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Holy Christians Guarantee Holy Priests

Holy Christians Guarantee Holy Priests | Bishop Fulton J. Sheen | From The Priest Is Not His Own | Ignatius Insight

Holiness descends in the Church from the All-Holy God through Christ, His bishops and His priests, to the entire community that is the Mystical Body. But there is simultaneously an ascending movement of holiness from the Christian community to the All-Holy God. Particularly is this true of vocations to the priesthood and the religious life.

There is no priest who does not go through the motions of urging the faithful to pray for vocations. But, too often, the phrases are formal. They are what is  expected of one. In the priest's mind, they are a part of the announcements, on a level with the card party for the Ladies' Auxiliary or the Catholic Youth Organization skating meet.

These other activities are, of course, not to be sneered at. They too foster a Christian life and therefore stimulate vocations. But can we put them in the same category as prayer? Out of hundreds of possible ways of fostering vocations, prayer was the single one Our Lord specified.

The harvest, He told them, is plentiful enough, but the laborers are few; you must ask the Lord to Whom the harvest belongs to send laborers out for the harvesting. (Luke 10:2)

What prompted these words? Luke says that Christ spoke them on the occasion of choosing seventy-two disciples (Lk 10:1). Matthew sketches the background in more detail. It was after a long journey, he noted, and the Lord's heart was touched by compassion for the masses who hungered for knowledge of heaven but did not know where to search for what they lacked.

Yet still, when He looked at the multitudes, He was moved with pity for them, seeing them harried and abject, like sheep that have no shepherd. Thereupon He said to His disciples, The harvest is plentiful enough, but the laborers are few; you must ask the Lord to Whom the harvest belongs to send laborers out for the harvesting. (Matthew 9:36-38)

Not only those already in the Church but equally those outside her make Him yearn for laborers, lest the plentiful wheat rot in the fields.

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Prof. Otto A. Bird, requiescat in pace

I wasn't aware of the death of Otto A. Bird, who passed away on June 5th, until I read Dr. Ralph McInerny's piece over at The Catholic Thing:

My colleague Otto Bird died a few weeks ago just four days shy of his ninety-sixth birthday. Otto came to Notre Dame in 1950 to inaugurate and act as first director of the Program for Liberal Studies, a great books program that owed much to similar efforts at St. John’s College and the University of Chicago, whence Otto came. The original idea was that the program would be a yeast that would eventually transform the whole college of Arts and Letters into its image. This didn’t happen, but the program was hugely successful. For over half a century, under the direct and indirect guidance of Otto Bird, tutors and students became immersed in the great classics of western culture.

There are of course two schools of thought on general as opposed to specialized education. The mark of the latter is a major subject with other courses chosen to bolster it. By contrast, an education based on the great books has a random look; worse, it can seem to put a premium on airy generalizations. The only way to resolve the dispute is mano a mano, comparing products of the two approaches. Otto, say, and the average chaired professor today.

Otto studied under Étienne Gilson at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto. His dissertation dealt with the Provençal poets who had been such an influence on Dante. At the time, Ezra Pound had developed a proprietary air toward Provençal poetry and Otto entered into a lengthy correspondence with the fiery poet. Later Otto told me that Étienne Gilson had stated as the aim of the Institute to prepare scholars who could read Dante intelligently. Since Dante is a compendium of the middle ages, bringing together its theology and philosophy as well as its poetry, liturgy and music, this was more that a well-turned phrase.

Otto was both patriarch and paterfamilias, leaving behind four generations whose members seem to have a knack for choosing walks of life somewhat off the beaten path. It is as if, as a family, they were freed from the dominant banalities about success in life. Unlike most academics, Otto did not saunter about with a metaphorical sign board advertising his publications.

One of Bird's many books was Seeking A Center: My Life as a "Great Bookie" (Ignatius Press, 1991) in which, the descriptive copy states, "Bird shows how, by pursuing the methods introduced by Gilson and Adler, he was able to make sense out of the confusion of philosophers and provides an example in an analysis of the controversy concerning the idea of justice. The center that he sought was found in the philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas and in the Roman Catholic church to which he became a convert. Bird's story provides unique insights into the development of the Great Books Movement and its influence upon American college education, to which a large part of his life was devoted by way of teaching, and writing through association from the beginning with the set Great Books of the Western World, published by Encyclopaedia Britannica." And here is a bit more about the remarkable professor, from the obituary on the University of Notre Dame website:

A popular, even revered teacher at Notre Dame, Bird balanced his course load and administrative responsibilities with a lively career of scholarship, publishing such philosophical works as “Syllogistic,” “The Idea of Justice,” and “Cultures in Conflict: An Essay in the Philosophy of the Humanities.” He also was a member of the committee which planned the innovative 15th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and especially its introductory volume on the organization of knowledge.

In his autobiography, “Seeking a Center: My Life as a ‘Great Bookie,’” Bird described his personal search for truth, and how he made use of methods learned from Gilson and Adler to rediscover the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, which eventually led him to the Catholic Church. That search was, in the words of his Notre Dame colleague, Ralph McInerny, “the journey of an intellect, of a soul, that puts before the reader a vision of the intellectual life one wishes were more palpably present in Catholic colleges and universities than it is nowadays.”

Some related books from Ignatius Press:

• The Unity Of Philosophical Experience, by Etienne Gilson
• From Aristotle To Darwin And Back Again: A Journey in Final Causality, Species and Evolution, by Etienne Gilson (available September 2009)
• In The Light Of Christ: Writings in the Western Tradition, by Lucy Beckett
• Ignatius Critical Editions

The Counter-Reformation: Ignatius and the Jesuits

The Counter-Reformation: Ignatius and the Jesuits | Fr. Charles P. Connor | An Excerpt from Defenders of the Faith in Word and Deed

Defenders of the faith have been raised up in every era of the Church to proclaim fidelity to the truth by their words and deeds. Some have fought heresy and overcome confusion like Athanasius against the Arians and Ignatius Loyola in response to the Protestant reformers. Others have shed their blood for the faith, like the early Christian martyrs of Rome, or Thomas More, John Fisher and Edmund Campion in Reformation England.

