students took time out of their lunch break to stamp the envelopes. When I took them to the post office, some of the stamps were on sideways and upside down. The envelopes had peanut butter and jelly stains and crayon marks on them, but I figured if a group of home schoolers who love Jesus could take the time out of their lunch break to stamp envelopes going to the chief executive officers of billion-dollar construction conglomerates, anything can happen. This was a serious grass-roots effort.
What do you have planned next?
I intend to promote the idea of businesses and churches working together to stop and slow down the abortion industry by boycotting ongoing operations as well as new construction. People don't realize how easy it can be when you have the “900-pound gorilla” — the Catholic Church — weighing in to influence events on a practical level. Smart business people don't want to go up against the Catholic Church for purely business reasons.
I'm convinced the business community and the churches can shut down the abortion industry if they have the will. The politicians and judges have let us down for so many years; it is past time to move ahead without them and put an end to the nightmare of abortion.
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Argue Smart DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:Facts of Life
After interviewing, videotaping and collecting physiological data from more than 600 couples, they found that, if positive or affirming remarks during arguments don't outnumber negative or contradicting ones by at least 5 to 1, the marriage is headed for trouble.
Source: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Feb. 15 Register illustration by Tim Rauch
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: 'A Great Gift' DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:Black Catholics and the American Church
St. Katharine Drexel, founder of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, dedicated her life and family fortune of $20 million to educating black Americans. Her work helped these peoples take their rightful places in the Church and in society as a whole. The newly canonized saint's recent feast day (March 3) provided an opportunity to consider how today's Catholic Church is living up to her legacy.
There are 2 million black members of the Catholic Church.
According to some black leaders within the Church, thousands — if not millions — more would be inclined to join the Church if only they knew the treasures of its history and sacraments.
As Legionary Father Andrew McNair points out, black Americans are troubled by the social ills that plague many of their communities. The Register columnist says a considerable number are open to the Catholic faith as a way to respond to the high rates of abortion, unwed motherhood, drug use and crime they see around them.
“The black community is currently facing a serious social, cultural and moral crisis,” Father McNair says. “The traditional black-American value system based on the family, religious faith and self-reliance has been compromised by the liberal black-leadership establishment, with its emphasis on moral relativism and cultural secularism. The result is tragic: primarily the decline of marriage and the dissolution of the black family.”
Former presidential candidate and U.N. Ambassador Alan Keyes, another well-known and outspoken black-American Catholic, shares Father McNair's concerns.
“Black Americans make up 10% or 11% of the population, but they account now for [approximately] 40% to 45% of all the abortions,” he has said. “This is a privileged position that I'm not sure anyone in their right mind would aspire to, since it means folks are being killed off now at a faster rate, that people are voluntarily reaching into the womb and cutting off the life of the future. … I consider the people who champion it people who have declared war against the future of black America. It is an ugly and insidious war, but it has the same effect as if you mowed down literally millions of people on the battlefield.”
Universal Church
Alex Jones is a black former Pentecostal pastor who converted to the Catholic faith in 2000, leading his wife and 62 members of his former congregation into the Church with him. He believes the Church's positive message of hope and life is vital to winning the social war against the future of black America.
“Many blacks would be eager to embrace the treasures of the Catholic Church if only they knew about them,” he explains.
Jones currently works for Sign Me Up, a Catholic evangelical ministry that goes door to door in the neighborhoods of Detroit inviting people to explore the Catholic faith.
“Most people are surprised,” he says. “They say things like, ‘We didn't know Catholics did this!’ The perception is that the Catholic Church is a white man's church, but we let them know that they are welcomed. More Catholics need to share their faith [with blacks] — not just their food and money.”
Jones directly witnessed black people's participation in the universal Church during a recent trip to Uganda. He believes the Church's long and rich history of embracing people of every color and nationality can be especially appealing to black Americans.
“Around the world, people of color make up a large part of the Catholic Church,” he says. “When I was in Uganda, I was humbled by the simplicity and sincerity of the people's faith. The Eucharist is regarded with tremendous sacredness and solemnity and the people have such a great love for the Church, for the Holy Father, for the Blessed Mother and for the priesthood.”
Jones adds that many aspects of African-American spirituality are conducive to participation in the sacraments.
“I can't speak for all blacks,” he says, “but many of us are joyful, community-oriented, forgiving people. We can especially appreciate the immediacy of God's presence in the sacraments.”
“Black Americans are, in my judgment, very spiritual people,” he says. “They value deep spirituality.”
In particular, he believes “the key to evangelization among black Americans is to make known to them the treasure of the Eucharist. If taught well, the doctrine of the Real Presence would be very appealing to many black Americans. It was to me. Nothing is more beautiful and comforting than Christ's real presence in the Eucharist.”
Vocational Vault
Dominican Father Jesse Cox is founding director of the Sign Me Up program in the Archdiocese of Detroit. He contends that a predominantly white clergy can send the subtle message that blacks are not fully welcome in the Church and believes the promotion of vocations among blacks is a necessary part of encouraging black American participation in the Catholic Church.
“We try to educate people about black saints and black characters in the Bible,” he says of the Sign Me Up program. “We show them the Church's history of being open to all people, which is very appealing to people with a history of being excluded. But we could do more in terms of promoting vocations. If blacks could see themselves more in the liturgy and leadership of the Church, that would be a draw.”
Father Cox adds that, in his evangelization and ministry, he likes to emphasize the universality of the Church.
“Our liturgy is open to people of all different cultures,” he says. “It has been for 2,000 years. That's part of the genius of the Church.”
Like Jones and Father McNair, Father Cox also sees the sacraments as particularly attractive to blacks and compatible with African-American spirituality.
“We are a symbolic people and the sacraments are powerfully symbolic,” he says. “They are hands-on. They touch our lives, they take away sin and call us to holiness.”
Finally, Father Cox sees the potential relationship between black Americans and the Catholic Church as a mutually beneficial one.
“I believe the Church has a great gift to give the African-American community,” he says, “and the African-American community has a great gift to give the Church.”
Danielle Bean writes from Center Harbor, New Hampshire.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Danielle Bean ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Profile Victories DATE: 03/07/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 7-13, 2004 ----- BODY:Awake Again, Naturally
Kelly Barker, 35, was hit by a pickup truck Sept. 1. Doctors told her family she had little hope of regaining consciousness. Her parents agonized over whether to remove her from life support, the newspaper reported.
Then, last November, she spontaneously sat up and started to get out of bed. Now she is joking, hugging and learning to walk again.
Doctors say they have no scientific explanation for Barker's recovery. Her mother, however, said she knows exactly what happened. “I want everyone to know that prayers are answered and miracles do happen,” she said. “Kelly is living proof.”
Billboard Battle
Harvey and Karen Buhl asked the local board of adjustment for a variance to allow for placement of the sign, but it was denied last April. The board said the sign was off-site advertising, which is not allowed where the Buhls' property is located. A circuit court judge in October said the board's denial was constitutional.
Joan Boos Schueller, the couple's attorney, contended the billboard was denied because of its pro-life message. By not allowing the sign, she said, the courts are violating the Buhls' First Amendment free-speech rights.
Blessed Gianna Ascends
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Feb. 20 — Pope John Paul II gave his approval Feb. 19 for the canonization of Blessed Gianna Beretta Molla, an Italian woman who decided to forgo treatment for cancer in order to save her unborn baby. The canonization ceremony is set for May 16.
Blessed Gianna was pregnant with her fourth child when doctors discovered a tumor in her uterus and told her it would be dangerous to continue with the pregnancy. A pediatrician herself, she fully understood the risk — and ignored her physicians' advice anyway.
A few days after giving birth to a healthy daughter, Blessed Gianna died on April 28, 1962, at age 39.
‘Morning-After’ Delayed
After interviewing, videotaping and collecting physiological data from more than 600 couples, they found that, if positive or affirming remarks during arguments don't outnumber negative or contradicting ones by at least 5 to 1, the marriage is headed for trouble.
CYBERCAST NEWS SERVICE, Feb. 16 — The FDA's announcement Feb. 13 that it would delay until May 1 its decision to allow over-the-counter sale of the “morning-after” pill Plan B has met with cautious optimism from pro-life groups.
Pro-lifers have pointed out the drug's adverse health effects — including ectopic pregnancies, blood clotting and loss of fertility — since an FDA committee recommended in December the drug be made available over the counter.
The drug has also been shown to be an abortifacient, preventing a fertilized embryo from implanting in its mother's womb.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Teaching With The Church? Gonzaga Won't Say DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:MANDATUM SERIES
SPOKANE, Wash. — When Gonzaga University alumna Cathy Rhodes of Portland, Ore., received an appeal for the school's annual fund in the mail, she thought it was within her rights to inquire whether all religion and theology professors at the school had received the mandatum from Bishop William Skylstad, who also serves as the vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholics Bishops.
She wasn't satisfied with the response.
First, Rhodes received a letter from Dori Sonntag, assistant director for annual giving, stating that “the granting of the mandatum is a private granting and approval between the local bishop and the individual Roman Catholic theologian. This information is not intended or required for the public forum in any way, or to be published by the local diocese or to be communicated to the president of the Catholic university.”
“There is no required statement by the local bishop or the Catholic university to indicate that the faculty of the theology department has or does not have the mandatum,” the letter went on to say.
Nearly a year later, Rhodes received a separate letter from the university's president, Father Robert Spitzer.
“The mandatum requirements have generated a great deal of uncertainty and confusion throughout the nation,” Father Spitzer wrote. “Please be advised that the mandatum is a personal and confidential matter between Bishop William Skylstad and Gonzaga faculty members who teach Catholic theology. However, I can assure you that there is definitely no problem concerning the mandatum here at the university.”
Rhodes didn't think either letter was very forthcoming. As a result, she and her husband, Rich Wallace, withheld their financial donation to the university this year. Rhodes said she also doubts she wants to send her children to her alma mater.
“My son is interested in looking at the school,” Rhodes said, “but for us to make such a commitment we would have to know the religious studies faculty have received their mandatums.”
A Jesuit institution, Gonzaga University is ranked fourth among master's universities in the West by U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Colleges 2004.
The Register is investigating Catholic colleges and universities featured in U.S. News & World Report's college guide, asking: Are parents and students allowed to know whether those who teach theology intend to teach in communion with the Church? Or is secrecy about the canon-law mandatum being used to protect dissenters?
Parents' Rights
During his meeting with U.S. cardinals in 2002, Pope John Paul II said parents “must know that bishops and priests are totally committed to the fullness of Catholic truth on matters of sexual morality, a truth as essential to the renewal of the priesthood and the episcopate as it is to the renewal of marriage and family life.”
Since 1983, canon law has required that a theologian teaching in a Catholic university receive a mandatum from the local bishop. The mandatum is the bishop's recognition of the theologian's intention to teach in full communion with the magisterium of the Church. The requirement was highlighted in a footnote in Pope John Paul II's 1990 apostolic constitution on higher education, Ex Corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church).
“According to Canon 212, all of the faithful have a right to have the truth taught to them,” said Philip Gray, a canon law consulter from Hopedale, Ohio. “Because there is an obligation for us to be obedient to the truth, there is a corresponding right that the truth will be taught to us or we're not free to make that decision to follow the truth.” Gray added that Canon 217 is even more explicit regarding that right.
Gray opined that keeping the mandatum secret is not only against the rights of parents and students but also is against the thrust of Ex Corde Ecclesiae.
“Keeping the mandatum secret does derogate from the purpose of Ex Corde Ecclesiae,“ he said. ”How are the faithful going to be aware that someone who is teaching the sacred sciences is going to be faithful to the teachings of the Church if they aren't going to publish who has the mandatum?”
“Furthermore, what is the use of the mandatum if people aren't going to be aware who has received one?” asked Gray, who holds a mandatum from Steubenville, Ohio, Bishop Daniel Conlon. “I am very proud of mine.”
Not all bishops, however, are keeping the mandatum secret.
Chicago Cardinal Francis George; Omaha, Neb., Archbishop Elden Curtiss; Steubenville Bishop Conlon; Kansas City, Kan., Archbishop James Patrick Keleher; and Allentown, Pa., Bishop Edward Cullen have publicly stated that the mandatum is not a private matter.
“The mandatum is a public reality,” Cardinal George told the Register last year. “It's a personal act, but personal acts are sometimes public — like receiving the sacraments.”
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, stated in his 1990 instruction on the ecclesial vocation of the theologian that “the theologian who is not disposed to think with the Church (sentire cum Ecclesia) contradicts the commitment he freely and knowingly accepted to teach in the name of the Church.”
Nor did Father Michael Miller, while president of the University of St. Thomas in Houston, keep the mandatum secret. Instead, the school publicized it and made it a requirement for hiring new theology faculty. Father Miller, now an archbishop, serves as secretary for the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education.
Past Deadline
The Vatican-approved application of Ex Corde Ecclesiae in the United States set the deadline for bishops to require the mandatum by June 1, 2002. At this stage, one year and nine months later, some bishops have yet to require the mandatum or even to grant it where theology professors have voluntarily requested it.
The application of Ex Corde Ecclesiae to the United States won't come up for review by the conference until May 2006, five years after the norms implementing Ex Corde Ecclesiae went into effect. In the meantime, there has been no mechanism for accountability, nor is there a review board to monitor bishops' compliance.
At Gonzaga, few seem willing to say who has the mandatum.
“The implementation has come from the bishop to the individual faculty member,” said Dr. Ron Large, chair of the religious studies department.
Asked how students or parents could determine who has the man-datum, Large said, “They could ask individual faculty. Whether they would tell them, I don't know.”
Bishop Skylstad did not return repeated calls inquiring about the mandatum. Deacon Eric Meisfjord, who serves as the diocesan director of communications, forwarded an e-mail inquiry to the bishop that also went unanswered.
According to Gonzaga University director of public relations Dale Goodwin, university president Father Spitzer has not issued any public comments regarding the mandatum.
The mandatum takes on special significance at Gonzaga since the school also trains deacons for the dioceses of Spokane; Boise, Idaho; and Portland, Ore., and seminarians from Spokane; Yakima, Wash.; and San Francisco.
“I like the concept of the mandatum,” said Father Darrin Connall, rector of Bishop White Seminary at Gonzaga, “but I don't see how it has any teeth to it. It seems a whole lot of energy is being put into a process that I'm not sure what the fruit of it is.”
“My sense is that professors, because this has been so politicized and so much animosity has been raised about it — whether they have it or not, they're going to keep quiet about it,” he said.
Father Connall's approach has been to build relationships with individual professors.
“I have found professors in philosophy and theology who have been sensitive to the needs of the seminary,” Father Connall said.
Whereas Father Connall has the ability, because of seminarian feedback, to identify such professors and orient future students, the ordinary student is unable to find such information out until it's too late.
Campus Debate
That lack of clarity regarding the mandatum led to a heated debate between university students and religious studies faculty on campus last fall that played itself out in the university's newspaper, The Gonzaga Bulletin.
One of the students, junior religious studies major Mike Liliedahl of Juneau, Alaska, wrote in the Bulletin that he had been sadly disappointed in his studies at Gonzaga.
“I was frustrated with professors not teaching authentic magisterial teachings in class,” Liliedahl told the Register.
Citing one example, Liliedahl explained how a religious studies professor taught that “the Church's view on homosexuality and reserving marriage for a man and a woman was outdated, needed to be changed and was a product of fourth-century Augustinian thought that has been disproved.”
Liliedahl said it's been impossible to know which professors have received the mandatum.
“None have let us know,” he said, “and those whom we have asked have said they don't have to disclose that to students.”
Liliedahl isn't alone in his concerns. Fellow junior J. Kevin Cary also wrote in the Bulletin of a required text in his New Testament course — a book titled Reading the Bible Again for the First Time by Marcus Borg.
“Borg denies the possibility of the miracles Jesus performed on the basis that none of them has yet to be reproduced by someone else in the course of human history,” Cary wrote. “The Resurrection was even denied as being true. I was appalled that the miracles, especially the greatest miracle of all, the Resurrection, would be degraded, mocked and disregarded as impossible at a Christian, let alone a Catholic, university.”
Religious studies 2003 graduate Nathan Macklin said he graduated without a solid core of Catholic theology.
“I felt I wasn't guaranteed walking away with a certain level of knowledge of Catholic doctrine and history of that doctrine,” said Macklin, who is now pursuing a master's degree in public policy at the University of Chicago. “That seems like common sense to me.”
Too Late?
Jesuit superior general Father Peter Hans Kolvenbach was once quoted by Father Richard John Neuhaus as saying, “For some [Jesuit] universities, it is probably too late to restore their Catholic character.”
Some students and graduates hope it's not too late for Gonzaga.
“Teaching theology is a public matter that is vitally important to the Church and to students,” said 2003 philosophy graduate Tom Harmon. “Several of my friends were told the mandatum wasn't their business.”
In response, Harmon said students who wanted faithful teaching chose their professors very carefully.
“We took our religious studies classes from Protestants,” Harmon said, “who hold a view of Scripture as divinely inspired and alive, rather than from Catholics.”
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'Interference' By Court Could Apply Churchwide DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California's highest court has ruled that a Catholic charitable group must provide contraceptive coverage.
Catholic Charities has been told to include contraceptive coverage in its employee health care plans. But the Church teaches that contraception violates the unitive and procreative nature of the sexual act and is ilicit.
The decision could affect Catholic and religious charities, hospitals, schools and other institutions throughout the state.
In a 6-1 ruling in Catholic Charities of Sacramento Inc. v. Superior Court of Sacramento County, the California Supreme Court ruled that Catholic Charities is not a “religious employer” under California law because it offers services such as counseling and “serves peoples of all faith backgrounds, a significant majority of whom do not share the Roman Catholic faith.”
Justice Janice Rogers Brown, the court's lone dissenting vote on the case, called the ruling “an intentional, purposeful intrusion into a religious organization's expression of its religious tenets and sense of mission.”
“The government is not accidentally or incidentally interfering with religious practice; it is doing so willfully by making a judgment about what is or is not a religion,” she said.
Brown was nominated by President Bush to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C., but Senate Democrats have blocked her nomination.
The court's decision was based on its reading of California's Women's Contraception Equity Act. Twenty states currently have similar laws, which mandate religious organizations to provide birth-control coverage despite religious objections.
The other states are Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont and Washington.
Catholic Charities is in a difficult position, according to Richard Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame.
It can avoid cooperating with what the Church teaches is illicit by stopping its practice of providing its employees with prescription-drug coverage, he said. However, the organization contends it is morally bound to provide such coverage.
Another option for Catholic Charities, Garnett said, is to “secularize” and decide to include contraception in its health plans regardless of Church teachings.
“Or, it can continue the struggle for religious freedom in the federal courts,” he said. “I suspect, though, that the act and the exemption criteria would withstand constitutional challenges, at least under current doctrine.”
In the end, he said, what is most necessary is an effort by the Church “and by all those who cherish authentic religious freedom to take the matter to the court of public opinion and convince fellow citizens and legislators that a broader exemption is appropriate.”
Nearby Nevada might be next to fight this issue: the American Civil Liberties Union, a civil-liberties group that has taken a staunch pro-abortion position — at times trumping its concerns for the freedom of religious Americans, some critics say — has voiced an intention to fight a state law that exempts religious groups from providing birth-control coverage in employee insurance places.
Richard Siegel, president of the Nevada chapter of the ACLU, told the Associated Press, “We're very interested in expanding employee rights. It's an extremely important area.”
Secularist groups applauded teh court's decision.
“I think there is a large lesson in this for religious leaders,” said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case urging that Catholic Charities be required to provide contraceptive coverage. “When churches set up a ‘faith-based’ affiliate to provide secular services — and take in public funds — government rules and regulations have to be followed.”
“We hope the sound decision made today will be reflected throughout the country as other state courts are faced with similar erroneous claims,” said a spokesman for the pro-abortion group Catholics for a Free Choice in a statement.
Others, however, see the case as an opportunity for the Church to clarify its teachings.
“If this case proves anything, it proves that there are many clever ways to discriminate against religious belief, including by ostensibly granting a religious exemption from a generally worded law that is in fact little more than a subtle and mean-spirited effort to force the Church to abandon its longstanding teaching on contraception,” said Douglas Kmiec, a law professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. “The case should be appealed. I am not sanguine that the Supreme Court would hear it, or if they did, get it right. I do think this is a teaching moment and the Church must not let it pass.”
Terry Pell, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Individual Rights, is not surprised by the court's decision and warns that Catholics are not the only ones who should be worried.
“The California law is not secular in purpose or effect,” he said. “It was passed by activists whose sole interest was to embarrass the Catholic Church for its teachings on contraception. … The ease with which activists routinely use the state's regulation of private individuals and employers to further overtly political agendas threatens everyone.”
‘Not About Contraception’
Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference, said in a statement: “This case was never about contraceptives. It was never about insurance. It was about our ability to practice our religion — providing food, clothing and shelter to the neediest among us — as a religious organization that is part of the Catholic Church.”
As pro-abortion and other liberal interest groups continue to press for laws similar to the one in California, Pia de Solenni, director of life and women's issues at the Family Research Council, recommends a public, proactive recourse.
“Catholics need to be brave enough to stand up for their convictions,” she said. “Catholic Charities could threaten to shut down and pull out because its Catholic identity is being needlessly compromised.”
“Face it,” Solenni said, “the Catholic Church provides a significant portion of these services. Without it, every state would be in crisis. It's time to start using that leverage.”
Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor of National Review Online.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Secret Epidemic DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:MAPLE FALLS, Wash. — Paul Rasavage is one of those professional, suit-and-tie-wearing family men who never misses Mass.
He raised his children Catholic and his oldest daughter is a Carmelite. As a successful oil refinery engineer, he's long been a pillar of his small community and the San Joachim and Ann Catholic Church in nearby Alder Grove, British Columbia.
But Rasavage, 49, has lived with a secret few in his parish know about to this day. In his mid-40s, this seemingly perfect Catholic family man was helplessly addicted to pornography, an addiction, he said, that began in early adolescence.
“I remain an addict, but I'm no longer indulging my addiction,” Rasavage said. “Anyone who is addicted to pornography will remain addicted for life. It's an addiction just like drug or alcohol abuse, and it never goes away.”
Rasavage said he's far from alone among Catholic men. He said an alarming number of those upstanding pillars of the parish secretly view Internet pornography on a regular basis, which he fears will harm most of their marriages and possibly land them in hell.
Father Mark Bautista agrees. As pastor of several major parishes during his 11 years as a priest, Father Bautista said he has noticed a staggering increase in porn addiction among Catholic men, women and children.
Based on confessions he's heard throughout North America, Father Bautista said it's safe to assume that up to 30% of men in any given parish are regular viewers of pornography, mostly via the Internet.
Furthermore, Father Bautista said it appears that up to 3% of Catholic women are regular consumers of porn, and he routinely hears porn confessions of girls and boys as young as 13.
“I began seeing a dramatic increase that seemed to correlate with the growth of the Internet,” said Father Bautista, who recently took over as pastor of San Joachim and Ann Parish and volunteers as spiritual adviser to a porn-addict support group launched recently by Rasavage. “Porn — which used to be the forbidden fruit of men who were willing to risk being seen walking into an adult bookstore — is now open to all, and people get caught up in it by accident while they're surfing the Web.”
Chemical Reaction
Though Father Bautista's estimate of the scope of Catholic porn addiction might be alarming, it's an underestimate by other accounts.
Christopher West, a Catholic scholar and apologist of Pope John Paul II's teachings on sex and marriage, said at least 80% of Catholic adults “have indulged” in pornography. He believes up to 40% of Catholic adults engage in compulsive or addictive viewing of porn.
Jeff Cavins, a Catholic radio talk show host on Relevant Radio, said at least 40% of Catholic men and teen-age boys are regular porn consumers.
“Adult men are becoming more savvy at deleting the evidence from their computers, and they get into a cycle of purging their computer-history files, then going to confession and purging their souls,” Cavins told the Register. “The problem is, they're getting caught up in a cycle of binging and purging both their computers and their souls.”
Cavins, who has studied porn addiction and held conferences on the topic, said the brain reacts chemically to pornographic stimulation. Doctors explain that the brain of a person stimulated by porn releases “endogenous” chemicals — substances produced within the human body.
“Doctors have compared this to the narcotic effect of cocaine,” Cavins said. “If you view pornography, you may go through a physiological change and it won't be a matter of ‘I'm sick of this and I'm going to stop now.’ Most people who use porn are sick of it and want to quit but they're caught up in an addiction cycle that's causing them to commit mortal sin.”
Cavins and West both argue that porn users suffer from a yearning of the heart that can only be satisfied by the love of God. Pornography tricks the user into thinking the void has been filled, but the trick leads the user down a path that's destructive to himself and others.
Laurie Branch, a licensed addictions counselor and psychotherapist who counsels Catholics in Denver, also said Catholics appear to be struggling with porn addiction just as much as non-Catholics. Addictions, she explained, do not respect religious boundaries.
Pornography Facts
Sex is the No. 1 searched for topic on the Internet.
60% of all Web-site visits are sexual in nature.
There are 1.3 million pornographic Web sites — 20 times more than there were 5 years ago.
More than 32 million unique individuals visited a porn site in Sept. of 2003.
The total porn industry generates approximately $4 billion to $10 billion every year.
Only 3% of pornographic Web sites require adult verification.
The Kaiser Family Foundation found that among teens online, 70% have accidentally come across pornography on the Web.
Pornographers disguise their sites (i.e. “stealth” sites) with common brand names, including Disney, Barbie, ESPN, etc., to entrap children.
The majority of teenagers' online use occurs at home, right after school, when working parents are not at home.
- www.EnoughIsEnough.com
“Like any addiction, however, it's a spiritual issue,” said Branch, a Catholic. “We all have a wanting of God, and addictions come in when we try to fill that need for God with anything other than God.”
Internet Helps
Branch said the Internet has resulted in millions of new porn addicts in the United States. She frequently hears from women seeking counseling after discovering their husbands are viewing Internet porn.
“Porn prevents healthy intimacy between a husband and wife,” Branch explained. “It does that for a number of reasons, and one of the reasons is that someone is keeping a secret because porn is almost always viewed in secret. Secrets are not okay in marriage.”
Although Father Bautista said porn addiction is relatively new to hordes of Catholics who use the Internet at home or at work, Rasavage began his addiction after finding issues of Playboy and Penthouse that belonged to an uncle. The magazines, he said, were hidden away at his grandmother's house and nobody knew he was looking at them.
“I've fought with this, secretly, most of my life,” Rasavage said. “But when the Internet came along it just became too much. I got sick of it to the point I had to do something. One day I just said ‘enough,’ and I decided to come clean with my family.”
Rasavage got up from the computer and called a family meeting. He stood before three children and a wife he loved, ready to bare his soul with a story that would certainly shock and hurt them all. He told them he'd been secretly viewing porn on the Internet and that he'd been hiding magazines most of his life. He expressed his love for them all and explained a desperate desire to quit viewing porn.
“I'm a fortunate man, because they were very understanding and forgiving,” Rasavage said. “My wife has been very supportive and nurturing. She happens to be a trained psychologist, so she knows about addictions.”
Support Group
Rasavage vowed to stop looking at porn, and he took his confession to a priest. Then he began taking practical steps to keep himself away from porn.
He put filtering software on his computer so his browser would forbid the viewing of anything that might be sexually explicit. He began avoiding grocery and convenience stores and gas stations that sell adult publications. He joined Sexaholics Anonymous, an organization Branch said can help some porn addicts, as can Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous.
“A big part of my recovery involves staying busy,” Rasavage said. “The most dangerous time for any addict is when you're alone and bored.”
As part of his sustained recovery and his concern about other Catholic porn addicts, Rasavage started a support group known as The Serenellians — named after Alessandro Serenelli, a former Catholic porn addict and alcoholic.
As a young man, Serenelli attempted to rape 11-year-old Maria Goretti, and stabbed her to death when she fought him. On her deathbed, Goretti told a priest she forgave Serenelli and planned to see him in paradise one day. Eight years into Serenelli's sentence, Serenelli saw St. Maria Goretti in a dream, and she helped lead him to a conversion of heart.
“If someone as corrupt and degenerate as Alessandro Serenelli can be converted and saved,” Rasavage said, “so can any of us.”
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Catholics Keep Flocking to The Passion DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:LOS ANGELES — Surpassing even the third installment of The Lord of the Rings for the biggest debut ever for a movie opening on a Wednesday, The Passion of the Christ has demonstrated who the real “king” of the box office is.
After its second weekend, the film had grossed more than $200 million in 12 days, making it the largest opening ever for a February release.
Ash Wednesday showings across the country sold out. Weekend showings from Scranton to Kansas City to El Paso continued to sell out. Usually, a film will make half as much in its second weekend as its first. The Passion dropped a little more than a third. As Lent continues and Easter approaches, the film's producers expect interest in the film will grow.
Even more intriguing than the film's financial success, however, is the spiritual effect it is having on audiences nationwide. To date, the film has left an estimated audience of 22 million responding in either silence or tears.
Villanova University student Jen Mazzuca understands that response. She attended a screening of the film with fellow Catholic students of the college-evangelization organization Compass.
“It was difficult for me to talk to my friends after the movie ended because I could not get it out of my head,” Mazzuca said. “I did cry during the film; however, I was smiling at the same time.”
“I've never seen so many tears, so many people affected by a movie,” said Glen Hamilton, theater manager of the Carmike Theater in Greeley, Colo. “For the first time in my five years here, nobody has complained.”
Television stations have reported theatergoers gathering for prayer after the film and increased attendance at church the weekend after the film's opening.
Of course, the film is not without its detractors. Some warned that the film could lead to antiSemitic acts — it hasn't yet. Others criticize the level of violence in teh film.
Catholic writer Peter Nixon said he had a difficult time seeing Christ's love under all the blood.
“I didn't see a man undergoing torture because he loved me,” Nixon wrote on his Web log, Sursum Corda. “It was a man who had a supernatural ability to absorb physical punishment. I never really understood why he was doing it or why others wanted to inflict such punishment upon him.”
But it's having a positive effect. Colleen Lundin of Lakeville, Mass., brought her 15-year-old daughter to see the movie on the first Friday of Lent. Lundin explained that throughout the weekend her daughter not only asked deep questions but also gave an excellent explanation of Lent to her younger brother.
“Her explanation reflected a deeper understanding than she had prior to the film,” Lundin said.
In addition, Lundin said her daughter turned down a meatball calzone while at a friend's home that Friday evening, earning some taunting from her friends for being “too Catholic.”
“She told me that prior to the film she would have caved in and eaten the calzone due to the fear of being taunted,” Lundin said.
Based on the response to the film, a Los Angeles team has begun collecting people's stories online. Its Web site, “My Life After The Passion of the Christ” (www.mylifeafter.com), is linked directly from the film's official Web site and offers viewers an opportunity to share how the film has impacted their lives.
“Over the past couple of months I would hear stories from people who had screened the film,” said freelance publicist Lori Wahlers. “Many of these accounts were so inspiring that we wanted to try to collect them in one place.”
Wahlers collaborated with Denny Dansereau, president of the Fuzebox Media Group, to handle some of the grass-roots marketing efforts for the film.
On the site, individuals tell of the film's power. Many describe it as “life-changing.”
“I cannot see how my life will ever be the same as it was before I walked into that theater,” wrote Monica Montilla of Edinburg, Texas. “The most touching line was when Mary goes to [Jesus'] side and he tells her, ‘Mother, I make all things new.’ Those words have forever changed me.”
Wahlers said one response that stood out was from someone who worked in a hospital who had no desire to see the film and was annoyed by all the attention it was receiving.
After attending the film with a friend, she said it helped her to “think beyond our borders” and ask herself what she was giving back to her community. The film, she said, led to a number of medical professionals where she works talking about the possibility of doing probono work abroad.
The site has had nearly 2,000 responses from people ranging from age 12 to 88.
Seizing upon the questions raised by the film, Ascension Publishing has created Catholic Passion Outreach, an apostolate offering evangelization materials including the book A Guide to the Passion: 100 Questions About The Passion of the Christ.
Demand for the book has been phenomenal. The first 160,000 copies of the book sold out before it was printed. To date the book has sold more than 300,000 copies. The publisher has hired 12 temporary workers just to help fulfill demand.
“Our goal was to use this unique cultural moment to really do something big and bold for Christ and the Church,” said Matt Pinto, president of Ascension Publishing. “This apostolate is our gift to Catholics.”
Pinto explained that the book has been helpful in explaining some of the images found in the film.
In fact, Ascension updated its second printing to include theater-goers' most commonly asked question: What's up with the ugly baby?
Gibson told Christianity Today that it represents evil distorting what is good.
“What is more tender and beautiful than a mother and a child?” Gibson asked. “So the devil takes that and distorts it just a little bit. Instead of a normal mother and child you have an androgynous figure holding a 40-year-old ‘baby’ with hair on his back.”
More than 8,000 people have downloaded the free study materials. Pinto added that they have provided materials for the archdioceses and dioceses of Atlanta; Chicago; Camden, N.J.; La Crosse, Wis.; Kalamazoo, Mich.; and Sacramento, Calif., among others.
They are also working with ministries in 10 foreign countries for distribution of the outreach materials.
“We underestimated the pent-up desire on the part of Catholics who were yearning for a movie like this,” Pinto said, “and an opportunity for a vehicle through which they can share their faith with others.”
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
New Release: ‘The Day God Died’
Billed as “the perfect companion DVD” to the movie The Passion of the Christ, When God Died is the fruit of years of research by Dr. Thomas McGovern, a dermatologist of national renown educated at the Mayo Clinic and Yale University.
The project uses McGovern's medical expertise along with biblical and historical insights to help audiences understand and appreciate the magnitude of Christ's salvific work.
The work addresses such questions as:
- how it was possible for Jesus to sweat blood,
- what scourging really entailed,
- what the crown of thorns was really like,
- what crucifixion did to Christ's body,
- the impact of the sequence of tortures and
- how powerful it really was for Christ to say, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they are doing.”
Proceeds from sales benefit seminarians of the Legionaries of Christ and ConQuest Clubs for Boys.
DVD, 45 minutes. Available from www.circlepressusa.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pope's Comments Raise Annulment Questions DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:DETROIT — More than 52,000 Americans ask the Church to nullify their marriages every year. That means that the United States accounts for nearly half of annulments worldwide.
With Catholic divorce rates not far behind those for the rest of society, many Catholics wonder whether marriage is still permanent or not.
Pope John Paul II addressed those concerns when he told the Roman Rota, the highest appeals court in the Catholic Church, that Catholics need to “rediscover the truth, the goodness and beauty of the institution of marriage.”
Just because a marriage fails, marriage-tribunal officials should not presume the marriage is invalid, he said in his Jan. 29 address to rota officials at the beginning of their judicial year. Tribunal officials should presume a marriage is valid “until the contrary is proven.”
Although the Pope was speaking directly to the rota, he had a broader audience in mind, according to Ed Peters, professor of canon law at the Institute for Pastoral Theology in Ypsilanti, Mich. The Pope was also addressing tribunal officials around the world and the general public.
“He is telling all three of those groups that the annulment process is one of law, not personal opinion,” Peters said. “There are thousands of judicial personnel all over the world who deal with marriage cases day in and day out. They see the tremendous suffering that failed marriages result in. They also see the tremendous opportunity to have individuals' marital situations regularized in the Church.”
In his address to the rota, John Paul also cautioned against “the tendency to increase the number of annulments through manipulation, forgetting the perspective of objective truth.”
Peters, who served as a tribunal official for eight years, said the Holy Father makes a valid point.
“There's always the temptation to have one's heart run away with one's mind on these things,” he said. “This is a gentle reminder for tribunal personnel all over the world, not just the United States. The Pope is also assuring the general Catholic population and world observers that our system is based on law and not just the personal opinions of the judges on individual cases.”
The Entire Picture
However, Father George Miller, judicial vicar for the Metropolitan Tribunal of Detroit, said the Holy Father is also calling upon canon-ists and other officials to look at the entire picture — both objective criteria necessary to a valid marriage and psychological factors at the time of the marriage.
“Since the mid-1960s, there's been a greater awareness on the part of canonists in the advances made in the human sciences,” he explained. “We want to put to use that kind of knowledge in being able to evaluate what it takes to give consent to marriage.”
“An annulment is not based only upon subjective matters. A marriage is not null just because two imperfect human beings enter into it. Every marriage is made up of two imperfect human beings,” he said.
“At the same time, we can't just look at the objective criteria, but we ask if there are significant pressures on either party to enter this marriage that eliminated or seriously impinged upon their freedom of choice,” Father Miller said.
With a new focus on the psychological disposition of those seeking annulments, there has been a drastic increase in the number of annulments worldwide. In the late '60s, there were about 400 cases in the United States as a whole. Today, most diocesan tribunals deal with at least that many.
The dramatic increase is based mainly on two factors, Peters said.
Procedural changes in canon law — including a new emphasis on psychological factors — make it easier to prove a marriage is null. Second, he said, those applying for annulments now were not often well prepared for marriage.
“We've had 30 years of abysmal catechesis, of contraception, of legalized abortion, premarital sex, and all of these things have a big impact on real live people,” he said.
Peter Donohue said this was certainly the case when he was first married as a 21-year-old Protestant in 1962. The Episcopal minister who performed the marriage ceremony had doubts about whether the marriage would last.
“The real solution is to do what the Church is clearly doing, which is forcing people to think more carefully before jumping into marriage,” he said.
When Donohue completed an RCIA program at his southeast Michigan parish 10 years ago, he knew he had one big hurdle to overcome before becoming a fully communing Catholic: He would have to have to leave his wife or have his first marriage declared invalid.
A former Episcopalian minister, Donohue (not his real name) was married in 1962 and divorced 10 years later. He then married a Catholic and, in the early 1990s, decided to convert. His son from his first marriage had become Catholic in college and then went on to become a priest, which led to Donohue's conversion.
It will take time to know whether marriage preparation at the diocesan and parish level is working, Peters said.
“It takes a long time for that to have any effect,” he explained. “But we know that it's right to strengthen marriage prep and to stress the need for personal readiness before marriage. We're just not going to have the statistical evidence to show that it's working for a decade or two.”
Patrick Novecosky writes from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Patrick Novecosky ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: New Judge Survived Commandments and Senate Fights DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:Alabama Attorney General William Pryor became a federal judge Feb. 20 — but not in the usual way.
President Bush granted the out-spoken Catholic a two-year recess appointment to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals after Democratic senators had prevented Pryor's nomination for a lifetime term from coming to the Senate floor for a vote.
Pryor was also embroiled in controversy last year when he enforced a court order forbidding Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore from displaying the Ten Commandments.
“His beliefs are so well known, so deeply held,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., about Pryor, “that it's very hard to believe — very hard to believe — that they're not going to deeply influence the way he comes about saying, ‘I will follow the law.’”
Columnist Charles Krauthhammer wrote that “Pryor is being pilloried because he openly states (1) that Roe v. Wade was a constitutional abomination and (2) that abortion itself is a moral abomination.”
Register correspondent Joseph D'Agostino interviewed Pryor on March 2.
Are you a cradle Catholic or a convert?
I'm a cradle Catholic but the son of converts. My father was a Southern Baptist who went to a Catholic school and became Catholic in eighth grade. I grew up in Mobile, Ala.
There are lot of Catholics in Mobile, aren't there? Were you always dedicated to the faith or did you fall away and then come back?
Yes, there are. I would not say I fell away. I would say I was always dedicated but I was challenged more when I left Mobile and attended college in Monroe, La., where my mother was raised and both my parents went to college, and where Catholics are a distinct minority. It would clearly be considered a Bible Belt community. Most of my friends were evangelicals or fundamentalists.
Why did you choose to go there for college?
I was a music major originally when I went to college, as my father before me, and they had a very good school of music. And as a son of Catholic schoolteachers, the scholarships I received were very helpful, as I had to pay my own way. There was not a lot of money in our home.
I was always torn about my major. I was a good musician in high school. I was a timpanist on the kettledrums, a percussionist. … Then I became involved in Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign. It was 1980. I became a member of the College Republicans, and at the end of my freshman year, although I had done very well in music, I decided to switch majors. My mother actually made the sugges-tion that summer and I thought she was right.
You've really been a politician. The attorney general office in Alabama is an elective office. When did you first run for it?
I was first appointed to it. I was in private practice in Birmingham. … When Jeff Sessions was elected attorney general, I was a month from making partner in my firm, but he asked me to be his deputy in charge of civil litigation. So I came to the office and worked for him for two years. And then, when he was elected to the U.S. Senate, I was appointed by the governor to finish his term. Then I was elected in 1998 and reelected in 2002, and at that point was term-limited.
Why did you make the switch from politics to the bench?
I believe that one of the highest callings, or the highest calling, really, for any American lawyer would be to serve your country as a defender of the Constitution on the bench of the federal judiciary.
There seems to be a lot of dispute over how to defend the Constitution these days. How is the Constitution defended by a judge?
By upholding and applying the law, faithfully, impartially, without fear or favor, and diligently.
Are you what's called a strict constructionist — a judge who refuses to inject any of his own philosophy and just follows the text of the Constitution?
I would agree with Justice [Antonin] Scalia that that's not a very good way to describe a good judge. I believe judges should follow the text, structure and history of the law in interpreting the law.
Why do so many people seem to interpret the Constitution and the law in a very different way?
There are some people who would prefer to interpret the Constitution to favor political outcomes they support, but the law is not supposed to be a political instrument. If we're a country governed by the rule of law, if that protects our freedom as I believe it does, then judges have to be bound by the law and not place themselves above the law.
And you believe that's what Judge Roy Moore did, place himself above the law?
I believe that when somebody has had an opportunity in a trial court and had an opportunity for appeal and then they refuse to obey a court order — and in fact defy a court order — yes, they have placed themselves above the law.
Now that you're in a circuit court, what will you do if you have to enforce a law that's against your conscience? What if it's about abortion?
As attorney general, I had a record of applying the law in the area of abortion, even though I disagreed with it. The law did not give me the authority as attorney general to prosecute persons involved in abortion, and because the law did not give me that authority, I had to respect the law, whether I agreed with it or not.
That's different from someone who would be called upon, say, in Nazi Germany or in Communist China to enforce the law in a way where they were participating in an evil and immoral act. That I could not do as a Christian, but that's not what is involved, and that was not involved in my role as attorney general.
What do you say to those who allege you are a dangerous extremist, outside the mainstream, that you shouldn't be on the bench?
The only thing I can say to anyone who wants to evaluate my record is look at my record, particularly as attorney general of Alabama, based on how I perform the duties of my office.
And I think that record shows I have been committed to the rule of law, that I have zealously defended the law and applied the law even when I disagreed with the law.
So what happened with Moore was in keeping with the rest of your record?
Absolutely.
Did you agree with Moore that it was okay to display the Ten Commandments in that courthouse?
As attorney general, I believed that I had a duty to defend his display. He was the chief judicial officer of Alabama. I had long taken the position as attorney general that depictions of the Ten Commandments can be appropriate in courtrooms as they are appropriately displayed in the Supreme Court of the United States, but he had an obligation to follow the final orders of the federal judiciary whether he agreed with them or not. …
I take the position that a public official cannot engage in civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is the province of the private citizen.
What Supreme Court justice would you hold up as a model? Would it be Scalia?
I admire Justice Scalia. I also admire Justice Byron White and other justices as well. … I had a conservative judicial philosophy before I went to law school.
Did you just grow up that way?
No. I think my thinking about the role of a judge was influenced greatly by the decision of the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. It was an unpopular decision at my home, particularly with my parents.
“The worst abomination in the history of constitutional law.”
Yes, I've said that and I agree with that.
St. Thomas More is often pointed to as a model for Catholics and all men of conscience.
He's our patron saint. He's the patron saint of both lawyers and politicians. So he was my patron saint in two capacities, in my last job and still is a patron saint for me.
So do you have a devotion to him?
I do. I find there to be growing devotion to St. Thomas More and growing interest in him. In fact, here within the last year in Montgomery, a small group of Catholic lawyers has organized a St. Thomas More Society. The same thing has happened in my hometown of Mobile.
Joseph D'Agostino writes from Washington.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tami Chappell ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Catholic Homosexuals Warn Against 'Marriage' DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — From the numbers of homosexual couples who have been defying their states' marriage laws, one might think all homosexuals favor same-sex marriage.
But attention to the issue has largely overlooked homosexuals who have turned their backs on the lifestyle.
There are members of Courage, for example, a Catholic apostolate that helps those with same-sex attraction lead a chaste life.
Megan, a member of Courage who did not want her last name used, said the drive behind same-sex marriage is the lack of self-acceptance among homosexuals.
“I don't really believe gay activists accept themselves,” she said. “That's why they push so hard for others to accept them.”
Megan said allowing marriage for homosexuals will lead to spiritual harm.
“If the government legalizes this, it clouds the definition of marriage,” she said. “The unity and complementarity of the male/woman marital nucleus will be shaky and called into question.”
With regard to the recent wave of mayors granting marriage licenses to same-sex partners, Mark Shields, spokesman for the pro-homosexual Human Rights Campaign, believes they are simply reflecting the needs of their constituents.
He argues that legalizing same-sex marriage would lessen promiscuity and other problems associated with homosexual behavior.
But Frank, another member of Courage, believes promiscuity is more prevalent in the homosexual community and that there is a higher number of people with psychological problems.
“This drives them to act out their desires with multiple partners,” he said.
Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons, a Catholic psychiatrist who works with homosexuals, agrees.
The most well-designed studies ever done on homosexuality come from the Netherlands and New Zealand, he said. The Dutch study shows that homosexuals are three times more likely to develop psychiatric illness, while the New Zealand study concludes they are five times more likely to develop psychiatric illness.
The psychiatric illnesses homosexuals are more likely to develop, as listed in the Catholic Medical Association's 2003 pamphlet “Homosexuality and Hope,” are major depression, suicidal ideation and attempts, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, conduct disorder, low self-esteem, promiscuity and inability to maintain committed relationships.
Catholic psychologist Joseph Nicolosi of the Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic near Los Angeles agreed that legalizing same-sex marriage would do harm.
“We will see more and more social pathology,” said Nicolosi, a co-founder of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. “There will be an increase in broken relationships, gender-confused children who have never known their mother or their father, children created through unnatural means…and a widespread absence of the sexual restraint that is vital to keeping families intact.”
Many who spoke to the Register want to see the U.S. bishops provide leadership on the issue, perhaps in the form of a pastoral letter.
“People know less about their faith than they used to,” said Father Kazimierz Kowalski, a member of the board of advisers for Courage. “People lack a comprehension for the foundations on this issue. The pretense is that our political system is deciding what nature is. Marriage is a reality whose existence is prior to the state.”
Oblate of St. Francis de Sales Father John Harvey has been working in this ministry for decades.
“If homosexual activity, by its nature, is seriously immoral according to the teachings of the Catholic Church, then we can't accept this behavior as such and call it marriage,” he said. “It's a misnomer. People say, ‘This is the way I have to be, and I have the right to do this.’ This is one of the premises of the homosexual agenda. Yet neither the public at large nor statesmen know how to handle this.”
Confusion about the true meaning of marriage began, according to Father Harvey, with the public's approval of contraception.
“Contraception cut off the meaning of sexuality,” he said. “It had meant the union of men and women with the hope of children. Now it can be just companionship.”
Lack of respect for marriage is cited as a major factor leading to the push for homosexual marriage.
“We have a degraded sense of traditional marriage,” said David Morrison, a Courage member and author of the book Beyond Gay. “We've dragged it through the muck…. People can get married in Las Vegas and then obtain a no-fault divorce.”
Morrison believes same-sex marriage probably will become legal.
“But even if … we manage to stave it off, we haven't done ourselves any favors. Discipleship is still a problem,” he said. “Christians divorce at the same rates as non-Christians.”
Members of Courage and those who minister to them worry that legalizing same-sex marriage will push homosexuals away from getting the psychiatric and spiritual help they need. It will also push people away from the freedom and happiness of living chastely, they say.
“The spiritual component is really the heart and soul of Courage,” Megan said. “My faith has become so real to me. For many people in Courage, the Eucharist and the Blessed Mother through the rosary have played powerful roles in coming back to God.”
Sabrina Ferrisi writes from New York. Register correspondent Andrew Walther contributed to this article.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sabrina Ferrisi ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Catholic Mayor of San Francisco Defies Archbishop DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:SAN FRANCISCO — He swore to uphold the laws of a state that four years ago voted overwhelmingly to define marriage as between one man and one woman. He is also Catholic.
