Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog

Did this reviewer even read "Caritas in veritate"?

I've read some interesting interpretations and controversial opinions about Pope Benedict XVI's most recent encyclical, "Charity in Truth," but a column titled, "Pope's plea for love to replace trade is a dream" (YumaSun.com, Sept. 25, 2009), by Tibor R. Machan, who teaches at Chapman University and is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, is simply bewildering, not to mention rather hysterical and flatly incorrect on several counts.

Here are three of the more bizarre assertions/insinuations made by Machan:

1. Pope Benedict XVI is an avowed enemy of the free market and economic liberty, and a Sixties-styled, pie-in-the-sky, neo-hippie to boot:

With everyone confused about how much free-market capitalism has to do with the economic mess, now is the time for enemies of economic liberty to rise up and seize the day! That way they may get some mileage out of it for their ongoing mission to prepare people for being ruled, managed, regimented and regulated by, you guessed it, them!

In his recent book, "Caritas in Veritate: On Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth" (Ignatius Press, 2009), we are implored by the Pope to love all, instead of trade, as if this really were possible among billions of people.

Such dreaming has done terrible damage to humanity for centuries, so why should the Pope not buy into it? The kind of Christian love the Pope is promoting seems to him to be anathema to free markets. His reason? That the pursuit of profit precludes love among human beings.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. But don't take my word for it; simply consider a few passages from the encyclical:

Another entry—Canadian!—from the "It's Just a Novel" Files

From CBCNews.ca (ht: American Papist), news of a novel battle between fact and fiction:

Residents of a quiet West Coast community say they will fight plans by a Catholic organization featured in the novel The Da Vinci Code to build a spiritual retreat in their town.

Opus Dei was depicted in the fictional bestseller by Dan Brown as a powerful and insidious secret society involved in a bloody conspiracy that reached up into the highest levels of the church. The real-life organization, however, says there is nothing sinister about its plans.

Spokesman Fadi Sarraf said the group wants to build the 60,000 square foot facility on a 13-acre lot overlooking Britannia Beach, a former mining community located roughly 50 kilometres north of Vancouver on the route to Whistler.

Opus Dei was founded in 1928 in Spain by the Roman Catholic priest St. Josemaria Escriva, and is based on the belief that ordinary people can live ordinary lives that lead to sanctity.

The project will have benefits for the community, but those opposed to the plan have been handing out copies of The Da Vinci Code to encourage opposition, Sarraf said.

On the plus side, interest in reading in the small community has increased 17% since the "fight" began (that's a joke); on the negative, none of the claims made about Opus Dei in The Da Vinci Code are true (that's a fact).

The Holy Father on family, marriage, divorce, and "individual subjectivity"

From Vatican Information Services:

TO BRAZILIAN PRELATES: SUPPORT CHRISTIAN FAMILIES

VATICAN CITY, 25 SEP 2009 (VIS) - The family, "founded on marriage as a conjugal alliance in which man and woman mutually give and receive", was the central theme of the Holy Father's meeting today with prelates from the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (Northeast 1-4), who have just completed their "ad limina" visit.

 In his remarks the Pope noted how, in their reports to him, the bishops had highlighted the fact that "families are beleaguered and under siege". Yet, he pointed out, "despite all negative influences", the people of north-eastern Brazil "remain open to the Gospel of life".

 "The Church", Benedict XVI went on, "tirelessly teaches that the family has its foundation in marriage and in God's plan". Yet "the secularised world is dominated by profound uncertainty on this matter, especially since western societies legalised divorce. The only recognised foundation seems to be individual subjectivity, expressed in a desire to live together".

 "In this situation the number of marriages is falling because no-one wants to commit themselves on such fragile and unpredictable grounds, the number of 'de facto' unions is increasing and divorces are on the rise. It is in this fragile scenario that the drama of so many children is played out - deprived of the support of their parents, victims of apprehension and abandonment - and social disorder grows".

 "The Church cannot remain indifferent before the separation and divorce of couples", Pope Benedict cried, "before the break-up of homes and the repercussions on children, who need extremely precise points of reference for their instruction and education: in other words determined and confident parents who participate in their upbringing".

 "This is the principle that is being undermined and compromised by the practice of divorce, through the so-called extended and mobile family which increases the number of 'fathers' and 'mothers' and leads to a situation today in which the majority of those who feel orphaned are not children without parents but children with a surplus of parents. This situation, with its inevitable ... crisscross relationships cannot but generate internal conflict and confusion that contributes to giving children a distorted idea of the family".

 "The firm conviction of the Church is that the true solution to the problems which married couples currently face and which weaken their union is a return to the solidity of the Christian family, a place of mutual trust, of reciprocal giving, of respect for freedom and of education to social life".

 "With all the understanding the Church feels towards certain situations, couples in their second marriage are not like those in their first; theirs is an irregular and dangerous situation which must be resolved, in faithfulness to Christ, finding, with the help of the priest, a way possible to rehabilitate everyone involved", the Holy Father said.

