NOW THAT the 104th Congress has adjourned, and the legislators have turned to the campaign trail, Catholics are taking stock of the first Republican Congress in more than a generation.
Not surprisingly, Republicans themselves feel that Catholics should be overjoyed with the work of the 104th. “This was a great Congress for Catholics,” said Ken Wolf, press secretary for pro-life Catholic Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), and himself a Catholic. “There has been more pro-Catholic legislation passed than at any time since Roe v. Wade.”
Most Catholic organizations applaud the 104th's efforts on behalf of the unborn. “The most important thing this Congress did was to bring real attention to the abortion issue,” said Susan Gibbs, communications director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. “The partial-birth abortion ban has completely transformed the way people look at abortion. Even though Congress did not override (President Clinton's) veto, great progress was made on this issue.”
“One of very important parts in this debate was the very active and involved role of the cardinals and bishops,” said Michael Ferguson, director of the Catholic Campaign for America. “They did some unprecedented things in a very public way to support the partial-birth [abortion] ban,” he said, referring to the vigil outside the White House and the prayer service at the Capitol. “I think that warmed a lot of hearts in the Catholic community. Lay Catholics were completely behind the bishops and cardinals, and they were proud to see them speaking out so forcefully.”
Other abortion-related issues passed and signed into law the past two years include:
√ Retaining limits on abortion services available through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan.
√ Retaining the Hyde Amendment, which prevents federal funds from being used for abortions.
√ Increasing the number of slots available for people seeking asylum from countries that administer coercive population control.
√ Limiting U.S. funding for the United Nations Family Planning Agency (UNFPA).
√ Limiting the involvement of Legal Services Corporation (LSC) in cases involving abortion.
√Allowing teaching hospitals to reuse to teach abortion training.
√ Banning federal funding for destructive human embryo research.
“We made some real advances,” said Richard Doerflinger of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Congress succeeded in protecting all existing abortion restrictions in the face of strong opposition from President Clinton, and the Congress also took some steps to give additional protection to the unborn.”
Many Catholic groups also hailed the enactment of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as a union of one man and one woman, and gives states the right to refuse to acknowledge homosexual marriages performed in another state. Gibbs noted that Pennsylvania passed a similar state law after DOMApassed, and that other states are doing the same. “This is a big issues for many dioceses, because so many are dealing with domestic partners issues at the local level,” she said.
In other areas, the record was less unanimous. One of the signature issues of the 104th Congress was welfare reform. After two vetoes, Congress passed (and the President signed into law) sweeping changes to the welfare system. The legislation made many major changes to the massive federal welfare program, chief among them: an end to the federal guarantee of cash assistance to the poor, replaced by bloc grants of funds to the states with few restrictions. States are charged with funding work for welfare recipients, whose time on the welfare rolls is sharply limited.
Most Catholic organizations, including Catholic Charities USA and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), opposed the welfare legislation. Congress did, however, present these groups with a key victory—the elimination of the so-called “family cap.” This provision would have eliminated increased welfare payments for children born while their mothers were on welfare. Proponents argued that increased payments amounts to a federal subsidy for illegitimacy. Opponents stressed that such a measure unfairly punished children. As the legislation progressed, Catholic pro-life Reps. Chris Smith and Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) worked to defeat the family cap provision.
One group that supported the welfare reform plan was the Christian Coalition's Catholic Alliance, representing 40,000 Catholics at the grassroots level. “Welfare reform was a great first step in dismantling the massive federal welfare bureaucracy and making welfare a more compassionate and locally-based program,” said Maureen Roselli, executive director of the Catholic Alliance. “We need to do more to empower the poor beside just reforming welfare, and some of the Republicans' community development proposals will do a great deal to lift up our low-income citizens.”
“The welfare bill was not perfect, but it is a good start,” said Wolf. “Many Catholic organizations were critical of the bill, but if it is done right, locally-based welfare reform can actually be much more effective than the failed federal system.”
“We have a lot of concerns about the safety net,” said Gibbs, mentioning welfare reform, Medicare, and Medicaid. “Most of us agree that many of the safety net programs need reform. But we need to make sure that we do not hurt poor people when we make these changes.”
“The Catholic Conference was not completely opposed to the bill,” said Patricia King, policy advisor for health and welfare at the United States Catholic Conference (USCC). “We supported the bill's emphasis on work, but we also realize that some people cannot work, and they still need our help.”
“The bill is law now,” she continued. “Now it is up to Catholics to work with their state legislators to be sure that programs set up at the state level include broad provisions to protect poor children and families.” She also mentioned that the USCC will be working to change some of the bill's provisions in the next Congress.
Immigration is another issue that has aroused some opposition in the Catholic ranks, with the bishops supporting generous immigration policies at the same time that the Congress has moved to restrict immigration.
“Immigration is a difficult issue,” said Ferguson. “On the one hand, there is a definite anti-immigrant sentiment that has been building in the United States for several years—and many lay Catholics share that sentiment. On the other hand, the bishops—and even the Holy Father— have spoken out strongly on the other side of this issue.”
While Congress took some steps to deal with illegal immigration in the waning days of the 104th, it left the larger issue of legal immigration for a future Congress to deal with. “This issue is very much alive,” notes Ferguson. “It will be interesting to see how it plays out.”
So while immigration and welfare were greeted with some ambivalence by the Catholic community, Congress's work on health care was not. Most Catholic organizations generally supported the health care changes embodied in the Kennedy-Kassebaum legislation, which gives workers protection against losing their health insurance when they change jobs. “It's not a complete answer, but it's a good first step,” said King. “We hope that more comprehensive health reform will be passed in the next Congress.”
“Overall, Catholics should be pleased with the strides this Congress has made,” said Ferguson. “It was not perfect, but the 104th Congress did some very substantive work on some very important issues.”
Michael Barbera is based in Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Michael Barbera ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Welfare Reform Enlists Private Enterprise DATE: 10/20/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 22, 1996 ----- BODY:WELFARE AS WE know it has ended. States are readying for the brave new world of welfare reform. Their success will depend, in part, on the willingness and private corporations and non-profit groups to move the poor off welfare and into the workplace.
Private groups—the most prominent being Catholic Charities—have long received government funds to operate enterprises such as soup kitchens, foster care and refugee services. But states, cities and counties are now enlisting private corporations, ranging from the Ross Perot-founded Electronic Data Systems to airplane-giant Lockheed, to run welfare programs under government contracts.
Proponents view it as a creative shift to inject the spirit of private enterprise into a welfare bureaucracy which has long been criticized for institutional inertia. But opponents worry that the strategy will primarily benefit the companies'management and stockholders.
The trend has taken off everywhere, from conservative Texas, which is planning to privatize the system which determines eligibility for a wide array of services, to liberal San Francisco, which has contracted with a private company to run workshops designed to help welfare recipients find employment.
The trend has earned kudos from a number of observers, including Newsweek columnist Joe Klein. He noted that liberals and conservatives who want to transform welfare agree that “the role of government shouldn't be to actually run anti-poverty programs but to subsidize those who do them well—to subsidize inspiration.”
Russ Beliveau, president of government operations for Maximus, Inc., a firm which is a major player in the welfare systems field, said his company has demonstrated “superior effectiveness and productivity.” Maximus runs a welfare-to-work program in Los Angeles County as well as child-support enforcement efforts in seven states. Beliveau's firm is looking to expand its operations now that welfare reform has been signed into law.
The new system involves “risk and opportunity” for states and localities, he noted. No longer will states be able to go back to the federal government once their welfare allotments have been exhausted. With a block grant system in place, states will have incentives in place to keep costs down, Beliveau said.
Two leading states in corporate-government partnership are Wisconsin and Texas, where private companies are already gaining footholds in local welfare operations. Some Catholic thinkers are enthusiastic about the trend.
Barbara von der Heydt, a senior fellow at the Acton Institute—a conservative think tank in Grand Rapids, Mich., led by Paulist Father Robert Sirico, which is dedicated to de-emphasizing public spending and promoting private support of charity—agreed that private groups often provide the most innovative approaches to fighting poverty. “There's a proven track record of private organizations. They are results-oriented. They have a demonstrated record of placing people in the job market,” she told the Register. She said that “faith-centered private organizations have a superior record of changing people's lives in an effective way.”
Each year, the Acton Institute compiles a list of organizations which, through private initiative, have made an impact on the lives of the poor. The institute presents such organizations with Samaritan Awards. Each one is said to have succeeded without any government support. Included in this year's Acton Institute honor roll are Catholic and Protestant social service efforts, including Francis House in Syracuse, N.Y., a shelter operated by the Sisters of the Third Franciscan Order, and Partners Advancing Values in Education (PAVE), which provides scholarships for poor children who want to attend religiously-based schools in Milwaukee.
However, von der Heydt cautioned that private religiously-based initiatives get strangled in government rules forbidding expressions of religion in state-funded projects.
She noted that the Bowery Mission in New York City, a non-denominational Christian ministry which rehabilitates homeless and substance-addicted men, has had a strong success rate in moving street people into productive lives. Their approach is focused on Bible classes and spiritual support that help break the cycle of addiction as well as counseling for those seeking shelter and jobs.
The spiritual component is a necessity in such programs, said von der Heydt. When government-funded programs mandate that such religiously-based approaches be curtailed, “you may be taking out the element that makes a difference in people's lives.”
Officials at the Bowery Mission say that the contract they recently signed with the City of New York allows them to serve more homeless men. The organization has established a separate group which operates within rules stipulating that religious proselytizing is forbidden in city-funded programs. Robert Polito, the executive director, told the Register that the program maintains an 80 percent success rate among approximately 100 men who reside in the Bowery Mission. Residents undergo an intensive program to treat alcoholism and drug abuse, and are given job training and help in finding housing.
“We take hard-core crack addicts and alcoholics and get them off the street,” he said, noting that the mission has maintained a positive relationship with city government. The government, of course, also has a stake in reducing the number of homeless in what remains one of Manhattan's most depressed areas.
But Polito, asked if he would like to see the Bowery Mission made totally independent of government, was cautious. Sure, he said, “if you gave me $1 million.” For now, he emphasized, “we are a big answer to a big problem. Why not make a partnership and get the best answer possible?”
Entering into such partnerships has been a long-time strategy of Catholic Charities, despite criticisms from some quarters that it is overly-dependent on government funding. Nevertheless, said Sharon Daly, director of social policy for Catholic Charities USA, this may not be the best time for states to radically alter the way they deliver services. “We don't run [welfare] systems,” she said, adding that a wholesale change to private corporations taking over state and local programs could prove problematic. “It's a kind of radical change. We wouldn't want to see it tried on a huge scale before it's tried on a small scale,” she said. Daly said the closest analogy is the way the government allows testing for new drugs.
In both cases, she said, “you're dealing with human life” and widespread experimentation can be dangerous.
Support for private initiative in administering welfare programs has much to do with the low-regard welfare recipients perceive in the popular imagination, said Daly. For example, she noted, advocates for the elderly would never allow private corporations to take over the allocation of Social Security the way some states and cities are allowing with experiments in welfare. “There is no hard evidence that the for-profit sector would spend the money more effectively,” she said.
Daly envisioned that paying bonuses to companies who get welfare recipients off the dole could encourage practices not in the best interest of children. “Is getting off welfare the only goal? Or is the goal getting people out of poverty?” What's needed, she said, is strict criteria in judging new programs.
Without that, in the new world of welfare—“where children have no legal entitlement to anything”—private companies could abuse their power at the expense of the poor.
But that doesn't mean the concept can't work, emphasized Daly. She noted that Catholic Charities has operated programs for immigrants which provide, through government contracts, a whole range of services, including job-training and employment. “If companies have that kind of holistic approach, that would be wonderful,” she said.
While “privatization” is the new buzzword in welfare circles, Catholic Charities officials are wary that such efforts could result in more demands being placed on religiously-oriented charities. Jesuit Father Fred Kammer, president of Catholic Charities, has noted that all the major religious groups with large-scale charity operations oppose efforts to place responsibility for welfare on religious groups.
He noted that it would take $2 million from every religious congregation in the country to make up for the cuts which are part of the new welfare reform package. He told a recent a governors' conference on welfare reform: “It's no wonder that religious leaders across the nation have denounced this idea that they can make up for the federal abandonment.”
Peter Feuerherd is based in New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Peter Feuerherd ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Make-up of Bioethics Panel Raises Concerns DATE: 10/20/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 22, 1996 ----- BODY:BETHESDA, MARYLAND— “To me, this is democracy at work,” said President Clinton's science advisor at the first meeting of the National Bioethics Advisory commission on Oct. 4. John Gibbons, a presidential aide, said he was delighted by “the kind of quality that comes to this table.”
Not everyone was gladdened by the 17-member commission headed by Princeton University president Harold Shapiro. The commission, developed by Gibbons since 1993, will advise government agencies on ethical issues arising from research on human biology and behavior.
Protecting human subjects of research is a major commission mandate, but two observers complained that people hurt by research aren't represented on the commission. “We want inclusion—not exclusion—in this process, ladies and gentlemen,” said Gwendon Plair of the Task Force on Radiation and Human Rights in a public-comment period. Plair told the Register that his mother died within a year of being subjected to “total body irradiation” in the 1960s. He said she wasn't even told that she was part of an experiment.
Plair and Acie Byrd, who represents the Atomic Veterans Working Group, both said they were concerned because many commission members have themselves done research on human subjects. “We're gonna look into that,” Byrd declared, to determine whether it involves “a conflict of interest.” He also said Gibbons's office has argued that victims of research abuse can't be objective commissioners—a contention Byrd called “an insult.”
Most commission members are university professors; many still do human-subject research; and many have links with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a government agency deeply involved in human-subject research. The commission's first meeting was held on the NIH campus here.
In an Oct. 4 press conference, commission chair Shapiro conceded that his group lacks representation from many occupations, but said it can obtain different perspectives “though public hearings and other mechanisms.”
The Sept. 11 issue of National Right to Life News complained that several commission members support human embryo research and that at least one (Dr. Bernard Lo) has said that physician-assisted suicide is “not immoral.” The article noted that commission members Lo, Thomas Murray and Alta Charo all served on the 1994 NIH Human Embryo Research Panel, which advocated laboratory production of human embryos for research purpose. Another bioethics commission member, Professor James Childress, served on the 1988 NIH panel that supported using aborted fetal tissue for transplants. The NRL News article praised one commission member, Professor Alexander Capron, for speaking “eloquently against legalizing assisted suicide,” but said he supports “eugenic abortion” in cases of genetic handicap.
It's not clear whether the new commission will say anything about euthanasia or doctor-assisted suicide. Shapiro said they “will not be amongst the issues we deal with initially” and that “I just don't know” whether they'll be dealt with later. Abortion was rarely mentioned in the first commission meeting.
Human-subject research and the use of genetic information are the commission's top priorities at present. Questions about them on Oct. 4 included:
√ Are the institutional review boards (IRBs) that decide ethical issues in research “up to the task”?
√ How useful is the procedure of “informed consent”?
√ Should researchers with a financial stake in the outcome of research be required to disclose this to participants?
√ Should there be special rules for research on people with mental illness?
√ Should patenting of human and animal genes be allowed?
√ How can insurance-company discrimination against people with genetic handicaps be prevented?
√ What should be done when genetic testing can predict a future problem, but medicine can offer no remedy for it?
Dr. Francis Collins, who heads the federal government's National Center on Human Genome Research, told the commission that genetics offers the possibility of focusing on a person's actual medical risks, instead of practicing a “one-size-fits-all preventive medicine, recommending the same thing to everybody.” But the potential of misuse, he said, “tends to cloud the optimism” about genetics.
Collins cited the case of a woman who learned that she might have a genetic predisposition to breast cancer. She found that experts couldn't tell her the best way to respond if she proved to be at high risk for it. (Collins remarked that there have been “troubling anecdotes” about women who had drastic surgery to avoid breast cancer—yet still developed it.) The woman ultimately declined to undergo testing because she feared insurance discrimination.
Another woman, alerted by a researcher about her predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer, “subsequently attempted suicide,” Collins said. He warned that “if we do this wrong, if we get too many horror stories … it might take us decades to recover from that.”
Suzanne Thomlinson of the Biotechnology Industry Organization told the commission that she's a cystic fibrosis patient who has benefited personally from medical research. A biotech drug, she said, “gave me a new lease on life,” and she “sought employment with the biotech industry because I believe in the promise of research.” She added, however: “We are well aware of the need for public education to address some of the suspicion and distrust of science and scientists.”
Mary Meehan the Register's medical ethics correspondent, is based in Rockville, Md.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Mary Meehan ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: For Retiring Irish Primate, Peace Hinges on Faith DATE: 10/20/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 22, 1996 ----- BODY:TRINITY COLLEGE, Dublin, was the venue Czech president Vaclav Havel chose to appeal for an injection of spiritual values into the fast-changing European order. He could not have chosen a more appropriate place. Ireland has been the European country with the most rapid changes in spiritual outlook, notably in the six years of Cardinal Cahal Daly's term as Irish Primate, which ended Oct. 1, his 79th birthday. While influential Irishmen are eager to catch up with the rest of the world, for the cardinal Catholic-Protestant reconciliation and the protection of spiritual traditions have been far more pressing issues.
His successor, Archbishop Sean Brady of Armagh, 57, inherits the Irish Church's inveterate problems, notably the political crisis in Northern Ireland and its tangle of religious loyalties. The majority of the Irish, who are still loyal to the Church, look to him to continue the style marked by openness and firm authority set by Cardinal Daly.
In December 1990, Cardinal Cahal Daly was appointed archbishop of Armagh, the See of the Primate of All Ireland. He offered his resignation to the Pope four years ago when he reached the age of 75. In the past six years he has had to deal with the country's liberalization of divorce and abortion laws; child abuse scandals involving priests; and growing dissent on fundamental issues such as priestly celibacy. In addition, he played a leading role in bringing spiritual leverage to the Northern Ireland peace process by insisting that ecumenical unity is more powerful than political division— even in Ireland.
He has been closely tied to ecumenical issues throughout his Church career. In 1974, he was appointed a member of the Vatican Secretariat for Christian Unity; and he later served as papal observer to the Lambeth Conference, the general assembly of the Church of England hierarchy. His 1979 pamphlet, Letter to a Northern Protestant, was a marked contrast to the prevailing attitude of suspicion and hate between Catholics and Protestants. In it, he expressed his conviction that spiritual values, dealing with the spiritual and ethical roots of the crisis, are the only hope for a solution to the Northern Ireland conflict. “As a fellow northerner,” he wrote, “I would earnestly ask you to believe that no community in Western Europe is likely to be as sympathetic and supportive toward your Protestant religious beliefs and principles as are Irish Catholics. Irish Catholics and Protestants can and must help one another to stay faithful to Christ in a world where more and more people walk away from Him.”
It was notable that when the cease-fire between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Loyalists broke down earlier this year, and the discovery of bomb factories in London revealed the Republican guerrillas'lack of sincerity in the peace process, Cardinal Daly's mood did not follow the national trend. Instead of sharing in the feeling of resignation, he condemned the violence on both sides and criticized the Protestant's traditional annual marches that have often been preludes to violence.
During Cardinal Daly's tenure, the weakening of Irish Catholics' adherence to the Church's moral authority brought the government's success in a controversial referendum that legalized divorce; there was also the relaxing of laws preventing publication of information on obtaining an abortion. Cardinal Daly charged that the referendum questions were slanted, urging his flock to remain true to the tradition that made Ireland stand out from the rest of Europe. Far from making them a laughing stock, he argued, the country's adherence to traditional values are a sign of spiritual maturity and national strength. Most of the media was unsympathetic to the cardinal.
Cardinal Daly also had to contend with a growing suspicion of the Church. Child abuse scandals involving priests made things worse. He assured those who accused the Church of merely transferring offending priests, stressing that bishops are now bound to report such matters to the police. At the time, he added however: “We are conscious of the real possibility of false allegations and of the devastating consequences they have for the innocent. We must never forget that offenders, too, are members of our Church family; they too need and will receive our pastoral concern and care.” He played a leading role in the drafting of new procedures for dealing with the problems in the document The Framework for a Church Response to Child Abuse, which was published earlier this year.
Attacks on priestly celibacy gave Cardinal Daly another opportunity to creatively communicate with the civic authorities, the media and Catholics themselves. He delicately handled the case of Bishop Brendan Comiskey, who publicly said that the Vatican must loosen its policy on celibacy, that the laity were “confused and bewildered” and that the clergy were “greatly distressed and in some cases demoralized.” But maintaining his characteristic humble demeanor, the cardinal did not appear bothered by the attack.
If there is one thing that the Irish Church needs in Cardinal Daly's successor, it is a continuation of this focus on reconciliation and ecumenism. More laity are becoming uncomfortable with the strong authority the clergy have traditionally held over their flocks; there is a need to continue educating the faithful in the distinction between clerical and political authority; and there is the potential resurgence of the Northern Ireland crisis.
In the wake of the violent marches at Drumcree earlier this year, a group of Presbyterians issued a statement asking their Catholic neighbors for forgiveness; in turn, a group of Catholics replied in kind, proposing an “all-embracing Church-wide Day of Repentance.” They said: “We hope that such a day would provide an impetus to the on-going process of reconciliation in Ireland. If we can do this, God will hear, God will forgive and God will heal.”
Ben Kobus is based in London.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Beb Kobus ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Literacy Is all the Rage in Age of Information Overload DATE: 10/20/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 22, 1996 ----- BODY:THE TWO middle-aged moms from North Carolina made a simple point before a small audience earlier this month at the National Media Literacy Conference at the University of California, Los Angeles. “We are created in God's image,” one of them said, “although the media doesn't portray us that way.”
More than 300 media activists and Catholic, public and private school teachers spent the first weekend in October discussing the emerging academic discipline called media literacy. Sister Fran Trampiets of the University of Dayton in Ohio, described it as an interdisciplinary movement “to make people critically aware, and critically autonomous.”
The conference was put on by the Los Angeles-based Center for Media Literacy, run by Sister Elizabeth Thoman, C.H.M. The nun said TV's situation comedies and sexually-themed shows like Baywatch or Melrose Place beam a world of unbelievable expectations into America's living rooms. “We see all these beautiful people, all these clever and witty people. We suddenly expect everyone in our family to be clever and witty,” she said. “The everyday-ness of life is so disappointing. We can demand too much of our families. We can be so intolerant of their warts and ordinariness.”
For Jill Brown of the Catholic Mayfield Middle School in Pasadena, Calif., a key media literacy goal is to teach students to analyze, synthesize and critically evaluate what is presented to them in newspapers and magazines, on radio and TV, and on billboards. Seeking to combat “the bombardment of media information that comes to kids,” Brown said the relatively young concept of media literacy can create “a oneness, a commonness of desire to help children, and to help families use the best that's within them to evaluate what they're being fed; to make wise social, justice, political, spiritual decisions.”
Gail Violette and Loretta Wnetzrak promote media literacy in parishes and schools throughout the Diocese of Charlotte, N.C., which covers the state's western half. Many of the confer-ence's speakers painted a gloomy picture of big media presenting men and women in degrading, sexist ways. The Carolina duo showed a Calvin Klein ad featuring only the model's torso and part of the arms. “God did not create us being headless, armless,” Violette said. They've created parish lessons on media literacy by using music videos—the same MTV staples which they said parents must spend more time watching with their kids.
Using the band R.E.M.'s music video Everybody Hurts, which shows the inner thoughts of people in a traffic jam, the women present it as the Old Testament story of Job and his refusal to sin against God. They've also created a 45-minute lesson around just a Billy Joel music video, River of Dreams. Wnetzrak said that at one presentation, “they saw so much imagery [in the video] it was almost like feeding their soul.”
One speaker, Boston documentary filmmaker Jean Kilbourne, said that up to 80 percent of all fourth grade-age schoolgirls are on some kind of diet. While these girls are obsessed with being thin like fashion models, Kilbourne said only 5 percent of Americans are born with that perfect body type.
The media literacy conference's overt liberal slant, however, was not lost on some of the people who paid the $255 registration fee and privately wondered why so few conservative voices were heard on panels. “The idea here is very liberally-persuaded, partisan,” said Robert Shaver, a high school teacher from Reno, Nev. “I think it's good, but I think we ought to have an open discussion with all different points of view [rather] than just one point of view. When I go back into the classroom and try to teach this I'm gonna have problems with my parents from the community that I work with. They're more pro-government and more pro-capitalism.”
One major panel featured criticisms of the media's corporate ownership, including criticisms of corporations that actually donated money to sponsor this conference. Sandy Bosco, a Catholic and the Boston-based community relations director for Continental Cable-vision, said her company wants people not to watch TV all the time, but just to learn “to use TV selectively and productively in their life.”
“People may come at it from different perspectives, [but] we're really talking about the same issues— human dignity, human rights, things that the Catholic Church holds dear.” said Ramon Rodriguez, director of the Catholic Communications Campaign at the United States Catholic Conference (USCC) in Washington, D.C. Media literacy, he said, “is about being able to [discern] between positive values and negative values in what we see, hear, and read.”
Patt Sloan, a Catholic and PTA activist from San Diego, was disappointed that few evangelical Christians were in attendance. “It's the Christian right that does not allow itself to be placed there,” she said. “I don't think they are excluded, they exclude themselves.”
Cheri Gaulke, speaking of her students at the private Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, Calif., said that they are “big consumers, but also unconscious consumers.” Many of them have a lot of disposable income, and spend on it shirts and shoes with huge corporate logos emblazoned across their chests and feet. She said she wants her students to know, “they're essentially … walking sandwich boards for these companies. They're paying money to promote some-body's product, which is ridiculous.”
David Finnigan is based in Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: David Finnigan ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Mexican Prelates Disagree with Bishop Samuel Ruiz's Proposal DATE: 10/20/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 22, 1996 ----- BODY:MEXICO CITY—Most of Mexico's Catholic bishops openly rejected a recent peace proposal by Bishop Samuel Ruiz to solve the growing problem of guerrilla movements in the country. The bishop's proposal was also criticized by Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo.
Bishop Ruiz of San Cristobal de las Casas, located in the conflictive region of Chiapas, proposed the creation of a dialogue commission “to discuss peace at a national level.” The plan calls for government representatives and delegates from two guerrilla movements acting in Mexico—the Zapatista Front and a new marxist movement born in the state of Guerrero—to participate in negotiations. Government sources and some Mexican bishops say the project would give excessive political influence to guerrilla movements in Mexico.
Pressed for details on his initiative, Ruiz told journalists he would be willing to head the new commission, if requested.
The proposal enraged President Ernesto Zedillo, who said that “nobody knows who has named this gentleman (Bishop Ruiz) as the mediator that is above all authorities and parties.”
Archbishop Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City, said that Ruiz's proposal “is totally independent from the bishops' official position.”
“I personally believe that local problems should be kept at a regional level,” he added.
Despite past criticism of the government, Archbishop Rivera said he agreed with the govern-ment's concerns. “The guerrilla movements in Mexico are basically a phenomenon of propaganda and a national meeting in Mexico city would only serve their purposes and not the nation's,” he said. (ACI Prensa)
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'Sacraments Are Made for Man'-In Confession a Human Mediator DATE: 10/20/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 22, 1996 ----- BODY:CHRIST APPEARED in the Upper Room after His resurrection and His first words to the Apostles were, “Peace be with you.” He invoked peace on them twice (Jn 20, 19; 21). This peace was not an exterior one which could be measured by the absence of conflict in civil society, for example. This was the inner peace of an ordered soul.
This interior peace is accomplished in two ways. First, Christ sends the Holy Trinity into the hearts of the Apostles. He says, “As the Father has sent me, so do I send you.” (Jn 20, 21) How does the Father send the Son? In two ways. First, He sends Him in eternity; “begotten, not made; one in being with the Father.” Second, this eternal relationship of the Father and the Son in eternity is brought to man here on earth in the flesh of Christ. Jesus sends the Apostles to lead the world back into that relationship.
We must be reintroduced into that relationship because our intimate communion with the Father and the Son is the only source of true inner peace. This communion of friendship with the Trinity is the fruit of reconciliation with the God in Whose image we were made. Only when we return to the possibility of personally communing with the Trinity—of looking at the world from God's point of view and loving that same world as He loves it—can our souls begin to be at peace.
God created us to enjoy intimacy with Him. This intimacy is brought to us when we share His own life, when we become partakers of divine nature. After the sin of Adam, no man is born into the world as a partaker of divine nature. Each man born into the world is interiorly wounded. Men and women experience no inner peace because they have no inner order. There is no inner order because there is no communion with the Trinity. True inner peace is the work of the Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit of God can heal the internal disorder we experience because it is the communion of love of the Father and the Son. Without the Holy Spirit working within, we are just not right.
In the Upper Room, Christ breathes the Holy Spirit, the “most sweet Kiss” of the Father and the Son into the Apostles and in so doing gives them the power to reconcile us again with God.
This reconciliation is accomplished by Christ's sacrifice of His obedient will to the Father in accepting the Cross. Our return to God is accomplished in the flesh of Christ. In fact, when Jesus appears in the Upper Room. He invites the Apostles to examine the wounds of the sacred passion as the sign of His healing of mankind. “At the sight of the Lord the disciples rejoiced.” (Jn 20, 20) The flesh of the Crucified and Risen Lord is thus the necessary means by which the forgiveness of sins and the life of the Holy Spirit come to us.
He establishes His Apostles as extensions of His crucified and risen body, as the ones through whom the gift of the Holy Spirit is given to restore man to interior peace: “Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven. Whose sins you shall retain, are retained” (Jn 20, 23). He breathes the Holy Spirit and his grace back into the world through the ministry of the Apostles who are extensions of his flesh. And this Holy Spirit is the artisan of our reconciliation with God.
Many people believe that they do not need any mediators of grace or forgiveness between themselves and God. They fail to understand the gift of the Spirit given in the flesh of the crucified and risen Lord in the Upper Room. If one does not need a human mediator, then one certainly does not need the flesh of the body of Christ. Though God does not need a fleshly mediator, it is part of His loving and prudent plan to meet us where we are. We need fleshly mediators. The sacraments are made for man.
Christ therefore enlisted some men in the mediation of forgiveness. He breathed the Spirit of peace and reconciliation into the Apostles, calling them to become extensions of His healing flesh throughout time and space, even to today. This healing not only accomplishes the healing of original sin by the power of Baptism, but also of all mortal sins and others which are incompatible with the presence of the Holy Spirit after Baptism. “Christ instituted the Sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church: above all for those who, since Baptism have fallen into grace sin, and have lost their baptismal grace and wounded ecclesial communion” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1446). “St. Ambrose says of the two conversions that, in the Church, ‘there are water and tears: the water of Baptism and the tears of repentance’” (CCC, 1429).
The famous psychiatrist Karl Jung is reputed to have said that Catholics suffered less from neuroses because they are able to expiate their feelings of guilt in a most human way in confession. With the sacrament in disuse, it is no wonder people today are so restless and without inner peace. The Sacrament of Penance is the best way to find that peace of order in God again.
Father Brian Mullady, O.P., teaches theology at Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, Conn.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Brian Mullady ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: An Unlikely Librarian Continues to Be of Service in Wake of Illness DATE: 10/20/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 22, 1996 ----- BODY:THE POSH San Diego community of La Jolla (“The Jewel”) is home to moguls, tanned teens with surfboards strapped to the tops of their BMWs and society mavens feverishly planning the next charity bash.
But this wealthy enclave is more than flash and cash. World-renowned scientists also call the town home, attracted by programs at the University of California at San Diego as well as prestigious research facilities like the Salk Institute.
Beauty, brawn, brains. La Jolla has it all. And now it also has a heart in the person of Crystal Adams.
Adams, a 37-year-old New York native, once seemed destined for a career as a diplomat. She worked and studied around the world and in 1982 graduated from San Diego-based United States International University with a degree in international relations.
She wanted to help the world achieve peace. “Now I'm back to the basics,” says Adams, a cradle Catholic who in recent years has found a deeper appreciation for her faith. “I'm working on making peace within myself and my family first.” These days, Adams, an aspirant to the lay Missionaries of Charity, focuses her energy on Crystal's Catholic Library, a lending library she runs from her cozy studio apartment in La Jolla. “My purpose is to increase the love of God [by spreading] His word,” she says, “by means of Catholic books, tapes and videos.”
Though Adams has worked part-time in libraries since the 70s, she never envisioned running her own. But then, she never could have guessed the turn her life would take when she was not yet 30.
After a particularly grueling time in the wake of the break-up with her fiancÈ of 5 years, Adams suffered a breakdown. “It came on all of a sudden,” she explains. “They said it was a chemical imbalance.”
She was living in New York at the time, but decided to return to San Diego. “New York has everything you want and everything you don't want,” she says. “For health reasons, I found San Diego a much better environment to live in.” Though her illness was treatable with medication, she was left unable to work, a huge adjustment for the one-time child model who had been working since she was nine.
Never one to sit idle, Adams continued the type of community service she had engaged in even from her earliest years. She began filling her days with prayer and volunteer work through the Missionaries of Charity, the Altar and Rosary Societies at her parish, Mary Star of the Sea, as well as a La Jolla community outreach program.
During an interview in her apartment-cum-library, the willowy Adams moves about the crowded space, showing off cherished mementos, such as a picture of herself with Mother Teresa and a book about St. Francis. She speaks of the women she has housed at various times—women who otherwise would have ended up on the street. “I looked at them and thought that could have been me,” she says. “I would have wanted somebody to help me.”
Though open about her own illness, she worried that it may unnecessarily prejudice some people against her and the library she runs. But she hopes that by discussing her disability, others may be inspired to overcome the challenges in their own lives and heed God's call, whatever it may be.
The library was born of trust in God. While on a retreat in Italy last fall, the idea for a library came to her.
Initially, she wondered if the inspiration was merely a manifestation of her illness, but quickly felt assured that it was God's will.
When she returned home to La Jolla, she realized the decree had a greater significance when she learned that her parish's library was being disbanded and the books were available to anyone who wanted them. “When I heard that,” Adams says, “I knew this meant more than just starting a little library in my home. I knew that God meant I should open it to the public.”
She gathered more than 300 books from the church library, and now has close to 1,000 tucked onto shelves throughout her apartment. Last Valentine's Day, she officially opened Crystal's Catholic Library, after dedicating her life to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “I told Him He is king of my home,” she says.
Her home, a block and a half from the beach, welcomes visitors of all denominations, though the materials are strictly Catholic and faithful to Church teaching. She doesn't allow goods that dissent from the faith, she says. She stresses that her operation is not a non-profit; she accepts no government funds, but relies on donations.
Some days, she says, are very busy, with people stopping by to say the Rosary with her, peruse her book selection, or listen to taped Bible studies. She admits that running the library presents challenges. “Some days I don't know how I make it. Money is not plentiful for me, and my health …” she says, her voice trailing off. “I never know what tomorrow will bring.”
She would like to find a permanent, nearby facility for the library and is praying for some volunteers, perhaps someone with library experience.
Adams was buoyed recently by the announcement that she was named 1996 Woman of the Year by the American Biographical Institute, an award bestowed on those who “have accomplished what few others have … whose work and dedication have inspired both men and women and will have an effect on future generations.”
But Adams isn't after public acclaim. “I'm just doing my best to be God's instrument,” she says. “Living my faith is everything. I'm nobody, and yet I'm somebody because I'm God's servant.”
Tracy Moran is based in San Diego, Calif.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Tracy Moran ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: EDITORIAL DATE: 10/20/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 22, 1996 ----- BODY:IF THE NATION's leading news weeklies are any indication, Americans today are far less interested in, and presumably less committed to, the fate of foreign nations and peoples than a decade ago. The New York Times recently tallied the 1995 total of the number of pages devoted to foreign news in Time, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report. Compared to 1985 figures—which reflect a time when Ronald Reagan's promise to defeat the Evil Empire had yet to be fulfilled; the Berlin Wall had yet to come down; and the United States was fully engaged abroad—there was a drop in foreign coverage of close to 50 percent. This year promises to continue the trend, as the big three, for example, are featuring significantly fewer internationally-themed covers compared even to last year. The editors say they are catering to readers' interests, while some observers argue that the media take their cue from politicians, whose preoccupations signal whether foreign affairs are deserving of coverage or not.
Said Maynard Parker, the editor of Newsweek: “You have a president who basically signaled to the American people they didn't have to worry about foreign affairs, that the bear in the Kremlin was dead.” James Hoge Jr., editor of Foreign Affairs, speaks of a “virtual blackout in both parties” when it comes to foreign policy. The presidential campaign bears out this point.The nation's budget, the environment, taxes, crime, education, health care, entitlements and welfare dominate President Clinton's reelection campaign. A domestic agenda is given priority, even as the incumbent has proclaimed, as Albert Wohlstetter, who heads Los Angeles-based Pan Heuristics, put it derisively in The Wall Street Journal, “a comprehensive peace process” that supposedly is managing the various trouble spots around the world. This post-Cold War approach to foreign affairs, argues the think tank director, is one that is complacent in the face of bloodshed and neglectful of a host of small, but, in the long term, significant threats to American interests in parts of the ex-Soviet Union, the Middle East and Asia.
The U.S.-brokered and desperately propped-up peace plan for Bosnia and the “pinpricks” given Saddam Hussein in retaliation for the dictator's most recent trangression are cited as evidence for Clinton's unhealthy preoccupation with domestic issues. Meanwhile, says Wolhstetter, “brutal dictators hide plans and programs for mass terror against countries near and far.”
Former Sen. Bob Dole, though personally and philosophically more committed to American responsibilities abroad, has, with Election Day only weeks away, failed to raise the issue of the country's duty internationally, focusing instead on crime, education and a tax cut proposal that fails to convince or move many voters. It's tit-for-tat and vice versa for Clinton and Dole and the world is a poorer place for it.
Wohlstetter is convinced that the American public does care, provided it is exposed to the horrors of misdeeds abroad (the public hangings earlier this month in Kabul, Afghanistan, come to mind) and journalism is the sole vehicle for this. And responsible journalism, while not downplaying the importance of domestic concerns or being insensitive to the vital commercial/consumer-friendly dimension of the news business, goes out of its way to educate readers and viewers no longer shocked by genocide as to why tolerating bloodshed in obscure foreign places eats away at the foundations of freedom, both its moral underpinnings and its practical dimension, i.e. democracy.
Now the Christian Coalition is not about to to make foreign policy one of the center pieces of its post-election program. But Catholics, be they part of the Coalition or its counterpart, on the Democratic side of the aisle, can bank on a Church tradition that offers a wealth of reflection on issues like the legitimate use of force and the overriding moral responsibility of nations and rulers to come to the aid of the poor and defenseless. Undergirding the Church's catholic (small “c”) vision is that assaults on the dignity of the human person anywhere—at home or abroad, and regardless of economic or political stakes—are of universal interest and concern. Informed by this perspective, journalism can remain true to its calling.
JK
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Jk ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Human Emotion Beats Special Effects Anytime DATE: 10/20/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 22, 1996 ----- BODY:ADOPTION INSTEAD of abortion is a popular cause among some pro-life activists. But the consequences of this action are often messier than its advocates are willing to admit.
Secrets and Lies plunges into the middle of the confusion, pain and joy experienced by Hortense Cumberbatch, a single young black woman (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) who decides to search for her birth mother after her adopted parents'death. She discovers that her birth mother, Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), is white and of a lower social class, and when she stages their first meeting, the shocked older woman refuses to believe Hortense is her daughter.
British writer-director Mike Leigh uses this potentially explosive situation to explore issues of race, class, family—and adoption. But unlike most contemporary filmmakers, plot and narrative line are less important to his purposes than the revelation of the naked, emotional truth beneath these conflicts. Departing from the usual stiff-upper-lip conventions of the British cinema, Secrets and Lies lays bare, with alternating bursts of humor and traumatizing intensity, the desperate need for love which drives most people.
Cynthia works in a box factory and has already raised one out-of-wedlock daughter, the surly Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook), who still lives with her and is employed as a streetsweeper. The older woman admits to Hortense that she had another child before Roxanne whom she immediately gave up for adoption without ever seeing it. But the baby couldn't have been Hortense because she has no memory of having ever slept with a black man.
Then, in a breathtaking scene filmed in one long take, Cynthia remembers her whole physical being is overwhelmed by the rush of sudden recall, and she weeps uncontrollably in front of Hortense. But Cynthia refuses to tell Hortense anything about her birth father or their relationship. The impression is left that it was a negative experience, possibly involving a rape.
This powerful moment contains the essence of Leigh's unique way of making movies. He and his actors work together for months without a script, improvising each scene until the dialogue emerges organically from their immersion in the material. The result is that each character has a texture and depth not found in most film performances.
The aftershocks of Cynthia's painful self-realization propel the rest of the movie as the two women try to get to know each other. Cynthia is lonely and emotionally hungry, almost always on the verge of a breakdown. Her desperation tends to repel those whom she needs most. By contrast, Hortense is stable, level-headed and self-contained.
The movie implicitly endorses Cynthia's decision to have both her children despite the difficulties of her personal situation.
Hortense is slowly drawn into the web of Cynthia's family and its long-standing feuds although Cynthia at first conceals the true nature of their relationship from the others. She and Roxanne, her other daughter, are constantly in each other's way and on each other's nerves. The older woman's well-meaning attempts to offer advice always backfire, ending in shouting matches with slammed doors and mutual recriminations.
Cynthia's brother, Maurice (Timothy Spall), is a successful commercial photographer with whom she was once close but now sees only occasionally. His socially ambitious, highly strung wife, Monica (Phyllis Logan), seems determined to keep them apart.
Cynthia's entire family and some of their friends come together at Maurice's new house to celebrate Roxanne's 21st birthday. Hortense is invited as a kind of mystery guest. No one but Cynthia knows why.
In a bravura display of nerves rubbed raw, all of the long repressed secrets of Cynthia's family come tumbling out. Monica reveals that she is unable to bear children. The pain of this thwarted desire has made her resent Cynthia's easy fecundity and want to banish her sister-in-law from her husband's life.
When Cynthia finally lets slip that Hortense is her daughter, Roxanne angrily stalks out of the party. She feels betrayed that her mother had kept from her all these years the fact that she'd had another child.
Maurice, behaving like a facilitator at a group therapy session run amok, tries to pull everyone back together. He persuades Roxanne to at least give her mother a hearing, during which, for the first time, Cynthia provides her with information about her own birth father. This, in turn, sets the stage for the two half-sisters to work out their own understanding of their common bonds.
Despite Maurice's efforts, Cynthia and Monica find it difficult to kiss and make up. But after Monica's revelation, there's perhaps a possibility of peaceful co-existence. The movie ends with Cynthia and her two illegitimate children sipping tea together in her dingy backyard and sharing a few laughs.
Secrets and Lies is neither a pro-life nor a Christian film, and Leigh, who has a Marxist political background, never addresses the subject of abortion directly. Nevertheless, the movie implicitly endorses Cynthia's decision to have both her children despite the difficulties of her personal situation. Secrets and Lies passionately embraces life with all its collisions and loose ends. It suggests that no child, once conceived, should be denied this glorious experience.
John Prizer is based in Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Shusaku Endo-Paradox of Japanese Catholicism DATE: 10/20/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 22, 1996 ----- BODY:ON SEPT. 29, Japanese novelist Shusaku Endo, 73, a Catholic, died of cancer in Tokyo. The prolific writer churned out roughly a novel a year since the 1950s, many with religious themes, as well as plays and humorous essays—this despite suffering from tuberculosis and other ills from his youth. The recipient of many literary awards and perhaps Japan's best-known writer in the West, Endo was a contender for the 1994 Nobel Prize in Literature, which eventually went to Japanese novelist Kenzaburo Oe.
Born in Tokyo and raised partly in China, Endo was persuaded by a Roman Catholic aunt to be baptized at age
11. In 1950, the aspiring novelist began three years of graduate studies in modern Catholic literature at the University of Lyons, France. There, from study of Catholic novelists like FranÁois Mauriac and Georges Bernanos (and with Fydor Dostoevsky as literary godfather), he acquired the theological framework for his fiction: Christ, not as a figure of triumph, but as an icon of the paradoxical power of weakness. Returning to Japan, Endo soon settled into the unusual career his faith had provided. Robert Coles has aptly described it as that of “a Christian intellectual living in a nation far from the West.”
Perhaps the novel that best summarizes Endo's preoccupations is his most famous work, the 1966 historical novel Silence, which deals with the apparent silence of Christ in the face of the ruthless persecution of Japanese Christians in 17th century Japan.
The novel, based on fact, chronicles the experiences of a young Portugese Jesuit emissary, Father Sebastian Rodriques, sent by his superiors to Japan to uncover the truth about the reported apostasy under torture of an esteemed missionary priest, Father Ferreira. Rodriques eventually learns the truth not only about the older missionary's fate, but about himself as he faces his own brutal ordeal of the spirit at the hands of xenophobic Shoguns.
The priest is presented by his captors with a truly terrible dilemma: If he tramples on a holy image of Christ (fumie), as his persecutors demand, other Christians, undergoing horrific tortures, will be spared.
In the narrative's background stands the quiet witness of thousands of Japanese Catholic martyrs, mercilessly hunted down, and perishing under conditions of refined and unimaginable cruelty. Many of the descendants of these 17th century martyrs—the so-called kakure, or crypto-Christians—continued to live in fear of reprisals well into modern times, practicing a secret folk Catholicism based on devotion to the Virgin and the memory of the prayers the padres had once taught.
(As happened, the Nagasaki cathedral where many of the long-suffering kakure Catholics gathered, was ground zero for the final atomic blast that ended World War II.)
When Silence first appeared in the late 1960s, many Japanese Catholics responded with outrage and accused Endo of “romanticizing” apostasy. (It's not for nothing that Endo has been called the “Japanese Graham Greene.”) Some Western Christian critics have also wondered whether Endo's typical fascination with religious treason and failure doesn't betray a tendency to “glorify” unbelief.
In his own defense, Endo located the drama of novels like Silence not in the changes the characters undergo, but in the transformation brought about in their image of Christ. At the moment of his worst crisis, Rodriques imagines that he sees the face of Jesus: “It was not a Christ who face was filled with majesty and glory; neither was it a face made beautiful by endurance of pain; nor was it a face filled with the strength of a will that has repelled temptation. The face of the man who then lay at his feet was sunken and utterly exhausted.”
As many commentators have noted, the key to all Endo's work is in this image of the self-emptying Christ, the One abandoned by all—in the end, even, apparently, by God.
Endo said it himself in his 1970 nonfiction work ALife of Jesus: “He was thin; he wasn't much. One thing about him, however—he was never known to desert other people if they had trouble.… And regarding those who deserted him, those who betrayed him, not a word of resentment came to his lips. No matter what happened, he was the man of sorrows, and he prayed for nothing but their salvation. This was the whole life of Jesus. It stands out clean and simple, like a single Chinese ideograph brushed on a blank sheet of paper.”
Paradoxically, Endo's Christ-haunted books nearly always landed on Japan's best-seller list (this in a country where Christians do not exceed 1 percent of the population), and Endo's “powerless” vision of Christianity helped a large number of Japanese writers and intellectuals find their way into the Church.
Gabriel Meyer, a Register contributing editor, is based in Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Gabriel Meyer ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 10/20/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 22, 1996 ----- BODY:Desperate Times
When Bob Dole named Jack Kemp as his running mate, the secular press mocked the move, claiming it was just a “Hail Mary pass,” the act of a desperate man. But Bob Dole knew what he was doing. Jack Kemp is energetically pro-life. Who cares if the media doesn't like it? But now that the press has invited Mary into the national arena, why not keep her there? Let's lift a chorus of Hail Marys to heaven. Just think how many Hail Marys there are in a single Rosary!
We need to pray because we are in desperate times. We have elected a president who vetoed a ban on partial-birth abortions. Let's think and pray about how we'll use our vote.
Cynthia Mullen
Dorchester, Massachusetts
Limited Asylum
Your recent guest editorial, “Shame on this ‘Nation of Immigrants’” (Sept. 22) requires a response. I spent many years working overseas. I can assure you that there are hundreds of millions of people who feel persecuted and would do almost anything to get to the United States. Not just in China, North Korea, Cuba and Nigeria but many in Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South and Central America would like to emigrate here. If say, 500 million people came to our shores asking asylum would you accept them all? If your answer is no, then we don't disagree on principle but on scale. Should I be chastised merely because my number is lower than yours? If someone did agree to accept them and you felt it was too many would that make you xenophobic? The editorial, I am afraid, is just more of the warm and fuzzy, feel good, liberal approaches to our country's problems rather than a rational, well thought out answer.
Fred Holt
Englewood, Florida
Business Plan
After reading Pope John Paul II's social encyclical Laborem Exercens (On Human Work), it is clear to me that Catholic social doctrine is being ignored by the business community today.
In fact, Catholic social doctrine is being violated with impunity. The rights to a job; a “living wage;” a healthy working environment; and a measure of financial security for families are being violated by a “lean and mean” business philosophy whose only goal is profit.
The Holy Father has written that “unemployment is evil in every case.” If this be true, then those who cause the unnecessary loss of jobs are very wrong. Catholic businessmen need to safeguard the employment of workers. If they don't, they put their salvation in jeopardy. They will be held strictly accountable as to how they treat their workers. If an employer has mistreated his workers, he needs to admit this in sacramental confession. There is no other remedy.
Bob Saverine
Stamford, Connecticut
Contraception Connection
Regarding the article “Poland's Abortion Restrictions Overturned in Surprise Vote” (Sept. 22), Polish pro-lifers are wrong in assuming that Poland does not have massive abortions. The big drop in births from 1985 to 1994 was clearly not due to chastity—Poland has become more sexually permissive since communism's fall—it must be due to contraception or abortion.
Polish pro-lifers are correct in saying that the rich have more abortions than the poor. In this they can teach American pro-lifers something. Pro-lifers here have made the mistake of believing that abortion is more common per capita among lower class blacks than middle class whites. That is clearly false, since middle class whites have always had a lower birth rate than lower class blacks. And this is clearly not due to chastity, so it must be due to contraception, and, when that fails, abortion.
Joseph Simon
Richland Center, Wisconsin
Your correspondence regarding the Register, its features and Catholic issues are welcome. Submissions should be typed double-space, and sent to: Letters to the Editor, National Catholic Register, 33 Rossotto Drive, Hamden, CT 06514; or faxed to: (203) 288-5157; or e-mailed to cmedia@pipeline.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Poetic, Symbolic, Sublime, Liturgical Language Lifts Heart and Mind DATE: 10/20/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 22, 1996 ----- BODY:The Society for Catholic Liturgy held its second annual conference Sept. 28-30 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Father Peter John Cameron, O.P., chairman of the Department of Homiletics at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., delivered the following address (excerpted).
TWENTY YEARS ago, the theologian Amos Niven Wilder wrote this:
“It is in the area of liturgics that the main impasse lies today for the Christian. It is at the level of the imagination that the fateful issues of our new world-experience must first be mastered. It is here that culture and history are broken, and here that the Church is polarized. Old words do not reach across the new gulfs. Before the message there must be the vision, before the sermon the hymn, before the prose the poem. Before any new theologies there must be a contemporary theopoetic. The structures of faith and confession have always rested on hierophanies and images. But in each new age and climate the theopoetic of the Church is reshaped in inseparable relation to the general imagination of the time” (Theopoetic: Theology and the Religious Imagination, Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976).
This tension between language and faith is not new. It dates back at least to fifth century B.C. Greece, where skepticism regarding conventional religious codes, current philosophical systems, and the sacredness of culture caused the phenomenon of Sophistry to arise. The Sophists translated this skepticism into private lessons in public speaking that instructed the student how to exploit the elements of discourse to get one's own way. Sophistic oratory was calculated to promote the speaker's personal ambition, political agenda, and private aims. It called into play artfully contrived equivocations, using language against logic.
Sophistry inculcated a manipulative approach to language that engendered a moral relativism which deadened society's allegiance to traditional religious and ethical views as well as to genuine esteem of the truth. In fact, this subtle sabotage was all the more pernicious because it whipped up a false aestheticism through a slick use of rhetoric lacking any reference to authentic beauty.
We experience the manifold recurrence of such Sophistic tendencies in our present day, secularist culture. The theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg, in his article “How to Think About Secularism,” published in the June/July issue of First Things this year, identifies a number of distinguishing features of secularist culture that hearken back to the Sophistic era. [Our era] is characterized by an alienation of culture from its religious roots. It flaunts the disengagement of the idea of freedom from an idea of the true and the good, perverting freedom into a free-for-all. Any attempt to affirm the values and standards by which culture itself is defined makes secularist society skittish. A consumerist attitude prevails exalting the individual and his or her own self-prescribed preferences.
Skepticism regarding the truthfulness and meaningfulness of Christian teaching further ensconces secularist culture. Then even elementary knowledge of Christianity dwindles as untold numbers of people go without the vaguest knowledge of what Christian teachings are. Such ignorance results in the cultural relativizing of truth in which Christian doctrines get viewed as mere opinions that may or may not be affirmed according to individual whim and the way they fit felt needs. Religion gets bracketed. Christian ideas get transmogrified into secularized beliefs causing people to forget where the ideas came from in the first place. And ultimately, a rampant feeling of meaninglessness takes over.
In answer to this malaise, Pannenberg enjoins us with an unequivocal caveat:
“The absolutely worst way to respond to the challenge of secularism is to adapt to secular standards in language, thought, and way of life. If members of a secularist society turn to religion at all, they do so because they are looking for something other than what that culture already provides. It is counterproductive to offer them religion in a secular mode that is carefully trimmed in order not to offend their secular sensibilities. What people look for in religion is a plausible alternative, or at least a complement, to life in a secular-ist society. Religion that is ‘more of the same’ is not likely to be very interesting. When message and ritual are accommodated, when the offending edges are removed, people are invited to suspect that the clergy do not really believe anything so very distinctive. The plausible and persuasive presentation of Christian distinctives is not a matter of marketing. It is a matter of what the Churches owe to people in our secularist societies: the proclamation of the risen Christ, the joyful evidence of a new life in Christ, of life that overcomes death.”
The great Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper takes this thesis a step further in a cogent essay whose title sums up the author's central insight: Abuse of Language—Abuse of Power. Pieper argues that “well-ordered human existence, including especially its social dimension, is essentially based on the well-ordered language employed. A language is well-ordered when its words express reality with as little distortion and as little omission as possible.” …
For “language progressively loses its character as communication as it more and more tries to influence while less and less saying anything.Then we are faced with the threat that communication as such decays, that public discourse becomes detached from the notions of truth and reality.”
These ultimate, vital concerns regarding language become especially critical in the praxis of liturgy. “If theology is to renew itself,” Amos Wilder explains, “then the Christian givens of the past must be brought forward in a new register, in a new contemporary vision, so that they can speak to this ambiguous emptiness.” He insists that “Christian witness must engage our times at the level of its unconscious axioms and inherited symbolics and not only at that of its ideas.” For “God's revelations were mediated in images and mythos, and encounter was inseparable from a wider context of meaning. We underestimate the grace of God if we do not recognize that it blesses us not only with his presence and call but also with illumination of the ways of the world and his ways with it.” In fact, whenever the creative and mythopoetic dimension of faith is forfeited then “philistinism invades Christianity. Then that which once gave life begins to lull and finally to suffocate us.”
Therefore, Christian worship must look to the arts, for “the arts are peculiarly the carriers of meaning and value in society.
The encounter of the Gospel with the world, whether in evangelism, education, preaching, or theology, requires a deep appreciation of and initiation into the varied symbolic expressions of the culture.” This critical connection between worship and art is a theme that the Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses with keen insight.…
‘The absolutely worst way to respond to the challenge of secularism is to adapt to secular standards in language, thought, and way of life.’
What is the ideal of language in liturgy that renders liturgical language beautiful? That ideal is the Word of God himself, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Logos, Jesus Christ. St. Thomas explains that, in the Trinity, the name Beauty is most fittingly attributed to the Son. In terms of integrity, the Son possesses the nature of the Father truly and perfectly in himself. As for due proportion, the Son is the express and perfect image of the Father. And as for brilliance, the Son is the Word, the light and splendor of the intellect. Therefore, in striving for liturgical language that is beautiful, the Church must appropriate words that approximate the ideal beauty of the Word of God.…
1. Liturgical language must be ordered to the divine.
The referent of liturgical language, that is to say, the actual object intended by liturgical discourse, must be God himself. In order for liturgical language to be truly beautiful, its truth-value and ultimate meaning must be rooted in and expressive of the divine. And it must stress the transcendent, supernatural, sovereign majesty of God.
The philosopher Jacques Maritain explains the urgent need for people to connect with the transcendent by way of beauty—a need that becomes paramount in liturgical language. He wrote:
“The moment one touches a transcendental, one touches being itself, a likeness of God … that which ennobles and delights our life.… It is remarkable that men really communicate with one another only by passing through being or one of its properties. Only in this way do they escape from the individuality in which matter encloses them. If they remain in the world of their sense needs and of their sentimental egos, in vain do they tell their stories to one another, they do not understand each other. They observe each other without seeing each other, each one of them infinitely alone. But let one touch the good and love the true the beautiful then contact is made, souls communicate” (Art and Scholasticism, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1923).
Therefore, liturgical language must articulate divine truth so as to free God's people from the otherwise isolating, alienating constraints of earth-bound sensation and sentiment. Liturgical language fixed on God and the truth of Revelation lifts us into the realm of heaven as it ennobles and delights us. And beauty is the instrument of this elevation.…
Language that stresses the supernatural responds to the deepest desires of the human heart for ultimate communion with God. The same aspect of language that causes us to yearn for the eternal is itself what makes language beautiful— namely, success in signaling the ineffable.…
2. Liturgical language must be catholic. Liturgical language must be universal in its scope; it must be accessible, comprehensible and appealing to all. It must remain unencumbered from the shifting trends and transitory tastes of ephemeral culture. In this respect, liturgical language is classic language.…
Liturgical language shares these same objectives of enriching, enhancing, and promoting the believer's grasp of the Gospel in the liturgy's striving for beauty. The timeless, intransient quality of classic language sustains its enduring beauty. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke affirmed this in his description of personal favorite classic works in Letters to a Young Poet:
“You will experience the great happiness of reading this book for the first time, and will move through its numberless surprises as if you were in a new dream. But I can tell you that even later on one moves through these books, again and again, with the same astonishment and that they lose none of their wonderful power and relinquish none of the overwhelming enchantment that they had the first time one read them. One just comes to enjoy them more and more, becomes more and more grateful, and somehow better and simpler in one's vision, deeper in one's faith in life, happier and greater in the way one lives” (New York: Vintage, 1984).
For liturgical language to be beautiful, it must strive for these same ends.…
3. Liturgical language must remain essentially symbolic.
The Catechism directs us that we must “continually purify our language of everything in it that is limited, image-bound or imperfect, if we are not to confuse our image of God— ‘the inexpressible, the incomprehensible, the invisible, the ungraspable’—with our human representations. Our human words always fall short of the mystery of God” (42). That being said, the Catechism continues:
“As a being at once body and spirit, man expresses and perceives spiritual realities through physical signs and symbols. As a social being, man needs signs and symbols to communicate with others, through language, gestures, and actions. The same holds true for his relationship with God” (1146).…
4. Liturgical language must employ the three principal dynamics of literary language.
The Biblical scholar, Luis Alonso-Schˆkel, S.J., notes that:
“[T]he inspired text is objective, in that it reveals facts and events; it is personal, in that it shows us God as personal in the act of revealing himself; and it is dynamic, calling forth and making possible a response on the part of man” (The Inspired Word: Scriptute in the Light of Language and Literature, New York: Herder and Herder, 1965).
And yet, we can apply these same three dynamics to all liturgical language so as to
[e]nsure its beauty. For in its objective impetus, liturgical language should correctly and constructively identify the Truth of the faith, important salvation notions, and concrete Church teachings. In so doing, liturgical language must remain intrinsically personal to the extent that it reveals the Person and saving actions of the Word of God, Jesus Christ, in such a way that “Christ reveals man to himself” (GS 22).
At the same time, liturgical language actively elicits—and even commands—a response of faith on the part of those who worship. As the Catechism confirms: “God wishes to make men capable of responding to himfar beyond their own natural capacity” (52).…
5. Liturgical language must be poetic.
In the following quotation, what does it sound like Jacques Maritain is describing?
“[It is] knowledge essentially oriented toward expression and operation. It is knowledge of the very interiority of things. It is in its own way spiritual communion with being” (Art and Scholasticism, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1923).
What comes across very much like an apt description of liturgy is in fact Maritain's characterization of poetry.…
The beauty of liturgical language that builds with words taken in the totality of their meaning relies on the agency of the poetic in order to radiate the rich resonances of the Gospel … resonances that would otherwise risk going unexpressed.
6. Liturgical language must cultivate metaphor.
Liturgical language, like virtually all language, is vitally metaphorical. As the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley observes, metaphorical language:
“[M]arks the before unapprehended relations of things and perpetuates their apprehension, until words, which represent them, become, through time, signs for portions or classes of thoughts instead of pictures of integral thoughts” (“A Defense of Poetry,” The Selected Prose and Poetry of Shelley, New York: Signet, 1966).
In other words, we need metaphor, for metaphor puts shape, color, fragrance, sound, and texture on feelings that would otherwise escape us. Without metaphor, certain spiritual realities of human existence would remain secluded, withdrawn, inaccessible. Metaphor enriches the workings of human rationality so as to unite us directly with passion, emotion, insight, beauty.
In fact, the immense treasury of sacred art owes its impact to the industry of metaphor. When we gaze upon an artistic depiction of a devoted shepherd carrying a once-lost lamb, we do not think about animal husbandry, but rather we ponder the tender compassion of our loving Savior in his unending merciful offer of redemption.…
The careful cultivation of metaphor in liturgical language enables believers to associate and identify with the goodness, truth, and beauty of God. As a result, thanks to metaphor, Christians at worship experience the joy of knowing they are part of the beautiful Mystery they experience.
7. Liturgical language must be sublime. Longinus has endowed us with the classic definition of the sublime:
“Sublimity is a certain distinction and excellence in expression. The effect of elevated language upon an audience is not persuasion but transport. Sublimity flashing forth at the right moment scatters everything before it like a thunderbolt. Sublimity is the echo of a great soul” (“On the Sublime,” Classical Literary Criticism, New York: Penguin, 1965).
For liturgical language to be truly beautiful, it must appropriate elevated language crafted in excellent expression so that it transports the People of God to the splendor of God.
Longinus thoughtfully outlines the five key properties of sublimity. He tells us that the sublime touches the hearer with a sense of grandeur. It leaves hearers with more food for reflection in their mind than the mere words convey. It can stand up to repeated examination and be heard several times without losing its effectiveness. It makes it difficult or impossible for the hearer to resist its appeal. And it remains firmly and ineffaceably in the memory. And if liturgical language is to be beautiful, it must do no less.
For liturgical language to be truly beautiful I have advocated the espousal of a theopoetics that quickens and vitalizes Catholic liturgical tradition. Such a theopoetics would meet the three objectives the Catechism identifies as central to all art, especially sacred art: it would express the infinite beauty of God; it would turn people's minds and hearts more devoutly toward God; and it would add to the increase of God's glory and praise.
Such a theopoetics would accomplish these ends via its fidelity to the three conditions of beauty. The integrity of liturgical language is insured by being ordered to the divine, by being catholic, by remaining essentially symbolic, and by employing the principal dynamics of literary language. The proportionality of liturgical language is realized by embracing properties of the poetic and by cultivating metaphor. And the brilliance of liturgical language appears through is devotion to the sublime.
In this way, the integrity of liturgical language that expresses the fullness and perfection of God would encourage Christian hope. The proportionality of liturgical language in its expression of authentic order and communion would foster Christian love. And the brilliance of liturgical language in its eloquent expression of the truthful and the life-giving would deepen Christian faith. Or, to express it in the words of Amos Wilder: “Perhaps the greatest single contribution that a new theopoetic could make would be to repossess the mystery of the cross and its glory in a way that would speak to all.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Peter john Cameron ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Abortion Condemned from Apostolic Era DATE: 10/20/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 22, 1996 ----- BODY:Sometimes it is argued that the Catholic Church's opposition to abortion is relatively new, and that the early Church did not condemn abortion as sinful. It is also contended that the Church is holding back ecumenical progress because of its stubborn anti-abortion stand. How can these arguments be answered?
IT CAN BE stated categorically that the Catholic Church's firm repudiation of direct abortion dates from the beginning, and has remained constant through the centuries.
The earliest explicit condemnation of direct abortion appears in the Teachings of the Apostles (the Didache), probably published during the apostolic age, definitely prior to the year 90. It reads: “You shall not kill the fetus by abortion, or destroy the infant already born” (2, 2).
A similar norm is found in the ancient Epistle of Barnabas, written before the year 138. Section 19, 5 stipulates: “Do not kill a fetus by abortion, or commit infanticide.”
A third very early, specific condemnation of direct abortion appears in the Teacher (Paedogogue) of Clement of Alexandria (d. 215). This document accents the dehumanizing nature of abortion; women who directly take life within the womb are said to destroy their own humanity as well.
From the beginning, rejection of direct abortion as an evil was linked with that of infanticide; doubtless the two sins were always associated in Christian moral thought.
Church laws regarding abortion date from at least 305, during the Council of Elvira, in Spain. Canon 63 of the Council levels a severe excommunication in cases of abortion or infanticide in the context of adultery.
In 314, the Council of Ancyra, in Galatia, prescribed lengthy penance for a woman who destroys a fetus; the context here is fornication, Those who prepare lethal drugs for abortion are also cited (canon 21).
From the beginning, rejection of direct abortion as an evil was linked with that of infanticide; doubtless the two sins were always associated in Christian moral thought.
St. Basil the Great (330-379) discussed Church penalties (including a 10-year penitential period) for abortion in a series of letters he wrote to a bishop of Iconium. Canon 2 of these letters (catalogued by an editor) required that anyone who took the life of a fetus must pay the same penalty as one guilty of homicide.
Among the Western Church Fathers, St. Augustine was a most significant voice against abortion specifically. He described it as one of the differentiating marks of the pagan, as contrasted from the Christian. He stressed the doctrine that the fetus is not part of the mother, but a separate human being—a doctrine assailed by some abortionists today.
The historical record is replete with statements by Church synods, the Fathers, and orthodox theologians rehearsing the traditional Catholic doctrine in this area. See, for example, John Connery, Abortion: The Development of the Roman Catholic Perspective (Loyola University Press, 1977), pp. 33 sqq. As new dimensions of the abortion question arose (e.g., so called “therapeutic abortion,” “contraceptive abortion”), the Church repeatedly reaffirmed its stance in relevant terms.
As for the allegation that ecumenism is being retarded by the Church's uncompromising anti-abortion position, it is absurd. There is no true ecumenism save that which is based on truth. Those who espouse abortion are the ones who can be said to hinder ecumenical progress. The Bible is a clear witness on behalf of reverence for human life.
“Curiously enough,” writes Father Connery, “the Church today finds itself in a position quite similar to the one which prevailed at the beginning of the Christian era. In those days it was surrounded by a society in which abortion (and infanticide) was practiced frequently” (p.312).
Are we living in neo-pagan times?
Father David Liptak, pastor of St. Catherine Church in Broad Brook, Conn., teaches moral and sacramental theology at Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, Conn.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: David Liptak ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: In Alcoholics Anonymous, Sobriety Depends on Spirituality DATE: 10/20/1996 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 22, 1996 ----- BODY:ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS (AA) has been hailed as the greatest spiritual movement of the 20th Century. Rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, it has helped untold numbers get a grip on their addiction by putting their trust in a loving God.
For decades since its founding in 1935, AAhas been a familiar way of life, as much as part of the U.S. social fabric as Kiwanis and Elks clubs, home school associations and American Legion halls. AAonce so cornered the self-help market that it was mandated by name by courts, parole officers and the military.
Today, AA remains vital and robust. But its preeminence is being challenged as society has become more secularized. Last summer, the highest court in New York ruled that AA engages in religious activity and ordered state prison officials not to penalize an inmate who stopped attending AA meetings. An inmate had said he found the meetings objectionable because of his agnostic or atheistic views, while prison officials had tied his eligibility for a family reunion program to his participation in the meetings.
In keeping with the organization's commitment not to comment on public controversies, after the court ruling AA officials would not say if they saw their group as a religious organization. But proponents of AA describe it as a spiritual group and question whether the court overstepped its bounds in striking down a spiritual—as opposed to religious—program. The Constitution separates Church and state, the argument goes, but does it mandate that people committed to government programs are barred from any and all spirituality?
In other instances it's not the government that's the culprit in reducing the impact of AA but alcoholics themselves and their preference for non-spiritual recovery movements. At one suburban Chicago hospital only about 20 percent of addiction patients chose AA or similar programs with a reliance on a higher power. The overwhelmingly popular choice is newcomer Rational Recovery. Patients claim they don't want to rely on a higher power but need to exert their own powers of rationality over their addiction. The familiar image of an alcoholic turning to God and finding faith in conquering his addiction has in some places given way to a modern-day addict who discovers within himself a vast reservoir of untapped strength.
All this should not obscure the staying power of AA, which is still the towering giant in its field with more than 2 million adherents, even though membership is down slightly. Proponents of groups like Rational Recovery say their approach is effective and suitable to certain people just as AAis suitable for others. But some substance abuse experts stress that addiction ravages the spirit and cannot be tamed without recourse to a “higher power.”
According to Fran Belmonte, a former long-time substance abuse counselor who teaches at the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University of Chicago, “addiction is a spiritual disease that captures one's center and holds it confined. Reclaiming one's center and moving out to a larger life is a spiritual act.”
All AA groups are replete with members who testify to the power of spirituality and the futility of self-directed or self-centered recovery efforts. “George” from Chicago “tried 100 times” to lick his addiction. An agnostic, he had viewed AA “very suspiciously.” He thought it a surreptitious way to increase Church membership.
But AA was a godsend, it turned out. “My sobriety is a miracle,” he said. “I tried to deal with my addiction by my own knowledge. I needed to look to a higher power.” George also has seen in others great spiritual awakenings. A friend who was a lapsed Catholic is now studying for the priesthood after recovering his faith as well as his sobriety through AA.
AA began with stockbroker Bill Wilson and surgeon Bob Smith who met during a dismal night of drinking 61 years ago in Akron, Ohio. Wilson, though not active in any one Church, was influenced by the Oxford Movement and Catholic priests played an important role in his recovery.
The 12 steps of AA, of course, are a ladder to God. Alcoholics are advised to turn their will and their lives over to a higher power. Implicit in the advice is the recognition of God as “clearly personal, all-powerful and loving, the Judeo-Christian God, not a vague source of strength,” said Jesuit Father Neil Carr of the Loyola Retreat House in Oshkosh, Wis. AA's spiritual heritage goes back at least to St. Augustine, said Father Carr. The great Father of the Church battled addiction and at last found solace in the spirit. Reading two verses of Paul's letter to the Romans launched his rebirth: “Let us live honorably in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
Jay Copp is based in Chicago.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: jay Copp ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'O Death, Where Is Thy Sting?í DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Local Jerusalemites of Jesus’ day had a nickname for the Akra ridge that rose up out of the depths of the Tyropoean, or “cheesemongers” valley and grew especially rugged above the Genath Gate, the ancient city's far western point of entry: They called it “Golgotha"— Aramaic for “Skull Place.” (Calvary comes from calvarium, “skull,” the Vulgate Bible's Latin rendition.) It was a gruesomely apt designation. The area, once used as a quarry by David and Solomon's builders (ancient quarry-stones lined up for lifting can still be viewed in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher's Franciscan sacristy), was, by the time of Jesus, an epic monument to the reality of death: a site of Roman executions in the middle of a Jewish graveyard.
In fact, Calvary, the place of execution, far from the “green hill topped with triple crosses” of popular imagination, appears to have been a 35-foot high piece of gray quarried rock into which a permanent stake had been fixed by the Romans. Today, it is covered by a marble structure in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on top of which two chapels—one Eastern Orthodox, one Roman Catholic—mark the place of the Crucifixion. (Recently, Greek Orthodox designers have peeled off some of the marble encasement to reveal, under glass, a large section of the stone surface and the socket into which the stake and crossbeam were once lowered.) The real Calvary, in keeping with its grim function, was about as romantic as an electric chair.
Unlike their modern English and American counterparts, ancient Jewish cemeteries were anything but places for a pleasant Sunday outing. (The Gospel of John's use of the word kepos, or “garden” in his description of the burial place of Christ (cf. 18:1) likely refers to the olive orchards that, even today, ring the city's walls.) Abandoned quarries like the one outside the Genath Gate were preferred cemetery locations. They were outside the city proper (a prescription of Jewish law), and they were practical: Masons would have already cut large cavities in the rock, making tomb construction cost-effective. Their stark, lonely cave faces sealed with large round stones—such places were doorways to a special world—were a forbidden kingdom. “The land of the shadow of death,” the Psalms called it, a world cut off, geographically and spiritually, from “the land of the living.’
For Jews, the separation between the worlds of the living and the dead was complete, absolute. Even casual contact with grave cloths or with a corpse rendered a person ritually unclean.
"He that touches the dead body of any person,” the Book of Numbers declares, “shall be [ritually] unclean seven days; he shall cleanse himself with water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean” (19:11-12).
For priests, the merest touch of his shadow on a dead body required the burning of special sacrifices and a night of ritual ablutions. (This may well be one of the reasons that the Levite, or Temple official, in Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan (Lk 10:29-37), was reluctant to come to the aid of the man left half dead at the side of the road. Should the victim, on inspection, have proved a corpse, he would not have been able to officiate in the Temple and would have had to go to some expense to perform the necessary purifications.)
And unlike the pagans, Jews were forbidden, under pain of exclusion from the people, to traffic with ghosts, mediums, and oracles, to attempt to make any kind of contact with the dead.
"You shall not practice augury or witchcraft …’ the Lord commands in the Book of Leviticus. “Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them” (19:26, 31).
This was the most serious kind of sacrilege—to attempt to bridge the impenetrable divide which God had established between the living and the dead. The Old Testament poets had a gripping word to refer to this reality, the numb, noiseless world into which the dead retreated: She'ol, literally, the “hollow place.’ To die was “to go down into the silence.’
"The dead shall not praise the Lord, nor those who go down into the Silence,” declares the psalmist, “but we who live bless the Lord now and forever” (Ps 113:17).
The Greeks entertained similar, though not identical notions in their concept of the “underworld,” or Hades, where the dead existed in a state of suspended animation—quite literally, as eternal shadows of themselves.
For early Christianity, and for Eastern Christianity today, the central aspect of the resurrection of Jesus is not so much the dawn scene of angels and the spice-bearing women at the tomb, but the even more dramatic harrowing of hell, when the crucified broke the eternal silence of the grave, shattered the divisions between the living and the dead, and plundered death's forbidden realm.
As the famous Byzantine verse, chanted over and over during the Easter liturgy, exults: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and granting life to those in the tomb.’ In that sense, Easter, more than anything else, is the celebration of the death of death.
This is how Matthew's Gospel sets up the scene:
"And Jesus cried again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold … the earth shook and the rocks were split; the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of their tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many” (27:50-53).
For Matthew, the death-cry of Jesus is not a shriek of terror, or agony in the face of extinction, but a warrior's shout. The Son of God, the deathless one, descends by means of the cross like a champion into the kingdom of death to annihilate it forever.
"Our Lord's voice rang out thunderously in Sheol,” the fourth century Christian poet St. Ephrem the Syrian wrote, echoing Matthew, in one of his dramatic Nibisene hymns: “tearing open each grave, one by one. Terrible pangs seized hold of death in Sheol; where light had never been seen, rays shone out from the angels who had entered to bring out the dead to meet the dead one who has given life to all.’
In a similar vein, fourth-century Church Father St. John Chrysostom exults in his famous “resurrection homily,” read in the Byzantine tradition at every Easter Matins service:
"… Let no one fear death, for the death of our Savior has set us free: He has destroyed it by enduring it…. When Isaiah foresaw all this, he cried out: ‘O Hades, you have been angered by encountering him in the nether world.’ Hades is angered because it has been frustrated, it is angered because it has been mocked, it is angered because is has been destroyed…. [Hades] seized a body, and discovered God; it seized earth and encountered heaven; it seized the visible and was overcome by the invisible.’
Church historian Henry Chadwick calls this notion of Jesus despoiling the kingdom of death “the decisive moment in the redemption process,” involving, as it does, the deliverance of history, of the past as well as a future promise of life.
That Jesus’ rescue of the dead in the underworld was the key resurrection image for the early Church is clear from the ancient Symbolum Apostolorum, the Apostles’ Creed. After confessing our belief in Christ's death and resurrection, we add the words: “He descended to the dead.’
There is also the testimony of early Christian iconography.
While much medieval and renaissance art shows Jesus rising bodily from the tomb, the earliest Christian iconography preserves the New Testament's “silence” about the manner in which the Resurrection took place, and focuses instead on representations of the harrowing of hell (hell here, not the inferno, but a synonym for Hades, the underworld).
In most of these dramatic images (still the most popular form of resurrection icon in the Christian East), a white or gold robed Christ, his cloak flowing behind him, descends with angels bearing the instruments of the passion into the pit of death. Treading upon the gates of death, which are shown thrown off their hinges and flung to the ground, Christ is surrounded by the just of the old covenant (often represented by Moses, King David, and St. John the Baptist). But, as the central “action” of the icon, Christ's arms are outstretched to raise the shapes of Adam and Eve, humanity's first parents, from their tombs. In the persons of Adam and Eve, the whole of human history is being rescued.
As art historian Michel Berger has written: “Christ descended to the depths of the underworld, the abode of the dead, and so achieved the last step in his abasement (kenosis, self-emptying) by placing himself at the very heart of the fallen creation.’
While this focus on the harrowing of hell is not theologically popular today, the Fathers of the Church rise to the theme with some of the most inspired writing in all religious literature. Take this example from an ancient sermon:
"God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. He has gone to search for our first parent as for a lost sheep…. He has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve…. Taking Adam by the hand, he raised him up, saying: ‘Awake, O sleeper and rise from the dead and Christ shall give you light…. Rise, and let us leave this place…. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open: the kingdom of heaven which has been prepared for you from all eternity.’”
But there is much more to the harrowing of hell than thrilling imagery.
If Jesus truly came into the world, as the Church fathers teach, to seek and find our ancient ancestors hidden deep in the prison of death, that has implications for us in the present as well, for our own appropriation of the message of Easter. As many commentators have stressed, the despoiling of Hades shows us a Christ filled the power of an indestructible life and with a love that cannot be stopped. Will he spare any effort to seek us, here and now, in our own individual darkness, whatever that may be? And if death itself could not stop him, is there any power in the universe that can restrain his mercy?
"He himself likewise partook of the same [human] nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to bondage their whole lives long” (Heb 2:14-15).
Or, in the words of St. John Chrysostom's Easter sermon: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are abolished! Christ is risen and the demons are cast down! Christ is risen and life is freed! Christ is risen and the tombs are emptied of their dead: for Christ, being risen from the dead, has become the Leader and Reviver of all those who had fallen asleep.’
Gabriel Meyer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Gabriel Meyer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Republicans Look to Eliminate 'Tax Penalty' For Married Couples DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:Ending ‘wrong and immoral'system has heavy backing in Congress
WASHINGTON—Republicans in Congress have long been pushing for a tax system overhaul. Plans for a dramatic restructuring include the so-called “flat tax,” which would establish one tax rate for all Americans, with generous personal exemptions, and a national sales tax that would replace the income tax. Yet even the most ardent GOP tax reformers admit that such far-reaching initiatives are years away from political reality.
While the big ideas perco-late, however, a host of smaller GOPtax initiatives have already become law. In the 1997 balanced budget law, for example, capital gains taxes were cut, estate taxes reduced, and per-child tax credits instituted.
Presently, some Republicans have another tax cut in their sights—one involving married couples. House GOP stalwarts are pushing to repeal the so-called “marriage penalty,” which causes some couples to pay higher taxes simply because they became man and wife. The idea is fast gaining support, and legislation to end the marriage tax has the backing of a number of leading pro-family groups.
The marriage penalty is a common problem. When two individuals who are each in the 15% tax bracket become married, their combined income often pushes them into the 28% bracket when filing a joint return—even though neither of their earnings has increased. Simply because they are married, a portion of their earnings is taxed at a substantially higher rate.
For example, a single man earns $31,000. The first $25,350 of that income is taxed at 15%, with the remainder at 28%. He owes $5384.50 in taxes. Asingle woman earning $30,000 pays the same rates and owes $5,104.50. When they are married and file jointly with the IRS, however, the 15% rate only applies to the first $42,350 in income, on which the couples owe $6,352.50. The remaining $18,650 in earnings is taxed at the higher 28% rate. As a result the couple would owe $5,222 on that portion of their earnings. In summary, while the couple paid $10,489 in total taxes while single, they pay $11,574.50 in taxes after being married—a $1,085.50 tax increase despite no increase in income.
A congressional analysis showed that there are many couples in this predicament. In fact, a recent Congressional Budget Office study showed that more than a million families paid an average of $1,400 more in taxes because of the marriage penalty.
"The marriage [penalty] is particularly harmful to couples on the borderline,” said Neal Hogan, director of legislation at the Catholic Alliance, a Washington-based advocacy group. “For many couples, a couple of thousand dollars could have impact on their overall financial health. Choosing between being married in the Church on the one hand and financial well-being on the other is not a choice any couple—Catholic or otherwise— should be forced to make.’
There are three approaches to eliminate the marriage penalty, all of which have strong support in the U.S. House and Senate. The first is a bill by Reps. David McIntosh (R-Ind.) and Jerry Weller (R-Ill.), known as the Marriage Tax Elimination Act. This legislation essentially would allow each spouse in a two-income family to file separate returns. It gives each earner the right to calculate his or her tax burden separately, then combine the total owed by both. In the above example, this would allow the couple to pay the same amount they would have paid if they were unmarried.
Another piece of legislation, the Marriage Protection and Fairness Act, sponsored by Reps. Bob Riley (R-Ala.) and Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) seeks to nullify the marriage penalty by a process known as “income splitting.’ Proponents of this approach claim that income splitting would be fairer for couples who make the financial sacrifice of having one parent stay at home to care for the kids. For example, a couple in which one spouse earns $61,000 and other spouse has no income could split the total household income and file as two earners, each with a salary of $30,500. Under this proposal, all $61,000 in earnings would also be taxed at the 15% rate. The proposal also helps two-income couples, since the standard deduction for married couples would be double that of single filers.
The third approach eliminates the marriage penalty, but it also has broader applications. Reps. Jennifer Dunn (R-Wash.) and John Thune (R-S.C.) have introduced the Middle Class Tax Relief Act, which would expand the 15% tax bracket to cover more individuals and married couples. Under current law, the 15% rate applies to the first $25,350 of a single person's income and the first $42,350 of a married couple's income. This legislation would raise those limits to $35,000 for singles and $70,000 for couples. In the example above, therefore, the couples would pay the same tax ($9,150) whether married or single—a substantial savings compared to current law and the other proposals.
"This tax is wrong and immoral,” said McIntosh in a speech to the Christian Coalition last year. “Because the second income in a family is … often the wife's, the marriage penalty really is a tax on working women. Washington must encourage families to stay together, not tax them more for supporting their families.’
While the competing proposals vie for co-sponsors and support from the GOP leadership, pro-family groups are girding for a major push once a marriage penalty repeal bill reaches the floor. In October, the House GOP leadership highlighted elimination of the marriage penalty as a goal for 1998, and a just-passed budget resolution allocates resources to do just that.
"Any structural impediment in the tax code to marriage should be abolished,” said Hogan. “The marriage tax is particularly troublesome to Catholics because it makes it more affordable to cohabitate than to get married. The concept of marriage is central to our faith. If we truly believe that the institution of marriage is a critical foundation of a strong moral society, then we have to oppose this tax.’
Marty Dannenfelser, director of communications and government affairs at the Family Research Council, sees momentum swinging toward efforts to treat all married couples equally.
"However we repeal the marriage tax, we should do so in a way that treats two-income families and single-income families the same,” he said, noting that the Riley-Salmon “income-splitting” bill accomplishes that goal. “This debate has progressed in much the same way as the child care debate. People are beginning to realize that we cannot continue to penalize families when one parent stays home to care for the kids.’
Most pro-family groups, including the Family Research Council, the Christian Coalition, the Traditional Values Coalition, Concerned Women for America, and Eagle Forum have come out strongly for the repeal of the marriage penalty. In late March, these groups released a joint letter to Speaker Newt Gingrich (who is himself the cosponsor of a repeal bill) urging him to schedule a floor vote quickly.
"For most Americans, the average marriage tax penalty is equal in value to approximately six months of car payments,” wrote the pro-family leaders. “With an extra $1,400, a couple might be able to send a child to a school of their choice. Other families might be able to invest in a college savings account or make repairs on a home…. Eliminating the marriage penalty will provide much-needed relief.’
Michael Barbera writes from Washington.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Michael Barbera ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Global Effort to Weed Out Corruption Widely Supported by Church DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:WARSAW, Poland—When Vatican officials visited Nigeria's foreign ministry March 21, at the start of the Pope's three-day visit, and requested the release of political prisoners, one name had been the object of a discreet international campaign.
Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, a former head of state, was in his 40s when he steered the country to civilian rule in 1979. When he was imprisoned five years ago for allegedly plotting a coup, his defense lawyers were jailed with him. So was his former vice president, who died recently due to a lack of medical care.
Now 63, Obasanjo is respected worldwide as head of the Africa Leadership Forum. He is also the honorary president of Transparency International (TI), an anti-corruption organization now active in more than 70 countries. It was TI's lobbying of Catholic bishops’ conferences that helped put Obasanjo's name on the Vatican's list.
"Many people involved in this campaign claim to be working from a non-religious basis,” said Lawrence Cockroft, a British TI board member. “But we're actually working from a foundation of ethics in which Christianity is an important factor. Some TI members, of course, have a more explicitly Christian motivation. The strong response from Catholics worldwide to Obasanjo's case is the latest confirmation of this.’
Founded in May 1993 as a non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) by a German former World Bank vice-president, Peter Eigen, TI has grown meteorically into a powerful global movement, gaining an average of 14 new national chapters yearly.
One of the oldest, in the United States, is headed by Nancy Zucker Boswell in Washington, D.C. One of the newest, TI-Poland, is being launched May 6, and has already been asked by the country's government to draft an anti-corruption program.
Organizers say it's the first systematic attempt to build a coalition of interests against corruption, that incorporates America and the Third World, as well as Europe—East and West. But they stress corruption is growing, rather than diminishing, as Western governments turn a blind eye to their own nationals.‘“persuasive methods” of securing deals and contracts abroad.
Corruption World Wide
Several countries, from Canada and Mexico to Sweden and Turkey, have anti-corruption codes on their statute books, while the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has provided a model for others to follow.
But the lack of effective laws has made the struggle an uphill one. Among recent documented cases, AIDS-tainted blood plasma, exported from Europe, caused deaths in a country where an official had been paid to receive it.
Meanwhile, bribery scandals in Belgium, Italy, South Korea, India, Colombia, and Brazil brought political corruption to “new heights” internationally, according to a TI communiquÈ.
"Grand corruption, generated by greed and not need, is distorting development decision-making and contributing to a deepening of poverty in many countries,” the communiquÈ added.
"It's also destroying professionalism in public life, undermining the rule of law, distorting trade, and giving rise to international competitive bribery rather than competition in terms of quality, price, and service.’
As a network of groups and individuals, TI denies trying to “expose villains and cast blame.’
Instead, it aims to raise awareness about the needs and possibilities of counter-action, by being “expert, global, independent, realistic, and courageous” at the same time.
It's less centralized that its human rights counterpart, Amnesty International, and allows each chapter maximum leeway in adjusting to local circumstances. But it also believes lessons have to be learned universally from anti-corruption moves during the past quarter century by the World Trade Organization, International Chamber of Commerce, and other bodies, if the “rhetoric of the past” is to become the “practice of the future.’
"The approach has to be evolutionary: one cannot change the way the world is operating at the stroke of a pen,” TI's brochure notes. “There needs to be a coalition of interests: governments and the private sector cannot achieve meaningful change by themselves. The rules of any particular market-place need to change for everyone at the same time.’
Supporters with Clout
With that aim in mind, TI has attracted influential backers. Besides General Obasanjo, leading members range from ex-German President Richard von Weizsacker to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oscar Arias Sanchez, from U.S. Federal Judge John Noonan to Russia's state librarian, Ekaterina Genieva.
At his Berlin secretariat, TI's German chairman, Peter Eigen, says the movement has avoided following any particular religious doctrine, and has stressed practical issues rather than ethical or religious postulates.
However, he believes Christian values can provide a “strong driving force” for anti-corruption campaigning.
"A close association with the Catholic Church can be a disadvantage in some parts of the world, particularly in Latin America where it's often seen as being closely identified with ruling elites,” Eigen told the Register. “However, in countries like Poland, where the Church has an entirely different image, it's very important to have its moral endorsement.’
That moral endorsement has been gradually taking shape. The secretary-general of Poland's Catholic bishops’ conference, Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, told a TI delegation his Church had been largely powerless to combat corruption under communist rule, when “forms of dishonesty were often viewed as honest,” and said attempts had been made after the return of democracy to “set Christian and humanistic values in contradiction.’
However, ethical economic practices should now be a “very important dimension” of current Church priorities in Eastern Europe, Bishop Pieronek added. He promised to support Tl's work.
In the Third World, leading Catholic backers include former Uruguayan bishops’ conference secretary-general, Msgr. Luis de Castillo, and Archbishop Isidore de Souza of Benin, who chairs sessions of his national chapter at his Cotonou residence.
In a March 22 message, read in all Benin churches, Archbishop de Souza urged Christians to take part in a newly convened National Forum against Corruption.
"Christian Churches, and the Catholic Church especially, have been the prime movers in the struggle against corruption here,” said Roger Gbegnonvi, a Benin TI activist. “In reality, only a Christian religious inspiration can sustain this struggle, and open the way to good governance.’
Active Protestant members in Africa include veteran South African anti-apartheid campaigner Bayers Naudee, and the Lutheran bishop of Malawi, Joseph Brumbwe. In a Register interview, Bishop Brumbwe said TI offered “light in the darkness” for many Third World countries menaced with the prospect of being made “corrupt and sinful” by Western economic practices. He believes the movement's work should be supported by Churches as part of their efforts to promote community development and make citizens aware of their right to an accountable democratic government.
p align="left">"All Churches should be preaching against corruption and bribery, and backing organizations which struggle with them,” Bishop Brumbwe continued. “Until justice and fairness are created, the Churches should be actively involved. Only where transparency and accountability are ensured in government and business will power remain with the people, giving them the last word.’In Europe too, Christian communities have played a role. The ecumenical “Church and Development Joint Committee” of Germany's Catholic and Evangelical churches pledged to back TI's work at a 1996 Bonn hearing.
Lawrence Cockroft thinks it's an anomaly that the main pressure for business ethics and political accountability has so far come from secular groups. But his own British chapter has had contacts with local Churches over the “Jubilee Year 2000” campaign to cancel Third World debts. He expects closer links will soon be forged.
Denis Osborne, a fellow-British member, agrees. By slowing development and diverting resources, corruption mostly hits the poor, he points out. It also threatens health and safety, increases criminality and puts lives at risk. As public awareness of the problem grows, causing anger and frustration, so will political unrest and social instability.
These are just a few of the reasons why all Churches should be campaigning against it.
"The rich can pay bribes, but the poor can't. Nor can they ensure health and safety regulations are enforced, buildings stay upright and prices are fixed by fair competition,” Osborne told the Register. “Like Amnesty International, TI is concerned with protecting people from abuse and exploitation. Those with religious convictions will see it as an attempt to give a practical outworking to standards of conduct which are essential to human welfare and ordained by God.’
Osborne, a former diplomat with Britain's Overseas Development Administration, now works as a freelance consultant on governance, and was asked after a recent seminar in Ghana to address Church leaders too.
Religious Foundations
He sees a strong biblical basis for TI's work, such as Deuteronomy 16:19 ("You shall not pervert; you shall not show partiality; and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous"); or John the Baptist's words to tax collectors and soldiers in Luke 3:12-14 ("Collect no more than is appointed you…. Be content with your wages").
Very similar formulations can be found, Osborne points out, in the words of Confucius and the Buddha, as well as in Islam and the Hindu writings.
"We shouldn't give the impression that the Church itself is always wonderful and perfect—in some countries, TI members have highlighted corruption in Church circles too,” the diplomat said. “But there's clearly a strong theological basis for strong Christian partnership with other faiths in this area, without sacrificing Christian convictions or expecting others to disregard theirs.’
That theme was taken up in mid-February, when Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist leaders met to discuss “worldwide faith and development” at a London seminar organized by the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, and World Bank president James Wolfensohn.
TI members are reluctant to predict whether the Vatican's March intervention will save the organization's president, Olusegun Obasanjo. The soft-spoken general's achievements include helping secure a Cuban withdrawal from Angola and the release of Nelson Mandela, as well as supervising elections in Mozambique and initialing negotiations for an end to Apartheid. Today, as a practicing Baptist, he's allowed a Bible in his prison cell, but no other literature. It's anticipated that Nigeria's October elections will be used to give the present military regime respectability.
John Paul II's Take
Whatever Obasanjo's fate, the Pope himself has left no doubt about his own position. In his Jan. 1 World Peace Day message, John Paul II urged Catholics not to be silent about the “plague of corruption.’
"This growing phenomenon surreptitiously and deceitfully enters numerous social circles, laughing at the law and trampling on principles of justice and truth,” the Pope said. “It isn't easy to struggle with corruption, since it presents many different faces. Crushed in one area, it often appears in another. It requires courage just to criticize corruption. To struggle efficiently against it needs the consistent application of authority and sacrificial help of all citizens who are led by a deep moral conscience.’
Denis Osborne thinks this has been an important encouragement to TI's work.
When the eighth International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) brought together government and NGO delegates from 93 countries in Lima last September, TI helped draft its “Declaration against Corruption,” setting out 40 detailed recommendations for action on a local and international level. In December, the organization also helped compile the historic Office For Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Convention. If it's ratified and enforced next autumn, this will abolish the tax-deductibility of company bribes and make it a domestic criminal offense to offer handouts to officials in foreign countries. Meanwhile, in January, a special panel was devoted to TI's “Islands of Integrity” concept at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
In February, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Michel Camdessus, told a meeting of TI-France that the IMF would be advocating anti-corruption projects similar to those outlined in TI's much-praised “National Integrity Systems Sourcebook.’
"TI chapters worldwide are giving a significant voice to public concerns, and being heard by Churches too, at a time when they're seeking to instruct Christians about the dangerous consequences of corruption,” Osborne told the Register. “In countries where corruption has become endemic and is difficult to eradicate, the question always arises as to whether there should be an amnesty for past misdeeds. This is one area where Church teachings on repentance and forgiveness are clearly relevant too.’
Jonathan Luxmoore writes from Warsaw, Poland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Jonathan Luxmoore ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Newspaper Continues Stressing Distinct Roles of Laity and Priests DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY—The Vatican appears determined to clear up any blurring of distinctions between the role of priests and the laity.
First, it issued a major document last November entitled Instruction on Certain Questions Regarding the Collaboration of the Non-Ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priests. The 38-page text emphasized the unique place in the Church's life of ordained ministry. Now, the Vatican's newspaper, L'Osserva-tore Romano, is publishing an ongoing series of articles intended to bolster that document.
Written by leading theologians, including Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the articles address various aspects of the Instruction and defend it against criticism that has surfaced in the six months since its release. (See “Line Between Clergy and Laity Remains Blurred,” Register April 5-11). The newspaper articles also call for the full implementation of the Vatican Instruction by local Churches throughout the world.
In one article, Professor Winfried Aymans of Munich, Germany, wrote that the new document caused “quite a stir” in his country.
"Some have flatly rejected the Instruction, while others have tried to relativize it,” he said. “A calm examination of the document is necessary to correct “erroneous tendencies” which have crept into the Church since the Second Vatican Council.
Aymans said the fact the Instruction was prepared jointly by eight Vatican congregations— including the Congregation for the Clergy and the Pontifical Council for the Laity—gave the impression that “various sorts of problems had piled up over time and had to be examined from different aspects.’
Pope John Paul II further underscored this by approving the text in forma specifica—a technical phrase meaning any existing rules contrary to the Instruction were henceforth revoked.
The professor noted the specific purpose of the Instruction: The subject is not collaboration between priests and lay people, but the priestly ministry in so far as lay people can collaborate in it.
"The document is thus concerned with only a limited area of the laity's field of activity in the Church,” he said. Its intent is to give direction “to those functions which rightfully belong to the realm of the priest” in which a lay person, however, can collaborate in cases of necessity.
Priestless Sundays
"The vast, ordinary field of activity for lay people in the Church and the world is intentionally not considered by the Instruction,” he said.
As an example, he noted it could never be the Church's objective to replace Mass by promoting Sunday celebrations without a priest. Nevertheless, when there is no other possibility, a lay person, following the instructions of the local bishop, could conduct a Liturgy of the Word for those who have no other opportunity to celebrate the Lord's day.
"It is clear that the lay person here is truly a supplementary aid,” Aymans said. “However, for the good of the faithful—and that is what always counts—he too will be glad when a priest is available to celebrate the Eucharist.’
A subsequent article in L'Osservatore Romano spoke of the mission proper to lay men and women by virtue of their baptism.
Written by Professor Herbert Schambeck, president emeritus of the Austrian Federal Council, the article also stressed the need to avoid “deplorable phenomena such as the clericalization of the laity and the secularization of clerics.’
In the Gospel, he noted, Jesus addresses all believers, priests, and faithful—each involved in a particular service, each in his own way.
"The ordained and non-ordained faithful are related one to the other,” Schambeck said. “One could speak of a relationship which requires union in mission.’
In today's world, when there is a strong commitment to carrying out a new evangelization, he said, “the distinct and complementary tasks of priests and lay people have great importance.’
Baptism defines the laity's position in the Church and their involvement in the world, Schambeck wrote. Thus, their special duty toward the world “spurs them far beyond the field of collaboration” in the ministry of priests.
By putting the Church's social doctrine into practice, he said, the lay person “can make a contribution to private and public life that priests cannot.’
A third newspaper article described the Vatican Instruction as a “reiteration of the norms and principles” of Vatican II.
Written by Professor Hugo Schwendenwein of the theology faculty of Graz, Austria, and a consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, it said the new document continues along the path mapped-out by the Second Vatican Council.
Schwendenwein noted that following the Council, confusion arose as clergy and laity sought to implement directives broadly mapped-out by conciliar documents.
"There was a period when an effort was made to adapt the not always concrete norms and directives contained in the Council to concrete situations,” he said.
Yet “this time of experimentation and change ended” he said, with the publication of the Code of Canon Law in 1983.
"This definitively closed the search for concrete norms and the implementation of the Council,” the professor wrote—adding that the new Vatican Instruction regarding the collaboration of the lay faithful in the ministry of priests is merely “a reiteration” of these norms.
"The basic goal of the Church's legal structure is to implement the Second Vatican Council in all areas of ecclesial life,” he said.
Despite the “feverish pace” of our era, Schwendenwein said the Church has entered “a period of stability” and that “fundamental alterations” do not need to be considered right now.
This new-found “period of stability” is what prompted the writing of the Vatican Instruction, according to Dr. Francesco Moraglia, a member of the theological faculty of Northern Italy.
"The Instruction stems from a new awareness of the ecclesial situation as a whole,” he said.
Reaffirming Vatican II
During the past decade, Moraglia said, bishops, priests, and lay people had requested “authoritative directives on the identity of priests and lay people” regarding particular cases of pastoral activity improperly exercised by non-ordained faithful.
He said the Roman Curia solicited input from episcopal conferences around the world and from individual bishops in countries where abuses were considered widespread.
"About 92% of those questioned were in favor [of a Vatican instruction] but asked that ambiguous wording be avoided in the text, that the most authoritative legal form possible be used and, given the urgent need for clarification, that the document be published without delay,” Moraglia wrote in L'Osservatore Romano.
He said the basic objectives of the Instruction could be summarized as follows:
• the document “simply reaffirms the teaching of the Second Vatican Council on the positive role of the laity” in the Church's mission;
• it “seeks to encourage ordained ministers by forcefully reintroducing the subject of vocations to the priesthood” and stressing that the Church's life depends on the Sacrament of Holy Orders;
• it reaffirms that the fundamental equality of all Christians by virtue of baptism “is compatible with an essential difference—the ordained ministry.’
"Lay Christians, precisely because of baptism,” Moraglia said, are called to the consecratio mundi, which differs from the task of ordained ministers.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said in his contribution to L'Osservatore Romano that the new Vatican Instruction was needed to avoid a “devaluation of the ordained ministry” and a general misunderstanding about the variety of roles within the Church.
A lay person who exercises for a long period “the pastoral tasks proper to the priest … in reality is no longer a true lay person and loses his proper identity in the life and mission of the Church,” he wrote. “The doctrine on the nature of priestly ministry and on the unity and diversity of ministerial tasks at the service of the edification of the Body of Christ must be underlined with clarity.’
He added that lay people who perform tasks usually reserved to priests must make it clear to parishioners that their service “is only supplementary” and that the community must pray for more vocations to the priesthood.
Stephen Banyra writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Stephen Banyra ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Groups Oppose Clinton's Luxembourg Ambassador Nominee DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:Anti-Catholic activist James Hormel still hopes to secure post to 97%-Catholic country
AUSTIN, Texas—As President Bill Clinton's controversial nominee for ambassador to Luxembourg waits to learn his fate, Catholic and family organizations continue to call on the Senate to reject him.
The nominee, James Hormel, a San Francisco philanthropist and major Democratic Party contributor, is a staunch supporter of homosexual causes and has been accused of anti-Catholicism by such groups as the Catholic Alliance and the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. He has also been criticized for his involvement in activist homosexual organizations and for a collection of homosexual literature in a center bearing his name at the San Francisco Public Library.
"Most Catholics I know would not have been disturbed by the fact that he is gay, but he is engaged in a highly activist role in the gay community and has shown contempt for those who do not share his views,” said Maureen Hogan, director of public affairs for the Catholic Alliance. “Any Catholic in their right mind should look at this guy and reject him soundly.’
The government of Luxembourg, a 97%-Catholic country, has approved the nomination.
Hormel's nomination was the only one not confirmed by the Senate by the end of 1997. It passed out of the Foreign Relations Committee and is now on the calendar for the full Senate's vote. However, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) has indicated that he has no plans to call for a vote in the near future.
Some of Hormel's opponents, in particular the Family Research Council, say that rumors are floating on Capitol Hill that Clinton plans to make a recess appointment of Hormel while Congress is on Easter recess. Such an appointment would allow him to serve for up to 14 months without congressional confirmation. No action had been taken however, by the time the Register went to press.
The White House has accused a group of Republican senators who have been blocking Hormel's confirmation of an anti-homosexual bias.
"There's only one reason he's being held up and that is the fact that he's gay,” said White House spokesman Barry Toiv.
His opponents, however, say their objections go far beyond Hormel's personal sexual preference.
Hormel, the 64-year-old heir to the Hormel meat-packing company fortune, offended Catholics in 1996 during a San Francisco “gay-pride” parade. Sitting in a broadcast booth as the parade was televised by a local television station, Hormel laughed and joked with the two commentators during an appearance by a group of transvestites who dress in nuns’ habits and refer to themselves as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. (The “drag queens” wear crucifixes and mock various aspects of the Catholic faith.)
"If we saw a prospective candidate laughing at racist or antiSemitic behavior, there would be no question about his nomination,” said Hogan. “It shows a real double standard.’
In a private meeting with Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.), the senator asked Hormel to repudiate the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Hormel refused to do so, according to a spokesman from Hutchinson's Capitol office. Hormel told the law-maker that he found the group to be humorous, the spokesman said.
The Catholic League wrote every U.S. senator asking them to reject Hormel's nomination, citing the parade incident and Hormel's refusal to repudiate the group.
"Any person who cannot find it within himself to quickly and decisively break with those who engage in religious bigotry has no legitimate role to play in representing the United States,” said William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, in a statement. “Had Hormel objected to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, he would have said so right on the air. At the very least, he would have told an inquiring Sen. Hutchinson that he unequivocally condemns Catholic bashing. But he did neither…. What Kenya.’
In addition to the charges of Catholic bashing, Hormel's critics are also disturbed by what they see as Hormel's activist homosexual agenda.
The divorced father of four who has vocally supported same-sex marriages is a co-founder of the Human Rights Campaign, an organization that promotes homosexual rights and has branded those with differing views as “hate groups.’
In addition, he reportedly gave financial backing to a documentary film called It's Elementary. The film, which was produced by a homosexual activist, is aimed at educators and offers advice and instruction on how to teach young children about homosexuality.
Additionally, opponents have
pointed to the James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center at the San Francisco Public Library. The collection of homosexual literature was established with a $500,000 gift from the Spam magnate.
The divorced father of four who has vocally supported same-sex marriages, is a co-founder of the Human Rights Campaign, an organization that promotes homosexual rights and has branded those with differing views as ‘hate groups.’
Included in the Hormel Center are publications of the National Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), which advocates the abolition of “age of consent” laws. The collection also contains books featuring descriptions andphotos of explicit deviant sex.
At least one publication contains a cartoon featuring the Virgin Mary that would be considered offensive to any Christian denomination.
Hormel supporters defend the collection, noting that many of the same publications could be found in the Library of Congress. In his own defense, Hormel wrote to the Senate in February stating that he had “no input or control” over the collection.
His explanation did not satisfy critics, however.
"The man's name is on this thing so he is associated with it,” said Steven Schwalm, a senior writer and policy analyst in the cultural studies department of the Family Research Council. “He's trying to wash his hands of this like Pontius Pilate.’
The Washington-based Family Research Council, led by Schwalm's efforts, have been Hormel's most vocal critics.
"His avocation has been the promotion of homosexuality, the demonizing of Christians, and subverting the laws and mores of this country,” said Schwalm.
In an effort to save his nomination, Hormel has promised that he would resign from the boards of homosexual organizations and not let his name be used for fund-raising purposes for homosexual causes. What's more, in a reversal of previous plans, he has said he would leave his longtime “partner,” Timothy Wu, in the United States.
The Luxembourg nomination is Clinton's second try at getting Hormel a diplomatic post. In 1995, the president nominated him for an ambassadorship to Fiji, a Muslim country with strict anti-sodomy laws. That nomination was withdrawn amid criticism.
"If this guy wasn't good enough for a Muslim country, he isn't good enough for a Catholic country,” said Hogan.
Dennis Poust writes from Austin, Texas.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Dennis Poust ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Stirring U.S. Consciences In a Century of Martyrdom DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:A religious rights activist believes Christian persecution is at an all time high
Nina Shea is an international human-rights attorney focusing on the issue of religious persecution. She is the author of In the Lion's Den, an acclaimed account of Christian persecution in the world today, and serves as director of the Center for Religious Freedom of Freedom House, a Washington-based human-rights and pro-democracy organization. She recently spoke with Register assistant editor Peter Sonski about the widespread problem of Christian persecution.
Sonski: To what do you attribute the prevalence of Christian persecution throughout the world today?
Shea: This is the greatest century of martyrdom, of anti-Christian persecution, and persecution of Christ-ianity—and there are two reasons for that. I have, through my research in the last 12 years, come to realize that [it results from] communist and fascist ideologies as well as the rise and spread of militant Islam. [It is in political systems such as these that] you see the persecution growing, spreading, and continuing in a very severe form.
In how many countries are Christians being persecuted?
I studied 11 different countries in my book, but there are more than that. I will soon be undertaking a survey on religious persecution and religious freedom around the world for all groups—not just Christians—but right now we just don't know. This is all really new territory. We're still trying to establish what is going on.
Part of the reason that it is “new” is that the secular press does not report on it. There is a failure to report on a Christian minority being persecuted. For example, The Washington Post has not reported on the persecution of the Churches in China for more than a year. The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today have never reported on the persecution of evangelicals in China—ever. They may talk about a bishop of the Catholic Church being persecuted— not regularly but intermittently.
They don't talk about Protestants at all?
No. They don't see the evangelicals at all; they're invisible to them. Also, they don't—and have never—identified [the jihad] religion in Sudan that is anti-Christian as one of the main reasons for the war and for the atrocities going on in the war—the slavery, bombing, massacres, all sorts of abominations. The non-Muslim community, the Christian community, is invisible. You're not getting any secular reporting on the issue and there has not been leadership from our political leaders. It was not a burning issue for most Americans until recently, and groups like ours were really squeaking by with very little popular support.
You said you studied 11 countries. But the problem could be in double or triple that number?
Exactly.
How long has this been going on? You mentioned the rise of communism and fascism.
One of the great anti-Christian massacres occurred in the very early part of this century against the Armenian community in Turkey—and that was really [the fault of] secularism. That has been part of the problem too, but communism has been a continuing theme throughout the century. Before it was the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe; now we're seeing it in China, North Korea, and Vietnam. There hasn't been that type of militant atheism in this world for centuries on the scale of communist hostility to Christianity and religion.
It has been going on for most of the century in China and it hasn't been topical. Part of the reason is that we in the West were distracted by what was going on in the Soviet Union. That concern about the Church in Russia has pretty much ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall, and Americans weren't interested in their brothers and sisters in Christ who were being persecuted abroad in the countries that remained.
China was persecuting—the most severe persecution came during the Mao period and the cultural revolution in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Where were we in the West? Why didn't we ever speak out about that? Why weren't we praying in our churches for the Christians being persecuted then? I think there has been a lack of interest, but that is changing.
Are these people being persecuted only because they are Christians, or are there other reasons?
There are no other reasons. In China, I published in my book a statement against a Catholic priest published in the mid ‘90s, where he is sentenced to a labor camp for saying Mass, for ministering the sacrament of the sick.
It is for religious reasons—because they refuse to register with the government. Registering doesn't mean just signing up in some bureaucrat's office, it means submitting to the control and supreme authority of the government in matters of religion.
Doesn't the Chinese government view an allegiance to the Holy See— to the Pope—as treason?
Well, it's very practical. China has said that one of the two main reasons for them not recognizing the Vatican, or not allowing the Vatican to designate bishops, is because the Vatican will interfere with their internal affairs—and they're right. The Vatican will, because the Vatican—the Magisterium—tells us that abortion is wrong, that Christ will come again … or that there is a Catechism. All of those things are banned. The Vatican says that we should baptize our children, that we should teach religion to our children. The government does not want that.
The government bans evangelizing anyone under 18 years of age. Beijing bans any type of protest against abortion. It's part of the government's economic plan to have a one-child policy—which is enforced through forced abortions and sterilization. They have a eugenics program. If you have [one of any number of] genetic defects, you can't even get married and you're sterilized.
[It's an attack at the] heart of Christianity. Christianity is radical. It's a radical theory of the individual dignity of the human person, of the supremacy of God—and a Communist Party-dominated regime cannot accept that.
China does allow what is called the “Patriotic Church” to exist. It bears the name “Catholic,” although it is regulated by the government.
The Patriotic Association of Catholics is under the direct control of the Communist Party and there is a political correctness test for its priests and bishops. They are constantly monitored. They are used—and it is very clear in government documents—to suppress, spy on, and manipulate the Underground Church. They are not free to evangelize, for example, or to hold to the basic tenets of the Catholic faith. That doesn't mean there aren't sincere Catholics within that Church, but it is not an independent Church. It is not independent of the Communist Party of China.
What of those Catholic leaders who are openly loyal to Rome?
By our count, there are 10 Catholic bishops in prison, labor camps, or under house arrest today in China.
There's obviously repression of Christianity, but it seems there are other elements too. Forced sterilization; the refusal of the right to marriage; the one-child policy—those are basic human rights abuses. These forms of persecution in China go beyond suppression or oppression of Christianity.
There are no political freedoms— civil rights freedoms—in China. Freedom House ranks every country in the world on a scale of those freedoms, and China is at the very bottom—the worst case scenario of no civil rights and no political freedoms. But keep in mind that the only underground [movements] in China are the underground Christian Churches. There is no solidarity labor union. There is no human rights agency. There is no freedom of the press. There are no underground attempts to speak with a voice different from the government except for these Churches.
Therefore, the Church is in a special category, because it does exist and it is suffering. Unlike some theoretical labor union, which does not exist. In other words, there are no people in prison in China for being labor leaders right now, because there is no labor movement at all—not even in the underground.
There is an Underground Catholic Church. How many other Christian faiths have underground Churches?
Protestantism is, by fiat of Beijing, non-denominational—so there aren't Baptists and Methodists and Pentecostals. They have different tenets within the non-denominational existence, but there is no specific Church.
Are any of them forced underground?
Many. There are somewhere between 40 million and 60 million Christians in China and the vast majority of those are in the underground. In the Catholic world, there are—Vatican statistics show—10 million Catholics. The government only acknowledges 4 million. So there are about 6 million Catholics in the underground. The Protestants make up the rest of that, 30 million or 40 million or so.
The government says there are 10 million Protestants, so there are 20 million to 30 million in the underground. It is interesting because the Southern Baptist Convention, according to their press, had 25,000 of their members go to China and share their faith in 1995. So Protestantism is growing astronomically in China. Catholicism is growing too, but it is growing through the population growth.
How can there be growth if there is only one child allowed per couple?
Well, the Catholics ignore that.
And risk persecution?
Yes.
If a couple were to have more than one child, what would be the penalty inflicted upon them?
It could be anything from sterilization and forced abortion if the pregnancy was discovered in time, to just crippling fines, job ostracism …
Imprisonment?
Possibly, but not likely. It may be short-term stint, but you will be blacklisted from company employment and from most of our companies who have work forces there.
Our companies? You mean U.S. firms?
Yes. Personnel is handed over to the joint partner. So it is the Chinese who are policing the work forces within [U.S.] factories. McDonnell Douglas in its Shanghai plant had the Communist Party handling its personnel. They had Communist Party officers right there in the plant. So these people, if they violate the policy, they will be fined.
Nicholas Kristof, the bureau chief for The New York Times in Beijing, writes about this in his book China Wakes. He gives an example of how one woman in the work place—I'm not saying this is in an American company—was fined to such an extent that she was indentured to that company for 12 years. She worked without pay for 12 years.
Also, there were three Catholic villages raided a couple of years ago. Police troops surrounded the villages, raided them, beating everyone that they could find, torturing some of them, putting electric prods in their mouths, and setting up a prison, setting up a people's court, and basically keeping them under surveillance. In rural areas it's common to have more than one child and to violate the policy. In some cases they even allow two children. But in the Catholic villages, they were defying this routinely and that's when [the government] raided these three particular villages.
Citizens are scrutinized more carefully in the Catholic villages?
Sometimes. China is a big place and it is unevenly applied. But Catholicism is growing. Both the above-ground and the below-ground Church, both Protestantism and Catholicism are growing. There's a tremendous thirst for Christianity like we've never seen before in the history of China.
Is there a large American population in China?
Certainly the cities—the coastal
cities in particular—have large foreign populations, large American populations. Thousands of American companies are there.
What sort of influence does the Chinese government have over Americans who are working or residing in China with their one child policy?
Well, [the government doesn't] care about the expatriates. They don't apply that to foreign society expatriates. You don't get to live in China as a foreigner if you don't have a job either. You would be expelled without work.
If they were too harsh with Americans and American firms, wouldn't the government risk losing the benefit of the American dollar bolstering their economy?
No, that's not true. The [American] firms take quite a bit of guff from them, because they see the market. McDonald's had its contract broken— on Tiananmen Square, at least. It was just nullified. The government wanted to put some project there—one of its own projects.
So they run rough-shod over the Americans?
Yes. In fact, American businessmen have been jailed for contract disputes with the government. They think nothing of putting American businessmen in prison. There is no due process for anybody and there is no protection for anybody, but the business community does not band together. They do not make demands.
There is no commercial code in China. There is no way of regulating contracts. That is slowly starting to change from the pressure of the U.S. government now—in fact the Justice Department is trying to help them establish a rule of law for commercial practices, but it is not as though they are fearful of the American business community. The Chinese hold all the chips—or at least the American community thinks they does.
The White House seems to be making many overtures to the Chinese government. Administration officials have visited China, and President Jiang Zemin was here recently. Do you foresee an occasion when religious rights will take precedence over U.S. economic concerns or initiatives with regard to China—and, for that matter, in other countries where such persecution is going on?
Well, I certainly don't think that we're going to go back to a policy of denying Most Favored Nation (MFN) status to China—that is, an across the board trade cut-off. But I can foresee pressure building for the Administration to come up with some kind of sanction strategy. There is none now, at all, with China. There is absolutely—and I have had talks with the National Security Council about this—nothing in the offing or on the drawing board that if China does not do this, this, and this, then we will have a predictable effect of conditioning aid.
The Chinese Red Army does business here, has companies here. It would be very practical to condition that on greater religious freedom. It is not on the drawing board yet, but I think it could happen. We could cut off international and multinational bank loans to Chinese businesses until they stop and let out all the priests and nuns from prison camps.
How do you view the persecutions and slaughters elsewhere, in Algeria, for example?
It's not the same. Algeria is not about religion.
But Christians have been murdered in Algeria. The obvious example is the French monks murdered in 1996.
Yes. I think that they targeted those monks, the Trappists, because they were Christians. And I think foreigners or Westerners were targeted because they were perceived as Christians— whether they were or not. That was in the early stages.
What is going on in Algeria started off as a political statement, with the terrorists being denied an election victory. The first targets tended to be Westerners and religious figures. Now it has moved way beyond that. Traditional villages are being targeted, where women who wear head cloths, and are probably every bit as Islamic as their killers, are getting their throats slit.
So I think we really have to set aside Algeria. It is a terrible human rights disaster. We should have a policy for that. We as a world leader should be trying to work to resolve it.
In your view, what measures should be taken to eradicate persecution and make sure human rights are respected?
Well, Americans have to start learning about what is going on in the world, and American Christians in particular. Catholics and Protestants have to inform themselves about the persecution that is going on against their Churches abroad in these countries, because there is a great deal of ignorance in our society. There is a great deal of inwardness in our society. Even though we are traveling all the time to these places—we are probably the most traveled population in history—yet we really don't see what is below the surface.
We have to start forging solidarity links with these Churches—particularly the Catholic community. I think the Catholic community really needs to give some support, both moral support and financial, to these beleaguered Churches. The Protestant communities seem to be a lot better at that than we are. That is not to say that the Catholic community has not been generous— our bishops and so forth—but we really need to show greater awareness and concern.
So education is the first step?
Yes, and political activism is the second—and, obviously, prayer. We should go back to the days when we prayed for the persecuted Church abroad every Sunday during the prayer of the faithful.
We've got to become engaged politically. We have rights as citizens and we should be using those rights to let our political leaders know that we care about these issues, that we don't want an [America that doesn't discuss] religious freedom issues when they have a summit. Political dissidents are [discussed], but not persecuted religious figures.
We're a pluralist nation. The morals of this nation are more diverse in their practice or acceptance than at any other time in our history. How can we ask our political leaders to put some moral teeth into the legislation they're passing in dealing with foreigners?
There is a document called the [U.N.] Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That's what we're talking about here—the international standards that are universally agreed upon that cover political and civil rights. The United States signed that document, and religious freedom is Article 18. Religious freedom for all: to choose and practice your religion, to designate your leaders, to teach your children. That is not peculiar to Catholicism here—or even Christianity, or even American tradition. It is an internationally recognized U.N. guideline.
If most Americans could see what I see from my vantage point in Washington they would be shocked at what their government is doing or not doing. Let me just give one example. Saudi Arabia: The U.S. government recently capitulated to a Saudi demand to stop a Catholic Mass on U.S. embassy grounds for U.S. embassy employees in Saudi Arabia. The government just decided it didn't want to offend its Saudi hosts and it wasn't going to demand religious freedom for our embassy employees on U.S. Embassy grounds. That is an abomination. They certainly must think that we are the materialistic, morally bankrupt culture that they say we are.
—Peter Sonski
Nina Shea
Personal: Attorney who for 20 years has specialized in international human rights; graduate of Smith College and American University Law School; married, with three children.
Background: For the past 12 years has focused on the issue of religious persecution; director of the Center for Religious Freedom of Freedom House, a 56-year-old Washington-based human-rights and pro-democracy organization; author of In the Lion's Den, a widely acclaimed book on anti-Christian persecution throughout the world.
Achievements: Has organized or participated in numerous religious persecution fact-finding missions across the globe; has testified regularly before Congress, written many articles, and has been a guest on more than 100 radio programs as well as CBS News and ABC News to report on her findings and experiences; serves on the Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom to the U.S. Secretary of State.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Nina Shea ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: U.S. Notes & Quotes DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:Cardinal Stafford on Laity and World Youth Day
Cardinal J. Francis Stafford, the head of the Pontifical Council on the Laity, had two messages for the flock he guided as archbishop of Denver. The cardinal was back home for the summit on technology and the Church.
The Rocky Mountain News (March 30) reports that he took the occasion to stress the importance of the laity in the Church's mission—and the difficulties they can therefore expect to face. The article said Cardinal Stafford believes lay Catholics are the “backbone” of the Church.
"Indeed,” he said, “for lay Christians trying to live out their faith today— say, in the realms of medicine, technology, and politics—‘;the world is increasingly difficult’.’
"Yet, it is those who succeed who will bring back to public life something woefully lacking today,” which the prelate called “nobility of spirit.’
Cardinal Stafford also wanted to talk about the 1993 World Youth Day that was held in Denver, according to a March 30 Denver Post Report.
"In particular, [Cardinal] Stafford spoke about Butterfly Hill at Cherry Creek State Park, where 500,000 people gathered to see the Pope and celebrate the final hours of the 1993 conference.’
"[The cardinal] believes that just as butterflies go through a metamorphosis, there was a metamorphosis of the spirit at Butterfly Hill on Aug. 14 and 15 of 1993 that profoundly impacted the youth of the world.’
"Retired Denver police officer Phil Harrington, who was at Sunday's reception for [Cardinal] Stafford, remembers that before the Pope's arrival in Denver, the city had experienced what became known as ‘The Summer of Violence.’”
Harrington, a Catholic deacon also ordained by the cardinal, said the Pope's visit there had “a calming effect” that was evident when he arrived.
The Consensus Catechism
The Presbyterian Church, following the Catholic Church's lead, plans to release its own catechisms, the Associated Press reported March 28, 1998.
Like their predecessor, the new catechisms will be conversational in tone. “But unlike the 688-page Catholic catechism, the Presbyterian catechisms avoid definitive stands on such issues as abortion and homosexuality that have divided the denomination in recent years. As with earlier catechisms, the 14-page Study Catechism and the five-page First Catechism—a simpler document intended for ages 10 and up—focus on traditional teachings.’
But the catechisms won't avoid all recent or contentious issues: they affirm “modern scholarship as a tool for interpreting the Bible,” and the importance of the environment, the report stated.
One Presbyterian scholar is quoted saying, “We tried very much to produce a consensus document, the broad consensus, the broad middle within the Presbyterian Church.’
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: U.S. Notes & Quotes DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:Benetton Cries for Argentina
Reuters reported March 27 that, “An exhibition in Buenos Aires by controversial Benetton photographer Oliviero Toscani was canceled by its presenters after a flap over a photo deemed offensive to Catholics, a company spokes-woman said.’
First, officials “asked that a photo of a 13-year-old girl dressed in a nun's habit kissing a 14-year-old boy in priest's garb be pulled from the show, said Josefina Braun, Benetton's director of communications for Argentina and Uruguay.’
"Benetton's answer was to scrub the entire exhibit, which featured about 40 photos previously used in Benetton ads that were to be shown in the city's Recoleta Cultural Center.’
The photographer reportedly called critics’ opinions of his work a “neuropsychiatric problem.’
Toscani, whose pictures include some called “image terrorism” by Vatican officials according to the report, said he was mystified as to why the photo was banned, saying the move “left everyone poorer.’
Irish Public Schools Can Pay Priests
In the United States, it is only relatively recently that the use of state funds for religious schools was deemed unconstitutional. Ireland recently rejected our example.
"The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed an application by the Campaign to Separate Church and State to prevent the minister for education paying chaplains in community schools,” said the March 26 Irish Times.
"The court ruled such payments were constitutional, but added that it was constitutionally impermissible for a chaplain to instruct any child in a religion other than the child's own without the consent of parents.’
"Mr. Justice Barrington also said a religious denomination was ‘not obliged to change the general atmosphere of its school merely to accommodate a child of a different religious persuasion who wishes to attend that school.’”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: PERSPECTIVE DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:The slaying of five students in Arkansas has fueled another round of soul-searching in our nation. Yet instead of asking why our culture breeds young murderers, let's pose a different question, also linked to the recent tragic events: What produces heroes and heroines, such as Shannon Wright, the teacher who sacrificed her life so that a student might live?
News reports have yet to offer an in-depth profile of Wright, but her actions alone testify to her extraordinary character. Confronted with a school yard transformed into a killing field, Wright scanned the periphery to find the gunmen. She quickly realized that one of her charges was in the line of fire. Throwing her body in front of the snipers’ target, she was shot mortally in the chest. Her last words expressed her love for her husband and young son.
Parents who struggle to guide their children in difficult times, surely must hope that if their offspring's photo appears on the front page of the newspaper it will be for a similar act of bravery—not an act of homicide. But what helps to instill the type of virtue that produces a Shannon Wright? The earliest thinkers of Western civilization pondered similar questions, and they sorted out a blueprint for moral education, based on the acquisition of the cardinal virtues—wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice—outlined in Plato's Republic. The classical world also agreed on the method of inculcating virtue, primarily a matter of instilling good habits and imitating morally upright adults and great heroes.
The rigor of the classical approach underscored the fact that learning to be good was an uphill battle. “Moral virtue … is formed by habit, ethos,” wrote Aristotle, in Nichomachean Ethics. “This shows, too, that none of the moral virtues is implanted in us by nature, for nothing which exists by nature can be changed by habit.’
To sweeten the labor of learning, the ancient world developed a kind of moral curriculum based on fables, myths, and parables. Virtue was taught through stories that typically hinged on the character of the protagonist that distinguished right from wrong, and that left the student with a compelling moral vision at the close of the narrative: in short, everyone wanted to be like Odysseus—or, perhaps, the faithful Penelope.
Until the 1970s, American moral education essentially followed this blueprint. Teachers in public and private schools encouraged children to imitate the courage of St. George, the honesty of George Washington. Catholic schools, while transmitting basic doctrine, also stressed imitation of Christ, the Blessed Virgin, and the saints, whose life stories personified specific virtues.
Then the blackboard was wiped clean: schools began to embrace a new paradigm called “values clarification.’
Values clarification departed from the virtue-based model in a number of ways, shaped by a utopian rationalism that contrasted with Aristotle's tough-minded realism. Abstract, open-ended conundrums replaced parables, fables, and myths as teaching tools. An explicit moral relativism reversed past efforts to aggressively transmit basic values.
We “see values not as eternal truths, institutionalized and stable, but as instruments that help one relate to the surrounding world of people, things, and ideas,” stated an early, 1966 text, Values and Teaching: Teaching Values in the Classroom. The best-selling 1972 handbook, Values Clarification, provided an assortment of dilemmas and questionnaires designed to provoke discussions on such matters as adultery, suicide, and cheating.
Proponents of values clarification believed in the innate goodness of children, and thus rejected “the dreary watch over the ancient values.’ Teacher-facilitators were trained to respect all values and choices equally. These ideas spread to many Catholic schools, where teachers ignored the doctrine of Original Sin, skirted moral absolutes, and frequently adopted the moral dilemma approach to “clarifying” individual values.
Like many untested theories welcomed in U.S. classrooms, values clarification survived a barrage of criticism. The strongest opponents were parents. They foresaw that taboo-shattering classroom bull sessions would complicate their efforts to discourage promiscuity and drug use. Mounting opposition forced proponents of the values clarification philosophy into retreat by the early 1990s. But its ideas still attract support in educational circles, and similar “non-directive” strategies continue to surface in many classrooms. Meanwhile, experts in the academy—such as Edwin Delattre of Boston University's Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character, and William Kilpatrick of Boston College, author of Why Johnny Can't Tell Right from Wrong and What You Can Do About It—have begun to revitalize classical moral education, training teachers to promote “moral literacy,” and providing lists of books that foster a solid moral vision in children.
This “character education” movement has fueled charter school initiatives and other start-up efforts. New studies in the field of psychology underscore the wisdom of using good literature to inspire a child's embrace of virtue. Psychologist Paul Vitz of New York University cites a body of research to show that the use of abstract conundrums, as a teaching tool, makes little sense when human beings are wired to understand almost everything, including themselves, as a story.
Now that we have rediscovered what fosters virtue in the classroom, we need to eliminate attitudes and programs that impoverish the moral imagination of our children. If we retreat from this challenge, then one must ask: Is moral deviancy “defined down” to such a degree in America that we dare not impose any demanding ideals on our young? Will we seek to nurture young people like Shannon Wright? Her story strengthens a nation's confidence that we still can do what is right.
Joan Frawley Desmond, a board member of Link Institute, which promotes character and content in education, writes from Menlo Park, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Joan Frawley Desmond ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Intimations of the Trinity's Third Person DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:by Raniero Cantalamessa OFM Cap
The Liturgical Press, 1994, 63 pp., $4.95)
There is a story, which may be one of Bishop Fulton Sheen's, about the Japanese fellow studying the dogma of the Trinity, who at the end of the lesson said: “I understand the part about the honorable Father, and the part about the honorable Son, but I am still not so sure about the honorable bird.’
The images used to symbolize the Holy Spirit are often not very helpful. The problem, of course, is that the attributes of the Holy Spirit don't easily correspond to our natural notions of personhood in the way that the Father and Son do. This in itself becomes a clue to the identity of the Holy Spirit. Cardinal Ratzinger once wrote: “[The Holy Spirit] does not appear as a separate and separable self, but disappears into the Father and the Son. The impossibility of developing a separate pneumatology [a science of the Spirit] is an integral part of his nature.’
That the Holy Spirit is always pointing to another person shows the appropriateness of the title, The Holy Spirit in the Life of Jesus. The principal role of the Holy Spirit is to make Christ present, then and now, and looking in the other direction, the life of Christ becomes the vehicle par excellence by which the Holy Spirit's distinctive nature is revealed. Christ is our model in all things. For us to get an idea of how the Holy Spirit is to work in our own lives, we should look to see how the Holy Spirit operated in the life of Jesus.
This has been done in admirable fashion in a short book by Father Raniero Cantalamessa OFM Cap, formerly professor of early Christianity and head of the department of religious sciences at the University of Milan, Italy. He now serves as preacher to the papal household. Since encountering his work by way of The Ascent of Mount Sinai, this reviewer has tried to snap up all the Cantalamessa he can. Few writers can match him for his knowledge of both patristics and currents in modern philosophy, and in the ability to write profound, personal, and stirring sentences.
The Holy Spirit in the Life of Jesus consists of four chapters, intended as meditations, each of which begins with an incident in the Gospels when the Holy Spirit is especially manifest in Jesus’ life. The first is Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, when, as St. Peter says, “After the baptism that John preached … God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power” (Ac 10:37). Unfortunately, the mystery of Jesus’ anointing was de-emphasized in the West in reaction to heresy, such as the Gnostic view that the divinity of Jesus was conferred at the baptism. “The most obvious result of all this,” writes Father Cantalamessa, “is a certain weakening of the pneumatic dimension of Christology, that is, the attention accorded to the Holy Spirit's activity in the life of Jesus.’
The life of Christ becomes the vehicle par excellence by which the Holy Spirit's distinctive nature is revealed.
The Second Vatican Council made initial moves toward restoring the mystery of the anointing to its rightful place, but, as the friar notes, much work remains to be done. Regaining the early Church's understanding of the anointing will help us to see that our entrance into the mystical body is a sharing in Christ's anointing, that we might then go forth in the power of the Spirit to share in his mission, becoming ourselves a fragrant unction that spreads “the sweet smell of Christ” throughout the world.
The second meditation sheds light on the Gospel statement that the spirit drove Jesus into the desert to be tempted. There Jesus gains mastery over the devil and comes back filled with a power whose source is, “the spirit of God.’ Father Cantalamessa here presents an extended and fascinating treatment on how we moderns should think about Satan. The Letter to the Ephesians describes the devil as “the ruler of the power of the air” and one may think in this connection of an “atmosphere” that often pervades the mass media and public opinion.
The third chapter argues for a better appreciation of the kerygma, or proclamation of the Gospel, as distinct from the Didache, or teaching therein. The Holy Spirit wrought marvelous effects in the preaching of Jesus. “He speaks with authority.’ Likewise the Holy Spirit put a mysterious power into the proclamation of the first apostles and their followers that “Jesus is Lord.’ This kerygma enkindles faith in unbelievers, despite its seeming foolishness according to human wisdom. Over time, however, the kerygma became incorporated into catechesis, causing the drama of accepting the faith to fade.
Since our world today ever more closely approximates the conditions encountered by the first Christian preachers, Father Cantalamessa calls for a return to the kerygma, but proclaimed “‘in the Holy Spirit’ that is to say as true believers, running the risk if need be of cultural inferiority vis-‡-vis the defenders of pure reason and those whose main objective is to respond to the world's expectations.’
Finally, Father Cantalamessa examines passages of the New Testament in which the Holy Spirit is manifest in the prayer of Jesus. “It is the Holy Spirit who raises the cry, ‘Abba,’ from Jesus’ heart.’ This same spirit, with which we too have been anointed, causes us to pray likewise: “As proof that you are children, God sent the Spirit of his son into our hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father.‘“ (Gal 4:6). There follows a discussion of the familiar precept to “pray ceaselessly.’ Father Cantalamessa makes the very nice point that learning to pray “in the Spirit” will mean moving from mere juxtaposition of prayer and activity to a subordination of activity to prayer.
Of all the spiritual exercises one could undertake this year to deepen awareness of the Holy Spirit, it would be hard to find one more profitable and painless than reading The Holy Spirit in the Life of Jesus.
Brother Clement Kennedy is a Benedictine monk at Prince of Peace Abbey in Oceanside, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Clement Kennedy OSB ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: A Communications Master Dodges His Biographer DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:by W. Terrence Gordon
(Stoddart, 1997, 465 pp., $35)
Marshall McLuhan: Escape into Understanding, A Biography by W. Terrence Gordon (Stoddart, 1997, 465 pp., $35)
Marshall McLuhan was a celebrity intellectual, famous both in Canada and abroad. In an age where philosophy has shrunk, he was usually called a communications theorist, but he was truly a philosopher who focused his considerable talents on the problem of knowing and understanding in a world of rapid technological change. He remained grounded in ancient and medieval philosophy, through which he converted to Catholicism in his mid-20s, and was devout until his death in 1980 at age 69.
Terrence Gordon has written a biography authorized by the family, and it shows. He is too busy celebrating to bother criticizing or explaining. Criticism is expendable, but explanation is not when presenting a thinker as complex as McLuhan. The subtitle of the book comes from McLuhan's observation that, “To high speed change no adjustment is possible. We become spectators only and must escape into understanding.’
McLuhanesque statements such as that need explanation, lest they escape from understanding. Is McLuhan here saying anything different from the ancient Greeks, who held that changing things could not be known, and so the mind had to move into the realm of understanding if man's world was to be intelligible? Perhaps he is, or perhaps he is not. Gordon never tells us. The book appears to be aimed at the general reader, but if so, Gordon assumes too much. He writes that contemporaries of McLuhan such as Etienne Gilson and Jacques Maritain had difficulty in figuring out exactly what he was up to. If the greatest philosophical minds of the century had difficulty, surely the general reader is entitled to a little help.
Gordon succeeds only in providing the most basic outline of McLuhan's thought. Most famous for his cryptic declaration that, “The medium is the message,” McLuhan examined the impact of communications technology upon culture, both understood in the broadest sense. McLuhan observed that technology shapes the human environment, and the communications media powerfully shape culture. Explaining his theories to renowned photographer Yousuf Karsh, who protested that he found McLuhan's work incomprehensible, McLuhan used the example of a camera. The very presence of a camera changes the relation between people, as one becomes the observer and the other the observed. We become far more self-conscious in the presence of the camera; the medium has changed our perception, our understanding, and our behavior.
At this level McLuhan remains banal. His originality lies in his application of his theories far and wide. He taught that the alphabet and later the printed word made the visual sense most important. The visual sense produces linear thinking, while reliance on the other senses, especially sound, results in broader and more complex thinking. He becomes audacious when he analyzes something like the Reformation: the Protestant use of the printing press introduced the disruption of linear thinking into a Catholic culture previously handed on in an organic and highly textured way.
Whether McLuhan is right or not is difficult to say, because it is always difficult to know exactly what he is saying. There can be no doubting his curiosity and intellectual fearlessness, but Gordon does not provide a guide to distinguish the true insight from mere snappy phrase-making, of which McLuhan was a media master.
Gordon treats McLuhan's conversion well, conveying his subject's enthusiasm for Chesterton and Aquinas. McLuhan considered himself a Thomist, giving his eldest son the name Thomas in honor of the saint. He insisted that examining how the sensory receipt of information shapes our understanding was nothing more than application of Thomistic epistemology to contemporary phenomena. But other biographers have thought that his examination of how communication shapes—not merely describes—reality was rooted more in the tradition of the Sophists and rhetoricians that he admired.
Though McLuhan once wrote to his mother that if he had converted five years earlier he would have become a priest, he did not make his Catholicism explicit in his scholarship. He believed that the Catholic intellectual tradition gave Catholic scholars an ability to see deeper into the truth of things, but that they could communicate that truth in secular language. Therefore he spoke about the effect of electronic technology in “dis-incarnating” man, leading to the view that the body was an obstacle to be overcome. He noted the tendency of television to frame matters in aggregates, and so to eclipse the sense of the individual. Gordon sees in McLuhan's warnings about the mechanization of birth and death a precursor of the papal phrase, “culture of death.’
Gordon succeeds in convincing the Catholic reader that McLuhan's philosophy of human communication, animated always by the eyes of faith, is an important contribution to the understanding of man and his society in the information age. The definition of that contribution eludes Gordon here.
Raymond de Souza is a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Kingston, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Raymond deSouza ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:ëBridges of Understandingí
May I commend the Register, March 29-April 4 highly for your excellent and comprehensive coverage of the Vatican commission's statement on the Holocaust ("Holocaust Document Falls Short of Jewish Expectations"). Also the interview with Dr. Eugene Fisher of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops was most incisive and informative ("Catholics & Jews: Sorting Out a Tormented History").
As the founder and chairman of the American Forum for Jewish and Christian Cooperation, I have long labored to build “bridges of understanding” between the Jewish and Christian communities. Much misunderstanding and distrust is still all too prevalent. Dr. Fisher's analysis plus the Vatican statement needs to be reprinted in pamphlet form and made available to every rabbi, Jewish professional, the Jewish press worldwide, and all lay leadership. We are ready to assist in this endeavor. Again, my gratitude to the Register for its coverage.
Rabbi David Ben-Ami
Washington, D.C.
Breaking the Silence
At last! Through the crucible of the bloodiest century in the history of humankind, two great religions break their silence and attempt to deal with the magnitude of the crimes in the Shoah of 6 million Jews and the Holocaust of the untold millions of aborted babies through the world ("Holocaust Document Falls Short of Jewish Expectations,” and “Rabbis Join Outcry Against Partial-Birth Abortion,” March 29-April 4). The Vatican, taking its “first step” in a commitment to seek out truth in the Church's historical role during World War II, and 64 rabbis, in a public declaration, joining the Christian outcry against partial-birth abortion. I would liken these two events to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall.
However, there will be those who will say, “Not enough! The Church still has sins to confess!” And the pro-life movement will ask, “Where have the rabbis been in the past 25 years?” The old adage “silence gives approbation to evil” could be applied here in equal measure. The question remains: Are the silenced voices of the victims satisfied?
Arlene Sawicki
South Barrington, Illinois
Defending Pius XII
Thank you for your fine editorial, “The Black Legend of Pius XII” (March 29-April 4). I am a World War II veteran and also go back to the time when Bishop Noll pioneered speaking the truth through Catholic journalism in an anti-Catholic climate.
Your editorial seems to be one of the few presentations of truth to the American public about the Black Legend. Some of the editorials and syndicated columns in the secular press, one of which was written by a Catholic, leads one to suspect their credentials. If secular journalists do not know world history, what credibility do they have in other subjects?
Thank you for presenting the truth about what really happened during World War II. Pope Pius XII was not only not silent during World War II, but in the eyes of its veterans, the slander against this saintly man is refuted by the secular history of the war itself.
You are making a great contribution to the faithful in upholding their sacred Catholic heritage.
Lawrence Severson
Albany, New York
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: A Time To Regroup For Ongoing Struggle for Life DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:The feast of Easter brings great consolation to those who have struggled for 30 years or more in the pro-life movement in this country. From a human point of view, we seem to go from defeat to defeat. Attitudes have shifted drastically, making society tolerant of contraception, abortion, infanticide, physician-assisted suicide, and soon, legally sanctioned euthanasia. Pope John Paul II has expressed his own profound dismay about these developments in previously Christian societies.
In his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) the Holy Father speaks of “atrocious crimes” and “murderous violence” abroad and in our land. He says that those who would choose abortion as a solution to problems have an attitude that “is shameful and utterly reprehensible.’ He is incredulous that in our day “crimes have assumed the nature of rights.’ Nations that had been considered civilized are reverting “to a state of barbarism.’ Whenever we see legally sanctioned abortion, the Pope tells us, we are dealing with a “tyrant state,” which is engaged in a “tragic caricature of legality.’ Indeed we must recognize that in a country such as the United States with its anti-life policies, “the disintegration of the state has begun.’
The Pope has delineated in forceful and profoundly unsettling language the gravity and depth of the cultural struggle being waged today. We are engaged in mortal combat between “a culture of death” and “a culture of life.’ John Paul sees the future of humanity itself as being at stake. In his 1994 Letter to Families he writes: “we are facing an immense threat to life: not only to the life of individuals but also to that of civilization itself.’
Nowhere is that struggle more intense than in the area of medicine and the life sciences. The freezing of human embryos has become commonplace. Pregnancy has come to be redefined in order to allow experimentation on—and destruction of—human life at its earliest stages of development. In vitro fertilization, which invariably involves the destruction of some human lives for the sake of others, has engendered thousands of children—but tragically at great cost of life. Pregnant women carrying more children than desired allow some of them to be destroyed through “fetal reduction.’ We find the moral sensibilities of our society so weakened that it cannot muster the moral courage to outlaw infanticide (also known as “partial-birth abortion") at the national level. Oregon now legally permits physicians to help patients kill themselves.
‘We are facing an immense threat to life: not only to the life of individuals but also to that of civilization itself.’
Admittedly, such developments are terribly discouraging, but we cannot allow ourselves to become discouraged. The feast of the Resurrection is the time to be restored and revivified for continuing the struggle for life.
Easter is the time to remember the name of this little boy or girl that our pro-life efforts helped save. There are surely tens of thousands of children who are known to pro-lifers because they counseled a friend at work or a classmate at school not to abort the child she was carrying. There are countless pro-lifers who have taken troubled young women into their homes to help them in times of need and forged lifetime bonds with them and their children. Easter is the time to remember these victories—and to look to the day when we will no longer have simply these individual triumphs. Rather we will have actually forged a new culture of life, a civilization of love, in which innocent life will quite naturally enjoy the benefit of the protection of the state and of society at large.
As we work for that new day we should be able to look to Catholic health care in the United States to be a powerful force for positive social change. Catholic health care is unequivocally committed to the weak, the vulnerable, and those on the margin of society. Many Catholic hospitals evaluate their chief executive officers not only by the financial bottom line but also by the amount of charity care that has been provided to the surrounding community.
Furthermore, all Catholic health care facilities are bound to follow the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services issued by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Those Directives provide guidance to the personnel of Catholic health care institutions to enable them to avoid ever violating the dignity of the human person who has come to them for care. There are clear prohibitions against abortion and euthanasia, against human experimentation that would not benefit the patient, and against surgical sterilizations and contraception that affront the dignity of men and women.
Easter is a time to celebrate not only the individual, personal redemption each one of us can have in Jesus Christ. Easter is also a time for great hope that an entire culture will one day be redeemed and transformed into a true culture of life. One of the most promising agents for such a transformation is surely Catholic health care.
John Haas is president of the Pope John Center for the Study of Ethics in Health Care in Boston, Massachusetts.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: John Haas ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Life in the VIRTUAL CULTURE DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:Following are excerpts from Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger's address at the March 26-28 conference in Denver on “The New Technologies and the Human Person.î
Our civilization produces fictional objects that only look real: tri-dimensional images, holograms, electronic stimulations of sight, hearing, and even touch and smell. As a result, the perception of time and space is no longer linked to the usual constraints, but it is also deprived of such support. Modern technologies turn space into an abstraction by making pictures simultaneously available everywhere in the universe. However, space itself can be measured only in terms of time, and in close connection with it. The emotional grasp of repetitive and omnipresent pictures then leads to a disorganized perception of the distinction between “here” and “there,” or “now” and “then,” and this can reach the virtual impossibility to conceive anything “after.’
Time and space thus tend to be punctually condensed into the here and now of each individual consumer of pictures. What we have here is a parody of eternity. Man pictures himself as eternal. He dreams of forgetting the human condition, with its mortality and finitude, his status of a creature. Moreover, the ideologies that aim at bringing down our consumer society only foster this mindless Promethean temptation, as they add a no less mindless will to power to the materialistic idolatry of the senses.
This is a serious danger for our mass culture. Of course, one can still hope that enough critical and wise minds, or open and generous hearts, will always be found among men. Whether it is duly acknowledged or scorned, powerful or marginalized—this is impossible to foretell—an elite will safeguard and augment the capital of knowledge and humanity which we have inherited, even if we can imagine regressions by comparison with the past.
But what is going to happen to mass culture? Popular culture is the battlefield where today's civilizations are clashing. What are— what will prove to be—the shortcomings of “the consumer society,"as we summarily call it? The allegedly virtuous policies of the total-itarian regimes have been found incapable of liberating man from that infernal circle of alienation and servitude. As for the ideological tool, it is a frightening idol, which corrupts spiritual liberty, not only by conditioning the senses but also by affecting reason itself.
Fantasies and Horrors
[I] should point out some of the fantasies that have been aroused by the advancement of scientific research, especially in the field of biology. I use the term “fantasies” here, in the hope that all this will remain purely fictional and will never materialize in the future.
In this respect, we can mention the biological immortality that some have endeavored to turn into profitable businesses by freezing the bodies of people who are about to die and look forward to being revived, or to surviving their terminal illnesses.
Then there is the prospect of human procreation by the duplication or cloning of embryos, with the denial of generation that such procedures entail. At a less sophisticated level, we find all the eccentricities of invitro fertilization, in which the indefinite conservation of semen allows us to ignore both the life of the human couple and the structuring of the individual by his lineage.
And we can also think of the preservation of frozen embryos, with all the scientific experiments inflicted upon them.
Finally, the pictorial developments of science-fiction illustrate the fears and desires which haunt the human mind. Jurassic Park was a regression, as it attempted to revive some extinct species. On the other hand, in its four successive versions. Alien anticipated clonings, hybridations, and the production of new creatures across the barriers between the species. All of this suggests that men can only envision their future as some Chamber of Horrors, with merciless struggles ending in unspeakable destructions.
What can we make out of this mass culture, which weighs upon the elites themselves by picturing man as reduced to his bodily condition, soon to be disfigured and dehumanized?
As men are plunged into this pictorial culture, how can they—how can Christians—see and understand themselves, and bear witness to human dignity? Christian anthropology cannot be drawn from such inhuman distortions: it rather expresses the beauty and greatness of the “human phenomenon,” as the mystery of faith unassumingly enlightens it. This is the humble but productive Christian contribution to a civilization based on love. …
One question that is often asked is, “Can the Christian Faith be adapted to necessities of the present time?” This is self evident. Yet the next question is, how are we going to adapt the Christian rites, and even the faith itself, to the demands of modern civilization? Some may then wonder whether calling for the respect of the uniqueness of the human person while accusing our culture of promoting idolatry, might not simply amount to rejecting civilization. And this suspicion may well frighten many, who will think that a compromise with today's culture must be found at any cost.
At this stage of our spiritual discernment, we should strive to point out more accurately what distinguishes and opposes the cult of pictures for their own sake, and the respect which is due to each human person. Is Christian thinking inherently archaic, and should the Church therefore take to seeing things otherwise? Even if this led to some serious crises, she could then overcome all that prevents her from teaming up with the culture of this world. Or, conversely, should it be maintained that the revelation and the signs given to us in the history of salvation force us to criticize the course taken by our civilization and urge us to alter it so as to save man?
The question that must now be insisted on is the following one: Do the alienating pictures of desire merely reflect a technological drift that will automatically become more and more blatant? Or is this not also the result of free choices between good and evil—between what is good and what is bad for man? God wants what is good for man and gives it to him so that he may further it, whereas evil is what man does to himself and what God asks him to guard himself against. Yet, how much freedom does man enjoy when confronted with the requirements of his desires and his culture? Moral options remain possible. They are even indispensable to face the unavoidable constraints to which our rationality has allowed itself to be subjected.
Challenge forthe Millennium
This is a genuinely anthropological and moral challenge for the end of this millennium. The choice we have to make is vital, between desire without love, and love that does not rule out desire but the inconsistencies of desire. As everyone knows, the risk of such an endeavor is that it can be deemed obsolete or reactionary. The solution is to find the kind of conceptual tools that will help us to understand the world of images which is being built beyond our grasp according to the unforgiving logic of idolatry and death. Alienating pictures obey the law of the snowballing of desire under its proliferating forms, whereas desire should be dominated and its images should be sanctified through free choices made for the sake of love.
Already in the past, humankind has experienced similar obscurities and uncertainties, whenever some progress was being made. This is a point I would like to dwell upon, as we now have to think clearly and conscientiously if we are to move forward along a path where no less is at stake than the fate of the generations to come.
In a pictorial culture haunted by visions of a future where technology has gone awry, how can Christians see and understand themselves, and how can they bear witness to human dignity?
We may be paralyzed by guilty feelings, because in former times some Christians fought decisive changes that eventually proved to improve the human condition. We can now say that, as a rule, the reluctance of such Christians and of the Church Magisterium mainly pointed at losses or omissions which would turn out to harm those who suffered the consequences. Or faith urged to expose the Promethean temptation of pride and will to power that was being implicitly but irresistibly awakened by such advances. Even if people were generally unaware of it, they were being tempted to claim full credit for what in real fact was only given to them through God's Providence.
On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that the rational distinction was not always made as it should between the beneficial breakthroughs that God had allowed, and the ambitiously selfish advantage that men wanted to take from these discoveries.
The tradition is our heritage. It teaches us to guard ourselves against committing against the same errors of judgment. But this cannot prevent us from denouncing the perversions of our culture, showing the alienations that it creates, and making sure we do not yield to their seductions. If we must keep on raising the issue of morals and anthropology, it is to fight for man's health, life, and salvation.
Is our liberty nothing more than the desires which haunt our limbs and our imagination? Or is it also and above all the freedom of the spirit whose presence in us is a gift?
The transfixing and illuminating spear-head of this key questioning is the presence of the one who loved us to the point of giving himself away for us, sacrificing his body and shedding his blood. …
Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger is the archbishop of Paris.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: A Few Post-Oscar Grumblings on Titanic DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:Andrew Jack is a brave man. The U.K.'s Financial Times correspondent wrote a stunning rebuke of the blockbuster movie, Titanic, calling it “clichÈ-ridden” and “excessively hyped.’
The British do have a talent for understating the obvious.
At the moment, Titanic is riding a tidal wave of approval. Its box office receipts make it the largest-grossing moving of all time. It won a fistful of Oscars last month, including “Best Picture.’
And, if you think the film is big in America, try getting a ticket for it in Paris.
p align="left">It's so popular in France right now, you would have better luck flying to the United States to see it.At least, that's what a Parisian friend said, on a recent visit to America.
"What do you want to see?” I asked her, thinking of various museums and historic sites.
Frankly, I liked the film. But, I have a few complaints. Like the Financial Times critic, I think the producer should have left a half-hour of celluloid on the editing room floor. In a three-hour saga, how many frantic scenes do we need of water-soaked stars running around below deck?
In addition, I think the script was, at times, less than adequate. “Come on! This way!” seems to be the line du jour during the last half of the movie.
And, of course, this being the 1990s, there was no chance of the PG-13 movie being released without the inclusion of at least one sex scene—in a film that is sure to be seen by almost every eight-year-old in America.
More than all that, though, there seems to be an odd kind of class bigotry at play in the story.
I'm glad the movie is historically accurate about the fact that immigrants were locked below the decks of the sinking ship. During the Titanic disaster it wasn't, “Women and children first.’ In reality, it was, “First-class passengers first.’
But, the extreme contrast between the high-class dinner and the low-class Irish dance was almost too much to take.
My grandparents crossed the Atlantic in steerage class two years after the sinking of the S.S. Titanic. They may have been poor, but they had clear standards of proper behavior.
In real life, I doubt that the lower-class passengers acted like the barnyard brutes shown in the movie. Yes, the Irish have a genetic predilection toward alcoholism, but anyone who has been to a real Irish dance, as compared to the American Irish version, will attest that they are family events that often don't include alcohol.
Before boarding the S.S. Titanic during its last stop in Queenstown, Ireland, I'm sure almost every one of the immigrants attended confession at St. Coleman's Cathedral, high on the hill overlooking the wharves. With Mass looming the morning after their Saturday night dance, they wouldn't be quick to lose their chance to receive Communion.
And, will someone please teach Leonardo DiCaprio how to dance Irish-style? The movie shows him whirling with an immigrant child. But, he's doing a disco step—nothing that could pass for Irish.
After all the hype about the trouble taken to make sure the movie was accurate, it makes me wonder.
In the end, the movie's most haunting scenes have little to do with Hollywood, and everything to do with the courage of the 1,513 men and women who died in the disaster.
One of them was Father Thomas Byles, a Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Westminster, whose body was never recovered. While the first class passengers were at Sunday Morning prayer service, Father Byles was saying Mass in the second class lounge. Following this, he offered Mass in steerage, hours before the fatal crash.
During the sinking, he was last seen on the aft of the ship where he led passengers in the rosary. At some point, he granted a general absolution to those who huddled around him. The movie shows the former, but not the latter.
Of course, Jack and Kate are fictional characters. But, the real tragedy is the fact that Jack died, it would seem, with serious sin on his soul.
For someone in the state of grace, the death of the body is a burden only for those who are left behind. But, the loss of an immortal soul is a catastrophe beyond comprehension.
In real life, the man who could have liberated them was within an arm's reach.
Kathleen Howley is a Boston-based journalist.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Kathleen Howley ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Bigotry Of Blaine Amendments DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:The ongoing controversy over school choice began more than 100 years ago with an amendment to prohibit public aid to religious schools
In his autobiography, Henry Adams said, “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.’ This is true for teachers, and usually on a far larger scale, for politicians as well. The legacy of James Blaine's effect on education is an unfortunate example.
Born in Pennsylvania in 1830, Blaine died in Washington, D.C., in 1893. In the interim he was himself briefly a teacher in Kentucky, following which he returned to Pennsylvania, and subsequently moved to Maine, which became the base for his political career. That included serving as speaker of the house at both the state and national level and nearly being elected president of the United States in 1884.
In addition, he twice served as U.S. secretary of state and the Concise Dictionary of American Biography says his “permanent influence was through his foreign policy.’ Not quite.
Neither that work, nor most other history books, mention what has been the most significant impact of his political career, one that, unfortunately, is still with us—in the form of what are termed “Blaine Amendments.’
The 19th century saw the emergence of the public school movement, which was accompanied in mid-century by a surge of immigration, notably from Ireland and Germany. The Irish, of course, were Catholics, but so were many of the Germans, unlike the earlier arrivals from that nation, such as the Amish and the Pennsylvania Dutch.
As the speaker of the house, Blaine proposed an amendment to prohibit public aid to religious schools, something that had been commonly accepted until then. But, until then, those schools were overwhelmingly Protestant.
Congress rejected the idea, but anti-Catholic bigotry was so strong at the time that many states put the proposal in their constitutions, where it remains in various forms, some more stringent than others.
Most of the ongoing controversy about full school choice thus began with Blaine, not the founding fathers or the original adoption of the U.S. Constitution and/or the Bill of Rights including the First Amendment. With the passage of time, the idea has acquired a life of its own and its birth in bigotry has been forgotten.
Blaine himself paid a high price for his attitude. In the 1884 presidential election, when Blaine was the Republican nominee, a Blaine supporter, New York Presbyterian minister Samuel Burchard, said the Democratic Party was for “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion.’ Blaine's failure to disassociate himself adequately from that remark cost him the state of New York, and the presidency.
The single greatest threat to national prosperity and stability comes from the inadequacy of much of the public schooling process.
Yet Blaine's effect on eternity lives on, for which we pay the price. Despite the First Amendment's wording that “Congress shall make no law regarding an establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” we are the only Western democracy that, in effect, prohibits individuals from having their children receive the education of their choice unless they have the means to pay for it twice— once in taxes and once in tuition.
John Coons has written that: “The machinery of public monopoly was chosen specifically by Brahmins like Horace Mann and James Blaine to coax the children of immigrants from the religious superstition of their barbarian parents. Today, that antique machinery continues its designated role, and if this function was ever benign, it has long since ceased to be so. What has endured is the public school system's peculiar legacy of intolerance, racial segregation, religious bigotry, discrimination against the poor… [and] the careful buffering of the freedom of the rich to decide for themselves.’
Thomas Jefferson said every generation, while it might respect tradition, should be able to decide its own destiny and not be burdened by the dead hand of the past. He suggested generations should average about 19 years.
In the entire history of this nation, no one has seriously suggested that we have a nationally established Church, and now there isn't the slightest possibility that it could ever be done. It isn't the establishment of religion that should concern us. The single greatest threat to national prosperity and stability comes from the inadequacy of much of the public schooling process. Correcting this depends to a large extent on a freedom of choice, basic to our democracy, but which is still blocked by today's more subtle, but no less harmful, expressions of religious bigotry.
The systematic removal of Blaine amendments would go a long way toward moving us in the right direction.
Dave Kirkpatrick is a Distinguished Fellow with the Blum Center at Marquette University. Reprinted with permission from Crisis in Education.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Dave Kirkpatrick ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: A Fifth Grader's Theological Search DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:For the past 20 years there has been a continual stream of movies and plays that portray Catholic schools in a negative light. The teachers are shown to be bullies and occasionally perverts; their faith is presented as rigid, narrow, and oppressive; and the students suffer deep psychological damage. These negative stereotypes seem particularly unfair since during this same time period all surveys on the Catholic educational system have emphasized its superiority to state-funded equivalents in almost every way.
Set against this anti-Catholic climate, Wide Awake is a welcome relief. This poignant, charming story chronicles a 10 year old's temporary loss of faith and his subsequent search for God, and it depicts parochial schools as well-run, emotionally nurturing institutions whose students get a first-class academic and moral education. The teachers, who are all priests and nuns, are good-humored and attentive to their charges’ needs.
As most of the action is set among fifth graders though, writer-director M. Night Shyamalan (Praying With Anger) often treats his subject matter with a light touch. He gets plenty of laughs out of the students’ continual mistrust of authority. The film's tone is set in an early classroom scene. Josh Beal (Joseph Cross), who admits that “people think I ask too many questions,” unintentionally gives his religion teacher, Sister Terry (Rosie O'Donnell), a rough time. Sister Terry, who wears a baseball cap in class along with her habit, tries hard to connect with her students on their level. She describes Jesus as going up to bat and facing down the pitcher Judas.
The teachers, who are all priests and nuns, are good-humored and attentive to their charges'needs.
Her fifth-grade class has recently been given a reading assignment that suggests that people who aren't baptized may go to hell. Josh, always the diligent student, asks if he should immediately seek out and warn those family friends who are in that unblessed state. Following his lead, all the other students want to issue similar admonitions to the adults who haven't been baptized. Things start to spin out of control. But Sister Terry is finally able to persuade the class to hold off on the doom and gloom until the next session when she can explain the teaching in greater detail.
Josh has been raised in an affluent suburban Philadelphia household in which both his physician-parents (Dana Delany and Denis Leary) work. His best friend and constant companion is his grandpa (Robert Loggia). A rabid football fan and a practicing Catholic, he gives his grandson two pieces of advice: “Keep both hands on the ball, and hold on to your faith.’
Grandpa is stricken with bone cancer and, true to his word, continues to believe in God. When he dies, Josh seeks a sign that his grandfather is okay and has gone to heaven. Nothing is immediately forthcoming. So the boy emulates the methods of the video-game and TV space commanders who are his role models and embarks on “a mission” to find God.
Josh's parents correctly perceive his state of mind as related to the grieving process triggered by his grandfather's death. They don't pay much attention to his fifth-grade version of a theological quest. But when Josh wants to spend spring vacation in Rome, they figure out that his motive is to question the Pope, whom he describes as “God's best friend.’ The Beals, of course, never leave Philadelphia.
Josh is relentless. When his class goes to confession, he admits that usually “we make up stuff as if we're on-line.’ But this time he presses the priest (Dan Lauria) for some honest answers. The cleric is emotionally supportive while keeping the exchange on a spiritual level. He explains that doubt is often part of a person's search for faith and that Josh shouldn't be surprised that his faith is being tested.
The filmmaker skillfully incorporates the 10-year-old's religious quest into the normal processes of growing up. The young boy has just discovered the opposite sex and is comforted when the girl of his dreams shows sympathy for his plight.
Rumors circulate at school that a certain Cardinal Geary talks directly to God. Josh breaks all the rules and crashes a reception for the prelate at the girls’ parochial school. But when he corners the old man in the bathroom, he discovers that the cardinal is seriously ill and must take medication to get through the day's events. Josh has the tact to back off and not bombard him with questions.
He also learns to view his fellow students in a more charitable light. His best friend, Dave O'Hara (Timothy Reifsnyder) turns out to be more than a daredevil who lives in a mansion. The child is afflicted with epilepsy, and Josh is there to help him during one of his seizures.
At times both the school and its environs seem like a privileged enclave for the rich. But Josh gets his nose rubbed in the reality of the suburban rat race. A classmate, who often bullies him, is forced to leave school because his parents can no longer afford the tuition. The kid feels humiliated and rejected by his peers. Josh forgives his former nemesis for his acts of cruelty, and of all the students, only he seeks out the departing classmate to say good-bye.
In the end Josh is given a sign, and his faith is restored. Along the way he has gained from the quest a greater psychological maturity. It's presented as a normal part of growing up, and Catholic schools are shown to have a positive impact on the experience. Wide Awake is that rare film that both children and adults will find entertaining and enlightening.
Arts & culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
Wide Awake is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America.
Register ratings
Violence 3
Language 3
Nudity 3
Sexual content 3
----- EXCERPT: In Wide Awake, a charming story of a young boy's temporary loss of faith, Catholic schools are portrayed-for once-in a positive light ----- EXTENDED WORD: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Guardians of the Chant DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:Benedictine monks and nuns in Solesmes, France, capture the solemn beauty of Gregorian chant like no others
In the countryside of western France lie the Abbeys of St. Peter and St. Cecilia, which flourish today as worldwide centers of Gregorian chant, spirituality, and performance. Almost 90 monks belong to the Solesmes community of men, and about 35 nuns to the Solesmes community of women. Both have achieved worldwide recognition for their contributions to restoring the true Gregorian chant of the Church.
For more than a century the Benedictine monks and nuns of Solesmes have been deeply involved in the research of Gregorian chant. One of their aims is to assimilate the spiritual riches it contains into the life of prayer within the Church. Many people throughout the world are familiar with the Benedictine monks and nuns of Solesmes for their recordings and publications. Along with chant, the monks also do extensive research and writing on monastic traditions and papal teachings.
The men's monastery was founded at Solesmes in 1010 but was closed during the French Revolution. In 1833, a young priest of the local diocese by the name of Father GuÈranger purchased the men's abbey and restored the monastery to a fully functioning house under the Benedictine Order. Initiating a rediscovery of Christian tradition, the soon-to-be first abbot of Solesmes did extensive research into Church history, liturgy, Gregorian chant, and Holy Scripture. After his death, his work was carried on by the monks, and today they remain at the forefront of papal, monastic, and Gregorian chant research. During his lifetime, with the help of Mother Cecilia Bruyere, Dom GuÈranger also established the women's monastery of St. Cecilia.
As Solesmes grew in numbers, the monks founded additional monasteries. Among the first were St. Martin of Tours in LigugÈ (1853), St. Mary Magdalene in Marseilles (1865), and Santo Domingo de Silos in Spain (1880). In 1889, the nuns also expanded and established a monastery at Wisque. In 1981, they founded a monastery in the United States—the Immaculate Heart of Mary at Westfield, Vt. Today, the Congregation of Solesmes includes 21 men's monasteries with 760 monks, and eight women's monasteries with 280 nuns.
Prayer and work, the Rule of St. Benedict, orders the lives of the monks and nuns. Every day they spend four or more hours in community prayer, one hour in personal prayer, and the rest of the time performing manual labor, studying, or having periods of recreation. The Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours are the heart of community life in each abbey.
In accordance with Vatican II and the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, the monks and nuns of Solesmes have “preserved the use of the Latin Language and given prominent place to Gregorian Chant” in their liturgies. Along with the chant, they also give special attention to the visual aspects of the Mass with their vestments, ceremonial gestures, and incense. The result is Solesmes’ world-renowned role in the liturgical renewal and restoration of Gregorian chant.
Today thousands of people come every year to Solesmes to hear the pure sounds of Gregorian chant. Here the solemn beauty of the sacred music renews and refreshes pilgrims and visitors alike.
With a visit to the spiritual treasure house of Solesmes, one can spend time at any of the services. As the two abbeys are located within one block of each other, it is possible to hear both the men and women monks in the same day. Each monastery offers a full schedule of Gregorian chant services.
Every morning, the Abbey of St. Peter celebrates a concelebrated sung Mass—a liturgy so beautiful it makes for an unforgettable experience.
The abbey church of St. Peter's is open from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (except during services) and for Compline (usually 8:30 p.m.). On Sundays and Feast Days it is open from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. A bookstore and an exhibit about the abbey is open (except during services) from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. daily, and from 11:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Sundays and Feast Days. The abbey church of St. Cecilia operates on a similar schedule and also runs a small gift shop.
Monastic accommodations (Villa Ste-Anne), located at the nuns'abbey of St. Cecilia, receive men and women from April to October. The guesthouse at St. Peter's, that lies within the monastic enclosure, welcomes men wishing to make a retreat. Another guest house, outside the cloister, is open to adults and youth groups. Solesmes is about 145 miles southwest of Paris. In traveling there from Paris, take AutoRoute A11 west (Paris-Nantes route) and exit at Sable-sur-Sarthe. The abbeys are located on the left bank of the river in Solesmes, two miles to the east of Sable-sur-Sarthe.
Trains run from the Paris Montparnasse train station to Le Mans, where pilgrims must change trains to complete the journey to Sable-surSarthe. From here, taxis are available for the two-mile trip to the Solesmes abbeys.
If one is interested in learning more about the abbeys'life and work, contact the association Friends of Solesmes (l'Association des Amis de Solesmes), at Minitel, 3615 Marie Reine, Solesmes, France, or e-mail: abbaye@solesmes.com
For more information on making a pilgrimage to the abbeys, contact one of the many Catholic travel organizations offering guided tours to France or contact the Father Guest Master at: Abbaye St. Pierre de Solesmes, 72300 Sable-sur-Sarthe; (tel.) 011-33-243-95-03-08; (fax) 011-33-243-95-68-79, Monastic Hotel: Villa Ste-Anne 21, rue J. Alain 72300 Sable-sur-Sarthe; (tel.) 011-243-95.45.05 (This is the monastic accommodation near the abbey of St.Cecilia.)
Kevin Wright, author of Catholic Shrines of Western Europe, writes from Bellevue, Washington.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Kevin Wright ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: With Music, a New Generation of Pro-lifers Sends a Message Loud and Clear DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:You will not silence my message.
You will not mock my God.
You will stop killing my generation.
Such is the strong message of Rock For Life, a Portland, Ore.-based youth organization dedicated to eliminating abortion and supporting life, from conception to natural death.
"I'm the poster child of who they say should have been aborted,” grins big-hearted, tattooed Bryan Kemper, 30, who founded the group in 1994. “I had spinal meningitis; my mother was told I was dead at birth but they revived me and told her that I suffered severe brain damage. I was put in developmentally disabled classes and participated in the Special Olympics. I was abused and molested by my uncle and parents. I lived the ultimate childhood hell, became a drug dealer, and got heavy into crime.’
But Kemper “found Jesus” at age 20 and his life, literally, has never been the same. He says that Christians took him in and prayed for him while he was suffering withdrawals. He fell into a long, deep sleep and woke up, as he says, “loving Jesus.’ It took him about five years to incorporate Christian values entirely into his life. It was an ongoing, intense learning experience, but one that he doesn't regret in the least.
It was his love and musical talent that drew Kemper quickly into Christian music and association with Christian rock musicians. After his life stabilized, a tug at his heart began to grow—an inner desire to somehow serve God in the mission field.
He thought at first it would be through his music, but then he felt that God was asking him to quit music altogether in favor of pro-life work. That was asking a lot since music was such a strong part of Kemper's life. He says his discernment process wasn't easy, but, eventually, he surrendered and said “yes” to that heartfelt inspiration.
"As soon as I quit all the bands I was in, I got the vision for Rock for Life,” Kemper explains. “I truly believe that God wanted me to give something up in order for him to give it back to me in the way he wanted me to use it.’
Rock for Life has indeed reached the hearts of so-called Gen-X teens and college-aged young people across the nation. Last year, Rock For Life organized 15 concerts nationwide. Featuring mainly hard rock and punk music, the concerts are interwoven with speakers who encourage abstinence and pro-life messages. What's more, the message doesn't fall on deaf ears, instead it attracts a variety of youth, including many with spiked or colored hair, nose rings, and tattoos. Some concert-goers are vegetarians, some are passionate about animal rights, some are high schoolers, others are in their 20s or early 30s, but all are unwaveringly serious about ending abortion in this country.
It has been 25 years since the Roe v. Wade decision was handed down. The pro-life message is no longer carried merely by adults fighting the unjust murder of hundreds of thousands of preborn children. Now the crusade has taken root in the hearts of the younger generation, the generation that is beginning to recognize and call attention—loud, vocal attention—to the loss of one-third of their brothers and sisters, friends and colleagues.
"Our generation has been silent for too long,” says Kemper. “We need to become an Esther generation [referring to the Old Testament heroine], to act with her kind of courage and stand up against abortion, immorality, and pornography. One-third of us have been slaughtered and the [Christian faithful are] way too silent.’
Kemper compares what he calls watered-down youth groups and soft-sell Christian messages to the little church that bordered the rail tracks that were used to haul the Jews to prison. The congregation would sing loudly whenever they heard a train approaching, in order to drown out the cries of the Jews. He says that when young people face persecution and a true challenge, they are bold and do more than anyone would imagine. Rock For Life youth are even inspiring their parents to get more involved.
"We need to break the chain—the slippery slope we're on,” says Kemper. “It's not up to the government. It's up to us.’
The Rock for Life group is growing rapidly, with 15 chapters and 150 bands that they work with now. More than 3,500 kids receive their newsletter and they've just launched a Pro-Life Pledge, which involves getting more than 100,000 signed pledges to stand up for life. When the pledges are collected, the group plans to send them to the president of the United States.
In addition to organizing concerts for life across the nation, Rock For Life printed an immediately popular pro-life sticker that reads “abortion is mean” and has plenty of T-shirts and other appealing, youth-oriented pro-life stuff on hand. In addition, they run a live, prime-time cable TV show in Portland that generates lit-up phone lines daily. Kemper says the station keeps telling him it's the hottest show in Portland and they have ideas for expansion.
This isn't a fly-by-night operation. It's an apostolate— and as such, the organizers and associates are united in putting God and prayer first.
"We need to stand up for life,” says singer-musician Wendy Bailey. “Life comes straight from God. Every life that's created has a purpose and taking that life away is like someone else playing God. We need to take a stand because it's murder.’
Bailey “hangs out” with the Rock for Life friends, praying in front of a local abortion clinic on Saturday mornings, when she's in Portland. But whether she's there or not, she prays for the success of their work and she's a regular participant in their concerts.
"Abortion seems almost commonplace now,” laments the 30-year-old songwriter. “Lots of my friends are pro-choice, especially among the musician community.’
Bailey is quick to point out that Rock For Choice is well supported financially and even though most of the music isn't about abortion, many of today's popular bands contribute to the abortion-supporting group—bands such as Foo Fighters, Bush, Pearl Jam, and Sound Garden.
Rock For Life on the other hand, gives young people a genuine choice. They have even set up a detailed and graphically interesting Web site, (www.RockForLife.org) that includes a list of bands to boycott (i.e., those that support abortion) and bands to support because they're pro-life.
Nearly two years ago, Rock For Life issued its own compilation of pro-life bands in a CD called No Apologies and the group is gearing up to release another one later this year. Bailey's song about adoption, Option, is on the first CD.
"The most frequent reason I hear to get an abortion is inconvenience,” Bailey explains. “OK, if it's a hassle for you, give birth to the child and let a couple who really wants a baby bring up this life. Give your child a chance.’
For more information on Rock For Life, check out the group's Web site or call 503-238-0457.
Karen Walker writes from Corona del Mar, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Karen Walker ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Battles of Words Carry Deep MeaningIn Abortion Controversies DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:Three current cases underscore the importance of language usage to the pro-life cause
NEW YORK—What is “enforced pregnancy?” When do state custody laws regarding minors not apply? What is the difference between campaigning for a candidate and informing the public about a candidate's record and expressing opinion about it?
Because each of these questions has to do with abortion and the lives of unborn babies, the issues involve more than mere wordplay. In fact, the meanings of words and the powerful ideas they convey have been at the heart of the abortion controversy since the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision created a new category of existence called “potential life,” which the rapidly developing unborn child somehow falls under at every stage before complete delivery.
Never mind that bearing “potential life” in the womb is like being “a little bit pregnant;” the term fit the needs of the court that wanted to make abortion-on-demand the law of the land. Abortion supporters were quick to follow the lead by countering “pro-life” with “pro-choice” and going even further in concocting the awkward-sounding “anti-choice” tag for pro-lifers. In his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), Pope John Paul II warned that a hallmark of the culture of death is a twisting of the meaning of words, so that evil acts or concepts can be covered over with good-sounding words.
Pope John Paul II warned that a hallmark of the culture of death is a twisting of the meaning of words…
‘Enforced Pregnancy'
Now abortion supporters want their curious words and particular views encoded in international law, as the United Nations moves toward the formation of an International Criminal Court (ICC). The mass murders and genocidal tactics perpetrated in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda have led U.N. officials to conclude that the ICC is needed. Rather than setting up international tribunals to address criminal charges in each war, they propose to establish a permanent court to adjudicate charges as they occur. Whether such an international body with wide-ranging powers will be a victory for freedom is debatable. What is certain is that the same feminist forces that sought to win international recognition for abortion rights at the U.N.
conferences at Cairo and Beijing are once again at work as the ICC moves from draft proposals to reality.
"Enforced pregnancy” appears in the Beijing document and was generally understood to refer to the rape of women by enemy soldiers with the purpose of impregnating them, to demean the women and the people of her ethnic background.
In the draft document of the ICC, radical feminists are seeking to expand the meaning of “enforced pregnancy” to cover any incident in which a woman, whether pregnant from rape or not, is denied access to abortion in time of war, or at any other time. They are pushing for the ICC to prosecute “crimes of sexual and gender violence” even when not perpetrated during armed conflict, and to give the ICC authority to overrule national courts in this area.
Outraged about this effort is Helen AlvarÈ, information director of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops Office for Pro-Life Activities. She said that the worthy goal of declaring systematic rape a war crime is being debased by the pro-abortion agenda.
"They are turning any country that protects unborn babies into a human rights violator and this is outrageous,” AlvarÈ told the Register. “They are playing deadly games with words about what ought to be for women a dramatic international rights issue"— the use of rape as intimidation and assertion of ethnic superiority.
The Holy See, as it did at Cairo and Beijing, is seeking to override or neutralize the feminist agenda. April 3, near the end of the preparatory commission on the ICC, the Holy See's Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Archbishop Renato Martino, filed a letter objecting to the expanded meaning of “enforced pregnancy” and asking the term to be bracketed for discussion in the final discussions this June in Rome. The archbishop's letter used the term “enforced impregnation” to better express the consequences of—and the Vatican's objections to—systematic rape in times of war.
Austin Ruse, who monitors the United Nations on life and family issues, said that the issue is vital because the United Nations could not only declare abortion an international right but the ICC could threaten the sovereignty of national governments and the power of people to govern themselves. His efforts to educate delegates about the attempted change in meaning of the term has borne some fruit.
"Some of the delegates are surprised to find out what ‘enforced pregnancy’ means and have second thoughts,” Ruse said.
Formal meetings on the ICC will take place in Rome June 15-July 17.
Parental Consent
When do child custody laws not apply? When minors are transported across state lines by persons other than their parents to procure abortions and avoid the parental-consent laws of their own states. Normally, when someone takes a minor without parental knowledge or consent for a major operation in another state it is considered kidnapping, but the Center for Reproduction Law and Policy argues that such action is sometimes necessary to protect a young girl's “right” to abortion. The center is defending a 12-year-old Pennsylvania girl who was impregnated by a teen-age boy and brought to New York by the boy's mother for an abortion to avoid Pennsylvania's parental consent laws.
The case has led more than 100 lawmakers in the House of Representatives to cosponsor the “Child Custody Protection Act” introduced by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.). The act would make it a federal misdemeanor for an adult to circumvent state parental-consent or parental-notification laws by bringing a minor across state lines for an abortion. A similar bill is going through the Senate. Currently, thousands of minors are brought across state lines each year.
The issue has a particular urgency for Ros-Lehtinen. She is the mother of two girls, ages 12 and 10, and by her own description “a staunch Catholic.’ She called the relationship between a parent a child “sacred.’
"Would you want to know if your 13-year-old daughter was going to be transported to another state to have a potentially threatening operation?” she said in a statement. “We do not believe that Roe v. Wade takes away the basic right of parents to be involved in major medical decisions for their child. Parents are the ones who are most keenly aware of the minor's medical history and who will be responsible for care of the minor should complications occur as a result of the abortion.’
Parental-notification or consent laws for minors seeking abortion have been passed in 22 states. The federal statute would cover only minors in these states, in what is more a protection of parental rights than a law against abortion, she said.
Campaign Finance Reform
Disagreement about words has pitted against one another two parties that normally are on the same side— Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a reliable pro-life vote, and the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). The controverted words are found in the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill.
According to NRLC legislative director Douglas Johnson, in seeking to limit “soft money” campaigns by organizations supporting a particular candidate, McCain-Feingold violates the First Amendment speech rights of private organizations to educate the public on a candidate's views and voting record. McCain has accused Johnson of misrepresenting the bill for his own purposes and placing other priorities ahead of the defense of life.
McCain, an Episcopalian, wrote the nation's Catholic bishops, explaining the bill and asking for their support in informing Catholics that McCainFeingold does not threaten the right of pro-lifers to speak about candidates. Johnson wrote an open letter to the bishops defending his stance and McCain responded with another letter to the Church hierarchy. The bishops as a body have declined to take a stand on the issue. (See Register March 22-28 page 2)
The bill seeks to restrict the amount of money that can benefit a candidate through government campaign support, political action committees or independent advocacy groups, expenditures by the latter being termed “soft money” because it currently is not under legal restriction. The NRLC argues that the bill inhibits the activities and expenditures of independent issue-oriented groups who seek to inform the public of candidates’ stands through voter guides, advertisements and other media. Johnson states that the bill would restrict speech not only about candidates involved in an election but any elected official at any time who at some point may face reelection.
The restriction would affect not only pro-life groups, but pro-abortion groups and any organization that comments on candidates or elections. In addition to the Christian Coalition, the NRLC has been joined in its objection to the bill by unlikely bedfellows: the American Civil Liberties Union and Concerned Women for America.
A similar campaign finance bill in the House was overwhelmingly rejected earlier this month by both Democrats and Republicans.
"Opposition against these type of bills has become more cohesive among legislators,” Johnson said in a Register interview. “We are especially concerned that such a bill will have the effect of severely reducing the amount of commentary during an election with the result that issues disfavored by the major media, such as pro-life issues, will not be represented.’
He said that the voter guides produced by NRLC would be banned under McCain-Feingold. McCain claims that voter guides are explicitly exempt in the bill as long as they simply give information and do not explicitly advocate the election or defeat of a particular candidate.
In his letter to the bishops McCain stated that all non-profit advocacy groups “would be totally unfettered in their ability to sponsor ads up to the day of the election that mention a candidate's name so long as the communication does not expressly say ‘vote for’ or ‘vote against,’ phrases that are prohibited by current law.’
Johnson claims that the bill would require financial disclosures by nonprofit groups that would be so complex that they would in effect inhibit the activities of advocacy groups. He told the Register that past lawsuits have shown that the courts are on his side. They have been “strong to assert that the First Amendment protects rights to comment on positions of candidates, with the exception of express advocacy as opposed to general education on issues. You can say what you want, when you want, and as much as you want. Given the news media bias against our views, we felt it essential that we talk directly to the public.’
Brian Caulfield writes from New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Brian Caulfield ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Web of Pornography Spreads in the Land DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:It was a long way from her Christian upbringing in suburban Chicago to topless dancing, but Maggie couldn't seem to avoid it. Her father, a police officer, had an addiction to pornography and began molesting Maggie when she was nine years old. The abuse continued for years, despite family counseling. Maggie's mother was aware of the molestation, but feared the loss of income if her husband went to jail.
"I had pretty much no say,” Maggie recalled recently. “I didn't feel like my body belonged to me.’
Ultimately, she went to live with her grandparents. Maggie's parents helped pay for her college studies following the move, but her emotional problems continued after the abuse ended.
"I couldn't stand to be touched,” Maggie explained. “I really felt like I was going to have a nervous breakdown.’
She returned home when she failed out of school. Soon after, her father resumed his sexual advances.
"I knew I could tell him no,” she said, but that would mean leaving home. Maggie knew of no way to make a living.
She began stripping at a local club to support herself, and quickly learned that she could get almost anything she wanted through sex. In four years, Maggie “worked” in four different states, while progressively increasing her alcohol intake. During that time she also became pregnant and had an abortion. Though she had left behind a bad situation at home, Maggie realized she was on the same dead-end road.
"My life had no meaning,” she explained. “I just didn't care about anything or anybody.’
An acquaintance told her about Citizens for Community Values, a group that offers help to women who are caught in the sex industry. They provided medical aid for an abortion-related infection, paid Maggie's immediate bills, and helped her find a new job at a bank. Today she has a Christian boyfriend and offers to help other women in similar desperate situations.
"It's not glamorous,” Maggie remembered of the sex trade. “It's drugs; it's prostitution; it's degrading to men and women.’
Claudia Parlow, who staffs Citizens for Community Values in Memphis, Tenn., has seen the desperation and frustration of women in Maggie's situation.
"The girls have no place to go,” she said. “There is so much damage…. They don't even want to spend time by themselves.’
Parlow prepared a manual for the outreach group after interviewing 26 of the young women Citizens for Community Values had helped. Her research identified a clear pattern. “In almost every single case … they'd been molested in their childhood,” Parlow said.
Keith Fournier, president of the Washington-based Catholic Alliance, said, “The sex industry seeks to enslave women by stripping them of their human dignity and reducing them to a collection of body parts.’
‘The sex industry seeks to enslave women by stripping them of their human dignity and reducing them to a collection of body parts.’
Fournier, a permanent deacon and an attorney who also heads Deacons for Life and Family International, continued: “Pornography and strip clubs have been as addictive for some individuals as drugs, alcohol and gambling have been for others.’
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, pornography “offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others…. It is a grave offense” (2354).
U.S. News and World Report featured a 1997 cover story on the problem. The facts point up a disturbing trend:
l Strip clubs doubled from 1987 to ‘92. There are currently about 2,500 such businesses with yearly incomes ranging from $500,000 to $5 million.
l It is estimated that Americans spent from $750 million to $1 billion on telephone sex last year.
l Americans also spent approximately $8 billion on various forms of pornographic magazines, videos, live sex or peep shows, and soft-core cable TV sex (more than the total spent for regular box office movies and all recordings.)
Enough is Enough may be contacted by phoning 703-278-8343, or visit its web site at www.enough.org.
l More than 75% of convicted child molesters admit to the use of pornography.
l Incest is the subject of one of the most popular video series in America.
l Twenty-nine percent of forcible rapes are against children under the age of 11.
"We live in a sex-saturated society. It's more than just addiction,” said Gene McConnell, vice president for the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families. “Pornography isn't an $8 billion a year business without some dedicated customers,” he added.
McConnell knows first hand about the problem. He suffered a series of molestations from age six through 12. Later, he became “dependent” upon pornographic magazines.
"Girlfriends,” he recalled, “reacted with fear and disgust to my pornography-inspired advances.’
His experiences at a Christian camp helped him become committed to religious values and suppress the porn habit. He enrolled in college, was married, and started a roofing business. Family stress and money problems, however, took him back to adult book stores.
"I would hide money from my wife to spend on pornography,” he explained. “Finally I was forced into bankruptcy.’
He moved his family to California for a fresh start, but the addiction worsened. His interest increased for sadistic pornography, and he began to frequent massage parlors and pay for prostitutes.
His passion gave way to “thoughts of raping a woman,” and he nearly acted on the impulse. Though he regained his senses before fully attacking a woman, the woman reported him to the police and he was arrested. He spent time in jail, but refused to blame himself for his addiction.
The turning point came after his release, when he “suddenly saw my situation as God saw it,” McConnell recalled. God helped him face the truth. The problem was his own. There was no one else to blame.
He has since developed a 12-step sex-aholic group at his church and helps others who find themselves trapped in sexual addiction.
"Pornography has a profound impact on a person,” McConnell said. “Ask a serial rapist or other sexual criminal what could be done to stop them from committing more crimes. Many of them will tell you to take away their pornography.’
Enough is Enough may be contacted by phoning 703-278-8343, or visit its web site at www.enough.org.
The National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families may be reached at 513-521-6227, or via the Internet at www.nationalcoalition.org.
Citizens for Community Values may be contacted at 513-733-5775. Its web site is at www.ccv.org.
Clay Renick writes from Martinez, Georgia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: Clay Renick ----- KEYWORDS: Cultire of Life -------- TITLE: The Gospel Of Life DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:ìIn the proclamation of this Gospel, we must not fear hostility or unpopularity, and we must refuse any compromise or ambiguity which might conform us to the world's way of thinking (cf. Rm 12:2). We must be in the world but not of the world (cf. Jn 15:19; 17:16), drawing our strength from Christ, who by his Death and Resurrection has overcome the world (cf. Jn 16:33).î
Pope John Paul II
(Evangelium Vitae 82.3)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: An Analysis of Depo-Provera DATE: 04/12/1998 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: April 12-18, 1998 ----- BODY:Depo-Provera is an injectable contraceptive that also has abortifacient characteristics. Its active ingredient is depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), a synthetic form of the natural hormone progesterone, originally developed for the treatment of uterine cancer in the 1950s. A woman receives 150 milligrams of DMPA via deep intramuscular injection every three months.
Depo-Provera was approved for use in the United States in October 1992. However, in June of 1993, Canada's Department of Heath and Welfare prohibited the use of DepoProvera, saying that the drug does not meet Canadian safety standards as a contraceptive.
The drug is now available in more than 90 countries and is particularly popular in Indonesia, Jamaica, Thailand, Kenya, and New Zealand.
The manufacturer, Upjohn, extensively tested DepoProvera on Third World women before submitting it to the FDA for approval. The World Health Organization (WHO) used Depo-Provera on more than 11,000 women in Kenya, Mexico, and Thailand.
According to Upjohn's information pamphlet, DepoProvera:
l “[has a] contraceptive effect produced by inhibiting the secretion of gonadotropins (FSH, LH), which prevents follicular maturation and ovulation [and]
l suppresses the endometrium [the mucous membrane lining the uterus] and changes cervical mucus.’
Many women's menstrual cycles continue when using Depo-Provera: 43% after 12 months and 32% after 24 months. This data shows that the compound does not completely suppress ovulation in a large percentage of women who use Depo-Provera.
Contraceptive Technology confirms that Depo-Provera has a triphasic (three-way) action. It inhibits ovulation and thickens cervical mucus (which are both contraceptive actions), but it also alters the endometrium (the lining of the uterus) so that its degree of receptivity to the blastocyst (very early developing human being) is significantly decreased. According to Contraceptive Technology, “Other contraceptive actions include the development of a shallow and atrophic [thinning] endometrium….’
When Depo-Provera works in this way, it is an abortifacient. Upjohn's information pamphlet also lists more than 60 adverse reactions suffered by various percentages of women who use the compound.
Women on Depo-Provera report an average weight gain of 5.4 pounds in the first year and 16.5 pounds over six years. Depo-Provera users commonly also experience osteoporosis (loss of bone mass). Some users suffer jaundice, a decrease in glucose tolerance, and convulsions.
In women who have used Depo-Provera for the first time within the last four years, and who are under 35 years of age, the risk of breast cancer increases 129%. There appears to be no increased risk of ovarian, liver, or cervical cancer.
Source: The Facts of Life: An Authoritative Guide to Life and Family Issues, by Brian Clowes PhD (Human Life International, Front Royal, Va.). Reprinted with permission.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED WORD: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Ad Limina Visits: Facts, Figures, & A Blueprint for Spreading Gospel DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—Rome as the Eternal City took on an especially acute resonance for New York Auxiliary Bishop Robert Brucato when he arrived there this past February. It was his first visit to the city since he was raised to the episcopate last year, and his first ad limina visit—the trip to Rome required of the heads of dioceses every five years to venerate the tombs of Sts. Peter and Paul and deliver a report on their Sees to the Pope. (The term ad limina [apostolorum] means “to the threshold [of the Apostles].”)
Bishop Brucato and his fellow auxiliaries traveled with John Cardinal O'Connor and the other ordinaries and auxiliary bishops of New York state in the first ad limina visit of 1998 by U.S. bishops.
“I had been to Rome as a tourist many times, but this was a completely different experience,” Bishop Brucato told the Register. “Saying Mass at St. Peter's Basilica and St. Paul's [Outside the Walls] with the other bishops gave me such a sense of collegiality, and a more profound understanding of the antiquity of the episcopacy.”
The bishops met three times in five days with Pope John Paul II to report on the state of their dioceses. The Pope told them that in his addresses to the U.S. bishops this year, he will reflect on the coming Jubilee Year 2000 and develop certain themes of the second Vatican Council “to discern how best we can ensure that all God wishes for the Church will become a reality.”
In his meetings with the New York bishops, the Pope concentrated on the Vatican II document Dei Verbum, on divine revelation found in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, and how the catechetical efforts of a diocese must be centered on the Word of God.
Each address of the Pope is not meant solely for the group of bishops to whom he delivers it and may not be specifically written with them in mind. The messages are to be read and digested by the entire American episcopacy, and are meant to edify all bishops around the world.
Thus far, six U.S. episcopal groups have had their “threshold” visits, and the rest of the bishops are scheduled through the end of the year. Arrangements for the visits are made through the apostolic nuncio in Washington, D.C., Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan.
The visits are always more than routine, but especially shocking was the sudden death of Bishop John Keating of Arlington, Va., March 22, near the end of the ad limina for the provinces of Washington, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Miami. Plans for Arlington, of course, have changed with the diocese in the hands of an administrator and the Holy Father expected to appoint a new bishop soon. Still, the ad limina visit has been a guiding experience for the diocese, said its chancellor, Father Robert Rippy.
“We received a very positive response to the developments in Arlington,” he said. “We stressed the growth of the diocese especially in Catholic education. Over the last six years, each year we have opened a new elementary school or added on to an existing one. These are the type of issues they want to hear about, and how we are providing for this growth.”
In between meetings with the Holy Father, the bishops visit with various Vatican congregations and commissions to discuss particular issues, make suggestions, and receive advice. Formal reports on the dioceses are sent to the Pope and heads of the Vatican departments at least two months earlier.
The New York archdiocese, with some 2 million Catholics in 413 parishes spread over 10 urban, suburban, and rural counties, weighed in with a 321-page document, with statistical analyses, pie charts, and reports on parishes, schools, charitable works, evangelization, the lives of priests and religious communities, the numbers of baptisms, weddings, funerals, confirmations, and conversions, as well as the bottom-line money matters. In all, the Vatican required 22 topics to be covered.
The bishops have stayed in the recently built housing complex that will serve as the consistory headquarters when the cardinals meet to elect the next Pope.
Bishop Brucato admits to having been “awestruck” by the whole experience, but was level-headed enough to take away an important lesson.
“I was struck by the sense of responsibility shown by everyone in the Vatican, and the weightiness of the issues they dealt with,” he said. “I came away with a heightened respect for the ordinaries of all the dioceses — the amazing amount of responsibility they have and the commitment they have to their obligations and their people.”
The ad limina visit is an ancient practice that underlines the structure of authority within the universal Church and the ultimate source of that authority in Christ's commission to the Apostles. The Code of Canon Law lays out the practice and the purpose clearly. Canon 399 states that a diocesan bishop is to present a report on his See to the Pope every five years (known as the Quinquennial Report) and canon 400 adds, “During the year in which he is bound to present his report to the Supreme Pontiff, and unless other provisions have been made by the Apostolic See, the diocesan bishop is to come to Rome to venerate the tombs of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul and is to appear before the Roman Pontiff.”
A commentary on this canon by the Canon Law Society of America states that this venerable practice was originally required only of the bishops of the province of Rome but had been extended to the entire Church by the 13th century. In days when travel and communications were slower, the ad limina visit served as an indispensable link between pontiff and bishop, and with the foundations of the Church built upon the Apostles. It was meant to highlight the fact that although a bishop is the head of his diocese, he must rule in communion with the Pope.
In the age of fax and e-mail, the informational part of the visit is less vital, but the personal, hierarchical, and symbolic aspects are just as important as ever. It is a good example of the Church bringing out things old and new through her venerable practices.
In his remarks to Pope John Paul, Cardinal O'Connor said the ad limina gathering reminded him that “ubi Petrus ibi Ecclesia,” (where Peter is, there is the Church). He compared the visits to the chair of Peter to the renewal of marriage vows: “Every five years we repeat our loyalty, commitment, and most importantly, our love for each other.”
Speaking as head of the New York Province, he continued, “Every bishop of this province accepts fully and entirely the teaching of the Church and the Magisterium. To such we pledge our fidelity and loyalty, especially to the Holy Father.”
Preparations for the ad limina are much the same in large archdioceses such as New York and smaller dioceses such as upstate Ogdensburg.
“We are not as complex and deal with things on a very different scale,” Msgr. John Murphy, moderator of the curia for Ogdensburg, told the Register, “but the outline of our report is every bit as detailed as any large diocese, and we have to make the copies and send them off on deadline.”
The Vatican supplies each bishop with a lengthy questionnaire that serves as the format for the Quinquennial Report. Most bishops assign the heads of different diocesan departments to draft a response to particular parts of the questionnaire (such as parish population and life, sacraments, education, charities) that then become the working copy for particular sections of the report. When checked, edited, and finalized, the well-groomed report is copied and each copy placed in a ring binder.
The volumes are sent off to the U.S. nuncio, who retains a copy and forwards the others to Rome. The binders allow different Vatican departments to remove sections that pertain to their oversight. When the bishops arrive, they are ready with questions and insights.
“It was obvious they had read the report and knew from these the states of the different dioceses,” said Msgr. Murphy, who had helped to draft his diocese's report. “A real, informed dialogue could go forward, and a mutual understanding was formed about the situations of the dioceses.”
Apart from the formal reports, particular problems also gain the attention of the Pope and his assistants. Bishop Paul Loverde of Ogdensburg had an urgent message for the Holy Father about the severe February freeze in his area that had made living conditions unbearable and required federal disaster aid. The Holy Father promised his prayers and was pleased to hear that neighboring dioceses were helping with money, food, and material aid, said Msgr. Murphy.
In subsequent addresses to other U.S. episcopal groups, the Pope continued his reflections on Vatican II, speaking about the Church's understanding of herself, as found in Lumen Gentium; a new “springtime for the Gospel” through evangelization in the year 2000, basing his words on the pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes; the Mass as the source and summit of the Catholic life, as explained in the liturgical document Sacrosanctum Concilium; the Church as expositor of the natural law and a witness to the necessary link between freedom and the truth that is found only in Jesus Christ (Gaudium et Spes, developed more particularly in the Pope's encyclicals Veritatis Splendor and Evangelium Vitae); the state of Catholic education and its potential to renew American higher education if it remains true to a Catholic identity that is active and reflected in the faculty and curriculum, as stated in the Pope's apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae; and the reasons why only men can be ordained to the priesthood, although the “genius” of women and their contributions to the Church have yet to be fully realized, expounding on the formal teaching of his 1994 document Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.
The ad limina and the process of preparing for it also causes a diocese to assess its operations and plan for improvement, said Msgr. Murphy.
“It's a process of self-reflection and assessment,” he said. “It doesn't replace comprehensive pastoral planning but it allows you to step back and see yourself in terms of the universal Church. You can take that information and understand better the work of the particular Church which you are in.”
Brian Caulfield writes from New York.
----- EXCERPT: Bishops offer look behind process of reporting to Rome every five years ----- EXTENDED BODY: BRIAN CAULFIELD ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Aramaic, Language of Jesus, Fights Likely Extinction DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:LOS ANGELES—Abu nahti bishmo ishkata sheshma. These may be the very words Jesus used 2,000 years ago when, speaking Aramaic, he taught his disciples to pray: “Our Father who art in heaven.”
Most Catholics could tell you that Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and much of Christianity's first generation conducted their daily business in this ancient Semitic tongue. What few would guess is that forms of Aramaic still survive as a vernacular in today's Middle East—still less that the language of Jesus, high on any list of endangered linguistic species, is even enjoying something of a modest revival these days.
A modest revival, that is, for a tongue that 2,000 years ago was the most widely spoken language in Asia Minor—much more so than its linguistic relatives, Hebrew and Arabic. Today one finds small Aramaic-speaking pockets in western Syria, and, further east, tiny groups of Christians, Muslims, and Jews still use the ancient language in places as far away as India and in Kurdish areas of Iraq, in Turkey and Iran, and in Azerbaijan on the borders of Armenia.
According to Moshe Ben-Asher, president of the Academy of Hebrew Language in Jerusalem, about 500,000 to 800,000 people, mainly in the
Middle East, still speak Aramaic today.
Easily the most significant of these Aramaic centers is located in Maalula, a Syrian village of 2,000, mostly Christians, perched on the slopes of the Kalamun Mountains about 40 miles north of Damascus.
Once isolated and under decades of pressure from the Syrian government to abandon the native tongue in favor of Arabic, today's Maalula, its Aramaic heritage threatened but still intact, has become a mecca for scholars in the growing field of Aramaic studies, as well as for adventurous tourists. The town even has its own Web site.
Other signs of a modest rise in Aramaic's fortunes? Try Aramaic CDs.
According to a recent Associated Press report, an Israeli band called Nash Didan, Aramaic for “Our People,” has to date recorded two albums of songs written in the language by the group's leader, Arik Mordechai, and is working on a third. Mordechai and his parents are part of a 14,000-member Jewish association, Nash Didan, who trace their roots back to Urmia in northern Iran where an isolated mountainous terrain enabled them to preserve an Aramaic-based culture into modern times.
Last year, the Kronos Quartet, an innovative American string ensemble, released an album entitled The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, featuring selections in Aramaic.
Despite these signs of renewed interest, most scholars think it's unlikely that Aramaic will come off the endangered language list any time soon. In fact, most experts are pessimistic about its chances for survival as a living language into the next century.
“An Aramaic CD or two is not going to make much difference when it comes to the language's survival,” said Dr. Yona Sabar, professor of Hebrew and Aramaic at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and an Aramaic speaker himself.
Sabar, who hails from the town of Zakho in northern Iraq, said, “It's a matter of being realistic.”
Emigration is part of the problem, he told the Register. Aramaic-speaking Christians are leaving the isolated villages where they've been able to preserve their language and moving to cities like Baghdad, Mosul, or Teheran where they necessarily assimilate into the majority culture. In Turkey, large numbers of Aramaic speakers have emigrated to Europe in the past 30 years, particularly to Sweden. Much of the Jewish Aramaic-speaking community has emigrated to Israel. Add television, military conscription, and compulsory education to the picture, and it's difficult to see how a minority language such as Aramaic can survive in the modern world.
“The exception to all this is Syria,” he said, “but Maalula has the feeling of a museum, of something frozen in time.”
Doubtless, he said, the Syrian government has realized the tourist potential of the place, and it's good public relations now to encourage the Maalulans to preserve their language.
“I hope there are children in Maalula who are learning Aramaic in the home,” he stressed, “but that alone doesn't put an end to my doubts about the language's future. I suspect it's not got much more than another generation left as a living tongue.”
If modern vernacular Aramaic does die out in the 21st century, it will be the “whimper” at the end of a glorious and remarkable history.
Originally spoken by Arameans in northern Syria and Mesopotamia, today's Iraq, Aramaic gradually became the lingua franca of the ancient Near East from India to Egypt and to Persia—a preeminence it maintained for a thousand years. Arabic eventually superseded Aramaic as the vulgate of the Near East when Islam arrived on the scene in the seventh century.
Divided into three main periods—Old (c. 925-700 BC), Middle (the Aramaic of Jesus, 300 BC-200 AD) and Late (200 AD-700 AD), Aramaic appears in the Hebrew Scriptures (particularly in the Books of Ezra and Daniel); Aramaic words appear in the New Testament (e.g., Jesus' talitha qoum [cf. Mk 5:4[, and Paul's maranatha [cf. 1 Co 16:22]); and the late form of the language plays a significant role in rabbinical writings such as the Targums and in portions of the Talmud.
What made Aramaic such a popular means of communication?
“In contrast to many earlier regional languages,” said Sabar, “Aramaic had a simple alphabet, and it was easily taught.”
Add to that the fact that the Arameans were traders, and through commerce, were able to spread their language far and wide.
Unlike Hebrew and, later, Arabic, Sabar pointed out, Aramaic was not the language of a particular religion—a truth borne out by the fact that, even today, the language is spoken by communities of Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
Modern, or neo-Aramaic, the language of today's Aramaic speakers, is divided into western (Syrian) and eastern dialects—both of which have been significantly shaped by exposure to surrounding languages like Arabic, Kurdish, Turkish, and Persian. (Modern Aramaic speakers themselves largely refer to their language by the name of the particular community — say, Assyrian or Chaldean.)
Just how different is modern Aramaic from the language of Jesus?
“All the current dialects diverge from the earlier forms. There have been great changes over the centuries.” said Michael Fishbein, a lecturer in UCLA's Department of Near East Languages and Cultures. “That's why it's important not to romanticize this whole thing.”
The western, or Mallulan dialect, is “a descendant of something close to the language of Jesus,” observed the scholar, “but the differences are not minor. They're like comparing Chaucer's English to the way we speak English now.”
Dr. Sabar provided an illustration. “Probably the single most well-known Aramaic sentence,” said Sabar, “is the one Jesus spoke when he prayed, ‘Eli, eli, lama sabachtani,’ [My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?].”
The way the sentence appears in the New Testament, Sabar said, has been influenced by Greek. “A reconstruction of the actual words in ancient Aramaic would look something like this: ‘Elahi, elahi, lema shabachtani.’”
What does that same sentence look like in today's Aramaic? Elahi, elahi, tama qam shaoch itti.
“It's quite different,” he said. Beyond the dwindling pockets of Middle Easterners for whom Aramaic still functions as the language of home and marketplace, however, there is a far wider community for which Aramaic remains the language of prayer.
These include the Churches, both Catholic and Orthodox, of the Antiochene tradition—those ancient communities that trace their origins to Antioch in Syria, a see founded by St. Peter and the launching pad for the missions of Paul and Barnabas to the Gentiles. By the early second century, the Aramaic-speaking “Church of Syria” (as St. Ignatius of Antioch called it) had overseen the spread of Christianity to Edessa and into Mesopotamia and across Asia Minor.
These Churches retained, and retain, a deeply Semitic character and resisted the Hellenizing influence of the powerful See of Constantinople—a fact that, at least in part, led some Syriac communities to reject the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD.
The Churches of the Antiochene tradition include the Maronites, the Syrian Orthodox and Syrian Catholics, the Chaldean-Assyrian Church and the large body of Chaldean-Assyrian Catholics, the Malabar, or so-called “St. Thomas Christians” of southwest India, and the Malankar Church.
“Alot of people focus on the Aramaic language,” said Maronite Chorbishop Father Gregory Mansour, chancellor of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon in Los Angeles, “and forget about the spiritual communities that still use it in a living way in the liturgy.”
Developments since Vatican II have occasioned more use of vernacular Arabic or English in the Maronite liturgy, he said, but Aramaic has been retained for some of the ancient prayers at the foot of the altar, the Trisagion prayer, for a variety of hymns during the liturgy, and for the Words of Institution and the epiclesis in the eucharistic prayer.
Seasonal hymns and services, such as Holy Week and Christmas, also feature significant Aramaic elements in today's Maronite usage.
But what's important about Syriac Christianity far transcends an ancient language linked to Jesus, Father Mansour stressed.
“Too many people,” he said, “persist in thinking of Christianity as either Rome or Constantinople, a matter either of the West or Byzantium, forgetting all the while that Syriac spirituality, with its unique poetic sensibility, is there.”
The literary heritage of Syriac Christianity is uncommonly rich—its character, perhaps, best symbolized by the Aramaic language's greatest poet, St. Ephrem the Syrian, theologian, exegete, poet, and doctor of the Church (306?-373 AD), who developed a remarkable presentation of the Christian Faith in verse.
“Every doctrine of faith that the Church teaches is found in the Syriac fathers,” said Father Mansour, but expressed in a unique poetic way.
For example, when St. Ephrem writes about the doctrine of the sinless conception of Mary, he says that “the Virgin was shielded from Satan's gaze.”
Father Mansour was quick to add that, in underlining the virtues of Syriac theology, he had no wish “to use it as some kind of wedge against the virtues of Latin theological thinking, with its clear philosophical articulation and its emphasis on discipline and order.”
“We need clear articulation of doctrine,” he said, “but we also need this deep clothing with beauty, this sensitivity, typical of Syriac Christianity, to life, poetry, and music.”
Through contact with Syriac Christianity, said the priest, we may be able to open new doors to Asian cultures, deepen the dialogue with Judaism, and build bridges to Islam.
“That's a lot more important than worrying about whether somebody can still buy his or her groceries in Aramaic,” he said.
Gabriel Meyer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: For Eastern Churches it remains important as a language of prayer ----- EXTENDED BODY: GABRIEL MEYER ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'Mature'Lay Movements Invigorate Life of Church DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY—Lay movements and new Christian communities often are more effective than parishes in sustaining a long-term commitment to the faith, said J. Francis Cardinal Stafford.
The U.S. cardinal, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, said one of the key strengths of these grass-roots religious groups is their ability to call people to a deep faith, and to a life of service within the Church and to those most deprived outside of the Church.
“Where parishes may be weak, that is, in sustaining over a long period of time the faith of individual persons—especially the young—communities seem to be the strongest,” Cardinal Stafford told the Register.
“Obviously, in most countries the parish is and will remain the center of the Church's activity,” he said. “However, the strength of those endowed with charismatic gifts within the Church is precisely evident where parishes are not so strong.”
The cardinal's remarks followed Pope John Paul II's landmark meeting last month with 56 lay movements and new communities from around the globe. Nearly 300,000 members of these groups gathered in St. Peter's Square for a prayer vigil held on the eve of Pentecost.
Among those represented were the Neocatechumenal Way, Regnum Christi, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, the Focolare Movement, the Legion of Mary, Communion and Liberation, Worldwide Marriage Encounter, L'Arche communities and the related Faith and Light movement. Prayer, song, Scripture readings, and personal testimonies marked the rally, which lasted into the early evening.
“That event was truly a miracle of the Spirit,” Cardinal Stafford said. “It was an extraordinary demonstration of the deep affection the Holy Father has for the lay movements. It was also a demonstration of their close association with the pastor of the Universal Church.”
The meeting of new religious and lay movements with Pope John Paul II and a Vatican-sponsored “World Congress of Ecclesial Movements” held a few days prior to it, signaled an unprecedented recognition by Church authorities of the work being carried out by these groups.
During the prayer vigil, Pope John Paul II said the birth and spread of lay movements following the Second Vatican Council has brought “unexpected newness” to the life of the Church. He called them “tangible proof” of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Cardinal Stafford said the Vatican could finally embrace these groups because they had reached “a new level of maturity.”
“We could not have held such an encounter with the Holy Father or a world congress five or 10 years ago,” he said. The various communities and movements, he said, had not reached “a level of awareness of their being united to one another.”
The cardinal also said the groups had now reached a clear understanding of their close ties with the shepherd of the universal Church.
“Their mission is an apostolic mission closely associated with that of the Pope and of the universal episcopate,” he said. “There is no way these groups can exist without there being an essential understanding of their universal mission in proclaiming Christ.”
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told leaders of ecclesial groups that the Church needs the energy, witness, and service of lay movements, and lay movements need the guidance of the Church.
Addressing the “World Congress of Ecclesial Movements,” he said the rise of new religious and lay movements in the Church's history almost always makes someone uncomfortable, but usually that is a sign of the Holy Spirit at work.
“It is not correct to pretend that everything must fit into a uniform organization; better to have less organization and more Holy Spirit,” he said.
Cardinal Ratzinger said many of the most active movements in the Church today were founded just after the Second Vatican Council, during a period that many described as a “winter” for the Church.
“But then, all of a sudden, something happened which no one expected. The Holy Spirit once again asked for the floor, so to speak,” he said.
Around the world, young men and women felt drawn to commit themselves to the Gospel and to living their faith as a precious gift, the cardinal said. The time, like earlier periods when religious orders dedicated to education and health care blossomed, also marked a new realization among women of the importance of their contributions to the mission of the Church.
For the most part, Cardinal Ratzinger said, the movements have a “dominant charismatic personality.” They form concrete communities that “attempt to live the Gospel in its entirety,” and they recognize that the Catholic Church is their reason for being.
In a written message to the congress, Pope John Paul II echoed that view, calling lay movements “a hymn to the unity in diversity desired by the Spirit.”
“The originality of the charism which gives life to a movement does not and cannot add anything to the richness of the deposit of the faith safeguarded by the Church with passionate fidelity,” the Pope said.
Rather, he said, the movements “are a powerful support, a suggestive and convincing reminder to live fully, with intelligence and creativity, the Christian experience.”
As the Church approaches the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, Pope John Paul II has dedicated 1998 to the rediscovery of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit.
Specifically, he has called on Christian lay movements to “bring to the heart of the Church” their spiritual, educational, and missionary riches, as valuable experience and as a proposal for Christian living.
In his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis (The Redeemer of Man, 1979), Pope John Paul II remarked on a “spirit of collaboration and shared responsibility” among the laity, “not only strengthening the already existing organizations for lay apostolate but also creating new ones that often have a different profile and exceptional dynamism.”
In his address to ecclesial movements on the eve of Pentecost, the Pope highlighted the “institutional” and “charismatic” aspects of the Church, saying both were “co-essential” because they contributed in differing ways to the life, renewal, and sanctification of God's people.
While stressing the need for lay movements to submit to the discernment of the competent ecclesiastical authorities, he also said the groups render a service in helping the Church's members to respond to the universal call to holiness.
“There is great need for living Christian communities,” the Pope said. “There is so much need today for mature Christian personalities, conscious of their baptismal identity, of their vocation and mission in the Church and in the world!”
Cardinal Stafford said the meeting of Pope John Paul II with lay communities and the World Congress of Ecclesial Movements marked a milestone for the Church on the threshold of the third Christian millennium.
“The first challenge that the future opens for us is a richer theological reflection on the experience that the Church is having, and especially those members of the Church who are themselves a part of these communities,” the cardinal said.
The speech by Cardinal Ratzinger on the nature and mission of ecclesial movements, he said, required “a great deal of continued reflection and prayer” on the part of Pontifical Council for the that lay movements have come to understand their identity and vocation.
“The genuine, ecclesial, Catholic nature of these communities can only be measured by their willingness to submit themselves to the universal mission of the Church, which is most clearly expressed in the papacy,” he said.
The prayer vigil, he also said, was a “magnificent manifestation” of the office of Peter.
“Who else in the world could pull together 280,000 lay persons to demonstrate their common vision, their common testimony to the event of Jesus Christ?” Cardinal Stafford said. “Who else but the Pope could do that?”
Stephen Banyra writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: Spirit-filled communities can make-up for weak parishes, cardinal says ----- EXTENDED BODY: STEPHEN BANYRA ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Clinton's China Trip Stirs Discord in U.S. DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—The ninth anniversary of China's horrific Tiananmen Square massacre was observed June 4. The commemoration, coupled with President Bill Clinton's upcoming trip to China, has refocused attention on human rights violations in the world's most populous country. One egregious example of such abuses has been the systematic persecution of religious faithful, including Catholics.
Within the last few weeks alone several attacks on Catholic leaders have been reported by human rights organizations. Freedom House, a Washington-based group, announced June 1 that a Catholic church in Fujian Province had been bulldozed by Communist Party and government officials in early May. This assault occurred during Mass, and a number of people were beaten. The church was razed.
Freedom House also recently learned that a priest in the same province, near the Chinese coast, was arrested and badly beaten after celebrating Christmas Midnight Mass. Forty others were arrested.
“China continues its consistent pattern of gross violations of religious freedom even on the eve of the U.S.-China Summit,” said Nina Shea, director of Freedom House. The Stamford, Conn.-based Cardinal Kung Foundation told the RegisterJune 3 that Bishop Zhang Weizhu of the Hebei province, near Beijing, had been arrested on Pentecost. The Foundation tracks such actions and promotes the work of the “underground” Catholic Church in China, whose members profess loyalty to the Pope. Perhaps the most notable of many abuses reported by the Kung Foundation and others was the arrest of Bishop Su Chimin of the Baoding diocese, also in Hebei province, in 1996. He had previously spent 15 years in prison, where he was severely tortured.
In addition to these and other examples of religious persecution and human rights violations, concern about China has intensified because of the reports of nuclear technology transfers to Pakistan and the alleged contributions of the People's Liberation Army to the Democratic party during the 1996 U.S. election campaigns. As a result, a number of U.S. political leaders have asked that the president's trip, scheduled for June 25, be postponed. Others are encouraging him to use the trip to pressure the Chinese government on a wide range of abuses.
The Family Research Council, a Washington-based public policy organization, and Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.) sponsored a news conference and a China summit June 4 at the Capitol. Participants from both ends of the political spectrum included Family Research Council president Gary Bauer, Sens. Hutchinson, John Ashcroft (R-Mo.), Paul Wellstone (DMinn.), and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Also attending the news conference were Chinese dissidents Harry Wu, a Catholic, and Wei Jingsheng, who between them have spent nearly four decades in Chinese prisons.
The six members of Congress who were present expressed great disappointment that Clinton not only would go to China now, but that he is expected to be received in Tiananmen Square.
“What is the message the president is sending to the world by his Tiananmen Square visit,” Bauer asked, and “does he even care?” Ashcroft and Hutchinson introduced a Senate resolution later that day calling on Clinton to postpone the trip.
This excursion has raised objections not only in political circles, but also among American religious leaders. Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor-in-chief of First Things, called the proposed visit “morally offensive.”
“At such a time to undertake a major trip to China seems to further muddy the moral waters which surround this presidency,” he told the Register.
In voicing his objection to the presidential visit, Keith Fournier, president of Catholic Alliance, said, “Perhaps nowhere in the world are Christians more vigorously persecuted today than in China. Religious freedom is a foundational freedom, a basic human right, but the current regime in China—President Jiang Zemin and his cohorts—does not respect basic human dignity.”
Joseph Kung, president of the Cardinal Kung Foundation, said the proposed visit is “not timely,” citing ongoing persecution of Catholics and other religious people. Kung works to bring these abuses to light and to report on the status of the Catholic Church in China.
Kung, the nephew of Ignatius Cardinal Kung Pin-mei, former bishop of Shanghai now living in exile in the United States, wants Americans to understand that those who practice their religion and remain faithful to the Pope are being persecuted. On the other hand, the Chinese government has erected a puppet Church, the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which fosters the interests of the ruling communist party. Members of this Church are highlighted by the government in an effort to convince outsiders that religious freedom is being granted.
One Chinese priest who knows the repression of the communists well is Father Matthias Lu of Moraga, Calif., a retired theology professor. Father Lu left Beijing in 1948, shortly before the communist takeover. For the past half a century, he has watched the disappointing developments in his homeland.
“Over the years things have gotten much worse,” he said. “In the fields, the restrictions are much worse. People are penalized in their homes. They can't say prayers, they can't wear medals.”
Father Lu also understands the communist Chinese mentality. He believes the government is like the “yin and the yang.”
“They embrace you with the right hand, they put their arm around your shoulder. The right hand is soft, gentle, noble, but the left hand kills you.”
This dichotomy is reflected in the way the Chinese have divided the Catholic Church into approved and outlawed segments.
In a letter to the United Nations in February 1998, Father Lu said that the government's policy toward Catholics “can be summed up in one sentence: punish severely the Catholics as illegal criminals who refuse to join the Patriotic Association and refuse to renounce the Catholic ties of communion with the Pope and the Universal Church. This national anti-Catholic campaign is spreading deep and wide all over China. Painful corporal punishments are reported from everywhere.”
Experts on the Chinese Church point out, however, that the line between the patriotic Church and the underground Church is often blurred.
The difference is often more geographical than theological. The Chinese bishops the Holy Father invited to the Synod for Asia, for example, are members of the Patriotic Church, yet are loyal to the Holy Father.
Many Catholics and others have expressed grave reservations about the Clinton trip, a number of influential Church leaders have suggested using this visit to pressure the Chinese government. The bishops' conference has taken no position on the trip, but has been involved in drafting a letter that was to be sent to Clinton the week of June 7. The letter is signed by Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Newark, N.J., chairman of the bishops' Committee on International Policy. Archbishop McCarrick has been to China five times since the mid-1980s, most recently in February of this year.
In the letter, the archbishop urged Clinton to stress the issue of religious freedom in all of his meetings with Chinese officials, encourage the government to recognize the underground Church and allow it to function, and to promote the presence of the Holy See to help lessen tensions.
Another organization seeking to guide the president and move the Chinese is the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, headquartered in Chicago. The organization's public policy office, the Center for Jewish and Christian Values, is directed by Trinitarian Father Stanley DeBoe.
“Our position is that the trip is happening,” said the priest. “So how can we influence the Chinese?”
The organization has gathered the names of more than 200 religious leaders to sign a letter to Clinton. The signers represent more than 100 million Americans. The letter was expected to be delivered to Clinton about June 10 with a delegation led by the foundation's president, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein.
The letter asks the president to encourage the government of China to:
• Release those imprisoned for religious beliefs;
• ratify international agreements regarding religious freedom;
• end practices which impinge on the free practice of religion;
• allow international organizations to investigate China; and
• discuss Tibet's future with the Dalai Lama.
“The Catholic contribution to this is quite significant,” Father DeBoe said. Among the signers are Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua of Philadelphia; Archbishop Patrick Flores of San Antonio, Texas; Archbishop Stephen Sulyk of the Ukrainian archeparchy of Philadelphia; Bishop Thomas Welsh of Allentown, Pa.; Bishop Alfred Hughes of Baton Rouge, La.; Bishop Victor Balke of Crookston, Minn.; Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, Pa.; Bishop Francis DiLorenzo of Honolulu, Hawaii; Bishop Daniel Walsh of Las Vegas, Nev.; Bishop Placido Rodriguez of Lubbock, Texas; Bishop James Timlin Scranton, Pa.; Bishop Thomas Dupre of Springfield, Mass.; Bishop Gilbert Sheldon of Steubenville, Ohio; Titular Bishop Paul Antanas Baltakis of Egara and Lithuanian Catholics, and Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit.
“Hopefully, this letter will do some good,” Cardinal Bevilacqua told the Register. “I hope that President Clinton's historic visit to China will have a positive impact on religious freedom and human rights for the people of China. It is hard for us, as Americans, to imagine what it must be like to live in a country that denies its citizens basic human rights.”
“For that reason,” he added, “I join my brother bishops and other concerned religious leaders in strongly urging President Clinton to help open the door to religious liberties for the Chinese people. I will pray during the president's trip to China that he will be successful in ensuring that religious freedom will become a top priority during this historic visit.”
Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Victoria, Texas, endorsed the letter almost en masse, and considerable support also came from St. Laurence Parish in Jessup, Md.
In addition to the Catholic support, signers include representatives of Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, and other religious communities.
Against the backdrop of this China debate is the on-going issue of religious persecution worldwide. Interest in these abuses has intensified since the publication of two books last year: Nina Shea's In the Lion's Den and Paul Marshall's Their Blood Cries Out.
Such increased public attention has allowed Human Rights Activist Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), and others to promote the Freedom from Religious Persecution Act. This legislation, often referred to as the Wolf-Specter bill, passed the House of Representatives May 14 by a 375-41 vote, and is now in the Senate for action and possible revision. After House passage, Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng wrote in a letter to Wolf: “This was a blow sent to oppression and a vote for freedom.”
The Wolf-Specter bill, which was endorsed by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Alliance, and a number of other religious and lay groups, would establish an Office of Religious Persecution Monitoring at the State Department. Countries violating religious rights would lose non-humanitarian U.S. foreign assistance and be penalized in a number of other ways.
“The bill represents a modest step that reflects growing awareness that this vital human rights issue has too often been overlooked, and a growing conviction that core American values—including respect for religious liberty—must play proper roles in shaping the U.S. foreign policy agenda,” Archbishop McCarrick said.
Joseph Esposito writes from Springfield, Virginia.
----- EXCERPT: Attacks on Catholics revealed as president prepares for June 25 departure ----- EXTENDED BODY: JOSEPH ESPOSITO ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Israel's Christians In Fear Of Anti-Missionary Law DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:JERUSALEM—Dave Parsons is concerned. In March, the Jerusalem-based evangelical Christian believed that he and other Christians had persuaded the Israeli government to quash a controversial bill that would have made it illegal for people to disseminate written missionary materials.
Although that bill was withdrawn soon after Christian leaders, including representatives of the Catholic Church, pledged that their institutions—clergy or faithful—would not engage in missionary activity in Israel, a new, more comprehensive anti-missionary bill was introduced last month.
However, an official, who asked that his name not be published, said that the bill is now before a Knesset committee, and that “some bills stay in committee for 25 years.” He added that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sensitive to the concerns being expressed by the Christian community. If passed in the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, the “Prohibition Against Preaching to Change Religion” law would impose a 50,000 shekel ($14,000) fine and a three-year prison term for anyone found guilty of “preaching with the intent of causing another person to change his religion.”
Introduced by Knesset Member Raphael Pinhasi of the religious Shas Party, the bill is designed to thwart the efforts of so-called Messianic Jews who believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and a small number of Christians (generally evangelicals) trying to win converts.
Like most other Christians in Israel, Parsons, an information officer for an evangelical umbrella organization called the International Christian Embassy, said that neither he nor his friends and colleagues are engaged in missionary work.
“Ours is a ministry of comfort, and that is our reason for being in Israel,” said Parsons, whose group provides assistance to new immigrants and other needy Israelis. “We understand why Jews are concerned about missionaries and inducements to convert, but we believe that such conduct is covered adequately by existing law.”
“I can say unequivocally that we don't missionize, period. When Israeli Jews come to us looking for material, we say ‘Sorry.’ We don't try to push our faith.”
Why, then, is he worried by the bill, which will require three Knesset readings before being passed?
“Our concern, first and foremost, is for the image and cause of Israel,” Parsons said. “We are also concerned that such legislation will impede both freedom of religion and speech. It's so sweeping that if some preacher appears on Israeli TV [via satellite or cable TV], he could be convicted in absentia. There is already a law that prohibits offering money to a potential convert. The new bill is simply too overreaching.”
Rabbi Yeshayahu, who works for the Orthodox anti-missionary organization Yad L'Achim, disagrees.
Noting that both Messianic Jews and Christians disseminate missionary materials through the mail, over the Internet, on street corners, and at universities, rock concerts, and even in the army, the rabbi insists that the bill is long overdue.
“Missionary activity in Israel has grown tremendously during the past few years and something needs to be done to stop it. There is an existing law, but it only covers instances where a person offers money to convert someone. The fact is, most missionaries don't work this way. They don't give out $100 bills and say ‘convert,’” he told the Register.
Instead, the rabbi noted, “young Israelis and new immigrants are told, ‘Come to a lecture, to one of our clubs or youth groups,’ and slowly, slowly, they are taught various things.”
Teenagers and young adults are targeted, he said, “because they tend to be inexperienced and gullible. New immigrants are targeted because they don't have much money. Many organizations offer help to new immigrants—and this is charity—but often the ultimate goal is conversion.”
Despite his contempt for missionaries, Rabbi Yeshayahu insisted that “the bill isn't anti-Christian. We have absolutely nothing against Christians or Christianity. We are simply against missionizing by people of any religion.”
While he has actively lobbied against the introduction of a new anti-missionary bill, Clarence Wagner Jr., director of the evangelical organization Bridges for Peace, said he understands Israelis' nearly universal fear of missionaries. Bridges for Peace, which, like the Christian Embassy, assists new immigrants and the poor, requires all of its volunteers to sign a document stating that they will not missionize while in Israel.
“Missionary activity is widely viewed in Israel as going beyond merely a religious practice,” Wagner recently wrote in his organization's newsletter. “It is seen, rather, as an attempted intrusion into the religious beliefs and practices of others. In the wake of the decimation of the Jewish people over the centuries, and particularly the Nazi Holocaust, the Jewish community—in Israel as elsewhere—has developed a deep sensitivity to attempts, by members of the very Church that, historically, has been the cause of so much of this anti-Jewish persecution, to draw yet more of its sons and daughters away from Judaism.
“Ill-conceived as the sweeping current legislative proposal may be, this historical background must also be taken into account,” Wagner wrote.
Although Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem would not comment on the anti-missionary bill at this juncture, another Catholic leader agreed to discuss the matter on condition of anonymity.
Asked about the local Church's views on missionary activity in the Holy Land, the Franciscan clergyman said that “we are prepared to explain our faith but we don't force people to accept it. No one can oblige another person to believe in something he does not believe in. I am a Christian and a Catholic, and you can ask me what I believe in. You have the right to ask me, and I have the right to tell you. It is up to you to accept or not accept.”
Sometimes, he said, Muslims living in close proximity to Christians, as in Jerusalem or Bethlehem, become curious about Catholicism and begin to ask questions.
“If approached, we are pleased to provide answers. Still, we don't seek people out,” he said.
In Israel, as in Europe, he added, “it is generally Protestants, not Catholics, who missionize. In fact, there have been Protestants who have come to our Catholic Churches to seek converts.”
Although “many people regard us [Franciscans] as missionaries,” he said, in the Holy Land “we do not try to convert. Our role is to maintain Christian life in the Christian communities, and to take care of the holy sites.”
The cleric noted that he had not yet seen the latest anti-missionary law, and therefore had to withhold judgment.
“If this bill will respect the tenets of religious freedom, I suppose it will be accepted by religious authorities. If it doesn't respect these rights, it will be rejected,” he said.
While Christians are understandably concerned about the bill, so are a number of Jews. Yossi Alpher, director of the Israel-Middle East office of the American Jewish Committee, is one of several Jewish leaders currently lobbying against the bill.
Alpher's decision not to back the bill stems from two reasons, he said.
“First, most Christian groups, including evangelical groups, simply don't proselytize in Israel. They're here mainly to do good deeds. Second, in a democratic country like Israel, these are very serious human rights issues being discussed, and they are best not dealt with through legislation.”
Despite his efforts to defeat the bill's passage, Alpher stresses that missionizing remains a concern.
“There is a problem of proselytizing, especially by Messianic Jews, and frankly, I didn't move to Israel [from the United States] to run into people preaching Christianity. Having said that, in order to ensure individual freedom in Israel, this is a price we may have to pay.”
A native Israeli who defines himself as “a Jew who believes in Jesus,” Ari says that the proposed missionary bill “is an act of discrimination that must not be tolerated. Messianic Jews are being discriminated against and it's undemocratic.”
Indeed, if he has his way, standing on street corners or outside an immigrant absorption center with missionary pamphlets and Hebrew- or Russian-language New Testaments will continue to be legal.
Michele Chabin writes from Jerusalem.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: MICHELE CHABIN ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'A Vital Force for Goodness and Peace' DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:Cardinal Daly has long been a champion of peace. Each year Cahal Cardinal Daly retired archbishop of Armagh and primate of All Ireland chose World Day of Peace celebrated January 1 to address themes related to peace and reconcilation. He said he was called to be “a bridge-builder, a minister of reconcilation.” While on a recent trip to Auschwitz, Poland, for a conference entitled “Religion and Violence, Religion and Peace,” he spoke with
Luxmoore: Last month you joined several dozen senior Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders at the formerAuschwitz concentration camp for a conference on “Religion and Violence, Religion and Peace,” organized by Sacred Heart University's Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding. What were your impressions of this unprecedented interfaith event?
Cardinal Daly: First, it brought together a remarkable gathering of representative and significant people from the respective communities, and it took place in a positive spirit. Personal friendships were formed in three days between people who had never met before and would ordinarily never have done so.
I believe an important step has been taken towards better interfaith relations. The contributions by Muslim representatives—many of whom feel left out of the dialogue, or are unwilling to enter into it—was a special feature.
The Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding has come of age with this conference. It has extended its outreach into the various religious communities and become more convinced of the need to pursue its contacts with ever greater courage. In this way, it has witnessed the value of the initiatives it first took five or six years ago.
The 30 listed addresses at the conference included keynote expositions on the roots of peace in the New Testament, Torah, and Koran, as well as speeches setting out the contrasting perspectives of Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and Protestant Churches. There are now plans to publish the proceedings as a textbook for Christian, Jewish, and Muslim seminaries.
Besides this, we also hope to develop more detailed study guidelines. In a world which is becoming smaller, thanks to growing mobility and migration, we all need to understand the faith traditions of others. Religion is a vital force for goodness and peace, but it can also be a destructive force, when basic tenets are misunderstood, sometimes by their own professed adherents. So the more we understand each faith's real doctrines, as distinct from their distortions, the better. And there's no way of arriving at that understanding without meeting, listening, and sharing with people who are fully committed to their own faith.
The conference's organizer, Rabbi Joseph Ehrenkranz, paid tribute to the sensitivity to Jewish concerns shown by three participating Catholic cardinals—you, Franciszek Cardinal Macharski of Krakow, Poland, and William Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore. He also praised the
There was a remarkable degree of consensus that relations between the Catholic Church and world Jewry have improved beyond recognition in the past 20 years, defying all expectations. And yes, there was also particular admiration for the Pope's own work.
Jews feel understood and respected, but all the great world religions have precisely the problem you mention. There's either apathy and indifference towards that kind of [interreligious] sharing, or there's active opposition to it. As for those who assembled here, some were veterans of interfaith dialogue, whereas some were new to it—particularly among our Islamic brothers, who were less accustomed to this kind of discussion. But we all came away with the realization that we need to work harder, according to our abilities, to sensitize people to the need for dialogue and prepare them for it.
Religious tensions haven't only flared in interfaith relations. In the Balkans, Christians have killed Christians; in Algeria, Muslims are slaughtering Muslims. The New Testament and Koran both expressly forbid religiously motivated violence, yet political agitators and demagogues often claim a quasi-religious justification. Isn't that the experience of your native Ireland too?
I heard echoes in the conference discussions of the kind of difficulties we've had in Ireland, particularly in situations where religion has come to be associated with conflict. The feature common to all such cases is suspicion and lack of trust for “the other.”
As Professor Martin Marty of Chicago University pointed out, insecurity like this is a force for fundamentalism. It arises when people attempt to withdraw back into their own communities, to what they regard as their own certitudes, seeing these as the glue which holds their world together and will cause it to fall apart if allowed to soften. This basic sense of danger and distrust fuels fundamentalism, which leads indirectly to conflict. This is why we all came away committed to developing trust, as well as genuine understanding and respect for each other's traditions.
After what I experienced here—the mutual respect shown by people of different faiths—it would be a scandal to tolerate the idea that Catholics and Protestants in Ireland, who belong to the same Christian faith, can't reach the same degree, or an even greater degree, of mutual trust, and can't show a common determination to build a shared future together. Please God we won't have to tolerate it.
Yet the skepticism looks certain to continue. In Northern Ireland, as in the Balkans, critics say, religious leaders have often pledged their dedication to dialogue. But in real situations of conflict, their practical influence has usually been minimal. Hasn't the time come for religious leaders to give their peace commitment a more political face?
We were clear that we have to maintain a clear distinction between the Church and politics. We aren't politicians. But it's true that, indirectly, in the broad sense of politics, our message is for this world—not just about it, but for it, because God has ordained that we live in the world. Many examples were cited of how religion has had an impact on political decisions.
There was a general agreement that the strongest, loudest voices being heard today for human rights, which are the fundamental condition for peace and justice, are Church voices. This was a crucial factor in the peaceful change from communist totalitarianism to democracy. And today, confronted with the increasingly serious challenge of practical materialism and neo-capitalism, the voices for human rights are again coming from the Church. This impact of religion on society is more necessary now than ever.
The Pope has made the need for
There was a great deal of talk about this. Cardinal Keeler outlined John Paul II's program in Tertio Millennio Adveniente, drawing particular attention to its inter-Church and interfaith dimensions. This mood of expectation was often echoed at the conference. It's always dangerous to engage in rhetoric about a “new dawn”—we must be realistic. But there was a genuine sense that we could indeed be entering a new era.
Perhaps that sense of hope reflects the location of your meeting. Jews made up 90% of the estimated 1.5 million people who died in Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chambers at Nazi hands. But the victims also included tens of thousands of Christians and Muslims too. It's a Jewish cemetery first and foremost, but also the place of destruction of all human civilization.
The setting of this conference was all-important. The experience of coming together at Auschwitz-Birkenau was over-powering. Indeed, it's almost impossible even to speak of it—what's there to say in the face of this immense evil? And yet there was also a strong conviction that the greater that evil's destructive power, the greater must be our faith, and our constantly renewed commitment to ensure it cannot and will not be unleashed again.
What happened here won't be forgotten, but it should also be remembered without bitterness. We must always be aware of the potentiality for evil which exists in our human nature, but we should also remember that this is counterbalanced by the potentiality for good — a good which was so much in evidence in the atmosphere during our three days here.
—Jonathan Luxmoore
----- EXCERPT: An Irish cardinal on the power-and-abuses of religion ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jonathan Luxmoore ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: U.S Notes & Quotes DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:Archdiocese 1, Time Warner 0
It isn't often that an archdiocese is pitted against a Time Warner entertainment company, but in San Antonio, Texas, Archbishop Patrick Flores has rescued the city's Catholic television station from an untimely demise at the hands of one of the giant's subsidiaries.
In April, San Antonio's cable system, Paragon, informed the archdiocese that they were planning to move Catholic Television San Antonio from a channel accessible to all basic television subscribers, to one available only to those who pay extra.
Archbishop Flores vigorously opposed the move, claiming that the change would mean abandoning most of its viewers—many of whom rely on the channel, but who are often poor. He said the move would cause the ministry's demise. The city council and religious leaders in the city agreed.
Faced with a quickly growing number of critics and no allies, Paragon gave in May 26, reaching an agreement that allows the archdiocese to stay on the basic services—and granting them $50,000 to announce the resolution of the issue. The cable company claims the move will cost them $1 million a year by supplanting a money-generating preview channel.
The San Antonio Express-News of May 27 quoted reactions to the decision. “We had not given up praying and I think the hearts of everyone involved have been moved,” Archbishop Flores said at City Hall minutes after reaching the agreement with Paragon Cable.
Paragon, said, “It feels great that the whole thing worked out for the archbishop and Catholic television.”
Bishop Opposes Homosexual Parade
When homosexual activists in the Gay Pride Alliance announced their intention earlier this spring to parade through the streets of Corpus Christi, Texas, on Trinity Sunday (June 14), Bishop Roberto Gonzalez quickly registered his opposition.
He wrote a letter to city officials pointing out that a city-sanctioned parade of homosexuals would “send the wrong message to the children and young people” by promoting a homosexual lifestyle and fostering a hostile climate in the city, the San Antonio Express-News reported May 28.
Local evangelical Christians also reacted, scheduling a March for Jesus the same weekend, in hopes of drawing a larger crowd.
Critics in the city council were satisfied when the homosexual activist group issued rules barring revealing clothing, nudity, real or acted-out public sex acts, and requiring that drag costumes be “in good taste.”
Critics say that the very need for such rules demonstrates the dangers inherent in a parade that celebrates preference for particular sexual acts.
Candidate Jeb Bush Changed by Conversion
Time magazine's June 8 profile of Jeb Bush, the former president's son and leading candidate for governor of Florida, calls him “the most unusual of the Bush kids.” The reason? For one, he is Catholic.
The report explains that Bush left his family's Maine-Washington-Houston orbit while still in high school to study in Mexico. He returned in love with a Colombian-Mexican girl whom he later married. It was largely for her sake that he settled in Miami—a place where the Bush name had fewer connections than in Texas, where his brother George W. now resides in the governor's mansion.
The article says that “Bush recently made perhaps the ultimate leap for the son of the ultimate Wasp: he converted to Catholicism. It wasn't entirely an alien experience. Bush has been accompanying his wife to church off and on since their 1974 marriage, and many observers had erroneously concluded that he had already adopted her religion. But it happened only three years ago.…”
Bush told the magazine, “I vowed to myself after the election that I would convert. It turned out to be a pretty therapeutic thing.… Had I won, I would have been
up in a cocoon in Tallahassee and protected.… I'm convinced that I'm better off for not having won.”
After his defeat, Bush began to attend RCIA courses at his local parish. He enjoyed his classmates, saying, “[T]hese were real people, and it was so much fun to talk about normal things and to be treated as just a normal, ordinary person.” The experience brought him closer to his family as well, he is quoted saying.
Observers see a marked difference in Bush even in his campaigning, said the article. He now campaigns in black neighborhoods and other places that formerly were neglected by many Republican campaigns.
The issues he is promoting? Economic growth in poor neighborhoods, adoption, privatization of government, and compassion.
“Compassion must mean suffering with others and acting on the consciousness of your suffering with the people who are really in need,” he told Time.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: World Notes & Quotes DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:Irish Prelate Raises Multi-Denominational Eyebrows
Archbishop Desmond Connell, archbishop of Dublin, Ireland surprised fellow clergy—and angered reporters—by preaching about the Real Presence.
A June 1 Irish Times article reported that Archbishop Connell, dedicating a multi-denominational chapel along with Irish leaders of several Protestant denominations, reportedly said, “the body and blood of the Lord remain really and truly present in the Sacrament [of the Eucharist].”
He continued: “The tabernacle is thus the sanctuary of this abiding presence of the Lord, a center of adoration and prayer.”
The archbishop called his listeners' attention to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and said, “Because Christ himself is present in the sacrament of the altar, he is to be honored with the worship of adoration. To visit the Blessed Sacrament is … proof of gratitude, an expression of love, and a duty of adoration towards Christ our Lord.”
The archbishop's words at the event attended by so many Protestant clergy may have been prompted by the continuing controversies regarding inter-denominational Communion in Ireland, a practice that the Church does not allow because of the implications of the Catholic sacrament for the issue of unity.
The Protestant leaders were “surprised” at his choice of words on the occasion of the dedication of a multi-denominational chapel, said the article. It also noted that the chapel features a wooden cross with no depiction of Christ, in the Protestant style.
Poland's Catholic Talk Radio Under Fire
In Poland, said a Reuters News Service report June 2, controversial but popular Radio Maryja “brings solace to millions of Catholics” with its devotion to the faith and vigorous defense of pro-life and other positions. But is the station too concerned with politics and ideology?
The Catholic Voice in the Polish Home features daily prayers and catechetical instruction, along with wary commentary on the threats of communists and their sympathizers in a country which has seen devastation at the hands of Marxist ideologues.
An audience of 4 million hears the station's pro-Solidarity sentiments. The Solidarity movement, along with Pope John Paul II, is given credit for the demise of Polish communism in 1989.
But Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, a Pole who was recently appointed to work in the Vatican, is quoted saying that the station is over-concerned with political enemies. “I think the Church's biggest enemy is human weakness and sin,” not “communists” and “Freemasons,” he said.
At the same time, he admitted that he likes the station. “This is a difficult problem for the Church because this radio has much that is good. But mixing this good with any kind of politics simply harms the Church,” Bishop Pieronek said.
According to the report, Pope John Paul II last year called on the radio station to cooperate with the bishops and “speak with the same voice.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Notes & Quotes DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:Evolution Doesn't Explain Man, says Pope
Pope John Paul II has spoken again about the theory of evolution. Catholic teaching has always been ambivalent toward the theory. On the one hand, nothing in the theory need challenge faith in the Creator or in Scripture, properly understood. In October 1996, the Holy Father stressed this in remarks to a group of evolutionary scientists. Though his qualified endorsement of the scientists' efforts was in no way new, many headlines at the time misconstrued his guarded language as a papal endorsement of Darwinism.
Just as strong in Catholic teaching has been its cautionary attitude toward those proponents of the theory who insist that it has dispensed with God—and, along with him, many of the traditional ways man has understood himself. In his most recent public remarks about the theory, the Holy Father stressed the Church's rejection of the excesses of some of the theories' adherents.
Wire services reported him saying in May that evolution does not explain man's presence on earth and that it is “secondary” to divine action.
“Evolution isn't enough to explain the origins of humanity, just as biological chance alone isn't enough to explain the birth of a baby,” he said.
Speaking at his weekly general audience, the Pope added, “God creates the spirit of a new human being.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: The Real Population Crisis DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:There is a population crisis at the end of the 20th century. It's just not the one you've been hearing about.
Two recent reports, one from the United Nations and the other by France's National Institute of Demographic Studies, tell a dramatic, disturbing story:
• There are 185 countries in the world; 51 of them are committing slow-motion demographic suicide because they have below-replacement-level birth rates (less than 2.1 children per woman).
• Italy, Germany, Russia, and 10 other countries are suffering a “negative population balance,” or, to skip the euphemism, depopulation. Why? Not because of war, plague, or famine, but because of low birth rates. Italy has the world's lowest birth rate.
• The trend toward below-replacement-level birth rates has spread beyond the developed “First World” into Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean.
The vice president of the United States, fretting about “global warming” recently, complained that there were “too many people” on the planet. The fact is that in many societies, including some of the world's wealthiest, there aren't enough people.
France and Germany are two cases in point. Both have severe social problems because of “guest workers” or immigrants from North Africa and Turkey. The depopulated Franco-German core of the European community has become a demographic vacuum, which is quite naturally being filled by peoples migrating across the Mediterranean—in the age of jet aircraft, a river rather than a sea. And the French wonder why they have a French identity problem in their schools?
George Weigel
Is it an accident that Western Europe is becoming depopulated at the same time as the continent sinks deeper into secularization? I think not. Western Europe today is more stable, peaceful, and prosperous than at any time in recorded history. Yet its people refuse to reproduce themselves. This suggests a profound crisis in cultural morale.
Historically unprecedented standards of living and increasing life expectancy ought to create conditions conducive to at least maintaining one's population, if not increasing it. Yet the opposite is happening in Western Europe. Why? Because too many Western Europeans suspect that life is not worth transmitting? Because too many Europeans are too obsessed with consuming to take on the responsibilities of procreation and education?
Whether the cause is anxiety about the future or greed in the present, de-Christianization and depopulation have gone hand-in-hand in Western Europe in the late 20th century.
The ideology of population control has also shaped today's alarming depopulation trends.
For decades, International Planned Parenthood and its national and local affiliates have held the cultural high ground in the developed world. They continue to do so, despite overwhelming empirical evidence that contradicts Planned Parenthood's claims about world “over-population.” The endless repetition of that claim has, in turn, profoundly shaped—no, warped—the way too many people think.
Why is it that, when a calf is born in a poverty-stricken African country, everybody thinks, “That's a resource,” but when a child is born there, too many Americans think, “That's a problem”?
If enough people are constantly told that children are a problem, if that message is reinforced through a host of cultural enticements and pressures, and if the technology is available to act on the message, the result, absent a countervailing moral force, is predictable: the number of children in that society will be drastically curtailed. And the result of that, over several generations, is depopulation.
The Catholic Church has tried to be that countervailing moral force, but with decidedly mixed results. Too many Catholic leaders—ordained and lay—have been cowed into thinking that the Church's ethic of marital chastity cannot be successfully proposed or defended. Yet in John Paul II's book The Theology of the Body, which describes marital love as an icon of the inner life of the Trinity, the Church now has the most compelling account of human sexuality on offer in the developed world. Isn't it time to regain our nerve on this front—beginning by regaining our wits?
Two predictions. On its 30th anniversary this summer, Paul VI's encyclical, Humanae Vitae, will be pilloried yet again, by prominent Catholics among others. On its 60th anniversary, Humanae Vitae's challenge to the contraceptive mentality will be recognized as a prophetic warning against the demographic implosion of the West.
George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Rodney King: More Than Just the Facts DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:Everyone has seen the Rodney King videotape: two white police officers beating a black suspect with metal batons. The images electrified the nation. The events that followed tore us apart, opening painful wounds that have yet to heal. But public perception of the incident was influenced as much by media coverage and the attitude of local officials as by the actual facts of the case itself.
The two Los Angeles police officers who beat King, another cop who kicked him, and the sergeant who commanded all three, were put on trial and acquitted. In response, Los Angeles erupted in a riot that claimed 53 lives and cost more than $800 million in property damage. The four policemen were then retried under federal law. Two of them, Laurence Powell and Sgt. Stacey Koon, were convicted and sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Washington Post reporter, Lou Cannon, has done a comprehensive, objective analysis of the whole affair in Official Negligence: How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD. His findings will anger both the politically correct, multi-cultural left, and conservative supporters of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
He argues that what we think we saw on TV gave a misleading impression of what actually happened.
“The mythology of the King incident derives almost entirely from the edited version of the videotape,” Cannon writes. “That version begins more than halfway through an incident in which Stacey Koon tried to take King into custody without hurting him. This fact, in itself, sets the incident apart from numerous other cases of proven police brutality in which victims were hit, choked, or shot without provocation.”
Rodney King was not a career criminal. He was a marginally employed blue-collar worker addicted to alcohol. He had a single prior felony conviction, incurred while he was drunk.
On March 2, 1991, after drinking heavily with two friends, he was driving along a freeway at speeds of up to 115 m.p.h. when two California Highway Patrol officers tried to pull him over. He led them on a 7.8-mile, high-speed chase on the highway and surface streets, disregarding their sirens and flashing lights.
When King finally stopped, he ignored police orders to lie prone on the ground, commands with which his two passengers complied.
Because it was now LAPD jurisdiction, Koon took charge. First, he had four LAPD officers jump King, who pushed them off with surprising ease. Then Koon shot the suspect twice with a laser gun, but its electric shocks didn't have the desired effect of pacifying him. King's almost superhuman resistance to these tactics led the officers to believe he was high on the drug PCP, an assumption that subsequent tests failed to verify.
Koon ordered Powell and a LAPD rookie officer, Timothy Wind, to subdue King with their metal batons. It is at this point that the famed 81-second Holiday videotape begins, but Cannon points out that all the TV stations across the nation that aired the tape showed an edited 68-second version. What the media had edited out was blurry footage in which King is seen charging Officer Powell, dispelling the impression created by the rest of the tape that he was merely a passive victim.
‘The mythology of the King incident derives almost entirely from the edited version of the videotape.’
Cannon doesn't believe this 13-second deletion was the result of an anti-police media conspiracy. The news editors who first aired it considered the missing section to be technically beneath their station's standards.
The videotape shows King being struck 56 times. Powell delivered 40 blows and Wind 16, but Cannon concludes that Powell was incompetent, not a sadist. He had failed a baton test back at the station house only several hours before. In a well-run police department, he would have immediately been taken off the streets and assigned to a desk.
“Powell hits King over and over again not because Powell is vicious but because he is inept,” Cannon observes. “A properly trained officer would have flattened King. What the videotape shows is not street justice, but the horrendous violence that occurs when training and tactics fail.”
Cannon finds that many of the use-of-force techniques employed by other police departments weren't taught to LAPD officers.
“Neither the prosecution nor the defense in subsequent trials wanted to dwell on the awful possibility that LAPD officers are too poorly trained and too poorly equipped to take physically powerful and combative drunks into custody without beating them into submission,”
Cannon writes, “Far from being an aberration, the Rodney King incident was an inevitability—a systems failure, the result of a breakdown in which political leaders, the police chief, and senior officers ignored what was happening in the field.”
To civil rights groups, the videotape of the beating was proof of systematic abuse of minority suspects by the LAPD, and they used the incident to organize public opinion to effect long-needed reforms, like increased civilian control and community policing.
Unfortunately, the media told only the civil rights groups' version of the story. The evidence presented in first trial, which argued otherwise, was ignored. Because of this, when verdicts favorable to the officers were handed down, everyone was shocked.
“The King beating was the product of official negligence, and the officers became scapegoats for a system that allowed resistant suspects to be beaten into submission with metal batons,” Cannon concludes. “Had the incident been seen as the inevitable result of a flawed policy … the chain of events that culminated in the riots might have unfolded differently.”
Cannon believes that second trial of the officers was, in effect, double jeopardy, and that the federal government had caved-in to political pressure. He also wonders if the jury at that trial was so scared of another riot that they felt they had to convict someone.
The whole chain of events reveals the dangers of allowing the media to be prosecutor, judge, and jury. This, combined with bureaucratic cover-up and lying, prevented justice from being done. Official Negligence sets the record straight.
Arts & Culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: JOHN PRIZER ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Shoring Up the Marriage Covenant DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:The social fallout from America's high divorce rate has prompted politicians and social theorists to join religious groups in rethinking no-fault divorce and other legal disincentives for enduring marriages. In the May-June issue of the bi-monthly Policy Review Joe Loconte evaluates Louisiana's recent switch to a two-tier system of standard and “covenant” marriage.
Loconte emphasizes that the revolutionary character of Louisiana's Covenant Marriage Act lies in “raising both the entrance and exit requirements for marriage … On the front end, it requires premarital counseling. On the back end, it limits the legal grounds for divorce to adultery, felony conviction, abandonment, physical or sexual abuse, or separation for at least two years. It also requires that struggling couples get counseling before they may call it quits.”
Noting that only a small number of brides and grooms have thus far chosen covenant marriage, Loconte sees the most important result of the law in its educational effect. In recent decades the law has “taught” American couples and their children that marriage is a private arrangement designed to increase the happiness of two people, and easily dissolved if either partner chooses. Loconte quotes policy adviser and social analyst William Galston that “It's amazing how many people who believe (rightly) that civil rights laws helped change racial attitudes deny that any such consequences can flow from changes in the laws of marriage and divorce,” and argues that “the Louisiana statute already offers both liberals and conservatives an objective lesson that law can be used to instigate, but not compel, traditional virtue.”
Reactions from conservative Protestant groups seeking to reduce the toll from broken marriages have been largely enthusiastic (“the Louisiana Baptist Convention praised the new policy as an attempt ‘to move the legal standards for marriage and divorce closer to the standards of the Word of God’”).
The law has ‘taught’American couples and their children that marriage is… easily dissolved if either partner chooses.
The Catholic Church, on the other hand, while receptive to the law's intent, has been leery of committing its Catholic couples to a premarital process that requires counseling about the legal grounds for divorce of covenant marriages: “Any discussion of divorce before marriage is anathema to Catholic doctrine and would ‘confuse or obscure’ Church teaching.” Proposed amendments to the law may solve this problem.
Though Louisiana's law does not spell out or require religious participation in the covenant marriage option, Loconte argues that the law needs the Churches as much as the Churches need the law to encourage stable marriages. Many Protestant pastors are “increasingly ready to declare their congregations ‘no-fault-free’ zones: Many are refusing to marry couples who fail to choose the covenant contract,” and Church groups in the 20-plus states now considering similar laws also welcome the option.
America's recent experiment with no-fault divorce, writes Loconte, has led to broken lives through a combination of misguided compassion and, in author Maggie Gallagher's words, the redefinition “of marriage as a temporary bond sustained by mutual emotion alone.” Loconte comments, “The problem with this story is that it usually contains an unhappy ending: More than half of all new marriages in the United States will end in divorce or permanent separation, and most will involve minor children.” Loconte finds hope in Louisiana's abandonment of the false notion that the law can pretend neutrality about the survival of America's marriages. “Or to cite an old Chinese proverb: He who aims at nothing hits it.”
Ellen Wilson Fielding writes from Davidsonville, Maryland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ELLEN WILSON FIELDING ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:Vatican Line
In your June 7-13 issue, you report that Frei Betto, a prominent figure in Liberation Theology circles, acknowledges the ascent of Opus Dei, Focolare, Communion and Liberation, and other lay movements and the decline of base communities in Latin America that were influenced by liberation theology (In Brief).
While noting that fact, Betto says he doesn't share the growing popularity of these new Christian communities' “support for the Vatican line.” The idea of a “Vatican line” makes it sound as if these groups are some kind of apologists for a government administration in power for a limited time. But under this Pope, the Vatican line cannot be interpreted to mean anything less than subscribing to 2,000 years of the fullness of our Church's tradition. You can bet these “new” groups will continue to grow as liberation theology fades to a footnote in Church history. Why? Because the philosophy and actions of groups such as Communion and Liberation and the Neocatechumenal Way are situated well within the truth of Catholic tradition—2,000 years' worth.
Whatever noble motives might have given rise to liberation theology, it didn't take long for it to take on a life of its own, spinning outside the wise confines of authentic Catholicism. The 280,000 adherents of the “new” movements who gathered in Rome recently heard Pope John Paul II's praise that they had “reached a stage of maturity.” I understand that to mean that the groups generally had resisted the temptation to “outgrow” the Church and fall prey to the belief that they were wiser than the institution from which they'd sprung.
The Pope referred to the groups as “an answer” to the secular culture, sent by the Holy Spirit. The Marxist-influenced liberation theology, even at its high point, never saw beyond improving the temporal situation of men. In placing physical needs—liberation of the body—above the more important spiritual needs, liberation theology was bound to fail from the start. That human need goes well beyond achieving material equality in society is visible in the preponderance of those of us in the West who, despite having our physical needs more than adequately met, remain thirsty for something more.
If, Frei Betto, committing to a community that puts the physical and spiritual needs into their proper order means following the “Vatican line,” count me in.
Ricardo Blume
via e-mail
Exciting New Read
I have been reading the Register for years, but I have never enjoyed it as much as I do now. You cover so much, and so completely. I can't wait to get my hands on it each week.
Father Bernardine Hahn OFM
Omaha, Nebraska
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Mystery and Contradictions In a Priest's Anti-Catholicism DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:One of my favorite books that I have never finished reading is Romanism: A Menace to the Nation, by Jeremiah Crowley, a Catholic priest. Published in 1912, the book has a thick purple cover with embossed gold lettering. Glued into a recess on the front is a drawing of Pope Pius X; beneath it are the lines “Our Lord God the Pope” and “King of Heaven, Earth, and Hell.” The title page describes the book as “a searchlight upon the papal system”; it contains “startling charges against individuals in the hierarchy made and filed by the author and a score of prominent priests with photographic proofs and illustrations. “
The promotional words promise a lurid read—at least lurid by the standards of a long lifetime ago. It was just the kind of book that would appeal to a populace suspicious of Catholicism and worried about the large influx of immigrants from Catholic portions of Europe. (My maternal grandparents had immigrated just four years prior to the publication of Romanism. They were the kind of people—makers of the sign of the cross—who worried “real” Americans.)
What intrigues me most about Crowley's book is the frontispiece. The photograph shows him in a formal stance: full left profile, leaning against a table, a scroll in his right hand. His wavy hair is largely gray, his coat well tailored. Part of an elegant watch chain is visible. His facial lines are rounded, not angular, belying his age but not his weight. Halfway through the text he explains, “This book contains my photograph, and I state now that my height is six feet and three inches, and my weight is 250 pounds.” At the time of publication Crowley was 51.
He was born in Ireland, ordained to the priesthood, and ended up imprisoned by her majesty's government for reasons that, on a cursory reading, are unclear but probably justifiable. He left for America, settling in Chicago, where he was assigned to regular parish work, but he fell afoul of the hierarchy when he and other priests opposed the appointment of a new bishop, or so he says. He ended up excommunicated, but the excommunication may have been rescinded.
It was just the kind of book that would appeal to a populace suspicious of Catholicism and worried about the large influx of immigrants from Catholic portions of Europe.
I haven't read enough of the book to understand even his version of the story. What is clear, though, is that by 1906 he was lecturing against the parochial school system and alleged corruption in the clergy, focusing most of his attacks on the archdiocese of Chicago.
What kind of a man was this who stares off a page printed so long ago? What was his real story? Perhaps the photograph gives a clue. What strikes me is the softness of his features and the finery of his clothes. Crowley seems not to have been an ascetic. This is confirmed by an appeal he makes. “If I am to succeed,” he says, referring to his public campaign, “I must have something more than kind wishes. I must have money! My opponents have wealth which runs into the millions. I cannot get needed publicity for the truth without money. How can I get money? The sale of a few million copies of my book would yield enough to secure a publicity of truth which will shake the Catholic world as with an earthquake.”
Ten pages later he laments, “The American clergy, high and low, exhibit an insatiable desire for money. They seek and obtain it in the sacred name of religion—for God and Holy Mother Church! Many of the means they employ to secure it are not only questionable but criminal.” How many readers in 1912 saw the irony here? The clergy are rapacious, but Crowley wants only the proceeds from the sale of “a few million copies” of his book.
His words remind me of an episode recounted by Archbishop Fulton Sheen. At a retreat for priests, one of the clerics complained loudly and publicly about the Church's wealth. He insisted the Church sell off its artworks, cash in its investments, and give the proceeds to the poor. After the session the priest came up to the archbishop and repeated his remonstrances.
Archbishop Sheen eyed him and asked, “How much did you steal?”
“What?” said the priest, indignant. “How much did you steal?” repeated the archbishop.
The priest protested.
Again the archbishop asked, “How much did you steal?” At length the priest admitted he had been taking money from the collection basket, his rationale being that, since the Church wasn't a good steward of its wealth, he could put the money to better use than the hierarchy could.
I wonder whether there was some of this in Crowley, a man who protested too much. Someday, I would like to spend a few days in the archives of the Archdiocese of Chicago, seeing if a coherent story could be pieced together. What happened to Jeremiah Crowley? Does anyone still live who may have known him in his old age, if he reached old age? Was he ever reconciled to the Church, or did he end his years as a front man for anti-Catholic forces unwilling to show their own faces? I hope someday to find out.
Karl Keating is the founding director of Catholic Answers.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: A Supreme Counselor On All Things Forever DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:Sunday May 31, the Solemnity of Pentecost, the Holy Father celebrated Mass in St. Peter's Square with the members of ecclesial movements and new communities who had come to Rome for their first World Congress. During the liturgy the Pope also administered Confirmation and First Communion to 14 young people from various countries. After the Gospel had been chanted in Latin and Greek, the Holy Father gave the following homily in Italian. Here is a complete translation.
Credo in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life.
With the words of the NiceneConstantinopolitan Creed, the Church proclaims her faith in the Paraclete, a faith that is born of the apostolic experience of Pentecost. The passage from the Acts of the Apostles, which today's liturgy has offered for our meditation, recalls in fact the marvels worked on the day of Pentecost, when with great astonishment the Apostles saw Jesus' words come true. As was mentioned in the passage from St. John's Gospel proclaimed a few moments ago, on the eve of his Passion he had assured them: “I will pray to the Father and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever” (Jn 14:16). This “Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (Jn 14:26).
And the Holy Spirit, coming down upon them with extraordinary power, enabled them to proclaim the teaching of Christ Jesus to the whole world. Their courage was so great, their determination so sure, that they were prepared to do anything, even to give up their lives. The gift of the Spirit had released their deepest energies, concentrating them on the mission entrusted to them by the Redeemer. And it will be the Counselor, the Parakletos, who will guide them in preaching the Gospel to all. The Spirit will teach them the whole truth, drawing it from the wealth of Christ's word, so that, in turn, they may communicate it to people in Jerusalem and the rest of the world.
Fruits of the Spirit
How can we not give thanks to God for the wonders the Spirit has never ceased to accomplish in these two millennia of Christian life?
Indeed, the grace event at Pentecost has continued to bear its marvelous fruits, everywhere instilling apostolic zeal, a desire for contemplation, the commitment to live and serve God and our brothers and sisters with complete dedication. Today too, the Spirit sustains great and small acts of forgiveness and prophecy in the Church and gives life to ever new charisms and gifts, which attest to his ceaseless action in human hearts.
An eloquent proof of this is today's solemn liturgy attended by a vast number of those belonging to movements and new communities, who in these days have held their World Congress in Rome. Yesterday, in this same St. Peter's Square, we enjoyed an unforget-table festive gathering with songs, prayers, and testimonies. We experienced the atmosphere of Pentecost which made visible in a way the Spirit's inexhaustible fruitfulness in the Church. The movements and new communities, providential expressions of the new springtime brought forth by the Spirit with the Second Vatican Council, announce the power of God's love which, in overcoming divisions and barriers of every kind, renews the face of the earth to build the civilization of love.
St. Paul writes in the Letter to the Romans, proclaimed a few moments ago, “All who are led by the Spirit of God are Sons of God” (Rm 8:14).
These words suggest a further way of understanding the wonderful action of the Spirit in our life as believers. They open the way for us to reach the human heart: the Holy Spirit, whom the Church calls upon to give “light to the senses,” visits man inwardly and directly touches the depths of his being. The Apostle continues, “But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God really dwells in you.… For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (cf. Rm 8:9, 14).
Contemplating then the mysterious action of the Paraclete, he adds with deep feeling, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery
… but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry ‘Abba, Father!,’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rm 8:15-16). Here we are at the center of the mystery! It is in the meeting between the Holy Spirit and the human spirit that we find the very heart of what the Apostles experienced at Pentecost. This extraordinary experience is present in the Church born of that event and accompanies her down the centuries.
Under the Holy Spirit's action, man fully discovers that his spiritual nature is not veiled by corporeity but, on the contrary, it is his spirit which gives true meaning to his body. Indeed, by living according to the Spirit, he fully manifests the gift of his adoption as a son of God. It is in this context that we find the fundamental question of the relationship between life and death, which Paul touches on when he says, “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rm 8:13). It is exactly so: docility to the Spirit gives man continuous opportunities for life.
Missionary Celebration
Dear brothers and sisters, it is a great joy for me to greet all of you who have wished to join me in thanking the Lord for the gift of the Spirit. This totally missionary celebration extends our gaze to the whole world, with a particular thought for the many missionary priests, religious and laypeople who spend their lives spreading the truth of the Gospel, often in the most difficult conditions.
I greet those of you here present: the cardinals, my brothers in the episcopate and in the priest-hood, the numerous members of the various institutes of consecrated life and apostolic life, the young people, the sick, and especially all who have come from so far away for this solemn occasion.
I would especially like to mention the movements and the new communities which had their meeting yesterday and which I see present today in large numbers. Not as large as yesterday, but still large. I extend a special greeting to the young people who are about to receive the Sacraments of Confirmation and the Eucharist.
What exciting prospects the Apostle's words offer to each of you, dear friends! Through the actions and words of the sacrament of Confirmation, you will be given the Holy Spirit, who will complete your conformity to Christ, already begun in Baptism, to make you adults in the faith and authentic and courageous witnesses to the Risen One. With Confirmation, the Paraclete opens before you a path of continual rediscovery of the grace of adoption as children of God, which will make you joyful seekers of the Truth.
The Eucharist, the food of immortal life, which in a few moments you will taste for the first time, will make you ready to love and serve your brothers and sisters, capable of offering opportunities for life and hope, free from the domination of the “flesh” and of fear. By letting yourselves be guided by Jesus, you will be able to experience concretely the marvelous action of his Spirit, which the Apostle Paul speaks of in the eighth chapter of his Letter to the Romans. This text, whose message is particularly timely in this year dedicated to the Holy Spirit, will be read today with greater attention, as a tribute to what Christ's Spirit accomplishes in each of us.
Veni, Sancte Spiritus!
The magnificent sequence, which contains a rich theology of the Holy Spirit, would also be worthy of meditation, stanza by stanza. Here we will reflect only on the first word: veni, come! It recalls the waiting of the Apostles after Christ's ascension into heaven.
In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke presents them to us gathered in the Upper Room in prayer with the Mother of Jesus (cf. Ac 1:14). What better words than these could express their prayer: Veni, Sancte Spiritus — the invocation, that is, of the one who moved over the face of the waters at the beginning of the world (cf. Gn 1:2), whom Jesus had promised them as the Paraclete?
A Prayer for Today
The hearts of Mary and the Apostles at those moments were longing for his coming, alternating between ardent faith and the confession of human inadequacy. The Church's piety has interpreted and passed on this sentiment in the hymn Veni, Sancte Spiritus. The Apostles know that the work Christ has entrusted to them is arduous, but decisive for the history of humanity's salvation. Will they be able to complete it? The Lord reassures their hearts. At every step of the mission that will lead them to proclaim and witness to the Gospel to the furthest corners of the globe, they will be able to count on the Spirit promised by Christ. The Apostles, recalling Christ's promise on the days between the Ascension and Pentecost, will focus their every thought and sentiment on that veni, come!
Thus beginning her invocation to the Holy Spirit, the Church makes her own the substance of the Apostles' prayer as they gathered with Mary in the Upper Room; indeed, she extends it in history and makes it ever timely. Veni, Sancte Spiritus! Thus she says over and over in every corner of the earth, her fervor unchanged, firmly aware that she must remain in the Upper Room, always awaiting the Spirit. At the same time, she knows that she must leave the Upper Room and travel the world's roads, with the ever new task of bearing witness to the mystery of the Spirit. Veni, Sancte Spiritus! So we pray with Mary, sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, a most precious dwelling-place of Christ among us, so that she may help us to be living temples of the Spirit and tireless witnesses of the Gospel. Veni, Sancte Spiritus! Veni, Sancte Spiritus! Veni, Sancte Spiritus! Amen!
----- EXCERPT: After 2,000 years, the Apostles'simple prayer Veni, Sancte Spiritus! Come, Holy Spirit! is as relevant as ever ----- EXTENDED BODY: POPE JOHN PAUL II ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Good Angels Are No Substitute for Heavenly Father DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:My last column dealt with the problems of the new angel phenomena. Most of the present angel fad has its roots in the New Age movement and its fascination with spirit channeling. However, the angel fad is more than a substitution of the angels for channeled spirits.
Many of the proponents of the angel phenomena are storytellers with little interest in spirit channeling. They enchant talk-show audiences with stories of help from heaven, covering a range of problems from finding a parking place in Manhattan to being rescued from an avalanche.
These angel advocates do not focus on advice about past lives and hope for reincarnation. Rather, they emphasize angelic aid in the present, in concrete, everyday life and even death situations. What purpose does this serve them? Why are so many people interested in stories about the angels?
One reason is that a large number of people today hold serious doubts about the existence of the supernatural world. The reality of God, the saints, the devil, and the good angels seem farfetched to many in modern society. At the same time, they do not want to deny the supernatural outright. Maybe, they think, a reality beyond the boundaries of logic and science is possible. When a former skeptic appears on television or writes in a newspaper of an episode of supernatural help in a risky situation, modern skeptics are fascinated and even comforted. A materialistic life feels empty; the possibility of the supernatural helps fill the void.
A second factor with the angel phenomena has to do with the fact that many people rush around in their lives with little direction or clear purpose. They frequently feel alone and isolated in a large world that pushes them around with its demands. For people who are accustomed to satisfying other people's demands but who feel that no one cares for them, stories of angels who freely extend acts of kindness are a great source of comfort.
A third factor for the angel craze flows from the second: The celestial creatures make few if any demands on those they help. They are sent from God (if there is a God), they save your skin, and they do not ask for return favors. Besides, what could you possibly give to a spirit who has everything? Herein lies a problem for the spiritual life. Many modern people perceive angels as spiritual aunts and uncles. When you want someone to like you, help you out, or give you a treat, who better than a favorite uncle or aunt? My uncles took me to stock car races and the circus, helped me build model cars, and bought me ice cream cones at a place that looked like a castle. We had a lot of fun, and the demands were few. My Mom and Dad let me have a lot of fun, too, but they also set curfews, and demanded housework, homework, and good behavior. To a young boy, the demands seemed greater than the rewards.
Similarly, some people want angels to be their spiritual uncles and aunts who treat them to goodies, rescue them from trouble, and comfort them in times of need. They do not necessarily want a heavenly Father who threatens to punish them if they disobey the Ten Commandments. They are uncomfortable about the demands Jesus Christ made in the Sermon on the Mount or about taking responsibility for their ultimate destiny—eternal life in heaven or hell.
However, the demands my parents made on me were correct demands. The punishments for wrongdoing taught me to be responsible for my behavior and to accept the fact that my actions had consequences. My parents taught me, day in and day out, the proper way to live, share, and mature. Not that my uncles opposed my parents' wishes; they simply did not have the full responsibility of raising me. They had fun with me as a little kid, and I had fun with them. My parents raised me.
Looking to the angels as spiritual aunts and uncles has a certain risk. Some people may simply want angelic help and even fun. However, we all need our heavenly Father to set moral demands and eternal goals for us. Our Father in heaven requires responsibility for our actions and seeks that we be holy as he is holy (Lv 19:2), perfect as he is perfect (Mt 5:48), and compassionate as he is compassionate (Luke 6:36). Our Father in heaven desires to raise us from one glory to another.
We Catholics should never deny the role of the angels; their ministry is a great gift from God. We should love the angels and trust that our Lord has given us a wonderful guardian angel. However, we should not substitute the angels for our faith in God. We should not let the world trick us into being satisfied with the spirits who help us as replacements for the God who demands moral righteousness and holiness.
God not only makes the demands, but he gives us his Son to redeem us from our failures. He gives us himself and makes us sons and daughters who are made responsible for behavior and are made heirs of the Kingdom of heaven. The angels are good to us, but God makes us his children and raises us.
Jesuit Father Mitch Pacwa is a professor at the Institute for Religious and Pastoral Studies at the University of Dallas.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: ATiny World of Big Ideas in Texas DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:FORTWORTH—Looking the part of an Oxford don, his black academic robes fingered delicately by a breeze, Dr. James Patrick recently stopped an informal tour to chide two young teens in parochial school uniforms: “These are my useless students,” he says, gazing down with a paternal smile. The girls from The Lady Margaret Roper School, a coed college preparatory which shares facilities and faculty with the College of St. Thomas More (CSTM), return the tease with undiminished, end-of-the-term smiles.
They are soon off with their giggles, at least until theology class, and Patrick is striding again through the academy of which he is co-founder and provost. In the vine-laden courtyard there is a statue of Our Lady and, to the right, a chapel where noon Mass is about to begin. Across from it is the refectory, where students and faculty share 12:30 luncheon and where the men are taught to stand when a lady enters the room. Up ahead is a library, a modest wood-frame building but with a more than modest 8,500 volumes.
There is not much more to see in this tiny world of big ideas. Texas' newest four-year liberal arts college and the only Catholic institution of its type in Dallas-Fort Worth consists of an eclectic block of seven former residences.
The faculty is made up of five full-time fellows, five part-time (called visiting) fellows, 20 associates who teach seminars and special courses, and three full-time staff. There is just one curriculum, one major—liberal arts —and a handful of students in each class. Next year the college, which began as a non-accredited institute in 1981, will grant its first baccalaureate degrees to just six students.
But there is more here than meets the eye.
There's the book list, for example, which takes up four pages, from Acts of the Council of Trent through Xenophon's Anabasis. CSTM also offers a “City as Text” program, which features guided tours and studies in Rome, Oxford, and Greece during spring and summer.
Unlike its sprawling neighbor, Texas Christian University, students here don't leave CSTM without their Latin, their Greek, and an intimate acquaintance with the great writers and thinkers of Western civilization. And unlike other liberal arts colleges that dot the country, CSTM follows the model laid out by John Cardinal Newman 150 years ago by organizing the classical studies—literature, philosophy, theology, mathematics, classical languages, and history—within the truths of the Catholic faith.
“The purpose is to give people enough courage and imagination to lead a good life,” says Patrick, provost since 1993. “We are trying to introduce people to a universal human culture, citizenship in which will enable them to manage the culture in which they live.”
Otherwise, he said, “all they'll know is television and JFK, and they will spend their lives thinking their experience is unique, such as that no one else has ever asked anyone to do anything they didn't want to before.”
If Newman and Oxford are the models, why is St. Thomas More the patron, when half a dozen other schools bear the same name? “Because we love him,” quips Patrick. “He was a wonderfully happy combination of brilliance and holiness in a time very much like our own.”
For all its sense of tradition, the college does not hold appeal for many so-called traditional students, that is, recent high school graduates looking for career training, according to Jon Kerr, immediate past chairman of the board. Its students range in age from 18 to 75 and consist of part-time learners, those seeking an associate's degree and a few full-time students working toward their four-year degree. Among them are such diverse students as a Hispanic grandmother and professionals who feel their education was incomplete. For most, this is not their first educational experience out of high school.
“We're an odd place. You're not going to find many homecoming queens and quarterbacks here. We don't teach French, we don't teach computers, we don't let you goof off,” Kerr says. “You can't get a good job out of here. We can't train you to do anything but become a better person.
“I think the more people figure out what we do—it won't increase our popularity. The world is pretty hostile to us and we are hostile to the world,” he continues. “Some people want a direct correlation between the amount of time spent in school and the job they get. (At CSTM) if you want every assumption you've ever had challenged, if you want every idea you've ever had torn apart, and reconstructed … this is the place to come.”
Christopher Cleveland, 23, an associate's degree student in his third year at CSTM, remembers seeing a newspaper ad for the college, which featured it as “an eccentric oddity that had bloomed here in Fort Worth.” The Texas native took a look at the course schedule, including Latin, and figured he lacked the private school preparation he believed would be necessary. A nominal Catholic seeking a deeper spiritual life, he enrolled instead in a Protestant Bible college.
“I saw the [Protestants'] extreme piety with regard to Scripture, but it was not enough because I craved the Sacraments,” he says. “I missed the Sacraments and the liturgy and the sense of mystery.”
Four years later Cleveland was again considering the College of St. Thomas More. “It was too much money, I wasn't qualified…but (the faculty) kind of courted me,” he says. And, true to his fears, he did experience culture shock.
“I don't think I ever had a class with more than six people in it. There was no way to hide,” he says. “It made the Protestant college seem like pre-kindergarten Sunday school. It was wonderful. It was also very daunting.” Gradually, “I came alive, and now they can't shut me up,” says Cleveland, who manages the Catholic bookstore in downtown Fort Worth. “The books have a power of their own, (and the curriculum) is presented with so much excellence, it causes you to want to embrace that excellence. It makes you want to swim up to it.”
Cleveland, now vice president of student government, recently planned a May crowning, which joins twice-daily Mass (the chapel is too small for everyone to attend noon Mass) and 40 hours' devotion as a revived spiritual tradition that goes hand-in-hand with the college's intellectual revival. “This place is full of people who used to be something else,” says former board member Kerr. “Pound for pound we probably have more conversions than just about anybody else.”
Kerr himself came to the college as a lawyer (and former “nasty bad guy”) while on a spiritual journey that took him to the doors of the Anglican Church, where he considered the priesthood. After less than a semester at the college, he was directed instead toward becoming a practicing Catholic. Cleveland, too, who had become a member of the Anglo-Catholic Church of St. Thomas More in Fort Worth, joined with that congregation when it came into full communion with Rome a year ago. The wife of the pastor, Father James Hart, is also a student at CSTM, and her education had no small part in her's, her husband's, and their church's conversion.
According to Kerr, such conversions should be no surprise. “The effect of all this is … that devoting the intellectual life to Christ … is compulsively, unavoidably transforming,” he says. “You have to be pretty masterful to resist it for any length of time.”
However, Provost Patrick is quick to point out that the college is not a church, and it does not need to be.
“Our job is to teach them the best things,” he says. “The truth is good for the soul, and having something to lift up our hearts and mind to makes us better. It's a good in itself.”
Ellen Rossini writes from Dallas, Texas.
----- EXCERPT: College of St. Thomas More is set on educating students-not to get a job-but for life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ELLEN ROSSINI ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: A Touch of Moscow In Rustic New England DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:Amile west along Route 20 from the central tourist hub in Sturbridge, Mass., is the Fiskdale section of town. There, Church Street leads two long blocks up a hillside to St. Anne Shrine. Part of the thriving St. Anne and St. Patrick Parish, this shrine has attracted pilgrims and visitors for more than 100 years.
Through the decades, the quiet, rustic grounds have expanded to include an outdoor Mass pavilion on a rise of sweeping lawn above the church. It accommodates the many visitors who come each year between Memorial and Labor Day. Beyond the pavilion, devotional sites include the Way of the Cross, a Lourdes grotto, Our Lady of Fatima shrine, and Holy Stairs. A large picnic area surrounded by trees offers a shady place to relax. And on the other side of the pavilion is a Russian icon exhibit and chapel.
The modest shrine to Mary's mother was erected shortly after the parish was established. In 1883, St. Anne Church was simply a mission set up by Notre Dame Parish in nearby Southbridge. At the same time, St. Patrick's opened as another Sturbridge mission. Within four years, both united to form a single parish.
In 1887, a woman named Mrs. Houde who lived in the area had been petitioning St. Anne for a cure for her dropsy (edema). She received a partial cure as she went to receive Communion on the Sunday following the feast of St. Anne. A year to the very day, Mrs. Houde was fully healed.
The shrine was founded on that same occasion when parishioners formally processed to thank God for the healing through St. Anne's intercession. The foundation and spread of devotion was so firm that by 1893, the Shrine of St. Anne-de-Beaupre in Quebec donated a relic of the saint to the parish.
Today, pilgrims and visitors venerate this same relic of Good Saint Anne mounted before her statue. The statue of the saint with her daughter Mary is enclosed in a glass case and is the focal point in the modest shrine-chapel, an addition to the original mission structure, and located to the side of the church.
Countless favors and healings received over the years are recorded on either side of the statue. From floor to ceiling, there are crutches, braces, and walkers along with rosaries and photos and other ex-votos left by grateful petitioners.
On occasion, “people do stop by and say they've been healed,” says Walter Szyszkiewicz, a worker and spokesman for the parish—though they're not formally documented as they were in the past. He gives an example of a recent thanksgiving for multiple favors received by one family who visited the shrine—the father got a desired job, they sold their home in New Jersey, then-quickly found another in Arizona close to their work.
A major annual event here is the nine-day Novena that culminates on the feast of St. Anne in July. Each day there are Masses, confessions, a rosary procession, and novena prayers. Often too, there is benediction and the anointing of the sick.
In 1955, care of the shrine and parish were assigned to the Assumptionists, an order which has had missionaries serving in Russia since 1906, including at St. Louis-desFrancais Church in Moscow and at the American embassy chaplaincy. Icons brought back by them in the 1970s are displayed at the museum-chapel that is part of a votive shrine and a gift shop building less than a minute from the church.
The octagonal museum-chapel with its natural pine cathedral ceiling is beautiful and is conducive to prayer and reflection. In fact, five Sundays a year, an Assumptionist conducts an afternoon of prayer before the icons.
The Russian works of liturgical art date from the late 18-20th century, with many from the 19th century. They are joined by several Byzantine religious items such as a crucifix with inlaid mosaics. Several icons such as the Mother of God of Vladimir (according to tradition, painted by St. Luke during Mary's lifetime, then eventually transported from Constantinople to Kiev and Vladimir—hence, the name) appear more than once by different iconographers who painted them in different years.
There are 10 icons of Christ Pantocrator (Ruler of All) and two moving icons of the “Holy Visage,” which takes its name from Veronica's veil.
The Kazan Mother of God, the most widely known hodigitria-type icon of Mary in Russia, and possibly the most popular, graces several examples. The icon of Feodorovskaya Mother of God looks very much like Our Mother of Perpetual Help. Mary also appears under various other titles: Our Lady of Unexpected Joy, Mother of God of Joy to Those Who Grieve, Mother of Tenderness, and Our Lady of the Softening of Wicked Hearts.
St. Nicholas, a popular saint among the Russian people, is the subject of several icons in the exhibit. For visitors viewing the icons on the grounds or in the shrine, time can seem to stand still. Nearby, the Sturbridge area is active with tourists, yet has managed to maintain its rustic New England flavor. Another major attraction less than a mile away, not far from the juncture of Interstate 84 and the Massachusetts Turnpike (Interstate 90), is Old Sturbridge Village. Situated on 200 acres, the village is the northeast's largest living history museum, where 40 authentic buildings and costumed staff recreate life in 1830s New England.
Lodging, from the name motels to an historic inn with antiques, can be found around Route 20, along with areas for camping and shopping. There visitors will find many of the top chain food restaurants along with individual restaurants such as the quaint, award-winning 1771 Inn.
Midway between Hartford, Conn., and Boston, an hour's drive in either direction, St. Anne Shrine and icon exhibit is a worthwhile journey for both body and soul.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Beautiful Russian iconography is as close as St. Anne's Shrine in Sturbridge, Mass. ----- EXTENDED BODY: JOSEPH PRONECHEN ----- KEYWORDS: Traveler -------- TITLE: A Touching Fable in Cattle Country DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:Almost since the beginning of recorded history, cities have been depicted as corrupters of human nature and sources of moral confusion. By contrast, living in the country has been seen as simpler and more virtuous because people there remain connected to their physical and emotional roots.
Ever since the 1960s, these ideas have been especially popular with a certain segment of the suburban upper-middle class even though farming is now more capitalistic agribusiness than a righteous tilling of the soil. The Horse Whisperer, based on Nicholas Evans' best-selling novel, takes these notions very seriously. A whiff of fresh air and immersion in the wide-open spaces are presented as a sure-fire tonic for uptight city slickers.
It's winter, and 14-year-old Grace McLean (Scarlett Johansson) loves to go riding. The movie begins with her and her best female buddy saddling up at dawn in an upscale Connecticut suburb. But the snow is slippery, and a freak accident with a truck results in the death of her friend. She herself has to have her leg amputated, and her beloved horse, Pilgrim, is so maimed the local vet (Cherry Jones) declares she's “never seen an animal with these injuries still breathing.” Grace's mother, Annie (Kristin Scott Thomas), is a British born, workaholic magazine editor. A bossy control freak, she ignores the vet's advice and refuses to have the horse put to sleep.
Grace is unable to adjust to her disability and takes it out on her parents. Her lawyer-father, Robert (Sam Neill), makes excuses for her, but her mother tries to force her to cope. These differences put a strain on their marriage.
When Grace is taken to see Pilgrim, the sight of the horse's physical and psychological damage is more than she can bear. Annie sees Pilgrim's healing as the key to her daughter's recovery, and she uses her magazine's resources to track down a “horse whisperer,” Tom Booker (Robert Redford). He belongs to a small group of trainers who “can see into the creature's soul and soothe the wounds they find there.”
Tom tells Annie on the phone he can't help her. Ever the can-do executive, she won't take “no” for an answer. She packs up Grace and Pilgrim and heads out to Tom's Montana ranch, which he works with his brother (Chris Cooper) and sister-in-law (Diane Wiest).
Things look bleak for the McLean family. Pilgrim is a danger to everyone with whom he comes into contact, and Grace fights her mother and her over-bearing manner every step of the way. “You act like we work for you,” she complains during one of their many fights.
‘I help horses with people problems.’
Booker is a cross between an old-fashioned, rugged cowboy and an in-touch-with-your-feelings 1990s therapist.
But Booker is a healer of both animals and humans. “I help horses with people problems,” he tells Annie, in describing his approach. He's a cross between an old-fashioned, rugged cowboy and an in-touch-with-your-feelings 1990s therapist.
Although we don't ever hear exactly what he whispers to the horse, Pilgrim slowly begins to trust him. At the same time, Tom connects with Grace, helping her to build self-esteem as she does chores in the stables and learns to drive a pick-up truck.
Annie has trouble turning over her daughter and her horse to Tom. She's too used to being in charge. She also tries to edit her Manhattan-based magazine from Montana and has trouble admitting there's anything wrong with her high-pressured lifestyle.
Eventually, she too begins to unwind. Tom takes her riding and teaches her how to brand a heifer. She's lonely for adult companionship and a long way from home and her husband. Soon sparks are flying between her and the horse whisperer. Each acknowledges the attraction, and there are many longing glances and a few tender embraces.
When Annie's husband makes a surprise visit, the atmosphere gets tense. But both Annie and Tom have a quality in short supply in most Hollywood films — moral intelligence. The damage to all parties concerned from an adulterous affair and/or a divorce is apparent, and they don't give in to temptation. In this regard, director Redford (Ordinary People and Quiz Show) and screenwriters Eric Roth (Forrest Gump) and Richard LaGravenese (The Bridges of Madison County) have improved on the book, which was more overtly sexual.
For all its high seriousness, The Horse Whisperer is sentimental at its core. There are several emotionally uplifting scenes, and some in the audience may be moved to tears. But no one should mistake its sensitivity and visual beauty for a realistic dramatization of the issues or people involved.
Tom is too good to be true. Although psychologically vulnerable, he has no character flaws. He's more a romance novel fantasy figure than a real person with a specific set of skills.
Montana ranching is also depicted as a too perfect, idyllic way of life. Raising cattle is never shown as the tough, risky, nitty-gritty business that it is. Instead it seems to be a kind of wholesome, back-to-nature, work therapy that brings people together. Even more inspiring is Tom's family who exudes an earthy harmony in its relationships that rat-race driven city-dwellers and suburbanites like the McLeans can only envy.
The Horse Whisperer presents life and its problems as we would like them to be rather than as they really are. But so what? It's the kind of movie Hollywood does very well. There's a sincerity and passion in its storytelling and its heart is in the right place. We should be grateful for small pleasures.
Arts & Culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: The Horse Whisperer falls short on reality, but saves itself with sincerity and passion ----- EXTENDED BODY: JOHN PRIZER ----- KEYWORDS: Art & Culture -------- TITLE: Two-Fisted Priest Stands Up for Workers On New York Docks DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:How far should the Church go in encouraging social activism? And how deeply should a parish priest involve his flock in political protests that put their lives in danger?
Most people remember On the Waterfront, which won five Oscars in 1954, for Marlon Brando's bravura performance as a dockworker who stands up to union lawlessness. They usually forget that director Elia Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire) and screen-writer Budd Schulberg (A Face in the Crowd) also dramatize the role of the Church in igniting that corrupt man's conscience to do the right thing. Without a parish priest and a female Catholic college student goading him on, the evil of the New York longshoremen's union would have remained unchecked.