Still others have endured a “dry” martyrdom like St. Philip Howard, Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty and Jesuit Walter Ciszek. Intellectuals have been no less conspicuous in their zealous defense of the faith, like Bonaventure, Albert, Thomas Aquinas, or Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The stories of all these,and more, are told here in Fr. Charles Connor's Defenders of the Faith in Word and Deed. Here is the story of the Society of Jesus.

On October 31, 1517, an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther, long fearful for his own salvation, seemed to unleash tremendous personal hostility when he nailed his famous Ninety-five Theses to the door of the cathedral in Wittenburg, Germany. This single action has traditionally been viewed as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Before it ended, several new theologies were formulated by at least two generations of reformers, causing Christianity to fall into centuries of division.

The term sola fide ("faith alone") is often associated with Luther. It was a belief that provided him a great deal of inner tranquility. Once, while meditating on Saint Paul's Letter to the Romans, Luther came to the verse that states that "man is justified by faith apart from works of the law." [1] Luther took this to mean that a person does not have the capability to work out his own salvation because of his sinful human nature. Instead, God gives his free gift of grace, which stimulates faith and leads to salvation. Luther rejected, it appears, the admonition of the Apostle James that faith without good works is dead, [2] preferring to concentrate only on that which gave him inner peace.

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Ignatius of Loyola and Ideas of Catholic Reform

Ignatius of Loyola and Ideas of Catholic Reform | Vince Ryan | IgnatiusInsight.com

How to categorize or describe Catholic reforming activity in sixteenth century has been the subject of intense historical debate. The term Counter-Reformation itself presupposes that any reforming activity by the Catholic Church was in response to the ideas and actions of the Reformation. In the nineteenth century, the German historian, Wilhelm Maurenbrecher, began using Catholic Reformation to describe the reforming activity within the Church that did not arise in response to Protestantism. Pre-dating Luther, this movement of Catholic reformers in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries sought to rectify the abuses in the Church and thus renew its practices and mission.

A useful parallel for the early stages of this movement would be the Gregorian reforms of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when a group of churchmen, primarily in response to the various clerical abuses of the time, implemented a series of ecclesiastical reforms to eliminate the lax and sometimes scandalous activities of the clergy and to guard against the encroachment of secular powers upon Church offices. Those who called for and carried out reform within the Catholic Church on the eve of the Protestant Reformation were working within this tradition. Prominent figures in this movement were Ximenes de Cisneros, John Colet, John Fisher, Gasparo Contarini and even Erasmus of Rotterdam. These men advocated reform through improved education, greater emphasis upon the New Testament, and the good example of Church leaders.

Read the entire article...

The Ignatius Press Summer Super Sale!

Books as low as $3.00, with titles by Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, Thomas Howard, G. K. Chesterton, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Adrienne von Speyr, Josef Pieper, Joseph Pearce, Ronald, Knox, Jean Galot, Manfred Hauke, and many others. Videos as low as $5.00, with titles featuring Steve Ray, Scott Hahn, and Fulton Sheen. Prices are good through August 31, 2009.

Fr. von Balthasar: People "need to recognize the incomparable, the unique character of the Gospel"

An excerpt from a 1986 interview with Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar, by Angelo Scola:

Angela Scola: Finally, then, the central issue is the missionary task of every Christian, which cannot be evaded. But how is the essence of Christianity to be communicated to contemporary men and women?

Hans Urs von Balthasar: Primarily, by confronting them uncompromisingly with the whole Gospel. With the whole Christ, rather than with a charism chosen at random. There is but one answer to the fundamental questions of humanity, and that is the Christian one. We are constantly returning to the same starting point: people need to recognize the incomparable, the unique character of the Gospel, not comparable to anything else in the rest of the world. In the universal history of humanity there does not exist—and never will exist—anything analogous to Christ, a man who, without  resumption, speaks and acts with the authority of God. "You have heard it said . .. I, however, am telling you." This "I" has the 'weight of the voice of Yahweh. And it is not only a matter of speaking. The entire existence of Jesus, his working life, his preaching, his death and Resurrection; everything in him is an exegesis of God. If one attempts to carve out a "historical Jesus" apart from his totality, one loses all understanding, just as the disciples understood nothing when confronted with his Passion and Transfiguration.

Angelo Scola: You equate, then, Christ the man with the Word of God?

Hans Urs von Balthasar: There exists no Christ figure in the New Testament which could be isolated from the sacraments, from the magisterial or pastoral Office or from Tradition. There is a great danger nowadays: to dissent Christ into several small parts, single logoi as it were, and then to mediate or that singular aspect, only to lose the vision of the whole. There are certain theologians who close their eyes to the overwhelming apostolic authority of Saint Paul, claiming that he possessed no such authority in the Christian communities; and such folly commands a wide audience. They also claim that in his day their was no hierarchy, no episcopacy, as if that had been necessary, as long as Saint Paul himself was bishop of his communities, together with Titus, Timothy and others, whom one would call auxiliary bishops today. When he sends one of them to Corinth, he impresses on the congregation: "Receive him the way you receive me, with the same reverence." Saint Paul was highly aware of his authority. And for his part, he acknowledges the authority of Saint Peter.

Angelo Scola: In speaking of Christ, you have used two words which struck me: "unique phenomenon". How can we deal with this uniqueness nowadays? After all, this is no private event, for which it would be sufficient to read the Bible by oneself or even with the aid of an experienced exegete.