 He then invited the prelates to encourage priests and pastoral care centres "to accompany families so as to ensure they are not seduced by the relativist lifestyles promoted by cinema, television and other communications media". And the Pope concluded: "I trust in the witness of families who draw the strength to overcome trials from the Sacrament of Marriage. ... It is on the foundation of families such as these that the social fabric must be recreated".

Related IgnatiusInsight.com Articles and Book Excerpts:

• The Challenge of Marriage Preparation | Dr. Janet E. Smith
• Focus Groups and Marriage: A Match Made for Heartache | Mary Beth Bonacci
• Entering Marriage with Eyes Wide Open | Edward Peters
• Human Sexuality and the Catholic Church | Donald P. Asci | Introduction to The Conjugal Act as a Personal Act
• Who Is Married? | Edward Peters
• Marital and Family Commitment: A Personalist View | Monsignor Cormac Burke
• Marriage and the Family in Casti Connubii and Humanae Vitae | Reverend Michael Hull, S.T.D.
• Male and Female He Created Them | Cardinal Estevez
• The Meaning and Necessity of Spiritual Fatherhood | Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, MTS
• Practicing Chastity in an Unchaste Age | Bishop Joseph F. Martino
• The Truth About Conscience | John F. Kippley | An excerpt from Sex and the Marriage Covenant

Beware of turning religion into a "colorful toy"

Fr. Robert Barron of Word on Fire talks about the serious dangers inherent in having a ho-hum attitude toward religion, life, and truth:



Visit the Word on Fire website.

On The "Great Crime" of the Gentiles

On The "Great Crime" of the Gentiles | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | September 25, 2009 | Ignatius Insight

"Do not be surprised, brothers, that Mary is said to be a martyr in spirit. Let him be surprised who does not remember the words of Paul, that one of the greatest crimes of the Gentiles was that they were without love." -- Bernard of Clairvaux, d. 1153, Sermon, Feast of the Assumption.

"This is the great hope we are left with: we cannot find the Truth on our own, but the Truth, who is a Person, finds us." -- Benedict XVI, At the screening of a film on St. Augustine, 2009. [1]

I.

We might describe mankind over time as a body of truth-seekers who have not found the truth, or at least not all of it, or not yet. Implicit in that description can be the assumption we can find what we set out to find all by ourselves. That is, not a few people would evidently reject truth if they did not themselves "make" it. The idea that truth might be given to them and require honest acknowledgement strikes at the very foundation of much ancient and modern thought.

Still, the very fact we do seek to know the truth means that already something in us urges us to do so. Even when he holds that there is no truth, no man is comfortable with the proposition: "I do not seek truth." We have the power to recognize truth at least when we find it. No one wants to establish his dignity on the basis of his principled rejection of any truth. He must at least cling to the contradictory proposition, "It is true that there is no truth."

Benedict XVI would perhaps modify that last statement about recognizing truth by saying we have the power to know the Truth when it "finds us." We often assume "truth" is a kind of inert thing just sitting out there waiting to be found. And some of it is, no doubt. Yet, if Truth is a Person, there is the possibility of that Person finding us. We also recognize that the dynamics of accepting truth involve what can only be called a personal relationship, which we can accept or reject for any number of reasons. As the New Testament records, several of those who saw the Truth either went away sad or went out to kill He who proclaimed it.

Read the entire essay...

What did Abp. Burke actually say about...

... Catholic politicians who support abortion, public repentance, and Catholic funerals? Ed Peters writes:

While journalists usually have some say over how their writings are edited, even the best reporters have little control over how their articles are headlined. Over the years I've cringed at some of the titles pasted atop my work, so I want to avoid assuming David Gibson's responsibility for the goofy charge that headlines his report of Abp. Raymond Burke's recent address to guests at InsideCatholic.com's 14th Annual Partnership Dinner.

The title to Gibson's article reads "Vatican Official: Church Erred in Holding Kennedy Funeral." Not only did Burke never say "the Church erred" in this way or any other (seriously, can anyone imagine Burke making such a reckless claim about the Church?), Gibson's own article makes no such allegation.

What Burke did say about Catholic politicians who publicly support abortion (and a few other issues gravely at odds with Church teaching) was that "Neither Holy Communion nor funeral rites should be administered to such politicians", adding that "To deny these is not a judgment of the soul, but a recognition of the scandal and its effects." In speaking thus, Burke falls squarely within the bounds of Catholic canon law and orthodoxy, however little companionship he might enjoy there these days.

It was only later, in a line Gibson adequately paraphrased but which he should have quoted, that Burke said "with greatly sinful acts about fundamental questions like abortion and marriage, [a politician's] repentance must also be public" adding, "Anyone who grasps the gravity of what he has done will understand the need to make it public." Again, a pastorally sound position, in my opinion.

Read the entire post.

