Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex

The words spoken by Cardinal Scola in response to a European Parliament resolution which condemned “discriminatory comments” made by political and religious leaders against “homosexuals“. The resolution blamed those who “opposed homosexuals” for “fermenting hatred and violence — even if they were later withdrawn — and it asks that the hierarchies of the respective organizations condemn them as well.” An annual “International Day Against Homophobia” is being proposed which would be held every year, beginning on May 17th.

H/T to Cardinal Scola for showing moxie in his respectful defense of Church teachings on the issue of same sex attraction disorder.

The latest threat against the newly elected leader of the Italian Bishops Conference, Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, arrived in an envelope which contained a bullet and a photo of the archbishop with a swastika cut into it. It was apparently sent in retaliation for his opposition to a proposed Italian law which would grant marriage privileges to unmarried couples (including those of the same-sex). The previous threats have been in the form of graffiti written on Catholic churches which said, “Beware Bagnasco” and “Die Bagnasco.” In my opinion, these sort of things are perpetuated not only by misunderstandings and misrepresentations of the facts on Catholic teaching by the secular world, but more so by those who hold or have held positions of authority within The Church.

I found a link to this video at kris’s blog where Mother Theresa gives advice on doing small things with great love.

I love the simplicity and holiness of this woman.  This one on forgiveness from the heart.

Here is an old article from First Things on the Dark Night of Mother Theresa.

Vehige over at Thursday Night Gumbo has tagged us with another meme. The meme is to identify four favorite Saints, two favorite Blesseds, and name one person you think should have been canonized (I presume this to mean someone for whom there is currently no cause in process but you think there should be). Well, isn’t this a predicament. It’s like standing among all your aunts and uncles as a child and being asked to say which one is your favorite. It doesn’t help much knowing that there will be no jealousy.

O.k, here they are:

Four Favorite Saints

 The Queen of All Saints, of course!

 Her most Chaste Spouse, St. Joseph my patron saint

So far it looks like I am copying off Vehige’s paper doesn’t it?

 The Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas, an intellectual inspiration and model of humility

 St. Ignatius of Loyola, a soldier who transferred his martial skills into obedient service to the Vicar of Christ

Two Favorite Blesseds (or more)

Well they are for genetic reasons I will admit:

 Blessed Marie Rose Durocher

 Blessed Andre Bessette

Should Have Been Canonized

Well, I don’t want to sound presumptuous but since I have recently been considering him:

 Guess who this is…

Now how about a category for those whose cause is proceeding. If we had one, I would add

 John Paul the Great

and

 Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Vehige has listed two victims…err…tags, so here are my two: Thomas, our American Papist and Father Christopher Phillips at the Atonement On-line Blog.

LifeSite: Homosexual activists have reacted quickly to the publicity of their agenda and have discussed demanding YouTube to remove the videos. The video’s seem to have been posted to the internet by a racist and Bennett in his release stressed that the tag on the video reading “faggots” is (a reminder of why so many with same-sex attraction may equate the opposition to a life-style as hatred towards the person) something he opposes and should be removed.

After watching the short clips, I understand why Stephen Bennett, a man who once lived the “gay” lifestyle alerted the media to these video clips which he called “first-hand homosexual activist ‘brainwashing’ of elementary school children“. In an interview he was “horrified” and “had tears in [his] eyes” after seeing the video, saying “It’s so heartbreaking to see little kids brainwashed.”

As opposed to an age appropriate discussion of tolerance, respect and value of each individual person, regardless of their beliefs and values; the same-sex discussions on the videos illustrate an agenda which is divisive and take on a re-directive approach of intolerance toward those who do not believe as they do. There is mention of children and their same-sex parents needing protection, having an open mind towards same-sex relationships, as opposed to those who “think stupidly” by having a problem with these types of relationships - This, coming from the children themselves. As seen at the beginning of the first video, a teacher feels compelled to promote the “homosexual” agenda because, “it is right”.

UPDATE: YouTube has pulled the videos. They are available at this site.

