Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex

Britney Spears, following in the footsteps of her mentor Madonna, has chosen to use the Catholic Church as a launching pad for some cheap, controversial publicity to market her new album release. While Spears posed in several pictures that depict her seducing a priest in the confessional, you have the usual suspects in the press eagerly anticipating a reaction from Church representatives. In walks William Donahue (for whom I have respect along with the belief that he does as best he can) of the Catholic League who proceeds to launch a bunker buster Scud by taking a personal swipe at Spears.

The conundrum on how to fulfil our obligation to protect the Church from slander and abuse while not feeding in to the hands of the desperate publicity hounds and those who take joy in wounding the Church is nothing short of frustrating. In my opinion, a great place to start would be to focus mainly on the issue at hand and not on the perps themselves.  Given the fact that there will always be attacks at some level aimed at the Church, we must not only do our best to avoid doing any collateral damage which may feed the fire of anti-catholicism but also train ourselves to remain calm, couragous and sincere in our defense of Catholics and the truths within the Church. Easier said than done, I know. That’s not to say that from time to time I haven’t indulged in the guilty pleasures of seeing Donahue giving them hell.

Thomas previewed Bella and has his reactions.  He also has a megapost on the movie.

Ian (from Aquinas and More) posts a youtube video of his three year old daughter chanting the Sanctus. If a three year old can chant in Latin, it would seem that one of the more popular excuses often used against its use does not hold water.

If misery no longer existed, I sometimes wonder what some people would do with their lives. Despair is the tool of the devil, and a particular disciple of despair named Jan Egesborg has dedicated his life as an artist to dealing with the misery of world the only way he knows how–by spreading it. The idea behind Surrend.org, his website, is to make fun of the world’s powerful men and crazy ideological conflicts by using the street as it’s exhibition space with stickers and posters to express themselves. His latest project was created specifically for the Polish speaking Catholics as he slandered John Paul II by placing him in hell with notorious Nazi’s. Egesborg commented that the initial response from Poles has been a strong reaction to his “satirical” webpage, “for Poles it is just as controversial as the Mohamed cartoon was for Muslims,” he said.

Based on his exploitation of real victims of repression and abuse, this guy revels in his own vain glory while at the same time he redistributes his own anger and resentment on to those whom he despises. Join us in congratulating Jan as today’s C-L-S Misery Loves Company poster child.

American Life League has just launched a new interactive, detailed mapping system which track the locations of Planned Parenthood centers along with the type of abortions performed at each clinic. The map was originally established as a guide for those who want to peacefully protest abortions. Included with each clinic is a protest info tab with the latest protest information for that particular clinic.

H/T: LifeSite

Historian Sergio Luzzatto’s latest book The Other Christ: Padre Pio and 19th Century Italy has deduced that Padre Pio faked his stigmata through pouring carbolic acid on his hands. A secret Vatican document found by Luzzatto revealed how a pharmacist remembered a young Padre Pio buying four grams of carbolic acid in 1919. The testimony was originally presented to the Vatican by the Archbishop of Manfredonia, Pasquale Gagliardi, as proof that Padre Pio caused his own stigmata with acid.

What I suspect is conveniently omitted from Luzatto’s novel is a fair disclosure on the truth surrounding Archbishop Gagliardi’s “veritable satanic war” waged against Padre Pio. For what ever reason, the Archbishop was bent on sabotaging St. Pio’s ministry through baseless accusations of sexual and monetary improprieties and soliciting falsified letters which were then forwarded to the Vatican. When in truth, it was the archbishop himself who was the center of controversy which included public accusations of sexual molestation, unchastity and faulty accounting errors, in addition to his diocese being infected with continued and habitual pederasty as well as acts of cleric sodomy. The Vatican eventually removed him from his diocese.

Saint Pio never retaliated nor ever criticized Archbishop Gagliardi and immediately said Mass for him after his death. It is said that the angriest he was ever seen about the archbishop’s attacks was against one of his own supporters who had verbally attacked Gagliardi – another fact that will most likely never come to light in Luzzatto’s book which has the stench of anti-catholicism which far exceeds that of carbolic acid.

As a follow up to a post I did last December, 51-year-old Larry Cirignano, the former head of Catholic Citizenship, was acquitted of violating civil rights and misdemeanor assault and battery against ACLU employee Sarah Loy who claimed she was pushed to the ground during a rally which opposed same-sex marriage. The  official statement by Cirignano’s attorney stated:

“We believe the overwhelming evidence was that the complainant in this case, Sarah Loy, tripped over someone’s foot and was not pushed by Lawrence Cirignano. In addition, the law is clear that since the Let the People Vote rally had a permit to hold its rally and therefore Ms. Loy (of the ACLU) did not have a right to disrupt that rally by bearing her contrary message into the permitted rally. The judge agreed with our position on this point and dismissed the violation of civil rights charge again Mr. Cirignano. Now the jury has agreed with the defense’s position on the assault and battery charge and exonerated Mr. Cirignano. This is a fortunate result for Mr. Cirignano and the law.”

