Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog

"An economy based on the family is self-sustaining."

Dale Ahlqist, president of the American Chesterton Society, writes about "The Basis of Civilization" for The Distributivist Review website:

An economy built on massive lending and spending cannot be sustained. But the reason it cannot be sustained is not merely economic, it is moral. It regards material wealth as the ultimate goal, and people as merely a commodity to achieve that goal. It is selfish and therefore self-destructive.

An economy based on the family is self-sustaining. Its focus is on the nurturing and training of children and not on the mere acquisition of goods. The family ideal as defended by Chesterton is something quite different than the industrialized consumer family, where the family members leave the house each morning by the clock and on a strict schedule to pursue work and recreation and the majority of life outside the home. Chesterton’s ideal was the productive home with its creative kitchen, its busy workshop, its fruitful garden, and its central role in entertainment, education, and livelihood. Unlike the industrial home, life in a productive household is not amenable to scheduling and anything but predictable.

The only thing surprising about this ideal is that it was once shared by almost everyone. Children used to be considered an asset; at some point they began to be seen as a liability.

Chesterton saw the beginning of this problem when he noticed people preferring to buy amusements for themselves rather than to have children. He pointed out prophetically that children are a far better form of entertainment than electrical gadgets. The irony today is that the retailers that sell the electronic amusements are going out of business because there are not enough people to buy this merchandise.

Read the entire essay. Dale is the is the author of two excellent Ignatius Press books on Chesterton: G.K. Chesterton: Apostle of Common Sense and, most recently, Common Sense 101: Lessons From G.K. Chesterton. He has also edited and annotated several books/collections by Chesterton.

• Seeing With the Eyes of G.K. Chesterton | Dale Ahlquist
• Recovering The Lost Art of Common Sense | Dale Ahlquist
• Common Sense Apostle & Cigar Smoking Mystic | Dale Ahlquist
• Chesterton and Orthodoxy | Carl E. Olson and Dale Ahlquist (audio interview)

The liturgical year "is Christ Himself, living on in His Church..."

Following up a bit on the previous post about the significance of the liturgical calendar, here is an excerpt from Barbara Morgan's essay, "Liturgy, Catechesis, and Conversion":

In order to grow in participation in the mystery of Christ the Church wisely arranges the liturgical year to cover all of the mighty acts of God. The possibility for contemplation of all of the stages of God’s salvific action in sacred history are there. The Church maintains the important link between God’s promise and His oath: from the promise of and subsequent longing for redemption in Advent; to the stupendous realization of God’s Word in the Incarnation; to the depths of His love in the events of Christ’s Pasch; to the establishment of His Mystical Body, the Church, on Good Friday and Pentecost. The "sacraments" of the Old Testament prefigure the sacramental order of the New Testament and the promises which precede Christ are all fulfilled in Him.

Even more important in the scheme of the liturgical year then the recounting of sacred history centered on Christological events is the prime mystery of the Trinity, wherein lies the birth of the plan for mankind: union with God in the Trinitarian family. There is one Sunday set aside for celebration of the Triune Godhead but in reality all of the feasts of the Church converge upon the feast of the Most Holy Trinity.

This central mystery of the Faith is always presupposed and so must always be freshly proposed, therefore the wisdom of the Church provides regular opportunities to reconsider it. In fact, each liturgical event which the Church celebrates has more and more depth to plumb. Dom Ghesquiere makes the following point:

The great stages of the history of salvation are outlined in the chain of their providential development: Israel, the Church on earth, the Church in Heaven. Facts speak, events answer one another, the mysterious links which God has willed are brought out by the conjunctions which in themselves are worth more than any commentary. [6]

Catechesis should carefully shape itself around the mysteries found in those events and remember that what is most crucial in the liturgical year is that the faithful are called to live the celebrations of the feasts. In Mediator Dei (no. 176) Pope Pius XII taught that:

... the liturgical year ...is no cold and lifeless presentation of past events, no mere historical record. It is Christ Himself, living on in His Church ... (The mysteries of His life) ... are still now consistently present and active ... (and are) sources of divine grace for us by reason of the merits and intercession of the Redeemer.

Preparation for these feasts is an integral factor in them not becoming "lifeless presentations of past events." These mysteries should "form the high points of biblical catechesis" according to Fr. Hofinger. He emphasizes that believers will experience the mysteries in the liturgy long before they may understand them. There they become "present religious values" and not just historical narratives. [7] In fact, it is often after the fact that at the practical level the liturgical year becomes a principal means by which the effects of the mystery of Christ are conveyed. It is a "magnificent unity" expressed in a "sublime manner," which plunges the believer directly into the heart of God’s plan.

Read the entire essay on Ignatius Insight:

Baptists, Lent, and the Reformation Rummage Sale

In recent years there have been a flurry of news articles prior to Lent, Holy Week, and Advent about how various Protestant groups and denominations have "discovered" that Catholic and Orthodox beliefs about the liturgical year are not nearly as "unbiblical" as many non-Catholics thought. Quite the contrary, as this Associated Baptist Press piece explains (ht: National Catholic Register):

Many Baptists are seeking to reclaim that pre-Easter focus -- historically called Lent -- which has been an integral part of many Christians’ experience since the earliest years of the church.

“It’s a biblical thing, not a made-up Catholic thing,” says Kyle Henderson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Athens, Texas, acknowledging a robust Baptist suspicion of spiritual practices seen as too closely associated with the Roman Catholic Church or its distant cousins, the Anglicans.

