Over at The cafeteria is closed, Gerald has posted what he promises is the first in a series on the documents of Vatican II. Even just this first one is a wonderful work. The documents of Vatican II were so voluminous and so far-reaching that it’s certainly appropriate that each of us reads them to come to a fuller understanding of what the Church was teaching through the Council. As always, one must sentire cum ecclesia if this reading is to be effective; good commentary like this is a big help.
Fr. Z has a beautiful post this morning on today’s reading from Matthew 10:1-7. In it, the apostles are told to preach to the Jews but not to enter into any of the towns of the pagans or gentiles. I could elucidate more, but Fr. Z has done a beautiful job. I need to find a good solid book on the writings of the Church Fathers. Anyone have any recommendations?
A friend pointed me to an article in our local paper (the real reason I was on the website) concerning a meeting of researchers in Portsmouth, NH where one of the topics of discussion was a measured decrease in child abuse rates. While one would normally cheer such news, and I do, some of the factors cited border on sickening:
Factors cited by researchers to explain the drop include the legalization of abortion and decreasing fertility rates, which reduce the number of unwanted children.
Of course, there are others such as economic growth and a decrease in single-parent homes which are at least in and of themselves good things. But to suggest abortion as a positive force in society is just beyond the pale; it reeks of the earlier research linking an increase in abortion rates among black women to a decrease in the crime rate – just utterly disgusting. I’d surmise that we would decrease incidences of child abuse at a significantly greater rate by ensuring everyone is reminded of the inherent and infinite worth of each soul as a child of God than could ever be achieved by just killing them in utero. Even my son understands that much – but then, he hasn’t spent his whole life trying to justify a lie.
Perusing my local paper’s website I came across a guest column in their Religion section. I didn’t know there was a Religion section – just sports, comics and a whole lot of filler I thought. Well, filler, and stuff I could use to start the charcoal. But I digress. A lady by the name of Jenny Swope wrote a fantastic article – I would term it a call to arms as it were – on the priest shortage. Her closing paragraphs are inspiring:
There is no excuse for us as lay Catholics to sit helplessly by as the number of priests declines each year. The priest shortage is not going away overnight, and it will mean hard times for the church in the foreseeable future. But the long-term solution is in our hands, and it will not be reached by depriving the priesthood of its treasure of celibacy.
Rather, we the laity must set our sights higher, becoming ourselves examples of love and service who will inspire young men around us to take up their cross and follow Christ in a life of whole-hearted dedication.
Just your friendly reminder that just as the bishops are not the cause of everything wrong with the Church, neither can they be the sole actors in making it all right again. Jenny says it well I believe – it is our duty to assist them in any, indeed every, way we can, always faithful to the Magisterium as we do so.
From over at AmericanPapist, we have this post from a ways back that darned near made me toast a monitor. Lord knows we need more Cardinals like Cardinal Pell… I know it’s kinda old, but go read it anyway if you haven’t already – you’ll enjoy it. Just put the drink down first…
Well, Augustine Thompson, O.P., anyway. Her splendid review of Cities Of God: The Religion Of The Italian Communes 1125-1325 is here. For my amateur-history-buff-wannabe mind, the great part of her review was:
Most of all what strikes me, as it does any time I read good history, is the richness and diversity of our past. There are no easy answers in the present, no golden age in the past to which we can appeal, no set of procedures, rituals and rites that are purer than any others, that are the magic bullet for our own problems. Nor can we rest easy in the diversity, which is the other temptation. Liturgical innovations in the present are often positioned up against the past, and justified in that context – there’s a reason that histories of the liturgy are multi-volume. A lot has happened, a lot has changed – it is that old conversation, filled with tension, about what is “organic” in liturgical development and what isn’t. We need to keep reading our history so we divest ourselves of nostalgia, and at the same time anchor ourselves more strongly in what is legitimate and work hard to discern what is not.
It goes to what I was trying to say before, albeit more poetically than I did. As Catholics we must learn about our faith in this day and age, not just take it for granted. There is too much history, too many saints, too much piety for there not to be something that captures each and every imagination out there – it’s just a matter of piously looking. Nicely done, Amy. Not that you need my praise…
If you’re not a subscriber to First Things (or you’re behind in your reading, like I usually am) you probably haven’t seen Mary Ann Glendon’s fine article on immigration. In it she calls for a middle road solution, recognizing that the country needs, as she calls it, principled immigration as much now as it always has while at the same time recognizing it is time to modernize the mechanisms of immigration because of security issues heretofore unknown. For whatever it’s worth, I consider it a fine piece of scholarship and a must-read for anyone thinking about immigration.