Hans Urs von Balthasar: You are right. Holy Scripture is not preeminently "a" book, but a witness to the word of God, which was sent forth to us in Christ. This word has been written down, so that we may have something solid to support us. It is, however, not Christ's will that we read him like a book; he himself has written nothing: "My words are spirit and life." During the lifetime of the apostles and immediately afterwards, there existed no "New Testament". The apostles proclaimed the life of Christ, and they did this with their own lives. Saint Paul is not presumptuous when he says: "Observe me, Christ lives in me; imitate Christ the way I imitate him." And further: "You have accepted the word for what it really is: not my word, but the word of Christ." The word of God cannot be simply recited, but requires the testimony of a living Christian, because the Word had become flesh; and hence one has to demonstrate with one's flesh what the word is.

Angelo Scola: But this living model should really be the Church?

Hans Urs von Balthasar: Of course. To the degree in which she realizes the fundamental intention of Jesus: to be a missionary Church.

The entire interview can be read in the book, Test Everything: Hold Fast to What Is Good (Ignatius Press, 1989).

OCTOBER 2005: Pope Benedict XVI Praises Hans Urs von Balthasar

Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-88) was a Swiss theologian, considered to be one of the most important Catholic intellectuals and writers of the twentieth century. Incredibly prolific and diverse, he wrote over one hundred books and hundreds of articles.

• Click here for a complete list of his works available from Ignatius Press

The book by Joseph Ratzinger that "changed history"

From an InsideCatholic.com essay, "Reconciling Judas: Evangelizing the Theologians", by Edward T. Oakes, S.J.:

In 1968, a professor of theology at the University of Regensburg wrote a modestly sized treatise on the Apostles' Creed called Introduction to Christianity. Its impact, however, was anything but modest, for the book so captivated Pope Paul VI that he made its author archbishop of Munich (and later cardinal, one of his last appointments to the college); and just a few years later, the new pope, John Paul II, summoned the same man to Rome to head the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. His name, of course, was Joseph Ratzinger.
 
Not many books have changed history, but this one certainly did, not just for the author personally but also for the wider Church. For it would be hard to exaggerate the influence of this bookish Bavarian, not just on John Paul II (perhaps the most influential pope in history) but on Catholics worldwide through the cardinal's role as doctrinal overseer and enforcer of magisterial orthodoxy, and now, as the Supreme Pontiff himself. What made the book itself so remarkable was not just its deft use of the Apostles' Creed to explain Christianity to the lay reader or its acute analysis of unbelief and the secular mind. An even greater virtue of the book was the future pope's keen analysis of why the promising spirit of Vatican II failed to bring about a reunited Christianity and a re-Christianized Europe.
 
According to Ratzinger's analysis, post-Enlightenment Christianity in Europe had been conned into adopting an evangelical strategy too superficial in its approach and too intimidated by Enlightened objections to Christian doctrine. He illustrated the reasoning behind this anemic strategy with a parable, t one that Søren Kierkegaard once recounted about a fire that breaks out backstage right before a circus is set to perform. In panic the stage manager sends out one of the performers -- a clown as it happens, and naturally already in costume -- to warn the audience to leave immediately. But the spectators take the clown's desperate pleas as part of his schtick; and the more he gesticulates the more they laugh, until fire engulfs the whole theater. This, said Kierkegaard, is the situation of Christians: The more they gesticulate with their creed, the more laughable they seem to their skeptical neighbors, until the world becomes engulfed in the flames of war and mutual hatred -- a hell on earth as prelude to the hell after death. If only these Christian clowns had first thought to change out of their goofy costume, he implied, the theatergoing world might have been spared.

Read the entire piece.

Here is an excerpt from Cardinal Ratzinger's 2004 Preface to the Second Edition of Introduction To Christianity:

The year 1989, as I was saying, brought with it no new answers, but rather deepened the general perplexity and nourished skepticism about great ideals. But something did happen. Religion became modern again. Its disappearance is no longer anticipated; on the contrary, various new forms of it are growing luxuriantly. In the leaden loneliness of a God-forsaken world, in its interior boredom, the search for mysticism, for any sort of contact with the divine, has sprung up anew. Everywhere there is talk about visions and messages from the other world, and wherever there is a report of an apparition, thousands travel there, in order to discover, perhaps, a crack in the world, through which heaven might look down on them and send them consolation. Some complain that this new search for religion, to a great extent, is passing the traditional Christian churches by. An institution is inconvenient, and dogma is bothersome. What is sought is an experience, an encounter with the Absolutely-Other. I cannot say that I am in unqualified agreement with this complaint. At the World Youth Days, such as the one recently in Paris, faith becomes experience and provides the joy of fellowship. Something of an ecstasy, in the good sense, is communicated. The dismal and destructive ecstasy of drugs, of hammering rhythms, noise, and drunkenness is confronted with a bright ecstasy of light, of joyful encounter in God's sunshine. Let it not be said that this is only a momentary thing. Often it is so, no doubt. But it can also be a moment that brings about a lasting change and begins a journey. Similar things happen in the many lay movements that have sprung up in the last few decades. Here, too, faith becomes a form of lived experience, the joy of setting out on a journey and of participating in the mystery of the leaven that permeates the whole mass from within and renews it. Eventually, provided that the root is sound, even apparition sites can be incentives to go again in search of God in a sober way. Anyone who expected that Christianity would now become a mass movement was, of course, disappointed. But mass movements are not the ones that bear the promise of the future within them. The future is made wherever people find their way to one another in life-shaping convictions. And a good future grows wherever these convictions come from the truth and lead to it.