Union leader, Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb), rules “the fastest piers in the fastest harbor” with an iron hand, shaking down shipowners and taking kickbacks from workers who need jobs. He has a soft spot in his heart for former prizefighter, Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando), whose brother Charlie (Rod Steiger) is his right-hand man. Terry is given only the cushiest assignments in return for which he owes Johnny certain favors. Terry's hobby is feeding and training pigeons on a tenement roof, and he sets up a meeting with union officials for fellow longshoreman and bird-lover, Joey Doyle, as per Johnny's instructions. When Joey is later found dead, the other dockworkers assume it's because he had agreed to testify against the union at a crime commission hearing.
The local parish priest, Father Barry (Karl Malden), tries to comfort Joey's family, but his sister, Edie (Eva Marie Saint), a student at a nearby Catholic college, doesn't think that's good enough. She wants justice for her dead brother and his fellow workers. “Did you ever hear of a saint hiding in a church?” she asks.
Father Barry takes her challenge to heart and organizes a meeting of dissident union members. Terry is sent by Johnny to spy on the gathering, which is held in the church. “How can we call ourselves Christians and protect these union leaders with our silence?” the priest demands, using the workers'faith to turn them against Johnny.
Union goons attack the dissidents as they leave the meeting. Nevertheless, Father Barry persuades another dock-worker to testify against the union, but he too is killed in what looks like a work-related accident. In one of the movie's most compelling scenes, the priest stands by the dead man's body and exhorts the other longshoremen to take action. “Some people think the crucifixion happened only on Calvary,” he cries. “But everytime the mob puts pressure on a good man, it's a crucifixion.”
The union goons pelt the priest with garbage, but he refuses to shut up. “Everytime you stand up for the truth.” he continues, “Jesus stands with you.”
Terry is moved by Father Barry's words and confesses to the priest his involvement in Joey Doyle's death. The cleric isn't a touchy-feely, I-hear-your-pain kind of guy. Rather than wallow with Terry in his self-pity, he sternly tells the ex-prizefighter he must go further. With encouragement from Edie, Terry agrees to talk to the crime commission.
In the movie's most famous scene, he justifies his decision to his brother while riding in back of a mob limousine. The sequence is still electrifying. Terry explains how Johnny made him throw a fight he should have won. “I could have been a contender,” he wails. “I could have been somebody instead of a bum.”
Johnny pulls out all the stops to keep Terry from testifying. In retaliation, the ex-prizefighter goes after him with a gun. Father Barry dissuades Terry from this vigilante justice by coldcocking him with an uppercut, then relieving him of his weapon. The cleric holds to a model of the priesthood that includes a kind of super-masculine, two-fisted behavior that's gone out fashion in recent years.
On the Waterfront is Hollywood filmmaking at its best. Its message is a hard-edged version of Catholic social teaching that praises Christians who risks their lives for justice and truth.
Arts & Culture correspondent John Prizer Writes from Los Angeles. NEXT WEEK: Hugh Hudson's Chariots of Fire.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: JOHN PRIZER ----- KEYWORDS: Art & Culture -------- TITLE: New Study: Prospects for Premature Babies Are Improving DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:NEW ORLEANS—Babies born prematurely aren't necessarily destined for death or life with severe disabilities, according to a study released at this month's Pediatric Academic Society's annual conference in New Orleans. The study debunks the popular notion that many babies born prematurely will not survive or will suffer severe disabilities.
Dr. Douglas Derleth of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, announced the results of a study of 10 infants born at the clinic in 1991 and 1992 at 23 to 24 weeks gestation. The infants were born at least four months prematurely. A normal pregnancy is about 40 weeks. Derleth's study focused on infants who were given at least one “aggressive treatment” to keep them alive.
Despite the odds, Derleth said his study proves that the common assumption that babies born this early have little or no hope for a life without disabilities is not necessarily accurate.
“Many feel that 23-24 week babies who need aggressive interventions will either die or have severe handicaps, so aggressive support is often withheld from such babies,” said Derleth. “This assumption is not true.”
The aggressive treatment mentioned by Derleth can take many forms. Some premature babies may require cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) at birth, while others may require intensive ventilation due to lung immaturity. Other children need potent doses of certain medication to maintain an acceptable blood pressure.
In Derleth's study, only one of the infants died. One of the children is completely normal, two experience minor disabilities, and the remaining children are considered “moderately disabled.” All of the infants are talkative and interactive.
Derleth said it is difficult to predict how the babies will do once they grow up, but he reiterated that the future of severely premature children is not as dismal as some may think.
The results of Derleth's study, and others like it, have a direct implication on the debate over abortion—particularly late-term abortions. The Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade abortion decision created a trimester framework to pregnancy and allowed states some leeway in restricting late-term abortions. However, Roe's companion case, Doe vs. Bolton, essentially sanctioned abortion for any reason, at any stage of pregnancy, by interpreting a woman's “health” to include virtually any reason a woman might seek an abortion. That liberal interpretation has allowed late-term abortions to be performed throughout the nation. This fact has led pro-lifers to introduce legislation at both the state and federal level seeking to restrict one particular type of late-term abortion, partial birth abortions.
The issues surrounding the humanity of premature infants have played a direct role in some state legislatures during the debate over partial-birth abortion. In New Hampshire, one state legislator shared her own compelling testimony of giving birth to her daughter at just 24 weeks in 1974. The experience, she told her colleagues on the floor of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, forced her to examine her beliefs on the humanity of unborn children and the morality of abortion.
State Rep. Mary Brown shared her personal testimony during the state's debate on a bill to restrict partial-birth abortions. The attending physician told Brown and her husband that the child's chances were “zero.” Yet her daughter Jessica was born kicking and flailing her arms, even though she was small enough to fit in the palm of the doctor's hand. The doctor's response was less than encouraging: “Her chances are slim, and even if she survives, she'll probably be physically and mentally handicapped, blind or worse. Do you want to try to save her?” The Browns' answer was an emphatic yes.
“I stood over her, feeling helpless,” Brown told the state legislature. “I began to wonder about abortions. Her features were perfectly formed. She had fingernails and toenails, eyes, nose and mouth. When I realized she was a second-trimester fetus and how many like her are aborted each year, I felt sick in the pit of my stomach.”
Twenty-three years later, Jessica graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, receiving her diploma from none other than President Clinton, an ardent supporter of keeping partial-birth abortions legal.
“Obviously the doctor's predictions did not come to pass,” said Brown. “Can you imagine if we had listened to him and discarded her? I can't imagine that. The doctor was wrong.”
Many babies born prematurely do face a tough road. Every baby is different and how the child responds to treatments after birth often dictates how successful full-recovery efforts will be. However, according to neonatologists, babies born at 24 weeks have a more than 57% chance at survival. Babies born just a week or two before the crucial 24-week mark, face much more difficult odds. The Journal of Pediatrics reports that 33% of babies born at 24-26 weeks suffer from a “major disability,” while 40%-50% will have a “minor disability.” The odds of escaping disability improve the longer the baby is able to stay in the womb.
As medical technology advances, physicians are discovering more effective treatments for premature infants—increasing the chance of both survival and good health. One new treatment, which appeared on the scene just a few years ago, assists premature babies in the breathing process and reduces the often-fatal effects of respiratory distress syndrome. Often the lungs of the premature baby have not developed enough to adequately receive and process oxygen. These babies lack a necessary substance, called surfactant, which opens the tiny air pockets in the lungs and transfers oxygen to the brain. However, today the premature infant's lungs can be filled with a steady stream of a new colorless, odorless liquid called perflubron, which breaks the surface tension of the air sacs in the lung and facilitates the baby's breathing. Studies have shown that the process of filling the lungs with perflubron, often referred to as “liquid breathing,” has been remarkably successful in improving the lung functioning of premature infants.
The rise of new medical technology has made the future brighter for premature babies, but some pro-life physicians warn against becoming too transfixed on the notion of “viability” as a litmus test for an unborn child's personhood.
Dr. Paul Byrne, a neonatologist who has cared for premature infants, is president of the Catholic Medical Association. Byrne said he's seen premature babies beat the odds before, even without today's technology. However, medical technology could continue to advance—saving more babies born prematurely.
“The limits of science and technology are not known,” said Byrne. “But no matter what the advances, the life of the new person begins at conception. We know that conception has occurred when the sperm and ovum come in contact. All we can do is verify the truth.”
As medical professionals learn more about how they can assist babies born prematurely, abortion advocates continue their crusade to defend the “right” of a mother to abort her child at any stage of pregnancy. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, approximately 600 third-trimester abortions are performed annually in the United States. Pro-life sources claim the number is likely higher since statistical reporting of abortion is not required in many states. However, one thing remains clear: As more premature babies survive, at younger ages, abortion advocates may have an increasingly difficult time defending the absolute right to abortion.
Greg Chesmore writes from Bloomington, Indiana.
----- EXCERPT: Findings could impact debate on late-term abortions ----- EXTENDED BODY: GREG CHESMORE ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Federal Abstinence Money Under Scrutiny DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—Controversy has increased over a federal program to encourage sexual abstinence, and at least one state — New Hampshire — will decline funds to implement the initiative. Even some states which are accepting federal money have designed programs which alarm abstinence supporters. Some leaders have suggested that such programs might be better left to dedicated groups funded by private sources.
The 1996 welfare reform bill includes a $50 million annual authorization for abstinence education. The money, part of the Maternal and Child Health block grant, is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services and goes directly to the states. The program began Oct. 1, 1997 and provides funds for five years, making the abstinence initiative a $250 million effort.
Congressional intent of the law is clear. Funds cannot be used to promote sex outside the institution of marriage. Contraceptive support, which is amply provided for in other federal law, is excluded from this money. The level of aid is determined by a low-income formula which is the basis for other forms of social assistance. Allocations range from a high of $5.8 million for California to $69,855 each for Utah and Vermont.
Despite this windfall to combat teen pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases, the program has encountered stiff opposition in some states. Planned Parenthood helped lead an effort which resulted in New Hampshire's recent refusal to accept its first year allocation of $82,862. The Abstinence Education Resource Institute in Manchester had been chosen by the state Department of Education to implement the program before the state changed its mind.
Peter Brandt, acting executive director of the National Coalition for Abstinence Education, said, “There is no doubt in my mind that this decision is being driven by social ideology and not by public policy considerations. The citizens of New Hampshire ought to be outraged. Kids in New Hampshire are being deprived of free money to receive the message they desperately need to hear.”
Sen. Robert Smith (R-N.H.) wrote a letter to the New Hampshire House of Representatives May 12 asking them to reconsider the decision. In the letter he said, “It is now known that special interest groups opposed to abstinence education lobbied hard for a reversal of the state's decision to accept these funds. As a result, many have concluded that there is more to this baffling decision than meets the eye.”
In California, the legislature is debating that state's involvement. In response to subcommittee action taken earlier in the month, assembly Republicans tried but failed to restore the federal funds to the state budget in a May 28 floor vote. But the Republican minority will continue to push for the money. California's allocation amounts to nearly 12% of all authorized aid.
According to Assemblyman Steve Baldwin (R-San Diego County), “The Republicans feel that California's teenage pregnancy rate is so out of control that we are prepared to fight for federal abstinence funds. If that means a battle for the budget, so be it.” Baldwin noted that Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, also supports accepting the federal money.
The National Coalition for Abstinence Education, a private association of 70 state and national organizations, has been formed to monitor the federal program. It has given a letter grade to each state which has submitted plans to the Department of Health and Human Services. Five states (Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and South Carolina) have received “A” grades for exemplary designs. Programs in these and perhaps other states, Brandt believes, could “appreciably, significantly reduce teen pregnancy by 30-50%.”
On the other hand, using a 12-point criteria, 15 states have received failing grades. This is largely due to state health departments creating guidelines which contradict the intent of the program, according to Brandt. One disappointment, for example, is Rhode Island. Chastity supporters there have been rebuffed in attempts to expand the program to include girls, to prevent referrals encouraging contraceptives or abortion, and in their effort to get teams of skilled chastity teachers to go into schools.
Brandt says of the Rhode Island program, “There is no doubt in my mind there is a violation of the spirit of the law, perhaps even the letter of the law.” A member of the Rhode Island Right to Life organization, David O'Connell of East Providence, has met several times with the state health department and is disappointed with the outcome. Although originally enthusiastic about the law, O'Connell now believes that “the best deal of all would be that Rhode Island would be defunded for the next four years.” While the controversy continues over the federally-funded program, abstinence initiatives supported by public funds in some states and by private sources continue to prosper. The Michigan Abstinence Partnership celebrated its fifth anniversary in May. Governor John Engler attributes a significant decline in teen pregnancies in Michigan to this program, which targets the 9- to 14-year-old age group. Another example is Project Women in Need in Pennsylvania (profiled in the Register, May 24). This program, which disburses state funds to 90 pro-life centers, has an important chastity education component.
Among the most notable local, private abstinence efforts is the Best Friends Foundation, based in Washington, D.C. Headed by Elayne Bennett, wife of public figure William Bennett, Best Friends is an 11-year-old program which began at Georgetown University. It now runs comprehensive development programs for young girls in 10 Washington public schools, two in Montgomery County, Maryland, and in 19 other cities around the country. The nonprofit is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Avon, American Standard Co., and other companies.
Best Friends provides a holistic approach to raising the self-esteem of these girls and emphasizes abstinence from sex, drugs, and alcohol. In one study done in 1995 only
1.1% of the girls in the Washington program had become pregnant compared to 26% of their public school peers. Similarly, only 4% of the girls had sex before age 15 as contrasted with 63% of their peers.
Michael Medved, the media critic and social commentator, was scheduled to speak at the Best Friends annual recognition ceremony on June 6. In an interview with the Register, Medved lauded the work of the foundation. He decried “safe sex” efforts, saying, “The most popular lie at the moment is that putting on a condom during the sex act constitutes ‘safe sex.’ There are kids dying from that lie. There is no safe sex for a 14-year-old. That's a contradiction in terms.”
Medved also suggested that the terms “lasting love” and “true love,” which celebrate sex within marriage, perhaps capture the issue better than stressing the term “abstinence.” By skillfully using the language, he said, “We are not asking people to give something up, we're asking people to gain something.” These themes are promoted by another private organization, appropriately called True Love Waits, established by the Baptist Sunday School Board in 1993.
The growing number of Americans who support saving sex for marriage may need to wait to see whether the federal government can administer a nationwide program that attracts strong opposition from pro-choice forces. Until then, many will take heart at what some groups and individual families are accomplishing at the grass roots level.
Perhaps Benedictine Father Matthew Habiger, of Human Life International, puts the issue most clearly in perspective for Catholics: “The only programs which are helpful to teenagers are those which propose and explain moral principles. Morality is determined by God. He makes the rules. He has the plan for love, life, marriage, and family. We can only be happy and healthy when we live according to this plan.”
Joseph Esposito writes from Springfield, Virginia.
----- EXCERPT: 15 states get 'failing grade'for programs to implement funds ----- EXTENDED BODY: JOSEPH ESPOSITO ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Despite Tender Years, Youth Join Efforts To Build Culture of Life DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:DALLAS—Maria Graham remembers a weekday morning last summer outside the Fairmount abortion center in Dallas, when she and a friend approached a woman about to enter the building for her appointment.
“She said that having an abortion was her only choice. She didn't have another choice because she had gotten a divorce and she didn't have a job and she had this little two-year-old son,” Graham recalled. “We talked to her and told her God was going to help her.”
The two sidewalk counselors then showed her pictures of aborted babies, and noted her troubled reaction.
“She said, ‘Nobody deserves that,’” Graham said. “She was thinking [about it], I could tell.” The woman finally decided against the abortion and went for help at the White Rose, a crisis pregnancy center.
“She actually had her baby in February, a little girl named Christa, and I got to go see her,” said Graham. “It is so neat to see a little life that, if God hadn't used us there that day, wouldn't be here.” Also, during the course of her pregnancy, the mother received a job offer from her obstetrician.
“It's a perfect example of how God wanted that baby not only for the baby's life, but also for her life,” she said. “She wrote … a letter that said, ‘You saved Christa's life, but you also saved my life that day.’”
It's not every day that such an encouraging story can be told—especially by a 14-year-old.
Maria Graham, who was only 13 when she began sidewalk counseling last year, has just joined a team of teens traveling throughout the Dallas area telling their peers the facts of fetal development, the choice of adoption, the importance of chastity, and ways that teens can join the pro-life effort.
Called “Youth for Life,” the initiative was born within Bishop Charles Grahmann's Pro-Life Committee, and in eight months the speakers have addressed hundreds of teens in dozens of parishes in groups as small as 20 to as many as 200. The group is led by former parish youth minister Tammy Amosson, who was drawn into pro-life work by the gritty testimony of former abortion clinic owner Carol Everett.
Everett, well known on the pro-life speaking circuit, talks about how abortions are marketed specifically to teens and how fake abortions are routinely performed on non-pregnant teens.
“I was just amazed. I felt so passionate about letting [teens] know the truth. [Abortion selling] could be happening to them,” said Amosson. “I feel that they are very receptive to the [pro-life] message when it's told to them in a loving manner. If you don't talk about it, what they are hearing is what the media is telling them.”
Indeed, of the Catholic youth who answer a questionnaire passed out at Youth for Life speaking engagements, only one-fourth respond correctly that life begins at conception, Amosson said.
“I really feel their eyes are opened for the first time [at the talks],” she said. “When we tell them the truth, they are horrified and want to take action. We hope to set the fire within them to do something, then we plug them into their parish.”
Youth for Life panelists speak to students from sixth grade through 12th grade, and the younger the students, the more receptive they are, Amosson said.
“Unfortunately, the high school students have been influenced and are more set in their ways. A lot of their parents are pro-choice.”
Although the team will go “wherever we're asked,” including a YMCA youth shelter, two parishes have asked them not to come, she said. “It's not the norm, but it does happen,” she said.
Prior to Youth for Life, the diocese did not have a youth outreach except to offer periodic “True Love Waits” chastity seminars, said Karen Garnett, executive committee chairman for bishop's pro-life committee.
“ With Youth for Life we're getting to the real roots,” said Garnett. “In the big picture, the cause of all these unwanted pregnancies and babies dying is lack of chastity. We will continue to fight abortion as long as there is no practice of chastity.”
Sixteen-year-old Joan Corpuz, a Youth for Life panelist, recently told members of her own parish youth group at St. Mark the Evangelist in Plano that she made the decision at her confirmation four years ago to abstain from sex until marriage.
“My mom told a story about how great her wedding night was and how it was her first time to give up her virginity to my dad,” she said. “I know that being a teenager, it's hard to control yourself, [but] it's important to have good self-control, good discipline for what you really want to do.”
She began her talk by passing around a rose and asked the audience to each take a petal or leaf from it. She then compared the picked-over rose, representing a life of sexual promiscuity, to an untouched, long-stemmed red rose.
“Your virginity is so pretty, like a rose,” she said. “I want my wedding night to be very special, and I don't want it to look like this stem.”
Other panel members speak from their experiences, such as 16-year-old Jeannine Slee, who was given up for adoption at the age of three weeks by her birth mother, then a senior in high school. J.J. Havlik, who had two friends who committed suicide, talks about the importance of telling a parent if a friend confides thoughts about taking his or her own life.
Besides its presentation team, Youth for Life publishes a quarterly newsletter and brought 19 students to the March for Life in Washington, D.C., in January. Amosson said the group's goal is not to create more competition for teens'time, but to be a resource for parish youth and an encouragement to become involved in their own way, from participating in pro-life rosaries to wearing “precious feet” pins.
Maria Graham, for one, will spend one day each week this summer praying and offering information in front of one of Dallas's seven abortion clinics. She said she actually finds it easier to counsel pregnant strangers than to give her talk on pro-life involvement to her own peers.
“It is stressful,” she said. “How can I tell them and tell them the right way? I think God wants me to, but it's hard for me.”
By doing so, Graham is merely practicing what she preaches.
“You sort of think you have to wait until you're an adult before you can actually do things that can help save lives,” she said in a recent talk. “We have a really great gift in our faith and our trust in God, and I think we have to be willing to share that with people.”
“You don't always know how God is going to use you.”
Ellen Rossini writes from Dallas, Texas.
----- EXCERPT: Teens give peer talks on chastity and offer counseling at abortion centers ----- EXTENDED BODY: ELLEN ROSSINI ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Young Pro-Lifer Offers a View from the Road DATE: 06/14/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 14-20, 1998 ----- BODY:In the May 10-16 issue, the Register reported on a three-month cross-country pro-life walk sponsored by a student-run nonprofit organization called Crossroads (“Coast-to-Coast Walk Attracts Committed Young Pro-Lifers”). This week begins a series of journal entries from the road by Joseph Flipper.
Fifteen other young men and women and I are dedicating the summer to pro-life work, witnessing as we walk from California to Washington, D.C. After a kick-off dinner and fund-raiser in Napa Valley, Calif., we drove down to San Francisco to begin our cross-country trek. Since May 23, the Crossroads group has traveled by foot from San Francisco, Calif., to Reno, Nev.
We began at the Dumbarton Bridge in San Francisco, slowly making our way across California. We usually walk two shifts of 15-20 miles per day, each of which takes about five hours to complete. We hike along some of the most beautiful highways in the country, often praying as we go.
Early in our trip, we were living out of a green Dodge Dart and used a rental van as our base of operations. Without a recreational vehicle to accompany us, we were in need of places to stay, and, desperately requiring time to pray, we turned to the Catholic community for assistance.
On May 24, our walk leader, Jimmy Nolan, approached Father John Garcia of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Brentwood, Calif., asking for a place to stay and a special Mass for the success of our mission.
At first, Father Garcia was uneasy with the proposition of allowing us to stay at his parish, not knowing who we were, but when we asked him to say Mass, he immediately took us in. He opened his heart and his church providing us with shelter. The generosity of the parishioners was astounding. Many provided us with food and money, not from their wealth, but their want.
In Walnut Grove, Calif., Father Edward Mello of St. Anthony Church also aided us. After we had journeyed 60 miles north of Brentwood, he opened his parish hall to us. Father Mello encouraged us, telling us that our mission and work was an inspiration. Crossroads was lent an RV May 26 by the Muty family of Napa, Calif. Their generosity allowed us to continue our pilgrimage.
Between May 27-31, we walked to and stayed in Sacramento, the capital of California. There we spoke with the State Senate and Assembly concerning the abortion legislation that was under consideration in the legislature.
Lisa Winkleman, a Crossroads member and experienced sidewalk counselor, spoke with women near a Sacramento abortion facility while we prayed the rosary. In addition to sidewalk counseling, Crossroads will be providing free pregnancy tests for women who approach us along the trip. Rich Scanlon will be transforming the RV into a mobile “crisis pregnancy” unit.
In Sacramento, Msgr. Edward Kavanaugh allowed us to stay at St. Rose Parish. The parishioner's devotion to eucharistic adoration reminded us that all of our work is based on and necessitates prayer.
The Mass, Rosary, and Liturgy of the Hours has become the backbone of all we do. There exists a unity between contemplation and action, all flowing from the love of God.
From Sacramento our pilgrimage took us through the Sierra Nevada Mountain range into Reno, where we were interviewed on KIHM Catholic Radio. We also prayed and sidewalk counseled at an abortion facility there.
We now sit at the gateway to the desert, preparing to walk U.S. Highway—“the loneliest road in America.” We look back on the snow-capped mountains and forward to the rest of America.
Our Crossroads community, with members from across the country, is growing closer together, and the trials of living on the road are helping us to grow in intimacy with God.
Our route will take us through Salt Lake City, Denver, Wichita, Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Columbus, Pittsburgh, and Washington. We primarily need prayers, but if you'd like to help us on our journey, greet us along the way, have us speak at your parish, youth group, or classroom on chastity or abortion, contact our headquarters at 1-800-277-9763, or write to Crossroads, Box 771, Franciscan University, Steubenville, OH 43952.
Joseph Flipper, a native of Idaho, is a student at Franciscan University of Steubenville.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: JOSEPH FLIPPER ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Free Speech Measures May Hurt Pro-Lifers DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 BODY:LOS ANGELES—There's a legend that American founding father Benjamin Franklin was once accosted outside the hall where the Constitutional Convention was being held by a citizen eager to know just what sort of government the framers were going to devise.
“A democracy,” he is said to have replied, “if you can keep it.”
Behind this exchange, however apocryphal, is the notion that the basic freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, while laid down in law, are won day in and day out by the practical decisions citizens and their representatives make. They are never assured, only earned.
If there were any doubts on that score, several recent landmark court decisions and a congressional move to limit the influence of special interest groups on political campaigns are providing mounting evidence that serious challenges to First Amendment freedoms may be on the rise.
Alarming in themselves, these recent developments also threaten to place even more legal restrictions on the activity of pro-lifers and hamper the ability of the Church to counter the spread of what Pope John Paul II has called “the culture of death.”
Case in point: A Chicago federal court found Joseph Scheidler, director of Chicago's Pro-Life Action League, guilty of conspiracy, extortion, and racketeering last month under the controversial Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law. The landmark case, brought by the National Organization of Women (NOW), among others, imposes crippling penalties for “economic injury” to abortion clinics caused by pro-life protest activity.
Case in point: Last month the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene in a recent landmark appeals court ruling that opened the way for the publisher of Hit Man, a how-to murder manual, which was consulted by the perpetrator of a triple homicide, to be sued for civil damages. Civil libertarians are concerned that the notion that publishers can be held liable for illegal acts said to have been inspired by their works will chill free speech and open the door to massive litigation against unpopular causes and ideas.
Case in point: Campaign reform measures before Congress, like the McCain-Feingold bill, impose sweeping restrictions, opponents say, on the right of private citizen groups to communicate with the general public about the positions and voting records of specific politicians. Pro-life groups are particularly concerned that McCainFeingold would effectively prohibit the distribution of voter guides and legislative score cards.
Few doubt that by far the most serious of the current threats to First Amendment freedoms is the Scheidler verdict, and the RICO racketeering law on which it's based.
“First Amendment challenges are always cyclical,” syndicated columnist Nat Hentoff told the Register. “They rise and they fall. But [the application of RICO to the Scheidler case] is the most serious threat in years. The law is so broad and vague, it becomes simply a prosecutor's tool.”
To illustrate his point, the veteran free speech advocate said that, under RICO, “you could be charged with merely encouraging illegal activities.”
“The National Organization of Women may be cheering now,” said Hentoff, “but if they become real activists again, which they're not now, they're going to find themselves in the same RICO hole.”
Hentoff pointed out that all the civil rights efforts of the past 30 years involved the use of tactics like boycotts to foster social change. Even today, high school and college students organizing boycotts of Nike for allegedly exploiting foreign workers in their oversees factories are using extortion, according to RICO, said Hentoff.
Mark Chopko, the United States Catholic Conference's (USCC) general counsel, is also worried.
“We're all concerned about the first amendment implications of this case,” Chopko told the Register. Francis Cardinal George OMI of Chicago, site of the Scheidler trial, in particular, has voiced deep regrets at the outcome and the “chilling effect” it will have on the rights of those who oppose abortion.
“But it's the uses to which this litigation is put that has me concerned,” said Chopko.
For one thing, he said, “we have to wonder, under RICO's broad reach, whether lawyers who provide counsel to pro-life clients might not be liable to subsequent civil action. What's that going to mean for the future?”
The process itself is prejudicial, said Chopko. Under the litigation process, for example, the organization's files are opened to scrutiny, vital information, financial contributors, and ties with other groups are exposed. “This is very serious when you've got a public campaign going on, and your opponent, in the context of RICO, can have access to your most confidential information, and, what's more, has the freedom to employ that information to mount subsequent litigation against your associates.
“What we have to do now is to explore what room there is in the law to make a first amendment challenge to this decision,” he said.
Then there's the Hit Man case. The Supreme Court April 21 permitted Paladin Enterprises, based in Boulder, Colo., publisher of the book Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors, to be sued for civil damages by the relatives of victims murdered by a contract killer who had consulted the book.
According to The Washington Post, a district court judge threw out the case last year, saying that the First Amendment forbids holding Paladin liable unless it could be shown, under a 1969 Supreme Court ruling, that Paladin incited “imminent lawless activity.” But the 4th Circuit Court reversed that decision last November in a ruling that said that a publisher is responsible when it “has the specific purpose of assisting and encouraging the commission of such [criminal] conduct and … the alleged assistance and encouragement takes a form other than abstract advocacy.”
While the case itself is bizarre, it has civil libertarians and publishers concerned because, like RICO, it appears to compromise a long-held judicial principle — namely, that creators cannot be held liable for actions said to be inspired by their works. A group of more than a dozen media companies urged the Supreme Court Justices to reverse the appeals court's interpretation of the criminal use of free speech materials.
“The 4th Circuit ruling,” they said, “opens all but the most benign kind of ideas to lawsuit.”
Pro-life and other advocates of social change also see in the Hit Man ruling another potential opening for lawsuits directed at unpopular free speech, and the potential financial ruin of whole social movements through civil litigation should an individual associate break the law.
But potential First Amendment threats come, not only as court decisions, but also in popular measures for legislative reform.
Take the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill.
The measure, spearheaded by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), seeks to limit the use of so-called “soft money” on campaigns by organizations supporting a particular candidate.
However, that effort has pitted the pro-life senator against the Washington, D.C.-based National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) and other pro-life groups who find language within the McCain-Feingold bill and several other similar measures before Congress that violates First Amendment free speech rights of citizen groups to inform the public on a candidate's views and voting record.
Aversion of the bill failed on the Senate floor Feb. 25, but may be resubmitted in some form this summer.
“The House [of Representatives] will take up a McCain-Feingold ‘look-alike’ measure May 18—the Shays-Meehan bill,” Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the NRLC, told the Register, “with a final vote in June.”
“The risk here is that the House may pass a bill that will substantially reduce our right to communicate with the public,” said Johnson. “Brochures, score cards, voter guides—all of this is at risk here.”
The Supreme Court, said Johnson, has always laid out a policy that everyone has a right to comment on the positions of politicians, to address issues, and to indicate what elected representatives have done, or would likely do. But there's a very narrow exception attached to this, namely “express advocacy” — communications that contain explicit language urging people to endorse or defeat a specific candidate.
“That's not allowed to public policy groups,” he said.
“Now a lot of politicians are allergic to these voter guides and score cards, for obvious reasons,” Johnson claimed. “They want to control the amount of commentary on their record, and roll back some of these rights.”
In McCain-Feingold, for example, said Johnson, it's illegal for private citizen groups, though not for political action committees (PACs), to publish information that would be helpful to a particular political party, even if there's no specific endorsement of a particular candidate.
In a Feb. 25 letter to the U.S. Catholic bishops, McCain countered that non-profit advocacy groups “would be totally unfettered in their ability to sponsor ads up to the day of the election that mention a candidate's name so long as the communication does not expressly say ‘vote for’ or ‘vote against,’ phrases that are prohibited by current law.”
Nancy Ives, McCain's spokesperson, told the Register that, in any case, the senator admits “that his bill is not a perfect bill, and that he welcomes changes. There's an open door policy here.”
For Johnson the attempt to tighten restrictions on political advertising goes to the heart of the American political system.
“Of course, there will always be disputes about the scope of the First Amendment,” he said, “but no one can doubt that the core of the framers’ intention in drafting the amendment was to protect the right of the public and public groups to comment on the record of politicians. Now, I ask you, what's more foundational than that?”
Gabriel Meyer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Developments in Congress and courts worry policy makers and advocates ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gabriel Meyer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: United Europe Will Transform Rural Villages DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:WASOSZ, Poland—It's 6:30 a.m. As a lone cock crows hoarsely in a nearby farmyard, Father Zygmunt Pilarczyk closes his presbytery door, turns up his collar, and hurries across to the vestry of St. Andrew the Apostle's church.
In the distance, the heavy spring mist hangs like a gray blanket over sodden fields and pine woods. The country lanes have been churned to mud by slow-moving farm carts, their edges cut into crevices by rainwater and filled with frozen sticks and leaves.
Below the church wall, the swollen River Warta washes up against a few remaining battered sandbags, stacked in panic at the height of last summer's flood alerts. In the square outside, a couple of white-haired farmers, faces reddened by vodka, amble sleepily toward the church gate for the first of the three Sunday Masses.
Father Pilarczyk admits nothing much happens in Wasosz these days. When he became probosz, or rector, 20 years ago, the village had just three TVs and telephones. Now, virtually every household has them, and there are even a few computers in the village. The parish population has fallen by 20% to 2,000, however, and is steadily aging, according to the priest, who is in his 60s.
Poland's communist regime planned to route a highway through Wasosz and persuaded local farmers to hand over their land for pensions. So most of the young have gone south in search of work in industrial Silesia.
Though one in three villagers attends Mass on Sundays and 75% made Easter confessions this year, interest in the Church is ebbing. There are still two primary schools in the parish, but not enough children for the parish's youth group. Older people, nurtured on a life-time's passivity, don't support the local Catholic Action group.
Meanwhile, though a bus passes through Wasosz twice daily en route to Czestochowa, 20 miles south, the villagers who take it are more likely to be heading for the city's supermarket than its fabled Jasna Gora shrine.
Father Pilarczyk moved to Wasosz during the World War II German occupation when the priest at nearby Makowice was deported to the Dachau concentration camp. At seminary in Krakow, he attended lectures by a gifted young priest named Karol Wojtyla, whose picture, now clad in a papal miter, sits on top of his desk on the hard stone floor.
Those days of glory are long past, though. Today, he can't afford a wikariusz, or curate, and since nuns only work in pairs, no order will agree to lend them. With as many funerals as baptisms, Church life is in a state of pat, the Polish word for stasis.
“The truth is our parish is dying,” Father Pilarczyk shrugs. “It's a peaceful place, where the priest is known and trusted, and takes part in every event. But we have to start rebuilding with young people, and there simply aren't enough of them.”
It wasn't always like that. As with other central Polish villages, Wasosz has its heroic tales to tell—of drunken brawls over local women, barricades against greedy landlords, and protests against local authority diktats.
One event in particular imprinted the village briefly but firmly in the annals of national patriotism. It happened April 23, 1863. As Poland's January uprising collapsed, a detachment of insurgents passed through Wasosz on their retreat from Czestochowa to Wielun, and were ambushed and massacred by a Russian cavalry unit while they rested in a tree-lined gully on the village's perimeter.
A contemporary chronicle tells of grief-stricken weeping as the 34 dead rebels, all aged 18-32, were laid to rest on the adjacent hillside. The Russian rulers didn't allow a cross on the burial mound. Today, however, the cross is there, on top of a wind-beaten monument emblazoned with the message, Gloria Victis.
The gully where the bloody skirmish happened is marked by ornate stations of the cross. After six decades of work, three stations still remain to be built. The archbishop of Czestochowa dedicated the site in 1993 and still returns on the first Sunday of each July. The scent of incense and candle wax lingers in the frosty air.
TRADITIONAL BONDS TESTED
With most Polish priests and bishops coming from peasant origins, it's in rural parishes like this, some say, far from the Church-state disputes of Warsaw, 120 miles north, that Church life is at its most distinctive.
Yet the intervening years have brought tensions to the surface too, widening the gap between rich and poor, and stepping up the pressure on traditional community bonds.
On March 31, negotiations opened on Poland's integration into the European Union (EU). If they succeed, a place like Wasosz will have moved in little more than 50 years from the terror of Stalinist state planning to a competitive Western market economy. For that to happen, though, the pressures of change and adjustment look set to intensify.
In the early communist period, the Communist Party tried to force small-scale farmers into vast state collectives. The farmers resisted and the regime backed down, but it ensured they stayed poor and were denied resources.
In the 1970s, the policy changed. The Party tried to stimulate output by offering cheap credits and requisitioning all goods automatically at low but stable prices. Today, many farmers look back on the period as the best they ever had.
When communist rule ended, market mechanisms were hurriedly introduced, throwing Poland open to cheap foreign imports. Inefficiencies in the state-run distribution system ensured a third of produce never reached the shops. Many farmers were unable to compete and went out of business with heavy debts.
In several messages, the Pope has recognized the hardships accompanying market reforms, and urged rural communities to defend their interests together.
That's been the aim of the Polish Church as well. A special commission, chaired by Bishop Roman Andrzejewski, sponsors local economic foundations that have funded irrigation schemes and other village projects.
Meanwhile, more than 100 Church-run “folk universities” are also training young farmers in languages, law, and banking skills, and a Catholic Association of Village-Dwellers has coordinated lay parish initiatives nationwide.
“Love of the land is a precious value,” the Polish bishops said in a 1995 pastoral letter. “The world is moving on, and no one is going to wait till our agriculture reaches West European levels. What we need is spiritual strength and unity, since we must above all help ourselves.”
With EU membership now in the cards for Poland by the year 2005, most Church leaders have bowed to the inevitable and urged a tougher modernizing approach.
Last November, a delegation of bishops went to Brussels to have EU intricacies explained to them. Since then, most have come out grudgingly but clearly for integration.
“A united Europe must be accepted as a wonderful chance, a difficult calling, and a great challenge for the Church …” said Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, secretary of the bishops’ conference. “We've no claim to govern the whole world in a Catholic way, but we will fight for our principles, and the EU recognizes our right to do so.”
Polish priests have followed their bishops’ lead. In the first survey this March, 84% said they supported Poland's Westernization, while two-thirds were confident it wouldn't affect the Church's position.
However, a large proportion also believed the EU's technocratic institutions lacked a sense of values. They said they wanted a “Europe of homelands,” which wouldn't pursue economic prosperity at the cost of national identities.
On the road into Pajeczno, 10 miles west of Wasosz, the traditional wayside crosses are now crowded out with U.S.-style advertisements, offering everything from shoes and furniture to cement and satellite dishes.
The Church looks richer here. A large, modish parish building sits stylishly opposite the spacious priest's house, overlooking a row of newly furbished town boutiques.
Pajeczno has reached its limits, though. Joblessness has been driven up by the closure of a local cement factory and cutbacks at the nearby Belchatow coking plant—and since there's no water purification plant, new industries can't gain a foothold.
The local mall sells the latest fashions from Czestochowa at 30% of city prices, but most of the town's 6,000 inhabitants can't afford even that. Those who got rich under communism tend to be rich now too.
Pajeczno's most successful entrepreneur is actually the local undertaker, who displays his magnificent coffins proudly in a shop window on the main square, but even the undertaker is short of business. He makes his biggest profits nowadays from export orders to Germany.
In early April, Poland's Solidarity-led government unveiled a strategic program for depressed rural areas like this, to give them a better chance of coping with competition from the West. It'll include efforts to modernize and restructure the farming economy, as well as improvements in product quality, profitability, social mobility, and living standards.
It will be an uphill task. Most farmers still work in uncompetitive units of less than 12 acres. Only a third of people in rural areas have expressed confidence in the government's programs.
In a recent report, the Polish Church's Agriculture Committee explained why: Though farming still employs a quarter of working-age Polish adults, it fails to meet the economic needs of 80% of rural families. Poverty levels in the countryside are twice those of the city, and nearly half of all households depend on state pensions and benefits.
MINGLING PAST & FUTURE
The Committee blamed the slow pace of change and a lack of understanding of market reforms, but it also urged improved education and training to allow people in rural areas to seek opportunities elsewhere.
In Wasosz, St. Andrew the Apostle's church is crowded for the main Sunday Mass as teenagers in jeans and leather jackets stand restlessly by old toothless peasant women in threadbare coats and colored head scarves.
“He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away,” Father Pilarczyk reads from the Magnificat.
Above the high altar behind him, a giant copy of the Black Madonna icon hangs beneath a panoramic mural of the heavenly Jerusalem.
The church was constructed in the 1840s and reshaped into a cross a century later. Today, the windows are still bare and the building is still unheated. The priest's voice crackles slowly through a pair of battered speakers.
In Christian mythology, mountains are important, Father Pilarczyk begins his homily. Abraham climbed a mountain to speak with God, Moses did the same to find the Ten Commandments. Jesus climbed mountains to pray, preach the Beatitudes, and be crucified on Golgotha.
So that's what Wasosz people have to do now—climb a mountain. But it's a mountain with a clear path, marked out by Christ's teachings. If they become lost along the way, they've only to find that path again.
Back in his presbytery, Father Pilarczyk recites his parish's demographic breakdown from an official handbook: 18% workers, 30% farmers, 50% farm-laborers, 2% intelligentsia. It's close to the national average, he insists, for rural areas like this, where more than half the population gets at most only primary education.
The richest people in Wasosz today, Father Pilarczyk adds, are a petty businessman with contacts in Czestochowa, and the warden of a nearby prison service recreation center that now takes in commercial guests.
“There were never any real communists here, nor Solidarity supporters for that matter,” the priest explains, “but after being promised paradise under communism, most people have lost their respect for work. What's worse still is they associate the Church with success. A lot of them won't come to Mass at all if they have to cycle while their neighbor drives by car.”
Out on the Warsaw highway a few miles east, new German and Korean cars speed past, hooting and flashing impatiently whenever slow-moving local traffic gets in their way.
Under the pale, empty sky of the village, life continues with little change, though. Now and again, a fleet of ducks and chickens wanders across the potholed road, past the rickety iron gates of wood-and-cement houses and reeking, moss-covered farm sheds set amid piles of sand and stones.
Outside the village shop on the square, where alcohol can be bought on credit, a few young toughs stand lazily around a battered motorcycle. Near the crossroads, a makeshift shrine contains a faded snapshot of the Pope and a cracked vase of plastic flowers.
Occasionally, a big car strays from the highway and disgorges a well-fed family to a chorus of barking village dogs, but there's nothing to buy here, and they soon climb back in with a look on their faces that seems to say, “What a God-forsaken place!”
As night falls over Wasosz, the road runs on through the distant pine forest, illuminated in the moonlight like a silken thread toward the promised dawn. Through the distant shadows, the mist closes in again. No one knows if the landscape ahead will be beautiful or ugly.
The people of Wasosz slumber on in a fitful, chilly sleep of hopes and memories, perhaps dreaming of the day when Col. Kowalski's long-dead Polish rebels will come marching over the hilltop again, to lead their once-proud countrymen to new feats of heroism in a free Poland.
Jonathan Luxmoore writes from Warsaw, Poland.
----- EXCERPT: A Polish priest and his parish offer view of a way of life in flux ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jonathan Luxmoore ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: At 25, Catholic League Still Fighting ‘Respectable Bias’ of Anti-Catholicism DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—On an average morning in his 20th-story office overlooking midtown Manhattan, William Donohue read with special satisfaction letters recently received from a host of U.S. bishops. Not surprisingly, there were encouraging words from Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb., Archbishop Edwin O'Brien of the Military Services archdiocese and others who are usually in sympathy with the Catholic League.
Donohue also received words of support, however, from Paterson, N.J., Bishop Frank Rodimer and Bishop Joseph Imesch of Joliet, Ill., two shepherds not ordinarily associated with the causes and methods of the cultural trench warfare Donohue engages in as president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
“I don't think we've heard from [the two bishops] in the past,” Donohue said in an interview late last month with the Register, a few days after his organization celebrated its 25th anniversary in gala fashion.
He declined to use the terms “liberal” or “conservative” to describe the different bishops because he thinks such terms are loaded “flashwords” that mislead more than inform. Rather, he said he was “very, very encouraged” that his latest charge of anti-Catholicism against ABC-TV had apparently struck a chord across a wider range of perspectives within the Church than usual. The bishops’ letters were in support of the League's stand against an April 6 episode of the ABC series That's Life, aired during Holy Week — which Donohue called the most anti-Catholic show he has ever seen — with attacks on central dogmas, the sacraments, pious Catholic practices, and the saints.
“Some letter writers say that they were not on board with us in our critique of Nothing Sacred, but this latest ABC offense is just too much,” Donohue said. “In terms of our credibility with some people who have not supported us in the past, this could not have come at a better time.”
Reporting on the life and deeds of the Catholic League is risky business, because just as news of one cause goes to press, there is a good chance that a newer and bigger crusade may be declared by Donohue. Some critics charge that the League looks under rocks for targets in defensive paranoia or sees affronts to Catholics and the Church in every media depiction that does not ring to the tune of the Bells of St. Mary. Donohue has been called a conservative reactionary who wants to undo the work of Vatican II and suppress varying opinions within the Church.
Charges of political conservatism are certainly well founded, given the fact that he worked for the Heritage Foundation (a conservative think tank) and was a sought-after expert on the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) after George Bush called Michael Dukakis a “card-carrying” member during the 1988 presidential campaign. He has written three books on American culture and the decline of political and personal liberty under the “libertine” agendas pursued by such groups as the ACLU. He holds a doctorate in sociology from New York University and is still a scholar with the Heritage Foundation and an adviser to the Rockford Institute.
The League has episcopal support from New York's John Cardinal O'Connor, who was keynote speaker at the group's anniversary reception last month. Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua of Philadelphia, Bernard Cardinal Law of Boston, and Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles are quoted in promotional material.
Donohue took the reins of the League in 1993, three years after the death of its founder, Jesuit Father Virgil Blum of Marquette University, who focused on advancing the rights of Catholic parents in education. The organization had fallen into disarray and membership rolls were at a dismal 11,000. Donohue saw a chance for growth and appealed to Catholics of America through a direct-mail survey that attacked dissident positions within the Church and affirmed loyalty to the Pope. The survey harvested a wealth of new members and Donohue trumpets the fact that the League receives no Church or foundation funds, relying instead on the $30 membership fees of “Joe Six-pack.” There are chapters across the country and members mail the Manhattan headquarters countless newspaper and magazine clippings and call with daily reports of anti-Catholicism, only a few of which Donohue finds worthy enough to follow up.
The League has gone after Disney for the release of the movie Priest (which features four confused and sexually frustrated priests), Calvin Klein ads for placing a crucifix on a scantily clad youth, and was an early voice against the secret taping of an inmate's confession in Oregon. The League last year ran an op-ed ad in The New York Times that simply quoted the paper's praise of Pope Pius XII for his heroism regarding the Jews during the war, and the current Times attack against the Pope on the same issue.
Donohue calls anti-Catholicism “the last respectable bias” and has gained a measure of respect and credibility among the secular media, which seek Donohue's comments as “the other side” in various Church-related disputes. His latest tussles with ABC have gone far to gain a more sympathetic treatment from many media outlets. He sent 1,200 videotaped copies of the episode to bishops, Members of Congress, and media outlets and hopes this is the issue that will turn things around not only for the Church but for the culture in general. He makes it no secret that his organization is out to have a significant effect on the civitas—the political and moral life of the nation.
Although Donohue insists that the League does not enter debates within the ecclesial fold — such as the disagreements about the translation of the Lectionary — many stands he takes inevitably throw light on serious intramural divisions. The prolonged and weighty debate about the drama Nothing Sacred, which was taken off the air due to poor ratings, started as a familiar League attack against ABC and its parent company, Disney, and evolved into a showdown between supporters of two very different views of the Church.
Donohue claims the show was not so much anti-Catholic as anti-faithful Catholic, as each episode portrayed dissident Catholics and priests to be more intelligent and compassionate than their orthodox counterparts. The main character, Father Ray, doubts the existence of God and his vocation and refuses to counsel a pregnant woman against abortion in the confessional. Yet he is almost violent in his support for a parish soup kitchen. The main writer was Jesuit Father William Cain of New York City, who accused Donohue of anti-Semitism for pointing out that the show's producers were Jewish. Donohue challenged the priest “to put up or shut up,” threatened him with a libel suit, and received a retraction of the accusation and an apology.
The lines of debate about the TV show were laid out by the National Catholic Reporter. The Oct. 31 cover headlined, “Who Speaks For Catholics?” Despite its critical assessment of the League, Donohue said he saw the article as a backhanded compliment because the underlying theme was how the Reporter saw its own claim of speaking for U.S. Catholics threatened. As prominent commentator and League adviser George Weigel is quoted in the article, the League has become “a player” in the struggle for America's conscience.
Father Gregory Coiro, director of communications for the Los Angeles Archdiocese, who worked closely with Donohue before the release of Nothing Sacred last summer, said that the League doesn't pretend to speak for all Catholics.
“It is an independent, lay Catholic organization that seeks to defend Catholics” in various ways, he told the Register. “It has no official standing in the Church and as such can have a great deal more latitude” in the stands it takes and the methods it uses.
The League may not speak for Catholics, but Donohue wonders whether the heads of Catholic media organizations want it to speak to Catholics. In a fall meeting of the national Catholic Press Association, a forum was held among editors and journalists about Nothing Sacred, yet Donohue was not invited. Father Coiro expressed concern to the organizers but failed to change their minds.
“It seemed a little unbalanced to me,” he told the Register. “How can you discuss a controversy without the major critic being there?”
“That's some people's idea of dialogue, I guess,” Donohue quipped.
His group has a somewhat different mission from the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, he told the Register, but he admires the ADL for an effectiveness that is exhibited almost silently these days, in the fact that Jews are rarely the object of media or government animus. Meanwhile, to reach that level of effectiveness, Donohue thunders.
After reading from an ABC letter that stated That's Life was not meant to offend any religious group, Donohue stated at a press conference, “I don't buy that anymore. There's a pattern here. Something is seriously wrong with ABC and Catholics are fed up with it.”
Brian Caulfield writes from New York.
----- EXCERPT: Group's crusade against anti-Catholicism gains a wider base of support ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Caulfield ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Jewish and Catholic Scholars Assess Holocaust Document DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—Arguing that Catholic-Jewish relations have been significantly improved by the recent Vatican document on the Holocaust, Rabbi Mordecai Waxman said that still more needs to be done, particularly in implementing the document. Rabbi Waxman, a Jewish leader who has actively worked with the Vatican for more than a decade, was one of four leading scholars to discuss the paper at the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), a Washington-based think tank, April 30.
The Vatican's Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews released We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah March 16 after 11 years of discussions and four years of active drafting. The lengthy text, officially identified as a teaching document of the Church, calls on Catholics to reject anti-Semitism, reflect on the horrors of the Holocaust, and repent for failing to do more to save Jewish victims.
The statement has generated considerable controversy since its release. Jewish leaders have called it “a first step” but have criticized it for not saying more about the Vatican's possible role in creating a climate where Nazism could take root and flourish in Germany. The EPPC conference was one of several public discussions that have occurred as Catholic and Jewish leaders seek to understand the paper's implications. It brought together Rabbi Waxman, Dr. Eugene Fisher of the U.S. Catholic Conference, Professor Marc Saperstein of George Washington University, and the EPPC's George Weigel.
Rabbi Waxman was chairman of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultation in 1987 when the impetus for the Shoah document may have begun. Jewish leaders canceled a scheduled meeting with Pope John Paul II after it was announced he would meet with then Austrian President Kurt Waldheim, whose role in World War II had become the subject of great controversy. In an effort to address Jewish concerns, Johannes Cardinal Willebrands, who was president of the Vatican Council on Christian Unity, asked Rabbi Waxman to meet with then-Bishop William Keeler of Harrisburg, Pa., (now cardinal archbishop of Baltimore). Rabbi Waxman did so and later met with Agostino Cardinal Casaroli, the Vatican's secretary of state.
At discussions with these officials (and ultimately with the Pope at Castel Gandolfo in 1987), Rabbi Waxman said Jewish leaders asked for two statements to enhance Catholic-Jewish relations. One was that the Church had no objection to a separate Jewish state, Israel, and the other was a condemnation of antiSemitism and the Holocaust. The Pope and Cardinal Casaroli agreed to issuing such statements, although not as an encyclical as Jewish leaders had originally urged. Eleven years elapsed before We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah was released, a delay that was attributable to both sides, Rabbi Waxman said.
He stressed the importance of this statement and three preceding documents issued in 1965 (Nostra Aetate), 1975, and 1985.
“There has been a fundamental change in Catholic-Jewish relations” Rabbi Waxman told the Register. “This still has to siphon down in the Catholic and Jewish communities; it is a three-generational matter.”
He stressed that work is needed to bring the initiative from the hierarchical levels of both faiths to the grass roots. Much of the success will depend on the next pope, he added, but it is unlikely there will be a turning back.
Rabbi Waxman, who serves as the rabbi at Temple Israel in Great Neck, N.Y., told the conference, “We've come a long, long way in the history of Catholic-Jewish relations.” Yet, he was disappointed with some of the language used in the statement. Saying that although all the right bases were touched, “It is not the sort of forthright statement it should be.”
Too many statements were “nuanced,” he said, regarding the Vatican's role. He added that Edward Cardinal Cassidy, head of the Pontifical Commission on the Relations with Jews, understood his concern about the nuancing of language. Rabbi Waxman believes high-ranking Vatican officials, particularly Angelo Cardinal Sodano, the current Vatican secretary of state, and perhaps Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, were responsible for the final language.
Dr. Eugene Fisher, another long-time leader in the Catholic-Jewish dialogue, agreed with Rabbi Waxman that the recent statement “is not a perfect document,” but is an important beginning. Indeed, immediately after the paper's release, John Paul II said, “I hope and pray that our interreligious dialogue will continue in a climate of renewed openness and trust.”
Fisher stressed that the paper mandates further study and that, as an official teaching document of the Church, it will continue to have an important impact on our way of thinking a century from now. Especially important, he added, was the mandate for Holocaust education in Catholic schools.
Fisher, who is associate director of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, emphasized the difficulty involved in drafting a paper of the importance of the Shoah document. He explained how German and Polish Catholic bishops were unable to hammer out a joint paper on anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, and were forced to issue separate statements. Swiss, Italian, and Slovakian bishops also have issued their own documents. He said the U.S. Catholic Conference was considering releasing a compendium of such statements from Catholic leaders from around the world.
As several other conference participants also noted, Fisher discussed the impact of Rolf Hochhuth's play The Deputy, which first appeared in 1962. The work, highly critical of Pope Pius XII's role in World War II, has been a watershed in the revisionist view of Pius's papacy. As a result of this play, Fisher noted “there has been a virtual demonization of Pius XII. There has been a rush to judgment,” which has obscured objectivity.
Arguing for more serious scholarly studies on the subject, Fisher expressed hope that the dialogue encouraged in the new document would help create an understanding of the Vatican's role without rancor and undue rhetoric.
One of the scholars addressing these issues is Dr. Marc Saperstein, a historian and director of the Judaic Studies program at George Washington University, Washington, D.C. Saperstein spoke at the conference and reiterated several points he made in an op-ed article written for The Washington Post April 1. At first he contrasted the active role taken by Pope Clement VI in 1348 to protect Jews from reprisals during the Black Death period with the more passive role taken by Pius XII.
More importantly, Saperstein said, that although some have argued that, “‘If you [the Church] demonize a people for centuries, it has to lead to genocide,’” the historical record does not support Church culpability for the Holocaust.
“The correlation between Christian beliefs and Nazi genocide cannot be established by the evidence,” he argued. “The fundamental responsibility for the Holocaust lies with the Nazi perpetrators. Not with Pope Pius XII. Not with the Church. Not with the teachings of the Christian faith.”
This last comment is consistent with the language of the Shoah document, which states: “The Shoah was the work of a thoroughly modern neo-pagan regime. Its anti-Semitism had its roots outside of Christianity and, in pursuing its aims, it did not hesitate to oppose the Church and persecute her members also.”
Saperstein also stressed that the whole issue of the role of Catholics in aiding Jews during the war is complex. In predominately Catholic Poland, for example, 90% of Jews perished while 85% survived in overwhelmingly Catholic Italy. Those who survived in Poland, however, were often aided by Christians. He suggested that rather than criticize those who did not help for fear of their own lives, perhaps it is more useful to discuss the courage of those Catholics who did respond and save Jewish lives.
The last panelist, George Weigel, spoke of the Shoah document from a theological perspective. He said that too much of the discussion of the paper “has been conducted on the model of a labor negotiation.” This, he argues, does not capture the true intent of the statement. The Church, he says, is doing this “not under a sense of pressure, not for a deal made in 1987, but as a religious obligation.” This sense of a need for repentance — the document uses the Hebrew word teshuva — offered to our spiritual brothers was reinforced by Fisher, who said, “Deeper than apology, this is a resolve to do better.”
Weigel, a well-known Catholic thinker, is writing a biography of Pope John Paul II, which is scheduled to be published next year. He believes that the Holy Father, at the end of the millennium, is committed to purifying the Church while also calling attention to the horrors of totalitarianism, communism, and fascism in this century. It is especially important to address the Shoah because “it is a distinctive and singular example of totalitarianism.”
Referring to the temporal and religious authority of Constantine the Great, the fourth-century Roman emperor, Weigel also suggested that Pope John Paul was “the first post-Constantinian Pope in 1600 years.” He said the Pope was seeking to redefine the role the papacy would play in the next century.
Using a modified Constantinian model, that redefinition would involve viewing the Holy See as “operating as a sovereign entity in a world of sovereign entity states.” Such a revolutionary worldview, he added, would be complemented by providing moral witness to such issues as addressed in We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah.
Joseph Esposito writes from Springfield, Virginia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Esposito ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: In Asia, How Best to Nurture The Seeds of Christianity? DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY—“Jesus Christ was born in Asia,” Pope John Paul II exclaimed at the close of one of the first working days of the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for Asia now underway in the Vatican. Despite the fact that God found his home there, Asia's bishops are trying to determine why his Church has not. After 2,000 years of evangelization, Catholics are just a “microscopic minority” — less than 3% — of people on the world's largest continent.
The gathering of more than 250 bishops, experts, and observers from Asia and other continents, which runs from April 19 to May 14, is the third in a series of five regional Synod meetings called by the Pope to prepare the Church ahead of the third Christian millennium. It follows Special Assemblies for Africa (1994) and America (1997). A meeting for Oceania is expected at the end of this year, and for Europe in 1999.
In his apostolic letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente (As the Third Millennium Draws Near) the Pope says in Asia “the issue of the encounter of Christianity with ancient local cultures and religions is a pressing one. This is a great challenge for evangelization, since religious systems such as Buddhism or Hinduism have a clearly soteriological character [i.e., claim to offer salvation].”
“There is also an urgent need for a Synod [for Asia],” he continues, “in order to illustrate and explain more fully the truth that Christ is the one mediator between God and man and the sole Redeemer of the world, to be clearly distinguished from the founders of other great religions.”
Asia is home to more than two-thirds of the world's population, and a large percentage are young people. Of the world's 1 billion Catholics, 100 million are Asian. Christianity's earliest seven Churches were all in Asia. Other ancient roots can be found in India, where tradition has it that the Apostle Thomas founded Christian communities that exist to this day.
The Church in other parts of the continent is the fruit of only very recent missionary efforts though. In Mongolia, for example, the Church is only six years old and claims just 77 baptized descendants of Genghis Khan.
The Mongolian government sent delegates to the Vatican in the early 1990s to request missionaries because “they were convinced that the Catholic Church could … contribute to the development of the country in the fields of social work and education,” said Father Wens Padilla, superior of the mission.
Especially through active service in education and health care, Catholics often make a greater impact in Asian societies than their numbers would suggest. Even in politics, where South Korea's newly installed President Kim Dae Jung, for example, belongs to the Catholic community, whose members make up just 2.9% of the population.
Some Synod Fathers warned, however, that an “attitude of Catholic superiority” had landed Churches in trouble.
“In Indonesia,” said Bishop Leo Laba Ladjar, “we were once proud that we owned the best schools and hospitals, the largest newspaper, etc.”
Then, in fierce reaction, some radical Muslim groups in the continent's largest Islamic country began edging out Christian institutions.
“We are being forced to reflect anew about ourselves as a small minority,” the bishop said. “We have to accept ourselves as a minority. Competition is not the Christian way.”
The greatest challenge to evangelization, according to the Synod fathers, is the enduring perception of Christianity as a “foreign” religion.
“We take it for a simple fact that there has been a lack of inculturation in our preaching of the Gospel in Asia,” said Filipino Bishop Francisco Claver.
Bishop Barthelemy Nguyen Son Lam said, “Inculturation in the Church is as old as the Gospel itself, but it has had some regrettable moments of eclipse. In Vietnam the ban against ancestor worship imposed on the Christians for three centuries had the effect of estranging them from that which is the very foundation of Vietnamese society. This explains why they were considered strangers in their own country, and persecuted.”
Liturgy is also an obvious candidate for inculturation. The Synod's opening Mass incorporated elements from the songs, dance, and worship practice of different Asian countries. Still, many bishops called for more independence from Rome in the work of inculturation — especially in the approval of translations of liturgical texts. They pointed out that the vernacular experts were in the local Church, not in Rome.
Other bishops, especially from countries where Catholics are or recently have been persecuted, stressed the universal character of the Church, visibly united under the leadership of the Pope. Bishop Joseph Werth, apostolic administrator of Siberia, said the Pope's solidarity with the Church behind the Iron Curtain during the Soviet era was a great encouragement.
“Today, we can finally come and experience one Church with all of you,” he said. “We are today free in the ex-Soviet Union countries and we consider it our sacrosanct duty … to be united with our other brothers who are not in possession of this freedom.”
Bishop Werth did not have to mention which brothers he meant. Two empty chairs in the synod hall — C23 and C24 — reserved for bishops from mainland China, were a constant reminder of the difficulties facing the Chinese Church. The two prelates had been invited by Pope John Paul but were refused visas by Beijing.
Ninety-year-old Bishop Matthias Duan Yinming sent an April 30 fax written in Latin to the Pope offering his regret for not being able to attend “due to political reasons.”
“I was so sad about this I could not sleep for two nights,” he said. “I am physically absent, but my heart is always present at the Synod of Bishops.”
The elderly churchman is the only Vatican-appointed bishop on the communist mainland, having been appointed by Pius XII in 1949, just before Mao took control of the country. He also enjoys the recognition of the state-controlled “Patriotic Church.” Nonetheless, the authorities cited a lack of diplomatic ties with the Vatican (and the Vatican's diplomatic ties with Taiwan) when asked by journalists about the refusal.
Hong Kong's Bishop Joseph Zen, who is also a visiting seminary professor on the mainland, urged the Synod fathers to come to the aid of the Catholic Church in China — but both Churches.
“Confronted with the sad reality of the divisions of the Church into the so-called Patriotic Church and the Underground Church, our task is to work for reconciliation and not to take sides with one group against the other,” he said. “While admiring the firm stand of those in the underground, let us be understanding and respectful towards those who are struggling in a situation of compromise.”
Nobel prize-winner Bishop Carlos Belo of East Timor said, “defending human rights and the cultural dignity of man is directly linked to [the Church's] spiritual mission. The Church's main contribution to the realization of human rights consists in a continuous and practical process of education to make Christians more conscious of the dignity of the human person, the brotherhood of man, and of the liberty and equality which all men share.”
Human rights work in Asia has taken on a more urgent note in the wake of devastating region-wide economic crises and new poverty caused by globalization. But Sri Lankan Bishop Oswald Thomas Colman Gomis warned the Church must first of all meet spiritual needs.
“The doling out of material assistance without meeting [Asians’] spiritual aspirations is only a further promotion of the common misconception of exploitation of poverty for proselytism.”
“In all its misery and deprivation, Asia sees not only a socio-economic problem but a deeper theological problem — the problem of evil, for which it seeks an answer,” he explained. “Traditional religions have provided different answers. Christianity, which has its answer in the death, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ, should present this theological answer in clear and simple categories easily comprehensible to the Asian mind … so that the people of Asia would see that Christianity meets their greatest aspirations.”
One frequently suggested model for Asian evangelization is the late Mother Teresa. Her emphasis on contemplative prayer, renunciation, and love for the poorest fit the Asian model of sanctity.
“People spontaneously recognize the message in the messenger,” said Bangladesh Archbishop Michael Rozario. “In our situation, a person of the Spirit is known for a deep sense of detachment and renunciation, a characteristic of Asian spirituality.”
Pakistani Bishop Anthony Lobo predicted Jesus Christ would return to his home continent during the third millennium.
“We are gathered round, as successors to the Apostles, with the successor of St. Peter,” he said. “This hall [above the Paul VI Audience Hall] is literally and symbolically the “upper room” or cenacle. Mary is present as model [… who stood] side by side with her crucified Son. Today she stands by the cross of the mystical Christ, calling down the Spirit together with us, to bring about a new Pentecost in Asia.”
John Norton writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: Synod participants wrestle with continent's massive challenge ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Norton ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Politics and Pastoring in the Holy Land DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:Ordained a priest in 1955, Michel Sabbah began his career as a vicar in Jordan. Throughout his years as a clergyman, he has combined his religious training with a passion for education. After holding numerous clerical teaching posts, and earning a doctorate in Arabic philosophy, he was named president of Bethlehem University, a Catholic institution, in 1980.
Since becoming the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and head of the local Church in 1987, Sabbah, a Palestinian, has been an outspoken advocate for Palestinian national rights and continues to be a vocal critic of the Israeli government and its policies toward Palestinians.
Recently, the patriarch spoke with Register correspondent Michele Chabin.
Chabin: How do you relate to the other Catholic institutions in the Holy Land, specifically the Franciscan Custos, the apostolic delegate, and the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center with its apostolic administrator?
Patriarch Sabbah: The Catholic Church, as in every country, is a local Church led by the bishop or archbishop. Here it is headed by the patriarch.
The Custody of the Holy Land is a Franciscan religious community that has been in the country since the 14th century, a few years after the Crusades. The Franciscans were given and still retain a special mandate directly from the Holy See to administer the holy places.
The apostolic delegate is like the nuncio in every Catholic country. He is the representative of the Holy See to the local Church, like any ambassador. He is the nuncio to Israel, he is the apostolic delegate to Palestine, he is nuncio also to Cyprus.
The nuncio is sent to the local Church as a sign or instrument of communion between the local Church and the Church of Rome. His existence in olden times, because of the difficulties in communications, was necessary. Today it is no longer necessary because we have direct relations with the Holy See. We have faxes, letters, and so on, but the nuncio remains. He has a specific function to the government. He is nuncio to the government—the civil authorities of Israel and Palestine.
Finally, the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center was constituted as a prelatore nullius. Prelatore means a kind of bishopry. Nullius means for no one. Under no one's jurisdiction. This means that it is a part taken from a diocese and has become independent. In this way it's like the Palestinian Authority within Israel.
How are Catholic relations with the Orthodox Churches, especially since the Vatican and Israel signed their agreement of mutual recognition?
Our relations here in Jerusalem are very good. We are three patriarchs: the Orthodox, the Armenian Orthodox, and myself. Then we have three other Orthodox Churches: Syrians, Copts, Ethiopians. We have five Catholic vicar patriarchs: Melkites, Maronites (the Lebanese) Syrians, Armenians, and Chaldeans (the Church of Iraq); and two Protestant Churches: Anglicans and Lutherans. That totals 13. We have good relations among us.
We meet once every two months to discuss all our problems, whether religious, civil, or those regarding the social situation of the people. We issue common messages for Christmas, Easter, or other special occasions. Now we have created a special Church committee to prepare for the Jubilee Year 2000. That is to say that relations are good.
Relations between the Holy See and the State of Israel have been misunderstood and criticized by some of the other Churches from a political standpoint, not as a Church move but as a Palestinian policy. But this did not disturb our good relations.
Is Islamic fundamentalism a factor in the ongoing exodus from the Holy Land?
No. Yes, and no. The main factor leading to emigration for Christians is the political situation. It is the general instability—political, economic, and otherwise. All Palestinian towns and villages are besieged [by Israel]. Therefore their freedom is very limited. The people have no space to breathe in. That's the main factor in emigration or the desire to emigrate.
Relations between Muslim and Christian political and religious leaders are good. Even among the people, there is good cooperation in politics, in economics, in business. Of course, on the level of daily life there are incidents between individuals. These incidents can sometimes be a cause of instability as well.
Can you give me an example of such tensions between Christians and Muslims?
Sometimes there are disputes between young people, one Muslim, one Christian, which extend to all the community. When we are in a tense situation we call in mediators from both sides, Muslims and Christians, to restore tranquillity and quiet, and to take measures to bring reconciliation. Once we have an incident, immediately there is a kind of body of mediation, an unofficial body, composed of Muslims and Christians. There are some individuals known within our societies who will step in.
Do the different religious denominations deal solely with tensions involving their own people? In other words, if an Armenian Orthodox youth and a Muslim youth were fighting, might a Catholic mediator offer assistance?
It could be Armenian or Latin or Orthodox … no problem. If a dispute involves any type of Christian, all Christians are involved. This is how it is in the Muslim community as well. All Muslims are involved.
What is the role of the Church in influencing Israeli policy, particularly its political development as part of the region?
The role of religion towards the civil authority in general is of teaching, of saying ‘What are the values?’ We insist on human dignity and equality for all people. All individuals are human beings. Religion requires us to say that this incident or that is an injustice. That is the role of religion.
Another role is to call for all religious leaders of all three of the main religions here — Jews, Christians, and Muslims — to come together in dialogue. This is to develop one common vision of the situation. If we reach this common vision, every religious leader will have his own influence upon his own people. That means in the arena of public opinion and on the voters. And hence, in the political field, at least indirectly, because in this country the word of religious leaders is listened to. It is considered very important. It can be decisive even.
Do you mean that the Israeli government is listening?
It should be listening. If the religious leaders move together, they will listen.
You are very outspoken about what you perceive to be the injustices inflicted by the Israeli government against the Christian people here.
Against Christians as Palestinians. The Israelis have nothing against Christians. They are not committing injustices against Christians as Christians. If there are injustices, it is because they are Palestinians, not Christians. This is very important.
Still, do you see it as your personal role to speak out about political matters? Some religious leaders do not believe it is their place to do so.
The problem is to decide what is politics, what is political. To approach political parties in order to help someone become a member of parliament, or to say this one should be a minister, is not our role. But to say that the policy of a government is oppressing people, this is our role. When politics means depriving people of their freedom, this isn't politics, it's human rights. When government policy prevents people from reaching Jerusalem or holy places, that is our role. Where there is violence, we must stand up against it. Violence is useless. To achieve peace, you must find peaceful ways and means to achieve goals.
How does the Church interact with YasserArafat's Palestinian Authority?
We have good relations with Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. On their part, they have direct and frequent relations with us. They consult us on matters that concern the Churches, though not on political matters, and they have been very attentive.
Has the Palestinian Authority established any official or semi-official body to deal with Christian issues?
Not as of now. If there is a problem, say in the area of education, we go to the minister of education. If there are social problems, we go directly to the minister of social affairs.
Is this something you would like to encourage?
No, because we are an integral part of the population. We are not foreigners who need some sort of representation.
But we are calling for dialogue.
How does the Church communicate its vision of a united but shared Jerusalem, a city of three monotheistic faiths?
We say any solution for Jerusalem should aim to produce definitive stability for this holy city. If it does not, then it means that it is not the right solution. Two peoples are living in Jerusalem — Israelis and Palestinians — and three religions: Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Therefore any solution should take into consideration these five elements. It must make all of them equal in duties and rights, with no one inferior to the other.
Since Jerusalem is composed of five elements, it should be shared by all five. It cannot be exclusively for one. It cannot be exclusively Israeli, it cannot be exclusively Palestinian. It must be shared. Therefore it needs a special status.
What status is that, and how can it be achieved?
First of all we'd like to see Israeli and Palestinian political leaders come together and agree on a special status. If they come to an agreement, we will talk with them and tell them our requirements as religious leaders.
Do you envision Jerusalem as one day becoming an international city?
No. We envision a special status created by the locals, Israelis and Palestinians, and [that the city be] governed by the locals. But this status should be supported by international guarantees. This is not something exceptional because when any state is created it asks to be recognized by the United Nations. Jerusalem's special status should be guaranteed by the United Nations.
A few years ago the Vatican established diplomatic ties with Israel. In addition to having a desire to reconcile with the Jewish people, was the Vatican motivated by a desire to have an official say in the matter?
I do not know how the Vatican or the Holy See is dealing with this issue. But I do know that the position of the Holy See for Jerusalem distinguishes between two things: first, sovereignty; and second, freedom of access.
On the issue of sovereignty, the Holy See says, ‘I am not a part [of this equation] and therefore I am not competent to say who should be sovereign. ‘But on the issue of access, the Holy See asks for guarantees of free access and freedom to worship within Jerusalem.
Our position as the local Church is the same, with a small addition that concerns sovereignty. Because our faithful are Palestinians and concerned with sovereignty, we say that just as the Israelis have the right of sovereignty, so they have the right to sovereignty. This sovereignty should be shared.
Does this put you in conflict with the Vatican?
Not at all. The Vatican says ‘I am not competent [to decide].’ Locally we say we are competent. The local Church represents the local people and the local people have rights.
Since the Vatican-Israel agreement, has the patriarchate established warmer relations with the Israeli government?
There are warmer relations when it comes to practical daily problems or questions like permits and visas and so on. There has been an improvement in these areas. These improved relations are due to the peace process as well, a process that got underway even before this fundamental Vatican-Israeli agreement. The peace process enabled people from different sides to come together and talk.
Our position toward the state is to respect the civil authority, whoever is in office. Still, the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis remains. This is a conflict that puts the Palestinians in a position of oppression and injustice, of limited freedom. We do not agree with the Israelis on this, but in spite of it we have good relations. Not warm, but good.
—Michele Chabin
----- EXCERPT: A patriarch discusses the struggle for rights and keeping the peace among Christians, Muslims, and Jews ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michele Chabin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: U.S. Notes & Quotes DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:‘Californian’ Spirituality?
The alleged weirdness of Californians, the subject of many jokes, may be scientifically measurable, according to Wade Clark Roof, president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.
Roof, who is also a professor at University of California-Santa Barbara was quoted in the Los Angeles Times April 25 saying that it's the peculiar quality, not the quantity, of religion in California that's different.
“Because of the region's diversity of religions, the frontier psychology, its great individualism, this part of the country has never had a religious establishment,” the paper quoted Roof saying.
For instance, nearly a third of self-described Christians in California believed in reincarnation in a study Roof conducted in 1988.
“The West Coast's heritage lends itself to the playful cultivation of an inner life through concentration and contemplation, in its quests for the divine, in its belief in spiritual growth, and in its dialogue between Western and Eastern religious themes,” Roof said.
Influences such as immigration from Asia are found elsewhere in the country. But, said Roof, in what may itself be a peculiarly Californian turn of phrase, “West Coast entrepreneurs are second to none at popularizing and commodifying spirituality.”
Drugs, Shrinks, and God in Hollywood
Many newspapers have recently noted that Hollywood seems to be rediscovering religion. But an April 24 report in the Philadelphia Inquirer also noted another phenomenon: Hollywood more often treats therapy and drugs as religion. The report cited several examples:
l Good Will Hunting, in which “a young genius struggling with the responsibilities of his intellectual gifts attempts to sort out his problems by consulting with a psychologist.”
l As Good as It Gets, in which “a mean-spirited loner (Jack Nicholson) becomes a sweet, generous man almost overnight. Later, we learn that in order to court a woman, he started taking the medication that had been prescribed by his psychiatrist, and this accounts for his improved disposition.”
To emphasize the trend, the report said, “When movies challenge or examine these prevailing beliefs, they can seem downright subversive. So it was with The Sweet Hereafter and The Ice Storm, two of last year's most remarkable movies.”
“The Sweet Hereafter questioned whether secular remedies (like civil litigation) provide an adequate way of dealing with the kind of unfathomable tragedy (a school-bus crash with multiple fatalities) that visits a small town.”
“The Ice Storm pointed to a collapse of spiritual authority as part of a cultural malaise that helped destroy families amid the social upheaval of the 1960s.”
Returning to the Church
Eight-year-old Kevin Windle received his first Communion at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Columbus, Ohio, this month carrying a small prayer book in his pocket. His grandfather had carried that same book to the altar rail 58 years ago when he made his first Communion.
The Columbus Dispatch reported the story April 27, pointing out that many American families — like the Windles — are returning to the Church after an absence. Kevin Windle was baptized that same day.
A hunger for spirituality is bringing adults back to the Church, said Father Larry Hemmelgarn, a diocesan spokesman, according to the article. Consumerism makes Americans long for something “more than ourselves … and that leads to a rise in the practice of organized religion.”
“Each time, I'm reminded of my own [first Communion] and the joy I had, and I see the joy they have,” said Father Carmen Arcuri, of the Windles’ parish. “It's the highlight of my year.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 20,000 Hear Confirmation Message from Pope's Ambassador DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:WICHITA, Kan.—Pope John Paul II's personal representative to the Catholic Church in the United States challenged hundreds of confirmation candidates to accept the responsibility of publicly professing their faith and accepting God in their lives. The fervent message came during an outdoor celebration of Mass in Wichita, Kan., where nearly 2,800 young people received the Sacrament of Confirmation May 3.
With an estimated crowd of more than 20,000 people looking on under clear skies and near-perfect weather conditions, Papal Pro-Nuncio Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan asked those gathered to seek the “superior perspective” in all things of life, including the human quest for beauty, power, and riches that is so attractive to the young people of the world today.
“Unless there is a superior perspective for these things and a vision for superior values, the youth cannot be good, and cannot be good people of tomorrow,” the archbishop said.
He joined Bishop Eugene Gerber, ordinary of Wichita and 17 other bishops and abbots from throughout the Midwest in administering the Sacrament of Confirmation during a Mass held at Cessna Stadium on the campus of Wichita State University. It was the single-largest gathering of Catholics in the 111-year history of the diocese and one of the largest celebrations of its kind in the United States this year.
Confirmation candidates processed into the stadium with their sponsors wearing white robes with a special medallion around their necks held with a red ribbon. Although approximately half of the candidates live in the Wichita area, many traveled up to three hours with family, friends, and other supporters to pray and participate in the Confirmation Mass.
The event dubbed “Confirmation ‘98” is one part of the Diocese of Wichita's process of spiritual preparation for the Jubilee called Disciples 2000. Because Pope John Paul II has designated 1998 as the Year of the Holy Spirit, Bishop Gerber decided it would be the ideal occasion to call together the entire diocesan family to celebrate the Holy Spirit, with a special emphasis on the Sacrament of Confirmation and its influence upon the young.
“I stand in awe and wonder at what has taken place here today,” the bishop said moments after the confirmation Mass ended. “I hope that the great out-pouring of the Holy Spirit in the lives of our young people will prepare them even more to cross the threshold of the new millennium in which they will have such a wide influence.”
Archbishop Cacciavillan reminded members of the news media of Pope John Paul II's great love and esteem for the youth of the world today, and expressed his gratitude at having been invited to attend Confirmation ‘98 and serve as the principal celebrant of the Mass.
“This confirmation celebration was a very meaningful and beautiful message delivered to the city,” said Archbishop Cacciavillan. “Hopefully the youth will be the first to feel the responsibility now to profess their faith and their acceptance of God and the Spirit.” (Chuck Weber)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Worlds Notes & Quotes DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:Reversing Ethnic Cleansing
How do you repopulate a country with precisely the people who have been systematically eliminated?
This is the question being asked in Bosnia-Herzegovnia where, the BBC reported April 27, “Political leaders from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Yugoslavia, and Western officials, are meeting in the northern Bosnian town of Banja Luka … to discuss ways of promoting refugee returns throughout the region.”
“The international community wants … to remove obstacles to refugee returns in Croatia. Those obstacles include attempts to prevent Catholics from attending Mass,” the report said.
The BBC noted that the meeting was especially urgent because of a recent upsurge in violence in some areas.
“International officials aim to push through plans to reverse the ethnic cleansing that took place during the war,” it said.
A New Bishop for New Times
Despite the large Catholic population, being a bishop has always been tricky in Croatia, with many competing political and religious factors to take into account.
The Los Angeles Times reported April 26 that the area's new ordinary, Bishop Josip Bozanic, is becoming known for his vigorous leadership.
Bishop Bozanic's refusal to take sides in the nation's many political skirmishes has earned him his reputation for character and boldness.
He is quoted saying, “The Church is neither the political ally nor the political opponent of any group of people. Some think the Church should help those in power. Others think the Church should help those that want power. This is not the Church's duty. The Church should be close to mankind and help those who serve people.”
The report said that President Franjo Tudjman, along with national television, which his political party controls, both snub the bishop. It quotes Jelena Lovric, an independent journalist assessing the bishop's first six months, saying, “Long before the state, the Church has chosen new people for new times.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: England's Ruling Party Wants Less Bishops in House of Lords DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:LONDON—The Church of England leaked to the press in late April that the Lord Chancellor wants to reduce the number of Anglican Bishops who hold seats in the House of Lords. At present 26 of them sit as “Lords Spiritual” in Parliament's so-called Upper House.
In a recent private meeting with the Lord Chancellor, Archbishop George Carey of Canterbury said that while he would be happy to see other Christian denominations and other faiths represented in the House, he would not be happy with any attempt to reduce the number of Anglican bishops. Senior Anglican churchmen are telling friendly journalists that they will not accept “disestablishment through the back door.”
Members of Prime Minister Blair's Cabinet Committee on constitutional reform are determined to see that other Churches and religions are represented in a reformed House of Lords.
It is well known in England that Cardinal Basil Hume has several times turned down offers to be made a Peer, and thus given a seat in the House of Lords. Currently the former Chief Rabbi sits in the Upper Chamber, having been created a Peer by Margaret Thatcher when he retired from his post. But he is not there as an official representative of Judaism.
The Chairman of the Imams and Mosques of Britain, Dr. Zakhi Bidawi, who teaches at the Muslim College, recently called for Muslims to be included in the House of Lords to stop them feeling “isolated from the corridors of power.”
Meanwhile, Catholic Church practice precludes Catholic clergymen from holding political office. Until now, Catholic concerns have been addressed through some Catholic Peers from old families who sit in the House of Lords. Indeed, the first Peer of the Realm, the Duke of Norfolk, is Catholic. However, he has been a strong opponent of Humanae Vitae and many Catholics feel that he, and other Catholic Peers, do not adequately represent Catholicism.
In their determination to reform the Upper House, the New Labor Government will have to sort out these different circumstances. Change will meet fierce opposition from the Church of England if it entails any lessening of the Church's rights and privileges. (Jim Gallagher)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Notes & Quotes DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:Pope Saddened as Rwanda Executes 22
The BBC reported April 24 that, “The public execution of 22 people for involvement in the 1994 genocide followed last-minute appeals for clemency to the Rwandan government.”
One of those appeals came from Pope John Paul II who sent a telegram to Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimung urging him to halt the executions, the report said.
The BBC went on, “the Rwandan authorities said that the executions were a lesson that mass killings cannot be carried out with impunity.
“In a statement to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, Rwanda likened the effect of the executions to that of the Nuremberg trials of Nazis charged with crimes against humanity during the Second World War.”
A statement from the Vatican said the Pope was disappointed when the executions took place.
“I can tell you of the sadness of the Pope over the executions,” papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: In Vitro Fertilization: Immoral Means To a Desired End DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:Infertility is a growing problem in the United States, and it is legitimate to try to find ways to overcome it. Since children are the “crown of marriage,” it is a good thing to try to remedy whatever problem prevents their being conceived.
In 1987 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued an instruction entitled Donum Vitae (The Gift of Life). The document passed moral judgment on many of the procedures in use at the time to overcome infertility. The fundamental principle that the Church used to assess the morality of these various techniques is a rather simple one, even if its application is sometimes difficult.
In sum, Donum Vitae teaches that if an intervention assists the marriage act to attain its natural end, it is considered moral; if it replaces the marriage act, then it is immoral. One kind of “reproductive technology” that the Church has clearly and unequivocally judged to be immoral is in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Unfortunately, most Catholics are not aware that IVF is immoral, and many have already availed themselves of it. If a couple is unaware that the procedure is immoral, then of course they are not subjectively guilty of sin. Regardless of the parents’ actions, the children conceived through this procedure are children of God and worthy of our unconditional love. The procedure does violence to human dignity, however, and therefore must be avoided.
With IVF, the fertilization of the egg takes place outside the wife's body in a glass laboratory dish. In vitro is actually Latin for “in a glass.” Several eggs are aspirated from the woman's ovary after she has taken a fertility drug that causes a number to mature at the same time. Semen is collected from the man (apart from marital relations). The egg and the sperm are then joined in the glass dish where the new life develops for several days. The embryo is finally placed in the womb of the mother.
It should be clear then that IVF eliminates the marriage act rather than simply helps it. Rather than the new life being engendered through an act of love of husband and wife, it is engendered by the action of technicians in a laboratory. The husband and wife become the sources from which the “raw materials” of egg and sperm are collected, later to be manipulated by the physician in such a way that fertilization occurs. Not infrequently, “donor” eggs or sperm are used. This means that the father or mother of the child would be someone other than the husband or wife.
Although a baby may be engendered by this procedure, other lives are often snuffed out in the process.
Even if the egg and sperm come only from the spouses, there are still problems. Invariably several embryos are engendered, and only those that show the greatest promise of growing to term are implanted in the womb. The others are discarded or are used for experiments. Some may be frozen for later use. These actions constitute terrible offenses against human life. Although a baby may be engendered by this procedure, other lives are often snuffed out in the process.
Furthermore, the procedure is expensive, costing at least $10,000 with only a 20% success rate. Therefore, in a desire to hold down costs and to enhance the odds of success, doctors will sometimes implant five or more embryos to increase the likelihood of success. This sometimes results in more babies than the couple wants.
In order to avoid the problem of too many babies after several have been implanted, doctors will engage in “fetal reduction.” They will monitor the babies in the womb to see if any have any defects. They will then eliminate the unwanted babies by taking a syringe with potassium chloride, maneuvering the needle toward the baby in the womb and then thrusting it into the chest cavity. The potassium chloride will kill the preborn baby within minutes, and it will later be expelled as a miscarriage. If one baby is not less healthy than the others, the doctor will simply eliminate the baby (or babies) easiest to reach.
Human beings, as images of God, are to be venerated, even in their coming into being. Never are they to be used as a means to an end; they are not to be used even to satisfy the deepest wishes of an infertile couple. In normal marital relations the husband and wife “make love,” they do not “make babies.” They give expression to their love for one another, and a child may or may not be engendered by that act of love. The marital act is not a manufacturing process, and children are not products.
Yet with IVF children are engendered virtually through a “manufacturing process,” are subjected to “quality control,” and are eliminated if they are “defective.” We can see the dehumanizing dangers in some of these procedures to overcome infertility by the very language used: the reproductive technology industry. Children are not meant to be engendered by technology nor produced by an industry. Children are begotten, not made.
Dr. John Haas is president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Boston, Massachusetts.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Haas ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Humanae Vitae: The Church's Best Kept DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:Recently a young woman wrote to radio talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger about the appropriateness of the letter writer and her fiancé holding a housewarming for their jointly owned and shared domicile. The young woman described herself as one who worships in the Catholic Church every Sunday, sings in the choir, and who feels she is a “good person with great moral judgment.” Dr. Laura asked her, “Has something changed, or does the Catholic Church now condone shacking up and fornication?”
The sad thing is this young woman might have virtually no idea what the Catholic Church teaches about these matters or any others. The Church has been woefully ineffective in teaching its doctrines for the last 30 years and this young woman has likely never been instructed in the Church's teaching on sexual morality.
The malaise in the Church can be traced to the issuance of the encyclical Humanae Vitae (On Human Life) whose 30th year anniversary is this year. Nearly all of the dissent and poor catechetics that have characterized the Church for the last three decades can be traced to the dissent that accompanied Pope Paul VI's promulgation of Humanae Vitae in 1968. No Church document had ever received the public and massive resistance from theologians and then laypeople as did Humanae Vitae. Within 24 hours of the encyclical's issuance, Father Charles Curran held a press conference in which he advised Catholics that they were not obliged to adhere to Humanae Vitae because it was based on an inadequate understanding of natural law.
BEFORE THE ENCYCLICAL
The Church's teaching on contraception had never been taught strenuously in Catholic seminaries. Before Humanae Vitae, priests generally adhered to the teaching as did most married couples. The Church opposed contraception, and Catholic couples followed Church teaching. It was relatively easy to do so for centuries since available contraceptives were quite unreliable and it was largely beneficial for couples to have large families.
In the ‘60s much changed. The Pill became available, there were escalated concerns about overpopulation, and women wanted to be more active in the workplace and were thus determined to have smaller families. The Church was badly situated to counteract the temptations that couples had to have recourse to contraception. Priests were untrained to teach and defend the Church's teaching. Even worse, those who taught in the seminaries were either dissenters or were cowed by the dissenters into teaching that couples should be free to follow their consciences about contraception. The Church thus was sadly absent as a force against the sexual revolution; neither priests nor laypeople had been armed with a knowledge of Church teaching on contraception, the chief fuel that allowed the sexual revolution to rage.
In spite of the manifest devastation to our culture by the consequences of the sexual revolution (premarital sex, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, abortions, divorce, bad marriages, single-parent households, sexual abuse), few dissenting theologians have reconsidered or recanted from their dissent. Recently I received a letter from one rare theologian who had repented of his dissent. He never made clear to me his reasons precisely but the chief motivating factor seemed to be an element of estrangement that he believed the use of contraception for the last 15 years had introduced into his marriage. He lamented that an otherwise happy marriage had been marred by a struggle for control signified by the use of contraception.
It is not insignificant that this individual's repudiation of this dissent was based upon personal experience. When one reads the dissenters’ arguments, they are rooted almost entirely, it seems, in academic debates about what is the object of the moral act or what is the authoritative status of the Church's teaching. Little or nothing is said about the meaning and purpose of sexuality and marriage; little or nothing is said about how contraception impacts upon relationships. The positive benefits of natural family planning (NFP) go unattested entirely. They seem completely unaware of Pope John Paul II's deliberations on sexuality, marriage, and Humanae Vitae.
TESTIMONY TO HUMANAE VITAE
I would like to recommend to dissenters that they lock themselves in a room for several weeks and read a full collection of newsletters from the Couple to Couple League (CCL), that they review the materials of Mercedes Wilson's Family of the Americas and those of Dr. Tom Hilger's Pope Paul VI Institute in Omaha, and Pope John Paul II's writings—especially Love and Responsibility. Without such information, I question whether they have the information they need to judge the merit of the Church's condemnation of contraception and its promotion of methods of NFP.
A recent testimony published in the CCL newsletter tells a story that I suspect is not so uncommon and one that I also suspect dissenters from Humanae Vitae have never heard. The wife who wrote the article tells of the miserable childhoods she and her husband had. Hers was marked by repeated sexual abuse and neglect; her husband's father was a brutal womanizer who eventually divorced his mother. The couple had been sexually active before marriage and had used contraception for the first seven years of their marriage. They had never used NFP, among other reasons, because they “never heard it promoted at Mass, and we were active church-goers, not infrequent guests.” She notes that “priests gave us conflicting opinions on unnatural birth control.”
Beginning a family initially helped her recover some appreciation for the meaning of sexuality and helped her cope with suicidal thoughts, but it wasn't until she and her husband started using NFP that her life and marriage were transformed. She allows that it may seem implausible that the use of NFP would be so effective in healing the personal wounds of herself and her husband and in improving their marriage immeasurably. Persuasively, she observes, “just as something as simple as not working on the Lord's Day can enrich family life, so can NFP enrich a marriage.”
Years ago, a woman challenged me to stress the “therapeutic” power of NFPmore strenuously. I asked her to explain what she meant. She said that in her view, most women in our culture have been sexually abused in some way, either literally by some family member or neighbor, or they have been exploited by boyfriends, or they have felt sexually inadequate because of the sexual saturation of the media. She said she had been sexually abused by a family member but that her husband's willingness to use NFP had made her feel revered by him. This I have heard countless times from women, that the use of NFP makes them feel that their husbands greatly respect and cherish them and value them for much more than their sexual availability.
Males have also spoken to me of the healing power of NFP. Our culture attempts to turn males into sexual predators. Rather than cultivating the natural propensity of males to protect women and children, our culture serves to suppress that instinct and to give full range to the baser tendency to be sexually self-indulgent and exploitative.
Males in our culture are made to feel sexually deficient if they value chastity and are made to feel super-masculine if they are out of control sexually. The use of NFP assists males in recapturing the sexual self-mastery that promotes their self-esteem and allows them to become truly self-giving attentive spouses to their wives—and they are delighted by the rewards they reap.
The author of the CCLnewsletter article testifies: “[N]othing has improved our sex life like the NFPprogram. It's much more fun now and because it's more fun, it's also more frequent.” She concludes, “I have come to realize that just as Jesus came to save sinners, the NFPmessage should be aimed at those who had sex before marriage, those who were abused, and those with skewed notions of sexuality—not just those couples preparing for marriage and those who already ‘know the way.’”
Most dissenters charge that the Church's teaching on contraception is flawed because it gives undue respect to the pro-creative meaning of the sexual act. They fail to take any notice of Pope John Paul II's claim that contraception violates the unitive meaning of the sexual act as well. He maintains that the act of sexual intercourse is meant to be an act of total self-giving and that those who attempt to thwart the procreative power of the act while still engaging in the act, are not giving completely of themselves to one another.
Pope John Paul II has developed an interesting line of argument where he speaks of the “language of the body.” He claims bodily actions have meanings much as words do and that unless we intend those meanings with our actions we should not perform them any more than we should speak words we don't mean. In both cases, lies are being “spoken.” Sexual union has a well-recognized meaning; it means “I find you attractive”; “I care for you"; “I will try to work for your happiness"; “I wish to have a deep bond with you.”
CONTRACEPTIVE MENTALITY
Sexual intercourse also means “I am prepared to have a baby with you,” (not, “I intend to have a baby with you”). Asexual act open to the possibility of procreation ideally represents the kind of bond to which spouses have committed themselves; it is an act ordained to lifetime commitments, for a child is a lifetime commitment. Contraceptives, however, convey the message that while sexual intercourse is desired, there is no desire for a permanent bond with the other person. The possibility of an everlasting bond has been willfully removed from the very act designed to best express the desire for such a relationship. Contraceptive sex does not express the full meaning of sexual intercourse—it attempts to thwart and deny the life-giving meaning of the sexual act.
Those using contraceptives rarely suspect that the use of contraceptives may be impeding their expression of love and their ability to experience intimacy with their spouses. Couples using NFP regularly speak of it as improving their marriages. It is time for those who have rejected the Church's teaching on contraception to reconsider. The lived experience of many and the articulate analysis of Pope John Paul II should give them pause.
The Catholic Church has the message that can bring healing to the generations deeply wounded by the sexual revolution. The author of the CCL newsletter article and the young woman who wrote to Dr. Laura have been ill served by the failure of bishops, priests, diocesan staff, and laypeople to energetically promote the Church's teaching. Once we embrace the wisdom of Humanae Vitae, we can expect to witness and experience a great surge in the health of individual psyches, in relationships, and in society. And we can expect to deepen our love for a Church so faithful to God's law.
Dr. Janet Smith is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Dallas, and founder and chairman of the Millennium Evangelization Project.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Janet Smith ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: In Now Secular France, Young Pilgrims Embrace Faith DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:Afew weeks from now, at the break of dawn Saturday, May 30, more than 10,000 Catholics will gather on the public square in front of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
As gray light spreads in the sky behind the famed spires, the air will crackle with youthful excitement, mixed, in the minds of the more realistic, with a touch of dread.
In the three days that follow, there will be much to suffer. But these Catholics know that their blood and sweat have infinite value, in the eyes of God.
These are the young people of France, primarily teenage boy and girl scouts, who walk every Pentecost between Paris and the famed Chartres Cathedral, reviving an ancient pilgrimage in a Catholic country that has, for the most part, renounced the Faith.
They are joined by several hundred foreign pilgrims, including, for the last two years as well as this year, myself. There is something mysterious about the experience that continues to draw me back.
We begin at 7:00 a.m. by marching into Notre Dame, behind colorful banners of long-dead saints. Each year, as we kneel for a blessing, there is a feeling that an epic battle is about to commence.
Then, we sing Veni Creator Spiritus, before turning to follow a statue of the Blessed Mother carried on the shoulders of four boy scouts. In the dark moments of the 70-mile walk, when blisters make every step painful, it helps to remember that she leads us.
More than 100 priests and seminarians are among the pilgrims. It's difficult to find one over the age of 40. All of them dress in cassocks, some wear birettas on their heads. Much of the march is across open fields or along rock-strewn muddy paths. Usually, it rains at least one day of the pilgrimage, and the afternoons grow hot. By the second day, the hems of their cassocks will be ragged. But they don't seem to mind.
The pilgrims sleep on the ground, in well-organized campsites. The diet consists mostly of bread and water, except for strong coffee each morning, ladled from steaming vats. Every day, High Mass is offered in the fields, with utmost reverence and sublime Gregorian Chant.
Along the way, family and friends join us, until the line swells to more than 16,000.
When we enter the walled city of Chartres, the bells peal in a wild welcome. Then, there is a three-hour pontifical High Mass, offered in the pre-Vatican II form.
The Holy Father sends his written greetings, and last year he sent a cardinal from the Vatican to offer the Mass. He seems eager to embrace these young people, most of whom attend traditional Latin Masses that are approved by their local bishops.
The cathedral has more than an acre of floor space, but it's not big enough to fit all the pilgrims. Thousands stand outside the doors, following the Mass via speakers, using the sound of the bells to keep pace as they kneel for the consecration.
Before receiving Communion, the pilgrims kneel and recite three times, striking their breasts, “Domine non sum dignus” (Lord, I am not worthy). Their young voices echo off the ancient stone walls, a moment that each year sends a shiver down my back.
Every joint will ache after our long walk. But the pilgrims receive Communion on their knees, with a boy scout holding a paten under their chins as a priest places the host on waiting tongues.
Then, at the end of Mass, as the statue of the Blessed Mother is carried away, we sing endless rounds of Chez Nous Soyez Reine, a French hymn of love for the Blessed Mother:
“Vous êtes notre MËre, Portez à votre Fils, La fervente priËre, De vos enfants chéris” (You are our Mother, Carry to your Son, The fervent prayer, Of your dear children).
Perhaps it's mere exhaustion, but even grown men weep as the end of the song nears, and, thus, the end of the pilgrimage is reached.
The Catholic Church survived a pogrom in the wake of the French Revolution. No matter how many sanctuaries were defiled, no matter how many priests and nuns were killed, the people clung to the Mass.
Today, being Catholic won't earn you a trip to the guillotine. But only about 10% of French Catholics attend Sunday Mass, and French culture is no longer Catholic. Quietly, modernism has done what violence could not achieve.
And, yet, amid the ruins, in a country once known as “the eldest daughter of the Church,” the faith lives on, as seen in the joyful faces of these young pilgrims.
Kathleen Howley is a Boston-based journalist.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathleen Howley ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: A Taste of Fatima in Rural New Jersey DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:As northern New Jersey stretches away from New York City and Newark, its landscape alternates between suburban and rural. Five decades ago, the Blue Army, an organization dedicated to spreading the Marian messages of Fatima, marched this route from Plainfield, N.J., to the town of Washington. There, near the Pennsylvania border, they would build the Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, replanting their co-founder John Haffert's 115 acres of farmland with liturgical activities and devotions such as Mass, confession, the rosary, and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Through the years, the shrine has borne rich spiritual harvests for pilgrims making the journey. The grounds of the shrine are replete with places for prayer and reflection, but the focal point is the Immaculate Heart of Mary chapel, completed in 1979.
From the road, sweeping lawns roll toward this chapel shaped in a 20th-century design. Its roof rises into a 145-foot-high central tower that takes the shape of a crown — a reminder that Mary is Queen of Heaven and of the faithful. At the top, a bronze statue of the Immaculate Heart proffers a rosary and scapular.
Beneath the statue, the tower, which represents Mary's mantle, flows down over the 1,400-seat octagonal chapel connoting that the Mother protects her children who gather under it. Inside, pilgrims recall and reflect upon the ever-fresh messages Mary had given to the Portuguese shepherd children — Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta — in 1917. The Blue Army, which celebrated its golden anniversary last year, exists to promote the messages of Our Lady of Fatima, acting in apostolic response to Vatican II's universal call to holiness of the laity.
At Fatima, Mary gave spiritual directives for laypeople that correspond with the Vatican II counsels: pray the rosary daily, meditating on its mysteries; offer all the hardships that come in fulfilling our daily duties as sacrifices for the reparation of sin; stop offending Jesus; have special devotion to the Immaculate Heart.
The Blue Army was founded at St. Mary's Church in Plainfield, N.J., to promote this message and devotion by Msgr. Harold Colgan 30 years after the Fatima apparitions. He asked everyone to wear something blue — a declaration of devotion to the Immaculate Heart. Hence, the name Blue Army.
The shrine is a great center for confession. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is offered all day long on major feasts. It is not uncommon for those long absent from its graces to return to them here.
These major days include Mary's feasts, and the 13th of the month, especially from May to October, when pilgrims arrive in cars and busses, for which the shrine is always well prepared.
From the chapel, it is a lovely 20-plus minute stroll to the Holy House, U.S.A., a replica of the original Holy House of Nazareth.
Along the wide path, people can admire the landscape, enjoy the fresh air, and meditate at several wayside shrines, such as the Reflecting Pond with Guardian Angel of the United States — modeled after the Guardian Angel of Portugal who appeared to the seers at Fatima.
Off this Marian Walk is the Caphelina, U.S.A., an exact replica of the Chapel at Fatima on the site of Mary's apparitions, to honor Our Lady of the Rosary. Inside this open-air chapel is another replica, the Pilgrim Virgin statue carried in Fatima processions. Plans call for a granite circle around the Caphelina for pilgrims to imitate Lucia who, in response to her mother being cured, thanked the Blessed Mother by circling the Caphelina on her knees.
The Blue Army shrine seeks to imitate the Fatima shrine as much as possible. But one inspiring reproduction acts in combination with Loreto, Italy, site of the shrine of the original Holy House of Nazareth. The replica here, dedicated in 1973, duplicates the Holy House dimensions and is likely the only one of its kind having an actual stone from the original pulverized and mixed with the mortar used.
Inside the chapel are also relics of the True Cross and of the oak tree where Mary appeared at Fatima.
Statues inside and out present the Immaculate Heart and commemorate the appearance of the Holy Family during the 1917 miracle of the sun. Next to the Holy House is the Rosary Garden, a beautiful woodland walk with all 15 mysteries in marble plaques and life-sized statues well spaced for quiet prayer and reflection. Even landscaping, such as the dog-woods with cruciform flowers in spring, and evergreens symbolizing eternal life, subtly recall the mysteries.
Among the many devotions, all-night prayer vigils that include Masses and adoration are held from First Friday into First Saturdays. Bishops regularly participate in the many scheduled events that include various ethnic days. Pilgrims are also welcome at the Blue Army National Center offices. The Shrine has a well-stocked gift shop and a concession stand opened for groups.
Nearby is an array of restaurants, from diners to pizza parlors and fast food. Major motel chains are a short drive for extended visits to the Shrine.
About 80 miles west of New York City and 68 miles north of Philadelphia, the shrine can be reached from Interstate 78 (exit 17) to Route 31 N to Washington, or via Interstate 80 (exit 19) to Route 517 S, then Route 57 W, to Washington and Route 31. Watch for Blue Army signs. Take Route 632 for one mile, Cemetery Hill Road for one mile, and Mountain View Road to the shrine.
On May 13, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue from Fatima will be at the shrine. For more information, call the shrine at 908-689-1701.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Recalling the wonders of the 1917 apparitions at the Blue Army's headquarters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Shroud in New Jersey DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:For American pilgrims unable to venture to Turin to view its famous shroud, currently on display, Our Lady of the Rosary Shrine in Summit, N.J., is a worthy alternative. Its neo-Gothic church, which dates to 1939, has become a popular stop for many Marian devotees. In fact, when the grotto was officially blessed May 22, 1921, the occasion also marked the earliest U.S. record of a pilgrimage and procession to honor Our Lady of the Rosary.
At its peak in the mid-1930s, the shrine drew up to 10,000 pilgrims for celebrations on the first Sunday in May. Exceptional crowds also arrived for each of the first Sundays through October. While changes have occurred, other standards have remained constant. One is the cloistered Dominican nuns who founded their monastery on this site in 1919. Another is the presence of a “true copy” of the Shroud of Turin.
The Dominican nuns of Our Lady of the Rosary Monastery dedicate themselves to choral recitation of the divine office, to perpetual adoration, and to the perpetual rosary. Pilgrims can pray before the Blessed Sacrament, exposed above the main altar, and hear the nuns chant during communal devotions on the other side of the chapel.
The true copy of the Shroud was a gift to the community from cloistered Dominicans nuns in Rome who had been its guardians for 300 years. The image was painted in 1624 on a commission from the grand duchess of Tuscany, Maria Meddalena.
More than a replica, this one of two true copies that were painted using the Shroud of Turin as a model on linen then, for a time, laid upon the original.
In March 1987, 15 scientists heading to study the original Shroud came to Our Lady of the Rosary Shrine to examine the true copy first. Although no longer on public display, pilgrims may view the image by scheduling an appointment with the nuns in advance.
Our Lady of Rosary Shrine is slightly west of Newark, N.J., about 45 miles from the Blue Army Shrine (see main article) via Interstate 78 and Route 24 W (Summit Avenue) to Springfield Avenue. The Shrine, located at the intersection of Morris and Springfield Avenues, is open daily for individuals and groups.
For more information, or to schedule a visit to view the true copy of the Shroud, call 908-273-1228.
—Joseph Pronechen
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Secular ëComplexí Led Catholic Universities to Lose Their Way DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:By 1960 the American Catholic universities could take satisfaction in having successfully combined the demands of academic professionalism with the demands of faith.
At the heart of the undergraduate curriculum was scholastic philosophy, the principal legacy of the first universities, which had been established by the Church. To that had been added the humanistic studies of the Renaissance and the natural and social sciences developed in the 19th-century German system. Finally, the major Catholic universities had committed themselves to the kinds of professional education unique to America—law, medicine, dentistry, nursing, business, social work, engineering, architecture.
In terms of academic respectability, the Catholic schools had made significant progress since World War II. However, it is part of human nature that, as people approach their goals, they develop a heightened sense of frustration at how far they still have to go.
A Seminal Essay
In 1955, Church historian Msgr. John Tracy Ellis wrote a famous essay, American Catholics and the Intellectual Life, which caused a sensation in Catholic academic circles. As is usually the case with writings that somehow take a grip on the public, Msgr. Ellis did not so much state something new as articulate what many other people had been thinking. He argued that, while Catholics were entering the mainstream of American life economically, socially, and politically, they were deficient intellectually. They had produced few great scholars, even fewer influential intellectuals.
The thesis set off a prolonged discussion in which various explanations were proposed, some attributing it to the legacy of an immigrant Church, some to a lack of imagination and vision, while others raised the question of whether the Catholic concept of religious authority was not itself a barrier to intellectual maturity. Whatever the cause, the Catholic universities were by now glancing nervously at the most prestigious secular schools and finding themselves wanting.
The successful attempt to combine academic quality with religious commitment was a relatively simple matter in 1960. Most schools were operated by a religious order, which increasingly sent its more intellectually talented members to obtain advanced degrees in a wide variety of subjects. Catholic lay people in increasing numbers were enrolling in graduate schools (Catholic or secular), and many of them returned to teach in Catholic institutions. Thus the universities could recruit faculty who were both professionally competent and committed to the faith. The system could accommodate an occasional non-Catholic in what were deemed not to be sensitive disciplines (mathematics, engineering), with the understanding that such professors would be in no way hostile to the Church.
In one respect, Catholic schools understood that they were unlikely ever to “catch up” with the Ivy League universities or the leading state schools—few Catholic schools could realistically hope to equal the financial resources of such institutions. But within those limits they resolved to continue to improve.
What no Catholic educator saw in 1960 was the fact that the prevailing secular system that they took as their model, and which imposed on them a permanent sense of inferiority, was itself just on the verge of being repudiated. Within less than a decade, the normative secular educational standards which Catholic schools had accepted would be abandoned by the very secular schools from which Catholics had borrowed them. Higher education, like the rest of the culture, changed with remarkable speed during the half-decade 1965-70, by the end of which the Catholic universities too had changed in ways even the most extravagant fantasist could not have predicted a decade before.
Since universities deal mainly with ideas, they are acutely prone to cultural crises occurring outside their walls, and the entire American system of higher education was plunged into a severe crisis by the phenomenon commonly known as “the ‘60s.” Indeed, the new left and the counter-culture— related but distinct movements—were centered on the campuses, practically the only institutions that willingly gave them a home. The movements were powered to a great extent by students, with considerable faculty support.
Legacy of the ‘60s
Summing up the ‘60s is almost impossible, simply because they left scarcely a single institution, a single belief, untouched. The movement was simply a ferocious, and largely successful, assault on every traditional belief, every institution, every claim to certitude. Deliberately choosing to use force and threats of force rather than rational argument, the campus revolutionaries succeeded, within less than five years, in abolishing almost all rules of student conduct and in undermining much of the established curriculum. They plunged the universities into a state of turmoil from which they have never recovered, making them permanent battlegrounds for ideological factions and centers of a systematic and corrosive skepticism that affects the entire culture.
On the whole, Catholic institutions seemed to have been affected less acutely by those movements than were the most prestigious secular schools, a fact that, ironically, was taken as further proof that the Catholic schools were out of the mainstream. But the Catholic schools were struggling to participate in the universities’ unraveling; they too bought most of the destructive ideas of the ‘60s, abandoned most efforts to exert discipline over their students’ lives, and began jettisoning much of their traditional curricula. Since they had much farther to fall, their unraveling in the end proved to be even more radical than that of the secular schools.
A simple explanation of this would be to see it as a conflict between “cosmopolitans” and “provincials” on campus, the former being faculty who had been educated in secular schools, the latter those, especially clergy and religious, who were largely products of the Catholic system. But that explanation is quite misleading.
The cosmopolitans did have their effect. As it turned out, some faculty trained in secular disciplines in secular universities came to the Catholic schools with something of a missionary spirit, determined to spread the doctrines of modern philosophy and psychology, for example, to places they deemed narrow and ignorant. Around 1965, officials of Catholic universities seem to have ceased trying to monitor potential faculty with respect to religion. Professional credentials alone were deemed a proper basis for judgment, and the number of non-Catholics (or ex-Catholics) on the faculty increased dramatically. In practice, after 1965 most institutions seem to have surrendered the hiring process almost entirely to individual departments, many of which in effect decreed that religion had nothing to do with their work. Most academic departments in Catholic institutions think of themselves as in no way different from their secular counterparts; they merely happen to be situated in institutions which retain some vague and diminishing religious legacy.
But just as the cultural movement called “the ‘60s” was beginning in 1965, the Second Vatican Council was ending, and the great crisis through which the Church has been passing for more than 30 years would not have been nearly so severe had the program of religious renewal not gotten sucked into chaos of the ‘60s.
Thus many of the academic “provincials”—clergy and religious, people trained entirely in the Catholic system—began experiencing their own crisis, and often they were among those most hostile to the traditional idea of Catholic higher education, even more hostile than many of the “cosmopolitans.” Just as the crisis of secular academia was provoked by the cultural phenomenon of the ‘60s, so the crisis of Catholic academia was really the crisis of the whole Church which followed the Council.
Crisis of Faith
The problem has been overwhelmingly psychological in nature. The authentic reforms of the Council are appropriately respectful of tradition and pointed toward an orderly process of reform. But what many people thought they understood from the Council was that they were now being “liberated” from the past, that almost everything which they had been taught was now discovered to have been somehow false. The crisis most severely affected those who were the most devout, especially priests and religious.
Thus, in the Catholic universities large numbers of faculty left the priesthood and the religious life (often continuing to teach in the same institutions), even as those who remained were thrown into deep confusion concerning their vocations. They no longer saw their duty as that of passing on the authentic Catholic faith to new generations but merely as facilitating some kind of search for truth, in which the search itself was more important than its goal.
An unrecognized flaw in pre-conciliar Catholic universities was the fact that, strangely, the weakest discipline in the curriculum was theology. Indeed, most schools did not have a “theology” department but one called “religion.” In religious orders the best theologians were assigned to teach candidates for the priesthood, not young laypersons in the universities. Thus priests who did teach “religion” often had meager academic credentials and taught at a level of sophistication only somewhat higher than that of the high schools.
By the time of the Council, the Catholic universities had become aware of this deficiency and had resolved to correct it. They began to recruit competent theologians, some of them lay people. Academically the quality of religious education improved notably. However, this improvement also meant that the teaching of theology was now irrevocably implicated in the larger crisis of belief which affected the Church. Many theologians saw their role as adversarial to Church authority, as that of disabusing their students of what they considered naive or uncritical beliefs. For many, successful teaching could be measured by how many students ceased to be orthodox Catholics.
Rebellion of the Universities
Basic to the theological rebellion which followed the Council was the assertion that Catholics were in no way bound by hierarchical authority, but should instead rely on their own experiences to arrive at truth. In 1968 a group of Catholic university presidents issued the Land O'Lakes Statement which was in effect a declaration of independence from ecclesiastical authority.
Of the approximately 200 American Catholic colleges and universities which existed in 1965, a few formally proclaimed themselves secular, and a number soon closed. Of those which remain, most still proclaim their Catholic identity, but that identity remains deliberately vague and undefined. To alumni and parents of students, university presidents talk as though the institution still adheres closely to Church teaching, while in addressing faculty and the larger academic community they imply the opposite.
It is by now a virtual crusade for Catholic educators to reject any notion of “outside” ecclesiastical authority. Their Catholicity must be something which they define entirely for themselves. At the same time they willingly subject themselves to endless regulations and conditions imposed by government agencies, mainly because those impositions qualify the schools for public money.
Most Catholic schools are still haunted by the specter of what they remember as almost a fraudulent kind of scholarship, in which the demands of religious orthodoxy were allowed to influence teaching and scholarship. In reaction they continue to proclaim the traditional Germanic model of “objective” scholarship. Yet over the past thirty years the very idea of such objectivity has been rejected by the secular academy. Women's studies, black studies, “gay and lesbian” studies, and numerous other programs now insist that scholars not only can, but must, be advocates for particular points of view. Where religion is concerned, however, most Catholic institutions have missed the point. They allow women's studies to be taught ideologically, but would be horrified if they thought religion was.
Pope John Paul II's official statement on Catholic higher education, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, insists that Catholicity must be defined by the Church itself, and it places in the hands of the bishops the authority to judge the Catholicity of those institutions. To date, however, there is little evidence that either bishops or anyone else are prepared to do so.
James Hitchcock is a professor of history at St. Louis University.
----- EXCERPT: 'The '60s' and a misreading of Vatican II contributed to their taking a wayward path ----- EXTENDED BODY: James Hitchcock ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Patriarch Michel Sabbah DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:Personal: Born in Nazareth in 1933; ordained a priest in 1955; named Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1987.
Background: Professor of Arabic and dean of students at the Latin Patriarchal seminary in Bethlehem, 1957; director of schools of the Patriarchal Diocese of Jerusalem, 1966; president of the University of Bethlehem, 1980.
Other: Member of the Synod of Bishops, member of the Council of Oriental Catholics; member of the Council of Oriental Churches; president of the episcopal conference for Arab regions (CELRA), president of the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries in the Holy Land; member of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace; member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious dialogue; member of the Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Featherweight Creatures From Heaven DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:Angels are currently popular with people who have few other religious beliefs because there is no hard work involved. If detached from their Judeo-Christian origins, the heavenly messengers can satisfy the need for comfort and guidance from a supernatural source without a tough-minded moral code. You don't have to change your way of life or wrestle with ideas like sin and repentance for them to visit you.
City of Angels is a slick, eager-to-please love story that exploits this hunger for loving, ethereal entities who make no demands. Based on German director Wim Wenders's 1987 existential, black-and-white classic, Wings of Desire, it smoothes down the rough edges of the moody, off-beat original to concoct a commercial product reminiscent of the 1990 Hollywood hit, Ghost.
In keeping with its watered-down spirituality, City of Angels’ opening line is: “I don't pray,” delivered by the mother of a young girl who's dying. Present in the sick room is Seth (Nicholas Cage), the angel who will escort the child to the other side. Garbed in black slacks, black sweatshirt, and black trench coat, he looks as if he's dressed for an arty, alternative rock concert. He's usually only visible to the dead although, when he wants to, he can appear to living beings.
The film's conceit is that we in the audience can see these heavenly escorts while the humans in the movie can't. Director Brad Siberling (Caspar) and screenwriter Dana Stevens (Blink) have set the action in contemporary Los Angeles, creating a surreal, otherworldly look. Angels drape themselves on top of freeway signs, Sunset Strip billboards and tall high-rises. They almost never smile and always look down. They congregate as a group at sunrise and sunset on the beach to listen to the music of the spheres. Flocks of them also hang out at a spacious, futuristic library where it's easy to overhear people's thoughts.
Seth expresses to his angel buddy, Cassiel (Andre Braugher), curiosity about what it might be like to be human. Although they live forever, they're unable to feel emotions. As otherworldly comforters, they can lay their hands on agitated souls and offer relief, but they have no sense of taste or touch.
Seth is present when a heart attack victim dies during what had been expected to be a routine operation. He gazes deeply into the eyes of the surgeon, Dr. Maggie Rice (Meg Ryan), who has begun to doubt herself after losing the patient. He notes her crisis of confidence and resolves to help her cope.
Seth, in effect, stalks her, materializing at will, and as he can read her mind, he's able to ask her probing questions about herself and life in general. Maggie finds herself attracted to his intense gaze and innocent curiosity. Before the death of her patient, she'd had a purely rationalistic view of the world, which would have made it impossible for her to believe in someone like Seth. However, now she has begun to wonder if larger forces aren't at work.
Maggie's boyfriend, Tyordan (Colin Feore), who's also a surgeon, wants to marry her. His skepticism about her philosophic musings makes her appreciate Seth's reflections on the subject.
Maggie's next patient, a construction-worker named Nathaniel Messinger (Dennis Franz), seems to be the kind of person every heart surgeon dreads. Volatile and overweight, he sneaks quarts of ice cream into his hospital room and devours them just before a scheduled operation.
What Maggie doesn't know is that Messinger was himself once an angel who chose to become mortal. Now happily married with children, he tells Seth why and how he made the transition, and his obvious lust for life demonstrates that he has no regrets—which is as close to a theological discussion as the film ever broaches. Messinger explains that God gave angels free will to leave their heavenly state but that once a being makes that leap he can't go back. Seth and Maggie realize they're in love, and he reveals he's an angel. Maggie takes it in stride, and they both understand that they will only be able to consummate their passion if he becomes an earthling.
Seth takes the plunge and finds himself enjoying the simple things of life like eating a pear or taking a hot shower. But events don't always turn out as expected, and he must learn to balance the downside of being human against its sensual joys.
City of Angels’two basic premises aren't, in themselves, harmful. True love between a man and woman is one of God's greatest gifts, and a belief in angels can be a good thing if connected to a more fully developed, orthodox cosmology.
But the movie presents these two ideas as if they were part of a New Age primer on romance and spirituality. Its wingless angels perform no miracles and deliver no messages from God. Instead the filmmakers offer up contemporary clichés like “we aren't always in control” and show that love can make the pain of that fact more bearable. We also must learn to live more fully in the present, it's suggested, and be receptive to the possibility of an afterlife.
The problem with all this is that happiness and personal fulfillment are the ultimate goals. The center of the universe becomes the self, not God.
Arts & Culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
City of Angels is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America.
----- EXCERPT: In City of Angels, happiness and personal fulfillment are everything ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Circus Vagabonds Find Virtue on the Road DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:Jesus included the socially marginal in his ministry. Modern middle-class believers often find it difficult to follow his example because the behavioral norms of society's outcasts are very different from those whose lifestyle is more secure.
Italian director Federico Fellini's 1954 masterpiece, La Strada, is set entirely in the marginal world of vagabond circus artists, and it persuades us that they too can achieve virtue. Without permanent homes, they're poor by any standards, not knowing how they will eat or where they will sleep from day to day. Fellini shows how feelings such as love, loyalty, and trust are essential to their survival in ways not necessary in more comfortable middle-class surroundings.
Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina) is a young woman, not quite right in the head, who's sold to an itinerant strongman, Zampano (Anthony Quinn), for 10,000 lira. Her family lives on the beach in extreme poverty, and the money will feed and clothe them for several months. Zampano is not a kind master.
“You can teach her a trade,” Gelsomina's mother points out.
“Sure, I can teach even dogs,” he replies. Zampano moves from village to village in a beaten up caravan, performing his strongman act on his own. While training Gelsomina to accompany him, he beats her.
An unusually sensitive woman, she's more downcast at being humiliated than hurt from the pain, but she's also possessed with a sunny spirit that helps her bounce back. She sports a black derby and clowns her way in a Chaplinesque fashion through Zampano's dark moods. Children immediately bond with her, sensing the goodness in her heart. Slowly she develops a deep loyalty to the strongman and tries her best to love him the same way she does everyone else.
To achieve economic security, Zampano attaches himself to a small circus. Among the other performers are a tight-rope walker and acrobat called the Fool (Richard Basehart). Like Gelsomina, he's a natural clown, and the two become soul mates.
Zampano is jealous of their platonic friendship and attacks the acrobat with a knife. When the strongman is thrown in jail, the circus fires all parties concerned and leaves town. Gelsomina waits until Zampano is released.
Back on the road, she and the strongman give a lift to a nun who invites them to stay at her convent The sister praises their vagabond way of life because it prevents them from becoming too attached to worldly things. For similar reasons, her order makes its nuns move to a new convent every two years.
Gelsomina is attracted to the religious life but declines an offer to stay longer at the convent. Much to her horror, while she and the nun have been talking, Zampano has been trying to figure out how to steal some silver medals on display.
While traveling on a country lane, he and Gelsomina run into the Fool, who has a flat tire. As always, the clowning acrobat teases the strongman who retaliates by beating him up. The Fool unexpectedly dies from the blows. Rather than report the accident to authorities, Zampano flees after hiding the body and the car.
Gelsomina is sick with grief. She lapses into a depression that lasts for weeks. The story takes some tragic turns, but Fellini and screenwriter Tullio Pinelli show how the strength of Gelsomina's loyalty transforms the strongman's heart. Her love for him isn't romantic in the conventional sense. Gelsomina tries to serve him with the same spirit of self-sacrifice she displays with all the others in her life.
Their vagabond way of life prevents them from becoming too attached to worldly things.
The film's magic springs from more than its episodic story line. Fellini recreates the textures of rural Italian life in memorable ways. When Gelsomina unexpectedly is swept along by a procession honoring the Virgin Mary, the intensity of its sights and sounds turns the event into a genuine religious experience. Later in a tableau of austere beauty, she and Zampano camp out amid a row of ruined stone houses surrounded by snow. The action is also interrupted from time to time by a haunting melody she plays on her trumpet.
La Strada shows how life can be uplifting in times of struggle and sadness, even among the poor and socially marginal. Its stark, melancholy images stick in the mind long after the movie has ended.
Arts & Culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
Next week: Alain Cavalier's Therese.
----- EXCERPT: La Strada, Fellini's 1954 classic, offers an enduring message for modern believers ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:Portugal to Hold Abortion Referendum
LISBON—Portugal's President Jorge Sampaio April 28 called a referendum vote on whether to allow abortion virtually on demand in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.
Parliament has already approved a law allowing abortion in the first 10 weeks, but given the level of controversy surrounding the measure, the ruling Socialist Party agreed to put the decision to a popular vote.
The vote, scheduled for June 28, will mark the first time a referendum has been used in Portugal. It follows a change to the Constitution last year to allow for the direct balloting of voters on key issues.
In 1997, there were 280 legal abortions in a country of 10 million people.
Opinion polls suggest that the Portuguese will vote to back the liberalization by a small majority, despite the vocal opposition of the Catholic Church. To be valid, more than 50% of registered voters must back the proposal, with abstentions counting as a “no” vote. (Pro-life Infonet)
Nebraska Republicans Pass Abortion Funding Resolution
OMAHA—The Republican Party Central Committee of Nebraska April 18 approved a resolution stating that any candidate campaigning on a platform that supports allowing doctors to perform so-called “partial-birth abortions” will not be backed by the state GOP. The Nebraska resolution adds to the growing list of state Republican committees who have passed a resolution that was opposed by national party leaders at a January meeting in Palm Springs, Calif.
Grassroots Republicans, dismayed that the National Committee would protect politicians who do not oppose the procedure that many term infanticide, are moving state by state, to deny them funding and support. (Pro-life Infonet)
Algeria Renews Ban On Abortion For Rape Victims
PARIS—Algeria's highest religious body has issued an edict banning women who have been raped by Muslim rebels from having abortions, Algerian newspapers reported April 27.
Thousands of women, mostly teenagers, have been raped by Muslim rebels during their six-year-old battle against the Algerian authorities in which approximately 60,000 people have died. Many rape victims have been ostracized by their families.
A summary of the latest fatwa, signed by the Islamic Supreme Council head Abdelmajid Meziane and printed in Algeria's main newspapers declared: “Abortion is a criminal action and is banned except for extreme cases….” A raped woman is an innocent and virtuous woman. Any one who harms her honor should be prosecuted and punished.”
The text of the fatwa asked the state to provide help for rape victims who want to bring up their babies. (Pro-life Infonet)
Florida Lawmakers OK ‘Choose Life’ License Plate
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Florida House of Representatives April 29 voted 77-41 to approve a bill that would create state license plates with the slogan “Choose Life.” The Senate approved the measure 28-12 a day earlier.
If signed by Gov. Lawton Chiles, the bill would allow Florida car owners to spend an extra fee to receive a license plate with pictures of smiling children and the pro-life slogan. A spokesman for Chiles said it was not yet known whether the governor would sign the measure or veto it.
Proceeds from the sale of the new tag will be earmarked for services for pregnant women and to promote adoption. The state already has 39 other special plate options. (Pro-life Infonet)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Register to Publish Dispatches From ‘Crossroads’ Walk DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:Joe Flipper, a senior at Franciscan University, will be the Register's on-the-scene reporter for this year's Crossroads campaign. Every other week 22-year-old, Idaho-born Flipper will provide readers with an inside look at what's taking place as they travel from city to city across America, witnessing to life.
As a result of earlier Register reporting on a dynamic young group called Rock For Life, Andrew Daub of Crossroads spoke with Bryan Kemper of Rock For Life and they have tentatively slated a pro-life concert and rally for St. Louis mid-summer. For more information on this event, call either Rock For Life at 503-238-0457, or Crossroads at 800-277-9763.
— Karen Walker
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Karen Walker ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Coast-to-Coast Walk Attracts Committed Young Pro-lifers DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — It started out as just an ordinary day at college — wake up, pray, grab some breakfast, hit the books to study for an exam, and run off to the Crossroads office for a bit of volunteer work. Then the call came. The call that confirmed they are making a difference. It was just as their motto said: Face-by-face; one-by-one; and literally, step-by-step.
For the past three summers, a small band of students from Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, have organized a walk-across-America pro-life campaign, Crossroads. Begun in 1995 by then-student Steve Sanborn to provide the youth of America and students at Franciscan University with an impetus to speak out and witness to the value of human life, the ultimate goal of the group is to change society's view on abortion.
Each coast-to-coast trek draws a core group of 13 to 16 dedicated walkers whose backgrounds encompass a broad range of collegiate loyalties, family backgrounds, and career interests. In spite of the surface differences, participants’ solidarity in prayer and in unwavering commitment to promoting a culture that embraces life — from the womb to the tomb, as they say — is striking.
Donning bold pro-life T-shirts as they walk alongside highways or grab a bite to eat along the way, often praying together, Crossroads participants are what they claim to be: witnesses to the immeasurable value of individual human life — born or unborn, strong or feeble, young or old. In addition, they are witnesses to the critical importance of developing a strong interior moral character because it determines how each man or woman will behave when confronted with these life decisions.
The walkers cover 3,000 miles in about three months, leaving from San Francisco, Calif., and ending up on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., where they hold a concluding rally.
Throughout the journey, two or three people walk for stints of five miles, night and day, with people shifting schedules so no one is only walking in the day or in the night. At any given time, the remainder of the group is either covering speaking or radio engagements, traveling ahead in the RV to set up the evening's campsite, catching some shut-eye or driving the trail van that accompanies the walkers and carries the next shift of people.
Attending daily Mass is an integral part of their campaign and, again, inadvertently contributes to their silent witness of love.
“Prayer is the basis of everything we do,” says 28-year-old Andrew Daub, one of this year's coordinators. “Often walkers pray the rosary. It keeps your mind off the pain sometimes. We pray as a group too. There's nothing stronger than prayer.”
In addition to prayer, there is more than meets the eye to make things run smoothly. The Crossroads operation relies on a central operations office in Steubenville to organize events, rallies, and speaking engagements for the summer campaign. As the walkers approach a city, they call the central office to learn their agenda for a given locale. Often, residents will come out and join in the walk as Crossroads is passing through their town, expanding the group to as many as 60 walkers. Some supporters give money, some come out to walk with them for a few weeks and then return to jobs, others offer food, water, a home-cooked meal, or a place to stay for the night (a welcome change of pace from the group's traveling RV-and-tent arrangement).
While in a city, the Crossroads team engages in radio interviews, youth group and Church talks, rallies, and even praying or sidewalk counseling in front of abortion clinics. All of their group presentations promote chastity and the pro-life message. According to Daub's 23-year-old co-leader, Jimmy Nolan, the group plans to pay special attention this year to emphasizing the strength and beauty of chastity.
Those who have participated in the walks say they believe that more people in this country are pro-life than they think the mainstream media leads society to suspect. One might object that this group thinks that because they interact primarily with those who support the pro-life cause: churches, youth groups, etc. But participants like Daub are quick to counter with examples to indicate otherwise, such as the tremendous amount of unsolicited feedback they get in the form of letters, donations, etc.
“We've had lots of people come up and say they're ‘pro-choice,’” notes Daub. “They say they have a lot of admiration for what we're doing.”
This summer's Crossroads campaign heads out May 22 after a rally near the Dunbarton Bridge in San Francisco, and will end up, as always, three months later on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. (The target date is Aug. 15, the solemnity of the Assumption.) The last leg of the journey, about a six-day trek from Steubenville to Washington, is consistently the most populated, with additional people meeting the group when they arrive in Washington, D.C., forming a rally of 100 or more.
For St. Louis-born Daub, who holds a bachelor's degree in political science from St. Louis University and the rank of first lieutenant after just completing four years with the U.S. Army, participating in this year's walk is his main focus for the summer until he enters law school in the fall.
“This is my third year [participating in the walk],” says Daub, who is drawn both by the opportunity to be a prayerful witness to embracing the life of the pre-born and by the powerful effects he's seen in the responses from strangers. “I've [walked] for a few weeks each summer, but this year I'm committing to the whole time…. We always like to say that from the response we've seen, it seems that the majority of people out there are pro-life.”
Nolan, of Chevy Chase, Md., graduates this year from Franciscan University with a major in business administration. Like Daub, he wants to be an integral part of the campaign because he believes it's a worthwhile witness to life.
“It's really interesting,” says Nolan. “We've had such a good response to what we've been doing, [judging from] the teens we've spoken with on the phone, [and] the D.C. rally, which attracts a lot of people just walking by who stop to listen. People are very eager to learn about Crossroads. It's a new idea. It's not an in-your-face attitude, but more of a witnessing. People respond to this approach.”
Perhaps one of the most moving responses has been a call the headquarters received two weeks ago from a young girl who remembers when Crossroads walked through her Midwest town more than a year ago. She recounted how she had approached one of the girls in the group because of their pro-life T-shirts.
At the time, the local girl was being pushed by her boyfriend to have an abortion. In fact, she had an appointment the day she met the group, but after talking with a girl from Crossroads, the young local decided to postpone her abortion and consider some alternatives. She even took a contact number in case she needed to talk with someone later, but the group never heard from her — at least not until two weeks ago.
Thank you, said the young female voice on the phone, explaining that her baby is now nine months old. The same Midwest girl who had approached the Crossroads group in the restaurant called to let them know that after their conversation she opted not to pursue an abortion. She felt that her baby was designated by God for a special purpose and she wanted to thank them for being witnesses for life.
That's the kind of response that keeps young Americans enthused about walking 3,000 miles each summer. That's the kind of response that keeps these young hearts and minds focused on serving God and his unborn children each day of their lives.
For more information, telephone Crossroads at 800-277-9763.
Karen Walker writes from Corona del Mar, California.
----- EXCERPT: Franciscan U. students hit the road to witness to life 'from the womb to the tomb' ----- EXTENDED BODY: Karen Walker ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Where Have All Italy's Children Gone? DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:ROME—When one thinks of Italy, one thinks of the family, but Italian families have been getting smaller and smaller. Italy, according to recently released U.N. statistics, has the lowest birth rate in the world:
1.24 children per woman. Such a low birth rate, coupled with one of the world's highest life expectancies, could produce very disturbing consequences for Italian society, according to demographers. One of these is the reversal of the “age pyramid,” which means that people older than 65 are becoming much more numerous than those younger than 18. This means that a small population of young people will have the burden of meeting the needs of a large elderly population in terms of pensions and health care. In addition to economic consequences, social scientists are worried that an increasing ratio of elderly could produce a less vibrant society and a decline in creativity.
According to demographic studies, every woman needs to bear an average of 2.1 children in order to renew the generations. In the 15 member countries of the European Union, however, the average birth rate is only 1.46.
Why is it that most Italians only have one child? It is a complex question that both Church and lay authorities have been debating for years now. According to Father Gino Concetti, theologian and columnist for the Vatican newspaper L‘Osservatore Romano, one of the factors contributing to Italy's low birth rate is its increasing affluence in recent decades. The priest said this has caused an increase in consumerism and hedonistic behavior.
“People want everything these days: fashionable clothes, vacations, a nice car. They think they'll have to give up too much if they have more than one or at most two children,” Father Concetti told the Register.
“Italians also want to give their children more than they themselves had,” he continued. “They don't want them to lack anything or to have to struggle. Naturally, this causes them to limit the number of children they have.”
Another factor, said the priest, is a pessimistic view of the future due especially to economic uncertainty.
“People are afraid of what the future will hold for their children. This is due in part to a kind of psychological terrorism by the mass media.”
Lastly, Father Concetti explained, there generally has been a lack of family-friendly public policies, though the current government has begun to remedy the situation.
The current center-left government, led by Premiere Romano Prodi, which includes the Catholic Popular Party, has been trying to make up for the policies of past governments which were hostile to families. One government decree currently under consideration would provide a pension to homemakers, effectively rewarding women who decide to be full-time mothers.
Additionally, the Italian Parliament is discussing a bill that contains measures designed to help families reconcile family and work. Among the proposals are lengthening the amount of time granted for maternity leave, providing paternity leave, and introducing more flexible work hours.
The difficulty with all these measures is that Italy has curbed government spending to better conform to the parameters established by the Maastricht Treaty for the European Monetary Union.
On a strictly local level, some city councils have offered monetary rewards to families choosing to have more than two children. For many Italians, however, such action tends to be an eerie reminder of the Fascist era in which large families were rewarded as part of Mussolini's effort to provide “more heroes for the nation.”
ZERO POPULATION GROWTH
Bishop Giuseppe Anfossi, president of the Italian bishops’ commission for the family, told the Register, “The Church has long been warning Italy of the perils of zero population growth and has tried to encourage the government to enact policies that provide incentives to families. Parish priests and nuns try to dissuade people from having only one child. Unfortunately, people are not listening to the Church as much as they used to, at least as far as having children is concerned. It is sadly ironic that two such Catholic countries as Italy and Spain have the lowest birth rates in the world.”
There is, however, a minority of Catholics who seem to have little difficulty raising large families. The fact that members of Catholic movements such as charismatics or the Neo-Catechumenate have five, six, or more children represents a powerful challenge to the belief that having a large family is impossible in this day and age, according to Father Concetti.
“These families,” he said, “are living proof that even in these times of economic uncertainly, it is possible to have a large family and to give children what they need most, which is their parents’ love and faith.”
For many couples, though, being open to having a second child is difficult. First of all, young people often put off becoming married until they have stable jobs that pay well — not an easy task in a country with a 12% unemployment rate. The high cost of living is also commonly cited as a cause for delayed nuptials, because couples cannot afford to set up house together.
As a result, women are bearing their first—and frequently, only— child later in life.
Paradoxically, maternity benefits in Italy are quite generous, by U.S. standards. Women stay home two months before giving birth and three months after at 80% of their salary. Many even manage to take unpaid leaves until their child's first birthday.
Similar to their U.S. counterparts, however, Italian women face the challenge of juggling work and family. There are not many government-subsidized day care centers, and private day care is expensive. Some women are fortunate enough to have mothers or mothers-in-law willing to help with child care. A small percentage who can afford it turn to nannies or au-pairs.
It is not uncommon though for a woman, upon returning from maternity leave, to find that her desk has been assigned to someone else and she has been transferred or demoted. Those who have had such an experience after the birth of one child are reluctant to do it again.
There are, of course, women who decide to leave their jobs and become full-time mothers, though the cost of living often precludes this choice. Unlike in the United States, where it is possible for a woman to quit her job, be a full-time mother for a few years and later re-enter the work force, leaving a good job in Italy often means never finding another one.
Pope John Paul II addressed this problem in 1996 in one of his many appeals in favor of the family: “It is very serious that young women can actually deny their vocation to motherhood for fear of losing their jobs.”
CULTURAL AND
RELIGIOUS TRENDS
Not everyone in Italy views the low birth rate as a problem. Many point to the fact that, while the number of babies being born is low, the population has increased in recent decades. One of the reasons for this is the steady stream of immigrants from Third World countries.
Environmentalist Fulco Pratesi recently said that Italy should stop sounding the alarm and simply accept the fact that, like many other parts of the world, it is destined to become a multi-cultural society.
“What difference does it make if the babies that are born here are Filipino, Bolivian, Polish, or Ethiopian as long as they are able to help pay our pensions?” wrote Pratesi in a recent article in the Corriere Della Sera newspaper.
It does make a difference to some, however, who are worried that the precariously low birth rate, coupled with an increase in immigration, could lead to a loss of cultural and even religious identity. The reason for this concern is that most immigrants come from places like North Africa, Turkey, or Albania, where Islam is the dominant religion. In an article entitled “When Half of Italy is Christian and the Other Half Muslim,” sociologist Francesco Alberoni imagined the consequences of a country divided along religious lines in the not-too-distant future.
When the Italian Church first began sounding the alarm about zero population growth, it was accused of being irresponsible about the problem of “overpopulation” in the world. A recent article entitled “Babycrack” in the left-wing cultural magazine Reset, however, said “the facts have contradicted the common hypothesis that claimed that the low birth rate would have beneficial effects on the economy and especially on the unemployment rate.” On the contrary, said the article, zero population growth could result in an economic catastrophe because it will become impossible to guarantee a pension for everyone.
“Evidently, the Church is right once again—even from an economic point of view,” said Bishop Alessandro Maggiolini, one of the Vatican's most respected theologians. “As Pope Paul VI used to say, “we must set more places at the table, not eliminate the mouths to feed.”
Berenice Cocciolillo writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: The country most associated with the Church now owns the world's lowest birth rate ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: When Life's at Stake, Even Hard-Line Republicans Can Vote Democrat DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:CHICAGO—It's been a while since pro-life voters in Illinois had a pro-life candidate for governor, let alone a pro-life Democratic candidate for governor. Yet when voters head to the polls across the state this fall, the Democratic candidate, Congressman Glenn Poshard, will have a stronger pro-life position than his Republican opponent, Secretary of State George Ryan.
This new development has left many pro-life voters like Mary Jane Stephan in an unfamiliar situation. Stephan, a teacher's aide from Rockton, says she doesn't remember the last time she voted for a Democrat. In fact, she can't remember ever doing so.
“I honestly have no recollection of ever voting for a Democrat,” Stephan, a Catholic who has been active in various pro-life organizations for the last two decades, said. “Whenever I think of the Democratic Party, I think of liberal Democrats like [Massachusetts Sen.] Ted Kennedy.”
Yet Stephan will be voting for Poshard this fall. A member of Congress since 1988, Poshard survived a heated Democratic primary where other candidates attacked him for his opposition to abortion. Despite attacks from traditional liberal wings of the party and threats by abortion advocates to withhold their votes in the governor's race, Poshard has stood firm, maintaining his support for legal protection of unborn children—including those conceived in rape or incest.
Stephan cites Republican candidate George Ryan's recently altered position on abortion and his selection of a pro-abortion state representative for lieutenant governor as reasons why she won't be voting Republican in the governor's race. Ryan had been considered a strong pro-life supporter during his tenure in the state legislature, as lieutenant governor, and as secretary of state. After announcing his candidacy for governor, however, he added rape and incest exceptions to his abortion position and selected Corrine Wood, an abortion supporter, as his running mate.
“After he did those things, I could not vote for George Ryan,” Stephan said.
She isn't the only pro-life voter who is switching her vote from the Republican candidate. Some voters were so disillusioned, in fact, that although they usually voted in the Republican primary, they requested a Democratic ballot for the March primary election. One of those voters is Bob Carpenter, a 28-year-old law student from Libertyville. Carpenter voted for Poshard in the primary to ensure that pro-lifers had a strong pro-life candidate in the November election. Ryan, according to Carpenter, hasn't earned the support of pro-lifers.
“The way Ryan has watered down his anti-abortion stance makes it clear that he does not care about the issue,” Carpenter said. “Once in office, he will do nothing for the unborn.”
While Ryan's position may match Carpenter's conservative views on other issues, it's not enough to win his vote.
“It is true that Ryan is more conservative on other issues that are important to me, but if you don't have life, you don't have anything.”
Illinois pro-life leaders like Ralph Rivera say they're hearing similar sentiments from pro-life voters across the state. Rivera, who is president of Illinois Citizens for Life PAC (political action committee), said it's too early to tell what impact the pro-life issue will have on the November election. However, he said, he hasn't encountered many pro-lifers who plan to vote for Ryan in the fall.
“In talking to people around the state—people who are strong Republican-type pro-lifers who are steeped in the Republican Party, they're talking about voting for Glenn Poshard,” Rivera, whose PAC endorsed Poshard in the Democratic primary, said. “But in politics, April is a long way from the November elections.”
Rivera said his group has repeatedly requested a meeting with Ryan, but they have not received a response. Rivera said he will continue attempting to talk with the Republican candidate.
“I'm hoping George Ryan will come back our way to a full pro-life position,” he said. “I'd like to see all candidates be pro-life.”
Rivera said he understands why grassroots pro-life voters are frustrated with Ryan's handling of the abortion issue in the campaign. In addition to adding rape and incest exceptions to his stand, Ryan also recently announced his support for public funding of abortion in cases of rape and incest.
Wood, Ryan's running mate, also voted against a bill to restrict so-called “partial-birth abortions” when it initially came before the legislature last session. After Ryan issued an amendatory veto of the bill—and after Wood was selected as his running mate—Wood switched her vote and supported the bill.
The facts, according to Rivera, clearly reveal that pro-life voters sent a message to Ryan in the March primary. In addition to the pro-life crossover voters who voted Democratic to support Poshard, almost 14% of Republican-primary voters voted for a relatively unknown and under-funded Republican candidate who ran on a strong pro-life platform. This “protest vote” and the fact that Poshard captured the Democratic nomination with support from thousands of pro-life voters, should worry Ryan and Republican strategists, according to Rivera.
“I'd be concerned if I was George Ryan and the people in his campaign,” he said.
The fact that a pro-life Democrat is leading a statewide ticket is encouraging news for other pro-life Democrats as well. The traditional view of the Democratic Party operatives in Illinois, Rivera said, has been clear: Pro-life Democrats need not apply. Poshard's primary victory sent many party leaders reeling.
“That taboo has been broken, and if Glenn Poshard wins in November it changes the playing field,” Rivera said.
Illinois pro-life voters like Stephan and Carpenter plan on being a part of permanently breaking that taboo this November. In the meantime, they hope Republican candidates like Ryan and leaders of the party will hear the message they're trying to send.
“Unless pro-life Republicans cross over in this election, the Republican Party will continue to produce pro-choice candidates like [former Republican Gov.] Jim Thompson, [outgoing Republican Gov.] Jim Edgar, and George Ryan,” Carpenter said. “Only if we hold them responsible for cowardly stances on abortion will we ever see a principled candidate in the future.”
For Stephan, the decision to vote for a Democrat for governor hasn't been easy. She said she worries “what we'll get with that package.” Still, she says, it's time for pro-life voters to send a message to politicians.
“It's time to start standing for the total truth and stop compromising,” she said. “I'm going to vote for the man who is 100% pro-life, even if he is a Democrat.”
Greg Chesmore writes from Bloomington, Indiana.
----- EXCERPT: Congressman's pro-life stance gets voters to cross party lines in Illinois gubernatorial race ----- EXTENDED BODY: Greg Chesmore ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Gospel Of Life DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:“By virtue of our sharing in Christ's royal mission, our support and promotion of human life must be accomplished through the service of charity, which finds expression in personal witness, various forms of volunteer work, social activity, and political commitment. This is a particularly pressing need at the present time, when the ‘culture of death’ so forcefully opposes the ‘culture of life’ and often seems to have the upper hand.”
Pope John Paul II
(Evangelium Vitae 87.1)
See Crossroads story at left.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Is Prenatal Testing Morally Justifiable? DATE: 05/10/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 10, 1998 ----- BODY:In the realm of prenatal testing, motive determines permissibility. Most prenatal testing is done in order to find and kill preborn children who fail to “measure up” to parents’ and physicians’ high standards. Prenatal testing for this purpose is illicit. However, tests for the purpose of healing preborn children are allowable.
Donum Vitae, The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's 1987 instruction on respect for human life in its origin and on the dignity of procreation, answers all the fundamental moral questions about prenatal diagnosis succinctly and completely:
“If prenatal diagnosis respects the life and integrity of the embryo and the human fetus and is directed towards its safeguarding or healing as an individual, then the answer is affirmative.
“For prenatal diagnosis makes it possible to know the condition of the embryo and of the fetus when still in the mother's womb. It permits, or makes it possible to anticipate earlier and more effectively, certain therapeutic, medical, or surgical procedures.
“Such diagnosis is permissible, with the consent of the parents after they have been adequately informed, if the methods employed safeguard the life and integrity of the embryo and the mother, without subjecting them to disproportionate risks. But this diagnosis is gravely opposed to the moral law when it is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis which shows the existence of a malformation or a hereditary illness must not be the equivalent of a death-sentence. Thus a woman would be committing a gravely illicit act if she were to request such a diagnosis with the deliberate intention of having an abortion should the results confirm the existence of a malformation or abnormality. The spouse or relatives or anyone else would similarly be acting in a manner contrary to the moral law if they were to counsel or impose such a diagnostic procedure on the expectant mother with the same intention of possibly proceeding to an abortion. So too the specialist would be guilty of illicit collaboration if, in conducting the diagnosis and in communicating its results, he were deliberately to contribute to establishing or favoring a link between prenatal diagnosis and abortion.
“In conclusion, any directive or program of the civil and health authorities or of scientific organizations which in any way were to favor a link between prenatal diagnosis and abortion, or which were to go as far as directly to induce expectant mothers to submit to prenatal diagnosis planned for the purpose of eliminating fetuses which are affected by malformations or which are carriers of hereditary illness, is to be condemned as a violation of the unborn child's right to life and as an abuse of the prior rights and duties of the spouses.”
Some specific areas in which prenatal testing is licit include:
l testing in the last trimester of pregnancy in order to help assemble properly trained personnel and equipment needed for a difficult birth due to abnormalities;
l to prepare for in utero and post-birth corrective measures, including dietary control for a newborn baby with phenylketonuria or galactosemia; and
l to prepare the parents psychologically, emotionally, and financially for the birth of a handicapped child.
Source: The Facts of Life: An Authoritative Guide to Life and Family Issues, by Brian Clowes PhD (Human Life International, Front Royal, Va.). Reprinted with permission.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Cardinal Lustiger Examines Complex Christian-Jewish Ties DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—The Holocaust has paradoxically brought Catholics and Jews closer together, because it has helped spur the Roman Catholic Church to rethink its relationship with Judaism, a French cardinal said on Oct. 20.
Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger, archbishop of Paris and a Jewish convert, said the Catholic Church has embraced Jews since the Second Vatican Council and has acknowledged the role Christians played in the Shoah, or Holocaust, in the 1940s.
“In Christian-Jewish relationships, Christians have opened their eyes and ears to the Jewish pain and wound. They expect to be held as responsible. They agree to bear that burden without rejecting it, [for] others. They have not tried to declare themselves innocent,” Cardinal Lustiger said. “If they have not asked for the victims’ forgiveness, it is because they know that only God can grant forgiveness.”
The cardinal received one of this year's Nostra Aetate Awards from the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding on Oct. 20. The organization, founded in 1992 at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., annually honors individuals who contribute to interreligious harmony.
John Cardinal O‘Connor, archbishop of New York, introduced the other recipient, Rabbi Rene-Samuel Sirat, chief rabbi emeritus of Europe. Cardinal O‘Connor himself received the award in 1996.
The award refers to Nostra Aetate (“In Our Age”), the 1965 document of Vatican II that extended olive branches to non-Christian religions and especially encouraged “mutual understanding and appreciation” between Catholics and Jews.
Cardinal Lustiger gave the main address at the ceremony, speaking for an hour before about 500 people at Sutton Place Synagogue on East 51st Street in Manhattan.
He suggested that the Holocaust has helped the Church recapture its historical and spiritual link with the Jews. “After the Shoah — but not only because of the Shoah — the determination to recognize and respect the gifts granted to the Jewish people in the history of salvation, and the rediscovery of perpetuity of the people of Israel and of its fidelity are for the Christians the fruit of their rediscovery of their own wealth and vocation,” the cardinal said.
He also defended the French Bishops’ Declaration of Repentance issued September 1997 at Drancy, France, which asked Jews to forgive the Church for what it called the “sin” of silence committed by most French Church leaders during the Nazi persecution. The document attributed the wartime bishops’ lack of action to a too-narrow sense of responsibility and to “commonly held anti-Jewish prejudices.”
In his speech, Cardinal Lustiger acknowledged criticism of the document as too harsh on French Catholics. “In the … Declaration … we did not want to insist on the role played by numerous Catholics to save a number of Jews in France,” Lustiger said. “Some Roman Catholics have reproached the Drancy Declaration for failing to emphasize this aspect of history. But how could we then have not yielded — even unconsciously — to the temptation to justify ourselves?”
At the same time, he applauded recent efforts to honor Gentiles who helped save Jews from the Nazis. “To perpetuate their memory is a duty for our generation with regard to the next,” the cardinal said. “For the just prove that the best as well as the worst can spring from man's heart.”
He recalled his own narrow escape as an adolescent from the German-occupied zone of France to the Vichy side. “I do remember the ones who provided me with forged documents. I do remember those who helped me get across the demarcation line. I do remember those who warned me that I might be arrested soon. I do remember those who put me up without asking any questions. I do remember those whom I trusted and who never betrayed me. I do remember what they did for me and for the members of my family who were not arrested in those times of dereliction.
“Yet I cannot remember their names, or sometimes even their faces.”
Cardinal Lustiger said next year he will ask Catholics in his archdiocese to join Jews in prayer on Yom Shoah, the day of commemoration of the Holocaust. He added that Cardinal O‘Connor has agreed to ask Catholics in New York to do the same.
Cardinal Lustiger, 72, the first Jewish cardinal since the 12th century, is occasionally mentioned as a possible successor to Pope John Paul II. He was baptized in 1940, ordained in 1954, and became archbishop of Paris in 1981.
During the address, he offered an extensive historical outline of Catholic-Jewish relations.
St. Paul, he noted, wished to stir a holy “jealousy” among his Pharisee brothers toward the Gentiles who were embracing Christ. Yet in subsequent years, Jews and Christians have often acted out of selfishness instead of love. “What has happened between Jews and Christians over the last 20 centuries is a tragedy of human jealousy usurping the appearance of divine jealousy,” Cardinal Lustiger said.
Both Christians and Jews must acknowledge past wrongs, he added. But Jews, he noted, have suffered the brunt of intolerance “because the balance of power was blatantly unequal.”
“Yet the reciprocity in lack of understanding and contempt remains eloquent,” he said.
Cardinal Lustiger offered a theory to explain why Christians treated Jews badly. Medieval Christians, he said, eager for their earthly kingdoms to be the “temporal realization of the Kingdom of Heaven” lacked “patience” for the Second Coming of Christ, and so they established “temporally religious” regimes “bound to be oppressive and intolerant.” The Church, too, wielded secular power, and the two sources of power reduced the traditional Christian hope for the future into an all-consuming pursuit of the present.
In other words, so caught up were the Church and the Christian kingdoms with reflecting (and enforcing) heaven on earth, that they forgot that earth is merely a passing prelude to heaven.
“Please note in passing,” Lustiger added, “that this temporal religiousness was found just as unbearable by the great spiritual figures whom the Holy Spirit has never tired of giving to the Church.”
But for today, Cardinal Lustiger sounded optimistic about harmony between Christians and Jews, particularly in the United States. “It is my intuition that, for the time being, you are more free than the Christians and Jews of the Old Continent, where the wounds of the past are still open…".
During his speech Cardinal Lustiger did not mention Edith Stein, the philosopher and Jewish convert Pope John Paul II canonized as a saint Oct. 11 in Rome. Stein, like Cardinal Lustiger's mother, died at Auschwitz during the Holocaust.
But the cardinal's introducer, Dr. Samuel Pisar, a New York lawyer, author, and survivor of Nazi death camps, addressed Stein's canonization directly. Pisar acknowledged great strides Catholic churchmen have taken to patch up relations with the Jews, but said he found some Vatican pronouncements lacking.
“Sister St. Teresia Benedicta (Stein's religious name) was gassed at Auschwitz because as Edith Stein, she had been born a Jew,” Pisar said. “That His Holiness saw in her canonization an opportunity to institutionalize Catholic commemoration of the Shoah, is heartwarming to us all. But to fix such annual commemorations for Aug. 9, the date of Edith Stein's death, instead of the 27th of Nisan, established for half a century as Yom Shoah, to commemorate the death of 6 million Jewish martyrs, may bring needless pain and discord, and raise suspicions about a Christianization of the Holocaust.”
Cardinal O‘Connor replied in his speech that he was not sure reports of the Pope's remarks on this matter were accurate. He said he would ask the Pope himself to clarify his feelings, when he visits Rome in a few weeks.
Matt McDonald writes from Mash-pee, Massachusetts.
----- EXCERPT: Convert from Judaism cites personal history ----- EXTENDED BODY: Matt Mcdonald ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Recent Nobel Prize Winners Share Loathing of Church DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:LOS ANGELES—Snille och smak, “talent and taste.”
That's the motto for the Swedish Academy, founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, and, since 1901, the jury that decides annual winners of the coveted Nobel Prize in literature.
For the past two years, the annual Oct. 8 announcement of the winner of the prize has left many questioning whether much “talent” or “taste” has been in evidence in recent choices made by the 18-member panel. The 200-year-old institution is charged by the Nobel committee with selecting a distinguished person of letters on whom to bestow the world's most prestigious annual literary prize, with its nearly $1 million monetary award. But among the qualities that have distinguished the two most recent prize winners, Italian playwright Dario Fo, last year's winner, and Portuguese novelist Jose Sara-mago, 1998's laureate, are political radicalism and virulent hatred for the Catholic Church.
“It's outrageous,” said First Things editor in chief Father Richard Neuhaus. “These figures are hardly representative of what people recognize as world-class literary achievement. They're ideologically and politically driven awards. It's unfortunate that the pertinent committee degrades the Nobel prize in this way.”
The press release that followed the announcement of this year's award praised Saramago, the 75-year-old Portuguese fabulist, author of more than 30 works of prose, poetry, essays, and dramas, for his “parables sustained by imagination, compassion, and irony [that] continually enable us once again to apprehend an elusory reality.”
The Vatican daily newspaper L‘Osservatore Romano was less sanguine about Saramago's virtues. It criticized the academy's “ideological recognition” of Saramago, a longtime member of the central committee of Portugal's fiercely Stalinist Communist Party, and characterized his controversial 1991 novel The Gospel According to Jesus Christ as the “testimony of a substantial anti-religious sentiment.”
Saramago's treatment of the Gospel story is nothing if not provocative. The Portuguese writer's novel, published in the United States in 1993, portrays the Holy Family as wildly dysfunctional, its members torn apart by guilt and a climate of religious delusion. Saramago disputes the Virgin Birth, portrays Joseph as a nightmare-haunted neurotic and Mary as a hysterical mother, has Jesus abandon her and cohabit with Mary Magdalene, and depicts God as the cynical deity of a religion founded on pain, death, and intolerance. Some Gospel.
The bishops of Portugal mounted an attack on the book and the Portuguese minister of culture vetoed the novel as the country's entry for the 1991 European Literary Prize. Saramago retaliated by leaving Portugal and settling in the Canary Islands, where he still lives.
(When Saramago charged the Portuguese government with censorship, the novelist's critics where quick to point to his own public record of support for the repression of artistic freedom in the former Soviet Union and Eastern bloc nations under Communist rule.)
Much of Saramago's other output, particularly his 1982 breakthrough novel Balthasar and Blimunda which features characters fleeing the Inquisition in a flying machine, also has a strongly anti-clerical cast. In his left-wing politics, enmity toward the Church and use of the techniques of “magic realism,” Saramago echoes a generation of Iberian and Hispano-American writers, such as Gabriel García-Márquez, Jor ge Luis Borges, and the Brazilian Osman Lins.
“What strikes you about the recent laureates,” Father Neuhaus told the Register, “is that they're last century's news. They're still fighting the battles of the past — the old arguments about clericalism, faith vs. reason — while the Church has moved on, especially in this pontificate.”
Now it's the Church that speaks hopefully about the future, he added.
These aging writers “don't have a vision of the future,” said Father Neuhaus. “They're historical artifacts, these guys, discredited rationalists, old-line communists, captives to a history that the Church has boldly transcended.”
But if Saramago has unsavory political associations and has made rejection of Christianity a central theme of his work, he, at least, is an imaginative, though bitter writer, with an impressive body of work to his credit. (The anti-clerical novelist, however, couldn't resist taking a swipe at the Church in remarks after winning the Nobel. “If the Pope had been on the jury,” he told reporters, “I wouldn't have won anything.”) As many commentators on the Nobel Prize decision have noted, he's also a representative of a Portuguese language spoken by more than 140 million people in countries around the world and a literary culture which has received insufficient international recognition.
Not so Dario Fo, last year's surprise Nobel Prize winner, a 71-year-old improvisational performance artist whose literary output is meager, and whose “reputation,” if not notoriety, has, until very recently, been largely confined to left-wing circles in Italy.
(When last year's decision was announced, 1980's Nobel Prize winner Polish-American poet Czeslaw Milosz expressed astonishment and wondered in print how you could select someone for the world's most significant literary honor that nobody had ever heard of. Fo himself confessed to being “baffled” when he heard the news.)
Fo's principal claim to fame rests on slight 1960s-style theatrical “sketches” of Italian politicians and other establishment figures, which include anti-Catholic satires and raunchy, often vicious parodies of the Christian faith, along with generous doses of anti-American rhetoric.
Fo was twice refused visas to visit the United States in the 1970s and ‘80s under the McClaren Act which bars entry to known communists. Like Sara-mago, Fo, a member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), is a key figure in the more radical wing of Europe's fading New Left, which supported Mao's Cultural Revolution in China, opposed Soviet détente with the West, and, in Fo's case, had links with the urban terrorism of the Red Brigades in the 1970s. He was imprisoned by Italian authorities briefly in 1973 in connection with his political activities. Fo did not make his first American appearance until 1986 at the invitation of Robert Brucestein of New York's American Repertory Theater.
Fo, who has been called Italy's “Lenny Bruce,” once described his own work as “anti-traditional, anti-conformist, preoccupied with ridicule, laughter, sarcasm, irony, and the grotesque.”
In awarding the prize, the Swedish Academy gushed that Fo “emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden.”
The allusion to jesters notwithstanding, the Vatican was not amused. If Vatican officials expressed disappointment with this year's award to Saramago, they were stunned when the prize was given to Fo.
“Apart from any moral considerations,” L‘Osservatore Romano declared last year, “the award of the prize to an actor who is also the author of [these] controversial texts has gone beyond anything that can be imagined.”
In Fo's 1969 revue Mistero Buffo, for example, papal indulgences are satirized as “discounts on pain,” and in a parody of the scene of the wedding at Cana, Jesus, having turned water into wine, exhorts his followers to “get stinking drunk — especially you, Mother.”
In a more sinister, and vicious vein, Mistero Buffo contains a routine in which Fo impersonates a terrorist stalking a pope during an outdoor audience at the Vatican. Fo barks into a walkie-talkie to a fictitious gunman hidden in the crowd: “Shoot the one in white.” And then, after a pause, “No, no, that's a nun!”
After the play's premier, Pope Paul VI called Mistero Buffo “a desecration of Italian religious feelings,” and when the play was aired on Italian television in 1977, the Vatican condemned it as “the most blasphemous show in the history of broadcasting.”
But the Vatican was hardly the only voice protesting the Nobel committee's Fo award.
An editorial in the New York Daily News called Fo a “highly debatable” choice and said that his selection raised concerns about the lack of accountability in the Swedish Academy's decision-making process.
In an October 1997 interview with Agence-France Presse, Polish author Gustav Hebring-Grudzinski expressed even stronger views, charging that giving the award to Fo “definitely compromised” the Nobel Committee and “ridiculed not only the institution but, indirectly, previous winners of the prize.”
This would hardly be the first time the Nobel jury's judgments lend themselves to censure. The Swedish Academy has had something of a checkered history in its attempts to locate the supreme literary talents of the age.
In 1901, for example, the academy chose to award the very first Nobel Prize in literature to French poet Sally Prod-homme — not a name that rings many bells today. And then, there are the more troubling miscalculations. Norwegian novelist Knut Hamsun, who went on to support Hitler, won the prize in 1920.
“If you ran through the list of award winners, how many would be recognized as world-class literary figures today? Not many,” said Father Neuhaus. “If excellence is vindicated by history, then the Nobel literature committee should be deeply worried.”
Nevertheless, many of the century's greatest literary figures — W.B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, T.S. Eliot, Boris Pasternak — do figure on the Nobel list, and recent laureates have included such widely recognized literary heavyweights as poets Czeslaw Milosz (1980), Josef Brodsky (1987) and Octavio Paz (1990), Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz (1988), and the celebrated Japanese writer Kenzaburo Oe (1994).
Why, then, the spate of old-fashioned Euro-radicals like Fo and Saramago at century's end?
The secrecy in which the Nobel selection process is shrouded makes it difficult to say for sure.
The Swedish Academy's 18 members — writers, linguists, literary scholars, historians — are elected for life. According to Nobel committee sources, up to 1,000 “qualified persons” may be involved in proposing candidates for the annual award, but none of the deliberations by awarding bodies for any of the Nobel prizes are public. The final choice is made by a jury of 12 and decided by majority vote.
Outside the members of the academy, no one knows precisely what calculations went into the selection process that produced Fo and Saramago.
(The hem of the veil may have been lifted when Sture Allen, the academy's presiding secretary, had to fend off controversy last year when Fo's wife, actress Franca Rame, told reporters that the Italian comic had known weeks in advance that he would win the prize, a clear violation of the academy's tradition of strict secrecy until prizes are announced in October.)
Nevertheless, the academy's pedigree provides some clues.
Modeled on the Academie Francaise, and founded by a progressive 18th century monarch, the Swedish Academy is a creature of the European secular Enlightenment, complete with the age's trademark anti-clericalism and deep, instinctual opposition to the Catholic Church.
“From the Enlightenment onward, the Catholic Church was viewed — and in some circles still is viewed — as the chief obstacle to human progress,” Father Neuhaus explained. The specific context changes — secular control of education in the last century, contraception and population control in this one — but the attitude remains.
“And from that militantly secularist and leftist perspective, indeed, what other great enemy is available? What other target of consequence is there?”
For intellectuals of a certain disposition, he said, defying the Church “makes them feel courageous and important. And, regardless of what the Church does and says, that will likely continue.”
It's a permanent feature of being Catholic in the modern world, said Father Neuhaus. Without acquiescing to it, “we need to get used to being in conflict with aspects of the culture.”
Senior writer Gabriel Meyer is based in Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Prestigious literary award is being 'denigrated,' says a prominent critic ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gabriel Meyer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Voters Urged to Focus On Life Issues at Polls DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—Climaxing a tumultuous political year, every seat in the House of Representatives and one-third in the Senate will be contested at the polls Nov. 3. While the woes of President Clinton appeared to overshadow these elections a few weeks ago, it now seems that many close races may be decided on more traditional issues.
The Republican party, which holds a 19-vote majority in the House and 10-vote edge in the Senate, is likely to increase its numbers. Some observers believe the current composition represents a pro-life Congress. But the lack of any significant pro-life legislation in the 105th Congress, which adjourned Oct. 21, might suggest otherwise. (See last week's Register article.)
Because of this disappointment, prolifers hope to pick up seats, especially in the Senate. One important goal is to gain at least three supportive Republican seats to overturn Clinton's expected veto of a partial-birth abortion ban bill in 1999.
An increase of five Senate seats would give Republicans enough votes to cut off filibusters, such as the one which doomed the Child Custody Protection Act. Also important will be maintaining and even increasing a fairly dependable pro-life majority in the House.
While about 20 percent of the Democrats in the House consistently support life issues, the solid majority of pro-life support comes from the Republican party. In the Senate, all but four Republicans voted to override the president's partial-birth abortion veto, while 32 Democrats voted to sustain it.
Among the most hotly contested senatorial races is in Illinois. Incumbent Carol Moseley-Braun, a Democrat, is one of 10 Catholic senators who supported Clinton on partial-birth abortion. She is running against Peter Fitzgerald, a pro-life Catholic state senator. Fitzgerald appears to have a commanding lead.
Another seat which could change party hands is a surprise. Barbara Boxer, a liberal Democrat and one of the Senate's most outspoken abortion supporters, appears to be in trouble in her contest with Matt Fong, the Republican state treasurer. Fong is a pro-choice candidate, but has indicated a willingness to vote for a partial-birth abortion ban and other parameters on abortion.
Washington state voters can choose between two ideologically opposite women. The Democratic incumbent, Patty Murray, a staunch liberal and abortion supporter, appears to be ahead of Linda Smith. Smith told the Register the Senate needs pro-life women, such as herself, because “it is very hard for a man to talk about the birth process. Women who care about women don't let abortionists do” infanticide, she said.
President Clinton's home state of Arkansas also faces a clear choice in the seat occupied by retiring pro-abortion Sen. Dale Bumpers. Pro-life physician Fay Boozman, a Republican state senator, is running against Democrat Blanche Lambert Lincoln. Polls seem to indicate Lincoln, an abortion supporter, is pulling away.
Another spirited contest is in Kentucky, where pro-life Republican Jim Bunning appears to have a narrow lead over fellow congressman Scott Baesler for an open seat. In Wisconsin, liberal pro-abortion Democrat Russell Fein-gold is locked in an increasingly bitter contest with Republican Mark Neumann, who is pro-life.
Perhaps the most acrimonious race is in New York. Three-term incumbent Alfonse D‘Amato, a Republican with a pro-life record, is running neck-and-neck with liberal Democrat Charles Schumer, a Brooklyn congressman.
The House, considered to be more reliably pro-life than the Senate, should remain so. It also may pick up some additional Republican and anti-abortion seats. The head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Martin Frost of Texas, has been recruiting pro-ife candidates as part of an effort to regain control of the House.
One success story has been in northeastern Pennsylvania. Here two pro-life candidates are vying to succeed veteran Rep. Joseph McDade of Scranton. The Democratic candidate, Patrick Casey, is the son of long-time pro-life supporter Robert Casey, a former governor and hero to many around the country. The Republican candidate is Don Sherwood, who is running on a pro-family, pro-life platform.
Another interesting race is in Indiana's 10th congressional district, which includes Indianapolis. Challenger Gary Hofmeister, a Republican, is the ideological opposite of one-term incumbent Democrat Julia Carson. But the big issue is school vouchers, which pro-life Hofmeister supports.
There also are gubernatorial elections in 36 states. Republicans now hold 15 more governorships than Democrats and hope to increase that figure.
One of the most newsworthy contests is in Michigan, where popular incumbent John Engler, a Catholic, is running against Geoffrey Fieger.
Fieger has achieved wide name recognition as Dr. Jack Kevorkian's attorney. During the campaign, he has alienated many, including fellow Democrats, through his outrageous comments. Engler, who is pro-life, holds a huge lead.
In an interview on the upcoming elections with the Register, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb., urged Catholics to be informed and to vote. “I think Catholics not only should vote as a civic duty, but in some instances there may be a moral obligation to do so,” he said.
He added that “overwhelming weight” should be given to pro-life issues when casting a ballot. “Life on both sides of the spectrum — both at the beginning and at the end of life — is sacred.”
The bishop was especially critical of Catholic politicians who vote for abortion. Suggesting such votes are “fundamentally immoral,” he questioned the sincerity of Catholics who seek to detach their apparent religious views from political opportunity.
Auxiliary Bishop William Lori of Washington, D.C., added, “I hope Catholics will try to follow those things which the Holy Father calls the promotion of the culture of life. We should look at things which the Church teaches with clarity and solemnity” when casting ballots.
For those Catholic politicians who are elected but who disregard Church guidance, he said it is important “to persuade them to a more enlightened view, to engage them to bring about a change of mind and heart.”
An outspoken critic of pro-abortion politicians, Redemptionist Father Richard Welch, president of Human Life International, recently wrote: “The ugly truth is, abortion remains legal in the United States largely because Catholic voters and politicians help keep it that way.
“So as the 1998 congressional elections approach, every Catholic should review what the Church tells us about the moral obligations of voters. When you vote, put principle before party. Defend the babies!”
Joseph Esposito writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: PRO-LIFERS LOOK TO GAIN CONGRESSIONAL SEATS NOV. 3 ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Esposito ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: A Papal Appeal to Public Authorities DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:In Humanae Vitae (1968), Pope Paul VI gave the follow guidance to public officials on life issues:
“To rulers, who are those principally responsible for the common good, and who can do so much to safeguard moral customs, we say: Do not allow the morality of your peoples to be degraded; do not permit that by legal means practices contrary to the natural and divine law be introduced into that fundamental cell, the family.
“Quite other is the way in which public authorities can and must contribute to the solution of the demographic problem: namely, the way of a provident policy for the family, of a wise education of peoples in respect of moral law and the liberty of citizens.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: For Christians in the Holy Land, Peace Accord Is A Step Forward DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:BETHLEHEM—May Elatrash, a 34-year-old Christian Arab from Bethlehem, has a wish.
“If I had the chance I'd like to go to Jerusalem, to go to the churches and to see how the Jerusalem storeowners do business. I have three children and my oldest, who is 11, has only been to Jerusalem once, on a school trip. Jerusalem is right next door, but we can't even visit.”
To realize her dream, Elatrash, who works in her family's store on Manger Square, prayed for the success of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which came to a conclusion Oct. 23 at Wye Plantation, Maryland.
The offspring of those talks, the “Wye River Memorandum,” may not yet be the answer to her prayers. Yet it confirms the parties involved on the path toward peace, and constitutes a small step forward on some key issues.
The agreement, signed at the White House by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, involves a phased Israeli withdrawal from an additional 13% of the West Bank territory by the Jordan River, in exchange for security measures to disarm and neutralize violent Palestinian extremists, to be carried out under American supervision. Further provisions allow for a region now administered by the Palestinian Authority to be transferred to full political control, address the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, and point to the deletion of passages calling for the destruction of Israel from the Palestinian political charter.
Over the course of the week-long negotiations in the United States, Christians in the Holy Land — almost all of whom are Palestinians — hoped for a peace agreement that would give Palestinians more land, greater control over their lives, and freedom of travel within the West Bank and Gaza, and also into Israel. At the moment, the Israeli authorities allow only 50,000 Palestinian workers to enter Israel. More than a million Palestinians are not permitted to do so.
Support for the accord is widespread; an opinion poll published in the newspaper Yediot Aharot showed that 74% of Israelis approve of the deal, while 18% are opposed. Protests, however, were sparked by the release of the accord; demonstrators from Israeli West Bank settlements blocked traffic in protest, leading to 27 arrests.
On the Palestinian side, attempts to disarm militants led to the shooting of a 17-year-old boy by a Palestinian Authority military intelligence officer. Few Arab nations have welcomed the agreement; reactions range from caution to outright condemnation, with only Egypt and Jordan praising the accord.
Violence in response to the Wye River negotiations had already begun before the settlement was reached. On Oct. 19, Israel almost called off the talks after a Muslim fundamentalist from a Palestinian-ruled part of Hebron, in the West Bank, threw two hand grenades into a crowded bus station. As many as 64 Israeli soldiers and civilians were injured, two seriously.
Then, as the talks seemed on the verge of collapse, Jordan's King Hussein, in the United States for cancer treatment, asked to join the negotiations. The ailing Hussein, only the second leader of an Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, is highly respected both by Netanyahu and by Arafat. His presence at the summit at such a critical juncture breathed new life into the faltering negotiations.
Like just about everyone else in this troubled region, Holy Land Christians took a keen interest in the proceedings. “There is no doubt that Christians here are very deeply concerned about the peace process,” says Wadie Abunassaar, director of the Catholic Church's Year 2000 celebrations. “Any lack of progress only increases the number of fanatics on both sides — Jewish and Muslim. Abunassar, who is a Palestinian, said that Christians are often the first to suffer when Jews and Muslims clash, and that they will be among the first to benefit if and when peace breaks out.
During times of extreme tension between Jews and Muslims, he says, “the Christian minority is an easy target. There have been cases where Jews have accused Christians of collaborating with the Palestinians, and cases where Muslims accused us of collaborating with the Israelis. This is a difficult position to be in.”
Father Pierre Grech, Secretary of the Bishops’ Conference of the Holy Land, says that Christians here “will be very glad to have a peace agreement,” but asked, “will it be a real peace?” Peace, he says, “must not be just a piece of paper but a reality. An agreement is an important first step, but we will have a great deal of work ahead of us to change the hearts and minds of the people here.”
Father Grech believes that Christians have “a great role” to play in preparing local people for peace. “This is particularly true in education because we have many schools.” Unfortunately, he noted, “there is a lot of mistrust from both sides. People want peace, but there is so much distrust. Every day there is a small bomb or a closure. Most don't believe that a signature on a peace agreement will do anything. Still, there is the possibility.”
Father Grech acknowledges that any change in mentality must extend to the clergy. Noting that the clergy in the local church were born and raised into the Arab-Israeli conflict, he says, “I think we have to work with the priests, and to change the mentality of some of them.”
Else where in the West Bank, reaction to the agreement has been more low key. In Bethlehem, just a few miles south of Jerusalem, store owners and laborers hoped the peace package would improve their flagging business prospects.
Sitting in front of his deserted souvenir shop in Manger Square, 65-year-old Michael Kumsiyeh , a Christian, said that “any peace agreement is better than no agreement. The young people don't think so, but the old people do. “At my age,” he said, “you live on hope.”
Michele Chabin is the Register's Middle East Correspondent.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michele Chabin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: For ëNew Yorkís Bravest,í Faith Faces a Test of Fire DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—As the floor gave way beneath him in a burning Brooklyn building last June, New York City fire-fighter Timothy Stackpole was praying the Our Father. He lay alone in a pile of debris, with an inferno that killed two other firefighters ready to engulf him, and was terrified of dying a slow, painful death. He thought about taking off his oxygen mask so he could pass out breathing the thick smoke and die more quickly.
“But I felt God reaching out to me, telling me to keep the mask on and to wait and trust in Him,” recalled Lieutenant Stackpole, an 18-year Fire Department veteran. “I wasn't afraid of dying anymore. I felt the Lord giving me strength. A lot of people were screaming. I was just praying.”
Rescuers eventually reached him and God's hand has remained upon him through the months of recovery from burns that exposed the bones of his ankles and seared other parts of his body, he said. He has undergone skin grafts and spends three days a week receiving treatments in the critical care unit of the Cornell Burn Unit of New York Hospital. It will be a while before he can walk normally and he may never be able to fight fires again. Yet he sees the many blessings that have come through the months of suffering.
“My faith is what has gotten me through everything,” Stackpole said in an interview from his home in the Marine Park section of Brooklyn, where he lives with his wife and their five children. “I have always felt that you couldn't do this job unless you had faith.”
Firefighters and the faith are a natural match. Few things other than love for God and neighbor could motivate a man to run into a burning building while others are scattering out. This may explain why about 90% of the cityís fire force, known as New Yorkís Bravest, is Catholic. They show their faith in flying colors at the annual Holy Name Society Mass with John Cardinal OíConnor in St. Patrickís Cathedral, when hundreds turn out in their dress blues. They live their faith day to day on the runs through crowded city streets, where flaming century-old tenements and sleek, modern high rises pose different challenges to their skills but the same threat of death. With overtones of a religious community, firefighters call one another “brothers.‘
“People have said to me over the years, ‘Are you scared? You could get killed any day,’” said Stackpole. “I always say that you really don't think about it much. You have a job to do and you trust that Someone will always watch over you.”
Despite the faith-in-action evident in most firefighters, some veteran members of the department's Holy Name Society have noticed in recent years a marked decline in formal religious observance within the force, especially among younger members. Attendance at firefighters’ memorial Masses has fallen off, and the spiritual retreats sponsored by the Society draw one-quarter of the numbers they did 20 years ago. The annual three-day retreat for the entire force, which includes the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn, was scheduled for the Passionist Retreat House in Queens Oct. 20-22.
“We used to fill up the retreat house four times a year with 100 brothers each, just with guys from Brooklyn and Queens,” said Firefighter John Boyle, a 30-year veteran who is a member of Rescue One, a special unit that covers all of Manhattan. “Now we're down to about 40 to 50 guys, once a year. We used to have two Holy Name Societies, one for New York and one for Brooklyn, but they've been combined because of a drop off in numbers.”
The theme of this year's retreat is “Touching the Wounds of Christ.” The “brothers” of the city's force will reflect on how Christ is alive in the helpless and injured people they strive to rescue each day, and also to see how Christ can be found in their own lives, which may be marked by pain and disappointments. Brendan Kearns, from Ladder Company 137, is coordinating the retreat.
“A lot of guys have the wrong idea about the retreat, they think it's too religious and not for them,” Kearns said. “We try to stress that it's only in God that you are going to find the answers to the most important questions in your life. A lot of guys are dealing with a lot of problems in their lives, from family to finances to deaths in the family. Our message is for them to come, relax, listen, and offer these things to God. Spend some time with brothers who are going through the same thing.”
Kearns, on the force for 14 years, said that there is a great amount of spiritual hunger among the younger fire-fighters but many of them, though baptized Catholics, have not been brought up with a strong faith.
“There's a great opportunity to lead them to the faith, because the job itself leads you to some deep spiritual questions. You see some of the life and death struggles people go through and you start looking for answers.”
The fire house can be a mix of men of different ages, humors, and temperaments, he said.
“Some of the brothers in the house have big hearts and are great to be with. Others are into their own things and really aren't interested in hearing about religion. It's like any family. You live with each other and you have to get along, but it's a lot easier if you share religion,” he said.
He finds his own answers in daily prayer, carrying rosary beads in his left-hand pocket, and wearing the Irish claddagh ring. Although he is tall and burly, he has learned that “half my strength on the job comes from God.”
He remembers recently being called to Rockaway Bay, where a man had fallen into the water after a fight with his girlfriend. Kearns rode the end of the ladder as it was lowered toward the man, who was fighting to stay afloat.
“I had to get him out the fastest way, so I asked him how much he weighed. When he said 145 pounds, I just grabbed him by the belt and scooped him out of the water with one arm,” said Kearns. “When I got him to the shore I started talking to him and invited him to come to the retreat with us. I could tell he needed some spiritual support.”
He also recalled a few years ago when he cradled in his arms an elderly woman who had been hit by a car.
“I'm staring right into her eyes and felt something in my heart pass over to her. She had this look like maybe I was the last person she would see before passing on and I held her whole life in my hands,” said Kearns. “I followed up on her in the hospital. She was a Jewish woman and I brought her flowers and a spiritual book of readings and she was really touched that I would come. You never know how much good you can do in this job just by taking a little time.”
Boyle is on an elite rescue team that is called out on multi-alarm fires or other type of disaster — building collapses, subway accidents, water recoveries, freeing people trapped in cars. When firemen themselves are trapped in burning buildings, Boyle and his crew are called to enter the flames.
“I've learned for sure, there are no atheists in the foxhole,” he said. “When things get bad, even the worst people start turning to God.”
“I always feel calm and don't worry about myself. I'm more worried about the people I'm sent to rescue. They're the ones in trouble,” he said. “I feel confident in my faith that if I'm going to do good for someone else, I will be watched over.”
He helps organize memorial Masses for firefighters who have died in the line of duty. He is distressed that out of some 550 invitations sent out, only about 10% of active firefighters respond.
“A lot of the younger guys are falling away from the faith. There are a lot of other influences and stresses in a guy's life today,” he said.
Stackpole said one reason for the decline in Mass attendance is that many young firefighters are struggling financially and some working second jobs to make ends meet.
“I was always working, working and never had time to go to the retreats,” he told the Register.
He will be able to attend the retreat this month because he is on the disabled list, he noted. After his injury, he and his wife realized how faith brings out the best in people.
“Some people look at the tragedy we've suffered, but we look at the blessings. So many people in our neighborhood and parish have pulled together for us and done so much for us. We had 1,200 people in our parish church for a Mass for our family. That's more than they get on Christmas.”
Stackpole added, “I would tell anybody today to raise your children in the faith. Other things in life can be lost in a moment. But your faith in God will always be there for you.”
Brian Caulfield writes from New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Caulfield ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Converted by the Saints DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:Dr. Evelyn Birge Vitz is a scholar, writer, and human-ist, whose interests range from medieval France to modern gender relations, to the lives of the saints — an area of special interest to her. She is a 1963 graduate of Smith College, who earned a Master's Degree at Middlebury and a doctorate at Yale, this last in 1968. Dr. Vitz has been Professor of French at New York University in New York City since 1968, where she served for twelve years as the head of the University's Medieval and Renaissance Studies program. She spoke by telephone to Register correspondent Raymond de Souza from the campus of New York University.
Raymond de Souza: Why did you choose to specialize in medieval literature and hagiography, i.e., writings on the lives of the saints?
Evelyn Birge Vitz: I should explain that hagiography is only one of the things I work on. I have done many different things — for example, I have done work on medieval romance, and the impact of the liturgy on literature. I chose to work on these matters long before I was a Catholic, so it is not as though I had a Catholic program in mind.
But there are at least two reasons why I was drawn to the lives of the saints. The first is that they are marvelous stories — they are extremely entertaining, dynamic, and often very beautiful stories. Second, they provide very interesting challenges to modern theories about literature. Modern theories often don't work because they have deeply atheistic assumptions built into them. Those theories don't work when they are applied to works of the Middle Ages and, in particular, to saints’ lives. So it was fun to see the ways in which saints’ lives provided counterexamples to modern theories, which are often presented as being universal theories. They were interesting grist for my mill.
So you found in medieval hagiography something to challenge the dominant theories that you had encountered as a student?
That's right. For example, there is a modern way of understanding literature that holds that all the major functions have to be played by characters within the text. But in hagiographical literature and in many other medieval works, it must be understood that God is a key character — that God is the actor above all the action. It is left implicit or made explicit that the person whose will finally prevails in the text is God's will — no matter what the characters want, if God wants something different, that's what happens. The characters have all kinds of things that they are trying to do, but God is always there.
This is even the case in works that are not at all pious — works that are bawdy, somewhat dirty, or even slightly blasphemous. It's not exactly that God has the last laugh, but you still have the idea that what happens is what God wants to happen. Those kinds of stories are not the lives of the saints, but this is true of medieval literature as a whole. There is an extraordinary willingness to see that God is the key character, above all other characters.
In contemporary biography and autobiography, there is a tendency to expose the hidden, even scandalous, aspects of subjects, to show they were not what they appeared to be. Does hagiography offer a challenge to this cynical approach?
Well, hagiography is clearly not cynical. We still do have heroic portraits today — of great presidents, explorers, adventures. But we tend to be cynical about political figures and the ulterior motives of religious figures. Yet almost everybody recognizes the importance in a culture of heroic narrative. For example, no matter how cynical our culture, there are plenty of heroic films around.
Much of hagiography does “air-brush” out the failings of the saints. There is a tradition of what is called “hagiographical romance” which makes all the martyrs beautiful young virgins or strong and impressive men. Of course, there is a good deal of evidence that there were plenty of people like this, too. But leaving aside the romantic tendencies, there are lots of cases where we have a great deal of historical information about the saints, and their qualities still shine through.
That is not to say that the saints did not have failings. There are many saints who had problems with their temper — they got very impatient with people who did not understand what they were trying to do. Saints, like all human beings, made mistakes and had mixed motives at times. Yet, a great many of saints — especially saints about whom we have a great deal of documentation — still stand out very impressively as viewed from today's perspective.
Thomas More is a good example. There are plenty of people who may criticize his positions, but I don't think anybody fails to respect Thomas More and what he stood for, or the other English martyrs. The martyrs of the Reformation are simply extraordinary people, both men and women, and the more documentation we have, the more their heroic virtue stands out.
How then would you respond to the contemporary approach that downplays the lives of the saints precisely because of criticism of “hagio-graphical romance"?
You give children reading that is appropriate for children, and you give grown-ups reading that is appropriate for grown-ups. It does not bother me that young children should be given somewhat idealized and simplified lives of the Saints. There's no reason why teen agers and adults can't be given historically based stories; there are plenty of accounts of early martyrs that are very much respected by the hardest of the hard-nosed editors of these works. Some of these texts hold up very well.
It shouldn't bother anyone that children get something appropriate for children. Nobody knows what St. Agnes looked like, but I am not bothered that there are illustrations of St. Agnes in children's books, because children like illustrations. It is no different from an illustration of George Washington when he was a boy.
You give people reading that is appropriate to their age and level of education. The lives of the saints have been extraordinarily powerful motivators of religious behavior, not only for ordinary people but for the saints themselves. A stellar example is Ignatius Loyola, who was largely converted by reading the lives of the saints while recuperating from a wound. This is powerful reading — persuasive and moving reading, and there is plenty of truth in it. It is a very important kind of reading to be giving to people today.
Anybody who is interested in the historical nitty-gritty of all this should look at Butler's four-volume Lives of the Saints, as re-issued by Thurston & Attwater. They weigh extremely carefully the different kinds of accounts, and they are quite tough about saying that there is no basis for belief in this or that saint or martyr. But then there are plenty for whom there is just very strong evidence.
What improvements would you recommend to editors today who are producing lives of the saints?
I would be interested in having quotations included from canonization proceedings — these are quotations from people who knew the saints. Canonizations as we know them date from about the 13th century. So since that time we have all these records of testimony from people who knew the saints. It can be deeply moving to read what they have to say.
When you read a whole book of the saints, you can come away with a certain monotony — here are all these saintly and holy people. But people who have known actual saints in their lives find them unforgettable and truly unique. I know some people who knew people whose causes are now open for beatification and canonization, and it is clear that these people have left an indelible mark on those who came into contact with them. It is very moving to read about it.
It is also useful for modern people to read the lives of saints of the last few centuries, where all the historical emphasis is present. These lives are very much informed by the principles of historiography. So people who dismiss the legends of the saints should read the lives of more recent saints.
How should the faithful learn from the lives of the saints, especially as the standard can seem too high, too intimidating?
Many of these saints specialized — or God had them specialize — in particular virtues, and we can all work on specific virtues. None of us are going to be perfect, but we can try to imitate a specific virtue that was lived by a particular saint. And the crucial thing about all the saints is that they tried to live prayerfully. We are not going to imitate the saints unless we imitate their prayerfulness.
When Catholics think about the medieval period, we often think mostly about the achievements in philosophy and theology. What does medieval literature contribute to the Catholic mind-set?
Medieval literature formed a fundamental part of what we can call Catholic culture. The Middle Ages, whatever its defects, was a time of Catholic culture. People were constantly aware of themselves as being Catholics — not always as good Catholics, as often they were more aware of themselves as sinners — but they knew that they were Catholics, and their Catholicism permeates all aspects of their life. Medieval literature, even when it is joking or being objectionable in one way or another, is a deeply Catholic literature. Even works that are not devout are part of a culture that understands the world and time as belonging to God, and human action as being motivated in part by needs and desires that are given to human beings by God. It is a richly Catholic literature, even when it is more or less secular.
For example, it is a common theme that no matter how much you forget about God — getting involved with love affairs or all kinds of adventures — you will be judged by God when you die. There is a constant eschato-logical tension present in medieval literature, where people are always thinking in these terms. Many works close by returning to this Christian reality of judgment.
Are your students who study medieval literature open to these aspects of the works?
I think so. I have taught many religious courses over the years at NYU, including one on the saints. I have had all kinds of people in that course: Catholics, lapsed Catholics, people whose grandparents were Catholics, Jains, Jewish students — all kinds signed up for that class. Many of them were deeply moved by the lives of the saints. There are some lives that are interesting and entertaining, but it is not clear whether they really existed. Then there are plenty of people who are tremendously moving to the students, saints who cannot just be dismissed as the creation of legend. I had a wonderful paper from a Jewish student who was blown away by Teresa of Avila. And I have also had a number of students who converted, but that's a separate issue, as they may have been a self-selected group who decided to take that course.
How has your work been received by your colleagues?
At NYU I suppose I am in some ways rather conspicuous. The fact that my husband and I have six children and live in university housing — we are somewhat conspicuous as Catholics! But there are many people who teach religious subject matter at NYU, so in that sense I am no different.
There is certainly a lot of anti-Catholicism in the academic world — of that there can be no doubt. It's also true that it is quite respectable to be a Catholic medieval scholar. When I go to the annual medievalists’ convention every spring in Kalamazoo, there is a Mass every morning in a very large room and it is always jam-packed, standing room only. So there are plenty of Catholic medievalists. Medieval studies draws many Catholics and — I am a good example — to some degree converts people who were not Catholic to begin with. So I have not had a great deal of pressure or hostility.
Perhaps you could speak about your conversion.
It's true that the lives of the saints were important to me. Even if any particular saint's story is not true — there is a lot of borrowing from one story to another — the general patterns are certainly true and tremendously moving. The great themes of the lives of the saints were very impressive to me. There were lots of other factors in my conversion, but there is no doubt that my reading of the lives of the saints was an important component in my conversion. I don't think one should ever belittle the power of the saints to effect conversions, even today.
What would you recommend for those who wish to read the lives of the saints?
There are different kinds of books. The Butler's edition I mentioned earlier (Thurston & Attwater) is where you go to understand how legend and history come together. There are books on the importance of the saints for Western culture, for example, Ferguson's which focuses on their role in art.
For those who want to get away from the cultural or literary issues toward historiography, they can turn to serious books about the saints by someone such as Evelyn Waugh [20th century English novelist who wrote biographies of Edmund Campion and Helena, mother of Constantine]. A number of great writers have written lives of specific saints, and most great saints of the last few centuries have had their lives written several times, sometimes by very significant writers. Large parish libraries and university libraries would have serious biographies of saints.
For example, Chesterton's books on St. Thomas Aquinas or St. Francis of Assisi?
I think they are terrific. He is trying to give you a feeling of what these people were like, and he does a wonderful job. Works by Waugh or Chesterton are very valuable reading because these are smart guys — they are not credulous but have a real understanding of what makes a saint, and what made real saints.
It is important to read writers of this quality on the saints. Chesterton was a journalist, not a historian, but he does a much better job that many historians of seeing what was really essential.
—Raymond de Souza
----- EXCERPT: An NYU scholar on why they fascinate us — and how they impact lives ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dr. Evelyn Birge Vitz ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: U.S. Notes & Quotes DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:Is It a Hate Crime to Be a Christian?
At least one even charged that Catholics become complicit in such violence simply by criticizing the notorious New York play, Corpus Christi, which depicts its main character as a homosexual who sodomizes his disciples.
“If it's blasphemous for the image of Jesus Christ to be gay, then they're saying that it's blasphemous for anyone to be gay,” Chris Quinn, director of the New York City Anti-Gay and Lesbian Violence Unit, told the Oct. 17 Philadelphia Inquirer. “That's a dangerous message to send out, in light of the kind of violence against gays we've seen recently.”
Gary Bauer, president of the Family Research Council, has been particularly targeted by such charges because his organization has sponsored high-profile advertisements featuring homosexuals who say their lives were improved by changing their sexual orientation and who invite others to do the same.
Bauer defended himself recently on the program Late Edition. “It's not just that I was attacked this week,” he said. “Any believer in this country… Catholic, evangelical, Orthodox — all of them were smeared this week. Those two men in Wyoming were not Christians — they were thugs. And if they were a sign of anything they're a sign of the breakdown of values, not the growth of the Christian faith.”
Bauer also said he opposes “hate crimes” legislation that many have proposed. “Look, every murder is a hate crime,” he said. “The idea that somehow having additional penalties in Wyoming would have made any difference in this case is absurd. These two thugs ought to have the books thrown at them, but they ought to have the book thrown at them if they had murdered a 70-year-old woman. It doesn't matter who the victim is; a murder is a murder … and they ought to be punished to the full extent of the law.”
Oklahoma City Victim's Father Opposes Execution
Welch lost his 23-year-old daughter, Julie Marie Welch, when Tim McVeigh bombed the Oklahoma City Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. “I was filled with so much rage, revenge, and hate. Once [McVeigh and Terry Nichols] were identified and charged, all I thought was, ‘Fry ‘em,’” Welch told the paper.
Later, he reconsidered. “I wanted to know: After they were tried and executed, how was that going to help me? I struggled with that question for two or three weeks. And I finally realized … [execution] won't bring Julie Marie back. Revenge, hatred, and rage — that's why Julie Marie is dead today.”
A Catholic nun whom the paper didn't identify later helped him set up a lengthy meeting with Tim McVeigh's father and sister, Bill and Jennifer McVeigh at their home, said the report. “When I got ready to leave, Jennifer hugged me and then she just took to sobbing,” Welch told the paper. “I … said, ‘Honey, the three of us are in this together for the rest of our lives…. I don't want your brother to die, and I'll do what I can to help.’”
Now, Welch is speaking publicly against McVeigh's death sentence. “I go to Mass every week, but I'm not an overly religious person,” he is quoted saying. “I'm not a born-again Christian…. But I've somehow felt closer to God than I ever have since I met with Bill and Jennifer. It was the most satisfying thing I've done in my life.”
Saint for the Next Millennium Gets National Shrine
The report quoted the Shrine's pastor Father William Easton about St. Therese, who last year was named a doctor of the Church. “Pope John Paul II has often spoke of St. Therese as the saint for the next millennium,” he told the paper.
The paper described the Shrine building's 1933 architecture as “notable,” saying, “it soars four balconies high and seats 3,000.”
----- EXCERPT: Excerpts from select publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: World Notes & Quotes DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:Lech Walesa on Clinton, America, and the Law
“He said President Clinton was his friend, but that he must be removed from office if it's found he broke the law.”
The paper quoted Walesa's words from the Cedar Rapids Gazette in Iowa: “There is no democracy if even the least of the laws is broken…. People will begin to ask, ‘Why should I pay taxes? Why should I obey the speed limit if he doesn't have to obey the law?’”
Assumption-Day Arrests Reported
Qingyuan says that six other priests were fined or questioned by police, while in another Beijing-area village, 100 people — mostly women — were stopped on their way to secret Assumption day Masses and detained for as many as 15 hours, interrogated, and fined, according to the news service. Zhang Yanzhi was reportedly held for 15 days for teaching the catechism to children. The woman who owns the house where Yanzhi's students met has been arrested.
“The freedom in religious belief is clearly stipulated in the Chinese constitution and various other relevant laws,” countered Li Ruihuan, the communist state's fourth most senior official, after the Oct. 14th news report was published.
“The Chinese government continues to sincerely implement that policy,” he said. His quotes come from an official Chinese government news agency, according to a follow-up report by the French news service.
Cardinal Accepted Martyrdom, Hoped for Help
At 53 the Church's youngest cardinal, Cardinal Vinko Puljic, the Catholic archbishop of Sarajevo, is a survivor of Serbian aggression in Bosnia. Catholics in his diocese have been reduced by more than half by war. He sees the Serbian minority's aggression toward the Kosovar majority as following the same pattern, said the report.
“I believe that the action, or international intervention, should have taken place earlier,” he told a New Jersey press conference recently after touring the United States. “It is more efficient to prevent than to treat” a crisis, he said, adding that, “If the political decision-makers had done something sooner we would not have had this situation. The conscience of humankind requests it should be stopped.”
After surviving an assassination attempt in April, the cardinal was quoted saying “The fact that I may die is an integral part of my vocation…. One does not stand up for peace without realizing that he may be killed.”
At the news conference, a reporter asked if Cardinal Puljic trusted Milosevic and the concessions he has made. Puljic laughed. “I can fully trust only in God,” he said.
----- EXCERPT: Excerpts from select publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Christiansí Guilt Cited in Kristallnacht DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:BERLIN—Leaders of Germany's Catholic and Evangelical Churches have urged Christians to remember their “common responsibility” for the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom, in which Jewish homes and shops were looted in a prelude to the World War II Holocaust.
“This event occurred 60 years ago under the eyes and with the help of a people calling itself Christian,” the Church leaders said in an open letter. “It had its origins in bad will, which is still not a thing of the past even today.”
The letter, published by the Ecumenical Council of Berlin-Brandenburg, appealed to its 26 member Churches to participate in events marking the Kristallnacht anniversary in November.
It added that further steps would also be taken to “stigmatize the roots of Christian anti-Semitism in the teaching and practice of the Churches.”
A total of 276 Jewish synagogues were ransacked and torched by Nazi supporters during the November 9-10 Kristallnacht, which also featured the smashing of Jewish shop windows all over Germany.
The organized action, which followed the assassination of a German embassy official in Paris by a 17-year-old Jewish boy, left 36 Jews dead, although many also died when 20,000 Jewish males were arrested and sent to Buchenwald and other concentration camps.
Although the provost of Berlin's St. Hedwig cathedral, Fr Bernhard Lichenberg, who was beatified by the Pope in June 1997, publicly condemned the atrocities and introduced daily prayers for persecuted Jews, other German Church leaders remained silent.
Fears of renewed hostility toward Germany's estimated 33,000 religious Jews grew following the late 1994 firebombing of a synagogue in Lubeck, where arson attacks have also occurred on several Christian Churches.
Catholic and Evangelical Church leaders, who have issued previous joint statements on social and moral issues, attended the reopening of Germany's best-known synagogue in Berlin, following its partial renovation in May 1995.
In November 1997, Bishop Joachim Reinelt of Dresden-Meissen also became Germany's first Catholic ordinary to organize parish collections for rebuilding his city's nineteenth-century synagogue, which was one of 76 in Germany completely destroyed on Kristallnacht.
During his June 1996 German pilgrimage, the Pope called on German Christians to wage a “common struggle” against anti-Semitism with the country's surviving Jews, whose numbers have doubled to 130,000 in the 1990s through immigration from the former Soviet Union.
In its open letter, co-signed by Georg Cardinal Sterzinsky of Berlin, the Ecumenical Council said Germans should remember the “common responsibility of Churches and Christians” for the Kristallnacht events.
“Churches can neither stay silent towards nor accept the ever-growing threat of violence against our foreign-speaking neighbors,” the Catholic and Evangelical leaders added.
“We need decisive action against every ideology which finds form in anti-Semitism and discrimination against races or nations.”
In neighboring Austria, which has faced similar anti-minority tensions, the 60th anniversary of the “Rosary Service,” which marked the last open anti-Nazi protest by Catholics, was commemorated in mid-October by a Mass at Vienna's St. Stefan cathedral.
In his homily, Christoph Cardinal Schˆnborn said the participation of thousands of young Catholics at the 1938 service had helped defend the Austrian Church against charges of supporting Nazi policies.
He added that the service, seven months after Austria's annexation to the Third Reich, had been a “stirring experience” for all Austrian Catholics, especially those who witnessed it directly.
Hitler Youth activists attacked the nearby Vienna residence of Theodor Cardinal Innitzer after the “Rosary Service,” killing a priest and desecrating a painting of Christ. (Jonathan Luxmoore)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Notes & Quotes DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:Catholic Scholars Cheer Faith and Reason
The Pope, said Father Avery Dulles, professor of religion and society at Fordham University, is “saying that the Church has a duty to defend human reason and, paradoxically, people outside the Church don't seem to be doing it.”
“It's very upbeat in its overall tone,” said Msgr. Robert Sokolowski, who teaches philosophy at The Catholic University of America, in Washington. “It's kind of an exhortation to be confident in the discoveries of reason.”
“I teach a course in philosophy of religion,” said Father Brian Shanley, who also teaches at The Catholic University. “This is the kind of document that I might want the students to look at to reiterate the classical line.”
Catholic ethicist George Weigel, the Pope's authorized biographer, was quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer Oct. 16 about the encyclical. “His point has always been that truth is liberating, not confining,” Weigel said. “For him, orthodoxy is not the imposition from the outside of a set of arbitrary boundaries, but rather what the Church has come to understand God has built into it from the beginning.”
Newspapers Record Grateful Pope
“About 75,000 well-wishers turned out in sunny St. Peter's Square for the Pope's Mass to mark the anniversary of his Oct. 16, 1978, election to the papa-cy,” it began. The account then quoted the Holy Father's words: “After 20 years of service on Peter's seat, on this day I cannot help but ask myself some questions. … Have you been a diligent and vigilant master of the faith of the Church? … Have you tried to satisfy the expectations of the faithful of the Church and also the hunger for truth that we feel in the world, outside of the Church?”
The Pope attributed any success he has had to the prayers of Catholics around the world and addressed issues raised in his newly released encyclical, Faith and Reason.
“Woe to humanity which loses the sense of truth, the courage to seek it, the faith to find it,” he told the crowd.
Tourists were moved by his words, said the report, which quoted the revealing thoughts of one: “As much as you want to say you're not Catholic, it gives you the chills,” Jude Stearns told the news service, which identified him as a honeymooner from Boston.
The editorial said of the encyclical, “It is a plea for an end to the separation of faith and reason and an argument against the ‘philosophy of nothing,’ as he calls the various forms of nihilism that have taken root in a war-weary century.”
It continues, “Science and rational thought do not wipe out the exploration of ‘the fundamental questions which pervade human life,’ as John Paul writes. Similarly religion, especially Catholicism, needs the pursuit of rational debate to keep such spiritual matters from ‘withering into myth or superstition.’”
In concludes: “Finally, the decree argues against the modern philosophies — post-Enlightenment realism, Marxism, nihilism — that see the search as the goal, so that ‘everything is fleeting and provisional,’ as he writes. John Paul, in his 13th … encyclical, knows these philosophers and has argued with their te-nets. As a Pole, he also understands the troubles of his century, including World Wars, the Holocaust, the Stalin years, the gaudy capitalism that replaced Communism.
“This encyclical may not convert the nihilists, but it promises that even if reason does not always lead to belief, a reasoning person like a scientist or a philosopher can still be a believer.”
----- EXCERPT: Excerpts from select publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Dr. Evelyn Birge Vitz DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:Personal: Born 1941, in Indianapolis, Ind., as the child of a Protestant family. Married to fellow NYU professor and psychologist, Dr. Paul Vitz, with whom she converted to Catholicism in 1979; mother of six children.
Accomplishments: Published in English and French on a variety of topics, ranging from Medieval Narrative and Modern Narratology (New York University Press, 1989) to A Continual Feast, a scholarly cookbook, published by Ignatius Press, which is centered around the observance of the liturgical year. Speaks widely on topics such as Christianity, family life, and gender. Contributing edit or at Crisis magazine. Her latest book, Orality And Performance In Early French Romance, is appearing in December of 1998; she is currently at work on a book concerning the influence of the liturgy on medieval literature.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Hate Crimes & Christians DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:In the weeks since the death of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a nonbinding resolution condemning his killing, which it described as “unacceptable and outrageous.” For any life to be taken in such a brutal and untimely fashion raises many questions and leads us to look for solutions. President Clinton has urged Congress to pass tough hate crimes legislation.
But is this really the best solution? Can there truly be a Richter scale when it comes to murder? Will it go toward the common good to have more and more crimes classed as hate crimes? It's worth considering the underlying implications. Hate crimes are very real, but if we begin to compartmentalize murder — as proposed hate crime legalization would have us do — aren't we saying that some lives are more worthy of protection than others? Murder by its very definition is the unjust taking of innocent human life.
The point about Matthew Shepard being killed should not have us focusing on his homosexuality, but that his was a life cut short by people who believed they had the power to decide whether he should live or die. If Shepard had been needlessly killed under different circumstances it should be seen as equally tragic. Regardless of who or what he was, his life was valuable and a gift.
I grew up in a country where Catholics and Protestants killed one another for their sectarian beliefs. Terrorists justified taking the lives of young soldiers or policemen in the name of freedom. And when the lives of innocent bystanders were cut short, like the young nieces and nephews of Mairead Corrigan who were killed in Northern Ireland at an army checkpoint, it was justified in the name of a country at war. In truth, it was simply murder. To the families and friends of those killed, it mattered little why they had been killed.
The point is that murder is never permissible, whether homosexual, heterosexual, Catholic, Protestant, black, white, etc. Every murder is a hate crime because every life is precious. Every person made in the image and likeness of God must be protected. Period. With this in mind, it follows that special legislation purporting to protect some lives more than others serves a counterpurpose.
Another point worth addressing in the wake of the Shepard case is the macabre triumphalism of a small group of so-called Christians gathered outside his funeral. In carrying placards with such messages as “God Hates Fags,” they implied that our Lord had taken some pleasure in the cruel murder of one of his creatures. But as Christians and Catholics we know such expressions of hate against homosexuals are reprehensible and far from Christian belief.
In fact, The Catechism of the Catholic Church (2358) has this to say: “The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. They do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross with the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.”
Perhaps we can all take a lesson from the way Mother Teresa ministered to homosexuals (and others) suffering from AIDS. She established homes for those with the disease. She didn't ask how they contracted it or who or what they were. As a true follower of Christ, she was motivated by love. It seems safe to say that the demonstrators at Shepard's funeral had other motivations.
We can also learn from the compassion of John Cardinal O‘Connor of New York who leads an archdiocesan effort to minister to AIDS patients, many of whom are homosexual.
The cardinal told Sursum Corda magazine about the many AIDS sufferers who convert. “I discussed these experiences with the Holy Father when he called an international conference on AIDS in Rome,” he said. “It was largely composed of research scientists, medical people in general, the discoverer of the AIDS virus…. Yet they were fascinated when I talked to them about the spiritual dimension of this problem, how they should not hesitate to talk to patients about the potential of suffering.
“That it doesn't matter why they have AIDS, it doesn't matter what their behavior has been; now they have it. Now they have this potential to unite their suffering with the sufferings of Christ and make it meaningful, and give it some power for the world. That God still loves them….”
As Catholics and Christians, that is the message we should carry to others.
Register Assistant Editor Geraldine Hemmings is a native of Donegal, Ireland.
----- EXCERPT: PERSPECTIVE ----- EXTENDED BODY: Geraldine Hemmings ----- KEYWORDS: -------- TITLE: Getting to Know All the Saints DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:Edited by Margaret, Stephen, and Matthew Bunson (Our Sunday Visitor, 1998, 798 pp., $39.95, on CD-ROM, $49.95)
The Church's job is to make saints,” Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen once said, “and she is at her best when she gives them to us.” The Church has been making saints for a long time, and she has plenty to give to the faithful.
The solemnity of All Saints, Nov. 1, celebrates that “great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne of the Lamb” that St. John saw in his vision of the apocalypse (Revelation 7:9). The martyrology (the list of saints and blesseds) compiled by the Church here on earth, while not quite so large, numbers over 6,000 and growing. Indeed, included in the preparations for the Jubilee was an updating of the martyrology, an immense project which took many years to complete.
The faithful who want to keep track of the saints therefore require some help. This new reference work edited by the Bunsons (mother and sons) aims to provide that help. For the most part, it succeeds in providing easily accessible information about the saints, though some factual errors and omissions prevent the work from rising to the level of an authoritative source. Nonetheless, as a starting point for brief, basic biographical information about those whom the Church has beatified and canonized, this encyclopedia is a more than serviceable one-volume reference work.
There are three types of questions people commonly ask about the saints: When did this person live, and what did he or she do? Which saint's feast is celebrated on this day? Who is the patron saint of such-and-such? This means that a reference work has to be organized according to multiple categories all at once, much like a dictionary of quotations needs to be organized both by speaker and subject matter. For example, a mere alphabetical listing of the saints would be of no help to someone who is getting married on a certain day and wants to know which feast it will be, or who the patron saint of wedding receptions is (there isn't one, according to the Bunsons, although St. Pantaleon, patron saint of endurance, might be worth keeping in mind).
The Bunsons do a fine job of steering their readers through the vast amount of information they provide. The main body of the book is an alphabetical listing of the saints, with helpful inclusions of the multiple names of some saints; Edith Stein appears both under her secular name and religious name, Teresia Benedicta of the Cross. The short biographies, rarely more than a paragraph, provide the feast day, dates of birth and death, and pertinent details, usually including state of life, geographical location, and reason for beatification or canonization.
The short biographies, rarely more than a paragraph, provide the feast day, dates of birth and death, and pertinent details
The entries are generally of a high quality, employing economical prose to convey a good deal of information without rendering the volume too cumbersome. Entries on the Church Fathers and canonized popes are especially good, usually highlighting the pertinent controversies where they distinguished themselves. The entry on Pope St. Gregory the Great, for instance, manages to list his many achievements and also gives a sense of the tenor of his times in less than a full page.
A strong sense of history is also evident, and the entries try to distinguish fact from legend, and to clear up confusion. The entries on James the Greater; James the Less and James the “brother of the Lord,” set the reader straight on who is who.
Readers will likely discover the answers to many of their questions in the various appendices that follow the main text. A calendar gives the saints by date, and the glossary defines the various technical terms used in writings about the saints. Documents from Trent and Vatican II are also included to explain the place of the saints in the Church, and a short introduction explains the process of canonization.
The appendices are a treat for those who like lists and categories. Ever wonder who the Doctors of the Church are? Or the Fathers? Or which emblem represents which saint? Or who the apostle of Norway is? (It's St. Olaf.) Such answers are found here, along with lists of canonized popes, feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a list of martyrs who died in what is now the United States. It is likely that most of the dozens of names of the last list are unknown to American Catholics today.
The major limitations of the volume are the errors of fact and the omissions. For example, the wrong feast day is provided for Sts. Cosmas and Damian (who are in the universal calendar on Sept. 26, not 27), and the wrong canonization date is provided for St. Ignatius Loyola (March 22, rather than March 12, 1622). Quibbles? Of course, but the point of reference books is to provide specific answers to just such questions. And reference books should point out delightful facts such as that on March 12, 1622, not only was Ignatius Loyola canonized, but also Francis Xavier, Teresa of Avila, and Philip Neri. So dates are important.
Also important are some things inexplicably omitted from this encyclopedia. We are not told why the Ugandan martyrs were martyred. We are told Raymond of Toulouse was a chanter, but not that he was a noble figure of Christian loyalty, obedience, and chivalry during the Crusades. In fact, we are not even told that he was in the Crusades. Perhaps a revised edition will include such vital information, and save space elsewhere by some judicious trimming. There are 22 different saints who share the name Saturinus. No loss would be suffered if only the least obscure dozen were excluded.
Nevertheless, as the encyclopedia will be most commonly used for devotional, not research, purposes, it remains a welcome contribution to reminding Christians that holiness must be possible, when so many have already done it.
Raymond de Souza is a seminarian for the Diocese of Kingston, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: The Splendor of the Holy Spirit DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:Msgr. Mannion writes: “The Holy Spirit is undoubtedly the Person of the Trinity whom Christians have most difficulty comprehending. … One way to comprehend the Holy Spirit more fully, is by examining the diverse images of the Spirit in the Scriptures and Christian tradition.
“In the Old Testament, the Spirit is spoken of as the breath of God. We read in the very opening passage of the Bible that before creation began, ‘God's spirit hovered over the water’ (Genesis 1:2). From the breath of God came all creation and life. When God created Adam, ‘He breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thus man became a living being.’
“The Holy Spirit is like the breath of God invisibly at work in us, sustaining our lives and filling our bodies, minds, hearts, and souls … Because the Spirit is the life of God in us and in the world, Christians regard life as precious. For this reason Christian disciples are necessarily pro-life.”
Msgr. Mannion then writes, “Another image of the Spirit is that of a strong wind. In the Acts of the Apostles, the Spirit is described as coming upon the apostles like a powerful wind (Acts 2:2). … The Spirit can sometimes be disturbing, demanding, like a great gale impelling us forward and clearing away the spiritual dust and smog that cloud up our hearts and souls.
“The Spirit is also like a blazing fire. This is one of the principal images of Pentecost. We are told that the Spirit came upon the apostles like tongues of fire (Acts 2:3). The Spirit of God is not, of course, a fire that destroys, but a fire that purifies, cleanses, and energizes.
“One of the most recognizable images of the Spirit is that of the gentle dove. The dove … symbolizes patience, gentleness, calmness, peace, and joy. … The Spirit of God is also patient, gentle, calm, and peaceful. Those who live in the Spirit are called to reproduce the same qualities in their lives.
“Another way in which the dove symbolizes the Spirit is that it makes the air in which it moves visible. … In that sense anything that makes air visible is a symbol of the Spirit. When we see leaves slowly falling from a tree, we become aware of the hidden currents of life that surround us.
This balsam mixed with the oil signifies that the fragrance of the Holy Spirit has come upon Christians and that they, in turn, must become fragrant signs of the Spirit
“In the Church's liturgical tradition, the Spirit is associated in a special way with holy oil. Oil has the same meaning that medications and ointments have in ordinary life. They are agents of healing, soothing, cleansing, and protecting. … Like oil, the Spirit is the source of God's soothing, healing, cleansing power. … The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick is the Church's most notable manifestation of the Spirit's healing power symbolized by oil.
“Another symbol of the Spirit is pleasing fragrance. … The great preachers of early Christianity spoke of the Spirit as the fragrance of God filling the Church and giving joy to all believers. … When Christians are baptized, confirmed, or ordained, they are anointed with holy oil which contains a beautiful scent called balsam. This balsam mixed with the oil signifies that the fragrance of the Holy Spirit has come upon Christians and that they, in turn, must become fragrant signs of the Spirit in the world by their words, actions, and edifying influences.
“The Spirit may also be spoken of as life-giving light. This is a strong image of the Spirit. The Spirit gives light to our mind; He imparts wisdom and insight. … Significantly, one of the early names of Christian baptism was ‘illumination.’ By being baptized, hearts and minds are washed clean so that the light of the Spirit may be at work in them.
“Another image of the Spirit is living water. … We know that without water there is only lifelessness, aridity, and death. But when rain comes upon the earth, life comes.”
Finally, “The Spirit is also symbolized by the emotions of the heart. … The heart is the symbolic center of the human being, the point from which flows the whole spiritual life. … In Catholic devotion, we venerate the Sacred Heart of Jesus as the source of the Spirit. The Spirit of Christ's heart fills our hearts. The Spirit also makes our hearts restless. St. Augustine expressed this well when he wrote: ‘For you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.’ ”
Ellen Wilson Fielding writes from Davidson-ville, Maryland.
The Definite Article is a digest of the Register's choice from the nation's top journals.
----- EXCERPT: The Definite Article ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Wilson Fielding ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:New Age Pitfalls
I read with interest the interview with Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone (“‘Do-it-Yourself’ Salvation?,” Sept. 27-Oct. 3). While the interview focused on the writings of Father Anthony de Mello, Archbishop Bertone's comments rightly connected Father de Mello's works with the New Age movement. Because Father de Mello wrote as a Catholic priest, many Catholics accepted his ideas as examples of acceptable spirituality.
Another Catholic priest whose writings have led Catholics to the errors of the New Age is Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. In 1962, the Holy Office declared that his writings “contain … such grave errors as to offend against Catholic doctrine.”
Because the errors of the New Age are prevalent in our country, Catholics United for the Faith (CUF) has written a “Faith Fact” exposing these errors. The “Faith Fact,” which CUF distributes through a toll-free number, addresses the writings of both priests and offers suggestions on how to present the truth to those involved in the New Age.
Philip C. L. Gray Director of Information Services
Catholics United for the Faith
Register Coverage
I would like to congratulate the Register for its recent coverage on the horrendous Proposition B of Michigan. I also want to add a little more. Under Proposition B, people terminated that have a serious illness, will be listed as having died of that illness in the death certificate.
The fact that they were terminated is covered up.
One thing will be for sure: in the statistics, there will be a sudden jump in deaths from terminal illnesses.
Please pray that this Proposition B does not come to pass. Thank you, for your extensive reporting.
Thomas M. Hagen
Orange, CT
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: When Tolerance Reigns Supreme in Society, Truth Suffers DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:The impending impeachment hearings of the president give rise to opinions about private morality that reflect just how far down the road of moral relativism we have gone. The object of popular opinion seems to be to talk about moral wrongs so that no one is uncomfortable. The thinking goes that the American people should not be burdened with this trouble for one more minute than necessary and the president's actions were not that serious anyway, so let us move on.
The growth of moral relativism is not just an American phenomenon. In sophisticated international circles, tolerance is de rigueur. People who make distinctions between “good” and “better,” or “true” and “false,” are troublesome in matters of faith and politics, and maybe even “bigots” — because they insist they know truth.
One of the first headlines I read during a recent trip to London was “Bishops decree that non-Catholics can no longer receive Eucharist.” I thought that sounded correct, but why a decree? It seems it is common practice at Catholic Masses in England for non-Catholic spouses of Catholics to receive Communion, Prime Minister Tony Blair being the most notable example. Basil Cardinal Hume said that this practice must stop, as it was giving the impression that one need not believe all that the Church teaches to receive the Eucharist, and that the Church no longer placed a priority on unity of belief. This casual attitude also contributed to disrespect for the sacrament. Letters to the editor from Catholics and Protestants alike bewailed the cardinal's meanness and lack of tolerance. The lax practice was acceptable; the return to correct teaching was not.
I observed another example of cultural relativism during a conversation at a dinner party with a Christian man about how churches could begin to renew themselves — especially the Anglican Church, where so few people attend. To his way of thinking, Christianity's problem is specificity, asking one to believe many precise truths and doctrines about God and man. The Church teaches people to conform to a specific way of life, which he found constraining. As an alternative, he proposed, Islam is tolerant of many teachers, including Christ. (He did not mention Islamic fundamentalist fatwas, the practice of killing those with whom you disagree.) This way, one can wander from one wise man to another, collecting a grab bag of beliefs. My dinner partner considered this a “freeing experience.”
When people lose the sense of the truth of religion or morality, they have lost the essential element at the heart of both.
This man is a relativist and does not know it. He has accepted the attitude that freedom means “do not burden me with too many distinctions,” just let me choose what I will believe. This smorgasbord approach puts emphasis on the one doing the choosing, rather than on the truths of religion and their connection with life. For this man, the less defined the religious position, the better it was. Vagueness, to him, gives wiggle room, and allows for a spirit of freedom, more than a religion where truths and duties are clearly spelled out.
His attitude, a feeling that the duties and distinctions of religion are a burden, is not uncommon. When people lose the sense of the truth of religion or morality, they have lost the essential element at the heart of both. Both culture and religion suffer from losing their sense of direction, which is founded in the objective order of truth. Cultural standards are no longer guided by truth, but by whatever the dominant culture will buy, and religion comes under the sway of culture instead of transforming it. The Pope's new encyclical on Faith and Reason sheds light on this modern affliction.
Of course there was no escaping discussion of President Clinton's troubles — the epitome of cultural relativism. British opinion ran the gamut from his actions are not impeachable, to speculating that, if he were a European head of state, he would be gone by now. Les Hinton, head of News International, expressed admiration for our governmental system, which has the resilience to go through a protracted moral debate. No European nation could sustain such a debate, he said; their political process would not allow it. I made a mental note to remember this remark in the dark days of the hearings in December and January. It may be that American resilience will give the lie to the polls and, at the end of the process, reach a conclusion that will discomfit the relativists.
Mary Ellen Bork, a board member of the Catholic Campaign for America and the Institute for Religion in Democracy, writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: MARY ELLEN BORK ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Who Said Marx is Dead? DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:President Clinton may be joining the leaders of England, Italy, and other left-leaning countries on the international socialism bandwagon
When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, many expected the world's left-wing parties to fall with it. Yet in the years since, communist and socialist groups have succeeded in re-inventing themselves, and in many cases wrested power from their conservative opponents. Now even President Clinton and others in the Democratic Party, who so recently denied the name of “liberal,” may be ready to climb onto the bandwagon of international socialism. How can this have happened, since the fall of the old Soviet Union has shown so clearly the fraudulence of Marxism?
In part, because the left has changed. Faced with the alternatives of electoral oblivion or recanting their ideological heritage, they chose the latter. Not that it was an easy task — in countries such as Italy, Germany, and Great Britain, it has taken many years to bring about this transformation; in some cases, it has led to splits in left-wing parties. Yet while economic realities may have dispelled many old leftist notions, in social and moral matters most leftists remain faithful to a cultural and moral relativism — a relativism which many across the political spectrum are emulating.
SEEDS OFTHE NEW LEFT
How did this begin? In the ‘80s, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and a wave of neo-conservative writers and thinkers brought electoral triumph and newfound intellectual confidence to the conservative movement. For liberals, communists, and socialists, crushing defeat at the polls combined with the crisis caused by the collapse of communism to force some serious self-examination. The resulting ideological reinvention has been largely successful: In America, a Democratic president racked by scandal has nonetheless retained support for his policies and job performance. Meanwhile, most of Europe is now governed by leftist or center-left coalitions. This is the case in Italy, Great Britain, France, Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Finland, and Greece.
In Italy, the Communist Party changed its name, threw off the hard-liners who had insisted on fidelity to the past, and opened itself to capitalism. The reward was not long in coming. The ex-Communist Party now leads the current coalition government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi, already the second most enduring in Italy's post-war history. France and also Germany, where the Social Democrats, after having moderated their position, have now ousted the Christian Democrat Chancellor Helmut Kohl — the last of the ‘80s wave of conservative leaders — have seen a similar transformation on the part of socialist groups. This fall, in Sweden, the ex-Communist Party doubled its vote and has now entered the government coalition.
In Britain, old-line elements in the Labor Party were gradually purged, and the infamous Article Four of the party platform, which called for the confiscation and nationalization of all private industry, was dropped. Still, Labor suffered repeated electoral defeats, until Tony Blair, the most anti-ideological leader in the party's history, was selected to challenge the scions of Margaret Thatcher. The result was the triumph of a “New Labor” in Britain.
Which points to America, where Blair's good friend, President Bill Clinton, is navigating his own personal troubles, while adroitly maneuvering to occupy and maintain the political center on issues such as family care, welfare, and education. While the Democrats as a whole have been less successful in challenging their opponents in state and congressional elections, and many seem leery of their beleaguered leader, the president forges on, adding to his checkered personal legacy new international alliances which may survive his troubled presidency.
AN OVERLOOKED CONFERENCE
For instance, on Sept. 21, when most Americans were caught up in coverage of the presidential scandal, New York University (NYU) was host to a forum on democracy and the economy in the global era, which boasted an interesting assortment of world leaders. Hillary Clinton spoke at the morning session; later in the afternoon, the president and two prime ministers, Britain's Blair and Italy's Prodi, were on the agenda. Themes such as globalization, the reform of international institutions, and the protection of the poor were debated. Together, the three leaders discussed ways to guide the world into the next millennium.
Many observers suspect Clinton of trying to involve himself and the Democratic Party in a new international association for like-minded, mostly ex-socialist or ex-communist parties. Some have even speculated that he sees the possibility of leading such a grouping once he leaves the White House. The First Lady seems, if anything, even more interested in the idea; she, too, might hope for some sort of post, perhaps at one of the international agencies of the United Nations. Although press reports have given credit to the Dean of NYU's Law School, John Sexton, for organizing the discussion among the three leaders, the chief of Italy's ex-Communists, Massimo D‘Alema, is on record as saying that the idea came from the First Lady. For his part, Romano Prodi asserted before going to New York that the world needs another “New Deal.” While there's been little reaction to all these political mutations in England and virtually none in the United States, European newspapers have, on the whole, reported favorably on this matter, as an initiative to create a successor to the Socialist International. The International, which traces back in its prehistory to the old Bolshevist and revolutionary left, remains the hub of European socialism, though its only North American affiliates are Canada's New Democrats and two tiny splinter parties in the United States.
Early this year, D‘Alema went to London to visit Blair, suggesting the creation of some kind of new world grouping of left-wing parties. In April the two leaders met with representatives of other European leftist parties, some of whom expressed concern at the idea of the new group's supplanting the Socialist International.
BIRDS OFA FEATHER
Nonetheless, in an interview published at the beginning of September, the British Prime Minister declared that the European Left has much in common with the Democratic Party in America, and that an alliance between these two would be beneficial. He also suggested including representatives of the government of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso in Brazil. While Blair denied he was trying to depose the Socialist International from its leadership as the forum for socialist parties, he mentioned some points which could provide the basis for a common dialogue between Europe and America: the providing of public services without excessive spending of government funds; the need for restraint in monetary policy; reform of the judicial system; and an updating of the welfare state. The British leader specifically mentioned the need for a “Third Way,” as an alternative to the creed of the free market and the old ideologies of communism and socialism.
According to Blair, some of the principles which should orient this new political grouping are the following: stable and prudent management of the economy; a limitation of government intervention to education and the building of infrastructure, rather than endless government programs, paid for by exponentially increasing taxes; constructive reform of the welfare state; decentralization of government; and openness on the international level, to place the left in contrast to an isolationist right.
Blair's ideas draw heavily on the work of Anthony Giddens, a sociologist and head of the famous London School of Economics (formerly a home to many conservative thinkers), who published a book entitled The Third Way and serves as an advisor to Blair. According to a review of this book in The Economist, five principal dilemmas demand the creation of a new political force which is neither left nor right:
• Globalization is changing the way we consider the nation-state, governments, and sovereignty.
• A new individualism means that social cohesion can no longer be imposed from above.
• Some modern problems — devolution, ecology, etc. — cannot be understood in familiar, left-right political terms.
• Some functions in society can only be carried out by government — yet pressure groups will seek to impede this.
• While we can exaggerate environmental dangers, we should also not be overly optimistic.
Related ideas held some sway during Clinton's first term in office. The “communitarianism” of authors such as Amitai Etzioni found them a hearing at the White House and in the opinion columns of newspapers and magazines. Such communitarians held that both the free market and classical liberalism had fomented an excessive individualism in society. This atomization of civic life was, plausibly enough, held to be responsible for many of our current social ills; the remedy suggested involved community and public service, together with the promotion of common values. Yet this project has faded somewhat in recent years, as the Administration's quest for a vision was supplanted by more immediate concerns, and as critics of communitarianism pointed out its lack of cohesive philosophical underpinning and firm grasp of what values were to be promoted amongst the citizenry.
CONSERVATIVES’ WAKE-UP CALL
For the moment, the successes of the new center-left have offered an opportunity for its leaders to clarify a fresh blueprint for the world's future. Even though conservative groups may deride these intellectual speculations, they would do well to take them seriously. The center-left has come a long way in jettisoning its Marxist ballast and has undergone a substantial transformation; moreover, they have rightly concluded that a simplistic confidence in the invisible hand of the market and an excessively individualistic attitude, are no remedy for the many social problems with which we will enter the new millennium. At the same time one wonders whether men such as Clinton, Blair, and Prodi can liberate themselves, not just from tired economic ideologies, but also from the ethical relativism and cultural poverty which had led center-left parties, all too often, to central roles in the onslaught against the family, religion, and moral values.
Pope John Paul II dealt with the conflict between communism and capitalism in his encyclical Centesimus Annus. The Pope pointed out that Marxism has proven to be a failure, on both theoretical and practical levels. At the same time, he reminded us that many of the social evils which led to the spread of Marxism are still in existence (cf. nn. 26-29). John Paul II also asserted that if, by capitalism, we mean a system that is individualistic and closed to human and social values, then we cannot accept it (cf. n. 42).
THE CHURCH'S VIEW
What does the Church propose? It does not offer a specific model or system in politics or economics. Rather it puts forth a series of principles which can guide the faithful in their concrete situations (cf. n. 43). In closing, we do well to cite John Paul's words concerning the relationship between the State and values:
“Authentic democracy is possible only in a state ruled by law, and on the basis of a correct conception of the human person. It requires that the necessary conditions be present for the advancement both of the individual through education and formation in true ideals, and of the ‘subjectivity’ of society through the creation of structures of participation and shared responsibility. Nowadays there is a tendency to claim that agnosticism and skeptical relativism are the philosophy and the basic attitude which correspond to democratic forms of political life. Those who are convinced that they know the truth and firmly adhere to it are considered unreliable from a democratic point of view, since they do not accept that truth is determined by the majority, or that it is subject to variation according to different political trends. It must be observed in this regard that if there is no ultimate truth to guide and direct political activity, then ideas and convictions can easily be manipulated for reasons of power. As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism.” (Centesimus Annus, 46).
We can only hope that those responsible for choosing the future direction of our societies heed these words.
John Flynn, of the Legionaries of Christ, writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: FATHER JOHN FLYNN ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: New Evangelizers Must Teach Faith Step by Step, with Love DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:Recent experiences have motivated me to nuance the points of the recent column in which I suggested that one of the greatest needs in the Catholic Church is for education of a generation that did not receive much catechesis over the last thirty years. The generation trained before 1968, especially those who have experienced various forms of conversion in the renewal movements, are those with some background and with the motivation to engage younger people in this education. However, this religious education project entails balancing a number of points about the present day Catholic audience.
First, not only is the younger generation poorly educated about the facts of Catholicism, many of them are miseducated. Not only are the younger people misinformed about the faith and Catholic moral teaching, but their elders have often been taught many confused ideas about free will and morals, the Scriptures, the Person of Christ, the liturgy, etc. Therefore the education process will include a large number of older Catholics.
Second, when people accept an idea as religious doctrine, they commit themselves to it with vigor. This means that a challenge to a Catholic's faith, even if it is a challenge from the Magisterium against a heterodox notion, will be resisted. Many people defend heterodox ideas because they are sincerely convinced that it is the true Catholic position. They like the people who taught them the doctrine. They trust the priest, nun, or religious educator who has apparent Church approval. They now believe that they have a right as a Catholic to practice birth control, change liturgical rites, or deny the Virgin birth, resurrection, or second coming of Christ. As a result, various studies perceive the general run of Catholics as out of line with the official teaching of the Church.
Third, members of the Roman Curia are portrayed as uptight, rigid, power-hungry ecclesiastical functionaries. Such people are not as nice as the teachers who gave permission to have freedom of thought. These Roman curial types are the mean enemy opposing the modern Church driven by the spirit of Vatican II.
Fourth, both adults and young people are simply uninformed about very basic data of the Faith and Catholic life. For example, a young man in his 30s was baffled by my reference to the Catholic teaching of the Fathers of the Church. Seeing his puzzlement, I asked what was wrong. “What are ‘the Fathers’? I've never heard of that.” The conversation about the Patristic teaching on the Eucharist as a sacrifice and as the real presence of Christ had to back up a few steps.
Given these points, a gangbusters approach to the task of Catholic education by the orthodox may not be best. For some people, the temptation is to tell the whole Catholic story and all of dogma at one time. In particular, the temptation might even be to highlight the most commonly denied or challenged doctrines, which lets the denials, rather than the Catechism of the Catholic Church or the Bible, set the agenda. How does someone teach in this situation without compromising the truth, and yet without sabotaging the educational process?
The teacher will do better by presenting the whole line of the Catholic Faith, but doing it step by step. Starting off with the Catholic “hard line” may prevent listeners from accepting Catholic orthodoxy. This does not mean avoidance of the hard sayings of Christ and his Church. Rather, step-by-step explanation of the basics of the faith is the starting point. How can people understand the sinful aspects of contraception when they do not grasp the basics of Christian teaching on marriage? All they will hear is that Catholics put the Pope in their bedroom — despite his lack of interest in being there. How can they understand that liturgical abuse is wrong unless they understand the dignity of the Mass as an un-bloody re-presentation of the salvation won by Jesus Christ on Mount Calvary?
Orthodox Catholics are relegated to the conservative bin as a way to negate their influence as teachers of the Gospel. If orthodox Catholics teach over the heads of their audience or insult them by talking down to them, then the politicized conservative label will stick. However, if Catholics teach their fellows because they love God first of all and love their neighbors as themselves, then they can make a powerful impact on the lives of others. A deep devotion to Christ that is nourished by prayer, especially before the Blessed Sacrament, is the true motivation to teach others. Students need to witness this motive; a teacher's need or desire to be right is a poor substitute for love of Christ as the motivating force in catechizing others.
The new Catholic evangelists of fellow Catholics can better teach and serve the other sinners who do not know enough about Christ's truth, by remembering that Christ loves us sinners, who are as ignorant of his Gospel as were his first disciples. This time of great hope for a new evangelization is ripe with opportunities for the teacher who step by step feeds out the whole Catholic line, not the hard line.
Jesuit Father Mitch Pacwa is a professor at the Institute for Religious and Pastoral Studies at the University of Dallas.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: MITCH PACWA SJ ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: A Little Witch in Every Woman? DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:The semi-comic Practical Magic is serious about the idea that witchcraft is respectable
In the name of pluralism and tolerance, much of today's popular culture aggressively promotes moral relativism. This means that almost any set of beliefs is judged OK if its practitioners have good hearts and pure intentions.
For the past 30 years witches have been edging their way into mainstream respectability. Feminists celebrate the craft as a form of female empowerment and a small but increasing number of accredited educational institutions teach it as a legitimate form of spiritual expression.
Practical Magic tries to pass itself off as a harmless piece of family entertainment — a cross between the jokey hit TV series Bewitched and successful features like The Witches of Eastwick and I Married A Witch. Its characters are always attaching disclaimers to their spooky behavior like: “Witches, yes; Evil, no” or “There is no devil in the cult.” But director Griffin Dunne and screenwriters Robin Swicord, Akiva Goldman, and Adam Brooks present witches as morally superior to their normal, straight-arrow neighbors, and their powers as proof of the strength of sisterhood.
The all-female Owens family lives in a haunted house on an island off the coast of New England. They are descended from a 17th-century woman named Maria, who had affairs with men who refused to acknowledge her publicly. In a flashback, we see the Puritan authorities try to hang her as a witch. “They feared her because she had the gift,” we're told.
Because of her powers, Maria somehow breaks free. And for reasons not fully explained, all her female descendants carry a curse: Any man who loves an Owens woman will suffer an untimely death.
Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole Kidman) have inherited both the witchy powers and the family hex. Orphaned at an early age, they are raised by their eccentric aunts Jet (Dianne Wiest) and Frances (Stockard Channing) in a wooden Victorian gingerbread mansion. Dressed in colorful Edwardian clothes, the older women cast spells, prescribe medicinal herbs, and practice other forms of white magic.
The young girls are picked on by their schoolmates and shunned by the rest of the town as witches. But in hypocritical fashion, these regular citizens sneak off to get help from the aunts. Sally and Gillian watch a townswoman use a specially prepared love potion to make another woman's husband go crazy for her. The filmmakers want us to perceive witches as more honest than ordinary folk who condemn the craft but secretly take advantage of its powers.
Neither girl wants to get involved with the family tradition. Sally craves acceptance from her neighbors. She marries a local blue-collar worker and has two daughters. “She has all the power but doesn't use it,” her aunts scold. But the Owens’ curse is still operative and when it kills her husband, she's emotionally destroyed.
Gillian gets as far away as possible from her hometown. An unusually attractive woman, she has a series of affairs, culminating in a romance with the possessive Jimmy Angelov (Goran Visnjic) who sports “a cowboy-vampire” look. He beats her when she tries to end the relationship.
Overwhelmed by personal problems, the two sisters reunite. Jimmy follows Gillian to New England and tries to kill her. Desperate, Gillian wants to pray to God but is told that won't work.
Sally is forced to murder Jimmy to save her sibling. They bury him on the grounds of the family mansion, but somehow he rises from his grave. The sisters decide to use their inherited powers for the first time and perform an exorcism.
A handsome cop from Arizona named Gary Hallett (Aidan Quinn) shows up at their home asking questions about Jimmy's disappearance. Sally falls for him and finds it difficult to tell him lies. The movie creates suspense over the question of whether he will arrest the young witch or marry her.
Practical Magic has its fair share of laughs and terrifying special effects. But its message is pernicious. We're encouraged to believe that there's a little witch in every woman so we should accept practitioners of the craft as members of a benign, alternative lifestyle. In case we miss the point, the filmmakers have the townspeople drop their centuries-old hostility to witches and embrace the Owens as regular folk. This kind of thinking indicates how Hollywood's current moral relativism can be damaging to our spiritual health.
Arts and Culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Washington, D.C.
Practical Magic is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America.
----- EXCERPT: ARTS & CULTURE ----- EXTENDED BODY: JOHN PRIZER ----- KEYWORDS: Art -------- TITLE: An Unlikely Band of Criminals DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:In The Lavender Hill Mob, a couple of ‘honest men’ and their gang make a comic attempt to get rich quick
The golden age of British comedy was during the late 1940s and early 1950s when a series of delightful films was produced at Ealing Studios under the supervision of Sir Michael Balcon. Among those well received by American audiences at the time were Kind Hearts and Coronets, Tight Little Island, and Geneviev. Uniquely British in atmosphere and tone, they highlighted eccentric characters in whimsical escapades with great wit and a touch of farce.
The best of the lot is the 1931 classic, The Lavender Hill Mob. Director Charles Crichton and screenwriter T.E.B. Clarke begin their off-beat tale of robbery in a lively Rio de Janeiro nightclub where a mousy British tourist, Henry Holland (Sir Alec Guinness), is spending big bucks. He narrates in flashback how he came to be such a rich man.
Back in London, Holland is a shy, Treasury department clerk who supervises the delivery of gold bullion to banks. “His one and only virtue is honesty,” his boss remarks. “No imagination.” Subsequent events will prove the boss wrong.
A bachelor, Holland is a boarder at the Balmoral Hotel in Lavender Hill, a genteel establishment whose clientele cling to the bottom edges of the middle class. Alfred Pendleberry (Stanley Holloway), who manufactures tourist souvenirs, has just moved in. When Holland discovers the newcomer has a foundry exactly like the government plant which molds gold into heavy bars, he concocts a scheme to rob the truck that carries the bullion and turn the gold into one of Pendleberry's products, a miniature Eiffel Tower paperweight that's usually made out of lead. Their booty can be safely sent to Paris as part of Pendleberry's usual shipment of tourist items. The stolen gold will be fenced, and they'll disappear with their new-found wealth.
Like Holland, Pendleberry believes the good things in life have unfairly passed him by so he gladly signs on. But as they both consider themselves “honest men,” they'll have to recruit some accomplices with robbery experience. As neither has ever known any crooks, they go to the race track and talk loudly about a large stash of money stored in Pendleberry's plant.
Two career criminals take the bait and try to loot the safe. Holland and Pendleberry, of course, nab them. The first thief, Shorty (Alfie Bass), is a bit of a bumbler, but the second, Mr. Lackery (Sidney James), seems to know all the tricks of the trade. Both are immediately hired.
Holland carefully rehearses his gang, and it doesn't look like they're up to it. On the day of the caper, Pendleberry gets picked up by the police for a crime he didn't commit. Holland's quick thinking saves the day, and the Lavender Hill mob walks off with 1 million pounds worth of gold, a huge sum for that time.
The comedy of errors continues. After the gold is melted down into hundreds of souvenir Eiffel Towers and shipped abroad, Pendleberry's French sales rep mistakenly sells a dozen of the valuable items to some visiting English schoolgirls. In a series of madcap chases, Holland and Pendleberry must track down the giggling young ladies to recover their booty. At the same time, Scotland Yard is working hard to identify the guilty parties in the heist.
Part of the movie's charm is watching Holland, whom everyone underestimates, outwit his bettors. Both men are quite conscious of having succumbed to “temptation,” and morality eventually asserts itself. But not before we get to laugh with a pair of underdogs as they enjoy their brief moment on top.
Arts and Culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Washington, D.C.
In two weeks: Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev.
----- EXCERPT: Art & Culture ----- EXTENDED BODY: JOHN PRIZER ----- KEYWORDS: Art -------- TITLE: ‘The Boys’ of Wichita Put Education Back in Parental Hands DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:Like-minded elected officials are teaming up to thwart radical school transformation plans
Incident: In Wichita, the school board adopted unanimously a policy that allows parents to inspect teaching materials, such as films and teachers’ manuals, and requires “active written consent” of the parent before a student can participate in an activity in which personal information is requested.
“Personal information” is defined to include facts about the student's or the student's family's political affiliations, mental and psychological problems, sexual behavior and sexual attitudes, privileged or confidential relationships, income, or self-incriminating behavior. One parent, who pushed for the “parental rights” policy, said to board members reviewing the policy, “I know why the district lost two of my children. Safety and declining academics are certainly important factors in those decisions. But schools getting into personal issues … is also a factor.” The board member who proposed the policy said he would like to see it strengthened in the future, but said, “I'm satisfied for now.”
The “incident” above is from People for the American Way's 1996 annual report, Attacks on the Freedom to Learn. I am the parent quoted in the passage. The school board member who proposed the policy is my friend Marty Marshall who helped push the policy through to its final, unanimous passage. “People want us to concentrate on academic-related subjects, not behavior-related subjects,” said Marshall.
The need for a policy became evident when such questions as these appeared in the Kansas outcome-based health education guidelines: “During the past twelve months, did you make a specific plan about how you would attempt suicide? With how many persons have you had sexual intercourse in your life?”
None of us imagined that supporting parental involvement would be seen by some as an “assault” on learning, but almost every education-related issue turns into an ideological battleground between the political left and right — “progressives” vs. “traditionalists.” Research, diversity, and public opinion do not matter in these debates. The Wichita policy would have had no effect on any student whose parent had no objection to their answering personal questions in the classroom. For some, a solution to allow parental choice was not acceptable. Only political correctness matters when engaging in combat with the educational bureaucracy known as “The Blob.”
None of us imagined that supporting parental involvement would be seen by some as an ‘assault’ on learning, but almost every education-related issue turns into an ideological battleground
“What basis could there be for objecting to the … policy other than an opinion that too much parental influence over the education of children is a dangerous thing?” asked Dr. Chuck Kriel, spokesman for Project Educate.
Not long ago, getting such a policy through the Wichita school board would have been impossible. Officials who supported the “we know better than you” sentiment so commonly held by members of The Blob dominated the seven-member board.
That began to change in 1995 when Marshall and Chip Gramke made their first bids for public office. They met on the campaign trail and discovered that they shared many pro-family views. They quickly became so closely aligned that the Wichita media dubbed them “The Boys.”
Their conservative views endeared the two to local pro-family organizations who rallied in support of their campaigns and both were elected handily.
Since taking their seats on the board, the duo has championed such issues as academic excellence, strong discipline, a moment of silence, and abstinence-based sex-ed. Each issue the two have tackled has strengthened their support among parents.
Marshall and Gramke have consistently encouraged citizen involvement. When the board was debating the parental rights policy, many parents attended board meetings every time the issue came up for discussion to show their support and to express their gratitude when the policy was finally approved.
In early 1998, three new members who share many of Marshall's and Gramke's pro-family positions joined them on the board.
In Wichita and in Kansas, we are winning many skirmishes, but not yet the war. Average citizens have teamed with a growing number of like-minded elected officials to thwart radical school transformation plans that permeate education-reform schemes in every state.
These victories have been possible because grass-roots politics in Kansas has become more sophisticated and organized through the efforts of a variety of coalitions and political party activities. Average citizens are involved in helping to identify and recruit potential candidates. People talking with neighbors and walking door-to-door with campaign literature promoting worthy candidates repeatedly succeed in producing favorable electoral results.
Cindy Duckett is president of the Wichita, Kan.-based Project Education, and associate editor of Crisis in Education, from which this article is reprinted with permission.
----- EXCERPT: EDUCATION PAGE ----- EXTENDED BODY: CINDY DUCKETT ----- KEYWORDS: -------- TITLE: In the Footsteps of St. James DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:Pilgrims to Spain's Our Lady of Zaragoza shrine join in a great old tradition of popes, saints, kings, and queens
According to an old and venerable tradition, the Blessed Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to St. James the Apostle as he journeyed to northwestern Spain after the death of Christ. Accompanied by celestial music, angels, and a brilliant light, Our Lady encouraged him and his disciples, as they journeyed westward to spread the Gospel. Unlike any of her other apparitions, when Our Lady appeared to James she was still living on earth, in Jerusalem. During the vision, the holy Virgin gave St. James a column of jasper with a small wooden statue of herself and said, “This place is to be my house, and this image and column shall be the title and altar of the church that you shall build.”
Following the Virgin's request, the saint soon built a chapel over the site where she appeared. Although this place of worship was eventually destroyed, another chapel soon replaced it. In the following centuries, the same cycle was repeated several times. Despite the changing conditions of the chapels, the local Christians always took great care in protecting both the pillar and the ancient statue.
Today the shrine of Our Lady of Zaragoza is Spain's second most popular pilgrimage destination. Building of the present-day basilica began in 1681. The entire design of the building was based around maintaining the sacred pillar of Our Lady in its original place. Inside the shrine, the pilgrim encounters an extraordinary treasury of art. With the latest restoration in 1979, the interior again exhibits its vast beauty and grandeur.
Through the centuries the shrine has received visits from the likes of St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Ignatius, and all the kings and queens of Spain. In 1982, Pope John Paul II visited the shrine and recited the Rosary during a worldwide broadcast. So popular is the shrine, that many Spanish children make a pilgrimage to the Virgin of the Pillar at the time of their first Holy Communion.
As one of the largest basilicas in the world, Our Lady of Zaragoza features a vast array of chapels, artworks, and precious religious objects. The most cherished relic inside the immense church is, of course, the statue of the Virgin Mary given to St. James. Pilgrims can find the venerated image enthroned behind the main altar in the Holy Chapel — a sanctuary which is in itself a miniature church, made of marble, jasper, and bronze. The chapel also serves as the center of the religious life of the local people, many of whom come daily to “visit the Virgin.” As it is a place of intense holiness, visitors are requested to respect a rule of silence, and to say a prayer for the Pope and for the Churches of Spain and Latin America.
Behind the Holy Chapel, pilgrims can find the Niche of the Virgin. This is the place where the holy image of the Virgin is exposed, and where pilgrims can kiss the Pillar statue. Pope John Paul II venerated and kissed the Pillar in 1986 during his second visit to Zaragoza.
The wooden statue is a simple one of the Blessed Virgin. Smiling pleasantly, Mary is caressing the Christ Child in her left arm, as her right hand supports a mantle that drapes over both of them. Both figures are crowned with jewels. On certain days of the month, the statue is dressed with a cape and gold embroidery that partially conceals the pillar.
In the early part of this century, the shrine received two impressive honors. First, on May 22, 1904, the basilica was declared a national museum. Then, on May 20, 1905, the Church crowned the Virgin statue in a moving ceremony.
Other popular sites to visit in the basilica include the Chapel of St. John the Baptist, the “Coreto” of the Virgin, St. James’ Chapel, the Sacristy of the Virgin, the Chapel of St. Joseph, and the Main Choir. Also worthy of note are the precious paintings and sculptures of Christ on the Cross, the Visitation, the Miracle of Calanda, Our Lady as Queen of Virgins, and Our Lady as Queen of Marytrs.
Another important stop for any pilgrim visiting the shrine is the Museum of the Pillar. It is here where the jewelry collection used to adorn the state of the Virgin is kept, as well as other significant religious and secular items. Much of the collection is antique, including an 18th century ivory horn.
Pilgrims wishing to take home a souvenir will enjoy the gift shop located at the shrine. To obtain a panoramic view of the city, visitors can climb to the tower at the top of the basilica.
Every October, the church is the backdrop for an important festival devoted to Our Lady of the Pillar. Celebrations include parades, bull-fights, fireworks, flower offerings, and street dancing. On Oct. 13, the famous procession in honor of the Virgin of the Pillar takes place in the streets.
As Zaragoza is a rather large city, it is easily accessible by car, train, and bus. From Madrid, take N11 east to Zaragoza. By rail, most major Spanish cities have daily departures to Zaragoza. Once in the city, take the local bus to the shrine (located at Plaza de las Catedrals). Zaragoza is also accessible by long-distance bus service from major cities throughout Spain.
For more information on making a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar, contact one of the many Catholic travel organizations or contact the Zaragoza Tourist Office at: Oficina de Turismo de Zaragoza, Plaza del Pilar, s/n, 50003 Zaragoza, tel 011-34-976-20-12-12, fax 011-34-976-20-06-35, e-mail: ofturismo.zaz@sendanet.es
Kevin Wright, the author of Catholic Shrines of Western Europe, writes from Bellevue, Washington.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kevin Wright ----- KEYWORDS: Traveler -------- TITLE: Ideology of Choice Has Tainted Culture, Speakers Say DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:FAIRFAX, Va.-A return to God's biblical teachings is essential to ending abortion, according to prominent speakers at the National Pastors’ Conference on Life Issues. Clerics from several denominations attended the meeting sponsored by the National Pro-life Religious Council, Oct. 21-23, a few miles from the nation's capital.
While focusing on how to promote a culture of life in Christian Churches, participants accused many religious leaders of replacing the Gospel message with modern popular psychology. Such thinking has allowed abortion and physician-assisted suicide to be misunderstood and tolerated.
Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Achtemeier, a Presbyterian, set the tone of the conference. “The omission of the rule of God is an acceptance of an entire worldview which has invaded our Churches. The individual is all, sovereign, supreme-that's what set the stage for the acceptance of abortion,” she said.
Achtemeier said in a society where “salvation has become equated with ‘getting yourself together,’” a recommitment to God is essential.
She told the clergymen that they need to emphasize the sovereignty of God over life, death, grace, and mercy.
“The biggest failing of the Church is in Christian education,” she stressed. Parishioners need to be instructed about right and wrong.
They need to hear more about the prophets of the Old Testament. A greater understanding of Christian tradition, she said, would teach that “it is not up to us to determine when an individual should die.”
Despite her criticism, Achtemeier expressed optimism for the future. “We are an embattled group in the pro-life movement,” she said, but “I have the unshakeable belief that God will win this battle. The message we've been entrusted with is the Gospel and, yes, it's very good news.”
Leonard Klein, a Lutheran pastor in York, Pa., and former editor of Lutheran Forum, said that the “crisis in churches is in part — in very large part-that people don't know what the faith is.” As a result, “virtually every mainline [Protestant] Church has fallen prey to an ideology of choice.”
Klein offered a number of reasons why this has happened. Among these were the aggressiveness of feminists, devaluation of the sacredness of marriage, the onslaught of liberalism, and the real — but rarely discussed — role of the devil. On this latter point, he said, “Where God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel.”
He also emphasized the collapse of authority from the pulpit. The typical Protestant clergyman, he argued, became “less a bearer of tradition and more a religious professional.” He became “not a pastor, but a guru, who backed away from things which would get him in trouble.”
Klein's suggested remedies include a return to tradition, teaching the faith, bolstering the sacredness of marriage, nurturing children in their worship, and developing courage.
Another prominent Lutheran, Carl Braaten, executive director of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology, picked up on the theme of good and evil. Acknowledging that it is extremely unpopular to raise the issue, he emphasized that the devil is at work in the world.
We are locked, he said, in a “cosmic struggle between the Prince of Light and the Prince of Demons.” Therefore, while “politics may be necessary for the here and now,” he noted, “political engagement, per se, will not suffice. The stakes are much higher than the cultural wars.”
Braaten urged faithfulness, commitment, and steadfastness. He told those involved in the pro-life movement to remember that “the Church will always be a resistance movement in the world,” but the message of the Cross should give us encouragement. “In Christ, the decisive battle has already been won. That is what the liturgy is all about,” he said.
One of the nation's most prominent Southern Baptists, Dr. Richard Land, discussed the ideological struggle that has taken place in his denomination in the last generation. In the early 1970s, his coreligionists believed abortion was a Catholic issue.
The society then lost touch with its first principles — the principles of natural law — and became barbaric. ‘Barbarians are not only at the gate,’ he said, ‘but have been ruling us for some time.’
By 1982, however, Southern Baptists adopted policies that stated human life begins at conception and abortion is always murder. Recent polls indicate that 86%-88% of people believe it's morally wrong to kill an unborn child, he said.
Land, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, also talked about spreading the pro-life message. Befitting his tradition, he gave the pastors ample biblical passages to support that position. These included Psalm 51, Psalm 139, Jeremiah 1:5, and Ephesians 2:10.
He also gave an impassioned account of what we have lost through abortion. One third of all babies conceived since 1973 have been aborted. He asked if we could have aborted the next Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King, Rev. Billy Graham, or the person who could have discovered the cure for cancer?
Sadly, he said, our society has adopted a “basic pagan view of human life-that human life is not special in any way, [and] certainly, it is not sacred.” This worldview, unleashed by abortion on demand, has dehumanized our society. “Only the light of the Gospel can change attitudes, beliefs, and hearts,” he said.
Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor-in-chief of First Things magazine, added a Catholic perspective. Father Neuhaus, who was an active participant in the civil rights movement, said the impetus for abortion gained ground in the 1970s because the American liberal tradition adopted it as a part of its agenda.
The society then lost touch with its first principles — the principles of natural law — and became barbaric. “Barbarians are not only at the gate,” he said, “but have been ruling us for some time.”
A former Lutheran minister, Father Neuhaus reminded the audience that in the late 1960s and early 1970s the Catholic Church stood virtually alone in opposition to abortion. It wasn't until Dr. Francis Schaeffer brought evangelical Protestants along that the pro-life movement became a more broad-based effort.
Still, he said, “Always remind people there is no solution in sight. The problem has no fix anywhere on the horizon. What we have done is lay the foundation for the pro-life movement in the 21st century.” Our goal today is to bear witness, he said.
Father Neuhaus added, “We have not the right and not the reason to despair. So much has been done. There is no more unsettled issue in the U.S. and, indeed, in the world. This should be a source of enormous gratification.” Remember, he stressed, that victory is ultimately assured because “this was Christ's movement before it was our movement.”
In addition to Churches represented by these speakers, participants came from Methodist, Episcopalian, and United Church of Christ denominations. Also attending were pro-life leaders from the U. S. Catholic Conference and the National Right to Life Committee, both of which have been active in the organization.
More information about the National Pro-life Religious Council can be obtained by writing to Rev. Ben Sheldon, its executive director, at Post Office Box 535, Elverson, Pa. 19520.
Joseph Esposito writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: Multi-faith clergy gathering urges emphasis on Christian education ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Esposito ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Terminally Ill Mother Rallies Physicians Against Euthanasia DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:ANN ARBOR, Mich.—On two fronts, Deanna Aikman is fighting the battle of her life.
The dark-haired, petite mother of three is a devout Catholic, a daily communicant with a fervent devotion to Mary. She is also an award-winning pianist.
But she can't play the piano anymore.
“I can't do many ordinary things for my family anymore,” said the woman who home-schooled her three children until this fall.
Over a year ago, Aikman, 40, was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease. Also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), it a devastating disease of the nervous system. Aikman's piano-playing ability was one of the first casualties.
She now uses a wheelchair to get around.
But from her wheelchair, she is fighting her second battle for the lives and souls of the people of her state. Though quiet and soft-spoken, Aikman is rallying physicians around Michigan against Proposal B, the attempt to legalize assisted suicide on the state's Nov. 3 ballot. Unlike her battle with ALS, this is one she chose for herself.
Although friends describe her as a private person, Aikman has put that aside to take a public stand against the possibility that physicians will be allowed to prescribe death in her state. “Once something is legal, it will be accepted. Care-givers will be helping people die, basically. Poor, infirm, weak, and elderly members of our society will be pressured to choose death,” she explained.
Aikman sent a letter to all 24,500 Michigan physicians urging them to oppose passage of the new law.
In the letter, she argued it would impose on physicians a philosophy that promotes “choice” over what have always been considered sound medical practices. Hundreds of doctors responded. Five hundred want their names in newspaper advertisements around the state opposing the measure.
But she said her primary desire is to see Catholics in her state turn to prayer.
“Between now and the election, I would like at least 200 people to commit one hour a week, every week, to praying before the Blessed Sacrament,” she said in September. “I think a thousand hours of Eucharistic adoration could bring about God's plan for our state.”
Aikman points to Oregon, the only place in the world that, having passed legislation legalizing assisted suicide, has kept it in place. “I think it is terrible that, now that assisted suicide is funded by Medicaid in Oregon, they are limiting the maximum dose of Oxycontin, a pain medicine, for patients with chronic pain to the point that the dosage is no longer adequate. My own condition is ranked lower on the priority list for funding than is physician-assisted suicide.”
Aikman's unlikely role as a political activist evolved slowly, according to friends Dr. Cathy Dowling of Ann Arbor and Dr. Brian Kennedy of Dexter. Kennedy, a pediatrician, met Aikman because both she and his wife Kim were involved in home-schooling their children. An anesthesiologist, Dowling met Deanna soon after Dowling herself was facing a potentially serious illness.
Pregnant with her youngest child, Dowling was diagnosed with a tumor of the inner ear that was intruding close to her brain stem. She would need to wait until after she delivered her child to have the tumor removed surgically. “It was a major ordeal for me,” Dowling said. “I wasn't afraid of dying from the operation as much as I was afraid of being incapacitated, of not being able to do anything to help my family.”
After having her baby and a few weeks before her scheduled operation, Dowling met Aikman. Aikman, herself the mother of a 9-month-old baby, had just been diagnosed with ALS.
“She was more spiritually prepared than I was,” Dowling said. “She said she lost it a few times at first, but that it had just made her rely on God. [Aikman] clung to him and her belief that he would bring great good out of her illness.” Aikman's attitude of trust in God “really helped me with my own situation,” Dowling added.
Knowing a petition drive was under way in Michigan to put a law legalizing assisted suicide on the fall ballot, Dowling in August organized a seminar at her Ann Arbor parish, St. Thomas the Apostle. To speak at the event, which was sponsored by the local guild of the Catholic Medical Association (CMA), she invited Aikman; another friend, Dr. Roger Anderberg; and Richard Thompson, a former prosecutor who had twice brought Jack Kevorkian to trial for assisting in suicide.
“The petition drive to bring assisted suicide to the ballot was sponsored by an Ann Arbor group called Merian's Friends,” Dowling explained. “Ironically, Merian Fredrick, whose name the group is using to dramatize the ‘need’ for doctor-assisted death, was also a victim of ALS. She died with Kevorkian's help. I thought Deanna could provide a good counterpoint.”
After explaining how she had been sustained in her illness by the sacraments of the Church, Aikman described many ways in which her parish and other Christians had helped her. “A friend from daily Mass told me God led her to organize a meal ministry. Since then about 30 families have joyfully provided wonderful meals,” she explained. She went on to describe how her family's needs for child care, errands, and laundry were also being met.
“The grace is astonishing. Though I never thought a year ago I would be in this position, I also never would have imagined I could have such peace,” Aikman told her audience at the church. “I think the best thing we can offer to those who, like me, are struggling with life and death issues is mercy.”
Doctors in her audience that night had already been considering how to create a formal vehicle for opposing assisted suicide. Now, the members of the CMA guild began to consider using Aikman's story.
“We were already planning to start something like ‘Physicians against Proposal B’,” explained Dr. Brian Kennedy. “We said to each other, ‘Let's put this together with the message of hope Deanna is giving.”
As a result, Kennedy and Dowling were among the eight physician friends of Aikman who, in September, started Deanna's Friends/Physicians Against Proposal B to support the mailing and advertising campaign Aikman was spearheading.
Thompson, the former prosecutor, was also struck by Aikman's story when they shared the platform. He said she put everything in perspective. “There is so much emotionalism, so many arguments swirling around this issue,” he said. “When you meet Deanna and hear her talk, it all pales in significance to the way she lives her life.”
Aikman's husband, James, agrees. “Everyone who comes in contact with Deanna has a new perspective on life-theirs and hers,” he said.
As Aikman sees it, living with hope rather than despair when you have a terminal illness is also a life-and-death choice. She credits God with giving her the grace to make the choice for hope:"The Lord has used my illness. Those who have been away from him, some for a long time, have felt called back. I have also benefited spiritually, now that my days are numbered, because it is easier to focus on the eternal things that really matter: love of God, family, friends, and the eternal salvation of souls.”
Recently Aikman tried to explain her source of hope in a television interview, soon to be aired on several Michigan stations:
“I would say to anyone who faces what I am facing, look to God instead of your fear. Let him show you how to have hope. Life is temporary anyway. Let him show you the future he has for you — it's an eternal one.”
Kate Ernsting writes from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
----- EXCERPT: Michigan voters will weigh in on issue Nov. 3 ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kate Ernsting ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Gospel Of Life DATE: 11/01/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 01, 1998 ----- BODY:In his ad limina address earlier this year to the bishops of California, Nevada, and Hawaii, Pope John Paul II linked the principles of America's founding with today's battle over equal rights to life for all, including the elderly and terminally ill:
An essential feature of support for the inalienable right to life, from conception to natural death, is the effort to provide legal protection for the unborn, the handicapped, the elderly, and those suffering from terminal illness. As bishops, you must continue to draw attention to the relationship of the moral law to constitutional and positive law in your society: Laws which legitimize the direct killing of innocent human beings…are in complete opposition to the inviolable right to life proper to every individual; they thus deny the equality of everyone before the law (Evangelium Vitae, 72). What is at stake here is nothing less than the indivisible truth about the human person on which the Founding Fathers staked your nation's claim to independence. The life of a country is much more than its material development and its power in the world. A nation needs a soul. It needs the wisdom and courage to overcome the moral ills and spiritual temptations inherent in its march through history. In union with all those who favor a culture of life over a culture of death, Catholics, and especially Catholic legislators, must continue to make their voices heard in the formulation of cultural, economic, political, and legislative projects which, “with respect for all and in keeping with democratic principles, will contribute to the building of a society in which the dignity of each person is recognized and the lives of all are defended and enhanced” (Evangelium Vitae, 90). Democracy stands or falls with the values which it embodies and promotes (cf. Evangelium Vitae, 70). In defending life you are defending an original and vital part of the vision on which your country was built. America must become, again, a hospitable society, in which every unborn child and every handicapped or terminally ill person is cherished and enjoys the protection of the law. [6]
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Saint Who Became Santa Claus DATE: 11/15/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 15-21, 1998 ----- BODY:Don't let anyone tell you there's no such thing as Santa Claus. For St. Nicholas is one of the oldest official saints of the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, he is a bit of a paradox in the calendar of saints. He was a bishop and a worker of miracles, but, in the 20th century particularly, his cult has been hijacked by pagan Western commercialism.
This goes against the more usual pattern where several saints can be identified with pre-Christian pagan deities—St. Brigid, for example—and many saints' feast days coincide with older pagan celebrations.
But whatever the confusion surrounding him today, the real Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, was a fantastic figure and his feast day on Dec. 6 is well worth celebrating.
He had nothing to do with the North Pole; in fact, he lived in what is now Southern Turkey on the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean. In the early fourth century he was bishop of Myra, a town known today as Demre.
Properly, he should be depicted wearing bishop's vestments, but today he wears red, mainly because red is the corporate color of the Coca-Cola Co. which was the first to use the figure as part of a pre-Christmas mass marketing campaign. This image is now used to sell everything from candy to Cadillacs.
However, there is no doubt that the Church had good reason for encouraging the cult of St. Nicholas, for he was a strong defender of the Church against the Arian heresy, which denied Christ's divinity.
Whatever the myths about St. Nicholas, we know for a fact that he attended the Council of Nicea in 325. That council condemned Arianism and instituted the original Nicene Creed which was one font for a later creed which we still say at Mass. It affirms that we believe that Jesus is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.” Such was St. Nicholas'infuriation with Arius, proponent of the Arian heresy, that it is said that he struck the apostate so severely that “the bones in his body rattled.”
Following St. Nicholas' death in 342, he became the subject of a popular devotion and many tales were told of his miracles. Quickly, these miracles led to him becoming the patron saint of children and of sailors.
His link with children stems from a legend that during a famine, a butcher was selling the flesh of children to a starving population. Nicholas was horrified to find their dismembered limbs stored in a salt barrel, but by passing his crosier over the butchered bodies, the children's limbs were rejoined and they were restored to life.
Tales of famine also gave rise to St. Nicholas' claim as patron saint of sailors. After urging a relief fleet to take grain to a distant starving population during a storm, the fleet was able to survive the dreadful weather thanks to the bishop's blessing. Another time,
St. Nicholas successfully convinced a group of sea merchants to empty their holds of all food to help the starving. Yet once the merchants reached their original destination on the far side of the Mediterranean, they found that their once empty holds were completely refilled.
St. Nicholas probably first became associated with Christmas because his feast date, like that of the Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8, is close to the beginning of the festive season. But there is also a story which links him to the tradition of present giving.
It is said that in Myra there was a family of three daughters who were so poor that between them they did not have enough money for one dowry, so that none of them could marry. The eldest volunteered to sell herself into slavery and prostitution to earn a dowry for the other two. But St. Nicholas heard of this and anonymously sent three gifts of money to the family over three years allowing the three daughters to marry one after another. Fancifully, it is said, the first time he did so the money was thrown in a purse down the daughter's chimney—creating that particular myth about Santa Claus and chimneys. Another time, after being thrown over a garden wall, the purse became tangled with clothes on a washing line, hence the connection with Christmas stockings.
Though mostly associated with children and sailors, devotion to St. Nicholas spread among the general population along the shores of the Mediterranean. In the sixth century, the Emperor Justinian built a church in his honor in Constantinople, the second greatest city in the Roman empire. His popularity in Constantinople, now named Istanbul, would have helped spread his fame along the Black Sea coast and deep into Eastern Europe.
Eventually, St. Nicholas became patron saint of Holy Russia. Thanks to the czars' love of St. Nicholas, there were eventually more churches dedicated to the saint than any other, except Our Lady.
St. Nicholas' importance in the Middle Ages is shown by the fact that when Islam rose in the East, efforts were made to rescue his relics from desecration by militant Muslims.
In 1087 his bones were taken from Myra to Bari in Italy under controversial circumstances. Italians still claim the bones were transferred by devout merchants, but in Turkey, it is said the bones were taken by pirates.
In Demre, the Basilica of St. Nicholas is now a ruin, and there is confusion over which of the two surviving tombs there originally belonged to St. Nicholas. The “official” tomb bears a carving of an embracing Byzantine couple—a most unsuitable inscription for the tomb of a bishop. Another tomb, which is less ornately decorated, is said by others to be the true tomb; they claim that oils left overnight in that sarcophagus have miraculous qualities. That this confusion exists is surprising, for St. Nicholas' tomb was the focus of pilgrimages to the site for many years. Oil poured into the tomb and recovered later was said to have had miraculous qualities.
The cult of St. Nicholas came to the United States via Middle and Eastern European emigrants especially—in Britain, for example, there was no strong devotion to him until the Victorian period, which also gave us many of the other trappings of modern day Christmas — cards, Christmas trees, and even Christmas pudding.
While there are no longer any Christians living in Demre, St. Nicholas' home town, today, local Muslim businessmen have founded a charitable foundation which each year awards a peace prize to an international figure. In its first year, the prize was awarded to the Dalai Lama who, on receiving it, noted that an award named for a Christian saint had been awarded to a Buddhist by a group of Muslims. A fitting legacy for a fantastic saint.
Cian Molloy writes from Dublin, Ireland.
----- EXCERPT: Fact, fable, and the Coca-Cola Co. colorourimage of beloved St. Nicholas ----- EXTENDED BODY: Cian Molloy ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: The Splendid Sounds of Christmas DATE: 11/15/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 15-21, 1998 ----- BODY:Clearly, the most important thing about Christmas is the nativity of Christ. But mention Christmas to many people and visual images come to mind: the tree with its pointillist magic, the intimate light in a Christmas crËche, the blaze of colors on a holiday dinner table. But for this writer, the first thing that comes to mind about Christmas is sound: bright carols and wistful winter songs, hand bells, a snatch of Gregorian melody, Handel's Messiah, hymns about the Christ child, about angels who come disguised as beggars, and, of course, that quiet chorus about a certain silent night.
The holly and the ivy are fine, but it's the music that truly sets the mood for this season. From the early medieval village songs chanted over fires during long winter nights to the elaborate sequences composed in convents and monasteries to adorn the Christmas liturgy, to more recent additions to the seasonal repertoire, the musical treasury of Christmas is an embarrassment of riches.
Everyone, of course, will have his or her own list of favorite carols and hymns. In this review of new Christmas compact discs, I'll offer some suggestions out of my own family's Christmas traditions, along with a nudge or two in the direction of some of the more remarkable new choral CDs issued in time for the holidays.
George Friederich Handel's Messiah (at least the so-called Christmas portion of the famous oratorio) tops anyone's list of the more-serious classical works on Nativity themes, and there are many fine recordings available on CD, from the massive, “politically incorrect” sound of Eugene Ormandy's old version with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to the newest “lean and mean” attempt to realize what 18th-century listeners might have heard.
But I'd like also to alert readers to an alternative Christmas oratorio in the form of French composer Hector Berlioz's 1854 masterpiece L'Enfance du Christ(“Childhood of Christ”). I can hardly imagine Christmas morning without the naive delicacy of this work, Berlioz's musical evocation of his own childhood faith, and his ingenious settings of episodes from the infancy of Christ: “Herod's Dream,” “The Flight into Egypt,” the “Shepherds' Farewell to the Holy Family,” and the moving “The Holy Family's Repose.” Because L'Enfance features evocative music telling a familiar story, it's a good work to use to help children get over the hurdle of classical music.
A new Hyperion CD of L'Enfance with Matthew Best conducting the St. Paul's Cathedral Choir, the Corydon Singers and Orchestra comes highly recommended, along with “old friends” like the London-Decca re-release of the familiar early 1960s performance featuring Sir Colin Davis and tenor Peter Pears. Erato also boasts a fine idiomatic reading of the work with John Eliot Gardner, the Monteverdi Choir, and the Lyon Opera Orchestra. All of these come with English translations of the French text.
Oratorios like Handel's Messiah and Berlioz's L'Enfance du Christ were written to bolster the faith of sophisticated urban believers in a Europe that was then at least nominally Christian. But music was also an integral part of the Catholic missions as they spread the faith to indigenous cultures across North and South America. Many visitors to the Jesuit missions in Latin America and their Franciscan counterparts in California testified to the vital part that choral and orchestral music played in the evangelization of indigenous peoples, and to the high cultural level of mission musical life.
We can sample some of that vitality in an attractive new Zephyr CD entitled A Choir of Angels. Zephyr/Voices Unbound is a Los Angeles-based collective of professional singers. Aided by scholars, they've assembled a lively and innovative program of the 18th- and early 19th-century music written and sung at the 21 missions established by the Franciscans up the coast of California—everything from Latin-language liturgical chant to a dawn serenade to the Virgin in Spanish to the haunting bird songs of Cahuilla Indian converts who lived and served at the missions. It's more than fine choral singing. Through their identification with this music, Zephyr recreates the sounds of a lost world.
Sequentia, an ensemble specializing in medieval music, is another choral group making a name for itself by unearthing a great tradition of spirituality in music—this time the Christmas music of the fertile and prosperous medieval duchy of Aquitaine, homeland of the troubadors.
Having heard Sequentia live several years ago, I can only say that their devotion to this deeply spiritual music is only matched by the extraordinary energy they bring to their performances of it.
Aquitania, recently released on the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi (DHM) label, is the second in a series of CDs featuring both the instrumental and vocal music of the 12th-century Aquitanian monasteries. The first disc, Shining Light, which came out two years ago, is a dramatic account of the solemn beauty of medieval Christmas imagery. No Santas and reindeer here. Just resplendent light triumphing over the darkening world.
Finishing one of Sequentia's CDs, one could be forgiven for thinking that the profound integration between art and faith exemplified in the best of the medieval heritage is a thing of the past. But, happily, one would be wrong.
Paralleling today's revival of representational schools in painting, many composers, without sacrificing the gains of modernism, are once again seeking to infuse beauty, order, and religious meaning into their work. Morten Lauridsen, chair of the department of composition at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, is a prominent figure in that return.
His most recent work, Lux Aeterna,just out on the RCM label, is little short of a revelation. A setting of Latin texts from several sources, including the Requiem Mass, the work for chorus and orchestra has something of the majesty and sweep of Brahms' Ein Deutsche Requiem. Commentators familiar with Lauridsen's work are finding it hard to come up with superlatives to match his achievement, though—a blend of tonal beauty, flowing melodic line, pulsing sonori-ties, and deep serenity. Critic Peter Rutenberg has called the 55-year-old musician “the composer of the dawn of the third millennium.”
The new CD also includes Lauridsen's choral settings of the Ave Maria and the great Christmas antiphon O Magnum Mysterium. It could be the most important CD you buy all year.
Not to neglect old favorites, however. There's a spunky new recording of Tchaikovsky's perennial Christmas favorite, The Nutcracker (complete), out on a Philips CD, under the baton of Valery Gergiev, the dynamic new maestro of the Orchestra of Kirov Ballet in St. Petersburg. And for the annual all-star every-Christmas-carol-you've-ever-heard-of album (and a few you wish you hadn't), the prize goes to London's The Greatest Christmas Show on Earth featuring tracks with opera greats Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Kiri Te Kanawa, Placido Domingo, the King's College Choir, and many others.
Back to family traditions. In our house, one of the favorite post-presents, post-supper, post-dish-drying-detail Christmas day activities involved taking turns reading aloud poet Dylan Thomas' famous short story “A Child's Christmas in Wales.”
It's now available on a Harper-Collins CD, A Child's Christmas in Wales and Five Poems, read by the poet.
This poignant, funny, wistful account of a boyhood Christmas in a Welsh seacoast town gave us a rare opportunity to sit together in the aftermath of a busy American holiday and call to mind the human face of the feast, and of the people with whom we shared it, before we all dispersed to tinker with new acquisitions or be gently hustled to bed.
Oh, yes, there was always one thing more, one final nod to the soul of a Christmas almost past. We sang “Silent Night” one last time.
Senior writer Gabriel Meyer is based in Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Inspired music-some traditional, some little known-for a holy season ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gabriel Meyer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: A Christmas Carol with Christ DATE: 11/15/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 15-21, 1998 ----- BODY:There have been at least eight movie or television adaptations of Charles Dickens' story A Christmas Carol. The best is the 1951 British feature film version directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and written by Noel Langley. It's now available to the ordinary viewer as well as the film buff, courtesy of Blockbuster Video and other major outlets across the country.
Hurst and Langley give the tale an openly Christian interpretation, presenting it as a drama of repentance and forgiveness. Ever since Dickens first published the work in 1843, Ebeneezer Scrooge has been remembered as the archetypal miser—a cold-hearted businessman who values money more than people. The filmmakers remain true to his basic character. His legendary cruelty and tightfistedness are depicted in all their prickly and sometimes humorous detail. But we also get to see inside his psyche, observing him as a vulnerable human being rather than the crude caricature of many adaptations. For, beneath his hard-boiled veneer, there's still a faint flicker of moral consciousness that the events of Christmas Eve are able to rekindle into a positive force.
“Christmas is humbug,” Scrooge (Alastair Sim) tells some London associates. “It is a habit that keeps men from doing business.” The old miser is even reluctant to give his clerk, Bob Cratchit, Christmas Day off, and he turns down an invitation for a holiday dinner from his nephew whom he's cut off without a penny. Yet neither Cratchit nor the nephew harbor any resentment against Scrooge who, nevertheless, seems unmoved by their infectious good cheer. They are able to forgive him his hard-heartedness.
Scrooge dines by himself at a restaurant on Christmas Eve unwilling to order extra food because of the cost. As he walks home through the snowy streets, he looks lonely and unsure of himself, his top hat scrunched down on his head and his nose and mouth hidden behind a long scarf.
Later that evening the old miser is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, who drags behind him a chain. Its loud rattling scares Scrooge. “I wear the chain I forged in life,” the specter warns him. “You bear a chain yourself.”
We see the long-buried spark of conscience begin to work. “Mercy,” he cries, indicating that he's already feeling some guilt about the way he's led his life up until now.
“You have the chance of hope of escaping my fate,” Marley informs him. Three spirits are to visit him and what they reveal will unhinge him. But the possibility of redemption terrifies Scrooge because he can't yet forgive himself. He'd rather be damned than have to confront his sins. The first spirit is the ghost of Christmas past, and the filmmakers show us how the emotional pain of Scrooge's early experiences embittered him. The wounds are so deep he can't bear to watch the past unfold. His mother died giving birth to him, and his father made him feel it was his fault.
Although always a solitary personality, the young Scrooge did once know love. He had a girlfriend, Alice, who was beautiful and kind. “It makes no difference you're poor,” he tells her, displaying an openness he would later discard.
Scrooge was especially close to his sister, Fanny, who, like their mother, also died in childbirth. “Forgive me, Fanny,” he cries in helplessness as she passes away. But he perpetuates the sin of his father by blaming her offspring, his nephew, even though her deathbed wish was that he care for the boy.
As a young clerk, Scrooge leaves the employment of the honest businessman, Mr. Fezziwig, to go to work for a greedy merchant who counsels him: “Control the cash box, and you control the world.”
Scrooge heeds his advice and joins forces with his fellow clerk, Marley, and begins his rise to riches and power. His behavior toward others becomes unfeeling and calculating. Alice, who breaks off their relationship, understands his motivation. “You fear the world too much,” she observes. Psychologically, he's always playing defense, striking out at others to protect himself from further pain. He may be exploitive, but even at his worst he's never dishonest.
The possibility for change is always held before him. “There's still time,” Marley warns him from his deathbed. “Save yourself.” But Scrooge isn't ready.
The filmmakers show him in great torment. “No, no, no,” he moans as he watches himself continually take advantage of others. Evil though his conduct may be, he still has the moral sensibility to judge himself harshly.
“I'm beyond hope,” he exclaims to the next spirit that appears, the ghost of Christmas present. “Go redeem some other creature.”
This spirit realizes that psychologically Scrooge has backed himself into a corner, and he offers him a way out—Jesus Christ. “He lives in our hearts every day of the year,” the spirit counsels. “You have not sought him.” Scrooge then witnesses those he has wronged forgiving him, particularly, Cratchit's crippled son, Tiny Tim, who toasts the old miser, proclaiming, “God bless us, every one.”
Though moved by their generous hearts, he is emotionally paralyzed. “I cannot change,” he cries in despair, obviously now wanting to do so.
But the next spirit, the ghost of Christmas yet to come, conjures up even more disturbing things that eventually overwhelm him. He sees the irreparable damage his actions inflict on decent people and the desolation to which he has sentenced himself.
“I do repent,” he finally declares. “I'm not the man I was,” he repeats over and over, hoping his change of heart isn't too late.
This version of A Christmas Carolcommunicates the deeper meaning of the season. Scrooge's problem is identified as a crisis of the soul, and he's only able to make the necessary inner transformation when one of the spirits points him toward Jesus Christ.
Then the old miser is finally able to repent and forgive himself. As a result, he's suffused with an uncontrollable rush of joy and feels “as happy as an angel.” The movie suggests that if it isn't too late for a cruel, elderly curmudgeon like Scrooge to be saved, there's hope for us all.
Arts and Culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: In the best film version of Dickens'classic, Scrooge gets the straight scoop on redemption ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Hollywood Classics for the Season DATE: 11/15/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 15-21, 1998 ----- BODY:Eventually Mr. Macy himself backs Kris Kringle because his open-minded generosity attracts more customers to the store. The old man isn't satisfied, though.
Director George Seaton and co-screenwriter Valentine Davies handle each twist and turn of the plot with skill and charm, and in the end you'll probably find yourself agreeing with Kris Kringle that “Christmas is a frame of mind” and “faith is believing things that common sense tells you not to.” Miracle on 34th Street has been remade for television and as a feature, but neither has the power of the original.
In answer to desperate prayers, a suave angel named Dudley (Cary Grant) appears, but the bishop has trouble believing he's genuine. The prelate's wife, Julia (Loretta Young), is impressed by the angel's kind way of dealing with her friends. She observes how he raises the spirits of the cynical Professor Wuthridge (Monty Woolley) who has lost his faith in God and humanity. Soon Julia's spending time with Dudley that she used to spend with her husband. As an angel, it would never occur to Dudley to get physical, but it's clear the attraction is mutual.
The prelate's personal and professional problems all come to a head on Christmas Eve, and Dudley must work hard to bail him out. Director Henry Roster and screenwriters Robert Sherwood and Leonardo Bercovici alternate between laughter and pathos as the holiday season becomes a time of true celebration for all the movie's characters.
In preparation for his mission, the angel is shown all the important events in George's life up until that moment. George's father ran a bank that loaned money to ordinary citizens at affordable rates. His nemesis was the greedy millionaire, Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore), who wanted to keep the townsfolk poor and propertyless so he could better exploit them.
Because the needs of the bank's clientele always came before profits, the business was always on the verge of collapse. When George's father dies, he is forced to cancel his plans for college and go to work in the bank to keep the institution afloat.
The young man marries his long-time sweetheart, Mary (Donna Reed), and the two save for a long honeymoon abroad. On the day they're scheduled to leave, however, there's a run on the bank, and George is forced to use the money saved for the trip to bail out the business. Because of his dedication, most of Bedford Falls' working class realize their version of the American dream and acquire their own homes.
One Christmas Eve George discovers a shortfall between the bank's assets and cash in hand. When he goes to Potter for help though, the old miser threatens to have him arrested.
Director Frank Capra and screenwriters Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, Jo Sworling, and Phillip Van Doren Stern don't pull their punches as George begins to unravel. He loses his temper frequently, lashing out unfairly at family and co-workers.
In order to prevent George from committing suicide, the angel gives him “a chance to see what the world would have been like” if he had never been born.
The town supports itself as a center of gambling, strip joints, pawn shops, and unsavory bars. The warm community feeling that George experienced has been replaced by a cold, desperate hostility. His wife is an old-maid librarian, and his mother a bitter shrew running a boarding house.
“You see, you had a wonderful life,” the angel tells him. “Please God, let me live again,” George tearfully asks. It's AWonderful Life demonstrates the power of goodness to change lives and the difference each individual can make if he tries.
—John Prizer
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Gems Among Tales of the Saints DATE: 11/15/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 15-21, 1998 ----- BODY:More than 15 years ago when I published my first book, a work on a saint was a rare event. Father Maximilian Kolbe's story, A Man For Others, for instance, made it to print only because it was a compelling tale—not because of Kolbe's sanctity. Harper & Row ended up publishing it, after Catholic houses rejected it insisting, “saints don't sell.”
Today, volumes on saints pour out of publishing houses both Catholic and secular, though many of the books are not always well-researched, well-written, or well-edited.
But there are some gems. What follows is a sampling of the best books on saints to appear in 1998.
Books on St. Thérèse of Lisieux for her 1997 centennial and elevation to a doctor of the Church continued to appear this year. The most accessible of 1998's offerings is Maurice & Thérèse: The Story of a Love(Doubleday, hardback $19.95), by retired Auxiliary Bishop Patrick Ahern of New York. He writes: “My interest in St. Thérèse of Lisieux goes back to 1939 when I first read her autobiography and knew she was the saint for me. I was 20 at the time and she spoke to my deepest needs. She convinced me that someone as ordinary as I could aspire to the love of God which filled her heart to overflowing—in my own more modest measure, of course. The book has never lost its power to sustain me.”
The work reproduces in full, with the bishop's commentary, the letters exchanged between Thérèse and a young seminarian. Bishop Ahern writes, “Thérèse's autobiography is called Story of a Soul. The splendid biography by Bishop Guy Gaucher is called The Story of a Life. I have chosen to name this book Maurice and Thérèse: The Story of a Love. Obviously it was not a romantic love, but a love between a man and a woman whose lives were given totally, in vowed celibacy, to God and to others. Such a love can be—and often in the history of the Church has been—a very beautiful human love. Sometimes the partners have both been saints. In this case one was ‘the greatest saint of modern times.’ The other was not a very great saint at all.”
Taking us past Thérèse's final letter all the way to the end of Maurice's life, Bishop Ahern describes how, after Thérèse's death and publication of her autobiography, “Maurice would pray constantly to Thérèse and count heavily on her help. He devoured everything the Carmel sent him about her. He pored over her letters, knew them almost by heart, and kept close the photograph that Celine had taken. ‘I know she is near me, and I now have the habit of consulting her when there is a decision to be made,’ he wrote.”
The saint's loving presence did not spare her spiritual brother suffering, however. Father Maurice Belliere, as a missionary to Africa, proved a failure in human terms. He contracted sleeping sickness, which affected him mentally as well as physically, and died back in France, coincidentally, in the same mental hospital where Thérèse's beloved father had spent several years. Bishop Ahern sums up Maurice: “Neither before he encountered Thérèse nor after did he rise above the average. He turned up in the life of Thérèse not as a knight in shining armor but as a weak and needful man, sensitive, impressionable, and keenly aware of his sins. She asked of him no great achievement and set no goal too high for him to reach. It was not his virtue that evoked her love She loved him in his human frailty as a sister loves a brother. She never criticized him and never doubted the deep inner worth that lay beneath his limitations. She knew that God could use him for his purposes because his heart was good, no matter how far short he might fall of his own ideals.” Bishop Ahern closes with thoughts on Thérèse's similar love, in God, for us all.
Another person Thérèse loved and formed in her own spirit brings us Thérèse of Lisieux and Marie of the Trinity: The Transformative Relationship of St. Thérèse of Lisieux and her novice, Sister Marie of the Trinity by Pierre Descouvemont translated from French by Alexandra Plettenberg-Serban (Alba House, paperback $14.95). Here are priceless memories of Thérèse's down-to-earth doctrine that shapes souls for sanctity. For example, the novice complains that the prioress gives another nun more attention. Thérèse tells the novice: “It isn't [the prioress] you love, but yourself. When you really love, you rejoice about the happiness of the beloved person and you make every sacrifice to obtain it for her. If you loved Mother for her own sake, you would rejoice to see that she finds pleasure at your expense.” When Thérèse another day tells Marie, “I assure you that I love you as if I had a heart for you alone!” Marie retorts it isn't possible that Thérèse loves her more or even as much as she loves her blood sisters.
Thérèse explains: “Our heart is made in the image of God, who loves every creature as if she were the only one in the world. I have a special heart, entirely for everybody, and in spite of that, my heart belongs entirely to God. Jealously and comparison never exist in genuine love for one's neighbor.” Eventually Marie, too, will become holy having made her own Thérèse's insistence “One can never have too much confidence in God, who is so powerful and so merciful! One receives from him quite as much as one hopes for!”
A 1998 book recommended for its research is Faces of Holiness: Modern Saints in Photos and Words (OSV, paperback $14.95) by Ann Ball. Its 32 chapters actually offer many more saints since some cover entire groups of martyrs, such as the more than 20 heroic priests and laymen beatified as a group out of Mexico's persecutions of the 1920s and '30s. Many others are as recent as Brazilian Indian Curupira Ida Tuba who died as a Dominican nun in 1974, young Italian laywoman Carla Ronci who died in 1970, or Puerto Rican Carlos (“Charlie”) Manuel-Santiago RodrÌguez who died young of cancer in 1963.
Ball quotes Ronci whose cause is under way: “The thought that has touched me the most is this: God is in me. I am a living tabernacle. It does not have to be difficult to live in union with God. I am content with everything that surrounds me because in everything I detect a gift of God.” The photos offer immediacy and the book as a whole shows both the universality of the Church and her diversity of holiness. Although the book is an undistinguished-looking paperback, its contents make a fine gift for confirmandi,those being received into the Church, or college students.