Lost treasure

Some Baptists say they sense those suspicions -- in part a legacy of the Protestant Reformation -- have left them with a diminished spiritual vocabulary.

“There is an uneasy sense that something got lost,” says Phyllis Tickle, whose 2008 book, The Great Emergence, chronicles the blurring of denominational distinctions in late 20th- and early 21st-century American Christianity.

Every 500 years or so, says Tickle, the church metaphorically holds a great rummage sale, “getting rid of the junk that we believe no longer has value and finding treasures stuck in the attic because we didn’t want them or were too naïve to know their true worth.”

The Reformation was one of those rummage sales and the current “great convergence” is another, she maintains. For evangelicals, the long-forgotten treasures in the attic include a wide array of spiritual disciplines -- including Lent -- with roots in the church’s first centuries.

For Sterling Severns, discovering Lent and other seasons of the Christian year was “an eye-opening experience,” which he encountered at the first church he served after graduating from seminary.

“It tapped into something in me that surprised me,” says Severns, now pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Richmond, Va. “I remember I almost felt as if I’d been let in on a great secret.”

For many folks who have been Catholic their entire lives, such comments might be a bit surprising. "Secret? How is it a secret? Don't all Christians know about Lent and Advent?" No, they surely don't. I wasn't aware of either Lent or Advent until I attended Bible college as a 20-year-old Fundamentalist, and even then they were spoken of in mostly cautious or negative ways (most of my profs viewed the Catholic Church with suspicion or disdain, but a couple were quite positive about Catholicism). But things have changed a lot in the past couple of decades and an growing number of Evangelical groups are embracing—in various ways and to differing degrees—aspects of the Catholic liturgical calendar.

An excellent book for Evangelicals who are curious about Catholic beliefs about worship, the liturgical calendar, and the sacraments is Evangelical Is Not Enough: Worship of God in Liturgy and Sacrament by Thomas Howard. Also see his essay, "Catholic Spirituality", from the collection, The Night Is Far Spent.

Fr. Thomas Dubay, SM, on the Ten Premises of Gospel Poverty

The Premises of Gospel Poverty | Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M. | From Happy Are You Poor: The Simple Life and Spiritual Freedom

Our purpose at the moment is to delve into premises. Political practices and religious teachings cannot be understood except in terms of their root presuppositions. The practical running of a state makes sense only in the light of the assumptions of the people. Revolutions happen not only because policies are unjust but also because radical philosophies differ. Policies flow out of premises. The same is true of religion. Buddhist theory is consistent with its agnostic position a propos of God. Protestantism must accept the fragmenting consequences of private judgment, and Catholic canon law reflects its acceptance of the divine origin of the hierarchical Church.

One badly misunderstands Gospel poverty if he views it as nothing more than a humanistic concern for the downtrodden or as a politico-sociological effort to redistribute the world's resources. The more a man studies evangelical poverty, the more he is struck by the elaborate yet consistent intertwining of doctrinal themes with actual practice.

Our immediate problem is not to show these intertwinings. That I shall do further on. Our real difficulty is the human propensity to judge by sympathies, not by evidence. I fear that some readers will admit the intertwinings during their encounter with these pages but then revert to merely human presuppositions as they continue on through the rest of the book in its practical applications to the various states in life. It is not easy for us to learn that God's thoughts are not our thoughts and his ways are not ours.

In lecture work I have found that I may explain at length and, I think, with clarity, radical revealed premises and then find that when we get to the nitty-gritty applications, some listeners have reverted to their own prosaic premises. Naturally enough, their conclusions are at variance with mine. What is still more disturbing is that many of these people seem unaware that they have either forgotten the revealed roots of the matter (though I had developed them twenty minutes earlier) or that their position is in consistent with those roots. What concerns me is that this chapter may be forgotten as we work through the later ones.

Nonetheless, we hope for the best and present the New Testament premises undergirding its teaching on the use and misuse of material goods. Once these are granted, the rest of this volume makes perfect sense. Nothing else does.

Our first revealed presupposition: our destiny is literally out of this world. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard; indeed, it cannot even dawn on our unaided imagination the unspeakable delight God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor 2:9). Before this destiny all worldly glitter is dull, all tinsel is cheap, all adventure is prosaic, all attraction is unsatisfying. I am well aware that this kind of language strikes some people as pious puff. Though one could prove that it is as solid as granite, I shall not do so. People who best know from experience, the saints, have said it far better than I ever could. The doubter should study before he rejects. If he studies and is of good will, he will not reject. Be that as it may, I merely assert the New Testament premise: nothing, absolutely nothing on the face of the earth compares with the advanced possession of God in deep prayer. We understand the Christic teaching on material goods only when we understand this.

Premise number two follows on the first: in this new era happiness is found not in eating and drinking this or that but in personal goodness and in the peace and joy given by the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17). We are to rejoice in the Lord always, not simply occasionally (Phil 4:4). A consumerist society assumes quite the contrary. One needs only to read its advertising to be convinced of it—which is one reason it is easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven (Mk 10:25). The New Testament assumes that happiness is found not in things but in persons and especially in the Divine Persons.