But that didn't stop San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom from having his city issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples — a move that evoked strong reactions from around the country.
While homosexuals have flocked to San Francisco to “marry,” Archbishop William Levada of San Francisco joined countless citizens intent on blocking Newsom's actions.
Two days after the Feb. 10 announcement that the city would issue marriage certificates to homosexual couples, Archbishop Levada, who has called for a constitutional amendment to protect marriage, stated: “While the Catholic Church affirms that God created marriage as the union of a man and a woman, giving them a co-responsibility to establish a family by bringing children into the world, this tenet is not solely a Catholic one. Rather, it is the result of natural reason mirrored in every culture throughout humankind's history.”
Newsom's press office did not return calls seeking clarification on his stand as it relates to his Catholic faith. But Maurice Healy, communications director for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, said the archdiocese has made it clear that Newsom's actions are not what is expected of a Catholic politician.
A significant portion of a recent issue of Catholic San Francisco, the diocesan newspaper, was devoted to diocesan and Vatican statements on what is expected.
Last year the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made it clear: “All Catholics are obliged to oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions,” it said. “Catholic politicians are obliged to do so in a particular way, in keeping with their responsibility as politicians.”
The Congregation added that respect for homosexuals must not be construed as sanctioning homosexual marriage.
Healy said the archdiocese is seeking to dialogue with Newsom to bring him back to the Catholic perspective.
“Excommunication is not the first step,” he said. “Dialogue might be the first step to bring someone back into the fold.”
-Andrew Walther
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:Vatican Asked to Review Bishop's Records
THE ALBANY TIMES-UNION, Feb. 25 — Attorney John Aretakis of Albany, N.Y., who is representing two men accusing Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany of homosexuality, has asked the Vatican to review the Church's confidential records concerning the bishop, according to the Albany Times-Union.
Aretakis circulated a 1995 letter allegedly written by an Albany priest to Cardinal John O'Connor, the late archbishop of New York, accusing Bishop Hubbard of doctrinal deviations and homosexual behavior. The archdiocese said it has no record of the correspondence.
The letter was attributed to Father John Minkler, but on Feb. 13, Father Minkler signed a statement prepared by the Albany Diocese denying authorship. He was found dead on Feb. 15. A note was found with his body, which the local coroner has not yet made public. An autopsy is pending.
Diocesan spokesman Kenneth Goldfarb replied to the charges: “That Mr. Aretakis sent his letter to the local news media and the Vatican at the same time tells you everything you need to know about his real agenda.”
Showtime Prepares Sex-Abuse Film
REUTERS, Feb. 26 — Cable TV network Showtime has begun casting actors for an original movie that dramatizes recent abuse scandals in the Church, Reuters reported.
The network announced its series Feb. 26, a day before the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released its national study documenting abuse allegations.
The series will be based on the new book Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal, by Newsweek senior editor David France. The stories, Showtime said, would be based on actual events but with victims' names changed to “protect those who are trying to rebuild their lives.”
Anticipating criticism, Showtime entertainment president Robert Greenblatt said, “We have no intention of making this movie exploitative. The majority of the public has no idea how widespread or complex this issue is. … The abuse — and the institution that looked the other way for decades — should be exposed so that it can be stopped once and for all.”
The film will follow the efforts of a group of Boston Globe reporters, who turned up the story of slain abusive ex-priest John Geoghan.
Franciscans Petition Mel Gibson
WWW.FRANCISCANFRIARS.COM, March 2 — Father Glenn Sudano of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal has been posting on the community's Web site updates on Father Benedict Groeschel since the television preacher was hit by a car in January.
Father Sudano announced March 2 that he will be circulating a petition asking Mel Gibson to produce a follow-up to The Passion of the Christ.
The proposed film would be a biography of one man who responded totally to Christ's passion — St. Francis of Assisi. Father Sudano said he has confidence Gibson could paint a true portrait of the saint, who too often is depicted merely in a “sociopolitical light.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: What Are You Paying For? Victims of War and Disasters DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:SAN ANTONIO — War atrocities too painful to discuss caused Richard and Josephine Coker to become lost from each other shortly after they married in the late 1990s in Sierra Leone.
Today, through the help of the American Bishops' Overseas Appeal, the couple is safe in the United States rearing a healthy infant son.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who gave money to the Overseas Appeal,” Josephine Coker said in an interview from her apartment in San Antonio. “Things were so horrible I can't even think about them without going into depression, but thanks to Catholics who gave money we are living a wonderful life and raising our son.”
This year the annual Overseas Appeal's theme is “Who Is Jesus in Disguise?”
March 21 Second Collection
“If someone wants to do what Jesus says and care for the least among us, this is a great way to do it,” said David Early, spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, referring to Matthew 25, in which Jesus teaches that our judgment will be based on how we have cared for “these least ones.”
The Overseas Appeal collection, taken up in churches in most dioceses the weekend of March 20-21, supports four agencies that build the international social ministry of the Church: Migration and Refugee Services, Catholic Relief Services, Social Development and World Peace, and the Holy Father's Relief Fund.
“Through advocacy on behalf of the powerless, and relief and resettlement services to victims of earthquakes, floods, war, and religious and ethnic persecution, Overseas Appeal-funded programs reach out to serve ‘Jesus in disguise’ in every human being,” Early said.
Stories about the mitigation of misery, such as that of the Cokers, abound as a result of money raised by the appeal.
When the Cokers found each other in war-ravaged Sierra Leone, they knew they had to flee. All they took with them was what would fit into two small, carry-on-sized bags. They managed to fly to the United States, where they got off a plane with no money and no belongings other than some clothes.
“But the bishops' Migration and Refugee Services picked us up at the airport,” Josephine Coker recalled. “They made sure we had an apartment, and they helped us with three months' of expenses. They helped us get all the documents we needed to live and work here, and they helped us find employment. They made sure we were on our feet, and then they let us get on with a new life.”
Today, Josephine takes care of their son at home while Richard works as a nurse technician in a hospital while he studies to become a registered nurse. They're biggest financial concern?
“I want to save up some money so we can make a donation this year to the Overseas Appeal,” Josephine said. “This made a big difference in our lives, and now I want to play a part in helping someone else.”
Setat, a 36-year-old Egyptian widow with no income, benefited from the appeal through aid provided by Catholic Relief Services. Before the agency came to her aid, she was feeding her five children by selling the family's furniture, the few personal items she had and even the front door to the house.
Setat knew she needed help but didn't want traditional charity. So she joined the Village Banking Project of Catholic Relief Services — a program that provides training, technical assistance and loan capital to women in targeted communities.
Setat used the money to replace her front door and start a small grocery and candy store. The business was so successful that she repaid the loan ahead of schedule and has been able to use revenues to expand her store.
With Overseas Appeal money channeled through the bishops' conference's Social Development and World Peace program, the United States has dramatically increased its commitment to address the HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria epidemics in Africa in ways that respect human life and dignity, Early said.
The Holy Father's Relief Fund, by contrast, assists victims of natural disasters and other emergencies around the globe.
Brought Closer to God
The annual overseas appeal was established 60 years ago as the Bishops' Welfare Emergency Relief Fund. In 2003, the Overseas Appeal collected nearly $17.3 million. Less than 3 cents of every dollar is used for fund-raising and administrative expenses.
Early said the Overseas Appeal has no direct evangelization program. However, he said donors and recipients alike are often brought closer to God. That was the case with a Sudanese refugee who was helped by Migration and Refugee Services.
“I didn't know what would happen tomorrow,” the refugee said. “My condition was difficult, but I just handed myself to God and asked him to take me in his hands. He has big hands.”
“Simply carrying out the call of Matthew 25 is a way to be closer to God,” Early said. “This benefits the donors and the recipients alike.”
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Sky's Not Falling DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Against the steady drumbeat of news about environmental disasters and impending planetary doom, a small voice of optimism was raised recently by a Jesuit journal close to the Vatican.
It just might be that instead of falling apart the world is actually becoming a better place to live, said La Civilta Cattolica in its Feb. 21 issue.
The article was titled, “Is the World in Danger?” and the answer seemed to be: not really. It suggested that ecological threats often are overstated.
“Real environmental problems cannot be ignored, but it's not right to exaggerate them in order to better defend the environment. Nor does it seem that these are the worst problems in this world,” said the article, written by Jesuit Father GianPaolo Salvini.
After citing a number of doomsday predictions that have so far failed to materialize, the article said the media was often to blame for fueling the “catastrophic visions” that seem to mark the modern age.
“One has to ask why, in giving information and assessments, is bad news almost always preferred to good news?” Father Salvini asked. One answer is that it plays into the expectations of “a frightened society” in the West, where many people are afraid of losing what they have, he said.
Father Salvini, director of the Jesuit magazine, is a theologian and economist who has written in the past on environmental issues.
The magazine often reflects Vatican opinion, so its contents are closely watched. Coincidentally, this issue appeared just before news of yet another doom-and-gloom report.
An internal U.S. Defense Department study, leaked to reporters, predicted abrupt climate change caused by global warming could soon “bring the planet to the edge of anarchy” as countries compete for dwindling food, water and energy supplies.
The scenario sketched out for the next 16 years contained a long list of calamities, including violent storms, energy and water shortages, and waves of desperate immigrants pounding at the doors of richer countries.
However, while the leaked study was cited by environmental activists as proof of the validity of the theory of man-made global warming, it was merely a “worst-case” scenario put forward by two futurists commissioned to help the Defense Department plan its responses to catastrophic events.
The authors of the report said it was unlikely the events they hypothesized would actually occur.
Short Memories
The trouble is, Father Salvini wrote, dire predictions tend to be forgotten when they don't come true.
For example, in 1975 Newsweek ran a grim article predicting major climatic changes that would disrupt worldwide food production. An early warning about global warming? No — the article was titled “The Cooling World,” and the concern was that a new ice age was just around the corner.
Today, Father Salvini said, when global warming is the worry, no one seems to point out the potential positive effects — for example, higher temperatures could mean longer growing seasons.
The Civilta article was based largely on data contained in a controversial book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, by Danish author and former Greenpeace member Bjorn Lomborg. The book has challenged the conventional wisdom on a number of environmental issues, including the effects and extent of global warming.
Father Salvini did not endorse all of Lomborg's scientific arguments but said the book had properly underlined a need for balance and perspective when talking about environmental risks. Unfortunately, he said, many people seem to thrive on apocalyptic forecasts.
“The idea that Judgment Day is at the door may be one of the most deeply held convictions of many contemporary men and women,” he said.
But humanity needs to believe in its own future, he added, and an exaggerated pessimism can lead to inaction.
Cardinal Cottier
For Swiss Cardinal Georges Cottier, Pope John Paul II's in-house theologian, the emphasis on bad news about the earth's future could be media-driven. But he said it also highlights an age-old temptation to give in to “catastrophism,” a temptation Christians should avoid.
“For the Christian, hope is not a vague hope; it is based on the promise made by God that God guides the world and does not abandon it,” Cardinal Cottier said.
The environmental challenges might be serious, the cardinal said, but human beings should start with the confidence that they can resolve them.
Father Salvini said an example of this was the “green revolution” — the committed work of researchers, he said, has helped offset the effects of agricultural problems such as erosion and soil depletion.
As the Jesuit journal weighed in with its dose of hopefulness, the planet got some good news from an astronomical study. According to researchers calculating the effects of “dark energy” in outer space, our universe is not being ripped apart or collapsing, as some had feared.
In fact, it looks like the universe might be around for another 25 billion years or so — great news for long-term optimists.
(Register staff contributed to this story.)
----- EXCERPT: La Civilta Cattolica Debunks Doomsday Predictions ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Thavis ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:Muslim Gadfly Sues Vatican
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Feb. 28 — Self-appointed Italian Muslim activist Adel Smith — whose actions are frequently condemned by local Islamic clerics — has taken the provocative step of suing Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and other Church officials.
Smith's claim? That their proclamations of Christianity as the one true faith violate Italy's constitution.
Italy once enshrined Catholicism as the state religion, but this provision was dropped at the request of Pope Paul VI. Smith said he sought no monetary damages but did hope for a judicial condemnation of the Vatican statements.
Smith, who heads the small Muslim Union of Italy, has previously captured headlines by pressing to have crucifixes torn down in Italy's schools.
He pointed to passages in books by John Paul and Cardinal Ratzinger, such as one in Crossing the Threshold of Hope where the Pope says the “richness of God's self-revelation” in the biblical testaments has been “set aside” in Islam.
Another offending passage came from a statement by Cardinal Ratzinger, who wrote in a 2000 document that believers in other religions were in a “gravely deficient situation” compared with Catholics.
The Vatican has not responded to the charges.
Cardinal Visits Slum Scheduled for Demolition
CATHOLIC INFORMATION SERVICE AFRICA, Feb. 4 — On a visit to Nairobi, Kenya, Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, slogged through the muddy streets of Kibera, the largest slum on the continent, Catholic Information Service Africa reported.
Cardinal Martino called for respect for the slum's inhabitants, who were scheduled to be evicted a few days later when parts of the vast neighborhood were to be demolished.
“We must not sit idle and do nothing; we must engage everyone to respect the dignity of every human being,” said the cardinal, who was accompanied by the apostolic nuncio to Kenya, Archbishop Giovanni Tonucci, and local clergy.
The government seeks to displace residents who live near electrical power lines, on land reserved for roads and near railway lines, and has promised in return to upgrade all slums in the city and build 150,000 low-income homes each year.
Vatican Is For Fertility, Not Test-Tube Conception
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Feb. 25 — Archbishop Elio Sgreccia, who heads the Pontifical Academy for Life, reiterated the Church's principled support for responsible research in promoting human fertility and its firm opposition to high-tech tamperings such as in-vitro fertilization and surrogate motherhood, according to Agence France-Presse.
“It is urgent to create alternative methods to artificial procreation in order to encourage, once again, natural insemination,” said the archbishop, speaking to the missionary news agency Fides and pointing to recently reported drops in fertility — and in sperm counts — found in the developed world.
He noted that a dangerous decline in the birthrate in many countries had resulted from “numerous factors including … marriages at an advanced age … as well as environmental pollution.”
Archbishop Sgreccia's comments augmented an address by Pope John Paul II to delegates from the Pontifical Academy for Life, in which the Pope called artificial insemination a “dangerous manipulation.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Lenten Retreat 2004: Following Jesus, the Light of Life DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:From Feb. 29-March 6, Pope John Paul II and officials of the Roman Curia listened to four meditations daily as a focus of the Holy Father's annual Lenten retreat.
The Pope canceled his regular Wednesday catechesis and all other public audiences and meetings during the week to dedicate himself to prayer.
The retreat meditations were held in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel in the Vatican, with John Paul listening to the meditations from the adjoining St. Lawrence Oratorio. The reflections ended every day with the rosary, Eucharistic adoration and Benediction.
Msgr. Bruno Forte, a theologian and president of the School of Theology of Southern Italy, preached this year's meditations on the theme “Following You, Light of Life.”
The following is excerpted from passages of the four days of the meditations that were broadcast on Vatican Radio.
Day 1: Freedom Means Obedience
Msgr. Forte dedicated the first day's meditations to the topic “Called to Freedom: Jesus, a History of Freedom.”
“In the life of Jesus, as in every truly human history,” there are “options that orient decisively the whole of life,” Msgr. Forte said.
That choice “is called a fundamental option, the meaning of life,” he said. From this option of life, he said, stems the “option of the moment” — that is, the various decisions made in the course of daily life.
These daily options, Msgr. Forte said, “produce the lifestyle of a person.”
The preacher then asked: Was there a fundamental option in Jesus' life? “Jesus' fundamental option can be understood in all his actions,” the preacher said. “Jesus makes us understand that no one is as free as the one who is free of his own freedom.
“The cause of Jesus' life is God, his Kingdom. And these also help us to understand Jesus' lifestyle. Jesus' lifestyle was his poverty and radical freedom, his unconditional trust in his Father, sign of intense love for life and a complete, total trust in God.”
Day 2: Foot of the Cross
The second day of Msgr. Forte's Lenten meditations were dedicated to the theme “On the Way Toward the Cross.”
The cross is “the place where God speaks in silence, illuminating the darkness of our hearts, thirsty for him,” Msgr. Forte said.
Moreover, Jesus' whole life is oriented toward the cross. “If we want to know who God is, we must kneel at the foot of the cross,” the preacher said.
The cross is the key to understanding the Gospel, seeing how each one of its passages is as an introduction to understand that mystery, the priest said.
In an afternoon meditation, Msgr. Forte focused on the Gospel parable of the prodigal son, which he said presents a humble, courageous, maternal God.
“Who are we before this God?” he asked. “The youngest son, who took everything and left home and went to a land where he dissipated everything.”
“The prodigal son's return home represents the extraordinary moment of conversion,” which requires an understanding of one's “alienation” caused by sin as well as “the recognition of the love of God,” Msgr. Forte said. Conversion is the awareness of the tragedy of having gone away from Jesus and recognition of the way that leads back to the Lord, the preacher concluded.
Day 3: A Life-Changing Meeting
The resurrection of Jesus, a “meeting that changes life,” was the theme of the third day of Msgr. Forte's meditations. He highlighted the resurrection of Christ as the “full revelation of the love of God” realized through the effusion of the Spirit.
“At the beginning there was the experience of a meeting. Jesus appeared alive to the fearful fugitives of Good Friday; everything begins with this meeting,” the papal preacher said.
“Fear was followed by courage, and the fugitives became witnesses to the end of a life given for the one they betrayed in the hour of darkness,” Msgr. Forte said.
“Between Good Friday and the dawn of Easter there is an empty space in which something so important happened that it gave origin to Christianity in history,” the preacher explained.
“The announcement recorded in the New Testament confesses the meeting with the Risen One as an experience of grace,” he said.
One of the emphases of Msgr. Forte's meditations was “the contemplation of the presence of the persons of the Trinity in the mysteries of the life of Jesus.”
“The resurrection is a Trinitarian event in which the Father infuses the Spirit on the Crucified One and resurrects him,” he said.
Day 4: Church of Love
After the death and resurrection of Christ, a new relation takes place in the Church between God and every person, Msgr. Forte said in his Day 4 morning meditation on the theme, “In the Communion of the Church: The Church, Image of the Trinity.”
The gift of participation in the life of the Trinity is expressed in a new relation between God and man, Msgr. Forte said. The central element of this relation is the Church, he added.
“The Church, which Jesus came to establish on earth, is the community of the sons who are such in the Son, loved in the beloved. It is the Church of love,” he said.
“Everything in the Church comes from the love of the Trinity,” he continued. The heart of the Church is the “agape,” the love that comes from on high and returns on high, becoming the rule of life of Jesus' disciples.
“The Church comes from God, from the Trinity. God has had time for man, and man's days have become the penultimate time, that span that takes place between the first coming and his return,” the preacher said.
Msgr. Forte dedicated the lectio divina to the contemplation of the Blessed Virgin's visitation to her cousin Elizabeth. “In the school of Mary,” he said, “we learn to act following the One who has revealed to us the Triune God of love; that is, in charity.”
(From combined Zenit reports.)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bioethics Expert Advocates Killing Disabled Babies DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:LONDON — A senior medical ethics adviser to the British government, the European Union and the United Nations has claimed the killing of newborn disabled babies is morally acceptable.
Professor John Harris, a member of the British Medical Association's ethics committee and a professor of bioethics at the University of Manchester, made his controversial comments during a recent House of Commons science and technology committee debate on reproductive technology.
“I don't think infanticide is always unjustifiable,” said Harris, who also serves on the U.K. Human Genetics Commission and is a co-founder of the International Association of Bioethics. “I don't think it is plausible to think there is any moral change that occurs during the journey down the birth canal. I don't think anything has happened during that time.”
“It is well known that where a serious abnormality is not picked up, when you get a very seriously handicapped — or indeed, a very premature newborn that suffers brain damage — that what effectively happens is that steps are taken not to sustain it on life support,” Harris added.
He went on to claim that infanticide is accepted and widespread in most countries. However, he did not specify to what age he believed infanticide should be permissible.
Denial
But when contacted by the Register, Harris denied advocating infanticide.
“Just to make it absolutely clear, because there has been so much mendacious reporting of my position, I do not advocate infanticide,” he said. “I do not propose any change in the law on infanticide. I have never proposed a right to kill the deformed nor do I think there is any justification for so doing.”
Harris is a highly respected figure who frequently appears on radio and television both in the United Kingdom and overseas to discuss biomedical ethics and related issues. He has acted as ethical consultant to national and international bodies and corporations including the European Parliament, the World Health Organization, the European Commission and the joint U.N. program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
“Professor Harris is quite right in some of what he says: There is no difference in moral status between an unborn child and a newly born one,” said Nuala Scarisbrick, trustee of Life, the leading pro-life charity in the United Kingdom. “That is what every pro-lifer knows and has been saying all the time.”
But, Scarisbrick continued, “we pro-lifers conclude that abortion is as wrong as infanticide. He concludes that infanticide is as permissible as abortion. That is where he goes wrong. Predictably, stung by Professor Harris, the pro-abortion-ists are raking up all the tired old arguments about children in the womb being merely dependent beings and suddenly and mysteriously becoming real moral persons at birth.”
“This is ridiculous on two counts,” Scarisbrick said. “First, if dependence is the same as disposability, it would be permissible to kill up to at least 5 or 6 years after birth. And since, in a profound sense, we are all dependent, none of us would be safe.
“But [pro-abortionists] say the child in the womb is dependent on one person, the mother. That, they claim, makes the difference. It does not. The dependence of the unborn child gives the mother power, not rights, over that fellow human being — choosing to have that child killed is objectively abuse of power and dereliction of duty.”
God's Gift
Bishop Ambrose Griffiths of Hexham and Newcastle stressed that all life is a gift from God and is precious.
“The Church never supports any kind of infanticide,” Bishop Griffiths said. “The Church says we must always preserve life from the first moment of conception. If a child is born prematurely in some countries where there is a lot of poverty and poor health care, then it might die because of the conditions there. In Britain, children who are born prematurely can be supported because we have the means to do it.”
“Very many handicapped children are some of the happiest you could meet,” Bishop Griffiths added. “And, despite the strains, they bring a great deal of happiness to their families. To suggest that children who are born handicapped are a burden to society and don't deserve to live is outrageous.”
Rev. Joanna Jepson, a Church of England curate who was born with a cleft palate and who is going to Britain's High Court to try to block late abortions for “trivial reasons,” expressed alarm at Harris' comments.
Jepson launched her court case after learning of a case where British police decided not to press charges in connection with a late-term abortion of an unborn child with a cleft lip and palate. The abortion occurred after the normal 24-week time limit permitted under British law, which allows abortions after that period only when there is a likelihood of the baby being born with a “severe abnormality.”
“It is frightening to hear anyone endorsing infanticide, but it is shocking when the person is responsible for teaching others,” Jepson said. “This affirms the need for an investigation into the practice of abortion.”
In his remarks at a symposium on Down syndrome in 1989, Pope John Paul II said: “[T]he increasing use of selective abortion as a means of preventing the birth of handicapped children requires a firm response from Christians. In our search for genuine social progress, we can never ignore the law or God….
The Gospel affirms that every individual is a creature whom God chose to fashion in his own image, and both Christian revelation and reason affirm the a existence of a moral order which transcends man himself.”
Lara Brooks, a mother from London whose 6-year-old son was born with Down syndrome, was equally shocked.
“I find it astonishing that such a leading medical figure should put forward such an argument,” she said. “It's very worrying and disturbing when you hear this kind of thing. If his views were accepted, then my son would not have been born.”
Greg Watts writes from London.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Greg Watts ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:A Passion Play Set Amid Glasgow's Poor
INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC NEWS, March 1 — Readers probably haven't heard about it in the United States, but there's a new film adaptation of the life of Christ — a transposition of Jesus' passion to the slums of Glasgow, Scotland, an economically depressed industrial town.
The film is called Man Dancin, and it opened Feb. 18 in Britain. It was created by Christian film and television director Norman Stone.
Set in a Catholic neighborhood in Glasgow, the movie follows a young man recently released from a Northern Irish prison who goes home and tries to “go straight.”
The protagonist struggles not to relapse into his former criminal ways, in part by applying theater skills he learned in prison to help a parish priest put on a Passion play. Independent Catholic News described the film as redemptive, a positive example of presenting the Gospel message in contemporary style.
Writer and director Stone has previously made a film telling the life story of C.S. Lewis and a dramatic series for the BBC during Holy Week.
Clerics Seek Expertise to Resolve Zimbabwe Crisis
THE ZIMBABWE INDEPENDENT (Harare), Feb. 27 — Christian leaders trying to revive peaceful dialogue between the repressive government of Zimbabwe and opposition groups have turned to international experts for help, according to the Zimbabwe Independent.
The clerics traveled to Italy in February to meet with Vatican officials, the paper reported. Bishop Trevor Manhanga of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, Catholic Bishop Patrick Mutume and Father Brian McGarry met with Vatican officials who had helped broker a peace settlement in Mozambique in 1993, ending a decades-long civil war.
Upon their return from Italy, the African clergymen requested a meeting with Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, which has not yet been granted.
Another church delegation traveled to South Africa to meet with that country's Council of Churches, seeking its involvement in resolving Zimbabwe's intractable conflict, which centers on the confiscation of land from productive white farmers and its distribution to poor blacks, who frequently lack the capital and expertise to exploit the land.
A famine has resulted, with the Zimbabwean government denying food to its political opponents.
Pro-Life Film for Schoolchildren Shocks Croatia
REUTERS, Feb. 24 — Pro-life activists in Croatia have been showing a graphic film depicting an actual abortion to teen-agers to the outrage of pro-abortion groups and some parents, Reuters reported.
The movie, made in the 1980s in the United States, was shown in a Zagreb high school during the week of Feb. 17 as part of a voluntary religion class.
The daily paper Novi List criticized the film, quoting “children's ombudsman” Ljubica Matijevic-Vrsaljko, who said, “If the same logic applied, we should show the dead bodies of drug addicts to pupils to teach them about dangers of drug consumption … or mutilated bodies of those killed in traffic to teach them to respect traffic rules.”
Croatian education minister Dragan Primorac promised to review the film and assess its suitability for teen-agers.
Local Church officials in the 90% Catholic country did not comment on the film.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Weigel on the Report DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:Papal biographer and syndicated columnist George Weigel used to say that the U.S. bishops' National Review Board “doesn't make much ecclesiological sense.” But now that the board had released its report on sex abuse in the Church, Weigel calls its work “a genuine service to the Church and a potentially crucial step toward authentic Catholic reform.” He gives the following reasons why:
1) Because the report is set within a genuinely Catholic and thoroughly ecclesial framework. The report makes clear that the Church, by the will of Christ, is led by her bishops; that the priest is far more than an ecclesiastical functionary; that celibacy is a great gift to the Church; that Catholic doctrine didn't cause the problems the report addresses but rather the failure to teach and live the truths of Catholic faith caused them; and that what the Church needs is authentically Catholic reform.
2) Because the report squarely faces the two dimensions of the crisis — i.e., sexual misconduct and episcopal misgovernance — and suggests that both aspects of the crisis are reflections of a deeper crisis of fidelity and spirituality.
3) Because the report, rather than calling for “power-sharing,” calls for evangelically and pastorally assertive episcopal leadership, including far more fraternal challenge and correction within the body of bishops.
4) Because the report faces the overwhelmingly homosexual nature of the clerical sexual abuse of minors during the past 50 years without either euphemism or “scapegoating.”
5) Because the report frankly describes the failures of seminaries in the late ‘60s and ’70s, stressing lapses in spiritual and ascetic formation, and thus sets the stage for accelerating the seminary reform already under way.
6) Because the report decries the many occasions on which psychiatric and psychological categories and processes trumped theological categories and available canonical remedies in handling clerical malfeasants.
7) Because the report delicately suggests that “zero tolerance” is too blunt an instrument to be an instrument of genuine justice.
8) Because the report warns against encroachments by the state into internal Church governance while also warning that those encroachments can and will happen if bishops abrogate their responsibilities.
9) Because the report demonstrates that lay people can take on a task of great complexity and delicacy in the Church and do it in such a way that, for all its (legitimate) criticism of the hierarchy, reasserts the divinely ordered structure of the Church and calls the episcopate to exercise its legitimate authority. In this way, the report implicitly challenges Voice of the Faithful and similar organizations by showing that a diverse group of accomplished lay Catholics can agree on an analysis of the crisis and an agenda of reform that is authentically Catholic, not an exercise in “Catholic lite.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: California Calling DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:Let the California Supreme Court's 6-1 ruling requiring Catholic Charities and other church entities to pay for contraceptives in employee health insurance be a wake-up call.
Catholics shouldn't think the culture will always warmly welcome the Church. Some of our beliefs aren't just controversial — they could become illegal.
There are already moves by judges to define the expression of basic Christian beliefs about the sinfulness of homosexual acts as a hate crime. Now, the Catholic teaching about contraception has been dismissed as irrelevant by a California court.
The decision is a reminder that Catholic identity is vitally important, not just to preserve the integrity of the faith but to preserve the Church's strength as an institution.
The California Supreme Court's act is inexcusable. It has no right to define what is and isn't a tenet of the Catholic Church. But, because so few Catholics are willing to teach, proclaim and defend the Church's teaching on contraception, we have left ourselves vulnerable.
If we don't have the courage to proclaim Catholic teaching, we might find we're denied the right to live it.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: The Passion of the Movie Patrons DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:There's a great outcry right now over the graphic violence in The Passion of the Christ (“Box Office Passion,” Feb. 22-28).
Experts who barely raised an eyebrow over the brutal and gratuitous violence of Pulp Fiction, Saving Private Ryan and even The Texas Chainsaw Massacre have been transformed into guardians of the moral order after watching Gibson's film. What is it about this particular movie that has changed these men and women into watch-dogs of morality? Why have they drawn the line at this particular film?
We would cheer, of course, if the transformation were real, but no one with any sense can imagine it is. Besides, the Passion detractors' moral protest over the movie's violence has merely exposed their moral obtuseness. They've got everything upside down and backwards about the film. It is exactly the moral dimension of Gibson's film that they have most completely failed to comprehend.
The moral uplift to be gained by a thoughtful — or, better said, prayerful — viewing of Passion is its single purpose and its most impressive accomplishment. The violence here isn't titillation aimed at selling tickets; it is cruelty calculated to show up the immense and conquering power of the love of God, which cannot be overcome by any extremity of evil.
The film, like the true event it artistically depicts, calls forth the highest moral response from the viewer. Most people are walking away touched and transformed — grateful and adoring, giving more now in their own lives and counting less the cost of that giving.
J. FRASER FIELD
Powell River, British Columbia
The writer is executive officer of the Catholic Educator's Resource Center (www.catholiceducation.org).
What has Mel Gibson accomplished? He has the entire world considering the Crucifixion. In one moment, he has set before the eyes of our agnostic culture the sacrificial death of the God-made-Man, by which the entire universe is reconciled to the Father. Period!
He is not making any anti-Semitic statement. Nor is the movie designed to incite wholesale slaughter of the children of Abraham. As Pope Pius XI stated in a public audience in September 1938, in a statement aimed against Hitler's anti-Semitic laws: “We are all spiritual Semites.”
We are all sons and daughters of Abraham, in fulfillment of the promises God made to Abraham that his offspring would be more numerous than the sands of the sea. We are his offspring — spiritual offspring, of greater importance to God than those merely of his flesh and blood, because all are heirs through the blood of his Son.
What has Mad Mel done? He has turned the world's attention away from itself and toward Christ on the cross. The world does-n't know what to do. In its confusion, the media cries foul and hurls politically correct accusations. Yet, in the present anti-Christian culture, and specifically anti-Catholic climate, the accusations sound as hollow as they are. The statement was made years ago that “anti-Catholicism is the antiSemitism of the intellectuals.” And it is true. There is more in the protests against the film than meets the eye. But, despite the howling, the fact remains: Christ crucified is at the heart of the discussion about this movie.
Maybe, just maybe, Gibson's movie can be used by the all-powerful Father to melt hearts hardened by this world and by their own pride to come closer to him through Christ crucified — whom they are now forced to look upon and consider because of this film.
MSGR. STEPHEN M.DIGIOVANNI, H.E.D.
Stamford, Connecticut
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:The Not-So-Great Communicant
What a pleasant surprise when I pulled my Register from the mailbox and saw, right there on the front page where it can't be missed: “A New Kennedy? A Catholic Candidate From Massachusetts Who Puts Politics Before Faith” (Feb. 15-21).
Tout de suite it was easy to tell this wasn't The New York Times, the Washington Post or the Boston Globe — where, if by a cosmic act of God such a piece were to run, it would be tucked away in some remote section, shrunken to five lines of obfuscation.
These so-called “Catholic” politicos need to be exposed — caught with their pants down, and that's exactly what “A New Kennedy?” does. Embarrassing, yes, therapeutic, yes, needed, yes. Big time!
It's just a fine piece of honest, timely journalism. I am grateful to you and the Register for publishing it.
AUBERT LEMRISE
Peru, Illinois
Politics Prevail
The separation of Church and state has no relevance to the actions of Catholic politicians (“A New Kennedy? A Catholic Candidate From Massachusetts Who Puts Politics Before Faith,” Feb. 15-21).
There is a difference between voting for a law and enforcing a law. Enforcing a law relates to Christ's teaching “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.” Voting for a law relates to Christ's teaching “render to God the things that are God's.”
When John Kerry and other Catholic politicians vote for abortion, they should be disciplined.
To regain respect of Catholics and non-Catholics, the Church must punish all offenders of Catholic teaching.
BARNEY ROSKOPP
Cincinnati
The View From Mars
In the letter titled “Contemplating the Cosmos” (Feb. 15-21), Dominican Father Pierre Conway appears to make three main points. First, he argues that there is no evidence that a transition from nonliving to living matter has ever occurred. It is true that there is no proof such a process ever occurred on Earth or on Mars. That is one of the reasons why we are sending probes to Mars. That is how the scientific process works. Judging by what we know about the composition of Mars and its history, Mars is one of the few places in the solar system where even the possibility of life exists.
If you believe God placed the building blocks of life on Earth as part of his plan to create and sustain life on this planet (or on Mars), then no proof that such a transition occurred is necessary. If we believe in an omnipotent God, we already know that living matter was created from nonliving matter. To argue otherwise is, first, contrary to what we are told in Genesis (where man is created from the dust of the earth) and, second, places an artificial and man-made restraint on the power of God. God is, of course, free to create as he sees fit.
Second, Father Conway suggests the real purpose of the mission may be to distract people from thinking about God. All scientific discoveries can be used to distract people from thinking about God, however. We always have the choice either to lose our faith because of science or to be energized by it.
Third, I agree fully with Father Conway's statement that the beginning of life necessarily requires “postulating a God.” If there is life elsewhere in the universe (not necessarily on Mars but elsewhere, perhaps many, many elsewheres) it is simply one more demonstration of the power, creativity, love and compassion of God.
All major scientific discoveries potentially represent a challenge to faith. If life is discovered in the universe, it will present another such challenge. There can be no conflict between science and faith, however. Both are of God. We have the choice to see these discoveries as proofs of the nonexistence of God or as further manifestations of God's great love for his creation.
DONN CALKINS
Wellington, Colorado
Dumbfounding Democrats
Thank you for the commentary “Where Have All the Pro-Life Democrats Gone?” by Mark Stricherz (Feb. 15-21). The political evolution of this party is sad but [undeniable]. Once thought to be the “party of the little guy,” it has become the “party of the radical left” as it champions an agenda for abortion, homosexual rights, secularization and socialism.
However, I beg to differ with Stricherz on his portrayal of Jimmy Carter as “ambiguously in favor of a national law to restrict abortion.” Carter was and is pro-abortion and in my view is far more radical than his Southern Christian charm portrays.
I was a national delegate to the 1976 Democratic Convention and was one of 22 to cast my vote for Ellen McCormack (the beautiful New York lady who challenged the party on its pro-abortion stand) in protest to Carter's support of the party platform, which, for the first time, spelled out its advocacy of abortion on demand.
Stricherz is right about one thing: Many of us gave up on the Democratic Party and jumped ship — just as Ronald Reagan (once a strong Democrat) did. Let us pray for all those candidates running for office and for the return of the Democratic Party to one that Catholics in good conscience can support.
MARY ANN KUHARSKI
Minneapolis
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Avoiding Temptation: A Three-Step Program DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:The phone rings
Douglas Faneuil takes the call. According to the allegation, he hears the soft voice of American's most famous domestic entrepreneur, Martha Stewart: “Hi, this is Martha.”
Martha knows Faneuil. He works for her stockbroker, Peter Bananovic. Faneuil discloses some interesting information to her.
“Peter thought you'd like to act on the information that Sam is selling all his shares.” Martha knows Sam as well. Samuel Waksal, at the time, was chief executive of ImClone Systems Inc. Martha held 3,928 shares in this company.
Martha replies: “All of his shares?” She wanted to make sure she understood.
Faneuil drives the point home well by saying: “What he does have here, he's trying to sell.”
She continues to listen and considers her options. Martha at this point faces a classic temptation. She can ignore this secret tip or act on it. If she ignores it, she will lose approximately $40,000 on her stock. That's not much for a millionaire like Martha, but it's money nonetheless. On the other hand, if she acts on the confidential tip she will break the law.
Later in the call with Faneuil, Martha takes a stand: “I want to sell.” And the Martha Stewart saga begins.
We all know what happened later after this alleged phone call. The government hauls Martha off to court and charges her with lying, obstructing justice and cheating investors in the stock market. The Martha Stewart story depicts a tough reality that all of us deal with every day. It's called temptation.
Everyone struggles against temptations. The rich, the poor, the young and the old all struggle alike with temptations of one type or another. No one is exempt.
People trying to lead a Christian life or at least a decent one don't want to give in to their temptations. Yet too often our temptations get the upper hand on us. Why? Many people don't know enough about temptations to overcome them. I think Lent offers an excellent opportunity to learn how to deal with our everyday temptations. So where do we begin?
A 12-year-old girl at a language academy where I work as chaplain asked me once: “Father, what's a temptation?” Sounds like an easy question — but for many it isn't. Quite a few adults don't know how to answer this question. Some modern secular thinkers characterize temptations as dominant character flaws.
The Fathers of the Church offer a more accurate description of temptations. They define temptations as a solicitation to do evil by our spiritual enemies.
This answer opens the door to another fundamental question: Who are these spiritual enemies, and why do they want us to do what is evil? Scripture speaks of three spiritual enemies: Satan, the world and our concupiscence. We could call this an axis of evil we face every day.
Let's start with enemy No. 1: Satan. He's a fallen angel and the most powerful malignant force working against us. He hates God and man. If you need proof of his existence, just look around at what's going on in our world today. Why does he tempt us to sin? He wants to pull us down, body and soul, into hell to suffer horrendous torments for all eternity. Think about it.
Then there's the world. When Scripture speaks of the world as our enemy, it's not referring to God's creation, which is good. It's speaking about worldliness, which emphasizes enjoying only the here and now as the sole purpose of life.
And finally, there's concupiscence. Most people today haven't a clue what concupiscence is or means. It's not as difficult as it might sound. In general, concupiscence means desire or covetousness. More precisely, it refers to our disordered desires that come from original sin, which remains in us even after baptism.
I think the most practical question people have about their temptations is how to defeat them. The Church recommends a three-step defense.
Step 1: prevention. Remember what a good doctor always says to his patients: One ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Our Lord sums up this maxim by warning his apostles to “keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Watchfulness implies knowing your temptations and avoiding them.
For example, a certain person always drinks too much with his friends at the local bar. He makes a decision: “I'm not going to drink anymore.” Excellent. Yet he convinces himself he can continue to enjoy the company of his friends at the bar without drinking. He's stepping in front of an oncoming truck. If he steps foot in the bar, he's not going to resist that smooth scotch on the rocks that takes the edge off a long day at work.
Our vigilance against temptations should center on our weak points with prayer and the sacraments. This places God on our side and renders us almost invincible.
No matter how hard we try, we can't prevent everything. Some temptations will surprise us. For this we need Step 2: know how to resist an unexpected temptation. When a temptation tries to pick a fight, ignore it by turning your mind to something else. Don't debate it or caress it. Reject it. Be tenacious until it subsides.
This brings us to Step 3: always give thanks to God after overcoming temptation. This is a duty of gratitude and the best means of obtaining new graces at the opportune moment to tackle future temptations. Humility attracts God's grace and grace gives us victory.
In a word, we shouldn't be discouraged by our temptations but recall the words of the Master: “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
Legionary Father Andrew McNair teaches at Mater Ecclesiae International Center of Higher Studies for consecrated women in Greenville, Rhode Island.
----- EXCERPT: The phone rings. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Mcnair, Lc ----- KEYWORDS: Commentry -------- TITLE: St. Thomas Aquinas and Space Exploration DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:We're sinking in record federal debt, mired in a war and wallowing in moral and social decay. What a great time for President Bush to announce “a new plan to explore space and extend a human presence across our solar system.”
The “new” in the plan is the goal “to carry astronauts beyond our orbit to other worlds,” establishing the moon as a manned launching station by 2020. From there, NASA will aim to send astronauts to Mars. After Mars? “We do not know where this journey will end. Yet we know this: Human beings are headed into the cosmos.”
Heading into the cosmos ain't cheap. NASA's annual budget is already $86 billion — yes, billion. By clever reallocation of funds, $11 billion can be shifted around to help pay the new bills, but Bush is asking for an increase of $200 million per year for the next five years.
Having said all this, readers likely expect me to release a jeremiad about how we ought to be spending the money locally, shoring up our earthly abode rather than frivoling our way spaceward, strewing billions of indiscriminate dollars out the portal as we shuttle off into the unknown.
Sed contra, to quote my favorite advocate of space exploration, St. Thomas Aquinas. As the 13th century philosopher, the human mind is in potential to all being; that is, we naturally desire to know everything. Indeed, it is this natural desire that defines us as rational animals, the only earthly creatures made in the image of God.
Bush was at pains to try to sell space exploration in terms of merely utilitarian goals, noting that research related to such exploration resulted “in weather forecasting, in communications, in computing, search-and-rescue technology, robotics and electronics.” If that weren't enough to sell it to the skeptical, Bush pointed out that “medical technologies that help prolong life, such as the image processing used in CAT scanners and MRI machines, trace their origins to technology engineered for use in space.”
All true, all very true, but I suspect such technologies could have been produced in far less expensive and roundabout ways. The simple truth is the human mind desires to know what is out there, and whatever pretenses to practicality we might make, there is ultimately no other reason why we are driven by the utterly impractical and utterly human desire to explore the cosmos than the desire to know.
Bush seemed to understand this, however dimly. As he remarked, “We've undertaken space travel because the desire to explore and understand is part of our character.” Unfortunately, he presented this admirable trait as merely part of the American character, linking it to the Lewis and Clark expedition.
His rousing finale was thereby dampened by stooping to the merely political realm. “Mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea. We choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives and lifts our national spirit.” Space exploration therefore appears to be only an extension of the restlessness that defines our national character.
What Bush should have said was this: “Mankind is drawn across unknown lands and across open seas because our human spirit is inevitably drawn to the heavens. If we seize upon the full ramifications of this desire, both our lives and our spirits would be considerably uplifted.”
If we would really dwell without prejudice upon the outrageous impracticality of space travel, we would discover two very important and uplifting truths. First of all, for too long science has been dominated by materialist reductionism, where human beings are merely a rather agitated complex of chemicals. According to this view, our every thought and action, no matter how elevated each might appear, can ultimately be reduced to some very mean and very practical sub-rational push — the desire to avoid death, the desire to procure sex, the desire to protect our rung on the social ladder. These ignoble desires are, in turn, merely echoes of some genetic or molecular gyrations hidden far beneath our senses.
But here before our very eyes we find human beings spending outrageous sums of money in clear defiance of the reductionist dictates of Freud, Marx, Darwin and the rest of the modern materialist pantheon. Here we find human beings showing themselves to be ultimately irreducible to merely practical, earthly and earthy creatures. Here we have spiritual creatures who want to know — independent of any practical benefit that might ever be reaped for their bodies — everything. We thereby prove ourselves not satisfied with the Earth because we are ultimately a fusion of dust and divine breath, and, like God, knowing for its own sake is an inextricable part of our nature.
There is a second, related truth we shall discover. For some centuries we have carried about a fiction that Earth is nothing special — one of a number of possible worlds dotting the cosmos. Thus human life is nothing special, for there must be countless worlds with myriad forms of intelligent life in nearly every corner of the universe.
That assessment, it turns out, was based on ignorance of the actual complexity of conditions that make life on Earth possible. As we learn more about the fragile design that allows for such biological opulence as we experience, we realize that fewer and fewer cosmic locations would prove hospitable.
Bush is planning to send manned missions to the moon, Mars and beyond. These are not to be quick rides through space and then back home for the crew. Rather he has in mind setting up long-term living quarters. In preparing for such missions, NASA will have to do an extraordinary amount of research into the very intricate and exacting conditions that make human life possible. As a result, we shall soon find out, in ever-greater detail, how extraordinary our humble planet really is.
How extraordinary? In a recent Register article, Father George Coyne of the Vatican Observatory estimated there are “at least 1,017 Earth-like planets … likely to exist in the universe.” Against this, I predict continued research into the cosmos, into the complex of conditions that make Earth-like planets possible and, finally, into the conditions that would allow for human beings to live for extended periods of time on the moon and Mars will reveal that the number of Earth-like planets that exist in the universe will approach ever nearer to one.
The one we happen to be standing on, staring into the heavens, animated by the desire to know all of creation.
Benjamin Wiker writes from Steubenville, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Benjamin Wiker ----- KEYWORDS: Commentry -------- TITLE: Why Edwards Could Have Won - But Didn't DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:Compared with most of his Democratic rivals, Sen. John Edwards was, well, stunningly under-qualified to be president.
Yet what he accomplished in this primary season — the only contender to Sen. John Kerry left standing on Super Tuesday — was nothing short of extraordinary. He eschewed mudslinging, which everyone pretends to abhor but which everyone seems to use to get an edge. But even without it, the one-term senator brought down three Goliaths: not only the formidable Dr. Howard Dean but also four-star general Wesley Clark and one-time vice-presidential nominee Dick Gephardt.
How? It's the stump speech. Edwards barnstormed the country talking about “two Americas”: one rich, one poor. He spoke of workers who toil longer hours while enjoying only slight increases in income. Not only were wealthy Americans reaping the rewards of increased productivity, but their tax burden also has been lightened while middle-class families pay an increasing share of taxes.
The picture was somewhat exaggerated; except for those who lost their jobs in the restructuring of American industry, most workers are better off now than they were before the technological boom, which brought dramatically increased productivity. The median real income at the end of 2002 was 6% higher than it was in 1995 and 21% higher than in 1970. Income inequality between rich and poor is still increasing but at a slower rate in recent years.
If families are having a harder time making ends meet, rampant consumerism is largely to blame, increased saving the solution. But Edwards struck a chord and Catholic politicians should take notice. The idea of a living wage, a family wage, is deeply rooted in the Catholic tradition. Catholics who have flocked to the Republican Party for fundamental moral reasons ought not to forget the broader social teaching of the Church.
Edwards is not the first politician to use this rhetoric of the two nations. In the 19th century, Benjamin Disraeli rose to become prime minister of Great Britain by talking about two Englands, rich and poor. His 1845 novel Sybil, or the Two Nations proposed a way for political leaders to bridge the chasm between rich and poor.
Disraeli's strategy was to play both sides against the middle. In his early years in Parliament, Disraeli identified himself as a “radical Tory.” In our political terms, this would sound something like “populist Republican.” Disraeli out-flanked the liberal establishment of his day, the educated, professional, bureaucratic class, by forming an alliance between the monarchy and the working classes.
Disraeli recognized that the motive power of modern government is public opinion. His genius was to mobilize public opinion behind conservative moral values, epitomized by Queen Victoria, by creatively addressing the legitimate needs of working people. Disraeli thus revitalized and recreated the Tory Party and helped Victorian morality permeate all ranks of society.
Indeed, Disraeli recognized that moral issues and workers' issues frequently intersect. Economic pressures in the early industrial revolution forced many women out of the home and into the workplace. Children were growing up without moral supervision, and the marriage bond was weakening. Even worse, children were frequently forced into factories and mines at an early age, sacrificing their spiritual and physical health to the industrial system.