LifeSite source

My thoughts returned to Cardinal Ratzinger’s final homily before he was elected Pope as I was trying to ignore the talking head on MSNBC this morning at the gym. The story he was covering was the Department of Veteran’s Affairs settlement of a lawsuit by the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State demanding that the Wiccan pentacle be available as an option on Veteran’s headstones (see the NYT story here). Indeed, this was inevitable. For almost a decade now the military services have allowed Wiccans as chaplains. It is clear that modernity, not to mention postmodernity, does not possess the intellectual faculties by which they might make some discernment between religious belief that requires protection and accommodation, and inventions that promote socially destructive ideologies.

As Benedict suggested in his Regensburg lecture, in the Christian West Duns Scotus’ move toward voluntarism was the first step. While not an absolute voluntarist, he indicated that God’s freedom was such that He could change the second table of the Ten Commandments (those which deal with man’s relationship with God) if He wished . His student, William of Ockham took that ball and ran with it. Ockham absolutized this voluntarism and undergirded it with his philosophy of Nominalism and thus began the Western march toward modern thought.

Rene Descartes, often “extolled” by moderns as the father of modern philosophy, unintentionally ontologized skepticism in trying to combat it. His cogito ergo sum provided the fetid soil for such destructive thinkers as Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, Feuerbach, Marx, and Freud. As an aside, I find it very telling in helping undergraduate students here at the U of I with their term papers in philosophy and religious studies. The only thinkers to whom they are exposed, the so-called heroes of modern thought (if it can be called thought), comprise the rogues gallery for the defenders of common sense. The skepticism that these thinkers have swallowed and promoted has led to the acceptance of the most ridiculous of dogmas one might normally associate with the gullible, but this by supposedly the most learned of men. It is this embrace of the ridiculous that has brought us to the point that we see religion as purely personal and have no moral or intellectual foundation whereby we might publicly judge the veracity of and value of social recognition for various modes of religious expression.

As we had Dale Ahlquist here last night, I think it only appropriate to throw some Chestertonian wisdom into the mix. Chesterton in many ways recognized the initial buddings of the ill fruit this thinking has now born. Chesterton described this situation in comparison to detective stories. He said:

“A detective story generally describes six living men discussing how it is that a man is dead. A modern philosophic story generally describes six dead men discussing how any man can possibly be alive.” - A Miscellany of Men

How did we get this way. Well I think its roots are primarily in voluntarism. This began with making God’s will primary, coming before His nature. This ultimately means that God can will anything He wishes. Voluntarism leads to the nonsensical questions such as: “Can God make a mountain larger than He can move?” Voluntarism together with Nominalism ultimately destroyed the idea of nature.; God’s nature and also human nature. With nature gone, freedom needs to be redefined. Human freedom classically means the freedom to use the unique human faculties of reason and will to bring about personal perfection, which is the source of happiness and joy. Freedom was a means to be used for the purpose of perfecting oneself.

However, if in God, freedom comes before His nature it must also be so with men. If it does, then now freedom becomes not the freedom for excellence but the freedom to choose arbitrarily. In fact, now man is placed in opposition to God. If freedom has nothing to do with perfecting oneself then it has nothing to do with happiness. God’s freedom and man’s are arbitrary. God is free to will however He chooses and so man’s has freedom only where God has not restricted it by His arbitrary will. Thus, now God’s will comes at the expense of man’s freedom. Freedom becomes not a means to happiness but an end in itself. Is it any wonder then that the rabid atheists, such as Nietzsche, thought that they had to “kill” God. They fancied themselves as the rescuers of man’s freedom. Chesterton observed this when he said that modern freedom then is not anything more than fear:

“Most modern freedom is at root fear. It is not so much that we are too bold to endure rules; it is rather that we are too timid to endure responsibilities.” - What’s Wrong With the World

This fear has been buttressed by an intellectual hubris that puts more confidence in the intellectual elites’ ability to reason than in the experience of the common man. For the proud modern/postmodern, the average man lives in a fantasy world in which what he thinks he sees and experiences is not reality. Only the gnostic elite (scientists and modern/postmodern philosophers) have the ability to help him see the real world that hides behind the facade of common experience. Of course, Chesterton saw this as well. So what’s the solution? Humility:

“To the humble man, and to the humble man alone, the sun is really a sun; to the humble man, and to the humble man alone, the sea is really a sea.” - Heretics, CW I, p128

