Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog

Journeying from home to be on "The Journey Home"

I leave early tomorrow morning for Alabama, home of something called the Crimson Tide and of EWTN. I'll get to visit a bit with our good friends Tony and Amanda Clark, who live in Tuscaloosa, and then on Monday evening (March 3rd) I'll guest on EWTN's "The Journey Home" with Marcus Grodi. The show is live and airs at 8:00 p.m. EST/5:00 Pacific. I have been on the show before, back in June 2002 (listen to it as an .ra file). I'm not sure yet what the exact focus will be this time, but certainly some aspect of my Fundamentalist upbringing, and my journey through Evangelicalism to the Catholic Church. I hope to blog a bit while I'm on the road, but things might be a bit quiet here for a couple of days.

"Always More Than Is Seen": Benedict XVI on the Meaning of Man

"Always More Than Is Seen": Benedict XVI on the Meaning of Man | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | March 1, 2008 | Ignatius Insight   

"May each one ... always feel impelled to love and serve life from its beginning to its natural end. In fact, welcoming human life as a gift to be respected, protected and promoted is a commitment of everyone, all the more so when it is weak and needs care and attention, both before birth and in its terminal phase." — Benedict XVI, Angelus, February 3, 2008.

"Failing to ask questions about man's being would lead inevitably to refusing to seek the objective truth about being as a whole, and hence, to no longer be able to recognize the basis on which human dignity, the dignity of every person, rests from the embryonic stage to natural death." — Benedict XVI, "The Changing Identity of the Individual", To Members of the Inter-academic Conference (Institut de France), January 29, 2008.

I.

Clear minds can state briefly and accurately the essence of an issue. Aquinas, of course, is a model here, as was Aristotle. Chesterton could always do it even with humor. A faithful reader of L'Osservatore Romano never knows just where, in the weekly selection of papal remarks and documents, he will be most struck by something Benedict says or writes. But it is almost always the case that he will unexpectedly find something quite profound in some unlikely sounding audience or talk.

In the beginning, I have cited two remarks of the pope. They were given within a couple of days of each other, one at a regular Sunday Angelus, the second a short talk in the Hall of Popes to an academic group that has something to do with the Institut de France, just what it does not say. The total length of the latter talk, about which I want to speak here, is probably about a half page of the papal newspaper. (My present essay on this talk is longer!) Its title, "The Changing Identity of the Individual," at first   sight, strikes us as improbable. No individual changes into some other individual, though he may, hopefully, change into more of himself, more what he ought to be. So we are curious about just what Benedict had in mind here.

Read the entire essay...

What passes for "analysis" at the L.A. Times

I've read this February 29th Los Angeles Times editorial written by Michael McGough, the Times' senior editorial writer, three times now and am still uncertain why, exactly, he wrote it. But, hey, at least it provides me with an opportunity for some mild sarcasm and mention of a couple of books that did have a reason for being written:

A colleague and fellow cradle Catholic once told me about a revealing conversation with her parish priest. When she had described an acquaintance as an "ex-Catholic," the priest objected. There were no ex-Catholics, he said, only bad Catholics.

I wonder what he would have made of this factoid from the Pew Forum's new "religious landscape survey" of the United States: Overall, 31.4% of U.S. adults say that they were raised Catholic, but only 23.9% of adults identify with the Catholic Church.

I think the priest would say, without any hesitation whatsoever: "There are a lot of bad Catholics out there." And, frankly, if it takes a Pew poll to help someone figure that out, they need to either stop reading the L.A. Times or stop writing for it.

Here's what I make of it as a Catholic whose life spans the pre- and post-Vatican II church: As the church in the United States became less Roman and more catholic (with a small c), it became easier for Catholics to leave the faith of their fathers and embrace the faith of their spouses, co-workers or golf buddies.

It must have also made it easier for them to leave the logical thinking and writing of their fathers and embrace the vague ramblings of their "catholic" golf buddies. But, to be fair, McGough is onto something. So let's try to put it into plain English: As Catholics became less Catholic—that is, less observant of Catholic doctrine and practice—they became more like their non-Catholic neighbors. Brilliant.

There is much talk, especially among politically conservative Catholics, about liberal "anti-Catholicism." But generations of American Catholics were inculcated with what can only be called anti-Protestantism.

Which, if you think about it, makes perfect sense: when a group of people is generally disliked, even attacked, by the predominant culture, they tend to be less than affectionate regarding that culture. This is not to defend Protestant bashing, or to make light of how nasty things sometimes were between Catholics and non-Catholics prior to Vatican II, but McGough's insinuation that "pre-Vatican II" Catholicism in America was essentially about being anti-Protestant strikes me as both simplistic and self-serving. (Here would have been a good place for McGough to ponder why it was that some Catholics were so desperate to be liked and accepted by the predominate Protestant culture. And to ask, "How has that worked out so far? Any problems to speak of?" Just a thought.)