Related Posts on Insight Scoop:

• Abp. Burke on truth and civility; Dr. Nelson on Catholic health care (Sept. 22, 2009)
• Now I understand: only pro-lifers are uncivil. (Sept. 16, 2009)
• The Senator, the Cardinal, and the Bishop (among others) (Sept. 7, 2009)
• Kennedy's letter—the pro-life one (Sept. 2, 2009)
• Fr. Robert Barron on Sen. Edward Kennedy (Sept. 1, 2009)
• The funeral and the letter (Aug. 30, 2009)
• Sen. Ted Kennedy's right to a Catholic funeral (Aug. 27, 2009)
• What is Sen. Ted Kennedy's "Catholic legacy"? (Aug. 27, 2009)
• Straw men by the left, straw men from the left (May 17, 2009)

Confounding

Perhaps I'm a bit slow. Maybe I'm failing to attain a state of proper enlightenment which is the home of the elites who know best and reject the rest. It could be I'm such a black-and-white kinda thinker that nuance, sophistication, and erudition don't fit into my tiny, little world. But what to make of this?

1. A well-known leader, a non-Catholic, is described by a Catholic admirer as "a man of humility, great intelligence and capable of listening."
2. The admirer says the leader's beliefs on social issues are "my catechism come to life..."
3. The admirer says, "I believe life begins at conception, in the womb, and is to be protected there as it is to be protected at every moment throughout the progression of life..."
4. The leader tells the admirer he views abortion as "a moral tragedy" and that there were two ways of addressing it: either make abortion illegal or "do something about it and look at what causes people to have an abortion."
5. The leader acknowledges openly that abortion is the killing of a child: "What would cause a mother to contemplate taking the life of a child? It has to be something awful. It has to be a woman without shelter, without insurance, without the next meal on the table."
6. The admirer claims the leader "has taken some steps towards this [reducing abortion rates], perhaps not as fast as some would like..."
7. In fact, by just about any criteria and by all accounts, no concrete measures have been taken by the leader to reduce abortion. The leader, who apparently (according to the admirer) admits abortion is the murder of a child, has never publicly described it as such, instead opting for "moral tragedy." On the contrary, he has implemented a number of measures and policies which support and spread access to abortion.

The leader, of course, is Pres. Obama; the admirer is attorney and professor Douglas Kmiec, who made the remarks above in a recent interview published in The Times of Malta (Kmiec, in case you missed it, was made ambassador to Malta by Pres. Obama). Thomas "America Papist" Peters sticks a fork in this roasted pig:

Consider: Mr. Obama has chosen to fund oversees abortions at US taxpayer expense. He has destroyed President Bush's faith advisory board and populated it with pro-abortion representatives. He has appointed not a single pro-life Catholic or political figure to any position of responsibility in his administration. He continues to lie about the existence of abortion provision in his multiple health care provisions (a fact verified by multiple mainstream news media organizations). He has not lifted a single finger when Democrats in Congress have thwarted repeated attempts by Republicans to exclude the expansion of abortion funding and coverage from these health care plans. He has not put a single conscience clause provision into writing. His Democrat-controlled Congress is poised to pass legislation that will drastically expand the federal funding which Planned Parenthood and other abortion mega-providers will receive annually. He has ended the federal ban on embryonic stem cell research. And these concrete examples are only those which come immediately to mind.

Imagine someone saying, in private conversation: "I believe spousal abuse/slavery/dog fighting is wrong," but then doing nothing about those evils while pursuing measures and policies that encourage, protect, and condone those evils? You would have to conclude, at some point, that 1) he is lying in his private remarks, 2) or he is willing to turn a blind eye to evil for the sake of political gain, 3) or he fails, for whatever reason, to comprehend the illogical of his position, 4) or he really is doing all he can to reduce those evils, but it takes a long time and his enemies aren't giving him the proper benefit of the doubt. Kmiec, it seems reasonable to conclude, has chosen #4. When, after a couple more years, millions more die in those awful procedures, will he make a change to his catechism?

Rescuing the World—10,000 Students at a Time

Rescuing the World—10,000 Students at a Time

Web Exclusive Former university president Robert Spitzer, SJ now teaches faith and reason in the world’s largest classroom—the Internet. By Elenor K. Schoen After serving as president of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington for 11 years, Robert J. Spitzer, SJ, PhD will be sharing his love of the Catholic faith and passion for education with more students than could ever fit into a traditional classroom. Pairing sophisticated web-based technology with philosophy, Spitzer is spearheading two new institutes to promote a Catholic understanding of God and the human person—the Magis Institute of Faith and Reason and the Spitzer Center for Ethical Leadership. The popular Jesuit philosophy and ethics professor is a well-known author and speaker, and the creator of several Catholic television series for Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). While at Gonzaga, Spitzer successfully restored the school’s financial health, while building up the campus and student enrollment. Gonzaga Trustee and Chairman of the Board Don Nelles calls Spitzer a “visionary” in handling all the various problems he faced when he arrived at the college. Spitzer created “a growth plan that will serve us well at Gonzaga University for years to come,” according to Nelles. More importantly, Spitzer gave needed attention to the spiritual culture at Gonzaga. He made headlines in 2000 when he cancelled a campus appearance by a Planned Parenthood representative, stating, “I consider Planned Parenthood’s actions to be blatantly contrary to the Catholic and Jesuit character of the university and to its mission.” In 2002, Spitzer refused to allow performances of The Vagina Monologues to take place on campus, saying the play was contrary to the “Catholic and Christian view of marriage.” The speakers and productions permitted on campus, he said, “[speak] volumes about who we are, what our mission is, and what we believe."

