Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog

Like children in a candy store

The Telegraph has selected—how to choose?—"Dan Brown's 20 worst sentences." Of course, it's a bit of a double-edged sword, being both humorous and depressing (keep in mind that Brown, prior to his novel success, was an English teacher).

And don't miss the "The Dan Brown Sequel Generator", which provides a glimpse into the complexities of plotting a Brown novel.

Aquinas Proves Atheists Are Closer to God Than They Think

Aquinas Proves Atheists Are Closer to God Than They Think | Mark Brumley | Ignatius Insight

Some time ago, when the hubbub of the New Atheists commenced, philosopher of religion Brian Davies wrote a column that was subtitled, presumably by The Times where it appeared, "Aquinas proves atheists are closer to God than they think." Davies' piece was not an exercise in woolly thinking, calculated to cast the net of inclusivity as wide as possible by purporting to dissolve the hard distinction between affirming God's existence and denying it. His point was to ask what kind of God our atheist friends deny the existence of and to ask whether that is the God whose existence someone such as St. Thomas Aquinas affirms.

We might ask the same question. Atheists sometimes think of God as a being who exists alongside other beings in the universe. In this view, God may be thought of as the biggest and the best being in the universe, but he is still a being like the rest of us, an interesting feature of all that happens to be.

A Being outside All Others

If that is what you mean by God, argues Davies, then Thomas would agree that such a God does not exist. God, Davies quotes Thomas as saying, "is to be thought of as existing outside the realm of existents, as a cause from which pours forth everything that exists in all its variant forms." In other words, there is no such being as the God who is thought to exist as just one more thing along side a can of beans or the planet Jupiter.

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The Gospel of St. Matthew: The Unity of the Life of Jesus

The Gospel of St. Matthew: The Unity of the Life of Jesus | Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis | From the Introduction to Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word (Vol. II): Meditations on the Gospel According to St. Matthew

The Gospel according to St. Matthew is not a text simply stringing together haphazard events and occasions that present Jesus teaching valuable and true things. Beyond this, the Gospel text portrays the unity of Jesus' whole life. Very likely the earliest nucleus of the Gospel text is what is now its conclusion, that is, the narrative of Jesus' Passion, death, and Resurrection, which narrative no doubt constituted  the heart and substance of the primitive oral kerygma, or "proclamation" of the faith by the apostles and their successors. Everything else in the Gospel text came later, composed to show how everything in Jesus' life and teaching eventually had to lead to his atoning death out of love.

In Matthew's Gospel we see how, against all obstacles and opposition, Jesus moves with a sovereign sweep from the promises of God in the Old Testament, fulfilling them in his Incarnation as Messiah, to his identity as a man who does divine things and speaks divine words (parables, miracles, encounters, discourses), to the culmination of the story in his Passion, death, and Resurrection, and, finally, to the conclusion of the story in Jesus commissioning the apostles to do what they have seen him do and teach what they have seen him teach. In the end, they are to become what they have seen him be.

Thus, the main message of Matthew's Gospel is that we are not saved by detached "doctrines" or "truths", but by the whole life of this man, Jesus of Nazareth, in all its fullness and unity. All Christian theology is but a systematic reflection on this life, on everything it reveals about God and us and on everything this revelation implies for our own future life and behavior.

In the Gospel, Jesus Christ the person and his action in our lives have absolute primacy over anyone's teaching about Jesus Christ.

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Mark Brumley will talk about "Why Arguments for God are Important"...

... on Catholic Answers Live on Monday, September 21st, at 4:00 p.m. Pacific time. Listen live via the internet. Also, see Mark's recent article, "Aquinas Proves Atheists Are Closer to God Than They Think."

The Origins of Masonry

The Origins of Masonry | William J. Whalen | From Chapter 2 of Christianity And American Freemasonry | Ignatius Insight

English Grand Lodge Formed in Apple Tree Tavern

Masonry as we know it dates from 1717, but Masonic legends claim a much greater antiquity for the Craft. Many naive and credulous members take those fanciful pretensions seriously and believe that Masonry can be traced back to King Solomon's Temple or to the Tower of Babel. One discredited Masonic historian, Dr. George Oliver, maintained that the lodge began with creation itself and that Adam was not only the first man but the first Masonic Grand Master. According to Oliver, this pure Masonry became corrupted at the time of the Tower of Babel but was rediscovered and purified by Saint John the Evangelist.

