In this article from the Bishop of Phoenix, Mary’s maternity, even to the criminals of the city of man, is eloquently described.
An excerpt.
“The Immaculate with the maculate
“Mary’s preservation from sin did not remove her from contact with sinners, neither did her virginity. On the contrary, her whole mission in life was to make it possible for the Eternal Word to rub shoulders with liars and beggars and to eat at table with Pharisees and tax collectors and other people of ill repute. By becoming the Mother of the Savior, she made it possible for the Son of God to become the Son of Man.
“Mary’s holiness is indeed one of exceptional beauty. No trace of sin ever touched her soul. But her mission is totally bound up with that of her Son. Like Him, she reaches out in love to all the children of Adam. Her “Fiat” makes possible His Incarnation. It also makes possible her mission as mother of all the faithful. Recall Jesus’ words from the Cross, “Woman, behold your son.”
“Archbishop Fulton Sheen described her maternity in this way: “The Immaculate is with the maculate, the sinless with the sinner… In her purity, Mary is on the mountaintop; in her compassion, she is amid curses, death cells, hangmen, executioners and blood… Mary’s cooperation was so real and active that she stood at the foot of the Cross. In every representation of the Crucifixion, the Magdalen is prostrate; she is almost always at the feet of Our Lord. But Mary is standing.”
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Legalize Drugs?
According to this article by the Police Executive Research Forum, the legalization of drugs has not gained any traction, but it would still seem that it is certainly an issue deserving of further discussion.
The prominent Catholic and public policy/political thinker, William F. Buckley, makes a good case for legalization and is joined by several others from related fields in this symposium sponsored by National Review in 1996, which is still very relevant.
An excerpt from Buckley’s opening statement to the symposium.
“We are speaking of a plague that consumes an estimated $75 billion per year of public money, exacts an estimated $70 billion a year from consumers, is responsible for nearly 50 per cent of the million Americans [twice that today] who are today in jail, occupies an estimated 50 per cent of the trial time of our judiciary, and takes the time of 400,000 policemen -- yet a plague for which no cure is at hand, nor in prospect. …
“A conservative should evaluate the practicality of a legal constriction, as for instance in those states whose statute books continue to outlaw sodomy, which interdiction is unenforceable, making the law nothing more than print-on-paper. I came to the conclusion that the so-called war against drugs was not working, that it would not work absent a change in the structure of the civil rights to which we are accustomed and to which we cling as a valuable part of our patrimony. And that therefore if that war against drugs is not working, we should look into what effects the war has, a canvass of the casualties consequent on its failure to work. That consideration encouraged me to weigh utilitarian principles: the Benthamite calculus of pain and pleasure introduced by the illegalization of drugs….
“Curiosity naturally flows to ask, next, How many users of illegal drugs in fact die from the use of them? The answer is complicated in part because marijuana finds itself lumped together with cocaine and heroin, and nobody has ever been found dead from marijuana. The question of deaths from cocaine is complicated by the factor of impurity. It would not be useful to draw any conclusions about alcohol consumption, for instance, by observing that, in 1931, one thousand Americans died from alcohol consumption if it happened that half of those deaths, or more than half, were the result of drinking alcohol with toxic ingredients extrinsic to the drug as conventionally used. When alcohol was illegal, the consumer could never know whether he had been given relatively harmless alcohol to drink -- such alcoholic beverages as we find today in the liquor store -- or whether the bootlegger had come up with paralyzing rotgut. By the same token, purchasers of illegal cocaine and heroin cannot know whether they are consuming a drug that would qualify for regulated consumption after clinical analysis.”
The prominent Catholic and public policy/political thinker, William F. Buckley, makes a good case for legalization and is joined by several others from related fields in this symposium sponsored by National Review in 1996, which is still very relevant.
An excerpt from Buckley’s opening statement to the symposium.
“We are speaking of a plague that consumes an estimated $75 billion per year of public money, exacts an estimated $70 billion a year from consumers, is responsible for nearly 50 per cent of the million Americans [twice that today] who are today in jail, occupies an estimated 50 per cent of the trial time of our judiciary, and takes the time of 400,000 policemen -- yet a plague for which no cure is at hand, nor in prospect. …
“A conservative should evaluate the practicality of a legal constriction, as for instance in those states whose statute books continue to outlaw sodomy, which interdiction is unenforceable, making the law nothing more than print-on-paper. I came to the conclusion that the so-called war against drugs was not working, that it would not work absent a change in the structure of the civil rights to which we are accustomed and to which we cling as a valuable part of our patrimony. And that therefore if that war against drugs is not working, we should look into what effects the war has, a canvass of the casualties consequent on its failure to work. That consideration encouraged me to weigh utilitarian principles: the Benthamite calculus of pain and pleasure introduced by the illegalization of drugs….