In fact, we need to instill humility through a reappropriation of authentic philosophy. This is a realistic philosophy that takes common experience seriously. It is only authentic philosophy when it explains why our minds work in and are made for the world rather than trying to tell us that our minds really do not work at all. Chesterton proposes a “good” revolution as the solution:

“There are two kinds of revolutionists, as of most things - a good kind and a bad. The bad revolutionists destroy conventions by appealing to fads - fashions that are newer than conventions. The good do it by appealing to facts that are older than conventions.” (ILN 4-30-10)

We also need to discover the power of discernment. We need to stop conflating the idea of certitude with intolerance. Chesterton helps us one final time:

“It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.” - The Catholic Church and Conversion

Until then, we are going to have to get comfortable with the idea of our veteran family members’ remains resting next to Warlocks and eventualy Satanists. I think that I will start saving up for a plot in a nice Catholic cemetery thank you.

One last note. If you want to learn more about G. K. Chesterton, I can highly recommend Dale Ahquist as a speaker for introducing your school, parish, community to this formidable thinker, G.K. Chesterton. Dale is witty, warm, which help to convey these qualities that Chesterton himself possessed. Chesterton was a prophetic thinker and what he wrote at the beginning of the 20th century is still a powerful antidote for the problems that he forsaw and that we now possess. I will try to post Dale’s talk last night if there is any interest.

You can also try Dale’s two books that introduce Chesterton at the link above. As a first step, you can get an quick idea of his thought from the same source as I used for these quotes here.

If I could find one silver lining in the windows vista mess, it would have to be the movie maker. It’s really amazing - it has an instant movie maker where all you have to do is provide pictures and a song, and it does pretty much the rest for you. I used an older folder which I rarely use anymore, and found a song that wasn’t from itunes, and walaa… a video. I didn’t go through the trouble of adding graphics or transition effects. If anyone ever wondered what was on my desktop blog pic folder, than this may be you’ve been waiting for. After veiwing this a couple of times, maybe I should have done an edit to get rid of the duplicate and boring pictures, so it’s a little long.

Well it seems that Fresno High School has decided to allow a “transgender” girl student to run for prom king. Why? Because:

Tiffani Sanchez, a science teacher who advises the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, complained.

“Cinthia is still really learning who she is,” she said. “We want her to know that there’s a safe space for her here and we support her.”

And of course, having abandoned common sense, our cultural nihilists have nothing on which to draw in coming up with reasons to reject this complaint. After all:

“We always want to do the right thing by our students,” Vice Principal Sheila Uriarte said. “This is why we came to this decision.”

Unfortunately, all they are doing is abetting the emotional dysfunction this poor young girl is suffering right now. And so we get to this gem from the intellectual fruit of our world renown public educational system:

“It’s not like the stereotype where the king has to be a jock and he’s there with the cheerleaders anymore,” said Reyes, a senior. “We live in a generation now where dudes are chicks and chicks are dudes.”

One would think that it would be obvious that since one still has to appeal to masculinity and femininity in describing “transgender” that one would come to the realization that these are the only two authentic sex differences and all other constructs are deformations of these two. But its not going to happen any time soon. Post-modernism is convinced that we can define nature in any way we choose. So now we live in a generation when dudes are chicks and chicks are dudes.

Since Shelray’s post on Richard Sipe and my post on Fr. Doyle’s, Mr. Sipe’s compadre, e-mail in regard to the post, the issue of orthodoxy and charity seem to have become a point of discussion. Now I do not want to appear to be defensive. I will admit that I am sometimes guilty of reacting combatively or emotionally; perhaps more often than I even realize. Shelray’s more recent post was a good reminder to me to be more attentive to my motivations. Nevertheless, there seems to be a confusion about the meaning of charity and an unstated presupposition that those who defend the Magisterium somehow, almost universally, trade charity for truth.