A candid appraisal of these fables is given by Delmer Darrah in his History and Evolution of Freemasonry: "Masons have believed the things concerning the origin of the institution that they wanted to believe and have gone forth and told them as facts. When links were missing, they have been supplied by drawing upon fertile imaginations." [1]

He adds: "If there is in Freemasonry any similarity between its customs and those of the practices of several thousand years ago, it does not mean that Freemasonry has any connection whatsoever with those rites but that they were woven into the fraternity in modern times with a view to enhancing the ritual and investing the fraternity with an atmosphere of antiquity." [2]

Masons are led to believe by their ritual and various commentaries that King Solomon, Hiram of Tyre, Hiram Abiff (Huram abi), and Saint John the Evangelist were all active members of the lodge. Intelligent Masons, of course, know this for the spoof that it is, but many others never question the claim to antiquity. Their brethren, realizing the value of antiquity to esprit de corps, do not bother to disenchant them.

Modern Masonry has borrowed from many diverse traditions, such as those of the suppressed Knights Templar, the Roman Collegia of Artificers, the Jewish Kabbalists, the mystery cults, the Rosicrucians, and the operative masons of the Middle Ages.

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The what?

It appears that The Independent has been taking inspiration from The New York Daily News:

Brown's novel accepts that influence among the Founding Fathers, sure enough, but downplays the secrecy. It presents, from Benjamin Franklin and George Washington onwards, a wholly friendly account of Masonry: "one of the most unfairly maligned and misunderstood organisations in the world".

The Masons will have no need to recruit anything like the Jesuit rebuttal squad sent out by the Vatican in the wake of The Da Vinci Code. One episode of hi-tech suspense in The Lost Symbol even turns on a maliciously edited recording of initiation rituals among the Washington elite that would give ammunition to "anti-Masonic conspiracy theorists". Heaven forfend.

The "Jesuit rebuttal squad"? Sounds fun! Can I join? Or am I already a member?

The Telegraph drinks from the same well:

But the secret to Brown’s success remains a mystery. Publisher Doubleday’s canny and aggressive marketing, combined with the Vatican’s unfortunate decision to engage with The Da Vinci Code, are no doubt predominantly responsible.

This is like the reader who e-mailed me a few years ago saying, in essence (I've lost the original e-mail), "The Da Vinci Code wouldn't have been a best-seller if you weren't publicly criticizing it." At that time, The Da Vinci Hoax had just been published, and Brown's novel had sold around 25-30 million copies. Brilliant! The fact is, the Vatican has never really responded to Brown's novel(s), unless you count a cardinal or two making some comments as "the Vatican" engaging with The Da Vinci Code.

The Telegraph piece, however, is onto something with this remark:

The books are expressly written to draw in people who read for information and are less involved in narrative. They are research-heavy and interaction-light, and three at least use the same plot. Brown’s genius is to communicate basic narratives larded with hardcore information to readers whose interests do not lie in imagining things.

Remember, kids, it's just a novel. Repeat repeatedly while discussing Brown's research and the novel's "information."

Square peg, round hole

The square peg comes from a U.S. News & World Report interview with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius:

You are also a pro-choice Catholic, and I was reading some stories out of your home state recently where one of the bishops took an action. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Well, the Archbishop in the Kansas City area did not approve of my conduct as a public official and asked that I not present myself for communion.

What did you think about that?
Well, it was one of the most painful things I have ever experienced in my life, and I am a firm believer in the separation of church and state, and I feel that my actions as a parishioner are different than my actions as a public official and that the people who elected me in Kansas had a right to expect me to uphold their rights and their beliefs even if they did not have the same religious beliefs that I had. And that's what I did: I took an oath of office and I have taken an oath of office in this job and will uphold the law.

The round hole is found in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church:

The Seal and the State

The Seal and the State: An Interview with Rev. Timothy J. Mockaitis, author of The Seal: A Priest's Story | Carl E. Olson | Ignatius Insight | September 17, 2009

On April 22, 1996, Fr. Timothy J. Mockaitis, a priest of the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, heard the confession of inmate (and eventually convicted murderer) Conan Wayne Hale in the Lane County Jail in Eugene, Oregon. What he didn't know until a few days later was that the confession had been taped. That marked the start of an intense and protracted legal battle, the story of which is detailed in Fr. Mockaitis's book, The Seal: A Priest's Story (Xlibris, 2008), which includes a foreword by Francis Cardinal George.

The story is of particular interest to me. My wife and I first met Fr. Mockaitis a few months before the confession was taped. We were newly married Evangelical Protestants who were interested in the Catholic  Church and just happened to be living across the street from St. Paul Catholic Church in Eugene, where Fr. Mockaitis was pastor at the time. We got to know Fr. Mockaitis a bit more the following year as we went through the RCIA program at the parish; he attended nearly every meeting, despite having to spend much time dealing with the taped confession debacle. And in April 1997, he received us into the Catholic Church, confirming us and giving us Holy Communion.

Fr. Mockaitis's book provides a unique and well-written perspective on the entire matter, along with plenty of food for thought about Church-State relations and the fragility of religious freedom. I recently interviewed Fr. Mockaitis, who is now pastor at Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Salem, Oregon, about the book and his experiences.