“Curiosity naturally flows to ask, next, How many users of illegal drugs in fact die from the use of them? The answer is complicated in part because marijuana finds itself lumped together with cocaine and heroin, and nobody has ever been found dead from marijuana. The question of deaths from cocaine is complicated by the factor of impurity. It would not be useful to draw any conclusions about alcohol consumption, for instance, by observing that, in 1931, one thousand Americans died from alcohol consumption if it happened that half of those deaths, or more than half, were the result of drinking alcohol with toxic ingredients extrinsic to the drug as conventionally used. When alcohol was illegal, the consumer could never know whether he had been given relatively harmless alcohol to drink -- such alcoholic beverages as we find today in the liquor store -- or whether the bootlegger had come up with paralyzing rotgut. By the same token, purchasers of illegal cocaine and heroin cannot know whether they are consuming a drug that would qualify for regulated consumption after clinical analysis.”
Friday, June 5, 2009
Human Sacredness & Cloning
The sacredness of human life is at the center of Catholic dogma, but often creates some confusion when discussing the issues of stem cell research or human cloning; both being medical technologies that are presented as being of help to humanity.
In this piece from the EWTN library, first published in L’Osservatore Romano, the theologian from the Papal Household reflects on cloning and helps us understand why it is forbidden within Catholicism.
An excerpt.
“The transmission of human life has always been viewed as a mystery, not in the sense that the biological functions were unknown, but in the sense that there is something great and inscrutable happening in this moment that cannot be fully fathomed by empirical observation and deserves respect. Human life is marked by an inherent sanctity. For this reason the transmission of human life is distinguished semantically from the transmission of the life of plants and animals. One is called "procreation" and the other is called "reproduction". The prefix pro- in procreation refers to a vicarious function. It is God who creates out of nothing an immortal human soul and gives it to every child that is conceived. This divine gift is received not only by the child that begins its human existence. It is also received in the moral sense by the parents of the child who fulfil the gravest mission of transmitting life (cf. the opening lines of Paul VI's Encyclical: Humanae vitae tradendae munus gravissivum) and of loving and educating the child that they have received from God. And even if the parents fail in their responsibilities, God does not fail because "God never takes back his gifts or revokes his choice" (Rom 11:29). When the conceiving of a child takes place as a result of sinful adultery, incest, rape or is in vitro, God continues to create an immortal soul for the child, even though the participation of the parents in this transmission of human life is tainted by egoism, aggression, irresponsibility or manipulative pride. The transmission of the life of plants and animals is different, because plants and animals have no immortal soul and so no personal dignity, and that is why it is simply termed "reproduction". They exist not only for themselves but ultimately in view of the needs of humanity (cf. Gn 1:28-29).”
In this piece from the EWTN library, first published in L’Osservatore Romano, the theologian from the Papal Household reflects on cloning and helps us understand why it is forbidden within Catholicism.
An excerpt.
“The transmission of human life has always been viewed as a mystery, not in the sense that the biological functions were unknown, but in the sense that there is something great and inscrutable happening in this moment that cannot be fully fathomed by empirical observation and deserves respect. Human life is marked by an inherent sanctity. For this reason the transmission of human life is distinguished semantically from the transmission of the life of plants and animals. One is called "procreation" and the other is called "reproduction". The prefix pro- in procreation refers to a vicarious function. It is God who creates out of nothing an immortal human soul and gives it to every child that is conceived. This divine gift is received not only by the child that begins its human existence. It is also received in the moral sense by the parents of the child who fulfil the gravest mission of transmitting life (cf. the opening lines of Paul VI's Encyclical: Humanae vitae tradendae munus gravissivum) and of loving and educating the child that they have received from God. And even if the parents fail in their responsibilities, God does not fail because "God never takes back his gifts or revokes his choice" (Rom 11:29). When the conceiving of a child takes place as a result of sinful adultery, incest, rape or is in vitro, God continues to create an immortal soul for the child, even though the participation of the parents in this transmission of human life is tainted by egoism, aggression, irresponsibility or manipulative pride. The transmission of the life of plants and animals is different, because plants and animals have no immortal soul and so no personal dignity, and that is why it is simply termed "reproduction". They exist not only for themselves but ultimately in view of the needs of humanity (cf. Gn 1:28-29).”