Even worse, McGough labels as "rad trads" those "radical traditionalist Catholics who cheer Pope Benedict XVI when he says Mass facing the altar instead of the congregation and unmothballs the jeweled miters of his pre-Vatican II predecessors." Does this mean, for example, that Ignatius Press is "rad trad" because it publishes books such as Turning Towards the Lord, as well as Ratzinger's The Spirit of the Liturgy? Perhaps McGough is unaware that most radical traditionalists have little or no affection for Joseph Ratzinger, not to mention Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Yves Congar, and other Ressourcement theologians whose books are published by Ignatius Press (as well as by others). Equally cognitively-confused is his brief take on Vatican II, which concludes with the remark, "Why be a Catholic if you're no longer sure that it's the 'one true church'?" Has McGough read Lumen Gentium, chapter 8? Or has he been too busy playing golf with his buddies?

After having chastised "pre-Vatican II" Catholics for being anti-Protestant, McGough laments that many "conservative Catholics" get along so well with Evangelicals when it comes to "hot button" issues such as abortion and homosexuality. Finally, after quoting Richard McBrien/Thomas Groome—"Catholicism [is] a rich, multifaceted reality that cannot be contained by any single doctrine or institutional element"—he concludes:

And yet, according to Pew's statistics, many cradle Catholics are rejecting that reality. Whether you blame guitar-strumming liberal priests or antiabortion Catholics who cozy up to Southern Baptists, Catholicism isn't as exclusive or as aloof as it used to be. It may, however, be more Christian.

Huh? Which means...what? Granted, McGough is onto something with his discussion of Catholic culture and Catholic identity. It's unfortunate that in trying to make sense of it he keeps hitting his tee shots into the woods and his recovery shots into the sand traps. Otherwise, par for the course for the L.A. Times.

Purgatory and cats

Those are the two main topics discussed by  Joan Lewis, who hosts the "Vatican Insider" radio program and operates the blog, "Joan's Rome," in this November 17, 2007, episode (.rm file. Or, download it here.) of "Vatican Insider." Although purgatory is of great and eternal interest, I mention the radio program because of the interview with Jeanne Perego, author of Joseph and Chico: A Cat Tells the Life of Pope Benedict XVI (now available from Ignatius Press for your reading pleasure). The interview with Perego begins at the 11:30 mark of the program.

Tonight: Cardinal Schönborn on EWTN's "The World Over"

Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, author of Chance or Purpose? and numerous other books, will be interviewed tonight on EWTN's "The World Over" by host Raymond Arroyo. The show airs at 8:00 EST/5:00 Pacific, and can heard/viewed online. The show will also be re-aired on Saturday, Sunday and Monday; check the show's page for details.

Baptism in the "name of the Creator, and of the Redeemer, and of the Sanctifier"...

... isn't really baptism, as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has made explicitly clear in a response to the question: "Is a Baptism valid if conferred with the words 'I baptise you in the name of the Creator, and of the Redeemer, and of the Sanctifier', or 'I baptise you in the name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer'"? From the Vatican News Service:

  "Baptism conferred in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit", the note continues, "obeys Jesus' command as it appears at the end of the Gospel of St. Matthew. ... The baptismal formula must be an adequate expression of Trinitarian faith, approximate formulae are unacceptable.

  "Variations to the baptismal formula - using non-biblical designations of the Divine Persons - as considered in this reply, arise from so-called feminist theology", being an attempt "to avoid using the words Father and Son which are held to be chauvinistic, substituting them with other names. Such variants, however, undermine faith in the Trinity".

  "The response of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith constitutes an authentic doctrinal declaration, which has wide-ranging canonical and pastoral effects. Indeed, the reply implicitly affirms that people who have been baptised, or who will in the future be baptised, with the formulae in question have, in reality, not been baptised. Hence, they must them be treated for all canonical and pastoral purposes with the same juridical criteria as people whom the Code of Canon Law places in the general category of 'non- baptised'".

Dr. Ed Peters has blogged about this issue before (in 2004), and has a post on it today. Read it here.

The American Papist provides further background and commentary.

And here is an excellent resource for teaching/learning about the sacrament of baptism:

Living Water | Understanding the Gift of New Life through Baptism

Not many of us consider our baptismal "birthday" as the most significant day in our lives. Yet what could be more important than receiving the sacrament that Jesus said was necessary for our salvation?

Many of us have been baptized without ever coming to understand its reality and meaning, and we, in turn, baptize our children with our eyes still veiled to the eternal significance of this important sacrament.

The Living Water Leader's Guide/Participant's Workbook cover and teach:

• the origin, purpose, and significance of the sacrament of Baptism
• how this holy sacrament was instituted by Jesus as the means through which we are incorporated into his family, the Church
• about the permanent effect that Baptism has upon our souls, and how it heals us of sin and empowers us to live a Christian life, and
• review the Rite of Baptism itself, and consider the deeper meaning of the words, symbols, and gestures.