Ignatius Insight: When you heard the confession of Conan Hale on April 22, 1996, did you sense that anything was different from your previous visits to the jail? When did you first learn that something was amiss?

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Sandra Miesel explains why Catholics can't be Masons

From a September 2006 article featured on the Our Sunday Visitor website:

No pope has ever been a Mason. The Catholic Church has warily monitored Freemasonry from the time it penetrated Europe. In 1738, Pope Clement XII condemned the Craft for its dependence on mere natural virtue while ignoring Christ's unique role as Savior. He also denounced the rash oaths it demanded of members to protect trivial Lodge secrets.

Catholics who joined the Masons were excommunicated, with reconciliation reserved to the pope. This decree had little effect, however, because it wasn't published in every land, nor was it always taken seriously where it was published. Eight subsequent popes would have to repeat the message, most forcefully Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical Humanum Genus (On Freemasonry).

Denouncing the Lodge as "a deceitful and crafty enemy," Pope Leo declared, "Let no man think that he may for any reason whatsoever join the Masonic sect, if he values his Catholic name and his eternal salvation as he ought to value them." The 1917 Code of Canon Law included these stern prohibitions.

After the Second Vatican Council, however, the long hostility between Lodge and Church seemed to be easing. A reinterpretation of the anti-Masonic canons in 1974 led some Catholics to think that only Masonic groups actively plotting against the Church were forbidden to them.

Even so, some Freemasons had actually been plotting against the Vatican through its bank. In 1981, two of the pope's top financial advisers - known all along as Masons - were unmasked as members of a secret Lodge called Propaganda Due that was plotting a fascist takeover of Italy. Both men later died mysteriously. The Vatican lost $240,000 with the collapse of its bank.

Changing views

Rome's softer view of Masonry was abruptly reversed in 1981 just before the financial scandal broke. Although the current Code of Canon Law issued in 1983 fails to mention the Craft by name, in the same year the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith firmly reiterated the original ban:

"The Church's negative position on Masonic associations therefore remains unaltered since their principles have always been regarded as irreconcilable with the Church's doctrine."

Read the entire piece.

Sandra, by the way, has already finished reading Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol (I'm on page 30 and don't know if I have the strength to continue). I spoke to her yesterday shortly after she had reached the underwhelming conclusion of the novel, and she noted it was a sort of "love poem" to Masonry, with occasional swipes at Christianity. And today she wrote: "I finished THE LOST SYMBOL, which is a tad better than DA VINCI CODE despite being rah rah pro-Masonic propaganda.By no means is it a 'good' book, even for popcorn reading." She is working on a piece about the novel, the Masons, and other esoteric topics for Catholic World Report (so subscribe now!).

For a more detailed examination of the Masons, consider Christianity And American Freemasonry, by William J. Whalen:

What is it about Freemasonry that would cause churches to forbid or openly discourage seventy million Americans from membership? Why have eight popes condemned the Lodge? Why has the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Masonic order been strained for centuries? Christianity and American Freemasonry answers these and many other questions and describes why Christ ianity and Freemasonry are incompatible.

Today over two million American men belong to the Masonic order, the largest and oldest secret fraternal society. In earlier history the Freemasons boasted a prestigious membership, including fourteen American presidents and such founding fathers as Ben Franklin, Paul Revere, and Alexander Hamilton. This is the most complete reference book available on the subject. Chapters discuss the rituals and oaths, the Scottish and York rites, allied organizations such as the Shriners, and the historic antagonism of Christianity toward Masonry. It is thoroughly documented with facts from:

• the three most noted experts on Masonry in America
• Masonic ritual books, encyclopedias, and histories
• three former Masons, now active Catholics, who contributed firsthand knowledge of Masonic ritual and structure.

William Whalen is a nationally known expert on comparative religion, and an author of 15 books and numerous magazine articles.

Stupid Quote of the Week

Not surprisingly, it has to do with Dan Brown, who possesses a mad gift for eliciting and inspiring stupidity. In an article titled, "Dan Brown's 'The Lost Symbol' remains secret despite all the attention, much like the author himself" (September 12, 2009), New York Daily News writer Sherryl Connelly provides this priceless nugget of novel news:

Certainly Pope Benedict XVI is no fan. His first book as pontiff was "Jesus of Nazareth" and was seen as a corrective to Brown's heretical depiction of the savior.

Was seen ... by who? Space aliens? Browns' marketing team? Elizabeth Vargas? The Trilateral Commission?

Of course, I should admit up front that I was alerted to this big of "news" by the agents of some very powerful, shadowy, and heavily cloaked Vatican operatives. Cherie Peacock, editor of This Rock magazine, e-mailed me this blog post by Terry Mattingly of Get Religion, who in turn hat tipped Diogenes of Off the Record.