Read the entire article...

"'The 13th Day' is the best film ever made about Fatima..."

... writes Steven Greydanus, "— the most beautiful and effective, as well as one of the most historically accurate. Sister Lucia's memories are imbued with an aura of reverie and contemplation by striking visuals, an effective score and a stark, simple narrative. A fact-based film that succeeds in being both artful and reverent is a rare thing. The 13th Day succeeds."

Screening dates and times for showings of The 13th Day will be announced soon. To find out more about the film, go to www.the13thdaymovie.com, which includes detailed information about the movie, free downloads, and the story of Fatima. Also visit the movie's FaceBook page.

Here's a bit about the movie, along with video clips:

In a world torn apart by persecution, war and oppression, 3 children in Fatima, Portugal were chosen by God to offer an urgent message of hope to the world. Based on the memoirs of the oldest seer, Lucia Santos, and many thousands of independent eye-witness accounts, The 13th Day dramatizes the true story of three young shepherds who experienced six apparitions of Our Lady between May and October 1917, which culminated in the final prophesied Miracle of the Sun on October 13th. Abducted from their homes, thrown into prison and interrogated under the threat of death in the government’s attempt to silence them, the children remained true to their story about the crucial messages from Mary of prayer, repentance and conversion for the world.

Our Lady gave a secret to the children told in three parts, from a harrowing vision of hell, to prophetic warnings of future events including the advent and timing of the Second World War, the spread of communism, and the attempted assassination of the Pope.

Stylistically beautiful and technically innovative, the film uses state-of-the-art digital effects to create stunning images of the visions and the final miracle that have never before been fully realized on screen. Shot on location in Portugal and in the UK, the film has a cast of hundreds to re-create the scenes of the 70,000 strong crowds, with 3 young Portuguese actors play the iconic roles of the Seers.

Witness the greatest miracle of the 20th Century, and experience the incredible, emotionally-charged and harrowing world of three young children whose choice to remain loyal to their beliefs, even in the face of death, would inspire thousands. Filmed in High Definition with Dolby Surround Sound. Stars Jane Lesley, Michael D’Cruze, Filipa Fernandes and Tarek Merlin.

The Trailer:



What If?:

The First Apparition:



The Prophecy:

Funniest line—paragraph, actually—of the day

Courtesy of Wired magazine, which takes a look at the accuracy of Dan Brown's description of Tasers and their effects:

Finding errors in Dan Brown’s works is like shooting fish in a barrel, with a bazooka. This doesn’t detract from the book being an entertaining page turner, however implausible. And I think we’re all looking forward to seeing Tom Hanks getting Tasered in the movie.

Indeed. At the very least, it will make him/Robert Langdon stop talking for a few seconds.

Joseph Pearce on "Kresta in the Afternoon" today to...

... kick off a special ten-week series. From the "Kresta in the Afternoon" blog:

5:20 – A Catholic View of Literary Classics – Part 1 of 10: Frankenstein

Today we begin a 10-week series examining Classic Literature from a Catholic perspective. Acclaimed literary biographer Joseph Pearce is the editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions [ICE] and will be our guide. We will ensure that traditional moral readings of the works are given prominence, instead of the feminist or deconstructionist readings that often proliferate in other series of 'critical editions'. As such, they represent a genuine extension of consumer choice, enabling educators, students, and lovers of good literature to buy editions of classic literary works without having to 'buy into' the ideologies of secular fundamentalism. Today, we examine Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

The 5:20 time is EST. The show can be heard online; it is also archived as a podcast, which can be accessed on Kresta's blog.

Here is an Ignatius Insight interview with Joseph Pearce about the ICE edition of Frankenstein:

For much more about the Ignatius Critical Editions, including information about all ten titles (with more to come), study guides, resources, and more, visit the series' website.

Benedict XVI reflects on St. Anselm of Canterbury

From Vatican Information Services:

ANSELM: THEOLOGIAN AND DEFENDER OF CHURCH FREEDOM

VATICAN CITY, 23 SEP 2009 VIS - St. Anselm, one of the most outstanding figures of the Middle Ages, was the subject of the Holy Father's catechesis during his general audience, held this morning in the Paul VI Hall.

 St. Anselm of Canterbury, also known as Anselm of Aosta and Anselm of Bec, was born in the Italian town of Aosta in 1033. The eldest child of a noble family, his mother gave him a careful human and Christian education. During his youth he went through a period of moral dissipation and excess during which he abandoned his studies. He then travelled to France in search of new experiences and eventually reached the abbey of Bec, drawn there by the fame of its prior, Lanfranco of Pavia. There, at the age of 27, he embraced the monastic life.