• Living Water Leader's Guide
• Living Water Participant's Workbook

Learn more about the Catholic Faith Explorers series, which is published by Ignatius Press in cooperation with Ave Maria University.

The Attraction of Orthodoxy | Joseph Pearce

The Attraction of Orthodoxy | Joseph Pearce | From Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration In An Age of Unbelief | IgnatiusInsight.com            

In 1908 Chesterton produced one of his most influential books. Orthodoxy, published on 25 September, was written in response to a reviewer of his earlier book, Heretics, who had complained that Chesterton had condemned the theology and philosophy of others without clearly stating his own. 'With all the solemnity of youth,' Chesterton wrote, 'I accepted this as a challenge; and wrote an outline of my own reasons for believing that the Christian theory, as summarised in the Apostles' Creed, would be found to be a better criticism of life than any of those that I had criticised. [1]

Orthodoxy was Chesterton's first explicitly Christian title and his biographer Maisie Ward considered it so important that 'more must be said of it than his other published works'. [2] Her father, Wilfrid Ward, whose talk at Oxford had done so much to stimulate Christopher Dawson's interest in Newman, proclaimed it as a major milestone in the development of Christian thought.

Continue reading...

The soul of Senator Barack Obama

Get a glimpse of it by reading the transcript of his July 17, 2007, speech before Planned Barrenhood Action Fund (ht: LifeSiteNews.com).

UPDATE (Feb. 29th): Christopher Blosser provides some helpful commentary, on the "Catholics In the Public Square" blog, about Sen. Obama's speech.

The full text of Benedict XVI's recent address to the Society of Jesus...

... is now available on the Vatican website.

Smack! Sister Mary Ann firmly raps some knuckles

The knuckles of one Joe Feuerherd, to be exact. Responding to his February 24th rant in The Washington Post (see my previous post), Sister Mary Ann Walsh, director of media relations for the USCCB, firmly lets loose on Feueherd's "screed." Read her response on The Washington Post site (ht: Catholics in the Public Square).

Lent in the East: "Where's the beef?"

I'll tell you where: nowhere near your stove or your mouth. That is, strictly speaking, the practice throughout the entire Great Fast, as this article from the Catholic Anchor about Byzantine Catholics notes:

In the Byzantine tradition, there are two types of fasting, simple and strict. Strict abstinence is obligatory two times during the Lenten season — On Pure Monday and Great and Holy Friday. On these days, all meat and dairy is forbidden, including eggs and all egg and dairy product derivatives.

“Of course people can observe (additional) stricter fasts out of a spirit of penance if they want to, but they are not obligated beyond the requirements,” Father Hornick said.

Needless to say, this strict fasting is really difficult. And far be it from me to claim I do it well. But practicing such fasting really does shed a different light on Holy Week and Pascha; the fasting gives meaning to the feasting. It's a reminder that what we take for granted shouldn't be taken for granted, and, in a more theological vein, causes one to ponder things such as the loss of original friendship with God through sin (in the East there is an emphasis on Adam and Eve being vegetarian prior to the Fall), the source of true food and drink (Christ/the Eucharist), the point of having bodies (to outwardly worship God, among other good things), and the point of our existence (to know, serve, and love God forever). And it also provides another means of talking to our children about the meaning of Lent and Easter, since the children cannot help but notice that either Mom and Dad are eating differently or that they aren't getting any hamburgers, hot dogs, or three-meat pizza.

On each Friday of the Great Fast there is a Liturgy of the Pre-Sancified, which is a beautiful, somber combination of Vespers and Holy Communion. Here are some excerpts from the hymns sung during that liturgy:

Brethren, while fasting bodily, * let us also fast in spirit:* let us loosen every bond of injustice, * let us tear apart the strong chains of violence; * let us rip up all unjust assertions; * let us give bread to the hungry * and welcome the poor and homeless to our houses * that we may receive from Christ our God His great mercy. ...

In the multitude of my sins, * a pauper with a darkened mind, * I cry out to you, O all-pure One, * with a repentant and contrite heart. * Illumine the eyes of my heart, * you who once gave birth to the unfading Light * Who illumines the ends of the earth * through the fiery sign of His judgment. * Illumine my mind, O Spotless One, by the light of your prayers. * Make me become a son of light by praying to Christ your Son * who grants to the world his great mercy. ...

Like the prodigal son, * I squandered my paternal inheritance and I am now in desolation, * I dwell in a land of evil men. In my folly I became like the unreasoning beasts, * stripped of all divine grace. * So I returned and cry out to You, * O merciful and compassionate Father, * I have sinned, O God! * Receive me as a penitent and have mercy on me. ...