The rediscovery of religion, however, has another side to it. We have already seen that this trend looks for religion as an experience, that the "mystical" aspect of religion is an important part of it: religion that offers me contact with the Absolutely-Other. In our historical situation, this means that the mystical religions of Asia (parts of Hinduism and of Buddhism), with their renunciation of dogma and their minimal degree of institutionalization, appear to be more suitable for enlightened humanity than dogmatically determined and institutionally structured Christianity. In general, however, the result is that individual religions are relativized; for all the differences and, yes, the contradictions among these various sorts of belief, the only thing that matters, ultimately, is the inside of all these different forms, the contact with the ineffable, with the hidden mystery. And to a great extent people agree that this mystery is not completely manifested in any one form of revelation, that it is always glimpsed in random and fragmentary ways and yet is always sought as one and the same thing. That we cannot know God himself, that everything which can be stated and described can only be a symbol: this is nothing short of a fundamental certainty for modern man, which he also understands somehow as his humility in the presence of the infinite. Associated with this relativizing is the notion of a great peace among religions, which recognize each other as different ways of reflecting the One Eternal Being and which should leave up to the individual the path he will grope along to find the One who nevertheless unites them all. Through such a relativizing process, the Christian faith is radically changed ...

Read the entire Preface.

"The Liturgy Changes Us..."

"The Liturgy Changes Us...": A Review of Worship as a Revelation: The Past, Present and Future of Catholic Liturgy, by Laurence Paul Hemming | Rev. Brian Van Hove, S.J., Ph.D. | July 29, 2009

Worship as a Revelation: The Past, Present and Future of Catholic Liturgy
by Laurence Paul Hemming
Continuum, 2008 (paperback)
192 pages, including glossary, bibliography and index
ISBN: 9-780-8601-2460-3

---

Liturgy has shifted with the appearance of younger scholars and critics who write about the reform of forty years ago. Generally, they see defects of the reform to be pronounced and the benefits of it to be dubious. Hemming calls the present state of Catholic liturgy "chaos".

Defenders of the official liturgical reform in the days of their euphoria were once able to dismiss negative assessment. Unable now to ignore this rising tide, they are at last compelled to address it. Examples of still-serious defenders are John Baldovin and Piero Marini.

Of course the same official reform (with special reference to the Missal of 1970) is also criticized by those of another extreme who maintain that it did not go far enough. Ironically these, so opposed to authority, do not remember that it was authority itself which launched and supported liturgical reform.

Living with a failed reform is uncomfortable. Pastors who would set things right are afraid to disquiet the ordinary faithful who have already been so disturbed during the previous generation. One is reminded of a work proposing "national repentance" by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, From Under the Rubble.  Where do we go from here? Can the Church correct what has gone awry?

Read the entire review...

What's the old and wise saying?

Oh, that's right: the devil is in the details.

You'd think a nun might know of it. But not Sister Simone Campbell, reports Jack Smith of The Catholic Key Blog:

An Interfaith group called 'We Believe Together - Health Care For All' held a press conference today at the Capitol demanding Congress pass a health care bill NOW. Sister of Social Service Simone Campbell was among them. This from Catholic News Service's report on the conference:

Fear of change, Sister Simone said, is what is holding back members of Congress now. Instead of making a decision many representatives are getting confused by insignificant details, she said.

"Too often in D.C. we can get caught in the details and in the argument," she said.

Anybody with a pulse knows what those "insignificant details" are.

Smith, of course, is referring to unborn babies. Read his post for more. And marvel a bit, perhaps, at Campbell's remark, which is not just generally silly (or worse), but specifically false: if there are two things (among others) the Obama administration has not been fond of discussing publicly, they are details and arguments for and against budgets, proposals, policies, and reform/"reform." The President, as I recall, has said his administration will "make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology.” But there I go, getting caught up in details and arguments...

Also see Smith's July 26th post: "20 Awesome Prolife Democrats and 2 Tremendous Phonies".

Pascal for Today

Pascal for Today | Peter Kreeft | From the Preface to Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal's Pensées (Edited, Outlined, and Explained)

Pascal is the first postmedieval apologist. He is "for today" because he speaks to modern pagans, not to medieval Christians. Most Christian apologetics today is still written from a medieval mind-set in one sense: as if we still lived in a Christian culture, a Christian civilization, a society that reinforced the Gospel. No. The honeymoon is over. The Middle Ages are over. The news has not yet sunk in fully in many quarters.

It has sunk in to Pascal. He is three centuries ahead of his time. He addresses his apologetic to modern pagans, sophisticated skeptics, comfortable members of  the new secular intelligentsia. He is the first to realize the new dechristianized, desacramentalized world and to address it. He belongs to us. This book is an attempt to reclaim him.

I thought of titling this book "A Saint for All Skeptics"—but Pascal was no saint, and he wrote for nonskeptics as well as for skeptics. But I know no pre-twentieth-century book except the Bible that shoots Christian arrows farther into modern pagan hearts than the Pensées. I have taught "Great Books" classes for twenty years, and every year my students sit silent, even awed, at Pascal more than at any other of the forty great thinkers we cover throughout the history of Western philosophy and theology.

Why then is he not better known? Why was I taught every major philosopher except Pascal in studying the history of philosophy in four colleges and universities? "Late have I loved thee", Pascal; why did I have to discover you so late, as a maverick?

Because that's what Pascal is: a maverick philosopher in today's Establishment; a sage rather than a scholar; a human being rather than a "thinker"; not just smart but wise. That's what philosophy is supposed to be "the love of wisdom"--but we've come a long way since Socrates, alas.

There are also religious reasons for ignoring Pascal. For one thing, he's too Protestant for Catholics and too Catholic for Protestants. Yet he's not somewhere in the muddled middle.

Continue reading...

Excellent! But don't hold your breath

From the Public Discourse website, a fine piece, "Obama on the Value of Human Life: How About Some ‘Vigorous’ Debate?", by Patrick Lee:

In his commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, President Obama suggested that he valued debate about the issue of abortion. He congratulated Notre Dame’s president, Father Jenkins, for his “courageous commitment to honest, thoughtful dialogue,” and spoke approvingly of “citizens of a vibrant and varied democracy” engaging in “vigorous debate.”

Yet, last month Obama gave all the members of the President’s Council on Bioethics their walking papers. He might re-constitute the Council, but no one expects that he will—as President Bush actually did—attempt to ensure that different sides on the fundamental and controversial bioethical issues are fairly represented.