 Three years later Lanfranco was appointed as abbot of Caen and Anselm became the prior of Bec. In his new role he "revealed gifts as a sophisticated teacher. He did not care for authoritarian methods and, likening young people to saplings which develop best if not closed in a greenhouse, he granted then a 'healthy' measure of freedom. He was very demanding with himself and others in monastic observance, but rather than imposing discipline he sought to make people follow it by persuasion", the Pope explained.

 When Lanfranco of Pavia was appointed as archbishop of Canterbury, England, he asked Anselm to help him in educating the monks and in dealings with the ecclesial community, which was facing difficult circumstances in the wake of the Norman invasions. On Lanfranco's death in 1093, Anselm succeeded him as archbishop immediately entering "into an energetic struggle for the freedom of the Church and courageously supporting the independence of spiritual from temporal power. He defended the Church from undue interference by the political authorities, especially King William Rufus and Henry I". His faithfulness to the Pope caused him to be exiled in 1103.

 Anselm died on 21 April 1109 having dedicated the last years of his life "to the moral formation of the clergy and intellectual research into theological questions", whence Christian tradition has bestowed upon him the title of "Doctor Magnificus", said the Holy Father. He went on: "The clarity and logical rigour of Anselm's ideas always sought 'to raise the mind to the contemplation of God'. He made it clear that anyone who intends to study theology must not rely only upon his own intelligence but must also cultivate a profound experience of faith".

 "In St. Anselm's view, then, a theologian's work is divided into threes stages: faith, God's gratuitous gift to be welcomed with humility; experience, which consists in incarnating the Word of God into daily life; and true knowledge, which is never the fruit of sterile reasoning but of contemplative intuition".

 "May the love for truth and the constant thirst for God which characterized St. Anselm's life be a stimulus for all Christians tirelessly to seek an ever more intimate union with Christ", said the Pope, and he concluded: "May the courageous zeal which distinguished his pastoral work and which sometimes brought misunderstandings, bitterness and even exile, be an encouragement for pastors, consecrated people and all the faithful to love the Church of Christ, ... never abandoning or betraying her".

• St. Cyprian: bishop, martyr, Church father (Sept. 16, 2009)
• Benedict XVI on St. Peter Damian, "intrepid man of the Church" (Sept. 9, 2009)

Related Books from Ignatius Press:

Biblical Aspects of the Theme of Faith and Politics

Biblical Aspects of the Theme of Faith and Politics | Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger | From Church, Ecumenism, & Politics: New Endeavors in Ecclesiology

The reading and the Gospel that we have just heard stemmed from a situation in which Christians were not a self-organizing subject of the state but were rather outcasts being persecuted by a cruel dictatorship. They themselves were not allowed to share the responsibility for their state; they could only endure it. Theirs was not the privilege of shaping it as a Christian state but was rather the task of living as Christians in spite of it. The names of the  emperors who reigned during the period to which tradition dates both texts are enough to make the situation clear: Nero and Domitian. And so the First Letter of Peter, too, calls the Christians in such a state strangers or "exiles" (1:1) and the state itself "Babylon" (5:13). In doing so, it very emphatically indicates the political position of the Christians of that time, which corresponded roughly to the position of the exiled Jews living in Babylon, who were not the subject but rather the objects of that state and therefore had to learn how they could survive in it, since they were not allowed to learn how to build it. Thus the political background of today's readings is fundamentally different from ours. Nevertheless, they contain three important statements that have significance also for political action among Christians.

1. The state is not the whole of human existence and does not encompass all human hope. Man and what he hopes for extend beyond the framework of the state and beyond the sphere of political action. This is true not only for a state like Babylon, but for every state. The state is not the totality; this unburdens the politician and at the same time opens up for him the path of reasonable politics. The Roman state was wrong and anti-Christian precisely because it wanted to be the totality of human possibilities and hopes. A state that makes such claims cannot fulfill its promises; it thereby falsifies and diminishes man. Through the totalitarian lie it becomes demonic and tyrannical. The abolition of the totalitarian state has demythologized the state and thereby liberated man, as well as politicians and politics.

But when the Christian faith falls into ruins and faith in mankind's greater hope is lost, the myth of the divine state rises again, because man cannot do without the totality of hope. Although such promises pose as progress and commandeer for themselves the slogans of progress and progressive thinking, viewed historically they are nevertheless a regression to an era antedating the novum of Christianity, a turning back along the scale of history. And even though their propaganda says that their goal is man's complete liberation, the abolition of all ruling authority, they contradict the truth of man and are opposed to his freedom, because they force man to fit into what he himself can make. Such politics, which declares that the kingdom of God is the outcome of politics and twists faith into the universal primacy of the political, is by its very nature the politics of enslavement; it is mythological politics.

Continue reading...