The fact is, everyone knows that the Holy Father wrote his book as a preemptive strike against Philip Pullman's upcoming book on the "real Jesus." Duh.

Benedict XVI on the shortage of priests, proper role of laity

From the Vatican Information Service:

THE ROLE OF PRIESTS IS IRREPLACEABLE

VATICAN CITY, 17 SEP 2009 (VIS) - This morning in Castelgandolfo the Holy Father received a group of prelates from the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (Northeast 2), who have just completed their "ad limina" visit.

Highlighting the functions of the various members of the Church, the Pope explained how "the particular identity of priests and laity must be seen in the light of the essential difference between priestly ministry and the 'common priesthood'. Hence it is important to avoid the secularisation of clergy and the 'clericalisation' of the laity".

 "In this perspective", he went on, "the lay faithful must undertake to give expression in real life - also through political commitment - to the Christian view of anthropology and the social doctrine of the Church. While priests must distance themselves from politics in order to favour the unity and communion of all the faithful, thus becoming a point of reference for everyone".

 Benedict XVI indicated that "the lack of priests does not justify a more active and abundant participation of the laity. The truth is that the greater the faithful's awareness of their own responsibilities within the Church, the clearer becomes the specific identity and inimitable role of the priest as pastor of the entire community, witness to the authenticity of the faith, and dispenser of the mysteries of salvation in the name of Christ the Head".

 "The function of the clergy is essential and irreplaceable in announcing the Word and celebrating the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist. ... For this reason it is vital to ask the Lord to send workers for His harvest; and it is necessary that priests express joy in their faithfulness to their identity".

 The Pope made it clear that "the shortage of priests must not come to be considered as a normal or typical state of affairs for the future". In this context he encouraged the prelates "to combine efforts to encourage new priestly vocations and find the pastors your dioceses need, helping one another so that all of you have better-trained and more numerous priests to support the life of faith and the apostolic mission".

 Referring then to the 150th anniversary of the death of the "Cure of Ars", which the Church is currently commemorating with the Year for Priests, Benedict XVI indicated that St. John Mary Vianney "continues even now to be a model for priests, especially in living a life of celibacy as a requirement for the total giving of self, expressed through that pastoral charity which Vatican Council II presents as the unifying centre of a priest's being and actions".

 The Holy Father concluded by assuring the prelates of the existence of "many signs of hope for the future of particular Churches, a future that God is preparing through the dedication and the faithfulness with which you exercise your episcopal ministry".

Related Articles from Ignatius Insight:

• Letter of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI Proclaiming a Year for Priests on the 150th Anniversary of the "Dies Natalis" of the CurŽ of Ars
• St. John Vianney's Pastoral Plan | Fr. John Cihak
• The Blessed Virgin Mary's Role in the Celibate Priest's Spousal and Paternal Love | Fr. John Cihak
• Liturgical Roles In the Eucharistic Celebration | Francis Cardinal Arinze
• The Ingredient for Priestly Vocations | Rev. Jacek Stefanski
• Holy Christians Guarantee Holy Priests | Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
• Why Preaching | Peter John Cameron, O.P.
• The Mass is Serious Business | Rev. Bryce A. Sibley
• Surrendering to the Healing Power of Christ's Own Chastity | Dn. James Keating, Ph.D.
• Priest as Pastor, Servant and Shepherd | Fr. James McCarthy
• The Role of the Laity: An Examination of Vatican II and Christifideles Laici | Carl E. Olson

Who said it?

A well-known and controversial writer takes aim at Dan Brown's many authorial failings:

His basic ignorance about the way people behave is astonishing – talking in utterly implausible ways to one another. The basic quality of the prose is flat, stunted and ugly – all the usual literary things he just doesn’t know how to do. But he’s not interested in those and obviously nor are his millions of readers. There’s nothing wrong with writing as he does, but it’s not great writing.

Who said it? The answer may surprise you...

Communion of Saints: St. Robert Bellarmine on the Mystical Body of Christ

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

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

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

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Now I understand: only pro-lifers are uncivil.

John L. Allen, Jr.'s September 11th piece, "Incivility hurts the pro-life cause" is an outstanding, even superior, example of bad reporting, poor argumentation, and dubious motives. Here's a quick look at four of the flawed techniques used by Allen in the piece:

1. Fill a balloon of empty generalizations with hot air:

Here is Allen's opening paragraph:

One bit of gallows humor in Catholic circles is that sometimes the worst enemies of the pro-life movement are pro-lifers themselves. The point is that a handful of activists occasionally come off as so shrill, so angry and judgmental, that fair-minded people simply tune out the pro-life message.

