Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog

An interview with L'Angelus ("lawn-jay-loose")

Paige Rees of the Louisiana-based group L'Angelus (pronounced "lawn - jay - loose", their website explains), made up of siblings Johnny, Stephen, Katie and Paige Rees, was recently interviewed by Tony Rosse for “Christopher Closeup”. The Grapevine blog has some of it transcribed, courtesy of Rosse:

TR: Paige, L’Angelus is made up of you, your sister Katie, and your brothers Johnny and Stephen. By modern standards, that’s already a big family. But there are even more of you at home. How many kids are in your family?

Paige Rees: We are actually a group of ten kids altogether. Our Mom and Dad have been blessed with eight children. And two years ago, we were blessed with a foster brother and sister.

TR: Tell me about your parents taking in those foster children. How did it happen and why did they do it when they already had a significant number of mouths to feed and raise?

Paige Rees: My parents, about seven or eight years ago, became open to life as they grew deeper in their faith…Then we met this little family in New Orleans shortly after Katrina. Their mother was very young and she had four little ones herself. (She had) no family or support system and was suffering very much the effects of the storm. After meeting her and getting to know her over a few days, there was a lot of uncertainty but we just tried to trust in God and follow what He has shown us over and over in Scriptures and through the examples of the saints of how we are supposed to care for one another. So we’ve had this relationship with their mother for the past few years, and she just graduated from a medical assistant program. She actually came into the church this past Easter. The children were baptized and it was a really glorious day for everybody.

TR: Paige, your music career has become more successful through the years, and sometimes it would seem that the busier you would get, the more faith would be pushed to the side. But the exact opposite has happened with your family. Why do you think that is?

Paige Rees: We started out playing music when we were pretty young. Early on, our uncle who has had a career in the music business - he doesn’t necessarily practice any faith. But he did tell my Dad when we were still quite young, “If you’re going to be in this business, you better take those kids to church.” There are so many challenges to the faith that are presented in this business, in media in particular. So I think my Dad really took that advice to heart and we tried to stay really close to the sacraments and close to each other so that we would have that support system, that accountability. So I think it’s been a grace, not necessarily anything that we’ve done but our heavenly father protecting us and thankfully giving our father a lot of wisdom.

Read the entire transcript.

The following albums by L'Angelus are available from Ignatius Press:

• Sacred Hymns: L'Angelus
• O Night Divine

A couple of thoughts about Obama's "Hey, You're Gay, Hurray!" Day

Yesterday, President Obama hosted a "LGBT Pride Month Reception" at the White House. For those who don't know, June 2009 was named "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month" by the President, whose proclamation prominently identified the 1969 Stonewall riots as a key moment of "resistance" out of which "the LGBT rights movement in America was born." During yesterday's love fest, the President was, of course, a bridgemaker, a reconciler, and group hug organizer—unless, that is, you don't happen to support, celebrate, and otherwise bow before the Shrine of LGBT Pride. Here are some noteworthy quotes:

From Michael Jackson to indulgences, Dr. Peters is the man!

I was Googling about and came across an article from today's issue of The Chicago Tribune titled, "Catholics hope to cleanse indulgences of their bad reputation." I rolled my eyes and prepared to read the usual stuff. And, sure enough, I read this, "Now five centuries later, the proverbial pardons from purgatory have made a comeback. Pope Benedict XVI has authorized bishops to offer plenary indulgences at least nine times during his papacy."

This "comeback," of course, one of several over the past few decades, following Pope Paul VI's 1968 "Apostolic Constitution On Indulgences", the clear references to indulgences in the 1994 Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the many instances of indulgences making prominent appearances during the pontificate of John Paul II, especially during the Year of the Jubilee. But, fine, I understand: indulgences haven't been getting a lot of positive attention, even (especially?) among Catholics for quite some time. Fair enough.

But, lo and behold, the next paragraph contained a pleasant surprise:

"It is one of a number of ways that Pope Benedict is helping Catholics rediscover some practices that have been neglected over the last few decades," said Edward Peters, author of "A Practical Guide to Indulgences."

And, later:

Edward Peters, a canon law professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, said Pope Paul VI laid the groundwork for a revival of indulgences when he simplified the rules in 1968, creating more ordinary conditions by which to seek them. Peters said acts of charity also can qualify Catholics for indulgences.

"Catholics who engage in works of charity with a sense of sorrow for their own sins can gain indulgences thereby," he said. "It's another incentive or way of helping people form the habits of charity."

Dr. Peters, who also operates the "In the Light of the Law" blog, has written some popular works, but also translated and annotated the 1917 Pio Benedictine Code Of Canon Law, which was published by Ignatius Press. His book on indulgences is actually titled, A Modern Guide to Indulgences: Rediscovering This Often Misinterpreted Teaching, and is published by Hillenbrand Books.

Within seconds of reading the Tribune piece, I received an update from Dr. Peters about a new post on his blog; the subject is L'Osservatore Romano and ... Michael Jackson. The opening is classic Peters:

For most of my life L'Osservatore Romano has been a sleepy Roman rag that arrived weeks after its publication date, printed in cheap ink that soiled the fingers of those who felt the need to read page after page of boilerplate remarks on the latest ambassador from anywhere shown in his tuxedo presenting diplomatic credentials. Aside, I suppose, from an occasionally interesting book review, L'OR has for decades carried nothing of serious interest that could not be found much more quickly in a half-dozen other venues, ones, moreover, that didn't compel readers to wash their hands before handling anything beige or white.

But lately, L'OR has decided to become relevant. God help us.

Read the rest, which is very critical of the adulatory and imbalanced coverage of Michael Jackson's death in the "sleepy Roman rag."

• Excommunication! | An interview with canon lawyer Dr. Edward Peters
• Question: Who Is Married? | Edward Peters
• Entering Marriage with Eyes Wide Open | Edward Peters

Quote of the Day

From Benedict XVI's homily given last night at the close of the Year of Saint Paul, as reported by John Allen, Jr., some direct and challenging words:

“Paul tells us [that] the world cannot be renewed without new human beings,” Benedict said. “Only if there are new human beings will there be a new world, a renewed and better world.”

From that premise, Benedict said that personal spiritual renewal requires “non-conformism,” an unwillingness to “submit oneself to the scheme of the current epoch.” Doing so, the pope said, requires a new way of thinking at odds with the values of the world, shaped by encounter with the “new man” of Jesus Christ.

“The way of thinking of the old man, the common way of thinking, is generally directed toward possessions, well-being, influence, success, fame, and so on,” Benedict said. “Thus in the last analysis, the ‘I’ remains the precise center of the world. We have to learn to think in a more profound manner,” the pope said, based on the desires of God rather than the self.

Benedict recalled Paul’s insistence upon an “adult faith,” mocking the use of that phrase to justify dissent from official Catholic doctrine.

“The phrase ‘an adult faith’ in recent decades has become a diffuse slogan,” the pope said. “It’s often used to mean someone who no longer listens to the church and its pastors, but who chooses autonomously what to believe and not to believe – a ‘do-it-yourself’ faith. This is then presented as the ‘courage’ to express oneself against the magisterium of the church.”

“In reality, however, courage isn’t needed for that, because one can always be sure of public applause,” the pope said. “What takes courage is adhering to the faith of the church, even if it contradicts the ‘scheme’ of the contemporary world.”