One of the year's most beautiful books is Joan of Arc (Alfred A. Knopf, hardback $18) by Josephine Poole with striking illustrations by Angela Barrett. Written for children in the 10-year-old age range, this is actually a book for all of us. Aimed at the broad secular market in vocabulary (for instance, Joan is never referred to as St. Joan), this is nevertheless a book brimming with the spirit of God in both words and images.
Consider this passage, illustrated by a lush living-green orchard dappled in light, where the small figure of Joan looks up at something unseen by the reader: “One summer day, when Joan was alone in the garden, the air around her turned very clear and bright—much brighter than the sun could make it. While she was wondering what could be happening, she heard voices.
“They were talking to her. She was afraid at first, until she understood that these were voices from Heaven. As she listened, she was full of happiness. She had never felt so happy. When the Voices stopped and the heavenly light paled to sunshine, she cried because they had gone away.”
An appealingly and authentically illustrated book for children is Saint Francis of Assisi (Pauline Books & Media, hardcover $9.95) written by Francoise Vintrou, translated by Caroline Morson, adapted by Patricia E. Jablonski FSP, and illustrated by Augusta Curelli. This volume is part of a series titled Along the Paths of the Gospel which, to date, has two other attractive volumes, one on St. John Bosco and one on 15th-century Franciscan reformer St. Colette.
Harper San Francisco puts out beautifully edited books, and the 1998 batch on saints has particularly lovely covers, none more so than Enduring Grace: Living Portraits of Seven Women Mystics (paperback $16) by Carol Flinders. Flinders, who coauthored the phenomenally successful Laurel's Kitchen cookbook series, has a PhD in comparative literature and teaches religious and women's studies at Berkeley. A non-Catholic, she is a gentle feminist: She believes that “even aside from the social, economic, and sexual arrangements that bind men and women together in conventional life, we truly and deeply need one another” and she gets really excited over women's achievements.
Writing of Mechtild of Magdeburg, she exclaims: “When contemporary women learn about the Beguines, our hearts beat a little faster. Suddenly, in the allegedly monolithic structure of medieval Europe, there is a rift — an anomaly — incredibly enough, a women's movement. The exact nature of the movement and its origins continue to be debated by medieval scholars. In the past, some historians give priority to socioeconomic factors, almost to the exclusion of religious impulses, but today the genuinely spiritual nature of the movement, this ‘order that was not an order,’ is virtually unquestioned.”
I don't share all the views of Flinders, whose spirituality is more Hindu than Christian. But for mature Catholics who want to look at Teresa of Avila, Clare of Assisi, Thérèse of Lisieux, and other women mystics through the eyes of one who loves them as an outsider, this book can stimulate useful new perspectives—especially for those of us who promote our saints as a bridge into the faith for unchurched friends.
This year also brought a unique work for those who love Church art featuring the saints: The Saint Makers: Contemporary Santeras y Santeros(Northland Publishing, glossy paperback $14.95) by Chuck and Jan Rosenak, American folk art authorities. More than 40 living makers of santos— those traditionally carved and sometimes painted images of Christ and his saints—from the New Mexico tradition are given brief biographies accompanied by beautiful, full-color representations of their work. Everyone will find something here that feeds the soul.
Patricia Treece's Mornings With Thérèse of Lisieux (Servant Press 1997) has been on the Catholic Hardcover Best Seller list most of this year.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Patricia Treece ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Christmas in Ireland Is a Time of Homecoming DATE: 11/15/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 15-21, 1998 ----- BODY:Since early Christian times, the Irish have had a special devotion to Iosagán, the child Jesus, and his birthday is celebrated with greater energy than his resurrection at Easter!
Every town and village will have a manger in its public square, and on Christmas Eve, in one of Ireland's nicest traditions, candles are placed in windows to help Our Lady make her journey to Bethlehem.
The candles are also beacons for the thousands of emigrants who return home, only at this time of year. For Christmas is a time of homecoming in Ireland; in the days running up to Dec. 25, the ferry ports and airports are crowded with families anxiously awaiting their sons' and daughters' return.
At Christmas, you meet all the people you haven't seen since this time last year. As old friends bump into one another once again, the air is filled with spontaneous, only-at-Christmas, cheer. The Irish are lavish in wishing one another a Nollaig Shona (Happy Christmas)—and it doesn't matter who you are.
Returning emigrants aren't the only ones who visit Ireland at Christmastime. Tourists find the country attractive because of its mild winter, thanks to the warming effect of the Gulf Stream.
The Irish also take their enjoyment seriously; most of the country's businesses close for a week or more. As a result, the whole country seems to be having happy holidays! For the elderly in rural areas, Christmas is a time when empty houses are filled with the voices and laughter of the young.
Christmas preparations start long before Advent. Christmas cakes and puddings are made in November, allowing them time to mature. Houses are cleaned from top to bottom, brasses gleam, and everything shines. Then the decorations are put up, holly and ivy included. In some houses every door and entrance is crowned with a holly sprig. By 5:30 p.m. darkness falls and the candles in the window are lit. In some areas every window on a street will bear a flame. Midnight Mass will be packed, the numbers swelled by the returning emigrants and also because Christmas Mass is the one Mass no Irish Catholic will miss. The liturgy will be especially well done—the choir singing Irish-language carols praising Iosagáin and his arrival one Oiche Ciuin (Silent Night) long ago.
After Midnight Mass friends will gather in one another's houses for a slice of cake and “a drop of the cratur” or a hot whiskey, to keep the cold away.
Christmas morning begins with squeals of delight as children's presents are opened—the adults usually open their presents later in the day.
Before the Christmas meal, most families will take a walk in the countryside to get some air and work up an appetite for the feast ahead. More hardy souls will brave the cold and take a swim in the sea or a nearby lake. Although snow is rare at this time of year, this writer can report from experience that the water is shockingly cold! The favorite place for Christmas swims in Dublin is at the Forty Foot, a location celebrated at the start of James Joyce's Ulysses.
Christmas Day dinner lasts for at least two hours. It begins with slices of smoked salmon served with lemon on pieces of homemade brown bread. This is followed by homemade soup and then the main course. Traditionally, the main feature of a Christmas dinner was a goose. A children's nursery rhyme proclaims: “Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat. Please put a penny in the old man's hat. If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do. If you haven't got a ha'penny, God bless you.”
Today, however, roast turkey is more typically eaten and this will be accompanied by the best of Irish ham, baked in a delicious honey glaze. These will be served with roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, and maybe another two vegetables. For dessert, there will be Christmas pudding, a heavy fruit pudding that requires several hours of boiling. Ideally, the pudding should have been prepared months beforehand and, for luck, everyone in the house should have a turn stirring it as it was being made. Most households will serve a second dessert, usually a traditional sherry trifle loaded with alcohol that afterward puts usually abstemious grandparents into a deep sleep before the fire.
After the meal, adults exchange their gifts, and though they take coffee afterward, it's quite common for them to fall asleep contentedly before the fire because of the amount they have just eaten. On Christmas day itself, everyone stays with his or her family. For visitors, the next after, St. Stephen's Day, is more enjoyable, for that is when everyone comes out to play. Many will head to a nearby horse race meeting—and there will be plenty of priests among the bettors. Others will join the Wren Boys for one of Ireland's oldest Christmas traditions.
The Wren Boys travel from house to house and pub to pub bringing music and merriment wherever they go. In olden times a wren was killed as part of the festivities, but this is rarely done today—the bird is now a protected species.
Why the wren was killed, is not exactly clear. Some folklorists say it predates Christianity, when Ireland's smallest bird was associated with wood spirits or the very spark of life itself. Others say it was done because tradition says the wren is a treacherous bird. Though it is Ireland's national bird, the wren has a reputation for deceit.
It is also known as the “king of the birds.” Long ago, according to a tale, all the birds of Ireland met and decided that their king would be the one who could fly the highest. The eagle soared above the crowd and seemed to have won, but a wren was hidden beneath its wings and at the crucial moment it sprung out and declared itself the winner of the crown.
Another story tells that the robin won its red breast when it was stained while removing thorns from the crown placed on Christ when he was crucified. But when the wren was asked for help, he refused Our Lord.
There is yet a third tale of the wren's deceit: When Irish rebels led by Sarsfield in the 17th century were preparing to attack an English camp, the English soldiers were awaken by a wren pecking on a drum and as a result the Irishmen were massacred.
Whatever the truth about the wren, it provides a good excuse for a bit of craic (local talk) with Wren Boys dressed like characters in a pantomime, acting out skits and playing fine dance music. Dublin's biggest Wren Boy meeting is in Ringsend, but the biggest Wren Boy celebration of all takes place in Dingle, County Kerry, the most westerly town in Ireland.
Incidentally, Dec. 26 is known in Ireland only as St. Stephen's Day. If you use the English term “Boxing Day,” you will be rebuked for forgetting your heritage. Festivities and parties continue throughout the rest of the week. If you're in an Irish pub after Christmas you will probably get invited to two or more in one night. New Year's Eve is celebrated as in most other countries, though some Irish people are antipathetic to the celebrations, saying they are a Scottish tradition.
The Christmas season ends Jan. 6, the Epiphany, known in Ireland as either “Little Christmas” or “Women's Christmas.” In less politically correct times long ago, women were expected to do all the household work, including cooking, throughout the year. Their only break was on this day. On Nollaig na mBan (Women's Christmas) a housewife could take it easy, relax, and not do a hand's turn. The tradition is continued in some parts of Ireland where Mother's Day is celebrated Jan. 6.
Little Christmas is also important in that all the Christmas decorations must be taken down before sunset on this day—forgetting to do so will bring bad luck.
But on this day, and throughout Christmas, there is one Irish language toast you will nearly always hear—Go mbeidh muid beo ar an am seo arÌs- That we may be living when this day comes again [next year].
Cian Molloy writes from Dublin, Ireland.
----- EXCERPT: Holiday pudding, the Wren Boys, and other age-old traditions mark season ----- EXTENDED BODY: Cian Molloy ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: 'The More You Honor Me, The More I Will Bless You' DATE: 11/15/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 15-21, 1998 ----- BODY:The Holy Infant of Prague is the object of one of the most popular devotions in the Catholic faith. It stems from one particular statue of the Christ Child, housed in the church of Our Lady of Victory in the Czech Republic. Millions of the faithful every year make a pilgrimage to the holy image, to honor the Infant and the “wonder of the Incarnation.” Countless replicas of the statue are found in homes and churches throughout the world.
According to tradition, the statue is of Spanish origin, and was first given to a Spanish princess by her mother as a wedding gift. It was later brought to Prague by the bride, Maria Manriques de Lara, after her marriage in 1556 to a Czech nobleman. In later years, the statue was given as a wedding gift to Maria's daughter, Polyxena.
On being widowed in 1628, she donated the holy statue to the Discalced Carmelites of Prague and the Church of Our Lady of Victory. When the novices of the Carmelite monastery received the new statue, they quickly became devoted to it. One of the novices, Cyril of the Mother of God (1590-1675), eventually began a great apostolate of the Infant Child.
When the Thirty Years' War broke out and the monastery's novitiate was moved to Germany in 1630, devotions before the statue were discontinued. In the ensuing years, troubles continued as King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden took possession of the Prague churches, ransacked the Carmelite monastery and disposed of holy images. For the next seven years the statue lay forgotten until Cyril, now an ordained priest, returned to Prague in 1637.
With hostile armies still in control of the city and the monastery suffering setbacks, the prior of the community called the monks together to offer prayers. Upon hearing his request, Father Cyril remembered the favors received through the intercession of the Infant, and asked permission to search the monastery in hopes of finding the lost statue. Eventually, he found it behind the main altar, amid cobwebs and scattered debris. The statue had suffered little through the years —except for the Infant's hands, which were missing. With great sorrow, Cyril then placed the dusty image on an altar in the oratory where the long-forgotten devotions were renewed with vigor.
One day, while kneeling before the statue in prayer, Father Cyril heard these words: “Have pity on me, and I will have pity on you. Give me my hands, and I will give you peace. The more you honor me, the more I will bless you.” At that moment, Father Cyril looked up and noticed for the first time the Infant's missing hands. Later, the holy priest begged the prior to fix the statue, but to no avail.
In time, a wealthy and pious man who had fallen gravely ill came to Prague and offered financial help to restore the statue. Rather than fixing the old statue, however, the prior used the man's funds to buy a new one. On the very first day though, the new statue was shattered by a falling candlestick. This incident was an indication to Father Cyril that the wishes of the Infant must be fulfilled literally. Subsequently, the original statue became the object of veneration again. However, when funds for the necessary repairs proved to be in jeopardy again, Father Cyril heard the words: “Place me near the entrance of the sacristy, and you will receive aid.” When this was done, the full cost of the repairs was almost immediately received.
Years later, when a pestilence was raging in Prague, the prior himself almost died. After making a promise to spread the devotion of the Infant if he were cured, the prior began to experience a miraculous recovery. Upon returning to good health, he ordered a general devotion to the Infant, which won the hearts of the Carmel of Prague.
The 17th century proved to be a very favorable one for the holy image. In 1641, a magnificent altar to the Blessed Trinity was built to serve as the first home of the miraculous statue. Three years later, a new chapel for the Infant was blessed on the feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus (which has remained the principal feast day of the miraculous Infant ever since). In 1648, the archbishop of Prague gave the first-ever ecclesiastical approval of the devotion, when he consecrated the chapel and gave permission to priests to say Mass at the chapel altar. Finally, in 1655, the statue was solemnly crowned.
Almost 100 years later, the statue was moved to a magnificent chapel inside the church of Our Lady of Victory. Over time, a traditional practice of clothing the statue several times each year in the proper liturgical color developed. During the Christmas season, for example, the statue is clothed in a dark green robe made of velvet and richly decorated with golden embroidery.
Today, the Discalced Carmelites (both sisters and brothers) continue to serve as the custodians of the shrine. Inside the church of Our Lady of Victory, pilgrims will find the statue situated on the Marble altar to the right in a crystal box in the middle of the church. The sanctuary is open every day of the year, and daily Mass is celebrated. On weekends, in addition to the regular Czech Masses, Masses in Spanish (Saturday at 7 p.m.), English (Sunday at noon), and Italian (5:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m. in the summer) are celebrated.
Arriving at the Church of Our Lady of Victory in downtown Prague is rather easy, as it is located on the much-traveled Karmelitsk Street. The nearest metro station to the church is Malostransk. Take tram no. 12 or 22 to arrive at Malostransk. The shrine is within close walking distance of the metro station. Other Catholic sites of interest in Prague include St. Vitus Cathedral and the Loreta.
For more information on making a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Victory Church, contact one of the many Catholic travel organizations or contact the shrine's pilgrimage office at: Bos Karmelitni, Klster Prazskèho Jezultka, Karmelitsk 9, 11800 Prague, Czech Republic; tel 011-42-0-2-530-752, fax 011-42-0-2-9002-2435, email: pragjesu@login.
Kevin Wright, author ofCatholic Shrines of Western Europe, writes from Bellevue, Washington.
----- EXCERPT: The much loved Holy Infant Child of Prague has been true to his word ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kevin Wright ----- KEYWORDS: Trevel -------- TITLE: Monks' Christmas cakes Apro-life fund-raiser DATE: 11/15/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 15-21, 1998 ----- BODY:TORONTO—A Christmas season fruitcake sales arrangement between Canada's largest pro-life group and a small order of Trappist monks is proving a modest financial boon to both organizations.
For the past 10 years, Campaign Life Coalition has acted as the chief distributor of “gourmet Christmas fruitcakes” produced by the Cistercian Monastery of Notre Dame in Orangeville, northwest of Toronto. Campaign Life is Canada's major pro-life lobbying organization. Like most pro-life groups, it relies on donations from supporters—and creative fund-raising efforts — for its long-term financial survival.
Each November, Campaign Life orders thousands of fruitcakes from the monks of the monastery. The cakes are purchased at a discount, and are sold at Catholic churches in Toronto and selected parishes in other provinces.
Proceeds from the Christmas season sales provide a much-needed financial tonic for the chronically cash-strapped organization. Campaign Life in fact, recently mailed a special letter to supporters warning that it would have to curtail some of its pro-life efforts without an immediate infusion of funds.
But a Christmas gift of sorts arrives each November when Campaign Life unfolds its Christmas cake sales program. By teaming up with the Cistercian monastery, Campaign Life provides a ready-made customer base for the monks'cake-making operation, while generating a much-needed source of cash.
“The Christmas cake sales program is a significant part of our financial picture,” says Tom Brown, coordinator of the cake sales program. “We've raised a fair amount of money over the last several years.”
Brown leads a team of volunteers who go the “extra mile” in ensuring sales success. In fact, Brown and other volunteers convert their homes into temporary cake depots each November and December. Brown is often the go from early November to Christmas eve delivering supplies to eager buyers.
The cakes, which come in two- and three-pound sizes, sell for $12 and $20 each (Canadian). They have earned a reputation for taste and quality and their arrival each November is eagerly anticipated by thousands of repeat customers.
“Under the direction of their Superior,” a fruitcake advertisement reads, “the monks mix the flour, cherries, walnuts, spices and wine to produce a fruitcake that has become a Christmas mainstay in many homes. The ingredients are all natural and the vest best possible so that you have a very moist, superior fruitcake.”
Father Marcel Gagne of the Cistercian monastery was modest in describing the popularity of the Christmas fruitcakes. “I don't think there is anything very special about our cakes,” he told the National Catholic Register. “It may be that that they are made from an old recipe from the mother of one of the monks, and that they are hand-made.”
Father Gagne said the arrangement with Campaign Life remains an informal one. “There was never any formal partnership between Campaign Life and the Cistercian Monastery of Notre Dame,” he said. “They just happen to be our main customer.”
But without Campaign Life's input, the monks would be hard pressed to reach as many customers.
“About 99% of the sales come through Catholic churches,” Tom Brown reported. “Once we get the permission of the pastor, a small army of volunteers set up booth at each weekend Mass, and the sales go forward from there.”
Although most sales take place in the greater Toronto area, Campaign Life also fulfils cake orders from customers from as far away as Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Moncton, New Brunswick. As well, hundreds of cakes go to customers in cities throughout northern Ontario.
“There is no such thing as a best customer,” Brown said. “The cakes move well in many churches, but much of the success depends on the ability and enthusiasm of the people doing the actual selling. Many pastors always welcome us into their churches each Christmas and we're always on the lookout for new parishes.”
Brown said Campaign Life sold more than 22,000 cakes last Christmas, and he is hoping for similar sales figures in 1998.
Campaign Life national president Jim Hughes said except for its ongoing appeals to supporters, the Christmas cake program remains the organization's primary fund-raising operation. He estimated that the fruitcake sales generate between $70,000 and $90,000 a year.
“The cake sale profits mean an awful lot in keeping some of our local offices open and in keeping us afloat in lean financial times,” Hughes said. “One of our supporters who had contact with the monastery thought this would be a good way of assisting our work while providing more customers for the monks. We see it as a good partnership. People who purchase the cakes each Christmas are supporting two worthwhile causes.”
Hughes revealed that the Christmas season also provides the incentive for a fund-raising venture involving the sale of poinsettia plants. “It doesn't come close to the amount raised by the cake sales, but it makes a contribution to our overall operations,” Hughes added.
One possible cloud on the Christmas cake horizon is the imminent closing of the Cistercian Fathers' monastery in Orangeville.
In October, the monks announced that due to declining numbers, the Orangeville monastery would be closed. All operations, including the annual fruitcake production, will be transferred to a Cistercian facility in Oka, Quebec.
“The move to Quebec is a concern for us,” Hughes said. “We're hoping that next year the monks will be able to produce as many cakes as we need from their new location.”
For their part, the Cistercian monks also hope their popular cake-making operation will not suffer from the move to Quebec.
“For next year, we're not certain if we will be able to sell cakes to Campaign Life,” Father Gagne said. “Because Oka will begin on a small basis, it will be a new experience of the monks there, so they will have to be careful. Once the move to Oka is completed, the cakes will be available from the monastery there, but we will have to waint until we have more information.”
—Mike Mastromatteo
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mike Mastromatteo ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Pope John Paul II's Christmas Letter to the World's Children DATE: 11/15/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 15-21, 1998 ----- BODY:Many children experience “unspeakable suffering” today—“in the Balkans, for example, and in some African countries. It was while I was thinking about these facts…that I decided to ask you, dear boys and girls, to take upon yourselves the duty of praying for peace,” Pope John Paul II said in a message to the world's children just before Christmas 1994.
The Vatican press office called the letter a “miniencyclical.” It said the text contrasted with the sugary prose often present in children's literature and represented a true pastoral and educational document for children. Said to be the first papal document ever specifically addressed to children, it marked the close of the 1994 International Year of the Family. The Pope asked children not only to pray for peace, but to pray for their families and all families of the world. Pray also “that you will find out what your calling is and that you will then follow it generously,” the Pope exhorted children. His letter pointed to the role of children in the Gospel and in Church history. “How important children are in the eyes of Jesus! We could even say that the Gospel is full of the truth about children,” the Pope said. “There are many boys and girls among those declared by the Church to be saints or blessed.” The Pope assured children that God loves them. “People cannot live without love,” he said. “They are called to love God and their neighbor, but in order to love properly they must be certain that God loves them.” An excerpt of the Vatican's English text of the letter to children follows.
Jesus Is Born
In a few days we shall celebrate Christmas, the holy day which is so full of meaning for all children in every family. This year it will be even more so, because this is the Year of the Family. Before the Year of the Family ends, I want to write to you, the children of the whole world, and to share with you in the joy of this happy time of year.
Christmas is the feast day of a child, of a newborn baby. So it is your feast day too! You wait impatiently for it and get ready for it with joy, counting the days and even the hours to the holy night of Bethlehem.
I can almost see you: You are setting up the crib at home, in the parish, in every corner of the world, recreating the surroundings and the atmosphere in which the Savior was born. Yes, it is true! At Christmastime the stable and the manger take center place in the Church. And everyone hurries to go there, to make a spiritual pilgrimage, like the shepherds on the night of Jesus' birth. Later it will be the Magi arriving from the distant East, following the star to the place where the Redeemer of the universe lay.
You too, during the days of Christmas, visit the cribs, stopping to look at the child lying in the hay. You look at his mother and you look at St. Joseph, the Redeemer's guardian. As you look at the Holy Family, you think of your own family, the family in which you came into the world. You think of your mother, who gave you birth, and of your father. Both of them provide for the family and for your upbringing. For it is the parents' duty not only to have children but to bring them up from the moment of their birth.
Dear children, as I write to you I am thinking of when many years ago I was a child like you. I too used to experience the peaceful feelings of Christmas, and when the star of Bethlehem shone I would hurry to the crib together with the other boys and girls to relive what happened 2,000 years ago in Palestine. We children expressed our joy mostly in song. How beautiful and moving are the Christmas carols which in the tradition of every people are sung around the crib! What deep thoughts they contain, and above all what joy and tenderness they express about the divine child who came into the world that holy night!
The days which follow the birth of Jesus are also feast days: So eight days afterward, according to the Old Testament tradition, the child was given a name: He was called Jesus. After 40 days, we commemorate his presentation in the temple like every other firstborn son of Israel. On that occasion an extraordinary meeting took place: Mary, when she arrived in the temple with the child, was met by the old man Simeon, who took the baby Jesus in his arms and spoke these prophetic words:
“Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32).
Then, speaking to his mother Mary, he added: “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:34-35).
So already in the very first days of Jesus'life we heard the foretelling of the passion, which will one day include his mother Mary too: On Good Friday she will stand silently by the cross of her Son. Also, not much time will pass after his birth before the baby Jesus finds himself facing a grave danger: The cruel king Herod will order all the children under the age of two years to be killed, and for this reason Jesus will be forced to flee with his parents into Egypt.
You certainly know all about these events connected with the birth of Jesus. They are told to you by your parents and by priests, teachers, and catechists, and each year you relive them spiritually at Christmastime together with the whole Church. So you know about these dramatic aspects of Jesus' infancy.
Dear friends! In what happened to the child of Bethlehem you can recognize what happens to children throughout the world. It is true that a child represents the joy not only of its parents, but also the joy of the Church and the whole of society. But it is also true that in our days, unfortunately, many children in different parts of the world are suffering and being threatened: They are hungry and poor, they are dying from diseases and malnutrition, they are the victims of war, they are abandoned by their parents and condemned to remain without a home, without the warmth of a family of their own, they suffer many forms of violence and arrogance from grown-ups. How can we not care, when we see the suffering of so many children, especially when this suffering is in some way caused by grown-ups?
Jesus Brings the Truth
The child whom we see in the manger at Christmas grew up as the years passed. When he was 12 years old, as you know, he went for the first time with Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. There, in the crowds of pilgrims, he was separated from his parents and, with other boys and girls of his own age, he stopped to listen to the teachers in the temple, for a sort of “catechism lesson.”
The holidays were good opportunities for handing on the faith to children who were about the same age as Jesus. But on this occasion it happened that this extraordinary boy who had come from Nazareth not only asked very intelligent questions but also started to give profound answers to those who were teaching him. The questions and even more the answers astonished the temple teachers. It was the same amazement which later on would mark Jesus'public preaching. The episode in the temple of Jerusalem was simply the beginning and a kind of foreshadowing of what would happen some years later.
Dear boys and girls who are the same age as the 12-year-old Jesus, are you not reminded now of the religion lessons in the parish and at school, lessons which you are invited to take part in? So I would like to ask you some questions: What do you think of your religion lessons? Do you become involved like the 12-year-old Jesus in the temple? Do you regularly go to these lessons at school and in the parish? Do your parents help you to do so?
The 12-year-old Jesus became so interested in the religion lesson in the temple of Jerusalem that in a sense he even forgot about his own parents. Mary and Joseph, having started off on the journey back to Nazareth with other pilgrims, soon realized that Jesus was not with them. They searched hard for him. They went back and only on the third day did they find him in Jerusalem, in the temple. “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously” (Luke 2:48).
How strange is Jesus' answer and how it makes us stop and think! “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” (Luke 2:49). It was an answer difficult to accept.
The evangelist Luke simply adds that Mary “kept all these things in her heart” (2:51). In fact, it was an answer which would be understood only later, when Jesus, as a grown-up, began to preach and say that for his heavenly Father he was ready to face any sufferings and even death on the cross.
From Jerusalem Jesus went back with Mary and Joseph to Nazareth, where he was obedient to them (cf. Luke 2:51). Regarding this period before his public preaching began, the Gospel notes only that he “increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).
Dear children, in the child whom you look at in the crib you must try to see also the 12-year-old boy in the temple in Jerusalem, talking with the teachers. He is the same grown man who later, at 30 years old, will begin to preach the word of God, will choose the twelve apostles, will be followed by crowds thirsting for the truth. At every step he will confirm his extraordinary teaching with signs of divine power: He will give sight to the blind, heal the sick, even raise the dead. And among the dead whom he will bring back to life there will be the 12-year-old daughter of Jairus and the son of the widow of Naim, given back alive to his weeping mother.
It is really true: This child, now just born, once he is grown up, as teacher of divine truth, will show an extraordinary love for children. He will say to the apostles, “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them,” and he will add, “For to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14).
Another time, as the apostles are arguing about who is the greatest, he will put a child in front of them and say, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). On that occasion, he also spoke harsh words of warning, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6).
How important children are in the eyes of Jesus! We could even say that the Gospel is full of the truth about children. The whole of the Gospel could actually be read as the “Gospel of children.” What does it mean that “unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven”? Is not Jesus pointing to children as models even for grown-ups? In children there is something that must never be missing in people who want to enter the kingdom of heaven. People who are destined to go to heaven are simple like children and like children are full of trust, rich in goodness and pure. Only people of this sort can find in God a Father and, thanks to Jesus, can become in their own turn children of God.
Is not this the main message of Christmas? We read in St. John, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14); and again, “To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God” (John 1:12). Children of God! You, dear children, are sons and daughters of your parents. God wants us all to become his adopted children by grace. Here we have the real reason for Christmas joy, the joy I am writing to you about at the end of this Year of the Family. Be happy in this “Gospel of divine sonship.” In this joy I hope that the coming Christmas holidays will bear abundant fruit in this Year of the Family.
Jesus Gives Himself
Dear friends, there is no doubt that an unforgettable meeting with Jesus is first holy communion, a day to be remembered as one of life's most beautiful. The Eucharist, instituted by Christ at the Last Supper on the night before his passion, is a sacrament of the new covenant, rather, the greatest of the sacraments. In this sacrament the Lord becomes food for the soul under the appearances of bread and wine. Children receive this sacrament solemnly a first time—in first Holy Communion—and are encouraged to receive it afterward as often as possible in order to remain in close friendship with Jesus.
To be able to receive Holy Communion, as you know, it is necessary to have received baptism: This is the first of the sacraments and the one most necessary for salvation. Baptism is a great event! In the Church's first centuries, when baptism was received mostly by grown-ups, the ceremony ended with receiving the Eucharist and was as solemn as first Holy Communion is today. Later on, when baptism began to be given mainly to newborn babies—and this is the case of many of you, dear children, so that in fact you do not remember the day of your baptism—the more solemn celebration was transferred to the moment of First Holy Communion.
Every boy and every girl belonging to a Catholic family knows all about this custom: First Holy Communion is a great family celebration. On that day, together with the one who is making his or her First Holy Communion, the parents, brothers, sisters, relatives, godparents, and sometimes also the instructors and teachers generally receive the Eucharist.
The day of first holy communion is also a great day of celebration in the parish. I remember as though it were yesterday when, together with the other boys and girls of my own age, I received the Eucharist for the first time in the parish church of my town. This event is usually commemorated in a family photo so that it will not be forgotten. Photos like these generally remain with a person all through his or her life. As time goes by, people take out these pictures and experience once more the emotions of those moments; they return to the purity and joy experienced in that meeting with Jesus, the one who out of love became the redeemer of man.
For how many children in the history of the church has the Eucharist been a source of spiritual strength, sometimes even heroic strength! How can we fail to be reminded, for example, of holy boys and girls who lived in the first centuries and are still known and venerated throughout the Church? St. Agnes, who lived in Rome; St. Agatha, who was martyred in Sicily; St. Tarcisius, a boy who is rightly called the “martyr of the Eucharist” because he preferred to die rather than give up Jesus, whom he was carrying under the appearance of bread….
Earlier I was speaking to you about the “Gospel of children”: Has this not found in our own time a particular expression in the spirituality of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus? It is absolutely true: Jesus and his mother often choose children and give them important tasks for the life of the Church and of humanity. I have named only a few who are known everywhere, but how many others there are who are less widely known! The Redeemer of humanity seems to share with them his concern for others: for parents, for other boys and girls. He eagerly awaits their prayers. What enormous power the prayer of children has! This becomes a model for grownups themselves: Praying with simple and complete trust means praying as children pray.
And here I come to an important point in this letter: At the end of this Year of the Family, dear young friends, it is to your prayers that I want to entrust the problems of your own families and of all the families in the world. And not only this: I also have other intentions to ask you to pray for. The Pope counts very much on your prayers. We must pray together and pray hard, that humanity, made up of billions of human beings, may become more and more the family of God and able to live in peace.
At the beginning of this letter I mentioned the unspeakable suffering which many children have experienced in this century and which many of them are continuing to endure at this very moment. How many of them even in these days are becoming victims of the hatred which is raging in different parts of the world: in the Balkans, for example, and in some African countries. It was while I was thinking about these facts, which fill our hearts with pain, that I decided to ask you, dear boys and girls, to take upon yourselves the duty of praying for peace.
You know this well: Love and harmony build peace; hatred and violence destroy it. You instinctively turn away from hatred and are attracted by love: For this reason the Pope is certain that you will not refuse his request, but that you will join in his prayer for peace in the world with the same enthusiasm with which you pray for peace and harmony in your own families.
Praise the Name of the Lord!
At the end of this letter, dear boys and girls, let me recall the words of a psalm which have always moved me: “Laudate pueri Dominum!” Praise, O children of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord! Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore! From the rising of the sun to its setting may the name of the Lord be praised! (cf. Psalms 113:1-3)….
Praise the name of the Lord! The children of every continent on the night of Bethlehem look with faith upon the newborn child and experience the great joy of Christmas. They sing in their own languages, praising the name of the Lord. The touching melodies of Christmas spread throughout the earth. They are tender and moving words which are heard in every human language; it is like a festive song rising from all the earth, which blends with the song of the angels, the messengers of the glory of God, above the stable in Bethlehem: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14).
The highly favored Son of God becomes present among us as a newborn baby; gathered around him, the children of every nation on earth feel his eyes upon them, eyes full of the heavenly Father's love, and they rejoice because God loves them. People cannot live without love. They are called to love God and their neighbor, but in order to love properly they must be certain that God loves them.
God loves you, dear children! This is what I want to tell you at the end of the Year of the Family and on the occasion of these Christmas feast days, which in a special way are your feast days.
I hope that they will be joyful and peaceful for you; I hope that during them you will have a more intense experience of the love of your parents, of your brothers and sisters, and of the other members of your family. This love must then spread to your whole community, even to the whole world, precisely through you, dear children. Love will then be able to reach those who are most in need of it, especially the suffering and the abandoned. What joy is greater than the joy brought by love? What joy is greater than the joy which you, O Jesus, bring at Christmas to people's hearts, and especially to the hearts of children? Raise your tiny hand, divine child, and bless these young friends of yours, bless the children of all the earth.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: American Bishops Zero in On Catholic Politicians DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—The highlight of the mid–November U.S. Catholic Bishops’ meeting was the passage of a document which spells out responsibilities for Catholic officeholders and the laity in supporting pro–life measures.
Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics was passed by a 217–30 vote on Nov. 18. It helped draw public attention to the semi–annual gathering of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCBB) and the United States Catholic Conference (USCC) in the nation' s capital.
The issue of Catholics and, more specifically, Catholic politicians supporting abortion has caused widespread dismay in the pro–life movement. Perhaps the most disconcerting fact has been the 10 Catholics in the U.S.Senate who consistently support partial–birth abortion.
If only three of those senators had been faithful to Church teachings on this issue, partial–birth abortions would have been banned in the United States this year.
According to Helen Alvaré of the USCC, the impetus for the document came from seeing “ many politicians, including Catholics, crossing over the abortion line to support infanticide. It would have been a matter of scandal if the bishops didn' t speak.” Work on a statement to underscore the Church' s position on life issues in the public square began in early 1997. Although the effort has been discussed in several of the bishops’ meetings since, the document was drafted over the past six to eight months. Many bishops had a hand in crafting revisions since last September.
The resulting 26–page statement draws on several papal documents, but also places that teaching within the context of the American political tradition. Bernard Cardinal Law, the outgoing chairman of the NCCB Committee on Pro–Life Activities, said it “reflects both the teaching of the Church and that freedom of conscience which this nation affords its citizens in public life.”
Living the Gospel of Life emphasizes that the United States, blessed with so many material and intellectual gifts, needs to rededicate itself to protecting the rights of all people. Especially identified are two vulnerable groups: the unborn, who are the targets of abortion, and those infirm and terminally ill, who are at risk for assisted suicide.
“Our attitude toward the sanctity of life in these closing years of the ‘American century’ will say volumes about our true character as a nation,” the document stresses.
While acknowledging the challenge of protecting life in the public arena, the bishops have now spoken as a body with clarity on the issue. The most important sections of the document deal with instructions to those engaged in government affairs.
The admonition for officeholders is unambiguous: “We must begin with a commitment never to intentionally kill, or collude in the killing, of any innocent human life, no matter how broken, unformed, disabled or desperate that life may seem.”
Catholic officeholders are urged to appreciate the intensity of conviction which impelled St. Thomas More to place God' s dictates over man' s imperfect laws. Indeed, for Catholics there should be no other course.
In what is perhaps the most significant paragraph of the document, there is, in effect, a directive that Catholic politicians must support life. “No public official, especially one claiming to be a faithful and serious Catholic, can responsibly advocate for or actively support direct attacks on innocent lives,” it states.
Those who contradict Church teachings endanger their spiritual state and then compound that problem by enticing others to sin. The bishops don' t prescribe any penalty for pro–abortion Catholic leaders, but leave no doubt that such people have eschewed their faith.
A number of bishops noted that the final document was not perfect, but most obviously agreed with Bishop John Richard of Pensacola–Tallahassee, Fla., who said waiting for perfection “is an unacceptable option at this time.” None of the objections raised during the floor debate actually disputed the core message.
Among the concerns were that the document did not sufficiently treat capital punishment or the nuclear arms race. Another worry was that speaking out would fan the flames of anti–Catholicism. But in the end, 87% approved the statement.
A major point raised in the discussion was that the bishops had an opportunity to provide greater pastoral guidance on what is probably the most important issue of our time. “By and large,” Bishop James McHugh of Camden, N.J., said, “this is an exercise in evangelization. ”
Several bishops spoke to the Register about the importance of Living the Gospel of Life. Bishop McHugh, a member of the NCCB' s Committee for Pro–Life Activities and a key drafter of the document, said, “It alerts political leaders that for us this is not just one more political issue, but is a matter of serious moral concern.”
In addition to exhorting public officials and engaging the culture, he said, “It is another instance where the bishops have spoken with one voice. And it adds incentive and encouragement to continue all the initiatives in the pro–life field.”
Bishop James Timlin of Scranton, Pa., was impressed by the forceful, yet thoughtful nature of the document. “There are no easy answers, but it at least encourages us to speak out,” he said. “In doing so, it doesn' t condemn, it doesn' t threaten.”
He added that he was going to put the document to heavy use in his northeastern Pennsylvania diocese. “I certainly intend to speak about it whenever I have the opportunity,” he said, including during his daily radio show.
One of the more pointed comments in the debate came from Bishop Francis DiLorenzo of Honolulu. Citing Jesus in the New Testament, he said bishops need to get over their anxiety to confront wayward politicians and “admonish, correct, and rebuke” them. Yet, in an interview with the Register, he emphasized that he wasn' t suggesting polarization, but rather conflict resolution.
As in so many areas of life today, he said, “we may need mediation here. There is no reason to believe politicians have cornered the market on conflict resolution.” Perhaps some party such as Catholic Social Services can help bring together both sides so that officeholders might better appreciate the spirit of Living the Gospel of Life, he suggested.
Bishop DiLorenzo also stressed the importance of grass–roots involvement by bishops. “Take the message to the people. They' ve got to see you out there. Make politics personal,” he said. This was the approach he successfully used this fall in affirming traditional — rather than permitting same–sex marriages — in a statewide referendum.
Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb., one of the most outspoken critics of Catholic politicians and lay leaders supporting abortion said, “It' s part of the responsibility of the episcopal office to admonish and instruct.” The bishop expressed hope that this appeal to conscience will be productive.
He added that individual bishops can still choose to penalize inappropriate conduct, both in the pro–life area or on other issues. He agreed with Bishop Joseph Galante of Beaumont, Texas, who said that asking pro–abortion politicians to refrain from speaking at churches or using its facilities for events was one reasonable option.
Helen Alvaré helped shepherd the document through its various stages, and is now looking at implementation. To support bishops spreading the word in their dioceses, she said the USCC may prepare educational material to provide even greater awareness.
Such continued activism on the prolife issue is imperative, Alvaré said. The reason is simple: “The Catholic teaching is that you can never rest.”
Joseph Esposito writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: Tough pro-life document targets officeholders who back abortion ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Esposito ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Trip to Mother Teresa' s Calcutta Transformed Anchorwoman' s Life DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5,1998 ----- BODY:ST. PAUL, Minn.—Kalley Yanta keeps a file at work, entitled “What it' s all about.” It is full of letters from people who were inspired to deepen their faith after hearing her speak. Yanta, a lead anchor for Twin Cities ABC affiliate, KSTP Channel 5, gives frequent talks about an encounter with Mother Teresa in Calcutta that changed her life and sparked a longer journey in faith.
The journey started when Yanta, 33, and friend, Sister Rosalind Gefre CSJ, set out for Calcutta, India in January 1997, to meet the person whom they most admired. Mother Teresa unfortunately fell ill and could not meet with them, but gave them a blessing after Mass on the first day. Recalling the encounter, Sister Rosalind said she was struck by her small size, yet overwhelmed by the presence of God.
“I did a lot of crying that day. But what I really marvel at is Mother Teresa' s obedience to God,” she said. “She left a comfortable home to work with the poor day after day. None of us want this kind of work. When one person is obedient to God, look what can happen. Because of her obedience, we now have the Sisters of Charity and the Brothers of Charity.”
Added Yanta: “When people asked Mother Teresa what it was all about, she would say ‘Don' t ask, just follow me.’ And she would give them a bucket to help her work.”
Mother Teresa often described the poor as the “distressing disguise of Jesus.” “Distressing” summed up the whole trip for Yanta. She and Sister Rosalind decided to volunteer the rest of their time in Calcutta at the orphanages and homes for the dying.
“We knew we would see poverty and it would be tough, but we were unprepared for the other physical and emotional challenges,” she said. “I completely romanticized it thinking this would be one big warm fuzzy trip. But it really blew me away.”
Their first physical challenge was the pollution. In Calcutta, with its 15 million people and no emission controls, black smoke billows from factory smokestacks and diesel exhaust flows from thousands of gridlocked taxis. Athick, stagnant pall with a powerful stench replaces any fresh air, while huge crowds move along streets lined with open sewage.
“It' s a real struggle for survival,” Yanta explained. “Imagine seeing a pile of garbage in downtown Minneapolis. On one side is a pig digging for food and on the other side is a child doing the same. It was pretty shocking to see.”
Yanta encountered other physical challenges at the mission. Volunteers worked only four hours daily because of the hard work. To scrub the floors, they had to douse them with water and disinfectant, then swish the water out the door with long reeds. To wash the residents’ wool blankets, they had to fill huge troughs with water and disinfectant, wash and twist them by hand, then carry them up to the roof to hang dry. Yanta said they were back–breaking chores, but she had other concerns. She struggled throughout the trip to trust that God would protect her from diseases.
“It' s embarrassing to admit it but I was fearful of catching diseases, even lice,” she said. “You would see a 12– year–old with no hair and zebra–striped pigmentation on her scalp. The nuns didn' t know what it was but said it was common in people who had bathed in the Ganges River.
“Mother Teresa always said to serve with cheerfulness, ‘If you can' t do this with cheerfulness, we don' t want you because these people have enough to be sad about,’ she would say. ‘Don' t take pity on them, serve them, because that is Jesus right there.’”
Yanta said she found herself struggling to see Jesus in everyone as Mother Teresa did. The sisters would go out in the streets daily and bring back the abandoned people, dying or unable to care for themselves because of mental or physical problems.
‘I saw a conversion that happened in her. For me to see a person change her life like that, it's like a holy moment that you've just witnessed.’
“It was easy to see Jesus in the babies who were abandoned,” she said, “but tougher to see him in the adults who aren' t so loving and opening their arms to you. We would feed, clothe and bathe them. I' ve never bathed an adult. It would be humiliating for me to have a stranger who does not speak my language, disrobe me and give me a bath.
“They sit on a cement slab and you sponge them with lukewarm water, and dry them with a wet towel that has been used on others. They' re skin and bones, they' re shaking and can' t speak to you. I was on the verge of tears every moment, thinking ‘Oops, gotta be cheerful.’”
Many times the volunteers would just sit quietly with the residents and stroke their backs, compare skin colors on their hands and laugh together. Sister Rosalind gave massages to the residents, which is something they never got.
“People often wanted to give Mother Teresa a computer to help her run this massive religious order and she would refuse because the people they serve don' t have them,” said Yanta. “We brought Wet Wipes along for the babies and the nuns told us not to use them because the kids would know what they' re missing after we left.
“In carrying out her work, Mother Teresa had to deal with the most difficult politicians around the world to open up mission homes. But she saw Jesus in every one of them, an unbelievable example for us. I' m so grateful for the choices she made.”
Sister Rosalind was also inspired by Mother Teresa' s choices.
“She went where God called her, which was to Calcutta. We almost romanticize her, but she did not become great overnight,” she said. “She became great because of her suffering. She was a woman on fire for the Lord and she sees God in every person she meets. She lived what my ideal is.”
Yanta said she came home overwhelmed by the whole experience. “I wondered why God had sent me there and what he wanted,” she said. Seeking guidance, she contacted a priest who had been in Calcutta during her stay. He suggested she start attending daily Mass and later persuaded her to say a daily rosary, which soon led to regular prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. Yanta struggled for weeks to incorporate these things into a demanding career. She now thinks of it as a transition in priorities.
“It' s almost a miracle that I do these things daily,” she said. “We all lead busy lives but it' s a matter of choices. My big priority was going to the club every day to work out. Maybe I'm not as physically fit, but my spiritual life is in better shape. It' s so incredible the fruits that come from it.”
Some of these fruits have spilled over to others as well. Sister Rosalind said Yanta' s whole life changed because of what she saw in Mother Teresa and the Sisters of Charity.
“I saw a conversion that happened in her. For me to see a person change her life like that, it' s like a holy moment that you' ve just witnessed,” she said.
Her co–workers have noticed a change too. Yanta has found courage to be more outspoken about her faith to others. She had a tremendous impact on Julie Christensen, a make–up artist and hairstylist for the KSTP talent. As a newcomer to the station, Christensen was grateful to find such a friend and fellow believer in Yanta.
“Within 20 minutes of meeting Kalley I felt so uplifted. She' s been very generous in witnessing about Mother Teresa and her love for God. It' s always a testament about how God is so good to all of us,” said Christensen. “I saw a skit that her co–workers did in honor of her recent marriage and I could see that they were definitely touched and aware of her faith. Kalley has encouraged me to continue in prayer and to seek God and his Church.”
Yanta gives frequent talks at retreats and to youth groups with her husband, Jon, and Sister Rosalind. Her “What it' s all about” file keeps growing and she knows now what God wants from her as a public figure.
“I learned a lot in those two weeks and have a new appreciation for the gifts we have in this country,” she said. “When I see what God has given me, I feel a responsibility to share it with others. I hope to be a profound example of God' s love and I truly desire to emulate Mother Teresa,” she concluded. “I have a new sense of peace now and there' s no question about where it' s coming from.”
Barbara Ernster writes from St. Paul, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: Moved by encountering Jesus in 'distressing disguise' ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barbara Ernster ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: A Resolution to Ancient 'Easter Date' Dilemma? DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:Among the ecumenical success stories of the past 30 years one could list the resolution of some of Christianity' s thorniest historical dilemmas: the 1,500–year–old dispute between European and Asian Christianity over the Christology of the Council of Chalcedon, the lifting of 900–year–old mutual excommunication bans between the Churches of Rome and Constantinople, the pending accord on the historic debate between Lutherans and the Catholic Church over “justification by faith.”
Recent gains in ecumenical discussions between Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox theologians indicate that, with the new millennium fast approaching, Christians may well be on the verge of solving perhaps our oldest family squabble: the 1,800–year search for a universally acceptable date for the feast of Easter.
From the mid–second century to today, the attempt to create a calendar that allows all Christians to celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord on the same day has taxed the brains of arguably more theologians, scientists, popes, and saints over more centuries than perhaps any other single issue in the Church' s long history.
On Oct. 31, at their meeting at St. Paul' s College in Washington, D.C., members of the North American Orthodox– Catholic Theological Consultation, the oldest continuously functioning Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox dialogue, struck a blow at the ancient logjam by endorsing a 1997 proposal urging all Christian Churches to start celebrating Easter on a common date beginning in 2001.
The 33–year–old Consultation, sponsored jointly by the organization of canonical Orthodox Churches in the U.S. and Canada known as SCOBA (Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas) and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), approved the conclusions of last year' s Aleppo Statement which asserted that by celebrat[ing] the feast of Christ' s resurrection, the Holy Pascha or Easter, on different Sundays in the same year, “the Churches give a divided witness,” and “compromis[e] their credibility and effectiveness in bringing the Gospel to the world.”
Confusion has abounded in history over competing calendars and how to calculate the seasons. In A.D. 387, for example, St. Ambrose lamented that between Gaul, Italy, and Egypt, Easter was celebrated that year not only on different Sundays, but in different seasons. Since the 17th century, Western Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, have been divided from most Eastern Orthodox over the use of the Gregorian calendar. Many, though not all Orthodox have retained the older Julian calculations, placing their celebrations of the Paschal feast one, four, and sometimes even five weeks apart from their Western confreres. Periodically, about every three to four years, the calendars coincide, as they will again in the year 2001.
The Aleppo Statement, Towards aCommon Date for Easter, came out of a consultation of Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant scholars, jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Middle East Council of Churches which met in Aleppo, Syria, last March.
In reflecting on various 20th century attempts to resolve the age–old problem of the date of Easter, including the idea of a common fixed date for the feast each year (an idea that was “floated” as early as the 1920s by the League of Nations), the Aleppo Statement recommends:
• maintaining the norms established by the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea (A.D. 325), according to which Easter should fall on the Sunday following the first full moon of spring after the vernal equinox (which occurs around March 21, when the sun crosses the equator); and
• calculating the necessary astronomical data (when the spring equinox actually occurs) by “the most accurate possible scientific means,” using Jerusalem, site of Christ' s suffering, death and resurrection as the meridian from which the calculations are based. (Astronomical determinations of the equinox and full moon depend on the position on Earth used as a point of reference.)
In addition, the Aleppo Statement calls for intensive study among the Churches in the next three years with a view to arriving at a common date for the Easter celebration in the new millennium.
The changes proposed by the Aleppo Statement are significant in that the research mainly arises from Eastern Orthodox scholars whose churches, as a whole, would have the most to revise if the proposals were adopted by their hierarchies. Since the Consultation proposes the use of modern astronomical calculations to determine the date of Easter, the adoption of the new standard by Western churches, based on the Gregorian calendar, would entail only as single change in the projected Easter date in the next 25 years whereas those churches still computing by the Julian reckoning — currently 13 days off modern scientific calculations — would have to revise 17 projected dates in the same period.
What' s even more significant is that a consensus is building that the time may indeed be ripe for resolving the age–old dispute.
Following the Aleppo meeting, Edward Cardinal Cassidy, president of the Vatican' s Pontifical Council on Christian Unity, informed Konrad Raiser, secretary general of the WCC, the consultation' s sponsor, that the Catholic Church, “without any hesitation,” is “ready to endorse the conclusions of this Consultation and to work together with other Christians toward this much–desired goal.” Cardinal Cassidy also suggested that the idea be taken up at the WCC' s 50th jubilee general assembly in Harare on Dec. 8. At this year' s Lambeth Conference, Anglican representatives adopted a resolution supporting the essence of the Aleppo proposal, and called on the Churches of the Anglican Communion to come to an agreement on the issue in the next few years.
Why the new momentum on such an ancient issue?
“I think more and more Christians recognize that the tragedy of Christian disunity is reflected in the calendar differences on Easter, ” said Father Thomas Fitzgerald, a noted ecumenist and senior Orthodox staff member of the WCC in Geneva. “There' s a sense of the faithful on this.”
The ecumenist noted that the “move toward observing Easter on a fixed Sunday every year” is “losing steam,” although it popped up recently as a proposal of the new European Union.
“It' s better to follow the traditional Nicene formula,” he told the Register. In that sense, he said, we all need to see the move as a matter of seeking a renewed faithfulness to the decrees of Nicaea, a Council to which the whole Church subscribes. “We need to deepen the sense of unity in our brokenness, not put up further obstacles.” While there are “pastoral challenges” for some Churches in adopting the Aleppo model, “many are already in a position to accept it.”
While most Orthodox still calculate Easter by the Julian calendar, he said, some, like the Orthodox Church of Finland use the Gregorian. In turn, certain Roman Catholic dioceses, like those in Greece, for practical and pastoral reasons, follow the Julian calendar used by the majority Greek Orthodox Church. In the Middle East, where villages, families even, find themselves divided between Greek Orthodox and Melkite, or Greek Catholic faithful who are in communion with Rome, with two different liturgical calendars and family chaos in tow, “the Easter debate is a hot issue.” Catholic Church historian Father Herbert Ryan SJ, a professor of theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, sees establishing a common standard for the celebration of Easter as a “deeply symbolic and significant development and as a pastoral necessity for Orthodox living in the Western “diaspora.”
“It' s a matter of adjusting the pastoral situation to the circumstances of the Orthodox faithful,” he said. “They' re in countries that use the Gregorian calendar now. Even Russia and Greece,” he noted, “have long since adopted it.” Since the Julian calendar has secular, not “religious” origins, “there' s no theological problem, as such, with making the change. The principles are all in place.”
The Aleppo Statement notes, however, that, for some Eastern Churches, adherence to their present method of calculation often has been a symbol of the Church' s integrity and freedom in the face of hostile forces — a fact which the recent Orthodox–Catholic Consultation also mentions.
“Implementation of the Aleppo recommendations,” it notes in its Oct. 31 press release, “must proceed carefully and with great pastoral sensitivity.”
Beyond the question of a common Easter, the U.S. Orthodox–Catholic Consultation' s new burst of activity may indicate that last year' s perceived “chill” in relations between Rome and the Churches of the Christian East has worn off.
During Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I' s pastoral visit to the United States last fall, for example, many ecumenists noted a pessimistic tone in his remarks about Orthodox–Catholic relations, particularly in a widely anticipated address on ecumenical prospects at Georgetown University. However, the spiritual leader of the world' s 300 million Orthodox, on a visit to Poland last month, praised Pope John Paul II' s contribution to Christian unity and urged a “new path of dialogue” between the two Churches.
“I'm not sure why things seemed a little bleaker last year,” said Father Fitzgerald. “I'm not sure how to account for it. What I can say is that [the atmosphere] seems better now. [Patriarch] Bartholomew himself seems more hopeful.”
Central to lingering Orthodox mistrust of Catholic intentions, he said, is the issue of the Eastern Catholic Churches, those Eastern Orthodox communities who, in the course of history, and for various ecclesiological and historical reasons, attached themselves to the Roman See.
“What' s happening in the dialogue,” said Father Fitzgerald, is that “we continue to examine this issue.” Hopefully, he said, at the next scheduled meeting of the international Catholic–Orthodox dialogue scheduled for next summer in Emmitsburg, Md., “we can look at a text on the Eastern Catholics together and nail some principles down.”
Gabriel Meyer writes from Los Angeles.
Letter From Cardinal Cassidy
Letter from Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, to World Council of Churches Secretary General, Konrad Raiser, April 3, 1997:
“… On his return from the sponsored Consultation held in Aleppo, Syria, March 5–19, 1997, Msgr. John Radano brought to our attention the report of that meeting on the important proposal: Towards a Common Date for Easter.
We have studied this report with much interest and it seems to us that it offers a reasonable proposal for working towards the goal of a common date for the celebration of Easter/Pascha. I think that I can say without any hesitation that the Catholics Church is ready to endorse the conclusions of this Consultation and to work together with other Christians towards this much desired goal on the basis of the recommendations contained in its report.
While acknowledging the special difficulties that the Orthodox Churches would have to face in accepting a change to their present calendar, the proposal has for them the advantage that it is, after all, the result of their own studies done in this connection at Chambesy.
It would be a pity to let the opportunity provided by the Aleppo Consultation pass without further discussion. Hence, I would like to encourage the World Council [of Churches], which was responsible for the Aleppo Consultation, to promote such continued examination of the proposal. Perhaps a small ecumenical commission could be given the task of interesting the Churches in the work done at Aleppo; or maybe this could be undertaken by the World Council itself.
I wonder also if the Aleppo report could not be presented officially at the Harare Assembly next year [Dec., 1998], and the Churches present there be encouraged to give it serious consideration.
Positive steps towards the goal of having a common date for the celebration of Easter/Pascha undertaken at an early date would indeed constitute a very hopeful ecumenical sign.
Chronology of a Dispute
AD 159. St. Polycarp of Smyrna confers with Pope Anicetus in Rome about the Eastern custom of celebrating the feast of the Resurrection on the 14th of the month of Nisan (March–April), in conjunction with the Jewish Passover. Roman practice decreed that Easter should always fall on a Sunday. The two men agreed to disagree.
AD 197. Pope Victor I excommunicates Polycrates, an Asian bishop, and communities in the Near East for adhering to the traditional Syriac practice of celebrating Easter on Passover. St. Irenaeus and the bishops of Gaul restrain the pope from enforcing the decree.
AD 325. Emperor Constantine calls the first ecumenical council at Nicaea, in part, in order to settle the question of the date of Easter. The Church of Antioch and some Syriac Churches insist on the traditional practice of calculating Easter on the basis of Passover. Alexandria, a world famous center of astronomy, argues in favor of a common celebration on a Sunday after the spring equinox.
The dispute is settled in favor of Alexandria. (According to a decree of Constantine, Easter (or Pascha) is regarded as the first day of the calendar year, a custom retained in France until 1565, when it was replaced by Jan. 1.) Some small Syriac communities go into schism over the issue; afterwards called quartodecimani (“the fourteeners,” after the 14th of Nisan, the traditional date of Passover).
AD 387: Despite Nicaea, St Ambrose complains (Letter 23) that there are widely different dates for Easter observances in Gaul, Italy and Egypt.
AD 455: St. Leo the Great indicates that, though Romans and Alexandrians celebrate Easter on the same Sunday after the vernal equinox, divergent astronomical calculations place them a week apart. From the end of the fifth century, Rome follows Alexandrian calculations for the date of Easter.
AD 669: Celtic churches had their own computation for the date of Easter and this led to a long and bitter quarrel with Roman missionaries who tried to impose Roman liturgical order in the British Isles.
7th–8th centuries: Until the time of Charlemagne (crowned AD 800), there was considerable confusion in Gaul about the date of Easter. 1582: The Gregorian correction of the calendar is adopted in parts of western Europe. The Gregorian reform, however, isn' t adopted in Great Britain and Ireland until 1752.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gabriel Meyer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: U.S. Notes & Quotes DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:How to Stay Married for a Lifetime
“Marriages that endure to the 50–year milepost tend to fall into two categories: couples who are truly happy and wish to stay together and couples who are not happy but fear facing old age alone,” said the paper, citing Finnegan sociologist Alford–Cooper' s book For Keeps: Marriages That Last a Lifetime.
The book lists the findings of her research of 576 couples, and notes that most in long–term marriages came from similar backgrounds and shared many interests and beliefs.
Also, couples who remain married for a long time had put a high priority on the character of their spouses during courtship. The paper quoted spouses from two marriages which lasted more than 50 years, who agreed with the study.
Fifty–one years ago Mary Johnston “rigorously tested the character of her future husband, William,” before agreeing to marry him, according to the paper. The tests included watching how he behaved in restaurants, and around babies and sick people. Most important, she said, was his interaction with his family.
Joseph Strowder, who married Korea Strowder 51 years ago, said that “looks is the worst reason to get married.” Better, he said, is the “inner glow of character.”
Both couples agreed that the ability to forgive and reconcile was ultimately the key to their success.
Bill Coffin, director of Marriage Preparation for the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington as well as a program specialist in the Navy' s Family Advocacy and Support program, said that Catholic marriage preparation courses can do much to give today' s engaged couples similar results. Couples are scared enough by the sky–high divorce rates to be willing to listen.
“It' s unfortunate, but few young people today have a clue about how to successfully resolve conflict and make a marriage work,” he contended. “They have a lot of experience in what doesn' t work.”
California Ruling Could Benefit Catholic Groups
The California Supreme Court has signaled that it is willing to give Catholic groups some leeway in work not directly associated with worship, according to a recent report. The court ruled 7–0 that groups with religious aims but no religious designation are entitled to certain protections afforded to legally religious organizations, said the report.
A promotion discrimination suit against a Catholic hospital was stopped by the courts because the hospital, though not officially a religious corporation, nonetheless had a religious mission.
The court found that “… an entity apparently need only be ‘religious’ and ‘not organized for private profit,’” to earn California law' s protection from the stricter scrutiny given to secular organizations and for–profit corporations, according to the report.
The hospital also asserted that there had been no discrimination in its approach to promotions, but the court did not rule on that question. The court did note that the hospital' s bylaws required that its activities be “carried on subject to the moral and ethical principles of the Roman Catholic Church,” said the AP.
Pop Culture Has Made Killing ‘Cool’ for Kids
“But it isn' t the amount of violence in films, it' s the quality of it: the way onscreen killing is presented, the way it' s at once glamorized and trivialized. … [T]he overwhelmingly graphic depictions of violent death in Saving PrivateRyanare [not] going to inspire maniacs of any age to rush out and start slaughtering people,” wrote Randall Sullivan. “There' s a considerable body of anecdotal evidence, however, to support the belief that movies like Natural BornKillers have influenced any number of young killers.”
He quoted Sissela Bok, who authored a book on media violence, saying, “We have movie role models showing violence as fun, and video games where you kill and get rewarded for killing.” He also cited a Harvard expert blaming movies for blurring the difference between heroes and villains, and citing studies showing that children have grown much less likely to be upset by violent images.
----- EXCERPT: Excerpts from selected publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: National -------- TITLE: Romanian Church Dialogue Raises Papal Visit Hopes DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:WARSAW, Poland—The Romanian government has again invited the Pope to visit, following an accord between its long–feuding Greek Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
Meanwhile, an Orthodox bishop has for the first time acknowledged the “great suffering” of Greek Catholics, but urged a parallel recognition of past Orthodox hardships.
Visiting the Vatican, the State Secretary for Cults, Gheorghe Anghelescu, said the two Churches were now “fully willing” to create “wholesome conditions” for a Papal pilgrimage in 1999, which would be John Paul II' s first to a predominantly Orthodox country.
The development follows an agreement Oct. 28 between Romania' s Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches to re–launch commissions on property and jurisdictional issues after an eight–year impasse.
A communiqué from the Orthodox Patriarchate, which claims the spiritual loyalty of 87% of Romania' s 23 million citizens, said both sides had pledged to stop forcibly reoccupying disputed churches and seeking legal injunctions, as well as to refrain from media polemics and “any form of proselytizing.”
“A climate of mutual trust is badly needed now at the level of clergy and faithful,” the communique added, “so that the bishops who have committed themselves to dialogue can be helped in this reconciliation venture by the priests and worshippers they represent.”
Romania' s 700,000–member Transylvania–based Greek Catholic minority, whose five dioceses are loyal to Rome but preserve the eastern rite, has been in dispute with Orthodox leaders since 1990 over attempts to regain its 2,000 pre–war churches, most of which were placed in Orthodox hands when the Greek Catholic community was outlawed in 1948.
In March, violent clashes erupted when Greek Catholics reoccupied Cluj' s Transfiguration Cathedral in compliance with a court order, prompting a fresh appeal for reconciliation by President Emil Constantinescu.
Preaching at a service in Alba Iulia to commemorate the Greek Catholic Church' s suppression, an Orthodox bishop, Andrei Andreicut, said his Church had been reluctant to “upset or disturb” Greek Catholics by discussing the communist–orchestrated 1948 outrage.
However, he added that Greek Catholics had “unilaterally interpreted” history by celebrating the anniversary of their own Church' s creation in 1698– 1700, while ignoring the fact that it took place under Austro–Hungarian supervision at the cost of Orthodox unity.
“Some would think it cynical to celebrate an event which led to the official suppression of the Greek Catholic Church and provoked a lot of suffering — but they don' t think it strange to make a fuss about the 300th anniversary of a unification with Rome which sought to suppress the Orthodox Church in Transylvania and provoked even more suffering,” Bishop Andrei added.
“We have no intention of legitimizing an abuse. We simply believe Providence allowed a Church to appear on the historical scene by means of political forces and oppression — and that it disappeared in the same way in 1948.”
Besides Romania, the Pope holds state invitations to visit predominantly Orthodox Bulgaria and Georgia. The Foreign Minister of Belarus said Oct. 29 his government was also “ready and willing” to host a papal pilgrimage.
(Jonathan Luxmoore)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Missionaries' Apartment Ransacked in Jerusalem DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:JERUSALEM—A group of ultra–Orthodox Jewish men ransacked two Jerusalem apartments last week because they believed the three women living in them were Christian missionaries.
The women, who are Swiss Christians, have lived in the ultrareligious neighborhood of Mea She'arim, near the city center, for the past three years. According to press reports, they decided to reside in the fervently Orthodox area because it is convenient and relatively inexpensive.
Mea She'arim, which is considered the most pious neighborhood in the city, is home to tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews who retain the modest dress codes and customs of pre– World War II Eastern Europe. Signs in the streets warn women to dress modestly, and those who do not are sometimes attacked.
At 11:30 last Wednesday night — while the two residents were not at home — dozens of men reportedly forced their way into the first apartment, smashing furniture, cupboards, sinks and the bathtub, and threw the women' s clothes and jewelry, appliances and furniture out the window. Hundreds of local residents then torched the items while chanting “missionaries, missionaries.”
When the men tried to attack a second apartment, the Christian woman living there summoned the police. The Hebrew daily Ha'aretz reported that 30 police officers helped the woman to a waiting van while the ultra–Orthodox threw rocks and bottles. She was shaken but not hurt.
Two men remain in police custody.
Shmuel Ben–Ruby, a Jerusalem Police Department spokesman, called the attack “serious,” and said that a special investigation has been lauched to deal with the incident.
“This is the first time something like this has happened and we are taking it seriously,” he told the Register.
Asked whether other anti– Christian incidents of this sort have occurred in Jerusalem, Ben–Ruby said, “if they have, they haven' t been reported to the police.”
The Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel, a national coalition of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian organizations, released a statement saying, “this kind of religious prejudice which has led to this terrible, violent act is unacceptable in [a] modern democratic society [such as ] Israel and must be rejected by all people of good will in this country. It is another frightening example of how verbal violence, which breeds in ignorance and fear, can lead to physical violence against people whose only ‘sin’ is belonging to another religious group.”
In response to the attack, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah asked Orthodox Jews to practice “moderation, understanding and respect for those who are different from them in their faith.” Jerusalem, he said, “must be the mother of all children of Abraham.”
Such violence, he said, “does not invite reconciliation, which is so necessary today for all of the residents of Jerusalem.” (Michele Chabin)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: World Notes & Quotes DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:Catholics Meet with Mennonites
The small bands of Bible believers who oppose many modern technologies are often dismissed as a curiosity in the modern world. But the San JoseMercury News, citing the Religious News Service, said in a recent article that Catholics are taking their deeply held doctrines seriously — and addressing them in international talks sponsored by the Strasbourg, France, headquarters for the Mennonites and the Vatican' s Council for Christian Unity.
Larry Miller, Mennonite World Conference executive secretary, was quoted saying that the discussions were helpful. In them, each side described its beliefs and discussed points of divergence, he said. The talks were “the sort you have when sitting around the table with friendly people of conviction who are learning to know one another,” he is quoted saying.
Christians in India
“In the seven months since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) formed its first enduring national government, Church leaders have reported dozens of attacks on Christians in more than half of India' s 25 states — mostly in the north and west, where the Christian population is smaller and Hindu nationalist sentiment stronger,” said the report.
In Gujarat, the birthplace of renowned holy man and peacemaker Mohandas K. Gandhi, Christian leaders have counted about 40 attacks, the paper said. These included:
• the destruction of a nearly finished new Catholic church in Naroda, in April. Statues of the Virgin Mary and infant Jesus were thrown onto a dirt road before perpetrators bought ice–cream with money from the Church' s collection box, according to the report.
• the June theft and burning of Bibles from a Presbyterian high school for girls in Rajkot whose student body is predominantly Hindu. A mob held the principal hostage and demanded that he discontinue all “religious activities” at the school, said the report.
• the July desecration by Hindu nationalist activists of the grave of a convert from Hinduism. They left the corpse of the man, a Methodist who had changed his last name to “Christian,” near the church he had attended.
“This is recent; this was not happening before — only here and there, not the kind of trend you see now,” Bishop Vincent Concessao, Catholic auxiliary bishop of New Delhi, told the paper.
“We want to stop this conversion business,” said Onkar Bhave, a leader of the World Hindu Council and its violent youth group. “They are not propagating religion; it is political slavery. … They want to turn the poor into Christians so together they can say to Hindus, ‘Get out of India.’ They want to break India into different pieces.”
AYoung Girl' s Wish Changed the World
But David Aikman features Mother Teresa — the woman that girl became — in his book Great Souls: Six Who Changed the Century, according to a review that ran in the Weekly Standard.
Pope John Paul II, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Billy Graham, and others are mentioned as well by the retired Time magazine writer.
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu “thought and prayed for six years, Aikman relates, before leaving her family and her native Albania to belong wholly to God. Her new life as a missionary to the poor of Calcutta and beyond followed, but even as she loved her neighbors she also loved God.”
Aikman, who identifies each of the six figures in his book with a particular virtue, says that Mother Teresa' s defining virtue is “compassion.” Not necessarily, writes reviewer Terry Eastland. “[S]he was not just preoccupied with Jesus’ second commandment, to love thy neighbor, but even more with his first, which is to love God with all of one' s heart and soul and mind.”
When she accepted the 1979 Nobel prize in Oslo, she was questioned by journalists about what drove her. She told them her heart belonged “entirely to the heart of Jesus.”
----- EXCERPT: Excerpts from selected publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Notes & Quotes DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:War–Wary Pope Prays for Peace
“I hope in my heart that a peaceful and just solution can be reached,” it quoted him saying in a morning address at the Vatican.
In New York, Cardinal O'Connor amplified the Holy Father' s plea. “Some may say the Holy Father lives in a cloud, he doesn' t understand the complexity of the situation,” O'Connor said in his Sunday homily. “The Holy Father understands war very, very well. He lived through war. He suffered through war.”
Pope to Meet with President Clinton
The Vatican recently released an update on the Pope' s planned January visit to Mexico that mentioned the plans, according to the BBC and others. The Holy Father' s plans for his fourth visit to Mexico include a discussion of the results of last year' s synod for the Americas, it said.
He will also meet with President Ernesto Zedillo in Mexico before making his way to the United States.
Like No other Pope in this Millennium?
He quoted Boston University medieval historian Richard Landes saying, “The Pope has undertaken a level of introspection the Vatican has never seen before. He wants everybody in the Church to embark on a meditation on what the meaning of Christ is and what the meaning of faith is.”
After delineating several of the Pope' s Jubilee Year plans of reconciliation, Beam concludes, “If, God willing, he lives and thrives well into the next millennium, [Pope John Paul II] will have transformed the Church as no other pontiff in this century — or perhaps in this millennium.”
----- EXCERPT: Excerpts from selected publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: perspective DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:The following is excerpted from Bishop Anthony Pilla' s Nov. 16 address tothe National Council of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) at their annual meeting inWashington, D.C. Bishop Pilla is the NCCB' s outgoing president.
Pope Pius IX described three phases of a council: “First there is that of the devil; then comes that of men, finally that of God.” These same phases may be applied to the implementation of a council. Disputes, some very serious, arise in its wake, while we human beings do our best to make Vatican II decrees effective. Finally, the Spirit completes the work in harmony and peace as the council' s message, at last, pervades our lives.
Sometimes we seem to be living in all three stages. Last year in my talk on reconciliation, I asked those with extreme views at either end of the spectrum of Church opinion to treat one another as members of one Catholic family. While people normally deflect criticism by saying that it was not aimed at them, after my talk, some seemed to go out of their way to say that while I claimed to be talking about both extremes, I really meant them. This unusual way of dealing with supposed criticism reveals one difficulty of the time in which we live.
Unfortunately, some interpret the council' s vision, which was meant to Bishop Anthony Pilla bring about a sense of closer communion and collaboration among the members of the Church, as simply a shift in the power structure of an organization. Thus rivalries, instead of a common purpose, have characterized part of our post–conciliar life. This adversarial approach may actually be a healthy thing in the secular culture; but it can be out of place in the Church, where our love for one another — inspired and made possible by the love of Christ for us all — is essential to our Christian witness.
In some ways, it is a more difficult situation than in the secular culture, which seems to have recaptured something of a sense of the need for leadership and a willingness to follow it. In the Church there are those who seem to have lost this sense entirely and are unwilling to accept a role for authority in the Church. They endlessly debate the decisions of their pastors on issues great and small, extraordinary and routine. They appear to live either in a past or in a future of their own imagining but not in the present in which their pastors must make these decisions.
One of our most important tasks as bishops is to discern these spirits for what may be valid in their criticism, without being too quick to disturb the peace of the whole Church on their account. It can be a common mistake, especially when the media magnify angry voices, to forget to nourish the many in our attempts to appease an unappeasable few.
This problem exists not only at the extremes. Even in more ordinary circumstances, some can become overly conscious of their own roles in the Church and forget that we are all meant to work together in service of the Church and to bring about her well–being. St. Paul faced this problem in Corinth, where he had to remind the Christians that they are a proper body — not all ear or all nose, saying to one another, “I don' t need you.” It is only in working together that the parts of the body make up a healthy and effective totality. As important as one' s particular gifts, as great as anyone' s individual talent may be, none of us by ourselves can make up the Church, the people that God has called from darkness into his marvelous light.
This humility about our individual roles and our commitment to living them out in a spirit of unity is important not only for the internal life of the Church but also for the primary role which the laity have in bringing the Gospel to the world. This is so for two reasons.
The more fundamental reason involves the religious and moral significance of many of the matters about which the laity must engage the world. This significance can be so great that to engage the world properly and effectively in the name of the Gospel the laity need to be guided by the light of the Church' s teaching office. Respect for that office and a willingness to hone one' s own wisdom with the tool of the wisdom of the Church are essential to the laity' s proclamation of the Gospel in the secular world.
The other reason is more practical. The world will hardly listen to us about how it ought to arrange its affairs, if “at home” we manifestly cannot do it ourselves.
So all of us, with the bishops exercising appropriate oversight, have the duty actively to develop both internal and external lay leadership as envisioned by the council. … Laity and clergy, in the words of St. Paul, should “anticipate each other in showing respect” (Romans 12:10) for what each can bring to the building up of God' s people. Animated by such a spirit of mutual respect and owing “no debt to anyone except the debt that binds us to love one another” (Romans 13:8), we can make our parishes and other Church communities dynamic centers where the disciples of Christ persevere in prayer, bear witness to him, and “give an answer to those who seek an account of that hope of eternal life which is within them” (Lumen Gentium, 10).
To alter a famous aphorism, the best is often the enemy of the good. In our quest for perfection, we sometimes forget to thank God for the gifts we already have been given in the renewal launched by the council of the whole Church and, in particular, of lay involvement in the Church. Can any of us be without the faith that God began this good work among us, or without the trust that he will bring it to fulfillment?
Bishop Anthony Pilla is ordinary of the Diocese of Cleveland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Bishop Anthony Pilla ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: A Marian Tour De Force DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:(San Francisco, Ignatius, 1998, 270 pp., $14.95.)
Have you ever tuned in to Ken Burns’ Civil War series and realized, when the phone rang, that hours had gone by? However much or little you care about the Civil War, Burns’ dramatic presentation, his interweaving of the well–known and the obscure, and his inclusion of colorful detail, is totally engrossing and ultimately enriching.
Such is John Martin' s presentation of the role of Our Blessed Mother in an ongoing story far more compelling — the salvation history of the human race. Not that Martin, who possesses a delectable style all his own, imitates Burns in any way; rather, the extent of the similarity is this: Roses, Fountains,and Gold has something for virtually everyone.
Have you ever wondered, for example, why Mary is invoked under the title “Star of the Sea”? This title and many others are not only defined, but described so that their richness and meaning are made apparent. Or maybe you already know the basics about Mary but want to know more? Not only are the major Marian doctrines, masterpieces, and apparitions covered here, but relatively obscure ones are woven into the text' s rhetorical tapestry as well. Even if you are well–versed in Mariology, Roses,Fountains, and Gold has something to offer, integrating the elements of the Marian reality with one another and with disparate details of the secular human experience.
Martin' s vision of God' s Marian intervention in the last two millennia offers a deeply needed remedy to a post–Reformation situation which the author portrays in these evocative and accurate terms: “Luther' s rebellion, to be sure, was not aimed at Mary — in fact, in the year 1543, (he) peacefully affirmed the Immaculate Conception — but Mary was inevitably a casualty. After all, a belief system tied exclusively to the Bible could hardly be expected to instruct its adherents in Mary' s formidable role following the days of the early Church. … And so, for countless millions then and since, she became a figure of fleeting importance. … Just as nonbelievers patronizingly declare that Christ was a ‘great teacher,’ Luther created the intellectual climate in which Mary came to be seen merely as a ‘good mother.’ As a result, her dynamic and continuing role in the great matters of heaven and earth is as unknown to numerous people calling themselves Christian as is the role of Christ in history to numerous people calling themselves enlightened.”
In structure, Roses, Fountains, and Gold follows the outline of its subtitle, treating the Virgin Mary in history, art, and apparition, basically in that order. Yet the treatment is fluid and refreshingly free of overdone disclaimers about the (very valid) distinction between public and private revelation. The result is a coherent, positive presentation of the case for Mary, rather than the kind of disjointed polemic common to works where objecting to Marian objections is the primary focus.
In Roses, Fountains, and Gold, Martin refers almost condescendingly to the major obstacles to recognizing Mary' s role. “Did someone mention the dread word ‘superstition’?” Martin writes in his treatment of Marian devotions. “If so, let it be stressed that no one saying a rosary in the spirit of an ancient Chaldean star–ritual or wearing a scapular as if it were a divinely guaranteed rabbit' s foot should expect heaven to look down, nod approval, and follow up with an express shipment of manna and quail. That much said, however, rosaries and scapulars can nevertheless move mountains and part oceans — if only because they help the believer to draw concretely closer not only to Mary but to the Author of all things.” This passage is typical of the way our author handles Our Lady' s putative challengers. He dispenses in like manner with the notions of Mariology as a medieval accretion. “A sure way to miss the historical significance of Mary is to think of her as a kind of late–blooming flower who, like pilgrimages and unicorns, became truly popular only when the symbols and superstitions of the Middle Ages had reached flood tide.” Of Marian devotion as a projection of the human psyche, Martin writes: “Marian devotion was and is something at once ancient, widespread, and profoundly satisfying to human nature, and not the outgrowth of idolatry, papal whim, nostalgia for a goddess figure, or a behind–the–scenes campaign by early feminists.” The lion' s share of Martin' s attention is lavished on how amazingly Mary' s prophecy concerning herself is being borne out, as indeed all generations call her blessed (cf. Luke 1:48).
And for this, on the evidence, they have very good reason. While unstinting in his praise of Our Blessed Mother, Martin is evenhandedly rational in his presentation of empirical facts about her. One would be hard pressed, in fact, to characterize Roses,Fountains, and Gold if “devotional” and “intellectual” were mutually exclusive categories. The book stimulates the mind and inflames the spirit in equal measure — and what more can we ask of this work, even given the boundless perfections of its subject?
Helen Valois writes from Steubenville, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Helen Valois ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Pitfalls of the Baby Cult DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:“Having Children in an Age of Affluence,”by Read and Rachel Schuchardt
(Human Life Review, Fall 1998; originally published in re:generation, Vol. 4, No. 1)
Read and Rachel Schuchardt write: “[A] culture of ambivalence … has grown up in the United States around the conception and care of children. On the one hand, Americans spare no effort to conceive and consume for wanted children; on the other hand, they leave the care of all too many of those children to nannies, illegal immigrants, and daycare workers. More ominously, Americans leave unwanted children to trash cans, abortion clinics, and contraceptive devices.
“Our ambivalence to children is rooted in the thoroughgoing worldliness of American life and in the premium Americans place on raising our children with access to the best schools, toys, and neighborhoods. … Not many men are marrying their high–school sweethearts or secretaries anymore. Instead, they are marrying their colleagues, professional acquaintances, and grad school classmates, which means older and more financially independent women.
“The shift towards older first births leaves many parents with more cash to spend on their children. … But while some of this commercial feeding frenzy is the natural result of a market growing to meet the needs of the increasing boomlets, … [t]he darker underbelly to this devotion is the objectification of the ‘wanted’ child. Many parents come to see wanted children as both a commodity and an opportunity for expiation of past sins. Babies are not only the object of consumer spending; they have themselves become the ultimate consumer item. …
“It wasn' t always like this. There was a time when, for the most part, marriage, sex, and children followed naturally from one another. Men and women married at the peak of their fertility and there was little question about the outcome of their consummated love. But babies today have been removed from the realm of the ordinary and placed on a peculiar pedestal in the minds of many parents. … Ask a couple today when they will conceive and they will say the same thing: ‘Oh, we' re planning to have children in about two years when we can afford it, when we have saved enough for a down–payment, when the car is paid off, when I'm done with grad school, when I'm at the point of my career when I feel comfortable taking a break.’
“The presumption that biological destiny can be avoided or delayed is made possible by the advent of increasingly reliable birth control technology. … But … medical research for the last thirty years has consistently shown that almost all forms of birth control post independent risk factors to subsequent pregnancies. … Even abortion, once touted as being safer than giving birth, carries with it a host of complications that are rarely mentioned in the mass media or ob/gyn offices.
“[A]s pills are popped and years pass, fertility, often an unpredictable sprite, often flees back into the land of dear dreams. … The child becomes the holy grail, sought after through endless rounds of fertility treatments. The money pours out, often to the tune of $70,000. … But in the process, the child has grown out of all proportion in the mind of the parent; exaggerated desire brings exaggerated expectations. This is a heavy burden for any child to bear.
“Parents who leave their children in the care of others for 40–plus hours a week struggle with some degree of guilt. … A guilt–ridden parent is usually ineffective as an authority figure in the life of a child. … Why spoil quality time with a time–out, much less a spanking? So the baton of authority is quietly laid aside by the parent, and the displaced child is more than happy to pick it up.
“Spurred by guilt and the advice of countless parenting experts, the new style of parenting maxes out on permissive quality time even as it minimizes quantity time and consistent discipline. Take a stroll through any shopping mall in America and you will see the results: unruly children and sullen teenagers who have little admiration or respect for their parents, not to mention any filial piety. … And nobody, not even a parent, enjoys the company of bratty children. Thus, the golden child loses his sheen and the imperial baby comes home to find that his power over both of his subjects has evaporated.
“Publicly, we profess our unconditional love for children. But … [t]he cult of the baby defeats itself because parents who treat children as the ultimate consumer item often end up not loving, but secretly resenting and even hating their children.”
Ellen Wilson Fielding writes from Davidsonville, Maryland.
The Definite Article is a digest of the Register' s choice from the nation' s top journals.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Wilson Fielding ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:Human Guinea Pigs?
Your article (“The Euthanasia Movement Marches Forward,” Nov. 8–14,) notes that the Council of Europe passed a convention on Human Rights in Bio–Medicine which allows drug companies to experiment on severely disabled patients without their knowledge or consent. Well, it seems that the Council is only following the lead of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In Nov. 1996, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) approved a waiver, which permits use of experimental drugs and devices on patients in emergency situations who are unable to give informed consent and who do not have a legally authorized person to represent them.
Prior to approving this waiver, input was solicited from several groups. Among those approving were the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Health Industry Manufacturers Association. Those who did not support the waiver were not named. A full list of pros and cons was published in the Federal Register on Oct. 10, 1996.
The use of unconscious or helpless patients as test subjects for experimental drugs or devices is presented as providing “emergency access to promising therapies.” Since these “promising therapies” can be offered to patients who can give informed consent, we wonder: why the need for a change in medical ethics?
One objector to the waiver suggested that those who object to being used as guinea pigs should wear a medical alert bracelet. Since no group of people, neither children nor pregnant women, are to be excluded from this “benefit,” perhaps parents should look into a bracelet for their children. Ironic, that children need parental permission to have their ears pierced, but can be given experimental drugs and devices, so as to provide data for a clinical study which benefits the pharmaceutical industry. This particular waiver goes against the Nuremburg Code of Medical Ethics and, given the anti–life track record of the FDA and NIH, could present a lethal danger to unconscious or incompetent patients.
Mary Stone
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Correction
Msgr. James Reinert of the Holy See Permanent Observer Office to the United Nations, whose Oct. 13 speech was published in the Register (“Sanctions, Not Starvation,” Oct. 25–31) was incorrectly identified as Msgr. Rennert. The Register regrets the error.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: How Do You Handle Catholic Senators Who Support Partial-Birth Abortion? DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:The recent vote on the gruesome partial–birth abortion procedure revealed, again, that pro–life forces do not have the votes to overrule President Clinton' s veto. For Catholics, the vote raised an even dicier question: the scandal of eight selfdescribed Catholic senators who will not vote in defense of life, against what amounts to infanticide. We know their names: Christopher Dodd (D–Conn.), Edward Kennedy (DMass.), John Kerry (D–Mass.), Barbara Milkulski (D–Md.), Mary Collins (R–Maine), Jack Reed (D–R.I.), Patty Murray (D–Wash.), and Carol Moseley–Braun (D–Ill.), since voted out of office.
Catholic officials who defy Church teaching on the value of human life challenge the patience, prudence, and charity of both bishops and laity. The bishops will discuss a statement in mid–November at their annual meeting on living out the demands of the Gospel of Life, with particular mention of Catholic politicians who depart from Church teaching. As yet, the bishops do not agree that public sanctions are appropriate for those who support abortion, but they do state that bishops should do “what may be pastorally required” to persuade those wayward politicians.
Bishops tend to prefer private discussions with the individuals involved. But there remains the problem of public scandal which has not been solved by private talks. We seem to have a pattern of bishops issuing strong statements on life issues (e.g. abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide), prominent Catholic politicians continuing to ignore them, and no public reprimand being heard. So–called “Pro–Choice” Catholics, who are about fifty percent of the Church, are encouraged.
This drama is in the public square, and we have to ask if there is more that the laity can do to persuade and challenge politicians. Have these politicians heard directly from large numbers of Catholics who are disturbed by their pro–abortion position and who can explain their own pro–life stance effectively? Have Catholics written open letters to their senators and published them in their local papers? Have they gathered a significant group of local leaders and tried to get an appointment with the senator to talk about his or her position on life and other issues, using the power of the voting public to get his or her attention? Have they sent the senator a copy of the encyclical The Gospel of Life with significant passages marked? In other words, have they, as laity, made a concerted effort to enlighten individual politicians?
The dissident politicians take refuge in the position made famous by Mario Cuomo that they are “personally opposed” to abortions but do not want to “impose” their position on others. We must remind them that they are building their houses on sand with such “politically correct” and faulty moral thinking. If an action is wrong, it is wrong for everyone — that is, if you believe in objective moral truth. The idea that moral truth is private, or that evil should be tolerated because it does not trouble another' s conscience, is really a weak–kneed stance posing as a complex moral position. The complexity is in their politics, not in their moral reasoning. Such confused politicians want to be known as Catholics because it is politically helpful, and they want the backing of the anti–life cause because it means votes in some quarters. They have not yet experienced that the anti–life position can cost them politically with the Catholic community.
The politics of abortion is always a big factor in a politician' s calculus. Many Democrats this fall wanted to stand with President Clinton during his time of trouble. Many were simply counting votes and knew they needed the anti–life constituency to win. There is also a cultural factor. They like the benefits that come from the cultural elites who wear the anti–life label — the invitations, the socializing, the prominence — but mainly they like the votes. Their political and cultural calculation for winning has frozen them into an immoral position.
With the election of George Voinovich in Ohio and Peter Fitzgerald in Illinois, we are two votes closer to overturning Clinton' s veto. But that does not take away the scandal of those Catholics who persist in flaunting their objection to the fundamental moral principle of preserving life. Perhaps more than another bishops’ statement, we need dramatic action on the part of the bishops to change the present impasse.
I do not claim to know exactly what that should be. The Catholic community that supports the defense of life, needs a further public witness that to be Catholic means to be for life in public, as well as in private. Catholic politicians should not be let off the hook. Perhaps they will soon be on the phone, hiring contractors to rebuild the foundations, when their houses built on sand collapse.
Mary Ellen Bork, a board member of the Catholic Campaign for America and the Institute for Religion in Democracy, writes from Washington, D.C. (This column was written before the U.S. bishops’ conference.)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mary Ellen Bork ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: CLINTON' s FATE AND PUBLIC PHILOSOPHY DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:Everyone knows that the House Judiciary Committee is holding hearings on whether to recommend the impeachment of President Clinton. But the mechanics of the decision–making process are not always clear. And the underlying issue — whether the President ought to be impeached and removed — seems to be getting murkier by the day. What follows is a primer on how the decision gets made and what is at stake.
The Mechanics of Impeachment
The mechanics of impeachment are straightforward: The Constitution provides that the President and other “civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” (art. II, section 4). The House of Representatives “impeaches” the President when it finds, by a simple majority vote, that he has committed an impeachable offense. He then stands trial in the U.S. Senate, with the Chief Justice of the United States (currently William Rehnquist) presiding. If two–thirds of the senators present vote to convict him, he is thereby removed from office.
Only one President has ever been impeached. In the midst of a power struggle with Congress over the terms of the post–Civil War Reconstruction, Abraham Lincoln' s successor Andrew Johnson was impeached for firing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton without first securing the Senate' s approval, as was then required by the Tenure of Office Act. Johnson' s successful defense was that the Act did not command obedience, as it was plainly unconstitutional. The Senate acquitted him by a single vote, and he remained in office.
Although no President has ever been removed from office, several federal judges have been so removed. The first was Judge John Pickering, who was removed from office for drunkenness and senility in 1804. The most recent is Judge Walter Nixon, who was removed in 1989 for making false statements to a grand jury.
In modern practice, the House Judiciary Committee first holds hearings and then votes whether to recommend impeachment to the full House. It was after the Judiciary Committee had voted to recommend President Nixon' s impeachment, but before the full House voted on that recommendation, that Nixon resigned. In sum, then, the proceedings concerning President Clinton are relatively simple: the House Judiciary Committee will hold hearings, review the evidence and then vote whether to recommend that the full House impeach. If they recommend impeachment the full House will then vote on specific charges against the President. If a majority of members vote for impeachment, the President will then be tried on those charges before the Senate, with Chief Justice Rehnquist presiding. Finally, if two–thirds of Senators present vote to convict, he will be removed from office.
Impeachable or Not?
If it is really that simple, why all the confusion? An argument that bedevils the issue (somehow in spite of the Walter Nixon precedent) concerns whether lying under oath — either in a civil case or before a grand jury — is an “impeachable offense.” The President' s defenders suggest that, since the charges are “just about sex,” he cannot be impeached. In fact, law professor Cass Sunstein has gone so far as to insist that it would be unconstitutional to impeach the President for lying about what he calls a private matter.
Others contend that this is nonsense, and that the framers of the Constitution specifically contemplated impeaching a president who demonstrably lacked virtue. Their position is that the House of Representatives has a constitutional duty to impeach the president, whenever it is likely that he has done something for which the framers themselves would have impeached him. In short, some say the Constitution forbids impeaching President Clinton, while others insist the Constitution requires impeaching him.
It all sounds very confusing. And that is probably not a coincidence. Confusion is politically convenient for politicians on both sides of the issue. Many who believe the President should be impeached and stand trial in the Senate lack the courage to say so. They wish the framers would say it for them. Similarly, many who think the President should not be impeached for his conduct, because they believe it to be trivial, cannot quite bring themselves to admit to that in public. They, too, would prefer that the Constitution did their talking for them. What has resulted is an elaborate exercise in political ventriloquism, with each side speaking through the framers, while pretending to listen to them.
The real issue is not nearly so confusing. There is no real question that the President may be impeached for lying under oath. As a practical matter, there is no court to which an ex–president who has been duly impeached and removed from office may appeal. The framers committed the question solely to the judgment of Congress. So, at the most basic level, the House and Senate could remove him for lying under oath, or for some other reason, and there is nothing he or anyone else could do about it. Moreover, there is ample precedent for impeaching President Clinton. In recent years the House has impeached, and the Senate has convicted and removed from office, two federal judges for lying under oath.
So the President may be impeached; must he be? Does the House of Representatives have some sort of absolute duty to impeach him? No.
The members must not only decide if there is sufficient evidence to charge the President with lying under oath. They must also decide whether they will charge him, or whether there are other, overriding considerations that counsel against it.
For example, it would probably be pointless to impeach a president who was on his deathbed. It might well be imprudent to impeach even an obviously guilty president in wartime. And there are other types of considerations as well. When the House Judiciary Committee recommended impeaching President Nixon, it chose not to include a count concerning Nixon' s alleged income tax fraud. Could they have chosen to include such a count? Of course. Tax fraud is well within the framers’ conception of high crimes and misdemeanors. Were they under some sort of duty to include it? No. They had the discretion to decide, as they did, against recommending impeachment on that particular count. Just as there is no court to which a removed ex–president can appeal his removal, there is no court to which disappointed members of Congress may appeal a refusal to impeach or remove.
A Question of Public Morality
In short, the question is not whether the President may be impeached, or whether he must be impeached, but whether he ought to be impeached. That is not so much a technical legal or historical question. Rather, it is a question — and a terribly important one — of public morality. Every society has a public philosophy, whether consciously chosen or not. That is, every society has a common set of assumptions about the great ideas, about God and Man, right and wrong, society and the state, and so on. For example, every McDonald' s clerk in America will tell you that all men and women are created equal. That is not because they have all read and reflected on the Declaration of Independence; sadly, most have not. Rather, it is simply because they are Americans and that particular idea is drummed into all of us since childhood. It is not something we consciously consider; it is something we assume. McDonald' s clerks in Saudi Arabia or even in England would probably disagree — not because they have read Jefferson and arrived at different conclusions, but because they live in societies that share different assumptions. A society' s public philosophy is a potent force. For better or worse, it teaches us who we are.
Aparticularly important part of a society' s public philosophy is its public morality, its set of shared assumptions about what is right, what is wrong, how we know the difference and what the consequences are. Just as the idea that all of us are created equal shapes our notions of justice, our public morality can shape our consciences, and particularly those of our children.
Public morality derives from various sources, many of which have little to do with the government. Everything from the arts to television, from The New York Times to the National Enquirer, plays a role. Nevertheless, our political institutions shape our public morality to a very large degree. Teddy Roosevelt correctly observed that the presidency is a “bully pulpit.” So are Congress and the courts. Few have actually read the Supreme Court' s landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, or the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Nevertheless, our public morality, happily, has been converted to the idea that racial discrimination is not only unlawful but immoral.
Some moments of decision are particularly telling. Try to imagine America if the Civil Rights Act had been voted down rather than passed, or if Roe v. Wade had come out the other way. Now try to imagine America if Richard Nixon had refused to resign. That fact alone, not to mention its aftermath, would have made this a very different country.
How the members of Congress choose to deal with President Clinton is such a moment. Whether he is impeached and whether he is removed will tell us much about who we are as a country. Why he is impeached or not impeached may tell us even more. If he is impeached, will it be only for lying under oath, or also for sexually exploiting a young intern in the Oval Office? If the House does not impeach him, or if the Senate refuses to convict, will it be because he is thought to be a disgraced lame duck, adequately dealt with by censure, or will it be because it is all “just about sex”? And if he is not impeached, will he be publicly shamed, as former President Ford has suggested, by being made to stand in the well of the House of Representatives to receive a formal censure? Or will there just be a vague pronouncement that “it' s time to move on”?
The answers to these questions will set a historic precedent — only the third one in over two hundred years — on why and how we impeach a president. But they will also do much, for good or ill, to shape our public morality.
Kevin Hasson, a lawyer, writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: Whether--and why--the president is impeached will tell us volumes about our culture and ourselves ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kevin Hasson ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Stunned by Shocking Behavior in Church? Show the Facts DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:Letters and phone calls from distraught Catholics regularly decry the local priest, Catholic school teacher, nun, or other Church employee who publicly denies a doctrine or insists on a liturgical abuse.
Callers and writers are shocked at the removal of the Blessed Sacrament from the Church because of the claim that the tabernacle is a distraction during Mass, or the claim that, since humans are on a par with God, we Catholics do not attend Mass to worship God. Faithful Catholics are outraged that such abuses would be allowed in one of the most clearly structured organizations in the world. Why doesn' t the Pope, bishop, pastor, or superior do something?
One of the reasons more does not get done is that the offenders can count on certain standard reactions to their behavior, many of which are common among the people who call and write to me. Religion is one of those areas of life in which, traditionally, we expect and desire the stable, solid, and eternal truths of this life and the next. Outlandish actions in the religious sphere accomplish the effect desired by the abuser—namely, shock. Much like the political theater of the 1960s’ radicals, the religious radical seeks a shock reaction to create the environment in which he can attain other goals.
How does this work?
Most people respond to odd behavior with one or both of two reactions. First, they may become immobilized, sputtering, “How can these people do these outrageous things? This is sacrilege!”
Of course, such questions rhetorically ask, “What can I possibly do about this mess?” This question posed to oneself really means, “I cannot do anything about this!” or at least, “I don' t know what to do next!” This kind of paralysis serves liturgical and doctrinal abusers well, since it allows them free reign to act while those who object merely splutter without taking concrete action.
The other standard reaction to shock is anger: “How dare they?” Indignation and rage are common expressions of the helplessness felt by those who are shocked when abuses occur within the Church. This reaction equally serves the abusers, since they see it as proof for their contention that “conservative” Catholics are uptight.
As a result, abusers see themselves as “progressives.” And they justify what they are doing as prophetic actions that point out the deep–seated anger and Pharisaism of the other side. Like Jesus, who outraged the ecclesiastical leaders of his day by offering personal freedom from oppressive rules and structures, abusers see themselves as true disciples who are challenging the hypocritical rules and regulations of the institutional Church.
They think this is the only way that the true Church, which is the people, can regain the liberty of the gospel. So their goal is to shock people, making them angry enough to begin to want progress—that is to say, to agree with the abusers.
In conflicts, two factors may determine victory or defeat—predictability and surprise. The general who predicts his enemies’ movements knows where to deploy his resources; and the general who surprises the enemy usually wins the battle. In the present state of the Church, why be predictable, why forsake surprise?
So, when a catechist claims that since Vatican II the Church does not worry about baptism removing Original Sin, or about any sin for that matter, why react with the oh–so–predictable shock? Instead, keep alert to the teachings, liturgical actions and possible abuses, but stay calm. In fact, smile as you ask to see the paragraph in Vatican II that tells Catholics not to teach about Original Sin. Or in another situation, smile and ask where the “Sacred Constitution on the Liturgy” suggests removing the tabernacle to prevent Jesus Christ from being a distraction at holy Mass.
Instead of being shocked, be confident that the Church does not teach nonsense. Instead of becoming indignant and outraged, chuckle at the silly attempts to deceive the people of God with false claims about Vatican II. Then serenely, peacefully, and cheerfully turn to the Vatican II and post–conciliar documents for evidence that the Church still teaches the same doctrine it always has.
Of course, computers are a big help in finding things; the Bible, Vatican II, the Catechism, the Church Fathers and many other sources are available on CD–ROM and on the Internet for fast research. Whether in books or in cyberspace, Catholic information is publicly available. After all, the Church is not some secret organization like the Masons.
Peaceful, humorous responses to the shocking ecclesial behavior of the abusers will keep them off guard. They expect stunned silence or outbursts of anger. Surprise them with correct information and with a cheerful, optimistic attitude based on your confidence in Jesus Christ our Lord, the founder of the Catholic Church.
You can find the confidence you need by contemplating Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and in Sacred Scripture. Making the holy hour and inviting other faithful Catholics to do the same has reshaped many parishes, affecting clergy, religious, and ecclesial professionals.
Better than shocked paralysis or anger, are prayer, holiness, solid information, and the cleverness of serpents.
Perhaps by the same merciful grace that keeps us faithful, God our Lord will use us for the conversion of the abusers to orthodox Catholicism.
Jesuit Father Mitch Pacwa is a professor at the Institute for Religious and Pastoral Studies at the University of Dallas.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: mitch Pacwa Sj ----- KEYWORDS: Commentay -------- TITLE: Deathly Dull Joe Black DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:After looking at this fall' s slate of feature–film releases, one can only conclude that the current generation of Hollywood filmmakers and moguls is baffled by spiritual subject matter. Movies like One True Thing,What Dreams May Come, Holy Manand Practical Magic have tried to replace the Judeo–Christian tradition, which undergirded almost all mass entertainment up until 30 years ago, with moral relativism and certain fashionable New Age notions. The result has been bad drama with muddled messages.
Meet Joe Black is the latest case in point. Based on the 1934 classic Death Takes a Holiday, it inflates a workable premise about the Grim Reaper wanting to learn why humans cling to life into a turgid, slow–paced romantic melodrama. Director Martin Brest (Scent of a Woman) and screenwriters Ron Osborn, Jeff Reno, Kevin Wade, and Bo Goldman raise questions about mortality and the meaning of existence which they forget to answer, concentrating instead on hooking the audience into an implausible and boring love story.
Bill Parish (Anthony Hopkins) is a good–guy capitalist entrepreneur. He' s built a media empire based on the old–fashioned assumption that reporting the news is a privilege that brings with it certain responsibilities. He also reveres the memory of his dead wife, keeping fresh in his mind the reasons he loved her.
Parish has two daughters — his favorite, an unmarried physician named Susan (Claire Forlani), and the happily married Allison (Marcia Gay Harden), who tries to compensate for not being the apple of her father' s eye by staging a grandiose bash for his 65th birthday. His health has recently taken a bad turn. He' s experiencing chest pains and hearing voices, but he keeps this from his family.
The media mogul begins to wonder if he' s dying, and in answer to his question, Death (Brad Pitt) shows up to accompany him to the other side. This version of the Grim Reaper has the face of a male model and the brain of Forrest Gump. Parish is surprised by the packaging. “You' re not death,” he observes. “You' re just a kid in a suit.”
Curious to know more about the living, Death cuts a deal with Parish. He'll allow the tycoon some additional time to straighten up the loose ends if, in return, he'll explain what he' s learned about life. When Parish asks why he' s been chosen, he' s told: “You have verve, excellence, and the ability to instruct. You' ve lived a first–rate life.”
Calling himself Joe Black, Death moves into Parish' s Manhattan penthouse apartment and makes himself a silent observer of every facet of the mogul' s personal and business activities. Joe also looks exactly like a handsome yuppie who'd snowed Susan in a coffee shop earlier that day. By coincidence, Death has taken that young man' s body as his own after he was killed in a freak auto accident. When the love–struck young woman meets Joe at her father' s apartment, she wants to continue and deepen the relationship, unaware that this adorable hunk is now, in fact, Death.
Joe responds to her interest in arch, cutesy ways that make him appear even more irresistible. For example, he takes a childlike pleasure in the simple things of life like eating peanut butter and makes adorable faces while tasting it. He eventually falls in love with Susan himself and wants to take her with him to the other side. Parish objects, observing that Death, by doing that, would be “violating all the laws of the universe.” After teasing us with this philosophical dilemma, the filmmakers let the whole matter drop.
Susan is already romantically involved with Drew (Jake Weber), her father' s right–hand man in business. His attitude toward life is summed up in his exhortation: “Wake up and smell the thorns.” The audience begins to root for Joe to take her away from this creep.
Jake has cooked up a merger deal with a British billionaire whose business practices violate Parish' s straightarrow notions of ethics. When the proposal is killed, Jake conspires behind Parish' s back to oust his boss and reinstate the deal.
Joe has some kind of special powers although the filmmakers never make it clear exactly what they are. The audience begins to hope he'll use them to save Parish, and eventually he becomes a slow–witted and reluctant catalyst in the lives of the humans he' s encountered. But Parish — not the fashion–magazine incarnation of the Grim Reaper — is the movie' s moral center. Unfortunately, the interesting contradictions inherent in these situations are left unexplored.
Meet Joe Black is a dumb film about a fascinating subject. By turning their backs on the wisdom of traditional religions, the filmmakers have denied themselves the tools to make sense of what they have created.
Arts and Culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Washington, D.C.
Meet Joe Black is rated PG–13 by the Motion Picture Association of America.
----- EXCERPT: Brad Pitt does a forgettable turn as the Grim Reaper ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: The Rugged Faith of Humble Folk DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:American society has become so secularized over the past 30 years that one finds it difficult to imagine what it would be like to be part of a culture in which everyone believed in God, looked for his design in the world, and trusted religious authorities.
The Tree of the Wooden Clogs is set 100 years ago among the Northern Italian peasantry, who lived and worked in a deeply Catholic environment. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize in 1978, it follows the fortunes of four families who reside together on a farmstead.
They' re forced to labor hard just to feed and clothe themselves, as two–thirds of their harvest belongs to the landlord.
Writer–director Ermanno Olmi (IlPosto) uses real people from Italy' s rural areas instead of actors to portray his fictional characters, and they bring with them an authenticity of physical appearance and movement which makes us believe we' re watching a documentary about the period, rather than a theatrical melodrama.
The movie makes clear that sincerity of religious belief is no protection from suffering. These basically good people are often treated unfairly, and they accept the fact that justice in their culture is an abstraction to be talked about rather than a living idea.
Their spirituality isn' t idealized. Their practices often border on superstition, and few of them would ever be mistaken for saints. But their faith is as real to them as the fields they till, and it sustains them in times of tragedy and joy.
“Be guided by Providence,” one of the peasant couples is told by their parish priest, as their young son is enrolled in the local Catholic school. “The Lord has given your Minek the gift of intelligence,” they' re instructed. “It' s your duty to second God' s will.”
Children of their class rarely got any kind of education during that period. “A peasant' s son going to school. What will people say?” the couple asks.
But the priest' s words have the force of law to them, and they strongly support their son in his studies. They see their conduct as a sign of obedience to God' s will. One wonders whether America would be experiencing an educational crisis today, if parents perceived their duties toward their children with that kind of devotion.
We watch each of these four peasant families cope with their harsh daily routines. The children often work with their parents in the field, singing as they labor. When it' s time to weigh what they' ve harvested to determine their pay, the landlord' s too busy listening to music on his new phonograph to supervise the process himself. The head of one of the families decides to cheat his boss by secretly adding a pile of rocks to his produce to increase what he'll receive.
But the filmmaker shows this kind of dishonesty exists side by side on the farmstead with a truly Christian sense of charity. One of the family units has lost its male breadwinner, and in order to make ends meet, some of the six children may have to be sent to an orphanage. Nevertheless, the family' s mother insists they share their meager meal with a homeless man who' s mentally retarded. “Those who are wretched are close to God,” she instructs her children, passing on to them the fruits of her faith in a manner modern parents might emulate.
This widowed mother also calls on the power of prayer to help her in a way that many might consider naive and simple– minded. The family' s primary source of income is a milk cow, who becomes sick. “Lord, don' t forsake me,” the devout woman prays. She takes water from a nearby stream, asks Jesus to bless it and makes the stricken animal drink it.
Even though the local vet has predicted the cow will die, it miraculously recovers, so that the widow' s children won' t have to be sent to the orphanage. She is certain that God has answered her prayers.
The filmmaker also shows us moments of political unrest, where workers and peasants rise up against the existing order because of its exploitation and injustice. None of the farmstead' s families shows any interest in participating, but the movie lets us see why such rebellions occurred.
Minek breaks one of the clogs on his feet on his way home from school. Unable to afford a new one, his father secretly cuts down one of the landlord' s trees so he can carve a replacement. His deed is uncovered, and the punishment is swift and severe.
Remembering the priest' s words, the father probably believed he was following God' s will in breaking the law to help his son. It' s difficult for us to judge. But the audience is left with the sense that the family' s faith will sustain it in bad times, as it has in good ones.
The sincerity and simplicity of the peasants'beliefs gives an air of sanctity to their daily work. The plowing of the fields, the care of the farm animals, the harvest, all are made to seem like small acts of worship. Perhaps this seeking of the sacred in everyday activities is the most important lesson the movie has to teach us.
Arts and Culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Washington, D.C.
In Two Weeks: Kon Ichikawa' sThe Burmese Harp.
----- EXCERPT: To the peasant families in The Tree of the Wooden Clogs, every chore is also an act of worship ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Return to the Moral Classroom DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:We still call it a classroom, but what occurs there and passes for education only slightly resembles the traditional educational process that used to work so well in preparing young people for life.
This situation is particularly evident in the earliest grades. Education today is delivered to students as if in a vacuum, leading them to believe that their intake and behavior have no consequences or bearing on future endeavors.
Topics are discussed without relationship to a set of tangible or concrete values or systems of thought. The materials, current texts, and examples used in the classroom are anchored to little, if anything. Coupled with this is the fact that most teachers are products of the early non–directive training philosophy of the 1960s and '70s. With educators unsure of exactly what they themselves believe, students receive scraps, instead of meals, to ingest and use toward building healthy bodies, minds, and souls. Sadly, many parents exhibit this same lack of moral compass because of their non–directive education. The firm foundation of virtues that has proved in the past to be successful in guiding young children to become mature, other–centered adults is now lacking.
What is the primary lesson that has been cast off in favor of self–directed “freedom?” Could “obedience” be the pivotal missing concept? In teaching young people to obey, we introduce them to the world of order. From understanding order as necessary in relationships of all kinds, they move to a sense of priorities. They will understand that some things are more important than others, and, through the recognition of a basis for moral and ethical decision making, they will develop a process that defines maturity. This is the basis for civilized society and the development of responsible, mature individuals to assume the roles of authority. Otherwise, we each become captain of our own, very lonely– and rudderlessship.
In contrast, modern education has a tendency to present students with a wide open series of options with no distinctions made as to each option' s positive or negative result. The students perceive these options as equally good and, therefore, have no means of discerning the right choice. The decision–making process may be opened up as a result, but, absent any guidance, it is really short–circuited.
An alternative way of approaching education is for schools to adopt the notion that “school” is a student' s first job or apprentice experience. Far from presenting material in such an “objective” manner that the school disconnects from society and culture as an aloof laboratory, our educational institutions need to view their role as an adjunct to the home for introducing young people to the realities of life. We need our schools to accept once again their position as a partner of the home, where the primary goal is the nurture of the child.
Rather than acting as a value–free zone, the school should be there to reinforce, as well as expand upon, the lessons of the home. As important as the inculcation of knowledge in the form of information is, the school should be concerned with the development and value of the whole person. Our young people today sense the lack of direction in the messages they are receiving and are desperately seeking parameters and boundaries. However, when they are offered directive education, they are eager for the opportunity to make good decisions that improve their lives.
We experience tremendous enthusiasm on the part of middle– and highschool students relative to the healthy decisions they make through our abstinence– centered education programs. When they are presented with morals, direction, and guidance, they are excited to discover these time–tested, natureaffirming customs that have long been known as virtues. They see the positive benefits that can be derived from acting on what for centuries was perceived as common sense, but, for them, is new information.
In abstinence–centered education we discuss sexuality not just as an aspect of body functions but as an aspect of relationship and healthy living. We recognize and affirm the emotions as part of the human experience and teach young people how to reserve certain special elements for fulfillment to be attained one day in the sanctity of marriage. A directive approach toward character education is now being recognized as a vital foundation for all that is taught in education programs. We are pleased to welcome a growing number of educators and organizations that are seeing a return to directive education based on virtues as our hope for the future of today' s adolescents.
Kathleen Sullivan is the director of Project ReaIity based in the Chicago area. This article is reprinted with permission from Crisis in Education
----- EXCERPT: Why schools must leave behind 'non-directive' education ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathleen Sullivan ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Triumph on Lithuania' s Hill of Crosses DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:One of the most unforgettable and emotional sites in Lithuania is the Hill of Crosses. An intense place of pilgrimage, the shrine offers a glimpse into the history of Lithuanian Catholics and their struggles against the former Communist regime. A worldwide attraction, the two–humped hillock is today buried amid a multitude of crosses.
Yet 170 years ago, the site was simply a hill, overgrown with weeds. That all changed in 1831. During that year, the first of hundreds of crosses were placed in the ground, to honor those killed or deported to Siberia in an anti– Russian uprising. Thirty years later, more crosses were mounted on the hill, in memory of those tragically killed in the peasant rebellion of 1863. In the ensuing years, more and more crosses were added to the site. Around the turn of the century, the faithful came here to pray in solitude or take part in religious processions, to present their needs to God, to mourn those who had been imprisoned, exiled, or killed and to recall important historical events.
When Soviet authorities took power in Lithuania after World War II, the new government designated the place as “forbidden,” and severely punished anyone who defied their edict. A great drama began to unfold, as authorities destroyed the crosses on the hill in an attempt to smother Christianity and stamp out “fanaticism.”
From 1941 to 1952, Lithuanians suffered greatly, as many among their people were exiled to Siberia. Entire villages were left deserted. In 1956, the people began returning to their homes.
It was but a short time until the faithful began secretly replenishing the hill with crosses, in memory of the unbearable tortures they had endured, to mourn those who had died, and in gratitude for their return. Lithuanians returning from captivity in Siberia also put up crosses, to thank God for the chance to walk the paths of their homeland again, and breathe its air.
In time, the Hill of Crosses, with its heart–wrenching inscriptions, became an open book of people' s lives. The site symbolized resistance to violence, oppression, and genocide. The resurrection of the crosses on the hill told the world that the nation of Lithuania was not dead.
But, once the Communist authorities discovered the freshly planted Christian symbols, they attempted to rid the hill of its religious sentiments once and for all. In the spring of 1961, under strict guard by the Red Army and KGB, the soldiers bulldozed the area, burned wooden crosses, recycled iron crosses, and buried stone crosses in the ground. A maple tree, planted by the people to symbolize Lithuania' s independence, was uprooted — but the tree was later to reappear on the hill, carved into the shape of a cross.
As new crosses began cropping up, the Soviets sought anew to destroy the hill. On one occasion, the Soviets flooded the area, turning the hill into a virtual island. The Communists exhausted themselves, designing new ways to stop the faithful from planting the symbols of resurrection. They dug ditches, closed bus stops, posted signs, punished trespassers, and blocked roads, but all in vain.
Indeed, one of the new crosses erected during the night in this time read: “Jesus, do not punish the villains, for they do not know what they are doing.” In total, the government bulldozed the hill three times, only to see the crosses spring up again and again. In 1975, the authorities leveled the hill for the last time.
Since then, more than 50,000 crosses have been placed on the hill — a testimony to the spirit of the people. The planting of crosses can be traced to the Lithuanian tradition of erecting crosses near roads and settlements. In fact, in the beginning of the 19th century, so many crosses had been placed on the sides of roads that the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire issued an edict forbidding the practice. However, the order had little effect, as the cross had already become a deeply rooted symbol in the heart of the Lithuanian people.
This decade, one of the most extraordinary events in the history of the Hill of Crosses took place when Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass at the site in 1993. Nowadays, more and more of the faithful are joining him in making pilgrimages to the sacred spot. Here, the incredible courage shown by the Catholic people of Lithuania demonstrates the power of faith in God. For every visitor, the Hill of Crosses serves as a sacred monument to human existence — past, present, and future.
Today, a beautiful tradition continues at the pilgrimage site, as visitors often leave behind crosses and prayers in the sands of the hill. Pilgrims can purchase sacred objects such as crucifixes or rosaries at various nearby souvenir stands. One of the busiest weeks at the Hill of Crosses is Easter, and it is also interesting to note that newlyweds often come here after their wedding ceremony to ask for God' s blessing.
The Hill of Crosses is located six miles north of S?iauliai. By car from S? iauliai, take A12 north in the direction of Meskuciai — the pilgrimage site is then located about one mile east off the road to Joniskis and Riga. Look for the sign Kryziu Kalnas (Hill of Crosses).
Although the Hill of Crosses is not accessible by train, the nearest railway station is at S?iauliai. From there, it is a short bus ride, about six miles, to the Hill of Crosses. Tell the ticket office clerk and the bus driver you want to visit “Kryziu Kalnas.” On the other hand, one of the most convenient ways to see the Hill of Crosses is to hire a taxi. At a minimal cost, you can pay a taxi driver to drive you there, wait while you visit the site, and then drive you back.
Kevin Wright, author of Catholic Shrines of Western Europe, writes from Bellevue, Washington.
----- EXCERPT: The Soviets' bulldozers and roadblocks never broke by KEVIN WRIGHT the indefatigable spirit of this country's Catholics ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kevin Wright ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Land of the Snowshoe Priest DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:On the stretch of U.S. 41 between L'Anse and Baraga in Michigan' s Upper Peninsula, is a giant copper figure, standing astride a silvery cloud rising some 60 feet above the bluff overlooking Keweenaw Bay. This heroic statue pays tribute to one of the earliest and most beloved pioneers of the Keweenaw, Frederic Baraga, the “Snowshoe Priest,” who became the first bishop of the Upper Peninsula and the apostle of the Great Lakes.
Father Baraga left his home in Slovenia in 1830 for the Catholic missions of the Upper Great Lakes. His intention was to minister to the native peoples of the region. In the process, he founded five missions along the south shore of Lake Superior, and created a legend.
The last of his missions was sited in the village of L'Anse, which had been the site of an earlier Jesuit mission founded in the late 1600s. He remained in L'Anse from 1843, and was consecrated as the first bishop of the Upper Peninsula in 1853.
Much been written about this priest, who left an upper–class European existence for the hardships of the north woods. Stories of his endurance in overland treks to reach members of his flock are at times difficult to credit, yet the records attest to both his strength of will and physical stamina.
His title as the “Snowshoe Priest” came from the necessity of long treks overland in the winter months, to far flung churches that served both the native population and the small communities of copper miners on the Keweenaw Peninsula. Even after he became a bishop, Baraga continued his circuit covering distances of more than 60 miles. Bishop Baraga was known to travel over 700 miles in winter serving his churches.
Bishop Baraga had these comments about his work among the L'Anse Chippewa: “I have few comforts here, often times barely the necessities of life. But what consolation, what grand reward, what unspeakable joy will it be for me on the day of judgment, some or hopefully all of these my good children may surround me and give me testimony before our final judge.”
Bishop Baraga learned to speak the native languages fluently and developed their written language. His Chippewa grammar and dictionary are still used today. In 1832, his first Indian Prayer Book was printed in Detroit.
Even after being made a bishop in 1853, the first in Upper Michigan, he continued his long treks to visit churches in his jurisdiction. The Bishop Baraga Shrine, erected in the 1960s, was designed and constructed by the late Jack Anderson. Anderson was commissioned by the Bishop Baraga Foundation to memorialize this dedicated man of God through funds raised by local subscription.
Rising six stories above the Red Rocks Bluff, the Shrine commands a breathtaking panoramic view of virgin hardwoods, scenic coastline, and the oldest mountains, geologically, in the world. Flanking the southern side of the Bluff is the Lac Vieux Desert Trail, a gateway to the Mississippi Valley for Native Americans in the early 1830s.
Holding a cross (7 feet high) and snowshoes (26 feet long) the statute of Bishop Baraga is 35 feet tall and weighs four tons. It floats on a cloud of stainless steel supported by five laminated wood beams representing Bishop Baraga' s five major missions.
Bishop Baraga' s triumph over adversity is still evident today in a county, a village, and a L'Anse street all named for him, in the continuation of the Holy Name Church in Assinins, and in the Shrine of the Snowshoe Priest.
The Shrine is a lovely spot to rest and get out of your car to stretch your legs. There is a well kept picnic area, restaurant, and gift shop on the site where several fine books about Bishop Baraga and the early days of the Keweenaw Bay communities are available. You may also find yourself reflecting on the challenging conditions confronting this priest in his efforts to bring the Grace of God to the indigenous peoples of a wild and unforgiving land.
(Article published with permission of the Bishop Baraga Foundation, Shrine of the Snowshoe Priest, Box 47, Baraga, Michigan 49908.)
----- EXCERPT: A shrine pays tribute to a missionary who left an upper-class European life for the hardships of Michigan's north woods ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Traveler -------- TITLE: Hard Data Show Unreliability Of U.N. Population Projections DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:In his 1968 book, The Population Bomb,Paul Ehrlich warned of the imminent death of hundreds of millions of people due to overpopulation in the Third World. Ever since then we have been literally bombarded with studies by “experts” who alert us to the perils of the population explosion.
A typical recent example comes from an article published in October' s National Geographic, dedicated to the theme of population. The first page of one of the stories contains the following remarks: “Today 98% of population growth is in the developing world. ‘The world is going to hell,’ as one observer bluntly paraphrased the common fear, ‘if those people don' t stop breeding.’”
Such fears have been fed by supposedly scientific studies — which to the modern mind enjoy a special class of infallibility — that claim the world' s population is escalating out of control. One of the main culprits behind this myth is the United Nations (UN), which regularly prints projections of population data for the coming years. A close analysis of the data published by the UN, however, reveals monstrous inaccuracies, as the following scrutiny of the biennial studies published by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations clearly shows.
U.N. population figures typically come in a triple set. For a given date in the future they offer three alternatives: a low, medium, and high variant. The medium option represents the most likely outcome, although in many cases the media publish the high figure, which is more dramatic. In 1988 the medium variant prediction of the population for 2000 was for 6.251 billion, with a whopping 8.467 billion projected for the year 2025. According to this study, in the period 1995–2000 the annual increase in population would be 97 million and not until the year 2020 would annual growth diminish to 81 million. But in the review of this data published just four years later, in 1992, the United Nations lowered the prediction for the year 2000 by 50 million people. Moreover, they admitted that the annual rise in population for the last years of the century would be only 94 million, not 97 million.
If these U.N. studies were mere theoretical exercises, the blunders could be written off as part of a learning process in a very difficult feat of mathematical forecasting.
This was just the beginning of the reductions in U.N. Population Division forecasts. In the 1994 study, the figure for 2000 was reduced by another 40 million, with the big change coming in the estimate for 2025, down by 200 million people from the 1988 estimate. The United Nations also adjusted its figures for annual population increase for the period 1995–2000. The new prediction was 87 million, 10 million less than their 1988 calculation, and seven million less than they had predicted just two years earlier in their 1992 study.
To save face, in its 1996 report the United Nations conceded that during the previous two years population growth had declined by more than expected. In fact the document starts off by acknowledging that yearly population growth had hit its lowest point since the end of the Second World War. This meant downsizing growth forecasts for the years 1995–2000 to 81 million, which according to the 1988 U.N. study wasn' t supposed to happen until 2020.
In a further amendment the U.N. adjusted the annual percentage increase to 1.48%, a substantial decline from the 1.57% foreseen in the 1994 report. This 1996 report eliminated estimates for the year 2025 altogether, and focused instead on 2050. Supposedly by then world population would reach 9.37 billion according to the medium variant — down from the figure of 9.8 billion offered in 1994. In just two years the United Nations had reduced its predictions by nearly half a billion people.
In February of this year the U.N. Population Division published a longterm forecast of world population. The United Nations does this only occasionally; the last time was in 1992.
According to the medium variation of this newest report, world population will reach 10.8 billion by the year 2150. Since the 1996 study calculated a population of 9.4 billion for 2050, the United Nations now sees a global increase of only 1.4 billion in the entire century from 2050 to 2150. Such is the explosion that has the world trembling with fear.
More telling still, relative to the 1992 report, the approximation for the year 2150 was slashed by 700 million people.
But the reductions don' t end here. Just a few weeks ago the United Nations announced new forecasts in its 1998 biennial report. Studies now show that the annual increase has dropped to 1.37%, or 78 million. Consequently, the United Nations once again had to drastically reduce projections for the year 2050. The medium variant now sits at 8.91 billion, compared with 9.37 billion in the 1996 report.
To make things clearer the nearby graphics reveal the full extent of the numerous reductions in the forecasts.
In sum, over four years the medium variant has been cut back by almost 900 million people, while the high variant has suffered a collapse of 1.2 billion. These wholly untenable forecasts are not a recent phenomenon for the United Nations. Back in 1969 the United Nations predicted a population of 7.5 billion people for the year 2000, which has proved to be off the mark by 1.5 billion.
If these U.N. studies were mere theoretical exercises with no practical consequences, the blunders could be written off as part of a learning process in a very difficult feat of mathematical forecasting. Yet this is not the case. Based on false predictions of future population, the United Nations and other organizations have aggressively pushed population control in Third World countries. Tens of millions of women have been sterilized, often against their will, and millions of abortions have been performed because of fears raised by these erroneous data.
The 1994 Cairo Conference on Population and Development called for spending on family planning and reproductive health to reach $17 billion by the year 2000. Of this over $10 billion was to be spent on family planning — in other words, contraceptives, sterilization, and abortion. And all of this based on statistics which time and again have proven to be inaccurate.
Population control advocates have used inflated projections of future population to manipulate public opinion. At the same time the Catholic Church has been demonized for its supposedly medieval attitudes. Perhaps the time has come for the United Nations and other groups to pay less attention to flawed mathematical models and more to people' s true needs and wishes. The future well–being of the world' s population, regardless of its size, will only be guaranteed by solutions that center on the human person and respect the dignity of every individual, ideas the Church has been advocating for a long time.
Father John Flynn writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: Unfounded fears drive programs to thwart 'overpopulation'in Third World ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Flynn Lc ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Graphic Abortion Images: Help or Hurt for Pro-life Cause? DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:DALLAS—People have knocked them down, slashed at them with knives, and even tried to drive cars over them. The oversized photographic panels depicting disturbing images of abortion alongside those of the Holocaust and racial lynching — known as the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) — are galvanizing both pro–choice and pro–life students on college campuses.
Because the pictures graphically portray abortion and link images and simple slogans to historical acts of genocide, project founder Gregg Cunningham believes GAP will do more to challenge the culture than the kinder, gentler approaches that dominate the pro–life movement.
“People are stunned by what they are seeing; they are gathering around, asking questions, and hearing answers they have never heard before,” Cunningham said in a recent address to Dallas pro–life supporters. “These students know abortion is an evil, but they think of it as a nominal evil.”
Cunningham, director of the 8–yearold Center for Bio–Ethical Reform in Mission Hills, Calif., and a former Pennsylvania legislator who won some significant pro–life legislative victories during the early 1980s, has brought his display to three public universities this year: Penn State, Ohio State, and Kansas. He is making plans to bring the panels to four or five universities in Texas next spring.
Controversy surrounds the troubling pictures of mostly first–trimester fetuses dismembered by surgical abortion, their defined features clearly human bodies and not some ill–defined mass of “tissue” — a dominate image in the public mind. The color posters are mounted on 6–by–13–foot panels, which are legally placed on public property but require police protection because of the strong emotions they generate.
Even at two recent Renewing the Heart women' s conferences sponsored by the Christian organization Focus on the Family this summer, there were seven different incidents of women attacking the signs and knocking them to the ground, and one woman tried to slash them with a knife, Cunningham said. At the University of Kansas this fall, a person who was later arrested drove his car into the display, knocking it 20 feet and nearly hitting one of the project staff members; despite police surveillance, one student punched a staff member holding a sign.
Swear words (in an edited form) are sprinkled through some of the negative responses to the project posted on the Center' s website, www.cbrinfo.org, which also includes its share of positive remarks. But none of the vehemence bothers Cunningham; it is to be expected, he said.
“I'm going to proclaim the truth about what the baby is and what abortion does to the baby,” Cunningham said. “People who are upset tend to want to shoot the messenger. You' re either tough enough to deal with that reality or you' re not.”
Cunningham, 51, an evangelical Protestant who has earned the respect of some Catholic pro–life leaders, pulls no punches in his challenge to the pro–life movement, which he believes made a strategic error by backing off from the use of graphic images of abortion. Although Human Life International has made regular use of such pictures and posters, Cunningham believes that in general pro–lifers have worked harder to hide the graphic images than abortion supporters: “We are suppressing the horror of abortion; we are suppressing it because it upsets people.
“We' re way beyond the point when words are effective. Americans are coping with abortion through denial. Denial is a key word. We make abortion much less abhorrent than it really is.”
While there has been a long tradition of remembering the Holocaust by “showing the pictures,” which remain in the mind long after they are viewed, “yet suddenly when abortion is the genocide we' re trying to teach, the rules change,” he said. “Why is this form of genocide different? (The reason is) nobody in America is killing Jews. It is relatively rare, thank God, for people to be killing African Americans.”
Father Frank Pavone, international director of Priests for Life, has been invited to join the board of the Center for Bio–Ethical Reform, which besides GAPputs on awareness and action seminars and distributes videos and other educational material.
“Gregg has a well–thought–out strategic plan for the pro–life movement, which brings it beyond the level of simply reacting to what the other side is doing, or going about its activities in an uncoordinated way,” according to Father Pavone. “Though Gregg is not Catholic, I have always found him to have a deep respect for the Catholic Church, especially in her strong defense of the dignity of human life. He has a track record of many successes, a very effective collection of resources for prolife speakers and activists, and a message which every serious pro–lifer should take into consideration.”
Not all pro–life Catholics favor the inyour– face approach of GAP.
“I think the Church should put its efforts more in education than in something sensational like that, which to my mind doesn' t change hearts,” said Brian McGuire, a master' s of philosophy student at the University of Dallas who volunteers at a crisis pregnancy center and prays at abortion centers. “To hit people with that cold … I think probably the majority of people are just reaffirmed in their opinion that Christians are hateful.”
McGuire favors an emphasis on chastity education and the “Msgr. Reilly approach” — a method of prayer and counseling at abortion centers developed by Msgr. Philip Reilly of Brooklyn, N.Y. — because he finds it more heavily dependent on grace and more ordered to the women actually considering abortion.
“You can only (win the pro–life victory) one soul at a time,” McGuire contends.
Attitudes of pro–choice women as researched by the Caring Foundation suggest Cunningham' s campaign could build resentment rather than sympathy because such women do not see abortion within the same moral framework as prolifers.
“(G)raphic abortion pictures can still be used to great effect with certain audiences, particularly among people already disposed to the pro–life message and as a means to activate pro–lifers,” foundation director Paul Swope wrote in the journal First Things. “However, in the use of mass media to reach the general public, it is vitally important that the pro–life movement re–frame the issue in terms which will be better received by women.”
Other pro–lifers, including people who have worked with the GAP display, rave that the project is re–energizing the pro–life movement.
“I have to say that in one day I feel as though I have educated more people about the truth of abortion than I have in four years of other pro–life work,” wrote “Charlene” on the Center' s web site guestbook.
Cunningham is taking early retirement from the Air Force Reserve at the cost of some $70,000 in order to spend more time on pro–life work. He offers a challenge to pro–lifers and Christians in general, who he suggests might be choosing comfort and good opinion over telling the unvarnished truth about abortion.
“We care more about relationships than we do about babies,” he said. “Some pro–lifers avoid certain things because it invites persecution. I don' t care very much what people think about me. I care a lot about what they think about abortion.”
Ellen Rossini writes from Dallas.
----- EXCERPT: Gregg Cunningham draws praise and criticism for showing the brutal truth ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Rossini ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Gospel Of Life DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:Population growth is a valid, indeed critical, issue for the next millennium. Yet the Gospel of Life calls us to address this issue with sensitivity and concern for human values, especially the rights of married couples and families. In Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II calls nations and peoples to the challenge of finding a just and equitable order for a Culture of Life:
Today an important part of policies which favor life is the issue of population growth. Certainly public authorities have a responsibility to “intervene to orient the demography of the population.” But such interventions must always take into account and respect the primary and inalienable responsibility of married couples and families, and cannot employ methods which fail to respect the person and fundamental human rights, beginning with the right to life of every innocent human being. It is therefore morally unacceptable to encourage, let alone impose, the use of methods such as contraception, sterilization and abortion in order to regulate births. The ways of solving the population problem are quite different. Governments and the various international agencies must above all strive to create economic, social, public health and cultural conditions which will enable married couples to make their choices about procreation in full freedom and with genuine responsibility. They must then make efforts to ensure” greater opportunities and a fairer distribution of wealth so that everyone can share equitably in the goods of creation. Solutions must be sought on the global level by establishing a true economy of communion and sharing of goods, in both the national and international order.” This is the only way to respect the dignity of persons and families, as well as the authentic cultural patrimony of peoples.(91)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life notes DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:Louisiana Is Pursuing Partial–Birth Abortion Ban
NEW ORLEANS—According to the state of Louisiana, an unborn child becomes a living baby as soon as she enters the birth canal — even if she gets there as part of an abortion.
The state and abortion advocates were heading to court to argue over that definition, which is set out in a law that forbids abortions in which an unborn child is partly delivered before it is killed.
The law is meant to ban gruesome partial–birth abortions. Abortion advocates say it' s so vague it could outlaw all abortions.
“It comes down to how you decide when pregnancy ends and when birth begins,” said Assistant Attorney General Roy Mongrue, who was to defend the law in federal district court.
Pro–life supporters say the law and similar statutes in 27 other states are meant to prevent partial–birth abortions — abortions of unborn children 20 to 24 weeks old. By this time, the head is too large to pass through the partially dilated cervix, so the base of the skull is cut and the contents are drained.
Mongrue said he will argue that once the unborn child is outside the womb and in the birth canal, the child' s stage of development is irrelevant— it' s a child.
Judges in nine states have sided with abortion advocates and found bans on partial–birth abortions unconstitutional. Only one case, Ohio' s, has gone to the Supreme Court. It refused to revive the law.
Judges in nine states, including Louisiana, have halted enforcement of such laws until they rule, though the order in Virginia was overturned on appeal. Laws against the partialbirth abortion procedure have gone unchallenged in eight states. And in Georgia and Alabama, the laws have been limited to cover only abortions of unborn children able to live outside the womb. (Pro–Life Infonet)
Abortions, Miscarriages Claim Almost Half Of Australia' s Unborn
AUSTRALIA—Almost half the 500,000 pregnancies in Australia last year ended in miscarriage or abortion — 95,000 abortions, 150,000 miscarriages and 2,000 still births — according to a survey released yesterday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The survey also found that one third of Australian babies were born to unmarried mothers, a 70% increase since 1988.
Right to Life organizations have voiced their concern at the growth in abortions in the past year.
Monsignor John Walsh of the Archdiocese of Sydney said “95,000 abortions constituted a staggering figure.” The Catholic Church “said it was concerned abortions were becoming an ‘easy option’ for unmarried young mothers.” Walsh added, “The real issue is people have freedom to engage in sexual relationships without concern for the consequences. As long as that is the attitude, abortion will always be there.”
Keith Hollybone, a spokesperson for the Australian Medical Association, said, “Somewhere between 10% and 20% of all pregnancies end in miscarriages, so the figures are reasonable.” He cautioned, however, that “[s]ome forms of drug abuse can cause a miscarriage but mainly it is chromosome insufficiency, incompetent cervix problems, fevers or infections.”(Pro–Life Infonet)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Young Women Move to the Fore in Canada DATE: 11/29/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 29-December 5, 1998 ----- BODY:TORONTO—The appointment of a 23–year–old Ontario woman to head the Toronto Right to Life Association underscores a new youth movement in Canadian pro–life circles.
Emma Maan of Georgetown, northwest of Toronto, was named president of the organization Nov. 4. She succeeds June Scandiffio, a Toronto high school teacher, who had led the organization since 1991.
Founded in 1971, the Toronto Right to Life Association is one of Canada' s leading pro–life groups. It concentrates primarily on education, public speaking, school presentations, and the collection and distribution of pro–life literature and audio–visual material.
Maan' s appointment comes just a year and a half after the selection of then 23–year–old Michelle Lavergne as executive director of the Winnipeg, Manitoba–based Alliance for Life association. Alliance for Life is a national association with pro–life representation in each Canadian province.
“I really didn' t think I had a chance when I applied for the position in July,” Maan said in an interview. “I was interested in a leadership opportunity, but I was certain the board of directors would opt for a president with more concrete pro–life experience.”
Maan' s rise to prominence at Toronto Right to Life coincides with a new confidence and dynamism on the part of Canadian pro–life students. The Ontario Students for Life organization (OSFL) continues to attract new recruits among high school students, while the National Campus Life Network (NCLN) is busy spreading the right to life word in Canadian colleges and universities.
In the United States, organizations such as American Life League (ALL), Collegians Activated to Liberate Life (CALL), and others have recently stepped up efforts to reach out to prolife students, and to involve young people in decision–making and leadership. Many veteran pro–life campaigners believe the energy and dedication of young people is a positive sign in encouraging a respect for life attitude in the future.
Although she has been active in pro–life efforts since age 8, Maan admits she has much to learn as a leader of a respected front–line organization. She is hoping her public speaking skills, and an ability to “think on her feet,” will leave her in good stead for the president' s role.
Maan paid tribute to former Right to Life presidents, adding that the association has earned “an enormous legacy” of pro–life leadership.
Not surprisingly, her counterpart Lavergne, the Alliance for Life executive director, fully supports a move to younger pro–life leaders.
“As long as the next generation of leaders can count on the cooperation and experience of their predecessors, they deserve a chance to make their mark,” Lavergne told the Register. “It brings out a positive aspect of pro–life work to support younger leaders.
”So long as these younger leaders have the encouragement and support of their older colleagues, they generally possess the tools to do the job. The news media as well might be more open to younger people heading up pro–life groups. Although the transition to new people can present some difficulties, it also allows an opportunity for pro–lifers to present their arguments with fresh ideas and new approaches.”
Prior to her new role, Maan had served for 18 months as speaker and public relations officer for Ontario Students for Life. She visited high schools discussing the role young people can play in combating the abortion–contraception mentality.
Maan plans to rely on the experience and advice of former president June Scandiffio, who will remain with the organization as a board member.
Scandiffio expressed confidence in Maan. “Emma has all the natural qualities of a leader,” she told the Register. “I think she represents the confident new approach of young pro–life leaders. In my time with Right to Life, I' ve noticed that younger people have become more enthusiastic about speaking out about respect for life ideas.”
Maan will also look for direction from Toronto Right to Life founder, Gwen Landolt, a Toronto attorney, who now acts as vice president of REALWomen of Canada, a pro–life organization that advocates a traditional role for women and families.
“Gwen was a tremendous help to me as I prepared for the new position,” Maan said. “She presented a number of worst–case scenarios and complicated situations I might be called on to respond to as Right to Life president. It was a crash course in pro–life awareness.”
Maan' s pro–life preparation was also enhanced during a six–week pro–life speaking tour of Ireland this past summer. Maan and a colleague from OSFL visited Irish schools and community groups between June and August to discuss the North American abortion scene with their Irish counterparts.
“I found the speaking tour of Ireland very helpful,” Maan said. “Not only did it force me to prepare for any number of questions on the issue, but it also gave me an international perspective on the right–tolife scene.”
Maan believes it is important for younger people to look for leadership roles in defending the right to life of the unborn. She said many people who were born after the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion in the United States, remain woefully unaware of the abortion situation.
“There is a tremendous amount of ignorance about the right–to–life issue within the younger generation,” Maan said. “Those who have educated themselves tend to see the truth of the pro–life argument, but too many younger people haven' t taken the time to really learn about it.”
Maan said it is crucial for young people to see beyond the rhetoric of pro–choice that many abortion supporters believe has a struck a responsive chord among students. She said the notion of freedom of choice has been exploited by abortion supporters to win sympathy for their cause. “We have to get more people to understand that many women have been harmed and misled in the name of choice,” she said.
Maan' s views are similar to those of Why Life?, the new youth outreach arm of the Virginia–based American Life League. Why Life? officials say the majority of North Americans under the age of 30 remain ignorant about respect for life issues. They advocate the development of educational programs to foster pro–life information among high school and university students.
In addition to promoting pro–life education among people in her age group, Maan hopes to reach out to other faith groups. “We are eager to promote the view that abortion and legal protection for the unborn are not just Catholic issues,” she said. “In a large, multicultural city like Toronto, there are many groups for whom respect for life is an important issue.”
Maan added, “Youth often represents energy, enthusiasm and new ideas. I am hoping to use that to raise our profile in the mainstream media.”
Mike Mastromatteo writes from Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: Twenty somethings head two of country's most prominent groups ----- EXTENDED BODY: MIKE MASTROMATTEO ----- KEYWORDS: Cultue of Life -------- TITLE: Y2K Problem Offers Spiritual Opportunities, Church Leaders Claim DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—Millennium mania has captured the imagination of many people throughout the world. The opportunity of experiencing this unique event in history, complete with parties and novelties, has spawned a cottage industry.
Pope John Paul II, of course, has heightened a sense of excitement for Catholics by proclaiming 2000 as the Great Jubilee Year. In his 1994 apostolic letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente, the Holy Father tells us “[t]he year 2000 will be intensely eucharistic.” Rome, the host of an international eucharistic congress, is expected to be inundated with pilgrims seeking to renew their spirit.
But there is a growing cloud over this enthusiasm. What has been referred to as the “millennium bug,” a computer “glitch,” or Y2K (derived from the term “Year 2000”) has become an issue causing increasing anxiety. In a nutshell, the problem concerns the difficulty of reprogramming the world's computers to function after Dec. 31, 1999.
No one knows what the extent of computer malfunctions might be. Yet, what was once considered a doable technological project is increasingly being viewed as an ultra-complex issue demanding time, money, and personnel. With less than 500 days left — and a mountain of work to be accomplished — there is a fear that trouble, rather than euphoria, awaits millennium revelers.
Commentators focus on the possible failure of utility, telecommunication, air traffic control, banking systems, and other complex computer systems. With the incredible level of interdependence and globalization of our society, it seems beyond question that at least some difficulty will be experienced. Predictions, however, run the gamut from a few hours of inconvenience to a lengthy period of massive, worldwide chaos.
Clearly, any disruption of services in 2000 will have profound effects on the fabric of society. One important issue is how people of faith will respond to adversity. Will we panic and adopt a survivalist mentality, or will we view it as an opportunity for showing compassion and, perhaps, spiritual renewal?
Scott Hahn, the noted Catholic writer and apologist, told the Register, “The problem is real and serious. I believe it will be a time of significant hardship. I fear the panic at least as much as the problem itself.”
Acknowledging the need for individuals and families to provide for necessities such as electricity, housing, and food, he suggests that this could be a time for communities and parishes to come together and provide for the common good.
Hahn, however, sees a deeper, more important meaning to this potential crisis.
“We have to take a dispassionate look at what got us into this mess,” he said. “This is going to be a symbol of the short-sighted, secular lifestyle. There is a certain misery which can overtake the soul when we have material things.”
“Our Lord wants us to humble ourselves,” Hahn added. “I really believe the appropriate response is for people to pray, repent, and fast. This reminds us that the eternal matters most, and life needs to be lived with that end in mind.”
With such a spiritual approach, Hahn believes any turn-of-the millennium problem will present “more evangelistic potential than anything we have faced in many decades. Profound repentance will open up doors we didn't even see.” And, if so, a crisis will be “not a message of despair, but of hope,” he suggested.
Hahn's ideas resonate with Catholic novelist and painter Michael O'Brien. The Canadian artist has written several apocalyptic novels, including Eclipse of the Sun, which was published this summer. In an interview with the Register, he stressed the need to use any disruption as an opportunity to reorient society's commitment to the faith.
“Definitely, this is a technological society that has lost its order,” O'Brien said. “It's top heavy, it's like a large balloon that's going to burst.”
“People are going to be confused and frightened. We're living in an age of idolatry never before seen. People are going to have to turn to the one true God or they will go deeper and deeper into darkness and selfishness in an attempt to regain their lost idols,” he said.
For O'Brien, as for Hahn, the potential for crisis is also a potential for renewal. “With every suffering, there will be great grace: looking at what is real and what is a luxury.
“This is the moment when the Church can call all people to the evangelical virtues of faith, hope, and charity. We need to be preparing now,” he said.
Of course, these ideas blend the 2000 computer issue with the concept of spiritual renewal for the Jubilee Year. Paul Henderson, executive director of the Secretariat for the Third Millennium and the Jubilee Year 2000 at the U.S. Catholic Conference, offered some similar comments.
With or without the “millennium bug” issue, the new century gives us an opportunity to reassess our lives. “What are the really important things in life? What is life all about?” he asked.
The National Conference of Catholic Bishops will emphasize two themes in the Jubilee celebration: reconciliation and the Eucharist. Hopefully, Henderson said, these emphases will help Catholics say, “I'm different today because I made some concrete changes in my life. I have undergone a metanoia — a conversion.”
Bishop James Sullivan of Fargo, N.D., clearly recognizes the problems confronting our society — those needing conversion — on the eve of the millennium.
“At this particular moment in human history,” he said, “we see ourselves surrounded by many evils…. Materialism, irreligion, civil and international conflicts, poverty and famine, sensualism, abortion, and many other sinful ills beset our world. Yet the person of faith looks at these unfortunate realities and asks himself: ‘What contribution can I make here and now?’”
One such contribution is recommended by Joan Rosenhauer in the U.S. Catholic Conference's Department of Social Development and World Peace. Her office is working on the “Jubilee Pledge for Charity, Justice, and Peace.” The pledge, to be distributed to all 18,000 parishes in the country, will encourage Catholics to pray and commit themselves to charitable works.
Establishing a concern for needy people is not only consistent with basic Christian tenets, but it encourages people of faith to remember to help their neighbor in the event of societal dislocation.
Certainly the less affluent will be hardest hit by any disruption of services, which will occur in the dead of winter.
Benedictine Father Matthew Habiger of Human Life International (HLI) also encourages us to turn our attention to poor people should there be any worldwide crisis 15 months from now. He believes any serious inconvenience could help us “reassess correct priorities. Our trust should be in God, not in the greenback or the portfolio.”
Father Habiger, who is HLI's advocate for developing countries, recently returned from a lengthy trip to Uganda, where the annual per capita income is less than $300. He pointed out that power outages and other mass inconveniences were commonplace there. Yet, he said, the financially strapped but spiritually rich country is inspirational.
Father Habiger encouraged Americans to support developing countries such as Uganda as a response to the millennium problem. In addition to reorienting our thinking about material things, it would be profoundly helpful to those who lack the basic necessities of life.
“The Gospel says if you want to serve the world, help the poor — and there are a lot of poor around,” he said.
The Y2K problem, of course, also has attracted the attention of non-Catholic Christian leaders. Indeed, some evangelical Protestants have been very farsighted on this issue. Among them is Joel Balz, the publisher of World, an influential newsweekly.
While anticipating only modest disruptions of services in 2000, Balz also emphasizes the need for Christian charity.
“Our response,” he said, “which might naturally be inward and private, ought to be outward and communal.”
The Gospel, he argues, directs us to share our food and resources with others, should the need arise. Stocking local food banks is one suggestion he made; if no disruption occurs, the food can be given to homeless shelters. He also noted that some evangelical churches have begun to plan on how to address the Y2K issue.
One example of such a parish is the Harvester Presbyterian Church in America, Springfield, Va. The church held a seminar in May 1998 on the issue, addressed a letter to its members, and placed appropriate information on its Web site.
The church elder who helped coordinate this effort, Lightsey Wallace, talked to the Register about the need to reassess our priorities.
“Most of the world lives in a considerably lower level of affluence than we,” he said. “We've almost made an idol of convenience. We may have to come to repent for holding convenience in high esteem.”
The Harvester church is largely trying to educate members to budget wisely in preparation for any crisis period. Wallace encourages “prudence,” and suggests that people reduce their debt and accumulate three months of liquid assets for emergency purposes. Those who have resources to share in a time of trial should be prepared to share with others, he said.
The church's 2000 letter states: “We do not know what tomorrow will bring — but God does. He does not promise that we will have no pain; he promises to be with us and will provide for all of our needs. And our spiritual needs are more important than our physical ones.”
If a novelist had written a book a generation ago which contended that society could be thrown into chaos because computers malfunctioned, it would have seemed far-fetched. Yet, the problem may be real, and we might shortly begin to feel the early effects of it. No one really knows, of course, whether a technological meltdown will happen. But should inconveniences, disruptions or worse occur, there would be serious repercussions for society.
Much of the millennium bug story has focused on survival. But Church leaders believe that Catholics and all people of faith should focus, rather, on making the proper Christ-like response to the potential crisis. With grace and a conscious rededication to faith, these upcoming trials — if they come to pass—may be a source of great renewal for the faithful and for the Church, experts contend. An opportunity for this kind of societal reassessment of priorities and for restoring our trust in God may come only once in a thousand years.
Joseph Esposito writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Esposito ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: A Year After Her Death, Mother Teresa Continues to Influence Church and World DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—Nancy Chan, whose husband is suffering from advanced cancer of the liver and pancreas, is praying to Mother Teresa of Calcutta for a miracle. Though she never met the world-famous nun who died last Sept. 5, Chan seeks her as a heavenly inter-cessor because of the way Mother Teresa touched so many lives while on earth.
Her husband, who is 50, already has recovered from a coma, to the surprise of his doctors, she told the Register.
“I know the Church has not made her a saint yet, but I know she is already a saint with God,” Chan, who lives in New York City, said of the foundress of the Missionaries of Charity. “I pray, Mother Teresa, please make my husband your first miracle because he is very sick.”
Another New Yorker, Aida Gamolo, is entering a new religious community in Spain that was approved by Mother Teresa shortly before her death. A Missionaries of Charity sister is forming the community, which will be part contemplative and part active and live according to Mother Teresa's wholehearted service to the poorest of the poor.
“I choose to be with Mother Teresa and walk in my own way in her footsteps,” said Gamolo, 46. “She is the most recent saint, and I have been so moved and touched by her that I am joining the religious life, with the help of God.”
Like the saint that so many believe her to be, Mother Teresa continues to touch hearts and direct lives a year after her death. Following a prolonged battle with heart trouble and bouts with malaria and exhaustion, the Albanian-born nun succumbed to a heart attack at the age of 87 last year in the order's motherhouse in Calcutta, where she began her selfless service among the city's poorest people some 50 years earlier. A number of miraculous cures attributed to her inter-cession have been reported since to the sisters in Calcutta. One of them occurred in the United States: a woman who broke several ribs in a car accident was inexplicably healed when she wore a Mother Teresa medallion around her neck.
Since Mother's death, many have called for her immediate canonization, but causes for sainthood usually must wait five years after before being accepted by the Holy See.
The first anniversary of her death is being observed by Catholics and non-Catholics throughout the world. The Missionaries of Charity were scheduled to mark her memorial beginning Sept. 4 with evening prayer vigils and candlelight processions at each of the 600-plus houses founded in almost every country by Mother Teresa, and with Mass the following day. In the motherhouse in Calcutta, where her remains are interred, Mass will be offered at her tomb. Many of the other Masses throughout the world will be celebrated by bishops in the cathedrals of the dioceses where the Missionaries labor. Among the U.S. commemorations James Cardinal Hickey was to celebrate a Sept. 5 Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
The liturgies give testimony to the fact that Mother touched not only the simple faithful, but was influential with the hierarchy of the Church as well. She was a close friend and associate of Pope John Paul II, who like a true father, was always concerned for the welfare of his spiritual daughter and her religious establishments. Two years ago, in one of their more notable communications, the Pope sent word to her when she was seriously ill that much work remained to be done and he refused to let her die. She made a quick recovery.
Her state funeral last Sept. 13 was a sign of her influence among the leaders of nations. In the mostly Hindu country of India, her body was carried on a gun carriage and escorted by a color guard through the streets of Calcutta, only the second person since Mahatma Gandhi to be accorded such an honor. The funeral Mass was offered in a 15,000-seat indoor stadium and attended by envoys from 23 countries. Amid the state pageantry, however, her Missionaries of Charity kept the true spirit of Mother alive by insisting that thousands of seats be reserved for the poor people she served throughout her life.
Sister Sabita, who oversees 15 Missionaries of Charity houses on the east coast of the United States, told the Register that priests from India and other countries have been signing up for weeks to celebrate Mass at Mother's tomb in anticipation of her anniversary.
In America, she said, the sisters are preparing special food baskets to be brought through the streets of poor neighborhoods and delivered to struggling families in parishes.
Although the sisters miss their foundress, said Sister Sabita, they feel her presence strongly.
“She is much closer to all of us now than she was while alive on earth,” the nun said. “Before, we always waited to hear a word from her from Calcutta, or for when she came to visit us here, but now every sister can be very close to her. We know we have direct contact with Mother at all times.”
Father John Gibson, a Missionaries of Charity priest, spent three years in Albania at Mother's behest after that country was opened to the Church in 1993. He told the Register, “Mother Teresa's great desire was that we be doing what Jesus wants us to do and not paying attention to her. Now that she is in an even closer relationship with our Lord, it is natural that those who want to look to Mother for help will find an even greater love for Jesus.”
Even before Mother Teresa died, there was speculation among Church and secular opinion makers whether the Missionaries of Charity would continue to attract new vocations and donations without the visible leadership of their foundress. To provide for the future, Mother stepped down as superior six months before her death last year and her sisters elected the relatively unknown Sister Nirmala, a member of the congregation's contemplative branch. Sister Nirmala was born into a Brahman Hindu family and converted to Catholicism as a young woman after years of attending Catholic schools. Her leadership, as expected, has not been as charismatic as Mother Teresa's, but she has delegated authority well and kept the congregation on the straight path by emphasizing the mission to the poor.
Vocations have remained steady in the 4,000-nun community, and the Missionaries have opened 20 new centers for the poor and for orphans in the year since Mother's death. The congregation reports that contributions worldwide have increased.
Sister Nirmala also showed the strength of her leadership when the situation warranted. A group of devotees was raising money to erect a memorial to Mother Teresa in Calcutta, but Sister Nirmala called a press conference in July to forbid the use of Mother's name in fund raising.
“We have lived the life she has lived — we are her sisters — so this name has to be protected from misuse,” she said.
In a statement, she elaborated, “Some believe that now after Mother's passing away, all have a right to use Mother's name since Mother belongs to the whole world…. While we accept the good intentions of those who might do such things, we want to make clear that we do not authorize anyone to solicit funds or goods for us for any cause, in the name of Mother or the Missionaries of Charity.”
The legacy of Mother Teresa can also be measured in relation to that of Princess Diana, who was killed in a car accident last year days before Mother's death. Mother held a special place in her heart for Diana, who was not a Catholic but had worked briefly with the Missionaries in Calcutta and supported their work. By the proximity of their deaths, two of the world's most popular women were linked in people's minds and in media reports in ways they never were in life.
A year later, the status of Mother Teresa has remained constant, and perhaps has increased, in the hearts of her followers and in the mind of the world. The place of Princess Diana has been bolstered by the efforts of the news media to hype an anniversary outpouring of grief. Questions regarding the circumstances of Diana's death have increased, whereas certainty over the meaning of Mother's life has spread. (See related “Perspective,” page 8.)
On a Web site devoted to Mother Teresa, hundreds of individuals from Indonesia to midtown Manhattan have left personal remembrances and heartfelt testimonies to her enduring influence. More than a dozen messages come from students who accessed the Web site to gain information for school reports on the humble nun — a sure sign that Mother's memory will be brought into the new millennium by the next generation.
Katie from Virginia writes, “My sister was adopted from a Mother Teresa orphanage in India when she was 10 months old. I am now doing a report on Mother's work and life. Thank you so much for this [Web] site. It was very touching.”
Brian Caulfield writes from New York.
----- EXCERPT: Many invoke saintly nun as heavenly intercessor ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Caulfield ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Underground News Network Loosens Castro's Media Grip DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:HAVANA—An upstart “illegal” network of journalists and young Cuban writers identifying itself as the Cuban “Free Press,” known locally by the Spanish term Prensa Libre (PL) is becoming an increasingly reliable source for information about day-to-day activities on the Caribbean island nation.
The name Prensa Libre was chosen deliberately as a challenge to Prensa Latina (Latin Press), the official Cuban news agency.
This statement precedes each PL publication: “The Cuban government forbids the publication of these writings from Cuba's professional independent writers and journalists. Our volunteers invite you to read what the Cuban people are silently shouting!”
PL's origins were as a clandestine information network whose reports were smuggled outside Cuba and faxed, usually from the United States, to different media outlets around the world. In the past two years however, the crackdown on and suppression of dissenters, combined with growing access among Cubans to the Internet, has dramatically increased both the coverage and the impact of PL around the world. In fact, while the presence of Prensa Latina has decreased due to government budgetary problems, PL has made its news available via its Web page or e-mail.
Unlike the rhetorical attacks on Cuban president Fidel Castro produced by Cubans in exile in the United States, PL provides a variety of information, ranging from sports to daily local happenings — such as the explosion of an old TV tube in Pinar del Rio that awakened the entire neighborhood early one morning. But PL's main objective is reporting news about issues that Cubans would not receive from state-controlled sources, such as human right abuses, political dissent, social problems, and religious issues.
Although PL has no formal relationship with the Catholic Church in Cuba, an official of the Cuban episcopate admitted that PL field reporters are frequently Catholics or, at least, sympathetic to Catholicism.
Speaking to the Register on the condition of anonymity, the official noted that, “Since the Catholic Church has achieved a wider social presence and even official recognition for several activities, many opponents find in the Church a harbor of freedom. “
In fact, the only “legally recognized” private sector union of journalists in Cuba is the Catholic Press Union, which is barely a year old. Also some Catholic magazines and newsletters, although closely monitored by the government, may be freely distributed.
“These publications as well as the new press union have sparked an enthusiasm for journalism that has found a gateway in Prensa Libre,” the Catholic official said.
PL's Internet Web page is able to provide far more information than the bishop's official Web page.
PL provides a double service to the Catholic Church in Cuba. On one hand, it has become a source of information on Catholic life in the various Cuban dioceses, and even within each diocese.
Recently, a radio network transmitting on short wave from the United States to Cuba broadcast a PL news report about the harassment of a parish priest by communist authorities. Pastors and parishioners from the diocese contacted their ordinary about the incident. To their surprise, the bishop confirmed the news, but said he was keeping it quiet in order to determine a manner of dealing with political authorities. The prelate was amazed about how the news had gotten out of Cuba — and come back.
Additionally, PL serves as an amplifier of Catholic activities as well as an unofficial means to denounce injustices and discriminations that the Cuban bishops could not speak about officially, or publish in their newspaper or Web page.
For example, PL reported on the government's last-minute decision to prohibit a procession of Our Lady of Mount Carmel scheduled to take place in Havana. The cancellation of the procession — one of the most popular Marian devotions in Cuba's capital city — enraged Catholics and frustrated Jaime Cardinal Ortega y Alamino, but no official Catholic source ever complained about the incident. PL not only gave extensive coverage to the incident, but also published a strongly worded editorial that reflected the frustration of Catholics.
PL also gives coverage to Church events that, without such reports, otherwise would be ignored. The recent death of Msgr. Fernando Azcarate (the leader of the Cuban National Council that reshaped the country's Catholic Church), a recent conference of Catholic historians, notes from homi-lies, and even renovations in Catholic churches or similar activities, are part of PL's daily reports.
PL's Internet Web page has a section exclusively dedicated to religious news that is able to provide far more information than the bishop's official Web page.
“This [service] is tremendously helpful for the Church because it reflects to people inside and outside Cuba, in an unprecedented way, how intense and creative Catholic life in Cuba is at present, especially after the Pope's visit,” the Church official told the Register.
Even though government repression has eased, working for PL remains difficult. Harassment of the volunteer reporters is frequent, particularly from local authorities who fear being seen as “soft” by higher officials or who are concerned that allegations of corruption or abuse of power could surface. Recently, PL reporter Jesus Labrador Arias was summoned to the local police station for questioning about his “counterrevolutionary activities.” During the half-hour interview, the officer called him a “mercenary” — despite the fact that PLreporters receive no payment for their work — and threatened “future problems for you and your family.”
As is the case with most of PL writers, Labrador Arias is determined to remain the agency's local reporter. In fact, PL writers have a sense of mission that is uncommon in journalistic ventures. They consider themselves — in the words of Labrador Arias — “the voice of the people,” rather than a source of information.
“Probably, that is one of the most important differences between PL and anti-Castro organizations in exile,” said the anonymous official. “While [the latter] see in each social problem a political excuse to criticize the government, PL considers each event in its exact social and human dimension.”
Recently, news sources of the Cuban exiles in Miami reported on the fuel and energy shortage in San Juan as another example of Cuba's crisis and a cause of a possible rebellion. PL, instead, while taking a critical stance, focused on the desperation of locals to cope with the shortage by means of a macabre practice: stealing wood from the coffins of those who have been buried for more than two years in the nearby cemetery.
“The residents of this town use the wooden planks to make home-made furnishings or repair their crumbling homes,” PL reported.
Despite the difficulties, many predict that PL has a long life — at least as long as the shortage of reliable information persists. Perhaps more important though, it is effectively becoming an alma mater of a generation of journalists with a sense of duty and responsibility that promises to bring to Cuba a brand of journalism that seems headed for extinction in most of the Western world.
Relevant Web page addresses: Prensa Libre (Free Press; bilingual): http://www.cubafreepress.org/; Cuban bishops' conference (Spanish): http://www.brigadoon.com/~cocc/; The Catholic Church in Cuba (unofficial page; Spanish): http://www.nacub.org/.
Alejandro Bermudez writes from Lima, Peru.
----- EXCERPT: 'Free Press' offers alternative to 'official' news ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Bermudez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Is Celebrated Spanish Architect Also a Saint? DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:LOS ANGELES—Individual artists throughout the ages may have been pious, but the artistic temperament permits few of them to be mistaken for saints.
Michelangelo may have designed St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and executed some of the most famous religious artworks of all time, but, according to all accounts, he was an unholy terror to work with. Bernini, who designed the magnificent Gloria window in the apse of St. Peter's, and so much else that graces the churches of Rome, once had a mistress's face slashed with a razor, and then went on to carve an exquisite marble likeness of her once-beautiful features. Then there is Caravaggio, who, in addition to being a painter of religious scenes of uncommon power, was also a highly gifted thief, fugitive, and a murder suspect.
All told, artists, as a class, are not known to be the most promising material for canonization, which is why so many people were caught off guard when Ricardo Cardinal Carles of Barcelona recently endorsed a local (Barcelona) campaign to beatify Antoni Gaudi, widely considered to be Spain's greatest architect, and one of modernism's most original and eccentric masters.
A coalition of scholars and clerics, backed by the bishops of Catalonia — the region of northeastern Spain of which Barcelona is the capital — has been advocating Gaudi's cause for canonization since 1994.
Contempt for Straight Lines
Gaudi is the creator of Barcelona's most identifiable landmark, the Church of the Holy Family, or Sagrada Familia. The church is a modern Gothic fantasy-scape with sand-castle spires and honeycomb towers — a virtual emblem of the artist's deep faith, his Catalan roots and his profound hatred for the straight line. Gaudi left the work unfinished when he died in 1926.
Cardinal Carles gave the architect's beatification campaign his approval in an essay published in the Aug. 23 issue of the diocesan newsletter, writing that while the Catalan architect's achievement was widely acknowledged, “there are also some lesser known aspects” — namely, “Gaudi's intimate spiritual life.” The prelate extolled the artist's “great spirituality” and affirmed that Gaudi “conducted [his] life on the highest levels of mysticism.”
Postulators of the architect's cause say that devotees are already reporting medical cures and spiritual consolations attributed to Gaudi's intercession, and that his example has inspired conversions to Catholicism — notably that of the Japanese architect Etsuro Sotoo, a Shinto Buddhist until his studies of Gaudi persuaded him to enter the Church seven years ago.
For the Church, initiating a formal inquiry into Gaudi's sanctity is a bold move. While all the evidence shows that the architect's religious views were as rock-solid as the stone he carved, and that he had a deep prayer life, the artistic work that flowed from that faith can to this day inspire derision and bewilderment as well as delight.
There is no middle ground when it comes to Gaudi. Either you let his churches, convents, chapels, palaces, parks, and apartment houses take you on one of the century's thrill rides of the imagination, or you resist the invitation with all your might. Le Corbusier, another 20th-century architectural giant, might call the Catalan “the most powerful architect of his generation”; German Expressionist architect Hermann Finsterlin might compare Gaudi's Sagrada Familia to the Taj Mahal. But, then, British author George Orwell, of 1984 fame, in his 1938 classic on the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), Homage to Catalonia, speaks eloquently, if nastily, for the other side: Orwell lamented that the anarchist pyromaniacs of the civil war had failed to remove Gaudi's “monstrosities” when they had the chance.
A Candlestick Maker
Antoni Gaudi i Cornet was born June 25, 1852 in Reus, Catalonia, the son of an artisan, a metal worker. Four generations of Gaudis had been smiths, making everything from candlesticks to pots.
Gaudi never lost that sense of himself as a humble artisan-builder, a man with calluses on his hands.
“Men are divided into two categories,” he once told an interviewer, “men of words and men of action. I belong to the second group. I could not tell you about the concept of art. I need to give it concrete form. I have never had time to question myself. I have spent my time working.”
The young Gaudi, early on, developed that love of natural forms — rocks, caves, trees — that would later infuse his buildings. The art critic Robert Hughes notes that his projects sometimes have the air “of petrified woods or gardens of stone.” Equally formative was his love of his native Catalonia and its architectural sensibility, characterized, he later wrote, by “a balance of feeling and logic,” superior to the repressions of the Protestant north or the sensuality of the Arabic south.
Gaudi relocated to Barcelona, Catalonia's capital, to pursue his studies at the city's School of Architecture in the late 1870s.
This was to prove the decisive move in Gaudi's life. For one thing, apart from a few commissions elsewhere, Gaudi did most of his major work in, and for, Barcelona. In fact, he rarely traveled outside the city in later years.
As Ignasi de Sola-Morales wrote recently, “The architecture of Gaudi is inseparable from the city of Barcelona” — as inseparable as Bernini is from Rome of the Baroque age, or Christopher Wren from Restoration London.
Gaudi's studies in Barcelona also persuaded him that the academic architecture of the day, which mainly imitated historical models, held few charms for him. Gaudi saw himself more as a medieval master mason than as a modern architectural engineer.
He also rejected the prevailing “universal” style that was busily remaking the European urban landscape in those days — with its optimistic evocations of power and prosperity and the triumph of the secular ideal. Gaudi already dreamed of an architecture rooted in the primeval imagination and organically linked to local Catalan colors, textures, and themes.
True to his practical, hands-on nature, Gaudi apprenticed himself to several major Barcelona architects while still an undergraduate — one of whom was Francisco de Paula del Villar, the architect for the diocese of Barcelona. In 1883, Gaudi replaced Villar as the architect for the Sagrada Familia church, the monumental project that was eventually to dominate his life. These early projects provided Gaudi's real education as he experimented with different architectural styles and clarified his ideas.
In the summer of 1878, the 26-year-old Gaudi met his patron, Eusebi Guell (1847-1918), a Barcelona industrialist, rising politician, and eventually, the city's grandee. The association would last more than 30 years, and as Robert Hughes has noted, “transform the cultural reputation of Barcelona.”
With true Art Nouveau versatility, Gaudi designed everything for the Guell family from furniture, light fixtures, and wrought-iron gates to villas and family chapels. In the early 1900s, the architect designed perhaps his most popular Guell project, the Guell Park in the hills behind Barcelona — a riot of ceramic gingerbread benches and lizard fountains molded out of broken Catalan pottery shards that are still the delight of Barcelona's children.
But if the Guell commissions gave the architect the freedom to develop a unique architectural sensibility — at once playful and profound, “the most individualistic in architecture,” according to one critic — the Guells also drew Gaudi into intellectual and spiritual circles that sharpened his faith.
By the early 1890s, Barcelona's Catholic artists, Gaudi foremost among them, found themselves increasingly at odds with the morals as well as the ideals of their secular counterparts. The result was the formation of the Artistic Circle of St. Luke, a group of poets, painters, sculptors, and architects who worked under the direct patronage of the Church.
As the group's spiritual adviser, Torras i Bages, later bishop of Vic, told the Lukes in his inaugural address, “Take away the law from art and the ancient consensus of image, custom, meaning, and authority that leads men to God is shattered…. The simplest works, those of an artist painted with the most disinterestedness, like a hermit's retaules meant to be contemplated by a few peasants … speak to us in a franker language of love than the paintings in the Paris Salons.”
Increasingly, Gaudi, too, saw his life work less in terms of civic projects in which he had excelled (in 1908 he even received a commission to design a hotel in New York) and more in terms of the development of a kind of architecture of the spirit.
Gaudi constructed his 1904 Casa Batllo apartment complex to be a paean to St. George's victory over the dragon. More impressively still, his famous 1906 Casa Mila, or Pedrera building was armed with a rooftop full of Darth Vader-like devils meant, in his original (unfinished) design, to be overcome by a giant 40-foot-tall colossus of the Blessed Virgin.
But Gaudi's spiritual architecture finds its most complex and satisfying expression in the structure we most associate with him, the Sagrada Familia, the so-called Expiatory Church of the Holy Family. The origins of the project date back long before Gaudi associated himself with it.
An Evil Age
The 1860s were seen by contemporaries as a time of unmitigated disaster for the Church. The papal states had been lost to liberal, anticlerical forces under the leadership of Garibaldi, leaving the Pope a “prisoner of the Vatican.” In Spain, liberal forces had driven Isabel II from the throne, and civil war had broken out. Lay Catholic associations in Catalonia began to propagate special devotion to St. Joseph and the Holy Family as a way to secure the triumph of the Church amid these perils.
In 1866, this association bought land in an unfashionable part of Barcelona in order to build a church where people could pray and do penance against the evils of the age — hence, the church's name: the Expiatory Church of the Holy Family.
Construction did not begin until 1882, and by 1884 the association had hired Gaudi to complete the church. Upon recovering from an attack of undulant fever in 1911, Gaudi abandoned all other work and devoted himself entirely to the project.
With periodic work stoppages due to lack of funds, Gaudi finished the church's east transept devoted to the Nativity in 1893, but construction on the west transept dedicated to the Passion wasn't started until 1954 — decades after the architect's death — on designs Gaudi had drawn up in 1917.
Work continues on the structure to this day, although hampered by the destruction of Gaudi's plans and drawings during the Spanish Civil War.
Perhaps nothing demonstrates Gaudi's “organic” approach to architecture more than this unfinished, and perhaps unfinishable, masterpiece. As R. Furneaux Jordan notes, Gaudi, rather than simply executing a blueprint, “improvised” like a medieval builder “ever-new solutions on site,” constructing the building, as it were, from the inside out.
Gaudi, as Robert Hughes writes in his 1992 study Barcelona, “wanted to imagine a ‘new’ kind of space that would, at the same time, be deeply archaic: buildings that did not have the abstract regularity of Renaissance architecture, but which, in their visceral and theatrical qualities recalled the Ur-forms of shelter: the cave, the ledge, the den, the tree.”
In Gaudi's profuse and surreal iconography — the sculptural snails and salamanders scurrying up the walls of the church, for example — Church architect Stephen Schloeder sees “the joy of God's creation — the profusion and playfulness of it all. The column that lands on the back of a sea tortoise, the snakes spiraling around the main beams, the angels emerging from the dripping wax forms — it's all his sense of playfulness, and the awesome diversity of God's world.”
In this, says Schloeder, Gaudi is part of a movement to create an architecture that can express spiritual reality, that can transform faith into stone.
By 1910, there were more and more construction delays as funds for the hugely expensive project dried up. The architect himself took to the streets periodically to beg for contributions.
A life-long bachelor, Gaudi lived with his ailing father and sister in a modest house in Guell Park, devoted to his work and to long hours spent in prayer. On the street, he had long been a colorful, if respected figure: shuffling along in an ill-fitting suit, munching an orange or a dry crust of bread, absorbed in thought.
At Home with the Poor
On June 7, 1926, on his way to morning Mass, the 74-year-old architect failed to hear an approaching tram car and was pulled under its wheels. When the police arrived, no identification papers could be found on the old man, who had been badly mauled in the accident. His thread-bare clothing seemed to place him among Barcelona's army of poor pensioners, so he was taken off to the public ward of a local hospital.
When friends located him later and tried to have him moved to a private clinic, Gaudi refused.
“My place is with the poor,” he told them.
Three days later, he was dead.
News of Gaudi's death was received like a calamity in the city, and his funeral procession attracted tens of thousands of mourners. Fittingly, he was buried in the crypt of the unfinished Sagrada Familia, the edifice on which he had spent his life.
Is Gaudi a saint? Some of his fellow Barcelonans have little difficulty imagining it.
“What a wonderful thing that would be,” a local devotee said in a recent interview on Gaudi's prospects. “If Don Antoni were canonized, then everyone would want to be an architect!”
Gabriel Meyer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Barcelona cardinal adds support to cause of Antoni Gaudi ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gabriel Meyer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Farm Families Suffering Through Difficult Times DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— American farmers from Montana to Florida are experiencing one of the worst summers in history due to the extreme weather conditions, plummeting crop prices, and reduced demand for American produce on world markets. Many will be forced out of business by year's end. Others will remain financially afloat — barely — with net farm incomes in some regions at or below the poverty line.
The area hardest hit by all of this is the northern Great Plains, particularly North and South Dakota and parts of Minnesota, where three years of heavy rains have inflicted a variety of yield-reducing diseases on wheat and canola crops. Poor yields and a 40% decline in the price per bushel at harvest will mean that many of these areas farmers will not make enough to offset the costs of planting. Approximately 2,000 family farms in North Dakota alone will be sold at auction this year.
“There is a strong sense of anxiety and despair among farmers,” said Brother Dave Andrews CSC, director of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference.
“Everyone wants to say the economy is booming, but for family farmers, a number of problems are occurring at the same time,” Brother Andrews explained, citing the loss of the Asian market (exports are down several billion dollars), the harsh weather, and the concentration of food production increasingly in the hands of large corporations.
He indicated that these may be the most challenging set of circumstances faced by farmers since the mid-1980s, where banks foreclosed on hundreds of family farms.
“We used to have in place counseling — advocacy and credit counseling — but that volunteer corps, set up in the 80s, is no longer there. Many dioceses did have emergency relief money and counseling services, but a lot of them have not been funded,” Brother Andrews said.
Congress is rushing some aid to farmers. They approved the release by Oct. 1 of $5.5 billion dollars in subsidies meant for 1999, and are negotiating another $500 million in disaster payments. But many in the agricultural industry say that the financial crisis faced by farmers today stems in part from the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton. This replaced many long-term farm subsidies with short-term “transition payments.” Many European farmers are highly subsidized by their governments, which makes it tough for American farmers in a bad production year to compete with them for a share of the world markets.
Catholic Charities USA has also responded to requests for funds with grants to some of the hardest-hit dioceses.
“The dioceses send us project proposals and we have a committee that helps them clarify their requests,” according to Mary Ellen Enzweiler, assistant to the director for disaster response at Catholic Charities USA. “When it's approved — and just about all of them are — we try to do long-term assistance.”
Enzweiler said that emergency funding was on its way to the Diocese of Dallas, where rural and urban people have been suffering through weeks on end of 100 degree-plus temperatures and almost no rain. She said that Catholic Charities has been working with dioceses in the Dakotas since the major flooding that occurred in the region a year ago.
“If their problems can be traced back to the blizzard and flooding, we can help,” Enzweiler said.
In a number of states, this is just the latest in a string of bad years for farmers that created a financial cascade effect that is pushing many to the breaking point.
“In Iowa, after the 1993 floods, there emerged a picture of poverty in our 24 counties that touches the entire rural fabric,” said Marilyn Murphy, who works as a social concerns facilitator and rural life contact for the Diocese of Sioux City in northwest Iowa. “Many, many farmers are living on the edge.”
Murphy explained that since 1993, farmers have lost money or just broken even each year. As a result, they've had to leverage their land and equipment against bank loans. Making large loan payments in order to keep their farms often leaves little money to live on. What's more, some federal relief funds are distributed to only those farmers who are credit-worthy, which leaves out many of the hardest hit.
“There is chronic poverty among the farmers that we serve,” Murphy said; “60% to 70% of them have incomes under $20,000 a year.”
Bad times for farmers creates a ripple effect in rural communities, where other local businesses support or depend upon the agricultural economy. It also makes times tough for the churches there.
“We are in the process of clustering parishes. Many of the small towns are becoming depopulated, and the number of pastors is becoming more limited,” Murphy said.
The Diocese of Fargo, N.D., recently received a large grant from Catholic Charities USA for a two-year rural outreach program.
“We plan to help more with mental-health needs than financial needs,” said Heather Paintner, rural outreach social worker for Catholic Family Services of North Dakota.
Paintner explained that 17 counties in North Dakota are eligible for Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) monies to help with basic needs like medical bills, food, repairs, etc. But their needs go beyond the tangible.
Even among individuals in desperate situations Paintner said, the prevailing cultural attitude is not to talk about it.
“What can we do to work together to help these people? What are their needs? Our job is to make them aware of those people — credit counselors, agricultural agencies, etc. — to empower the communities to take care of themselves.”
In the parched states of Texas and Oklahoma, nearly 75% of the cotton crop has fallen to the weather. Many farmers have been forced to sell large herds of livestock at a loss because the hot, dry conditions have decimated grazing fields, and hay and other animal feed are prohibitively expensive.
“We have had less than two-tenths of an inch of rain in 60 days, and a 20-some string of days over 100 degrees,” said Sister Mary Ann Owens SSND, executive director of Catholic Charities of Dallas.
The Diocese of Dallas has applied a grant from Catholic Charities USA to be used to help people on limited incomes — mostly city dwellers — pay their utility bills. Sister Owens said that most of the farmers in their nine-county area would qualify for federal disaster aid.
“I know a woman who has 100 head of livestock south of here,” she said. “The last time it rained, in early June, she said it was a $10,000 rain — it saved her that much in hay.”
Next month, a documentary on the farm crisis will air on Public Broadcasting Stations nationwide. “The Farmer's Wife” profiles the struggles of a Catholic farm family in Nebraska.
Brother Andrews has previewed the show, and hopes that it will reach a wide audience who will come to admire this family's strength of character and commitment to the land.
“Faith carries them through every difficulty they have,” Andrews said.
Molly Mulqueen writes from Colorado Springs, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: Extreme weather and drop in crop demand lead to crisis ----- EXTENDED BODY: Molly Mulqueen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Guiding an Unruly Church DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:Archbishop Varkey Vithayathil CSsR
A new era in the Syro Malabar Church (SMC) began in 1992 when the Holy See granted “autonomous” status to the oriental Church based in the southern Indian state of Kerala where St. Thomas the Apostle sowed the seeds of Christianity in A.D. 52. In December 1996, following the resignation of the first archbishop, Antony Cardinal Padiyara, Redemptorist Father Varkey Vithayathil was raised to the episcopacy and appointed by the Pope as apostolic administrator of the 3.3 million-member SMC. Archbishop Vithayathil recently spoke to Register correspondent Anto Akkara about the concerns before him as the head of the only autonomous Church in the Catholic communion apart from the Ukrainian Church.
Anto Akkara: A pastoral letter issued by some SMC prelates recommends the use of the plain
Archbishop Vithayathil: It is true that there is some disturbance. Some people say that the [
It is difficult to say if a majority of the parishes [where there has been trouble] were against the bishop. The controversy seems to be due to the antipathy toward certain persons.
Is it true that the people are becoming indifferent to such questions?
Yes, they are indifferent. They do not mind. “If the bishop wants, let him have his way.” That is their attitude. But, bishops will not accept the claim that they are enforcing the cross on the people. It is true, some bishops prefer [the Marthoma cross to the crucifix]. We should not create controversy because of the crucifix.
It seems there is a division in the Church on the issue, though.
I cannot say there is a division. It is true some go public against others. Many have personal antipathies. The debate has come down to a personal and emotional level. This is all connected to the liturgical debate — they are connected issues.
Do you see a solution?
The [Syro Malabar] bishops’ synod is the authoritative body. The synod will meet next November. It should address the problem. The main problem is the question of discipline. Some priests are filing cases against bishops in civil courts. They are preaching rebellion against the bishops. The new Palliyogam statute [relating to the parish council] was approved unanimously by the synod after wide consultation. [Protesters led by priests burnt copies of the new statute July 3, the feast of St. Thomas, the day it took effect.] Some laymen, too, have joined them alleging that bishops are grabbing power. This is not good for the Church.
What is the reason for this?
They just want to ensure that the structure of the Church is destroyed. They take money from abroad cleverly and work against the Church. For now, they only attack the synod.
This is part of a covert move to make our Church a congregational Church. This is against our faith. We have apostolic authority. The authority of the people is democracy. But [the bishops] would not say that directly as people will not accept it.
You were appointed by the Holy See to assist the Syro Malabar Church. How are you approaching this task?
We have to face this as a Church, not as individuals. The Holy Spirit will guide us through.
Some say that the conflict in the Syro Malabar Church is abetted by other rites to weaken the autonomous Church. Is there any truth in that?
I do not know. There is no proof for that. I cannot say that other rites are jealous of our vibrant Church.
All that I can say is that the Syro Malabar Church is not getting its due in India.
To what are you referring specifically?
Liturgical rites and pastoral care of our people. According to the rules of the Church, the faithful can worship in their own rite. Canon 383 clearly states that Latin rite bishops should provide oriental parishioners priests of their own rite. This is not being done often for our members living outside the Syro Malabar dioceses. It is a matter of concern for it suppresses the growth of our Church.
Before 1962, the Syro Malabar Church could not undertake missionary work outside Kerala. The Second Vatican Council corrected this. Now, we have 10 dioceses outside Kerala. We are not getting enough dioceses still. It is also commonly complained that some [Latin rite] bishops do not favor the erection of new Syro Malabar dioceses.
Has this been discussed at Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) meetings?
In Varanasi [where the CBCI's semi-annual meeting was held in March], we formed an inter-ritual committee [of nine members]. It is a forum to discuss inter-ritual problems. I am the chairman of the committee.
Pope John Paul II had suggested the formation of such a committee 10 years ago, but, nothing has been done so far.
Has the committee met?
No. Most of us have been busy with the Asian Synod. We have to set the dates for the inaugural meeting.
How would you define the role of religious congregations in promoting the Syro Malabar rite and traditions?
The Second Vatican Council had strongly exhorted Latin rite congregations working in oriental lands to adopt the local rite in their houses. It is not an order, but a strong recommendation, so that missionary work is more effective.
Some congregations, like my Redemptorist congregation, the Benedictines, and Carmelites have formed Syro Malabar wings. But, many congregations are not interested in it and do not bother. Many of them follow the Latin rite though 99% of their vocations are from our Church. Even major congregations like Salesians do not have a Syro Malabar province in India yet.
Instead of uprooting the Syro Malabar Church members from their own rite, Latin rite congregations should help them practice their rite.
— Anto Akkara
----- EXCERPT: The autonomous Syro Malabar Church faces problems from within and without ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: U.S. Notes & Quotes DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:Sunday Rest Catching On
But it seems to be making a comeback in the United States and around the world, said the paper, quoting Jewish and Christian locals who observe it — as well as Pope John Paul II's recent letter on the subject.
James and Diane Humphries told the paper that in recent years they have begun taking their Sundays more seriously. The time for quiet has strengthened their marriage.
“There's a calmness we've found,” Mrs. Humphries told the paper. “My husband and I still argue, but it's different now. Years ago, an argument would be like, ‘Aaargh! I hate you!’ But now, even if we argue, we feel a peace about things.”
Saginaw Catholic Bishop Kenneth Untener is quoted saying “Finding simplicity on the Sabbath is very difficult in our world.
“But I think people who try it are discovering that the idea is rooted in common sense. Sometimes we think that our religious traditions are something that were superimposed on humans to make life difficult. But it's just the opposite. Traditions like the Sabbath were designed to bring out the best in human beings.”
Paul William Schubert, a psychologist who has specialized in counseling pastors for the past 25 years, agreed from a secular point of view.
“The Sabbath can be a source of new power. It ought to contrast with what we do in our workaday lives. If we're competitive and goal-oriented on the job, then our Sabbath ought to be less competitive and we ought to forget about the clock.”
Life Insurance That Benefits Individuals and Communities
The company he leads, Catholic Life Insurance Union, is expanding, and he attributes its success to its unique business arrangement, said the city's Business Journal.
It is classified as a nonprofit fraternal organization, and its policyholders are called “members,” in an arrangement much like the Knights of Columbus. This arrangement gives a company several advantages, said the report. Catholic Life's members own and operate the direction of the company, according to Belz, just as they did when the company was founded by a Catholic priest who passed the hat among the Catholic community in 1901.
Members don't have to be Catholic to use Catholic Life's services, nor do they pay dues, but as a nonprofit organization, Catholic Life's excess funds are returned to its members for religious or volunteer projects in their respective communities, said the report.
The newspaper spoke to Anthony Snyder of the National Fraternal Congress of America, which represents about 100 such societies. A fraternal organization offers a benefit, such as life insurance or financial services, and as a nonprofit gives money back to the community as service projects, he told the paper.
“In the geographic areas where Catholic Life operates, communities are grouped together and called ‘branches.’ Each branch is run by a local board which elects its own officers. Each board decides where to spend money that is designated to go back into the community,” explained the report. “Each branch receives money back from its nonprofit parent depending on the size of the branch and the number of members.”
----- EXCERPT: Excerpts from select publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: World Notes & Quotes DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:Islam's Faithful Deplore Terrorism
But when the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette interviewed a number of Muslims after recent U.S. attacks were launched to retaliate against terrorists who targeted U.S. embassies in Africa, “none of them professed sympathy for Osama bin Laden,” it said.
“Every country has its fanatics,” it quoted one man saying of the terrorist. They were just as dismissive of other Muslim troublemakers. “Ninety percent of the population of Iraq and Syria, they don't like their leaders,” Amir Barkat, an American, is quoted saying.
He said that his religion was no more responsible for terrorists than Catholicism or Protestantism is responsible for the bloodshed of Northern Ireland. Islam is a way of peace, not war, he added. “We ask God for forgiveness. We ask God for guidance.”
Excerpts from select publications
Lambeth and the New Christian Consensus
“The Empire has struck back,” he answered, pointing to the Anglican Lambeth conference as well as Catholic developments worldwide.
Anglican bishops from former colonies have forced British, Australian, and U.S. bishops “to ignore the homosexual lobby by reaffirming its traditional teaching on homosexuality,” and other doctrinal issues.
He said the promoters of religious laxity, “are the new imperialists, seeking to change deeply held ideas — or prejudices — in Third World countries, and to spread their own peculiar obsessions and moral (or amoral) agents throughout the world.”
Truth is, he wrote, that “people long for moral prohibitions, even if they are unable to abide by them. A Church that withdraws a prohibition under political pressure is therefore likely to be seen as weak and vacillating, an unreliable guide through a turbulent world.”
Whose Image Is on this Coin?
“What is the Churches’ proper role in social policy debate, who speaks for them, and in what capacity?” read a recent opinion column in the Sidney Morning Herald. It listed a number of Catholic organizations that oppose a new tax policy claiming that it “would impact unfairly on the poor” and hurt non-profit services. The column claimed it was the Church's duty to oppose the tax.
“But … the Most Rev. George Pell thought otherwise.” “… Archbishop Pell waded into the debate by issuing a press release in which he said there was no one Catholic position on taxation, [tax reform] needed more study, and judgments about its impact were best left to political parties and interest groups.” The article complained about this “cut the legs from under the other groups” approach.
----- EXCERPT: Excerpts from select publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Notes & Quotes DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:Secular Liberals: Look Again at Pope John Paul II
Edward Sheehan warned those who would soften moral stands that they risk “the emasculation of their own creeds, rendering them so ‘relevant’ to the narcissism and self-indulgence of modern men and women as to empty them of transcendence….” Who can we turn to, to prevent such a thing happening?
“Secular liberals, instead of raging against the perceived narrowness of John Paul II, should recognize finally that their social engineering has failed to make the world more civilized. They should be grateful that, under John Paul, the Roman Church is the last universal bastion against the engulfing decadence of modern Western Culture — not only against 'the culture of death’ (abortion and euthanasia) but the increasing coarseness of a society crazy with violence, pornography, and crime against women.”
Group Seeks to Force Vatican to Open Records
The effort, led by Britain's Lord Mackay, recently released a 834-page report and announced that it has raised $57 million for Holocaust survivors. It placed estimates of stolen Nazi gold at $650 million to $7 billion.
The report gave critical attention to the Vatican's desire to protect its records, according to the wire service. However, the document neither accuses nor gives any evidence that would connect the Vatican to the stolen gold in any way, according to the story.
A Vatican delegation was given observer status at the fact-finding conference, but was not an official participant.
Participants were expected to reveal their records. Observers, whose involvement in deliberations was severely limited, were not expected to do so, according to the article.
----- EXCERPT: Excerpts from select publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: PERSPECTIVE DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:The fact that in many parts of the world the attention afforded to the death this time last year of Diana, princess of Wales, overshadowed the passing of another of this century's most admired women, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, is surely an indictment of our times.
The princess was 36, glamorous, royal, unhappy, and cut down in her prime. Mother Teresa was 87 and poor, but richly fulfilled and ready “to go home to God.” Grief at a young life tragically curtailed is understandable and appropriate.
It is true that their love for the “poor” bridged their differences of age and background. The proximity of their deaths, however, not only meant that Mother Teresa's was overshadowed; it invited combined discussion of the two and even the suggestion that they fell into the same category of holiness.
The two had been due to meet for the first time in July 1990 at the Brighton (England) International Conference for the Family. On that occasion, Mother Teresa's health prevented her from attending the gathering. In February 1992 they were again scheduled to meet, this time in Calcutta, but once again poor health intervened.
Shortly before the scheduled rendezvous Mother Teresa had become gravely ill and undergone an angioplasty in the United States. Nevertheless, at the beginning of February she traveled to Rome. It was bitterly cold and the rooms of the Missionaries of Charity house in San Gregorio were scarcely the ideal accommodation for an elderly woman convalescing after an illness that had brought her close to death. The sisters were permitted to tear up cardboard boxes to be used as insulation on the bare stone floor of her room, which was virtually the only concession to her physical weakness the founder would allow.
She was obviously not ready to make the long trip back to Calcutta. Realizing that I was returning to England, her solution was, as ever, simple and practical: “You're going back to London, aren't you? Would you tell Princess Diana that I do not think I shall be in Calcutta when she is due to see me there, but she is welcome to come here?” (The message was in fact conveyed by somewhat more official means.)
The princess of Wales visited the motherhouse of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta Feb. 15, 1992 as planned, with Mother Teresa still in Rome. Within a week, however, Princess Diana traveled to Italy to meet the woman whom she had long admired. Thereafter they maintained a friendship based on brief visits, prayer, and messages of mutual support.
During Mother Teresa's successive illnesses, the princess sent words of comfort. When in June 1992, news broke about problems in the royal marriage, Mother Teresa was swift to express her concern. There were subsequent secret meetings in London, and in May 1997 reports that Mother Teresa was at death's door were put to rest by the sight of her walking hand-in-hand with Diana in the Bronx, N.Y.
One of Mother Teresa's early campaigns was for lepers, suffering primarily from being ostracized. She appealed not just for medicines but for people to touch them with their compassion. By embracing AIDS sufferers (whom Mother Teresa regarded as the “lepers of the West”) before the cameras of the world, Princess Diana made a similar point.
Mother Teresa underlined that in this action to attract concern for the plight of others — as in the princess's campaign to stop the use of land mines and her other efforts to use the public attention she found at times so painful — Diana was “doing God's work on earth.”
For Mother Teresa too, publicity was a trial. On hearing of the princess's death, she nevertheless appeared one last time before the press. She spoke of Diana's love for the poor, and promised she would offer special prayers for her.
There is a danger, however, in elevating their relationship — and with it Diana's commendable concern for the suffering — to the realm of the extraordinary. There remains an essential difference in the motivation for their compassion. The princess is said to have been uncomfortable with the formalism of her Anglican faith and still spiritually searching. Mother Teresa believed uncompromisingly that in tending to the poor she was tending to Christ. If Diana was special to Mother Teresa it was as every human being was special because everyone contained the divine presence. It was for this reason and not, as some have implied, because of a dubious attraction to power that she sometimes associated with the influential, famous, and even the morally questionable.
The victim of a broken home, an eating disorder, a disastrous marriage, and social and media pressure, Princess Diana embodied in many ways the problems of 20th-century Western society. Mother Teresa responded to that poverty just as she responded to the poverty of the Calcutta slums: by seeking to be an instrument of the love of God for the suffering Christ present in humanity. She herself acknowledged that instrument to be imperfect; holiness was not a virtue accessible only to the perfect.
Diana's failings did not preclude her from being holy, nor can any of us really know how close a soul is to God. But there was about Mother Teresa's life an aura of transcendence and sacred power that her human weaknesses served only to reinforce. Her every action reflected her desire to serve her God. Our preference for glamour over such truly illuminated self-sacrifice and dedication to others, begs the question whether we have lost our respect for holiness and even our understanding of it.
Kathryn Spink is the author of several books about the work of Mother Teresa, including Mother Teresa: A Complete Authorized Biography
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Spink ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: A Child's Journey to Virtue DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination
Anyone interested in the formation of future generations will find Vigen Guroian's Tending the Heart of Virtue stimulating, thought-provoking, and a delightful re-immersion into some of the loveliest books of childhood.
In his book's first chapter, titled “Awakening the Moral Imagination,” Guroian asserts, as Register readers will no doubt agree, that — in spite of contrary claims — there is no such thing as “value-free education.” (To carefully never mention God in a school, for instance, is to imply either that he does not exist or is not worth mentioning.) Then Guroian enters new territory, showing us that values are essentially morally neutral.
Values thus may be virtuous, such as respect for others’ property, or they may be without any virtue whatsoever.
Guroian points out “there are real and very important differences between what we now call values and the virtues as they … [are] traditionally … understood.”
“The virtues define the character of a person, his enduring relationship to the world, and what will be his end. Whereas values, according to their common usage, are the instruments or components of moral living that the self chooses for itself and that the self may [choose equally to] disregard. Accordingly, values are subordinate and relative to the self's own autonomy, which is understood as the self's highest value.”
Guroian contends “what seems so self-evident to many of our contemporaries about the centrality of values to moral living might not be true…. Rather, the best sources in the Western tradition have argued that morality is much more than, indeed qualitatively different from, the sum of the values that an essentially autonomous self chooses for itself. Classical, Jewish, and Christian sources … insist that morality is neither plural nor subjective. Instead, they maintain that human morality is substantial, universal, and relational in character, founded and rooted in a permanent good, in a higher moral law, or in the being of God.”
It is the virtues, insists Guroian, “that are the way as well as the end of goodness and happiness.” To be virtuous, he says, is to have “the qualities of character that we need in order to steer our way through the complicated and mysterious sea of morality into which we all have been placed.”
Modern educators want to not “introduce values into the classroom but instead work to ‘draw out’ from children their own moral beliefs and through a process of clarification help them to better formulate their own values.” Guroian dismisses this as the idiocy it is. As a parent and an educator — he is professor of theology and ethics at Loyola College in Baltimore, Md. — his goal is to implant virtue. Yet he wisely advises: mere instruction in morality is not sufficient to nurture the virtues. It might even backfire, especially when the presentation is heavily exhortative and the pupil's will is coerced.
Instead, a compelling vision of the goodness of goodness itself needs to be presented in a way that is attractive and stirs the imagination.
Asserting that “a good moral education addresses both the cognitive and affective dimensions of human nature,” Guroian finds stories “an irreplaceable medium for this kind of moral education… “
Fairy tales and other classic stories, he argues with persuasive examples, capture the meaning of morality through vivid depictions of the struggle between good and evil, in which characters must make difficult choices between right and wrong. Such tales, as he says in his subtitle, awaken a child's moral imagination.
To offer parents and teachers a road map to this use of literature, Guroian dedicates the body of this work to delightful retellings of some old favorites in children's literature as well as some lesser-known stories — all with insightful commentary.
Alert, as he says in his introduction, “not only to moral themes but also to the great religious questions that have been raised by some of the most popular and honored authors of children's stories,” he focuses on such aspects as redemption and sacrificial love, which contemporary critics have often chosen to avoid or to look at with the kind of antagonism that, as Guroian says, reduces “selfless filial love, conscientious respect of parents, and diligent obedience to them” to “unsavory products of extreme parental severity and abusive dominance.”
After the introduction and overview, each subsequent chapter explores a particular theme. In the first of these chapters, Guroian looks at becoming a true authentic person who accepts moral responsibility through the story of Pinocchio, a wooden puppet who learns to leave behind his “‘wooden’ propensities for laziness, lying, and selfishness” in order “to live in the spirit of mature sonship with an inward desire to be good.” Next Guroian tackles love and immortality through The Velveteen Rabbi and The Little Mermaid. Friends and mentors are insightfully explored in a chapter on The Wind in the Willows, Charlotte's Web, and Bambi. Evil and redemption are the subjects of the chapter on The Snow Queen and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The next chapter, “Heroines of Faith and Courage,” looks at the virtues through the roles of Princess Irene in George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin and Lucy in C.S. Lewis's Prince Caspian.
Patched on to this chapter is a segment under the subtitle “The Vision of God and the Kingdom” where Guroian looks at “the important connections between faith and courage enacted as moral character and faith and courage fulfilled in the vision of God.” An excerpt will give the reader some sense of the shimmering faith that pervades this book:
“Aslan tells Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and the others who were with them at the train station what they have already suspected, that they were killed in a real railway accident. But now they have passed beyond the ‘Shadowlands’ where it is always 'the morning.’ As Aslan explained these things, they all saw more than they had ever seen before. And Aslan ‘no longer looked to them like a lion: but the things that began to happen after that,'says Lewis, ‘were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them.’”
Patricia Treece writes from Calabasas, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Patricia Treece ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: More to Life than Meets the Eye DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:The Sept.-Oct. issue of The American Enterprise magazine carries “Not a Chance,” Dean Overman's summary of the overwhelming scientific arguments against the view that life on earth occurred by chance.
Overman writes that, “Most of us vaguely recall having heard of scientific experiments involving mixtures of inanimate materials that are said to be similar to the ‘pre-biotic soup'that existed before life began. The mixtures are hit with an electrical spark that simulates a lightning strike, and amino acids — building blocks of life — result…. But in fact, recent discoveries in molecular biology, particle astrophysics, and the geological records raise profound doubts about all this.”
Overman first sets out the calculations of “the famous [atheist] scientist Sir Fred Hoyle. Hoyle understood that even the simplest living cells are extremely complex…. He calculated the odds … against the amino acids appearing in the correct sequence for a living cell were equal to one in 1020 x 2,000 — or one chance in 1040,000. This number is a one followed by 40,000 zeros. Because mathematicians normally regard a chance of one in 1050 as a mathematical impossibility, Hoyle concluded that life could not have appeared by earthbound random processes, even if the whole universe consisted of prebiotic soup.”
“In fact, the odds are even worse than Hoyle calculated, because there is absolutely no physical evidence for the existence of either the prebiotic soup or many of the substances the experiments produced…. Third, even if amino acids did form … there are still astronomical odds against those amino acids joining together to form even very short proteins, much less the DNA found in all life.”
Overman moves on to the “plausibility of current theories that matter 'self-organized’ itself into life according to the laws of physics and chemistry…. Self-organization scenarios claim that the laws of physics (and the laws of chemistry they produce) caused the formation of living matter. But this idea faces a grave obstacle — the simple mathematical fact that the genetic information contained in even the smallest living organism is much larger than the information content found in the laws of physics, as Hubert Yockey, a Manhattan Project physicist, noted in Information Theory and Molecular Biology. Where did the greater information content of life come from?”
“[T]here is also the problem that the laws of physics only produce regular patterns. DNA — life — requires an irregular pattern to transmit information through the genetic code…. [I]f I type the letters ‘ABC’repeatedly for 1,000 pages, I could have a highly ordered, regular, predictable pattern such as a law of nature would produce. But I would have conveyed very little information.”
Overman's third question concerns “the likelihood of a universe forming in such a way as to be compatible with life…. Our universe is so remarkably fine-tuned to allow for the origination of life that one may think of it as a finely sharpened pencil standing vertically on its graphite point in a precarious balance. Any deviation in a myriad of physical values would cause the pencil to tilt, fall, and preclude the formation of life.”
For example, “life would be impossible without carbon, and yet the formation of a carbon atom requires a rare triple collision known as the triple alpha process…. Hoyle admitted that his atheism was dramatically disturbed when he calculated the odds against the precise matching required to form a carbon atom….”
In addition, “Physicist Paul Davies calculated that … if the explosive force [of the Big Bang] were only slightly higher, the universe would consist of gas without stars or planets. If the force were reduced by one part in a thousand billion, the universe would have collapsed back to a singular point after a few million years.” And there is the evidence of our own minds, which “seem to be finely tuned to the structure of the universe. This fine-tuning cannot be understood as a curious spin-off from the need of our ancestors to dodge a wild animal.”
And so Dean Overman thinks that “the physical sciences, in short, lead us to conclude that life is more than a physical thing….”
Ellen Wilson Fielding writes from Davidsonville, Maryland
The Definite Article is a digest of the Register's choice from the nation's top journals.
----- EXCERPT: Digest of 'Not A Chance'' by Dean Overman in the Sept.- Oct. issue of The American Enterprise ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Wilson Fielding ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:Sacrifices of WWII
As a Christian and Catholic, I highly respect our Holy Father, and, with him, as with the entire human family, I long for peace. In fact, having experienced the horrors of war (18 months in the jungles of Vietnam and 24 months as chaplain to the military hospitals flooded with wounded soldiers fresh off the battle field), I live now only to build a world of peace. However, while I dream of that Utopia, I face the reality that once there was a Hitler and that once his Third Reich had enslaved Europe. War is hell, but, has Raymond de Souza ever visited the fiery ovens of Dachau or spent a weekend retreat working through the cold terror I experienced as I stood alone in the crematorium of Buchenwald?
De Souza's recent editorial (“War Never Again,” Aug. 23-29) was romantic, poetic, but come on! Whatever Spielberg tries to convey in Saving Private Ryan.… certainly neither he nor de Souza “frets about the specifics of this or that war!” However, there was a specific war in which specific young men on a specific day landed on a specific beach in Normandy because it was the only way to liberate Europe!… Perhaps in his next editorial, de Souza could suggest a better way.
These young soldiers, who gave their limbs and their lives to bring down Hitler's Nazi regime, were, to paraphrase Vatican II, “Custodians of Liberty contributing to the rebirth of peace.” They are dead and buried now. Tragically, in de Souza's editorial, so is their best idealism in sacrificing their lives.
Father Kevin Devine
New York, New York
War & Justice
Thirty years ago I was the editor of the Register, after changing it from the national edition of the Denver Register. But it was never as good as it is now. Kudos!
George Sim Johnston's column “Honest Inquiry into Creation Inevitably Leads to God,” Aug. 23-29, is magnificent. So is Kathleen Howley in the same issue on how women don't want to do all the leading, on or off the dance floor.
Seminarian Raymond de Souza's article, however, left out something very important. Three times he quoted Paul VI saying to the United Nations: “War — never again!” What the Pope said immediately after that was: “But as long as man remains as he is, defensive arms, unfortunately, will be necessary.”
When the Pope speaks of peace, he always adds “with justice.” (We had peace under Stalin.) Hopefully, defensive arms will be needed only rarely, even by those everyday soldiers, the police.
Dan Lyons Bloomsbury, New Jersey
Confessional Practices
I agree that face-to-face confession creates a sense of “personality” to a laundry-list confession and that it allows for longer and more personal conversation (“Face-to-face or Behind Grille: Priests Decide Confession Set-Up,” July 26-Aug. 1). I also understand why many people do not like going to confession behind a grille that separates you from a priest and leaves you on your own to ask for forgiveness. However, the article neglected to mention the most important point of all: the fact that it is God of whom we are begging forgiveness and that it is he who is listening.
I strongly believe that the foremost purpose of the grille is not to preserve the anonymity of the penitent, but to preserve the anonymity of the priest who — like during the holy Mass — is “Christ present.” The grille allows us to concentrate on ourselves and what we have done.
Often, in face-to-face confession, we cannot completely reflect on the fact that it is Christ hearing us and it is he who is forgiving us. If we ever forget that we are asking God for forgiveness and place more importance on what the priest will say or think, we will never receive the true graces the Sacrament of Reconciliation offers.
The priest is our earthly guide, it is he who offers us advice, and he is often the person who knows us best. Therefore, it is he to whom we should always go confidently and assuredly for absolution and guidance whether behind a grille or face-to-face. I am certain a priest will know you anyway not by your face or voice but by your sincerity and humility.
E.R. Chicago, Illinois
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Clinton's 'Privacy' Defense Is a Sad Sign of the Times DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:President Clinton, in his four-minute address to the country Aug. 17, described his affair with Monica Lewinsky as wrong but “private” — meaning that it had nothing to do with his role as president, and was nobody's business but his family's. He put “rhetorical brackets” around this sordid event as if that would remove from public view the moral harm he has inflicted on the presidency and on the country. In this situation, privacy is a mere smoke screen.
Invoking privacy as a “right” has become commonplace since the ‘70s when it was enshrined in the Roe v. Wade decision as a woman's “right” to abortion. Since then, the idea of a generalized right of privacy has entered the public consciousness especially in matters relating to sex. My husband, Judge Robert Bork, has written that the court's creation of the “right of privacy” has little to do with privacy, “but a great deal to do with the freedom of the individual from moral regulation.” Many now believe private actions are outside the scope of morality.
The privacy defense does not fit the president's situation. He is the chief executive of the United States, a public person. His sexual dalliance with Ms. Lewinsky happened in the Oval Office — in the people's house, the White House. He had a sexual relationship with a woman almost his daughter's age and confirmed that it was a public issue by publicly lying about it to his party and the country for seven months. He demonstrated a moral frivolousness unbecoming to a president.
The one responsible for this investigation, which has taken a toll on all of us, is the president himself.
Many politicians and commentators are calling for a blanket personal and political forgiveness by the American people. “Let's put this embarrassing event behind us,” they say, and politics can go on as usual. The effect would be to wipe away the moral harm that has been inflicted by a narcissistic president. It is not that simple and should not be. The moral harm of his illicit relationship with Ms. Lewinsky and lying about it has affected the people who trusted him as their elected leader. He has abused the trust of his cabinet and staff, many of whom publicly supported his denials. Worse, he has abused the trust of the nation for his own personal squalid pleasures. He has sul-lied the dignity of his office. A facile call for therapeutic compassion will not change those facts.
The president's claim that “it is none of our business” is untrue. He made it our business by being president. No person's morality is private in the sense that it affects only them. Our actions ripple beyond ourselves and affect others for good or for ill. The president is the most public of persons. His morality sends a message to the country and to the world because of his position of responsibility.
Some people think the country should let him “get away” with this behavior because it is better than the alternative of putting the country through another media frenzy and possible impeachment hearings. They argue that Kenneth Starr has been overzealous and that the investigation is an unedifying spectacle. When the investigation is complete, there will be legitimate questions about the future of the independent counsel law but the country has been harmed by the president and needs to have the Clinton inquiry concluded. The sordid subject is not Starr's fault.
The one responsible for this investigation, which has taken a toll on all of us, is the president himself. He has stonewalled for months and tried to give the impression that eventually he would tell the truth. On Aug. 17 he told only a very small part of the truth.
Another aspect of the privacy spin claims that the people do not care; Clinton's approval ratings remain high. Polls cannot measure moral importance, however. They give a fleeting picture of a vacillating populace, but not moral insight. There is the danger that polls may indicate a real change in the cultural climate that accepts the privacy argument and remains truly indifferent to whatever happens in Washington — even a president's debauchery and dishonesty. This level of moral indifference, if true, is not helped by the president's getting away with his actions. It only adds to the sense that morality does not matter that much.
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, once a Clinton supporter, wrote recently that “the trouble with Bill Clinton's presidency is that its highest cause has always been himself.” That is true and cannot be rebutted. That explains why he puts self first, before his family, his friends, his supporters, and his country. He uses people to fulfill his desires, and now asks us to forget it, because he did not want to tell the truth earlier. When the symbolic leader of the West engages in that kind of evasive action he is defining the presidency down and defining America down. A president who hides behind a spurious privacy defense is not worthy of the highest office in the land.
Mary Ellen Bork, a board member of the Catholic Campaign for America and the Institute for Religious democracy, writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mary Ellen Bork ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Case for a National Catechism DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:Any who suspect that a campaign for a national catechism (see “National Catechism Under Consideration by U.S. Bishops,” Aug. 9-15), is an attempt to supplant the universal Catechism of the Catholic Church, and promote an autonomous, dissenting, American “Catholic” Church can lay their fears to rest. The call for a national catechism is not a conspiracy hatched by groups hoping to “reform” the Church. In fact, it comes straight from the heart of the Church.
The universal Catechism is one of the most important documents to be issued by the Church since the Second Vatican Council. Released in 1994, it has set the trend in restoring doctrinal integrity to religious education, which, in America, has predominantly been misguided by scholars who have been promoting their vision of catechetics for 30 years.
These “experts” have been emphasizing a creedless, contentless, non-cognitive, and non-deductive form of experiential catechesis. The fruits of their modern catechetical revolution have long been under scrutiny, with generations of American Catholics now suffering religious illiteracy concerning the doctrines of their Faith. Catechesis in the United States, under the “experts’” influence, has also been fragmented by the introduction of a large number of catechetical texts. While the unity and passing on of the Catholic Faith has been temporarily impeded by their initiatives, the Church is continuing to circumvent this crisis by promulgating benchmark documents like the Catechism.
With encouragement from the Holy See, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) has also responded to the present catechetical dilemma by taking seriously her mission of restoring doctrinal integrity to religious education and evangelization. Within the last few years, the NCCB has organized the Ad Hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism. Among the responsibilities of the Committee has been the assiduous task of reviewing catechetical texts submitted by publishers who seek the committee's official declaration that their texts are in doctrinal conformity with the Catechism.
An example of the positive influence this Committee has had is found in its review of the Ignatius Press Faith and Life series. The Committee found the series to be one of the few published catechetical texts to be “in conformity” with the new Catechism. Though written in 1985, this series has been banned from some diocesan “approved texts” lists because diocesan leaders claim it misrepresents the spirit of Vatican II. In reality, the series has more likely been omitted because of its comprehensive and faithful presentation of Church doctrine.
Pope John Paul II has repeatedly proclaimed and promoted the “re-evangelization of the West” in hopes of calling America back to the Gospel of Christ and to the light of truth as taught by his Church. Catechetical documents issued by the Church are also meant to be used as the framework and foundation for other catechetical texts, including national catechisms. While Pope John Paul II describes the Catechism as a “sure norm for teaching the faith,” he goes on to assert twice, in Guarding the Deposit of Faith, that the document is also meant to be used to assist in the writing of local catechisms. His intention of having the Catechism act as a “reference” has been misused by some in the modern catechetical movement, especially among those who advocate a dissenting or doctrine-free, anthropocentric approach to catechesis. With this misunderstood premise in mind, these “experts” have ignored the Catechism, leaving it to collect dust on a shelf along with other Church “references.”
The Holy See responded last year by issuing another catechetical reference document, the General Directory of Catechesis, which revised its previous 1971 General Catechetical Directory. Similar to the request made by our Holy Father, this new Church document also invites each episcopal conference to organize and maintain a national catechism based on the universal Catechism. It explains in detail the need for a local catechism and discusses some guidelines for the catechism's general format.
The General Directory states that its own immediate goal is to be a theological-pastoral instrument to assist in the composition of official local catechisms. A national catechism, the General Directory points out, is necessary because it is qualitatively different from other catechetical texts such as non-official catechisms and catechetical guides, in that it must be an “official text of the Church.” The General Directory also clears up what could become a confusing issue, concerning the national catechism and its place regarding the Catechism, by stating that the Catechism, and the Sacred Scriptures, “must always be on hand,” as well.
The organizing of the national catechism should not be the sole, self-appointed task of any group of lay catechetical scholars, well intended as they might be. The crisis in catechesis during the last 30 years has been largely due to some so-called competent catechetical experts who have subjectively exercised their influence, autonomously and unrestrained, within catechetical institutions and among catechetical publishers. They have often been motivated both by the catechetical revolution, which promotes a doctrineless, exclusively experiential-based catechesis, and by the erroneous ideas of dissenting theologians.
Presumably, the planned publication of a national catechism will be opposed by these scholars because their interest groups are not in control of its contents. Such was the case in 1990, when some Catholic theologians from the Woodstock Theological Center publicly criticized the Catechism, though with little notice.
Permanently centralizing the sources of doctrinal catechesis under the guidance of the U.S. bishops, in collaboration with the Pope, would contribute to a re-unification of religious education in the United States. The Catholic Church is the recipient of divine truth, definitive and knowable, which is handed down authentically and officially interpreted by, the Magisterium. The new General Directory states that the bishops are “beyond all others the ones primarily responsible for catechesis” because they are “authentic teachers” and “catechists par excellence.” Thus, according to the General Directory, the organizing of official national catechisms must be directed “to the specific competence of the various episcopates,” and must receive the approbation of the Holy See.
The General Directory further clarifies that such an important catechetical endeavor should not be undertaken without legitimate input from professional Catholic catechetical consultants. A similar process was implemented successfully with the publication of the universal Catechism. The professional advisors invited to collaborate with the NCCB on the national catechism would likely be among those who do more than pay lip service to the necessity of “sound doctrine” (Tt 2:1), and may include such respected, nationally known catechetical theologians as Father John Hardon SJ, Father Alfred McBride OPraem, Msgr. Francis Kelly, Msgr. Michael Wrenn, and Professor Barbara Morgan.
Catechesis in America has been compromised for too long by a consumerist, relativistic mentality. The result, according to the General Directory, has been a “proliferation of [unofficial] catechisms and texts, the products of particular initiatives whose selective tendencies and emphases are so differing as to damage that convergence necessary for the unity of the faith.” Concerning the unity of the faith, Pope John Paul II, in On Catechesis in Our Time, emphatically states that the faithful have “the right to receive 'the word of faith'not in a mutilated, falsified, or diminished form but whole and entire, in all its rigor and vigor.”
A national catechism would greatly assist in ending subjective, varying, and splintering interpretations of the Church's faith and morals, which have been polarizing the American catechetical scene since Vatican II. It would fundamentally transform every parish religious education program, parochial, private, and home school, as well as the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) program, assisting them to become united in passing on the “one faith” (Ep 4:5) of Jesus Christ.
The proposed new national catechism could also be expanded into an official catechetical series designed to meet the needs of every age level of catechesis. With this in mind, in the primary grade levels, the national catechism could be integrated into illustrated religion texts and workbooks. In a similar way, the Baltimore Catechism of 1885 was transformed into student catechetical texts to form comprehensive religious education programs. For example, the Living My Religion series of the 1940s combined the Baltimore Catechism with the Bible and Church history.
Many catechetical consultants agree that most Catholic secondary religious education programs need a restoration of classical catechesis as well. The General Directory suggests that religion curriculums return to the seven “foundation stones” of the Old Testament, the New Testament, with emphasis on the centrality of Jesus Christ, Church history, the Creed, the sacraments, morality, and prayer. Combined, the Sacred Scriptures, a well-written Church history text, and a national, high school-aged catechism, would guarantee content and doctrinal harmony to religious education programs throughout the country. The foundation stones of traditional catechesis could also be systematically incorporated into an official adult catechism, as part of the national catechetical series, and used during the catechumenate period of the RCIA, potentially inspiring similar results of national unity and cohesiveness.
Concerns may arise about how quickly a national catechism would become outdated, with the introduction of new Church documents and legitimate advances in catechetical methodology. Perhaps a national catechetical institute or permanent NCCB committee, funded by sales from the official catechism and overseen by the U.S. bishops, could assist with periodic updates by way of newsletters and a Web page offering continuing guidance and support. The Committee might also consider revising the local catechism periodically to ensure its continued usefulness and integrity of content.
Three decades of experimenting with the “new and improved” approaches to religious education have not produced the expected and promised outcomes that a catechism-based catechesis would have produced. Recognizing the current crisis of faith, the Church has been leading the restoration of doctrinal soundness to catechesis by advocating documents like official catechisms. A national catechism for the Church in the United States would become indispensable, acting as a concise, authoritative compendium of irreducible Catholic doctrine. Adapted to our American culture and oriented toward each age level of catechesis, it would permit all those catechized in the faith to be able to say together, “This is our faith, this is the faith of the Church” (General Directory), while also guaranteeing with certitude that we “will know the truth and the truth will make [us] free” (Jn 8:32).
Combined with teachings from the Bible, Church history, the lives of the saints, and with ongoing immersion in the sacramental and liturgical life of the Church, a national catechism would assure the restoration of traditional Catholic catechesis in America as we enter into the third millennium of Christian evangelization.
Kelly Bowring, formerly chairman of theology and director of campus ministry at Antonian College Preparatory Catholic High School in San Antonio, Texas, is pursuing further studies at the Dominican House in Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: Could a sound catechetical text be the answer to the Amercican Church's crisis of faith? ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kelly Bowring ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Fear of Hell Can Keep a Person on the Straight & Narrow DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:On a flight to one of the University of Dallas teaching sites scattered across America, I met a man in his 30s who claimed to have left the Catholic Church because all they ever preached about was hell. He was more attracted to the message of love and joy without judgment he had found at a non-denominational church.
Preaching the message of the Sermon on the Mount, the man believed, was far more useful than the many threats of hell fire that he heard in his Catholic Church. Unfortunately, the pursuit of this conversation was cut short by landing and changing planes.
Nonetheless, I have not ceased to be amazed that a Catholic who grew up in the last 30 years would have become sated with preaching about hell. Where are these parishes he attended? Who are the priests?
They should become registered historical monuments! I cannot remember hearing a sermon on hell, or even one in which punishment in hell was threatened, unless I delivered it. Frankly, I suspect that his comment may actually have been a clichÈ heard in a movie about adulterous or otherwise licentious people leaving the Catholic Church.
However, the absence of preaching about hell in the churches does not mean the absence of hellish fear from the general population.
For example, a perennially favorite genre of motion picture is the horror film. People who do not hear about hell from pulpits before they put a typical $1 donation in the collection basket will pay $6 or $7 to be frightened out of their wits at a theater.
Horror movies spawn sequels and they are generally successful money-makers. This phenomenon may indicate that a significant part of the culture wants to be frightened by threats of the hellish. Monster sharks attack swimmers, initially after an illicit tryst in Jaws. Destructive giant lizards attack cities and kill people. Evil visitors from space threaten life and independence on earth, even when friendly earthlings come to them in peace. Asteroids knock down skyscrapers and terrify earth's inhabitants. Terrifying disguised murderers frighten, attack, and kill in gruesome ways. People pay big bucks for horror in dark theaters.
Perhaps one reason for the billions of dollars spent on hellish entertainment is that people have at least a vague sense that the culture is morally out of control. Perhaps people have a deep-seated intuition lying below the surface of consciousness that mis-deeds, including those that are known to the sinner alone, deserve punishment. Like the young passenger to whom I spoke, folks may not want a realistic threat of eternal punishment in hell, but they obviously enjoy being frightened by a make-believe hellish movie as catharsis for a sense of guilt that they would prefer to keep vague.
An irony about the claims of the gentleman I met on the plane is that the Sermon on the Mount he so loved to hear includes the largest concentration of threats of hell in the New Testament. The only other competitor for this distinction is our Lord's parables, which include warnings about the weeds and bad fish that will be gathered and thrown into the fire at the end of the world. Christ made threats of hell an important feature of his preaching, while the disciples did not.
In fact, St. Paul never mentions hell or Gehenna; only the Second Letter of Peter, Jude, and Revelation mention hell or related concepts. Apparently, our Blessed Lord considered threats of hell a salutary warning about the real punishments due to sin. He wants us to consider the consequences of our behavior so that we will correct our behavior and avoid punishment. On the other side, the serpent in Eden began the reasoning of temptation by denying the reality of God's threatened punishment: “You surely shall not die.” May we conclude that the denial of hell is a tactic of the other side?
Fear of hell is certainly not the most noble motive, but it sometimes works to keep us from committing sins. The avoidance of sin may help to establish the kind of habits that make the practice of virtue possible. Sometimes the practice of virtue leads to a love of virtue in and of itself. It may even lead to an understanding that God's prohibitions are wise.
This realization is not unlike the realization that dawned upon me later in adulthood that not only were my father's moral injunctions pretty smart, but he was pretty consistent about highlighting his message in red lines across my bottom, applied deftly with his belt. Even when I did not want to be virtuous for its own sake, I certainly knew the consequences of my misbehavior. Looking back, not only was he right about the things he told me to do, but he was even right about my (eventual) gratitude for his spankings. If we get to heaven, we may feel the same about our Lord's warnings of hell that kept us away from there.
Jesuit Father Mitch Pacwa is a professor at the Institute for Religious and Pastoral Studies at the University of Dallas.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mitch Pacwa SJ ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Clash on Campus OverAcademic Freedom DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:Notre Dame Law School Professor Gerry Bradley, president of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, was not really surprised when Pope John Paul II changed Canon Law June 30 to incorporate penalties for theologians who openly defy Church teaching held to be “definitive” by the Magisterium. Bradley suggested that Ad Tuendam Fidem (To Defend the Faith) was part of a continuing effort on the Pope's part “to provide the infrastructure of a solid plan for Catholic colleges for the teaching of theology.” He spoke recently with Register correspondent Catherine Odell.
Odell:
Bradley: The Holy Father's expressed intention was to fill in what I think he calls lacunae (holes) in Canon Law. So, canon 750 [in which Catholics are required to assent to Revelation and what the Church proclaims as divinely inspired teaching] was amended to articulate a penalty for opposing magisterial teaching in certain categories of cases.
This document represents a continuing effort on the part of the Holy Father to provide the infrastructure of a solid plan for the teaching of theology at Catholic colleges and universities.
The Profession of Faith [in canon 750] was already required of teachers of theology. But practically speaking, any violation of that Profession of Faith now has a corresponding provision for a just penalty in the Canon Law. The Pope was trying to make it very clear that the Profession of Faith is an aspect of the unity of the Church.
Strictly speaking, Ad Tuendam Fidem is addressed to bishops because bishops have the authority to impose these “just penalties.” But, this is [also] a message to theological academic establishments and university administrations responsible for promulgating university norms.
At first glance, doesn't this seem harsh — penalties for what a person might honestly believe to be true?
Well, there's a logic or rationale here. No one is obliged to be a Catholic — and, of course, no one is obliged to take the Profession of Faith. But if one takes a certain office or endeavors to exercise certain powers in the Church and makes this Profession of Faith, he or she should live up to it. Failing to do that is an offense against the community and unity of the Church.
What is the Profession of Faith and what's its history in Canon Law?
The first part of the Profession of Faith is really the Nicene Creed, which every Catholic says at Mass. But the other statements come largely from Lumen Gentium (the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church), a document promulgated by Vatican II. They have to do with the authority of the Magisterium, and the requirements to be faithful to and to assent to what the Church teaches through the Magisterium. [The papal letter talks about the three traditional levels of truth in Church teachings and the type of assent required by each.]
Canon Law was revised in 1983 and in 1989, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — and Pope John Paul II — issued this Profession of Faith and incorporated it into Canon Law. In 1990, the Pope promulgated Ex Corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church), his apostolic constitution on Catholic universities. At that time, he did not amend Canon Law but simply made renewed reference to the fact that canon 812 requires a mandate to teach in the theological disciplines and he called for implementation of that requirement.
Are these documents primarily addressed to the American theological community where support for women's ordination, for instance, is particularly high?
This document is rightly seen as directed primarily to the American university theological establishment. And practically speaking, the 235 Catholic colleges in America make up the majority of the Catholic universities in the world.
How have American Catholic colleges and universities reacted to
There hasn't been a great deal of response from the American theological establishment. Maybe people who teach theology are studying the document carefully. But, I suspect that they aren't responding because this doesn't say anything to them that they haven't heard before.
They know where they stand on this type of question. The theological establishment rejects entirely the underlying principle of this document and that of canon 812, which states that people teaching theology have some obligation of fidelity to the pastors of the Church and to the Magisterium itself. They feel that it violates their academic freedom.
So, Pope John Paul II's plans remain as an unfulfilled vision. The Profession of Faith is not taken by the vast majority of theologians teaching in Catholic colleges. At the University of Steubenville, I think that virtually all of the Catholic faculty — not just theologians — take the Profession of Faith in front of an assembly at Mass. There might be a few other Catholic colleges where a Profession of Faith is taken. But that leaves about 230 reputed Catholic colleges where that requirement is ignored. And at a pontifical faculty like the theology faculty at Catholic University, they are not governed by Ex Corde Ecclesiae but by the document on pontifical faculties. So, right now it is a law of the Church that anyone in a theological discipline must have a mandate or a commission to teach theology from a diocesan bishop. In fact, that is all but universally ignored.
The bishops remain uncertain about how to go about implementing this and Ex Corde Ecclesiae. Right now, the subcommittee charged with working up a document to implement Ex Corde Ecclesiae is composed of: Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua of Philadelphia; Adam Cardinal Maida of Detroit; Bishop Raymond Burke of LaCrosse, Wis.; Bishop Thomas George Doran of Rockford, Ill.; and a canonist, who is not a bishop. They will report to the bishops at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ meeting in November.
So, this new document that we're talking about doesn't really do anything to solve this impasse. While it provides for the possibility in Canon Law for just punishments for certain kinds of irresponsibility for those who take the Profession of Faith, the real problem is that nobody is taking the Profession to begin with. And right now, as far as I know, no bishop is insisting that it be required at a school where it isn't presently expected of the faculty.
In April, 1997, the Vatican responded to the bishops’ first implementation [of Ex Corde Ecclesiae]. It was sent back for review. They were asked to pay particular attention to the mandate requirement of canon 812. In that first document, it had been relegated to a footnote in which the bishops said simply that the mandate requirement would be the subject of further study. I think the Vatican's present policy is to focus the bishops on the integrity of the teaching of theology in Catholic universities. They will have to deal with it now.
Nonetheless, there's a great temptation on the part of everybody involved — the academics, the university administrators, the bishops — to find a way to try to negotiate some settlement of these difference so that they can get on with something else. But, there's a chasm [of differences in viewpoint] here.
The practical effect of this document, Ad Tuendam Fidem, is very hard to determine because it doesn't and couldn't meet the central problem — an unwillingness of Catholic universities to expect their faculties to make a profession and the reluctance of bishops to do anything significant to meet that unwillingness or overcome it.
But, I think this document nevertheless represents a continuing effort on the part of the Holy Father to provide the infrastructure of a solid plan for the teaching of theology at Catholic colleges and universities and for providing the fundamentals of a sound system of Catholic higher education.
I don't know how long the situation can persist in which the American bishops send over documents that are returned and which are soon replaced by other documents returned to them. Perhaps it can go on for a long time. But the Holy See is determined to have the bishops attend to the mandate requirement.
As a lawyer, how would you summarize the case being made by many theologians for academic freedom and their rejection of a mandate to teach?
The arguments that theologians make for academic freedom are basically the same arguments made by people in other disciplines in secular universities. Simply put, it's the standard issue American Association of University Professors-type of academic freedom. It's the type of academic freedom demanded at any modern American research university. Although I wouldn't entirely endorse that type of academic freedom, I think that it's largely sound. I just simply would not transport it wholesale into the theological situation.
If you take a sort of underlying view of the Church as a human institution, you think of it as human, fallible, correcting itself and deeply tied to historical circumstances. That would be at odds with claims from the Magisterium to an authority to articulate timeless truths. If you take this view of the Church, then a claim to academic freedom makes much more sense. Many academic theologians think that limitations on their academic freedom constitute a disservice to the human spirit and to the quest for truth itself.
For many theologians, the stuff of theology is one's own religious experience and not propositions communicated to the hierarchy that then presents them as timeless truths. If you view theology as experience, then any believer is an authority. Experience is something that will constantly need to be reinterpreted, revised, and updated.
Please summarize the opposing view — the case the Holy Father makes for fidelity to Church teaching from theologians …
In the Holy Father's view, the mandate to teach theology and the documents we're talking about are founded on the authority of the Magisterium to articulate things that are certainly true. According to the Holy See, its authority has been received directly from Jesus Christ.
What the Holy Father says and the idea of requiring a mandate to teach from theologians even in academic establishments and in research institutions like this one [Notre Dame] will seem ridiculous to some people. They don't see that it follows immediately, inevitably from what he believes — and the Church historically teaches — about the nature of Revelation, the authority of Christ invested in the successors of the Apostles, and the nature of the Church as preserved by the Holy Spirit from error. But that's why I think the matter is so serious.
— Catherine Odell
----- EXCERPT: A noted Notre Dame law professor examines the divide between U.S. Catholic universities and the Magisterium ----- EXTENDED BODY: Catherine Odell ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: The Same Good Script With Added Meaning DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:When Disney released the original version of The Parent Trap in 1961, America was still a family-values culture. Most children were raised in households with two parents, and divorce was a relatively rare phenomenon. Our churches and schools were still true to their missions. Most people assumed there was a moral order in the universe even if they sometimes had trouble understanding or obeying it.
Times have changed. The current remake of The Parent Trap is equally as entertaining as the original. The movie's premise about twin sisters’ attempt to reunite their divorced parents still works, but it seems like a bold social statement when set against today's culture of divorce and moral relativism.
This is probably far from the conscious intentions of first-time director Nancy Myers and producer Charles Shyer. As co-screenwriters, they follow closely the structure of David Swift's original script and Erich Kastner's story, skillfully updating the gags, youthful slang, and musical score. But the social context has changed so radically in the last 37 years that the coming together of this divorced family seems like a pointed message about the importance of parents placing their children's well-being above their own emotional comfort.
Hallie Parker (Lindsay Lohan) is the 11-year-old daughter of prosperous California wine grower Nick Parker (Dennis Quaid). They have a close and loving relationship.
“He's kind of like my best friend,” she declares.
Hallie is a rambunctious, emotionally open child, eager to learn something about her mother whom she has never seen.
Annie James (also Lindsay Lohan), Hallie's twin, lives in a posh London townhouse with her successful dress-designer mum, Elizabeth James (Natasha Richardson). A proper, well-behaved child, she wonders about her long-lost dad and what kind of person he might be.
Both girls are sent to the same New England summer camp. When they meet, they take an instant dislike to each other.
“I have class, and you don't,” declares the snooty Annie.
Both are accomplished fencers and battle each other in a well-staged comic duel.
Their enmity expands to include a series of humorous pranks, like the booby-trapping of a cabin where one of them sleeps. These high jinks result in the girls being sentenced to detention together. There they find that despite their differences in personality and culture they have much in common, like a shared love of Oreo cookies mixed with peanut butter.
Hallie and Annie confide in each other about the pain they feel from not knowing one of their parents.
“It's crazy the way no one stays together any more,” they lament, indicating that they realize in some pre-adolescent manner that their personal, emotional loss may be linked to larger societal problems.
Eventually the two realize that they are twin sisters who were separated early in life by their parents’ divorce, and they decide to switch places when camp is over. Their goal is to bring their mother and father back together and live as one big, happy family.
Both girls have difficulty adjusting to their new situations, but the bonding between each child and her long-lost parent is immediate and deep even though the adults aren't aware of exactly what is going on. Complications arise when Hallie's nanny, Jessie (Lisa Ann Walter), notes how much more refined her charge seems when compared to her behavior before summer camp. Hallie's dog also quickly recognizes the differences. Annie worries she might be found out.
But the real crisis is the blossoming romance between the girls’ father and his blonde bombshell publicist (Elaine Hendrix). This cold-hearted gold-digger is attracted to Nick's money more than his personality. As marriage is her motive, the twins must devise a way to prevent it.
Their mother is told about the girls’ switcheroo, and with help from Jessie and the James’ family butler, Martin (Simon Runz), she is lured to California on false pretenses cooked up by the girls. But when Elizabeth and Nick meet again after 12 years, the sparks don't instantly fly, and the twins must scramble to outwit the girlfriend. The ensuing complications are played mainly for laughs, but one's heart goes out to these sweet, innocent girls who long so desperately to be part of a two-parent family.
The original movie was created during the old Disney regime whose managers tried to remain true to founder Walt's ideas. During the mid-‘80s, a group of corporate wizards, led by Michael Eisner, took over the franchise and greatly increased its profitability, constructing a multi-billion-dollar media empire much admired on Wall Street. At the same time though, they have also released products that savagely attack the family-values culture revered by Walt.
This remake of The Parent Trap doesn't reflect the relativistic values of most of the studio's current product line. Perhaps the movie's success will encourage the present management to re-examine some of their choices and to consider turning more often to Walt's vision.
Arts & Culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
The Parent Trap is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America.
----- EXCERPT: Disney's remake of The Parent Trap works even better in today's culture of fractured families ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Faith in a Time of War DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:There are times when a Christian must abandon non-violence and stand up and fight. World War II was such an occasion. The evil perpetrated by German and Japanese aggression could not be stopped by prayer and good works alone. Catholic teaching on “just war” theory explores the issues involved in taking sides during a military conflict from the perspectives of faith and reason. Its arguments are insightful and inspiring.
It's more difficult to justify participation in a guerrilla revolt and the use of terrorist tactics. Open City makes the case for this kind of warfare, persuasively establishing the righteousness of the partisan uprising against the Italian fascist regime during World War II. The movie's central character is a parish priest who works actively with the guerrillas and risks his life repeatedly to help those committed to violent resistance. When questioned about his political activities, he asserts they reflect the exercise of his Christian faith in a time of great evil.
It's 1945, and the allies are slowly fighting their way toward Rome from the south. The days of the Italian fascist government are numbered, but the Nazis, whose army and SS units are propping up the regime, refuse to surrender. Instead they intensify their efforts against their political opponents, particularly those partisan groups who have attacked their men and installations with hit-and-run raids and home-made bombs.
Director Roberto Rossellini (Paisan and General Della Rovere) and coscreenwriters Sergio Amidei, Frederico Fellini (La Strada and 8-and-a-half) and Alberto Consiglio focus on the closely linked activities of three partisans: the parish priest, Don Pietro (Aldo Fabrizi); communist revolutionary Sergio Manfredi (Marcel Pagliero); and guerrilla fighter Francesco (F. Grandjacquet).
Each of their personal stories is closely interwoven with their political work. The street scenes chronicling their actions have the low-key, understated look of a documentary, and some of the material was shot under the threat of gunfire before the allied liberation of Rome was completed. This honest, gritty style of filmmaking was dubbed “neo realism” and produced further masterpieces by Rossellini, Fellini, and Vittorio De Sica (The Bicycle Thief), inspiring imitation by movie makers around the world.
The film opens with the Gestapo searching for Manfredi who has been forced to hide out in the apartment of Francesco's fiancÈe, Pilar (Anna Magnani). She and her boyfriend are planning to be married in Don Pietro's church the next day. When the atheist Manfredi criticizes their use of a religious ceremony, Pilar fires back: “Better to be married by a partisan priest than by a fascist in city hall.”
Don Pietro must deliver money, originally meant to be carried by Manfredi, to the guerrillas'military junta. As a priest, he is exempt from the curfew and can make the drop more safely than others. He picks up the cash at a store that sells religious statuary and is asked why he became involved.
“It's my duty to help those in need,” he declares, in a reply that reflects the Christian commitment behind his political activities.
Pilar wants the priest to hear her confession before her wedding day, but he puts her off because of the urgency of the delivery. Instead he walks with her part way to his drop as she pours out her fears about the Nazis.
“We mustn't be afraid, because we are on the just path,” he later declares.
Pilar's pre-adolescent son, Marcello (Vito Annicchiarico), is part of a gang of street urchins who blow up German gasoline trucks. After a recent attack, the Nazis search her apartment building for partisans and illegal arms. It is the day of her wedding. Don Pietro learns that the kids have stashed guns and bombs on the roof. With Marcello as his acolyte, he pretends he has to anoint a bed-ridden man in order to get inside and hide the weapons.
During the commotion Francesco and Manfredi are arrested, and Pilar is shot dead as she runs after the truck carrying her husband-to-be. The guerrillas later stage a daring raid on the caravan of prisoners, and Francesco and Manfredi escape.
Manfredi and Don Pietro are betrayed to the Gestapo by the revolutionary's actress-girlfriend (Maria Michi), with whom he has quarreled. The Nazis’ chief interrogating officer (Harry Feist) makes the priest watch Manfredi's torture. He taunts Don Pietro for associating with a communist atheist. Using Christian language, the priest replies that he is only “one who practices a little charity.” When further challenged, he declares: “I believe one who fights injustice walks through the path of God.”
Don Pietro is executed by the fascists, a martyr for his religious and political commitments. His courage and humility are a powerful witness to the practice of faith in time of war.
Next week: Luthion Zistontis's The Leopard.
Arts & Culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Roberto Rossellini's Open City explores the makings of a priest's sacrifice in fascist Italy ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Padre Pio's Home in the States DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:When the National Center for Padre Pio was to move from Morristown, Pa., a Philadelphia suburb, north 40 miles to the small town of Barto in July 1990, it appeared the saintly Italian Capuchin friar himself approved the location. If so, it would be another occurrence among many extraordinary and miraculous events connected with Padre Pio for decades.
Just three months after his death in September 1968, Vera Calandra began this national center in the family home to promote the story of and foster devotion to the stigmatic priest. The previous August, Calandra's dying child had been miraculously healed after being taken to the friar at San Giovanni Rotondo in Italy. As the center grew in popularity over the years, the steady increase of visitors forced a search for a spacious location.
After a long search, Calandra and her family found a 16-acre farm in Barto, Pa. Looking over the barn, she spotted a book on Padre Pio atop a pile of boxes. When she asked the owner if he had read it, he said he was unfamiliar with the book and didn't know how it got there.
Other than the vague idea that she was connected with some “Catholic movement,” he had no knowledge why she was interested in the property.
The Calandras believed it was Padre Pio's wish that the center be moved there, and they decided to comply. Because the Mass was central to the friar's life, the focal point of the barn at once became the new chapel, where Mass is now regularly offered Tuesdays (also Wednesdays in summer), Fridays, and First Saturdays, and where adoration, stations of the cross, and a daily rosary are held. For First Saturdays, which Padre Pio promoted, crowds overflow from the chapel into adjacent areas for Mass, rosary, holy hour, and benediction.
Before founding this center, Calandra forged strong links to the Capuchins at Our Lady of Grace Friary in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, where the Franciscan monk lived most of his religious life. Weeks before Padre Pio died, Calandra, home alone in Pennsylvania, smelled perfume, and heard his voice direct her to “come to me and do not delay.” She knew it concerned her daughter Vera Marie, born in 1966 with serious birth defects that, despite several surgeries, had been uncorrectable.
Doctors had no hope for the child's survival.
With no knowledge of Italy or its language, Calandra brought her desperately ill child to see Padre Pio, seeking a miracle so others may believe. Upon her return home, Vera Marie's physicians, including former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop, were amazed. The child was developing a missing bladder.
Shortly after, Calandra's collaboration with the friars at San Giovanni Rotondo began and led to the printing and distribution of English language literature about Padre Pio, and a multi-language international magazine. The relationship still continues, and this national center in Barto is the only one in the United States and Canada affiliated with and authorized by the friars.
Visitors from throughout North America flock to this rural center, easily accessible from Philadelphia or New York. International visitors aren't uncommon either. They're drawn not just because of the phenomenon of the friar's stigmata and the miraculous cures attributed to his intercession, but because the spirituality of Padre Pio who was declared “venerable” by Pope John Paul II in 1997, brings hope to the burdened. His spirituality teaches trust in God, hope, acceptance, and using suffering to spiritual advantage.
The current chaplain, Father James Betchel, sees the center as a spiritual oasis. Through Masses and devotions, private prayer in the wood-lined chapel or outdoors around the stations of the cross, people find refreshment and learn resignation to God's will.
Many return to the sacraments. With the center a short drive from major shopping locations in Reading, from auto shows, and from family vacation destinations like Allentown's Dorney (amusement) Park and Wildwater Kingdom, many end up stopping by the center and returning to the sacraments after many years away. Priests often mention the remarkable changes that happen in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which is offered regularly. Padre Pio himself averaged 10 or more hours a day in the confessional.
Interestingly, it was American men who originally flocked to Padre Pio's Masses at Our Lady of Grace Friary during World War II. From the large air base in Foggia, the servicemen would forge a road up the hills with their jeeps and troop transports to the friary, where Padre Pio would have them stand around the altar. Many airmen and soldiers wrote home describing the holy priest and his wounds.
The Barto center presents the extraordinary events in the friar's life in compelling fashion. There is a video presentation and the gift shop has many books and videos about him. Also, there are regular museum-like displays of personal items such as his blood-stained gloves and other articles of clothing, a cloth used to blot the blood from his side, and a confessional he used before being assigned to San Giovanni Rotondo. There is even the worn deck of cards his father brought for a game or two during visits.
The center has plans to expand again a mile away on 106 acres of farmland at the corner of Route 100 and Barto Road. The first phase began in July with groundbreaking and building of the Padre Pio Spirituality Center and Our Lady of Grace Chapel, a replica of the 300-year-old chapel at San Giovanni Rotondo where Padre Pio received the stigmata in September 1918. Future plans include a museum, dining areas, and eventually a Padre Pio City.
Visitors will find other worthwhile activities nearby. Within about a mile's radius of the center, there are a variety of plain and fancy eateries that include family-style Pennsylvania Dutch places with hot meals for modest prices. Among the motels, the Comfort Inn in Pottstown, 20 minutes away, provides special rates for visitors to the center.
From Philadelphia, take the Schuylkill Expressway (west) to Route 202 (south) and on to Route 422 (west). Follow to Route 100 (north) and Barto Road. From New York and New Jersey, take Route 78 (west) from Newark to Pennsylvania and Route 29 (south). Proceed to Route 100 (south) and into Barto. For more information, call the center at 610-845-3000.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Thanks to a devotee of the extraordinary Italian friar, U.S. pilgrims need only go as far as Pennsylvania to know him better ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Group Helps Former Abortion Providers Rebuild Their Lives DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—A new national organization expects to help former abortion providers heal and reconcile themselves to their past actions. The Society of Centurions of America, based in St. Paul, Minn., is developing a program to assist these women and men in their often difficult transition.
Joan Appleton, who ran a Virginia abortion clinic in the 1980s, told the Register, “The Centurion was the Roman soldier who crucified Christ. When Christ died, he fell to his knees, dropped his sword, and said, ‘Truly this was an innocent man.’”
“Those of us who have been in the abortion business have dropped our swords against unborn children,” she said.
The organization developed from the work of Dr. Philip Ney, a psychiatrist in Victoria, British Columbia. Ney, who had been active in counseling victims of child abuse and post-abortion trauma, began the Society of Centurions several years ago.
The main effort, however, will be to support those who have had difficulty accepting and dealing with their past roles.
Appleton, a registered nurse, met with Ney in 1995 for counseling in her efforts to overcome the guilt and depression associated with her past abortion work. The encounter helped her healing process and prompted an interest in creating an American counterpart to the Centurion effort.
Appleton said, “We have literally thousands of former abortionists and former abortion clinic employees in the United States who need help because we suffer the same as a woman who has had an abortion and experiences post-abortion trauma.”
Some who suffer from depression turn to drugs, alcohol, or even suicide, she noted.
The Society of Centurions is active in Canada and flourishing in Europe. The American group held its first conference in August 1998 and expects to hold a much larger one in March 1999 in St. Paul. Besides conferences, the organization will promote outreach, local chapters, and produce newsletters and other forms of communication.
“One thing that needs to be understood,” Appleton said, “is that those of us who were in the business of killing babies had to dehumanize them. So the healing process consists of rehumanization.”
“One of the problems that I had when I got out of the business was that I was very, very much alone. You're lost, absolutely lost. I lost every friend and had nowhere to go. A major reason why people don't get out of the abortion business is this fear of the pain of transition,” she said.
Appleton said that former abortion workers are often loners and tend to move in different directions once they join the pro-life effort, as some do. The Society of Centurions, along with providing emotional support, also gives members an opportunity to be united and go forward as a group.
‘I have already been in hell and don't want to go back. All I want is to be taught how to be the Catholic woman Christ wants me to be.’
Some of the early members of the organization were people referred by pro-life activist Joseph Scheidler. “I support and encourage this very necessary organization,” Scheidler told the Register.” I hope it will grow by leaps and bounds.”
Another friend has been Father Frank Pavone, a member of the Pontifical Council for the Family and international director of Priests for Life.
He said the organization accomplishes two things. “First, it's personally necessary for the people who have come out of the abortion industry. What it does for the individual is critical.”
“Second, what it does for the movement is to provide a sign of hope.” This sign of hope is that even those in the abortion industry, “folks who have reached the end of their rope,” can be turned around, he added.
Appleton said “Priests for Life have been absolutely outstanding and very, very supportive of the program.”
She believes it is essential for clergy of all denominations to be educated to the needs of former abortion workers, many of whom need spiritual guidance.
Appleton, who had been the head nurse at the well-known Commonwealth Women's Clinic in Falls Church, Va., has written in a brief autobiographical booklet: “I have already been in ‘hell’ and don't want to go back. All I want is to be taught how to be the Catholic woman Christ wants me to be.”
In addition to her work with the Centurions, Appleton is a staff member with the Pro-Life Action Ministries, also based in St. Paul. This organization, founded in 1981, promotes local sidewalk counseling, education, and other pro-life outreach.
And, she told the Register, “I now enjoy a peace and tranquillity I never had in my life, and it's something that I want everyone to have. But it takes time, effort, and work.”
Among other high-level former abortion providers who have joined the pro-life movement are Dr. Bernard Nathanson, Carol Everett, and Norma McCorvey, who was “Jane Roe” in the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. McCorvey was received into the Catholic Church Aug. 17.
Appleton said anyone previously or currently involved in the abortion business — including physicians, nurses, lab technicians, counselors, or receptionists — are invited to contact her about the Society of Centurions (651-771-1500).
Joseph Esposito writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Esposito ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Pro-Life Credit Card Helps Generate Funds to FurtherLife Causes DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:CHICAGO—For groups advocating a specific cause, money is almost always scarce. Financial constraints can cripple national and local nonprofit organizations and their efforts to impact public policy and social change. In the past few years, however, groups specializing in assisting nonprofit organizations raise necessary funds without the expense of marketing and manpower have cropped up around the nation. One of those is an organization dedicated to assisting the efforts of pro-life groups.
Vitae Corporation, based in Illinois, has joined the ranks of other organizations in attempting to “change the world” by helping those groups fighting the battle on the front lines. Steve Thomas, director of Vitae Corporation, said the idea for the organization came after several years of working in the pro-life movement. He quickly realized that many of the organizations he worked with were constantly in need of more money.
“These groups were always short on funds and lacked the resources to do the things we wanted to do,” said Thomas, a former seminarian who is now married and the father of six.
In hopes of assisting those pro-life organizations that are often plagued with financial woes, Thomas and a small group of other individuals formed the Vitae Corporation in 1996. The focus of the group is to develop innovative ways to assist those groups affirming life — including those involved in fighting abortion or educating on issues such as natural family planning and chastity — in raising the necessary funds to carry out the work.
One of the ways the Vitae Corporation is seeking to raise funds for pro-life groups is through a new pro-life credit card. Thomas said he arrived at the idea after reading a list of credit card companies that funded Planned Parenthood and other anti-life organizations. Thomas immediately began searching for a bank to sponsor a credit card specifically promoting and funding pro-life efforts.
On average, credit card companies claim 2% to 3% of the cost of each purchase made with a card. Of that amount, 1% to 2% goes to the bank that sponsors the credit card and 1% goes to the card service such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or Discover. If an organization sponsors a credit card, the bank will pay the organization anywhere from .5% to 1% of the purchase.
Allowing an organization to sponsor specific credit cards is helpful to financial institutions, said Thomas, because the bank's often-enormous marketing costs are decreased.
“If we can bring membership to them, they can give us a cut of their normal marketing expenses,” he said.
While Thomas ran into some difficulty finding a bank that would sponsor an overtly pro-life credit card, he eventually worked out a contract with MBNA America. Vitae Corporation and MBNA signed the contract this year and the marketing of the card began recently. The card features a replica of the Sistine Chapel painting with the hand of God and the hand the Adam along with the message “Vitae means Life.”
Thomas estimates several hundred individuals are already using the card. In promoting the efforts of the Vitae Corporation, he has worked with the Knights of Columbus and others in the Joliet diocese and hopes to expand the efforts outside of the area.
While some may argue that promoting the use of credit cards may not be prudent, Thomas said Vitae Corporation makes it clear that it does not encourage the accumulation of debt and receives no funds from finance charges. However, he said he wanted to offer those pro-life consumers who use credit cards an option.
“All we say is, ‘If you have a credit card, why not have this one?’” he said.
Thomas said he originally thought the idea of using such things as credit cards and other basic services people use on a regular basis to assist nonprofit organizations with raising funds was unique. However, he quickly learned that organizations such as pro-abortion and homosexual-rights groups had been benefiting from such efforts for years.
Through a group called Working Assets, pro-abortion organizations such as the Center for Law and Reproductive Policy and Gloria Steinem's Voters for Choice have received millions of dollars from the promotion of credit cards, long distance services, and Internet services. According to Inc. magazine, Working Assets was one of the fastest growing companies in the nation in 1997.
Working Assets'promotional materials claim 40 organizations are selected each year by its members to receive funding. The groups receive one percent of the funds collected through Working Assets'products and services. In 1997, almost $3 million was raised for various pro-abortion organizations as well as for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, People of Faith (described by Working Assets as a group fighting the influence of the religious right), and Friends of the Earth. Since 1985, Working Assets has raised more than $12 million for various nonprofit organizations.
In addition to financial contributions to the organizations, Working Assets also provides regular “Flash Activist Alerts” to its members who own credit cards or use the company for long distance or Internet service. The alerts allow the members to make free calls to their congressman, the President, and corporate board members on issues ranging from “reproductive rights” to protecting the environment.
While Vitae Corporation's infrastructure is not as elaborate as Working Assets, Thomas hopes that his organization's work will play a small role in restoring a culture that respects the sanctity of human life.
“This is a small piece in the puzzle of taking back the culture,” he said. “We're taking something amoral like a credit card and using it to benefit pro-life efforts and evangelize in the process.”
Vitae Corporation is not limiting itself to the new pro-life credit card. The group also deals in long distance service and hopes to eventually establish a Catholic radio station with the power necessary to reach others with the Gospel message.
For pro-life organizations with a base large enough to warrant the marketing and other work necessary for success, Thomas said Vitae Corporation may be able to help. However, he said success of the organization isn't the bottom line. Promoting the sanctity of human life and changing the culture is.
“Money has an impact on the culture,” he said. “People of principle are supporting the abortion industry in a roundabout way. We try to do what we can.”
For more information, call the Vitae Corporation at 888-883-LIFE.
Greg Chesmore writes from Bloomington, Indiana.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Greg Chesmore ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: The Gospel Of Life DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:Pope John Paul, in Evangelium Vitae, cited the work of religious communities such as the Sisters of Life who work to promote and defend a culture of life:
“Allowing herself to be guided by the example of Jesus the ‘Good Samaritan’ (cf. Lk 10:29-37) and upheld by his strength, the Church has always been in the front line in providing charitable help: so many of her sons and daughters, especially men and women religious, in traditional and ever new forms, have consecrated and continue to consecrate their lives to God, freely giving of themselves out of love for their neighbor, especially for the weak and needy. These deeds strengthen the bases of the ‘civilization of love and life,’ without which the life of individuals and of society itself loses its most genuinely human quality. Even if they go unnoticed and remain hidden to most people, faith assures us that the Father ‘who sees in secret’ (Mt 6:6) not only will reward these actions but already here and now makes them produce lasting fruit for the good of all” (27.2).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Nine Days for Life DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:At times, it seems that life is threatened on all sides. This month, as Congress once again considers important legislation impacting the lives of unborn children, join with others across the nation in prayer. For the nine days between Sept. 7 (the vigil of the feast of the Birth of Mary) and Sept. 15 (the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows), we pray for the intercession of Mary, the mother of our life, our faith, and our hope.
“As we contemplate this Mother, whose heart ‘a sword has pierced’ (cf. Lk 2:35), our thoughts go to all the suffering women in the world, suffering either physically or morally. In this suffering a woman's sensitivity plays a role, even though she often succeeds in resisting suffering better than a man. It is difficult to enumerate these sufferings; it is difficult to call them all by name. We may recall her maternal care for her children, especially when they fall sick or fall into bad ways; the death of those most dear to her; the loneliness of mothers forgotten by their grown-up children; the loneliness of widows; the sufferings of women who struggle alone to make a living; and women who have been wronged or exploited. Then there are the sufferings of consciences as a result of sin, which has wounded the woman's human or maternal dignity: the wounds of consciences which do not heal easily. With these sufferings too we must place ourselves at the foot of the Cross.”
— Pope John Paul II (Mulieris Dignitatem, 21)
God, come to my assistance.
Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
A reading for each day from the Bible
(1) Luke 7:11-15
(2) Matthew 1:18-23
(3) John 19:25-27
(4) Luke 2:33-35
(5) Hebrews 5:7-9
(6) Colossians 3:12-17
(7) Psalms 31:2-3, 3-4, 5-6
(8) Philippians 2:6-11
(9) Psalms 31:15-16, 20
Holy Mother of God, hear the prayers of the Church for all mothers, especially those wearied by life and overcome by the suffering they bear for their children.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate, intercede for them from your place in heaven, that the mercy of your divine Son might lighten their burden and give them strength.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
Day 1: Monday, Sept. 7
Labor Day: Pray for the suffering women of the world Labor day usually brings to mind images of factory workers, farmers, or heavy equipment operators. Yet we also use labor to describe the first work which brought each one of us to birth: those first hours of maternal sacrifice which brought us into the world. It's too easy to forget that and all the other sacrifices which the vocation of motherhood entails. Pray for the mothers “in labor” today. Those who give birth. Those who work two jobs to support a child. Those who “go without” so their child's needs are met. Those whose patient endurance is a sign of God's love upon the cross.
Day 2: Tuesday, Sept. 8
The birth of the Virgin Mary: Pray for mothers who will give birth today“At first I was scared,” Sarah told me. “I was scared, excited and filled with the most incredible expectation. It was like those words we hear at Mass: we wait in joyful hope. I thought of all those women who feel the first kick, the stirrings of life deep within them. I prayed for them, that they would love their child, cherish their little baby, and know that in being a mother they are involved in something so much bigger than themselves. They have been chosen by God to be custodians of the mystery of life. At first I was scared, and then I just cried
… with joy.”
Day 3: Wednesday, Sept. 9
Pray for fathers at the birth of their child“At first I was petrified,” Jon told me. “Petrified that I would faint or get in the way or not know what to do to help Sarah. But then I prayed to Mary. I know, praying to Mary is something you'd think a mother would be doing. But somehow, I think Mary understood St. Joseph more than anyone else. She probably saw the fear in his eyes and sensed the restlessness of his heart. She probably spent a lot of time praying for him as well. And when I prayed to Mary for my child about to be born, I knew she understood and heard me and prayed for me to her son. At first I was petrified, and then I put everything into God's hands.”
Day 4: Thursday, Sept. 10
Pray for all children The eyes of a child are an infinite well of life, hope, and goodness. If you doubt the value of life, look into the eyes of a child. If you are worn by life's worries, look into the eyes of a child. If you want to see tomorrow, look into the eyes of a child. And what you will see is the divine spark which brought beauty out of chaos, the infinite beauty, which is the presence of the Creator in his creation.
Day 5: Friday, Sept. 11
Pray for families I know of a family which prays each night. Since the kids were little they are gathered from their games and their grumbling to the couch in the living room. There they pray for those whom they love and those they have a hard time loving. They pray for the unborn and for little babies. They pray for the sick and the dying. They pray for the Church and for their priest. Many a night it was the knowledge of those prayers that gave me hope and peace and a good night's sleep.
Day 6: Saturday, Sept. 12
Prayer for life begins in the home I know of another family which used to pray for unborn children every Friday night. They chose Friday because that's when Christ, innocent and without sin, was sent to the cross. There's no prayer more powerful than that said over little folded hands asking God to “take care of all the babies who you've made.”
Day 7: Sunday, Sept. 13
24th Sunday in Ordinary Time Sunday is a time to take stock. We look all around us at Church and see them: all the people whose kids never seem to scream and who look like they haven't a problem in the world! But what if we really knew them? We would see the 'secret sufferings’ that mirror our own. That's the meaning of Sunday, after all. It is the gathering of those who have looked at the their own brokenness through the lens of the cross, and live! Sunday is the perfect day to pray for all God's broken children and especially those who are tempted to break the lives of others.
Day 8: Monday, Sept. 14
The Holy Cross Each time I pray, I am called to join my prayer with Christ's perfect prayer upon the cross. It is easy from the vantage of the cross to see the world clearly. To see how easy it is to join the suffering of the innocent to the suffering of him who is without sin. We should work for an end to all the forms of violence which threaten life. That is a wonderful good. But it is even more important to stand with the Virgin Mother and to beg her son to come to our aid.
Day 9: Tuesday, Sept. 15
Our Lady of Sorrows We end as we began nine days ago: with Mary, weeping silently beside the cross. Weeping for the innocent child so violently taken. Weeping for the nation which has let him die. Weeping for her child and for our nation, we place them both in her arms.
Father James Moroney is executive director of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops Secretariat for the Liturgy.
----- EXCERPT: A Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father James Moroney ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Sisters of Life Mark 5th Anniversary DATE: 09/06/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 6-12, 1998 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—It was an unusual way to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of a religious community, but for this community it was appropriate. John Cardinal O'Connor baptized a three-week-old boy in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, five years to the day after he established the Sisters of Life. Two of the sisters, dressed in long white-and-blue habits, accompanied the boy's single mother — a woman they had helped in a trying time.
That was part of what Cardinal O'Connor, the archbishop of New York, envisioned when he founded the Sisters of Life — protecting and promoting the sacredness of human life, from the earliest stages of development to the last breath.
That effort would be done in many ways, he said, but mostly through prayer. He often explains his motivation by quoting the Gospel passage in which Christ tells his apostles, “This kind of demon is cast out only by prayer and fasting.” The demons of abortion and contraception have proven to be thoroughly entrenched in society, and euthanasia is gaining ground. The cardinal, who prayed about founding the congregation for five years, felt God was raising up a religious community to pray and work exclusively for their “casting out.”
He announced his intentions in 1989, in a column in the archdiocesan newspaper, Catholic New York. The response was good — and continues to be. Today there are 40 sisters in the group, which has the official status of a pious association of the faithful. Their quick growth is phenomenal at a time when many religious communities have very few vocations.
One of the first eight women who entered June 1, 1991, was a professor of psychology at Columbia University, who is now known as Mother Agnes Mary Donovan SV (Soror Vitae, Latin for Sister of Life). Mother Agnes has lead the community since 1993, and last month, in the presence of the cardinal, became the first to profess perpetual vows.
“Today is a wonderful day for all of us, a day to celebrate the love of God,” she told a congregation of nearly 1,000 persons in St. Frances de Chantal Church in the Bronx, next to the first convent.
The community of 24 professed sisters and 14 novices also welcomed a new candidate and postulant. Of the 28 women who attended a discernment retreat the cardinal gave during the Fourth of July weekend, more candidates are expected to enter the congregation in December and February.
Bishop George Lynch, retired as auxiliary of the Diocese of Raleigh, N.C., and, to many, a hero in the pro-life movement, noted that prayer is important to the sisters.
“They're very careful not to let anything interfere with their prayer life,” he told the Register.
Bishop Lynch, whose home is not far from the sisters’ Bronx convents, added that their prayer presence has provided moral support to him while rescuing at abortion clinics.
Father Joseph Koterski SJ, editor of the International Philosophical Quarterly at Fordham University and a regular confessor for the sisters, said, “They have a clear vision of how they can serve the Church by their prayer for the defense of life and their work in various ways in support of life.”
Sister Lucy Vasile SV, part of the original group, said that many women who come to the Sisters of Life are attracted to the emphasis on prayer.
“Many of us have been engaged in pro-life work, but that's not as important as prayer,” she told the Register. “Many feel drawn to living a traditional religious life. One of their first questions is, ‘What is your prayer life like?’ They want to sacrifice of themselves. They know that ultimately the victory will come through that.”
Cardinal O'Connor, who has said that the Sisters of Life are the legacy he will most proudly leave to the archdiocese, wrote guidelines and rules for the community. He often tells the sisters that a religious community can be formed only in the eucharistic Lord and that it is called to be a model of family life based on the model of Nazareth.
“He believes that one of the reasons for abortion is the breakdown of the family,” said Sister Lucy. “So our superior is called Mother for a particular reason. It's a beautiful word that is losing some of its original connotation in our society, and we want to bring it back.”
An active-contemplative congregation, the Sisters of Life spend half the day in common and private prayer, including Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours, and the rosary. The community is discerning whether God wants them to begin a contemplative branch, and some sisters spend three months at a time feeling out the contemplative life.
The sisters recently opened a third convent, the first outside the Bronx. Sacred Heart of Jesus Convent on Manhattan's West Side will also be a home for women in crisis pregnancies. Up to 10 mothers will stay there throughout their pregnancy and for a month after birth, a time Mother Agnes called “critical.” They will receive counseling from the eight nuns there.
A trained psychologist specializing in child development and family issues, Mother Agnes sees the home as a place for women in crisis to be able to live in a “Catholic culture” for a while, especially if they are experiencing pressure to abort. Cardinal O'Connor had suggested that the home be a “holy respite” for women who are struggling with temptations, she said.
Other apostolates include retreats for mothers, monthly days of prayer and healing for men and women who have suffered the effects of abortion, and classroom presentations on chastity.
At Our Lady of New York Convent in the Bronx, next to a Catholic high school, they run the Stanton Library, with holdings donated by Dr. Joseph Stanton, a leading voice in the pro-life movement, a year before his death in 1997.
Many of the sisters have highly professional backgrounds — engineering, medicine, teaching — but they would all be “great wives and mothers,” Sister Lucy opined. “To be a good Sister of Life, you have to be a good mother. A mother sacrifices tremendously. [Cardinal O'Connor] always talks to us about spiritual mothering — both to the mothers in crisis pregnancies and the fathers who come to us and, through prayer, the children in the womb.”
Candidates come from all over the country and overseas, many because they heard Cardinal O'Connor speak of the community in pro-life talks, some having been referred by a parish priest. Sister Lucy said good candidates come prepared to live the three evangelical vows of poverty, chastity, and — especially — obedience.
“There is a disregard for human life today because of disobedience to God's laws,” she explained. “We tend to believe that we know better: ‘my body, my choice, my everything.’ We try to counter that by living lives of obedience.”
The sisters also take a fourth vow — to defend human life against abortion and euthanasia.
Formation includes study, as well as hands-on work in a hospital or nursing home in order to recognize the sacredness of every life in every condition.
They wear traditional habits, take religious names upon becoming novices, and are led by a “superior general,” not a president or a “leadership team.”
The habits “witness to the reality of God in the world,” Mother Agnes explained.
“It reminds us that we are called to live a very radical life,” added Sister Lucy. “It can be a source of grace to people, a reminder of God. We love wearing it. It's very feminine, and we want to restore the true meaning of femininity. The true power of a woman is one who is centered on Christ. Our Lady was a beautiful model of femininity, and we try to imitate that.”
Father James Downey, director of the Institute on Religious Life in Chicago, predicted that the Sisters of Life will have a “great impact” on the perception people have of consecrated life. The sisters say that that has already begun. People stop them on the street or in supermarkets and ask for prayers. Children in the neighborhood knock on the door, asking for a rosary or instructions in how to pray it. Some are not even Catholic.
“They're a very fine community, completely faithful to the teachings of the Church,” Father Downey said. “They have a great spirit. They're the Sisters of Life, and they are full of life.”
Their joy is contagious. Cardinal O'Connor often tells the group — and those considering entering — that there can be no Sisters of Life without joy.
“They enter the life expecting to receive the joy that Christ gives,” Sister Lucy said, “and many times, that joy comes through great sacrifice.”
For more information about the Sisters of Life, contact the order at 718-863-2264.
John Burger writes from New York.
----- EXCERPT: Cardinal O'Connor calls them 'his greatest legacy' ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Partial-Birth Abortion Is On the Line in Senate DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:Three votes needed Sept. 17 to override Clinton's veto
WASHINGTON—The long-awaited showdown in the U.S. Senate to override President Clinton's veto of legislation to prohibit partial-birth abortions is expected Sept. 17. Pro-life forces need to pick up three more votes to pass the legislation without the president's signature.
The bill, HR 1122, passed both houses of Congress in 1997, but Clinton opposed the measure and prevented its enactment by choosing not to sign it. In such a case, Congress can, in effect, overrule the president by repassing the bill by a two-thirds majority in each chamber.
The House of Representatives overrode the veto July 23 by a 296-132 vote. In the Senate, 64 members have supported the legislation in the past; 67 votes are needed for passage.
The struggle to switch the votes of at least three senators has been intense. As in the past, grassroots efforts have been initiated by the U.S. Catholic Conference, other Catholic groups, and many organizations representing various religious and public policy perspectives.
The Catholic Conference, which provides staff support for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), launched a postcard and media campaign. In an ongoing effort, more than 14 million postcards have been distributed to churches for parishioners to express their views to Congress. Local parishes have also been provided with appropriate videos.
In addition, the NCCB developed a nine-day novena to Our Lady of Sorrows, which began Sept. 7, the vigil of the feast of the Birth of the Virgin Mary. The “9 Days for Life” will end Sept. 15, the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, and only two days before the Senate vote is expected. Each day reflects a different theme.
Information on the novena was distributed by Bernard Cardinal Law, chairman of NCCB Pro-Life Activities, to all bishops and pro-life directors around the country. The purpose of the novena, according to Father James Moroney of the NCCB's Secretariat for the Liturgy, is to seek the intercession of Mary for unborn children.
Other concerted Church efforts include a joint letter sent by Florida's nine bishops to Sen. Bob Graham (DFla.), an apparent supporter of partial-birth abortion. The bishops’ Aug. 18 letter said, “Your opposition to this ban is beyond our comprehension.”
Other groups have also been working to change votes. The Eagle Forum, a pro-family organization, has targeted 11 senators for its grassroots effort. President Phyllis Schlafly told the Register, “It's going to be beyond the pale to be on the wrong side of this issue. It will come back to haunt them.”
In Virgina, the 50,000-member Family Foundation has been working to change the vote of Sen. Charles Robb, a Democrat, who has steadfastly opposed a ban on partial-birth abortion. The Foundation's executive director, George Tryfiates, said such procedures are “a barbarism that the people of Virginia do not support. There should be no support for something so inhumane.”
The Christian Coalition, which is based in Chesapeake, Va., also has mobilized its supporters. It plans a Lobby for Life Day on Sept. 17 to pressure senators, including Robb. In one of its fliers which singles out Robb, it identifies partial-birth abortion as “100% infanticide — 100% wrong.”
Steve Forbes, who is expected to be a presidential candidate in 2000, told the Register, “I believe the moment has arrived to overturn the president's immoral and indefensible veto and take the first step toward putting abortion on the ultimate road to extinction.
“We're going to do everything we can to help, including running radio ads, newspaper ads, doing media interviews. We believe we can help mobilize public opinion. Perhaps if Congress feels the heat, they'll see the light and do the right thing.”
Several leading pro-life senators are preparing for the upcoming debate. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), said, “We have an opportunity to reclaim some of the capital that has been lost in this country when the president vetoed the ban last year.
“By voting to ban this procedure we end the senseless murder of our nation's innocent babies and restore a sense of humanity and dignity to our public life,” he said. (See Santorum's “Perspective,” page 8.)
Sen. John Ashcroft, a Missouri Republican and another likely presidential candidate, added, “We must ask ourselves whether we, as a culture, will reject brutality toward infants in the same way that we have rejected brutality toward animals through experimentation, and whether we will return to standards that are worthy of recommendation to other countries and to our own children.
“I am pained to my core by the tragedy of partial-birth abortions and will work diligently in the Senate to reverse it,” he said.
In an interview with the Register, Arkansas Sen. Tim Hutchinson, another Republican, encouraged citizens to contact their senators about the issue. “It's going to be an exceptionally important vote,” he said, and success is within reach.
He added, “It's critical to get every senator on record in close proximity to the November election.” If the override effort fails, he suggested, it should be made a campaign issue to get more pro-life members in the new 106th Congress, which convenes next January.
The matter of how a vote to sustain partial-birth abortions might affect an incumbent running for reelection is an important one. Eight of the 36 supporters are candidates again this fall, and a few — notably Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.) — are in competitive contests. Further, some polls indicate that more than two-thirds of Americans oppose partial-birth abortions.
Indeed, many feel public opposition toward the gruesome procedure is intensifying. Twenty-eight states have enacted laws prohibiting it, although court challenges have delayed enforcement in a number of jurisdictions.
The American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, among others, have criticized partial-birth abortion. Two physicians, writing in the Aug. 26 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, offered a powerful indictment of the procedure. (See Helen Alvare's column, page 9.)
In the scholarly article, Drs. M. LeRoy Sprang and Mark Neerhof write that such abortions “should not be performed because it is needlessly risky, inhumane, and ethically unacceptable. This procedure is closer to infanticide than it is to abortion.”
Comments such as these — as well as those supporting partial-birth abortion — will increase over the next week. Pro-life supporters argue that pressure must continue to be placed on senators to outlaw an indefensible and horrific procedure. Father Frank Pavone, international director of Priests for Life, said, “People should never think for a minute that their call doesn't mean anything.”
Joseph Esposito writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Esposito ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Senators Opposed to Partial-Birth Abortion Ban DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:The following senators voted against the partial-birth abortion bill (HR 1122) when it passed the Senate on May 20, 1997. Three of these senators are needed to change their position in order to override the President's veto. Arkansas: Bumpers (D); California: Feinstein (D), Boxer (D); Connecticut: Dodd (D), Lieberman (D); Florida: Graham (D); Georgia: Cleland (D); Hawaii: Inouye (D), Akaka (D); Illinois: Moseley-Braun (D), Durbin (D); Iowa: Harkin (D); Maine: Snowe (R), Collins (R); Maryland: Sarbanes (D), Mikulski (D); Massachusetts: Kennedy (D), Kerry (D); Michigan: Levin (D); Minnesota: Wellstone (D); Montana: Baucus (D); Nebraska: Kerrey (D); Nevada: Bryan (D); New Jersey: Lautenberg (D), Torricelli (D); New Mexico: Bingaman (D); Ohio: Glenn (D); Oregon: Wyden (D); Rhode Island: Chafee (R), Reed (D); Vermont: Jeffords (R); Virginia: Robb (D); Washington: Murray (D); West Virginia: Rockefeller (D); Wisconsin: Kohl (D), Feingold (D).
—Data courtesy of National Right to Life Committee, Inc.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: State-Based Welfare Gets Cautious Praise DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:Landmark reform marks two-year anniversary
WASHINGTON—With the passage of the two-year anniversary of the signing of landmark federal welfare reform legislation, Catholic groups recently took stock of the impact of the law. While grassroots Catholic organizations generally gave the new law favorable reviews, official Church organizations and relief services were more cautious.
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, passed by the Republican Congress, was signed by President Clinton Aug. 22, 1996. The law transformed the welfare system from an open-ended federal program to a state-based initiative with strict work requirements.
Recipients could only stay on the roll for 24 consecutive months, with a lifetime limit of five years. The law reduced federal welfare outlays and combined several welfare programs into one large annual block grant to the states. While the law is undeniably far-reaching, it did leave a basic safety net in place — eligibility for Food Stamps and Medicaid remained unchanged.
Aided by a strong economy that has sent employers on a hiring binge, the new law has sent welfare rolls plummeting across the country. Welfare rolls have declined markedly in nearly every state of the Union. Overall, the number of U.S. families receiving federal cash welfare payments has declined from almost 5 million in January, 1993, to just over 3 million in June, 1998 — a 39% drop.
The decline in some states has been even more impressive. While not every state can match Wisconsin's stunning 84% decline, many states (including even “rust belt” states like Michigan, Massachusetts, and Ohio) have seen their rolls drop by more than half. Indeed, only Hawaii (hit hard by a drop in tourism due to Asia's economic woes) has seen its rolls increase. If recent studies are any guide, the rolls should continue to decline, as employers search for ways to find new entry-level job candidates. For example, a recent survey of more than 15,000 businesses by Manpower, Inc., found that more than 29% of companies expected to add staff in the fourth quarter of 1998, while less than 5% planned to reduce staff. More and more, businesses are hiring welfare recipients to fill these jobs. A survey by Wirthlin Worldwide of businesses hiring former welfare recipients found that 76% of them found former welfare recipients to be “good, productive employees.” Many groups point to this new work-first doctrine as being a benefit to welfare recipients and to society as a whole.
“There are some things we might like to change, but overall the law has been very beneficial,” said Neal Hogan, legislative director for the Catholic Alliance. “There is evidence that as parents find jobs, child abuse and neglect are reduced. Young men and women have had to rely more on families, and that provides an extra level of support.
That's much different than simply getting a check in the mail.” Hogan also noted that the law's emphasis on work and the reduced federal role in welfare could mean a bigger role for private charity and even a revival of spirituality for many people. “Federal welfare policy for years had the effect of relieving certain people from the responsibility of giving to the needy,” he said. “People thought they did not have give their money and time to service organizations, because they had done enough by paying their taxes. Now that the law requires welfare recipients to go to work, people are beginning to give more to the needy in their community. That has an effect not only on the people that are helped but also on the people doing the helping. You are never closer to God than when you are helping others, and I think that this may serve to bring people back to the faith.”
“There have been some silver linings with welfare reform,” according to Michael Brogioli, Director of the State Welfare Project at Catholic Charities USA, an organization that has some concerns with the direction welfare reform is taking. “We have seen that more people are volunteering. Many states are doing a very good job with welfare reform. People are being very creative in the way they deliver services. Reform has spawned innovation. These are all positives.”
A recent survey, however, raised warning flags for many Catholic groups. In January, Catholic Charities USA surveyed its parish social ministry leaders in 82 dioceses to monitor the impact of welfare reform on recipients seeking services. The survey found that 80 percent of responding parishes experienced increases in requests for food assistance, and more than half had increases in requests for housing assistance.
More than 25% reported an increase in need for child care. “We cannot prove that all these increases are due to welfare reform, but we can make a common-sense budget that they are probably linked,” said Brogioli, noting that while eligibility for food stamps remains unchanged, the budget for food stamps was cut. “In many ways, this issue is bigger than welfare reform. It's true that the rolls have been dropping, and many people have found jobs. But these figures indicate that there are still pockets of poverty out there that need real help.”
The U.S. Catholic Conference, which raised concerns about parts of the bill when it was passed and signed, says that there are still too many unanswered questions to declare the effort a success.
“The test is not whether people leave the roles, but whether they leave poverty and whether their kids grow up in dignity,” said John Carr of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. “People still need concert help. We need a real focus on work and a living wage. This is still an ecomomy that even in the best of times is still leaving people behind.”
Just as larger urban areas have seen the welfare rolls fall more slowly than faster growing suburban regions, individual dioceses have had different experiences with welfare reform. While many larger dioceses and archdioceses have found that requests for assistance have increased since the welfare law passed, some smaller ones have seen few changes.
“We do see more families asking for help with basic needs, like food and utilities, and we have even longer waiting lists for child care assistance,” according to Jack Smith, Deputy Director of Catholic Social Services of Philadelphia. “It has not been as dramatic as many of the doom and gloom predictions we had heard about, but there have been increases.”
He noted too that the first two-year limit on the receipt of welfare benefits (for families on the rolls at the time the state passed its welfare reform plan) comes into effect in Pennsylvania next March. Smith said that reports in Philadelphia indicate that up to 40,000 families could be forced off the rolls at that time.
“We have a thriving economy today, and welfare recipients are able to find jobs and that's good,” he said. “But when that time limit kicks in, we may be down to the hard-core welfare population, people who have fewer skills and are much less employable. That could cause a major problem.”
Suburban dioceses, many located in areas of high job growth, have not been hit as hard. “We expect increases every year based on demographics, and we have seen those, but we have not seen any great increases as a result of welfare reform,” said Michael O‘Rourke, associate director of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Arlington, Va.
The diocese covers all of Northern Virginia, where unemployment is low. “We actually had prepared ourselves for a big jump in requests for assistance because of the new law, but we just have not seen one.”
The only change he has seen is a small increase in the percentage of those in homeless shelters who are mothers with children, as opposed to single men.
Michael Barbera writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael Barbera ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Catholics & Pentecostals Work To Overcome Mutual Distrust DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:• Fact: By 1990, fast-growing Pentecostal denominations, with more than 193 million members worldwide, had surpassed Eastern Orthodoxy as the second largest grouping of Churches after the Roman Catholic Church. (Eastern Orthodox Churches claim approximately 179 million worldwide, with Roman Catholics totaling nearly one billion.)
• Fact: According to the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, between the years 1965-1989, Catholics gained 25%, Southern Baptists grew by 38%, and the Assemblies of God, a leading Pentecostal Denomination, grew by more than 120%.
• Fact: In Brazil, the country with the largest Catholic population, nearly 20 million out of a population of 150 million are Pentecostal — and that figure is rising.
It's little wonder that many observers call Pentecostalism the fastest growing phenomenon in Christianity, an assessment made all the more remarkable by the fact that Pentecostalism as a movement — with its emphasis on personal conversion and the lived experience of the Holy Spirit — dates back less than a century and that much of this explosive growth has occurred within a single generation.
In large part that growth has come at the expense of traditionally Catholic communities in the United States, Latin America, the Philippines, and Africa. As such, last summer's landmark report on evangelization released by the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity — part of its ongoing official dialogue between Catholic and Pentecostal leaders — marks a sea-change in the often prickly relations between the two traditions.
The 16,000-word report, entitled “Evangelization, Proselytism and Common Witness,” is the fruit of dialogue sessions from 1990 to 1997 carried out under the auspices of the Holy See and some Pentecostal Churches and leaders.
The diversity of the classical Pentecostal world and its lack of central institutions the report's Pentecostal drafters note, prevents them from speaking with an official voice, but, they say, their views represent “the common consensus, held by the vast majority of Pentecostals worldwide.”
The report caps the work of the fourth phase of a dialogue begun in 1972, the earlier phases of which dealt with theological issues, such as faith, and religious experience, “speaking in tongues” (or glossalalia), the role of the Virgin Mary, the relationship between what Pentecostals call “baptism in the Holy Spirit” and the sacraments of Christian initiation, and the nature of Christian community.
Co-chairing this fourth phase were veterans of the 25-year Pentecostal-Catholic dialogue: noted Catholic ecumenist Father Kilian McDonnell of St. John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minn., a long-time leader in the Catholic charismatic renewal and a pioneer in forging relations with the Pentecostals, and the Rev. Cecil
M. Robeck, Jr., of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.
The next phase of the dialogue will be chaired on the Catholic side by Prof. Ralph Decolle of Marquette University.
Given that Latin America, in particular, has become a battleground between the Church and often aggressive, well-financed Protestant ministries, the report's expressions of “sorrow at the scandal of a divided witness,” and pledges on the part of Catholic and Pentecostal signers to work together “toward possibilities of cooperation in mission” are very significant developments indeed.
The report notes that “Catholic-Pentecostal relations in many parts of the world have been troubled at times with accusations of insensitivity to the presence of long-standing Christian communities, charges of proselytism, and counter-charges of persecution.”
The report then goes on to make some important distinctions between evangelization and proselytizing — distinctions that the drafters hope will reduce the tensions that have often poisoned relations between the Churches in the developing world.
Among the unethical actions the report singles out is “every form of willful misrepresentation of the beliefs and practices of other Christian communities” and any use of force, coercion, intimidation, cajolery or manipulation, including exaggeration or distortion of biblical promises, to induce others to join one's Church.
This last point, on the distortion of biblical promises, calls attention, among other things, to those largely American-based groups that hawk the so-called “prosperity gospel” — a teaching that tithing and other financial sacrifices ensure God's blessing of wealth — a lure for many poor and unemployed workers in Latin American and elsewhere.
“Instead of conflict,” the report asks, “can we not converse with one another, pray with one another, try to cooperate with one another instead of clashing with one another?”
Authentic witness to the Gospel, says the statement, “will bear the marks of Christian love. It will never seek its own selfish ends by using the opportunity to speak against or in any way denigrate another Christian community….”
Evangelizers witnessing to other Christians should not “suggest or encourage a change in someone's Christian affiliation,” underlines the report.
“Proselytism must be sharply distinguished from the legitimate act of persuasively presenting the Gospel.”
That's not the sort of responsible ecumenism that, even today, some Pentecostals in the field are prepared to support — the report indicates as much — but such sentiments on the part of any Pentecostal leader a generation ago would have been little short of unthinkable.
Few observers would argue against the notion that one of the strongest contributing factors to this incipient change in relations between contemporary Protestantism's “cutting edge” and the Catholic Church has been the emergence of the Catholic charismatic renewal — a spiritual movement in the Church which, while appreciating aspects of Pentecostalism, has remained rooted in contemporary Catholic life and thought.
Coming on the scene as one of the “surprises of the Holy Spirit,” in the late Belgian Cardinal Leon-Joseph Suenens’ memorable phrase, the Catholic charismatic renewal arose in the late 1960s as a largely lay-led popular movement in the Church, inspired by the vision of Vatican II, and focused on personal conversion, openness to the Holy Spirit, and mission.
Father George Montague SM, professor of theology at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, a biblical scholar and long-time leader in the charismatic renewal, stresses that the important strides made recently in the Catholic-Pentecostal dialogue should come as no surprise.
“Early on, the renewal found that we [Catholics] had strong common ground with Pentecostals,” he said, “things like openness to the charismatic gifts, eagerness to evangelize, and a greater appreciation of the reality of the Scriptures.”
Clearly, he said, honesty about our many differences is crucial. “If we don't face the difficulties, we'll end up reducing things to the lowest common denominator and fail to achieve the unity that Jesus wants.”
In that regard, Father Montague stressed that Pentecostals need the Catholic tradition's witness to the importance of authority, to the reality of the sacramental life, to the wisdom of tradition.
“Generally, Pentecostals try to go from the Bible to today, skipping two thousand years of development in the process,” he said.
However, “Pentecostals are on our side on so many issues,” the priest pointed out. “Basic faith issues, the ‘life’ issues, family issues, the importance of evangelization — they're really with us on these things.” If we compare the values of Pentecostals with the values of secular society today, he said, “we'll quickly see that what we have in common is very great indeed — and that we need to build on that.”
Rather than being alarmed about the growth of Pentecostal Churches, about their remarkable successes in evangelization, Father Montague suggested, “we should ask ourselves as Catholics why we aren't doing the same thing, why we aren't more excited about our faith.”
He pointed to the vast numbers of unchurched people in the world, “even people who are in the pew, but who don't really have a personal experience of God, who don't know the Lord in a personal way, who aren't aware of what faith really offers.”
“I don't think we should feel threatened by the evangelistic success of Pentecostals, we should feel challenged by it,” he said.
That point was not lost on the bishops who attended the Fourth Conference of the Latin American Episcopate held in Santo Domingo in 1992.
Vatican Secretary of State, Angelo Cardinal Sodano, who presided over the meeting, congratulated the bishops on making the transition “from the dominance of sociological analysis of the … problems to focus on the primacy of Christ's message…. “Everyone can see how advanced the process of de-Christianization and secularization is in Latin America too and not only in the major cities.”
At Santo Domingo, the bishops recognized that evangelization in Latin America must be newly ardent, it must be new as far as its methods and expressions are concerned; and that only by means of a testimony born from the heart of daily life will the message be made effective.
“Today, as in the past,” the cardinal pointed out, “we become Christians only if we encounter Christ and live according to Christ.”
Senior writer Gabriel Meyer is based in Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gabriel Meyer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Feuding and Peace Marks Pentecostal-Catholic Relations DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:Pentecostalism hails originally from American Holiness circles at the turn of the century where desire for the spiritual gifts described in the Acts of the Apostles and Paul's epistles led to mass revivals in Topeka, Kansas, and Los Angeles, out of which, eventually, the Pentecostal denominations formed. Drawing on a theological framework indebted to John Wesley, the late 18th century founder of Methodism, classical Pentecostals believe that “baptism in the Holy Spirit,” “speaking in tongues,” healing, and other manifestations of the Holy Spirit recorded in the New Testament ought to be normative in the life of Christians today.
Traditionally, classical Pentecostal Churches have been deeply hostile to Catholicism, reviving much of the Reformation “whore of Babylon” invective discarded by most modern mainstream Protestants. They have, along with conservative evangelicals, also proselytized aggressively in nominally Catholic cultures and communities. One researcher recently estimated that 30% of today's conservative Protestants in the United States are first- or second-generation former Catholics.
Modest signs of détente between some streams of Pentecostalism and the Catholic Church began to appear as early as the mid-1960s. David DuPlessis, a South African, was the lone Pentecostal observer at Vatican II, and a pioneer in bridging the vast gulf between classical Pentecostals and the wider Christian world.
And the emergence of charismatic renewals within the mainstream Churches in the same period, often inspired by the example of Pentecostals, overturned long-standing stereotypes and began to create formal ongoing contacts with Catholics, mainline Protestant Churches, and Eastern Orthodox.
—Gabriel Meyer
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Ireland Faces Shortage In Seminaries and Parishes DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:A seminary closes and country has first ‘priestless parish’
DUBLIN, Ireland—One of Ireland's six diocesan seminaries has stopped accepting students for the priesthood this year because of the shortage of vocations. St. Peter's College in Wexford trained priests for the Ferns diocese for nearly 180 years, but this year it will no longer accept students for the priesthood because numbers are so small that the Bishop Brendan Comiskey believes it no longer provides “a healthy environment for academic studies and personal formation.”
He added: “A seminary with very small numbers runs the risk of becoming too inward-looking, thus depriving the student of exposure to a wider and richer experience of society and the Church.”
The eight students studying at the college are to be transferred to seminaries elsewhere in Ireland and abroad. Until recently, St. Peter's had been attracting students from across the country because of the popularity of its Bishop Comiskey, who enjoyed a high media profile. But following his sudden disappearance from his diocese three years ago, when he traveled to the United States for treatment for alcoholism, Bishop Comiskey has rarely appeared in the media, a factor which may have reduced student numbers in Ferns.
But vocations are falling across all of Ireland. A survey by this journalist last year found that the Irish Church is losing diocesan priests through retirement, ill health, and voluntary departure at twice the rate that new seminarians are being recruited.
The Dublin Archdiocese had no seminary entrants last year — the first time ever in the history of Holy Cross College. Following an expensive newspaper and billboard advertising campaign, featuring the slogan, “Who are the men in black?,” Dublin got three new seminary entrants this year — a figure which is “quite good these days” said archdiocesan press officer Father John Dardis. Twenty years ago, Holy Cross College was taking in 12 students a year.
The shortage of vocations is particularly affecting dioceses in the West of Ireland. This year Kerry, Killaloe, Tuam, Killala, Elphin, and Raphoe dioceses had no new candidates for the diocesan priesthood. The shortage of vocations is affecting female religious orders too: earlier this year, the Association of Primary Teaching Sisters predicted that there will be no religious in Irish primary education by the year 2020. While, Ireland still enjoys a higher number of priests per head of population than anywhere else in the world with one serving priest for every 1,272 Catholics, Ireland needs more priests than most countries because Sunday observance remains high with 60% of the population attending Mass on a weekly basis.
The shortage of priests has already had one dramatic effect on Killanena, in the Diocese of Killaloe, which last month became Ireland's first “priestless parish.” While outside priests will visit the parish to celebrate Masses and make pastoral visits, Killanena no longer has a resident priest. The “shortage of priests” was the reason given by Bishop Willie Walsh for the development. While the busy town of Ennis has six priests, he does not see the need for a permanent priest in Killanena, which has a population of only 500.
The parish meeting where the change was announced was heated with angry scenes and Bishop Walsh admitted: “People expressed quite strongly their disappointment and hurt in being without a resident priest, but the fact that half the parish turned up to the meeting is quite a healthy sign. I chose this route rather than parish amalgamation. Killanena still exists as an independent parish and we are trying to begin the process of people taking full responsibility for their parishes.” In the Kerry Diocese, Bishop Bill Murphy has warned his flock that some churches may lose their Sunday Masses. “Thirty years ago you would have had a parish priest, a curate, and a junior priest in a typical parish,” he said.