The problem isn't that the statement is false, but that it is so general it means nothing. Simply insert any other group or movement in the right places and you'll see how obvious this is:

One bit of gallows humor in Catholic circles is that sometimes the worst enemies of the pro-women's ordination movement are pro-women's ordination supporters themselves. The point is that a handful of activists occasionally come off as so shrill, so angry and judgmental, that fair-minded people simply tune out the pro-women's ordination message.

Or how about this, echoing Chesterton's remark that the greatest scandal of the Catholic Church are Catholics?

One bit of gallows humor in Catholic circles is that sometimes the worst enemies of the Catholic Church are Catholics themselves. The point is that a handful of Catholics occasionally come off as so shrill, so angry and judgmental, that fair-minded people simply tune out the Church's message.

(You can also try it with "journalists" and "reporters" and "pundits" and "bloggers" and...well, you get the idea.) Every group and movement, of course, includes people who are sometimes difficult, abrasive, rude, or even downright nasty. Such generalizations aren't helpful when it comes to good journalism, a fact that Allen seems to recognize to some degree in his second paragraph:

St. Cyprian: bishop, martyr, Church father

From the Holy Father's June 6, 2007, General Audience on St. Cyprian, "the first Bishop in Africa to obtain the crown of martyrdom", whose feast is celebrated today:

The numerous treatises and letters that Cyprian wrote were always connected with his pastoral ministry. Little inclined to theological speculation, he wrote above all for the edification of the community and to encourage the good conduct of the faithful.

Indeed, the Church was easily his favourite subject. Cyprian distinguished between the visible, hierarchical Church and the invisible mystical Church but forcefully affirmed that the Church is one, founded on Peter.

He never wearied of repeating that "if a man deserts the Chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, does he think that he is in the Church?" (cf. De unit. [On the unity of the Catholic Church], 4).

Cyprian knew well that "outside the Church there is no salvation", and said so in strong words (Epistles 4, 4 and 73, 21); and he knew that "no one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as mother" (De unit., 6). An indispensable characteristic of the Church is unity, symbolized by Christ's seamless garment (ibid., 7): Cyprian said, this unity is founded on Peter (ibid., 4), and its perfect fulfilment in the Eucharist (Epistle 63, 13).

"God is one and Christ is one", Cyprian cautioned, "and his Church is one, and the faith is one, and the Christian people is joined into a substantial unity of body by the cement of concord. Unity cannot be severed. And what is one by its nature cannot be separated" (De unit., 23).

That audience and 35 others are available in book form:

Church Fathers: From Clement of Rome to Augustine
Pope Benedict XVI

Following his best selling book, Jesus of Nazareth, and his talks published in Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church, Pope Benedict's Church Fathers presents these important figures of early Christianity in all their evangelical vitality, spiritual profundity, and uncompromising love of God. Benedict tells the true story of Christianity's against-all-odds triumph in the face of fierce Roman hostility and persecution. He does this by exploring the lives and the ideas of the early Christian writers, pastors, and martyrs, men so important to the spread of Christianity that history remembers them as "the Fathers of the Church".

This rich and engrossing survey of the early Church includes those churchmen who immediately succeeded the Apostles, the "Apostolic Fathers": Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus of Lyon. Benedict also discusses such great Christian figures as Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian of Carthage, the Cappadocian Fathers, as well as the giants John Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustine. This book is a wonderful way to get to know the Church Fathers and the tremendous spiritually rich patrimony they have bequeathed to us. Continue reading...

The failure of Catholic higher education...

... is briefly chronicled and analyzed by Gerard V. Bradley, professor of law at the University of Notre Dame and former president of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, over at NRO:

The flagship Catholic institutions could arrest (up to a point) this decline in demand. Notre Dame and Georgetown could flourish today as bastions of a genuinely Catholic education. Their large, loyal, and generous alumni base protects them financially. They do not compete with public universities, at least not nearly as intensely and precariously as do the vast majority of Catholic institutions. If these leadership schools preached the gospel of Catholic education in and out of season, they could stimulate demand for it all the way down the academic food chain. High-school seniors denied admission to Notre Dame would still want what Notre Dame has to offer, and would likely seek it at another Catholic institution.

But the leadership schools have not stepped up to the plate. For the full story about Notre Dame, you should read my colleague Charlie Rice’s candid and powerful new book, What Happened to Notre Dame? Rice has taught at Notre Dame for almost 40 years and has long been an affectionate but acute critic of the school’s secular drift. His key point is expressed succinctly by Notre Dame philosophy professor Alfred Freddoso. In his introduction to Rice’s book, Freddoso writes that Notre Dame “is a university as universities go these days, and it is in some obvious sense Catholic. What it is not — and has not been since I have been here — is a Catholic university, i.e., an institution of higher learning where the Catholic faith pervades and enriches, and is itself enriched by, the intellectual life on campus.” Freddoso observes that “Notre Dame today is something like a public school in a Catholic neighborhood.”