SacredVerse.com: Spreading the Gospel through text messages

As creative director for Ignatius Press, Riz Marsella has designed numerous books covers, magazines, and much more. Her latest creative project involves using internet and phone technology to communicate the Gospel and encourage a deeper knowledge and love for the Catholic Faith:

Spreading the Gospel through Text Messages

Wishing to stay in touch with her daughter away at college and taking her cue from Pope Benedict XVI’s call to use modern technologies to spread the Gospel, Maria Marsella founded SacredVerse.com, a communications tool now available on the Internet.

 “I wanted to stay connected to my daughter without being a nag,” Marsella explains. “I also wanted to encourage her to keep God in the center of her life, a challenge for any parent.”

On a subscription basis, SacredVerse.com automatically sends to a cell number a weekly verse taken from Sacred Scripture and the writings of saints and recent popes.  For example, the papal message last week quoted Pope John Paul II: “The truth is not always the same as the majority decision.” The Scripture verse was James 1:2: “Count it all joy when you meet trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” The messages are selected based on their pertinence to the times we live in, Marsella explains.

The inspiration for SacredVerse.com came to Marsella when she noticed that text messaging was the best way to communicate with her daughter.  “She seldom answered her phone and e-mails,” Marsella says, describing an experience shared by many parents, “so I decided to text message and discovered that she would more readily respond.”

Marsella sometimes squeezed into a text more than a reminder to take vitamins. “People use text messaging to send jokes and vote on American Idol,” Marsella says, “so I decided to send something uplifting.” To her surprise, her daughter appreciated the encouragement.

Pope Benedict XVI has also noted the widespread use of cell phones among youth.  “Young people, in particular, have grasped the enormous capacity of the new media to foster connectedness, communication and understanding,” he said in a May 2009 speech, noting that “many benefits flow from this new culture of communication.”

One of these benefits is that families can remain in touch with each other over long distances, the Pope added, but he urged that attention be paid not only to the speed and efficiency of modern communications but also to the quality of its content, a call that Marsella has taken to heart. “Text messages can be a tool of evangelization,” she says.

SacredVerse.com can be used by parents to evangelize their children, but also by anyone who would like to send inspiring messages to the people they love. “Our children are not the only ones who need this kind of encouragement,” Marsella says. “The other beauty of text messaging is that you can forward it anywhere, anytime to as many friends as you want. In modern lingo this is called viral marketing,” Marsella continues. “Why not tap into that to lead others to Christ.”

Contact person: Riz Marsella — phone: 415-260-8809; e-mail: [email protected] .

Brave New Wor—Whoops!

From The Mail, news from the advanced edges of the shiny but complicated world of modern reproductology, facilitated by science and driven by the belief that if it is possible, it is necessary:

A pregnant mother will have to give birth to another couple's baby after a blunder by an IVF clinic.

Carolyn Savage had the wrong embryos implanted into her and will have to give the boy up to his biological parents as soon as he is born.

Yesterday Mrs Savage, 40, who was expecting her fourth child with husband Sean, said: 'The hardest part is going to be the delivery. I remember communicating with the [unnamed] mother of this child as to what I was envisioning and hoping for.

'I said, "We want a moment to say hello, and goodbye".

'In the beginning we were really scared of that moment and it is still scary. We are trying to mentally frame it in a positive way and look at it as a gift for this family that eight months ago we didn't know. 'I think that is the only way we'll get through it.'

Read the entire piece.

• Dignitas Personae: On the Originality of Every Human Person | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.

Abp. Burke on truth and civility; Dr. Nelson on Catholic health care

Deal Hudson writes about the recent talk given by Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, the prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, at InsideCatholic.com's 14th Annual Partnership Dinner:

"Neither Holy Communion nor funeral rites should be administered to such politicians," said Archbishop Burke. "To deny these is not a judgment of the soul, but a recognition of the scandal and its effects."
 
With obvious reference to the Kennedy funeral, he argued that when a politician is associated "with greatly sinful acts about fundamental questions like abortion and marriage, his repentance must also be public." He added, "Anyone who grasps the gravity of what he has done will understand the need to make it public."
 
It's not uncharitable to point out the scandal caused by these Catholic politicians. "The Church's unity is founded on speaking the truth in love. This does not destroy unity but helps to repair a breach in the life of the Church."
 
Archbishop Burke rejects all the standard arguments made by Catholic politicians and their apologists who support abortion and same-sex marriage. For example, the defense of the unborn and traditional marriage is not strictly a matter of religious faith. "The observance of the natural law is not a confessional practice -- it's inscribed in every human heart."
 
Archbishop Burke describes the latest tactic of pro-abortion Catholic politicians, who talk about finding common ground, as a form of "proportionalist moral reasoning." "Common ground is found rather on 'the ground of moral goodness,' and not in a compromise of certain moral truths, like the rejection of abortion and euthanasia."
 
He warned against allowing this kind of false reasoning to enter the health-care debate. A Catholic cannot accept the attainment of universal health care if it includes abortion and other evils "just because it achieves some desirable outcomes."

Read the entire piece.