He, though unapproachable in His being, * today becomes approachable to me. * He endures suffering to free me from suffering. He who grants light to the blind is spat upon by lawless lips and gives His back to be scourged like a lowly slave. * When His pure virgin Mother saw Him on the cross, * she cried out: My child, what have You done? * You whose beauty exceeds that of all the children of men * appear disfigured and lifeless! * Alas my Light, I cannot look at You asleep in death. I am so deeply wounded: ' the fearful sword pierces my heart; but I praise your suffering and bow to your compassion. * O long-suffering Lord, glory be to You.

What is particularly striking is how these hymns (which can be rather difficult to sing, especially for those of us who weren't raised with the music and who are musically-challenged) is how they place us in the midst of an event, narrative, or parable from Scripture and have us associate ourselves with, for example, the prophet Elias, the Prodigal Son, the man born blind, the man beaten on the road to Jericho, the harlot who bathed Christ's feet with perfume, Mary and Martha, Lazarus, the foolish virgins. These people and events are not simply interesting data found in salvation history, but are guides on the road to a deeper, richer, transforming communion with the Savior. At the end of the liturgy the people prostrate themselves themselves three times as they sing this hymn with a most beautiful melody: "Having suffered the passion for us, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy, have mercy, have mercy on us."

For more about the Great Fast in the East, visit Byzantines.net. And if you've never read it, Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Letter, Orientale Lumen ("The Light of the East"; May 2, 1995), is a wonderful introduction to Eastern Catholicism.

Benedict XVI on St. Augustine, "an impassioned searcher after the truth"

From the Vatican Information Service, the Holy Father's continuing reflections on the great Bishop of Hippo:

GOD IS THE ANSWER TO THE DISQUIET OF OUR HEARTS

VATICAN CITY, 27 FEB 2008 (VIS) - In his general audience, held this morning in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope concluded his series of catecheses on the figure of St. Augustine. Before the audience, the Holy Father went to the Vatican Basilica to greet pilgrims who had been unable to find a place in the hall.

  St. Augustine "is one of the great converts of Christian history" said Benedict XVI. Reading the "Confessions", he went on, "it is easy to see that Augustine's conversion was neither sudden nor fully achieved right from the start. Rather it may be defined as a ... journey, and remains as a model for each one of us".

  "St. Augustine was, ever since the beginning, an impassioned searcher after the truth. ... and the first stage of his journey of conversion ... consisted precisely in his gradual approach to Christianity". He received a Christian education from his mother Monica and, despite having lived a wild youth, "always felt a profound attraction to Christ".

  The saint's "passion for mankind and for truth ... made him seek God, great and inaccessible". But "Faith in Christ, led him to understand that the apparently distant God is not in fact distant. He has come close to us, making Himself one of us. In this context, faith in Christ was the culmination of Augustine's long search along the path of truth. ... This path must be followed with courage and, at the same time, with humility, while remaining open to the permanent purification of which each one of us has need".

  St. Augustine, the Pope recalled, "was reluctantly ordained a priest in Hippo and assigned to the service of the faithful", in which role "he continued to live with Christ, but while serving everyone. He found this very difficult at the start, but he understood that only by living for others, and not just for his own private contemplation, could he truly live with Christ and for Christ. Renouncing a life of pure meditation he learned, often with difficulty, to place the fruits of his intellect at the service of others, to communicate his faith to the common people, ... and thus to live for them in that city which he had made his own. ... This was his second conversion".

  The Pope then went on to identify another stage in Augustine's journey "which we could call his third conversion and which brought him daily to ask forgiveness of God. ... We have a perennial need to be washed by Christ, ... to be renewed by Him". We need "the humility to recognise that we are all sinners, constantly journeying until God definitively gives us His hand and introduces us to eternal life". With such humility Augustine lived and died.

  "Having converted to Christ Who is truth and love", the Pope continued, "Augustine followed Him throughout his life and stands as a model for all human beings who seek after God. ... Today too, as in his time, humankind needs to know this fundamental reality and, above all, to put it into practice: God is love and meeting Him is the only answer to the disquiet of our hearts".

  Benedict XVI concluded his catechesis with a prayer that "every day we may be able to follow the example of this great convert, meeting in every moment of our lives, as he did, the Lord Jesus, the One Who saves us, purifies us and gives us true joy, true life".

• Benedict XVI on the works of Saint Augustine (February 20, 2008)
• Benedict XVI on the conversion of St. Augustine (January 30, 2008)
• Benedict on Augustine's Faith in Christ (January 16, 2008)
• Benedict on Augustine, "a man of passion and of faith" (January 9, 2008)
• Joseph Ratzinger on Saint Augustine (August 28, 2007)
• Benedict and Augustine (April 21, 2007)

Luke Timothy Johnson "sometimes questions church authority"?