“You would have had 11 parishes which traditionally would have had only one priest, now I have 31 one-priest parishes. The main problem we are facing is not that we have too few priests, but that we have too many Masses at the weekend. There are parishes with 800 people, three churches, five Masses, and one priest. Instead of uniting people, we are splitting people up. It goes against the idea of ecclesia and the people of God assembling together as one.”
“The problem dates back to the 1950s when a lot of churches were built when there was no transport. I don't envisage closing churches — people are very attached to them — but the number of Masses may be cut.”
“This is not a major problem and, for example, if I had 10 extra priests I would not put them into parishes; the need in pastoral services like youth out-reach is much greater. At present, I don't see priestless parishes happening in Kerry in my lifetime. We are not going to be like Kenya where one parish will have 28 or 30 outstations with a priest getting around to them once a month. Ireland is a small country and transport is good, but we may see smaller parishes united with one priest serving them both.”
Bishop Walsh believes that “in the fairly near future” his flock will have to face the prospect of not having a Sunday Mass at their nearest church. Already he has introduced a rule where none of his priests may celebrate more than three Sunday Masses at the weekend — one vigil Mass and two on Sundays.
He said: “It is bad for a priest's own spiritual life to do more than that. People have difficulty acknowledging that, they say ‘10 Masses is only eight hours a week,’ but a priest needs preparation if there is going to be a worthwhile liturgy.”
There are no formal plans in the Meath Diocese to cut Masses, but there is talk of doing that among diocesan priests, said Father Declan Hurly. He added: “There is already an understanding that there will be only two vigil Masses per parish and two Masses on Sunday, though some priests celebrate three Sunday Masses. We do have a high proportion of parishes with three churches and one priest — when the churches were being built at the start of the century the rule of thumb was that no one should be more than half an hour's walk from their nearest church. Now very few people walk to Mass; they travel by car.”
In the Tuam Archdiocese, the diocesan secretary, Father Brendan Kilcoyne, said he believes English bishops, who depended on Irish seminaries for their manpower, will “feel the pinch first.” He added: “We are helped by the fact that several missionaries who were overseas have returned to finish their last five or 10 years of service at home. Sooner or later we will have to address the problem, but priestless parishes are a long way down the road.” However, the news isn't all bad. The Down and Connor diocese, the second most populous in Ireland, is continuing to attract about three new vocations a year. There the number of single-priest parishes is increasing. But, says diocesan chancellor Msgr. Colm McCaughan, this is not because of a shortage of vocations. “We have a growing Catholic population and we are splitting parishes to form new ones.”
Cian Molloy writes from Dublin, Ireland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Cian Molloy ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Alleged Miracle Stirs Interest in Mother Teresaís Sainthood Cause DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:DUBLIN, Ireland—During her lifetime, Mother Teresa was described as a “living saint” by many. Now, less than a year after her death, evidence is emerging that she may be a saint in heaven.
Last week in an interview with BBC Radio Four's “Sunday” program, Archbishop Henry D‘Souza of Calcutta revealed that he has ordered an investigation into a claim that a French woman was miraculously cured by Mother Teresa's intervention.
The alleged miracle involves a woman who suffered multiple fractures in a serious car accident in France. Several days after the woman prayed to Mother Teresa asking for her help, an X-ray photograph taken through her bandages found that the woman's bones were no longer broken — her fractures and wounds had completely disappeared, leaving her doctors astounded.
The Missionaries of Charity received queries from hundreds of people after Archbishop d‘Souza told a private television channel in India and a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) radio program in late August that the case was possibly a miracle. But the archbishop also added, that the “miracle may not be valid, as rules require that a cure be immediate and not a gradual improvement with a time gap.”
He said the case of the French woman “seemed to fit the conditions required for a miracle.” She had broken her bones in a car accident, but claimed to have been healed after she touched a medallion Mother Teresa had given her.
If his archdiocesan investigation supports the claim of a miracle it may speed along the process of recognizing Mother Teresa as an official saint of the Catholic Church. The archbishop has already said he would like to beatify the founder of the Missionaries of Charity before the year 2000.
However, according to the Vatican's canonization rules, the official investigation process may not begin until five years after a candidate's death. Therefore, the archbishop's inquiry is into the miracle, rather than a formal beginning of the canonization process. Once that process begins, most likely in the year 2002, Mother Teresa's life, sayings, and writings will be minutely examined for any action or statement contrary to Church teaching and to prove that she led a life of heroic virtue. Evidence of a miracle will allow her to be beatified, and evidence of a second miracle will allow canonization as an official saint.
The superior of the Missionaries of Charity in Dublin, Sister Benicitta, said she was “not surprised” at the news of the alleged miracle in France: “We have heard stories of several miracles and Mother is definitely in heaven continuing our work and supporting us all the time.” reports of miracles in New York that were granted through Mother Teresa's intervention.
At the Missionary of Charity's mother house in Calcutta, Sister Candelaria also said: “There have been many miracles reported to us.” During Mother Teresa's lifetime, the Missionaries of Charity say there were many miracles associated with her work with badly needed food and medical supplies arriving at the mother house unexpectedly just as supplies were about to run short.
Following Mother Teresa's death last year, Cardinal Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster, said she might be declared a saint sooner than normal, such was the level of pleading for her cause in Rome. The reason for the five year delay before a canonization inquiry can officially begin is to allow popular devotion to a candidate for sainthood to develop. But Mother Teresa was and is universally loved among Catholics and non-Catholics across the world, so it can be argued that that popular devotion is already in place.
The investigation into the miracle in France will have to ascertain that the woman in the car accident prayed only to Mother Teresa for help. If prayers were said to any other saint or Our Lady, for example, the miracle can not be fully attributed to Mother Teresa's intervention.
Cian Molloy writes from Dublin, Ireland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Cian Molloy ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Man Behind the Ban DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:An insider's view of the Senate's crucial vote to outlaw partial-birth abortion
New Hampshire's senior Senator Bob Smith has been fighting for pro-life causes in Washington, D.C., since being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1984. He is one of the few legislators to have a 100% Right-to-Life voting record during his fourteen years in Congress. A Vietnam veteran, he is a strong advocate for rebuilding the United States military and is a leading domestic budget-cutter in Congress. Senator Smith, who authored the original Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, is considering a run for the White House in 2000. He recently spoke with Register correspondent Brett Decker.
Decker: The United States Congress has twice passed the ban on Partial-birth abortions and twice President Clinton has vetoed the ban. The Senate will bring the legislation up for consideration again on Sept. 17 or 18. Is there any indication that the chamber is any closer to the sixty-seven votes needed for a veto-proof majority?
Smith: It's still a long shot. As you correctly said, we have passed it a couple times and the president vetoed it. Don't forget that the House has overridden it twice, but last time we were three votes short in the Senate with only sixty-four. It is very frustrating that such a terrible procedure remains legal in this country because of only three votes. It is particularly frustrating for me because we have come so far since I started all this about three years ago. After this procedure was brought to my attention, I researched it and talked to a nurse who had assisted is these abortions and expressed what a grotesque process it is. To bring home the harsh reality of this tragedy, I took the medical charts out on the Senate floor showing the partial birth abortion process step-by-step. I was criticized by everyone, particularly by many in the national media. First time around, I conducted the floor debate almost alone. Sadly, many would rather close their eyes to the violence.
Has the graphic nature of the debate overthis procedure helped or hurt the larger pro-life movement?
Clearly I know it has helped the pro-life movement by forcing people to come to grips with what abortion actually is — the killing of a helpless child. This has forced some senators such as Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.), who say they are in favor of abortion but are against partial-birth abortion, to think about the consequences of what they call a woman's choice. Pat Moynihan (who is Catholic, by the way) voted with us on this one and said repeatedly that partial-birth abortion is infanticide. The graphic charts show them that this is really a child, not a choice. Because what's the difference between a child in the birth canal, struggling to breathe and survive, and that same child two days before early birth is induced. It is still obviously a child in both instances. Many congressmen have been forced to come to grips for the first time with the fact that abortion is wrong. Without a doubt, I think the debate on partial-birth abortion has caused the realization that if it is a child when it's executed through partial-birth abortion, it's a child the day before and a month before and two months before, and so on. It is true that mothers can get another form of abortion if this procedure is outlawed, but it is important to realize that many abortions will be prevented because more people understand what this really is.
You mentioned that such pro-abortion politicians as Sen. Moynihan have voted against partial-birth and that only three more votes are needed to override the president's veto. Looking over the list of senators who voted against the ban, it stands out that ten of them are Catholics (and two others are Eastern Orthodox). Is there any evidence that any of these Catholics will switch votes in favor of outlawing partial-birth abortions?
It doesn't look good, but I don't know the answer because I can't read anyone's conscience. We don't have any commitments at this point, but I'm hoping and working and praying that we'll get three more votes. I never give up. It is frustrating when Catholics, or those who say they are Catholic, refuse to vote against something as barbaric as this. I have lobbied a lot of senators personally, a lot of Catholic senators, and we have built momentum and secured votes we didn't have the first time around. But, even though we have sizable, or substantial majorities in both houses, we are three votes away from saving God knows how many lives.
The U.S. Catholic Bishops have been outspoken on partial-birth abortion and their postcard campaign on behalf of the bill received considerable media coverage. What impact do you think the bishops had on the debate?
Every last bit of assistance on this campaign helps. There were thousands of those postcards that flooded into every congressional office. I got thousands of them like all the other offices. I'm sure it solidified some of the Catholic votes in Congress. The bishops did a great job organizing such a huge campaign, but what is really important is what a difference the bishops can make when they are involved politically. The bishops had an impact on a few votes when all we needed was a few votes. Several Catholics changed their vote late in the game…
For example, Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) reluctantly changed his vote afterbeing publicly chastised by Bishop Robert Carlson of Sioux Falls and so did Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu (D) after some pressure…
Yes, I commend that. It was the right thing to do — the moral thing to do. Unfortunately, we still came up short but that is not their [the bishops’] fault. Unfortunately, four Republican senators also voted against the ban: Mark Hatfield of Oregon, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe from Maine, and John Chafee of Rhode Island. We could stop this horrible procedure if we could only get all the Republicans to support the ban. As you know, I called for the total defunding of any candidate in the Republican party who takes a stand in favor of this partial-birth procedure. Only three or four of us spoke out for such defunding though.
Some Republicans in the leadership do not want Bill Clinton to leave office before his term expires because they think a president weakened by scandal will be forced to cooperate with the Republican majority. Do you think there is any chance the president would sign this popularabortion ban this time around to avoid a messy conflict and regain some sympathy with voters?
It's worth directing prayers for him so that his heart will change, that's for sure, but I wouldn't bet money that it's going to happen. I hope the president changes his mind, but he's pretty well in the pocket of all the abortionists and pro-abortion radicals who have drawn the line on this and forbidden his defection. I think our best hope is to try to change votes in the Senate. I don't think the president is going to change.
Many pro-abortion politicians have voted forthe partial-birth abortion ban and used it as a shield to neutralize their pro-life opposition…
Pro-life voters are smart enough to see through that ploy and vote for someone else. But are some candidates using this? Sure they are, but they are not pro-life simply by saying they are against such an obviously monstrous procedure. Anybody that uses this vote for cover is not pro-life, but maybe some will vote our way again on other pro-life legislation after waking up on this issue.
With all the publicity and focus on this specific procedure, has any energy been diverted from other anti-abortion initiatives?
No, this has helped the pro-life movement grow. From my own perspective this year, I have sponsored the Human Life Constitutional Amendment and the Human Life Bill which underscores that we all have a right to life and that life begins at conception. There is also the Child Custody Protection Act which forbids transporting teens across state lines to get abortions. I think the focus on partial-birth abortion has energized the movement, not diverted energy from it. The goal is to save lives, and this is not done by getting in people's faces, but by getting in their hearts. We got to people's hearts with the partial-birth issue.
Switching gears a bit, supporters of homosexual activist James Hormel have recently waxed optimistic about him being confirmed as U. S. Ambassador to Luxembourg. You, along with Senators James Inhofe (R.-Okla.) and Tim Hutchinson (R.-Ark.), have been holding up his nomination all of this year under significant political pressure to surrender. Is the resolve to stop Hormel's appointment fading?
I don't see it fading, but you can never say never in the Senate. There are two ways to put a hold on nominees in the Senate: one way is to be vocal and make a lot of noise; the other way is to oppose the nomination secretly. I do not want James Hormel to be Ambassador to Luxembourg, period. I'm not looking for public exposure on it, but I'm not going to hide from it. I've gotten letters from Hormel and correspondence from other people basically calling me every name in the book: a bigot, a gay-basher, I get it all. But there are a lot of reasons why this man should not be approved. There is a tape that shows Hormel, who is sitting as a commentator for a gay rights parade in San Francisco, laughing and encouraging male drag queens who are dressed up as Catholic nuns in habits ridiculing the Catholic religion. Now I have a letter from Hormel denying it, claiming he has never mocked anybody in his whole life. It is pure garbage because there he is on tape mocking the Catholic Church and making fun of nuns because of their religion. Luxembourg is a 95% Catholic country. This guy doesn't deserve to go there as a representative of this great country.
Are there other concerns about him?
Yes, he funded the production of a two-hour documentary tape called It's Elementary which promotes the cause of homosexuality to second and third graders. It gives the impression that anyone who is opposed to homosexuality is a bigot for whatever reason. Even if you oppose it on religious grounds because you are a Catholic, a born-again Christian, a Jew, whatever, it doesn't matter — the tape tells these kids you are a bigot. It also takes a shot at me and ridicules my positions in there. But manipulating little children for their agenda, that's really wrong. It is outrageous and I don't think the man behind it is qualified to be ambassador to any place, let alone Luxembourg. I will do anything and everything I can to stop it, including by filibuster, which is really what I'm doing now.
Senator Bob Smith
Personal: Born in Trenton, New Jersey; Age 57; BA, Lafayette College, 1965; Married to Mary Jo Smith; three children; residents of Tuftonboro, New Hampshire.
Background: U.S. Naval Reserves, 1962-65; U.S. Navy (Vietnam), 1965-67; High school teacher/real estate broker, 1975-84; Chairman, Gov. Wentworth School Board in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, 1978-84; Nominated for U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, elected in 1984 and served in House from 1984-90; Elected to U.S. Senate in 1990, reelected in 1996.
Achievements: Leader in the U.S. Senate on pro-life legislation; authored the bill and led U.S. Senate floor debate to ban partial-birth abortions; introduced Human Life Amendment and Human Life Bill in U.S. Senate; led floor debate on the Hyde Amendment in U.S. House; serves on Armed Services, Environment & Public Works, and Government Affairs committees, and is chairman of the Select Ethics committee.
Popular support for private school vouchers increases every year, especially among minority and Catholic families. Do you foresee any movement in Washington on this issue?
I have always been in favor of vouchers. I have sent three children through Catholic high schools. It's a great education because the teachers have values and respect one another and the students. You cannot exorcise values out of education. When you go out of the school system into society, you are not living in a vacuum. You are interacting with people. Without values, without compassion, without any feeling toward God, society doesn't work — either in or out of school. It is pretty obvious we need to bring God to the forefront today more than ever to help us live in the world. So I think promoting opportunity for all parents, with or without the means, to send their children to private schools, Catholic schools, charter schools, and competitive schools is essential. More parents are saying they want values taught in schools and politicians are listening.
The need for values seems to be a particularly poignant issue right now with all of the lurid public discussion about sexual scandals.
I used to be a school teacher and one thing that has not changed about kids is their brutal honesty. Especially the younger ones, they have no qualms about saying exactly what they think. A few days ago, Clinton had a photo-op at an elementary school in Herndon, Va., and it was eye-opening to hear what those kids were saying about him. They were all saying how disgraceful it was what he did to his wife and how bad it was for him to lie to his family and the whole country. The press had to chase around to find one kid who would say Clinton is a good guy. This is highly unusual and very sad. No matter where or when you would go to a school in the past, all you would have to do is ask who the children looked up to or respected most, other than their father or mother, and the majority would always say the president of the United States. It is shocking that they don't say that anymore. This is the damage Bill Clinton has done to our values.
Another fight in Congress is brewing over the projected $18 billion United States contribution to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) because of IMF ties to world population control plans. How do you think this will play out?
I'm obviously opposed to any of our money going to fund overseas abortions and population control but once you give it to these international organizations you cannot control what happens to it. But also the collapse of the monetary systems in the Far East and the economic problems in Russia have made American taxpayers feel that they are not getting their money's worth out of these so-called bail-outs. The extreme fluctuations in the market are a result of the nervousness over these economies, but eventually these nations have got to do it for themselves. I talked to a family-farmer out in the Midwest who was against the IMF bailouts and asked who would bail him out if he couldn't pay his mortgage. The answer is nobody, so it is hard to explain to working Americans why they are involuntarily taxed to support programs they don't believe in around the world. After all, we have problems in our own country that overburden our taxpayers: poverty, $5.5 trillion in debt to pay off, you name it. We have made a lot of sacrifices in the world to win World War II, rebuilding it during the Marshall Plan and fighting against Communism during the Cold War. And look at all the tragedies and natural disasters around the world: earthquakes, tornadoes, floods. We are always there helping out. Not wanting to fund world population control and irresponsible governments is nothing to be ashamed of.
You have been to Iowa, the location of the first major presidential nominating caucus, more than any otherpotential Republican presidential candidate. Traveling around the country exploring the possibility of a run forpresident in 2000, what do you try to convey to voters that differentiates you from other conservative aspirants?
There are a lot of conservatives who want to be president. But it is not enough to be president to simply call yourself conservative, to say you are pro-life, and to talk about character. To save this Republic, the person governing must be willing to make the changes that are needed in society. I'm prepared to do it. For example, I would have a litmus test for judges on the Supreme Court, on appellate courts, and on district courts. Judges must be strict constructionists who believe in the Constitution and the fact that there is nothing in the Constitution that allows for abortion. Some of the Reagan and Bush appointees are dead wrong on abortion and that is why Roe v. Wade has not been overturned. 38 million children have died since 1973 because of a Supreme Court decision. There must be an abortion litmus test for judges and I would have one. The integrity of the office of the president must also be restored. There are all kinds of problems in our country today and the president has to have the moral authority to lead. No one is perfect, but you must set an example, both in public and in private. I have heard it said many times that character is doing what's right when nobody's around. We all make mistakes, we're all sinners. That is why we have confession. God understands that and the American people understand that, but we also expect our leaders to live a good life and set a good example. If Mary Jo and I were ever to live in the White House, we would respect the dignity of the office. That is particularly necessary to instill hope and trust in our political institutions among young people.
References to Catholicism are sprinkled into your rhetoric quite frequently. How does your faith as a Catholic guide your political activity?
I lost my father when I was three years old and it was very difficult for us. After my father was killed at the end of World War II — he was a war hero — it was the strong Catholic faith of my grandmother that acted as the glue to keep our family together. I could have gone either way, but she got me involved in the Church. The nuns would pick us up on Wednesdays for catechism, we went to Mass as a family, and I was an altar boy. The lessons you learn from this when you are young stay with you and form you. I was taught love of God and patriotism. I cannot imagine serving in the Navy in Vietnam or doing the job I do here in Washington from an amoral perspective. All the decisions you make in life are related, and your background guides your decisions. I never have understood congressmen who throw morality out the window for political expediency. I have never done that.
I have read that your faith played a strong role in your close reelection to the Senate in 1996.
There is a Convent of the Precious Blood in Manchester, New Hampshire, that played a very personal role. We talked for years and years about the Church because my wife was not Catholic. I never really gave her the hard sell. But whenever there was something serious or she had some special prayer need, she would go to the Convent of the Precious Blood. If she couldn't get there, she would call a friend of ours and ask her to go there and pray for us. During the last week of my reelection campaign, the Clintons and the Gores all came up to New Hampshire and traveled around the state attacking my position on abortion and my involvement in the partial-birth abortion debate. I was really under the gun. My wife went to the convent the night before the election and, unbeknownst to me, made a commitment to God to become a Catholic if this election would turn the other way so I could continue my fight for the right-to-life. On election day, we were heavily predicted to lose and the news anchors kept announcing that I was down in the exit polls, but my wife was very calm about it. She went upstairs to an office in our campaign headquarters and spent five hours on her knees in prayer. When it was all over and it came out that we had won after all the networks had announced that we had lost. Mary Jo came down and told me about what she had done and said we needed to see our friend Father Ed because she was going to become a Catholic. She is a remarkable person.
—Brett Decker
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Senator Bob Smith ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: U.S. Notes & Quotes DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:New Law Would Protect California Religious Freedom
“AB 1617, the Religious Freedom Protection Act, would prevent state and local governments from interfering with religious observances unless a compelling reason could be shown,” said the report.
It cited several examples: it would allow Jewish students to wear a Yarmulke and Sikh youth to wear a turban, even if there was a “no hat” policy at the school. The school could maintain its policy for a serious reason, the report said.
Another: the law would allow students to get perfect-attendance awards, even if they missed school for Mass on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, or observed the Jewish new year or the Muslim Eid al-Fitr festival.
It might also address situations like that in one Southern California school district, which from 1995-1997 consistently scheduled important school events on Jewish High Holy days, apparently unaware of them.
Said the report, “The bill is a direct response to a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), passed by Congress in 1993.” The California measure institutes the provisions of RFRA on the state, rather than the federal, level.
Caution Called for in Assessing Global Warming
He criticized the World Council of Churches for being too quick to endorse the Kyoto Protocol, the treaty that would see Americans spend some $7 to $12 billion annually to reduce carbon monoxide emissions in an effort to save the world from over-heating.
He wrote, “The problem is, first, that there is no scientific consensus on global warming.” He cited Facts, Not Fear, a book by Michael Sanera and Jane Shaw, and pointed out that temperatures have only risen one degree in one century — and for reasons that are not clear.
“It's possible that our carbon-dioxide exhaust is trapping heat like the glass of a greenhouse, and thereby heating things up. But if you endorse this theory, why did average temperatures rise faster in the 1910s and ‘20s (before the modern surge in carbon dioxide) than over the last few decades? Why did they fall between 1938 and 1970, as carbon dioxide increased? Does your theory account for the long-term temperature cycles that happen by themselves? There has been a lot of global warming since the last Ice Age.”
He said the Catholic and Orthodox Jewish positions on global warming are the wisest: that it is in the realm of scientific speculation, not religious faith, and that it does not pose a clear enough threat to justify large expenditures of money.
Gelernter said that the money some would spend on global warming could be better spent on charity. “How about if we established a national grant program for mothers who want to stay home and rear their children but can't afford to, or have husbands who won't let them? I'm not proposing such a program. But it would make far better sense on moral terms than what Church leaders are promoting.”
Reader Defends Faith
He said, “I can't help but wonder when will The Blade, ‘One of America's Great Newspapers,’ give one-fourth of an editorial page so an anti-Semite or an anti-Muslim can trash and disrespect those that they dislike. Apparently, if you want to slam and print anti-Catholic remarks or attack Christian values, it's open season at THE BLADE given Ms. Foley's disrespectful tirade about a faith followed by more than 950 million people worldwide.”
He pointed to Mary as a refutation of Foley's claim that the Church is antagonistic to women.
He concluded that Foley “apparently is a fallen-away Catholic. That is sad, for it is apparent that she is… uninformed on the Catholic faith. … Peace be
with Ms. Foley. Maybe she let her anger go. Try to be the open-minded, tolerant, and compassionate person that followers of the Catholic and other religious faiths struggle to model and live up to every day. I'll pray for her.”
----- EXCERPT: Excerpts from select publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: World Notes & Quotes DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:The Wonder Worker or Father Christmas?
The Santa Claus Foundation in Demre wants the bones of St. Nicholas to reside in its city, which was called Myra when the saint lived there. The Greek Orthodox Church, which descends from the Byzantine-era Catholic Church in Constantinople, has the bones and wants to keep the former bishop's remains to venerate as relics.
The Santa Claus Foundation is made up almost entirely of Moslems, who claim that St. Nicholas is now the property of all faiths because he is “Father Christmas.” Their annual December 6 ceremonies revere the “jolly old elf” and award “The Father Christmas Peace Prize.”
The Greek Christians call him “St. Nicholas, the Wonder Worker” and pray for his intercession, celebrating his example of faith and God's grace working in men on December 6, his feast day.
“Santa Claus is supra religious, universal,” said Muammer Karabulut, the Santa Claus Foundation's chairman. The report said that even the Dalai Lama sends an emissary to the Father Christmas ceremonies.
But “What about his sainthood?", answered Metropolitan Chrisostomos, St. Nicholas's current successor in the see of Myra. “People should believe in something, after all.”
He complained that the “Father Christmas” ceremonies exist only as “a means to get money.” The bones were moved (“stolen” according to the Foundation) in 1087 from Myra to Bari. Some believe they were moved with the express purpose of keeping them out of the hands of advancing Turkish armies.
“Unity and Faith” in Nigeria
“Of all the fissures in this country, which was thrown together on the whim of a British colonial governor in 1914, those based on religion may be the most treacherous. But it is still not clear whether religion will ultimately push Nigerians toward fracture or reconcile them,” said the report.
“Of the three main ethnic groups, the northern Hausas are Muslim, the southeastern Ibos are overwhelmingly Christian, and the southwestern Yorubas mixed.”
The article quoted religion scholar Onaolapo Soleye, saying that the southern Christian faith is buoyant and hopeful. “But in the north, religion is different: more fatalistic and more all-encompassing. Everything there is Allah's work. Well, we do not think it's Allah's work that more and more people are poor.”
Much of the difference has theological roots. For Muslims, God's will is a direct force moving events, good and bad. Christians praise Muslims for their simple religion of abandonment to God's will. For Christians, God's Providence is also in control. But evil is the result of man's fall: God allows it but does not directly cause it.
Diana is Not a Saint, Says British Cardinal
But while maintaining that she was “by no means a saint” the Primate of England and Wales defended Diana more than other Churchmen, such as former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Coggan, who has described the princess as “a false goddess of loose morals.”
He also clarified the Catholic position after two evangelical Sunday school teachers told their young students that Diana had gone to hell. Diana “did a great deal of good,” he said, pointing out that her life was no worse than most people's.
Cardinal Hume refused to respond to Lord Coggan's comments, saying merely that the former Archbishop was “very wise and very experienced.” However, he did say that the Sunday school teacher's words were “upsetting to us all” and that he would be praying for Diana's soul.
Said the BBC report, the Cardinal “doubted that, one year on from the princess's death, the country had been changed by it.”
----- EXCERPT: Excerpts from select publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Watchdog Criticizes Greek Anti-Catholicism DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:WARSAW, Poland—A top human rights organization has accused Greece of violating the rights of minority Catholics, following a series of international court judgments condemning its religious laws.
“Legal guarantees of religious freedom remain insufficient in Greece,” the International Helsinki Federation noted in its 1998 annual report.
“Due to the privileged status of the Orthodox Church, other religious communities are relegated to a disadvantaged status. The Catholic Church, under Greek law, is not a juridical entity because Greek courts refuse to recognize it.”
The Federation, which has 34 national rights-monitoring committees in Europe and North America, said Greek legislation guaranteed freedom of worship only to “known” religions, without specifying. It added that the Catholic and Protestant Churches had been “recognized in practice,” but continued to face “various forms of State discrimination.”
Article 3 of the constitution of Greece, a European Union and NATO member-state, declares Orthodoxy the country's “dominant religion,” and prohibits Bible translations without “prior consent” from the Orthodox Church, which nominally comprises 97% of the population of 10 million.
In December 1997, the European Court of Human Rights said the denial of equal rights to Catholics had violated the 1950 European Convention of Human Rights, which sets out binding norms for 40 states belonging to the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe.
The Court was responding to an appeal by Bishop Frangiskos Papamanolis, the acting Catholic Bishop of Crete, after a 1987 incident in which local residents demolished a wall belonging to the Thirteenth Century Holy Virgin Cathedral at Canea.
Although the island diocese won a court order for damages, its claim was overturned by Greece's Supreme Court, which decreed that the Catholic Church had no legal personhood and was not entitled to bring a court case.
In its ruling, the European Court said Greece had violated Article 6 of the 1950 Convention, giving all citizens the right to a court hearing, as well as Article 14 which bars “discrimination on any ground.” It added that the Greek Supreme Court judgment had risked invalidating all purchases and transactions by Catholic parishes and dioceses in the country.
The case was the fourth European Court condemnation of Greece's religious laws.
In three separate judgments in 1996 and 1997, it also declared the country guilty of violating the rights of Jehovah's Witnesses, and said it had observed “a clear tendency on the part of administrative and ecclesiastical authorities to use current provisions to restrict the activities of faiths outside the Orthodox Church.”
In its report, the Helsinki Federation said the refusal of Greek courts to recognize the Catholic Church as a juridical entity would continue to have “adverse effects” on the Church's property rights and other freedoms.
Although the Church could apply for registration as a civic association, the Federation pointed out, this would give the Greek state control over its activities, as well as the right to dissolve it.
Among other examples of Greek discrimination, the Federation said 14 evangelical churches, including a century-old parish in Thessaloniki, had been accused of operating illegally without official licenses in 1997.
It added that a German-language teacher had been charged with “proselytism” at the instigation of an Orthodox bishop, after she referred to “heterodox dogmas” during a lesson.
The report said the Greek government had overruled attempts by the country's Islamic minority to elect its own religious leaders, and had secured six separate convictions against the Mufti of Xanthi for “pretense of authority.”
A Federation spokesperson, Paula Tscherne-Lempiainen, said the Greek case illustrated a worsening problem of religious rights violations in Western Europe, where several other countries had drafted laws to strengthen “traditional religions” at the cost of smaller denominations.
“Because of our preoccupation with Eastern Europe, we tend not to notice the similar trends occurring in some European Union countries,” TscherneLempiainen told the Register.
“The past two years have witnessed a tightening of legal measures against new religious groups. We should be taking this problem much more seriously.”
The 1950 European Convention of Human Rights, signed a year after the Council of Europe's creation, has been ratified by all member-states except Croatia, and is widely seen as the most effective human rights instrument on the international scene. (Jonathan Luxmoore)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Notes & Quotes DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:From the Rio Grande to the Tiber
Fara Ferguson, a junior at Southwestern University, accepted the State Department internship this summer, and will fulfill the dream of many — living in Rome and working at the Vatican, in her case at an embassy that includes a staff of 10 under Ambassador Lindy Boggs.
Ferguson's duties will include answering cables between embassies, reading newspapers around the world to find any news relating to the Vatican, helping coordinate receptions, and assisting with the creation of a homepage on the World Wide Web.
She looks forward to the time away from work as well. She will live in a world where papal masses are commonplace and the luminaries of the Church are all around. “I'm looking forward to getting to know all of Italy,” she is quoted saying.
Vatican Angels Visit Detroit
The exhibit seems to be repeating the success it had in St. Louis, where more than 200,000 people came to see the show. In its first week in Detroit, 10,000 people have viewed it.
Fr. John West, from St. John's Center for Youth and Family, says that the Vatican's exhibit demonstrates the ability of the Church to feed the modern world's two hungers — for authentic spirituality and for genuine beauty.
“There's a hunger for spirituality these days; there's a spiritual renaissance. Angels call on that higher sense we have to know God. They help us realize we have one life to live and that we should do the best we can with it,” he is quoted saying.
Angels are important, said Fr. West, but so is art. The rich beauty of the Vatican was important to his own formation as a priest, he said. “Art is a constant reminder of the presence of God. I hope a lot of kids go see this exhibit; that's where the hunger is. They are looking for symbols, for images that bring a deeper understanding of God.”
----- EXCERPT: Excerpts from select publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: The Truth About Partial-Birth Abortion DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:“If there is no transcendent truth… then there is no sure principle for guaranteeing just relations between people.”
—John Paul II in The Splendor of Truth
“The abortion regime was born in lies.”
—National Review
It is critical to the quality of our public life and discourse that we remain faithful to the truth. The attempt to preserve partial-birth abortion as a legal procedure has been rooted in falsehood — not unlike the abortion industry itself.
Before discussing these falsehoods, however, I would reiterate what we know to be the truth about partial-birth abortion. Partial-birth abortion is a horrific procedure. It is a practice whereby a fully formed, often viable, infant is pulled from the mother's womb until all but the head has been delivered. A pair of scissors is then jammed into the base of the baby's skull and a tube inserted to suction the brains out, so that the head of the now-dead infant collapses. This procedure is performed thousands of times across the country on healthy babies of healthy mothers.
We know that partial-birth abortion is not medically necessary. Indeed, The American Medical Association (AMA) endorsed legislation banning the practice. As AMA president Doctor Daniel Johnson wrote in The New York Times last year:
Rick Santorum
“Our reasons for supporting the bill (H.R. 1122, The Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act) are people: the partial delivery of a living fetus for the purpose of killing it outside the womb is ethically offensive to most Americans and physicians. Our panel could not find any identified circumstance in which the procedure was the only safe and effective abortion method.”
We also know that partial-birth abortion poses serious risks to the moth-er's health and future fertility. Complications such as infection, perforation of the uterus, or hemorrhaging can result from this procedure. And partial-birth abortions are not performed in hospitals or emergency rooms. They are performed as out-patient procedures in doctors’ offices or clinics, thus removing a woman even further from the normal protections of a more medically controlled environment.
Only lies could sustain partial-birth abortion as a lawful practice. Perhaps the most egregious lie is the claim that this rogue practice is medically necessary when the health of the mother or fetus is in question. Indeed, President Clinton has twice vetoed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act because it did not contain a “health of the mother” exception. But if there is no medical necessity for the procedure, why would we need a health exception? This is a question to which defenders of partial-birth abortion have not yet responded — despite more than two years of public debate on this topic. Indeed, a coalition group of doctors formed specifically in response to the disturbing medical falsehoods circulated about partial-birth abortion has said that:
."..the partial-birth abortion procedure, as described by Doctor Martin Haskell (the nation's leading practitioner of the procedure) and defined in the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act… is never medically indicated and can itself pose serious risks to the health and future fertility of women. There are simply no obstetrical situations encountered in this country which require a partially-delivered human fetus to be destroyed to preserve the life, health, or future fertility of the mother.”
Lies were also required to minimize the incidence of partial-birth abortions. Defenders claimed that this procedure was performed only a few hundred times a year. In fact, one of those defenders, Ron Fitzsimmons, director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, admitted last year that — contrary to what he and others originally said — up to 5,000 a year are performed.
Twice, in 1996 and 1997, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate voted by decisive majorities to pass a law banning partial-birth abortions. Twice, this legislation has been presented to and vetoed by President Clinton, thus preventing it from becoming law. We already have attempted to override the president's veto once. Each successive time Congress has voted on the ban, votes cast in favor of it have increased. In mid-September the Senate will vote again on this legislation in an attempt to override the President's veto by the required two-thirds majority. (The House already has overridden the president's veto.) We are currently three votes short of the necessary 67; supporters of the ban are hopeful that the truth about this procedure will persuade additional members so that the ban can, finally, become law.
The goal of our public life should be the pursuit of justice. We cannot pursue — nor achieve — justice through falsehoods. We undermine the very power and authority of our laws if they are not rooted in truth. A decisive consensus has formed in response to the truth about partial-birth abortions. It is now time for our laws to faithfully reflect that consensus and to speak decisively to this truth.
Rick Santorum is a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: PERSPECTIVE ----- EXTENDED BODY: Rick Santorum ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Hard Times for Jesuits in the New World DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:Danger to the State by Philip Trower
The spectacular success of several large national booksellers is a sure sign that Americans are reading more than they once did. Oddly enough, though, in one of the most religious nations on earth, very few contemporary novels (or films or plays, for that matter) draw inspiration from the life of faith. Some of these few novels or films explore religious matters from the outside looking in, as if the authors are fascinated yet puzzled by persons of faith. Others are tales of survival, describing how the characters escape from the suffocating embrace of religion to the freedom of an enlightened secularism. Hardly any portray an authentic and sympathetic appreciation of a living faith.
This may be changing, however slowly, and as it changes Catholics may discover the pleasure of reading well-written novels that enhance their understanding of what it means to be a Catholic, rather than challenge it. In recent years, Ignatius Press has been bold enough to begin offering Catholic novels in this vein, where other publishers have been careful to avoid contemporary religious literature. Philip Trower's Danger to the State is one of these new novels.
Danger is an historical novel set principally in Spain and Paraguay in the 1760s. Its general focus is on the events leading to the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain in 1767 and the subsequent suppression of the order by Pope Clement XIV in 1773. The story is told from the perspective of the de Vallecas, an important (but fictional) aristocratic family whose head, Don Maurice, occupies a position of some influence at the court of King Charles III. The novel begins as the family sends one of its sons off to Paraguay as a Jesuit missionary. The Jesuits had by this time already been expelled from France and Portugal, and forces bent on their destruction were gathering to oppose them in Spain as well.
This hostility to the Jesuits sprang from several sources. One was anxiety over their growing power and influence in European life. Another was their purported wealth, which could be redistributed were the order to be suppressed (a tactic employed ruthlessly by England's Henry VIII two centuries earlier). Finally, the Jesuits were particularly detested by some in Spain and Portugal for their missionary activities in South America. There they had established orderly, self-sufficient communities (called reductions) around the countryside, converting native people to Christianity, teaching them agriculture and crafts, and wisely governing them.
Their success in managing these communities — some survived for nearly 150 years — and their tenacity in protecting the natives from European predation, created numerous enemies for the Jesuits. In time, these enemies realized that, if the Jesuits could be restrained or suppressed, the natives could be put to work doing more “useful” things and their lands could be explored (and exploited) for the gold that must lie hidden in them. Trower shifts back and forth from events unfolding in Spain to the growth and vitality of life in these communities. In doing so he paints a compelling, though perhaps overly romantic, picture of what that life may have been like.
For Father Alfonso de Valleca, the day after he arrived in the reduction that was to be his new home “was a beautiful morning. The sun was just looking over the tops of the trees, while the cloud that had formed in the night had broken up into countless pieces, now slowly becoming diaphanous, which lay against the blue of the sky like small white islands against the blue of the sea on a map. Birds sped through the air like colored darts or hopped on the ground in search of insects. Children shouted, chased each other, and tumbled about. In the distance, the women's dresses gleamed against the shadows under the verandahs. It was as though during the night the earth's face had been washed with a sponge.” Trower presents the reduction as an opportunity to rebuild human communities in a sort of second Paradise.
In the meantime, forces in Spain are gathering strength and turning the king against the order. The de Valleca family soon finds itself marginalized at court and caught between conflicting personal loyalties, keenly portrayed in their daughter, who is torn between two suitors promoting different sides of the issue. Their steadfastness has a price and as the novel unfolds we are carried irresistibly toward the tragic effects of first the expulsion and finally the suppression of the order.
The injustice of these actions meets with remarkably little resistance. At one point Father Alfonso, out of concern for his congregation, is inclined to refuse to obey the order to leave. He is admonished by his superior, “Do you think you love them more than Christ loved his apostles? Yet when the time came for him to die, he has to leave them at the mercy of his enemies. History is not something straightforward, not something men will ever be able fully to understand or control. It is the unfolding, the working out of the mystery of evil, grace, and free will. We shall be helping the forces of evil if we try to take our own way, rather than God's, through this labyrinth.”
Trower does a fine job of involving his readers in the setting and the historical events. Like other good novels of this kind, Danger intersperses fictional characters (such as the de Vallecas) with authentic personalities. His sense of detail and period ring true and add a pleasing texture to his story. He might be faulted for being a bit too sentimental and one-sided in his presentation of events, but for all that the novel still reads well. Catholic readers will find it a refreshing alternative to today's standard fare, and should hope to see more of the same from Trower and other Catholic writers.
Robert Kennedy is a professor in the management department at the St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert Kennedy ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Disposing of Roe v. Wade DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:The summer 1998 issue of The Human Life Review carries an article by Robert Destro titled “Is Roe v. Wade Obsolete?”
Destro describes recent divorce litigation involving custody of frozen embryos: “For Mr. Kass, the frozen ‘pre-zygotes’ were property … Maureen Kass had a different view. Relying on Roe [v. Wade,] she argued that ‘a female participant in the [in vitro fertilization] procedure has exclusive decisional authority over the fertilized eggs created through that process, just as a pregnant woman has exclusive decisional authority over a non-viable fetus.’”
But “the New York appellate courts unanimously agreed….That a woman's right to privacy and bodily integrity are not implicated before implantation occurs
…” The literal words of Roe v. Wade cannot be read in any other way. Roe v. Wade “rests on an explicit ‘balance’ struck by the Supreme Court between the interests of pregnant women and the right of the State of Texas to assert its sovereign power to protect the unborn from harm. Not only did this ‘balance’ affirm (at least in theory) a limited power to protect the unborn after viability, it simply assumed that unborn children capable of existing outside the womb of their mother were within the protective ambit of state law … this raises an intriguing question: Is Roe v. Wade obsolete?”
Destro notes that “Because the ‘rule’ (or ‘holding’) of Roe v. Wade does not apply to many of the controversies that arise under the new reproductive technologies, the Court of Appeals would naturally look to state law. It too provides little guidance: Legislatures have not decided what should be done either … Kass levels the field, and puts pro-life and abortion rights advocates in a roughly equal political bargaining position.”
The silver lining in Kass's disposal of the frozen zygotes’ right to life is that “the embryonic human beings … either have, or can have, a separate existence
… in a small but increasing number of cases, technology has made it possible for the ‘right to terminate a pregnancy’ to coexist with the child's right to life.”
Kass shines a light on the difference between Roe and unlimited pro-abortion advocates: “To pro-abortion activists… Roe v. Wade means that the states may “never” intervene to protect the life of an unborn child
… But this is not what the Court said in Roe v. Wade. Its words — which have the force of law — speak for themselves. ‘[Jane Roe] and some amici argue that the woman's right is absolute and that she is entitled to terminate her pregnancy at whatever time, in whatever way, and for whatever reason she alone chooses. With this we do not agree.’”
“Partial-birth abortion legislation challenges the ‘broad’ reading of abortion rights… [at the “end” of pregnancy and] Kass demonstrates that Roe v. Wade is increasingly irrelevant at the ‘start’ of pregnancy too … The debate over ‘partial-birth’ abortion demonstrates
… that the phrase ‘termination of pregnancy’ need not be viewed, in all instances, as a euphemism. ‘Termination of pregnancy’ and the death of the unborn child are biologically speaking separate events. It serves the interests of pro-abortion advocates to use the terms interchangeably. We must develop a new vocabulary.”
When we look at abortion or “right to die” cases, one “issue is what, if any, protection the law provides to individuals in need of technology to survive…Unfortunately, the courts have made a judgment that is all too common. They have decided, once again, that some human beings are ‘more equal’ than others.” “They have done this before, and we are still living with the consequences. In Dred Scott v. Sandford, the United States Supreme Court held that persons of African descent had no rights a white person or State was bound to respect…” Destro argues that the contractual claim to ownership of frozen embryos recognized by the Kass decision “is the functional equivalent of slavery … Although Roe holds that no state may ‘override the rights of the pregnant woman that are at stake’ when she seeks to terminate a pregnancy, the post Roe case law, both state and federal, makes it clear that Roe does not control when the status issue arises in a case ‘other than’ legal abortion. In many, if not most, of these cases, the unborn child is viewed by the law in the same manner as any other ‘person in the whole sense…’ The task of the pro-life movement is to make the case — convincingly — that Congress and state legislatures should provide protection to unborn human beings in every setting where a ‘liberal'reading of the Roe law permits it to do so.” In so doing, we will be taking advantage of technology, which “is pushing Roe v. Wade toward the ‘dustbin of history.’”
Ellen Wilson Fielding writes from Davidsonville, Maryland.
The Definite Article is a digest of the Register's choice from the nation's top journals.
----- EXCERPT: THE DEFINITE ARTICLE ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Wilson Fielding ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:Mother Angelica: Two Thumbs Up!
I just started my subscription to your paper three to four weeks ago and I recommend it highly. I would like also to tell all Catholics in this nation that I also just had a box added to my cable TV and I can now get EWTN. It is great. Words can't describe how much it offers. Daily masses two to three times a day, Divine Mercy Novenas, daily rosary. One of the greatest programs is Bob and Penny Lord's “Visionaries, Saints, and Mystics.” And Sister Angelica is a gem — even her sense of humor is a great pick-me-up for a shady world!
Please encourage all Catholics to try to get the station. It is a breath of fresh air.
Evelyn Adam
Kansas City, Kansas
Abortion Survey
I am deeply concerned about the ramifications of the survey question asked and paid for by the pro-life Secretariat of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops which stated: “Should a person be able to take a minor girl across state lines to obtain an abortion without parents’ knowledge?” ("Parents’ Rights ‘Reasserted’ with House Passage of Child Custody Bill,” July 26-Aug 1).
Why is a representative of the Catholic Church even asking whether or not anyone should have the authority to take a minor across state lines to kill a child/grandchild created in the image and likeness of God? Does this question imply that if the parents agree to the slaughter of their grandchild, then the act is permissible?
In Michigan, parents of a 12-year-old incest victim, 29 weeks along in her child's uterine life, were granted permission to take the two human beings across state lines to Kansas so that one of them could be murdered. Is that acceptable to the proponents of the Child Custody Act?
Where is the heroic leadership that heeds neither polls, surveys, nor majority views, but only the moral law that presents an absolute prohibition of any act or action that results in the death of even one of our tiniest brothers or sisters?
Judith Brown
President American Life League, Inc.
NFP Statistics
Your report about the effectiveness of the Creighton Method of natural family planning ("Study Confirms Creighton Method's Reliability in NFP,” August 9-15) quoted Sister Hanna Klaus as noting that informed choice pregnancies are not included in the Creighton Method way of doing NFP statistics and that therefore the user effectiveness rate appears higher than for other NFP methods. This is a significant observation.
One of the five studies included in the five-state analysis was first published in 1985.
Written by Mrs. Joanne Doud, it claimed a very high user-effectiveness — 96.2%. However, the author also provided the raw data for independent analysis. Applying a commonly used standard to the 68 pregnancies that were unplanned according to the intention of the couple, yielded a user-effectiveness rate of 67%; another analysis yields a user-effectiveness rate of 80%; both are a far cry from the figure claimed by the Creighton Method way of doing statistics.
Your article said that Dr. Thomas Hilgers claims that there aren't many people who know how to do NFP effectiveness statistics. It also needs to be said that no one else in the entire NFP movement, to say nothing of the birth control industry, accepts the Creighton Method way of doing statistics. Everyone else thinks that it is important to include what the other statisticians call “imperfect-use” or “informed choice” pregnancies.
Some say that no question should be asked. However, co-author Dr. Joseph Stanford said he was looking forward to discussion of the controversies. The NFP movement is not made more credible to the rest of the world by unquestioning acceptance of questionable statistics.
John Kippley,
Director, Couple to Couple League
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Partial-Birth Abortion Debate Prepares Way for Horrible Facts DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:The debate over partial-birth abortion has produced many “firsts.” The first time an abortion advocate publicly admitted that he was lying “through his teeth.” The first time newspapers paid any attention to such lies. And the first time the American Medical Association came out specifically against a particular type of abortion.
Now comes another first, this time from the Journal of the American Medical Association. It is an article about partial-birth abortion that stresses three matters rarely, if ever, raised in popular, let alone professional circles: the lack of medical indication for late abortions; the physical harm to women caused by abortion; and the awful pain late-abortion inflicts on the nearly-born child. It is particularly significant that this article is written by doctors in a medical journal, as public opinion surveys have long shown that Americans find doctors more credible than anyone else who speaks on abortion.
On the subject of the often repeated claim that some women “must have” late-abortions or lose their life or health, the authors, M. LeRoy Sprang MD and Mark Neerhof DO, are refreshingly honest. They state: “Maternal health factors demanding pregnancy termination in the periviable period [when the child can live outside the womb, albeit sometimes with medical intervention] can almost always be accommodated without sacrificing the fetus and without compromising maternal well-being. The high probability of fetal intact survival beyond the periviable period argues for ending the pregnancy through appropriate delivery.” Referring to the partial-birth procedure, they conclude “an extraordinary medical consensus has emerged” that this procedure is “neither necessary nor the safest method of late-term abortion.”
Responding to the claim made by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists — a fierce opponent on Capitol Hill of the partial-birth ban — that the partial-birth procedure may “in a particular circumstance” be the “best or most appropriate procedure,” Drs. Sprang and Neerhof reply: “No specific examples of circumstances under which intact D&X would be the most appropriate procedure were given.” Furthermore, they say, “there exist no credible studies on intact D&X [one medical name for the procedure] that evaluate or attest to its safety. The procedure is not recognized in medical textbooks nor is it taught in medical schools or in obstetrics and gynecology residencies.”
It is significant that this article is written in a medical journal, as public opinion surveys have long shown that Americans find doctors more credible than anyone else who speaks on abortion.
A second invisible topic in the public abortion debate is also highlighted in this journal article: abortion's dangers to women. The authors survey the literature about the dangers of all late abortions; these account for 10%-20% of all abortions performed in the United States, but 66% of the maternal injuries from abortion. Late abortions can cause death, hemorrhage, laceration of the cervix, permanent infertility, pelvic infections, etc. Late abortions are twice as dangerous as childbirth.
And partial-birth abortions are uniquely dangerous. The authors cite the bible of obstetrics, Williams Obstetrics: “There are very few, if any, indications for [forcing a breech birth]/internal podalic version other than for delivery of a second twin.” Risks include rupturing the uterus and forcing into the mother's bloodstream foreign — and fatal — matter from the baby's body. Yet proponents of the partial-birth procedure claim that forcing a breech delivery is a health benefit to women! Partial-birth abortion further risks lacerating the mother's uterus — causing possibly fatal blood loss — by the “blind procedure” of forcing scissors into the “base of the fetal skull while it is lodged in the birth canal.”
The other subject Drs. Sprang and Neerhof discuss in their article that one never hears in the public square is the excruciating pain infants feel while they are being aborted. In their own words:
“The majority of intact D&X procedures are performed on periviable fetuses. When infants of similar gestational ages are delivered, pain management is an important part of the care rendered to them in the intensive care nursery. However, with intact D&X, pain management is not provided for the fetus, who is literally within inches of being delivered. Forcibly incising the cranium with a scissors and then suctioning out the intracranial contents is certainly excruciatingly painful. It is beyond ironic that the pain management practiced for an intact D&X on a human fetus would not meet federal standards for the humane care of animals used in medical research.”
A plethora of medical literature is footnoted to verify their conclusions, horrid as they are to contemplate. In fact, medical research is demonstrating internationally how acutely sensitive the unborn are to pain. This very month, the government of Britain is drafting regulations which would require the administration of pain killers to unborn children of 18 weeks’ gestation or older, who undergo fetal surgery or abortion.
Abortion itself. That's the one topic so rarely discussed in the open in the course of the abortion debate. That is, until the abortion industry finally managed to shock America's conscience by embracing infanticide.
Helen Alvaré is director of planning and information, Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Helen AlvarÈ ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Why We Are Pro-Life DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:A thorough reading of
Following is a slightly condensed version of a paper delivered at a meeting of pro-life groups and others sponsored last May by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference at Canberra.
The ideals to be used in the formulation of public policy were set out in principle by the bishops of the Second Vatican Council in their Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes….(GS)
Regarding what they called “the difficult but very noble art of politics,” the Fathers of Vatican II praised “the work of those who for the common good devote themselves to the service of the state and take on the burdens of office.” They counseled politicians that “with integrity and wisdom, they must take action against any form of injustice and tyranny” (GS 75). Law-making had an important role here, to recognize the duties and protect the rights of all persons, families, and groups in the community (GS 75). In this context the rights of the unborn child to life and the responsibility of law-makers to protect that life were reaffirmed by the Council (GS 27, 51) and have since been repeated very often by the popes and bishops, as well as many faithful Christians, clerical and lay, Catholic and Protestant. But no politician can do everything and good laws will only take us so far in the building up of a civilization of life and love.
I want to outline five positions that seem to be clearly ruled out by Catholic teaching on the role of the legislator with respect to abortion, especially as articulated in Evangelium Vitae (EV).
Catholic and Pro-Abortion
The first is the claim that one can be a Catholic in good conscience and pro-abortion. One occasionally meets people who openly declare themselves opposed to Catholic teaching in this area and yet are believing, even practicing, members of the Church. Being pro-life, it is asserted, is not a core belief for Catholics in the way that, say, the Trinity or the sacraments are.
The Catholic tradition has, however, consistently and unequivocally condemned abortion as a grave moral and social wrong, both because it is a direct killing of an innocent human being and because it is an attack on the mother, on parenthood, relationships, community. Pope John Paul likewise authoritatively spoke for the Catholic tradition when he defined that “direct abortion always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being” and that “no circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever” can ever make it licit (EV62). He echoed the Second Vatican Council which had declared: “All offenses against life itself, such as abortion … are criminal. They poison civilization, and they debase the perpetrators even more than the victims…. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes” (GS 27, 51).
The reference to crime here is primarily a moral category, but it also points to another Catholic teaching in this area: that the civil law must protect basic human rights including the right to life from conception…. Likewise John Paul II has condemned the “sinister” trend in legalizing attacks on life in the name of individual rights. The decriminalization of abortion is, he argues, “a disturbing symptom” but also “a significant cause” of grave moral decline and the denial of true human rights (EV 4, 20, 68); it turns the supposedly democratic state into “a tyrant State, which arrogates to itself the right to dispose of the life of the weakest and most defenseless members” (EV 20, 70). He draws the radical conclusion that laws which authorize and promote abortion [are] radically opposed not only to the good of the individual but also to the common good; as such they are completely lacking in authentic juridical validity. Disregard for the right to life, precisely because it leads to the killing of the person whom society exists to serve, is what most directly conflicts with the possibility of achieving the common good. Consequently, a civil law authorizing abortion or euthanasia ceases by that very fact to be a true, morally binding civil law (EV 72).
At this point someone will plead the primacy of conscience and Catholic teaching that individuals must follow their consciences even when they are wrong (e.g. Vatican II, Dignitatis Humane). It is therefore important to understand the difference between conscience and personal preference or arbitrary private intuition. The moral character of actions is determined by objective criteria, not merely by the sincerity of intentions or the goodness of motives (GS 51), and all people are called to form their consciences accordingly.
The more a correct conscience prevails, the more do persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and try to be guided by the objective standards of moral conduct. Yet it often happens that conscience goes astray through ignorance which it is unable to avoid, without thereby losing its dignity. This cannot be said of the person who takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin (GS 27).
How then do we form a right conscience? Catholics seek to inform their consciences according to reason which grasps the natural law accessible to all; this is clarified, confirmed, and possibly supplemented by divine revelation mediated by Church teachings. They believe that by “their faith, aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth, the People of God, guided by the Magisterium, and obeying it, receives not the mere word of human beings, but truly the word of God (Lumen Gentium).” Given the consistency and gravity of Church teaching in this area, “[conscientiously] Catholic and pro-abortion” makes about as much sense as “[conscientiously] Catholic and anti-Eucharist” or “Catholic and pro-rape.”
A ‘Religious’ Issue
It is commonly asserted that attitudes to abortion are “religious,” especially if they are the attitudes of religious people, and that they are therefore properly to be kept to the private sphere and not to influence public policy including the voting and other activity of legislators. In response to this the Church asserts that its teaching in areas like abortion is accessible to natural reason unaided by faith, even if truth in this area is clarified and decisively confirmed by revelation mediated by the Church. Catholic teaching on human rights questions such as abortion is no more arcane or mysteriously religious or sectarian than its teaching against slavery, apartheid, or unjust wars. To characterize these matters as religious and personal is an evasion amounting to ethical relativism.
Of course, Catholic teaching on abortion is also a religious issue, since it is believed by Catholics not only on the basis of the persuasive moral reasons against abortion but also on the authority of the Scriptures, the Christian tradition, and the living Magisterium of the Church. The seriousness of abortion is all the greater when it is realized that it involves the killing of a being made in the image of God, that this is contrary both to practical reason and to God's will, and that it involves renunciation of a sacred trust.
It is true that there is profound disagreement in the community about the abortion issue, and that the Catholic Church and other Christian communities have not been uninfected by this disagreement. This does not however reduce such issues to issues of personal choice. The morality of slavery or apartheid has been the source of considerable disagreement, but no one seriously proposes that these issues were therefore beyond moral judgment or appropriately left to each individual slave-owner or white supremacist to decide. Thus the Pope has pointed out that the responsibility for abortion falls not only on the mother and the doctor, but also, among others, upon “the legislators who have promoted and approved abortion laws” (EV 59, 90).
Some will immediately respond that it is all very well for Catholic parliamentarians to carry their faith even into their political lives and follow their consciences, but they must also (and perhaps first) respect the consciences of their constituents.
Respect for Constituents
Some will immediately respond that it is all very well for Catholic parliamentarians to carry their faith even into their political lives and follow their consciences, but they must also (and perhaps first) respect the consciences of their constituents, many of whom do not share their views on these matters. They must avoid imposing their religious and moral beliefs upon others, especially with all the power of state law and policy. (Of course this rather begs the question about the much more radical “imposition” that abortion itself is upon at least one of the parties involved.)
But as Robert George has pointed out, professing to be anti-abortion yet pro-choice is a classic political example of having it both ways. And as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has observed: “It is true that it is not the task of the law to choose between points of view or to impose one rather than another. But the life of the child takes precedence over all opinions. One cannot invoke freedom of thought to destroy this life” (Quaestio de Abortu, 20)
Majority Rules?
Some Catholic politicians take the view that majority opinion is what counts. Most citizens apparently want abortion more or less on demand; so do most of their elected representatives; it is the job of a representative in a democracy to enact public opinion whatever his or her private views. In Evangelium Vitae, the Pope very persuasively answers this misconception. As he observes, “the democratic ideal, which is only truly such when it acknowledges and safeguards the dignity of every human person, is betrayed in its very foundations” when legislators engage in a “tragic caricature of legality” in passing permissive abortion laws (20).
Democracy, the Pope reminds us, is not infallible; it should not “be idolized to the point of making it a substitute for morality or a panacea for immorality…. The value of democracy stands or falls with the values which it embodies and promotes.” If it fails to observe “the objective moral law which, as the natural law written in the human heart, is the obligatory point of reference for civil law,” it easily becomes hostage to those “most capable of maneuvering not only the levers of power but also of shaping the formation of consensus.” (EV 70)
Legalizing abortion “contributes to lessening respect for life and opens the door to ways of acting which are destructive of trust in relations between people”; such laws are contrary to the good of individuals and the common good; indeed there is reason to doubt whether they are valid laws at all (EV 72). Thus no legislator can hide behind majority opinion, renouncing the duty of forming and following his or her own conscience, even in the public sphere (EV 69).
Immorality and the Law
Another view that might be put is that not all immoral activities can or should be restricted by law. Catholics believe that adultery and lying are intrinsically immoral but they have not, in general, sought to make these activities criminal. So, it might be argued, abortion should best be decriminalized: after all, it is impossible to stop; women will seek abortions anyway, and possibly achieve them by more dangerous methods. Yet few would seem to be comfortable with extending this principle to the perennial problems of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse of children: since it is going to happen anyway, whatever the law says, better to decriminalize it and provide a sterile environment!
As Evangelium Vitae points out, it is a primary function of the criminal law to ensure that all members of society enjoy respect for their innate rights, such as the right to life.
Likewise Pope John Paul has observed that: “Certainly the purpose of civil law is different and more limited in scope than that of the moral law. The real purpose of civil law is to guarantee an ordered social co-existence in true justice, so that all may ‘lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way’ (1 Tim 2:2). Precisely for this reason, civil law must ensure that all members of society enjoy respect for certain fundamental rights which innately belong to the person, rights which every positive law must recognize and guarantee. First and fundamental among these is the inviolable right to life of every innocent human being).” Although laws are not the only means of protecting human life, nevertheless they do play a very important and sometimes decisive role in influencing patterns of thought and behavior. (EV 71
Msgr. Anthony Fisher is a Dominican priest from Australia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Msgr. Anthony Fisher ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Bible Is for Scripture Scholars —and Everyone Else DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:We live in a world dominated by experts. Gone are the Renaissance polymaths the likes of Leonardo da Vinci who moved with equal ease in fields as diverse as mathematics, medicine, physics, architecture, aviation (his designs for a flying machine prefigured the modern helicopter), art, and botany. Universal learning has given way to specialization such that the individual knows more and more about less and less. For everything else one must rely on the experts.
While specialization indisputably affords real advantages for society, a growing dependence on pundits entails its share of hazards as well. For one, we risk losing a frame of reference to integrate scattered pieces of knowledge into a meaningful whole. Moreover, such dependency can undermine our confidence in common sense and our personal convictions, when these clash with the opinion of recognized “experts.”
One area where the expert/layman dichotomy has made conspicuous inroads is our approach to the Bible. Once seen as “God's word to everyman,” Scripture has been recast as a recondite text whose interpretation requires the assistance of highly trained scholars. The complaint is often raised that in the pre-Vatican Church the Bible was not in the hands of the people. The Council certainly gave a decided push to the reading of the Bible. But no sooner are the Scriptures placed into the hands of the common Catholic than they are whisked away by “specialists” who assure us that the Bible is thoroughly incomprehensible without their aid.
To be sure, biblical scholarship provides an invaluable service to the Church. A more intimate knowledge of local customs, familiarity with the original languages, and an appreciation for differences in literary genres enable the reader to penetrate more deeply into the sense of the sacred text. Yet, helpful as it is, exegesis performs an ancillary function to the faithful's direct contact with God's Word and should not be allowed to usurp the latter. Several reasons make this so.
First, to foster a spirit of devotion in our reading of Scripture, scholarship must be used judiciously. Philologists and historians, as the great theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar once wrote, have a certain habit of mental reservation that is inimical to contemplation. People who have invested much time in dissecting a text (von Balthasar compares such study to an autopsy) are in danger of becoming so enmeshed in the study of internal mechanisms that they neglect the animating principle that holds these elements together. The believer who approaches Scripture as a praying lover (rather than as a coroner) will devote a minimum of time to unearthing curious details, and concentrate his attention on discerning what God is saying to him.
Second, the Scriptures were written under God's direct inspiration, whereas (as a general rule) biblical commentaries are not. Commentaries are subject to the fallibility of their authors as well as to the quirks and prejudices of their times. Attentive students of biblical scholarship are acutely aware of the fickleness of exegetical trends. Theories widely touted as incontrovertible twenty years ago are today viewed as amusingly passé. Or, as Cardinal Ratzinger — himself an eminent Scripture scholar — notes, “A saying of Jesus reported in the Bible is not made binding on faith because it is acknowledged as Jesus’ word by the majority of contemporary exegetes, and it does not lose its validity when the opposite is true.” In all generations, divine revelation merits a response of abiding faith, while scholarship may be appropriated when helpful and otherwise dismissed with a wink.
Third, though the investigation of experts often aids readers in understanding the Bible, it is far from necessary. Many translations contain helpful notes and commentaries, but generally such observations don't touch on the essential message of the text, which is plainly accessible to all readers. Neither is historical-critical study necessary for a fruitful reading of the Bible. As the Belgian theologian Servais Pinckaers OP has observed, “If this labor were required as indispensable for an authentic reading of Scripture, access to Scripture would be barred for most Christians, pastors as well as laity.” Happily, this is not the case. Jesus offered his message to the crowds — the learned as well as the simple — and through his word he continues to enlighten the lives, nourish the prayer, and inspire the activity of all who approach him in faith.
A keen sense of discernment is needed to avail oneself of biblical scholarship where it is helpful, while maintaining a proper autonomy and independence. Personal contact with the revealed Word in an atmosphere of prayerful devotion must be guaranteed pride of place. Pope John Paul II has defined the primary goal of biblical exegesis as “putting believers into a personal relationship with God.” When exegesis serves this noble aim, all believers benefit.
Father Thomas Williams is rector of the general directorate of the Legionaries of Christ in Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Thomas Williams LC ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Scholars Work to Secure Natural Law Theory DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:Resisting current academic trends, a small but hardy group of American scholars is promoting an academic tradition that emphasizes making moral decisions based on precepts that are accessible to all, regardless of religious belief or lack thereof.
The American Public Philosophy Institute (APPI) promotes natural law theory, which members argue served as an underpinning to the public philosophy of America's founding fathers. Natural law theory has implications far beyond the ivory tower of the academy, according to APPI's members.
“Natural law is an effort to identify bodies of reasons why people choose one way of action and morality over another for specific moral and political problems,” said Robert George, a political science professor at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J.
APPI sponsors conferences in Washington on public policy issues such as the family and homosexuality, as well as smaller, more scholarly gatherings on religious liberty and secularism, where those who attend try to deepen their understanding of natural law issues.
During the past 30 years especially, “American liberal philosophy has tried to winnow out pre-liberal philosophy, such as natural law,” said Christopher Wolfe, a professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee. “The mixture (of liberalism and natural law) has made American political philosophy healthy,” he said.
In gaining legal abortion rights throughout the country, for example, lawyers and politicians have used liberal and utilitarian arguments effectively. Wolfe, the chairman of Marquette's political science department, called such trends “bad news for the nation.”
“Colleges and universities are educating people in ways that are problematic to society,” said Wolfe, who said he usually avoids making generalizations about higher education. “Positivists argue that they can know facts, but they disparage values…when they (educate students in that way) colleges become part of the problem rather than part of the solution,” he said.
Founded in 1989, APPI has a “core group” of about a dozen members, but 350 people attended last year's conference on homosexuality and public policy at Georgetown University in Washington, said Wolfe, who is the Institute's president.
While APPI exercises less influence than the American Enterprise Institute or the Brookings Institute, the Institute is “heard and respected,” said Gerard Bradley, a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame and APPI's vice president.
Most APPI members are professors of history, law, philosophy, or political philosophy, Wolfe said.
The “overwhelming majority” of APPI members are Catholic, but the group is not partisan or sectarian, said George. He noted that evangelical Protestant academics are showing more interest in natural law theory, and APPI members want to encourage that by inviting them to conferences, reviewing their books, and sharing their work with them.
They also want to work with Jewish scholars such as Rabbi David Novak, a professor of modern Jewish studies at University of Toronto, George said. Germain Grisez of Mt. St. Mary's College in Emmittsburg, Md., whom George considers the leading contemporary natural law thinker, supervised Novak's doctoral dissertation.
Novak has developed the “idea of the rational commandment,” which looks for the reasons behind the Ten Commandments, George said.
“We're willing to sit down with anyone who has a competing point of view,” to explain natural law theory, George said.
And that is just what they're doing. At APPI conferences, natural law backer John Finnis of Oxford University has debated with Syracuse University's Stephen Macedo and his liberal theories on sexual morality; Jorge Garcia of Rutgers University in New Jersey has represented the theistic point of view in a debate against University of Pennsylvania's Michael Moore, an atheist.
On October 1-2, APPI is holding a conference in Washington on “Reining in Judicial Imperialism: Limiting the Judiciary to Its Constitutional Powers.” Speakers such as Hadley Arkes from Amherst College and William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, will talk about the Supreme Court's broad claims of its contemporary role in American politics, such as in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, an important abortion rights decision.
Proceedings from APPI conferences have been published by Georgetown University Press, Oxford University Press, and Roman and Littlefield, a New Jersey-based publisher. Spence Publishing Co., a Dallas-based publisher that started last year, is printing a volume on the homosexual conference early next year, and a companion book may follow, Wolfe said.
The legacy of ancient and medieval thinkers associated with natural law — most prominent among them Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas — is part of the “baggage natural law has to carry,” in that many scholars are “intolerant” of the theories and think that no prominent, contemporary scholars espouse them, Wolfe said.
In APPI's statement of purpose, the officers wrote that “this project is not a ‘restorationist’ one. Articulating a public philosophy is an on-going task. We do not pretend that the public philosophy on which the United States was founded was completely adequate.
“Both its intrinsic limitations or defects and the changes of circumstances in the last two centuries may require creative efforts to formulate that original public philosophy, to improve it, and render it adequate to the exigencies of our own time.”
Despite widespread opposition to natural law thought in the academy, “it's not dangerous to be involved in APPI,” for a young faculty member who wants to gain a tenured position, Wolfe said. “If there were any doubt about where you stood, that would remove it. You tend to be judged by your scholarly work,” he told the Register.
“We fought our way in,” said George, who is an APPI director. He argues that his success at Princeton, as well as that of Finnis at Oxford and Bradley at Notre Dame, shows that natural law is a “serious challenger to secular liberal thought.”
“Twenty years ago, that didn't happen,” said George, the author of Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality, published in 1993 by Oxford University Press. “The views we're associated with can't be dismissed.”
To expand APPI's work and make it more effective, Wolfe would like the nonprofit to have a stronger financial base. Grants from foundations have helped APPI carry out its mission, but more money could help them broaden their work by offering post graduate fellowships, Wolfe said.
Added George: “We need to encourage more good students to take the risk of embarking on graduate school. A few hardy souls are willing to tough it out,” but many qualified young scholars end up going to law school or pursuing another vocational trade.
He nonetheless added that he and the other core members of APPI are “just entering middle age,” so they have many years left in the academy.
For more information about APPI, go to http://www.marquette.edu/dept/polisci/american public philosophyinsti. htm
William Murray writes from Kensington, Maryland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: William Mlurray ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Shard of Light in the City of Glitter DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:A big-budget animated film on Moses raises hopes for the good that popular culture might do
HOLLYWOOD—The Christian press is usually treated as the poor relation of the American media. Barely acknowledged by its mainstream secular counterparts, its product is largely unknown even to people of faith who are not members of the denomination which sponsors a particular outlet. As a result, much intelligent God-centered reflection on the relationship of our culture to Christianity is marginalized, and important voices never get the wide platform they deserve.
This December DreamWorks is releasing The Prince of Egypt, a feature-length animated film about Moses. As part of their promotional campaign, the studio invited 40 or so Christian journalists from around the country to a preview screening earlier this month in Los Angeles. Their intent was to build positive word-of-mouth for the movie. But the gathering turned unexpectedly into a Christian-community building experience.
DreamWorks had hired as public relations consultants prominent members of the evangelical Protestant community so most of those assembled worked for publications of that persuasion. However, present also were representatives from Catholic, Lutheran, and Presbyterian journals.
The first scheduled event was a tour of DreamWorks’ animation studios, but on the bus ride from the hotel to the facilities, the conversational buzz was already loud. AChristian press junket is an almost unheard of occurrence, and the journalists were taking advantage of the situation to get to know one another and to learn about each other's work.
On my bus editors of evangelical Protestant parenting magazines were exchanging information with movie critics from Catholic and Presbyterian publications. Although there was some polite small talk, most participants were eager to talk about different strategies for sharing God and the Christian way with readers on their various subjects. The half-hour ride became a kind of low-key consciousness-raising session.
The movie itself was everything we could have hoped for. A more detailed review will run in these pages the beginning of December, the week before the opening, and Christians should prepare themselves for a faith-affirming experience. The storyline follows Exodus closely, and there are fewer embellishments to the original than found in Cecil B. De Mille's 1956 live-action classic, The Ten Commandments. The Dream Works’ version creates a friendship between the young Moses and the pharaoh-to-be, Ramses. This adds an element of personal conflict to the Hebrew leader's efforts to free his people that enhances the drama.
The filmmakers use the most advanced animation techniques available to tell their story. The design is influenced by, 19th-century biblical illustrator Gustav Dore, French impressionist painter Claude Monet, and epic movie director David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago). Hand-drawn two-dimensional animation is combined with state-of-the-art three-dimensional computer-generated effects to reproduce the miracles of the burning bush, the plagues, and the parting of the Red Sea. These scenes pack an emotional punch and capture the sense of awe and reverence found in the biblical text.
Throughout the making of the movie the filmmakers consulted with dozens of Christian and Jewish historians and theologians. In addition, 558 representatives of different faith communities, including Islam, viewed an early cut of the movie. Among the prominent Christians who attended were Cardinals Roger Mahony and William Keeler as well as high-profile protestants like Rev. Billy Graham, Rev. Jerry Falwell, and Dr. James Dobson. Some of their comments led to changes in the final product.
After the screening, DreamWorks put on a sumptuous buffet in the studio courtyard. At my table was a Lutheran, a Presbyterian, an evangelical Protestant, and a member of a women's political action group. Ideologically, we were evenly split between conservative and liberal. Everyone had a positive reaction to the film.
The filmmakers were praised for making their story a genuine religious experience. Some of my tablemates thought it would be an excellent device for instructing school-age children in the meaning of the text. A few of us even wondered how the backers of such a deeply spiritual production — Dreamworks’ founders Steven Spielberg and David Geffen — could remain supporters of President Clinton after his recent behavior. Everyone, regardless of their political affiliation, was outraged by the president's lies and evasions and remembered news reports of Clinton visiting with Spielberg and Geffen during his stay last month at Martha's vineyard.
The next day brought meetings with DreamWorks’ president Jeffrey Katzenberg and the movie's producer Sandra Rabins, who left the impression that if The Prince of Egypt is a hit the studio might make more religiously-themed dramas. Christian activist Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of the family-values oriented magazine Movieguide, reminded us that up until 30 years ago the kind of co-operation between religious experts and producers encouraged by DreamWorks was the norm. Now, of course, it's rare.
The public-relations consultants for The Prince of Egypt emphasized what an effective tool for evangelization the movie could be and urged us to publicly support it for that reason. At times the line between hype and Christian commitment was blurred, but it was obvious that the consultants’ work on the film was motivated in part by religious fervor.
We all left Los Angeles enthusiastic about the movie and inspired by the other Christians we'd met and the ideas exchanged. It was a glimpse of the kind of power that might be generated by a band of believers who dedicated themselves to using popular culture to advance the faith.
Arts & Culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: A Farewell to Princes DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:Luchino Visconti's 1963 classic, The Leopard, captures the end of a way of life in Sicily
The goal of most revolutions is the removal of a ruling class to achieve the economic and social justice missing from the existing political order. But often after all the bloodletting, the result is merely the replacement of one elite by another, without any significant change in the lives of ordinary citizens.
Italians call this kind of preservation of the status quo trasformismo, a process by which seemingly dangerous revolutionary forces are transformed into stable elements of the system. The 1963 film, The Leopard, presents the trasformismo which took place in Sicily in the 1850s through the eyes of Fabrizio Falconieri, Prince of Salina (Burt Lancaster). His family survives the violent upheavals set in motion by Garibaldi through a cunning manipulation of personalities and social forces. But the natural momentum of Sicily's conservative culture also works in favor of their survival.
Based on a novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, the movie begins with the Prince's entire family and its household servants saying the rosary in the palace chapel. A dynamic faith is established as one of the pillars on which the old order rests. The service is disrupted by the discovery of a soldier's body in the garden. “It's the revolution,” says Father Pirrone (Romalo Valli), the family priest who fears social change.
Fabrizio, the family patriarch, is more cynical. He believes that the revolution has happened because the prosperous middle-class wants to run the country for itself. Despite repeated threats, it has no real desire to expropriate the aristocracy's wealth, only its power. There will be no fundamental economic changes, he predicts.
Father Pirrone is afraid the revolution will mean the expropriation of Church property. But his concern isn't for the preservation of clergy privileges. Instead he worries that there will be no resources to care for the poor.
Father Pirrone is meant to symbolize the relationship of the Church to the aristocracy, and he's depicted as deferring to the prince like a family retainer in most matters. But on some subjects, he's defiantly independent. The priest repeatedly asks the prince to confess his sexual sins even though it's clear these requests make Fabrizio uncomfortable. Father Pirrone also doesn't hesitate to argue about politics. He scolds the prince for his willingness to accommodate the revolution. “The Church has an explicit promise of immortality,” Fabrizio replies. “We do not.” So the aristocracy are forced to compromise to survive. The Church would be justified in selling out the upper classes in a similar manner, the prince reasons, if that were the price of her survival.
Fabrizio's nephew, Tancredi (Alain Delon), joins Garibaldi's rebels. The prince gives him a large sum of money as a gesture of support. The Falconieri family will now have someone on the inside should Garibaldi succeed.
The revolution's victory makes Tancredi a hero. The prince's daughter, Concetta (Lucilla Morlacchi) is in love with him. But Fabrizio defies the rest of his family and encourages Tancredi to marry his own true love, the earthier Angelica Sedara (Claudia Cardinale), the daughter of a revolutionary leader, Don Calogero Sedara (Paola Stoppi), whose wealth will help the penniless nobleman.
“You can't be as distinguished as Tancredi unless your ancestors have squandered fortunes,” the prince remarks.
Even as he engages in clever political maneuvering, Fabrizio continues to live in the grandiose manner of his ancestors. He uses his political clout, not for economic or social advantage, but to circumvent a revolutionary roadblock which prevents his entourage from traveling to his summer estate.
Director Luchino Visconti and his four co-screenwriters chronicle through Tancredi and Calogero the revolutionaries’ abandonment of their ideals. “We were leopards and lions, and those who replace us will be jackals and hyenas,” the prince observes. “And all of us will think we're the salt of the earth.”
Fabrizio also has a fatalistic view of Sicily's ability to respond to any kind of social change. Visconti evokes the prince's love for his native land by lingering on the beauty of the region's sunny landscapes and ornate palaces. The movie also makes the prince's dignified, graceful rhythms its own. Its pace is determined by the stately social rituals of the Falconieri family — its outdoor picnics, private Masses, and sumptuous balls.
The filmmakers lament the sellout of the revolution, balancing this with a melancholy nostalgia for the old order, including the Church. The Leopard is a visual poem for a class which loses its power but preserves its mystique.
Arts & Culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
NEXT WEEK: Roland Joffe's The Mission.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Vatican II Through a Liberalís Lens DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:Ideology mars a well-produced PBS documentary on the historic council
On Sept. 18, PBS will air Reflections on Vatican II, a slick, technically well-produced trip down Catholic memory lane, 1960s style, as seen through the not-always-accurate prism of the post-Vatican II era. Sometimes, it presents a sound history of the Council and Pope John XXIII's vision of it. At other times, the film comes across as “Oliver Stone meets Vatican II,” offering viewers a revisionist hodge-podge of conflicting viewpoints on the council, with little synthesis and large amounts of spin.
But first things first. There's a lot to commend this documentary. It has, by and large, what folks in the movie-making business call “production values.” Vintage contemporaneous newscasts from the early 1960s, sprinkled with comments from veteran journalists who covered the council, tell much of the story.
NBC's Irving R. Levine's personal recollections vividly portray the unprecedented marvel — even the seeming incongruity — of a general council being held in the age of television and satellites. He recounts, for example, a brief statement John XXIII made for the Today Show. A ten-minute window afford by the Telstar satellite passing over Rome required careful coordination. Sitting in studio, Levine heard the floor manager utter the unforgettable words, “Cue the Pope.” TV put Vatican II and the bishops of the Catholic Church in everyone's living room, notes Levine, and the documentary does a fine job of capturing the hopeful excitement of it.
Reflections on Vatican II also shows the profound impact of Pope John XXIII on the modern Church and of his holy inspiration for a faithful “updating” (aggiornamento) to make the Church more effective in her mission. He is seen as a world leader who mediated between East and West in the Cuban missile crisis, a believer who sought reconciliation among Christian Churches, even between Christians and Jews — yet without diluting his Catholic vision. Here was a pope whose passion for the Gospel, for the unity of the human family, and for making Christ a living reality to all men, compelled him to orient the Church he led in service to the world.
And the world of his day took note. The great affection many non-Catholics felt for this great pontiff, especially in his passing away midway through Vatican II, is a moving theme of the documentary.
Yet notwithstanding such strengths, Reflections on Vatican II has grave flaws.
Where to begin? At the outset, we're told — by a cleric whom we later discover is actually a Traditionalist Catholic of Lefverist inclinations — that there were two main camps at Vatican II, a “conservative” and a “progressive” one. Okay. But then Cardinal Ottaviani is named as leader of the “conservatives” (a black and white shot of the Cardinal appears) and he is identified as the one “who was at that time what Cardinal Ratzinger is now, head of the Holy Office, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith” (the black and white photo fades into Cardinal Ratzinger at prayer).
Of course, that is factually correct, if we qualify it by saying the Holy Office was replaced by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. But the point is that the otherwise uninformed viewer is apt to conclude that somehow Cardinal Ratzinger's outlook toward Vatican II is or was that of Cardinal Ottaviani. In truth, if we have to situate the (then) young German theologian Ratzinger who served as a theological adviser at the council, it would be among the “progressives” — a staunch advocate of the Council and John XXIII's aggiornamento. Surely it is an injustice that the only reference to Cardinal Ratzinger is as Cardinal Ottaviani's successor.
Another major problem with the film: this two-hour documentary often grossly oversimplifies or misstates things. Consider the two things touted in the film as Vatican II's contribution to the Church's worship today — the vernacular liturgy and the Mass “facing the people.” The Western European and American churchmen interviewed give the mistaken impression, or at least are presented as giving the mistaken impression, that Vatican II itself mandated the vernacular and abolished Latin in all liturgies. Only the African Francis Cardinal Arinze gets it right. “The Vatican Council didn't send Latin on holiday or dismiss it altogether,” he states. “Unfortunately, some people in the Church have done just that. They behave as if Vatican II said ‘no more Latin; only look [at] modern languages.’ Vatican II did not say that. It wanted that flexibility so that sometimes there would be celebration in Latin.”
One need only look at the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy to see that Cardinal Arinze is correct. Article no. 36, fl1 and 2, for example, states, “The use of the Latin language, with due respect to particular law, is to be preserved in the Latin rights. But since the use of the vernacular, whether in the Mass, the administration of the sacraments, or in other parts of the liturgy, may frequently be of great advantage to the people, a wider use may be made of it, especially in readings, directives and in some prayers and chants.”
Vatican II assumed the Latin liturgy would be normative and made exceptions for the vernacular, not the other way around. Of course, post-conciliar Church legislation has quite legitimately allowed for the extension of the vernacular. The point is, Reflections on Vatican II obscures what really happened.
As for Mass “facing the people,” we're assured in the film by no less a theological authority than actor Martin Sheen that it “was like this very bright light had been shown into this dark place.” Does this mean that for the millennium before the Church was in the dark ages? That the great saints who worshipped God through the old liturgy were somehow “in the dark?”
More to the point, the documentary gets it wrong yet again about what Vatican II actually did. The council didn't mandate Mass “facing the people.” In fact, the novus ordo liturgy of Paul VI, which came five years after Vatican II and which is still in effect, permits celebration of the liturgy “facing the Lord,” that is, where the people and the priest face the same direction in offering the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Son to the Father in the Spirit, as well as “facing the people” in dialogue fashion.
In addition to the liturgy, the documentary examines the laity in the Church, the social aspect of the Church's mission, ecumenism, and the Church today. The views of prelates and theologians are juxtaposed with those of lay leaders and others, often revealing significant ideological biases. For example, Olivia Hill, the African American director of the diocesan Office of Black Ministry in Birmingham, Alabama, said of African Americans and Vatican II: “What happened was with Vatican II, we had the possibility of our spirits being freed. Vatican II indeed prompted the urgings of our spirits that has been oppressed because of a Eurocentric way of worshipping.”
Shift the scene to Washington state where Charlene Collora, “pastoral administrator for Our Lady of Mt. Virgin,” talks about her role in the parish as if she were pastor. “Now I sign the checks, I pay the bills, I make the decisions when we have to buy a new furnace or sell the plot of land next door to make needs meet. I'm the one who runs the parish council. And none of this would have happened before Vatican II.”
But none of this is supposed to happen after Vatican II either, assuming the documentary accurately depicts Collora's situation. The Code of Canon Law restricts the role of parish administrator to priests (Canon 539). After a few moments of the documentary's treatment of the laity, one sees why the Vatican had to issue a document last year directed against abuses of lay collaboration with the clergy.
Shift again to Vatican II's emphasis on the social mission of the Church. The film offers a stirring tribute to the anti-Vietnam and civil rights movements of the 1960s, with Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan and the other Catonsville Nine shown burning draft files. Martin Sheen pops in again, though, now among protesters chaining themselves to a federal building in Los Angeles and denouncing U.S. policy in El Salvador. Sheen opines, “There's great demand that is made of us that are Catholic and take the faith seriously, not always the Church, but the faith seriously …”
And of the courageous Catholic leadership in the pro-life movement? Silence. No sympathetic depictions of non-violent civil disobedience in defense of unborn children, nothing.. Peace activist Jim Douglas claims that the only “condemnation” Vatican II pronounced was of the indiscriminate destruction of cities and civilian populations. But, in fact, the council also denounced abortion (called an abominable crime, Gaudium et Spes, no. 51) and euthanasia (GS, no. 27).
Needless to say, the institutional Church comes in for heavy criticism. Pius XII is called “rigid.” He gets zero credit for encouraging the liturgical movement which led to Vatican II's Constitution on the Liturgy. And, once again, he is attacked for not speaking out against the Nazis, a criticism that overlooks the careful analysis of recent Jewish scholars such as William D. Rubinstein (The Myth of Rescue), who argue that doing so wouldn't have saved any more Jews than the Vatican already saved and might well have made things worse.
Then there's how John Paul II is treated. Though a significant player at Vatican II, he doesn't really appear until three quarters of the way into the documentary. And then most of the discussion centers on his postconciliar role in Poland and his efforts to wrestle his native land free from Communism. George Weigel, one of the few articulate and orthodox Catholic laymen interviewed (Janet Smith is another), does give a superb assessment of John Paul II's contribution. Indeed, Wiegel's summary of Vatican II is perhaps one of film's best parts; too bad it comes at the very end.
We hear nothing of John Paul II's ongoing efforts to implement the council — nothing about, for instance, his issuance of the revised Code of Canon Law, one of the original things that put John XXIII on to the idea of an ecumenical council in the first place. There's nothing about the Catechism of the Catholic Church, nor about how the Holy Father has tried to steer the Church between a Traditionalist rejection of the council on the one hand and a radical distortion of it by dissenters on the other. What we do get is largely critics of John Paul II bad-mouthing him as a traitor to the council. Yes, Janet Smith champions him as a “Pope of the council,” as does Weigel. But their sound-bites get lost beneath the denunciations of Hans Kung, Andrew Greeley and Richard McBrien. According to McBrien, John Paul II may have followed the “letter of Vatican II,” but he missed its “spirit.” Or, if “he's caught it, he's decided it was harmful to the Church.”
We could go on cataloging the film's specific sins. But perhaps the main problem with Reflections on Vatican II is that it treats Catholic orthodoxy as just one more opinion to be placed side-by- side with many dissenting viewpoints. What's more, the dissenters actually get more airtime — not necessarily to file their grievances — but at least to put their agenda-driven spin on the council and frame the discussion.
Despite its virtues, the flaws of the documentary are so massive and pervasive that this critic gives it two “thumbs down” for all but the most informed and critical Catholic viewers.
Mark Brumley writes from San Francisco.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mark Brumley ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: In Pennsylvania Farm Country, Our Own Sistine Chapel DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:Once a pillar of Catholicism in colonial America, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart remains a ‘gateway of faith’
With its commanding view of bucolic farmers’ fields, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart is called the “Gem of the Colonial Catholic Churches.” The scene has hardly changed in decades. Since 1787, the year the Constitution was signed in Philadelphia, this church has served the chiefly Catholic population in the Hanover, Pa., area.
With its facade of sandstone and side and rear walls of three-foot thick fieldstone, this edifice is the oldest Catholic church built of stone in the United States. At the time, more than 1,000 parishioners attended. By the turn of the century, it had grown to nearly 5,000 members — the largest parish in the fledgling nation.
Long before being named a basilica in 1962, the place was a pillar of Catholicism for the 13 colonies.
In 1787, the new church was dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the first in the country and most likely the first in the western hemisphere with this title. It replaced the original log chapel and dwelling that was built in 1741, called St. Mary of the Assumption — more familiarly known as Conewago Chapel. Even today, if you ask directions to the basilica, residents may not realize what you mean unless you use the name Conewago Chapel.
Long before being named a basilica in 1962, the place was a pillar of Catholicism for the 13 colonies. Jesuit missionaries traveled from Maryland and their first mission stop was rural Conewago. By the early 18th century, it was the first distinguishably Catholic settlement in Pennsylvania. Its earliest parishioners were German immigrants.
By the late 1760's Conewago Chapel had become headquarters of the mission territory and it stretched as far as western Pennsylvania and Maryland, and included the Shenandoah Valley. Jesuit annals identified it as the “motherhouse of all the Jesuit houses in Pennsylvania, save Philadelphia.”
There are many important names in the Catholic history of America with ties to Conewago. Father Theodore Schneider, founder of St. Paul's Chapel in Bally in 1741, was an itinerant pastor there for five years. Father Augustin Bally's first assignment in the states was there. Prince Gallitzin, better known as the “Apostle of the Alleghenies,” was very familiar with this stone church. He began his priestly life at the then Sacred Heart Church before heading west to found the parish and town of Loretto.
In the 1850s, St. John Neumann, then bishop of Philadelphia, visited Conewago five times shortly after the new transept and apse were added. It's little wonder that one title applied to this mother church was “Gateway of the Faith.”
Many of the early worshippers at this “gateway” remain interred in the present left transept, standing on what was once part of the cemetery for the log chapel. A plaque was erected in commemoration of the early pastors and parishioners whose headstones now stand in the cemetery behind the church.
When the church was built by Father James Pellentz SJ, first vicar general in America, during his 32 years at Conewago, the liturgical art was decades from completion. By 1851, artist Franz Stecher had done a series of paintings on the apse's ceiling, and also along the ceilings and walls of the transepts. Their theme: God's love and our redemption.
High above the main altar, there is a mural depicting God the Father sending his son to atone for the sins of mankind. Jesus gives up his kingly crown for a crown of thorns. The story continues with murals of the Nativity in the left transept and of the Crucifixion in the right, where the ceiling mural celebrates Christ triumphant.
Another ceiling mural depicts the Sacred Heart and God the Father. Adoring angels surround the Sacred Heart as he resumes his kingly crown and is enthroned with the Father's words, “Sit at my right hand.”
Seven years before, another artist completed the extensive fresco of the Assumption on the nave ceiling. An elaborately painted framework borders the fresco. At the far corners are the four evangelists.
In the transepts, paintings at the side altars are crowned by bas reliefs of the Sacred Heart. There are reminders of Jesuit saints too. The beautiful Munich stained-glass windows lining the nave were installed between 1902 and 1914. On one side they highlight the joyful mysteries, and on the other, scenes from Jesus at Cana, preaching, and laid in the tomb. The gallery windows above honor various saints.
The painting behind the main altar was commissioned for the centennial as another fitting reminder of the church's dedication. In it, the Sacred Heart appears to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, while her confessor, St. Claude de la Colombiere, looks on.
During renovations in preparation for the honor of basilica, in 1962, and for the 175th anniversary of the church, not only were the murals restored, but the gradines of the 1877 marble altar were removed and made into pillars for the baldachino.
In 1901, after nearly two centuries, the Jesuits turned the parish over to the Harrisburg diocese. A year later, the present stone school and hall replaced earlier buildings. The Sisters of St. Joseph came and continue even today as part of the present staff for the 250 pupils.
The stone basilica is 12 miles east of Gettysburg, and 42 miles northwest of Baltimore. From that city, take Interstate 795 to state Route 30N which changes in Pennsylvania to Route 94N. Follow to Hanover and Route 116W a few miles to Centennial Rd., right 1.1 mi. to a right on Chapel St. and on to the basilica. From Philadelphia, take Route 202W becoming Route 30W, to New Oxford and 4 mi. south to the church.
Edgegrove may be a small village in the Hanover area, yet since the colonial days, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart has played a major role in Catholicism. Its history has prompted different titles, and so has its artwork. William Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore, then an archbishop, called the basilica “our Sistine Chapel.”
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Women Victimized by Abortion Strengthen Pro-Life Viewpoint DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:Groups stress toll on woman, child, and families
ST LOUIS-It was a vintage Barbara Walters question but the answer was totally unexpected. In a broadcast on ABC's 20/20 news show a few years ago, Walters interviewed Lorena Bobbitt, the woman who made national news when she mutilated her husband's genitals with a knife and said she was an abused wife. Walters asked what her thoughts were as she picked up the knife. “First, I thought of the abortion…” was the reply. Although Walters quickly changed the subject, court testimony revealed that Bobbitt had had an abortion almost exactly three years before her crime.
“Pat” was 5 1/2 months pregnant and happily anticipating the birth of her first baby when her obstetrician bluntly informed her that her baby had anencephaly, a devastating birth defect, and that she needed to have an abortion as soon as possible to save her life. Frightened, she underwent a very difficult abortion the next day. It never occurred to her that her doctor would lie about anencephaly being a life-threatening condition for her. Five years and two healthy sons later, Pat called a friend saying, “I don't want a lecture, I only want to know one thing: what did they do with the body (of the aborted baby)?”
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John Biskind, an Arizona abortionist, made national news when he almost completed a partial birth abortion on a full-term baby girl in June, fracturing her skull and lacerating her face. Shortly afterwards, reports surfaced of past problems with his clinic including a woman who bled to death after an abortion in his facility in April, 1998. Biskind's A-Z abortion clinic, like most Arizona abortion clinics, is not regulated or licensed by the state.
Such stories of physical and psychological suffering from abortion do not surprise people like those who attended the first national Women at Risk conference held in St. Louis last month. Approximately 80 people came from 27 states and had a wide range of disturbing stories to tell. But rather than just a conference on post-abortion syndrome or the physical risks of abortion, the goal of this conference was to help women who have had abortions to have a greater impact on the abortion debate by promoting action to protect women from abortion trauma, both physical and mental.
A New Kind of Attitude
This kind of militancy is a newer aspect in the abortion debate.
In the first years after Roe v. Wade, opposition to abortion focused on the humanity and rights of the unborn child. Education and legislation were tried in an effort to regain protection for the unborn child but these efforts met with limited success. As time went by and the numbers of abortions skyrocketed, groups like Feminists for Life and Women Exploited by Abortion (WEBA) increased awareness that women, too, were being hurt by abortion. While pro-abortion organizations maintained that women suffered and died because abortion had been illegal, cases of physical complications and even deaths from legal abortion began to emerge. At the same time, a pattern of emotional symptoms was noted among women who had had abortions and was named Post-Abortion Syndrome by those in the pro-life movement.
Support groups such as WEBA were later joined by organized healing programs like Project Rachel. Despite a virtual media blackout of the existence of such groups, the numbers of women and others seeking help after abortion has increased enormously. Legislation and education in recent years has begun to focus on issues affecting women such as parental consent for teens and stricter regulation of abortion clinics in terms of safety and information on risks and alternatives. These initiatives have run into ferocious opposition from pro-abortion groups, especially as the numbers of abortions appear to be decreasing and the numbers of health care providers willing to perform abortions is dwindling. The voices of experience from women who have had abortions has had a particularly powerful impact on the abortion debate.
This does not surprise experts like David Reardon, Ph.D., who has studied and written on post-abortion issues for 15 years as director of the Elliot Institute. One of the featured speakers at the Women at Risk conference, he points out that there can be an up to a 10-year lag before a woman realizes the negative impact of abortion on her life and it can take another 10 years before she feels healed enough to act and insist that women be protected. With the 25th anniversary of legalized abortion occurring this year, he says the timing may be right for many more women to come forward. The Women at Risk conference was formed to help such women organize for action.
Carefully avoiding a position on abortion itself, Women at Risk seeks to be open to both pro-life and pro-choice women and groups who truly want to protect women from abortion trauma. As one speaker who had an abortion said, “If a woman has a right to choose, she has a right to know what she's choosing.” Model legislation was proposed at the conference and addressed such issues as better counseling for women, redress for those hurt by abortion, mandatory malpractice coverage, and full disclosure of risks.
Reardon believes that women who have had abortions can hold the key to solving a basic abortion puzzle: while the vast majority of people polled agree that abortion takes a human life, polls also show that the majority want to keep abortion legal, at least in some circumstances. Unfortunately, he says, the public views the abortion issue as a “false choice” between a woman and her unborn baby without recognizing that the “well-being of the baby and mother are intertwined.” If a common consensus can be reached that at least some abortions are unwanted, coerced, or unsafe, he maintains, there would be a public demand that abortion clinics and providers be regulated to the kind of high standards enforced for regular medical procedures — a standard that would be virtually impossible for abortion clinics to meet.
Hope and Healing
Many of the attendees at the conference were also people actively involved in post-abortion healing organizations and they spoke of the need to reach aborted women with the message that there is hope and help for them.
In the past 10 years there has been an explosion of programs such as Project Rachel in dioceses around the country and other religious organizations currently provide training and support for post-abortion healing.
Because of the recognition that abortion affects more people than just the women who have had abortions, post-abortion healing is also now available for men and relatives in their lives. But a major problem has been getting the word out to the people suffering after abortion.
Ann V., a nurse who became suicidal after her abortion, says that women hurting after abortion can feel they are in a virtual no-man's land. The pro-choice movement dismisses the pain women feel after abortion and the pro-life movement sometimes seems to ignore or judge the aborted woman. She believes that greater sensitivity and a more understanding attitude towards aborted women would open up more women to the help they need.
Efforts include distributing information to churches, colleges, and media outlets as well as less obvious venues. Heidi Heystek of Kalamazoo, Michigan, of Freedom Ministries, is active in a pilot program for post-abortion healing that was started in a local prison this year. Although hard statistics are hard to come by, Heystek estimates that up to 70% of women in prison have had a prior abortion.
Experts in the field of post-abortion healing agree that an understanding and caring attitude is crucial to reaching people hurt by abortion and changing the public perception of abortion. While different approaches can and are being tried, it is likely that it will take a diversity of efforts to ultimately solve the abortion problem.
Nancy Valko writes from St. Louis, Missouri.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Nancy Valko ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Help in Post-Abortion Healing DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:Resources for Post-Abortion Healing Information and help for post-abortion healing can usually be found by contacting your local diocese, crisis pregnancy center and pro-life organizations. Some national resources include: 1. Elliot Institute, PO Box 7348, Springfield, IL 62791-7348. Internet address: www.afterabortion.org. David Reardon, Ph.D., director. Books, publications and information on post-abortion issues and healing. 2. The National Office on Post-abortion Reconciliation and Healing, P.O. Box 07477, Milwaukee, WI 53207-0477. Ph: 1-800-5WE-CARE. Internet address: www.mu.edu/rachel. Information on post-abortion healing and groups such as Project Rachel.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: John Paul II's Message of Hope after Abortion DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:I would like to say a special word to women who have had an abortion. The Church is aware of the many factors which may have influenced your decision and she does not doubt that in many cases it was a painful and even shattering decision. The wound in your heart may not yet have healed. Certainly what happened was and remains terribly wrong. But do not give in to discouragement and do not lose hope. Try rather to understand what happened and face it honestly. If you have not already done so, give yourselves over with humility and trust to repentance. The Father of mercies is ready to give you his forgiveness and his peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. To the same Father and to his mercy you can with sure hope entrust your child. With the friendly and expert help and advice of other people, and as a result of your own painful experience, you can be among the most eloquent defenders of everyone's right to life. Through your commitment to life, whether by accepting the birth of other children or by welcoming and caring for those most in need of someone to be close to them, you will become promoters of a new way of looking at human life. (Evangelium Vitae, 99.3)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Homosexual Rights Protected Under Canadian Province's Code DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:Prince Edward Island's reputation for traditional values suffers a blow
TORONTO—Church and pro-life groups are dismayed with a decision by the Prince Edward Island (PEI) government to provide human rights protection for the gay lifestyle.
Following the example of other provincial governments, Canada's smallest province recently voted to amend its human rights code to prohibit discrimination on the basis of “sexual orientation and family status.” Prince Edward Island now becomes the last Canadian province to enact gay rights legislation.
Organizations supporting the traditional family see a certain tragic symbolism in the government's action. Prince Edward Island has long been referred to as “Canada's life sanctuary” because abortion is not available throughout the province. It is also home to a high proportion of Catholics and others upholding a traditional view of marriage and family.
In arguing for the legislation, former PEI attorney general Mitch Murphy said adding sexual orientation to the human rights code would satisfy homosexual groups in their demand for a mechanism to lodge discrimination complaints. Murphy also said the bill maintains a traditional view of marriage, a move he believed would appease pro-family interests.
While the Church does not condemn homosexuals, it teaches that living out the homosexual orientation in homosexual activity is not a morally acceptable option.
Nonetheless, pro-life groups on Prince Edward Island said the action in effect provides special status to gays and lesbians. They say people of homosexual orientation are already protected from discrimination by existing human rights laws. With the latest changes, however, the government is giving sanction to alternative lifestyles, and many suspect it will lead to legal recognition of homosexual marriage.
Writing in a national newsletter, Campaign Life Coalition president Jim Hughes speculated that the human rights changes could open the door to even greater acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle. Campaign Life Coalition is Canada's most influential pro-life, pro-family organization.
“It used to be politicians would dismiss concerns about the enormous implications of such a change, but (the PEI attorney general) seems resigned to what his bill really means for the province,” Hughes said. “It's reported that he is already expecting the law will be challenged in court, with a view to expanding its meaning to include gay marriage. It seems he thinks it's a matter for unaccountable judges, rather than elected representatives to decide.”
Hughes’ comments underscore a long-standing concern of Canadian pro-life, pro-family organizations that sympathetic court rulings, and “judicial activism” advance the cause of the gay rights lobby.
Human rights protection for homosexuals has become a divisive issue in Canada during the last several years. A number of legal battles — including a celebrated case in Alberta in which the Canadian Supreme Court ordered the province to add sexual orientation to its human rights code — have left gay rights groups and pro-family supporters at a bitter impasse. Many lament the view of homosexuals as a persecuted minority which requires special protection under human rights codes.
Prince Edward Island pro-life groups say the human rights code changes came about without sufficient input from island residents. A coalition made up of the Knights of Columbus, PEI Right to Life, the pro-life REAL Women of Canada, and several Protestant pastors failed in its bid to have the legislation withdrawn. This coalition was dismissed as “a fringe group” by the province's largest newspaper and by forces supporting gay rights on PEI.
Doreen Beagan, a member of REAL Women of Canada, led the opposition to the human rights code changes. REAL Women is a pro-family organization supporting traditional roles for women.
Beagan believes the PEI government took its action out of fear it would appear out of step with the other nine Canadian provinces, each of which has outlawed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The province was also unduly influenced, she said, by lobbying efforts by Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere (EGALE), an Ottawa-based gay activist group.
“I can't help but believe that our leaders bought into the propaganda put forward by this group,” Beagan said. “There hasn't been a large public outcry now that the legislation has been changed, but I don't think this is the last we've seen from these pro-homosexual groups.” Beagan added that her efforts to oppose the changes led to her being branded “paranoid” and “hate-filled” by the local media.
Beagan said while it is important to avoid unjust discrimination in one's treatment of homosexual persons, there should be room for necessary commentary and warning about immoral behavior.
Gwen Landolt, national president of the REAL Women organization, told the Register that the PEI case is typical of other Canadian provinces in their handling of the gay rights issue.
“The amendment in Prince Edward Island, which is clearly contrary to the views of the majority of the population, is an example of how homosexual activists achieve their objectives,” she said. “They get one province, or corporation, on their side and then use that as a lever to demand equal protection across other areas in other provinces and other corporations.” Landolt, an attorney and noted critic of Canada's justice system, believes sexual orientation should never have become a human rights item. “Sexual orientation cannot be equated to other areas of human rights protection,” she said.
“The Human Rights Code provides protection on the basis of color, race, and sex. The latter are unchangeable characteristics, for which there is widespread support for protection among Canadians. Protection on the basis of sexual orientation however, is a changeable characteristic which has been unable to generate widespread support anywhere in Canada. Never before has there been protection for a lifestyle or sexual activity in human rights legislation.”
For his part, Bishop Vernon Fougere of the Charlottetown, PEI Diocese, has appealed for a tolerant approach to the controversy. “In the area of sexual responsibility, the Church teaches that certain sexual behaviors are wrong,” Bishop Fougere said in a statement. “While the Church does not condemn homosexuals, it teaches that living out the homosexual orientation in homosexual activity is not a morally acceptable option. However … the Church is not giving you or me the right to discriminate against the homosexual person.”
Bishop Fougere pointed to statements from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which uphold the rights of all persons to be treated in a dignified manner. At the same time, he said, all rights must be guided by responsibilities, and that “disordered external conduct” may limit individual rights.
“The Church has a duty to teach respect for the human person and to absolve the sinner who repents and confesses,” the bishop added. “The best way is always the way of love, no matter what.”
Mike Mastromatteo writes from Toronto, Canada.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mike Mastromatteo ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Adoption Poses Challenges and Opportunities for Couples DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:Most prefer to adopt independently, but many use agencies
WASHINGTON—Infertile Catholic couples may be able to adopt American babies without spending large sums of money and waiting years for an adoption agency's decision. But success is linked to hard work, persistence, patience, and some divine assistance.
There are two main ways to adopt a child: independently or through an agency. The majority of adoptions are independent ones, which means the adopting couple finds the birth mother through advertising or other means and hires an attorney to sort through the legal tangles.
All adoptions require a home study, which is a social worker's assessment of the adoptive parents and their home.
By using the right resources, a couple can adopt an infant or newborn for less than $10,000. About half of this amount is now tax deductible, the result of a law which took effect this year. But there are other challenges.
Bethany Home Services, one of the largest and most successful adoption agencies, requires that prospective adoptive parents attend church regularly and sign an evangelical Statement of Faith. This latter requirement may present problems for Catholics.
It reads, “In matters of faith and life, the Bible is the final authority because it is the Word of God.” It continues by noting the Bible “tells us that we receive forgiveness of sins by faith in Jesus Christ, that God provides salvation by grace alone for those who repent and believe.”
So, in effect, signers must formally renounce the authority of the Catholic Church, sacred tradition, the sacrament of penance, and the importance of works in attaining salvation. Still, a Bethany social worker in Ashcroft, Md., said the agency has worked with “many Catholic couples,” who signed without complaint.
Bethany's adoption application requires couples to include a pastor's endorsement. In an ironic twist, then, a Bethany social worker could ask a Catholic priest to give a referral for a couple who have signed a formal document at odds with Catholic teaching.
In Maryland, potential adoptive parents are charged about $8,500 for Bethany's services. But there are a number of less expensive sources around the nation. One of these is Answered Prayer Adoption Services Inc. of Gonzales, La., a two-year-old service run by Susan Minvielle, a Catholic.
Minvielle, who sprinkles her conversations with biblical quotes, said, “God will never close the doors, because this is for his purpose.”
Through the beginning of this year, she had placed 66 children for adoption in 21 states.
Minvielle, an adoptive mother herself, has often had to work until 10:30 p.m. but she's now trying to spend more time with her family. Still, she acknowledges, “babies aren't always born between 9 and 3 p. m.”
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington is another example of a relatively inexpensive service. It charges $1,275 for a home study and application fee for those who live within its jurisdiction of the nation's capital and five Maryland counties.
James Cardinal Hickey, ordinary of the archdiocese, has placed a cap on the amount of money that adoptive couples can expect to spend through Catholic Charities. This limit is part of an effort to make adoption more affordable for families who meet the standards.
Catholic Charities covers the living expenses of adoptive mothers, as well as legal expenses involved in adoptions. The agency does not widely advertise its services, but relies instead on word-of-mouth endorsements for women in crisis pregnancies to be referred to them.
Many couples choose to adopt independently of the agency system. In some cases, these couples do not fit the “ideal” agency profile of an adoptive couple: a physically and financially sound couple in their 30s who have been married at least four years, have a medical diagnosis of infertility, and who are not trying to have children biologically.
In independent adoptions, the couple works with an attorney and in many cases places advertisements in newspapers and otherwise seeks to identify women in crisis pregnancies. Such couples will offer legal and medical help and financial assistance for living expenses for the mother.
Adoption professionals usually discourage independent adoption, and the practice is illegal in several states. Agency advocates note that in many independent adoptions, the birth mothers do not receive any counseling about dealing with emotional problems or avoiding future crisis pregnancies.
Still, independent adoption advocates stress that their approach is less costly and birth mothers often feel more in control of their decision. These mothers can select the adoptive parents and are able to bypass intermediaries, who can complicate the process.
Regardless of the vehicle used by prospective adoptive parents, adoption is an opportunity for couples to provide love and caring for children who may have clouded futures.
As many pro-life adherents stress, there is no economic reason why abortion should be necessary when so many couples are willing to share their lives with so-called “unwanted” children.
Bill Murray writes from Kensington, Md.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Bill Murray ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: The Gospel Of Life DATE: 09/13/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 13-19, 1998 ----- BODY:Adoption is an opportunity for couples ‘to provide love and caring for children who may have clouded futures.’ (see article below) In Evangelium Vitae Pope John Paul II said:
“A particularly significant expression of solidarity between families is a willingness to adopt or take in children abandoned by their parents or in situations of serious hardship. True parental love is ready to go beyond the bonds of flesh and blood in order to accept children from other families, offering them whatever is necessary for their well-being and full developement. Among the various forms of adoption, consideration should be given to adoption-at-a-distance, preferable in cases where the only reason for giving up the child is the extreme poverty of the child's family. Through this type of adoption, parents are given the help needed to support and raise their children, without their being uprooted from their natural enviroment.” (93.2)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Clinton Crisis Grips Washington and Nation DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—For more than a week the nation's capital has been roiled by the Starr report and the reaction to it. While many political questions are involved, the crisis also squarely deals with such Catholic concerns as forgiveness, mercy, justice, and moral leadership.
It seems providential that the Gospel reading for Sept. 13 was St. Luke's account of the Prodigal Son. Newspaper stories indicate that many parishes throughout the country heard homilies related to this theme and the travails of President Clinton.
Church teaching, of course, is clear that repentance and forgiveness are essential. But is the issue more complex when the sins involved are attributable to the world's most powerful political leader, who has been given a unique position of trust by the American people?
Perhaps this matter of trust is most central to understanding what should be the proper Christian response. Many commentators have recently cited the secular position advanced in The Federalist — the 1788 apologia for the U.S. Constitution — which best articulates the views of the Founding Fathers.
The germane Federalist 65, for example, notes: “The delicacy and magnitude of a trust, which so deeply concerns the political regulation and existence of every man engaged in the administration of public affairs, speak for themselves.”
But, while this venerable treatise and others like it give insight into the political remedies — most notably, impeachment — they fail to provide sufficient religious guidance. Here is where the Catechism of the Catholic Church is instructive.
Keith Fournier, head of the Catholic Alliance, told the Register, “The Catechism has much to say about scandal. Every informed Catholic citizen should examine these passages in the light of the recent tragedy we face as a people in this nation we so dearly love.”
One section of this key Church document notes: “Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others. Jesus reproaches the scribes and Pharisees on this account: he likens them to wolves in sheep's clothing.”
Fournier, who also is an attorney and a permanent Catholic deacon, added, “When sincere repentance is present in the life of an individual, we as Christians should welcome it. But repentance is directly connected to reparation and restitution — in other words what is called “a change of behavior” in biblical texts.”
There is disagreement over what Clinton's response should be to his wrongdoing. Some have suggested that sincere contrition might be sufficient; that is the course he pursued at a White House prayer breakfast Sept. 11.
Others believe censure or the more extreme punishment, impeachment and possible removal from office, is appropriate. And, of course, there is the option of resignation.
Father Richard John Neuhaus, publisher of the influential magazine First Things, argues that when the true extent of Clinton's misconduct becomes apparent, there will be a “rapid and momentous shift” against the President among the American public.
Arguing that “the man is now reaping the whirlwind,” he believes that resignation is inevitable. The only question is “when, rather than if.” That, he says, will be desirable because it will occasion a cleansing of the American constitutional order and body politic.
While the issue of Clinton's fate and the stability of the nation are of central concern to us, there also exists the broader issue of what kind of moral leadership we can or should expect from our public officials. Among the questions raised throughout this whole affair is whether character matters and whether there is a distinction between public and private morality.
“Character makes all the difference in the world,” says Dr. Stephen Krason, president of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists. He adds, “We have to avoid disparagement, because that's a sin. But Catholics in the future need to examine character” more closely.
There has been some disappointment that more members of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy haven't spoken more forcefully on this issue in recent days. However, one who has provided direction is Bishop James McHugh of the Camden, N.J. diocese.
He wrote in the Catholic Star-Herald on Sept. 4: “My purpose is not to judge the president, much less punish him. My deeper and more fearsome concern is the prevailing public reaction and what that says of the moral fiber of the country.”
He is referring, of course, to the notion that one's sexual life is private and irrelevant in the public realm. This is the point Clinton made in August. Opinion polls seem to indicate that many Americans agree with this position.
But Bishop McHugh counters by saying that “sex is never private. It always has social implications. That is why all societies try to control it by laws, customs, and social restrictions.” He adds that this “dilemma should be a lesson to the nation that our national sexual mores and attitudes need refashioning.”
According to Benedictine Father Matthew Habinger of Human Life International, “There can be no split between one's private morality and one's public morality. The same person operates in both spheres.
“We have only one conscience, which we take with us wherever we go. There is no area in our lives which is exempt from the demands of morality,” he said.
The White House's aggressive attempt to discredit the Starr report — while the President continues to offer public contrition — seems to indicate the political crisis will envelop the nation for some time. At this point, there seems no evidence that Clinton will resign.
But regardless of the President's fate, many Christians believe that there is now an opportunity to demand higher moral accountability for our public officials. With prayer, reliance on church teachings, and perhaps some renewed reliance on common sense, we can start to reclaim a culture which, according to Crisis publisher Deal Hudson, has “a skin-deep level of conviction.”
Joseph Esposito writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: UNPRECEDENTED SITUATION RAISES MANY QUESTIONS ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Esposito ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Catholic Radio Network Prepares to Hit Airwaves DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:LOS ANGELES—In the 1950s, at the dawn of the age of television, Bishop Fulton Sheen's dramatic presentations of Catholic doctrine and his vivid social commentary earned him top ratings on network TV. And while successful Catholic forays into media since then have managed to attract solid Catholic audiences — Mother Angelica's Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), for example — nothing like Bishop Sheen's impact on the American mass public has been duplicated for more than a generation.
Backers of the Catholic Radio Network (CRN) hope to change all that.
With a tentative launch date of Oct. 3, the lay-owned and operated radio network, backed by San Francisco-based Ignatius Press and the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, and with Denver's Archbishop Charles Chaput as episcopal adviser, will broadcast 24-hour Catholic radio to 10 major markets across the United States. CRN hopes to be available to an even wider global public over the Internet and through satellite technology.
“Seventy million Catholics in this country, and [few] Catholic radio [stations],” San Diego-based CRN president and CEO John Lynch told the Register. “Sixteen hundred Christian radio stations on the air, and only a handful are Catholic.”
As Pope John Paul II has often pointed out, said Lynch, “Catholics have done a poor job of using the mass media to evangelize.
We need to get out there in the mainstream,” and make an impact.
Network executives have repeatedly assured U.S. bishops that they would work in cooperation with local Church authorities, a stance that Archbishop Weakland asserts is called into question.
Representatives of Ignatius Press and Franciscan University initially signed a purchase agreement last April for 10 AM radio stations in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Minneapolis, Kansas City (Kan.), Dallas, Chicago, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and New York, with an option to purchase up to three more stations. With Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval secured, CRN hopes to “finalize” the $70 million financing package in the next few weeks, Lynch said, and be up and running.
New Catholic programming on these stations, CRN executives say, won't be in place until the end of the year. Much of the current programming on the newly purchased stations is “beat radio,” and negotiations are underway to move to classical music programming on the 10 stations as a transitional phase until the full 24-hour complement of Catholic programs is ready.
Next year, if all goes well, Lynch hopes to do a second round of acquisitions that would add 40 to 50 more major radio outlets to the network. “There's never been a time,” he said, “when a Catholic voice in society has been more needed. We need a family values network.”
According to a Sept. 4 article in the Tidings, the Los Angeles arch-diocesan newspaper, investors in the for-profit venture reportedly include Karl Karcher, founder of the Anaheim, Ca.-based Carl's, Jr. Restaurant chain and Thomas Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza.
And according to the same article, staff recruitment is being handled by Bill McMahon, a media consultant who is credited with bringing talk radio giant Rush Limbaugh to the air-waves.
The talk radio connection is one of the things that makes the CRN effort particularly unique.
When Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, president of Ignatius Press, which publishes Catholic books and magazines, including The Catholic World Report and Homiletic and Pastoral Review, and Franciscan University vice-president Nicholas Healy, Jr., approached veteran broadcaster Lynch last spring to spearhead the project, Lynch told them that his vision centered on “a national talk radio network.”
Lynch, who has a broadcasting degree from Drake University, was the long-time president of Noble Broadcasting, and owner of stations in Chicago and San Diego, Ca., where he helped develop the Extra-AM690 sports talk format.
“We need a mass appeal Catholic radio,” Lynch told the Register. EWTN, he said, serves those who are already committed. “What about those on the periphery, Catholics who are no longer practicing their faith, the unchurched? The key to that audience is going mainstream, for a format that's strong, controversial, timely, and sharp.”
Program hosts, said Lynch, would have to subscribe to the teaching of the Church and the Pope. “While we're not politically slanted one way or the other,” he said, “we're on the orthodox side of the Church.”
Lynch's programming plans will feature not only 24-hour Catholic talk radio, but national and Catholic Church news on the hour and three daily time slots for commentary on the issues by Catholic clergy and other notables.
“People like William Bennett, [Republican Senator] Rick Santorum, [Calif. Attorney General] Dan Lungren — people from all walks of life.” Lynch also indicated earlier this year to the Register that Dr. James Dobson had been approached about contributing to the network's programs.
A recent Catholic News Service article reported that CRN backers had also contacted Chicago's Cardinal Francis George to do a “Call the Cardinal” show for the network.
While Lynch indicated that there had been “a tremendous [positive] reaction” to the announcement of the project, CRN, even before its first show has aired, drew fire from at least one quarter.
Milwaukee's Archbishop Rembert Weakland, in a recent interview with the Milwaukee Catholic Herald, said flatly that “I don't want them [CRN] in the archdiocese.”
He cited concerns that CRN would be a forum “for a one-sided presentation” of Catholicism and would sow “confusion among Catholics about who speaks for the Church.”
While he indicated that there was nothing he could legally do to prevent the network from broadcasting, he regretted that the network's leadership does not reflect “a broader range of views, something that would show the true image of where the Catholic Church is today.”
Milwaukee is one of the 10 target cities for CRN's initial push.
Part of the problem is that network executives have repeatedly assured US bishops that they would work in cooperation with local Church authorities — a stance that Archbishop Weakland asserts is called into question by the fact that the network intends to proceed with plans to broadcast in his diocese despite his objections.
Archbishop Weakland said in a recent Tidings interview that “no matter how well-intentioned the Catholic network is,” the fact that they would go against his wishes as chief shepherd of the archdiocese, “shows a bad ecclesiology.”
In addition, Archbishop Weakland was critical of the talk-radio format itself.
“How do you control [the range of views callers represent]? Callers are anonymous, nobody takes responsibility for what they say. It's no way to search for the truth,” he said.
Church spokesmen in Los Angeles, who had a bout with outside media criticism of their bishop last year, were more circumspect.
(EWTN's Mother Angelica made on-air remarks about whether Los Angeles Catholics questioned Cardinal Roger Mahony's directives as part of her critique of a pastoral letter on the Eucharist he issued last year. She later apologized for her remarks.)
Cautious optimism would be the right way to characterize the Los Angeles archdiocese's appraisal of the CRN project so far, said Capuchin Father Gregory Coiro, director of media relations for the archdiocese.
“The folks who are behind CRN have a sincere desire to launch a viable tool for evangelization,” he said. “I hope it's that. We've been assured that nobody wants to see the station used to cause squabbles like the one Mother Angelica caused.”
Father Coiro said that Father Fessio, one of the network's principal backers, had told him that CRN wanted to be a forum for issues, not a launching pad for bashing individuals or members of the hierarchy. Still, Father Coiro indicated that he understood Archbishop Weakland's concerns.
“A bishop is responsible for the Catholic teaching in his diocese,” he said. “These people [CRN executives] seem to be orthodox. On the other hand, they're defying the express wishes of the local bishop. There seems to be a definite contest of wills there.
”Talk radio,“ he said, ”has a talent for bringing out all sorts of opinion. But if [CRN] becomes a place where opinions can be sifted and some commonality reached, it's a good thing.
“We'll give a listen,” he said. “We'll see.”
CRN executives say that they understand Archbishop Weakland's concerns, but that his reactions are “premature.”
“It's illogical to judge something before it's even on the air,” said Lynch. “[Archbishop] Weakland's going to be our greatest fan when he sees what we do.”
Francis Maier, chancellor for the Denver archdiocese, admitted that “any bishop would have concerns about a Catholic radio station broadcasting in his area,” but that Archbishop Chaput had been careful to keep the bishops [of proposed station sites] appraised of program philosophy and the intentions of broadcasters.
“If we don't do a good job,” he said, “we'll hear about that, but we do expect to be heard out before being written off.”
About the specific purchase of the Milwaukee station over Archbishop Weakland's objections, Maier indicated that the Milwaukee purchase was part of a package deal that network investors were not in a position to forego.
“It's not that the network can say, ‘OK, we won't buy the station in Milwaukee.’ In the way this is set up, to walk away from Milwaukee is to walk away from the whole deal,” Maier said.
Archbishop Chaput, said the chancellor, has long been a proponent of Church involvement in the mainstream media.
“On his very first day in Denver,” said Maier, “the archbishop said, ‘I want a radio station.’”
But while it proved financially impossible for the archdiocese to launch its own project, Father Fessio approached Archbishop Chaput late last year with the idea of mounting a larger Catholic radio effort. Those discussions went on fast-forward during last April's conference on the new media and evangelization held in Denver, which brought key investors together with Church leaders and broadcasters in the meeting of minds which produced CRN.
“What appealed to the archbishop,” Maier said, “was that he knew some of the people involved, he understood their motives — that they want to build up the Church, not divide it — and, more importantly, it was a fit with his emphasis on evangelization.”
“Everything with [Archbishop] Chaput is about evangelization,” said Maier. “If it's about the preaching of the Gospel, he's for it. If not, it gets a lower priority. [CRN] is a very logical, a very positive thing to be doing. Of course, they are going to be bumps in the road, mistakes that will be made. The archbishop understands that. But getting the Church involved in radio is really worth doing.”
Gabriel Meyer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Project generates excitement, but Milwaukee archbishop objects to station in his diocese ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gabriel Meyer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Cardinal Blasts Partial-Birth Abortion at Medical Congress DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—Speaking with thunderous emotion at an international conference of Catholic health professionals in New York City, John Cardinal O'Connor commended those who have spoken out in moral terms against President Clinton's admitted sexual misconduct and asked why there was no comparable moral outrage when Clinton vetoed legislation outlawing partial-birth abortion, which the cardinal called “a horror far beyond others.”
Much eloquent speech has been devoted to the president's situation in this country and abroad, the cardinal stated, “but where was the country, where was the world, when the president of the United States vetoed the bill passed by the Congress of the United States banning partial-birth abortion?”
He said that last week he sent a letter to Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, a Democrat who spoke from the Senate floor denouncing in strictly moral terms the president's misconduct, and who set the stage for other congressmen to do likewise. In the letter, the cardinal said, he told the senator that he “shared the popular applause over his courage to speak about the morality of the situation and not merely the politics of the situation, and I said for that reason — I cannot begin to understand how you can speak in such wonderful moral terms and yet vote as you have voted to support partial-birth abortion, which in my judgment is as heinous an offense against human life as our civilization has ever seen.”
The cardinal said he was not speaking in political terms and called Lieberman an outstanding man in some other respects. His comments were given more force, however, by the fact that the Senate is scheduled this month to vote on an override of Clinton's veto of the partial-birth bill. Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, has been the target of an intensive campaign among pro-life Jews and Christians seeking to change his vote from last year in the Senate's failed effort to override the veto. The House of Representatives voted to override the veto last June, and a positive Senate outcome would bring the bill into law.
It was the first time Cardinal O'Connor had spoken publicly about the scandal surrounding Clinton, and his statement came a day after special prosecutor Kenneth Starr delivered his report to Congress outlining 11 possibly impeachable offenses by the president.
In his weekly column earlier this month in New York Archdiocese's newspaper, Catholic New York, the cardinal said that he did not need to make a statement on the president's situation because no faithful Catholic could be in doubt as to his thinking on the matter and he did not see how speaking out would stem the spread of public scandal or advance the salvation of souls.
The cardinal was a keynote speaker Sept. 11 at the meeting of health workers which marked the 19th World Congress of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC) and the 67th annual meeting of the Catholic Medical Association USA (CMA). The conference, with more than 400 Catholic physicians and other health professionals from some 20 countries, was held at the Sheraton New York Hotel in Manhattan, Sept. 10-13. The theme was “Medical Ethics in the Third Millennium: Christ's Healing Love Through the Gospel of Life.”
Other keynote speakers included Dr. Edmund Pellegrino, professor of medicine and medical ethics at the Center for Clinical Bioethics, Georgetown University, who gave the Jerome Lejeune Memorial Lecture on the doctor-patient relationship in the light of Christian ethics; Father Benedict Groeschel, CFR, director of the Center of Spiritual Development in New York, who spoke on devotion to Christ the Physician (“Christus Medicus”); and Father Stanley Jaki, a physicist and professor at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, who reported on the conditions surrounding two spontaneous healings at Lourdes witnessed at the beginning of this century by a Nobel Science Award winner. The laureate, Alexis Carrell, was a religious skeptic at the time and spent the rest of his life searching out the causes of the healings before being reconciled to the Church on his deathbed in 1944, Father Jaki stated.
Raising the greatest debate was a talk on the issue of brain death and its relation to organ transplants. Dr. Paul Byrne, the outgoing president of the Catholic Medical Association, said that brain death, in which a person has no discernible brain waves, is not death at all. It is a non-medical term that was created to justify the removal of living organs for transplantation, said Byrne, a neonatologist from Toledo, Ohio. The brain-dead patient is actually killed by the removal of vital organs which cannot survive intact for many minutes after actual death, he added.
His assertions received hearty support and strong objections from various participants. The Church has not ruled definitively on the issue of brain death, and a number Catholic physicians accept brain death as true death, Dr. Richard Watson, newly elected president of CMA, told the Register.
Byrne argued that the Church has always defined death as the separation of the soul from the body, and a brain dead patient may still be “animated” in many ways, with a beating heart, discernible blood pressure, self-sustaining body temperature and regular urination. Pregnant women declared brain dead have been kept alive until they have delivered their babies, he stated.
“I had to fight my way onto the list of speakers here because many people do not want me to give this message,” Byrne said to the Register. “People are being lied to about this reality but the lie will not prevail.”
Cardinal O'Connor also read a letter of commendation from Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican Secretary of State, who thanked the conference for seeking more and better ways to assure that medicine serves to heal and not to harm and to promote the common good in conformity with the natural and divine laws.
Among the documents accepted by the conference was an “Oath of Hippocrates,” drafted by the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Boston, which retains the traditional prohibition against abortion and euthanasia.
Also approved was the “Promise of a Catholic Doctor” outlining eight items of ethical behavior, including to defend human life from conception to natural death, to serve the public health and donate time for care of poor people, and to cooperate with public health policies except when they violate human goods and life.
The conference's final resolution stated allegiance to the Church's Magisterium — “an ageless light, shining all the more brightly in the darkness of modern-day secular humanism” — with particular mention of the teachings found in Evangelium Vitae, Donum Vitae (the 1988 document on biotechnologies), and Humanae Vitae. The Catholic physician is called to be an alter Christus (another Christ), the resolution stated, who is “challenged to realize in touching and healing the wounds — both physical and psychological — of each patient we treat, that we are privileged to touch and heal the very wounds of Christ our Lord.”
The conference focused as much on the spiritual as the medical. Daily proceedings included Mass, parts of the Divine Office of the Church, and adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, which was exposed for 50 consecutive hours during the conference in a hotel room on the 34th floor. Archbishop Edwin O'Brien of the Military Archdiocese was the conference's episcopal adviser and celebrated the closing Sunday Mass for the gathering at St. Patrick's Cathedral.
“Most significant is that so many Catholic health professionals from so many countries have gotten together to pray, to share their faith, and to reinvigorate one another in fulfilling our religious and professional obligations,” said CMA President Watson. He, his wife Leonie (also a medical doctor), and one of their eight children, Peter Damien, who has Down syndrome, brought up the gifts at the concluding Mass.
A urologist practicing in New Jersey, Watson said that a host of ethical dangers having to do with genetic manipulation, euthanasia, and abortifacients face medical professionals today and the dangers will become more pronounced and numerous in times to come. The conference sought to address the major issues and forge a comprehensive response that takes into consideration the positive elements of scientific progress while pointing out the ethical problems many new technologies present.
“I think groups of our type get a bad image of wanting to halt all progress according to some outdated medieval model of medicine,” said Dr. Watson. “What we are affirming is an integrated, wholesome, life-affirming approach to all medical issues, so that the dignity of the human person is recognized as central to all that we do as doctors.”
In his keynote speech, Dr. Pellegrino, recent recipient of Notre Dame's Laetare Medal, said that the diverging views of Christian and secular bioethics were causing a crisis in the doctor-patient relationship. Doctors lacking a religious grounding no longer recognize their primary obligation as healer and make medical judgments increasingly on the basis of “quality of life” seen from a materialistic viewpoint. He urged the promotion of a Christ-centered view in which the physician and the patient are two parts cooperating in the larger Body of Christ.
Father Groeschel said that the image of Christ the Physician was the earliest private devotion in the Church, dating to the second century. St. Augustine made reference to “Christus Medicus” 40 times in his homilies, speaking of Christ as healing man's greatest illness — pride. Devotions to the Sacred Heart, the Good Shepherd, and the Divine Mercy are modern forms of the same devotion, he stated.
Brian Caulfield writes from New York.
----- EXCERPT: 'Brain death' debate also sparks meeting of 400+ physicians ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Caulfield ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Paraguay's Bishops Strive To Aid Imperiled Democracy DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:ASUNCION, Paraguay—In the aftermath of the controversial decision by the Paraguayan government to release General Lino Oviedo, the country's Conference of Catholic Bishops appealed to the people of the country to pray and “unite to protect our young democratic system, which at present is at risk of collapsing.”
President Raul Cubas Grau, the first civilian to succeed another civilian as chief executive in Paraguay's 182-year history, took office Aug 15. Three days later he issued a “presidential decree” freeing Oviedo who was serving a 10-year prison term for attempting a military coup against Juan Carlos Wasmosy — the first civilian president in Paraguay's history, who was elected in 1993.
Wasmosy, a practicing Catholic, was unsuccessful in rebuilding Paraguay's economy. Nonetheless, he had worked hard to consolidate democratic structures within South America's youngest democracy.
During his term in office, Wasmosy passed a law forbidding active military or policemen from becoming members of political parties, and also enforced a jail order against Oviedo after a three-day standoff between Oviedo's personal guard — comprised of active-duty soldiers — and the local police.
Nevertheless, the country's economic crisis led many Paraguayans to long for the old, stable regime of Alfredo Stroessner — a general who ruled the country for 42 years until ousted from power in 1989 by General Andres Rodriguez. Rodriguez, who called for immediate elections, predictably won. Four years later, in a more open and democratic election process, Wasmosy was elected.
The recent release of Oviedo generated political turmoil even before the new president had time to settle into office. Although enthusiastically backed by his political party, Partido Colorado, Cuba's president's decision to release the general was opposed by the country's Supreme Court, which stated that the presidential decree was unconstitutional. The Congress is sharply divided on the issue. Army officials have said they will oppose any attempt to return Oviedo to prison.
Under those pretexts, Paraguay's Catholic bishops' conference called for an emergency meeting to evaluate the situation. In a statement, the bishops said it is “urgent for [the whole of] society to stay calm and make [any necessary] efforts to keep the democratic system alive. ”
They also asked for:
l the commitment of all sides to leave the resolution of the “Oviedo issue” to the judiciary.
l the commitment to accept the court's final decision.
l the return of both the Congress and the presidency [in order] to address key economic and social issues.
Paraguay is also suffering economic fallout from the recent Asian and Russian crises. Still, the country's political discussion has been focused on the “Oviedo issue.”
The bishops have requested President Cubas to address both issues and to elect his ministerial cabinet, which was shaken up when two of the recently elected ministers resigned in protest at the release of Oviedo. The bishops said that the time had come “to convey a strong message of peace, stability, and hope in the future to our people.” Paraguay's strong Catholic tradition affords the bishops a decisive role in helping shape public opinion. As such, both those for and against the release of Oviedo have been trying to gain the bishops'support.
President Cubas has insisted that there is nothing more Christian than his proposed law on “National Reconciliation.” According to the president, the reconciliation “would put a definitive end to any kind of political witch hunting.” If passed, the law would allow the release of some prisoners accused of “subversive activity” during the years of military rule. It would also wipe from the record the human rights abuses perpetrated by Oviedo and other generals. The most controversial aspect of the proposed law would allow for the return of General Alfredo Stroessner — presently exiled in Brazil — to Paraguay.
Regarding the law and speaking on behalf of the Paraguayan episcopate, Bishop Jorge Livieres Banks of Encarnacion said, “We should not confuse reconciliation with impunity, because the first is based on justice, while the second supposes the violation of justice.
“The Catholic Church wants peace, reconciliation, and social prosperity for Paraguay,” said Bishop Livieres, “but forgiveness and reconciliation presuppose and demand repentance and justice,” he continued.
The bishops are resisting any pressure from the recently created National Democratic Front — a coalition of political parties, labor unions, and grass-roots organizations — who have requested the bishops to formally join the campaign against the presidential decree.
During their emergency meeting, bishops received representatives of the coalition, who explained the objectives and the means adopted by the party to return Oviedo to jail. However, the archbishop of Asuncion and president of the bishops' conference clearly stated that the role of an episcopal conference was “not compatible with a direct political commitment.”
Bishop Felipe Santiago Benitez and the episcopate's general secretary, Bishop Pastor Cuquejo, requested “more time” before responding to the Front's request.
“We share with the coalition the belief that the release (of General Oviedo) was a wrong, unlawful action,” said Bishop Benitez to the press, “but we are not sure that direct political action would help to ease tensions.”
The political situation was complicated after a military court, in an effort to prevent the Supreme Court from taking action against Oviedo, found the general not guilty of the charges against him and that he was a victim of false prosecution. The military court — whose members were recently appointed by President Cubas — tried to create a “no case” situation to impede any civil judiciary from acting in the future.
“This is simply a legal aberration because, according to our Constitution, a civil court can review the decision of a military court and not the contrary,” explained Jorge Vasconsellos, legal attorney of former President Wasmosy. “This shows how arbitrary the new government and the military has gotten, and therefore, how dangerous and unstable the political situation is becoming.”
In fact, some congressmen loyal to Oviedo announced that they will demand that Wasmosy stand trial. The former president has already requested political asylum at the Argentinean embassy.
“We are praying and calling on people to defend the democratic system,” said Bishop Claudio Gimenez of Caacupe, see of the nation's Marian Shrine. “We are only watching and listening to words and deeds that are conducting us closer to falling back into a political situation that the people don't want.” A source inside the Paraguayan bishops' conference said the bishops plan to further explore — both with the Congress and with President Cubas — the possibility of leading a public vote to resolve the Oviedo issue.
Alejandro Bermudez writes from Lima, Peru.
----- EXCERPT: Country's woes centered on release of jailed general ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Bermudez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: American Media Mogul's Latest Acquisition Draws Fire DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:DUBLIN, Ireland—Record-breaking baseball star Mark McGwire stands to make a small fortune in sponsorship and corporate deals following the St. Louis Cardinal's 62 (and counting) home runs in one season, but McGwire's earnings will be meager in comparison to what another American now stands to make from sport.
Recently in England, the media baron Rupert Murdoch bought Manchester United Football Club (Man U), which is not only the world's greatest soccer club, it is the world's biggest sports club. Formed in 1878 as a sporting club for railway workers, the club started attracting spectators and turned professional in 1885. Support grew for the club as it progressed up the league tables, entering the first division for the first time in 1935. But it wasn't really until the post- war years, under the management of Sir Matt Busby, that Man U began to break the mold. The club drew a large following among Britain's Irish community for two reasons: there were several Irish players among his young knighted by both the Pope and the Queen, was one of the few public figures in Britain at the time who proudly identified himself as a Catholic.
The team drew fans on the continent when they played in the European Cup and the “Busby babes” look set to dominate British club soccer and European cup competitions for the next decade. But in February 1958, tragedy struck; just after the team secured a place in the semi-finals of the European Cup, the airplane the team were traveling in crashed, killing 23 people, among them eight Man U players. Every sports fan in the world sympathized with the club and willed Man U to success as the team rebuilt itself in the wake of the disaster. But from underdog, Man U have emerged to become soccer's top dogs. The team is now the world's biggest earning sports club. Their official club magazine is sold in more than 30 countries and is translated into 13 languages. In the United States, Man U's merchandising and replica kits outsell all other clubs. In Ireland, a third of sports fans say they support Man U and in Scandinavia the supporters club has 25,000 members.
Now that money making machine is set to become the property of Murdoch, who made a £645 million ($1032 million) bid for control of the team in early September. Fans are aghast, fearing at the very least that Murdoch will make television coverage of their matches available only to pay-per-view customers.
Fans are aghast, fearing at the very least that Murdoch will make television coverage of their matches available only to pay-per-view customers.
Increasingly, on both sides of the Atlantic, Murdoch has a say in how fans get access to television sport. In the United States, the Fox television network owns regional TV rights for 17 NBA teams, 12 Ice hockey teams, 22 baseball teams and 20 college leagues. This was boosted in January when Murdoch paid $4.5 billion for exclusive TV rights to NFL football for the next five years.
How Murdoch's ownership of these television rights in the United States will affect American fans remains to be seen, but in Britain his satellite television company BSkyB has already affected the soccer calendar. Traditionally, Scottish and English league weekend matches all kicked-off at the same time, Saturday 3pm, and mid-week matches were played on either Tuesday or Wednesday evenings. Now on Saturdays, big league matches are staggered to take place throughout the day and early evening, providing one game after another for the television sports fans, who now also get a big match every day of the week, including Good Friday. BSkyB's dominant control of sports coverage on television in Britain is completed by Murdoch's ownership of the television rights on rugby and cricket.
Now, Murdoch is adopting a new strategy. Not content with owning the television rights of fixtures, he is now purchasing sports clubs. This year he bought the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team for $311 million and he is part of the consortium that owns the LA Lakers basketball team and ice hockey's LA Kings.
The sports clubs aren't his only acquisition in Los Angeles this year: in January he was made a knight of the Order of St. Gregory. The papal honor was granted at the request of Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan in recognition of Murdoch's support for Catholic education in the archdiocese.
There was some astonishment in Britain that Murdoch, a non-Catholic, received the award. In the United Kingdom and Ireland he is regarded with suspicion by many. His ownership of The Sun, Britain' biggest selling tabloid newspaper, and The Times, a broadsheet that is still the newspaper of the establishment, makes him a powerful man. His newspapers' support for Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party were crucial to their election victories. As Thatcher's government kept power for its third term, The Sun's front-page boasted: “It was The Sun what won it.”
It's the partisan nature of Murdoch newspapers and television news that has worried most journalists
This mixture of partisan politics and sensational news reporting is the blueprint used at all newspapers that come under the control of the Murdoch empire. The New York Post (no longer owned by Murdoch), the Chicago Sun-Times and the Boston Herald were all accused of sensationalism after being purchased by Murdoch's multinational News International.
But sensationalism aside, its the partisan nature of Murdoch newspapers and television news rooms that has worried most journalists: for example, his Star satellite does not carry the BBC's World Service television for fear that its coverage of Chinese affairs might offend the Beijing government; for similar reasons a Murdoch-owned publishing house refused to print the memoirs of the former governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patton, who is a Catholic, for fear they would offend Chinese authorities. On a more mundane level, the immediate fear for sports fans is that they will no longer be able to gain access to sporting events controlled by Murdoch.
Commenting on his bid for Man U, Msgr. Eugene Dolan, a life-long fan, said: “This purchase is all a lever towards introducing pay-per-view. It's a natural progression and I am not surprised by it. It's a myth that United is a Catholic club, it has lost its soul.
“Now you are not a fan, you are a consumer of units. Fans like me who live in Manchester and have season tickets are not as important as the fan from Sweden, Ireland, or the United States who might only visit once a year or once every five years, but who will spend a fortune in Man U's super-store when they reach the ground.” Father John Ahern, parish priest of Gorton, an inner-city working class parish, said he feared that as Man U put a greater emphasis on generating revenue, fans in his neighborhood will no longer be able to attend Man U's games. “If you can't afford a ticket, there are plenty of others who can,” he said. “United (Man U) are now the same as any other multinational — it's profit before people.”
However, Father Arthur Keegan of St. Anne's, Stretford (the church closest to Man U's home ground), said he believed the Murdoch bid was a good thing “It will pay for better facilities and better players, that has got to be a good thing,” he said. “This purchase will help build a new stand increasing the ground's capacity from 56,000 — that means more people can see United (Man U) play at home.”
Cian Molloy writes from Dublin.
----- EXCERPT: Murdoch Purchases 'World's Greatest Soccer Club' ----- EXTENDED BODY: Cian Molloy ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'Our Best Days Are Ahead' DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:Randy Tate has been the executive director of the Christian Coalition since June 1997. He served six years in the Washington state legislature and one term in Congress before assuming his current position. The Christian Coalition, which was founded in 1989 by Rev. Pat Robertson, achieved extensive visibility under its first executive director, Ralph Reed. Today the Chesapeake, Va.-based grass roots movement claims 2.1 million supporters. Tate recently spoke about the organization and its future with the Register's Washington Bureau Chief, Joseph Esposito.
Esposito: What is the most important issue facing the nation as we enter the 21st century?
Tate: The key to our survival as a nation — particularly as a democracy, where we're granted so much freedom — is the moral compass of America. The biggest concern facing Americans is declining moral values.
Let me tell you why that's important as we go into the 21st century. Moral values are the underpinnings of strong families. Strong families are the building blocks for a strong community. Strong communities build a country.
If those moral values aren't being reinforced by our elected and community leaders and aren't being spoken in our churches and synagogues, those messages aren't going to get out. Then we're in a serious dilemma.
You have spoken forcefully on moral leadership, particularly regarding President Clinton. Does the issue of public character matter to a majority of Americans?
Without a doubt. What's made this country great is its moral authority, and that comes from leaders who practice what they say. Their private behavior is no different than their public performance.
The people we elect should set the highest standards. Thankfully, character does matter. It's the responsibility of organizations like ours to talk about the importance of integrity. And whether or not it receives the support of all Americans, we shouldn't be governed by polls; we should be governed by principles. That's what guides the Christian Coalition.
Let's talk a little about the Christian Coalition. Next year marks the Christian Coalition's 10th anniversary. What has it accomplished and what do you see as its future?
I think it's nothing short of remarkable what we have accomplished with God's help. We give him all the glory, because we're only instruments of his efforts.
We're having an important impact. This movement has changed the dynamic of the political debate. Both parties are now actively recruiting candidates that are in line with issues we hold dear. For example, Democrats and Republicans recruit and support candidates who are pro-life.
From my perspective, I don't care which party is in charge as long as our issues are being addressed. Parties are a means to an end, not an end in [themselves]. I want both parties to be pro-life, to address our concerns.
The legacy of this organization has been to change, to refocus, the debate in the country. But, it has also been to make sure that Christians — who have many times been on the sidelines in the political process — have learned that they have a duty and a responsibility to be involved in politics. It's a process, not an event, and we need to be committed long-term. So we've taught our people and we've changed the culture at the same time. That's nothing short of phenomenal.
The Christian Coalition has considerable support from evangelical Protestants. Should Catholics feel they are welcome, too? Is there a real opportunity for interfaith cooperation on social and political issues?
There has to be. It's an absolute necessity that we join together whenever possible. Particularly on issues where we come from a common belief system: strong moral values, the sanctity of life, the primacy of the family — those issues we all hold dear.
If you look within our organization, we have a number of pro-life Roman Catholics. A number of our state leaders are very active Catholics, very strong in their faith.
We need to join together. Those who oppose our belief system would like nothing more than for us to be divided over things which can't be settled between us. We need to look forward. It's amazing what we've been able to accomplish when we've worked together.
If we're going to solve the problems of the nation, we've got to join together. I don't think there's an option.
One of the criticisms directed toward your organization is that it blurs the vital distinction between Church and state. What do you see as the proper role of religious beliefs in shaping public policy?
The Founding Fathers understood the importance of faith in the public square. They believed in religious tolerance and expression, not religious intolerance.
In 1947 the Supreme Court [Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing Township] took a metaphor out of Thomas Jefferson's [1802] letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, and used the reference “wall of separation,” which doesn't exist in the Constitution. They took that metaphor to create jurisprudence.
Most Americans would say they believe the phrase “wall of separation” exists in the Constitution. Why?
Because it's been pounded into them by the liberal elite who have, in many instances, walked away from their faith and have tried to impose a sort of secularism.
The proper role of faith is not a theocracy, not a state-sponsored church, not the church running the state, or the state running the church. It's the ability to allow religious freedom to be expressed in all facets of one's life.
If we can only express our faith within a building with a cross on top and stained glass windows, then there really isn't religious freedom. You should be able to take that belief system into your school, into the public square.
The proper role is one in which people, informed by their faith, can enter that public square without fear of their government limiting them and their ability to address the issues of the day.
Another criticism of the Christian Coalition is that it is narrow-minded and self-righteous. How do you respond?
You have to look at the facts. This is an organization whose mission statement is to locate, educate, and activate people of faith.
We want to ensure that Christians and all people of faith — pro-family Catholics, evangelicals, observant Jews, Greek Orthodox, and others — can be involved in the political process. We want them to have a seat at the table when decisions are made.
Our goal is not to enforce our belief system on others. It's to allow our belief system to be part of the process, and that we have equal billing with others who are involved.
Far too often, those on the left have tried to intimidate, discourage, and, in some instances, engage in religious bigotry toward the faith community as they try to enter the political system. I would say our message is one of hope: creating opportunities in inner cities; providing educational choice to families; allowing people to keep more of what they earn so they can take care of their families. We're speaking up for those timeless, common sense values that are mainstream in America.
You mentioned the word “narrow.” Let's look at our agenda. Eighty percent of Americans support a partial-birth abortion ban, which we endorse. A vast majority support what we're doing to end the marriage penalty tax. People across the board support our efforts on religious freedom.
The Christian Coalition is truly a “rainbow coalition.” Look at our out-reach: we speak out for unborn children, for those who don't have a voice in the political process, for different minority organizations.
You've mentioned abortion several times. What are your thoughts on the abortion issue, in general, and partial-birth abortion, in particular. Where are we on these issues?
I think we're winning. But the tragedy of abortion has cost this country 30-some million lives — more than the population of California. That's staggering when you consider it in its totality. This is going to be a dark part of our history.
With that being said, look at the shift that's occurred in the last five years. Four or five years ago, one out of every three Americans believed abortion should be legal all nine months. Today, it's one out of five.
There are two reasons why this has occurred. One is technological. When Julie and I had our children [Madeleine and Spencer], they did an ultrasound. We put the little “snapshot” on our refrigerator at home. You look at it, and it's a child.
The other reason is partial-birth abortion — a grisly, brutal, and inhumane procedure. That has changed a lot of hearts and minds.
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan [of New York], a liberal Democrat, supported a limit on partial-birth abortion. Rep. Dick Gephart (D-Mo.,
House minority leader), Rep. David Bonior (D-Mich., House minority whip), and Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D., Senate minority leader), also supported the ban. Look at the Child Custody Protection Act, a parental notification law, which zoomed through the House.
Our issues are winning when we present them in a way that shows caring and compassion on behalf of the unborn and concern for the mother.
Recently, you sharply criticized Geoffrey Fieger, the Democratic nominee for governor of Michigan for being an anti-religious bigot. Would you explain?
I'm deeply disturbed about the whole situation. Geoffrey Fieger made disparaging comments about Jesus Christ — he referred to him as a “goof-ball” — he referred to Orthodox rabbis as “Nazis,” and used an expletive to describe the Pope. He has offended the faith community in this country.
I'm disturbed, too, by the deafening silence of his party's leaders. The president, the head of the Democratic party, and the head of the Democratic governors' association have refused to withhold support for this candidate and publicly disavow what he's said.
In 1991 when David Duke was running for governor of Louisiana, the Bush administration publicly condemned him for being a racist and actively encouraged people to support the candidate of the other party.
That same condemnation should occur in the Feiger instance. [His views] are offensive and have no place in civil society — especially in the political realm. They should be unacceptable in this country.
What role can churches play in restoring pro-life, pro-family, and moral values to the American culture?
I think they play the most important role of all. For the first several hundred years of this great country, churches were the center of cultural life in each community. They were the social service provider to the poor. They were the founders of our great intellectual institutions.
Personal: Born 1965, Puyallup, Wash.; B.A., 1988, Western Washington University; married to Julie, two children: Madeleine and Spencer.
Current position: Executive director, Christian Coalition (since 1997).
Background: Member, Washington State House of Representatives, 1988-1994;
U.S. Congress, 1995-1997 (youngest member of the 104th Congress).
The problems that face our country today are not going to be solved by politicians. They're going to be solved by pastors, priests, and rabbis speaking in righteousness before their congregations and talking about the role God can play in their lives and how we can change our communities.
Churches need to take back their rightful place. Over the last 60 years we've said churches don't need to solve our problems; let's just pay taxes and let some government bureaucrat in Washington solve them.
We've spent $5 trillion trying to [fight] the war on poverty, and poverty won. We need to go back to a system where churches handle such problems. It works because it has a faith component.
What has shaped your spiritual development?
I don't know where to start. The two most important people were my parents because they led by example. They made sure that their children went to South Hill Baptist Church, and we were there every Sunday. They taught all their kids the importance of a personal relationship with Christ.
If you want to have your faith challenged, run for office. I learned more about my faith not when I won, but when I lost. I ran because I felt that was what I was supposed to be doing. But God closed that door. So you have to have complete faith that he's got a better plan for you.
Obviously, the closest person to me is my wife. She is my best friend, my partner, my prayer warrior. I couldn't do anything I'm doing now if it weren't for God's help and Julie's prayerful support.
Are you reading any books that you've found particularly instructive?
Yes. I recently finished C.S. Lewis' Screwtape. Right now I'm reading William Bennett's The Death of Outrage.It's a great book. It talks about where we are going as a society, some of the callousness and coarseness of our culture, and what the state of virtue and morality is. It's well worth reading.
What role will the Christian Coalition play in the 1998 congressional elections?
We'll have our largest get-out-the Christian vote effort. This year we will distribute, between the primaries and general election, 45 million voter guides in churches, synagogues, union halls, and elsewhere.
We're mailing scorecards outlining where your current House member and U.S. senators stand on key family issues. We'll have a nationwide voter registration effort on Sept. 27, which we call Citizenship Sunday.
Our role in the 1998 elections can be summed up, as I mentioned before — as locate, educate, and activate — locate people of faith, educate them on issues, and activate and get them to the polls.
Many people involved in the cultural wars are discouraged about the direction of American society. As you look toward the future as someone who has been involved in the political process and is an active Christian, how do you see our future?
Our best days are ahead. I'm an optimist because I know the impact religious conservatives can have on the political process.
But we're at a crossroads. If we allow the type of behavior that is practiced by some of our elected officials, particularly our president, to go unpunished, it sets a terrible example. What we endorse today and condone as a society, our children will embrace tomorrow as a way of life.
We're in for a long-term fight on values — it's a marathon — but we can't get discouraged. It's not for the faint of heart. It's for those who want to roll up their sleeves and be engaged in the process.
I believe we can be that shining city on a hill and be a beacon of hope and the moral leader of the world. But only if we have moral leaders and if God's people are involved in their communities doing the things they need to be doing can we succeed.
—Joseph Esposito
Cooperation Between Christians
“Social and cultural life offers ample opportunities for ecumenical cooperation. With increasing frequency Christians are working together to defend human dignity, to promote peace, to apply the Gospel to social life, to bring the Christian spirit to the world of science and of the arts. They find themselves ever more united in striving to meet the sufferings and the needs of our time: hunger, natural disasters and social injustice.
For Christians, this cooperation, which draws its inspiration from the Gospel itself, is never mere humanitarian action. It has its reasons for being in the Lord's words: ‘For I was hungry and you gave me food’ (Mt 25:35). As I have already emphasized, the cooperation between Christians clearly manifests that degree of communion which already exists between them.
Before the world, united action in society on the part of Christians has the clear value of a joint witness to the name of the Lord. It is also a form of proclamation, since it reveals the face of Christ.”
—Pope John Paul II (excerpted from Ut Unum Sint)
----- EXCERPT: Why the head of the Christian Coalition holds out hope for the future of our troubled nation ----- EXTENDED BODY: Randy Tate ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Hyde Speaks at Crisis Magazine Dinner DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—One of the key figures in the unfolding political crisis gripping the nation's capital, Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), gave a powerful pro-life speech to supporters of Crisis magazine Sept. 11. He was honored as the 1998 recipient of the Crisis Partnership Award at a dinner in Washington, D.C.
Hyde, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, will have a critical role in any impeachment procedures initiated against President Clinton. He also has been a highly visible pro-life leader since entering Congress in 1975.
The congressman spoke in moving terms about how our lives are inextricably linked with the past and the future. Referring to unborn children, he said, “This little baby has ancestors which go back to the beginning of time.
“All of that history and travail is erased in a twinkling of an eye,” when a child is aborted. Further, he stressed, “When you abort a baby, you don't just snuff out that life, but generations yet to come.”
Hyde introduced his subject by discussing some of the moral dimensions presented in the recent popular movie Amistad, which deals with an African slave mutiny. John Quincy Adams, the former president, successfully represented the mutineers before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1841.
In the movie, Adams — played by Anthony Hopkins — said in his summation before the high court that slavery “concerns the very nature of man.” So, too, does the issue of abortion, the congressman argued.
He also talked about how the Declaration of Independence was so vital in understanding the need to protect every American. The endowments provided for in that venerable document, he said, were given to all “by virtue of their humanity.”
Hyde also exhorted the 250 dinner guests to be involved. “We must be engaged in some great enterprise: freedom, Christianity, or educating our young,” he suggested. He also cited the dictum in Luke 17:10: “When you have done all you have been commanded to do, say, ‘We are unworthy servants. We have done no more than our duty.’”
This annual black-tie event honors a prominent American and highlights the work of Crisis, an influential monthly magazine which tackles public policy issues from a Catholic viewpoint. Previous honorees were Adm. Jeremiah Denton, the former prisoner of war and U.S. senator, and Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza.
Many of the writers and contributors to the 16-year-old magazine also attended the event. Crisis was founded by Michael Novak and Ralph McInerny and today is published by Deal Hudson.
Hudson told the Register, “Crisis has a unique voice, a Catholic voice, which is not filtered through neo-conservative, conservative, or libertarian lenses. It is a Catholic voice, pure and simple.
He added, “A Catholic perspective is the only reliable perspective to offer an honest critique of American culture.”
The September issue of Crisis includes a cover story on America's future by the noted British Catholic historian Paul Johnson as well as Rev. Richard John Neuhaus' update on his book The Catholic Moment, published 10 years ago. Future issues will offer articles on the Catholic vote and the state of U.S. Catholic seminaries.
(Joseph Esposito)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: U.S Notes & Quotes DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:‘Pro-Choice’ Jewish Group Takes a Pro-Life Stand
The group's founder, Sandi Merle, a lyricist and songwriter in New York, told the paper her group would lobby Jewish lawmakers. STOP points out that Jewish belief cannot countenance the extreme pro-abortion positions of those Senators who continue to protect the procedure in which labor is prematurely induced in the weeks before a baby's due date, so that the baby can be partially born and then killed, its skull punctured with scissors and then crushed.
In the report, the group compares that form of abortion to experiments by doctors in Nazi Germany, and calls it infanticide.
One STOP target identified in the article is Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, the respected Democrat who said President Bill Clinton's behavior was “immoral,” “harmful,” and “disgraceful.”
Critics claim he has a “moral blind spot” because his influential vote almost single-handedly keeps partial birth abortion legal in the United States against the wishes of a vast majority of Americans who consider it immoral, harmful, and disgraceful.
Bill Bradley's Presence at Notre Dame Assailed
Joseph Scheidler, a graduate and former instructor at Notre Dame, calls Bradley the “abortion senator” because of his long record of votes for abortion.
Scheidler is reported saying that for the school to offer his course is like offering a course on the sacrament of marriage taught by Hugh Hefner, Playboy magazine founder.
The university, through a spokesman, said that Notre Dame agrees with Scheidler, and believes Bradley's views on abortion are “wrong.” But he said Notre Dame hired Bradley because the university wanted students to hear his contrary ideas as part of an “open forum.”
Alaskan Bishops Defend Marriage
The timing of the letter is important. Voters will decide in November whether or not to amend Alaska's constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman only, said the report. The report quoted Anchorage Archbishop Francis Hurley saying, “We decided to speak on the issue for the benefit of our people. There's nothing telling anybody how to vote.”
The bishops' three-page document was mailed to Alaska's 40,000 Catholics. The marriage amendment was written after state Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski told Alaskans they do not have the right to protect marriage without it, said the report.
The report said the bishops mention Judge Michalski's decision, claiming his court “opens the door to change the nature of marriage. It dismisses male and female sexuality as integral to marriage. It eliminates the unique intimacy of a man and a woman that is achieved in no other setting. It discards consideration of the procreation of children. It changes, also, the meaning of family.”
They also praised the amendment, saying, “We personally give a firm and unqualified ‘yes’ to that amendment because the amendment gives a firm and unqualified ‘yes’ to marriage as marriage has been and is understood in our state and our nation and in our Church.”
Charismatic Conferences Attract Press Attention
“The convention is evidence of the growing foothold of the charismatic movement in the Roman Catholic Church,” said The Los Angeles Times, comparing the movement to Pentecostalism and its stress on personal experience of the Holy Spirit.
“Charismatic church services also are generally more demonstrative,” said the paper, “which supporters say taps into the growing popularity of evangelical faiths.” Event organizer Fr. Kevin O'Grady said that convention Mass attendance was three times Christmas and Easter levels.
The same day, the San Antonio Express News reported on a Charismatic Conference there, drawing 1,500 people, a third of whom were teen-agers and young adults.
That conference, “Holy Spirit: Lord and Giver of Life,” featured youth events. Before Mass, “teen-agers crowded onto a stage to show off some of their enthusiasm in songs that featured tambourines, electric guitars, and words illuminated on a wall by a projector,” said the report.
Auxiliary Bishop Patrick Zurek was the homilist at the San Antonio conference Mass.
----- EXCERPT: Excerpts from select publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Russian Crisis May Mean Immigration Crunch on Israel DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:JERUSALEM—Thousands of Jews may flock to Israel to escape the economic and political turmoil in Russia, a fact that some Holy Land Christians find disturbing.
Local Catholic clergy, the vast majority of whom are Palestinians or who hail from other Arab countries, have long viewed the influx of Jewish immigrants as a threat to Arab interests and sovereignty. They maintain that large-scale immigration has already changed the demographics in the region, giving Israel — a nation of almost five million Jews and one million Arabs — a decisive edge over the 2.5 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Since the end of 1989, when the former Soviet Union first began to permit Jews to emigrate, almost 900,000 Russians have moved to the Jewish state, along with 100,000 from dozens of other countries. Another million Jews still reside in places like Moscow, St. Petersburg, even Siberia.
According to the Israeli government, the Russian crisis is likely to spur a 10% to 20% increase in the number of Russian Jews who will immigrate to Israel. The revised figures could bring the number of Russian immigrants to 70,000 or 80,000 in 1999, instead of the 50,000 to 60,000 that had been anticipated.
Archbishop Lutfi Laham, Patriarchal Vicar of the Greek Catholic Patriarchate, told the Register that an increase in the number of Jewish immigrants “can bring disturbances in the balance” between Jews and Arabs in the Holy Land. “We have love for everybody and want to help people in trouble, but we also have love for the local people. Each flood of immigrants will bring some instability and could influence the peace process negatively.”
Vatican representatives, who fulfill a diplomatic role in Israel and the Palestinian territories, refrained from speaking out on the issue. “It's a political problem and we don't want to enter into political problems,” said an official.
Israel, which fears that the turmoil in Russia will increase the level of antiSemitism in the former Soviet Union, is taking preparatory steps to welcome any newcomers. Toward that end, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked his ministers to draw up detailed plans for the absorption of at least 20,000 more immigrants.
Netanyahu has also asked American Jewish communities to help finance the extra costs, which are expected to run in the tens of millions of dollars.
“As far as we're concerned, no one will be prevented from coming, regardless of the money involved,” said Bobby Brown, an advisor to the prime minister. “But the burden on Israel will be great. There is a shared responsibility with world Jewry,” he said.
Despite the concern expressed by Christians in the Palestinian camp, many other Christians are hoping that hundreds of thousands of Russian Jews will soon make their way to Israel.
“The Bible is clear that there's a redemptive process brought on by the ingathering of the Jewish people to their Israel,” maintains Dave Parsons, a press officer at the Jerusalem-based International Christian Embassy. The evangelical organization, which assists needy Jews and Arabs, has sponsored more than 50 air flights carrying Russian Jews to Israel.
“Most Palestinians viewed the large wave of Jewish immigrants since the early 1990s as an act of war, but we don't see it that way at all,” Parsons said. “In our view, Jews returning to their land is an event that God promised a long time ago. We view it as not only a good thing for the Jews, but a good thing for the world.”
(Michele Chabin)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: U.N. Agencies Poised to Promote Abortion And Homosexuality at Cairo+5 Conference DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—More than a dozen top U.N. agencies issued a report in late August that will likely serve as the feminist and homosexual game plan for the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo+5) scheduled for next June in New York City.
Entitled Round Table of Human Rights Treaty Bodies on Human Rights Approaches to Women's Health with a Focus on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, the report was developed by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and signed by, among others, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Advance copies began circulating in recent days among pro-family NGOs and the more traditional member states of the U.N. General Assembly. One Middle Eastern delegate to the General Assembly said “the Round Table Report is full of alarming things.”
If the report is any indication, it is the intention of U.N. agencies to promote the most radical notions of women's “rights” at the Cairo+5 Conference. The report calls for a combination of complete reproductive and sexual freedom, including abortion on demand, and also for special rights for homosexuals to be enforced by governments.
The Round Table Report also asserts that the “women's rights” agenda should supersede traditional norms, presumably even religious norms. The report states that “a human rights approach to women's health creates an international standard that transcends culture, tradition, and society norms.”
A linchpin in the effort to get internationally recognized abortion on demand is the legitimate problem of maternal mortality in many parts of the globe.
Feminists insist that abortion on demand would greatly reduce maternal mortality, the incidence of which they routinely overstate by citing undocumented figures. In the Round Table Report, UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Nafis Sadik claims the number is 585,000 deaths worldwide per year, a figure circulated by UNICEF since 1996. But the U.N. Population Division specifically rejects this estimate as impossible to substantiate.
Besides a major focus on abortion, the Round Table Report also takes a very aggressive stance in the area of “homosexual rights.” It asserts that discrimination based on “sexual orientation” is banned by existing prohibitions against discrimination in human rights documents…
An official Cairo +5 preparatory committee meeting convenes next February in The Hague. (Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: World Notes & Quotes DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:Mexico Rethinking Death Penalty Ban
The Examiner quoted Mexico City pollster Rafael Gimenez of the daily Reforma saying, “[In 1990] it was very clear, the opposition to the death penalty. … Today, many people are fed up with being daily victims of crime. This was reflected in the poll.
More than half of Mexicans in one Gimenez poll now support capital punishment. Another factor in the changing attitude may be the capture of the notorious kidnapper Daniel Arizmendi, who did horrible things to his victims to scare their relatives into paying, and who continues to show a flippant attitude toward his crimes “kidnapper” as his profession on prison forms.
The Catholic Church has excommunicated him and called on him to repent, said the report.
Said the Examiner, “The Mexican Constitution provides the possibility of the death penalty for crimes including treason, murder, and kidnapping, but no state penal code allows it. Fifty years in prison is currently the maximum punishment.”
Pregnant Spice Girls: Bad Role Models?
The pregnancies of Melanie “Scary Spice” Brown and Victoria “Posh Spice” Adams, have started a debate in Britain. One public official was quoted saying that the two are “in loving, caring relationships.” The only fear is that their pregnancies could trigger “a generation of Spice babies born to teenage mothers.”
Both public officials and the teachers' association agree that, at any rate, contraceptives must be vigorously promoted.
Many observers, however, point out that contraceptives fail to slow teen-pregnancy rates. Statistics show that unwed pregnancies have risen from rarities to epidemic levels wherever contraceptives have become popular.
One Catholic activist in the United States, Catholic League president William Donohue, underlined another problem. Donohue called the message of the Spice Girls “invidious and pernicious” not because they are pregnant, but because of their erotic contribution to our culture. He is quoted saying, “You cannot have an eroticized culture and have a society which is absent the social pathology that accompanies it. The problem is… people who think the greatest badge of virtue in society is to be tolerant. … The willingness to turn one's head at moral outrage will only pave the way to even greater problems.”
Huge Evangelization Ad Campaign Hits Britain
“More than 4,000 churches of all denominations started a £1 million advertising campaign yesterday to get more people interested in Christianity,” said a report in the Scotsman.
In the largest interdenominational campaign of its kind in Britain's history, the report said 5,500 billboards and more than 100 newspapers will carry provocative slogans.
It quoted one: “You're born. You live. You die. End of story?”
Churches around Britain will encourage non-believers or those curious about Christianity to attend a ten week course for one evening a week called the “Alpha course.” It is a “light hearted” approach developed at Holy Trinity Church in Brompton, London, nearly 20 years ago that has been presented in over 6,000 congregations, including Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, and Anglican, said the report.
----- EXCERPT: Excerpts from select publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Notes & Quotes DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:The Vatican Prepared St. Louis for Mark McGwire
But the worst security problem is one McGwire shares with Pope John Paul II, said the report. “The biggest thing with Mark is everybody wants to be close to him,” stadium security director Joe Walsh said.
St. Louis Police Chief Ron Henderson says that this aspect of security is under control at St. Louis's ballpark, because stadium security officials there are Vatican-taught.
Henderson recently spent a week with Vatican officials learning how to prepare for Pope John Paul II's visit there this January, and so, when faced with the prospect of Mark McGwire breaking the much-watched home-run record in St. Louis, he was unperturbed.
“This is going to be a nice, safe event,” he said confidently at a news conference. “If we can handle the Pope coming here, we can handle him hitting another home run.”
Pope John Paul II Meets Movie's Gandhi
The Holy Father gave the audience to Kingsley to hear about a new movie he is working on about another internationally famous person renowned for holiness and for her contributions to India: Mother Teresa.
With Kingsley were other members of the cast of the new movie: Indian actor Kabir Bedi, and Argentine model Valeria Mazza.
This time, the production is slated for presentation on television.
----- EXCERPT: Excerpts from select publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Why Clinton Must Go DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:The framers of the Constitution debated the question of presidential impeachment at length in 1787. Some said that the “national executive” should not be impeachable; his four-year term was short enough to ensure that presidents could be electorally dismissed before doing too much damage. But that was unpersuasive to those who successfully argued that no one in a democracy is above the law. If the “national executive” were beyond the law's reach, then the rule of law was a fiction.
The debate then turned to the grounds for impeachment. Should the president be impeachable only when guilty of a crime? Or were other factors in play? Benjamin Franklin listened to the arguments of Gouverneur Morris, George Mason, James Wilson, and Charles Pinckney, and then gave his own distinctively Franklinesque verdict: the “chief magistrate,” said the author of Poor Richard's Almanac, should be impeachable when he has “rendered himself obnoxious.”
Some would argue that President Clinton met that standard months — even years — ago. But there can be little doubt that the president fully satisfied Franklin's test as of 10:10 p.m. EDT, on Monday, Aug. 17, 1998.
In a republic, unchecked public corruption tends to damage everything around it. That is why the majority of the framers — who had carefully studied the metastasizing capacities of corruption throughout Western political history — provided for a corrupt president's removal from office. In their view, impeachment did not necessarily trigger a constitutional crisis, nor were the only impeachable offenses explicit violations of criminal law. Impeachment and removal from office, were political acts whose purpose was political hygiene: maintaining the essential minimum of trust and moral confidence required for a president to govern. The plain moral fact of the current situation is that the president of the United States is a liar. He has lied to his family, and that is, indeed, their affair. But he has lied to the public, and he has cajoled, compelled or convinced a squadron of aides, many of them on the public payroll, to lie to the public. And that is all of our affair.
Like a malignancy, the big lie corrupts the healthy tissue it touches. In the case of the president's Aug. 17 address, the healthy issue was the American public's sensible belief that there is too much intrusion into the private lives of public figures.
But what happened between the president and Monica Lewinsky was not a private affair. These things did not happen in a White House bedroom. They happened in the Oval Office — which is, by some reckonings, the center of the American public life. This was willful, self-indulgent fouling of the American public square. In the archaic meaning of “obnoxious”(that is “offensive” or “repugnant”), these were acts “deserving of censure.” So were the lies that followed.
The constitutional remedy for censuring an obnoxious president (in the further etymological sense of dealing with “offensive, repugnant” presidential behavior) is impeachment by the House of Representatives and removal from the office on conviction by the Senate. That is one remedy for the corruption wrought by President Clinton, and it has much to recommend it.
An impeachment and trial would define for the present and historical record the thick web of mendacity that the president and his minions have woven around this administration. It would force members of Congress to act like statesmen — for the common good, not for partisan advantage. It would compel the Republican Party to honor its commitment to the moral revitalization of American public culture and it would require the Democratic Party to acknowledge that there are limits to personal license. It would remind every American that democracy rests on a moral foundation whose erosion threatens the entire edifice of government.
The honorable course for the president is resignation — the one act that would demonstrate his grasp of, and remorse for, what he has done to the public. But the resignation of a man obsessed by politics since adolescence seems unlikely. That is why the Congress must face its duty to defend the integrity of American democracy. This presidency cannot be allowed to drag on. This presidency must end, or it must be ended — and ended by a deliberate act of political will, aimed at restoring the compact of trust that must exist between the president and the people.
George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics & Public Policy Center in Washington.
----- EXCERPT: PERSPECTIVE ----- EXTENDED BODY: George Weigel ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: The Evolution of Catholic Charity in U.S. DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:Despite what might seem a dry as dust academic topic, Dorothy Brown and Elizabeth McKeown have managed to write an interesting history of Catholic charitable institutions in the 20th century.
The Poor Belong to Us traces the development of Catholic charities from a collection of ill-funded volunteer organizations in the 19th century into the largest private provider of social services in the country. Crisp writing and a keen eye for relevant detail carries the story along nicely, even though the text includes extensive scholarly documentation.
Brown and McKeown, who teach history and theology, respectively at Georgetown University, begin by recalling the situation of urban Catholics in the 19th century. Then, receiving charitable assistance of all sorts, Catholics made up a disproportionate number of those, usually from predominantly Protestant organizations. The flow of immigrants in the latter half of the century not only increased the number of needy Catholics, but also provoked the Church to devise more effective institutional responses to their needs.
A number of factors in the 20th century have influenced the growth of these responses, and so it is perhaps unfair in a brief review to isolate factors that the authors discuss more carefully in their contexts. Nevertheless, several trends seem to emerge. One of these is the trend away from associations composed largely of lay volunteers, toward agencies staffed by trained, full-time employees, and most commonly directed by clerics and religious. “The drive for consolidation at the diocesan level,” the authors note, “was soon taken up by local Catholic bishops, who responded to the demand for charities reform in the early decades of the 20th century by assuming direct control of diocesan charitable institutions, services, and funding.”
This “clericalization” is a persistent pattern, at least in the United States, and is not confined to charitable organizations. As it proceeds, it tends to crowd out lay leadership (since career paths disappear) and to replace volunteer involvement with cash contributions.
A second trend, which has become quite prominent in the last decade or two, is the trend away from small, localized responses, toward centralization on the national level. Of course, local efforts are never entirely extinguished, nor is this the goal. Still, fewer and fewer programs are genuinely parish-based, and most now function only at the diocesan or national level. “Ironically, in their own house, Catholic charities turned the principle of subsidiarity on its head and became top-down organizations.”
This trajectory was given great impetus first by the Depression, at which time local efforts were simply overwhelmed, and by the increase in federal government programs in the 1960s, which made resources available on the national level. Several other factors during these years contributed to the emergence of a national Catholic voice on welfare and related public policy issues.
One such factor is reflected in the title of this book, explicitly taken from a speech by Bishop (later Cardinal) Muench of Fargo, who was apprehensive that aggressive federal programs in the 1930s would separate poor Catholics from their Church. “Decrying both the centralization of Catholic charities and the expansion of public social provision,” the authors observe, “Muench appealed for the charity that engendered the sanctification of client, volunteer and diocesan worker.” The movement to nationalize charitable work called for a Catholic voice that could speak on a national level.
Athird subtler trend that the authors touch upon, but do not examine, was the shift from viewing social welfare activities as matters of charity to seeing them as matters of justice. To be sure, the causes of poverty are dauntingly complex, but we seem more inclined now to regard social welfare efforts as a claim that the poor have on the rest of society, rather than as a charitable activity. The shift is important in American society because we have typically seen poverty as a condition to be overcome by personal effort. By contrast, the ancient Christians tended to understand poverty as rooted in injustice. The question of whether this analysis is correct today, especially in the context of modern dynamic economies, is one that no longer troubles most people in Catholic social services.
A fourth change has to do with the very makeup of the people who need social services. If a hundred years ago these people were often Catholic, this is no longer the case. Catholics have been so successful in the United States that “Catholic” and “poor” are no longer synonymous. This, in turn, creates a sort of identity crisis for Catholic Charities and related institutions which, like the Protestant institutions of the last century, find themselves addressing the needs of a great many people who are not of their own denomination. Surely aiding the needy has been an integral part of the life of the Church from the time of the apostles, but the authors suggest that, to the extent that the poor are no longer “us,” Catholics may have become less generous in their financial support.
Other tales are told, including the history of programs and movements to address the problems of Catholic girls and boys, and the crucial role that large numbers of women, both religious and lay, have played. Nor are the colorful personalities and political intrigues omitted. The authors display a deft hand in assembling their material, and impress the reader with their grasp of the large picture as well as the detail. They might have improved the book by breaking it into more and shorter chapters, and introducing subheads, but on the whole this is a highly readable account of an important element of the history of the Church in America.
Robert Kennedy is an associate professor of management at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert Kennedy ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Neuhaus on 'the Catholic Moment'Now DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:“The Catholic Moment Now” by Father Richard J. Neuhaus (Crisis, September 1998)
Writing more than 10 years after the publication of his influential book The Catholic Moment, Father Neuhaus first reminds his readers, “By a ‘moment’I meant a period of history, an era, a kairos, if you will, extending over a generation; in short, something like the sense of historical moment evoked by the title of a later and far more worthy book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope. If the Catholic Church is what she claims she is, then the Catholic Moment is from Pentecost until Our Lord returns in glory.”
But apart from this long-term view, “The Catholic Moment was also chock-full of time-specific analyses of the Catholic circumstance, especially the Catholic circumstance in America, and was not untouched by the vulnerability of predictions. So where are we a decade later?”
Father Neuhaus then itemizes the condition of the Church in America today:
“Item: The American Episcopate is stronger than it was ten years ago … By ‘stronger’I mean more confident, more competent, and more manifestly convinced that ‘the Catholic thing’is not only true but the best hope of our culture and our world. In short, there are more John Paul II prelates.”
“Item: The Church has held firm on abortion and against the encroaching ‘culture of death.’Were it not for the Catholic Church, there would be no pro-life movement in America or in the rest of the world… The Church's witness has not wavered, and at the end of the day we will be judged by the fidelity of our witness.”
“Item: Catechetical materials are, under the direction of the bishops, being conformed to the Catechism, and the catechetical establishment that wreaked such doctrinal havoc for decades is on the defensive.”
“Item: Catholic elementary and secondary schools are making a comeback, which may be greatly accelerated by the impending victory of vouchers and other instruments of parental choice in education.”
“Item: Among the more than two hundred nominally Catholic colleges and universities, the 1968 Land O'Lakes declaration of independence from the Church is history. All the talk now is about recovering ‘Catholic identity’… Alternatively, schools such as Steubenville, Thomas Aquinas, and Christendom can serve, alternatively, as shelters from academic madness or catalysts for change, while the University of Dallas may model a future that many others will emulate.’”
“Item: The Catholic Theological Society of America has been put on notice that, without a thorough redirection, it is no longer viewed by the bishops as a partner in the Church's mission. Theologians who are determined to think with the Church (Sentire cum Ecclesia) will develop other associations where it is understood that fidelity is the friend and not the enemy of intellectual excellence and adventure.”
“Item: The balance in Catholic and Catholic-related publications has changed dramatically … There is [Crisis], of course, but also The Catholic World Report, Catholic Dossier, New Oxford Review, a reviving National Catholic Register, and, dare I mention it, First Things. Nor should we overlook the inestimable contribution of Ignatius Press… Also in communications are enterprises such as Mother Angelica's EWTN and Bill Donohue's Catholic League.”
“Item: The untold story of the hundreds of thousands of adult converts in recent years. Hardly a day passes that I am not in conversation with people, often talented academics and Protestant clergy, who are on the way.”
“Item: There are signs of an uptick in priestly vocations, and in a few places an upsurge. I expect it would be happening in more places if bishops made it a priority, if priests asked the question, if vocation directors did not confuse passionate fidelity with ‘preconciliar’reaction (these young guys don't even know what preconciliar reaction means), and if parents — especially conservative parents much given to bemoaning the state of the Church — more strongly encouraged their sons to consider the priesthood.”
“ … I am sure there are readers who are prepared to qualify all of the above with horror stories indicating that the devastation is beyond repair. Please save yourself the trouble… I know it's dark out there, but that's what the light is for. Remember this is the Church we're talking about: ‘Upon this rock’ and all that. But even without appeal to such sure promise, I believe that the evidence, a decade later, is that the Catholic Moment continues.”
Ellen Wilson Fielding writes from Davidsonville, Maryland.
The Definite Article is a digest of the Register's choice from the nation's top journals.
----- EXCERPT: THE DEFINITE ARTICLE ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Wilson Fielding ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:Inside Home-Schooling
Kudos for your well-written home-schooling article (“Home-Schooling Phenomenon Shows No Sign of Slowing,” Aug. 23-29). There are [more than] 60,000 Catholic families home-schooling and more than one million total American home-schoolers. Yet, this “phenomenon” is still unknown and misunderstood by many parish priests as well as by well-intentioned Catholic family and friends.
Although it is true that many Catholics opt for home-schooling due to declining standards of religious education in parochial schools, that is not always the case. There are still many very good “loyal-to-the-magisterium” parochial schools. Home-schooling, though, allows the prime educators of children — their parents — to build character and imbue in them the virtues necessary to bring Christ to the world. We are striving for strong, well-lived Catholic vocations, whether it be the religious, married, or single life.
Home-schooling children are not isolated. On the contrary, they have more opportunity for interaction with children of different ages, faiths, and economic status. Attending class with 30 other children does not ensure this. It is the ability to charitably interact with others who are different from you in one way or another that constitutes well-rounded socialization.
Some Catholic families feel that home-schooling is an “attack” on the parochial school system or on their own option for traditional schooling. That is not the case either. Home-schooling is not viewed as the one and only best option. It is only one option and it is not for everyone. I truly believe that home-schooling is a calling from God, it is a vocation.
I commend parents who do opt for traditional schooling at their parochial school and become actively involved. They are there to ensure a true Catholic sacramental education for their own and other children. They too are fulfilling a vital duty in our Catholic community.
I hope that many religious as well as lay Catholic families read your article. It served to inform and perhaps lessen the “stigma” of home-schooling among our Church brethren.
Sandra de Quesada
Miami, Florida
Too Ecumenical?
Please help me to understand a statement that was made in “Into the Millennium and Beyond,” Aug. 9-15 issue. Father Avery Dulles said “I wouldn't want Catholics to become sectarian, cutting themselves off from the rest of the world and hoarding salvation as if it belonged to them alone.”
It is with the last part of this statement that I am confused. Is salvation not best sought after by faith in Jesus Christ and receiving grace from him by way of the sacraments administered by the holy Catholic Church? Even then, are we not to work out our salvation with fear and trembling as St. Paul said he would do? If salvation is for those outside of the Catholic Church as well, then why evangelize, why not attend a Presbyterian service next Sunday or join a Universalist Church? I think that this is a case of ecumenism gone too far.
Tim Andrus,
Guilford, Connecticut
I sat on the subway a few days ago, watching a businessman read his morning newspaper. He was one row in front of me, so it was easy to look over his shoulder and check the day's headlines.
He skipped by reports of a looming famine and political disarray in Russia. He leafed past the story of U.S. Marines who shot a teenager herding goats near the Rio Grande. He gave barely a glance at a story about North Korean missile tests. He ignored reports of instability in the Middle East.
But then his eyes landed on the latest from the Clinton scandal — specifically, the story of the dress. The dress. The one that Monica Lewinsky failed to take to the cleaners, figuring, perhaps, that she'd use it to take someone else to the cleaners.
Charges of obstruction of justice and perjury are weighty charges to level against the president of the republic. But, those legal issues are not what interest the majority of Americans. Most people, like this businessman, seem inordinately interested in the seamier side of the affair.
He spent the rest of his commute pouring over every detail of Monica's dress. It seemed as if no other story existed in his world. When he reached his station, he ditched his paper, picked up his briefcase, and exited the train. He was prepared for the day.
I used to pity the English for their morbid obsession with the royal family. I assumed that spending so much time devouring details of the personal lives of the Windsor family — people far removed from their daily routines — meant that their own lives must be empty and lonely.
Now the Americans, with our predilection for doing everything in a bigger and better way, have made the English look like babes in the woods. Today, the racy details about Clinton's extramarital affairs hedge out almost every other news story.
It's all part of the coarsening of America. Ten years ago, it was not polite to discuss certain topics at social gatherings. Today, even those who call themselves social conservatives are ready to debate every intimate detail of the scandal.
It has become our new national obsession. The presidential affair is a fixed part of the nightly news, even when there have been no fresh developments. CNN and other 24-hour cable stations rehash the details on an hourly basis, like a monotonous drumbeat.
We twice elected Clinton to head our nation, knowing, at least at some level, that he has no character. We, the American people, allowed it to happen.
It's a quick and easy laugh during the opening monologues of the late-night talk shows. I assume the joke writers are only working half days, now. This is the type of humor that doesn't take much thought.
Frankly, I'd rather not revel in the intimate details about Clinton's private life. I only want to hear about whether or not he violated the law.
Before he was elected, it was a different story. I was interested in every word that Gennifer Flowers said. In fact, I thought she was a credible source. I thought she had something to add to the debate about character.
If you recall, that was a time when mainstream newspapers didn't want to touch the infidelity issue. My, how things have changed in six years. As soon as the American people voted to elect Clinton to be our president, I became not-so-interested in private details. If his name wasn't going to be on a ballot, it was not relevant information. I assumed his family life was in disarray. People rarely change their modus operandi, barring a conversion experience or some other traumatic reorientation.
It's a democracy. The majority rules. We twice elected Clinton to head our nation, knowing, at least at some level, that he has no character. We, the American people, allowed it to happen.
The only ones who are excused from responsibility are those who worked to prevent it by taking part in the political process before the elections, and those fighting the societal decay that allowed him to win.
I'd be willing to grant a partial absolution to the people who actually went to the voting booth and cast ballots against Clinton on both occasions — those minority of Americans who actually bothered to vote. But I don't think a vote cast in secret, taking little or no effort, lets anyone totally off the hook.
A biblical scholar once told me that one of the biggest lessons from the Old Testament is: God is willing to give people the leaders they deserve. Given the unwillingness of the silent majority to do anything other than complain, I'd say that is a good description of the current state of affairs.
Kathleen Howley is a Boston-based journalist.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathleen Howley ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Take up the Sword to Fight for the Culture of Life DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:Recently I had occasion to spend time with a man who had been a prisoner of war for more than seven years in Vietnam, five of them in solitary confinement. During those years, Jeremiah Denton was severely tortured, both physically and psychologically. He lost more than 90 pounds and was reduced to little more than skin and bones (some broken). I asked him how he managed to survive and he uttered one word — “Abba” — which, in Aramaic, means father.
When Denton was finally released, he became an admiral, a distinguished U.S. senator, and a champion for the rights of the unborn. The America he returned to was different than the one he had left. The culture had changed dramatically with the “sexual revolution” of the '60s and all the attendant social evils of contraception, “free sex,” abortion, pornography, divorce, child abuse, and homelessness. Denton was shocked by what he saw in the States in the early '80s. A culture of death had replaced a culture of life.
It occurred to me that his awareness of God's “fatherhood” was not only a cause of his survival, but is also a solid foundation for restoring the culture of life. “You are my son, today I have begotten you,” the second Psalm reads. “You are my son” are words addressed to Christ — but also to all baptized Christians. Through baptism we have received the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit which makes us adopted children of God, enabling us to cry out, “Abba.”
Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God. His filiation from God the Father is direct, unique, and unrepeatable. Yet, the reality of our filiation as “adopted” children of God is as real as our personhood. In fact, it is what gives us nobility. In his last will and testament, Jesus asks his Father: “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” (Jn 17)
In St. John's Gospel, Chapters 14-17, Jesus uses the word “Father” more than 45 times. Jesus' will is that we should remain united to the Father through him. The unity with the Father that Christ asked for us, is the gift he gave us in dying, rising again, and establishing his Church with the sacraments that bring us closer to God. His adopting us as redeemed sons and daughters accomplishes that union.
Our Divine Sonship
Awareness of the reality that we are indeed beloved children of God has consequences for our lives and our attitudes toward living. For our spiritual lives, awareness of this reality will make us “alive to God.” We will experience the joy of living even in sorrow and travail, because through it all we remain children of God. This is the cause of our joy, our cheerfulness, our gratitude, our trust, and our asceticism. To nurture our awareness of God's fatherhood, we should set aside time to consider our relationship to God, filling ourselves with an awareness of our divine filiation, which is the foundation of true piety.
We will also begin to see in others the image and likeness of God. By creating us in his image and likeness, God takes delight in our existence. We are the only creatures roaming the earth made in his image. When we see others as beloved children of God also, the virtues of justice and charity will enter into our lives in practical ways. When an employer ceases to see his employees as mere bodies or “instruments of production” and begins to see souls created by God for his glory, then the American competitive and individualistic spirit will be tempered by charity and the bonds of unity.
For civil society, the implications of our awareness of being beloved children of God are obvious. Individuals bonded through marriage will see in their spouse a person worthy of committed service through love. Married couples will see children as the fruits of their cooperation with God's creative powers. Human sexuality will be understood as blessed participation in the creative power of God. The unitive and procreative aspects of conjugal love will be viewed with awe and appreciation. Children will recognize in their parents the image of God's fatherly (and motherly) love, and will be formed in the understanding that true love involves a spirit of service. They will come to understand that their nobility as beloved children of God is the source of happiness, and they will grow in the human and supernatural virtues.
Our government will truly be by the people, for the people, and of the people, losing its tendency to be oppressive and intrusive. Our leaders will see power as an opportunity to serve, not as a podium for personal glory. As citizens, we will recognize not only our rights, but also our responsibilities. In the awareness of our being beloved children of God, our friendships with God, family, and friends will be based on trust and confidence.
There is no perfect human being on earth — we all make mistakes, we all sin. Scripture tells us that the just man sins seven times a day. What about the rest of us? We must learn to see even sin in the context of our divine filiation.
Lessons of the Prodigal Son
The story of the prodigal son is enormously encouraging. The prodigal son was from a noble family with means and a good name. However, as in many families, one or another child finds the temptation to leave overwhelming. The prodigal son went off with his wealth, his prestige, his good looks, and his honor to live the good life. This is tantamount to a young man in suburban America, from a well-to-do family, riding off in his BMW to go live it up on the Riviera. After a period of dissolute living, the prodigal son became aware of his own debasement.
He felt the wounds his adopted lifestyle had left on his soul and body. Rembrandt portrays the prodigal son as torn, maimed, and forlorn, yet his sword is still hanging from his tattered clothes. The sword in Rembrandt's Prodigal Son represents the nobility of his family. The sword is his awareness of his continued filiation with his father's noble home. Recognizing that the relationship had not changed — despite his sins — he went back to his father, out of a deep trust in him.
The return of the prodigal son is what we experience whenever we confess our sins in the sacrament of reconciliation. We are restored to our dignity as children of God. While the dignity of our relationship as sons and daughters of God may be lost through sin, we can never lose our filial relationship to God, because the relationship does not depend on our virtue. Sons and daughters remain sons and daughters throughout life, even though they may exercise their freedom to “leave home.” It was precisely the awareness of that relationship which enabled the prodigal son to return to his father — he had kept the sword of his filiation and remembered the nobility of his father.
Compare the story of the prodigal son, the sad story of Judas' betrayal, and the account of Peter's denial of Christ. All three sinned. By denying Christ, they left home. Judas failed to recognize his relationship as a son and, in despair, he hung himself. The prodigal son and Peter recognized their sins, but also recognized the unconditional love of the Father and Jesus, and so each wept and returned home. Soon after Peter's repentance, he became “the Rock” on which Christ built his Church.
These events, described so vividly in the Gospels, provide a powerful lesson for living and are repeated in our own time. Take, for example, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, co-founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL). He admits to aborting more than 70,000 babies — some his own children. At some point he recognized, through God's grace, his horrible crimes against innocent human life. He repented, trusted in God's limitless mercy, and was baptized a Catholic. Today, “Bernie” is at the forefront of the pro-life movement. The same thing happened to Norma McCorvey, otherwise known as Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade. McCorvey was working in a Planned Parenthood clinic when a Christian minister befriended her. Through their friendship, she became a baptized Christian and ended up joining those fighting for the rights of the unborn. Despite McCorvey's history, the minister recognized her hidden dignity as a beloved daughter of God.
In our time, the war between life and death confronts us every day. Teenagers kill other teenagers. Ayoung woman delivers her own baby at a prom, kills the baby, then goes on to dance the night away. We have enshrined the killing of innocent human beings under the bogus constitutional phrase of “a woman's right to choose.” Partial-birth abortions which many have rightly termed “infanticide,” is supported by the highest office-holder in our land. Euthanasia, “eugenic engineering,” “fetal reduction,” and forced sterilization of unsuspecting women, are just a few among many atrocities that hardly phase us.
Like Hitler's Germany?
The parallels between our society and that of Germany, even before Hitler, are striking. The most influential book published in Germany in the first quarter century was The Justification of the Destruction of Life Devoid of Value. Its co-authors were a distinguished jurist, Karl Binding, and a prominent psychiatrist, Alfred Hoche. Neither Binding nor Hoche had ever heard of Adolf Hitler or the Nazis.
Nor, in all likelihood, had Hitler ever read their book — he didn't have to. The ideas expressed in their book were from the “best” minds of the pre-Nazi Weimar Republic — from physicians, social scientists, and jurists. Perhaps, with the best secular intentions, they wished to improve the lot, socially and genetically, of the German people, by getting rid of the unfit and the unwanted. They had no concept of the fact that all human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. The death machines were alive and operating in Germany long before Hitler arrived on the scene. He merely directed the culture of death as it obliterated the Jewish people, Catholics and other Christians, and others it deemed undesirable.
Once the principle that innocent human life can be destroyed for whatever reason gains acceptance juridically, medically, and socially, it does not take a prophet to predict what will happen next. It is not difficult to imagine an electorate or a court 10 or 50 years from now who would favor getting rid of useless old people, the homeless, mentally handicapped children, anti-social blacks, illegal Hispanics, gypsies, Jews, homosexuals, and the list goes on and on.
The only remedy to such a future is a growing awareness that we are beloved children of God, created in his image and likeness, unconditionally loved, and gifted with a nobility that cannot be taken away. The only unforgivable sin is the sin that does not want to be forgiven. The only danger for the beloved child of God is to turn his back on the Father's love, or throw away the sword which represents his noble home with the Father.
A growing awareness of our nobility as sons and daughters of God holds the promise for the new millennium, which could become, in the words of Pope John Paul II, “a civilization of love in a culture that loves life.”
Robert Best, president of the Culture of Life Foundation, writes from Washington,
----- EXCERPT: Acting on the simple truth that we are children of God could be a major step in reversing society's demise ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert Best ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Dissenters Lead Church on a Dangerous Road DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:This summer, Pope John Paul II issued an apostolic letter, Ad Tuendam Fidem (“To Defend the Faith”), which, like Gaul, is divided into three parts. It explains the different levels of Church teaching, adds them to canon law, and makes clear the responsibility of Church leaders to uphold Catholic doctrine.
The letter was accompanied by a commentary from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, which provides examples of Church teachings which are definitive and no longer subject to debate — for example, those dealing with euthanasia and the restriction of priestly ordination to men.
Both documents touched a nerve among “liberal” Catholics. The editors of Commonweal expressed alarm about “the Vatican's relentless pursuit of doctrinal conformity.” Richard McCormick, a prominent dissenter on moral issues, accused the Vatican of being “coercive.” Other writers on the Catholic left saw the dead hand of the Magisterium stopping the creative juices of theologians and local bishops' conferences everywhere.
Let's cut to the chase. Father McCormick says that he has little problem with giving assent to teachings proposed “definitively” by the Magisterium. In other words, by solemn pronouncements of the Pope or an ecumenical council. But solemn pronouncements are not the way the Church usually goes about teaching the faith. There are also the teachings of the ordinary Magisterium. In fact, most Catholic truths belong to what the First Vatican Council called the Church's “ordinary universal teaching.” They don't need to be solemnly defined in order to be part of the deposit of faith.
The Pope is the chief guardian of these truths, and he may use whatever means he chooses to preserve and teach them. As one writer puts it, the Pope does not invent truths, he locates them.
The Second Vatican Council was emphatic about the Pope's authority to teach in this manner. Vatican II's Lumen Gentium, (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church), says the following:
“Loyal submission of the will and intellect must be given, in a special way, to the authentic teaching authority of the Roman Pontiff, even when he does not speak ex cathedra in such wise that … one sincerely adhere to the decisions made by him … which is made known principally either by the character of the documents in question, or by the frequency with which a certain doctrine is proposed, or by the manner in which the doctrine is formulated.”
When was the last time you saw these words quoted in Commonweal or any other “liberal” Catholic publication? They are a stumbling block for dissenting Catholics, who are seldom eager to discuss what the Council actually said about papal authority.
Since several of the teachings of the ordinary Magisterium — those relating to contraception, abortion, and priestly ordination — do not fit the mood of the times, heterodox theologians look for outs. One is to claim that any Church teaching not solemnly declared by the extraordinary Magisterium is fallible and therefore up for grabs. But this line of argument clearly violates both the letter and spirit of what the Council taught about papal authority.
A second line of attack is to say that statements by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith are not infallible and therefore not binding on Catholics. But this is mere technical quibbling: the Congregation's statements are a very serious exercise of Church authority, and the logic of such criticism would be to demand extraordinary papal declarations on every doctrinal question submitted to the Congregation. This would ultimately reduce the Church to solemnly defining every point of doctrine before it could be taken seriously. It would force the Magisterium into a legalistic mode of operation which is the reverse of Christ's way of teaching.
Catholic dissenters often accuse Pope John Paul II of being legalistic. But they don't hesitate to resort to legalisms about what is binding and what is not when it suits them.
Cardinal Ratzinger has warned that legalistic carping over the teachings of the Magisterium is a symptom of the kind of rationalism now rampant in the West, but which has still not infected the Eastern churches. More important than the concept of infallibility, Ratzinger writes, is that of auctoritas — authority which is humbly accepted because of what it is, without a constant demand for legal credentials. Such auctoritas has to be the basic assumption of any community of believers. And auctoritas cannot be limited to ex cathedra decrees. The living organism of the faith would suffer if reduced to a skeleton of solemn and binding pronouncements.
Catholic dissenters complain about the Pope's “hard sayings.” Their real problem is with the teaching authority established by Christ. They wish to take the Catholic Church down the road of doctrinal laxity. It is a road that mainstream Protestantism has traveled for the past 50 years. And we know exactly where it leads.
George Sim Johnston is a writer based in New York. He is the author of Did Darwin Get it Right? published by OSV.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: George Sim Johnston ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Keeper of a Great Intellectual Tradition DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:Catholicism is not just about the heart, but the mind, and as such, Catholic thinkers should stand out as the voices of reason on issues of the day, according to nationally recognized professor and playwright John Alvis of the University of Dallas (UD).
“To my mind, Catholicism is important aside from considerations of personal piety. It's important because it's the very center of Western intellectual tradition,” said Alvis, 54, a gravelly-voiced veteran of the city's lone Catholic institution of higher learning.
“To me, that means that Catholicism combines the best of the classical world with revealed truth. And Catholicism, in particular, rather than Protestant Christianity, because Protestant Christianity rejected much of the classical world, especially the moral philosophy of Plato and Aristotle and Cicero, at the time of the Reformation.”
“(Catholicism) is also essential for the proper understanding of Christianity because otherwise Christianity tends to become merely a sentimental enthusiasm … without a natural law basis … that establishes not only by revelation but by reason the importance of such institutions as the family and small communities and republican government.”
Applying that tradition of reasoned thinking to such issues as abortion and no-fault divorce is essential work for Catholics, especially scholars, believes Alvis believes.
“The Church needs to make it clear that they are representatives of reason and not just one group that cries out for respect among other groups,” he added. “Higher Catholic education should be education in revealed truth, yes, but grounded in recognition of natural principles of reason that will provide a foundation for revealed truth and provide one with the means of intelligent discussion of the matters that one holds in faith.”
Alvis, recently named to the Templeton Honor Roll for academic excellence, participates in that discussion on many levels. He is an award-winning playwright and a regular conference director for Liberty Fund, which gathers academics for a weekend of six seminars covering topics of the director's choice, such as Alvis' selections “Prometheus-Faust Connection,” “Liberty and Responsibility in the Works of John Milton,” and “Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Liberty or Statism?”
Catholicism is also essential for the proper understanding of Christianity because otherwise Christianity tends to become merely a sentimental enthusiasm.
Calling him one of the “crown jewels” of the campus, UD English department chairman David Davies described Alvis' presence at the school as invaluable.
“His importance to the department is profound,” he said. “He is a first-rate thinker whose learning is characterized both by its breadth of knowledge of literature, philosophy, and theology, but also by the depth of his understanding, and it is enhanced by the fact that he brings his understanding to bear on the circumstances we find ourselves in.”
Indeed, one can hardly separate Alvis from the quietly esteemed UD — home of renowned Humanae Vitae defender Janet Smith — where the professor has taught for 30 years. He came here from Jackson, Miss., to study physics, but wound up with a bachelor's degree in English in 1966, a master of arts in English in '68 and a doctorate in politics-literature under political thinker Wilmoore Kendall in 1973. Except for a brief stint at St. Johns' College in Annapolis, Alvis has taught continuously in UD's core curriculum, one of the oldest in the country.
Alvis teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on the literary greats from Shakespeare and Milton to Melville and Faulkner, but he names Alexandr Solzhenitsyn as the most important literary writer for our day.
As for political writers, Alvis ranks Leo Strauss and Eric Voeglin, whose works are cornerstones in the UD curriculum, because they “lead us back to the classics and they keep us from being bound by the opinions of our day.”
In fact, Alvis' work as a Catholic professor is to free students from the modern approach to philosophy characterized as moral relativism — that every opinion and belief and standard is equal to any other.
“University begins with the assumption that everybody is going to be a more or less unreflective moral relativist. They're going to come in that way. And it's senseless to attack it directly,” he said.
“What you do is have them read great books, and when they read great books they see that you have to make discriminations between the better and the worse, the noble and the base, and eventually that leads them back to moral distinctions, because they can see that moral distinctions are based upon intellectual judgments, they're not a matter of preference.
“That's not just a hope,” he said. “That's what happens here. But it takes an entire curriculum to do it. You don't do it in a course. You don't do it in a semester or a year. It takes four years before you can climb up out of the present climate of opinion.”
Students coming to UD usually have a good family background, character, independence of thinking, and capability of doing hard work, Alvis said, but in recent years they are generally lacking in their formal preparation for college work.
“I think there is one reason for that — whether they are in public school or Catholic school. Emphasis is placed on socialization rather than on training in subject matter,” he said. Such emphasis, which takes the form of multiculturalism, preachments about diversity and tolerance, and environmental dutifulness, leads to students being sent out to clean a median instead of reading Hawthorne, said Alvis.
The students best prepared for the university are those who read and converse with their parents rather than watching television or listening to music, he said, but the quality of their reading matters also.
Alvis recommends students read “first and foremost” the Bible, formerly the staple of American education, as well as Shakespeare, good novels such as Moby Dick and The Scarlet Letter, and quality short story writers such as Flannery O'Connor.
Prior to junior high, students can read speeches, particularly those by former presidents, “so they have a sense of what presidents can say that is entirely different from what they hear on the sound bites over television,” he said. “They have no sense of what a speech is.”
As a husband and father of three children — one a doctoral student at Fordham University, one a senior at UD and another who plans to enroll at UD — Alvis sees no better complement to the intellectual life than family.
“Life is mostly a matter of perfecting the mind, and the best way to perfect the mind is to raise children,” he said. “You retrace your steps, and you learn what you learned and how you learned, and the most elementary and fundamental things come back to sight when you're training children.
“It also enlarges the heart, and enlargement of the heart is necessary for intellectual keenness,” Alvis said. “You've got to be big to be intellectually keen, or you'll be thinking of petty things all the time, thinking of matters you can calculate, matters of self-interest. ”
The very moral virtues taught by classical tradition and the Catholic faith — prudence, self-control, and courage — are themselves aids to intellectual growth, Alvis believes.
“If you're not in the habit of standing up for principles in such a way that is painful, then you become small-minded and you don't grasp things as quickly,” he said.
Ellen Rossini writes from Dallas, Texas.
----- EXCERPT: Prof. John Alvis strives to free University of Dallas students of the trappings of moral relativism ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Rossini ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Big Questions, Empty Answers DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:Even drug-taking hedonists have souls, and sometimes they're given a chance to redeem themselves although the price to be paid may be steeper than they expect.
Return to Paradise, loosely based on the 1990 French film Force Majeure, shows three young men of college age being put to the test. Bad luck throws them into a crisis situation where they are forced to examine their consciences and decide what kind of values they want to live by.
The cops stumbled upon the hashish Lewis had dumped into the trash and arrested him.
Sheriff (Vince Vaughn), Tony (David Conrad), and Lewis (Joaquin Phoenix) act like prototypical ugly Americans on the prowl in Malaysia. Characterizing the country's beautiful coastline as “God's bathtub,” they turn their tourist visit into a continuous party, featuring cheap drugs and loose women. Only Lewis seems to have any semblance of a moral center. He's concerned about endangered species and plans to work with orangutans in the area when the others go home.
During the final week of their stay, the trio take an outing into the lush jungle. Lewis has rented a bicycle they don't need from a local vendor. Sheriff tosses it into the dense vegetation to eliminate the bother. Lewis, who's worried about the financial loss this will inflict on its owner, objects but doesn't stop to retrieve it.
On their last day together, Sheriff gives Lewis a large stash of hashish which the environmentalist quickly throws into his trash bin. The three didn't know each other back in the states but as they say their good-byes, they promise to stay in touch.
Two years pass, and there's been no contact between them. Sheriff is a Manhattan limo driver who lives in a working-class Brooklyn neighborhood. To make some extra bucks, he sells the local tabloids juicy gossip about his rich-and-famous clients. He lives his own version of life in the fast lane. By contrast, Tony, a Harvard-educated architect, has achieved some professional and financial success and plans to get married and settle down.
Their apparent tranquillity is interrupted when Lewis's attorney, Beth Eastern (Anne Heche), brings them bad news from Malaysia. The local bicycle vendor took the police to Lewis's dwelling soon after they left. His missing vehicle, of course, was nowhere to be found. But the cops stumbled upon the hashish Lewis had dumped into the trash and arrested him.
The penalty for drug-dealing in Malaysia is death, and Lewis is scheduled to be hanged in eight days. The American embassy has been unable to help so Beth has cut her own deal with the local authorities. If Sheriff and Tony agree to return to Malaysia and plead guilty to complicity in the drug charge, Lewis won't be executed. The catch is that Sheriff and Tony will have to serve three years each in the local jail where the food is unhealthy and the guards are mean.
Director Joseph Ruben (The Good Son) and screenwriters Wesley Strick and Bruce Robinson focus on Sheriff and his battle with his conscience. After all, he's the one who threw away the bicycle and gave Lewis the drugs. But he's never taken any responsibility for anything in his life before, and he does-n't see why he should start now. But in spite of himself, he feels guilty. The filmmakers make us viscerally experience his torment about his decision to walk away from Lewis.
Tony, on the other hand, is inclined to help his friend. But even he fudges. He agrees to return to Malaysia only if Sheriff will go back with him.
Beth is willing to do almost anything to persuade Sheriff to change his mind, and at this point the filmmakers seem to lose confidence in their premise. Rather than dig deeper into their characters' souls, they stoop to a series of clever plot twists which cheapen the story.
Neither Sheriff, Lewis, or Beth seem to have any core values to guide them so their choices are always subject to change. But what's more disturbing is that the filmmakers are as morally confused as their main characters. Unfortunately, when events come to a head in Malaysia, the characters' moments of sacrifice are undercut by the movie's fashionable attitudes of cynicism and irony.
Return to Paradise addresses important themes, and the filmmakers do succeed in making the viewer ask himself: What would he do if he were in Sheriff or Tony's positions? But one is left with a hollow feeling. The viewer is as unsure about the value of doing the right thing at the movie's end as he was in the beginning.
Arts and Culture correspondent John Prizer currently writes from Washington, D.C.
Return to Paradise is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America.
----- EXCERPT: Cynicism undercuts the intriguing themes raised in Return to Paradise ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Struggling to Build Paradise on Earth DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:The Church is the hands and feet of Christ on earth. Her mission is to preach the Gospel and do good works. The Church is also an institution in the real world, and at times her organizational work clashes with her spiritual goals.
The Mission, winner of the 1986 Cannes Film Festival's highest award, dramatizes one of these conflicts. The action is set in the 1750s in Latin America where the Jesuits were trying to convert the Indians. The story is narrated by a papal emissary (Ray McAnally) who has been forced to make some difficult decisions. He says his tale demonstrates “the everlasting mercy of God and the short-lived mercy of man.”
Director Roland Joffe (The Killing Fields) and screenwriter Robert Bolt (Lawrence of Arabia) begin the emissary's story with the martyrdom of the first Jesuit who tried to evangelize an Indian tribe who live above a majestic waterfall where few white men have been. The priest's superior, Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons), declares: “I sent him, I have to go up there myself.”
A gentle but intensely focused man, Father Gabriel succeeds in establishing a mission with that formerly hostile tribe, but he is soon followed by a slave trader, Capt. Mendoza (Robert De Niro), who kidnaps Indians for forced labor on European-run plantations.
Upon his return to the settlements, Mendoza finds that he and his brother, Felipe (Aidan Quinn), are in love with the same woman. They quarrel, and the slave trader kills his sibling in a duel.
Despite his evil conduct, Mendoza has a conscience. Guilt over his broth-er's death paralyzes him. He lives for six months in a cell in a Jesuit community residence. His former enemy, Father Gabriel, is asked to try and cure his despair.
“For me, there is no redemption,” cries Mendoza. “Do you have the courage to chose your penance?,” Father Gabriel replies. “Do you dare to see it fail,” Mendoza counters, accepting the Jesuit's spiritual challenge.
The ex-slave trader's penance is to drag behind him a heavy rope net filled with armor and weapons on the long trek up the steep hills to the Indian mission he once raided. The burden is cumbersome, and he's often in great pain. Father John (Liam Neeson), another Jesuit missionary, thinks the penance is arbitrary and cruel. But Father Gabriel realizes it will cause Mendoza to suffer enough for him to forgive himself.
The mission Indians witness the ex-slave trader's self-inflicted punishment, and true to their recent calling as Christians, they accept him as part of their community. As a result, Mendoza finds inner peace and decides to join the Jesuit order. This whole sequence is one of the most moving presentations of the power of Christian redemption ever filmed.
The papal emissary comments that the missionaries' “seeking to establish paradise on earth is offensive” to many. The Jesuits have established other missions below the falls that have been organized into plantations which compete with the settlers' holdings. As all the missions' profits are recycled back into the Indian communities, some of the Europeans believe the Jesuits'activities undermine the capitalist system.
Both Spain and Portugal claim large tracts of land in the area. The Spanish forbid slavery, and the Portuguese allow it. When the mission above the falls was established, it was recognized as Spanish territory so if outlaws like Mendoza were controlled, the Indians remained free. But a treaty has recently been negotiated in Europe which cedes this land to the Portuguese. The papal emissary has been sent to the hemisphere to decide what to do about the Jesuit community above the falls.
Joffe and Bolt depict the Vatican official's dilemma with sensitivity and intelligence. Although a man skilled in the exercise of temporal power, he too has a conscience.
Unfortunately, the filmmakers also have an ideological bias which weakens their otherwise powerful story. They want to establish parallels between the 18th-century Jesuits in Latin America and the activities of the Catholic left of our time. These comparisons seem forced and are historically questionable.
To this end, the Indians are so idealized that they seem to have no faults. And, in case we miss the point, radical activist Father Daniel Berrigan is cast as one of the Jesuits working with them.
Nevertheless, The Mission, on a personal level, is a deeply spiritual drama about penance and forgiveness. On the political plane, it depicts with a savage eye the Europeans exploitation of indigenous people in Latin America and shows how the Church found herself at times on both sides of the issue. It's a painful chapter of our history which we should never forget.
Arts and Culture correspondent John Prizer is currently writing from Washington, D.C.
Next Week: Mervyn LeRoy's The Wizard Of Oz.
----- EXCERPT: The Mission offers one of the best depictions of Christian redemption ever filmed but is marred by its 'liberation theology'bias. ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: The Making of an Unlikely Saint DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:St. Gerard Majella was a remarkable saint who died at the early age of 29. He is cited as the perfect role model for young adults and anyone striving for holiness. Recognized as the most famous miracle-worker of the 18th century, today he is invoked as the patron saint of motherhood. More than one million pilgrims are drawn to the shrine of the well-loved saint each year in Materdomini, Italy. Throughout the year, visitors can be seen kneeling and praying before St. Gerard's tomb, seeking his powerful intercession.
Born on April 6, 1726, Gerard eagerly offered his services to the Capuchins as a young boy, in his quest to serve the Church. Refused for being too young and delicate, he later became a servant for the bishop of Lacedogna. Severely ill-treated by the prelate, Gerard nevertheless served the bishop faithfully until the latter's death. Afterward, he returned home and gave a third of his earnings to his mother, another third in alms to the poor, and the rest in stipends for Masses for the souls in purgatory.
At the age of 23, Gerard left home to join the newly established Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists) as a lay brother. Not everything was rosy at first: his family objected to his leaving, and a Redemptorist priest wrote to the house Gerard was joining, “I send you a useless brother.” In time, however, everyone recognized Gerard's superior diligence. St. Alphonsus Liguori, the founder of the order, realized the young man's sanctity and shortened his novitiate. In 1752, Gerard professed his final vows.
Over the next three years, Gerard devoted himself to propagating the Catholic faith. His gift for reading souls led the Redemptorist fathers to bring Gerard on their missions and retreats. During this period, the future saint experienced the gifts of ecstatic flight, bilocation, prophecy, and infused knowledge. When the archpriest of Muro was murdered 50 miles away, Gerard knew of the incident immediately. Several times he learned and correctly acted on the mental wishes of others at a distance. On one occasion he read the bad conscience of an archbishop with such accuracy that the prelate repented and completely reformed his life.
His reputation for holiness spread far and wide. Several communities of nuns received him as their spiritual director, although he was a lay brother. For many others, he became a spiritual adviser and wrote many letters of advice to those in authority, both priests and other religious.
Brother Gerard also possessed a deep love for the poor. Many described Gerard's concern and compassion for them as similar to that of a mother for her children. Everyone came from far and near to present his or her needs to him. In 1755, while laboring and traveling throughout southern Italy in the summer heat, he grew weak and ill.
Except for a few brief periods, he remained confined to his bed with poor health. During the last weeks of his life, his intimacy with God intensified. Through physical suffering and spiritual ecstasy, the Lord granted him elevated gifts of infused knowledge and pre-vision. Gerard died on Oct. 15, 1755, at the day and hour he had foretold. Gerard was canonized in 1904.
In the words of Pope Leo XIII, the saint was “one of those angelic youths whom God has given to the world as a model to mankind.”
Today, the shrine of St. Gerard Majella in Materdomini (Latin for “Mother of God”) has become one of the most popular places of pilgrimage in southern Italy. The most prominent sites at the sanctuary include the basilica, St. Gerard Museum, and the tomb of the saint. Pilgrims can also visit the chapel which once served as St. Gerard's living quarters.
The shrine is staffed by the Redemptorists and celebrates a number of anniversaries and feast days throughout the year. St. Gerard's birth is commemorated on April 6 each year. On April 25, the shrine honors the Day of the Sick, and on the third Sunday of May, the sanctuary sets aside a special day for youth pilgrimages. On the fourth Sunday of May, special celebrations are held for mothers and their children. Each August 1, the solemnity of St. Alphonsus Liguori is observed. The first Sunday of September brings with it a day offered for the poor of Madagascar and a procession with the statue of St. Gerard. Sept. 8 is the Feast of Materdomini, and on the evening of Oct. 15 there is a solemn commemoration of St. Gerard's death. The following day, there is the annual blessing of the grain and agricultural equipment. On the 16th of every month, there is a commemoration of St. Gerard's death.
Materdomini is located approximately 40 miles southeast of Naples, and is easily accessible by car and bus. From Naples, take A3 southeast to Contursi Terme via Salerno and Eboli. Exit at Contursi Terme (S91) and head north to Materdomini via Quaglietta.
As there is no railway station at Materdomini, the town is accessible only by car or bus. For rail travellers, take the train to Salerno. From Salerno, there is regular SITA bus service to Materdomini.
For more information on making a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Gerard Majella, contact one of the many Catholic travel organizations or e-mail the shrine (in Italian) at: materdomini@geos.it
Kevin Wright, author of Catholic Shrines of Western Europe, writes from Bellevue, Washington.
----- EXCERPT: More than a million pilgrims a year visit Southern Italy's shrine to St. Gerard Majella, a humble and beloved miracle worker ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kevin Wright ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Pro-Life Leaders Decry FDA's Approval of 'Contraception Kit' DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—The Food and Drug Administration's recent approval of the so-called “emergency contraception kit” has provoked sharp criticism from leading Catholics and others. Although billed as contraceptives, the pills are essentially abortifacients, according to many pro-life leaders.
Known as PREVEN, the pills packets are to be taken within three days after sexual intercourse; two pills within 72 hours and two more another 12 hours later. The concept essentially repackages the idea of a “morning after” pill.
Dr. Peter Cataldo, director of research at The National Catholic Bioethics Center, said, “This is not just contraception. The newly approved ‘emergency contraception kits’ may give women another option for the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, but having one more option does not make it good.
“One use of the so-called ‘kit’ will be to prevent the embryo from implanting in the womb, which is nothing short of directly taking an innocent human life,” he said.
When the FDA was reviewing the pills in 1996, a representation of the Family Research Council, a Washington-based public policy organization, testified against it.
One use of the so-called ‘kit’ will be to prevent the embryo from implanting in the womb, which is nothing short of directly taking an innocent human life.
In her testimony, Gracie Hsu said the product works as an abortifacient, incurs serious side effects, allows men to manipulate women in sexual relationships, encourages irresponsible sex, and helps shift any legal liability from physicians to individuals.
Father Frank Pavone, international director of Priests for Life, told the Register, “Some of the same groups that oppose a women's right to know the consequences of surgical abortion support these chemical means of abortion and contraception. We have no reason to think such people will be any more diligent in informing women of potential health risks of these drugs.
“Regarding the effect on the child, whether a particular drug ends a life or not is a matter for scientific investigation. What we assert is that the direct destruction of a new human life from the time of fertilization is an abortion, and is always wrong.
“There have been efforts to redefine the meaning of ‘conception’ to mean ‘implantation’ rather than ‘fertilization.’ Putting word games aside, however, the fact remains that a unique life begins with the process of fertilization,” he said.
The head of Deacons for Life, Keith Fournier, added, “These pills should not have been given FDA approval because they certainly do not promote the health of the woman nor of the unborn child.
“Rather,” he said, “it promotes the killing of the children in the womb.”
The Catholic Church's position on the issue of abortion, of course, is clear. In the 1965 pronouncement Gaudiumet Spes, it is noted: “Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.”
Similar teachings are contained in Quaestio de Abortu (Declaration on Procured Abortion), 1974; Donum Vitae (Instruction on Bioethics-Respect for Human Life), 1987; and, of course, Evangelium Vitae (On the Value and Inviolability of Human Life), issued in 1995. “If any Catholics were to use this kit they could not avoid the grave sin of abortion,” Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz told the Register, “ and also could incur the ecclesiastical excommunication mentioned in Canon 1398 of the Code of Canon Law.”
The bishop also was among those who link the so-called emergency contraception pills with the decline of American morality. “The tragic deterioration in sexual behavior in our country and in our culture, and the increasing disrespect for human life and human personhood are certain to be exacerbated by our government's new effort to foster immorality,” he said.
Another forceful view was given by Father Richard Welch CSsR, president of Human Life International. He said, “With the release of these home abortion kits, the Clinton administration is escalating its drive to pull the American public down the slope of moral depravity to the same level the White House.
“Not only will the actions of the FDA result in more and earlier chemical abortions, but the promotion of these so-called ‘morning after’ pills will contribute toward further erosion of morality throughout the world,” he continued.
Criticism of the pills has not only come from Catholics. The prominent writer Frederica Mathewes-Green, who contributes to the Protestant magazine Christianity Today, opposes the kit.
But, she notes that it is sometimes difficult for people to understand the magnitude of the issue. It's “the kind of thing that the public can't grasp, because the size of the unborn is so small. A prejudice of sorts, but there it is — it's a tough sell to the public,” she contends. Father Germain Kopaczynski, director of education at The National Catholic Bioethics Center, said, “Since pumping powerful potions into women's bodies to prevent pregnancy or implantation is hardly a pleasing prospect to sell to the American public, the wordsmiths of linguistic legerdemain are at work once again, redefining ‘pregnancy’ to stretch to ‘implantation’ and then using the blanket term ‘contraception’ to cover both the prevention of ovulation as well as the causing of a very early abortion.
“Confusing? That's the whole point of the exercise when you're trying to sell a bill of goods.”
Joseph Esposito writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: Experts call it 'repackaging' of 'morning after' pill ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Esposito ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: New French Pro-Life Group Adopts American-Style Strategy DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:DALLAS—Droit de Naitre, the newest yet already the largest pro-life organization in France, is enkindling the protest against the country's 24-year-old abortion law — and its possible expansion — by focusing on education and grass-roots political pressure.
Now numbering 35,000 members, Droit de Naitre (“The Right to be Born”) was begun in 1996 by a group of mothers determined to see the overturning of the so-called Loi Veil, the law which allows unrestricted abortion through the 10th week of pregnancy, said Nelson Fragelli, president of the association, who recently spoke in Dallas.
The group's latest campaign involved the collection of 600,000 signatures on a petition against the Socialist-led Parliament's recent effort to expand the law to include abortion-on-demand through the 24th week of pregnancy and to remove the parental consent requirement for minors requesting abortion. So far the measures have not passed.
“(The petitioners) want to feel that their opinion is being heard by those ruling the country,” said Fragelli. “We need action. I don't like the word ‘pressure,’ but we need to show to the ruling forces of the country that there are thousands and thousands of people who do not want abortion.”
Other recent efforts by the privately funded pro-life group include an opinion survey to which 600 candidates responded, and which can then be used to hold the newly elected politicians accountable and influence future elections, Fragelli said. The association has solicited letters to government leaders protesting welfare payments for abortion and has also conducted a mass mailing campaign to educate citizens on the controversial abortion pill RU-486 technology exchange between pharmaceutical company Roussel-Uclaf of France and Hoechst of Germany.
Droit de Naitre is filling a niche in France, where 225,000 clinical abortions were performed last year, up from 180,000 the previous year.
Droit de Naitre hopes to cooperate with the other two national pro-life organizations, yet its directors believe it is filling a niche in France, where 225,000 clinical abortions were performed last year, up from 180,000 the previous year.
Nevertheless, the Paris-based group's efforts to mobilize citizens to send protest letters to the president of the Republic or its work to disseminate facts about abortion through pamphlets — as well as its secondary goals of fighting against indecency and promoting adoption as a solution to unplanned pregnancy — are nothing new to its counterparts across the Atlantic.
“We come here every year to have contact with American pro-life organizations; what you have been doing here is very inspiring,” said Fragelli, who attended the 1997 March for Life in Washington, D.C.
Many factors in the abortion debate are similar: from a dominantly pro-abortion media to widespread tolerance of legal abortion, even the language of “freedom to choose.” But one difference he notes is that French pro-life citizens peacefully demonstrate in front of the hospitals where abortions are performed, whereas in the United States people go to abortion centers to pray and counsel. Overall, he said, “Americans pray more.”
The Brazilian-born Fragelli recently joined a group of pro-lifers in front of an abortion center in Bakersfield, Calif., where as the only Spanish speaker he counseled a young Mexican woman, children in tow, against aborting her baby. “I was the hero of the day,” he said.
The youthful Droit de Naitre is drawing its momentum from young people, especially young married couples, who are responding to its efforts, Fragelli said.
“The problem becomes very alive when they get married … They are ready to react, to say no to abortion right now. They want to be informed,” he said, noting the successful response to a recent publication, Fifty Questions and Answers About Abortion, targeted at teens and young women. Already some 40,000 copies have been distributed and another 20,000 are scheduled to be printed.
Clerical support for French pro-lifers is sparse, as is the clergy itself in the historically Catholic country which now numbers fewer than 100 priestly ordinations a year, said Fragelli. The group does receive encouragement, however, from Msgr. Gilles Wach, a pro-life spokesman and founder of a seminary in Florence, Italy, and of a fraternity of priests, some of whom are established in the United States.
Fragelli finds his primary motivation for pro-life work in his Catholic faith and the duty to protect the soul of the unborn person.
“That small child in his mother's womb, our Lord shed His blood for his salvation,” he said. “This gives us much more strength for the battle. Whenever we speak of a soul, the whole question becomes much more serious.”
Fragelli visited Dallas while on a speaking tour through the United States, which included stops in California, Kansas, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania. Besides working with Droit de Naitre, the 55-year-old former mechanical engineer promotes Catholic tradition, family life and culture through two other non-profit organizations.
Ellen Rossini writes from Dallas, Texas.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Rossini ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Young Pro-Lifers'Message for'Abortion Generation' DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:TORONTO—Canadian high school and university students plan to bring the right to life issue front and center for the 1998-99 school year.
Organized at both the university and secondary school levels, Canadian pro-life students are striving to make respect life themes more relevant among their peers.
In Ontario, Canada's largest province, student pro-life work is spear-headed by Ontario Students for Life (OSFL), a network of 16-to-20-year-olds that acts as an information resource for individuals and groups.
The group's mandate is “to proclaim, celebrate, and serve the right to life of every human person.” Members pledge themselves to this end by working to develop skills to become future leaders and promote a wider pro-life attitude that can be expressed in day-to-day activities.
Although the group is interdenominational, the majority of its 400 members attend Catholic high schools and colleges. OSFL benefits from contact with an “anchor board” of adult prolifers who offer advice and direction to the students. In addition to providing much-needed experience to young pro-lifers, the anchor board offers continuity, and alleviates the transience problems often associated with student-run organizations.
OSFL seeks to unite young pro-lifers across the province through education and action. The organization recently elected a new board of directors including president Ed Abbey, 16, of Woodstock, southwest of Toronto, and vice-president James Picard, 16, of London, Ontario.
The top priority for the new executives is organizing OSFL's fall conference. The theme for the conference is “Life is Groovy Baby!” an attempt to tap into the current retrospective trend in television, movies, and advertising. The theme also fits in with the longstanding objective of students pro-lifers to make the right to life message more “hip” for a jaded North American public.
“Students often don't want to get involved in some of these issues, so it's our job to provide them with the facts so that they can make better informed decisions,” said OSFL president Ed Abbey. He has noticed a greater openness on the part of students to become more informed about pro-life issues.
Abbey has high hopes for the upcoming conference which will feature Canadian, U.S., and international speakers. One eagerly anticipated guest is Rev. Pat Mahoney of Fredericksburg, Virginia. Rev. Mahoney, a Protestant pastor, came to the attention of the OSFL executive in June at an international youth pro-life conference in Dublin, Ireland.
“He was one of the most inspirational speakers I've ever heard and we thought he would be ideal to address Canadian pro-life students,” said OSFL treasurer Ada Wong, 20, of Toronto. Wong was also impressed with Rev. Mahoney's 10-year record of service in pro-life work.
Other speakers scheduled to attend the OSFL conference include Shari Richard of West Bloomfield, Michigan, an authority on ultrasound technology and fetal development. Richard, founder of the Sound Wave Images company, has produced two educational videos, Ultrasound: A Window to the Womb, and Eyewitness to the Earliest Days. She has appeared in more than 5,000 schools throughout the U.S. outlining the risks of abortion and the benefits of abstinence and healthy, positive sexuality.
In addition to representatives from Canada's major pro-life organizations, the 1998 OSFL conference could feature a presentation from members of Youth Defense, the Republic of Ireland's leading pro-life organization. OSFL officials are hopeful Youth Defense representatives will accept an invitation to come to Ontario for the conference.
Youth Defense has played a majorrole in keeping the abortion issue in focus as Irish citizens consider a referendum on the country's restrictive abortion law. Several elements have been at work in the predominantly Catholic nation to promote wider acceptance of abortion and contraception.
Two members of OSFL met Youth Defense counterparts during a summer speaking tour of Ireland. “We're hoping some of our members will be inspired by the example and commitment of Youth Defense,” said OSFL's Wong. “This is one of the key reasons we decided to invite them.”
Wong also revealed a major new initiative for the OSFL group. Officials hope to launch a campaign to bring the right to life message to Ontario's eighth-grade students. To date, pro-life awareness is limited primarily to secondary school students, but OSFL members are hoping their program will get the word to a younger audience. “It's still on the drawing board, but if it goes ahead, we believe the eighth grade program will result in increasing pro-life awareness earlier,” Wong said.
While OSFL promotes the right to life message in high schools, the National Campus Life Network (NCLN) faces the more daunting task of fostering a greater pro-life attitude among Canada's undergraduate community.
Young people respond best to those who speak with the same voices, who share the same experience, and who know the lay of the land.
Like the OSFL, the campus network recently elected a new executive, Shendah O'Neill of British Columbia. O'Neill, who is completing a Master's degree in child studies and education at the University of Toronto, said pro-life work at the university level has made great strides. O'Neill comes to the organization after heading up Students for Life on the campus of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia.
“The significance of NCLN to the Canadian university setting is yet to be recognized,” she recently told supporters. “The impact it will have on the ‘abortion generation’ is unpredictable. The communication and education we bring to our campuses is new and different from the days of equal rights. Scientific discovery and a new compassion for the individual are changing our movement.”
Officials with NCLN agree that university campuses have not always been a haven for the pro-life message.
Nonetheless they see several reasons for optimism. Chief among them is the use of the latest information technology to build new pro-life networks and share ideas and strategies. In addition to the rapid exchange of information, the Internet and e-mail help campus-based pro-life organizations overcome great geographic separation between many Canadian cities. This was one of the central themes arising at the NCLN national symposium last winter in Toronto.
Father Tom Lynch, a professor of moral theology at St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto, is the only non-student member of the NCLN. Father Lynch has long advocated the use of information technology — backed by an efficient corps of dedicated volunteers — as a key ingredient in the success of any pro-life venture.
The value of pro-life networking seems to be going out across North America. A cursory check of a pro-life Internet website lists nearly 20 university-based pro-life organizations in the United States. The actual number is probably much higher, given the many organizations that have not yet found their way to the Internet.
In addition, at least two groups have started pro-life newspapers specifically aimed at high school and university students. Both are available in electronic format. In the United States, the Pro-Life America group is set to launch an educational newsletter for a mass audience. Pro-Life America director J.T. Finn of Redondo Beach, Ca., said the newspaper will promote the benefits of chastity and a healthy positive lifestyle as a counterbalance to the lure of promiscuity and casual sex. Finn hopes to distribute more than four million newspapers over the next three years.
Meanwhile, Priests for Life Canada recently distributed Facts for Life to thousands of Canadian high school students. The quarterly publication features articles and information about issues of concern to pro-life, pro-family students. The most recent issue is dedicated to clearing up misconceptions about euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Father Lynch of St. Augustine's Seminary is encouraged by the growth of student pro-life networks. “In its simplest terms, we need a youth pro-life movement if we are going to have an adult pro-life movement in the future,” he told the Register. Father Lynch said it is important for today's young people — who have grown up in ‘an abortion generation’— to be the ones bringing the respect for life ideals to their peers.
“Today's young people are aware of how deeply imbedded abortion is in our culture,” he said, “and they are enthusiastic about building a new culture based on something positive.”
Father Lynch said that in addition to bringing fresh ideas, energy and creativity to the pro-life struggle, students and young people are ideally situated to influence their classmates. “Young people often don't listen to voices coming down on them from on high,” he said. “Young people respond best to those who speak with the same voices, who share the same experience, and who know the lay of the land.”
Mike Mastromatteo writes from Toronto, Canada.
----- EXCERPT: Canadian and U.S. students prep for efforts in new school year ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mike Mastromatteo ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: THE GOSPEL OF LIFE DATE: 09/20/1998 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 20-26, 1998 ----- BODY:Young pro-lifers (see story below) are increasingly dedicated to educating their peers as Pope John Paul II called for in Evangelium Vitae:
“In particular, there is a need for education about the value of life from its very origins. It is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not help the young to accept and experience sexuality and love and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection. Sexuality, which enriches the whole person, “manifests its inmost meaning in leading the person to the gift of self in love” (Familiaris Consortio 37). The trivialization of sexuality is among the principal factors which have led to contempt for new life. Only a true love is able to protect life. There can be no avoiding the duty to offer, especially to adolescents and young adults, an authentic education in sexuality and in love, an education which involves training in chastity as a virtue which fosters personal maturity and makes one capable of respecting the “spousal” meaning of the body. (97.2)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Turin Shroud Dated To 1st Millennium DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:ST. LOUIS — If the Shroud of Turin really is the burial shroud of Jesus, more is now known about his passion and entombment.
New findings suggest that his crown of thorns was woven from a local thistle bush, and his bloody body was strewn with spring flowers before it was buried, flowers freshly picked from the fields around Jerusalem or bought in the streets from traveling vendors.
Plants and pollen embedded in the Shroud of Turin have been traced to the area around Jerusalem and dated to before the eighth century, according to a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
The findings contradict a decade-old carbon dating examination of a shroud fragment that placed its origins in the years between 1260 and 1390, a finding which was disputed recently by scientists in Virginia who say a 16th-century fire that heated the shroud would have altered the carbon data.
The wounds that help form the man's image on the yellowing linen cloth measuring 14.5 by 3.9 feet closely match those described in Gospel accounts of Christ's passion.
The newest findings are the result of recently completed tests of evidence of flowers that was discovered five years before the 1988 carbon dating.
In presenting his results Aug. 2 in St. Louis, Dr. Avinoam Danin, a botanist and expert on the plant life of Israel, said that the floral images and pollen grains found on the shroud serve as “geographic and calendar indicators.”
He said the flowers “could have been picked up fresh in the fields. A few of the species could be found in the markets of Jerusalem in the spring of the year.”
“This combination of flowers can be found in only one region of the world; the evidence clearly points to a floral grouping from the area surrounding Jerusalem,” Danin said in a presentation to the International Botanical Congress.
Colleagues determined several of the floral and pollen species found on the shroud bloomed in what is now Israel between May and March, and that another must have been picked in the Judean desert or the Dead Sea valley between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. on the day they were placed on the shroud.
A type of pollen from a thistle visible near the shoulder of the man's image on the shroud was believed to be the plant used for Jesus'crown of thorns, the researchers said.
John Iannone, author of The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin (Alba House, 1998) and president of the Holy Shroud Task Force of Tarpon Springs, Fla,, spoke with the Register about the findings.
Rinaldi: How new is the information that has just been released? Haven't we heard about pollen on the shroud before?
Iannone: Back in 1973 and 1978, pollen was discovered on the shroud by a Swiss criminologist Dr. Max Frei. He had identified about 58 species, 28 of which he said came from the Holy Land area and the rest from areas of Turkey and Constantinople, where we know the later history of the shroud to be.
Then, in about 1983 Dr. Alan Whanger from Duke University noted that there were floral images with new techniques in contrast photography. He noted that there was an image of a chrysanthemum and then he discovered more and more but, not being an expert in botany, he later called in an expert botanist in Israel, Dr. Avinoam Danin, who teaches at Hebrew University, and Dr. Uri Baruch, who is with the Israeli antiquities authority. He's an expert in the pollen, and Danin is an expert in the flowers of Israel.
What did they find?
Actually what they did is look at these 28 species and agreed that these were flowers which bloom in the Holy Land and specifically at least three or four were indigenous to the Holy Land, meaning that they grow no where else. For example, Danin identified the chrysanthemum which was to the side of the head. He identified a bouquet of rock rose which was to the side of the face on the shroud, and he identified … a bean caper plant very specific to the Holy Land. More recently … a thorn or thistle bush.
Danin then said clearly the provenance of this cloth was the Holy Land, in his announcement made in the last couple of days.
There's another cloth, in Oviedo, Spain, that some call the face cloth of Jesus. What is the connection here?
They are in two different locations and they are two different pieces of cloths but the Oviedo cloth is a face cloth and the shroud, of course, is an entire 14-foot, 3-inch cloth. But what they discovered was that these two cloths were in touch with the same face, because the Oviedo cloth does not have an image but it does have blood stains and serum stains which match the blotting stains that we find on the shroud, No. 1. And No. 2, the type of blood has now been identified on both cloths as AB. AB blood is the rare type of blood, only 3.2 % of the world has [it] … and the vast majority of these cases are in the Middle East and specifically in northern Palestine. So that was another area where in the blood studies they could focus in on an area of the world and say the cloths [were] from this area.
What Danin has shown is that these two cloths are related and the Oviedo cloth has a known history going back to at least the seventh century, so if the two cloths covered the same individual they clearly predate the carbon-14 test date of medieval era.
Can you describe for us how the two cloths were used in the burial?
One custom was that if the face was in any way to be covered, as certainly the victims of crucifixion would be, there would be a cloth placed over the head or actually around the head while the individual was still on the cross, after he had died, and that would remain until the body was actually carried to the tomb — much the way, if you had seen someone died on the street, you might cover their face out of respect.
Then, when the body reached the tomb, this cloth would be taken off and put to one side and they would be laid in the larger shroud. In fact, in the Gospel of John, when they talk about the cloth that had been rolled up and folded to one side, we believe that would be … the cloth that is in Oviedo, Spain.
So, now we have found that the blood stains on the shroud and this cloth are similar and also the pollen stains?
Correct. Exactly.
Let's get back to this carbon dating in 1988. They did the carbon test that placed the shroud in the medieval era. They used a corner of the shroud and no attention was given to the other head cloth that can be traced to exist 700 or 800 years before the test results?
In 1988 the carbon community had convinced the Turin authorities that they could utilize a very small piece of cloth — actually about a postage [stamp] size piece of cloth — and through that with the carbon dating method could put a date on it. … They took four but they used three in the test and kept one aside. Four small pieces of cloth on the lower edge of the shroud which is a highly contaminated area where it's handled, of course.
In their testing they said, “Well, this cloth would date from about 1250 to about 1390, somewhere in that range.” The problem at the time was that this information was not balanced against so much other information that we had, a lot of which fortunately is now becoming clear. It was kind of accepted by a lot of people to be the final date. What has happened in the past three or four years, beside the studies on the blood, which we'll get into shortly, and the pollen, which I just mentioned, was that the carbon [dating] community began to notice that they were having some serious problems in the dating of linen cloths in general.
For example, in the Journal of Radio Carbon, they reported that they had done a test on an Egyptian mummy — a mummy of a bull with a known date of 3000 B.C. When they separated the mummy from the linen they found that the linen was 1,500 years younger by carbon dating than the carcass of the bull mummy that had been buried.
So everyone said something is seriously wrong here, so they tried another test with a mummy in Manchester, England, a 13-year-old girl … and they found a similar problem. There was a 1,000-year discrepancy between the linen and the mummy that had been wrapped.
More recently, they did the same with an Egyptian bird … and they found a 500-year discrepancy. So, at that point we all went back to them and said, “Wait a minute. At what point does an anomaly become a continuous problem with the dating of linen?” And many of the carbon group began to agree that the problem seemed to be shifting from “was there an error?” — which we now believe there was — to, “what might account for that error?”
There are two theories today that are very strong, I believe. They are very much linked on 1532. There was a very serious fire in the cathedral in France where the shroud was before Turin, and this fire did some damage. When you look at the shroud you see the long parallel scorch marks on both sides of the body. That was from the fire of 1532 and in 1994 a couple of Soviet chemists did what we call a “fire model.”
With an ancient cloth they re-created the fire of 1532 and found that what it did, was it carbonized the shroud. It added carbon isotopes which reversed the carbon-14 test. It makes it look younger than it really is and they said that clearly the fire of 1532 had an impact on the dating of the cloth.
They said it may not be enough to account for 1,300 years, but what has happened in the past few years? The most prominent theory now is that a doctor in Texas, his name is Dr. Gaza Valdez, a microbiologist, working with ancient artifacts from the Maya Indians discovered that very often on linen there are colonies of microbes — you know, micro-organisms, bacteria and fungus — and he's said they leave what he calls a bioplastic coating. Its like a sheen, almost as if you took a piece of linen and laminated it.
He did the same test on the some of the fibers left over from the shroud's 1988 test and discovered that growing on the shroud of Turin today are these colonies of micro-organisms and these are living organism which coat the fibers of the shroud. They leave this plasticlike coating which we now know does not come off with the carbon cleaning protocol, and the carbon scientist for the first time have admitted and acknowledge that they never noticed this carbon micro-organism coating when they cleaned the fibers of the shroud back in 1988 because it is clear, you see right through it. They really didn't know they were looking through it rather than at it, so now they are trying to find ways that this might be cleaned off and separated.
But clearly, Dr. Valdez and Dr. Harry Gould, who is a physicist in Rochester, N.Y., have said this really very much could have effected the carbon dating test on the shroud in 1988. Now that combined with the latest blood studies and the latest pollen studies and other studies really move the date of the cloth.
NEXT WEEK: What it was like in the Hebron Valley in March and April at the dawn of the first millennium.
Rich Rinaldi is director of Register Radio News.
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: Rich Rinaldi -------- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Lt. Berry Reassigned, and Legal Fight Goes On DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON-An Air Force lieutenant who asked not to be assigned with a woman to an underground missile silo has a new job and a new attorney.
First Lt. Ryan C. Berry will be reassigned to Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts after a three-week training program in Texas. Ryan told the Register on Aug. 9 that he will henceforth be represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in his legal case. He declined further comment.
The Becket Fund describes itself as “a bipartisan and ecumenical, public-interest law firm that protects the free expression of all religious traditions.”
The Washington, D.C.-based organization, headed by Kevin Hasson, is no stranger to high-profile cases. The organization represents Zachary Hood, the New Jersey first-grader whose teacher forbid him from reading his favorite story to his class because it was from a children's Bible.
Hasson, who is also a Register columnist, was unavailable for comment.
At a Capitol Hill news conference Aug. 4, Berry, accompanied by his wife, Jill, and 6-month-old daughter, Juliana, told reporters: “I love my faith; I love my Church; I love my life in the military and I have fully intended to serve the full 20 years. I love my wife and my child. But in the current military, I have to sell one of those short.
I have never refused to deploy with a woman. The only thing I have asked for is to have my Catholic beliefs respected.”
Berry is protesting his commander's decision to retrain and transfer him and is asking that a career-killing performance review be removed from his file. Otherwise, he will sue the Air Force, according to his lawyer.
The occasion of sin in question entails working in an isolated, cramped underground nuclear missile launch capsule with a female officer for around-the-clock shifts. But Berry's request for a religious accom modation has earned him a career-ending job performance evaluation, said his former attorney, Henry Hamilton. Berry now has little chance of promotion to captain this August, which means that his career will end once his current five-year tour is over in 2002.
The treatment of Berry is “perverse,” according to William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
Donohue, an Air Force veteran, told reporters at the news conference that the current Air Force policy reflects a “feminist agenda” and shows the “silliness” of today's military. “Lt. Berry's beliefs are totally consistent with what the Catholic Church teaches,” Donohue said.
Berry, 26, a West Point graduate who followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Air Force to become a nuclear missileer, morally objects to sex-integrated silo duty at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, a policy that has been in place since 1988.
Each missile silo capsule is buried 90 feet below the prairie and is connected to 10 Minuteman III nuclear missiles and is the size of a school bus. Its furnishings — one bed and toilet facilities shielded only by a retractable curtain — render privacy minimal. Depending on weather, silo duty can last up to five days.
Berry sought counsel from the base Catholic chaplain who agreed that mixing of the sexes among silo crews was improper and a likely occasion of sin. From May 1997 to December 1998, Berry's religious waiver was honored and he worked silo duty exclusively with men. He received excellent job performance evaluations. Then several squadron members complained about “preferential” treatment, and the new wing commander, Col. Ronald Haeckel, refused to continue Berry's religious accommodation.
In an April job performance review, Haeckel blasted Berry for “unacceptable professionalism.” He wrote that Berry “refuses to accept personal responsibilities … (and) will not perform duties with fully qualified female crew members.” Berry was then decertified from working with nuclear missiles and assigned to a desk job.
Berry's then attorney, Hamilton, in a letter to Maj. Gen. Thomas H. Neary, commander of the 20th Air Force, which oversees Berry's unit, has requested removal of these comments. The attorney also asked for an investigation into anti-Catholic statements allegedly made by Berry's commanders to junior officers equating Berry's beliefs with racial bigotry and sexism and ridiculing Catholic bishops.
‘An Issue of Sanity’
The policy of stationing men and women in such close quarters is “silly and stupid, quite apart from the religious aspect. It's a case of worshipping at the altar of political correctness,” according to Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett, R-Md., member of the House Armed Services Committee who is championing Berry's cause.
“One man, one woman, one bed, 24 hours,” Bartlett told reporters. “It's an issue of sanity.”
In July, Bartlett and 77 other members of Congress wrote to Gen. Michael Ryan, Air Force chief of staff, protesting Berry's treatment.
The letter expressed concern that “lack of accommodation for religious beliefs could discourage men and women of faith from pursuing careers in the military. Why should potential recruits or officers of faith join the Air Force if it does not honor their requests for a religious accommodation, under service regulations?”
Gen. Ryan responded to the congressmen with a letter released Aug. 4, just before the press conference: “I fully agree that the United States Air Force must accommodate religious beliefs to the maximum extent possible.” Nevertheless, he wrote, Berry's superior officers have determined that the lieutenant's “personal convictions could no longer be accommodated without creating an unacceptable impact on the unit's ability to accomplish the military mission.”
He added that Berry would “soon be scheduled for training to a new career field, followed by an assignment to another installation.”
Attorney Hamilton told reporters that the general's letter was “a vapid response. It's nonsense. Lt. Berry is being punished for what he thinks. He's been ostracized. … If the Air Force persists in stigmatizing Lt. Berry as a malcontent, we will exhaust all administrative remedies, and then we will bring suit.”
Anita Blair, president of the Independent Women's Forum and recent chairman of the Congressional Commission on Military Training and Gender-Related Issues, has concerns about both military readiness and morale.
“Lt. Ryan Berry is only being realistic,” she said in a recent press release. “Coed missile silo duty is a high-risk assignment for any man, who could easily lose his entire career if his female partner later charged him with sexual harassment.”
She points out that the Air Force is suffering from severe personnel shortages and it projects a deficit of 2,000 pilots by 2002. In light of these shortages, she asks, “Surely the Air Force would accommodate a request from a nonsmoker, or a Wiccan. Why not a faithful Catholic husband?” Wiccans, practitioners of witchcraft, are permitted to have ceremonies on Army bases.
Catholic Doctrine
Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, archbishop for the military services and a moral theologian, agrees that Berry is acting in accordance with Catholic doctrines of avoiding scandal and occasions of sin. In a letter to Maj. Gen. Neary, the archbishop wrote that Berry “has willingly and effectively served alongside female crew members.” Nevertheless, the archbishop stated, “the Air Force must not ignore sexual differences.”
Retired Army Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, senior director for national security and foreign affairs of the Family Research Council, put the incident in perspective in a recent press release: “Lt. Berry never refused to serve with a female officer. He only expressed to his commander his religious objections and asked that his waiver be extended.
“In a time when the military continues to face scandals such as Tailhook and sexual harassment trials, the action taken by the Air Force to punish Lt. Ryan Berry for fidelity to his wife and faith are absurd and inexcusable. The modern military is pushing a radical feminist agenda without regard for military necessity.”
Una McManus is based in Columbia, Maryland.
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: Una Mcmanus -------- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: After Columbine, Young People Hunger for God DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:DENVER-For many of the 2,000 participants at a youth conference here, memories of the massacre at Columbine High School still stung painfully.
In the wake of the April 20 tragedy, they, like the rest of the country, had heard the gloomy diagnoses about “today's youth.”
But at a three-day get-together, they didn't come to lament the dark alternative culture that was spotlighted after the killings in nearby Littleton, Colo. They came for words of hope. And they found them.
“God, from time to time anoints certain segments of the population, and right now he is anointing youth, particularly Catholic youth, all over the world,” said Franciscan Father David Pivonka. “We're seeing it everywhere, but there's something special about Denver. There is just an incredible, almost unexplainable depth among the youth here.”
Father Pivonka of Franciscan University of Steubenville was here for Steubenville of the Rockies, a July 30-Aug. 1 event that was the ninth in the series of conferences the university hosts annually throughout the country. The event also attracted Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput for a special Mass.
Father Pivonka said it was the climax of a year that has confirmed to him the fact youth are turning to God in droves. He said the by Denver conference was even more powerful this year because of the Columbine massacre.
“Students are looking for something worth dying for,” Father Pivonka said.
About 40 of the 2,000 students at the Denver conference are students or recent graduates of Columbine High.
“Youth are fed up with the mainstream culture,” Father Pivonka asserted. “They see the lies in it. They see that our generation has sold them short. They see a culture that has offered them a bill of good — a culture that says fulfillment is found in success, or drugs, or sex, or fame, or popularity, or power. They see by looking at adults that all those things leave you hungry. They are hungry for something more, and they are very open to God.”
The priest has been working with Steubenville youth conferences for five years, and said he's watched the sincerity of youth participants intensify every year. Jim Beckman, director of Steubenville's youth conferences for 15 years, also said youth have become more focused on God in the past few years.
“One thing I've really noticed is a lot more silence among the youth,” Father Pivonka said. “Teen-agers are accustomed to noise. They need noise or they aren't comfortable. But we're starting to realize that holy hour is getting more calm and peaceful. And I think that's because the youth are realizing that the hyper-experience doesn't last long, but silence, with the Lord, is a lasting experience.”
A teen-age girl witnessed to the crowd the first night, saying she spent her first three years of high school drinking and partying. The summer after her junior year, the girl said, she felt the need to convert during adoration at Steubenville of the Rockies in 1998.
The girl told her peers she decided that summer to give up the drinking and partying and committed herself to live a sober, chaste life walking with Jesus. It meant giving up most of her friends and the party life she had planned for her senior year. It meant persecution from a secular crowd of popular students who once were her friends. But it also meant the first fulfillment she'd ever known.
Priests were available throughout the three-day conference for confession. The second night, after a day full of speeches and conferences, students gathered in a large coliseum at the University of Denver for exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.
Father Pivonka told the teens about the mystery of transubstantiation, the change of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ that occurs during Mass. He told them Christ was truly present with them in the Blessed Sacrament and asked them to reverently focus their attention on the Lord.
As the monstrance processed through the crowds, teens fell to their knees. Most prayed. Many cried. Later, the teens lined up until after midnight for the sacrament of reconciliation.
“The best part of the weekend was adoration — seeing the reality of Jesus' life, death and resurrection,” said Cyndi Llorens of Houston. “I am just so blessed. I am broken, yet I am whole.”
The following morning, before Sunday Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Chaput, several students took to the microphone to testify about healings of mind, body and spirit they had received the night before.
“When I came here on Friday, I was lost,” one teen-age boy said. He told the audience how his father had left the family when he was 6, leading the entire family to lose faith in God. This summer, the boy was involved in a car accident which left a friend of his dead.
“I thought my life was over,” he said. “Afriend invited me here and I am so glad I came. I am lucky to be here.”
Beckman, who also works as youth minister of St. Frances Cabrini, a Littleton parish that lost four young parishioners at Columbine, approached the young man, put his arm around him and said, “I know a lot of people here are struggling with the death of friends. You have to understand that you are here for a reason. You are alive for a reason and God has a plan for your life.”
A teen-age girl who said she had once been raped took to the stage and announced she had found peace during exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.
“I came here hoping that the burden would be lifted from me,” the girl said. “Instead, when I looked upon the Blessed Sacrament, I was given the gift of forgiveness. I forgave him [the attacker] and forgive myself.”
During his homily, Archbishop Chaput told the youth that everyone has a hunger that longs to be satisfied. Quoting from St. Augustine, he told them, “Our hearts will not be at rest until they are at rest in God.”
He told the students to stop seeking fulfillment in material goods of the world, which fail to satisfy. Video games, pickup trucks, cosmetics — and all other goods teen-agers are told to spend money on — fail to satisfy, he said.
“Why spend your money on that which is not bread?” Archbishop Chaput asked. “We adults know how much of our lives we've wasted, and we hope you won't do the same things.”
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen -------- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Latin Activists Pursuing Abortion-Friendly' Cultures DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:LIMA, Peru-With the right to life enshrined in the constitutions of many Latin American countries, many believe that the legalization of abortion here is impossible.
They may soon be proved wrong. Feminists and pro-abortion activists recently agreed upon a strategy which they now see as a necessary first step to legal abortion. They will now attempt to create an “abortion-friendly culture” in the region.
Latin America has always been considered a deeply pro-life continent. A pregnant woman is described in Spanish as “en estado de buena esperanza” — “in a state of good hope.”
The pro-life mentality of the people is even reflected in the countries' constitutions, with the exception of Cuba. Countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Costa Rica have wording which specifically recognizes the unborn child, giving the child full constitutional rights.
The most aggressive campaigns to at least partially legalize abortion in Latin American countries have failed. Colombia recently rejected an amendment to the constitution that would have opened the doors to abortion. Several attempts to legalize abortion in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Peru have also failed despite heavy investment, of money and effort, by pro-abortion international organizations.
And even if abortion, under the guise of “reproductive rights” is eventually approved as a human right at international forums, local analysts believe that governments in the region would face widespread internal opposition if they tried to enforce it in their countries. Any international agreement would simply be regarded as outside interference.
With this in mind, in April 1998, 17 national feminist organizations joined forces under the Latin American Committee for the Defense of Women Rights, known by its Spanish-language acronym, CLADEM. They met in Panama City to launch a pro-abortion campaign called “Education in Human Rights from a Gender Perspective.”
Financed by powerful U.S. pro-abortion organizations such as the Packard Foundation, sponsored by Hewlett-Packard Co., the campaign organizers distributed “pro-abortion kits” among delegates which included manuals on how to promote the “interruption of pregnancy” while avoiding the “A” word.
CLADEM leaders made it clear as to what their objectives are: to start a campaign aimed at creating a climate more favorable to abortion and to find loopholes in the pro-life body of laws.
“It's evident that most of the countries, not only in the region, would disagree with the idea of modifying the 50-year-old Universal Declaration of Human Rights to fit the gender perspective,” said CLADEM regional coordinator Susana Chiarotti.
“Officials at the United Nations have told us, in private conversations, that resistance to grant full sexual autonomy is a worldwide problem, and not only in Latin America,” Chiarotti said. “In Norway, for example, the government's coalition led by the Christian Democrats are trying to put some restrictions on abortion.”
The feminist leader said that CLADEM's leaders decided to discuss the possibility of “putting some makeup on our demands” in order to make them more palatable. “Our conclusion was clear and firm: No matter how, [abortion] is what we want to see in the Human Rights Declaration. If it takes us 100 years to achieve it, it doesn't matter. At least we know that we are committed to a process that may take several years.”
Will Brazil Be First?
But they may not have to wait so long, should the feminist lobby in Brazil succeed in its push for a pro-abortion amendment to the country's legislation. In fact, due to the maneuvers of feminist leader Ruth Cardoso, wife of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Brazil could well become the first democratic country to legalize abortion in Latin America. In early July, the president put pressure on the Congress' commission which is reviewing the Penal Code, to insert a clause which would allow for abortion.
Article 128 of the Brazilian penal code — as in the rest of Latin America — defines abortion as a crime, but allows for exceptions in which it is not a punishable crime, such as in the cases of rape, incest or if the mother's life is endangered.
The Penal Code's reviewing commission, headed by Congressman Luiz Vicente Cernicchiaro, proposed a change to the wording of Article 128. The article which currently states that abortion “deserves no punishment,” would state that abortion “is not a crime.” Such a change would make abortion legal in some circumstances.
They are financed by U.S. pro-abortion organizations such as the Packard Foundation, sponsored by Hewlett-Packard Co.
Several organizations, including the Brazilian bishops'conference, have said the new wording would betray the spirit of the constitution. Currently, the constitution recognizes the rights of the unborn. Archbishop Claudio Hummes of Sao Paulo, head of the bishops' conference's Life and Family Commission, expressed the bishops' concerns over the proposed change to the Minister of Justice Renan Calheiros, who requested that Cernicchiaro maintain the original Article 128.
President Cardoso intervened to force both Calheiros and Cernicchiaro to accept the new, pro-abortion version. If a change were to take effect, abortion would become a right.
Congress is scheduled to approve the final version later this year. Because Cardoso has the majority alliance party, it's likely that new pro-abortion legislation will be approved, unless a strong pro-life lobby succeeds in convincing him to change course.
In other countries, more subtle, slower-paced efforts toward legalizing abortion have also been taken.
In Chile, local feminist groups sparked a debate by publishing the conclusions of a recent study allegedly carried out by American scientist Allen Wilcox, from the University of Northern Carolina. According to the study, the implantation of the embryo occurs eight days after conception, and that the more time it takes to implant in the uterus, the less chance there is of a successful pregnancy.
Waldo Sepulveda, an obstetriciangynecologist, even suggested that since this is the case, life begins at implantation and not conception.
But Dr. Patricio Yepes, a specialist in human conception and a local pro-life leader, pointed out that “implantation has nothing to do with the concrete fact that a new human life began at conception.”
“Such an arbitrary interpretation is not just an abstract scientific matter,” Yepes said. “It would have an impact on the law.”
Another attempt to legalize abortion has taken place in Nicaragua, where the National Assembly will soon discuss a reform of the Penal Code there.
A new article, backed by the local National Feminist Coalition, would make abortion legal in cases of rape, malformation of the unborn or the risk of the life of the mother.
“It's impossible to request the total legalization of abortion, but this would certainly be a significant step forward,” said Nicaraguan feminist leader Eva Maria Senqui.
Rafael Cabrera, president of the Nicaraguan Pro-life Association, agreed: “Asignificant war is ahead. Accepting one form of abortion would turn massive legal abortion into a matter of time.”
Cabrera also warned pro-lifers in the region, “We can't stand still, awaiting these aggressions, because one day, somewhere, they [pro-abortion-ists] will succeed. We have to take the initiative right now.”
Alejandro Bermudez writes from Lima, Peru.
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Bermudez -------- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Why of the Cloister DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:If you grew up before Vatican II and were taught by sisters in parochial or private schools you are familiar with the idea of nuns. But the nuns you knew were probably not “enclosed.” They walked right into the classroom and you had direct contact with them — perhaps by way of a ruler, true, but they were for real, and an important part of your world. You knew that they prayed, before school and after school, that they belonged to God in a special way and wore a different kind of clothes that they called “habits.”
As you grew up, you discovered that besides being teachers, they made very good mentors and friends. You even got to know nursing sisters if you had any experience of hospitals.
But cloistered nuns? They didn't teach, they didn't nurse — what on earth did they do all day long? Why the high walls around the Carmelite monastery? Why the black grilles and curtains that cut you off so you couldn't even see them from their chapel? If cloistered nuns were a mystery to many Catholics, probably the majority, how much more so to the world at large.
Now, a new Church document, long awaited by contemplative nuns the world over, has appeared, dated May 13. Entitled Verbi Sponsa (Bride of the Word), it was authored by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and for Societies of Apostolic Life.
Beyond the World's Secularism
This new document throws light on the role of cloistered nuns and their value to the Church and the world, for all to see. It shows contemplative life for the signpost it is, pointing up and beyond the ozone layer of secularism that stifles, blinds and deafens our world.
Monasteries bring life to deserts and make pools of silence in cities. They are there for everyone. The hands of prayer lifted up from their sanctuaries, the cries of praise and jubilation rising from their choirs, are the hands and cries of Everyman, caught up in a surge of love to God.
The first section of Bride of the Word is a rich unfolding of the Church's vision of the contemplative life. Zeroing in on the essence of the life, which is separation from the world for the sake of total dedication to God, it shows its Gospel roots and the theological, spiritual and ascetical ramifications.
The nun's movement away from the world is more truly a movement toward the divine Bridegroom. By her enclosed life, Bride of the Word explains, the nun becomes a unique sign of the entire Christian community's call to intimate union with God. Cloistered contemplative life is “the nun's particular way of being the Church, of building the communion of the Church, of fulfilling a mission for the good of the whole Church.” These words capture the paradox of the life: withdrawal from the world for the sake of a union with God that includes a rediscovered union with the world embraced in God. Bride of the Word asks contemplative nuns “to remain at the wellspring of Trinitarian communion, [that is, the communion between the three divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit], dwelling at the very heart of the Church. … [Their] life thus becomes a mysterious source of apostolic fruitfulness and blessing for the Christian community and for the whole world.”
Beyond this paradox, part one of the document looks at other significant themes such as the contemplative nun's role in the local church, her concern for the sanctification of all the members of the Mystical Body, her part in the universal call to evangelization, and in achieving the Church's eschatological goal, which is definitive union with Christ her Bridegroom at the end of time or end of the world.
In the local church, a contemplative monastery represents what is most intimate to that church — its heart. It is “the place guarded by God; the dwelling place of his unique presence … where the thrice-holy God fills the entire space. … It may be compared to Moses who, in prayer, determined the fate of Israel's battles (cf. Exodus 17:11), or to the guard who keeps the night watch awaiting the dawn (cf. Isaiah 21:6).”
Fundamental Mission
The contribution of contemplative communities to the Church's mission of evangelization, ecumenism and the growth of the Kingdom in various cultures, is essentially spiritual. Bride of the Word quotes St. Thérèse of Lisieux's splendid intuition of this in the Story of a Soul: “I understood that the Church had a Heart,” she wrote, “and that this Heart was ablaze with love. I understood that Love alone enabled the Church's members to act. … Yes, I found my place in the Church … at the heart of the Church, my Mother, I will be Love.”
For a monastery to carry on its fundamental mission of contemplative prayer, enclosure is indispensable. Bride of the Word moves on, therefore, in Part 2, to the updated norms.
Papal enclosure, so named because the rules governing it must be confirmed by the Holy See, is of obligation for monasteries of nuns devoted exclusively to the contemplative life. “Real separation from the world, silence and solitude, express and protect the integrity and identity of the wholly contemplative life,” the document explains.
“Enclosure” refers to the residence and to all areas, indoors and outdoors, that are reserved to the nuns. The means of separating these areas from the outside “must be physical and effective, not just symbolic or ‘neutral.’” A caveat is included here: “The participation of the faithful in the liturgy is not a reason for the nuns to leave the enclosure nor for the faithful to enter the nuns' choir.
Guests cannot be allowed to enter the monastery enclosure. … The law of enclosure entails a grave obligation of conscience both for the nuns and for outsiders.”
Who lives in the enclosure? Nuns, novices and postulants. Extern sisters, who are an essential part of the monastic community and serve as a link between the nuns and outsiders, also live within the enclosure. They may leave it, however, whenever their duties require. The superior of the monastery, that is, the prioress or abbess, is responsible for the maintenance of enclosure. She is the one to judge the advisability of entries and exits within the context of particular law.
The superior, sometimes consulting her chapter of council, allows entries and exits for ordinary reasons such as the maintenance of the monastery and the health and formation of the nuns. The Holy See may also authorize meetings of nuns belonging to the same contemplative institute within the same nation or region.
Use of Media
Concerning media, the Church's regulations for contemplatives are intended to safeguard the spirit of recollection and prayerful silence in the monastery. The media may be used with moderation and discretion as to content and the amount of time spent. “Radio and television can be permitted on particular occasions of a religious character. … With prudent discernment and for everyone's benefit, in accordance with the decisions of the conventual Chapter, the use of other modern means of communication, such as fax machines, cellular telephones or the Internet, may be permitted in the monastery, for the exchange of information or for reasons of work.”
In Part 3, Bride of the Word explains that the renewal of contemplative life within the Church today depends in large part on both individual and community formation. Ongoing formation should continue for the whole of a nun's life. This includes study of the Scriptures, the tradition of the Church Fathers, the documents of the Holy See, spirituality and theology.
Regarding relations with institutes of men, Bride of the Word, while safeguarding the effective self-rule of the monasteries, encourages their association with the male institute of their own religious family, if there is one. Such a sharing, with the nuns for their part preserving the solely contemplative dimension, can deepen the genuine spirit of a religious family.
In Part 4, the Church recognizes that associations and federations of monasteries can help to promote the values of the contemplative life of member monasteries by providing mutual support in the areas, for example, of formation, exchange of nuns, and financial assistance. Each member monastery in a federation retains its juridical autonomy.
For the uninitiated, and there are many in and outside of the Church, Bride of the Word should be an eye-opener. Its candid discussion of why there are monasteries at all, and what their role is, opens the field to everyone.
At the present writing the document has not yet been published in English in this country, but the complete document is available on the Internet. The Daughters of St. Paul plan to publish the English translation in September.
Pope John Paul II's words, quoted at the close of the instruction, are the best summary of the document: “As the Apostles gathered in prayer with Mary and the other women in the Upper Room, were filled with the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1, 14), so the community of the faithful hopes today to be able to experience, thanks also to your prayer, a renewed Pentecost for a more effective Gospel testimony on the threshold of the Third Millennium. … May the Mother of the Lord grant that from your monasteries a ray of that light which enveloped the world when the Word was made flesh and came to live among us should shine forth again!”
In more than 50 years of life within a contemplative enclosure, I have found an enormous sense of vastness and freedom. Inviting, invigorating, liberating. Our space is small — by the yardstick — about eight acres in all. But so is the lens of a telescope small. What we are focusing on is beyond the galaxies. So I am jubilantly grateful to the Church for Bride of the Word — both a reminder and a most certain trumpet blast.
Dominican Nun Mary Thomas Noble writes from her contemplative monastery in Buffalo, New York.
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: Mary Thomas Noble, Op -------- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: An 'Extremist,' and Proud of It DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:The head of the U.S. Marine Corps will leave behind a legacy of outspoken defense of Marine traditions when he retires Sept. 1. Known also for his unabashed embrace of his evangelical Christian faith, he spoke recently with Register correspondent Jim Malerba.
Malerba: How long was your career in the Marines?
Krulak: I spent 35 years as a Marine and four years as a midshipman at the Naval Academy. I went into the academy with the idea I would make the service a career, and probably with the Marines. When I came out of my first tour in Vietnam, I had been wounded, and that certainly affects your life. I was married and wanted children. After that first tour I talked with my wife about getting out. In fact, I interviewed with a couple of companies. In the end, I said no and stayed in the service. I ended up back in Vietnam and got wounded again, but I never regretted that decision.
What medals did you receive as a result of your two tours of Vietnam?
I got the Silver Star, three Bronze Stars, two Purple Hearts, three Vietnamese Crosses of Gallantry and the Combat Action Ribbon. I served in Vietnam in 1965 – 1966 and 1969 – 1970.
How did you motivate the men you led in Vietnam?
You had to do it by example, by leading from the front. You could not expect or demand of your Marines something you were unwilling to give. I tried the best I could to lead from the front. I tried not to have them make sense out of the war. You're not sitting there having political or military debates over the validity of the conflict. You're there to accomplish the mission you've been given with the least loss of life. You had to have everyone pulling on the same oar, so to speak.
How would you describe your leadership style?
Ever since I've been a Marine I've done what I call leadership by walking — kicking boxes, if you will. Basically, that means getting out as often as possible, at least once or twice a day, and lit erally getting down and talking to my Marines, to find out what's on their minds, learn their concerns and try to help and encourage them. It's important. People have to know they are important as individuals, not just as Marines. They are humans who need to be treated with dignity and respect. Age, religion or gender doesn't enter into it. They deserve to be treated with respect.
What principles are the Marine Corps built on?
I think the Marine Corps has always been built on two touchstones. One is the touchstone of valor, whether you're talking about Iwo Jima, Okinawa … or Kuwait City. It's an ethos of the warrior who, when called, will put on his helmet and flak jacket. He's going to fight, and he's going to win. And he's going to guarantee that. We've always had another touchstone, and that's the touchstone of values. It's the belief that Marines are good for the country. They hold to high, almost spiritual standards. Marines believe that dignity and respect for their fellow Marine is key. It means to take care of each other, watching out for their fellow Marine. That's what we've always been. We've raised the standards of what it is to be a Marine, above the Department of Defense standards, and even above the former Marine Corps standards. We have a tougher, harder, more values-based Marine today.
A formerArmy official called the Marines “extremists,” and your response was right to the point.
Yes. I said the Marines are extremely fit, extremely faithful and extremely patriotic. That, in my mind, makes them “extremists” in the highest sense of the word.
How did you parents help shape your Christian values?
I come from a military family, and my dad was a military officer who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. The first thing I'd say about my early life and my Christian beliefs is that we went to church every Sunday. It was part and parcel of life in the Krulak household. We were Episcopalians. My father was not always around, especially during World War II and Korea, so in many ways my mother had a profound impact not only on me but also on my two brothers. She really provided a strong foundation in religious and value systems. Together, my parents made an unbelievable team of stressing, above all, a value system that says integrity is Job 1, and there was a faith we all held dear. There was no beating religion into our heads; it was just part of our life. My two brothers are now Episcopal ministers. One was a Navy chaplain and one was a Marine for 15 years.
Did becoming a born-again Christian change you in terms of your leadership style or interpersonal style?
As a Marine, in an environment where competition is key to many of the things you do, becoming a born-again Christian released me, in many ways, from the concerns of the competition. I knew my future was in God's hands, and that if I did the best I could, with the tools he gave me, he would reward me. He rewards people who work hard to follow him, so the issues that used to plague me, such as whether I would be promoted, get selected for school or whether I would get to some duty assignment, all those pretty much took a back seat. I never really worried about them. That allowed me to concentrate on the things I considered far more important — leading Marines, doing what was right for all the right reasons. That all became much easier.
You've been a leader in the fight against adultery in the service. How did that issue arise?
There was a trial balloon floated by the Department of Defense that would have changed the article in the Uniform Code of Military Justice concerning adultery, by adding a sentence at the beginning of that article that would have read, “Not every act of adultery is punishable under this article.” When I read that, I could not believe what I was reading. When queried about it by The Washington Times, I very vocally said: Not on my watch. The Marine Corps will not support this change. Our motto is Semper Fidelis — always faithful. And that means not always faithful just to the Marine Corps, but also in all aspects of our life, including our spouse. We were strongly supported in this by the Congress of the United States. The turning point was probably a floor speech by Sen. Robert Byrd, who referenced the Corps' stand on adultery and compared it to the Army's stand at Bastogne [during World War II], when the Germans demanded the Army surrender, and the general's answer was “Nuts.” Byrd said that's what the Marine Corps said to the proposed change on adultery. The bottom line is they didn't change the article.
How about the issue of women in combat?
First off, the definition of combat, in my mind, is close combat. The thought in my mind of women walking point in a Marine rifle squad, who would be the person to take the first shot or fire the first round is, in my mind, not the way this country needs to go. The mothers and fathers of America are not ready to see their daughters walking the point in a Marine rifle squad. Second, I don't think Congress is ready to pass a change in the law that says women have to do that. I don't question there are women capable of doing so, but the issue is, do we, as a nation, believe our young daughters should be in direct combat? I don't feel the country is ready for it.
Have the higher Marine Corps standards in values and also in other requirements led to a more committed person?
Yes. Because, as I said, we have standards that exceed those of the Department of Defense and our own former standards. In recruiting, for example, the Department of Defense says 90% of the recruits have to be high school graduates. We said no, we're going to 95%. Further, we administer drug tests three times to potential recruits before they even go to the recruit depot. We examine them for tattoos, to see if they have any that are gang-related or race-related. They're not allowed in the Marine Corps if they do. Then, we made boot camp tougher. When they get there, we tell them they're being held accountable to our core values of honor, courage and commitment. If you can't meet those values, we tell them, we're gonna throw you out. Well, for 49 straight months, the Corps has met or exceeded its recruiting goals, and our retention rate is extremely high. And, we've averaged almost 97% of high school graduates.
How about in terms of attracting young people with higher moral values?
By the time recruits get into the Marine Corps, their values are pretty well set. What we've said very clearly to them is that we're going to take your values and laminate our values on the ones you already have. Our values are the core values of our Corps: honor, courage — physical and moral — and commitment. If you abide by these values, you will become a Marine and do great things and then return to society better for having been a Marine. You otherwise will not wear the eagle, globe and anchor of the Marines. There are people who come to us with really solid values. Others come to us as what we call “empty vessels.” They just have not worked much with values. We instill our values in them. Then, there are those who try to come to us with value systems that are not what you or I would want, and we just don't accept them.
When you were a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did your moral and ethical principles get a good reception?
I think they certainly and absolutely knew where I stood, as a Christian, on all these issues involving morality. I'm not sure they always agreed. But they never fought me on them. When I needed support, I usually got it. On the adultery issue, for example, they didn't come right out vocally, but I think they were supportive of me. I feel most people there understood that if you started saying not every act of adultery is punishable, sooner or later people will pick and choose whether or not they want to commit adultery, and that's not good.
Do you feel people are looking to return to core moral values?
Oh, I absolutely believe that the young people of today, who we call Generation X and Generation Next, have the potential to be the next great generation. They are wonderful, wonderful kids. They just need to be led, to be challenged, and to be held accountable. If you do that, these kids are as good as any I've ever seen. I'm very excited about them. If we focus on values, hold them accountable and challenge them, they're going to perform in a manner most people just like to dream about. If they don't, it's only because we've allowed them not to.
What do you tell young Marines in that respect?
I tell them, “You need to be challenged and become accountable, but if you stick with us, we're going to make you successful.” What we're telling the American people is, “We're joining the [moral] fight with you.” I believe in my heart and soul that mothers and fathers of America are trying to produce children of character. There are no parents out there trying to raise bad kids. There are no teachers out there saying, “I'm not going to do the job.” And the churches are certainly working hard. The problem is, society is bombarding the kids with garbage — sex, alcohol, drugs, violence and so forth. So, the Marine Corps said, “We're going to join in this fight with the mothers and the fathers and the teachers and the churches in a way that's going to make this generation better.” The end result is whether that kid spends four years or 35 years in the Marine Corps, sooner or later he will return to American society better for having been a Marine. Therefore, he will help make America stronger. The whole idea of the Corps is to return to society someone better for having been a Marine.
—Jim Malerba
Gen. Charles Krulak
Personal: Married to Zandra; two sons, David and Todd.
Education: Graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a bachelor's degree in engineering; earned a master's in labor relations from George Washington University.
Honors: Silver Star, three Bronze Stars, two Purple Hearts, three Vietnamese Crosses of Gallantry, and the Combat Action Ribbon, as well as numerous other service medals.
Current position: Four-star general who is commandant of the Marine Corps and will be officially retiring Sept. 1.
----- EXCERPT: Marine of faith makes no apologies for Corps' virtues ------- EXTENDED BODY: Gen. Charles Krulak -------- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: U.S. Notes & Quotes DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:Blind Mexican Singer Witnesses to God's Love
LOS ANGELES TIMES, Aug. 2-“All eyes are fixed on 16-year-old Sandy Caldera, standing in front of the altar at Our Lady of Loretto Church in Echo Park,” wrote the Times' Joseph Trevino.
In mostly Catholic churches in Latino neighborhoods throughout Southern California, Sandy, a blind gospel singer from Tijuana, “is packing the pews with thousands of people, who are drawn to her powerful, throaty voice and spiritual ballads about overcoming life's ordeals,” reported Trevino.
“I used to see my handicap as a limitation. Now I see it as a gift. It brings me closer to people,” especially children, said Sandy.
Her family has financed the recording of six CDs. But her latest album, Solo con Dios (Only with God), has been released by a Christian label, and there are plans to have Sandy's songs aired on mainstream Spanish-language radio stations. A promotional tour is also in the works.
Sandy's parents, devout Catholics, at first struggled with their daughter's handicap, discovered at birth. “Little by little, we've understood that [God] had a plan for her,” explained Sandy's mother, Constanza, who accompanies her on her trips.
The young artist credits a priest from a poor parish in Tijuana with launching her singing career. The church's catechism program needed to build a room to teach children.
The priest suggested that 9-year-old Sandy help by recording a tape with her songs, with proceeds going toward construction of the room. The tape was dedicated to slain Guadalajara Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo.
Since then, Sandy has traveled throughout Mexico, Latin America and the United States.
‘Power For Living’ Commercials Hit by
TIME, Aug. 9-Time's David Van Biema initiated a search for information about the “secretive” DeMoss Foundation by wondering who's behind those Power for Living commercials.
“Like a majority of DeMoss undertakings, the Power for Living campaign turns out to be a simple call to Christ. But a significant minority of the foundation's projects are harder edged, targeting abortion and gay rights and promoting a vision of a Christian America some find overzealous,” said Van Biema, who asks: “What are its larger social goals?”
Time reports that the DeMoss family is not only evangelical Protestant but politically conservative. Its members have either worked for or donated money to the campaigns of such figures as Newt Gingrich and Jesse Helms.
The family foundation was also responsible for pro-life commercials in the early 1990s that carried the message, “Life. What a beautiful choice.”
The Power for Living booklet itself “employs simple metaphors … in support of the classic invitation: ‘I want You, Jesus, to take over my life.’”
“Given their history, I'm looking for the other shoe to drop,” said Chip Berlet of what Time calls the “left-of-center Political Research Associates.” Berlet pointed to a book financed by the foundation that lists the homosexual-rights movement, abortion and “our humanistic, secular public school system” as proof that “Americans have lost their way in part because they do not know their own Christian heritage.”
The foundation's 1997 tax filings “show both sides of the group's character,” said Van Biema. Of the $25 million in expenditures, “three-fourths of DeMoss's giving qualifies as relatively non-controversial,” he concluded. However, “1.6 million went to the American Center for Law and Justice, a nonprofit law firm founded by Pat Robertson that opposes gay marriage, defends abortion protesters and promotes various types of school prayer.”
If the mainstream news media views those causes as “hard edged” and worthy of careful scrutiny, it's no wonder the DeMoss folks are so secretive.
----- EXCERPT: From selected sources ------- EXTENDED BODY: -------- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Counting Down the 20th Century's Top Catholics DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:The end of the century has a lot of people reflecting on the best and worst aspects of the past 100 years. The Daily Catholic Internet information service has surveyed its readers to come up with a list of the top 100 Catholics of the 20th century.
The Daily Catholic is counting down the list, starting with the person voted 100, until the person at the top of the list is revealed in December. A new name is revealed every weekday until then, along with a detailed biography of the person and his or her accomplishments.
From Vista, Calif., Daily Catholic editor Michael Cain spoke recently with Register Radio News correspondent Jay Dunlap about the personalities reflected in the “top 100.”
Jay Dunlap: Tell us a little bit about the list. What kind of people were chosen?
Michael Cain: Because of the nature of the list being Catholic, there's going to be a predominance of the religious, from the popes, cardinals and bishops to priests that are quite popular as well as a few nuns and lay leaders. But there a few surprises in there. Some people may say, “I didn't even know that person was a Catholic.” And in doing the research, which is very time consuming, we're finding out some tremendous graces that these people possessed.
You don't want to divulge the whole list right now because you're revealing it gradually up until the month of December.
Correct. We began July 23 with the countdown of the top 100 with each day, Monday through Friday, revealing the next person on the list. So far, eight have been revealed. The 100th person was the bishop of Pittsburgh, Bishop Donald Wuerl, then Blessed Pierre Giorgio Frassati, who is considered the “man of the beatitudes” and was beatified by Pope John Paul II. And then Father John Corapi from the S.O.L.T. [Servants of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity] ministry, who is considered a modern-day St. Augustine. And the next one was Evelyn Waugh, the famous British novelist and satirist. And a surprise to many was the 96th selection which was Dolores Hope, the better half, if you will, of Bob Hope.
Are there many on the list who come from the world of celebrity and entertainment?
We have actually in checking the list probably eight or nine celebrity entertainers.
Tell me a little about the criteria that went into putting this list together. First of all, who voted on the list, and then how did you determine who was eligible?
Over almost three months we made it available to our readers, where they could e-mail in their choice of the top 100 Catholics. And we received over 23,000 votes, 23,455 to be exact, which was a massive job taking the e-mails in and then compiling the names. This was over a four-month period. We had 728 candidates who were nominated. And that was pared down to the 100 top vote-getters. So it wasn't a poll as such where we put up the people and they had to vote for those people. They could submit whoever they wanted and we had quite a range of people.
And you exercised some editorial judgment as well over the list?
We did in respect to, first of all, anyone who was not in union with the Church, not in good standing with the Church. We took the editorial license to remove those from the list. None of those received very many votes so there really wasn't very much of a conflict.
The other criteria: many, many of the modern visionaries were nominated, but we took the liberty to eliminate them for the following reasons. First of all to avoid any controversy, because the only visionaries that are eligible for the list are those approved by the Church in this century which would be the Fatima visionaries. Others have been approved in various stages, but not in the full final stage as Fatima visionaries are. In fact, Francisco and Jacinta are up for beatification.
That eliminated quite a few. The other thing about visionaries is the fact that they are receiving private revelations and it's the message that's important, not the messenger. They're merely the vehicle to disseminate these messages, and their role is to say yes to God. And most of them really don't want the limelight. In addition, we also received quite a few from some of the modern visionaries who are in conflict with Rome and the teachings of the Church in their messages. They have misled many and also are in disobedience with their bishops. So we definitely eliminated them.
What is your ultimate hope for this list? We're a society that seems preoccupied with lists, who's No. 1, rankings of different kinds. Do you see this as an evangelization tool?
Definitely. First of all, you know, as in any promotional aspect, you get caught up in the millennium promotion. After a lot of prayer and thinking about it because we have the vehicle where we're reaching so many people — we've reached over 4 and a half million since we went online — that this would be an excellent vehicle to give to the world what the Catholics have contributed to in this century, and who they are. The Church has been a powerful force throughout the ages but especially in this century.
Do you think most people could predict who's No. 1 on the list?
I think they could. That person is very, very deserving. There are some who might not agree but those are in the minority.
Where can people find you online?
We are at www.DailyCatholic.org.
The List
The top 100 Catholics list, as revealed so far, according to Daily Catholic readers.
80. Dana, singer (“We Are One Body”)
81. Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, Vatican official
82. Thomas Merton, author
83. J.R.R. Tolkien, novelist
84. Father Edward Flanagan, Boy's Town founder
85. Dr. Rosalie Turton, pilgrimage organizer
86. Danny Thomas, actor
87. Bl. Cyprian Michael Tansi, artist
88. Dr. Tom Dooley, missionary doctor
89. Thomas A. Nelson, founder of Tan Books
90. Bing Crosby, actor and singer
91. Cardinal Roger Mahony
92. Graham Greene, author
93. Alan Keyes, presidential candidate
94. Pat O'Brien, actor
95. Father George Rutler, writer and lecturer
96. Dolores Hope, philanthropist
97. Evelyn Waugh, author
98. Father John A. Corapi, S.O.L.T., preacher, religious
99. Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati youth leader
100. Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pittsburgh
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: -------- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Notes & Quotes DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:Theologian: Avoid Extremes When Considering Hell
AVVENIRE, Aug. 1-Based on Pope John Paul II's recent catechesis on the last things, the Italian newspaper offered additional insights on hell from Father Severino Dianich, a professor of fundamental theology in Florence.
When considering hell, he cautioned, two extremes — “terror and silence” — are to be avoided.
“There was a time, when there was a veritable pedagogy of terror. Suffice it to think of part of the liturgy for the dead, the Dies Irae, a splendid, but terrifying, hymn,” said Father Dianich.
He continued: “Later there was a move to virtual silence on the matter of responsibility. Nonetheless, from a pastoral point of view, it is important to form the conscience to understand that we risk our life once and for all.”
The theologian recalled the Holy Father's insistence that punishment does not come from outside or from God, but rather from the sinner himself, a teaching that is founded on the thinking of two great Christian saints, Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas.
“The former gave us that famous phrase: 'Although God created you without you, He cannot save you without you” said Father Dianich. “Salvation, therefore, is an interpersonal relation between man and God. It cannot but be conditioned by my liberty, decision and intention,” noted the theologian.
“St. Thomas interprets the category of the eternal — of reward and punishment — in the sense that a time arrives when what I am, I shall continue to be forever. Whereas in life I can change for better or worse, be converted or perverted, at a certain point this way of living stops. I go where I will to go. It is a mysterious leap and, in certain aspects, terrifying.”
As for the notion of a vengeful God, a description used by some to criticize the Church's doctrine, Father Dianich said, “I do not see how, given contemporary sensitivity and language, one can speak of God as rewarding and punishing. It is true that the Bible speaks this way, but only as a way of comparison with human justice. It tells us that, in the end, we are truly responsible before God.”
Regarding the question of who might be in hell, Father Dianich said that “what happens in the secrecy of conscience between men and God, no one can know from outside. No one can say what might have happened in the final meeting of the man Stalin, the man Hitler, or the man Judas with God. It all comes down,” he concluded, to “the relation of the human conscience with God.”
----- EXCERPT: From selected sources ------- EXTENDED BODY: Rich Rinaldi -------- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: 2 Governments are Challenging The Privacy of the Confessional DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:NEW YORK-The Canadian and French governments have asked that the proposed International Criminal Court disregard the centuries-old legal tradition that a Catholic priest may not be compelled to reveal what he hears in the confessional.
The issue is one of a number of aspects about the new court that have caused concern among some Catholics.
The statute enabling the creation of an international criminal court was passed by member states of the United Nations in 1998, but the court cannot be established and hear cases until 60 governments have ratified it.
The proposal to revoke the priest-penitent privilege — made in the course of ongoing meetings to develop the court's policies and procedures — would also apply to the private religious counseling of clergy from other faiths.
The privilege was about to be struck from preparatory documents on Aug. 6 when Jesuit Father Robert Araujo, representing the Holy See, made “a lengthy and impassioned plea for its retention based on a wealth of legal sources,” according to Austin Ruse, director of Catholic Family … Human Rights Institute, who attended the meeting. Father Araujo is a professor of law at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash.
“Language guaranteeing the privilege — along with an acknowledgment of the ‘sacredness ’ of spiritual confession — have been retained in the document but in brackets, indicating that their inclusion is still under discussion,” said Ruse.
He said retention of the privilege is far from certain.
Under the Canadian-French proposal, a member of the clergy who refuses to testify about private consultations with a parishioner would be subject to punishment by the court. Regardless of possible sanctions, Catholic priests may never reveal the content of a sacramental confession.
According to Canon 1388 of the Code of Canon Law, a priest who directly reveals secrets from a confession is subject to automatic excommunication — a breach that only the Apostolic See can heal.
And Canon 983 states: “The sacramental seal is inviolable. Accordingly, it is absolutely wrong for a confessor in any way to betray the penitent, for any reason whatsoever, whether by word or in any other fashion.”
Over the course of the history of the Church, priests have endured trial, torture and even death rather than violate the seal of the confessional.
‘Radical Worldview’
In addition to the priest-penitent issue, pro-family attorneys and law professors are concerned about a host of issues related to the current meetings on the court.
David Gregory, a law professor at St. John's University in New York, predicted that the court's eventual jurists will be drawn from the ranks of those with “a particular radical worldview,” and probably include some of the judges sitting on the current war crimes tribunal in Yugoslavia. “When the [criminal court] comes around, they can claim unique experience to serve,” said Gregory.
He pointed to Gabrielle McDonald, president of the Yugoslav Tribunal, who recently made a plea to delegates for even more power for judges in determining the court's rules.
The rules of evidence and procedures now under consideration were drafted by a working group that met in Paris last April, and which included non-governmental organizations.
Kathryn Balmforth, a Utah-based civil rights attorney who is following the nascent court's progress for the Brigham Young University Law School, said the group was dominated by “ideological NGOs promoting their own interests in controlling and manipulating proceedings within the court. The fix is in. This will not be a fair court but a left-leaning ideological one.”
Another concern is a proposal to include victims as full and distinct participants in the court proceedings, and to allow non-governmental organizations to stand in for the victims of a particular crime.
Western legal tradition allows victims to sue in civil actions that are separate from criminal procedures.
“This proposal would force the defendant to answer charges from many quarters all at once,” said Balmforth. “This would turn the proceedings into a kangaroo court.”
The question of “forced pregnancy,” has also resurfaced at the current meetings. The new proposal refers to the illegality of “keeping a woman pregnant” against her wishes. “Some believe this is a back-door way to establish an international right to abortion,” said Ruse of the Catholic Family … Human Rights Institute.
Unlike the World Court, which hears cases between conflicting nations, the International Criminal Court will try individuals for crimes in four general categories: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression.
As conceived, the court will not rely on a separate grand jury to bring charges. That duty will fall to an independent staff of prosecutors.
To date, only Senegal, Trinidad and Tobago, Italy, and Sao Tome and Principe have formally ratified the statute to establish the international criminal court. The Holy See voted in favor of the court's establishment.
(ZENIT contributed to this article)
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: Register Staff -------- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Purgatory, a 'Process of Purification' DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY-Pope John Paul II described purgatory Aug. 4 not as a place but a “process of purification” that removes man's earthly imperfections so he may enter God's kingdom.
The Pope spoke about the doctrine of purgatory in his address to some 7,000 pilgrims attending his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall.
Elio Guerriero, editor of the prestigious international review Communio, founded by Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, praised the Pope for reviving a doctrine that he said had been all but forgotten by the Church in recent years.