Disraeli fought for limitations on the hours women and children could work. His reforms also increased wages for male breadwinners, enabling women to return to the home and raise their children. The new Victorian morality was largely passed on by these stay-at-home moms.
While populist, Disraeli as prime minister avoided creating a big government. Whenever possible, he promoted reform by passing permissive laws rather than compulsory restrictions. That is, his government offered financial incentives to local communities to move toward better living and working conditions for the poor. For example, the 1875 Artisans' Dwelling Act offered government loans to cities that built working-class housing.
Disraeli's policy of “persuasion and example” at the local level, rather than excessive regulation, was thoroughly in keeping with the Catholic idea of subsidiarity, that central authorities ought not to interfere with communities in local matters. One of his characters argues that England “should think more of the community and less of the government.” Disraeli's vision of society was “a free monarchy, established on fundamental laws, itself the apex of a vast pile of municipal and local government.”
Disraeli's moral reforms might have lasted longer had he not combined patriotism with imperialism, drawing his kingdom into foreign entanglements. Imperialism, including the Middle Eastern morass that has been bequeathed to us, sapped Britain's national strength and will during the endless wars of the 20th century.
John Edwards can take heart from the fact that Disraeli, despised at first for his originality as well as his Jewishness, rode his “two nations” rhetoric from the back benches of Parliament all the way to Downing Street. But Edwards should also take caution from Disraeli's story, because it points to the weakness in his own political agenda.
The common people are generally conservative, patriotic, rooted in their local soil. Disraeli recognized that no program of economic reform would engage the minds and hearts of the working classes unless it were combined with an appeal to national pride and traditional values. Edwards offers no such appeal.
This Democratic primary season has been encouraging in that the anointed candidate of the media, Dr. Dean, was trounced by ordinary people in local communities who trudged through snow and rain to express their preferences. But the old, unionized working classes are gone, and the Democrats will never succeed in bringing the new working class into the political process so long as they are tied to feminist and homosexual ideologues and to partisans of big central government.
On the other hand, what an opportunity for some Catholic politician to follow in Disraeli's footsteps, realigning the political parties by playing both ends against the middle, mobilizing religious conservatives and working people behind a program of family values and social justice.
Scott McDermott's biography Charles Carroll of Carrollton: Faithful Revolutionary is currently available at www.scepterpublishers.org.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Scott McDermott ----- KEYWORDS: Commentry -------- TITLE: What a Croc DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:Spirit and life
To be in the public eye is to get into trouble. Just ask Steve Irwin, television's well-known “Crocodile Hunter.”
Irwin is accustomed to being in the news. Frankly, people who hang out with big-toothed reptiles and poisonous critters can expect to wind up in the National Enquirer if not National Geographic.
But Irwin drew criticism by taking his baby son into a crocodile-feeding pen. This happened in front of a large crowd at Irwin's zoo in Australia. So lots of pictures showed up with Irwin feeding a chicken to the croc with one hand while holding the baby in his other.
This brought cries of “foul” from various do-gooders. Child-welfare folks were outraged, although they couldn't figure out a law he had violated (nothing on the books about croc feeding while in possession of a baby). Some politicians expressed their concern, probably because they thought some voters were concerned. Some people cried “child endangerment — what sort of father would take his baby into a pen with a ravenous crocodile?”
In response, Irwin said his only mistake was having the video camera on while he was feeding the croc accompanied by his tyke. Thinking about the incident this feast of St. Joseph, I'm inclined to agree.
No, I'm not suggesting that having a baby in a crocodile-feeding pen is the wisest thing to do. I certainly wouldn't do it. But, of course, you wouldn't get me into the pen, with or without a baby.
But I figure Irwin probably knows what he is doing. He has been handling nasty animals his entire life. And I figure parents do lots of other things that put their children in danger: Putting children on any sort of recreational vehicle — motorcycle, ATV, personal watercraft, surf-board, ski, skateboard or bicycle — without proper instruction or a helmet. Failing to supervise children who ride a horse, pet a dog or play with a cat. (Horses kick, dogs bite and cats scratch.) Sending children to public schools that squash every semblance of faith or religion. Not teaching children how to swim. Not teaching children how to read and write. Teaching children to read and write and then allowing them to read the many popular series of children's books that celebrate witchcraft, alternative lifestyles or moral relativism. Allowing children to watch all but a very few of the programs appearing on television. Pushing children to participate in sports they hate. Feeding children a steady diet of junk food. Allowing children unfiltered access to the Internet.
In other words, I expect the Irwin baby is safer with his father in the croc pen than lots of suburban kids are in their own homes.
Irwin has the experience and knowledge to protect his son from those big teeth; lots of American parents fail to protect their children from every manner of spiritual, mental and physical assault.
To be honest, I rather admire Steve Irwin. He makes television programs the whole family can watch, he runs a zoo and he made a campy movie that is good clean fun. He travels the world, meets interesting people and entertains huge crowds. He likes animals and promotes the great outdoors. And he hunts crocs and diapers babies with his wife, Terri, from Eugene, Ore. She founded a rehab center for injured wild animals before marrying Irwin more than a decade ago.
The Irwins appear to be an animal-adoring match made in heaven — and not such a bad example of family.
Jim Fair writes from Chicago.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jim Fair ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: He Always Reigns in Southern California DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:You can't miss them as they stride purposefully to the front of the church, the two solidly built men in bright tropical shirts.
Once at the front they move to the corners, then turn to face the congregation and lift conch shells to their lips. The first blast fills the air with shimmering sound, the second and the third echo on top of it, leaving everyone's ears ringing as they stand for the Gospel reading.
The bimonthly Samoan Mass is one of the highlights of the St. Joseph Church calendar.
About 65% of the Santa Ana, Calif., church's parishioners are Spanish-speakers. Samoan Catholics travel from across Orange County to celebrate Mass at this church, incorporating their native traditions into a typical Southern California Mass — in a not-too-typical English Gothic church.
In its early days, Santa Ana — now a city with eight Catholic churches (soon to be nine, after the Diocese of Orange builds its new cathedral there) — had a majority of other denominations. In 1887, the Catholic minority opened Our Lady of the Rosary, the first Catholic church in town and the third in Orange County.
During the summer of 1896, a fire broke out under mysterious circumstances three hours after Mass had let out. At the time, there was some speculation that the anti-Catholic American Protective Association might have been behind it. Santa Ana residents made it clear that not all non-Catholics felt the way the association did; the entire town helped to rebuild the church.
The current church building opened on Thanksgiving Day 1947 to much fanfare. It's still a jaw-dropper.
To the right of the entrance is a chapel with several niches, each holding a statue of a saint. Kneelers are conveniently located in front of the niches, facilitating private prayer and meditation. Each saint is especially important to a different cultural community St. Joseph serves.
Rosary Glories
The Hispanic community has a special devotion to St. Anthony, for instance, while Santo Niño is particularly important to the Filipino community. They hold an annual procession to carry the statue to the church. Each of the statues were gifts presented by representatives of different communities, Father Christopher Smith, the pastor, told me.
Inside the nave, it's easy to imagine it's still 1947. The glorious stained-glass windows depict the 15 mysteries of the rosary, commemorating the original church built 60 years before this one, and each pew is carved with a “Crusader's cross.” This motif is repeated throughout the church. Outside, the bell tower stands a proud 100 feet tall, and the open belfry allows the sound of bells to travel in every direction, as the architects explained in the dedication booklet.
A landmark in downtown Santa Ana, close to the hustle of the business district and just blocks away from the county courthouse and governmental offices, St. Joseph looks like a throwback to a different era — but it's far from lagging behind the times.
Even back in the '40s it was a trendsetter; St. Joseph opened with a built-in public-address system and six audiophones for parishioners who were hard of hearing.
Today the church has expanded its focus to serving the community outside the church walls — Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
The Noah Project learning center, where last year 40 volunteers worked with 115 children, gives kids a place to go in the afternoons before their parents get home from work. The after-school learning program is open to any neighborhood kids attending elementary school, whether or not they attend St. Joseph school or church. (The teen Noah Project meets down the street at an Episcopal church.)
Through its Loaves and Fishes program, St. Joseph provides a meal for homeless people and low-income families. Every Saturday close to 800 people come to the parish for this meal, which is served not only by volunteers from St. Joseph but also from across the county.
Cultural differences within the church and faith differences outside it have only served to bring the parish of St. Joseph closer together. Holidays such as Thanksgiving bring a multicultural Mass at which Samoan, Hispanic and Anglo parishioners jointly celebrate their different traditions.
But, even on the most ordinary of Sundays in ordinary time, there are Spanish-language Masses and the bimonthly Samoan Mass complete with conch shells, the radiant song of the Samoan choir and the flowers laid at the altar.
“There's a real sense of unity here,” Father Smith says.
It's a sense that's palpable even to visitors stopping in to enjoy the sounds of the Samoan choir.
Elisabeth Deffner writes from
Orange, California.
St. Joseph, Pray for Us
“The extreme discretion with which Joseph carried out the role entrusted to him by God highlights his faith … which consisted in always listening to the Lord, seeking to understand his will and to obey it with his whole heart and strength,” Pope John Paul II said in a 2002 Angelus message. “This is why the Gospel describes him as a ‘just’ man (Matthew 1:19). In fact, the just man is the person who prays, lives by faith and seeks to do good in every concrete circumstance of life.” The Church celebrates the solemnity of St. Joseph, spouse of the Virgin Mary and patron of the universal Church, on March 19.
----- EXCERPT: St. Joseph Church, Santa Ana, Calif. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Elisabeth Deffner ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
MARCH, VARIOUS DATES
The Journey of Sacagawea
PBS, check local listings
Two centuries ago, young mother Sacagawea, or Bird Woman, helped guide the Lewis and Clark Expedition on its epic journey to the Pacific Northwest. This special from Idaho Public Television and Idanha Films visits North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Oregon to tell Sacagawea's story through vivid re-enactments and little-cited oral histories of the Agaidika-Lemhi Shoshoni, MandanHidatsa and Nez Perce tribes.
SUNDAY, MARCH 14
Tasting Ireland
Food Network, 9 p.m.
Looking for some traditional dishes for St. Patrick's Day? Get tips just in time from Bobby Flay as he goes right to the source and finds great recipes in the Emerald Isle.
MONDAYS
Total Consecration
Familyland TV, 10 p.m.
This Peace of Heart Forum Classic episode features Father Frederick Miller and Apostolate for Family Consecration co-founder Jerry Coniker. They discuss how to offer everything in life to Jesus through Mary. Re-airs Wednesdays at 1 p.m. and Thursdays at 10 a.m.
MONDAY, MARCH 15
The Journey Home
EWTN, 8 p.m.
Marcus Grodi's guest, ex-Buddhist Kim St. Maurice, recounts the joy of coming to Christ and the Church.
TUESDAY, MARCH 16
Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome
Discovery Channel, 9 p.m.
“I did not know men could build such things!” exclaimed a newcomer to ancient Rome upon first seeing the Colosseum in one of those toga-and-sword epics. This special escorts us to the giant arena and six more architectural marvels in the city on the Tiber.
TUESDAY, MARCH 16
Eyewitness in Iraq
History Channel, 10 p.m.
Find out what it was like to be a reporter “embedded” with U.S. troops in the Iraq war.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17
Designers' Challenge
Home & Garden TV, 3:30 p.m.
This episode, “Family-Centered Kitchen and Den,” focuses on Steve and Ellen Klinenberg, who have two little girls and are looking forward to the birth of their next baby. They select designers to make their home more family-friendly.
FRIDAY, MARCH 19
Mission: Organization
Home & Garden TV, 2 p.m.
Watch Maxwell Ryan give Amy Gulden's small, city apartment more roominess than anyone thought possible.
SATURDAY, MARCH 20
Pat Sajak's Ballpark Tour
Travel Channel, 9 p.m.
Baseball's spring-training camps are in full swing (pun intended), so get ready for the new season by joining TV personality Pat Sajak on a two-hour private tour of baseball stadiums in the American League (9 p.m.) and the National League (10 p.m.).
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Prayer, Contemplation, Study - and a Booming Business DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:Our former neighbors, the monks of St. Joseph's Abbey in Massachusetts, are well known for their Trappist Preserves jams and jellies.
Here at our Florida monastery, we run a Catholic bookstore and make clocks. (Our design features a CD for the clock face; printed on this is an encouragement to “Make Time for God.”)
Meanwhile my Internet work has earned me the moniker “Cybermonk.” And I recently learned I'm not the only monk tapping into technology to put a modern spin on the ancient tradition of monks working to support themselves.
Now there are “LaserMonks” — your source for ink, toner, fax and copier supplies!
The Cistercian Abbey in Sparta, Wis., began this endeavor in 2001. Their gross revenue was only $2,000 in 2002. In 2003 it soared to $500,000 — and, this year, they are expected to triple or quadruple that.
I immediately grew interested when learning about this. Not only was I intrigued by the monks' entrepreneurial spirit, but I also wanted to find out if I could save money on imaging supplies like their other customers. Here at the monastery, we have a laser printer and inkjet printer that we bought along with two laser printers and a photocopy machine that were donated.
All these machines work, but we use only one laser printer. Why? Because replacing the cartridges is so expensive — $80 to $100 for remanufactured cartridges for the laser printers and photocopy machine. And remanufactured inkjet cartridges aren't cheap, either. In fact, if you've ever wondered why prices are so low on printers these days, there's your answer. The sellers entice you with very affordable printers in hopes of being your ink (or toner) supplier for years to come.
It turns out Cistercian Father Bernard McCoy got the idea for his business one day when he was looking for a toner cartridge for one of his monastery printers. He was struck by how expensive it was just to buy a little “black dust and a few squirts of ink.” Father Bernard decided there just had to be a better way.
He did some research on imaging supplies and what he found shocked him: retail markups on ink supplies that reached as high as 2,000% over cost. As he explains at lasermonks.com, he also discovered many companies that manufacture either new-compatible cartridges, or remanufactured cartridges, at a fraction of the cost of the big-name brands.
“My thoughts started racing,” he says. “‘Imagine the money we could save schools, churches and other organizations if we could negotiate some deals with the manufacturers directly and cut out the middlemen.’”
Every monastery has a monk in charge of all the temporal needs and activities of the community. As steward of temporal affairs, Father Bernard's duties include developing and managing ways to support his community's life and charities.
At the time he went looking for the toner cartridge, the abbey was considering various income-generating projects. Ideas on the table included a Shitake mushroom farm, Christmas-tree nursery and golf course or conference center. The prospect of a toner and ink-cartridge business struck like an answer to prayer, for the manufacturers were elated. Not only did they want Father Bernard to sell to schools, churches and nonprofits but also — no, especially — to businesses. After all, the monks would combine their reputation for trustworthy service and top-quality products with cheaper prices — all to benefit the monks and other charities. Who could refuse?
A college friend of Father Bernard's put him in touch with a marketing and public-relations agency in California. That led to one story after another in a variety of publications, not to mention numerous appearances on radio shows and speaking engagements. As hoped, the exposure led to “mushrooming” sales (of a nonShitake variety). Soon the abbey was scrambling to keep up with the development of its business.
I'm sure this time was as difficult as it was delightful. After all, the monks could not let the demands of their business cut into their life of prayer, spiritual reading and study. Then, in another answer to prayer, help appeared. Two ladies in Colorado had an upand-running Web site selling ink cartridges, and they wanted to sell their business. They offered to travel to Wisconsin to help the monks get their operation organized.
This led to a merger whereby these two ladies decided to reside in one of the houses on the corner of the abbey property. They agreed to handle order processing, customer service and manufacturer relations under the company name of MonkHelper Marketing. This left the monks free to focus on developing the business, and finding creative ways of using their income to help others — and praying.
Today the monks continue their tradition of hospitality online. Not only is their Web site a virtual store, but it also allows the monks to reach out with spiritual helps. Prayer requests are welcomed; reflections are offered. Father Robert, the superior, offers a humorous view of the monks' life through the eyes of the abbey mascots, an Egyptian pharaoh hound and a Doberman pinscher. A monthly e-newsletter provides useful articles and hints relating to efficient management of printing and printers.
There are other monkish touches that distinguish LaserMonks from its competitors. For example, a handwritten note of thanks and encouragement from the monks is included with each shipment. Those who phone in their orders are greeted with a cheerful, encouraging and thankful telephone service that includes their own Gregorian chant for those put on hold.
Perhaps you could buy your next ink refill from LaserMonks. If you do, you'll be supporting an ancient tradition. After all, monks copied and illuminated manuscripts, especially sacred Scripture, in scriptoriums for hundreds of years. They had to refill bottles of ink for their quill pens. So they are old hands at this!
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: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:Off we go into the world of online monasteries …
As mentioned above, St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Mass., is known for its Trappist Preserves jams, jellies and marmalades. You can visit the community that makes the sweet spreads at spencer-abbey.org. Learn about their history, retreat house, and daily schedule, plus find links to other Trappist monasteries.
St. Leo Abbey, at saintleoabbey.org, is a Benedictine community near us here in Florida. They have a guesthouse, retreat center, gift shop, newsletter and photos on their Web site. Oh, yes, and they run a university, too (St. Leo University).
The Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani, Ky., is well known for one of its members, acclaimed author Thomas Merton. You can visit them online at monks.org and learn of their history, monastic life, retreats, food gifts and bookstore.
The Brigittine Monks at the Priory of Our Lady of Consolation in Amity, Ore., revived in 1976 after being extinct largely due to the European wars in the middle of the 19th century. They are known for their hard-to-resist Chocolate Fudge Royale. Go for a virtual visit at brigittine.org.
Of course I would be remiss if I didn't mention my own community's Web site — monksofadoration.org. With more than 1,400 pages of information along with photos, games, chapel Webcam, video, audio and more, it will make you feel welcome for hours. At least, that's our prayer!
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:Cats and Dogs (2001)
Not to be confused with The Truth About Cats and Dogs, this whimsical family film depicts a world in which cats are megalomaniacal plotters bent on taking over the world, while dogs are counter-insurgency operatives devoted to protecting mankind. Cat lovers might consider this pro-dog propaganda, but there's a good reason why stories make heroes out of dogs more often than cats. We may appreciate and even admire cats for what God has made them — cunning and curious — but we have more in common with domesticated canines, which are unfailingly social, than with their often-solitary feline counterparts.
Like Spy Kids, Cats and Dogs involves a hidden world of colorful, high-powered espionage lurking beneath prosaic appearances. Unfortunately, Cats and Dogs lacks Spy Kids' inspired visual design, engaging characterizations and winningly positive view of parenthood and family life.
What it does have is a comparable level of rollicking energy along with some real laughs. The slapstick violence is in the Looney Tunes tradition, and familiar animal traits are a source of humor. (In one scene, a canine agent races through an underground tunnel in a rocket car — with his head stuck out the window.)
Reasonably clever and entertaining, it runs out of steam before the end. Still, it's good clean fun.
Content advisory: Cartoon violence; brief mild profanity.
Schindler's List (1993)
Finally available on DVD, Schindler's List is one of the 15 films on the Vatican film list in the category “Values.”
The Holocaust remains the modern world's most enduring icon of pure evil, yet Schindler's List dares to find in this story of depravity, horror and moral conflict something that is “an absolute good.” Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a self-aggrandizing war profiteer and womanizing adulterer, is no paragon of virtue — but his list, the list that eventually saves more than a thousand Jews from extermination — “The list is life.”
Spielberg reaches past our defenses by suggesting rather than showing: He knows there is as much horror in a mountain of shoes and personal effects whose owners won't be needing them again as in a mountain of bodies. One of the film's most ghastly moments is a mere rude gesture from a small child.
Spielberg makes us feel the collapsing expectations of people much like ourselves: middle-class Krakow families initially appalled at the indignity and inconvenience of being herded into ghetto apartments — only to discover that each apartment must be shared with numerous others. Small touches of color — a candle flame; a child's coat, bright red — bring the enormity of the tragedy into excruciating focus.
Content advisory: Graphic depictions of Holocaust-era violence and death; brief nudity (both nonsexual and sexual); some sexual immorality; a few obscenities.
Modern Times (1936)
Available in numerous formats, including a two-disc DVD special edition, Modern Times is one of the 15 films on the Vatican film list in the category “Art.”
Silent films were already old-fashioned when Charlie Chaplin completed Modern Times. A silent film for the sound era, Modern Times is a comic masterpiece that remains approachable today.
In part, this is because the film looks toward the future, though not with enthusiasm. Often called a satire of the machine age, Modern Times actually treats the dehumanizing effects of many aspects of modernity, including industrialization, bureaucracy and urbanization. Yet it doesn't morph into a political tract but remains a slapstick tragi-comedy in the Little Tramp tradition. It touches on social issues, but obliquely, with a light touch, in the context of comic misadventures.
The Tramp is a quintessentially silent character, almost a mime, interacting with his world but never really entering into it. He's an eternal outsider, forever looking hopefully for his place in the world but always finally moving on, his back to the camera and his face to the horizon. Modern Times is both true to this heritage and also softens it. A worthy last hurrah for an immortal character, a great body of work and an era of cinema.
Content advisory: Some comic violence; a depiction of a quasi-marital or common-law marriage relationship; unintentional drug use.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D, Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:In Defense of Catholics
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Feb. 25 — Outraged by an anti-Catholic sculpture at Washburn University, public schools in Wichita, Kan., have barred visits from university recruiters. Following the lead of local Catholic high schools, Wichita's Board of Education voted Feb. 23 to ban recruiters until the “Holier Than Thou” statue at the university is removed from campus.
The sculpture depicts a grimacing bishop wearing a miter, which some have said resembles male genitalia.
Washburn University said the Wichita's schools' action was “unfortunate.”
Woman President
PITTSBURGE POST-GAZETTE, Feb. 24 — St. Bonaventure University in New York has named its first woman president.
Sister Margaret Carney, who is currently the university's senior vice president for Franciscan charism — a position in which she is responsible for making sure Franciscan values are lived out on campus in everyday life — will replace Father Dominic Monti on June 1.
She has held her current position since March 2003, after school officials sought to instill those values in the basketball program, which was marked by scandal last year.
Then president Robert Wick-enheiser, the head basketball coach and the athletic director resigned after it was found a player who was ineligible was allowed to play anyway.
Discrimination?
BAYSIDE (N.Y.) TIMES-LEDGER, Feb. 26 — A federal court judge in Brooklyn, N.Y., has thrown out a lawsuit brought by the mother of two schoolchildren who claimed the Department of Education was discriminating against Christians for not allowing Nativity scenes on school grounds. Andrea Skoros, a Catholic, said the department unfairly favored Muslim and Jewish religious symbols in school holiday displays by forbidding Nativity scenes, although Christmas trees were permitted, the paper reported. “Exclusion of the creche from holiday displays is not discriminator y or hostile toward Christianity but rather serves the holiday display policy's secular purpose,” said Judge Charles Sifton in his Feb. 18 decision.
Skoros' attorney said the case would be appealed.
Downward Trend
The college announced Feb. 26 that tuition for full-time students (those who take 12 or more credit hours) will drop next year from $14,400 to $8,544.
Officials said research showed the college was becoming unaffordable to students interested in attending. “The public has viewed the price of Lourdes College as a barrier,” said Robert Helmer, who was inaugurated Feb. 29 as the college's seventh president.
Par t-time students, however, will see an 8% increase, from $330 to $356 per credit hour.
Human Harvest
KPRC-TV (Houston), March 1 — Har vard University confirmed Feb. 29 it plans to set up a privately funded research center to grow and study human embryonic stem cells.
A statement from the university said the center would stay within the laws and regulations on research for such stem cells. President Bush in 2002 allowed federal funding only for work to be done on existing stem-cell lines. To harvest stem cells, researchers must destroy human embryos.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Brotherhood of Hope Reaches Catholics on Secular Campuses DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:BOSTON — Secular colleges and universities aren't often the places where one expects to find great faith.
Yet the Brotherhood of Hope is having extraordinary success reaching those students who have fallen away from their faith on three such college campuses.
Founded in 1980 by Father Philip Merdinger and four other men, the Brotherhood of Hope is a Boston-based canonically-recognized Catholic community of brothers and priests serving young adults, providing a men's ministry, teaching catechesis and leading campus-based retreats.
The brotherhood currently works in campus ministry at Boston University, the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and Florida State University in Tallahassee.
Through their Eucharistic-centered retreats, Bible studies and committed presence on campus, the community's 20 brothers and priests are reaching many lapsed and uncommitted Catholics.
Christine Songy was first impressed by the dedication of the Brotherhood of Hope while a junior at Boston University.
While on a fall retreat, Father Paul Helfrich agreed to hear the college students' confessions. Although Father Helfrich had invited a second priest to help, the second priest had to leave after only an hour. Father Helfrich, on the other hand, remained for six hours until every student had a chance to receive the sacrament of reconciliation.
“He was up until 2 a.m. That made an impact on me,” said Songy, who graduated as valedictorian of her undergraduate class and now works as a physical therapist in Norfolk, Va. “Here was a man who was devoted to helping us grow closer to God. It was very Christlike.”
That dedication manifests itself in sometimes-unconventional ways on the various campuses where the brotherhood operates.
At the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Brother Ken Apuzzo Jr. leads a weekly Bible study with the school's Division 1 hockey team. Half the team attends the study every Wednesday night at the ice arena.
Brother Patrick Reilly, who holds a black belt in karate, teaches self-defense classes in the residence halls, and on moving day the brothers help students move into the dormitories.
“This allows the students to see that the brothers are normal guys,” Brother Apuzzo said. “That way when you later invite them to a larger event such as Mass or a retreat, they come. Oftentimes it is only because of our personal relationship with them that they will come.”
And come they do. At the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, the attendance at Mass and other ministry events has clearly increased. Songy witnessed a similar expansion at Boston University after the brotherhood arrived there four years ago.
“Eucharistic adoration went from once a semester to once a month to every other week to every week,” she said. “Praise-and-worship night went from every other week to weekly.”
As a result of the students now evangelizing their own peers, the number of Boston University students attending retreats has more than quadrupled. Moreover, the Newman Center house is now too small for some of its events and programs.
Florida State
The growth at Florida State University is even more impressive, especially given that Catholics are a minority in North Florida.
There, nearly 1,600 of the campus' 30,000 students attend Mass weekly and about 150 attend a weekly Wednesday evening gathering. A recent retreat on campus drew more than 200 students with another 100 on a waiting list.
“I welcomed the Brotherhood of Hope into my diocese and assigned them to the campus ministry at Florida State University,” said former Pensacola-Tallahassee Bishop John Smith, who now serves the Diocese of Trenton, N.J. “I was pleased by their work with college students and impressed by their zeal and dedication.”
Still, it isn't always easy reaching students.
Brother Apuzzo said he sees a disconnection among students between God and the Church.
“Modern individualism has really influenced the spiritual life of our students,” Brother Apuzzo said. “They will say, ‘I believe in God, but I don't feel like I have to go to church.’ They often do not have a clearly articulated concern against the Church. It's mostly ignorance.”
The brothers work to change that. This often begins by building relationships and inviting students to smaller events, such as a social or sporting event or praise-and-worship night. The brothers spend much of their time finding non-threatening ways to enter into the student culture.
“We can often get them on a retreat before we can get them to Mass,” Brother Apuzzo added. “They come to see one another, but Mass is always where we are headed. It is the spiritual high point.”
Boston University alumni Songy agreed.
“I've seen the brotherhood pull in so many kids who would never be caught dead at a religious function,” she said.
Others have observed what they describe as a real spiritual transformation taking place among students.
“Prior to the brothers coming, campus ministry was primarily social. Now, the intensity of the spirituality is palpable,” said Thomas Neal, a religion teacher at John Paul II High School in Tallahassee, Fla., who first came to know the Brotherhood of Hope after its arrival at Florida State in 1994. “Lukewarm students become passionate about their faith.”
Neal said he has seen the work of the brotherhood produce many “rock-solid marriages” and vocations. This fall five men are entering the Pensacola-Tallahassee diocesan seminary. Four of them came through the brotherhood's ministry. In addition, a group of 15 young women on campus are currently discerning religious life.
In addition to the retreats the brotherhood hosts on campus each semester, it has also offered Hope on Campus retreats at other colleges such as the University of Maryland, Williams College and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Brother Apuzzo said the retreats are often a time of tremendous conversion.
“On Friday night we introduce them to Eucharistic adoration and explain why the Eucharist is so central to Catholic life,” he said. “At first, some are fearful. They've never seen it before.”
By Sunday, however, the brothers often witness a transformation.
“It's very uplifting to watch,” Brother Apuzzo continued. “By Sunday you can see the reverence in their body language and in the way they receive Communion. They recognize that they are receiving the real life of Jesus.”
“What's unique about the brothers are the consistently positive fruits that come from them and the effects they have on people,” Neal said. “They affect a lot of people even though their ministry is campus focused. They don't just affect the students but also the homeless population, the business community and family life.”
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: What Could They be Thinking? DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:INSIDE ISLAM: A GUIDE FOR CATHOLICS
by Daniel Ali and Robert Spencer
Ascension Press, 2003 179 pages, $11.99 To order: (800) 376-0520 ascensionpress.com
Like many American Catholics, I'm a latecomer to Islam. Until I started my research for a history text in 1999, the religion existed to me in outline form:
Then came Sept. 11, 2001. Suddenly Islam was neither a distant, exotic religion nor one with which the West could passively coexist.
It is this new awareness that informs Inside Islam: A Guide for Catholics, co-written by Daniel Ali, a Kurd expatriate and Catholic convert, and Robert Spencer, an author who has sounded the alarm against Islam in two other books and on his Web site, Jihad Watch (jihadwatch.org).
A factual, if polemical, collection of questions and answers, the book is a thorough overview of how the religion has developed, its beliefs and practices, how Muslims understand Christianity and why Christians can — and should — evangelize Muslims. For a proper perspective, the book concludes with the must-read Vatican II document Nostra Aetate, on the relation of the Church to non-Christian religions.
Every Catholic can learn something from this well-researched and accessible book, and the facts are fascinating. The reader will find out a Muslim's very different conception of God (Allah is a slave master, not a father), how Islam can be at once a “religion of peace” and justify war against the infidel, the concept of jihad as not a political aberration but a duty of Islam, the Muslim's esteem of Mary, why the Muslim accepts Jesus as a prophet but denies the Crucifixion and how an apparently mysterious religion has, in fact, little mystery at all.
By examining Islam, Spencer and Ali build a compelling apologetic for the veracity of Christianity. Even with the authors exercising a certain restraint — no calls for a crusade here — the reader will likely find himself face down before the nearest tabernacle in deep gratitude or examining himself for her lethargy in failing to proclaim the good news far and wide.
I once interviewed Ali before a lecture he gave with Jesuit Father Mitch Pacwa. There is nothing like the testimony of a convert to excite the believer — especially a convert who risks his life by leaving one faith for another. I wished Inside Islam had more of his personal story, more about the Christians whose example prompted him to begin his search for truth outside Islam, more about how his sense of justice was violated by his fellow Iraqis' lack of concern for the persecution of the Kurds. For conversion is not a mental exercise only but a matter of the heart as well.
Inside Islam makes it clear that the great difference between the two religions is not prayer habits or cultural backdrop or sacred writings but ultimately the startling central character of Christianity — Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is the inescapable Man of all history. The Muslim might attempt to diminish him, just as the secular man ignores him. But if anyone sincerely seeks to understand what we believe about him — if he sees him, alive, in the hope of his own heart — he will be pierced.
Perhaps Catholics should read this book just to light a fire in their hearts for evangelism. And then do something with it, like take a Muslim to the movies. There's a good one out right now.
Ellen Rossini writes from Richardson, Texas.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Elen Rossini ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: One Call Reached Two Brothers DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:Priest Profile
Fathers John and Vincent Higgins celebrated their first “Mass” together years ago in their parents' home in Millbrook, N.Y. They prepared grape juice in a special cup and shaped “hosts” from carefully pressed white bread.
“Even then,” Father John, the younger of the two, recalled jokingly, “my brother wouldn't let me be the main celebrant.”
The two brothers entered seminary in the same year, but Father John was ordained in May 1996 by Cardinal John O'Connor for the Archdiocese of New York. Father Vincent was ordained in January 2001 after 10 years of formation with the Legionaries of Christ by Cardinal Dario Hoyos Castrillon, head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy.
Now Father John, 35, is a parochial vicar at St. Gregory Barbarigo Parish in suburban Garnerville, N.Y. His brother, 37, is just across the Hudson River at the Legionaries' administrative headquarters in Thornwood, N.Y., where he serves as secretary to the congregation's North American provincial, Father Anthony Bannon.
Their parents, John and Bernadette Higgins of Millwood, N.Y., are understandably delighted their only two sons both answered the call to the priesthood. Rather than the Higgins name being passed to the next generation in this world, the elder Higgins says, he prays it will be “written in heaven” by his two priest sons. The couple has not been denied grandchildren, either. Their one daughter, Regina Syversen, is married and expecting her fourth child.
The parents of the two priests often are asked how they nurtured two vocations in a culture that can be hostile to lifetime commitments in general and celibacy in particular.
“Prayer and a consistent example of the faith at home,” the elder Higgins says.
His wife, a professional singer and musician, said she introduced her children to the riches of the faith through art and music, especially traditional Latin hymns.
“They saw from a young age that the Catholic faith is beautiful and something to embrace for life,” she says.
Neither brother remembers pressure from his parents to become a priest.
They had plenty of examples, however. Two of their mother's brothers answered the priestly call. Still living is Capuchin Father Angelus Shaughnessy, who served as a missionary in Papua New Guinea and now conducts a popular preaching and Web site ministry (www.fath erangelus.com) and appears regularly on EWTN.
“Our parents were always the paramount influence in our lives,” Father Vincent says. “They love the Church and they live their faith each day. We couldn't help but pick up that love and commitment.”
“My younger brother also was a big influence for me,” he adds. “He was the first to start talking about being a priest, and this had a big effect on me.”
Father John has had two parish assignments in very different areas of New York. He began at Holy Rosary in the Bronx, a busy inner-city parish. His present assignment is in scenic Rockland County. The joys and challenges of priesthood are the same everywhere, he says.
“I love being a priest more and more each year,” he says. “There is always more to learn and new ways to touch souls and bring them to a deeper relationship with God.”
When he took his promise of celibacy at ordination, he recalls, “I knew that it would open up avenues of grace for me and other people. God is always faithful.”
He has become a leader in the archdiocese in promoting natural family planning. He gave a talk to students last year at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers and made a similar presentation at the annual high school pro-life leadership day.
He works with the Couple to Couple League to offer natural family planning to all engaged couples at his parish. Some married couples also take the course, he reports.
“It is amazing how God has put it all together in the short year that we began parish-based courses,” Father John says. Father Vincent calls his priesthood “very fulfilling,” adding that there is “grace and joy in doing what God calls you to do.”
He spends his days mostly behind the scenes, working in the Legionaries' administrative offices, helping the congregation expand its apostolates throughout North America. One of the group's main missions is to support families through education and formation, he explains. A major work is Familia, a program that trains laypersons to spread the Church's teachings on family and human life within their own parishes.
“My job is to keep things going and growing,” Father Vincent says. “This is a great time for lay formation and a great time for the Church.”
Father John says a vocation “is not just for an individual but for a family.”
True to that spirit, after Father Vincent was ordained in Rome three years ago, the two priest brothers concelebrated a series of Masses at famous locations, beginning in St. Peter's Basilica, for their parents and other family members who traveled overseas for the ordination.
“It was important for my brother and I to show our family how much we appreciated their prayers and support over the years,” Father Vincent says. “There is no greater gift we could give than to offer the Holy Mass.”
Stephen Vincent is based in Wallingford, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Stephen Vincent ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Saint vs. Saint DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:St. Patrick Rocks …
The two great saints of March are very different from one another. But they share one certain distinction: Neither came from the place that most reveres him.
I have a special appreciation for this paradox as, in case you didn't notice the byline above, I'm named after both Patrick and Joseph.
While it is often remarked that Patrick was not born on the Emerald Isle of my forebears, Joseph was certainly not an Italian, and he is not even the patron saint of Italy (a title that belongs to native son Francis of Assisi).
Saints don't compete with each other, but we sure do — including when it comes to feasts and festivals. Everyone wants to have the biggest and best. With thanks to the Register for offering me the chance to say so in print: When it comes to the feasts of March 17 vs. March 19, the earlier party — Patrick's — wins in a landslide.
Like St. Joseph himself, March 19 is, well, modest. That's as it should be, as the date is not technically a feast; it's a liturgical solemnity. There might be some great things happening in the kitchen on St. Joseph's Day, but there are no greeting cards, parades or TV specials. Nor is there any special music associated with that day. It is observed as Father's Day in many countries, but few take it off.
This is not to say that St. Joseph's Day is not important for all Catholics. I remember a very special March 19 while working at Iona College in New Rochelle, a city in an area of Westchester County, N.Y., to which Italians continue to immigrate. It was a private Mass offered for the superb groundskeepers of the college, who, at the time, were all natives of Italy.
The congregation numbered just the men and a few guests. As befitting the quiet saint whose voice is never heard in Scripture, there was no singing, preaching or anything special beyond some St. Joseph's bread that was shared after Mass in a nearby office.
It was an honor to join those humble working men in their love of God and their great devotion to “San Giuseppe,” the saint of work, humility and fatherly kindness. While no religious service could have been more poignant, let me contrast that experience with the first March 17 I ever celebrated on New York's Fifth Avenue when I was about 12.
Remember, St. Patrick is more of a contemporary figure in that he was a missionary and activist, a fighter who took on the Irish pagan tribes and whipped them into a respectable Catholic people. He must have been quite a force, for his feast reminds us of his energy, sweeping us up in the great events of his life and legacy.
I felt this powerfully as I arrived at St. Patrick's Cathedral just ahead of the thundering boots of the 500 or so troops that were about to march into the cathedral for Mass.
In all, the men of the famous Fighting 69th Regiment, known as the “Irish Brigade” since before the Civil War, were in full-dress uniforms. Flags and battle standards abounded along with a few Irish wolfhounds, which took their posts at St. Patrick's great doors.
Scanning the massive congregation, I saw the mayor, the governor and leading congressmen sitting in the front rows. I recognized some of the TV newsmen and Jimmy Breslin, the columnist. Actress Helen Hayes was poised to do one of the readings.
And then came the religious procession: Scores of men in cassock and surplice moved through clouds of incense ahead of monsignors and bishops — lots of bishops — and then Cardinal Terence Cooke, the archbishop of New York, who took his throne as three visiting bishops from Ireland led the concelebrated Mass.
A mighty chorus sang hymns in English, Latin and Gaelic. At the consecration, a bugler sounded a solemn note as flags dipped in reverence. And all of this was just the kickoff for a five-hour parade through the center of the city!
Both of March's saints are my namesakes, and I talk to them all year long. And while St. Joseph, as patron of the universal Church, can be said to hold a higher place, Patrick is the saint with a knack for a party. He just makes for a greater day, a real celebration — the one to shoot the moon for.
Bottom line: Catholics can feel free to whoop it up (with sobriety and moderation, of course) come March 17. After all, there'll be plenty of time for quiet prayer and contemplation (punctuated by some admittedly delicious, Lent-friendly victuals) two days later.
Joseph Patrick Cullen writes from New York City.
… St. Joseph Rules
There's no doubt about it. Boston is an Irish town, more so than just about any other American city. Growing up Italian around here means you're usually more familiar with St. Patrick's feast day than with St. Joseph's.
In fact, March 17 is a real holiday in the city of Boston. Following just two days later, St. Joseph's comes off like an afterthought. It might be in a little bad taste to engage in a game of My Saint's Better Than Yours. But, in the interest of assuring fairness and balance on the liturgical calendar, some comparisons need to be drawn. Besides, I've never been accused of having good taste. (And if anyone's feathers get ruffled, blame the Register.
This was their idea.) Anyway, it's interesting the Irish choose to celebrate a saint whose origins are actually British and who only came to their country because he was enslaved by their ancestors.
To their credit, those ancient Celts realized their error and many were converted by his holy witness. Plus they knew a good snake-chaser when they saw one. On the other hand, we have St. Joseph, paragon of virtue, chosen by God as provider for and protector of the Second Person of the Trinity and his Mother.
Now that's a saint. Okay, just as Patrick wasn't born in Ireland, neither was Joseph born in Italy. Nor did he ever travel there. But the way he came to be associated with the country is inspiring in its own right.
The tradition of celebrating St. Joseph's day as a special feast began in the Middle Ages, during a severe drought in Sicily. The legend goes that the people called on St. Joseph in prayer, promising that if it rained, they would hold a huge feast in his honor. When the rains came, the wealthy families prepared banquet tables in public squares and invited poor people to come and eat as much as they wanted.
To this day, Italians make it known that they take great pride in their special saint. Many celebrate his feast day with as much vigor as the Irish celebrate theirs. In other words, we're just as enthusiastic as they are. We just express it differently.
Green beer seems to be the beverage of choice for Hibernians. Italians prefer something a little closer to a natural color, maybe some of Uncle Frank's paisano wine.
And then there's the food. While our Celtic brethren are eating corned beef and cabbage, our mothers, aunts and grandmothers are preparing something that says Abbondanza! to every nose in the neighborhood.
Continuing the tradition of St. Joseph's feast, we have the cena di San Giuseppe, or St. Joseph's Table. Presiding over the traditional feast were the “Holy Family,” people of the village or parish playing St. Joseph, Mary and Jesus, and the poor would be invited to feast, extending the tradition of generosity. Something like this now occurs in many places in the United States, after Sicilians and southern Italians brought the custom with them to the New World.
Today it often takes the form of a potluck dinner in the parish hall where we feast on pasta and vegetables; cavazune, or St. Joseph's Pants, a kind of chick-pea calzone; a soup called minestra di San Giuse, into which everyone adds any vegetarian ingredients that are handy; St. Joseph's Bread, shaped to look like the saint's beard; and other non-meat items (it is Lent, after all).
But the best is reserved for dessert. That's when we have St. Joseph's Sfinge, or cream puffs, a chocolate and ricotta confection with a hint of orange. And, of course, irresistible zeppole, now so popular with the masses that it can be found in many non-Italian bakeries and even supermarkets each March 19.
All this food is piled high on St. Joseph's Altar, the most delectable-looking altar you've ever seen. Mangia!
But enough about eating. After all, it's Lent. Did you remember to start your St. Joseph Novena on March 11? It's one powerful prayer. But don't take it from me — take it from St. Patrick. I'm sure he never failed to pay his respects to the greatest father figure of them all.
Domenico Bettinelli Jr. writes from Salem, Massachusetts.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Patrick Cullen & Domenico Bettinelli Jr. ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Charge Now, Lose Home Later? DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:Family Matters
My husband just told me about a new form of credit card that is tied to the equity in your home. The advertisement says the interest is tax-deductible. I'm nervous about using a card like this, but my husband still seems interested. What do you think?
I recently heard an ad for something very similar to this and I groaned as I thought of all the people who could fall into this trap. Here is what you're being offered and why you would be wise to reject the offer.
As you probably already know, most credit cards are “unsecured.” This means that, if you fail to keep up with payments, the credit-card company has no right to repossess your car or home as a method of obtaining payment.
The card you're now being offered, meanwhile, uses the hard-earned equity you have built up in your home to provide you with a line of available credit. This line of credit will be secured by your home. If you miss payments, you could lose your home.
And that's not the only negative. The promoters will encourage you to use the line of credit in multiple ways, including the consolidation of existing credit-card debts, home-improvement projects, college tuition and even such discretionary spending as expensive vacations. The advertisement I heard even mentioned how a couple saved money when buying a boat because the interest was tax-deductible. The fallacy of this is that you only save a portion of your interest charges when you deduct them (based on your effective tax rate). You still pay heavy interest charges.
One of the biggest negatives I am concerned about is that uncontrolled spending put on these cards will wipe out the hard-earned equity (a.k.a. “sweat” equity) you have built up in your home. Credit cards are just too easy to use for a myriad of expenses (most with no long-term value) and most people have a very difficult time limiting their spending when they have access to a credit card. It is so easy to go on a spending binge and rack up thousands of dollars in debt in a short period of time. Usually, the ramifications of such actions last for years.
If you haven't fallen into this trap yet, I encourage you to avoid it. If you already have a credit card like this, or have already tapped the equity in your home for things you now wish you hadn't, don't lose heart. Eliminate the card and make a commitment today to get yourself on a budget and develop a debt-repayment strategy that works your consumer debt down as soon as possible.
While becoming debt free takes time and effort, the rewards of financial freedom are worth the short-term sacrifice. God love you!
Philip Lenahan is director of media and finance for Catholic Answers in El Cajon, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Phil Lenahan ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Brain Builders DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:Facts of Life
A gentle aerobic-exercise program can help the brain function better. In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Professor Arthur Kramer and his team reported that aerobic exercise (such as jogging and bicycle riding) can improve decision-making and focus.
Source: The (Singapore) Straights Times, Feb. 19 Register Illustration by Tim Rauch
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Prolife Victories DATE: 03/14/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 14-18, 2004 ----- BODY:Pro-Lifers Join Bioethics Council
On Feb. 27 the president dismissed Elizabeth Blackburn, a biologist at the University of California-San Francisco, and William May, an emeritus professor of ethics at Southern Methodist University, replacing them with members who hold a more pro-life view.
Benjamin Carlson, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University; Diana Schaub, chairwoman of the political science department at Loyola College in Maryland; and Peter Lawler, a government professor at Barry College in Georgia, will serve two-year terms.
Carlson has called for more religion in public life, according to the Post. Schaub has supported council director Leon Kass in his opposition to human cloning. Lawler has written against abortion.
The dismissed members often encountered contention from other members for their support of research on human embryo cells.
The council exists to give Bush advice regarding bioethical issues such as stem-cell and embryonic research.
Girl Scouts for Life KWTX (Texas), Feb. 25 — Planned Parenthood's annual sex-education conference in Waco, Texas, will have one less sponsor this year.
The Bluebonnet Girl Scouts Council's board of directors voted Feb. 24 to discontinue its nine-year co-sponsorship of the pro-abortion organization's “Nobody's Fool” sex-education conference.
One of the books the conference uses, according to another news station, KXXV-TV, is It's Perfectly Normal, which contains information and illustrations on masturbation and homosexuality.
A local pro-life activist called for a boycott of Girl Scout cookies after he learned of the organization's affiliation with Planned Parenthood for the conference as well as the Girl Scouts' intention to honor Planned Parenthood's executive director.
Dad: Kill the ‘Morning-After’ Pill
Monty Patterson, the father of Holly Patterson, who died in September after taking RU-486, said Feb. 25 there is a systemic problem in the way the drug is administered. Patterson said lapses in reporting procedures could mean adverse effects and deaths related to the pill are widely underreported.
“The FDA needs this reporting information to monitor and evaluate the safety of the drugs they have approved,” he said. Patterson is now calling for women and their families to come forward and share their experiences with the abortion drug.
Earlier in the week the California Department of Health Services cited the hospital where Holly Patterson died for not reporting her death as an “unusual occurrence.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Constitution Still Leaves Question Mark DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:BAGHDAD, Iraq — An interim constitution signed March 8 seems to have allayed fears about the future of religious freedom in Iraq.
After a marathon debating session, Iraq's 25-member governing council agreed on the document March 1. Besides containing a Western-style bill of rights, the interim constitution specifically guarantees religious freedom.
Islam was defined as the official religion of Iraq but was considered “a” source of legislation and not “the” source. No legislation can contradict Islamic law or the bill of rights.
Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., had written a letter on Jan. 16 to Paul Bremer, the administrator of Iraq, expressing his concern about the future of religious freedom in Iraq. After going over the main points of the interim constitution this week, the senator now feels reassured.
“I had expressed, in my letter, my grave concerns regarding the protection of religious rights, as opposed to religious ‘rites,’ as well as Islamic law being considered ‘a’ source of legislation instead of ‘the’ source,” he said. “Both these things have been addressed.”
Iraqi Bishop Ibrahim Ibrahim, head of the Chaldean Church in the St. Thomas Diocese, which comprises the Eastern United States, was optimistic but more cautious.
The question mark for him is the section saying no law can contradict Islam. Bishop Ibrahim believes this means that no law can go against the five main principles of Islam, which are accepted by all Muslims.
“I think the constitution will not go against these principles,” he said. “My concern is how this will be interpreted. Who interprets this? This will be a problem.”
Nina Shea, director of Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom, thinks it could be more than a problem.
