Ubi Petrus

Mark Joseph has penned an interesting article on the FoxNews site suggesting the repeal of the LBJ-crafted amendment restricting political speech from any 501c3 (i.e. tax-exempt, non-profit) organization which includes almost all churches. Your assignment: read, think about it and discuss.

For my part, I think the LBJ amendment has been far less harmful than the Blaine amendment which the author mentions at the top. The Blaine amendment is understood by just about anyone who is honest to have been an attempt to stop Catholics from creating their own schools. The impact of the restriction on political speech, however, has been somewhat more difficult for me to quantify. Interestingly, the author spends a good amount of space describing cases where the amendment failed to stop political involvement but only required slightly more circumspect pronouncements.

I have to be honest. I’m frankly not interested in encouraging political speech from the pulpit in a country where we already waste about a quarter of our adult lives inundated by politics. Even with this restriction in place, I’ve heard more complaints about Iraq, taxes and immigration than I care to already and removing whatever restrictor plates are in place is not particularly appetizing to me.

First, as Catholics we believe in the principle of subsidiarity. That means, in effect, that those closest to a situation are generally the best to resolve it. It further means that the further removed you are, the more general your stance must be, sometimes to the chagrin of those who would like a specific over-arching statement requiring compliance. This also means that we adhere to a principle of allowing for prudential judgment by those whose role it is to make such judgments in cases of application. The Catechism is very clear on this. It would be contrary to the stance of the Church to now encourage direct political action from the pulpit.

Second, quite frankly I don’t go to Mass to hear about politics – I go to Mass to hear about God and to be formed to Him. Our liturgy is intended (all other discussion about the state of our liturgy aside) to raise us up to Heaven, not to swirl us around in the mud pile of human politics. Certainly there are times when moral issues which are also political must be approached and rightly so. They must, however, be approached from God’s perspective, not Man’s. If you want to bring up, say, immigration that’s perfectly fine – but do so from the dual perspectives of the inherent dignity of the human person and the need and right of a country to properly regulate immigration, not from the perspective of “Senator Jimmy JoBob is proposing XYZ and you need to call his office to support/attack it”. Help us to keep our eyes fixed on God and our bodies, and votes, will follow.

As I stood there last night listening to Father Paul proclaim the Gospel at the Vigil Mass a thought struck me. We have all (or at least most of us have) heard these Beatitudes a thousand times and most every time processed them through the same filter. Many of us can probably even repeat them by heart. And each one of us probably has one that we like the most because it appeals to either where we are or where we’d like to be. They’re usually sliced and diced up as nine separate, stand-alone concepts wholly intact and unaffected by, although related to, the others.

Have you ever tried to think of them, however, as a coherent whole? Not as a bulleted list of those blessed, not a check-list to see if you get into Heaven, but as a single, unified commandment. Take the list not as a series of “or”s, but as concatenated by “and”s. You don’t get to Heaven just by being merciful, nor does being a peacemaker give you the all-access pass, not without living a life consuming all of those categories.

You might think, “well, Mother Teresa is surely in Heaven and she was never insulted or persecuted”. For that, I give you only Christopher Hitchens’ series of slanders against her as sufficient evidence to the contrary. Truly I tell you this is a single teaching, whole and entire. In breaking it up to get a favorite list we only short-change ourselves the opportunity to be challenged to an even more holy life. Go ahead, read it again as a whole and tell me if your perspective isn’t refreshed.

Something told me the Vigil Mass for All Saints Day tonight was going to have something special. I don’t know why, I don’t know what it was, but I was more giddy than normal before Mass started tonight. It wasn’t the music or the lectors, no they did their job well enough. It wasn’t even in Father Paul’s even more insightful than usual homily. Then, as we moved on it hit me. Father used Eucharistic Prayer I – the Roman Canon! To you that may be no big deal. To me, that’s the first time I’ve seen it live in a Novus Ordo Mass. Ever.

I have a somewhat peculiar attachment to the Roman Canon, owing in large part to the fact it’s how I learned the Mass while watching EWTN as a catechumen. Add to that its antiquity and the far-less-abbreviated litany of Saints and some of the most fully-fleshed prayers of any Eucharistic Prayer and you simply have me hooked. But no one it seems in this Diocese uses it on Sunday. Everyone seems to be worried about the extra time it takes, which I’m told is actually only two minutes. I say, go ahead – make me stay at Mass for two more minutes! There is not a single better place I could be than right there assisting at Mass, doing my part in doing what the Lord commanded us to do. My good Priest friends, don’t skip out and jump to EPII or EPIII because it’s shorter – this is a generation that hungers for fullness, not brevity. Give us the fullness of the faith, the Saints, the confessions, the prayers, all of it! Then watch the numbers grow.

My most humble thanks to Father Paul for making my day even that much greater. And yes you’d better believe I told him as much right after Mass. With luck this is a sign of continued greater things to come. Deo gratias!