At his previous two audiences, the Pope had talked about heaven and hell. He said that purgatory, like heaven and hell, is not a place but a spiritual state of being.
“Following our catechesis on the reality of heaven and hell, today we consider ‘purgatory,’the process of purification for those who die in the love of God but who are not completely imbued with that love,” John Paul said.
The Pope said the death and resurrection of Jesus opened the way to humanity's redemption, but it still is necessary for a person to be freed of “all trace of attachment to evil … all deformity of the spirit” in order to achieve the perfect union with God that is heaven.
“Sacred Scripture teaches us that we must be purified if we are to enter into perfect and complete union with God,” he said. “Jesus Christ, who became the perfect expiation for our sins and took upon himself the punishment that was our due, brings us God's mercy and love.
“But before we enter into God's kingdom every trace of sin within us must be eliminated; every imperfection in our soul must be corrected. This is exactly what takes place in purgatory,” he said.
Clarifying the source of the Church's teaching, John Paul II made a review of the Old and New Testaments, quoting passages that state that “one cannot see God without passing through purification” (cf. Leviticus 22:22, Leviticus 21:17 – 23, 1 Kings 8:61, Deuteronomy 6:5, 1 Corinthians 3:14 – 15).
John Paul said purgatory is very different from hell, which he described the previous week as the state of suffering of “those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy.”
“Those who live in this state of purification after death are not separated from God but are immersed in the love of Christ,” he said.
“Neither are they separated from the saints in heaven, who already enjoy the fullness of eternal life, nor from us on earth, who continue on our pilgrim journey to the father's house.”
The Pope indicated that prayers of the living can help those in purgatory.
“We all remain united in the mystical body of Christ, and we can therefore offer up prayers and good works on behalf of our brothers and sisters in purgatory,” he said.
But once in purgatory, the Pope said, there is no “further possibility of changing one's own destiny.” He said this teaching is “unequivocal” and was reiterated 35 years ago by the Second Vatican Council.
“The Pope has done well to recall the attention of the faithful to purgatory because it is a theme almost forgotten if not ignored,” Guerriero told the Italian news agency.
Guerriero said purgatory was very important for believers “because the state of purification, which becomes evident after death, begins here on earth.” He said the Pope has given priests the duty to remind believers “that it is important to prepare oneself in this life through purification in view of the final encounter with God.”
(From combined wire services)
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: -------- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: World Notes & Quotes DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:Trent's Missionaries
VITA TRENTINA, Aug. 1-The Italian Diocese of Trent has a remarkable missionary presence, according to the diocesan weekly newspaper.
The paper recently published a report that includes the names of Trent priests, religious and lay people who are working as missionaries in Asia, Africa, America, Eastern Europe and Oceania.
The missionaries' destinations include difficult assignments like the Congo, Sierra Leone, and Algeria, but also wealthy countries such as the United States and Japan. As an official of the diocesan Missionary Center said, “No community can be closed in on itself, concerned with its own needs, no matter how important and numerous.”
The missions are also supported by those who never leave Trent. The people of the diocese donate almost $1 million dollars annually to the cause. Half a million dollars raised from the Lenten collection “Bread for the Love of God,” was offered to three bishops and 469 missionaries. The remainder was given to missionaries working with lepers and to alleviate emergencies in Sudan, Bolivia, Central America and Kosovo.
Catholic Schools Attacked in India
INDIA NEWS, Aug. 2-Members of Shiv Sena, a nationalist group known for its violent protests, have attacked Church-run institutions in India, according to the Christian Internet news service.
The attackers broke furniture at the Sacred Heart Convent in Worli, just north of Bombay, and slapped a nun, according to India News. A similar confrontation was thwarted at the Infant Jesus Convent in Jogeshwari in the western state of Maharashtra. The group says Catholic schools are denying admission to “Maharashtrian” students, which justifies their attacks, they say.
India's education minister has been unresponsive to appeals for help, the Catholic Board of Education said. They say the government's lack of action is a means of retaliation for the board's refusal to cooperate with the government on a proposed legislative bill that would give the government control of half of the admissions at the pre-primary level in religious schools. Protestant workers in Orrissa have also been attacked, India News said.
Orthodox Churches Suffer Albanian Retribution
REUTERS, Aug. 2-Orthodox Church leaders claim the July 31 bomb that exploded in a new cathedral now under construction in Pristina, Kosovo, was part of an ongoing attack on the Serbian Church, the wire service reported.
The blast, which rocked surrounding buildings but did little damage to the church, is the latest in a series of more than 30 attacks on Orthodox monasteries and churches in the province, Reuters said. “I think there are people who want to destroy, symbolically, Orthodox churches,” Bernard Kouchner, United Nations administrator in Kosovo, said.
Orthodox leaders say ethnic Albanians are behind the violence. “At the moment, the Albanian extremists are organizing a systematic campaign of destruction of Orthodox churches with the intention to blot out all traces of Serbian existence in Kosovo,” Father Sava, a senior member of the church, said.
Kosovar Albanians consider the cathedral, under construction for three years, as a provocation and a sign of Serb encroachment in the province, he said.
----- EXCERPT: From selected sources ------- EXTENDED BODY: -------- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Grappling With a Season of Death DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:DENVER-Jim Beckman just wants some time and space to cry. He hasn't had much of either lately.
But then again, neither did Jesus, Beckman learned at a recent youth conference in Denver.
“What would Jesus do?” Beckman asked rhetorically during an interview with the Register. “He'd go on.”
Beckman is the youth director at St. Frances Cabrini Church in Littleton, Colo., a parish that lost fourth teenagers to the April 20 massacre at Columbine High School. He's also full-time director of youth conferences for Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. A July 30-Aug. 1 conference in Denver was the fourth he's administered since the massacre.
“I don't know if I'm coping well or not,” said Beckman after he closed Steubenville of the Rockies, a regional youth conference attended by some 2,000 teen-agers. “I just depend on God every day to get me through this.”
In the past three months, Beckman has emerged as a pillar of support and strength for a host of Columbine parents and students who are coping with grief. When he's not directing a conference, he's ministering to grieving adults and children. In just three months he's attended the funerals of five people he knew and loved as friends.
On May 31, just one month after Columbine, Beckman's best friend was murdered. Aaron Land was a 20-year-old sophomore at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He was killed with fellow sophomore Brian Muha, 18, in a wooded area of Pennsylvania about 12 miles east of Steubenville. The two were slain after a burglary at their apartment.
Beckman was a pallbearer in Land's funeral, just weeks after the funerals of four members of his own parish youth group.
“It's been a summer of death,” Beckman said after the conference. “It has really caused a hunger in the youth, who are looking for something meaningful.”
In opening the conference, Beckman told the teen-agers, seated in a coliseum at the University of Denver, some of what he has been through. Many teens in the audience had been dragged to the conference by friends or forced to go by parents. Some obviously didn't want to be there and Beckman said he could empathize.
“I don't want to be here right now,” Beckman said. “I don't know if I can do this. Sometimes I don't know if I can go on. I am a broken man.”
Beckman said he's been frustrated by his inability to get some quiet time alone to deal with his own grief. He's prayed for such an opportunity, he said.
“For three months I've been wanting to cry, but there are so many people, with so many needs that it's just impossible,” Beckman said.
He said he took solace, however, in words ministered during the final Mass at Steubenville of the Rockies. Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput expounded on the day's Gospel reading, which told about Jesus in the wake of the death of his cousin John the Baptizer. Archbishop Chaput explained that John was murdered for preaching conversion. When Jesus heard about his cousin's death, the archbishop said, he decided to withdraw to a quiet place in order to pray and recommit to God.
“Instead, he was placed in a crowd,” Archbishop Chaput said.
“His heart was moved with pity, and he cured their sick,” the Gospel reading says about Jesus' reaction to the crowd.
As evening drew, Jesus' disciples suggested he dismiss the crowds so they could go to the villages and buy food. Jesus instead decided to feed the crowds with what little he had — five loaves and a couple of fish.
“This reveals what God can do when we bring our five loaves and fishes to him,” Archbishop Chaput told the students.
Beckman said he gained strength from that speech. He decided it was no time for him to feel defeated. Beckman, who has directed Steubenville conferences for 15 years, said the time is ripe to help youth.
“We're definitely experiencing a rise in the spirit level of the youth right now,” Beckman contended. “With most youth today there is a hunger for the Holy Spirit just below the surface. They've seen the failures of our generation, which looks for fulfillment in all sorts of worldly things. Youth are more ready to grab the Gospel message than I've ever seen them. And since Columbine, they are looking for something worth dying for.”
—Wayne Laugesen
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen -------- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Editorial DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:An article in the Sept. 6 Fortune magazine accuses one Msgr. Emilio Colagiovanni of falling for a con man's story and becoming involved in a money-laundering scheme that appeared to benefit a charity. The article casts the actions of this priest and another priest only passingly associated with the Holy See as a vast Vatican plot to make money off Martin Frankel's crooked dealings.
The scheme, as Fortune tells it, involved the setting up of a “charity” called the St. Francis of Assisi Foundation which would use the dirty money and keep 10% of it for itself. This group, in turn, was under the control of the Monitor Ecclesiasticus Foundation, which the reporter contends is under direct Vatican control.
Yet neither foundation is listed among the juridical persons of the Holy See. Nor has the Vatican Bank, which Fortune claimed received the money from the St. Francis foundation, ever had an account for that group, according to the ZENIT news agency.
The “proof” that the Fortune reporter cited in order to imply a deeper Vatican connection to the whole scandal betrays a fundamental lack of understanding of the Church. “He gives undue weight to things like apostolic blessings, Vatican ID cards and letters from secretaries of former popes,” observed Father Robert Sirico of the Acton Institute.
Monitor Ecclesiasticus is, in fact, subject to a certain degree of approval from the Vatican — its president, Msgr. Colagiovanni, was appointed by the Secretariat of State — but it is not directly overseen by the Vatican.
Moreover, as The Wall Street Journal reported July 23, in the course of Frankel's con, “Vatican officials told him that the arrangement [of his foundation] would violate canon law” — which prompted him to look elsewhere for the credibility his scam needed.
All of this signals that the Fortune article fails in the basic principles of ethical journalism. At the very least it is guilty of sensationalism. Details of a single priest's involvement in a financial scheme wouldn't sell magazines, it seems. But an inflated article slamming the whole of the Vatican just might.
***
Aheadline in our Aug. 1 – 7 edition, “Heaven Is an Intimate Relationship With God, Not a Place, Says Pope,” raised a few readers'eyebrows.
The article reported that Pope John Paul II at his July 21 general audience said heaven “is not an abstraction nor a physical place amid the clouds, but a living and personal relationship with the Holy Trinity.”
Heaven, of course, can be thought of as a “place.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to it as “God's own ‘place’” and “the ‘place of the spiritual creatures” (No. 326).
One reader, a priest, told us that he spends a lot of his time trying to shake people of what he called the New Age notion that heaven is just good feelings. Another pointed out that we need only consult the Our Father for the true teaching: “Our Father who art in heaven” seems to describe a “place.”
What the Pope wanted to stress, however, is that heaven is not a place like any we are accustomed to. The Catechism, in fact, calls it a “place” with quotation marks, perhaps to suggest that it defies human description.
As we celebrate the feast of the Assumption on Aug. 15, we can turn to Mary as a model of one who, in a sense, lived close to heaven throughout her life. She who lived God's will at every moment was assumed, body and soul, into the “place” called heaven at the completion of her earthly life.
Her fiat (“let it be done”) at the annunciation opened the way for the Son of God to come into the world. The Savior who took a place in the world we can see, opened the doors of heaven which we can't see. If anyone showed a unity between heaven and earth as the Pope is describing, Mary did: by doing the will of God “on earth as it is in heaven.”
***
The University of Dayton has announced a new doctoral program. A program which it calls the first of its kind, it will focus on “the theology of the U.S. Catholic experience.” “U.S. Catholics are different from Latin American, European or African Catholics,” a press release says. Not “historically” different, it adds, but theologically.
We can only hope that means the program will delve into the richness of genuine theology done by Americans as a service to the universal Church. Yet, on the face of it, the program sounds oddly isolationist.
The strength of the Church has always come when we unite on the solid ground of common doctrine. Ever since Vatican II, the Church has been stressing the importance of the unity of the faithful. Pope John Paul II has added even more urgency to the call as the Jubilee approaches.
The Church's lesson is powerful and sorely needed in our world today: We are one. Catholics of all races, languages and income levels are brothers and sisters in the Lord. Now is the time to embrace our common faith — and not create differences where they needn't exist.
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: -------- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Secularization's Dying Days DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics edited by Peter L. Berger (Eerdmans and the Ethics and Public Policy Center, 1999, 135 pages, $17)
“The assumption that we live in a secularized world is false. The world today … is as furiously religious as it ever was, and in some places more so than ever. This means that a whole body of literature by historians and social scientists loosely labeled ‘secularization theory’ is essentially mistaken.”
Such is the assessment of sociologist Peter Berger in a groundbreaking essay in The Desecularization of the World, a volume which he also edited.
In particular Berger points to the worldwide explosion of Islam and of evangelicalism, especially pentecostalism. He identifies similarly important, though smaller, expansions among Catholics, Orthodox, Jews and others.
Taken together, says Berger, these trends provide “a massive falsification” of the idea that the world will become more secular as it becomes more modern.
“The Islamic upsurge … is an impressive revival of emphatically religious commitments. And it is of vast geographical scope. … Everywhere it is bringing about a restoration, not only of Islamic beliefs but of distinctively Islamic life-styles, which in many ways directly contradict modern ideas.” Furthermore, “the Islamic revival is by no means restricted to the less modernized or ‘backward’ sectors of society, as progressive intellectuals like to think.”
“The Evangelical upsurge is just as breathtaking in scope,” writes Berger. “Geographically that scope is even wider” — in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the former Soviet Union, and in the Philippines and South Pacific.
One exception Berger sees to the trends of desecularization in the world is “an international subculture composed of people with Western-type higher education, especially in the humanities and social sciences.” He says, “This subculture is the principal ‘carrier’ of progressive, Enlightened beliefs and values. While its members are relatively thin on the ground, they are very influential, as they control the institutions that provide the ‘official’ definition of reality, notably the educational system, the media of mass communication, and the higher reaches of the legal system.”
Call them the university-media-legal elite. Berger is adamant that they represent only a “subculture,” a small slice of the modern scene. They are hoping for the secularization of everyone else, but their imperious use of social position tends to encourage, by way of backlash, the very religious resurgence they abhor.
“The plausibility of secularization theory owes much to this international subculture,” says Berger. “When intellectuals travel, they usually touch down in intellectual circles — that is, among people much like themselves. They can easily fall into the misconception that these people reflect the overall society.” Berger pictures a secular intellectual from Europe visiting the faculty club of the University of Texas. The visitor finds himself comfortably at home. However, once he sets out across town, or once he turns on the radio, “heaven help him,” observes Berger. “What happens then is a severe jolt of culture shock.”
Berger points to the worldwide explosion of Islam and of evangelicalism.
Berger says that if secularization really did rule the roost, as the elite tells itself, then religious groups would have to adapt to it to survive. Instead, he says, “religious communities have survived and even flourished to the degree that they have not tried to adapt themselves to the alleged requirements of a secularized world. To put it simply, experiments with secularized religion have generally failed; religious movements with beliefs and practices dripping with reactionary supernaturalism (the kind utterly beyond the pale at self-respecting faculty parties) have widely succeeded.”
In fact, whatever their religious differences, all the resurgent religious forces of desecularization agree concerning “the shallowness of a culture that tries to get along without any transcendent points of reference.”
After reading Berger's analysis it is hard not to believe that the university-media-legal subculture is involved in a last-ditch effort to shore up its eroding position. “Secularity will triumph,” they think. But Berger says, “I find this thesis singularly unpersuasive.” To believe it you have to think that “eventually Iranian mullahs, Pentecostal preachers, and Tibetan lamas will all think and act like professors of literature at American Universities.” Not at all likely. Berger says the elite overlooks that such a change “would require something close to a mutation of the species.”
The other essays in this volume develop various aspects of Berger's astonishing essay. George Weigel, for example, contributes a piece that shows how the Catholic Church, especially under the leadership of Pope John Paul II, has been developing an increasingly powerful engagement with the modern world.
David Martin of the London School of Economics contributes an essay on the political implications of the upsurge among evangelicals. Grace Davie of the University of Exeter clarifies what is really going on in Europe, where it can erroneously seem that secularization is the only game in town. Tu Weiming of Harvard University relates the story of the recurring power of religious movements in China, even up to the present day. Abdullahi A. An-Na'im of Emory University discusses the breadth of the contemporary impact of Islam on politics and international relations.
Perhaps the most intriguing essay is “Judaism and Politics in the Modern World” by Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of Britain and the Commonwealth. His account of the past 200 years of Jewish experience comes the closest to opening a door on the supernatural in of our supposedly secular world.
“Jews are less than a quarter of a per cent of the population of the world,” he says. “Our influence should be minimal. … But Jews and Judaism are of interest and influence in a way that numbers cannot account for.”
Sacks quotes fellow Jew Milton Himmelfarb: “We seem caught up in things great and inexplicable. … We remain bigger than our numbers. Big things seem to happen around us and to us.”
There is no space here to develop what Sacks has to say. We may note, however, that in the end he sees “a new generation of Jews emerging, for the first time in many generations, with an undamaged, uncomplicated sense of Jewish identity. They recognize Judaism's spiritual power and moral grandeur. … They are beginning to re-connect with Jewish observance and Talmud Torah.”
If you want to understand our world today and what is likely to happen in the next century, you dare not take your bearings any longer from the university-media-legal subculture. You need to read books like this one, which establish clearly that Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, Pentecostals and Jews are not going to stop growing in numbers and in effective impact on the world. This is a book that lays out facts which may well undergird something Pope John Paul has been saying — that the new millennium will be a springtime of the human spirit.
Gerry Rauch is an assistant editor of the Register.
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: Gerry Rauch -------- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: What Faith in the Father Should Mean DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:“God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth” (The Catholic Faith, July/August 1999)
Jesuit Father John A. Hardon, executive editor of The Catholic Faith magazine, writes: “In the opening of the Apostles' Creed, we profess our faith in one God, the Father, the Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.”
Father Hardon looks at “the spiritual consequences of our faith in God our Father and Creator. … The first spiritual implication … is humility. … As you read the great saints and mystics of Catholic history, men like St. John of the Cross or women like Catherine of Siena — you are sometimes startled at how little, how unimportant they considered themselves in their own eyes. Well they might, because, whatever else the saints realized, they knew more clearly than most people that once we admit that, of ourselves, we were and would be nothing, it becomes (I do not hesitate saying) psychologically impossible to indulge in one passing moment of pride.
“Our second implication is gratitude. Why did God create us? Very simply because He loved us. … Do we mean that God loved us before He made us? Sure! Otherwise we would not exist. … How grateful then we should be to God who in His goodness wants us to imitate His generosity. We are not to look for profit in giving ourselves to others as an expression of our gratitude to God.
“The third implication of our faith in God's creation is confidence. Seeing what God has given us, all that He has done for us from the moment of our first existence to the present, can we possibly doubt His power and His goodness in the future?
“Our hope is grounded on our faith. We believe that everything we have and possess and enjoy and, let me add, endure, is a gift from God. You mean that pain is a blessing? Are you serious? I could not be more serious. How dare we be anxious or worried. We must be confident that we shall receive from the same God who has been so good in the past all that we need to remain faithful to Him until death, and then confident that the moment we cross the threshold from time into eternity, this God will be there waiting for us.”
Father Hardon then turns to a fourth implication, dealing with the human preoccupation with being accepted by others. He urges us instead to learn from God the Creator that we should care instead for “divine respect.” “There is no single practical recommendation that I can give you other than to encourage you to daily examine your conscience on giving in to human respect. How many temptations and, as a consequence, how many sins, come from our fear of what others will say or think of us. … In the profoundest sense of the word, we have no one to be afraid of — no creature. It is only the Creator whom we should fear.
“Our fifth implication is peaceful reliance. … We have nothing to fear from God, provided we are faithful to His will. The reason we become anxious is because we are so pathetically aware of our own weakness. We know how stupid we are and, under the pressure of trial and temptations, how weak we are. That is why our grateful faith in creation is the single most effective remedy for anxiety and worry.”
Finally, the “[s]ixth implication is adoration. God is to be adored for His greatness, His power and His majesty. … Every creature should be an impulse to adoration, which means to give loving recognition of the beauty and excellence of God.
“There is one more practical application of our faith in the mystery of creation. It is the practice of charity … God has put inequality in the world to inspire us to cooperate with Him in, dare I say it, His ongoing creation of the world. We have things that others lack. That is part of God's plan to inspire those who have [the goods of this world] to share with those who need.”
Ellen Wilson Fielding writes from Davidson, Maryland.
----- EXCERPT: Article Digest ------- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Wilson Fielding -------- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:Defending HMOs
Today, there is a frequent, convoluted politically motivated media feeding frenzy attacking the HMO concept (“Debate Rages Over Remedy for Health-Care Industry,” Register Aug. 1 – 7 issue). All HMOs are painted with the same indiscriminate broad brush which I resent.
In the last seven years I have utilized seven specialists, been hospitalized four times, and had three surgical procedures. [I have had] numerous emergency room visits and average about 50 doctor appointments yearly.
If I didn't have an HMO, my wife and I would be pushing shopping carts and living under a viaduct.
If the HMO system is not broken, it doesn't need fixing, especially by politicians!
Stephen Conway Banning, California
Married Priests
I thank you for the article “Married Priests and Their Wives Defend Church Rule on Celibacy” (Register, July 18 – 24). It was a well-balanced and, I believe, clear presentation of our views.
However, the last section “What the Church Says” quoted the Code of Canon Law, No. 277, to show support for priestly celibacy. The reference failed to mention that the Code is for the Latin Church and does not apply to the Eastern Catholic churches which have their own code of canon law approved by Rome. Because the article earlier stated that “Eastern Catholic rite … permits the ordination of married men” it would appear that the Eastern Catholic churches are practicing something against canon law. We are not, according to our own code.
Father Miguel Grave de Peralta,
Assistant, St. Ignatius of Antioch Melkite Greek Catholic Church Augusta, Georgia
Correction: Last week a production glitch led to a headline that read, “World Excommunicated.” “World” was intended by an editor to designate a category of news — not, of course, as part of the headline.
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: -------- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Rationalizing More Attacks On the Unborn DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:“Perhaps nothing has been so damaging to our cause as the advances in technology which have allowed pictures of the developing fetus, because people now talk about the fetus in much different terms than they did 15 years ago. They talk about it as a human being, which is not something I have an easy answer on how to cure.”
Harrison Hickman, pollster for the National Abortion Rights Action League, addressing NARAL's 20th anniversary conference, October 1989
It is usually taken for granted that self-declared “intellectuals” are in favor of finding the truth and in favor of progress in the area of human rights. In fact, intellectuals regularly define themselves by their engagement in these precise pursuits. Except, of course, in the Through-the-Looking-Glass world of abortion politics. There, truth is to be ignored when it doesn't serve the one end of keeping abortion available on demand. And progress isn't allowed if the beneficiaries include the unborn.
Polls taken over the last three decades have regularly shown that Americans with more money and more years of education favor abortion to a far greater degree than Americans with less of either. No matter that the developing scientific evidence points in the exactly opposite direction — evidence that has gone so much further in the 10 years since Hickman's admission above.
A recent incident highlights the continuing reality of this dynamic. It came to light recently in Washington, D.C., that public television stations and pro-abortion groups, including Planned Parenthood, the mother of them all, were swapping mailing lists of potential donors — probably on the presumption that intellectuals are more likely to watch PBS stations and support abortion on demand.
So much for truth. What of progress toward a more complete realization of human rights? That, too, goes by the boards when the “human” at issue is unborn. More shocking evidence of this would be hard to find than abortion advocates' statements in recent weeks on the subject of a proposed law to protect the unborn victims of violence. The Unborn Victims of Violence Act would charge a person with two crimes if, during the course of a violent act — one that is already a federal crime — against a woman, he or she also injures or kills that woman's unborn child.
Abortion advocates'responses to this legislation have been blunt — surprisingly blunt considering how well they ordinarily cloak their true intentions with a “pro-woman” and even a “pro-child/pro-family” spin. No matter that this law would apply to mothers who chose (the most important word in the pro-abortion rights lexicon) life for their child. No matter that the killing of unborn children regularly happens in the context of domestic violence against pregnant women — a crime these same advocates claim to abhor. No matter that many of these unborn victims are killed after viability — when even some pro-abortion groups grudgingly acknowledge the child's humanity — a small, but significant, admission.
Polls regularly show that Americans with more money and education favor abortion far more than Americans with less of either.
In their own words, abortion advocates' response to the law has been as follows: “This is an effort to establish in law another little chink in the ground of Roe v. Wade“ — Patricia Ireland, National Organization for Women. “Indeed, the Act must be seen as another battle in the 26-year-long crusade since Roe to endow the fetus with rights and thus erode the fundamental right of women to choose” — Kate Michelman, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. And in an indirect swipe at all women with “unplanned pregnancies,” Gloria Feldt of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America: “The loss of a planned pregnancy is terrible,” but this bill is the wrong solution because it “elevates a two-week embryo to the status of the woman carrying it.”
Never mind these women's deliberate evasion of the more typical scenario, in which a husband or boyfriend deliberately destroys an unborn child of 20 – 30 weeks' gestation.
In recent years, pro-abortion opposition to common sense, clear thinking and human progress has become more and more visible. The list is long, but some of the more notable examples include their opposition to the idea that parents should be informed before an abortionist performs surgery on their minor daughter. Opposition to doctors giving women mandatory informed consent before abortion surgery is performed. Opposition to protecting a child who is four-fifths delivered outside of his or her mother. And now opposition to providing woman full legal satisfaction when a child she chose to nurture in her womb is brutally harmed or killed by another.
In short, the pro-abortion intellectuals have a track record that should be publicly highlighted again and again. People might even begin to believe that “pro-abortion” is “anti-intellectual.”
Helen Alvaré is director of planning and information, Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: Helen Alvar… -------- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Whatever Happened to Hell? DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:Recently, at his Wednesday general audience, Pope John Paul II brought up a topic that has almost disappeared from Catholic preaching: The existence of hell. Today, Catholic books and homilies soft-pedal the subject or don't mention it at all. I attended a Mass not long ago where the celebrant deleted the words “Save us from final damnation” from the Roman Canon.
This expunging of hell from Christian revelation, like much else that goes on in the Church today, is partly a reaction to the old days, when homilists and CCD teachers used to turn up the oven for their audience. One of my earliest churchgoing memories is of a very sonorous preacher bellowing about hell. I don't recall the precise content of the sermon, but I am sure that it had more than a touch of Jansenism. The American Church at midcentury was a veritable hothouse of this Catholic version of Calvinism. God was a stern judge who had instituted rules in order to test our blind obedience. And it is easy to caricature the pictures that homilists of the old school liked to paint of the chamber of tortures that awaited us if we didn't obey those rules.
Now, we cannot doubt the existence of hell. Christ referred to it repeatedly and in very clear language. He mentioned it six times in the Sermon on the Mount, not because he wanted to bully us with images of hell-fire, but to warn us of a very real possibility — that at the end of time there may be souls, perhaps many souls, who hear the words, “Depart from me into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
Christ deflected questions from his disciples about the demographics of the afterlife. He simply warned them — and us — to follow the narrow path and that few are chosen. “Few” does not necessarily mean a very small number or even less than half. If the number of saved souls does not include everybody, it will be too “few.” However, given the gravity of Christ's warnings, we should not indulge in sentimental thinking. Remarks like “Yes, I believe in hell, but I don't believe anybody's there” play games with the Gospel message.
Who are the damned? To say that they are persons who have died in a state of mortal sin is true enough, but does not go to the heart of the matter. The damned person is one who has chosen eternal self-sufficiency. Hell, as Cormac Burke has remarked, is full of closed systems that have failed. The damned have chosen self rather than make a gift of self. God does not put them in hell, they put themselves there. As the Pope writes, hell “is not a punishment from God inflicted from the outside,” but rather the result of choices made in this life about where our heart will be.
So the old understanding of the particular judgment does not quite get it right. In that version, the departed soul enters a courtroom and pleads his case before a difficult judge, who passes sentence on the basis of strict definitions of mortal and venial sin. This courtroom drama was consistent with the legalism and externalism that informed the Church before Vatican II.
The eschatological drama we face after death will not, however, be a courtroom scene, much less a New Yorker cartoon of St. Peter at the celestial gates. Rather, in the presence of Truth we will see ourselves as we truly are. As Bishop Fulton Sheen writes, “In each of us there are several persons: there is the person others think you are; there is the person you think you are; there is the person you really are.” At that moment, we will not be able to deny the truth about ourselves. We will, in effect, judge ourselves and go to our next immediate destination — heaven, purgatory or hell — like iron fillings to a magnet.
Where our soul goes after death is decided by what we love. And we would be miserable in a place that did not answer that love. Newman in one of his sermons points out that an unrepentant sinner would face no greater punishment than being summoned to heaven. “He would find no one like himself; he would see in every direction the marks of God's holiness, and these would make him shudder … no unholy soul can be happy in heaven.”
Two additional thoughts about hell are worth pondering, one from John Paul II and the other from C.S. Lewis.
“Is not hell,” the Pope writes, “in a certain sense the ultimate safeguard of man's moral conscience? How otherwise is human freedom to be respected if it does not include the freedom to say no finally to God?” People who hope that one day the souls in hell might be finally saved assume that they would want to be saved.
Then there is an unsettling sentence from Lewis' novel That Hideous Strength: “The final moments before eternal damnation are seldom dramatic.” It does not require a life of notorious behavior to put oneself into hell. Very quiet, ordinary lives may end up there.
Hell is worth thinking about, but not worth getting melodramatic about. We need, as one theologian puts it, to avoid the extremes of “silence and terror.” We see in the lives of saints that people who have a lively sense of heaven also have a lively sense of hell. The existence of hell is part of revelation, and Christians do not have a “bye” on preaching it.
George Sim Johnston is author of Did Darwin Get It Right?
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: George Sim Johnston -------- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Cardinal O'Connor Defends Berry Again DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:New York Cardinal John J. O'Connor wrote a second newspaper column on his support for Lt. Ryan
C. Berry's fight against having to share duty with a woman, saying he supports the officer because the fight is about the importance of conscience.
“Without it we have nothing,” the cardinal wrote in the Aug. 5 issue of his archdiocesan newspaper, Catholic New York.
The critical issue, he said, was “that the integrity of conscience never be demeaned, dismissed, punished or even unappreciated in the armed forces of the United States.”
Cardinal O'Connor first commented on the issue in his July 29 column, “From My Viewpoint,” in the New York archdiocesan weekly, Catholic New York.
“Were Lt. Berry a woman who objected to sharing such quarters with a man, on grounds of moral integrity and fidelity to church teaching, she would have my full support,” he wrote.
As in the first column, Cardinal O'Connor drew on his experience of 27 years as a Navy and Marine chaplain, which culminated in promotion to Navy chief of chaplains.
“No commanding officer ever even remotely suggested that I encourage any man or woman in the armed forces to violate his or her conscience,” he said.
And referring particularly to his service in Vietnam, he said that except for some “relatively uncommon brutalities” the men fighting there “followed their consciences.”
“We depended on the conscience of our fighting forces,” he wrote. “I never want to see those consciences dulled, even in the height of battle.”
Cardinal O'Connor said that in some battle situations it might be imperative to have “split-second obedience and response to orders.”
But Berry has not been “jeopardizing national security,” but is in a situation where “there is all the time in the world to look rationally and objectively at the situation, “ he said.
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: -------- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Ephesus, City of the Assumption DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:On Mount Koressos, overlooking the ancient Greek city of Ephesus, stands the house of the Virgin Mary. Now part of Turkey, this is the place where it is believed our Lady spent her last days on earth.
The location was determined in 1891 through research done by Lazarian priests. They used descriptions from The Life of the Virgin Mary, a work linked to a German nun, Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774 – 1824). A paralytic who had never visited the area, the nun recounted visions of the mountainous region that led the priests to Mary's house.
As Scripture records, Christ committed the care of his Mother to the apostle John. “And from that hour the disciple took her into his home” (John 19:27). John's work as an apostle took him to Ephesus from Jerusalem. One tradition follows the natural conclusion that Mary accompanied John to Ephesus where she lived until the end of her earthly life.
Both Pope Paul VI (1967) and Pope John Paul II (1979) visited the house of the Virgin Mary at Ephesus. When Pope John Paul visited, he declared the site a place of pilgrimage.
Pilgrims and tourists come both to see the house of Mary on the mountain and the ruins of Ephesus below. At the base of the mountain stand the impressive remains of many ancient structures. These include the Grand Theater, the largest amphitheater of its time, where St. Paul preached. The Church of St. John is built over the apostle's tomb. Also, the Church of the Virgin Mary is the first church named in honor of our Lady.
The Church of the Virgin Mary is linked to two Church councils held in Ephesus in 431 and 439. The first of these two councils of Ephesus, which was the third ecumenical council, taught that there is only one person in Christ, a divine person. This teaching countered the Nestorian heresy, which claimed that there were two persons in Christ. The 431 council also declared Mary to be the Mother of God because she is the Mother of the divine person Christ.
The Marian significance of Ephesus centers on the feast of the Assumption. That our Lady spent her last earthly days on the mountain outside Ephesus means that her Assumption occurred thereabouts. Appropriately, the Assumption is the most significant day at this Marian shrine.
On Aug. 15, 2000, as at other Christian holy places during the millennial year, the celebration of the feast is planned to be quite special and is expected to draw even larger crowds of pilgrims than usual.
Among the Ephesians
When St. Paul preached at Ephesus during the first century, it seemed to the merchants of the city that his message was “bad for business.” The local silversmiths of the day specialized in sales of miniature silver shrines of Artemis, one of the most widely worshipped female deities of the time. Her temple at Ephesus was considered by ancient writers to be one of “the Seven Wonders of the World.” Paul's preaching of the one true God, if it were successful, would have ended the demand for statues of Artemis.
To protect the source of their income, Demetrius, the leader of the silversmiths, rallied others to riot against Paul's preaching. As related in Acts, he argued: “Men, you well know that our prosperity derives from this work.
As you can now see and hear, not only in Ephesus but throughout most of the province of Asia this Paul has persuaded and misled a great number of people by saying that gods made by hands are not gods at all.
The danger grows, not only that our business will be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be of no account, and that she whom the whole province of Asia and all the world worship will be stripped of her magnificence” (Acts 19:26 – 27).
Those predictions proved to be quite correct. Moreover, not only Artemis, but Ephesus itself lost its ancient magnificence. With a population of 250,000, Ephesus was then the capital of the Roman province in Asia Minor. Its strategic position as a seaport at the western beginning of the great trade route to the East made the city the commercial, cultural and pagan religious center of Asia Minor.
The city has long since been reduced to ruins, however. In 262 A.D. the Goths burned and destroyed Ephesus and the temple of Artemis. The port eventually filled in and eliminated the city's commercial base. The temple was rebuilt but later cannibalized for materials used in other buildings.
By the Middle Ages, the once powerful city had withered to a village. The place once held here by the mythical goddess Artemis has now been overtaken by the actual Mother of God.
The shrine of Mary's House is a far cry from the temple of the goddess. In approaching the chapel, one is struck by its peace and, entering it, its humility. With sparse furnishings, the house is a place of quiet meditation, with Mass said daily in its largest room.
It is located outside Ephesus'neighboring Selcuk, and is surrounded by trees. The present structure there was built in 1954 to incorporate ruins of a chapel that date from the seventh century. Abronze statue of Mary is in a niche above the altar. Healing powers have been attributed to nearby springs.
John S. Baker Jr. is a law profesor at Louisiana State University.
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: John Baker Jr. -------- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Pope John Paul II in Denver On Feast of Assumption 1993 DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:The culmination of the Eighth World Youth Day was the solemn Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II with 500,000 young people, adults and children at Cherry Creek State Park in Denver on Aug. 15, the Solemnity of Mary's Assumption into heaven. Concelebrating with the Holy Father were several hundred bishops from the United States and other countries of the world.
At the beginning of the Mass, the Pope greeted the faithful with the following words:
Good Morning. Today is a great holy day, a great Solemnity of the Assumption of our Mother, of our Lady. She embraces all of us in her Assumption. This is the meaning of the words of Jesus, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” This means that our Lady in her Assumption has the fullness of life for her and for all of us. We are participating in this same life, which is her life, our Mother, our Lady, the Virgin Mary. So in the name of Jesus and of his Mother, I say again, “Good Morning!”After the Gospel the Holy Father gave the following Homily:
“God who is mighty has done great things for me” (Luke 1:49). Beloved Young People and Dear Friends in Christ,
Today the Church finds herself, with Mary, on the threshold of the house of Zechariah in Ain-Karim. With new life stirring within her, the Virgin of Nazareth hastened there, immediately after the Fiat of the Annunciation, to be of help to her cousin Elizabeth. It was Elizabeth who first recognized the “great things” which God was doing in Mary. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth marveled that the mother of her Lord should come to her (cf. Luke 1:43). With deep insight into the mystery, she declared: “Blest is she who believed that the Lord's words to her would be fulfilled” (Luke 1:45). With her soul full of humble gratitude to God, Mary replied with a hymn of praise: “God who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name” (Luke 1:49).
On this feast the Church celebrates the culmination of the “great things” which God has done in Mary: her glorious Assumption into heaven. And throughout the Church the same hymn of thanksgiving, the Magnificat, rings out as it did for the first time at Ain-Karim: All generations call you blessed (cf. Luke 1:48).
Gathered at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, which remind us that Jerusalem too was surrounded by hills (cf. Isaiah 24:2) and that Mary had gone up into those hills (cf. Luke 1:39), we are here to celebrate Mary's “going up” to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the threshold of the eternal temple of the Most Holy Trinity. Here in Denver, at the World Youth Day, the Catholic sons and daughters of America, together with others “from every tribe and tongue, people and nation” (Revelations 5:9), join all the generations since who have cried out: God has done great things for you, Mary — and for all of us, members of his pilgrim people! (cf. Luke 1:49).
With my heart full of praise for the Queen of Heaven, the sign of hope and source of comfort on our pilgrimage of faith to “the heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22), I greet all of you who are present at this solemn liturgy. It is a pleasure for me to see so many priests, religious and lay faithful from Denver, from the state of Colorado, from all parts of the United States, and from so many countries of the world, who have joined the young people of the World Youth Day ato honor the definitive victory of grace in Mary, the Mother of the Redeemer.
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: -------- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Growing Up in World War II DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:Growing up is hard to do, and if you're illegitimate, it becomes even more difficult because good role models may be in short supply. Add to the mix war and an oppressive political regime, and the odds seem stacked against a person finding his moral compass.
Pro-abortionists might argue that such a child should never be born. But Franco Zeffirelli overcame all these obstacles to become an internationally respected director of opera, theater and film (Jesus of Nazareth).
Tea With Mussolini is his story. Zeffirelli and British screenwriter, John Mortimer, have created an alter ego, Luca (Charles Lucas) and dramatized his rites of passage against the background of Italian fascism and World War II.
The movie begins in a cemetery in Florence on June 29, 1935, the anniversary of the death of English poetess, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. A small band of female British expatriates, nicknamed the Scorpioni, are paying homage to her life and art. Inspired by her example, they are determined never to leave Italy. Three of them will become crucial influences on Luca.
The most important is Mary Wallace (Joan Plowright), a middle-aged spinster who is secretary to Luca's anglophile dressmaker father (Paolo Seganti). Asensible self-sufficient woman, she protests the way the pre-adolescent boy is being treated. His father's wife, who has offspring of her own, calls him a “bastard” to his face.
“There are no illegitimate children,” Wallace declares to Luca's father, “only illegitimate parents.” In reply, he challenges her “to give the boy a home” since his birth mother is dead.
At first the spinster refuses, but after seeing the sad faces at the orphanage where Luca has been placed, she changes her mind. Her approach to child-rearing is “to teach him Shakespeare and the difference between right and wrong.”
The unofficial leader of the Scorpioni is Lady Hester Random (Maggie Smith), the widow of a recent British ambassador. She, too, has a strong sense of right and wrong, influenced primarily by manners, propriety and external appearance. She considers Mussolini “a vibrant man” who makes the trains run on time.
When his violence-prone, black-shirted fascisti disrupt a cafe where she's a regular customer, she objects to Il Duce himself. Mindful of her possible political influence, the dictator invites her to tea. “You will always be under my personal protection,” he assures her. His seeming gallantry so impresses her that she remains blind to the evil he's perpetrating.
Another of Luca's role models is an eccentric artist, Arrabella Delancey (Judi Dench) who introduces him to the beautiful paintings and sculptures all around him. He is encouraged to express his own considerable talents in those fields and become “part of the divine plan.”
Arrabella and the more artistically inclined Scorpioni befriend EIsa (Cher), a former American showgirl with a wealthy, elderly husband. Lady Hester brands her “a flagrantly immoral woman” because of her outrageous behavior and the racy company she keeps. But Luca learns not to judge people by gossip and appearances.
Elsa is the only person who admits to having known his mother. When the young Italian woman was pregnant with Luca, everyone but Elsa urged her to have an abortion. He forms a close bond with the former showgirl who alone wanted him to be born. The filmmakers are aware of the pro-life message implicit in the situation but don't underline it. Fearing Elsa's bad influence, Lady Hester opposes the relationship.
As Mussolini makes alliances with Hitler, Luca's father unexpectedly asserts himself. “English is no longer the language of the future,” he says to Wallace while firing her. He also takes the boy away from her and ships him off to a German boarding school. In a further sign of the times, his residence hotel changes its name from Pensione Shelly to Pensione Schiller.
When war is finally declared against England, the Scorpioni, who've remained in Florence, are arrested as unfriendly aliens. Luca, home on holiday, watches them being carted off to a jail in a nearby town.
As America is not yet Mussolini's official enemy, Elsa is still on the loose. Informed by Luca of the British women's plight, she secretly bribes officials to transfer them to a luxury hotel and pays all their expenses. Lady Ransom assumes that Il Duce is honoring his promise to her and has ordered the move. She continues to treat Elsa with contempt.
But the former showgirl has turned herself into a model of compassion and self-sacrifice. With Luca as her emissary, she sets up her own mini-resistance movement, helping Jews and other persecuted citizens obtain false passports to escape. Eventually, Italy goes to war with the United States, and Elsa, herself a Jew, finds her own life in jeopardy as the fascisti scheme to grab her extensive collection of modern art.
Tea With Mussolini is more a series of vignettes centered on a young boy's coming of age than a tightly constructed drama. But its charm and life-affirming spirit sweep us along. Our own eyes are opened as we watch Luca receive his personal and political education from those who, at first glance, might seem unqualified to teach him.
U.S. Catholic Conference: adults and adolescents
Arts and Culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
Infocus
Catholic fans of Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth should be warned of hisTea With Mussolini's casual attitude toward sexuality. Today's era of climbing rates of venereal disease, broken families and emotional problems gives a special urgency to the Church's teaching.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church stresses this when it teaches that “Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul. It especially concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and in a more general way the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others” (No. 2332).
----- EXCERPT: Tea With Mussolini follows Italian boy to maturity ------- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer -------- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Videos in Release DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:October Sky
It's October 1957, and the United States is enthralled by the launch of Sputnik, the first spaceship to circle the globe. Particularly intrigued by the Russian craft is Homer Hickam (Jake Gyllenhaal), the teen-age son of John, a tough West Virginia mine superintendent (Chris Cooper) and Elsie (Natalie Canerday), his loving but practical wife. Homer and his three high-school buddies (Chris Owen, William Lee Scott and Chad Lindberg) decide to build their own rocket and are encouraged in their highly technical experiments by Miss Riley (Laura Dern), a supportive science teacher. John isn't thrilled by his son's rocket obsession and desire to leave West Virginia; he wants his boy to follow him into the mines. John's disapproval sets up a series of conflicts between father and son that nearly leads to tragedy. October Sky, based on an autobiography called Rocket Boys by Homer H. Hickam Jr., is one of those rare feel-good movies that delivers a thoroughly inspirational tale. It's also a bittersweet musing on a seemingly more simple time.
U.S. Catholic Conference: adults and adolescents
Cry of the White Wolf: White Wolves III
Although Cry of the White Wolf: White Wolves III has a fairly time-worn plot, the film's execution, its gorgeous locations and the characterization of its teen leads, add up to a surprisingly engrossing action-adventure. The movie opens up in Hollywood as Jack (Mick Cain) tempts fate by swiping a compact disc. After the cops bust the teen, a judge sentences him to 30 days at a wilderness survival camp. His mother (Margaret Howell) drops him off at a tiny airport where Jack meets his stoic Native-American pilot, Quentin (Rodney A. Grant) and his spoiled fellow teen passenger, Pamela (Mercedes McNab). The small plane develops engine trouble and crashes into a lake. The battered trio emerge onto shore only to find they're off course and deep inside a wilderness area. Their only hope of survival is a 200-mile trek to a ranger station before winter sets in. Some lessons in Indian lore and a series of adventures, some highly dangerous, force Jack and Pamela to discard their bad attitudes and mature into responsible near adults.
Death by Design
When Antonie van Leeuwenhoek looked at an onion skin through a microscope in 1673, he saw chambers that reminded him of monks' cells; so he named the chambers cells. In the centuries since his discovery, many other researchers have tried to comprehend these most basic units of life; and they have found that the more they learn, the more there is to learn. That's one of the main themes running through Death by Design, a documentary about cells and the scientific research that's being done on them and their functioning.
The film interweaves footage of cells in action, clips from old movies that provide metaphors of cell behavior, and interviews with cell biologists from top academic and scientific institutions in Europe and the United States.
All of the biologists' comment on the importance of programmed cell death, describing various ways that cellular death impacts the development of both individual cells and cellular communities such as plants and animals. Although the documentary raises some complex questions, it's relatively easy to follow and thoroughly fascinating.
The Education of Little Tree
Based on a novel by Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree kicks off in 1935 Tennessee, the day after Little Tree's mother has died. Because the boy's father has passed on, Little Tree's paternal grandparents (James Cromwell and Tantoo Cardinal) step in to rear the 8-year-old (Joseph Ashton) over the objections of his maternal Aunt Martha (Leni Parker). She wants to keep the boy out of the hands of those whom she identifies as “white Indians.” Although Little Tree's grandfather is Scottish by descent, he has assumed many of the beliefs and much of the behavior of his Cherokee wife's people. The elderly couple lives high on a Tennessee mountain, happy in their remoteness and delighted by their grandson's presence. They begin educating him in the ways of the Cherokee and the mountain folk, but the outside world soon disturbs their idyll. Although The Education of Little Tree makes several valid points about the oppression of indigenous peoples, it offers overly simplistic conclusions about the relationship between two not so disparate races.
Loretta G. Seyer is editor of Catholic Faith … Family.
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: Loretta G. Seyer -------- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: A Miracle in Memphis for Catholic Schools DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:Across the country Catholic dioceses are struggling with demographic changes that have made many suburban parishes swell to overflowing while some inner city parishes struggle to stay afloat.
One of the harshest consequences has been the need to close many Catholic schools because of financial problems.
But the Diocese of Memphis, Tenn., is reversing that trend. It has announced plans to reopen six inner city Catholic schools after receiving a multimillion-dollar donation from sources who wish to remain anonymous.
Mary McDonald, superintendent of schools for the diocese, spoke recently with Register Radio News correspondent Jay Dunlap.
Jay Dunlap: How would you describe the success of the Memphis program?
Mary McDonald: I know that this sounds unbelievable, but through prayer and faith, God decided it was his time to perform a miracle here in Memphis. And the miracle is that he sent a good Samaritan, and that's basically how it happened. There are several anonymous donors who value what a Catholic education does in a community and made it affordable for us to reopen six schools in the inner city area that were closed.
Did the diocese actively campaign for this donation?
No, not at all. Bishop J. Terry Steib, our bishop here in Memphis, has always had the vision that the schools should be in those areas where we are not. That means that we ought to be not just where it's affordable and where we can maintain them financially, but our Catholic schools should be where it is not affordable and where there is a lot of need.
Our Catholic schools have always done it. In this country, we have a long history of educating those who have great need, who are living in poverty or are new immigrants to this country. But when I first took this position, when he appointed me last year as superintendent, he shared that vision with me, and I remember saying, “Wow! That's going to take a miracle.” And so we prayed for a miracle. But it wasn't an active campaign. It was just a lot of things coming together at the same time.
More than a quarter of the students in your current 18 schools are non-Catholic. Given that these schools are “where you aren't,” so to speak, they're likely to serve many non-Catholics. Is it a missionary out-reach?
Definitely. In terms of evangelization, yes. Not necessarily conversion, but evangelization. I think that the mission of our Church has always been to reach out to those in need. That's part of what being a Catholic means. It's part of what having a Catholic school is all about. So yes, definitely, it will serve the needs of all of the children. It isn't just for the Catholic population in Memphis. It's for all of the population of Memphis. We are a mission diocese here, so the Catholic population is very, very small to begin with. But it doesn't negate the fact that we still have the obligation to meet the needs of others though our own needs may be great.
The donations that have come through are big enough to make it affordable for lower income families?
Our Catholic schools should be where it is not affordable and where there is a lot of need.
—Mary McDonald, school superintendent
The heart of the donation goes to the children. The vast majority of the donation is set up as a foundation for scholarships and financial aid to assist those families and children who would choose to go to these schools. It will assist them in getting there. It will be a financial means of having them attend the schools. So that's what the heart of the donation is.
Now of course there are renovation costs and start-up costs. One of these schools has been vacant for 30 years, so it's not like we can just move in tomorrow. Others have been closed maybe five, 10 or 15 years. So there's quite a bit of work to be done. There's also staffing needs that have to be met. The curriculum has to be set. And now with technology, we want to be sure that these schools are just like all of our other schools.
There are no unimportant children and no unimportant areas of the city. So we want to make sure that the children who attend these schools have everything that they need. So it's going to take some time. We're going to be doing it gradually. Start-up costs are one part of the donation. The vast majority of the moneys donated will go to the ongoing financial assistance program. But that's where we need the help of other people.
So how long do you think it will take to get all six schools up and running all the way through eighth grade?
Actually, one is up and running right now. It took us just a week and a half. This school had only been closed five years and was in very good shape and so we have someone there now on site who is taking applications for the current school year, so that one will open this year with kindergarten. Next year we will open two more, and then the following year the other three.
And you're adding a grade or two every year?
Right. We're not just opening the school and saying now we have eight grades. What we're doing is building the school, a programmatic approach. What we want to do is build it a grade at a time, so that as the school grows, the commitment of the community and of the parish grows too. It's very important for a school to reconnect to the parish. There are some fences to mend there too. When the schools were closed that was a very sad day for the parish. I'm sure there are people who are wondering, “OK, now you're coming back. How long are you going to stay?” And we want people to know that we're there for good and we don't intend to leave. That's why it's crucial that we assure the continuity of the financial assistance program, so that these schools don't ever close again.
Do you think what's happening there in Memphis could become a trend? Granted that this came out of nowhere as a “gift from God,” could it be replicated elsewhere?
This is definitely a gift from God — and God can do his work anywhere. Yes, I do think this is something that could be and should be replicated. I know the easiest thing in the world to do is just look towards areas of growth, and we have them here in Memphis. We have areas where people are moving in all of the time and where the Catholic population is growing. We do have to address the needs in these areas.
But we also look back and reclaim our heritage. When we closed schools in the inner city or in impoverished areas, we didn't just leave buildings. We left the children. And we have to go back. We have to look at our roots and say what was Catholic education founded for? What was it meant to do? And if you look at the roots of that, it was founded to help the very same children 100 and 200 years ago that we have right now in our city. So I do hope that others dioceses around the country look at what we're doing, and I would be most happy to share with them any information at all that would help them do the same thing.
I know that there are programs in other areas that are addressing needs — school vouchers, charter programs, things like that. I think the one advantage that the Catholic school system has in addressing these needs immediately is the reputation.
We all stand on each other's shoulders in Catholic education. For a very long time, since the founding of this country, Catholic schools have addressed a need and done it very effectively. What we're doing now is what we've always done best. It's educating children in truth, God-centered education, faith-based education. Character is part of the whole curriculum.
So I think the advantage is this a known quantity we're talking about. This is the Catholic schools system, as opposed to another program.
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: -------- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Education Notebook DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:Phonics — A Tool of Religious Right?
His treatment claims the teaching of reading has become highly politicized, with entrenched interests defending the whole language system, which relies on the notion that children don't need rules and drills and will naturally evolve into readers and spellers. He makes three points.
First, whole language fits into a 1960s mentality that favors innovation and doing one's own thing. She points to Invitations: Changing as Teachers and Learners by Regie Routman which includes the tale of Maria, a teacher who evolves away from traditional education to becomes one who “can offer children choices in decision making about their own learning,” writes Routman.
Her classroom, freed from focusing on dull matters like capitalization is a “joyful, collaborative community.” As with other authors who promote similar ideas, “choice” is encouraged so long as it is modern and agrees with whole language. Routman includes tips on how to handle youngster who, for example, wants to spell properly.
Second, the notion of research — and truth — is questioned. One textbook says there is no such thing as objective fact, only different “perspectives.”
Finally, no educator would want to keep company with those who have taken up the cause of phonics in recent years.
Western Michigan University professor Constance Weaver in Reading Process and Practice (Heinemann, 1994) paints a picture of the distasteful types teachers would be aligning themselves with: members of the “far right,” driven not by the wish to teach children to read, but by “the desire to promote a religious agenda and/or to maintain the socioeconomic status quo.” According to Weaver, who directed the Commission on Reading for the National Council of Teachers of English in the late 1980s, right-wing extremists believe that kids who study phonics will get “the words ‘right’” and thus read what the Bible actually says rather than approximate its meaning.”
Colleges Crowding Up
A combination of rising high school enrollment and teenagers' increased interest in college has led to a crush of applications, and more students than ever were stranded on waiting lists this spring
“That has prompted many colleges to find creative ways to squeeze in more freshmen, which makes applicants happy and increases school revenue,” said Mathews.
Many schools have offered students admission next spring — when spaces will open up due to attrition. Others accepted students for the term that began this summer, “seeing it as a way to enlarge their freshman class while mitigating crowding problems in the fall,” said Mathews. Still other colleges are trying to make more room by inviting older students to move off campus, and by cutting back on transfer students.
A record 14.8 million students are registered to attend four-year institutions this fall, and that number will keep increasing as high school enrollments climb before reaching an expected peak a decade from now.
“Also fueling the trend are modern computer systems that allow universities to keep better track of semester-by-semester fluctuations in enrollment and dormitory space,” said Mathews. It's Hip to Be With God
FRANCISCAN UNIVERSITY, July 27-Life in the fast lane is no life at all if it is not grounded in God. That was the testimony of featured speakers at the 12th Young Adults Conference at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, July 23 – 25.
Some 700 participants were treated to “A Really Boring Testimony” by comedian-actor Tom Wilson that was anything but boring. Wilson is best known for the character Biff, a high school bully in the movie Back to the Future.
In addition to drawing big laughs, Wilson spoke about the challenge to live out his faith in Hollywood and the need to love those who are looking for their identity in the wrong places: “Hollywood isn't a monolith. It is many individuals. Many come searching for love, for a sense of identity, and end up lost. There are many hurting people. I seek to love them one on one.”
Former beauty queen Carolyn Kollegger also recounted her experiences as a Christian in a secular world.
Kollegger described her life — from being crowned Miss Ohio to becoming a New York model and film actress, married to a world-class skier from Switzerland. After living a jet-set lifestyle focused on their own enjoyments, she and her husband found genuine happiness through recommitment to Christ and the Church.
“When you are doing God's will, you are happiest,” she said. The couple now holds retreats for families.
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: -------- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: The Gospel Of Life DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:During a U.S. bishops' ad limina visit June 6, 1998, Pope John Paul II stressed the importance of each bishop's role in the teaching of the Catholic faith in his diocese (See stories, Page 14).
In an ecclesiology of communion, the Church's hierarchical structure is not a matter of power but of service, completely ordered to the holiness of Christ's members.
The Marian dimension of the Church is prior to the Petrine or hierarchical dimension, as well as being supreme and pre-eminent, richer in personal and communitarian implications for the various ecclesial vocations. If I mention these well-known truths, it is because everywhere in the Church, and not least in your country, we see the spread of a fresh and invigorating lay spirituality and the magnificent fruits of the laity's greater involvement in the Church's life.
As we approach the third Christian millennium it is of paramount importance that the Pope and the bishops, fully conscious of their own special ministry of service in the Mystical Body of Christ, continue to stir and promote a deeper awareness among all the faithful of the gift and responsibility they share, both in association and as individuals, in the communion and mission of the Church.
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: Rich Rinaldi -------- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:Campaign Wants Constitution More Pro-Life
ZENIT, Aug. 2-The Archdiocese of Mexico City began a campaign Aug. 1 to request that President Ernesto Zedillo amend the wording of the Mexican Constitution which protects the unborn.
Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera pointed out that, although the constitution already guarantees the right to life, the Church wants it to state specifically that life is guaranteed from the moment of conception.
“Given the fact that not all civil entities in our country have understood the imperative of defending life from conception, in our Archdiocese of Mexico we have organized a campaign in defense of life,” the Cardinal explained in a letter published in Desde la Fe.
Organizers of the campaign expect to collect 4.5 million signatures throughout the country in support of the amendment.
According to Nuevo Criterio, the official weekly newspaper of the archdiocese, there is an ongoing campaign in Mexico, organized by “radical feminist” groups, in support of the legalization of abortion.
Death Penalty Opposition Explained
ZENIT, July 12-A document issued by the Philippine bishops hopes to clarify the Church's teaching on the death penalty.
A Primer Calling for Commitment to Life and the Abolition of the Death Penalty hopes to help people understand more deeply the Church's position on capital punishment. The death penalty was recently reinstated in the Philippines after a 23-year absence. At present, there are about 1,000 persons on death row in the country.
“It is a catechism on the death penalty,” said Bishop Francisco Claver, apostolic vicar of Bontoc-Lagawe. “We realized there was a need for a greater education for all our people on the implications of the death penalty.”
The Bishops agree on the necessity of punishment for crimes, “but we are questioning whether the extreme penalty of death leads to any good. There are studies indicating it does not deter crime,” the bishop added.
China Still Using Late Abortions
THE AGE, Aug. 4-According to a report in the Melbourne daily, a Chinese gynecologist and obstetrician told an Australian parliamentary committee that late-term forced abortions continue to be carried out in China.
“In evidence to the committee, the doctor, now an Australian resident, said she performed seven-and-a-half-month abortions when working in a Chinese public hospital between 1983 and 1989,” reported the paper. The doctor, also showed the committee a photograph of an unborn child who was aborted in the six-and-a-half month.
“Nothing has changed,” she said. The doctor who returned to China in 1997 and 1998 said that she was told by a former colleague in a public hospital that late term abortions and forced abortions were still occurring, said the report.
The doctor testified to “ many coercive techniques. Men could lose their jobs if their wives got pregnant with a second child. Government officials sometimes bargained with women to get abortions then failed to deliver on their promises afterwards.”
The doctor also “talked about women being taken from their workplaces and forced to go to hospital,” said the report.
Suicide Risks Higher
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, Aug. 3-In July, surgeon gener al David Satcher called for action to be taken to prevent suicide, Wesley J. Smith wrote in The Wall Street Journal. The commentary by the Anti-Euthanasia Task Force lawyer pointed out that more than 31,000 Americans “die each year at their own hands, and between 1952 and 1996 the number of suicides among adolescents and young adults tripled. Nearly 18 elderly Americans kill themselves on an average day.”
Nonetheless, he argued, “Dr. Satcher's campaign faces an uphill battle. The United States is growing increasingly pro-suicide; even many physicians and mental-health professionals openly promote suicide.”
Said the paper, “The euthanasia movements extols suicide as ‘death with dignity.’”
He pointed out that Derek Humphry's book Final Exit, which is a “how-to” book about suicide, has now become a national bestseller.
Smith concluded that if Satcher “really wants to run an effective campaign against suicide, he is going to have to confront the euthanasia and rational-suicide movement.”
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: -------- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Hope in South Bronx for Moms-to-be DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:Christopher Slattery is founder and director of Helpers of God's Precious Infants, an expectant-mother care facility operating in the South Bronx area of New York. The center claims to save about 45% of the babies that mothers would otherwise have aborted. That means more than 340 children are saved each year. Recently, he spoke with Register Radio News correspondent Rich Rinaldi.
Rich Rinaldi: How do you help women who are pregnant and living under very difficult circumstances?
Christopher Slattery: I think the whole heart of the pro-life movement has to be focused on serving in a Christian manner the mothers who are expecting under difficult circumstances, and explaining what an abortion choice will mean for them and their babies, and what the alternatives offer them. Too many mothers are just given to confusion. [Theirs] are very real problems. Many of us listeners and myself, if I were in the same circumstances, [could] fall and make the same mistakes they and their boyfriends make.
We have many people who are poor, who have broken homes. … I am not trying to justify their abortions, but without the help of family and Christians, and people who care, their mistake in getting pregnant just can't be overcome without someone to show them the way, to offer them help and hope.
It must be very difficult under those circumstances to see the solution without guidance and counseling, and working it through.
Absolutely. I have a young girl who is considering an abortion. She wants this abortion very badly and she has already come in twice. I am making a third attempt to offer her hope. I will be putting her in touch with a pro-life doctor in a few minutes to make a last effort. Every day, in our three counseling centers, we are seeing 12 to 15 women and of those, probably eight or nine are seriously considering or planning an abortion. [We have the] ability to see these women face to face, show them videotapes, give printed material, show them pictures of both beautiful developing babies and aborted babies. [We are given] a privilege and a special opportunity to tenderly deal with them, offer Christ's love and [help] them to choose life.
Luisa, pictured with baby Sean, turned to a shelter operated by lay Catholic women after she was abandoned by her parents and boyfriend and pressured to have an abortion.Their support enabled her to keep the baby and earn her college degree.
The success rate of the counselors in this center is very impressive.
Yes. It's because many people have an ugly view of the pro-life movement. We don't position our- selves as pro-lifers, we don't put crosses on our doors, we don't have Christian posters on our walls; we keep a secular atmosphere. But in the private, one-to-one conversations, we talk about hope, the hope in Jesus Christ. We talk about the help that we can specifically arrange, and how free prenatal care can be available to them and help to solve some of their personal family problems. We've done all kinds of creative things to help save babies' lives …
We once hired, at a cost of $10,000, a full-time attendant for a mother who had a very severe bad back, and who had a handicapped child who had to be taken care of. This woman couldn't take care of her handicapped child. During the pregnancy, we helped her with the child so that she could have her next baby.
We hired a Russian couple who are artists and who were considering an abortion. We offered them employment in Christian art, if they would release the baby for adoption.
After a person has come to the center, do you continue to follow up with the family and any problems they may have had?
Some are quite content after an educational session to go their merry way and solve their own problems through their husbands, boyfriends and families. Not everyone wants follow-up help, but those that do, we make every effort to give it to them. We stay in touch, especially at holidays. We [give] 150 frozen turkeys with all the fixings for dinner and tons of gifts.
For the moms and their kids, we have a Christmas party. It's an effort to put all these things together. It costs us a lot. We don't get any city or state or federal funding. We raise all the money from donations — Catholics, primarily, and [other] Christians.
We've been blessed to do this work and we want to expand it. We think it's the best way to save children. We need more prayers, to pray specifically for expectant-mother care in New York City. Please pray so that we will get the graces to win the souls, convert them to the truth and love of Jesus Christ.
How can people get in touch with you, Chris?
They can call us on a toll free number that we have: (888) PROMOMS.
Rich Rinaldi is director of Register Radio News.
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: -------- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 8/15/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 15-21, 1999 ----- BODY:Did You Know?
The most common response to the epidemic of veneral disease and unwed pregnancy has been more education about hygiene and condoms. In Britain, this approach has failed miserably ó causing civil authorities to reconsider the school systemís approach. Human Life International cited these statistics in a July letter:
• BBC reported in a recent documentary called ìPanoramaî that reports of gonorrhea among 16-19 year olds rose 46% in 1995-97. Cases of chlamydia rose 56%
• At the same time, according to research by the Health and Education Authority, only 33% of young people have heard of syphilis, 39% of gonorrhea, 51% of herpes and 14% of chlamydia.
----- EXCERPT: ------- EXTENDED BODY: -------- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: TV Advertisers Ante Up To Fund Cleaner Scripts DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:BURBANK, Calif.-Eleven major TV advertisers have announced a plan to pay the WB Television network to produce more family-friendly programs.
Some industry observers aren't satisfied with the move, saying the advertisers who are pushing for good shows aren't also pulling out of the bad ones, in effect treating decency like a commodity.
But other observers say that's not such a bad thing.
“It affirms the moral potential of the market,” said Father Robert Sirico, president of the Acton Institute, a think tank in Grand Rapids, Mich., that promotes and defends free-market economic principles. “We live in a market economy and people who are operative in that economy can promote values that are positive. … [This shows that] we don't have to resort to bureaucrats or politics to do good for the society.”
Critics agree with Father Sirico that paying for good shows is a step in the right direction. What they're not so sure about are the advertisers' motives. They say advertisers aren't as interested in improving television's content as they are in making money.
One of these critics is Janet Parshall of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. “One disappointing aspect of the advertisers' effort is that decency is treated merely as another market niche,” she said in a statement issued to the Register. To bolster her point, Parshall quoted a senior vice president of the Association of National Advertisers who lamented, “Many of these (advertisers) plan to continue to advertise in edgy programming … because that's appropriate for a brand.”
But Brent Bozell, director of the Media Research Center, also in Washington, thinks it's unfair to assume that advertisers are hiding their hand on this one.
“You have to be somewhat sympathetic toward sponsors,” Bozell said. He said that historically there has been a mind-set in Hollywood that sponsors wanted the racier material to bring in young viewers, but the fact is “they [the sponsors] don't like the stuff.” Bozell added that “often times advertisers simply don't know what kinds of shows they're advertising on. They just look at the numbers.”
Coming Together
The latest chapter in the TV-and-advertisers saga started last spring, when advertisers and producers got together for their annual meeting to talk about commitments for the upcoming television season.
This year, Robert Wehling, Procter & Gamble's global marketing officer, decided it was time to say something about the deterioration of TV in recent years. So, in a meeting with WB Network Chief Executive Jamie Kellner, Wehling raised the issue. Kellner told Wehling to put his money where his mouth is, and Wehling agreed.
Wehling got together with executives from eleven other corporations, including AT&T, General Motors, Procter & Gamble, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and six others to come up with a strategy. Calling themselves the Forum for Family Friendly Programming, the advertisers decided they'd put up about $1 million among them to pay the WB Network to hire writers of family-friendly shows.
“This will allow us to increase by at least double the amount of scripts in the family-friendly area to look at,” said Brad Tyrell, WB's executive vice president for community relations. Tyrell said that left to its own devices, WB would look at a variety of scripts, without any particular incentive other than quality for signing family-friendly shows, but that this gives them added incentive.
“At the end of the day, our decision to run a particular show is formed on the basis of quality,” Kellner said, explaining that commissioning more family-friendly scripts increases the chances by 100% or 200% that this kind of program will make the cut. The new family-oriented scripts could be made into shows by the fall of 2000.
“The advertisers are giving us economic incentive and now we have to put something of quality on the air to reap their promise of support,” Tyrell said.
As for whether the advertisers were more concerned about making a good investment than bettering television, Father Sirico said this question presents a false dichotomy.
“Would we condemn a baker who produced quality bread at lower costs if we thought his motives were evil — he may be evil, but if the social effect is good, why be hostile?” Father Sirico. “Outside of the confessional it's impossible to determine the conscience of someone.”
“It's interesting that advertisers are initiating this,” Father Sirico added. “It's my hunch that the culture of Hollywood is very different from that of your average advertiser. I think the image of advertisers sitting around with their family at night and being offended by what's on television is an apt one.”
One official at Procter & Gamble confirmed Father Sirico's view.
“We saw a need for more choices for families and advertisers,” said Gretchen Briscoe, a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble.
“Based on our content guidelines, it was becoming more and more difficult to advertise on prime-time shows. There was excessive violence, gratuitous sex, drugs, and use of alcohol on most shows.” Prime time is 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
She added that the project was motivated “by the fact that we need to be responsible advertisers. We need to support shows our consumers feel comfortable with.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: End of World 'Prophecies' Shake Latin American Believers DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:GUADALAJARA, Mexico-The early morning hours of the first Sunday of August found Monsignor Oscar Riquelme, rector of the Paraguayan National Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Caacupe, awaiting another normal Sunday.
But that morning, Msgr. Riquelme noticed something strange for this time of the year: an enormous throng of people drawing water from a spring near the shrine. He approached the crowd and began to inquire about the unusual level of activity.
It turned out the pilgrims believed that water from springs close to Marian shrines would be an effective way to ward off attacks of the devil during the “days of darkness” that would precede the end of the world. One by one, each of the unexpected visitors that morning related how a photocopy had appeared under the door, or a phone call had come from a friend or relative, or a conversation had been overheard in the street.
It seemed many of the visitors were not fully convinced in the reliability of the information. The younger ones were particularly skeptical, but even they preferred to return home with some water por si acaso (just in case).
Had he contacted other Church authorities in Latin America, Monsignor Riquelme would have found that the idea of the end of the world was not only haunting modest Paraguayan pilgrims, but also Catholics from all different social sectors in the region.
In fact, popular Catholic web pages in the region, like that maintained by the Catholic news agency Aci-Prensa, have been flooded by requests for a confirmation or refutation of “the revelation of the third secret of Fatima.”
No one seems to know how or when the rumor of the alleged revelation started, but one thing for sure is that it is now all over the region.
The rumor has it that the end of the world will come prior to the turn of the millennium (in other words, before the end of this year), and following several days of darkness. In those days, Catholics must stay at home, fasting and praying, blessing doors with holy water-preferably from a Marian shrine-and keeping doors shut to any visitor, because “the visitor will be the Devil.”
The paradox is that most Internet users in Latin America come from the more affluent, and thus most literate, social sectors. It would appear that increasing computer literacy can just as easily spread rumors as defuse them.
Marian Shrines and other spiritual centers have been the most evident barometers of this phenomenon. The Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, the Shrine of Saint Rose in Lima, Peru, and the Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Urkupina in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba are some of the places that have recently seen a significant number of pilgrims preparing for the end of the world.
During a recent homily in Mexico, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera reminded Catholics that “the Lord has clearly said that we will not know the day or the hour [of his return], so we have to stay awake” in our faith always.
The Cardinal also reproved those who, “moved by a sick spirit or dark interests, are generating confusion by spreading rumors” that have never been substantiated by Church authorities.
He was referring in particular to widespread speculation around the “third secret of Fatima,” which has been known to the popes since John XXIII, but has never been disclosed. (The three secrets of Fatima were revealed by an apparition of the Blessed Mother to three children in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917; the first involved a vision of hell and the second an exhortation to devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.)
Rivera also chided Catholics who are “more willing to believe in inconsistent rumors than in the word of God and the teachings of the Church. We all have to work hard to achieve a truly Christian life-not because the end of the world is near, but because it is our vocation and mission.”
In Urkupina, during the recent feast days, fear of the world's end moved a substantial number of pilgrims to look for religious objects that would allegedly protect them against the devil. Enterprising vendors took advantage of the collective hysteria around the shrine by selling overpriced products.
Thus, during Mass on August 15, Archbishop Tito Solari of Cochabamba strongly rebuked those who circulate bogus prophesies. “Many false prophets said that the recent eclipse would be the end of the world, and all we had was a beautiful phenomenon to enjoy,” he said. “Likewise, today we have other prophets of doom announcing the end of the world … Those prophets are either ill-intentioned or mentallyill. Don't pay attention to their words.”
In Caacupe, Monsignor Riquelme said that believing in rumors that are both irrational and inconsistent with Church teaching is not an example of faith, but of credulity. “We Catholics believe in Jesus Christ, and believe that a moral, true Christian life is the only security we have in front of the possibility of our death,” he added.
Complicating matters in many areas is the fact that gloomy predictions of an approaching doomsday are not limited to Catholic spheres. Indeed, many fundamentalist organizations have been disseminating an elaborate rumor that involves the Pope.
The rumor says that, in the year 2000, an alliance will form between the Vatican and Arab millionaires. At that time, according to the rumor, all the currency of the world will be standardized under one single monetary unit, which will be printed with the number 666 (a reference based on a spurious reading of Revelation 13:18).
Fundamentalist communities are especially vulnerable to such rumors because their organizations discourage contact with non-members for any reason other than proselytizing the “unsaved.”
The fundamentalist rumor has it that any goods purchased or sold after 2000 will have to be branded with the number 666, and all homes in the world will have to bear a picture of the Pope; failure to comply will allegedly land the guilty parties in jail.
Observers in Andean countries have been surprised at both the outlandish content of the “prophecy” and the receptivity it has found. “Fundamentalists seem eager to believe any anti-Catholic prophecy, no matter how bizarre,” says Father Julian Barba, from the diocese of Huaraz in the Peruvian Andes.
Moreover, unlike Catholic rumors, which tend to be harmless, “these evangelical prophecies help create a hostile atmosphere that generates religious tensions,” adds Father Barba.
Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iñiguez, the outspoken Archbishop of Guadalajara, Mexico, says millennialism is a psychological and sociological phenomenon that goes beyond races, religions and social classes. “If the Catholic Church makes a formal public statement on all these prophesies, it would only help to give them more relevance and momentum,” he said at a recent press conference. “As always, time will show people how absurd [such rumors] were.”
“Of course,” he concluded, “if some Catholics want to go into their room, pray and fast for a few days, that's fine with me.”
Alejandro Bermudez writes from Lima, Peru.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Bermudez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Artist Uses 21 Panels To Paint Two Millennia DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:LEXINGTON, Ky.-Amid a myriad of Jubilee Year preparations, one Catholic artist has created a traveling art exhibit which powerfully captures 2,000 years of Christian history.
The 21-panel exhibit was created with rich oils on canvas, each panel vividly portraying the Catholic highlights of each century. The collection of paintings, currently on display in this city in the Kentucky Bluegrass, took three years to complete. The result is a stunning time line that weaves together the drama and significance of each major Christian influence since the world first changed its calendar to reflect Christ's birth. Each panel is slated to be reproduced, allowing the paintings to be viewed by hundreds of thousands in parishes, schools and colleges across the country.
Artist Gloria Thomas, 52, of Lexington, said she felt compelled to produce a work that would give visual personification to the past 2,000 years. Her work spans the birth of Christ and the early martyrs, through Constantine's conversion, the Iconoclastic and Albigensian heresies, the founding of the Benedictines and the mendicant orders, the Middle Ages, the Crusades, Scholasticism, the Renaissance, and into the 20th century, with its martyrs and saints, such as St. Elizabeth Seton, Blessed Junípero Serra, St. Maximilian Kolbe and others. Included in the panels are many influential figures such as St. Bernard, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Sts. Francis and Dominic, Joan of Arc, as well as kings and popes throughout the ages.
Accompanying the exhibit is a brief overview of each century, written by historian Warren Carroll, founder of Christendom College and current chairman of its history department. The complete traveling exhibit also has brochures and an audiotape “tour” given by Thomas.
“The story of the Church is a real story,” said Thomas, a well-read convert to the faith.
“It's a remarkable story when you consider the vicissitudes of history. … At no time did an angel come down and reinstitute Christianity; it's always been handed down through men.”
“We're not just grateful for Christ becoming a man for us,” she continued, “but for all those who have handed down the faith and for all the accumulation around it — works of charity, universities, religious orders and so forth.
We just appear on the scene [of history] and become heirs to all of this. I wanted to make people aware of that.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Karen Walker ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Seeing God In the Stars? DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:For 21 years, Jesuit Father George V. Coyne has been watching the miracle of creation from one of the most prestigious vantage points on earth — the Vatican Observatory near Rome.
The 66-year-old priest, the first American to hold the observatory director-ship, said his faith continues to be enriched by the experience.
“Just in the last five years,” Father Coyne said, “the scientific knowledge of the universe that has been accumulated certainly has changed people's religious view of God and his connection with the universe.” He said that we now have “a much more mature view of the universe and God's role in it.”
Some scientific and theological experts say that little or no attention is being paid to the religious implications of recent discoveries in astronomy. However, others claim that many people have moved closer to a personal conviction that some omnipotent force must have masterminded the universe in all its complexity.
Father Coyne, who in his pre-ordination days passed all the tests to qualify for the U.S. space program except the one for vision, took over as head of the Vatican Observatory shortly after Pope John Paul II's election in 1978. Since then, he has been directing operations at the observatory in Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence 15 miles southeast of Rome.
He also spends about half of his time heading the Vatican Observatory Research Group at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
A Growth Factor
Father Coyne denied the claim that God had nothing to do with creation and that everything had come about by chance or necessity.
“God made a universe that would have within it a kind of creativity — a growth factor for growing up,” he said. God made the universe knowing that it would be inhabited by human beings, “the most eloquent image and likeness of God,” he added.
Father Coyne noted, however, that scientific discoveries do not support the idea that God predetermines the universe. “What now is coming to the fore through science is the notion that God made the universe to operate in the same way that parents deal with children.” He said that God gave humans freedom to make decisions like parents give freedom to their older children. At a certain age they need “to develop their own personalities.”
Father Coyne said that if he had not been raised as a Catholic, he would not necessarily have discovered religion through his scientific work.
“Neither would these discoveries have led me away from discovering God, but I don't think they would lead me to him,” he acknowledged. “I would have to say that I do have the faith and I love what science is doing because it is enriching my faith. But science doesn't give faith to me.”
A Rabbi's View
Others also believe that science today is enriching people's faith.
“I think the knowledge breakthroughs have brought some people into temples and churches,” said Rabbi Rafael Grossman.
Rabbi Grossman is based at the Baron Hirsch Synagogue in Memphis, Tenn.
The rabbi reflected on the 1930s when he said science and religion were at each other's throats over supposedly contradictory findings.
“Now, I find more and more people who are scientifically involved, are coming closer to God because the more they see and hear scientifically, the more they feel a need to express themselves religiously,” he explained.
“The more you see of God's wonders,” the rabbi said, “the more you must realize that only God could have created the world.”
Professor Lawrence Fagg, a retired physics teacher from The Catholic University in Washington, D.C., said that it “seems to me that there is a God who provided this universe as it is with all its wonders.” Fagg, who described himself as “my own brand of Episcopalian,” said he hoped that developments in the understanding of the electromagnetic interaction in the universe would provide “a fascinating parallel” to our vision of God's presence everywhere in his creation.
Developments in astronomy also lead to questions about the existence of life elsewhere in the universe. Michael J. Crowe, of the University of Notre Dame, said that the debate over extraterrestrial beings goes as far back as 1750. Crowe, who has written extensively on the debate, said the Catholic Church has remained open on the question.
“I do not think the Catholic Church has committed itself to any particular positions on such life,” he said. “There is an awful lot that we don't know about creation, and until we know more, we don't have to take a position.”
“It is enough for us to know that God did create it all,” he said.
Father Ernan McMullin, a retired professor of philosophy at Notre Dame, said, “The average adult out there doesn't care a whit” about discoveries in science.
“But children sure are interested in space developments. However, they soon lose that kind of wonder when they grow older and start just taking things for granted.”
“But the average guy sitting in a pub somewhere having an ale, couldn't care less,” he insisted. “Yet when it comes to technology and a new type computer and the rest — as opposed to science — that's a different story.”
Robert Holton writes from Memphis, Tennessee.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert Holton ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 10,000 Orphans Call Him 'Father' DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:It began just months after his 1954 ordination in Cuernavaca, Mexico, when a 16-year-old burglarized him. The priest asked the judge if he could care for the boy instead of sending him to jail. The judge gave him eight other street children as well. Since then, the one-time Arizona resident has been priest and “father” to more than 10,000 children in six different countries. He spoke recently with Register correspondent Barb Ernster.
Barb Ernster: There are a lot of kids that come to you that are filled with bitterness and hatred. How do you begin to tear down those walls?
Father Wasson: Little by little. For instance, we just got started in El Salvador. We're getting our children from a compound that's in the city of San Salvador. They must have about 2,400 street children, all boys, between the ages of 3 on up to late teens. When they come, they're filled with aggression and they don't trust anyone. So they have daily training to try and overcome their fear of one another.
Does the aggression and fear come from the poverty or from bad homes?
It comes from the bonding with violence which they learn on the streets. They're on the streets because they are orphaned or abandoned.
Is it easier to help the children if you get them when they're little?
Oh yes. That's a formative age; that's when they become bonded with their heart. Sometimes because of their lack of bonding, or bad bonding, they become psychopathic or sociopathic. They are able to learn, but they're not able to feel. They're not able to bond with anything, really, because they think that everything has an angle and everybody they approach wants something.
So they just go along. From time to time, there are children who have a mother who doesn't want them at all because she's in business on the streets. They'll go back with her for a while till finally she says, ‘I don't want you at all.’ So they'll come back, but they can't understand why their mother doesn't want them or why their grandmothers can't take care of them. With the man in the family, there's usually a type of machismo and he isn't prepared for children. Maybe he's 16 at the time that he has children.
You have five principles that you work with: You offer the children security and love, and then have them, in turn, learn to share, work and be responsible with each other. Did you come up with these principles?
Oh, yes, they've been with us since the beginning. Like all things, it's the way people grasp that idea and carry it forth that makes the difference.
Suicide among teen-agers in the United States is becoming a leading killer, and yet you have never experienced that with your kids. Why is that?
I think it's because we're constantly living for the future, rather than concentrating on their past. We give them constant hope. My own belief is that with suicide, there's usually a great deal of narcissism, a great deal of self-concern and self-despair involved. We're constantly reminding our children that they have nothing to despair over and that they can get caught up in a new embrace and carry forth their lives with hope and joy. [Suicide] is possible, of course, but the positive side of their lives is what carries them along.
We never allow any kind of violence in our bonding with the children, no violence in any thought, word or deed. It is something we constantly meditate on and encourage with our staff, and it is very difficult to achieve. Many people think that the only way you can control children is by the threat of violence. That's a negative thing of course, and we try to eliminate that from our approach and way of dealing with the children. And then there is the positive side, we encourage all of our staff to imagine themselves as a good shepherd. That's something almost anybody can handle.
What would you say to parents in the United States whose children are surrounded by violence?
I would say to try on a daily basis to eliminate all violence in their lives and not feel guilty. In place of that violence, do frequent talks with their children about right and wrong. I would encourage them to feel the difference, rather than just to know the difference (between right and wrong), because unless you can touch the heart of a child with these concepts, they don't really accept them. They do mentally, but not with their heart.
They also must realize that money has nothing to do with the education and helping [of] a child. It may pay bills, yes, and schooling, but even the very poorest of the poor, as parents, can try to be good shepherds. It's a matter of having or being. You can have many things, but if you are a good person, whomever you come in contact with will be a little better.
In the United States, there is a great deal of work to be done, and there is a great deal of work to be done with children. But in the United States, it is difficult for this reason: It has become so wealthy that everybody believes that the problems of children can be solved by money. Throw up a building, pay high salaries — you buy everything you think a child should need without getting involved yourself. Of course that usually ends up very badly. Achieving something is an obstacle course and those who overcome the obstacle course are the ones who are going to win.
In America, many people have an expectation that the government should take care of all the poverty, homelessness, teen pregnancy, etc., through social programs. What do you say of that opinion?
I think the government should be forced to use the tax money on worthy things. But I think that to insist the government should take care of all the things that a parent should really be concerned with, such as counseling their children and helping them in any way, is another matter. The government should provide the wherewithal to education, employment and all these different things, but you can go too far by insisting that the government provide the psychologists to give advice on every subject. It's the parent's job to take care of a lot of that.
On a global scale, children are often devalued as “population growth,” rather than cherished as a gift from God. Are there ever too many children, in your opinion?
No. But I wouldn't encourage people to have children who really don't want to have them. That is playing with unwanted children, abused children and abortion. I certainly believe that everybody should have children, but because they want to, not because they're careless or don't care.
What has been your greatest challenge?
I used to be very concerned with getting the wherewithal to continue the work. Last week we celebrated our 45th anniversary of our first child. By the way, he's already 62 years old. Over the last 45 years there were times I was worried about how we were going to keep going. But I found that if we just did our very best to help each child, in some way, help comes.
What has driven you to do what you do for these children? Do you identify with them?
I've been greatly influenced lately by people like Mohandas Gandhi and his constant concern with the great harm that violence brings about. That's treated in the Sermon on the Mount by Matthew. The Christian is not allowed violence in any way. And then the whole concept of the good shepherd, of being concerned constantly, and being able to follow that concept in your own life, your own family and in an extended family. You can't force those concepts on people; they have to understand them and then be willing in their heart to follow through.
At the foundation of all this action, you must have a strong faith and prayer life.
Short prayers, anyway. My favorite prayer is the Lord's Prayer; that's my daily meditation. My favorite guide is the Sermon on the Mount, and the Last Judgment.
Do you try to influence the children in the Catholic faith?
Oh, yes. They have to have a guide. We've had several children who are Jews and I've never tried to force them to be Christian. Later they did become [Christian], but not through force. I don't think it's good to force anyone to change their bonding. We've had some children who have been non-Catholic Christians, and almost always they become Catholic later. But I never felt that I should force that. Why? Because every Christian is bonded to our Lord in certain ways through baptism, and I feel that that's something very sacred. About 99% of them have been baptized Catholic.
How did you feel called to be a priest?
When I was 6 years old I decided [to be a priest], but for all the wrong reasons, of course. I thought it was lovely. I was an altar boy when I was 6, in a Franciscan parish. And they always wore sandals when they said Mass and I noticed they would wiggle their toes. We didn't wear sandals in those days. Only Franciscans wore sandals and could wiggle their toes, so I thought that would be great. Of course, the concept grew and that's how things sometimes happen.
So that must have been a great disappointment when you were told in the United States that you would-n't be ordained because of your health.
Yes. I had a thyroidectomy and then I went down to Mexico. One thing led to another and when the doctor there said that I would be able to live long enough, the bishop of Cuernavaca ordained me.
Did you feel called to start the orphanage there, or did it just happen?
No, I always felt that I wanted to do this. I didn't have the same idea at the beginning as I did later on. When I first began, I wanted to take a maximum of 12 children in honor of the Twelve Apostles. Then later on I thought, well, maybe the 72 disciples. Then it kept growing and now there have been between 10,000 and 15,000 children we've taken in six different countries.
Whatever happened to that first boy that you took in?
He's married and has three children. He is a landscape director and is living in Arizona and doing very well. His name is Gunter, and his parents had migrated from Bavaria to Bolivia. His father was a math teacher in Bolivia and was killed in an automobile accident. His mother immediately married a German from a German colony, and he took them to Cuernavaca, Mexico. He was an alcoholic and would come home and beat up his wife and beat up the boy, so that's where the hatred began. The mother took the side of her second husband, and the boy was on the street. That's when he broke into the church and stole.
Did you ever look at him and wonder what on earth you started?
I blame him for it.
Father Wasson
Father Wasson, who was raised in Arizona, has received numerous awards throughout the years, including Mexico's Honor of the Aztec Eagle, in 1991.
Mother Teresa called him a “man of God” and treasure of men.
Father Wasson said many of the children he's helped go on to lead productive lives in education, medicine, law, construction, farming and other careers.
Today, Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (Our Little Brothers and Sisters) orphan homes are in Mexico, Honduras, Haiti, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador (www.nphamigos.org).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father William Wasson ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Felon Paints Image of Our Lady from Prison DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON, N.J.-A convicted murderer who embraced the Catholic Faith in prison after a life of crime has painted a large image of Our Lady of Fatima from his jail cell in Louisiana.
Charles Gervais, a lifer in Dixon Prison in Louisiana, told Sister Mary Francis, A.M.I., that he felt inspired to paint the image after hearing her speak on the message of Fatima to 50 inmates at the Louisiana prison.
Gervais worked day and night and prayed the rosary while painting the image over a period of months, according to reports from the World Apostolate of Fatima, a Washington N.J.-based organization which will house the painting for two months at its shrine.
After completing the work, a 6-foot-6-inch by 4-foot-6-inch oil on canvas painting which depicts a radiant Mary, hands folded, appearing before three children who are kneeling before her in prayer, Gervais started a Bible study and is trying to get at least three hours a week of adoration in the prison.
Gervais sat for an interview the day his painting was unveiled, recounting a life of crime which began after he ran away from home at the age of 12. He was cared for by prostitutes, then became involved in the occult. Starting his own cult at one point, he and his followers murdered a boy, the crime for which Gervais was sentenced to life in prison.
While in jail, Gervais said he experimented with various religions but kept being drawn back to Catholicism. He received the Sacrament of Confirmation in prison and painted a portrait of Baton Rouge Bishop Alfred Hughes for the occasion.
Gervais's son, Charles, 15, unveiled the painting of Our Lady of Fatima in a ceremony at the Shrine of the World Apostolate of Fatima in New Jersey.
Sister Mary Francis, who has been active in prison ministry for four years, was moved to tears on the day the painting was unveiled. She said she is deeply touched by the renewed piety she has witnessed in Gervais.
The Blessed Virgin appeared to three shepherd children six times from May 13 to Oct. 13, 1917. On October 19, 1917, Mary announced to the children that she was “Our Lady of the Rosary,” and called on people to reform their lives.
Pope John Paul II said that “conversion and penance” are the center of the Fatima message and the Gospel. He credited Our Lady of Fatima with his own survival of an attempted murder in a May 19, 1982 angelus message.
“I felt called [to visit Fatima] in a particular way as a result of the attempt on my life on the 13th of May last year.
“I have said many times already that it is only to the mercy of God and the special protection of the Mother of Christ that I owe the saving of my life and the possibility of further service to the See of Peter,” he said, stressing the need for reconciliation.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: U.S. Notes & Quotes DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:Lawn Shrines Express Cajun Love for Mary
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, Aug. 13-In a colorful exposition of Cajun Catholic life in South Louisiana, reporter Ken Wells featured a lawn ornament business to illustrate the region's devotion to the Blessed Mother.
In a story headlined “At D&D Ornamental, the Real Madonna is the Star of the Lot,” Wells tells the story of Michael DuBois and his growing business and his inventory of both religious and secular outdoor statuary.
Statues of Mary, however, have been responsible for 70% of his business, ever since DuBois, 40, established his company in 1985.
“To understand why this is a business at all, drive along any of the scenic byways of South Louisiana's Cajun belt. In many towns in this French-influenced, heavily Catholic region, every third or fourth house will have a lawn shrine — typically a small statue of Mary,” said Wells.
“We don't worship the Blessed Mother,” said Zam Tregle, a Cajun entrepreneur and one of DuBois's customers. “But we do venerate her.”
Msgr. Joseph Latino, pastor of St. Francis De Sales Cathedral in Houma, said Cajun Catholics display their religiosity with lawn shrines about as naturally as Midwesterners demonstrate their patriotism by flying a flag from the front porch. “These shrines are often put up in the belief that a favor has been granted,” he told the Journal.
“Folklorists say some of the first lawn shrines began appearing in South Louisiana after the Battle of New Orleans in 1815,” said Wells. With the city under siege by a larger British force, Andrew Jackson reportedly visited a convent of Ursuline nuns and asked them to pray to Mary for help. Concluded Wells: “The nuns said their prayers, Jackson's forces quickly routed the British, and shrines went up everywhere [in gratitude] to Our Lady of Prompt Succor.”
Misunderstood Artist or Anti-Catholic Bigot?
MILWAUKEE SENTINEL JOURNAL, Aug. 13-Artist Robert Kox “was dumbfounded when told about allegations” of anti-Catholic bigotry stemming from his “To Hell and Back” exhibit of paintings and sculptures, according to a story by reporter Tom Heinen in the Milwaukee daily. “He wondered if [Catholic] League officials read the explanations that accompany his works.”
Heinen continued: “In many cases, the artwork draws upon biblical warnings and represents Satan disguised as Mary or Jesus. In some others, it warns against worship of Mary as an idol.”
“They've just got things totally turned around,” Kox told the reporter.
It's difficult to square the brief explanation of Kox's purposes with the contents of the exhibit, which Heinen listed as including:
— “The Virgin Mary depicted as the “Great Harlot.” Christ labeled the ‘Son of Perdition.’
— “Christ wearing a necklace with the satanic symbol “666.”
— “A headless statue of Mary with “black filth” running out of her Immaculate Heart.
— “What the [Catholic League] calls blasphemous misuse of rosary beads, medals, crucifixes, scapulars and votive candles.”
The museum featuring the exhibit, Neville Public Museum in Green Bay, Wis., is operated by Brown County, which pays for maintenance and operation. “But all exhibit costs are paid for with funds raised by the nonprofit board, which also approves exhibits,” said Heinen.
“Representatives of the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay have seen the exhibit,” added Heinen, “but Bishop Robert J. Banks declines to comment and recommends that people with complaints contact the museum.”
Bishop Explains Vatican Ban on New Ways Founders
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, Aug. 14-In an interview with Utah's statewide newspaper, Salt Lake City Bishop George H. Niederauer explained that the Vatican's termination of a long-running, controversial ministry to homosexuals is not rejection by the Church of its members with same-sex attractions.
Rather, the decision to end the ministry of Father Robert Nugent and Sister Jeannine Gramick was finally forced by the pair's dissent from Church teaching, specifically the teaching that homosexual acts are immoral.
“It was not a condemnation of their general sensitivity toward and compassion [for] people struggling with their sexuality,” Bishop Niederauer told reporter Bob Mims. “The Church has always made a distinction between homosexual orientation and homosexual acts.”
“The Church recognizes [sexuality's] goodness and value in all human lives, but this power is to be used only in the context of a stable relationship between a man and a woman,” he added.
Bishop Niederauer, ordinary of the 100,000-member diocese that includes all of Utah, said “loving the sinner but hating the sin” is not a self-righteous cliché, but a rule of thumb for all Christians to follow.
“The Church needs to continue to be a loving companion and guide to people as they struggle with all the ideals of the Christian life,” he said. Still, Christian love does not mean “indiscriminate acceptance” of all behaviors, he said. “That's not true of parents of children or the Church. Parents are not being unloving when they say you shouldn't do this or do that,” the bishop said.
----- EXCERPT: From selected sources ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Hate Killers Rely on Religious Distortions DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:Buford O'Neal Furrow follows in the footsteps of other criminals who claimed that they were doing the will of God. Charles Manson, Colin Ferguson, Timothy McVeigh, and others use religion to justify their hate. On the international scene Osama bin Laden, who has been linked to the World Trade Center bombing in New York, claims to do the will of Allah.
Brian Levin, Professor of Criminal Justice at California State University, San Bernardino, and Head of the Center on Hate and Extremism, explains that our most violent domestic terrorists use a contortion of Christianity to provide a biblical justification for violence.
Professor Levin discussed hate crimes with Register Radio News correspondent Rich Rinaldi.
Rinaldi: Can you name some currently active hate groups?
Levin: There is a group called Christian Identity that has an interesting history. It is now the racist religion of white supremacy trying to clothe itself in the trappings of mainstream conservative Protestant fundamentalism. There are two competing forms. The traditional form says that Jews are the spawn of Satan and that blacks are subhuman mud people. However, there is a “kinder, gentler” form of Christian Identity which says merely that Jews are evil and that blacks should be treated like farm animals, but not necessarily violently. It was the more violent form of Christian Identity that influenced Timothy McVeigh and other terrorist groups in the 1980s. Apparently this is also the form that influenced the latest white supremacist murderer, Buford O'Neal Furrow.
Was Buford O'Neal Furrow from the Aryan Nation?
He spent some time with the Aryan Nation — some intelligence indicates as early as 1989. When I was with Klan Watch in 1995 we tracked Furrow. He was a lieutenant in the security force of the Aryan Nation, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ Christian, whose head is the self-proclaimed pastor Richard Butler. It was Butler who performed the Christian Identity marriage ceremony of Buford O'Neal Furrow to the widow of white supremacist Robert Matthews. Matthews lead the robbery of an armored car in California in 1980. He assassinated radio talk show host Allen Berg in Denver. Matthews himself was killed in a gun battle with the FBI in Washington State in 1984.
Christian Identity believes in an apocalyptic battle in which whites will take over the nation and the world. They look to the year 2000. Pastor Butler is now the head of the Aryan Nation which connects it to the Christian Identity movement.
Christian Identity is using Old Testament scripture. I believe it's the Phinehas priesthood. What can you tell us about that?
Another especially anti-Semitic Christian Identity leader is Richard Kelly Hodgkins from Virginia. In his book Vigilantes of Christendom, Hodgkins sets out the story of the Phinehas priesthood, a group of renegade terrorists who go about doing God's work by committing hate crimes and murders against Jews and other minorities.
Another of Hodgkins's books, entitled War Cycles Peace Cycles, was found in the van … used by Buford Furrow in the shootings at the Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles.
Was that from the Book of Numbers in the Old Testament?
Yes, Numbers 25, where Phinehas slew an interracial couple. Christian Identity looks at that as a heroic act, and for many in this movement Furrow will be a hero.
What is significant about how their end comes? Is martyrdom important?
Robert Matthews is considered a martyr in the white supremacist and Christian Identity movements. They call the day of his death in December “Martyr's Day.” Buford Furrow fanta-sized about shooting it out with the police or committing suicide when he was arrested in Washington state last year. He apparently keeps getting cold feet. I guess martyrdom isn't all that it's cracked up to be in the brochures.
What I think happened was that Furrow planned to hit other locations and then shoot it out with the police and die a hero. But then his target changed and when he got in the middle of it he probably realized that he was in over his head and didn't want to become a martyr. He is also psychologically unstable.
You mentioned that there are three different types of terrorists.
The first type is the ideologically motivated terrorist. This is the terrorist who has a religious or political basis for a terrorist act, and Furrow is one of these. He was clearly influenced by Christian Identity, but I don't think Furrow is as sophisticated as others in the movement. For example, Christian Identity leader Pastor Walter Thody bombed abortion clinics and robbed banks. So the first type of terrorist is the ideologue who is either religiously or politically based. In this case Furrow is a kind of mix of the two.
The second type of terrorist is the psychologically dangerous [person] who may not meet the clinical requirements for insanity under the law. What I'm talking about is someone who clearly has significant psychological problems which assist in their motivation. Colin Ferguson, the Long Island railroad killer who killed non-blacks, would be such an example.
The psychologically dangerous terrorist is not necessarily insane. Many who do commit these crimes have undergone some form of life stress. Timothy McVeigh's failure to make military special forces pushed him over the edge. Buford O'Neal Furrow had problems with relationships and jobs. Many of these people are loners.
Christian Identity and the more politically motivated Leaderless Resistance say that one person can make a difference. You can be a hero by just going out on your own. You know who the enemies are: Jews, blacks, immigrants, gays.
Go out and kill them. In this way movement leaders can encourage violence without having their fingerprints all over the crime scene.
The last on our list of terrorist types is the terrorist for personal reasons, benefit or revenge. Someone who blows up an airplane because his mother is on it, and benefits from her life insurance policy. Someone who commits arson against an IRS office because he has been audited.
You can actually have a combination of all three.
Rich Rinaldi is director of Register Radio News.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Notes & Quotes DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:Pope's Catechesis on Hell Irks Evangelicals
THE WASHINGTON POST, Aug. 17-Pope John Paul II's recent description of hell as a “state of mind” rather than a physical place “is turning into a serious theological sore point between Catholics and American Protestant evangelicals,” according to religion writer Hanna Rosin.
“The Pope was describing … what Catholics consider the core essence of hell: knowledge that you failed to choose salvation in God. But to Protestant fundamentalists in America, who prefer the physical burning pit described in the Bible, any suggestion that hell is simply an abstraction is a dangerous, even blasphemous notion,” said Rosin.
Evangelical leaders, Rosin said, accused the Pope of “soft selling hell,” as R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptists Theological Seminary in Louisville, put it.
“My concern here is the temptation to make hell a state of mind, to psychologize hell,” said Mohler. “As attractive as that may be to the modern mind, that is not the hell of the Bible. Jesus himself spoke of hell as a lake of fire, where the worms would not die and the fire would not be quenched. It's all very graphic.”
Rosin said artists, writers and theologians have tried to “mentally transport Christians to a miserable place called hell as a sure deterrent to sin. Early Christians tried to locate hell as a spot on the sun or a comet, but most used their imagination to keep alive the image of a Gothic torture chamber.”
Lately though, that image is fading, say evangelicals, as modern Americans focus less on the wages of sin and more on the uplifting message of self-help, reported Rosin.
She added that while “70% of Americans say they believe in heaven, only 50% believe in hell, and very few think they might be headed there.”
Rosin quoted John Paul extensively in the article but mischaracterized Catholic teaching this way: “The Pope's discourse reflected more his tendency toward philosophical abstraction than new Catholic ‘discovery.’ Catholic teaching does not deny that hell may be a geographical spot where God will banish sinners but considers that concept merely a visual aid based on scant biblical references.”
Papal ‘Crescendo’ Not Without Risks
KNIGHT RIDDER, Aug. 16- “Pope John Paul II, world traveler, has saved his most ambitious pilgrimage for the climax of his 21-year pontificate,” wrote the wire service's David Crumm in an analysis of the plan that he described “a series of walks through the chapters of the Bible.”
“His plan already is being praised by some as a brilliant spiritual symbol of hope and reconciliation — and is being criticized by others who say it could embarrass political leaders and inflame long-smoldering tensions among religious groups,” said Crumm.
“I have already received letters from both Jewish and Arab leadership in one way welcoming this trip, and in another way, they're concerned for the Holy Father,” said Detroit's Cardinal Adam Maida.
“He has made it clear that he regards the year 2000 and this pilgrimage as the crescendo of his papacy,” said Crumm, paraphrasing an adviser to the American Catholic bishops.
If the Pope fulfills his hope to visit Iraq, protocol would require a meeting with President Saddam Hussein, who is shunned by most of the international community. The Pope also plans to visit Jerusalem, a “flashpoint in Arab-Israeli relations for decades,” said Crumm.
The journalist points to the Pope's own words, contained in a June 29 letter announcing his plans, as proof of his determination to visit the troubled region: “Spiritually, I am already on this journey, since even to go just in thought to those places means in a way to read anew the Gospel itself.”
----- EXCERPT: From selected sources ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Holy Father Grieves and Prays For Turkish Earthquake Victims DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY-Pope John Paul II sent his condolences after an earthquake in Turkey killed thousands of people and injured thousands more.
An Aug. 17 telegram in the Pope's name and signed by the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, said the Holy Father was “deeply saddened by the news of the heavy loss of life and injury”'caused by the previous day's quake.
Cardinal Sodano said “the Holy Father is praying for those who died or were injured,” and that he is spiritually close to the families of the victims “at this time of tragic loss.”
The Pope “implores almighty God's gifts of courage and strength upon all who are grieving,” 'said the cardinal.
The earthquake in northwestern Turkey struck at 3 a.m. local time Aug. 17, rocking some of the country's biggest cities and collapsing buildings with occupants asleep inside.
At least 12,000 people were killed and 33,000 injured, the Anatolian news agency in Turkey reported Aug. 18. Hospitals were said to be overwhelmed.
Casualty reports were heaviest near the industrial city of Izmit, where an oil refinery burst into flame, about 55 miles east of Turkey's largest city of Istanbul.
Local authorities in the earthquake-hit areas appealed for rescue equipment, food and volunteers to dig out the victims.
Izmir, about 400 miles from the quake's epicenter, also felt the powerful first shock.
Archbishop Giuseppe Bernardini of Izmir told the Italian Catholic daily Avvenire that the situation in the earthquake-hit region was “desperate.”
“The television reports show frenzied [rescue] activity,”'the bishop said, “but the needs of the population are enormous.
“Who could ever count all those who have been made homeless?”
Archbishop Bernardini said many residents were worried about friends and relatives elsewhere, but were unable to reach the hardest-hit region by cellular phone or by phone lines.
Experts in the United States monitoring earthquakes worldwide placed the magnitude at 7.8 on the Richter Scale.
A 6.3 magnitude quake in southern Turkey in 1998 killed 144 people and injured more than 1,500.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Kidnap Ordeal Continues in Colombia DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:On May 30 rebels of the National Liberation Army stormed the church of LaMaria in Cali, Colombia, during Mass and kidnapped more than 150 people. The children captured were soon released, but about 40 adults are still being held in terrible conditions high in the thick jungle. Evening temperatures can drop below freezing and the hostages do not have blankets or warm clothing.
Demonstrations numbering up to a half million people have been held regularly in Colombian cities of Cali and Medellin calling for the release of the hostages. The bishop of Medellin excommunicated the kidnappers July 30, including their leader who is a fallen away priest who embraced a radical form of liberation theology.
Lisa Chrustic, whose father Roy Saykay is one of the hostages still being held, has mounted an internet campaign — at www.bring-them-home.org — to free him and the others. Regular reports that the hostages will be freed have turned out to be false, continually dashing the hopes of the families.
Register Radio News correspondent Jay Dunlap interviewed Chrustic from her home in New Jersey on Aug 13.
Jay Dunlap: How is your family coping with your father's ordeal?
Lisa Chrustic: Well I think at this point we almost expect to be disappointed. You sort of get used to that. But you can't help but be disappointed. You're waiting for every little bit of information that you think you're going to get.
So when it was announced that the last group of prisoners was going to be released, we didn't expect that my father would be [released], but we thought we might be able to get more information about the conditions that they're living in, how they're being treated, and if they're okay.
We also do know that the groups don't really see each other, so we wouldn't get personal information about my father; we would just be able to get general information about how they're being held and treated.
You did receive one note the rebels allowed your father to write. What was in that note and what do you know about the conditions he's in?
Initially he apologized for not being able to hug and kiss my stepmom goodbye when they were separated. So that was a little emotional. But he said under the circumstances he was fine.
He didn't say anything about his treatment. What he did say was a little bit vague. But he did say that it gets very cold at night. They don't have blankets and he was asking if there was any way my stepmom could arrange to bring things to the International Red Cross. He asked for shoes because they walk. Initially when they were taken they had to walk for days through the jungle to get to their location, and they are moved constantly. [Since] these people were taken from Church, they were dressed in nicer clothes, not as comfortable shoes. So he was asking for a pair of boots and blankets and a pair of sweat pants or sweatshirt. He also said that everyone would appreciate it if she could send some deodorant.
Have they been able to get supplies like that to the hostages?
Well, actually no. Initially when the Red Cross did go up the first time — and this was when that note came out — they were allowed to bring medical supplies and things that the National Liberation Army had personally requested. But the Red Cross did then request from the families things like toiletries.
Then my stepmother did bring over a pair of sneakers and a rain poncho, so that if it's raining he could stay dry. But we're not sure. We know for sure the toiletries and things never got up there. We think she did manage to get the sneakers there before he went up the first time. They were supposed to go up two times since then and bring supplies.
Each family packed a backpack and put in things like toothpaste and shampoo and combs, just basic things they can use to keep themselves clean, but those things were never taken up.
The National Liberation Army doesn't have a good relationship with the International Red Cross. From what I understand they don't let the woman who's in charge of the operation to bring things up, so they're not very cooperative with her. Since June 12 we have not received any more notes or letters and at this point we really don't know if he's still okay.
Has this been a test of faith for you and your family?
It really hasn't been a test of faith. It's definitely drawn us closer to God. I think people turn more to God in times of crisis and need, so that's pretty natural. So while I'm not an un-religious person I certainly think I'm spending a lot more time in prayer and reflection than I did before this happened.
Tell me about the web site you've put together and what kind of support you hope to draw from it.
The web site was put together to get the information about what happened out to more people. We were very disappointed early on that there was almost nothing in the news about what was happening in Colombia.
So it was very disappointing to us that we would call our representatives in the government and no one had any idea of what happened — especially the fact that there are American citizens being held. Our mission statement, so to speak, has been that we can't let these people be forgotten. The website is part of that.
The families in Cali are working very hard to keep the kidnapping in the news. They have set a big tent near the bullfight ring and they man it 24 hours a day.
They have computers and telephones and people come to show their support.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Kidnapping Condemned by Vatican DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY-Pope John Paul II condemned the Aug. 15 kidnapping of a Colombian bishop, and appealed for a lasting peace to end the “absurd violence”'in Colombia.
The Pope made his remarks at the end of his Aug. 18 general audience.
Speaking in a firm voice, the Holy Father said “the news of the kidnapping of Bishop Jose de Jesus Quintero of Tibu, in Colombia, carried out by armed groups on the day of the Assumption, takes us in thought and prayer to that beloved nation.”
Bishop Quintero was seized by armed rebels on his way home from a parish visit in the town of Tarra in northern Colombia. It is the second time in recent years that the bishop has been held against his will by rebels.
A diocesan statement said the kidnappers identified themselves as members of the Simon Bolivar Guerrilla Coordinator, an umbrella group under which Colombia's two main rebel armies conduct joint operations.
Father Vianey Sanchez, kidnapped along with the bishop, was released within hours to inform the vicar general of Tibu, Msgr. Nelson Rozo.
The Holy Father renewed his “urgent call, which up until now has not been heeded, for peace in Colombia.” He added: “Dozens of innocent persons are in the hands of the kidnappers. To all those who are victims of this absurd violence, I express my closeness and prayer so that they will be returned to their families right away.”
The Pope asked all those involved in the conflict “to respect the sacred right of human life, to continue the peace process and to ensure the application of humanitarian law.”
The Pope has publicly requested the release of all hostages in the country, including the faithful who were captured while attending Sunday Mass on May 30 in Cali's Church of La Maria. Several dozen of the original 150 hostages remain in the hands of the Army of National Liberation, a guerrilla group known by its Spanish acronym ELN.
Archbishop Isaias Duarte Cancino of Cali officially excommunicated the guerrillas for the kidnapping, which John Paul earlier referred to as a “sacrilege.”
The Colombian bishops' conference also demanded the release of the bishop and of all victims of kidnapping in Colombia.
In the statement, signed by the president of the Colombian bishops' conference, Archbishop Alberto Giraldo Jaramillo of Medellin, the bishops urged the rebels to show “respect for the person and life of Bishop Quintero”'and demanded his “immediate release.”
“We renew our rejection of violence, no matter which group originates it,”'they said.
“We also reject any form of deprivation of freedom, not only in the case of Bishop Quintero, but in the case of all persons in our country suffering the evil of kidnapping,”'said the bishops.
In 1997, Pope John Paul made an appeal for the release of Bishop Quintero who was freed unharmed after being held 15 days by the ELN.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Pope: Every Person Must Grapple With Evil DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY-Conversion comprises a return to God and liberation from evil, a process which each individual must actively undertake to be saved, Pope John Paul II said.
Included in his Aug. 18 general audience, the catechesis followed previous teachings on heaven, purgatory and hell, and the way to attain eternal happiness.
The Pope noted that the problem of evil is a focus of the final year of preparation for the Great Jubilee Year 2000, as he stipulated in his apostolic letter, Tertio Millennio Adveniente.
Because the Christian sees the “road to conversion as liberation from evil, it is a topic that profoundly touches our experience,” the Holy Father observed. In fact, “the whole of personal and communal history is, to a great extent, a struggle against evil.”
“While the struggle against evil is a significant part of the experience of personal and community life, we know that to overcome sin we must rely on the strength which God gives us in Christ,”'the Pope told pilgrims gathered in the Paul VI Audience Hall.
Scripture emphasizes that conversion means making a sincere return to God as well as being freed from sin, he noted.
“In this process,”'he added, “the sinner recognizes his sin and returns to God, placing his confidence in God's mercy and forgiveness.”
“As Christians, we believe that Jesus Christ has definitively conquered the evil one,”'Pope John Paul said. “However, each one of us must freely accept this victory by undertaking the commitment and continual vigilance which the struggle against sin requires.”
Linked to man's freedom, the Pope explained that sin emerges in the interior terrain where “man's conscience, will and sensibility are in contact with dark forces which, according to St. Paul, ‘act in the world until they dominate it.’ Sadly, human beings can become protagonists of perversity, that is, become an evil and perverse generation,”
He said immorality, which arises from evil, provokes suffering that can be alleviated only by overcoming sin.
“We are called to conversion,”'Pope John Paul said, “that is, to return sincerely to God and to free ourselves from evil; these are the two aspects of a single path.”
The Pope added, “only Jesus makes us conscious of evil.”
Pope John Paul pointed out that in St. Matthew's version of the Our Father, the faithful are meant to ask for deliverance “from the evil one” ‘- an “adjective form,”’ the Pope added, “which can indicate a personification of evil.”
“This is provoked in the world by the spiritual being, called the devil or Satan in biblical revelation, who deliberately opposes God,”'he continued.
“Human malignity caused by that which is demonic or which is provoked by its influence,”'the Pope said, is present “even in our time in an alluring form, seducing minds and hearts, in this way causing the loss of the sense of evil and of sin.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatical -------- TITLE: World Notes & Quotes DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:Cautious Opening to Church in Vietnam
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 15-Correspondent Paul Alexander offers an important reason why the Vietnamese authorities allowed more than 200,000 Catholics to gather in the village of La Vang to celebrate the bicentennial of a Marian apparition there.
While there is “a history of strained relations with organized religion and Vietnam has been accused of jailing and harassing religious leaders,” said Alexander, “the government has been courting allies in a war against rising drug abuse, prostitution and corruption.
“There are social evils everywhere,” said the leader of the nation's 8 million Catholics, Cardinal Pham Dinh Tung. “The cause is the shortage of praying. The Virgin Mary will help those who pray.”
The La Vang festival marked the Virgin Mary's appearance in the village in 1798, a time when Catholics were being persecuted by the then Vietnamese emperor, Reuters reported. “Taking refuge in [a] forest, the Catholics were visited by an apparition of Mary holding a child in her arms,” said the news service. Both AP and Reuters said it was the only apparition ever reported in Southeast Asia.
Orthodox Symbols, Evangelical Message
RELIGION TODAY, Aug. 16- “Eastern Orthodox liturgy and contemporary worship are attracting people to a church in a Moscow suburb,” reported the evangelical Internet news service about a strategy to attract new members that is similar to some evangelical efforts in Latin America.
“The ministry uses modern music to reach young people, as well as traditional liturgical symbols such as an Orthodox cross and candles,” reported Religion Today in a story on Pastor Igor Salavyov, leader of an the evangelical church in Istra.
The effort to make converts of Russians of Orthodox background is reminiscent of evangelical groups in Latin America that feature images of the Blessed Mother, especially Our Lady of Guadalupe, in order to win converts who are comfortable with Catholic symbolism.
The Russian church featured by Religion Today also offers free concerts that attract up to “200 people who receive free tapes of the concert in return for their names and addresses.”
----- EXCERPT: From selected sources ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Highlights of the Vatican Observatory DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:1576 — Pope Gregory XIII builds the Tower of the Winds to demonstrate the error in the Julian calendar.
1582 — The Gregorian calendar is published, relying on the scientific work of a commission Pope Gregory XIII established to study the stars.
1774 — Establishment of the Observatory of the Roman College.
1827-70 — The Vatican establishes the Observatory of the Capitol.
1789-1821 — The Vatican Observatory built in the Tower of the Winds.
1839-78 — The work of Jesuit Father Angelo Secchi of the Vatican Observatory creates the first classification of the stars according to their spectra, a system that, with modifications, is still used today.
1879 — The Italian government takes over the Vatican Observatory.
1888 — Pope Leo XIII refounds the Vatican Observatory.
1888-1928 — The Vatican Observatory participates with other world observatories in mapping the positions of 500,000 stars across the entire sky.
1930 — Pope Pius XI moves the Vatican Observatory to Castel Gandolfo, about 20 miles southeast of Rome, to avoid the brightening night sky of Rome. The library at Castel Gandolfo contains rare books of astronomy by Copernicus, Gallileo, Newton, Kepler, Brahe, Father Secchi and others.
1957 — Installation of wide-angle telescope in the Vatican Observatory.
1981 — Vatican Observatory Reseach Group established in Tucson, Ariz., with access to all the telescopes in the Tucson area.
1993 — Completion of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, first optical-infrared telescope at the Mt. Graham International Observatory, the best astronomical site in the continental U.S., located near Tucson, Ariz.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Millennium in a New Light DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:Chris Ware, a 20-year professional artist who works full-time for the The Lexington Herald Leader, said, “If you judged the historical significance of 2,000 years of Christian history by the secular media alone, you'd get two things: a sense of anticipation and celebration about the dawning new millennium, and a sense of urgency about what we may face with Y2K. The secular media preys on those topics, but loses perspective of what we're celebrating — 2,000 years of Christian history.” That's where Thomas' work fills the gap, he said.
Not only is the scope of the work impressive, said Ware, but so is the scholarship and research that went into creating it. “She was so exacting in terms of getting the details right,” Ware explained. “She carefully weighed the importance of each of the figures she chose to portray. … It almost takes your breath away to see, in one sitting, the unbroken chain of our Christian heritage all the way back to the birth of Christ. You realize that the saints from each century stand on the shoulders of those from preceding centuries, back to the early martyrs.”
‘Photo Album of Ancestors’
“Thomas' exhibit gives a new dimension to the understanding of history,” added Warren Carroll. “These images give Catholics a clearer idea of the history of their Church — all of its difficulties, sufferings and glories.”
Ware agreed. “She has given faces and bodies to saints we don't have photographs of. … When you realize, as a Christian, that this is like looking at a photo album of your ancestors, it's very moving and inspiring.”
Carroll called the exhibit a fitting example of the millennium recommendations issued by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Paul Henderson, executive director of the U.S. Bishops' Office for the Jubilee Year, explained that the NCCB Parish Guide to the Jubilee Year 2000 lists calendar events and celebration recommendations that include having two parish missions (on Feb. 26-27, and on Nov. 25-26) which emphasize the art and history of the Church.
“We recommend that parishes have exhibits featuring the art and history of the Catholic Church over the past 2,000 years,” said Henderson. He added that a parish might also consider including its own history, that of its diocese and patron saint.
An Exhibit for All
Thomas is working with the St. Martin de Porres Lay Dominican Community to produce the large, high-quality replications of the entire collection in a ready-for-display exhibition kit, including brochures and audiotape. In addition, a full-color, coffee-table-quality book featuring both the art and historical commentary will be ready for distribution early next year.
The exhibit is currently on display three days a week at Lexington's Gothic-style Christ Episcopal Cathedral, an opportunity arranged by the artist's sister.
Despite its clear Catholic content, Christians from other faiths are also flocking to the exhibit and giving it rave reviews. This thrills Thomas, who hopes to awaken a deeper appreciation of the history of Christianity among people of all faiths.
Karen Walker writes from San Juan Capistrano, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Fear and China DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:Big events are planned in China. In September, 300 heads of American corporations are scheduled to meet in Shanghai. In October, an expansive celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Communist Party's bloody rise to power will be staged.
One event that won't take place, however, is a papal visit to Hong Kong.
It should come as no surprise — and it didn't, to the Vatican — that a nation unable to tolerate a relatively harmless sect like the Falun Gong is afraid of the Catholic Church. But it is revealing nonetheless.
First, it shows the strength of Pope John Paul II. Advancing age and more than 20 years in Peter's chair have neither weakened his resolve nor stopped his travels. That he even made the attempt to go to China attests to the special grace he has been given, on behalf of the Church, to make an impact on the world.
Second, it shows the moral weakness of China. Despite all its trappings of power — economic position, population, weaponry — China is afraid of the Pope. But the Pope isn't afraid of China. It goes to show that real power comes not from the ability to inflict great harm (which China has shown) but from the ability, born of prayer and suffering and rooted in God, to do great good.
* * *
The American Center for Law and Justice filed a lawsuit in August against a high school guidance counselor, charging that he violated the constitutional rights of a Pennsylvania couple, Howard and Marie Carter, by helping their daughter get an abortion.
The guidance counselor reportedly told the girl, “Someday you'll look back on this and laugh.”
That's not the advice the Carters would have given, but they weren't a part of the conversation. That such advice could be given without their consent is a clear violation of their right and duty to raise their daughter.
It gets worse. Next, the Carters charge, the counselor, William Hickey, arranged for an out-of-state abortion in New Jersey. Pennsylvania requires that minors receive parental permission for abortions. New Jersey does not.
If a counselor were to make arrangements of that kind for any medical procedure other than abortion, the law would speak unambiguously against it. But when it comes to abortion, it is often the case that anything goes.
The case is a clear example of why the Child Custody Protection Act is so needed. The House passed the measure in July but the Senate has not yet voted on the bill, which is an important federal safeguard for the pro-life initiatives of the 25 states that have passed “parental notification” laws.
These state laws require that clinics get parents' permission to perform abortions on their daughters. The Senate bill, if it becomes law, would make it illegal for anyone to transfer children to another state in order to avoid those parental notification laws.
If this public school counselor is part of a “village,” then the catch phrase “it takes a village to raise a child,” doesn't tell the full story. It also takes parents, parents who are allowed to exercise their freedom without interference by others.
* * *
For decades, a plethora of secularist scientists, educators and TV specials have helped to make Darwin's theory of evolution the conventional wisdom of public discourse — and public schools.
But now comes the Kansas Board of Education, which recently voted to do away with references to evolution as the underlying principle of biology. Eight other states might follow suit. Meanwhile, a recent poll found only 10% of Americans believe in strict evolutionary theory. And now, even The Washington Post and The New York Times are giving ink to biologists who argue against Darwinian orthodoxy and for an intelligent design in the universe.
Much study still needs to be done on the question of life's origin and development. But we're confident, for now, that the emerging evidence will vindicate what people of faith have always believed. The universe was created and arranged by God according to his infinite wisdom, and not by chance occurrences in a merely natural arena.
In the 21st century, those evolutionary theories that try to leave God out of the picture will increasingly be seen as what they are: outdated remnants of a distant past.
----- EXCERPT: EDITORIAL ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Following the Pope's Lead in Moral Theology DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:Veritatis Splendor and the Renewal of Moral Theology: Studies by Ten Outstanding Scholars Edited by J.A. DiNoia, OP, and Romanus Cessario, OP (Our Sunday Visitor and Midwest Theological Forum, 1999 290 pages, $14.95)
This book is a collection of 10 essays by moral theologians and philosophers celebrating Pope John Paul II's 1993 encyclical, Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth), which dealt with issues in fundamental moral theology. That encyclical generated much controversy among moral theologians, because it was seen primarily as an attack on the “proportionalist” or “revisionist” school, which had become very prominent and dominant in prestigious American and Western European circles. While insisting that the encyclical is more than just a polemic against revisionist moral-ists, the authors of these essays also show convincingly how and why the encyclical rejects proportionalism.
Proportionalism or revisionism, as a system of moral theology, emerged in the wake of controversies over Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae and has acquired a certain dominance in American Catholic colleges and universities. It grew out of efforts to justify the contraceptive pill. One should remember that, when Pope John XXIII appointed the so-called Birth Control Commission, later continued by Pope Paul VI, the question was not whether contraception was morally permissible but whether the newly discovered pill was contraceptive.
As the discussion progressed, it became apparent that either one would have to recognize that the pill was indeed contraceptive, and therefore immoral, or one would have to invent a new methodology for moral theology. The latter is precisely what some authors set out to do. Thus, proportionalism was born.
Proportionalism asserts that there are no intrinsically evil acts. At best, such acts bear “premoral evil” or “ontic disvalue.” One cannot discuss the morality of an act until one takes into account all the intentions — both immediate and long-term — of the moral agent. An act that contains “premoral evil” becomes morally wrong only when the good the agent would derive from the act is not proportionate to the premoral evil involved. If there is a proportional reason for causing that premoral evil, the act cannot be called morally evil.
Various authors in this collection examine and defend the Pope's rejection of proportionalism. William May's essay, “John Paul II, Moral Theology and the Moral Theologians,” documents how the Pope's criticism applies to the work of proponents of proportionalism, in spite of the fact that they assert the Pope does not understand their project.
Martin Rhonheimer's two essays, “Intrinsically Evil Acts and the Moral Viewpoint” and “Intentional Actions and the Meaning of Object,” both analyze and criticize the concept of intentionality used by proportionalists. Rhonheimer points out proportionalists favor long-term or “further” intentions over proximate ones. He says, however, that in choosing a particular kind of act, the moral agent necessarily embraces a proximate intention. He may have further intentions, but that does not change his more immediate intentions.
Rhonheimer gives an example: “The problem of the proportionalist ‘expanded notion of object’ can be well illustrated with the case of Paul Touvier, a French Nazi collaborator in the Vichy regime, recently condemned, who was ordered to shoot seven Jews on June 28, 1944. On trial fifty years later, Touvier argued that both he and the chief commander of the militia in Lyon knew that Gestapo chief Werner Knab was planning to execute a hundred Jews in reprisal for the Resistance's killing of Philippe Henriot, the head of Vichy's propaganda organization. By convincing Knab to execute only thirty, and then in fact executing seven Jews, Touvier argued that they had in fact prevented the execution of one hundred desired by the Gestapo commander. The key point here is their argument that what they did in reality (the morally relevant ‘object’ of their doing) was not kill seven Jews, but save the lives of ninety-three of them. “
Rhonheimer's critique is as succinct as it is cutting: “This way of describing an act by the intention involved in it is not always truthful. Thus it is not truthful to say that ‘Touvier saved ninety-three Jews’ instead of saying that ‘Touvier killed seven innocent Jews, and as a result ninety-three were saved.’ We cannot call this action an act of ‘life saving’ merely because the foreseeable result (the sparing of the ninety-three) was a ‘commensurate reason’ for shooting the seven, and thus ‘life itself’ was ‘better served.’ We are not calculating with quantities of the ‘good of life,’ but relating to concrete living persons. To speak truthfully, Touvier killed seven innocent people (he shot at them with the intention of ending their life [sic]) — which is murder — with the further intention of preventing the killing of a hundred.”
The authors in this book do not limit themselves, however, to an intra-ecclesial critique of proportionalism. They, like the Pope's encyclical, recognize that the distortion of moral reason within the Church is but a pale reflection of the moral chaos operative in the larger world. For example, authors like Russell Hittinger and Jesuit Father Avery Dulles show how far public discourse about natural law has drifted from its moorings in objective good and evil and that incompatible notions of freedom are operative in today's world.
It would be wrong to see this book as negative. Like Veritatis Splendor, this book takes up a long-neglected task: the genuine renewal of moral theology called for by the Second Vatican Council. One common theme for such a renewal is advanced by several authors in this book — the need to recover a virtue-centered ethic.
After reading this book, several concerns remain. To raise just one of them: In the post-Veritatis Splendor effort to affirm the distinctiveness of Christian ethics, we should not underestimate the possibilities of a renewed natural law approach. It might provide fresh possibilities for discussion about moral issues among citizens of different religions in a pluralistic polity.
Though there are also other hesitations, I strongly recommend this book. It provokes thought and pushes a renewed moral theology forward. Its technical nature limits its audience, but particularly for those with some theological training, especially priests, it will provide a challenging though worthwhile insight — from a Veritatis Splendor-favorable perspective — into what is at stake in the struggle for Catholic moral theology today.
John M. Grondelski, a moral theologian, writes from London.
Proportionalism asserts that there are no intrinsically evil acts.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Grondelski ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Natural Mysteries Beneath the Eucharist DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:What Greater Arrogance Could There Be Than to Say to the Lord of Creation, ‘I Do Not Believe You’?” by Father Remi J. Payant (This Rock, July/August, 1999)
Father Remi J. Payant, of St. Paul, Minn., writes: “The president is appearing on television. If a child should say, ‘Mom, the president is on TV!’ what woman in all the world would answer, ‘Oh, that's not the president, it's just some electromagnetic waves exciting phosphors on a piece of glass’?
“[W]e live amid an invisible ocean of radio, television, radar, and other electromagnetic waves. With that in mind, who dares say that mere bread and wine remained when Jesus said, ‘This is my body. … This is my blood’ at the Last Supper and conferred the power of confecting the Eucharist on his disciples? … Think about how easily we accept the merely natural mysteries of the consecrated bread and wine.
“Astronomer Lloyd Motz of Columbia University has written, ‘If the total energy contained in [any] gram of matter were released, it would be sufficient to lift a one-million-ton object six miles into the air’ (Science Digest, February 1981). A gram is only 1/28 ounce. If the energy hidden in the bread and wine used at Mass were suddenly set free, everything around it would be blown to dust, so unimaginable is the power God has hidden in the atoms of these outwardly unimpressive substances.
“Do the bread and wine being prepared before the consecration — and we ourselves — appear solid and substantial? Really, the bread and wine and we are ghosts, specks of cosmic dust given size and form only by nuclear, electromagnetic, and gravitational forces. We are 999 trillion quadrillionths empty space. …”
Consider again the Eucharistic bread and wine: They “lie on the altar so still and motionless … but are they? Their electrons are whirling around their atomic nuclei trillions of times a second (1014 revolutions per second), their atoms restlessly elbow one another, their molecules dance to the melodies and discords of such forces as light and heat.
“Do the altar bread and wine influence us? In more ways than one. It is a fundamental law of physics that every object in the universe reaches out in gravitational attraction to every other object. This means that while all other objects reach out toward the bread and wine, they in turn reach out in endless gravitational bonds with their influence. The poet Francis Thompson put it beautifully:
All things near and far subtly connected are: thou canst not disturb a leaf without diverting a star.'”
So even in the “natural” sense the bread and wine transformed at the Eucharist are great forces to be reckoned with, as all of creation is. If we swallow these without a murmur, why do so many of us strain at believing God could do even more?
“As the story goes, a guard at the Louvre Museum in Paris overheard a groom say to his bride as they left the exhibit, ‘I really didn't think much of it.’ The guard stepped up and said, ‘Young man, this place is not on trial. You are.’
“I mentioned just a few of the many mysteries lying in the bread and wine readied for the Eucharist. Setting aside the profound mysteries in human perception — the why and how of atomic forces, the mystery of life in grapes and wheat struggling upward in a universe otherwise running down, the incomprehensible nature of time affecting all things — here is perhaps the greatest natural mystery of all: that when we eat ordinary bread and wine they begin to live and laugh and love.
In the face of such a swarm of merely natural mysteries, the Creator of these wonders steps into our world. While on earth he showed his power over physical substance by changing water into wine at Cana (John 2:1-11) and by twice multiplying loaves and fishes (Matthew 14:14-21 and 15:32-39). First in his own person and then through the lips of those he empowered as his successors, he assures us that he has displaced the substance of these substances with his glorified body by the words of consecration: ‘This is my body. … This is my blood. … Do this!’ Can we doubt?
“Indeed, the Eucharist is not on trial. We are.”
Ellen Wilson Fielding writes from Davidson, Maryland.
A summary of an article selected by the Register from the nation's top journals.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Wilson Fielding ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:Compassion for the Mentally Ill
I read and completely agree with your article about the challenges that the mentally ill place on both insurance and the workplace ( “What Constitutes Compassion for the Mentally Ill?” Register, Aug. 1-7).
Let me tell you of our experiences with it. We are a small chemical company and hired a new scientist. He seemed normal but socially awkward (that is really normal for scientists who tend toward introversion). There were the normal adjustment problems with all his coworkers. He and I had a few problems, too. It is hard for me to find a middle ground between letting … new person[s] work in their own way and teaching them all the ways I have learned.
Gradually, his behavior changed and the odd things started increasing in number. Finally, he would try to start arguments about things not related to work and was unable to do any work toward his projects.
Our boss tried various methods to help the man get back on track, but nothing worked. We finally had to let him go.
The question that must always be asked when trying to integrate the seriously mentally ill with the more normal people is where are the lines drawn between a safe and productive workplace and compassion for another. I don't know.
All I do know is this: the people and their families of the seriously mentally ill deserve far more of our prayers and compassion than I suspect that they get.
Anna Abell Lake Forest, California
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: How to Lose Open-Minded Friends DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:How to win friends and influence people” has a flip side: “How to lose friends.” One of the easiest ways is by sticking to one's convictions — or, at least, by sticking to them while making them known. There can't be many readers who have never lost a friend or, at least, annoyed someone dear by maintaining a principle and conforming their actions to it.
Your Uncle Filbert abandoned his wife, got a civil divorce, and now is intending to marry someone else. Do you attend the wedding to please him, even though, by doing so, you may give others the impression that you see nothing wrong in what he is proposing to do — enter a state of adultery? Or do you decline to attend on principle, knowing that your relationship with him may be damaged?
If people were as open-minded as they profess to be, Uncle Filbert would take no offense at your staying away. He would receive gratefully your explanation of why you will be unable to attend his wedding. While disagreeing with your calculus, he would respect you for abiding by your convictions, and your relationship with him would suffer no long-term damage. Of course, it almost never works out this way. He will conclude that someone who doesn't approve of each of his actions doesn't approve of him at all.
Some people, in flipping open the New Testament, have a way of finding no verse other than John 17:11: “that they may be one, even as we are one.” For them, the chief message of Scripture is oneness, commonality, agreement, unity. The impulse is understandable. Most of us wish to avoid contention and the uneasiness that even shallow disagreement can bring. We want to get along with everyone, and we want everyone to get along with us. We recognize that there will be a multiplicity of opinions. We may have little hesitancy in highlighting our own opinions when it is a matter of disagreeing with strangers, but it seems another thing altogether when the disagreements may be with friends or family. When that prospect looms, we want to focus on unity, even if that means never alluding to some things.
A relative of mine has a friend from childhood who, some years back and after a marriage and a child, “discovered” that she was a lesbian. My relative hasn't allowed that revelation to cloud their friendship. The other woman and her female “companion” are welcome at my relative's home.
Living by principles would result in no division if everyone agreed on the principles, but theydon't.
A year ago a family reunion was planned. It was intended for family members only, but my relative invited her lesbian friend and that friend's “companion” on the excuse that, at least to her, the two were “just like family.”
Not to me they weren't. I explained that I hadn't known her friend since the two of them were teen-agers; I certainly wouldn't recognize the woman on the street if I saw her today. She wasn't “just like family” to me. I said she and her “companion” shouldn't have been invited to a family event.
Besides, I noted — and this is where I got into trouble — I didn't want my son to get the idea that his mother and I could approve of that kind of relationship. If the friend and her “companion” showed up at the gathering, we certainly couldn't argue with them or ignore them, and yet our civility might lead our son to the wrong conclusion.
That didn't go over well with my relative. I had stated my principle, but she didn't like it. She thought there was something wrong with me because I thought there was something wrong with her friend. I wasn't sufficiently “live and let live.” (As it turned out, the friend and her “companion” ended up being disinvited.)
This situation brings to mind other verses that round out the picture. “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). “Henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided” (Luke 12:51). Why a sword, why divided? Because of principle. Living by principles would result in no division if everyone agreed on the same principles, but the fact is they don't. The only way to effect unity is for one side or the other to convert. Normally this does not happen, which leaves two alternatives if one wants to try to save a relationship: learn to live with the disagreement or pretend there is no disagreement. The second choice means to live a fiction, at least with respect to this subject and these persons.
The sword, in cutting, unavoidably cuts both parties. I found that out with my relative. I thought my principle — which happened to be anything but a novelty, since the whole world accepted it until a few years ago — was easily understood and, if not believed in by some, at least could be accommodated readily. I learned a lesson — the hard way.
Karl Keating is founding director of Catholic Answers.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Our Story DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:Medical technologies are advancing at such a rate that it has been difficult for Church teaching to keep pace. Still, in the face of the new moral dilemmas born from these medical breakthroughs, the long-standing principles of Catholic moral doctrine offer reliable guidance to the Christian.
Having recently experienced such a crossroad of science vs. faith, I want to tell you about the brief but remarkable life of my baby. The story began about six weeks ago when, as a result of routine natural family planning, my wife, Diana, and I found out she might be pregnant with our fifth child. After two over-the-counter pregnancy tests, our hunch was confirmed. Surprised and overjoyed, we immediately began to pray for this new life and to thank God for his wonderful gift.
Over the next two weeks, our joy turned into concern and uncertainty as we soon learned that the pregnancy was not going normally and was possibly ectopic. We immediately entrusted the whole situation and the baby to the Lord. I decided to do some research and soon discovered that in most ectopic pregnancies, the baby embeds in the fallopian tube. When this occurs, there is no chance of survival. As the baby attaches to the tube and grows, the tube eventually ruptures, ending the life of the baby and threatening the life of the mother.
After finding out about our dilemma, I discovered that there is a moral debate today concerning various procedures for solving this kind of problem. The first proposed procedure calls for the mother to take a pill, methotrexate, which breaks down the environment around the fetus in the fallopian tube, directly causing a miscarriage. The second procedure, called linear salpinotomy (ostomy), is performed by entering the fallopian tube through the belly button and directly removing the fetus by suction.
The goal of these two procedures is to directly remove the fetus while saving the fallopian tube for the possibility of future pregnancies. Interestingly, both procedures are often presented to patients, without any moral considerations, as the way to assure the least damage to the mother's body. What doctors admit, though, is that these procedures usually leave the fallopian tube scarred, significantly increasing the chances of future ectopic pregnancies.
Medical or Moral Perspective?
As the day arrived, the doctors confirmed that Diana did have a tubal pregnancy. During the waiting time and on the day of decision, the doctors offered us both medical procedures as the only two possible alternatives. When I asked one of the doctors about the “baby” she instead referred to “a mass of cells, “ “a blob of tissue” that was “nonviable,” needing to be removed in the most “conservative” way to cause the least damage to the mother.
Aware of the moral implications, I reminded the doctors that we were in a Catholic hospital. As for Diana and myself, I said we saw this situation more from a moral perspective than a medical one. I explained that human life begins at the moment of conception when the egg is fertilized and must be absolutely respected and protected from that moment onward (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2270). Therefore, any attempt to directly remove the living fetus, even if it is deemed nonviable as is eventually the case in tubal pregnancies, has always been recognized by the Church as gravely immoral and essentially similar to abortion.
The first procedure the doctors had recommended, in which the mother ingests methotrexate to cause miscarriage, is essentially the same as the use of the “morning-after pill,” only at a later stage in fetal development. The second procedure, salpinotomy, is aimed at directly intending, by the procedure itself, the termination of the life of the baby.
One moral theologian, Jesuit Father Thomas J. O'Donnell, a consultant to the U.S. Catholic Conference Committee for Continuing Directives for Catholic Health Facilities, said that “the (direct) removal of a non-viable fetus from the site of the implantation (fallopian tube), has always been recognized in the teaching of the Church as a grave moral evil. … [A]borting a fetus from a fallopian tube is no different than aborting it from the uterus itself.”
The 1996 National Conference of Catholic Bishops document, Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Services, states: “In case of extrauterine (including ectopic) pregnancy, no intervention is morally licit which constitutes a direct abortion.” On the other hand, the document continues: “Operations, treatments and medications that have as their direct purpose the cure of a proportionately serious pathological condition of a pregnant woman (i.e. a salpingectomy) are permitted when they cannot be safely postponed until the unborn child is viable, even if they will result in the death of the unborn child” (Nos. 45, 47).
An Acceptable Alternative
Despite these directives, some theologians unfortunately contend that methotrexate and salpinotomy may be permitted. Part of the debate about these two procedures emphasizes that they have yet to be directly condemned by the Church. Meanwhile, many patients are unaware that there are any moral issues involved.
I mentioned to the doctors another procedure approved by the Church, salpingectomy. It is an operation that entails directly removing the damaged fallopian tube in the area where the baby is located. (The doctors later admitted this was an easier and less risky operation, though in their opinion it was archaic and “unnecessarily harsh” to the mother's body.) The intention of the doctor and the patient and the procedure itself are radically different from both the proposals the doctors originally made to us. The operation is oriented to saving the life of the mother, not to taking the life of the baby. As a secondary effect that is not directly intended, the life of the baby is lost.
In a February 1999 article in the Catholic Medical Association's Linacre Quarterly, physician John E. Foran wrote: “Therefore since the immediate effect of methotrexate and saplingotomy (ostomy) is the death of the fetus, the principle of double effect (as some try to apply it) is not applicable because the act is evil.” He adds that salpingectomy, the third procedure I had suggested, is morally acceptable.
The doctors somewhat reluctantly agreed to perform the procedure that I had proposed.
Diana and I had to grapple with allowing the death of our daughter. We felt the way Abraham must have felt leading his son Isaac to the sacrifice, or the way Mary felt offering Jesus on the cross. But, at the same time, we felt an overwhelming sense of peace and assurance knowing that God's hand was at work in all this. We gathered holy water to have the baby baptized by the nurse right after its surgical removal. We decided to name her Maria Goretti Bowring because the day, July 6, was St. Maria's feast.
As it turned out in the end, the original doctors who had suggested the abortive procedures did not perform the surgery. Diana went into surgery as their shifts changed. A well-respected Catholic doctor performed the surgery and was openly inspired by our decision.
Awaiting a Definitive Statement
During and since the operation, I have felt a great wonder and privilege at the gift of our baby. A priest friend of ours recently told us that the Lord has shown his love for our family in a special way by giving us such a close and powerful intercessor in heaven. We are thankful to the Lord for making us aware of the moral issues at stake and for giving us the grace to be faithful to the Church's teachings.
The ectopic pregnancy debate has elicited a great deal of controversy and opinion, most of which is misinformed. Dr. Foran, in his Linacre Quarterly article, said “the debate must be brought to a conclusion with unambiguous teaching from the Magisterium.” Dominican Father J.A. Di Noia, executive director of the American bishops' Doctrine and Pastoral Practices office, has stated: “Tubal pregnancy is another example of the moral issues being raised by modern medical advances. Conscientious of the moral issues involved, the Church judiciously deliberates on these issues before promulgating a definitive statement.” In the meantime, he agreed, “the Church's wellspring of moral teachings can act as a guide in such matters.”
Diana and I are also hoping, in telling our daughter's story, to encourage hospitals, doctors and other parents faced with this same moral dilemma to make the right moral decisions. May Maria Goretti Bowring's life, like that of other innocents of tubal pregnancies, encourage the Church to explicitly clarify her definitive teaching in reference to tubal pregnancies.
Kelly Bowring writes from Austin, Texas.
----- EXCERPT: Facing the Moral Dilemma of an Ectopic Pregnancy ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kelly Bowring ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Changing Standards to Favor the Passions DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:My home diocese of Santa Rosa, Calif., is in the midst of a sex scandal, involving the bishop (who has resigned), a priest, and possibly other people as well. The details of this particular scandal are not important. Seeing the wounded body of Christ at such a close range has inspired a lot of soul-searching. In this first column so inspired, I want to comment on one of the most common responses to the crisis of sexual impropriety by the clergy.
In the wake of these scandals, many people both inside and outside the Catholic Church wonder whether the time has come to reconsider the Church's discipline of celibacy for priests. I maintain that it is illogical to blame celibacy. In fact, continual reconsideration of a subject that Rome has forcefully closed would actually do more harm than good.
The assumption behind the attack on celibacy is that everyone, especially men, need an outlet for the sexual urge. If people are not provided with legitimate outlets for their sexual desires, they will be driven to illegitimate or inappropriate sexual activity. Therefore, the argument goes, the celibate priesthood is an invitation for the worst kind of inappropriate sexual activity.
Let's analyze this argument. The first premise is that the strength of the sexual urge is a given. A person just has a certain amount of sexual desire that has to be gratified, one way or another. If it isn't gratified in legitimate ways, it will be gratified through some illegitimate means.
There are two problems with this assumption. First, it suggests that we can solve all problems of inappropriate sexual conduct by redefining what is legitimate. A generation ago, sexual activity outside of marriage was almost universally considered improper. Not everyone lived up to this standard of conduct, to be sure. But most everyone accepted the basic code of conduct, and understood the reasons behind it.
Today, by contrast, virtually nothing is considered out of bounds. The American Psychological Association recently published a study suggesting that pedophilia is not harmful to children. Are we really all convinced that we have solved the problem of inappropriate sexual behavior, simply by changing the definitions?
The second problem is more fundamental. The intensity of the sexual urge is not fixed in any particular person. The passions have a logic of their own. If we gratify the passions, they don't go away contentedly. Rather, the passions become more demanding, and more intense, with gratification.
Consider this: why do we have “date rape” on college campuses where the students are living in coed dormitories? These students have plenty of opportunities for sexual activity that carries not a hint of disapproval or repression. Yet female students so often encounter predatory behavior among the men, that it is described as a date rape crisis.
If it were true that having plenty of opportunities for licit sex were a sufficient condition for appropriate sexual behavior, President Clinton ought to be the most appropriate guy around. You can't tell me that the president of the United States, and a married man at that, couldn't have found any outlets for his sexual desires. Surely he could have found women his own age with whom to share carnal knowledge at some location other than the Oval Office.
The president's case also illustrates the fact that the passions do not follow the normal calculating logic of costs and benefits. Clinton had a sexual harassment lawsuit pending against him. He should have been accustomed to the scrutiny of the media. He knew full well that he had plenty of political enemies. And he couldn't keep his hands off a 21-year-old intern. He wasn't stupid. He was a slave to his passions, as St. Paul explained to us so long ago.
The passions such as the sexual urge are not necessarily calmed by being gratified. On the contrary, it is practice at calming the passions that reduces the desire to gratify them. According to both Aristotle and Aquinas, problems like date rape and our libidinous president are the result of overindulging the passions, not of inhibiting the passions.
Many people consider “inhibition” or “repression” a Bad Thing. But we don't seem to have a problem with the idea that people should practice calming the passion of anger, or the passion of greed. We realize that people will not always be successful at channeling their anger in appropriate ways.
But we recognize that it is necessary to insist that we try. Not trying will lead to more frequent and more destructive outbursts of anger, not fewer and calmer.
This is why the suggestion that the Church abandon its ancient discipline of clerical celibacy is misguided. It does not logically follow that allowing people to have sex more often will guide them into having sex in the right time and the right context. Every person in every state of life has a standard of chastity appropriate to that state of life. Every society has rules about appropriate sexual conduct. And, every society has people who sometimes fail to live up to those standards. The answer to that failure is not to abandon the standards.
Modern society has been attempting to do just that. We have tried to lower the standards of acceptable behavior so that more people have acceptable outlets for their sexual desires. But this has done nothing to reduce the intensity of the desires, nor to channel them away from the few remaining taboo areas. Masochism, sadism and now even incest and pedophilia have unashamed, unabashed advocates in our world.
It is unthinkable that the Catholic Church should follow this trend. Our call is to be a sign of contradiction. And boy, our society sure gives us a lot to contradict. Rather than continually reopening the question of clerical celibacy, we should support our priests in living out their vocation faithfully.
Jennifer Roback Morse is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The End of the World DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nos. 675-677, explains the Church's teaching about the end of the world.
Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.
The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschato-logical judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the “intrinsically perverse” political form of a secular messianism.
The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection.
The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven.
God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Mother Cabrini's Real Home in Chicago DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:It is sad but true to note that the name Cabrini is associated, at least in most Chicagoans' minds, primarily with the infamous housing project on Chicago's North Side, Cabrini Green. Only secondarily do they realize that the project is named for a person, indeed for the only woman religious on Chicago Magazine's “Top 100 Movers and Shakers of the 20th Century” list, namely St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. Her national shrine happens to be only two miles or so from her namesake green.
The National Shrine of Mother Cabrini is attached to Columbus Hospital, which she founded in 1902 to serve the immigrants and poor of Chicago. Today it stands in the most densely populated ZIP code in the country, in the fashionable Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago's North Side. The shrine functions today as the regular hospital chapel, pilgrim destination, and oasis of spiritual calmness among the bustle of tens of thousands of Gen-Xers, yuppies and assorted student types.
Before entering the chapel, the visitor immediately notices three things. First, a beautiful life-size statue depicts Mother Cabrini with an angel by her side. Second, the far-right etched-bronze door is sealed for the jubilee year. And third, a plaque commemorating the rededication of the shrine by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin in 1993 reads in part: “Here the faithful of America and all over the world can come to be inspired by the first U.S. citizen to be canonized a saint.”
A Study in Marble
The chapel provides plenty of inspiration itself. It is the size of a small parish church, laid out in the shape of a Latin cross, with a beautifully frescoed dome high above the altar and baldachino.
The space is a study in travertine marble — midnight blue contrasted with antique white. Dozens of stained glass windows illuminate the interior in a riot of almost Tiffany-style color. The main windows on either side of the nave and in either transept depict the mysteries of the rosary.
There are four side altars in the walls surrounding the sanctuary, dedicated to the Blessed Mother, the Holy Spirit, the Sacred Heart and St. Joseph.
In the south transept is the Shrine of St. Anthony, in the north that of the Poor Souls. Each of these shrines contains many relics of patron saints, including St. Luke for doctors, St. Catherine of Siena for nurses, St. Camillus de Lellis for the sick, and St. Matthew for accountants and security guards.
The main altar, standing in the center of the chapel, is a massive construction of black and gold Italian marble, with a solemn red, blue and gold canopy suspended about 20 feet above it. The most striking detail about the altar, however, is the bronze-framed, glass display case housing the main relic of the shrine — Mother Cabrini's right humerus (upper arm bone).
As awesome as the chapel itself might be, however, the heart and soul of the shrine is Mother Cabrini's room. It is reached via a short passageway out of the north transept. Although the old hospital building was torn down years ago and modernized, workers painstakingly dismantled and rebuilt the saint's bedroom to appear exactly as it did the morning of Dec. 22, 1917, when she died. As the curator, the gracious Frances Komorowski, said, “Everything you see is original except for the plaster on the walls.”
‘Holy Warmth’
The room is austere, containing merely a bed, desk, prie-dieu and the wicker rocking chair in which the saint died. However, as one begins to take in the other details — the crucifix, the picture of our Lady keeping watch over the bed, the picture of the Sacred Heart — an atmosphere of what can only be described as “holy warmth” seems to pervade the room. Indeed, the curator said that “many pilgrims feel a deep presence here.”
It is amazing to conceive how that little Italian woman in a black habit ran a virtual empire of good works from this simple room — amazing till one remembers that the saint's Master declared that, with God, all things are possible.
In the hallways between the chapel and the bedroom are various photographs and paintings of Mother Cabrini, as well as two large display cases. These cases contain many objects of interest to the pilgrim and even the casual visitor, such as the saint's baptismal certificate from Sant' Angelo, Italy, her 1909 American naturalization papers from Seattle, and her last will and testament. Also on display are the habit and shoes the saint was wearing when she died.
Just in front of the entrance to the room itself, perched on a shelf about waist high, is Mother Cabrini's own statue of the Sacred Heart. The curator says that it is venerated by many pilgrims, since the saint often received spiritual wisdom and favors of divine love when praying before this image.
The Gardens
Also in this hallway is a door leading to the shrine's gardens, which wind between the chapel walls and a wing of the hospital.
Here, beds of soothing pink impatiens and tropically colored zinnias, as well a fountain and the de rigueur statue of St. Francis of Assisi, provide the perfect atmosphere for quiet meditation for hospital staff, visitors and pilgrims who want a breath of fresh air without having to venture out into the bustling world outside.
St. Frances Cabrini established 67 charitable institutions during her career as a religious — one for each year of her life. She founded the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus who minister in hospitals and schools to this very day.
She had a reputation as a consummate fund-raiser — that is, she had no qualms about badgering the wealthy into donating to whatever charitable concern she had going at the time.
In Chicago, the two hospitals she founded thrive, and her shrine's chapel is full of holy grandeur and beauty. Yet, the one thing that the pilgrim invariably takes away from this shrine is a deep, abiding presence, of our Lord and of his first American saint.
Robert Horwath writes from Chicago.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert Horwath ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Snapshots of France's Soul DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:When they arrive at the Basilica of St. Madeleine, south of Paris, tourists gradually realize they haven't stepped into just another cathedral of marvelously arranged stones and glass.
Late in the afternoon, there's organ music, almost on a subliminal level, pushing toward them quietly in the dim light, not intruding, not even inviting, but for some, at least, beckoning.
There are fewer than 20 people in the basilica, once a mustering point in the French countryside for thousands of crusaders. Perhaps 200 feet from the entrance, just near the altar, backlit through high, high windows by the receding sun, an Asian friar, eyes downcast, no sign of emotion on his face or in his body language, raises the keyboard in prayer. The three tenors at Carnegie Hall should have such a stage.
Most of the visitors to Vezelay south of Paris at least pause to absorb a few moments. Some, startled by the unexpected concert, are virtually transfixed. They sit, suf-fused by images of sight and sound from another world, in the straight-backed wooden chairs common in French churches. This is no plush audio room in the shopping mall's stereo chain store.
Nearby, praying in a crypt under the altar, a Franciscan nun in full habit kneels before the Blessed Sacrament. She is bent over, forehead only a couple of inches from the stone floor. From the time we stoop to enter the low-ceilinged room until we leave several minutes later, she is motionless.
Deep feeling permeates another side of France's Catholic Church as well. On the Riviera, a Vietnamese woman lives grandly, her family's narrow escape from the Vietminh a distant, 50-year-old memory. Her neighbors include Tina Turner and Roger Moore, and across the bay, Elton John. “He [John] has eight gardeners,” reports the woman's husband.
But the wife has other soil to till. She is concerned that a French widow, fallen away from the Church for many decades, be returned to the fold. The student instructs the teacher who brought Catholicism to Vietnam.
Near the Italian border, on a winding mountain road, there's a church noted for miracles. The Vietnamese wife and her husband will pray there for the French-woman's son, terminally ill with cancer. The approach to the sanctuary of Notre Dame de Laghet is scarcely marked, even by French road-sign standards.
Founded in 1652, the exterior is hardly imposing. Inside, the walls of the vestibule are spotted with plaques and drawings. Pilgrims who believe God answered their prayers put them up. Judging from the number of mercis dated in 1998, he is still listening.
At 11:30 on this weekday morning, there is a slight bustling sound outside. Eight nuns, two by two, appear at the church door. They range in age from young to middle-aged. Their singing and precise devotional actions during Mass establish Laghet as another Christian outpost, despite only about 15 lay attendees.
Is this France, home of socially accepted presidential mistresses, popularizer of virtually every degeneration the human mind can conjure? The answer appears to be a qualified “yes.”
Our impromptu pilgrimage resonates more like the catacombs than a great crusade. But the Church's eldest daughter shows signs of being a fervent lady-in-waiting.
One woman, daughter-in-law of a famous French military leader, talks about her Monday night Bible study with Opus Dei. “We are to be the grain … the seed,” she says in self-conscious English. Indeed.
Vatican officials say they are concerned about overcrowding at Rome's airport during the year 2000. The officials suggest a prayerful overland approach to the Holy City. They might have this kind of France in mind.
John Flynn is based in Burbank, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Flynn ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Pan or Praise? PBS on the Pope DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:It's September, which means — for millions of us, anyway — time to pull out the rakes, or turn on the set. Literally turn on the set: So-called usage of television increases exponentially during the fall, for reasons of weather and, of course, new programming.
New schedules will launch on six major networks by midmonth. After baseball playoffs and World Series coverage concludes in late October, most new shows will have seen the light of day. But is there reason for cheer, from a viewer's perspective? That depends on what viewer we are talking about. For families, the news is mostly grim. Rare is the season that offers something for family viewing. Even rarer is something of a spiritually uplifting nature — unheard of, in fact, this season.
More than at any time in recent television history, the fall schedules in 1999 are essentially dangerous places to venture. There is quite possibly more violence in new shows (Fox's “Harsh Realm”) and coarse language (on each of the 14 new dramas) and sexual situations (including ABC's “Then Came You” ) than in any new season in memory.
So what's happened? Commercial television has effectively “ghetto-ized” viewers, creating very specific programs for very specific groups of viewers. Families (most programmers assume) no longer watch television together, in part because most homes in the United States have at least two sets. This means individual family members split off to watch something of specific interest to them. And so programs are tailored for specific age interests. This has effectively doomed the so-called family viewing hour, once a safe harbor at 8 p.m. for family-oriented shows each night. No new show at 8 p.m. this fall is suitable for family viewing.
What to do? If you have children, monitor their viewing carefully. Just because something is on at 8 does not mean it is suitable. You should assume that it is not.
Meanwhile, here are some key highlights this September:
TUESDAY 28
John Paul II: The Millennial Pope
This is PBS' major presentation in September, and the season opener for public television's influential and respected news series, “Frontline.” It is also, quite possibly, TV's most exhaustive look at the Pope and his accomplishments. As such, this will be popular viewing for Catholics. If you plan to turn the TV set on only once this fall, this may be the time.
“Frontline's” ambitions are grander than a mere recitation of a career. It tries — with limited success, I think — to link the Pope's past to his present. This psychological portrait will infuriate some viewers, and enlighten others. Yet on balance “The Millennial Pope” is mostly fair, but with an edge of negativity. “In 20 years he has commanded the world stage, reinvigorating the Church in much of the world [but] he has emerged as a man at war with the 20th century itself,” according to press notes.
But consider: The producer, Helen Whitney, also tilts the tone ever so slightly in favor of late 20th century sensibilities, leaving an indelible image of a Pope trapped in his own and the Church's past. What's troubling with this impression is the program's resolute unwillingness — with some exceptions — to consult the written record. Pope John Paul II, of course, has written and spoken widely on the subjects covered here — on communism, liberation theology, abortion, the place of women within the Church hierarchy and consumerism.
Yet with the exception of an extensive quote from his 1995 encyclical, Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) — “It is increasingly difficult to distinguish between good and evil,” he famously writes — the actual voice and mind of the Pope are mostly absent from this 150-minute program.
That leaves others to interpret his thoughts and actions. Some do so sympathetically, some not. Most troubling is the extensive discussion of liberation theology and the Pope's relationship with Oscar Romero, the archbishop of El Salvador, who was — the program asserts — forsaken by the Pope and eventually assassinated at the altar of his church. Here the Pope is portrayed as a doughty reactionary who supported the overthrow of communism in his native Poland, but failed to rally to the support of Church factions in Central America. The question that is never answered: Why, specifically, did the Pope (who did not consent to be interviewed) take this stand on liberation theology in the first place? It is a gaping hole in the program.
Yet overriding this portrait is an image of a man ruled by his past, and the Polish psyche: For example, “I think,” says Adam Zamoyski, author of The Polish Way, “[that] the Polish psychological landscape is peopled first and foremost with martyrs. I think the Pope feels the collective experience and the collective suffering of the Polish nation in his bones. And I think this disposed him to glory in suffering.”
“The Millennial Pope” covers some familiar territory: the Pope's relation with the Jews and his famed pastoral letter denouncing antiSemitism; an extensive examination of his relationship with his mother, who died in his youth, and with the Virgin Mary; and — best of all — a particularly thoughtful discussion on the Pope's views on life and death.
And the legacy? In a short and powerful closing section, the program addresses this as well, albeit ambiguously. “His legacy is the angry conversation that he provoked over faith vs. modernity,” says Tony Judt, professor of European studies at New York University.
Robert Suro, a writer with The Washington Post, concludes with this observation: “On the one hand, the Pope can seem this lonely, pessimistic figure — a man who only sees the dark side of modernity, a man obsessed with the evils of the 20th century. … On the other hand, you have to ask, is he a prophet? Did he come here with a message? Did he see something that many of us are missing? In that case, the tragedy is ours.”
MONDAY 12,TUESDAY 13
P.T. Barnum
While I haven't fully screened this “four-hour extravaganza” (as breathlessly billed by A&E), a cursory glance reveals an engaging and nicely produced miniseries on an engaging and colorful figure. Beau Bridges plays Phineas himself, while the screenplay was written by one of TV's premiere screenwriters, Lionel Chetwynd. On any network, this is the major miniseries of September, and well worth a look.
Politically Un-diverse?
As fall rolls forward, what are the big issues in television? The major networks were literally caught by surprise by the latest controversy to engulf them: diversity.
When new shows were unveiled to critics and advertisers last spring, more than a few noted a major discrepancy. With a couple of exceptions, none of the new shows (more than 25 in all) had African American or Latino actors cast in leading roles.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples launched an assault on the networks, which hurriedly arranged meetings and — yes — cast changes. During the so-called press tours held for critics in Pasadena, Calif., in July, each network president vowed to diversify the casts.
The absence of family-oriented programming has reached crisis proportions in advertising circles. A group of advertisers recently approached the WB Network, offering to partly fund shows with “family themes.” The irony here: the WB led the charge away from the family, and specializes in shows for teenagers (one exception, which the advertisers noted: “7th Heaven” ).
Verne Gay writes about television for Newsday.
----- EXCERPT: Also: This fall sees the death of the family hour ----- EXTENDED BODY: Verne Gay ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Parents Council Rates TV's Best and Worst DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:The Parents Television Council has rated the 10 most and 10 least family-friendly shows currently being aired by major networks. Here are the lists, with comments provided by the Washington, D.C.-based organization:
10 Best on Network TV
1) 7th Heaven. Singled out this year at the TV Guide Awards as “The Best Show You're not Watching,” its lead character is a dedicated minister and loving parent who offers wisdom and assistance to his family and flock in coming to grips with everyday difficulties.
2) Touched by an Angel. This is one of TV's most watched programs. It centers on a group of angels who appear in human form. Strong pro-family message while addressing such themes as love and forgiveness, death, abandonment, illness and addiction. Throughout, the promise of God's unconditional love is delivered with the hope of redemption for lost souls.
3) Promised Land. This family-centered drama is one of the few on TV with a strong father figure who demonstrates a genuine love for his family. Characters put a premium on integrity and virtue.
4) Early Edition. Based on a man who always gets the news a day early and spends himself trying to prevent accidents, it promotes determination, kindness, courage and self-sacrifice.
5) Smart Guy. Portrays a strong father who recognizes the need for guidance and boundaries in raising children. Heavy emphasis on family, education and respect for authority.
6) Cosby. More adult-oriented, its lead character nevertheless takes an uncynical view of life, responding to its concerns with common-sense wisdom and humor.
7) Sabrina. Suitable for the many teens who watch it, it contains no dark themes or undercurrents and rarely if ever contains material that parents might find objectionable.
8) Moesha. Struggles with friends and family relationships often drive this show. Strong emphasis on honesty and morality.
9) Sister Sister. Centering on the lives of twin sisters separated at birth but later rejoined, it emphasizes a reliance on parents for guidance and advice despite the fact that the girls live away from home at college.
10) Boy Meets World. Though it contains some sexually suggestive material, this is one of the few shows on television promoting premarital abstinence.
10 Most Offensive Shows on Network TV
1) Dawson's Creek. This is the crudest of prime-time shows aimed at kids. It shows an almost obsessive focus and promotion of pre-marital sexual activity, homosexuality and masturbation.
2) Melrose Place. One of the raunchiest shows on TV, it contains steamy bedroom scenes, backstabbing, virtual nudity and multiple adulterous affairs.
3) Will & Grace. This series about a homosexual man and his female roommate offers a sentimental presentation of homosexuality. Vulgar and explicit language are commonplace.
4) Ally McBeal. The whimsical tome of this show may distract viewers from how raunchy the show really is. It also contains anti-religious elements, including, in one episode, denigration of the sacrament of penance.
5) Spin City. Crass and vulgar language abound, while casual sex and the homosexual lifestyle are enthusiastically condoned.
6) The Drew Carey Show. Features a dissatisfied department store middle manager and his buddies who continue to play at irresponsible drunkenness, foul language and lascivious sexual behavior for laughs. Masturbation is a favorite topic, and a transvestite has made some cameo appearances on the show.
7) Friends. Affairs supply most of this show's humor. Conversation almost always centers around sex. No topic is off-limits.
8) Millennium. Presents a disturbing view of mankind and the future, and dark images of religion are also a staple.
9) Suddenly Susan. Two interoffice relationships and another character's short-lived marriage fuel much of the frequently racy humor on this show.
10) That 70's Show. Another show aimed at children, this series features plots fueled by drugs, teen angst and sex.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: A Rebirth of Traditional Spirituality DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:In marked contrast to a trend that took off in the 1960s, many college students are clamoring to experience the intellectual and spiritual traditions that were once the hallmark of the Catholic campus.
The trend, while perhaps still in its early stages, runs counter to the widely held assumption that religious identity at most Catholic colleges is slated for permanent decline.
“When I came here 10 years ago, there wasn't a lot of this going on,” said Jesuit Father Richard Cleary, a chaplain at Boston College. Now, he said, more and more students are enrolling in religion courses and taking part in retreats.
Admissions counselors have been aware of the shift for several years. They have taken to frequently adding the word Catholic or the name of their college's founding religious order to advertising and promotional materials.
The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., for example, has reported an increase in the number of students who make a specific, positive reference to the school's Catholic identity in their applications.
Nationals statistics bear this out. A 1998 survey of a million college-bound high school seniors carried out by the National Research Center for College and University Admissions found that 32% of those who wanted to attend a denominational college wanted one that is Catholic. This was a rise from the 26% that was reported a few years earlier.
In a story on these promotional activities that appeared earlier this year, Michael McKeon, dean of admissions at the Jesuits’ Seattle University, told the Register: “Catholic values are part of the lore and Zeitgeist of the '90s. They also are being perceived as marketable.”
70's Secularization
Father Stephen Happel, a diocesan priest and director of Catholic ministry at Catholic University, recalled that “20 years ago, our students' spiritual journey leaned more toward the teachings of Eastern religions.”
In fact, more than embracing other religious traditions, the trend back then — often encouraged by school administrations — was more in favor of secularization, which many argued was necessary in order for Catholic colleges to be taken seriously by the larger academic establishment. This also seemed to fit the tenor of the times, which favored pluralism, diversity and openness to a variety of worldviews.
It was also the dawn of ecumenism, which prompted many Catholic educators to play down Church doctrines that were not shared by other religions, especially other Christians.
Chaplains and theology professors often filled the vacuum by encouraging community service, and opted for experimental liturgies and a relativized view of Church teachings as a way to make religion more palatable to a new generation of Catholics — tendencies which persist in many places.
“Many students entering college are in accord with papal teachings,” said Patrick Reilly, executive director of the Cardinal Newman Society in Falls Church, Va., a group that actively promotes stronger religious identity. “But for some, by the time they graduate, these teachings have been co-opted by campus ministries that oppose traditional forms of the Mass and other approved forms of devotion.”
Traditional Trends
Many of those interviewed for this article reported that the burgeoning religious interest of young Catholics is of a decidedly traditional bent. There is an emphasis on personal spirituality and the aspects of Catholic life, like the sacraments, that are intrinsic to the faith and set it apart from other creeds.
Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, is perhaps a leading indicator of the trend. The college renewed its Catholic identity in the 1970s by embracing the charismatic renewal. While the renewal is still a central part of the college's life and spirituality, campus ministers report that the current crop of Steubenville undergraduates are more likely to be drawn to traditional faith practices and spirituality.
Campus groups are dedicated to Marian spirituality, eucharistic adoration and the pro-life movement. Each month, there is a sung Vatican II Mass in Latin, and students flock to solemn vespers and Benediction services that are conducted with the assistance of a student singing group that specializes in Gregorian chant.
Catholic University's Father Happel observed that the students on his campus, while not completely rejecting American culture, have become more critical of it and are “looking for something to anchor all that. They take religion courses and interact with peers and clergy to develop real Catholic values and [to] become genuinely virtuous.”
While programs and courses vary, the renewed popularity of specifically Catholic courses and religious activities is unquestioned.
Senior Kevin Broeckling enrolled at Quincy University in Illinois because of its Catholic and Franciscan environment. “Being at Quincy helped open doors for me in terms of understanding myself and my faith better,” said Broeckling, who regularly attends “traditional” devotions in addition to Mass.
A taste for “spirituality and devotions” led Heather Ramsdell to choose the Irish Christian Brothers' Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y. Natalie Santillana, a senior, had a similar experience. “I was a regular churchgoer, but Iona made me stronger,” she said. “I learned to put my faith into practice and to appreciate more fully the sacraments instituted by Jesus.”
Ignatian prayer techniques have become popular at Loyola College of Baltimore, said Mickey Fenzel, assistant vice president for student development. Students “embrace it in leadership and in retreat programs, as well as in their private prayer life,” Fenzel said.
Conversions to Catholicism
At the Ursuline Sisters' College of New Rochelle in New York, many non-Catholics have entered the Church through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults “because they see how devoted our students are to the sacraments, especially at Mass,” said Mary Naughton, director of campus ministry.
Even larger Catholic colleges, which tend to be more racially and ethnically diverse, have Catholic student populations that seem more outwardly religious than in the past.
“For the 1998-1999 school year, [non-required religion courses] were third-highest in terms of attendance,” said Robert Newton, associate academic vice president at Boston College. He added that students also make religion, philosophy and theology courses part of an interdisciplinary program. “We have computer science majors who minor in philosophy or theology, because they want to learn more” about their faith, he said.
Catholic University has “a very strong collection of books on the history of the Church in America and it is popular with students,” said Adele Chwalek, head of the university's library system. “These kids have a pride about their faith and want to return to former values, including religion.” Conversions are up, she said, because non-Catholic students “see our sacramental practices and devotions and realize they can't get these in other churches.”
And in Secular Schools …
Catholic renewal is also going on through the Church's presence at secular universities.
Eve Christman, a baptized Catholic who had become a Methodist in high school, returned to the Catholic faith through the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana's Newman Center, known for its evangelization successes and its adhesion to Catholic orthodoxy.
A turning point occurred when she accompanied a friend to Mass at St. John's Chapel on the campus and was immediately drawn to the stained glass windows and the large crucifix. “I looked to one side and saw the statue of Mary. She was beautiful, and I felt like I was home.”
Her transformation was also helped by sound instruction. Said Christman: “I didn't know what I was missing until it was re-explained to me.”
Jim Malerba is based in North Haven, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: From retreats to courses, religion is hot on Catholic campuses ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jim Malerba ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Education Notebook DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:FRANCISCAN UNIVERSITY, July 13-The number of Catholics organizing at-home Bible studies is on the rise and other Catholics should be encouraged to do the same. This was the message heard by 300 participants who gathered from 33 states, Puerto Rico and Canada to attend the Fifth Annual Institute of Applied Biblical Studies Conference at Franciscan University of Steubenville, July 7-9.
“We must not be afraid of the Bible. We should look at it like a big sandbox. It has boundaries, but jump into it, have fun, explore the love of the Father like a child,” said Jeff Cavins, host of EWTN's Life on the Rock.
Cavins co-hosted the conference with Scott Hahn, a professor at Franciscan University whose name has become synonymous with Catholic apologetics over the past several years through his widely distributed tapes on re-discovering and understanding the Catholic Faith.
In the opening talk, “The Father's Love Revealed,” Hahn spoke about how “God's fingerprints are all over the Scriptures” showing his love for each person as members of God's family. “Reading the Bible,” Hahn said, “can transform Catholics from being God's faithful employees … to becoming his faithful sons and daughters.”
During the conference Cavins presented the ideal Catholic Bible study as fun and not too serious,” while adding that “we must also read the Bible within some guidelines. Catholics read Scripture in the light of sacred Tradition. Today, so many people make the mistake of wrenching the Scriptures out of the context of the Church,” Cavins added.
The three-day conference covered topics like “How to Lead a Catholic Bible Study,” and “Ten Keys to Catholic Bible Study,” discussing not only the why, but also the how of studying Scripture within the context of sacred Tradition. Other leading Scripture scholars speaking were Karl Keating, founder of Catholic Answers, a Catholic apologetics organization; Tim Gray, assistant professor of Scripture at the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College; Dr. Stephen Miletic, associate professor of sacred Scripture and catechetics at Franciscan University; and Steve Wood, founder of the Family Life Center.
Each summer Franciscan University hosts over 20 conferences for adults, teens and religious.
Mississippi School Board Bans Religious Symbols
CATHOLIC LEAGUE-Citing concerns over gangs who wear six-pointed stars, a Mississippi school board has announced that the Star of David is now banned from school property. The board also considered banning crosses, but decided not to after deliberation, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights reported in an Aug. 20 statement.
Harrison County schools superintendent Henry Arledge justified the board's decision by saying it was done to protect the welfare of the students.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit in U.S. District Court on Aug. 20 representing a Jewish student who was ordered to remove the Jewish symbol.
Catholic League president William Donohue spelled out his organization's position on the ban. “Ridding the schools of violence is a must, but it cannot be done by sacrificing religious liberties in the process. The decision by the Harrison County school board was at the very least ignoble and at the worst anti-Semitic. Either way, the Catholic League sees a vital religious liberty at stake and will file an amicus brief against the school board, presuming the case moves beyond the district level,” Donohue said.
Animals Over People?
CRISIS, July/August-Contributing editor Michael Uhlmann wrote that the views of Peter Singer, Princeton University's recently appointed professor of bioethics and a proponent of infanticide, represent the natural outcome of legalized abortion.
“In Singer's view, human infants are, at best, only presumptively rights-bearing creatures. For at least a couple of months after a child is born, he says, the law should recognize a parental rights to kill their off-spring,” Uhlmann wrote, adding, “In so arguing, of course, Singer is doing little more than extending the logic of Roe v. Wade to children already born-a proposition that would perhaps shock the conscience of the late Harry Blackmun, thought there is little in his opinion … to prevent that extension. Singer's razor shreds the pretense of decency that shrouds for many the barbarism of the Court's reasoning.”
----- EXCERPT: Catholics Encouraged to Start Bible Studies ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: A Rock 'n' Roll Rebellion Against the Culture of Death DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON-Lisa Whiting, a student at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, Mich., was looking for a way to do God's work.
She ended up at a rock concert. As she spoke to the Rock for Life volunteers who were running a booth at the 1998 Creation Festival, a Mount Union, Pa., Christian rock ‘n’ roll show, a woman confronted the group about their stand on abortion. When Whiting told her about Christ's forgiveness, the woman broke down crying and her bitterness seemed to disappear. Whiting had found her ministry.
“Anyone who was born after 1974 is a survivor of abortion,” said Whiting, now leader of the Detroit chapter of Rock for Life. “I have a responsibility as a young person to inform the kids of what's going on.”
Rock for Life, a nationwide organization of rock musicians and their fans, is spreading the pro-life message in a new way. With 50 chapters across the United States and the summer-long American Rock Tour, bands and young people are challenging their generation to rethink their position on abortion.
“When the Beatles got started, rock ‘n’ roll was a sort of rebellion,” said Erik Whittington, co-founder of Rock for Life. “We want to use rock ‘n’ roll the same way, as a rebellion against the culture of death.”
Though most of Rock for Life's musicians play Christian rock, the organization is rapidly becoming more known in mainstream media.
Gary Cherone, lead singer of Van Halen, recently spoke on the steps of the nation's Capitol, reading from a letter that he wrote earlier this year to pro-choice rock star, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam. The letter headlined in MTV's end-of-the hour news. Singer Natalie Merchant, formerly of 10,000 Maniacs, while not associated with Rock for Life, has also made her opposition to abortion known in interviews.
Eyebrow Rings and Tattoos
Wearing eyebrow rings and tattoos, many of the members of Rock for Life might meld into the crowd at concerts and festivals where they pass out pro-life literature, and talk to fellow rock ‘n’ roll fans about abortion.
But their T-shirts give them away. The shirts sport the mottoes: “Stop Killing My Generation, “ “Abortion is Mean” and “Abortion is Homicide.” According to Colleen Johncox, leader of Rock for Life's chapter in Rockville, Md., security guards at some concerts insist that the pro-lifers take the T-shirts off, despite the fact that many concert-goers are allowed to wear shirts with obscenities written on them.
Johncox and her chapter do sidewalk counseling, pray at abortion clinics, and pass out literature at school. “People are getting a new perspective on pro-lifers,” she said. “At my school they thought pro-lifers had to be over 40 and have 12 kids already.”
Playing for Diapers
Mike Griffin, leader of the Rock for Life chapter in Dayton, Ohio, and a bass player for the Christian band Intercession, was scheduled to give his first benefit concert Aug. 27. The money from the concert will go to support the pro-life effort. Admission is $5; concert-goers who bring baby food, diapers or other supplies for the local crisis-pregnancy center get in for $3.
Griffin, who graduated from high school this year, said that he sees rock ‘n’ roll as a good way for him to help get the message out.
“A lot of trends that teens follow in our country stem from the music industry,” he observed. “We're not trying to be cool; we're trying to be effective.” In school, Griffin met with a mixed reaction from his peers. “Some kids say they respect you, and sometimes you get mocked going down the hall.”
Rock for Life was founded in 1996 by Bryan Kemper along with Erik Whittington in Portland, Ore. The two worked out of a basement office until 1998, when they joined Why Life?, a pro-life youth group, and formed a youth division of the American Life League in Stafford, Va.
Whittington is a serious musician himself and recently finished the American Rock Tour, a summer-long trip to cities across the country. The tour included four Christian rock bands and enlisted local bands along the way. At each concert, Whittington's wife Tina spoke about abortion and the abortifacient nature of some contraceptives. Along the way a number of women spoke to them and changed their minds about using birth control pills.
Rock for Life often faces an uphill battle for its cause. But backers say individuals are learning the truth from these young people.
“I have a lot of hope for the movement,” said Lisa Whiting. “Our generation is the next generation to take back our society for God and for life.”
Joan DeLuca writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joan DeLuca ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: LIFE NOTES DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:Abortion Advocates Targeting State Laws
INDIANAPOLIS STAR-NEWS, Aug. 17-The newspaper reported that in Indiana and Arizona, abortion advocates are using the courts to force the issue of taxpayer-funded abortions.
“Officials with the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Law and Policy in New York filed lawsuits last week seeking more state funding for abortions in Arizona and Indiana. They want the states to use state Medicaid funds to pay for abortions that are supposedly medically necessary,” said the report.
In Indiana, such an act would go against state laws which direct that state Medicaid funds to be used for abortions when the woman's life is in danger or when the woman is a victim of rape or incest, it said.
The lawsuit's backers retort that Indiana's policies are violating its own state constitution by not providing equal protection for pregnant women, said the report.
Richard Coleson, general counsel for Indiana Citizens for Life, criticized the move.
“Many people in Indiana and other states are morally opposed to abortions,” Coleson told the paper. “They should not be forced to pay for things that they are morally opposed to.”
Abortion Practitioner Embraces Abortion-Crime Study
OTTAWA CITIZEN, Aug. 20-Reported the Canadian daily, “A controversial study supposedly linking abortion to lower crime rates in the United States has been greeted with enthusiastic approval by Henry Morgentaler, a Canadian abortion practitioner. And he claims that higher abortion rates have significantly reduced the number of people suffering from mental illness and emotional disorders.”
Reporting that Morgentaler had suspected a connection between the two phenomena more than four years ago, it quoted him saying:
“It was clear to me that if, over the years, poor women would have the option of abortion, fewer unwanted children would be born — children who are more prone to be neglected and poorly treated.”
Morgentaler's own life has a link between abortion and alleged crime. The paper noted that he was jailed for 10 months in 1975 for performing illegal abortions, but was later cleared in a second trial, the paper noted.
India to Crack Down on Sex Selection Abortions
BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL, Aug. 14-The Indian Medical Association and the Medical Council of India have asked doctors to stop providing sex determination services and participating in selective abortion of female unborn children, reported the British Medical Journal.
“The association has said that it will launch independent investigations against those people suspected of being involved in such practices and will advise the council to revoke licenses of errant doctors,” said the report.
“This is the first time since the Indian parliament outlawed sex selection abortions five years ago that medical institutions are trying to step up pressure. Sex determination and selective abortion of female unborn children is widespread in India. Non-government organizations in India, such as the Voluntary Health Association, estimate that hundreds of thousands of unborn children are aborted each year only because they are female. One study of several hospitals in Bombay alone found 80,000 cases of sex selection abortions over a five year period.
“The practice stems from a sex bias against female children in India and has contributed to India's declining proportion of females to males; the ratio dropped from 935 males for every 1000 females in 1981 to 927 for every 1000 in 1991. In certain communities in the northern states of Bihar and Rajasthan the ratio has plummeted to 600 for every 1000, one of the lowest in the world.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Secular Media are Noticing Emerging Depopulation Scare DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:That the world is overpopulated has been a staple of education and media speculation for more than forty years. Governments across the world made fertility reduction a priority as early as the 1960s.
The result is that for the first time in human history, mankind has purposely reduced fertility. According to UN statistics, 61 countries now face the phenomenon known as “below replacement fertility,” meaning that these countries will eventually begin to shrink in population. The ramifications of this project are only now being considered.
One of the great allies in the movement for fertility reduction has been the major media. In recent months, however, major media outlets in the United States have begun relating the hardships many nations now face because of fertility reduction. This comes mostly as a reaction to shifts in thinking from many scholarly sources.
Almost two years ago, the UN sponsored an expert meeting in which demographers from around the world sounded the alarm about “below replacement fertility.”
Most of their criticism stemmed from economic questions related to an aging population. Antonio Golini of Italy expressed fear that his country, whose fertility rate has dropped to 1.15 children per woman, well below the required number of 2.1, could no longer find the workers to drive the Italian economy. He reported that Italy will have to rely increasingly on immigrant labor. In the same conference, Jean-Claude Chesnais of France advanced a veiled moral argument when he suggested that “a society cannot be successful without the presence of children.”
Only a year ago influential American businessman Peter Peterson published “Gray Dawn: How the Coming Age Wave Will Transform America — and the World,” a book that has frightened policy makers on several continents. “Gray Dawn” explains how the rapidly aging populations in the industrial countries may foment the collapse of medical and social pension systems and may eventually bring on intergenerational warfare.
In August, the message of these scholars has reverberated into the pages of the influential New York Times. Within days of each other, two major stories appeared in the Times warning of the consequences of rapid fertility reduction.
The Aug. 1 Times reported that Japanese society is facing very serious problems because of long-term fertility reduction. With a fertility rate of only 1.4 children per woman, not long ago Japan became the first country to have more people over 65 than under 15.
The Times called Japan “the world's second largest economy” at the same time it is “one of the world's least fertile and fastest aging societies.”
It is expected that the aged will rise from one-sixth of the population to one-third in the next 50 years. The Times concludes that each Japanese worker will “have to increase output to make up for the growing numbers who are idle.”
In a related article a few days later, the Times said that because of rapidly aging populations workers will have to start retiring much later and that industrial countries “will have to accept a loss of productivity, creativity and even general economic health.”
The rapidly aging populations in the industrial countries may foment the collapse of medical and social pension systems.
Austin Ruse is director of theCatholic Family & Human Rights Institute.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Austin Ruse ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Gospel Of Life DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:Benedictine Father Paul Marx is credited with seeing the link between contraception and abortion early in his pro-life career (see story, this page). Pope John Paul II explains in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) that contraception doesn't prevent abortion from becoming widespread — it encourages it.
It is frequently asserted that contraception, if made safe and available to all, is the most effective remedy against abortion. The Catholic Church is then accused of actually promoting abortion, because she obstinately continues to teach the moral unlawfulness of contraception. When looked at carefully, this objection is clearly unfounded. It may be that many people use contraception with a view to excluding the subsequent temptation of abortion.
But the negative values inherent in the “contraceptive mentality” — which is very different from responsible parenthood, lived in respect for the full truth of the conjugal act — are such that they in fact strengthen this temptation when an unwanted life is conceived. Indeed, the pro-abortion culture is especially strong precisely where the Church's teaching on contraception is rejected (No. 13).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of life -------- TITLE: Priest Ordained After Brush With Death DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:ST. PAUL, Minn.- “The miracle priest.”
He is not a faith healer and he doesn't bilocate but that title fits Father Christopher Dunn of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis very well.
After an astounding recovery just months before his ordination, he is a living, breathing rebuke to the hasty removal of life-support systems as well.
In February, Dunn had one month to go before his ordination when he checked into Regions Hospital in St. Paul complaining of severe pain in his hip.
Within 48 hours, his condition was declared fatal, he was surviving on life support and doctors were urging that the machines be turned off.
Father Christopher Dunn told the Register the story of how he came to be ordained just a few months later.
“In February [1999] I fell at the seminary and broke skin on my hip,” he recalled.
For the next two months, he ran a fever and didn't feel well, though he didn't connect those symptoms and his aching hip with the fall. Doctors diagnosed the flu, and a later x-ray of Dunn's hip failed to reveal any problem. But the sickness continued and the pain grew worse.
By the time Dunn checked himself into the hospital on April 22, his blood pressure was extremely low: 80 over 40, compared to a typical blood pressure of 120 over 80. Doctors explained that tests had disclosed inflammation in the muscles in his hip, so Dunn consented to exploratory surgery.
Dunn's uncle, a former Chief of Surgical Service at Martha's Vineyard Hospital, Mass., Dr. Charles Claydon, kept in constant touch with the doctors and family. Doctors told Claydon that they surgically drained an abscess and put a pack in the young man's hip. There was no reason not to expect a full recovery.
However, later that same week doctors again operated to remove the pack, and found dead muscle tissue, indicating a serious, flesh-eating bacteria. After subsequent surgery on April 24, doctors declared Dunn's condition “fatal.”
Dunn was now sedated and on a breathing ventilator. Doctors, said Dunn, told the family that infection had spread to his blood and urged them to discontinue his life support. But Dunn's widowed mother told them she would only make a decision upon Dr. Claydon's arrival.
“They told mom that I would lose dignity if I was left on life support,” said Father Dunn.
Father Mark Moriarty, a recently ordained classmate and close friend of Dunn, was told of the diagnosis and said that seminarians gathered in the chapel to pray a rosary together for the young seminarian.
That same evening, Dr. Claydon joined Dunn's mother and siblings at the hospital in the Twin Cities. He sat by Dunn's bedside, “saying goodbye” to his unconscious nephew.
He told the Register,“I looked up and saw that his vitals were not bad, in fact, they were a little better. His blood pressure was 110 over 70. He was stable,” said Claydon. “With this type of infection, the patient usually grows worse rapidly”.
“The seminarians had begun praying at noon,” remembered Claydon, “and by 8 p.m. [my nephew] had already improved.”
The family decided to persist with treatment, including administering penicillin. Claydon talked to the doctors and defended the family's decision not to remove life support: “We expect a miracle,” he said.
Father Moriarty said, “Even though the doctors said there is no hope, we'll continue to pray for a miracle.” The seminarians took turns keeping vigil throughout the night before the Blessed Sacrament. Soon, doctors no were longer suggesting that Dunn's life support be removed.
Twenty-four hours later, doctors told the Dunn family that the young seminarian had a chance.
On May 6, two weeks after Dunn checked himself into the hospital, doctors took him off the ventilator. He had regained consciousness and, despite predictions that he would not leave the hospital until mid-July, Dunn left eight days later. He was ordained with his classmates on May 29. A slight limp is the only remaining sign of the infection that nearly took his life.
One of the doctors involved in Dunn's case, a non-Catholic, told Claydon: “You people have got something here.” Another doctor said, “I usually don't talk to patients about faith, but now I believe in miracles,” Dr. Claydon told the Register.
“Any time someone is faced with a life-threatening decision, get a second opinion, and go with your gut feeling,” said Claydon. “Chris was only sick for two days. Pulling life support seemed awfully quick. We needed to give him a chance.”
“The lesson for me,” said Moriarty, “was not to be afraid to ask God for what we want and need.”
Debra Haberkorn writes from St. Paul, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ProLife ProFile ----- EXTENDED BODY: Debra Haberkorn ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:Abortion Clinic Abuses Studied
ELLIOT INSTITUTE, Aug. 18-State attorneys general may soon be prosecuting abortion clinics for deceptive business practices, the Elliot Institute reported in an Aug. 18 statement.
The Institute, a research and education group, is working with individuals and organizations around the country to collect complaints about abortion's risks.
The goal of the project, entitled Expose Deceptive Abortion Practices, or EDAP, is to “prove to state attorney generals what we already know to be true — that the abortion industry is willfully deceiving women about the dangers of abortion,” said Elliot Institute director David Reardon, Ph.D.
The Elliot Institute has prepared a brochure describing its nationwide project, which includes a survey to collect preliminary data about what information was denied to each woman. Women who fill out the surveys may later be asked to make a formal complaint to the attorney general, which can be done anonymously.
“When we have lined up a hundred or more complaints in each state, we will work with groups in that state to coordinate a flood of complaints to their attorney general's office,” Reardon said.
Courts Beef-Up Animal Rights Law
THE NEW YORK TIMES, Aug. 18-Protecting the rights of animals has become a hot issue in U.S. courts and law schools recently.
A cadre of passionate attorneys specializing in animal rights law announced Aug.17 that the annual pigeon shoot in Hegins, Pa., was canceled after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court put pressure on local organizers,the New York Times reported.
Last year, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that a zoo visitor could be given the legal standing to sue the government so that it would issue regulations on improved living arrangements and amenities for chimpanzees.
Several other groundbreaking animal rights cases have been argued before the nation's courts in the past year, and small firms specializing inp animal rights law have appeared on the legal scene. A scholarly journal that serves the animal rights movement has been published at Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore., for the last five years.
In 1994, 44 states considered animal cruelty a misdemeanor; today, 27 states consider animal abuse a felony, with fines reaching $100,000 and >prison terms up to 10 years.
Abortion Drop in Wisconsin Reported
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 11-The State of Wisconsin has released its annual report on the number of induced abortions for 1998. The report indicated that 1,500 fewer abortions were reported last year than in 1997, continuing a trend in Wisconsin that began about ten years ago. The only increase in abortions reported in Wisconsin during the last decade was from 1995 to 1996, when the number jumped by 891.
But this year's figures indicate a full 35% fewer abortions in 1998 than in 1997. Wisconsin residents between the ages of 5 to 44 had 10 abortions per 1,000 women last year. That was half the rate of abortions performed per 1,000 women nationally in 1996, which is the most recent year for which data is available, the Associated Press reported.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: HLI Founder Father Paul Marx Retires DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:FRONT ROYAL, Va.-Benedictine Father Paul Marx will assume the title of “Director Emeritus” after retiring from the board of directors of Human Life International.
The Aug. 15 announcement signaled the end of Father Marx's active involvement with the organization he founded in 1981, and which, under his leadership, became the world's largest pro-life organization with 56 chapters in the U.S. and branches or affiliates in 83 countries worldwide.
Father Marx turned over the Presidency of Human Life International to fellow Benedictine Father Matthew Habiger in 1994 to become Chairman. After leaving this post in December 1998, Marx continued to serve on the Board of Directors until retiring.
Though the details of Father Marx's health have not been made public, he told supporters earlier in the year that in January he underwent a “risky procedure” at the Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minn., to open up an artery.
“We will still see him writing and he will continue to be a frequent speaker at pro-life events,” said Anne DeLong, a spokeswoman for Human Life International. “He wants to be able to do what he loves, to lecture and write and travel. Retiring just frees him from day-to-day responsibilities at HLI,” DeLong said.
Though Father Marx could not be reached for comment at his current residence at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minn., where he has been living since May for a period of rest and treatment, colleagues in the pro-life movement recalled his eighteen-year tenure at Human Life International with admiration.
“I believe Father Marx has done as much for babies as Mother Theresa has done for the poor,” said John Everett, Director of the White Rose Woman's Center, a crisis pregnancy center in Dallas. Everett credits Father Marx's fidelity to the teachings of the Church and his tirelessness for the growth of Human Life International. He said one of the challenges now facing the organization is losing Father Marx as a visible head. “Of course they will continue to grow, further and faster,” Everett said. “[But] since its founding, HLI has been Father Marx and continues to be Father Marx. And of the challenges they now face is how to continue without him.”
Margaret Hotze, a member of Human Life International's board of directors and the editor of “Life Advocate” newspaper in Houston, has known Father Marx since 1974. Like Everett, She attributed the growth of Human Life International to Father Marx's tireless leadership, but also to the network of contacts he has established and the leaders he has chosen to further his work. “Marx has organized so many people,” Hotze said. “They have done a great job, for instance, withstanding pressure from the United Nations to keep silent [about abortion and contraception].”
Father Marx distinguished himself early on in the pro-life movement by anticipating its birth. Ordained to the priesthood in 1947, Marx took his doctorate in sociology at Catholic University before returning to his alma mater, St. John's University, to teach. It was at St. John's in 1959 that he read a proposal by the American Law Institute to the state legislatures which would permit abortion for rape, incest, fetal defects, mental or physical health or the mother's life. “I recognized it immediately as abortion-on-demand,” Father Marx says in his autobiography Faithful for Life.
During his days teaching marriage preparation and parenting at St. John's, Father Marx made the link which characterizes Human Life International's “total approach” in the fight against abortion — linking it with contraception. Marx called this link the “contraceptive mentality” and spelled out its consequences in an article he wrote in 1983 for the Homiletic and Pastoral Review.
“All studies I have seen show that the [result] of the invasive contraceptive plague, [is] that couples who contracept are much more likely to resort to abortion in the case of unplanned pregnancy,” Marx wrote. In the same article Marx spared no criticism for bishops as he surveyed the widespread use of contraception by American Catholics.
This proven willingness to criticize bishops has lost Marx many potential allies in the pro-life movement. As one supporter told the Register, “an awful lot of Church leaders find him abrasive and are not influenced by HLI because of this.”
Margaret Hotze told the Register that Marx's outspokenness about bishops explains why admiration for Father Marx is not evenly heard among Catholics. “When he writes and when he speaks from the pulpit, he says bishops are derelict in their duties.” In defense of Father Marx, Hotze asked, “How often does one hear a homily on contraception or abortion?”
DeLong said it was faith and a strong sense that God had placed demands on him that made Father Marx an effective leader of Human Life International. “It's a measure of his character that he tires the rest of us out. He's a tough old German,” DeLong said. She added that Father Marx has not yet been replaced on Human Life International's board of directors, of which there are now seven members, but that current board members are now considering candidates to fill the spot he left vacant. “Someone will probably be elected to fill the spot in December,” DeLong said, adding that the non-profit organization's by-laws allow for up to eleven board members at any one time.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Did You Know? DATE: 08/29/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 29 - September 4, 1999 ----- BODY:“For holding a weekly Bible study for a dozen or so Christian women in her Denver home, a Denver woman received a cease-and-desist order from the Denver zoning administration.
“It read, ‘Prayer meeting are held more than once a month in the single-unit dwelling…in violation of the cited section.’
“Mrs. Reiter and her husband, David, filed a federal lawsuit last week accusing Denver of violating their constitutional rights.
“Orders like this can apply to book clubs, ‘Monday night Football’ parties, or even poker games.
“But the Reiters' complaint says the director of the zoning board of appeals told them hosting a weekly book club, rather than a weekly prayer meeting, would probably be ‘no problem.’”
—Janet Parshall of the Family Research Council in an Aug. 19 statement.
----- EXCERPT: Facts of Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Dioceses Brace For Y2K 'Bug' DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—Dioceses are trying to avoid the millennium bugs's bite.
The computer bug, that is. The so-called Y2K crisis that looms at midnight Dec. 31, when computers and appliances mis-read the “00” on their internal clocks as meaning the year 1900 instead of 2000, poses pastoral as well as technological challenges for dioceses heavily dependent upon computers.
How these dioceses respond to the problem of Y2K (shorthand for Year 2000) will have a strong bearing on the effectiveness of their operations as the new year dawns.
“There is a sense of urgency in dealing with this issue because of the impact it may have on our mission as a Church,” Ellie Anderson, the Y2K troubleshooter for the Archdiocese of Chicago, told the Register. “Basic-ally, we are concentrating on our financial systems and on Catholic Charities, because we don't want any disruption of services.”
The Y2K problem centers around a computer's ability to recognize the year 2000 on its internal clock and in its processing of time-related data. In the double-digit notation that most programs carried until recently, the year 2000 will show up as “00". Computers may read this as “1900” and store new information out of chronological order, or the internal clock may be thrown for a loop and come up with a fatal error.
Anderson was hired last June as director of the Office of Information Services to form a cohesive and streamlined interdepartmental computer system within the archdiocese, but the millennium bug has been the focus of her efforts as the months dwindle down to 2000. Her office is identifying the computer systems that can be upgraded to become Y2K compliant and replacing those that cannot.
“We have made a significant investment in terms of monetary resources and time,” said Anderson.
In the heart of California's technology-savvy Silicon Valley, officials from the Diocese of San Jose are taking a more laid-back approach.
“The MIS (manager of information systems) here doesn't seem to be worried about it,” said Roberta Ward, director of media relations for the diocese. “We are smack in the middle of Silicon Valley, so maybe we're ahead of the game.”
Parents who work in the computer industry have been volunteering to update and rewire the computer facilities of their parish churches and schools, she told the Register.
With the hardware and software issues under control, more spiritual concerns are foremost in the mind of Bishop Pierre Dumaine as the millennium approaches.
“Everybody is sort of technology-minded and business-minded here,” Ward said. “One of the biggest challenges is trying to get the idea of spiritual values out there in the marketplace.”
Many predictions have been made about what havoc Y2K might cause: Public utilities, such as water and electricity, may be disrupted, financial records may be lost or confused in databases, and elevators may go up and not come down (or vice versa). And almost everyone agrees that an aircraft, with its sensitive computer navigation and landing systems, is not the place to be as the new year begins.
Around the house, anything with an internal computer clock, from microwaves to wristwatches, may malfunction.
Some experts are predicting an economic depression. Already, untold millions of dollars have been spent in the public and private sectors to combat the problem.
The American Red Cross has posted information on Y2K on its Internet web site and suggests that individuals and families stock up on emergency items, nonperishable foods, bottled water and nonelectric lamps in the event of major breakdown of services.
Church leaders, while aware of the possible negative temporal effects of Y2K, and of how these may strike poor people the hardest, also have pointed out that graces may come with a proper spiritual approach to a computer disruption.
Benedictine Father Matthew Habiger of Human Life International told the Register last year that if essential services are interrupted in this country, it will be an opportunity for Americans to help one another in a true Christian spirit, and to identify with the poor of the Third World who live daily without the luxuries people in the West take for granted.
Father Timothy Thornburn, chancellor of the Diocese of Lincoln in Nebraska, recently outlined a similar view. The diocese is not very reliant on computers, he pointed out, and no central plan is in effect to address the problem.
He added that the information revolution has brought with it a host of moral and spiritual dangers, even apart from the millennium bug.
“With e-mail and faxes, people are sending and receiving information at such a high speed that there is a great pressure to communicate without proper thought and reflection,” he observed. “This leaves little room for a prayerful, contemplative approach to daily life.
“I'm not against technology, but the possibility for ill use is great. There is always a very great danger in the kind of information children will be exposed to.”
Although all religious leaders would no doubt agree about the potential dangers of technology, bishops of dioceses that are computer-dependent must push ahead with solutions to the computer problems as the clock nears 2000.
The Diocese of Fall River, Mass., has found that jumping on the technology bandwagon only recently has its advantages. When the diocese started buying computer equipment for the chancery office and schools five years ago, the millennium bug was already identified and programmed out.
“We've had a full-time information systems person on board for two to three years. Any new equipment that comes in has to be checked for Y2K problems,” said John Kearns, assistant director of communications.
The Archdiocese of San Antonio has found a silver lining of sorts in hunting the millennium bug. A close look at computer operations turned up overlapping databases and mailing lists in many departments and brought forth a plan to link up all Church employees in the chancery building by e-mail and desktop fax.
“This has been ideal for us in the sense that we knew we had to face the Y2K problem anyway and we've uncovered a lot of other possibilities that are more long-term that will help the Church here,” said Charles Hughes, information systems director for the past eight years. “We've been able to consolidate things like mailing lists, get everyone to share off the same databases, and have identified people who needed computers but didn't have them to do their work.”
The archdiocese's effort is still in the works, with a completion date set for July. The major task now is replacing those systems that cannot be made Y2K compliant. This includes providing all 51 Catholic schools with updated equipment.
Susan Gibbs, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., has had an extended experience with the Y2K issue. Last June, when she was publicity director for the Diocese of Camden, N.J., all the computers were tested and found Y2K compliant.
“Our technical people just went to every computer system, put in a software disk designed to identify such problems, and ran a program through,” she explained.
The same sort of testing is being done in the Washington Archdiocese, where the computer network is larger and more complex. One problem cropped up in the archdiocesan newspaper which was billing people after they had renewed for the year 2000. The financial departments and the Cardinal's Appeal office have been found to be compliant, Gibbs said.
“We've contacted all parishes and schools and told them how to get the software needed to test,” she said.
By tending to the temporal problems of the millennium, and advising others to do so, the Church hopes to free people from unnecessary anxiety and prepare them for the proper celebration of the Jubilee Year which Pope John Paul II says will be “intensely eucharistic,” that is, centered on the Lord of all time.
Brian Caulfield writes from New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Caulfield ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Accused Archbishop Decries 'Trial by Media' DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:MANCHESTER, England— A bishop accused of assaulting a then 7-year-old girl has vigorously complained about the way his name was leaked to a tabloid newspaper.
Archbishop John Aloysius Ward of Cardiff, Wales, has strongly denied the claims in the case and is furious that news of the confidential police investigation was released to the News Of The World, a national Sunday newspaper with a reputation for publishing salacious scandal.
In a 350-word statement, the archbishop vowed to fight the charges but also to campaign against trial by media.
“Who released this information is not yet known,” he said, “but it is part of the kind of abuse which is turned on the accused, innocent or guilty.”
“No one is above the law,” he added. “Accusations must be answered in an atmosphere of trust that upholds the principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty. This is not possible when police connections with the media precede arrest and the interview which follows.”
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police would not confirm the archbishop's arrest to the Register, saying only that a man had been accused of sexual abuse from the 1960s and that “he was arrested and bailed to return on March 9.”
On the day of his arrest, Archbishop Ward received swift support from Basil Cardinal Hume, president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
Cardinal Hume said, “The archbishop has issued a vigorous denial of these allegations. I have known him well for many years and he has my full support.”
The archbishop's arrest is the second trauma endured by the Archdiocese of Cardiff in the past year. Last year the archdiocese's press officer, Father John Lloyd, was jailed for eight years for rape and indecent assault on minors.
Archbishop Ward commented, “Tragically, there have been cases where priests have been guilty of heinous crimes which must be condemned. But many priests have been falsely accused — as well as teachers, doctors, social workers, etc. — and because of police connections with the media, their lives have been made a misery and their ministry damaged.”
The 70-year-old archbishop was arrested by police after voluntarily attending a police station in London with his attorney. Officers questioned him over claims that he assaulted the girl, now believed to be a 45-year-old woman living in Ireland, during his time as a parish priest and school governor in Peckham, South London.
The archbishop has often recalled how the local youngsters nicknamed him “Friar Tuck” as he walked around the parish in his distinctive brown Capuchin Franciscan habit.
He was released on bail and is to return to the station March 9, pending a report to the Crown Prosecution Service. No formal charges have been made.
Father Joseph Boardman, the archbishop's press spokesman, told the Register the archbishop had no further comment to add to the statement he issued on his release by the police and would not be talking to journalists until the matter was resolved.
His statement suggests that he may address these issues more in the future. In it he said, “The Church has had enough of these tragedies and travesties of injustice and abuse. … In the present climate, none of us is safe from false accusations. Now that a bishop is so accused, I will use my position to go public and ask the kind of questions that challenge present procedures that are a dangerous machinery for grave miscarriages of justice.”
The archbishop, who has suffered health problems in the past year, has been a priest for 45 years. He was ordained bishop of the neighboring Menevia Diocese in Wales in 1980 and went to the See of Cardiff in 1983.
Under Britain's strict Contempt of Court legislation the details of a case can be subject to tight restrictions once a charge has been made. Even then some newspapers openly flout the law if tipped off by the police. Before a person is charged, police keep their name secret. But in a number of high-profile cases, names have been leaked to the press.
Three years ago Monsignor Michael Buckley, a broadcaster and newspaper columnist, was arrested on police bail following allegations of indecent assault by a woman who claimed the priest had molested her more than 20 years previously. His name was leaked to the press, although the case was eventually dropped.
“I didn't even know the person,” Monsignor Buckley, a columnist with the national Catholic newspaper The Universe, told the Register. He didn't want to comment on the Ward case stating, “I'm trying to get away from what happened to me.”
The archbishop said in his statement that he expects to be exonerated: “I have not been charged, only interviewed. I expect the process to be concluded in the near future. I vigorously deny these allegations against me. The truth will out. It will set us free and those who know me will have no problems accepting that.”
Paul Burnell writes from Manchester, England.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Paul Burnell ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Jean-Loup Dherse DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Chief executive of the Euro-tunnel and the former vice chairman of the World Bank, Jean Dherse addressed the Synod on the Laity as an associate special secretary. Since then his agenda includes working with Third World countries, giving courses, seminars, and conferences on the role of ethics in business. His latest book, Ethics or Chaos?, has received rave reviews in France and has attracted major media attention. Recently, he spoke with Register Correspondent Paul Burnell.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: So, You Think Ethics Can't Sell? DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Burnell: Your book,
Dherse: I gave him a copy! I received a wonderful letter which said, “You are tackling the very difficult economic consequences of moral behavior. You highlight this in the book —about when you are absolutely selfish in business and do not think of the consequences.” The alternative is [forgetting] your own interest.
You mean like the instance in Scripture when Jesus says, “Give to those who have no hope of repaying you”?
Exactly. If you are selfish there are consequences. You become increasingly blind and incapable of thinking of the effects of your action on others. [For example] if you join an enterprise where other members of the team are selfish, you will find life unacceptable there if you want to [achieve] something worthwhile. You will either be forced to [forego] your values or be excluded. That is the total injustice of how someone who cares for others can get caught up in a structure of sin. We don't call it this in the book but we show it by saying, “Anyone can find examples of corruption from the top of the market to the suburbs. What is the role of business? What is really in the best interest of the business?”
Were you always this concerned?
Not at all. It has happened step by step. I would never have expected to see myself in this position and with this sort of audience.
With the latest book, I was interviewed on every major TV [without] a single bad reaction. The Catholic media was naturally very supportive. But we started our publicity with the national secular media.
What helps you keep your bearings?
I'm a member of Cor Unum — I was asked to make a presentation in November on “Charity in the Year of God the Father.” I said of course humanitarian work is essential but charity, if you read Matthew 25, it is not just about being beneficent outside of business hours. Charity means every decision all of the time has got to have this consideration of the people who are going to somehow be affected by it.
We have to ask ourselves who [is] going to be affected? We have to accept that ethical solidarity is not optional. Whether we accept it as fact or not, every time someone does something underhanded there is a macroeconomic coat to selfishness. We seem to think crime can pay without looking at the scale of what we are doing to other people and the planet. The cost is [greater] than [we] think.
What prompted this change in your life?
At 50, I [felt] like a rat in a race. I had no spiritual life, was a lukewarm, even cold Catholic. I believed in God because I was of the assumption that saying he didn't exist would be even more indefensible. It wasn't much of a faith. I thought I was so small and that God was only interested in the major issues; provided I stayed small enough, he wouldn't bother me.
But one day I cried out to him to save me, and things started to move, slowly at first.
My wife and I had never prayed together. We met someone who was so full of life and to both of us he was living his life around a backbone and the backbone was Christ. My life was more like lobster behind the shell [without a backbone].
We both began to attend monthly meetings with other Christians. But it was at Paray-le-Monial that we each had a major spiritual experience — between Good Friday and Easter Sunday 1985, both of us in a slightly different manner.
We flew back to Washington together, praying and praising the Lord — in 25 years of marriage, we had never prayed together but since that experience, we pray together every day.
The iceberg was melting and we became involved with The Emmanuel Community, which has been approved by the Vatican, and has 200 priests and 100 seminarians.
What does the community do?
The community believes that to be baptised is to receive a radical call from God.
How do you compare your life now to before?
I didn't kill anyone but it wasn't the life you get from the spiritual life. I didn't realize my misery! And, one day I understand that maybe I am on the wrong track. From the outset there were many things that needed to be changed in my life.
You now lead a very active life and at an age when many men are taking it easy.
Frankly speaking I'm getting younger and younger. I was an old man when I was 35. But I'm much less interested in the past or in the future. What really interests me is what the Lord wants of me now.
You could still be running a large enterprise. What do your ex-colleagues think of you?
I believe I am considered with these words, “What has happened to him?” I do try to keep my feet on the ground. I'm the chairman of a successful mutual fund, director of three companies, and also a member of an advisory committee for the Mitsubishi Corporation.
Are you ever tempted to call a halt to it all and head for the golf course?
I would love a [round] of golf but I find I keep getting so many things to do even though I'm cutting back on my commitments. It's amazing!
Does your experience give you access to places where the Gospel might not be heard?
Absolutely. What is very interesting is looking at God's view and how in a very peculiar way his plan was preparing me. He has given me an entry into many areas which the Church doesn't [normally] reach except maybe through a number of businessmen who might give donations to charity. A number of opportunities have arisen and I'm now being invited to become a member of a small think tank that includes high level politicians. So, it is unexpected and essentially prayer time.
How would you sum up the role of faith in your life?
It is the backbone. I am as big and as small as my faith. Jesus is the backbone and everything has got to be referred to him. I hope I can live the radical call of my baptism. I don't know if I should say this but I remember praying at the grave of the founder of our community. I remember his voice as I was praying “Jean-Loup, are you attracted by the radicality of the Gospel?” I said I was and then I heard, “Is your answer as radical as your call?” I think this is a question we have got to ask ourselves all of the time.
At one point you produced an ethics document for industrialists that was well-received. What happened after that?
I was asked to become part of a group founded by a Benedictine monk.
He was involved in raising £5 million [about $7.5 million] to rebuild a monastery. The monks wanted to return to somewhere less noisy and attracted the support of more than 200 companies. However, the companies said; “You have been good at extracting money from us: what is there in return? We have a lot of problems; could you produce a center on a non-confessional basis to study our problems and train some of our people?”
I was asked to be part of the core group. I was also asked to do something for the MBA and did sessions for business people asking fundamental questions: “Why am I working like a madman? What do I want out of things? Is what I do of any importance?”
You have got to look at the interface between human action and decisions. This is what we have been doing for a few years without losing either the young people or those at a high level. …
I have [co-] produced a book — Ethics or Chaos? It's 380 pages, very practical, and we have sold more than 17,000 since November — one of the best sellers in France.
We are now looking to have it published in English. It's not that easy to read but there is an enormous demand for it. It's anthropological, fundamental, and very experimental. The fundamental issue is, “When I make a decision am I merely considering others to be instruments for my own purposes?” That is a fundamental question not merely for the Christian because everyone is a child of God.
— Paul Burnell
----- EXCERPT: Renewed faith of international business leader has huge impact ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Pro-lifers Draw the Line For Candidates in 2000 DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—Unless pro-life voters demand more from presidential candidates in the next election, the rights of unborn children will continue to be undermined as the new millennium begins, warns pro-life leader Colleen Parro.
“1999 will truly be a watershed year for pro-life activists,” said Parro, director of the Republican National Coalition for Life. “Pro-life voters must put their efforts, money, and time behind a truly pro-life candidate.”
On the other side, leaders from Planned Parenthood say they'll be working just as hard to ensure that an abortion defender succeeds President Clinton in 2000. They predict that a strong pro-life candidate will go down to defeat.
“Voters want someone who reflects their values, someone like them,” Nina Miller, director of the bipartisan Planned Parenthood Action Fund, told the Register. “When someone is so extreme in their position, they [voters] begin to say, ‘Who is this person that opposes family planning, abortion, and insurance coverage for contraceptive?’ These positions are not reflective of their values.”
One thing both sides do agree on, however, is that the time to challenge candidates is now. The New Hampshire primary and Iowa caucuses will take place next February, a mere 12 months from now. Who emerges as the Republican and Democratic nominees will be shaped in large part by grass-roots activists and voters. Since all major announced and potential Democratic candidates hold a pro-abortion position, pro-life leaders are hoping to influence the candidates seeking the Republican nomination.
Parro told the Register that it's imperative for pro-life advocates to educate and challenge the candidates now — not once they've won the nomination or emerged as a clear front-runner.
With Elizabeth Dole's recent resignation as director of Red Cross and U.S. Senator John Ashcroft's decision not to run, the race for the Republican nomination is as muddy as ever. Three candidates have announced they are in the race: U.S. Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire, pro-family leader Gary Bauer, and former Vice President Dan Quayle.
Parro said it is imperative that pro-lifers unite and send a clear message to candidates.
“Pro-life voters have to stop settling for so little in their candidates,” she said. “We have to stop settling for candidates who say they are ‘pro-life’ but who have exceptions for one reason or another.”
Of those candidates running or considering running for the GOP nomination, four oppose abortion in all cases: Smith, Bauer, Pat Buchanan, and Alan Keyes. Of the remaining potential candidates, most support keeping abortion legal in certain cases (such as in cases of rape or incest). This group includes Quayle, Lamar Alexander, George W. Bush, John McCain, John Kasich, Elizabeth Dole, and Steve Forbes. Former California Gov. Pete Wilson is pro-abortion.
“There are some candidates who say there should be exceptions for rape, incest, fetal deformity, and other reasons,” said Parro. “The fact is they want abortion to remain legal in certain cases.”
In Iowa, the nation's first caucus state, pro-life and Republican leaders are already gearing up for the 2000 elections.
Carmen Kopf, spokeswoman for Iowans for Life, said representatives of her organization have already met with some possible Republican candidates. She said she and other prolifers were leaning toward supporting Ashcroft, but with his departure, the field is now wide-open.
Kopf echoed Parro's sentiments saying pro-lifers should remind candidates early on that their support of the right to life cannot be half-hearted. If the hopefuls are not aggressive in defending unborn children, she said, pro-lifers won't be aggressive in promoting their candidacies. “Now is the time to challenge these candidates, or we're going to be stuck with a bunch of moderates as the main contenders for the nomination,” she said.
While Parro and Kopf say the key is to select the strongest pro-life candidate possible, others say the key task for the pro-life movement is to unite behind one candidate instead of splitting the pro-life vote.
Keith Fortmann, executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa, told the Register that pro-life voters comprise at least 50% of those who attend the Iowa caucuses. While he acknowledges that the movement carries “tremendous strength” in Iowa, unity has been the key problem in past election cycles.
“Pro-life voters have been at a disadvantage because they have been divided in who they have decided to support,” said Fortmann. “Because of this, a moderate or establishment Republican has eked in.”
Fortmann suggested pro-lifers should focus energy on finding one candidate who is electable and uniting their efforts behind that individual. He said pro-life leaders in Iowa have been attempting to begin the process of uniting behind one candidate, but the process has been frustrating.
“Pro-lifers have a huge impact and wield a tremendous amount of power in the Iowa caucuses, but they haven't been able to capitalize on this strength in one united voice,” he said. “The question of whether they will [unite behind one candidate] is still very much open.”
Who emerges as front-runners in the GOP race may ride less on the candidates’ positions on the issues and more on the ability to raise money — a lot of money.
Parro said the key for the candidates who are solidly pro-life is to raise enough money to be competitive in the early primaries and caucuses. While past years have focused on smaller states early in the process, New York and California's primaries will immediately follow New Hampshire and Iowa.
This change, according to Parro, means the cost of running an effective campaign has increased, since New York and California media markets are much more expensive. She estimates that to maintain a viable candidacy, candidates will need to raise between $20 million between now and the end of the year.
To Planned Parenthood's Miller, the critical issue in the campaign isn't so much money as the drastic “rightward” shift she says many Republican candidates have taken on the abortion issue.
She supported some Republican plans. “Most American voters want their elected officials to focus on issues and policies that make a difference such as finding a way to reduce the need for abortion and educating young people on how to make responsible choices.”
But defending the right to life of children in law is going too far, she said. “Republicans have to get off this hard-core ideological stuff that is far out there.”
Pro-life leaders like Kopf disagree. Calling a strong pro-life position, “ethically, morally, and politically advantageous,” Kopf predicts that a pro-life movement united behind a solid pro-life candidate will ensure that the Republican Party's pro-life plank remains intact and that unborn children have a voice in the political process.
“Someone has to speak for the babies,” she said. “They have no voice but ours, and we need to be their voice in meeting with the candidates, at the caucuses, and in the voting booth.”
Greg Chesmore writes from Bloomington, Indiana.
----- EXCERPT: With primaries just a year away, field remains wide-open ----- EXTENDED BODY: Greg Chesmore ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Some States Aim to Guard Marriage DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—Can “homosexual marriage” be stopped?
The first part of this series, published Feb. 7, explained how the campaign for “homosexual marriage” is an effort to redefine marriage while avoiding the democratic process. Yet the people are not mute. Their elected representatives have responded vigorously to this challenge, and Catholics have been an important part of the story.
After a no-holds-barred battle, here is the current total: Congress and 29 states have laws reaffirming marriage. Twenty-one states are up for grabs. This installment will tell the story of how state legislatures, and state Catholic conferences, have responded to the campaign for “homosexual marriage.”
The first line of response of citizens has been in the actual states whose laws are under attack in the courts. Constitutional amendments have passed in Hawaii and Alaska, and groups like Take It to the People are pursuing the case in Vermont. Before the battle ends, many states may amend their own state constitutions to deal with this question. The second arena has been Congress.
Defense of Marriage Act
Advocates of “homosexual marriage” openly argued that if one state legalizes “homosexual marriage,” every other state will have to recognize it. They advanced this claim based on their interpretation of the U.S. Constitution's “full faith and credit clause,” which often requires states to honor each other's legal proceedings.
“Homosexual marriage” advocates also claimed that the federal government would have to honor any “homosexual marriage” legalized in any state in its administration of marriage-related statutes.
Congress reacted with alarm to these claims. Congress was worried that courts might misinterpret the law unless it took swift action.
In 1996, after first efforts to pass a constitutional amendment in Hawaii failed, Congress responded by passing the Defense of Marriage Act. The act contained two sections.
The first defined marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman, for purposes of federal law. Thus, federal benefits would be reserved to opposite-sex married couples regardless of whether a state allowed “homosexual marriages.”
The second part of the Defense of Marriage Act clarified the law of marriage recognition by stating that a state did not have to recognize a “homosexual marriage” from another state. If Hawaii chose to legalize “homosexual marriage,” it would be up to each state to decide whether or not to recognize it.
In the heat of the election year, both President Clinton and Republican nominee Robert Dole endorsed the Defense of Marriage Act. It passed both the House and Senate with overwhelming majorities, and Clinton signed it in the fall of 1996.
In the summer of 1996, the U.S. Catholic Conference issued a statement on “homosexual marriage.” Frank Monahan, director of the conference's Office of Government Liaison, noted that while the statement did not address the Defense of Marriage Act specifically, it said categorically that “we oppose attempts to grant the legal status of marriage to a relationship between persons of the same sex.”
In their statement, the bishops restated the Church's teaching that marriage is a union of a man and a woman, and that marriage was established by God. They noted the importance of defending traditional marriage: “Because the marital relationship offers benefits, unlike any other, to persons, to society, and to the Church, we wish to make it clear that the institution of marriage, as the union of one man and one woman, must be preserved, protected, and promoted in both public and private realms.”
Successful State Efforts
The third big arena has been in states not directly under attack. Some needed to make their own definitions of marriage explicit. All needed to make clear that they will only recognize marriages between a man and a woman. Between 1994 and 1998, 30 states passed laws, 29 of them with margins of more than 70%. (Missouri's law was struck down for unrelated procedural reasons, and needs to be re-enacted this year.)
Catholics have been heavily involved in these efforts to reaffirm marriage. Take Montana. In 1997, Sharon Hoff of the Montana Catholic Conference provided testimony in the state Legislature, appeared on a radio talk show debating a representative from the American Civil Liberties Union, and worked to alert citizens of the importance of the issue.
In Montana, her arguments made in favor of the bill are straightforward: Marriage is the fundamental institution of society that law should recognize, not redefine. By definition, marriage requires a man and a woman who complement each other. Hoff argues that the debate is not about equality, but about the definition and purpose of marriage. She thinks that most people in the country don't support the legalization of “homosexual marriage.” She also notes how important it is to reject bigotry, and work alongside others who support traditional marriage.
Florida also enacted marriage recognition legislation in 1997. Michael McCarron of the Florida Catholic Conference noted that because support for the legislation was strong, the Church did not need to be as involved in grass-roots efforts in Florida as it had been in Hawaii. The Catholic conference spoke out in support of the law. Its core theme was the sanctity of marriage.
McCarron noted that in our time there have been many attacks on the sanctity of marriage, and “homosexual marriage” is one of those challenges. The conference stresses that marriage between a man and a woman, as the fundamental basis of family life and the best setting for the nurture of children, is deserving of the protection of the laws. The conference avoided attacks on homosexuals as individuals, while reaffirming the value of traditional marriage.
In our time there have been many attacks on the sanctity of marriage, and ‘homosexual marriage’ is one of those challenges. The conference stresses that marriage between a man and a woman, as the fundamental basis of family life and the best setting for the nurture of children, is deserving of the protection of the laws.
Washington state, on the other hand, was much more difficult. It is the only state to have passed a marriage recognition law by overriding the veto of a governor. Pitched battles were fought in Washington state in 1996 (when the bill failed), 1997 (when the bill passed but was successfully vetoed by Gov. Gary Locke) and 1998 (when it passed over his objections).
Sister Sharon Park of the Washington Catholic Conference noted that the most difficult task was convincing legislators that legislation was necessary. The Catholic conference noted that no other state or country has ever allowed “homosexual marriage” and that it would be a very radical step to allow the courts to redefine marriage in this way. The conference further argued that privacy wasn't the only concept important to the debate, as opponents contended. Instead, the nature of marriage and its function in society was the real underlying issue.
Sister Sharon noted that each state's particular situation shapes the way the issue of “homosexual marriage” is addressed in that state. The Washington Legislature is very sensitive to the concerns of the “gay and lesbian community,” she pointed out. Therefore it was especially important for supporters of traditional marriage to be pro-marriage rather than anti-homosexual. Since most people support protecting traditional marriage, the message just needs to be clear.
Still Up for Grabs
Twenty-one states, however, have not yet passed marriage recognition statutes. A variety of factors help to explain this: well-organized support against reaffirming traditional marriage, especially in the more liberal New England and Atlantic Coast states; ambivalent and unprincipled politicians; and the challenge of getting out a “pro-marriage” message that is not immediately painted “anti-homosexual.”
Maryland Catholic Conference Director Dick Dowling and his colleague Pat Kelly have fought hard but unsuccessfully for marriage recognition statutes in Maryland for the past three years.
The climate is hostile, especially in the House Judiciary Committee. Kelly felt she had been “beaten up” while testifying before the panel. In her testimony she emphasized that marriage is an issue to be resolved by the legislature, not the courts.
Kelly and Dowling are concerned that the public does not know a lot about this issue, and is so concerned about being “tolerant” that it becomes hesitant to advocate any moral convictions. Kelly suggested that individual Catholics approach their legislators and tell them how important the issue of marriage really is.
In Massachusetts, Bernard Cardinal Law of Boston along with other bishops have spoken out on the importance of marriage and family life for years. Gerry D'Avolio, director of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, expects the conference to strongly support marriage-recognition legislation.
Meanwhile, however, the culture is saturated with pro-"homosexual marriage” messages, and this makes passage of legislation in Massachusetts a real challenge. Part of the key, says D'Avolio, is for ordinary people to understand that legalizing “homosexual marriage” is not a matter of “leaving people alone.” Instead, it involves the courts forcing an improper view of marriage upon society.
D'Avolio stressed that the average citizen is likely to favor traditional marriage, but wants to avoid being labeled “homophobic” or “anti-homosexual.” D'Avolio hopes that each concerned Catholic will get involved, because the issue of marriage affects them and their families and generations to come.
In California, despite efforts to promote marriage recognition legislation in the Legislature, homosexual activists have fought back fiercely, resulting in a stalemate. Now, after the 1998 elections, two lesbians are in leadership positions in the state Legislature. State Senator Pete Knight, a Catholic layman, could see his bill going nowhere.
So in California, supporters of traditional marriage are going directly to the people. During 1998, petitions were circulated across the state and signed by more than a half-million people. Now a Marriage Initiative will be on the general election ballot a year from March, the same day as the 2000 presidential primary.
The bishops of California are following the initiative campaign with keen interest.
Ned Doljesi, director of the California Catholic Conference, noted that as the debate heats up, there will be many opportunities for involvement by Catholics interested in defending traditional marriage. He pointed out that this is a good time for Catholics to inform themselves about their beliefs through study of Scripture and tradition, through conversations, and through prayer. Then, they should contact their local diocesan Family Life Office or get involved as individual citizens.
Now What?
These stories make clear that people are resisting the campaign for “homosexual marriage.” Catholics have worked closely with others of good will to present arguments for marriage as the union of a man and a woman to elected representatives. When those arguments are thoughtfully and respectfully made, they can have tremendous influence.
But the battle is hardly over. Next week, we will sum up by taking a look at where the “homosexual marriage” issue may go in the future. By then you should have no doubt why the law's definition of marriage matters to every concerned Catholic.
David Coolidge writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Coolidge ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: U.S. Notes & Quotes DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:'Sleeping In’ is Symbolic Excuse for Lapsed Catholics
That was a question posed to Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua in an Inquirerstory that featured the successful efforts of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to re-evangelize lapsed Catholics. “I've heard them all,”said Cardinal Bevilacqua of the familiar litany of complaints against the Church. But archdiocesan studies found that personal disagreements or bad experiences were not the primary reasons for departures from the Church.
A chief finding was summed up by the cardinal as “I like to sleep in on Sunday mornings,”but which also reflects the impact of affluence and a culture that is wary of moral absolutes and has a diminished sense of sin.
The story highlighted lay evangelization efforts in Philadelphia and the archdiocese's 1-877-BLESS-ME program in which the public can speak to a priest any time of the day or night. More than 6,000 calls have been made to the line since it began in November.
Do Catholics Have a Better Language for Politics?
Observing that evangelicals too often slip into fire and brimstone rhetoric that comes off as harsh, “the natural-law tradition of Catholics does not suffer from this … handicap,” wrote McGurn. “The oft-noted fact that some of [President] Clinton's most effective moral critics have been Catholics has … to do with … a tradition that insists on objective moral truth while recognizing that we all occasionally fall short.”
A more “Catholic” moral approach does not risk Protestant defection. McGurn contended: “A more visible Catholic voice within the party might help Republicans to address many of their hot-button issues in a way that would retain their evangelical base but resonate better with the rest of America.”
----- EXCERPT: FROM SELECTED PUBLICATION ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Catholic League Says President Erred on Hitler DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:One Catholic group took great offense at one of President Clinton's remarks at the prayer breakfast, and called on him to apologize.
“I do believe that even though Adolf Hitler preached a perverted form of Christianity, God did not want him to prevail,” Clinton told guests at the Feb. 4 National Prayer Breakfast, according to the Catholic League for Religious and Civil rights, a watchdog organization tracking defamation of Catholics and Christianity.
League president William Donahue called the comment “remarkably ignorant” and said, “anyone who has studied Hitler knows that this is pure nonsense.”
He quoted Hilter saying, in 1933, “It is through the peasantry that we shall really be able to destroy Christianity because there is in them a true religion rooted in nature and blood.”
Added Donohue, “Hitler was a neo-pagan terrorist whose conscience was not informed by Christianity, but by pseudo-scientific racist philosophies. By asserting that Christianity, no matter how distorted by Hitler, can somehow be linked to the politics of genocide is irresponsible. Hitler hated the Catholic Church, made plans to kill the Pope, authorized the murder of thousands of priests and nuns, and did everything he could to suppress the influence of the Church.”
To Donohue, Hitler's antagonism to Christianity was clear, and he said the president owes Christians an apology. (Staff)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Louisiana Abortion Facility Declared Health Emergency DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:BATON ROUGE, La.—Poor conditions at a Baton Rouge abortion facility has prompted Gov. Mike Foster to declare a public health and safety emergency.
The order came after a Baton Rouge television station released pictures showing rusted surgical tools and blood crusted on the floor and instruments inside a clinic. This came in response to a recent abortion-related death in Louisiana.
The governor sent a team of health department inspectors into the Delta Women's Clinic abortion facility. No major violations were reported, but inspectors said they expected that since the abortion facility was in the news all last week. (Pro-Life Infonet)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: World Notes & Quotes DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:French Turn Out to Protest Homosexual 'Marriage’ Bill
ASSOCIATED PRESS,Feb. 1—At least 100,000 people, including entire families, marched through Paris in late January to protest a bill that would give legal status to unmarried couples and, opponents claim, subvert the family.
The leftist government of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has been pressing to make the Civil Solidarity Pact law. Critics say the bill's real aim is to legalize homosexual “marriages,” and ultimately allow homosexuals to adopt children as a couple. The government has stood by the bill, which could be law before the year is out.
The Associated Press reported that the demonstration “drew families, Roman Catholic groups, and diverse groups of youths,” and “was apolitical.” So much so that “organizers chased politicians from the front of the procession, including centrist lawmaker Christine Boutin, who has been the most outspoken opponent of the bill in the National Assembly.”
A similar demonstration in November drew some 60,000 people.
Canadian Media vs. Chastity Promoters
The row began when Reform Member of Parliament Jason Kenney, leader of the pro-life caucus, complained to government authorities over the denial of tax-exempt status for Challenge Team, a group that promotes teen chastity, due to it's “perceived bias,” and for holding to “a one-sided approach to education,” according to the Post article. (The same grounds have been used to deny tax-exempt status to two pro-life organizations while permitting it for Planned Parenthood.)
In answering press questions about his stance in favor of Challenge Team, Kenney allowed that, as a single Catholic, he followed the Church's sexual teaching. Fellow Members of Parliament Rob Anders and Logan Day were similarly frank, but only in response to media queries. They were described by the Post as holding “seemingly antiquated views on sex.”
Peter Stockland, a Post columnist, lamented the Canadian media's lack of interest in “the injustice of the tax system,” and bashed the media, which “… had the three of them proclaiming their commitment to … abstinence as if they had called a press conference to do so.”
Guinness Record Setters Give God Credit
The Catholic couple raised six children in Manchester, England, and now live in a nursing home in Middlesbrough.
Brady was born in Omagh in Northern Ireland and lived there until he was 6. “The town was divided, but nothing like today, and Roman Catholics couldn't get a job,” said Brady, who recalled bullies threatening to beat up Catholic children who “didn't curse the Pope.”
The couple's daughter, Molly Highfield, 65, said the secret of her parents’ successful marriage was quite simple: “It was because they always put their family first and they put their faith in almighty God.”
----- EXCERPT: FROM SELECTED PUBLICATIONS ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: His Words Helped Shape Poland and her Pope DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:WARSAW, Poland—Jerzy Turowicz, who died on Jan. 27 after 54 years as editor of the Krakow-based Tygodnik Powszechny weekly, was a major figure in Poland's Catholic Church and a key patron of the dissident intellectual culture which flourished under communist rule.
In a message at his burial in Krakow's Tyniec cemetery, the Pope described him as a man whose deep faith had given him strength to remain loyal to principles, while “propagating eternal human and Christian values, and courageously defending the person and their dignity.”
A faded photograph in one of the many books about Tygodnik Powszechny shows Turowicz in his early 30s, striding through Krakow with a bundle of papers under his arm, flanked by the Catholic essayists Pawel Jasienica and Antoni Golubiew. The picture is captioned “probably 1946-47,” a menacing time when the communist grip was tightening.
But Turowicz is smiling confidently. By the time the paper's inaugural issue rolled off the press in 1945, he'd made a name for himself as a founder-member of Odrodzenie, Poland's liberal pre-War Catholic youth association.
Besides opposing the anti-semitic nationalism which was widespread in Poland at the time, “Odrodzenie” had spearheaded a religious revival among intellectuals. Under the patronage of Adam Cardinal Sapieha, Tygodnik Powszechny (“Universal Weekly”) was intended to continue that reformist line.
For theological inspiration, Tygodnik turned to the personalism of France, where Jacques Maritain and Emmanuel Mounier were still wrestling with the dilemmas of how committed Christians could best serve society in a confrontational, ideological world.
Yet the paper's immediate outlook was shaped by something a lot closer — how to find a place for Catholic thought amid Stalinist repression.
Miraculously, Turowicz's paper survived. In 1953, when he refused to print an official obituary to Stalin, Poland's communist regime threw out Tygodnik's editors and handed it over to the state-controlled Pax Association.
But three years later, when Wladyslaw Gomulka's reformist regime needed lay Catholic support, Turowicz and his team were reinstated.
The precarious balance of political interests that Tygodnik depended on for survival required the right mix of courage and discretion. If the paper could not present the truth in full, it could avoid printing lies. That meant constant battles with the censors, a readiness for frustrating ad hoc compromises.
While enjoying kudos for allowing a nominally independent Catholic title, the Communist Party hoped to keep it shut up tightly in its Krakow ghetto — a marginal paper written and read only by otherworldly Catholics.
The communist ploy fell flat. By the mid-1960s, having enthusiastically welcomed the Second Vatican Council's talk of “dialogue with the world” while covering it from Rome, Turowicz had made Tygodnik the center of a prestigious milieu.
By the 1970s, after a savage anti-intellectual purge had crushed revisionist hopes of “change from within,” critical Marxists like Jan Strzelecki, Antoni Slonimski, and Jacek Kuron were also using the weekly as a forum of encounter, where a coalition of priorities against communist injustices could be debated and argued over.
“We've tried to serve the concrete person living in a concrete reality,” Turowicz wrote in 1970. “Our most important service has been to help the other person recognize and learn an objective hierarchy of values, to live humanly, justly and beautifully, in a conscious, mature and responsible way.”
When visiting Krakow, it was normal to call in at Tygodnik's Wislna Street office — a building occupied by Lenin during a 1914-16 stay in Krakow — to see who was around. One man who did so regularly was Father Karol Wojtyla.
Having published his first ever article here, supporting the French-Belgian “worker priests” movement in 1949, Wojtyla served as a weekly columnist. He continued to contribute as a bishop and cardinal until he became John Paul II in 1978.
“We should note the authenticity of what Turowicz says in his writing about the Church,” Auxiliary Bishop Wojtyla wrote in an introduction to Turowicz's book, The Christian in the Contemporary World.
“We can believe in various ways — in discreet, self-restrained ways, characterized by internal force of conviction and maturity of reflection, which are actually very revealing. It is good if we can find in this a certain intellectual modesty toward the truth.”
Even with a Tygodnik associate as Pope, Turowicz guarded the paper's independence, insisting on his right to remain “prudently critical” while remaining in the Church's service.
Even after martial law - and another temporary shutdown — had driven a fresh wave of disillusioned writers, many from communist backgrounds, into its pages, the paper never became a Solidarity organ either.
As communist power collapsed, Turowicz was enlisted as an elder statesman. He delivered the opposition's inaugural speech at the 1989 Round Table talks, and hosted the Krakow meeting which launched Tadeusz Mazowiecki's campaign for the Polish presidency in 1990.
Turowicz turned down a seat in the Polish senate and resisted pressure to align Tygodnik closely with Mazowiecki's Democratic Union. But his siding against Lech Walesa, the Church's preferred candidate, provoked angry reactions from conservative Catholics, who accused the paper of an overliberal stance on issues like abortion and religious teaching.
Tygodnik was bought by France's Bayard-Presse in 1993. Although rocketing costs and intense competition brought its circulation down by half to 40,000, the weekly nevertheless retains pride of place for the caliber of its articles and contributors.
Several staffers held government positions in the 1990s, including Krzysztof Kozlowski, who served as Poland's first post-communist Interior Minister, and Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, who was Polish Foreign Minister in 1995-6.
The Pope awarded Turowicz the Vatican's Order of St Gregory in 1987 and remained a regular reader too. In an otherwise warm 1995 letter for Tygodnik's 50th anniversary, he said he had felt “hurt” by the paper's failure to support the Polish Church against “lay Leftist forces and liberal groups.”
But when an embittered former columnist, Stefan Kisielewski, attacked Turowicz in a diary, accusing him of “Orwellian methods” and “babbling about Vatican II,” John Paul II defended him. As if to underline this, he gave a private audience to Turowicz and his wife Anna during his June 1997 Polish pilgrimage, after telephoning him in his Krakow hospital bed from Rome.
In a book-length interview, Turowicz listed the events which had most shaped his life: the War, Vatican II and Wojtyla's election.
It was characteristic that he failed to include the collapse of communism, an event which was not always seen as such a dramatic turning point by those who lived through it.
But he recognized the need to find a “new language” and “stop giving old answers to new questions.”Though he longed to retire and concentrate on books, he kept working till the end.
Educated in Krakow and Lvov, Turowicz held honorary degrees from Boston College and the universities of Krakow and Yale, as well as Poland's highest state medal, the White Eagle, and Germany's Grand Service Cross.
Besides running Tygodnik, he was a co-founder of Krakow's Catholic Intelligentsia Club, as well as sitting on Poland's Council of Christians and Jews, and the Catholic Church's Lay Apostolate and serving as honorary president of the Polish Journalists Association and a council member of the PEN Club.
“In hard times, when the Church in Poland was restricted by the totalitarian system and the Tygodnik was the only voice of lay Catholics, it was thanks to the stand of its editor that it maintained a clear line, combining care for the Church with the propagation of Christian culture, and the formation of spiritual sensibility in people,” the Pope wrote in his funeral message.
“Remembering the personal debt of thanks I owe to the late Jerzy, I pray the good Lord will look on his faith and life's labor, and grant him eternal reward in his glory.”
(Jonathan Luxmoore)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The POPE'S WEEK DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Audiences
Friday, Feb. 5:
• Six prelates from the Episcopal Conference of Greece on their ad limina visit.
• Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Other Activities
Saturday, Jan. 30:
• Created three archdioceses in Uganda and appointed their archbishops.
• Appointed a bishop and two auxiliary bishops in dioceses of Uganda.
• Appointed Father Salvatore Nunnari as archbishop of Sant'Angelo dei LombardiConza-Nusca-Bisaccia, Italy.
• Appointed Lucas Cardinal Moreira Neves, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, as member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
• Appointed Father George Palackapilly SDB of India as consultor of the Pontifical Council for Culture.
Monday, Feb. 1:
• Appointed Bishop Natalino Pescarolo of Fossano as bishop of Cuneo, Italy. Bishop Pescarolo continues as ordinary of Fossano.
Tuesday, Feb. 2:
• Appointed Bishop Frederick Colli as bishop of Thunder Bay, Canada.
Friday, Feb. 5:
• Appointed Archbishop Paolo Romeo, apostolic nuncio in Colombia, as apostolic nuncio in Canada..
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Notes & Quotes DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Pope Reveals Faults of Both Left and Right
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES,JAN 28—In “Perspectives on Papal Visit,” commentator Benjamin Schwartz observes that Pope John Paul “can't help but make the political class squirm.” Conservatives like the Pope's stand for traditional morality but wonder at his criticisms of unrestrained capitalism. Liberals call for a greater sharing of the wealth but are not anxious to quote papal teaching on personal conduct.
“Those who call themselves conservatives fail to recognize that the free market they embrace destroys the ‘community’ and family values’ they espouse,” wrote Schwartz. “At the same time, what passes for the left in America seems not to realize that the unlimited autonomy of individual desire and the ‘personal liberation’ that it celebrates goes hand in hand with the very economic system it finds so disquieting.”
At bottom, the Pope troubles both groups, said Schwartz, “because his position exposes the inconsistency and hypocrisy of their views and the hallowness of the political and cultural debate.” He argues that the two “are opposite sides of the same coin, and together their views would form a potent political force.”
Some Protestants Don't Like the S-Word
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS,Jan. 27—A number of Protestant officials have complained about Pope John Paul II's reference to their denominations as “sects” during his recent visit to Mexico.
“The Pope seems to say that sects are those that practice ‘proselytism,’ which he defines as evangelism that is unfair, deceptive or coercive,” reports Richard Ostling of the Associated Press.
“I don't think the Pope has a mean bone in his body,” said the Rev. Cecil Robeck, Jr., of California's Fuller Theological Seminary, who fears that term could be used indiscriminately for any non-Catholics.
Catholic observers pointed out that when the Pope speaks of “the challenge of the sects,” he is directing his energies toward toward Catholicism itself, which “needs a closer pastoral touch with its people…, better sermons and its own evangelistic initiatives,” reported Ostling.
----- EXCERPT: From selected publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: An Academic Question DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Can the mission of the Church and the mission of the Academy co-exist harmoniously in the life of the same person, the Catholic theologian; and in the life of the same institution, the Catholic college or university?
After all, both the Academy and the Church are terribly sure of themselves in their own spheres. The Academy knows how to pursue its mission decisively. When a student does not fulfill the requirements, no degree is granted. When an institution doesn't meet the standards, accreditation is withheld. When academic freedom is lacking, in many specific ways peers withhold esteem.
As for the Church, the Pope and the bishops are sure that Christ sent them to preach the gospel. Recently the Pope described the bishops’ divine commission as a call to “communicating the truth and grace of Christ to the men and women of today's world.” (Ad limina message to the American bishops of the ecclesiastical region of New York, Feb. 27, 1998).
Why mention the mission of bishops and the mission of universities in the same breath? For this reason: the mission of the Catholic university closely and directly participates in a key part of the mission of the whole Church, as entrusted to the bishops — the mission of Catholic teaching.
To put it another way, an institution of higher education without the teaching of theology would be something other than Catholic. And an institution with a Catholic theology department is involved in communicating the truths revealed by God. The relationship with the work of bishops is close, direct, and institutional.
So far so good. The bishops agree that Catholic theologians and Catholic universities participate in their divine commission, carrying out an apostolate of truth by research and teaching. But meanwhile Catholic theologians and universities also see themselves as part of the Academy, with its mission of research and education to increase mankind's understanding in all spheres of knowledge. Theology fits in that mission, as does every other branch of human knowledge.
But since both communities have a direct interest in how this branch of human knowledge is handled, what will it take for the two missions to coexist? In the Jan. 30 issue of America magazine Fathers Edward Malloy CSC and Donald Monan SJ advocate an approach in which the Church presents its side of the equation in a statement of ideals. (For a full account, see Register stories last week, page 12, and this week, page 14.) The two priests have only the highest praise for the ideals of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, the Pope's 1990 apostolic constitution on Catholic institutions of higher education.
But when one moves beyond ideals to specific rules and regulations meant to put the Church's vision into practice, the two priests balk. They declare the stipulations of Church law on Catholic universities “lifeless,” and “inapplicable to most U.S. Catholic institutions of higher education.”
The objections of Fathers Malloy and Monan to the Church doing anything more than laying out ideals were stated in the context of discussions among the U.S. bishops that are meant to lead to the publication of a final document, scheduled for November this year. The document would spell out how the Church's universal approach to higher education will be applied in the U.S.
If the bishops include specific rules for Catholic theologians and universities in that document, based on the provisions of canon law, Fathers Malloy and Monan flatly assert that an impasse will be created: “Most Catholic professors simply will not request such a mandate, and Catholic universities will take no steps to implement it because of its obvious threat to academic freedom.”
Does this mean that these two educators predict Catholic theologians and universities will give up their Catholic identity and become 'secular’ teachers and institutions?
Certainly not. The truth is that arguments that pit the bishops’ directives against theologians’ freedom present a false dichotomy.
The bishops have no intention of quashing academic freedom by safeguarding the faith — no more than the accreditors in any other field wish to do so by safeguarding professional standards of inquiry.
A medical school knows that without a bare level of accreditation, it can never be taken seriously by the medical academy. Does this mean that its medical researchers are hampered by the constant threat of a loss of acreditation? Of course not. When accreditation is a question at all, they are helped by it. It can be argued that our country has produced such tremendous advances in medicine in the 20th century, in large part, because it holds fast to standards.
When we turn to theology, the situation is very much the same. The bishops know that, without theologians, the faith never advances. From St. Paul's discussions with St. Peter, to St. Thomas's expansive treatment of doctrine which he submitted to the Pope, to von Balthasar's body of work in our own day, which John Paul has quoted, theologians keep the faith alive and active, applying it to new situations. That takes academic freedom.
The theologians also praise Ex Corde Ecclesiae,because they know they need a solid ground on which to work, a standard by which to keep their inquiry safe from the defamation frivolous thinkers would bring to it, and most importantly, because they know that they need a clear authority when speaking about God, an authority that only the Church can confer.
The bishops and theologians both know that academic freedom and faith must live together in a fruitful tension. It is only to be expected that the dialogue that will shape the implementation of Ex Corde Ecclesiae should also be marked by tension, which we believe will also ultimately prove to be fruitful.
We can expect this to be a landmark year in the life of Catholic universities.
----- EXCERPT: EDITORIAL ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: A New Breed of Thinkers Looks at the Pope DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:edited by Gregory Beabout(St. Louis University Press, 1998; 222 pages, $19.95)
Some books are noteworthy for what they say, and others are noteworthy because of who is saying it. This collection of essays on the thought of Pope John Paul II, subtitled On the Occasion of the Papal Visit to St. Louis, is noteworthy on both accounts.
Taken together, the papers collected in this volume, which were originally presented at the end of January at a conference at St. Louis University, make a worthwhile and accessible survey of the teachings of John Paul II. Moreover, the contributors themselves are an indication of the shift toward dynamic orthodoxy in the intellectual leadership of American Catholicism. That shift is now firmly established and set to endure for at least the next two decades.
Included here are essays by Father Avery Dulles SJ, John Kavanaugh, George Weigel, Helen Alvaré, Jerram Barrs, Janet Smith, Father Robert Sirico, Carl Bernstein, and Gregory Beabout. Most of those names are familiar to readers of this newspaper and influential Catholic monthlies such as Crisis and First Things.
Several of them —Weigel, Alvaré, Smith, and Father Sirico especially come to mind — will remain important voices into the next generation. They represent the 40-something generation of Catholic leaders who will carry Pope John Paul's legacy forward in the early decades of the 21st century. (Even the redoubtable Father Dulles shows no signs of slowing down at 80 years of age.)
Twenty years ago, when Pope John Paul first visited the United States, the intellectual leaders dominating the Catholic scene, and most frequently called upon for comment by the secular media, were often dissenters. Now, these dissenters compete for space with this new generation, which is completely in line with Vatican II, supremely confident, media savvy, and refreshingly representative of the people of God — including both men and women and priests and laity. As the dissenters approach their three-score-and-ten still railing against John Paul II and all his works, they are being succeeded by those who celebrate him.
This celebration of the Holy Father's thought was organized by the “Faculty and Staff for Life” at St. Louis University. The university itself supported the conference. The organizer of the meeting, Gregory Beabout, a philosopher who contributed a thorough and perceptive summary of Fides et Ratioto the volume, bears watching in the future as an outstanding example of a Catholic professor who knows that his academic work takes place in the heart of the Church.
Father Dulles begins with a brief overview of John Paul II's theology, in which he identifies 15 key themes. “John Paul II has written so voluminously on so many topics,” writes the priest, “that it is easy to lose sight of the unity and coherence of his program.”
Father Dulles’ essay provides the shape of that program, which readers ought to keep in mind while focusing on the more specific essays that follow. His first theme is “anthropology,” and the succeeding chapters of the book show how that theme dominates Pope John Paul's teaching. The Holy Father's insistence on a correct understanding of man animates his philosophy, his view of culture, the dignity of life, the importance of freedom, the possibility of knowing the truth, and the fundamental unity of the human race.
These matters are taken up by the other contributors. Weigel's chapter on the importance of culture in John Paul II's interpretation of history sets the context for other chapters that examine his teaching on the family (Smith) and on life (Alvaré). Those three chapters alone provide a good framework for understanding how the Holy Father views the intersection of faith and culture in the right ordering of society.
Carl Bernstein, the former Watergate reporter who wrote a deeply flawed biography of the Holy Father a few years ago, contributes a chapter on the fall of communism. Skillfully edited to exclude the thesis of Bernstein's book — that there was a secret Vatican intelligence alliance with the Reagan White House — the chapter that appears here is in broad agreement with Weigel's overarching point that it was in the arena of culture that communism was decisively defeated.
Only two discordant notes are struck. Barrs, a Protestant, writes with evident admiration for the Pope's ecumenical initiatives. But in highlighting the obstacles to unity, he, perhaps unwittingly, attributes most of the barriers to unity to Catholic insistence on Catholic doctrine. “What is difficult for Protestants, and also for the Orthodox,” writes Barrs, “is John Paul's insistence that the Roman Catholic Church is the one true Church.”
Well yes — if unity requires a pope who does-n't insist on that, then unity will never come. The delicate matter of ecumenical dialogue cannot really get anywhere if it requires Catholics to dilute the teaching of the Church.
A more serious fault lies in Kavanaugh's contribution on John Paul's philosophy. He does point out that the human person, in his choices and in his actions, is at the center of the Pope's philosophy, but there is little illumination beyond that. His paper suffers from too much jargon and too little focus, and puts forward the absurd claim that John Paul is a socialist.
Father Sirico's paper on economics provides the evidence to demolish that notion, and goes on to provide a good assessment of the Holy Father's rich treatment of economic questions, which aims, not at socialism, but at solidarity between free men and women exercising their creativity. In fact, the papers by Father Sirico and Smith both provide a richer analysis of human action than Kavanaugh does in his philosophical chapter.
But leave Barrs and Kavanaugh aside. Beabout is to be congratulated; seven good papers out of nine is a far better ratio than most conferences provide.
Raymond de Souza is a seminarian of the Archdiocese of Kingston, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: BOOK REVIEW ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Who Is Intolerant? Who is Tolerant? DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:by Daniel Taylor
(Christianity Today, Jan. 11, 1999)
Daniel Taylor writes: “How did orthodox Christianity, whose spread throughout the world was predicated in great part on its inclusiveness (‘Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden’), come to be a symbol of exclusivity and intolerance? … The religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe led to the increasingly widespread conviction that there had to be a better way to decide these things than with the sword. The answer was tolerance, essentially a decision not to decide — that is, to decide on the private level but not on the public.
“Genuine tolerance … requires us to allow those who espouse or live out ideas we think wrong, perhaps even harmful, not only to do so but also to try to persuade others to do the same. … [In a sense, the] least tolerant person is the person who accepts anything, because such a person is not required to overcome any internal objections.
“What is the difference between a genuinely tolerant society and a morally bankrupt one, incapable of calling evil for what it is? … At the core of tolerance is a kind of intolerance. If you can only tolerate that to which you object, then you have already shown yourself somewhat intolerant in making that initial objection.”
“Jews for Jesus [is] to a Jewish parent what the Moonies would be to an evangelical Christian parent — only worse, because Christians, for all their sense of being under attack, are still far too numerous to be in any danger of disappearing, a situation not felt by many Jews.
“So what am I to think of Jews for Jesus? … Is it intolerant even to offer the gospel, without bribe or coercion? Can this story only be told to those who already embrace it? Should no one try to convince anyone to be and believe anything but what he or she was born into? Are feminists and environmentalists equally wrong to evangelize?
… What am I to do if I believe I have a life- saving message?
“Is God tolerant? Yes and no. The Bible certainly teaches us that God hates sin. … He is depicted as morally uncompromising, righteously angry, holy, and sure to punish evil. Yet he is also depicted as patient, long-suffering, forgiving, and slow to anger — qualities closely related to tolerance. It seems he does, in a sense, tolerate sin — at least for a season. If tolerance is withholding the power to coerce conformity with one's own views, then it seems God is exceptionally tolerant. After all, we do much that displeases him, that violates who he is and what he made creation to be, and yet he does not immediately destroy us or even force us into obedience.
“Is God tolerant? Yes, more so than we are. But also less so. God's forbearance never compromises his holiness or justice. He forgives and waits where we attack and destroy. He grieves and judges where we are lax and indifferent. Our goal is to be as tolerant as God but not more so, praying earnestly for wisdom to know the difference.
“God is so much more than tolerant that Christians can rightfully ignore tolerance as a fundamental goal for their own lives — but only if they are willing to live by a much higher standard. God does not call us to be tolerant of our neighbors. God calls us to love them. … Biblical love is always sacrificial love. Don't say you love someone unless you are willing to suffer for that person.
It is clear that there are things we ought and ought not to do. And there is no reason to apologize for asserting that to a tone-deaf world. But it is also clear that the bedrock of all biblical morality is God's love. That love is not incompatible with judgment (‘go and sin no more’) but it is incompatible with our not properly valuing all that God has created, including those who offend us.”
A condensed version, in the words of the original author, of an article selected by theRegister from the nation's top journals.
----- EXCERPT: ARTICLE DIGEST ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Wilson Fielding ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Don't Abandon Politics
George Sim Johnston (“Follow the Bright Young People from Politics to Culture,” Register, Jan. 31 to Feb. 6) advises young Catholics to “give politics a break and get to work at the grass roots … reclaim[ing] this culture one person, one family, one neighborhood at a time.” While we must eliminate the culture of death at every level of society, to advise Catholics to get out of politics is a profound mistake.
If “the culture” means the attitudes of average American citizens such as the soccer moms he speaks of, then it was not “the culture” that gave us abortion, it was the political order.
When the Supreme Court imposed the abortion license on our nation in 1973, ordinary cultural opinion did not agree. Indeed, even now most Americans oppose abortion on demand and don't know that this is what the Roeand Doeopinions legalized.
It was not “the culture” that privileged homosexual lifestyles; a majority of Colorado citizens tried to eliminate such privileges, but it was the Supreme Court that rejected Colorado's referendum and constitutionalized homosexual privileges.
It is not “the culture” which is pushing “same-sex unions,” or which stripped the Ten Commandments, Christmas crèches, prayer, Bibles, and other religious symbols and practices from schools and other public spaces. In every single case the courts bent to the political demands of rich extremist legal interest groups.
“The culture” did not demand access to pornography, freedom of obscene speech, flag burning, teaching of deviant lifestyles in public schools, and on and on. All these radical changes came through the political order, corrupting America's morality and culture.
The Holy Father has never come close to suggesting that Catholics should march out of politics in order to change the culture. He never stops praising the “high moral vision” of the United States Constitution. Ancient Catholic tradition, reflected in the new Catechism (sec. 1884), is that politics is a providential ministry meant to imitate “the way God acts in governing the world.” The Second Vatican Council (in Gaudium et Spes,75) urged “those with a talent for the difficult yet noble art of politics, or whose talents in this matter can be developed, [to] prepare themselves for it, and, forgetting their own convenience and material interest, they should engage in political activity.”
It is a counsel of exhaustion to abandon “politics” to the restless power seekers who will not rule according to the common good. All the good cultural work will not eliminate the culture of death unless the political order is governed by men and women courageous enough to privilege families, protect education, support religious faith, and foster healthy civic character.
Our Constitution embodies the highest vision of character ever proposed for a whole polity; yet our politics have become a cesspool. Isn't this the call to a great cleansing of our political house? Isn't this the time for young Catholics with great hearts and large ambitions to respond to the Holy Spirit's vocation to practice the “noble art of politics?”
Dennis Teti
Alexandria, Virginia
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: What if Bible Debunking Applies To Magazines? DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:The mail brought the latest issues of World, an Evangelical news weekly, and the Christian Research Institute's Journal, a quarterly from the ministry that airs The Bible Answer Man radio program. I had to laugh as I placed the magazines side by side on my desk. It was a case of an editor's worst nightmare: The covers were nearly identical, each touting a breakthrough story on the “Pensacola outpouring,” an emotion-laden and, apparently, lucrative mega-revival at an Assemblies of God Church in Florida. Not only were the main stories the same, but the cover photographs were of the same preacher — and the photograph on the cover of the Journalappeared also on the lead page of the story inside World.
I can sympathize with the editors — and with their clerical staffs, who must have received a lot of calls from curious readers wanting to know who borrowed from whom. The undoubted answer: neither. Aside from the common photograph, which was taken by an Associated Press photographer, the articles were crafted independently, neither magazine being aware of what the other was doing. Yes, the magazines published at the same time. Yes, the stories read similarly. Yes, the stories took similar editorial stands (skeptical) regarding the authenticity of the phenomenon. But the writers didn't borrow from one another — and they didn't borrow from an unacknowledged third source.
That seems self-evident to me. I don't need to search for editorial collusion. I don't need to search for an “ur-document” that forms the basis of the two articles. But what would certain contemporary biblical scholars say if they were to apply their methodologies to these magazines? We know what they say about the Gospels.
Do the synoptic Gospels have similar, even identical, passages? They must have taken material from an unacknowledged (and, to us, undiscovered) source. Let's call it Q (from the German Quelle, for “source”). The one thing these biblical scholars know for sure is that any account we read must have been taken from an earlier account that is lost to us. It can't be the case that Matthew and Mark and Luke wrote their Gospels based on their own legwork, occasionally using the same witnesses'testimonies and writing more or less independently. They must have plagiarized a now-lost document.
‘… no story is ever derived from facts but always from somebody else's version of the same story. …’
I am reminded of the salutary words written by A.H.N. Green-Armytage nearly fifty years ago:
“There is a world — I do not say a world in which all scholars live but one at any rate into which all of them sometimes stray, and which some of them seem permanently to inhabit — which is not the world in which I live.
“In my world, if The Times and The Telegraph both tell one story in somewhat different terms, nobody concludes that one of them must have copied the other, nor that the variations in the story have some esoteric significance. But in that world of which I am speaking this would be taken for granted. There, no story is ever derived from facts but always from somebody else's version of the same story. …
“In my world, almost every book, except some of those produced by Government departments, is written by one author. In that world almost every book is produced by a committee, and some of them by a whole series of committees.
“In my world, if I read that Mr. Churchill, in 1935, said that Europe was heading for a disastrous war, I applaud his foresight. In that world no prophecy, however vaguely worded, is ever made except after the event. In my world we say, 'The First World War took place in 1914-1918. ‘In that world they say, 'The world-war narrative took shape in the third decade of the twentieth century.’
“In my world men and women live for a considerable time — seventy, eighty, even a hundred years — and they are equipped with a thing called memory. In that world (it would appear) they come into being, write a book, and forthwith perish, all in a flash, and it is noted of them with astonishment that they ‘preserve traces of primitive tradition’ about things which happened well within their own adult lifetime.”
And so it must be with the World and Journal pieces. The writers may have borrowed from one another but, more likely, borrowed from an earlier, uncredited report of the Pensacola events. That earlier report is now lost to posterity — someone, perhaps, having accidentally pressed the delete button without first having made a backup. But no matter. The true account of the goings on in Florida can be retrieved. The ur-document can be reconstructed from the existing stories, and we can call it N (from Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe's reply to the German call to surrender Bastogne: “Nuts!”).
But that's a task for scholars armed with pinking shears. Me? I'll just read the magazines and accept them at face value, simple believer that I am.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Karl Keating ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Lord Will Prepare a Banquet for All Peoples DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:The following is the text of Pope John Paul II's message to Catholics for Lent in this year of the Father, preceding the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000. Lent begins this week on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The season of Lent which we are about to observe is yet another gift from God, who wants to help us to rediscover ourselves as his sons and daughters, created and made new through Christ by the love of the Father in the Holy Spirit.
The Banquet
The Lord will prepare a banquet for all peoples (cf. Is 25:6). These words which inspire the present Lenten message lead us first to reflect upon the gracious providence of the Heavenly Father towards all men and women. We see this providence in the very act of creation, when God “saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Gen 1:31). It is then confirmed in the privileged relationship with the people of Israel, whom God chooses as his own people to begin the work of salvation. Finally, in Jesus Christ this gracious providence comes to its fullness: in him, the blessing of Abraham is shared with all peoples and through faith we receive the promise of the Spirit (cf. Gal 3:14).
Lent is the favorable time to offer to the Lord sincere thanks for the wonders he has done for humanity in every age, and especially in the Redemption when he did not spare his own Son (cf. Rom 8:32).
The discovery of God's saving presence in the flux of human experience spurs us to conversion. It gives us the sense of being loved by God and impels us to praise and glorify him. With Saint Paul we repeat: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love” (Eph 1:3-4). God himself invites us to undertake a journey of penance and inner purification in order to renew our faith. He calls us ceaselessly to himself, and whenever we experience the defeat inflicted by sin he shows us the way back to his house, where we find again that unique loving care which he has lavished on us in Christ. Thus, gratitude fills our hearts because of the experience of love which the Father shows us.
The Bread of Life
The Lenten journey prepares us for the celebration of Christ's Passover, the mystery of our salvation. Anticipating this mystery, there is the banquet which the Lord celebrates with his disciples on Holy Thursday, offering himself under the signs of bread and wine. In the Eucharistic celebration, as I wrote in the Apostolic Letter Dies Domini, “the Risen Lord becomes really, substantially, and enduringly present … and the Bread of Life is offered as a pledge of future glory” (No. 39).
The banquet is a sign of joy, because in it we see the intense communion of all who take part. The Eucharist is therefore the realization of the banquet for all the peoples foretold by the prophet Isaiah (cf. Is 25:6), and we cannot fail to see in it an eschato-logical meaning. Through faith, we know that the paschal mystery has already been accomplished in Christ; but it has still to be accomplished fully in each of us. In his death and resurrection, the Son of God has bestowed upon us the gift of eternal life, which begins in the paschal mystery but will have its definitive fulfillment in the eternal Easter of heaven. Many of our brothers and sisters can bear their situation of misery, discomfort, and sickness only because they are certain that one day they will be called to the eternal banquet of heaven. Lent therefore directs our gaze beyond the present time, beyond history, beyond the horizon of this world, towards perfect and eternal communion with the Most Holy Trinity.
The blessing which we receive in Christ breaks down for us the wall of time and opens to us the door which leads us to a full share in the life of God. “Blessed are those invited to the wedding banquet of the Lamb” (Rev 19:9): We cannot forget that in this banquet — anticipated in the sacrament of the Eucharist — our life finds its final goal. Christ has gained for us not only new dignity in our life on earth, but above all the new dignity of the children of God, called to share eternal life with him. Lent invites us to overcome the temptation of seeing the realities of this world as definitive and to recognize that “our homeland is in heaven” (Phil 3:20).
Preparing for the Jubilee
In contemplating this wonderful call which comes to us from the Father in Christ, we cannot fail to see the love the Father has for us. This year of preparation for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 is meant to help us renew our sense that God is the Father who in the beloved Son shares with us his own life. From the history of salvation which he accomplishes with us and for us, we learn to live with new fervor the life of charity (cf. 1 Jn 4:10ff.) — the theological virtue which in my Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente I urged people to explore more deeply during 1999.
The experience of the Father's love urges Christians to give of themselves to others, obeying a logic of service and solidarity in openness to their brothers and sisters. The arenas in which the Church through the centuries has borne witness to God's love in her word and action are vast. Still today we see immense areas in which the work of Christians must bring to bear the charity of God. New forms of poverty and the pressing questions which trouble many hearts await a concrete and appropriate response. Those who are lonely, those on the margins of society, the hungry, the victims of violence, those who have no hope must be able to experience, in the Church's loving care, the tenderness of the Heavenly Father who, from the very beginning of the world, has kept every individual in mind in order to fill each one with his blessings.
If we live Lent with our eyes fixed on the Father, it becomes a unique time of charity, manifested in our works of spiritual and corporal mercy. Our thoughts go especially to those excluded from the banquet of everyday consumerism. There are many like Lazarus who knock on the door of society — all those who have no share in the material benefits which progress has brought. There are situations of persistent misery which cannot but impinge upon the conscience of Christians, reminding them of their duty to address these situations both as individuals and as a community.
It is not only individuals who have opportunities to show their readiness to invite the poor to share in their prosperity. International institutions, national governments, and the centers controlling the world economy must all undertake brave plans and projects to ensure a more just sharing of the goods of the earth, both within individual countries and in relations between nations.
Mother of Mercy
Dear Brothers and Sisters, as we begin the journey of Lent I address this message to you in order to encourage you along the path of conversion, a path which leads to an ever deeper knowledge of the mystery of goodness which God has in store for us. May Mary, Mother of mercy, strengthen us as we go. She knew the Father's loving plan and was the first to welcome it; she believed and she is “blessed among women” (Lk 1:42). She was obedient in suffering and so was the first to share in the glory of the children of God.
May Mary comfort us with her presence; may she be “a sure sign of hope” (Lumen Gentium, 68) and intercede with God, that there may be for us a fresh out-pouring of divine mercy.
----- EXCERPT: Message of the Holy Father for Lent 1999 ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Celebrating February 14 the Pope's Way DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:My wife and I have had a custom, every Feb. 14th since college, of exchanging cards with hearts on the front and “Happy Sts. Cyril and Methodius Day” messages on the inside — a gentle reminder that Feb. 14 is not St. Valentine's day, but theirs.
As it turns out, Pope John Paul II has given us a greater reason to celebrate those saints.
The Holy Father has written insightfully on the grand topics of our day. For him, encyclicals are foundation stones: Faith and Reason, On Human Work, the Redeemer of Man. But he also wrote an encyclical called Slavorum Apostoli,“The Apostles of the Slavs,” about Sts. Cyril and Methodius, who lived and died at the end of the first millennium.
In it, the Holy Father presents them as models for us at the end of the Third Millennium.
Cyril and Methodius were brothers from a socially well-to-do family on the border of the Byzantine empire and the Slav territories to the west. Both had bright futures in the world. But both — Methodius early on, Cyril after a brief career — entered the monastery on Mt. Olympus to offer their talents exclusively to God.
“The event which was to determine the whole of the rest of their lives,” the Pope wrote, “was the request made by Prince Rastislav of Greater Moravia to the Emperor Michael II to send to his peoples ‘a Bishop and teacher … able to explain to them the true Christian faith in their own language.’“ The two prepared well for their tasks, translating Scripture into Old Slavonic, and enjoyed success in their mission.
Cyril died Feb. 14, 869. On his deathbed in Rome he told Methodius, “Behold, my brother, we have shared the same destiny, plowing the same furrow; I now fall in the field at the end of my day. I know that you greatly love your Mountain, but do not for the sake of the Mountain give up your work of teaching. For where better can you find salvation?”
Methodius remained true to his broth-er's words and, despite persecution by pagans and opponents within the Church, sowed the seeds of one of Europe's most Catholic cultures — the one which eventually produced the present Pope.
Like these two brothers, many Americans come from backgrounds of prosperity and opportunity. Like them, we confront a culture that needs Christ badly. And like those two brothers, many of us have left the culture around us, at one time or another, to ascend Mount Olympus.
We went to a retreat, perhaps, or we went on a pilgrimage. We saw God for who he really is. And many of us, in one way or another, have stayed on our mountain, afraid to re-enter the darkness of our times.
“Do not for the sake of your Mountain give up your work of teaching. For where better can you find salvation?” the Pope tells us, as surely as the dying Cyril told Methodius.
On our Mount Olympus, the faith holds sway. Perhaps we have friends or family who share our passion for the Church. In our forays into the neighboring territories we want to say as little as possible, get what we need, and then hurriedly return to our mountain. To bring the faith to our neighbors, we would have to relearn the language of a culture we would sometimes rather forget.
The Pope's program for us, as transposed from the encyclical, is something like this: “[B]ecome similar in every aspect to those to whom [you] are bringing the Gospel … share their lot in everything.
…. In order to translate the truths of the Gospel into a new language … make an effort to gain a good grasp of the interior world of those to whom … [you intend] to proclaim the word of God in images and concepts that would sound familiar to them.”
The Pope has practiced his advice. He speaks to scientists with scholarly precision, to poets in poetry, and to the young by encouraging their enthusiasm and vigor. He refuses to make them ascend Mount Olympus to find the faith. Instead, he offers it to them in their own language, in their own mode of thinking, as a living and active force in their lives.
There is a great deal more that we have in common with our neighbor on this level than what separates us, and our evangelization, if it is to be effective, will reflect this.
If the culture watches television, movies, and Internet, let the Gospel reach them there. If the culture is concerned with information and professional research, give the Gospel an expert voice. If the culture is worried about the day-to-day problems of family life, the Gospel can speak to those worries in a pre-eminent way.
If we truly speak to our generation about the faith in its own language, we won't merely put a Catholic veneer over the customs of our day.
We will do as Sts. Cyril and Methodius did. “By incarnating the Gospel in the native culture of the peoples which they were evangelizing [they] were especially meritorious for the formation and development of that same culture, or rather of many cultures.”
So maybe my wife and I are on the right track with our Sts. Cyril and Methodius Valentines. We will continue to exchange hearts and chocolates, fully appropriating the culture of our day — but with a prayer that we may all be modern Apostles of the Slavs, and help that culture turn its energy to the deeper love and joy of the Gospel.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tom Hoopes ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: In the Heart of the Metropolis DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:St. Peter's Church in New York has seen it all, from farmland to financial district.
Lower Manhattan is a series of narrow streets that originated with the Dutch settlement at the southern tip of the island. The British and, later, the Americans lengthened those lanes to reach farmlands that would someday be the site of the World Trade Center's twin towers.
In the late 18th century, New York City was small but not unimportant. It was the temporary capital of the new republic and therefore served as host to the diplomatic community assigned to the the fledgling nation. This was fortunate for the city's Catholics as they were able to gather for Mass at the home of the Spanish Ambassador, one of several Catholic emissaries and businessmen recently arrived in New York.
On Oct. 5, 1785, these Catholics saw a dream of their own church come closer to reality as the cornerstone for St. Peter's Church was laid at the corner of Barclay and Church streets.
Today, less than a half-mile from Federal Hall, the site of George Washington's first inauguration in 1789, St. Peter's continues to occupy the same spot on which it was founded. It wears the venerable mantle of being the first parish in New York state.
Of course, early parishioners wouldn't recognize the rows of neighborhood high-rise buildings, City Hall and Park a block away, and the Wall Street district, a short walk away. But they would still feel right at home before the magnificent painting “The Crucifixion” that has always been the structure's artistic and spiritual centerpiece.
A gift to the parish from the archbishop of Mexico City in 1789, it was painted by Mexican artist José Vallejo. At the beginning of the 19th century, the painting of the suffering Lord was a favorite of St. Peter's best-known parishioner, Elizabeth Ann Seton, who would become the first native U.S. citizen to be canonized a saint. Today, it remains above the tabernacle, centered on the reredos, a major inspiration for prayer for over 200 years.
“How that heart died away, as it were, in silence before that little tabernacle and the great Crucifixion above it,” wrote the future saint of her first visit to St. Peter's. She would return throughout her days in New York, meditating before the painting for hours at a time.
A native of the city and a member of the Protestant gentry, Seton worshipped at St. Paul's Episcopal. Dedicated in 1766, it is the oldest standing church in the city. She began worshipping at St. Peter's even before becoming Catholic. Following her husband's death, she wrote to a friend about a visit to St. Paul's: “I got in a side pew in which I was positioned in such a way that I was facing St. Peter's … in the next street. And I found myself speaking to the Blessed Sacrament in the Catholic Church, instead of looking at the naked altar where I was.”
On March 14, 1805, the young widow and mother made the longest journey of her life, leaving the Episcopal Church and going the two blocks to St. Peter's to become a Catholic.
Like St. Elizabeth, Pierre Tous-saint revered “The Crucifixion.” As a parishioner for 66 years, however, he knew both the original church and the present edifice that replaced it in 1836. The decision to build a new church was made to accommodate the growing congregation.
Starting when he was brought to New York in 1787 as a slave from Haiti (then called Saint Domingue by the French), he attended Mass daily at St. Peter's, where he also recited the rosary.
Declared venerable by Pope John Paul II in 1996, Toussaint must have been present at some of the Masses also attended by Seton. While they were from different backgrounds and neither mentions the other in writings, they must have known of each other. As foundress of the Sisters of Charity, Mother Seton sent nuns to help in an orphanage that Toussaint supported.
Toussaint might also have known Adelaide O'Sullivan, baptized as an infant at St. Peter's. She became Mother Adelaide of St. Theresa, a Carmelite prioress in Spain — another parishioner whose cause for sainthood is under consideration in Rome.
Toussaint, who lived just blocks north of the church, was a one-man charitable organization for the poor. He worked to buy the freedom of his sister and his future wife, Juliette. The couple became like foster parents to orphaned boys, raising and educating them in trades, then finding them jobs. This freed slave also brought to his home many victims of the yellow fever epidemics and nursed them back to health.
A top hairdresser always in demand by rich ladies, Toussaint was a tireless fund-raiser for many building and charitable projects, including the first St. Patrick's Cathedral in lower Manhattan and St. Patrick's Catholic Orphan Asylum. He was even confidant and counselor for many of the city's leading families. Some even called him “Our Saint Pierre.”
Another milestone: St. Peter's founded the first free Catholic school in New York in 1800, predating the public system, during a time when only the children of the wealthy were educated, and then by means of private tutors.
By 1831, children at St. Peter's Free School were being taught by Mother Seton's Sisters of Charity. This school was the root of the Catholic education system in the state. It closed in 1940 following the shift of the centuries-old residential neighborhood to what remains the capital of American business and finance.
The present church is a classic Greek revival edifice that includes a stately column-lined portico. The interior was renovated in 1905 with added marble, and again in 1989 for the parish bicentennial when the church was painted white, light mint green, with gilded highlighting that accentuates the Greco-Colonial architecture. Classic Greek detailing in scaled size even surrounds the tabernacle.
On the reredos, Ionic columns in contrasting marbles frame statues of Sts. Peter and Paul, and “The Crucifixion” painting.
To either side of the altar, intricate, arched white marble shrines honoring St. Patrick and St. Thérèse were added in this century. No less beautiful are side altars that honor the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph with the Child Jesus.
The church includes three notable murals. The elaborate ceiling above the main altar depicts the crucifixion of St. Peter. To either side, the nave depicts St. Peter in chains and St. Peter healing the beggar.
Groupings of Renaissance-style stained glass windows present four scenes connected with the Incarnation and Holy Family, and four from the Last Supper through the Ascension. Tall windows also honor our Blessed Mother and the saints. Their Renaissance look uses brilliant, flowing colors for images and medallions on the gold-white background.
Since Msgr. Robert M. O'Connell arrived as pastor in 1981, Sunday Mass attendance has increased as residences have reappeared in the neighborhood. The church now has St. Joseph's Chapel, a mission just blocks away at newly developing Battery Park City. Weekdays, the church has long since functioned as a parish away from home for thousands who work in the financial district. Six Masses, six hours of confessions, and nearly four hours of Eucharistic adoration are held every weekday.
The parish was established in tandem with the founding of a nation that would stretch far to the west. While all that surrounds the church at 16 Barclay St. has changed from farmland to finance, St. Peter's Church has become a local and federally recognized landmark. Through it all, the church remains the area's Catholic anchor and the parish church of American saints.
----- EXCERPT: After two centuries, New York's first parish still draws the faithful ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Travell -------- TITLE: Israel Invites Christian Leaders to Prepare for Jubilee DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—The Israel Ministry of Tourism will host some 500 Christian leaders from around the world in Jerusalem later this month to review Israel's plans for receiving the millions who are expected to visit the Holy Land leading up to and including the Jubilee Year 2000.
Israel's cities and its tourism industry have spent more than five years planning and building for the enormous influx of visitors and pilgrims, and the Holy Land 2000 Leaders Conference is being mounted to enable Christian leaders to see the developments, including an upgraded infrastructure, according to a press release.
The Christian leaders will be greeted by Israeli President Ezer Weizman, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism Moshe Katzav, and by Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert. They will also meet with Archbishop Michael Sabbah, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, and with municipal dignitaries in Tel Aviv, Tiberias, and Nazareth.
One of the highlights of Israel's plans for the Jubilee is the $100 million Nazareth2000 project, which has rebuilt Nazareth, the capital of Galilee. Several hotels are under construction in the city, and the ancient downtown quarter is being made accessible to pedestrians. Car traffic is restricted there, and visitors can stroll paths from the Basilica of the Annunciation to Mary's Well, the Synagogue Church, and the old market.
Mitri Abuita, the Palestinian minister of tourism and antiquities, will host delegates for lunch in Bethlehem, which is now administered by the Palestinian National Autonomy. He will review the details of a major improvement program that is already transforming the city's famed Manger Square.
For more information, call the Ministry of Tourism at 1-888-77-ISRAEL, or by e-mail at info@goisrael.com. The ministry's North American web site is www.goisrael. com. (Register Staff)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Lies of the Rich and Famous DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Everyone knows we live in a celebrity-obsessed culture. The important question is what effect this has on our values and systems of belief.
The changes are far-reaching. Some sociologists indicate that children today, influenced by the media, quickly divide the world into two classes of people: those who are famous and those who are not. It could even be argued that the American public now considers the president to be our No. 1 celebrity and judges his behavior, not as our Founding Fathers intended, but by standards previously thought appropriate only for Hollywood stars and European royalty.
Over the past two decades writers like Tom Wolfe and the late Christopher Lasch have examined the links between narcissism and our fixation on the famous. This subject matter is no longer new. Anyone addressing it should have something original to contribute.
One would expect Woody Allen to have illuminating and provocative insights to add to the discussion. He has been in the spotlight as an actor-writer-director for more than three decades, and in recent years the dark sides of his personal life have been highly publicized.
Celebrityis his attempt to dramatize the subject, and it's a disappointment. While individual scenes are funny and charming, the overall effect is bitter and cynical. The movie's satiric targets have been more cleverly lampooned by him before, and romantic longing, so touchingly evoked in some of his earlier works, is now confused with lust.
Lee Simon (Kenneth Branagh) is a failed novelist who supports himself by celebrity journalism. Dissatisfied with his prospects, he hopes that divorcing his schoolteacher wife, Robin (Judy Davis), will somehow give him the freedom he needs. Using an episodic structure, the filmmaker follows this newly liberated bachelor through the underside of the glamorous worlds of fashion, publishing, television, and movie-making.
Lee's ethical standards are questionable. The movie opens with him working on a profile of feature-film superstar Nicole Oliver (Melanie Griffiths). He implicitly promises to write a favorable piece if she'll agree to read his screenplay.
The journalist degrades himself further when he pushes his movie project on the drug-addled, teenage-heartthrob Brandon Darrow (Leonardo DiCaprio), who beats his girlfriend (Gretchen Mol) and gets away with it because he's famous. Lee, like everyone else who wants something from Darrow, shamefully looks the other way.
The failed novelist gets entangled in a trio of complicated women. Allen tries to milk as many laughs as possible from Lee's pursuit of a disco-dancing, health food-addicted supermodel (Charlize Theron). But the jokes turn nasty when he messes up a relationship with a high-powered editor, Bonnie (Famke Janssen), and tries to settle down with a waitress and aspiring actress, Nola (Winona Ryder), who's as narcissistic as any superstar.
At the same time, Lee's discarded wife, Robin, hooks up with a hotshot TV producer, Tony Gardella (Joe Mantegna), and achieves her own mini-stardom as the host of a local celebrity talk show. The irony of her unexpected fame is heavily underlined, but the movie's attitude toward it is complacent and muddled. Its message seems to be that even though the celebrity culture's values are soul-destroying, failure to achieve recognizable success is worse.
If the viewer takes a step back from Lee's situation, it becomes clear that he's facing a spiritual crisis. His career disappointments have forced him to confront questions about life's meaning he'd prefer to avoid. Allen, however, also wants to duck the same issues. Instead he takes cheap shots at the Catholic Church, the only other value system apart from celebrity worship presented in the movie.
Before achieving TV talk-show fame, Robin goes on a religious retreat in hopes of easing the emotional pain of her divorce. The featured attraction is a priest, Father Gladden, who's built up a following on TV. Allen depicts him as a minor-league celebrity whose level of spiritual discourse is characterized by questions like: “Was Elvis more popular than the Pope?”
Allen's point is that the Church has been just as corrupted by celebrity-culture values as the rest of society. This is demonstrably false. In Father Gladden, Allen has created a straw man with which to beat the Church. For better or for worse, Catholics have no evangelists with the celebrity starpower of Protestants like Billy Graham or Pat Robertson.
Frederico Fellini's 1962 classic, La Dolce Vita,tackles the same subject as Celebrityin a more imaginative and thought-provoking manner. It too chronicles the picaresque adventures of a spiritually lost journalist, both fascinated and trapped by the celebrity culture of his time. By the movie's end, its main character, like Lee, is more bewildered than saved.
Fellini also deals with the Catholic Church at the margins of his story, but, unlike Allen, he treats its faith with respect, hinting at the possibility of a moral center for his main character if only he would turn to it. As a result, the audience is left with a faint sense of hope in the midst of all the vanity and despair.
Allen is no longer the witty, wise, and somewhat melancholy filmmaker who made the likes of Annie Halland Hannah and Her Sisters.It's as if the negative fallout from his own celebrityhood has caused a hardening of his creative arteries, and he's run out of things to say. Celebrityis more an artifact of our narcissistic culture than a critical comment on it.
Arts & Culture correspondent John Prizer currently writes from Paris.
Celebrity is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America.
----- EXCERPT: Celebrity shows Woody Allen is running out of things to say ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Videos on Release DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Lethal Weapon IV
1987's Lethal Weapon partnered Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as unconventional Los Angeles police detectives. Gibson played the widowed Martin Riggs, a risk-taker who didn't care if he lived or died. Glover was Roger Murtaugh, a cautious family man. The film made a fortune, and a series was born. Lethal Weapon 4, the series’ latest installment, picks up soon after Lethal Weapon 3 left off. Riggs and Murtaugh are still detectives, but their habit of collaring criminals in the midst of massive explosions has made them too expensive for the L.A.P.D. to insure as ordinary street investigators. So they're kicked up to captain. Their promotion, however, doesn't stop them from trying to bust open a case that involves counterfeiting and smuggling Chinese illegals to America. Complicating the situation is the pregnancy of Riggs’ girlfriend, the highly competent detective Lorna Cole (Rene Russo), who wants to marry Riggs. Also pregnant is Murtaugh's daughter, who has secretly married Lee Butters (Christ Rock), a go-getting cop. Eventually, the strands of this complicated mess unravel. The good guys win; the bad guys take some violent falls; and the Lethal Weapon series concludes with a so-so finale.
Register Ratings V-2 L-2 N:0 S:0
Rush Hour
Rush Hour is filled with nearly every buddy-cop-movie cliché imaginable and has little new to offer beyond teaming the stoic Chinese martial-arts star Jackie Chan with the streetwise American comedian Chris Tucker. The plot gets going in Hong Kong just as the British are handing it over to the Chinese. Detective Inspector Lee (Chan) almost succeeds in capturing a top criminal, but the fugitive gets away. The action quickly jumps to Los Angeles where Detective James Carter (Tucker) is slightly more successful in apprehending criminals. Carter's unorthodox style alienates his police superiors, and they assign him to FBI agents who need assistance in solving the kidnapping of the Chinese counsel's daughter. The agents want Carter to baby-sit Lee, who has been imported by the desperately worried counsel. Lee is too competent to stay on the sidelines, and after a series of culture-clash misunderstandings, he and Carter team up to find the little girl and collar the mastermind behind the plot. Martial-arts fans will enjoy watching Chan do his stuff, and action addicts will get a fix from watching Rush Hour's pyrotechnics. Other viewers will anxiously watch the clock, waiting for this leaden thriller-comedy to finally terminate.
Register Ratings V-2 L-2 N:0 S:0
— Loretta Seyer
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: JEAN-LOUP DHERSE DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Personal: Aged 66, born in Peru, lives in Paris with his wife Nellie and has two daughters
Background: a graduate of France's Ecole Nationale D'Administration, which trains the country's civil and political elite (the current President, Prime Minister, and half of the French cabinet are all alumini). After a period in the Civil Service he went into business and 10 years later was appointed Executive Director of the British-based mining multi-national Company Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ).
From 1983-S96 he was loaned as vice-president to the World Bank in Washington. Chief executive of Eurotunnel the joint French and British company.
Current Position: Involved with The Emmanuel Community, a Charismatic community of priests, religious, families, and lay single people which is responsible for 35 parishes in 20 dioceses and runs four international schools of evangelization — including one in conjunction with the Pontifical Council for the Laity
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Making a Difference With World Hunger DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:What is the bridge that takes us to individual actions from decisions that we make regarding the state of the world? There must be some bridge. World hunger gives an example of how to find this bridge.
95% of the hungry in the world are in structures of chronic poverty. 800 million people are currently hungry. 40 years ago the number was the same. Is this success?
On the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace, we tried to look at world hunger from four angles:
1. The quantifiable approach
Production of food has increased considerably over the past 40 years: significantly faster than world population. But the problem still exists.
2. Structure
These are political, institutional, legal, organizational aspects. Good structure does not solve everything but it is very important. We must improve the opportunity for more people to bring their talents to this common task of food production. Removing shackles to production increases yield worldwide. Structural reform begins at home.
3. Behavior
The key to behavior is mutual trust. When mutual trust cannot be inspired, force can be applied or we can try to buy ourselves out of a problem. Neither of these options is desirable.
4. Examine motivations
What are the motivations in a given situation: personal (money, prestige), institutional (working for an organization), concern for people (love for others)? How does everybody benefit from a decision? Does everybody benefit from a decision? If not, find another [solution]. Look more deeply at the situation.
Concern for people will lead us to better solutions. We are talking about a concern that goes to the root of the issue. This concern changes the type of decision we will accept.
Poverty is an indicator that our systems are not working well. They are like a danger light on the global dashboard. There is something fundamental that we are doing that is wrong and we need to attend to our systems.
Without concern for people, we are more likely to participate in the structure of sin, as Pope John Paul II calls it. To reverse this requires courage; heroes are needed.
Whatever we do, as individuals and nations, has consequences for the poor. There is a ripple affect with these things. We are all members of a system of universal co-responsibility.
The world has been, and is being, conceived by the Lord in a way which allows the proper harmony of individual interest, institutional interest, and concern for people.
This harmony can be called the common good. This is not an abstraction. It should be a lens through which we look at situations before we make decisions.
The poor need a legitimate voice. We must hear from them directly and not through intermediaries.
The vision of the poor is unique and is necessary to make a decision that brings this harmony. The world is simultaneously beautiful and deeply wounded. (Adapted from www.saintolaf. org.)
----- EXCERPT: This excerpt was taken from a speech the author gave at a Faith at Work breakfast at St. Olaf Church, Minneapolis, last April 16. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jean-Loup Dherse ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Cardinal George Warns Colleges About U.S. 'Culture of Autonomy' DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—Francis Cardinal George, archbishop of Chicago, said the “culture of autonomy” in the United States is a major challenge to the American bishops’ implementation of a papal document on Catholic colleges and universities.
In remarks Feb. 2 to a meeting of Catholic college educators, Cardinal George said was confident the U.S. bishops would take the implementation of the document, Ex Corde Ecclesiae,“to the next level” at their meeting this coming November.
His comments came during what many observers believed to be an important moment in the ongoing effort by bishops and Catholic higher education officials to implement Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Pope John II's 1990 apostolic constitution on Catholic universities.
Of the 350 people attending the meeting of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C., more than 140 were presidents of Catholic colleges and universities.
Much attention turned to the draft document approved by the bishops approved last November. In an effort to implement Ex Corde Ecclesiae, it included juridical norms governing Catholic higher education. The bishops are receiving comments and suggestions on the proposal, and are scheduled to vote on a reworked draft at their annual plenary meeting in November.
Cardinal George stated that he was sure the bishops would approve some version of the current draft, and then send it to the Holy See for final approval.
In 1996, the bishops approved a second draft on the same topic, but it was not accepted by the Congregation for Catholic Education in Rome. The congregation acknowledged the document as a laudable “first step,” but wanted it to include concrete juridical measures, which Ex Corde Ecclesiae envisioned.
The new draft, produced by a subcommittee headed by Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua of Philadelphia, contains the juridical elements desired by the Holy See, for example, that a majority of a university's faculty and trustees be faithful Catholics and that professors of theology obtain a mandate to teach from the local bishop.
The bishops are scheduled to vote on the draft, which can still be revised, at their annual plenary meeting in November 1999.
These juridical elements have triggered some educators to register public opposition to the bishops’ proposal. Most recently, the president of Notre Dame, Father Edward Malloy CSC, and the chancellor of Boston College, Father Donald Monan SJ, authored a highly critical article in the Jan. 30 issue of America, the Jesuit weekly magazine.