“It is a way to usher in Shariah [Islamic law],” she said. “It's known as a ‘repugnancy clause’ and it originated in Persia. It undermines legislation and guts the bill of rights in the name of Islam.”
The interim constitution apparently allowed for the dual provision that no law be repugnant to Islam or the bill of rights as a compromise.
“But it's not a compromise,” Shea said. “It's a clash of two world visions. What will be enforced? Will it be up to the pronouncement of a Shariah judge? Will the bill of rights be upheld?”
The resurgence of extreme Islam and fundamentalism is ultimately what religious-freedom analysts worry about the most.
“We are seeing it in Iraq because the goal is to impose a totalitarian Islamic state,” Shea said. “It is hard to predict what will happen, but we should be very firm in dealing with this now.”
The basic issue, according to Shea, is the genuine separation of church and state.
Pope John Paul II, in his Feb. 23 meeting with the new Turkish ambassador to the Holy See, advocated an “adequate separation of church and state so that citizens, regardless of their religion, can make their contribution to society.”
The Holy Father further noted that “the clear distinction between the civil and religious spheres allows each of these sectors to exercise its proper responsibilities effectively, with mutual respect and in complete freedom of conscience.” Thus the church and state, he said, “are not rivals but partners.”
Shea released a press statement on March 4 calling on Bremer and the governing council to clarify the “tenets of Islam” that are to be the standards for legislation.
“This vague formulation risks empowering un-elected religious authorities to override basic rights in determining what is ‘Islamically correct,’” she noted. “It could also lead to further sectarian violence and struggle over interpretation.”
Shea concludes that this issue is the “central defining question about Iraq's future: whether it's to be a democracy with a bill of rights or an Islamist state … there must be clarification before it is too late.”
In the aftermath of the deadly suicide bombings in Baghdad and Karbala in early March, the future of Iraq is unclear.
“We hope the best for Iraq,” Bishop Ibrahim said. “We must be realistic. There will always be extremists who will try to stop the evolution of democracy. They aren't used to it and want to control the country.”
Hope for Freedom
Denver's Archbishop Charles Chaput, a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, believes there is hope on the issue of religious freedom in Iraq.
“One of the things readers must understand,” he said, “is the difference between granting freedom of worship and granting freedom to individuals. By granting religious freedom, each individual person — because of their dignity as a human being — can choose their religion or even change their religion. Sometimes people think it is enough to allow freedom of worship. But real freedom would mean that Muslims can, for example, change their faith.”
Based on initial reports, Archbishop Chaput believes the interim constitution really does allow individuals the freedom to choose.
“The Saddam Hussein regime, repugnant as it was, was in a certain sense a secular state,” Archbishop Chaput said. “Sunnis suppressed the Shiites, who are the majority. Now Shiites have religious freedom and this means they are more religiously aggressive. Now we have the possibility of more religious conflict, and there is great concern because of this.”
“If you recall the speeches of the members of Congress,” Sen. Santorum said, “they said that winning the peace would be harder than winning the war. It will be a long and difficult transition. I'm not discouraged. To be discouraged is a victory for those who are against the United States and those who would revert back to the Baathist days or who want a religiously controlled state — neither of which is in the best interest of Iraq.”
The interim constitution, which was signed on March 8th, will remain in effect until a permanent constitution in drawn up by an elected parliament. Elections in Iraq are slated to be held at the end of 2004 or January 2005.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said the new version of the constitution guarantees every citizen freedom of thought, conscience and religious belief. The commission monitors international religious freedom.
“This emphasis on individual freedom is unique for the region,” the commission said in a March 8 statement. “These guarantees should not only be put into practice now, but also enshrined in Iraq's permanent constitution.”
Sabrina Arena Ferrisi is based in Rome.
----- EXCERPT: Iraq Religion ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sabrina Arena Ferrisi ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Major Factor In Abuse Study Is Homosexuality DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — It has been called the “elephant in the sacristy.”
In the Catholic clergy abuse scandal, most of the activity was homosexual in nature, and yet this central fact of the abuse has been treated as almost unmentionable in the Church's internal discussions.
But now that the abuse picture has been thoroughly studied, the elephant is making a racket.
The John Jay study and National Review Board reports released in February on the scope and causes of the crisis confirm what preliminary findings had suggested and many observers suspected: A large majority of the 4% of priests who reportedly offended against one or more minors since 1950 did so against post-pubescent males. The average age of the victims was 13, and 81% of all the victims were boys.
“It's become clear we have a problem with homosexuality,” said Pennsylvania-based psychiatrist Richard Fitzgibbons, who has written on the abuse crisis and worked with clergy struggling with homosexuality.
The lay review board report was similarly direct: “There are, no doubt, many outstanding priests of a homosexual orientation who live chaste, celibate lives, but any evaluation of the causes and context of the current crisis must be cognizant of the fact that more than 80% of the abuse at issue was of a homosexual nature.”
Despite the profile of the homosexual offender, the bishops' lay review board and Bishop Wilton Gregory, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops president, have refrained from declaring that homosexuals should be automatically excluded from seminary or the possibility of priestly ministry. Some Catholic health professionals, including those who conduct psychotherapy to help heal men and women of same-sex attraction, say they should.
According to the review board report, released Feb. 27 in Washington, D.C., “Such decisions are the prerogative of a bishop, although it seems clear to the board that the paramount question in this area must be whether a candidate for priesthood is capable of living a chaste, celibate life, not what that candidate's sexual orientation might be.”
However, the report added, “given the nature of the problem of clergy sexual abuse of minors, the realities of the culture today and the male-oriented atmosphere of the seminary, a more searching inquiry is necessary for a homosexually oriented man by those who decide whether he is suitable for the seminary and for ministry. For those bishops who choose to ordain homosexuals there appears to be a need for additional scrutiny and perhaps additional or specialized formation to help them with the challenge of chaste celibacy.”
Still Room
As for the homosexual priest question, Bishop Gregory left room for the continued ordination of homosexuals.
“We as bishops should not simply be examining those who may have a homosexual orientation. Our screening should look at all unhealthy psychological behaviors,” he said at a press conference the day the reports were released. “We as bishops will not fulfill our responsibility simply by focusing on one dimension that may have need for greater scrutiny and ignore all the others. I don't want anyone in the seminary who is selfish … I don't want anyone in the seminary who has a distorted view of himself, the narcissistic personality.
“If we are to do a credible job as bishops in reviewing and screening our candidates, we should look for those that demonstrate sound moral, psychological and spiritual health … and not focus exclusively on any one potential difficulty.”
Some bishops reported to the board that they do exclude homosexuals from their seminaries, and a 1961 Vatican directive to superiors of men's religious orders specifically advises exclusion of “those who are afficted with evil tendencies to homosexuality or pederasty, since for them the common life and the priestly ministry would constitute serious dangers.”
In his 2002 meeting with U.S. cardinals, Pope John Paul II said that the lay faithful must know that there is no place in the priest-hood for those who would harm the young. Then he added: “They must know that bishops and priests are totally committed to the fullness of Catholic truth on matters of sexual morality, a truth as essential to the renewal of the priesthood and the episcopate as it is to the renewal of marriage and family life.”
Likely to Act Out
Fitzgibbons, who co-wrote a Catholic Medical Association article titled “Homosexuality and Hope,” said he fears the Church could be putting young people at risk by accepting what he considers an unscientific idea: Homosexuality is genetically determined and cannot be helped.
“If you're just thinking it's genetic — you're born that way — you're highly vulnerable. There are some who are committed to celibacy, but there are some who are profoundly influenced by this culture and are highly likely to act out,” he said.
There are no studies that show a genetic cause for same-sex attraction, Fitzgibbons said, but there are studies to show that therapy has helped people change from being homosexual to heterosexual.
Philip Mango, a psychotherapist for 30 years who directs St. Michael's Institute for the Psychological Sciences in New York, said he would recommend homosexuals be screened from seminaries because it's not enough for priests to be celibate — they also need to be masculine.
The problem is deeper than whether someone will “act or not act out,” he said. “It's about being men who know what leadership is. A man who is homosexual can't do it. It's not his fault. He can be very nice, he can be very good, but he can't do those things that Christ did, because he wants to be liked. He hasn't been affirmed. If you want to be loved, you cannot lead.”
Fitzgibbons said this dynamic only feeds the vicious circle of abuse.
“The reality is those with same-sex attraction have a vulnerability toward adolescent males because during their own adolescence they felt woefully inadequate,” he said. “The major psychological dynamic for those who have sex with minors is weak masculine identity and a profound sense of isolation and loneliness. When this is present, these individuals become a potential risk to adolescents — under stress they're likely to act out in that manner.”
“Those priests with same-sex attraction have a responsibility to protect the Church from further shame and sorrow by resolving emotional conflicts,” he said.
Ellen Rossini writes from Richardson, Texas.
Numbers From The Report
The John Jay report was an extensive, thorough study of allegations — not convictions, not certain cases of abuse, and not unreported abuse. No other institution has studied child abuse as thoroughly.
• Of those priests accused of sexual abuse from 1950 to 2002 were made against 2.5% of religious-order priests compared with 4.3% of diocesan priests across all regions.
• 68% of the priests were ordained between 1950 and 1979.
• 71% were ordained between the ages of 25 and 29.
• 56% were accused of abusing 1 minor; 27% were accused by 2 to 3 alleged victims; nearly 14% accused by 4 to 9; 3.4% were accused of abusing more than 10 minors.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Rossini ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Wall The Wall . . . And The Christians Living by It DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:BEIT SAHOUR, West Bank — In 2000, the year Pope John Paul II visited the Holy Land, Wisam Salsaa, a local tour guide, had more bookings than he knew what to do with.
Then, in September 2000, the Palestinian intifada, (uprising), began and pilgrims stopped visiting Bethlehem and nearby Beit Sahour. It was here in this sleepy town that a group of shepherds joyously spread the news of Jesus' birth from what is now called Shepherds' Field.
“I used to guide groups around Palestine and Israel,” Salsaa, now 29 and an exporter of locally made olivewood Nativity scenes and crucifixes, said nostalgically.
“I stopped doing tours in November 2000 because tourists weren't coming and I wasn't able to take groups into Israel,” he said, referring to Israel's closure on the West Bank, which to this day prevents all but a few thousand Palestinians from entering Israel.
Like other residents of this predominantly Christian Palestinian town, Salsaa, a Roman Catholic, said the separation barrier Israel started building in the Bethlehem area more than a year ago “has made an already difficult situation much worse.”
“Psychologically, it's a horrible thing to feel there's a wall around you. I feel like I'm in jail,” said Salsaa, fashionably dressed in pressed jeans, a button-down shirt and sporty sunglasses. “Since the start of the uprising I've been to the United States five times and Europe at least 10 times, but I've only managed to make it to Ramallah twice.”
Ramallah, a large West Bank town and the seat of the Palestinian government, is just a few miles away from Beit Sahour.
“Do you want to know what's ironic?” Salsaa asked. “American tourists can travel freely between here and Jerusalem while we, who have lived here for hundreds of years, can't pray in the Church of the Holy Sepuchre [located in the Old City of Jerusalem]. Our family used to go there at Christmas and Easter. The holidays haven't felt the same since the closure.”
Salsaa has remained in Beit Sahour despite the departure of hundreds of friends and several family members during the past three and a half years, but he, too, is now thinking of moving abroad.
“Frankly, I don't see any future here for me or my family. If I could get a European visa to live and work abroad, I would leave tomorrow,” he said quietly.
Salsaa is far from alone. During the past decade, as the situation between Palestinians and Israelis has worsened along with the economy, thousands of Christian Palestinians have left the region. Now, due in part to Israel's separation barrier, many more are contemplating emigration.
Great Wall
Once completed, the barrier will completely separate Israel from the West Bank.
Palestinians say it is an attempt by Israel to maintain Jewish settlements by grabbing Palestinian land.
Israel says it is building the wall to prevent Palestinian terrorists from entering Israel.
While until recently many Palestinians, including thousands of laborers and scores of terrorists, have been able to evade Israeli checkpoints and enter the country via back roads, the so-called wall or fence will make this nearly impossible.
That, at least, is what Israeli security officials are counting on.
Interviewed by phone as he was boarding a public bus in Jerusalem, David Baker, an official in the prime minister's office, said that “for Israelis, this fence is a matter of life and death. As we speak I see a security man checking for suspicious objects and suspicious people.”
Baker insisted the barrier has already saved countless lives.
“All the evidence points to a significantly marked decrease in the number of suicide attacks perpetrated against innocent Israelis as a result of the security fence,” he said.
Since the start of the Palestinian uprising three and a half years ago, “almost 1,000 Israelis, most of them civilians, have been killed in terrorist attacks,” Baker said. “Thousands more have been wounded.”
The Israeli official said his government is “fully cognizant of the difficulties” the barrier is creating and vowed it “will do its utmost to alleviate the situation by granting free access wherever possible.”
However, Baker made it clear that, in Israel's view, the Palestinians have only themselves to blame for the barrier.
“The true villains are the Palestinian terrorists who have necessitated the building of this fence,” Baker insisted.
Beit Sahour has lost 105 families to emigration since the start of the intifada, according to Fuad Kokaly, the town's mayor.
“All were Christian families,” Kokaly, an Orthodox Christian, noted. “People are leaving because there is no income, no life anymore. We are being choked by the siege.”
Father Raed Abusahlia, parish priest of the West Bank village of Taybeh, 15 miles north of Jerusalem, said the barrier has not yet reached his community.
But Father Abusahlia, who also heads the press office of the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem, said once it arrives, “we will be cut off.”
As it is, the priest said, “I know children here who have never visited Jerusalem or the [Church of the] Holy Sepulchre.”
Bethlehem, Father Abusahlia said, “is so far the most affected. Thirty families, many of them Christian, are now separated from the rest of Bethlehem. And because they don't have an Israeli ID card, they can't enter Jerusalem. If they want to go to work or to pray, they have to drive some kilometers, go through a checkpoint and then reenter Bethlehem. They are stuck between Jerusalem and the wall.”
Father Abusahlia said in addition to the hardships the barrier is causing local families, clergy and aid organizations, “the wall, once it is completed, will be very ugly for tourists who come to Bethlehem. It will be 30 feet high, worse than the Berlin Wall.”
The Church's position on the barrier “is very clear,” Father Abusahlia said. “This wall will not provide security to Israel and will create more hatred between the two peoples.”
“We have enough walls in Jerusalem,” the priest continued. “To secure the borders, we need to reconcile hearts. The Pope has said it time and time again: We don't need walls, we need bridges.”
Michele Chabin writes from Jerusalem.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michele Chabin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pro-Lifers Want to Storm Party Barricades DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Look at the leadership of the Democratic Party, and you might conclude the vast majority of Democrats are pro-abortion. After all, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., along with all the failed Democratic contenders in this year's presidential primaries — and most of the party's elected officials — are on record supporting abortion at every stage in a child's development in the womb.
But a growing organization called Democrats for Life of America is spreading the word that many party members are pro-life, increasingly willing to voice their beliefs and eager to “take back” the party.
In what Democrats for Life says is a sign of the progress it's making, representatives of the group met with Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, earlier in March to talk about a variety of issues.
The group hopes to have a presence at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in July. If the Democratic National Committee declines to let a Democrats for Life representative speak at the convention, the group plans to hold a protest demonstration.
Democrats for Life leaders know it will be a tough decision for Democratic voters in November, because the Democratic nominee for president will favor abortion.
Among the topics discussed at the meeting with McAuliffe were allowing a link from the Democratic National Committee Web site to the Democrats for Life site and future meetings to discuss life issues with officials running Kerry's campaign.
While nothing formal was decided at the meeting with McAuliffe, the committee's communications director, Debra DeShong, said, “We agreed to bring all of their concerns and positions to the attention of the nominee.”
Democrats for Life members say the Democratic National Committee, up until the recent meeting, had refused to acknowledge that the group exists. “People are returning our calls now,” said Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life in Washington, D.C. “A lot of people used to whisper, ‘I'm a pro-life Democrat.’ We say you shouldn't have to whisper. State your pro-life views.”
The national organization, which was formed in 1999, said it supports all life and opposes abortion, capital punishment and euthanasia. It tries to mobilize Democrats at the local, state and national levels to elect pro-lifers and support pro-life Democrats while they're in office. Democrats for Life of America even hopes for a pro-life plank in the party platform and supports legislation that fosters respect for human life.
The organization has grown steadily since its formation. It began with just five state chapters and now has chapters either formed or in the works in 27 states.
A recent national poll revealed that 43% of Democrats identify themselves as pro-life. Democrats for Life expects the percentage to increase as more people become educated about abortion and as medical technology provides more evidence that life begins at conception.
‘Irrational Pressure’
Democrats for Life would be growing at an even faster pace if it weren't for several factors, said Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life and an adviser to Democrats for Life.
One is the “irrational pressure” being put on pro-life Democrats by the party's leadership; the other is the secular media's tendency to ignore the fact that there are pro-life Democrats.
Despite this, Father Pavone is encouraged with the group's progress.
“As soon as word gets out at the grass-roots level, people will latch on to this and realize there is a way they can be Democrats and hold on to their pro-life convictions,” he said. “There will come a point where neither the party nor the media can ignore this phenomenon.”
Father Pavone said he senses a subtle shift beginning to take place among the media toward covering pro-life events.
Democrats for Life's efforts are especially meaningful for Catholic members. Educating fellow Catholics who are Democrats ranks high among priorities.
Patricia Amato of Rochester, N.Y., is an organizer of Democrats for Life's New York state chapter.
“I've been involved in pro-life activities for 34 years,” Amato said. “Anything we can do in education is helpful. We as good citizens have to talk to our churches and raise the topic in religious-education programs.”
Joan Barry, a lifelong Catholic and registered nurse who's running for Congress in the 3rd Congressional District in Missouri, is directly confronting the party. “There are a lot of pro-life Democrats and we need to be recognized,” Barry said.
A Voice at the Podium?
Democrats for Life's executive director Day, who became a Catholic three years ago, said her pro-life stance had a lot to do with her decision to convert.
When she began working on Capitol Hill more than a decade ago as a college intern she had no opinion about abortion. When she began working for Michigan Congressman Jim Barcia, a pro-life Democrat, she learned about the right-to-life cause and started supporting it.
“People are becoming educated about this issue and they're seeing that we're not talking about cells; it's a person,” Day said. “That's why the tide is turning in the country. Medical technology is helping us.”
Catholic Democrats who are pro-abortion have misplaced their loyalties, Father Pavone said.
“Loyalty is always to God first and to party second,” he said. “Democrats need to ask themselves if they belong to the party because of what it stands for or because it's the tradition of their family. In order to be faithful to one's Catholic faith, one must work very hard for change in the party.”
“The root problem is that abortion is an act of violence,” Father Pavone added. “Rejecting it is not a function of being a Democrat or a Republican. It's a function of being a decent person.”
Amato believes the hard-line stance of Democratic leaders is “draining the energy of the party,” she said. “They're being stubborn and closing their minds to this issue.”
Bob Violino writes from Massapequa Park, New York.
----- EXCERPT: After McAuliffe Meeting, Democratic Convention Event Planned ----- EXTENDED BODY: Bob Violino ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Pledge of Allegiance Fight Is Personal for Her DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:Renee Giachino Bookout is fighting to keep “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.
She's the general counsel and senior vice president of the Center for Individual Freedom, a nonpartisan organization based in Alexandria, Va. The organization is one of several that has filed friend-of-the-court briefs urging the Supreme Court to keep the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case March 24.
Giachino-Bookout, who has three children, spoke to Register correspondent Carlos Briceño from her home in Gulf Breeze, Fla., about why retaining the words are so important.
When you were a child and you recited the pledge, how important was the phrase “under God” to you?
I was born and raised in Michigan. I come from a very strong family of faith. I have surrounded myself with people who share my faith. This is a small story, but it is enlightening in the sense that to have a strong faith in God and to pronounce that faith will help us through so many things in our lives.
On Sept. 1, I lost a college roommate and two of her children in a very tragic plane accident. Her husband and their third child survived. Without [the witness of] their faith, I don't know that I could've gotten through it, or how I could've helped my children or my spouse get through it. …
It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I sat down and thought maybe some of my passion for [the Pledge of Allegiance] case is because I have a renewed faith with the passing of someone so close to me. When you lose someone your age and lose two children the same ages as your children, you realize we are mortal but you don't need to be afraid of that. I have witnessed the tremendous power of faith.
Her husband got up at the memorial, and he said, “Don't ask, ‘Why me?’ I don't ask God, ‘Why them?’ I thank God for the time I had with them. For the time he loaned them to me.” …
If we were to take “one nation, under God” out of the pledge, I couldn't answer the questions my children would have as to why we couldn't pronounce our beliefs.
How has your faith affected you in your career?
I have the extreme pleasure to blend my personal and professional lives. When there is an issue that is extremely important to me, such as the voucher case or the pledge case, my professional life can be an outlet for me, and I can take the passion I have on a personal level from my Catholic upbringing and bring it into my work for the center. It validates the work I do as a lawyer.
I have extreme pride in what I do because it's so genuine. For me to go in and say, “We need to keep ‘one nation, under God’ in the pledge” means a lot more to me because I'm Catholic and Christian than it would if I weren't. I truly believe what I'm arguing. I'm not doing it because I have an ethical obligation to represent my client. I'm representing myself.
Tell me about how you're trying to build awareness about this case at your church.
I've spearheaded a fund-raising campaign in our church — we belong to St. Ann's in Gulf Breeze. Our organization was originally going to do this. But we found it a little overwhelming to try to do a fund-raiser of the magnitude it needed to be to make a difference. So my church took it over, and we are selling car magnets with the American flag on them that say, “One nation, under God.”
We are encouraging all of our parishioners and anyone we come in touch with to help us spread the message. We've encouraged people to buy them for their car or the cars of their family and friends nationwide to send a message that we are and must remain one nation, under God.
The members of our Edge/Life-Teen programs [middle school and high-school-age youth groups] are selling the magnets.
Why is it important to keep “under God” in the pledge?
From a professional standpoint, God has been present since the Founding Fathers developed the Constitution. There was never this wall separating the church and state. I think it has been misinterpreted. I think the wall is slowly breaking down.
Professionally, this was an important case because we really need for people to understand what is meant by the establishment clause and that it is not a wall separating church and state. It means the Founding Fathers never intended for the government to establish a religion.
But there is also the free exercise part of the First Amendment, where the government isn't going to interfere with people's exercise of their religion. When you read the pledge, we argue in our brief, you pledge allegiance to the flag. In all the words you recite after that, you describe what our nation stands for. And God is and always will be a part of the fabric that formed the flag and our nation. That's very important. And our children need to understand that.
When I was putting my 5-year-old to bed the other day, after saying prayers, she turned to me and said, “Are there really people who don't believe in God and Jesus?” And, sadly, I honestly answered her and said Yes. And she sighed a big heavy sigh and said, “Oh mommy, when they die and go to heaven, they will believe. And they will believe because they'll see Jesus and God.”
She's too young to really understand what's happening with the Pledge of Allegiance. But she knows the words to the pledge. And I don't know how I could honestly answer her if she came home next month and asked me, “Why did they take ‘under God’ out of the pledge?” I couldn't answer that. To her, to have God in our lives and to believe as a 5-year-old really means something to her.
I think it would be impossible for her and even my 8- or 10-year-old to comprehend that other people are telling us it's not okay to believe. It's not okay to espouse our beliefs. To shout our beliefs. They just couldn't understand that. It's something I don't want to have to answer.
Carlos Briceño writes from Seminole, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Project's Goal: Healing by Happiness DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:SPOKANE, Wash. — Happiness is key.
That's what Jesuit Father Robert Spitzer and Camille De Blasi believe about turning around the culture of death.
Father Spitzer, president of Gonzaga University, has been turning faith-based and secular-minded people toward a culture of life by helping them embrace the intrinsic dignity of human beings. The steps to true happiness play a central role in that.
The priest's book, Healing the Culture, became the basis for a curriculum used on college campuses nationwide and for the Center for Life Principles at the Washington Right to Life office.
The book now serves a new organization, Healing the Culture, founded by Camille De Blasi, who worked with Father Spitzer at the Center for Life Principles.
Healing the Culture's goal is to promote the dignity of the human person and create a pro-life culture, De Blasi said. She is expanding the educational programs the Center for Life Principles developed for a wider audience of religious and secular groups, including junior and senior high schools, parishes and pro-life organizations.
“Our culture does not value the image and likeness of God in the unborn, the elderly and the disabled because we do not value the image and likeness of God in ourselves,” De Blasi said. “You are never going to transform the culture into a culture of life until you address that issue.”
Father Spitzer's book presents a philosophy of happiness, freedom and the life issues, and a common-sense guide to enhanced meaning and purpose in life, De Blasi said.
He incorporates the four levels of happiness outlined in St. Augustine's Confessions into a logical framework for the contemporary culture, she explained. The lower levels serve man's desire for physical pleasure through the senses and the intellect through talents and accomplishments.
But for man to obtain happiness these levels must serve the higher levels, which lead to participation in good beyond the self for the sake of others and to the ultimate happiness of understanding the need for God and surrendering to his unconditional love.
Young People Get It
Father Spitzer explained what happens: “As people move through the levels, they begin to see that the only way they can have an efficacious life is to get up to levels three and four.”
By level three, they start to see the intrinsic dignity of human beings and the inalienable right to life and liberty that flow from that. Young people grasp the happiness doctrine and immediately change their minds on the life issues, he added.
“It really shocks them because they realize they've been complicit in causing a social marginalization of the unborn, the elderly, a whole group of people,” he said.
When small cultures think that way, it will lead to large cultures thinking that way and will start affecting the media, education, politics, government and the courts. Now is a good opportunity to take back the culture, Father Spitzer said, because pro-abortion people are in a “dogmatic slumber.”
The Life Principles message is readily accepted by a wide variety of people, regardless of denomination or ideology, at Assemblies of God-affiliated Northwest College in Kirkland, Wash., according to associate professor Gary Gillespie. Each time De Blasi speaks in his Human Communications class, he observes the program is intuitively appealing.
“Students tell me they are startled by the insight it provides and immediately internalize the simple truth that we are made for a happiness that comes from living for the higher purposes,” Gillespie said. “For example, those students going into low-paid careers like teaching or church service feel more justified knowing the intangible rewards of pouring their lives into others may be more valuable than the security of a higher salary.”
Greg Schleppenbach, director of pro-life activities for the Nebraska Catholic Conference, said the Life Principles, like Pope John Paul II's 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), get to the very root of the culture problem. The core of the issue is a spiritual one, he said — an impoverished relationship with God that clouds our ability to respect the dignity of the creature made in his image.
“We get so mired in the details of the everyday attacks on human dignity that we're constantly reacting to the latest manifestation,” Schleppenbach said. “But if you haven't gotten to the root, it will just pop right back up.”
De Blasi has spoken at annual events of the Nebraska Catholic Conference.
Schleppenbach said he is more focused now on helping people understand where the attacks on human dignity are coming from. He has also added spiritual elements to the pro-life activities, including Masses and holy hours for life, and prayer and fasting for the cause. These are activities he would have brushed off when he started his work 13 years ago, but now he believes they will change the world.
Emmaus Experience
Oblate of St. Joseph Father John Warburton of Loomis, Calif., has embraced the Life Principles as a way to win the hearts and minds of the youth who often are not even aware there is a culture war going on. After hearing Father Spitzer speak, he had a “road to Emmaus” experience.
“As I heard him tackle these big issues of the day and analyze it so clearly, it was like, ‘Was not my heart burning in me?’” he said.
Today Father Warburton is working with De Blasi to make the Oblates retreat center a Life Principles center for young people. As the director of formation at the Oblates' Mount St. Joseph Seminary nearby, he is also training the seminarians to assist at retreats, which he will direct for confirmation and high-school groups.
“Life Principles shows that something as important as an inalienable right has been taken away, and we didn't even know it,” he said. “Instead of rights you received from your Creator, now they are defined by whatever a majority of Supreme Court justices think.”
Father Spitzer said there is only one conclusion people can make by the fourth level: If it's human, it's a person and it has rights.
“More so than simply protecting life, we want to move people to a notion of personhood that is really sacred,” he said. “Life is transcendental and the beauty of every human being is sacred and loved by God.”
Barb Ernster writes from Fridley, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barb Ernster ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:Pat Robertson Hosts Anti-Catholic ‘Abuse Expert’
CATHOLIC LEAGUE, March 3 — Televangelist Pat Robertson on the March 3 episode of “The 700 Club” included a segment criticizing the Catholic Church's teaching on priestly celibacy, according to the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights.
The show focused on the recent bishops-sponsored reports on clerical abuse and included an appearance by A.W. Richard Sipe, a self-styled expert on the subject.
Catholic League president William Donohue complained about the show: “With great delight did the embittered ex-priest, Richard Sipe, inform his new friend Pat Robertson that the Catholic Church was more corrupt today than at any time since the Reformation. … According to Sipe, only 10% of priests are celibate. How did he arrive at this figure?
“Sipe … defines violations of celibacy to include ‘sexual thoughts and desires.’ The wonder is why there are as many as 10% of priests who have never experienced such desires. And what is going to happen to the 90% who are guilty? They're going straight to hell: ‘You see,’ Sipe says, ‘one thing about the Catholic teaching is that every sexual thought, desire or action is mortally sinful. Every action, no matter how small, no matter how nuanced, will send a person directly to hell.’
“This suggests either profound ignorance of Catholicism or calculated malice. By the way, Robertson's gullibility on this matter is truly revealing.”
Catholic Group Plugs Contraception Loophole
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 5 — Due to an oversight, Denver Catholic Charities was for a time providing contraceptive coverage in its employee insurance policy — in violation of Church law.
But the mistake has been corrected, the Associated Press reported.
A court in California recently ordered Catholic Charities to provide for insurance coverage of contraception, hindering the local Church's freedom to follow her own solemn ethical teachings on the matter. In effect, it forces Church charities either to cover contraceptives and abortifacients or refuse all prescription coverage to their workers.
While there is no such law in Colorado, the California case brought the question to the attention of Catholic employers, causing the local Catholic Charities to discover its mistake.
“This is very embarrassing,” said James Mauck of Denver Catholic Charities.
Archdiocesan spokesman Sergio Gutierrez admitted he was “rather astonished” to learn of the mistake.
Girl Scout Boycott Works
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE, March 9 — A Texas pro-life group launched a boycott of Girl Scout cookies and other activities in response to a summer sex-education conference for girls that a local scout troop co-sponsored with Planned Parenthood.
The Waco, Texas, scout chapter also named a Planned Parenthood executive a Girl Scout “Woman of Distinction.” That was the last straw for Professor John Pisciotta, co-director of Pro-Life Waco, who decided to launch the boycott, as he explained on NBC's “Today Show.”
The gesture had its intended effect, Pisciotta reported, saying that the local Council of Girl Scouts had agreed to cut all ties with Planned Parenthood. On a national level, there remain organizational ties between the groups, some pro-lifers have complained, since Planned Parenthood targets the scouts as a partner in promoting sex education.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Is Amendment Only Way to Fight 'Tyranny'? DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — The theory behind the American government's system of checks and balances seems simple: If one of the three branches of government starts to get too powerful, one of the others keeps it in check.
But the Founding Fathers' theory is starting to look to some observers to be just that — a theory.
“The separation of powers is off balance and off kilter,” said Deacon Keith Fournier, a constitutional lawyer and co-founder of Your Catholic Voice, a grass-roots activist group that organized a massive rally in Boston recently to support a state constitutional amendment protecting marriage.
People such as Deacon Fournier are concerned that the judicial branch is getting more and more power in interpreting the law and even legislating from the bench.
The three judges of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court last year ordered the state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples beginning this May. The court's diktat has led many, including President Bush, to call for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution setting in stone the age-old definition of marriage as an institution between one man and one woman.
The U.S. bishops' conference recently reiterated its support for a federal marriage amendment, while Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley voiced support for an amendment to his state's constitution protecting traditional marriage without introducing a provision for so-called “civil unions” for homosexuals.
But is a constitutional amendment the only remedy to runaway courts? Not at all, say scholars who talked with the Register.
Historical Precedents
Take the example set by Abraham Lincoln, for instance.
Hadley Arkes, a law professor at Amherst College in Massachusetts, pointed out in a recent talk at Harvard Law School that when the Supreme Court handed down the Dred Scott decision, it said “blacks could not be citizens of the United States with the standing to bring suits for their freedom in federal courts and that the owners of slaves had a constitutional ‘right’ not to be dispossessed of their property in slaves when they entered a territory of the United States.”
The 16th president limited the damage of that decision to Dred Scott, the slave who had brought the suit, and to no one else, Arkes said.
Lincoln's resolve was quickly tested. Two blacks in Boston — one a student seeking a passport to study in France, the other an inventor seeking a patent — were denied these based on the Dred Scott ruling that blacks were not American citizens. But Lincoln's administration quashed that understanding and the passport and patent were issued.
Arkes believes Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney should do likewise, directing that the Supreme Judicial Court ruling can apply only to the plaintiffs in the Goodridge case.
Courts Can't Enforce
What people forget, said Stephen Krason, a professor of political science and legal studies at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, and president of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists, is that the courts “have neither the power of the purse nor of the sword.” They cannot raise money to run their operations and they cannot enforce their own decisions.
This gives executives and legislatures certain authority over the courts. For example, Krason said, the president could conceivably dispatch the National Guard to guard abortion clinics from being allowed to carry out Roe v. Wade. He admitted that this is not a mainstream view but that it would be legitimate under the Constitution.
In Massachusetts' debate, Arkes said, “the governor might issue an order to registrars in the counties that the burden of litigation will be lifted from them, that all applications of marriage by couples of the same sex should be sent to the office of the governor and the Governor's Council [an advisory panel] until the policy of the state is settled by the Legislature.”
Under Massachusetts law, Arkes added, it is the Legislature alone that is authorized to define marriage laws.
Additionally, said Princeton University political science professor Robert George, judges can be impeached and Congress can regulate what goes on in the lower federal courts, according to Article 3 of the Constitution.
Yet while the academic arguments might be good, Deacon Fournier said given today's climate in the media and culture, it will be nothing less than a constitutional amendment that will be needed in the case of defending the truth of marriage, a prospect with which Arkes agrees.
One reason for that is that standing up to the courts “is a matter of political will and character,” George said — something lacking in most leaders today.
“Executives are concerned about the media depicting them as lawless — not submitting to the rule of law” if they were to take actions like Lincoln, George said.
Besides, Congress has no authority over state courts, he added. If Congress were to tell federal courts they couldn't consider, for example, marriage issues, they could be brought in state courts and the state courts could then make rulings on the federal Constitution.
Tough Road Ahead
A constitutional amendment will not be easy. It requires two-thirds of each house of Congress and three-quarters of the state legislatures.
Deacon Fournier's concern about the reality on the ground is borne out by what George and others have seen in the treatment the press gives to different situations. George cited two cases: Alabama's former Chief Justice Roy Moore and San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom.
Moore challenged the prevailing atmosphere in regard to judges ruling on the establishment clause of the First Amendment by placing the Ten Commandments in the court building where he worked. He was ruled against by the federal district court and eventually lost his seat on the bench because of his defiance of the federal court order, which he thought unjust. He was also excoriated in the media as a man out of touch with reality.
In Moore's case, George observed, President Bush could have told federal marshals to disregard the ruling, but he didn't.
On the other hand, Newsom has defied state law and told court clerks to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples. For this he has been praised in the press, while California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has said he would “have no problem” with a court decision expanding marriage rights to homosexuals.
In other words, George said, “liberal politicians appear to have the backbone” to challenge the law and the courts, but the conservative ones do not.
Thomas A. Szyszkiewicz writes from Altura, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Thomas Szyszkiewicz ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Boston Compromise DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:BOSTON — The compromise that came out of the Massachusetts constitutional convention on homosexual marriage was the kind of thing Archbishop Sean O'Malley had warned against.
Legislators concluded their debates just before midnight March 12 and came out with an amendment to the state's constitution that would ban homosexual marriage but legalize civil unions. The Legislature plans to return March 29 to resume deliberations. If the arrangement survives a final vote, it will still have to be approved by a newly elected Legislature in 2005-2006 and then sent to voters in November 2006.
“We support the Marriage Affirmation and Protection Amendment as it has been presented, without the introduction of civil-unions language,” Archbishop O'Malley said in a statement the day before the convention.
Proposals to give same-sex couples identical benefits and protections to those given to husbands and wives “pose a grave threat to religious liberty and the freedom of conscience,” he stated. “Whether the name used is same-sex marriage or civil unions, an equal-treatment requirement in the constitution may be used to coerce private and public entities to adopt practices that would violate their values and understanding of the family and social justice.”
The archbishop cautioned that the amendment reaffirming marriage as the union between one man and one woman “must be approved on its own merits.”
“Joining this amendment to the issue of civil unions deprives the people an opportunity to express their views on marriage,” he stated. “Linking the two coerces people in a way that is unfair.”
It appears, however, voters might be forced to choose between the lesser of two evils.
- Register staff
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Conference Tackles Corporate Corruption DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — As president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Renato Martino is clearly delighted to see business executives tackling the issue of corruption in the corporate world.
Speaking to the Register at a break during a March 5-6 meeting titled, “The Business Executive: Social Responsibility and Globalization,” the cardinal praised the business leaders for being “very courageous in their convictions, in wishing to resist the immoral.”
“I was very happy with the meeting [on corruption],” he said. “It was discussed that making profits is not a sin — it's something good, provided you don't make them illegally or improperly, exploiting whatever by way of corruption.”
The cardinal and his staff, together with the International Union of Christian Business Executives, hosted the conference. It was attended by more than 70 business executives and professionals representing multinational corporations as well as smaller companies from India, Africa, South America and Eastern Europe.
In his closing statement, Cardinal Martino said he hoped the conference would serve “to attest to the end of a long period of misunderstandings and ambiguities between the churches and the world of business.”
The Church has a “positive view of the market and profits,” he affirmed, but added that it condemns “the idolatry of the market and profit as anti-religious, inhuman and socially untenable.”
Strong Words
Cardinal Martino had strong words of caution to business leaders in light of the many highly publicized financial scandals in the business world, most notably those of Enron, WorldCom and, in Italy, the food company Parmalat, whose business leaders are alleged to have carried out widespread fraud and embezzlement.
“Amorality — or worse still, immorality in business — does not make business greater but smaller and more fragile, as the scandals and failures that are before everyone's eyes demonstrate,” he said.
Investing in ethics, Cardinal Martino explained, is “one of the best ways to affirm the rationality of the economy and business.”
In a written address to open the conference, Pope John Paul II reinforced the need for sound ethical practices in the financial and commercial sectors in order to safeguard the common good.
The Holy Father pointed out the virtues that should characterize the Christian businessperson as “diligence, industriousness, prudence in undertaking reasonable risks, reliability and fidelity in interpersonal relationships, and courage in carrying out decisions that are difficult and painful.”
And he stressed that in a world “tempted by consumerist and materialist outlooks, Christian executives are called to affirm the priority of ‘being’ over ‘having.’”
Christians have a responsibility to “combine the legitimate pursuit of profit with a deeper concern for the spread of solidarity and elimination of the scourge of poverty, which continues to afflict so many members of the human family,” he said.
He also appealed to business executives to make sure globalization becomes “more than simply another name for the absolute relativization of values and the homogenization of lifestyles and cultures.”
Rather, the Pope said, a “sound globalization carried out in respect for the values of different nations and ethnic groupings can contribute significantly to the unity of the human family and enable forms of cooperation that are not only economic but also social and cultural.”
New Documents
Cardinal Martino revealed at the end of the meeting that the council will publish two key documents to help address these matters.
The first will be a “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church,” which has been five years in the making and was initiated under Cardinal Martino's predecessor, the late Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan.
The second is a report on poverty in the age of globalization and has been assembled as the Church's contribution to the United Nations' millennium goals, which aim to rapidly reduce poverty by 2015.
“There will be a chapter that will take a hard look at poverty to determine who is genuinely poor and who is not,” Cardinal Martino said. “We will also look at the moral duties in tacking poverty, as this is the Holy See's particular area of specialization.”
It is hoped the documents, tentatively planned for publication in May and June respectively, will specifically address the need for education and formation of business leaders — a factor many blame for the lack of adequate ethics in the field.
When asked about the importance of education, Cardinal Martino believed there was a need for it “starting from the beginning.”
“In order to construct something that can eliminate corruption, you have to start at the roots,” he said. “This is important because corruption is very hard to eliminate.”
The cardinal revealed that the Holy Father is particularly keen to see the compendium of social doctrine, making a point of inquiring about it when the cardinal and his staff last had a meeting with him.
Moral Vacuum?
In his closing address, Cardinal Martino stressed that the fundamental principles of the Church's social doctrine can be “translated into the daily practices of entrepreneurial activity.”
As one delegate at the conference pointed out, capitalism functions in “a moral vacuum” so Christians should “apply Christian principles to the way the economic system operates.”
“The critical question is not what the Church should do,” the delegate concluded, “so much as how we can put its teachings into practice each day of our working life.”
Edward Pentin writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:German President Thanks Pope
CATHNEWS.COM, March 8 — German President Johannes Rau during a March 6 meeting gave Pope John Paul II credit for making possible the reunification of Germany, long divided during the Cold War into a democratic and a totalitarian region.
“Germany owes her unity to Poland and to the action of the Pope, without which she would still have a long road to go toward reunification,” Rau said, according to CathNews.com.
The German president presented the Pope with a miniature model of the Brandenburg Gate, once the dividing line between the communist and non-communist sectors of Berlin.
John Paul thanked Rau, commenting that German reunification could serve as the model of the integration of the continent. He went on to remind Rau and the audience that the single most powerful force for unity in Europe as a whole is its Christian heritage.
The Pope has lobbied vigorously for official recognition of that heritage in the forthcoming European Union Constitution; President Rau has sought to broker a compromise on the issue, according CathNews.com, taking account of the Church's aspirations.
Pope's Poems Make Best-Seller Lists
INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC NEWS, March 4 — Pope John Paul II's 2003 anthology of autobiographical spiritual poems is selling briskly, according to Independent Catholic News.
More than a million copies of Roman Triptych have been printed in just the last few months, and the poetry volume is now available in 20 languages, including Romanian, Korean and Japanese.
The anthology will soon appear in Dutch, Hungarian, Czech, Basque, Catalan, Russian, Norwegian, Portuguese and Malayalam, the news site reported.
The 2003 book sold more than 600,000 copies in Poland alone. It includes drawings by Michelangelo and two pages printed in the Pope's own handwriting.
Archbishop Foley: Faithful Should Seize the Media
VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE, March 8 — Pope John Paul II's point man for communications, Archbishop John Foley, has urged faithful Catholics to make full use of the many media available for promoting the faith.
Archbishop Foley, president of the Ponti? cal Council for Social Communications, was speaking to the world congress of the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, held March 5-7 in Augsburg, Germany.
The archbishop said he did not “think the media are a curse” but that “they can represent a risk” when they fail to enrich the lives of people through offering accurate news and worthy programming.
“Not one television news program in Germany reported on the Holy Father's World Youth Day in Manila several years ago,” he noted, “when 7 million people joined him for Mass in Rizal Park, perhaps the largest gathering in the history of the world.”
Archbishop Foley told the congress that media indifference or hostility to the Church meant that “even in your own nation and in most nations of the developed world, there is a ‘Church in need’ ready for your aid — in your example, in your personal commitment to the Catholic Church and to its entire teaching, in your readiness to cooperate with our Holy Father and with your bishops.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: A Tale of Two Long-Serving Popes: John Paul II and Leo XIII DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:On March 16 (or a few days earlier depending on how you count leap years), Pope John Paul II passed Pope Leo XIII on the list of longest-serving popes. At 25 years, five months, John Paul has been on Peter's throne for longer than anyone else, save for Blessed Pius IX (31 years, seven months) and the Apostle himself.
The occasion is a good time to look back at Leo, for in this pontificate one can hear the echoes of Leo a century before.
The dates for Leo and John Paul are themselves suggestive. Leo was elected in 1878, in the aftermath of Vatican I, and faced hostility to the Church in Italy, France and Germany. John Paul was elected exactly 100 years later, in the aftermath of Vatican II, and faced a Europe in which the Church was persecuted along the length of the Iron Curtain.
The dominant political question of Leo's time was the “Roman question.” The 1870 reunification of the Italian state had been accomplished along anticlerical lines, and the Holy See was not prepared to recognize the legitimacy of the new republic. At the same time, the practical question about sovereignty over the former Papal States had to be worked out, as did the independence of the Holy See.
Yet facing all that, Leo did something notable. Early in his pontificate, in 1879, he wrote one of his most important encyclicals, devoting it to the renewal of philosophy according to the light of St. Thomas Aquinas (Aeterni Patris, 1879). This was not an abstract matter; Leo diagnosed that the “bitter strifes of these days” were the consequence not of wicked kings or ambitious revolutionaries but of “false conclusions concerning divine and human things that have originated in the schools of philosophy.”
Philosophical Popes
Leo was content to heap condemnations on the predations of the late 19th-century European powers, but he did not think that another, better congress of Vienna would be the solution to Europe's strife and the Church's difficulties. Leo saw that the crisis was philosophical in nature and needed the response of Christian philosophy.
Leo could not have imagined that a Thomistic philosopher would be exactly what the Church got as Pope a century later. The renewal called for in Aeterni Patris was an important factor in the academic formation of the young Karol Wojtyla, something testified to by his own 1998 encyclical on the role of philosophy, Fides et Ratio.
Leo grasped more than a century ago what would become a leitmotif of John Paul's pontificate, namely that it was in the realm of culture — of ideas, particularly ideas about the reality of God and the nature of man — that the most important political battles would be won. Leo predicted in 1891 that communism would be a cure worse than the disease. He would not have been surprised that the hammer and sickle would be defeated by workers marching under the banner of the cross.
There are other noteworthy strands of continuity. In 1892, in Quarto Abeunte Saeculo, Leo XIII celebrated the fourth centenary of Columbus' voyage as the mission of a man who, “not unmoved” by human ambitions, sought above all to “open a way for the Gospel over new lands and seas.” Notwithstanding the temper of a more politically correct time, John Paul would celebrate the fifth centenary in exactly the same spirit — not primarily as an exploratory success or a political conquest but as an evangelical opportunity.
Leo would, in preparation for the Holy Year 1900, consecrate the whole world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus — a pious act that also had political overtones, insofar as devotion to the Sacred Heart was favored by those who rejected the secularizing ideologies in northern Europe, especially France. John Paul, in preparation for the Holy Year 2000, would entrust the whole world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a pious act that was replete with anti-communist significance.
When Karol Wojtyla appeared on the central loggia of St. Peter's for the first time as Pope John Paul II, he immediately spoke of how a Pope from a “faraway country” shared with the large Italian crowd before him a desire “to confess our common faith, our hope, our trust in the Mother of Christ and of the Church.”
Strong Marian piety is not surprising in popes, but Leo XIII and John Paul II are exceptional. Both could be called Marian popes.
Leo XIII wrote some 11 encyclicals on the rosary and decided that October would be dedicated to the rosary. The Marian apparitions at Lourdes in 1858 were the signal Marian event of the 19th century, and Leo was ardent in his devotion to Mary under that title, establishing the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes for the whole Church.
John Paul's Marian devotion is even more transparent, beginning with his motto, Totus Tuus. Only weeks after his election, he spoke of the rosary as his favorite prayer. Later he would declare that his 25th anniversary year (October 2002-2003) would be known as the Year of the Rosary. The Fatima apparitions were the signal Marian event of the 20th century, and John Paul extended the feast of Our Lady of Fatima to the universal Church.
Other similarities are many — both wrote an encyclical on the Eucharist in their 25th years, for example. As John Paul salutes Leo as he overtakes him on the longevity tables, a debt of gratitude is also in order.
Father Raymond J. de Souza served as the Register's Rome correspondent from 1999-2003. He writes from Kingston, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Raymond J. de Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: The Source of Our Security DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:Register Summary
Pope John Paul II offered his reflections on Psalm 20 during his general audience March 10 as he continued his catechesis on the psalms and canticles of the Liturgy of the Hours' evening prayer.
Psalm 20, the Holy Father said, is a solemn liturgical prayer asking the Lord to grant the king victory over his enemies. Faced with the threat of an advancing army of horse-men and chariots, the king and his people choose not to trust in the strength of their armies. Instead, they place their trust in the Lord.