And this suggests our third presupposition: we are to be head over heels in love for God. We ate to be so in love that we sing to him in our hearts always and everywhere (Eph 5:19-20). Every fiber of our being, heart, soul, and mind, is to become wholly love (Lk 10:27). People in love are not much concerned with things. They are person orientated, not thing centered. A consumerist is not in love.

Continue reading at Ignatius Insight...

Survey of Australian priests shows only 19.2% support Church teaching...

... on birth control. The survey of 542 priests was conducted by Chris McGillion and John O'Carroll, co-authors of a new book, Our Fathers: What Australian Catholic priests really think about their lives and their church (John Garratt Pub., 2011). The Sydney Morning Herald reports:

What emerged was a priesthood in a professional crisis, rather than a vocational one, he said. While 90.2 per cent said their lives as priests had been fulfilling, 47.4 per cent found the workload ''excessive'' and 54.3 per cent thought they had too little say in the life of the church.

Only 35.4 per cent thought bishops were doing a good job, with one saying their performance was ''between poor and mediocre''. But 43 per cent did not feel nurtured by their bishop while 41.5 per cent did.

Almost 65 per cent did not think Rome understood the challenges facing priests and 70.1 per cent thought it often failed to understand the nature of the Australian church.

This schism was reflected in the respondents' views on church teachings. Only 19.2 per cent thought it sinful for married couples to use birth control.

Almost 70 per cent thought abortion was always a sin but only 40.2 per cent said the same of sex before marriage. More than 70 per cent thought celibacy for priests should be optional and several priests made ''no secret of the fact they were in long-term committed relationships with women''.

And then (sarcasm alert!) the real shocker:

Lay involvement was seen as the church's greatest internal challenge, with many acutely aware of - and affected by - dwindling attendances.

Nobody saw that coming based on the previous information, did they?

An excerpt from the book is online on the Herald site; here are a few points worth pondering a bit:

• "We surveyed more than 540 of them in Australia, and interviewed another 50, to shed light on their activities and their inner thoughts. What we discovered was a world rich in commitment but also in complaint, disillusionment and dissent." Which begs the key question: what, exactly, is the object of these priest's rich commitment?

• "Many of the priests believe the Vatican exercises far too much control in the life of the church, expects far too much regimentation and allows far too little room for local variations in expressions of the faith." It would be very interesting to read more about these "variations" and to see how much they have to do with points of doctrine and morality more than external/cultural "expressions".

• "The attitudes of priests towards Benedict and his predecessor, John Paul II, are mixed and, occasionally, highly critical." Surprisingly, not shocking. Without knowing much about the state of the Catholic Church in Australia, I suspect this reflects the views of the laity as well.

• "Many priests bemoan the lost momentum for church reform that grew out of the 1960s and the trend towards the restoration of a more centralised, conservative and rigidly disciplined church over the past 30 years." Gag. I bet they are also mystified as to why the pews are empty and talks aren't attracted to a faith focused more on misguided institutional "reform" than on personal discipline and internal reform.

• "A majority see the need for a Third Vatican Council to build on the church's engagement with society that was achieved by the Second Vatican Council." There is marked difference between authentic engagement and naive capitulation, as both John Paul II and Benedict XVI have pointed in various ways. Which likely explains why those two pontiffs receive much criticism.

• "More generally, in their everyday ministry priests are caught in the conflict of mediating Vatican directives and official church teachings to a laity that is more educated, more sceptical of authority and more willing to think for itself than at any time in the church's history." Translation: "thinking for yourself" inevitably leads to a rejection of Catholic teaching, while those who are lesser educated will meekly accept Church doctrine without a first or second thought.

• "A NSW priest wrote that he was disturbed by a Roman curia trying to drag the church back into the past. Describing the contemporary Vatican as a 'bully-boy', he added: 'I want no part of it.'" That's a strange sort of martyrdom, no doubt.

•  "The Australian clergy dropped the clerical collar very quickly after Vatican II, whereas in other countries it's still used." It sounds as if the Roman collar was just one of many things that were dropped after Vatican II. But, of course, we know that the loss of the collar altogether is simply an outward expression of a certain attitude toward authority, flowing from a loss of confidence, insecurity about identity, lack of faith, and other serious problems (just as the failure on the part of the laity to witness to the Faith in ways big and small have the same roots).

Here's praying that while the Catholic Faith in Australia might be down, it won't go under.

Read the entire excerpt. On a related note, see this excellent essay by Fr. John Hardon, S.J.:

Video of Abby Johnson on "The World Over with Raymond Arroyo"

Abby John, author of Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader's Eye-Opening Journey Across the Life Line, was on the EWTN news program last night:

For more about the book, visit the Unplanned website.

Read the first chapter of Unplanned on Ignatius Insight:

We Are the Risk of God: Reflections On the Limits of Divine Mercy

We Are the Risk of God: Reflections On the Limits of Divine Mercy | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | February 25, 2011 | Ignatius Insight

"It could be said that human history is marked from the very beginning by the limit God the Creator places upon evil."
— John Paul II, "Redemption as the Divine Limit Imposed upon Evil." [1]

"Later, when the war was over, I thought to myself the Lord God allowed Nazism twelve years of existence, and after twelve years the system collapsed. Evidently this was the limit imposed by Divine Providence upon that sort of folly."
— John Paul II, "The Limit Imposed on Evil in European History." [2]

I.