The Holy Father continued by stating that opposition to abortion and "gay marriage" is part of the mature faith, rooted in authentic charity, we are called to embrace and live as Catholics:

“Part of an adult faith, for example, is a commitment to the inviolability of human life from its first moment, radically opposing the principle of violence, precisely in the defense of the most defenseless of human creatures,” the pope said.

“Part of an adult faith is also recognizing marriage between a man and a woman for life as part of the design of the Creator, newly reestablished by Christ,” he said.

Read the entire piece. The Holy Father's homily was based on Ephesians 4, which includes the following passage:

And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love. (Eph. 4:11-16; RSV).

Related IgnatiusInsight.com Articles:

• Are Truth, Faith, and Tolerance Compatible? | Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger | From Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions.
• Faith in the Triune God, and Peace in the World | Joseph Ratzinger | From Europe: Today and Tomorrow
• On Reading the Pope | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• Authority and Dissent in the Catholic Church | Dr. William E. May
• The Source of Certitude | Thomas Dubay, S.M. | Epilogue to Faith and Certitude
• The Crisis of Faith | Father John Hardon, S.J.
• The Creed and the Trinity | Foreword to The Christian Faith: An Essay on the Structure Of the Apostles' Creed | Henri de Lubac
• What's the Point of Creeds? | Peter Kreeft | From Fundamentals of the Faith
• Understanding The Hierarchy of Truths | Douglas Bushman, S.T.L.
• Exploring the Catholic Faith! | An Interview with Diane Eriksen

"Caritas in Veritate": Signed, sealed, but not yet delivered...

... to the world at large.

Today, at the noontime Angelus, which followed this morning's Pallium Mass, Pope Benedict XVI announced that he had signed his third encyclical, "Charity in Truth." Some apparent excerpts have already been leaked by an Italian newspaper. The encyclical is expected to be released on July 6th or 7th, shortly before President Obama is scheduled to meet with the Holy Father on the afternoon of July 10th.

Already there is growing discussion of how the encyclical will play with "liberals" and "conservatives." Such discussion is understandable to some degree, but I'm willing to bet it will be overused and overdone, and will, for the most part, be rather misleading and of little significant help when it comes to reading Caritas in Veritate. Labels are often necessary and sometimes helpful, but the key question, I think, whenever assessing beliefs about anything—politics, theology, philosophy—is to seek out essential principles. And when it comes to Catholic social doctrine, the basic principles are outlined quite clearly in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church:

The permanent principles of the Church's social doctrine [ 341] constitute the very heart of Catholic social teaching. These are the principles of: the dignity of the human person, which has already been dealt with in the preceding chapter, and which is the foundation of all the other principles and content of the Church's social doctrine; [342] the common good; subsidiarity; and solidarity. These principles, the expression of the whole truth about man known by reason and faith, are born of “the encounter of the Gospel message and of its demands summarized in the supreme commandment of love of God and neighbour in justice with the problems emanating from the life of society”.[343] In the course of history and with the light of the Spirit, the Church has wisely reflected within her own tradition of faith and has been able to provide an ever more accurate foundation and shape to these principles, progressively explaining them in the attempt to respond coherently to the demands of the times and to the continuous developments of social life.

161. These are principles of a general and fundamental character, since they concern the reality of society in its entirety: from close and immediate relationships to those mediated by politics, economics and law; from relationships among communities and groups to relations between peoples and nations. Because of their permanence in time and their universality of meaning, the Church presents them as the primary and fundamental perameters of reference for interpreting and evaluating social phenomena, which is the necessary source for working out the criteria for the discernment and orientation of social interactions in every area.

162. The principles of the Church's social doctrine must be appreciated in their unity, interrelatedness and articulation. This requirement is rooted in the meaning that the Church herself attributes to her social doctrine, as a unified doctrinal corpus that interprets modern social realities in a systematic manner.[344] Examining each of these principles individually must not lead to using them only in part or in an erroneous manner, which would be the case if they were to be invoked in a disjointed and unconnected way with respect to each of the others. A deep theoretical understanding and the actual application of even just one of these social principles clearly shows the reciprocity, complementarities and interconnectedness that is part of their structure. These fundamental principles of the Church's social doctrine, moreover, represent much more than a permanent legacy of reflection, which is also an essential part of the Christian message, since they indicate the paths possible for building a good, authentic and renewed social life.[345] (pars. 160-162)

A helpful, short introduction to Catholic social doctrine can be found in "What Is Catholic Social Teaching? A Review Essay on An Introduction to Catholic Social Teaching", by Mark Brumley. Of course, once the encyclical is available, I'll be posting about it with as much economy as possible. Ignatius Press will be publishing the encyclical in both books form and electronic form. More information about that will be coming soon.

Anglican bishop: Church of England likely gone in thirty years

Paul Richardson, the assistant Bishop of Newcastle, in the June 27th edition of The Telegraph:

Annual decline in Sunday attendance is running at around 1 per cent. At this rate it is hard to see the church
surviving for more than 30 years though few of its leaders are prepared to face that possibility. ...

If decline continues, Christian Research has estimated that in five years' time church closures will accelerate from their present rate of 30 a year to 200 a year as dwindling congregations find the cost of keeping them open too great.

Perhaps the most worrying set of statistics for the Church of England is the decline in baptisms. Out of every
1,000 live births in England in 2006/7 only 128 were baptised as Anglicans.

The figure rises by a small amount if adult baptism and thanksgiving services are included but it is hard to see the Church of England being able to justify its position as the established church on the basis of these numbers.

By way of contrast, out of every 1,000 live births in England in 1900, 609 were baptised in the Church of England.  Figures for church marriages show an equally catastrophic decline.

Richardson mulls over possible ways of staving off such decline and death, writing, "If Anglicans could acquire a stronger sense of who they are and what they believe they might slow the rate of decline and possibly even stabilise their numbers. They would still be a minority but they could be a creative minority. The trick will be to reach this situation without falling into a fundamentalist trap or cutting off links with the wider world." He suggests that Catholics might be a good guide in the quest for survival.

Read the entire piece.

Sinners, Apostles, Martyrs: On the Solemnity of Sts. Peter & Paul

Below is the "Opening the Word" column I wrote last year for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29, 2008) for Our Sunday Visitor newspaper; I've added the opening quote from Pope Benedict as it provides a beautiful introduction to this reflection:

Peter's profession of Christ, whom he declares to be the Holy One of God, fits into the context of the Eucharistic Discourse in which Jesus announces the Day of Reconciliation through the sacrificial offering of himself: "the bread I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world" (Jn 6: 51). So this profession is the background of the priestly mystery of Jesus, his sacrifice for us all. The Church is not holy by herself; in fact, she is made up of sinners - we all know this and it is plain for all to see. Rather, she is made holy ever anew by the Holy One of God, by the purifying love of Christ. God did not only speak, but loved us very realistically; he loved us to the point of the death of his own Son. It is precisely here that we are shown the full grandeur of revelation that has, as it were, inflicted the wounds in the heart of God himself. Then each one of us can say personally, together with St Paul, I live "a life of faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2: 20). — Pope Benedict XVI, Homily on the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, June 29, 2005.