“The king and the people will overcome them with their trust in the Lord,” John Paul noted, “who sides with the weak, the oppressed and those who are victims of arrogant conquerors.” The Pope pointed out that our Christian tradition has applied this psalm to Christ the King, who has triumphed over evil to offer his people salvation.
Even though war is a central theme in Psalm 20, the Holy Father said the psalm is nonetheless a call to overcome evil not by violence but by the power of faith and forgiveness: “Christ comes into the world not with armies but with the power of the Spirit and launches a decisive attack against evil and the abuse of power, against arrogant behavior and pride, and against all deceit and self-centeredness.”
The final invocation, “Lord, grant victory to the king, answer when we call upon you,” reveals the origin of Psalm 20, which we just heard and upon which we will now reflect. It is a royal psalm of ancient Israel, which was proclaimed in the Temple of Zion during a solemn worship service. In it, a plea is made for God's blessing upon the king, especially in this “time of distress” (see verse 2), a time in which the whole nation is prey to deep anxiety as it faces the nightmare of a war. In fact, reference is made to chariots and horses (see verse 8) that seem to be advancing on the horizon; the king and the people will overcome them with their trust in the Lord, who sides with the weak, the oppressed and those who are victims of arrogant conquerors.
Christ the King
It is easy to understand why our Christian tradition has transformed this psalm into a hymn to Christ the King, the “anointed” one par excellence, and the “Messiah” (see verse 7). He comes into the world not with armies but with the power of the Spirit and launches a decisive attack against evil and the abuse of power, against arrogant behavior and pride, and against all deceit and self-centeredness. Christ's words to Pilate, who is a symbol of earthly imperial power, resound in our ears: “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37).
Examining the plot of this psalm, we notice it reveals traces of the liturgy that was celebrated in the Temple of Jerusalem. The sons and daughters of Israel are at the center of the stage, praying for their king, the leader of their nation. Moreover, at the beginning, we catch a glimpse of a sacrificial rite along the lines of the various sacrifices and holocausts the king offered to the “God of Jacob” (see verse 2), who does not abandon his “anointed” (see verse 7) but protects him and sustains him.
The Lord Is Our Security
This prayer is characterized by the conviction that the Lord is the source of security: He is the one who responds to the confident desire of the king and of the entire community, to whom he is bound by a covenant. The climate, of course, is the climate of any warlike event, with all the fears and all the risks war entails. Thus, the word of God is not some abstract message but a voice that adapts itself to the misfortunes of mankind, whether small or great. For this reason, this psalm incorporates some military language along with the atmosphere of war that prevailed in Israel at the time (see verse 6), thereby reflecting the feelings of a man who is in trouble.
In the text of the psalm, verse 7 signals a turning point. The preceding verses express a series of clear requests addressed to God (see verses 2-5), but verse 7 expresses a certainty that God has heard his prayer: “Now I know victory is given to the anointed of the Lord. God will answer him from the holy heavens.” The psalm does not specify the sign by which he has come to know this.
However, it does express a clear contrast between the situation of the enemy, who is trusting in his material resources of horses and chariots, and the situation of the Israelites, who put their trust in God and will, therefore, be victorious. It is reminiscent of the famous passage with David and Goliath: the young Jew opposed the weapons and the arrogant behavior of the Philistine warrior by calling on the name of the Lord, who protects the weak and defenseless. In fact, David tells Goliath: “You come against me with sword and spear and scimitar, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of Hosts … it is not by my sword or spear that the Lord saves. For the battle is the Lord's …” (1 Samuel 17:45 and 47).
A Call to Peace
Even though this psalm is historically and concretely associated with war, it can become an invitation to never let ourselves be lured by an attraction to violence. Even Isaiah exclaimed: “Woe to those … who put their trust in chariots because of their number, and horsemen because of their combined power, but look not to the Holy One of Israel nor seek the Lord!” (Isaiah 31:1).
The just overcome every form of iniquity with faith, kindness and forgiveness, and by offering peace. “Do not repay anyone evil for evil,” the Apostle Paul admonished Christians. “Be concerned for what is noble in the sight of all.” In commenting on this psalm, Eusebius of Caesarea, a historian of the early Church who lived between the third and fourth centuries, broadened its scope to include the evil of death, which Christians are able to conquer through what Christ has done for them: “All adverse powers and the enemies of God, both visible and invisible — faces that are fleeing from the Savior himself — will fall. But all those who receive salvation will rise again from their former ruin. It is for this reason that Simeon said: ‘He is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel,’ that is to say, for the fall of his adversaries and his enemies and for the rise of all those who, once fallen, have now been resurrected by him” (PG 23, 197).
(Register translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Persecutions Plague Christians in Indian State DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:NEW DELHI, India — An incident in the Indian state of Orissa has left Christians as refugees miles from home.
In early February, nine Christians — including seven women — were stripped, molested and had their heads shaved by Hindu fundamentalists. They were persecuted for refusing to give up their faith. Terrorized Christians in the remote Kalipala village in eastern Orissa, fled for their lives.
“This shows the pathetic situation of the Christians there,” John Dayal, a leading Christian-rights campaigner, said Feb. 27 after returning from Orissa, where he met with the persecuted Christians.
Dayal said when Hindu fundamentalist groups learned that three Kalipala villagers planned to embrace Christianity, they intimidated the local Christians and forced out the Christian men, leaving the women and children behind.
Soon afterward, dozens of Hindu militants arrived in the village, forcefully entered the houses of 11 Christian families, and stripped and molested the women for refusing to reconvert to Hinduism. Besides setting Bibles ablaze, the Hindus sprinkled cow dung on the heads of some of their victims after shaving their heads.
The trauma did not end there, according to Dayal. The Christians were packed into a van and taken to a distant village, where they were forcibly “reconverted” to Hinduism amid chanting of Vedic hymns before they managed to flee to Bhubaneswar to publicize the incident.
Dayal, who is vice president of the All India Catholic Union and also secretary-general of the ecumenical All India Christian Council, reported that the Christian villagers are “scared of going back to their village, and they have no guarantee that their lives will be safe if they go back.”
This fear appears well founded, given the response of the Orissa state government in which the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is a coalition partner.
Evangelical pastor Subhas Samal, who went to the local police to complain about the attack on his Christian congregation, was reportedly tortured by the police. And when he returned from the police station, baton-wielding Hindu fundamentalists forced the pastor to denounce his faith publicly.
“This is not an isolated incident. There is a nefarious plan behind this to isolate and force Christians to forsake their faith in tribal areas,” said Dayal, who has been rushing to hot spots across India wherever Christians have been on the receiving end of hostile propaganda and violence from Hindu militants.
“There may not be fresh murders in Orissa,” Dayal added, “but things have gone from bad to worse since the murder of [Graham Stuart] Staines and Father Arul Doss.”
Australian Baptist missionary Staines, who ran a leprosy home in Orissa for three decades, was torched alive in January 1999 by a Hindu mob. The leader of the mob, Dara Singh, was sentenced to death last September for the crime. Staines' two young sons, who were sleeping with him in his van, also perished in the tragedy in the remote village of Manoharpur.
That incident was followed in September 1999 by the murder of Father Doss of the Diocese of Balasore, who was shot with arrows in another remote village.
More recently, a Catholic church was desecrated and an effigy of Christ was burned on the road in the Deogarh district last November after activist followers of Hindu fundamentalist Bajrang Dal visited the area to protest the conversion of three Hindus to Christianity.
Following those attacks, the Orissa United Christian Forum criticized the state government for its failure to protect minorities and their religious places. Though Orissa had reported nearly 200 cases of attacks on Christian targets in one recent year alone, the forum leaders pointed out that in most cases, the culprits remain free, as police never take action because of political pressure.
“The government is simply not concerned about these [attacks],” said Divine Word Missionary Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttak-Bhubaneswar. When a Church team traveling in a jeep in a remote area was attacked last year, Archbishop Cheenath said, they went to police register a complaint.
“But the police simply refused to even file a case or accompany them,” Archbishop Cheenath said.
“We are now used to such a response,” he added.
Selective Law
Under the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act — amended in 1999 in response to complaints by Hindus of coercive conversions by Christians — anyone intending to change his religion must submit a declaration to a local magistrate about his intent to change his religion on “his own will.” The magistrate is then required to forward the declaration to police to find any objection to the proposed conversion.
Even if the magistrate approves a planned conversion to Christianity, the religious minister involved is supposed to divulge the date, time and place of the conversion ceremony to the magistrate 15 days prior to the ceremony.
But when more than 100 Christians were forcibly reconverted to Hinduism in the Sundargarh district in 2002, complaints by Christian groups failed to provoke legal action from the state, which is under the command of Hindu fundamentalists. Christians number more than a quarter-million of Orissa's 36 million people.
“This seems to be a law only meant to be used against Christians. Otherwise, how can [Hindu fundamentalists] so freely terrorize Christians to give up their faith?” Archbishop Cheenath asked.
The Catholic Church's appeal challenging the legality of the controversial legislation is now pending in India's federal Supreme Court.
Apart from the “reconversion” campaign, Dayal charged that Hindu fundamentalists are following “a deliberate and systematic agenda” in the tribal areas of Orissa and other states “to isolate the Christians.” Though Christians and other tribal people have lived in peace in the areas for decades, Dayal warned that with the arrival of Hindu fundamentalists in these remote regions, “poor Christians are heading for harsh times. ”
And, Dayal said, with Hindu groups spreading “poison against Christians” in the minds of other tribal people in remote areas, “even their survival is becoming difficult. In many areas, Christian tribals are now facing social and economic boycott.”
Anto Akkara writes from New Delhi, India.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Anto Akkara ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:Restoring Sight to 100 Blind Africans
MISSIONARY NEWS AGENCY, March 11 — In an ambitious plan called“Restoring Light,” the Fatebenefratelli Association for the Sick Abroad (AFMAL) performed 100 operations in 10 days to restore sight to 100 African men, women and children suffering from cataracts.
The Missionary News Agency reported on the project, which took place this month the city of Gao, Mali. Specialists arrived from Italy carrying diagnostic and surgical equipment and treated the patients, then trained local medical personnel in post-operative care.
“The AFMAL will return to Mali for a second mission in November,” said Brother Benedetto Possemato, vice-president of AFMAL. “The Malians are an extraordinary population. We were profoundly touched by their great dignity in facing such extreme poverty that marks their every day lives and in withstanding the suffering of their illnesses, such as blindness. They have nothing, but are always ready to smile,” he said. The news site noted that in sub-Saharan Africa millions of people face blindness due to ordinary medical problems such as malnutrition, non-potable water, and other factors of poverty. The Fatebenefratelli Association for the Sick Abroad is a Catholic charity founded in Rome in 1537.
Pakistani Christian and Muslim Students Join in Fast
FIDES, March 8 — St. Lawrence Catholic School in Lahore, Pakistan, was recently the scene of an unusual ecumenical initiative, according to Fides, the Vatican's missionary news service.
For one day in Lent, Christian and Muslim students conducted a joint fast and then shared a meal together afterward.
The Lenten gesture mirrored a 2003 joint fast held for one day during the Muslim holy season of Ramadan.
“The initiative taken by the Muslim pupils with regard to Catholic pupils was deeply appreciated,” said Father Francis Nadeem, secretary of the Commission for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue of the Pakistan Bishops' Conference. “This sharing will bring God's blessings upon all, and it will help us to live our shared values, which bring us closer to each other and to God.”
Speaking for the Christian students, Tariq Faiza thanked the Muslims who took part, saying that Christians wanted to work alongside them to “build a country that is tolerant, liberal and moderate.”
Churches Use
REUTERS, March 9 — Four Anglican parishes in the Archdiocese of Canterbury are using Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ to draw worshippers into their churches, Reuters reported. In fact, they're offering free movie tickets.
The four Kent parishes have bought almost $40,000 worth of tickets to give away in the hopes of attracting new parishioners.
“Gay bishops being thrown out of the church is not the sort of publicity we need,” said Russ Hughes, director of worship at one of the parishes. “Hopefully this will put the emphasis back on Christ. … This is the greatest opportunity for the Church in the last 30 years, and if we did not use it, we may not get such an opportunity again.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- ************page 7 missing************* ************page 8 missing************* TITLE: Living With The Sandwich We Made DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:“The sandwich generation” is one of the more frivolous complaints of the baby-boom generation — as if we were the first generation in history to have both children and parents!
The sandwich isn't the problem. The problem is having two dependent generations at the same time. That is unique in the history of the human race. But why is it unique to us?
I'll tell you why. It is one of the unintended consequences of the revolution in contraceptive technology.
This technology, including the pill and legalized abortion, made delaying childbearing easier for larger numbers of people. Popping a pill is a lot simpler than self-restraint. It is hardly surprising that the age of first marriage and the age of first childbearing have both steadily risen since the 1960s. This creates a chronological spread across generations. That spread is responsible for the so-called sandwich generation.
Let me illustrate by telling my story. Like many women of my generation, I postponed childbearing until my career was established. I thought it was smart and responsible to be independent. I was 38 when I had my first child.
Let's do a bit of simple math. My mom was 31 when she had me. (I was the third of six kids, by the way. She wasn't just getting started.) By the time I had my first, my mom was in her 60s. If I had had my first child 10 years sooner, I'd have been 28, not an early age at first childbirth.
But look at the difference those 10 years would have made to my mom. Instead of being in her 60s, she'd be in her 50s. Instead of being infirm when I have school-aged kids, she'd be young enough to enjoy them and, incidentally, to help out.
Likewise, by the time she got old enough to need significant help from me and my siblings, my kids would be teen-agers. I wouldn't be driving them to ball games and dance classes; they could drive themselves places. In fact, they might even be some help with their grandparents.
Multiply my personal decisions by hundreds of women. The age at first childbirth has risen steadily in the last 20 years, even though out-of-wedlock births and teen pregnancy have continued to be a problem. Both economic pressures and the cultural ethos encourage women to delay childbearing and to have only one or two children.
This might be workable for a subset of families. Indeed, there has always been tremendous variation in this kind of very private decision making.
But the society-wide trend is creating a situation that is not sustainable for an entire society. As the process continues, women like me won't have a batch of siblings to help take care of grandma. There will be one or two adult children, taking care of at least two sets of elderly parents, or even more if the grandparents have divorced and remarried. These same adults will also be taking care of young children.
The only possible result of this trend will be some form of institutional care for either the very old or the very young, or both. There simply will not be enough hands on deck inside the family to take care of that many dependent people simultaneously. A family with shorter spacing between the generations would be able to stagger the care of its dependent members across time.
The very youngest generation wouldn't be dependent infants at the same time the oldest generation is most in need of care.
My daughter recently asked me, “Mom, how old should I be when I get married and have kids?”
I said to her, “Well, Honey, I was 38 when you were born. If you are 38 when you have your first child, how old will I be?”
I gave her a minute to do the math. “Seventy-six.”
“Right. If you wait that long, you may have me and your baby in diapers at the same time. But, do whatever you want.”
I sympathize, up to a point, with the pressures of the sandwich generation. Really, I do. I have a couple of school-age kids as well as aging parents and in-laws. My mother-in-law lived with us for the last six months of her life. She had cancer and Alzheimer's.
But I don't think it appropriate for me to complain about doing “double-duty” in the sandwich generation. I was not very realistic. Most of my generation didn't think too closely about the fact that our parents would get old and become legitimately dependent on us.
When Thomas Malthus suggested marrying later in life as a means of controlling population growth, he was in effect suggesting a whole lot of delayed sexual gratification. Not surprisingly, few people took his suggestion seriously enough to actually implement it in their own lives.
But today, delayed childbearing doesn't necessarily represent responsible delayed gratification. Quite often, that late age of first childbearing represents the results of 10, 15 or maybe even 20 years of contracepted sex. We had our fun. Now it's time to pay. We discipline our kids by giving them the “natural consequences” of their actions. We are in this sandwich generation because we didn't do the math. Now we are getting the natural consequences of the choices we made long ago.
Jennifer Roback Morse, A research fellow at the Hoover Institution, wrote Love & Economics: Why the Laissez-Faire Family Doesn't Work.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentry -------- TITLE: The Passion of the Christ DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:Week 1: Mary
Week 2: Sin Week 3: Eucharist
Week 4: Sacrifice
In the weeks leading up to Holy Week and Easter, the Register will use Mel Gibson's film to look at key aspects of Church teaching about the characters and events from the day Christ died.
Mary as the New Eve
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.”
— God's words to the serpent in Genesis 3:15, called the protoevangelium (first Gospel).
“The Christian tradition sees in this passage an announcement of the ‘new Adam’ who, because he ‘became obedient unto death, even death on a cross,’ makes amends superabundantly for the disobedience of Adam. Furthermore, many Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen the woman announced in the protoevangelium as Mary, the mother of Christ, the ‘new Eve.’ Mary benefited first of all and uniquely from Christ's victory over sin: She was preserved from all stain of original sin and by a special grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life.”
— Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 411
The movie opens with a clue to what Gibson wants to do. He wants to put Jesus' sacrifice into the big picture of man's rejection of God in the Garden at Eden.
Christ in the movie is the new Adam.
• Adam sinned in the garden at the tempting of the snake. Christ accepts his Father's will in the garden and crushes the snake.
• After the scourging, Pilate brings Christ back to the praetorium and says, Ecce homo (behold the man). The first readers of the Gospels would recognize this as an unintentional reference to Christ as the new Adam — Adam means “the man.”
• Adam founded the human race. Christ re-founded it through his sacrifice for us. He tells Mary, “Look, Mother, I am making all things new.”
Mary in the movie is the new Eve.
• Satan's litany of Nos in the Garden is the opposite of Mary's Yes. He tells Christ, “No one can bear the burden of man's sins. No one. Ever. No. Never.” But in words that echo the Annunciation, Mary says, “It has begun. So be it.”
• At the Crucifixion, Mary looks at Christ and says, “Flesh of my flesh.” These were Adam's words when he beheld Eve.
• Just as Christ is called “the man” after he is scourged, Mary is called “woman” at the crucifixion.
• “Woman, behold your son,” Christ says. Christ isn't putting John in charge of Mary in this scene. He's struggling to speak in his last moments in order to put Mary in charge of John, and with him, each of us, the whole Church. He's making her the new “Mother of the living,” the new Eve.
Refuge of Sinners
“In the Hail Mary, we say, ‘Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death’: By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the ‘Mother of Mercy,’ the All-Holy One. We give ourselves over to her now, in the today of our lives. And our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender ‘the hour of our death’ wholly to her care. May she be there as she was at her Son's death on the cross. May she welcome us as Our Mother at the hour of our passing to lead us to her son, Jesus, in paradise.”
— Catechism, No. 2677
Mary in the movie is the refuge of sinners Catholics invoke in Marian litanies.
• The apostles know this about her. They come to her with their problems and call her “Mother” in the movie. She's the first one Peter speaks to about his sin, knowing that she won't reject him. Notice also that Judas stays on the opposite side of the crowd from her as he broods about his sin but keeps it to himself.
• During the scourging, there is a flashback to the adulterous woman being faced by the angry mob. In the movie, the sinner of that story is identified with Mary Magdalene. With her prostitution and apparently no children, she is the opposite of Mary, the Virgin Mother. And yet in the movie she's inseparable from Mary, refuge of sinners, who accepts us, ennobles us and brings us to Christ.
• Mary and Satan shadow Christ during the way of the cross. She follows because she's faithful to him and will go where he goes. Satan shadows him because he will hound the just man to his death. This comes from Gibson's meditation as he was battling despair. He might suggest that they both follow us, too. But Satan disappears in the movie when he sees Mary close by.
• Then, of course, there is the beautiful scene of Jesus meeting his mother. Mary remembers comforting the boy Jesus when he fell and rushes to his side again — but this time, it's he who comforts her. She's our Mother, too. When we're hurt by sin, she rushes to us saying, “I'm here!”
• Last, there is a Roman centurion in the movie who begins to recognize Christ's uniqueness. In the movie this happens first when he encounters Jesus' mother. Mary, refuge of sinners, meets us where we are and reorients us.
The Feminine Genius
“The Church sees in Mary the highest expression of the ‘feminine genius’ and she finds in her a source of constant inspiration. Mary called herself the ‘handmaid of the Lord.’ Through obedience to the Word of God she accepted her lofty yet not easy vocation as wife and mother in the family of Nazareth. Putting herself at God's service, she also put herself at the service of others: a service of love. Precisely through this service Mary was able to experience in her life a mysterious but authentic ‘reign’ as ‘Queen of heaven and earth.’”
— Pope John Paul II's 1995 “Letter to Women,” No. 10
The unique role of women in the Church and in the world is celebrated in the movie.
• Throughout the movie Mary, whom we first see serving Jesus, is the strongest of the disciples. The apostles gravitate toward her. A glance from her urges him on at the scourging and at the crucifixion.
• This feminine genius is evident in the movie in characters such as Claudia (Pilate's wife), who knows immediately that Jesus is special when her husband is unable to. Pilate's confrontation with Jesus is the opposite of Claudia's and Mary's. He is dubious and conflicted; the two women are serene and focused outside themselves.
• Veronica is another example of “the feminine genius.” Where the crowd is infected with hatred, she sees Jesus simply as a man in trouble who needs help. She pushes forward to give him water and to wipe his face.
Our Marian Vocation
“We are accompanied by the Blessed Virgin Mary to whom, a few months ago, in the presence of a great number of bishops assembled in Rome from all parts of the world, I entrusted the third millennium. During this [Jubilee] year I have often invoked her as the ‘Star of the New Evangelization.’ Now I point to Mary once again as the radiant dawn and sure guide for our steps.”
— Pope John Paul II's 2001 apostolic letter Novo Millennio Ineunte
Each Christian's vocation is a Marian vocation.
• It's a paradox that Christ is the strongest man in the movie, able to endure so much, and yet is closest to the “motherly” virtues of Mary. The movie shows him washing the feet of the apostles and telling them over and over again to love all, even their persecutors. Motherhood is marked by unconditional, unrecognized service and love in the same way.
• Veronica shows in a very practical way what a Marian vocation looks like. She serves Jesus and, as a result, receives his image.
• Simon the Cyrene is a “manly” exam ple of a Marian vocation. He helps carry the cross, defends Christ and then practically carries both Christ and cross up Calvary — just as Mary has shared Christ's burdens, comforted him and carried the apostles emotionally.
• At the Crucifixion, Mary calls Jesus “heart of my heart.” For Gibson, that's probably a reference to the Immaculate Heart and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This ancient devotion shows the unity of Mary's heart with Christ's, a unity that makes them inseparable.
----- EXCERPT: THE REGISTER'S GUIDE TO ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Abortion's Other Blindness DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:A Senate subcommittee recently heard testimony about the impact of abortion on women.
On one side were women who testified solemnly, sometimes tearfully, about the emotional and psychological difficulties following their abortions. On the other were women utterly unsympathetic to the idea that abortion could cause suffering and smugly dismissive of the women who make such claims.
Like the “collective amnesia” that occurs when a culture forgets a common experience, abortion in this country requires a collective blindness — first to the humanity of the child and second to the suffering of the woman.
Roe v. Wade made our Constitution blind to the personhood of children not yet born. But “legal person” or not, few of us are willing to pretend the developing intrauterine thing is not human. Today we “see” the child better than ever. Technology has brought us face to face with the child and we are utterly captivated by her. In vain did former Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders tell us to “get over this love affair with the fetus.” Technology has spawned a whole industry “devoted to sparking fetal love affairs,” as “pro-choice” feminist author Naomi Wolf candidly observed. Even the scales on “pro-choice” eyes have fallen: Note Wolf's 1995 acknowledgment of “the humanity of the fetus” and that “the death of a fetus is a real death.”
But there is another blindness.
The “pro-choice” witnesses at the hearing were confronted in person with real women who have suffered from abortion and who know thousands of other women just like them. Their response? Deny, minimize and change the subject.
The Rev. Dr. Roselyn Smith-Withers of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice said “some women” might experience “sensations” of regret, sadness or guilt. But these “sensations” are not because of abortion. They are because of the pregnancy, or society, or their own prior mental problems, not the abortion. Anything but the abortion.
Withers said she didn't know women who regretted their abortions but has met plenty who regret having children. “Unintended childbearing” is the real problem, she testified; the negative effects of “unwanted births” must no longer be ignored. Pressed as to what she meant, she explained: “Women have great visions for themselves that they can't realize because they had children.” Perhaps, but they wish their children dead?
Withers argued that, while millions of women have had abortions, there's been no epidemic of women seeking post-abortion treatment — ergo, no harm. To Withers and her peers, the eating disorders, alcoholism, nightmares and suicidal urges of women seeking help could not possibly have anything to do with their abortions. Withers has an agenda, and no suffering women will get in her way.
Abortion supporters are fond of citing the “Koop Report” as evidence that abortion does not harm women. Psychiatrist Nada Stotland told the subcommittee that Dr. C. Everett Koop's conclusion of “miniscule” psychological effects from abortion still holds true today. In truth, there's no “report” but a 1989 letter to President Ronald Reagan saying studies to date “do not provide conclusive data” and recommending that a multimillion-dollar comprehensive study be conducted. Fifteen years later, no such study has been funded or conducted.
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., asked the witnesses whether they would benefit from further study about the impact of abortion on women. Stotland answered quickly — “No” — then added, yes, she would like to see more research: on how legal restrictions on abortion impact women's mental health.
It is remarkable that the call for more information is so controversial. After all, we live in a society that requires information, more and more of it, in all aspects of life. We live in a society that looks to social science and medical science for everything. Yet here we are, 31 years into this unchecked and unstudied experiment on women, and abortion advocates rage against the threat of greater information. Perhaps it is because our eyes are opening to the humanity of the unborn child that they must be kept shut to the suffering of the woman.
But post-abortive women will not be denied. They know their nightmares. They know them well and they know that abortion had something to do with them. And what they want is to warn others.
Brownback is owed a debt of gratitude for conducting a hearing on a subject that should not be taboo. Should we learn more about the impact of abortion on women? If we care about women, the answer is obvious.
Cathleen Cleaver Ruse is director of planning and information for the Pro-Life Secretariat of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Seeking vs. Believing DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:A couple of months ago I wrote about Mike, a young evangelical Protestant who told me he's not into theology or doctrine — he's “just into Jesus.”
Mike's Christianity is woefully incomplete, but at least he's had a genuine conversion experience and he truly loves the Lord. So it was that, despite major differences, we found some common ground to stand on.
It's much harder to find any such acreage when talking to people I call “SNBers” — “seekers, not believers.”
A recent e-mail from an SNBer captured the essence of this worldview by confidently informing me that he was not a narrow-minded believer but an open-minded “seeker.” Seeking is open-minded, believing is close-minded.
Seeking is smart, believing is silly. Seeking is enlightened, believing is superstitious.
Most SNBers I've had contact with preach an uneasy mixture of certitude and doubt. It often seems the only thing they know for sure is that nothing can be known for sure. Oddly, many seem to revel in this confusion.
In the Northwest where I live, a popular bumper sticker exhorts: “Question reality.” Of course, the very act of questioning reality assumes we can find answers and that inquiry is a logical, meaningful activity. But it's not evident that SNBers really want to find answers; they often seem intent on asking questions in order to avoid answers.
Just as important to SNBers is the drive to question authority. All authority, but especially religious authority. This was admitted frankly by Dan Brown, SNBer and author of The Da Vinci Code, in a Washington Post interview. After expressing doubt that we can really know anything about history because it was written “by the winners,” Brown said: “We're entering an age … when we've started to question every-thing. In the past, knowledge was something that was handed down by authority figures; now we seek and discover for ourselves.”
Another bumper sticker shouts: “Question authority!” Ques tion reality based on whose authority? Who has the authority to tell others to question authority? Logically, this simply means other peoples' authority is bad but my authority is good. In which case my authority is “other's authority” to everyone but me, which means no one's authority has any meaning for others.
This confused fragmentation is the one found in a recent best seller, the title a perfect summation of the SNBer mantra: Beyond Belief. Written by neo-gnostic Elaine Pagels, the book attempts to rehabilitate heretics of the early Church era by (surprise!) describing them as people who “seek for God” — but don't necessarily believe in God.
For Pagels, true faith is all about seeking and choice, having nothing to do with certainty and dogma. Heresy is described as choosing differently than orthodox Christianity and rejecting the falsehoods foisted upon history by hierarchy and dogma. The jacket for her book assures readers of the merits of this open-minded position: “Pagels shows that what matters about Christianity involves much more than any one set of beliefs” and “the impulse to seek God overflows the narrow banks of a single tradition.” That sounds agreeable, but it doesn't hold water: You can seek all the rivers you want, but you can only float your boat on one river at a time.
The nature of seeking is based on the belief that there is something worth seeking. Choosing not to find anything is simply cognitive dissonance. As G.K. Chesterton said: “The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.” Now there's something to chew on.
Carl E. Olson, author of Will Catholics Be ‘Left Behind’? and editor of Envoy magazine, writes from Eugene, Oregon.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: London Calling DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:When I first read the words “Westminster Cathedral” in my London guidebook as I prepared for my recent trip to England, I thought I was looking at a typographical error.
Or perhaps the famous Westminster Abbey had undergone a name change.
Of course, neither guess was right. There is a Westminster Cathedral in London. It's a major London landmark and, once you're in the city, it's all but impossible to miss — let alone mistake as any kind of tag-along to the similarly named (but unconnected) abbey.
I recall squeezing off the subway — make that the Tube — at Victoria Station and making my way along the crowded sidewalk toward the cathedral. I didn't have to go far until all that stood between me and the Byzantine-style church was a broad piazza.
Crossing the piazza toward the west door, I admired the unusual stripes formed by the stones used to build the church. At 8 o'clock in the morning, the cathedral was already filled with parishioners stopping for a quick prayer or hurrying to Mass in one of the chapels. I was one of several visitors who paused to stare at the soaring nave (the highest and widest in all of England) before heading further inside to see the magnificent main altar and stunning side chapels. There are 12 of these, each more spectacular than the last.
For example, the Lady Chapel, whose centerpiece is a bright mosaic of the Madonna and child, radiates Marian faith with rare beauty. Above the mosaic, against a gold-leaf background, Mary stands before the Tower of London and London Bridge. Opposite her, St. Peter, the patron of Westminster, stands before the cathedral itself. Between them is a cross, now converted into the Tree of Life. Atop it stands Christ. The window recesses are crowned by mosaics of Sts. Lucy, Agatha, Justine, Catherine and Cecilia. A frieze depicts events in the life of the Blessed Mother. It's evident the chapel was a labor of love for the artisans who contributed to its creation between 1908 and 1935.
The other chapels are likewise filled with splendidly symbolic artworks that incorporate multiple mediums and celebrate numerous “supporting” saints. In the Chapel of Sts. Gregory and Augustine (of Canterbury), for example, you'll find some of their contemporaries — Sts. Laurence, Mellitus, Justus, Paulinus.
For its part, the high altar is an example of cathedral superlatives. The altar itself, for instance, measuring 12 feet long and weighing in at 12 tons, is the church's greatest monolith. Above it hangs a massive, dominating San Damiano crucifix. This bears the words of Revelation 21:6: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.”
Blood of the Martyrs
Like Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral is the final resting place of some prominent individuals. But, unlike the abbey, the cathedral holds the remains only of those who died marked with the sign of heroic faith.
Under the 12th Station of the Cross lies Cardinal John Heenan, the eighth archbishop of Westminster. His successor, Cardinal Basil Hume, died in 1999 and is buried in the Chapel of St. Gregory and St. Augustine along with Bishop Richard Challoner, whose revision of the Old and New Testaments was the standard English translation for two centuries. The first two cardinal-archbishops of Westminster as well as the fifth, sixth and seventh also repose here.
Impressive as all this is, what most attracted my attention was the Chapel of St. George (the patron of England) and the English Martyrs, where the body of St. John Southworth is visible inside a glass sarcophagus. Sheltered in gold and draped in priestly robes, the saint provides the kind of spectacle I have not often seen — and a different perspective on the English martyrs I heard so much about on my trip to England.
Father Southworth did much of his parish work in Westminster during a time when the Catholic faith was proscribed in England. He was publicly hanged, drawn and quartered for his faith, and his dismembered body was smuggled away by the faithful. It was enshrined in this chapel in 1930.
It is fitting that the persecution of the Catholic Church in England is remembered here, in a church built on the site of prison, no less. This is a relatively young church as European cathedrals go. The foundation stone was laid in 1895 and construction was only completed in 1903. Yet it recalls the long and storied history of our faith, with special homage paid to the faithful Brits who died over the centuries for love of it.
Not least among these, incidentally, was St. Margaret Clitherow, the “Pearl of York,” who was pressed to death in 1586 for hearing Mass and harboring priests. Ask her intercession for the English faithful on March 26, her feast.
Potent Pilgrimage
Today the cathedral works together with other area churches for major celebrations. On Good Friday, the cathedral, abbey and Westminster's Methodist Central Hall have co-hosted “The Crucifixion on Victoria Street,” a procession through London.
And the cathedral has hosted Pope John Paul II and welcomed Queen Elizabeth, the latter event marking the first post-Reformation visit by a British monarch to a Catholic liturgy.
Impressive as it is, Westminster Cathedral got only a cursory mention in my guidebook. Perhaps that's because it's so much more than a tourist pit stop. It flies below the sight-seeker's radar even though it dwarfs, literally and figuratively, many lesser attractions.
Don't let the brush-off stop you from gawking. In fact, once you get that out of your system, you'll feel all the more at home: primed for pilgrimage, prayer and contemplation. And all the more closely connected to the ageless, timeless Body of Christ.
Elisabeth Deffner writes from Orange, California.
----- EXCERPT: Westminster Cathedral, London ----- EXTENDED BODY: Elisabeth Deffner ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, MARCH 21
Extreme Makeover:
Home Edition
ABC, 8 p.m.
When Tom and Deirdre McCrory of Costa Mesa, Calif., learn their brood is jumping to five because triplets are on the way, they need to expand their 1,077-square-foot house in a hurry. Makeover experts do the job — and build in child—friendly touches as well.
SUNDAY, MARCH 21
Mini Golf Madness
Travel Channel, 8 p.m.
Each miniature-golf course tends to be one of a kind. This special visits 10 of them and, for good measure, throws in a nine-hole course situated beneath a funeral parlor.
MONDAY, MARCH 22
A Day in Their Lives: World War I Fighter Pilot
History Channel, 6 a.m.
This “Classroom” episode uses historical film footage, re-enactments and modern aerial photography to virtually squeeze us into the cockpit with a young American volunteer in Britain's RAF over Amiens, France, on a typical day of combat, Aug. 23, 1918.
TUESDAY, MARCH 23
NOVA: Mysterious
Mummies of China
PBS, 8 p.m.
Mummies from the Central Asian Takla Makan desert of China are more than 3,000 years old — and Caucasian. They have long, braided reddish-blond hair and blue eyes, and the grown-ups are more than 6 feet tall. First aired in January 1998. Advisory: This show is TV-PG because some of the mummies bear evident signs of human sacrifice.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24
Passion in Jerusalem
EWTN, 4:30 a.m., 6 p.m.
This 30-minute special takes us to modern-day Jerusalem and immerses us in the Holy Week observances there.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24
Secrets of the Humpback Whale
Discovery Channel, 5 p.m.
These whales travel 3,000 miles as they migrate from Hawaii to Alaska.
THURSDAYS
Figures Around the Cross: A Lenten Journey
Familyland TV, 1:30 p.m.
Father William Maestri of the Archdiocese of New Orleans helps us deepen our Lenten meditation with his programs on the life of Christ, the Blessed Mother and the Passion.
FRIDAY, MARCH 26
Lost Liners, Part I
PBS, 10 p.m.
This two-part documentary from Partisan Pictures covers the disasters that befell the Titanic, the Empress of Ireland and the Lusitania between 1912 and 1915. Part II is next Friday, April 2, at 10 p.m. First aired in July 2000.
SATURDAY, MARCH 27
Automobiles
History Channel, 8 a.m.
The very popular Volkswagen “Beetle,” created by the renowned automobile designer Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1952) in the 1930s — the original design, not the trendy New Beetle — was produced even into the 21st century.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Now Playing DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:1 ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (Miramax) Director: Michael Gondry. Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Elijah Wood. (R)
Take One: Existential comedy screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) is back with his characteristic blend of slacker angst, black comedy and magical realism in a story of lost memories and searches for love. Yet in place of the scaldingly misanthropic tone of his earlier films, this one has a promising new note of humanism and hope.
Take Two: It might be more hopeful than Malkovich or Adaptation, but it's just as R-rated, with profane language, sexual references and immorality, drug use and characters in various states of undress.
Final Take: Objectionable content is the big problem, but at least Kaufman's cinephile following will get a break from narcissistic self-loathing and self-gratification in a story about characters daring to reach out to one another in the hope that ignorance is not a prerequisite for bliss.
SECRET WINDOW (Co -lum bia) Director: David Koepp. Johnny Depp, John Tuturro. (PG-13) Take One: Johnny Depp stars in a suspense thriller based on a Stephen King novella about a reclusive writer harassed by a creepy stalker (John Tuturro) who claims Depp's character plagiarized his story.
Take Two: The King-based story effectively plucks at primal anxieties, but the story is thin and repetitive, the “twist” unsurprising — and goodness, I hope that, in the real world, when the body count gets high, enough people like Andy Griffith know to call in people like Columbo. The film squeaks by with a PG-13 rating by keeping gore to a minimum, but there's still some nasty business and quite a bit of crude language.
Final Take: If you haven't figured out who's behind it all by the tim e a house burns down — or if you care after that — you probably don't see many movies. And this isn't the movie to be starting with.
HIDALGO (Disney) Director: Joe Johnston. Viggo Mortensen, Zuleikha Robinson, Omar Sharif. (PG-13)
Take One: Back in the saddle in his first post-Aragorn role, Viggo Mortensen plays real-life cowboy Frank Hopkins in a film based on Hopkins' tall tales about riding his great horse Hidalgo in the made-up Ocean of Fire race in the Arabian desert.
Take Two: While painting a surprisingly mixed picture of both Arab and Western culture and characters, the film does make the one explicitly Christian character the big villain and dishes up yet another helping of Disney-style American Indian spirituality (Pocahontas, Brother Bear, etc.). Action violence, some innuendo and depictions of drunkenness.
Final Take: Despite drawbacks, Hidalgo manages to be a reasonably entertaining yarn.
4 AGENT CODY BANKS 2: DESTINATION LONDON (MGM) Director: Kevin Allen. Frankie Muniz, Anthony Anderson, Hannah Spearritt. (PG)
Take One: Welcome to the third annual spring Frankie Muniz Spy Kids rip-off movie (previous entries: Big Fat Liar and Agent Cody Banks). This year, Cody takes his junior 007 act to London to stop a world-domination plot involving mind control.
Take Two: Less morally problematic than Muniz's last two flicks (which had significant issues with lying and lust, respectively), Cody Banks 2 is by far the lamest of the trio. The mostly British supporting characters are pointlessly eccentric, bizarre and mincing, and scene after scene is jaw-droppingly stupid, with limp pratfalls, rote action and no wit.
Final Take: It took James Bond decades to get as tired as Cody Banks' second film. Even Austin Powers flicks made me care more about the story than this.
5 MY ARCHITECT (New Yorker) Director: Nathaniel Kahn. (No rating)
Take One: Part documentary, part home movie, My Architect is an inquiry into the life of pre-eminent architect Louis
I. Kahn, who died in 1974, survived by a wife and daughter — and two mistresses with one child each. Filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn, one of the illegitimate children, was 11 when his father died and wants to know who his father was.
Take Two: Studies in architecture and interviews with colleagues and acquaintances help bring Lou Kahn's life into focus; some disparage his treatment of women, others make excuses. A startlingly frank interview with Nathaniel's mother serves as an eloquent exposé of his father's philandering and his mother's denial.
Final Take: My Architect isn't a moral film per se, but the moral is there for those who wish to draw it. Adventurous art-house moviegoers might just find this son's journey worth tagging along.
Steven D. Greydanus, editor and chief critic of Decentfilms.com, writes from Bloomfield, New Jersey.
Spotlight: Recent Receipts Speak — Hear That, Hollywood?
Weeks after its record-shattering opening, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ not only shows little sign of slowing down, but it also continues to surpass expectations and confound box-office pundits at every turn. Consider the following:
For three straight weeks, The Passion of the Christ has not only ruled the U.S. box office but also has attracted more viewers and made more money than all new releases combined. Last weekend the film enjoyed the fifth-best third weekend in history, behind Spider-Man and Star Wars: Episode I but ahead of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Jurassic Park.
This weekend, in only its fourth week of release, Passion is on track to surpass The Matrix Reloaded as the highest-grossing R-rated film in history. On March 10, after just 15 days of release, it surpassed Signs as the top-grossing film of Gibson's career.
Current estimates suggest a final gross of $350 million to $400 million, putting it in The Return of the King territory. However, every weekend so far The Passion has outperformed estimates, consistently doing better when the money was actually counted than bean counters guessed during the weekend.
Last weekend, not even the combined star power of Pirates of the Caribbean's Johnny Depp and indie fave John Tuturro could power Stephen King thriller Secret Window's opening to much more than half of The Passion's third-frame success.
With Holy Week and Easter season still ahead, The Passion could continue to confound the pundits for weeks to come.
Other good news at the box office: After dipping out of the top 10 for just one week, The Return of the King bounced back after its big night at the Oscars. After two weeks back on the top 10 list, The Return of the King sits at No. 6 on the all-time box-office blockbuster charts, right behind Spider-Man. (Titanic remains a virtually un-catchable No. 1, well ahead of the No. 2 film, Star Wars.)
Though no blockbuster on the scale of The Passion or Lord of the Rings, Kurt Russell's Miracle, the rousing real-life story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team's upset victory over the unstoppable Soviet juggernaut, has done quite well at the box office. Dropping off the top 10 list last weekend, it's made more than $60 million and counting. Still playing in most areas, it's well worth catching.
----- EXCERPT: A Register's-eye view of five current box-office leaders ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven D. Greydanus ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:Shattered Glass (2003)
Quietly riveting, crisply in telligent, ethically uncompromising, Shattered Glass tells the fact-based story of the spectacularly fraudulent journalistic career of Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen), a hotshot writer for the New Republic (“the in-flight magazine on Air Force One”) during the 1990s. With unsettling plausibility, first-time director Billy Ray depicts Glass' uncanny ability to ingratiate himself to his co-workers while ingeniously covering his tracks.
He mounts a deception on such a scale — inventing stories out of whole cloth — that his peers and superiors can scarcely comprehend it even when he's practically caught red-handed.
Christensen brings a nerdy charisma and inscrutable calculation to the role of Glass, betraying no trace of the comparative woodenness of his Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones. But the film belongs to Peter Sarsgaard, who brilliantly portrays the magazine's beleaguered new editor, distracted by office politics and reluctant to confront the popular, respected Glass.
Why did Glass do what he did?
The film offers no explanation — a choice some have found unsatisfying. I disagree. Glass' pattern of deceit is queasily persuasive; adding Catch Me If You Can psychologizing about his childhood or whatever would only diminish the film's truthfulness, not enhance it. In the end, why Glass lied doesn't really matter — only that he did.
Content advisory: Some obscene and profane language; a few crude references; a depiction of drug abuse.
The Sound of Music (1965)
Other than The Wizard of Oz, no Hollywood musical is as familiar, reassuring and beloved of all ages as The Sound of Music.
The loosely fact-based story has its earliest origins in the memoirs of Baroness Maria von Trapp and was turned into a stage musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein in their final collaboration (and their only joint effort to rival their first collaboration, Oklahoma!).
In bringing the musical to the screen, director Robert Wise made spectacular use of magnificent mountain landscapes and shooting locations in Germany and Austria.
He also found in Julie Andrews the quintessential Maria. She's radiantly joyful, earnest and energetic, clear of diction and powerful in song.
Her performance anchors the film. Had she betrayed any flicker of condescension or insincerity, the whole thing would have collapsed into treacle and camp. But cynics will search her face in vain: Her sincerity is absolute; she sells the role and the film.
While the story depicts a religious postulant leaving the convent for marriage and family, both domestic and religious life are honored; God's will and one's own vocation, not one state versus another, is clearly the point. (Still, the musical does de-emphasize the role of religion in the original story.
For example, the family's real musical mentor, after Maria, was a boarder who was a Catholic priest!)
Content advisory: Nothing objectionable.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:Not Taboo at Seattle U.
THE SEATTLE TIMES, March 2 — As par t of Jesuit-run Seattle University's yearlong series on campus regarding sexuality, history professor Theresa Earenfight recently gave a seminar on “the histor y and politics of contraception.”
“Sex should be about pleasure, I think, although that's not necessarily the Catholic perspective,” she said.
Indeed, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, sex is reser ved for the sacrament of matrimony and is not only for the good of the couple but also for the generation and education of children.
As par t of the series, Seattle University students, 40% of whom are Catholic, have also heard from the parents of a student who said he is a homosexual, “explored” the mind of a rapist and debated sex education.
The newspaper noted that the university operates independently of the Archdiocese of Seattle.
Washburn Case Dismissed
CYBERCAST NEWS SERVICE, March 3 — A federal judge in Kansas dismissed a lawsuit involving the display of controversial statue on the campus of Washburn University in Topeka.
The judge ruled the university did not violate the Constitution with its display of a statue of a smug-faced Catholic bishop wearing a miter that resembles a phallus.
He said the presence of “Holier Than Thou,” the name of the statue, on the campus “would [not] cause a reasonable obser ver to believe that [Washburn] endorsed hostility toward the Catholic religion.”
The Thomas More Law Center filed the lawsuit on behalf of a Washburn professor and a senior at the school, both devout Catholics. The center said it plans to appeal the decision.
Passion for Students
CHRISTENDOM COLLEGE, Feb. 25 — More than 275 students at Christendom College in Front Royal, Va., viewed The Passion of the Christ on Ash Wednesday at a local theater the college rented.
College president Timothy O'Donnell said he had seen a pre-released version of the film in November and thought it impor tant enough for all students to see.
Back on campus after the film, students spent a holy hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament and confession was made available.
Seton Hall Student Sues
WNBC (New York), March 10 — A homosexual student at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., filed a lawsuit against the school March 10 claiming he was discriminated against when he was denied his request to start a campus homosexual group in December.
Citing its Catholic tradition, the university said it would not formally recognize any campus group, homosexual or otherwise, that was based solely on sexual orientation, the news station reported.
The university did offer a “memorandum of understanding” to the student acknowledging the group's existence but retaining the right to choose the group's name. The student rejected the offer.
Southern Chairman
ATLANTA BUSINESS JOURNAL, Feb. 24 — Edward Schroeder, a former executive at United Parcel Ser vice Inc., has been named chairman of the board for Southern Catholic College in Dawsonville, Ga.
Schroeder is retired from UPS, where he star ted as a driver and worked his way up to become head of international operations.
Southern Catholic College plans to open in fall 2005.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Constitutionalizing Religious Discrimination DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:Unfortunately, the release of The Passion of the Christ was accompanied by a dramatic episode of religious intolerance. But it had nothing to do with the movie.
The same day Mel Gibson's film opened, the Supreme Court issued a stunning decision permitting religious discrimination.
Feb. 25's court ruling came in Locke v. Davey, a case brought by Joshua Davey, a college student who was made to forfeit a $1,125 scholarship he had received from the state of Washington.
Davey had used his Promise Scholarship award to enroll at Northwest College, a Christian school affiliated with the Assemblies of God. When he declared a double major in business management and pastoral studies, the state revoked his scholarship because the statute authorizing the Promise program explicitly declared that no aid could be given to a student pursuing a degree in theology.
News Analysis
Despite the court's claim to the contrary, Davey was subject to blatant religious discrimination. Washington's scholarship program does not favor a specific type of study or even encourage students to enroll in one of the state's public schools. Recipients can attend any accredited college in the state, public or private. Scholarships are awarded based on students' high-school grades and financial need, not on their proposed courses of study.
The program is one of general availability with only one exception — it excludes students who study theology, which the state interprets as the study of religion from a religious perspective.
According to Washington state's lawyers, Davey could have used his scholarship to major in religious studies at the University of Washington but not to major in pastoral studies at Northwest College. One fact alone disqualified him from his scholarship: that his major approached religion from a religious perspective.
A seven-member court majority (Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented) ruled that the program passes constitutional muster because the state possesses an “antiestablishment interest” that allows it to “disfavor” religion. In plain English, that means the government may legitimately single out religion for discrimination.