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Keeping the Faith
Holding on to the spiritual truths of our Catholic faith in a world that seems to spin on an axis of materialism, and too often finds evil in the ascendency, is difficult at best and life threatening at worst, as the continuing martyrdom of Catholics around the globe reveal.
But it can and must be done. Eternity demands it, truth calls us to it, and we know in our deepest hearts that the Word prevails, even against the gates of hell and beyond.
In a related article, The Catholic Thing reflects on a threat to the faith.
But it can and must be done. Eternity demands it, truth calls us to it, and we know in our deepest hearts that the Word prevails, even against the gates of hell and beyond.
In a related article, The Catholic Thing reflects on a threat to the faith.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Bishops: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
In the sexual abuse horrors of the past several years within the Church, well documented in many books, reports, and news stories but best compiled in these five: Goodbye Good Men: How Liberals Brought Corruption into the Catholic Church, by Michael S. Rose (2002), The Rite of Sodomy: Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church, by Randy Engel (2006), After Asceticism: Sex, Prayer and Deviant Priests, by Patrick Guinan (2006), The Faithful Departed: The Collapse of Boston’s Catholic Culture, by Philip F. Lawler (2008), and Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church, by Leon J. Podles (2008)—we learn how bishops should not act; some were merely bad and some were very ugly.
All five of these will be tough reading for the faithful, but absolutley necessary to understand the evil that can arise, even within the Church, and without understanding it we cannot fight against it with our deepened prayer and devotional life.
In this article from California Catholic Daily, we learn how bishops should be; good, and effective.
An excerpt.
"What qualities best equip today's bishop to fight the culture war? That's the question I posed in a survey of Catholic authors and activists, priests and scholars. It brought a flurry of thoughtful responses.
“1. A bishop must be personally holy.
“David Tennessen, author of Dave's Digest, a pro-life news summary, identified several important qualities that serve a bishop at the crossroads of the culture war. One stood at the forefront, however: "The first and most fundamental quality any bishop must have is personal holiness." Tennessen believes that bishops who pray the Divine Office, make regular retreats, and schedule regular confessions for themselves are better equipped to serve as Christ's emissaries.
“In fact, it could be argued that the other habits of an effective bishop flow from this first habit. "The second quality necessary to be a good bishop," Tennessen offered, "is the ability to teach, which is his primary obligation…[and] reading the lives of the saints has shown me that the bishops who are holy make the best teachers."
“And so, holiness must be the foundation of any successful bishopric. "If a bishop has personal holiness," Tennessen concluded, "God will fill in anything else that might be missing."
“Tennessen wasn't the only one to observe that a bishop is most effective when his commitment to personal prayer is strong. One Atlanta priest noted, "How does one follow Christ if one is not on his knees? Think of Christ on His knees in Gethsemane. The Catechism is clear, 'Although Christ's ministers act in communion with one another they also act in a personal way.'" The citation continues, "Each one is called personally: 'You follow Me' in order to be a personal witness…to bear personal responsibility…."
“2. A bishop must promote and defend the authentic Catholic Faith.
"One frequently mentioned quality of a strong bishop is his willingness to stand up for the truth, no matter the cost (often paid in media uproar). Indeed, for 2,000 years, bishops have been among the chief defenders of the Faith -- from the early Church, through the Reformation, and to the modern era. Our contemporary shepherds must continue that venerable tradition.
“Happily, respondents offered some excellent examples. Francis Cardinal George of Chicago was often praised for his "devastating" and repeated critiques of dissent. Professor Gerard Bradley of Notre Dame observed that Cardinal George is also "extraordinary and exemplary for his untiring and fearless and unblinking intellectual engagement with the challenge of militant secularism."
“Many others recalled Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz's refusal to permit Catholics in his diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, to be members of Planned Parenthood, the dissident Catholic organization Call to Action, or to maintain any Masonic affiliation and still be considered in good standing with the Church.
"What I find most admirable in him," said Phil Lawler of the Catholic World Report, "is his willingness directly to acknowledge and confront the most serious problem in the Church in America today: the manifest failure of the bishops, as a group, to provide pastoral leadership."
All five of these will be tough reading for the faithful, but absolutley necessary to understand the evil that can arise, even within the Church, and without understanding it we cannot fight against it with our deepened prayer and devotional life.
In this article from California Catholic Daily, we learn how bishops should be; good, and effective.
An excerpt.
"What qualities best equip today's bishop to fight the culture war? That's the question I posed in a survey of Catholic authors and activists, priests and scholars. It brought a flurry of thoughtful responses.