Fathers Malloy and Monan claim that if the bishops’ proposal were approved, it would “create an impasse” in the relationship and dialogue between bishops and Catholic colleges and universities. They believe the juridical measures within the draft essentially draw bishops into the internal governance of colleges and universities.
Cardinal George devoted a great portion of his talk to refuting this opinion. He began by recalling his experience accompanying the Holy Father on his recent pastoral visits to Mexico City and St. Louis.
He said that in Mexico City, people lined the streets from the airport to the residence of the apostolic nuncio where the Pope stayed. During the entire visit the Pope had contact with the people; Cardinal George said he couldn't even remember seeing a single police officer, though he knew that security was provided.
By contrast, the Pope's visit to St. Louis was marked by high levels of security. Contact between the people and the pontiff was very controlled and kept to a minimum. Scores of police officers were present at every location.
While acknowledging the importance of providing for the Pope's security, Cardinal George said the experience led him to characterize the difference in pastoral visits as the difference between the “culture of relationship” and the “culture of autonomy.” He contended that the U.S. “culture of autonomy” lies at the heart of the difficulty between bishops and Catholic colleges and universities in implementing Ex Corde Ecclesiae.
The cardinal went on to try to alleviate some of the tension by refocusing the notion of “juridical” from the connotation of “control” to an understanding of “relationship.”
By contrasting the papal visits to Mexico City and St. Louis, he said that in the U.S.’ sophisticated and high-powered culture, people tend to become preoccupied with suspicion and distrust. The major thrust of the bishops’ proposal, however, is a reaffirmation of the communion that exists between Catholic colleges and universities and the Church in general, he added.
“There are no bishops out there thirsting to control a university,” Cardinal George asserted.
A bishop is the head of a local faith community, the cardinal added, and as such has a special responsibility to support and promote a Catholic university that may be within his diocese. Bishops, he added, desire the very same thing Catholic educators desire, namely a strong Catholic identity that not only features the faith, but also features an outstanding educational tradition and commitment.
Mo Fung is former executive director of the Cardinal Newman Society.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mo Fung ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: EDUCATION NOTEBOOK DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:At Harvard, Christianity Is a 'Skeleton in the Closet’
The two students did not solicit the endorsement, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, but when it led someone to suspect a Christian motivation behind their campaign — a campaign calling for “compassion, collaboration, and innovation” — they were narrowly defeated.
When the prayer request got out, posters based on a series of Internet links to a Bible-study group portrayed the King-Driskell ticket as intent on evangelizing Harvard's campus. The Journal report said that King was indeed a Christian but that neither of the candidates had any connection whatever to the Bible group nor any plans to evangelize. Nonetheless, the student paper, the Harvard Crimson, editorialized, “Their promise of ‘values-driven leadership’ is vague and worrisome; though King and Driskell say they want to unify the campus, their ties to religious groups have raised concerns among many students.”
After this “skeleton in his closet” cost him the election King said he struggled “with the fact that in 1999 at Harvard you could be so persecuted for being a Christian.” The Journalreport quoted former Undergraduate Council President Beth Stewart saying, “Certainly, there is a prejudice against Christianity here more than against any other religion.”
At Notre Dame, Students Seek ‘Homosexual Rights’
ASSOCIATED PRESS,Feb. 4— At Notre Dame Feb. 3, 100 students began a hunger strike saying that the university must change its policy about homosexual rights. The protest came in the context of a scheduled meeting of the trustees of Notre Dame that, among other topics, plans to consider a homosexual anti-discrimination policy.
The proposed policy was approved last year by the Senate Faculty and the Academic Council of Notre Dame.
The Associated Press report noted that “Catholic doctrine teaches that homosexuals are to be loved like all God's creatures, but that homosexual sex is a sin.” Dennis Moore, a university spokesman, said, “The difference between sexual orientation and sexual practice sometimes doesn't seem to be recognized,” but that it is an important distinction in Catholic doctrine. Moore also said that, as a practical matter, Notre Dame does not discriminate against homosexuals.
In 1995 Notre Dame banned a student group for homosexuals and lesbians from meeting on campus, according to the AP, but it also made efforts to meet the needs of those same students. The report said Holy Ghost Father Edward Malloy, university president, had previously urged the Academic Council to reject the proposal and “would argue against it again” at the trustees meeting.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Can the Democrats Become Pro-Life? DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Washington Bureau Chief
WASHINGTON—On Jan. 22, when President Clinton called for increased security at abortion clinics and Hillary Clinton addressed a pro-abortion luncheon crowd, Democrat activist Lois Kerschen participated in the March for Life.
Kerschen of Hereford, Texas, was one of a number of Democrats who came to the nation's capital to support the pro-life effort. Challenging the strong support for abortion at the party's national level, she said, “The party has no right to ask people to choose between their party and their morals.”
Polling data, in fact, reflect that Democrats are pro-life. A survey taken Jan. 23-25 by The Polling Co. of Washington, D.C., showed that about half of Democrats are pro-life. Those who identify themselves as “strong Democrats,” according to research director Jason Booms, are perhaps even more pro-life — with from 45% to 53% identifying themselves as such.
Further, those senior citizens with strong New Deal-era roots are 70% pro-life, and two-thirds of black voters consider themselves pro-life.
Because of this dichotomy between the party's leadership, particularly in Washington, and its rank and file, Kerschen has worked to help establish National Democrats for Life, which was formally organized Feb. 2.
“There is a large body of people who are Democrats and pro-life, and we've been made to feel we don't belong in the party,” Kerschen said. “A lot of pro-life Democrats have left the party or have been sitting out there in limbo.
'There is a large body of people who are Democrats and pro-life, and we've been made to feel we don't belong in the party.’
“It's been a struggle. What we want to do is reassert our position in the party, be the voice of life in the party, and eventually turn the party around.”
Kerseben, who has been president of Texas Democrats for Life, was elected president of the new national organization. Another longtime party activist, Sally Winn of Springfield, Ill., is the executive director.
The former head of Indiana Democrats for Life, Winn said, “Our party is really suffering from taking this hard line on abortion. Our party used to be so wonderful and diverse, and it reflected a cross-section of society. Unfortunately, they [party leaders] are erecting litmus tests which are turning us into a monolithic party.”
The 1996 pro-abortion platform of the Democrat Party has a “conscience clause,” in which pro-lifers are told that their views are respected. But pro-life champion Robert Casey, the former Pennsylvania governor, was denied the opportunity to speak on the issue at the convention which adopted it.
In a speech he made right after the convention, Casey cited a leading Democrat of the past, on the need to protect life at key junctures: “We would look, in the words of Hubert Humphrey, to those in the shadow of life, those in the twilight of life, and those at the dawn of life.”
Winn, in a 1996 article in Christian American,published by the Christian Coalition, said, “Historically it has been the Democratic Party that has led the cause to protect the rights of those who are powerless and without voices.”
But she told the Registerthat pro-abortion leaders helped bankroll the national Democrat organization in the 1970s and have maintained a strong hold on the party purse strings, encouraging ambitious candidates to support abortion. “Money speaks and money is power, unfortunately,” she said. “They will go where the money is greatest.”
Although there are many prominent Democrats who support abortion, including Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and Rev. Jesse Jackson, there is still a core of pro-life Democratic officeholders around the country.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, for example, there are about 40 Democrats, about 20% of the party's membership, who consistently support pro-life positions. In addition, 77 House Democrats voted to override Clinton's veto of the partial-birth abortion ban in 1998.
Rep. Tony Hall of Dayton, Ohio, one of the most prominent House pro-life Democrats, has been approached to chair the National Democrats for Life's board of advisers. Other key pro-life House members include James Barcia of Michigan, the co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, and Ralph Hall of Texas.
In the November congressional elections, the Democratic campaign committee recruited four pro-life candidates who were elected in socially conservative districts in Mississippi, Kentucky, Illinois, and New York. In Pennsylvania, strongly pro-life Patrick Casey, son of the former governor, narrowly lost his bid.
One of the successful pro-life Democrats was David Phelps, who now represents a rural district in Southern Illinois. Phelps boasts a 100% pro-life voting record in his 14 years in the state Legislature.
After his election, Phelps told the Register,“I feel that life is life at conception. We should do everything we can to protect it. I can't deny what I believe. This business is not worth it to compromise who you are.”
In the Missouri House, David Reynolds of St. Louis County founded and chairs Missouri Democrats for Life, a group of 25 members who consistently vote pro-life. That represents nearly one quarter of the chamber's Democrats. “lt's an effort to publicly show that you can be pro-life and Democrat at the same time,” he told the Register.
Winn, the activist from Illinois, talked about the challenge these office-holders face: “It's very, very lonely. I don't think they're getting the pat on the back from the pro-life community. They're sticking their necks out every time they take a pro-life position.”
National Democrats for Life is hoping to encourage them while helping to swell the number of pro-life Democrats both in Washington and in the states. Their immediate goals are to establish chapters in 35 states, recruit pro-life candidates in those states, and encourage pro-life Democrats to take a more visible legislative role.
“We're talking about working from the local level on up,” Kerschen said. “It's important to bring our efforts even to the county courthouses.” The organization expects to develop a political action committee as well.
One of the board members, John Schmidt of Louisville, Ky., also emphasized the importance of grass-roots efforts. He said that an integral part of what he does as a Democrat precinct captain will be to emphasize the document Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics, which the nation's bishops adopted in November.
“I'm going to distribute it among the Catholic politicians I know; the bishops said it much better than I can,” he said. He added that he believes that Catholic support for a politician may hinge on the abortion issue. “I think politicians will follow money and votes.”
The director of the Republican National Coalition for Life, Colleen Parro, is supportive of the new organization.
“I think it's great,” she exclaimed. “The right to life should transcend all politics. It ought to be the center of everyone's activity. To the extent that they're willing to try, we wish them well.”
In the past month, another pro-life Democrat group has also been formed. The National Coalition of Pro-Life Democrats, drawing much of its membership from the Ancient Order of Hibernians, is seeking to elect local and state candidates in a fashion reminiscent of labor organizing.
One of the leaders of this group, Joe Barrett of Silver Spring, Md., said, “There is a need for an organization that can work with pro-life congressmen and state legislators and help keep them in office. We can show them and others the techniques on how to run a campaign.”
Practical politics is involved, he stressed.
“There is a light of day which is dawning on some Democrats” that pro-life votes are becoming important and candidates will recognize that, Barrett contended. “They haven't had an epiphany. They're not on the road to Damascus.” But more and more candidates, with a push from pro-life activists, will understand that supporting abortion will be a losing position, he said.
Some frustrated Democrats have left their party and joined the Republican Party, which often appears to be more hospitable to the pro-life cause. But staunch pro-life Democrats such as Kersehen, Winn, and Barrett discourage such moves.
Kerschen said, “If we abandon one whole party to the abortion advocates, then we will never turn things around in this country.” Barrett cited the Democrat Party as “a coalition of conscience, which is at once potentially our greatest strength and our greatest weakness.”
And Winn, the daughter of liberal parents who “marched for civil rights and against the Vietnam conflict,” said, “To me, the most logical party to be pro-life is the Democratic Party. We're the champions of the underdog. Why shouldn't we stand up for the unborn?”
She also has written, “Being a pro-life Democrat doesn't need to be seen as oxymoronic or as mutually exclusive. It will take time, but I know our party can find our way back to our pro-life roots. In the meantime, rather than cursing the darkness in our party, we need to start lighting candles.”
Joseph Esposito writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: People shouldn't have to choose between a party and morals, activist says ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Esposito ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: High Court: Operation Rescue Can't Sue Kennedy DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:The U.S. Supreme Court refused to revive a 1994 defamation suit filed against Senator Edward Kennedy by Operation Rescue in a ruling handed down late last month.
The group that stages non-violent protests in front of abortion clinics objected to charges Kennedy made during a videotaped news conference in Boston in November 1993.
The senator said, “People can have a difference on public policy issues, but when we have a national organization like Operation Rescue that has as a matter of national policy firebombing and even murder, that's unacceptable.”
Kennedy's statement about Operation Rescue was made at a time when Congress was debating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which eventually was passed into law. This law made it a federal crime to block abortion clinic entrances or to threaten those entering the clinics.
Philip Lawler, the lead defendant in the case, said that he first demanded a retraction of the statement from Senator Kennedy. After “getting no answer whatsoever” from Kennedy, he joined with the aforementioned Operation Rescue leaders and pressed forward with the suit against the longtime Democratic senator from Massachusetts.
“When Ted Kennedy said that we advocate blowing up abortion mills and shooting abortionists, we were shocked at that because of our stance against violence,” said Rev. Flip Benham, director of Operation Rescue National, headquartered in Dallas. “The ends never justify the means in God's economy.”
Over the years, Operation Rescue has developed a reputation for civil disobedience, especially for blockading entrances to abortion clinics. Many of their members have been arrested at various abortion protests around the country. But there is no record of them planning or committing acts of physical violence against abortion clinics or their employees, and they do not condone those anti-abortionists who have resorted to violent forms of protest.
“I recognize that Operation Rescue is unpopular. But this is one of those cases where, if government officials can foreclose the legal rights of unpopular groups, they can gradually narrow everyone's legal rights,” explained Lawler, who is editor of Catholic World Report magazine.
The Constitution grants members of Congress immunity from lawsuits that may arise because of remarks made within the halls of Congress. The Operation Rescue plaintiffs and their legal staff believed that Kennedy could be sued because, as they stated in a letter to their supporters, “since Ted Kennedy was speaking as a candidate, not as a Senator, the law was on our side … and the constitution was on our side. The prospects for our case looked good.”
The lawsuit, originally filed in state court in 1994 by three leaders of Operation Rescue in Massachusetts — Lawler, Randall Terry, and Robert Jewitt — charged that Kennedy's remarks “showed actual malice,” and “falsely accused them of criminal conduct, and by doing so had hurt their reputations.” The Supreme Court upheld the ruling of several lower courts, who all agreed that Kennedy's remarks fell within the scope of his official duties, and therefore he could not be sued for his statement.
“Barely a month after we went to court, we learned that the U.S. Department of Justice had intervened to protect Ted Kennedy,” Lawler explained in the same letter. “The U.S. attorney had certified that when Ted made those stunning remarks, he had been acting as an officer of the federal government. So, the federal government stepped in as defendant in the case, in place of Kennedy. Suddenly, instead of suing one individual, we were facing the full power of the United States government.”
The lower courts that heard the case, most recently the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, all concluded that Kennedy could not be sued for these remarks, delivered outside of the halls of Congress on a political fund-raising stop at a Boston hotel, because he was acting as an officer of the federal government at the time.
The Westfall Act of 1988 offers legal protection to federal officers and employees of the government's three branches for any actions considered part of their official duties.
Operation Rescue appealed these decisions all the way up to the Supreme Court, arguing that the Westfall Act was never intended to include members of Congress as federal employees eligible for this type of far-reaching legal protection. The Supreme Court's recent action upheld the lower court decisions without making any further comments about the case.
“In the legal appeals, the key question was whether or not we had the right to challenge Kennedy's statement in court,” Lawler told the Register. “The answer was no. We never even reached the point of challenging him to produce evidence to justify his defamatory statement. Of course there is no such evidence.”
“This decision does not bode well for the Christian community,” said Operation Rescue's Rev. Benham. “We see it more and more, trying to denigrate every Christian trying to stand for God's law. I would imagine in the next 10 years, we will see the persecution of Christians very blatantly.”
“There's a truly horrific precedent set in this case — a precedent which will almost certainly prompt another test case somewhere down the road,” Lawler warned. “As things now stand, if a member of Congress comes to town, holds a press conference, and calls you a killer, there's absolutely nothing you can do about it.
“Meanwhile, Senator Kennedy was quoted as saying he knew the case would go nowhere, since it was ‘frivolous.’ Now what, I ask, is frivolous? Is it frivolous to protest when accused of murder? Frivolous to ask that a senator be accountable for his public statements?”
Kennedy spokesman Jim Manley issued the following statement: “Senator Kennedy is glad that the matter has been resolved with the Supreme Court concluding that the 1st Circuit Court decision was correct.”
Molly Mulqueen writes from Colorado Springs, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Molly Mulqueen ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: 1st Execution in 23 Years DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:MANILA, Philippines—For the first time in 23 years, capital punishment was reapplied in the Philippines on Feb. 5 when a convicted child rapist was executed by the Philippine Supreme Court.
Despite appeals from the Vatican, the European Union, Canada, and Amnesty International, Philippine President Joseph Estrada insisted he would not grant pardon to the convict because of the nature of his offense. According to the Philippine Daily Inquirernewspaper, the president said the convict's crime was not borne out of poverty but by “bestial tendencies.”
Leo Echegaray, a 38-year-old house-painter found guilty of repeatedly raping his 10-year-old stepdaughter, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Jan. 4 but the Philippine Supreme Court ordered a six-month delay to allow Congress to review a law that restored the death penalty in 1994.
The decision was strongly opposed by Manila's Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, the most influential churchman in the only Catholic country in Asia. Although the majority of Filipinos are Catholic, many of them also support the death penalty.
The court's decision to delay Echegaray's execution sparked an uproar among many Filipinos exasperated by crime. The president's wife, Luisa Ejercito, and Vice President Gloria Arroyo led thousands in a street protest in support of capital punishment.
The Church's opposition to the execution of Echegaray inspired supporters of the death penalty to accuse priests and bishops of siding with criminals instead of crime victims.
Cardinal Sin stressed that the Church “does not like to coddle criminals” and that while “mercy without justice is weakness, justice without mercy is barbaric,” according to news service sources. He added that the Vatican views the death penalty as theoretically permissible in circumstances when it is “the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.”
The cardinal continued saying that “the Holy See holds that such circumstances are ‘practically nonexistent’ in today's world, in view of the resources available to governments to restrain convicted criminals from committing violent acts.”
The convicted man's lawyers had released a study claiming that there were serious flaws in the country's judicial system which could result in the execution of innocent people. Echegaray's lawyer, Theodore Te, filed a motion for reconsideration as a last recourse to convince the court to delay the lethal injection. He debated that there were still some congressmen wanting to abolish capital punishment.
Justice Secretary Serafin Cuevas said, however, that he did not think the tribunal would uphold Te's petition this time because of the popular demand for the death penalty. “People might think that we are bloodthirsty, but we cannot do anything except to uphold our sworn duty,” Cuevas said.
Echegaray was the first among more than 800 death row inmates to be executed. More than 450 of those on death row are convicted of rape, including 159 who abused their own children or other close relatives. At least 11 other death row inmates could be executed this year and 10 others next year. According to the Philippine Star, other convicts on death row also wept upon hearing of the Supreme Court decision which could pave the way for their own executions.
“We cannot do anything anymore,” said Maria Socorro Diokno of the Free Legal Assistance Group, a committee of lawyers which has been representing Echegaray.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines noted Estrada's position against the legalization of abortion. He had said he was “pro-life.”
But Archbishop Oscar Cruz, conference president, wondered how Estrada could be pro-life and pro-death at the same time, referring to his strong support for capital punishment.
Estrada retorted, to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, “They should not connect that. Their interpretation is not good. It's preposterous of them … pro-death does not mean against pro-life … pro-life was more … against family planning.”
Estrada continued: “Of course I am against [abortion]. In fact, I am eighth in the family. Had my parents practiced population control, I would not have been born. So when I say pro-life, I mean, I am against abortion.”
Diokno raised questions as to whether capital punishment actually deters crime. She referred to a study that crime in the Philippines declined since the abolition of the death penalty in 1987. (From combined dispatches)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: The Gospel Of Life DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:InEvangelium Vitae Pope John Paul II often speaks about how the perception of the seriousness of abortion is becoming progressively camouflaged.
(See story by Molly Mulqueen)
Among all the crimes which can be committed against life, procured abortion has characteristics making it particularly serious and deplorable. (58.1)
The Second Vatican Council defines abortion, together with infanticide, as an “unspeakable crime.”[54]
But today, in many people's consciences, the perception of its gravity has become progressively obscured. The acceptance of abortion in the popular mind, in behavior and even in law itself, is a telling sign of an extremely dangerous crisis of the moral sense, which is becoming more and more incapable of distinguishing between good and evil, even when the fundamental right to life is at stake. Given such a grave situation, we need now more than ever to have the courage to look the truth in the eye and to call things by their proper name, without yielding to convenient compromises or to the temptation of self-deception. In this regard the reproach of the Prophet is extremely straightforward: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20). Especially in the case of abortion there is a widespread use of ambiguous terminology, such as “interruption of pregnancy,” which tends to hide abortion's true nature and to attenuate its seriousness in public opinion. Perhaps this linguistic phenomenon is itself a symptom of an uneasiness of conscience. But no word has the power to change the reality of things: procured abortion is the deliberate and direct killing, by whatever means it is carried out, of a human being in the initial phase of his or her existence, extending from conception to birth.(58.2)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Jailed Abortion-Seeker Gives Birth, Then Sues DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:CLEVELAND—A woman whose plans to have an abortion were thwarted when a judge sent her to prison for credit card forgery has given birth to a baby girl.
“That's wonderful. I hope everything is OK,” Judge Patricia Cleary said upon learning that the woman who is suing her — Yuriko Kawaguchi — had given birth to a daughter.
Kawaguchi, 21, and her baby were doing well on Tuesday, said George Carr, one of her lawyers. The 7-pound, 1-ounce girl was born Monday in the San Francisco area.
The lawsuit accuses Cleary of violating Kawaguchi's right to have an abortion by sending her to prison for an offense that gets most offenders probation.
Cleary has said repeatedly, and reiterated Tuesday, that the sentence was based on the severity of the crime, which involved buying computers with fake credit cards and selling the merchandise.
It's not like she wrote a bad check to pay the rent,” Cleary said. “But I'm not going to be a hypocrite. I think it worked out swell if that was her desire to abort her child that late.”
Kawaguchi pleaded guilty to a forgery charge in the credit card scam. At that time, she referred to her “unwanted pregnancy” and told the judge: “I will be trying to have a procedure.”
At an Oct. 6 sentencing hearing, Kawaguchi was more than five months pregnant and sought probation. At one point the judge said: “She is not having a second-term abortion.”
Cleary, who opposes abortion, sentenced Kawaguchi to six months in prison, with credit for more than four months already spent in jail. A state appeals court ordered Kawaguchi's release on bond Oct. 13 while she fights her sentence, a court battle that is ongoing.
She decided upon her release that she was too far along in her pregnancy to legally have an abortion in Ohio, which allows abortion after 22 weeks only in unusual cases.
She said last fall she would have undergone an abortion but had decided to keep the baby.
In November, she won permission to go to California, where she lives with her mother and sister. Phone messages left Tuesday for the Kawaguchi family were not returned.
Ohio prisoners can get abortions, but the abortion facility that provides them generally does not perform them after the fourth month of pregnancy, said state prisons spokesman Joseph Andrews. (Pro-Life Infonet)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Did you know? DATE: 02/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Abortion advocates often point to the distress of pregnant mothers as a reason that abortion must be kept a legal option. But studies show that, even by this argument, abortion is not the answer.
• One report cited by Human Life International's Dr. Brian Clowes, PhD. found that women who abort have more psychological problems than women who carry to term, and can be expected to require psychiatric help up to eight times more frequently than women who do not abort.
Badgely, et. Al. Report of the Committee on the Operation of the Abortion Law. Ottawa: Supply and Services, 1977, pp. 313-321.
• Another report stated that 20% of women who abort consider suicide at some time, compared with 12% of women who do not abort.
• One-fourth of women who abort are heavy alcohol users, compared with one-eight of women in general.
Louis Harris & Associates. “The Health of American Women.” The Commonwealth Fund, Table 418 p. 451. 20 April 1993.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Facts Of Life -------- TITLE: American Shows Targeted By British-TV Watchdogs DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:LONDON—In America, parents often fear for what their children might see on television.
Across the Atlantic, it's worse. Britain's newest free television station, Channel 5, is airing movies that are rated “18” in theaters there — the equivalent of the American “X.”
“We have been accused of showing soft porn,” said a spokesman for the channel. “These are not soft porn; they are erotic dramas. Anybody who thinks they are has never seen a soft porn film.”
Catholic activists disagree, and say that movies like mmanuelle and The Happy Hooker have no place on channels as accessible as America's network TV.
“They are turning our living rooms into red-light zones,” said John Beyer, who heads Britain's leading viewers organization.
Jim McDonnell, a consultor to the Pontifical Council For Social Communications and director of the Catholic Communications Center, the media training center funded by the English and Welsh Bishops'Conference, is calling on Catholics to make their voice heard.
“If viewers do not protest, then a change for the worse will happen,” he warned. “It is up to ordinary people to phone and complain.”
That outcry has already had an effect. Britain's Broadcasting Standards Commission, citing complaints, issued a report castigating Channel 5 for broadcasting erotic material “for its own sake, especially its regular screenings of two U.S. imported series, Compromising Situations and Hot Line. ... In the commission's judgments the point of those programs was clearly erotic.”
The station defends itself both by calling the programs “dramas” and by arguing that, after 9 p.m. — the so-called watershed hour in Britain — anything goes.
The report disagrees.
“The commission acknowledges the arguments put forward by Channel 5 about the time of transmission of these programs and the warnings that had been provided,” it said. “Nevertheless, in the commission's view, the inclusion for its own sake, of erotic material in a free-to-air television service is a steep change in the use of sex on British television and begins to erode the other difference, which research indicates that viewers themselves wish to see, between what is available on open access channels and that which is available through pay services.”
Beyer, director of the National Viewers and Listeners Association, said that Channel 5 also has aired documentary series such as Sex and Shopping, which showed clips from European and U.S. porn films as part of its reportage on prostitution.
“I don't believe this is really what people want in their living rooms,” Beyer contended. “I think people want excellent drama and good films they don't want to be experiencing a strip club or a brothel in their own families.”
McDonnell said that by showing such material, even in a news format, “Channel 5 is pushing back the boundaries of public acceptability and my sympathy” is with the standards commission, he said. “People will keep trying to push the boundaries, but the question for society is how far we are prepared to change in relation to the kind of material to be shown.”
‘I don't believe this is really what people want in their living rooms ... I think people want excellent drama and good films they don't want to be experiencing a strip club or a brothel in their own families.’
The standards commission report is sympathetic to that argument.
“The commission also considers that [the questionable shows'] inclusion in mainstream television runs the risk of encouraging both the amount of such material and the erosion of standards generally,” said the report.
In a letter to The Times of London, Channel 5's chief executive David Elstein said, “The [standards commission] is anachronistic and patronizing in seeking to challenge the right of free-to-air viewers to watch what would be perfectly acceptable on pay television and what would probably earn a 15 certificate if submitted to the British Board of Film Classification for classification.”
Said Beyer, “In the last 15 years our standards have been falling. The head of Channel 5 seems to assume that everybody likes this kind of material simply because very few people write to protest and complain about it. This does not signify public approval. ... There is very little public debate about these sort of issues.”
He added, “We have excellent costume dramas such as the BBC's Pride and Prejudice which are admired the world over and these show that you can have quality programs which are not sexually explicit and attract good ratings.”
Elstein also accused the Standards Commission of “simply seeking to assert its own aesthetic judgment over the clearly stated preferences of Channel 5 viewers.”
He added, “The time has come for a genuine public debate — not the conversations of the chattering classes or debate by focus group it has to be far wider than that; we need a referendum.”
The commission has planned no such action. It pledged to keep the issues under close review, adding, “The commission wishes to remind broadcasters that gratuitous scenes of violent or coercive sex are unacceptable.”
Both sides feel confident that they would prevail if the issue were brought before the public. A Channel 5 spokesman said viewers like the show, and generally “people do not think there is too much sex on television.”
McDonnell said he considers the matter a challenge to Catholics in the pew.
Catholics must do all they can to prevent Channel 5 programming from continuing to undermine standards, he said. “We as a Church consistently try to uphold and support those people who are trying to uphold public standards.”
Paul Burnell writes from Manchester, England.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Paul Burnell ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Identity Crisis on Campuses? DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:DALLAS—Not everyone at the University of Dallas knows how to pray the rosary. Some students carouse more than they ought and a few even roll their eyes at all the talk of ecclesial authority.
But many students do pray in their dormitories, and they go to Mass regularly. They know that in classes and other places on campus they will hear the official Church view of the world.
“The theology programs here are a nice change,” said Rachel Deeken, a sophomore from Springfield, Mo., who had never before had Catholic schooling. “It's nice to see a lot of the teachers at daily Mass. I really like the ... general attitude here.”
There is little dispute that since the Second Vatican Council, Catholic colleges have come more to resemble secular colleges, in everything from academics to student life and composition of faculty.
The trend has been strong enough to inspire the founding of new schools to buck the secularization trend and to offer an explicitly and unapologetically Catholic education. These post-counciliar colleges include Thomas Aquinas in California, Christendom in Virginia, and Magdalen in New Hampshire.
While arguments about what makes a college Catholic have raged for decades, the University of Dallas and a few other institutions of higher learning that predate Vatican II have quietly retained standards and practices that leave little doubt about their Catholic identity.
“We try to do it in all aspects of the university,” said Glen Thurow, dean of the Texas liberal arts school, which has almost 3,000 students. Founded in 1956 in response to the Protestant culture of north Texas, the university saw itself as a Catholic stronghold from the start. That view remains.
Everyone in the theology department is Catholic. Christian writers like Dante, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas are a major part of classes in literature and philosophy. Science faculty acknowledge that learning about the universe around us supports rather than negates the idea of God.
“We try to hire faculty members who regard their Catholicity as important and regard the teaching magisterium of the Church as something that should be paid attention to and given proper respect,” said Thurow. “All of our faculty members in theology have felt free to explore, knowing there is a big difference in looking at things that are part of Church teaching that might be laid out and properly examined and calling out the newspaper and saying the pope is utterly wrong.”
Thurow admitted that, when it comes to sex and drinking, students are less disciplined than in the 1950s. But he added the university does what it can to “create an atmosphere that will guide students in the right way.”
T-shirts and Cybersermons
At Assumption College in Worcester, Mass., students walk around campus wearing T-shirts that say “Wake up to the 7 a.m. Mass.” The message refers not only to the early Sunday worship but the clean living that tends to go with it. With 2,200 students, Assumption requires a heavy load of theology and philosophy courses and has a centrally located, unmistakably Catholic chapel.
In October, 300 of the school's athletes packed the chapel and received medals of St. Sebastian, the patron saint of athletes.
On the college Web site, an Assumptionist priest visiting the Holy Land sends frequent reflections on faith called “God-OnLine.” Assumptionists, who founded the school in 1904, make up a third of the college's board of trustees, which also includes Worcester Bishop Daniel Reilly. That makeup is unusually religious by modern standards.
“We are not a parish and not a retreat house and we are not a seminary, but our motto is ‘Until Christ be formed in you,’” said Thomas Plough, president of Assumption. “We have been fairly autonomous, but have not given up the mission. The search for truth does not negate the fact that there is a source of all truth.”
In its philosophy-of-curriculum statement, the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, speaks of a “dynamic orthodoxy” in which all knowledge is viewed strictly in relationship to Christian truths. The university is divided into “households” of six or a dozen students who pray together and encourage each other in the faith.
The Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, D.C., the nation's only institution of higher learning with a papal charter, is reaffirming its identity via a new leader.
“My hopes for the future are simple: that The Catholic University of America will see, once again, its responsibility as the national university of the Church in the United States — to be what its name proclaims,” explains Vincentian Father David O'Connell, president of the 6,000-student school since last fall. “I envision an institution that is of the highest academic caliber while also being true to its identity and mission without compromise or condition.”
The Highest Science
St. John's and Niagara universities both reject New York state funding to avoid compromising their Catholicity. Father O'Connell, who held administrative posts at both schools, explained that what makes a university Catholic is the same as what makes an individual Catholic: faithfulness to the Gospel and Church teachings, commitment to the dignity of human life, commitment to service, and commitment to a spiritual life.
To be “Catholic,” theology must be presented “as a science in communion with the church,” Father O'Connell said. Not all leaders of colleges with Catholic connections want to do quite what Dallas, Assumption, and CUA are doing.
In his apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae Pope John Paul II had the highest praise for theology. But he also said, “Every Catholic university feels responsible to contribute concretely to the progress of the society within which it works: for example it will be capable of searching for ways to make university education accessible to all those who are able to benefit from it, especially the poor or members of minority groups who customarily have been deprived of it. A Catholic university also has the responsibility, to the degree that it is able, to help to promote the development of the emerging nations” (No. 32).
Community Service
In the past five years, most colleges have started paying more attention to their Catholic identity. A study of 25 Catholic colleges released this month at the University of Dayton shows that schools have “become much more concerned with their mission and maintaining the Catholic character.”
Many Catholic colleges and universities have hired religious to keep an eye on mission and Catholic identity.
For four years, Irish Christian Brother Jack Mostyn has led such an effort at Iona College in New Rochelle, 25 miles north of New York. “Students like what we do here,” said Brother Mostyn. “They say, ‘This Catholic stuff you teach is clear and unambiguous.’”
Brother Mostyn believes that the strong community service program at Iona is a hallmark of a Catholic identity on the rise. Students travel to help at an Indian reservation, in Appalachian towns and on the streets of Manhattan. Brother Mostyn called it an “anthropological theology,” a discipline that helps students learn about “the overpowering presence of God in everyday life.”
Holy Cross Sister Rose Anne Schultz, vice president for mission at St. Mary's College, a womens school in South Bend, Ind., travels the country helping colleges develop plans for fine-tuning their Catholic identity. She tells campus leaders that the real identity test is how students, faculty and staff live out Catholic values.
“How this is integrated throughout the institution is a challenge,” says Sister Schultz. “I think we have done pretty well so far at St. Mary's. You find that everyone has to have a share in this or it won't quite work.”
Some analysts are cautious about the emphasis on community service, and wonder why more attention isn't paid to ensuring a Catholic perspective in classroom material and the composition of the faculty.
They cite another passage from Ex Corde Ecclesiae, in which the Pope writes, “One consequence of [a Catholic university's] essential relationship to the Church is that the institutional fidelity of the university to the Christian message includes a recognition of and adherence to the teaching authority of the Church in matters of faith and morals. Catholic members of the university community are also called to a personal fidelity to the Church with all that this implies. Non-Catholic members are required to respect the Catholic character of the university, while the university in turn respects their religious liberty” (No. 27).
They worry that many Catholic colleges are giving up their identity in a bid to be more like secular schools. That trend began in 1967, says Patrick Reilly of the Cardinal Newman Society. That is when a number of Catholic college presidents convened in Wisconsin and wrote what has become known as the Land of Lakes document.
The statement voiced a desire to take Catholic colleges from second-class status to a level of respect on a par with the Ivy League. The document, while insisting on a strong Catholic identity, asserted that excellence was possible only if the colleges were free from external authority.
“When you cut strings from the institutional church, you start to drift,” says Reilly. “Catholicism has been squeezed into a theology program that does not inform other activities on campus.”
Setting theology in its proper place atop the hierarchy of knowledge would have other good effects, such as tempering students' unwise forays into sex, alcohol, and drugs, Reilly predicts.
Community service and diversity are noble goals of a college, but do not make a school Catholic, argues commentator James Hitchcock. “It would be rather insulting to a secular university to say, as some Catholics do, that we are sensitive to injustice and you folks are not,” says Hitchcock, himself a professor of history at the Jesuits' St. Louis University.
Ed Langlois writes from Portland, Oregon.
----- EXCERPT: Register looks at 10 Catholic Colleges ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ed Langlois ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Abstinence On the Rise Among U.S. Teen-agers DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—Abstinence, not contraceptive use, is responsible for a decline in teen pregnancies and birthrates, according to a new study.
The study, done by the Consortium of State Physicians Resource Councils, shows that the birthrate for young females has declined while the number of both young males and females using abstinence has increased.
In addition, the growing use of condoms, which has been promoted by so-called safe-sex advocates, has actually boosted out-of-wedlock birth rates. Between 1988 and 1995, birthrates of sexually active teen-agers increased 29% at a time when condom use soared by 33%.
Rep. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who also is a practicing physician, told reporters at a press conference Feb. 10, “When Congress decided in 1996 to allocate $250 to promote sexual abstinence until marriage, the sex education establishment derided that policy, stating that teens needed training in condom use to prevent pregnancy. This report debunks that theory and lands on the side of abstinence.”
The report, “The Declines in Adolescent Pregnancy, Abortion and Birth Rates in the 1990s: What Factors are Responsible?”, was written by 11 physicians and commissioned by a network of 13 state organizations which represent more than 2,000 physicians.
Among the surprising data: The number of teen-age males practicing abstinence soared from 39% in 1990 to 51% in 1997. Female abstinence increased slightly, to 52.3% from 52% during the same period.
As a result, the birthrate for females between the ages of 15 and 19 decreased from 62.1 births to 54.7 births per thousand between 1991 and 1997. The abortion rate within this group also declined from 18.8 in 1990 to 13.5 per 1,000 females in 1995.
Among the physicians who participated in the study and attended the news conference were Dr. John Diggs of the Massachusetts Physicians Resource Council. He said, “Our report challenges the consensus of government funded health agencies that contraceptive training and the increased availability of condoms for teens must play a central role in the prevention of pregnancy.
“The findings of our report show that the safe sex approach to teen sexuality is a failure and not at all safe.”
One of his colleagues, Dr. Joanna Mohn of the New Jersey Physicians Resource Council, added, “The implications of this research to public health policy are far reaching. Abstinence, not ‘safe sex,’ has proven to be the successful teen health message.”
In addition to the pregnancy issue, the physicians addressed the matter of disease.
“Abstinence is the best defense against the growing sexually transmitted disease epidemic in this country,” Rep. Coburn said. “Condoms give virtually no protection against the most common sexually transmitted disease, human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes almost all forms of cervical cancer.
“Nearly 15 million Americans will contract an STD [sexually transmitted disease] this year alone. Approximately two-thirds of these new cases will occur in people under 25 years of age.”
Another congressman from Oklahoma, Ernest Istook, championed abstinence for preventing teen pregnancies and reducing sexually transmitted diseases. But he added, “It's also the right thing morally,” a position which resonates with Catholic and many other Christian leaders.
The Catholic Church's teaching on sexual abstinence until marriage is clear. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 2348) notes: “All the baptized are called to chastity. The Christian has ‘put on Christ,’ the model for all chastity.
“All Christ's faithful are called to lead a chaste life in keeping with their particular states of life. At the moment of his Baptism, the Christian is pledged to lead his affective life in chastity.”
Consistent with this teaching, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops has continued to emphasize chastity education through its Office of Pro-Life Activities. According to Theresa Notare of that office, William Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore sent a letter to all bishops Feb. 12. He is the chairman of the bishops'pro-life efforts.
The letter, the latest in a series of initiatives on the subject, disseminated Nine Tips to Help Faith Leaders and Their Communities Address Teen Pregnancy, a short report from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. In addition, Cardinal Keeler also announced that a Catholic chastity curriculum guide will be distributed by the bishops in the spring.
There are, of course, a number of state, local and privately-funded chastity programs which have been successful. Among those cited at the news conference were True Love Waits, established by the Baptist Sunday School Board; the Michigan Abstinence Partnership, supported by Gov. John Engler; Best Friends, geared toward junior high school girls in Washington, D.C.; and an effective community program in Denmark, South Carolina.
Best Friends, headed by Elyane Bennett, wife of former U.S. Education Secretary William Bennett, encourages a comprehensive program which bolsters the self-image of largely inner-city girls. Those who have participated in the program have only a 10% rate of sexual activity as contrasted to 37% for its peer group in District of Columbia public schools.
The success of these and other private and local programs encouraged Congress to enact a five-year, $250 million abstinence education program in 1996. Part of the welfare-reform bill, this block grant allocates federal funds to states ranging from $69,855 per year for Utah and Vermont to $5.8 million to California.
Yet, organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States have been critical of the program. So, too, have been officials of the administering agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and some state health officials.
As a result, New Hampshire and California turned down abstinence education money last year, and a number of states diverted money to unrelated uses.
Peter Brandt, head of a watchdog group called the National Coalition for Abstinence Education, told the Register last October, “There has been a concerted attempt by some in the public health establishment to water down, and in some cases to even violate, the intent of the law.”
The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Commerce Committee held a hearing on this subject last fall. Brandt was one of those testifying, noting that only 16 or 17 states “have embraced the intent of the law.” Ten states, he reported, adopted regulations which attack the law's intent, 21 diluted the law, and two were not participating
Brandt told the Register, Feb. 10, that although a few more states have come around, problems persist. He expects that the same subcommittee will again investigate this year and “come back with more teeth” in the law.
For Brandt, the problem here is simple: “It's money, it's power, and it's ideology. They [abstinence opponents] know that abstinence works. This is not about kids, it's about power and money.
“If abstinence education is effective, it challenges a multibillion-dollar industry which only exists because kids are sexually active.”
One of the leaders of the social conservatives in the House, Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-Pa.), told the Register, I'm a strong supporter of abstinence education. We ought to make the appropriations permanent. It works.”
Agreeing that “we have bureaucrats who are undermining the whole intent of the law,” he supports further oversight hearings. He also is looking to include abstinence education in a broad-based program, the Women and Children's Resources Act, which he will soon introduce.
This law, based on a model he helped enact in Pennsylvania, would allocate $85 million annually to reimburse crisis pregnancy centers, maternity homes, and adoption agencies. Reimbursable services would include pregnancy testing, health care and guidance, abstinence education, and referrals for assistance in a variety of areas.
Although he supports federal abstinence programs, Rep. Coburn told the Register, “Washington isn't going to solve this” problem of teen sexual permissiveness and pregnancy. Pitts' new legislation would be one way to help give money back to the states for this purpose. Such activity at the state and at the local, church, and family level — Coburn and other activists suggest — will be essential is further encouraging abstinence.
Joseph Esposito writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: Physicians unveil study's positive results ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Esposito ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'Homosexual Marriage': Arguments Are Shaky DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:The ongoing debates over the legalization of “homosexual marriage” inevitably lead to a very basic question: Does marriage require a man and a woman?
It would seem to be an easy question. The Second Vatican Council speaks of marriage as a “whole manner and communion of life” which includes both mutual love and openness to new life (Gaudium et Spes, 51).
Part III
Since procreation requires a man and a woman, this teaching has an obvious application to the question of “homosexual marriage.”
On Jan. 21, in an address to the Roman Rota, Pope John Paul II stated that homosexual unions cannot be marriages “above all because of the objective impossibility of being fruitful in the transmission of life, according to the plan inscribed by God in the very structure of the human being.” (The Rota is the Holy See's ordinary court of appeals especially known for handling cases involving the validity of marriages.)
The Holy Father added that homosexual unions could not be “marriages” because “there is an absence of those interpersonal complementary dimensions which the Creator willed.”
While this teaching on marriage is natural enough within the Church, it faces a tougher audience in the rough-and-tumble of public debate in America today. Below are three arguments offered by supporters of “homosexual marriage,” and the counterarguments that Catholics could offer.
1) ‘Marriage is just a convention’
This argument says that “marriage” is simply something made up by society. Because there is no enduring truth about marriage, the argument goes, a society is free to legally redefine it.
This argument makes a big assumption: that marriage is just a convention. There are, of course, aspects of marriage and marriage law that vary from culture to culture. But in response, it can be noted that in every society there are men and women, different yet designed for one another. In every culture, these opposite-sex couples come together and form families.
2) ‘Marriage is a right’
The second argument says that because each citizen has a constitutional right to marry, to exclude homosexuals from legal marriage violates the Constitution.
This argument begs the question, however. If marriage is whatever society says it is, then presumably anybody can marry anybody. But if marriage by definition requires a man and a woman, two homosexuals cannot marry, and no homosexual is “excluded” from marriage.
The right to marry is not the same thing as redefining marriage in order to have a right to it.
3) ‘Marriage will help homosexuals’
The third argument is that marriage would reduce promiscuity among homosexuals. This argument assumes that “marriage” is just a tool of social engineering.
The issue of promiscuity among homosexuals and heterosexuals is a serious one. But marriage is an institution that requires a man and a woman, it is not simply a “policy” that government can “reform” in order to solve social problems.
These arguments in favor of “homosexual marriage” share the view that there is no transcendent truth about marriage, other than vague appeals to “love” and “commitment.” By contrast, the arguments in favor of heterosexual marriage acknowledge that there is a truth that transcends mankind.
Indeed, this is the real divide between those who support or oppose “homosexual marriage.” It is not first of all a disagreement about the morality homosexuality. It is a difference about the existence of truth.
Perhaps that explains why elected officials have consistently reaffirmed marriage. They recognize that an understanding among people of what marriage really is. They also understand that to tinker with that definition is to invite disaster, socially and politically. Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act overwhelmingly, and in every state but one that has passed a marriage recognition law, the margin of support has been higher than 70%.
Catholics who agree that the word “marriage” means something enduring share with their fellow citizens some basic, obvious, and yet now vigorously disputed assumptions.
They assume that men and women are equal, yet biologically and psychologically different. They assume that these differences complement each other in important ways.
They assume that together, men and women form a unique community, and that one of the central tasks of this community is having and raising children.
They assume that this community called “marriage” is indispensable to a healthy society.
They assume that any attempt to “redefine” marriage by law is absurd; tyrannical, because it will bypass the democratic process if done solely in the courts; and unwise, because it will create a state-sanctioned message that all sexual relationships are morally and legally equivalent.
Citizens who agree with these assumptions may find that the best time to influence the ongoing debate is now. How they can do so, will be the topic of the next and final installment of this series.
David Coolidge writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Coolidge ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pope's Homeland a Model For Christian-Muslim Ties DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:WARSAW, Poland—At 43, Selim Chazbijewicz speaks and acts like any Catholic Pole.
He alternates his time between a family home in Gdansk's smart Oliwa surburb, and a pedagogy institute in nearby Olsztyn where he lectures in political science.
But Chazbijewicz isn't quite an average Pole.
For one thing, he's a leading member of Poland's Union of Tartars, and a direct descendant of the fierce Turkic tribes who invaded Eastern Europe in the late Middle Ages. For another, he's a Muslim imam, or prayer leader, who worships not in Oliwa's stately 16th Century cathedral but in the local mosque.
Built with Saudi funding in 1990, a year after the collapse of communist rule, the Oliwa mosque has room for 200, and gets around half that at regular prayer meetings. Besides Tartars, they include Arab, Turkish, and Asian visitors who've come to the Baltic city for studies or business, or out of curiosity to see a community that's been living here barely observed for centuries.
This June, all of that could change. For Pope John Paul II has accepted an invitation to meet and pray with Chazbijewicz and other Muslims during his eighth visit to Poland.
“After 600 years of living among Catholics, we wanted to acknowledge our gratitude to the Church for fostering such a tolerant attitude to Muslims here,” the imam explained. “But this meeting will have great symbolic meaning for followers of Islam everywhere, by showing it's possible for Christians and Muslims to live peacefully together and engage in religious dialogue.”
Poland's seven registered Muslim associations currently total 20,000 members, of whom around a quarter are Tartars like Chazbijewicz.
Unlike their co-religionists in Western Europe, who are mostly products of postwar immigration, Muslims have lived here since the 14th century invasions, making them indigenous, like the hard-pressed Muslims of Bosnia.
Polish Muslims helped defend their adopted country during periods of war and occupation, and had their own National Army battalions until as late as 1939. Today, though they've lost their language, they've kept their faith intact. But attempts to find militant Islamic recruits here have failed.
In June 1997, when Europe's first Catholic-Muslim Joint Council was set up in Poland, its statutes committed it to “overcome stereotypes caused by ignorance” by “maintaining the theological sovereignty of both faiths.” It's hoped the council will be expanded to take in Muslims from Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and other countries, many of whom are expected to visit Poland for the meeting with John Paul II.
“Although the Pope usually sees Muslim leaders when visiting Islamic countries, he hasn't done so in Europe, despite the presence of large Muslim communities,” explained Bishop Wladyslaw Miziolek, a member of the ecumenical council of Poland's Catholic Church. “Poland's small Muslim population has always lived here harmoniously, preserving its religion but accepting local culture. As such, it provides an example of interreligious coexistence.”
5,000 Mosques in Russia
Examples of coexistence are increasingly needed. As in the West, Islam has proliferated in Eastern Europe since the collapse of communism, underlining its place as the world's fastest growing religion.
When Russia's first Muslim university opened at Kazan in Tatarstan last September, it marked another milestone in Islam's steady expansion. With a population of just half a million, the autonomous region already boasts 800 Muslim councils and several hundred mosques, almost all of them built since 1991.
Beyond Tartarstan, Russia's 20 million Sunni Muslims are mostly concentrated in the Caucasus, and had their faith recognized as an “inseparable part” of the national heritage under Russia's 1997 religious law.
Islamic Sharia law was made binding in Chechnya at the beginning of February. But Muslims operate over 5,000 mosques nationwide in Russia, including five in Moscow.
Ukraine's 240 Muslim associations have 40,000 members in the capital Kiev alone, while in the Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, steps have been taken to re-establish traditional Muslim ascendancies.
In Turkmenistan, Muslims already make up 80% of an ex-Soviet population of 3.7 million. The world's largest mosque is being constructed in the capital, Ashchabad.
4 Million in France
In Western Europe too, Islam has expanded rapidly in the past two decades from the Middle East and North Africa, whose combined population, put at 240 million in 1993, is forecast to double to 500 million by the year 2025.
Out of a total West European Muslim population of 15 million, France's 4 million Muslims make up about 6.8% of its inhabitants, while Germany's 2 million-member minority runs 2,000 mosques, compared to a mere handful before World War II.
The neighboring Netherlands hosts 450,000 Muslims and 500 mosques, while the opening of the latest of Rome's five mosques in 1995 was attended by 650,000 Muslims from Italy, where adherents of Islam easily outnumber all other mainstream non-Catholic denominations.
Britain's 3 million-strong Muslim population grew annually by 32,000 in 1992-4, at a time when membership of the established Anglican Church was falling each year by 14,000. Practicing Muslims are widely expected to outnumber practicing Christians by the year 2000 in Britain, where strict religious and social Islamic customs are reviving rather than declining among local-born Muslims.
Western Europe's largest mosque is currently being constructed with Saudi funding in Belgium, where a Brussels-based Islamic Center openly describes its aim as the “Islamicisation of European nations.”
Yet at the same time, complaints of harassment and discrimination are growing among Europe's Muslims.
In a 1996 brochure, the London-based Calamus Foundation charged that “Islamophobia” had “replaced anti-semitism as the acceptable face of prejudice in Western discourse,” and said Islam had “succeeded communism as the enemy in the minds of many Western politicians and commentators.”
Many Muslims agree.
Rising Tensions
In mid-July, the European Parliament voted down calls for a common policy against “religious fundamentalism.”
But Chalid Duran, an editor of the London-based quarterly, Trans Islam, thinks European governments have made a mistake in failing to support Muslim moderates against hard-line Islamic ideologists who are committed to destroying Western society.
“Islamists believe the rich Europeans, like Americans, have become decadent and lost their will to struggle,” Duran said. “European countries should be doing more to support Muslim liberals as a defense against Islamic attacks. Their failure to do so means non-Islamist Muslims enjoy little respect.”
Besides the former Soviet Union, other East European countries have Muslim minorities too, ranging from a still-unrecognized minority of 20,000 in the Czech Republic, where the first mosque opened at Brno in July, to larger groups in predominantly Orthodox Bulgaria and Romania.
In Warsaw, Bishop Wladyslaw Miziolek thinks the Polish model of “assimilation combined with distinctiveness” is what the Catholic Church should be encouraging everywhere.
“There's no doubt we face a Muslim problem — fundamentalists are saying Europe has abandoned its faith and should belong to them,” the Bishop told the Register. “But we can live well together if we allow each culture to display its distinctive features and ensure the millennium becomes a time of dialogue — not just between Christians but between religions.”
That's a view likely to be echoed by responsible spiritual leaders on both sides.
In May, a top-level Catholic-Islamic commission was inaugurated at the Vatican, co-chaired by Francis Cardinal Arinze, chairman of the Papal Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and Sheikh Fawzi Fadel Zifzaf, the head of the Committee for Dialogue with Monotheistic Religions at Egypt's Al-Azhar University.
But efforts will be needed by local church leaders too if initiatives like this are to bear fruit.
‘A Religion of Peace’
Hasan Eissan, a psychology professor at Cairo University, thinks Western opinion has been sidetracked for too long by the provocative words and deeds of Islamic politicians.
“The West should realize Islam is a religion of peace, just like Christianity, and that the fanatics have no claim to represent it,” Eissan told the Register. “A humanitarian Islam, far from threatening Europe, can enrich it with new values. But it won't be possible to avoid conflicts without a gigantic effort of dialogue between forces of moderation acting to build bridges.”
Chalid Duran agrees. He sees a growing gap between Islamic militants, who view Europe as an enemy to be destroyed, and religious Muslims who believe Europe merely offers fertile conditions for peacefully expanding their faith.
In January, Germany's Catholic bishops said their country's 700,000 Muslim children should have the same right as Christians to receive religious lessons at state schools.
“A commitment to values with roots in religion has great importance for society,” the Bishops' statement added. “A state which is guided by principles of freedom and neutrality in views of the world cannot answer questions about God and eternal life. But nor should any government abandon religious lessons at public schools — it should have various religious communities as its partners in this area.”
Should Catholics and Muslims be co-operating more closely to defend the presence of faith and the sacred in European life?
If so, Bishop Miziolek thinks the Pope's June meeting with Muslims will confirm the Catholic Church's wish for closer contacts.
“The Pope will recall our common roots in the ancient tradition of Abraham, as well as in Jesus, who is seen by Muslims as a prophet, though not as the Son of God,” the bishop added. “At a time when powerful circles are showing conflicting attitudes and dispositions, an event like this could succeed in altering the climate of opinion.”
During a record 13-day pilgrimage, John Paul II will take in 16 dioceses and 21 towns, as well as beat-ifying 108 martyrs and making his first-ever address to a national parliament.
But the meeting with Muslims will have a special poignancy too.
Selim Chazbijewicz hopes it will take place in his Oliwa mosque. He traces his Tartar family back 500 years in Poland. And though he hasn't had a chance to make the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, he had no trouble obtaining theological training to be an imam, since his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were also imams before him.
Though living in Europe's most Catholic country, Chazbijewicz says Polish Muslims encounter few problems. He believes the planned meeting with the Pope will have a significance well beyond Poland's borders.
“We are self-governing and independent of foreign groups, so no one can interfere in our decisions,” Chazbijewicz told the Register on Feb. 10.
“We have always been open to others, and are determined to stay that way, doing what we can to prove there's an honored place for Muslims in Europe.”
Jonathan Luxmoore writes from Warsaw, Poland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jonathan Luxmoore ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Anna Manahan DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Anna Manahan won a Tony Award for her Broadway performance in The Beauty Queen of Leenane, which closes March 14. But she treasures another possession more. “This is worth more to me than four Tonys,” she said, showing a rosary from the Holy Land. She says her faith is central to her life and theater critics have commented on her honesty, strength of character, and compassion. Recently she spoke to Register correspondent Deirdre McNamara.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Even on Broadway, Faith Can Thrive DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:McNamara: You're known to be a devout Catholic. How important is your faith to you?
Manahan: My faith has sustained me through all the vicissitudes of my life. I have never done anything but act, and I could not have worked as hard as I did to support myself — and sometimes my family — without my faith.
What drew you to the theater and the sometimes nomadic life of a performer?
I was born to a theatrical family in Waterford, Ireland, and studied with the celebrated Abbey actress, Ria Mooney, founder of the original Gaiety School of Acting. I met Milo O'Shea there who became a life long friend and with whom I later created the BBC series “Me Mammy.”
That was a hilarious series, but even as your career was blossoming in Ireland and producers in London beginning to seek you out. But then the momentum stopped.
I was widowed before the trousseau was fully unpacked. We were on tour in Egypt with Edwards/MacLiammoir productions and my husband, CoIm O'Kelly, contracted polio and died. It was very sudden.
That must have been difficult to cope with.
It was the hardest thing I have ever done or will do in my life. When I returned to Ireland, my mother took me to Tramore, Co. Waterford which is beside the sea and where I spent much of my childhood. My mother would come down every week and we would go down to the sea. She never said a word, all day. We would sit there and watch the sea coming in and going out.
The sound of the sea is very soothing, a panacea for many ills. That was one of the most healing periods in my life. There is something therapeutic about the sea — it evokes a sense of eternity. My mother was the daughter of a sailor — my grandfather was torpedoed by the Germans — and she had this intense love of the sea. She is a very communicative person, and loves to chat, but I got to know the depth of her character through the silences. There's a time in everyone's life when you get to see you parents not as parents, but as people who have coped with life, with their own dreams and what they've put aside for you and my respect for my mother soared at that time. She was a woman of faith and prayer.
How does your relationship with the Lord inform your daily life and outlook?
A very important agent who wanted to manage me said there are people who want to be stars, and others who want to be good actors and communicate with the audience. That interests me. Naturally I like to do good plays and get good reviews —that's part of the territory, but the life outside of the business I'm not interested in and never was — my career has thrived without it and that should be an example that it can.
Life is about people, and I always believe that the Almighty, known among actors as “The Management,” will not ask me if I were a good or bad actress. I think he'll ask me if I got on with people, did I care about them.
I remember being worried about some whoppers I did in my life, and a Dominican priest said, “Will you for goodness sake forget about them — He's forgotten about them years ago! I suddenly had a vision of God saying, “Oh not again, Anna! For goodness sake would somebody shut her up...” I came out of the confessional roaring with laughter — He must have a sense of humor to put up with us....
Your dreams of a family were shattered by your husband's premature death, but you are known for your outstanding maternal roles both on stage and off. How did you become such a natural mother?
A man I met in the audience was praising me highly. I stopped him and said, “...when I meet a woman who has reared a passel of children I say to myself, ‘What have I done to compare with that?’” and he said, “... in the dark, you've reached out and put your arms around us.” There are different ways of being a mother; there are wonderful women who work as nuns, nurses, social workers, and single [women] who look after their families. Raising children is one expression of motherhood; looking after people and caring for them is another. I've looked after an awful lot of people. It is in my nature to do it, so it must [be] part of my mission.
You have been described as a person who raises others up or, as one journalist put it, “Anna asks how you are and waits to hear the answer.” What, in your opinion, inspired that comment?
When I meet someone for the first time I ask them to tell me about themselves. There's a lot of loneliness in big cities — Mother Teresa said she saw more loneliness in the United States than in all the streets of Calcutta... Despite all this richness and consumerism, people aren't connecting....when I see the huge amount of advertising on television I just want to get sick. It's terrible that while there's a starving of the spirit, we're being bombarded with “...buy this gadget, that food.” Yet, if everyone shared there would be no hunger in the world. I just can't believe the slaughter in recent years of children, of families, of refugees. Life has become very cheap and it [stems] from abortion and euthanasia.
Those are astonishing statements of courage. Theater today is intensely conformist in the “politically correct” sense. Aren't you concerned that those statements. Is there a chance you might lose precious opportunities?
I am so pleased to be a member of the Catholic Church. It is one of the few voices in the world that speaks out strongly against abortion and euthanasia. If I wasn't [born] Catholic, I would join the Church because of its stand on these issues alone.
Thank God there are people standing up and being counted. I believe our present Holy Father is terribly unpopular in some quarters because he “won't give in.” But in the name of the Most High what is the Holy Father to do? He's stands by the Gospel and defends the unborn. It's 1999 and they want him to go by the popular trend, but he can't and he won't. History will justify him. He's been so instrumental in bringing Jews and Christians together and the quality and content of his encyclicals are extraordinary. He's a most remarkable Pope and will be remembered as one of the greatest ever.
Have you ever met the Holy Father in person?
I'd love to meet him — but with all the traveling, I've yet to go to Rome.
Many traditional Irish Catholics are still struggling with Vatican II. Were the changes difficult for you?
Vatican II inspired many movements. People came together to pray and [also] all sorts help is being offered now — for example bereavement counseling — that they didn't have when I lost Colin. Cardinal O'Connor has asked the clergy to bring divorced Catholics along, back to the sacraments. He had an article in a New York Catholic paper that was very moving. Of course, he has his critics too, but I'm not interested in them. I draw my own conclusions.
Mag Folan, the character you play in
Yes, she's horrendous! A lot of the characters I play are very srong. Irish actor, Tony Doyle, once remarked that he'd “...never work with that one. She must be a terrible so and so...” “She's not,” the director responded. “She's a lovely woman.” “She can't be,” insisted Tony, “and play those terrible parts so convincingly...”
People like Mag Folan are truly fascinating. Without looking for sympathy, one can show the vulnerability of the character. What fascinates me when I look at or read about someone who's truly evil is that I get a flashback to when they were a baby and wonder, “How did that happen?” There must be some trauma along the road. When I talk about my wonderful parents I think of how lucky I was and my heart bleeds for children raised in uncaring atmospheres to criminality, drug, or sexual abuse.
Ireland has undergone enormous social and economic changes. A substantial number of Irish mothers work outside the home now and there's a strong pro-abortion, anti-family feminist movement over there. Do you have any thoughts on those changes?
I have always [worked] and was on a panel and asked if I agreed with women being mothers and wives and working. I give the answer now that I gave then. It's very hard, as men have always known, to be the breadwinner. If you have to work, whether it be through financial necessity as often it is, or emotional necessity, then I would say that before you marry and have children think about that seriously because, you will be taking on two jobs. If you think you are capable of doing [both] or organizing it, then do it — who am I to say otherwise. I am a working woman. [I have been] all my life.
I think most women are frustrated and torn. Very often a woman when she goes out to work takes on a second job, along with the cooking, cleaning, and shopping. [Then], if she has children she can become a nervous wreck and the family goes on the shoals. The ideal thing is that when a baby is born, it's better to stay home until the child goes to school and [then to start] working during those hours. The most wonderful thing in my childhood was to come home from school and know my mammy was there. It was the first thing we'd do — there were six of us — open the door and call out for her. For too many children nowadays the shopping mall has become the family home.
Speaking of home, you've been touring the world for two years now. Do you ever get homesick?
I long to see my new house in Waterford. But wherever I am, whether it's Ballyjamesduff or Broadway, I give my all and people have been so wonderful in America. New York is a sort of second home for me, I love the diversity, the energy and the Mass is always a “home.” But I do miss my wonderful family and friends in Ireland. God bless them.
Deirdre McNamara writes from New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Deirdre McNamara ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: U.S. Notes & Quotes DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:George and Abe Were Not Bill
“Bill's in Good Company ... Top Contenders for a Rushmore of Cheaters,” said the New York Daily News. “Cases of Presidential Philandering Are Hardly Exceptional,” said Newsday, in an article that pointed to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln — America's most revered presidents — as culprits.
Olasky did acknowledge some evidence that Washington and Lincoln had amorous, but not sexual, proclivities in their youth, but said both were models of marital fidelity.
He added, “Washington could not tell a lie when marital vows and legal oaths were involved,” and pointed out that Washington stayed true to his wife, Martha, for 41 years — despite eight years spent at war.
Lincoln always “put out the fires of his terrible passion,” as his law partner is quoted saying. Olasky recounted one incident where a friend sent a prostitute to him whom Lincoln was able to refuse. Later, when he was married, he stayed true to his wife through 23 years of marriage, even though she is considered mentally unstable by some and “once chased her husband down a Springfield street with a knife,” said Olasky.
Protestants Toughen Marriage Standards
In Florida, the problem is worse. There, three out of five marriages end in divorce, said Gov. Jeb Bush, a Catholic, according to the report. He has endorsed a “community marriage policy” that would link clergy of different faiths together in a common effort to save marriage.
“Clergy who endorse a marriage policy agree to establish minimum standards for a couple about to wed. The requirements can be modified by any religious community,” said the paper.
The plan has been adopted by 100 cities across the nation, and is the brainchild of Mike McManus, founder of the successful Marriage Savers program, said the article. McManus cites statistics that he says show that in counties that adopted the marriage policy in 1995, divorces have fallen about 35%.
But the paper quoted one skeptic: family issues author David Blankenhorn said “these claims just cry out for outside evaluation from accredited scholars.” He added that he admires McManus' work and supports the program.
Some Evangelicals Reject Contraception
In November the magazine published an article suggesting that Christians should avoid the pill. One reader agreed in a recent letter to the editor.
“Bravo for your challenge to Christian couples. ... We hear many messages about trusting God in the arena of finances, healing ... etc., but encouragement to trust God in the area of family planning is either rare or nonexistent” in evangelical churches, she wrote.
“My husband and I were led to relinguish birth control to God's control almost seven years ago, and God has added two precious babies to our family in that time. But I still grieve over the children we missed out on in earlier years because we followed the example of the world and Christians deceived by the world, rather than searching out God's heart on the matter.
“We also wonder if the lack of major progress for the pro-life movement isn't rooted in the contraceptive mentality. Evangelicals say that children are a gift from God, and yet in our own way (contraception) we also reject those gifts. The ‘slippery slope’ of devaluing human life did not begin with abortion; it began when the masses — including Christians — accepted Margaret Sanger's anti-child and pro-birth control philosophies.” Sanger founded Planned Parenthood.
----- EXCERPT: From selected publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: World Notes & Quotes DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Irish President's Ecumenism
THE IRISH TIMES, Feb. 11—Irish President Mary McAleese called for a new inter-religious global ethic to lay down guidelines for human behavior - “to create the conditions for a sustainable world order,” reported Paddy Agnew.
McAleese made her comments in a series of speeches in Florence during a trip to Italy that will culminate with an audience with Pope John Paul II.
McAleese also cautioned that ecumenism should not be taken to mean the lowest common religious denominator but rather a unity that respected diversity.
Meanwhile, Britain's The Universe Catholic newspaper reported that McAleese will conform to papal etiquette during her visit with the Pope and wear the traditional full-length black dress with sleeves and a black veil. “This protocol was ignored by former President Mary Robinson in 1996 who met Pope John Paul in a green coat-dress,” reported the paper.
Australian Archbishop Tackles Liturgical Abuses
THE COURIER-MAIL, Feb. 11—Australians' widespread use of general absolution in place of individual confession has prompted Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby to assign more than 50 lay people to monitor liturgical practices in Catholic parishes over Lent and Easter.
Andrew Shaw, director of the effort, said the campaign is “very painful” in the short-term. “But long-term it's making the Catholic Church here in Brisbane wake up to the fact that what's going on is not in accord with the mind of the Holy Father,” he told reporter Wayne Smith.
Archbishop Bathersby ordered a stop to general absolution in a recent meeting with the 230 priests of the archdiocese.
General absolution can only be used with the specific permission of the bishop or under extreme circumstances, such as an army chaplain giving general absolution to troops before they go into battle.
“Some [priests] have openly said they will defy the Church and the archbishop,” Brazier said.
----- EXCERPT: From selected publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Notes & Quotes DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Pope Invited to Fatima
Reuters also said, “The Pope, who is known for his devotion to the Virgin, last visited Fatima in 1991 when he came to give thanks for having survived an assassination attempt in Rome 10 years previously.
“He was shot and wounded by the Turkish gunman Ali Agca and attributed his survival to the divine intervention by the Virgin.”
Meanwhile a British Catholic newspaper, The Universe, reported Jan. 31, that Fatima supporters were expecting that sometime during 1999 Rome would approve the beatification of the two Fatima visionaries who have died, Francisco and Jacinta. A miraculous cure of a woman bedridden for 22 years with spinal paralysis has been attributed to the intercession of Jacinta, though the Vatican has not yet ruled on its authenticity.
The third visionary, Lucia, is 91 years old and lives as a Carmelite nun at Coimbra, Portugal.
Must Catholics Oppose the Death Penalty?
Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 7—When he was in St. Louis, the Pope made “one of his most forceful efforts at ‘closing the door’ on the death penalty,” said Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua, according to a report in the Inquirer. The paper investigated whether the Pope's position could become a litmus test of Catholics’ faithfulness to Church teaching.
In St. Louis, John Paul insisted that punishment “even in the case of one who has done great evil” should be limited to other methods than the death penalty.
The Pope's campaign for change caught greater public notice when Gov. Mel Carnahan of Missouri heeded his appeal to “have mercy on Mr. Mease.” In a move that could hurt him politically, the governor commuted the death sentence of triple murder Darrell Mease to life in prison without parole.
Does this mean that Catholics must oppose the death penalty? Cardinal Bevilacqua responded that “it will take time for people's attitudes to change,” and that the Church is in “a period of catechesis.” The report quoted him saying, “I do not think that, at the present time, to support the death penalty” means that a person is not Catholic.
The Inquirer pointed out that Church doctrine, as stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church allows for state execution but only in “cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity,” which the document says may be practically nonexistent in modern societies.
----- EXCERPT: From selected publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Post-Impeachment Blues? DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:In the aftermath of the Clinton scandal, there are many causes for pessimism. One of the greatest problems with the Clinton scandal all along has been the likelihood that it would lower standards for Americans. In the week just before the Senate's deliberations on the fate of Bill Clinton came to an end, the press foresaw that he would be exonerated, and began to predict what would happen next.
When the nation's chief law enforcement officer abuses the law, the law's authority is weakened. When the president misuses the Oval Office without personal consequence, every office in the land is made more vulnerable. And when good character is considered unnecessary in a president, ordinary citizens will hardly think it necessary for themselves. When you also consider his enduring popularity, things can look hopeless.
The way to find hope despite this catastrophe is to follow the example of the Holy Father. He sees the greater problem of our times: the culture of death, and still finds hope. In his letter about the
The Pope is calling for a direct reversal of the situation in our 20th century, a time like the one William Butler Yeats described when he wrote: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
In this context, instead of complaining about Clinton's ceaseless efforts to win and use power, we would do better to imitate his untiring work — and use the results for good.
The saints certainly were his match. St. Paul endured imprisonment, calumny, and betrayal to evangelize the Roman world. He was faithful to his call, and his work sowed the seeds of Western Civilization as we know it. St. Patrick struggled indefatigably in his confrontation with pagan Ireland. His adopted country gave the world centuries of missionaries as a result. Mother Teresa let nothing and no one get in the way of her service to the poor — and set an example the world cannot ignore.
Catholics, with God's grace, can work to change the world according to Christ's standards just as effectively as Bill Clinton pursued his goals. Consider his career:
Of course Clinton cannot, in the end, be praised for his ambition simply because it was effective. Mere ambition has no worth on its own. Only where personal ambition is magnanimous enough to embrace the good of the community at large is it truly worthwhile.
A model of such magnanimity is George Washington, whose birthday we celebrate this week. He provides us with a sterling example of dedication and effectiveness. He consciously formed his character from childhood, when a French Catholic manual called
Washington shows us what happens when a magnanimous heart is matched with high ambition. Something as great as America comes into being.
When we add prayer, grace, and the Holy Spirit to the equation, surely something even greater will result. Something as great as a new springtime of Christian life, with all that entails.
----- EXCERPT: EDITORIAL ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: St. John Fisher Comes of Age DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:by St. John Fisher In modern English, with an introduction
by Anne Barbeau Gardiner
(Ignatius Press, 1998; 284 pp., $14.95)
Meditation on the seven penitential Psalms was long a part of Catholic piety, especially suitable for penitential seasons. In fact, daily recitation of these seven Psalms was part of Galileo's punishment from the Holy Office. (His niece, a nun, was later allowed to pray the psalms in his stead.) The seven Psalms were also popular material for homilists in Galileo's time and before, and some of the great preachers of the day devoted considerable attention to them.
These Psalms are divinely inspired confessions of sin, moving the sinner to make his own the words of King David: peccavi Domino (I have sinned against the Lord). This new printing of St. John Fisher's masterful sermons on the Psalms may well encourage readers to pray them, perhaps at the end of the day (one for each day of the week), or even as a Lenten practice. Praying the Psalms during Lent is an excellent way to deepen the penitential character of common Lenten practices such as fasting and almsgiving.
This reprinting also serves to reintroduce St. John Fisher to contemporary readers. Fisher shares a feast day with St. Thomas More, June 22, the date on which Fisher was martyred in 1535 for resisting Henry VIII's break with Rome. In this century we have become accustomed to courageous bishops standing up to tyrants — for example, just last year Cardinal Stepinac (d. 1962) of Croatia was beatified as a martyr under communism.
Yet in his time Fisher was the only English bishop to defy Henry VIII, understanding himself to be following in the footsteps of his namesake, John the Baptist, in defending the indissolubility of marriage. Fisher was not only a bishop, but a leading scholar, man of letters, chancellor of the University of Cambridge, and confessor to Lady Margaret Beaufort, the saintly grandmother of Henry VIII. Alas, he remains as ignored today as St. Thomas More is celebrated.
This volume presents in modern English Fisher's sermons on Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143. (In some versions of the Bible those after Psalm 6 are numbered one number smaller: 31, 37, etc.) The best-known are 51, the Miserere, and 130, the De profundis. The former appears every Friday in the Liturgy of the Hours, and the latter is traditionally recited when praying for the dead. Together with the other five, they comprise the seven penitential Psalms.
Anne Barbeau Gardiner has rendered Fisher's English (he wrote before Shakespeare) into felicitous modern English, while not sacrificing the elegance of the older, elevated style. Her introduction briefly outlines Fisher's life, describing him as “a virtual one-man counter-reformation in England,” first against Luther and then against Henry VIII.
She makes a contribution to the continuing project of correcting anti-Catholic history, arguing that the popularity of Fisher's sermons, reprinted seven times between 1508 and 1529, “evinced a high measure of spiritual receptivity and showed that genuine faith and devotion were far more alive than usually claimed by defenders of the Protestant Reformation.”
The sermons are of high literary quality, devotionally and theologically rich. His graceful combination of systematic argument and literary devices makes his prose useful both for study and spiritual reading. Notwithstanding either devotional fervor or theological argument, it is Fisher's transparent holiness that gives the work its true radiance.
While Fisher focuses on conversion, contrition, and the need for penance (sacramental and otherwise) in the spiritual life, his reflections are wide-ranging. He preaches at some length on the Virgin Mary (Psalm 37), and his sermon on Psalm 129 interweaves a brilliant exegesis of Jonah with a detailed description of the process by which we entertain sin, consent to it, revel in it, boast of it, and finally are ruled by it. There is no mincing of words about the horror of sin and our culpability. He dwells upon the wretchedness of sin in order to move his listeners to “tears of contrition,” directing them to the “cleansing power of Christ's Blood.”
No recommendation can replace a sample of Fisher at his best. In a splendid passage of his sermon on Psalm 50, the scholar-bishop vividly “measures” the mercy of God, mixing Latin and English, and weaving together verses from other Psalms:
“Truly, the mercy of our most mighty and blessed Lord is great, so great that it has all measures of greatness. Of its greatness in height it is written, Domine, usque ad celos misericordia tua, Lord, your mercy extends and reaches up to the heavens (Ps 56:11). It is also great in depth, for it reaches down to the lowest hell. The prophet says, misericordia tua magna est super me, et eruisti animam meam ex inferno inferiori, Lord, your mercy is great over me and you have delivered me from the lowest and deepest hell (Ps 85:13). It is broad, for it occupies and spans all the world, the same prophet saying, misericordia Domini plena est terra, the earth is full of the mercy of our Lord (Ps 32:5). It lacks no length, for also by the same prophet it is spoken: misericordia eius ab eterno, et usque in eternum super timentes eum, the mercy of God is without end on those who fear him (Ps 102:17).
“Therefore since the mercy of God is so high, so deep, so broad, and so long, who can say or think it is little? Who will not call it great by all measures of greatness? Then, everyone who wants to acquaint himself with this mercy can say, miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam, Lord, have mercy on me according to thy great mercy.”
That passage should serve to whet the appetite for Fisher's works, which themselves scale the heights of erudition, explore the depths of the soul, embrace the breadth of the Church's tradition, and preach the lengths to which God will go to save sinners. Here and elsewhere St. John Fisher moves us to confess peccavi Domino, secure in the knowledge that the prayer, Miserere mei, Deus never goes unheard.
Raymond de Souza is a seminarian of the Archdiocese of Kingston, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: BOOK REVIEW ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: What Sexuality Means for Singles DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:by Mary Beth Bonacci
(Crisis, February 1999)
Mary Beth Bonacci, Catholic speaker and author, writes: “Even theology seems to conspire against single people. (Note I say ‘seems.’ God would-n't really do that to us.) I'm currently teaching a class at my own parish on the theology of John Paul II. In our discussion of the theology of the body ... with its emphasis on the beauty of married love, the language of human sexuality, and the centrality of the family, the single people in the class are adamantly asking where exactly they fit in.
“But, ironically, it is in that same theology of the body that those single people are finding the key to a deeper understanding of their own vocation.
“The theology of the body, at its deepest level, is about the one true human vocation — the vocation to love. Man is created in the image and likeness of God. That image and likeness is reflected, in its deepest way, in our capacity and desire to give ourselves in authentic love. All creation is a gift to us from a God who personifies love. ... True happiness is only found in recognizing the image and likeness of God in others, and reacting accordingly by seeking what is truly best for them. The creation of our very bodies, as male and female, reflects our capacity to give ourselves, body and soul, to another human person. God's favorite act, the creation of new human life, is accomplished through the love of a man and a woman. The resulting family is a ‘communion of persons,’ a school of love in which each member lives not just for self but by looking out for what is best for all.
“That capacity to give of oneself is by no means limited to the complete self-surrender of marriage. We're all called ... to love — to recognize the image and likeness of God in every human person and to respond accordingly. ... In order to do that, we must live within a community of persons. ... The family is the prototype of the communion of persons, where each member (supposedly) loves and looks out for the others. Religious communities also constitute a communion of persons, where each person (supposedly) contributes to the welfare of the community, and each looks out for and loves the others.
“So what is the communion of persons for those of us who are single? Many of us live alone. ... We may have coworkers, but those people go home to their own families at the end of the day. Who is there to show an interest in our day-to-day lives, to share our problems and our triumphs? Most importantly, who is there for us to love and to give ourselves to?
“The answer for all too many single people is ‘no one.’And, unfortunately ... [i]f a person is frustrating a legitimate need to give of himself, what more obvious outlet could he find than engaging in sexual activity? ... [T]he underlying truth is that most unmarried sexual activity in this world is motivated by a futile attempt to stave off the loneliness caused by the frustrated need to give and receive authentic human love.
“Single people absolutely need a communion of persons. We need friends — not just acquaintances or coworkers or people who invite us over to dinner once a month. ... Catholic singles who work for your average high-tech company ... need to seek out these kinds of friendships, and Catholic parishes ... need to offer single adults good, solid support in their faith. Many, having grown up in the confusing years just after Vatican II, have significant gaps in their own faith formation. They're spiritually hungry, looking to fill the ‘God-shaped hole'in their lives. ... When we offer them substance, those who crave substance will stay. And they will find each other.
“There is another kind of community that is vitally important to Catholic singles: the community of Catholic families. ... I'm not talking about ‘invite a single person to dinner.’ I'm talking about really, honestly making single friends a part of your family, creating an atmosphere where they truly feel comfortable in your home.
“Many find themselves working for faceless corporations in jobs they see as insignificant. ... God's job for them is to be a witness to Christ in that environment ... simply by bringing their Christian values to the workplace. When they conduct business ethically, when they treat each and every person with the respect due to one who is made in the image and likeness of God, they are bearing witness to Christ.”
A condensed version, in the words of the original author, of an article selected by the Register from the nation's top journals.
----- EXCERPT: ARTICLE DIGEST ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Wilson Fielding ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Child Pornography
Regarding the article concerning the Canadian judge who decided the possession of child pornography should not be a crime (Register, Jan. 31 -Feb. 6): There were a lot of conflicting opinions about the relationship between child pornography and the possible resulting sexual aggression against children. While the opponents of this ruling very rightfully aired their serious concerns about the connection, only Archbishop Adam Exner and the quotations from the Holy Father really touched upon another danger, one whose connection with this ruling is direct and not subject to debate — exploitation.
Consider the simple law of supply and demand. Now that Judge Shaw has okayed its possession, the creators of child pornography are in a much more comfortable position, and, knowing their customers can now live without fear of legal repercussion, the supply must be increased to meet the new demand this ruling is likely to spawn. That means more children are going to be lured, coerced, or deceived into this pit.
Someone should question the judge about his stance on that practice. If he is against it, why has he chosen to directly encourage it? If even one more child is exploited in this way because of his ruling, directly or indirectly, Judge Shaw should be held criminally accountable.
Daniel Benson Roswell, Georgia
‘Safe, Legal, and Rare’?
Lies, euphemisms, deceit, fraud, etc. On January 22, 1973, Norma McCorvey became known as Jane Roe and [later] Sandra Cano became known as Mary Doe. There are markers at the National Monument for the Unborn which state in part: “I publicly recant my involvement in the tragedy of abortion ... Norma McCorvey"; and “The Doe v. Bolton case is based on deceit and fraud ... Sandra Cano.”
Abortion has never been found in the Constitution. Justice Douglas claims a right to privacy is in the emanations (vapors) from the penumbra (shadow) of the 14th Amendment. Millions of deaths are caused by illusions the Justices found lurking in the shadows. The shadows are not the Constitution. A shadow is a distortion of the object casting the shadow. Let's put light on the Constitution and get rid of these deadly shadows.
ProChoice is a euphemism and doublespeak. It is a way to claim that they are against abortion yet stridently work for the right to kill children in their mother's womb. They are dishonest with themselves.
We have a President who claims abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.” By its definition, intent, and purpose abortion is never safe for the youngest involved. It is not safe for the mother either. Should intentional killing of our posterity be legal? Are millions of intentional deaths annually “rare”?
Henry Honigfort Chesterfield, Missouri
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Henry Honigfort ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: So What Are Catholics to Do After the Trial? DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Many commentators thought the House managers did a good job “connecting the dots” during the closing arguments of President Clinton's trial. The managers skillfully pieced together witness testimony into a coherent case that the president obstructed justice. Defenders of the president see only isolated events involving Monica, Betty, and Vernon, events lacking a pattern, and therefore no case against Clinton.
The Senate set the scene for a final vote on impeachment that will not be satisfying because not enough people “connected the dots.” Lack of political will or moral courage by many senators reflects and reinforces a culture uncomfortable with determining “what is truth,” and then defending it. This case is an episode in the on-going cultural creep toward cynicism.
Prosecutors and senators are not the only people who need to make connections where important principles are at stake. Catholic laity, who see the trampling of truths they thought were commonly held, need to rise in their defense. They need to “connect the dots” between their Catholic identity and their role as citizens. In a culture that sees truth as malleable, a strong and vocal Catholic citizenry would make a positive contribution to renewing a basic element of our common life.
The fourteen-month exercise in political theater now at an end leaves us with questions about the quality and character of our leaders and about the formation of the consciences of the young about matters of truth. It should also raise questions for Catholic laity about their own involvement in the controversies in the public square. Are we content to be oblivious to the questions and arguments involved in this impeachment trial? How many of us are among the 37% who read nothing about impeachment in the past year? Do we still think the bishops alone should deal with questions that affect national life?
Or do we see a connection between our commitment to the Gospel of Life and our lives as citizens?
Living in a household with Robert Bork, one cannot ignore questions about the direction in which our country is slouching. My husband has been involved in the public debates on impeachment, defending constitutional principles where they were being ignored. We even had the TV cameras in our living room.
We have to exert ourselves to be better-informed Catholics and better-informed citizens in order to be part of the renewal of our society.
I have been impressed with his diligence in studying the issues, which he already understood very well, and in writing to defend the law and its roots in the Constitution and in truth. Even an expert can always learn more. It's time for all of us to summon up more courage for defending the truth.
We cannot all be experts on the complicated questions of constitutional law, but do we have a responsibility to try to understand these questions? The answer is “yes.” Our common sense, life experience, and basic moral reasoning can take us a long way toward understanding questions that affect the common good, not only about the character of our leaders but about issues such as abortion, educational choice, and better healthcare for the poor.
This unique Senate trial has revealed again the nature of public debate today. Instead of straightforward honest argument we heard evasive language and ethical gymnastics similar to that found in the abortion debates. As Catholics we can find our way through this maze by holding on to the principles of Catholic social teaching given by the Pope and the bishops. We have to exert ourselves to be better-informed Catholics and better-informed citizens in order to be part of the renewal of our society. We now have a serious moral obligation to “connect the dots” between our life as citizens and our life as Catholics. That is the only way can we bring the Gospel of Life into public debate and reaffirm that truth is crucial to public life.
As Catholic citizens we are not imposing our views on others; we are defending the principles on which our country was founded: respect for the rights of each person and acceptance of the moral law placed in our hearts by God. In the present cultural climate it takes courage to insist that these principles are not out of date or irrelevant and that we, as Catholics, have the right, indeed the obligation, to defend them. We are, as the bishops have said, missionaries to our own society that has had great economic success but is losing its moral moorings.
When principles are trashed in our culture there should be Catholic groups speaking out and taking action to give the country pause. The response might be, “We have never heard this argument before. Who are these people? Maybe they are right.” That would be an excellent start.
Mary Ellen Bork, a board member of the Catholic Campaign for America and the Institute for Religion in Democracy, writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mary Ellen Bork ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Takes on U.N. Population Forum DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:On Feb. 10, Monsignor Frank Dewane made the following remarks to the U.N. Population Forum in The Hague as a representative of the Holy See. The meeting has been dubbed “Cairo + 5” because it follows the 1994 Population Conference in Egypt.
The Holy See takes this opportunity to thank the organizers of the Forum for the invitation and the Dutch Government for its kind hospitality.
Cairo's Legacy
The International Conference on Population and Development marked an important moment in the world's understanding of the interrelationship between population and development. For the first time the linkage between population and development was the focus of consideration. All forms of coercion in the implementation of population policies were rejected. The family was recognized as the fundamental unit of society based on marriage and entitled to comprehensive support and protection. Strong impetus was given to the improvement of the status of women throughout the world, particularly with regard to their health, and their full and equal participation in development. The expanding phenomenon of migration was considered along with its impact on development. There were many insights into these and other issues, and the Holy See was able to join in supporting the outcome of the Cairo conference with partial consensus.
In the five years since Cairo, the world has attempted to move from insights and visions to reality. In this context, the Holy See continues to insist that human beings are at the center of concerns for development. The dignity of the human person must be respected in all its aspects. As the Cairo Document states, this is to be done with full respect for the various religious and ethical values and cultural background of each woman and man. Following this statement, Principle One of the Cairo Document states that everyone has the right to life.
Vatican's Priorities
In the follow-up process, the Holy See calls for a priority treatment of the issues regarding development and insists on two important components: education and the reduction of poverty. However, the disproportion between the funds allocated for reproductive health and those allocated for the elimination of widespread endemic diseases or for education is noted. The Holy See underlines that true development can never be reduced to a merely physical dimension. Sexual and reproductive health must be integrated within an overall concern for the education and well-being of the total person. The ability of a woman to make decisions is not dependent on the reduction of her fertility but on the level of her education.
The role of the family, the basic unit of society, founded on marriage, is forcefully reaffirmed by the Holy See. The family is entitled to comprehensive protection and support, and its rights are to be safeguarded. The context for the exercise of sexual expression by men and women and for their responsibility concerning human reproduction is the family. The Holy See continues to reject an individualistic concept of sexuality, at times evidenced in the Cairo Document and identified by the Holy Father in his letter to the Heads of State prior to the Cairo Conference.
Linked closely to the rights of the family is the issue of education for young people in matters pertaining to sexuality and reproduction. The rights and duties of parents cannot be ignored in this regard since this responsibility lies in the first place with them. The State must encourage this duty and not seek to override the rights and responsibilities of parents while at the same time invoking an argument supposedly based on rights.
As a phenomenon, migration must be the concern of all states and not only receiving countries. The responsibility of the international community to extend protection and assistance becomes ever more challenging. Migration is closely related to the issue of development and to that of population. The specific commitment to guarantee protection for the family unit of migrants in regular situations needs greater attention.
Camouflaged Abortion
The Cairo Document states that in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning. In this context, the present practice of “emergency contraception” and use of the RU-486 pill cannot be considered applications of family planning and even less as the exercise of an alleged reproductive right. These abortive practices, camouflaged by means of contraception, are clearly contrary to national legislative systems which grant legal protection and safeguards to life from the moment of conception. Further, there can be no surreptitious recognition of a right to abortion through policies aimed at creating new categories of personal rights or including health services which protect women's lives by making possible “safe abortion.” The Cairo Document clearly noted, from the very outset, the sovereign right of each country with regard to the Document's recommendations.
The ‘Inflation’ of Rights
The Holy See continues to deplore recourse to sterilization by the exertion of various types of pressure on patients or by seeking to disguise this type of intervention, often undertaken due to quotas with regard to fertility. This is raw coercion and the denial of an individual's true rights. In such cases, the commitment to eliminate poverty could be confused with that of eliminating the poor.
At a time when a sort of inflation of rights is sometimes to be observed, it is desirable to point out that rights will languish if, at the same time, the obligations and responsibilities of each and everyone, in other words the moral dimension of human rights, are not more clearly perceived.
The aging of the world's population merits immediately attention, particularly in light of recent revisions of the demographic estimates released by the UN Population Division. The change in the proportions between those who are economically active and those who are dependent has created strains on pension and health-care services. This trend will likely continue. Governments should provide more resources to address this issue.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Monsignor Frank Dewane is an observer of the Holy See to the United Nations.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Monsignor Frank Dewane ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Scripture Already Knew What Science is Now Discovering DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Recently almost 170 bishops from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and the Philippines met for a week to study “Addiction and Compulsive Behaviors.” The program was organized for them by the National Catholic Bioethics Center with a very generous grant from the Knights of Columbus.
The conference was, in many ways, an embodiment of the teaching of the Pope's latest encyclical, Faith and Reason. In that encyclical, the Holy Father explained why the Church has always taught that reason and faith are compatible, religion and science complementary. The Church has never shied away from the findings of science. How could she? Ultimately all truth has but one source, God himself. At this conference the bishops welcomed the findings of the Director of the Behavioral Psychopharmacology Research Laboratory at Harvard just as they did the reflections of a Polish Dominican priest teaching moral theology at the Angelicum University in Rome.
The bishops are called by Christ to bring his liberating redemption to all people. In carrying out that task, the bishops must address the needs of the whole person, both body and soul. This is why the Church has not only preached the Gospel, but has also lived it by ministering to the physical and bodily needs of all people. After all, one cannot pray well when wracked with pain or tormented by a desire for drugs.
Medical science has made tremendous strides in learning about addiction. It was long thought that alcoholism and drug addiction were the result simply of a weakness of the will. Now scientific instruments allow researchers to take pictures of the activity within the brain itself that results from the use of different drugs. Researchers have come to see that these addictions are destroyers of the brain. Drugs actually change the way the brain works. If somebody has given up cocaine, for example, merely looking at a picture of the drug can trigger the brain to bring about changes in the body that are associated with the use of the drug. Again — this occurs simply by looking at a picture!
As researchers, physicians, and psychiatrists presented scientific findings on the nature of addiction to the bishops, one cannot help think of the timeless wisdom of our Faith which has long addressed these human realities quite accurately without benefit of electroencephalograms or positron emission tomography. As the bishops watched pictures of the brain being lit up and darkened by drug use, and heard about the ways the brain was actually changed, trapping the individual in bondage to an intolerable craving, the words of St. Paul came to mind:
“For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want. In doing what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. ... Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:15-17, 24).
Regrettably some who are in the throes of addiction are never delivered from it. Even if a drug addict, a tobacco addict, or an alcoholic has been free of the drug for months, perhaps years, the sight of a street corner, the smell of a match, or the sound of ice in a glass can trigger once again an intense desire for the drug.
But long before researchers warned addicts of what are known as “cues” triggering a desire for destructive behavior, Christians knew of the dangers. As one inspired writer of Scripture put it: “Be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, prowls about seeking someone to devour. Resist him steadfast in the faith” (1 Pet. 8-9).
The Catholic spiritual and moral tradition has known how to deal with those struggling against addictions and compulsive behaviors. We are warned time and again by the spiritual writers against placing ourselves in near occasions of sin. Indeed, our tradition has taught that it can be a sin simply to place ourselves in an occasion of sin, in a situation of temptation.
It is good to know that so many of our bishops are willing to take time to learn about recent findings in medicine and the life sciences so that they can more effectively reach out to those who suffer. Our bishops have always been ready to use science to help them bring the healing touch of Jesus Christ to those in need, a touch which can heal both body and soul. But the most reassuring fact of all to us Catholics is that the touch of Christ will provide spiritual healing even if, God forbid, the body remains diseased or enslaved.
Dr. John Haas is director of the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Boston.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Haas ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: When 'Dry' is Better DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:The epidemic of drinking on college campuses has fueled more than its share of jokes in recent years.
This month it turned deadly.
A student at Southwest Texas State who had drunk himself unconscious was bludgeoned to death at a party where beer was plentiful and available to underage students, according to a report Feb. 9 in the Austin American-Statesman.
Another student was hospitalized for acute blood poisoning, the paper added. The next day, it reported that the chief suspect in the assault apparently had killed himself because of the incident. He was a 21-year-old student who witnesses said was involved in a fight at the party.
The incident is a harsh example of the growing problems linked to campus drinking, which yearly claim 30 student lives, according to a recent Harvard University study.
College drinking often seems to start out innocent, and often among “good kids.” The victim of the bludgeoning, for instance, was remembered for his “faith in Jesus and love of other people.” But the volatile mix of youth and alcohol can quickly lead to other problems, including violence, drunken driving, “date rape,” and emotional distress, as well as poor academic performance and job-related difficulties.
One student who found out the downside of drinking was Danielle Acunto. A junior at The Catholic University of America (CUA), she was passed over for a resident assistant's job because of alcohol use.
“I'm not against drinking, but it's not something I want to poison my body with anymore,” she said. “I stopped drinking because I didn't know my limitations until I was told by others I had passed them.”
After cutting out alcohol, Acunto turned herself around and became president of the Residence Association. While admitting that drinking at CUA will likely continue, she said she wants to see it in a controlled situation. “Then, you'll have sober people looking after everyone else, and it has to help,” she said.
Catholic colleges like hers have developed a number of policies and procedures to alert students to the dangers of overconsumption. Residence assistants and other students are trained to spot the symptoms of heavy drinkers and take measures to help such persons.
Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio is often cited as a success story in this regard. The campus once known chiefly for its parties is now known for its Catholic life.
Randy Cirner, dean of students, said the school discourages alcohol consumption in several ways: “It's set down in our student handbook, and there's no alcohol served at any student function.”
Cirner also pointed out that incoming students in the fall semester participate in programs that emphasize the university's stand on heavy or regular drinking. If a student is underage and is caught drinking, he or she is referred to a residential director, who has the authority to issue a warning or sanction.
“We consider alcohol abuse, particularly by underage students, a major violation of the student code,” Cirner said.
A student receiving two violations in one semester is suspended for the following semester. If that student is caught again after being readmitted, he or she is expelled.
“We don't condone drinking,” Cirner said, “but we know it takes place. However, we probably have less of a problem than state schools, because we have a ‘pure culture’ that says drinking only leads to other problems, such as sex, pregnancy, and other serious issues.”
“I stopped drinking because I didn't know my limitations until I was told by others I had passed them.”
Providing alternatives to drinking is a step some Catholic colleges have taken to lessen the temptation to imbibe. St. Mary's University of Minnesota, in Winona, has what it calls a Baccus Group. It meets in a campus building where no beer, wine, or hard alcohol is ever served. Instead, students drink “mocktails,” or engage in other non-drinking activities, including sumo wrestling.
“Several of our students commented to me that we should provide a place where they can drink responsibly,” said Sharon Goo, vice president of student development. “Others said there is no way alcohol should even be brought onto our campus. While we do have a few students with serious drinking problems, most of our students who do drink, do so in moderation, and only occasionally.”
St. Mary's is not a “dry” campus, but underage students are not allowed to drink at all. Those age 21 or over can bring alcohol into their dorm rooms but cannot consume it anywhere else.
Underage drinkers tend to develop drinking problems, Goo said. “They either wise up or are asked to leave,” she said.
But more than policies, peer pressure can often be a more powerful force. “A roommate can really be a motivating factor,” Goo said, “because he or she becomes sick of the other roommate coming home drunk and vomiting all over the place.”
Marc Scott, president of student government at Steubenville, agreed. He said peer pressure is evident at his school, and he has seen many students cut off beer or alcohol to another student who has had a few too many.
“Our resident assistants are very alert to drinking problems,” he said, “but friends of the drinking student are equally alert.”
Scott, who attended an East Coast state school in his freshman year before transferring, said the difference between the two universities regarding alcohol consumption is “like night and day.” He added that if students in a group go out and know there will be drinking, they always first designate a non-drinking driver.
Moderation in the use of alcohol is called for by the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
It states: “The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine” (No. 2290). It also addresses the issue of drug use, in No. 2291: “The use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life. Their use, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offense.”
Vincentian Fr. David O'Connell, president of CUA, said the issue of alcohol use and abuse among undergraduates nationwide has reached alarming proportions. He said students and their peer groups “must be encouraged and supported in their efforts to combat the problem among themselves.”
Fr. O'Connell is actively involved in seeking to curb drinking on his campus. In January, he met with two large student groups to discuss the problem and was impressed by their willingness to “lead the charge against student abuse of alcohol.”
Fr. Robert Friday, also of CUA, said the school has hired a director of wellness, Kelly Long, to focus on the problem of alcohol consumption. “We're an urban campus, and students have access to any number of places that serve alcohol,” he said. “Catholics have never been prohibitionists, but our students need to respect the law that prohibits underage drinking.”
Long, upon arriving on the CUA campus, put together a task force on alcohol use, comprising faculty, staff, and students. At the end of this academic year, she and other task force members will report to Fr. Friday on the services available or needed to keep alcohol consumption under control.
One Catholic school that does not allow drinking on campus is Magdalen College in Warner, New Hampshire. With just 70 students, admissions director Paul Sullivan said, it is much easier to monitor drinking.
“In our American culture, which promotes pleasure at all cost, we teach our students to be responsible in every aspect of their lives,” he explained. “Our students here are close and form really good friendships. So, they are willing to forsake alcohol.”
Magdalen students can drink off campus, but cannot come back on campus inebriated. Penalties depend on the severity of the offense, Sullivan added, though drinking is not a major problem at the school.
At the University of San Francisco (USF), a Jesuit-run school, Carmen Jordan-Cox, vice president of student affairs, said that when she arrived 12 years ago, there was “a lot” of alcohol use. “We're now less ‘wet’ than we used to be,” she added.
Of the more than 8,000 students at USF, only about 1,500 live on campus — where the Grog has served beer to 21-year-old students throughout much of the university's history. The university is strict in its monitoring of resident students and their drinking and takes action when incidents occur, especially among freshmen away from home for the first time.
“I or others will have a heart-to-heart talk with a freshman who has a drinking problem,” she said. “We had one young man ... who had such a problem. With our counseling, he turned himself around and graduated.”
Jordan-Cox said she perceives a lack of communication within many families today. She said in many homes there is a serious role-model problem, and students come to the university patterning themselves after what they have learned at home.
“We have to be very careful about the signals we send our children,” she said. “Whatever a child sees his or her parents doing is seen as being OK. That can include excessive drinking. Responsibility for our actions must be taught by parents, not by a college.”
Jim Malerba writes from Hamden, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Catholic campuses wrestling with problem drinking ----- EXTENDED BODY: James Malerba ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Marian Museum is Fatima-Bound DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:What can I do?” James Williamson asked himself while on pilgrimage over 35 years ago in Pontevedra, Spain.
He stood near the spot where Jesus had appeared in 1925 to Sister Lucia, the Fatima visionary, and asked the young postulant what was being done to promote devotion to his Mother.
Williamson's desire quickly turned to an inspired solution for how he could help make the Blessed Virgin better known and loved: expose people to Our Lady's myriad titles and images, and explain their origins and spiritual significance.
“The thought came to me immediately, right in the convent garden: ‘I can collect her statues and share them with others to spread devotion to Mary,’” says Williamson, still surprised by the notion.
The simple impulse that was received on that day in Pontevedra has grown to become the Marian Museum, a collection of some 500 statues of Mary from around the world. The museum's temporary location is Williamson's own Brooklyn, N.Y., brownstone house, where he offers tours to about 800 visitors each year.
Twice, Brooklyn Bishop Thomas Daily has blessed the little museum, and the late Bishop Constantine Luna said Mass there in his role as international president of the Blue Army, the Marian organization inspired by the Fatima apparitions. And New York's Public Broadcasting Service station featured the museum in an arts program earlier this year.
Despite its growing reputation, the building's small size prevents growth, and its urban location with limited parking is inconvenient for visitors.
That will all change dramatically within the next two years.
With the help of private funds, the museum will move to bigger quarters in a location that will bring Williamson and his work full circle.
Just as the original inspiration for the museum took place in a locale special for Sister Lucia, the Marian Museum will see its full flowering in the environs of Fatima itself. Williamson said he has received reports that Sister Lucia's Carmelite community is “thrilled” by the move.
As for the museum's present content, there is Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Lourdes and all of the other well-known images of Mary. There is also Our Lady of Akita, Japan, Our Lady of the Rockies in Montana, and Our Lady of Walsingham from England.
Besides her familiar and official titles such as Our Lady of Hope, of Sorrows, of Grace, and of the Rosary, Mary also has many less-known but regionally or nationally popular titles such as Our Lady of Tears (Ecuador) and Our Lady of Conquest (New Mexico).
Some images present her in elaborate robes as heaven's queen. Others depict her in simple dress and apron, reflecting her role as wife and mother in Nazareth.
After years of collecting material, Williamson, now in his 70s, began to realize his goal in June 1987. “After my wife died,” he explains, “the museum took my whole house over” — officially, it might be noted. The state of New York recognizes it as a museum, and the American Association of Museums in Washington counts it a member.
A carpenter by trade, Williamson fashioned the display cases for the public viewing. He points out that the statues have not been collected for their artistic merit. “Here I want to tell about Our Lady,” he emphasizes. “My sole purpose is to bring people to Mary, and she brings them to Jesus.”
Williamson also acts as enthusiastic Marian tour guide, relating the history and devotion associated with the images. Head of Brooklyn's Blue Army chapter for the last two decades, Williamson relies on his encyclopedic knowledge of the Blessed Mother to talk about her messages and the favors linked to her intercession.
He often clarifies important points of Marian history, doctrine, and piety. At the statues of Our Lady of Fatima and Our Lady of Pompeii, he reminds visitors that these are popular titles while the official title for both is Our Lady of the Rosary, connecting Mary to the important practice of prayer and meditation. Cuba's Our Lady of Cobre and Our Lady of Luxembourg are both officially known as Our Lady of Charity, associating her more directly with the evangelical imperative to “love one another.”
Place names play a big role in the 3,600 titles of Mary catalogued by Williamson, from the more recognizable Our Lady of Guadalupe to the nearly obscure Our Lady of Kalotazeg, of Balsam, and of Fetal. These last two are Portuguese. “There are more than 600 titles for Mary just in Portugal,” he says.
Visitors learn Fetal commemorates a 12th-century apparition just five minutes from Fatima. As Our Lady of Balsam, where Moors had turned a convent into a fortress, Mary appeared among soldiers trying to recapture the building. They succeeded after the Virgin helped to tend to their wounds. Today, it is a place of pilgrimage for engaged couples.
As for Our Lady of Kalotazeg, she's dressed in native Hungarian costume. When, centuries ago, invading barbarians were destroying churches and statues, people saved their Madonnas by dressing Mary as a doll to fool the invaders.
Closer to home, Mary is even honored in the museum's Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn as Our Lady of the Narrows. As depicted in her statue at Xaverian High School, Mary looks out on the Narrows, where ships sail between Brooklyn and Staten Island into New York Bay. She holds a ship in her right hand. The more familiar Our Lady of Good Voyage blesses with her right hand and cradles a ship in her left.
The Narrows image contained in the museum is unusual—the 2-foot-high mold of the Xaverian original. “They said the mold would last three months,” Williamson says with a twinkle. “Now it's more than 30 years old.”
Interesting explanations and unusual titles abound for the statues. Our Lady of the Tears commemorates an Ecuadorean miracle witnessed by many children. Our Lady of the “O” originated in 14th century Spain from a popular Mass with an antiphon beginning, “O Mary.”
Our Lady of the Household radiates domestic tranquillity, showing Mary feeding birds while the Child Jesus holds her apron and looks fondly up to her.
A number of the statues are hand made and clothed, such as the unusual wayside Our Lady of the Straw Chapel: Mary wears an ornate, embroidered dress and lace headpiece, while the Child Jesus appears in elaborate kingly clothing.
One recent addition includes the larger-than-life-sized Our Lady of the Blessed Eucharist, with a white rose on Mary's exposed heart.
Our Lady of the Three Hail Marys is an all-encompassing image. Mary stands on a cloud; around her, three cherubs happily display Ave Maria banners; crowning her from above are God the Father with Jesus holding his cross and the Holy Spirit in a burst of radiance.
The stories behind the images weave tightly together to form an intricate pattern of Mary's admirable qualities and maternal concern for her children. Visitors swiftly realize that whether the many statues displayed here are from Bolivia, Holland, Lebanon, the Philippines; whether plaster, metal, wood, terra cotta, or marble, it is the same Mary, our Blessed Mother.
Offered free on a reservation-only basis, the tours of the museum will continue at least through this year.
----- EXCERPT: Devoted founder of a Brooklyn facility has a rendezvous in Portugal ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: The New Location Will Be a Dream Come True DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:The Marian Museum which is moving to Fatima will feel right at home.
The museum's move from its current home in New York to Portugal will give its collection of Marian images and statues far greater exposure to pilgrims from around the world.
When the idea of assembling the collection first came to Jim Williamson, he thought of Fatima as a site but dismissed the idea as an impossible dream for a working tradesman from Brooklyn.
During the long search for a new, permanent site, he explored offers of land, buildings, or both, ranging from California to Virginia. Numerous leads fell short for one reason or another.
That is, until Fatima was again proposed in early 1998, this time by John Haffert, a co-founder of the Blue Army. Haffert offered his friend two buildings he owned in the city of Ourem, 10 minutes away from the Fatima shrine.
“Everything fell into place swiftly after that; it was providential,” says Williamson. The deal was done by November, complete with blessings from civil and religious authorities.
The project is on a fast track. The two original buildings are being renovated, two others are slated for construction, and dedication ceremonies are scheduled for next year in May and August. The site includes room for additional building.
In addition to comfortably displaying most of the statues simultaneously, the new spaces will allow for related paintings and other exhibits. Christmas créches from around the world will also be displayed.
“I know that this museum belongs here,” Williamson says, referring to the new site. “It's going to be unique, certainly in Europe, and maybe in the entire world.”
Plans also call for two chapels where 5,000 relics of saints reaching back to the apostles will be displayed for veneration. Recently commissioned portraits depicting the 33 doctors of the Church will be highlighted in one of the chapels.
The Portuguese government has promised to donate adjacent land for further construction, and cable car service is planned between the museum and the Castle of Fatima, a fortress and government center dating back to the time of Christ. (Register Staff)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Dracula with a Twist DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Nowadays when most people think of horror films, gorefests like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer come to mind. It's difficult to remember the genre hasn't always been synonymous with excessive blood and gore.
Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horrors, is one of the great classics of the silent era. Unlike its modern counterparts, it finds ways to evoke an atmosphere of terror and menace without resorting to sex and violence. First released in 1922, it also avoids some of the genre's most melodramatic clichès like giving vampires oversized fangs and high-fashion capes.
German director F.W. Murnau (The Last Laugh and Sunrise) and screenwriter Henrik Galeen freely adapted English writer Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula, which originated the characters that have inspired most modern works about vampires. They moved the action to Bremen, Germany, renamed the characters, and made key plot changes, in hopes of avoiding the payment of royalties. Stoker's widow, Florence, sued anyway and won, obtaining a court order to have all copies of the film destroyed. Fortunately, some bootleg prints survive.
Despite the filmmakers' dishonest intentions, the result is a visual poem of purity, beauty, and grace. The story is simply told through a series of static, black-and-white compositions which skillfully use light and shadow to sustain their mood. Most of the scenes are shot on location with attention to naturalistic detail.
There are no carefully designed, expressionistic sets such as those found in other German masterpieces of the period like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Metropolis. In contrast to much contemporary product, the movie is driven by character development, not special effects, and the difference between good and evil, once defined, is never blurred.
Hutter (Gustav Von Wangenheim) is a happily married real estate agent in Bremen who's sent by his boss, Block (Alexander Granach), to the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania to close a deal with the wealthy Count Orlok (Max Schreck). The young man innocently sees the voyage as a good business opportunity and a chance for some exotic travel. But Block appears to have some ulterior purpose as he rummages through papers covered with occult symbols when no one is looking. Only Hutter's sweet-tempered wife, Ellen (Greta Schroeder), has a premonition of danger.
In Transylvania the peasants recoil at the mention of Orlok's name and refuse to take Hutter up to the castle door. The count himself resembles a cadaverous rodent, with long bulbous ears, a bald skull, a hook nose, bulging eyes, and birdlike talons for hands. He has an aura of pestilence and death. One morning Hutter awakes with a strange mark on his neck which he at first ignores.
The count is attracted to a picture of Ellen kept in a locket worn by her husband. Soon thereafter she has nightmares and begins sleepwalking. The filmmakers establish a mysterious psychic connection between Ellen back in Germany and Hutter and Orlok in Transylvania. One night when the count approaches her husband with bad intentions, she cries out a warning, and Orlok turns away.
Hutter becomes fearful and escapes from the castle but falls ill. Unlike most versions of the Dracula story, Nosferatu doesn't have all the vampire's victims die or turn into vampires themselves, and the count's drinking of blood doesn't make him any younger or healthier.
Eventually, Hutter recovers and returns home. Orlok follows by ship with a coffin filled with rats where he sleeps during the day. All the vessel's crew “sicken and die.”
After the ship arrives in Bremen, there's an outbreak of the plague from the rats Orlok has brought with him. Block loses control, crying, “the master approaches,” and “blood is life.” The townsfolk blame Block for the pestilence and try to stone him.
Orlok takes up residence across from Ellen and Hutter. Realizing that the town is doomed as long as the count lives, she decides to utilize the mysterious connection between them and sacrifice herself. When she learns that a vampire dies in the daylight, she lures Orlok into her house one night and keeps him there until dawn by allowing him to nibble on her neck. The sun's morning rays make him literally evaporate. She herself dies soon thereafter.
The movie's many striking images linger in the mind's eye: Ellen reading Hutter's letters alone at the beach surrounded by graves marked by crosses; Orlok's deathship gliding into Bremen harbor at night; the count carrying his coffin on his shoulders through the town's deserted streets; and the angry townspeople stoning Block as he flees across the rooftops.
Nosferatu is a unique rendition of this much-told tale which dramatizes the power of sacrifice. The vampire isn't killed in the usual fashion by a wooden stake driven through his heart. Instead his evil power is terminated by the selfless act of a woman described as “pure in heart.”
John Prizer currently writes from Paris.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Videos on Release DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Into Thin Air: Death on Everest
This film is based on Into Thin Air, journalist Jon Krakauer's non-fiction best seller that recounted a 1996 disaster on Mount Everest. Krakauer had been assigned by Outside magazine to accompany a party of climbers in an assault on Everest and chronicle his experiences. The catch was that most of the climbers were inexperienced mountaineers. Many had paid tens of thousands to be escorted up the world's highest peak. But Everest is unforgiving even to the moneyed, and the mountain killed several of them and their guides after a series of unwise decisions. Into Thin Air: Death on Everest has a fascinating tale to tell about arrogance and hubris, but the film's technical quality interferes with its clarity. The background music makes it hard to hear essential dialogue, and the editing is too rushed on occasions, making the story hard to follow.
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Merlin
Hallmark Entertainment has long specialized in producing television specials fit for the whole family. One of its most successful recent efforts was the miniseries Merlin. This lavish tale about the wizard of the Arthurian legends proved so successful it was released on videotape. Merlin is an absorbing tale, proving once again how rich and evocative the Arthurian cycle is even for this generation of technology-minded people. The miniseries is filled with special effects that do justice to the power of Merlin and other creatures that inhabit his world. These include Queen Mab (Natasha Richardson), the enchantress who constructs Merlin (Sam Niell), and Frick (Martin Short), her elfish aide-de-camp. Mab and Frick try to draw Merlin into the old, dark, pagan ways, but he's intrigued by the light of the new Christian world. Merlin tries to support the triumph of the good, but he's afflicted by the evil and the weakness that lies within humans. Although Merlin puts a spin on the Arthurian legends that might disturb some purists, it provides enough intrigue and entertainment to keep most watching happily.
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Skiing — Warren Miller's Snowriders II
For years, winter enthusiasts would see fliers posted at local sports shops advertising an upcoming screening of one of Warren Miller's compilations of hot-dog skiing. They would gather in small crowds on uncomfortable chairs and watch footage of jaw-dropping aerial stunts amid gorgeous winter scenery. Some audiences even had a chance to query Miller himself, an outdoorsman who had turned his passion for skiing into a filmmaking avocation. Well, Miller has gone big-time. He now produces full-length movies of amazing footage. His latest is Skiing — Warren Miller's Snowriders II, and it certainly offers more of the spectacular feats that made Miller famous. The video highlights stunning skiing in locales as diverse as New Zealand's Mount Cook, British Columbia's Whistler, Switzerland's Alps, Alaska's Mount McKinley, and Kazakhstan's public slope. It also shows such oddities as mountain bicycling over snow cornices and kayaking down snow chutes. The video is a head-shaking look at the lengths that some people will go to in their sometimes reckless search for thrills. V:0 L:0 N:0 S:0
Still Breathing
Several generations of the men in a San Antonio family have had one, special ability. Somehow they have been given the power to see in their dreams the face of their future wife. Fletcher (Brendan Fraser) is the latest member of the family to experience the phenomenon. This strapping but gentle young man is finding his life as a musician and street entertainer complicated by mysterious visions of his future love. Finally, Fletcher receives one strong image saying, “Formosa.” He thinks it means his beloved is living in Taiwan, and he books a flight for the island nation. When he reaches Los Angeles on a stopover, Fletcher discovers that Formosa is the name of a restaurant. He ventures there and discovers the face that has been haunting his dreams. It belongs to Rosalind (Joanna Going), a sophisticated artist who has been unhappy in love, leaving her deeply cynical about men. Slowly, Fletcher charms Rosalind. She tries to withstand him because she doesn't trust her heart or her true nature. Still Breathing is a slight, almost whimsical film, but it has a haunting quality and a sense of the romantic that stays with viewers long after it's over.
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— Loretta Seyer
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Loretta Seyer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Before the Wedding Bells Ring Out DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— Statistics say that for every new marriage celebrated in the United States this year, there will be one divorce.
That's hardly an encouraging statistic for the thousands of engaged couples across the country who are in the final stages of planning their spring and summer weddings. But marriage preparation experts see two possible remedies.
One cure, for those meant to be married, can be to reintroduce them to their faith, making it a more vital part of their lives.
“For many of the couples who attend Catholic pre-marriage programs, the experience can be a turning point, whether they have drifted away from their faith just a little, or even for those who are far out to sea,” said Mary Hasson, who designed a marriage preparation course in Bethesda, Maryland.
“Each person, each couple is in a different place in terms of their openness to God,” she continued. “A good program should be designed to break down their barriers and get rid of their stereotypes and caricatures of Church teaching.
“Its goal shouldn't be just to make sure that each couple hears an accurate summary of the Church's teachings, but rather to move each person one step closer to Christ.”
A second remedy is a powerful pre-marriage program that can help a couple to decide not to marry in the first place.
“We have two or three couples on most weekends who either postpone or cancel their weddings — and those are really our success stories,” said Kathy Conway of Engaged Encounter in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “And we have couples who have been married before who come to the Engaged Encounter weekend and say, ‘If we would have done this the first time around, we may never have divorced.’”
Last year, the Center for Applied Research on the Apostolate at Georgetown University completed a study of Catholic Engaged Encounter, a nationwide marriage preparation ministry.
Most of the studies done about marital stability and religious practice all across the board tend to show a correlation between the two...
It found that the encounters did “a superb job” in helping couples prepare for marriage. A year after attending an Encounter, nine out of 10 newlywed couples said “the weekend was a valuable experience which brought them closer to their spouse and to God, and that it taught them important skills,” the study reported.
‘Beginning of the sacrament’
The idea behind Engaged Encounter is to make these couples take a pause from planning the wedding to spend time seriously planning the marriage.
“The wedding is just the beginning of the sacrament,” Father Bill Carmody, pastor of Corpus Christi parish in Colorado Springs, recently told a dozen couples gathered for an Encounter weekend. “Spouses are sacraments to each other. They are the presence of God to each other.”
For over 20 years, Engaged Encounter has been offering weekend pre-marriage retreats in dioceses across the country where lead couples and clergy take them through a series of topics about the sacramental nature and vocation of marriage. But the couples themselves do most of the work. They are required to discuss privately with each other topics such as living as a Christian family, sexuality (including natural family planning), finances, decision-making, and balancing work, and family.
“There are many other programs in Catholic parishes that we looked at that were so secular, where they didn't talk about marriage being a sacrament, or about God being part of your marriage, and there was no priest or religious present,” commented Kevin Conway, who along with his wife, Kathy, form a veteran Encounter lead couple at Corpus Christi parish in Colorado Springs.
“Promoting the idea of marriage as a sacrament is what Engaged Encounter does well,” he said.
Hasson, the marriage preparation expert who works at the Center for Family Development in Bethesda, agreed.
She said that nurturing this spiritual dimension is the key. “We need to convince them first of all that it matters what the Church has to say to them about marriage. ... That the happiness that all of them are looking for in marriage will be elusive unless they are open to Christ in their lives.”
Georgetown marriage prep experts acknowledge that couples seeking marriage in the Catholic Church probably have an edge over the rest of the population when it comes to making the relationship last over the long haul. Even those couples who are only marginally committed to the Church at the time of their wedding may grow in their devotion as their marriage matures.
“Most of the studies done about marital stability and religious practice all across the board tend to show a correlation between the two,” said Richard McCord, executive director of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Marriage and the Family. “People spending time focusing on the spiritual dimension of marriage, all of this has a positive effect on marital stability.”
‘Three to Get Married’
Another marriage preparation program that has had very positive reviews is the Three to Get Married program. It was designed in 1994 for use in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and the Diocese of Arlington, Va., in part to meet their marriage preparation requirements.
Three to Get Married also uses presentations followed by directed questionnaires that the couples work through with each other. It takes place over two consecutive weekends — a hefty time commitment for many working professionals.
Even so, “couples are usually pleased and surprised at their exit attitude when they fill out the evaluation at the end of the weekend,” said Mary Jean Mallory, a board member at the Bethesda family center who helped to develop the program.
Three to Get Married refers to the necessity of making God a partner in marriage and “slowly introduces Catholic doctrine through a series of presentations,” Mallory explained. This is due to the large number of non-Catholics at every weekend.
“I would say that 75% of our clientele are mixed marriages. And the one who is Catholic doesn't practice much. Over half are cohabiting. These are basically people who have been away from the faith for a while,” Mallory said.
Hasson acknowledged that “while Church teachings haven't changed, the people coming into the programs are in radically different places from those in prior generations.
“They come to our program after having heard a steady drumbeat for 20 years telling them that individual fulfillment matters most, even at the expense of spouse or children, or that self-sacrifice is a sign of low self-esteem; that the Church has a Third World view of women, and that marriage hinders a woman's self-fulfillment; that sex is about pleasure without commitment, and that children are a hindrance to personal freedom and must be carefully planned to minimize disruption of personal goals.”
Engaged Encounter deals with many of the same lifestyle challenges to the teachings of the Church with their couples.
The Georgetown survey found that among their respondents who attended Encounter weekends “almost half (44%) were cohabiting before marriage, only about half (47%) attend Mass regularly, and more than one-third (35%) were entering mixed marriages.”
Given the successful track record of Three to Get Married, Encounter, and several other Catholic pre-marriage programs, it might be expected that couples would line up to attend. Not so, in Mallory's experience.
“Most of the couples who sign up do so because everything else that is shorter is full already,” she said.
Catholic pre-marriage programs strive to achieve a balance between the practical and the spiritual topics they need to cover which are important to newlyweds. Each couple who attends brings with them very different life experiences.
“I wish they would have spent a lot more time talking about finances; that's such a big issue in marriage,” said Walter, who recently attended an Engaged Encounter weekend in Colorado Springs with his fiancèe, Chelley. They requested that their last names not be used in this story.
Chelley took issue with the week-end's presentation on decision-making: “They told us that we need to work out some kind of agreement about every major decision. ... Walter and I are older than most of these other couples, and I have the maturity to defer to him on issues where he might know more about it than I do.”
At Three to Get Married workshops, the toughest subject to broach with their couples is natural family planning, Mallory said.
She said that their audience is usually so skeptical about its effectiveness that they lead with the medical considerations and the scientific information about natural family planning, as presented by a Catholic obstetrician-gynecologist.
“What we have found is that couples are so adamantly opposed to it ... contracepting is a normal part of their relationship already,” Mallory said.
“We also have a witness talk, presented by a couple who have six children, whose first three were the result of contraceptive failures,” said Mallory.
The Legionaries of Christ have been involved with Three to Get Married from the beginning. “The priest is vital to the entire weekend.” Mallory told the Register. “Because we had a priest available for personal consultations, we have had a couple of women convert from Protestantism and a few couples who were cohabiting separate until their wedding.
“One of the priests who works with us on the weekends tells the couples, ‘If you don't have a relationship with Christ, the rest of this is a shot in the dark.’”
Molly Mulqueen writes from Colorado Springs, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: Catholic programs aim to save marriages, in time ----- EXTENDED BODY: Molly Mulqueen ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Gospel Of Life DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:As Congressmen promote legislation on Capitol Hill endorsing euthanasia (see story below), it is important to put the problems of the aging in perspective. In Evangelium Vitae Pope John Paul II speaks on the value of suffering.
Threats which are no less serious hang over the incurably ill and the dying. In a social and cultural context which makes it more difficult to face and accept suffering, the temptation becomes all the greater to resolve the problem of suffering by eliminating it at the root, by hastening death so that it occurs at the moment considered most suitable.
Various considerations usually contribute to such a decision, all of which converge in the same terrible outcome. In the sick person the sense of anguish, of severe discomfort, and even of desperation brought on by intense and prolonged suffering can be a decisive factor. Such a situation can threaten the already fragile equilibrium of an individual's personal and family life, with the result that, on the one hand, the sick person, despite the help of increasingly effective medical and social assistance, risks feeling overwhelmed by his or her own frailty; and on the other hand, those close to the sick person can be moved by an understandable even if misplaced compassion. All this is aggravated by a cultural climate which fails to perceive any meaning or value in suffering, but rather considers suffering the epitome of evil, to be eliminated at all costs. This is especially the case in the absence of a religious outlook which could help to provide a positive understanding of the mystery of suffering.
On a more general level, there exists in contemporary culture a certain Promethean attitude which leads people to think that they can control life and death by taking the decisions about them into their own hands. What really happens in this case is that the individual is overcome and crushed by a death deprived of any prospect of meaning or hope. We see a tragic expression of all this in the spread of euthanasia — disguised and surreptitious, or practised openly and even legally. As well as for reasons of a misguided pity at the sight of the patient's suffering, euthanasia is sometimes justified by the utilitarian motive of avoiding costs which bring no return and which weigh heavily on society. Thus it is proposed to eliminate malformed babies, the severely handicapped, the disabled, the elderly, especially when they are not self-sufficient, and the terminally ill. Nor can we remain silent in the face of other more furtive, but no less serious and real, forms of euthanasia. These could occur for example when, in order to increase the availability of organs for transplants, organs are removed without respecting objective and adequate criteria which verify the death of the donor. (15)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: ProLife ProFile: Fertility Program Brings Hope in Ireland DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:GALWAY, Ireland—For couples unable to conceive a child, Dr. Phil Boyle is a godsend.
He uses a method, developed with other Catholic physicians, to overcome infertility that is consistent with Church teaching and is a bona fide scientific breakthrough.
“We had completely given up hope, but when I heard about Boyle's treatment I thought it might be the answer,” said Gabrielle Tims of Sligo, in the West of Ireland. “Now we are over the moon.”
She and her husband, Denys, had been trying to conceive for eight years before they met Boyle, an Irish doctor using pro-life fertility treatment methods developed in the United States. Since Boyle opened his clinic in the West of Ireland just over a year ago, he has helped 43 couples to conceive. The sixth and seventh babies born under the program came in November, in the form of twins to a couple who asked for anonymity.
Boyle said he is the only medical doctor in Ireland offering natural family planning “NaPro” technology.
The technology was developed by Dr. Thomas Hilgers at the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction in Omaha, Nebraska. Hilgers improved on the 1960s breakthroughs made by Australian Drs. John and Evelyn Billings in their ovulation method of family planning.
By taking measurements of cervical mucus and hormone levels in the bloodstream, doctors using NaPro technology can very accurately estimate those few days in a month when a woman is fertile. Blood testing is now so sophisticated that it can also measure subtle abnormalities in hormone levels, which can then be compensated for by using hormonal injections.
In the United States, Hilgers is claiming a 50% success rate in helping previously infertile couples to conceive and go to full term. Boyle doesn't have access to some of the surgical techniques available at the Paul VI Institute, so he reckons his success rate is less.
“I have only been offering the treatment for just over a year, so it is too early to give a statistical success rate,” he said. “Seven children have been born so far. But, in all, 43 couples have successfully conceived thanks to this method. The success rate at present is above 20, and perhaps 30%.”
Dr. Declan Egan, director of University Hospital Galway's fertility unit, acknowledged that the NaPro method is particularly effective for treating infertility caused by ovulation problems. He speculated that if Boyle only treated couples with ovulation problems, his success rate could be as high as 80%.
“His success rate is diluted because he sees all kinds of patients,” Egan said, “but he won't get good results with hormonal treatment for people with ‘immuno’ or mechanical difficulties.”
Ireland's oldest maternity hospital, the Rotunda, operates an in vitro fertilization (IVF) program for infertile couples which has a success rate of about 25%. IVF is contrary to Catholic teaching, however, whereas the NaPro method was developed in line with Catholic teaching. In addition, NaPro does not require invasive surgery and costs less than most other infertility treatments.
The Timses call their 9-week-old daughter, Dionne, their “miracle baby.” Denys, originally from San Francisco, and Gabrielle, originally from Switzerland, said they had tried to conceive for over eight years.
Boyle says the NaPro method of hormonal treatment should be tried by “practically any infertile couple whose problems are not caused by a blockage of the fallopian tubes or a low sperm count.”
“Those who it can most help are those couples who can't have babies, but who are told they are perfectly healthy,” he said. “The NaPro method can measure subtle differences in hormone levels in a way not available to other techniques.”
Boyle was studying to be a general practitioner in Ireland when he met a Canadian anesthetist, Teresa McKenna, who was teaching the NaPro method to people who wanted to use it for natural family planning. “She told me it could be used for treating infertility and I found it very interesting. It fitted in with my way of thinking and kind of sat with me. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to study it, so I went off to the United States and the Creighton Medical School in Nebraska.”
Boyle said he is “amazed” at how well the system works, once a hormonal problem is detected and treated. Those couples who do conceive do so within less than three months, he added.
One woman who had been trying to have a child for several years and had four miscarriages credited Boyle medical care with enabling her to have a baby.
“People would make comments that really hurt,” recalled the woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Teresa. “People didn't realize what it was like, and it was putting the marriage under pressure. I felt I was a real failure. If my husband had gone off with someone else because he had a child with her, I would have understood. That is how bad it was.
“I had had my fourth miscarriage when Boyle came into the hospital to talk to me. Leaving the hospital for the first time I felt there was hope, before that there was despair. My daughter, Rita, was born on Feb. 20 last year and she has changed my life.”
Boyle said he is the only general practitioner offering NaPro treatment to infertile couples in Ireland. He added, however, that there are 10 people teaching the method to couples who want to avoid conception.
This method of natural family planning has many benefits over other birth control systems, said the doctor. For example, there is no risk of the side effects associated with the contraceptive pill. But Boyle believes that natural family planning also builds strong marriages and healthy families, because it involves mutual respect and responsibility.
Pope John Paul II wrote about these benefits in his apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio. In the text, he speaks of the “natural rhythms of the cycle,” a reference to the sophisticated natural family planning techniques, which are based on biological signs, not calendar dates.
He wrote, “In the light of the experience of many couples and of the data provided by the different human sciences, theological reflection is able to perceive and is called to study further the difference, both anthropological and moral, between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle: It is a difference which is much wider and deeper than is usually thought, one which involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality.
“The choice of the natural rhythms involves accepting the cycle of the person, that is, the woman, and thereby accepting dialogue, reciprocal respect, shared responsibility and self-control. To accept the cycle and to enter into dialogue means to recognize both the spiritual and corporal character of conjugal communion and to live personal love with its requirement of fidelity. In this context the couple comes to experience how conjugal communion is enriched with those values of tenderness and affection which constitute the inner soul of human sexuality in its physical dimension also.
“In this way sexuality is respected and promoted in its truly and fully human dimension and is never ‘used’ as an ‘object’ that, by breaking the personal unity of soul and body, strikes at God's creation itself at the level of the deepest interaction of nature and person” (No. 32).
Cian Molloy writes from Dublin, Ireland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Cian Molloy ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: End-of-Life-Care Looms As Issue in Congress DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—Congress is expected to debate whether or not to block Oregon's assisted-suicide law again this year, but the discussions have opened with emphasis on related issues — pain management and end-of-life care.
The aim, said pro-assisted suicide Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is to change the terms of this year's assisted-suicide debate. “I want us to be in a position to define what this debate is about in this session of Congress,” Wyden said. “Last session, we were essentially playing defense.”
Wyden said he expects by early March to introduce legislation he calls the Conquering Pain Act of 1999. Pro-assisted suicide Rep. Darlene Hooley (D-OR) will introduce companion legislation in the House.
In addition, Hooley expects to introduce legislation next week with pro-assisted suicide Reps. Sander Levin (DMI) and Jim Greenwood (R-PA) supposedly designed to improve aspects of end-of-life care, such as patients' ability to specify what medical care they wish to receive.
Still unclear, however, is what, if any, effect the pain management and end-of-life care legislation will have on a renewal of attempts to block Oregon's Death With Dignity Act that legalized assisted suicide.
The Judiciary committees of both the House and Senate approved pro-life legislation last year that would have blocked the Oregon law, but the proposals stalled, failing to reach the floor of either chamber for a vote.
Wyden has been circulating drafts of his pain management legislation to members of Congress and health care groups for comments. Most notably, Wyden has been working with pro-life Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., the assistant majority leader. Last year, Nickles led the Senate effort to block the Oregon law, and Wyden vowed to stop him.
Wyden said he and Nickles have had several conversations about the pain management bill since late last year. Nickles has made no commitments, but Wyden said he hopes the bill “will be appealing to him.” Wyden would not comment on whether Nickles would renew his attempts to block the Oregon law.
Nickles' office also would not discuss his plans, but a spokesman, Brook Simmons, said, “Sen. Nickles believes good pain care and good palliative care policies will go a long way toward addressing the issue of assisted suicide.”
Wyden declined to release a copy of the pain management draft but said it would have the federal government develop and operate a pain management program, making information on pain care widely available. The proposal also would create six pain management centers at academic institutions across the country, pay for demonstration projects and increase reimbursement for pain care in assisted-living facilities and in-home hospice patients.
(Pro-Life Infonet)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Did You Know? DATE: 02/21/1997 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:As Congressmen promote legislation on Capitol Hill endorsing euthanasia (see Lifenotes), it is important to put the problems of the aging in perspective. In Evangelium Vitae Pope John Paul II speaks on the value of suffering.
Threats which are no less serious hang over the incurably ill and the dying. In a social and cultural context which makes it more difficult to face and accept suffering, the temptation becomes all the greater to resolve the problem of suffering by eliminating it at the root, by hastening death so that it occurs at the moment considered most suitable.
Various considerations usually contribute to such a decision, all of which converge in the same terrible outcome. In the sick person the sense of anguish, of severe discomfort, and even of desperation brought on by intense and prolonged suffering can be a decisive factor. Such a situation can threaten the already fragile equilibrium of an individual's personal and family life, with the result that, on the one hand, the sick person, despite the help of increasingly effective medical and social assistance, risks feeling overwhelmed by his or her own frailty; and on the other hand, those close to the sick person can be moved by an understandable even if misplaced compassion. All this is aggravated by a cultural climate which fails to perceive any meaning or value in suffering, but rather considers suffering the epitome of evil, to be eliminated at all costs. This is especially the case in the absence of a religious outlook which could help to provide a positive understanding of the mystery of suffering.
On a more general level, there exists in contemporary culture a certain Promethean attitude which leads people to think that they can control life and death by taking the decisions about them into their own hands. What really happens in this case is that the individual is overcome and crushed by a death deprived of any prospect of meaning or hope. We see a tragic expression of all this in the spread of euthanasia — disguised and surreptitious, or practised openly and even legally. As well as for reasons of a misguided pity at the sight of the patient's suffering, euthanasia is sometimes justified by the utilitarian motive of avoiding costs which bring no return and which weigh heavily on society. Thus it is proposed to eliminate malformed babies, the severely handicapped, the disabled, the elderly, especially when they are not self-sufficient, and the terminally ill. Nor can we remain silent in the face of other more furtive, but no less serious and real, forms of euthanasia. These could occur for example when, in order to increase the availability of organs for transplants, organs are removed without respecting objective and adequate criteria which verify the death of the donor. (15)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Pope Calls for a 'New American Dream' DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:The sight of a Pope slowly approaching the welcome ceremony's stage at the Benito Juarez airport in Mexico City was certainly far from the young man who so enthusiastically, and easily, bent to kiss the Mexican soil 20 years ago.
Yet Pope John Paul II, showing that his appeal comes not from his ability to appear as a media superstar, but to draw on an inner strength, delivered a soul-lifting message and a powerful pastoral program that some bishops have described as “the new American Dream” for the third millennium.
The Holy Father made clear since his arrival that he came to all America “as an apostle of Jesus Christ and successor of St. Peter to confirm in the faith all men and women of the American continent.”
His visit here had a strong Mexican flavor: Mariachis greeted the Pope with the tunes of “Cielito Lindo,” and the crowd chanted his praise in a distinctively Mexican way. The warm environment that surrounded the two massive meetings and the long travels on the popemobile helped to strengthen the message the Pope came to deliver.
The archbishop of Mexico City, Norberto Cardinal Rivera, said, “Mexico, with its strong and lively Catholicism, provided the best framework to boost the demanding program the Holy Father has delivered to us, the bishops of America.”
The “program” is the postsynodal apostolic exhortation entitled Ecclesia in America, “The Church in America,” which was based on the recommendations of the majority of the bishops at the end of the Synod for America in late 1997. The Holy Father signed the document upon his arrival Jan. 22 at the apostolic nunciature.
The following day, in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Ecclesia in America was officially presented in a powerful, emotional ceremony.
“I have come here,” said the Pope, “to put at the feet or our mix-raced Virgin of Tepeyac, star of the New World, the apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America, which summarizes the pastoral proposals and suggestions of the Synod for America, entrusting to the Mother and Queen of this continent, the future of its evangelization.”
After the homily — delivered in Spanish, English, Portuguese, and French — the Pope gave red and golden copies of the exhortation to a group that included U.S. and Latin American cardinals, bishops, an Eastern-rite patriarch, priests, men and women religious, indigenous men, adult men and women, young adults, and several children.
John Paul also blessed the replicas of Our Lady of Guadalupe that will be distributed among the dioceses of the continent in order to encourage a campaign of spiritual renewal in preparation for the Jubilee year 2000. The seven-chapter long Ecclesia in America includes a prayer for the families of America and describes the Christian nature of the continent and the riches of its Catholic tradition, especially in Latin America. It also reviews the challenges the Catholic Church has to face in order to renew its pastoral mission in today's world.
Thus, the document gives pastoral guidelines to a variety of challenges, from the renewal of parish life to the promotion of priestly vocations, from the defense of the right to life to the war against drug trafficking and corruption.
Yet according to most of the bishops the document is fundamentally a call for the new evangelization. “It would be a mistake to consider the document just as a ‘to do’ list in the many fields in which the Church has to be present,” Archbishop Esteban Karlic, president of the Argentinean Bishops' Conference, told the Register.
Archbishop Karlic and then Archbishop Francis George of Chicago shared the role of general secretary during the Synod for America. Karlic said that the exhortation “is a strong, demanding call for the new evangelization, an evangelization that has to reach all the corners of daily life.”
On Jan. 24, during an impressive Mass that gathered almost 1 million Mexicans at the Hermanos Rodriguez stadium, Pope John Paul seemed to confirm this interpretation, when he described Ecclesia in America as a call for the new evangelization.
“The postsynodal apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America, presented yesterday, is an invitation to this beloved continent to give a renewed ‘yes’ to Jesus Christ, welcoming and responding with missionary generosity to his mandate of proclaiming the Good News to all nations,” the Pope said during the Angelus prayer, after the Mass at the stadium ended.
Bishops from both sides of the Rio Grande agreed that the new evangelization of the continent and its missionary response to the needs of other continents, such as Africa and Asia, has to be faced by them as one united force.
“The Holy Father has consistently called the bishops of North and South America to see themselves as one church and as one people,” Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput told the Register. “The most important moment of this visit was the unity of the celebration with the Holy Father, it was an unbelievable experience of unity among North and South America as the one America the Holy Father is asking us to be,” the archbishop said.
“The Pope has made clear that the difference among our cultures is a contribution to a rich unity rather than an obstacle to it,” said Archbishop Karlic.
Costa Rican Archbishop Roman Arrieta Villalobos told the Register that “North Americans cannot speak of ‘America’ meaning only the United States, while South Americans cannot speak of ‘the continent’ meaning only Latin America. We now share one dream and a common mission.”
On his part, Cardinal George said the document “showed that we all are sons and daughters of God and are together in this place of encounter between the Virgin Mary and her people, and now, a place of encounter for all the peoples of this continent.”
The Pope's call to unity among Catholics in the continent has its first, most visible expression among bishops. In fact, this year will see at least three meetings that will gather bishops from throughout the continent: the North-South meeting of bishops sponsored by the Latin American Bishops' council (known as CELAM) in Cuba next month, the fifth Latin American Missionary Conference that will become the first American Missionary Conference in Argentina in July, and a North and Latin American meeting on parish life that could take place in Mexico in early December.
Nevertheless, the Pope believes that the call to unity involves not only the bishops, but all Catholics.
The apostolic exhortation ends with an appeal addressed to families: “I invite all the Catholics of America to take an active part in the evangelizing initiatives which the Holy Spirit is stirring in every part of this immense continent, so full of resources and hopes for the future. In a special way, I invite Catholic families to be ‘domestic Churches,’ in which the Christian faith is lived and passed on to the young as a treasure, and where all pray together.
“If they live up to the ideal which God places before them, Catholic homes will be true centers of evangelization.”
Alejandro Bermudez, the Register's Latin American correspondent, writes from Peru.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Bermudez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Medical Missions: An Rx for the Poor DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:MEXICO CITY—Ask physician's assistant Eileen Mackey about the most fun she's ever had in the medical profession. Her answer will take you far from her clean and orderly office in Ponca City, Okla., where she has been in practice with her husband, a family doctor, for 12 years.
Picture her instead with 11 doctors and nurses in the back of a weathered Volkswagen van, traveling along unpaved roads in the mountains of rural Mexico, and setting up simple clinics in tiny, stucco homes with dirt floors. Part of a larger team based at a hospital in the town of Cotija, Mackey spent a week in November ministering to the poorest of the poor in a “hands-on” environment devoid of impersonal technology and paperwork-laden managed care.
“We had the time of our lives,” Mackey recalled. “We even ran out of gas. It was a blast.”
Mackey is one of 200 Catholic health professionals who, in the past two years through an organization called Helping Hand Medical Missions, have provided more than 3,000 needy patients in Mexico with everything from routine checkups to hip replacements.
Doctors, physician's assistants, nurses, and others volunteer their skills, a week or two from their busy practices, and boxes of donated medicine and supplies. In exchange they receive spiritual support from priests who accompany them and an opportunity to use their expertise in a meaningful way most have only dreamed of since medical school.
Mackey saw from 60 to 80 patients a day in the remote villages. Without the normal supports of lab tests, X-rays, or other high-tech diagnostic tools, the missionaries rely on the basics.
Picture her with 11 doctors and nurses in the back of a weathered Volkswagen van bouncing along unpaved roads in the mountains of rural Mexico.
“It really hones your diagnostic skills,” said Mackey, who acts as a “junior practitioner” able to conduct routine exams, order tests, and prescribe medicine under the supervision of a physician. “It brings back medicine to where it started, one-on-one.”
A particular woman approached the missionaries, depressed and crying, Mackey remembered. “She thought her sister was dying of cancer.”
“We said, ‘Bring her in, let us take a look at her.’”
After taking a history, the missionary team suspected something much less serious. They gave the woman money for the three-hour bus drive to the hospital in Cotija, where she could be examined by the obstetrics-gynecology doctor based there.
The next day she came back to the clinic and joyfully reported that all she had needed was a minor surgical procedure.
“It was something so simple. She wasn't going to die,” Mackey said.
The people who came for care, in many cases lining up at the door, were simple, uneducated, hard-working, and full of an almost inexplicable faith, say the medical missionaries.
“I saw a lot of depression, but also a lot of joy,” said Mackey. “It was an eye-opening experience. These people have nothing. (But) they have faith. There's no blaming God for anything. They are staunch. If you asked them about their faith, they were very vocal about it.”
In fact, Mackey, who has long recognized that faith is part of a person's wellness, said in some cases she had to resort to spiritual prescriptions — such as prayer as an antidote to depression — because the missionaries are not able to provide enough medicine to stock the shelves indefinitely.
Also, she said, “We're not just there for medicine,” but for spiritual encouragement. “Medicine is a perfect vehicle for that, because you see people at their worst.”
The Mackeys participated in the most recent mission at Cotija, three hours south of Guadalajara, after learning about the outreach through Mackey's sister in Dallas.
“You hear about people going on medical missions, and I would always think, ‘Yeah, I need to do that someday,’” said Mackey, who said she ended up putting it off, imagining a lot of administrative hassles.
“It was surprisingly easy, a matter of a phone call,” followed by filling out a few forms and updating her passport, she said.
Helping Hand Medical Mission is an apostolate of the ecclesial movement Regnum Christi. It is coordinated by is an outwardly shy but inwardly steely 43-year-old nurse, Guadalupe “Lupita” Assad of Irving, Texas. A devout Catholic born in Mexico, Assad has raised her four children on her own since her husband abandoned the family years ago. Three of the four children, now young adults, are pursuing religious vocations.
Assad's modest home not far from the Dallas Cowboys' Texas Stadium serves as the headquarters for the mission, with office equipment in her dining room and boxes of medical and religious materials filling her garage and occupying part of her front entry-way.
A full-time nurse at Parkland Hospital in Dallas and volunteer administrator for Helping Hand, Assad moved her family from Los Angeles to Irving in 1991 to send her children to the Highlands School, run by the Legionaries of Christ.
At the same time, a Legionary priest and acquaintance of Assad was assigned as a chaplain to a medical mission in rural Mexico, where only two of the 20 doctors were Catholic. The idea of a Catholic medical mission was born as a way to reach people with spiritual as well as physical aid, and to promote the culture of life among U.S. doctors increasingly faced with pressures to hasten death rather than heal or comfort.
Assad became involved in 1993, and built the present program. “I was so happy,” she recalled. “I had no idea I would eventually take over this.”
She has coordinated a total of six missions, and four are planned for 1999, including one in Honduras. She has only praise for the doctors who give of their time.
Among the physicians volunteering is Karl Beer, an orthopedic surgeon from Ohio. He has gone on three missions to Cotija and performed between 30 and 36 hip and knee replacements. For each mission he arranged transportation for 40 boxes of donated equipment and supplies worth about $100,000.
“The first time I went I was pretty leery about it. I was worried about infection,” said Beer. “But the hospital there in Cotija is very clean. There was a clean operating room and they had old-fashioned but very adequate sterilization.”
Beer, who does some 300 surgeries a year at Toledo Hospital in Ohio, said he has grown more confident in sharing his faith with his regular patients because of the “intermingling” of faith and work at the mission.
“That's what I like about it. The [Mexican] people are Catholic, the faith is all part of it. You pray with the patients before and after [surgery]. There wasn't any barrier there like we have with the secular world. And the people are so grateful.”
One patient, Israel Contreras, invited the entire missionary team to his home for dinner two years in a row as a way of saying thanks for his successful surgery in 1996, Beer said. Another patient the doctor recalled warmly was a 39-year-old mother who had both hips replaced last year; this year Beer watched her volunteering at the hospital with all six of her children.
Assad said the difference between Helping Hand and other medical missions is the spiritual framework; the day begins with morning prayer and daily Mass, and ends with a talk on bioethics or spirituality in the evening. Throughout the day the chaplain is available to hear confessions. “Some doctors come with us because we have a priest. That makes so much difference,” she said.
Mackey added that she “can't imagine” a medical mission without that spiritual support.
In remarks to U.S. bishops during their ad limina visit to Rome on Oct. 2, Pope John Paul II stressed that, “meeting the physical and spiritual needs of the sick is a form of imitation of Christ. … Doctors, nurses and other medical personnel deal with people in their time of trial, when they have an acute sense of life's fragility and precariousness, just when they most resemble the suffering Jesus in Gethsemane and on Calvary. Health care professionals should always bear in mind that their work is directed to individuals, unique persons in whom God's image is present in a singular way and in whom he has invested his infinite love.”
Assad said her faith, too, has been challenged and grown, not only in the workplace — where she sometimes locks horns with doctors over life issues — but also in the administrative challenges of Helping Hand, through which she has had to deal with major last-minute schedule changes, the need for financial and secretarial support, and the challenge of recruiting doctors.
“The grace of God is so amazing,” she said, recalling her days in nursing school, when she struggled with English and wondered if she would graduate. “Everything fell in place. I just think about it, and I say, ‘How did I do it?’ I don't know. It seems that nursing was just for the medical missions.”
Although the setting for the Mexican mission is rustic, the medical volunteers were provided with good meals, a clean bed, and showers, Mackey said. Volunteer translators help the non-Spanish speakers communicate with their patients.
Mackey is already planning to attend another mission next fall, the one in Honduras, where she expects even a more primitive environment than in Cotija. She is currently taking a course in Spanish and “recruiting like crazy.” So far she is planning to bring along on the mission nurses from her clinic, an orthopedist friend, and two of her four children, one a respiratory therapist and the other a college student.
Her advice to anyone in the medical field thinking about going on a mission? “It's worth it. Just do it.”
Ellen Rossini writes from Dallas.
----- EXCERPT: Health care volunteers toil within a spiritual framework ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Rossini ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bombs Haven't Destroyed Hopes Of the Nuba Tribesmen in Sudan DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:Register senior writer Gabriel Meyer traveled to the Nuba Mountains in central Sudan last month with exiled Sudanese Catholic bishop Macram Max Gassis of the El Obeid Diocese. Along with several American human rights activists, Meyer spent the Christmas holidays in a Nuba village under the control of the Sudan People's Liberation Army with Bishop Gassis and members of his pastoral staff.
THE NUBA MOUNTAINS, Sudan—The bombing raids began shortly after Mass.
The Nuba tribesmen in this part of the mountain range that dominates southern Kordofan province are highly attuned to that sound — the unmistakable drone of the Antonovs, Russian-made transport aircraft flying at high altitudes, which have, especially since August, regularly unleashed their deadly cargo of “barrel” and cluster bombs on highland villages.
Aerial bombardment is just one of many weapons employed in a decade-old campaign to force the Nuba, one of Africa's oldest peoples, to submit to the Khartoum-based National Islamic Front government and its vision of a nation militantly rooted in Arabic culture and Islamic law. (There are more than 300 tribes in Sudan, many of which identify themselves as ethnically African and profess Christianity and traditional African religions as well as Islam.)
The tenor of the regime, which came to power in a 1989 military coup, was on display in a mid-January edict from the government's Public Order and Appearance Committee. According to the official news agency Suna, the edict stipulates that all “women who enter Sudan through any ports and entry points should [dress] in a manner reflecting Islamic values” (read: veils) and called for proper attire to be provided for non-Muslim tourists at airports, along with the deployment of dress code police at bus stops to ensure compliance with the new policy.
The committee said the laws “[do] not contradict what others call human rights.”
Since the mid-1980s, the Nuba tribesmen have sided with the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), and its armed wing, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), against the threat to their survival posed by the government's aggressive brand of Islamic revivalism.
The government has responded by confiscating Nuba land, unleashing “political” famine on the Nuba population, and, effectively, imprisoning tens of thousands in so-called peace camps in government-controlled areas in what one British journalist has called “Sudan's secret war” against the Nuba.
The recent cease-fire signed by the government and representatives of the SPLA last April to permit distribution of relief to famine-stricken areas of southern Sudan does not include the Nuba Mountains, since Khartoum officially regards southern Kordofan as part of the north. Many Nuba suspect that the letup in hostilities in the south has unintentionally had the effect of freeing the government to focus the military campaign on rebel-held areas of the Nuba Mountains instead, a view which the recent upsurge in fighting in the region only confirms.
Christmas Attack
On Christmas Day, the Catholics of this remote, agrarian culture, gathered in a clearing under sycamores to honor the birth of Christ — and were prepared for the worst.
On receiving reports from SPLA sources that bombers were headed their way, the people did what the Nuba have always done in such cases: They did what they could to protect themselves — and went on with their celebration.
“Yarob Jesu'a fi rabbi!” (“Jesus Christ is Lord!”) — Arabic choruses driven by the steady pulse of Nuba drummers rang out over the hills as the nearly three-hour Mass, complete with 92 baptisms and two dozen confirmations, came to an unhurried close.
Many had walked for days in order to participate in the Christmas festivities. The event was made all the more significant by the presence of Bishop Macram Max Gassis, since the early 1990s a stalwart defender of the Nuba, who make up part of the southern flank of his country-sized diocese.
‘We may die on these mountains,’ said a Nuba commander to me one day, after delineating the famine prospects for 1999. ‘But we will die free.’
For more than a decade, Bishop Gassis has been an outspoken critic of Khartoum's human rights record, a stance that, not surprisingly, has made him persona non grata in government-controlled areas of Sudan. Since the early 1990s, he has launched a bold effort to break Khartoum's relief blockade of rebel-held areas by bringing food, agricultural supplies, and Church personnel into the Nuba Mountains.
Here, in the middle of Africa, one could feel the gravitational shift that Church experts on missiology, and, indeed, many cultural commentators have long noted: the shift from the hegemony of an increasingly secularized Western Hemisphere where faith is viewed as a cultural option, to Christianity's growth sector, its vital front line in Africa and Latin America, where faith is often a matter of life and death.
That shift manifested itself most recently in last summer's Lambeth Conference where the proposals of first-world Anglican clergy on homosexual rights and gender issues were voted down by African bishops who not only insisted on assertions of traditional Christian sexual mores, but demanded that famine and civil strife in Africa take a higher profile on the Anglican communion's social agenda.
“If you're looking for where the 21st century is happening,” one of our delegation remarked, “it may not be in New York or Washington, D.C., but in places like the Nuba Mountains.”
“New Sudan”
But there was a political as well as a religious dimension to the refusal of the Nuba to allow Khartoum's threats to break up their Christmas. The thousands of Nuba Catholics in these hills, along with their Muslim and animist counterparts, pride themselves on their hard-won status as a free people.
Even in the midst of war and hardship, the Nuba, along with other anti-government forces, are working to build civilian structures that defy Sudan's long history of colonial rule and military dictatorship, with what scholars of the region have called “the politics of ecstasy” — the country's periodic, and disastrous, flirtations with messianic religious enthusiasms, a trend that goes back at least to the 19th century — and is amply reflected in the program of Hassan al-Turabi, ideologue of the current National Islamic Front regime.
The Nuba, and their southern Sudanese allies, have a name for the areas they control: Sudan il-jadid, or “new Sudan.”
“Welcome to the new Sudan,” a rail-thin Nuba soldier with an ancient weapon had said on our arrival in the days before Christmas, pointing to a crude SPLA flag — a blue-starred triangle set on black, green and red stripes — flying from a whittled branch flagpole.
“We may die on these mountains,” said a Nuba commander to me one day, after delineating the famine prospects for 1999. “But we will die free.”
“The non-government areas of the Nuba Mountains,” one official in the civil administration explained, “[constitute] the only place in Sudan where there is an actively functioning democracy today.”
A Nuba parliament, the Advisory Council Conference, has been meeting in SPLA-controlled areas of the Nuba Mountains since 1992. And, according to reports, it's a feisty affair. Civilians outnumber soldiers in the assembly, and at a 1997 session in Kauda, civilian leaders reportedly took SPLA commanders to task for perceived lack of discipline among some troops in the region.
(Antonov bombers launched raids in the Nuba Mountains to prevent the parliament from meeting last year. Eyewitnesses said the cluster bombs had been wrongly fused and failed to explode, though a schoolteacher who was in the process of evacuating primary students was injured by shrapnel.)
“Ironically, despite the war,” the official said as we left the Mass site, “this is a joyful place.”
Nuba at the clearing had just settled in for an early start on the songs and drumming that would lead to dancing and wrestling matches when the heat of the day had passed.
As for the bishop and his party, we were in the middle of the half-mile hike back to the compound for lunch when we first heard the steady drone of the approaching bomber through the haze of far-off singing.
While most of the crowds had dispersed into smaller groups, the arrival of the Antonov had found us in the middle of an open area where the Nuba water their cattle. It was the worst possible place — fully exposed to view from the air. The cattle and their herders, now fleeing across the sandy river bottom for the safety of nearby thickets, are a frequent target of the raids.
Suddenly, everything was moving, fast — the bishop's hand had been seized by a guardsman who was pulling him into the shade along the river bank. Running alongside the bishop, I looked back to see Peter, the cameraman, white as a sheet, mapping out camera angles as he darted for shelter behind us.
People were now scurrying everywhere into the bush, their eyes scanning the hot cloudless sky for a hint of the bomber's whereabouts.
Who were the pilots manning these planes, one wondered? Raw recruits with little sense of the terror they unleashed from the bowels of their craft, men merely following orders? “Islamic” warriors who really did believe what the regime proclaims: that Christianity is a foreign faith brought to Africa by colonial powers to stem Islam's march across the continent? (This, despite the fact that the Nubian kingdoms that once comprised much of northern and central Sudan were Christian until the late Middle Ages.) Mercenaries, war profiteers?
“They've thrown the bombs,” the bishop said, when we'd finally stopped under a tree to catch a collective breath. “They've already dropped them,” he reiterated, cocking his head in the direction of the white plumes of dust that rose over a hilltop some distance away.
Back in the clearing under the trees, where the Mass had been held, a visiting Maryknoll priest later told me of the strange silence with which the Nuba had greeted the sound of the approaching plane.
“It was as if they could hear it, as if they were listening for it through all the drumming,” he recounted. All of a sudden, the music stopped, as if on cue. Without a word, Nuba grouped together very closely in the shade, he said.
The immediate danger had passed, though it was some time before we learned the exact location of the attack. Eventually, reports filtered back that eight bombs had been dropped in the area with some collateral damage to property, but because most people had left their villages for the festivities, no one had been injured that Christmas Day.
The bombings would come to be something of a daily routine in the week that followed: the 9 a.m. alert, the drone overhead, a frantic search of the skies for the bomber's position, the sound of distant concussions, plumes of smoke and, a few hours later, eyewitness damage assessments.
The air force's aim was off that week, so the raids did little more than level a Nuba hut here and there, and keep the nerves on edge. Still, the regime's aerial hunters had served their purpose: to make life for the Nuba, without potable water and a reliable food supply, even more precarious on their hills, to destabilize their settlements, and to destroy livestock and the hard-won agriculture the Nuba had managed to coax from the stones.
Christmas Day, late afternoon, the drumming had started up again. With the light mellowing across the grassland, we accompanied the bishop to a clearing just over a rise from the compound, a traditional tribal place of assembly, sheltered by an amphitheater of hills. The threat of bombing raids now past, the Nuba, with quiet defiance, had resumed their celebrations.
I never found out what the ancient name of the hilltop was where we sat in a huge circle applauding good-natured Nuba wrestlers with their ankle bells, and the Nuba “singers,” the poets, who had already transformed the day's events into jir sibr, “celebration songs.” But “Hill of Freedom,” I was told, was the new name local Nuba had given the large circular clearing where their ancestors had, for centuries, passed down the dances that memorialized the Nuba way of life.
Surely, it was no accident that Nuba young people lined up there in the fading light to raise their hands in the gentle rhythms of the “Bongus,” a dance composed expressly for use in the new Sudan.
Senior writer Gabriel Meyer is based in Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Last of III Parts ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gabriel Meyer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Judge OKs Child Porn, Triggering an Outcry DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:TORONTO—When the British Columbia Supreme Court struck down legal restrictions on the possession of child pornography, Vancouver's attorney general appealed the decision, earning praise from Catholic Archbishop Adam Exner and jeers from civil libertarians.
On Jan. 15 Supreme Court Justice Duncan Shaw ruled that possession of child pornography should not be a crime, because to punish it violates Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“There is no evidence that demonstrates a significant increase in the danger to children caused by pornography,” Shaw wrote in defending his ruling.
He said Canadian Criminal Code restrictions against the possession of child pornography should be declared void in that they contravene Charter of Rights protection of freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression.
“The intrusion into freedom of expression and the right of privacy is so profound that it is not outweighed by the limited beneficial effects of the prohibition (against child pornography),” the judge wrote.
Jason Kenney, member of parliament from Calgary and chairman of the pro-life caucus, said the decision is the latest blow to the family from an activist judiciary.
“Our courts have created the most wide-open abortion license in the world, they are in the process of legislating marriage out of existence, and are now defending the right of child pornographers to peddle their smut,” Kenney said. “This should be a cautionary tale for Americans when it comes to the extremes to which an arrogant judiciary might go.”
British Columbia Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh announced Jan. 19 that the ruling would be appealed. “Crown counsel will seek to expedite this appeal as this case may have significant impact on other similar cases before the court,” Dosanjh told reporters in announcing the appeal.
In a letter to the attorney general, Archbishop Exner welcomed the Crown's prompt response to the Shaw ruling, adding that the “safety of children” may rest on the case.
“The appeal provides some hope for the countless British Columbians who are bewildered by the thought that our laws may be unable to protect children from a most evil form of exploitation, and may prevent a precedent being set which will affect the entire nation,” Archbishop Exner said. Exner is also head of the Canadian Organization for Life and Family established by the Canadian Catholic Bishops' conference.
The archbishop's praise for the attorney general's action is rare, given the strained relations between the Church and the government of British Columbia.
Since being elected in 1996, the province's New Democratic government has made a number of moves which have angered church and pro-family groups. Most notably, the government is committed to widening access to abortion and contraception services throughout the province. Its support of an injunction against pro-life picketing and public demonstrations has also alienated church and pro-life supporters.
At least one case of child pornography possession charges has already been dismissed as a result of the Shaw ruling. Pending the outcome of the appeal, Dosanjh has instructed British Columbia police to continue investigating child pornography possession cases. A spokesman from the attorney general's office told reporters Jan. 21 that there are about 40 such cases now under investigation.
The attorney general has also sought adjournments of these outstanding cases to prevent them being thrown out in the wake of Shaw's action. Legal officials in the province have speculated that lower courts may be bound by the British Columbia Supreme Court ruling.
‘Our courts have created the most wide-open abortion license in the world, they are in the process of legislating marriage out of existence, and are now defending the right of child pornographers to peddle their smut’
“Our position to appeal is that the possession of child pornography provisions in the Criminal Code of Canada are constitutionally sound,” Dosanjh said.
Section 163.1 of the Criminal Code, the law imperiled by the Shaw decision, defines child pornography as film, video, or other visual representations showing a person under the age of 18 engaged in explicit sexual activity, or any material advocating sexual activity with a person under 18 years old.
Church and pro-family officials were also disturbed by other elements of Shaw's ruling. In particular, they took issue with the judge's contention that possession of pornographic material, including child porn, provides a “cathartic effect” to help release the “pent-up sexual tension of otherwise potential aggressors.”
This view contradicts the position of many anti-porn advocates who charge that the possession of pornography often leads from fantasy to sexual aggression. As well, many psychiatrists contend that sexual offenders often show a long history of pornography use.
Gary Rosenfeldt, head of the Ottawa-based Victims of Violence organization, said there is no question of the link between pornography and crimes against children. Rosenfeldt, whose own son was killed by serial sex offender Clifford Olson, described the Shaw ruling as “ludicrous.”
In his 1998 World Day of Peace address, the Holy Father also saw a connection between child pornography and violence — and called for laws to protect children: “And what are we to say of increasing violence against women and against children of both sexes? Today this is one of the most widespread violations of human rights, and tragically it has even become a terror tactic: women taken hostage, children barbarously slaughtered.
“To this must be added the violence of forced prostitution and child pornography, and the exploitation of children in the workplace in conditions of veritable slavery. Practical steps are needed to try to stop the spread of these forms of violence. In particular, appropriate legal measures are needed at both the national and international level.”
The public outrage over the British Columbia judge's ruling has created tension in the province.
Television and radio talk shows were flooded with angry calls, while at least one death threat was reportedly issued against Shaw. Attorney General Dosanjh appealed for calm in the wake of the controversy. He ordered special police protection for Shaw on Jan. 23, and said judges should never be threatened despite the passion and emotion their decisions may invoke.
Prior to the announcement of the appeal, pro-family forces throughout Canada urged a letter-writing campaign to steer the British Columbia attorney general in a positive direction. A pro-life Internet web site urged supporters to express thanks to Dosanjh for launching the appeal. The web site also distributed comments by a Simon Fraser University law professor who suggested that allowing the Shaw decision to stand would result in a huge increase in the prevalence of child pornography.
Church and pro-family groups remain concerned that a member of the bench would consider removing criminal prohibitions against something as harmful as child pornography, according to parliament member Kenney. They argue that the emphasis on individual rights, as contained in Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedom, continues to erode traditional family values in this country. Some pro-family advocates suggest that the courts are more frequently elevating individual rights before the society's good. In Shaw's case, they contend, innocent children will be the ones to suffer.
Said Kenney, “I hope this decision will begin to wake Canadians up to the fact that democratic authority has been usurped by unelected judges.”
Mike Mastromatteo writes from Toronto.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mike Mastromatteo ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'You're Too Catholic' DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:Brian Gail
Fired from a large ad agency for disagreements he said arose from his firm Catholic beliefs, Brian Gail relied on his faith to help him face an uncertain future. It worked. After overcoming great adversity, he heads GailForce, a successful communications consulting firm in Philadelphia that has incorporated moral and ethical values as an integral part of its business practices. Gail spoke recently with Register correspondent Jim Malerba.
Malerba: You were high up in one of the world's largest ad agencies. What happened to change all that?
Gail: I was hired by Ted Bates as a senior vice president in 1979 in their New York office to help launch Home Box Office. I went with the blessing of my spiritual adviser in the Knights of Immaculata. That's a lay movement founded by St. Maximillian Kolbe in 1917 to counter Freemasonry and hatred for the Holy Father and Catholicism in general. My spiritual adviser felt it would be good to have a Christian presence in that business. HBO was experiencing a great loss of customers — about 40% of all who were subscribing to HBO — usually within six to eight months after signing on. My job was to do research and make recommendations to turn that around. Little did I know when I came on board at Bates that things would not be so positive.
What problems did you identify at HBO?
Right away, I could see their programming was just a horrific problem. When I started advising them, one in four of the movies they were showing were “R” rated. By the time I was fired, in 1983, three out of four movies they were showing were “R” rated. …
I discovered through my research that in most cases it was a husband who was subscribing, probably attracted by the “great” movies, the box office hits that the channel showed. The reason they were such hits was because 75 to 80% of the receipts from theaters were generated by teenagers. The husbands and fathers discovered pretty early on that those movies weren't so great after all.
But the person who actually got HBO out of the house was the mother, because she deeply resented this intrusion into their home. When she saw their husband and children watching this stuff, such as “10,” with Bo Derek swinging through the vines in her birthday suit, she saw it as a violation and then convinced her husband that this was no good. It was not worthy of their home.
At the time, HBO was pressuring us, the ad agency, to start a campaign that said a home isn't a home without HBO. I said a home isn't a home with it. I explained the reasons, and of course they didn't like that too much. I saw it as a fundamental problem and asked off the business. I just didn't want to work on it any more. HBO, however, insisted that I stay, and Bates insisted that I stay.
What did you do then?
I consulted with Father James McCurry, at that time head of the Knights of Immaculata in the United States, and my spiritual adviser in the Knights. As members, we consecrate ourselves to the Immaculate in heart, mind, soul, and body, and to live the consecration to the very best of our ability. … There were three conditions he gave me: I could not consent to the evil, which of course I did not; that I could not be involved in the production of evil; and that I speak out against it. I took all that very seriously and went back to my management and said, “I've got to speak out against it.” They said, “So what else is new? You've been speaking out against it.”
What was the reaction to all this at HBO?
I tried to put an alternative programming model in front of them, whereby the films they would show would have happy endings. This was really where it ought to be. That was what their own research indicated, with the mothers in particular, but with families in general, so people would be recreated and renewed when they watched the stuff. I told them this also would have a very positive influence on network television, which is trying to counterpro-gram HBO, and rather than have the whole thing spiral down, they could have it spiral up.
How were your proposals received?
The person at Time Inc. who was in charge of marketing saw it was in HBO's best interest to solve the marketing problem, so he supported me, but his counterpart, who was in charge of programming, took great exception when he saw what I was doing, and I was fired from the agency.
That's devastating, especially with such a large family to support.
Yes, it was. I felt abandoned. I was down in Bermuda with my wife, and I remember feeling desolate. At Mass one morning, I remember the reading from John's Gospel, which says, “It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” When I read the word “useless,” it was like I was impaled on that word. I realized that what God was saying was, “Look, you did what you were trained to do, what you were supposed to do, what you were called to do. So what if you didn't achieve success? Who are you to expect success? How long have you labored in the vineyard?” John's words went right through me and made me realize my true identity. When I accepted that I began to have peace. And when I had peace the doors began to open and one thing led to another.
Would you call your firing a blessing in its own way?
From a career standpoint, it was the best move I ever made. I had seven children and I was doing very well, even being considered as a potential president of the Bates agency. As I fell, people just sort of shook their heads and said, “You're too Catholic.” I had heard that in my career more than once. The fact remains that Our Lady in particular has seen there is more than enough work, more than enough opportunities for me. She has watched over me and helped me. The Knights have been there every step of the way to help me. Every time I'm in a box and it appears there's no way out, a door suddenly springs open, and I am able to get through it. I look back and realize Mary's hand was in it. There have been nothing but good things that have happened to me ever since.
Your faith then made the difference in coming through your crisis?
I never saw being fired as an end. I had received four promotions and increased my income by 150% in the four years I was at the agency. I was on a very fast track; I was the third-youngest senior vice president in the history of that company. All of a sudden, I was out of work with seven kids. I was thinking the Lord let me down, but in truth I let the Lord down. I didn't have the finesse to take the whole issue forward in a way that would have been more effective. I was a passionate Irishman, and I think it made me sort of useless in how I handled the situation at HBO. Looking back, the Lord was preparing me to let his Mother work with me and make me a less useless servant, and maybe a little more useful. He was telling me the grace would be there for me, but if I were to be involved in doing good works, I had to die to self, because there's just too much self there.
How did your family accept the situation?
I have an extraordinary wife. I have to say that God's greatest gift to me, outside of himself and his Mother, is this woman I've been married to for nearly 30 years. She is such an extraordinary woman that she never hit the ground. I was the one who hit the ground. I hit it “splat,” terribly. She picked me up with the sheer strength of her faith. We've had a tremendous amount of suffering in our family, and did before I lost my job. In fact, there was so much that my job loss to everyone else in the family was not as big a deal. It was just a big deal to me.
From a faith standpoint, were you strengthened by what happened?
Absolutely. You can't say enough about the faith or devotion to Our Lady. I have a great passion for the deep mysteries, and they have only been enhanced through the suffering God chose to give us. Most important, the Eucharist is everything in life, the center of our existence. Whenever the Eucharist is placed on my tongue, its brilliant light shows me the way to do the right thing, whether in the family or in my professional life. It is Our Lady who leads us to daily Mass and who shows us how to do the right thing.
Let's talk a bit about your current enterprise, GailForce.
About two years ago, I was working for Aramark. I approached the president and said I wanted to start my own communications consulting business. The company agreed to help fund this company and became our first major client. We are now 20 months old and we work with CEOs on “branding” assignments, repositioning their products, and to help them change their organizations so they can become more competitive. We help fashion a message the company or CEO can use to position the company. We also have an internal message, to help company heads change the culture of their companies and get employees to understand the need for change and to help them understand the external pressures on the company. We help them create a vision, a mission, a set of values which they can urge their employees to do for the company to be successful. But we're also in business to help others and to promote moral and ethical values.
Do Catholic beliefs and business sense necessarily conflict?
Well first of all, if you do right by employees, clients, and the community, you will earn enough money to share it with the community, among others. My company is consecrated to the Knights of Immaculata, and one thing we have is what we call Virgin Vouchers. We take the first 10% of the company's profits and use them to fund full scholarships for minority children of single-mother homes. These kids attend parochial schools, and we currently have 23 enrolled under the vouchers program this year. I hope we'll double that number next year. We don't expect these scholarship children to change their religion, but we do give them a framed image of Mary, with the inscription, “I vouch for you” printed at the bottom. We hope the children will look on the image even years beyond their school years, and be affected by it.
Finally, what advice can you share with other business people?
Again, the Eucharist is the light to moral and ethical judgment. It melts resistance and heals hardness, through the Blessed Mother. When you live in the Eucharist, you receive the insight to do the right things. One secret I finally learned through my own tribulations is that in the womb, there is a perfect cross on our soul, through God's great gift and mystery. So many men go to their grave without knowing this. But if you recognize it, you are blessed. Remember, with every cross that comes our way, there also comes a unique gift. And I can honestly say that it has been through suffering that my life has been enriched the most.
— Jim Malerba
Brian Gail
Current position: President of GailForce Communication Inc., a Philadelphia-based consulting firm specializing in corporate branding and change communication assignments.
Personal: He and his wife, Joan, have seven children. He is a former semiprofessional baseball player and currently a youth league coach.
Background: Holds a bachelor's degree and a master's of business administration degree from La Salle University, Philadelphia. Helped launch "Modern Volunteer Army" for the N.W. Ayer agency in the 1970s; helped the $6 million Aramark Corp. regain market momentum in the mid-1990s. Won several national awards from marketing associations. Serves on the World Affairs Council, the National Adoption Center, and the Salvation Army in the Philadelphia area.
----- EXCERPT: Ad executive's faith put him to the test in corporate America ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jim Malerba ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: U.S. Notes & Quotes DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:Personal Touch Is Key to Vocations
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Jan. 17—The AP reported that, “While many dioceses use modern techniques like advertising, Catholic clergy say the old-fashioned, personal approach favored by [Boston's Bernard Cardinal] Law will be the key to rejuvenating the priesthood.”
Cardinal Law has personally hosted a number of weekends for men who are considering the priesthood. Of the 52 men who attended the first two retreats, 10 have entered the seminary and others are considering it.
Cardinal Law's model on the vocations front is the newly installed bishop of West Palm Beach, Fla., Anthony J. O'Connell (see Page 1 article). Bishop O'Connell was the first bishop of Knoxville, Tenn., established in 1988. The new bishop surprised his flock by announcing that he would serve as his own vocations director, personally screening and directing candidates toward seminary admission. The results include 23 ordinations over the bishop's 11-year tenure in one of the smallest dioceses in the country, and one in which only 2% of the general population is Catholic.
“A study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University showed Knoxville had the highest ratio of priests to Catholics — 1 in 3,610 — in the nation,” AP reported.
Bishop O'Connell has been invited to come back to Knoxville early this summer to ordain this year's class of six new priests.
Diocese Calls Events Surrounding Teen a Mystery
“The Church said that only faith, so far, can supply answers that science has yet to fathom,” wrote the Globe's Thomas Farraher. “That is the core of the report … on the case of Santo, who lies … in the back room of a cream-colored home, where hundreds say they have found God's special inter-cession,” wrote Farraher. He reported that Worcester's Bishop Daniel P. Reilly “delicately implored Catholics not to unreasonably seek tangible proof of heaven on earth.”
The Globe reported the Santo family has cooperated with the investigation and counts on the Church's guidance. There has also been no attempt to gain financially by the situation, even though thousands visit the home every year with many reporting healings.
Audrey has been paralyzed and mute since nearly drowning in her family's swimming pool in 1987.
Dr. John P. Madonna, a member of the diocesan commission, said that blood on Communion wafers that had been consecrated in the Santo home is human blood of unknown type that does not match any family members.
“As for oil from statues,” Farraher quotes Madonna: “We tried to determine what was really promoting the emission of fluids, and we found nothing that we could consider trickery.”
In comments attached to the preliminary report, Bishop Reilly said: “The most striking evidence of the presence of God in the Santo homes is seen in the dedication of the family to Audrey. Their constant respect for her dignity as a child of God is a poignant reminder that God touches our lives through the love and devotion of others.”
----- EXCERPT: From selected publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Linkup Via Satellite Helps Bring Papal Visit to All of the Americas DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:LOSANGELES—On his recent visit to Mexico City, as part of his Jan. 25 “Encounter with All Generations,” Pope John Paul II spoke directly to international audiences using innovative technology. In return, a message of solidarity from the U.S. was beamed to the Holy Father.
Two speakers representing Los Angeles and all of North America spoke to the Pope live by satellite. Similar video links sent messages to the event in Mexico City's Azteca Stadium from Lima, Peru; Caracas, Venezuela; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The first of two North American speakers, Jay Dunlap, communications director of the Legionaries of Christ, said solidarity “marvelously depicts” something the Holy Father is “telling us with this Encounter. . . . Love, human and Christian love, is the way to resolve the problems of poverty which afflict our American continent.”
The second, Moira Vogel, co-director of the Challenge Task Force on Chastity, thanked the Pontiff for “inspiring in us the realization that we are all members of one family on pilgrimage together to the house of the Father who awaits us.”
The two spoke from the Pasadena Center in Pasadena, Calif., where more than a thousand participants gathered to witness and join the event, which was sponsored by the Newman Center at Caltech University and Hombre Nuevo Catholic Evangelization Center. (Staff)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Indonesian Unrest Important, But Not Religious DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—“Indonesia's future depends on all people upholding the principle of religious toleration and mutual respect,” according to Father Stanley DeBoe, director of the Center for Jewish and Christian Values.
At a Jan. 19 forum sponsored by the center, Father DeBoe and several human rights experts discussed recent religious violence in Indonesia. The consensus was that church and mosque burnings of the past year, while worrisome, were incited and manipulated by the Indonesian government.
Robert Seiple, U.S. ambassador-at-large-designate, said, “This is not a theological conflict. This is a social, economic, and political conflict.”
A severe economic crisis intensified in the Asian archipelago in early 1998. Extraordinary inflation, student demonstrations, rioting, and violence resulted. Churches and mosques were burned and Christians were attacked. On one day alone, Nov. 22, seven churches were burned and 15 were looted in Jakarta, the capital.
The unrest precipitated the resignation of Prime Minister Suharto, who had served since 1968. He was replaced by his vice president, Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie.
Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, also has more Muslims than any other nation. While 85% of the people are Muslims, only about 3% are Catholics. Protestants, Hindus, and Buddhists are also recognized by the government.
The country practices a less fundamentalist form of Islam than is seen in the Middle East, but experts see political appeals to Islamic identity as potentially explosive. Many believe the beleaguered government has embraced such appeals.
According to the Robert Clarke, the State Department's Indonesia desk officer, “Many of the disturbances really come from people struggling with economic difficulties, looking around for the nearest scapegoat, and going after them.”
Seiple, who went to Indonesia on a fact-finding trip earlier this month, told the Register that the regime has incited this unrest. “Many of the issues that the government hasn't been able to fix are scapegoated along religious and ethnic lines.”
Long-standing ethnic tensions between Muslims and Chinese merchants have been exacerbated. Conflict also exists in East Timor, part of an island Indonesia annexed in 1976 and which is more than 85% Catholic.
Lynn Frederiksson of the East Timor Action Network sees the ongoing problem in East Timor, which has resulted in great civil strife, as another example of political manipulation, especially by the military.
“Economic ruin and political pressure” are the keys to Indonesian unrest,” Frederiksson said. “Mosque burnings were plotted to look like religious conflict.”
Attention is now being focused on the June 7 legislative elections, which should give some indication of the stability of democracy in Indonesia. According to Clarke, “We're looking forward to the elections in June. We think they're going to be a milestone.”
A presidential election is scheduled to follow later this fall. Seiple calls this year a key transition period, a “grand experiment” for the nation as it tries to balance democracy with a strong military presence. “In every democracy,” he said, “it's always the second election that's the key.”
Panel participants agreed that religious conflict was not a problem now. Seiple, the former head of World Vision, said, “Mainstream Christians and Muslims are very tolerant of one another.
But several expressed concern that continued national difficulties and incitement by the government and political parties could create true religious strife.
Seiple himself noted that the country's unemployment is expected to reach 60% by the time of the June elections. “My fear,” he said, “is that the recent tensions could manifest themselves along religious lines.”
Also citing a potential appeal to Muslim fundamentalism, T. Kumar of Amnesty International said, “When there is trouble, enough players will try to benefit from it.”
During an interview with the Register, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, stressed the need for vigilance. “The situation in Indonesia shows how fragile religious freedom is and how it could be abridged if it's manipulated,” he said.
Kumar suggested that tensions could ease if military and police power are curbed, the Anti-Blasphemy Law (prohibiting criticism of Islam) is reviewed, and the Baha'i Faith recognized.
Seiple also called for military reform. In addition, he said, “We need to pull all the stops to make sure the elections work.” This includes the United States providing classes and training for election watchers through its foreign aid program.
This meeting was part of a regular series of discussions on religious freedom around the world. The sponsor, the Center for Jewish and Christian Values, is the public policy office of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which was founded by Rabbi Eckstein in 1983. (Joseph Esposito)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Contributions to Church Decline in Austria DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:VIENNA, AUSTRIA—The number of people discontinuing their tax payments to Austria's Catholic Church increased in 1998.
More than 33,400 Catholics discontinued their “church tax” payments between January and November 1998, a rise of 15 percent over the previous year, according to data presented at a recent Bishops' conference meeting.
Austrian citizens can pay one to two percent of income tax in the form of a membership subscription to the Catholic or Protestant churches. They are legally required to continue paying unless they announce their departure from either church.
Meanwhile, only one in five Austrians said they felt linked to any church in a mid-December poll by the Linz-based Market agency, compared to 50 percent in a survey four years ago.
The survey suggested “personal religiousness” was increasing, with 35 percent of citizens declaring belief in God influenced their “personal life,” compared to 23 percent in 1994.
But Christoph Cardinal Schonborn of Vienna has testified that more adults are also joining the Austrian church each year than was the case a decade ago. This shows people are still looking to the church for something,” said an archdiocesan spokes-woman.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: World Notes & Quotes DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:Walesa Urges New Approach to Russia
“Walesa stressed the importance he believed God has played in his success,” wrote reporter George J. Tanber.
Walesa said Poland has struggled since democracy was introduced in 1989. Communist rule damaged both the economy and the mentality of the people, he added.
“The fall of communism was inevitable,” he asserted, “but had it not been for the Holy Father it would have lasted much longer and it would have been bloody.”
Walesa also discussed Russia's woes and suggested a solution to current problems. “The country is not a military threat,” he maintained. “They are too poor and have no means to carry out a war.”
He suggested that instead of giving Russia direct financial aid, a group of nations should get together and create business opportunities there, and help replace the markets that were once provided by former satellite countries.
Liberation Theology: A Fading Force in Latin America
While “liberation theology has lost much of its influence and support,” LaFranchi takes a generally positive view of the movement, and only quotes those who see its demise as a temporary lull due, in part, to “the consolidation of anti-Communist Pope John Paul II's power.”
According to Pedro Luis Alonzo, author of a recent book on religion in Guatemala, “Liberation theology is absolutely not forgotten, but what has survived might be called decaffeinated,” he told the Monitor. “With the retrenchment of ideologies after the fall of the Berlin Wall, liberation theology has lost whatever revolutionary leanings it once had.”
He could have added, especially in the case of Latin America, that liberation movements has failed due to a lack of popular support in countries that have instead moved toward liberal democracies and free-market economies.
----- EXCERPT: From selected publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Israel Bracing for 'Millennium Fever' DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:JERUSALEM—Worried that a small but significant number of Christians will be seized with “millennium fever” during the next two years, Israeli officials say they are taking steps to deal with the challenge.
The need for such preparations was highlighted earlier this month when Israel deported more than a dozen members of the Denver-based Concerned Christian cult. According to police sources, the “doomsday” cult was planning to commit a violent act in Jerusalem toward the end of 1999, to hasten the second coming of Jesus.
Israel's security establishment is reportedly working closely with the FBI in order to identify potentially dangerous visitors, and has established a special unit to deal with millennium-related problems.
While mental-health officials are also gearing up for an influx of pilgrims — including those with delusions related to the millennium — they insist that only a tiny percentage of visitors will need their services.
“We're talking about a very small minority in a large number of Christians, perhaps 1% of the pilgrims,” said Dr. Yair Bar-El, director of Kfar Shaul psychiatric center in Jerusalem.
Bar-El, whose hospital treats many tourists, acknowledges that a trip to the Holy Land sometimes sets off an acute psychiatric reaction.
“There are pilgrims who have never had psychiatric problems who arrive here and suddenly develop ‘Jerusalem syndrome,’” he said. “It causes disorientation, but for no more than a week, and then the person recovers.”
Bar-El said that a second category of visitors arrives in the Holy Land with existing psychiatric problems, and often identify with Biblical figures. A third group, which may suffer from borderline psychiatric problems, come to the Holy Land in the belief that they can provoke some kind of change in the world through their actions.
Of the latter two categories, he said, “these are not the regular pilgrims who arrive every year to see the holy places. They're here to witness apocalyptic things, the Armageddon war, the resurrection of Jesus. If these things happen, OK, we've all entered a different world. If not, the people who arrived to witness these events could develop depression or be violent or suicidal.”
To help identify these individuals before they do harm to themselves or others, hospitals like Kfar Shaul are training others in the art of early detection.
“We are working with mental health teams in Jerusalem, training tour guides, police, the welfare department, to help them detect manifestations of psychiatric problems. It's important to detect and treat problems early,” Bar-El said.
Wadie Abunassar, executive director of the Catholic Chruch's Jubilee events for the year 2000, believes that few if any Catholics will develop “millennium fever,” due to the tenants of Catholicism.
Distinguishing Catholicism from non-mainstream churches, Abunassar said, “the Catholic theology is very clear; it is not talking about the year 2000 as the end of the world. We are emphasizing what is written, what Jesus told his apostles: that nobody has the right to know the timetable of God the Father, not even the son himself. Therefore, good believers shouldn't worry about the year 2000 or the year 3000. We must be ready at every moment.”
Abunassar, like many other Christians, regrets that the Concerned Christian cult and others like it could make local Muslims and Jews fearful of Christian pilgrims.
To counteract this fear, he said, the church is planning a campaign “to inform the local public that Christianity is not one sect or another. Christianity is one of the mainstream churches, and the mainstream is led mainly by the Catholic Church.”
Abunassar said that “these so-called Concerned Christians are not Christians in our estimation. These are individual fanatics that security system should stop as soon as possible.” (Michele Chabin)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Church-State Ties Under Stress in Czech Republic DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:WARSAW, POLAND—A Catholic religious order has objected to a controversial statement by the head of the Czech government, rejecting a court ruling which would have cleared the way for the return of the order's communist-seized properties.
However, a Czech Bishops Conference official said he believed the premier was merely adopting a “tough stance” in preparation for long-awaited Church-State negotiations.
“This is a strange stance for the premier of a democratic state,” said Pavel Tollner, a lay leader of the Order of the Holy Virgin Mary of Jerusalem.
“What's at stake isn't only our properties, but freedom and fairness, as well as the independence of our courts and the quality of our legal system.”
Tollner, himself a politician, was reacting to the mid-January statement by Social Democrat Premier Milos Zeman, who said the order would not get back “a single pebble” — despite a ruling by Prague's City Court that its properties had been confiscated illegally.
The 800-year-old Holy Virgin order had first gone to court seven years ago in a bid to recover 106 buildings seized by Czechoslovakia's then ruling communists in 1950.
“Our order hasn't been treated in such an un-European way since World War II,” Tollner, a parliamentarian with the Czech Republic's Christian Democratic Party, told the Register.
“It's ironic that our properties in Austria were returned to us in 1946 by Soviet occupation forces, whereas half a century later a democratically elected government is refusing to give them back in the Czech Republic.”
Founded by German Crusaders to the Holy Land in 1190, the Vienna-based Holy Virgin order has 100 priests and 300 nuns worldwide, working mostly in schools and hospitals, and is currently headed by an Italian Grand Master, Prior Arnold Wieland.
In 1997, the liberal Czech government of Vaclav Klaus agreed to return a 14th century castle at Bouzov to the order, which dates its presence in Czech Bohemia back to 1203.
However, the move was resisted by local Czech residents with backing from the Social Democrats, who claimed order leaders had collaborated with the Germans in World War II, and were thereby ineligible to reclaim properties under Czech law.
The collaboration charge was overturned in 1998 by the Prague City Court, which confirmed that the order's possessions were confiscated illegally.
However, Czech newspapers report that Premier Zeman appeared to have arbitrarily overruled the possibility of rectifying the unlawful seizures with his hard-line statement this month.
A Bishops Conference official said other government members had warned that restitutions to the Holy Virgin order could stir “anti-German tensions.”
However, he added that the order's Czech chapter has “no direct German connections,” and said he believed Zeman was merely attempting a “tough populist stance” in the run-up to formal Church-State negotiations.
“The Social Democrat government has said it wishes to begin talks with the Church, knowing it must bring Church-State ties into line with European Union norms as a prelude to eventual EU membership,” the official told the Register. “But [the Social Democrat party] also represents the secularized part of our society. So it wants to signal to its voters that it won't be too friendly towards us.”
In his Register interview, the order's Pavel Tollner said Church leaders had supported requests by the religious order, including Bishop Frantisek Lobkovic of Plzen, who ordained a deacon at the order's 13th century headquarters in Opava on December 8.
He added that the Nazi collaboration charge had been “especially hurtful,” since several senior Holy Virgin members had died in German concentration camps.
All order buildings would be used as schools, hospitals and oldage homes when returned, Tollner stressed.
“We've said we can pay a symbolic rent if the State has difficulty handing back these properties,” the politician continued. “But they belong to our order and we must have our rightful ownership acknowledged.”
The Catholic Church in the Czech Republic has requested the return of 800 of 3,300 confiscated pre-war buildings, but has so far received only 170.
Although Zeman's Social Democrat government agreed to set up a property commission after taking office in Spring 1998, Church-government talks broke down in November when Church leaders objected to the presence of former communists on the government team.
They were revised earlier this month when Czech Culture Minister Pavel Dostal pledged the government would nominate “non-partisan” negotiators after introductory talks with Cardinal Miloslav Vlk of Prague.
However, several press commentators criticised the premier's latest hard stand with the Holy Virgin order as signalling a lack of genuine interest in negotiations with the Church, which are expected to open this Spring in the presence of a Vatican representative.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jonathan Luxmoore ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Indian Archbishop Protests Murders DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:NEW DELHI, India—Archbishop Alan de Lastic of Delhi wrote Indian government officials demanding an urgent inquiry into the killings of an Australian Protestant missionary and his two sons.
The missionary, Graham Stewart Stains, 58, who ran a leprosy hospital in Orissa state's Mayurbhanj district since 1965, and his two sons were burned alive inside a jeep in an eastern Indian village Jan. 23.
Police arrested 50 people Jan. 24 belonging to the Party of the Monkey God, a right-wing Hindu organization, in connection with the crime. Those arrested included three college students.
According to Archbishop de Lastic, India witnessed more than 110 incidents of violence against Christians during 1998.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Notes & Quotes DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:Weigel criticized a recent Catholic News Service story about Cardinal Ratzinger, who heads the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Weigel said the story depicted the cardinal as “a curial busybody who constantly injects himself into others' business.”
Weigel also noted that a writer for the London Tablet in a recent story “could not resist a dig at Ratzinger,” calling him the “present-day ‘Grand Inquisitor.’”
For an accurate picture of Cardinal Ratzinger, Weigel suggested Salt of the Earth, a book-length interview with the German-born cardinal. Weigel said the book caused a “mild sensation” when it first appeared in Germany because the cardinal came off as an engaging, generous, charming, modest, insightful theologian and pastor,” instead of appearing to be the “fierce, repressive, censurious Panzerkardinal” of the pundits' creation.
Weigel also recommended Ratzinger's recently published memoir, Milestones, and an essay by Father Richard John Neuhaus entitled “Christ's Donkey.” Father Neuhaus is quoted saying that Cardinal Ratzinger “has encouraged students beyond number in rekindling the lights of theological inquiry in service to Christ and his Church and therefore in service to the world.”
----- EXCERPT: From selected publications ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: A Helping Hand DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:Dr. Dan Jacob, an ear, nose, and throat specialist from Louisiana, attended his first Helping Hand Medical Mission last fall and plans to make three of the four scheduled missions next year. For him it was a life-changing event.
“For all of us (doctors from Louisiana) it was a completely magnificent and wonderful experience,” he said. “We went with the thought of giving of ourselves, and we did. But what we got back in return so far exceeded what we gave; we were the ones who received.”
He was touched by the faith and kindness of the people, who have tiny, two-room houses, no running water for bathing or washing clothes, and no regular medical care.
“If they have to wait all day to see you, they would wait all day and still be grateful,” he said. “It makes you realize how much the things you have are impediments to your spiritual well-being.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: PERSPECTIVE DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:Perhaps, just this once, we can excuse television commentators and the secular press for misstating the importance and meaning of Pope John Paul II's visit to St. Louis. After all, many Catholics will misunderstand it, too.
Of course, the media ought not do what they do. They see a gracious visit by a world-renowned peace-maker and moral leader to an enthusiastic flock. They report on the health of the peace maker; they measure the extent to which the followers have strayed from the moral leadership; and they suggest that the enthusiasm is a brief spectacle of garish excitement in a sad, divided flock. Then, they wonder aloud who the next Pope might be.
And, certainly, the Catholics who misunderstand the visit will not fall very far from the mark. They will respond with joy and gratitude to a man who has not just showed them signs of hope — but who is a sign of hope. They will cheer a spiritual celebrity whose personality has captured the imagination of the world.
So, what might their misunderstanding be?
The “celebrity” part.
One newspaper was told, by a Catholic, that a particular cardinal could very easily be the next pope because, after all… he has a personality that will capture the imagination of the world.
That is indeed a terrible prerequisite to put on the successors to Peter. New paradoxes immediately arise. There are all too many people who capture the imagination of the world — usually for a fleeting moment. And there are all too few who do anything useful with the world's imagination while they have it.
John Paul has captured the imagination of the world and done a great deal with it. He has deepened our understanding of so many things: our selves (“the human being is by nature a philosopher”) the family, (“a sovereign society,”) our nation, (“a nation has to have a soul”) our culture, (“different cultures are basically different ways of facing the question of the meaning of personal existence”) and humanity (“man is the way of the Church.”)
We should be awe-struck when John Paul visits our country. But it is not his wisdom or charisma which should inspire our awe.
The people didn't line cots along the streets of Jerusalem hoping to be touched by Peter's shadow because they were attracted by a personality, but because they saw in him a rare power: the power to heal the sick and to speak words of rare truth.
These are the gifts that, from Peter to Linus, Cletus, and Clement; from Leo the Great to John Paul the Great, have stood like a bright sign pointing to the one reason to respect the Pope. He is the Vicar of Christ. He is the Father's way of reminding us that we belong to but one flock. He holds keys that open doors our imaginations will never penetrate.
We join the voices of confusion in the media when we allow the Holy Father to be demoted to celebrity status.
What will we do if the next Pope's personality doesn't capture the imagination of the world? What if we are glued to our televisions and the next Pope appears on the balcony over St. Peter's square to great fanfare and stands there for the whole world to see… an unattractive man who looks sincere, and vaguely uncomfortable, and doesn't know quite what to say? How many of us will frown, feel inwardly embarrassed, and never speak with the same enthusiasm about the Holy Father again?
We are — all of us — members of a media-driven, susceptible to its noisy excesses and its scientifically engineered enticements, market-tested to please us and all but guaranteed to mislead.
The Holy Father himself recognizes the disastrous effects our media culture can have on our attitudes. In his October ad limina remarks to bishops of the Northwest, he dwelled on the role of the priest and liturgy.
We must remember that the priest is “the servant of the liturgy, not its inventor or producer,” he said, and later warned, “In a culture which neither favors nor fosters meditative quiet, the art of interior listening is learned only with difficulty. Here we see how the liturgy, though it must always be properly inculturated, must also be counter-cultural.”
We certainly must be counter- cultural as regards the Eucharist, which is the “source and summit of the Christian life,” according to the Second Vatican Council. We must also be counter-cultural as regards the Pope.
“For,” the Second Vatican Council also said, “the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church, has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered.”
It is hard to imagine a more counter-cultural statement.
If that is the truth about the Pope — and (thank God for his foresight) it is — then we must have an entirely different attitude toward his visit to St. Louis.
We should cheer the Pope and lean out to see him as he passes by. But we should remember that we do it because Christ has given us an enormously important gift: a Church with a visible structure, a body of successors to the apostles — and, at its head, a face like ours.
And then the cheers should stop. We should pay our Lord the respect of a meditative quiet when his vicar speaks. We should show other Christians that Catholics follow Peter's successor the way Christ intended: as “belonging to the Church's very foundation,” to quote the Catechism.
Only in this way can we keep a proper distance from the culture of the media, and ground ourselves in the culture of faith.
Tom Hoopes writes from Falls Church, Virginia.
----- EXCERPT: Why Cheer the Pope? ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tom Hoopes ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: 'Catholic Moment' Lost at Synod of Bishops DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:by Father Richard John Neuhaus
(Crossroad Publishing Co., 1999, 170 pages, $24.95)
If the Holy Father is submitting himself to this, who am I to complain?” writes Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor in chief of First Things, about the 1997 Synod of Bishops for America. Honored by his “appointment in Rome” as one of only four non-bishops chosen as full-voting members of the synod, he was under-whelmed by the synod's procedural structures and wrote this book to “redeem the time” and to sort out his thinking about the “curious experience” that is a synod of bishops. Although frustrated by the tedium, Father Neuhaus remained keenly aware of the company he was keeping, exhorting the often apprehensive synod fathers to think boldly about a new “Catholic moment” for America — “America” here understood to extend from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.
Father Neuhaus begins by giving us a report of how the synod actually works, or doesn't, as the case may be. Likening the synod's “re-workings of reworkings” to a cow that chews and re-chews its cud, Father Neuhaus does not hide his impatience with the interminable speeches, lack of creative exchange, and “schoolboy regimen,” including attendance cards — which even the cardinals had to complete. Yet he concludes that the proceedings must be seen in the light of the Holy Spirit's work in history: “This synod was, in short, pretty much what one might expect had the original apostles, multiplied many times over, been sent to western shores and then, many years later, called back to Rome to consult with Peter.”
Procedure aside, Father Neuhaus' substantive disappointment is with the lack of enthusiasm among these successors of the apostles for “the Catholic moment” — a time of expectation about preaching the gospel on the threshold of the year 2000.
“Tensions within the Church and tensions with the surrounding culture reveal strikingly different dispositions, ranging from timorousness to belligerence, with numerous variations on both,” he writes. The disposition that Father Neuhaus finds most lacking is confidence. His book is subtitled The Church in America Awakening. The synod fathers speak more about the Church in America embattled.
Father Neuhaus sees this possible “awakening” as a variation of the Holy Father's conviction that a “new springtime of evangelization” is at hand. He thought so a decade ago when, still a Lutheran, he wrote The Catholic Moment. That book argued — an argument that he has since amplified in several other books and in First Things — that the Catholic Church provides the most compelling vision of man and society in the face of the crises of faith, truth, and freedom that mark our time. The prolific and eloquent Father Neuhaus has won a wide following in the United States and the favor of the Holy Father. But the synod fathers remain to be convinced.
“Humbling,” is how Father Neuhaus describes the “evident lack of influence” the ideas of The Catholic Moment have had among the synod fathers. The majority from Latin America were preoccupied with the challenges of grinding poverty, the lack of priests, the large numbers of practicing Catholics living in irregular marital situations, and the growth of the “sects,” meaning evangelical Protestants. He sympathizes, but wonders whether there was altogether too much complaining going on. Father Neuhaus, a preternatural optimist, was surrounded by prelates who spend a good part of each day receiving bad news about the Church. To be fair, he confesses that “they bear burdens I don't bear.”
The heart of this book is the suggestion that how Catholics treat other Christians reveals how Catholics understand what it means to be Catholic.
Taking up the question of relations with evangelical Protestants, he asked in his synod speech for an “elimination of all reference to ‘sects’ when referring to our brothers and sisters in Christ.” Acknowledging that evangelicals often do not see Catholics as brethren at all, Father Neuhaus insists that Catholics must not reciprocate misunderstanding for misunderstanding. He follows John Courtney Murray in observing that pluralism is “written in the script of history” and he argues that the “rich ecclesiology” of Lumen Gentium provides the proper context for dealing with religious pluralism.
“The Church is not intimidated by pluralism, for pluralism is the inevitable consequence of freedom, and the Church is the world's premier champion of freedom,” he writes. “And that is why the most important question addressed by the synod is the encounter with other Christians. For Latin Americans it is a matter of positioning the Church for an encounter that is relatively new. For North Americans, it is a matter of re-examining the ways in which a very old encounter has confused or compromised what it means to be a Catholic Christian.”
The originality of his approach lies in the link between freedom, especially religious liberty, and ecumenism. The ecumenical question then ceases to be a matter only of theological agreement or ecclesial jurisdiction and becomes a part of the Church's understanding of its mission in the modern world. While not saying so explicitly, the heart of this book is Father Neuhaus' suggestion that how Catholics treat other Christians reveals how Catholics understand what it means to be Catholic. To fail at ecumenism is therefore to fail to understand what it means to be Catholic — a bold claim, boldly stated.
Father Neuhaus knows that his experience of ecumenical engagement, marked by such heady initiatives as Evangelicals and Catholics Together, is rather different from a South American bishop who must deal with Protestant “missionaries” who seek to “convert” Catholics to Christianity. Yet he argues that the Church is at her best when she patiently, persuasively, and prayerfully expounds her faith, not against anyone, least of all fellow Christians, but with trust that, in the words of Lumen Gentium, all “elements of truth … possess an inner dynamism toward Catholic unity.”
Father Neuhaus' position, or perhaps more accurately, disposition, is open to attack from all sides, perhaps most from those who wish to emphasize conversion more than conversation in relations with other Christians. He may be wrong in his reading of the signs of the times, but his argument must be engaged because it reads those signs from the right vantage point, namely, the Church's fundamental teaching about who she is. The attraction of his proposal is that it is rooted in Catholic orthodoxy, illustrating yet again that orthodoxy can be ever so much more radical than its alternatives.
Ecumenism is an extraordinarily delicate matter, and Father Neuhaus' ecumenical proposal is as nuanced as it is bold. Leaving the deliberations of the synod quite far behind, Father Neuhaus here holds aloft the standard of a new Catholic moment, this time embracing the whole American hemisphere. It remains to be seen who will follow. The world of preternaturally optimistic Catholics is not yet so very large. But Father Neuhaus is not one to fret. He believes that the Holy Father, Vatican II, and the script of history are with him.
Rayond de Souza is a seminarian of the Archdiocese of Kingston, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Life-Giving Without Love-Giving DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:by Gilbert Meilaender
(Christianity Today, Dec. 7, 1998)
Gilbert Meilaender writes: “[T]he seemingly innocent desire to have ‘a child of one's own,’ combined with the high-tech possibilities of modern medicine and the ever-present pursuit of commercial gain, has fashioned a world in which we regularly create moral conundrums that are beyond our ability not only to solve but even to name.”
“[W]e may sometimes find it hard to remember or believe that the first ‘test-tube'baby was born only 20 years ago, in 1978. Two decades later we live in a world in which a woman can give birth to her own ‘grandchild,’ in which a child can have as many as five ‘parents’ (the donors of sperm and ovum, the surrogate who carries the child during pregnancy, and the two ‘rearing parents’); in which people can ‘have children’ posthumously. … What is so important about having a child? Why do people care so deeply?”
“Sometimes today, when we ask such questions, answers of the following sort come back: ‘I desire the experience of pregnancy and childbirth.’ ‘I want the experience of child rearing.’… But … [t]o think that way is already to think of children as products made to satisfy some of our desires. And of course, if and when the product turns out not really to satisfy us, we may be hard pressed to muster the kind of unconditional love children require if they are to flourish.”
“There are, though, deeper and better reasons for having children. We would make a little moral progress were we to say, ‘I want a child because I want a link to future generations.’… We get much closer to a satisfactory understanding if we think of a child of our own. … It is natural that [a married couple] should want a child, for that child would be the sign that the love by which they give themselves to each other is creative and fruitful. … In the passion of sexual love a man and woman step out of themselves, so to speak, and give themselves to each other. That is why we speak of sexual ecstasy — a word that means precisely standing outside oneself.”
“And the child, if a child is conceived, is not then the product of their willed creation. The child is a gift and a mystery, springing from their embrace — a blessing love gives into their arms. They could and should, if they think the matter through, quite rightly say that they had received this child as a gift of God, as the biblical writer says of Hannah: ‘The LORD remembered her.’… And what if the Lord does not ‘remember’ us as he remembered Hannah? That is reason for sadness, but it is not reason to take up the ‘project’ of making a child.”
“If this is how Christians understand the meaning of the presence of children, how shall we evaluate the vast array of new reproductive technologies …? The first thing to note is that many of the new technologies involve parties other than husband and wife in the reproducing process. … Moreover … if it is the couple's desire that is being treated, we need to remember that they may not simply desire a child. They probably also desire, for example, a healthy child. … The pressure to discard embryos who do not meet desired specifications — and to try again — may be almost impossible to resist.”
“In short, many of the new reproductive technologies will involve the use of third parties. In doing so, they break the connection between love-giving and life-giving in marriage. That is not just a minor nuance, for it is this connection that teaches us to think of the child as a gift, that keeps us from thinking of children as our project, as existing for the sake of satisfying our desires.”
----- EXCERPT: What happens when third parties get involved in conception through technology? ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Wilson Fielding ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:Opening Doors to Jehovah's Witnesses
Regarding “Ohio Village Closes Door To Jehovah's Witnesses” in the Jan. 3-9 edition, I wish to challenge most strongly Mayor Arthur Baldwin's position that the Witnesses be given door-to-door access in Waite Hill because they are “good people.” As a convert to Catholicism, I urge all Catholics and orthodox Christians to remember that because people are “good” or “nice” this should in no way supersede the importance of what we believe.
The Witnesses are a modern-day version of the ancient Arian heresy that denied the divinity of Christ. The great Fathers of the Church had no problem in naming heretics for what they were and neither should we, without apology. Because the Witnesses come across as very sincere and dedicated, as do many cults, people whose own faith foundation is poorly formed are extravulnerable to their come-ons. Be assured, the Witnesses are in no way interested in sincere, mutual ecumenical dialogue. Although they operate on the premise that they merely want to encourage people to “examine the Bible” their ultimate goal is that all those they solicit read their quirky New World Translation which completely denies the Trinity.
I would urge all believing Christians to check out the books and literature available at their local library concerning the beliefs and practices of the Witnesses and especially the life of their founder, Charles Taze Russell. I would further remind the orthodox Churches that the supreme goal of the Witnesses is to draw away as many Christians from the Churches as possible (especially Catholics, whom their literature consistently derides and caricatures as being part of the false system of “Christendom”).
As a committed Catholic, when the Witnesses come on my property, I will continue to politely but firmly close the door.
Christine Adryan
Brecksville, Ohio
Government Policies and Military Chaplains
Your article on Archbishop O'Brien and the military services (Register, Dec. 27– Jan. 2) is one of the best I've ever seen on this subject, especially about the role of the military chaplain and what current government policies are doing to military life, especially threatening the all-volunteer service.
Rev. Robert V. Goedert
Col. U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Re-Establishing An Intellectual Tradition DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:When I first left the practice of law to study theology at the graduate level, it was with the conviction that learning more, knowing more about God and God's relationship with human beings, would bring me closer to God. I also believed it would make me happier, because I would be at least closer to the answer to the great question “What's it all about, Alfie?” I could then try harder to live in harmony with the real meaning and purpose of life.
And you know what? I was right. Catholic studies have an enormous amount to offer, not just the mind, but the heart and soul.
Many, many people believe otherwise, however. They believe that whether the subject is God, or God acting in the world, or the Catholic faith — its Sacred Scriptures or Traditions — it's mostly a matter of subjective feeling or opinion. There are no “facts” to learn, or if there are, they are unrelated to the project of living a happier, more authentically human life.
Which is why I believe that one of the great legacies of this Pope, the Pope who has come to our shores this week, will be to reinstate the respect given to the Catholic intellectual tradition, and its power to effect personal conversion. Particularly that part of our tradition that uses human reason, and illuminates it with the eyes of faith, to such devastating effect and insight.
Scholars from a variety of backgrounds could undoubtedly describe this phenomenon from within their own areas of expertise. Areas like economics, international development, philosophy, and history. The areas I know best include national culture and politics particularly as these relate to the life and death issues of abortion and euthanasia.
Certainly, before the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, the pro-life movement had tirelessly promoted the scientific truths upon which the pro-life stance was based. They had pointed out the intellectual and indeed the human-rights soundness of the pro-life position that all human life, without any exception, ought to be treated with great respect. And that at the very rock bottom of respecting human life is refraining from killing it.
Then along came Pope John Paul II, speaking on the matter of the dignity of each human person again and again and again. Speaking of it in dozens of countries, and in addresses to countless varieties of groups in Rome and around the world. Most especially, he addressed the subject of the “inviolability of the human person” in his great encyclical in 1995, Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life). There he laid out the undisputed scientific evidence about life's beginnings at conception. He showed how the progress of science, particularly genetic science, only continues to confirm the awesome value of life before birth. He spoke of the humanity of the disabled and the terminally ill, those often recommended as candidates for euthanasia and assisted suicide.
The Pope exposed the ‘roots of the culture of death’ in a way that could be described as chillingly accurate.
Perhaps most persuasively, and most unsparingly, however, he described in Evangelium Vitae the flawed belief systems that give rise to a culture's embrace of the killing of family members when they are most frail and dependent, and most in need of our unfailing care. He exposed the “roots of the culture of death” in a way that could be described as chillingly accurate. It was as if he laid bare the worst features of America's soul. Our growing belief that freedom is a “me, me, me” proposition. That it is not about solidarity with or service to others. That the common good is not freedom's concern.
He described our growing tendency to believe that freedom and truth are also separate concepts. This is the idea that leads us to believe that violating the truth about the sacred value of human life will have no consequences. Thus the country's elites deny the existence of post-abortion syndrome and the feelings of misery and “un-freedom” it brings to women. They deny that violating the truth about human sexuality burdens us with sexually transmitted diseases, out-of-wedlock child rearing, and all manner of unmeasured grief.
John Paul II described how our forgetting God could lead to our treating the human body like a “thing” to be manipulated and maximized. Thus the movement for assisted suicide when lives/bodies are perceived to be “useless.”
Our Holy Father's knowledge about these matters comes from history, from reason, and from faith. His writings on these subjects — particularly Evangelium Vitae — are loaded with scholarly references from all of these sources. Philosophers, scientists, social observers, members of the media — all are impressed with the intelligence and well-groundedness of his observations. He has re-established the Catholic intellectual tradition as a force to be reckoned with. And he has established forcefully that knowing is closely related to being happy and being authentically free. Wouldn't you know that one of the most personal, most pastoral, and most well-loved popes in history, could do this too?
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Helen Alvaré ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Declaration DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:As the Clinton presidency reached a crisis point in 1998, the President relied on religious language — and high-profile events with religious leaders — to explain his conduct to the American people.
More than 90 religious thinkers — most of them would be described as “progressive” — worried that his conduct had brought the nation to a crucial moment in its conception of itself as a moral nation and in its understanding of the meaning of religious language. After a series of meetings and discussions, the following “Declaration” was drafted. It is reprinted here from a book of essays about it called Judgment Day at the White House (1999, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids).
As scholars interested in religion and public life, we protest the manipulation of religion and the debasing of moral language in the discussion about presidential responsibility. We believe that serious misunderstandings of repentance and forgiveness are being exploited for political advantage. The resulting moral confusion is a threat to the integrity of American religion and to the foundations of a civil society. In the conviction that politics and morality cannot be separated, we consider the current crisis to be a critical moment in the life of our country and, therefore, offer the following points for consideration:
1 Many of us worry about the political misuse of religion and religion and religious symbols even as we endorse the public mission of our churches, synagogues, and mosques. In particular, we are concerned about the distortion that can come by association with presidential power in events such as the Presidential Prayer Breakfast of September 11, 1998. We fear that the religious community is in danger of being called upon to provide authentication for a politically motivated and incomplete repentance that seeks to avert serious consequences for wrongful acts. While we affirm that pastoral counseling sessions are an appropriate, confidential arena in which to address these issues, we fear that announcing such meetings to convince the public of the President's sincerity compromises the integrity of religion.
2 We challenge the widespread assumption that forgiveness relieves a person of further responsibility and serious consequences. We are convinced that forgiveness is a relational term that does not function easily within the sphere of constitutional accountability. A wronged party chooses forgiveness instead of revenge and antagonism, but this does not relieve the wrongdoer of consequences. When the President continues to deny any liability for the sins he has confessed, it suggests that his public display of repentance was intended to avoid political disfavor.
3 We are aware that certain moral qualities are central to the survival of our political system, among which are truthfulness, integrity, respect for the law, respect for the dignity of others, adherence to the constitutional process, and a willingness to avoid the abuse of power. We reject the premise that violations of these ethical standards should be excused so long as a leader remains loyal to a particular political agenda and the nation is blessed by a strong economy. Elected leaders are accountable to the Constitution and to the people who elected them. By his own admission, the President has departed from ethical standards by abusing his presidential office, by his ill use of women, and by his knowing manipulation of truth for indefensible ends. We are particularly troubled about the debasing of the language of public discourse with the aim of avoiding responsibility for one's actions.
4 We are concerned about the impact of this crisis on our children and on our students, Some of them feel betrayed by a President in whom they set their hopes, while others are troubled by his misuse of others, by which many in the administration, the political system, and the media were implicated in patterns of deceit and abuse. Neither we nor our students demand perfection. Many of us believe that extreme dangers sometimes require a political leader to engage in morally problematic actions. But we maintain that in general there is a reasonable threshold of behavior beneath which our public leaders should not fall, because the moral character of a people is more important than the tenure of a particular politician or the protection of a particular political agenda. Political and religious history indicate that violations and misunderstandings of such moral issues may have grave consequences. The widespread desire to “get this behind us” does not take seriously enough the nature of transgressions and their social effects.
5 We urge the society as a whole to take account of the ethical commitments necessary for a civil society and to seek the integrity of both public and private morality. While partisan conflicts have usually dominated past debates over public morality, we now confront a much deeper crisis: whether the moral basis of the constitutional system itself will be lost. In the present impeachment discussions, we call for national courage in deliberation that avoids ideological division and engages the process as a constitutional and ethical imperative. We ask Congress to discharge its current duty in a manner mindful of its solemn constitutional and political responsibilities. Only in this way can the process serve the good of the nation as a whole and avoid further sensationalism.
6 While some of us think that a presidential resignation or impeachment would be appropriate and others envision less drastic consequences, we are all convinced that extended discussion about constitutional, ethical, and religious issues will be required to clarify the situation and to make a wise decision possible. We hope to provide an arena in which such discussion can occur in an atmosphere of scholarly integrity and civility without partisan bias.
----- EXCERPT: Concerning Religion, Ethics, And the Crisis In the Clinton Presidency ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Follow the Bright Young People from Politics to Culture DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:P Politics, it has been said, is the preoccupation of the quarter-educated. One of the curses of attending an Ivy League college in the early seventies was the ubiquity of politics. Politics were everywhere on campus: shouted from bullhorns, handed out in leaflets, agonized over in the dining halls. It was just as the poet said: The best lacked all conviction, while the worst were filled with passionate intensity.
After graduation, many of my classmates decided that the best thing they could do for mankind was go down to Washington and become Bright Young People. The idea was to work as a congressional aide for a few years, write some speeches, learn the legislative ropes, then head back to the home district and begin a meteoric political career ending at least in the U.S. Senate. Other professions in comparison seemed as interesting as stamp collecting.
Last spring I attended my 25th reunion (a rite of passage not to be missed) and there was not even a single state senator among the Class of '73. The closest anyone came to political glamour was being a Friend of Bill, which did not bring much in the way of bragging rights. Nobody, in fact, was much interested in politics. I sat on a panel about public service, and the session turned into a kind of confessional for everyone present: “I wanted to be like JFK, but now I'm doing town planning in Virginia,” or “working for prisoners’ rights in Texas,” or “trying to improve the public schools in Wisconsin.”
In other words, so far as this group of very intelligent baby boomers were concerned, the action was at the grass roots and not in Washington. What they were most concerned about was not politics, but the culture. There is a sea change taking place here, and activist Catholics ought to take note.
There is a lot of talk in the Church today about reclaiming the political initiative. While Catholics can never afford to ignore the political process, may I suggest that the real war is on the cultural front and not within the Beltway? In fact, if we are ever going to achieve a political goal like eliminating abortion, we are first going to have to change the culture.
Consider the soccer mom, that electoral trophy of the nineties. I recently asked a soccer mom — a suburbanite mother of two whom I happen to know — why she had voted for a very liberal candidate in the last Senate election. After all, I pointed out, her views about taxes and welfare and teachers unions were on the conservative side. Why vote for somebody who was still stuck in the sixties on these issues? Her reply was prompt: The other candidate, a Republican, was (somewhat) pro-life, and abortion for her trumped all other issues.
There you have it: The voice of the bourgeoisie at the end of the millennium. Too often, your affluent suburban mother is, above all else, into control — especially with regard to the number of children she brings into the world. She is acutely aware of the trade-off between a third child and a new BMW. While she herself might never consider having an abortion, she cannot conceive a political order which did not allow affluent women like herself to have that option if another baby upset the cost-benefit calculus that is always clicking away in the background. Christopher Dawson pointed out years ago that the bourgeois mind, which is always plotting its own comforts and privileges, is deeply antithetical to Catholicism.
Yet, in the long run, it is impossible for any society to attain true happiness and prosperity in opposition to the human goods proposed by the Catholic Church. The soccer mom, if she only knew it, is canceling a future full of soccer moms, although whether that cancellation comes quickly or slowly is anyone's guess.
Soccer moms voted for Clinton and are not terribly impressed by the case for removing him from office. They view impeachment not as a legal or political problem, but as a battle in the ongoing culture war. Clinton's dismissal would be a setback for the sexual revolution, and so cannot be allowed to happen, no matter what the evidence.
The soccer mom is not a political animal; she can go either Democrat or Republican. Rather, her attitudes are cultural. So if we are going to change the way she votes, we are going to have to replace the cultural baggage she carries into the voting booth. What will change her will be things she hears — from friends, at school meetings, or book circles, perhaps from the pulpit. She is a tough nut to crack. But she is waiting to hear from you — yes, you — out there in suburbs.
So, follow the example of my college classmates: Give politics a break and get to work at the grass roots. We are going to reclaim this culture one person, one family, one neighborhood at a time. Catholics, in fact, have been given their marching orders by Pope John Paul II to do just that, but most of us are slow to respond.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: George Sim Johnston ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Pope Speaks in English DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:Archbishop Charles Chaput told the Register, “I think Pope John Paul II addressed this part in English because in some ways those problems are especially present in North America and in an unique way in the United States.
“[I]t was a way to remind us our responsibility,” he added. “I hope that people of the South of the Americas won't follow our example, but will be an example to us and will change this culture of death”.
In English, the Pope said: “The Apostle Paul teaches us that in the fullness of time God sent his Son, born of a woman, to redeem us from sin and to make us his sons and daughters. Accordingly, we are no longer servants but children and heirs of God (cf Gal 4:4-7). Therefore, the Church must proclaim the Gospel of life and speak out with prophetic force against the culture of death. May the Continent of Hope also be the Continent of Life! This is our cry: life with dignity for all! For all who have been conceived in their mother's womb, for street children, for indigenous peoples and Afro-Americans, for immigrants and refugees, for the young deprived of opportunity, for the old, for those who suffer any kind of poverty or marginalization.
“Dear brothers and sisters, the time has come to banish once and for all from the Continent every attack against life. No more violence, terrorism and drug-trafficking! No more torture or other forms of abuse! There must be an end to the unnecessary recourse to the death penalty! No more exploitation of the weak, racial discriminations or ghettoes of poverty! Never again! These are intolerable evils which cry out to heaven and call Christians to a different way of living , to a social commitment more in keeping with their faith. We must rouse the consciences of men and women with the Gospel, in order to highlight their sublime vocation as children of God. This will inspire them to build a better America. As a matter of urgency, we must stir up a new springtime of holiness on the Continent so that action and contemplation will go hand in hand.”
— Alejandro Bermudez
----- EXCERPT: During the Homily delivered at the Guadalupe Basilica, the Pope included a few words for the U.S. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Bermudez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Sea of Sanctuaries in a Polish Forest DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:Among the many lovely shrines of Poland, the sanctuary of Kalwaria Paclawska stands out for its beauty and uniqueness. The story of the shrine's founding is among the most unusual in Catholic history. And, unlike most places of pilgrimage which tend to consist of one sanctuary, this shrine features a large majestic church and more than 40 chapels scattered throughout the nearby fields and woods.
A popular destination for the Catholic faithful, the shrine lies in the far eastern reaches of the country near Ukraine.
Upon entering the small village one is immediately greeted by the grand twin-towers of the Franciscan monastery and church. Once inside the sanctuary, one is engulfed in a sea of art and architecture. So splendid are the decorations that the shrine is routinely ranked as one of the most beautiful in Eastern Europe. Outside the extraordinary sanctuary are more than three dozen chapels dedicated to Our Lord and his Blessed Mother.
According to legend, the shrine's origin is the result of an event that occurred in 1665. While hunting one day in the forest, the local administrator allegedly saw a deer running in the forest with a brilliant cross between its antlers. After seeing this incredible sight, the town official decided to work to place a monastery and church at the site in commemoration of the event. His desire was fulfilled when, three years hence, the Franciscans moved to the region and a wooden church was constructed at the site.
As the area resembled that of the Mount of Olives in the Holy Land, the friars chose to dedicate the shrine to Our Lord's passion and death, naming it the Calvary (Kalwaria) of Paclawska. To encourage the faithful to meditate on the suffering of Christ, they placed crosses on the hillsides. Over time, small chapels began to replace the crosses. Eventually, more than 40 little sanctuaries filled the fields and forests on both sides of the Wiar River.
In 1775, the Franciscans consecrated a new and grandiose church with a miraculous image of Our Lady of Calvary enshrined above one of the side altars. The image is of the Mother of God as Queen, sitting on clouds with a scepter in her right hand, and the Child Jesus on her left arm.
The image quickly became known as an instrument through which God and Our Lady desired to work wonders of healings and other favors. The shrine received a great honor in 1882, when the miraculous picture was crowned.
Today, the sanctuary remains one of Poland's prominent places of pilgrimage. The most important of its many annual celebrations takes place from Aug. 11 to 15 — a five-day solemnity in honor of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The ceremonies include a procession that transports a statue of Our Lady's Dormition to a “burial cottage.” The cortege stops along the way at seven small chapels dedicated to Mary. This moving celebration is witnessed each year by thousands of pilgrims.
Located in southeastern Poland near the city of Przemysl, the shrine of Kalwaria Paclawska is open daily and receives pilgrims throughout the year. With its numerous chapels and a beautiful guesthouse, the sanctuary offers visitors a fitting place for prayer and retreat.
----- EXCERPT: 17th-century shrine and pilgrimage site boasts dozens of chapels ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kevin Wright ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: A Strike Against Relativism DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:In our increasingly secularized culture, the Ten Commandments have become a hot-button issue. There have been several highly publicized cases in which so-called civil-liberties groups have sued to have displays of God's laws removed from public places, usually schools and courthouses. The reason for these actions is that the Ten Commandments, when properly understood, represent transcendent ethical norms that can't be tampered with. They stand for the kind of absolute truth that threatens the moral relativism currently propagated by our mass media and public schools.
The late Polish director, Krzysztof Kieslowski (The Double Life of Veronique and the trilogy Red, White, and Blue) understood the centrality of the Ten Commandments to any discussion of contemporary morality. In 1988 he and screenwriter Krzysztof Piesiewicz created a 10-part series, called The Decalogue, for Polish Television. Each program is devoted to one of the Ten Commandments. An episode entitled A Short Film About Killing, based on “Thou shalt not kill,” won the Cannes Film Festival Jury Award. It's an argument against capital punishment which shows both a murder and the execution of the murderer.
Although the best known of the series, A Short Film About Killing isn't typical of its methods. It's the only episode in which the filmmakers approach their subject with a specific political message in mind. In all the other programs, their ambitions are more general. Piesiewicz, who describes himself as “Christian but not Catholic,” declares their intent is “a return to the elemental values destroyed by communism.”
Rather than provide answers, most episodes ask questions, often from an ironic perspective. But unlike most contemporary films, once an ethical dilemma is posed, it is pursued to its logical conclusion.
Throughout the series, characters' lives are changed by moments of coincidence and synchronicity. The viewer senses the hand of Providence behind the twists and turns of each story. The overall effect is best described as metaphysical rather than Christian. The film-makers give a semidocumentary texture to the presentation of each story despite the mysticism of some of its themes.
To provide unity to the different episodes, almost all the characters live in the same Warsaw apartment complex, and they appear briefly in programs other than the ones which center on their particular problems. Despite the urban setting, the power of nature is also evoked as each story imaginatively makes use of the season in which it unfolds.
Decalogue One examines the values behind the relationship between a college professor, Krzysztof (Henryk Baranowski), and his young son, Pawel (Wojcieck Kiata), whom he's raising on his own. The boy is beginning to ask questions about God and the meaning of existence. His aunt (Maja Komorski), a believing Catholic, wants him to begin religious instruction with a priest. Krzysztof is a rationalist with no spiritual values. He encourages his son to put his faith in their computer which he sees as a paradigm for the mechanistic workings of the universe.
It's wintertime, and Pawel wants to try out a new pair of skates on a nearby frozen pond. Father and son together use the computer to calculate whether the ice is strong enough to support the boy's weight. The answer is positive, and Pawel is granted permission to go skating.
There's an unexpected thaw, and the computer is proved wrong, with tragic results. The father's rationalist model of the universe is shattered in a way that reflects back on the meaning of the first commandment: “Thou shalt have no other Gods but me.”
In despair, Krzysztof runs to the local church and angrily pushes over an altar with candles on it. The episode's last image shows the candle wax splashing against an icon of the Black Madonna, staining her face as if they were tears.
The series often explores issues from a complex, multilayered point of view. In Decalogue Eight, Elizabeth (Teresa Marczewska), a middle-aged Jewish woman from New York who survived the Holocaust as a young child in Poland, returns to Warsaw to do research on other survivors. She sits in on a lecture by Zofia (Maria Koscialkowski), a respected ethics professor who sheltered Jews during the war.
After class, Elizabeth reveals herself to Zofia as a 6-year-old child whom the professor refused to hide. At the time the older woman argued that to do so would have forced her to act counter to her beliefs as a Catholic and lie to authorities.
Zofia now explains that there was another reason. A partisan counterintelligence officer believed that the person to whom Elizabeth would have been entrusted was working for the Gestapo and that he would have turned her over to the Nazis and betrayed the entire underground network. This information was later proved false.
These facts force the audience to re-examine with the two women the meaning of lies and the nature of truth and reality. Zofia is happy to know that Elizabeth survived. A burden of guilt which she carried for 45 years is lifted. Elizabeth realizes that Zofia isn't the ogre she assumed her to be. After several difficult confrontations, the two women forgive themselves and each other.
This scene of forgiveness and reconciliation is a typical Kieslowski-Piesiewicz moment and key to their vision of what constitutes moral behavior. Variations of it are repeated with great emotional force in Decalogues Nine and Ten, in which, respectively, a woman pardons her husband for his suicidal jealousy, and two brothers re-establish a bond after years of mistrust and alienation.
The filmmakers also understand that most of us have messy lives and that it's at the rough edges of our experience that the assertion of moral values becomes all important. They want the audience to focus on the state of their characters' souls during moments when they are wrestling with their darkest desires and obsessions. As a consequence, the series' subject matter is often not G-rated material although there is never any explicit sex or violence. Within this framework, several episodes contain a pro-life message. In Decalogue Two, Dorota (Krystyna Janda) grieves over her cancer-stricken husband, Andrzej (Olgierch Lukaszewicz). But unbe-known to him, she is pregnant with another man's child. The doctor in charge of her husband's treatment (Aleksander Bandini) lives in their apartment building, and she pesters him for advice.
Dorota wants to know if her husband will live or die. If he survives, she plans to have an abortion. If he dies, she'll have the child. The doctor refuses to make a definitive pronouncement. Even though her husband's prognosis isn't good, there's always the chance he'll have a miraculous recovery.
The doctor urges Dorota to give birth to the child whatever happens. Although we root for her to do the right thing and have the baby, the filmmakers also show us the torment she endures as she comes to a decision. The proper treatment of children is an issue to which the series repeatedly returns. In Decalogue Seven, the 6-year-old Ania (Katarzyna Piwowarcyk) is the victim of the differing emotional needs of her mother, Majka (Maja Barelkowska), and her grandmother, Ewa (Anna Polony). Ania has been raised believing that Ewa is her mother and that Majka is her sister because Majka bore her out of wedlock, and the family wanted to conceal the fact out of shame.
Majka can no longer bear the pain of this deception and kidnaps the child, intending to flee to Canada. She tells her daughter the truth about her situation, but the little girl is unable to address her as “mother.” The circumstances resolve themselves in a way that's probably best for the child, but they leave scars. The episode allows us to understand and sympathize with the motivations of both Majka and Ewa.
Kieslowski's work has become the inspiration for a younger generation of filmmakers who want to explore cutting-edge, contemporary issues without the amorality, nihilism, or despair that characterizes much of the current product of both Hollywood and independent moviemakers. In The Decalogue, they are shown a way to confront life's difficulties and contradictions with moral clarity and hope.
Arts & Culture correspondent John Prizer currently writes from Paris.
----- EXCERPT: The Decalogue masterfully reminds us that the Ten Commandments are never out of date ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Videos on Release DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:Packed with big men, big machinery, big explosions, and big problems, Armageddon follows a crew of oil drillers led by Bruce Willis as they try to save Earth from an asteroid. Willis and company receive their assignment from nerdy government officials and seem to be more interested in destroying them than the asteroid. But after consenting to a few days of training, the drillers blast off into space, leaving Willis’ daughter (Liv Tyler) behind to mourn her father and her fiancé (Ben Affleck), a troublesome driller. Disaster soon ensues, and tough decisions must be made. Although rife with impressive special effects, Armageddon is one of the silliest thrillers ever concocted. Frenetic direction and editing it make it even harder to bear. (150 mins, $15.99; Register Ratings V-3 L-2 N1 S-3)
Many fans of the stylish, whimsical, and clever '60s TV series known around the world as “The Avengers” awaited the release of the film version of their beloved show with deep anxiety. Their doubts have been more than fulfilled by the oddity that hit the multiplexes last summer as The Avengers. The filmmakers behind this movie seem to have no idea of what they were assembling. The movie is part thriller, part satire, part cartoon, part love story, and mostly incomprehensible. Its story loosely follows the adventures of Ralph Fiennes as the imperturbable John Steed and Uma Thurman as the svelte Mrs. Peel as they attempt to defeat Sean Connery, an obscenely wealthy villain who is determined to gain worldwide domination through his control of the weather. The only interesting aspects of The Avengers are the brilliant art direction and the quality of the actors, who try mightily with impossible parts. Everything else is a misfire. (89 mins., rental only; Register Ratings V-2 L-2 N-1 S-1)
Australian director Peter Weir is known for the luminosity and subtlety of his films, and his latest is no exception. At first sight, it's the story of Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey), a 30-year-old insurance salesman whose entire life has been lived as a television show. Millions of viewers have watched Truman grow up in Seahaven, a set in the world's largest soundstage. This young man has no idea how artificial his life is until a series of unsettling incidents gives him an inkling. Increasingly desperate, Truman struggles to discover who he is and who is controlling him. Working to counter him is Christof (Ed Harris), the all-powerful director who runs nearly every aspect of his star's life. The Truman Show is a complex allegory that works on many levels. It asks questions about the artificiality of modern life, the corrosiveness of the celebrity culture, the power of free will, the meaning of freedom, and the role of religion. This is one of the few movies to emerge in the past year that's worth debating. (104 mins., rental only; Register Ratings V4 L-1 N-0 S-1)
— Loretta Seyer
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Loretta Seyer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Faith and the Modern Workplace DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:Pope John Paul II has written extensively about work. In the following passages from his encyclical Laborem Exercens — “On Human Work” — (122-123) the Holy Father quotes Vatican Council II's understanding of the modern workplace.
On the basis of these illuminations emanating from the source himself, the church has always proclaimed what we find expressed in modern terms in the teaching of the Second Vatican Council: “Just as human activity proceeds from man, so it is ordered toward man. For when a man works he not only alters things and society, he develops himself as well. He learns much, he cultivates his resources, he goes outside of himself and beyond himself. Rightly understood, this kind of growth is of greater value than any external riches which can be garnered . . . Hence, the norm of human activity is this: that in accord with the divine plan and will, it should harmonize with the genuine good of the human race and allow people as individuals and as members of society to pursue their total vocation and fulfill it.” [Gaudium et Seps, 35]
Such a vision of the values of human work, or in other words such a spirituality of work, fully explains what we read in the same section of the council's pastoral constitution with regard to the right meaning of progress: “A person is more precious for what he is than for what he has. Similarly, all that people do to obtain greater justice, wider brotherhood and a more humane ordering of social relationships has greater worth than technical advances. For these advances can supply the material for human progress, but of themselves alone they can never actually bring it about.”[Ibid.]
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Former Solidarity Activist Bronislaw Misztal Brings a Passion for Freedom to the Campus DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—When the Polish secret police arrested Bronislaw Misztal in 1980, the Solidarity activist spent a harrowing 24 hours in jail.
“The jailers were playing Russian roulette with me” with a loaded gun, he recalled. They had detained him for organizing workers before Solidarity became a legal union. “I was actively involved in fighting communism” non-violently, he said. “We were helping people to reclaim some dignity. They had been undignified by communism.”
Nineteen years later and a continent removed from his native country, Misztal (pronounced “MISHtal”) has devoted his professional career to studying social change and social movements, particularly those that affect democracies.
Coming from a totalitarian country, he also tries to help his students become better citizens, he said. Misztal tries to convey his passion for freedom and democracy, so they won't be taken for granted.
“Poland is a free country. It's what we dreamed it to be,” he said. He still owns his Solidarity identification bracelet, which shows he was one of the movement's early members.
After teaching at University of Chicago, Misztal joined the sociology department at Indiana University, where he received tenure at age 42. Three years ago, he moved to Washington to become a sociologist at The Catholic University of America.
“Making a move to a Catholic university was a great move for me,” he said. “It's an institute with a mission. Many students come here because of their value systems. It makes for a considerable difference from an average college.”
A colleague in The Catholic University Sociology Department noted that the university recruited Misztal from Indiana in part because he was a senior-level Catholic sociologist with a strong identification with the Church. “He is highly respected,” said professor Sandra Hanson.
Misztal specializes in studying social change and social movements. The Polish government had blacklisted Misztal from teaching, so he became a researcher in the Academy of Sciences in Krakow. When he came to the United States in 1980, he found that much research was being done at universities, so he was able to combine teaching and research in a career as college professor.
He rejects the secularist theory of the 1960s and argues that religion can play a positive role in social change. “The faster the pace of change, the more people gravitate to religion to fill a cognitive vacuum amid the confusion. They need something to guide them,” explained Misztal.
In his native country, the Catholic Church emerged as the only institution that allowed people to freely express their opinions, and it played a key role in the downfall of the communist government there, he said. Misztal also offered opinions on other diverse areas of the world:
• The country that was once the bedrock of communism, Russia, has moved quickly with economical reforms but has suffered an erosion in the authority of its government and universities, Misztal said. He does, however, see a religious revival beginning in Russia.
• Consumerism by itself is not a threat to democracy because it thrives in democratic-based market economies, Misztal said, adding, “Consumers don't make revolutions. They change the world so it becomes more predictable.”
• Islam is the fastest-growing major religion in the world. “How long will the Islamic world be fragmented?” Misztal asked. “How united can the Christian world become?” A major conflict between the two religions could occur in the 21st century, he maintained.
In Catholic University's honors program, Misztal teaches a course on the intellectual debates of the 20th century. In it he examines the social doctrine of Pope John Paul II, among other thinkers. He also teaches a class on sociological theory, which the 52-year-old calls the “Art of Sociology — a way to understand the world around [us] in abstract terms.”
Fluent in English, French, Russian, Spanish, and the Slovak and Slovenian languages, Misztal has many professional colleagues throughout the world.
“He knows everyone; he has such a big network, it's amazing,” said Linda Cardinal, a sociology professor at University of Ottawa. “He knows people on every continent.” Cardinal met Misztal six years ago in Germany and serves with him on the Research Committee of Social Movements of the International Sociology Association.
Misztal's involvement with the association has helped give him a higher profile among sociologists. Revival of Religious Fundamentalism in the East and West, published by Westport, Conn.-based Praeger Press, the second book of a series he is co-authoring, has sold 3,000 copies, an outstanding number for an academic book.
‘Making a move to a Catholic university was a great move for me. It's an institute with a mission.’
While his professional networking is paying dividends, Misztal has also seen some of his intelligence and hard work rub off on his only child. Misztal and his wife, Jolanta, are parents of 17-year-old Blaise, who has already completed about half of his studies at the University of Chicago.
Misztal had something of a rude awakening when he worked at University of Chicago. While teaching at an urban institute called Roosevelt University, which is connected to University of Chicago, Misztal tried to “base grades on merit, rather than the payment of tuition.” When one student argued with him outside of class that she should receive a higher grade because her tuition was up-to-date, she pulled out an umbrella and hit him on the head.
“This was my christening as a college professor,” he joked.
William Murray writes from Kensington, Maryland.
----- EXCERPT: Professor of sociology monitors the processes of social change ----- EXTENDED BODY: William Murray ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Education Notebook DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:Archdiocese Rejects Sex Ed Series
The Rocky Mountain News noted that St. Thomas More, at 5,300 families, is the largest parish in the archdiocese.
“The archdiocese has described the New Creation series as inappropriate and sexually explicit,” said the report. “‘A small faction at the parish had been promoting New Creation since last summer,’ said Marian Learned, a parent and member of the parish's religious education committee.” Learned is the mother of a seventh-grader.
The report quotes her saying, “The majority of parents don't want New Creation.”
College Students in Billboard Abstinence Campaign
The Columbus Dispatch reported that Mary Ann Grady, coordinator of the Responsible Social Values Program, “which educates middle and high school students on the values of abstinence,” is using $15,000 of an $83,00 federal grant to fund the campaign.
Grady recruited 10 students who could be role models to others. They all went on to college after being well-known in Licking County for their academic and athletic success. Three of them are now at Catholic colleges: Mike Klockner attends Holy Cross Junior College, which is related to the University of Notre Dame; Meghan Walsh attends Mount St. Mary's College in Cincinnati; and Amber Fish attends Marquette University in Milwaukee.
The billboards reproduce high school photos of the students stamped with the word “abstinent.” The report quotes Fish saying, “It was a bit odd at first to see my picture on a billboard, but I'm getting used to it. … Young people think that everyone is having sex. But you don't have to do it.”
Grady said she believes the billboards are getting results: “I have kids coming up to me saying, ‘I want to be on a billboard when I'm a senior.’”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Pro-Lifers Did More than March In Washington DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—The 26th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion brought 100,000 pro-life marchers to the nation's capital, and prompted Norma McCorvey, the “Roe” of Roe v. Wade infamy, to call Jan. 22 the annual “National Day of Death.”
McCorvey, now a pro-life activist, drew a big ovation at the National Memorial for the Pre-born and their Mothers and Fathers, where she spoke, one of many events marking the anniversary of the1973 Roe decision.
The nation's capital was awash in pro-life events for several days, though most pro-lifers came for the March for Life. One of the thousands of young people who participated, 15-year-old Alexis Phipps of Kokomo, Ind., told the Register, “We came to show that people do care.”
A day before the march, a Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception drew 8,000 faithful and 300 clergy, including five cardinals. William Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore, the new chairman of the Bishops' pro-life committee, delivered the homily.
In extolling the sanctity of life, Cardinal Keeler said, “Young or old, white or black or brown, rich or poor, healthy or sick, each one of us has a name, a dignity, a call, indeed, a destiny which comes from the Lord who made us and is forever.” (The homily is excerpted on Page 8.)
The shrine, the largest Catholic church in the Western Hemisphere, also hosted a liturgy the following morning celebrated by Bishop James McHugh, coadjutor bishop of Rockville Centre, New York. Among other Catholic observances was a Youth Rally and Mass at Constitution Hall in downtown Washington.
An Interfaith Service
The annual National Memorial for the Pre-Born and their Mothers and Fathers, a service on Capitol Hill sponsored by the National Clergy Council, included representatives of many faiths as well as pro-life leaders of Congress.
Among the political figures present were Sens. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), and Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.). Hutchinson said, “On Jan. 22, 1973, America entered its own moral fog.”
Expected presidential candidate Gary Bauer, a Republican, said he will make the sanctity of life the prime issue in any campaign he wages.
“We must decide soon,” he said, “that one and half million aborted babies per year cannot be tolerated in this country.”
The most emotional moment at this service was a haunting performance by the Asaph Dance Ensemble of Manassas, Virginia. Ten young women extolled the joys of motherhood and the anguish of abortion in “A Cry From Ramah for Her Children are No More.” Few in the crowd of 400 were left with a dry eye.
The general secretary of the National Clergy Council, evangelist Rev. Rob Schenck, discussed Catholic pro-life leadership with the Register. He said, “In many ways, Protestants and evangelicals need to be ashamed. It's taken us 26 years to catch up with our Catholic brothers and sisters on this issue. I'm happy to say we've started to catch up.
“Every year we're seeing more and more Protestants and evangelical clergy and lay participation in the pro-life movement, and that's very exciting. I'm grateful to the Pope and the Catholic Church for helping us to discover how important this issue is.”
Schenck achieved wide national attention on Christmas Eve 1996 when he approached President Clinton at a service in the nation's capital and said, “Mr. President, the Lord will hold you accountable” for his steadfast support for abortion.
Silver Lining
One Catholic representative on the National Clergy Council, Deacon Keith Fournier of Vienna, Va., also spoke to the Register about the growth of inter-faith pro-life efforts.
“There is a silver lining in the dark cloud of the culture of death,” he asserted. “In the trenches of our common struggle for life, we Christians — Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and evangelical — have discovered one another again as brothers.”
Such unity was most evident in the March for Life, the annual one-mile walk which begins from near the White House, goes past the Capitol, and ends at the Supreme Court Building. The march is perhaps the most visible symbol of the pro-life movement.
A large portion of downtown Washington was peacefully and often prayerfully overtaken by activists of every stripe. From a makeshift stage built to accommodate a dozen prominent speakers, a huge wave of people, especially young people, could be seen for many blocks.
There were banners identifying Feminists for Life, Buddhists for Life, statewide pro-life groups, churches of all denominations, local Knights of Columbus chapters, and hundreds of Catholic parishes from around the nation.
Holly Gatling, executive director of the South Carolina Citizens for Life, was holding a banner with her niece, Darby, and colleague Aimee Green.
“I was with the secular media for 20 years,” Gatling told the Register. “I was a crime reporter who covered all types of crimes. The first time I saw an aborted baby, I thought it was the most violent thing that I'd ever seen. That's pretty tough for a crime reporter.
“It struck me that it wasn't even a crime. Not only was it not a crime, it was considered to be a right in this country. I knew I would have to do something personal.
“I tried to work through the secular media, and that was futile. My point of view as a journalist was censored by my employers. So I left the newspaper business and went to a Benedictine monastery for two and a half years. Then this job came up, and it's one of the most inspiring things God has ever done for me.”
Marching with the Sisters of Life, the order begun by John Cardinal O'Connor in 1991, was Sister Sheila James John. The daughter of retired admiral and U.S. Secretary of Energy James Watkins, she left a career as a music producer to join the pro-life order.
The march was obviously a proud moment for Sister Sheila. She said, “It's evident with the young people, the religious, and the clergy not that the tide is turning, but that it has turned. The hope and joy being expressed here is evidence of that. This is not a downtrodden group, these are people with ‘fight.’”
Asked about the political impact of the march, she added, “I don't think it matters anymore. What matters is that people find solidarity with other people around the country. We're encouraged by each other. We're no longer a marginal group anymore.”
Another marcher was Vincent Ciappetta, a Suffolk County, N.Y., policeman. In 1995 he founded Cops for Life, a group of 200 active and retired law enforcement officers. He has been carrying their banner at the last four marches.
Ciappetta said, “We want to give support to the rest of the movement. Not all police are goons. We want to let all policemen who see our banner know that we're against the culture of death.”
Youthful Showing
Sister Sheila was one of many who were impressed by the young people who came. One typical youth group was from St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Kokomo, Ind., and St. Mary's in Richmond, Indiana. Twenty-one teenagers and 16 adults comprised the group.
Since last September the teens held several fund-raisers to support the trip. According to Father Ted Dudzinski of St. Patrick's, they chose this event as their service project. It's been rewarding to them, he said, because “they've learned they're not alone, and they've gotten a great sense of what the Christian community is about.”
Marchers heard speeches from pro-life congressmen and several religious leaders.
Bernard Cardinal Law, who recently completed his term as head of National Conference of Catholic Bishops' pro-life committee, spoke of the Bishops' commitment to life issues.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), a Catholic and one of the most visible pro-life public officials, was also on hand. “We have to do our part in God's plan, no matter how long it takes, regardless of cost or inconvenience or vilification, to stop the violence of abortion in the United States and abroad,” he said.
Smith told the Register, “This march visibly says that children are valuable. It gives renewed hope and energy to carry on this very difficult task. We're not going to quit, ever.”
Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) was the principal speaker at the Rose Dinner, which took place the evening of the march and has been sponsored by the March for Life Education and Defense Fund since 1983. Citing comments made by Bishop Eugene Gerber of Wichita, Tiahrt, a member of the Assembly of God Church, said, “These precious [aborted] children are today's martyrs.”
Tiahrt said that every time he approaches the Capitol, he says, “Dear Lord, help me do the right thing.” He said that with prayers and a growing number of supportive congressmen, pro-life victories will increase.
Also speaking at the dinner was Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, Pennsylvania. He discussed the Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics document, adopted by the nation's bishops last November. In his talk, he emphasized paragraph 32 of the statement, which he called “its strongest declaration.”
He paraphrased the key sentence which reads: “We urge those Catholic officials who choose to depart from Church teaching on the inviolability of human life in their public life to consider the consequences for their spiritual well being, as well as the scandal they risk by leading others into serious sin.”
And, in a time where physician-assisted suicide has begun to gain credence, many life issues are coming to the forefront. There is a great realization, as Holly Gatling put it, that “without the right to life there are no other rights. No one is safe.”
Joseph Esposito writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: 26TH ANNUAL MARCH FOR LIFE WAS THE CENTER OF A GLITTERING ARRAY OF EVENTS ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Esposito ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Gospel Of Life DATE: 01/31/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 31 - February 6, 1999 ----- BODY:As marchers in Washington reminded the Congressmen they visited Jan. 22, lawmakers and government administrators are obliged to do all in their power to protect human life in all its forms. In an address to the bishops of California, Nevada, and Hawaii during their ad limina visit to Rome last fall, Pope John Paul II underscored the role of civil law, especially as derived from the U.S.
Constitution and the guidance of America's Founding Fathers.
An essential feature of support for the inalienable right to life, from conception to natural death, is the effort to provide legal protection for the unborn, the handicapped, the elderly, and those suffering from terminal illness.As Bishops, you must continue to draw attention to the relationship of the moral law to constitutional and positive law in your society: Laws which legitimize the direct killing of innocent human beings … are in complete opposition to the inviolable right to life proper to every individual; they thus deny the equality of everyone before the law (Evangelium Vitae, 72).
What is at stake here is nothing less than the indivisible truth about the human person on which the Founding Fathers staked your nation's claim to independence. The life of a country is much more than its material development and its power in the world. A nation needs a soul.
It needs the wisdom and courage to overcome the moral ills and spiritual temptations inherent in its march through history. In union with all those who favor a culture of life over a culture of death, Catholics, and especially Catholic legislators, must continue to make their voices heard in the formulation of cultural, economic, political and legislative projects which, “with respect for all and in keeping with democratic principles, will contribute to the building of a society in which the dignity of each person is recognized and the lives of all are defended and enhanced” (Evangelium Vitae, 90).
Democracy stands or falls with the values which it embodies and promotes (cf. Evangelium Vitae, 70). In defending life you are defending an original and vital part of the vision on which your country was built. America must become, again, a hospitable society, in which every unborn child and every handicapped or terminally ill person is cherished and enjoys the protection of the law.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: 'So much about gothdom is dark' DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:SALT LAKE CITY—Blue-haired Alicia Porter pounds her computer keyboard, updating her Gothic Web site. The 22-year-old English major at the University of Utah, like many Goths, chafes at the Gothic label.
Nevertheless, she is deeply offended that the media have linked her subculture to the April 20 massacre in Littleton, Colo., because the killers, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, wore Goth-like black trench coats and allegedly favored Gothic music.
“Everything I've read about the Colorado killers' attire indicates a Neo-Nazi connection, not a Gothic one,” says Porter. “Gothic culture as a whole has no interest in guns, bombs, violence, anarchy, racism, Hitler and Nazism. Goths are noted for their nonviolence, creativity and interest in intellectual pursuits. I hope my Web site will clear up some of the misconceptions that the media has presented.”
Since the Colorado tragedy, others from Gothicism — the youth music subculture known for black clothes, multiple body piercings and morose musical lyrics — have rushed online to defend their culture. Says Darius (who uses his first name only), a 20-year-old Atlanta resident and editor of the electronic magazine The Twilight Journal: “The Gothic subculture is not about violence, or murder, it is about life. The media has turned the tragedy in Littleton into a blame game.”
But not everyone is buying the scapegoat theory. Catholic philosopher Dianne Irving of the Pontifical Faculty at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., warns against the more subtle dangers of Goth. Although, like Alicia Porter, she considers the Colorado gunmen as more Neo-Nazi than Gothic, nevertheless, Irving maintains that both subcultures spring from the same root of ancient Gnosticism.
“Gnosticism is an ancient form of pantheistic, polytheistic paganism which usually involves a light side and a dark side, and which necessarily entails principles and doctrines contrary to our Catholic faith,” says Irving. “In my philosophy work, I take Gnosticism all the way back to 2400 B.C., to the ancient pagan creation mythologies which predated pre-Socratic philosophy.
!ldquo;When we talk about the Goths, the NeoFascists, the Neo-Nazis, Satanism, witchcraft and Wicca — all elements of Gnosticism which are incorporated in various degrees into the Gothic scene — we are not talking about ‘different but complementary views of the world.’ We are talking about totally different cosmologies. The Church scholars understand this.”
“But this kind of analysis is way above the heads of these kids,” Irving continues. “Despite their arrogant elitism, they really react on a purely emotional level; what passes for ‘intellectual’ is really centuries-old pagan mythology and propaganda. Parents need to educate themselves by visiting the Gothic and the Gnostic Web sites.
“The Gothic scene is not just a ‘benign phase,’ especially when you consider the high rate of youth suicide in our culture. It is a cultic, troubled mindset that becomes obsessively habitual and morally blinding, and should not be taken lightly.”
Fixated on Death
Parents, teachers and pediatricians have publicly voiced concern about Gothic fixation on death and suicide. According to the Statistical Abstract of the United States, suicide is the third leading cause of death for youth aged 15 to 24.
When one important founder of Goth, Rozz Williams, 35, committed suicide by hanging in his West Hollywood apartment in 1998, the Goth music scene treated him as a fallen hero. Preoccupation with and glorifying death can lead to suicide, says Randy Johnson, cult expert and police captain in West Jordan, Utah. “Teens are going through such tough times, anyway,” he says. “So much about Gothdom is dark. I've not seen much positive in it.”
In November 1997, a U.S. Senate subcommittee chaired by Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) investigated, inconclusively, whether the violent lyrics of Goth star Marilyn Manson (who takes his names from Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson) led to the suicide of 15-year-old Richard Kuntz of Burlington, N.D.
Manson evokes shouts and cheers in his concerts when he advocates taking drugs or killing parents, according to the testimony of the Parents' Music Resource Center on Music Lyrics before another government hearing, the Senate Commerce Committee last June 16.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, at the same hearing, went on record saying: “Although the evidence is incomplete, based on our knowledge of child and adolescent development, the AAP believes that parents should be aware of pediatricians' concerns about the possible negative impact of music lyrics and videos.”
!Where Goth Began
Goth sprang from British punk rock in the late '70s and invaded America in the early '80s. Bands such as Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, and The Cure extolled the Goth world-view of darkness and despair, angst and alienation. In imitation of Goth on-stage style — itself partly a reaction to the colorful disco scene of the '70s — Goth chic is mostly a parody of theatrical horror-movie costumes.
Black hair, black lipstick and eye-shadow (for men and women), and black clothes are typical. The look is androgynous and, often, quasi-Victorian or medieval, favoring velvet, lace, leather, fishnet and bondage attire. Since the pallor of the undead is prized, many Goths powder their faces white. Those bored with black often dye their hair blue, purple, silver, orange and other colors not found in nature.
Borrowing their name from medieval European barbarism, Goths gravitate toward art and literature from 18th- and 19th-century dark Romanticism, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allen Poe, Goethe, Baudelaire and the current vampire queen Anne Rice. They relish life's dark side. Goth clubs are often candlelit places swirling with machine-generated smoke. Goth dance is a highly personal and agile activity — full of frenzied spins, thrashings and falls — not a social act.
In the Goth culture, sexual expression is most definitely not reserved for marriage. Transvestitism is widespread, especially among males.
Fetishism, homosexuality and other deviancies are accepted, and some Goths seem fascinated with vampires and blood. Things holy are routinely blasphemed — crosses, rosaries, crucifixes and sacred images (although some Goths call themselves Christians). Christ is freely mocked in song lyrics. New Age spirituality, Wicca witchcraft, paganism and black and white magic are popular. Satanism is practiced by a small segment of the Gothic population, according to police Capt. Randy Johnson.
When Pope John Paul II wrote his apostolic letter To the Youth of the World in 1985, he could have been talking to the Goths. “You cannot close your eyes to the threats that lie in wait for you during the period of youth [such as] the temptation to scepticism regarding traditional values, which can easily degenerate into a sort of extreme cynicism … [or] the temptations caused by … a type of entertainment business that distracts people from a serious commitment in life and encourages passivity, selfishness and self-isolation” (No. 13).
Whatever else the Gothic scene is, it is most certainly an “entertainment business” made possible by advances in technology and affluence in culture and generating huge amounts of money for its purveyors. But the Holy Father reminds the Church that we are a people of hope. Only with hope, we can believe that, as the old axiom says, “Losing your way can be one way of finding it.”
Father Jeremiah Kenney, judicial vicar and vice chancellor for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, pastors a city that has its share of Goths.
While careful not to underestimate the inherent dangers of Goth, he says, “Much of the Gothic comes from the crying and longing of young people for God. Our hearts are restless until they rest in him.
“As Christians, we believe that Jesus Christ is the way to the father. But sometimes youth take the wrong path. They get lost in a labyrinth, but they are always searching for the unknown God. Goth doesn't reflect Judeo-Christian heritage; it's senseless wandering. But God loves the Goths. We can't lose hope.
“Have patience, patience, patience, patience. Love them, but challenge them. Above all, keep communication open. The challenge of a parent is not to be a friend to their child, but a parent.”
Una McManus is based in Columbia, Maryland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Una Mcmanus ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: New Report On Authority Opens Doors DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:LONDON—A panel of Catholic and Anglican theologians and Church leaders, seeking to nudge efforts at unity between the two Churches forward, has called for increased cooperation among bishops of the two bodies, and for both bodies to move to accept a reformed version of papal primacy.
The call was issued May 12 in a 45-page report, The Gift of Authority, by the Second Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, which took up the thorny theological — and practical — issue of how authority, especially that of the pope, should be understood and exercised in Christian churches.
The statement, five years in the making, concluded with challenges both to the Anglican Communion — to avoid the anarchy caused by provinces and dioceses acting unilaterally — and to the Catholic Church — to recognize the legitimate competence of the local church.
Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold of the Episcopal church said the statement challenges both Anglicans and Catholics “to think in fresh ways” about authority in the church.
He noted that while the issue of papal primacy has been previously explored by the two churches, the new statement “carries us further and asks Anglicans and Roman Catholics to consider the ministry of the Bishop of Rome as a gift to be received by all the churches while at the same time relating the ministry of universal primacy to the authority exercised by the whole Church.”
Both Anglican and Catholic representatives said the office of the pope is a “specific ministry” concerning the discernment of truth.
“It seeks to make clear how in certain circumstances the Bishop of Rome (pope) has a duty to discern and make explicit, in fidelity to Scripture and tradition, the authentic faith of the whole church,” said Anglican Bishop Mark Santer of Birmingham, England, and Bishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Arundel and Brighton, England, the two co-chairmen of the panel.
Catholics and Anglicans have been in theological conversations at the international level since 1970 in an effort to bridge the schism created four centuries ago, in part over the issue of the authority of the pope.
While much of the attention likely to be focused on the document will be on the role of papal primacy and especially the question of infallible teaching, much of the stress of the document was in outlining a version of authority that includes what it called “the whole people of God,” including theologians and laity.
According to the agreed statement, the fourth on the touchy topic by panels of officially appointed representatives, authority is a gift bestowed on the Church for mission, so that the exercise of authority within the Church has a radically missionary dimension.
“Authority is exercised within the Church for the sake of those outside it, that the Gospel may be proclaimed in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction,” it said, citing 1 Thessalonians 1:5.
And, it stressed, the exercise of authority involves the laity as well as the clergy.
“In changing situations producing fresh challenges to the Gospel, the discernment, actualization and communication of the Word of God is the responsibility of the whole people of God,” it argued. “The Holy Spirit works through all members of the community, using the gifts he gives to each for the good of all.”
‘Give and Take’
Theologians serve the communion of the whole church by “exploring whether and how new insights should be integrated into the ongoing stream of tradition. In each community there is an exchange, a mutual give-and-take, in which bishops, clergy and lay people receive from as well as give to others within the whole body.”
It also stressed that catholicity, through both space and time, does not mean uniformity.
“Where diverse expressions are faithful to the Word revealed in Jesus Christ and transmitted by the apostolic community, the Churches in which they are found are truly in communion,” it said. “Indeed, this diversity of traditions is the practical manifestation of catholicity and confirms rather than contradicts the vigor of tradition. As God has created diversity among humans, so the Church's fidelity and identity require not uniformity of expression and formulation at all levels in all situations but rather catholic diversity within the unity of communion. This richness of traditions is a vital resource for a reconciled humanity.”
In this way those who exercise episcopal authority, or oversight, in the Church “must not be separated from the ‘symphony’ of the whole people of God in which they have their part to play.” Bishops, clergy and laity must all recognize and receive what was mediated from God through each other.
Bishops thus meet together collegially not as individuals but as those who have authority for the life of the local Churches. Consulting the faithful is an aspect of episcopal oversight, the statement said.
“Each bishop is both a voice for the local Church and one through whom the local Church learns from other Churches. When bishops take counsel together they seek both to discern and to articulate the sensus fidelium (sense of the faithful) as it is present in the local Church and in the wider communion of Churches. Their role is magisterial: that is, in this communion of the Churches, they are to determine what is to be taught as faithful to the apostolic tradition.”
Changing situations could demand new formulations of faith.
“The exercise of teaching authority in the Church, especially in situations of challenge, requires the participation, in their distinctive ways, of the whole body of believers, not only those charged with the ministry of memory,” it said.
“In this participation the sensus fidelium is at work. Since it is the faithfulness of the whole people of God that is at stake, reception of teaching is integral to the process” and doctrinal assertions are received as authoritative “in virtue of the divine truth they proclaim” and not just because of the “specific office of the person or persons who proclaim them.”
‘Fragile Christians’
The teaching office of the pope is thus situated firmly within the Church and the college of bishops. And, it said, papal teaching has no stronger guarantee from the Holy Spirit than did the solemn definitions of ecumenical councils.
Authority, the statement said, is exercised by “fragile Christians for the sake of other fragile Christians.”
“Human weakness and sin do not only affect individual ministers: They can distort the human structuring of authority,” it said. Hence loyal criticism and reforms were sometimes needed, as when Paul rebuked Peter.
The statement ended with a number of challenges to both Anglicans and Roman Catholics.
Noting that the Anglican Communion is already exploring how authority among its autonomous provinces works, the statement asked: “Is the (Anglican) Communion also open to the acceptance of instruments of oversight which would allow decisions to be reached that, in certain circumstances, would bind the whole Church?” The issue is especially touchy for Anglicans because of the deep rift among Anglican Churches over the issue of homosexuality.
“Above all,” the statement asked, “how will Anglicans address the question of universal primacy as it is emerging from their life together and from ecumenical dialogue?”
On the Catholic side, the statement asked, “Is there at all levels effective participation of clergy as well as of lay people” in the authority structures of the Church?
Has enough provision been made to ensure consultation between the pope and local Churches prior to the making of important decisions affecting either a local Church or the whole Church, it asked, and how is the variety of theological opinion taken into account when such decisions are made?
In particular, it challenged the role of the Vatican bureaucracy, suggesting it “adequately respect the exercise of episkope (oversight authority) at other levels.”
----- EXCERPT: Committee challenges Anglicans and Catholics ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert Nowell ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Sacred Heart Devotion Is Making a Comeback DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:When Maggie Sweeney was growing up in Norwood, Mass., her mother, Margaret Kane, used to take down a picture of the Sacred Heart, put it on her lap, and pray for a half-hour. “He looked so sad,” Mrs. Kane would tell her daughter. “But when I told him everything, he looked so happy.”
That sort of Catholic devotion waned starting in the late 1960s, say followers of the Sacred Heart, as the Church's attention turned to liturgy and Scripture. But over the past five years or so, observers say they have seen rekindled interest in the Sacred Heart and other pious practices, especially eucharistic adoration.
“We've noticed a slight surge taking place,” said Jesuit Father John Rainaldo, national director of the Apostleship of Prayer (Web site: www.cin.org/ap) in New Hyde Park, N.Y. The Apostleship emphasizes the offering of daily duties and routine hardships as a prayer to the heart of Christ that suffered for humanity.
Of the dizzying array of Catholic devotions, what makes the Sacred Heart stand out?
“I think the Heart is the essence, the symbol of love,” said Maggie Sweeney, who founded the Apostolate Alliance of the Two Hearts in Hyannis, Mass., in 1993. “It's a universal symbol of love. Love in Christ is love itself — the burning love that he had for each one of us — and we just have to learn to return it.”
Devotion to the Sacred Heart is often associated with the 17th-century apparitions of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647–1690), a cloistered Visitation nun. According to St. Margaret Mary, Jesus asked that his heart be honored in the form of a human heart; that Catholics receive Communion frequently, especially on the first Friday of the month; and that the faithful keep an hourlong vigil Thursday nights commemorating his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He also directed that a feast of the Sacred Heart be kept the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi. This year, the feast is on Friday, June 11.
The devotion served as a tonic for Jansenism, which was at its height in the time of St. Margaret Mary. The heresy emphasized man's unworthiness to be in the Lord's presence and to receive his love.
“The Sacred Heart teaches the reverse,” said Father Rainaldo. “It emphasizes closeness, intimacy and the warm, personal relationship that should exist between us and God.”
Links with Other Devotions
The devotion did not begin with St. Margaret Mary. Father Benedict Groeschel traces it all the way back to the second century, when the image of Christ as Divine Physician was popular among believers. Groeschel, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal, is working on a history of devotion to Christ, to be called I Will Be With You.
Asked why the Sacred Heart seems to be gaining popularity, Father Groeschel said: “First of all, a lot of things are making comebacks. … We went through a time of confusion and readjustment. It's totally predictable.”
“Secondly,” he added, “people are lonely. The message of the Sacred Heart is that Christ is there in the Blessed Sacrament as an individual for me.”
Father Groeschel links the Sacred Heart with the flourishing of eucharistic adoration and the Divine Mercy, “which is really the same devotion,” he said. The Divine Mercy devotion, introduced following the apparitions of Jesus during the 1930s to Blessed Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun. It emphasizes forgiveness, trust, and reparation through the Eucharist.
Both devotions use images of love flowing from the breast of Jesus. The promises are similar: grace, peace in families, consolation in life and at death, and “an ocean of mercy.”
The Sacred Heart is also synonymous with love of the Eucharist, where Christ can be found in his body, blood, soul and divinity — including his physical, human heart that continues to beat with a divine love.
Sweeney, of the Apostolate Alliance of the Two Hearts, said she has received many calls during the last few years looking for help starting eucharistic adoration.
When Sweeney and her husband were married in 1967, they had what is called an “enthronement ceremony” in their home. A priest came and said Mass, blessed the rooms, and said special prayers. Then the Sweeneys “enthroned” a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in a central place — in their case, the kitchen, which would become a gathering room for the family.
Home Enthronements
Over the last 32 years, Maggie Sweeney said, her family of six children has had extraordinary peace, which she attributes to the Sacred Heart. When her oldest son got married, he and his wife had an enthronement ceremony, as well.
“It's a covenant for the family,” Sweeney said. “You're just placing the Sacred Heart as the Lord and master of your family. … I really believe this is what's going to bring the family back together, because families are in such disarray.”
One observer emphasized that enthronement is not just a picture-hanging ceremony, but a commitment to make Jesus king of one's life and activities. So it requires preparation. “The ceremony is the beginning of a way of life,” said Father Columban Crotty, director of the National Enthronement Center in Fairhaven, Mass.
“In a way, you could say it's a kind of a renewal of baptismal commitment, not just individually but by the family,” said Father Crotty, a priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Father Crotty said there are now 17 chapters of Men of the Sacred Hearts in the United States.
Bishop Sean O'Malley plans to consecrate his Fall River (Mass.) Diocese to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in a Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral on Thursday, June 10, the night before the feast. The idea came from the Fairhaven chapter of Men of Sacred Hearts, according to diocesan spokesman John Kearns.
Some maintain that devotions such as Sacred Heart take attention away from liturgy and Scripture, and that as devotions waned over the past 30 years, attendance at daily Mass (though not at Sunday Mass) has increased. But Father Groeschel suggested that largely the same people who now go to daily Mass are also the ones making weekly holy hours and following the devotions.
“The Mass is the great central act of Christian worship, but it does not exhaust our spiritual life,” said Timothy O'Donnell, president of Christendom College in Front Royal, Va. “We need to pray.”
Some old practices, such as saying the rosary during Mass, probably should not have been happening, he said, but reformers went too far. “They set up a false dichotomy, as if the liturgy was in opposition to popular piety,” said O'Donnell, whose book, Heart of the Redeemer, is in its second printing with Ignatius Press.
Father Rainaldo said he encourages balance. Devotion enthusiasts, he said, have been accused of ignoring the Bible. But devotion to the Sacred Heart is “profoundly Scripturally based,” he said.
The word heart, he noted, appears in the Bible more than 500 times. Jesus himself uses the word some 25 times in the Gospels.
He describes himself as “gentle and humble of heart” in Matthew 11:29. When Jesus saw the widow of Nain whose son has died, “His heart went out to her” (Luke 7:13). In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus says, “My heart is troubled” (John 12:27). After Jesus dies, a Roman soldier lances his side, causing a flow of blood and water (John 19:34), which suggests the lance pierced Jesus' heart.
“John emphasizes the opening — not just the wounding, but the opening of the side,” O'Donnell said. At Jesus' death the veil of the Temple splits, revealing the holy of holies (Matthew 27:51), O'Donnell noted, just as in John's account the veil of Jesus'flesh is torn to reveal the holy of holies, his heart.
O'Donnell first got interested in the devotion while studying theology in Rome. He discovered that every pope this century has issued an encyclical or apostolic letter on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “I was blown away, because every one of them stressed the urgency of the devotion,” he said.
“It really focuses on all the truths of our Catholic faith,” O'Donnell said. “Pius XI said it is ‘the complete summary of the Christian life.’”
Leo XIII's Consecration
This year is the 100th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's consecration of the world to the Sacred Heart, which he called the most important act of his pontificate. Pope Leo XIII's consecration anticipated the holy year of 1900, and some have speculated Pope John Paul II may renew the consecration sometime during the Great Jubilee year of 2000, O'Donnell said.
Pope John Paul II is also devoted to the Sacred Heart. He canonized Jesuit Father Claude La Colombière (1641–1682), who served briefly as St. Margaret Mary's confessor and buoyed her when her fellow sisters doubted her apparitions. In his canonization sermon, the Pope praised St. Claude for spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart, and called it “a source of balance and spiritual strengthening for Christian communities so often faced with increasing unbelief.”
“In a period of contrast between the fervor of some and the indifference or impiety of many, here is a devotion centered on the humanity of Christ, on his presence, on his love of mercy and on forgiveness,” the Pope said. “… Following the example of Claude La Colombière, the faithful understand that such a spiritual attitude can only be the action of Christ in them, shown through Eucharistic communion: to receive in their heart the heart of Christ and to be united to the sacrifice which he alone can offer worthily to the Father.”
Matt McDonald writes from Mashpee, Massachusetts.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Matt Mcdonald ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: A Reagan Aide-Turned-Knight DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:He has played a leading role in the White House under President Reagan, served as a legal adviser to the U.S. secretary of health and human services and as assistant for pro-life issues to Sen. Jesse Helms. He is also a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the Pontifical Academy for Life, as well as supreme secretary of the Knights of Columbus. He spoke recently with Register correspondent Jim Malerba.
Malerba: How did you become so deeply active in pro-life activities?
Anderson: My wife and I were active in the pro-life movement when we were students at Seattle University, and that continued after we were married and while I was a law student. After I passed the bar exam, we moved to Washington, D.C., where my first job was working as a legislative assistant for pro-life issues for Sen. Jesse Helms. For the next five years, I spent most of my time promoting pro-life legislation in the Congress. At that time, Sen. Helms was the sponsor of the Human Life Amendment and the Senate sponsor of the Hyde Amendment.
Did that lead to your positions in the White House?
Yes. I joined the Reagan administration in 1981, working at the Department of Health and Human Services. There, I became involved in the “Baby Doe” infanticide controversy. Then, in 1983, I joined the White House domestic policy staff and participated in the development of President Reagan's initiatives involving pro-family and pro-life policies.
What was the Baby Doe controversy?
In the early '80s, there were news reports of mentally handicapped newborn babies being allowed to die from correctable life-threatening defects because doctors or parents did not want to care for a mentally handicapped child. The terrible thing was that if these children were not mentally handicapped, they would have routinely received life-saving surgery. Clearly, these children were being discriminated against because of their handicap, and President Reagan directed that strong action be taken to protect their civil rights.
Were you and the president successful?
Well, like most things in politics, we were partially successful. The president's initial efforts were challenged in federal court by doctors claiming a privacy right similar to the abortion privacy right. We then came back with a different approach involving federal legislation that gave new authority to child protection agencies to step in to help these children. Although we didn't get everything we wanted, in the long run I believe we saved the lives of many children and changed the attitudes of many in the medical profession. But it's an issue that still requires careful monitoring. We all need to do more to assure that the dignity of the handicapped is respected.
Weren't you also involved in world population issues?
I was, beginning in 1983, when I became a member of the White House policy staff and got involved working on the administration's position for the upcoming U.N. conference on population development in Mexico City in 1984. Basically, what the policy said was that an organization that was performing or promoting abortion overseas would not be able to receive assistance from the United States. Aid also would be cut off to countries practicing abortion as a means of population control. The current administration, unfortunately, has reversed that policy. So now there's activity in Congress each year to restore these protections.
Where did you go after that?
In 1985, I went to work in the Public Liaison Office to head up the section on domestic policy issues, which involved many of the same issues confronting the president's policy staff. Then, in 1987, I resigned from that position and opened up the Public Policy for the Knights of Columbus in Washington, D.C. I had joined the Knights in 1985. Also in 1987, we opened in Washington the first campus outside the Vatican of the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family.
What mission did the Knights charge you with?
Primarily, this new initiative was aimed at enhancing the role of the Knights of Columbus in the pro-life effort. At the White House, we were interested in promoting grass-roots solutions to local problems. We were committed to reducing the role of government and promoting greater private-sector involvement. The Knights of Columbus has had a history of doing precisely this type of work in our communities for more than a century. So, when the supreme Knight, Virgil Dechant, asked whether I would be interested in working for the Knights in this regard, it was tremendously appealing to me. Here was an organization that was strongly dedicated to the pro-life cause and, at the same time, was providing millions of dollars to local charitable projects.
At that time, were the Knights gaining or losing members?
We were gaining new members, and we're continuing to do so each year. There was a downturn in membership in the '60s, when there was a big cultural and social shift, and also controversies that arose from Vatican II. I'd like to point out that as of April, there are 1.6 million members and we're pushing toward 2 million in a few years. Their average age is 39, which is remarkable. We now have 11,300 active councils worldwide. And last year, we provided $107 million in charitable giving, and more than 50 million hours of voluntary service to communities.
Is the insurance business of the Knights growing, as well?
Very definitely. We have the highest rating from Standard & Poor's and others. When you look at the number of insurance agencies doing business in the nation, we're right up there at the top. But it's more than just an economic enterprise. The Knights of Columbus is — in everything it does, including insurance — a very serious and successful attempt to put into practice the social and economic teachings of the Church.
Let's talk about your being appointed to the Pontifical Academy.
Actually, there are three pontifical academies, in science, social sciences and life. I serve on the Academy for Life, which has a little over 40 experts in the various areas affecting pro-life issues. We meet once a year at the Vatican with the Pope to discuss these issues. In February, we met to discuss the issue of dying and the end of life.
The Pontifical Academy for Life is relatively new, isn't it?
Yes, that's right. It was founded by John Paul II in 1994. You might consider it to be one of the many structures this Pope has established to aid the Church in its pastoral mission. In addition to the Academy for Life, he has established the Pontifical Council for the Family and the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, to name just two. This is all part of a magnificent development during his pontificate to build the foundation for great things for the Church in the new millennium. Pope Paul VI was a very holy man, yet sadly by the end of his pontificate you might say the papacy was besieged. But during the time of John Paul II's pontificate, there has been an extraordinary change. This Pope is regarded as the world's great moral leader. Even secular magazines such as Time name him “Man of the Year.” And when he visits a country, he is welcomed by millions cheering him asa sign of hope.
Many of those cheering people are young. What is your reaction to the serious problems they face in today's society?
Part of what's happening is the great conflict between what the Holy Father calls the culture of life and the culture of death. Our youth are caught right in the middle of it. Younger people see a profound crisis in our culture. A lot of teenagers were not surprised by what happened in Littleton, Colo. That fact alone should be a wake-up call to the rest of us. Almost through osmosis, they understand how bad the situation is, more so than adults. At the same time, they see in the Holy Father a Christian witness that is responding to the cultural crisis. This is particularly true of the tremendous response to the Holy Father during the World Youth Days. In many cases, these teen-agers can't articulate the reasons for their response, but they testify to the fact that this Christian witness really resonates with them.
It's quite a turnabout from the thinking of young people of the '60s, isn't it?
Oh, I think that's absolutely true. The '60s, the so-called Age of Aquarius, with all its panaceas, were supposed to solve our social problems. However well-intentioned they were, they solved very little. Some social problems have gotten much, much worse. I think young people see this more than adults.
Another thing, this culture in large measure is now living without the former Christian values we once had. We have moved those values so far from the mainstream that we are now facing the stark reality of living in a society that has abandoned God. What happened at Columbine High School cannot be separated from this reality.
So, how do we keep reaching out to young people, and others?
It's urgent that movements like the Knights of Columbus continue to focus on young people, offering them both programs and mentors. In addition, the Knights of Columbus continues to promote a Marian-based spirituality for families, and a wholesome environment for our member families. We must reclaim the culture, one family at a time. Christian organizations in concert with the Church have a vital role in this. During the '70s, it was popular to talk about the evangelization of culture. Today, you have to evangelize the culture, working through families and within parishes and Catholic organizations. We also have to face the reality that there are many children who are spiritual orphans. Somehow, we have to find a greater role for social institutions to court even more spiritual and moral influence in our communities.
Have the moral and ethical examples set by you and your wife positively influenced your children?
As a parent, you always hope so. Dorian and I try to live our lives according to the values we espouse. No one is perfect, but I hope the work we're involved in to promote pro-life and the family, and respect for people regardless of their differences, sends our children the right message. You have to teach by example, and I think that's how the family really teaches. That is how my parents taught me. All I really learned about commitment and integrity in dealing with others I learned through my father's example. His example was always to do what you believe to be right, without fear of the consequences. This is what you really want to teach your children, and today, for a Christian, it is one of the most important things.
What do we need to do to reawaken the moral conscience of ournation?
That's an excellent question, and central to everything we've been talking about. The Holy Father writes about the eclipse of moral responsibility. The first thing in terms of reawakening the moral conscience is connecting it to reason, so we understand there is an objective right and wrong. A moral conscience is a conscience educated in the truth. Second, we must emphasize the dignity of the person. All these great crises, whether it's abortion or Littleton, Colo., or racial discrimination, or Kosovo, arise from a disregard for the dignity of the person. These crises all have to do with the lack of moral conscience and moral responsibility. In government, we can stop trying to always put the right spin on issues. Politics has become the arena of the spin master.
Instead, politics should be the arena of truth. Real leadership is leadership committed to the truth. Too often, that is lacking at the highest levels of government. We should insist it be returned to its rightful place.
—Jim Malerba
----- EXCERPT: His years in White House were 'partially successful' ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jim Malerba ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: On the Anglican-Catholic Statement DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:A statement on ecclesial authority was published in May by the Second Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission. The panel oversees continuing ecumenical dialogue between Anglicans and Roman Catholics.
Register correspondent Raymond de Souza interviewed Father Richard John Neuhaus on the statement, called “The Gift of Authority.” Father Neuhaus, a convert from Lutheranism, is editor of First Things.
De Souza: What is the significance of this statement “The Gift of Authority”?
Father Neuhaus: As signaled by the title, the document is addressing a crucially important set of questions and it is to be warmly welcomed. First of all, it addresses the question of authority in terms of the ecclesial understanding of the Church as apostolically constituted, particularly in terms of the Petrine ministry. To speak of authority as a gift is a courageously Christian thing to do in a culture that is radically anti-authority in the name of being anti-authoritarian. Our culture in the West is incapable, for the most part, of making the distinction between what is authoritative, on the one hand, and authoritarianism, on the other. For most intellectuals, these two terms are synonymous; authority is by definition authoritarian. In the Christian understanding, authority, far from being an authoritarian repression, is an opening to the truth, to the Author of reality, which of course is related to the very word authority. So in that sense it is a most welcome turn in the ARCIC course.
Is this noteworthy coming from the Anglicans, where the question of authority was the central issue of the English Reformation?
It is noteworthy that the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, has supplemented this document with a public statement very affirmative of the primacy of Rome. In this he came down strongly on one side of what has always been the Anglican ambivalence about whether it is a national church in some sense, headed by the monarch, as Henry VIII originally proclaimed, or whether it is part of the one Church of Christ which is centered in the apostolic authority of Peter. That has always been the ambivalence, some would say schizophrenia, of Anglicanism. So this document and the subsequent statement of the Archbishop of Canterbury are certainly a tilt in the Catholic direction. And that is certainly to be welcomed.
How does this practically advance the prospect of unity?
Catholics understand the uncompromisable goal of all ecumenical engagement to be the establishment of full communion. That's the Catholic position - not just simply more cooperative relations, better understanding, or friendliness. All those things are important of course, but the goal of ecumenism is full communion. Does this move toward that?
We have to hope that it does. There is a great disconnect - a gap, a disjunction - between what happens in formal theological dialogue, and what happens on the ground in those churches with which we are in dialogue - and this is not only the case with the Anglicans.
The people who are appointed to be official participants in the dialogue seem in many cases to be at least in conversation with us - much, much more Catholic than the churches that they presumably represent. This is a major problem with such dialogues.
What then is the value of continuing such dialogues?
As the Holy Father has said many times, we place no schedule on the ecumenical project. It is in the very nature of the Catholic Church that we must be in continuing dialogue with all other Christians, regardless of whether we can see any payoff in terms of actual achievement toward full communion. The reason for that is our own understanding of the Church, which is that all Christians who are baptized and believe in Jesus Christ, are, as Vatican II says, truly but imperfectly in communion with the Catholic Church. So these are our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are not trying to create a unity that is not there.
Our ecumenical engagement is created by the fact that we are brothers and sisters. Therefore the fuller expression of the unity that already exists as the gift of God is a task that is permanently and organically part of Catholic Christianity.
So one can look upon this statement and give three cheers. But then you could ask about the ordination of women, or about a long list of those things in which it seems that the Church of England and the Anglican communion are not only indifferent to the leadership of the Petrine ministry, but are actually opposed and hostile to that leadership.
If one raises such objections, then the only response that one can make is that it is all true. But if we believe that the ecumenical encounter is being led by the Holy Spirit, those disagreements are also in some ways irrelevant to what our continuing task is. Within the context of Catholic ecclesiology and the necessary entanglement therefore with all other Christians, this document is to be unequivocally welcomed and built upon - deposited in a savings account, that some day, some day, in ways in which we cannot envision, the Holy Spirit will create an opening for this to result in demonstrable advances toward full communion.
Raymond de Souza is Rome correspondent for the Register.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: U.S Notes & Quotes DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:Philly on Fire with Evangelization
An interactive website, www.blessme.org, has received 11,000 hits and counting.
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia also requires that each of its parishes have an evangelization program of its own choosing.
TV Report on Confession ‘Smacks of an Agenda’
WFOR, May 16—CBS's Miami affiliate featured a story on its late news about the sacrament of reconciliation that highlighted the fact that many Catholics no longer go to confession. Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights President Bill Donohue noted that the story was heavily promoted during the movie that preceded the news, Joan of Arc, helping to capture a large Catholic audience. The news feature included scenes of sacramental confession as depicted in two other movies, Moonstruck and Mortal Sins, “thus adding to the triviality of the report,” said Donohue. The report, he said, conveyed that Catholics who do not go to confession have made a valid choice because it suits their own tastes. Donohue objected to “the forced symmetry that is so popular with some segments of the media, namely the strategy that puts Catholics who reject Church teachings on the same ground as Catholics who are loyal to the Church. This smacks of an agenda - not an honest inquiry.”
Promise Keepers for Couples
Only the Dollar Changes Cuba
Belarus Follows Russia in Restricting Religion
RADIO FREE EUROPE, May 21—Belarus President Alyaksandr Likashenka's government has announced that additional foreign priests will not be allowed to enter the country now that the Minsk authorities have allowed the Church to open a seminary in the city, reported Paul Goble. The move “will make it difficult for [the] Church to recover anytime soon from the depredations of Soviet times during which more than 90% of parish churches were destroyed or confiscated,” said Goble. Cardinal Kazimierz Swiatek, the archbishop of Minsk who suffered years of imprisonment at the hands of the communists, credits the rebirth of the Church in Belarus to the 130 Polish priests who arrived after the collapse of the Soviet Union. “[Cardinal Swiatek] suggested the Church faces a difficult future, especially since the new seminary can prepare only 25 candidates for the priesthood annually,” said Goble. He pointed out that Belarus' new policy toward “foreign” religions “mirrors Russian religious legislation in its form, content and consequences.” As in Russia, only a few “traditional” religions (primarily Orthodox Christianity) enjoy uninhibited freedom in Belarus while others must register with the government and operate under restrictions.
An ‘Uneasy Truce,’ in Chiapas
Compass said that representatives of the two communities reached an agreement “allowing 17 Tojolabal Indian Presbyterians who were forcibly expelled from the village to receive land to build a church and school.”
The agreement exempts Evangelicals from helping to pay for Catholic festivals or school projects, said Compass. The Evangelicals and Catholics agreed not to proselytize each other, and the Evangelicals promised not to demand enforcement of arrest warrants issued against 20 village leaders and others accused of a March attack on their community, reported the publication.
----- EXCERPT: From selected sources ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: U.S. Notes & Quotes DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:Not a Pope
Should an African Catholic who regularly visits the U.S. hold views at odds with a Catholic from Poland who has been to these shores only rarely? While Newsweek may be let down, Cardinal Arinze's identification with the Pope's thinking is exactly why many American Catholics consider him a suitable successor.
Visit to Romania Has ‘Great Value’
It is ironic that the United Nations has named 1999 the International Year of Older Persons. U.N. Population Fund efforts around the world threaten to make the entire 21st century a “century of older persons.”
Five years ago in Cairo, the United Nations adopted a plan to slow world population, purportedly to aid development. This summer, in a process that will culminate in a conference dubbed “Cairo+5,” U.N. delegates will meet to try again to assess how the plan should continue to be implemented. So far, in extensive committee meetings in The Hague, Netherlands, in February and New York in March, delegates have failed to come to agreement.
The problems bogging them down are familiar to Register readers: the newly created “sexual rights” of adolescents and “reproductive rights” of women — promoted by U.S., Canadian and Western European delegates — and the abortion and sterilization that would be required of Third World countries if they wish to receive humanitarian aid.
The best reason to be against such policies is respect for the people of the Third World, born and unborn — respect for their safety, their cultural integrity and their moral autonomy.
But another reason is numbers. The population of many countries is edging dangerously close to a demographic cliff, as Bishop James McHugh has pointed out. Rockville Centre's coadjutor bishop, who represents the Holy See at the Cairo+5 meetings, points to statistics suggesting that by 2050 the number of people added to the world's population each year will be cut nearly in half — from today's 81 million to 41 million per year.
The consequences are alarming: In many countries, increasingly smaller labor forces will provide fewer financial resources for a growing population of seniors.
In Japan, the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, birthrates are already below replacement level with fewer than two children per family — and in some places fewer than one child per family.
Now, Third World nations are beginning to match these low birthrates.
In mid-May, the U.N. Population Fund urged Pakistan to prepare for a future with more people who are older and needing special care, and with fewer young people contributing to economic growth.
The notice ought to have included an apology. The Population Fund has been a prime exporter of first-world population myths to Third World nations such as Pakistan.
In Central America, the U.N. Development Fund and the U.N. Population Fund see an opportunity to promote more of the same birth-reducing “aid.” In recent Stockholm meetings, plans were under way to make world monetary and debt-relief aid to hurricane-ravaged areas dependent on their adoption of abortion and sterilization programs, the World Life League reported.
It quoted one official who said of Central American people: “The striking thing is the size of their families. Those are the roots that cause the problems and they are still there.”
The quote is characteristic of a dangerous mindset in richer nations regarding Third World peoples. The suggestion that fewer people in the Caribbean would make for less need for humanitarian aid smacks of racism and ignores the fact that large families sustain cultures — especially in the wake of a disaster such as last autumn's Hurricane Mitch. Eliminating these large families would leave an aging population stranded in a devastated economy with no means of support.
The U.S. Senate is now considering Resolution 100 — a measure that was overwhelming adopted by the House — which would instruct U.S. delegates to Cairo+5 to reject the worse excesses in the U.N. population plan.
This solid and well-crafted language is supported by pro-lifers and designed to be difficult for opponents to reject. Each state's U.S. senators ought to be cosponsors of the bill, and to vote for it when it comes to the floor.
To find out where your senators stand, call (202) 224-3121 and ask for their offices by name.
* * *
Mementos left to honor victims of the Columbine High School massacre covered nearly four acres of Clement Park in Littleton, Colo., adjacent to the school.
Appropriately, many of the mementos bore witness to the faith of the victims — several of whom were members of a Christian prayer group and Bible-reading circle that met in the library where the shootings took place.
Now, the temporary memorials have been taken away and the agency managing Clement Park wants to build a more permanent monument there, reports the Family Research Council. But though there is strong support in the Littleton community for a memorial that includes Christian symbols and biblical references, park managers fear that any permanent “religious” fixture would draw a lawsuit.
One Colorado activist with the Freedom from Religion Foundation has already objected. The Family Research Council quotes his worry that non-Christians would “feel unwelcome” at such a park.
C.S. Lewis once remarked that societies are most zealous in opposing the sins they are least guilty of, while they excuse the evils that plague them the most. The evil excused today is society's disrespect for religion and for the moral codes that accompany it. The Columbine massacre is itself a sign of where this disrespect is bound to lead.
The time has come to encourage religious expression in the public square, not to zealously root it out.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: The Case for Papal Authority DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:Along with the recent renaissance of Catholic apologetics has come, appropriately enough, a renaissance in works aimed at defending and explaining the papacy. Any Catholic interested in learning more about the papacy, or seeking to explain it to others, will find Upon This Rock a veritable one-stop-shop for the best supporting evidence.
The work is divided roughly into three sections. The first deals with St. Peter himself. Author Stephen K. Ray starts with a discussion of the biblical data pertinent to St. Peter. There's so much in Scripture that it is amazing that our separated brethren claim the Bible has nothing special to say about St. Peter and his prerogatives.
Ray does a superb job covering the Old Testament background to the papacy, showing that it is a natural continuation of Old Covenant precedents. Any Catholic in dialogue with non-Catholics will find this Old Testament background a significant boost for demonstrating the continuation of the Petrine office in the succession of popes.
The New Testament too brings forth numerous examples of the primacy of St. Peter and the special prerogatives given to him by Jesus Christ. Ray presents the case for the Petrine primacy and engages the non-Catholic arguments that are leveled against this evidence. Upon This Rock soundly and vigorously rebuts the most popular of these arguments.
Also in the section on St. Peter is a lengthy treatment on the evidence for his presence in Rome. Perhaps the historical evidence the author presents will finally put to rest the contention in some non-Catholic circles that St. Peter never even made it to Rome. Ray traces the history of this rather desperate position, showing that it is a product of anti-Catholic sentiment rather than sober reflection on the available evidence. He asks, “Why would anyone challenge this historical evidence … if it were not that a strong tradition forced them to oppose anything that might substantiate the claims of the historical Catholic Church?”