Let us make our distinctions today. What is charity? Charity at root is agape. It is God’s love which means that it is total Self-gift for the sake of the good of the Other. In close connection with this, it is a theological virtue. The term theological denotes the fact that it is a gift of grace. The term virtue means that it is something that is acquired by habit. Thus, it is something that develops and grows by a gift of grace with which the recipient cooperates. This cooperation begins with the human emulation of Trinitarian agape. Man practices charity by an act of the will in which he wills the good of the other for his own sake. He does this concretely through a total gift of himself to God and in various ways, to others for the sake of God and His love. But one cannot give what he does not possess. Thus, authentic charity requires self-mastery which comes about by a virtuous life. That is, a life lived in accord with the cardinal virtues and of course, aided by grace.

O.k. What does this mean for the way we act. Can charity be determined from outward actions? Not infallibly. Jesus’ overturning, in anger, of the money changers’ tables was by definition, an act of charity but it was not from their perspective, a very nice act. Jesus had in mind their own good and the good of others though. That is not to say that we all have license to run around overturning the tables of those needing fraternal correction. After all, we are not Jesus and we do not have the same insight into people’s souls. Nevertheless, a prudent and temperate (two of the cardinal virtues) person can discern that at times that direct confrontation is necessary. However, pragmatically we must admit that it is more often the case that changing hearts begins with relationships of trust than with acts of direct confrontation. That is why I say a prudent and temperate person.

What this does mean is that while one can often intuit care and concern of another from his actions, charity is not equivalent to appearing to be nice. In fact, many times the opposite is the case. One can be nice to someone to whom he ought to be offering charitable correction because he fears conflict, fears rejection, wants to be affirming, or any number of reasons that take priority over a real concern for the person and the welfare of his entire personhood.

So is it the case that most orthodox people care more for the truth than for charity? Cardinal Ratzinger pointed out that one cannot be separated from the other. One cannot have authentic truth without charity. Nor can one have real charity without the truth. The lack of one, diminishes and often destroys the other. Truth is not simply cognitive content but it is an encounter, in some degree, with Truth Himself. Charity is not simply an emotion or a sweet disposition. It is communion with the Trinitarian Communio, in Jesus Christ. If orthodox people present cognitively true propositions out of hateful motivations they cannot communicate the Person of Christ and when doing so will not be successful in transferring the cognitive proposition to the other. When others reject the truth because they do want to be charitable they destroy charity and rather propagate sin and dysfunction.

Truth and Charity have their fullest expression in the Catholic Church. The Church is the People of God, which means a hierarchical structure with authority given to the Pope, bishops and priests, along with the lay faithful. To pose hierarchical authority against communion and love or to undermine the hierarchical authority and trust puts one in opposition to this ecclesiological truth. To try to claim governing authority for the laity is to reject the revealed truth of the Church. To cast aspersions and caricature every faithful bishop and the hierarchy itself as power hungry, secretive, and self interested and to claim celibacy (which is much more than “just a discipline”) is at the root cause of the sex abuse crisis is not simply a distortion of the facts, it is a cause of scandal. Scandal means to cause any little one to sin, to fall away from the Catholic Church and Her spiritual leadership and especially Her Sacraments. This is tantamount to denying them the healing grace they need, and ultimately putting at grave risk, their eternal salvation.

This is what the acts of those such as A. W. Richard Sipe and Fr. Thomas P. Doyle have the effects of doing. Any one who reads Fr. Doyle’s articles (here are a few more for example: here and here) , his merciless attack of the “institutional Church,” and his support for the anti-Catholic organization Voice of the Faithful or Richard Sipe’s Freudian distortions of the meaning of the human person will have little trouble in agreeing that I have described their actions accurately, even if they do not agree with the conclusions. I hopefully have been successful in avoiding intuiting their motivations/intentions. I certainly have not judged, God forbid, the states of their souls. In good conscience, I believe that this post is done with charity.

I have no illusions that this post is going to remedy any problems by its argument. Perhaps it can provide some food for thought and some clarification of the issues. Regardless of how these gentlemen got to the point at which they now stand, they clearly believe that they are in the right. It will take the Holy Spirit to convince them otherwise. I will pray for them and I hope that you will too.

This newly developed Chimera maintains the body of a sheep while the hybrid’s internal organs are made up of a combination of human and sheep cells. In addition to the obvious grave immorality of developing chimeras that mix animals with humans for any reason what-so-ever, some in the scientific community fear that, “Many silent viruses could create a biological nightmare in humans because mutant animal viruses are a real threat, as we have seen with HIV.” While on the other side of the chasm, the animal rights activists fear for the sheep which could take on human characteristics.