Sinners, Apostles, Martyrs: Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles | Carl E. Olson

Readings: Acts 12:1-11; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18; Matthew 16:13-19

One denied Christ after having been chosen by him. The other was chosen by Christ after he had spent much time and energy persecuting Christians. One was a businessman with a large, impetuous personality. The other was a rabbi whose emotional passion was equaled by his stunning intellect.

Both men were flawed; both were transformed by encountering Christ. Both were martyred for their faith in Christ. Both, according to tradition, died in the city of Rome nearly forty years after the Resurrection of their Lord.

After Jesus, it is Peter and Paul who dominate the New Testament and whose leadership set the course for the early Church.  Peter is mentioned well over two hundred times in the New Testament, while close to half of the books in the New Testament are attributed to Paul. The Acts of the Apostles, an account written by Luke of key events in the early Church, is essentially divided between what might be called the “acts of Peter” (chapters 1-12) and the “acts of Paul” (chapters 13-28).

Each of today’s three readings reveals something of how the hearts and lives of these two great Apostles were met, filled, and transformed by Jesus Christ. The reading from the Gospel of Matthew is well known, describing the dramatic conversation that took place in the region of Caesarea Philippi. Standing in front of a massive one-hundred-foot high wall of rock marked with shrines and statues of pagan gods, Jesus asked two questions of his disciples: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” and “But who do you say that I am?” Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, did not come from superior intellect or human cleverness, but from faith and the revelation of the Father: “For flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father” (cf., Catechism, par. 552).

Peter, of course, struggled with faith, eventually denying Jesus on the cusp of the Crucifixion. But after being reaffirmed as head apostle by the Risen Lord (cf., Jn 21), Peter emerged as a man both humble and assured, his confidence placed fully in Christ, not himself. Pope Benedict XVI, reflecting on this change, said, “From the naïve enthusiasm of acceptance, passing through the sorrowful experience of denial and the weeping of conversion, Peter succeeded in entrusting himself to that Jesus who adapted himself to his poor capacity of love” (General Audience, May 24, 2006). This journey was possible for Peter because “he was constantly open to the action of the Spirit of Jesus.”

That openness is readily evident in the account, found in Acts 12, of Peter’s miraculous escape from prison. Like Jesus, he was arrested and imprisoned during the time of the Passover. And although Peter escaped death on that occasion, the episode described by Luke is evidently meant to “echo” the death and resurrection of Jesus, for Peter is delivered from the darkness of prison and certain death by an angel of Lord.

Prior to his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, Paul was a zealous persecutor of the Church. Blinded and lying on the road, the stunned Paul asked, “Who are you, Lord?” (Act 9:5). Given an answer and directives, he spent the rest of his life preaching the Gospel, competing in “the race,” one of his favorite metaphors for the Christian life. “His existence,” stated Benedict XVI, “would become that of an Apostle who wants to ‘become all things to all men’ (1 Cor 9:22) without reserve” (General Audience, Oct 25, 2006).

Both Peter and Paul are key witnesses to the reality and veracity of Jesus Christ. Their witness was two-fold: through living, first-hand encounters with the Lord and through their acceptance of martyrdom. “By martyrdom,” the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council explained, “a disciple is transformed into an image of his Master…” (Lumen Gentium, 42). May their bold witness encourage us to be likewise transformed by and for the Savior.

Also see:

• Peter and Succession | by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger | From Called To Communion: Understanding the Church Today
• Church Authority and the Petrine Element | Hans Urs von Balthasar
• Walking In the Footsteps of Saint Paul | Carl E. Olson and Steve Ray

Are temperatures plunging in hell?

This is surprising, but welcome, news, as reported in The Hartford Courant newspaper (ht: Catholic World News):

Saying it is a matter of free speech, the ACLU has filed a brief in support of the Diocese of Bridgeport's battle against a state agency seeking to require the church to register as a lobbyist.

"The free exchange of ideas are at stake here,'' said Andrew Schneider, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut. "The application of this lobbying law to public gatherings such as the church's rally have the effect of chilling free speech.''

The Connecticut Post reports:

In an unusual First Amendment alliance, the American Civil Liberties Union sided with the Diocese of Bridgeport Thursday and slammed the state Office of Ethics for investigating whether the church, in organizing a rally at the Capitol, violated state lobbying laws.

The ACLU filed a friend of the court brief supporting the diocese's request for a preliminary injunction to block the state Office of Ethics from requiring it to register as a lobbyist.

"The Supreme Court, keenly aware of the need to carve out a protected zone, for petitioning activity, that lobbying statutes cannot reach, has defined lobbying narrowly, as involving only 'direct communications with members of the [legislature]' or indirect communications occurring 'through an artificially stimulated letter campaign,' " the ACLU states in its brief. The state Office of Ethics' application of the law to the diocese makes no distinction between petitioning and lobbying, so that the only discernible difference is whether the party has spent $2,000 to advance its message to lawmakers.

• The "Constitution State" goes after the Catholic Church. Again. (June 1, 2009)
• The State of Connecticut attacks the Catholic Church (March 9, 2009)

The Jesuits are "all-out, barn-burning radicals..."

Who said it? A certain now-disgraced (and deceased) President of the United States in conversation with a certain well-known Protestant evangelist.

Caritas Christi Health Care is ending joint venture with Centene Corp.

From the Boston Globe's "Articles of Faith" blog:

Caritas Christi Health Care, the financially challenged Catholic hospital system founded by the Archdiocese of Boston, is abruptly ending its joint venture with a Missouri-based health insurer at the insistence of Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, who has decided that the relationship represented too much of an entanglement between Catholic hospitals and abortion providers.

The dramatic development, just days before the joint venture was scheduled to start providing care to low-income residents as part of the state's efforts to establish near universal health coverage here, is a vindication of sorts for a variety of very conservative Catholic critics of the cardinal, who have been arguing angrily and loudly that it would be "evil" for Caritas to partner with a health provider that covers abortion services.

The development is also a setback for Caritas, because it represents the undoing of one of the most significant steps its new chief executive, Dr. Ralph de la Torre, had announced as part of his efforts to turn around the hospital system's finances. It was not immediately clear last night what the financial impact of the change is on Caritas, but the decision is a stark and public reminder from O'Malley to de la Torre and the general public that moral concerns will trump monetary concerns at the Catholic hospitals.

The change will have no effect on patient care, because Centene Corp., the Missouri-based insurer, will continue to participate in the state-subsidized program, called Commonwealth Care, starting Wednesday.

And Caritas will continue to participate in the program, but now simply as one of many health care providers hired by Centene to treat patients. Caritas's role as a provider will be the same as the role it plays when providing care to people covered by private insurers such as Blue Cross.

The Archdiocese of Boston has released a statement, which states, in part:

Expansion of Caritas’ care for the poor and the uninsured was the original motivating force in entering the agreement with Celtic Group, Inc. (a subsidiary of Centene Corporation). Catholic health care in the United States has two principal goals: providing health care for all, a basic requirement of social justice; and protecting the sacredness of human life from conception until natural death. The protection of human life and dignity demands that Catholic institutions never contribute to procedures which are inconsistent with Catholic moral teaching, such as abortion and sterilization. These procedures and others are prohibited by the Ethical and Religious Directives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Having withdrawn from the original joint venture, the provider agreement will allow Caritas Christi to fulfill its mission of serving the poor without participation or cooperation in procedures forbidden by the moral teaching of the Catholic Church.