The second section of the book treats the evidence for the primacy of the successors of St. Peter in the earliest testimony of the Church. So much material has been lost from the first, second and early third centuries of the Church that there is just not as much as we would like to have on any particular subject. However, this makes it all the more impressive that there is a good deal of evidence for the Petrine and Roman primacy from the first Christian centuries and that so much of it comes in the initial years. As Ray points out: “The vast majority of the quotations and historical situations we will analyze [from the early centuries] are prior to the final collection and canonization of the New Testament.”
In the final section of the book Ray lays out current Church teaching on the papacy. He shows both the development of that teaching and the harmony that exists between it and the witnesses to the Petrine primacy in the first Christian centuries. It is neither reasonable nor consistent to insist, as too many non-Catholics do, that the Catholic must either demonstrate the fully formed papacy directly from the Bible and from earliest antiquity or abandon the doctrine as untenable. Rather, as Ray argues, doctrine and belief in the Church show an organic growth throughout the centuries. “The oak tree has grown and looks perceptibly different from the fragile sprout that cracked the original acorn, yet the organic essence and identity remain the same,” he says.
Throughout history, a great many non-Catholics have taken it upon themselves to attack the doctrine of the papacy. Today they are doing the same thing. The renewed vibrancy and success of Catholic apologetics has called forth a spate of books, magazine articles, Web sites, and cassette tapes that seek to undermine Catholic claims.
Ray goes head to head with these arguments, showing their selective use of evidence, special pleading, faulty logic, or often just plain misunderstanding of the Catholic position. Far too many Catholics have been led away from the Church for lack of fundamental answersto these basic challenges. Ray gives the counter-arguments that are needed — with vigor, fairness and charity.
If I have any criticism of the work it is functional. There are copious footnotes, set in small type. The need to move between text and footnotes may be difficult for some readers.
And the book makes for challenging reading in places. But this need not be seenas a criticism. It is not necessarily bad that the reader is expected to do some work — examining the evidence and following arguments and counter-arguments. In fact, this is welcome and healthy in a day and age when what passes for Catholicism has in many quarters been reduced to feelings and emotions.
Ray resurrects and re-presents numerous pieces of evidence and arguments in support of the papacy that have been “buried” in dusty volumes written decades and even centuries ago. The evidence and arguments are, of course, still perfectly valid. But modern Catholics have fallen victim to a kind of collective amnesia and political correctness such that many people consider solid argumentation in support of our faith to be gauche.
Thanks be to God for volumes like Upon This Rock, which bring back to our eyes and minds the solid support for the Catholic doctrine of the papacy written large throughout Scripture and the history of the Church.
David Palm writes from DeSoto, Wisconsin.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Palm ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: What Is a Person, After All? DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:“Reconstructing the Person: A Meditation on the Meaning of Personality” by Kenneth L. Schmitz (Crisis, April 1999)
Kenneth L. Schmitz, professor at the John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C., writes:
“From its beginning, the term [person] has been associated rather closely with religious sensibilities, and indeed, it takes its origin from the cult of the goddess Persephone, who spent part of the year above the ground and part under the earth. The word used for the mask in her cult was Phersu.
“In the Roman theater [person] was used more generally to designate the mask through which the actor spoke the script (we still preface plays with the ‘dramatis personae’). It referred both to the actor and the device through which the actor sounded the character's per-sonare.
“The term, then, exhibits a close association with the manifest and the hidden, and with representation and communication. But the element of dignity is present as well. For in the transference of the term from the deity to humanity, Roman jurisprudence did not initially confer it upon each and every human being, but only upon those who possessed full civic status. Children, slaves, women, and usually foreigners were not accorded the status of persons in the law, but only male adult citizens who were entitled to bring a case before the courts and have it heard.
“Finally, with Cicero, the term took on a metaphysical meaning and denoted what is distinctive in each individual as contrasted with the humanity shared in common by all. … Meanwhile in Greece, a term (prosopon) with a different etymology began a career that would merge with that of the Latin persona. … It placed the emphasis upon a direct face-to-face visual encounter. … For this reason, the term was associated with the human face. … The Septuagint translators of the Hebrew Bible into the Greek used the term prosopon, as the sounding mask through which the Lord spoke (‘out of the mouth of the Lord’). The Latin translators naturally enough rendered that word as persona, so that both the Greek and Latin usage converged to introduce the term respectively into the Eastern and Western European languages.
“The great Church Councils of the fourth and fifth centuries wrestled with the wondrous fact of faith: that Jesus the Christ is Lord (Christos Kyrios). This demanded a new vocabulary toward which the Fathers groped. … The formula arrived at is still confessed by most Churches that call themselves Christian: One (divine) person (hypostatically, i.e., personally) uniting two natures (divine and human).
“This naming of Christ was by no means a dry linguistic event, for in uniting humanity with divinity in such an intimate way — that is, by drawing human nature in the closest possible way into the very being of the divine person — the whole of humanity was called to an unprecedented dignity.
“The third major development in the term can be signaled by the founding declarations of modernity. … Modernity changed the notion of person: All of the elements remain — the manifest and hidden, the communicability, the distinctiveness, the special dignity, and the intimacy — but they take on a new configuration. … Modern introspection is typified by Descartes's inward journey that comes to rest in the famous assertion, ‘I think, therefore I am.’ … Religious interiority possesses quite a different dynamic, for it passes beyond the human subject. Instead, the subject becomes a footstool from which the sinner repents in order to place himself or herself in humility before the vast uplands of the sacred.
“In modern introspection, [on the other hand,] the human subject becomes the first principle. … All things … are referred to the human subject as the final court of appeal. There can be no doubt that this has engendered the enormous interest and creative energy associated with modern novels, art, autobiography, and psychology.
“But the hunger for intimacy so characteristic of the present culture is the form that transcendence takes in the modern milieu. … We must pose, however, a series of questions. … [C]an there be intimacy in its deepest, nearest form without an openness that invites further communion and an inexhaustible depth? … [C]an there be a dignity that is not rooted in the functional value of each person (in productivity, in results produced, in winning at all costs), but in simply being there, in the absolute presence of each person? Thomas Aquinas gave to this actual presence the name esse, the very existing actuality of the person. Here is the root of the existential depth in each person. This unique and ultimately inexpressible dignity proper to each person qua person is rooted in the sheer act of that person's act of being (esse).
“What is needed is a transhuman dimension, if not that of the goddess Persephone and the pantheon of the Immortals, then, more radically still, the Trinitarian communion of persons. … The French philosopher of the concrete, Gabriel Marcel, put it well when speaking of the Being in which we as persons find ourselves. … The person is the condensation-point of such being, who is called to immerse himself or herself in its mysterious fullness.”
!Ellen Wilson Fielding writes from Davidson, Maryland.
A condensed version, in the words of the original author, of an article selected by the Register from the nation's top journals.
----- EXCERPT: Article Digest ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Wilson Fielding ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:Bishop? Ordination?
I have various questions regarding your inclusion of an article on Sinead O'Connor's “ordination” by Bishop Michael Cox.
Why is Michael Cox referred to as Bishop? I understand that one can't undo the sacraments. No one can be unbaptized or unordained. But, if he is not in communion with the Church why is he still referred to as Bishop? or Father? Isn't that to give false testimony? Doesn't his Bishopry depend on the authority of the Church which he denies? Wouldn't it be more accurate not to use the word Bishop, or at least not to capitalize it?
Furthermore, if Michael Cox is acting on his own authority, then why is the ritual he performed on Sinead O'Connor called an ‘ordination’?
I am so tired with the priestesses issue, it's getting so old so fast! I find it sad that it should appear in your paper, although I do understand your duty to inform Catholics of such ridiculous nonsense. Perhaps you can write an article explaining the misleading and erroneous philosophy behind such a mock ordination, and reaf-firming the authority of the Church.
Maria Rivera via e-mail
Memorials to the Un born
I enjoyed your profile of Alan Napleton (“What I Did After I Came Alive,” Register May 23–29) and applaud his goal of erecting a memorial to unborn children in Mexico City.
I would like to remind your readers that since 1992 local Knights of Columbus councils throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Philippines and the Caribbean have been building similar memorials to unborn children.
Records at the Supreme Council office in New Haven, CT, show that more than 1,500 memorials have been erected and many more are on the drawing boards. This has been a true grassroots phenomenon on the part of local K of C councils and is yet another manifestation of the Order's belief in the sanctity of life — born and unborn.
Tim S. Hickey Editor, Columbia magazine New Haven, Connecticut
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Guns Are Wrong Target After Littleton DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:This will be a minority report. Take it for what it is worth.
Principles: Guns do not kill. Individual human beings, who choose to use weapons of whatever kind irresponsibly or incompetently, do kill. Automobiles kill some 50,000 people in the United States alone each year. Automobiles do not kill. Individual human beings, who drive recklessly or drunkenly, do. Drugs do not kill. Individuals who use drugs unwisely do the killing, usually of themselves. Knives do not kill. Individuals who use them carelessly or deliberately do the killing.
A parable: Suppose that on the morning of the killings in Colorado, a young man in the same high school — let's call him Zeke — had heard rumors that two kids were planning to kill some students. Zeke's father, uncles and grandfathers loved to hunt. They taught the sons in the family all about guns, how to clean them, how to take them apart, how to aim them, how to lock them, how to carry them. Zeke and his brothers were, by the time they were 13, expert shots with both pistols and rifles.
When Zeke heard this rumor, he first thought it was another joke. But he thought, “Well, maybe….” So, just in case, he put in his bag a small loaded pistolwith a secure safety lock on it.
Someone had told him that these two characters planned to raid the school from the ball field about 11:30 a.m. So he strolled over by the ball field. Sure enough, about 11:30, he spotted two young men crawling along. Suddenly, they got up and headed for the back door of the school. They had weapons. He followed them, unbelieving. Before they shot anyone, however, just as they threatened the students, Zeke pulled out his pistol and shot them both dead.
Question: Was Zeke a hero? Since neither the public nor the police could imagine what would have happened in reality when the 15 or so students were killed, everyone would immediately assume that Zeke's gun was the problem. The parents of the two boys who planned the actual killing would have testified that their boys were good boys. They were only playing a prank. Some lawyer would have talked them into filing a multimillion-dollar suit against Zeke's hapless, guntoting parents. Zeke would have been accused at least of second-degree murder. His story about the intentions of the two boys would have been called baloney. He would have gotten 30 years in jail.
After the incident, the advocates of gun control would have been on C-Span for two solid weeks railing against guns, demanding more control. The poll-driven President and Congress would move to legislate against guns. No one would have seen Zeke as the hero he was for preventing a slaughter. And when the next slaughter happened, cries would come for whatever-the-weapon control.
A second parable: Suppose, again, that early in the morning of the incident, the two Colorado boys had decided against using guns. They figured that they were too cumbersome and would be easily spotted. They heard a kid named Zeke, a good shot, was onto them. In the meantime, they had learned in their chemistry class, in books and on the Internet how to make and detonate explosives. They had already planted several chemical bombs around the school. The bombs would cause much more damage than the guns anyhow.
So, at precisely 11:30, they set off a detonator blowing up the building. They killed 230 students and teachers, including themselves. They left notes detailing their actions and motives.
For the next three weeks, C-Span runs continuous programming on the need to control chemical information. The crime, leading authorities say, was caused by the easy availability of “knowledge” about explosives in chemistry class and in the school library. The President and Congress, following popular outcries and polls, take steps to restrict information on chemistry.
A parable from a cartoon: I once saw a cave-almost-human-man cartoon in the New Yorker. Most of the cave-men and cave-lady persons were sitting around armed to the teeth with clubs and stones. But over at the side, there was a very satisfied, sly looking cave-man person. He had just invented something. By his side was a long rodlike stick, across the ends of which he had stretched a thin piece of hide. Nearby on the ground were also some long sticks with pointed stone heads. Many pronounced themselves afraid that this newfangled, long-range weapon was going to change the nature of warfare and the theory of just war. It could only increase the killing. Therefore, to stop the killing, they formed “The International Committee to Abolish Bows and Arrows.”
Conclusions: 1. The only gun control is human control. 2. If you abolish one weapon, another will take its place. If you abolish guns, watch out for bombs, knives, small nuclear weapons, poison, and especially bows and arrows. 3. The origin of evil is in the human will. No outside control of weapons will prevent the mind's inventive choices for killing others. Cave-men persons killed with rocks. Abolish rocks? 4. Before talking about controlling guns, talk about virtue, how it is acquired and why we don't speak of it much any more.
Father James V. Schall teaches philosophy at Georgetown. His most recent book is At the Limits of Political Philosophy from The Catholic University of America Press.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: James V. Schall, Sj ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Love of the Heart Pierced on Golgotha DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:This Friday, June 11, is the annual liturgical celebration of the solemnity of the Sacred Heart.When Pope John Paul II was in Zakopane, Poland, two years ago on the feast of the Sacred Heart, he noted that Poland as a nation had made a great contribution to the introduction of this solemnity into the Church's liturgical calendar. He said that the solemnity was inserted in the calendar with “a deep desire that the extraordinary fruits produced by this devotion should be multiplied in the life of the faithful throughout the Church.”
“How should we thank God for all the graces which we experience through his Son's heart!” he exclaimed.
On the same occasion he beatified two Polish religious sisters whose lives had a special relationship to this devotion. Following are excerpts from the homily he gave in Zakopane:
“They shall look on him whom they have pierced” (John 19:37). These are the words which we have just heard. With this prophetic quotation St. John ends his description of Christ's passion and death on the cross. We know from it that on Good Friday, before the feast of the Passover, the Jews asked Pilate that the legs of those crucified might be broken and their bodies taken away (cf. John 19:31). The soldiers did this to the two criminals crucified with Jesus. “But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water” (John 19:33–34). It was the proof of death. The soldiers were able to assure their superior that Jesus of Nazareth had ceased to live. But St. John the Evangelist sees at this point the need for a special authentication. He writes thus: “He who saw it has borne witness — his witness is true.” And at the same time he affirms that in this piercing of Christ's side the Scripture had been fulfilled. For it says: “Not a bone of him shall be broken,” and elsewhere: “They shall look on him whom they have pierced” (John 19:35–37).
This Gospel passage is at the foundation of the whole tradition of devotion to the Divine Heart. It developed in a special way from the 17th century onward, in connection with the revelations to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. Our own century testifies to an intense development of devotion to the Heart of Jesus, attested to by the magnificent Litany of the Sacred Heart and linked to it The Act of Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart with the added Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart. All this has profoundly pervaded our Polish piety; it has become part of the life of many of the faithful who feel the need to make reparation to the Heart of Jesus for the sins of humanity and also of individual nations, families and people.
‘Do Not Be Ashamed’
“They shall look on him whom they have pierced” — these words guide our gaze toward the holy cross, toward the tree of the cross on which was hung the Savior of the world. “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but for us it is the power of God” (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18). … Dear Brothers and Sisters, do not be ashamed of this cross. Try every day to accept it and to return Christ's love. Defend the cross; do not offend God's name in your hearts, in family or social life. We thank Divine Providence that the crucifix has returned to the schools, public offices and hospitals. May it ever remain there! May it remind us of our Christian dignity and national identity, what we are and where we are going and where our roots are. May it remind us of God's love for humanity, which on the cross found its deepest expression.
Love is always associated with the heart. The Apostle Paul linked it precisely to that Heart which on Golgotha was pierced by the centurion's lance. In this gesture there was revealed the depth of the love with which the Father has loved the world. He has loved it so intensely “that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16). In this pierced Heart that dimension of love which is greater than any created love whatever has found its external expression. In it, saving and redemptive love has manifested itself. The Father has given “his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). And therefore Paul writes: “I bend my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named” (Ephesians 3:14–15); I bend them to express the gratitude which I feel before the revelation which the Father has made of his love in his Son's redeeming death. At the same time I bend my knees, so that God “according to the riches of his glory may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man” (Ephesians 3:16). The heart is precisely “the inner man.” The Heart of God's Son becomes, for the Apostle, the source of strength for all human hearts. All this has been wonderfully rendered in many of the invocations of the Litany of the Sacred Heart.
‘Eternally to Give’
The heart of Jesus became the source of strength for the two women whom the Church is raising today to the glory of the altars. Thanks to this strength they reached the heights of holiness. Maria Bernardina Jablonska — spiritual daughter of St. Albert Chmielowski, his helper and the one who continued his work of mercy; living in poverty, she consecrated herself to the service of the poorest of the poor. The Church places this devout religious before us today as an example. Her motto of life were the words: “To give, eternally to give.” With her gaze fixed on Christ she followed him faithfully, imitating his love. She wanted to satisfy her neighbor's every request, to dry every tear, to console at least with a word every suffering soul. She always wanted to be good to everyone, but even better to those most tried by fate. She used to say: “My neighbor's suffering is my suffering.” Together with St. Albert she founded hospices for those who were sick and homeless as a result of war.
This great and heroic love matured in prayer, in the silence of the nearby hermitage of Kalatówki, where she stayed for some time. In life's most difficult moments — in keeping with the suggestions of the one who guided her soul — she entrusted herself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. To him she offered everything she possessed, especially her inner sufferings and physical torments. All for the love of Christ! As superior general of the Congregation of the Sisters Servants of the Poor of the Third Order of St. Francis — the Albertines — she ceaselessly gave her sisters the example of that love which flows from the union of the human heart with the Sacred Heart of the Savior. Jesus' heart was her solace in her service of the most needy.
A True Samaritan
At the same time, in the territories under Prussian occupation, another woman, Maria Karlowska,worked as a true Samaritan among women suffering great material and moral deprivation. Her holy zeal quickly attracted a group of disciples of Christ, with whom she founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd of Divine Providence. For herself and her Sisters she set the following goal: “We must proclaim the Heart of Jesus, that is, so to live from him, in him and for him, as to become like him and that in our lives he may be more visible than we ourselves.” Her devotion to the Savior's Sacred Heart bore fruit in a great love for people. She felt an insatiable hunger for love. A love of this kind, according to Blessed Maria Karlowska, will never say “enough,” will never stop midway. Precisely this happened to her, who was as it were transported by the current of love of the Divine Paraclete. Thanks to this love she restored to many souls the light of Christ and helped them to regain their lost dignity.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, both these heroic women religious, carrying forward their holy works in extremely difficult conditions, showed in all its fullness the dignity of woman and the greatness of her vocation. They showed that “feminine genius” which is revealed in deep sensitivity to human suffering, in tact, openness and readiness to help, and in other qualities proper to the feminine heart. Often this is shown without drawing attention to itself and therefore is sometimes undervalued. How much today's world, our generation, needs this! How badly needed is this feminine sensitivity in the things of God and man, that our families and all of society may be filled with heartfelt warmth, good will, peace and joy! How much this “feminine genius” is needed, that today's world may esteem the values of life, responsibility and faithfulness; that it may preserve respect for human dignity! For God, in his eternal plan, has established such a role for women, by creating the human being “man and woman” in his own “image and likeness.”
Plan for Salvation
In his Letter to the Ephesians St. Paul makes as it were a personal confession. He writes: “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things” (3:8–9). In this way, through the Heart of Jesus crucified and risen, we read God's eternal plan for the salvation of the world. The Divine Heart becomes, in a sense, the center of this plan, which is mysterious and which gives life. In this Heart the plan is fulfilled. As the Apostle writes: “that through the Church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known. … This was according to the eternal purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confidence of access through our faith in him” (Ephesians 3:10–12).
All is contained here. Christ is the fulfillment of the divine plan of redemptive love. By virtue of this plan man has access to God, not only as a creature to its Creator, but as a son to his father. Christianity therefore means a new creation, a new life — life in Christ through which man can say to God: Abba — my Father, our Father. The solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is thus in a sense a magnificent completion of the Eucharist, and the Church, guided by a profound intuition of faith, therefore celebrates this feast of the Divine Heart on the day after the end of the octave of Corpus Christi.
We praise you, Christ our Savior, who from your Heart on fire with love pour out upon us fountains of grace. We thank you for these graces through which the hosts of the saints and beati have been able to bring to the world the witness of your love. We thank you for the Blessed Sisters — Maria Bernardina and Maria — who found the source of their holiness in your loving Heart.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Pope John Paulii ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Lots of Questions But Still No One Wants My Opinion DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:A few years ago I became one of the “experts” at the Eternal Word Television Network Web site. I've been a little embarrassed by the title, since I consider myself a fairly well-read amateur and not an expert; but that's a matter of public relations and I leave it in EWTN's hands.
When I first was asked to handle the apologetics forum, I thought, “Why not?” The (uncompensated) task would be little more than an incidental, just a few minutes a week. After all, how many people could be browsing the “experts” section? Well, quite a few, as it turns out. Most months I have been answering publicly between two and three hundred questions at the EWTN site, and, behind the scenes, I handle another hundred or so that either aren't proper questions (some people just like to vent) or are inappropriate for public display. I estimate I process, in one way or another, up to 400 questions monthly for EWTN. (Sometimes I wish I had made arrangements to be paid on a piecework basis. Now let's see — at $2 an answer, in a year I could earn … )
The EWTN questions aren't the only ones I receive electronically. Lots of people send questions to my personal e-mail addresses. I handle about 200 a month that way. Then there are the questions that come in the old-fashioned way, on paper. They're in third — no, make that fourth — place. Beating them out in quantity are the questions I answer on “Catholic Answers Live.”
When the daily radio program began, in January 1998, I decided that Tuesday would be “my” day. I began by working up discrete topics for most of my weekly appearances — papal infallibility, Mary's perpetual virginity, the inspiration of the Bible — but quickly saw how time-consuming that was. I feared I wouldn't have much time left for my regular work.
Besides, I found that I more enjoyed the occasional “open forum” question-and-answer session: easier to prepare — no preparation possible, actually, since there's no telling what the questions might be on — and, it seemed, of more interest to the audience. Listeners like to play “stump the apologist.” So Tuesdays became Q & A days. As I say on the air, only partly tongue in cheek, I'll take any question on any non-controversial topic — which leaves out politics, sports, and soap operas. But anything on religion is OK. On most shows about 20 questions get answered. They come from devout Catholics, wavering Catholics and non-Catholics.
In sum, I answer about 700 questions a month. Who'd have thunk it? I confess, though, I have mixed feelings about all this. There is a downside. Handling that many can be tiring, and to a large extent one answers the same questions over and over. (This is something I shouldn't complain about since priests have to listen to the same sins over and over in the confessional.) On the upside, the fact that so many people ask so many questions is a good sign. It means the questioners are alive. It means that Catholics are waking up to their faith and their religious responsibilities, and that non-Catholics are following up on their curiosity.
I don't know how many questions the other “experts” at EWTN field, but collectively we must answer several thousand a month, publicly and privately. A publicly posted answer may also be read by hundreds or thousands of people. Work out the arithmetic how you will, it seems that the “answers-read tally” must be over a million a month — at least that much since a thousand answers times a thousand readers per answer gives a million.
I'm impressed that so many people want to learn the faith. And this is just a beginning. If half the households in America now have Internet access, then 30 million Catholics are online. Most of them haven't even heard of sites such as EWTN's, or Catholic Answers' site, www.catholic.com. As word spreads, and as more of the remaining 30 million Catholics in America get computers, the “answers-read tally” is likely to zoom. The nice thing is that all the answering seems to be done by orthodox Catholics. I'm unaware of any Q & A services offered at Web sites sponsored by people or organizations that don't adhere to the fullness of the faith.
One thing I've learned is that people want the straight scoop. They may not agree entirely with Catholic beliefs or morals — alas, this goes for Catholics as well as non-Catholics — but they don't want someone to present them only half a loaf. “What does the Church say about … ?” they ask. They don't ask, “What do you think the Church should say about … ?” They want the official version, not one that has been sifted through my prejudices or anyone else's. Of course, I want my version to be identical to the Church's official version — and I think it is — but my questioners aren't asking what I think. They want to think with the mind of the Church.
I like that.
Karl Keating is founding director of Catholic Answers.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Karl Keating ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Visiting the Polish Jerusalem DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:As a boy living in nearby Wadowice, Karol Wojtyla often would come and spend time in prayer at the various chapels of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska. Before he became Pope John Paul II, he would often visit the shrine as an archbishop and later as a cardinal.
Many times he came unannounced and walked the paths by himself in solitude. The shrine had such an impact on his life that he wrote in his book Gift and Mystery: “Even as a child, and still more as a priest and bishop, [devotion to Mary] would lead me to make frequent Marian pilgrimages to Kalwaria Zebrzydowska. … I would go there often, walking along its paths in solitude and present to the Lord in prayer the various problems of the Church, especially in the difficult times during the struggle against communism.”
In fact, any pilgrim visiting Kalwaria Zebryzdowska will always remember the beauty of the place, and its unforgettable atmosphere of prayer and meditation.
Whether one walks around the hillside of chapels, or participates in the spectacular Passion play or processions in honor of our Lady, one can't help sink deeply into the mystery of the suffering and death of Christ, and into the life of his Mother. Summing it up best, Pope John Paul II once said, “that is why we come here over and over again.”
The shrine consists of more than 40 chapels and a spectacular basilica. One of Poland's most beautiful places of pilgrimage, it is situated between two mountain ranges and welcomes more than 1 million visitors every year from around the world.
Since many of the chapels depict the life of Christ and his Mother, Kalwaria Zebrzydowska is often referred to as a “Polish Jerusalem.”
The origin of the shrine dates back to 1600 when a squire from Krakow named Mikolaj Zebrzydowski, built a small sanctuary on the Zarek Hill representing the Crucifixion scene.Modeled after a church from Jerusalem, the popular chapel was consecrated one year later in the presence of numerous clergy and local nobility.
Soon afterward, the local prelate entrusted the little shrine to the Franciscans (known as the Bernardines in Poland). So popular did the small sanctuary become in the following years that Zebrzydowski decided to build more chapels on the hill, each following the modelof a specific church from the Holy Land.
When the Friars arrived, the squire promised to build their monastery.
On Dec. 1, 1600, Zebrzydowski put forward the plans for the new monastery (and the enlarging of the original church), and in 1604, he broke ground.
The new complex was designed in the same fashion as a Renaissance castle — with the church and living quarters of the monks not being separated. On Oct. 4, 1609, the Franciscans consecrated their new home and church.
In the ensuing years, a number of chapels began to be built throughout the hillside. By 1617, sanctuaries on what is called the “Via Dolorosa pathway” were completed.
As symbolism played a large part in the construction of each devotional sanctuary, the chapels were built with different shapes to fit their meaning.
For example, some were designed in the form of a cross, a heart or a triangle.
After Zebrzydowski's death in 1620, his son, and later his grandson, took over the duties and continued the expansion.
Thus their family name became permanently attached to this shrine that is centered on the mystery of Calvary (Kalwaria).
Since the beginning, celebrations and processions have been the hallmark of the shrine. As early as 1611, a prayer book was published for those who came to pray and take part in various religious services. By 1617, special services known as the “Co-suffering of Our Lady” had developed whereby the pilgrims would begin a walk from the Tomb of Christ and end at the Loreto House chapel, singing songs and saying designated prayers.
During the first 40 years of the sanctuary's history, pilgrims venerated a statue of our Lady, which the founder had brought from Loreto, Italy. In 1641, the Franciscans erected a special shrine inside the main church to house the holy image. In 1887, the cardinal of Krakow crowned the miraculous statue before an enthusiastic and festive crowd.
What the shrine is probably best known for, however, is its annual Passion play which began in the 17th century.
The performance begins on Palm Sunday and continues on Wednesday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
The blend of religious ceremony and local theater, re-enacting the most crucial days of Christ's life, is orchestrated by local townspeople and monks, who also play the parts of Jesus, the Apostles, Roman legionaries, and other important historical figures.
As one of Eastern Europe's most significant places of pilgrimage, the shrine is not only active during Holy Week.
It features a full program of celebrations, processions and daily activities throughout the year with an emphasis on Marian feast days.
Today, the Holy Father continues to return to Kalwaria, the place where his father once served as a tour guide.
On June 7, 1979, shortly after being elected Pope, he visited the shrine and bestowed the title of basilica on the main church.
In 1987, while praying before the miraculous image of our Lady, the Pope offered the Virgin of Kalwaria a golden papal rose as a “sign of gratitude for what she had been, and is, in his life.”
Again, in the 1990s, John Paul II has returned several times to his favorite boyhood shrine.
Kevin Wright lives in Bellevue, Washingto
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kevin Wright ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Shrines as 'Witnesses of the Good News' DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:In a document dated May 8, the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People released a document titled “The Shrine”: Memory, Presence and Prophecy of the Living God. The Vatican presented this document as an aid to themany celebrations and events for the Jubilee of the Year 2000 that will see pilgrims travelingto shrines all over the world — especially in Rome and the Holy Land. Following are excerpts of the document:
One can find the entire history of the pilgrim Church reflected in countless shrines, “permanent witnesses of the Good News,” linked to the decisive events of the evangelization or the faith-life of different peoples and communities.
Every shrine can be seen as the bearer of a specific message, since it vividly makes present today the foundational event of the past which still speaks to the heart of pilgrims. Marian shrines in particular provide an authentic school of faith based on Mary's example and motherly inter-cession.
Today too, by their witness to the manifold richness of God's saving activity, all shrines are an inestimable gift of grace to his Church. …
The shrine reminds us that the Church is born of God's initiative, an initiative that the piety of the faithful and the public approval of the Church acknowledge in the foundational event at the origin of every shrine.
Thus, in everything associated with the shrine and in everything that finds expression in it, we need to discern the presence of the mystery, the activity of God in time, the manifestation of his efficacious presence, hidden under the signs of history.
This conviction is further expressed in the shrine through the specific message connected with it, whether in regard to the mysteries of the life of Jesus Christ, in regard to one of the titles of Mary, “who shines forth to the whole community of the elect as a model of the virtues,” or in regard to the individual Saints whose memory proclaims the “wonderful works of Christ in his servants.”
One approaches the mystery with an attitude of awe and adoration, with a sense of wonder before the gift of God; for this reason, one enters a shrine with a spirit of adoration.
Anyone who is incapable of experiencing wonder at the work of God, who does notperceive the newness of what God brings about through his loving initiative, will not be capable of perceiving the profound significance and beauty of the mystery of the Temple, which is disclosed in the shrine. The proper respect shown to a holy place expresses the awareness that, i seeing what God has done, we need to respond not with a human logic, which presumes to define everything on the basis of what is seen and produced, but with an attitude of veneration, filled with awe and a sense of mystery.
Surely, an adequate preparation is needed for an encounter with a shrine, so that we can perceive beyond its visible, artistic and folkloric aspects the gracious work of God evoked by various signs, such as apparitions, miracles, the foundational events that represent the real first beginnings of every shrine as a place of faith. …
It is extremely important that a shrine be associated with the persistent and receptive hearing of the Word of God, which is no mere human word, but the living God himself present in his Word. The shrine, in which the Word of God resounds, is a place of covenant, where God reminds his people of his faithfulness, in order to shed light on their journey and to offer them consolation and strength.
A shrine can become an excellent place for deepening one's faith, in a special setting and at a favorable time, apart from the ordinary. It can offer possibilities for a new evangelization, help to foster a popular piety that is “rich in values,” bringing it to a more exact and mature consciousness of faith, and it can facilitate the process of inculturation. …
[Shrines] are also privileged places for the celebration of the sacraments.
This is especially true for the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist, in which the Word is most powerfully present and at work.
The sacraments bring about an encounter of the living with the One who constantly preserves them in life and grants them ever new life in the consoling power of the Holy Spirit. They are not rote rituals, but events of salvation, personal encounters with the living God who in the Spirit goes forth to meet all those who come to him hungering and thirsting for his truth and peace. When a sacrament is celebrated in the shrine, therefore, it is not that something “is done,” but rather that someone is encountered. Indeed, that someone is Christ. …
Pilgrims thus approach a shrine as the Temple of the living God, the place of the living covenant with him, so that the grace of the sacraments may liberate them from sin and grant them the strength to begin again with a new freshness and new joy in their hearts, and thus to become, in the midst of the world, transparent witnesses of the Eternal….
As a sign, the shrine does not only remind us whence we come and who we are, but also opens our eyes to discern where we are going, the goal of our pilgrimage in life and history.
The shrine, a work of human hands, points beyond itself to the heavenly Jerusalem, our Mother, the city coming down from God, all adorned as a bride (cf. Rev 21:2), the perfect eschatological shrine where the glorious divine presence is directly and personally experienced: “I could not see any temple in the city, for the Lord Almighty and the Lamb were themselves the temple.” (Rev 21:22)
In that city and temple there will be no more tears, no more sadness, or suffering, or death (cf. Rev 21:4).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Next Season, TV Turns To Jesus and Mary DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:The major TV networks recently unveiled their fall schedules and, as usual, they look suspiciously like preceeding seasons (young adult sitcoms, police and legal dramas). But this doesn't mean the 1999–2000 season will be without surprises. As the millennium approaches, TV movie producers have suddenly discovered Jesus Christ. No fewer than two major productions are under way. Both may air as early as next fall.
The first is certain to generate controversy: NBC will air what it promises to be a “humanized” portrait of the Virgin Mary. What does this mean? According to network press notes, “she is perhaps one of the most controversial and misunderstood figures in all of Christianity,” and so this portrait will attempt to show how “she shares the concerns of every mother.”
One can surmise that the producers will exercise a certain amount of poetic license. And another unusual twist: The movie entitled “Mary and Jesus” will be produced by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of John F. Kennedy.
Meanwhile, CBS will produce a four-hour miniseries on the life of Jesus, with the actor Jeremy Sisto — who appeared in NBC's recent miniseries, “The 60s” — in the title role. Gary Oldman will play Pontius Pilate, and Jacqueline Bisset will portray Mary. What do we know about this? Very little, but it appears likely that CBS will attempt to produce a “period” piece as opposed to a particularly detailed portrait of Christ or spirituality. Production notes also suggest that the minis-eries will delve into Jesus' relationships.
What follows is a brief look at some programs of interest to viewers this month:
WEDNESDAY, June 2
Stealing Time: The New Science of Aging (PBS, 8–11 p.m.; all times listed are Eastern): This program is one of public television's major “events” of the month exploring new scientific advances in how people age and why. The executive producer, John Rubin, explains that certain research indicates that “we can, in fact, keep ourselves mentally sharp into our 90s and beyond. … Scientists have spent decades observing and describing how we get old. But only in the last few years have they gotten to the point where they can actually do something about it.” Rubin himself brings a considerable depth of journalistic and scientific accomplishment to this venture: He received a Ph.D. in cognitive science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has produced numerous specials for National Geographic. In some of the findings reported during these three hours, Rubin insists that no scientists are “talking about extending life at any cost, stretching out years of decline. The new science of aging will extend the number of healthy, vibrant, joyous years while at the same time shortening the period of decline at the end of life.”
Over these three hours, a number of scientists are interviewed, and the result is one of TV's more thoughtful treatments of the subject. Whether it is 100% pro-life on end-of-life issues is for the viewer to decide.
SUNDAYS, June 6, 13, 20, 27
Celebrate the Century (CNN, all 9–10 p.m.): CNN's exhaustive, though hardly complete, 10-part series on the century kicks into high gear in June, covering the years 1946 through 1989. Catholic viewers will be disappointed, in part, because as virtually every others series on the vast subject of the 20th century, this one tends overwhelmingly toward the securlar, ignoring (or giving short-shrift) to important developments in the Church, in particular, or Christianity, in general. Nonetheless, this is solid series that gives viewers a broad, if somewhat corsetted, look back at our own century. Episode 6 (June 6) covers the years 1954–61, and ends with the launch of Sputnik. Episode 7 (June 13) looks at what CNN calls “the most tumultuous” period of the 20th century — a statement those who lived through the '30s may take exception to. Episode 8 (June 20) ends with the seizure of the hostages in Tehran. Finally, Episode 9 (June 27) follows the events of the '80s, and ends with the transformation of the Soviet Union. The CNN series concludes in early July.
June 14–17, 21, 28
People's Century (PBS, 9–11 p.m.): And lest we forget, PBS's look-back at the century kicks into high gear this month too. The structure of “People's Century” is markedly different from CNN's, which is strictly chronological. While CNN embraces macro-history, PBS is content with micro-history —the “ordinary” people who changed the course of history. On Monday, June 14, “People's” looks at two years — 1948 and 1968 — contrasting radically different cultures and lifestyles. On Tuesday, June 15, the years 1945 (the harnessing of nuclear power) and '59 (the growth of consumerism) are contrasted.
SATURDAY, June 5
Father Aposteli (EWTN, 11 a.m.): Father Andrew Aposteli explores the Beatitudes, in an eight-step quest to holiness. This program also initiated a compelling series in May on Padre Pio, the recently beatified Franciscan Capuchin priest who received the stigmata in 1918. It was one of ETWN's major series of the spring and, one hopes, will be reprised shortly.
WEDNESDAY, June 9
Great Performances (PBS: 8 p.m.): This wonderful PBS series ofers The Making of Turandotat the Forbidden City” in this unusual presentation of the Puccini opera. It will be produced by famed Chinese film director Zhang Yimou.
THURSDAY, June 10
Pinehurst: Stories of Good Times and Great Golf (PBS: 8 p.m. Check local listing, as the airdates could vary city to city.) Here's something a little off-beat, and certainly appropriate, for the summer months. Only golfers, arguably, will be interested in this special, butPinehurst itself — one of the world's most beautiful courses — holds its own unique appeals. The course was built in the North Carolina sandhills in 1895, and was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (of Central Park fame). The course itself had a rich history (Annie Oakley ran the club's gun club), and the golfing, of course, has been superlative.
Verne Gay writes about television for
Joe Torre: Curveballs Along the Way
When Joe Torre (Paul Sorvino) returns to New York in 1995 to manage the Yankees, he's grateful just to remain in baseball. For 36 years, the Brooklyn-born Torre has participated in America's national pastime — first as a catcher and then as a manager. But his managing career hasn't been wildly successful; he's been fired from the Mets, the Braves and the Cardinals. Then Yankees' owner George Steinbrenner (Kenneth Welsh) asks Torre to manage his team. Torre and his pregnant wife, Ali (Barbara Williams), are welcomed home by the new manager's siblings. One is Frank (Robert Loggia), Joe's inspiration and a former major leaguer. At first, the Yankees don't do well, and Joe is criticized by nearly everybody. Then, the team begins its drive to first place. But Frank's heart is failing, and Joe finds his first chance to win a World Series isn't so important anymore. While Joe Torre: Curveballs Along the Way isn't a particularly briglliant docudrama, it's filled with a heartwarming appreciation for family and a clear regard for persistence in the face of adversity.
Mama Flora's Family
A troubled granddaughter gets the action going in Mama Flora's Family, which is based on a novel by Alex Haley and David Stevens. The granddaughter is Dinah (Queen Latifah). It's 1970, and she's living in Baltimore with her infant son and bottles of booze. One day, her grandmother Flora (Cicely Tyson) arrives, and takes Dinah and her baby to Flora's home in Mississippi. The highly moral old lady immediately begins rehabilitating Dinah. One of Flora's strongest tools is storytelling, particularly dramatic tales about her family. Flora's memory stretches back to 1900 and her life as a sharecropper's daughter. This good but naive girl was bedazzled into a pregnancy by a charming rake. Her baby was taken from her, a tragedy that overshadows her life. Flora turns to Jesus for solace, and he always answers her in some way, sending her a husband, another son and several grandchildren. Although Mama Flora's Family has melodramatic elements, the film is generally engrossing and occasionally enlightening.
Saints for Kids, Volume 4:
Peter, Lucy, Anthony of Egypt
Geared for youngsters ages 5–8, the Saints for Kids series introduces children to some of Catholicism's holiest people. This Pauline video series is also designed to give young viewers role models and encourage them to make holiness a personal goal. The series consists of six tapes; each contains several four-minute, animated segments devoted to a particular saint. Volume 4 highlights Peter, Lucy and Anthony of Egypt, three of the Church's earliest saints. The segment on Peter emphasizes God's forgiveness, Church leadership and the meaning of names; the segment on Lucy focuses on courage, service and praying to saints; the segment on Anthony stresses prayer and appreciation for God's creation. Although the animation is crude and the narration brief, the video manages to give children an overview of three famous and important saints. The youngsters' understanding of the lives of these threesaints will be augmented if parents consult the video's accompanying study guide for additional information. The guide includes discussion questions, vocabulary words, follow-up activities and additional study resources for children and parents.
— Loretta G. Seyer
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Loretta G. Seyer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Not Taking a Truly Catholic Campus for Granted DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:Theresa Decaen has been one of the lucky ones.
The graduating senior at St. Ignatius Institute at the University of San Francisco speaks glowingly of the institute's emphasis on Scripture, Church history, Catholic philosophy and the early Church Fathers has grounded her well in her faith.
Knowledge of Catholic truths, the Ventura, Calif., student said, “helps you when you're trying to conquer difficulties, whether in your personal or academic life.”
Decaen's experience at a Catholic college, while laudable, hasn't been the norm for many students in the 1990s. The decline of religious identity of America's Catholic colleges and universities is, in fact, more in the news now than at any other time since a wave of secularization swept Catholic higher education in the 1960s and '70s.
These days the accent is on strengthening Catholic identity, and having the colleges reflect a tradition “born from the heart of the Church,” the opening lines of Pope John Paul II's 1990 apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education, Ex Corde Ecclesiae.
Often overlooked in the debates between and among bishops, scholars and college presidents, are the feelings of Catholic students, especially those who want to see their faith celebrated at any institution that calls itself Catholic.
A hearty group of just that kind of student attends the St. Ignatius Institute.
The institute, founded in 1976, is a modified Great Books program. It is based on the Ratio Studiorum, the old Jesuit plan of studies, according to director John Galten. Emphasizing philosophy and theology within the context of Church teachings, it is a consciously Catholic program. The institute has 134 of the university's 4,700 undergraduate students.
Decean, of Ventura, Calif., said that in her years at St. Ignatius she found it refreshing to be in a community where students examine topics critically but don't dismiss Church teachings out of hand.
“To me, you have a seed when you're younger, and here it develops and matures and grow from that seed,” she said.
That outlook would be in line with the John Paul II's vision for Catholic colleges. In Ex Corde Ecclesiae he describes what should be the student's personal,lifelong experience of Catholic higher education: "They are challenged to continue the search for truth and for meaning throughout their lives, since the human spirit must be cultivated in such a way that there results a growth in its ability to wonder, to understand, to contemplate,to make personal judgments, and to develop a religious, moral and social sense" (No. 23).
The Challenge
Administrators at many Catholic universities are concerned that this is not always the case on their campuses. Jesuit Father John Schlegel, president of the University of San Francisco, for instance, said in a 1997 speech, “It is a topic I often pray about.”
Several factors, he noted, undermine Catholicism on campus: Many students come to college from broken homes and have hardly any understanding of doctrine; many faculty members don't identify with the Church; and the prevailing secular culture holds anti-Catholic values.
Restoring or maintaining Catholicity is the point of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, whose implementation by the U.S. bishops will be discussed at their November meeting.
Many college administrators and professors oppose the guidelines, arguing they would restrict academic freedom and impede the pursuit of excellence. But even many of the document's opponents worry about losing the Catholic essence of their institutions. Formal speeches and ad hoc committees have addressed the topic in recent years at Catholic colleges all over the country.
Long gone are the days when practically all the students were Catholic and faculty members were mostly religious from the order that administered the college. So, too, are the days when most Catholic colleges accepted either men or women, but not both.
At today's typical Catholic university is no stranger to student drinking, par-tying and promiscuity.
Student Life
“In terms of dorm life, there really isn't anything that distinguishes it as Catholic,” said Kory Kramer, a graduating senior in philosophy at Boston College.
At Georgetown University, graduating senior Brian Sayers had, during his undergraduate years, organized a campaign against a mandatory program for freshmen offering condoms and demonstrating their use; goaded the administration into returning crucifixes to classrooms; and protested the university chaplain's decision not to rehire four chaplains. “I like this place,” Sayers said. “I really do. And I have no idea where it's going.”
At Boston College, the message from the top emphasizes the importance of being Catholic, Kramer said, but he wonders about the implementation. Putting the Jesuit ideal into practice seems to amount to volunteer projects and retreats where Christ is seldom mentioned, hesaid.
Importance of the Faculty
Kramer, who plans to study in the school's philosophy graduate program next year, is more worried about the long-term effects of hiring decisions. He noted that a large proportion of faculty at Boston College is not Catholic. “There are faculty members that harbor anti-Catholic animosity,” he said.
Mary Daly, for instance, a feminist theology professor and witchcraft advocate, decries the Church as a sexist, oppressive institution. (Daly and the school are involved in a legal battle over her refusal to admit men into a seminar she teaches. The college, which has forcibly retired Daly, won a court decision recently.)
“When you don't hire Catholic faculty — good Catholic faculty members — you're really losing the potential to be a good Catholic university,” Kramer said.
Jack Dunn, director of public affairs at Boston College, said the school expects to succeed in getting rid of Daly, whom he described as an “embarrassment.”
But he said he was astounded by Kramer's comments, adding that the school “prides itself on being a Jesuit Catholic university.” Dunn noted that Mass is offered at least five times a day on campus during the school year. Retreats, he said, start and end with Mass, and are well- attended. He added that Boston this year introduced priests into many dorms.
“It's so overtly Catholic,” Dunn said of the college.
Meanwhile, some administrators said that restoring a Catholic identity to a faculty is not as simple as hiring teachers who have been baptized and confirmed.
San Francisco's Father Schlegel noted in his 1997 speech that it can be tough to discern how committed to the university's goals a prospective teaching candidate is. “Some of our most dedicated faculty are not Catholics,” Father Schlegel said, “while some of our least dedicated are alienated, embittered Catholics.”
Alfred Freddoso, a philosophy professor at the University of Notre Dame for the last two decades, said university administrators have little concept of what an integrated university — let alone an integrated Catholic university — should look like.
“Some orthodox Catholics seem to think that the best sort of Catholic university would in effect combine a basically secular university with a theology faculty that is both orthodox and distinguished,” said Freddoso. But it is not enough, he contends, to relegate the search for truth to “the far margins of the university's intellectual life.”
Dunn, at Boston College, suggested that mere religious affiliation is not revelant. “Father [William] Leahy, the president, is fond of saying, ‘I've had Jewsand Muslims who identify with the mission of Boston College better than some Catholics.’”
A Model
Jeanne Horan, who just graduated from the University of Dallas with a degree in literature, sees her own school as something of a model for Catholic identity. “The University of Dallas … isn't [just] nominally Catholic like some other schools,” she said.
Not only is most of the faculty Catholic, she said, but even non-Catholic faculty members tend to subscribe to the university's mission. “There's a search for truth here,” she said.
The curriculum requires four courses in philosophy and two in theology, all taught from a Catholic point of view. Even literature and history courses emphasize Catholic themes. “Everything we do is seen through the Catholic lens,” said Horan, her class's valedictorian.
Socially, the university is not a monastery — as a resident assistant Horan was aware of heavy drinking and partying. But debauchery and materialism are not the prevailing ethic, she said. There are lines at confession three days a week, for instance, and Masses are packed, drawing 150 or more.
“All of my friends go to daily Mass,” she added. “It's definitely the thing to do.”
In her four years at the school, Horan said she knew of three professors who have entered the Church.
Though students at some other campuses express frustration about the Catholic character of their colleges, many note a sort of spirituality which often manifests itself in works of charity.
Kramer, despite some misgivings, emphasized that he has enjoyed his time at Boston College, and feels he has had a good Catholic experience. He learned of and sought out certain philosophy professors, for instance, who were excellent teachers of the intellectual systems that support the Catholic faith.
“All the resources are here for you,” Kramer said. “It's just that the student needs to do it.”
Matt McDonald writes from Mashpee, Massachusetts.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Matt Mcdonald ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Education Notebook DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:Throwing Money At Character Deficiency
Wrote Andrew Ferguson: “Character ed revolves around pillars or building blocks of character — universally accepted values bleached of any sectarian contamination. And they are transmitted by the familiar methods beloved of today's pedagogues: posters and banners, role playing and sharing, multi-culti storytelling and words of the week — all the cheerful paraphernalia that makes the modern American classroom seem like a Maoist re-education camp run by Barney the dinosaur.”
Educator and author Alfie Kohn is also a skeptic. “Most of what passes for character education is behavioral manipulation, not an invitation to reflect on values,” he told Time. “It's no way to transform a community to say, ‘today isTuesday; it must be Honesty day,’ or by giving kids doggy biscuits.”
Time's Ferguson also reported that, “at his conference last week on school violence, President Clinton — without apparent irony — endorsed character education.”
Democrats on Wrong Side Of Vouchers Debate
“Democrats say that vouchers will destroy the public schools, but this is probably a better argument in favor of school choice,” said Wheelan, a correspondent for The Economist who has also served on his local school board in Chicago. “The supposed logic is that millions of students will stream out of the public schools if given the opportunity, leaving behind a shell of a system.”
Wheelan counters with two further points: “First, if students will flee public schools like rats from a sinking ship, then what makes this system so worth protecting? And second, the essence of ‘public education’ is that the government provides an opportunity for all students to attend a decent school, not that all students must attend a publicly operated school.”
Wheelan said “vouchers will bolster urban tax bases by stemming the flight of middle-class parents who move out of the city because they do not trust urban public schools and cannot afford private ones. Vouchers are pro-city, which is something that we Democrats are supposed to care about.
Judge's Ruling Favors Catholic Families Over Hindu-type ‘Dolls’
U.S. District Judge Charles Brieant ordered the Bedford Central school district to stop the activities and give clear instructions to teachers about Supreme Court standards for the separation of church and state. Brieant said he found “subtle coercive pressure to engage in the Hindu religion” when a third-grade teacher, during a lesson about India, had her pupils make construction-paper cutouts of elephant heads after reading a story about Ganesha, an elephant-headed Hindu god, reported the Los Angeles Times.
A New York Times account of the ruling added that the judge also ordered the district to end Fox Lane High School's “truly bizarre” Earth Day celebrations.
“He said a creed students listened to — ‘This is what we believe. The mother of us all is Earth. The father is the Sun’ — constituted religious worship.”
“While the case has received wide attention,” said New York Times reporter Paul Zielbauer, “legal experts said that the activities struck down by [the] ruling were too esoteric for [it] to have far-reaching implications.”
Rosemary C. Solomone, a professor of law at New York's St. John's University, did not agree. “The case has opened up American education to public view,” she told Zielbauer. A chronicler of parental dissent in education, Solomone said parents are beginning to ask questions like, “Is it appropriate to invite a yogi into the school?”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Catholic Art World Shows Signs of Spring DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:MYSTIC, Conn.—Steven Schloeder looked over his audience of 125 artists, architects, writers and others gathered at the inaugural conference on Catholic Art and Culture in the Third Millennium.
“We're made for truth, goodness and beauty,” said Schloeder, himself an architect, author and founder of the architectural design firm Liturgical Environs.
He and his audience were participating in conference held by the St. Michael Institute of Sacred Art. The institute, a ministry of St. Edmund's Retreat, held the conference on May 21–23 at its retreat center on Enders Island in Mystic, Conn.
Attendees came from throughout the United States to hear leading Catholic architects, artists, editors and authors discuss the dawning Catholic Renaissance in art and culture which is beginning to surface in America.
“We can only be fed partial goods and ersatz beauty for so long before we get hungry for the reality of [what it claims to represent],” Schloeder continued. “Theologians and liturgists got swept up in fashion, but the Church is not about fashion — it's about those things that endure.”
Throughout his talks, Schloeder emphasized that “anthropology underpins art, architecture and liturgy. … We have to recover an understanding of the human person, the nature of humanity.”
Keynote speakers Father Benedict Groeschel, author, psychologist, director of spiritual development for the Archdiocese of New York and co-founder of Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and Deal W. Hudson, publisher and editor of Crisis magazine, and host of EWTN's “The Church and Culture Today.” They underscored Schloeder's starting point for sacred art. They did so by defining the spiritual and philosophical context which must inform Catholic art and culture if either is to bear genuine witness to Christ's transformation of the world.
“The characteristic of modern man is that he attempts to live life in the immediacy of pleasure,” said Hudson, framing the dilemma of the sacred artist who must communicate divine realities to others and who nevertheless can find himself unwarily ensnared in its assumptions. “Sacred art should be life-enhancing. [It is based on the] recognition that truth speaks through gesture, figure and form.”
Hudson defined art as the habit of making beautiful things and, drawing on the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, both he and Schloeder defined beauty as being made up of proportion, order and clarity of form.
Matthew Brooks, painter, sculptor, president of Art for the Catholic Restoration and academic director for the St. Michael Institute, concurred with the definitions.
In a talk which exposed the inviolable relationship between God, truth and beauty, he stated: “How can art be sacred if it rejects the order of God? … In sacred art we have to bear in mind the existence of an objective truth — of God and the order in his creation.”
“Beauty is the subset of truth, most perfectly seen in God's creation,” Brooks continued. “When truth leaves, she takes beauty with her. But as the new evangelization brings the culture back to truth, it will naturally bring beauty back also.”
Impact of Art
Brooks said that modern, often barren-looking churches offer no counterbalance to the media's powerful images, which bombard people all day long.
He further noted that our Lord and his Mother repeatedly used images to communicate powerful divine messages of love and mercy to men; for example, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the statue and medal of the Immaculate Conception and the Merciful Heart of Jesus as revealed to Blessed Sister Faustina.
In contrast, Father Groeschel said, “modern art is perhaps shocking, intriguing or entertaining, but it is not beautiful. So much of what passes for modern art is craftsmanship or talisman.” He reminded attendees that sacred art, such as an icon, proposed apicture of heavenly realities and was meant to bring the viewer to another world.
He referred to the convent of St. Mark in Florence, where every room is decorated by Fra Angelico and can leave a viewer in such awe that he nearly forgets where he is.
“Human beings recognize beauty because the image of the Holy Trinity is impressed on our very souls,” he said. “Christian art should be the most sublime, the most beautiful.”
“Don't underestimate beauty,” Father Groeschel cautioned. “It will return. Like goodness and truth, it will overcome. It will be a sign of restoration [amid] the decadence in our culture, if we can rediscover a sense of beauty.” And in a striking parallel to the passion and resurrection of our Savior and to the vicissitudes of life, he referred to the art concept of chiaroscuro (light and shade), saying that in the new millennium the brightness of divine light may shine more brilliantly in contrast to the darkness that surrounds it.
“Darkness and light are essential parts of any Christian art,” he explained. “It's the job of the believer, the one who prays, to remind people that without God, this world is a horrible joke — without faith, it is utter and absolute darkness. But with faith, we have a Savior who overcomes evil by an act of love. … The darkness does not overcome the light!”
A Gallery
In addition to talks, the conference offered a two-room gallery of sacred art, featuring works by many of the participants. Every imaginable medium was represented: watercolor, charcoal, wood carving, oils and pastels, in addition to frescos, icons and transparencies of illuminated manuscripts and architectural feats.
Pentecost Sunday Mass brought the three-day conference to a close. Brooks noted the fitting parallel between the artists assembled and the apostles huddled in the upper room, who were sent out into the world after receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Father Groeschel underscored man's utter dependence on the Holy Spirit to perform any purely good work, including creating beautiful sacred art.
At another moment, St. Edmund's Retreat director of operations Mark Gordon spoke of the St. Michael Institute's plans to produce a resource catalog of artwork and architecture by next year. He said the institute in its first year had already received inquiries resulting in more than $150,000 worth of commissioned sacred art, which he had referred to various artists.
“This conference spoke to me very much,” said professional artist Mary Billingsley of Chester, Conn. “What I'm trying to do was reinforced by the talks. It's very encouraging. I didn't know anyone else was doing this work at all, and now I've discovered kindred spirits — there's a real movement going on.”
“This is something that has been needed for a long time for people like me,” said Jed Gibbons, creative director of Frankel, a Chicago-based marketing firm. Exhibited transparencies of his work included a stunning 40-inch gold-and-silver monstrance inlaid with more than 150 rare jewels, an intricate inlaid-wood Church floor and a gold and silver chalice, all commissioned by St. John Cantius parish in Chicago.
“It's good to see lots of this work coming back, judging from the number of commissions I've been getting,” he continued. “There's a whole market opening up for artists and designers that has been gone a long time. It's not like I'm the only one in Chicago; I'm hearing lots of others here say the same thing. It's great to get together with other people and see what they are doing.”
“I love it,” said New York City artist and teacher Al Torres. “Being a Christian artist, especially in New York City, I feel like I'm a needle in a haystack. But this gives me a chance to replenish the artistic side of my soul — to converse with other Christian artists, to share ideas about art in the Christian context.”
“I don't know if this conference has changed my painting,” reflected Philadelphia landscape artist Richard Gerst, “but it has changed me. It has also changed the way I see sacred art. It makes more sense now. I didn't realize how powerful the iconography of the modern age is, and how much of today's art is influenced by that.”
“When we give our gifts to God, he's never outdone in generosity,” said Brooks. “This has been one of the most exciting weekends that I've ever been part of. … There are many priests out there struggling to lead their flock to heaven and they don't know where to go for help sometimes. I wish you could see the people and read the letters — to see what a difference beautiful art makes in the lives of parish priests and their parishioners.”
“The Second Vatican Council laid the foundation for a renewed relationship between the Church and culture, with immediate implications for the world of art,” wrote Pope John Paul II in his recent letter to artists. “In the modern era … another kind of humanism, marked by the absence of God and often by opposition to God, has gradually asserted itself … [but] true art has a close affinity with the world of faith, so that even in situations where culture and the Church are far apart, art remains a kind of bridge to religious experience.”
The Holy Father also recalled the appeal of the Second Vatican Council to artists: “This world — they said — needs beauty in order not to sink into despair. Beauty, like truth, brings joy to the human heart and is that precious fruit which resists the erosion of time.
“Mine is an invitation to rediscover the depth of the spiritual and religious dimension which has been typical of art in its noblest forms in every age…. I appeal to you, Christian artists … to declare with all the wealth of your ingenuity that in Christ the world is redeemed: the human person is redeemed, the human body is redeemed, and the whole creation. … The creation awaits the revelation of the children of God through art and in art. This is your task. Humanity in every age, and even today, looks to works of art to shed light upon its path and its destiny.”
For more information about the St. Michael Institute of Sacred Art, call St. Edmund's Retreat at (860) 536-0565.
Karen Walker lives in Corona Del Mar, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Karen Walker ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: LIFE NOTES DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:Ohio Judge Rejects Death Sentence
AKRON BEACON JOURNAL, May 25—A Wayne County judge has rejected a jury's recommendation for the death penalty in the 1998 murder of a retired Air Force officer.
“Instead of sending Gregory D. Crawford, 37, to death row, Common Pleas Judge Mark K. Wiest handed down the only alternate sentence allowed by Ohio law: life in prison with no possibility of parole,” reported the Akron Beacon Journal.
It was only the fifth time since 1981 that a jury's verdict of death was overturned.
The judge said he was “not firmly convinced death is the appropriate punishment,” reported the paper.
Crawford was convicted of bludgeoning Gene O. Palmer, 55, during a robbery at abarn near his home.
Palmer never regained consciousness and died 72 days later.
The jury deliberated two days before convicting Crawford of aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, burglary and grand theft of a motor vehicle, said the paper. Six days later,during the penalty phase of the trial, the jury returned a recommendation for the death penalty.
“Wiest disagreed, citing several factors in Crawford's background that argued for mercy, including his ‘relative youth,’ normal intelligence and good behavior while awaiting trial in the county jail, where he underwent a religious conversion,” the paper stated.
An attorney with the Ohio Public Defender's office specializing in capitalcases, Richard Vickers, said “that a life sentence, with the possibility of doing something productive while in prison, is appropriate for someone ‘who doesn't pose a dangerto other inmates or corrections officers,’” the paper reported.
Forbes to Ask Princeton To Shun ‘Professor Death’
THE WASHINGTON TIMES, May 24—Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes, a member of the board of trustees at Princeton University, said he will ask the school's president to rescind the appointment of bioethicist Peter Singer, The Washington Times reported.
Singer, 52, who teaches at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, advocatesthe killing of certain disabled babies within the first month of their lives and is scheduled to arrive at the university July 1, said the report.
His theories on the value of human life have not only drawn fire abroad, “but also in this country where he has earned the label of ‘Professor Death,’” said the paper.
“Others have called him ‘a bigot against people with disabilities.’”
Singer welcomes the opportunity to work in the United States, said the report.
Harold Shapiro, Princeton's president and head of President Clinton's National Bioethics Advisory Commission, defended the hiring and said Singer was “internationally ‘revered,’ and would spark a vigorous debate among students,” said the paper. “He characterized Mr. Singer's views on the efficacy of killing the disabled as ‘provocative.’”
Mary Jane Owen, director of the National Catholic Office for Persons with Disabilities, described Singer's hiring as “a disservice not only to Princeton but the nation,” said the paper.
Singer “lacks knowledge and sensitivity about the commonality of human vulnerability and fragility.”
In the report, Owen added, “The American spirit is that we've alwaysadmired persons who overcome challenges.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Prayer Vigil at 'Ground Zero' DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:DAYTON, Ohio—It's no secret why Dr. Chris Kahlenborn chose to come here during a sabbatical from his medical practice.
“Dayton in ground zero for partial-birth abortions,” the Pittsburgh physician said.
Kahlenborn, 40, left his medical practice in June 1997 to write and also to take up residence in the Dayton suburb of Kettering, Ohio, the home of an abortion facility run by Dr. Martin Haskell, the man credited with perfecting the procedure known as partial-birth abortion.
Kahlenborn came to the Dayton area on sabbatical primarily to organize what he calls a “Life Prayer Vigil,” an effort to have at least two people praying in front of Haskell's partial-birth abortion facility every hour of the day and night until the clinic is closed forever.
The Pennsylvania internist first heard of Haskell after the latter presented a scientific paper on the partial-birth procedure at a 1992 National Abortion Federation Risk Management Seminar in Dallas. Haskell described his procedure as a D and X — medical jargon for a dilation and extraction procedure — where an almost fully delivered pre-born baby is killed by a sharp thrust to the skull with scissors.
“It destroys the brain tissue sufficiently,” Haskell once told the Dayton Daily News, “so that even if it [the child] falls out at that point, it's definitely not alive.”
When Brenda Pratt Schaeffer, a registered nurse who worked at Haskell's clinic for three days, testified at a 1995 congressional hearing, she described the gruesome procedure in detail and said, “I was completely unprepared for what I was seeing. I almost threw up as I watched the doctor do these things.”
Although Kahlenborn has been working on several writing projects during sabbatical — he is finishing a book entitled Understanding the Link Between Abortion, Breast Cancer and the Pill — his main focus this year has been organizing the Life Prayer Vigil.
“I have been visiting area churches not to try to stop partial-birth abortion — which I can't do anyway,” admitted Kahlenborn, “but with the main purpose of confronting apathy. Apathy is the real problem, the real killer. This sort of endeavor makes people have to get up in the middle of the night, or early in the morning — whenever. It makes people sacrifice as they ought to.”
Kahlenborn promotes a theme he refers to as FAST. That stands for Fasting and prayer to end abortion, Act for life, Steadfast repentance for the sin of apathy, and Turn off your television or Internet and give your time to God.
Kahlenborn was born in Germany, and his parents immigrated to the United States when he was 2 years old. “I grew up in American culture,” he remarked, “but I saw enough of my German relatives to always realize that what Hitler did was not just something in a history book….
“I could see that there is a point in every nation where if you allow evil to go on, you get this kind of result. So in this country, we have partial-birth abortion; people are now aware of it; babies are killed beyond the point of viability — not that that makes a moral difference — and we're at a very dangerous point. If a country continues to allow that, then we will end up with the mentality of the Nazis regarding the rights of the Jewish people.
“We're now at the brink. Very soon it may be that if a baby is 1 year old and a girl, she may be ‘aborted’ — killed by an infanticide mentality, which is really the same as an abortion mentality.”
What has become obvious in recent years, Kahlenborn maintained, is that neither the courts nor the state and federal governments have the courage or morality to stop even partial-birth abortion.
“In my view,” said Kahlenborn, “there is only one solution, and that is to pray, to fast and to act on our Christian convictions.
“I don't think that Martin Haskell would go into a place that was strongly Christian, because he would just be driven out by the moral force.”
Kahlenborn has acted on his own convictions as a Catholic. Last October he observed a 40-day fast in front of Haskell's clinic. Taking only juice and water during this period, he remained in prayer outside the clinic from 7 a.m., when he and a few others would recite morning prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours, until 8 p.m. when he concluded his vigil withvespers.
He slept at a crisis pregnancy center across the street from the clinic, and rose each night at 2 a.m. for prayer.
Dr. Steve Koob, director of the Dayton pro-life organization One More Soul, said that Kahlenborn is “a very unique and exciting person” and that his commitment to the pro-life cause is “phenomenal.”
Koob, who joined Kahlenborn in front of the clinic for a few hours during his 40-day fast, said that it was “truly an amazing feat” on Kahlenborn's part.
“When he first told me of his idea to get people to pray around the clock at this late-term abortion clinic, I didn't want to discourage him,” said Koob, “but I was incredulous. I didn't think it could be done. Now, just a few months later, he's pretty much done it.”
A Model Program
Kahlenborn wants his efforts to serve as a viable model for pro-life activists throughout the country. “Once we can establish that this kind of prayer vigil is viable, pro-life activists in every city might be encouraged to start their own initiatives at local abortion clinics.”
After the fast outside the abortion clinic, four pro-life leaders decided to help Kahlenborn with much of the organizational work, traveling to parishes and churches, explaining the vigil and getting people to commit themselves.
“It's great to see so many people coming out to the clinic now,” said Anna Gros, who plans to continue Kahlenborn's initiative when he returns to Pittsburgh in July.
Before the vigil was inaugurated, no more than 50 people came to pray at the clinic, she said. Now there are more than 500.
At present, 40 active churches are involved, and 10 others are in the process of getting organized. Seventy-five to 80% of these churches are in Catholic parishes.
Each parish gets a four-hour block to fill each week, a two-hour daytime block and two hours at night. Two leaders are needed at each church to coordinate the prayer vigil program. They are responsible for ensuring that there are always at least two people from their church present during their assigned hours.
About 500 volunteers are needed per month (168 people are needed per week in two-hour shifts), and since some people will come out every week, that will reduce the numbers needed, Kahlenborn said.
“It is a sacrificial commitment that each person is making,” he added. “It is a commitment to be consistent and persistent in the effort to end partial-birth abortion locally.”
Ironically, said Kahlenborn, abortionist Haskell does everything that Christians are suppose to do, but in reverse. “He's consistent,” Kahlenborn said. “He does what he says he is going to do, and he is persistent. He gets up every morning to do the same job.”
A Lay Movement
First Kettering Baptist Church boasts the only clergy member, the Rev. Stan Ballard, who has committed himself to coming out for the prayer vigil each month. While that has been a disappointment to Kahlenborn, he said that “it's really a lay initiative and has received a lay response.” He and other lay organizers are hoping to get a priest to offer a eucharistic procession outside the clinic.
But Kahlenborn is pleased with the more than 500 volunteers who are now praying in front of Haskell's abortion clinic. “It's a good start,” he said, “but we need to maintain the momentum, enthusiasm and consistency over what could be a long period of time.”
Vivian Skovgard, known to the local pro-life community as Grandma Vivian, said she has noticed that more people are coming out to pray on a regular basis. Skovgard, who sidewalk counsels in front of the clinic, said she is delighted with the response to Kahlenborn's initiative.
Even so, a receptionist at Haskell's clinic, who declined to give her name, claimed, “We don't know anything about that [the prayer vigil] here.” A media spokesman at the clinic declined any further comment.
Skovgard, however, feels that workers at the clinic most certainly know.
“The fact that more people are visible in front of the clinic has a tremendous effect,” she said, “not only on the women and workers going into the clinic, but also on people who are driving by.” The clinic, Women's Med Center, is located on one of the busiest thoroughfares in the Dayton area.
Kahlenborn hopes that his vigil will set a nationwide standard for prolifers: “If it can be done in Dayton, Ohio, which is less than 8% Catholic, it can be done in any urban center in the United States.”
Michael S. Rose writes from Cincinnati-
----- EXCERPT: From Dayton, doctor hopes to trigger nationwide initiative against abortion ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael S. Rose ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Did You Know? DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:Dr. Robert Kirstner, one of the doctors who has been credited with developing the birth control pill, now admits that the invention has led to widespread promiscuity. In All About Issues, June 1981, he said:
“For years I thought the pill would not lead to promiscuity, but I've changed my mind. I think it probably has.”
Extract from The Facts of Life by Brian Clowes
----- EXCERPT: Facts of Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Gospel Of Life DATE: 06/06/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 6-12, 1999 ----- BODY:Pope John Paul II has often spoken about the threats that young people face today. In Familiaris Consortio he explains to parents about their rights and duties toward their children and says that they have a responsibility as their primary educators (see story on Gothic subculture, Page 1).
The right and duty of parents to give education is essential, since it is connected with the transmission of human life; it is original and primary with regard to the educational role of others, on account of the uniqueness of the loving relationship between parents and children; and it is irreplaceable and inalienable, and therefore incapable of being entirely delegated to others or usurped by others.
In addition to these characteristics, it cannot be forgotten that the most basic element, so basic that it qualifies the educational role of parents, is parental love, which finds fulfillment in the task of education as it completes and perfects its service of life: as well as being a source, the parents' love is also the animating principle and therefore the norm inspiring and guiding all concrete educational activity, enriching it with the values of kindness, constancy, goodness, service, disinterestedness and self-sacrifice that are the most precious fruit of love (No. 36).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Amid Violent Threats, Pope Brings Peace DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:NEW DELHI, India—As the growing Christian community in India was assessing the Nov. 6-8 visit of Pope John Paul II to their country, the Pope was on his way to Georgia for his next state visit.
He flew Nov. 8 from New Delhi to the former Soviet nation. His Georgia trip will be the second time since the 11th-century split between Eastern and Western churches that a pope has visited a country with an Orthodox majority. The first was his historic visit to Romania in May.
At press time, the Holy Father was scheduled to meet Georgian President Eduard Chevernadze, Mikhail Gorbachev's former minister of foreign affairs, at the airport upon his arrival.
On his four-day visit to India, Pope John Paul II called for a new, energetic program of evangelization. But, in light of recent unrest there, he also told the continent's non-Christians that they have nothing to fear from the Catholic Church.
Asians are thirsting for the Gospel, and the start of the next millennium should bring “a great harvest of faith on this vast and vital continent,” the Pope proclaimed during a Mass in New Delhi on Nov. 7.
Religious conversion was the focus of much opposition to the Pope in the country before the visit. During his stay, he strongly defended the Church's right to evangelize in Asia and the right of individuals to “change their religion,” saying this should not threaten harmony between Christian minorities and other faiths.
“Let no one fear the Church!” he exclaimed. “Her one ambition is to continue Christ's mission of service and love, so that the light of Christ may shine more brightly, and the life that he gives may be more accessible to those who hear his call.”
The Pope presented to Asian bishops a 141-page apostolic exhortation, Ecclesia in Asia (The Church in Asia), which outlined the direction and methods of the new evangelization program on the continent. It was the final chapter of the synod of Asian bishops, held at the Vatican in 1998.
The document said the church must proclaim Christ as the “only savior” and invite non-Christians to find ultimate answers in the Gospel. In Asia, home to two-thirds of humanity, this fundamental missionary activity is a “solemn duty” of all Christians, it said.
The document said the best way to spread the faith in Asia was to live it, especially through a deep practice of prayer, through personal contact and by reaching out to the millions of suffering people on the continent. It praised Asia's many Christian martyrs and denounced religious persecution in places like China.
India gave the Pope a polite but subdued welcome. Despite fears of Hindu extremist violence, demonstrations against the papal visit were not small.
In an interview with the Register, one Hindu leader said that the Pope had a peaceful visit because the Hindu fundamentalist movement is mainly political and running out of steam.
Swami Agnivesh, 59, has won international acclaim from anti-slavery organizations for having won freedom for more than 50,000 bonded laborers and 5,000 children in servitude. He spoke to the Register on the eve of the Pope's arrival in New Delhi on Nov. 5 amid anti-Christian protests by Hindu fundamentalists on the occasion of the visit.
Swami Agnivesh: Not at all. As a Hindu, I feel no reason why we should be concerned about the visit of the Pope. Nobody in the wildest imagination would think that the Pope will go around and declare, “Whole of India, I convert to you to Christianity.” There is nothing to panic or to be scared about the papal visit.
On the contrary, this is a great occasion for all of us to show our true Hindu spirit of tolerance and welcome the most famous religious leader in the world to our country.
VHP leaders have declared that they “welcome” the Pope while demanding a declaration from him that “Christ is not the only way of salvation.” Is there any substance in this demand?
This is an irrational demand. Every religion has its tenets. The Pope, as the head of the Catholic Church, speaks out the faith of his church. No sensible person would expect the Pope to denounce Catholic beliefs and speak to please the audiences wherever he goes. The Pope has the freedom to uphold his faith.
Secondly, such a demand by the self-appointed guardians of Hinduism has no basis or authority. The Vedantic dictum is “Ekam sat, vipra bahuti vadanti” [“the truth is one, the wise see it differently”]. The hard core of Hinduism is that God is almighty creator, full of compassion. There is divinity in each one of us. And to approach God, one may choose a path of his own.
That means, according to Hinduism, each religion perceives God in it own way. You cannot force another to disown his faith or belief because you do not like it.
VHP and others have demanded an apology from the Pope for past misdeeds under Portuguese rule.
We are now on the threshold of a new millennium. It is time for us to get out of the ghettoes and our narrow mind-sets. We have lived and killed each other, destroyed the human family, and have fought even wars in the name of our gods.
This is a new opportunity for all religions to look forward to the future instead of digging up the past. Demands for apology would only reopen the healed wounds and create bad blood. We need to work for greater understanding and harmony.
How do you explain the anti-Christian violence in majority Hindu India?
The spurt in anti-Christian violence in the last one and half years has political reason to it. Ever since Sonia Gandhi [of Italian Catholic origin, who married Rajiv Gandhi in 1968 under Hindu rites] came up in the political scene, Christians are being singled out by these [Hindu fundamentalist] groups. For them, Sonia [Gandhi] is strong rival to the political aspirations of BJP [the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party].
They are trying their best to embarrass her, given her Italian and Catholic background. During the [September] election campaign, their slogan was “Choose between Ram Raj and Rome Raj” [kingdom of Hindu-god Ram or kingdom of Rome].
This has been their game and it has not subsided even after the elections and getting to power [with BJP now heading the federal coalition government]. That is the reason for the protests before the papal visit.
Fortunately, those in power [in the BJP] have tried to distance themselves from these fanatic groups. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and many of his colleagues share this view. With no BJP approval for their anti-Christian campaign for the papal visit, the protests have petered out.
In fact, the hate campaign against Christians has boomeranged. …
The reason for this is that the mainstream Hindu society does not like anything that is intolerant or violent. A true Hindu will never hate another.
Hinduism is a very liberal, tolerant and all-embracing faith. There is no space for fundamentalism in it. The way the shouting brigade of the so-called champions of Hindu society has created bad blood against the visit of the Pope is completely unbecoming of the Hindu.
Christians have been accused of converting people by “force, fraud and inducement.” How serious is this allegation?
The mainstream Christianity in India has taken every opportunity time and again to denounce these type of conversions. Maybe fringe groups with vested interests could be guilty of it. But, these allegations are based on exceptions.
Do you oppose conversion?
No. According to our scriptures, each individual has the right to choose the path of his liking. So, how could a Hindu oppose conversion if he chooses a new one of his will?
All the same, I am concerned about the “soul saving” industry doling out money for conversions. But it is at the fringe level; every religion has such fringe groups. [They] feed and thrive on each other.
We are fortunate that such groups all over the world remain at the fringe level. It is now time for religious leaders to isolate such groups which breed hatred and mistrust against other faiths.
True religion only unites. It never divides people.
Anto Akkara writes from New Delhi, India.
----- EXCERPT: John Paul Follows India With Georgia Trip ----- EXTENDED BODY: Anto Akkara ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pro-Life Democrats Are Finding a Home DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—Pro-life Democrats are looking for a little respect.
From their party, for openers. And from pro-lifers, too.
These Democrats are a small but influential group of 30-plus congressmen whose votes are crucial to the passage of any pro-life legislation in the U.S. House.
Because of their unusual status — they are a minority faction within a generally pro-abortion party — they sometimes felt like square pegs in a round hole.
“I think it's ironic that the Democratic Party that has had this tradition of defending the vulnerable, defenseless and the underdog, could call the woman the underdog, and not the fetus,” said Rep. Jim Barcia, D-Mich., the co-chair of the House Pro-Life Caucus. “Poll results show that 40% of Democrats at the grass-roots level are pro-life.”
Yet for years the Democratic leadership has looked down on its pro-life members.
“A whole bunch of people in the Democratic Party don't want to even talk to you,” observed Rep. Tony Hall of Ohio.
Sometimes they won't listen, either.
The Democratic Party leadership's hostility toward pro-lifers, for instance, hit its peak in 1992 when Gov. Robert Casey of Pennsylvania was barred from addressing the Democratic National Convention because of his pro-life views.
And then there was the case of Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan, who aimed for a place on the powerful Commerce Committee. “I was denied that seat for two reasons,” Stupak said. “First, they thought I wouldn't win reelection. Second, because I was pro-life.”
Pro-life Democrats are not just upset with their own leadership, but with organizations such as National Right to Life which they claim favor Republicans overwhelmingly.
“There's been a little tension between pro-life Democrats and the National Right to Life Committee,” Barcia told the Register.
Barcia said that it is obvious why pro-life Democrats deserve more financial support than they are currently getting. “Without pro-life Democrats, National Right to Life Committee couldn't get anything off the floor,” he said.
Hall of Ohio said that pro-life Democrats incumbents have been shocked when they discovered that pro-life groups were giving money to their Republican challengers.
“There are egregious examples,” Hall contended. “[Texan] Charlie Stenholm's got a strong pro-life record, always had. Yet [National Right to Life's political action committee] supported his Republican challenger.”
Stupak of Michigan said this sends the wrong signal to Democrats sympathetic to the pro-life position: “They say to me, ‘If you stand up for your right-to-life principles, they won't support you. Why should we stick our necks out only to get it chopped off by both sides?’”
National Right to Life spokesman David O'Steen said that his group's candidate support is done on a case-by-case basis and the party label is not relevant.
He said that National Right to Life in the past had lent financial support to Stenholm of Texas. But it did not do so in 1998 because of Stenholm's support of speech-restrictive campaign finance reforms that would have put limits on how much pro-life groups could mention congressmen by name, according to O'Steen.
“We cannot depend on the secular media to report the right-to-life issue in any way approaching accuracy,” O'Steen explained. “We have to be able to communicate directly with the American voters on the voting records and stances taken on right-to-life issues.”
Referring to Stenholm, O'Steen said, “He supported speech-restrictive reforms. His opponent took a pro-life stance; he promised to defend pro-life speech. That was the difference.”
Responding to criticism that his group doesn't give enough financial support to Democrats, O'Steen said that pro-life Democrats must realize that most of the $1 million that National Right to Life spent during the '98 elections went not to candidates but to voter education.
“Our real constraint we have is that our PAC never has enough money,” O'Steen said. “Most congressmen are probably used to PACs giving them $3,000 or more. We rarely go over $1,000. I think that's the misconception on their part.”
When Democrats lost control of the House in 1994, the party leaders realized that they must rely on their pro-life members if they wanted to become the majority power again.
“They needed me,” Michigan's Stupak told the Register. “If I could get re-elected, then maybe pro-lifers aren't so bad.”
By 1996, pro-life Democrats had won some victories. And the party platform was changed to acknowledge that one could be both pro-life and a Democrat.
While the leadership has become more tolerant and accepting of the pro-life members of the caucus, top positions within the party will likely remain in the hands of abortion proponents.
“There is no doubt if I sought a leadership position in the caucus that my pro-life views would be an issue,” said Stupak. “They'd say, ‘Well, if you want a leadership slot you have to reflect the party's beliefs and the party's pro-choice.’ And I'd have to make concessions.”
Some of the Democrats who have made such concessions in the past, Stupak said, include Vice President Al Gore, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt and House Minority Whip David Bonior.
“I've seen Democrats who start off pro-life,” Stupak said. “If you want a leadership position, sometimes it can be a stumbling block.”
Perhaps someday even the leadership might change. At least that's the hope of Democratic activist Sally Winn.
Winn took over the reigns of the long dormant National Pro-Life Democrats Committee in October and quickly unveiled a new Web site, www.prolifedemocrats.com.
“Abortion advocates such as Planned Parenthood and NARAL have thrown millions of dollars at party leadership to keep our voices from being heard,” she said. “The silence is over. The National Pro-Life Democrats Committee will work diligently to ensure that pro-life Democrats finally have a seat at the table.”
For Winn, Democratic leaders realize now that pro-lifers are integral to their survival.
“It's not a matter of the party leadership opening their hearts or minds,” she noted.
It's a matter of realizing that they need pro-life Democrats to win elections. So many people left the party on this issue — from the grass roots to elected officials. If they don't do something to reach out to us, we're history and they're left being the minority. They may not want us, but they need us.”
Winn said that though it will not be a part of her organization, a political action committee will soon arrive that will exclusively support pro-life Democrats.
Which is something that congressmen Stupak, Hall and Barcia all think would help the pro-life Democratic movement.
“There are a lot of people looking forward to that,” Hall said. “There is progress. I think it started with the convention three years ago.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Josh Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Still Staggering A Year After Mitch DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras—When the disaster came last November, Alejandrina Mejia, her husband and seven children were asleep in their house next to the Choluteca River that snakes through the hilly, mile-high Honduran capital.
Engorged by the pounding rain that accompanied Hurricane Mitch as it dumped 5 feet of water in three and a half days over the Central American nations of Honduras and Nicaragua, the river began rising. The powerful flow began carrying houses and their owners into the torrent.
The Mejia family, who lived in Colonia Venezuela, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa, heard terrified cries above the roar of the rising waters. In the darkness, at 3 a.m., they fled their tiny home and began scrambling uphill to escape the maelstrom.
When dawn arrived, they saw disaster. Their house and the houses of their neighbors had vanished. Building rubble lay everywhere. Injured people called for help. And just a few hundred yards from their home, an entire hillside known as the New Hope Colony had come down, burying 300 families.
Alejandrina Mejia and her family found refuge with her mother in a two-room shack that still remained on a cliff above the river. Three other families joined them. And what they thought was a temporary situation continues a year after Mitch.
Mejia, like many of the Honduran poor who were left homeless by the worst hurricane to hit Central America in two centuries, is still waiting for help.
“We have been forgotten,” she said. “The government gives no aid.”
The Honduran government declared Colonia Venezuela a condemned disaster area because it lies too close to the river and is vulnerable to flooding — which did occur because of the recently concluded rainy season's heavy downpours. Just after the hurricane, the government helped the thousands of people camping in Colonia Venezuela and adjacent areas, but they haven't received any government aid for more than half a year.
Colonia Venezuela's situation isn't unusual. Complaints are widespread across Honduras that government aid isn't getting through to the people who need it most. Cries of corruption are becoming common. People are more and more turning to the Catholic Church and the Episcopal Church of Honduras for help.
Rogelia Inios, a mother of four who is living with relatives in Colonia Venezuela, declared that she has lost all hope in government solutions.
“I trust only in God,” she said.
The two women's dismal situation arises from a confluence of grim statistics.
Honduras is the third poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, after Haiti and Nicaragua. Before Mitch, the yearly per-capita income was $2,000; it's believed to be much lower after Mitch. The vast majority of the country's 5.9 million people, 80% of whom are Catholic, live in deep poverty; some are so destitute their only food sources are tortillas and sugar cane.
“One of the difficulties that we're dealing with is the socioeconomic situation of the country, which makes it difficult to deal with the damage,” said Pedro Landa, assistant director of Caritas Tegucigalpa, the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa's aid agency.
Mitch played havoc with the weak Honduran economy, destroying 40% of the coffee crop and all of the banana crop, which is the country's principal export.
“We are a banana republic, but we have no bananas,” said Episcopal Bishop Leo Frade of Honduras.
A new banana crop won't be ready until mid-2000, and it will take years for the coffee trees to recover. The lack of work in the agricultural sector is having a ripple effect in the rest of the nation's economy, keeping many from finding work.
The hurricane also had a devastating effect on the country's permanent structures; the Honduran government estimates that 60% of the infrastructure — everything from roads to bridges to levees to schools were destroyed.
For the first three months after the hurricane, the Honduran government gave substantial aid to the displaced, but then it started focusing on the country's infrastructure. In the nine months since then, various aid organizations such as Food for the Poor, the Episcopal Church and the Catholic Church, headed in Honduras by Archbishop Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, have attempted to pick up the slack.
Mitch displaced an estimated million people. Some found temporary refuge with relatives; others crowded into government and church shelters; still others constructed flimsy shacks out of cardboard, zinc and plastic sheeting.
After the waters receded, tens of thousands returned to their homes. In the year since the hurricane, they've tried to restore some order to their lives, rebuilding their houses, planting crops in the country, trying to find work in the cities.
But tens of thousands of Hondurans are still homeless, since the land they once lived on is now worthless for habitation or even nonexistent. Many are caught in a real-estate limbo aggravated by the NIMBY — “not in my back yard” — syndrome.
Some municipal governments are refusing to allow the poor, even if they have scrapped together money from aid grants, to purchase land inside or near urban areas. They're also refusing to grant building permits to poor people who already own land and want to build houses there. Influential merchants and other wealthy landowners don't want destitute people, with their tiny shacks and large families, to live near them.
Caritas, aided by Food for the Poor, is trying to alleviate the situation. It's negotiating to buy land at a reasonable price; this land, along with building materials and household furnishings, will be donated to the people who remain in condemned areas such as Colonia Venezuela.
Some land has already been bought by Caritas. The future landowners are traveling there daily by foot to construct their homes, which are being built out of donated materials.
These builders are part of a movement that seems to be arising among destitute Hondurans. For the first time in memory, the very poorest Hondurans appear to be taking their own fate into their hands and trying to better themselves through their own efforts. They're also joining in the country's post-Mitch reconstruction efforts.
They're organizing into groups and joining a group of about 500 organizations, said Dr. Jeff Heck, “that have been gathering to discuss the best ways to better the country.” Heck, an American physician who travels frequently to Honduras to treat some of the country's most destitute, is one of the co-founders of Shoulder to Shoulder, a medical organization that sends North American medical teams to Honduras.
Ferdinand Mahfood is the head of one of the organizations that's been working to aid Hondurans after Mitch. The founder of Food for the Poor is having his nonprofit, development organization send money and supplies directly to the poor through Caritas. Some of this aid will be used to help the residents of Colonia Venezuela buy land.
“If you really love people,” Mahfood said, “it is very easy to help them.”
Alejandrina Mejia, Rogelia Inios and their neighbors should soon be the proud owners of new homes far from flood-ravaged areas near the Choluteca River.
Loretta G. Seyer, the editor of Catholic Faith & Family, recently toured Central America.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Loretta G. Seyer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Playwright Mocks Jesus, Sheik Threatens Death DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:LONDON—A Muslim religious court here has issued a fatwa — an Islamic death sentence — against the American author of Corpus Christi, a play that depicts Jesus and his followers as a band of homosexuals.
The fatwa — which can only be carried out by a Muslim government — was issued by an Islamic court of the United Kingdom, saying author Terrence McNally had insulted the Messenger Issa (Jesus), who is referred to as prophet in the Koran.
Signed by Sheik Omar Bakri Muhammad, the presiding judge, copies of the fatwa were passed out to the audience as it entered the Pleasance Theater in North London.
Sheik Muhammad was said by supporters to have been questioned by police, who are believed to have warned McNally at his New York home of the fatwa.
The Muslim leader also criticized Christian churches for not taking stronger action against the play. “The Church of England has neglected the honor of the Virgin Mary and Jesus,” he said. “It is blasphemy for them not to take action.”
The sheikh warned individual Muslims not to try to carry out the fatwa, but said the author would still face arrest and execution if he traveled to Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia or Sudan.
The play has also drawn the ire of AlMuhajiroun (the emigrants), an Islamic organization in England which declared the play blasphemous. A number of supporters took part in protests outside the theater where the play is now being staged.
McNally's agents in New York said he would not comment on the threats.
While decrying the Islamic fatwa and any form of violence against the play and its sponsors, Catholic activists are leading the campaign to have the show's present run halted before it can be transferred to a major theater in London's West End, the city's equivalent to Broadway.
At the show's opening on Oct. 26, more than 150 Catholics staged a vigil and prayed the rosary outside the theater.
Catholic opposition has been led by the lay organization Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice. Its chairman, Daphne McLeod, issued a call to peaceful protest on the organization's Web site: “This play, which depicts Jesus Christ as a homosexual and our Lady using obscene language … should be vigorously denounced.”
The notice urges people to write to the theater's director and the local council, adding, “Unless determined action is taken the play will probably transfer to the West End after Nov. 20.” She informed Web browsers, “When [the play] was staged in Manhattan, protests were strong enough to stop it going to Broadway.”
As for the Muslim response, McLeod said, “As Catholics we cannot condone putting a fatwa on Mr. McNally, but neither can we keep quiet about this.”
The demonstration outside the theater on opening night was led by Kathy Kelly, owner of a Catholic bookstore in Central London. “I am not prejudiced against homosexuals but this is blasphemy,” she told the Register. “Jesus died for everyone, and this is how we treat him.”
Among a number of the play's more graphic scenes is a depiction of Jesus as sexually seduced by Judas Iscariot.
Kelly added: “On the first night we met some Muslims handing out leaflets and they said to us, ‘How could you Christians let them insult Jesus and his Blessed Mother,’ and they were right.”
Kelly's bookstore, which is a gathering place in Central London for many Catholics, has become a nerve center for the opposition. The Catholic Media Office, the official information outlet for the English and Welsh bishops, has referred inquiries from outraged Catholics to Kelly's shop.
Media office spokesman Tom Horwood said the bishops had not taken a position on Corpus Christi. “We haven't seen the play and we are not in a position to make a comment about it,” said Horwood. “I can understand that people are upset, and they have every right to complain.”
As for the fatwa, Horwood said, “Not even the [mainstream] Muslim groups are taking the sheik [who imposed the death sentence] seriously.”
Igbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the moderate Muslim Council of Britain, told the Register that his organization would not comment on the group that issued the fatwa or on its suitability, preferring to focus on Corpus Christi:
“I think this play is deeply offensive to both Christians and Muslims,” said Sacranie. “There should be an end to these continuing attacks on the faith communities.”
Sacranie called on Christians to “play a stronger role than they have … in preventing these insults.”
The show has been dogged by controversy since it opened last October to 2,000 demonstrators and a universal panning by critics, including those from The New York Times and The Washington Post.
English reviewers have been kinder and direct support for the play has come from Father Richard Kirker, an Anglican pastor and general secretary of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement.
Father Kirker told the Register, “I don't think there is anything to be offended by.” Asked about casting Jesus as homosexual, he replied, “Why not? We have no historical record of his sexuality.”
Some of the faithful think different, and plan to continue to press their case. “We are planning a final push for the play's last week and we are praying that it will not go any further,” said Kelly. “But even if it does transfer to the West End we are not going to stop; they can't get away with this.”
Paul Burnell writes from Birmingham, England. (ZENIT contributed to this report.)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Paul Burnell ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: He Treats Men like Men DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:After serving as a Presbyterian minister for 10 years, he converted to the Catholic faith. He directs the Family Life Center and St. Joseph Covenant Keepers — a Catholic response to Promise Keepers — in Port Charlotte, Fla. He has been married for 21 years and has eight children, ages 5-19. The author of Christian Fatherhood, he recently spoke with Register correspondent Tim Drake.
Drake: You started out as an Evangelical Presbyterian minister. How is that you came into the Catholic Church?
Steve Wood: I had been active in the pro-life movement and it was through the reading of Pope John Paul II's [1981] apostolic letter Familiaris Consortio [The Family in the Modern World] that I felt compelled to investigate Catholicism. This ultimately led to my conversion in 1990.
I was very concerned about the reaction that I would get, but it wasn't nearly as bad as what I thought it would be. The difficult part of my conversion is that there was a gap of a few months in between the time I had become “Catholic” in my views of indis-soluble marriage and the Catholic teaching on birth control, and officially becoming Catholic. I felt as if I were in no man's land. I knew that I had to follow my convictions and that I could no longer serve as a pastor. When I left my calling and my vocation I thought that it would be the end of any kind of apostolic ministry work.
What led to the creation of the Family Life Center and St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers?
Within a year of my conversion I had the opportunity to attend the first international pro-life summit in Rome. It was there that the Holy Father addressed pro-life leaders telling us that we would not be able to end abortion by treating it as an isolated phenomenon. He said that all forms of assault on life were a departure from God, the author of all life, and that the world desperately needed to be brought back to God.
My first reaction to what the Holy Father was saying was that this was impossible. I couldn't understand how we could reaffirm life, evangelize and bring others back to God. The Pope's strategy for bringing the world back to God was through the family.
I came home and thought about what Pope John Paul II had said for about a year. Eventually I knew that this is how I wanted to devote the rest of my life. We started the Family Life Center in 1992. Its beginnings were small, but we found an extremely strong interest among Catholics for practical assistance in applying Catholic truths to daily family life.
After about two years, it occurred to me that there was something wrong with the marriage seminars we were leading. Wives were appreciative, but they wished that their husbands were with them. Promise Keepers was taking off at the time and I recognized their wisdom in reaching men by themselves and challenging them in their roles as husbands and fathers.
In response, St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers was launched in 1994. The response at first was minimal and we wondered if young Catholic men would respond. Six months later it took off. Since that time we have tried desperately to keep up with a runaway horse.
Men can be a hard group to reach. How does St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers do it?
It is far easier to reach men in a men's-only setting than it is to get them to attend a marriage and family event with their wife. The person who is aware of this strategy and how well it works is the wife. The spread of St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers is due primarily to Catholic wives. Two-thirds of our newsletter subscriptions and conference registrations come in from the wives.
At our recent conference in Rochester, Minn., the wives of those husbands attending gathered before the Blessed Sacrament throughout the conference to pray for their spouses and the success of the conference. I am profoundly thankful for their support, and they seem thankful for what we are doing.
You mentioned Promise Keepers. Where do you see the Catholic men's movement going?
Calling St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers a men's movement is a misnomer. Our emphasis toward Catholic men is more appropriately called a fatherhood movement. We are responding to the fatherlessness crisis in the modern world. The crisis in marriage [is] causing the crisis in fatherhood. At the recent governor's meeting held in Arkansas, for example, the governor called for ways to reduce the divorce rate by as much as 50%.
Therefore, the fatherhood movement is really a marriage movement … a family movement. Not all men's movements make this wider concern for marriage and family life their primary concern. We will probably see some men's movements drying up as we enter into the next millennium because of this.
What is the mission of your work?
The mission of the Family Life Center is to take the historic truths of the Catholic faith and provide practical assistance and application for families. With St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers, in this the Year of God the Father, we are trying to get fathers in touch with their Heavenly Father. The changed hearts of men will transform their family life for generations to come. We want their faith strong and robust enough that it not only makes a difference through their children's teen-age years, but so that it also touches their grandchildren.
Can you provide some practical examples for how the Family Life Center is achieving that mission?
Two remarkable examples come to mind. In one of our tapes, titled “Raising the Standard in Your Marriage,” we try to show how the sacrament of marriage ties into the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist. One man told us the story of how he had been separated from his wife and was waiting for the paperwork to carry through with divorce. While waiting his wife picked up a copy of our tape, listened to it, and forwarded it to him. As a direct result of that tape, the man returned to his wife and was reconciled with her. We met him not more than a week afterward and he told us how the tape had transformed him overnight. His faith life was on fire and his family life had been reconciled.
My favorite story is about a man who ended up sitting in front of me on an airplane. He recognized me and told me that he and his wife were convinced that they did not want any more children. My greatest privilege at our conferences is to teach against birth control and ask couples to be generous in their service of life. In particular, I ask couples to pause for 60 seconds and suggest that they might ask God, if he wills it, to put the desire for another child into their hearts. Well, this father on the plane had had another child as a result of that prayer and I cannot describe his happiness and gratefulness.
Being able to hold babies that are the result of that prayer … that's the tops! That is being truly pro-life, not just anti-abortion. It's as good as it gets.
How many families would you estimate that the Family Life Center has touched? In what ways do you reach them?
So far, we have networked with more than 35,000 families in 41 different countries. We reach families in a variety of ways. We offer a newsletter for members. Our television series, “The Carpenter's Shop” airs on EWTN [Eternal World Television Network]. We also have a live call-in radio show titled “Faith and Family.” By the end of the month [November] we will be launching the electronic version of our St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers newsletter via the Internet. The electronic newsletter will allow us to increase our outreach without increasing our costs.
Last year I published the book Christian Fatherhood. It outlines the eight commitments of St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers. That book has been put on tape. We also have a video series coming out and a companion study guide.
Our new initiative for the next millennium will be to promote what the Catechism describes as “honorable courtship” to help prepare young people for marriage. We will be reworking our fatherhood and marriage materials for young adults and are planning a book on this topic. We have had an unusually strong demand by parents and young adults. By working on the front end of marriage we can give young couples a solid footing and hopefully reverse the crisis in family life.
Have you had any criticism of the work you are doing?
In a few places where I have presented I have been asked to omit or delete my emphasis on the Church's teaching on artificial birth control. There is a false belief that men will not accept this teaching. At one location one of the conference organizers reworked the St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers eight commitments and left out the commitment regarding not using artificial birth control. I don't accept censorship and so I still spoke on it, although charitably and graciously. Afterward the men gave me a standing ovation.
I have also spoken out against classroom sex education. I have received some criticism of that, but never by a parent.
What have you seen happening to men's practice of their faith life over the years?
Over the last 30 years large percentages of men have ceased practicing their faith. That has translated into men not attending Mass, not participating in parish life, and not exercising religious leadership in the home. The research indicates that some churches go light on some aspects of Church teaching. What men need to hear is what I call the “double-fisted Gospel.” Unless men hear both the fear of the Lord and the mercy of the Lord they will ditch their faith.
Priests have remarked that they have never seen so many young Catholic men gathered together in one place as they have seen at our conferences. When you have the men by themselves you can be as straight and direct as a coach at halftime. Men come up afterwards, shake my hand and say, “Thanks for treating me like a man.”
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steve Wood ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Sculpture is One of Shrine's Final Touches DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—The Universal Call to Holiness, a massive marble carving inspired by a central teaching of the Second Vatican Council, will be dedicated at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Nov. 14 during a noon Mass.
Washington's Cardinal James Hickey was expected to lead more than 60 bishops from around the country in the dedication Mass.
Stonemasons recently completed installation of the 37-ton, 780-square-foot sculpture, which covers the south wall of the Basilica's upper church.
The event will also commemorate the 40th anniversary of the shrine's dedication by Cardinal Francis Spellman on Nov. 20, 1959, a significant event in U.S. Catholic history.
The marble image depicts a fundamental and long-held doctrine taught by the Church — that every person is a unique creation of God, with ineffable dignity, a calling to sanctity and, ultimately, eternal union with the Creator in heaven.
The theme and title were recommended by Cardinal Hickey and are based on the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium, which states:
“The followers of Christ, called by God not in virtue of their works but by his design and grace, and justified in the Lord Jesus, have been made sons of God in the baptism of faith and partakers of the divine nature, and so are truly sanctified. They must therefore hold on to and perfect in their lives that sanctification which they have received from God.
“They are told by the apostle to live as is fitting among saints' (Eph. 5:3), and to put on ‘as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience’ (Colossians 3:12), to have the fruits of the Spirit for their sanctification (Galatians 5:22; Romans 6:22).”
Upon the sculpture's installation, the cardinal said, “People come to the shrine to be renewed by the Word of God.… We take our renewed faith with us, out the great doors of the Shrine, and into the world where we find ourselves. Not all at once, but eventually, we see our lives have a wonderful purpose, and that purpose is realized when we say ‘yes’ to the call of holiness.”
Maryland artist George Carr designed the sculpture, which features people from various states of life, social classes, and ethnic origins being drawn toward God the Holy Spirit portrayed in the form of a dove. A team of 22 artisans in the Italian village of Pietrasanta recreated Carr's image in marble. Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa of Calcutta are among the nearly 50 figures in the majestic image.
Dr. Joseph Braddock of Alexandria, Va., made the sculpture's commission possible through a $1 million grant from his charitable organization, the Aztec Foundation.
Rugo & Carosi, LLC, a Virginia-based natural stone and mosaic firm served as the general contractor for the project. In a related project, the company covered the brick walls of the Basilica's narthex and adjacent vestibules with marble and its ceilings with mosaic tile.
The basilica's rector, Msgr. Michael Bransfield, explained that the installation of the Universal Call to Holiness follows a plan for interior embellishments of the Shrine from its origins.
“One of the reasons that the shrine's first architect, Charles Maginnis, decided on a Byzantine-Romanesque design for the National Shrine in 1919, was that it allowed for gradual architectural and artistic adornments to the interior as funds permitted,” Msgr. Bransfield said. “Maginnis, and others associated with the shrine in its earliest days, clearly realized that it would be many years before the shrine's interior could be appropriately completed.”
The sculpture is of Botticino Classico marble, which is known as much for its resistance to shock and wear as its beauty and coloring. Quarried in the mountainous Brescia region of northern Italy, Botticino marble has been used in building construction for more than 2,000 years.
“As we mark the 40th anniversary of the shrine's dedication,” said Msgr. Bransfield, “we can take great pride in completing the work of our ancestors in faith for the benefit of future generations of pilgrims who will claim the shrine as their own.”
Named in honor of the patron of the United States, the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, begun in 1920, it is the largest Catholic church in the Americas and the eighth largest church in the world.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: U.S. Notes & Quotes DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Kansas City Paper Goes After Celibates
CATHOLIC LEAGUE, Nov. 4—The Kansas City Star has commenced a sex survey of Roman Catholic priests, and now the Catholic League has decided to follow suit by issuing its own survey of the newspaper's staff. On October 15, Mark Zieman, editor and vice president of the Kansas City Star, sent a letter to Roman Catholic priests, all of whom were randomly selected from the 1999 Kenedy Official Catholic Directory, explaining the nature of the confidential survey; the survey only addresses HIV and AIDS. Our survey, personally addressed to each staff person, was sent to managing editor Steve Shirk for distribution.
“We have come to understand that the disease also had a devastating impact on groups whose members are unable to speak up about the difficulties they have endured,” wrote Zieman. The Catholic League fully agrees and this explains our interest in exploring the sex lives of Zieman's staff. William Donohue, Catholic League president, commented as follows: “I knew my doctorate in sociology would come in handy in this job some day. Being journalists, the reporters and editors at the Kansas City Star know nothing about objectivity, and that is why no control group was used in their survey. We have provided one by drawing on the journalists… this is also indicative of our commitment to inclusiveness.
“The language we used is almost identical to the newspaper's survey. But there were some changes. For example, instead of asking, ‘Do you know priests with HIV or AIDS?’, we asked, ‘Do you know any journalist who doesn't have HIV or AIDS?’ And so on. Our objective was also stated somewhat differently: ‘Our objective is to undermine your efforts at Peeping-Tom journalism. By getting our survey out first, we hope to submarine your newspaper's voyeuristic invasion of the privacy of Catholic priests.' Alas, we hope the newspaper appreciates our inquiry.”
Scholar and Rabbi Dispute Biography of Pius XII
The article also quotes Jesuit Father Peter Gumpel, head of the cause for Pope Pius's beatification. “Father Gumpel said his only criterion in his investigation was whether Pius XII lived ‘the theological virtues to a heroic or outstanding degree’ one of the official conditions for sainthood.”
But, Father Gempel added, “after having studied more than 100,000 documents written by him [Pope Pius XII] and written on him, so far I really have come to the conclusion that there is nothing against the cause. And, on the contrary, I agree that the man deserves to be beatified,” the Times article said.
----- EXCERPT: From Selected Source ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pope Speaks Out For Catholic Schools Before Italy's Pols DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY—Addressing an overflow crowd of 200,000 teachers and children in St. Peter's Square, Pope John Paul II challenged Italian authorities to provide equal funding for the country's struggling Catholic school system.
With Italy's leading political figures sitting in the front row at the Oct. 30 rally, the Pope urged the “full recognition of the legal and economic equality between state and [private] schools.”
The Pope's pointed words on the Italian situation were greeted by applause by an enthusiastic crowd that came from all over Italy. Groups of children chanted “Equality!” and “Freedom!” as the Pope allowed his message to sink in.
Catholic leaders have sought new legislation to increase aid to private schools. The Holy Father said many families have been unable to pay the extra cost of sending their children to Catholic schools. The situation for private schools in Italy is worse than in other European countries, the Pope said.
The Pope noted that Italy's center-left government has proposed limited support to private schools, but said these steps “unfortunately were not enough.”
Education Minister Luigi Berlinguer, afterward defended the govern-ment's approach. He said that private schools should enjoy legal parity but not necessarily economic parity because such a provision would appear to violate the Italian Constitution. The governing majority supports aid to Church-run nursery schools and financial assistance to the neediest parents of children in other private schools. Church leaders have said that does not go far enough.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Vatican Notes & Quotes DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Vatican Archbishop Decries the Abuse of the Eucharist
Church norms require that those “who have violated any of God's commandments in a grave manner must purify themselves of the sin through the sacrament of penance before approaching eucharistic Communion,” Archbishop Herrantz said.
“These disciplinary norms are frequently neglected, perhaps because of poor catechetical preparation [regarding the] real and substantial presence of Christ in the Eucharist,” Archbishop Herrantz added. In addition to decrying the casual reception of the Eucharist, the archbishop listed other abuses which are “no less distressing and worrying.” They include an “erroneous ecumenical spirit, in which non-Catholics are allowed to receive Communion.” He also criticized a “false concept of mercy and pastoral charity,” that leads some priests to distribute Communion to parishioners who persist in grave sin. This includes couples who contract civil and not religious marriages, those who cohabit and those who, after obtaining a divorce from their valid marriage, remarry civilly. According to Archbishop Herrantz, “authentic charity requires respect for divine law and recognition of the truth.” He explained that the abuse of the sacraments follows from the loss of the sense of sin, which is “the fruit of the deformation of consciences caused by subjectivism … and the consequent moral relativism.”
Vatican Official Criticizes Media
Cardinal Arinze said.When asked what message children should be sent, Cardinal Arinze said, “Training young people is a very important duty. And children, inherit the best of what your teachers offer you.” The Nigerian-born Arinze, who converted from a traditional African religion as a young boy, preached at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne on the Feast of All Saints. He told the congregation that all people are called to holiness.
“It is not true that holiness is only expected of the clergy and others just sneak into heaven. No, no, no. It's not good theology,” the spirited Arinze said to the laughing congregation.
----- EXCERPT: From Selected Source ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Vatican: Nuns and Heroin Don't Mix DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY—The Vatican has rejected plans for a “safe” injecting room for heroin addicts in a Sydney hospital under the supervision of the Sisters of Charity.
The sisters planned to set up the safe house in St. Vincent's Hospital in Kings Cross, a suburb of Sydney known for prostitution and drug use.
The so-called “shooting gallery” was supposed to give addicts a safe environment and clean needles while trying to keep them off the streets and weaning them off drugs. It had been approved by the New South Wales state government and police.
In an Oct. 28 statement, the order's president, Sister of Charity Annette Cunliffe, said she received notification from Sydney's Cardinal Edward Clancy that the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith viewed the drug plan as “not acceptable” and that the health service “must withdraw from the program.”
Cardinal Clancy had earlier sought direction from the congregation on the advisability of going ahead with the controversial initiative, announced on a trial basis in July by New South Wales Premier Bob Carr. The plan contemplated facilities at St. Vincent's for addicts to inject drugs in medically supervised surroundings in the hope that addicts could be attracted to treatment.
The chairman of the Sisters of Charity Health Service, Peter Joseph, said Oct. 28 the Vatican had identified two difficulties in its response: concern about the message that might be given to people outside Australia who were already disturbed by media reports of the Sydney initiative, and concern about the likely effectiveness of the injecting service and the message it might give about recreational drug use.
The Sisters of Charity said they accepted the Vatican ruling with “regret and disappointment.”
Cardinal Clancy later told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio that the matter was a complex moral and theological issue. Archbishop George Pell of Melbourne praised the sisters' motives but said their compassion was misdirected. Archbishop Pell is a member of the doctrinal congregation.
“Our commitment to further research and strategies to combat drug addiction is strengthened by the fact that the Vatican's determination was based on practical concerns, rather than an in-principle objection,” said Sister Cunliffe.
Cardinal Clancy said the Vatican's letter had “indicated clearly enough … that morally it was unacceptable but, in any case, unacceptable on purely practical grounds.”
Personally, he said, he viewed the issue as one of “unacceptable cooperation in wrongdoing, but I acknowledge there are other very reputable people who hold the opposite view.
“I sought an authoritative determination of what is a very difficult question,” he said.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Chinese Bishop Uses Fax to Stay Close to Pope DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:WANXIAN, China—Bishop Matthias Duan Yinming of Wanxian, the only bishop in mainland China publicly appointed by the Vatican, said it is unlikely he will ever meet Pope John Paul II, but they are in contact by fax and phone.
Bishop Duan, whose ministry is also approved by the Chinese government, told UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand, that occasionally he and the Pope communicate with each other by fax in Latin.
“He has sent me greetings and asked about my health. I have sent the same to him,” the bishop said.
Father Matthew Ran Qiliang, a Wanxian parish priest, told UCA News that on the Pope's birthday in May, the bishop talked with the Holy Father by phone.
Bishop Duan said he regretted that he was not allowed to travel to the Vatican for the Synod of Bishops for Asia in 1998.
“It will be impossible for me to ever meet the Pope in my lifetime,” the 91-year-old bishop said.
Pope John Paul invited Bishop Duan and Coadjutor Bishop Joseph Xu Zhixuan to attend the synod, but the Chinese government rejected their travel applications. Neither bishop has received an invitation to attend the Pope's presentation of the post-synodal exhortation in New Delhi, India, Nov. 6.
Nevertheless, Bishop Duan offered a souvenir of his 50th episcopal anniversary — three wooden combs, a special product of the Wanxian area — to Pope John Paul through a Hong Kong delegate who was to go to New Delhi.
“Although this is a small gift, it represents my token of regard for the Pope,” Bishop Duan said.
Because Bishop Duan is a Vatican-appointed bishop, many priests and bishops in China have wanted him to ordain them.
“All of us in Sichuan province wanted to be ordained by him, even those from other provinces. We think this is more orthodox,” a Wanxian priest said.
Bishop Duan said that the seven episcopal ordinations he has officiated since 1959 are among the most joyful and unforgettable moments in his life.
Asked whether his Vatican-appointed status could help bring about communion in the divided church in China, he said he is now too weak for such a role.
“The (government-recognized) Bishops' Conference of the Catholic Church in China is too weak,” he said, adding that the government-approved Catholic Patriotic Association is a barrier to church communion.
Despite his age and poor health, Bishop Duan still attends to diocesan affairs and is particularly worried about the relocation of five churches that will be submerged by 2003 due to the Three Gorges dam project on the Yangtze River. Lack of funds has prevented construction work on the new churches.
The bishop said he is also worried about formation of young priests and nuns. Vocations are scarce, and the young clergy and nuns still need further training before they can handle diocesan affairs well, he said.
Bishop Xu, 83, shares Bishop Duan's worries. “Transportation here is difficult, and our Catholics are few and poor.”
Since Bishop Duan is fluent in English, French, Italian and Latin, he still handles correspondence with people from other countries.
Suffering from hypertension and ill health, Bishop Duan stays in his room most of the time, but celebrates Mass daily. He is helped to walk for 15 minutes twice a day to improve blood circulation and lung function, Father Ran said.
Bishop Duan is seen as a caring elder who will listen to the family and daily life matters of any Catholic who comes to him, a layman told UCA News.
Born in 1908, Bishop Duan was ordained a priest in Rome in 1937 after obtaining a master's degree in theology at Rome's Urbano University. Upon his return to China the following year, he taught in a seminary.
In 1949, Pope Pius XII appointed him bishop of Wanxian. He was ordained Oct. 18, two weeks after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Between 1954 and 1966 he was forced to work in factories. In 1967 he was charged with counterrevolutionary crimes and sentenced to reform-through-labor. In late 1979, he was allowed to restore Wanxian Diocese.
Bishop Duan ordained Bishop Chen Shizhong of Yibin in 1985 and Bishop Michael Huang Woze of Nanchong and Bishop Xu in 1989. He also ordained the late Bishops Wang Juguang of Yibin (1959), Simon Liu Zongyu of Chongqing (1981), Chen Mushun of Zhaotong (1988) and Liu Xianru of Chengdu (1992).
In a separate development, a U.S.-based Chinese Catholic organization reported Nov. 2 that an underground bishop in China has been arrested and his whereabouts are unknown.
Bishop Jia Zhoguo, 65, who has already spent 20 years in Chinese prisons, was detained Aug. 15 and has been held at an unknown location ever since, according to the Cardinal Kung Foundation in Stamford, Conn.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: World Notes & Quotes DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Embattled Chiapas Bishop Samuel Ruiz Retires
According to the article, Bishop Ruiz was doctrinally orthodox at the time of his consecration as bishop 40 years ago. He adopted a radical approach to combating injustice after witnessing the conditions under which his Indian parishioners lived, the Times article said.
In the ‘80s, the article added, some of Bishop Ruiz's disciples grew frustrated with the authorities’ hostile responses to their demands for better treatment, and secretly joined the Zapastista guerrillas. After the rebels attacked several Chiapas towns, Bishop Ruiz was accused of instigating the violence. In 1993, Mexico's papal nuncio asked Bishop Ruiz to step down as bishop, but popular support for him caused the Vatican to allow him to remain on as bishop until he reached retirement age.
Saudi Police Raid Christians in Private Prayer Meetings
NEWSROOM, Nov. 4—Some 40 Filipino Christians were arrested in Saudi Arabia Oct. 8 after police in Riyadh raided prayer meetings in two private residences, the Protestant news agency reported.
According to the report, 27 of those arrested were released the same day. The remaining 13 were released Oct. 31. Saudi police required those arrested, who were visiting Saudi Arabia on business, to sign statements promising not to attend religious meeting in the Arab nation again. They were then deported, the news service reported.
----- EXCERPT: From Selected Source ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: It's Ex Corde Time DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:The U.S. Bishops' Nov. 15-18 meeting will be a milestone event for Catholic education. That's when, among other things, the bishops will tackle the enormous issue of how to safeguard Catholic identity on Church-related college campuses.
Pope John Paul II's 1990 apostolic constitution on higher education, Ex Corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church), has yet to be implemented in the United States.
Bishop Joseph Leibrecht, who chairs the Ex Corde Ecclesiae implementation committee, told the Register that document is important because “the United States has more Catholic colleges and universities than any other nation.”
Bishops can propose amendments to the committee's document up until Nov. 16. The vote on a final proposal is scheduled for Nov. 17.
An interview with the president of The Catholic University of America, on Page 14, gives an excellent overview of the state of the Catholic identity debate. It is a refreshing antidote to the many voices calling for more delay in implementing this decade-old document.
* * *
Register editorial in 1988 predicted that a wave of revolutions would soon sweep Eastern Europe. A year later the world's most divisive landmark fell.
AA decade after the Nov. 12, 1989 assault on the Berlin Wall, we have a better idea of Pope John Paul II's role in those events. Books such as George Weigel's Witness to Hope catalogued the tremendous cultural, political and diplomatic efforts of the Holy Father in the East.
Karol Wojtyla, whom communists once believed would be a handy “pawn” as bishop, turned out to be a pope of exceptional shrewdness. His passionate defense of ideals proved more powerful than the atheistic system that gripped the East. He knew then what we have since learned from his example: that totalitarian regimes are strongest when challenged by force, and weakest when confronted with a peaceful moral campaign.
Yet, the Pope is the first to acknowledge that it wasn't his efforts alone that brought down the Wall. The credit goes to a Lady, he argues.
For much of this century, Catholics added an intention in countless rosaries: a request to save Russia. It began in 1917, when Our Lady of Fatima requested it of three shepherd children. Two of them, Francisco and Jacinta, insisted that if more rosaries were said for that intention, Russia would cease “spreading her errors” throughout the world.
As the Soviet Bloc went on to produce more martyrs than any previous century, the concern of our Lady only increased, the Pope has said.
In a Nov. 6, 1994 homily at the Shrine of Our Lady of Tears in Syracuse, Sicily, he said, “She weeps again here in Syracuse at the end of the Second World War. It is possible to understand those tears against the background of those tragic events: the tremendous massacre caused by the conflict; the extermination of the sons and daughters of Israel; the threat to Europe that came from the East, from the openly declared atheism of communism. The image of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Lublin also wept during that period: a little known fact, this, outside of Poland.”
When he looked back on the fall of the Berlin Wall and its related events, the Pope in Crossing the Threshold of Hope wrote: “We must be wary of oversimplification … [but] what are we to say of the three children from Fatima who suddenly, on the eve of the October Revolution, heard: ‘Russia will convert’ and ‘In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph’?”
Later, in the apostolic letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente (As the Third Millennium Draws Near) the Holy Father associated the events of 1989 with the Marian year that came a few years before.
Now, Pope John Paul has moved on to other things. The greatest threat he sees is no longer an atheistic state in the East, but a culture of death in the West. To counter it he is asking for a full-scale effort to build the culture of life through the new evangelization.
A large challenge, indeed. But by turning again to the Woman whose intercession won a victory 10 years ago, we can expect great things.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, protectress of the unborn and patroness of the new evangelization, pray for us!
----- EXCERPT: EDITORIAL ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: What's It All About, Catholic? DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:edited by Leon J. Suprenant Jr. and Philip C.L. Gray
(Emmaus Road Publishing, 1999, 223 pages, $11.95)
May a Catholic serve as a godparent for a non-Catholic? What is the origin and purpose of papal authority? How can the Catholic Church teach that Mary was a virgin after the birth of Christ when there are references in Scripture to the “brothers and sisters” of Jesus?
These are the kinds of questions Catholics need to have the answers to — whether they're asking for themselves or being asked by someone else. By taking on such pressing issues, Faith Facts: Answers to Catholic Questions is not only a “must read.” It is a “must-have-on-hand” resource for anyone seriously interested in understanding and propagating the Catholic faith at the turn of the millennium.
Faith Facts is the latest offering from Emmaus Road Press, an outreach of Catholics United for the Faith. Each chapter was originally developed by the group's Information Services department, whose members have found themselves in need of a concise source as the questions have poured in. Recognizing that most inquiries have been variations on a relatively small number of themes, they've arranged the book into a collection of the most frequently asked questions.
While self-contained, the essays are editorially arranged to build upon each other within topical sections — Creed, Liturgy, Morality, Marriage and Family, Catholic Education, Biblical Apologetics and Mary. The result is a highly informative volume that will aid study, evangelism and personal growth.
As presented here, a “faith fact” is a short essay on a specific area of concern. It's introduced in a statement of the issue to be considered, answered through a discussion section, and expounded upon by reflections and recommendations on additional resources.
Despite an evident dedication to brevity and conversational language, the essays are thorough and remarkably deep. Combining thought-provoking insights with practical applications, the writers rest their arguments on sacred Scripture, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Church's constant teaching over 20 centuries. Many of the answers also contain historical overviews of the theological problem in question, highlighting quotations from the Church Fathers and other important thinkers. Yet, despite their depth and breadth, they're well within reach of even the casual lay reader.
In fact, it's no small accomplishment that the book manages to turn fairly dense theological and apologetics discussions into such an upbeat and stimulating reading experience. For example, a chapter on the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Mother doesn't take for granted the typical perception that Mary is some kind of theological anomaly, and then attempt to explain why she should be so. Rather, it begins by pointing out that “Mary's immaculate conception should be seen as the way God wanted all of us to come into the world: in the state of sanctifying grace and free from original sin, just like Adam and Eve.”
The eye-opening suggestion that, if anyone is an anomaly, it's us, provides a refreshing point of departure for a discussion of Mary as “full of grace,” as the New Eve, as the premier disciple and as the person most completely saved by Christ. Many of the essays included in this book demonstrate a similar ability to turn the tables on clichéd, reflexive thinking.
The chapter on modern catechesis — often subjected to the vagaries of individual opinion — states, “Christ and his teachings change us (the process is called conversion); we do not change Christ and His teachings.” Commenting on the “overly biological approach to sex education” rampant today, another chapter says, “This approach turns the program, in the crudest sense, into a ‘how-to’ course. At the risk of sounding old-fashioned, should it not be a ‘how to wait until marriage’ course?”
What's more, the book challenges lazy thinking. A reflection question for a chapter on “same-sex marriage,” for instance, prompts, “Do I truly strive to love homosexual persons, even when they are not at present willing to abandon an openly homosexual lifestyle?”
One shortcoming that may put off some readers is the book's heavy emphasis on responding to the objections of evangelical Protestants. Ecumenical dialogue is certainly important, and the Faith Fact authors (deliberately left anonymous) deal with it deftly. However, much of American culture is by now far more secular than Protestant.
While a high number of the chapter-ending reflection questions ask, “How can I explain (this Catholic viewpoint) to someone who doesn't accept Church authority?” we should be asking just as urgently, “How can I explain this to someone who does not accept Jesus Christ at all?”
Alas, an expanded focus on this broad area may well be soon to come: Intriguingly, the book is subtitled “Volume 1.” According to Leon J. Suprenant Jr., president of Catholics United for the Faith, at least one sequel is being contemplated; if it comes to fruition it will contain sections on doctrine, apologetics, liturgy, the virtues and right-to-life issues.
Given the caliber of the present Faith Facts collection, one can't help but wait with high expectations.
Helen Valois writes from Steubenville, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: Book Review ----- EXTENDED BODY: Helen Valois ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Mammon? Or God? How to Choose DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:by Kevin M. Lowry (New Covenant, November 1999)
Certified public accountant Kevin Lowry mulls our need to be good stewards of all our resources — not just those earmarked for charitable contributions. “Sometimes the questions I hear about tithing are almost as bad as those regarding taxes,” he writes. “[F]or now, I don't want to talk about whether you will get gross or net blessings as a result of your giving habits. If you want to give the average 1% Catholic tithe (remember that even the cheapest Protestants average 2.5%), that's your prerogative. I will not give you grief about it for now. What I want to talk about is the other 90 (or 99) percent. Do you spend the rest of your money in a way that glorifies God? Or is spending a god itself?
“Being a Christian demands growth. Have you done anything with your finances lately to let God know that you love Him? Put in a different way: How have you changed for your faith lately? Have any changes involved money?”
Lowry notes, “the most important principle in dealing with finances is: It's God's money! We should trust the Lord with our souls and our credit cards. He doesn't need our money … but He does want our hearts. There can't be a competition between the God who created the universe and our checking account at the local bank.”
Lowry lists a series of guidelines to achieving this awareness of God's will for us in our daily spending. First, as in every endeavor to live the Christian life, comes prayer to learn God's will and enable us to prefer it to our own. Second, “Resist consumer urges. … If you feel that you must have that new appliance, outfit or car right now — wait! One method my wife, Kathi, and I have used is a ‘want list.’ We put items that we're tempted to buy right away on our list, and subject them to prayerful consideration and the passage of time (say, a month). You'd be amazed how many things we end up not purchasing. Yet, some items pass the test, and we buy them with a clear conscience.”
Third comes making small sacrifices. “This is the best way to build interior strength.” Even small sacrifices remind us that we have nothing that did not come from God. Fourth, Lowry lists maintaining “a spirit of detachment. We are all tempted to judge our status based on material possessions. But … we need to remember that we belong to Jesus Christ, who regards worldly treasures as paltry in comparison to the riches of eternal life. ‘Build up your treasures in heaven’ (Matthew 6:20).”
Next, Lowry advises that we “Make a decision to invest in others — primarily your family. However, outside of the family there are many others in need of support. We have a ‘poor jar’ in our house for family contributions toward the sponsorship of a child overseas. Upon hearing of my recent salary increase, my 4-year-old son, Daniel, exclaimed, ‘Daddy, we should send some of that money to the poor!’”
Finally, we should keep our priorities in order. “God has Christians at all levels of financial means, and He asks not that we be successful with our finances but rather faithful with them. How much money we have is not the issue. … Recall the story in Mark 12 about the poor widow's contribution of a couple of small coins to the Temple treasury. Jesus was so impressed with this woman's actions that He called the disciples together to explain that this particular contribution exceeded all others.”
As for tithing, Lowry does not equivocate. “I do happen to think that tithing is extremely important and results in tremendous blessing,” he writes. “However, just like we need to be good Christians all week long and not just on Sunday, we need to be faithful with our finances in all areas and not just in tithing. Don't treat your tithing like your taxes. Give God 100 percent.”
Ellen Wilson Fielding writes from Davidson, Maryland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Wilson Fielding ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Vibrant Faith in Kazakhstan
I read with great interest your article “Kazakhstan Sees 1st Bishop lnstalled” (World News, Oct. 31-Nov. 6). You mentioned that the Russian Orthodox Church was complaining “over the revival of previously outlawed Eastern-rite Catholic communities.” These “communities” are recognized as particular churches within the Catholic Church and those of Byzantine extraction are commonly called Greek Catholic.
The largest Greek-Catholic Church, the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, is also, thanks to Pope John Paul II, very active in Kazakhstan, where many Ukrainians were exiled by the Soviet government in the 1950s and 1960s.
On June 25 the first Divine Liturgy for Ukrainian Catholics was celebrated in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astan, by Father Basil Hover and Bishop Basil Medvit, OSBM.…
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Kazakhstan is fulfilling the spirit of the recent letter of the bishops of the Ukrainian Catholic Church to the faithful.
This letter urges Ukrainian Catholics who are forced to leave or have left Ukraine for economic or moral reasons to “preserve our faith, dear children, and high Christian moral standards. Seek spiritual support from Catholic churches in the distant countries, for there you will find Christ and the Mother of God, who will help you.”
Thomas E. Herman Kirkwood, Missouri
Imperfect Transcription
I enjoyed Ellen Wilson Fielding's Article Digest “Living Up to Jesus' Impossible Standards” (Oct. 10-16), but wish to correct the assertion that “Only St. Matthew uses the word ‘perfect’ in the New Testament.” I know not whether this notion originates with Fielding or J. Steven Covington, author of the article Fielding was citing, “Be Perfect: Is Jesus Demanding the Impossible?” (from the September '99 issue of This Rock magazine). [In any case, the term is frequently used by other apostles as well.]
Timothy J. Miller Las Vegas, New Mexico
Editor's reply: Nice catch. This Rock reported, and our Article Digest should have repeated, that only St. Matthew uses the word “perfect” in the Gospels. We regret the error.
Correction: The Nov. 7-13 issue of the Register included an outdated staff listing. The correct one appears this week.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: To Save Babies Is to Save America's Soul DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Last April, a botched partial-birth abortion resulted in the birth of a little girl in Cincinnati. She lived for three hours. It was reported that an emergency-room technician rocked and sang to her until she died. Afterward, the staff grieved so deeply that several members wound up spending hours in counseling, trying to get over the emotional trauma of the incident. One astute person observed that the worst part of the tragedy was that no laws were broken.
Meanwhile, the debate over partial-birth abortion continues in Washington. Last year, the Senate passed a ban of the procedure, but came up three votes short of overriding the president's veto. (President Clinton also vetoed similar bills in 1996 and 1997.) We must continue to raise this issue until the president does the right thing by allowing the procedure to be banned from our land.
Partial-birth abortion is a method in which the abortion doctor partially delivers a living fetus before violently killing the fetus and completing the delivery. This procedure will be performed hundreds of times this month throughout America as a state-sanctioned form of murder.
The Jewish writer Sandi Merle describes it this way: “This procedure is not abortion. It is pre-term delivery followed by an act of destruction leading to a painful death. It's about leaving no fingerprints when committing a murder of convenience. It is infanticide, clearly and simply, and it must be stopped.” I agree, and this is why I will once again vote to end partial-birth abortion the next time it comes to the Senate floor.
When we talk about partial-birth abortion, we are talking about a cruel and shameless procedure which robs us of our humanity. It is not true that the anesthesia kills the child before removal from the womb. In fact, the baby experiences extraordinary pain when undergoing the “operation” — a deceptive euphemism for what actually takes place.
Nor is this brutality reserved only for the most extreme circumstances. According to the executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, the “vast majority” of partial-birth abortions are performed in the fifth and sixth months of pregnancy — on healthy babies and healthy mothers.
I appeal to all people of conscience who recognize the suffering borne by these brutally killed babies: Please do not to turn your heads. Help reverse this course of destruction, no matter the political consequences.
The facts speak for themselves. Bluntly put, partial-birth abortion involves the death of a child in a brutal fashion, and it is condoned by the current president of the United States.
Our institutionalized indifference to the extraordinary suffering of our most vulnerable citizens makes me wonder what has happened to our collective conscience as a nation. Have we grown so callous that we can knowingly permit our very weakest children to die a death we would never force on any adult, no matter how criminal?
Perhaps it is because we have become so acclimated to our “culture of death” that so many look the other way rather than stand firm against such horror. After all, there's only so much murder, mayhem and immorality we can face head-on before our defenses kick in and we start blocking out all bad news.
As Peggy Noonan observed recently in The Wall Street Journal, “people no longer say, ‘If you don't like it, change the channel.’ They now realize something they didn't realize 10 years ago: There is no channel to change to.”
Perhaps our violent environment has dulled our consciences and worn us down to the point where it is no longer politically expedient to protest the obscene suffering of infants. This would explain why so many of the country's leaders continue to tolerate partial-birth abortion. I hope this isn't so.
I appeal to all people of conscience who recognize the suffering borne by these brutally killed babies: Please do not to turn your heads. Help reverse this course of destruction, no matter the political consequences.
I hope we will continue to let ourselves be troubled by the event in Cincinnati. We should declare that what happened to this little girl was simply wrong, and cannot be rationalized. We should reject this culture of death which tolerates children dying violent and unnatural deaths. The president should enact a partial-birth abortion ban, and help mercy and goodness triumph over the violence and destruction stalking our nation's soul.
U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback is a Republican from Kansas.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sam Brownback ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Ghostly Occupants of the Net DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Gabriel Marcel once characterized his philosophy as “a persistent, unceasing fight against the spirit of abstraction.” A Catholic convert, Marcel gave central place to the notion that man is an incarnate being (être incarné). Human beings do not have bodies; they are bodies. “Incarnation,” he proclaimed in Being and Having, “is the central ‘given’ of metaphysics.”
The modern world of electronic communications has, in effect, disembodied us. Many of us spend a great deal of time living neither in a culture nor in a civilization, exactly, but in that amorphous region of cyberspace called the World Wide Web. There are no bodies in cyberspace and, as a consequence, people are not present to each other as fully real, bodied persons. There is no meeting of persons in cyberspace. We cease to be citizens as we are metamorphosed into “netizens” — ghostly occupants of the 'net. There is no intersubjectivity, no meeting between the I and the Thou, merely the mingling of discarnate messages.
Marcel's philosophy, which centers on incarnation and intersubjectivity, had an immense influence on the American novelist Walker Percy. Like Marcel, Percy was a convert to Catholicism, and utterly intrigued by how modern man disintegrates himself into two entirely disparate parts, neither of which bears the slightest resemblance to a human being. “For the world is broken,” he wrote in Love in the Ruins, “sundered, busted down the middle, self ripped from self and man pasted back together as mythical monster, half angel, half beast, but no man.” This curious process of personal disintegration, disembodiment or alienation from self had been anticipated by another important American thinker, Lewis Mumford, when he expressed the fear that “we may not be spared the last act of disintegration: handcuffed together, the Automaton and the Id may march to their common doom.”
Mumford would not have been surprised at the realization of his fear in the form of the Melissa Virus, the most virulent computer virus ever unleashed. Melissa is a prolific electronic pathogen that shut down tens of thousands of government and business computers around the world. It touched off an FBI manhunt culminating in the arrest, on March 26, of a man named David L. Smith. A 30-year-old resident of Aberdeen, N.J., Smith named his virus after a topless dancer of his acquaintance. Thus, we find “handcuffed together” the peculiar hybrid of brawn and brain, body and mind, sex and cyberspace. Descartes' “extended thing” (matter) and “thinking thing” (mind) are united, not by nature, but by handcuffs. Nor would Erich Fromm have been surprised by the arrival of Melissa, for he had stated that “[t]he dream of many people seems to be to combine the emotions of a primate with a computerlike brain.”
We attain the Web through processes of disincarnation: from landscape to netscape, from outerspace to cyberspace, from text to hypertext, from etiquette to netiquette, from actual to virtual, from citizen to netizen. We suddenly discover that we are, to borrow the title of Gene I. Rochlin's book, Trapped in the Net. We may be developing a new variant of arachnophobia — fear of a web that has nothing to do with spiders.
Catholicism has always celebrated the tangible and encouraged the tactile. The Mass and the sacraments center on blood, body, wine, bread, water, eyes and hands. It teaches that marriage is consummated only when conjugal intimacy has been achieved. The doctrine of the resurrection of the body underscores the importance the Church attaches to the body. “The mark of the Christian,” wrote Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, “is the willingness to look for the Divine in the flesh of a babe in a crib, the continuing Christ under the appearance of bread on the altar, and a meditation and prayer on a string of beads.”
James Joyce paid St. Thomas Aquinas, the Church's pre-eminent theologian, a well-founded tribute when he referred to him as “Toucher Tom.” Norman Mailer once stated that if he ever met Aquinas in the next world, he would first commend him for “that most excellent phrase, ‘the authority of the senses.’”
Aquinas dealt with the question of why Christ did not commit any of his teachings to the written word. We might ask the question, “If Christ entered the contemporary world, would he have his own Web site or communicate to others by e-mail?” Aquinas' answer is valid for all times. He stated that it was in keeping with Christ's excellence as a teacher to teach in the most excellent manner possible. This manner consists in imprinting his doctrines on the hearts of his hearers. Christ, like Socrates before him, taught as a person, which is to say, bodily, tangibly, communally. He was, as both Marcel and Percy would say, present to his disciples. He would not have allowed himself to be trapped in the Web.
And Mary? The Catholic Church has ceaseless praise for the incarnate reality of motherhood. Coventry Patmore has remarked that Mary, the Mother of God, is “Our only Saviour from an abstract Christ.” The Protestant tradition of sola Scriptura, by separating the Word of God from a living, communal, tangible context, tends to alienate rather than spiritualize and is consistent with Ralph Waldo Emerson's rejection of the Eucharist in favor of what he termed “a more vaporized form of Christianity.”
A person is a flesh and blood, body and soul entity. How does he deal with the World Wide Web without becoming debodied and depersonalized? The computer, of course, is a tool to serve people, not a place to live. It is inevitable that people overestimate the significance of their creations. We should not turn our inventions into idols. When shopping malls became fashionable, it became trendy to get married in them. Couples are now rushing to get “married” through their computers in cyberspace. We have difficulty in remaining temperate about our new technologies.
Nonetheless, the Web bears interesting analogies with two worlds that are very much part of Catholic teaching, namely, the Mystical Body of Christ and the communion of saints. These worlds are unified — not electronically, but by love, prayer and grace. These three factors act as a kind of “electricity of the heart.” Man is communal, but he should not be content with a community that requires the exclusion of his body.
The Web demonstrates, in a spectacular way, how limitless pieces of information can be brought together from far-flung sources at the speed of light. But this is only a small step toward the kind of interpersonal community that is embodied in the communion of saints and the Mystical Body of Christ.
It is a small, but significant step. The Web presents the danger of depersonalization. At the same time, it conveys hope for a more unified and informed society. It is not technology's finest possible accomplishment. It is merely a foretaste of something far better.
Perhaps the best use of the Web is to make both the Mystical Body and the communion of saints more believable. But it must not tempt us to de-emphasize the indispensable importance of the many “communities of persons” we need in order to remain whole: friendship, marriage, the family, the neighborhood, the parish and the nation.
Donald DeMarco is a professor of philosophy at St. Jerome's College in Waterloo, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: Netizens ----- EXTENDED BODY: Donald DeMarco ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: A '90s First-Grader Cries for Confession DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:I remember my Baltimore Catechism as though it is stored somewhere at the base of my spinal cord. The little blue-and-white book, the cold Sunday mornings in church with the heater turned way down, the smell of the woodwork, the warm sun spilling through stained glass and onto my shoes, my dress, my face.
Never was the expansive spirit of my faith clearer. I already knew God was everywhere, in everything, through and about everything. That comes with childhood. But, sitting there, I realized God knew and loved me.
I'm a product of one of those enormous Catholic families that are both wonderful and crazy at the same time. When you messed up — when you sinned — there was no time to worry about things like self-esteem. Just get to confession. Get some penance to do.
I found my own way to deal with this. I grew up, got married, matured emotionally and, for a while, felt relieved to believe that the odd sense of shame I was carrying around was all my Church's fault. After all, said all the psychologists, if they hadn't forced me into the confessional in the first grade, I'd never have developed such low self-esteem.
That theory worked until I began raising children of my own.
Once, my daughter and a friend named Sarah returned from a birthday party, their pockets stuffed with plastic jewelry. The first-graders told me they'd won the treasures in a game, then headed to my child's room. It wasn't long before a fight broke out.
“I'm going home if I can't have that diamond,” I heard Sarah declare. I went in to investigate and discovered that the object of contention was a white lump of polyethylene. Sarah stormed past, stating her case all the way. “She stole it, Mrs. Baxter,” she said. “She only won three jewels — she stole all the rest!”
The door slammed. After a moment of charged silence, my daughter burst into tears. “Sarah's right, Mommy. I'm a thief!” she cried. “I'm a robber!” She dissolved into her shame, burying her face under her covers.
I didn't know what to say. All her life I'd been so careful never to shame her, always to encourage her self-esteem. My husband and I had never mentioned the word “sin” around our house, and we had been careful to make sure she'd never, ever feel guilt. So where was this outburst coming from?
I crawled into her bed, took my wailing child in my arms and prayed this experience would not scar her for life. I whispered: “Did you take something that didn't belong to you?”
“Yes!” she cried. “What am I going to do, Mom?”
She was hysterical. I was mute. Here was my 6-year-old, feeling true contrition. And because I'd never mentioned sin, she hadn't a clue what to do with it — and I was at a loss as to how to console her.
Suddenly those painted God-colors came back to me, and the voice of that beautiful Sister of Mercy echoed across the lost years: “When you fail to do what is right, God knows your heart. If you ask his forgiveness, he not only forgives, but he completely forgets.”
How could this be? Other Catholic leaders had told me she wasn't capable of feeling compunction on her own, that guilt was an emotion given to kids by their screwed-up parents. Children aren't born with a theology of sin; we hand it to them. Right?
I prayed with my 6-year-old. Her sorrow was a sign, I told her, that she was not a thief, but a wonderful little girl who is loved by her Father in heaven with all his heart. I shared the good news: The Lamb of God erases our errors as though they never existed, if we are wise enough to ask him.
After a moment, I asked her what she thought God was telling her to do. Here is what she said: “God wants me to take these jewels back to Jenny and tell her I'm sorry and that I want to still be her friend.”
This she did, the very next morning. Jenny responded by telling her to keep the jewels. In fact, she gave her another handful and invited her over for some leftover birthday cake.
My child became more interested in the sacrament of penance. When we couldn't hold her back any longer, she received her first penance.
“Mommy, I'm all brand-new!” she said later.
Experience has shown me that the catechism has had it right all along: A sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give us grace. For children and adults alike, true self-esteem doesn't come from pretending that right and wrong are arbitrary concepts imposed on us by impersonal institutions. It comes from admitting that all humans are bound to God's truth. Each one of us is imperfect and bound to mess up — but, through Jesus, God has provided us with a means of starting over. Time and time again.
Isn't it funny how, to the popular culture, the sacrament of reconciliation is an occasion of shame — a “guilt trip” in today's parlance. Yet it turns out that it's the exact opposite. Confession is nothing less than an opportunity for redemption.
“Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.” When those words finally pass through our lips, it is because we've goofed up again, and need very much to contemplate the great miracle of Christianity: Our capacity to sin doesn't exceed God's capacity to forgive us.
Susan Baxter is an award-winning writer based in Creede, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Susan Baxter ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Conversions Continue at California Missions DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:or many, Southern California — the showbiz capital of the world and the promised land for those seeking fame and fortune — represents ground zero for the popular culture. It's easy to overlook the fact that, a couple of short centuries ago, the area was untamed mission territory for the Church. Indeed, it was Catholic priests who led the settlement of what became the Golden State. Many of the missions they built still stand, and a good number have been magnificently restored. They're striking reminders of just how far Southern California has come from its humble beginnings, and worthwhile stops for the Catholic traveler.
Led by an indomitable Franciscan priest, a band of 119 sick and ragged men arrived in what was to become San Diego on July 1, 1769. Father Junipero Serra stood just 5 feet 2 inches tall and suffered from a painful leg malady, but he and his men founded the first mission in California, San Diego de Alcala. Over time, Father Serra came to be known as the “apostle of California.” Before long, 21 missions stretched like a necklace along the El Camino Real, a dirt road in the 1700s. The road eventually became a stagecoach route and today roughly parallels U.S. Highway 101.
The missions remain vital today. Eighteen of the 21 are functioning parish church facilities. While many can make for excellent pilgrimage destinations, my favorites are the ones at San Diego, San Luis Rey de Francia (in Oceanside), San Juan Capistrano, Dolores (in San Francisco) and San Juan Bautista.
The Unsettled West
The white, Spanish-style church of the San Diego mission, completed in 1813 and reconstructed in 1941, is redolent with age, but it provides a good look at the primitive conditions missionaries embraced. A restored bedroom contains a bed whose mattress is a loose web of leather strips. The Father Luis Jayme Museum on the grounds includes a collection of Indian arts, mission documents, relics and Church art.
The mission is in central San Diego. The original church was a simple thatched-roof hut on Presidio Hill. At the hill, the Junipero Serra Museum, a stately mission-style building, displays belongings of the Indians, Spaniards and Mexicans who formed the diverse community. Included is one of the first paintings brought to California; it was damaged in an Indian attack but was salvaged.
Presidio Park also features an unusual cross made from ruins of the floor tiles. The distant past is evoked by statues of Father Serra and an Indian. Atop a hill, Inspiration Point is a popular site for weddings. It's also an apt point to reflect and pray.
Things weren't always so serene. The Indians resisted evangelization and, in 1774, they attacked the mission. The church was burned and Father Luis Jayme was killed, making him California's first martyr. Yet Father Serra, the portrait of the gentle Franciscan, was able to broker a peace. Before long the mission began to flourish. Evangelization took root, and Mission San Diego became a thriving center of activity.
At its height in the first two decades of the 19th century, the mission was grazing 20,000 sheep and 10,000 head of cattle. Its wines were famous, and its olive trees were to form the mother orchard for the state's olive industry.
The missionary hustle and bustle came to a halt in the 1830s, when the Mexican government secularized the missions and their lands were absorbed into private ranches. (The United States did not take possession of California until 1848.) Mission buildings fell into disrepair. They became taverns, stables and hog barns.
Visiting the missions, one can recall the glory of the missionaries' preaching of the Gospel and converting untold numbers of souls. The light of Christ was brought to California. Yet the missions also provide the means for somber reflection. Living conditions for Native Americans often were harsh. European diseases like measles, the flu and syphilis ravaged their tribes. In 1805, for instance, an epidemic at Mission San Francisco killed every child under the age of 5.
The most successful mission was Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, near San Diego. The “King of the Missions” counted 3,000 converts. By 1831, the mission boasted a harvest of 2,500 barrels of wine and 395,000 bushels of grain, as well as 12,150 horses, 26,000 cattle and 25,500 sheep. Much of its success was due to Father Antonio Peyri, loved by the Indians. For 23 years he ran the mission with firm mildness.
The elaborate church, featuring a dramatic bell tower, was called a “palace” by some visitors. The interior is a happy arrangement of arches and huge pilasters painted to resemble black marble. To the right of the sanctuary is a famous Mortuary Chapel, an architectural delight. In the courtyard is the first pepper tree planted in the West. The historical collection here includes vestments, chalices, furnishings and books used by the Franciscans. Also in the museum is a facsimile of the deed signed by President Lincoln restoring the mission property to the Church, following the secularization era.
Follow the Swallows
Founded in 1776 as the seventh mission, Mission San Juan Capistrano is the most popular of all the missions. Located halfway between San Diego and Los Angeles, San Juan Capistrano accounts for more than one-fourth of the 2 million people who visit the missions each year. The magnificent church, featuring an arched roof of seven domes, was the most ambitious architectural achievement of the missionaries. The gilded cock atop the soaring sandstone tower could be seen nine miles away in the then aptly named City of the Angels. The church stood just six years when a great earthquake leveled it in on the feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1812. Forty Indians at Mass perished amid the tumbling stones.
A replica church has been built not far from the ruins. Also here is the unpretentious Serra Chapel, built in 1778, the oldest church in California. It is the only church still in existence where Father Serra is known to have said Mass. Worth seeing, too, are period rooms and exhibits.
The mission is also famous for the celebrated swallows that congregate in its ruins. The gentle birds are as identifiable with Capistrano as cats are with the Colosseum in Rome. Each year, late in the fall, the swallows take wing into the blue sky and each spring, on or near St. Joseph's Day, they return, building their nests in the peaceful eaves of the mission.
As predictable as the arrival of the swallows is the flocking of tourists to Mission San Juan Capistrano to see them. But don't let the crowds keep you away, or you'll miss out on part of the magic of the mission. The swallows seem to suggest the tireless missionary spirit that enjoys eternal renewal — and, of course, they put one in mind of St. Francis himself, said to be as loved by animals as he was by people. Here, as at all the missions, the Poverello's gentle spirit seems to urge prayer and reflection amid the worldly hubbub of contemporary California.
Jay Copp is based in Chicago.
----- EXCERPT: The Catholic outposts that helped settle the Golden State are going strong ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jay Copp ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Fatima Vessels en Route to America DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON, N.J.—One of single most valuable sacred articles ever given by private individuals to the Catholic Church, a 3-foot-6-inch eucharistic monstrance bejeweled with more than 1,750 precious stones and gems — including 650 diamonds — is on its way around the world. Its schedule, not yet formalized, includes an extended tour of the United States, perhaps as long as four months, likely beginning in December.
The monstrance, which belongs to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal, began its excursion on Oct. 13, in a Mass at Fatima commemorating the 50th anniversary of its presentation to the shrine. Prior to the Mass, the monstrance was carried in procession along with a statue of the Blessed Mother; this will accompany the monstrance throughout the tour.
According to a release from the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima USA in Washington, N.J., the monstrance and the statue have an intriguing history. In 1938, an Irish couple named Kathleen and Kieran Conroy saw an unusual reddish light in the sky. Several years later, they learned that, among the messages Mary had given the three child seers of Fatima earlier in the century was a prayer of eucharistic adoration. They also came to believe that the strange red light had been referred to by Mary when she spoke to the children of “a night illuminated by an unknown light” as a warning of God's impending judgment.
Kathleen began praying to Our Lady of Fatima for help with a special intention, and later said she had been granted a favor. Shortly thereafter, while adoring the Blessed Sacrament, she was inspired to show her gratitude. This she did by commissioning Gunning and Son, a well-known Dublin manufacturer of sacred vessels, to create the magnificent monstrance.
A Catholic newspaper picked up the story and, within eight months, the Conroys had received more than 10,000 packages from all over the world. People donated wedding and engagement rings, along with diamonds, sapphires, gold and silver.
To accommodate the flood of donated jewels, the monstrance design changed several times.
On Oct. 6, 1949, the eve of the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, the monstrance was presented to Dom Jose Alves Correira da Silva, the bishop of Leiria, who had approved the Fatima apparitions.
The bishop was so astonished by the beauty of the monstrance that he offered a statue of Our Lady of Fatima to the Conroy family in gratitude. The statue, a replica of the official Fatima statue, and carved by the same artist, disembarked at the Dublin docks on Aug. 21, 1951, and arrived at the Conroy home the next day, the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Initially, public veneration of the statue was not allowed in Ireland. It wasn't until 1982, on the feast of Corpus Christi, that Bishops' approval was granted for public veneration.
On Oct. 13, 1989, the 40th anniversary of its presentation, the statue was solemnly crowned in Fatima. Pope John Paul II blessed the statue in 1992 during a general audience at the Vatican, where the statue was enthroned on the Papal dais.
* * *
Dates become available in late November.
Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima USA PO Box 976 Mountain View Road Washington, N.J. 07882 (908) 213-2223 www.BlueArmy.com/monstrance
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Conspiracy Weary DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:The independent film movement is, overall, a good thing. By sidestepping the Hollywood big-studio system, it's allowed a thousand flowers to bloom. Anyone who can raise the necessary production coin and find an interested distributor gets a chance to present a message to the public. There's no ideology attached to the process. Everything has taken its shot at the marketplace, from uplifting Christian films like The Spitfire Grill and Entertaining Angels to self-satisfied, nihilistic melodramas like Happiness.
At first glance, the independently made The Omega Code seems to have its heart in the right place. Financed by the Trinity Broadcasting Network, the nation's largest evangelical Protestant cable TV network, it aims to use the thriller genre to propagate what it calls “family-friendly” and “life-affirming, positive” messages. But, perhaps predictably, this movie, a dramatization of misinterpreted end-time prophecies from the Book of Revelation, soon enough turns into an exercise in hysteria and an anti-Catholic diatribe.
Stone Alexander (Michael York) is a bleeding-heart liberal who backs politically correct causes. He fights world hunger, works for Middle East peace and supports the European Union. But behind this benevolent facade lurks an evil purpose: He's working for Satan to take over the planet. Director Rob Marcarelli and screenwriters Stephen Blinn and Hollis Barton want us to believe that his rise to power as the first chancellor of the United World is the beginning of the end.
To achieve his goals, Alexander steals the so-called Bible Code, a set of mathematical equations which purports to uncover hidden truths and prophecies from the holy Scriptures. Successful motivational psychologist Gillen Lane (Casper Van Dien) is recruited to promote the cause. But he turns against Alexander, grabbing the code for himself. This triggers the final battle between good and evil. Plot implausibilities and familiar-looking action sequences multiply, culminating in a badly executed rip-off of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The Omega Code also indulges in what it thinks is sly social commentary, targeting the United Nations and the Catholic Church. The Vatican is depicted as collaborating with Alexander in his pseudo-humanitarian activities, and the international dogooder's top henchman is an ultravio-lent ex-priest (Michael Ironsides).
This film plays like it was written by someone who has read the Bible while assiduously ignoring 20 centuries of biblical scholarship. It exploits many currently fashionable conspiracy theories to advance its poisonous agenda. Unsuspecting viewers should be warned.
----- EXCERPT: The Omega Code's interpretation of Bible prophecy is woefully misinformed ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Surrealist Director Tells a Straight Story DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Up until 15 years ago, Walt Disney Co. made nothing but family films. But new management jettisoned almost all the old standards. The many Catholics who boycott Disney for movies such as Priest and Kids will nonetheless be heartened to know that occasionally, the company does something right.
The Straight Story is that rare thing, a live-action release that the company's founder would have been proud of. Cutting-edge director David Lynch (Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks) doesn't abandon his expected fondness for the surreal and the grotesque. But for the first time these obsessions are placed at the service of a quiet family tale about reconciliation.
Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth) is a 73-year-old widower who learns that his estranged brother has suffered a stroke. The two siblings haven't seen each other in 10 years because of a fallout caused by selfishness and drinking, “a story as old as Cain and Abel.” He decides to heal the breach. “I want to sit with him and look up at the stars, like we used to, so long ago,” he declares.
The opening images are vintage Lynch. Haunting, melancholy shots of Iowa wheat fields and a small farm town are juxtaposed with closer angles of a fat, wrinkled, elderly woman who tans herself while feeding her face with cookies and lemonade. But, surprisingly, this mildly satirical look at middle-American normality doesn't conceal the deviant moral corruption the director usually favors. Instead we are treated to an affirmation of all that's good in human nature — a vision of the underbelly of rural life in which generosity and compassion leap out from behind the menacing shadows.
Alvin lives with his grown daughter (Sissy Spacek), who has a speech impediment and likes to paint bird houses. Since he no longer has a driver's license, he decides to navigate his power lawn mower cross country to Wisconsin, where his brother resides. The suspense is generated by wondering whether he'll get there and what he'll find if he ever does make it.
Like most road movies, the dramatic action is episodic rather than tightly constructed. As Alvin makes his way across a small piece of what's left of the American frontier, he meets a gallery of typical Lynch eccentrics. He must stop for a slightly hysterical woman who's killed 14 deer by accident with her car, and a pair of constantly bickering twins are hired to repair his vehicle.
One of the most memorable vignettes is Alvin's encounter with a local parish priest. When he camps overnight in front of a Catholic cemetery, the cleric brings him food and listens sympathetically as he pours out his heart.
Lynch and screenwriters Mary Sweeney and John Roach have based their movie on real people. There's an elegiac, end-of-an-era tone to this story of a stubborn, old man with a cowboylike spirit, who learns to depend on the kindness of strangers. The narrative rhythms may be too slow for viewers who've grown up on video games or MTV. But for those who will take the time, The Straight Story is a rewarding experience.
— John Prizer
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Prizer's Video Picks DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Jerusalem (1996)
Based on a novel by Swedish Nobel-prizewinner Selma Lagerlof, Jerusalem is steeped in the atmosphere of turn-of-the-century apocalyptic fervor. A son of the region's most prominent family falls in love with a schoolteacher's beautiful daughter. But the sweethearts get separated when she must sell all her possessions and go with her religious sect to Jerusalem to be present for the expected second coming of Christ. Will they ever get back together? Will their grand passion have a happy ending or a tragic one?
Jerusalem skillfully plays against conventional expectations to reveal a deeper understanding of the meaning of love than its protagonists at first possess. When the man and woman are confronted with moral choices, each opts for the way of sacrifice and forgiveness over ego gratification. Although painful, this process moves them closer to God even if they don't always get what they want. (The movie was filmed in Swedish, but the video has English subtitles.)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928; new to video in 1999)
Joan of Arc (Renee Maria Falconetti) was a 15th-century peasant-martyr who attempted to liberate France from English invaders. This silent film focuses mainly on her trial, and she communicates her emotions so effectively with her eyes that we don't need to hear the words. Although every sequence and shot are in themselves realistic, the overall effect is a subjective expression of her state of mind. Her eyes are fixed on God while her adversaries try to manipulate the truth for political advantage.
For years this 1928 masterpiece — which is on the Vatican's list of 45 films of special merit — could be viewed only in a ragged version assembled from out-takes. Home Vision has now released in video a newly restored and remastered cut based on a recently discovered print. We can at last experience the stark beauty of its intensely spiritual images in the manner director Carl Dreyer (Ordet) intended.
Sounder (1972)
Hard times can either bring out the best in people or drag them down, and in Sounder you don't know which way the main characters will go. Rebecca (Cicely Tyson) and Nathan Morgan (Paul Winfield) are trying to raise three boys in rural Louisiana in the early 1930s while struggling against poverty and racism.
In a desperate moment, Nathan steals a ham and is incarcerated in a hard labor camp. His wife and older son (Kevin Hooks) must find a way for the family to survive. The boy encounters a teacher who encourages him to study and better himself, but attending her school would mean separation from his kin. The movie celebrates the bonds within families without downplaying the struggles involved. Against all odds, the Morgans learn to believe in the power of hope.
–John Prizer
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Eleventh Hour Plea: Read the Text DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—The Nov. 15-18 meeting of U.S. bishops promises to be a history-making event in the story of Catholic higher education. At that meeting, America's bishops will vote whether or not to approve a recently drafted plan for implementing Pope John Paul II's apostolic constitution for higher education.
By implementing the constitution, called Ex Corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church), bishops would set into motion the strengthening of the Catholic identity of Church-related universities in the United States.
But implementation has been slowed by the apprehensions of college presidents and bishops alike, who fear turning away benefactors, alienating professors and compromising learning.
Marianist Father James Heft, chancellor of the University of Dayton, represents colleges in the discussion as chairman of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. In a Jan. 26 USA Today article, Father Heft is quoted opposing the bishops and suggesting that they are trying to “run schools.” Throughout the year, he has pursued plans to set up a $50 million Catholic studies “research center” outside the jurisdiction of bishops.
Now, he has sent an open letter to the bishops, signed by himself and five colleagues at Dayton and printed in the Nov. 6 edition of Commonweal magazine. In it, he asks the bishops to hold off on implementation in order to give administrators, professors and board members more time to collaborate on a draft proposal.
But Catholic University President Father David O'Connell says the bishops have waited long enough to implement Ex Corde, which came out in 1990. In an interview with Register reporter Brian McGuire, Father O'Connell argued that Ex Corde's opponents have nothing to fear.
McGuire: Do Catholic universities stand to lose the prestige they have in the academic community if
Father O'Connell: I do not consider prestige an important deciding factor with respect to the acceptance of the norms proposed by the bishops for the implementation of Ex Corde Ecclesiae. The concern for prestige might be translated in this way: “Should we do the right thing if others will think less of us?”
I believe deeply in the vision expressed in Ex Corde Ecclesiae. I also believe in the importance of a structured implementation or application of that vision. To me, the important concern is not prestige, but rather, credibility. I would express the concern this way: “Will the application of Ex Corde Ecclesiae support our credibility as institutions of higher learning in the United States?”
I believe the answer is yes.
The application will help us better articulate what we are, our mission. It will help us to demonstrate our integrity as Catholic institutions — accountability for our mission. It will help reveal the unique contributions that Catholic institutions make within the American higher education community — the difference that our mission makes. The proposed text of the application emphasizes the unique character of Catholic institutions while, at the same time, affirming distinctively American academic strengths — institutional autonomy, academic freedom and so forth.
If you asked me, as a president, to chose between prestige and credibility, credibility would be my choice without hesitation. And how can our institutions be credible to anyone else, if we do not believe in them and their values and strengths ourselves?
Another contested issue is the hiring of Catholic faculty. How can institutions hire a majority of Catholics, along the lines
The application is very careful on this point. It begins (Part II, Article 4.4.a) by establishing respect for internal institutional procedures and recognizing the role of “applicable federal and state law, regulations and procedures.” It then expresses an exhortation that universities “should strive to recruit and appoint Catholics” so that “as much as possible” they will “constitute a majority of the faculty.”
The text then immediately recognizes the presence of non-Catholic faculty, encouraging them to be “aware and respectful of the Catholic faith tradition.” Many attorneys and legal scholars well skilled in American employment law argue that our legal system does provide ample room for the approach to hiring advocated in Ex Corde Ecclesiae, the norms of application and canon law as long as that approach is intelligent, clear, known to applicants beforehand and responsive to a demonstrated need established by the institution itself — “mission-based” hiring if you will.
Academic administrators have been led to believe that such an approach is neither legal nor possible. Many lawyers have gone on record saying that such an opinion is just not accurate. Will there be attempts to challenge this approach? Of course. The important thing, however, is to ensure that there is no basis for a challenge. Establish procedures and follow them.
What would you say to college presidents who are uneasy about the particulars of
My advice to academic administrators who are uneasy about the particulars of the proposed norms for application of Ex Corde Ecclesiae is simple, clear and direct: Stop reading “about” the text and “read the text” itself. Sit down with a reputable canonist and civil attorney and read the text. Try to understand the values behind its provisions. Approach the text with the question, “How can we make this work at our institution?” rather than, “Why won't this work at our institution?” Consider the ways that the institution already fulfills the provisions of the proposed norms and acknowledge them publicly. Identify areas that need to be strengthened and enter into discussion with the local bishop and with the members of the institutional community.
Won't Canons 810 and 812 have to be enforced, regardless of the outcome of the implementation process?
Canons 810 and 812 have been part of the Church's universal law since 1983. When they first appeared in the revised Code of Canon Law, many Catholic universities and colleges in the United States questioned whether they were even “bound” by canon law as institutions since they were not established as legal or “juridic persons,” that is, institutional subjects of obligations and rights in canon law. To my knowledge, little effort, if any, was made in this country to enforce these canons.
The text of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, however, was an attempt to resolve that question by including the provisions contained within these canons in its own requirements and declaring that “they are valid for all Catholic Universities and other Catholic Institutes of Higher Studies throughout the world” without particular reference made to the concept of juridic personality. If the bishops do not approve the proposed United States application, the text and general norms of Ex Corde Ecclesiae are still in force and do apply since these canons are included in Ex Corde Ecclesiae and its general norms. It will then be up to the individual bishops within their dioceses to enforce the substance of the canons as presented in the text of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, “valid” throughout the world.
Why have we come to this pass? What lobbying efforts have been at play in this debate?
There has been a tremendous effort on the part of university and college presidents and others, including some bishops, to lobby the body of bishops not to approve the proposed draft of norms, “An Application to the United States” as it is called. While it seems that this effort reflects a majority opinion, there are significant voices of opposition in those same groups to this resistance. In April of this year, a small group of legal scholars gathered at the University of Notre Dame to raise their voices. Here at The Catholic University of America in Washington in September, another larger invited gathering presented similar reflections, this time including theological, canonical, legal and practical support for the proposed “application.”
When the texts of these presentations were published and circulated to the United States bishops and others, the leadership of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities immediately published a letter charging that these presentations “bypass or gloss over some very significant difficulties” and reflect opinions “not shared by many presidents and lawyers.” While the substance of the presentations might not be “shared” by some, even “many, many presidents,” they nevertheless attempt to engage the alleged “significant difficulties” in a forthright and scholarly manner.
When the Code of Canon Law was being drafted and eventually promulgated in 1983, the canons on higher education were highly criticized.
When Ex Corde Ecclesiae was being drafted and eventually promulgated in 1990, the same criticisms were voiced. Throughout the drafting process regarding the norms for implementation in the United States, the same criticisms were voiced up to this very moment. Those criticisms, in my opinion, were vague and hypothetical and remain so. There were some very serious presumptions made that generated some very strong argumentation and fear. And now the lobbying effort is to delay, once again, on the basis of those same criticisms, for the sake of “continuing the dialogue.” Dialogue, without structure, is rambling.
And while the dialogue will continue, even if the bishops approve the norms in November, I believe that the dialogue will benefit from the structure provided by the Bishops' current draft. Both the Church and the academy will need to proceed carefully, respectfully, intelligently. The norms provide for that approach in the very text itself. And they also call for a five-and 10-year review. I believe that such structured dialogue will advance the enterprise of Catholic higher education as even those opposed to the norms admit that the vision of Ex Corde Ecclesiae has advanced the discussion of our reason for being — from, in and for the heart of the Church in these past nine years.
----- EXCERPT: Catholic University of America's President Says Ex Corde Has Waited Long Enough ----- EXTENDED BODY: David O'Connell ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Education Notebook DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Catholic Colleges Recognized for Character
RADNOR, Pa.—Twenty-five Catholic colleges have made the John Templeton Foundation's Honor Roll for Character-Building Colleges in the foundation's newly released guidebook:
Alvernia College, Reading, Pa.
Carroll College, Helena, Mont.
Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa
College of Mount St. Joseph, Cincinnati
College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, Minn.
College of St. Catherine, St. Paul, Minn.
Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio
King's College, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Marist College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Mount St. Mary's College, Los Angeles
Regis University, Denver
St. Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure, N.Y.
St. Francis College, Loretto, Pa.
St. John's University, Collegeville, Minn.
St. John Fisher College, Rochester, N.Y.
St. Norbert College, De Pere, Wis.
St. Peter's College, Jersey City, N.J.
Stonehill College, Easton, Mass.
University of Dayton, Ohio
University of Mary, Bismarck, N.D.
University of Notre Dame, Ind.
University of Portland, Ore.
University of Scranton, Pa.
Viterbo College, La Crosse, Wis.
Xavier University, Cincinnati.
Gonzaga Health Care Program
GONZAGA UNIVERSITY, Oct. 27—Gonzaga University and five area healthcare providers will open a pioneering clinical pastoral education program in January, said a university statement.
The program will train chaplains and clergy-in-training to better understand death and dying.
New President of Holy Cross Named
HOLY CROSS, Nov. 2—Jesuit Father Michael C. McFarland was elected the 31st president of the College of the Holy Cross Nov. 2.
Father McFarland, currently arts and sciences dean at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., will assume his duties at the Worcester, Mass. school in July 2000.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: A Popular Kid from a Troubled Family DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:At beatifications, after the solemn pronunciation of the beatification formula, an image of the new blessed is unveiled to reflect that he is now worthy of public veneration. Typically, the images selected are simple portraits, sometimes embellished with pious touches. When Pier Giorgio Frassati was beatified in 1990, the image chosen was a scene of him on a mountaintop in his hiking clothes, his hair tussled and a pipe firmly clenched in the corner of his mouth.
A different portrait for a different kind of saint.
He was good-looking, popular among his peers, smart but not bookish, a mountaineer and a skier, an effortless leader and not afraid to get into a fight when necessary.
Pier Giorgio came from a prominent and wealthy family, and was set for a prosperous and influential life himself. His future was cut short by polio, however, and when he died on July 4, 1925, it was the poor, the sick and the outcasts, rather than the rich and powerful, who came by the thousands to pay their respects.
There is a certain suspicion in our contemporary mind-set, rarely voiced but often held, that holiness is something reserved for — to put it bluntly — losers. People who can make it in the world get ahead on their talents and their charm. Religion, piety and sanctity are for those who can't. The virtuous life is suited to those who don't have what it takes to be victorious in the game of life. Pier Giorgio is a living refutation of that devilish attitude, demonstrating that a man can conquer the world without worldliness conquering his heart.
The turbulent world of early 20th-century Italian public life was something well known to Pier Giorgio. He was born, on April 6, 1901, into the high society of Turin. His father, Alfredo, later a senator and Italian ambassador to Germany, was the founder of the influential daily La Stampa.
Alfredo was keen on his son's worldly future, preparing for Pier Giorgio a future in the newspaper — without asking him whether that was what he wanted.
Alfredo's agnosticism was respectful of the Catholic faith of his wife, Adelaide. Pier Giorgio's mother had a rather harsh personality, and while dutiful in her religious obligations, was not known to exhibit much Christian joy or charity. Alfredo and Adelaide were not a model of a happy Christian marriage. A year before Pier Giorgio died, Alfredo requested a legal separation.
It was not the kind of home that usually produces saints.
Yet Pier Giorgio had from an early age an extraordinary spiritual life, marked by deep prayer that overflowed into works of charity and evangelization. He did this in the most natural way, simply refusing to hide his faith and piety in front of his friends. To the contrary, when his peers would eagerly seek his company on mountain climbing or skiing trips, he would pray at the times he would normally do so, and encourage others to join. An excursion with Pier Giorgio would certainly be fun, illumined by his infectious humor and robust personality, and would also be infused with his piety, which was never ostentatious.
Contemplation, Action and Joy
“Jesus comes to me every morning in holy Communion and I return the visit in his poor,” Pier Giorgio said.
His charity was at once expansive and hidden. His parents did not know until after his death that he spent time in the slums with the St. Vincent de Paul Society, visiting the unemployed, the destitute, the sick and the children. He gave generously of his considerable means, going as far as saving the leftovers from the table in the embassy in Germany for the hungry.
The poor who came to honor him upon his death were the beneficiaries of his charitable action. That action was supported by an intense prayer life, devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and a supernatural outlook that saw Christ in all, especially the weak and suffering. In 1922, Pier Giorgio took the scapular of the Dominican Third Order, drawn by the Dominican combination of contemplation and action.
“You ask me if I am happy and how can I not be?” Pier Giorgio used to say. “As long as faith gives me strength I am happy. Any Catholic can't but be happy. Sadness should be banned from Catholic souls.”
Pier Giorgio was not naive about suffering — he bore his own final agonizing days with heroic silence — but he had a talent for happiness rooted in faith. Indeed, he knew that the happiness that the world so desperately seeks can only come from a faith embraced and lived out to the full, with a smile and a laugh.
The Rich Young Man
Pope John Paul II wrote about this youthful search for happiness, commenting on the question of the rich young man in the Gospel, What do I still lack? (Matthew 19:20): “This question is a very important one. It shows that in the moral conscience of a young person who is forming the plan for his or her whole life, there is hidden an aspiration to ‘something more.’ … It is in the Gospel that the aspiration to perfection, to ‘something more,’ finds its explicit point of reference” (Letter to the Youth of the World, 1985, No. 8).
Pier Giorgio Frassati was a rich young man. Most people of his age in North America today would qualify as “rich young men or women” by historic standards. They do not face hardship, and suffer — it is the right word — from an embarrassment of options. Many high-achieving high school and college students know that they can do whatever they want to do, and as a result cannot commit themselves to any one thing.
But Pier Giorgio knew that it was necessary to give oneself to one thing if happiness is to be found. One mission is better than a thousand-and-one options.
Every young person, especially the young man or woman who is blessed with talent and opportunities, wants “something more” from life.
That “something more” can be sought in another university degree, another six months spent traveling abroad, another résumé-enhancing summer job or internship, another career shift, another set of experiences to be had before moving on to whatever comes next.
It is possible that nothing might come next: Pier Giorgio died at age 24. But by then he had already discovered what his contemporaries in Turin needed to know then, and what his fellow young people need to know now, that the world has a lot to offer, but not enough for happiness. “Something more,” or better, “Someone more” is necessary.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Pro-Lifers Side With Mel Gibson DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—A critical comment by CBS-TV's Bryant Gumbel has turned out to a lethal weapon of sorts in the pro-life cause.
The comment on CBS' The Early Show came after actor Mel Gibson in an interview expressed his personal views against abortion and in favor of the death penalty.
“I was glad to see you ask him about it,” host Gumbel told the reporter, “because he's said some pretty outrageous things over the years.”
Gumbel's comment, construed to be a slight against Gibson's anti-abortion views, consequentially prompted dozens of protest calls to CBS, according to Pro-Life Infonet, which sends abortion news and information to about 10,500 e-mail subscribers daily.
Pro-Life Infonet spokesman Steven Ertelt said his organization wants Gumbel to apologize for treating Gibson's opposition to abortion as “this horrible view, as if he was spouting racism.”
“If you disagree, that's fine and good,” Ertelt said, “but you have to respect other people's opinions.”
Gumbel, host of the new morning news and variety program, made his comment after a taped interview with the star of “Lethal Weapon” and “Braveheart” aired on the show Nov. 1.
Though Gumbel didn't specify which opinions he was referring to, Pro-Life Infonet's Ertelt noted that Gibson had addressed his opposition to abortion and his support for capital punishment.
“I really think the pro-life one is what he was getting at,” Ertelt said of Gumbel.
Ertelt and his wife, Sally Winn, run Women and Children First, a nonprofit organization based in Helena, Mont., that sponsors Pro-Life Infonet. Ertelt is also executive director of Montana Right to Life. Winn is an activist with the National Pro-life Democrats Committee (see story on Page 1).
Ertelt noted that Gibson's longstanding opposition to abortion has been well-publicized, and is probably the best-known of the actor's political views.
The Early Show piece that aired anticipates a movie Gibson is shooting in South Carolina called The Patriot, about a farmer during the Revolutionary War.
During the piece the reporter, Mark McEwen, noted that Gibson's stances against abortion and for capital punishment are out of step with Hollywood, and he asked Gibson, “do you ever feel like you're howling in a hurricane?” according to a transcript of the show on the Media Research Center Web site.
“You have to have these opinions about things,” Gibson replied, according to a transcript on the CBS Web site. “I think I'm pretty firm on stuff like that … I don't feel like I'm howling in a hurricane. I just try and do my bit the way I think it should be done.”
After the taped piece ended, Gumbel, speaking live on the set of the show, praised McEwen for bringing up Gibson's views. “I was glad to see you ask him about it,” Gumbel told the reporter, “because he's said some pretty outrageous things over the years and nobody seems to ever call him on it. They kind of think, ‘Oh, that's cute, he's a movie star.’ But some of the stuff he's said is…”
McEwen jumped in and said: “Well, he speaks his mind, and if you ask him, he backs up everything that he's said.”
As the Register went to press, CBS spokesman Kelly Edwards had not responded to requests for comment. A spokesman for Alan Nierob, Gibson's publicist, declined comment on behalf of the actor.
Ertelt said he was alerted to the show by an e-mail newsletter from the Media Research Center, a group he said he has worked with in the past.
The Media Research Center, chaired by L. Brent Bozell III, is a media watchdog group that tapes and produces transcripts of national TV news shows. The organization has criticized Gumbel severely in recent weeks in anticipation of his new show, publishing examples of what it calls Gumbel's liberal bias. Gumbel has denied the charge.
According to the Media Research Center, when Gumbel appeared Oct. 30 on Tim Russert's self-titled television show on CNBC, Russert asked Gumbel if he finds it “hard holding your own views in check.”
Gumbel, speaking two days before the Gibson interview aired on The Early Show, replied: “You know what, in terms of my political views, I hold them in check. I don't think that someone who watches is inclined to think that I'm one way or the other.”
Gibson's own career has not been without controversy. Many of his movies rely on a blend of violence, sexuality and profanity that some viewers find inconsistent with Gibson's own real-life role as a family man.
In The Patriot, Gibson plays Benjamin Martin, the loving father of seven children. In real life, Gibson and his wife, Robyn, just became the parents of their seventh child, a boy.
Gibson said the new baby “came along 10 years after everybody else. You know? And it was a surprise, but a welcome one. I didn't think I'd enjoy it this much. … I'm savoring it, man. It's the best thing ever. It's great.”
Matt McDonald is based in Mashpee, Massachusetts.
----- EXCERPT: CBS' Bryant Gumbel under fire for criticizing actor after pro-life statement ----- EXTENDED BODY: Matt McDonald ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: They Always Have Room For One More DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:SEMINOLE, Fla.—Apnea monitors, feeding pumps and nebulizers are as much a part of Candy and Rick Tremmel's child-friendly home as toys, computer games and baby equipment.
As a medical foster family, Candy and Rick (along with their five children) care for the sickest of sick babies, ranging in age from newborn to about 2 years old.
Over the last 12 years, they have cared for 53 foster children.
“This is a commitment that our whole family has to make,” said Candy. “It takes everybody's cooperation.”
None of the Tremmel children can remember a time when they did not have a foster sibling.
“Our girls (triplets Kayla, Kristin and Amanda) were a little over 2 years old, and Adam was 15 months old, when we took in our first foster baby,” said Candy.
In fact, it was the birth of her daughters that prepared Candy for her role as a medical foster mother.
“The girls were born at 29 weeks gestation,” she said. “Kristin had hydrocephalus, and we were told she would probably be mildly retarded. Kayla had a thin rim of brain tissue and a big open space where her brain should be. Amanda had mild cerebral palsy.”
The girls (who are now juniors at Seminole High School and very active in school and church activities) all came home from the hospital within three months of their birth.
“Taking care of triplets — especially because they had a lot of medical problems — I was on the go all the time,” Candy said. “At 11 months, they started at a special preschool, and were suddenly gone for six to seven hours a day. Adam was such an easy baby. I felt like, ‘There has to be more I can do.’”
That was when an ad appeared in the bulletin at Blessed Sacrament Church, seeking families to do foster care through Catholic Charities.
“I told Rick, ‘I'd like to do that,’” said Candy.
“I didn't know anything about foster care,” said Rick, “but I love Candy so much that if she wanted to do it, I was behind her. Looking back, it seems like something we were destined to do.”
Their first three foster children were perfectly healthy. Their fourth foster child, Courtney, had glaucoma. “We were familiar with glaucoma because Kayla has it,” said Candy. “I knew it was something I could handle.
“Courtney was the deciding factor for us in doing medical foster care. It was so rewarding to take this little tiny baby who had all these problems and watch her blossom in our family.”
The goal with medical foster care is usually that a child will return to his or her family, not get adopted.
“We need foster parents who can work with the biological family and teach them how to care for their babies and become good parents,” said Maureen Barnash, director of the Medical Placement Home Program for Pinellas and Pasco counties.
“Candy shines at this,” Barnash said. “Many parents are initially very angry when their child is put into medical foster care, but no parent has ever stayed angry with Candy.”
“I have never seen Candy and Rick without a foster baby in their arms,” said Millie Coombes, a longtime friend from church. The amazing thing is, their children emulate them. They think it's no big deal to carry these babies around — monitors, breathing equipment, and all.”
“I think that doing medical foster care has been extremely beneficial for our kids,” said Candy. “They've learned a lot about giving and sharing, and they've grown up to be almost without prejudice because we've had different races of babies, different colors, from different ethnic backgrounds.
“Alex (our 11-year-old) has told me that when he grows up he'd like his wife to go to work so he can be a medical foster parent.”
“When you walk into the Tremmels' house, the warmth hits you in the face,” said Paula Masey, whose sons attend Blessed Sacrament School with Adam and Alex. “When one person is running on empty, another one will give them a hug and fill them up again.”
“They give these babies their entire hearts,” Masey continued. “I've seen the pain they go through when it is time for a foster child to leave. It hurts. But their attitude is, ‘It's too bad if it hurts me. I have to do what is right for the child.’”
“It's good for me to know that families like the Tremmels exist,” concurred Mary Surico, a counselor at Blessed Sacrament School. “Their children and other people's children are their priority.”
“My faith has always been important to me, and I was looking for a way to live that out,” concluded Candy. “I hate it when people call me a saint.
“Everybody is good at doing different things. I've found my niche.”
Dana Mildebrath writes from Seminole, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dana Mildebrath ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Abortion and Breast Cancer DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:CHICAGO—For many post-abortive women, the path to psychological recovery means waging a daily battle against irrepressible feelings of anger and regret.
Now, medical discoveries have added a new dimension to the struggles of post-abortive women: fear that abortion has dramatically increased their chances of contracting breast cancer, the leading cause of death for middle age women.
At an Oct. 28 legislative briefing organized by the Illinois Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, a medical expert and professor of endocrinology at City University of New York described the link between abortion and breast cancer. Dr. Joel Brind spoke to an audience that included Illinois lawmakers, women's health activists and local media.
Brind explained that when a woman becomes pregnant, her body produces a large quantity of estrogen, causing breast cells to grow. This intensive process of cell multiplication (know in medical terms as proliferation) lasts through approximately the 32nd week of pregnancy. When proliferation ceases, these cells then begin to differentiate and become milk-producing cells during the final eight weeks of pregnancy.
But when an induced abortion is performed, this process is cut short and the phase of differentiation does not occur. Herein lies the risk, Brind said.
Cancer is directly related to a sizable proliferation of cells which have not undergone differentiation. These cells are highly vulnerable to carcinogens and may give rise to cancerous tumors later in a woman's life, the doctor said.
The Evidence
In 1996 Brind co-authored a review and analysis of all existing studies of the connection between abortion and breast cancer. His findings were published in the British Medical Association's Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Brind found that out of 23 studies, 19 found an undeniable statistical link between abortion and breast cancer incidence. In the United States, 11 out of 12 studies confirmed the relationship.
After comparing the research, Brind calculated a 30% risk factor between abortion and breast cancer incidence. Recent evidence — including six of eight new studies — confirms Brind's findings, he said.
Brind cited one such finding published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Janet Daling and a team of researchers from the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Institute in Seattle discovered that women who have an abortion are 50% more likely to contract breast cancer than other women.
A Deafening Silence
According to Brind, the medical community has known of the link between abortion and breast cancer since a 1957 study on Japanese women. But the community has largely demonstrated what Brind claimed is a deadly cover-up — a “tremendous, relentless effort to squash any credibility of this.”
For example, Daling acknowledged in her article: “I would have loved to have found no association between breast cancer and abortion, but our research is rock-solid and out data is accurate.” Yet surprisingly few medical experts have championed a woman's right to know the breast cancer risks associated with abortion, Brind said.
Instead, he contended, abortion advocates commonly refer to certain studies which found no association between abortion and breast cancer as evidence that the overall research on the subject is inconclusive, and thus not binding. However, Brind stated that the particular studies cited in counter-arguments are based on fallacious methodology.
Some of these studies, for instance, grouped women who had undergone an induced abortion with women who had a spontaneous abortion (miscarriage). Spontaneous abortions usually occur in the first trimester before breast cell proliferation intensifies. Thus, the statistical averages calculated in these studies do not accurately record the link between induced abortion and breast cancer.
Brind next addressed the argument of “response bias” which claims that women who have breast cancer are more likely to disclose the fact that they have had an abortion than are women who do not have breast cancer, thus weighting the statistics in favor of the abortion-breast cancer link. But since the emergence of the “response bias” argument, Brind related, the original proponents have retracted their theory, even though many in the medical community still cling to its conclusions.
Brind also contested the accusation that research proving the link between abortion and breast cancer is tainted by pro-life politics. He was quick to point out that his co-author is “pro-choice” as are many of the researchers cited in his study. In fact, the editor in chief of the British journal, Dr. Stuart Dorman, took such criticism to task warning that the medical community has an obligation to inform women of the link between abortion and breast cancer.
Dorman wrote in an editorial: “I believe that if you take a view (as I do), which is often called ‘pro-choice,’ you need at the same time to have a view which might be called ‘pro-information’ without excessive paternalistic censorship (or interpretation) of the data.”
Brind and others said they believe that Stuart's comments hint at the real reason behind the silence: the desire to protect the political agenda that abortion enshrines. According to Brind, the medical community will disparage any evidence of the connection between abortion and breast cancer in order to protect “the sacred myth of safe abortion.”
But at what cost? Brind asked. “How many women must die over this before everyone knows that abortion kills women?”
A Woman's Right to Know
Following Brind's talk, Wisconsin attorney John Kindley took the podium and addressed the legal issue of “informed consent.”
Kindley declared that the current scientific evidence linking abortion to breast cancer, although subject to further testing, necessarily compels doctors and the medical community to inform women of the risk of breast cancer inherent in abortion. Kindley argued this claim based on fundamental rules of tort law and medical guidelines established in the Physician's Reference Manual.
Kindley stated that there is “no excuse” for withholding this information from women considering abortion. He added that post-abortive women “have a right to know so they can monitor themselves for early detection of breast cancer.”
Illinois state Sen. Patrick O'Malley, who spoke next, concurred with Kindley that doctors have a legal and ethical duty to inform women of the breast cancer risks associated with abortion — and that lawmakers likewise have a duty to inform women of this evidence in order to protect them from unnecessary health risks.
O'Malley called for the adoption for bipartisan resolution in the Illinois Senate to form a special task force to investigate the issue. He urged women to speak out and force lawmakers to begin addressing the issue.
‘Time Bomb’
As was evidenced by the gathering, many women have begun to raise their voices on the abortion-breast cancer link.
Elizabeth Verchio, executive director of an Illinois-based counseling organization for post-abortive women called Victims of Choice, now includes information on the link between abortion and breast cancer in her work with women.
Women are afraid and need to know the facts, Verchio stated. She said they look in the mirror and think, “every little lump — is this cancer?”
Recalling her own experience, Verchio told how doctors shut women off when they ask questions about the risks of abortion. And after these women are ushered out of the abortion clinic, they are left to face their anger — and now their fear — alone.
Another woman, Tommie Romano, expressed similar grief. “It's criminal that they're doing this to women,” she declared.
Romano had her own explanation of why the medical community is so afraid to admit the link between abortion and breast cancer:
“It's because this information will effect the 70% of women in the middle who might change their mind about abortion if they knew the risks. … This isn't religion or politics here — this is cancer.”
What most alarms Verchio and Romano is that many post-abortive are now reaching the middle-age threshold after which they are more vulnerable to breast cancer. And considering the number of abortions that have been performed since 1973 and continue today, they conclude that abortion-related breast cancer is a time bomb waiting to explode.
John Severance writes from Chicago.
----- EXCERPT: Conference puts spotlight on a link that others seem to ignore ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Severance ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Gospel Of Life DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Pope John Paul II made a pastoral visit the parish of St. Joseph Cafasso in Rome on Feb. 1, 1981, where he included those who adopt children and care for the sick (see Prolife Profile, this page) in his remarks about lay vocations:
I am thinking above all, from the point of view of state of life, of the choice of marriage, of that of giving birth to a new human being or of adopting a child that has been left alone in the world, etc.
And I am thinking also of other situations: for example, of the husband who is left a widower, of the spouse who is abandoned, of the orphan. I am thinking of the condition of the sick, the old, infirm and lonely; and of the poor: “God chose what is weak in the world,” St. Paul recalled, “to shame the strong.” In God's mysterious plan, the renewing action of grace passes through human weakness: it passes particularly, therefore, through these situations of suffering and abandonment.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:Nurse Testifies Against Infanticide
ILLINOIS RIGHT TO LIFE, Nov. 1—Jill Stanek, the nurse who told the Register and other media about the practice of “therapeutic abortions” tat Christ Hospital, recently wrote reflections for the Illinois Right to Life newsletter.
In “therapeutic abortions” infants are born live and then given “comfort care” while they are allowed to asphyxiate or starve.
“We did such a thing almost exclusively to rid ourselves of babies with physical or mental handicaps. These handicaps could range from being fatal in nature such as having no brain or severe hearing abnormalities to being non-fatal but ‘marked by substantial uncertainly or variability’ such as spina bifida or Down Syndrome.”
After hearing about the horrifying procedure, it took her Stanek a few years before she realized that she needed to do something.
“What began with my writing a letter to the powers that be at my hospital has steadily mushroomed to nationwide public knowledge of this atrocity and federal and state investigations. As I write this, I do not know the end of the story.
“Christ Hospital and its parent company Advocate Health Care Systems appear to be set on defending and continuing their abortion practice. I wish they'd realize against whom they are fighting, because if they did I believe they would see that they are fighting in vain. Their fight is not really against the media or even the pro-life or Christian communities. It is against the person their hospital is named after, Christ himself.”
Abortionists Challenging Ind. Waiting Period Law
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 2—Women wishing to abort their children have to wait 18 hours after consulting with a medical expert under an Indiana law.
Pro-lifers insist that it's a way to ensure women know about the potential risks and complications.
Agroup of abortion lawyers are challenging the constitutionality of the 1995 law in federal court because it places what opponents call an “undue burden” on women seeking abortions.
The law has the effect of making women take two trips to the clinic, which is difficult for poor women, Janet Crepps, an attorney for the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Law and Policy told the AP.
The current lawsuit was delayed until now because of a similar case being considered by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which reviews federal court cases from Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. That court in August ruled that Wisconsin's in-person requirement did not pose an “undue burden” to women, a decision that could make the current legal battle difficult for opponents of Indiana's counseling law.
Historian Silences Feminists' Pro-Life Views
FEMINISTS FOR LIFE, Nov. 3—Ken Burns' documentary, Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony does not tell their whole story.
Burns became famous for his comprehensive documentaries of the Civil War and baseball, but he was more selective about the history of the women's movement, the Washington-based organization said.
“Without known exception, the early American feminists opposed abortion,” said FFL President Serrin Foster, “but you won't learn this by watching PBS.”
Like many feminist papers of the day, Anthony and Stanton's Revolution often editorialized against abortion while simultaneously identifying the root causes that drove women to abortion. They referred to abortion as “child murder, infanticide, feticide.”
“Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and other feminist foremothers provide a rich history of pro-woman, pro-life activism that continues to inspire us today. By providing ample documentation to Florentine Films, Burns' production company, FFL had hoped that their whole story would be told. Burns chose to ignore what the early feminists would not — abortion,” said the group in a statement.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Did You Know? DATE: 11/14/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 14-20, 1999 ----- BODY:It's far less common for medical students to receive abortion training today than it was 10 years ago, according to Human Life International's June 1999 report. Part of the reason, the reports says, is a lack of interest among budding doctors and nurses. The following statistics indicate one thing very clearly — the majority of today's abortion providers are at the tail end of their career.
• In 1987, 56% of all medical schools taught how to perform abortions; in 1997, only 12% did.
• The average age of abortionists in America is 58.
• In 1990, 65% of registered nurses said they'd willingly take part in abortions. By 1998, 35% said they would.
• Between 1988-1996 the number of abortion providers fell from 2,586 to 2,042 — a drop of 21%.
----- EXCERPT: Facts of Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Violent Videos DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:MEMPHIS, Tenn.—Phil Gray says he's still haunted by what he saw the first and only time he ventured into a shopping mall arcade that was showing videos of graphic killing sprees under the heading of entertainment.
“There was a lot of screaming and yelling coming from the video machines,” he recalled. “But the thing that shocked me most were the youngsters who just sat quietly with their mouths hanging open as if transfixed.”
Today, as vice president of Catholics United for the Faith, an apologetics group based in Steubenville, Ohio, Gray is among a growing number of Church leaders and other concerned citizens fighting against the teen-age violence that they fear is growing in the United States.
As more scientific data on the harmful video-game phenomenon come to light, two former Army officers have acknowledged that military simulators unintentionally helped lay the groundwork for the problem.
Retired Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, who once taught psychology at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., said, “As we learned through scientific and other studies about how to operate a war, we reduced the training of recruits to simulators that teach you how to kill as well as fly a plane or drive a car.”
With 50 years' worth of such data on hand, it didn't take long for the video merchants to copy the military's training manuals as models for their own programs. “Now, we have murder simulators,” Grossman said.
Grossman co-authored the book Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill with Gloria DeGaetano, a specialist in psycho-linguistics from Seattle. DeGaetano, the married mother of two teen-aged sons, has been gathering scientific data on the damage media violence can do to young people.
“Parents don't understand that there is a relationship in our culture between violence and children's behavior,” she told the Register. “Yet, basically, the scientific evidence is right there in spades, and still our culture continues to deny it.”
DeGaetano said she began to study children's behavior when, as a training instructor of teachers, she found the schools she was working with had records of much misbehavior and disrespect among the pupils.
Eventually her research prompted her to pay a visit to a violent-video arcade.
“In such a place, the driving force is hyperactivity and sensationalism,” she said. “And lately sexuality is being combined with the many other images to make the scene even more frightening than it ever had been.”
One former Army officer who believes his work in the military may have helped trigger the video-violence craze is retired Lt. Col. Robert L. Maginnis.
Maginnis, who helped train soldiers during his 24-year career, has turned to the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., to promote his advocacy against teen violence.
Asked how certain he was that video games can be used to encourage teen-agers to kill, Maginnis replied: “It works, believe me. … The U.S. armed services wouldn't have spent billions and billions of dollars over the years on teaching how to kill through using video arcade technology if they didn't think it would do the job.
“This video arcade stuff is as realistic as you can make it — it's the next best thing to going out and finding a real, live target to shoot.”
In their book, Grossman and DeGaetano listed more than 400 citations linking television with youth violence in the United States, which DeGaetano said were compiled by Dr. Brandon Centerwell, a former epidemiologist with the National Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. He is now an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Centerwell noted that epidemiology is a science that deals with the control of diseases, and compared the youth violence problem with an epidemic.
“My own research on these more than 400 cases covered more than seven years and showed conclusively that TV violence increases quite substantially the aggressiveness of children,” he told the Register.
That aggression, he added, can carry over to adulthood and cause major increases in “the rates of serious violence in adults based upon the use of TV.”
“Violence can be attributed to many things,” Centerwell added. “But it turned out that a major part of the increased rates of violence that we have experienced in the last few decades were due to TV and video-game violence among children.”
Gray, at Catholics United for the Faith, pointed to a 1989 pastoral letter by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications which warned that repeated exposure to violence in movies or television can be confusing to children too young to distinguish between fantasy and reality.
The letter, “Pornography and Violence in the Communications Media,” stated: “Violence can condition impressionable persons — especially those who are young — to regard this as normal and acceptable behavior suitable for imitation.”
One merchant is trying to offer alternatives to violent video games.
Brian Supple, chief operations officer of Top Meadow Productions, Auberay, Calif., co-produced a video game entitled Heaven Quest.
Supple said his product is designed to “subtly interact our game with the Word of God by presenting good-moral-level types of video games.”
He made no claims to a scientific knowledge of what violent video games can do to children's minds. But he added, “You cannot compare a little boy 25 years ago playing cowboys and Indians with toy pistols, with how children today are often expressing their feelings in violent video games.”
Robert Holton writes from Memphis, Tennessee.
----- EXCERPT: A Troubling Trigger ----- EXTENDED BODY:Robert Holton ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Movements Lay Groundwork For N.Y. Pentecost 2000 Event DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—Responding to the Pope's call for bishops and new ecclesial movements to work more closely, leaders of 11 movements active in the Archdiocese of New York met Nov. 13 to learn about each other and share what they offer with the vicars of the archdiocese.
Similar meetings have been held in dioceses across the country, from Brooklyn to Dallas.
The meeting in the New York Archdiocese was held in preparation for a June 10 “Pentecost 2000” event where parishes and movements will discuss ways to work together.
At the meeting at Holy Family Church in Manhattan, keynote speaker Jay Dunlap, a member of the apostolic movement Regnum Christi, said the relationship between movements and pastors is like the relationship between Peter and Jesus.
“We in the new movements have received the charisms given our founders,” said Dunlap, who is also a Register Radio News correspondent. “And we need our bishops and pastors to act in persona Christi, to recognize our charisms, instruct us, and purify us as we grow in service to the Church.”
Dunlap outlined the history of Pope John Paul II's interventions on behalf of the new movements. He noted that at the Synod for the Laity in 1988, the movements were regarded with suspicion. But that is changing, he said, especially since Pentecost 1998, when the Holy Father convened the World Congress of Ecclesial Movements.
That meeting culminated in St. Peter's Square on May 30, 1998, when 300,000 members of 56 new movements and communities joined the Pope for a celebration of music and testimonials.
“Movements” is the name given to the many new Church organizations that have formed or grown in response to the Second Vatican Council's call for an active laity. Dunlap quoted Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as saying the new movements are now in “phase two” of their maturing process, in which they must come together with bishops and pastors to maximize their effectiveness.
Bishop James McCarthy, one of the New York vicars in attendance, thanked the leaders of the movements, calling them “a blessing to the Church. Continue to do the wonderful works that you're doing. We hope you will continue to grow.”
Representatives of the movements each gave testimonials indicating the nature of their charisms and the kinds of work they do. The testimonials revealed the ways the movements complement one another.
Don Jones of the Cursillo movement said his experience of the trademark Cursillo weekend retreat moved him from being a “borderline agnostic to a true believer.”
“If you have somebody looking for a high octane experience, we have something to offer,” Jones said.
The next speaker, Joseph Wiener of Communion and Liberation, discussed how the movement to which he belongs has a special commitment to youth work. He grew up the son of a Jewish mother and a Lutheran father, but converted to Catholicism with the help of a college professor and friends in a pro-life group. He says everyone in that group came to join Communion and Liberation.
“After the first six weeks of attending C and L meetings on Long Island,” Wiener said, “I remember singing songs as one of our friends strummed a guitar. We were simply singing with joy and freedom, and I said, ‘That's for me.’”
Jean Palombo of the Neocatechumenal Way told her story of being a young married woman with a career and no desire for children; she was attending a fundamentalist church. Her husband then invited her to a meeting of the Neocatechumenal Way, and she vowed, “This is the last thing I will attend in a Catholic Church.”
Now, Palombo said, she is the mother of nine children, “and each child is the victory of Jesus Christ. When I was married, I took the word ‘obey’ out of the marriage ceremony. In this community I have found myself. I have learned that to obey Christ is true freedom.”
Tom Scheuring then spoke about LAMP Ministries, the New York-based apostolate he founded with his wife, Lynn. He spoke of LAMP's mission to take “food and faith-building material to the poor,” using such means as a canteen truck that reaches the poor of the South Bronx.
Bob Monaghan of Regnum Christi then told of how he integrates the Gospel into his work as a lead trader on Wall Street, leading rosaries and Gospel reflection groups in the heart of the world's financial capital. He said he is also working to bring Catholic radio programming to New York.
Sister Nancy Keller shared the moving story of how the Charismatic Renewal saved her vocation during the crisis times of the early 1970s. She called on the movements to work together, “Not like TV dinners, with each element in its own compartment, nor like V8 juice, where everything is mixed together, but like stew, in which all the pieces retain their flavor and add to the whole.”
Andrea Bartolli of the St. Egidio Community teaches international relations at Columbia University and represents his community at the United Nations. The St. Egidio Community, named for the parish in Rome where it began in 1968, works to end poverty by seeking peace, for “war is the mother of all poverties,” he said. The community was instrumental in negotiating the 1992 peace accord to end civil war in Mozambique.
Sherry Silvi spoke on behalf of the Focolare movement, which she said extends to 183 countries reaching 5 million people. She told of how she went from being a Marxist college student to attending a Focolare meeting and seeing there an overwhelming peace that she lacked.
“I found God and a living Church,” Silvi said. “I must love Jesus in every person. Now I have a passion for unity,” which is a central theme of the Focolare spirituality.
Representing Worldwide Marriage Encounter, Jim and Nancy Rizzi told of the transforming weekend experience that helped them grow in love and communication. “God also found a place in my life again,” Nancy Rizzi added. “The closer I am to God the closer I am to Jim.”
Ted Gaskin of the Legion of Mary told the history of how Pope St. Pius X told a group of cardinals that the Church's greatest need was for each parish to have a group of laymen “who are truly apostolic doing the work of Christ ‘feeding my lambs.’” An Irishman named Frank Duff took up that challenge in 1921 and started the Legion of Mary. Gaskin said the Legion now has 6,000 members in New York alone, engaged in door-to-door evangelization, taking parish censuses, and other works designed to make them “extra hands to help priests.”
Tom Cornell of the Catholic Worker Movement told the meeting he was raised in a working class neighborhood but became “alive intellectually” when he started learning the history of the working class.
“I ultimately came to the conclusion I hold today,” he said. “The Catholic tradition holds a more coherent social justice position than has ever existed anywhere else. All we have to do is study it and put it into action.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY:Register Staff ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Fetal-Parts Trafficking Spurs House Action DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—In the wake of growing reports of a ghoulish trafficking in fetal body parts, the U.S. House voted Nov. 9 to conduct hearings on the matter.
The resolution, sponsored by congressmen Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and co-sponsored by Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Joe Pitts, R-Pa., expressed the sense of the House “with respect to private companies involved in the trafficking of baby body parts for profit.” It passed on a voice vote.
“Unfortunately, entrepreneurs appear to have found a profitable niche within the abortion industry and have begun to traffic in the body parts of aborted babies,” Tancredo said.
In a letter to House Commerce Chair Thomas Bliley, R-Va., the bill's sponsors noted that “federal law … prohibits any person ‘to knowingly acquire, receive or otherwise transfer any human fetal tissue for valuable consideration if the transfer affects interstate commerce.’”
In August, the Denton, Texas-based Life Dynamics organization announced that it had evidence that proved a body parts trade had been booming since President Clinton lifted a federal ban on fetal tissue research with a 1993 executive order.
Life Dynamics President Mark Crutcher said his evidence consisted of eyewitness accounts, dozens of order forms from researchers requesting fetal parts, price lists for fetal organs and donation-consent forms for women undergoing abortion.
Crutcher, speaking with the Register before the story broke nationally, said that by posing as a researcher he was able to infiltrate businesses that sold the parts. But he said his real break came when a woman who had worked for traffickers came forward to help with his investigation.
In a videotaped interview Crutcher made available to the Register, the woman, who goes by the name “Kelly” to protect her anonymity, described the day she stopped working for the trade.
She said she was waiting outside an operating room as an abortionist removed twin babies from its mother's womb. The doctor then called Kelly into the room, telling her he had “a good specimen.” Kelly looked at the twin babies in the bucket before her and recoiled. “They're still alive,” she said, and left the room. The doctor, she said, filled the bucket with sterile water until the babies drowned. “That's when I knew it was wrong,” she said.
Rep. Pitts, in an apparent reference to Kelly's testimony, said he was “horrified” by reports that some abortion-ists may be “letting babies be born alive and are then drowning them so they can be cut up” according to researchers’ requirements. In addition, he noted, “some doctors are encouraging women to undergo partial-birth abortion to maximize the possibility of obtaining fetal tissues of organs useful to researchers.”
‘Harvests’
Life Dynamics’ Mark Crutcher said “Kelly” had provided his group with enough information to begin its own two-year investigation on the fetal tissue trade.
“It first came to our attention through Kelly's reports,” Crutcher said. “She became horrified at what she had seen and came to us.” Crutcher said fetal tissue wholesalers operate by “placing employees in abortion clinics to harvest tissue, limbs and organs from aborted babies. This material is then shipped to researchers working for universities, pharmaceutical companies and government agencies.”
Crutcher said companies are able to circumvent laws forbidding the sale of human tissue or body parts by having clinics “donate” the bodies. But the clinics then exact exorbitant “site fees” for the right to access the tissue.
Crutcher said that the order forms he obtained from companies such as the Anatomic Gift Foundation in Laurel, Md., prove that the site fees aren't arbitrary.
“These allegations are ludicrous,” said Brent Bardley, director of Anatomic Gift. Bardley told the Register that his company does “procure fetal tissue from abortions and spontaneous miscarriages,” but that reports of his technicians providing order sheets for specific body parts and asking doctors to alter their procedures for better “specimens” is “based on false information.”
“We just take discarded tissue; we have nothing to do with the procedure itself,” Bardley said. He added that tissue is retrieved on the basis of its condition, but that Anatomic Gift doesn't ask doctors to alter their procedures to ensure “good specimens.”
Bardley said once a patient consents to have her aborted baby used for research, his technicians are told when the abortion will take place. But he again flatly denied that abortion procedures are altered to suit the needs of researchers buying the particular limbs or organs.
“We don't want any tissue to go to waste,” Bardley said. “The Anatomic Gift Foundation provides a service to investigators [researchers], but we are a nonprofit organization in which no money changes hands, except if we have to reimburse clinics for the use of their supplies.”
Crutcher doesn't buy it. “They're playing word games with you,” Crutcher told the Register. “Money is changing hands. Just look at the fee schedules we gave you.”
Crutcher supplied the Register with copies of more than 50 orders placed by medical researchers. In one of the forms a request is made that the aborted baby be placed on ice 10 minutes after being removed, “too hasty for anyone to claim that these organ harvesters aren't cooperating with doctors,” Crutcher contended.
Partial-Birth Connection
In the course of investigating the fetal-tissue trade, Crutcher said he realized that partial birth abortion became a hot issue around the same time the fetal tissue trade picked up.
“I thought, ‘You'd have to be naive to think these two are unconnected,’” Crutcher said. “First of all, It's absurd to suggest, as many did in the debate over partial-birth, that this procedure is used to protect the life of the mother.
“Anyone who knows anything about childbirth knows that you don't induce a breach birth for the health of the mother.”
On the other hand, Crutcher said, “if you want a whole baby, partial-birth abortion will be your method of choice.” Crutcher said that clinics first charge a woman for her abortion and then sell the whole fetus at several hundred dollars to researchers to maximize profits.
“In order to get the most money,” Crutcher continued, “they make every attempt to deliver the baby whole, with a minimum of scratches on the body.”
“This is something that happens quite frequently in the industry,” said Eric Harrah, a former abortion clinic owner turned pro-lifer.
Harrah, who now lectures worldwide on the abortion industry, told the Register of an incident in one of his New York clinics.
“When I showed up,” Harrah said, “the staff explained to me that the baby was born alive and that the physician ordered the staff out of the room. When they returned the baby was dead. We never found out if the baby died on its own or was killed by the doctor, but I suspect that the baby was drowned because its body was completely clean.”
‘Money Started Flowing’
Regarding Crutcher's claim that procedures are altered to the specifications of researchers, Harrah said that he began to notice a pattern only after leaving the abortion industry.
“After President Clinton lifted the ban on fetal tissue research,” Harrah recalled, “doctors became more careful about disposing of the fetuses they aborted. Suddenly we were sending the fetuses to universities by Fed-Ex and UPS or freezing them. You definitely started seeing an increase in babies being aborted whole.”
Harrah said his Delaware clinic received a letter from Bardley in 1994 or 1995, inviting it to participate in the fetal-tissue market. “At the time we thought, ‘this is some pro-life Catholic group trying to set us up,’” Harrah said. “But when the money started flowing, everybody knew it wasn't a setup.”
In her videotaped interview with Life Dynamics, Kelly said that in a typical two-week period she would pick up between 30 and 40 fetuses, many of which were delivered at over 22 weeks gestation. About “three or four of these would be live births,” Kelly said, adding, “the doctor would either break the neck or take a pair of tongs and basically beat the fetus until it was dead.”
According to a statement issued by the Republican National Coalition for Life, members of Congress won't use the hearings as an occasion to ban fetal tissue research. The coalition cited powerful lobbying efforts by pharmaceutical companies and Clinton's inevitable veto of any bill aimed at banning fetal-tissue research as reasons.
A representative for Rep. Smith told the Register that he hoped to hold the hearings early next year. “Things definitely started to change after Clinton became president,” Harrah said. “For the last eight years the pro-abortion side has been living in Camelot and these people are going to do whatever they can to inflict damage on the pro-life side. This is a war.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY:Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Student Fees and Faith At Issue in High Court DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—Should a Christian student be forced to finance campus organizations that advocate abortion or celebrate homosexuality?
That is precisely what Scott South-worth and others like him say they have been forced to do in order to attend and graduate from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Southworth petitioned the university for a $7.99 refund for the portion of his student fees that support such groups which he insists conflict with his religious faith.
After the university refused a refund, Southworth and other students filed suit in 1996. A federal trial judge and the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals both ruled in favor of the students.
Southworth is now a lawyer and an aide to a state senator. His case, South-worth vs. Board of Regents, was heard before the U.S. Supreme Court Nov. 9. A ruling in expected sometime in the spring.
It is a case that could affect hundreds of thousands of students across the country. The University of Wisconsin has 38,000 students alone.
“We're trying to protect the right of conscience not to force people to support advocacy by private groups,” said Jordan Lorence, who argued the case before the Supreme Court on Nov. 9.
University officials contend that the fee system is a necessary and appropriate way to foster lively debate on campus.
“Our position,” said Pat Brady, who is a lawyer for the university but did not try the case, “is to establish a forum of free speech to stimulate free speech as much as possible and that this requires a continuation of the fee system.”
Brady's position is not unique to secular schools. “This is the same thing we're running up against in the Catholic universities, that we have to hear all these different viewpoints,” observed Patrick Reilly, executive director of the Cardinal Newman Society, an organization dedicated to promoting Catholic identity in Catholic universities.
“Is funding these types of groups fundamental to the university's mission?” Reilly asked.
Yes, it is, if Catholics and other Christians want their own message heard on secular campuses said Richard Garnett, a Supreme Court observer who teaches law at Notre Dame.
“I think there's grounds to create a vibrant educational atmosphere,” contended Garnett. “It's important to have this forum.”
Garnett is worried that if the students win, it will also defund campus organizations and newspapers dedicated to evangelizing Christianity.
The best strategy, Garnett suggested, is not to defund the feminists or the homosexuals but to create alternative organizations of your own.
“If you don't like what they're saying, start your own group,” said Garnett.
He noted that there was no evidence that religious or conservative groups were not receiving money from the University of Wisconsin.
If a Christian group had requested funding and the university refused to fund it, the court would side with the Christians, according to Garnett. He cited a previous court ruling, Rosenberger vs. University of Virginia in which the university was ordered to give money to a religious newspaper that had been denied equal funding.
“That was important for religious freedom,” Garnett told the Register, “because the Supreme Court said it's not an establishment of religion because it's funded through this fee mechanism.”
Reilly, of the Newman Society, said that the financing of ideological groups will always be a thorny issue.
“You can't fund every point of view,” he said. “The best thing a university can do is to refrain from supporting any particular point of view.”
The students assert that just as the court has protected the right of union members not to have their membership dues support political activity, it should also protect their right not to support the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual Center, the Young Feminist Task-force, and the International Socialist Center.
University of Wisconsin attorney Brady said of Southworth, “He's trying to analogize this situation with a union or bar association. But he's not being compelled to speak or to join.”
Whereas it is easier to attribute the ideas that a union endorses with the views of an individual union member, Brady said, no reasonable person would attribute the ideas of “all student organizations to any one student.”
Lorence, the attorney for the plaintiffs, is upbeat about the case, insisting that the First Amendment is clear on this one: “The Supreme Court has said you have the right to speak or not to speak.”
While Reilly, of the Newman Society, is sympathetic to the students, he believes that the Court will not rule in their favor.
“My feeling is that the court won't support the students because of the issue brought up by the university where students could protest about research grants being used for things that they disagree with,” he said.
Garnett said he hoped that the court rejects the case made by Southworth and his fellow students.
“It's important for these students’ claim to be rejected as unconstitutional,” Garnett contended. “If they were accepted, that would be a powerful tool against school vouchers.
“They would argue, ‘I don't want my tax dollars going to religious schools.’ It's not a perfect analogy, but it's a good one.”
Reilly maintained that the university could solve this problem while respecting the rights of Southworth.
“The university should provide an equal forum and make sure it's available to everyone,” he suggested. “It should allow free association. Anyone can decide to get together and form a group and fund it as they see fit.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY:Josh Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: How He Handled a Mid-20s Identity Crisis DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Pope Fiction is the third book by the editor in chief of award-winning Envoy magazine. In addition to writing, he conducts apologetics training seminars across the United States and abroad. He recently spoke with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Drake: Unlike many Catholic apologists you actually grew up Catholic, right? How did you get into Catholic apologetics and evangelization work?
Madrid: I was very blessed to have been born into a Catholic family and raised in a home where the faith was taught and lived and practiced as part of our daily life. As a young adult in my early 20s, I was definitely intellectually convinced of the truth of the Catholic Church.
I attended Mass every Sunday and loved my Catholic faith, but I was lukewarm and sometimes inconsistent in the way I lived it. Things changed over the course of a year when I was 26–27. It was a very difficult year for me, during which I underwent a kind of identity crisis.
I was deeply troubled by the sinfulness I saw in my life, by my lukewarm approach to prayer, and by my lack of fervor. Those pangs coincided with a deep sense of restlessness and unfulfillment. It was becoming painfully, embarrassingly clear to me that I wasn't living the way Christ wanted me to live, and I wasn't doing the work he wanted me to do.
What were you doing for a living at that time?
At the time, I was working in sales and was married with children. But I still didn't know what I should be doing. All I knew was that I was miserable. I knew I was on the wrong road, but I couldn't seem to find the right one.
So, that painful year of soul-searching culminated in what I see as a “reconversion of my heart” to Christ. I asked him to give me the grace to live a better life, to become more fervent in my spiritual life, and to find the career path he had marked out for me. I attribute this reconversion only to Christ's mercy, not my own gropings.
I discovered the power of asking him for something. I took him at his word when he said, “Ask and you shall receive.” So I asked and asked and asked.
When were your prayers finally answered?
I had been going on my lunch hours to a nearby Catholic church and spent the better part of the hour praying before the Blessed Sacrament, asking Christ to show me what he wanted me to do. I didn't feel as if he were giving me an answer. I was blank.
So, I made an act of faith, resigned my sales position, and began to look for whatever it was that God wanted me to do with my life, having no idea whatsoever what that would be.
I had mentioned to my friend Karl Keating that I was looking for a new career and asked him to keep me in his prayers. He replied, “I can do better than that,” and asked me to join him in building Catholic Answers. As it turns out, this was God's answer to my prayers.
Some myths are simply so outrageous that it boggles the mind that someone can believe them.
Did you realize this right away?
When Karl first asked me to join Catholic Answers, I said, “No, thanks.” But he was persistent, and after consulting with my wife, I decided to give it a whirl. And thank God I did!
I thought my new career would be in the secular world. I hadn't asked God for anything in the religious field. It wasn't on my radar screen. It was only several months later that it dawned on me that my work in the apostolate of apologetics was indeed what God wanted me to do with my life.
I joined Catholic Answers in January of 1988 and spent eight great years there as vice president. By the end of 1995, I decided to strike out on my own and pursue my writing career more vigorously and in a way that would allow me to work from home so I could be with my family.
What fruits have been born as a result of your first book,
I have to thank God for allowing that book to have the impact it has. There is something mysterious and unique about the combination of the stories in Surprised by Truth, something which I can't fully account for. Each of the 11 testimonies of Protestant converts to Catholicism is powerful individually, but combined they have an immense cumulative effect. I know this because of the many hundreds of letters and e-mails I've received from people around the world who have told me they came into or back into the Catholic Church as a result of reading Surprised by Truth. I am humbled and deeply grateful that God allowed me to have a part in producing it and for the impact on souls it has had.
How did your new book
Pope Fiction is an attempt to distill in book-form my experience over the last dozen years as a Catholic apologist fielding challenges and questions about the papacy. Countless times, people have asked me to recommend a good book explaining and defending the papacy. I'd have to list 20 or 30 books! … I saw the need for a new resource that would deal with all the major arguments leveled at the papacy in one volume.
What do you see as the most common misunderstanding or misconception that non-Catholics have about the Pope?
The most common misunderstanding centers on papal infallibility. Usually it stems from one of two mistaken notions: one, that infallibility involves sinlessness — and since popes clearly aren't sinless, some people conclude on that basis that papal infallibility must be a sham — and two, that infallibility involves inspiration, the mistaken idea that popes received special revelation from the Holy Spirit. As I point out in Pope Fiction, these two misconceptions are usually lurking in the background of most arguments against the papacy.
Why do you think so many people through the ages have perpetuated such myths about the papacy?
[One] reason for the myths and misconceptions is that the papacy itself has, at times in Church history, been a source of scandal for Catholics and non-Catholics. A handful of popes have given the office a black eye through their scandalous personal lives. Those sad episodes have contributed to the myths and misconceptions. Happily, most of the popes have been great and often very holy men. Take the present Holy Father as a prime example of a fantastic pope.
What is your reaction to John Cornwell's recent book on Pope Pius XII?
Cornwell reminds me of a suicide car bomber. His ultimate target, I believe, is to discredit Pope John Paul II and the papacy as a whole. The “vehicle” he's using is the reputation of Pope Pius XII, and the dynamite he's packing is his ranting about Pope Pius XII being a closet “Jew hater” who was complicit with the Nazis in their anti-Jewish policies during [World War II].
But like a car bomber, Cornwell's own reputation as a credible historian has gone up in flames. Talk about intellectual suicide. We can take some consolation in that. The facts about Pope Pius XII's heroic efforts to save Jews during [World War II] are many and easily verifiable, so Cornwell's rancid, historical revisionism will be exposed for the fraud it is.
Through your research have you developed a favorite Pope?
My favorite papal name is “Sixtus V.” That's just plain funny to me. St. Peter is a favorite because he was the first pope and he knew Christ. I have a deep admiration for Pope Pius XII, a towering hero and a great pontiff who suffered much during his pontificate. Now his reputation is suffering posthumously because of the untrue things being said about him, the false charges that he was silently complicit with Hitler's campaign to wipe out European Jews. But he will be vindicated in the end.
Which of the myths in your book do you find the most outlandish?
Some are simply so outrageous that it boggles the mind that someone can actually believe them. For example, the common Seventh-day Adventist myth that Vicarius Filii Dei is a papal title and, when converted to Roman numerals, adds up to the dreaded 666 of the “beast” of Revelation 13. Vicarius Filii Dei is a complete sham, a fabricated phrase, and has never been an official papal title. What's more, this silly argument can be turned back on many who use it. The founder of Seventh-day Adventism is Ellen Gould White, and her name when put into Roman numerals adds up to 666.
I am also always amazed at how Protestants will appeal to the New Testament as “evidence” that Simon Peter had no special apostolic authority. What irony! The most massive and persuasive body of evidence supporting Peter's special role and authority is the New Testament itself.
Could you describe the research process involved in writing the book?
I had to make sure that what I wrote in Pope Fiction — the biblical and historical case I made for the papacy — could withstand the hostile scrutiny that Protestants and others will inevitably give it. On the flip side, I also had to be careful that the book accurately and fairly represented the Catholic Church's teaching.
So, in addition to immersing myself in all the gory details of all the anti-papal arguments out there in books, tapes, Web sites, etc., my research also required that I immerse myself ever more deeply in sacred Scripture, the writings of the Church Fathers, the documents of the ecumenical councils, the writings of the popes, and the like.
Some have given John Paul II the title “The Great.” How do you think history will remember our current Pope?
Based upon the enormous achievements of the man, I predict he will be remembered for, among other things, nearly single-handedly bringing down Communism in Eastern Europe, using a rosary. He has dramatically renovated the Church in the United States and elsewhere through many of his key episcopal appointments.
Theologians will be mining the ore of his written material for centuries to come. He has been tireless in his efforts to extend the borders of the Kingdom of Christ even as his health has deteriorated. His exertions on behalf the Church clearly are physically punishing to him, yet he keeps pushing himself onward, pouring himself out as a libation for the Church, as St. Paul described. That kind of greatness cannot go unnoticed!
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY:Patrick Madrid ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Closer Ties Sought Between Rites In the Americas and Oceania DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY—Pope John Paul II urged closer cooperation and exchange between Eastern- and Latin-rite Catholics in North and South America and Australia.
A better relationship would not only further the search for unity with Orthodox churches, but would also enrich the Latin-rite churches, he said.
The Pope's remarks came in a message to Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Eastern Churches. The cardinal took part in a Nov. 7–12 meeting in Boston of some 100 bishops and priests from the Armenian, Chaldean, Maronite, Melkite, Ruthenian, Syrian, Ukrainian and Roman Catholic churches.
The Orthodox churches were also represented at the gathering.
“The Eastern churches have the right and duty to govern themselves according to their own particular discipline, given the mission they have of bearing witness to an ancient doctrinal, liturgical and monastic tradition,” the Pope said.
The Holy Father said a deeper fraternal communion among all the rites of the Catholic Church “will certainly also enrich the particular churches of the Latin rite with the spiritual heritage of the Eastern Christian tradition.”
The Eastern churches, with regard to their countries of origin, have a particular responsibility to bring about “that unity which is born of the richness and harmony of variety.”
He asked that the meeting identify practical ways of experiencing communion.
Discussion topics for the meeting included the communities’ relationship with the Roman Catholic majority, their commitment to ecumenism and their relationship to their sister Orthodox churches.
ZENIT, the Rome-based news service, reported that the meeting — the first of its kind — served to remind participants that there has been a weakening of the sense of “diaspora” among the oriental-rite communities of America and Oceania along with the emotional ties with their ancestral countries in the Middle East and Europe.
This result is due, in part, to normal social integration and to marriages with Christians from the western traditions.
At an unrelated event, Orthodox and Catholic theologians gathered Oct. 28–30 in Washington for the 57th meeting of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation.
The major topic at the meeting was a review of the Vatican's 1995 statement on The Greek and Latin Traditions Regarding the Procession of the Holy Spirit, which seeks to lay the groundwork for resolving centuries of controversy over the Filioque clause in the Latin version of the Nicene Creed.
The original Greek version of the creed, which goes back to fourth-century ecumenical councils, said the Holy Spirit takes his origin from the Father.
Churches in the West gradually began to insert Filioque — proceeds from the Father “and the Son” — into the creed.
The Orthodox objected to the addition, and to the fact that the change came about wtihout the authorization of a universal Church council.
The 1995 Vatican document reaf-firmed the “normative and irrevocable value” of the more ancient faith statement that the Holy Spirit “takes his origin from the Father.”
It said that when the Latin Church declares in the Mass that the Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son,” it does not intend to — and in fact cannot — contradict the earlier “expression of the faith taught and professed by the undivided Church.” (From combined wire services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: U.S. Notes & Quotes DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Religion in the Workplace
“Companies such as Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and subsidiaries of Wal-Mart Stores are hiring Army-style chaplains who come in any religious flavor requested.
“Members of these 24-hour God squads visit employees in hospitals, deal with nervous breakdowns and respond to suicide threats. They'll even say the vows on a worker's wedding day or deliver the eulogy at her funeral. If America's chief executives had tried any of this 10 years ago, they probably would have inspired ridicule and maybe even ostracism,” Conlon said.
Company Orders Woman to Stop Talking Nice
CONSERVATIVE NEWS SERVICE, Nov. 10—A woman who was ordered to stop saying “Have a blessed day” at work has sued the company that threatened to fire her, the online news service reported.
Liz Anderson of USF Logistics in Indianapolis, who was named office employee of the year in 1998, filed charges with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission Nov. 9. She has worked for USF Logistics for more than three years. In June her employers told her to either stop telling coworkers to “Have a blessed day” or face termination. Anderson agreed to stop, but then obtained a lawyer, Kevin Betz, who said the company impinged on her religious freedom. “This was a religious practice of hers based on her Christianity,” Betz said. He added that her employer must accommodate Anderson “so long as to do so is not an undue hardship to the business,” the news service reported.
Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Bigotry
CNN.com, Nov. 10-Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer called discrimination against Catholics “one of the last socially acceptable prejudices left in America,” in a speech at St. Anselm's College in Manchester, N.H., the cable news network's online service reported.
“Today, the establishment clause has been turned on its head and has become the enemy of Americans’ right to freely exercise their faith,” Bauer said, “Expressions of anti-Catholic bigotry not only abound but are tolerated, especially by the cultured elite, often in the name of free expression or artistic license.
“Apparently, if those impermissible nativity scenes were decorated with dung, then they would be constitutional, “Bauer said, in reference to the recent controversy surrounding the Brooklyn Museum of Art's exhibit Sensation.
“An attack on a Jewish community center in Los Angeles was immediately labeled a hate crime”, Bauer said. “But when seven people were killed at choir practice in a Baptist church in Texas,” he added, “the media was very reluctant to call it a hate crime,” CNN.com reported.
----- EXCERPT: From Selected Sources ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Fides: Possible Sino-Vatican Pact Could Lead to New Crackdown DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY—China's communist leadership has outlined plans for a full-scale crackdown on the country's underground Catholic Church should diplomatic ties be re-established with the Vatican, according to Fides, the Vatican's missionary news service.
The claim was made as new reports reached the West of a new round of arrests of Catholics and members of other religious groups
The plan outlined by Fides Nov. 10 calls for the destruction of underground churches, seminaries and convents and the “re-education” through hard labor of underground clerics who fail to submit to the government-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association.
Fides said it obtained from sources in Beijing large sections of a secret 16-page policy paper prepared by the Communist Party's central committee.
Citing “new currents of change” toward re-establishing ties with the Vatican, the document underscores the importance of reinforcing the party-controlled patriotic church.
Chinese Catholics were split in 1957 over the setting up by the government of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which rejects papal authority and elects bishops without Vatican approval. An underground Church in China professes loyalty to the Pope.
The document, dated Aug. 16, 1999, contains no timetable for renewing ties with the Vatican, according to Fides. News reports from Hong Kong in recent weeks have claimed that secret Sino-Vatican negotiations have reached a breakthrough, with relations to be re-established by the end of 1999.
Both the Vatican and China have denied the reports. China also reiterated two longstanding conditions to normalization: that the Vatican break off ties with Taiwan and pledge to “not interfere in internal Chinese affairs under the pretext of religion,” most critically meaning the appointment of bishops.
The Vatican has called the latter condition unacceptable.
According to Fides, the secret document says the Chinese Church must be kept independent from the Vatican “at all costs.”
“The Vatican will try to take advantage of the normalization of relations between China and the Vatican to deny the right of independence, sovereignty and autonomy in the [state-controlled] church and work to regain power over the Catholic Church in China,” Fides quoted the document as saying.
Measures suggested by the document include reinforcing the role of the Patriotic Association in governing all Catholic activities. The bishops of the Patriotic Church would continue to be subject to the voted decisions of the Conference of Representatives of the Catholic Church, made up mostly of lay people.
“In this manner,” Fides said, “decisions of a religious character are placed under political pressures, and the ‘democracy’ is in reality obedience to the [Communist] Party.”
Fides said China's communist leaders saw renewed ties with the Vatican as a chance to incorporate the majority of underground Catholics into the official church. It is important, the document said, “to be vigilant so that the hardened core of the underground Church, coming out of clandestineness, does not take power in the Patriotic Church.”
Priests and bishops who refused to submit to the government-controlled church would be “forcefully re-educated with individual labor,” Fides quoted the document as saying. Those who committed illegal activities, like celebrating Mass without permission, would be “treated severely by police authorities,” the document continued.
The policy paper said that a normalization of relations with the Vatican brought a high risk of civil disturbance. Demonstrations “of religious fervor” and celebrations were to be prohibited. During the “normalization period,” the construction of new churches was not to be permitted, the document said.
In an editorial accompanying Fides’ report, Father Bernardo Cervellera, the news agency's director, said that the document “confirms China's almost spasmodic interest in relations with the Holy See, but also confirms the regime's obtuseness in understanding full religious liberty.”
Vatican diplomatic sources said rumors of an imminent Sino-Vatican accord seemed to indicate a Chinese desire to at least face the question of diplomatic relations. But the source, speaking in early November, said talk of secret negotiations was “ridiculous,” as were claims of a breakthrough.
Noting that China continues to insist on independence from the Vatican for the nation's Catholics, the source said that “nothing has changed [in the diplomatic arena] as far as the Vatican is concerned.”
ZENIT, the Rome-based news service, reported that four out of eight priests in the Wenzhou diocese in Zhejiang province, including Bishop Giacomo Lin Xili, were arrested in October.
The action may have caused the death of a man in his 60s following the arrest of one of the priests. The layman, who lived in Wenzhou, died Oct. 21 after learning that three policemen had taken his local pastor, Father Kong Guocun, into custody.
The reason for the arrests was not made public, but it is widely believed that the authorities want to coerce Catholic clergy and laity faithful to Rome to join the Patriotic Church. A local Catholic source said the Catholic Patriotic Association of Zhejiang province has formed “groups” with this objective.
ZENIT reported that Bishop Xie Shiguang of Mindong, in Fujian province, was subjected to interrogation by government officials in mid-October and that his whereabouts are unknown.
It has also become apparent that Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo of Zhengding — missing since August — is under arrest and not likely to be released soon, sources say.
Sources quoted an underground priest in northern China as saying Nov. 4 that public security officials had asked Bishop Jia's relatives to send him winter clothes and a quilt, implying that the bishop may be detained for some time.
The priest, who was ordained by Bishop Jia, said the request had been made a few days earlier, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. Zhengding Diocese is in Hebei province, in northern China.
Bishop Jia will probably not be released soon because the government does not want him to preside at a planned late-December Mass celebrating the beginning of the new millennium, the sources told UCA News.
Bishop Jia has been imprisoned many times, and his combined jail terms total about 20 years, according to A.P. (From combined wire services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Vatican Notes & Quotes DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Trip to Georgia Highlights Divisions
“Shortly before the Pope arrived in Georgia, the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, Aleksy II, once again said he would not meet with the Pope if he came at the government's invitation”, said Stanley. “He said the Georgian Church was free to do as it pleased, but then warned, ‘They must realize the consequence of their steps.’”
The Times continued, “The enmity between Rome and the Georgian Church is not as deep as that with Moscow. Besides the core theological disputes over such principles as the primacy and infallibility of the pope, the Russian Orthodox Church is battling with the Catholic Church over property, especially in Ukraine.”
From the very first days of his pontificate, Pope John Paul has talked about reconciling the Eastern and Western churches before the end of the millennium. He sees a papal visit to Moscow as an important step in that direction, but said Times reporter Stanley, “the Russian Orthodox Church has rejected any ecumenical discussions with the Vatican.”
----- EXCERPT: From Selected Sources ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Pope Asks Romans to Open Homes To Jubilee Pilgrims DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY—Pope John Paul II asked the citizens of Rome to open their hearts and their homes to Jesus and to the thousands of pilgrims who will visit the city during next year's Great Jubilee.
“Christian Rome, do not hesitate to open the doors of your homes to pilgrims,” the Pope said in a Nov. 3 message to the city.
“Exercise fraternal hospitality with joy, particularly during the most meaningful and largest events such as World Youth Day,” he wrote.
World Youth Day, planned for Aug. 15–20, is expected draw two million young people, according to ZENIT, the Rome-based news service, with Jubilee pilgrims expected to total some 30 million.
“At present, the city is in a state of chaos, as public works, which began because of the Jubilee, are still yet to be completed,” reported ZENIT. “All this is a real trial of patience in people's daily life, in a city where chaos is virtually chronic.”
The press officer for World Youth Day at the Italian bishops’ conference in Rome said Nov. 3 that organizers have just begun their appeal to families to host young people during the event.
While most World Youth Day participants will be housed in hotels, religious institutions or schools, the willingness of families to participate is important as a sign of welcome and involvement, the spokesman said.
Pope John Paul said those who offer hospitality and assistance to Holy Year pilgrims — especially to those who are poor, elderly, ill or have handicaps — will experience “the joy of those who welcomed Jesus in Galilee, Samaria and Judea.
“The eyes of the world will be on Rome and how it celebrates the 2,000th anniversary of Jesus’ birth,” the Pope said.
An “intensity of faith and Gospel love, especially in hospitality, will help the world see the transforming and life-giving power of Christianity,” he said.
“For believers, the Pope said, “the Jubilee is a fitting time to leave aside their habitual way of living the faith and rediscover true friendship with the Lord.
“It is an opportune time to give conversion the meaning of a complete break with sin, experiencing the joy of pardon accepted and given.”
The Jubilee “is a most favorable time to rediscover communion and brotherhood in parishes, movements and communities by promoting inclusion and reconciliation.”
Pope John Paul said Romans must be spiritually as well as practically prepared to host millions of visitors.
“It is important that upon their arrival our brothers and sisters find not only a city ready to receive them and able to show them places rich in the memory of history and of faith, but especially a community which incarnates the Gospel and shows concrete signs of the supreme precept of love.”
(From combined wire services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: 'Conversion' Issue in India Not Settled by Pope's Visit DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:NEW DELHI—A call by Pope John Paul II — made during his three-day visit to New Delhi — for the evangelization of Asia has provoked mixed reactions in India, assuring that recent controversies about the mission of Christianity in predominantly non-Christian India are far from settled.
Rajender Chadha, spokesman for a section of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a prominent Hindu nationalist group, has accused the Pope of abusing “the hospitality that India has extended to him,” and of planning to convert India to Christianity.
Of the Pope's call for religous freedom, Chadha complained, “He should not have said it.”
At the same time, Asian Church leaders have played down the Pope's calls for evangelization in Asia.
“The peoples of Asia need Jesus Christ and his Gospel. Asia is thirsting for the living water that Jesus alone can give,” the Pope declared in a Vatican document released during a ceremony in New Delhi Nov. 6.
The document — Ecclesia in Asia (The Church in Asia) — is the fruit of the Synod for Asia held at the Vatican in April and May last year. The Pope has made it a custom to visit the regions covered by special synods to release the apostolic exhortations that summarize and conclude their work.
“You, the bishops, are being asked to make ever greater efforts to spread the Gospel of salvation throughout the length and breadth of the human geography of Asia,” the Pope told almost 100 bishops — 60 of them from outside India.
During the ceremony, Pope John Paul also made a fervent plea for religious freedom. “If this most basic of rights is denied, then the whole edifice of human dignity and freedom is shaken,” he said, pointing out that “in parts of Asia explicit proclamation is forbidden and religious freedom is denied or systematically restricted.”
The issues of evangelization and religious freedom are particularly sensitive in India which in recent months has seen a number of attacks against Christians, who Hindu nationalists claim are engaging in forced conversions and offering material inducements for people to convert to Christianity.
Several bishops who attended the ceremonies in New Delhi said they were “stunned” by local media coverage of the visit such as one headline in Asian Age that proclaimed, “Pope: Convert Asia.”
Insisting that the Pope was not calling for the “stepping up” of conversions, Archbishop de Lastic defended the use of “evangelization.”
“We will carry on proclaiming the word of Christ and it is for others to accept. There is no question of using force or allurements,” he said.
Archbishop de Lastic also criticized the calls by Hindu nationalists for a ban on conversions. Such a demand was a “perversion, as it denies the fundamental freedom of individuals to choose one's religion according to his conscience,” he said.
According to Bishop Anthony Lobo of Islamabad, secretary general of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference, evangelization “means preaching the good news. It does not mean conversion or proselytization only.”
K. Rajaratnam, a prominent Lutheran and president of the National Council of Churches in India, which groups 29 Protestant and Orthodox churches, said, “It is very good that the Pope has made the Christian position very clear regarding the Gospel we are committed to preach around the world.”
He said that he was happy that the Pope had clearly highlighted the need for the Church “to commit [itself] to the poor” and had raised “social concerns” that were common to Christians as well as others.
Coverage of the visit in the western press has stressed the difficulty and complexity of the Church's mission in Asia.
“The expected protests by Hindu extremists failed to materialize in India, and their call for a freeze on Christian conversions generally fell on deaf ears,” said John Thavis of Catholic News Service. “More than anti-Church demonstrations, popular indifference seemed to mute the Pope's call for evangelization.”
La Repubblica, a leading newspaper in Rome, said “… for the first time in 20 years, [the Pope] has arrived in a country which marginalizes him. Television coverage lasts only a few seconds, and there are angry articles in the press. The government has welcomed him strictly according to protocol, and nothing more.”
La Stampa in Turin, commenting on the Nov. 7 papal Mass in New Delhi, said: “Participation by Catholics was not strong (40,000 people), because of the Hindu festival Diwali, and also because of the stringent security and a climate of tension fed by Hindu extremists.” (From combined wire services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Environmental Protection Part of Church Social Teaching DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY—The Catholic Church must use biblical precepts and its social teaching to help people see the importance of protecting the environment, Pope John Paul II said.
“The environment embraces all that surrounds us and all upon which human life depends,” the Pope said in a written message to the Nov. 6–9 plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
ZENIT, the Rome-based news service, reported that the Pope had planned to close the assembly with an address but instead sent his thoughts in the form of a letter because the gathering conflicted with his scheduled visits to India and Georgia.
The council dedicated its 1999 assembly to environmental issues and related theological questions, the relationship between poverty and the environment, use of the earth's resources, and ways the Church could promote care for the environment.
Addressing the assembly's main theme, Pope John Paul said the use of the earth's resources is a particularly important question from the point of view of social justice and Catholic social teaching.
“Reflecting on the environment in the light of sacred Scripture and the social teaching of the Church, we cannot but raise the question of the very style of life promoted by modern society and, in particular, the question of the uneven way in which the benefits of progress are distributed,” he said.
The Pope encouraged the council to help Catholics recognize their “obligation to work for greater justice and equality in the way people are enabled to share in the resources of God's creation.”
The assembly also was scheduled to discuss its progress in drafting the Catechism of Social Teaching, at the request of Pope John Paul.
In his message, the Pope said the “compendium or approved synthesis of Church social doctrine” would help Catholics learn what the Church teaches on social issues and see how important the teaching is.
The Pope said he hoped the catechism would be published during the Holy Year 2000.
Vietnamese Archbishop FranÇois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, announced during the recent Synod for Europe that the catechism would most likely be published on May 1, 2000.
Archbishop Thuan told the assembly, “The environmental crisis is one of the-most critical and decisive problems which humankind must face and resolve.”
The council, he said, would look at the question not only because of its contemporary relevance, but because there is a need “to advance the moral reflection and the social doctrine of the Church in this regard.”
Environmental degradation is a “warning light” that indicates “a deep anthropological crisis.” The literal “groaning of creation” is a result of human misuse and exploitation.
For centuries, he said, people used natural resources to survive, protecting and caring for their land, which was the source of their sustenance.
“With the industrial revolution, economic development brought unheard of problems,” said Archbishop Thuan. People began to see the environment “as something foreign, separate and even hostile,” something to be exploited for “maximum profit with minimum cost.”
Such an attitude proves “a strange superficiality of faith,” because from the beginning God created man and woman along with the environment and charged them with cultivating and guarding it.
The destruction of the environment, he said, must be seen as a challenge to each individual's conscience. (From combined wire services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: E. Timor Bishop Calls For Tribunal, and Asks That Refugees Return DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:DILI, East Timor—The bishop of East Timor has called for an international tribunal to determine who was responsible for the politically motivated violence that has devastated his homeland.
Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, made the request Nov. 11 at an emotion-filled Mass for priests and nuns killed in the aftermath of a referendum for East Timorese independence.
Bishop Belo issued a pastoral letter two days earlier calling on East Timorese refugees to disregard rumors that discourage them from returning to their homeland.
In his homily at the Mass for murdered priests and religious, Bishop Belo estimated that as many as 1,000 people had been killed in the southwestern town of Suai in the violence.
That figure far exceeds confirmed death tolls for all of East Timor that have been cited by other observers, the Associated Press reported.
After East Timorese voted to break away from Indonesia in the Aug. 30 referendum, there was a rampage by pro-Indonesian forces. Military-backed militia groups destroyed public and private property, forcing much of the population into exile or hiding.
Condemning the violence, Bishop Belo said the responsible Indonesian generals and their local allies should be brought to justice.
“They must go before a tribunal because the crimes that they committed are not acceptable,” he said. “Justice has not been done.”
The Indonesian military has acknowledged that many units and soldiers took part in the violence but it has denied that its hierarchy orchestrated the violence.
In his pastoral letter, Bishop Belo turned his attention to his beleaguered flock, especially those who have yet to return to East Timor.
“Please avoid the attitude and action of frightening each other to discourage your return to Timor Loro Sae (Land of the Sunrise),” Bishop Belo wrote in his appeal to refugees. The letter was reported on by UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand.
The bishop of Dili said he received reports about “efforts by a certain group to frighten the refugees” into not returning home.
“This effort of terror is launched through the spreading of false rumors and news of an ambush of a returning convoy of refugees by militiamen,” he said.
Assuring the refugees that East Timor is now safe for their return, Bishop Belo denied rumors that many local women have been raped by international troops. He said that the rumor is politically aimed to discredit the international force.
Bishop Belo also denied that East Timorese have been receiving inhumane treatment by the Australian-led troops.
He urged the refugees to register quickly with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees or International Organization for Migrants, or ask religious leaders or government personnel in Indonesia to arrange their repatriation.
“Please pack your belongings quickly so you can return to Timor Loro Sae as soon as possible, because the planting season is coming. Additionally, the 1999 Christmas and the New Year's Eve of 2000 are approaching,” Bishop Belo said.
“For us, the coming Christmas will be a feast of peace, family reunion, and the birthday of the new Timor.”
The bishop called on all parties to respect the decisions of East Timorese refugees to return to their place of birth or to reside outside East Timor.
He advised the refugees to leave their camps in good condition as a sign of good will to their hosts, “who have accepted us as refugees and have sacrificed for our safety and our family members.”
He told the refugees that differences in political views, including over citizenship, should not break the fraternal ties that bind them as children of East Timor.
At least 270,000 East Timorese reportedly sought refuge in West Timor following the post-referendum violence in September.
Most of those refugees are being blocked from returning home by the same militiamen who drove them out of East Timor, a United Nations spokesman told the Associated Press. “Many East Timorese are being forced at gunpoint to remain in camps that lack food, sanitation and medical care,” said Yusuf Hassan, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
“The moment an East Timorese expresses a desire to leave the camps and go home [his] life is in danger,” Hassan told the A.P. in Jakarta. International aid workers in West Timor estimated that 15,000 pro-Indonesia militiamen are still active in refugee camps in the Indonesian-held western half of the island,” according to A.P. (From combined wire services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: World Notes & Quotes DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Millennium Fever Hits Holy Land
“The debate over the location of the site of Christ's baptism is developing into a political-economic struggle. Mohammed Waheeb, a Jordanian archeologist, cites Wadi Kharrar in Jordan as the site, while Israeli archeologists propose a site on the Israeli side.
Also, “… disputes are arising over the sites of miracles and the administration of the holy places. For instance, certain factions have objected to Israel's suggestion to build another door in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher to provide a fire escape. Elsewhere, there are arguments about the precise location of Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine, the identity of Mount Sinai, and the proposal of one Israeli businessman to build a submerged platform in the Sea of Galilee so that tourists can ‘walk on water,’” the Post reported.
Billy Graham and Jimmy Carter Oppose Sanctions
RELIGION AND ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY—Evangelist Billy Graham and former President Jimmy Carter are seeking ways to raise awareness of the suffering of the Iraqi people caused by U.S. sanctions, according to a report on the PBS TV program. The sanctions have been in place since the 1991 Gulf War provoked by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.
Carter told the program that he has been building relations with Christian and Muslim leaders in Iraq through The Friendship Force, an organization founded by Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, which arranges reciprocal visits among people of various countries.
Carter contacted Dr. Graham and the two agreed that they should meet with religious leaders from Iraq, which they did on Sept. 25 in the U.S.
The two are also considering co-writing a newspaper opinion piece about the situation and may send their sons on a high-profile visit to the country, Carter said.
Carter's son Chip is the vice president of The Friendship Force, and Franklin Graham assists his father in his worldwide preaching ministry.
----- EXCERPT: From Selected Sources ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: They Say It Can't Happen Here DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Our Page 1 story seems too horrible to be true: reports of late-term babies being killed in their mothers’ wombs in ways that allow their body parts to be removed unscathed; babies born alive and then drowned, dissected and sold. These stories are not the invention of fanatics or lobbyists. They are being told by abortion industry workers who are coming forward to reveal a situation that leaves even many “prochoicers” uneasy.
In the Oct. 10 Register, a nurse from Christ Hospital near Chicago told about live babies being given “comfort care” as they were suffocated or starved to death in the hospital. In this week's issue, “Kelly” recounts a similar story from another shop of horrors.
In a sense, the newest atrocities are only the logical fallout of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Any abortion is the taking of a human life, regardless of the age of the fetus, and regardless of whether the death is witnessed or not. When pro-lifers speak about the destructive effect of abortion on society's standards, it isn't just alarmist rhetoric. Most Americans have literally relinquished their ability to be moved appropriately by the death of their youngest neighbors.
In 1993 came President Clinton's executive order legalizing fetal tissue research. One of his first actions as president, it was hailed as a great liberation for science: Media reports seemed to suggest that the sad reality of abortion could have some salutary use.
What was underreported (or ignored) at the time was that first-trimester fetuses are of limited use for fetal experimentation. Older, more developed babies were much more useful. The “problem” for pharmaceutical firms and medical research industries is that such babies were in short supply. Not surprisingly, a new class of entrepreneurs who found ways to supply the demand.
In 1996, growing “industry” must have seemed in jeopardy when the U.S. House and Senate overwhelmingly supported a ban on partial-birth abortions. The bill banned the abortion procedure in which a baby is removed feet first from the mother's womb, its skull broken by a doctor's scissors and its contents removed, killing it.
In fact, one pro-choice congressional staffer was quoted in the Washington Post at the time saying that pro-lifers had finally found a strategy that could win the abortion policy war. By addressing the legality of particular procedures, she said, pro-lifers would force the public to make a choice about how far their support of abortion would go.
But Clinton vetoed the ban in April 1996. He vetoed similar legislation a year later, and has promised to do it again.
In one sense, it has seemed strange that anyone would risk political capital to defend such a gruesome procedure as partial-birth abortion. But the new information about the trade in body parts sheds light on why this procedure is defended: money. The barbaric procedure keeps a baby's body intact, which then fetches a higher price — $500 for an “intact trunk (with/without limbs),” according to one report.
How can such a horrific situation be tolerated in America? One reason may be denial. After Maine voters rejected a ban on partial-birth abortions (see Page 16), one pro-lifer lamented, “We told people about what's going on, and they would say, ‘As if this actually happens in Maine!’”
It does happen in Maine, and across America. And it won't stop until more of us join the battle to stop it.
Our first recommendation is to take heart. Public opinion is changing. A May poll by CNN/USA Today/Gallup found that 58% of those surveyed wanted to ban abortion in all circumstances; 70% of the women surveyed favored “more restrictions.”
This can become a wide shift in public opinion if pro-lifers take full advantage of every new revelation and maximize its impact. The U.S. House investigation of the body parts trade is a good start. Pro-lifers should take its results and forward legislation on the state and federal level to ban the sale of children's organs.
But we needn't wait for the investigation to conclude. Activists should redoubled their efforts to develop bans of abortions, procedure by procedure if necessary, starting with partial-birth abortion. Nor should another fundamentally pro-life act be neglected: evangelization. Without a living faith in God, our culture will never embrace life.
The feast of Christ the King, this year on Nov. 21, is a reminder of our greatest cause for hope. Human beings are not in charge of the world. Christ is. With our prayers and work, and his grace, the battle can be won for our smallest brothers and sisters.
----- EXCERPT: EDITORIAL ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Openion -------- TITLE: Pages Alive With the Sound of Music DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:There is a pivotal scene in The Bells of St. Mary's when Bing Crosby, playing Father O‘Malley, sings O Sanctissima. The producers knew what they wanted: a quintessential Catholic moment that would melt the heart of the movie's curmudgeonly skinflint. They reached for a Latin Marian hymn that the movie's Catholic viewers would know by heart, and that would have been recognized instantly as Catholic by Protestant or Jewish viewers.
A new hymnal edited by Father James Socías (see interview, Page 11) includes O Sanctissima and 80 or so other hymns from the Church's musical patrimony, plus various Mass settings and other prayers. It is a welcome work of cultural stewardship, as it presents in a handsome volume the most outstanding, and most familiar, of the Church's chants and hymns. If they have fallen from popularity, Father Socías’ book may help them find a new audience. Physically beautiful, Cantate et Iubilate Deo (Sing and Rejoice in the Lord) is worthy of the hymns it contains. Most hymns are illustrated with a reproduction from the Church's artistic patrimony. Included here are such classics as the central detail from Michelangelo's Last Judgment, along with well-chosen newer pieces. These include a Zairean painting of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes with an African Jesus, and a Chinese painting of Pentecost in which our Lady and the apostles all have Chinese features.
Calling a hymnal “devotional and liturgical” immediately raises questions and, indeed, this volume's subtitle indicates its unusual purpose. In normal Catholic parlance, devotions are distinguished from liturgy. Most devotions wouldn't require a hymnal, and Can-tate is most definitely not intended to be bought by parishes to stock their pews. So who is Cantate for?
“The aim of this collection is to present, for the benefit of the laity, a selection of the Church's treasury of sacred music,” write the editors. “This collection may be more suitable as a supplementary parish resource or for smaller prayer groups, in schools and adoration chapels.”
Cantate is a continuation of the work previously done by Father Socías in his various prayer books (Handbook of Prayers, North American College Manual of Prayers), wherein he presented a selection of the Church's treasury of prayers. This volume's main, though not only, contribution is to introduce readers to the riches available in the Church's musical tradition, hymn by hymn. It does this by going well beyond the key signatures and metrical notation found in any standard hymnal. For example, Amazing Grace is presented on two pages, one devoted to an image and text, the other providing the melody and lyrics. The image chosen is a Ukrainian icon of Christ the Redeemer, a nice touch for a hymn written by a Protestant (John Newton). The accompanying text is a short catechesis on grace and the moral life, constructed from quotations from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth) and the General Catechetical Directory.
Physically beautiful … worthy of the glorious hymns it contains.
Elsewhere Vexilla Regis (The Banners of the King Go Forth), a sixth-century chant referenced by Dante in The Inferno, is presented with a depiction of the deposition of Christ from a book of Gospels dating from 1268. Aprocessional hymn composed by Venantius Fortunatus, one of the most colorful characters in the history of sacred music, it commemorates the victory won by Christ on the cross and is still sung at vespers on Palm Sunday and the feast of the Triumph of the Cross. The text speaks of the cross as Christ's standard of victory, on which redemption was won through suffering; it concludes with a quotation on uniting our sufferings to those of Christ from Pope John Paul II's letter on the Christian meaning of human suffering, Salvifici Doloris.
“The military standard of Christ, the king of kings, is the cross, whereby he conquered death and restored life to the fallen children of Adam,” comments the accompanying text on Vexilla Regis. “The water and blood which burst forth from Our Lord's side represent two sacraments of the Church: the cleansing water of baptism and the bood of Christ present in the Eucharist.”
Also, in this month of the Holy Souls, it is worth mentioning the inclusion of a requiem Mass in the section of Mass settings. Readers who have never attended such a Mass will benefit from a quick study of its sequences and antiphons, learning how beautiful and realistic is the Church's teaching on death. The great sequence Dies irae (Day of wrath) is translated in full, as is the well-known Lux aeterna (Eternal light grant …) and the supremely consoling In paradisum (Into paradise). The Mass setting is complemented by quotations from the Catechism on heaven, and from Blessed Josemaría Escrivá on the particular judgment.
Here, as with all the Latin hymns it contains, Cantate provides excellent and thorough English translations of the lyrics. The English cannot be sung, as it does not fit the meter, but it's good to have the literal meaning of the words close at hand.
Cantate et Iubilate Deo is not aimed at the traditional hymnal market. If it turns out there is a pent-up demand for an innovative presentation of sacred music, Cantate will be able to help satisfy it in a most worthy and welcome fashion.
Raymond de Souza is the Register's Rome correspondent
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY:Raymond J. De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Father Rutler Objects
In your account of my recent debate on capital punishment (Nov. 7–13, “Can Catholics Support Death Penalty?"), one might get the impression that I suppose a prudential matter to be a “mere” matter. [During the debate,] I explained the teachings of Augustine, Aquinas and Vatican II as well as the recent teachings of Pius XII and John Paul II. In no way did I counsel disobedience.
To impute intrinsic evil to capital punishment per se is to go against St. Paul and all the Doctors of the Church. If I am wrong in distinguishing moral commentary from development of doctrine, then I am wrong with Cardinal Newman. To deny to civil magistrates the right to conscience or to propose that the civil authority has capital power only by delegation of the Church would contradict the sacred tradition of the faith, as Pius XII taught in 1952 and 1953.
It is absurd to call the response of many faithful to magisterial counsel on the use of capital punishment the equivalent of the response of dissenters to Humanae Vitae. To suppose that there is any authority to change the sacred tradition on natural law, which neither the Pope nor the Catechism does, would in fact call the very foundation of Humanae Vitae into question.
I continue to suspect problems in some uses of the “seamless garment” of life issues. There is clearly a difference between aborting a baby and executing a criminal. And why do many who lump them together not include contraception in that “seamless garment”?
It would help those who cannot fathom the economy of conscience and religious obedience in the ordinary magisterium to read Newman's letter to the Duke of Norfolk. In a less serious mood, it would be interesting to ask them what their response would have been to Pope Gregory XVI's condemnation of smallpox vaccinations.
Father George W. Rutler
New York
Partial-Birth ‘Regulation’
Your Oct. 31-Nov. 6 headline “On Abortion, U.S. Senate Tries to Have It Both Ways” does not accurately describe the alleged partial-birth abortion-ban legislation. The reporter fails to point out that the bill passed by the Senate does not ban acts of infanticide described as partial-birth abortion; it merely regulates the procedure. The bill contains an exception. Honesty should require us to describe politically motivated votes taken on flawed legislative proposals accurately. Lives are at stake.
Judie Brown, president American Life League Inc.
Stafford, Virginia
Three Kings and a President
I have not seen the film Three Kings, which John Prizer reviews in your Nov. 7–13 edition, but since Mr. Prizer uses his review to defend George Bush's abandonment of the Shiite Moslems of southern Iraq at the end of the Gulf War, something which he says the film criticizes, I feel called to comment.
When the Iraqi surrender came, they were allowed by the Bush administration to take their tanks and artillery back to Iraq with them, a strange favor for such a manifestly evil regime. Within days those weapons were turned against the Shiite opponents of Saddam Hussein in southern Iraq. They used them against not just rebel combatants, but against the civilian populace, including women and children, as the film apparently portrays. This slaughter went on while George and Norman and Colin were patting themselves on the back for a job well done. Most who criticized them argued that the Iraqis should simply not have been allowed to take their weapons of slaughter back home with them — they did not argue, as Mr. Prizer asserts, that American troops should have been used in defense of the Shiites.
Mr. Prizer defends the Bush administration's actions, first, on the grounds that Shiites in other places had done bad things to Americans. There is not the slightest evidence that the Shiites of southern Iraq had anything to do with the incidents Mr. Prizer alludes to, and to lump them in with them is like identifying all fundamentalist Protestants with David Koresh. It is a stance of bigotry.
Mr. Prizer's second defense of Bush is that the Shiites might ultimately have threatened the Saudi regime if they carved out a homeland for themselves in southern Iraq. That's probably an acceptable reason for letting them be slaughtered from a Machiavellian point of view, but its hardly a Christian one. And since the administration had previously encouraged the citizens of Iraq to rise up against Saddam, the turnabout also amounts to betrayal.
Finally, Mr. Prizer identifies the critics of the with drawal policy with those who opposed the Gulf War in its entirety. That is far from the case. The real line is not between hawks and doves, but, as with other military actions, between those who think that, in war, Machiavellian selfishness suddenly becomes something better than the sin it is in peacetime — and those who think each and every action of a war must be judged by Christian standards. In fairness to Mr. Prizer, by the end of his review he manages to concede this, but he is too quick to absolve the Bush administration of such examination.
Mark Gronceski West Melbourne, Florida
Justification Without Jargon
With regard to the Lutheran-Catholic agreement on justification (“Lutheran-Catholic Agreement: ‘Baby Step’ In Direction of Unity,” Oct. 31-Nov. 6), I feel that a new era of confusion in the Church is about to be ushered in unless there is proper catechesis. To say that we are justified by faith, and that our works are evidence of that faith, is not true Catholic teaching. Yet this is exactly what a Catholic priest says in your article.
It depends on what one means by “works” and by “faith.” There always has been a point of essential agreement between the Catholic and Lutheran or Reformed teaching on justification. There is nothing new here.
The bottom line is that justification (being made right before God) is effected through grace. The human person is justified by God alone (grace alone). But at the point of justification, the person must be properly disposed. The essential disposition is faith (the beginning and foundation of justification), but for the adult, as opposed to the infant at baptism, certain works (movements of the will) are necessary in order for the person to be justified. The most essential of these is contrition for sin.
For the adult sinner, it is actually contrition which effects the entrance of sanctifying grace into the soul (justification) on the human side of the equation. A cooperation with the grace offered is necessary on the part of the human person in order for God to justify him.
The virtue of faith is the necessary disposition for justification, but it does not effect justification. It is the works of the human will, most especially contrition, which effects justification on the human side. The bottom line is still that it is God who drives the engine of salvation. On that much, Catholics and Lutherans, as well as Calvinists can agree.
Paul A. Trouve Montague, New Jersey
Correction: Most American Lutherans are represented by the “Lutheran-Catholic Agreement” referred to in the Oct. 31-Nov. 6 article. Due to an editing error, the article made the opposite claim.
Disconcerting Apostle
I first saw the movie The Apostle favorably reviewed in Guideposts magazine about two years ago, before it was even released, if I remember correctly. Because of that review I rented the movie this past summer and watched it from beginning to end, waiting for the big redemption and conversion scene. I cannot tell you how very different my experience of this movie was from what I read in Guideposts.
I was very surprised to again find the movie reviewed if not “favorably,” then at least ambiguously, in the Register (Oct. 24–30). The [main] character, “Sonny,” was a violent and deceitful man from beginning to end. Most disturbing of all was [Register movie reviewer John] Prizer's depiction of Sonny as a “suffering servant.” I saw nothing gentle or true in him at all, and certainly nothing of self-sacrifice in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, the saints and martyrs.
Mr. Prizer, and indeed every person of good will, would benefit from viewing “Hollywood vs. Religion,” an excellent exposé by Michael Medved.
Sister Sara Marie Belisle, OSF
St. Francis Convent Hankinson, North Dakota
John Prizer responds: I, too, have some reservations about The Apostle, as indicated in the review — yet I saw in it two attributes that, I believe, make it a worthwhile viewing experience.
First, it forces us to think about evangelical Protestants without the usual stereotypes; this is a rare thing for a mass-entertainment product. And second, it allows us to consider how God may use sinners to do his work. Incidentally, I agree that Hollywood vs. Religion by Michael Medved is an important book — in fact, I have quoted it several times in my movie reviews. I've also worked with Medved on a number of projects, including helping to set up a screening of this video based on his book for the Catholic Press Association a few years ago.
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----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Openion -------- TITLE: Knock, Knock: Who's There? 2 Witnesses ... DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Late one Saturday afternoon, I was snoozing on the sofa when the doorbell rang. Craning my neck, I noticed two well-dressed young women at the screen door. “What can I do for you?” I called out, thinking they were Avon ladies and not wanting to be disturbed. “We're Witnesses of Jehovah, and we'd like to share some Scripture truths with you,” one of them replied. That got me up in a flash.
My wife was about to put an early supper on the table, but I told her to go ahead without me. “I have work to do,” I told her. I stepped onto the porch and closed the door behind me.
Wanting to get the upper hand immediately, I said to the proselytizers, “I'm glad you're here. I take considerable interest in your faith. I have a copy of the New World Translation of the Bible, the one your Brooklyn headquarters distributes. I subscribe to Awake! and Watchtower magazines. I have several of the books designed to instruct you in door-to-door work, including Reasoning from the Scriptures. I want you to know that I appreciate your zeal and am grateful that you have come to my door.
“Now, before we go any further, tell me a little about yourselves. I presume neither one of you was brought up as a Jehovah's Witness.”
My guess was right. One woman was a former Methodist, the other a former Catholic. Naturally enough, I intended to zero in on the latter.
“You say you want to share Scripture truths. That's laudable. Why don't we start with the Gospel of John?” I had them open to the sixth chapter, and we went through it slowly. In the first part, Jesus feeds the 5,000. He provides them, miraculously, with earthly food, a foretaste of what is to come. In the last half of the chapter, he promises to provide them, miraculously, with heavenly food — his own body and blood. “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:51).
“Consider the reaction of his listeners,” I said to the Witnesses. “The Jews who were listening to our Lord asked themselves, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ They took him literally, didn't they?”
She shook her head slowly, her mouth slightly agape. In my snakiest voice I whispered, ‘It was Judas-s-s-s!’
The former Methodist made no sign, but the former Catholic nodded slightly.
“Look at what Jesus did not do,” I continued. “He did not correct them. He did not say, ‘You misunderstand; what I said was just a metaphor.’ There was no need for him to say that because they had understood him properly.” I pointed out that, in fact, Jesus did quite the opposite. He repeated himself, this time in an adamant tone: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you … for my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed” (John 6:53–55).
Then, I noted, came the objections — not from the Jews who all along had opposed Jesus, but from his own disciples, the people who had accepted everything up to this point. “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” (John 6:60). Again, Jesus made no attempt to “correct” his listeners and to assure them that he spoke merely in symbols. Instead, he upbraided them: “There are some of you that do not believe” (John 6:64).
And then, in verse 66, the kicker: “After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him.”
I noted that this is the only place in Scripture in which any of Jesus’ followers left him for a doctrinal reason, then stepped close to the former Catholic and looked her square in the eyes. “And do you know who was among the unbelievers?”
She shook her head slowly, her mouth slightly agape. In my snakiest voice I whispered, “It was Judas-s-s-s!”
Her eyes grew wide. Verse 64 refers to the betrayer and brackets him with those “that did not believe.” The disbelieving disciples at least had the courage of their convictions, I said. They ceased to profess with their presence what they no longer believed in their hearts. Judas, rejecting the teaching on the Real Presence, outwardly stayed with Jesus. Later on he would steal from the common purse, becoming a thief, and later still he would hand the Master over to the executioners. But his first betrayal took the form of disbelief.
“You need to get right with God,” I exhorted my visitors. “You need to study Scripture more diligently. You need to pray to Jehovah God and ask him to enlighten you about the real meaning of this chapter. And you in particular,” I said, turning back to the former Catholic, “need to come back to the Church that Jesus established — the only Church that gives the authentic interpretation of these verses and of all verses in the Bible. Quite innocently, I'm sure, you have allowed yourself to abandon Jesus’ own Church. Don't be like the disciples who rejected his hard sayings and turned away from him.”
They told me they would think about it.
Karl Keating is founding director of Catholic Answers.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY:Karl Keating ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: He's Teaching Us How to Grow Old DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:In Pope John Paul II's recent Letter to the Elderly, released in October, one might have expected the Holy Father to lament the fact that the rugged outdoorsman he, himself, used to be is but a memory. After all, this Pope has written several Letters (to women, to children, to youth, to families, to artists, to priests) and each has been more direct, more practical and more personal than any other traditional papal documents.
Yet, in this latest correspondence — possibly the most intimate of all, given his current state in life — he declares that he enjoys his old age. Indeed, he genuinely seems to be looking forward to the time of his death.
As a pastor, John Paul wants to reflect on the human experience lived out in its particularity. A good spiritual director does not give generic advice, for there are no generic souls. Rather, each person lives a spiritual life proper to his own particular circumstances. A universal pastor cannot address himself to each person, but the Holy Father attempts in these letters to speak to groups about the particular challenges and blessings that they are experiencing. Like previous letters, the 6,600-word Letter to the Elderly follows a United Nations initiative that declared this the “year of the elderly,” much as it declared 1994 the “year of the family.” But unlike previous letters, this one shows a Holy Father speaking to his peers.
“In this Letter I wish simply to express my spiritual closeness to you as someone who, with the passing of the years, has come to a deeper personal understanding of this phase of life and consequently feels a need for closer contact with other people of his own age, so that we can reflect together on the things we have in common,” writes the Holy Father. “It remains true that the years pass quickly and the gift of life, for all the effort and pain it involves, is too beautiful and precious for us ever to grow tired of it.”
Clearly John Paul, who has devoted so much of his energy to defending life in its earliest stages, wants to underscore that life has great value in its final chapters. Like Mother Teresa, who was fond of remarking that “every child is a gift from God,” the Holy Father encourages his aging contemporaries not “to resign ourselves to an inexorable fate, but rather to make full use of the years we still have before us.”
The Holy Father points out that, in the Bible, older people are called upon to undertake great tasks. He points to Abraham setting out for a new land, Moses leading the chosen people out of Egypt, or Simeon receiving the baby Jesus in the Temple. To Simeon is given the joy of offering the Nunc dimittis prayer: “Lord, now let your servant depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of all the people” (Luke 2:29–30). The Church sings that prayer each night in the Divine Office, choosing an old man's prayer to close each day.
Indispensable Experience
“And what are we to say of Peter in his old age?” asks the Holy Father. “Jesus had once said to him: ‘When you were young you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go’ (John 21:18). These are words which, as the Successor of Peter, touch me personally; they make me feel strongly the need to reach out and grasp the hands of Christ, in obedience to his command: ‘Follow me!’ (John 21:19).”
It is impossible not to hear in these words a personal confession that old age can sometimes be a burden, especially when it is not a period of rest, but rather of continued responsibility. For the Pope himself, looking toward his 80th birthday during the Jubilee Year, the weight of his office unites him to all those elderly people who face not a tranquil retirement, but the burdens of ill health and the obligation of continued work.
‘In this
The burden of old age can be aggravated “due to a mentality which gives priority to immediate human usefulness and productivity. … Such an attitude frequently leads to contempt for the later years of life, while older people themselves are led to wonder whether their lives are still worthwhile.” It is in this context that the threat of euthanasia appears, which the Holy Father condemns as an “offense against the dignity of the human person.”
“There is an urgent need to recover a correct perspective on life as a whole,” John Paul writes. “The correct perspective is that of eternity, for which life at every phase is a meaningful preparation. Old age too has a proper role to play in this process of gradual maturing along the path to eternity.”
St. Ambrose wrote that “Without the assistance of grace, immortality is more of a burden than a blessing,” indicating that only the Gospel can provide the proper perspective on eternity. John Paul builds on this paradigm of old age as the anteroom of eternity — the place where the final preparations are made to leave this world behind. From a worldly perspective, such an outlook might be thought morbid, or at least defeatist. Yet, he points out, this need not be the case for the Christian.
“While the human spirit has some part in the process of bodily aging, in some way it remains ever young if it is constantly turned toward eternity,” writes John Paul. “We are all familiar with examples of elderly people who remain amazingly youthful and vigorous in spirit. Those coming into contact with them find their words an inspiration and their example a source of comfort.”
This “youthful spirit,” which is not incompatible with physical infirmity, needs Christian hope. This turns the mind of the elderly person toward the “threshold of eternity,” moving toward the end of the human pilgrimage.
Thus serenity can give rise to wisdom, and the ability to offer sound judgments from which younger members of society can benefit. The Pope stresses that the elderly ought to live close to their family and members of younger generations. Also, with a clear view of trends in affluent countries, he warns against casting the elderly to the margins of social life, where they are denied contact with those who ought to love and care for them.
Dignity in Dying
John Paul knows that, after 20 years of living in the spotlight, one of his remaining tasks is to show the world how to die. “Even we elderly people find it hard to resign ourselves to the prospect of making this passage,” John Paul writes. “In our human condition, touched by sin, death presents a certain dark side which cannot but bring sadness and fear. How could it be otherwise? Man has been made for life. … It is thus understandable why, when faced with this dark reality, man instinctively rebels. In this regard it is significant that Jesus, “who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15), also experienced fear in the face of death: “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39).
“At the same time, [the saints] remind us that earthly life is not the ultimate value, in such a way that the twilight of life can be seen — from a Christian perspective — as a ‘passage,’ a bridge between one life and another, between the fragile and uncertain joy of this earth to that fullness of joy which the Lord holds in store for his faithful servants: ‘Enter into the joy of your master’ (Matthew 25:21).”
Pope John Paul has spoken about what he believes is his mission, namely, to lead the Church into the third millennium, now imminent. He will greet the new millennium as an old man, suffering from the toll of the years, but still buoyed by his determination to carry out all that God has given him to do.
“Despite the limitations brought on by age, I continue to enjoy life,” the Pope confesses. “For this I thank the Lord. It is wonderful to be able to give oneself to the very end for the sake of the Kingdom of God! At the same time, I find great peace in thinking of the time when the Lord will call me: from life to life! And so I often find myself saying, with no trace of melancholy, a prayer recited by priests after the celebration of the Eucharist: In hora mortis meae voca me, et iube me venire ad te— at the hour of my death, call me and bid me come to you. This is the prayer of Christian hope, which in no way detracts from the joy of the present, while entrusting the future to God's gracious and loving care.”
In the last years of his life, John Paul invites his contemporaries to “cross the threshold of hope” with him, into the third millennium, and then to hasten to that final threshold, over which they will pass “from life to life.”
Raymond de Souza writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY:Raymond J. De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: God Sees People Where People See Parts DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:With the endearing candor only a 15-year-old boy could display, a wide-eyed high school student once approached me before a pro-life presentation with a pointed question. “Why do you guys hate human bodies so much?” he wanted to know. “You've got so many rules against sex.”
By “you guys” I knew he meant Catholics. I also knew I had about five seconds to present my case.
“It's not because we hate the body that we teach as we do, but because we love it,” I told him. “We know how special it is, how fragile it is, and how much care must be taken to respect it.”
The teen seemed to be momentarily satisfied, or at least silenced into thought. But he had given me food for thought as well. For some time afterward, I contemplated the world's love/hate relationship with the human body — and the unique and unified Christian response. It's a response that, if you think about it, under-girds and explains all our teachings about the respect due human life from conception through natural death.
The Christian faith is eminently physical, tactile, appealing to the senses. Look at the creation story. Our God makes us out of the stuff of the earth. He bothers to make us male and female. He doesn't make us angels or disembodied souls, but body and soul. And then, inexplicably, he loves us, body and soul.
It matters to God when Cain kills Abel. And even afterward, Cain's life, including his bodily well-being, concerns God. God places a “mark” on Cain such that all who see it recognize that Cain is not to be killed.
Then, in Jesus, God reveals himself among us as a person, complete with a human body. Our Lord further shows how deeply God cares for our human bodies. Jesus relieves pain, cures blindness, and even raises human beings from the dead and restores them in their physical entirety to their bereaved families. All the while, he assures us that these miracles are signs of God's Kingdom begun among us. God's Kingdom, in other words, contemplates our physical well-being.
And, intriguingly, he leaves behind for us a physical “memorial” of his death and resurrection. For the Eucharist is not merely a “reminder” or a “symbol” of Jesus’ presence — it is his real presence, body, blood, soul and divinity. Tangible presence makes a difference, or God wouldn't have insisted on leaving his for us. Especially considering what a stumbling block the Real Presence is for many.
So it matters to Christians how our human bodies are touched, helped or harmed during our lives here on earth. Which helps explain our passionate feelings on the subjects of abortion, euthanasia and capital punishment.
The child in the womb, no matter how small, is a real physical presence — willed by God and called to a divine destiny. No matter that the body is not yet fully developed or even that he or she cannot yet live independently of the mother; this miraculous creation is physically here, and important.
Recently, credible evidence has come to light that the abortion industry is allowing aborted children to be harvested for body parts. On occasion, it seems some of the children being sacrificed for science are born alive, then killed either before or as their bodies are surgically incised.
Is it any wonder the Church raises its voice to demand investigations of such reports? After all, this is grotesque disrespect for the human body of the most callous kind. It matters what is done to these small bodies.
Just as it matters what is done to the bodies of convicted criminals. In Evangelium Vitae, our Holy Father reminds us that “bloodless means” of defending human life against an aggressor are “more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.” A person does not lose his dignity because he has been convicted of a capital crime. Recent stories about electric chairs gone amok — with prisoners catching fire and dying in a horrifyingly inhumane way — simply reinforce the point. This is no way to treat any human body.
Likewise, it matters what happens to the elderly, the dying, the disabled. Destroying their physical life is not an option for Christians. It is not dignified. It is not reverent. Christians, therefore, are leaders in the movement, not only against killing these persons, but also for providing them genuine palliative care.
Today's world is schizophrenic about the human body. We simultaneously pamper some and destroy others.
If I had had a little more time with that exuberant youth at the pro-life presentation, I would have explained to him that, for reasons we cannot fathom, God loves these frail human vessels of ours — every single one of them. If you're going to call yourself a Christian, you have no choice but to do the same.
Helen Alvaré is director of planning and information of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY:Helen Alvar… ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Pokémon Cometh DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Most adults first heard about Pokémon from news reports in December 1998. It is the TV cartoon targeting young children that was pulled from the air in Japan when at least 700 children were hospitalized with seizures their parents attributed to the flashing lights featured on the show.
Since then, it has come to America and other countries in video games, toys, a clothing line, TV shows and lucrative trading cards, becoming a $7 billion international phenomenon.
Now, the newly released Pokémon: The First Movie (the name Pokémon is reportedly short for “pocket monsters”) promises to boost its profits even higher this Christmas.
On Nov. 9, St. Paul's daily Pioneer Press printed these “Pokémon tips for parents":
• Children who are prone to obsessive behavior, are easily pulled into new fads, or are exceedingly anxious to please peers are most at risk for negative influences from Pokémon.
• Children who spend a lot of time in their Pokémon world, especially the Game Boy, may seem confused and disoriented as they try to transition back to the real world.
• Some parents accept Pokémon because its violence is less graphic than other computer/video violence. But researchers say it still sets young children up to be more accepting of the next level of violence, whenever and wherever it comes along.
• Help your child learn to be a better consumer by talking about the marketing behind Pokémon. To get some idea of how extensive it is, check out the Pokémon Web site, www.pokemon.com .
• Limit the Pokémon paraphernalia your child has and how much you buy for him. When parents purchase it, it feels to a child that it has your endorsement. When he has a lot of items, it's easier for him to immerse himself in the Pokémon world. If he wants Pokémon for Christmas, don't buy more than one item. If you only give one gift, don't make it Pokémon.
• A child whose family can't afford to keep pace with the Pokémon buying frenzy may be picked on by peers and feel sorry for himself. Empower him by taking the focus off affordability and talk instead about the values Pokémon represents: “In our family, we don't believe in violence, even a little bit.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Meeting Priests' Needs Led to Books for Laity DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:The Midwest Theological Forum has released an unusual new hymnal, Cantate et Iubilate Deo (Our Sunday Visitor Books, $29.95). As much a reading experience as a book to sing by, the volume includes not just words and music but also historical background, artistic interpretations and other innovative features. (It's reviewed in this issue of the Register on Page 8.)
The hymnal was edited by Opus Dei Father James Socías, head of the Chicago-based forum, which, through a variety of educational initiatives, assists priests and seminarians in deepening their spiritual life and continuing their ongoing theological formation. Its previous books have included Our Moral Life in Christ, Priesthood in the Third Millennium, Marriage is Love Forever and Guide for Confession, along with the Handbook of Prayers and the Daily Roman Missal.
While in Rome recently, Father Socías spoke with Register correspondent Raymond J. de Souza about the new hymnal — and the forum's expanding presence in the culture by way of the print media.
Why did you set out to write a new hymnal?
Well, I never thought I would produce a hymnal, because I do not have a good ear. They tested me when I was 10 years old, and they found that I did not have the ability. But I love both Gregorian chant and English hymns. I have been in the United States for 10 years, and I have been impressed with hymns in English. So when some people suggested that Midwest Theological Forum produce a hymnal, I thought we could collect some hymns from the patrimony of the Church, about half Gregorian chants in Latin, and about half in English.
St. Augustine says that when we sing we pray twice. That is true, but we have to know what we are singing. I found many times people liked to sing certain hymns, because the music is beautiful, but they did not know what they were singing. So that is why I began to do the research on the history of the hymns, and of course translations for those hymns that are in Latin.
‘I never thought I would produce a hymnal, because I do not have a good ear.’
— Father James Socías
What made you decide to include historical background on the hymns along with the standard words and music?
In order to know the real meaning of a hymn, it is helpful to know who wrote the hymn, when it was written, and what purpose it was written for. When you know these things — and when you have a clear translation of the meaning of the words if the hymn is in Latin — then you can pray with that hymn. Also, when we pray together, as in the liturgy, we also want to express the mysteries of our faith in our singing.
So I went to the Catechism, and I wanted to link all these hymns to the Catechism, where it explains the doctrines that the hymn is expressing. Then also I found some very good commentaries in the writings of the Fathers of the Church. All these are included along with the hymns, including other Church documents and even the writings of Pope John Paul II. Perhaps not everybody will be interested in all this work, but I think those who love the hymns will benefit from knowing them better.
The hymnal is physically very handsome. Why did you choose to include reproductions of Christian art?
When you see that secular books can be marvelously presented, it seems that something as important as sacred music should also be something attractive, but also practical. Sacred music, especially in the liturgy, is the continuing work of the Holy Spirit, which moves us to praise God. So if we produce something that is beautiful, then people will be more inclined to read it, to spend time with, to treasure it.
What is the mission of Midwest Theological Forum, which previously published the well-known
We did not start with the intention of publishing books, but of helping priests with various things that they would need. Our first book was Letters to My Brother Priests, a collection of Pope John Paul II's Holy Thursday letters to priests. The first edition came out in 1986, and we were sold out in one month, so we realized that there was a need for these kind of publishing ventures. We have now about 10,000 priests who are in contact with us, on our mailing lists, and we try to help them get access to materials that will help them and their people.
The Daily Roman Missal was something I had done when I was in the Philippines, and when I came to the United States, I was asked to do something similar here. So we did, and now that too has sold very well. Then there was the Handbook of Prayers. All of these were aimed at helping people to pray better, to understand better, to meditate more on the Mass and their other devotions.
We try to produce things that are not being done elsewhere. That's why I am very happy when I see that something is published by someone else that I thought was necessary — it means that we don't have to do it! One of our most recent projects was the book Our Moral Life in Christ, which tries to provide an introduction to moral theology at the high school or first-year college level. We thought it was something that was missing, so we tried to do it.
You mention the
When we did the Daily Roman Missal it was decided that we wouldn't include devotions, because that was a liturgical book. So we decided to do something for devotions, even though the financial supporters of Midwest Theological Forum did not think that the project would be viable. A friend of mine gave $3,600 of his own money, and we had a first printing. In six months we sold out, and now it is a best seller. There is no secret; we just included those devotions that have always been loved by the Catholic people, and then also decided to add the order of Mass, as a practical step. I then also decided to add the Prefaces for Mass because they are very beautiful and very few people know them well.
The Handbook is very popular with the laity, yes, but I am also happy that so many seminarians have it and use it. I know it helps them with their devotion to St. Joseph and our Lady, and in their love for our Lord. Then we have the North American College Manual of Prayers, a book that was designed for seminarians and priests, and that too sells much more among the laity.
Why have you taken on a publishing apostolate?
It is not only myself, but the work of all of us together at Midwest Theological Forum, which is an association of diocesan priests to help other priests. I am a priest of Opus Dei and [Midwest Theological Forum] is an apostolate to help priests; even if it is not strictly speaking a work of Opus Dei, it has that spirit. And then my pastoral work is spent largely hearing confessions, perhaps 20 hours a week — so publishing is only one part.
Yet publishing is also a very rewarding apostolate. There is a great need to present the authentic faith and life of the Church, especially to young people, so that they know what it is that the Church proposes. People are often interested, but do not know where to turn to discover the tradition of the Church. Publishing can put in their hands something that presents that tradition to them.
I have received letters from all over the world — from Africa, from all over Latin America, where the Spanish-language editions are distributed, and from the United States. People write to say that our materials are helping them with their spiritual life. That's our goal, whether with this new hymnal or with the other projects.
Raymond de Souza writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: Apostolate spawned by a need for hymnals, missals and prayer books ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Prizer's Picks DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Life is Beautiful (1998)
Roberto Benigni is a contemporary Charlie Chaplin. An actor-director, he's created an everyman-type of clown who negotiates his way through potentially serious situations with slapstick jokes and gags. His most recent film, the Oscar-winning Life is Beautiful, is both a clever satire on World War II fascism and a heart-wrenching drama about a father's love for his son.
Guido Orefice (Benigni) is a Jewish waiter in a small Italian town. He and his 5-year-old son are arrested and sent to a concentration camp. To keep the child from being overwhelmed by the horror that surrounds them, Guido convinces him that the whole thing is only a game to see who can fool the guards. Camp officials are ridiculed, but we can see that things are heading to a climax which won't be a lot of laughs. Like Chaplin, Benigni understands that comedy and tragedy are closely related.
Persuasion (1995)
At first glance, the success of the recent screen adaptations of Jane Austen's novels (Emma and Sense and Sensibility) seems surprising. They're well-observed satires of a social class that no one cares about anymore, and their unmarried heroines are always searching for Mr. Right, a goal many contemporary feminists would like to discredit. But Austen's work detaches romantic love from its erotic component and highlights the importance of emotional compatibility in a way modern audiences find novel and instructive.
Although Anne Elliott (Amanda Root) is a model of prudence and compassion, she's still a spinster at 27. Her baronet father and social-climbing older sister are running through the family fortune. When a dashing naval officer (Ciaran Hinds) whom she'd once rejected comes back into Anne's life, circumstances conspire to keep them apart. Persuasion makes us laugh at the hypocrisies and pretensions of most of her peers and root for true love to win out.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) is a psychotic, ultraviolent outlaw who preys off the citizens of the frontier town of Shinbone. Two men are determined to bring him down: an ambitious lawyer-school-teacher (James Stewart) and a gun-slinging homesteader (John Wayne). Both men are in love with the same woman (Vera Miles).
The film explores the larger question of who tamed the wild West — those who worked to establish law, education and commerce, or those who used brute force to serve the greater good. Director John Ford (Stagecoach) employs an imaginative flashback structure to present the ironic way the two opposing points of views were sometimes joined together. “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend,” declares a journalist when he learns that the truth of the situation differs considerably from the myths that have grown up about it. Ford shows how civilization requires freedom and responsibility to work in tandem.
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Most good war films show the senseless destruction of combat while asserting that some things are worth fighting for. The Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front is that rare thing — a true anti-war movie which makes us wonder if any cause is worth the price. Through a series of episodes about German schoolboy-recruits during World War I, it dramatizes how the unrelenting trench warfare forces them “to eat and sleep with death.” All the false, romantic notions of battle gradually give way to disillusionment and loss.
In a memorable, gut-wrenching scene which sets the movie's tone, a young German named Paul (Lew Ayres) is trapped in a foxhole with a wounded French soldier and must watch him die. The experience teaches him to look for the common humanity that binds him to his enemy rather than their political differences. His conscience and moral sensibility struggle to survive despite the mounting carnage around him.
Arts & Culture correspondent John
Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: °Viva Cristo Rey! DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Photography was invented in 1822 in France and the art of modern photography began in Britain in 1841. During the American Civil War, photographers came to the fore as recorders of history.
On Nov. 23, 1927, Jesuit Father Miguel Pro was led before a firing squad in Mexico City. The anti-Catholic president of Mexico, Plutarco Calles, who had personally ordered his execution, summoned photographers to the execution scene, hoping to capture on film weak and fearful Catholics cowering before the power of a viciously anti-clerical state.
The photographers took their pictures, including one of the mortally wounded Father Pro lying on the ground as the final shot was delivered to his head, but the effect was not what Calles had planned. The Mexican martyr's heroic and prayerful death made the photographs highly sought after as holy cards within days of the execution. Calles, of course, soon banned the pictures. What might have been the first photographed martyrdom in Church history also provided a snapshot of the 20th-century conflict between the kings of this world and Christ the King.
Father Miguel Pro was only 36 at the time of his martyrdom. Born on Jan. 13, 1891, into the well-off family of a mine manager, Miguel's childhood was marked by a lively sense of humor and a precocious concern for the ordinary Mexican worker. He was known for his practical jokes, which brought him much delight, often at the expense of his sisters.
One particular joke would take on later significance. Attending a Jesuit mission in a nearby town as a teen-ager, Miguel dressed himself in the Jesuit cassock and preached to the townsfolk, who gratefully gave him gifts of cigarettes and food. The real Jesuits caught him soon afterward and forced him to hand over what he had taken from the people. His preaching, however, was apparently good enough that the Jesuits decided not to expose his fraud in front of the townsfolk.
Miguel did not feel an early call to the priesthood. Indeed, despite his devout family, he even drifted away from the sacraments for a period. Rather, he identified himself with the miners among whom he had grown up.
Although his father was a manager, Miguel liked to call himself “a poor miner” and often went out with his mother to visit poor mining families, bringing food or medicine. As an adolescent, Miguel worked in the legal department of the mine, and may well have continued there were it not for his two sisters entering the convent. Initially upset that his sisters were “taken away,” Miguel began to ask what God might want of him, and it was not long before he presented himself, in 1911 at the age of 20, for admission to the Society of Jesus.
In 1910 a revolution had begun in Mexico, and by 1914 the Jesuit superiors thought it too dangerous for students to remain in Mexico, for Mexico's new rulers were hostile to the Church. Miguel and others had to flee to California, and then later through Nicaragua to Spain. Miguel studied and taught as he moved from place to place, finally finishing his studies with the Jesuits in Belgium.
In Belgium, Father Miguel Pro — he was ordained there on Aug. 31, 1925 — developed a persistent, painful stomach problem that proved resistant to repeated surgeries. Finally, his superiors decided to send him back to Mexico, hoping that his native environment might do what medicine could not. He arrived back in Veracruz in 1926 and made his way to Mexico City. His stomach ailment did indeed pass, but there were other, more serious threats to life in Mexico.
Within three weeks of his return, all public worship was outlawed. Any priest was subject to arrest and prosecution merely for being a priest.
A Dangerous Ministry
If Father Miguel's last minutes were photographed for posterity, his last 18 months of life were worthy of a great dramatic film. Disguising himself to avoid the police, his exercised a heroic and dangerous pastoral ministry all over Mexico City, bringing Communion secretly, celebrating Mass in hiding and hearing confessions under cover.
His zeal was only matched by his audacity. Dressed as a worker, he would move among workers, carrying the Blessed Sacrament hidden under his clothes so that they could receive Communion. One time, he even dressed as a policeman in order to sneak into the prison to hear the confessions of the prisoners. The young Miguel who dressed up as a priest for a laugh was now Father Pro, dressing as a layman in order to practice his priestly ministry.
On Nov. 13, 1927, a bomb was thrown into the car of the president-elect, Alvaro Obregon. The car from which the bomb had been thrown had previously belonged to one of Father Miguel's brothers. While the Pro brothers were active in defending the Church against persecution, all three had airtight alibis for the attempted assassination, but the order went out to arrest them. They never had a trial, and the police knew that they were not guilty. But Calles thought it would serve his campaign against the Church to execute Father Miguel and his brothers, and so gave the order.
Father Miguel was shot shortly before his brother Humberto. Roberto, the third brother, was spared only after the Argentinean ambassador pleaded for his life. When they led Father Miguel out to be shot, he blessed the firing squad. For his final request, he asked to pray, which he did, kneeling before the bullet-ridden wall behind the spot of execution. He then faced his killers, declining the blindfold. He spread his arms wide in the form of a cross and firmly and quietly said, “Viva Cristo Rey” (Long live Christ the King). Then he was shot.
A New Feast
During the Holy Year of 1925, Pope Pius XI had established the feast of Christ the King, which we celebrate this year on Nov. 21. Pius sought, as his motto said, “To seek the peace of Christ in the reign of Christ.” Against those worldly powers which brought war and violence, Pius proposed that the answer was to be found in the kingship of the one who reigns from a Cross.
Father Miguel Pro was not long in consecrating the new feast of Christ the King with his own blood.
----- EXCERPT: A one-time prankster died amid persecution in 1920s Mexico ----- EXTENDED BODY:Raymond De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bethlehem: Here Dawned the Light of the World DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:The following speech, titled “Bethlehem 2000,” was given at the United Nations on Nov. 10.
Introduction
On 18 Nov. 1998, this assembly adopted without a vote the historic Resolution 53/27 on Bethlehem 2000. The Holy See welcomes that initiative of the general assembly and expresses its special sincere appreciation to all who made it possible. My delegation equally commends the intention of the general assembly to revisit this item at the dawn of the third millennium.
The resolution on Bethlehem 2000 is rich in content and far reaching in its application. It recalls that “the Palestinian city of Bethlehem is the birthplace of Jesus Christ and one of the most historic and significant sites on earth” and notes that “the world will celebrate in Bethlehem, a city of peace, the onset of the new millennium in a global vision of hope for all peoples.”
It “welcomes the impending arrival of this global, historic celebration in Bethlehem of the birth of Jesus Christ and the onset of the third millennium as a symbol of the shared hope for peace among all peoples of the world.” It “expresses support for the Bethlehem 2000 Project, and commends the efforts undertaken by the Palestinian Authority in this regard.”
Since the adoption of the resolution, additional fora were held in Rome and elsewhere on Bethlehem 2000. Those undertakings and others to follow present a fitting preparation for the bimillenary occur-rence of an event which links heaven to earth and individuals and peoples with each other.
In line with the contents of this resolution, my delegation would like to dwell mainly on three aspects of the item Bethlehem 2000, namely, the city of Bethlehem, the person of Jesus born there, and the message Bethlehem conveys to all peoples of every age.
At the Center of History
Bethlehem stands at the crossroad of history, giving us a profound vision of the past and pointing to a new way of peace and hope. With the etymological connotation “house of bread,” Bethlehem enters in the records of history in the 14th century B.C. For almost four centuries it remained on the margins of history until the 10th century B.C. when the great King David made Bethlehem “his house” (1 Samuel 17:12,15). After King David and until the beginning of this era, Bethlehem was almost left in oblivion.
Still, it hiddenly contained a continued lineage of solid hope and unquenched expectation. The fulfillment of that hope and expectation was the birth of Jesus, Son of David, in Bethlehem. Jesus’ lowly birth “gives Bethlehem its unique place in the mind and heart of the world” (Pope John Paul II, Address to the Members of the Organizing Committee of the International Forum Bethlehem 2000, Rome, Feb. 18).
Though the message of Bethlehem was, among others, the promise of peace, “Bethlehem's history since then has often been marked by violence” (Ibid.). Yet, millions will flock to the relatively small city of Bethlehem during the coming year in search of that peace announced at the birth of Christ, for themselves and for the world. Considering the “religious, historical and cultural dimensions” of the millennium event, the Bethlehem 2000 Project planned by the Palestinian Authority is a laudable initiative.