Pope John Paul II will be beatified on the Feast of the Divine Mercy in May. In his reflection on "The Mystery of Mercy," John Paul II wrote: "It is as if Christ had wanted to reveal that the limit imposed upon evil, of which man is both perpetrator and victim, is ultimately the Divine Mercy." [3] He had lived through the two great totalitarian experiences of the twentieth century, now becoming vague memories for most of us. Yet, he could not help but want to know, if he could, why God allowed such terrible things to happen. Not a few use these evils as reasons not to believe or to claim that God is not good. But John Paul used them rather as an occasion to reflect on what God was teaching us by allowing them to happen with, of course, the free cooperation of the men who carried them out.

In a famous passage, St. Augustine said that God never allows evil unless some good can result through its occurrence. He does not "cause" it but allows it. The persistent question that most of us have, however, has to do with God's "relation" to evil. We want to "blame" Him, not ourselves. Thus, if evil exists in the world, as most will recognize that it does, we must, to explain it, involve God's part in the whole mess. This approach would leave us innocent. We shift the blame to God.

John Paul comes at the question of evil through the perspective of the divine mercy, a teaching of the Polish nun, Sister Faustina, whom John Paul admired. Pope Benedict XVI later explained in Spe Salvi that the divine mercy has to be properly related to the divine justice, to judgment. A world of justice alone is barren and cold. A world of mercy alone tends to accept everything. Both are necessary. But they do not replace each other.

The first section of Pope Wojtyla's little book Memory and Identity: Conversations at the Dawn of a Millennium is entitled "The Limit Imposed upon Evil." The very first thing we notice in logic on reading this title is that evil is not absolutely unlimited. More broadly, no "absolute" evil exists. Nor is evil a "thing." Evil always exists in what is good. Evil has its limits, however extensive its presence may seem. God, in other words, will not simply eradicate evil from the world as if he has the power or desire to do so. The possibility of evil is contingent on the possibility of freedom and love.

Read the entire essay on Ignatius Insight...

Website, Facebook page for Pope Benedict XVI's "Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week"

Ignatius Press has put together a website, www.JesusofNazareth2.com for the soon-to-be-released book, Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week—From the Entrance Into Jerusalem To The Resurrection, by Pope Benedict XVI. The site includes:

• A full listing of the Table of Contents (w/page numbers)
• Endorsements by folks such as Jacob Neusner, Dr. Matthew Levering, Dr. Scott Hahn, Abp. Charles Chaput, and others.
• Reviews of the book (as they come available)
• An explanation of how Volume 2 of Jesus of Nazareth relates to Volume 1
• A bio of Pope Benedict XVI
• Information about the Study Guide for the book
• A Media Room section (forthcoming)
• Contact information for those interested in further information or to schedule interviews with suggested experts
• Information about Volume 1, Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration
• A blog (under development)

• UPDATE (Friday, Feb. 25): There is also a Facebook page for the book. Check it out!

The book will release on Thursday, March 10th, the day after Ash Wednesday, and will be available in hardback and audiobook.

Fr. Robert Barron on anti-Catholicism

From his column, "The last acceptable prejudice" (Feb. 23, 2011), in the Catholic San Francisco:

Anti-Catholicism has long been a feature of both the high and the low culture in America. From the 19th century to the middle of the 20th, it was out in the open: Many editorialists, cartoonists, politicians and other shapers of popular opinion in that era were crudely explicit in their opposition to the Catholic Church. But then, in the latter half of the 20th century, anti-Catholicism went relatively underground. It still existed, to be sure, but it was considered bad form to be too obvious about it. However, in the last 10 years or so, the old demon has resurfaced.

There are many reasons for this, including the animosity to religion in general prompted by 9/11 and the clerical sex-abuse scandal that has, legitimately enough, besmirched the reputation of the Catholic Church. I’m not interested here so much in exploring the precipitating causes of this negative attitude as I am in showing the crudity and unintelligence of its latest manifestations. Permit me to share two examples.

Read the entire column.

Dr. Ed Peters knows canon law. Whoopi Goldberg knows cliches.

UPDATE: Here's the video from "The View" (ht: CatholicVote.org). Don't gag:

My former canon law professor, Dr. Ed Peters—who also has a degree in civil law (yeah, he's pretty smart)—has been taken to task by the brilliant scholars and intellectual lights of "The View". Ken Shepherd of Newsbusters writes:

Discussing how Catholic canon law advisor Dr. Edward Peters has declared that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) committed an "objectively sacrilegious" act that "produces grave scandal" by receiving Communion on January 2, almost every panelist on ABC gabfest "The View" today rebuked the scholar for his pronouncement. ...

"What would Jesus do?" View moderator Whoopi Goldberg asked, answering her own question by misapplying Jesus's admonition that he who is without sin may cast the first stone.

Co-host Sherri Shepherd also echoed the "cast the first stone" argument, wondering "how many people in that church that take that wine and eat those crackers are doing something at home that we don't know about?"

Wow, Sherri Shepherd, great point! No one—and I mean no one—ever thought that maybe people commit sins in private. I assume that Ms. Shepherd, prior to commenting on this matter, spent some time reading the Code of Canon Law. But, in case she missed it, she might want to take a look at Canon. 916: "A person who is conscious of grave sin is not to celebrate Mass or receive the body of the Lord without previous sacramental confession unless there is a grave reason and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition which includes the resolution of confessing as soon as possible."