I was tagged by Keith for a Booked by 3–In Character meme. Oh, to be like Forest Gump - one of the most beautiful and inspirational fictional characters ever! Funny how things change our perspective on life.

Name up to three characters . . .

1) . . . you wish were real so you could meet them.

1. Charlotte, Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White

2. Forest Gump, Forest Gump, Winston Groom

2) . . . you would like to be.

1. Forest Gump, Forest Gump, Winston Groom

3) . . . who scare you.

1. Mr. Kurtz, Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

2. Big Brother, 1984, George Orwell

This is the title of a summer institute and conference that is jointly sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Nature and the Institute of Catholic Thought, and is being held at St. John’s Catholic Newman Center in Champaign, IL. The summer institute will begin on Monday, June 11th and end with a conference on Friday and Saturday, June 15th and 16th.

Here is a description of the one week institute:

What:Four days of study and dialog on questions of science, natural philosophy, and their intersection. The questions and issues will be far-ranging, from anti-reductionism, emergentism, and structuralism in science, to “anti-realism” and “pluralism” in philosophy of science, to the continuing relevance of Aristotle’s understanding of nature.

The readings, lectures, and discussions will be organized around the theme of teleology in natural things. Teleology, even in the limited sense of “self-directness” or “intrinsic purposiveness,” has long been a source of controversy in philosophical reflections on nature and science. Using primarily texts and examples from modern chemistry, we will attempt to show that intrinsic teleology is neither a scary “ghostly cause” nor a “science-stopper,” but a common-sense conclusion from the data of modern science, and one that neither undermines the modern scientific edifice, nor remains irrelevant to it.

In order to maximize the value of week, students will be expected to read approximately 300 pages of materials from scientific, philosophical, modern, and classical sources in the month leading up to the Summer Institute. Those readings will be posted for download on this page about a month beforehand.

Here is a description of the conference that is entitled: The Nature of Nature:

What: A one and one-half day academic conference with one or two keynote addresses, and the presentation of 10-15 academic papers. Papers are encouraged on topics ranging from anti-reductionism/holism in science to self-organization, systems theory, and complexity, to papers in natural philosophy in the neo-Aristotelian or phenomenological traditions. See the ISN “articles, essays, and books” page to get a sense of the range or relevant topics.

Go here to read more about the institute and conference. If you are interested or know anyone who might be, I would encourage you to look into attending. It is sure to be a very interesting time.

Facts presented in a lawsuit against the FDA reveal that it had skirted laws and regulations which were originally put into place to ensure all drugs made available to the public are safe and effective. What is most alarming to me in this unprecedented move by the FDA is the approval a more potent formulation of over-the-counter Plan B than those by prescription. The FDA never required or requested any manufacturer information on the safety and efficacy of the higher doses when taken by girls during puberty. Other actions by the FDA which ignored the measures normally put in place to protect the safety of the public include:

A misleading label which does not provide the legally required disclaimers to delineate what it can and cannot do, which is required for ALL MEDICATIONS.

Its failure to conduct the necessary rulemaking process which is required by the Administrative Procedure Act and the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

Its approval of OTC Plan B even after it found that it was unsafe for girls to use this product without medical supervision, as denoted by the fact it is prescription- only for those under 18.

The number of drugs which have failed in FDA approval since the Vioxx incident several years ago is unprecedented. The FDA and the pharmaceutical industry were forced to adhere to the public’s demand for safe and effective drugs, and as seen in recent months, if there are any hints of a concern over the safety of a drug - the FDA and the press are quick to respond. This issue of FDA approval of OTC Plan B is not only a concern for morality, but it is also a concern over women’s health and safety and this concern is now being expressed by those in the medical community. We have witnessed the corruption of a process meant to ensure product safety and efficacy by an institution which has been entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the public. The FDA has now betrayed that trust by allowing a politicially motivated agenda to trump the responsiblity they have towards those who could be potentially harmed by Plan B. The American Association of Physicians and Surgeons understand the significance of this irresponsible move by the FDA, which contradicts all of the rules and regulations, and yes even common sense, instituted for the purpose of public safety. That is why they have chosen to bring the FDA to court. In this instance, the FDA took it upon themselves to establish their own protocols in leiu of statutory and ethically mandated regulations because they caved into political pressure. This is totally irresponsible and should be of major concern to us all.