Although written by the conservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist and signed by supposed moderates Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy, the decision abandons the idea that the state must treat religion at least as well as non-religion.
It is inconceivable that the court would allow such hostile action against any ethnic, racial or other sort of group identity, save the criminally convicted. Rehnquist's unfortunate choice of language will likely become the rallying cry of anti-religion legal activists who seek to drive religion further out of the public square.
To support his opinion, Rehnquist cited America's Founding Fathers and their efforts to end direct taxpayer support of religion. Several state constitutions at the time of the founding, he emphasized, “prohibited any tax dollars from supporting the clergy.”
But the chief justice's history is woefully inadequate — and outrageously so from a justice who purports to believe in “original intent.” In their efforts to end established churches, the founders sought to prohibit taxes that directly supported only religious ministers.
They sought to end exclusive privileges enjoyed solely by members of established churches. They never sought to deny religious citizens the right to participate equally in programs of general availability. Rehnquist's claim, “that early state constitutions saw no problems in explicitly excluding only the ministry from receiving state dollars,” is a historical mistake.
In fact, just a year before he drafted what would become the First Amendment, the “Father of the Constitution,” James Madison, sharply criticized a proposal for Virginia's Constitution that excluded religious ministers from holding state office.
Writing in 1788, Madison asked rhetorically, “Does not the exclusion of ministers of the Gospel as such [from eligibility for state office] violate a fundamental principle of liberty by punishing a religious profession with the privation of a civil right? … Does it not in fine violate impartiality by shutting the door against the ministers of religion and leaving it open for those of every other?”
Madison's questions make clear that the fundamental principle of religious liberty forbids the government from using religion as a basis for discriminatory treatment.
Washington's statute is exactly the type of law the founders sought to prohibit. The statute classifies one type of student by using a religious test and then prohibits those students from participating in a generally available program. That's religious discrimination.
A state could, consistent with the First Amendment, award scholarships only to students pursuing fields of study needed by the state. If state legislators foresaw a shortage of nurses, for example, they could establish a scholarship for nursing students only.
Similarly, a state could favor its own schools over private schools and choose to award scholarships only to students matriculating in public universities. But if a state establishes a generally available program, the First Amendment's guarantee of religious liberty prohibits the government from excluding participants on account of a classification based on religion — or at least it did until last month.
The controversy surrounding The Passion of the Christ serves to remind us that, whatever progress has been made, religious discrimination still exists in the real world. With their ruling, the seven-member Supreme Court majority has accomplished something Mel Gibson could not possibly attempt — they not only endorsed religious discrimination but they also constitutionally sanctioned it.
Vincent Phillip Muñoz is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and an assistant professor of political science at North Carolina State University.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Vincent Phillip Muņoz ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Is a Marian Springtime at Hand? DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:MARY IN THE CHURCH: A SELECTION OF
TEACHING DOCUMENTS
by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
USCCB Publishing, 2003 184 pages, $14.95
To order: (800) 235-8722 www.usccb.org/publishing
What if the U.S. bishops had come out with a document on Mary shortly after the Second Vatican Council that fostered fervent devotion to her as Mother of God and Mediatrix, and strongly endorsed the rosary and other traditional devotions? Surely a document along these lines would have prevented the decline in Marian practices and prayers that seemed to sweep through the Church in the council's wake.
Well, guess what? The U.S. bishops did issue such a document in 1973. It stated, “First of all, we should clearly understand that the Second Vatican Council in no way downgraded faith in or devotion to Mary. On the contrary, the eighth chapter of the Constitution on the Church is a clear and penetrating account of Catholic teaching on the Blessed Mother of God.”
Of course, as the Church learned with Vatican II itself, to write the truth is one thing. It is a more difficult task to pass on the truth and defend it in the everyday practice of the Church. Still, there is wisdom in putting the truth into print. Someone at some time could pick up the book and read it for the betterment of all.
Such might be the role of Mary in the Church: A Selection of Teaching Documents, released by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops last November. The lead document is the somewhat neglected 1973 pastoral letter Behold Your Mother: Woman of Faith, which reaffirms the central place of Mary in the Church while admitting that Marian devotion fell on hard times after Vatican II.
Also reprinted in the book are Pope Paul VI's 1974 apostolic exhortation Marialis Cultus, on the right ordering and development of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and two better-known documents by Pope John Paul II: the 1987 encyclical Redemptoris Mater (Mother of the Redeemer) and the 2002 apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae (The Rosary of the Virgin Mary), which introduced the new luminous mysteries of the rosary. The result is a treasury of Marian doctrine and devotion that explains why Mary should be the focus of Christian attention. It would make fruitful reading for parish prayer groups or RCIA classes.
The 1973 bishops' conference document is also an interesting historical document, as the bishops address the problem of declining Marian devotion. In Chapter 3, they note that “some have the erroneous impression that the Second Vatican Council minimized or even denied the mediation of Mary. Although it used the word fimediatrix' only once and altogether avoided the words fico-redemptrix' and fidispenstrix,' the council both retained and deepened Catholic understanding of Our Lady's mediatorial role.” True as this might be, the question remains why such doubts were raised about Mary's role in the first place.
The time is ripe for a springtime for Mary in this country, which is dedicated to her under the title of the Immaculate Conception. The timing of the bishops might be just right.
Stephen Vincent is based in Wallingford, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Stephen Vincent ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: The Crux of Cohabitation DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:Family Matters
You wrote recently about ways to approach adult children who cohabitate. You gave some helpful advice, but I was disappointed that you did not focus on the seriously sinful nature of living together and being sexually active before marriage.
We heard from more than one reader who had the same concern about our earlier column on this subject (“Cohabitation Conundrum,” Feb. 22-28).
One reader thought the best course of action was to make it clear to the couple that they were in a state of mortal sin. Another suggested not welcoming the child back into the parents' home until the couple had separate residences. All in all, while no one disagreed with our practical advice concerning the harmful effects living together has on a couple, they thought we skirted the more important spiritual and moral issues.
Certainly, the moral question is open and shut. Cohabitation is wrong, period. There's no disagreement here on that point. But it's also the part of the argument that must be handled the most deftly. Why? Because the cohabiting couple has already decided their arrangement is not just good but right. They need a radical change in perspective: in a word, conversion. This is not likely to be brought about with a simple appeal to Christian morality. In fact, if you play that one note too loudly or too often, they might stop talking to you altogether. Then chances increase that they will remain lost in their sin for a very long time.
And speaking of sin, the Church teaches that there are three factors in determining whether an act is mortally sinful — grave matter, full knowledge and consent of the will. There is no question that cohabitation is grave matter and that the couple is consenting to it. The tricky part comes when considering their level of knowledge about what they are doing.
Was “Jack” raised in a thoroughly Catholic home with two loving parents who made sure he was catechized effectively? Does he know full well what the Church teaches, believe in his heart that it is true and yet still reject it? For him, a tough-loving, line-in-the-sand approach might be appropriate.
Meanwhile “Jill” was born out of wedlock and raised by a single mother. Her mother was unchurched, so Jill was never catechized at all as a child. Later in life, when Jill was a young adult, her mother got right with God through the Church and did her best to share the faith with her daughter. But Jill has remained unmoved by her mother's attempts to witness the faith, let alone her pleas to move out of the young man's apartment.
Jill certainly does not have the same level of culpability as Jack, and it isn't hard to see why the parental strategy that worked with him won't work with her.
Taking a cue from St. Paul, we need to meet people where they are when we bring them the Gospel. When dealing with a cohabiting child, a parent's words and actions should be guided by one question: How can I best motivate my child to reject sin and follow Christ?
Tom and Caroline McDonald are family-life directors for the
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Building a Culture of Long Life DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:Prolife Profile
Tony Fulton was just 11 years old when he first lent a hand to an elderly neighbor.
He remembers the glint of the John F. Kennedy 50-cent piece he received in return for cleaning a bathroom, emptying the trash, washing dishes and shopping for groceries — not to mention the 35-cent pack of football cards he promptly purchased with his earnings.
Fulton's reputation quickly spread. By the time he finished high school, he was assisting elderly residents of his Nebraska hometown several times a week. Fifteen years later, Fulton, 31, continues to serve the aged as the founder and owner of Guardian Angels Homecare Inc., a Lincoln, Neb., company that provides nonmedical care for seniors to help them remain at home.
The company originated with a realization that God was calling Fulton — an engineer by trade — to do something more. “It became clear to me that I possess people skills that most engineers don't,” he explains. “It also became clear to me that I'm motivated by things that most people aren't. My Catholic faith burns in me.”
After much prayer and guidance from his wife and spiritual director, the father of four opened Guardian Angels Homecare. The company began taking clients June 1, 2003, and currently serves 35 seniors with 41 caregivers.
Using an extensive background check, Fulton hires caregivers to assist seniors with housekeeping, meal preparation, transportation and laundry. Help is also available for overnight stays. Although these tasks seem ordinary, Fulton said such assistance is vital for the physically, mentally or emotionally debilitated person.
“For someone who is 85 years old, if she's cleaning her home, cooking meals and so on, she's worn out and doesn't have time to be with her children,” Fulton says. “Or when her children come in to do that for her, her children are worn out, and they don't have time to be with Mom or Dad.”
Fulton believes the key for most seniors is maintaining independence. “If you talk to 100 seniors, I'd say 99 of them are going to say, ‘I don't want to go to a nursing home,’” he says. “This is a generation where owning a home is the American dream. These people have been in their homes for decades, 50 years some of them.”
Fulton notes that Guardian Angels Homecare Inc. is a member of The Senior's Choice, a national Nevada-based network of similar companion-care companies. To his knowledge, however, Guardian Angels is unique in its Catholic perspective.
“By expending our energies and ourselves in helping the elderly, we communicate to a secular culture that these individuals have an intrinsic dignity that we are willing to work toward, to preserve and to recognize,” Fulton says, adding that he considers his work a direct answer to Pope John Paul II's call to “put into the deep for a catch.”
“Don't hide from culture,” he says, paraphrasing the Pope. “Engage it, embrace it, love it for the sake of souls — for Jesus.”
The importance of Fulton's work recently struck Father Matthew Vandewalle, parochial vicar of the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Lincoln, as he took Communion to a parishioner recovering from a hip replacement. “I was bringing her the Eucharist,” the priest recalls, “and the Guardian Angels were bringing Christ in a different way through that service and companionship.”
The company name reflects this perspective, Fulton says. “That's what the guardian angels do for us: They help us on our path to heaven,” he adds. “They protect us from the wiles of the evil one. They protect us from spiritual harm if we're willing to listen.”
One of Fulton's greatest joys is watching similar relationships form between seniors and their caregivers. Take Megan Carter and her client, Barbara Boyer.
Since September, Carter has helped “Mrs. B” from 8 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday. She prepares meals, washes clothes, assists with light housecleaning and reminds Mrs. Boyer to take her pills.
Best of all for Carter, it's not all give and no get. “I love to hear Mrs. Boyer tell stories,” she says. “It's like I'm the wide-eyed child waiting for the master storyteller to color my imagination with true, historical accounts. … She's a very classy lady who exemplifies what it is to grow old gracefully.”
Fulton says he makes an effort to pay a visit to each client monthly and, according to Father Vandewalle, Fulton has been known to personally cover for caregivers in the case of vacations or emergencies.
Such sacrifice seems to come naturally for Fulton, who has been serving the elderly since he was a child. After all, Fulton says, his primary goal in forming Guardian Angels Hom ecare was not to make money but to influence culture.
“I'm only 31, but in a couple of decades I'm going to stand before God and say, ‘This is what I did with my life,’” he says. “I hope it has an eternal impact.”
Kimberly Jansen writes from Lincoln, Nebraska.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kimberly Jansen ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Clean Teens DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:Facts of Life
Teen-agers are thumbing their noses at drugs. According to a new survey by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, the number of teens who have tried the onceubiquitous “ecstasy” has plunged by about 25% since the drug's peak in 2001. More teens are declining other drugs, too.
Source: New York Post, Feb. 26 Register illustration by Tim Rauch.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: 'Feast of the Incarnation' DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:If we're truly a pro-life Church, we ought to be celebrating Christ's conception with as much joy as we bring to his birth.
So says Father Charles Samperi, pastor of St. James the Apostle Church in Spring, Texas, when asked about ways families can commemorate the Annunciation on March 25.
“That was Christ,” he adds, “at that very moment Mary gave her fiat.” The Annunciation, he points out, is really the “feast of the Incarnation.”
We're sold. But what's a family to do?
One way to highlight the importance of the feast is to make a family Annunciation candle, says Helen Hull Hitchcock, a co-founder of St. Louis-based Women for Faith & Family (www.wf-f.org). “This provides all kinds of teaching moments,” she adds. “Children love candles.”
Here's how it works: With a parent's help, the kids hollow out a little nook in a stout pillar candle — preferably white, to symbolize Mary's purity. Inside this, they place a small figure or picture of the baby Jesus. Next, using flattop pushpins and a round swatch of cloth veil, they seal the nook shut. The baby is hidden within the body of the candle, as Jesus was hidden within his mother from the Annunciation until Christmas Day.
To show that the Annunciation is a celebration of God becoming man, Hitchcock suggests parents and children “talk about what it means that Christ became one of us from the moment of conception in Mary's womb, not at some other time” of his development in the womb.
To emphasize the point, she suggests lighting the candle on each Marian feast day until Christmas morning. At that time, of course, the children remove the veil and place the Baby Jesus in the family crèche.
“We always celebrate this as the pro-life holiday — the day God became man,” says Ellen Tsakanikas, who lives in Virginia with husband Nick and six children. “Our 3-year-old knows that's when Jesus became a baby.”
The Tsakanikas family “always prays that day for any of the moms expecting,” she says, pointing out that the prayer includes any troubled mothers in the world who need someone to help them.
For a mealtime prayer, Hitchcock suggests the father use the collects for the Mass of the Annunciation.
Then there's Gabriel's angelic salutation, the “Hail Mary,” the joyful mysteries of the rosary — and the Angelus (see “The Angelus,” page XX).
“This feast gives us an excuse to start the Angelus now,” Hitchcock says. Her family continues it daily during Lent and beyond, despite some occasional grumbling. But when a teacher asked her little daughter's class who knew the Angelus, only one hand went up. Her little girl returned home mighty proud that day.
Blessed Imaginations
In Missouri, Noreen McCann says her family of eight — the kids range in age from 6 to 17 — has incorporated the Angelus into daily life. “That's our traveling prayer, too,” she says.
To talk about the Annunciation, McCann uses lots of pictures from religious calendars and books. She color-copies, enlarges and laminates these. “I want the children to be familiar with art,” she explains.
In the Tsakanikas household, all major feast days and holy days are anticipated and commemorated. Together, they place their icon of the Annunciation from the family prayer room on a stand.
“Because the icon is bright and colorful, the children pick out things in the picture,” Tsakanikas says. “My husband goes through each figure with them.” They've got a qualified teacher — he's studying to be a deacon.
“My husband reads bedtime stores to the older kids,” Hitchcock says. This practice, she notes, has opened an avenue of picture-aided learning that extends beyond feast days.
“Don't think children aren't interested in looking at something complicated, like medieval art,” she says. “Kids really enjoy learning about those double meanings of things.”
For example, children can be taught the symbolism of flowers in the paintings, Hitchcock says. They get to be creative in searching their imagination for connections between things, events and ideas. And exploring symbolism “helps them understand the depth and meaning of Catholic tradition and helps to connect with believers throughout the history of the Church,” she says. “It's a way of passing on not only family tradition and practice but also the heritage of their Catholic family.”
On her Web site, Hitchcock encourages visitors to stress that all our senses and physical selves are involved in understanding the truths of the faith. This can be underscored even when doing small projects together, such as designing a floral centerpiece to honor the Blessed Mother.
The flowers should be those named for and connected with Our Lady. Naturally, carnations can be part of the Annunciation centerpiece because their name symbolizes the Incarnation. Their colors symbolize love and life. Baby's breath symbolizes innocence, purity and the power and breath of the Holy Spirit. Other flowers recall Mary's humility and purity.
McCann stands an appropriate statue of Mary beside the flowers. “I make the table festive,” so it's clear this isn't just another day, she says. The family meal includes some special dessert.
Meanwhile, the Tsakanikas family holds a party to celebrate the day the Baby Jesus first came into his mother's womb. This leads up to Christmas, which they traditionally celebrate as a birthday party for Jesus.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Ways families can celebrate the Annunciation ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Prolife Victories DATE: 03/21/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 21-27, 2004 ----- BODY:War of Words in Opera Review
NEWSMAX.COM, March 4 — An opera reviewer writing for the Los Angeles Times voiced his displeasure after the paper changed the words “pro-life” to “anti-abortion” in his review.
Critic Mark Swed's review of the Richard Strauss opera Die Frau Ohne Schatten described the piece as “an incomparably glorious and goofy pro-life paean.” The paper changed the phrase to “anti-abortion paean.” “It's about children who aren't born yet screaming to be born — not abortion,” Swed said. “Somebody who didn't quite get it got a little bit too politically correct … and we had a little breakdown in communications.”
Not All Swiss Tourists Welcome
SWISSINFO, Feb. 27 — A public prosecutor in Zurich, Switzerland, is seeking to ban organizations from offering assisted suicide to foreigners.
“Tourists” have been visiting the city in increasing numbers in order to die. In 2000 only three non-Swiss residents made the trip; last year 91 did.
Andreas Brunner said he wants to put an end to the practice, which has earned the country unwanted notoriety, according to the news service. He plans to introduce legislation to the government this spring.
Terri's Fight Continues
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 5 — Bob and Mary Schindler, parents of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo, got a break March 4 that will allow them to intervene in the court battle over the removal of their daughter's feeding tube.
Circuit Court Judge W. Douglas Baird had denied the couple's motion to intervene in the legal battle over Terri's Law, which was passed in October with the help of Gov. Jeb Bush to prevent the removal of Terri's feeding tube. Schiavo's husband, Michael Schiavo, sued Bush, arguing the law is unconstitutional.
Michael Schiavo has sought for years to remove his wife's feeding tube.
An appeals court judge ruled Baird didn't follow proper judicial rules when he denied the Schindlers' motion, granting them a new hearing. The Schindlers have repeatedly doubted their daughter had any end-of-life wishes and believe her condition could be improved with therapy.
Pro-Life Advances in Iowa
WATERLOO-CEDAR FALLS (Iowa) COURIER, March 5 — An unborn victims of violence bill was saved from extinction March 4 by an Iowa Senate committee.
The state's Unborn Victims of Violence Act would level tougher penalties than are currently in place against an offender who kills or injures an unborn baby.
Any bills not passed by Senate or House committees by the end of the March 4 deadline would have been considered dead for the current session. The committee approved the bill before the deadline.
Also before deadline, the House Trans portation Committee approved a bill that would allow for “Choose Life” license plates.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Bishops Plan To Make New Hymn Rules DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — At the beginning of this Lenten season, some Catholics in the United States were singing the hymn “Ashes” and announcing, “We rise again from ashes to create ourselves anew.”
Although some might be inclined to dismiss the words as poetic license, others argue that it is Christ who creates us anew, and that the line is symptomatic of problems with many of the worship songs that have become part of Catholic hymnody in the years since the 1960s.
The U.S. bishops agree it is time to take a look at what Catholics have been singing. A subcommittee headed by Oakland, Calif., Bishop Allen Vigneron is crafting a set of composition guidelines to ensure the Church hymns conform to Church teaching.
Msgr. Anthony Sherman, associate director of the bishops' secretariat for liturgy, said the work was undertaken in response to the 2001 instruction from the Holy See, Liturgiam Authenticam, on the use of vernacular languages in books of the Roman liturgy.
The document from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments urges “the greatest prudence and attention” in the preparation of liturgical books, saying they should reflect sound doctrine, use exact wording and be free from all ideological influence. It also calls on bishops' conferences to provide “for the publication of a directory or repertory of texts intended for liturgical singing” within five years.
Rather than issue a repertory, Msgr. Sherman said it is more likely the bishops will try to provide a set of principles to Church composers.
Although he believes there is much good music in use in U.S. parishes, Msgr. Sherman acknowledges that some of it falls short.
For example, he said, “there are some hymns that you could look at and say there is too much emphasis on what we are doing and not enough on God's action in our life or on God's grace that uses our instrumentality to achieve things.”
Dr. Susan Treacy, professor of music at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, and an editor of Ignatius Press' Adoremus hymnal, said the hymn “Ashes” is just one of a number of current texts that contradict Church teaching. Another, she said, is “For the Healing of the Nations,” which, in addressing God, makes a reference to “dogmas that obscure your plan.”
“Dogma shows us God's plan and frees us in doing so,” Treacy said. “That, at least, is what the Catholic Church teaches.”
Treacy said what Catholics sing is important because “even if we're not consciously thinking about it at the time, we remember what we say, what the words say, and they get programmed into us.”
Msgr. Felix Losito, who keeps a close watch on the texts sung by parishioners at Holy Rosary Church in Reading, Pa., added that hymns can serve as tools of instruction, which is why he insisted that a particular hymn casting the Eucharist as a symbol no longer be used in the parish.
“They'll start singing the words *******************page missing*************
----- EXCERPT: Bishop Vigneron heads new panel drafting guidelines for composers ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: World Congress Kicks Off Year of Family DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:MEXICO CITY — More than 300 pro-family organizations, 80 speakers and more than 2,500 attendees from around the world will gather in Mexico City from March 29-31 for the World Congress of Families.
The third such congress to be held and the first in Latin America, the Mexico City event is the kickoff for the Intercultural Dialogue on the Family, a series of international meetings to mark 2004 as the Year of the Family.
The purpose of the event, according to Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute who has been involved with the congress since its inception in 1997, is to “bring pro-life, pro-family leaders and activists from all over the world together to meet each other, strategize and develop common plans.”
The impetus for such an international meeting derives from the recognition, Ruse said, that “the fight for life, faith and family is both local and global.”
The topic for the three-day event will be “The Natural Family and the Future of Nations: Growth, Development and Freedom.” According to the congress's founding organization, the Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society (www.profam. org), the “natural family is a man *********page 10 missing*******
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Moorehouse ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Harvard University to Harvest Stem Cells DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:BOSTON — Harvard University is set to launch an institute that will provide embryonic stem cells to researchers blocked from using them by President Bush's ban on federal funding of such destructive research.
Embryonic stem cells are taken from unborn children, who are killed in order to harvest the cells in theory, the cells could be used to grow any kind of adult tissue, such as kidneys or brain cells.
While Harvard would say only that it was “proceeding in the direction” of establishing the center and that “final details have not been completed,” media reports indicate the fund-raising goal is set at $100 million — an enormous undertaking, even for Harvard.
The purported aim of the new institute — really an institutional initiative rather than a centralized research center — is to provide human embryonic stem cells to researchers hoping to use them to devise treatments for a variety of ailments. Proponents of the research claim they could provide amazing breakthroughs in medicine.
However, in summer 2001, Bush declared a federal law banning research involving cells taken from aborted children should also apply to most embryonic stem-cell research. The decision did exempt *****************page 10 missing************
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Domenico Bettinelli Jr. ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 100 Times Worse DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Between 6% and 10% of public-school children across the country have been sexually abused or harassed by school employees. Many more incidents go unreported. So says the author of a draft report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education.
The draft report coincidentally came out soon after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released two studies on sex abuse in the Church. Some commentators and Church apologists have pointed out that sex abuse is more widespread in the society at large than in the priesthood.
“Why aren't [students] reporting” sex abuse? asked Charol Shakeshaft, who authored the study, titled “Educator Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature.”
“They think they won't be believed,” she said. “They're probably right-other kids who've gone there haven't been believed, they don't know how to report it, they don't know whom to report it to or they're too ashamed. There's a whole list of reasons,” said Shake-shaft, a professor of educational policies at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.
The U.S. Department of Education commissioned the study based on a provision in the No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law by President Bush in January 2002.
The Department of Education ****page 10 missing*****
----- EXCERPT: America's Other Abuse Crisis ----- EXTENDED BODY: Patrick Novecosky ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bringing Art to the Public DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Dana Gioia didn't really want the job when first asked.
The internationally acclaimed poet was appointed chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts on Jan. 29, 2003. President Bush recently asked for an $18 million increase in the endowment's budget, the largest increase since 1984.
A critic, educator and former business executive, Gioia's goal has been to make art accessible to all Americans. He recently spoke with Register staff writer Tim Drake from Washington, D.C.
You're from California.
I grew up in Hawthorne, Calif., a working-class town in the middle of Los Angeles. I call myself a Latin because my father was Sicilian. My mother was Mexican-American and Native American. I was born into a working-class family.
My father worked as a cab driver, a chauffeur and then a department-store clerk. He later owned a small children's shoe store. My mother worked for the telephone company. There are four of us. I'm the oldest of three boys and one girl.
Yes, I've never broken with the Church. A Catholic intellectual is supposed to go through an anti-Catholic period, but I never felt the need to do so. I've been better or worse in terms in my Church attendance.
I was the oldest child in a working-class home. I had a lot of financial responsibilities to help my family. I helped pay my younger brothers' way through college and have tried to support my family when my parents needed help. I felt enormous gratitude to the sacrifices my parents made to make sure their children were educated.
My parents put their children's education ahead of their own comforts.
I wanted to be a writer, but I needed to be practical. For 17 years, I worked every night on my writing except for Fridays and weekends until I became so well known that I could quit my job.
In what ways does your faith inform your poetry?
I do not write devotional poetry. Religion is rarely the overt subject of my work, but I consider myself a Catholic poet. I should add that my two libretti — “Nosferatu” and “Tony Caruso's Final Broadcast” — are both much more overtly Catholic. In fact, the “Salve Regina” appears in “Nosferatu.” “Nosferatu” is a kind of redemptive tragedy with very overt terms — good vs. evil, light vs. dark.
I consider myself a Catholic writer in that there are central themes to Catholic literature. One is that we live in a fallen world in which we face a constant moral struggle. There is a need for grace and, I think, most importantly, a sacramental sense of the relationship between the material and the spiritual worlds. My poetry is deeply rooted in the notion that behind the visible world there coexists an invisible world. The interpenetration of these two worlds is in some sense the occasion of poetry.
I'm deeply interested in modern Catholic writers such as Graham Greene, Flannery O'Connor, J.R.R. Tolkien and James Joyce. You could make a case that Tolkien is not an overtly Catholic writer, yet you could argue that his books are allegorical in that they deal with how one leads a good life in a fallen world.
Didn't you originally reject the idea of chairing the National Endowment for the Arts?
*****page 12 missing*********
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dana Gioia ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: How Two Sick Children Brought Catholic Communities Together DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:MILTON, Vt. — When the call goes out to help children who are seriously ill, some groups step in like good Samaritans. Sometimes their ways go unnoticed. Sometimes they unexpectedly crystallize a community.
Not far from the Canadian border in the little town of Milton, Vt., the local Knights of Columbus council learned that 2-year-old Riley Orr needed heart surgery in Boston in late December. Since the boy's mother didn't have medical insurance, the council wanted to raise money for medical expenses.
“We decided it was better doing a special event for him than writing a check,” said past Grand Knight Tom Curran, who headed the project. A pancake breakfast brought in $500 for Riley's expenses and joined Knights and townspeople together for a help-thy-neighbor cause.
“We're a small council and the number of people to help was pretty amazing,” said Paul Garrow, the current Grand Knight. Twenty-eight Knights and six Squires, the order's teen branch, put together the January breakfast that drew 150 people from the small town.
Little Riley was able to attend the breakfast with his mother, Christine.
“Everybody was thrilled. He's just a loveable kid,” said Curran, who saw two other important results that day.
“The price was by donation only,” he said. “People dig a little deeper when they know it's for a specific cause rather than a general charity. It's more personalized. And the event gave everyone the chance to see what the Knights are all about.”
Riley's mother mentioned the event helped her spiritually, too.
“It let me know there are people out there who care,” Christine Orr said, “and God's out there looking over us.”
Another Case
Some help becomes the proverbial mustard seed, as happened south of Baton Rouge, La., when the Knights council in White Castle, La., wanted to assist 7-year-old Brant Theriot and his family. They ended up drawing two entire towns together.
“It started out with a conversation in a filling station,” according to Grand Knight Joseph Richard, when the Knights became aware of Brant's tremendous medical costs. One breathing medication alone costs $1,200 monthly.
Brant suffers from Leigh's syndrome, a terminal mitochondreal disorder with no cure or treatment and usually fatal by age 7. “You just try to control the symptoms as much as you can and pray for the best,” explained his mother, Teisha, a registered nurse on leave to care for him.
Brant suffers from nausea and dizziness on a daily basis and is fed through a tube. He's gone into cardiac arrest twice.
“He knows he suffers a lot and is not like the rest of the kids,” his mother explained. Yet he goes to school when he can and likes to play with other kids.
The Theriot family hadn't asked for help, but Richard said fellow Knight Chad Blanchard talked them into letting them put on a simple spaghetti luncheon and small raffle on Jan. 11. Things snowballed from there.
The council in neighboring Donaldsonville, the Knights' Ladies Auxiliary and a local St. Joseph Altar Society joined in. Word went into church bulletins, newspapers, on TV. Next, loads of prizes poured in for the raffle — and auction and bake sale.
“We had thousands of cakes and pies donated,” Richard said.
On Jan. 11, thousands of people turned out, coming from as far away as New Orleans, Texas and Alabama. From Ascension Catholic School in Donaldsonville, the Knights, the auxiliary and the altar society cooked and sold 4,000 spaghetti dinners. Raffle winners donated their prizes back to the auction.
From two small communities totaling fewer than 8,000 people, the Knights were able to hand the Theriots $112,000. Later, a New Yorker sent $300 after seeing Brant's story on a website (www. helpbrant.com), and students in White Castle's Ascension Catholic School raised $3,500 on one “casual dress” day.
“I always learned to help people in need, to help the community, with the Knights,” Richard said. “But I was never prepared for this.”
Spiritual Effects
Neither was Larry Laborde, Grand Knight of the Donaldsonville council.
“Just to hear Brant's dad talk about what this meant to his family and all the friends Brant has made through his illness and see all the prayers that went to him dealing with this was very heartwarming,” he said.
In fact, Father Jules Brunet, the Theriots' pastor at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Church, didn't see people bragging about how much money was made.
“It wasn't the end goal,” he said. “They're satisfied at the success of helping Brant.”
Father Brunet noticed change in the community. “The very love of God and the sense of being part of each other just poured out of them. In the spiritual bonding of people, the impact was visible,” he said.
He saw people “come to a sense of an acceptance of the situation of life that is given to them in God's plan — not just the family but everyone. … By reaching out and helping the family to live the life that God has given them, they [the people] have been strengthened in faith and trust in God.”
Support didn't stop Jan. 11. The Knights try to visit with Brant's father, Morty, and watch Brant if Teisha has to go on an errand.
“The biggest thing is prayer — we keep praying for him,” Richard added.
“[Brant] thanks God for his good days,” Teisha Theriot said. “Bad days he prays to God to let it pass, and if it can't pass, he offers his sufferings up for people who need it.”
“He goes through life with a very good disposition,” she continued. “I always tell him there's a reason God is allowing this to happen to you — you might be one of the people to change the world.”
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Kerry Staffer Seizes Sign From Post-Abortive Woman
LIFENEWS.COM, March 12 — Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, was speaking in Tampa, Fla., recently when Rebecca Porter showed up with a simple sign reading: “My abortion hurt me.”
“I did not go as a Bush supporter or as a Republican but as a woman hurt by abortion,” Porter, Florida director of Operation Outcry Silent No More, a pro-life group of post-abortive women, told the pro-life news website. “There was no protest. We were not there to say anything. Just to let our signs speak for us — and they did, powerfully.”
Kerry “reached up to shake a hand in the back and his eyes went up to my sign. He read it and then he looked into the crowd to see who was holding it — and he looked me directly in the eyes,” she said. “I hope he saw my pain. I was not angry, just pleading with him to understand. You could see the shock and surprise on his face.”
Within seconds, a Kerry campaign aide seized the sign from Porter's hands and destroyed it in front of her. Porter said most Kerry supporters looked at her in silence, though one said he wished her abortion had killed her.
Gibson to Make Maccabees Movie
IRELAND ONLINE, March 17 — Fresh from making a movie that angered Jewish activists, Mel Gibson is moving on to make a movie about angry Jewish activists — the heroic martyrs and warriors of Israel depicted in the last book of the Old Testament, the Maccabees.
This family of devout Jews offered their lives in a protracted, ultimately victorious guerrilla war against foreign occupiers who had attacked the Jewish faith.
According to Ireland Online, this project is the next film scheduled for Gibson's Icon Productions.
“The story that's always fired my imagination … is the Book of Maccabees,” Gibson told a radio interviewer. “It's about Antiochus, the king who set up his religion in the Temple, and forced them all to deny the true God and worship at his feet and worship false gods. The Maccabees family stood up, and they made war, they stuck by their guns, and they came out winning.”
The Jewish feast of Hannukah commemorates one of the miracles attending the successful Maccabee resistance. Meanwhile, “60 Minutes” curmudgeon Andy Rooney told the Associated Press he had received some 30,000 pieces of mail and e-mail responding to his Feb. 22 comment about Gibson being a “wacko.” A CBS spokesman called it the biggest viewer response in the show's 36-year history.
C.S. Lewis to Hit the Big Screen
THE NEW YORK TIMES, March 14 — Walt Disney Co. has announced its plans to mount a big-budget production of C.S. Lewis' beloved allegory The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, obtaining the movie rights from media baron Philip Anschutz, a devout Christian.
One of the film's producers, Mark Johnson, told The New York Times: “We are intent on not making this into a Christian movie. But it will be seen by many loyal readers as a very Christian movie.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Archbishop Cordes on Lenten Message 2004: Remember the Children DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II's Lenten message this year has a single theme with a powerful, twofold appeal.
Its emphasis is on children, calling for assistance for the millions in need while at the same time drawing attention to the unique example children can be to adults.
Taken from Matthew 18:5 — “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me” — the message is one very close to the Holy Father, who is keen to reawaken consciences concerning the condition of children.
“In welcoming them and loving them, or in treating them with indifference and contempt, we show our attitude toward him, for it is in them that [Jesus] is particularly present,” the Pope writes.
And he draws attention to the countless “little ones” who suffer from the violence of adults, such as war, abuse, poverty, trafficking and marital breakup as well as the scourge of AIDS.
In an interview with the Register, Archbishop Paul Josef Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the Holy See's charitable arm traditionally charged with choosing the theme of the Pope's annual Lenten message, made clear the emphasis on children “is not a reaction to a special event.”
“The message takes up one of the many problems at the root of suffering that exists in today's society,” he explained.
Referring to the numerous examples of both children and adults who are unable to defend and protect themselves, he said this is why children were so especially favored by the Lord.
“This is the paradox of the Gospel: a nearly incomprehensible concept to a world in which the only thing that counts is power,” the German archbishop said.
Family First
In the Lenten message, the Holy Father noted those parents who put family and values before career and self-interest. John Paul expressed his “great admiration” for those who are already committed to helping under-privileged children, and he called for solidarity in caring for children in need.
“Such solidarity begins with the family,” Archbishop Cordes said. “Fathers and mothers must make time for their own children. They cannot substitute personal presence and dedication with the TV, treats and toys.”
And once children are properly cared for at home and in their neighborhoods, the next step is to develop “an interest in the needs of and dangers to children in other countries,” he explained.
But in today's licentious and amoral secular society, how can children be protected in their own localities and allowed to develop naturally?
Archbishop Cordes is particularly keen that children are helped within their neighborhood through organized Christian groups such as the Catholic charismatic renewal movement, which clearly impressed him on recent visits to the United States.
They have created “Christian islands” that help each other, he explained. They encourage families to resist “the secular, often pagan, spirit and influences around them and to live and proclaim the Gospel to their contemporaries,” Archbishop Cordes said.
Jim Richards, director of Britain's Catholic Children's Society, agrees about the value of faith communities as a means of resisting secularism.
“There's a concern for others; they set an example of good living,” he said. “They take values from the past and live them in the present so our futures can be better.”
Richards also pointed out that although emphasis is often placed on child poverty in developing countries, the situation is more serious in the United States and Britain than is usually supposed.
“A third of children in both the United States and the United Kingdom are living in poverty,” he said. “This means there's a large number of children who don't feel part of the wider society.”
And he highlighted psychiatric disorders and teen-age pregnancies as two negative consequences of these problems, noting that the United States and Britain have the highest proportions of both in the Western world.
“Girls are more likely to become pregnant to compensate for a life without hope,” Richards said.
Rising From Scandal
But can the Church be reasonably expected to bear witness to the needs of children when its own record of care has become such a scandal in recent years?
“These are truly humiliating and very sad moments,” Archbishop Cordes acknowledged, adding that “after all the decisions and expressions of sorrow should now come the time to accept the word of God: ‘Beloved, do not look for revenge … for it is written: ”Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.“’”
Were this not so, he maintains all the good that many members of the Church have done to “communicate faith and hope to children” would be overlooked.
“Besides,” he concluded, “the credibility of the Church's message is rooted in Christ himself and the Gospel he preached, not the human behavior of the individual members or groups within the Church.”
Two initiatives have been taken up to coincide with the Lenten message: production of a series of Vatican stamps and a development project for children orphaned by AIDS in Kenya, directed by U.S Jesuit Father Angelo d'Agostino.
“The stamps communicate compassion and very serious concern for AIDS orphans,” Archbishop Cordes said. “They are unusual because normally the focus is on culture.”
Edward Pentin writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Pentin ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Christ Is Our Hope of Eternal Life DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Register Summary
More than 12,000 people gathered in St. Peter's Square for Pope John Paul II's first outdoor general audience of the year March 17. He continued his series of teachings on the psalms and canticles of the Liturgy of the Hours with a meditation on the second half of Psalm 21.
Psalm 21, he pointed out, was initially conceived as a royal psalm to extol the past and present blessings God had bestowed upon the Jewish king. Later, when the monarchy disappeared from Israel, the psalm took on a new meaning in Judaism and became a hymn in honor of the messiah-king. “Thus, it paved the way for a Christ-centered interpretation of the hymn,” the Holy Father noted, “which is exactly how it is used in the liturgy.”
In the psalms, the king is metaphorically described as God's adoptive “son,” who assists him in administering justice. “It is precisely for this mission that God confers on him his benevolent light and his blessing,” the Pope said. However, Christ, the true Messiah-King, is the “Son of God” in the fullest sense and is therefore the perfect presence of God in the midst of mankind. He is truly the light and the life in whom we find hope of the promise of eternal life.
Evening prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours has taken the part we have just heard from Psalm 21 while omitting another part that has overtones of a curse (see verses 9-13). The part that has been included speaks about the past and present favors God has granted to the king, while the part that was omitted speaks about the king's future victory over his enemies.
The text that is the subject of our meditation (see verses 2 and 8-14) belongs to a category of psalms known as the royal psalms. It focuses, therefore, on the work God does for the Jewish king, who is perhaps depicted on that solemn day when he was enthroned. The acclamation of the faithful seems to resound at both its beginning (see verse 2) and end (see verse 14), while the heart of the psalm has more the tone of a hymn of thanksgiving that the psalmist addresses to God for the blessings he has bestowed upon the king: “goodly blessings” (verse 4), “length of days” (verse 5), “glory” (verse 6) and “joy” (verse 7).
Like many of the other royal psalms in the Book of Psalms, it is easy to see why this hymn was given a new interpretation when the monarchy disappeared in Israel. In the Jewish religion, it became a hymn in honor of the messiah-king. Thus, it paved the way for a Christ-centered interpretation of the hymn, which is exactly how it is used in the liturgy.
God's Light
First of all, however, let us look at the original meaning of the text. Considering the solemnity of the event, there is a feeling of joy and song in the air: “Lord, the king finds joy in your power, in your victory how greatly he rejoices! … We will sing and chant the praise of your might” (verses 2 and 14). Reference is then made to God's gifts to the king: God has heard his prayer (see verse 3) and places a crown of pure gold on his head (see verse 4). The king's splendor is closely associated with God's light, which envelops him like a mantle of protection (verse 6).
In the ancient Near East, people believed the king was surrounded by a luminous glow as a sign that he was part of the very essence of the divinity. In the Bible, of course, the king is certainly God's “son” (see Psalm 2:7), but only an adopted son in a metaphorical sense. Therefore, he must be the Lord's lieutenant in defending justice. It is precisely for this mission that God confers on him his benevolent light and his blessing.
Blessing is a very important theme in this brief hymn: “For you welcomed him with goodly blessings … you make him the pattern of blessings forever” (Psalm 21:4, 7). A blessing is a sign of God's presence at work in the king, who then becomes a reflection of God's light in the midst of mankind. In the biblical tradition, a blessing also includes the gift of life that is poured out upon the anointed one: “He asked life of you; you gave it to him, length of days forever” (verse 5). The prophet Nathan also assured David he would receive this blessing, a source of stability, sustenance and security, and David prayed the following words: “Do, then, bless the house of your servant, that it may be before you forever; for you, Lord God, have promised by your blessing the house of your servant shall be blessed forever” (2 Samuel 7:29).
Our Hope Is in Christ
When we recite this psalm, we can perceive the face of Christ, the Messianic King, in this portrait of the Jewish king. He is the “refulgence of the Father's glory” (Hebrews 1:3). He is the Son in the full sense of the word and, therefore, God's perfect presence in the midst of mankind. He is the light and the life, as St. John says in the prologue of his Gospel: “What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race” (John 1:4). Along these same lines, St. Irenaeus, the bishop of Lyons, applied this theme of life (see Psalm 21:5) to the resurrection of Christ when commenting on this psalm: “Why does the psalmist say, ‘He asked life of you’ at the moment when Christ was about to die? In this way, the psalmist proclaims his resurrection from the dead and that he, now risen from the dead, is immortal. In fact, he took on life so that he could rise again and, through space and time in eternity, be incorruptible” (Esposizione della predicazione apostolica, 72, Milan 1979, p. 519).
Based on this certainty, a Christian also cultivates in himself the hope of the gift of eternal life.
(Register translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Pope's Holy Week Youth Day DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Holy Week celebrations, starting with the traditional Palm Sunday liturgy and World Youth Day, dominate Pope John Paul II's April calendar.
On April 4, Palm Sunday, for the 19th time in his pontificate, the Holy Father will preside at World Youth Day celebrations, a day he instituted and personally announced on Dec. 20, 1985, at the end of the United Nations-sponsored International Youth Year.
On March 31 of that year, 300,000 young people joined the Pope in St. Peter's Square for the Palm Sunday liturgy, bringing with them the cross he had entrusted to youth at the end of the 1983-84 Holy Year of the Redemption.
March 31 also marked the publication of John Paul's apostolic letter Dilecti Amici (To the Youth of the World on the Occasion of International Youth Year).
The first official World Youth Day was celebrated on Palm Sunday, March 23, 1986. Since then it has been celebrated every year on Palm Sunday on a diocesan level and every two years on an international level in a different country. It is always preceded by an international forum of approximately 300 young people from around the world, chosen as delegates by their country's bishops' conference or by ecclesial movements and associations.
The forum this year takes place in Rocca di Papa, just south of Rome, from March 31-April 4 on the theme “Youth and Universities: Witnessing to Christ in the University World.” Participants will join other Italian youth in St. Peter's Square on Palm Sunday. World Youth Days are organized by the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
Holy Thursday marks the start of a grueling four-day schedule of Holy Week liturgies for John Paul. At 9:30 that morning in St. Peter's Basilica, he will preside at the Chrism Mass, concelebrating with the cardinals, bishops and priests who are in Rome for Holy Week.
Following the renewal of priestly vows, he will bless the sacred oils used for catechumens, the sick and for the sacrament of confirmation.
At 5:30 p.m. in the Vatican Basilica, the Holy Father will preside at the Mass of the Lord's Supper.
Though he has traditionally washed the feet of 12 priests during this Mass, in recent years the Pope has delegated this task to cardinals. A collection is customarily taken up during this Mass and given to the Holy Father, who earmarks it for a specific purpose. Last year it went to the people affected by the war in Iraq.
Three events traditionally mark Good Friday for the Holy Father: hearing confessions in St. Peter's Basilica, presiding at the celebration of the Lord's passion there in the afternoon and leading the Via Crucis, the Way of the Cross, in the evening at the Coliseum.
Ever since he began hearing confessions in St. Peter's Basilica on Good Friday in 1980, John Paul, notwithstanding physical infirmities, has insisted on continuing what is by now an entrenched Holy Week custom.
He normally enters the basilica about noon and hears the confessions of about 10 people chosen from among the Catholics visiting the basilica that morning.
In 1980 the Pope walked into the basilica just after noon and went over to a confessional almost totally unnoticed, as this was surely the very last thing any visitor to St. Peter's expected to see! A year later, pilgrims did expect to see the Pope — as did Vatican security, who set up barriers to ensure privacy for both the Holy Father and those selected to confess.
Many times over the years, in his Holy Thursday letter to priests, John Paul has pointed to the sacrament of penance as an integral part of the ordained priesthood.
He has encouraged priests to rediscover this sacrament and, in turn, to help the people entrusted to their pastoral care to do the same.
Joan Lewis works for Vatican Information Service.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joan Lewis ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: The List of NFP-Only Providers Continues to Grow DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:FAIRFAX, Va. — The web-site of Tepeyac Family Center in Fairfax, Va., makes a bold statement that may well put off some patients.
“No contraception, abortion or abortion inducers will ever be dispensed or recommended,” says the site, www.TepeyacFamilyCenter. com.
While the center is unabashedly holistic and Christ-centered, Dr. John Bruchalski, the driving force behind Tepeyac, didn't always practice this kind of medicine. In addition to a full menu of contraceptive services and surgical interventions, he performed abortions.
But a visit to Mexico's shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe launched a process that changed his life — and his practice of medicine. In gratitude, the former abortionist named the center after Tepeyac, the small hill where Our Lady appeared to the astonished St. Juan Diego.
Deciding to stop prescribing contraceptives and performing sterilizations is something even Catholic physicians struggle with. But Bruchalski is part of a growing list of obstetrician-gynecologists and medical practices that only offer natural family planning. The center offers “resources that promote awareness of natural methods of fertility and an understanding of the menstrual cycle as a healthy event.”
Indeed, the New Jersey-born doctor teaches a regular, monthly NFP class. Anyone can attend to learn a woman's body signs that distinguish the fertile days from the rest of the cycle, most of which is infertile.
By a different route, Dr. Mary Davenport became an NFP-only OB-GYN in El Sobrante, Calif., in the San Francisco area. As a 1960s college student, she applauded the promise of the sexual revolution, went on the pill (which she continued taking for two decades) and later, as a physician, readily prescribed contraceptives. For nearly three years after finishing her residency, she performed abortions despite a personal dislike for the procedure.
But by the late 1980s, especially after the life-changing experience of her son's birth, Davenport was uneasy. She was especially troubled by some patients' promiscuity.
“The pill helps to keep people in a condition of perpetual adolescence,” she said. “It's not good for them; it's not good for society. I didn't want to be contributing to the problem.”
They Set a Date
Davenport, who is a recent Catholic convert, was open to considering an alternative and, after learning about natural family planning, made her office available to a group that gave NFP classes. Still, despite her own misgivings, she continued writing pill prescriptions and fitting women for diaphragms.
“I couldn't figure out how to be an OB-GYN without providing contraception,” she said.
After studying at the Pope Paul VI Institute in Omaha, Neb., where she met nearly a dozen NFP-only physicians, Davenport finally saw how to change. Thanks to helpful advice, she set a date to stop prescribing contraception and thereafter provide only natural family planning.
“A few patients were upset by my decision, but most accepted it,” she recalled. “Some were even influenced by it.”
By contrast, Dr. Daniel McDonald, with practices in Irving and Denton, Texas, became an NFP-only provider unexpectedly. After a long period of personal and spiritual reassessment, he decided Jan. 1, 2002, would be his start date as an NFP-only physician. He planned an orderly transition, including telling his partners and sending letters to all his patients several months in advance.
But before he could execute his plan, McDonald made his first good confession in years. The following day a patient came in for her pill prescription renewal.
“I suddenly realized that my previous day's firm purpose of amendment would be meaningless if I wrote it,” McDonald recalled. “So I refused.”
The repercussions were immediate. McDonald's partners were even less prepared for his NFP-only approach than he was. Ultimately, his action prompted a separation from the group, causing an immediate, sharp hit to his income.