What happened to encouraging vigorous debate? Has Obama done anything to indicate that he has real interest in actually debating the issue of the inherent value of human life? He spoke glowingly of “honest, thoughtful dialogue,” but his actions on this issue reflect sheer power politics.

Obama has chosen to fund abortion overseas, clearly favors funding abortions here, and has reversed the limitations on funding of embryo-destructive stem cell research  Given these facts, it is fair to ask: what is his position on the beginning of human life and when human life has or acquires inherent dignity? What position on the beginning of human life could he possibly hold?

I can think of only six possibilities. Were he open about his position, he would have to say one of the following.

Read the six possibilities. Hope for vigorous debate. But don't expect it.

Putting the Carter before the horse

Let's say that you were once President of the United States, and during your presidency you had, at best, a checkered record when it came to denouncing inhumane dictatorships and standing up to tyrannical regimes.

Let's say that in the years following your exit from the White House, you built a dubious—nay, embarrassing—resumé filled with steady, overt pandering to the same or similar dictatorships and regimes. A list of leaders courted and countries defended include Castro and Cuba, China ("It's Wrong to Demonize China"), Tito ("a man who believes in human rights"), Kim Il Sung, Yasser Arafat and the PLO, Mengistu, Cédras, Assad, and, most recently, Hamas. The naivety you display about such men and regimes is so breathtaking that Casto's own daughter, Alina Fernandez, offers a public smack down.

Let's say that in addition to this troubling track record, you also offer a steady stream of criticism—much of it outlandish, unsubstantiated, and self-serving—aimed at your own country, a rather unprecedented and sorry thing to do as a former President.

And, finally, let's say you, after spending most of your public career describing yourself as a "born again Christian" and making much of your love of Jesus and the Bible, decide to write a pompous, self-righteous, historically-illiterate, theologically-ignorant piece, "The words of God do not justify cruelty to women," which states, in part:

We are calling on all leaders to challenge and change the harmful teachings and practices, no matter how ingrained, which justify discrimination against women. We ask, in particular, that leaders of all religions have the courage to acknowledge and emphasise [sic] the positive messages of dignity and equality that all the world's major faiths share.

Although not having training in religion or theology, I understand that the carefully selected verses found in the holy scriptures to justify the superiority of men owe more to time and place - and the determination of male leaders to hold onto their influence - than eternal truths. Similar Biblical excerpts could be found to support the approval of slavery and the timid acquiescence to oppressive rulers.

At the same time, I am also familiar with vivid descriptions in the same scriptures in which women are revered as pre-eminent leaders. During the years of the early Christian church women served as deacons, priests, bishops, apostles, teachers and prophets. It wasn't until the fourth century that dominant Christian leaders, all men, twisted and distorted holy scriptures to perpetuate their ascendant positions within the religious hierarchy.

I know, too, that Billy Graham, one of the most widely respected and revered Christians during my lifetime, did not understand why women were prevented from being priests and preachers. He said: "Women preach all over the world. It doesn't bother me from my study of the scriptures."

The truth is that male religious leaders have had - and still have - an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter.

Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world. This is in clear violation not just of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, Moses and the prophets, Muhammad, and founders of other great religions - all of whom have called for proper and equitable treatment of all the children of God. It is time we had the courage to challenge these views.

If you did all of these things, and never blinked an eye about your incredibly obvious hypocrisy—praising and supporting murderous dictators and tyrants while condemning traditional Christian theology as the basis for "much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world"—your name is Jimmy Carter.

In all honesty, I wouldn't bother with all of the political stuff (as important as it is), except there is something deeply disturbing about a man of such importance and influence being so willing to verbally aid and abet thugs while trashing the motives and character of those who believe, as Catholics do, that only certain men are chosen by God to be priests. It's truly repulsive, intimating that women not being able to be Catholic (or Orthodox) priests is the same as beating, raping, torturing, and even killing women. I have long found Carter to hold views and say things that are deeply revolting (both morally and intellectually), but this tops it all. And since when did Billy Graham—a nice man but hardly a theological heavyweight—become the in-house theologian for the Magisterium of Jimmy Carter? The level of sheer arrogance in Carter's statement is mind-boggling.

An irony, of course, is that Carter is simply engaging in a crude form of sola scriptura, albeit one that is not  fundamentalist Protestant in nature, but openly fundamentalist secularist. But Carter also resorts to the sort of unsubstantiated falsehoods (well, of course, since falsehoods cannot be substantiated!) that make both theologians and historians tear at their hair, as there were no female priests, bishops, or apostles in the early Church. But this form of argumentation is hardly new for Carter, who seems to enjoy misrepresenting the beliefs, motives, and actions of "conservative" Christians. One more quick example is found in part of a post I wrote in December of last year:

On a related note, something that keeps coming to mind is this statement, which I've heard and read in many forms over the years: "If right-wing Christians would care as much about babies after they are born as before they are born, they'd be taken much more seriously." A few years ago I read a variation of this nonsense in Jimmy Carter's Our Endangered Species, where he states, without providing the least bit of evidence, "Many pro-life activists do not extend their concern to the baby who is born ..." Really? Then why are there so many Christian adoption agencies? Why do so many Christians pursue adoption, even while the costs skyrocket and red tape nearly chokes many agencies and programs to death? And why is it that abortion businesses such as Planned Parenthood show little or no interest in adoptions? Hmmmm, that's a tough one...

Given Carter's record of coddling the Castros and Kim Il Sungs of the world—men who treat their fellow humans like dirt, or worse—its hard to take the man seriously when he starts pontificating on the morality or immorality of Church doctrine, especially when it is obvious the man is incapable of addressing the actual doctrine in question. Carter would do well to speak with such righteous indignation against his tryannical buddies and despotic pals. After all, I don't think Billy Graham, one of the most widely respected and revered Christians during my lifetime, is much of a supporter of communist killers and suicide bombers.