Speaking of Catholic health care, NRO has a lengthy and informative interview with Leonard J. Nelson III, a professor at the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University and author of a new book, Diagnosis Critical: The Urgent Threats Confronting Catholic Health Care (OSV 2009):

Open letter from Dr. Charles E. Rice to Fr. John I. Jenkins

An open letter from Dr. Charles E. Rice, Professor Emeritus of Notre Dame Law School, to Fr. John Jenkins, President of University of Notre Dame:

Open Letter to Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., President, University of Notre Dame

September 21, 2009


Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.
President
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556

Dear Father Jenkins:

Professor Fred Freddoso has shared with me the response on Sept. 17th by Dr. Frances L. Shavers, Chief of Staff and Special Assistant to the President, to Fred’s email of that date to you asking that Notre Dame request dismissal of the charges against the persons arrested for trespass on the campus in relation to the honoring of President Obama at Commencement.  Dr. Shavers responded on your behalf to Fred’s email because, as she said, “the next few days are rather hectic for [Fr. Jenkins].”  I don’t want to add to the hectic burden of your schedule by sending you a personal message that could impose on an assistant the task of responding.  I therefore take the liberty of addressing to you several concerns in the form of this open letter to which a response is neither required nor expected.

First, permit me to express my appreciation for the expressions of support for the pro-life cause in your September 16th “Letter concerning post-commencement initiatives.”  I know, however, that in a matter as significant as this, you will appreciate and welcome a respectful but very candid expression of views.  In my opinion, the positions you have taken are deficient in some respects.

In your Letter of Sept. 16th, you rightly praise the work of the Women’s Care Center (WCC) and of its superb leader, Ann Murphy Manion.  I commend you on your statement that the WCC “and similar centers in other cities deserve the support of Notre Dame clubs and individuals.”  Your praise of the WCC and similar efforts, however, overlooks a practical step that Notre Dame, as an institution, ought to take.  That would be for you, on behalf of Notre Dame, to issue a standing invitation to the WCC to establish an office on the Notre Dame campus to serve students, faculty and staff if, in the judgment of the WCC, that would be desirable and effective.  Such would give practical effect, right here at Notre Dame, to your words in support of the WCC and similar efforts.

The End of the World has already arrived...

... in Ashburnham, Massachusetts:

Cushing Academy has all the hallmarks of a New England prep school, with one exception.

This year, after having amassed a collection of more than 20,000 books, officials at the pristine campus about 90 minutes west of Boston have decided the 144-year-old school no longer needs a traditional library. The academy’s administrators have decided to discard all their books and have given away half of what stocked their sprawling stacks - the classics, novels, poetry, biographies, tomes on every subject from the humanities to the sciences. The future, they believe, is digital.

“When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books,’’ said James Tracy, headmaster of Cushing and chief promoter of the bookless campus. “This isn’t ‘Fahrenheit 451’ [the 1953 Ray Bradbury novel in which books are banned]. We’re not discouraging students from reading. We see this as a natural way to shape emerging trends and optimize technology.’’

Instead of a library, the academy is spending nearly $500,000 to create a “learning center,’’ though that is only one of the names in contention for the new space. In place of the stacks, they are spending $42,000 on three large flat-screen TVs that will project data from the Internet and $20,000 on special laptop-friendly study carrels. Where the reference desk was, they are building a $50,000 coffee shop that will include a $12,000 cappuccino machine.

Keep reading, if you can stomach it. By the way, it's not that I'm against any and all e-books. But this seems quite wrong in so many ways. You cannot really replace the look, feel, and presence of physical books.  In the words of Fr. Fessio: "We prefer books in the traditional print medium, especially the kinds of books we ordinarily publish — books that have lasting value and the beauty of whose outward form reflects, incarnates the nobility of the content. For those whose idea of a cozy living room is not a wall of bookshelves with one Kindle in the corner, or who like to touch real paper and see real ink when they relax to read, we intend to continue to publish ‘real books.’"

Entry #9,219 in the "It's Just a Novel" Files

Actually, that really should be titled "Entry #9,219 in the 'But I Thought It Was Just a Novel' Files." I may post a few of these over next week or three as I come across representative samples. This one is from an article, "7 Smart Books: The Best Fall Reads", on the The Wall Street Journal's Smart Money site. It does not bode well, of course, that the words "smart" and "best fall reads" are used in connection with a Dan Brown novel; it means something silly and sad is going to follow:

You knew Washington, D.C., held secrets. But in his follow-up to the global phenomenon that was "The Da Vinci Code," Dan Brown shows us that our nation's capital — and the Capitol — possess the kind of dangerous hidden truths that can shape human destiny.

A tall order. But Brown is, after all, the author who had millions of readers re-thinking their views on Christianity. Rather than an epochal examination of a 2,000-year-old religion, Brown delves into the society of Freemasons. But that's only the beginning. Part of the pleasure in this immensely entertaining book (and yes, Brown is a fine storyteller if a sometimes clumsy writer) is uncovering the meanings of symbols that lie in plain sight.