Little by little, however, as word spread in parish, home-schooling, NFP and other communities, new patients began calling.
“Business has been inching upward,” he reported.
If so, that's the good news. The reality?
“It's difficult to earn the same income as an NFP-only physician,” said Dr. Kim Hardey, who remembers the day his wife handed him a pastoral letter written by Bishop Glennon Flavin, former bishop of Lincoln, Neb. Two sentences were particularly upsetting: “Catholic physicians and others who prescribe contraceptives or recommend their use are cooperators with those who use them. Such cooperation is gravely sinful.”
Giving Up a Home
Hardey was angry. “Do you realize what this means?” he exploded, gesturing toward the family's lovely home and yard. “All this will be gone!”
But the tragic death of his son Brad, struck by a car two years earlier, had been the beginning of a profound spiritual odyssey that included the realization that being “personally opposed” to contraception was no longer enough. When Hardey confronted the challenge of becoming an NFP-only provider, Bishop Flavin's pastoral letter became a beacon that helped him meet it.
And, just as he predicted, Hardey's beautiful home and yard were soon gone, but not for the reason he'd thought. The family moved from Alabama to Lafayette, La., where there is greater patient and physician support for NFP-only providers. Hardey has never regretted his decision — or its aftermath.
Dr. Robert Scanlon says regret would be surprising.
“As a medical doctor, you want to first do no harm medically or spiritually,” he said.
The Huntington, N.Y., physician remembers Father Daniel McCaffery of Oklahoma's NFP Outreach (www.nfpoutreach.org) was especially helpful to him during the period he confronted the contraception challenge in his own medical practice. Later, as Scan-lon stood in St. Peter's Square in Rome, he realized his gift of faith was the result of sometimes-enormous sacrifices made by many men and women over many centuries.
“I decided that if I had to be a voice of conscience and of contradiction, so be it,” he said.He's never regretted his decision.
“There's richness in the relationship of couples who use natural family planning,” he marveled. “It's something I see now but didn't see before. And once you really get it, there's no going back.”
Nona Aguilar writes from New York City, New York.
----- EXCERPT: Good News in Medicine ----- EXTENDED BODY: Nona Aguilar ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Canonization Cause Highlights Pro-Life Bishop Who Fought Nazi Euthanasia DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Today Europe is faced with the grim reality of euthanasia.
Holland and Belgium have passed laws allowing limited forms of legalized killing. Britain's Parliament is now contemplating legislation allowing hospitals to withdraw food and water from tube-fed patients. And the French media have been highlighting cases where people are allegedly pleading for the “right to die.”
For European pro-lifers, campaigning against euthanasia is an added burden to groups already taxed with fighting abortion and the widespread distribution of the “morning-after” pill.
Now, however, the Church is providing a champion in the form of a courageous figure whose cause for canonization has now been formally introduced. He is Bishop Graf von Galen, the “Lion of Münster,” Germany's courageous bishop from the dark days of the 1940s who spoke out fearlessly against the Nazi euthanasia program.
In December, Pope John Paul II officially pronounced Bishop von Galen a servant of God in formal recognition of his heroic virtues. The next stage is formal beatification.
Count Clemens von Galen was born into an aristocratic family with a strong Catholic heritage in a part of Germany that had been Catholic for centuries. Today, his body lies in the Galen Chapel in the great cathedral in Münster, and pilgrims come to lay flowers and pray at his tomb, where he lies with his ancestors.
Catholic Aristocrat
Born in 1878 in the family castle at Dinklage, von Galen had a childhood dominated by the Catholic faith, traditional country pursuits and a lifestyle that today would seem extraordinarily Spartan — no heating in most of the castle's huge rooms, no piped water, simple and rather formal meals, and an emphasis on duty and service.
Education at home was followed by a Jesuit boarding school and then the seminary. During World War I, the young Father von Galen worked in Berlin, chiefly among the poorest people. In 1929 he was appointed parish priest of St. Lambert's in Münster, and in 1933 he was appointed bishop of the city.
By then, Hitler was in power. Bishop von Galen's first clashes with the National Socialists came over the government's closing of Catholic youth groups, pressuring the young into joining the Hitler Youth.
But the real battle was joined after World War II began, as word filtered from hospitals and institutions housing the mentally sick and handicapped. Groups of them were being taken away to centers where they were killed, after which their families were told they had died of natural causes.
With Nazi totalitarianism at its peak, Germans could learn of the euthanasia campaign only by oblique means. The Gestapo tapped telephones and opened private letters, newspapers were censored and radio broadcasts filled with official propaganda.
Still, news of the mass killings spread slowly but effectively through personal means, as distraught families placed carefully-worded death notices in local newspapers, making it clear their loved ones had died under unusual circumstances.
Plagued by anti-life movements in Europe, pro-lifers now have an ally: Bishop Clemens von Galen, who is on the road to canonization.
Speaking Out
On Aug. 3, 1941, Bishop von Galen mounted his pulpit and denounced this slaughter of the innocent.
“Paragraph 21 of the Code of Penal Law is still valid,” he noted. “It states that anyone who deliberately kills a man by a premeditated act will be executed as a murderer. It is in order to protect the murderers of these poor invalids — members of our own families — against this legal punishment that the patients who are to be killed are transferred from their domicile to some distant institution.”
“I am assured that at the Ministry of the Interior and at the Ministry of Health, no attempt is made to hide the fact that a great number of the insane have already been deliberately killed and a great many more will follow,” Bishop von Galen added.
The bishop cited specific cases where people had been killed, including patients from the Marienthal Hospital and 800 from the Waestein Institute.
“Here we are dealing with human beings, with our neighbors, brothers and sisters, the poor and invalids … unproductive — perhaps! But have they, therefore, lost the right to live?” Bishop von Galen asked. “Have you or I the right to exist only because we are ‘productive’?”
The Nazi authorities wanted to arrest and silence the bishop, but this was not easy since he was immensely popular, commanding respect throughout Catholic Germany. So, extraordinarily, Bishop von Galen's words brought a halt to the euthanasia campaign, at least for a time.
But in 1944, with the tide of war turned fully against Germany, the National Socialists took their revenge. That July, Bishop von Galen was imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen prison camp, where he remained until he was released in early 1945.
In the months immediately after Germany's final defeat in May 1945, living with his people in the hunger and ruins, Bishop von Galen was a reminder to the Western Allies that there had been voices from within Germany opposing the Nazi evil.
His own death in March 1946 — from illness induced by hunger and hardship — came just one month after he had been formally made a cardinal by Pope Pius XII in tribute to his wartime stance.
Today, Bishop von Galen's message is still heard. One of his nieces, Countess Johanna von Westphalen, heads the pro-life group Christian Democrats for Life. In a Germany and a Europe where the Church faces quite different problems from those of the 1940s — huge affluence, the marginalizing of Christianity in every sphere of life, massive dissent within Catholicism — Bishop von Galen's name is still an inspiration for those seeking to uphold the values he knew and taught.
Inspiration
“His grave in Münster always has flowers and candles around it. Every day, people come — there is never a time when candles and fresh flowers are not there,” von Westphalen said.
Still, von Westphalen admits she is worried about the future. “The young people do not know their faith — there is great confusion,” she said. “Many seem to be growing up entirely pagan.”
Pope John Paul II, a Pole who endured the Nazi occupation of his own land, has repeatedly called for a “re-evangelization” of Europe. One of the methods he is using is the heroic example of saints. As the Europe-wide campaigns for euthanasia continue, the Church holds up heroes such as Bishop von Galen and urges new generations to listen to them.
Joanna Bogle writes from London.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joanna Bogle ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Another Vatican View of
BBC, March 12 — Vatican theologian Father Raniero Cantalamessa has entered the controversy aroused by groups criticizing The Passion of the Christ, the British Broadcasting Corp. has reported.
Father Cantalamessa, who is preacher to the papal household, said in a Lenten sermon that any film should be criticized if it suggested — contrary to the teaching of Vatican II — that all Jews of Jesus' day or any Jews of subsequent generations are responsible for the death of Jesus.
However, he continued, “[The Passion of the Christ] cannot be accused of betraying the real story if it restricts itself to showing an influential group of Jews at the time playing a determining role” in the death of Jesus, he said — since that is the account given in the Gospels.
The film opens in Italy on April 7, during Holy Week.
Pope Might Meet Patriarch in Warsaw
NOVOSTI (Russia), March 14 — Cardinal Josef Glemp of Poland offered hope on March 14 that Pope John Paul II might be able to attain his long-desired goal of meeting with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei during the Pope's planned visit to his native land in June 2005.
Cardinal Glemp told a radio interviewer he was considering inviting the Russian Orthodox leader for a concurrent visit.
“We will be having all kinds of guests, various outstanding personalities,” the cardinal explained, “not just Catholics.”
Students Across Europe Join Rosary With Pope
FIDES, March 14 — On March 13, during the second Day for European University Students held in Rome by the Council of European Bishops' Conferences, the theme was “Christ, Hope for Europe,” reported Fides, the Vatican's missionary news service.
The main event was a multinational prayer vigil with Pope John Paul II held in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican. The event was linked live via television and radio with the capitals of the 10 countries about to become EU members: Tallinn, Estonia; Vilnius, Lithuania; Riga, Latvia; Warsaw, Poland; Prague, Czech Republic; Bratislava, Slovakia; Lublijana, Slovenia; Budapest, Hungary; Valletta, Malta; and Nicosia, Cyprus.
Before the vigil, speakers from across Europe offered reflections on the centrality of Christian faith to the unity and vitality of Europe.
Church Addresses Atheism and Indifference
VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE, March 13 — Meeting with staff and members of the Pontifical Council for Culture after their meeting on “The Christian Faith at the Dawn of the New Millennium and the Challenge of Unbelief and Religious Indifference,” Pope John Paul II praised the group for confronting critical problems in the Church.
“Cultural and artistic expressions are not lacking in riches or resources for the transmission of the Christian message,” the Pope said, but these must be made better known, Vatican Information Service reported.
“It is through philosophical and catechetical formation that young people will learn how to discern the truth,” the Holy Father said. “A serious rational approach is a rampart against all that which refers to ideologies, leading to the desire to study ever more deeply, so that philosophy and reason become open to Christ.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Bishops Accuse BBC Of Anti-Catholic Bias DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:LONDON — The British Broadcasting Corp.- BBC — is regarded globally as one of the world's most objective and accurate broadcasting organizations. But recently it has come under fire from Catholic bishops in Britain, who have accused it of anti-Church bias.
Established in 1922, the BBC has grown into a global broadcasting giant. And it has an unrivalled reputation for impartiality, most notably with the BBC World Service, which broadcasts in a variety of languages. This reputation is partly due to the fact that, unlike major American networks, the BBC is publicly funded and therefore does not require advertising revenue.
But last Sept. 29, Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham issued a stinging public criticism of the BBC's handling of an exposé of abuse allegations in his archdiocese. According to a public statement from the archbishop, during the previous nine months he had received various reports from priests of the Archdiocese of Birmingham of unsolicited and strange approaches from people saying they were working for the BBC.
Then in September, Archbishop Nichols received a letter from a BBC producer working on a program called “Kenyon Confronts” seeking to interview him on questions of child abuse and the Catholic Church.
“With subsequent telephone conversations I was told … that a team of investigators had been working in the Archdiocese of Birmingham on its contents for a number of months,” the archbishop said.
A reporter then approached a presbytery in the diocese and requested personal information about parishioners who used to live there while refusing to identify the reason for his questions.
“He refused to reveal his role in the program even when my press secretary, Peter Jennings, telephoned him on Sept. 15,” Archbishop Nichols said. “A short time later, the producer of the program reluctantly confirmed that this man was, in fact, the associate producer of the program.”
“I had not heard of ‘Kenyon Confronts,’ but I have since found out about some of its recent investigative programs,” the archbishop continued. “They have been into fraudsters who fake their own deaths, dog fixing and doping, therapy fraudsters, drug dealers and dealers in bogus marriages. That this program is considered by the BBC managers as a suitable way to engage the Catholic Church is absolutely offensive. It is offensive to every Catholic in this country, and I believe to many other people, too.”
Archbishop Nichols said he had told the program he was quite willing to be interviewed in connection with the program's subject material, which centered on old allegations of child abuse by diocesan priests — all of which had occurred at least 20 years ago and have been investigated by police with full cooperation from the archdiocese.
But when the archbishop insisted the interview be aired live by “Kenyon Confronts,” he was told this was not possible for “technical reasons.”
Replying in a public statement to Archbishop Nichols' criticisms, the BBC said: “We recognize the archbishop has concerns about the program. We believe it is an issue of serious public interest that will be fairly examined and reported.”
“We take great care to reflect all faiths in the U.K. and plan to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of Pope John Paul II across radio, television and online,” the statement added. “We will also mark the beatification of Mother Teresa for our audiences at home and abroad.”
But, in fact, the BBC coverage of those events was criticized in February by Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow, who accused the BBC of encouraging a “tabloid culture” that shows “gross insensitivity” to the Church. This culture, Archbishop Conti said in a letter published Feb. 4 by the Glasgow Herald, was unworthy of “the world's most distinguished broadcasting organization.”
Archbishop Conti noted the BBC chose to mark the Pope's 25th anniversary and Mother Teresa's beatification in October by broadcasting a documentary, “Sex and the Holy City,” that attacked the Church's opposition to using condoms against AIDS.
“Such scheduling showed gross insensitivity to the spiritual and historical significance of these moments,” Archbishop Conti said. “I mention also the corporation's plans to broadcast the ‘Popetown’ cartoon, which satirizes the Pope as a childish pensioner whose every fickle whim must be indulged.”
“A prudent use of license-payers' resources, I wonder?” Archbishop Conti asked. “There was the hounding of the archbishop of Westminster [Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor] last year, once more by the ‘Today’ program and ‘Newsnight,’ a process that seemed to owe more to the desire to claim an eminent scalp than to objective reporting of fact. And, closer to home, ‘Newsnight Scotland’ just carried a sneering and aggressive interview on the Church's position on shared campus schools, failing to distinguish tabloid fictions from fact.”
Others are also questioning the BBC's objectivity and accuracy. The recent report of the Hutton Enquiry, which set out to examine the suicide of a British weapons expert following the invasion of Iraq last year, was scathing in its criticisms of the BBC's reporting on the affair and led to the resignation of the BBC's chairman and director general.
Don Maclean, the Catholic presenter of the BBC Radio 2 religious magazine program “Good Morning Sunday,” believes a strong anti-Christian bias permeates the BBC.
“There's a bit of a plot to secularize our country,” Maclean said. “There are people in the BBC who see themselves as not only the natural opposition to the government but also as the natural opposition to the Church.”
“There are people at the BBC who dismiss you because you believe in God,” he said. “They believe you are not worth talking to.”
Non-Catholic Joan Bakewell, who has presented a number of programs on BBC TV and radio, thinks the broadcaster's original ideals have been lost.
“The Latin quotation standing proudly in the foyer of Broadcasting House in London tells how the first governors dedicated ‘this temple of the arts and muses to Almighty God’ and prayed that ‘good seed sown may bring forth good harvest,’” Bakewell said.
But today, Bakewell said, Christianity is seen by the BBC as a hobby, albeit one that goes to the root of people's lives.
“There is a liberal, secular agenda in the media,” she said. “It's unavoidable.”
Greg Watts writes from London.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Greg Watts ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Iraqi Christians, One Year Later
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, March 15 — Twelve months after the U.S.-led invasion of their country to unseat dictator Saddam Hussein, the small Christian minority in Iraq offered mixed reviews to the “regime change” effected by the Western coalition.
Unlike Shiites and Kurds, Christians were never specifically targeted for persecution under Saddam's regime, although they suffered individually from his repressive rule and most are glad to see him out of power, the news service reported. However, Christians face new threats to their security with the prospect of a Shiite-dominated Islamic government.
Asked whether life had improved in Iraq since the fall of Saddam, Catholic Patriarch Emmanuelle-Karim Delly told Agence France-Presse: “To be frank, no, not at the moment. Christians are afraid to go out, as are Muslims. They are more frightened than before of car bombs, explosions. We didn't have this before. … So far, thank God, there is no problem between us and the Muslims. We have lived together for two centuries as brothers.”
Agence France-Presse noted that 750,000 Christians live in Iraq, most of them part of the Chaldean (Catholic) Church. Before U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq for invading Kuwait in 1990, there were 2 million Christians, comprising almost 9% of the population.
Beloved Bishop Dies in Zimbabwe
CATHOLIC INFORMATION SERVICE AFRICA, March 15 — Bishop Helmut Reckter, a veteran of the battle against minority white domination in Southern Africa, has died at 70.
Bishop Reckter was appointed in 1986 as first bishop of Chinhoyi Diocese. He is the third bishop in that country to die of natural causes in the past year, the news service noted, leaving three Catholic dioceses vacant. Gweru Bishop Francis Xavier Muga-dzi died in February and Harare Archbishop Patrick Cha-kaipa in April 2003.
Controversial Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe sent a message of condolence to local Catholics.
“Bishop Reckter's commitment to the people was tested during our struggle for liberation when he consistently sought ways of achieving peace and freedom for the oppressed,” said Mugabe, a Catholic who has been roundly criticized by Church figures for seizing land from productive white farmers and provoking the current famine in that country.
Korean Church Protests Impeachment
MISSIONARY NEWS AGENCY, March 15 — The Catholic bishops of Korea have expressed their concern over the political crisis in that majority Christian country, resulting from the impeachment motion approved by Korea's Parliament against its president, Roh Moo-hyun, a Catholic.
“The current political situation is causing serious grief to the South Korean population and the Church is praying for a prompt resolution,” Father Paul Chang Woung Lee, assistant secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea, told Missionary News Agency. “The people are very disappointed and concerned and the situation is becoming dangerous; the South Koreans particularly fear the impeachment of Roh could unleash a serious economic crisis and consequentially the loss of numerous jobs.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'Out' and 'In' In the Church DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:As the generations that are in leadership positions change, there are reasons to believe the tone and tenor of the Catholic Church in the United States will change dramatically. Here's a glance at the trends that are on their way out — and on their way in.
Out: Activists. In: Catholics who “get” Vatican II. As with every council in the history of the Church, it has taken Catholics decades to implement the Second Vatican Council.
That's because the first Catholics to try were stuck in a pre-Vatican II paradigm of the Church. The council reaffirmed authentic doctrine and let loose the laity to bring the Church's wisdom to the world. But activists who still identified Catholic faith-life with liturgical life thought they were being asked to bring the world's wisdom into the Church.
Led by Pope John Paul II, the newest generation of bishops understands the council properly. And the active lay Catholics of today are fresh from the apologetics movement, the lay movements and the mandatum schools that have bulging theology departments. They “get” Vatican II.
Out: Dissenters. In: Believers. The dissent movement's streak of success in the Church looks like it's about to end, also. That's because, for dissenters to succeed, two conditions need to exist.
First, a Catholic dissent movement can only grow if a large body of people feel a compelling need to identify themselves as Catholics, regardless of their beliefs. Second, a Catholic dissent movement can also only grow if the true faith is not being taught.
Well, today's generation doesn't feel the need to identify with one religion or another. And with the publication of the Catechism and the bishops' efforts to implement it, more and more people are actually hearing what the Church teaches. They either embrace the Church or reject it. They are less likely to try to do both.
Out: Northeast and Midwest. In: California and Texas.
Today, the “voice of the faithful” in America is often the voice of older Americans from the Northeast and Midwest questioning hierarchical Church structures. But tomorrow the “voice of the faithful” will be from Texas and California, reciting the rosary after Mass with Mexican accents.
We oughtn't romanticize these Catholics — they can fall prey to the same secularizing influences as previous immigrants. But there are many healthy tendencies in Latino and Filipino immigrants that can strengthen the Church — larger families, Marian devotion, an appreciation of the sacraments and respect for the Pope.
Out: Timidity. In: Vigor. Society's message to Catholics in the past several decades was clear: You can have your Catholic faith as long as you keep it quiet. It was easy to forget the value of the faith because it was neither praised nor attacked. That is no longer the case.
Today's Catholic children see faith affirmed and attacked in spectacular ways. The Passion of the Christ is the blockbuster sensation this year — and for the last three years the big movie has been the latest chapter in a mythology written by a Catholic devoted to Eucharistic adoration. On the small screen, children have snapped up the Bible-quoting series Veggie Tales and CCC's saints series. There are lots of new children's groups for Catholics, including Catholic Kids Net, and boys and girls clubs offered by a number of Catholic movements.
Simultaneously, today's children see overt attacks on the institutions of the Church that were unthinkable to recent generations. Cartoons lampoon bishops, priests and Christ himself. Expressing Catholic beliefs is off limits in Senate confirmation hearings, in university classrooms and in courts of law. Catholics are being denied the right to live their religious beliefs by insurance legislation and the regulation of ministries.
Increasingly, for today's children, faith is no longer something to be embarrassed about. It's something to be proud of and something to defend.
Out: Backward looking. In: Forward thinking. The Catholic Church is changing — and for the better. If we encourage the healthy trends and discourage a repeat of past mistakes, we'll find the Church's greatest days in America are in the future, not the past.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Messing With Marriage
In the past week I have read many critical comments from politicians and columnists arguing that President Bush's support for a federal marriage amendment is divisive, politically motivated and will crush public debate on this issue of societal acceptance of homosexual marriage (“Bush Revs Up Marriage-Amendment Debate,” March 7-13). I believe President Bush is acting on his convictions and is promoting an opportunity for all Americans to participate in the affirmation of change of the traditional definition of marriage.
The proposal of a marriage amendment is done recognizing the right of a free people not to have activist judges and rogue mayors impose a redefinition of marriage without public debate. This amendment proposal does not stop the debate. The very process of pursing a constitutional amendment is the debate. It involves the people through their elected representatives in Congress and the state legislatures. No activist judicial agenda or veto by chief executives can preclude it.
I believe marriage is the union of a man and a woman and is the best way to raise children. This definition has been recognized for 5,000 years by all types of civilizations. I understand the necessity of the unmarried to be able to assign heirs, share title to real property and designate power of medical attorney, among other legal matters. This should be provided for by proper legislation, regardless of sexual orientation or whether a sexual relationship of homosexuals should not be approved.
MIKE MCKAY WAUCONDA, ILLINOIS
California vs. Charity
Regarding “‘Interference’ by Court Could Apply Church-wide” (March 14-20):
The California Supreme Court has ruled that the Catholic organization Catholic Charities is not a “religious employer” and therefore must provide contraception as part of its health care coverage. Failure to do so is considered discrimination against women. The reasoning is fundamentally flawed.
First of all, to label a practice discriminatory against women is to imply that something is being given to men that is not being given to women. Contraception is not being provided to male employees. For the vast majority of women, contraception is an elective medical intervention. It is not medically necessary. It is a lifestyle choice. These women should take personal responsibility for this choice and not expect it to be subsidized by their employer.
The second area of flawed logic is the argument that, because Catholic Charities engages in “secular” activities — such as low-income housing assistance, counseling and immigration services — and because it serves non-Catholic clients, it is the equivalent of a secular business. The court is obviously not aware of the Catholic doctrine regarding corporal works of mercy. This doctrine instructs Catholics to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick and imprisoned, and bury the dead. The work of Catholic Charities is a direct response to this doctrine.
The California ruling threatens the religious freedom of Catholic physicians, nurses, pharmacists and hospitals. If a Catholic physician sees non-Catholic patients, is he obligated to provide them with contraception, abortion services, physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia? Religion is not something reserved for Sunday services and proselytizing. It is the standard by which every aspect of one's life is governed. This court decision is a direct assault on all those who try to faithfully live their religion, not just Catholics.
DENISE J. HUNNELL, MD
Burke, Virginia
Lenten Diets
“Is it Okay to Diet for Lent?” (Feb. 29-March 6) is correct as far as it goes in distinguishing dieting and fasting, but I think there is more to the story. Dieting is done for one's own benefit, but so is fasting. One is primarily material, the other spiritual. Lent should be a time of intensified penance through prayer, mortification and works of charity. And just as fasting might have beneficial physical “side effects,” temperance in diet for the purpose of health could also bring spiritual benefits, in Lent or any other season.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux points out that every action of daily life, however mundane, can be offered to God with great spiritual benefit. Even getting out of bed in the morning, doing our daily work and being patient with others can be worthy mortifications if offered to God in a penitential spirit. Why not offer also what we do for health — diet, exercise, getting enough sleep — as little crosses?
Human beings rarely do anything with completely pure motives. All of us carry some selfishness into what we do. Perhaps the natural/ supernatural calculus should not be “either/or” but “both/and.” Christ became incarnate and offered his body for us on the cross, redeeming the whole of creation, matter as well as spirit. Maintaining our health is a moral obligation. Why not invite God into our efforts?
WILLIAM WHITE
Franklin Park, Illinois
Kids Facing Evil
I agree with and appreciate the column “Kids Have the Right to be Rightly Disturbed” by Barbara Nicolosi (March 7-13). I have heard parents discussing the subject before, but no one as of yet has been up front and open about it. There is so much evil, immorality and grotesqueness in the world that we can't possibly shut out all of it.
One of the most important points Nicolosi made was: “Even if you could block out the culture, how is that a Christian response? A better strategy is to parent with the media, not against it. The key is to introduce your child to a kind of evil before the world would introduce it to them. Parents need to get there before Satan does with his tricks and disguises.” The last two sentences are extremely important. Nicolosi has put into words what myself and others would have trouble doing if we attempted it.
A second point Nicolosi made more indirectly is that not all evil appears attractive, even if made to look as such. For example, many viewers of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy have been repulsed by the hideousness of the Orcs. But that shouldn't disturb them the way it seems to have done. (Though young children should not see the Orcs! This kind of evil brings inevitable nightmares until they reach a certain age. But not all movies have to be viewable for all ages in order to be great films.) That's what evil really is: hideous. We have to face it. The Orcs are the epitome of visual evil. And anyway, who wants villains that are laughable?
GENEVIEVE CUNNINGHAM
Boerne, Texas
Correction
“Teaching With the Church? Gonzaga Won't Say” (March 14-21) said Gonzaga University trains deacons for the Diocese of Spokane, Wash. This is incorrect. The Spokane Diocese's deacon-formation program is organized and carried out by the directors of deacon formation for the diocese. Most of the classes and formation sessions take place at Bishop White Seminary in Spokane.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: A Passionate Lent DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Regarding “Box Office Passion” (Feb. 22-28):
The first week of Lent, we saw the release of The Passion of the Christ and the release of the John Jay report on the sexual-abuse crisis in the Church in America. I believe the Holy Spirit was working through both of these events to bring about a spiritual renewal of the Catholic Church, the Bride of Christ, in our new millennium.
The Passion film is returning our focus to Christ crucified and to the incredible sufferings he endured for the purification of his bride, the Church. “By his stripes we were healed” (Isaiah 53:5). The sufferings depicted are hard to endure, knowing that the film substantially follows the Scriptural account of the four Gospel accounts. We Christians have always meditated on the sufferings of Our Lord and those of Mary at the foot of the cross. In the film, we see what our sins and the sins of the whole world have done to the innocent body of Christ.
In the John Jay report, we see what the sins of members of the Church have done to the Church as the body of Christ and especially to her most innocent members, her young people and children. The John Jay report rightly assigns much blame to negligent and complicit bishops, and it is my prayer that such bishops will resign. This will be a great help for the healing of the Church, but it would be wrong to blame the bishops and abusive priests alone for the suffering of the Church and innocent children in our time.
After our parish showing of The Passion, we returned to the church for a holy hour, and you could feel the sorrow and hear the sobs of those who wept for Jesus while repenting of their sins. Similarly, as we weep for the sins of those who abused children and the bishops who turned away like Pilate, trying to wash their hands of it, we need to remember that it was also our sins — our lack of faith, our American materialism and our sensuality — that have also affected the Church in our times.
Let us look upon the sorrowful face of our Mother Mary, the Woman of Sorrows, and ask her to plead for mercy for us and for the whole world — even for those bishops and priests who have sinned gravely. On the cross, Jesus cried out, “Father, forgive them!” We must cry out, too, for mercy and to forgive all who have sinned against him and his holy Catholic Church, the bride he purchased with his own precious blood.
FATHER BENJAMIN B. REESE
St. Mark Roman Catholic Parish
Peoria, Illinois
Moving Pictures
The graphic, powerful images of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ are moving the hearts of many. But for those already spiritually sensitive and receptive, would it not be more helpful for them to form their own images of the Passion, such as while praying the rosary, meditating on the Stations of the Cross, during the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius and so on?
Perhaps when this magnificent movie comes out on video, such contemplative souls could view the realistic scenes within a few minutes at a time before pausing to meditate and pray. I'm wondering what our more holy priests and wise, experienced spiritual directors would think about this. I, for one, would be open to their insights and guidance.
Fat her Jeffr ey W. King Vanderwagen, New Mexico
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Why I Can't Support PETA DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:PETA strikes again.
Driving along the road this Lent or Easter you might suddenly come upon billboard blasphemy, a picture of a pig with the caption: “He died for your sins — go vegetarian.”
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is trying to get under our collective Christian skins in hopes that, once underneath, the organization can burrow into our consciences and remake us in its own vegetarian image.
Does it work? I for one do not take kindly to not-very-thinly-veiled blasphemy in which Christ himself and his sacrifice are being compared to a pig and its fate in a slaughterhouse.
PETA should gauge its success by my reaction because my family is largely vegetarian for many of the same reasons bringing PETA to spread such blasphemous bilge on their billboards. The factory farms in which much of our meat is produced are both morally and hygienically vile.
Don't get me wrong. I do believe that “animals, like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present and future humanity” and hence that “it is legitimate to use animals for food and clothing” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nos. 2415, 2417). But I also hold that “animals are God's creatures. … By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory. Thus men owe them kindness. … So that it is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly” (Nos. 2416, 2418).
Thus we have the right to raise, kill and eat animals. But “does the right to use animals for food imply the right to raise chickens in tiny cages where they live in a space smaller than a notebook? Or calves in compartments where they can never move about or see the light? Or to keep sows pinned by iron rings in a feeding position to allow a series of piglets to suck milk constantly and thus grow faster?” (These rhetorical questions come, by the way, not from PETA's website but from an article written by Marie Hendrickx, a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in the Dec. 7, 2000, edition of L'Osservatore Romano.)
That having been said, however, PETA has lost me. It has moved from rational disgust at such morbid conditions and into the realm of unholy, unnatural and irrational hysteria.
As for unholiness, the blasphemous billboard speaks for itself. The group also has a billboard with a picture of a lamb emblazoned with “Lamb of God” and, under it, “Please don't eat his creatures. Go vegetarian.” And that's just one in a series that also misuses the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Ten Commandments.
PETA claims that “all our faith-based billboards are meant to promote compassion — compassion for all God's creatures.” The group also claims it has Christians among its ranks, some of whom have helped design the billboards. Well, it is true that Christians are among their ranks. But is PETA, as an organization, really concerned to promote “compassion for all God's creatures” or merely to use Christians to advance its larger, essentially non-Christian, even anti-Christian agenda?
I believe it is the latter. First of all, to engage in blasphemy for the sake of some lesser goal hardly shows that one's compassion for animals issues from a fundamentally religious source. That PETA does not think vegetarianism is a lesser goal only shows that, for them, vegetarianism has become not only a religion but even the religion.
If PETA's members were known for singing hymns outside of factory farms and slaughterhouses, I'd have more sympathy. But anyone familiar with PETA knows one of its favorite protest tactics is, odd as it might seem, to have its members take off their clothes in public. It is hard to discern the relationship between being naked in public and being against bull-fights, the fur industry or factory farming — except that PETA members find it a thrill to be nude in public. As it says so tantalizingly on its website: “See how far PETA will go for the protection of animals!”
But even more perverse — indeed, at the heart of the group's perversity — is the reduction of human beings to just one more animal. Those who believe killing an animal is equivalent to killing a human being must of necessity treat human beings and animals as morally equivalent.
That means not only that we don't eat animals because we don't eat human beings but also that we should sterilize human beings who breed too much and “put down” sick, crippled or suffering human beings because we do the same, out of compassion, for animals.
Finally, PETA is irrational and unnatural. Nature is full of carnivores, and for carnivores, hunting and eating meat is natural. One wonders by what method they hope to reform the rest of the animal kingdom. Since we are just one more meat-eater, it is irrational to claim that eating meat is unnatural.
So again, whatever kernel of truth resides in its message, the organization has made a foe rather than a friend with its latest tactics. I believe we'll also have some bacon on Easter morning. Someday, I hope we'll raise our own pig.
Benjamin Wiker writes from Steubenville, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Benjamin Wiker ----- KEYWORDS: Commentry -------- TITLE: A Year After Iraq DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:The Catholic just-war doctrine was developed throughout the centuries, when tribes and nations had to defend themselves alone from the invasion of other tribes and nations. Times have changed.
But as the March 20 anniversary of the U.S.-led Iraq invasion reminds us, we now deal with weapons of mass destruction, terrorist groups' suicidal attacks and globalization. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has said the just-war doctrine needs to be updated to take account of new realities — in fact, that the doctrine might see an evolution in the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to be released in one or two years.
What might this evolution look like? We can see the seeds of the doctrine's needed update in recent statements by Pope John Paul II.
Just Cause and Last Resort
As the Catechism explains, “the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave and certain.”
In the last decades mankind perfected the ways to massacre and terrorize entire peoples. Think of 20th-century lagers and gulags, mass starvations, genocides, atomic bombs, nuclear and biological weapons. Think of 21st-century suicidal attacks in the United States, Israel and Iraq. Before such crimes, the Pope and the Holy See do not take a pacifist position. They appealed to the international community for some (military) action before the genocides in Rwanda, Burundi and Bosnia. They never disagreed with the U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan.
Modern atrocities might justify the use of force — but “all other means of putting an end to it [the aggressor's damage] must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective” (Catechism, No. 2309).
The Holy Father's warning on these questions is clear: Be alert not to yield to the temptation of hastily using force.
As John Paul noted in his message for the 2004 World Day of Peace, today “men and women, in the face of the tragedies that continue to afflict humanity, are tempted to yield to fatalism, as if peace were an unattainable ideal.” The Church, however, has an “axiom,” as the Pope calls it: “Peace remains possible. And if peace is possible, it is also a duty!”
War is not our fate. “We must not be resigned, as though war were inevitable,” the Pope said to the Sant'Egidio Catholic movement on March 8, 2003. “I think that when it is a question of peace, it is never too late to dialogue,” he remarked three days earlier to a group of Polish pilgrims.
This “axiom” is supported by a fact: The world today has more diplomatic resources than in previous ages. We are obliged to use them all before engaging in war.
So said the Pope on March 16, 2003, while a meeting in preparation for the invasion of Iraq took place in the Azores Islands between the United States, Britain, Spain and Portugal. “I would also like to remind the member countries of the United Nations and in particular those that make up the Security Council,” he said, “that the use of force represents the last recourse, after having exhausted every other peaceful solution, in keeping with the well-known principles of the U.N. charter itself.”
He added: “I say to all: There is still time to negotiate; there is still room for peace; it is never too late to come to an understanding and to continue discussions. To reflect on one's duties, to engage in energetic negotiations does not mean to be humiliated but to work with responsibility for peace.”
Force as a last resort must also take into account mankind's possibility of enhancing world peace. Through political and educational means the international community can promote the respect of human rights. “There will be no peace on earth while the oppression of peoples, injustices and economic imbalances, which still exist, endure,” John Paul said in his March 5 homily at the 2003 Ash Wednesday Mass.
Consequently, the fight against terrorism “cannot be limited solely to repressive and punitive operations,” as the Pope wrote in his World Day of Peace Message. It “must be conducted also on the political and educational levels: on the one hand, by eliminating the underlying causes of situations of injustice that frequently drive people to more desperate and violent acts; and, on the other hand, by insisting on an education inspired by respect for human life in every situation: The unity of the human race is a more powerful reality than any contingent divisions separating individuals and people.”
In short, certain attacks may be legitimately counterattacked by force, whenever the temptation to violence is overcome, all the diplomatic means have been exhausted and the respect of human rights are in the agenda.
Success and Proportionality
“There must be a serious prospect of success,” the Catechism states. Victory in traditional warfare — two armies facing each other — might be easily predictable for a military superpower.
But warfare has changed.
Today we must also predict whether success over possible terrorist attacks and clashes between groups can be prospected. Four days before the Iraq war, the Pope asked political leaders to negotiate “in the face of tremendous consequences that an international military operation would have for the population of Iraq and the balance of the entire Middle East, already sorely tried, as well as for the extremisms that could ensue.”
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, warned of a Vietnam-like quagmire in Iraq, while papal envoy Cardinal Pio Laghi asked President Bush whether he realized that in Iraq he would unleash “the disorder, the conflicts between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.”
Success in war has become more vaporous — it takes more than defeating an army.
This just-war principle mingles with the fourth one: “The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.”
The Holy Father has offered several considerations in this regard. First, war “always brings mourning and grave consequences for all,” he said last year on March 2. “War itself is an attack on human life, since it brings in its wake suffering and death,” he told the Vatican diplomatic corps on Jan. 13, 2003. Today's warfare, inevitably, causes many innocent victims, destruction, irreparable sorrow as well as new conflicts and divisions.
In a globalized world, war, as John Paul noted in St. Peter's Square on March 23 and April 20, 2003, “threatens the fate of humanity” and “the orderly development of the human family. May God grant that we be free from the peril of a tragic clash between cultures and religions.”
As an adventure without return, “war cannot be an adequate means to solve completely the problems between nations. It has never been and it will never be!” the Pope exclaimed on Jan. 17, 1991, the first day of the first Gulf War. “Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of men,” he repeated last year to the Italian Catholic television channel Telepace.
Such a realistic understanding of war comes, in part, from man's deep experience. “I belong to that generation that lived through World War II and, thanks be to God, survived it,” the Holy Father said, departing from written remarks four days before the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. “I have the duty to say to all young people, to those who are younger than me, who have not had this experience: ‘No more war!’ as Paul VI said during his first visit to the United Nations. We must do everything possible!”
Right Authority
‘If PETA's members were known for singing hymns outside of factory farms and slaughterhouses, I'd have more sympathy.’
Finally, “the evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good.”
In previous ages, with the lack of an international body to settle discrepancies among states, national public authorities had the right and the duty to provide for the necessary means to secure their own people's security and freedom.
Today's world is globalized. The times of isolationist states are over. Wars no longer affect only the clashing nations. That's why international law has formulated “universal principles that are prior to and superior to the internal law of states and that take into account the unity and the common vocation of the human family,” the Holy Father said in this year's World Day of Peace Message. “International law is a primary means for pursuing peace: For a long time international law has been a law of war and peace. I believe it is called more and more to become exclusively a law of peace, conceived in justice and solidarity.”
States already established an authority to safeguard international law.
“The task of watching over global peace and security and with encouraging the efforts of states to preserve and guarantee these fundamental goods of humanity,” we read in the same message, “was entrusted by governments to an organization established for this purpose — the United Nations organization — with a Security Council invested with broad discretionary power. Pivotal to the system was the prohibition of the use of force.”
John Paul is well aware of this organization's “limitations and delays.” Since 1995 he has been arguing for improvements to make it “a moral center,” “a family of nations.”
“While there is need for a reform that would enable the United Nations organization to function effectively for the pursuit of its own stated ends,” the Pope said Feb. 21 to Osman Durak, the new Turkish ambassador to the Holy See, “this international body still represents the most suitable agency for confronting the grave challenges facing the human family of the 21st century.” Thirteen days earlier he had noted to Julian Robert Hunte, the president of the U.N. General Assembly: “The Holy See considers the United Nations organization a significant means for promoting the universal common good.”
John Paul's update of the traditional just-war doctrine should be viewed in the context of his theology of love as self-giving, which implies the moral obligation to build the civilization of justice — where “the law of force” is replaced by “the force of law” — and the civilization of love — where the international community becomes “a family of nations.”
It is consistent with and analogous to his doctrine on the death penalty — a punishment that “ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically nonexistent (The Gospel of Life, No. 56).
In a time when wars are more deadly, pointless and planetary; in a world with advanced diplomacy, with political and educational ways to enhance world peace; and with the existence of United Nations the cases of legitimate use of force should be rarer — “in cases of absolute necessity: In other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society.”
Peace is possible and a duty. If the world listens to the Holy Father, history could know the 21st century as the last century of wars.
Legionary Father Alfonso Aguilar teaches at Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome.
He can be reached at aaguilar@legionaries.org.
----- EXCERPT: UPDATING THE JUST-WAR DOCTRINE ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Alfonso & Aguilar, LC ----- KEYWORDS: Commentry -------- TITLE: Papers Reveal Blackmun's Fear for His Legacy DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:It's an odd statement to find in a U.S. Supreme Court decision, but there it is anyway.
“I fear for the darkness as four justices anxiously await the single vote necessary to extinguish the light,” Justice Harry Blackmun wrote in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 Supreme Court case.
“I am 83 years old,” he wrote. “I cannot remain on this court forever, and when I do step down, the confirmation process for my successor well may focus on the issue before us today.”
By the time he wrote that, Blackmun, the father of Roe v. Wade, was a well-established icon in the pro-abortion movement.
With the release in early March of the previously closed papers of former Justice Blackmun, we are reminded exactly where the penumbras and emanations that established a legal right to abortion in the United States in the 1973 Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade came from: the heart of an activist.
Blackmun had stipulated that his archived papers be released exactly five years after his death in March 1999. The five years are now fulfilled.
In an interview with a feminist web-site, Sally Blackmun, the late justice's daughter, said when the opinion in Roe was assigned to Blackmun, he canvassed his family. “Roe was a case that Dad struggled with,“ she said. ”It was a case that he asked his daughters' and wife's opinion about.”
But by then, he probably knew full well what the women in his life thought about the case — and what he did.
In 1966, Sally Blackmun says, as a 19-year-old sophomore at Skidmore College, she got pregnant. As she told womenenews.org: “‘It was one of those things I was not at all proud of, that I was not at all pleased with myself about. It was a big disappointment to my parents,’ she said in an interview. ‘I did what so many young women of my era did. I quit college and married my 20-year-old college boyfriend. It was a decision that I might have made differently had Roe v. Wade been around,’ she said. It was, she said, one of the most difficult periods of her life.”
Sally Blackmun wound up suffering a miscarriage, “but her life had already changed,” womennews.org reported. “Her student career at Skidmore was cut short and she moved to join her new spouse in another state. The marriage lasted six years and it took her nearly as long to complete her college requirements. Even that might not have occurred if she had carried to term, she said.”
That background is important to understanding Blackmun and the trajectory of abortion in the United States as well. Among other things, the new papers reveal more details about the famous switch. Blackmun was lobbied by Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and David Souter, both (like Justice Anthony Kennedy) Republican-president appointees. In 1992 they all voted with Blackmun to preserve Roe.
As Blackmun's archives reveal (Blackmun kept the note) the worry that Roe would go down ended when Blackmun received a note from Kennedy: “Dear Harry … I need to see you as soon as you have a few free moments. I want to tell you about some developments in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, and at least part of what I say should come as welcome news.”
The Blackmun papers, says Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee, “further flesh out the story of how seven justices took it upon themselves to operate as a super-legislature, effectively amending the Constitution in order to achieve the policy result they desired, which was legalized abortion on demand. They negotiated over the scope of the right that they were inventing and then argued over what language in the Constitution they could use to justify their policy. The memoranda between justices that were released with the [Justice Thurgood] Marshall papers read like memos among the staffers on a congressional committee, drafting a statute.”
As one court writer put it, the 5-4 ruling in Casey “reveals more about Justice Kennedy's soul-searching than about any immutable constitutional truth.”
His journal notes that Blackmun wrote, after meeting with Kennedy, “Roe sound,” thanks to fine legislative work. Too bad he served in the wrong branch.
Kathryn Jean Lopez is the editor of National Review Online.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORDS: Commentry -------- TITLE: Behold the Movie DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:The late media analyst and Catholic convert Marshall McLuhan said, “We become what we behold.” On Ash Wednesday, I stood in line to behold The Passion of the Christ for the first time.
The following morning, as I spent an hour before the Blessed Sacrament, I found it difficult to look directly at our Eucharistic Lord. Images from the film filled my mind, convicting me of my own complicity in Christ's suffering and death.
Looking back now, a few weeks further into Lent, I can see how the film put the season into sharper focus for me. In fact, I doubt I will ever be able to pray the same way again.
Images have a powerful effect on me. I know this because, as a child of the 1970s and '80s, I grew up on a daily diet of television. We seldom missed our favorite television shows, and the purchase of our first VCR and the arrival of MTV were watershed events in our home.
It turns out one of the biggest downsides of the long immersion in slick media images has been the dulling of my imagination and the blunting of my concentration. Prayer, for one thing, has never come easily to me.
In particular, I have a diffi-cult time envisioning Jesus in the mysteries of the rosary. Aside from the British, blue-eyed Christ Robert Powell gave us in Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth, I've had few worthy cues.
That changed on Ash Wednesday.
James Caviezel's Jesus is as realistically human and as mysteriously divine as any imagination-challenged Christian could have hoped for. I was thankful Mel Gibson leavened the brutality of the Passion with snapshots of Jesus, his mother and the disciples. Some of these were even humorous. Whenever one of these flashbacks ended, I desperately wanted more.
Yet the primary focus of the film is Jesus' suffering and death — something that had been lost on me as a former Lutheran. The churches of my adolescent years were whitewashed; our altars were bare.
Gibson's film all but enters us into the prayer aids that are in every Catholic Church (or should be): the crucifix and the Stations of the Cross.
Christ wasn't scourged with soft pillows and gently taped to the cross. His blood was poured out to cleanse me from sin. My sins nailed him there. Gibson's film doesn't let me escape that fact. It forces me to confront all that my own sins have done to him, most especially after he is taken from the cross and laid in his mother's arms. Mary's penetrating gaze says: “Look what you've done to my son” and “Look what he has done for you.”
To sugarcoat Christ's suffering and death would be to indulge in what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace.” This the Lutheran theologian defined as “the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance … Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”
Real or costly grace, by comparison, costs a man his life. It is the grace made manifest by the life of Christ sacrificed to purchase man's redemption. Bonhoeffer himself died at the hands of the Nazis.
Gibson's film is first and foremost a work of art, but it is also more. It is a prayer — a living Stations of the Cross. As a motion picture it is also akin to an icon, for it offers a visual glimpse of a heavenly reality. In the weeks since I first saw it, I have found those intense images enriching my impoverished prayer life like few other prayer aids ever have.
My prayer now is that Marshall McLuhan's axiom proves true — for me and for millions of others.
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Light on the Lebanese Mountains DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:“She is like the light on the summit of the mountains.”
That's what Pope John Paul II said of St. Rafqa Pietra Choboq ar-Rayes when he canonized her on June 10, 2001, giving Lebanon its first female saint.
In life, St. Rafqa — her name means “Rebecca” — was a nun who asked for suffering in order to be closer to Christ. Today her tomb, located in her monastery, is one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in this predominantly Muslim nation of 3.6 million.
St. Rafqa was born in Himlaya, Lebanon, in 1832. Her mother died when she was 7. Despite the wishes of her father and stepmother, Rafqa decided against marriage. In 1862, she realized her lifelong dream when she entered religious life.
It was in 1885 that God responded to Rafqa's request for suffering. When unbearable pain began in her head and moved to her eyes, Rafqa's mother superior insisted she be treated by a specialist. But when the physician attempted surgery, disaster ensued. He accidentally removed her eye.
Twelve years later, Sister Rafqa and five other nuns from the Lebanese Maronite Order were moved to then-new St. Joseph's Monastery in Jrabta, Batroun. Not long after, she went completely blind. She also began to experience pain throughout her body as most of her bones came unjointed and a deep sore covered her back. By 1911, she was paralyzed, able to use only her hands.
“She drew from her union with Christ, who died on the cross, the power to accept voluntarily and to love suffering, the authentic path to sanctity,” said the Holy Father at the canonization.
St. Rafqa died on Ash Monday, 1914. (The Maronites begin Lent two days before Roman Catholics.)
Sanctified Stairway
Approaching St. Joseph's Monastery today, it's not hard to imagine the way it must have looked in St. Rafqa's time. For little, it seems, has changed.