• UPDATE: A related story, "Evangelical Leaders Rebuke Carter for 'Reckless' Discrimination Claims", from The Christian Post (July 26, 2009).

Benedict XVI: "We must bring the truth of God back into the world, make Him known"

From Vatican Information Service:

VATICAN CITY, 25 JUL 2009 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon , Benedict XVI presided at the celebration of Vespers in the cathedral of Aosta, Italy, in the presence of four hundred priests, religious and lay representatives from the parishes of the diocese.

 In his homily, delivered without notes, the Pope said that if "our relationship with God is not living, if it is not lived, then none of our other relationships can take their correct form. And this also holds true for society, for humankind. Here too, if we do without God, if God is absent, we lack the compass ... to show us the path, the direction we must follow".

 "We must bring the truth of God back into the world, make Him known", he went on. "Evangelisation consists precisely in the distant God becoming close, in God no longer being far off but near, in this 'known-unknown' finally making Himself known and revealing His face. ... He shows us His face, He enters our world. There is no longer any need to use other powers because He is the true power, the Almighty".

 The Holy Father highlighted the importance of understanding "that God's omnipotence is not an arbitrary power, because God is Good, He is Truth. Hence God can do everything but He cannot act against goodness, He cannot act against truth, He cannot act against love and freedom, because He Himself is goodness, love and true freedom".

 "God is the custodian of our freedom, of love and of truth. This eye that looks down is not an evil eye watching over us, but the presence of a love that never abandons us".

 Benedict XVI highlighted how "the pinnacle of God's power is mercy and forgiveness. In our modern concept of what power is we think of people who possess great property", who can "influence the market. We think of those with great military power, who have the power to threaten. Stalin's question 'how many divisions does the Pope have?' continues to characterise the typical idea of power. Those who have power are dangerous, they can threaten and destroy".

 "But the Revelation tells us that this is not so. True power is the power of grace and mercy. In His mercy God shows true power".

 "God has suffered and in the Son suffers with us", said Pope Benedict. "Thus He shows true divine power. He wanted to suffer with us and for us. We are never abandoned in our sufferings".

 "Why was it necessary to suffer in order to save the world?" the Holy Father asked. "It was necessary because in the world there exists an ocean of evil, of injustice, of hatred and of violence, and the many victims of hatred and injustice have the right to see justice done. ... God must enter into this world and oppose the ocean of injustice with a greater ocean of goodness and love".

 Following the celebration of Vespers, the Pope left the cathedral and greeted the faithful gathered outside. "I would just like to say thank-you for the sympathy and affection you show me", he said. "My hope is you enjoy a happy holiday, free from 'incidents'", he added jokingly raising his right arm in its plaster cast.

 Returning to his residence at Les Combes, the Pope paused to meet elderly people in the old people's home of Introd, whom he greeted from his car window due to the driving rain.

A related and recently published book by Ignatius Press:

Credo For Today: What Christians Believe
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

What do Christians believe? What gives meaning to our life? What is the purpose of life? The Christian answer to these questions is found in the Creed, in the profession of faith. But what do the articles of this confession actually mean? And how to they affect our lives?

Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, takes a fresh look at these timeless questions. This work is a reflection of the profound, personal insights of Benedict XVI, but also of the great foundations of Christianity: faith, hope, and charity.

Ratzinger writes eloquently and persuasively about the importance for followers of Christ to understand well what they believe so one can live as a serious Christian in today's secular world. He talks in depth about the true meaning of faith, hope, and love--the love of God and the love of neighbor. He also discusses the crucial importance of a lived faith, for the believer himself as well as being a witness for our age, and striving to bring faith in line with the present age that has veered off into rampant secularism and materialism. Continue reading...

Trickle-Down Theology Won't Work

Trickle-Down Theology Won't Work | Jonathan J. Bean, Ph.D. | A Guest Op-Ed for Ignatius Insight | July 27, 2009

In 1935, a French politician asked Joseph Stalin to appease the Pope by tolerating Catholicism in the Soviet Union, where atheism was the state "religion." Stalin roared "The Pope! How many divisions has he got?"

In fact, the Pope had many divisions throughout the world. Catholic churches and schools taught the faithful that God, not man, ruled over the universe. These unarmed divisions destroyed Soviet-style communism from within and exerted Western Catholic pressure from without.

That was then, this is now. Has Pope Benedict XVI lost his divisions, especially schools, to the relativism that he denounces in his recent encyclical (Caritas in Veritate)? From Rome, the Pope calls for virtuous conduct in the marketplace, yet Church teaching no longer "trickles down" to the Catholic masses the way it once did. As spiritual "transmission lines," Catholic schools face two challenges: the exodus of Catholics to "value-neutral" public schools, and the subversive influence of academics who flout the "Magisterium" (the "teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church").

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Introduction to Hugo Rahner's "Church and State in Early Christianity"

Introduction to Church and State in Early Christianity | Hugo Rahner, S.J.

The first edition of this book appeared seventeen years ago when the struggle between Church and state in Nazi Germany was at its height. It then bore the title: The Liberty of the Western Church, Documents Concerning Church-State Relations in Early Christianity (Einsiedeln-Cologne: Benziger, 1943). Since then times have become more tranquil, but only in a superficial and impermanent way. Thus the question of the relations between Church and state remains as interesting as ever; it is a continuing problem in America and Russia and could at any moment reappear in Germany now that it has again become a world power. This alone would justify a new edition.

The book remains substantially unchanged in form and fundamental ideas. It provides the living witness of the early Church to the solution of the ever-recurring problem touching us as citizens of a state and members of the Church because all persons, in addition to the complex of influences affecting their personality and status as citizens, are in the Church or are called to her. For the Church is the "Kyriaké", the queen just as Christ is the King. She must, therefore, proclaim to all generations and to all states the revelation that Christ the Redeemer has brought to mankind in his power and majesty, And the state is called to listen to the Church. But both those who make the proclamation and those who hear it must do so in a way that neither exceeds nor blurs the limits of the mutual autonomy that God the Creator has set for the state, and God the Redeemer for the Church. Because citizens of the state and the members of the Church are the same individuals, the problem of the just relationship between Church and state remains a difficult and vital question for all.