Dwight Yoakam, one of my favorite country artists, once penned a dry and rather funny number with Roger Miller titled, "It Only Hurts Me When I Cry" (on If There Was a Way, a fine album). It goes, in part, like so:

The only time I feel the pain
Is in the sunshine or the rain
And I don't feel no hurt at all
Unless you count when teardrops fall
I tell the truth 'cept when I lie
And it only hurts me when I cry

I mention it for two reasons. The first is that I really don't reference good country music enough on this blog, so figured I might as well give it a shot. The second is a news story about how some Catholics are upset—nay, incensed (in the angry, non-aromatic manner)—that a Catholic bishop is not allowing "a biblical scholar who sometimes questions church authority" to "speak April 20 at the diocese-funded Newman Center on the campus of Southern Illinois University Carbondale."

Here is the story. The bishop is Bishop Edward K. Braxton of Belleville, Illinois, and the biblical scholar is Luke Timothy Johnson, professor of theology at Emory University and author of several books and commentaries. The story is being covered in rather typical fashion: the bishop is being presented as some sort of reactionary, narrow-minded authoritarian, with Commonweal magazine condemning his action as "censorship." (Commonweal, just so you know, was to be a co-sponsor of Johnson's talk.) Johnson, for his part, refers to Bishop Braxton's action as "hardball politics", but insists he is not "some kind of martyr." He is at least correct about that. Meanwhile, the article vaguely refers to a recent Commonweal article by Johnson that "mentioned the long-standing opposition by church hierarchy to the ordination of women." And Notre Dame University theology professor Lawrence Cunningham, a regular contributor to Commonweal, notes that Johnson is well-regarded as a "solid Catholic biblical scholar," who, in said Commonweal article, "Asked for a more generous consideration of the plight of homosexuals."

To borrow from Mr. Yoakam and rewrite a rhyme:

I tell the truth 'cept when I fudge,
And it only hurts me when I hold a grudge.

One reason this story interests me is that I have heard Dr. Johnson speak in person (on the Jesus Seminar; he was excellent). I've read several of his books and have benefited much from his commentaries on the Gospel of Luke and The Acts of the Apostles (both are very good). I've read several of his books, including The Real Jesus and Living Jesus (solid, with many helpful insights).

I've also heard him (following the talk mentioned above) publicly voice his support of the ordination of women and his belief that the Catholic Church will eventually have priestettes (my term, not his). And, in fact, whenever Johnson moves from New Testament studies and Christology into the realm of Church authority, sexuality, and morality, he seems, well, to get really angry and a wee bit illogical. Worse, he consistently rejects and even mocks Church teaching. It can be seen, for example, in the tenor of his scathing critique of Pope John Paul II's theology of the body (published in—where else?—Commonweal; an excellent response by Christopher West can be read here).

Johnson's strained relationship with the aforementioned issues is both blatant and expressed at some length in his popular book, The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters (Doubleday, 2003). I wrote a review of it for This Rock magazine that can be read online ("From Creed to Screed: How Cafeteria Catholicism Leads to Dissent" [Sept. 2004]), so I won't go into too much detail here, except to note that reading the book was quite disconcerting, as it readily displayed a bewildering theological schizophrenia, as I noted at the start of my review: "When Johnson agrees with Church teaching, his writing is measured and his arguments are logical. But when Johnson parts ways with Church teaching, the tone becomes polemical and he shows little if any respect for the thinking and logic behind those teachings." That is, frankly, putting it mildly.

In short, Johnson not only supports women's ordination, he also supports "same sex marriage," thinks homosexual acts are just fine, supports the use of contraceptives, believes Jesus had brothers and sisters born of Mary, and thinks that belief in the miraculous conception and Virgin birth of Christ is silly: "The plain fact is that it is neither possible nor important to know the biology of Jesus’ conception and birth" (p 157). Not least, Johnson argues that since the Creed "says nothing about the Lord’s Supper or other sacraments," we can conclude that "they are not essential, and if they are not essential, then definition should be avoided and a plurality of observance should be allowed or even cultivated" (p 320).

In a June 15th, 2007 piece in (yes, once again) Commonweal magazine about homosexuality, Johnson made it very clear that when it comes to authority, he has little use for the Magisterium or the clear teachings of Scripture:

I have little patience with efforts to make Scripture say something other than what it says, through appeals to linguistic or cultural subtleties. The exegetical situation is straightforward: we know what the text says. But what are we to do with what the text says? We must state our grounds for standing in tension with the clear commands of Scripture, and include in those grounds some basis in Scripture itself. To avoid this task is to put ourselves in the very position that others insist we already occupy-that of liberal despisers of the tradition and of the church’s sacred writings, people who have no care for the shared symbols that define us as Christian. If we see ourselves as liberal, then we must be liberal in the name of the gospel, and not, as so often has been the case, liberal despite the gospel.