The day I last visited, a few sisters were strolling by the roadside, dressed in the same long black habit worn by St. Rafqa. It's likely they were meditating on the Stations of the Cross, represented by some log-fashioned crosses that dot the edge of the road. The deep silence of the place was broken only by the tinkling of a bell in the distance, coming from a herd of goats making their way down the facing mountain. A few steps from the parking lot, votive candles surrounded the statue of the saint.
Upon entering the small chapel that contains St. Rafqa's tomb, which is connected to the monastery, pilgrims often kneel on the rough stone ground to pray. Fifty or so broad, winding, rustic stone steps lead up to the monastery. A stone structure, decorated in traditional Lebanese style, enshrines a sculpture depicting the saint's unfortunate eye surgery.
A colorful combination of wild-flowers carpets the grounds; I noted white and yellow daisies, poppies and buttercups. Light pink blossoms of almond trees were already in bloom, as were roses. Oak and cypress trees dot the landscape. Benches offer an inviting place to stop for prayer.
Halfway up the steps, you come to the simple tomb, embedded in stones, where St. Rafqa was first buried. Three days after her death, a light miraculously shone from it. Soon after, the first miracle through St. Rafqa's intercession occurred. The convent's mother superior, suffering from an abscess, placed some soil from Rafqa's burial ground on the affected area — and was healed.
St. Rafqa's tomb, explained Sister Martha Basile, is in the shape of an oil lamp, because “St. Rafqa is a light for people who are very sick. She suffered with Christ, and she can help people who suffer.” Visitors kneel before the glass and pray to the saint.
Sister Martha pointed out that St. Rafqa's room was where the first few pews of the chapel are now located. From there, she would drag herself to the church. There are currently 29 sisters in the convent. Until about 25 years ago, they were cloistered. During Lebanon's civil war (1975-90), many refugees came to the convent seeking help. The sisters responded by opening the convent doors, Sister Martha explained.
Base of a Basilica
St. Joseph's Church, beyond the chapel and visitors center, was built in 1933 in the simple stacked-stone design typical of Maronite architecture. The base of the altar is a lovely representation of the four Gospels. A picture of Our Lady of Elije, one of the oldest icons of Lebanon and a figure usually included in pictures of St. Rafqa, is attached to the lectern. On the right side of the altar, encased in glass and covered with pewter flowers, are relics of Lebanon's saints — St. Rafqa, St. Charbel and Blessed Hardini, who will be canonized May 16.
One of my favorite places is the tiny, old church of St. John the Apostle. Built prior to the monastery, it has only five pews and a few small stools. The marble altar has four angels holding pillars (which are candles) representing the four corners of the world. Framed pictures of the Holy Family, St. Char-bel, Pope John Paul II and other holy images adorn the altar and ledges of the church.
This is typical of many tiny Lebanese village churches, in which visitors donate their favorite religious pictures and statues.
Construction of a basilica, expected to be completed in about two years, has begun on the edge of the property, alongside the valley.
Sister Martha explained, “You feel the presence of St. Rafqa here every day. She is the one to witness to the people who come to visit.”
This simple saint who offered her physical agonies to God is responsible for much hope and many healings. The Holy Father must have had her heavenly effectiveness in mind when, at her canonization, he implored her to “watch over all those who know suffering.”
Doreen AbiRaad writes from Bikfaya, Lebanon, where St. Rafqa received her calling to become a nun at what is now Our Lady of Deliverance Church.
The writer hosts a children's program in English on Lebanon's Voice of Charity radio. It can be heard on Fridays at 9 a.m. EST at www. radiocharity.org.lb on the Internet.
----- EXCERPT: St. Joseph's Monastery, Batroun, Lebanon ----- EXTENDED BODY: Doreen Abiraad ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, MARCH 28
Foods in the Bible Food Network, 9 p.m.
At 9 p.m.,a Miracle Foods of the Bible analyzes the health benefits of foods mentioned in Scripture. At 10 p.m., Ancient Recipes: Foods of Bible Times compares ancient and modern methods of preparing bread, olives, fish and other staples.
MONDAY, MARCH 29
The Journey Home EWTN, 8 p.m.
Deacon Michael Ross recounts his conversion from Judaism. Marcus Grodi hosts.
TUESDAY, MARCH 30
Nova: Hunt for the Supertwister PBS, 8 p.m.
Spectacular footage of Midwest tornadoes and 3-D graphics from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications highlight this edge-of-your-seat special. Two scientists from the University of Oklahoma try different methods of predicting twisters — driving around to collect data on actual storms and creating virtual tornadoes by computer.
TUESDAY, MARCH 30
Wild West Tech History Channel, 10 p.m.
Actor Keith Carradine hosts this brand-new series on the then cutting-edge technology that gave the Wild West some surprisingly advanced touches, such as the telegraph, the telephone, repeating firearms, mining equipment and elements of cowboy gear.
APRIL, VARIOUS DATES
A Celebration of Faiths: The Papal Concert of Reconciliation 2004 PBS, check local listings
In this ecumenical event funded by the Knights of Columbus, Pope John Paul II hosted Christians, Jews and Muslims at the Vatican on Jan. 17. The Pittsburgh Symphony performed the world premiere of “Abraham,” a motet by John Harbison, plus three movements from Mahler's Symphony No. 2, “The Resurrection.” Also performing: choirs from the Ankara Polyphonic and the Krakow and London Philharmonics.
THURSDAY, APRIL 1
Frontline: Ghosts of Rwanda PBS, 9 p.m.
This two-hour special details deliberate decisions in 1994 by the U.S. government, European powers and the United Nations to do nothing as the Hutu-led government of Rwanda carried out a three-month, systematic genocide of 800,000 members of the Tutsi tribe and Hutu opponents of the regime. Officials, diplomats and survivors tell their stories.
FRIDAY, APRIL 2
American Hot Rod Discovery Channel, 10 p.m.
Most Americans love beautiful automobiles, and some of the very best are the hot rods that Boyd Coddington of La Habra, Calif., has customized in recent decades.
SATURDAY, APRIL 3
Fresh from the Garden Do It Yourself Network, 2:30 p.m.
In each episode of this new 13-part series, gardening expert Joe Lamp'l digs into a different topic. He does all the spadework on the fundamentals and finer points of growing flowers and corn, potatoes, tomatoes and many more vegetables. Premiere.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: The Passion of the Composer DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:A short while after watching The Passion of the Christ for the first time, I was asked what, if anything, I had disliked about the film. The music, I answered.
Not that the score wasn't good. In fact, I explained, I found it quite evocative of time, place and atmosphere. It's just that, every time it asserted itself, I remembered I was watching actors in a drama.
The convention of using a score at all, I maintained, breaks the spell created by this movie's unconventional hyper-realism. Mel Gibson's cinematic technique puts you in first-century Palestine so successfully you practically choke on the grit of the streets. In fact, some of the imagery is so potent that I'd like to see the whole thing without any musical embellishments at all. Experience it like raw footage. At least once, anyway. I hope the DVD offers that option.
Think again, said my interlocutor. Sure, some of the most mesmerizing scenes come when the music cuts out entirely. But that's only because the score is so effective in setting up the spaces in which everything but the action goes stonily silent.
About halfway into the movie for the second time, listening closely and consciously watching for the effect, I conceded the point.
But losing the argument didn't settle the issue. In fact, to my mind, it only raised another question. Is it the presence of “movie music” in general that helps make the motion-picture meditation that is The Passion of the Christ so deeply affecting? Or is there something about this particular movie music?
Only one way to find out for sure. Go out and get the soundtrack CD. See how well it stands on its own, with no astonishing imagery to sell the accompanying sounds to the ear.
Having since completed that assignment, I not only have an answer but can also pinpoint the moment it came to me.
Two weeks ago, I'm driving home. It's late. Clear night. Pitch-black patch of highway. I've played the CD through a couple of times prior, but this time I turn up the volume near maximum so as not to miss a trick. Minutes after midnight, the third track, “Jesus Arrested,” slithers in. In the distance, aggressive, primal drums. Throaty Middle Eastern woodwinds. Distorted, haunted male vocals. Each of these elements advances and recedes but never comes all the way to the fore. The voice: Is it praying, pleading or sobbing? Whatever it's doing, it sounds desperate.
Three or so minutes into this eerie aural atmosphere, a second vocal manifestation emerges. It's low and guttural, and it's neither human nor animal. Is it mirthful or mournful? In pain or pleasure? It's hard to say because it never steps out of the shadows created by the ambient noise to fully reveal itself. It moans just loudly enough to be heard, but it's too veiled and too garbled to communicate any specific idea or emotion.
Behind this, or maybe beneath it, the primal drums begin to build again. A swarm of shrieking catcalls — or are they inconsolable wails? — descends. These don't make it to the front, either; they only provide cover for the demon murmur, which slips away unnoticed while the percussion pounds. The overall effect is of tossing through a fever dream.
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST
ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK
COM P OSE D BY John Debney
Sony Music, $18.98 (list)
Available wherever music CDs are sold
Now get this. Just after that unnerving track ended, a shooting star fell from the sky directly ahead. It was so bright, clear and fast I caught my breath — thinking, for one millisecond, that something was about to crash through my wind-shield. I'm not easily spooked by things that go “odd” in the night, but right then and there, on Interstate 95, I got a case of what our evangelical-Protestant brothers and sisters call “Godbumps.” And you can bet I listened, and watched, very attentively the rest of the way through the disk. Didn't touch the controls, either.
Here's what I decided before I reached home that night and confirmed in several subsequent follow-up listenings: John Debney's score is as impressive a musical achievement as Gibson's moving pictures are a cinematographic triumph.
Perhaps this should not surprise. Debney, a Catholic who till now was best known for his work on such forgettable film fare as Snow Dogs, The Scorpion King and Elf, has said repeatedly that he was profoundly changed by his Passion experience. “I had never before subscribed to the idea that maybe Satan is a real person,” he told WorldNet Daily, “but I can attest that he was in my room a lot and I know that he hit everyone on this production. … I was tested. I once said to Mel, ‘With every lash that Christ felt, I was feeling those lashes in my own way.’ I was sorely tested.”
Ethereal and Elusive
I trust it goes without saying that this is not a recording you'd play for light entertainment. It's ethereal and elusive, and it's not even a set of songs per se: You'd have to call it an extended, 55-minute soundscape. But, taken on its own terms, it works. It chills without veering anywhere near horror-movie schtick and conveys wrenching sorrow without so much as a nod to the sanctimonious strings that swell so predictably in too many a tear-jerker.
Debney's genius is in mixing a relatively small palette of colors into epoch-crossing combinations so they evoke varying moods, rhythms and textures. Ancient flutes and stringed instruments (ever heard of a duduk, erhu or oud before?) mingle with solo vocals and choirs (lyrics in Aramaic); frequent primitive percussion is offset by occasional orchestral flourishes; piercing, wordless vocal calls trade off with bold brass cues.
Two movements emerge as the most memorable. One is a doleful vocal theme introduced in the track titled “Mary Goes to Jesus.” The female voice is thin, high and forlorn, yet it provides a welcome breath of warmth and melody. Debney recalls it in “Crucifixion” and at three or four other points to beautiful effect. The other showstopper is a militaristic marching motif — the glorious “Resurrection,” which closes the CD, quite literally, on a triumphant note. Here big, warlike drums mount to a deafening roar before they're joined by a towering chorus and a dramatic horn-and-string address. In two minutes you're roused from heartbreaking lament to glorious hope with such conviction that you might want to pump your fist overhead.
Don't. Not yet, anyway. The encore, if you will, is a final return of the dulcet Marian theme. The solo vocal's curtain call struck me as a sweet and subtle reminder: I'd been seeing — make that hearing — Christ's passion through the immaculate heart of his Mother all along.
If you're thinking of buying this CD, I can give you three reasons over and above its unqualified artistic success to plunk down the $15 or so it'll cost you. One, it can provide a powerful aid to contemplating Jesus Christ's passion or praying the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary (especially at night with a blessed candle burning in front of a Marian statue or painting). Two, the sale would fire one more shot of sense in Hollywood's general direction. You already know how big the movie is and how it's made even the most jaded entertainment moguls sit up and take notice of the demand for serious and reverent faith-based fare. But did you know this soundtrack has been parked in the Billboard Top 25 for three weeks running? Imagine the attitudes that would have to adjust if it cracked the Top 10, displacing a debauched pop diva or crude hip-hopper in the process.
And three: Yes it's “movie music,” but there's something unexpectedly affecting about this unconventional score. One good listen and you might never hear the sounds of sorrow — or silence — the same way again.
David Pearson is the Register's features editor.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Pearson ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Goodbye, Mr. Chips (2002)
Not a remake of the 1939 classic but a new adaptation of James Hilton's sentimental novella, Masterpiece Theater's engrossing Goodbye, Mr. Chips couldn't be more different from the 1939 film — and that's all to the good.
Where the earlier film idealized Hilton's already sentimental portrait of life at a traditional English boys prep school, this version is more faithful to the book and to the real world. Still a celebration of Brookfield School for Boys' heritage and dedication to old-fashioned values and classical education, this film shows teacher Charles Chipping's struggles with the less-attractive side of traditional boarding-school life — bullying, class-based snobbery and “fagging” (forcing younger pupils to serve older ones).
Chipping's transition from an inexperienced newcomer who easily loses control of a classroom to an authoritative master is better developed.
We see the slow stages and small victories by which he wins the students' respect and grows in confidence and specifically how Mrs. Chipping, when she arrives, impacts his professional and personal life. The difficulties posed by modernizing trends and pressures, coupled with unsympathetic administrators, also get more attention.
Martin Clunes' Chipping has virtually nothing in common with that of the first film — nor does his courtship of Kathy. His story is still endearing, though, and a warmhearted tribute to dedicated teachers.
Content advisory: Some depictions of schoolboy violence and brief war menace.
Diary of a Country Priest (1950)
Now on DVD, Robert Bresson's Diary of a Country Priest is one of the most deeply Catholic films I've ever seen. Faithfully reflecting its source material, Catholic novelist Georges Bernanos' fictional autobiography of a soul, Diary profoundly contemplates the spiritual meaning of suffering and persecution, conversion and incorrigibility, and the dark night of the soul with a rigor and insight evocative of St. Augustine's Confessions or St. Thérèse's Story of a Soul.
The story is simple. A sensitive, frail young priest (Claude Laylu) arrives in a rural parish in spiritual decline. Vulnerable in his inexperience, he meets with indifference, polite toleration, even open mockery. Amid constant failure and rejection, he has one striking victory: a spiritual exchange with a bitter countess recalling the dialogues of The Brothers Karamazov or the debate with Count Smokrev in Michael O'Brian's Father Elijah. Yet even his failures, dryness and persecutions he accepts with submissiveness, turning them into a kind of victory, a grace.
Laylu, a devout Catholic with no previous acting experience, reportedly spent months living with young priests to absorb their mannerisms and rigorously fasted to achieve his character's wan look. Yet it was only on seeing the finished film that Laylu realized he had played a saint.
Content advisory: Various manifestations of sin including an implied affair, possible suicide and a malicious poisoning. Teens and up. In French with subtitles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:‘Father Jack's Tiger’
THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, March 14 — Chicago's DePaul University is pulling the plug on what one university board trustee dubbed “Father Jack's tiger project.”
In 2002, DePaul president Father Jack Minogue oversaw the purchase of a $1 million piece of land in southeast Missouri to build an environmental studies program centered on tigers.
Two years later, however, after putting $800,000 more into the project, the university is hoping to sell the 55-acre plot of land located about 400 miles from Chicago.
School officials acknowledge that students have never set foot on the land, the paper reported. Currently the land contains two houses, a restaurant, a swimming pool, a tennis court and five Bengal tigers.
National Appointment
THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE, March 16 — Thomas Aquinas College president Thomas Dillon has been appointed to the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity.
U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced the appointment in February. The committee's function is to make recommendations on state and national accrediting agencies, oversee criteria for accreditation, and supervise the process of eligibility and certification for schools, a college press release stated.
Dillon's appointment to the 15-member panel is for a three-year renewable term.
Cristo Rey in Boston
THE BOSTON GLOBE, March 14 — The Cristo Rey Network, financed in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is planning to open another Catholic school this fall in Boston.
The Notre Dame School plans to begin classes Sept. 1 in Lawrence, Mass. It is one of the latest in a series of Cristo Rey schools launched in some of the poorest neighborhoods across the country.
Students attend classes four days a week and work the fifth day for tuition. They wear uniforms, go to Mass and attend school for 185 days, the paper reported.
The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur will run the new school.
Single-Sex Schools?
THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, March 14 — Proposed federal regulations could make it easier to create single-sex schools across the nation, and Chicago public school officials are happy to hear it.
At a recent Sun-Times board meeting, officials voiced excitement over the creation of all-girls and all-boys schools.
The new regulations would no longer require districts to create “comparable” schools for each sex but rather, if a district wanted to create an all-boys school, it would merely need to offer girls a “substantially equal” school that could be coeducational.
The rules were demanded by the 2002 No Child Left Behind law.
USF Ups Enrollment
UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO, March 2 — For the first time in its history, this fall the University of San Francisco will limit freshman enrollment.
The Jesuit-run university received 5,168 applications for 950 spots in the fall freshman class, according to a university press release. The number represents a 21% increase from last year and a 50% increase from two years ago.
Approximately 300-400 students will be put on a waiting list, according to director of admissions Tom Matos. In the last four years, he said, the freshman class has grown by 190 students.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Professor Karin Heller DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Dr. Karin Heller, an Austrian by birth and a French citizen, recently moved from Paris to the Pacific Northwest to begin teaching Catholic theology at Whit-worth College, a Presbyterian school in Spokane, Wash., as part of the school's commitment to ecumenism. She had never been to the United States before coming to Whitworth.
Heller holds three doctoral theses from European universities — the Sorbonne, the Lateran in Rome and Ludwig-MaximiliansUniversitat in Munich. She also has been affiliated with the Pope John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family.
As a young woman Heller was one of the first to undergo the solemn rite of consecration of a virgin living in the world in Austria. She recently spoke to Register correspondent Jesuit Father Matt Gamber at her new residence in Spokane.
You are a Roman Catholic consecrated laywoman from Europe teaching Catholic theology at a Presbyterian college in the great “unchurched” area of the Pacific Northwest. How did that happen?
After teaching in Europe for many years, my contract with the theology faculty of Lugano in Switzerland was not renewed. Bishop [Angelo] Scola, former rector of the Lateran University and director of my first doctoral thesis [he is now patriarch of Venice and was recently made cardinal], asked me to lend a helping hand with the foundation of a Pope John Paul II session in studies on marriage and the family in Ireland.
Six months later, a new bishop came in. He put an end to the project. Therefore, I found myself without a job.
I went on the Internet and looked for jobs in “religion.” Whitworth College came up. The job description was fitting with what I could offer. Just before sending in my application, I took out a map of the United States and figured out where Washington state and Spokane were. Having found them I said to myself, “I hope it won't be there! It's so far away from France!”
Finally, at the beginning of December 2002, I received a phone call from Whitworth College. After a phone interview, I was invited to come to Whitworth for an interview. The position was offered to me and I signed my contract on Dec. 24. It was an unexpected and quite unbelievable Christmas gift.
You recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of your consecration. How has living this vocation influenced your faith in Jesus Christ?
I would say it is rather faith given by God that influenced my vocation. My vocation is rooted in my childhood. The sign of the cross learned in kindergarten revealed to me that I was involved in a mysterious relationship with the three divine persons. I just wanted to know more about who they were. This was the big question when I was 5.
Throughout my life, God has created very specific conditions of faith. In this way, faith led me essentially to abide with Jesus in good and bad times. That is exactly what married people do when they are Christians. They abide with one another in good and in bad times. What they are called to put into practice, I was called to put into practice with regard to Jesus.
Have you any observations about the Catholic Church in the United States since your arrival here last summer?
Since my arrival in the United States last August, I've been very busy organizing my life and trying to live and teach within a faith community that is not my traditional Church community.
But I can see the Catholic Church in the United States through my Catholic parish and through the media. The Church in the United States seems to me overshadowed by the sexual-abuse scandal, the problems linked with aging clergy and the question of vocations. This is also the case for the Catholic Church in Europe.
However, the Catholic Church in the United States seems to me more actively involved in a concrete healing process. She manifests a stronger awareness of the broken trust that will take years to be built up again. The European Churches focus more on juridical issues for the bishops and the priests concerning the sexual-abuse issues.
How would you describe the state of the Catholic Church in Western Europe? Is it as much in decline as we read about? Are there any signs of hope you could point to?
I honestly did not have much time to read about the American perception of the Catholic Church in Europe. My vision of this Church is a very practical one. When I settled in France in 1975, priests were complaining because they had to take care of four or five parishes. When I settled in Switzerland in 1993, the same priests had 15 or 16 parishes.
In Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland the buildings are well maintained. Churches are at least clean and well restored.
France faces a starker situation on account of the separation between church and state. The Church alone is in charge of all the buildings built after 1905. Many communities, especially in the rural regions, reduced to few people, cannot afford the high costs of maintenance. In the north of France in particular, where there is a large Islamic community, it is not rare that churches are transformed into mosques.
Having said that, every year the Catholic Church in Paris presents to her bishop about 200 adults preparing for baptism. Other dioceses with a less-dense population come up with 25 to 30 catechumens. The traditional centers of pilgrimage such as Lourdes, Paray-le-Monial, rue du Bac in Paris or Lisieux are always well visited.
In spite of these signs of hope, the Church in Europe suffers increasingly from a lack of human as well as material resources.
Another difficulty has to be underlined: The older generations have all benefited from a Christian formation supported by liturgy and therefore Scripture, a Catechism and the living example of religious people. The young generations are genuine; they come from a “world” that has not many Christian roots anymore. It is therefore difficult for them to grow in Christian maturity.
You have been affiliated with the Pope John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family. How would you assess the impact of these institutions on the life of the Church?
This is precisely an aspect that underlines the difficulties faced by the Catholic Church in Europe.
There is of course the mother institute in Rome housed by the Lateran University. But there is no branch of this institute neither in France nor in Germany, Switzerland or Portugal.
Cardinal [Christoph] Schün-born, archbishop of Vienna, Austria, founded some years ago an International Theological Institute in Lower Austria. The institute delivers degrees following the curricula of the John Paul II Institute at the Lateran University. There is even an English-language track.
This year 52 students are enrolled from 15 countries; 11 students come from the United States. Another European branch exists in Valencia, Spain, which enrolls about 60 students.
How have the faculty and students at Whitworth College responded to you?
Since my arrival I have had wonderful contacts with faculty and students. There is an exceptional mutual support among colleagues and I am simply one of them. We work hard, but we also take time to talk to one another and to pray together. They manifest a deep love for Christ, the word of God and God's sovereign grace, which extends also to me.
Students are attracted by the topics I offer. They are particularly interested in Catholic perspectives with regard to Protestant doctrine but also in issues on celibacy, ordination, tradition and teaching authority of the Church. Sometimes they are attracted by my European background, French culture or simply because they like my way of being with them.
Students are looking of course for a high academic standard but also, and perhaps primarily, for professors with strong “faith stories.” It does not really matter to them if these stories are Catholic or Protestant. They love to hear and to meet people who bear witness to Christ. High academic standards deeply linked with faith sustain and encourage them to look for God's will in their lives in order to put it into practice.
Father Matt Gamber writes from Spokane, Wash.
----- EXCERPT: On the Church and Vocations 'in Good Times and Bad' ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Matt Gamber ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Straight Shooting From a Pithy Priest DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:The Catholic Answer Book 4
by Father Peter M.J. Stravinskas OSV, 2003 304 pages, $12.95 To order: (800) 348-2440 www.osvpublishing.com
I don't know about you, but when I hear a recording artist I like, I generally wait until they release a “best of” or “greatest hits” collection before buying their music. For one thing, I can't afford to purchase a release that might have just one or two songs that match my taste.
Likewise, most of the Catholic publications I enjoy are beyond my budget. For that reason, I dove into Father Peter Stravinskas' fourth “best of” collection, taken from the
pages of The Catholic Answer magazine, with great relish.
Here I found a very good resource for anyone who has a question about the Catholic faith — and a brisk read for anyone who enjoys the power of pithy prose.
The first book in this series was published in 1990. Since that time Our Sunday Visitor Publishing has published follow-up Qand-A compilations from the 16-year-old magazine about every three to four years.
And it's not like this is leftover content from the first three books in the series. In fact, this one is more than 100 pages beefier than the volume that preceded it.
Though he sometimes strikes me as a little bit wordier than he probably needs to be, Father Stravinskas can never be accused of skirting an issue or short-changing a questioner.
For example, one questioner, a Catholic, had been discussing the impact of religious leaders' moral failings with a Baptist acquaintance. The Baptist “pointed out that the papacy committed many improprieties, including the fact that there were three individuals serving as pope at the same time … Can you please explain the discrepancies and define the term ‘anti-pope?’”
Father Stravinskas' answer: “As you suggest, since about the third century, the Church has been harassed by pretenders to the papal throne. The term ‘anti-pope,’ how-ever, did not gain currency until the 12th century. Approximately 37 men have made illegitimate claims on the papal office; most of them were little more than cranks, but some indeed garner significant support from civil authorities. With more stringent rules for the election of a pope, the existence of anti-popes became a practical impossibility since the 15th century.”
You have to love a straight shooter, which is what I would consider a priest who's not afraid to call an impostor pope a “crank.” In fact, it occurs to me now that Catholics who enjoy listening to Rush Limbaugh will enjoy reading Father Stravinskas. (This is not to say that Catholics who do not enjoy listening to Rush Limbaugh will not enjoy Father Stravinskas.)
Another entry that made a memorable impression on me was titled “Absurd Statement.” The questioner asks,
“I recently heard the allegation ‘the Pope has the largest collection of pornography in the world.’
How does one respond to this?”
“How absurd!” Father Stravinskas responds. “I, too, have heard the statement … and they are referring to the works of art in the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. If they don't know the difference between pornography and serious art, nothing you say will be of much help. Pray for their enlightenment.”
If there's one thing we need more of right now, it's faithful priests who aren't afraid to tell it like it is. For that reason alone, I believe The Catholic Answer Book 4 provides a great service to the Church — and a wonderful read for the faithful. I can hardly wait for the next “best of” entry in the series.
Bill Zalot writes from Levittown, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Bill Zalot ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: This Week: SIN DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:We continue to look at Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ and the window it provides to the teachings of the Church.
Last week: Mary Holy Week: Eucharist Easter Week: Sacrifice
The Cosmic Battle
“A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth. Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a huge red dragon. … [T]he dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth. She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod. … Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. … The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it. … When the dragon saw that it had been thrown down to the earth, it pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. … Then the dragon became angry with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep God's commandments and bear witness to Jesus.”
- Revelation 12:1-5, 7, 9, 13, 17
“Victory over the ‘prince of this world’ was won once for all at the hour when Jesus freely gave himself up to death to give us his life. This is the judgment of this world, and the prince of this world is ‘cast out.’ ‘He pursued the woman’ but had no hold on her: the new Eve, ‘full of grace’ of the Holy Spirit, is preserved from sin and the corruption of death (the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Most Holy Mother of God, Mary, ever virgin). ‘Then the dragon was angry with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her off-spring.’ Therefore the Spirit and the Church pray: ‘Come, Lord Jesus,’ since his coming will deliver us from the evil one.”
- Catechism of the Catholic
Church, No. 2853
These remarkable quotes from the New Testament and the Catechism speak of the cosmic confrontation between good and evil, between love and sin.
This is the “big picture” of the story of The Passion of the Christ: Satan's obsessive hatred of the sinless Mary, his desire to destroy the Christians who are her children and his defeat by Jesus, who is love incarnate.
•Satan, the father of lies, wins his victims over by mixing truth into what he says. Satan says, “No one man can bear man's sins. No one. Ever. No. Never.” He always points to the impossibility of Christianity. What he fails to mention is that Christ makes the impossible possible. n Satan shares his sin with others. Jesus' mental suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane as the movie opens comes as he takes our sins on himself. All the guilt of all the sinners of all time was his to bear at that moment — theologians say his mental suffering in the garden is worse than the physical suffering that followed it. n Satan is practically smiling throughout the movie. This is the hour of his triumph. But after his shriek of pain, he's gone at the end. We've entered the Marian age, the age of Satan's defeat. n Satan is the counterpart to Mary in the film. He's the naysayer, she's the docile one who accepts. He's the androgynous one, she's the Virgin Mother. He sows destruction and confusion, she brings strength and faith. He is obsessed with her, mockingly imitating the Madonna. She's focused on her Son and sees Satan only once, fleetingly. He's vanquished at the end, alone. She is honored at the end and made Mother of the Church. n Jesus says next to nothing to his accusers. The few things he says are the things that will condemn him. He doesn't claim that he's innocent because he's not innocent. He is the Messiah, as accused. He is a king, as accused. And — since he has taken our sin on himself — he does “deserve” crucifixion.
• It seems that Christ's prayer at the beginning of the movie, “Hear me, Father. Rise up. Defend me,” is ignored by the Father. But at the film's end, we see that it is answered superlatively: Satan is vanquished, screaming in his own “agony in the desert.”
The Humiliation of Judas
“This dramatic situation of ‘the whole world [that] is in the power of the evil one’ makes man's life a battle:
“The whole of man's history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God's grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity.”
- Catechism, No. 409
This cosmic battle of love vs. sin is played out in a personal way in the lives of individuals in the movie. Judas in the movie is a lesson in how sin fails those who choose it.
•Gibson wanted Satan to be the personification of sin in the movie. He's attractive and scary at the same time, like sin. We've been burned by sin in the past, yet we return to it.
• How different Satan is from Jesus. Jesus washes the feet of the disciples and calls them friends. Satan doesn't want friends, he wants dupes. He humiliates those who partner with him, then abandons them.
• We know from Scripture, and we sense in the movie, that Judas partnered with Satan in his crime. Then Satan took away his sanity and hounded him to his death.
• In the film, Judas did it for money — for the personal gain he expected. But he had to crawl and pick up his money. We sin out of pride, hoping to build ourselves up, but we end up humiliating ourselves.
• Judas turns in on himself, and everything becomes ghastly. Even the innocence of children seems to condemn him. He flees the company of others to a lonely place and then flees life itself in his suicide.
Pilate: The Stages of Sin
“Sin creates a proclivity to sin; it engenders vice by repetition of the same acts. This results in perverse inclinations that cloud conscience and corrupt the concrete judgment of good and evil. Thus sin tends to reproduce itself and reinforce itself, but it cannot destroy the moral sense at its root.”
- Catechism, No. 1865
The movie shows the steps Pilate goes through after he is presented with the reasons and opportunites to free Christ, to the moment he consents to Christ's cruficixion.
•First, Pilate over-rationalizes his action. He should simply realize you can't condemn an innocent man and be done. But when he balances the consequences of right and wrong as if they were equal options, he has already taken the first step to sinning.
• Second, Pilate hides from his responsibility. He sends Christ off to be tried by Herod. When that doesn't work, he offers Barabbas. In both cases, he tries to leave his decision to sin in someone else's hands. When we sin we often say, “I wouldn't do this if only he/she/they acted differently.” But we can't escape our personal responsibility.
• Next, Pilate tries a lesser form of the sin, thinking it's somehow less sinful. He tries a scourging. He thinks a milder sin will be a buffer against the more serious sin. He forgets that small sins lead to greater sins.
• Fourth, Pilate thinks words can cover for his actions. He tells the crowd he finds no fault in Christ, washes his hands and then sends Christ off to be crucified. How often do we “innocently” sin, telling ourselves we're not really doing what we're doing? n Fifth, Pilate suffers the consequence of his sin. Nothing he hoped to accomplish was accomplished. Killing Christ didn't improve his situation; instead it has come to define who he was in the minds of all who hear about him.
Freedom and Repentance
“Mortal sin is a radical possibility of human freedom, as is love itself. It results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is, of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed by repentance and God's forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ's Kingdom and the eternal death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices forever, with no turning back. However, although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave offense, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God.”
- Catechism of the Catholic
Church, No. 1861
The movie tells the story of how man's freedom is real. He can sin, or he can stop sinning, repent and avoid the full consequence of his sin.
•Judas and Peter both have the opportunity to look into Jesus' eyes after their betrayals. This encounter with Christ leads to Peter's repentance. Judas flees deeper into confusion and inner conflict.
• Judas tries to reverse his sin just by giving the money back. That's not enough. Like the good thief and like Peter, he has to bring his sin to Christ or the Church.
• The bad thief rebels, even in the end, because human nature tends to stick to its ways. But the good thief repents because he 1) confesses his guilt, 2) accepts that he must do penance and 3) asks Christ for forgiveness. As a result he's the only person directly promised heaven by Christ in the movie.
• Gibson has said he “used the wounds of Christ to heal mine.” So did Mary Magdalene in the movie — directly. Christ spared her life when she was stoned. As she mops up his blood after the scourging, she seems to realize that, when they stoned Christ, he was accepting in himself the punishment that he spared her from.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: It Takes One to Recruit One DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Priest Profile
Father David Nuss was well on his way to getting a doctorate in systematic theology a few years ago when his bishop summoned him to a meeting.
The 38-year-old priest fully expected he would be called home from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and assigned to a parish, possibly with teaching duties at a nearby college. Having spent four rewarding years as associate pastor of St. Mary's Parish in Sandusky, Ohio, following his 1993 ordination, he figured parish ministry was a logical next step.
So when Bishop James Hoffman told Father Nuss he wanted him to become the vocations director for the Toledo Diocese, the younger priest countered: “Bishop, I need to tell you that several priests come to mind who are much better suited to this.”
Bishop Hoffman's response was matter-of-fact. “You're going to be the vocations director,” he said.
Despite that rather tenuous beginning, the Adrian, Mich., native and self-described jock has joyfully embraced his duties in the two years since he joined the diocese's vocations staff. In that time, he has seen a dozen men go into the seminary from the 19-county diocese in northwest Ohio. Nine of those entered last fall, constituting the largest class the diocese has seen in more than 20 years.
Father Nuss hasn't stopped there. He has revamped the vocations Web site for the diocese (www.toledovocations. com) as part of a recruitment campaign he launched last December with catchy phrases such as “Altar Your Life,” “Savior Life” and “Do You Have Collar ID?”
The campaign's advertising, Father Nuss said, is designed to direct people to the Web site, which offers information on the priesthood and consecrated life, ideas for nurturing vocations in the family and lesson plans for teachers and catechists. Father Nuss developed the campaign with the help of Catholic marketing and public-relations professionals who donated tens of thousands of dollars in in-kind services. Their goal: help Father Nuss present the prospect of high-fidelity priesthood — without compromising on the true nature of the vocation — to 18- to 22-year-olds reared on slick media images and quick-hit sound bites.
He said he has undertaken the vocations assignment with enthusiasm because “It's all about obedience. … It's wholeheartedly investing yourself in what you've been told to do.”
Still, Father Nuss considers parish ministry the ultimate challenge. “You talk about needing to be sharp,” he says. “You explain God to a kindergarten class and to parents and to nursing-home people in the same day and do it intelligently and passionately.”
Father Nuss first heard the call to priesthood while he was enrolled in an honors pre-med program at the University of Toledo, where, from all appearances, he was thriving intellectually and socially. Besides being a leader in student government and a member of the prestigious Blue Key honor society, he was attending Mass regularly and had a circle of Catholic friends who shared his love for the Church. After graduation, he hoped to go to medical school and become a pediatrician.
“On the surface, it looked like all of the pieces were perfectly in place and coming together,” he says. “But inside, I was hungering for something more.”
At first he thought the Holy Spirit might be asking him to take more ownership of his faith in Christ and his participation in the Church. “In a short period of time,” he recalls, “it occurred to me that it was really a calling to consider seriously priestly life and ministry.”
Help was as close as his own family. As Father Nuss likes to say, religious life is in his DNA. He counts among his relatives two priests, one of whom was the former bishop of Guatemala, and two religious sisters.
He contacted the man he considers “the family priest,” his great-uncle, Father Rolland Glass, now a retired priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Father Glass helped his nephew find a program where he could simultaneously pursue his undergraduate studies and discern his vocation.
Father Glass says he had long thought Father Nuss would make a good priest. He recalls especially his nephew expressing an interest in his breviary as a 10-year-old. Upon learning what the book was, Father Glass says the boy responded, “Oh, you learn a lot about the Bible from it.”
However, during his boyhood, most of which was spent in Wisconsin, Father Nuss said being a priest was not necessarily on his mind. “I grew up thinking I wanted to lead the Green Bay Packers back to glory,” he said. To this day, he remains a devoted Packers fan and a single-share stockholder in the team.
Father Glass, who enjoys an ongoing rivalry with his nephew over who is the better cribbage player, says he thinks one of Father Nuss' many gifts as a priest is his ability to put people at ease, even though he possesses a superior intellect.
“He has such a down-to-earth approach to people,” Father Glass adds, “that you wouldn't figure he has as great a mind as he has in ordinary conversation.”
Prayerful Theology
While at Mount St. Mary's Seminary of the West in Cincinnati, Father Nuss earned master of divinity and master of theology degrees before beginning doctoral studies at Catholic University. He currently holds a licentiate in theology but has yet to write his doctoral dissertation.
Father Nuss decided to base his studies on the work of Hans Urs von Balthasar, who is known as the Pope's theologian, because, he says, “Beyond the brilliance of his mind, Father von Balthasar was the first theologian I had ever read who expressed God's activity in time in a manner that corresponded so closely with my own experience. He understands the proper posture for studying theology — indeed the daily starting point for all who dare to follow Christ Jesus — is on one's knees.”
Father Nuss, who begins and ends each day with a half-hour of Eucharistic adoration and also has morning prayer daily with two other priests, says, “The most important part of my job is being a man of prayer and being faithful to the Church in that regard. I can't come in here in the morning if I haven't first been on my knees in the rectory.”
Judy Roberts writes from Millbury, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Coming of Age DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:If necessity is the mother of invention, then pregnancy-resource centers are some of her most outstanding offspring.
From their humble birth as crisis-counseling clinics in the late 1960s, many such centers today are converting to licensed medical facilities in order to offer comprehensive care to women and children.
The model is also helping the centers become financially self-sufficient because they qualify for reimbursements from both Medicaid and private payers. More than a few industry sources believe this development is driving a revival in pro-life medical care, social services and counseling services.
“Pro-life professionals are coming into our centers and are so excited to be able to exercise their Christian values,” says Peggy Hartshorn, executive director of Heartbeat International in Columbus, Ohio, which has 800 pregnancy-resource affiliates. “I see them taking that [spirit] back into their professions,” where, she predicts, it will “transform health care over the next 30 years.”
The evolution of pregnancy-resource centers from counseling clinics to licensed medical facilities started when ultrasound technology emerged as a tool to help abortion-vulnerable women bond with their babies. In order to provide sonogram services, pregnancy centers needed to be accredited medical clinics or work under the license of a private physician. The National Institute of Family Life Advocates developed a model the centers began to adopt.
Although not all pregnancy-resource centers are equipped with ultrasound, many have it and others are adding it. The centers might also provide prenatal and postnatal care, disease testing, pap smears, fertility awareness, sexual-integrity programs, abuse recovery and post-abortion counseling. The Pregnancy Centers of Pinellas County, near Clearwater, Fla., is even breaking ground in June for a Christian birthing center. This will not only serve its clients but the general public as well — yet another example of how pregnancy centers are becoming more business-minded and financially self-sufficient.
Chris Slattery, founder and president of Expectant Mother Care, a group of 10 facilities in New York, is adamant that the centers no longer rely on donations and hand-me-downs but must be managed like viable medical enterprises.
“We have to provide the full gamut of services on-site,” Slattery says. “Ultimately we are developing a prenatal care market, and we have to think creatively and form partnerships. It's the only economic model that will bring an opportunity for expansion. All of this puts abortion clinics under financial pressure and costs them substantial abortion business.”
The number of freestanding abortion mills has been steadily declining since 1990, from more than 2,000 to about 750. At the same time, there are now 2,300 qualified pregnancy-resource centers in the country and several thousand other pregnancy services, including hotlines, Christian maternity homes and adoption agencies.
Walking Wounded
Hartshorn says the variety of services available reflects the response to the women and families who have been seeking help.
“These clients are, in a sense, ‘products’ of a decaying culture,” she says. “In the late '60s and [through the] '70s, we presumed these women were in short-term crisis. Now we recognize them as the walking wounded who need much more than crisis intervention.”
Will Cossairt, executive director of the Total Life Care Centers in Minnesota and Wisconsin, says attitudes toward pregnancy-resource centers have changed significantly in the last decade. Its 22 centers are getting more referrals from social workers, school nurses and counselors, hospital workers and physicians who might not even be pro-life but realize the centers can offer much-needed help.
“We're getting more known and people trust us more,” Cossairt says. “It's seen as a family-friendly organization and we come across as a helpful contributor to the community, to whole neighborhoods and the society.”
While the tables might be turning, there are still millions of abortions every year and a lot of women who are not being reached, says Kristen Hansen, director of center innovations for Care-Net in Sterling, Va., which has 700 affiliates. Access to the morning-after pill is one of the challenges the centers face in reaching women. It not only encourages more sexual promiscuity but leads to more sexually transmitted diseases as well. Free pregnancy tests will still draw women into the clinics, Hansen says, but STD testing is becoming a whole other thing.
“Those centers involved in STD testing have reported that the community sees them as offering a real service,” Hansen says. “Many pregnancy centers are going in this direction because of the vast epidemic out there and the opportunity it provides to talk to young people about their lifestyle and goals at a critical time.”
Three million teen-agers contract a sexually transmitted disease every year, and state public health departments are looking for any place to help combat the problem. Pregnancy-resource centers can get STD tests and supplies from their state health department. But, even more important, they are uniquely qualified to counsel young people and serve as a preventative resource for future unplanned pregnancies, Hansen says.
Hartshorn adds that the industry has been a leader in developing abstinence programs and is now introducing sexual-integrity programs and fertility-awareness training. About 60% to 70% of pregnancy-resource clients will have a negative pregnancy test, but they're still vulnerable to STDs, pregnancy and abortion, she says. Heartbeat, Care-Net and the National Institute of Family Life Advocates developed teaching materials to encourage young girls to think more about their future.
“We've realized that a whole percentage of this younger generation don't even think of marriage in their future,” Hartshorn says. “We need to present that vision of marriage and the value of the father for her children. They will be better off economically, emotionally, physically and spiritually in an actual family. We've got a very vulnerable population and we're seeing people at a tremendously teachable moment.”
Planting Seeds
The pregnancy-resource movement is also starting to address the issue of contraception, Hartshorn adds.
“While they've always been united in opposing contraception for someone who is not married,” she says, “there is a lot more openness in our entire movement that crosses denominations. [We need] to be looking at the issue of contraception and asking ourselves: Are we being open to life in our own marriages? This fertility-appreciation movement is causing a lot of people to assess their appreciation of their own fertility and to understand more fully God's plan for sexuality.”
The Total Life Care centers have never taught natural family planning because it is intended for married couples, Cossairt says, but they do teach fertility awareness to anybody, including single women, and refer clients to the Couple to Couple League if they want to learn more. As former director of client services at the North Side Life Care Center, Kim Schloesser says nine out of the 10 women she saw on a weekly basis were very open to learning fertility awareness, and a majority had never heard of it.
“People know when they're hearing the truth. You can see it in their eyes,” she says. “When I think about how long it took for the birth-control movement to get going, people were planting seeds in the 1930s, and then it took off in the '60s. I don't know why it should be any different for the natural family planning movement. We have to focus on planting seeds, but I'm confident it will take off.”
Barb Ernster writes from Fridley, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: for Pregnancy-Resource Centers ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barb Ernster ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: When Good Kids Color Themselves Bad DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Family Matters
My 7-year-old son often puts himself down when he's disciplined, saying he's bad or stupid or making some other negative assessment of himself. How do I help him realize that he is a good boy but his behavior is wrong?
Keep disciplining him when he de -serves it.
Does that sound confusing? Let me elaborate. Not uncommonly, kids, particularly the younger ones, take discipline personally. They see it as a sign that they themselves are some kind of failure. Two factors most often explain this. One, little Serena is sensitive by nature, prone to reacting emotionally or quick to feel bad at disappointing others. Thus, some kids by their inborn wiring are more likely to equate bad behavior with bad self. Two, sadly, some parents do make discipline personal, attacking the child while disciplining the conduct.
I'm pretty confident your son is the former and you are not the latter. Why? Because you are concerned about his reaction and want to make things better. More often than not, nasty disciplinarians don't worry much about the effect of their style on the child.
No doubt you've told your son many times, “I love you. I just don't like your behavior.” And no doubt, so far at least, it seems to have had little effect. Is your son just too psychologically locked in to his self-disparagement to respond well to your repeated reassurance? I doubt it. For one thing, he is only 7. Not enough years have passed for him to understand that being disciplined is part of human existence. Even the “best” of people, little or big, get disciplined.
Then, too, the concept “you're good, but your behavior isn't” is a tough one to grasp. For centuries the brightest of philosophers have grappled with the question, “Is our behavior different than our self?” To expect a 7-year-old, even a really bright, philosophically sophisticated one, to comprehend that his mother will always love him no matter how he acts is to expect way too much of his young mind. Put simply, he just can't get this idea yet.
So back to my original advice: Keep disciplining him when he deserves it. One, with time he will more deeply realize how much his mother unconditionally loves him and that her acceptance of him doesn't drop because he acts like a kid. Two, even if for now he occasionally thinks less of himself, he'll see that his mother doesn't, and that will help stabilize his self-view, again over time. And three, it's not all bad to feel bad about certain behavior.
At the moment, your son's conscience might be overactive, but with your loving discipline, he'll most likely stabilize into a more realistic sense of self. A little legitimate guilt is a good thing. You don't want all of it to go away.
Dr. Ray Guarendi is a father of 10, psychologist and author. He can be reached at www.drray.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: DR. Ray Guarendi ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Prolife Victories DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Obscene or Just Free?
WORLDNETDAILY.COM, March 12 — The Thomas More Law Center has threatened a Virginia high school with a lawsuit unless it allows a student to wear a pro-life T-shirt in school.
A student at Denbigh High School in Newport News, Va., was told Feb. 18 he couldn't wear a shirt that said: “Abortion is Homicide. You will not silence my message. You will not mock my God. You will stop killing my generation. Rock for Life.” The school said the shirt violates its policy against profane or obscene language.
On March 9 the law center sent a letter to the school, giving it 10 days to reverse its decision or face a lawsuit.
Last year a Pennsylvania school reversed its decision and allowed a student to wear a pro-life T-shirt after the center explained the student's First Amendment rights and threatened a lawsuit.
Lobbying London vs. Abortion
EKKLESIA (United Kingdom), March 11 — Norma McCorvey has been lobbying against abortion for years in the United States. Now she's taking her message overseas.
McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” in the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade court decision legalizing abortion in the United States, lobbied members of the British Parliament on March 11 to change the country's legalized abortion law.
She gave an address to pro-life members and peers (British nobles) of Parliament and discussed with BBC Radio her conversion to the pro-life cause. McCorvey, a Catholic convert, said she now adheres to the pro-life views championed by Pope John Paul II.
Getting Out the Vote for Life
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL, March 9 — Rock for Life is seeking this year to register 500,000 young and first-time voters before the Nov. 2 general election.
The youth pro-life group announced plans to register that many young people to vote at rock concerts, music festivals and colleges across the country, according to the wire service.
The organization said it would use its 100 chapters nationwide to encourage votes for pro-life candidates in the November election.
More Missouri Money for Life
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 10 — A Missouri House subcommittee has voted to resume funding for an abortion-alternatives program.
The House Appropriations subcommittee voted March 9 to include $570,000 for the program in the next fiscal year, beginning July 1.
The program, which seeks to discourage abortion by offering financial help and counseling to pregnant women, ended last May when funding ran out, the wire service reported. The Legislature funded the program for the next year, but Democratic Gov. Bob Holden withheld the money, citing state budget difficulties.
In the year before the program ended, 648 women received help with their pregnancies and births, according to health department statistics.
Most of the women were poor and age 24 or younger.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Moms Online DATE: 03/28/2004 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 28-April 3, 2004 ----- BODY:Facts of Life
Of 1,800 moms who use the Internet, 84% said that, if they had to give up one type of media, they would miss the Internet more than any other They use it most for: weather, cooking, entertainment, news, health and — what else? — parenting.
Source: Disney Online cited in Business Wire, March 8 Register illustration by Tim Rauch.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life --------