Like its predecessor, "The Lost Symbol" offers a mini-course in arcane historical detail (did you know that the Capitol once had an eternal flame burning beneath the floor under its rotunda?). And yes, the novel once again stars Robert Langdon, symbols expert and inadvertent detective, a hair-raising villain and a story that twists and turns in many short, attention-grabbing chapters. It can all come off as so much folderol, but you'll definitely be flipping on and on, surprised at how much you're enjoying Brown's manipulative finesse.

Phew! Dan Brown "shows us" the nation's capital, causes millions to "re-think" Christianity, and "offers a mini-course in arcane historical detail." But if a former English teacher is "a sometimes clumsy writer"—actually, "it is staggeringly, clumsily, thoughtlessly, almost ingeniously bad"—how clumsy do you think he might be as a researcher and historical guide? After all, this is the same guy who claimed his descriptions of artwork in The Da Vinci Code were completely accurate (and also said he had visited the Louvre), yet couldn't provide the correct size and description of The Virgins of the Rocks. As for "manipulative finesse," I find it enjoyable only when the chiropractor is putting my back into place. Otherwise, keep your distance.

As for 7 Really Smart Books, I'll randomly list off seven sitting on my desk at the moment:

1. Paul: HIs Life and Teaching, by John McRay
2. Buddhism: A Christian Exploration and Appraisal, by Keith Yandell and Harold Netland
3. The New Concise History of the Crusades, by Thomas F. Madden
4. The Priority of Christ, by Fr. Robert Barron
5. The New Science of Politics, by Eric Voegelin
6. Life Is A Miracle, by Wendell Berry
7. Essays on Church and State, by Lord Acton

"Everything else is postmodern chatter."

From Paul Marshall's review, for Wall Street Journal, of Christopher Caldwell's Reflections on the Revolution in Europe:

"When an insecure, malleable, relativistic culture meets a culture that is anchored, confident, and strengthened by common doctrines," Mr. Caldwell writes, "it is generally the former that changes to suit the latter." The book is not a polemic; it is at once nuanced and blunt, serious and witty, while also avoiding what Mr. Caldwell calls "the preemptive groveling that characterizes most writing about matters touching on ethnicity." He does not advocate positions but instead offers reflections on a mix of trends, misunderstandings and self-delusions.

He also ruminates on far more than the increasing radicalization of generations of Muslim immigrants. Just as Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France" (1790) predicted a dire fate for the mass insurrection then aborning, Mr. Caldwell looks with alarm at Europe's continuing rejection of itself. Without a rejection of the religion and culture that sustained Europe for centuries, he says, the immigration troubles might never have occurred, or at least would not have been so severe: His verdict is suicide rather than murder.

The author notes that even the prominent German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, who is an atheist, has acknowledged that "Christianity, and nothing else, is the ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights, and democracy, the benchmarks of Western civilization. To this we have no other options. We continue to nourish ourselves from this source. Everything else is postmodern chatter."

Yet much of Europe has discarded its historic religious underpinnings as irrelevant at best, harmful at worst. Even the memory of what a religiously ordered society was like has seemed to disappear, Mr. Caldwell observes. "A good definition of religion" for most modern Europeans, he says, might be "an irrational opinion, strongly held."

Read the entire review. Caldwell was interviewed by Jeremy Lott for the July 2009 issue of Catholic World Report. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who for many years was Vicar General of the Diocese of Rome, has described two different stances taken toward religion in Italy in this way:

Coming now to the aspects of secularism on which there are profound divergences, or to the problems that have in fact been opened today, these are mainly focused, in the countries with liberal democracies to which I limit my remarks, on the public role that religion can or cannot exercise, and on the conditions under which it can possibly exercise it.

The spectrum of opinions and positions in this regard is broad and varied, but it seems possible to identify two basic orientations, I would say two sensibilities.

One of these tends to reduce the public role of religion, sometimes even to the point of suppressing it, and is justified by emphasizing, on the one hand, the personal, spiritual, and intimate character, rather than social and institutional, of authentic religiosity; and on the other hand favoring, in the life of a nation, the properly political sphere over the social.

The other orientation tends instead to favor, or in any case to accept without mental reservations, the public role of religion, maintaining also that the social and institutional dimensions are essential for religion, and insisting on the autonomy and irreducible relevance of the social sphere.

It must be clearly stated here that these differences of orientation today appear tangential compared to the distinction, which is commonly made in Italy, between Catholics and secularists, as also between believers and nonbelievers. Among Catholics, in fact, there are not a few supporters of a practice of religion concentrated on its spiritual aspect, who are quick to criticize the public role of religion and of Catholicism in particular, while among the secularists, especially after the emergence of the new and great ethical and anthropological questions, and after the renewed presence of the non-Christian religions on the world stage, there are many who willingly acknowledge such a role, and often hope for it.

That remark is from a recent book co-authored by Cardinal Ruini and secularist Ernesto Galli della Loggia, as reported by Sandro Magister.

• The Dialectics of Secularization: On Reason and Religion, by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, with Jürgen Habermas.