The heart of a Catholic university — of any university — is its intellectual life: most importantly, the teaching and learning within its classrooms, and then the research and publishing of its faculty. If the truths of the Catholic faith do not suffuse these endeavors, the university simply is not Catholic. The difference between Notre Dame and other industry leaders (such as Georgetown and Boston College) lies in the comparative quality of the “Catholic neighborhood.” At Notre Dame, it is good.

Encouragingly, a handful of small colleges have kept the faith. Among them is Belmont Abbey College, of Charlotte, N.C., under the courageous leadership of its president, Bill Thierfelder, and its chief academic officer, Ann Carson Daley. Saint Vincent’s College, of Latrobe, Pa., is also on track, under the direction of Jim Towey (formerly President Bush’s assistant for faith-based social services and, for many years prior to that, legal counsel to Mother Teresa). The leadership team at Mount Saint Mary’s, in Emmitsburg, Md., is very strongly committed to its Catholic character, as is that at Benedictine College, in Atchison, Kans., where Stephen Minnis is president. These and the few other genuinely Catholic schools should be cherished, supported, and patronized. But they are a tiny slice of the whole pie of American higher education. And they are not likely to multiply.

Read the entire piece.

Related IgnatiusInsight.com Articles and Excerpts:

• Tom Dillon vs. the Relativists | Dr. Paul Kengor
• Reading Without Learning: On Not Missing "Sublime Passages" | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• Ivory Comedy Clubs: The Tragedy of Modern Education | Dr. Jose Yulo
• Catholic Commencements: A Time for Truth to Be Honored | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• The Molochs of Modernity | Dr. Jose Yulo
• Ratzinger and Regensburg: On What Is a University? | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• On Learning and Education | An Interview with Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• Reading Without Learning: On Not Missing "Sublime Passages" | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• On School and Things That Are Not Fair | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• On Teaching the Important Things | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.

Benedict XVI on St. Symeon the Theologian and divine love

From the Vatican Information Service:

SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN: DIVINE LOVE OPENS US TO OTHERS

VATICAN CITY, 16 SEP 2009 (VIS) - In today's general audience, which was held in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope focused his attention on Symeon the New Theologian, "an Eastern monk from Asia Minor whose writings exercised an important influence on theology and spirituality in the East, especially as regards the experience of mystical union with God".

 The Holy Father explained how Symeon was born in Galatai, Asia Minor. He began a civilian career in the imperial service but abandoned it in order "to follow the path of union with God" under the guidance of Symeon the Pious in a monastery in Constantinople. He died in the year 1022.

 "Symeon focused his reflections on the presence of the Holy Spirit in the baptised and on the awareness they must have of this spiritual truth. Christian life, he insists, is intimate and personal communion with God. ... True knowledge of God ... stems from a journey of inner purification". This journey must pass through "profound penitence and sincere suffering for ones sins in order to achieve union with Christ, the source of joy and peace".

 "This saintly Oriental monk reminds everyone to pay great attention to spiritual life. If, in fact, we are rightly concerned with tending to our physical, human and intellectual development, it is even more important not to overlook our inner development which consists in knowledge of God and communion with Him, so as to experience His help at all times and in all circumstances".

 Symeon the New Theologian "had certain proof that the source of Christ's presence and action in a person's soul is love", said Benedict XVI. "The love of God grows within us if we remain united to Him through prayer and listening to His Word. Only divine love makes us open our hearts to others and renders us sensitive to their needs, bringing us to consider everyone as our brothers and sisters and inviting us to respond to hatred with love and to offence with forgiveness".

 Recalling then how, as a young man, Symeon "found a spiritual director who helped him greatly and for whom he always maintained great respect", the Pope told his audience: "This remains valid even today, as everyone - priests, consecrated persons, lay people and especially the young - is invited to seek the counsel of a good spiritual father, one capable of accompanying each individual in a profound knowledge of self and leading him or her to intimate union with the Lord, that their lives may be increasingly moulded to the Gospel".

 "To advance towards the Lord we always have need of a guide, of some form of dialogue; we cannot do it just with our own reflections. And finding this guide is part of the ecclesial nature of our faith".

• Benedict XVI on St. Peter Damian, "intrepid man of the Church" (Sept. 9, 2009)
• Pope Benedict XVI on St. Odo, "a true spiritual guide" (Sept. 2, 2009)

UPDATED: Cardinal George Pell to debate (well, sorta) Christopher Hitchens

UPDATE (Sept 16, 2009): A reader, Thomas, rightly notes that Cardinal Pell and Hitchens will not be debating directly, but giving talks on successive evenings presenting their respective positions/arguments. (It is interesting to note, by the way, that admission to Hitchens talk costs $65, while admission to Cardinal Pell's talk is just $20.)