The decision to withdraw from the joint venture follows several weeks of discussions between Caritas and Centene and an extensive analysis by the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) which was undertaken at the request of the Cardinal. Over that time, subsequent discussions involving Caritas Christi, the NCBC and the Archdiocese were held and the Cardinal made his final determination. The Cardinal’s role in reviewing and seeking additional guidance on this proposal is rooted in his responsibility to ensure the Catholic identity and moral character of institutions affiliated with the Archdiocese of Boston, including Caritas Christi.

“The goal of this review was to ensure that Caritas Christi could serve the poor through a plan for participation in the Connector that is in complete accordance with Catholic moral teaching,” said Cardinal O’Malley. “I want to thank Dr. Ralph de la Torre and his team at Caritas Christi and the NCBC for their thoughtful collaboration. I also want to extend my sincere gratitude to Dr. John Haas and the staff at the National Catholic Bioethics Center for their diligent and comprehensive review of the proposal. I am pleased that they were able to provide a recommendation whereby Caritas can go forward in fulfilling its mission of Catholic healthcare.”

The June 2009 issue of Catholic World Report ran an article, "Will Caritas Christi Be Involved in the Abortion Business?", written by Philip F. Lawler, editor emeritus of CWR and long-time observor of Catholic life Boston.

Tradition, Europe, and the Muslim world

From a talk given by Fr. Samir Khalil Samir, S.J., at the annual meeting of the Scientific Committee of Oasis, a journal  founded by the Patriarch of Venice Angelo Scola:

Tradition (Lat. tradere) means passing on one’s precious legacy which will in turn be passed on to others and so on. Thus tradition presumes continuity in the here and now. It does not mean going back but assumes instead finding in one’s roots the inspiration that guarantees continuity, strengthens one’s identity and renews the present; in short, continuity, identity and renewal.

When tradition becomes identified with the past and stops inspiring the present it is dead. Because it no longer exists it is treated as something sacred; by making it sacred it is buried because it is no longer understood.

Increasingly we find ourselves in this situation in our Arab and Muslim societies. No longer do we have a future or a present; we are simply stuck with the past. We go back to the past and turn it into a myth, something sacred, for we have nothing else.

In reality in doing this we reinforce our cultural and spiritual death. The notion of tradition in today’s Muslim world means going back to the way things were in 7th century, an age that becomes sacred. We often focus on outer details like the beard, the veil or niqāb, the miswāk  (a kind of long toothpick from a root that Islam’s prophet used), the long white tunic, etc.

Conversely, Christians (most notably in the West) tend to reject their traditions. Some people think that they must forget or even reject their past to be modern. The danger in that case is of losing one’s roots and authenticity. It is a danger I see in Europe.

Read the entire speech on the Asia News website.

Similar themes are found in the preface to Fr. Samir's book 111 Questions on Islam, which is a series of interviews conducted by Giorgio Paolucci and Camille Eid.

What planet is "America" magazine living on?

In seeking an answer to this pressing question, let's begin with this oddly triumphant, openly arrogant bit of spittle-stained spin from Michael Sean Winters, who writes regular diatribes for America magazine:

Pope Benedict XVI will receive President Barack Obama in audience at the Vatican on July 10. Let the gnashing of teeth begin.

Admit it, wasn’t your first impulse to call Dr. Mary Ann Glendon and ask, "If you were still the ambassador, would you show up or would you boycott?" The Cardinal Newman Society, which spent the better part of the spring telling the world that no Catholic could in good conscience share the stage with President Obama, perhaps now they will start issuing press releases entitled "Pope Creates Scandal" or "Outrage at the Vatican." The Catholic News Agency, which featured the headline "Vatican announces Pope’s vacation without confirmation of Obama visit" just a few weeks ago, has nary a mention of the visit on its website this morning. Cat got your tongue?

Obama’s Catholic critics need to re-calibrate their message and it is difficult to see how they will compete with the pictures of Obama in the frescoed halls of the Vatican, his beautiful wife and children in tow, shaking hands with the Holy Father. Actually, in addition to shaking hands, it is traditional that the Pope will present a gift to the President. Does that count as an "honor" of the kind forbidden by the bishops’ document "Catholics in Political Life"? Notre Dame, of course, has a tradition of conferring an honorary degree upon every new president that pre-dates presidential visits to the Holy See.

Christopher Blosser has already noted that Winters' post fails in at least three substantial ways: it completely misrepresents the very different natures of the Vatican visit and the Notre Dame commencement, it misrepresents the 2004 document "Catholics in Political Life," and it disregards the actions and words of dozens of U.S. bishops. Those points aside, it's a brilliant piece of argumentation. I would add this to Blosser's comments: Benedict XVI and President Obama, according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, will discuss "their shared belief in the dignity of all people." Regardless of the spin (does "all people", for Obama, include the unborn? I think not.), it's fair to say this meeting will involve some sort of actual dialogue—the sort of dialogue that didn't take place at Notre Dame, despite the spin (see a pattern here?) aggressively and shamelessly put into play by Fr. Jenkins and others.

It does not offend Obama's Catholic critics that the Pope is meeting with a non-Catholic. Not only does the Pope (as well as nearly all Catholics) meet with non-Catholics everyday—in situations ranging from formal to informal to private to public—we are mindful that Jesus often met with and ate with tax collectors and sinners (cf., Lk 15:2), which elicited complaints from the Pharisees and scribes. We are (or should be) mindful that all of us are sinners, and that when we have encountered Jesus, he has not publicly honored us and bestowed his blessing on it despite our sins, but has simply said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:2). What Jesus did not do—and the Vicar of Christ will not be doing (unlike Notre Dame)—was to bestow public honor and praise on those who rejected the Law and rejected him.

If Jesus condemned the scribes and Pharisees for " shedding the blood of the prophets" (Matt. 23:30), what do you think he might say to those who claim to believe "in the dignity of all people" while unfailingly upholding the killing of the unborn? The scribes and Pharisees failed the Law; those who support abortion fail the law placed by God into the heart of every man, as Pope John Paul II so eloquently stated:

Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, in communion with the Bishops-who on various occasions have condemned abortion and who in the aforementioned consultation, albeit dispersed throughout the world, have shown unanimous agreement concerning this doctrine-I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written Word of God, is transmitted by the Church's Tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.

No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the Law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church. (Evangelium Vitae, 62).

Winters argues:

In saying we must work with President Obama we are not suggesting breezily that we should "agree to disagree" and move on. We are saying that we can better witness to our beliefs by engaging the President. We are saying that if we spend time in the trenches with him fighting for the rights of workers, the rights of immigrants, and the rights of citizens to health care, our testimony on behalf of the unborn will be more persuasive to this President and his party which is otherwise so dedicated to the vindication of rights but here, on this issue, has a horrendous blind spot.

Without meaning to sound glib in the least, I have to ask: "And how is that going for you? How has that worked out over the past, say, thirty years with the Democrat Party? Are you making progress?" (The same questions, to some extent, can and should be asked just as well of those who have hitched their wagon tightly to the Republican Party.) Some engagements lead to marriage; other engagements are manifestations of a conflict or disagreement over essential matters. Winters seems to prefer the former; I prefer the latter.