I think it important to state clearly that we do, in fact, reject the straightforward commands of Scripture, and appeal instead to another authority when we declare that same-sex unions can be holy and good. And what exactly is that authority? We appeal explicitly to the weight of our own experience and the experience thousands of others have witnessed to, which tells us that to claim our own sexual orientation is in fact to accept the way in which God has created us. By so doing, we explicitly reject as well the premises of the scriptural statements condemning homosexuality-namely, that it is a vice freely chosen, a symptom of human corruption, and disobedience to God’s created order.

(See my June 2007 post on this blog for more about those comments.) Now, having delved just a bit into Johnson's beliefs, readers who have not done so prior to reading this post can now better appreciate why Bishop Braxton would offer this simple and clear statement about why he won't allow Johnson to give a talk in a parish in his diocese:

"I do not wish Catholic institutions or organizations to invite speakers into the diocese who have written articles or given lectures that oppose, deny, reject, undermine or call into question the authentic teachings of the magisterium of the Catholic Church."

There is, however, even more to the story. The impression has been given (and too easily accepted, I'm certain) that Bishop Braxton is not just being mean, he is being narrow-minded, with the implication that he is probably afraid of views that differ from his. Thus:

Steven Sanders, a Carbondale insurance brokerage owner and member of the center's pastoral council that invited Johnson, said of Braxton, "I think he's stepping in where it's none of his damn business. These kids are college kids. They should be able to hear all sides."

Ah, Mr. Sanders, if only everyone was as open minded as yourself! Besides, it seems self-evident that a bishop's business includes parishes within his diocese (if it isn't, well, I wonder if people should be buying insurance from you). The issue is not censorship, but pastoral leadership. Besides, anyone who looks at Bishop Braxton's bio (and I confess I know little else about him except what I've read there), cannot help but be impressed by the following:

The future Bishop studied for the priesthood at Quigley Preparatory Seminary, Niles College Seminary and St. Mary of the Lake Seminary , Mundelein , Ill., in the Archdiocese of Chicago, where he earned his BA, MA, S.T.B. and S.T. L. degrees. He served as a deacon at St. Raymond De Penafort Parish in Mount Prospect, Ill., and spent his first year in the priesthood as Associate Pastor of Holy Name Cathedral. He was Associate Pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Winnetka Ill., from 1971-1973. There he was deeply influenced by his Pastor, the renowned liturgist and pastoral pioneer, Msgr. Reynold Hillenbrand, one of the founders of the Christian Family Movement, which urged the Christian faithful to become genuinely involved in the life of the Church. He was a graduate student at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium from 1973 to 1975 where he earned a Ph.D. in Religious Studies and an S.T.D. in Systematic Theology summa cum laude . The focus of his studies was on the pastoral implication of the concepts of sacrament, myth, symbol, metaphor, and metaphysics in the theological methodology of the influential Jesuit theologian Bernard J.F. Lonergan and their relationship to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council....

His writings on a wide range of theological and pastoral topics have appeared in the Harvard Theological Review , Theological Studies , Louvain Studies , The Irish Theological Quarterly , Chicago Studies , Origins , The New York Times , America , Commonweal , The National Catholic Reporter , U.S. Catholic , The Priest , The St. Louis Post-Dispatch , The Ligourian , The Lake Charles American Press and many other journals and periodicals. He is the author of numerous articles on African-American Catholics, many of which have been translated and published abroad. His books The Wisdom Community and The Faith Community: One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic are widely used in Catholic colleges and seminaries. His professional associations include the American Academy of Religion, The Catholic Theological Society of America, The Canon Law Society of America and the Black Catholic Clergy Caucus. His profile is included in Who's Who in Black America and Who's Who in Midwest America . He is able to converse in French and he has a reading knowledge of Spanish and Italian.

Simply put: this is a pastor who appears to be well-educated and knowledgeable. Why, he's even written (!) for Commonweal. And America. And The New York Times. I bet he did his homework when it came to the views of Luke Timothy Johnson. As for the Commonweal "We Cry 'Censorship'!" Crowd and Dr. Johnson, perhaps a snippet from another Yoakam song—titled "Blame the Vain"—will provide some twangy food for thought:

(Don't you know that ) blame..
Is always never enough
It just keeps you in the game
Until you've only got
yourself left to bluff

Job opening at Ignatius Press

From the home office in San Francisco:

IGNATIUS PRESS has an opening for a Staff Accountant. Looking for a candidate with a college degree in accounting or finance, solid communication, organizational and interpersonal skills, and strong computer proficiency, including Microsoft Office, MS Access and/or SQL. Bookworks accounting system knowledge a huge plus.

This full-time position will handle a number of duties including, but not limited to:

Accounts Payable
- Preparing accruals and reconciling to the general ledger
- Maintaining cash requirements schedules and accounts payable aging analysis
- Performing general ledger posting and monthly/year-end reconciliations
- Matching, batching coding and entering invoices
- Entering, posting and reconciling batches
- Researching and resolving accounts payable or accounts receivable issues with customers or vendors

Job Costing and Inventory Reconciliation
- Working closely with the Book Production Manager and the Purchasing Manager
- Maintaining and reconciling inventories
- Performing product and cost analyses
- Performing month-end cost accounting close

Ignatius Press has a wonderful, humane, friendly, family-like, Catholic working environment. We also provide excellent health benefits.