From the website of the Archdiocese of Sydney (ht: ZENIT):

The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, English-born international journalist, atheist and provocateur, Christopher Hitchens and outspoken feminist and academic, Germaine Greer are among the keynote speakers at Australia’s first-ever Festival of Dangerous Ideas to be held at the Sydney Opera House on Saturday 3 October and Sunday 4 October.

"Without God We Are Nothing" is the title of the Archbishop's address to the Festival on Sunday evening when he will draw not only on his own profound faith and scholarship but on scientific figures such as physicist Stephen Hawking, who despite his revolutionary model of the laws of physics and lifetime of research, admitted in "A Brief History of Time" that he was no closer to knowing whether God existed or not, "only that God was arbitrary."

"Science alone cannot provide answers either to the existence of God or to atheist options," Cardinal Pell says, and borrowing from English philosopher and former atheist turned believer, Anthony Flew, poses the question: "how can a universe of mindless matter produce beings with intrinsic ends, self replication capabilities and ‘coded chemistry?'"

Describing secularism as a minority sport and a temporary phenomenon, the Cardinal will argue that it only survives in the Western World by attacking Christianity or living off Christianity's moral capital.

Read more. Wish I could be at that debate. Hitchens' segment, by the way, is titled "Religion Poisons Everything." Which reminded me of this little nugget, from a September 12th piece in the Indianapolis Star about a conference titled "Religion Under Examination":

That the conference kicks off close to the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks is a coincidence, organizers say. But it is in many ways appropriate, given that one of the most common refrains from atheists is about religion's ability to motivate fanatical believers to violent ends.

But when it comes to really motivating "fanatical believers to violent ends", religion has struggled (and failed) in the past 100 years or so to keep up with atheists including Lenin, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, and others. It's not that all religious people avoid committing murder; they just aren't nearly as proficient, skilled, and effective as those atheists who set about creating a bright and brave new world by killing a million here, four million there, and several more million elsewhere.

"People have a right to believe whatever they want," said Charlie Sitzes, a retired airline pilot and spokesman for the Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign, which is behind the transit ads. "But they don't have a right to do things like fly airplanes into buildings and to shoot doctors in church buildings. The problem with belief is that people tend to act on it."

And the problem with silly, illogical comments is that people twho make them in public reveal how little thought they've really put into the matter at hand. Part of the silliness here is that "belief" is used in such a broad and ultimately empty way. And why is acting on "belief" considered so horrific when tens of millions of people were murdered in the 20th century because of men acting to significant and undeniable degrees upon their hateful dismissal of religious belief? Besides, every action is based in some sort of belief, even if that belief is primal ("I believe I'm hungry, so I'm killing a fatted calf for dinner!"), subconscious, unsystematic, ill-considered, or irrational. Why, the statement, "The problem with belief is that people tend to act on it," is itself a statement of belief and reflects certain tenets about the nature of man, morality, and society.

Related IgnatiusInsight.com Articles and Excerpts:

• Are Truth, Faith, and Tolerance Compatible? | Joseph Ratzinger
• Atheism and the Purely "Human" Ethic | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• Dark Ages and Secularist Rages: A Response to Professor A.C. Grayling | Carl E. Olson
• Professor Dawkins and the Origins of Religion | Fr. Thomas Crean, O.P. | From God Is No Delusion: A Refutation of Richard Dawkins
• Dawkins' Delusions | An interview with Fr. Thomas Crean, O.P., author of God Is No Delusion: A Refutation of Richard Dawkins
• Is Religion Evil? Secularism's Pride and Irrational Prejudice | Carl E. Olson
• A Short Introduction to Atheism | Carl E. Olson
• C.S. Lewis’s Case for Christianity | An Interview with Richard Purtill
• Paganism and the Conversion of C.S. Lewis | Clotilde Morhan
• Designed Beauty and Evolutionary Theory | Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M.
• The Universe is Meaning-full | An interview with Dr. Benjamin Wiker
• The Mythological Conflict Between Christianity and Science | An interview with Dr. Stephen Barr
• The Source of Certitude | Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M.
• Deadly Architects | An Interview with Donald De Marco & Benjamin Wiker

Pounding the Table: LCWR leadership continues opposition to the Vatican

Pounding the Table | Ann Carey | Web Exclusive for Catholic World Report

The LCWR leadership continues to voice opposition to Vatican investigations into their activities, claiming to be “misunderstood” by Rome.

It is reported that some law professors give this advice to future lawyers: argue the facts when the facts are on your side, argue the law when the law is on your side, but when neither the facts nor the law are on your side, pound the table.