The second piece of evidence that America is (at least sometimes) living on another planet is found in a June 22nd editorial, which concludes with this:

It is not hard to find examples of incendiary speech. Tiller’s critics were wont to step up to the line of incitement and then draw back. Bill O’Reilly regularly called the Kansas doctor “Tiller the baby killer” and devoted 29 segments of his Fox television show to vilifying him. “If I could get my hands on Tiller...” he threatened. “Well, you know. Can’t be vigilantes.... It doesn’t get worse. Does it get worse? No.” Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City is now best known for his proclamation to the Gospel of Life Convention in April: “We are at war!” Though the bishop went on to explain that the struggle is a spiritual one and the means nonviolent, he announced an apocalyptic struggle against evil “that may rival any in time past.”

Defenders of life must recall the warning of the Sermon on the Mount: “If a man calls his brother ‘Fool,’ he will answer for it...; and if he calls him ‘Renegade,’ he will answer for it in hell fire.” For the Gospel of Life to be good news, it must reflect a higher righteousness.

Jack Smith, editor of The Catholic Key, has done the heavy lifting on this bit of raw ugliness, writing, "Of course, in the convoluted (nuanced) style America’s editors are adept at, there is enough plausible deniability built into their argument to render the piece content-free on defense. But the message is clear – Bishop Finn’s comments are to be identified with O’Reilly’s, and whether or not they are responsible for Tiller’s murder, they and all pro-life people who speak forcefully in defense of life will find themselves in hell." He then goes on to list six ways in which the comments are wrong (I would say even slanderous). Point #2 is especially noteworthy:

Bishop Finn’s talk was a challenge to committed people who defend life through charitable and political activity: “peacefully, prayerfully, and legally.” It stood as a warning to those people to get their own spiritual house in order in the still authentic Catholic tradition of recognizing the true nature of what we fight against. The Bishop’s stated reference point was St. Paul who teaches “Put on the armor of God, in order that you can stand firm against the tactics of the devil. For, our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the rulers of this darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.” (Eph 6:10-12).

So the editors of America, without a shred of evidence, imply that a good bishop who publicly upholds both the dignity of human life and the reality of spiritual warfare is somehow responsible, even if indirectly, for the actions of a mentally-disturbed, enraged murderer. And they are willing to denigrate a shepherd who is giving witness to the truth yet apparently cannot stand it when valid criticisms are made of Fr. Jenkins, Notre Dame, and, yes, President Obama. Perhaps they are in agreement with another leftward Jesuit that Obama is "the most effective spokesperson" for "the spirit of Vatican II", in which case, to heck with the bishops and their silly documents.

Exhibit #3 is not, strictly speaking, a piece in America; rather, it is a post by Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J., former editor of the magazine and one of this generation's most accomplished practitioners of misdirection, obscuration, and ad hominem, famous in my book for saying of Benedict XVI, "He's an extremely bright man, but he doesn't have any street smarts." His ability to misrepresent the issues at hand and the positions of those he disagrees with is impressive; in another life he could have become wealthy making these.

Fr. Reese's June 23rd post, made on the "On Faith" blog, is titled, "Pope's Delayed Message on Greed"; it begins innocently enough:

A new encyclical on Catholic social teaching will soon be released as Pope Benedict's response to the current economic crisis. The encyclical, "Caritas in veritate" (Charity in Truth), has been in preparation for more than two years, but was delayed because the pope wanted it updated to respond to the world financial crisis. It could be published as early as June 29 if the various translations are finished.

But then the urge to take cheap shots and let rip an ad hominem blast is too much to resist:

Conservatives will be shocked and disappointed by the encyclical, which will reflect Benedict's skepticism toward unbridled capitalism based on greed.

Consider the apparent assumptions behind that remarkably silly statement:

• Conservatives are all defined by their complete support and commitment to capitalism.
• Conservatives are especially supportive of unbridled capitalism.
• Conservatives are greedy.
• Conservatives will thus be "shocked and disappointed" by the encyclical.
• Liberals, by implication, are not supportive of capitalism and are not greedy.

All of these assumptions—which are, I think, fairly drawn from Fr. Reese's statement—is either blatantly false or seriously problematic. Part of the problem is that the term "conservatives" (like the term "liberals") is so ambiguous that it begs for at least some note of qualification. It reminds me of a wry anecdote made by a conservative thinker who was criticized for writing a book that did not espouse capitalism: "One could not understand what I was after, if I would embrace neither capitalism nor communism; he [the reader] seemed to imply that I must be engaged in some dismal Fascist conspiracy":

Another, remarking on my reluctance to endorse either of these sets of dogmas [that is, capitalism and communism], asked just what conservatives do want: "Are they Keynesians?" Now we scarcely can wonder at the bankruptcy of liberalism, when its most articulate spokesmen think of the problems of modern society are no more than an exercise in economic theory, and are unaware that Karl Marx was the popularizer of both the terms "capitalism" and "communism," and seem to quite ignorant of the existence of Christian social principles, or of private property which is not "capitalistic" in the Marxist sense, or of traditions and political institutions far older than Keynes, or Marx, or even the modern industrial system.

One might suspect the author had Fr. Reese in mind, except that Fr. Reese, to be fair, does not reduce everything to a matter of economic theory. Nor was he writing much in 1954 when Russell Kirk wrote the passage above in his book, A Program for Conservatives. Sure, Kirk was a certain type of conservative, often called "paleo-conservative," but he is also widely recognized as being a seminal (even the seminal) thinker in the appearance of modern American conservativism, a movement heavily indebted to his book, The Conservative Mind, published in 1953. That book, by the way, says almost nothing about economics, hence the anecdote above.

The natural objection is, "Well, we're not living in the 1950s, in but in 2009." True enough, but this only opens the door to this fact: conservatism today is a widely disparate, argumentative, and conflicting mess of competing groups, movements, principles, perspectives, and beliefs. The following folks are considered conservative, but are, I think it is obvious, widely divergent in many ways: George W. Bush, Michael Medved, Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, John McCain, Sean Hannity, Jonah Goldberg, Bill O'Reilly, and Mark Steyn. And none of these, in my reading, are staunchly committed to Catholic social doctrine, even if some of them are certainly advocates of a nearly unbridled capitalist system of economics. But what, then, of Pat Buchanan, Fr. James V. Schall, Dr. David Schindler, Wendell Berry, or James Kalb?

But Fr. Reese wishes to push buttons, and facts often get in between a person and the button. Are we really to believe that liberals are not into capitalism and "greed"? What of Ted Turner, George Soros, Herb Kohl, Bill Gates, John Kerry, Warren Buffett, Michael Bloomberg, Oprah Winfrey, John "Jay" Rockefeller, and David Rockefeller Jr., just to name a few? Why is it that Big Money and Democrats stroll hand-in-hand, and why do Democrats tend to respresent the wealthier congressional jurisdictions? And why do Republicans/conservatives give more to charity than do Democrats/liberals? And so forth and so on.

Having said all that, what planet is America living on?