From the Boston Globe yesterday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has certified the ballot question regarding gay marriage. Gay marriage supporters had filed the suit contending State Attorney General Thomas Reilly had violated a constitutional provision that “blocks citizen-generated questions seeking the reversal of a judicial decision”. That type of provision certainly does explain why the State Supreme Court thought it was above the will of the people in issuing a judicial fiat mandating gay marriage.
Ray Flynn, former Boston mayor and former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, was one of the first signers of the petition to place the amendment on the ballot. On Monday, he urged the Legislature to “give the people of Massachusetts the opportunity to vote on this important political issue.”
One must believe that is the best possible outcome for this situation. Of course, even if this should go to the people on the 2008 ballot, I think it will be interesting to see which way it goes. As a friend in college told me, there are two parts of Massachusetts – those east and west of I495. Personally, I think the dividing line is somewhat further east, but he lived there and it was his line so I’ll leave it as is. For now, we sit, wait and pray.
Fr. Z posted an excellent excerpt from St. John Chrysostom on the calling of Matthew (Mt. 9:9). One line in particular got me: “Each one of us have moments when we are ‘ready’ for this step, that move, some change of position or condition leading us to a new phase in our vocations“. I still remember that moment when I made my most fateful step and began down the path that led me to the Church. There have been several moments since then. Perhaps now isn’t a bad time to reflect on them…
Amy has a quick link over to a the Commonweal blog site where they are discussing the new organization, Take Back Our Church and its founder Robert Blair Kaiser. If you have the stomach for it, peruse over it and you’ll see pretty much the sum and substance of the chasm between the “left” and “right” views on reform of the Church. Personally, between the ad hominem attacks and the tete-a-tete worthy of presidential candidates in a televised debate it was rather difficult to read.
Perhaps my favorite comment by one of the many participating (one Bill Mazzella) was, “Unless we realize that the bishops are the problem we will get nowhere. Unless you think that ecclesia semper reformandi does not apply to them.” Well. I see. Of course. As another suggested, perhaps we should throw them all out and start all over again. But at that point, why not also pick a new name for this Church, since the term “Roman Catholic” is symbolic of all they think is wrong with the Church. And while we’re at it, we can instill democratic voting policies. And while we’re there, let’s make sure we use the butterfly ballot a la Florida 2000.
It is truly sad to see so many putative Catholics – no, putative is the wrong word since one can assume they received the Baptismal sacrament and are therefore fully Catholic, even if in rather “imperfect” communion – take such personal pride and glee in bashing about everything that is wrong with the Church. I have to confess – as a convert I never experienced the “bad old days” (and this was the first time I’ve seen anyone use the term without ironic intent) but I also do know that the Chair of Peter and the succession of the Bishops from Apostolic times was how I knew this was the one Faith most rightly and fully ordered through time.
My simple response to these folks can be found in my post in “A New Springtime”, part 2. Their lack of pride in the greatness of the Church (that greatness coming from the wellspring of its existence, our Lord and Savior) is distressing. Furthermore, if they really believe in the justice and rightness of their cause, they should study their Faith more (and not, as one commenter suggested, “Forget the Catechism”) and when they feel they have the fundamental basis covered to form a cogent and respectful argument bring it forth in a proper forum, be that in a private meeting with their Bishop, in an academic paper or in a properly structured and representative debate forum. To simply slap together (and that is far too harsh a term) a book and website and then stomp their feet demanding to be heard reeks of the unrestrained and unfocused anti-anyestablishment movements of the 1960s and 1970s, and only the unrepentant or uneducated would suggest those movements were wholly without sin. Do I think there are problems in the Church? Sure – it is made up of humans, after all. But am I about suggest we start over again? Not on your life, mister. It took me twenty-some years to find God, and I’m not about to throw the baby Jesus out with the bathwater. Reform comes from within, not from without – that is called properly “revolution”.
As Fr. Corapi is fond of saying, “preach less, pray more.” Speaking of that…I have a blog post I’m forming up on the Liturgy of the Hours. It’ll be interesting to see where that goes. Orate, fratres.