“1. A bishop must be personally holy.
“David Tennessen, author of Dave's Digest, a pro-life news summary, identified several important qualities that serve a bishop at the crossroads of the culture war. One stood at the forefront, however: "The first and most fundamental quality any bishop must have is personal holiness." Tennessen believes that bishops who pray the Divine Office, make regular retreats, and schedule regular confessions for themselves are better equipped to serve as Christ's emissaries.
“In fact, it could be argued that the other habits of an effective bishop flow from this first habit. "The second quality necessary to be a good bishop," Tennessen offered, "is the ability to teach, which is his primary obligation…[and] reading the lives of the saints has shown me that the bishops who are holy make the best teachers."
“And so, holiness must be the foundation of any successful bishopric. "If a bishop has personal holiness," Tennessen concluded, "God will fill in anything else that might be missing."
“Tennessen wasn't the only one to observe that a bishop is most effective when his commitment to personal prayer is strong. One Atlanta priest noted, "How does one follow Christ if one is not on his knees? Think of Christ on His knees in Gethsemane. The Catechism is clear, 'Although Christ's ministers act in communion with one another they also act in a personal way.'" The citation continues, "Each one is called personally: 'You follow Me' in order to be a personal witness…to bear personal responsibility…."
“2. A bishop must promote and defend the authentic Catholic Faith.
"One frequently mentioned quality of a strong bishop is his willingness to stand up for the truth, no matter the cost (often paid in media uproar). Indeed, for 2,000 years, bishops have been among the chief defenders of the Faith -- from the early Church, through the Reformation, and to the modern era. Our contemporary shepherds must continue that venerable tradition.
“Happily, respondents offered some excellent examples. Francis Cardinal George of Chicago was often praised for his "devastating" and repeated critiques of dissent. Professor Gerard Bradley of Notre Dame observed that Cardinal George is also "extraordinary and exemplary for his untiring and fearless and unblinking intellectual engagement with the challenge of militant secularism."
“Many others recalled Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz's refusal to permit Catholics in his diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, to be members of Planned Parenthood, the dissident Catholic organization Call to Action, or to maintain any Masonic affiliation and still be considered in good standing with the Church.
"What I find most admirable in him," said Phil Lawler of the Catholic World Report, "is his willingness directly to acknowledge and confront the most serious problem in the Church in America today: the manifest failure of the bishops, as a group, to provide pastoral leadership."
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Gates of Silence
It is often difficult to comprehend that in the world we live in, with its constant flurry of change, that there remains a bedrock of reality that has not changed, ever.
The revealed truths of the Catholic Church embedded within scripture and tradition comprise the reality underlying and superseding the phantasmagoria passing for reality we witness as it roars around us.
Discovering the still silence where the small voice of eternity can be heard is why daily mass exists, why adoration exists, why prayer exists, and it is through those gates of silence you and I enter for our greatest treasure.
The revealed truths of the Catholic Church embedded within scripture and tradition comprise the reality underlying and superseding the phantasmagoria passing for reality we witness as it roars around us.
Discovering the still silence where the small voice of eternity can be heard is why daily mass exists, why adoration exists, why prayer exists, and it is through those gates of silence you and I enter for our greatest treasure.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Crime Down in 2008
In what is very good news, it appears that crime rates have fallen in 2008, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Report news release.
If these preliminary figures hold, it would be a good marker for 2009 to see if the poor economy causes a crime rate increase.
An excerpt.
“Preliminary figures indicate that, as a whole, law enforcement agencies throughout the Nation reported a decrease of 2.5 percent in the number of violent crimes brought to their attention in 2008 when compared to figures reported for 2007. The violent crime category includes murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. The number of property crimes in the United States from January to December of 2008 decreased 1.6 percent when compared to data from the same time period in 2007. Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. Arson is also a property crime, but data for arson are not included in property crime totals. Figures for 2008 indicated that arson decreased 3.9 percent when compared to 2007 figures.”
If these preliminary figures hold, it would be a good marker for 2009 to see if the poor economy causes a crime rate increase.
An excerpt.
“Preliminary figures indicate that, as a whole, law enforcement agencies throughout the Nation reported a decrease of 2.5 percent in the number of violent crimes brought to their attention in 2008 when compared to figures reported for 2007. The violent crime category includes murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. The number of property crimes in the United States from January to December of 2008 decreased 1.6 percent when compared to data from the same time period in 2007. Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. Arson is also a property crime, but data for arson are not included in property crime totals. Figures for 2008 indicated that arson decreased 3.9 percent when compared to 2007 figures.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