• UPDATE (June 27, 2009): Michael Sean Winters continues to not get it, writing (on the NCReporter site), "Admit it conservatives: You wish the pope had said, 'No!' You wish he had refused to meet with Obama." Uh, no. When a person has to base their argument on what they think their opponent wishes, well, they don't have an argument. Christopher Blosser responds.

No, uh, ark

Jack Smith of The Catholic Key reports that the furor over the supposed public unveiling of the Ark of the Covenant is for naught, the result of a bad translation and a flood of hype.

Dr. Ed Peters on Milingo and Insordescence

From the "In the Light of the Law" blog:

Insordescence. It's not a likable word. It's not a likable thing. But Abp. Milingo is insordescent. And he needs to be dealt with.

Suspended in 2006 when he resumed cohabiting with his wife from a Moonie wedding, and excommunicated about the same time when he ordained some married men in America to the episcopate, Milingo's latest affront to the Church is to ordain to the episcopate sine mandato yet another married man, this time in Kenya, one of the Church's brightest spots in Africa.

In the old days (that is, before codified law), they had a term for an excommunicate who passed one (nb: one) year without seeking reconciliation: Insordescence, a status that made one (especially clerics) liable to heightened penalties. See Taunton, Law of the Church (1906) at 371. For clergy, these penalties were more or less along the lines of what we would today call "dismissal from the clerical state".

Read the entire post. And here is a collection of news pieces for context and background.

It "deals with the largest issues, and does so in a way..."

"... that has the ring of lived truth."

Mike Poterma of NRO writes those words of praise about Joseph Ratzinger's Faith and the Future, a collection of five talks given by Father (and professor) Joseph Ratzinger in 1969 and 1970, recently published in a hardcover volume by Ignatius Press:

Pope Benedict XVI is acknowledged by virtually everyone to be a man of prodigious intellect, whose mind has been shaped by Scripture, as well as by such theologians as Augustine, Bonaventure, and Aquinas. But a new book from Ignatius Press makes clear the extent to which the current pope has grappled with the thought of such shapers of the modern mind as Comte, Wittgenstein, Barth, Beauvoir, and Camus. Faith and the Future is a small book — just 118 pages, of moderately large type — but it deals with the largest issues, and does so in a way that has the ring of lived truth.

Potrema concludes: "The current pope has a reputation as a rather shy, bookish fellow — but this slight yet impressive volume shows a man very much concerned with the real world, and Man’s situation in it." In fact, this volume is just further evidence that Ratzinger—contrary to many of the silly, misinformed, and even disingenuous things said about him—has long engaged seriously and vigorously with modern philosophies, thought, and perspectives.

Here are some excerpts from the book:

Today at the most sensitive points of society, that is in literature and its portrayal of man, we are beginning to find an unexpected verification of the gruesome visions of Dostoyevsky of a world without God, and of how that world turns into a madman's dream.

The man who wants to limit himself to what is knowable in exact terms is caught up in the crisis of reality: he beholds the withdrawal of truth. Within himself he hears the cry of faith, which the spirit of the hour has not been able to stifle, but has only made all the more dramatic. There is a cry for liberation from the prison of positivism, as there is, too, for liberation from a form of faith that has allowed itself to become a burden instead of the vehicle of freedom.

This brings us at last to the point at which the question can be put: How is such a faith to be created? First let us remark: faith is not a diluted form of natural science, an ancient or medieval preparatory stage that must vanish when the real thing turns up, but is something essentially different.

It is not provisional knowledge, although we do use the word in this sense also when we say, for example, "I believe that is so." In such a case "believing" means "being of the opinion." But when we say, "I believe you," the word acquires quite another meaning. It means the same as, "I trust you," or even as much as, "I rely upon you."

The you, in which I put reliance, provides me with a certainty that is different from but no less than the certainty that comes from calculation and experiment. And it is thus that the word is used in the Christian Credo. The basic form of Christian faith is not: I believe something, but I believe you. Faith is a disclosure of reality that is granted only to him who trusts, loves, and acts as a human being; and as such it is not a derivative of knowledge, but is sui generis, like knowledge, although it is indeed more basic and more central to our authentically human nature than knowledge is.

'This insight has important consequences; and these can be liberating, if taken seriously. For this means that faith is not primarily a colossal edifice of numerous supernatural facts, standing like a curious second order of knowledge alongside the realm of science, but an assent to God who gives us hope and confidence.

A bit about the book:

Increasingly, the future is becoming a theme for theological reflection. In the background we can detect a growing concern among many people for the future of faith. Does faith have any future at all, and, if so, where in all the confusion of today's trends will we discover its embryo?

But the problem of the future assails not only the believer. In the ever more rapidly advancing process of historical evolution, man is confronted with enormous opportunities, but also with colossal perils. For him, the future is not only hope, but sorrow—a nightmare, indeed. He cannot avoid asking what part faith can play in building tomorrow's world.

Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, approaches this problem of universal concern from a variety of angles, bringing his deep personal faith and theological brilliance to bear on these serious questions.

Order online and save 15%.

Learn more about some other newly released books by Joseph Ratzinger.

The Old Testament and the New Testament

The Old Testament and the New Testament | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | June 25, 2009 | Ignatius Insight

"The Jewish people's Scriptures are received in the Christian Bible under the name Old Testament ... The Old Testament and the New Testament are inseparable." -- Albert Cardinal Vanhoye, S. J., "The Plan of God Is a Union of Love With His People", Synod Report, October 6, 2008 (L'Osservatore Romano, October 22, 2008)

I.

In effect, this is a report of a report. Among the many interventions at the Synod on the Word of God, that of Cardinal Vanhoye on how the Christian Bible refers to the Hebrew Bible and how it speaks of the Jewish people was of particular interest. In 1996, the then Cardinal Ratzinger suggested to the Pontifical Biblical Commission (of which Vanhoye is a member) that this general topic would be worth considerable attention. The Commission finally produced a long document. It is about this research that Vanhoye reported to the Synod. Even if belatedly, I think it worth recording the central points of this presentation.

The Commission report wanted to put the whole issue of the relation of the two testaments in a positive context. Since the Old Testament is basic to the New Testament and the Jewish people as individuals and as a people are spoken of in the New Testament, the question was simply a fact. The final text, as Vanhoye admitted, was "not always easy to read," a not unheard of reaction to academic sounding investigations. The authors wanted to be as careful and precise as possible.

The operative principle to be kept in mind is that the Hebrew Bible is also considered to be at the origin and within the context of the Christian Bible. But the Jewish people do not, as Christians do, see the Hebrew Bible as containing or even as related to the Christian Bible. To put it briefly, to be a Christian one must hold the revelational truth of the Hebrew Bible, but to be a Jew, one must not accept the Christian Bible as the completion of its own revelation. Thus, Pius XI could say that spiritually "We (Christians) are all Jews." The Marcionite heresy that wanted to keep the New Testament but not the Old was declared a Christian heresy. Otherwise, there could be no coherence between the two testaments.

God's particular plan of salvation begins with the Jews. It still includes them. There is no room for "anti-Judaism." The Christian Bible, by itself, is not complete. The Jewish Bible is first necessary. "Without its conformity to the Sacred Scriptures of the Jewish people, (the Christian Bible) could not be presented as the accomplishment of God's project." Christians thus persist in seeing the two testaments as belonging together in a coherent whole.