LifeSite

If you are on the vicinity of Champaign, IL this coming Monday you might be interested in this:

The Institute of Catholic Thought Spring Speaker Series introduces:

G.K. Chesterton: The Heavyweight Champion of Faith and Reason

One of the most prolific, most popular, and most prophetic writers of his time, G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) has been all but forgotten in today’s academy. How did this happen? Why does the world need to rediscover this fascinating writer?

Come and hear Dale Ahlquist, President of the American Chesterton Society and EWTN personality, re-introduce you to the writer that George Bernard Shaw called “A Colossal Genius.”

Where: Lewis Lounge St. John’s Catholic Newman Center, 604 E. Armory Ave, Champaign, IL

When: 7:30pm; Monday, April 23, 2007

While searching deep into our never ending stacks old snap-shots for some pictures we hoped to include in a DVD for our niece’s birthday party next weekend, I stumbled upon some pictures that were taken when we first started dating - 13 years ago! It’s been ages since we happened across these particular pictures, and after getting a good laugh over our big hair styles, we resumed our search for the ever elusive pictures of Sarah, our niece.

Finding these pictures the night before Mercy Sunday begged me to ask the question, how often have I choked the ones (everyone and anyone) He loves? As if it were yesterday, I remember the state of my soul, heart and mind when these pictures were taken. It had been about 10 years since I stepped foot into a church, and even longer since I received The Eucharist or the sacrament of penance. Even though we were both from families who had taught the difference between right and wrong, we chose to excel in rationalizing our apathetic attitudes and decadent lifestyles. The thing I remember most was the profound emptiness I felt late at night while laying in bed before going to sleep. Sure, I remember being happy and optimistic at times, but that was always totally dependent on the specific situation at a particular time in my life.

To put it plainly and simply, we were both really broken, yet God loved us to the point of continually drawing us to Himself, infinitely more than we sought to love Him. Despite our best efforts to go to hell in a hand basket, God’s love and mercy continued to work on our hearts. I believe that from the start, we were always meant to be together. We met in college where, if things worked out as planned, I should have been one year ahead in the curriculum with little to no chance of us ever crossing paths. The missing college transcripts, the denied financial loan applications, and required college classes being filled prior to my enrollment, and all the other major disappointments in getting my college degree - all was for a purpose in God’s merciful plan.

Although my soul has been cleansed of the sins committed, many of the scars remain. Of course, I don’t enjoy my struggles, nor am I always patient with the burden of which I am solely responsible, but I have come to realize that I need them at this point in my life to compensate for my hardness of heart. Unless I am willing to, and perform, tangible acts of mercy to others - the same that which was given freely to me - I am the slave who had his debt forgiven by his Master, but choked and jailed another who pleaded for the same. As evident by some of my blog posts, I quite often fall short of the mark.

A few days ago, we did a post on Richard Sipe in the context of a new book that he coauthored with two others. One of the co-authors, Fr. Thomas Doyle, took issue with some of our facts and the tone of our blog in an e-mail. Because we closed down comments and as a matter of fairness, I am posting his e-mail here (though of course, I will also have my own comments afterward):

Dear Mr. Delaney,

I am writing this to you because it appears that you are one of the directors/managers of the blog site on which the review of Sex, Priests and Secret Codes appeared. If I have your title or role wrong, please accept my apologies. I have no intention of continuing the debate that was apparently closed.

I had never heard of the site until someone sent me a copy of the review on line. I read it over and the attached comments. I happen to be one of the three authors and am disappointed that the review was not actually a critical review, which I would have welcomed, but rather and attack on the authors.

In this regard I’d like to point out that there are several factual errors in both the review and the ensuing comments. Mr. Sipe’s name is misspelled but more important, it is alleged that he is still obligated to celibacy. Mr. Sipe was dispensed and laicized before he initiated a relationship with his wife. He was validly married in the Catholic Church and has remained a close friend of his former abbey in Minnesota. The same is true of Patrick Wall, also validly dispensed and married.