It's not that I expect The View's brain trust to adhere to or even agree with Catholic teaching and canon law; rather, I hope they would at least acknowledge the logic of saying, "If you belong to the Church, you shouldn't be surprised to be held accountable to the standards, teachings, and discipline of the Church." After all, I would bet good money that if a political liberal in the good graces of Golberg and Co. were to suddenly proclaim opposition to abortion, he would be publicly chastised and rebuked for having broken with the established doctrines and dogmas of his liberal faith.

As for what Jesus would do, we know that he said, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!" We know that he said that "...unless you repent you will all likewise perish." We know that he sent out seventy to witness to him and the kingdom, telling them, "He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me." We know that Jesus granted special authority to Peter and that he told the apostles, "Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." We know that he said, "Remember then from what you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent." We know he said, "Remember then what you received and heard; keep that, and repent." And we know that those words apply to all of us who claim him as Lord and claim to be members of his Church.

Of course, while Goldberg and Co. (misleadingingly) invoke Jesus' words about casting the first stone, they have no problem rebuking Dr. Peters for the ultimate sin: disagreeing with them. Ms. Shepherd worries about those who "are doing something at home that we don't know about", whereas she should be more worried about those who are on The View talking about matters they know nothing about.

Former Women Priests member renounces her "ordination": "Forgive us for failing in obedience"

From today's edition of California Catholic Daily:

A San Diego woman “ordained” a deacon of the Roman Catholic Women Priests movement in 2007 has repudiated her participation in the organization and is seeking a return to the Church.

The woman, Norma Jean Coon, published the following statement on her website on Feb. 8:

Document of Renunciation of Ordination to Diaconate

On July 22, 2007, I was ordained to the diaconate by Bishop Patricia Fresen, of Germany and South Africa who was ordained by three male bishops in Germany for the group called Roman Catholic Women Priests. The ordination took place at the Santa Barbara Immaculate Heart Spiritual Center. Because neither Patricia Fresen nor myself were given permission for the ordination by Pope Benedict XVI, the ordinations were illegitimate and not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. Thus an excommunication process called Latae Sententiae occurred, excommunicating oneself by failure to observe the Canon Laws of the Church.

I wish to renounce the alleged ordination and publicly state that I did not act as a deacon as a part of this group except on two occasions, when I read the gospel once at mass and distributed communion once at this same mass. I withdrew from the program within two weeks of the ceremony because I realized that I had made a mistake in studying for the priesthood. I confess to the truth of Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. I confess the authority of the Holy Father on these issues of ordination and recognize that Christ founded the ordination only for men.

Read the entire story at CalCatholic.com.

Natural Law and Bearing False Witness

Natural Law and Bearing False Witness | J. Budziszewski | From What We Can't Not Know: A Guide | Ignatius Insight

Editor's Note: The following excerpt is from Chapter 2, "What It Is That We Can't Not Know", of J. Budziszewski's book, What We Can't Not Know: A Guide. The chapter examines the Decalogue (Deut. 5) and looks at each of the Commandments in turn.

---

8 Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor. (5:20)

The Eighth Commandment is often misunderstood. Bearing false witness isn't lying per se, but lying to get someone in trouble—especially in a judicial  context, where one is offering evidence. A presupposition of the Eighth Commandment, then, is that some sort of provision has been made for public justice. No people in the world lives without some such customs. The chieftain of the smallest tribe is expected to hear disputes and judge justly. Like marriage and family, the office of judge would seem to be a spontaneous and natural human institution. The fundamental act of government is not legislation, but judgment.

Whether lying per se is wrong—whether it is always wrong to say, with the intent to deceive, what is contrary to what I understand to be the truth—is another question. [13] Natural law thinkers have always conceded that this is a genuinely difficult problem, the solution to which is plainly not among the things we can't not know. I must not lie to achieve injustice; that much is plain. But may I lie to prevent it? Because of the difficulty of this issue we need to spend more time on the Eighth Commandment than on the others.

The classical illustration of the quandary is whether I may tell a would-be murderer who is looking for a man that I am hiding, "I have no information as to his whereabouts." Some natural law thinkers have said that I may never lie, period; to the would-be murderer at the door, I should reply, "You have no right to ask such a question, and I will not answer it." Let's call that Opinion One. Of course such an answer exposes me to danger, but that cannot be helped; justice is never safe. The greater difficulty is that it exposes the hiding man to danger, and I have promised him my protection. Is that right? Other natural law thinkers have said that it is not right; they argue that I may lie only when the questioner has no right to the truth that he demands—as in the case of the would-be murderer, because he desires it solely for the purpose of committing injustice. Let's call that Opinion Two. Still other natural law thinkers have said that although I should never lie, I may equivocate. For example, the sentence "I have no information" is an equivocation if I say it with the meaning "I have no information for you." Let's call that Opinion Three.

Continue reading on Ignatius Insight...

Quote of the Day

From Dr. Ed Peters:

A political wag once observed that the fastest way to start a ruckus on Capitol Hill is to point out what the Constitution actually says. In the Church, it seems, the fastest way to start a ruckus is to point out what the Code of Canon Law actually says.

Read his entire post, "My brief replies to Albany's brief response", which has to do with his comments made regarding the eligibility of Gov. Andrew Cuomo for holy Communion under Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law.