The history of this problem has been a turbulent one right down to our own times. Its solution has risen out of struggle and death ever since Christ in masterly fashion drew a distinction between God and emperor while at the same time decreeing obedience to both God and emperor [1] –a fact that did not prevent the imperial procurator's condemnation of Christ to death on the cross. [2] The struggle continued at the time that Paul wrote from Rome during Nero's tyranny that the "existing authorities are instituted by God", [3] and Peter from that same "Babylon" advised the people of Asia Minor, especially prone to emperor worship, "Fear God, honor the emperor" [4] –efforts that did not hinder their being dragged before "kings and judges", as enemies of the state liable to capital punishment. Notwithstanding their loyalty to the head of state combined with adherence to Christianity, the principle-one must obey God rather than man-was understood by them in concrete situations as meaning that the Church is superior to the state any time a claim dangerous to the fundamentals of the Church demands such a decisive delimitation of authority. "God is greater than the emperor",[5] was the claim of the Church of the martyrs as she courageously faced the threat of death. Ambrose said frankly, before an imperial tyranny even when it had become Christian, in a phrase that was never forgotten in subsequent centuries and which became a classic formula: "The emperor is in the Church, not above her. A good emperor seeks to help the Church not to combat her. We say this with a humility equal to our determination, even when threatened with torture, execution or exile. As servants of Christ we put aside all fear."[6]

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Happy 60th, Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J.!

This Monday, July 27th, is Fr. Mitch Pacwa's 60th birthday (see his Facebook page), and I want to be sure to send him birthday greetings while I am thinking of it as the next few days are going to be fairly hectic here.

I've been fortunate, in my twelve years as a Catholic, of meeting and knowing some truly remarkable priests, and Fr. Mitch is one of the most remarkable. I think the highest praise I can give him, having known him for a dozen years or so, is that he is so obviously Christ-centered in all that he does and says. His love for the Lord is palpable, infectious, and real, and from this flows his tremendous love for the Church, for everyone he meets, for Scripture, 
for life. His humor, humility, and holiness are deep and authentic, just as his academic chops (Ph.D. in Hebrew; speaks/reads a dozen or more languages, etc.) are authentic, but never paraded about or used as a stick.

While working on my MTS (1997-2000), Fr. Mitch was my spiritual director for about two years. I was a new Catholic, and his advice, exhortation, and wisdom were invaluable. He was instrumental in the publication of my first book, Will Catholics Be "Left Behind"?, having encouraged me to write it in the first place and then, when I got bogged down in the middle of it, simply telling me, with just the right amount of sternness: "Finish it!"

Those familiar with Fr. Mitch know very well of his many endeavors, written and otherwise, in the area of apologetics. One thing I saw many times over, as I've had opportunity to be in public with him many times, is that he has an uncanny—actually, supernatural, I'm convinced—ability to recognize what needs to be said and not be said, a beautiful sensitivity to the person he is talking to or listening to. He often had strong words for me, and he was right to be so forward; he knew what I needed and he knew I could handle it. I also saw him handle delicate situations with a profound gentleness, as a true shepherd of souls.

And there is always the sly and knowing sense of humor, as evidenced in one of the stories I like to tell of Fr. Mitch. One Saturday evening, after he had taught class for six hours (as part of the University of Dallas IRPS program), Fr. Mitch and a group of five or six of us students went out for dinner. The young waitress, seeing his Roman collar (which he always wears in public), half-asked, "So, you're a Catholic priest?"

"Yes, I am," he said with a big smile. "Are you Catholic?"

She was immediately a bit nervous, but also somewhat defiant. "Well, I used to be," she said, "but I'm not anymore. I got over that whole guilt thing."

Seeing that she was wearing a wedding ring, Fr. Mitch said, "May I ask you a question?" He knew she was uncomfortable and likely felt, in a sense, outnumbered. "Sure," she said, not sure what to expect.

"Do you have any children?" he asked.

"No, not yet," she said, mystified by the question.

"Well," he said with a warm smile, "when you do, you'll understand the whole guilt thing. I'm sure of it."

And that was it. He didn't press further. Thinking about it later, I realized how easy it would have been to try to launch into reasons why she should come back to the Church and why Catholicism is true, and so forth. But such an approach was wrong for the situation; it would have most likely simply pushed her further away, reinforced whatever antagonism she had, for whatever reason, against her Catholic upbringing. But my bet is that Fr. Mitch's remark planted a seed—not based on sophisticated apologetic arguments or theological complexities (things he is plenty adept at handling, of course), but on basic human nature. And if I still remember that conversation ten years later, I suspect the young woman—perhaps now a mother—remembers it as well, and, by God's grace, it has caused her to rethink and reevaluate her position.

We are blessed to hear Fr. Mitch on EWTN television and radio, to read his books, to listen to his "PacwaCasts," to watch his various video productions. I've been truly blessed to know him as a friend and a spiritual director, and my prayer is that God will grant him many, many more happy years. Thank you and happy birthday, Fr. Mitch!

Learning from St. James the Greater

From the Holy Father's June 21, 2006, General Audience, on St. James the Greater, whose feast we celebrate today:

Consequently, we can learn much from St James: promptness in accepting the Lord's call even when he asks us to leave the "boat" of our human securities, enthusiasm in following him on the paths that he indicates to us over and above any deceptive presumption of our own, readiness to witness to him with courage, if necessary to the point of making the supreme sacrifice of life.

Thus James the Greater stands before us as an eloquent example of generous adherence to Christ. He, who initially had requested, through his mother, to be seated with his brother next to the Master in his Kingdom, was precisely the first to drink the chalice of the passion and to share martyrdom with the Apostles.