I read with both interest and amusement the theory advanced as to why I have some of the supposed (but quite incorrect) attitudes toward the hierarchy and the Church. One of the statements held that it stems from my experience as a tribunal judge. I will not comment on my personal attitudes but I will say that this statement is totally false. It is true that I served for many years in various tribunal positions and it is also true that I did a great deal of research and writing into canonical issues related to marriage. It is also true that my experience with the Chicago tribunal where I did nearly all my tribunal work, was enriching and spiritually fulfilling. I was privileged to learn from the experience of some preeminent canonists and priests, all of whom are retired now or deceased.

My final thought or comment is this: I read with great interest the remarks attached to the review but also much of the other information that I was able to find on the blog page. I found much of it interesting and personally enlightening. But I was also struck by a tone that saddened me and it is this: a significant lack of charity manifested by many who disagree with the ideas or writings of others, especially the so-called ˜liberal or critical people. In my many years in the priesthood I have gone through many phases and perhaps the most painful one has been facing the fact that many of us have sacrificed charity, a core Christian virtue, for our concepts of orthodoxy.

God’s blessings on you.

Thomas Doyle

I have been familiar with Fr. Doyle for many years, though I have never met him. He was stationed as an AF chaplain at a nearby airfield to my assignment in the early 1990s. This is where I learned some things, second hand, about his background. This is perhaps also why almost every time I come across something written by him, I am saddened, as one is when an friend or near acquaintance goes astray. Perhaps the added camaraderie that is often shared among servicemen, especially from the same service, adds to this. However, more than that, the sadness also comes from his office as priest I suppose. That one who took a vow to help shepherd Christ’s people through the authority given to him by the Church, has taken it upon himself to misuse that authority to teach the sheep using his personal opinions about what he thinks the Church should be. Fore example, in June 2002 he wrote an article for the National Catholic Reporter in which he espouses a reductionist view of the Church. He states:

Medieval church is dying

All one has to do is take an impartial look at the traditional governmental model, clearly outlined in the Code of Canon Law, to see the concept of monarchy loud and clear. That model doesn’t work anymore! The false presumption of uneducated, sinful masses is a figment of history. The people, led by the abuse survivors, won’t tolerate an institutional church that puts looking good and the preservation of power and control above the emotional and spiritual welfare of persons. The medieval church is dying, terminally afflicted with the virus called “œclericalism.”

This is all a painful reminder of the fact that the Catholic church is centered on Jesus Christ, not any human structure. Furthermore, its claims to reflect the word and example of Christ must be present in the real life of the church, not just in sermons or theology books. It means little to a wounded survivor to say “the church is love unless we do it, not by word but by action.

To consider the hierarchical structure of the Church something separate from the constitution of the Church herself is clearly outside the bounds of authoritative Church teaching. In fact, his whole article can be understood as flawed expectations arising from a distorted ecclesiology. What I mean is that he espouses a caricature of the hierarchical aspect of the Church as a power hungry monarchy and then criticizes Her for not acting according to this caricature when it comes to problem of the abuse of minors by some priests. He then jumps to an unwarranted conclusion that it is this structure that is fundamentally the problem.

What I find most troubling is that it seems to me that the three authors of the book discussed in the earlier post, are in a sense complicit in further victimizing these abuse victims. Instead of helping them to heal through reconciling them to the Church of which they feel alienated and victimized because they were abused by one of Her representatives, they further fan the flames of distrust of the Church as an institution. In fact, it is becoming clear that they and others are raising the expectations of these victims to consider that unless the Church changes Her structure and Her teaching on priestly celibacy (among other things) then She is not adequately or sincerely responding to the victims. This is the message in Fr. Doyle’s article, the message I get from perusing the Doyle, Sipe, Wall book, and especially the message articulated by organizations like SNAP and VOTF (both of whom Fr. Doyle seems to have close ties with).

True healing for the victims of clergy sexual abuse requires many things, but it cannot come without an authentic understanding of the nature of the Church and their reconciliation with the Church in these terms. They must be helped to recognize, contra Sipe’s Freudian jibberish, that it is not celibacy, and contra Fr. Doyle erroneous ecclesiology, that it is not the Church’s hierarchical structure that led to their abuse. Rather, it was the crimes of sinful men in the most sinful abuse of trust imaginable. But abuse does not warrant disuse of a structure (the Church hierarchy) or gift (consecrated celibacy) that Christ suffered and died to give us.