Benedict XVI reflects on St. Robert Bellarmine, SJ, Doctor and true reformer

From the Vatican Information Service:

VATICAN CITY, 23 FEB 2011 (VIS) - Benedict XVI dedicated his catechesis during this morning's general audience, held in the Paul VI Hall in the presence of 7,500 people, to St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621), an outstanding figure of a troubled age in which "a serious political and religious crisis provoked a split between entire nations and the Holy See".

  St. Robert Bellarmine, following an excellent cultural and humanistic education, entered the Society of Jesus in 1560. He studied in Rome, Padua and Leuven and was later made cardinal and archbishop of Capua, Italy. He held high office in the service of the Pope as a member of several congregations and head of Holy See diplomatic missions to Venice and England. During his final years he wrote a number of books on spirituality in which he condensed the fruits of his annual spiritual exercises. He was beatified and canonised by Pope Pius XI, who also declared him a Doctor of the Church.

  "His 'Controversial Works' or 'Disputationes' are still a valid point of reference for Catholic ecclesiology", said the Holy Father. "They emphasise the institutional aspect of the Church, in response to the errors then circulating on that topic. Yet Bellarmine also threw light on invisible aspects of the Church as Mystical Body, which he explained using the analogy of the body and soul, in order to describe the relationship between the interior richness of the Church and her visible exterior features.

  "In this monumental work, which seeks to categorise the various theological controversies of the age, he avoids polemical and aggressive tones towards the ideas of the Reformation but, using the arguments of reason and of Church Tradition, clearly and effectively illustrates Catholic doctrine.

  "Nonetheless", the Pope added, "his true heritage lies in the way in which he conceived his work. His burden of office did not, in fact, prevent him from striving daily after sanctity through faithfulness to the requirements of his condition as religious, priest and bishop. ... His preaching and catechesis reveal that same stamp of essentiality which he learned from his Jesuit education, being entirely focused on concentrating the power of the soul on the Lord Jesus, intensely known, loved and imitated".

  In another of his books, "De gemitu columbae" in which the Church is represented as a dove, Robert Bellarmine "forcefully calls clergy and faithful to a personal and concrete reform of their lives, in accordance with the teachings of Scripture and the saints. ... With great clarity and the example of his own life, he clearly teaches that there can be no true reform of the Church unless this is first preceded by personal reform and conversion of heart on our part".

  "If you are wise, then understand that you were created for the glory of God and for your eternal salvation", said the Pope quoting from one of the saint's works. "Favourable or adverse circumstances, wealth and poverty, health and sickness, honour and offence, life and death, the wise must neither seek these things, nor seek to avoid them per se. They are good and desirable only if they contribute to the glory of God and to your eternal happiness, they are bad and to be avoided if they hinder this".

  The Pope concluded: "These words have not gone out of fashion, but should be meditated upon at length in order to guide our journey on this earth. They remind us that the goal of our life is the Lord. ... They remind us of the importance of trusting in God, of living a life faithful to the Gospel, and of accepting all the circumstances and all actions of our lives, illuminating them with faith and prayer".

  Before today's audience, the Holy Father blessed a statue of St. Maron, founder of the Maronite Church which is particularly widespread in Lebanon and Syria. The 4.5-metre high Carrara-marble statue, which has been placed in the last empty niche on the outside wall of the Vatican Basilica, is the work of Spanish sculptor Marco Augusto Duenas.

  Among those present at the ceremony were His Beatitude Cardinal Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir, patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites; Michel Sleiman, president of the Republic of Lebanon, and various religious and civil authorities.

For more about St. Robert Bellarmine's ecclesiology, read this excellent essay by Fr. John Hardon, S.J.:

Communion of Saints: St. Robert Bellarmine on the Mystical Body of Christ | John A. Hardon, S.J.

Shortly after his defection from Rome, Johann Döllinger bitterly reproached the First Vatican Council with "doing nothing but defining the private opinions of a single man—Cardinal Robert Bellarmine." The accusation is false but suggestive, because it leads us to investigate the teaching of St. Robert on the organization of the Catholic Church as the Mystical Body of Christ. Most of the Council's business had to deal with the origin and nature of the one true Church. Moreover, Bellarmine's ecclesiology was the main source from which the Fathers of the Council drew their decrees and definitions. Consequently, with the current interest even among non-Catholics in the Church of Christ as the Mystical Body, we should not overlook what St. Robert Bellarmine has to say about a subject in which the Church herself considers him the outstanding authority.

Pope Pius XII, in his Encyclical Mystici Corporis, confirms this authority when he quotes St. Robert to support his explanation of why the social Body of the Church should be honored with the name of Christ. "As Bellarmine notes with acumen and accuracy," the Pope says, "this naming of the Body of Christ is not to be explained solely by the fact that Christ must be called the Head of His Mystical Body, but also by the fact that He so sustains the Church, and so in a sense lives in the Church, that it is, as it were, another Christ." [1] So much for an apologetic of Bellarmine's qualifications. What follows is a synthesis of his doctrine on the Mystical Body taken from his sermons and controversies, which, it is hoped, will help to amplify several points of detail which the Mystici Corporis only suggests but otherwise does not develop or dwell upon.

The Mystical Body of Christ Is the Catholic Church

It is significant that Bellarmine went out of his way to emphasize what seems so obvious to us—that the Mystical Body of Christ is also the established Church of Christ. Until his time, there were relatively few Christians not in communion with Rome who claimed that their organization was the Body of Christ of which St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "You are the Body of Christ, member for member" (I Cor., xii. 27). But with the advent of Luther and Calvin the situation changed. On the one hand, they preached an invisible Church founded on faith and predestination; on the other hand, they called their Church the Body of Christ. This was a new idea and challenge to traditional Catholic theology.