The latter tactic seems to have been adopted by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR)—the largest leadership organization of Catholic sisters in this country—in reacting to both the Vatican’s ongoing doctrinal assessment of the group’s activities and the apostolic visitation of communities of women religious. In an August 17 press release, the LCWR did not argue the facts or the law; rather, the statement attacked the methodology of the inquiries, saying they “lacked full disclosure about the motivation and funding sources.” The LCWR also expressed displeasure that the visitation teams’ reports will not be disclosed to the orders visited.

As reported in “Post-Christian Sisters” (CWR, July 2009), the LCWR was caught by surprise on January 30 by the announcement of the Vatican’s apostolic visitation of women religious in the US and by the February 20 letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith announcing the doctrinal assessment of the LCWR. Consequently, the organization’s leadership had little to say on the topic at first. An April 23 public statement from LCWR officers stressed the solidarity of LCWR members, expressed “disappointment” over media reports that some US bishops may have requested the doctrinal assessment, and fell back on the group’s favored way of dealing with criticism: keep the critics talking until they back down.

Continue reading...

"Choose the child, I insist on it, save the baby."

Carol Zimmerman of Catholic News Service has written a fascinating piece about Laura Molla, daughter of St. Gianna Beretta Molla:

St. Gianna, often called the "pro-life saint," was canonized in 2004 by Pope John Paul II for having put her unborn child's life before her own. In 1962, when she was pregnant with her fourth child, doctors discovered a large ovarian tumor that required surgery. Although surgical procedures at the time called for removal of her entire uterus, Gianna Molla, 39, insisted surgeons only remove what was necessary and allow her baby to live.

She pleaded with family and doctors: "If you must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate. Choose the child, I insist on it, save the baby."

When she died of an infection -- a week after giving birth to Gianna Emanuela -- the Italian saint left behind not only her newborn, but her husband, Pietro, and three other children including Laura, who was just shy of her third birthday.

Molla, who now works in the furniture business in Italy, said that even through she didn't know her mother, she has learned a lot about her in recent years.

What particularly stands out is how much her mother loved life. She enjoyed skiing, hiking, going to the theater and wearing the latest fashions. She juggled a career as a medical doctor with being a wife and mother. Through reading her mother's letters and notes on spirituality, Molla has also come to understand the depth of her mother's faith.

Read the entire piece.

Saint Gianna Molla: Wife, Mother, Doctor by Pietro Molla and Elio Guerriero, tells the story of St. Gianna's life and sacrificial death. The foreword, "Saint Gianna: A Model For Mothers," was written by Helen Hull Hitchcock; here's part of it:

"A woman of exceptional love, an outstanding wife and mother, she gave witness in her daily life to the demanding values of the Gospel." In his homily on the occasion of her beatification, April 24, 1994, Pope John Paul II proposed Gianna Beretta Molla as a model for all mothers: "By holding up this woman as an exemplar of Christian perfection, we would like to extol all those high-spirited mothers of families who give themselves completely to their family, who suffer in giving birth, who are prepared for every labor and every kind of sacrifice, so that the best they have can be given to others."

In canonizing Gianna Beretta Molla this spring [of 2004], the Church officially recognized the extraordinary sanctity of a woman who chose to live an ordinary life-as a professional and, later, as a wife and mother. Though she had once considered entering a religious order, instead she practiced medicine (receiving her medical degree in 1949, and her specialty in pediatrics in 1952). She devoted herself to caring for her patients, and her selflessness and dedication as a physician endeared her to the people. But it was not only her practice of medicine that influenced them. She regarded her profession as a mission through which she could aid and nurture both bodies and souls. The young doctor's devotion to her Catholic faith was well known in her community, and especially her instruction of young Catholic girls in their faith.

Gianna meditated long and prayerfully on God's will for her. "What is a vocation?" she wrote: "It is a gift from God-it comes from God Himself! Our concern, then, should be to know the will of God. We should enter onto the path that God wills for us, not by 'forcing the door', but when God wills and as God wills." [1] Gianna believed she was called to marriage and * family life, but she waited patiently for God's will to be revealed.

Gianna Beretta did not marry until she was thirty-three years old-to an engineer ten years her senior, Pietro Molla, whose sister had earlier been a patient of the young Dr. Beretta. Letters Gianna wrote during their year-long courtship reveal her deep commitment to this new vocation. The couple married in September 1955. Several days before their wedding, Gianna wrote to Pietro, reflecting on their vocation to marriage: "With God's help and blessing, we will do all we can to make our new family a little cenacle where Jesus will reign over all our affections, desires and actions.... We will be working with God in His creation; in this way we can give Him children who will love Him and serve Him."

Read the entire foreword.