If interested, please contact Glenn Dudro at Ignatius Press: glenn@ignatius.com; 415-387-2324, fax: 415-387-0896.

By The Numbers | Priestly Vocations in America: Recent Trends

By The Numbers | Priestly Vocations in America: Recent Trends | Jeff Ziegler for Catholic World Report

A survey of dioceses rich in seminarians and dioceses poor in them.

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According to the Vatican's statistical yearbook, there were 63,882 major seminarians worldwide when John Paul II began his pontificate in 1978; by the end of 2005, that number had grown to 114,439—an increase of 79.1 percent. During the same time period, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, the number of American diocesan and religious seminarians in college and theological seminaries decreased from 9,021 to 4,603—a decline of 49.0 percent.

While priestly vocations have collapsed nationwide, several American dioceses have been part of the worldwide surge in the number of seminarians. "Over the past three years," says Father Darrin Connall, rector of Bishop White Seminary at Gonzaga University and director of seminarians for the Diocese of Spokane, "we have increased the number of active priests in our diocese by almost 20 percent. This has permitted the bishop to assign parochial vicars to parishes that haven't had one in several years…We have also been able to free up priests for prison ministry, full-time hospital ministry, and to place a priest in our diocesan high school as a chaplain and teacher—the first time this has happened in decades."

Read the entire Catholic World Report article...

Two Notions of Worship: Catholic vs. Fundamentalist

Two Notions of Worship: Catholic vs. Fundamentalist | Karl Keating | From The Usual Suspects: Answering Anti-Catholic Fundamentalists

Here is a pop quiz I give in parish seminars: "You recall that the Israelites melted down their jewelry and made a golden calf. What was wrong  with making a golden calf?" Before anyone has a chance to embarrass himself publicly, I give the answer: "Absolutely nothing."

When I ask that question and give that answer, most people are stunned. "But we know making the golden calf was a sin", they say. "The Israelites were condemned for it." Actually, my listeners know no such thing. There was nothing at all wrong with fashioning a statue from jewelry. What was wrong was that the Israelites then worshiped the nonexistent god the calf represented. They committed the sin of idolatry. There never has been a sin of statue-making.

Continue reading...

Catholic reporter defends his support for Obama, stating: "bishops be damned"

UPDATE (Feb. 29, 2008): Joe Feuerherd sent me the following note re: my post: "As the identification in the Post makes clear, I am no longer with the National Catholic Reporter. Haven’t been for about 10 months. The praise, or in this case the blame, resides solely with me." I apologize to both Mr. Feuerherd and the National Catholic Reporter for the error.

Joe Feuerherd, former reporter for the National "Catholic" Reporter, is an angry man, as his February 24th op-rant indicates (ht: Dr. Ed Peters):

To Catholics like me who oppose liberal abortion laws but also think that other issues -- war or peace, health care, just wages, immigration, affordable housing, torture -- actually matter, the idea that abortion trumps everything, all the time, no matter what, is both bad religion and bad civics. It's not, for God's sake, as though we're in Nazi Germany and supporting Hitler.

Is it really "bad religion" and "bad civics"? Not according to Pope John Paul II, whose great encyclical Evangelium vitae provided a very careful and powerful explanation as to why abortion is such a key issue. Here are just a couple of pertinent quotes:

To claim the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of true freedom: "Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin" (Jn 8:34). [par 20]

Among all the crimes which can be committed against life, procured abortion has characteristics making it particularly serious and deplorable. The Second Vatican Council defines abortion, together with infanticide, as an "unspeakable crime".

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 behaviour 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" (Is 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. [par 58]

Laws which authorize and promote abortion and euthanasia are therefore 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.

Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection. [pars 72-3]

But, of course, all of this means nothing to Followtheherd:

This fire-and-brimstone approach to the ballot box is the long-term bequest of a conservative pope, John Paul II, enacted by a U.S. hierarchy appointed during his 27-year tenure and now by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI. John Paul's key criterion in choosing the men who lead the United States' 194 dioceses was their vocal support for church teachings that have been rejected in whole (birth control) or in part (women's ordination and abortion) by many Catholics in the pews and the broader American culture. John Paul gave little weight to management or pastoral experience, as evidenced by the bishops' handling of the clergy sex-abuse crisis.

Well, goodness, if the broader American culture is for it, it surely must be the right thing! Anyhow, to cut to the chase, here is the conclusion:

There's little hope, unfortunately, that the bishops will adopt a more pragmatic approach to achieving their aims anytime soon. Younger American priests, the pool from which future bishops will be chosen, overwhelmingly embrace the agenda enunciated by John Paul II.