Read the entire essay on Ignatius Insight...

20% off New Spring Releases from Ignatius Press

New Books from Ignatius Press at 20% off!

Offer ends Tuesday, March 1st, 2010 at 12:00 midnight EST.
These prices are available online only through Ignatius.com

Plus, don't miss Abby Johnson, author of Unplanned, on The World Over with Raymond Arroyo this Thursday, February 24 at 8pm EST

A rollicking tale of Innocent Smith, an expert account of Saint Paul, and wonderful insights into man’s happiness. These are just some of the topics found in several newly released books from Ignatius Press. They are all available now at 20% off, and with such a wide variety of topics, we have something for all ages!

Make sure to tune into Raymond Arroyo’s The World Over this Thursday at 8pm EST where he will talk with Abby Johnson, the author of Unplanned. Her book was used recently in the Congressional debate and historic vote to defund Planned Parenthood. It’s sure to be an exciting, informative show!

Click here for a listing of books on sale now.

New: "Happiness, God and Man"

Now available from Ignatius Press:

Happiness, God and Man

by Christoph Cardinal Schönborn

• Happiness, God and Man — Electronic Book Download

All human beings want to be happy. The longing for happiness does not have to be learned, it is innate. And it can hardly be unlearned. For we never simply acquiesce in unhappiness. Christian faith, the Christian way of life, and the imitation of Christ are understood to be signposts pointing the way to happiness. Upon this depends their credibility and their attractiveness.

The highly regarded teacher, writer and pastoral churchman, Cardinal Schonborn, talks about man's happiness, small and great, about happiness as it is supposed to be and as it is discovered. He explains what it means to say that all human beings are created for happiness. His insightful writings are centered on meditations about happiness and also about the deeper meaning of love and friendship.

Yet the Archbishop of Vienna also discusses the essential questions of faith, including reflections on the Name of God as seen in Scripture, on dealing with the tragedies of modern times, consolation for the sorrowful and on the spiritual roots of western civilization.

In addition he discusses the importance of literature, and how it addresses the deeper questions about life, as demonstrated in his literary discussions of the works by C. S. Lewis, Gertrud von Le Fort and William Shakespeare. He shows how their works give witness to a happiness that overcomes all darkness through suffering, trials and especially forgiveness.

Christoph Cardinal Schonborn (Ignatius Insight Author Page), the Archbishop of Vienna, is a highly respected spiritual teacher and writer, and a former student of Pope Benedict XVI. He has written numerous books including Jesus, the Divine Physician, Chance or Purpose?, Behold, God's Son, and Living the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

I must be a bit old fashioned ...

... because I get a bit queasy when I hear of a priest celebrating the anniversary of his ordination in the following manner, as reported by The Daily Mail:

He is the best-known Catholic priest in ­Britain after Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the former Archbishop of Westminster. ...

A close friend of Father Seed’s arranged the bash at the Pigalle Club — housed in a pink basement in London’s Piccadilly and known for racy floor shows — to mark the anniversary of the well-connected priest’s ordination into the Franciscan Friars Of The Atonement.

The 200 guests, many of them ­fellow clergymen, were startled to be greeted at the door by four burly transvestites, who took their coats.
 
Party-goers — who ranged from clerics from the Diocese of ­Westminster to millionaire benefactors who had flown in for the ­celebrations by private jet — were again taken aback when the ­transvestites appeared on stage later wearing nuns’ habits. The 6ft ‘nuns’ proceeded to give what can only be described as a rather unsuitable cabaret act. ‘A female singer came on first. She sang rather good, classic jazz  songs, which was fine,’ says one wide-eyed reveller.

‘But then these transvestites came on stage. Mouths dropped. Quite a few people scuttled off to the bar in embarrassment.

‘Lots of champagne had flowed and I can’t recall the songs that the nuns sang. Needless to say, they weren’t singing vespers!’

Turns out that Fr. Seed is credited for playing a key role in Tony Blair entering the Church—the same Tony Blair (the former Prime Minister of England, you'll recall) who in 2009 "questioned the Pope's attitude towards homosexuality, arguing that religious leaders must start 'rethinking' the issue." The Daily Mail further reports that Fr. Seed "is currently setting up the ­Catholic Church’s committee on human dignity." That doesn't bode well—unless, I suppose, you're a transvestite looking for some affirmation (and possibly a gig).

Speaking of being old-fashioned, you may have heard that Sir Elton John (63) and his "partner David Furnish" (48) "became parents through a surrogate mother on Christmas Day". The Daily Mail reports that John ("who will be called Daddy") and Furnish ("who will be called Papa"), are eager to lavish normality on little Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John:

Last week Sir Elton, who is worth £185million, told how he wants Zachary to have ‘a solid old-fashioned childhood’.

He added: ‘I so value my own childhood now, and  the sense of wonder and personal discovery that I enjoyed, that we want to give Zachary - as much as we possibly can - the same thing.'

Sir Elton – who once spent £293,000 on flowers in a 20-month period – went on: ‘I know it’ll be hard with my life, but we want him to have that same normality and for things in life to have real value.