Bethlehem stands at the crossroad of history, giving us a profound vision of the past and pointing to a new way of peace and hope.
As Christ is the patrimony of all of humanity, so too, Bethlehem, his birthplace, is the patrimony of humanity which necessitates special protection and guarantees “ensuring free and unhindered access to the holy places in Bethlehem to the faithful of all religions and the citizens of all nationalities.” The resolution on Bethlehem 2000 clearly makes such provisions.
Bethlehem Needs Peace
After decades of violence, what Bethlehem and its inhabitants need most today is peace. Peace delayed could become peace denied, and whichever side holds the peace talks back will be judged responsible by history for accumulating negative consequences and for further escalation of violence. It is the sincere hope of the Holy See that all actors play their respective and relevant roles, “so that the millennium may be celebrated most appropriately in an atmosphere of peace and reconciliation” not only in Bethlehem, but also in Nazareth and the Holy City of Jerusalem and elsewhere in the Middle East. The Sept. 5 agreement of this year contains promising provisions in that direction and we earnestly hope that their full implementation will take place in the given time frame.
In the child born in “Bethlehem of Judea” (Matthew 2:1), God identified himself with the poor and abandoned, the displaced and the refugee, victims of injustice and the outcasts from the mainstream of society of all ages and places.
Jesus born in Bethlehem and brought up in Nazareth in a carpenter's family, had one fundamental message for humanity — the message of love. He exemplified in himself the message of a serving love because he did not live for himself but for others. The concept of love found in the person of Jesus a new definition: self-giving. He sealed that definition with his own blood on the cross.
The vision of self-giving love includes everyone and excludes no one; it respects life and calls for the dignity of every human person, invites to an option for the poor and the oppressed, it demands justice for all and envisages the principle of solidarity in the world. It teaches that giving is loftier than receiving and calls for a new social order. Such a vision has to be the underlining current of the new era.
The spirit of Jesus’ self-giving love lives on today and continues to inspire millions, as in the past two millennia. Hence, he is not a religious leader of the past but a heavenly beacon of love and life for men and women who seek in darkness for the sense of life, and who suffer the wounds of violation of the dignity of their persons. To a world possessed by egoism and introversion, Jesus of Nazareth makes his invitation for conversion of hearts and in the midst of hatred and oppression, he intones the good tidings of fellowship and solidarity.
Bethlehem was the meeting point of heaven and earth proclaiming glory to God and peace to men of good will. The first visitors to experience God's peace in the manger of Bethlehem were the humble shepherds from the neighboring valleys. The wise men in search of peace were also guided to that lowly abode by a star of hope.
The first truth about the peace announced in Bethlehem is that it is not man-made but God-given. At the same time, men and women are not merely beneficiaries of that gift but real actors in preparing the venue for that gift. Jesus himself calls “the heralds of peace, blessed"(Matthew 5:9) as he calls blessed “those who hunger and thirst for justice” (Matthew 5:6). But only in humility, like the shepherds and the wise men of Bethlehem, will peace be given to us.
Peace on Earth?
Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is growth in harmony. Growth of the entire creation, with the human person at its center, toward the creator. Disturbing that harmony of essential and fundamental relations, peace will become a mirage. Keeping the right relation between God and man and between man and man, the vertical and horizontal dimensions of human life, is a precondition for peace.
Peace is only possible where a will to reconciliation exists. Hatred begets only hatred. Reconciliation requires courage and generosity. Letting the old wounds of hatred and violence bleed again is to deny peace a chance. The call to forgiveness was the final message of Jesus. Where the will to forgive prevails, war and conflict will find no place.
At the end of the second millennium, and in the wake of the divisions and wars, violence and atrocities that have often marked its years, the human family needs a moment of self-examination. It badly needs such a moment to realize the evil of which humanity is capable.
It needs it equally to commit itself to a new life, devoid of egoism and hatred. Concretely that means a resolve and commitment to a new ideal in life. If that ideal is the self-giving love, exemplified in the person of Jesus, our entry into the new millennium will be a decisive and positive step in history.
The United Nations, by its very definition, is the organization holding the noble mandate of maintaining international peace and security. Yet, no other place in the world is aware of the difficulties in maintaining peace in the world as the United Nations organization.
The awareness that peace is a gift of God, would make the international community better realize its limitations and look for means to create the right environment in which that gift is received.
That exactly is the role of this unique organization, and the start of the new millennium could be the propitious occasion to enter into such an awareness.
The call of God to humanity 2,000 years ago in the babe of Bethlehem is one of hope, not one of fear and anxiety.
His extended and embracing hands are a symbol for all. Let self-giving love and God-given peace be the guiding principles for the human family entering the new millennium. And let it be especially so for the people in and around Bethlehem and throughout the Middle East.
Archbishop Renato Martino is permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY:Archbishop Renato Martino ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Back From the Brink? DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Two cities where Catholic education has been flagging are showing signs of reclaiming lost ground, thanks to generous support from private individuals and groups.
In Memphis, Tenn., private monies are opening six previously closed inner-city schools, while, in Indianapolis, they are helping build at least two new facilities.
Could this be the bell signaling the start of a new day for Catholic education nationwide? That depends on whether or not these dioceses’ success in raising funds can be duplicated elsewhere.
“No other diocese is committed to such an inner-city school reopening program as Memphis,” according to Leonard DeFiore, president of the National Catholic Education Association. “Most are building schools mostly in suburbs, responding to the new wave of demand. But inner-city schools still struggle. Memphis is unique, especially for a diocese with only 18 schools. Nothing is being done on that scale” anywhere else.
The first of the six previously closed Memphis schools, St. Augustine's, opened with 36 kindergarteners in August. The others will likewise open at that level over the next three years, then add a grade a year so that parents and students “know what's acceptable, what are the expectations,” said superintendent Mary McDonald.
Bishop J. Terry Steib of Memphis is overseeing the largest inner-city school-reopening program in the country.
Meanwhile, in Indianapolis, the locl archdiocese has built the first new Catholic inner-city school in the United States in 40 years and has another on the drawing board for next year. The building program is being financed by a fund drive which drew heavily on corporate givers and had the support of then Mayor Stephen Goldsmith. The drive set out to raise $20 million — and came up with $28 million.
Memphis Mission
Superintendent McDonald said the plan in Memphis is to go where the need is greatest. She added that, while the schools will be Catholic in mission and vision, they will be open to all. “We want to reach out to everyone, Catholic or otherwise,” she said, adding that the schools are reopening in areas that are under-served, with many new immigrants and a large black population.
“We will never close these schools again,” said McDonald. “That's our promise to these people.”
They can make the promise because of sizable donations from people who apparently see Catholic schools as a civic treasure. The donors, who remain anonymous, have chipped in unspecified millions — “several,” said McDonald. Their “seed money” will go to renovating and maintaining the buildings, which are in varying states of disre-pair. One closed just four years ago, another back in 1969.
A foundation has been established as ongoing recipient and provider of funds to cover operating deficits through tuition aid to students. The diocese has also recently opened three new schools in suburbs where the Catholic population is growing.
Indy 28 Million
The Indianapolis school, Holy Angels, whose all-black student population is 90% non-Catholic, replaces a 92-year-old building. The parish raised $700,000 of $3.2 million needed for the project; the remainder came from the campaign, called Building Communities of Hope. The other school to be built is Holy Cross Central.
“Archbishop [Daniel] Beuchlein saw the need to reach to the civic and corporate community and knew whom to go to and how to do it, so they came on board,” said Michael Halloran, the archdiocese's secretary for stewardship and development. For instance, the campaign's national chair was Marilyn Tucker Quayle, wife of the former vice president. An earlier campaign, in which the mayor was also involved, raised $1.5 million.
The appeal to these donors lies in “what Catholic schools do and for whom they do it,” said Halloran. The mayor and a number of corporate leaders looked at the eight center-city Catholic grade schools with about 2,000 children and decided they were a worthy cause.
The eight schools are 62% minority and 67% non-Catholic. More than half the students come from families living below the poverty level. “Our schools are anchors for their neighborhoods,” said Halloran. “Their test scores are dramatically different,” he added. “The religious instruction they give is one of the reasons why they are successful. We teach Catholic beliefs, traditions and values.”
Indianapolis has another ally of Catholic schooling in the 8-year-old Educational Choice Charitable Trust (CHOICE), the first of the nation's 68 private voucher programs, founded by insurance executive Patrick Rooney. CHOICE raises almost $2 million a year, with Rooney's Golden Rule Co. covering its $100,000 overhead and giving $400,000 besides. It's open to children in the city itself to attend private schools anywhere in the county, offering up to half the tuition. This year 2,600 are attending such schools on CHOICE grants — up 55% from a year ago, because CHOICE is in partnership with the newly established, New York-based Children's Scholarship Fund.
“We give scholarships. It's up to parents where the children go,” said Timothy Ehrgott, executive director of CHOICE. As it happens, this is most often to Catholic schools.
CHOICE raises its money mostly from foundations, corporations and individuals through annual campaigns. Its partnership with the archdiocese is clear enough from this fact, noted by Ehrgott: Up to 80 students a year attend the rebuilt Holy Angels with the help of CHOICE grants.
“One of the big reasons Holy Angels could be rebuilt was CHOICE,” said Ehrgott, who, though not Catholic, sends his own children to a Catholic school.
In his city, as in Memphis, generous people believe in Catholic schools and their ability to help people most in need. At St. Augustine's in Memphis, for instance, “children from incredibly poor backgrounds are already reading” after a few weeks of kindergarten, said McDonald.
They are also learning to pray and getting to know the Catholic Church. McDonald recounts how one child, visiting the parish church next door and becoming fascinated with the baptismal font, told her: “God lives in our school. We went to his house and saw his bathtub.”
Jim Bowman writes from Chicago.
----- EXCERPT: Donors to inner-city schools rescue six in Memphis and build two in Indianapolis ----- EXTENDED BODY:Jim Bowman ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Education Notebook DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Protest Greets Clinton At La Salle University
Fifty pro-life students and alumni protested the event. They chanted “Hey La Salle parents! Guard your daughter and hide your car keys. Bill and Ted are coming to town,” according to the report.
John Oberholzer, 58, an alumnus of La Salle, carried a sign that read “La Salle No Longer Catholic.” He faxed La Salle's president to protest Clinton and Kennedy because of their vehement support of abortion. Oberholzer called on Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua to revoke La Salle's charter as a Catholic school, said the article.
Street initially wanted to have the political rally at Temple University, but the school turned down his request. Temple does not allow political endorsements on campus because of a possible conflict-of-interest, since it receives government assistance.
Notre Dame's
THE OBSERVER, Nov. 12—The University of Notre Dame student newspaper reported on the school's recent ban on advertising homosexual advocacy groups in the newspaper. Wrote reporter Finn Pressly:
“A tense, 130-minute meeting of the Student Senate yielded a resolution and an open letter responding to the ongoing debate regarding the University of Notre Dame's relationship with The Observer. Michelle Krupa, editor in chief of The Observer, addressed the senate in order to provide background on the issue.
“‘We are a newspaper serving a Catholic community. We are not a Catholic newspaper,’ she said. ‘We do not have an agenda to promote Catholic teaching. If we do promote Catholic teaching through stories we cover or ads we run, it is coincidental to our primary obligation to report and provide information responsibly.’
“According to Krupa, the Universtity functions as The Observer's accountant, rather than publisher. The Observer, which is an independent student-run organization, entered into the University's accounting system following financial trouble in the early ‘80s due to misappropriation of funds, she said. The University loaned the newspaper enough funds to relieve the situation in exchange for The Observer's agreement to let the University handle accounting procedures.”
He reported that “the University has set forth a policy dictating to The Observer that it may not accept advertisements from GALA ND/SMC (Gay and Lesbian Alumni of Notre Dame/Saint Mary's College).”
Protesting ‘Art’ at Boston College
CATHOLIC ACTION LEAGUE, Nov. 8—A modern Irish art exhibit hosted at Boston College, which includes a photograph of a naked man promoting condoms, is “an insult to Catholics, an affront to Christian morality, and a debasement of Irish culture,” said the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts.
The photograph, called “Billy,” is a self-portrait of artist Billy Quinn. The accompanying text reads, “Quinn's work comes from a passion for truth and revelation, perhaps in the hope that such brutal honesty will eventually lead to acceptance.”
But “Billy” is not the only problem.
The exhibit also includes Dorothy Cross’ phallic symbol containing fossilized shark teeth and Alice Maher's works, which are “reminiscent of pre-Christian pantheism and witchcraft,” the group said in a statement.
“Irish Art Now not only assaults Catholic standards of decency, modesty and purity, but celebrates the repudiation of Catholic moral teaching about chastity, the impermissibility of contraceptive use, and the intrinsic immorality of homosexual behavior,” said C.J. Doyle, executive director of the League.
“Boston College ought to be ashamed of itself for this latest betrayal of the Catholic religion and the Irish heritage of its founders. Alumni who persist in contributing to this institution ought to examine their consciences and consider their own culpability in sustaining B.C.'s scandalous apostasy.”
Gov. Jeb Bush Calls For End To Affirmative Action in Florida
Bush made the recommendations promising to lead the charge toward diversity and opportunity but without the laws mandating it. His university proposal will need approval from the Board of Regents of the state university system, but the decision on state contracts was made by executive order, the newspaper reported.
In place of race-based admissions, the governor is recommending a program whereby high school seniors who finish in the top one-fifth of the class would receive admission to state university, which would reduce the importance of SAT scores that critics say are culturally biased
The governor's proposal is similar to the one his brother, Gov. George W. Bush, passed in Texas. Dubbed “One Florida Initiative,” it is widely considered an attempt to stave off momentum for a ballot initiative by California businessman Ward Connerly, whose Florida Civil Rights Initiative Bush has called “divisive”
“This is a statement of inclusion, not of division,” Bush said. “This is a statement that is progressive and thoughtful and forward-thinking and that's where we want to stay,” reported the Tallahassee Democrat.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Natural Family Planning Underrated, Poll Finds DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:SALT LAKE CITY—Natural family planning, which has received short shrift from the medical community for years, may be starting to get more attention.
Or, at least, the inattention is starting to get attention.
A new study indicates that fewer than half the doctors who advise women on reproductive issues mention natural family planning as an option. What's significant is that the study appeared in the November issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology, a leading medical journal.
Joseph Stanford, assistant professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of Utah, is the author of the study.
“Obstetrics and Gynecology is one of the top two, if not the main journal for obstetrics and gynecology,” he said. “It's as mainstream as you can get in the field.” He added that in recent years there have been few articles supportive of natural family planning in mainstream publications.
The survey found that most doctors are ignorant of modern methods of natural family planning and underestimate its effectiveness in preventing pregnancy.
A team of four physicians led by Stanford sent questionnaires to 840 randomly selected doctors in Missouri, of whom 375, or 65%, responded. Of these, 46% reported mentioning natural family planning to at least some women patients.
Physicians surveyed were told that the current medical literature on natural family planning indicates that it is up to 90% effective for spacing births. Average effectiveness, they were told, is 70%. (Stanford said the rates are really higher than these, but because of controversy surrounding how to measure the rates, his team deliberately quoted them low.)
Doctors were then asked if they agreed with these estimates.
Stanford said that “70% to 80% of those surveyed wildly underestimated the effectiveness of natural family planning.”
The Utah researcher said modern methods of natural family planning can be 97% to 98% effective for spacing births, when used properly. The average rate of effectiveness, Stanford said, turns out to be 80%, which he said is very close to the rates for barrier methods of contraception such as condoms and diaphragms.
“Basically, we confirmed what we already suspected,” Stanford said. “Physicians don't routinely offer natural family planning as an option when they discuss birth control. Nor do they refer to it when talking to couples who are trying to get pregnant. And when they do talk about it, they talk about the calendar or the rhythm methods. … What they've been taught is outdated and incorrect.”
No Need to Be A ‘Rocket Scientist’
A resident physician at Yale-New Haven Hospital, who asked that her name not be printed, told the Register that students in medical school today don't learn much about natural family planning “because it has such a low success rate.”
She estimated natural family planning to be about 70% effective, and added that the real problem was motivating people to use it.
“Our patients wouldn't be reliable [for taking their own temperature],” she said. “The pill has a high failure rate” for the same reason, she added, because women forget to take it.
“If a woman is averse to taking the pill and is trying to prevent pregnancy, Depo-Provera is a better method,” the resident said.
Stanford disagreed. “You don't have to be a rocket scientist to use natural family planning effectively,” he contended. “Doctors have an unrealistically complicated view of it.”
Modern methods of natural family planning, developed in the last 20 years, include the Billings method and the symptothermal method. These are not to be confused, Stanford said, with the rhythm method, which, after its invention in the 1930s, gained notoriety only for being ineffective.
The new method does take some training, he said.
“The key finding in the study was that physicians were more likely to offer natural family planning if they reported knowing of a teacher in their area,” Stanford said. “More than half of those surveyed said they didn't know of one.
“One reason they don't offer [natural family planning], aside from not knowing about it, is that it's not something they can do alone. They can hand you a prescription for a pill and that's that. But when it comes to natural family planning, it takes time they don't have.”
Yet, the training is worth the time, insisted Jose Fernandez, an Oklahoma City physician. Fernandez said natural family planning requires a woman and her doctor to become cooperators.
“When a woman charts her own cycle, we can detect gynecological and reproductive problems,” he said. “When I treat a woman, I want to understand her body based on what she sees as well as what I see. With the pill you are working against a woman's body because all the pill does is shut a woman's system down. With natural family planning you are working with the body.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY:Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Offering an Alternative to the Pill DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Susanne Ek, 36, the editor of two natural family planning publications at the Billings Ovulation Method Association, was born into natural family planning work. Her mother attended the first training session in the Billings Ovulation Method after pioneering doctors John and Lyn Billings first came to the United States in 1970.
In its 27th year of operation, the Minnesota-based organization now teaches in 11 hospitals and has nearly 30 employees. The group is helping supply the need for natural family planning teachers across the United States. She recently spoke with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
What is the effectiveness rate of the Billings Ovulation Method?
The World Health Organization did a five-country prospective study (Philippines, India, Ireland, New Zealand and El Salvador) and concluded it is 98.6 to 99% effective in postponing pregnancy when couples are taught by a certified teacher, apply the rules correctly and understand the method. It's also very effective for couples who want to achieve a pregnancy because it becomes immediately apparent when the woman is potentially fertile.
How does using natural family planning — identifying fertile times to avoid pregnancy — differ from using contraceptives?
That's a question all NFP teachers will inevitably be asked. The Church teaches that every marital act must be open to the possibility of a new life. … The tricky part in understanding how NFP and contraception differ, is to realize that with NFP a couple trying to postpone pregnancy are not putting something in the way of God's will such as a condom.
They are remaining open to the possibility even though they are using a time during the cycle when conception is virtually impossible. We're not asked to conceive a baby with each act of intercourse. We're simply asked to be open to the possibility of new life.
What do you see as the relationship between natural family planning and faith?
Although I have never been married, I have been told by many couples that NFP strengthens not only their relationship as a couple, but their faith as well. There are studies that have proven this to be true. It takes a certain amount of faith and trust in God to use NFP in its truest form. If it's used as just another contraceptive measure, it's not being used to its fullest potential.
What effects has contraception had on women?
I have great concerns about my generation. Very few people have been told the truth especially when it comes to Church teaching and the whole issue of birth control. So many women have been physically, psychologically or spiritually damaged by contraceptives. Many couples can't believe no one has told them about NFP before. They come to us because they're sick of feeling sick and often are trying desperately to conceive a baby — although most come to us to postpone or avoid pregnancy.
If only they would have been told how the pill works, that the third action is to change the lining of the uterus so it becomes hostile to a new life. In plain English, the third action is to abort. The birth control pill can cause the cervical crypts to atrophy which can cause low fertility or infertility later on. Norplant, DepoProvera and, of course, the IUD are also known abortifacients. So many women don't know this and when they find out they're often horrified. Besides educating people on what contraceptives do, the whole issue of respect for fertility really needs to be taught.
Tell us about your current project, “NFP: A Preachable Message.”
It will be an audiotape that features bishops, priests and a few deacons and hopefully a cardinal or two giving a brief testimonial on the fact that, first of all, they have personally preached the message of Humanae Vitae and NFP from the pulpit. In some cases they talk about how they said it and others talk about how well received the message was and others tell how people are hungry for the truth. The bottom line is that it will be a tool that for the clergy to give them the courage to preach this important message.
Didn't you produce a similar audiotape for physicians?
Yes, it's called “NFP: The Medical Link.” It has 19 physicians, one after another, giving their name, where they practice, their specialty and their reasons why they are NFP-only. Not all of the physicians on the tape are Catholic but they all address their personal, professional and spiritual reasons for offering only natural family planning to their patients. Already I know of a physician who was given this audio-tape by his pastor and within a short time converted his practice to no longer offering or referring for contraception or sterilization.
We also have videos that we have produced to promote NFP and they are not specific to the Billings Ovulation Method. There are books, slides and other materials that we also have available.
How does the future look for natural family planning?
The future looks great! If we can remain humble servants as the Drs. Billings model so well for us and if scientists like Drs. [Erik] Odeblad [of Sweden] and [James] Brown [of Australia] can keep up with their research in this important area, we will remain on the cutting edge. We're seeing more and more couples coming to us after having tried everything else. And, they are asking why they hadn't heard of it before.
It's really unfortunate that the world didn't heed the prophetic words of Pope Paul VI when he wrote Humanae Vitae. I, for one, am quite sure we wouldn't be in the mess we're in.
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
Billings Ovulation Method Association can be reached at 316 N. 7th Ave.
St. Cloud, Minn. 56303 Phone: (888) 637-6371 E-mail:sek@gw.stcdio.org
----- EXCERPT: ProLife ProFile ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Ad Blackout Helped Sink 'Partial-Birth' Ban in Maine DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:AUGUSTA, Maine—First came the blackout. Then came the defeat.
Pro-lifers were shocked Nov. 2 when voters here by a 55% to 45% margin rejected a referendum to ban partial-birth abortion.
“I expected the ban to win,” said Marc Mutty, spokesman for the Portland Diocese. “We did detailed polling. We were up by 12 points a week-and-a-half before the vote. Then we started to nose-dive.”
The erosion in support, he acknowledged, resulted from the ability of abortion advocates to frame the debate in their favor and the inability of pro-lifers to effectively respond.
One thing that hurt the pro-life cause was the refusal by four major television stations to air any commercial that depicted or even described the partial-birth abortion procedure, Mutty said.
The virtual TV blackout on ads, along with the abortion supporters’ simple avoidance of talking about partial-birth abortion, were keys to the defeat, Mutty insisted. He said abortion supporters claimed that the referendum would make almost every abortion in Maine illegal.
“It's deception,” Mutty said of a last-minute ad campaign by abortion proponents. “They won't talk about the procedure.”
Joanne D‘Arcangelo, of Planned Parenthood of Maine, however, insisted that the ban “would have applied to many procedures.”
Asked by the Register if the ballot question only dealt with those abortions in which the fetus has been partially vaginally delivered, D‘Arcangelo said, “I'm not going to get into a discussion about the procedures.”
Mutty said that during a televised debate “the moderator asked, ‘Will you answer the question [about the procedure]?’ But they wouldn't.”
When pro-lifers tried to resort to TV ads to get their message out, they had reisistance from the four major stations, Mutty said.
“We even ran the concepts by them before production,” he said. “They wouldn't agree to our concepts. Anything with the partial-birth abortion procedure they refused.”
The decision by the stations left the pro-lifers with no vehicle to sufficiently respond to statements from abortion activists that the initiative would prohibit almost all abortions, Mutty said.
Steve Thaxton, station manager of Portland's WCSH-TV, defended his decision to cut an anti-abortion commercial from the air.
“We felt it would offend viewers,” he said. “The one spot was turned down for issues of taste.”
Gubernatorial Sympathy
Sympathy for the pro-lifers came from unusual corners, however. Pro-abortion Gov. Angus King lambasted the decision by the station and said that it should allow all views to be expressed in the “marketplace of ideas.”
Thaxton disagreed with the governor and defended his station's rights not to air the ads.
“The public does not understand the difference between advertising and news coverage,” he contended. “People feel they have a First Amendment right to advertising.
“There's a huge difference. About the ads — we're a privately held business. We have to deal with what is appropriate. The news coverage is about our rights and responsibilities as a member of the press.”
Mutty said a public television station was initially willing to host a forum to debate the commercial stations’ decisions.
“The public television station wanted to discuss this,” Mutty said. “They asked me to talk about this, but they canceled the show because the station managers refused to debate with me on this issue.”
Though he was invited to participate in the forum, Thaxton did not attend.
“I had a conflict and I didn't want to do it,” the TV manager said. “There's not enough airtime to explain the decision. I spent 45 to 60 minutes with viewers on the phone and they still didn't understand.”
Judy Horan, who as station manager of Bangor's WLBZ also refused to air a pro-life commercial, insisted that little would be gained from such a debate.
“After the election I thought the subject was pretty much covered. I didn't think anything else would be gained after the fact.”
Mutty speculated that another factor in the outcome of the referendum was that voters sometimes deceive themselves about partial-birth abortion, a procedure in which a baby is partially delivered and then stabbed in the skull before being dragged from his mother's womb.
“We told people about what's going on,” he recalled, “and they would say, ‘As if this actually happens in Maine!’
A ban on partial-birth abortions in Maine failed for the third time in four years, but it is not the only state that has dealt with the issue. Twenty-seven states have banned the procedure since 1996.
Courts have struck down or suspended the bans in all but eight states.
States That Have Banned Partial-Birth Abortions
Michigan South Dakota* Mississippi* Georgia South Carolina* Arkansas Arizona Montana Alaska
Indiana* Alabama Nebraska Tennessee* Rhode Island Louisiana Illinois New Jersey Iowa
Florida Idaho West Virginia Virginia* Kentucky Oklahoma* Wisconsin North Dakota* Missouri
States are listed in chronological order of bans.
* States with bans currently in effect.
(
On Sept. 12, 1984, at Canada's Quidi Vidi Lake in St. John's, Newfoundland, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass with some 50,000 faithful. In his homily, he thanked God for vocations to the family (See stories by Brian McGuire and Tim Drake, this page):
We offer a very special act of thanksgiving at this time for our Christian families. In union with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, we thank the Father “from whom every family takes its name.” We thank him:
- For all those many families throughout Canada whose lives reflect the beauty and grandeur of the vocation to love and the service of life.
- For the deep love that Christian spouses communicate to each other in the communion of married life, as they keep alive in the world an altogether special image of God's love.
- For the lives of mutual fidelity lived by countless couples through the power of sacramental grace.
- For all those couples who generously endeavor to follow God's plan for human love as expressed in the Church's teaching in Humanae Vitae and Familiaris Consortio, and whose marriage is always open to new life; and for all those who help educate couples in Natural Family Planning (No. 5).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:Beatty Clarifies His Stance on Abortion
The Register and other media reported Drudge's claim ("Actor Warren Beatty Says He's Pro-Life,” Oct. 17–23, 1999).
But the claims are “not true,” reports the Weekly Standard.
Beatty explained to students at the Harvard's Kennedy School of Government the conversation he had with Matt Drudge.
According to the Weekly Standard, “Beatty said that Drudge asked him, ‘Now that you have three kids, how do you feel about abortion?’ I said, ‘It really makes you think.’”
The magazine wrote, “Then Beatty stammered a bit and looked uncomfortable (as he did in response to numerous questions) but recovered in time to conclude with the unflinching reaffirmation, ‘I'm pro-choice.’”
Abortion Facilities Operate Without Proper Licensing
CLEVELAND RIGHT TO LIFE, Nov. 2—A review of records from the Ohio Department of Health confirmed that 17 of the 21 freestanding abortion clinics in Ohio were illegally operating without the proper licensing required by Ohio law, said Cleveland Right to Life in a statement.
Cleveland Right to Life immediately notified the Director of the Ohio Department of Health, Dr. J. Nick Baird, and Ohio Governor Robert Taft, who it says is pro-life.
Denis Mackura, of Cleveland Right to Life, appealed to fellow pro-lifers in the Buckeye State to shut down abortion facilities operating illegally.
“If we don't keep up the pressure on the department, their response will be the weakest possible — like giving them time to comply, or leveling a slight financial penalty. Even if we could only shut the clinics down for a month or two, it would be a great victory — and many lives would be saved. And of course, it also will help the public understand that abortion facilities are not the safe, clean havens they pretend to be,” said Mackura.
Canada Approves “Morning-After” Pill
The government's health department quietly gave its approval in March, a department spokeswoman said, but news of the approval only emerged in late October as the manufacturer prepared for its advertising campaign.
A spokeswoman for Roberts Pharmaceutical Canada Inc. aimed to distinguish the pill, Preven, from RU-486, the dangerous French-made abortion drug which can kill an unborn child up to seven weeks after conception.
Roberts will market the abortion drug in Canada, though it is made by the New Jersey-based Gynetics, Inc. Approved in the United States back in 1998, Preven must be taken within 72 hours after the child is conceived. Pro-lifers expressed health concerns over the drug.
“We feel that it can be very dangerous to women. However, our major objection arises because it is abortifacient — it causes an early abortion,” Campaign Life Coalition spokeswoman Karen Murawsky said.
“Once a sperm and an egg meet and the egg is fertilized, you then have a new human being, one that is biologically accurate. You have the total DNA, you have everything that ever will be.”
Preventing the implantation was “like putting a newborn child in a desert and walking away.”
Campaign Life Coalition said in a statement the group would boycott of “all products produced by Roberts Pharmaceuticals and pharmacies which dispense the drug.”
In the United States, Wal-Mart has declined to sell Preven, said the Globe.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Did You Know? DATE: 11/21/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 21-27, 1999 ----- BODY:The “hardship” of birth is often cited as a reason for abortions. But studies show that abortion is much harder on women than giving birth.
One study tracking suicides in relation to pregnancy showed 5.9 suicides per 100,000 births and 34.7 per 100,000 abortions (Gissler, Mike, Hemminki, Elina and Longvist, “Suicides after pregnancy in Finland"; 1987–94 British Medical Journal Vol. 313 [1996] Pages 1431–1436).
Another study concluded, “Of the aborted women surveyed, 62% described themselves as having become ‘suicidal’ as a direct result of their abortions” (David C. Rear-don, Aborted Women: Silent No More [Chicago, Ill.; Loyola University Press 1987]).
----- EXCERPT: Facts of Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- Keywords: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Genocidal Strife Targets Church in East Timor DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:DILI, East Timor—In the wake of a vote for independence, Indonesian military are on a genocidal rampage in East Timor that has killed thousands.
Catholics, who led the push for independence in East Timor, are targeted in killing that is pushing the casualties of ongoing war in the South Pacific nation to more than 200,000.
Archbishop Jean Louis Tauran, Vatican secretary for relations with states, told Vatican Radio that the Holy See supports an international peacekeeping force to protect the people of the island.
Violence was already escalating before the outcome of the vote was announced Sept. 4. But when the “independence” decision was announced, it erupted into a firestorm. Indonesia called for martial law and issued a “shoot to kill” order against anyone who violates the military curfew, according to U.S. congressional sources.
The situation was grim in East Timor. Despite the declaration of martial law, massacres of the Timorese continued to be reported. In a parish in Suari, Jesuit Father Tarsicius Dewanto and two diocesan priests were killed, while at least 100 faithful hid in the church. In Baucau, Bishop do Nascimento received a machete chop to his arm and had to flee to the mountains, according to the ZENIT news agency. Since then, his episcopal see, like that in Dili, has been burned and pillaged.
The anti-independence militias have also sacked and burned the Salesian Don Bosco center and several parishes in Ermera and Mantutto. Several missionaries are also missing.
Sister Esmeralda de Araujo, a Timorese religious, told the Misna news agency, “When the people from the U.N. go, they will kill us all. The world is talking and we are dying. This is a hell, and I want to shout to everyone to save us, but it seems that nobody hears us.”
According to Jesuit Father Ignatius Ismartono, consultant to the Indonesian Bishops' Conference, cited by the Fides agency, the attacks against the Church reveal the Indonesian army's desire to separate the Church from the people. Ninety percent of the population in this former Portuguese colony is Catholic.
Another priest, Father Sarto Pandaya, told Fides that the military is seeking a “cleansing” of the island. “The police ordered us to leave our installations where refugees had been hidden to avoid attacks.” The priest claims this was a cover for their plan to throw these people out of the territory. The Jesuits had harbored more than 2,000 people in St. Joseph School in Dili, and they were sent away to the island of Atambua by the authorities.
The militias are also impeding humanitarian aid. Pat Mandayana, an investigator for the University of East Timor, told Fides that Father Tan Soe, who runs a farm in Dare, had to kill most of the animals to feed the people who arrived. “Now they need not only securi- ty, but food,” Mandayana asserted.
In Dili, the pro-independence neighborhoods have been ravaged and looted. Fides quoted a resident: “Dili is a ghost town, in the hands of the military.” Various sources say that the militia has assassinated several independence activists, including the man who would probably have been elected president, Xanana Gusmao.
Cardinal Edward Clancy, primate of Australia, was among those who called for an international peacekeeping force to step in.
“If we simply stand by and do nothing it will leave a scar on our reputation and history that will never heal,” he wrote in a letter to Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
“Pro-Indonesian military appear to have gone mad; they are roaming the streets hunting down independence supporters,” reported one missionary quoted in by Fides news agency.
“They are furious because this will mean they lose all their privileges. Now they have nothing to lose, so they crazily attack anything and everything. The paramilitary are … all out of control.”
In the vote, in which 99% of the eligible population participated, 80% voted for independence.
The territory had been annexed in 1976 by Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country. Those involved in the current campaign of burning, killing and terror were estimated to be fewer than 200, according to U.S. congressional sources.
Bishop Carlos Belo, apostolic administrator of Dili, who has been the target of violent attacks in the past for his pro-independence stance in East Timor, was safely escorted by Indonesian army troops to Baucau.
Soon after the ballot was announced Sept. 4, Bishop Belo had called on all East Timorese people to forgive each other.
“Let us forget the bitterness of life and past dark days,” the Nobel Prize laureate said. “Gaze the future that is full of promises, hope and challenges.”
U.S. Reaction
In the United States, Church and political leaders were dismayed by the plight of East Timor's Catholics.
Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, archbishop of Philadelphia, said in a statement, “I ask that all the faithful take a moment to pray for peace to be restored in East Timor.”
He added, “I pray that the Indonesian government will respect the wishes of the East Timorese people and allow them to freely pursue independence.”
In Washington, D.C., Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., called for an armed peacekeeping force to step in to protect the people under attack by the militias.
Smith is chairman of the subcommittee on international operations and human rights. In a Sept. 8 statement, he said, “It is imperative that we move swiftly and decisively to support the flourishing democracy in East Timor, lest it be quashed by those who want to maintain the status quo. … The violence must be stopped, and it must be stopped now.”
The Root Causes
Western observers familiar with the situation say that the current violence is an example of Indonesia fulfilling a bloody promise.
Dan Murphy, a physician who had worked in a clinic in East Timor, spoke about the situation there with the Register.
Register: How recently were you in East Timor?
I was there from Nov. 15 of last year up until about a month ago when the Indonesian government told me I was no longer welcome.
The situation there now is so horrible that it's hard to say what might even be left [later]. They voted for independence very dramatically, very courageously. But since then they've been pretty much abandoned and thousands of people are being killed.
Is the conflict happening along religious lines? Is it Muslim Indonesia vs. Christian East Timor?
That's one important factor. For a country to be able to go in and carry out genocide, they have to be able to somehow justify it in their own minds and they need some pretty powerful rationalization. Religion provides that. If you can dehumanize the other side or make them seem so reprehensible, then it's much easier for you to go in and carry out genocide.
What do your contacts tell you about what's going on there now?
The situation is urgent and immediate. It has really spiraled down into complete chaos with pretty much random killings and, as I said, not just hundreds. Thousands of people are dying right now. I just got off the phone with the Carmelite sisters that I worked with at the clinic. They were afraid to even talk on the phone. They're cowering in fear. The clinic has been attacked. And they said, “We're right on the top of the bullet at this moment,” which means they're under threat.
What needs to happen for genocide to end?
It's really sad because the international community, without asking Timor, set up this process. It's a tremendous responsibility that the U.N. and the international community has placed upon themselves. They essentially said to Timor, “We will deliver you to the promised land, have faith in us. Just give us your future and we will bring you to the place of justice.” And here's what it's led to. And Indonesia said if they lose the vote they will execute everyone. And that's what they're doing now.
Is there any way to resolve this short of declaring war on Indonesia?
A lot of things haven't been done that could have been done such as withdrawing international monetary funds, withdrawing World Bank funds, cutting off military aid, cutting off joint intelligence, joint maneuvers. Those things haven't been done. They could be. But Indonesia, of course, is the fourth largest nation on earth, 200 million people, very rich in resources, many of which the United States and other Western countries are involved in.
So there are powerful disincentives for taking a hard line here.
What it means is, Timor is expendable.
How many people are on East Timor?
Some 800,000 people. I would say there could easily be casualty numbers as high as 50,0000 to 100,000 people killed. If nobody comes to stop this, it will go on.
Who are the people in these militias? Are these official soldiers of the Indonesian government?
The Indonesian military formed these militias and most of it was by intimidation, press-ganged, bribes. But now they've taken over executing all of this by themselves, because all the journalists have left. There's no one left to observe, so the military itself just does it. It's all automatic weapon fire.
There are no more of these old-fashioned homemade guns. These are military weapons that are in use. They just executed one of the main [independence] leaders; we just received word that he was killed. Basically they go for leadership but indiscriminately they also take out anyone else they happen to come across. And bodies are lining the roads. It's about as bad as you can imagine.
And of course the East Timorese are essentially defenseless?
There is a group of guerrillas, but they've all voluntarily put themselves in restricted areas. They're extremely frustrated, but their leader, who was in prison in Jakarta, still wants them to hold off because there are probably 30,000 fully armed Indonesian troops there who, if these guerrillas tried to break out to help their own people, I'm sure they would just be set upon. I'm sure this is what Indonesia wants.
They would be set upon massive amounts of military force and many of them would be wiped out.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jay Dunlap ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'Bad Words' in the U.S. Leave Few Speechless DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:NEW HAVEN, Conn.—Just above a small group of children, the mother of all four-letter words dangles unevenly but clearly on the broad side of an apartment building in this lower-middleclass neighborhood just north of the Yale University campus.
It is a sign of the times.
The New York Times, America's self-appointed arbiter of “all the news that's fit to print,” recently made room for the same four-letter word for the first time in its 148-year history.
Characters in movies such as Good Will Hunting and The Blair Witch Project fill film dialogue with it.
And the recent media romp through President Clinton's less than- presidential activities with interns and others lifted many taboos America once placed on public speech.
Has public obscenity spun out of control?
“I think that language has been a problem in film since they changed the code in '68, but I must say the language you hear on the streets is much worse than it used to be,” said Henry Herx, director of the Office for Film and Broadcasting at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Herx didn't say what he thought contributed to the increase, but others offered a variety of perspectives.
“I am of the opinion that swearing, unless done jokingly, signals a lack of education,” said Joe Cyr, a management trainee at Southwest Bank in St. Louis. “People usually swear when they lose their temper because something didn't go their way. Or, they are responding to a situation that they don't like — a bad call by a referee at a football game, maybe.”
Cyr added that, to him, swearing is particularly “uncouth” in the company of women and “only occasionally acceptable amongst a group of guys.”
His attitude may seem outdated to some, but between morning radio and the daily talk-shows, America is reconsidering the effect that high doses of obscenity have on adults, children and the public discourse in general.
Germain Grisez, author of the multivolume The Way of the Lord Jesus, a treatment of real-life moral issues, told the Register that it's important to make a number of distinctions when defining offensive speech.
“Strictly speaking, swearing refers to an oath and cursing is the opposite of blessing, like telling someone to ‘go to hell,’” Grisez said. “This is to express the wish that someone will suffer evil. Finally, profanity means using sacred language in a way that violates sacredness.” He added that obscene language must be judged on the basis of the speaker's intentions.
“In many cases expressions are objectionable because they are meant to be insulting, but the intent is more important,” Grisez said. “Though even when there is no bad intention, the use of [foul] language can have various side effects that can be bad.
“If expressions that refer to some very important things are used in a casual kind of way, the casualness tends to suggest less respect for the importance for what you are dealing with — the casual use of expressions relating to sex, for instance, tends to denigrate the significance of this activity. And that's not good.”
That moral sensibility isn't always shared by people who work in the secular media.
“I don't care if there's more swearing or not,” said Sean Leadem, an investigative reporter who works in New York. “I tend to think it's harmless unless it prevents one from learning better forms of expression.”
But asked if he thought media coverage of the president's affair with Monica Lewinsky had a negative effect on public discourse, Leadem lit up, remembering an incident that occurred last spring.
“Yes, I think it does,” Leadem said. “When the whole Clinton thing was going down, I couldn't even have a conversation with my mother or her friends without hearing the word ‘salacious.’ The media used 15 words to describe the whole thing and everyone I spoke with seemed to use those words in their conversation, regardless of what they were talking about.
“People say that kids repeat the words they hear on TV, but it's also true for adults.”
… Or Expressive?
Leadem's observation raises the question of how people communicate. It's well known that people use more precise, Latin-derived words when speaking in academic settings, but that once the bell rings, speech takes on a more Germanic tone.
Hard, one-syllable words predominate on the street; long, complicated words in class. Words such as “trash,” “dirt,” “talk,” “push,” “shove” and “slap” fall in the former camp, and the obscene words we associate with the locker room are their not-so-distant relatives.
These obscene words can be very communicative, but in mixed company they are likely to offend. And when used without discretion, vulgar expressions often show a lack of respect or decorum.
Which is why parents and teachers have always forbidden certain words from being used in the home, classroom or on the playing field.
Rich McPherson, headmaster of The Heights, an independent Catholic primary and secondary school for boys in Potomac, Md., thinks obscene language is on the rise among young boys in his school. “I think TV has a lot to do with it,” he contended.
“When a student swears, we correct him, but we don't make a big deal about it,” McPherson continued. “I heard that the Pope shut his finger in a door and thanked God for it. That's the right way to do it. On the other hand, I don't think using the occasional four-letter word is sinful.”
McPherson added that Ronald Knox, the great British convert and Bible translator, made a helpful distinction about obscene swearing.
“He said that first you have to consider the company you're in and, second, that you shouldn't take the Lord's name in vain,” McPherson said.
Building Up
Grisez described the theological framework he thinks Catholics should consider when considering the use of obscene language.
“Language is an instrument,” he observed. “We use sound to convey meaning. The important thing about language is communication. And communication should always be used to build up communio — friendships or just plain cooperation.
“Communication is an activity which, if genuine, is an activity necessary for human relationships. Building up relationships between men and between man and God — relationships that are meant to build up a human community that will last forever in the Kingdom — that's the theological framework I'd operate in.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church discusses discretion in speech. “In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explained the second commandment: ‘You have heard that is was said to the men of old, “You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.” But I say to you, do not swear at all. … Let what you say be simply “Yes” or “No”; anything more than this comes from the evil one’” (No. 2153).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brien McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: He Was No 'Hitler's Pope,'Pius XII Experts Contend DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—A British journalist- author's book Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII has triggered a groundswell of criticism by experts and Jewish observers.
“I personally feel that to call Pope Pius XII ‘Hitler's Pope’ is a little bit peculiar and certainly out of place,” Rabbi Leon Klenicki, director of interfaith affairs for B'nai B'rith, told the Register.
John Cornwell investigated the life of Pope Pius XII with Vatican approval, and concluded that the late Pope was an anti-Semite who was well-informed about the extent of Nazi persecution of Jews but failed to condemn it. His allegations are excerpted in the October edition of Vanity Fair magazine and have been repeated in many newspapers, including USA Today.
But Eugene Fisher, an expert on Catholic-Jewish relations for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Cornwell's claims “sound like little more than an attempt to sell books.”
Fisher pointed out that Cornwell also wrote Thief in the Night, a book about the death of Pope John Paul I. The book dwells on “overescalated rumors that the Pope was murdered and then debunks them in the last chapter.”
Fisher added, “Judging from his ability to leap-frog from virtually nothing to a book in the Pope John Paul I matter, who knows what he can come up with. He is a journalist, but not a historian or scholar.”
Cornwell, was traveling and unavailable to comment for this article, according to his publisher, Viking Press.
Rabbi Klenicki at B'nai B'rith questioned the new book even though he is sympathetic to questions about Pius XII. “I do think Pius XII was concerned about Stalinism and the influence of communism in Europe at that time,” the rabbi said. “And he chose the lesser of two evils — which was Nazism. He was not a Nazi, but he should have been more against Nazism than he was during his pontificate.”
But records show that he did, according to Jesuit Father Vincent T.O'Keefe. Father O'Keefe, a longtime assistant to then Jesuit Superior General Father Pedro Arrupe, pointed to 20 years of work by four Jesuits who compiled 12 volumes of material about Pius XII from formerly secret Vatican archives.
Father O'Keefe said the archival material answers many of the claims made by Cornwell, as explained in a book by Jesuit historian Father Pierre Blet (see interview, inset).
Father O'Keefe said troubles arise from a misreading of the archives by journalists like Cornwell. “I'm not shocked that writers are saying things like this about the Pope,” he acknowledged. “It is a case of writers from time to time scanning the documents and coming up with story ideas — like investigative reporters, not historians and scholars.”
He said non-scholars using the Vatican archives should “be infinitely more careful to avoid what could become shooting from the hip.”
Sister Margherita Marchione, of the Filippini Sisters of Morristown, N.J., author of books and papers on Pope Pius XII, suspected the Cornwell book is aimed at delaying or halting the efforts long under way to beatify and canonize the pope.
“Cornwell's new book is clever, sensational propaganda aimed at influencing the eventual canonization process,” she told the Register. Nonetheless, she said, “There will be a lot of sales of the book even though it already is proven phony.”
She said there were “many inaccuracies” in the book and cited one:
“I am perplexed by the quotes from Cornwell that when Cardinal Pacelli came to power in 1939 as pope, he knew about Hitler's plan for a Final Solution,” she said. “How could that be — since Hitler's extermination program was not finalized and implemented until several years later?”
Thomas Nash, director of Catholics United for the Faith, said, “After scrutinizing the matter, people will find the overwhelming evidence from Jewish and secular sources that Pius XII — dating back to his cardinal days and through the war — did in fact do much for, and spoke out clearly on behalf, of Jews as a friend in word and deed.
“So, it is my hope that this new, and shall we hope last, desperate attempt to discredit Pope Pius XII in an attempt to derail his beatification, will boomerang and actually speed up the process.”
Robert Holton writes from Memphis, Tennessee.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert Holton ----- KEYWORDS: NEWS -------- TITLE: Group's Tall Order: Reignite Latino Faith DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:DALLAS—Every hour, 400 Latin Americans leave the Catholic Church to join Protestant denominations, Evangelical Christians boast. Mary Wilson wants to change all that.
Wilson is executive director of New Evangelization of the Americas 2000, a group which brings bishops and laity together to address needs like the ones she saw in the village of San Luis Potosi.
Wilson went door-to-door in the Mexican jungle village inviting former Catholics back to the faith and encouraging practicing Catholics to deepen their devotion to the Mother of God.
She recalled one new Protestant she met, a one-time Catholic woman who had abandoned the Catholic Church a year and a half earlier to join a new, nondenominational Protestant group in her village. Her son, a member of the Legion of Mary, was at a loss to bring her back and had asked other Legion volunteers to visit her.
“Why did you leave the Church?” Wilson asked. She was taken aback by the woman's response.
The woman had helped many ill or needy people in her parish community, she said, but when she was in dire need, no one had come to help her. No one had even checked to see if she needed food. This hurt her deeply, and when the new, community-oriented sect came into the village, she was among the first to join.
Sept. 19 is Catechetical Sunday
No one had even checked to see if she needed food. This hurt her deeply, and when the new, community-oriented sect came into the village, she was among the first to join.
The Legion of Mary volunteers made a great impact on this woman when they mentioned that Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Eucharist were only present in the Catholic Church. But even so her return journey back to the Catholic faith has only just begun.
“Her story was typical of stories encountered by other Legion of Mary volunteers throughout Latin America,” said Wilson. “There is a deep need to restore a sense of community among the faithful.”
An Enormous Exodus
There are countless stories like hers. In 1996, the evangelical magazine Charisma and Christian Life reported, “During the last decade, the population of Latin American Protestants grew from 18.6 million to 59.4 million. That represents a 220% increase; nine times the growth rate of the general population.”
This leaves the mission for bishops and laity clear, said Msgr. Francis Oliverio, coordinator for Evangelization for the Archdiocese of New York.
“Simply put,” he said, “we need to stop the bleeding and bring back those who have left.”
In his January apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America (The Church in America), Pope John Paul II underscored the critical need for renewed evangelization efforts in Latin America, the United States and Canada, writing:
“The proselytizing activity of the sects and new religious groups in many parts of America is a grave hindrance to the work of evangelization. … No one can deny the urgency of prompt evangelizing efforts aimed at those segments of the People of God most exposed to proselytism by the sects” (No. 73).
This post-synodal document came on the heels of the Synod for the Americas which addressed vital issues of the faith facing Latin and North America. Especially in Latin America, bishops have stepped up efforts to address the problem regionally as well as nationally.
Bishop Charles V. Grahmann of Dallas last year helped start NEA 2000.
New York Archbishop Cardinal John O'Connor serves as honorary chairman of NEA 2000's episcopal advisory board. Other members include Bishop Jorge Enrique Jiménez Carvahal, president of the Latin American bishops' council; Archbishop Estanislao Karlic of Parana, president of the Argentine Episcopal Conference; and Cardinal Norberto Rivera, archbishop of Mexico City.
“What we're trying to do is to carry out the plans of the Pope as outlined in Ecclesia in America,” explained NEA 2000's Mary Wilson.
Sharing Solutions
Wilson is coordinating the final details of a major conference, the organization's second, slated for Oct. 11–15 in Mexico City. In addition to anticipated laity and diocesan administrators, the conference is expected to draw more than 60 bishops, primarily from Latin America.
“This effort takes prayer as much as funding,” said Wilson. “We have asked people throughout North and Latin America to pray 10 Memorares a day through Oct. 15 for the success of this meeting. We are also in the throes of raising $100,000 to pull together the logistical details of the conference, including modest airfares and expenses for those bishops who could not otherwise afford to attend.”
Wilson further explained that the bishops plan to build on the success of NEA 2000's first conference, which resulted in an expansive plan of action.
The focus of this year's conference is on the Marian aspects of evangelization.
Last year, in their Reflections and Pastoral Proposals, participating bishops identified external and internal causes contributing to the Latin American exodus of the faithful, and proposed various solutions.
Their diagnosis pointed to a crisis of culture, which included a propensity toward ease and a focus centered on man rather than God, a crisis of traditional structures and institutions, Marxism, violence, neoliberalism, consumerism, religious indifference, unchecked urbanization, economic crisis, unemployment, political corruption, drug addiction and New Age philosophies that “search for ways to avoid the real feelings of life.” The bishops also noted a crisis in education, the invasive proselytization of sects, deficient religious formation, and a lack of formation in apologetics.
Their proposed answers to these problems are ambitious.
They include an increased and more efficient use of media to communicate the truths of the faith; intensified apologetics and religious education formation at all levels for the faithful — from seminaries to pastors to laity; heightened attention to those who are marginalized by society; increased eucharistic and Marian devotions to foster a more profound inner prayer life in the faithful; and an attentive, welcoming spirit to those who are searching for deeper understanding of the faith or who are considering returning to it.
Solutions that Work
Already, NEA 2000 has had an effect in increasing evangelization efforts in Latin America. At its Dallas meeting, bishops learned of a group which develops powerful apologetics programs in Spanish. They then invited the group Apostoles de la Palabra (Apostles of the Word) into their dioceses during this past year.
Martin Zavala, a member of the group, wrote to thank NEA 2000 for the new doors which opened in their efforts to reach fallen away Latin American Catholics. He wrote, “We have excellent news on the increased promotion of apologetics in Latin America, which was one of the conclusions reached at the Dallas conference.”
Pax Net and Radio Maria, two farreaching Latin American radio networks, invited the group to do programs on the defense of the faith — programs which now reach 13 countries.
“Another fruit of the Dallas meeting is that many bishops have invited us to several countries to give talks on apologetics,” said Zavala.
Msgr. Oliverio added, “The mission of the Church is to embrace and bring the living Gospel to all — if they're leaving, they won't hear it! It's the joy of my heart to know that our laity have come forward and committed themselves to such a noble and ambitious concern as NEA 2000. It's magnificent.”
Karen Walker writes from San Juan Capistrano, California.
For more information about NEA 2000, call Mary Wilson at (214) 236- 3299.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Karen Walker ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: He's On a Crusade For Beauty DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:In college, frustrated and discouraged, he abandoned his childhood passion for art altogether. He was brought back into the art world by classical sacred art, and launched a single-minded effort to promote his new love.
Now the professional painter and sculptor is academic director at the St. Michael Institute of Sacred Art and founder of Art for the Catholic Restoration. He recently spoke with Register Correspondent Karen Walker about culture, sacred art and a dawning Catholic renaissance.
Walker: What drew you to become an artist, and what later caused you to abandon it?
Brooks: By age 6, I was fascinated by the images of architectural and fine art masterpieces in the books that filled my parents' bookshelves. I'd spend hours just looking at them. My father was a talented landscape artist and draftsman, and he encouraged me in my instinctive fascination with color and composition. By high school, it was clear that I was going to be an artist.
But in college, I experienced misdirected courses that emphasized self-expression at the expense of those genuine objective principles that underlie every great masterpiece. That's when I got frustrated and discouraged. I left after a year and never wanted to do anything in art again. I tried to do other things, but nothing satisfied me.
Yet after holding different jobs you returned to sacred art. You even established a Web site outlining your vision of a future for classical sacred art. Explain this new direction.
I think God puts passion in those he's given his gifts to. A person can ignore God and go in a different direction, but he becomes restless. I was drawn back to communicate about God through beautiful art. But it wasn't easy. At first I felt like I was shouting to the walls.
How would you define sacred art?
Sacred art must include three elements. First, it must be able to communicate to the viewer, using “language” that everyone can readily understand. It can't be introspective or so intellectual that no one can understand its message.
Secondly, it must portray order, an imitation of God who is the Supreme Orderer, who called the material world into existence. When there's order, there's peace. But a lack of order, chaos, is depressing and doesn't bring peace.
Thirdly, sacred art must be a work of beauty; it must please the eye. If it is not pleasing to behold, then what would it communicate about God, beyond whom nothing can be more pleasing? Any ugliness or chaos in sacred art should be used only to bring the beauty and order of divine realities into sharp relief. Sacred art must evangelize.
How are you received in dioceses?
Fine. I'm not a theologian and not involved in doctrine. I do paintings and sculptures. I've received letters from bishops, archbishops and pastors saying encouraging words. But it's all grown exponentially by word-ofmouth. I've never had to advertise.
What do you think about modern art in churches?
I won't argue about modern art itself. It's a scene; a happening — something different. But it is not sacred art because it doesn't readily communicate something about heavenly realities. It's like giving stones for bread to Catholics who need a sustenance of beauty to counterbalance the chaos and ugliness of the world.
We need beautiful sacred images in our churches to also counterbalance the images put out 24 hours a day by Madison Avenue and Hollywood. Because of the chaos and disorder of much of modern art, it does not lead people to God. Rather, it tends to ignore God, to go off in a different direction and evoke a sense of restlessness.
But there's another aspect. God deserves our very best. If his house is allowed to remain unadorned, sterile and nondescript, then how does this show respect for a God who loves us so much that he imprisons himself in a circle of bread and waits for us without complaint in the holy Eucharist?
He waits patiently and with tremendous love while we put his tabernacle off to the side and cover it with plants. We have stripped our churches and left them bare without a single thing to remind us of this loving, merciful God. It isn't fitting. The human soul demands truth and beauty; it's the antidote to the chaos of the world.
Are you seeing a revival of interest in sacred art these days?
Absolutely. There are lots of signs of this. Several years ago, I still felt like I was talking to the wind. My first work for a parish was done for free — for a poorer parish whose pastor wanted to use beautiful art to help inspire devotion in his flock.
But the interest is definitely starting to grow. I see it around me, in the increasing number of requests and commissions I receive, in the increasing number of lay people, priests and religious who are building things for the glory and honor of God and I hear similar things from other sacred artists who are scattered around the country.
Even my Web site which just went up last January and is a detailed exposé of what sacred art should be, has already received more than 25,000 hits and, to my surprise, is linked up to a wide variety of other groups — from Georgetown University to Latin Mass groups. It's a sign to me that the breech isn't irreparable. I think we're just seeing the tip of the iceberg of a renewed interest in sacred art.
As academic director of the St. Michael Institute of Sacred Art, please explain the significance of this year-old institution located on Enders Island in Mystic, Conn.
The institute is a ministry of St. Edmund's Retreat, also centered on Enders Island. Our common mission is to respond to Pope John Paul II's call to foster evangelization in the world — through personal holiness, sacred art and all forms of communication.
The institute emphasizes evangelization through beautiful sacred art, and offers weeklong master classes in iconography, sculpture, painting, illumination, stained glass and frescoes. We opened our doors in January, and the enthusiasm and response has been phenomenal, with students attending from throughout the country.
How many priests are out there struggling prayerfully to lead their flock to heaven, but they are looking for help? Sacred art can be one of those helps. St. Michael's is a tremendous resource for those who want to know more about sacred art. Already this year, we've referred out $150,000 worth of commissioned art — the result of inquiry calls from pastors, institutions and lay people.
The institute also held its first conference on “Sacred Art and Culture in the Third Millennium,” featuring keynote speaker [Franciscan Friar of the Renewal] Father Benedict Groeschel; Deal Hudson, editor and publisher of Crisis magazine; and Steve Schloeder, architect and author of a powerful book on sacred art and architecture. Sacred artists can spend a long time thinking they're the only ones out there, but they're not.
This was one of the most exciting weekends that I've ever been a part of. People were networking and talking about things like starting guilds and disseminating information and education. We're now working on a sacred art component to the Catholic Marketing Network trade show in January. This is just the beginning.
In addition to your work with the institute, you started an apprenticeship program this summer. Why do you think it's best to learn art by this means?
I think God puts passion in those to whom he has given his gift of artistic skill. Prior to the French Revolution, artists learned by apprenticing under a master until they had acquired enough skill to go off on their own. They did everything he did. They ground clay, mixed mediums of egg tempera or oil to pigment, prepared marble for sculpting, filled in bits and pieces of the master's work. It weeded out those who were less than serious.
But after the revolution came schools which were geared to teaching large numbers of students at one time. They were rigid and rigorous, training students to copy with stiff realism and exactness. God, or any intent to serve him with one's gifts, wasn't part of the process at all. The result was highly skilled draftsmen who lacked genuine creativity.
Years later, when the camera was introduced, it made this kind of artist obsolete. It was as though the sacred artist had lost the soul and purpose of his work, for from this point forward, novelty became the driving force of art.
Modern art can be entertaining, amusing and interesting, but it isn't sacred art. What good are unintelligible markings on a canvas to teach God's children about him? It's left the common people behind.
My wife and I live on 11 acres of land. We took in 12 high school students for six weeks this summer in an apprenticeship program. They got a real taste of what a working studio was like, including working on actual projects for churches. It was a tremendous experience, and I expect the program will germinate and develop over the years. There was no shortage of people who wanted to attend!
Does your prayer life affect your work in any way?
Absolutely! It gives me far more graces that I deserve. My work and prayer are intertwined. I spend the whole day in contemplative labor, working with images of our Lady, the saints and our Lord. I cloister myself up when working, which can be almost monastic in its flavor.
What I'm trying to do now is to give something back to God, who has been so generous to me. I'm never too busy to talk with someone who's interested in art. I feel it's my responsibility; to repay for his gifts and to do all I can to bring back beauty to his house. At the end of the day, the only thing that calms the restless soul of the artist is using God's gifts to serve him — it brings peaceful contemplation and undoes all the knots the world ties you in.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Matthew Brooks ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Opening of Mile-High Seminary Is a Milestone DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:DENVER—With a new major seminary in Denver — the first in the United States since the close of the Second Vatican Council — and lay initiatives abounding, Cardinal Francis Stafford sees a new evangelization taking shape in America.
“What is happening here today is truly a distinctive event, not only for the archdiocese, but for the region and even the nation,” Cardinal Stafford told the Register.
The cardinal has a unique perspective from which to judge. He is a former archbishop of the mile-high city and currently serves as president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Laity.
“They have moved so far from the immense grace that came from World Youth Day and the many other events in the archdiocese subsequent to that,” he said. “Now the challenge is to be able to sustain a vision that is centered and responsive to the spirit of Christ.”
Standing at the altar used by Pope John Paul II during World Youth Day 1993, Cardinal Stafford presided at the Sept. 8 dedication Mass for St. John Vianney Seminary at Denver's John Paul II Center for the New Evangelization.
The seminary is not only the first theology-level seminary sponsored by the Archdiocese of Denver, it is the first diocesan theologate ever to exist in the vast Western region between Minneapolis and the Pacific Coast.
An atmosphere of celebration permeated the dedication as more than 1,000 people gathered under deep blue skies frequently erupted into applause as Cardinal Stafford and others gave thanks to God for the new seminary.
Using a chalice that belonged to St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, Cardinal Stafford was joined by Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput and an international assembly of bishops and more than 100 local priests in celebrating the Mass.
The Mass culminated a day of inaugural events that included talks by Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger of Paris, who developed the formation program that serves as the model for St. John Vianney Seminary; Bishop Angelo Scola, rector of the Pontifical Lateran University, through which the seminary is formally affiliated; and Bishop Guy Bagnard of Belley-Ars, France, who spoke on “St. John Vianney and the Spiritual Formation of the Diocesan Clergy.”
The John Paul II Center is the renovated St. Thomas Theological Seminary that was owned and administered for most of this century by the Vincentian Fathers.
The Vincentians formed more than 1,100 priests for the Archdiocese of Denver before its 88-year history as a regional seminary came to an end in 1995. Enrollment peaked during the 1967–68 academic year with 265 seminarians, but declining student numbers and a lack of funds forced its closure 27 years later.
Then Archbishop Stafford bought the 40-acre campus for use as a seminary and more in September 1995. “At times, all of us were a bit frightened by what we saw the Spirit unfolding for us as options,” recalled Cardinal Stafford. “But the priests and people responded to the challenge with great faith and courage.”
Following extensive renovations, the Catholic Pastoral Center was relocated there in 1997, and the site was renamed the John Paul II Center for the New Evangelization.
Since then, the center has become a hub for Catholic activity in northern Colorado. Chancery activities fill the daytime hours, and meetings, catechetical classes, retreats and liturgies fill the evenings.
Archbishop Chaput recently initiated a “Back to Basics” series of talks on Catholicism at the center, and expected to draw an audience of no more than 200. More than 3,000 turned out for the first meeting in September.
Cardinal Stafford said that a good deal of his efforts at the Pontifical Council for the Laity are directed toward the “extraordinary phenomenon of the coming forth of lay movements in the Church in the last two or three decades.”
He pointed out that Denver has been blessed with the presence of a number of international lay movements, including the Neocatechumenal Way, a Christian formation program that originated in Spain in 1966; the Christian Life Movement, founded during the 1980s in Peru, and which has now spread across America; and the Community of the Beatitudes, established 26 years ago in Albi, France.
“These new lay movements are clearly manifestations of the gifts and charisms of the Spirit and are rooted both in the institutional and charismatic aspects of the Church as taught in [Vatican II's] Lumen Gentium,” he said.
Archbishop Chaput, who was installed in 1997 after Archbishop Stafford was called to serve at the Vatican, strongly supported creating a new seminary program. He began in 1998 by instituting a spirituality year, a one-year spiritual immersion program for beginning seminarians.
In March, Archbishop Chaput announced the establishment of the Our Lady of New Advent Theological Institute, which encompasses the new St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, the deacon formation program and the many lay formation programs in the archdiocese.
The recent increase in men preparing for the priesthood in Denver has been dramatic — from 29 in 1995 to the current number of 68, and only four of those are being trained for another diocese.
Father John Hilton, archdiocesan vocation director, attributes the vocations increase to a number of factors, including World Youth Day in 1993, when Pope John Paul II visited Denver. He also credits the vision of Cardinal Stafford and the wide appeal of Archbishop Chaput, whom seminarians consider a “spiritual father.”
Twenty-three of the seminarians are members of the Neocatechumenal Way, an international movement of small faith groups active in six northern Colorado parishes. They live in community on the John Paul II Center campus.
Peter Droege is editor of the Denver Catholic Register.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Peter Droege ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Hit Movie With Catholic Roots May Go National After Spokane DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:SPOKANE, Wash.—The Basket could be the next Blair Witch Project phenomenon.
And a wholesome one at that.
Even though its release is limited to one screen in Spokane, Wash., The Basket, an independent film, is astonishing industry watchers at the drawing power of wholesome entertainment.
“The film has had audiences in Spokane applauding after every showing,” said Patrick Ryan, film buyer for AMC's (American Multi Cinema) west division.
The Basket, starring Peter Coyote (Patch Adams, ET) and Karen Allen (Animal House, Raiders of the Lost Ark), opened Aug. 20 in conjunction with the grand opening of the AMC River Park Square Theater in downtown Spokane. Originally scheduled for a six-day run, theater manager Carrie Pretz said, “Based on the business the film is doing I don't expect it to be leaving anytime soon.”
According to AMC Theaters, typical box office receipts drop 30% from the first to second weekend, and then drop further as the weeks continue. The Basket not only posted a 10% increase over the second weekend, but went on to nearly double the increase over the third weekend.
Based on the per-screen average, The Basket is the No. 1 film in Spokane beating out even the national hit The Sixth Sense which is showing on two screens.
AMC box office figures show that the film has grossed $66,000 in three weeks showing on only one screen. Compared to films listed in the online edition of the entertainment-industry magazine Variety, The Basket had a higher per-screen weekend average than any theatrical film in the country. At this point AMC plans to hold the film out for yet another two weeks.
The Story's the Thing
Set during the closing stages of World War I, The Basket is a fictional story about the triumph over the bitterness brought on by war. Three newcomers arrive in small-town Waterville, Wash.: German war orphans Helmut and Brigitta Brink and Eastern schoolteacher Martin Conlon (Peter Coyote).
Conlon teaches the children about tolerance through the unlikely subjects of basketball and opera. Karen Allen plays Bessie Emery, the mother of a wounded American soldier, and wife to a man harboring deep prejudices against the Germans and consequently Helmut and Brigitta. In addition, the film features an original musical score composed by Don Caron and performed by the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra and local musicians and singers.
Produced by North by Northwest Productions in Spokane, at a cost of $3.3 million, the idea for the film was born through the creative talents of writers Caron, Frank and Tessa Swoboda, and Rich Cowan.
“The writing team began working on the project nearly four years ago,” explained Marc Dahlstrom, executive producer. Once the idea was born the team committed to regular evening and weekend meetings to see the project through. The film itself was shot last year. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, and at that time a dozen foreign countries purchased the rights to the film, including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany.
North by Northwest enlisted a great deal of local talent in the production of the film. Several of the individuals, such as writer and musician Caron, writer and producer Frank Swoboda, baritone singer Jim Swoboda, and art director Vincent De Felice are alumni of Spokane's Catholic elementary schools and Gonzaga Catholic Preparatory school.
“It's the kind of film that people want Hollywood to make, but Hollywood doesn't,” said Frank Swoboda. “The audience response has been wonderful.”
Families in a Theater
Moviegoers such as Cindy Omlin, of Mead, are describing the film as true family entertainment. A stay-at-home mother, Omlin, who has seen the film twice, said that because of low expectations her 13-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son tried all day to get the family not to go to the film.
“After seeing it, however, they both said they enjoyed it and were glad we went,” said Omlin. “The film shows that once we break through our bigotry and assumptions we can see the benefit of others.”
Omlin said she believed that supporting the film is a terrific way for people to encourage the movie industry to produce additional highquality family fare. To this end she has launched an e-mail campaign to convince others to support the film. Omlin is not alone.
Having lost hope in the film industry, Diane Nebel of Rosalia, Wash., went to see the film. So moved by the picture and its message, she recently wrote to President Clinton, holding the film up as the kind of motion picture that is needed to pull Hollywood out of the “dirt.”
According to Frank Swoboda, a teacher from All Saints Elementary School in Spokane was so impressed by the film that she arranged for an 11 a.m. matinee and brought the school's fifth- through eighth-graders. “That's an audience, and revenue, we never expected,” admitted Swoboda.
Mary Pollard of Greenacres wrote in the Spokesman-Review that the film was one of the most “memorable and heartwarming” she had seen in years and especially enjoyed that it was a film that the entire family could see together. “Hollywood could rediscover a way to make money,” Frank Swoboda said. “Parents are bringing not only their children, but also their grandparents. Many have said they've never been able to do that with a film before.”
He explained that the film has grown from a grass-roots marketing effort: “We used the Internet, knocked on a lot of doors, talked with churches, and hung flyers. Aside from that we are doing nothing … and the film is living!”
“The film is appealing to a wide range of people primarily by word of mouth,” said theater manager Carrie Pretz. “It's a film that everyone is talking about. It would be nice to see this film go elsewhere.”
Plans to Go National
In fact, AMC, which owns more than 234 theaters worldwide, has plans to test the film in another market in October.
“AMC is fully behind this film,” said Patrick Ryan, the AMC film buyer.” The Basket has been accepted as part of the Denver International Film Festival on Wednesday, Oct. 13. We have offered to open the film to the public at AMC's five Denver theaters on Oct. 15. Denver's second highest grossing theater, the Highlands Ranch Theater in Littleton, Colo., will definitely be one of them.”
Ryan admitted that there were several things working to The Basket's advantage: “First, it is playing in its hometown. Second, AMC owns larger screen complexes and therefore has the screen space to show the film. Finally, it is a time of the year when there aren't a lot of strong films in the market or pressure from the major studios to show other films.”
Ryan stated that based upon the availability of additional prints AMC is prepared to open the film in other markets beyond Denver over the next couple of months. He cited Phoenix and Oklahoma City as possibilities.
Hopefully the film will strike a chord with viewers nationwide and continue to do well outside of Spokane,” Frank Swoboda said. “A distribution company, or an additional $25,000 investment by Northwest could give The Basket wider distribution.
Of the response to the film, Dahlstrom said, “After the movie people are stopping to thank us for making a film that isn't centered around gratuitous sex or violence. We are hearing over and over that people want movies like this.”
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minn., and can be reached at tdrake@gw.stcdio.org.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: U.S. Notes & Quotes DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:‘Basics’ of the Faith Draw Thousands
DENVER ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, Sept. 6—Speaking to an audience of some 3,000, Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput initiated Back to Basics, a nine-month program of talks that he will give on the Catholic faith, according to a report in the Denver daily newspaper.
“Like the biblical 5,000 who stormed a hillside hungry for loaves and fishes, [the event] looked like a testament to another kind of hunger — for meaningful, truth-filled faith,” observed religion writer Jean Torkelson.
Archdiocesan officials were not certain how many people would be interested in the series, and only set up folding chairs for 200. They were happily surprised when the auditorium of the John Paul II Center — the archdiocese's chancery office and new seminary — filled to overflowing, wrote Torkelson.
“The idea began after a Catholic publishing house, Servant Publications, asked Archbishop Chaput to write a book reflecting on next year's [Great] Jubilee,” reported Torkelson. “Archbishop Chaput told the crowd, yes, he's writing the book and what's more, ‘You're going to help.’”
The book will be based on the 90-minute forums, split evenly between the prelate's formal remarks and the question and answer periods that will follow.
Torkelson placed the encounter within the context of a national Catholic revival that has been apparent in Denver for some time.
She wrote: “Consider one listener, Kevin Augustyn, 22. The handsome, 6-foot-2-inch man from Fort Wayne, Ind., is one of 72 future priests enrolled at the new seminary.
“As a kid, none of his peers took Catholicism seriously … Then in high school his faith exploded as he met teens ‘standing up and witnessing, who loved Christ and the Church.’ That kind of robust Catholicism ‘was a revolution — I mean, a revelation,’ Augustyn said, correcting himself. Maybe he had it right the first time.”
Churches Get Scammed
REUTERS, Sept. 2—Securities regulators are warning that churches have increasingly been targeted for financial scams, reported the wire service.
The North American Securities Administration Association is warning religious groups to be wary of con artists attempting to gain trust by appealing to their faith, said Reuters in a story on how a number of religious groups have been fooled in recent months.
Cases reported by the wire service include a financial consultant who cheated 30 senior citizens out of $6 million, gaining their trust by espousing Christian values. Another man raised money from local churches for a fake telephone company that supposedly was minority-owned and operated.
In Florida, Reuters said, seven people from Greater Ministries International Church will go on trial for money laundering and mail fraud. The group may have cheated 17,000 people, many of them Christians, out of nearly $200 million.
“Just because someone in church, even the minister, said something about an investment is so, doesn't make it so,” said the Securities Administration's Bradley Kolnik. “Be very skeptical of returns that sound too good to be true, because they probably are.”
Prayer Revolution at High School Football Games
LOS ANGELES TIMES, Sept. 4—The last-minute ruling of a federal court judge allowed a 17-year-old student to lead a prayer before the start of a high school football game in Santa Fe, Texas, Sept. 3.
Asking for a safe game and goodwill in the audience, Marian Lyn Ward concluded her invocation “in Jesus' name,” said Times reporter Claudia Kolker. “Almost instantly, the audience rose to its feet to roar and clap its approval.”
She added: “The bleachers were packed to show support for the right to have an invocation.”
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans had previously decreed that prayer could be used to “solemnify” Santa Fe High's graduations — but that football games lacked the “singularly serious nature” to merit public prayer. Even prayers before graduation, the court ruled, had to be nonsectarian and non-proselytizing.
“The dispute has reverberated far beyond Santa Fe. Effective in Louisiana and Arkansas as well as Texas, the ban on football game prayer provoked several instances of civil disobedience in Texas, where pregame prayers are a longtime tradition,” said Kolker.
Kolker said some observers “believe hundreds of other schools planned defiance of the appellate ruling during this football season, ranging from football game invocations to mass recitations of the Lord's Prayer.”
Hours before Ward's prayer at the Santa Fe game, though, in response to a lawsuit filed on her behalf, a U.S. district judge in Houston granted a temporary restraining order, barring the Santa Fe school from punishing her if she defied the previous court's ruling by giving a prayer.
Judge Sim Lake said the district guidelines “favor atheism over any religion” and therefore amounted to “state-sponsored atheism.”
----- EXCERPT: From selected sources ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pope Meets With Arafat, Welcomes Latest Mideast Accord DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy—In a meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Pope John Paul II expressed satisfaction at the West Bank land-for-security accord that gave new life to the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.
After signing the breakthrough agreement in Egypt Sept. 5, Arafat traveled to Italy, where he met for more than an hour with the Pope at his summer villa outside Rome to discuss details of the accord. The Vatican said the Pope was pleased at the progress.
“The Holy See, in expressing satisfaction and hope at this advance, encourages both sides to continue the process and emphasizes the importance that peace holds for the two peoples,” said a Vatican statement issued after the encounter.
It was the eighth time Arafat had met with the Pope. The Palestinian leader afterward held talks with Vatican Secretary of StateCardinal Angelo Sodano.
On a separate issue, observers said Arafat's visit indicated that the Vatican and the Palestine Liberation Organization might be close to an agreement on legal aspects regulating Church activities in Palestiniancontrolled areas.
The Vatican statement expressed satisfaction at progress on these legal questions, which have been explored by a PLO-Vatican commission since 1998. Several important holy places lie in Palestinian territory.
After the meeting with the Pope, Arafat gave the Pope a small model of the Bethlehem grotto, held by tradition as the birthplace of Christ, and expressed his hope that the Pope would visit there in 2000.
“I hope so, I hope so,” the Pope replied.
Vatican officials have said the Pope wants to visit the Holy Land in late March to celebrate the feast of the Annunciation and mark the Great Jubilee 2000 in the place of Christ's birth. Bethlehem is in Palestinian territory, and Arafat has made it clear that Palestinians are eager to host the Pope.
Arafat used the occasion of his latest audience with the Holy Father to again invite him to visit the territories controlled by the Palestinian National Authority, especially Bethlehem. It was after Arafat's last vist, in February, that the Holy See officially accepted his invitation to visit the territories.
Vatican sources said that while the Pope's visit to the Holy Land has not been officially decided, prospects appeared to have improved with the latest PLO-Israeli agreement.
The agreement, signed by Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, revives the Wye accords of 1998. It calls for an initial land transfer of 7% of the West Bank and release of Palestinian prisoners and paves the way for talks on an eventual Palestinian state and the question of Jerusalem.
The agreement was to be reviewed by the Israeli Cabinet and Parliament in mid-September.
Speaking informally with reporters, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls returned to the subject of the Pope's plans to visit the Middle East. He emphasized that the official program of dates and places for the Pope's planned visits to the Middle East have yet to be determined.
The first of two trips would probably take place in December, travelling to Ur of the Chaldeans, in Iraq. ZENIT, the Rome-based news agency said various sources have indicated that additional stops may include Mount Sinai, Egypt, and Damascus, Syria. (From combined wire services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: John Paul II to Visit Republic of Georgia DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY—Pope John Paul II will travel to the Republic of Georgia Nov. 8–9, his second visit this year to a predominantly Orthodox country.
The Pope will stop in the former Soviet republic on his way back from India, where he plans to preside over events Nov. 5–8 to ceremonially close the Asian Synod of Bishops.
Vatican Radio reported that the Georgian government announced the papal visit Sept. 8. The government said that the Pope would meet in the capital city of Tbilisi with President Eduard Shevardnadze and Catholicos Ilia II, patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Georgia.
In May, the Pope made history when he traveled for the first time to a predominantly Orthodox country, Romania. About 65% of Georgia's 5.5 million people belong to the Georgian Orthodox Church. Catholics number just under 2% of the population.
Georgia is located in the troubled Caucasus region and borders the Dagestan area of southwestern Russia, where Russian troops have been trying to put down a rebel movement. It is a region Pope John Paul has never visited.
In August, a Vatican official held talks with Georgian government and Church officials, paving the way for the visit. But the Orthodox Church indicated some ambivalence about the timing of the trip when a spokeswoman suggested that it might be delayed until 2001 because of the fighting in the region.
Last year, the Pope made a personal overture to the country when the Vatican financed the $1.7 million construction of a hospital in Tbilisi. The Pope said it was a sign of his affection for the people, as well as an expression of Christian love.
(From combined wire services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Orthodox Leaders Rule Out Jubilee Papal Visit to Greece DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:ATHENS, Greece—The likelihood of a visit by Pope John Paul II to Greece during the Great Jubilee year 2000 has been greatly diminished by the lack of a welcome from the Greek Orthodox Church.
“Pope John Paul II must apologize for centuries of perceived Roman Catholic misdeeds against Christian Orthodox to receive a religious welcome in Greece,” the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church ruled Sept. 6.
The ruling by the leaders came one day after Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis announced that the Pope was welcome to visit Greece.
The synod's statement is not binding on the government, but it opens rifts that could embarrass political leaders and encourage anti-papal demonstrations if the trip occurs as proposed to coincide with the millennium.
As a matter of policy, the Holy Father will not visit a majority Orthodox country without an invitation from the Orthodox hierarchy.
The decision by the Greek Church is also a blow to efforts by the Pope and some Orthodox leaders to draw the two churches closer together after a nearly 1,000-year separation. The schism, which began with disputes over papal authority, has been complicated by deep-rooted Orthodox suspicions that the Vatican is trying to extend its influence eastward.
“Tendencies of expansionism, to proselytize and undermine the Orthodox churches … are indicative of the problems that prevent the creation of the right atmosphere for a possible Papal visit,” the Holy Synod said in its statement.
A spokesman for the synod, Metropolitan Kallinkos, said no official request has been made for a papal stop in Greece. But he clearly set the preconditions: a sign of “humility and repentance” by the Pope for what some Orthodox clerics consider a long history of Vatican-sponsored aggression and arrogance, especially the Crusaders' sack of Constantinople in 1204.
More recently, the Orthodox Church has complained bitterly about alleged Catholic expansionism. The main target of Orthodox fears is the Eastern Rite churches, which follow Orthodox traditions, liturgy and architecture while professing loyalty to the Pope. “They are the Trojan Horse of the Catholic Church,” said Metropolitan Kallinkos, following a lengthy debate by the Church leaders.
Mistrust of the Vatican is particularly strong in Greece, where more than 97% of the population is baptized into a Church whose leaders consider themselves guardians of Orthodox dogma and the Greek identity. “Out with the Pope,” read a banner headline in The Orthodox Press, a religious weekly newspaper that reflects the views of the Church leadership.
A Vatican official who recently met with Orthodox leaders in Greece agreed that talk of a papal visit to Greece is premature.
Cardinal Edward I. Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said Sept. 7 that “where Greece is concerned, all that has happened so far is that the Holy Father has expressed a strong desire to visit certain places there, as well as other holy sites connected with the travels of the Apostle St. Paul.”
Cardinal Cassidy stayed in Greece Sept. 4–6 for an Orthodox-Catholic symposium. While in the country, he said, he had “a very warm and friendly” lunch meeting with Bishop Nikolaos Foscolos of Athens.
The cardinal said he was aware that Orthodox leaders had agreed that Pope John Paul II must apologize for Catholic Church members' historical actions in their country before they would cooperate a papal visit.
“There has been a lot of comment in the [Greek] press about all kinds of things,” Cardinal Cassidy added. “But it is all very premature, until the Holy Father himself is able to take time to reflect on, and to plan, a visit.”
The Sept. 4–9 symposium Cardinal Cassidy attended in Thessaloniki, Greece, concerned values common to Orthodox and to Eastern Catholic traditions. It was the sixth in a series of biannual meetings between Catholics and Orthodox in Greece.
Also participating in the event was Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, spiritual leader of the Orthodox churches.
Pope John Paul sent a message that underlined the importance of theological discussion.
Cardinal Cassidy said that “the very fact that this symposium takes place in Greece is significant in itself.”
“When Catholics meet with Orthodox representatives there,” he added, “that is something very special — especially for Greece, where our contacts are not as good as they are in some other places.” (From combined wire services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Vatican Notes & Quotes DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:Pope Unperturbed by Iraq Visit's Detractors
CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Sept. 4—While Pope John Paul II's proposed trip to Iraq has yet to be confirmed, “critics are already beginning to protest it, from Iraqi dissidents to a major Jewish group,” said the Tribune's Steve Kloehn.
He added: “Senior Clinton administration officials have reportedly lobbied the Vatican for months to block the trip, and a State Department spokesman grumbled last month that Iraq would manipulate the visit for its own benefit.”
None of that appears to have swayed the 79-year-old Pope, observed Kloehn, who added that the Vatican may confirm the trip before the end of the month.
While the Holy See is acutely tuned to political conditions, and well aware of the effects a papal trip can have on international affairs, “the Pope is probably less worried … about dirtying his hands with the greetings of unsavory rulers,” said Kloehn.
In addition to meeting with Fidel Castro in Cuba last year, the Pope met with Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1981, Haitian strongman Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1983, and Chile's Augusto Pinochet in 1987.
“Each time, critics warned that by appearing alongside the dictator, the Pope would give legitimacy to the regime,” said the Tribune reporter. “But in retrospect, some scholars have credited the Pope's visits with helping to undermine these dictators, especially Duvalier.”
In a separate story on the same subject, Reuters reporter Philip Pulella quoted a Vatican source who said, “Experience shows that in the past the Pope's trips to even the most controversial places, and meetings with even the most controversial leaders have in the end helped to alleviate the sufferings of the people.”
Mosque Said to Hold Up Papal Visit to Nazareth
THE JERUSALEM POST, Sept. 3— Vatican unhappiness over the planned construction of a mosque next to an ancient Catholic church in Nazareth is the final sticking point in the effort to finalize a planned visit by Pope John II to Israel, according to the country's English-language daily.
Reporter Haim Shapiro quoted “Vatican sources in Jerusalem” who are unhappy over Moslem demands “that a mosque be erected on a plot which the municipality had earmarked for a plaza to be used by Christian pilgrims.”
The proposed mosque would be built only 22 yards from the Basilica of the Annunciation. “A Catholic source said Catholics do not oppose the building of a mosque, but [consider] it inappropriate to have a large mosque so near the church,” said Shapiro.
Nazareth is located within the Palestinian Authority, which the Pope is unofficially slated to visit on March 24, the eve of the Feast of the Annunciation. The basilica stands over the site where the annunciation of Christ's birth to Mary by an angel is believed to have taken place.
Meanwhile, Greek Orthodox Archbishop Damianos told the newspaper that plans are proceeding for the Pope to visit Mount Sinai in early December on the first of two planned visits to the Middle East.
Archbishop Damianos is Abbot of St. Catherine's Orthodox monastery, located at the foot of Mount Sinai on which Moses received the Ten Commandments.
Speaking in Tongues at St. Peter's — And D.C.
THE WASHINGTON POST, Sept. 8—A visit to the Washington area by a priest who frequently preaches at the Vatican prompted a story in the Post about the state of the charismatic renewal, and its standing with Pope John Paul II.
Franciscan Father Raniero Cantalamessa spoke at St. Mark's Church in Vienna, Va., where he discussed the modern application of spiritual gifts and exhorted participants to do more to evangelize their friends and neighbors.
“Jesus is Lord. God raised Him from the dead. And if you believe that in your heart, you are what?” the Italian priest asked the crowd. “Saved!” they replied in unison.
Father Cantalamessa first gave the Lenten retreat to the Pope and some 60 bishops and cardinals in 1980, the Post said.
The retreat was given three years after Father Cantalamessa was baptized in the Holy Spirit, an experience derived from the Book of Acts as empowering Christians with spiritual gifts to heal others and speak in unknown tongues.
The Post said the experience altered the ministry of Father Cantalamessa, who said he felt convinced of “the truth of the manifestation of the Spirit.” It prompted him to leave a prestigious teaching post at the University of Milan to spread the message that God is moving in a greater way. He said he frequently “sings in tongues — a beautiful way of prayer without passing through words.”
The Post also quoted Jesuit Father Francis Sullivan of Boston College who said, “The current Holy Father is favorably disposed to charismatic renewal.”
The movement, which began in the 1960s, continues to spread in developing nations, but has slowed somewhat in the United States, he said. As a sign of its inclusion in the mainstream of the Church, Father Sullivan said he has witnessed people “singing in tongues” in St. Peter's Basilica.
----- EXCERPT: From selected sources ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Bishops Patient as Chavez Threatens Democracy DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:CARACAS, Venezuela—Since he took office as president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez has shown little interest in portraying himself as a lover of democracy.
Nevertheless, the Venezuelan bishops have given the president conditional support. A popular figure despite occasionally odd behavior, Chavez appears to many like the man who can bring badly need change.
Given his personal history on the subject of democracy, Chavez's attitudes surprised no one.
As a colonel in the army, he attempted to bring an end to the second longest-running democracy in Latin America with a failed military coup in 1992.
After submitting to the democratic process by running for president and winning the nation's highest office, Chavez created no allusions that his feelings had changed.
At his inauguration in May, the president-elect placed his hand over the Constitution and said, “I swear on the holy Gospel and over this dying Constitution,” thus signaling his plan to redraft the constitution by means of a “Constituency,” a new body that would also redefine the powers of the various branches.
The president has referred to the Supreme Court as “the Supreme house of corruption,” the Congress as a “club of time wasters” and political parties as “nests of rats.”
A man with sharp political instincts who has cultivated the image of a leader del pueblo (of the people), Chavez has a way of delivering just what the people want in a timely manner. These include largely symbolic gestures as well as steps in favor of significant change.
Chavez pleased his nation of baseball fans by awarding a national honor to the Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa, a home-run hitter from the Dominican Republic who is revered throughout Latin America.
On another occasion, he personally stopped the police from ousting a group of homeless people who took over private land, offering them free state-owned property in exchange. Within a day of the offer, Chavez led the owners onto their new land.
Even though the country has enjoyed uninterrupted democracy since the 1950s, its political system is regarded as one of the most corrupt in the region.
A power-sharing arrangement hammered out in 1958 between the Social Democrats and the Social Christians led to spiraling corruption as each side contented itself with a piece of the pie while failing to serve as a check on each other's excesses.
While the country — a major oil producer — enjoyed economic boon times in the 1970s due to high oil prices,Venezuela became known as a big spender, setting the country up for a major fall.
With oil prices falling by the mid-1980s, Venezuelan per capita wealth took a sharp fall and riots broke out for the first time in the democratic period. In 1989, 300 people were killed in a major riot in Caracas, the capital city.
In 1992, during the second government of President Carlos Andres Perez, loyal troops barely deterred then Col. Chavez from succeeding in his coup attempt. On his way to prison, Chavez was escorted by a large crowd that hailed him as a national hero.
Archbishop Ovidio Perez Morales, president of the bishops' conference at the time, said the episode should have been taken as “a warning message and a clear cry of the people for bold, dramatic changes both in the political and the economic” spheres.
But President Perez gave no sign that he was listening. He became the first president of Venezuela to go to jail for corruption. The subsequent election of Rafael Caldera, a veteran of Venezuelan politics who broke with his party and became the first independent candidate elected president, brought some economic stability but very little political reform.
As a candidate for election, Chavez promised to collide with the political establishment — a promise that he has kept.
He called new elections for the Constituency, which would have the power to launch reforms in almost any conceivable area, from the judiciary to education.
Giving Him a Chance
Despite the president's blunt and even vulgar style, the bishops believe that Chavez deserves the chance to make changes that the political establishment is resisting. And even if he has not been clear about what kind of economic program he will pursue, Chavez has shown an uncompromising will to push reform. He was rewarded in July with a large majority in the Constituency.
Chavez's Constituency has stripped major responsibilities not only from the Congress but also from the Supreme Court and the ministries.
“Everybody has the right to express concerns and air criticism, but the president deserves the opportunity to deliver the changes he has offered, and for which he was elected,” said Bishop Baltazar Porras, president of the Venezuelan bishops' conference.
Bishop Porras stepped in to avoid a conflict between the Congress — where the two larger parties still maintain a significant presence — and the Constituency, which has been stripping the Congress of almost all its powers on its way to becoming the nation's true legislative power.
Bishop Porras helped hammer out an agreement between the two bodies, and also criticized those with “an ambivalent position who are yet to show if they love Venezuela or not.”
The remark was widely interpreted as a swipe at a small group of businessmen who prospered under the old system and who have been reluctant to embrace change.
Warnings Sounded
Nevertheless, the bishops are not willing to sign a blank check to Chavez. They have not only criticized some of Chavez's verbal excesses — including a claim that Christ would vote for him — they have warned against a potentially dangerous concentration of power in one office.
Chavez has also been careful to cultivate power through nongovernmental means, especially the media. The president owns his own weekly newspaper whose 100,000 copies are distributed for free. He hosts a highly rated radio show and a TV program.
“The president has shown so far a respect for everybody's opinion, but as president, he should be above and out of the media debate,” Archbishop Ignacio Velasco of Caracas recently recommended.
It has been reported that the archbishop has also warned Chavez to go easy with his promises so as not to inflate expectations.
As Bishop Porras said, “There is one thing this people cannot bear anymore, it is frustration, and frustration comes when promises are not fulfilled, or when changes do not bring the expected results.”
So far, as they said in a July pastoral letter, the Venezuelan bishops will “accompany the process of changes from a nonpolitical, pastoral stand.”
They fear that if they don't keep a channel open to help Chavez correct possible mistakes, Venezuela's “del pueblo” dream may turn into a nightmare.
Alejandro Buermudez writes from Lima, Peru
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Buermudez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: World Notes & Quotes DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:A Wake Up Call to Scottish Catholics
THE UNIVERSE, Aug. 22—Scottish composer James MacMillan made a big splash at the Edinburgh Festival by publicly denouncing religious prejudice in his home country. Anti-Catholicism, he said, was “a significant element of Scottish culture.” A week later, reported British Catholic weekly The Universe, he went a step further, calling for Catholics “to take to the streets in public marches to acknowledge their religion.”
While the newspaper reported skepticism about the prospects for greater public piety, it found that MacMillan has awakened some Catholics from their complacency.
“Catholics in his home city of Glasgow have already proved that public procession is not for them,” said the paper. The article pointed out that less than a third of Catholics in Scotland attend Mass on Sundays, and participation in Glasgow's “Ogilvie Walk,” an annual procession honoring Jesuit martyr St. John Ogilvie, is likewise dwindling. “Cardinal Winning usually leads the march up High Street and is accompanied by some priests. But each year the number of laity following gets smaller,” said the report.
The Universe also pointed out that the number of Catholics visiting Carfin, “the national shrine dedicated to Our Blessed Lady,” has “dramatically dropped.”
A priest in Glasgow was quoted as saying, “Unless people start coming back to Mass then there will be fewer and fewer wanting to take part in such marches.”
As for the positive impact of MacMillan's public statements, the press is now publicizing instances of anti-Catholic prejudice in some of the nation's elections, political appointments and laws. One result is a move in the recently formed Scottish Parliament “to demand the scrapping of the law which bans a British monarch from marrying a Catholic,” said the report.
----- EXCERPT: From selected sources ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pius Scholar Refutes Cornwell's Charges Jesuit DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:Jesuit Father Pier Blet, together with Jesuits Angelo Martini, Burkhart Schneider and Robert A. Graham, is co-editor of the 12-volume work Acts and Documents of the Holy See During the Second World War.
Asked about accusations about Pope Pius XII in March 1998, Pope John Paul II responded, “A sufficient answer has already been given; just read Father Blet's book.”
The book is a collection of all the material on the subject stored in the Vatican's secret archives, opened for the project by order of Pope Paul VI.
Father Blet spoke with the ZENIT news agency about the newest allegations made against Pius XII.
ZENIT: What is your assessment of John Cornwell's book?
Father Blet: Cornwell's book is very confusing. It's not really a historical analysis. There are no documents to back up his theories. Pius XII is charged with very serious accusations, without any real proof.
According to Cornwell, Pope Pius XII actually facilitated Hitler's rise to power because, by signing the concordat between the Holy See and Germany, he accepted the dissolution of the Central Party, which effectively removed any opposition to the Nazi's rise to power.
Beside the fact that at the time Pius XI was Pope, and he was the person responsible for signing that document, there is no proof to support that theory. In fact, it seems that [Cardinal Eugenio] Pacelli [who would become Pius XII] was very much against the decision of the German Catholics to dissolve the Central Party. To base the accusations against Pacelli as a supporter of Nazism on this “hypothesis” seems to me, quite frankly, exaggerated.
And what about the signing of the concordat with the Third Reich?
What else could have been done to protect the Church in Germany? Refusing to sign the concordat with the Nazis would have meant abandoning Catholics into the hands of the new [political] power and there would have been no possible line of defense.
The Holy See was not naive regarding Hitler's regime. Referring to the concordat, Pacelli once confided: “I just hope they don't violate all the clauses at the same time.”
Cornwell claims that Pacelli was anti-Semitic.
Regarding the relationship between Pius XII and the Jews, there is a great deal that the British author ignores. He only quotes the negative documents against Pius XII while systematically avoids mentioning the numerous messages of thanks from many Jews saved by the Church.
As far as the [accusation of] silence is concerned, we know very well that any public protest against Nazism would have provoked a disaster. Not only against the Catholics but, especially, against the Jews. Cornwell claims that the only public protest of Pius XII was that of Christmas 1943, but he doesn't mention the Consistorial Address of June 2, 1943, when Pius XII strongly protested in favor of innocent persons being sent to their death. In this very speech, Pius XII explained that his protest could not be any stronger “because we must to be careful not to harm those who we want to save.”
Cornwell claims that Pius XII was convinced of a connection between the Jews and communism.
That's an old story. Pius XII is accused of being obsessed with communism and, as a consequence, he wasn't able to see the Nazi menace. The fact is that he was very conscious of the dangers of both communism and Nazism. Regarding the Bolsheviks, when American Catholics questioned economic assistance to the Soviet Union, Pius XII intervened by saying that the prohibitions he had mentioned in the encyclical against communism did not apply to those circumstances. Thus, he demonstrated that he wasn't motivated by political ideologies.
In reality, I think Cornwell's book doesn't just want to discredit Pius XII. It's actually more an attack on the Catholic conception of the papacy. In fact, in the book he protests against the way bishops are appointed by the pope. He criticizes the First Vatican Council's declaration of infallibility as well as the definition of Marian dogmas. According to Cornwell, all popes are dictators. In the last chapter he criticizes John Paul II because, in his opinion, he has governed the Church in an even more authoritative manner than Pius XII.
The Italian Paulist Press just announced the release of your own new book,
Unlike Cornwell, I limit myself strictly to the documentation. It's a synthesis of the 12 volumes of documents published by the Vatican Press, where you can see what the Holy See did during the Second World War, day by day and hour by hour. Specifically, it demonstrates how Pius XII did everything possible to promote peace, first by trying to avoid the occupation of Poland, then by trying to keep Italy out of the war. Vatican diplomacy tried to convince Mussolini to abandon the Axis.
Regarding the Jews, the documentation clearly shows how Pius XII carefully considered what would be the best way to help them. He wanted to make a public declaration, but even the Red Cross dissuaded him, because a public statement was useless, especially against a regime like Hitler's and, in the end, it only would have caused more harm to those he wanted to save.
My book also shows how Pius XII was very worried about the situation of German Catholics. A declaration against Germany would have provoked a severing of ties with the Pope and would have played into the hands of Nazi propaganda, which portrayed Pius XII as an enemy of Germany.
Pius XII knew the nature of Nazism very well. The son of the French ambassador in Rome has said that, in a luncheon with the Pope, one of the guests remarked that perhaps it was better after all to have Hitler in power than the Prussians. Pius XII quickly interrupted and said: “You don't realize what you're saying.
The Prussian generals do have their defects, but the Nazis are diabolical.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Pier Blet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Editorial DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:Pius XII's ‘Smoking Gun’?
In the midst of beatification efforts for Pope Pius XII, a new book by British journalist John Cornwell is being touted as offering new evidence that the World War II Pope was an anti-Semite.
It's false advertisement. Experts familiar with Cornwell's work say there is nothing new in it, and nothing that tars the Pope.
The media have focused on a few of the charges, including a 1918 quote in a letter that the young Eugenio Pacelli apparently wrote giving his assessment of a group of Bolsheviks he had met. He mentions more than once that they are distasteful, and he notices that many of them were Jewish.
But the quotes are hardly “smoking guns” proving anti-Semitism. The young Italian never makes any connection between the Jewish heritage of the group and their activities or their value as human beings.
The more serious charge is that as a papal nuncio to Germany for 13 years, the then Cardinal Pacelli negotiated a concordat with Hitler that won the Catholic Church many favors but created an ideal climate for persecution of German Jews. The process of its approval actually undermined potential Catholic resistance to Hitler in Germany, Cornwell claims.
But historians dispute the theory that the concordat helped Hitler to power — in fact his power was already consolidated by 1933, when the concordat was approved by Pius XI. In effect, argues historian Jesuit Father Pierre Blet, the concordat was virtually imposed on the Church, and the consequences of rejecting it would have been disastrous to Catholics.
There follow charges of the Pope's silence regarding the Holocaust. On Christmas Eve 1942, the Pope did denounce the Holocaust, but Cornwell describes his statement as scandalously vague for not mentioning the Nazis or the Jews by name.
This charge shows the book's greatest deficiency. Cornwell is a journalist of the '80s and '90s, not a historian of the '30s and '40s. He falls into the trap of judging the World War II Pope by Cold War and post-Cold War standards.
Today, Pope John Paul II cautiously and judiciously uses his position to counter oppressive systems. In occupied World War II Europe, to do so was more difficult.
Thus, on June 2, 1943, when Pius XII strongly protested in favor of innocent persons being sent to their death, he pointed out that his protest could not be any stronger “because we must to be careful not to harm those who we want to save.”
Cornwell does not even mention the June speech. As for the Christmas Eve condemnation, Cornwell is right, Pius never mentioned the Nazis by name. He didn't have to.
The New York Times wrote in a 1942 editorial “More than ever [Pius XII] is a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent. The pulpit from whence he speaks is more than ever like the Rock on which the Church was founded, a tiny island lashed and surrounded by a sea of war.”
While raising the profile of criticism against the Nazis, Pius also worked to help the Jews. After the war, Issac Herzog, chief rabbi of Jerusalem, praised “the Supreme Pontiff and the religious men and women who, executing the directives of the Holy Father, recognized the persecuted as their brother and, with great abnegation, hastened to help them, disregarding the terrible dangers to which they were exposed.”
If the Pope had acted more recklessly, he may have passed muster with modern critics like Cornwell, but probably not. The records of Pius XII's actions during World War II show methodical, behind-the-scenes efforts to end to the tragic situation in Europe, and to save Jewish lives.
It is a tribute to Pius that he sought to do all he could, without spectacle, to fight one of humanity's greatest crimes — and did not harm the cause by trying to create a public legacy for himself.
In 1973, abortion was justified as a way to prevent “unwanted” children being born and to “save women's lives.”
But in the '90s, prenatal testing technology has expanded the meaning of “unwanted children” and lowered standard for reasons women abort.
What makes today's children “unwanted”? The Sept. 6 Los Angeles Times cited a March study of Israeli women, done for the Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal, that found that 23 out of 24 women who learned during their 15th week of pregnancy that their babies had cleft lips decided to have abortions.
In a California study, one out of four women aborted their babies with cleft palates. The San Diego patients learned of the defect in the sixth month of pregnancy, when it is more difficult to find a doctor who will perform an abortion, said the paper. Abortions for defects have become so common that “frequent lawsuits … are filed by parents whose baby is born with an abnormality that they think should have been detected during pregnancy,” said the Times.
To counter this deep-set mentality, it is not enough merely to push for a ban on abortion. An entire culture of life will have to be advanced on every level: in education, popular culture, politics and science.
Is such a thing impossible? Certainly not. In 30 years, our culture went from a place where “abortion” was a dirty word to where it is casually excepted by many. It should take far less time for the culture to embrace life. After all, truth, if we are willing to advance it, is much stronger than lies.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Marian Devotion: Pray It Again, Catholic DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:The Greatest Marian Prayers: Their History, Meaning and Usage by Anthony M. Buono (St. Paul's/Alba House, 1999 148 pages, $9.95)
Marian devotion appears to be undergoing something of a restoration. Marian shrines are reporting increasing numbers of pilgrims, and at least anecdotal evidence from parishes indicates that Marian observances are drawing greater numbers. But, as with all restorations, the restorers often face the problem of figuring out exactly what is in danger of being lost. Anthony M. Buono's new book on Marian prayers is aimed at helping the restorers know what it is we should be saving — or bringing back — from extinction.
Buono's slim volume presents some of the historically most-popular Marian prayers, along with his commentary on their background, use and theology. His selection includes the Hail Mary, Magnificat, Sub Tuum, The Akathist Hymn, Alma Redemptoris Mater, Ave Regina Caelorum, Salve Regina (Hail, Holy Queen), Angelus, Regina Caeli, Stabat Mater, Memorarae and The Litany of Loreto.
Each prayer is presented in its own chapter with a short history and a fairly detailed analysis. Buono's theological commentary is primarily for nonspecialist readers, who may have recited these prayers for many years without stopping to consider their theological riches. His line-by-line commentary will lead to a deeper appreciation for the substance of the prayers; he reveals that the praise they express flows not from a naive adulation, but from a deep knowledge of Mary's role in the mystery of redemption.
Buono's historical details indicate how Marian devotion has grown, and is continuing to develop, in the Church. For example, he takes pains to demonstrate that high Mariology — calling Mary “Mother of God,” for example — has been present in the Church from the beginning and is not a post-Reformation Catholic invention. “We are all debtors to God, but he is a debtor to you,” wrote St.Methodius (d. 847) of Mary.
“Marian prayers spring up spontaneously like the various flowers at each season and bear witness to the devotion of all the subsequent Christian centuries,” writes Buono.
Buono illustrates how the Marian prayer of the Church continues to develop. He includes many quotations from one post-conciliar flowering of Marian devotion, the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a set of official votive Masses of the Blessed Virgin that honor her under her various titles, such as, for example, “Mother of Mercy” and “Seat of Wisdom.”
Another example of developing devotion is the Litany of Loreto, to which Pope Leo XIII added the invocations “Queen of the Most Holy Rosary” (1883) and “Mother of Good Counsel” (1903). During the first world war Benedict XV added “Queen of Peace” (1916); Pius XII added “Queen assumed into heaven” (1951) after the solemn definition of the dogma of the Assumption. John Paul II has added “Mother of the Church” (1980) and “Queen of Families” (1995).
Some developments, of course, have been duds. The Church introduced a new Marian liturgy in its ritual books in 1981, and Buono devotes a chapter to what he considers “a new rite that speaks the language of the people of today.” Perhaps so, but this devotee has never heard it anywhere. As for awkward invocations to our Lady such as “Finest fruit of the redemption” and “Champion of God's people,” one expects that, no matter how theologically rich, such will remain unknown and unused.
One complaint on the work: The lack of Latin translations for the Sub Tuum, Ave Regina Caelorum, Salve Regina, Alma Redemptoris Mater and Regina Caeli is odd, and reduces the usefulness of the book. After all, those prayers are often sung or recited in Latin. Indeed, the fact they are known by their Latin titles emphasizes that they remain in the Church's memory in Latin, much like the Pange Lingua or Adore Te Devote. Another peculiarity was the decision not to present the Akathist Hymn in its entirety alone, but only imbedded in commentary, so as to make it impossible to pray it continuously from this book. Plus there's a banal alternative closing prayer for the Angelus which I've never heard, and hope not to in the future.
Still, the book is a worthwhile addition to any serious Catholic's shelf; indeed, a case for its indispensability could be made solely on the strength of its appendix of 60 Marian prayers. This includes prayers from Church Fathers like St. John Chrysostom and St. Augustine, to medieval saints like St. Catherine of Siena and St. Anselm, to modern prayers by St. Maximilian Kolbe and Pope John XXIII.
Included there is the most beautiful paean of praise ever written in honor of Mary. Dante Alighieri's magnificent “figlia del tuo Figlio” from the final canto of the Divine Comedy, a prayer he puts on the lips of St. Bernard of Clairvaux: O Virgin Mother, daughter of your Son … you are the one who ennobled human nature to such an extent that its Divine Maker did not disdain to become its workmanship.
Buono's book may help make those immortal words known by more Catholics — and perhaps come to their lips spontaneously in times of prayer.
Raymond de Souza, a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Kingston, Ontario, writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond de Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:What ‘Dilemma’?
After reading your Aug. 29-Sep. 24 issue, I was quite concerned with what I consider error in the [Indepth column] “Our Story: Facing the Moral Dilemma of an Ectopic Pregnancy,” written by Kelly Bowring. I have been an avid reader of the Register for some years now and have found your articles not only informative, practical and fair, but I've considered them authoritative also.
My wife and I are both retired from the practice of medicine, having accumulated about 70 years of experience therein. We are Catholic.
I cannot escape the conclusion that the concepts utilized to “tell the story” were quite unclear, even to the extent that they were misleading from the biological (medical) standpoint. But my greater concern is the appearance of what I can only judge as fraud or vincible ignorance in emotionally and repeatedly referring to a moral dilemma. The only “dilemma” I noted, even on re-reading, was that generated by the author. [This] seemed to have genesis in erroneous biology, excessive emotionalism and a gratuitous, overarching stretch to achieve. Stated otherwise, I can see no reason for the [piece] except to [satisfy the writer's need to] write.
From the standpoint of biology, I believe it is safe to say that a tubal pregnancy has never resulted in a viable infant. Conversely, it has taken the life of many young women. We have seen it! When a fertilized ovum implants itself in a tissue or structure, it instantly and energetically commences to obtain support and nutriments on a grand scale. The reason for the structure and function of the womb is to provide these. A fallopian tube cannot.
The net result, then, of the presence of an early pregnancy in a tube might be compared to a stick of dynamite. It has never been known not to “go off” at an unannounced and unpredictable point in time and, conversely, has been known to kill the mother if it is not removed prior to rupture.
Biologically the destruction or removal of fetus and tube would not be referred to as a miscarriage in medical parlance. It must be obvious by now that the whole article distresses me. If there is in reality no moral dilemma, and I do not see one, it is specious to allege one and appear to laboriously conquer it.
The solution the story presents, i.e., salpingectomy, which the author's protagonist seems to have found and suggested to the doctors in charge, is the same one that I have used in medical/surgical practice for 40-plus years and the only one. Again, I cannot imagine the “fact” of the statement attributed to “the doctors” that salpingectomy was, in their opinion, “archaic and unnecessarily harsh to the mother's body.” I'd characterize those doctors as “off the wall” and studiously avoid ever sending my patient or family to them for care.
I must, in all honesty, tell you that more than a little of the same attitude of author Debra Haberhorn is exhibited in the article on page 16, “Priest Ordained After Brush With Death.” I have no quarrel with “the medical story.” It is only with the time frame related between the existence of an otherwise healthy young man — going to the hospital with pain in his hip — and then, within 48 hours, his condition was declared fatal and doctors recommended “turning off the machines.” So then “the doctors” drained the hip abscess, left in a pack and expected all to be well. Two days later the pack was removed, clinical observations were made and doctors declared the patient's condition fatal! Again the doctors said to turn off the machines, but the family did not allow same. After indicated spiritual exercises were employed, the patient fully recovered. Now, really, this repeated, flighty flip-flopping of “the doctors” on their opinions and recommendations makes me want to verify the location of the hospital. Was it St. Paul, Minn., as the article states — or was it Uganda?
Comment: There are many and weighty topics for so-called medical writers to relate in order to inform or discuss with people in the popular press topics of health and spirituality, but the goal of such authors (and publishers) can certainly not be furthered by such emotionalism — such nonsense. Can it?
Mark T. Cenac, M.D.
Bisbee, Arizona
McCain on Abortion
[The LifeNotes item] “McCain Changes Position on Roe v. Wade” (Register, Sep. 5–11, excerpted from the Aug. 24 Washington Post) contains his comment that he wouldn't want abortion to be illegal now because that would force “women to undergo illegal and dangerous operations.” This is nonsense! It doesn't matter whether abortion is legal or illegal; either way it has attendant risks.
Sen. McCain's comment is obviously based on the myth that “thousands of women died as a result of illegal abortion prior to Roe v. Wade.” Abortion advocates began the canard that 10,000 women died annually from illegal abortions in the 1960s as a public-relations ploy.
Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who is now an internationally renowned defender of the pre-born child and has converted to Catholicism, was a cofounder of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. He confessed that he made up the figure of 10,000 women dying of illegal abortions each year as a total lie. Data from the National Center for Health Statistics show that 39 women died from illegal abortions in 1972; 35 died in 1973 and 37 in 1974 from legal abortions.
Deaths due to abortion decreased markedly after the 1940s due to the introduction of new antibiotics, advances in medical technology and the skill of the physician, not because of [a court decision] in 1973.
Contemporary maternal deaths and injuries due to legalized abortion are underreported. A pro-life organization, Life Dynamics Inc., has proof that more than 450 women have died as a result of legal abortions. They say this is only a partial list, and that it is very difficult to uncover these tragedies because the cover-up of deaths and injuries by the abortion industry is commonplace.
In addition to immediately apparent negative medical effects such as death, hemorrhage and uterine perforation, abortion brings many latent medical complications. Life-threatening conditions in future pregnancies include a 600% increase in the risk of placenta previa and 50% increase in the risk of tubal pregnancy after one abortion, and 160% after two abortions. There is an increased risk (200%) of miscarriage after two or more abortions.
The medical evidence and legal ramifications of the abortion-breast cancer link were comprehensively analyzed in the Wisconsin Law Review (Volume 1998, No. 6). The conclusions include: “there is no doubt that the abortion providers have a duty to inform women considering the procedure about this significant health risk before an abortion is performed.”
Acute grief and emotional and psychological disturbances are noted in 77% of women who have had abortions. Anecdotally, Gloria Swanson wrote in 1992 that she felt guilty all her life about an abortion she had 65 years earlier, in 1927.
In Finland between 1987 and 1994, women who had undergone abortions committed suicide 6.4 times more frequently than did mothers who gave birth to their babies and 3 times more frequently than the general population.
That abortion for all nine months of pregnancy, and partial-birth abortion (the extrauterine procedure akin to infanticide), are legal has tremendously undermined our once-civil society by reducing respect for human life, undermining the family and engendering violence.
Sen. McCain is terribly misinformed regarding maternal mortality and morbidity resulting from abortion, and he ignores the substantial deleterious sociological effects of legalized abortion. Women and society in general would be much healthier if abortion were illegal.
William J. Hogan, M.D.
Rockville, Maryland
Correction
In the Aug. 22–28 issue, the Register quoted the World Wrestling Federation's spokesman Jim Byrne calling professional wrestling “raunchy.” Byrne actually said “naughty.” We regret the error.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: The Big Theory On Campus, 1990s-Style DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:A professor-friend of mine explained to me that, at his university, the administration mandated that every department provide instruction in “multiculturalism” or “diversity.” As far as I know, no particular push was made to simultaneously examine the intellectual validity behind the theory driving the mandate — and it's not hard to see why.
“Diversity” has, in a sense, replaced philosophy on many campuses — and it's a concept whose presuppositions make philosophy impossible or irrelevant. Philosophy wants to know about the whole, about how things are related to each other. If diversity theory is true, all philosophy can be is a description of differing ways, no matter what they are.
Diversity implies that there are no universal ways or norms; it does not matter what is taught, so long as it is “different” from other ways and someone adheres to it in some way. There are no such things as disagreements, since no one is ever right if being right makes someone else wrong; there are just “differences.” We have arrived at a form of what used to be called nominalism. The only enemy is the claim to truth and right order.
Presumably, as they say, water boils in all cultures at the same temperature at the same level above the sea. The reason the Chinese are busy stealing, or buying, or being given our military technology is because the stuff also works in China even though it was not invented there. If all that mattered were diversity of culture, the Chinese would be content with the weapons of the old warlords.
These days, diversity studies are being pursued with zeal. And the primary lesson is that no one can, in principle, object to the ways other folks live and think.
The problem is as old as Herodotus, who, in his travels, noticed the differing mating and burial rites around the Mediterranean. And Tacitus, in a famous passage cited by St. Thomas, was struck by the Germans who thought thievery was all right. For a long time, piracy was considered a form of free enterprise.
Today, of course, “diversity studies” are not a matter of the quaint customs of, say, the Easter Islanders — unless, of course, these customs can be used against some moral institution in traditional Western society. The case of Margaret Mead, the famous anthropologist, was notorious for this. She seems to have discovered South Sea Islanders doing what she would have preferred to do at home. Her investigation seems to have been directed by her theories and practices and not by evidence.
Diversity studies are touted to be “nonjudgmental.” If people do things — anything — that's all we need to know, that they do them. Classical theory had no problem with the fact that all sorts of ways of doing things were found throughout the world. But it wanted to ask whether a given set of actions met some standard. Or was there no natural norm so that we should be content with native and civilized customs, no matter what they are, just because someone does them?
There are no such things as disagreements, since no one is ever right if being right makes someone else wrong.
I present my students with the following hypothetical case:
Suppose you are, all at once, a moral relativist, a multiculturalist and a member of the reigning British society in India in the 19th century. The local custom is for Hindu women, on the death of their husbands, to throw themselves to their own death on the flaming funeral pyres. You want to be consistent with your stance and not “impose” your values on the Indians. A widow is just about to jump on a pyre before your eyes. You have a contingent of troops and could stop her. What do you do? Usually some bright student pipes up, “Let her jump!” “Right!” I respond.
The only reason the British officer could give for stopping the suicide would be that there are certain universal norms, held either by him or his laws, that judge all cultures in their rites, customs and theories. These norms rose in the Greek culture but are not simply Greek. They rose in Jerusalem and Rome, but are not simply Hebrew, Christian or Roman. Diversity studies, insofar as they are intellectually grounded, profess to reject this universal culture.
Universities ruled by advanced diversity curricula will downplay or eliminate any serious examination of the universal tradition. And this is not merely a question of different languages or ways of doing things, which may be perfectly normal, but of ways of life and lifestyles that must be judged, academically or politically, to be indifferent, above criticism or examination, by any standards not found in a given culture.
In practice, diversity education is not merely a curiosity about how different cultures do things differently. It is a proclamation of how we will live. Logically, if all the cultures become incorporated into one country, that country will end up unable to do anything but protect the cultures from which people came.
Diversity theory's first adversary is any claim that there are objectively right and wrong ways of living. The logical conclusion of the theory is that it does not really make any difference how we live. Is this what we want our universities teaching our young people?
Father James V. Schall is a professor of government at Georgetown University.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: James V. Schall ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Saints of the Century DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:God's intervention in human affairs is always personal, and his intervention in the 20th century has taken a familiar form: He has sent saints.
“Man is called to victory over himself,” said Pope John Paul II on his 1983 visit to Czestochowa, which for six centuries has stood as a center of strong devotion to the greatest saint, Mary. “It is the saints and beatified who show us the path to victory that God achieves in human history.”
As dark as the 20th century as has been, things might have been worse if not for countless prayers to the saints. It would not be difficult to imagine a scenario where the Church limped toward the turn of the century exhausted from persecution, paralyzed by dissension and division, timid in the face of a dismissive world and retrenching herself to weather a seemingly never-ending storm.
Yet on many fronts it appears the storm is lifting — and as the clouds break up, they reveal the Church's recent saints. Thanks to their faith, the advent of the third millennium is blessed with a Church that is resilient, prophetic and ready for the new evangelization of the 21st century.
Our Holy ‘Role Models’
The lives of the saints remind us that sanctity does not simply co-exist in the world with adversity and suffering — it directly confronts and counters evil in the drama of conversion and redemption. From Golgotha to the Nazi Holocaust to the tragedies of the present day, the cross of Christ triumphs.
The cross reminds us that while saints are real men and women — neither ideas nor spirits persevere through hardship and suffering — we cannot look at their lives in the manner of ordinary biography. It is important to remember that the saints did not overcome difficulties and face obstacles of a purely human nature. They were caught up in a battle that is fought in the world, but reaches beyond it. As St. Paul teaches, in the struggle for sanctity we are not “contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places”(Ephesians 6:12).
“It is so stupid of the modern world to deny the existence of the devil, who is the only explanation for it,” Msgr. Ronald Knox commented.
In an age in which previously unimaginable evils have become routine, it is not unreasonable to look to diabolic explanations. It is recorded that on Oct. 13, 1884, Pope Leo XIII had a vision while standing at the foot of the altar in his private chapel. He later said that he had seen the demons of hell and heard the voice of Satan issuing this challenge to God: “Give me a century and I will show you that I can destroy your Church.” Satan was granted a century — the 20th century. Shaken by what he had seen, Pope Leo then composed the “Leonine prayers” for the protection of the Church that were recited after every Mass until the reforms which followed the Second Vatican Council. More commonly known as the Prayer to St.
Michael the Archangel, the language is martial: O thou, Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast back into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl the world seeking the ruin of souls.
It is not necessary to believe in the veracity of Pope Leo's vision, but that the devil is active was taught matter-offactly just last month by Leo's successor, John Paul II. “Evil is a topic that profoundly touches our experience,” he said. “The whole of personal and communal history is, to a great extent, a struggle against evil. …
In the Our Father there is explicit reference to evil. This is caused in the world by that spiritual being called in biblical revelation the devil or Satan, who has placed himself deliberately against God. Human malice, constituted by the devil or inspired by his influence, is manifested even in our times, in an attractive way, seducing minds and hearts until one loses the very sense of evil and sin.”
They Fight the Good Fight on Our Behalf
The saints of our time confronted that manifestation of human malice, and also supernatural trials. In their lives we see the cosmic drama of the fight between good and evil most vividly, and we have a preview, as it were, of the final victory of those who have fought the good fight, run the race to the finish, and kept the faith (cf. 2 Timothy 4:7). And they did it in our own cities, in our own times, demonstrating that even if Satan did get his century, the Church got enough saints to see her through the crisis.
The English poet Francis Thompson, perhaps most famous for The Hound of Heaven, wrote another poem, The Kingdom of God: In No Strange Land, which was only discovered among his papers after he died:
The angels keep their ancient places;-
Turn but a stone, and start a wing!
'Tis ye, 'tis your estranged faces,
That miss the many-splendoured thing.
But (when so sad thou canst not sadder)
Cry; — and upon thy so sore loss Shall shine the traffic of Jacob's ladder
Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross.
Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter,
Cry, - clinging Heaven by the hems;
And lo, Christ walking on the water
Not of Gennesareth, but Thames!
The angels are all about us, and the saints too, even if we often “miss the many-splendoured thing.” Jacob's ladder is indeed betwixt heaven and Charing Cross — and also betwixt heaven and the mission schools of the American West, and the fields around Fatima, and the monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo, and the home of a wealthy Milanese publishing family, and the slopes of Mont Royal, and the modern-day ark built in France, and the salons of Paris and the Sorbonne, and the clergy safehouses of the Spanish Civil War, and an Italian maternity ward, and the slave markets of Sudan, and the catechism classes of the Papua New Guinea missions, and the slums of Calcutta, and indeed, even the Apostolic Palace.
Join us as we look for Christ in all those places, and many others, living in the saints of this, the 20th century — to whom we look for help and guidance as we move into the 21st.
Raymond de Souza writes from Rome.
New
As a response to the Holy Father's invitation to see our own times through “the eyes of faith,” the Register begins, with this overview, a series of weekly reflections on the saints of our century. Each week, we'll report on the action of the Holy Spirit as revealed in those men and women of our time who have responded generously and heroically to the stirrings of grace sent by God.
One of the Church's newest saints, Edith Stein, reminds us in her religious name, Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, that the saints participate in the triumph of the Cross. That's fitting, because this series begins as the Church celebrates the feast of the Triumph of the Cross (Sept. 14). The series will culminate in the Christmas season, when, with the opening of the Holy Year on Christmas Eve at St. Peter's, the Jubilee will begin.
Next week: Pope St. Pius X.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond de Souza ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Academic Freedom and the Catholic University DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:Our initial reaction to seeing the words “Catholic” and “university” together tends to be one of skepticism. Does religion, and especially religious authority, not interfere with open discussion and investigation? Are there not many examples of the Church censuring scholars?
The truth is that, historically speaking, the Church did not stand in the way of academic freedom, but, in fact, rendered it possible.
The first universities were ecclesiastical institutions. They were founded in the midst of secular life but free from some of its constraints, so that teachers and students could enjoy a sacred space in which to pursue the quest for the truth — rather than for money, power or even honor.
The first university, the University of Paris, was founded in 1200. This happened when the king of France, Philip August, removed the professors and students of a number of existing colleges from the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts, placing them instead under the authority of the bishop of Paris and his delegate, the chancellor.
By this move, the king recognized the body of professors and students as an entity in its own right. He also created a space for study, teaching and learning under the jurisdiction of the Church, which was exempt from the rules of ordinary life in the city. At the same time, however, the university was placed right in the city. Its organization mirrored that of a very important civic institution, the guilds. Faculties corresponded to crafts, students to apprentices, bachelors to craftsmen, and professors to masters (in fact, the medieval professors were even called “masters”). Thus the university possessed a very ambiguous status: Its location at the heart of secular life was counterbalanced by its exemption from the legal rules of that life.
In contemporary society, the function of the Catholic university remains as important as ever, providing a haven from economic and ideological pressures. A Catholic university does more than simply teach its students the skills they will need in order to be successful in business, entertainment, politics or academia. This is why its value should never be measured merely in terms of its “usefulness” to society.
The Catholic university does not so much serve society as it serves the truth — a truth that is ultimately God himself. However, by so doing, the university paradoxically ends up serving society better than any other much more “useful” part of it. It accomplishes this by reminding us that the truth must never be made subservient to lesser goals. Hence the appropriateness of placing it right in the city, where such lesser goals tend to dominate everyday life.
The university as an ecclesiastical institution has a history of remarkable openness to diversity. In the curricula of all the faculties of the medieval university, public discussions occupied a central position. Examinations were conducted through them, and one's place in the university hierarchy corresponded to one's function in these “disputations.” The medieval universities were conceived as places for public discourse — yet not the discourse of Babel, an anarchy of different voices, but rather ordered discourse, oriented toward a goal. And that goal was synthesis.
All disputations were structured in such a way as to be concluded with a solution. This solution would carefully take into consideration all the pros and cons brought up in the preceding discussion (the standing and prestige of a professor depended on this ability), but it would nonetheless be a solution, a provisional final word. The disputations had the ideal of a differentiated unity built into their very form.
Medieval Christian academics read pagan, Jewish and Muslim authors with the utmost seriousness — at a time when other parts of society were persecuting or killing “infidels.” Their profound confidence in the truth of their faith gave them the detachment necessary to consider seriously the merits of a pagan philosophy such as Aristotle's. Questions like the eternity of the world (a central tenet of Aristotle's) were discussed very openly at the medieval universities, and the outcome of these discussions was not guaranteed.
Even the great St. Thomas Aquinas was nonplussed by Aristotle's arguments in favor of the eternity of the world, although they clearly contradict the belief in a day of judgment. The medievals had enough faith to admit to it if the right answers were not forthcoming as quickly as they might have wished.
The Church continues to uphold this spirit of openness in its contemporary universities. In 1990, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a document dealing with the problem of theologians who find themselves at odds with the magisterium. The “Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian” points out that, “if tensions do not spring from hostile and contrary feelings, they can become a dynamic factor, a stimulus to both the magisterium and theologians”(No. 25).
While the congregation's document disapproves of public opposition and dissent voiced through the mass media, a Catholic scholar who views certain aspects of Church teaching as problematic is urged “to make known to the magisterial authorities the problems raised by the teaching” (No.30). This includes the possibility of expounding his or her views in appropriate scholarly publications.
Thus, the loyalty which a Catholic university and its faculty owe the Church does not in any way exclude free investigation and research. On the contrary, in the contemporary Church the university remains the privileged setting for open discussion and debate of issues. If it were otherwise, the Catholic university would belie its historical origins, as well as its vocation to serve nothing but the truth.
Philipp W. Rosemann is assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Dallas.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Philipp W. Rosemann ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Little Flower on the Prairie DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:A generation ago, the area surrounding the National Shrine of St. Thérèse was still relatively rustic — a sprawling expanse of farms, woods and fields. Today the town of Darien, Ill., is, like so much of suburbia, a large, busy subdivision punctuated by strip malls, eating places and convenience marts. Yet the plot of land on which the shrine sits — the former estate of a wealthy Chicagoan — maintains the feel of the pre-commercialized era. On 50 acres, surrounded by lake, meadow and woodland, sit a priory, retreat house, retirement home, museum, gift shop and chapel operated by a local community of St. Thérèse's order, the Carmelites.
The shrine moved to Darien after a fire destroyed the original home of the shrine at St. Clara's Parish in Chicago in 1975. The architecture, though decidedly modern, exudes an atmosphere of serenity and reverence. The museum claims to house the largest collection of Theresiana found outside of France, as well as a diverse collection of statues of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and an eclectic collection of antique and jeweled rosaries.
There are dozens of photographs and portraits of St. Thérèse, from her early childhood until just before her death at age 24. In the early photographs, especially, visitors are struck both by the physical beauty of the saint as well as a certain playful expression in her face.
Many objects associated with Thérèse's girlhood in Le Buissonnets in Lisieux are on display, including her prayerbook, dinner plate, toy tambourine, play tea set, and even a map of North America drawn by her at age 12. Of course, there are many relics of her days in the Carmel as well, including a piece of the gown she wore when she professed her first vows and a small wooden chair, seemingly built for a child's use. This is in fact the chair from her convent cell. On this she sat to write, under obedience, the diary which later came to be published as The Story of a Soul — and which was instrumental in her canonization and elevation to the status of Doctor of the Church.
One of the most striking relics in the museum is a simple note written, in a fine, flowing script, by the saint in 1897 to one of her novices, Sister Martha. Translated into English, it reads: “My Dear Little Sister, I suddenly realized that I have not wished you a happy birthday. Ah, be assured it is an oversight which wounds my heart … (signed) Your little twin, who wouldn't be able to sleep if she hadn't sent you this little note.”
Missionary Zeal
Though Thérèse herself never traveled to mission fields, her prayers for Catholic missionaries were so efficacious, both during and after her life, that she was declared patroness of all missions. In commemoration of this distinction, the museum includes a collection of statues of Our Lady of Mount Carmel from throughout the world. There are dozens of handmade statues from such places as Africa, Korea, the Philippines, England, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Peru, Mexico and the United States.
The heart and soul of the shrine is an austere chapel that invites contemplation. Stained glass windows line one of the longer walls, depicting the great lights of the Carmelite order: St. Simon Stock (who first preached devotion to the scapular), St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross (great mystics and reformers of the order), St. Edith Stein and Blessed Titus Brandsma (both of whom perished in Nazi concentration camps).
On the wall opposite the windows hangs a massive carving of lindenwood carved by the Demetz Studios in Ortisel, Italy; it is said to be the largest religious woodcarving in the United States. In the center of the carving stands the figure of St. Thérèse, who is sheltering people of every race and occupation in the folds of her habit and sending forth a shower of roses. On either side of this figure are depicted many of the important events in the saint's life, including her petitioning of Pope Leo XIII to be allowed to enter the Carmel, her writing, and her holy death. Beneath stands an old reliquary containing five first-class relics of St. Thérèse, including a particle of uncorrupted flesh and a small lock of her hair. This reliquary, flanked by two brass, candle-holding angels, was presented to the shrine in 1926 by Mother Agnes, prioress of the Carmel of Lisieux (and Thérèse's sister Pauline).
For Catholics, the chapel, with its veiled presence of our Lord in the tabernacle, is the true center of the National Shrine of St. Thérèse. But pilgrims will find other spots to pause and reflect on the mysteries of our faith as well.
Most memorable to this visitor was a painting hanging in a corner of the museum, easily overlooked by the casual observer, showing Thérèse at perhaps 7 or 8 years old. She is holding her father's hand as they walk back to their home one summer evening and pointing to the stars. One can meditate before the image — and in many other spots at the National Shrine of St. Thérèse — and consider who and what might have helped impart in the simple French girl a faith that would one day well up into glorious sainthood.
— Bob Horwath writes from Chicago.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Bob Horwath ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Rediscovering a Master DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:A recent exhibition in Rome celebrated the genius of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the 17th century Italian sculptor and architect whose work has earned him a prominent place in Catholic sacred art. And, for those who missed the occasion, a recent book on the same subject is so magnificent that a journey through its pages is almost as good as a visit to the Eternal City.
Bernini: Registra del Barocco ran until Sept. 16 in Rome's Palazzo Venezia, providing an essential excursion for any art aficionado who wants to understand the baroque period in general, and Bernini's influence on it within the city of Rome in particular.
The title of the exhibition is translated into English as Master of the Baroque, but the Italian word registra connotes something more than just mastery. It is the same word used for the director of a film (e.g., Francis Ford Coppola is the registra of The Godfather) and, applied to Bernini, it suggests that he was the principal creator of the baroque.
Some art historians may dispute the appropriateness of that moniker, but it cannot be denied that Bernini “directed” many of the images that make Rome famous — think of the fountain in the center of the Piazza Navona.
This is even more true for Christian Rome. Indeed, Bernini could be called the “director” of the mental pictures most Catholics have of Rome, due to his work on St. Peter's, including the baldachino over the main altar, the bronze cathedra and the “Holy Spirit” window at the back of St. Peter's. And then there is the immense colonnade that embraces St. Peter's Square.
First a Sculptor
Without Bernini's contributions, the millions of pilgrims headed to Rome next year for the Jubilee would be visiting a far different and far less impressive city.
Bernini lived from 1598 to 1680, the son of an accomplished sculptor, Pietro Bernini. Gian Lorenzo distinguished himself first as a sculptor, but quickly developed his skill also as an architect. While the exhibition focused on Bernini the sculptor, a recent book, Bernini and the Art of Architecture, by T.A. Mauder with photography by Joseph S. Martin (published by Abbeville Press in 1998), highlights his contributions as an architect; it also includes some spectacular images of his sculpture.
Among the 300 illustrations included in the book is The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, an altar-piece of St. Teresa of Avila that raised eyebrows when it was unveiled for its suggestiveness in depicting the nuptial union between the soul of the great mystic and Christ. Mauder also treats other famous sculptures that have become Roman landmarks, including The Four Rivers fountain that dominates the Piazza Navona, or the Triton fountain that is the centerpiece of the Piazza Barberini.
The largest part of Mauder's book, though, focuses on Bernini's architecture, as suggested by the spectacular dust-jacket photograph of the Scala Regia, the grand, but perfectly proportioned stairway that leads from the Vatican's Bronze Door toward the Sistine Chapel. Formerly used to receive Catholic monarchs visiting the Apostolic Palace in the days of horsedrawn carriages, it remains one of the most frequently overlooked masterpieces in the Vatican.
In addition to providing extraordinary photographs, Mauder also tells the stories behind the development of works such as the Scala Regia, the bridge of the Angels, and the colonnade in St. Peter's Square, giving modern readers an insight to the conflicts and collaborations that marked a time given to building grandiose projects for the glory of God — and for the honor of the men who built them.
Human Scale
The Bernini exhibition allowed visitors to see his works on a more human scale, as its centerpiece was a hall of marble busts showing the delicacy and boldness of Bernini's sculpture. It was no small achievement by the curator that he managed to collect pieces from the Hermitage in St. Peterburg, the Louvre, and a self-portrait on loan from the Uffizi in Florence.
A bust of Gregory XV from Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario represents a North American contribution to the exhibition, notable because it marks the first time that bust has been exhibited in Italy.
There were also other pieces exhibited for the first time, as incredible as that might seem, and other pieces, from churches, that ordinarily are difficult to see at close range.
The curator of the exhibition also deserves praise for presenting Bernini's life as a whole. Unlike some contemporary exhibitions of sacred art, which neglect the motivation behind the works, Registra del Barocco allowed Bernini's faith to speak for itself. His famous bust of the Damned Soul is presumed a self-portrait, illustrating that whatever conflicts his artistic genius may have provoked, Bernini was not without humility.
More moving still are the devotional drawings Bernini did at the end of his life expressing his trust in the redeeming power of the blood of Christ. These drawings, of a crucified Christ from which the blood flows down to create a sea of blood at the foot of the cross, offered to the Father by Mary, illustrate a simple Catholic piety. Bernini wanted his drawing to be rendered on a large canvas, and hung at the foot of his bed, so that he could gaze upon it during his last days.
An artistic and spiritual highlight of the exhibition was the bust of Salvator Mundi, the near life-size work that Bernini wanted to be his final masterpiece. Completed in 1678, this extraordinary portrayal of a strong and merciful Christ was exhibited for the first time. It is thought to portray Christ in the garden after the resurrection, telling Mary Magdalen not to touch him. What was previously thought to be the original, part of the Chrysler Museum collection in Norfolk, Va., turned out to be a copy. The true original was borrowed for this exhibition from the cathedral in Secs, Normandy.
Salvator Mundi shows that Bernini was still flourishing in his last years, and it represents something of his last testament to his Christian faith. He gave the sculpture to Queen Christina of Sweden, the first post-Reformation Protestant monarch to return to Catholicism. She fled to Rome after her conversion, and now lies buried in St. Peter's. She in turn gave the bust to Pope Innocent XI, returning to the Church a masterpiece of one of the Church's greatest “artistic directors.”
Correspondent Raymond de Souza writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: A book and an exhibit recall the genius of Bernini ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond J. De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Art & Culture -------- TITLE: Prizer's Video Picks DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:Central Station (1999)
Few movies succeed when they set out to combine relevant social News with a personal story that tugs at the heart strings. The Brazilian-made Central Station pulls it off with intelligence and flare by a skillful use of documentary-film techniques.
Dora (Fernanda Montenegro) writes letters for illiterates in Rio de Janeiro's central station through which pass 300,000 people each day. Cynical and misanthropic, she systematically abuses her clients' trust until she encounters the 7-year-old Josue (Vinicius de Oliveira), whose mother has just died. Against her better judgment, Dora agrees to help the boy find his absent father, who's rumored to be in a recently developed settlement out in the boondocks. On the journey the lives of both are changed as this unlikely pair makes contact with a network of Protestant converts and hooks up with a band of Catholic pilgrims on their way to a festival centering around the Virgin Mary.
Central Station is both a Latin American road movie and a psychological study of two people whose values are put to the test. Its main characters' personal odysseys dramatize the vast economic and cultural changes that capitalism brings to developing nations. Although the film isn't presented as a carefully thoughtout religious allegory, there are several significant plot twists which hint in that direction.
Going My Way (1944)
Believe it or not, in the 1940s Protestants used to complain that Hollywood was giving preferential treatment to Catholics, and Going My Way was usually cited as proof. This heartwarming, positive film won four Oscars — for best picture, best actor (Bing Crosby), best supporting actor (Barry Fitzgerald) and best song. Its humor and melodrama spring from the clash between the different ways two dedicated priests view their vocation.
Father Fitzgibbon (Fitzgerald) is a stern, patriarchal figure approaching retirement who reveres the Church's traditions. Father O'Malley (Crosby) is a kindly, youthful innovator who uses psychology and song to win converts. Both are obedient to the hierarchy, an orthodox understanding of the faith and a commitment to a life of service. The parish they share is in a poor section of town. Money is always short and crime appears attractive to their youthful charges.
The story is uncomplicated and sentimental, with an optimistic resolution — the old and the new work together to triumph over evil because everyone's intentions are pure. Yet beneath all the sweetness there's an important, and truthful, historical nugget: Back when the world was frequently hostile to ethnic Catholics in America, local parishes played a key moral and spiritual role in the lives of the faithful.
Wide Awake (1996)
For the past 20 years there's been a continual stream of movies (Heaven Help Us) and plays (Sister May Ignatius) which portray Catholic schools in a negative light. Set against this climate, Wide Awake, an early film by this summer's hot director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense), is a welcome relief. This poignant, often humorous story chronicles a young boy's temporary loss of faith and subsequent search for God, and it depicts parochial schools as well-run, emotionally nurturing institutions whose students get a first-class academic and moral education.
Josh Beal (Joseph Cross) has been raised in an affluent suburban Philadelphia household in which both parents work.
When his grandfather (Robert Loggia) dies from bone cancer, Josh seeks a sign that his former best friend has gone to heaven. Emulating the methods of the videogame and TV space commanders who are his role models, the 10-year-old embarks on “a mission” to find God.
During his quest, Josh learns to view his fellow students in a more charitable light. It's all presented as a normal part of growing up.
Catholic schools are shown to have a positive impact on kids' lives, as exemplified by the maverick Sister Terry (Rosie O'Donnell) who tries to instruct him in the faith.
Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Jane Austen's novels assume a strict code of values which seem as indestructible as the class systems and country homes which frequently mark their settings. Here a sudden reversal in fortune places the well-born Dashwood sisters, Elinor (Emma Thompson) and Marianne (Titanic's Kate Winslet), on the edge of genteel poverty. Finding the right husband becomes a matter of economic survival as well as an affair of the heart. Learning how to balance these two motives is the crux of their moral education and their path to emotional maturity.
Elinor is drawn to Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant), a cautious, reflective person like herself. But his ambitious family discourages the match. The more impulsive Marianne is swept off her feet by the dashing hunk Willoughby (Greg Wise), who jilts her for a wealthier woman. But as the two sisters suffer, the plot takes some surprising turns.
Emma Thompson's Oscar-winning screenplay promotes old-fashioned virtues like modesty and prudence and presents immediate gratification as the enemy of lasting love. As our culture continues to slide into moral anarchy, audiences are hungry for a vision of a world where ethical standards are held high even if not everyone can live up to them. Sense and Sensibility takes for granted its stable social order and honors the wise and virtuous heart.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Art & Culture -------- TITLE: Testing Acumen or Testing the Limits? DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:In an era of illiterate high school graduates and dismal math scores, some education reformers are pressing for more stringent testing of students. But not all are jumping the bandwagon.
Other voices are complaining that the standardized exams already in place, such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test, are “high stake, high stress” — and not without cause. The collective scores from such tests help determine not only students' placement in colleges, but also teachers' pay and state involvement.
In the current debate, as Newsweek recently reported, politicians and parents tend to support stricter testing as an objective measure that plays well at the polls. Opponents call it an easy way out, and many educators are concerned about student stress, burnout, and neglect of classroom education in favor of test preparation.
Last February, recognizing the expectations from their community to score well in a state standardized test, 18 students at Whitney Young High School in Chicago deliberately failed and sent a letter to the principal. “We refuse to feed into this test-taking frenzy,” they wrote.
Emily Rocque, a learning specialist at The Catholic University of America's counseling center, thinks the situation has gotten out of hand and that too many students are too stressed. “You can test until the cows come home, but some very bright students just don't test well,” she said.
Rocque has a private practice coaching students to test well. “You can learn to play the game,” she said. “Obviously, thinking faculties, being well-read, being a good student, and so on, makes a big difference, but the ordinary student can increase her score by knowing the gimmicks of test-taking, such as the strategy of eliminating certain choices on multiple-choice exams.”
But Thomas Susanka, admissions director at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, Calif., looks favorably on tests such as the SAT and ACT, or American College Test, in spite of their attendant stress.
“These tests help us work with the students,” he said. This small, Catholic liberal-arts college uses no textbooks but concentrates on the great books of Western civilization. “Students who do well on these tests do well in our program,” added Susanka. “The SAT is a fairly accurate measure of developed native intelligence and quickness of mind.”
While the debate rages, so does the testing. And, whether academic standards today are too demanding, too lenient or just about right, there are things parents and students can do to reduce test-taking anxiety.
According to psychologist John Parkhurst, director of the counseling center at Catholic University, special care should be taken so that test anxiety doesn't grow into debilitating fear, especially with students who have had negative experiences with exams in the past.
Despite the end-of-the-world feelings that panicked students often experience, test anxiety isn't a catastrophe, he assured students who come to the Academic Tutoring & Learning Assistance Service at the university.
“Anxiety and fear are closely related,” Parkhurst noted. “People can start to avoid feared situations and so temporarily relieve their anxiety. But they build up in their head a little more how bad it's going to be. The therapy for most anxieties is to help the person push through the anxiety and experience the reward of having succeeded in the task.
“We can learn how to learn. We know certain things about how the brain works and how to absorb and retrieve information more efficiently.”
Based on what he's seen work with students and on cognitive psychology, Parkhurst offered these recommendations:
Prepare effectively. Students in elementary and middle schools can be coached to quiz themselves on the study material. This rehearsal works on the same principle as riding a bike. You might be shaky at first, but the second or third time, you're likely be more sure of yourself. Older children and college students would do well to study in the same room where the test will be taken.
“Students pick up clues subliminally,” explained Parkhurst. “If you heard a story in one place, the next time you're in that place, you might remember that story. A student might remember a teacher's example. This is a state-dependent type of learning, partly dependent on environment.”
Use positive thinking. “Saying things such as ‘I'll never get this’ or ‘I hate math’ hinders both learning and test-taking,” said Parkhurst. “That's catastrophizing. We can get into the habit of thinking this way automatically. A student doesn't know the answer to a question and he thinks, ‘Not only am I going to miss this question, but I'm going to fail the test, too. Then I'll fail this course, won't get my degree, and I'll end up homeless and a shame to my parents.’ Every time I run through this scenario with a student who is suffering test anxiety, they identify with it.
“They're having an emotional reaction to being homeless. It's catastrophic thinking and emotional reasoning. They've got to pull back into rational reality. But for students who may have gotten a bad grade and felt ashamed, there is a tendency to negative distortion. Just as a person learns to think negatively, he can learn how to think positively. Negative thinking must be counteracted by an act of will. We can choose what kind of thinking to participate in.”
Accept imperfection. In most cases, 90% is still an “A.” In terms of anxiety, the extra effort to reach perfection may not be worth it. “Oftentimes a student can almost double her efforts to increase performance within a percentage range that's not going to matter,” said Parkhurst. “And you've got to ask, why? There's a point of diminishing returns. Perfection is an infinite concept. I've got clients who can be the highest achievers you've ever seen, yet they always feel that they're not good enough. They can't define what is ‘good enough.’ That pressure comes from societal values, parental values, messages from all sorts of things — the message that you're not good enough and that you've got to keep trying harder without ever saying how much harder is enough.”
Put a positive spin on the worst possible scenarios. “Missing a couple of answers might lower a grade, but it's still a passing grade,” Parkhurst observed. “Even flunking a class is not the end of the world. Classes can be retaken. Grades can be brought up. The psychological point is that when a student starts to focus on the worst-case scenario, then they start to react to it emotionally. Really, there's very little in life that we can't change or adjust. No situation is without a fix, to some degree. Our maximum expectations might not be met, but there are still alternatives available.
There's still hope. That type of thinking lessens the pressure. Test anxiety is understandable, but it's not necessary. A little bit of anxiety, however, can serve as a good motivator. There's a word in the English language for the opposite of distress or negative stress. It's ‘eustress’ or good stress.”
Una McManus writes from Columbia, Maryland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Una McManus ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Education Notebook DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:“The first outside authority to which she regularly defers is the federal government, incarnate in the departments of State, Justice, Education, Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Labor, and Veterans Affairs; also the Equal Opportunity Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Patent Office, the National Science Foundation, the National Endowments for the Humanities and for the Arts, the National Institutes for Health and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
“Washington forbids her to ask the race of applicants, but requires her to report the racial breakdown of her personnel and students; makes it worth her while to include in every employment notice the assurance that she is an equal opportunity employer; forbids her to save the trees on her campus by spraying DDT; determines and inspects the housing for her laboratory animals (which therefore cost roughly twice a much per square foot as faculty office space); requires protection of all human subjects of any funded research, subject to elaborate guidelines and reporting; requires a minimum number of credit hours to be taken by students receiving tuition grants or guaranteed loans; and regulates the emissions from the power plant …,” the Crisis article said.
Weigel quotes Father Burchtaell further to the same effect, then asks “Is the only ‘entanglement’ a Catholic university must avoid an ‘entanglement’ with the local church, in the person of its bishop? Why should he be thought a peculiar plague-bearer?”
University Faculties are Aging
The information was based on a survey conducted at 378 colleges and universities by the higher Education Research Institute. Explained the Journal, “the general population is aging, and under a 1994 federal law, colleges are banned form setting a mandatory retirement age for the faculty.”
The same survey, reported the Journal, “also found that older professors were stressed more by information technology.” The Journal cites Linda J. Sax, associate director of the Higher Education Research Institute, as saying that “the finding was significant because today's students are accustomed to using technology in instruction and research.”
But law Professor Robert P. Mosteller, chairman of Duke University's academic council warned about drawing rash conclusion from the study. “The key is that people need to stay as long as they are doing work that is good. So age is only a rough proxy,” the Journal quoted Mosteller as saying.
A related story carried by the Associated Press reported that even students are finding the dependence on computer technology burdensome. The University of Florida, for example, provides counseling for students who suffer from computer anxiety, the Associated Press reported.
Binge Drinking Gets a New Face
“Binge drinking on campus has had its share of publicity in recent years, after incidents like the death of a freshman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and drunken riots near Penn State last year,” the article said. “The advertisement, framed as a promotion for a mock brew called Binge Beer, alludes to such accidents: ‘Who says falling off a balcony is such a bad thing? And what's an occasional riot? Or even a little assault between friends?’”
The article goes on to highlight some of the different tactics taken by schools in the fight against binge drinking. Some, like the University of Arizona, have tried to convince students that binge drinking is not that common on campus after all, the Times reported.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: 4 Charged in Death of Unborn Child DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:LITTLE ROCK, Ark.—Three young men hired by a pregnant woman's boyfriend kicked her in the stomach and killed her unborn baby, prosecutors charged Sept. 2, as they brought murder charges in the first test of Arkansas' new Fetal Protection Law.
The measure, which became law in August, makes it a crime to injure an unborn child more than 12 weeks old and has a similar purpose as the Unborn Victims of Violence Act currently being considered by Congress. Without the law, prosecutors would have had to limit the charges to crimes against the pregnant woman, who was badly beaten.
Shawana Pace, who was due to give birth any day, said she pleaded for the baby's life as she was kicked, choked and beaten on Aug. 26. She said one of the attackers told her, “Your baby is dying tonight.”
Pace, 23, saw her dead child and named the girl Heaven. “She was a perfect baby, almost 7 pounds. It was like she was just sleeping,” she said in her hospital room, where she was recovering from surgery to remove her spleen. She also suffered a broken left wrist, black eye and bruised face.
The law's proponent, state Rep. Jim Hendren, said it is intended for “just such a situation, where a woman who was planning to have a baby was deprived of that by some criminal action. Hopefully, it will be a deterrent to other people who perhaps will show a little bit more care and concern for pregnant women.”
In a Sept. 8 letter to U.S. House Judiciary Committee members, Gail Quinn, executive director of the Catholic Bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, urged support of the federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act.
Quinn recalled that witnesses before the Subcommittee on the Constitution recounted in moving testimony how unborn children have been injured or killed during the commission of a federal crime against the mother. Yet such injuries or deaths have gone unpunished. “This makes no moral or legal sense,” she said.
Pace, a junior studying psychology at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, told police she believed the attack was set up by her boyfriend, Erik Bullock, 29. Testimony from the attackers corroborated this theory.
Bullock and the three youths were charged with capital murder, which carries a sentence of life in prison or the death penalty. Arkansas is one of 26 states that, either through state laws or court precedents, allow prosecutors to bring charges in the death of an unborn child.
“If we didn't have this statute at this time, we would be questioning whether or not the fetus is a person,” prosecutor Melody Piazza said.
“It's unfortunate that we have to have laws like this, but in a situation like this it would be a lot worse if we didn't have a law,” Rep. Hendren said.
Arkansas Right to Life, which was the moving force behind the new law, also voiced its concerns about the case. “We are appalled at the callous and blatant disregard for human life that the four individuals displayed as they carried out this alleged murder for hire,” said Rose Mimms, the group's executive director.
Thirty-eight states currently recognize the humanity and legal status of unborn children outside the abortion context.
“It is disappointing that some claim [the federal bill] should nonetheless be defeated to preserve a ‘right’ to abortion,” Quinn said. “Even many abortion proponents have conceded that abortion takes a human life, while demanding that the practice be preserved to protect a woman's ‘right to choose.’ This bill, however, offers an opportunity to protect the unborn child in a way that clearly serves the freedom and well-being of his or her mother, by protecting both parties from violent assault and murder. To oppose such much-needed legislation, simply because it acknowledges a truth about unborn life that almost everyone already knows anyway, would be a terrible injustice.”
Quinn, while not commenting on the Arkansas case, urged that the U.S. House consider all victims of crime, whether born or unborn.
“The Unborn Victims of Violence Act will enable the federal government to recognize that when a pregnant woman is assaulted or killed within its jurisdiction, and her unborn child is harmed or killed as a result, the crime has two victims — the woman and her child,” Quinn stated.
----- EXCERPT: Arkansas case draws renewed attention to proposed federal ban ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Caverlys Ride to Rescue of Relationships DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:BALLSTON LAKE, N.Y.—Jim Caverly helps the grieving fathers of slain police officers keep from killing themselves in anger.
Jeanne Caverly reassures the bereaved mothers they're not going crazy when they find themselves screaming, cursing God and pounding their fists.
Together, Jim and Jeanne are embarked on an unusual ministry: preserving marriages among the parents of police officers killed in the line of duty. It's a ministry they've developed thanks to their Catholic faith, their mutual interest in teaching and Jim's decades of experience as an FBI agent.
Approximately 150 law enforcement officers die in the line of duty each year, according to Concerns of Police Survivors, or COPS, a national nonprofit agency. Parents of slain children run a high risk of divorcing. A marriage that was fragile before can be shattered after a child's death, especially if the death occurs amid the violent circumstances associated with police work.
But rescuing marriages at risk comes naturally to the husband and wife team from Ballston Lake, N.Y. And the Caverlys' services are in demand around the country.
“They're wonderful people,” said Suzie Sawyer, executive director of COPS in Camdenton, Mo. “They do good things for police survivors.”
For example, Jim met the Rev. Ray Payne in Washington, D.C., about 10 years ago during the annual observance of National Police Week. Payne's only son, David, had just been honored after being killed in the line of duty. Payne, a Protestant pastor, took the death very hard. Payne found himself questioning the existence of the God. He became suicidal, tempted to let his car run off the road at the next curve along the interstate.
Soon after they met, Jim found himself responsible for organizing an FBI-led training session for law enforcement personnel in Burlington, Vt. The goal was to teach officers how to manage stress following a “critical incident” like a bombing or shooting. Caverly invited Payne, who lives nearby in Schroon Lake, N.Y., to appear as a special guest. Payne's job was to provide the perspective of a man who'd lost his son to police work.
Payne jumped at the chance. The opportunity to tell the story of his son's sacrifice in front of an appreciative audience proved deeply therapeutic. “To see all those police officers there,” Payne said, “to see the way they received it, was just mind-boggling.”
Jim's prior service with the FBI gives him special credibility with grieving men. He can persuade even the toughest tough guy that crying is OK, even if it's only in the shower.
“He comes highly recommended,” Sawyer said. “He's very highly respected.”
Jeanne is a big asset, too. Last September Sawyer rented two houseboats for a cruise along the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. Guests of honor were women who had lost husbands and sons. Ostensibly the goal of the cruise was to let the women relax by sunbathing, fishing and splashing down the slide attached to the boats. But Sawyer's real agenda was to give her guests a safe place to grieve.
Sawyer asked Jeanne to come along because she'd seen her fit in so well among grieving women in the past. Sure enough, when one of the women began screaming profanities and slamming her fist on a table, Jeanne behaved as if she witnessed that type of behavior every day.
“She was just one of the group,” Sawyer said. “She's very accepting.”
Jim and Jeanne know what they do isn't easy. “Anybody who loses a child is in dire straits as far as making it through their marriage,” said Jeanne.
“Especially if it's a traumatic death, sudden, unexpected or unfair,” added Jim.
Taking It Out on a Spouse
Often the parents' grief spills over and poisons their marriage, threatening to compound the loss. When an officer has been killed by a criminal, parents are so angry, it's common for hostility to be directed against the nearest living thing, which unfortunately may be an innocent spouse. If one partner chooses to visit the grave and the other doesn't, it's easy for one to accuse the other of not caring. Sooner or later, one member of the couple may decide it's time to feel better. If the other isn't ready, this can add more emotional distance between spouses.
So the Caverlys respond with a kind of emotional first aid Jim learned how to use in the FBI. The treatment is easy to remember because it contains three rhyming steps: ventilate, validate and educate. First the Caverlys allow the grieving person to let their feelings out. That's the ventilate part. Next they reassure the griever that this response is normal for people who have suffered such a loss. That's called validating. Lastly they teach the grieving person what kinds of emotional responses to expect from themselves in the future. People educated in this way feel comforted and fortified.
For the Caverlys, to be serving God by teaching together should come as no surprise, since both hold master's degrees in education from East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania. Both devoted much of their early careers to teaching.
Jim, 56, specialized in stress management toward the end of his 33-year career in law enforcement. His trainees included relatives of passengers killed aboard TWA Flight 800 and survivors of bombings in Oklahoma City and the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Jeanne, 52, fit her educational work around making a home and raising three children. She taught short-term courses in substance abuse prevention, marriage enrichment and stress management. She has also substituted frequently for sick teachers in local grade schools. When her children were young she taught religious education at Our Lady of Grace in Ballston Lake.
To keep up with research in their field, the Caverlys belong to the Coalition on Marriage, Family and Couples Education. The coalition sponsors an annual conference in Washington, which the Caverlys attended two out of the last three years.
During last July's conference at the posh Crystal Gateway Marriott, which they attended, experts from around the world were presenting the results of their research. Some of the research made headlines in USA Today, The Washington Post and other national news media.
Jeanne Caverly even had a role to play during one of the breakout sessions. She was asked to serve as moderator of a panel discussion entitled “Marriage Education and the Internet.” Jeanne had the good fortune to appear alongside big names in the marriage therapy industry including Michele Weiner-Davis, author of the book Divorce Busting, and Shirley Glass, host of a chat room on America Online.
Jim was free to listen to speakers, wander among workshops and browse exhibit booths.
“I get excited about taking back from this conference useful information that will be valuable to other people,” he said.
Web Site Savvy
When they're not traveling, Jim and Jeanne are running the business Jeanne started in their home two years ago. They publish a Web site dedicated to helping people achieve quality relationships at work and at home. They also use the Web site to sell Jeanne's new book, Notes and Quotes to Love By, and publish Two-Part Harmony, her monthly newsletter for couples.
Jim and Jeanne were not always bubbling over with love and compassion for the human race. In fact, there was a time not so long ago when they could hardly stand each other.
They met on a blind date and were married in 1972. Nineteen years later, their relationship hit rock bottom. They both looked at each other and asked, “Is this all there is?” Jeanne describes herself then as “miserable.” Jim recalls sleepless nights fighting back intrusive thoughts about what life would be like after they divorced.
Determined to save their marriage, they reached out to a Catholic program called Retrouvaille. The program began in Canada and takes its name from the French for “found again.” The format is similar to the Marriage Encounter weekend familiar to many Catholics, but more intense.
Encouraged, the Caverlys undertook a major marital overhaul, devouring self-help books and articles, then discussing their new insights. Jeanne volunteered to coordinate Retrouvaille locally for five years. “Retrouvaille was a springboard for a lot of things that made Jeannie and I better as a couple,” Jim said.
By working to preserve marriages, the Caverlys are a small part of a much larger effort. The need for action became clear in July when the Washington Post reported the findings of a Rutgers University study released during the conference. The study revealed that the U.S. marriage rate has declined 43% since 1960 and is now at an all-time low. The study also showed that young women are increasingly pessimistic about their chances for success at achieving a happy married life, so they are trying alternatives like unwed motherhood and single parenting. Not surprisingly, the study also revealed an 800% increase since 1970 in the number of cohabiting couples with children.
Pro-Marriage Forces
These changes have caused promarriage forces to shift into high gear. State lawmakers are passing a growing number of laws aimed at revitalizing marriage. Oklahoma, Florida and Minnesota are offering discount marriage licenses for couples who take a premarital training course. Louisiana and Arizona have passed “covenant marriage” laws in which couples hold themselves to stricter vows. Similar bills have been introduced in 23 other states in the last three years.
In September 1998, the governor and first lady of Utah announced that state's first commission on marriage. The nine-member panel brings together a pastor, a social worker, a journalist, a counselor, several educators and a judge. Together they represent at least three religious traditions: Roman Catholics, United Methodists and the Mormons.
In January, the governor of Oklahoma announced he wants to lower that state's divorce rate by onethird by 2010. In March, the governor and his wife invited 200 leading citizens to attend the first-ever “marriage summit” at the governor's mansion, brainstorming ways to cut the rate, second-highest in the nation.
With all the action taking place nationally, it's no overstatement to call the Caverlys front-line troops in the campaign to preserve marriage in America. They're like the cavalry of old who rode to the rescue when the fighting reached a fever pitch.
Only they ride a motorcycle, not a horse. When Jim retired from the FBI this year they splurged on a new BMW touring machine.
Now they plan to spend even more time crisscrossing the country, showing up wherever they're needed. Where a marriage is collapsing, good advice could be: Send in the Caverlys.
Don Harting writes from Liverpool, New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Don Harting ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: A Crisis Pregnancy Center On the Prairie DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:MORRIS, Minn.—The majority of crisis pregnancy centers are located in populous, urban settings. So, finding a small, two-room office located on the prairies of western Minnesota might first seem a surprise.
Don't let the size fool you.
Morris, Minn., population 5,000, sits on the state's western edge, in Stevens County, 180 miles northwest of the Twin Cities, and just 30 miles from the South Dakota border. It's the largest town in a 50-mile radius. Home to a University of Minnesota campus, it has a student population of about 2,000.
The Morris Life Care Pregnancy Center, established in 1997, serves the town as well as six communities in four surrounding counties. The center's mission is to minister, free of charge, to the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of pregnant women, their families and friends, as well as those suffering the repercussions of abortion.
“We exist to offer ‘real’ choices for women in crisis pregnancies and those considering abortion,” according to center director Patty Borman. “We encourage women to choose life and we bear witness to the community.”
The center serves any woman in need by providing counseling, mediation, pregnancy and birth education, educational materials, health care and social service referrals, financial planning, relationship counseling, housing referrals, baby care items such as cribs and clothing, and follow-up care.
“When a woman comes in, my goal is to determine her greatest needs, worries and concerns,” Borman explained. “During that first interview we identify those needs and then work to meet them.”
Care and support doesn't end when the baby is born. The center also does as much follow-up care as the mother requires. “We have one mother, with a 1-year-old child, who still comes in to talk and pick up diapers,” said Mary Odegaard, a pregnancy counselor. “We try to be what the extended family used to be.”
There's a tendency for some to think that crisis pregnancies don't happen in rural areas. Borman has the statistics to prove otherwise.
During the center's first year of operation, it served 67 women from four different states. Half of the clients have been non-college students.
“That surprised us,” Borman said. “One in eight of the women were married.” In addition, the center played a part in saving 11 babies over that same time period.
An additional 23 babies, who were not in danger of abortion, were born to women served during that time. Of the babies born, one was placed for adoption; the other mothers have chosen to keep and raise their children. “Clearly, our work translates into lives,” said Borman.
There are approximately 60 crisis pregnancy centers in the state. The Morris center is one of 22 Total Life Care Centers in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Total Life Care Center is based in the Twin Cities and supports regional offices by offering practical assistance, counselor training, shared resources, liability insurance, and limited financial support.
“It is through TLC that we learn to do what we do,” Odegaard said.
The center requires about $1,500 per month to operate. So far it has received considerable support from the community. Fifty-four local businesses took part in the center's Walk for Life fund-raiser last year, and helped to raise $2,600 for the center.
The center is also unusual in that it receives a great deal of ecumenical support across the community. At least seven churches, Protestant and Catholic, in the Morris and surrounding area support the center financially. Various church groups help by fund raising or sorting baby items.
In addition to donations from churches, about 50 to 60 individual donors financially support the work of the center. Borman is the center's only paid employee. She works 20 hours per week, often answering phones at odd hours at home. She was raised on a farm near Buffalo Lake, Minn., and she and her husband, Tim, have three teenage children of their own. The center is volunteer-run with the help of more than 15 volunteers and seven active counselors.
Many Stories to Tell
The center has many stories to tell. Odegaard related one.
“One college senior, after discovering she was pregnant, went to the university health care center,” she said. “Her doctor suggested that her only ‘wise choice’ was to abort the baby. Thankfully, she sought a second opinion and was referred to us. We offered her an alternative, and two weeks before graduation she gave birth. We were not only able to provide emotional support, but we provided child care so that she could take her finals and graduate with a degree.”
A thank-you note, from another mother, exemplifies the center's work.
“I want to thank you,” wrote the woman, “ … first for the cookies and the photo album and the visit at the hospital.
Next I want to say thanks for all you've done and for all the times you've ‘just been there.’
“I was so scared about becoming a mom and being in a strange town. It would've been so hard without having the center to help out with baby sitters, diapers, the medical book, and just plain support! “You'll be forever remembered, for helping me and my son get off to a good start. Words can't hardly say thanks enough for all you've done!”
Added Odegaard, “That mother recently went through counselor training so that she can help others who come to the center.”
Said Borman, “I believe it's important to offer women a real choice so that they can make a courageous decision. At universities, in particular, there is enormous pressure for women to abort their baby. Virtually no one is supporting her to have the baby. When given support, the vast majority of women will choose life,” explained Borman.
“We're filling a need,” she continued. “The Salvation Army, Stevens Traverse Public Health and Stevens County Social Services have each sent us people who have needed help.”
In fact, the center expected its numbers to be down during the summer because of the lack of university students. Surprisingly, Borman noted, the appointments were more sporadic yet the counselors ended up seeing more people from surrounding communities.
“The word is out that we take care of women and their children,” she said.
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
***
The Morris Life Care Pregnancy Center can be reached at (320) 589-0300 or (800) 285-0712.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Gospel Of Life DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:Pope John Paul II offered the Blessed Virgin Mary as a pre-eminent example for mothers who must bear children in hardship (see article by Tim Drake, this page). In his Sept. 9, 1985, angelus message, he said:
On this feast of the Birth of Our Lady I call upon you to give special recognition to the complete human dignity of the child developing in the womb and to treat the mother-to-be with respect and esteem, with love and sensitivity. Say yes to human life in all its stages. Understandably, you do your utmost to conserve the environment, the plants and animals. Therefore, he even more decisive in saying yes to human life which in the order of things stands far above all created realities of the visible world. Save the unborn man from the threat of born man, who presumes to destroy and kill the child in the mother's womb.
At the same time, the great joy we as believers feel and celebrate today in the Birth of God's Mother places heavy demands upon us all: fundamentally we should be joyful when a child comes into being in a mother's womb and when it enters the world. Even if the birth of a child sometimes causes hardship, sacrifices, restrictions and burdens, the baby should always be accepted and feel safe in the love of its parents. In difficult situations, the responsible and above all the believing person will — with the help of others — usually be able to find a solution befitting a human being.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:Conscience Clause Left Out of Calif. Bill
CALIFORNIA CATHOLIC CONFERENCE, Sept. 13—Two bills that would require all insurance plans in the state of California to offer contraceptive coverage, without exceptions for Catholic health institutions, is before the California Senate. The bill's sponsors have rejected a version that would allow a conscience clause for Catholic institutions. The bill was scheduled to be be debated before Sept. 17 in the opposite house. An amendment containing a respectful conscience clause will be offered in the Senate before the final vote is taken.
Bishop Participates in Prayer Vigil
PRO-LIFE ACTION LEAGUE, Sept. 9—The Most Rev. Raymond E. Goedart, vicar general for the Archdiocese of Chicago, will be the main celebrant at a pro-life Mass on Sept. 25, at St. Joseph's Church in Chicago.
After the Mass, Bishop Goedart will join the congregation in a prayer vigil at a Planned Parenthood abortion facility nearby. The Mass and prayer vigil follow a method of prayer and compassion for mothers and their unborn babies developed by Msgr. Philip J. Reilly of Brooklyn, N.Y., executive director of the group “Helpers of God's Precious Infants,” which organized the Chicago event.
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago led a similar event in his diocese in June, drawing a crowd of some 1,000 worshippers. Since 1989, fifty bishops and four cardinals have participated in Helpers' Prayer Vigils at abortion clinics in their respective dioceses and archdioceses throughout the country, according to a press release issued by the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League.
Bill Gates to Hear From Pro-Lifers
AMERICAN LIFE LEAGUE, Sept. 18—The Washington-based pro-life organization American Life League is beginning a campaign to convince Bill Gates, the world's richest man, to stop donating money to population control groups.
The initial thrust of the campaign is an effort to obtain a personal meeting between Gates and Judie Brown, the president of American Life League, said the organization.
Brown has said that she thinks Gates has “the best of intentions,” but that he is being “misled in his philanthropic activities.” Brown intends to place ads in the East Side Journal, a Seattle newspaper, to reach Gates through the media if she can't get a personal appointment. In the ads, Brown hopes to convey to Gates that the world's population problem is one of too few children, not too many, a statement issued by the American Life League said.
The Sept. 12 New York Times featured a front page story on the William and Melinda Gates Foundation, which, with over $17 billion to give away, is the largest charitable trust in the World.
Brown might want to go through the elder Gates, however, if she wants a hearing. According to the Times article, Gates has handed control of his philanthropic work over to his father, Bill Gates Sr., because he's too busy to handle it.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 09/19/1999 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 19-25, 1999 ----- BODY:Russia is experiencing an abortion epidemic — with dire consequences for the future of the country's population.
“Doctors estimate that one of five Russian married couples is incapable of bearing a child,” says minister of health Tatiana Stutolova.
Many women are infertile or miscarry because of past venereal disease and abortions. Abortion is still the most common means of birth prevention in Russia. According to Stutolova, two of every three women have health problems from past abortions. Russian women often have six, seven or more abortions in their lifetimes. One woman she mentioned has aborted 18 babies.
— Human Life International newsletter, Summer 1999
----- EXCERPT: Did You Know? ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Pope Travels in Jesus' Footsteps DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:MADABA, Jordan — Standing on the mountain where Moses glimpsed the Promised Land, Pope John Paul II prayed that peace and justice would come to the modern peoples of the troubled region.
His face lit by the afternoon sun on the heights of Jordan's Mount Nebo, the Pope looked out upon a dramatic biblical landscape stretching from the Dead Sea to Galilee.
“Our gaze directed to Jerusalem, let us lift up our prayer to almighty God for all the peoples living in the lands of the promise: Jews, Muslims and Christians,” the Pope said.
“They share the same place of blessing, where the history of salvation has left an indelible trace. ... Bestow upon all who live here the gift of a true peace, justice and fraternity.”
The ruins of a sixth-century church that commemorates the place of Moses’ death provided a setting for the Pope's stop, about 25 miles southwest of Amman and a few miles from the hill city of Madaba, where thousands of residents cheered as his motorcade passed.
It was the first day of a weeklong visit to holy places in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories where Christ first announced the Gospel. The Pope began his Jubilee pilgrimage in prayer at the Vatican Feb. 23, since he was unable to visit Iraq, then continued his journey in Egypt, where he visited Mount Sinai and evoked the start of Moses’ mission.
Before stepping out onto a Mount Nebo platform March 20 to take in the panorama facing Jerusalem, the Holy Father said he wanted to turn the focus of his pilgrimage toward Christ: “To him I dedicate every step of this journey I am making to this land, which was his land.”
Airport Greeting
He traveled by car to the biblical mountain plateau shortly after arriving at Amman's Queen Alia Airport, where he appealed for regional peace and interreligious cooperation.
After kissing a bowl of earth, he was warmly welcomed by Jordan's 38-year-old King Abdullah, who called the 79-year-old Vicar of Christ “a symbol of all that is pure and noble in this life.”
The Pope, seated at a wooden table inside a temporary pavilion on the tarmac, encouraged the king's efforts to promote tolerance and reconciliation in the Middle East.
“Your Majesty, I know how deeply concerned you are for peace in your own land and in the entire region and how important it is for you that all Jordanians — Muslims and Christians — should consider themselves as one people and one family,” the Pope said.
He alluded to a 50-year-old problem in Jordan and throughout the region: the great number of Palestinians forced to leave their homes by past wars.
“In this area of the world there are grave and urgent issues of justice, of the rights of peoples and nations, which have to be resolved for the good of all concerned and as a condition for lasting peace,” John Paul insisted. “No matter how difficult, no matter how long, the process of seeking peace must continue.”
His Tiny Flock
The Pope had words of encouragement for his tiny flock of 71,000 Catholics in Jordan, who represent just more than 1% of the population. He said the Church's attitude of cooperation is embodied in its 85 schools and charitable institutions, open to Muslims and Christians alike.
“The three monotheistic religions count peace, goodness and respect for the human person among their highest values,” he noted. “I earnestly hope that my visit will strengthen the already fruitful Catholic-Muslim dialogue” in Jordan.
The Holy Father praised the tradition of religious freedom in predominantly Muslim Jordan, which has largely been protected by the country's Hashemite rulers. He met privately with King Abdullah later in the evening to discuss interreligious dialogue and prospects for Middle East peace.
In his airport speech, the king said the Pope had already brought a light of hope by visiting the region and had served the cause of peace by reminding people of “the virtues of faith and the absolute need for forgiveness of one's enemies.”
Three doves symbolizing peace were released in front of the Pope after he stepped off his airplane, which was escorted into Jordanian airspace by three fighter planes. Security around the papal motorcade route was heavy, and soldiers stood sentry in the bushes around the Mount Nebo church grounds.
A Blessing
“I think we're blessed to have the opportunity to see his Holiness, especially in the Holy Land,” Carmelite Brother Alberto told the Register following Mass March 18 at the Notre Dame chapel in Jerusalem.
He was hoping to get a chance to do just that during the Pope's scheduled visit to Notre Dame where he was expected to engage in religious dialogue with Jewish and Muslim leaders. “It would be very exciting to be in the same room with him,” Brother Alberto said. “The Holy Father's visit is, for me, very important. It gives impetus to our work and to our ministry.”
Like several other institutions hosting the Pope, Notre Dame curtailed its regular activities during the papal visit to ensure the tightest possible security and the free flow of traffic. Warned of huge snarl-ups, many kept their cars at home, especially Jerusalemites.
Some 18,000 Israeli police and 4,000 soldiers were assigned to “Operation Old Friend,” the name Israel's security establishment used for the visit. An unspecified number of Palestinian personnel kept the peace in the area of Bethlehem.
Most Israelis welcomed the visit. According to a Gallup poll commissioned by the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel just before John Paul's arrival, 60% of Israelis viewed his coming “positively.” More than half of those polled, 55%, expressed interest in engaging in inter-religious dialogue with Christians.
Pro-Jewish Pope
Realizing that many Israelis view the Catholic Church as historically antiSemitic, the Anti-Defamation League ran a two-page ad in all major Israeli newspapers enumerating Pope John Paul's many pro-Israel and pro-Jewish statements and actions.
“It's important that the people of Israel know the Pope's views on Judaism, Israel and the Shoah [Holocaust],” League spokeswoman Laura Kamm told the Register. “There is a significant amount of negativity toward the Catholic Church and Christianity in general due to historical events, most recently the Holocaust and the Church's perceived role in it. We believe this Pope to have a very special and forward-looking relationship to Jews and Israel.”
While the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish organizations welcomed the Pope's plea, made March 12, for forgiveness for past wrongs committed by individual Catholics, Israel's chief rabbi expressed disappointment that the Pope did not specifically refer to the Holocaust, or the Church's role — as an institution — in the tragedy.
Many historians dispute whether the Church could have done more to save the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis. Numerous priests and lay people were killed by the Nazis, who viewed the Church as an enemy.
Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, who spent his early childhood in the Auschwitz concentration camp and lost his parents during the Holocaust, told Reuters, “This forgiveness itself is an accomplishment. For the first time a Pope comes and says ‘I confess.’ He is confessing about crimes of very many members of the Church who made sins against the Jewish people.”
Michele Chabin writes from Jerusalem. (CNS contributed to this report.)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michele Chabin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: After the Bombs DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:KAUDA, Sudan — It was the sound of the fluttering pages that first drew my attention to the exercise book at my feet.
Under normal circumstances, the weathered pages with a child's scribbles might have gone unnoticed altogether. But only weeks before, more than a dozen young lives were snuffed out here in a hail of shrapnel. In the tense silence that still reigns over this primary school in the war-torn Nuba Mountains of central Sudan, one hears the smallest of sounds.
A dirty notebook, without cover, wedged between bricks, its pages webbed with penciled exercises in English grammar and math — smeared, here and there, with dried blood. It had blown here, probably, from the school-yard. The last dated page, Feb. 8, 2000, had a math problem scrawled across the top, then blotches of brown stain marking the exact moment when this Catholic bush school of 230 pupils found itself the target of a Sudanese air force bombing raid.
“It came without warning at 9 o'clock in the morning,” headmaster Baruch Kume told the Register in a March 2 interview in Kauda. Shells were already raining down on the schoolyard when the headmaster shouted to students to fall to the ground. Shrapnel whizzed in every direction. Within seconds, the yard was a scene of carnage.
Five “barrel” bombs had been unleashed from the belly of a low-flying Russian-made Antonov MU2, the Sudanese air force's weapon of choice in its decade-long war of terror against “insurgent” populations like the Nuba which resist Khartoum's campaign to impose its will, along with an extremist brand of Islamic ideology, on Sudan's 300 tribes and especially on its fast-growing Christian minority.
“People were already tense,” said headmaster Kume. A July 17 bombing raid in this area held by insurgent forces allied with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement which has been battling the country's northern Arab establishment for nearly two decades, resulted in the deaths of eight Kauda youngsters tilling fields. Locals described aerial reconnaissance missions over Kauda only three days before the school bombings.
Target Was Planned
Medical personnel reported seeing helicopter gunships in the vicinity Feb. 5, three days before the school attack.
“They dropped bombs not 15 minutes from the school the Saturday before,” said Kume. “They had to see the children running into the bush.
They knew where to strike next.”
Kauda's Catholic primary school, Holy Cross, looks like many another African “bush” school with its low mud and brick buildings and thatch roofs. Founded in the late 1990s by Bishop Macram Max Gassis of El Obeid Diocese in central Sudan, which includes the Nuba Mountains, it plays a unique role in stabilizing war-weary populations in the region who have been subject to decades of neglect, war, famine and government persecution.
Khartoum's apologists, used to having their way unobserved in remote locales like the Nuba Mountains, were clearly caught off guard when the Kauda bombing attracted the attention of the international media.
The official rationales seemed to change daily: The bombing was a fabrication; the children were killed in a rebel military camp; the school was next to a military garrison; schools are a legitimate target in a contested area; the children were guerrilla fighters; the bombing was a regrettable mistake.
But all the evidence on the ground points to the fact that the attack on Holy Cross Catholic School in Kauda was deliberate. The raids and reconnaissance activities preceding the school bombing clearly point in this direction, as do the initial declarations of Sudanese officials themselves.
Asked about the incident early on, Dirdiery Ahmed, a minister in the Sudanese Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, told Reuters that “the bombs landed where they were supposed to land.”
‘Low-Intensity’ War
Journalists are fond of describing long-running conflicts such as Sudan's as “low intensity” wars. But there was nothing “low intensity” about the terror visited upon this Nuba Mountains schoolyard in February. Of the five nail-studded bombs dropped on students, one failed to detonate, two landed in the dry washes that ring the site, but two landed directly in the yard, one not more than 10 feet from a class of 50 first-graders studying English on log benches under a Nime tree.
By 9:15 it was all over. The low-flying Antonov had dropped its deadly cargo, and made another pass across the schoolyard to assess the damage.
The headmaster, who had taken cover himself, rose to find students dead or dying all around him.
Miraculously, in a land without roads, emergency medical help arrived on foot within 40 minutes of the blasts.
“When we heard the explosions, we just grabbed what equipment we could, and ran for the school,” one nurse said.
There, 12 students, ranging in age from 9 to 16 years of age, lay dead, along with Roda Ismail, 22, their teacher. Two students who fled into the bush died later of their wounds.
According to Tina Wolf of the German Emergency Doctors group who provide primary medical care to the people of Kauda, five critically wounded children perished in the days following the bombing, raising the student fatalities to 19.
A mother, summoned to the schoolyard by the sound of the attack, died of heart failure when she discovered her daughter among the dead.
Of the 17 wounded, three youngsters required amputations.
Galvanized Resistance
If the intent of the Kauda bombing was to weaken the Nubas’ resolve to remain on their ancestral land, or to frighten them into submission to the regime's program of forced cultural and religious assimilation, it has, at least in the short run, had the opposite effect.
If anything, the bombing would appear to have deepened the resistance of these Nuba. And that new determination is nowhere more evident than in Kauda's children.
On the day after the bombing, headmaster Kume was astonished to hear that schoolchildren were waiting in the schoolyard for classes to begin.
“I went out to reason with them,” he said. “Listen,” he told several hundred of his charges, “Go home. I can't tell you when, or even if we'll be able to resume classes. We're all destroyed by what happened. I'll let you know what we decide.”
A 10-year-old boy came up to him, the headmaster recounted.
“Ustaz, professor,” the boy said. “Let us continue. If it is God's will, we won't die.”
By the time I visited, a few weeks later, school was back in session.
Gabriel Meyer, who wrote and narrated “The Hidden Gift,” a documentary about war-torn Sudan, is based in Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Sudan ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gabriel Meyer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 1,015 Stand With Vatican In U.N. Fight DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:UNITED NATIONS — Leaders from various religious and secular organizations united March 15 to denounce a campaign by abortion activists to strip the Holy See of its U.N. status.
Pro-choice U.N. lobbyist Frances Kiss-ling said at a March 14 news conference that her organization had received the support of some 400 nongovernmental organizations to ask the United Nations to review the Holy See's role.
At his own press conference the next day, pro-life U.N. lobbyist Austin Ruse announced that he had collected 1,015 signatures from nongovernmental organizations in 50 states, requesting that the Vatican's current status be preserved.
Like Switzerland, the Holy See has the status of permanent observer at the United Nations.
This classification enables the Vatican to participate in debates, but gives it no right to vote in the General Assembly.
“This campaign against the Holy See is an attack upon the U.N. system since it is an attack on a member state,” said Ruse, president of Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute. “Worse than that, this campaign is an aspect of religious intolerance and bigotry that should have no place at the U.N.”
He was joined by an interfaith group defending the Vatican.
“We must reject this censorship; we must reject this bigotry,” said Rabbi Yehuda Levin of Jews for Morality. “A half-century ago, we asked: Where were you for the Jews? Today we ask: Where are you for the Catholics?”
Recent political maneuvers pitting Protestants against Catholics didn't prevent evangelicals from supporting the Vatican's role in the United Nations.
Tom Minnery, vice president of Focus on the Family, said at the press conference, “While there are important theological differences between Catholics and Protestants, today we are focused on the great moral cause we agree on: protecting the human rights of the unborn child.”
Ruse said that the ecumenical support for the Holy See was unprecedented.
“This is a world historical moment because the groups that have signed this declaration come from all faiths or no faith,” said Ruse. “These groups are not just Catholic, but evangelical, Mormon, Muslim and Jewish. These groups hereby make common cause with the Catholic Church against the vociferous voices of intolerance and bigotry.”
Ruse noted that his organization managed to win more than twice as much support for its position in just 60 days, while the anti-Vatican “See Change” campaign has been running for a year.
At her own press conference the previous day, Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice, said that the Vatican's admission into the United Nations was an “accident.” Her group has no affiliation with or approbation from the Catholic Church.
“In many ways, we have seen the Holy See misuse their status,” said Kissling, mentioning specifically the Vatican's opposition to contraception and abortion for poor countries.
Other speakers were more fierce in their opposition.
“The legal status of the Holy See is questionable,” said Anika Rahman, of the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Law and Policy. “It is as if the Soviet Politburo had a permanent observer status.”
Ruse called the remarks “bigoted” and “intolerant.”
“To compare the Catholic Church to an organ of a Marxist government is just flatly insane,” said Ruse.
Regarding the question of state-hood, Ruse said: “Frances Kissling says the Holy See is not a real state. On this point, her argument is not with the U.N. Neither is it with us. On this question, her argument is with the entire world. As we speak, 177 nations have diplomatic ties to the Holy See.”
‘This campaign against the Holy See is an attack upon the U.N. system since it is an attack on a member state.’
‘Absolute Neutrality’
Archbishop Renato Martino, Vatican permanent observer to the United Nations, explained the Holy See's role recently to ZENIT by citing “the desire of the Holy See is to maintain absolute neutrality in specific political problems.”
Since the Holy See is the representative of the Roman Catholic Church, its interests are not the economic and political interests of other states. Its mission focuses on the human person, he said, and “[i]n keeping with this principle, the Holy See is mainly concerned with all the issues of human rights, of justice, of religious freedom, of development, peace, etc., and attempts to present, always respectfully but without fear, the principles of the Gospel.”
Questions of Impropriety
Questioning the statehood of a member-state on the grounds of the United Nations, as Catholics for a Free Choice did at its press conference, is a violation of U.N. rules, said Ruse.
“What happened here is sufficient for their ... status to be removed” as a nongovernmental organization, said Ruse. “We will be formally protesting with the Economic and Social Council.”
Kissling said that her group merely exercised free-speech rights. “There is no violation of protocol,” she said.
Even if no rules were violated, their effort should be condemned, said Robert L. Maginnis, foreign affairs expert for the Family Research Council.
“The drive to expel the Vatican from the U.N. is obviously intended to intimidate pro-life delegations, especially those from Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East,” he said.
Kathryn Balmforth, a law professor from Brigham Young University, said people of all religions should come to the defense of the Vatican.
“In all likelihood, the delegation from the Holy See probably better reflects their values than their own country's delegation.”
(ZENIT contributed to this report.)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: From Vietnam to the Vatican DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:The 72-year-old president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace preached the Pope's Lenten retreat, which ended March 18. Jailed for 13 years by the Communist authorities in Vietnam, his book The Road to Hope was written in prison and smuggled out by a small boy. He recently spoke to Register correspondent Paul Burnell.
Burnell: Despite your work for reconciliation, you were imprisoned. Why?
Archbishop Thuan: I was in prison from 1975 to 1988. It was 13 years, three months and six days. Why was I in prison? I was already bishop of Hue when the Communists invaded South Vietnam. Pope Paul Vl said I should be transferred from my diocese to become coadjutor archbishop of Saigon, one week before Saigon was taken by the Communists. The Communists told me they thought that this transfer one week before they took Saigon was a conspiracy between the Vatican and others. They said I had to go back to my former diocese. I did not accept this and went to prison.
What was the effect on you?
I suffered very much because my people had no one to lead them. There were no more Catholic hospitals, no more seminaries. I was thinking, now what can I do for them, I am in prison? So one night the Lord gave me an inspiration. “Francis, you are stupid. When you are in prison you can do like St. Paul. When he was in prison he wrote letters, so do the same.” My first resolution was to live my present moment and to fill it to the brim with love.
Next morning I told a 7-year-old boy who was going to Mass to tell his mother to buy an old calendar and to bring it to me.
Each day I would write on the back of it and each day I would give it to the boy. I wrote it in one and a half months and finished it when I got to 1,001 sections. They are like 1,001 nights.
This became my book The Road to Hope. And now it has been produced in 11 languages. There is another book, Five Loaves and Two Fishes, which has been produced in eight languages.
How did your state of mind change in prison?
I was tormented at this time. How can I get to these people? I was 47 years of age with eight years experience as a bishop.
There was so much work of God to do. I felt this revolt in my heart. Then, one night there was a voice, “Choose God and not the works of God.” The seminary is a work of God, but it is not God, working with the young people is a work of God, but it is not God. I had to give it back to him in the confidence that God can do it much better than me. I felt peace in my heart because I was able to tell the difference between God and the work of God.
I realized I must progress every day first on the road to hope. I must live and always make this choice every day of my life — not to choose false hope, but to choose the real hope.
How were you able to pray in prison?
There were three things that helped me to pray.
People say, “Why can't you pray, Father? You have plenty of time to pray in prison; there is plenty of time for God in prison.” It is not easy to pray in prison. You have plenty of time, but your nervous system is broken because you are starving, you are hungry. Always, you feel injustice. It is very hard if you cannot pray.
I was praying, but sometimes you can pray no more. Some people did help me to pray in prison.
A guard was one.
The guards were told I was dangerous. I tried to talk to them; they did not talk with me. I knew some of them were choosing to study Latin. Many of the Communists learned Latin; maybe they were better than our seminaries! They were proud of it — they could read the documents of the Holy See.
One day one of the guards came to ask me to teach some Latin songs. “There are so many and so beautiful,” I told him. He replied “You sing, I'll choose.” So I sang Salve Regina, Ave Maris Stella and Veni Creator.
He chose Veni Creator. I wrote for him Veni Creator.
I said to myself, “Maybe he will never learn it, being a Communist.”
But really he learned it. Then, every morning, he sang it as he was doing his exercises at 7 a.m. [demonstrates by singing and moving his arms]. It was amazing. As I listened, I thanked God that when I could pray no more, he sent a Communist policeman to sing Veni Creator.
Another prisoner was another?
I changed prisons, and every day I would meet another prisoner.
Then, one day, he told me, “I have not been telling the truth, I have been sent to spy on you. You are good. I cannot tell anything against you. My home is not far away from a shrine to the appearance of our Lady, and so, when I go back to my town, every Sunday I will go there to pray for you.”
I thought, How will this spy know how to pray? Will he pray for me?
When I was put in solitary confinement, this man wrote to me saying he went to this shrine and said, “I stand there saying, ‘Mother I promised my friend to come here and pray for him. I am a Communist. I don't know any prayers. Please give him all the things he needs.’”
I thanked God. It is a really sincere way of praying, and when I could not pray, God sent people to teach me how to pray. This is the hope. When you have so many difficulties, God helps you always, you are never alone.
You mentioned that something else helped you to pray.
When I can't feel the presence of God, how can I try to make a prayer? I try to think on the life of Jesus, the most important being the last moments in this covenant, when Jesus instituted the Eucharist.
I said, “I will remember the covenant of Jesus in this testament Jesus gave me.” ... So when I can pray no more I must think about the testament of Jesus. I must think of prayer, then I must live every day, every moment, according to this testament, and his testament is love — he gave a lot to me.
How were you ever able to celebrate the sacraments in such conditions?
I wrote to some people saying, “Please send me some medicine for my stomach disease.” The people outside had the gift of the Holy Spirit that I wanted wine.
The chief of the prison called me and said, “Mr. Thuan, do you have a stomach disease?” I said, “Yes.”
He allowed them to send me a little bottle of wine and some hosts concealed in a torch. And so, with three drops of wine and one drop of water, I offered up the sacrifice of the Mass.
In what way has the Blessed Mother been important to you?
The first time I went to Lourdes, I prayed at the grotto and I was reminded of the words of our Lady to St. Bernadette, “I do not give you in this world, joy and consolation, but I give you tribulations and trials.” And I thought, are these words for me? Then I said, “No, they are for St. Bernadette.” I had consolation and joy but not trials and tribulations. But each time I came back to Lourdes I would hear these words. When I was put in prison I said, “These are truly for me.”
Important events have always happened on our Lady's feast days. Our Lady always helped me. I was arrested on the feast of the Assumption and I received many graces from her.
When I was in prison, I would say her prayer in confidence to the Blessed Virgin Mary. I pray every day a hundred times, “Ave Maria.”
In prison I prayed, “Mother, if you know I am not any use for the Church outside please give me the grace to die in prison. If you know that I can still serve the Church, please give me the grace to get out.”
What other extraordinary thing happened to you on a Marian feast day?
One rainy day I heard the telephone ring and I thought, maybe this is for me — this is the 21st [of] November, the feast of our Lady's Presentation.
I was told, “dress beautifully,” how can I dress beautifully when I am wearing prison clothes?
A car came to take me to the minister of interior and he asked me, “Do you wish to express any desires?” I replied, “Yes, I want to be freed.” He replied, “When?” I said, “Today.” He was surprised and I said, “I have been here a long time. I have been here under three Popes: Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II; and four secretary-generals of the Soviet Communist Party: Brezhnev, Chernenko, Andropov and Gorbachev.”
He began to laugh and nod his head saying, “That is true.”
Turning to his secretary he said, “Do what is necessary to fulfill his desire.”
I thought, “Today is the feast of the Madonna, the Presentation. Mary is setting me free. Thank you, Mother.”
When I speak in front of people before I pray, I am trembling. I say a prayer to our Lady, always the Memorare, and after the prayer I feel courage. Before I gave this talk, I prayed the Memorare.
----- EXCERPT: HE SURVIVED 13 YEARS IN PRISON THROUGH SONG AND PRAYER ----- EXTENDED BODY: Archbishop FranÁois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Libraries Turn Blind Eye To Internet Pornography DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Young Alx Bradley couldn't believe her eyes. A group of young boys were huddled around a computer terminal giggling and ogling at pictures of naked women — at the public library in her hometown of Gilroy, Calif.
Her protective mother quickly covered the then-11-year-old girl's eyes and immediately summoned the librarian.
Alx recalled to the Register the response of the librarian to her complaint: “She said: ‘Yes, I see what they are doing. It's not my job to be a policeman.’”
What bothered her was the way naked pictures affected the young boys.
“They look at women differently. It's sort of embarrassing,” said Alx, now
13. “I don't want to see that stuff.”
So Alx and her mother Lizanne began to attend library board meetings and organized picketing outside of libraries.
After two and a half years, the Santa Clara County library system agreed to put Internet filtering software on computers found in the children's section of the library.
While that allowed Alx safe return to the library, any enterprising adolescent can simply ask the librarian to let him use the computers normally reserved for adults.
“She'll take you to the adult computers. She'll even print [the pictures] out for you. The kids take it to school and church and more people get exposed,” said Alx. “It really makes me upset that it's condoned by the library.”
Widespread Problem
Alx's story is not unique. Libraries have become a place where patrons — adult and adolescent alike — can view hard-core pornography on computer screens.
“Pornography, obscenity and child pornography in public libraries are a serious problem in this country,” said David Burt, a librarian from Lake Oswego, Ore.
In a March 15 report called Dangerous Access, Burt documented 2,062 reports of pornographic use in public libraries. Those figures are just “the tip of the iceberg,” said Burt, because 71% of libraries ignored his request for information.
And he doubts the low rate of compliance was an accident.
“The [American Library Association] actively interfered,” Burt said, by encouraging libraries to look for exemptions to his requests filed under the Freedom of Information Act.
“Unfortunately, it has been difficult to engage the library and free speech communities in a serious dialogue about solutions, because organizations such as the American Library Association, and the [American Civil Liberties Union], refuse to admit any problem exists,” said Burt.
Unsafe Environment
In addition to child and adult patrons that don't want to encounter pornography, librarians say they deal with this problem “on a daily basis.”
In February, 47 librarians from the Minneapolis Public Library filed a petition over the American Library Association's “refusal to address the problem of Internet pornography in libraries.”
“It is difficult to explain the effects of daily viewing of pornographic images on workers,” said Wendy Adamson, a librarian from Minneapolis. “One young woman in my department who regularly goes around cleaning up keyboards and terminal screens ... found pornographic images almost daily.”
“Now I have seen images I can never forget,” said Adamson, a self-described liberal. “Ironically no newspaper, magazine, television or radio station could allow me to describe what I have seen, because they all face regulations which protect society from just this kind of material.”
She said, “Throughout the last two years, while we have struggled with this issue, the American Library Association has exhibited an appalling lack of leadership within our profession.”
Adamson noted, “The ALA advises library administrators to ‘avoid use of negative/inflammatory words such as pornography.’” She added, “The pictures we have seen are more than inflammatory.”
Full Access for Kids
The stated policy of the American Library Association makes no distinction between children and adults. According to the American Library Association statement, Free Access to Libraries for Minors: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights, “The American Library Association opposes all attempts to restrict access to library services, materials, and facilities based on the age of library users.”
Statements by officers from the organization also back that view.
“Every time I hear someone say, ‘I want to protect the children,’ I want to pull my hair out,” Judith Krug, director of the organization's Office of Intellectual Freedom, told the Detroit News in 1998.
When specifically asked if a library should provide pornographic magazines if a 13 year-old requested it, American Library Association President Ann Symons told Hot Wired in November 1997: “If the library didn't own this material and you, as a 13-year-old, asked for an interlibrary loan, that should be granted to you just as it would be to an adult patron.”
That same 13 year-old could not get pornography from a bookstore, noted Janet Parshall, chief spokesman for the Family Research Council, which sponsored Burt's study.
“Public masturbation, sexual liaisons and hard-core depictions of rape, sexual torture and bestiality — this is what is occurring in public libraries, often with full knowledge of library staff,” said Parshall.
She noted that if a man committed this behavior anywhere else in public it would not be tolerated.
“If he did that in a public park, he would be arrested. If it's in a library, you have the ALA saying it's the First Amendment,” said Parshall.
There is no ‘right’ to view nudity on taxpayer-funded computers, said Burt. “You're talking about pornography welfare.”
In a short statement, issued the day after the release of Burt's report, the American Library Association criticized the report's findings.
“I am appalled by the Family Research Council's portrayal of public libraries,” said the association's Sarah Ann Long. “America's libraries have been serving the information needs of parents, children — indeed all people — for more than 100 years.”
The group remained committed to opposing filtering software.
“The American Library Association does not endorse filters because they block valuable information and they don't duly protect children,” the statement said.
Burt said that his report detailed how three libraries had implemented filtering software which were found to be 99.93 to 99.99% effective in blocking inappropriate material.
Unfortunately, Burt said, most libraries refuse to use such software and open themselves up to patron abuse. “The ALAis trying to wrap itself in what has happened in years past. But they act like the misbehaving heir who spends the family fortune.”
An Unholy Alliance
Heidi Borton, a Seattle-area librarian who quit her job over lax library policies, said the American Library Association's position on Internet pornography might be influenced by money.
“The ALA receives grants from the Playboy Foundation,” Borton told the Register.
Borton added that the association's Judith Krug serves on a board that decides the winners of the Playboy Foundation's annual Hugh Hefner Award.
The American Library Association did not return calls for comment.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:Look Elsewhere for True Anti-Catholicism
“Opposing anti-Catholicism in the United States by denouncing Bob Jones is about as relevant to today's reality as combating medical errors by condemning leeches and snake oil. The Catholic Church takes more nasty hits weekly on cable television than yearly from Bob Jones.
“Yes, anti-Catholic animus rooted in the theological polemics of the 16th-century Reformation still exists in the United States. But the anti-Catholic animus rooted in the political polemics of the 18th-century Enlightenment and the cultural polemics of 19th-century American nativism have long since taken over all the traditional themes:
“The church is an authoritarian monolith; its doctrines are hopelessly premodern; its rites are colorful but mindless; its sexual standards are unnatural, repressive and hypocritical; its congregations are anti-Semitic and racist; its priests are harsh and predatory; its grip on the minds of believers is numbing. These themes still ring in some fundamentalist pulpits. But they are far more apt to be interjected into the more adult sitcoms and late-night comedy, and to be reflected in films, editorials, art, fiction and memoirs considered enlightened and liberating.
“American culture ... is a maelstrom of prejudices and stereotypes, some of them expressed only in private, some allowed in the mass media, some relished (while others are reprobated) among the well-educated.
“Muslims, Italians, Latinos, gays, blacks, women, atheists, even Protestant blue bloods can justifiably complain about some of the ways they are popularly portrayed. Indeed, if rebuking Bob Jones University is a low-cost way to oppose anti-Catholicism, the reason is that evangelical and fundamentalist Christians are farther down in the national pecking order of prejudices than Catholics.
“The constant pitter-patter of gibes, jokes and sneers about Catholicism on television, in films, in celebrity interviews, in university and alternative newspapers probably makes it harder for some impressionable adolescents and young adults to avow their beliefs and ultimately to maintain them.
“Anti-Catholicism would be a worthy subject for study and debate, freed, one hopes, from the manipulative politics of victimhood. But the place to begin is not Bob Jones University.”
Santa Fe Archbishop Moves to Protect Flock
According to the study, conducted by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and entitled Hispanic Ministry at the Turn of the New Millenium, one of every seven Hispanics in the United States has left the Church over the last 25 years.
“We don't appreciate their efforts to undermine the Catholic faith,” Archbishop Sheehan said. “A lot of churches spend time in the pulpits running down and attacking the Catholic faith. We feel that is wrong.”
Archbishop Sheehan said his archdiocese “needs to show as great a spirit of welcome and hospitality as we can so that [immigrants] know they're welcome,” adding, “a lot of improvement has been made.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Children Will Be the Focus of Family Jubilee DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Children will be the focus of the Jubilee for Families this fall because “at the heart of the family are children,” said Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo during a visit to the United States.
Cardinal Lopez Trujillo, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, sharply criticized efforts in Europe and America to extend the legal protections and benefits of marriage to cohabiting couples and those in same-sex unions.
He added that he was pleased by the rise of new apostolic movements within the Church and society that are helping to check the passive acceptance of these trends.
The Colombian-born cardinal was in New York March 6 and Washington March 7 to encourage U.S. Catholic families to travel to Rome for the Oct. 14-15 Jubilee of the Family with Pope John Paul II.
The two-day public celebration and a preceding three-day congress of scholars and experts at the Vatican have as their theme “Children: Springtime of the Family and Society.”
The cardinal also used his American visit to announce that the statue of Our Lady of Loreto will be brought from her own shrine in Loreto, Italy, to the Vatican for the first time in history so the Holy Father can present “Our Lady of Loreto as Queen of the Family.” The popular Loreto shrine is where, it is believed, the home of the Holy Family was miraculously transported centuries ago.
Cardinal Lopez Trujillo said highlights of the public celebration Oct. 14 will include special Masses for families in churches throughout Rome, followed by a gathering in St. Peter's Square for prayer and testimonials with the Holy Father.
At a Mass Oct. 15, the Pope is to witness 12 marriages and preside over a renewal of wedding vows by tens of thousands for married couples who come to Rome for the occasion.
But the most important moment of the Jubilee for Families will be the Third Worldwide Meeting of the Holy Father with Families, and hearing his Message to Families. “He is very interested in your witness in this Jubilee, that you may give the world a powerful, enthusiastic message of prayer.”
In Washington the cardinal met at National Conference of Catholic Bishops headquarters with conference staff and with diocesan and parish marriage, family and pro-life officials.
Cardinal Lopez Trujillo observed that, in today's atmosphere of widespread separation and divorce and disregard for marital commitment, “children are often the victims in society and the family.”
He described legal and societal “confusion about the truth of the family” as a “very dangerous” threat to humanity, especially to children.
Through the Jubilee celebration in Rome and related programs “we hope to put the children again at the center of the concern of families.”
Cardinal Lopez Trujillo said the removal of children from the center of the family's mission and “the separation of love from procreation” is harmful to all of society.
“One common problem in some countries of Europe is the demographic collapse, a ‘demographic winter’ because of a fear of motherhood and fatherhood.”
Like Pope John Paul, Cardinal Lopez Trujillo finds hope in the rise and spread of new Catholic movements that are trying to restore “a basic sense of ethics” in reaction to the permissiveness and “systematic demolition of the family in the legislatures” that they see around them.
He urged members of the movements to come to the Rome celebrations themselves and to encourage others in their parishes and communities to make the pilgrimage.
In New York, Cardinal Lopez Trujillo met some 75 members of various movements and others who are active in family apostolates at the parish and diocesan level.
Some of the movements represented included Marriage Encounter, Focolare, Regnum Christi, Legion of Mary, LAMP Ministries and Cursillo de Cristiandad. A number of them spoke at the meeting with the cardinal.
Marriage Encounter's Jim and Nancy Rizzi recalled their participation in the international gathering of families in Rome in 1995. Nancy Rizzi said she was awestruck by Saint Peter's Basilica and “overwhelmed” by the gathering of so many Catholic families.
People were “gathered in the square as far as the eye could see,” she remembered. They included Christians “from all over the world trying to live family life as the Church conceives it.”
Jim Rizzi marveled at how the Holy Father could “receive such adulation and still be so humble, to come out to the cheering crowd and then show such profound and genuine humility when he spoke.
“Children had no problem running up to him to give a big hug, and the Pope gave a big hug right back,” Rizzi said.
Gary Cronin recounted his experience of the 1997 Gathering for Families in Rio de Janeiro. “There were two million people at Mass from 160 different countries,” he said. “To be there and to look up to see the great statue of Christ the Redeemer, to be with millions of people all united under Christ, that is what we're all about.”
(Catholic News Service contributed to this report)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jay Dunlap ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pope John Paul's Mea Culpa Is Imitated and Admired DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II's long-awaited and unprecedented apology for the sins of Christians through the ages was echoed by local churches in the United States and elsewhere and generally welcomed by non-Catholics around the world.
The March 12 event was the culmination of the Church's “examination of conscience” for the Great Jubilee year.
The Pope's own initiative, the idea of a day of atonement, met some resistance even inside the Vatican. It was designed to acknowledge shortcomings in the Church's past, in order to give Catholics a sense of reconciliation and make future evangelization more credible.
“We forgive and we ask forgiveness!” the Pope said during the historic Lenten liturgy in St. Peter's Basilica. He and seven top Vatican officials pronounced a “request for pardon” for sins against Christian unity, the use of violence in serving the truth, hostility toward Jews and other religions, the marginalization of women, and wrongs — like abortion — against society's weakest members.
The Pope said the Church has had many saints, but some of its members have shown disobedience to God and inconsistency with the faith — in the past and present.
“For the part that each of us, with his behavior, has had in these evils that have disfigured the face of the Church, we humbly ask forgiveness,” he said.
At the conclusion of the apology liturgy, the Pope embraced and kissed the crucifix and, in a final blessing, declared that “never again” should such sins be committed. Thousands of people attended the service, packing the basilica and watching on giant-screen TV in the square outside.
Commentators inside and outside the Church hailed the event as a historic step, and the Pope was described by one Italian newspaper as a “voice in the wilderness” for his willingness to publicly ask forgiveness.
Jewish leaders also praised the Pope, but some said he should have been more specific about the Holocaust. In Israel, where the Pope was to visit later in the month, Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau welcomed the Pope's words but said the Church needs to apologize for the actions of Pope Pius XII during World War II.
In New York, the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith said that in failing to specifically mention the Holocaust, the Pope had “missed a historic opportunity to bring closure” to Christian responsibility for sins against Jews.
In a statement, the German Evangelical Church said the Pope offered “words worthy of the greatest respect and gratitude.”
The Rev. Manfred Kock, head of the 28 million-member Protestant church, praised the Holy Father's overture in an interview with ZENIT, the Rome-based news service:
“The Roman Catholic Church and John Paul II deserve gratitude and respect for the way in which they have addressed the faults of the past. The gesture is important because, up until now, many of us had the impression that the Catholic Church had problems recognizing its past errors.”
Rev. Kock, whose church has made a similar mea culpa for past wrongs, has said that the office of the papacy is becoming “a unitary figure symbolic of Christianity.”
In the United States, local bishops took their cue from the Bishop of Rome and conducted Lenten services with public apologies for Church actions against Jews, women, native peoples and other groups:
l Boston Cardinal Bernard Law led a prayer service March 12 asking forgiveness for the faults of local Catholics throughout history, specifically regarding slavery, racism, antiSemitism, sex abuse by priests and the treatment of women.
l Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, in a Lenten message, asked forgiveness for any of his own actions or those of the archdiocese and its Catholics that have offended or hurt others.
l Bishop John Cummins of Oakland, Calif., invited survivors of clergy sexual abuse to a March 25 service of apology and reconciliation.
l Bishop Joseph Imesch of Joliet, Ill., presided over an atonement service, apologizing for the sins of Church leaders. Those attending were asked to express their own forgiveness by writing down names or situations of sin involving the Church; the forms were then ritually burned, symbolizing atonement.
Similar services were held in Norwich, Conn., Santa Fe, N.M., and other dioceses.
In Australia, bishops asked forgiveness for their failures in dealing with such issues as Church unity, care for aborigines and clerical failures. Swiss bishops acknowledged that Catholics did too little to prevent persecution of Jews by Nazis.
Vatican officials emphasized that the Church's apology was not a political but a religious act, addressed first of all to God. On March 7, they presented a 19,000-word document titled “Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past,” which examined several difficult theological questions and tried to eliminate some misperceptions about the apology movement.
The Church's mea culpa cannot be seen as a form of “self-flagellation” performed in public for the benefit of others, said French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, president of the Vatican's Jubilee Committee.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the International Theological Commission, which prepared the document, said the Church was not setting itself up as a tribunal to judge the actions of past Christians. The aim was to “know ourselves and open ourselves to the purification of memories and to our true renewal,” he said.
The document said the Church was holy and cannot sin, but that its members have sinned through the ages.
Acknowledging these faults can foster renewal and reconciliation in the present, it said.
The document, however, rejected any notion of collective guilt by Christians, saying that would be as unfair as blaming all Jews for Christ's death.
“Sin is ... always personal, even though it wounds the entire Church,” it said. The Church officials also said that the Pope's unprecedented gesture of confessing past sins could set a precedent — today's Christians and Church leaders can also expect to have their actions closely judged.
“What will the men and women of tomorrow think of us?” asked Dominican Father Georges Cottier, the Pope's personal theologian.
“We are no better than the men and women of the past. It is with modesty and ‘fear and trembling’ that we must judge their acts.”
(From combined wire services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:Church's Face Ever ‘More Beautiful and Young’
“It was a simple gesture, but at the same time solemn,” said Bishop Fisichella. “John Paul II wanted to give a complete, global vision, making reference to circumstances of the past, but without focusing on details out of respect for history.”
The auxiliary bishop of Rome recalled that “the Church is not the one who has sinned. The sinners are Christians and they have done so against the Church, the Bride of Christ.”
In response to those who say the Church's mea culpa is not enough, Bishop Fisichella replied: “Some were hoping we would ask for forgiveness for the very fact that we exist, but we cannot do this. Thank God, not only do we exist, we also enjoy good health. With every passing year, the Church's face becomes more beautiful and young.”
Some Things Are Just Worth It
TIME, however, was able to see the greater spiritual value in the expenditure: “There, overlooking the Sea of Galilee, the Pope will address a congregation of 100,000 and share with them Christ's body and blood. Some things are worth every bit of trouble that goes into them.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:China Attacks Late Cardinal Kung
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, March 14 — Chinese officials gave one last jab at Cardinal Ignatius Kung Pin-mei, the symbol of Chinese Catholics’ allegiance to the Pope, who died March 12, accusing him of having been “manipulated by hostile foreign forces,” the French news service reported.
“There's nothing unusual about his death, it is the law of nature and we are opposed to anyone using it for ulterior motives,” a spokeswoman of China's religious affairs office said.
Spokeswoman Zhao Lei said Cardinal Kung was handed a life sentence in 1955 for “counter-revolutionary treason” but was allowed to leave China in 1985 for medical treatment.
At Cardinal Kung's March 18 funeral Mass in Stamford, Conn., papal envoy Cardinal Francis Stafford, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, expressed Pope John Paul II's gratitude for Cardinal Kung's lifelong fidelity to the universal Church.
Graham Makes Plea for Sudan
In an op-ed piece for the Journal, the son of evangelist Billy Graham wrote, “The suffering in southern Sudan is the most appalling I have seen in 25 years as an international relief worker.” Added Graham, “I've seen the heart-wrenching suffering of Kosovar Albanians.
Sadly, the brutality in Sudan — where the U.S. has taken no action — has devastated and ended thousands more lives than the conflicts in the Balkans.
“Sudanese government troops routinely attack civilian and humanitarian targets, have prevented relief flights from carrying food and medical aid to famine-stricken areas, and abduct women and children, selling them to slave traders.
“When several thousand Europeans are killed and tens of thousands displaced the world calls it genocide. But when 1.9 million black Africans are killed and millions more are displaced, tortured and even sold into slavery, the world remains strangely silent. Western governments not only fail to take punitive action, they continue to trade openly with the government of Sudan.
“ ... I call on my fellow Americans everywhere, and particularly my fellow clergymen, to unite on this moral cause and ask our president to lead the international community to save the Christians in southern Sudan from butchery and slavery.”
Arsonists Take Aim at Priests in N. Ireland
As the fire tore through the garage, a fully-armed rocket launcher was discovered abandoned in a garden across town, the paper reported. No one was injured in the blaze.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Legion Founder Turns 80 — On the Internet DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:ROME — In his first years as founder of a religious congregation, Marcial Maciel wrote of his burning desire “to multiply and divide myself” to help a world which “is dying because it lacks Christ.”
On March 10, his 80th birthday, Father Maciel turned to another means to multiply himself: the Internet.
Back in 1940s Mexico, his heady dream met with more than a little skepticism from friends, family and even Church officials.
But “multiply and divide” himself he did. He founded the Legionaries of Christ with a handful of young recruits — and watched it grow to a congregation of more than 2,000 members. He later founded the ecclesial movement of apostolate, Regnum Christi, which has spread to 25 countries.
Nor has he lost sight of his other ideal, evangelization. At the request of Regnum Christi members, he held an hour-long question-and-answer session, exhorting his cyberaudience to follow Christ faithfully and to love the Church with passion.
To a question about the apostolate, Father Maciel responded: “Don't be a Catholic who is satisfied with a little praying and going to Mass.
“Christ said, ‘Go to the whole world and preach the Gospel.’ He isn't asking - he is commanding. He isn't saying, ‘See if you can ...,’ but ‘Go!’
“So, look for a place, a parish or a movement which will not only give you work to do but will also give you formation in your faith.”
Faith Under Trial
In the late 1950s, the Legion had seminaries in Mexico, Spain and Rome, and its first apostolate, a school, in Mexico City.
At that time, serious accusations were made against him. He was stripped of his capacity as superior general and banned from Rome for two years while investigators lived with the seminarians and interviewed every Legionary. The accusations were proven to be baseless, and Father Maciel was reinstated. The congregation believes that the persecution, as has often happened in the history of the Church, purified the community and showed the depth of its Christian spirit.
Six years later, Pope Paul VI issued a decree of praise for the Legion and made it a congregation of pontifical right. In 1983 Pope John Paul II approved the congregation's definitive constitutions.
Father Maciel, who is based in Rome, has assisted the Holy See in a number of ways. In 1991 Pope John Paul appointed him to the Synod of Bishops on the formation of candidates for the priesthood. At that time he published Integral Formation of Catholic Priests, currently available in eight languages. Philadelphia's Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua wrote of it: “Father Maciel, drawing from his vast experience as an excellent formator or priests, has given the Church an invaluable ‘handbook’ for all who are involved in priestly formation.”
Father Maciel has also been a member of the Interdicasterial Commission for a Just Distribution of Clergy, the 1992 General Conference of Latin American Bishops and the 1993 Synod of Bishops on Consecrated Life.
Since 1994 he has been a permanent consultant to the Congregation for the Clergy. He also participated in the 1997 Synod for America.
Father Richard John Neuhaus, who got to know Father Maciel at that synod, wrote, “One cannot help but be greatly impressed by both the discipline and the joy evinced by so many young men who have followed the vision of Father Maciel in surrendering their lives to Christ and his Church.”
By Their Fruits ...
With the passing of the years, the young founder matured into a senior Church man who has established numerous schools and colleges, missions, centers for retreats, for the family and for youth, and an international seminary in Rome for diocesan seminarians.
Harvard professor Mary Ann Glendon called the founder a teacher of the faith who has a “remarkable ability to penetrate through surfaces to the heart of things.”
Last fall, the Legion opened its newest philosophy and theology campus, 20 minutes west of St. Peter's Basilica.
At the new campus March 10, Father Maciel told a packed auditorium, and the worldwide Internet audience, “You have the obligation to be an apostle of Christ. If not, it is a serious omission. Put your shoulder to the wheel and work for Christ.”
Edward Mulholland is based in Carmel, New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Mulholland ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: He's Apologizing for Us, Too DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:The two most important features of the papal “mea culpa” have been lost in the smoke of critics’ fire.
Some say Pope John Paul II went too far in apologizing for sins of Catholics’ past. Others say his March 12 Day of Pardon plea didn't go far enough. But what hasn't been noticed is that the Pope didn't confine his criticisms to Catholics in the past.
He also sought pardon for what Catholics of our generation have done. “We confess, all the more, our responsibilities as Christians for the evils of today,” he said on the first Sunday of Lent 2000. “In the face of atheism, religious indifferentism, secularism, ethical relativism, violations of the right to life, and a lack of interest in the poverty of many nations, we cannot avoid asking ourselves about our own responsibilities. For the part that each one of us has had in these evils, contributing thereby to sullying the face of the Church, we humbly ask forgiveness.”
What is there to confess? A 1999 poll of American Catholics of the National Opinion Research Center in Chicago listed some arresting statistics:
• Only 29% of the Catholics in America regularly attend Sunday Mass. This is a recipe for religious indifferentism and its consequences, including a practical atheism.
• 51% of Catholics believe in abortion under “some circumstances” and 31% supported the “right” to abortion for any reason, while only 18% opposed abortion for any reason. The death count of the Crusades and the Inquisition, it should be noted, pales compared to the more than a million American lives lost each year to abortion.
The second important thing critics have missed about the mea culpa is that the Holy Father has no intention of playing a blame game. Nor was his confession an example of “Catholic guilt” writ large.
Like a sacramental confession, the Pope's was not directed toward lamenting an unchangeable past: It was meant to begin anew on a path toward holiness. In this regard, the plea for pardon is the whole reason for the Jubilee Year.
“Never again actions contrary to charity in the service of the truth,” the Pope prayed. “Never again acts contrary to the communion of the Church, never again offenses toward any people, never again recourse to the logic of violence, never again discrimination, exclusion, oppression or contempt for the poor and weak.”
Never again. This is the Church's plea, voiced by its chief shepherd. Now it's up to individual Catholics today to stop thwarting the Gospel — and start advancing it among their neighbors, both Catholic and non-Catholic.
We don't want a future Pope to have the painful experience of having to apologize for us.
* * *
The timing was extraordinary. The day Pope John Paul II pronounced his confession for Catholics’ sins, attention turned sharply to the Church's greater legacy: its heroes.
First, there was the death of Cardinal Ignatius Kung Pin-mei, the exiled Chinese Church leader, on March 12. He was diagnosed with painful stomach cancer in late February, died in Stamford, Conn., at 98.
The Church's oldest cardinal showed “heroic fidelity to Christ amid persecution and imprisonment,” Pope John Paul II said. Considered by the Vatican to be the legitimate bishop of Shanghai until his death, he had spent more than 30 years in prison in China for his refusal to renounce his ties with the Vatican and with the Pope.
Then, on March 13, the Holy Father began his annual Lenten retreat — this year, led by Archbishop Francois Xavier Nguyen Thuan, the head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
Archbishop Thuan also suffered persecution and became a witness to Christ's power during 13 years imprisonment in his native Vietnam.
These two men are examples of what the Church offers our time and all times: The holiness of so many of its sons and daughters against great odds. As Fulton Sheen said, speaking about persecuted prelate Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty, “The West had its Mindszenty, but the East has its Kung. God is glorified in his saints.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Creation With No Creator? Not a Chance DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:William Dembski is one of the bright lights in the fledgling science of Intelligent Design — ID, for short. The theory of intelligent design offers a serious and direct challenge to the materialistic viewpoint that informs much of today's scientific establishment. According to the materialist view, to be scientific means to attribute the complexity of natural things to the mindless workings of chance and matter. Arguing against this view, Dembski posits that “chance and necessity have proven too thin an explanatory soup on which to nourish a robust science. In fact, by dogmatically excluding [intelligent] design from science, scientists are themselves stifling scientific inquiry.”
What exactly is ID theory, and why should it be the new paradigm for directing scientific inquiry? “As a positive research program, intelligent design is the scientific discipline that systematically investigates the effects of intelligent causes,” especially in nature, explains Dembski.
Intelligent design theorists are careful to distinguish themselves from “creationists” because that label, as popularly applied, refers to biblical fundamentalists who read the Genesis account of creation as a literal, scientific text; many who hold to this view believe that, based on Old Testament genealogies, the universe is just over 6,000 years old.
ID theorists are creationists in one sense: They assert that we can know the universe has a designer. The launching point of their inquiry is not the Bible, but natural science. In this way, they are able to attack reductionist scientific materialism on scientific, rather than theological, grounds. For example, as Dembski notes, the ID theorists’ “critique of Darwinism is not based on any supposed incompatibility between Christian revelation and Darwinism. Instead, they begin their critique by arguing that Darwinism is, on its own terms, a failed scientific research program — that it does not constitute a well-supported scientific theory, that its explanatory power is severely limited and that it fails abysmally when it tries to account for the grand sweep of natural history.”
Dembski's most important contribution to advancing ID theory is “specified complexity.” Specified complexity is an ingenious tool, in great part because it gives teeth to the common-sense view that natural things are far too complex to have occurred through the blind workings of chance. This supposition was presented in philosophical terms by Sts. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, and advanced by scholars analyzing their thought through the centuries.
Dembski's specified complexity allows modern mathematics to be applied to the complexities of nature uncovered by macroscopic and microscopic advances over the past 50 years.
Chance is ‘too thin a soup on which to nourish a robust science’
Here's an example of specified complexity at work. For almost a century and a half, when Darwinists have been confronted by the astounding complexity of natural things, they have taken refuge in some version of what's been called the “typing-Shakespearean-monkey” argument: Give a monkey a typewriter and a million years and, eventually, by pecking mindlessly at the keys, he will produce a sonnet worthy of the bard himself. By this logic, over billions and billions of years, the universe “happens upon” marvels of complexity like the human eye. In other words, God is replaced by sheer chance.
Dembski doesn't think so. A Shakespearean sonnet, he argues, is an example of specified complexity — it can only have been generated by an intelligent cause. “Complexity guarantees that the object in question is not so simple that it can readily be attributed to chance,” he writes. “Specification guarantees that the object exhibits the right sort of pattern associated with intelligent causes. A single letter of the alphabet is specified without being complex. A long sequence of random letters is complex without being specified. A Shakespearean sonnet is both complex and specified. Specified complexity is how we detect design empirically.”
So we would not be shocked if the monkey happened to type “my.” But if he typed “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,” then we would know that chance could generate something that appears to be designed but isn't. Could such a thing happen?
No. The chances of blindly generating even this short poetic line are so astronomically small as to be impossible. If a particularly diligent monkey typed at one keystroke per second, it would take him not 7 times as long as the universe has existed, but 70,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times as long as the oldest estimated age of the universe, to peck through all the possibilities.
Even at 20 billion years, the universe is far too young to support such ridiculously low probabilities. The double criteria of specification and complexity filter out chance as a cause, and point directly to an intelligent designer — of Shakespeare's sonnets as well as the cosmos.
Monkey business aside, when we look at the complexity of, for example, the DNA sequence in even the simplest functioning organism, we find the odds of its generation by chance to be far smaller than a line from a sonnet. Thus does Dembski conclude that only an intelligent designer could have brought it about. This argument seems to gain strength as science continues to uncover ever-deepening layers of complexity in nature.
While InterVarsity publishes titles primarily aimed at evangelical Protestant audiences, and Intelligent Design is no exception, Catholics should be keenly interested in this work. The details behind these sorts of scientific investigations and theories can be quite daunting, yet Dembski has done a fine job of putting the ID and specified-complexity pieces of the puzzle in layman's terms. It's exciting to know that we can scientifically support the Catholic principle that the marks of God's magnificent designing intelligence are evident throughout nature.
Ben Wiker teaches at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Benjamin D. Wiker ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:Insulting Apologies
Re: “‘We Have Sinned,’” March 12-18. The Holocaust was one of the most tragic events in the history of mankind and the hideous murder of 6 million innocent Jews must never be forgotten. There is no conceivable way, however, that the Catholic Church can be held accountable for this tragic event. The papal Mass of apology celebrated March 12 at the Vatican is a blatant insult to millions of Catholics throughout the world, and especially to the memory of thousands of Catholics who gave their lives trying to stop Hitler and the Nazis. To suggest that Pope Pius XII could have prevented this event by being more vocal is ludicrous. Hitler had a large army with a lot of weapons and the only thing that was going to stop him was a bigger army with bigger weapons. To apologize for the Inquisition and the Crusades is actually laughable. These are historical events and must be looked at in their context.
John Foley Springfield, Pennsylvania
Celibacy in the Eastern Churches
Although I strongly support clerical celibacy in the Latin Catholic Church, Fr. Mullady does a disservice to Eastern Catholics and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (“Celibacy, More Ancient Than Many Think, Is Also Surprisingly Popular,” March 12-18).
Regardless whether the Council of Trullo's decision was “novel” or not (many of its decisions were certainly binding until recently), the current Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches a.) allows for the ordination of married men and b.) does not require them to abstain from sexual relations with their spouses. Thus, to say “It was totally against Tradition that a priest could have conjugal relations and also celebrate the Eucharist” is not true, for they may certainly do so now.
I beg Father Mullady not to implicitly overstate his case. This is a legal, not doctrinal, matter.
Finally, a correction. The phrase “conjugal chastity” includes sexual relations between spouses. There is nothing “unchaste” about it! Father Mullady might have better employed a term like “abstinence” to make his point.
Cat Clark Steubenville, Ohio
The Barring of Father Marx
I have before me a copy of an article you recently released, “Father Marx Is Barred From Saying Mass” (March 5-11). If I may, I would like to make several clarifications. Hopefully, this will not be regarded by my superior as a breach of my vow of obedience.
The “facts” stated about my retirement are not quite right. My abbot informed me of his decision to retire me. The point is, I did not retire, but was retired by my abbot. In adherence to my vow of obedience, I submitted to the abbot's request that I retire from HLI (Human Life International).
Does one ever retire from being pro-life? I don't think that's possible. I shall continue to defend life-until I draw my last breath, though it need not be under the HLI banner. I well recall Pope John Paul telling me in 1973, “You are a courageous fighter; never give up.”
I have been accused of making “counterproductive allegations about the current and legally established leadership of HLI.” I have indeed questioned positions they are now taking on issues such as sex education, which do not reflect the “former” mission of HLI. I do not see how this has anything to do with my vow of obedience!
I do hope that Father Welch will reconsider his decision to use our good donors’ dollars to pursue more legal action. I don't see this as being an efficient use of time or money.
The canons you list in reference to my suspension befuddle me. I have been in full communion with the Catholic Church all of my life. I can honestly say that I have never violated any of these canons.
Father Paul Marx, OSB Mount Morris, Illinois
As a former Human Life International [HLI] “disgruntled” employee, and one who has remained by Father Marx's side throughout this entire charade, I feel both qualified and compelled to make certain clarifications.
It was always Father Marx's intent to abide [by] the transition plan of the HLI Board of Directors. He hoped to continue his fundraising efforts (he has always been HLI's premier fundraiser), assist with two HLI conferences and eventually “bow out” at a gala retirement symposium in Minnesota in 2001.
However, just before Father Marx was “resigned” on Aug. 15, he wrote to the HLI board of directors and informed them that he would “not actively participate in HLI's fundraising efforts.”
He went on: “As I have stated repeatedly in the past, I am simply not comfortable making representations to potential donors that their money will be used wisely and efficiently.” Please be aware that this letter was written on Aug. 10, before his alleged “retirement.”
In a letter dated Aug. 30, Father Welch responded: “Regretfully, but under the circumstances, I must also inform you that you are no longer authorized to speak, act or write as a representative or agent of HLI. You are no longer authorized to use HLI letterhead, donor/supporter lists, staff or other HLI assets. Any HLI assets or materials you may have should be returned immediately.”
Many of Father Marx's close friends continue to hear exaggerated stories concerning his health. ... Father Marx received extensive testing at the Mayo Clinic last year, and their report indicates that he is totally competent and should maintain a high level of participation in all areas, including the professional. ...
Clearly you have produced a one-sided perspective in your article. You have barely grazed the surface of this masquerade, and if you seek the entire truth, I encourage you to expand your interrogatories beyond the sphere of HLI's headquarters in Front Royal. This is, above all, a crisis in leadership. The HLI board knows the problem and they must act to rectify it.
Evelyn M. Kerr Former Executive Assistant to the HLI President Flint Hill, Virginia
I have not read or heard of a bishop in the United States stating that any Catholic legislator who voted against the partial-birth abortion ban cannot receive communion until they reconcile with the Church. Why would the small offenses of Father Marx be judged more harshly?
John DeMaio Hoboken, New Jersey
Vatican-Recommended Movies
I am a Register subscriber. It is an excellent publication and I look forward to each issue. In fact, it has totally replaced my local secular newspaper for my free-time/lunch-hour reading. Thank you for this excellent weekly snapshot of important news from around the world and in the Church.
“Assisi Grunge,” a critique of the 1989 movie Francesco (March 12-18), mentions a list of 45 noteworthy films as compiled by the Vatican's commission on social communications. I have heard of this list before, but I am having trouble finding it on the Vatican's Web site or anywhere on the Internet. I was hoping you might be able to let me know how or where I can get this list.
Ed Chichirichi Wilmington, Delaware
Editor's note: A listing of the films, along with brief descriptions of each, can be found on the U.S. bishops’ Web site at www.nccbuscc.org/fb/vatican-films.htm. The Register will soon conclude its series of reviews of the 45.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Paul Marx ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Jewish Group Warms to Pius XII DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:After all these years as an apologist, having found myself in the same kinds of situations over and over again, I recently had a rare “first-time” experience. I was asked to speak to a Jewish group about Pope Pius XII and his actions (and alleged inaction) before and during World War II.
We sat in a large circle, the two dozen or so of us who met in the community room at a mall, and I began saying that a Catholic apologist, which is what I am, is not someone who goes about the country apologizing for being a Catholic. An apologist is someone who gives an explanation or defense of the faith, and that is what I proposed to do regarding Pius XII. I proposed to explain to these somewhat skeptical people that what they had been led to believe about that Pope just wasn't so.
I began my story with an account of Eugenio Pacelli's pre-papal life, particularly his years as papal nuncio to Germany. I went through a long chronological list of his anti-Nazi comments and activities prior to his accession to the papal throne — how, for instance, as early as 1922 he was terming Hitler “obsessed” (this was a year before the attempted Nazi putsch in Bavaria). I noted that Cardinal Pacelli drafted Mit Brennender Sorge, the anti-Nazi encyclical issued by Pius XI in 1937.
As I went through my list, I could sense my listeners‘ surprise. I almost could hear their thoughts: “The Pope said that against the Nazis? He condemned them so early, so long before other leaders did? He did that to oppose them — even including cooperation in an early conspiracy to overthrow Hitler?”
When I discussed John Cornwell's book Hitler's Pope — a truly dishonest work and a case study of sham scholarship — and read to them the line that is Cornwell's most compelling argument against Pius XII, they were nonplussed. The line comes from a letter signed by then Msgr. Pacelli in 1919. The letter discusses Bolshevik revolutionaries in Germany and identifies one as a Russian Jew whose appearance was unkempt and who speech was coarse.
‘That's it?’ one of my listeners interjected.
‘I see nothing wrong with that.’
“That's it?” one of my listeners interjected. “I see nothing wrong with that.”
No one else in the group seemed to find in that single sentence any semblance of anti-Semitism. All they found was a description of an unattractive revolutionary who happened to be Russian and who happened to be Jewish.
On to the war years. I went month by month, showing how Pius XII — he became Pope six months before hostilities broke out — was ceaseless in his solicitude for persecuted Jews. I reviewed the plaudits he received during and after the war from Jewish leaders such as future Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, and from Jewish scholars such as historian Pinchas Lapide, who credited the Pope with saving 860,000 Jewish lives.
I even mentioned a sensitive point, the conversion of the chief rabbi of Rome to Catholicism. Israel Zolli had led the Roman Jews in the 1930s. He became friends with the future Pius XII and appreciated the Cardinal's solicitude for the Jews. After the war Zolli became a Catholic, and at his baptism he took as his name Eugenio, the Pope's own given name. “How could Zolli do that,” I asked, “if he harbored even the least suspicion that Pius had left something undone in trying to alleviate the persecutions?” I suppose my Jewish listeners were not pleased to learn of a rabbi who became a Christian, but they seemed to accept that Zolli's story under-cuts claims of the Pope's disregard for or antagonism to the Jews.
I wrapped up with a brief discussion of Rolf Hochhuth's 1963 play The Deputy. Produced five years after Pius XII's death, it was the first major blast against him. It has been the main vehicle for the spread of the myth of the Pope's vacillation. Hochhuth, by the way, for all the bias in his play, did not accuse Pius XII of anti-Semitism but of moral weakness, lack of backbone. Only much later did writers such as Cornwell begin to claim that Pius harbored animosity toward Jews.
After my remarks came a discussion period. Several people said, in essence, “Yes, I can accept all you say, and I am pleased to learn what Pius XII did, but I remain wary of the Catholic Church because of what happened to my people in the Middle Ages.” This is the burden of history, even when it is a history of actions that the Church, in those very centuries, opposed.
Among my listeners there was an intellectual willingness to distinguish between the Church's teachings and the actions of some of her wayward members, but there was an affective incapacity to do so. They could accept all that I said, thus exonerating Pius XII, but still there remained a wariness concerning the Church and, derivatively, of Catholics.
In years past, whether a lifetime ago or a millennium ago, some Catholics failed to live up to the teachings of their Church and left the ancestors of these Jews with a negative impression of what it meant to be a Christian. That impression has been handed down, generation to generation. Fair? Maybe not, but that is what has happened. The sins of the fathers have been visited on the sons.
Perhaps we can address that at a future meeting.
Karl Keating is founding director of Catholic Answers.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Karl Keating ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: ALAN GREENSPAN SHRUGGED DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:If a life can have a ‘theme’ song — and I believe that every worthwhile one has — mine is [best] expressed in one word: Individualism.”
In writing those words, Ayn Rand captured both the essence of her life and its isolation. A song, of course, is an expression in search of connection. It exists to be played for someone other than the performer. Ayn Rand (her first name rhymes with “mine”) tried to enlarge her life by truncating it; inevitably, she failed. Yet her failure has been misinterpreted by the general public as a success. As a consequence, Rand has left the world a rather formidable legacy — one, in fact, that is impossible to ignore.
Nonetheless, Rand is, to many, an enigma.
She had no academic credentials, remained a lifelong outsider, and was generally scorned by established scholars. She regarded criticism as a sign of moral treason, which would precipitate an angry tirade. Yet approximately 20 million copies of her books have been sold. According to U.S. News & World Report, her books sell upward of 300,000 copies a year. And we are now experiencing, as one reporter recently described it, “a Rand boomlet.”
Barbara Branden's biography of Rand, The Passion of Ayn Rand (1987), makes the phenomenal success of her subject even more puzzling.
Rand, from a moral point of view, was a singularly unattractive individual.
Branden informs her readers of how Rand and Barbara's husband, Nathaniel, rationally explained to their shocked spouses how their moral superiority and rational individualism justified the affair they were carrying on with each other. This four-sided arrangement did not set well with the injured spouses. Rand's husband tried to find comfort in the bottle. Barbara suffered severe panic attacks. During one of these attacks, she called to her “friend” of 19 years for help. Rand's response was one of reptilian coldness: “How dare you think about yourself instead of me!”
Yet when her lover, Nathaniel Branden, took a younger woman for his mistress, Rand flew into a rage. Evidently, Rand did not extend the same individual liberties to her lover as she claimed for herself; indeed, she told him that if he had the smallest shred of moral decency left in him that he would, at the very least, remain impotent for the rest of his life.
Barbara tells us of how Rand managed to make the lives of everyone around her miserable and, when her life was over, she had barely a friend in the world. She was contemptuous even of her followers. When Rand was laid to rest, at 77, her coffin bore a 6-foot replica of the dollar sign.
So why the mass adulation? Or, at least, why now?
Her Theme Song
Rand was born Alice Rosenbaum in Petrograd, Russia, in 1905 and left her native country at 21, having been thoroughly horrified by the anti-individualistic mind-set of the Bolshevik collective. After arriving alone in New York City with about $50 in her pocket, she stayed with relatives in Chicago for a while before moving to Hollywood, where she worked at odd jobs — stuffing envelopes, waiting tables and running a studio wardrobe department — until she could financially sustain herself as a writer.
In 1938, she wrote Anthem, a science fiction novella depicting a collectivist world where the word “I” is forbidden. Her real success, however, did not come until the publication in 1943, despite rejections from 12 publishers, of The Fountainhead. This sprawling 754-page work, later made into a movie starring Gary Cooper, is the glorification of an architectural genius who refuses to bend to bureaucratic pressure. It was not well received. “It is,” wrote screenwriter Nora Ephron, rather tersely, “a ridiculous book.”
In 1957, she produced her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged, in which she canonizes her code of self-interest. She uses her main character, John Galt, to articulate her own philosophy: “I swear — by my life and my love of it — that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”
Rand's philosophy dismisses faith as baseless, altruism as unethical.
God cannot exist; love for neighbor cannot work. This is what has sold 20 million books?
Atlas Shrugged inspired a cult following, particularly among college students in the ‘60s, though the critics seldom had a kind word for it. Many found it too simplistic and didactic, a naive indulgence in black and white polarities. Ruth Chapin Blackman saw it as a “polemic inadequately disguised as a novel.” Writing for The New York Times Book Review, Granville Hicks found it utterly unconvincing: “loudly as Miss Rand proclaims her love of life, it seems that the book is written out of hate.”
The book was bound to infuriate conscientious Christians. In one passage, John Galt states that it is wrong to “help a man who has no virtues, to help him on the ground of his suffering as such, to accept faults, his need, as a claim.” John Chamberlain advised that Rand should not have tried “to rewrite the Sermon on the Mount.” Another reviewer found Atlas Shrugged “excruciatingly awful,” while ex-Communist whistle-blower Whittaker Chambers said, less dramatically: “I find it a remarkably silly book.”
Yet sell it did. While negotiating with Random House for the publication of Atlas Shrugged, Bennett Cerf tried to persuade the author to cut John Galt's bombastic 38-page speech. Her retort: “Would you cut the Bible?” Cerf capitulated.
Selfishness as Virtue
After the immense popularity of Atlas Shrugged, Rand turned her attention to expressing her philosophy in a more forthright manner, such as in her 1961 book The Virtue of Selfishness. She was once asked if she could present the essence of her philosophy, which she called objectivism, while standing on one foot. She complied, identifying its metaphysics as objective reality, its epistemology as reason, its ethics as self-interest and its politics as capitalism.
What objectivism boils down to is an extraordinarily narrow way of thinking and living in which thought is restricted to reasoning about what I can perceive, and life is reduced to acquiring what I can have. Therefore, while faith is dismissed as baseless, altruism is rejected as unethical. God simply cannot exist. Love for neighbor cannot work. Objectivism is a euphemism for self-indulgence and greed, as is made only too clear by her popular aphorisms: “Wealth is the product of a man's capacity to think.” “Money is the barometer of a society's virtue.” “Altruism is the root of all evil.” “Civilization is the process toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free of men.”
Sociologist Peter Berger has said, “It is difficult to accord an important place to Ayn Rand either as a novelist or as a thinker.” Even Gore Vidal wrote: “Ayn Rand is a rhetorician who writes novels I have never been able to read.” George Gilder decried the fact that Rand avoided the problem of the family — an institution that cannot possibly survive on the principle of isolated self-interest — by simply ignoring it altogether.
An Ideology for the Idea-less
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan may be a key in helping to understand the recent resurgence of interest in Rand's novels and her not-so-novel philosophy. In the midst of an economic boom, the prospect of becoming privately wealthy takes on a certain attractive possibility. Psychologist Paul Vitz stated back in 1977, when the market was slumping, that “millions of Americans are beginning to learn that it's very hard to actualize one's self at today's prices.” Self-psychology is connected to the stock market, which, in turn, is connected to Greenspan, the most illustrious of all Rand's disciples.
Interest in Rand is also sustained and intensified by the Objectivist Newsletter, The Ayn Rand Letter, books, documentaries, and movies about her life, a 1999 U.S. postage stamp bearing her image, and the Ayn Rand Institute which is the authoritative source on the Internet for her ideas. There, on the Internet, one can find the expected advocacy for abortion (“The embryo is clearly pre-human; only the mystical notions of religious dogma treat this clump of cells as constituting a person”), propaganda for assisted suicide (“rational self-interest”) and diatribes against the Pope (nothing is “more dangerous” than “faith” as a “guide to life”).
The legions of followers of Rand (Randians, and a special breed called Randroids, who believe in the truth of Ayn Rand and only Ayn Rand) is a phenomenon that may be at least partially explained in view of what Time magazine once said of Camille Paglia, who was a cult figure in 1992: “What began as a movement of eccentric individuals has turned into an ideology that attracts weak personalities.”
“My personal life,” wrote Rand in 1957, “is a postscript to my novels; it consists of the sentence: ‘And I mean it.’ I have always lived by the philosophy I present in my books — and it has worked for me, as it works for my characters. The concreteness differs, the abstractions are the same.”
The concrete evidence, unfortunately, does not appear to support this claim. Rand tried to be a paper hero and the lightness of her imagination could not support the weight of her reality.
Donald DeMarco is a philosophy professor at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: On Whose Behalf Does the Pope Ask Forgiveness? DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:On the first Sunday in Lent, March 12, Pope John Paul II enacted the Our Father in a startling new way. In the name of Christian believers of today and yesterday, he prayed: “Forgive us the wrong we have done.” The papal theologian, Father Georges Cottier, a Swiss Dominican, announced that the Pope had opened a new page for theological reflection. Like all beginning exercises, it will take time to get the lessons right.
The crucial distinction in the Pope's petition for forgiveness turns on that between the Church and her members. And the distinction, as St. Paul bequeathed it to us, is not hidden, but plain: Christ is the Head; we are the members. If we ponder this truth, we realize that the Gospel proclaims a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. This is really counterintuitive. And that is why many people seem to have missed the point of what people are calling “the Pope's apology.”
When we say that the Church is holy and cannot sin, we mean that the Church enjoys Christ's own holiness, the substantial holiness of his human nature. Christ possesses this holiness because he is God, not because we are his members. On the contrary, the great gift of baptismal grace makes us sharers in a life and holiness that always exceeds whatever the members of the Church, including the Blessed Virgin herself, can provide. That's why we're called “Christians,” those who “belong to Christ.”
Unfortunately, human experience does-n't help us understand what the Pope has done. The Church is not a community in the modern sense of community. Most of us only know of communities where individuals are joined by contractual arrangements such as constitutions. In the present state of things, where individualism reigns, the community actually becomes less than the sum of its parts, for individual citizens or subjects tend to hold back as much as they can.
Indeed, the Western political experience makes reading Lumen Gentium (Vatican II's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church) very difficult. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger likes to remind his listeners that the People of God compose not a citizenry, but a race. The Church, he says, is not a democracy. The reason for this assertion is not opinion, but revealed truth: The gift of divine and everlasting life comes only from God, not from a body politic. To grasp this, we have to pray to learn the full implication of what it means to address God as Father. “The servant dares to call his Lord Father,” as St. Peter Chrysologus says.
Because here below each member can still refuse the grace that makes a servant holy, the Church on earth is at once spotless bride and dusty pilgrim. But only because the Church is the mystical Body of Christ can the Pope ask forgiveness in the name of all Christians. We can think of the papal gesture as the flip side of granting an indulgence. Because of the work of Christ and of the saints who have done the will of God throughout the ages, those in full communion with the bishop of Rome, and on his conditions, can avail themselves of the superabundant satisfaction that belongs to the treasury of the Church. We are united with them in the communion of saints.
Only because the Church is the mystical Body of Christ can the Pope ask forgiveness in the name of all Christians.
In the same way, we can ask pardon for the sins of our sisters and brothers in the faith because the Church establishes us in solidarity with them. But we must be careful about the comparison; it is a delicate one. Sin divides; it never unites.
What makes it possible for the Pope to ask pardon for the sins of past Catholic believers is not our solidarity in guilt. In doing so, he is not inviting us to look back and live with regret. The holy act in which he engages the Church is not a Christian version of a diplomatic apology. On the contrary, it is the sacramentality of forgiveness.
What grounds the Pope's heroically courageous action is nothing other than the all-important truth that Jesus teaches us in the Gospel (Matthew 6:7-13): “Forgive us the wrong we have done as we forgive those who wrong us.”
John Paul's appeal for forgiveness for past sins will bear fruit only to the extent that each one of us now prays the Our Father with renewed faith and earnestness.
March 12's papal confession, like the sacrament of confession, is designed to free us to become saints. Past sins — our own and others’ — are over. The Church now offers us holiness for today.
Register senior writer Father Romanus Cessario writes from Brighton, Massachusetts.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Romanus Cessario, Op ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Great Jubilee Indulgence Don't Leave 2000 Without It DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:A Roman pilgrimage may be out of reach for many Catholics this Jubilee Year, but, for most, a Jubilee indulgence is so easy to come by that it would be foolhardy to miss the opportunity to obtain one. In fact, Catholics won't need to travel outside their home diocese to gain the exact same spiritual benefits available to the thousands who will make their way to one of the holy sites in the Eternal City this year.
So what is an indulgence and why is the Church offering one to us right now?
For many, the mention of “indulgences” conjures an image of Martin Luther, exasperated over some Church officials profiteering off the selling of indulgences in the early 1500s, posting his 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral and launching the Protestant Reformation. This is unfortunate, since such a conception is based on distortions.
What's an Indulgence?
To understand an indulgence — the removal of all or part of the temporal punishment due to sin in return for specific, Church-approved works and interior dispositions — one must understand sin in relation to God's justice and mercy.
Essentially, each sin we commit creates a cost that must be paid. While it's true that God, in his boundless mercy, forgives us when we confess our sins and resolve to sin no more, the “cost” of our offense is still owed — in the same way that justice is not fully restored after a boy who breaks a neighbor's window apologizes to his neighbor and is granted forgiveness.
The boy has indeed been forgiven — morally, he's been let “off the hook” — but, for justice to be done, he still has to pay for the damaged window. Indulgences are, in effect, payments to fix the windows we've broken through our sins.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains it this way: “An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishments due for their sins” (No. 1478).
Just Rewards
The practice of granting indulgences came from the earliest Christian martyrs. The prayers of a condemned Christian were held in such high esteem that fellow Christians would travel great distances, sometimes at the peril of their own lives, to visit those in prison waiting to die a martyr's death. At the time of the visit, the travelers would ask the soon-to-be-martyr for the favor of prayers for the traveler's sins. As the faith spread and pilgrimages to Rome and other places became a popular devotional practice, the custom of granting spiritual favors in exchange for an individual's sacrificial efforts involved in making the pilgrimage continued.
The practice of gaining indulgences exploded in popularity in the 1200s at the encouragement of St. Francis of Assisi. Spiritual rewards came to be granted not only for pilgrimages, but also for other works of devotion, penance and charity.
By the time of Luther, it had become common to grant indulgences in exchange for financial donations to various charitable causes, including large building projects such as churches and cathedrals. The upheaval of the Reformation helped bring about a re-evaluation of the administration of indulgences, but the Church never condemned the principle behind indulgences.
On the contrary, almsgiving continues to be encouraged to this day. One of the good things to come out of that turbulent period was the Church taking steps to ensure that the focus of giving alms returned to the interior disposition of penitents.
The Jubilee Indulgence
A Jubilee indulgence is only granted during a Church-proclaimed Jubilee Year — a rare occasion, indeed — and it is also plenary, which means “full.” This means that one Jubilee indulgence completely nullifies all temporal punishment due to sins that have been committed up to that point in a penitent's life. In other words, if you died immediately after obtaining a Jubilee indulgence (without sinning in that brief intervening time), you'd bypass purgatory and go straight to heaven.
In Pope John Paul II's Bull of Indiction of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, issued on Nov. 29, 1998, the Holy Father clearly delineated how to obtain this great gift of mercy. The acquisition requires certain interior actions, to be performed in conjunction with one of several prescribed exterior works (see the accompanying article below for specifics).
“The whole Jubilee journey, prepared for by pilgrimage, has as its starting point and its conclusion the celebration of the sacraments of penance and of the Eucharist, the paschal mystery of Christ, our peace and our reconciliation,” wrote the Pope. “[T]his is the transforming encounter which opens us to the gift of the indulgence for ourselves and others.”
Help Souls in Purgatory
Indulgences may be obtained only for the penitent or for someone who has died. An indulgence cannot be obtained for another living person since that person could seek an indulgence on his or her own.
“After we die, we will not be able to distract ourselves from the one thing necessary; namely, union with Christ,” explained Norbertine Father Hugh Barbour of the Diocese of Orange, Calif. “In purgatory, souls must suffer temporal punishment due to their sins so that they will be able to enter fully into the purity and glory of Christ.
These souls suffer in hope because they know they will eventually be united with God in heaven, but the sufferings are more severe than we can imagine here.”
As censor librorum for his diocese, Father Barbour judges books on their doctrinal content and recommends whether or not they should receive an imprimatur (“let it be printed”) or nihil obstat (“nothing stands in the way”) from his bishop.
Unlike our condition on earth, the dead are separated from their bodies until the final judgment. “Without their bodies,” added Father Barbour, “they have no way of distracting themselves from yearning to be with God.
They also have no way to hasten their passage through purgatory because they are frozen, as it were, in the state of charity in which they died. Our prayers can help them enter heaven faster.”
Lent, he points out, is an especially good time to obtain one (or many) Jubilee indulgences for ourselves, for our deceased relatives and friends or for the souls in purgatory, especially for those who have no one to pray for them.
Karen Walker writes from San Juan Capistrano, California.
----- EXCERPT: Overseas travel is recommended, but not necessary, to gain the grace ----- EXTENDED BODY: Karen Walker ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Five Steps to Gain Your Indulgence DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:To obtain a Jubilee indulgence, a believer must fulfill certain prescribed interior and exterior acts, as outlined in Pope John Paul II's Bull of Indiction of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.
The faithful may gain a plenary indulgence — either for themselves or for a deceased person in purgatory — each time they perform these acts, but they cannot obtain more than one indulgence a day. Nor can they obtain an indulgence for another living person, since that person may obtain one for him- or herself.
Here's how to obtain the indulgence in five simple steps:
1. Worthily receive the sacrament of confession.
2. Participate in Mass and receive holy Communion.
3. Pray for the Holy Father's intentions.
4. Be willing to undergo a true conversion of heart.
5. Within eight days of confession, and preferably on the same day as receiving Communion, perform one of the following exterior acts of prayer, sacrifice, charity or alms-giving:
l Make a pilgrimage to one of the Church-approved Jubilee pilgrimage sites around the world, including any of those designated within your own diocese (ask your pastor or call your diocese to find out the local designated Jubilee Year pilgrimage sites).
The visit must include either devout participation in Mass or another liturgical celebration, such as lauds or vespers; a pious exercise such as the Stations of the Cross, the rosary or eucharistic adoration; or the recitation of the “Akathistos” hymn in honor of the Mother of God. These pious exercises must end with the Our Father, the profession of faith in any approved form and a prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
l Visit someone in need, such as the sick, the imprisoned, the elderly living alone or the handicapped as though visiting Christ himself.
l Offer up a personal sacrifice, such as abstaining for at least one full day from unnecessary consumption — smoking, alcohol or fasting, etc.
l Donate a proportionate amount of money to the poor or to a religious or social cause that helps people, especially those that benefit abandoned children, troubled youth, elderly who are in need or foreigners in other countries who are struggling with their living conditions.
l Donate a substantial portion of personal free time to activities which benefit the community.
What could be more fruitful for our souls and those suffering in purgatory than gaining one or more Jubilee indulgences this year?
— Karen Walker
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Leaving Fame for God DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:Soprano Graciela Arriola had everything an opera singer could want: a brilliant career in her native Mexico as well as growing recognition on the European stage. But she left it all behind in order to become a Franciscan nun. “Every time I was on stage, I could touch, just barely, a fullness, a spiritual transcendence which brought me closer to God, but which always escaped me,” she recalls. “Every successful concert left me with a great emptiness. I knew that I needed something more.”
Graciela was born in 1966 to a devoutly religious family in Mexico City. In 1986, she enrolled in the city's National Conservatory of Music. Her career took off in 1990 after she won first place in her country's most prestigious national contest for opera singers. The following year marked Graciela's debut at Mexico City's National Theater of Fine Arts in Donizetti's Lucia di Lamermoor, an extremely difficult role which won her the Union of Theater and Music Journalists’ Prize, another coveted award. That same year, the Mexican newspaper Claridades declared Graciela “Female Opera Revelation of the Year.” She performed with all of the principal Mexican orchestras, singing opera as well as sacred music and receiving accolades for her extraordinary talents.
After receiving her diploma at the National Conservatory in 1992, Graciela headed for Europe, where she enrolled in the prestigious Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. She performed throughout Europe: in Austria, Germany, Spain, Poland, Hungary and Portugal, as well as in the Czech and Slovak Republics.
She also sang in Egypt and Morocco, while at the same time continuing to perform in Mexico, where she was considered the best female operatic voice in the country.
“I never expected all this success,” Sister Graciela told the Register. “I didn't understand it, it was too much, too fast.
“It was, in fact, the very applause that I received from audiences all over the world that made me think that this was not all there was to life, that there had to be more. It was then that I felt the desire to go beyond fame. I realized that my soul desired much more. Before each concert, I would kneel down and ask the Lord to reveal what he wanted from me. Like the Virgin Mary, I would say, ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let the Lord do with me what he will.’”
Above the Arias
The more Graciela achieved fulfillment in her career, the more she longed for spiritual transcendence. “My audiences always seemed to understand the message that I had inside me, but, ironically, I was not able to perceive it,” she recalls. “I felt that I had to express something much more profound than the arias I was singing.”
In 1994, while still living in Salzburg, Graciela took a trip to Italy in order to visit Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis. It was here that a young man handed Graciela a flier with an invitation to a five-day vocational course organized by the Franciscan Sisters of Saint Filippa Mareri. “I owe my vocation to a piece of paper that someone happened to give me while I happened to be in Assisi,” says Sister Graciela. “This was a wonderful experience for me — the chance to ask the Lord to make me understand what he truly wanted from me.”
Against the backdrop of Assisi's sublime spirituality, Graciela, along with 180 other young people, read the Bible, visited sanctuaries and listened to the experiences of nuns and friars. “While listening to the word of God, I was struck. It was as if I had been living with a veil over my eyes and it was finally removed. I had the intuition that a consecrated life was perhaps what God wanted from me.”
Though she continued to live and study in Salzburg, Graciela went to Assisi every two months in order to meet with Father Giovanni Marini, the priest who guided her along the spiritual path which eventually led her to leave fame and glory behind her for the obscure life of a Franciscan nun. “After a year and a half of this spiritual journey,” she says, “I was able to discover that what I had been looking for in song was God — while, at the same time, it was God who had been looking for me in order to make me a singer of his gifts and his grace.”
In 1995, after receiving her diploma from the Mozarteum, Graciela canceled all her singing engagements and began her novitiate at the Institute of Franciscan Nuns of Santa Filippa Mareri in Borgo S. Pietro di Petrelia Salto, about 50 miles northeast of Rome. As Sister Graciela Maria de los Angeles, she took her preliminary vows of obedience, poverty and chastity in 1998.
The Franciscan Order of Saint Filippa Mareri, which was founded in 1228, has the courageous mission of saving abandoned children of all religions from death and disease by giving them a safe refuge where they can find not only shelter and schooling but also love, affection and prayer.
In 1994, the sisters opened a mission in a remote town in Albania, one of the poorest countries in Europe. Last spring, they were there to assist thousands of desperate refugees fleeing from war-torn Kosovo. Over the past five years, the nuns have ministered to between 4,000 and 5,000 people in this area.
Ever the Artist
Sister Graciela is currently in Assisi, where she is studying at the Theological Institute as well as contributing, through song, to the vocational courses organized by her order. In October, she will take her perpetual vows.
“I am still an artist,” affirms Sister Graciela, “but my greatest desire is to be a true instrument of the message of the Gospel — no longer for my glory but for the glory of God. I ask the Lord to show me the way that I can reach people, especially young people, in their search for the truth.”
Sister Graciela continues, in fact, to find new ways to use her voice to serve God. Recently, she was “discovered” by the La Madre de Los Pobres Foundation, a San Francisco-based charity established in 1982 by the late Franciscan Father Alfred Boeddeker. The foundation, which is headed by Salesian Father Larry N. Lorenzoni, has been providing financial support to the activities of Sister Graciela's order. After listening to her sing at a Mass in the Holy Father's residence at Castel Gandolfo, La Madre Foundation vice president Frank Clark proposed that she record a CD in order to provide much-needed funds for the mission in Albania.
Accompanied by pianist Luigi D'Amato, Sister Graciela recorded Alleluia, a collection of 10 pieces including arias from Mozart and Donizetti, as well as religious songs and modern music, sung in English, Latin, Italian and Spanish.
When asked if it wasn't at all difficult to give up stardom for a humble life of poverty, chastity and prayer, Sister Graciela explains: “It has been said that he who leaves everything for Jesus will get it back one hundred times over. This has been my experience: For the first time I have been given the opportunity to record a CD. But if God had told me never to sing again, it wouldn't matter at all. I have found the happiness, the peace and the joy that my previous successes never gave me.”
Berenice Cocciolillo is based in Rome.
----- EXCERPT: A rising opera star left adoring fans for abandoned children ----- EXTENDED BODY: Berenice Cocciolillo ----- KEYWORDS: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Prizer's Picks DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:Antz (1998)
Ants are usually symbols for conformity and mindless hard work. This computer-animated feature breaks with the norm in an imaginative, root-f o r - t h e -underdog story about worker ants who overthrow an unjust caste system.
It also skillfully depicts how our human world must appear to small insects. Z (voice of Woody Allen) is a restless drone who falls for the snotty princess Bala (Sharon Stone). Hoping to get close to her, he switches places with a friend (Sylvester Stallone) who's a soldier in the royal army.
But instead the lovesick, meek worker-ant finds himself drafted into a battle against a fearsome-looking termite colony.
Z is the only survivor of a brutal skirmish. Hailed as a war hero, he teams up with the princess as they work together against an evil scheme by the power-hungry General Mandible (Gene Hackman).
Warning: Though Antz's message of self-sacrifice among comrades is appealing to both children and adults, some of its ironic humor is adults-only.
Breaking Away (1979)
Growing up is never easy.
Breaking Away is a low-key, charming comedy which explores those issues in the context of love, bicycle racing and class consciousness. Dave Stohler (Dennis Christopher) and his three buddies (Jackie Early Haley, Dennis Quaid and Daniel Stern) are working-class kids who've just graduated from high school in a college town.
They're called “cutters” by the haughty university students because most locals spend their lives cutting rock in limestone quarries. Dave, an enthusiastic cyclist, is ashamed of his background and pretends to be Italian, as that country produces the best bicycle racers. He also courts a college girl (Robyn Douglass).
Dave learns some hard lessons when real Italian cyclists pass through town and mistreat him.
He bounces back to compete in the annual university bicycle race, which the local college kids are favored to win. Especially moving is Dave's relationship with his father (Paul Dooley), who tries to understand his ambitious son despite his own limitations.
Groundhog Day (1993)
If you were forced to relive the same day over and over again, you would probably learn not to repeat the same mistakes. But would the experience also turn you into a better person?
Arrogant Pittsburgh weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is assigned to cover a Groundhog Day celebration in nearby Punxsatawney with his hardworking producer Rita (Andie MacDowell), on whom he has a crush. Snowed in by a blizzard, he awakes the next morning in the same small town to find everything begins to happen the way it did the day before.
This process repeats itself day after day. Angry and bored, Bill tries to manipulate the situation to win Rita's heart, but he fails. His wiseguy bravado collapses into despair. Groundhog Day begins as a caustic comedy and seam-lessly transforms itself into a warmhearted fable.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Moral Ascent in the Alps DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:In 1995, Michael Waldstein had it made.
After years of graduate studies and teaching, he had become a tenured professor at Notre Dame University, providing him with a permanent job to support his wife and six children.
But at the invitation of Cardinal Christoph Schˆnborn, archbishop of Vienna, he left the job and South Bend, Ind., moving his family to a small Alpine town in Austria.
Pope John Paul II had asked the Austrian bishops to set up a papal institute for the study of theology, and Cardinal Schˆnborn wanted Waldstein to be the founding president. That school is the International Theological Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family (ITI, for short).
Located in Gaming, Austria, it occupies a recently restored medieval monastery, which it shares with Franciscan University of Steubenville's overseas program. Since its founding, which was assisted by Steubenville, ITI has attracted students from more than 15 countries, including a significant number of Americans.
Asked why he left a permanent position for the uncertainty of a new initiative, Waldstein replied that it seemed a “truly great thing” to build up the kind of institute he and Cardinal Schˆnborn had discussed: one studying marriage and the family in the light of the whole of theology, reading the great sources of theology and discussing them in seminars. Cardinal Schˆnborn’ s support moved him: “The more I know [Cardinal Schˆnborn] the more I love him and would walk into fire for him.” The cardinal serves as grand chancellor of ITI.
The Holy Father expressed his support during a visit to Austria in 1998: “May God grant that [the institute] grow into a strong tree that bears many fruits of increased awareness of the value of marriage and the family.”
ITI offers degrees in theology and in theological studies, the former being an in-depth academic program and the latter a postgraduate professional program. All the degrees include a specialization in marriage and the family. Waldstein said the study of marriage and the family has developed greatly in recent years.
“In many respects,” he explained, “one can call our age an age of marriage and the family. On the one hand negatively: There is a culture of death that rivals the worst of the late Roman Empire. Marriage and the family seem threatened as never before. On the other hand, positively: In philosophy — Martin Buber, Dietrich von Hildebrand, etc. — as well as in theology — de Lubac, Balthasar, etc. — one finds increasing attention to interpersonal relations, particularly the relation between man and woman.”
Returning to the Roots
An understanding of human relations, Waldstein said, sheds light on central truths of the faith, such as the Trinity and the relationship of Christ and his Church; conversely, those truths illumine human relationships. For example, we first know what a father or a son is by seeing human fathers and sons, and so our understanding of the first and second persons of the Trinity is drawn from a human relationship. But studying the Trinity helps us see more clearly how a human father and son should love one another.
The institute is quick to point out that this specialization is not affected by a narrow focus on marriage and the family only, but by putting them in the context of theology as a whole. Although several specialized courses on marriage and family issues are offered, the primary focus of the school, said professor Peter Kwasniewski, “is on the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, on the study of Catholic dogmas as a whole, and on seeing marriage and family topics in this context.
“One flaw in marriage and family studies has been an overemphasis on these domains in their particulars ... people often reject the Church's teachings because they do not understand what they are rooted in and what their ultimate purpose is. We need to take the discussion back to first principles, back to the roots of our faith — and no one has done this better than the great theologians of our tradition.”
ITI's course for a master's in theology is 10 semesters long, although students with a degree particularly strong in philosophy and theology can start at the seventh semester. Its licentiate program (a license is the Church degree between master's and doctorate) is four semesters long, as are the master's and doctorate programs in theological studies. Tuition is $18,000 a year. Once a student is accepted, the institute is committed to making studies financially possible for that student, including the cost for spouses and children.
The student body has included both married and single people, as well as seminarians and priests. Of the 54 currently enrolled students, most are in their late 20s.
Beth Swiney, of Tulsa, Okla., now in her third year at ITI, said the institute “far surpassed any expectations I might have had.”
She came to Austria after studying under Michael Waldstein at Notre Dame, impressed with his teaching on objective truth. She came not specifically for the emphasis on marriage and family, but “to study theology in a classical way — relying on a liberal arts approach that considers how all areas of learning are related to the one Truth, and reading the works of Fathers, Doctors and saints of the Church, rather than those of theology professors.”
Growth in Virtue
But Swiney said that during her studies at the institute she's developed an appreciation for the “surprising” ways in which marriage and family theology is important. She praises the institute for a focus on God that is not confined to the classroom, saying, “Theology that remained a purely academic pursuit would have failed, because by its nature it must be something that pervades one's whole life.”
The institute's motto is from the Psalms: Sicut Cervus Ad Fontes (as the deer to the sources of water). At ITI the sources are the writings of great theologians, from early Fathers of the Church such as St. Athanasius to recent authors such as Hans Urs von Balthasar. The Greek Fathers and St. Thomas Aquinas are given special attention in the curriculum. The students read the actual writings of the authors, rather than textbooks, and discuss them in classes. “We want our students to have the occasion for growing in the virtues of careful, searching reading, which raises questions and pursues them to the end,” said Waldstein.
This method of teaching, and the curriculum, are largely derived from the Great Books movement in the United States, especially from Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, Calif. (where both Waldstein and Kwasniewski did their undergraduate studies), and the Program of Liberal Studies at Notre Dame. This use of original texts and the seminar method constitutes the main difference between the institute in Gaming and the John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C., which has asked ITI to permit its licentiate candidates to do coursework in Gaming.
Classes are conducted in English. Students come from many different countries, and especially Eastern Europe, to whose formerly communist countries the institute has a special mission.
The diverse student body and geographical proximity of the institute to the great cultural centers of Europe make for close contact with other cultures, cited by students as one of the advantages of the school.
ITI has won praise from prominent educators. R. Glen Coughlin, dean of Thomas Aquinas College, called their course of study “a rigorous and orthodox Catholic program in theology.” Janet Smith, noted speaker and professor at the University of Dallas, commends ITI as a “much needed initiative” which “promises to renew Catholic moral theology by educating students in the fundamentally important primary texts of Western civilization.”
Wendy-Irene Grimm writes from Ojai, California.
----- EXCERPT: New Great Books institute in Austria studies marriage and the family ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wendy-Irene Grimm ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Education Notebook DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:Frequent Binge Drinking Rising at U.S. Colleges
REUTERS, March 14 — Despite stepped-up prevention programs on campuses, the percentage of frequent binge drinkers at American colleges rose by 14% between 1993 and 1999, according to a study released on March 14, reported Reuters news service.
A binge drinker is defined as a man who had five or more drinks in a row, or a woman who had four or more consecutive drinks, at least once in the two weeks before completing a questionnaire. Frequent binge drinkers consumed those amounts at least three times in the previous two weeks.
“I really don't know why it's grown, and it's disturbing that it has,” Henry Wechsler, director of the Harvard School of Public Health and lead author of the study, told Reuters. “It does show you that education itself (about the dangers of excessive drinking) doesn't do it.”
The study found that the share of students who drank on 10 or more occasions in the previous month had risen to 22% from 18% in 1993, and the rate of those who drank to get drunk surged to 47% from 40% in 1993.
But the study also found continuing evidence of a backlash against binge drinking on campus, with 19% of respondents abstaining from drinking altogether — the same rate as in 1997, but an increase from 15% in 1993.
Frequent binge drinkers consume two-thirds of all the alcohol drunk by college students, and account for the majority of serious alcohol-related problems on campuses, such as vandalism, drunk driving and injuries, the report said.
Florida Judge Stops Voucher Program
CATHOLIC LEAGUE, March 14 — A state judge in Florida on March 14 declared the state's voucher program unconstitutional.
The program, designed to assist the poorest students in Florida, would give parents $3,389 to send their children to the school of their choice, including religious schools.
The ruling by L. Ralph Smith Jr. of the state's circuit court focused on a provision of the Florida state constitution that declares education a “fundamental value” of the state and says it is a “paramount duty” to provide a “uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high quality system of free public schools.”
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, criticized the decision. “The ironies are macabre: those who champion the right of the poor are pro-choice on abortion but anti-choice on education,” he said. “That's because they are so concerned over the fate of unwanted children that they'd rather see them dead than alive. This is called the humanitarian thing to do.
“Those that live, however, are not entitled to go to quality schools and must be forced to attend schools that breed poverty and ignorance. Then the cycle begins all over again. This is called the humanitarian thing to do. Anyone for inhumanity?”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: U.N. Meeting Pits Rich vs. Poor In Sex and Sovereignty Debate DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:UNITED NATIONS — Beijing+5 is hitting a bumpy road.
A meeting that was supposed to set the legislative slate for a June United Nations session on women's rights has ground nearly to a halt.
After almost two weeks of intense wrangling, negotiators in mid-March admitted they were barely closer to agreement than they were in the beginning. The meeting is part of a fifth-year review of the United Nation's 1995 Beijing conference, dubbed “Beijing+5.”
The problem, for Third World delegates, started with the first paragraph of the document by the U.N. Division for the Advancement of Women. These delegates wanted explicit references to national sovereignty. These were rejected by the Western powers. After the split, all that was left to negotiators was to move on and save the recalcitrant paragraph until later. Throughout the meeting, such “saved” paragraphs had piled up quickly.
Another problem was the aggressive attempt by the Western powers to rewrite the original Beijing document, something the United Nations had ordered them not to do. The United States and the European Union in particular seem fixated on advancing notions that have been rejected by democratic procedures all over the world.
The Western powers are advancing strict quotas for women in the work force and in politics, an idea rejected even by Swiss voters as recently as mid-March. But the areas of sexual reproduction and the family are causing the most vociferous debate.
The Western nations, negotiating as a bloc called JUSCANZ (Japan, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia), working in tandem with the European Union, are advancing new and as yet undefined terms that Third Worlders view suspiciously. Third World nations from a negotiating bloc called the Group of 77 (G-77 for short).
JUSCANZ is insisting on adding the term “diversity of women” to the document. There is no agreement on what this term means, but the G-77 understands it as a reference to homosexuality. Several explicit references to “sexual orientation” are also causing sharp disagreements.
Another term the West is pushing is “sexual rights.” Rejected at the original Beijing conference, rejected again at Cairo+5 (the fifth-year review of the U.N. population fund conference in Egypt), “sexual rights” is a loose term that could come to encompass a whole tissue of ideas related to homosexuality, abortion and other very controversial areas. So far, “sexual rights” has been rejected by the G-77.
Negotiators had hoped to find agreement by March 18 and send the finalized document for ratification to the full United Nations this spring. But they are no where near an agreement. Officials now say an “intersessional” will be needed to finish their work. This works to the disadvantage of the cash-strapped delegations from the Third World who may find it difficult to send delegations to another meeting like this one. Pro-life delegations fear that another meeting could deplete their already tiny ranks.
Meanwhile, the nongovernmental-organization wars continue unabated. Pro-life lobbyists, young and old, have been kept from organization meetings that are supposed to be open to everyone. Pro-lifers who do get in and try to speak have been shouted down. Pro-life organizations intend to file formal complaints with the United Nations. The fireworks at Beijing+5 haven't ended yet.
Austin Ruse is director of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, a U.N. pro-life lobbyist group.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Austin Ruse ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Harvard Debate Reveals Abortion Shift DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Bill Baird called it “scary.” Serrin Foster spoke of a “big shift.” The crowd whispered about a “new generation.”
The event that frightened the director of the National Choice League but encouraged the president of Feminists for Life was a panel discussion on abortion at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Four of America's most visible pro-life and pro-choice leaders, two from each side, met at the school March 16 to search out common ground on abortion.
But panelists and attendees were shocked at what they found. Though an event organizer told the Register that efforts had been made to keep pro-lifers from packing the audience, most students at this high-profile Ivy League event seemed to be won over by the pro-lifers.
A call to abstinence and personal responsibility was met with vigorous applause, while an insinuation by Planned Parenthood Federation of America Director Gloria Feldt that prolifers were judgmental was met with silence.
“If you students want to make a real legacy,” Serrin Foster of told them, “talk about resources for pregnant women. Do you have day-care facilities for pregnant students? Maternity leave? Health insurance? How many of you have to change diapers on toilet seats? Why does it cost $15,000 for a live birth, but $300 for an abortion? The lack of resources to help women make life affirming choices is what drives them to these desperate straits.”
One young mother, identifying herself as pro-choice, said she had firsthand experience that Harvard wasn't a baby-friendly environment. She said she appreciated Foster's vision of a campus or workplace where pregnant women and mothers were accommodated as readily as athletes and executives. The student said pregnant college women need to know abortion isn't the only option they have.
Pro-Woman, Pro-Life
Foster's pro-life feminism took the night. The notion of a pro-life feminist was foreign to most. She said repeatedly that legalized abortion had created an environment in which women were forced to choose between themselves and their child.
“Women,” she said to generous applause, “should never be forced to choose between being pro-women and pro-life.”
James Kovacs, a third-year law student at the school, agreed. “The person I enjoyed hearing the most was [Foster].
“Her position about looking at things holistically, I think, is right. It needs to go in a direction where we look at issues of, for example, how to deal on the one hand with a woman who has actually decided to have the child — that's where I think common ground can be found.”
An Absolute Right?
But Planned Parenthood's Gloria Feldt wasn't ready to jump on board. In response to statements about alternatives to abortion, and again in her closing statement, Feldt returned again and again to her view of the privileged status of abortion as a right.
She described her own experience as a teen-age mother growing up in West Texas in the ‘50s. “The birth control pill came out. I popped them like they were candy. I loved my children, but I knew if I had any more I couldn't handle it. It occurred to me that the most basic right for a woman is to control her own body, her childbearing.”
She told the Register that at no point in its development can the rights of a fetus can never be weighed against the rights of its mother.
Feldt was joined on the pro-choice side by Bill Baird, often called the “father of the sexual revolution,” for his work in legalizing birth control for unmarried couples. One of his three Supreme Court victories, Baird vs. Eisenstadt, set the legal precedent for Roe v. Wade.
Gen X'ers for Life
Baird's rhetoric didn't seem to sway the Generation X'ers in attendance. At one point, pro-life panelist Dr. Bernard Nathanson pointed out that he was the only medical doctor on the panel. Baird shot back that he was the only person on the panel “with three Supreme Court victories to give people their freedom.” Baird's claim to fame drew mostly giggles from the crowd.
Feldt, composed throughout the evening, let her guard down when asked if the American political system was unique with regard to its handling of abortion rights.
“What's unique about the U.S. political system is that a small number of very loud people try to intimidate the rest of us,” Feldt said. “We have to speak up and speak out.”
But the activist spirit in the room didn't seem to be on the pro-choice side of the debate. Baird's appeal to pro-choicers to “get up off [their] britches” and Feldt's suggestion that “everyone should be very frightened right now” because of the current “threat to a woman's right to choose” were meant as applause lines. They fell flat.
“What I've heard [here tonight] has scared me to death,” Baird said in his concluding statement.
Harvard sophomore Melissa Moschella wasn't surprised by the student response at the event. “I think too much is made of the huge pro-choice majority [on campuses] because really the majority is very slim,” said the president of Harvard Right to Life.
Moschella added, “We feel the urgency of the issue more than prochoicers — saving human lives.”
She said she was pleased by the event. “I would say that definite progress was made against the stereotype that pro-lifers are violent or extremists or against women.”
Origin of the Event
The March 15 Kennedy School event was part of an ongoing lecture series meant to provide a national stage for the intersection of academia and politics. Recent speakers have included U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, former British Prime Minister John Major and the recently crowned King Abdullah of Jordan.
Former Sen. Alan Simpson, the current director the Kennedy School's Institute of Politics, moderated the event. A pro-choice Wyoming Republican, he opened by disclosing that in 20 years of the program's lectures, no one had ever before been asked to speak on abortion.
“The students,” Simpson said, “wanted to have a civil discussion on the subject because the vast majority of [them] are morally and intellectually grappling with this issue. We took our marching orders from the students.”
Simpson referred everyone in the crowd to an “absolutely remarkable op-ed piece” that had appeared that day in the Crimson, Harvard's daily newspaper. Co-authored by pro-lifer Moschella and junior Shauna Shames, the co-chair of Students for Choice, the article described the origin of the Kennedy School event.
In the article, “Looking to Agree on Abortion,” the two young women describe their effort to find common ground over dinner one night last semester.
They wrote, “the first and greatest point of agreement was the importance of supporting women.” Then, both sides agreed to denounce “emphatically and unanimously” any violence directed against abortion businesses or practitioners.
Shames said there has been little civil debate about abortion because it's hard for both sides to agree on a common language.
“I don't think it's a futile effort,” Shames told the Register. “If we can do something to end the clinic violence, then everybody will be better off.”
Feminist-for-life Foster thinks they can do better. She said she approached Planned Parenthood's Feldt after the event to see if she would agree to offer more than abortion and contraception to women in need.
“I said I think we could work in other areas ... and continue to have really productive discussion ... and she agreed,” Foster noted. “We will never agree on abortion, but if they call themselves pro-choice, they need to expand into [helping women prepare for] adoption, marital and single parenthood.”
After the event, Foster observed, “There is complete apathy on the other side and the pro-life cause is growing. There is absolutely a big shift.”
----- EXCERPT: LEADING PRO-LIFERS GET APPLAUSE, LEADING PRO-CHOICERS GET SCARED ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Parishes Provide Welcome Mats for Moms DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:ST. PAUL, Minn. — For Trisha Paradis of Marysville, Wash., staying in a Share a Life home made all the difference.
Alone and away from her family, Paradis had no place to stay during her final months of pregnancy. That's when she was placed in a Share a Life home.
Just a month before her due date, her adoption agency was having difficulty trying to place her mixed-race child. Her host family knew of a mixed-race couple unable to have children of their own and set up a meeting. The contact made a successful adoption possible.
Paradis is one of more than 300 young women who have been helped by Share a Life, a Minnesota pro-life program that began 15 years ago.
Maurna Donovan of St. Paul's Nativity of Our Lord Parish started the program with her husband Gerald.
“We had participated in an organization opposed to Planned Parenthood's decision to place an abortion clinic in our neighborhood,” Maurna Donovan recalled. “It was frustrating to think that even if we were able to convince someone not to go through with an abortion, that we had little to offer.
“While visiting my sister-in-law in Texas, we saw a sign outside a Catholic church which stated that anyone coming to the church with a troubled pregnancy would be offered help.”
An idea was born. Maurna Donovan returned to Minnesota determined to find homes that could help women in crisis pregnancies.
She received approval from her pastor and then consulted with Seton Services, Catholic Charities’ maternal care program. Donovan also spoke with county social services and the Children's Home Society to see if such a program would be useful. “The response was positive from all sources,” she said.
Under Donovan and Judy Regnier, the program received encouragement from then Archbishop John Roach of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the diocesan Respect Life Office.
Room, Board and Love
The program started slowly, with only a half-dozen homes, and gradually expanded. The program's mission is to offer free room and board and emotional support to pregnant women in need.
“Host families can participate at their convenience,” explained Maurna Donovan. “Some families have college students or elderly parents staying with them at times that make it inconvenient.”
Eight years into the program, after the death of their son, the Donovans relinquished control of the program to Paul and Paula Bernabei, who had been involved almost since the program's beginning. Paul Bernabei now coordinates the referrals from social service agencies such as Catholic Charities, Birthright, Lutheran Social Service, and Total Life Care Centers.
Three years ago, Share a Life became a component in Archbishop Harry Flynn's Community Caring for Life, a program promising that Catholic parishes would respond to any woman in need. In order to realize this promise, Paul Bernabei collaborated with local parishes to expand the Share a Life program to other communities.
“Maurna's idea,” said Bernabei, “was to surround Planned Parenthood with these kind of homes.” Last year it grew by more than 50 homes and now has more than 100 host families. Volunteer regional coordinators oversee placements throughout the Twin Cities.
“The primary reason for abortion is that women feel alone and are in a situation where they feel hopeless,” Bernabei added. “We are there to offer hope and let her know that she is not alone.”
One Woman's Story
Six years ago, at age 21, Jennifer Kurth discovered her pregnancy in her fifth month. No longer able to remain in her apartment, she spoke to her counselor at a crisis pregnancy center and was connected with Michael and Sharon Bowen. Two weeks after moving in, Kurth was placed on bed rest because the baby was resting on her sciatic nerve. She remained with the Bowens up until the birth of her son, Taylor.
Kurth admitted that she was skeptical of the program at first.
“But the family made me feel like I was part of the family,” she recalled. “I grew up Catholic, but I would not have continued going to Church while I was pregnant if I had not been living with the Bowens.”
Taylor was eventually baptized at the Bowens’ church with Michael and Sharon as his godparents.
“I still talk with the Bowens often,” said Kurth. “They take Taylor for the weekend a couple of times each year. I don't know what I would have done without them.” Kurth married four years ago and now works in the health care industry.
Happy Endings
“I've seen many miracles over the years,” Paul Bernabei commented. “I met one young woman on the street in downtown St. Paul. I carried everything she owned in a box to the Bowens’ home.
“This was a situation that looked and felt hopeless to me. After staying with the Bowens, this woman was able to see what true love is between a couple. She ended up placing her baby for adoption in a good home and is just now finishing up her second year of college.”
Bernabei and Maurna Donovan said they believe that any community can carry out the program. For 15 years it has relied exclusively on volunteer help and host families.
Explained Bernabei, “Government programs that used to respond are no longer responding the same. As a result, between 20-30% of the referrals we now receive are for pregnant women with one or two children. These women have become harder to place in traditional Share a Life homes.”
Added former client Katy Brundy, “I've seen too many pregnant women who have lived on the street because they felt they had no other place to go. I would definitely recommend the Share a Life program.”
Said host Sharon Bower, “Even with 100 homes we do not have as many homes as we have women needing them.” She encouraged others to try the program. “Whenever you serve the Lord, you always learn more than you teach. You always receive more than you give.”
Tim Drake can be reached at tdrake@ncregister.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: ‘Roe’ Litigants Want Case Reconsidered DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — The women in whose names the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973 are asking the courts to reconsider those rulings on the grounds that their participation was coerced and exploited and that many women today have abortions under similar coercive circumstances.
At a March 15 press conference, Norma McCorvey and Sandra Cano Saucedo said they are making their appeal in connection with a New Jersey class-action lawsuit by women who have unsuccessfully tried to sue doctors who performed abortions on them without first obtaining informed and voluntary consent.
That case, Santa Marie vs. Whitman, follows attempts by three women who had abortions to sue different doctors and clinics for wrongful death of their babies. They say that because they never gave informed consent, as required by New Jersey law, the doctors should be liable for damages.
McCorvey and Cano are asking the New Jersey federal District Court to accept their “friend-of-the-court” briefs saying that —like the women in the current lawsuit — their roles in Roe v. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton were based on misinformation, coercion and poor understanding of the nature of abortion.
McCorvey, the Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade, and Cano, the Mary Doe of Doe vs. Bolton, both said they had no idea what an abortion involved and that they were never adequately informed of what their lawyers were doing when they became the plaintiffs in the cases.
Roe and Doe eventually became the Supreme Court's twin rulings that said there is a constitutional right to abortion. Roe threw out most state restrictions on abortion; Doe permitted abortions through all nine months of pregnancy.
Cano said she never sought an abortion when she went to a Georgia legal aid attorney for help with a divorce in 1970. Pregnant with her fourth child and receiving no support from her husband, Cano faced family pressure to have an abortion, but she refused. She eventually left the state and had the child, who she gave up for adoption, she said.
“I have lived a hard life,” Cano said. “I have been poor. I even had my children taken from me by the state. However, at no time have I ever wanted to abort my babies.”
Cano said in an affidavit to the federal court that she didn't understand until years later that her situation was being used to claim a constitutional right to abortion, even though she never sought one.
“The law has developed, in part, based upon what my lawyer claimed I thought, what I wanted and that abortion was in my interest,” the affidavit said.
“The case brought by my lawyer in the name of Mary Doe was a fraud upon the Supreme Court of the United States and the people of America,” she said at the press conference.
McCorvey said she also was misled as her case went to the Supreme Court.
“In the two to three years during the case, no one, including my lawyers, told me that an abortion is actually terminating the life of an actual human being,” said her affidavit to the federal court. “The courts never took any testimony about this and I heard nothing which shed light on what abortion really was.”
McCorvey spent years working for abortion clinics before striking up a friendship with a Protestant minister who led anti-abortion protests. She was baptized a Christian in 1995 and became a Catholic in 1998 during a private ceremony at a Dallas parish.
Statements were provided at the press conference explaining the claims in the New Jersey case by Donna Santa Marie and “Jane Jones,” who were both 16 when they had abortions, and “Mary Doe.”
Doe and Jones said they were given inaccurate information about their pregnancies and pressured to sign informed consent statements. Santa Marie said she did not want an abortion and said so on forms she signed when her mother insisted on bringing her to have one when she was 16.
At one abortion clinic, the doctor read her statement that she did not want an abortion and told her parents he could not perform the procedure based on her opposition, the statement about Santa Marie said.
After her parents threatened to file criminal charges against her boyfriend, Santa Marie again accompanied her parents to an abortion clinic, according to the statement. At the second clinic, the statement said, Santa Marie never spoke with the doctor or other staff members before being led into the operating room; she was not asked whether she was there of her own accord and the abortion was performed against her wishes.
Santa Marie, who is now 20, married and has a child, was not at the press conference.
The class action suit seeks to invalidate laws that the women claim give the doctors more protection from lawsuits than pregnant women have from being coerced into having abortions they don't want. It also asks for a declaration that the state's abortion laws violate equal protection rights under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
In the state court lawsuit against her doctor by “Jane Jones,” a judge has issued an order suspending the case until federal courts can hear the class action suit, said Harold J. Cassidy, the New Jersey attorney representing the women.
Cassidy said that regardless of how that legal effort proceeds, the suit asks for changes in how abortions are handled in the state.
He said the suit asks the court “to compel the abortion clinics and doctors to tell the mothers that the child already exists; that the procedure terminates the life of a human being; and to require the clinics to show the mothers a sonogram on which she can see her child's live image, all to assist the mother to make an informed decision.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Patricia Zapor ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Gospel Of Life DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:To explain the compassion of Jesus for women who experience the hardship of an unwanted pregnancy (See Prolife Profile), Pope John Paul II evoked the Gospel passage about the woman caught in adultery in his 1988 apostolic letter on the Dignity and Vocation of Women. Jesus reveals to those who would stone the woman how they are just as guilty as she. Like the woman of the Gospel, unwed mothers experience a particular pain because their sins are known to all.
The episode recorded in the Gospel of John (John 8:3-11) is repeated in countless similar situations in every period of history. A woman is left alone, exposed to public opinion with “her sin,” while behind “her” sin there lurks a man — a sinner ... And yet his sin escapes notice, it is passed over in silence: He does not appear to be responsible for “the other's sin”! Sometimes, forgetting his own sin, he makes himself the accuser, as in the case described [in the Gospel]. How often, in a similar way, the woman pays for her own sin ... but she alone pays and she pays all alone! How often is she abandoned with her pregnancy when the man, the child's father, is unwilling to accept responsibility for it? And besides the many “unwed mothers” in our society, we also might consider all those who as a result of various pressures, even on the part of the guilty man, very often “get rid of” the child before it is born. They “get rid” of it: but at what price? (No. 14)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:FBI Investigating Sales of Fetal Body Parts
REUTERS, March 11 — The FBI in Kansas City, Missouri, has launched a probe into the marketing of fetal tissue, reported the news service.
“We are investigating possible criminal violations in the marketing of fetal tissue to determine if there is a violation of federal criminal law,” FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza told Reuters.
Earlier this month, members of a House Commerce subcommittee called on Attorney General Janet Reno to open an investigation into the selling of fetal tissue after a Kansas City-area pathologist was featured in an ABC News undercover report about the alleged selling of fetal body parts for profit.
The pathologist, Dr. Miles Jones, was recorded by a hidden camera discussing making thousands of dollars a week selling fetal parts.
Jones was subpoenaed to testify before the committee and was held in contempt of Congress when he failed to appear.
Two Hawaiian Suicides Linked to Final Exit Video
The victims, who suffocated themselves, were pronounced dead within two days of the showing, the Honolulu medical examiner's office said. Dr. Kanthi von Guenthner, first deputy medical examiner, said she has never seen two suicides using the same method occur on the same weekend.
“I don't think this was coincidence,” von Guenthner told the News. “Once they see the method, it encourages them to practice it.”
The video, Final Exit, was based on a best selling book by Derek Humphry.
The victims, a man in his 60s who was depressed over a failed relationship and a woman in her 40s with a history of clinical depression, were not chronically ill, von Guenthner said to the News.
Assisted Suicide Comes to New York
Doctors testified in court that the judge should order the euthanasia saying that her worsening condition would see her “die by millimeters.” “Her body is basically starting to devour itself,” one of the doctors testified.
“I believe anyone who has any compassion for a person in a situation like Sheila Pouliot would not file an appeal of my order,” Tormey told Assistant Attorney General Winthrop Thurlow. The judge said he thought it “unconscionable” to continue the hydration treatment, given its consequences for Pouliot, reported the Herald-Journal.
Thurlow vigorously objected to terminating hydration for Pouliot. “I believe withholding of nutrition and hydration represents assisted suicide, which is not permitted under New York law,” Thurlow said.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Did You Know? DATE: 03/26/2000 12.00.00 PM CATEGORY: March 26-April 01, 2000 ----- BODY:There were 31,329 abortions in Quebec during 1998. That is a 3.6% increase from 1997, a 29% increase from 1990, and a 107% increase from 1980. The year also saw nearly two abortions for every five births in the province. In 1980, the ratio was one to five.
(Source: Montreal Gazette, Jan. 26)
----- EXCERPT: Facts of Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life --------