And, in the end, summarizing everything, we can say that the journey, not only exterior but above all interior, from the mount of the Transfiguration to the mount of the Agony, symbolizes the entire pilgrimage of Christian life, among the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God, as the Second Vatican Council says. In following Jesus, like St James, we know that even in difficulties we are on the right path.

• Selections from Jesus, The Apostles, and the Early Church | Pope Benedict XVI
• Saint Paul  | Pope Benedict XVI
• Church Fathers: From Clement of Rome to Augustine  | Pope Benedict XVI
• Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration (paperback edition, with a new index)  | Pope Benedict XVI

• Biography of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI
• All books by or about Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI
• Excerpts from books by Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI
• Articles about Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI

Ideology and the destruction of body and soul

A follow-up to my post below, here are a couple of excerpts from the excellent essay, "Abortion and Ideology," by Dr. Raymond Dennehy, which I originally posted on Ignatius Insight two months ago:

If it is taken as an incontrovertible universal truth that a woman's right to control her reproduction is primary, then easy access to legal and safe abortion becomes not only a moral imperative but a dictate of reason also. Granted the existence of some advocates of abortion on request who concede that induced abortion is the deliberate killing of a human being, the abortion ideology could never have found social, political, and juridical acceptance if the evidence from the science of embryology had not been flouted in favor of claims that the moment when human life begins is unclear and subject to honest dispute among scientists, theologians, and philosophers, as in Roe v. Wade, human life/personhood comes into being at some designated time after conception. In any case, an ideology has a dynamism, a mad energy generated by commitment to an ideal for humankind, that persuades the ideologue that the highest of moral imperatives is to do whatever is necessary for the realization of that ideal, even if that means transcending the injunctions of truth in science and philosophy while maintaining the needed façade of truthful inquiry.

<snip>

The lies and distortions that permeate elitist circles is a malignancy that will sooner or later spread to the public sphere, especially when, like the abortion debate, it pertains to the daily lives of ordinary human beings. When mistrust runs rampant in the population, civic virtue slowly withers; for, as a plant needs water, it is a virtue that cannot live without mutual trust. And without civic virtue, there can be no community of persons. As Hannah Arendt observed, the inability of a people to tell fact from fiction is one of the conditions for the rise of totalitarianism. In an atmosphere of conflicting opinions and skepticism, the authoritarian leader assumes, in the eyes of the public, an attractiveness that he could never have had otherwise. In the midst of their confusion, the people look to him for guidance.

<snip>

Rejecting the object of philosophy, the pure object, the ideologue is left only with his demiurgic drive to impose an ideal on the world and for this he must claim that the meanings of institutions, practices, and realities, like human beings, are social constructions that, accordingly, have only the value that society confers on them. These characteristics express themselves today in the pro-abortion and feminist movements and, indeed, both have a Marxist ring to them.

Read the entire essay.

Verbal Duplicity and False Choices

Here are two questions, tightly bound at the hips of rhetoric and (more importantly) reality:

• Is there anything an abortion supporter won't say to mislead, misdirect, and confuse anyone and everyone about what he really believes?
• Is there anything a lover of The Big and Omniscient State won't say to mislead, misdirect, and confuse anyone and everyone about what he really wants to do?

One of my first posts about then-Sen. Obama (January 24, 2008) was about the candidate's brazen remark, made in an interview to Christianity Today, "I don't know anybody who is pro-abortion." Just a few days later the Senator, in a statement made to mark the 35th anniversary of "Roe v. Wade", was more forthcoming: "Throughout my career, I've been a consistent and strong supporter of reproductive justice, and have consistently had a 100% pro-choice rating with Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America." This was just the beginning of a clear and consistent pattern of saying one thing and doing another, with startling audacity and remarkable verve. This pattern was summed up well by Dr. William Brennan, author of John Paul II: Confronting the Language Empowering the Culture of Death, when I interviewed him a couple of weeks ago for Ignatius Insight:

Peter Kreeft on "The Sacraments"

The Sacraments | Peter Kreeft | From Fundamentals of the Faith

Protestants don't see why Catholics who come to disagree with essential teachings of the Church don't just leave. The answer is symbolized by the sanctuary lamp. They do not leave the Church because they know that the sacramental fire burns there on the ecclesiastical hearth. Even if they do not see by its light, they want to be warmed by its fire. The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a magnet drawing lost sheep home and keeping would-be strays from the deathly snows outside. The Church's biggest drawing card is not what she teaches, crucial as that is, but who is there. "He is here! Therefore I must be here."

  Adult conversion to Catholicism involves more than adding a few new beliefs. It means a whole new world and life view. No ingredient in that new perspective was more of a shock to my old Protestant sensibilities when I became a Catholic than the idea that the God-man is really present in, and not just symbolized by, what appears to be a wafer of bread and a cup of wine. It seemed scandalous!

It has ceased to scandalize me, though it has not ceased to amaze me, that Almighty God suffers me to touch him, move him and eat him! Imagine! When I move my hand to my mouth with the Host, I move God through space. When I put him here, he is here. When I put him there, he is there. The Prime Mover lets me move him where I will. It is as amazing as the Incarnation itself, for it is the Incarnation, the continuation of the Incarnation.

I think I understand how the typical Protestant feels about sacramentalism not only because I was a Protestant but because it is a natural and universal feeling. The Catholic doctrine of the sacraments is shocking to everyone. It should be a shock to Catholics too. But familiarity breeds dullness.

To Protestants, sacraments must be one of two things: either mere symbols, reminders, like words; or else real magic. And the Catholic definition of a sacrament — a visible sign instituted by Christ to give grace, a sign that really effects what it symbolizes — sounds like magic. Catholic doctrine teaches that the sacraments work ex opere operato, i.e., objectively, though not impersonally and automatically like machines. They are gifts that come from without but must be freely received.

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