Hmmm. Well, I have to assume that what is considered a "solid old-fashioned childhood" by rich, homosexual pop stars/shop-a-holics differs slightly from what most other people envision when they hear the term. Just a guess. An old-fashioned guess. By the way, in case you missed it, John recently shared some of his old-fashioned, thoughtful insights about Christianity:

He insisted that he's not against religion and that "Jesus was a wonderful, compassionate man, who forgave on the cross."

"Everyone is entitled to have their own beliefs and their own spirituality," said John. "The big difference is that the dogma of the church can be so hateful and divisive. It's stuck in the stone age. We don't live in the stone age anymore. The church is losing people left, right and center because people are fed up with the rhetoric that they're giving them."

That is surely food for thought: "We don't live in the stone age anymore". Of course, I didn't realize that homosexuality became so widely accepted, promoted, and celebrated immediately after the Stone Age gave way to the Bronze age (c. 3000 B.C. or so); I was under the impression that homo-celebrationality only became the norm in the last three or four decades. But I happily relinquish the floor (and the question of chronological/historical details) to the Rocket Man with the gold records, big glasses, and massive slush fund for flowers.

Crunching the numbers (and atheist falsehoods about the numbers)

From a recent column by George Weigel, which takes a look at the "Status of Global Mission" report published in International Bulletin of Missionary Research:

As for the interesting, try the aggregate numbers. According to the report, there will be, by mid-2011, 2,306,609,000 Christians of all kinds in the world, representing 33 percent of world population – a slight percentage rise from mid-2000 (32.7 percent), but a slight percentage drop since 1900 (34.5 percent). Of those 2.3 billion Christians, some 1.5 billion are regular church attenders, who worship in 5,171,000 congregations or "worship centers," up from 400,000 in 1900 and 3.5 million in 2000.

These 2.3 billion Christians can be divided into six "ecclesiastical megablocks": 1,160,880,000 Catholics; 426,450,000 Protestants; 271,316,000 Orthodox; 87,520,000 Anglicans; 378,281,000 "Independents" (i.e., those separated from or unaffiliated with historic denominational Christianity); and 35,539,000 "marginal Christians" (i.e., those professing off-brand Trinitarian theology, dubious Christology, or a supplementary written revelation beyond the Bible).

Compared to the world's 2.3 billion Christians, there are 1.6 billion Muslims, 951 million Hindus, 468 million Buddhists, 458 million Chinese folk-religionists, and 137 million atheists, whose numbers have actually dropped over the past decade, despite the caterwauling of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Co. One cluster of comparative growth statistics is striking: As of mid-2011, there will be an average of 80,000 new Christians per day (of whom 31,000 will be Catholics) and 79,000 new Muslims per day, but 300 fewer atheists every 24 hours.

What's the Darwinian term for that trend? "Survival of the fittest"? Granted, numbers aren't everything; not even close. But they should mean something to those supposedly objective, fact-focused skeptics who keep saying, against the growing evidence, that religion is dying, Christianity is on its last legs, God is a goner, and Lady GaGa is a talented musician.

‘UnPlanned’ influences historic U.S. House vote to defund Planned Parenthood®

From Christine Schicker of The Maximus Group:

‘UnPlanned’ influences historic U.S. House vote to defund Planned Parenthood®

N.J. Congressman reads book during debate; Author Abby Johnson to discuss live on EWTN

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 22, 2011 – Congressman Chris Smith (R-N.J.) included an excerpt from Abby Johnson’s best-selling UnPlanned during his impassioned Feb. 17 speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in support of a bill that seeks an end to Federal funding of Planned Parenthood. The next day, the House voted 240-185 to pass the legislation and send it on to the Senate.

UnPlanned author Abby Johnson will appear live this Thursday on EWTN’s “The World Over” to discuss this extraordinary event and talk about her conversion from abortion-clinic director to pro-life advocate. “The World Over” air lives at 8 p.m. ET.

“This is a remarkable, historic development,” said Mark Brumley, president of Ignatius Press, which published the Catholic edition of UnPlanned. “This bill, which clearly represents the will of the American people, still faces debate and a vote in the U.S. Senate. But the Congressional Record of the House debate includes portions of UnPlanned as read by Congressman Smith.

“We knew from the beginning that Abby’s decision to tell her story represented a significant moment in the movement to defend all life, including the lives of the unborn. We applaud Congressman Smith for having the courage to make UnPlanned part of the official record of this important debate.”

In UnPlanned, Johnson tells the dramatic story of how she literally “crossed the fence” from Planned Parenthood leader to an advocate fighting for women in crisis – and the lives of their unborn babies.

Planned Parenthood^® took Johnson to court in an attempt to keep a lid on her story. Johnson won. UnPlanned is the result.

The Ignatius Press edition of UnPlanned includes bonus content: a note from Ignatius Press Founder/Publisher Fr. Joseph Fessio; a foreword by Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life; and an introduction by David Bereit, founder of 40 Days for Life.

Excerpts from the book and other details are available at http://www.unplannedbook.com.

For more information about UnPlanned, to request a review copy or to schedule an interview with author Abby Johnson, please contact Christine Schicker with The Maximus Group at 404-610-8871.

Read the first chapter of Unplanned on Ignatius Insight:

Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J., on the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter and...

... Matthew 16:13-19, the giving of the keys of the Kingdom to Petros (today's Gospel reading):

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