The findings of the National Review Board make it obvious that celibacy and Church structure were not the problem. The John Jay Report makes it clear that while a problem has always and will always exist in the fallen world, the proportion of bad priests is returning to the extremely low rates, compared to the larger society from which the Church draws Her priests, that it saw prior to the turmoil of the 1960s.

To the extent that the three authors are motivated by authentic concern for victims I am not faulting them, but I do earnestly pray for them because good intentions alone are insufficient. That is why I also pray for their victims because they will not find the healing they need and deserve until they are freed from those who tell them to seek revenge and especially change in ways that cannot come. They need to hear from these people that they need to forgive and to return to the embrace of Christ through His Mystical Body–the Catholic Church and Her Sacraments.

There is something about the poetic expression together with the pleasing tonal qualities of some African American Baptist preachers that I find to be particularly faith affirming. The late Dr. Shadrach Meshach (S.M.) Lockridge, a Texas born Baptist preacher, is one such example. Here is a YouTube tribute to Dr. Lockridge and his waxing eloquent about Our King, that illustrates what I am talking about:

As another Baptist preacher once said: “now if that don’t light your fire, then your wood must be wet.”

A new stained glass window in Saint Jan cathedral, one of the finest Gothic churches in Holland, is built up of about 20 different panes which depict different representations of heaven & hell. One of the panes looks rather unusual because it contains a clear photograph of the second plane just before crashing into the WTC. The maker of the stained glass explained it shows “hell on earth” which is easily “related to the spirit of this time.”

According to the Linacre Institute, the major cause of the sex-abuse scandal in The Church goes beyond isolated incidents and poor judgment of disturbed individuals. The problem of today can actually be traced back to the 1950s, when the basic religious purpose and intellectual formation of many priests began to mutate into what is commonly referred to today as a progressive Catholic. Catholic World News highlights an in-depth analysis from a book called After Ascetism: Sex, Prayer, and Deviant Priests which explains why the sexual problems of some go well beyond pedophilia or pederasty, and more importantly outlines the key elements which provide a solution. These solutions can empower the Church to break free from some of the failures of psychology specialists who have never had an interest or comprehension of religious devotion, chastity, prayer, ascetical discipline, in other words, an adequate understanding of the whole human person.

The Linacre Institute, which was founded within the Catholic Medical Association to develop position papers on various bioethical issues, has taken a special interest in the role that the sciences and professions have in shaping judgment and opinion on sexual ethics, and the treatment of disturbed priests, and has supported efforts to advance Catholic social teaching in these areas. With After Asceticism the Institute has made an important contribution to a discussion– long overdue– about the collapse of clerical discipline that allowed the sex-abuse crisis to develop.

The core change over the course of the twentieth century was one of purpose or allegiance– leaving behind ascetical discipline, having disdain for religious tradition, and adopting the therapeutic mentality, a popular belief that fulfillment of the human person springs from emotional desire in a quest for self-definition, or self-actualization, without regard to an objective philosophical, religious or moral truth. Further, the therapeutic mentality views sin as a social concern and discourages loyalty to religious authority; it is profoundly anti-ascetical.

As society becomes more deeply immersed in pagan sexuality, the Catholic Church will remain mired in sexual crisis absent a return to its ascetical tradition.

Edwina Gateley, a Catholic laywoman and author of 10 books, got cold feet and opted out of her speaking engagement, when informed her seminar would be taped in order to review content during a retreat at a Franciscan Renewal Center. She stood to lose $4,000 from the canceled engagement, but two unidentified women who thought it best to remain anonymous covered the costs to speak at a series of alternative events during the same time frame. Since her feminist theology of a feminine god is well known, I have my suspicions about the retreat organizers and the 20 nuns who signed up to hear her.

Gateley insists that her refusal of being recorded is due to the producers of her copy written material forbidding outside tapings of her talks, but is more likely the manifestation of her fundamental rejection of authority along with the fear and insecurity that comes from being denied the total control to which she is accustomed.