So what's a pro-life, pro-family, antiwar, pro-immigrant, pro-economic-justice Catholic like me supposed to do in November? That's an easy one. True to my faith, I'll vote for the candidate who offers the best hope of ending an unjust war, who promotes human dignity through universal health care and immigration reform, and whose policies strengthen families and provide alternatives to those in desperate situations. Sounds like I'll be voting for the Democrat -- and the bishops be damned.

There you have it: either be "pragmatic" or follow the Pope, the reality about the Democrats and abortion be, well, dismissed. (For the record, this is not to say that I am thrilled about the Republican Party. I'm not. Not even close. But that'll have to wait for another time.) As for the final sentence, Dr. Ed Peters offers some sobering observations:

Now, Canon 1369 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law states that "a person who . . . in published writing . . . expresses insults or excites hatred or contempt against religion or the Church is to be punished with a just penalty." Canon 1373 states that "a person who publicly incites among subjects animosities or hatred against the Apostolic See or an ordinary because of some act of power or ecclesiastical ministry . . . is to be punished by an interdict or other just penalties."

I believe Feuerherd has gravely violated both of these canons.

Read Dr. Peters' entire post.

About 10% of Americans are former Catholics

From a Los Angeles Times piece about a recent poll released today by Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life:

Barely 51% of Americans are Protestants, and among people between the ages of 18 and 29, just 43% identify with this branch of Christianity, according to the study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

More than four in 10 adults, or 44%, have switched religious affiliations, moved from being unaffiliated with any faith tradition to affiliated, or abandoned any ties to a specific religion altogether, according to the study. But the study also found that Americans who identify themselves as Christians has remained constant -- nearly 8 in 10.

Today's 148-page study, made public at a teleconference from Washington, D.C., is the first report of the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, a project in the works for more than a year. The interviews were conducted from May 8 to Aug. 13 in 2007. The study was based on interviews in English and Spanish with a representative sample of more than 35,000 adults.

And:

The study noted that Protestantism is characterized by significant internal diversity and fragmentation, encompassing hundreds of different denominations loosely grouped around three "fairly distinct" religious traditions -- evangelical Protestant churches (26.3%), mainline Protestants (18.1%) and historically black Protestant churches (6.9%).

Evangelicals make up the nation's single-largest religious tradition, followed by Catholics, who make up about a quarter of Americans.

But Catholics also lost more adherents than any other single religious group in the United States, with one in three adults who were raised as Catholics no longer in that church, the study said. Roughly 10% of Americans are former Catholics.

Read the entire article.

Here is the Pew Forum page for the "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey."

Ah, so that is what "fundamentalism" is all about

From The Independent:

A Commons select committee is to investigate evidence that the Roman Catholic Church is pursuing a more fundamentalist approach towards religion in its schools.

Members of the Children, Schools and Families Committee plan to call senior bishops to give evidence in an inquiry into the approach schools are adopting towards a range of issues – including abortion, sex education and PSHE (personal and social health education) classes.

The move comes after a 66-page circular from the Bishop of Lancaster, Patrick O'Donoghue, instructed Catholic schools in the North-west to stop "safe sex" education and place crucifixes in every classroom.

Schools were also told not to support charities that promote or fund pro-choice policies, singling out Amnesty International – which is in favour of abortion for women who have been raped in war zones. Barry Sheerman, the Labour chairman of the committee, said there was evidence from other areas of the country of Catholic schools being told to adopt a more fundamentalist line.

Yes, I can imagine the memo that is circulating: "I hereby declare that all Catholic schools should be more fundamentalist and adopt a more fundamentalist line. Fundamentally yours..." Right.

In his document, Fit for Mission, Bishop O'Donoghue wrote: "The secular view on sex outside marriage, artificial contraception, sexually transmitted disease, including HIV and Aids, and abortion, may not be presented as neutral information."

Apparently "fundamentalism" bears a remarkably close resemblance to orthodox Catholic doctrine re: abortion, sexuality, and such. Actually, it bears a strong resemblance to what society just fifty years ago considered normal or "traditional." How's this for a slogan: "Fight Fundamentalism: Renounce Traditional Morals"?

By the way, whatever happened to good, old-fashioned fundamentalism? You know, the kind that really dislikes Catholicism. Just wondering (rather sarcastically, in case you're not sure)...

Cardinal Schönborn book presentation can be viewed...

... on a site created by the Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology at Berkeley. Cardinal Schönborn discusses his book, Chance or Purpose: Creation, Evolution, and a Rational Faith, published last year by Ignatius Press; the presentation took place on February 15, 2008.

Another lecture (the 2008 Aquinas Lecture) available on the site for viewing is “Thomas Aquinas and the Problem of Human Suffering”, given on February 14, 2008, by Eleonore Stump, Ph.D., who is The Robert J. Henle Professor of Philosophy at Saint Louis University.