Read the entire essay...

"Max and Benedict"

From the Religious Intelligence site, a piece about Jeanne Perego's book Max and Benedict, which is illustrated by Donata Dal Molin Casagrande and will be published in North America this October by Ignatius Press:

Perego believes that there is a need to educate children about ecclesiology and says: “Many years ago writing children books differed from today’s books in style, diction and language. Approaching ‘Church matters’ for children obligates an author to explain the subject interestingly. Church visits may train good habits, but they do not appeal to the mind because the mind needs to be stimulated before it articulates curiosity. Satisfying this curiosity is a parental privilege and charming children books or movies for children can be a help to them.”

In Perego’s writing studio, a house of naturally hewn stone, which was a former chestnut mill, deep in the Ligurian woods she says that her Catholicism corresponds more with the sensitivity of St Francis of Assisi in his Laudes crematorium (Canticle of the Sun) and this same sincerity is provided in her delicate portrait of Pope Benedict XVI.

Max tells readers about the Pope’s daily life which a personal insight into Benedict’s devotional prayer moments such as his daily walk in the Vatican Gardens where he visits Grotta della Madonna di Lourdes which is covered with a lugubrious climbing plant where Max can perch during Benedict XVI’s devotion to the Virgin.

The 52-page illustrated story explains the Pope’s responsibilities, public meetings and more curious liturgical moments such as the authentic blessings of a fire truck and hens from Padua and the objects presented to the Pope such as a Ferrari steering wheel or a pizza oven, which Perego says was chosen for the benefit of her young readers.

“Research for the book has been a hard job which took me around one year. On July 26 at noon of last year, at 36° Celsius, I climbed the 320 steps of the dome of Saint Peter in order to gain the vantage point of Max, the narrator of the book. It turned into an unforgettable experience!

The book follows the International success of Perego’s previous bestseller about Benedict’s papal election, narrated by a ginger cat called Joseph, which Perego researched with the help Ratzinger’s private secretary, Mgr Georg Ganswein.

Read the entire story. Perego's previous book was Joseph and Chico: The Life of Pope Benedict XVI as Told by a Cat (Ignatius Press, 2008). Click here to see sample illustrations from Max and Benedict.

Misc., This, and That

I've been accumulating numerous open tabs on my browser, foolishly thinking that at some unknown point in the near future I would wax, muse, mumble, rant, and otherwise address at length the various issues—big and small, important and trivial, light and heavy—contained therein. Since the unknown point draws no closer, I'm stuffing this post with some links and short asides. Consider it summer cleaning, part one.

• There are vague rumblings that Dan Brown's new novel, The Lost Symbol (or, as I'm going to start calling it, The Misplaced Metaphor), will have something to do with "The Feast of the Cross." If so, my guess is that Brown/Langdon will claim the Cross was invented by Eskimos living in 7th century France.

• Ignatius Press is putting together a website for the "Year for Priests."  The USCCB has a site for the Year, as does CatholicCulture.org and Our Sunday Visitor. I'm sure there are many, many more.

• Homeschooling continues to grow, at a rate of 7% per year for the past ten years according to Ian Slatter, a spokesman for the Purcellville, Va.-based Home School Legal Defense Association.

• Fr. Tom Rosica, C.S.B., one of the founders of Salt and Light Television (Canada), interviews Bishop Bernard Fellay, Superior General of the FSSPX.

• Which two countries have the worst bishops? These two, according to Sandro Magister.

• Why is it called a "culture of death"? In part, because not only does it kill the innocent and weak and vulnerable, it convinces mothers that killing their babies is better for them than growing up with this, that, and the other thing. It is, in other words, just as much or more about spiritual death as physical death. Here's a recent example of the bad thinking and deadly decisions brought on by such a "culture."

• "He's Catholic, but he's a politician too." Ah, I get it: it's simply too much to ask a politician who is a Catholic to adhere to Catholic teaching. And we wonder why so many Catholics think nearly every teaching of the Church is optional? Thankfully, Bishop William Murphy isn't standing for it.

• The St. Petersburg Times has produced a very extensive and in-depth series of reports on Scientology, drawing on interviews with former leaders of the "church," some of whom spent most of their lives as Scientologists.

• Catholic News Service has a rather checkered history and things have gotten worse in recent months.

• A Catholic nun has just been named the dean of a Presbyterian seminary. But it looks as though she has more in common with earth-worshippers and radical feminism than traditional Catholic views, having co-authored a book stating, "Western culture ... has barely begun to move from a static, ordered, hierarchical, dualistic, anthropocentric view of the universe to a process, evolutionary, dynamic, organic, interdependent, relational, biocentric one. ... The universe, the sacred body of God, also needs salvation."

• One of my favorite paintings, rendered when I was twenty and titled, "Baptizo." I now regret selling it, but at the time I was in need of the dough. I'm working on getting a bunch of slides of old artwork scanned into digital format.

• The Catholic Writers Conference, held August 5-7, 2009, will feature several presenters, including Mark Brumley, president of Ignatius Press.

• A young Catholic growing up in the late '60s and early '70s sets out to be a monk. But after going to university, he walks away from being a brother, and then leaves the Church. "Catholicism had become too authoritarian for him and seemed out of step with the times." Fast forward to present day: the man's 13-year-old son, who has no experience with Christianity, decides to start attending a local Protestant church. He drags his reluctant parents along with him. And he says, "My dad’s a Catholic monk."

• The Sports Guy advises Blake Griffin: Don't go to the Clippers. That's sound advice, even if you don't believe in the Curse of the Sacred Buffalo.

• "A genuine and fruitful dialogue between believers and nonbelievers is impossible unless one takes the standpoint of one's interlocutor seriously," says Richard Wolin. Agreed!

• "There is," writes philosopher Roger Scruton, "a great hunger for beauty in our world, a hunger that our popular art fails to recognize and our serious art often defies." He examines both the hunger and the failure in this essay for City magazine.

• PBS is going to phase out all "religious programming." I hope this means we won't be seeing as much of Joseph Campbell's smug mug on public television. Of course, the only PBS show I ever see is "Clifford"...

• Hugh Hefner's problem, says Diogenes, was not with puritanism, but with modesty, "because modest men do not purchase pornography." I'll dress to that.

• All of the biblical references found in U2 songs, by album.

• The Trumpet, magazine of the Worldwide Church of God (founded by Herbert W. Armstrong), published by the Philadelphia Church of God (thank you, Trevor, for the note of clarification), likes to criticize Benedict XVI almost as much as some dissenting Catholics. A recent article about the Pope's trip to the Holy Land concludes: "For a German pope, who is quite outspoken in his criticism of other religions, to remain eerily silent about blame for the Holocaust, is an ominous sign of future events in Europe. Bible prophecy says the Vatican will be the dominant religious movement that rides the political beast now rising in Europe." A Google search, conducted in leisurely conditions in less than 10 seconds, came across a 2005 address by Benedict in which he spoke of "what happened in Poland under Nazi occupation," and referred to the "repression of the Polish people and the genocide of the Jews. ... These were atrocious crimes”, he said, “which demonstrate all the evil contained in Nazi ideology. Shaken by so much pain and so much violence, the young Karol decided to transform his own life, responding to the divine call to the priesthood." Stick that in The Trumpet why don't ya?