Father Jonathan Morris has a very interesting interview with Dr. Bernhard Beub, headmaster of the Salem boarding school in Germany and author of “Lob der Disziplin” (In Praise of Discipline). If there are more like him in Europe, its worst days may just be behind it. Without saying the word, his framework for the reform of the educational establishment in Germany is based on a very Christian principle – “to be strict, with love”. A couple choice quotes (myemphasis):

Father Jonathan: When you talk about “strict education” and “discipline” what are you referring to?

Dr. Bueb: The requisite of all culture growth is asceticism … learning to postpone or renounce wishes and desires. You have to learn to work. Kids need to live a rational life, meaning to submit themselves to reason. You shouldn’t barter with your child. To a three or four-year-old boy or girl, you just say, “You have to do this or that.” People say you need to discuss everything with a child as young as possible. I am proposing finding the middle ground, a third way, to be strict with love.
…
Father Jonathan: What about the moral decline in society as a whole? Isn’t the problem bigger than just discipline in schools? Do you have a sense of why we are going in this direction?

Dr. Bueb: When a nation gets too rich, people begin to lose morals. Riches are hard to cope with. My book is now in eight languages. Germany is not the only country with the problem. Taiwan, China, and Korea, for example, are now trying to cope. When you are rich, you are seduced to enjoy life and not to work on yourself as a person. On the other hand, the poorer you are, the harder you must work to get along. Also, I think that families no longer exist in the same way as you had 50 years ago. Divorce, single mothers, we see the very negative effects in education.

Tags: Catholic, Education, Discipline, Germany

Via Corpus et Sanguis:

Good news, if you haven’t already heard.

Fr. Adrien, pastor at Sacred Heart, Laconia, has scheduled Mass with the 1962 Missal for Sunday, Nov. 4, at 3:00 PM. He plans to use the 1962 Missal for Mass every First Sunday of the month.

(The time of day for the Mass is somewhat flexible for future months after Nov., depending on feedback from parishioners.)

An announcement has been requested to be printed in the parish bulletin for this weekend.Questions may be directed to Fr. Adrien at the parish: (603) 524-9609.

Sacred Heart Church is at 291 Union Ave., Laconia.

Between time, travel (Mapquest calls it an hour drive from here) and other family obligations I may not be able to make it, but be sure to spread the word around so that there is a good turn out. And if you do go, be sure to let me know your thoughts in the combox!

Well, Pope Benedict certainly has put himself squarely in the middle of a rather raging debate. Talking to an international gathering of Catholic pharmacists he told them squarely to “consider conscientious objection which is a right that must be recognized for your profession so you can avoid collaborating, directly or indirectly, in the supply of products which have clearly immoral aims, for example abortion or euthanasia.” While it’s a given that he has wider aims, many in the States have seen this as pointing a long finger at the recent decision by the Connecticut Bishops to allow Catholic hospitals to dispense “Plan B”. Perhaps my favorite quote, however: “It is not possible to anesthetize the conscience, for example, when it comes to molecules whose aim is to stop an embryo implanting or to cut short someone’s life.” Indeed. Attempts to cast palls of gray do not make black change colors. CNA has more here.

The secular reactions to his rejoinder have been predictable. CWN has a host of them here. Among my favorites was Green party parliamentarian Gianpaolo Silvestri’s blind-as-a-bat knee-jerk reaction, “Will we ever see the day when the papacy overcomes its fears of the female body and of women’s right to self-determination?” He’s quite right you know. The Pope’s desire to help people avoid eternal damnation, and in the temporal sphere to avoid harming both women and men, clearly stems from a fear of the female body. Is that really the best they can do? Sheesh – it’s almost not fun batting around these gnats any more. They need some new material.

Much more in-depth coverage can be had at American Papist. What with his degree work in bioethics, one would expect him to have good coverage on this, and he does not disappoint.

Atlanta’s Archbishop Wilton Gregory will be going under the knife soon. Prayers are certainly in order. The announcement is here, and Rocco has more here.

On Monday morning, Nov. 5, I will undergo prostate surgery at Emory University Hospital. I was diagnosed with the early stage prostate cancer after a biopsy in September. I have sought additional medical advice, and I have decided to have this surgery as the best response to my condition.

As he says later in the announcement, if you’re in a high-risk category, this is a good reminder to get yourself checked out. Don’t wait. Please. Waiting is what likely cost my aunt her life, and it simply won’t do you any good anyway. Death from obstinacy or laziness are not equivalent to martyrdom so be smart – God isn’t done with you yet.

Tags: Catholic, Bishop, Cancer

I know this one has been around for a bit, but I just got a chance to watch it. Even if you don’t like the music (it trends a bit toward P&W which is not everyone’s favorite), the message is not only sound, it’s dead-on. H/T to Puff at The Spirit’s Sword.

Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox, 2007 World Series Champions!

And now, my wife and I can get some sleep, finally.

Image from ESPN.