• Yes, I am on Twitter.

• "Certainly the film is absurd, disorganized, obscene, and ludicrous," writes S. T. Karnick about Year One (which I haven't seen). But, he argues, the movie makes an argue of sorts "that the monotheist religions are the great source of civilization in human history." That's probably good news, in some way, for movie goers recovering from "The Hangover."

• The argument against "same-sex marriage," made by David Novak.

• The new album by Dredg, "The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion," is excellent, a winning mixture of light prog, alternative, and modern rock.

• I'm a bit befuddled as to how it is that a high profile Republican politician—the governor of South Carolina and chairman of the Republican Governors Association—thinks he can disappear for a week under strange circumstances and growing confusion, and not be found out? Ah, there it is: think. He didn't. The Democrats are clueless (and morally bankrupt), the Republicans are pantless (and morally failed), and the rest of us are left holding the bill. Nice. Oh, sorry, my cynicism is showing.

• In case you missed it, here are some of the new books being published by Ignatius Press between now and November. And if you didn't know, when you order from Ignatius Press through this blog or Ignatius Insight, it tells my boss and other important people that I am doing something to earn my keep. Hint, hint.

• I'm writing a review for Catholic World Report of The Tyranny of Liberalism (ISI, 2008), by James Kalb. It is an excellent, even exceptional book. Here is a quote: "The choice today is not between faith and reason, or between reason and chaos (by whatever name)—for chaos is not something we will live with—but among faiths anchored in revelation and capable of sustaining reason." And: "To put matters in general terms, traditionalism is concerned with essential qualities and connections, while modernity is concerned with technical factors, temporary relationships, and specific purposes." Methinks he has read a bit of Ratzinger, Kirk, and perhaps Walker Percy.

• Music for the penning of this posting was provided by Antonio Farao's, "Takes On Pasolini," an elegant set of jazz piano.

A brochure for Ignatius Critical Editions...

... can be downloaded in PDF format from the resources page of the ICE website (more information on this page).

Benedict XVI on Year of the Priest, Cure of Ars

From Vatican Information Service:

YEAR FOR PRIESTS: COMPLETE IDENTIFICATION WITH CHRIST

VATICAN CITY, 24 JUN 2009 (VIS) - During today's general audience, held in St. Peter's Square, the Pope focused his remarks on the Year for Priests which he inaugurated last Friday, Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and day of prayer for the sanctification of the clergy, and which is intended to mark the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Mary Vianney.

 "Why a Year for Priests?" the Pope asked. "And why should it recall the holy 'Cure of Ars' who apparently did nothing out of the ordinary?"

 The Holy Father went on to explain how "Divine Providence ordained that the figure [of St. John May Vianney] should be associated with that of St. Paul" because, "although the two saints followed very different life paths, ... these exists nonetheless a fundamental factor that unites them: their total identification with their ministry, their communion with Christ".

 "The aim of this Year for Priests", he went on, "is to support each priest's struggle towards spiritual perfection, 'upon which the effectiveness of his ministry particularly depends', and to help priests, and with them the entire People of God, to rediscover and revive an awareness of the extraordinary and indispensable gift of Grace which the ordained ministry represents, for the person who receives it, for the entire Church, and for the world which would be lost without the real presence of Christ".

 "Although the historical and social conditions in which the 'Cure of Ars' worked have changed, it is right to ask how priests can imitate him by identifying themselves with their ministry in modern globalised societies", said the Pope.

 "In a world in which the common view of life leaves ever less space for the sacred, in place of which 'functionality' becomes the only decisive category, the Catholic concept of priesthood could risk losing its due regard, sometimes even in the ecclesial conscience".

 The Holy Father identified two conceptions of the priesthood, "which do not in fact contradict one another". On the one hand "a social-functional conception which identifies the essence of priesthood with the concept of 'service'. ... On the other hand there is a sacramental-ontological conception" which sees priestly ministry "as determined by a gift called Sacrament, granted by the Lord through the mediation of the Church".

 "What", the Pope asked, "does it mean for priests to evangelise? In what does the primacy of announcement exist? ... Announcement coincides with the person of Christ", he said, "a priest cannot consider himself as 'master' of the Word, but as its servant".

 "Only participation in Christ's sacrifice, in His 'chenosi', ... and docile obedience to the Church ... makes announcement authentic. ... Priests are Christ's servants, in the sense that their existence, ontologically configured to Him, have an essentially relational character. The priest is in Christ, for Christ and with Christ at the service of humankind. Precisely because he belongs to Christ, the priest is radically at the service of man".

 Benedict XVI concluded by expressing the hope that "the Year for Priests may lead all the clergy to identify themselves completely with Christ Who died and rose again, so that, imitating St. John the Baptist, they may be ready 'to diminish' that He may grow; and that, following the example of the 'Cure of Ars', they may be constantly and profoundly aware of their mission, which is both sign and presence of the infinite mercy of God".

From "St. John Vianney's Pastoral Plan", by Fr. John Cihak:

The primacy of prayer in ministry, which is so evident in the Curé of Ars, is an important lesson for parish priests. The cancer of Pelagianism among us is more prevalent than we like to admit. We are deceived into thinking that we can accomplish our priestly mission by relying on our gifts, our creativity and our activity. Especially among us younger priests, we are easily fooled into thinking that we need to jump into activity without realizing that only prayer and penance usher in the grace that will make it fruitful. Vianney reminds parish priests that the offering of daily Mass, constancy in the Liturgy of the Hours, fidelity to a daily holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament, making an annual retreat, and practicing self denial are the necessary foundation for the priest's mission of preaching, sanctifying and governing.

To his prayer, St. John Vianney joined penance. While maintaining the absolute necessity of asceticism in a priest's life, we are compelled to view the Curé of Ars' asesis through the lens of his time, his own personal temperament, and the tremendous graces given him. Too easily we hear about his excessive use of the discipline and dismiss his asceticism, while failing to learn its valuable lesson. Though we may sift through the details of his asceticism, we must agree about the fact of living ascetically. As the years passed, he moderated some of his harsher practices.

Father Vianney's example teaches that prayer and penance was the most, not the least, a priest could do for his people. He knew that the fruitfulness of his priesthood lay not in clever preaching, creative ideas or building team spirit, but first of all offering himself daily in love as a living oblation for his people. An effective pastoral plan would begin here or not at all.

Related IgnatiusInsight.com Articles:

• The Priest as Man, Husband, and Father | Fr. John Cihak
• Satan and the Saint | The Feast Day of St. John Vianney | Carl E. Olson
• Who Is A Priest? | Fr. Benedict Ashley, O.P.
• Women and the Priesthood: A Theological Reflection | Jean Galot, S.J. | From Theology of the Priesthood
• The Real Reason for the Vocation Crisis | Rev. Michael P. Orsi
• Pray the Harvest Master Sends Laborors | Rev. Anthony Zimmerman
• Priestly Vocations in America: A Look At the Numbers | Jeff Ziegler
• Clerical Celibacy: Concept and Method | Alfons Maria Cardinal Stickler | From The Case for Clerical Celibacy
• The Religion of Jesus | Blessed Columba Marmion | From Christ, The Ideal of the Priest