As of yet, there has been no apology for the defamation of character by Loy or her attorney.

Thomas over at American Papist responds to Archibhop Niederauer’s comment to CNS today that the is “a kind of dangerous, endless recess in a global schoolyard where the bullies with the biggest bullhorns can shout whatever they want.”

He has also posted a major summary and analysis of the recent decision by the Connecticut bishops to provide Plan B under duress.

The other day I cited John Paul’s admonition of what happens when we forget God–man become an enigma to himself and ends up turning against himself. As I was preparing for a theology of the body lecture, I reread John Paul’s Jan 20th, 1980 Wednesday Audience in which he teaches that because man is created in the image of God, Who is Self-gift, man becomes a gift to the world.

How different this view of man is from those who have rejected God. We are hearing more and more from even the mainstream media about man as not a gift to the world but rather its bane. This view is being fed to them by misguided atheistic ecologists who, after rejecting the Triune, transcendent God of Christianity, have divinized sub-personal creation. They now consider mankind a virus. For example, last year a Texas ecologist was being investigated by the FBI for statements he made that seemed to advocate bio-terrorism. According to LifeSite he said:

“Good terrorists would be taking [Ebola Reston and Ebola Zaire] so that they had microbes they could let loose on the Earth that would kill 90 percent of people.”

To “save” the world from the “scourge of humanity” he advocates the eradication of 90% of what he terms the “fat, human biomass.” Earlier this year an interview with an author who wrote a book about what would happen if humans suddenly disappeared from the earth, Matt Lauer from the Today Show seems to advocate this same line of thinking. Rather than asking critical questions, he and co-host Meredeth Vieira talk about human developments such as cities, dams, canals, etc. as making a mess of the environment. They both agree that the world would be much better off without us. What the world without humanity would mean is a unanswered question. Does it make a difference to the world if it is a molten mass of lava or a lush green paradise? These confused souls seem to presuppose that “better off” means pristine conditions for the highest forms of life but then they reject the highest forms of life–human beings–as the problem. This dichotomous thinking is also epidemic amongst those fanning global warming hysteria. Global warming, if human caused, will only harm humans…so what would be the beef that these anti-human ecologists have with it?

Let’s look at this confused “thinking” a little more closely. The interesting thing here is that the first premise in their logic is that humanity is just another form of life, with no more value than any other. They reduce humanity to the animal aspect of its hylomorphic nature. However, they then have to distinguish humanity from the rest of the animals in order to be able to declare that human beings are the virus while the rest of the animal kingdom is not.

Therefore, for the next step in logic they are forced to make a distinction and it is a fundamental one. The reason that humans are dangerous for the world are that they alone have the capacity to transcend themselves and their environment. The capacity that makes us distinctly different from the rest of creation is no longer a sign that man has a vastly higher moral worth than sub-personal animals. Rather, not being constrained by instinct and having intellect and will, free will, becomes a danger that reduces us to the level, ironically enough, of a virus. A virus is a non-living entity that has no free will and simply responds to environmental pressures according to its nature. A virus is seen as bad, by the way, because it is dangerous to humans. There is no consistency in thought here, except to throw whatever one can at one overriding idea–the self-hatred of man.

However, it would not be correct to say that this self-hatred arises simply out of nowhere. It is a self-hatred that arises from a hatred of God and the fact that we are made in His image. It is a rebellion against the only creature which God put here on earth for its own sake. When one rejects God, he rejects himself and comes to hate in himself the reminder that he is created in God’s image–his free will. Paradoxically, he must employ and, in fact, make his will into an idol in order to do so. But again, we have shown that it is hate and self-will, not logic, which drives this movement.

We have removed God from public life and our late-modern thinking has eliminated the idea of things having a nature. The result is that there is no foundation for morality. One can no longer speak of divine law in public discourse. Nor can one easily speak of natural law because there is professed to be (by our high priests of modern science) no order to nature but a random arrived at arrangement of matter (that only begrudgingly will these “thinkers” admit is ordered). The “thinking” exhibited by these folks is vague at best. If one recalls the tradition that Satan’s non serviam was a rebellion against serving humanity because its animality was too far below him, one might justly call this latest assault on human dignity, satanic.

The half way point of the 40 Days for Life has just passed and a part of me feels a sense of relief where I am really ready for this thing to end, while the other side of me knows that this may be a beginning of which I should never return to where I once was a little more than three weeks ago. I’m not exactly sure why so many of us have chosen to use the word “addicted” when referring to a strange phenomena of being drawn to stand in front of an abortion clinic for hours at a time, day after day only to hear the exhaustible noise of car horns blowing for support, mixed in with an occasional inaudible pro-abortion blurb and a glimpse of the infamous middle finger salute. Where I stand today, the best reason or explanation I can give for being drawn into the pro-life movement CANNOT be described as a noble act of personal sacrifice or an offering of myself to the pro-life movement, BUT more of a means of fulfilling a spiritual hunger and emptiness that has always been.

A couple weeks ago, a hand full of us were interviewed by the local paper, as was planned parenthood. I was disappointed but not surprised by the fact that the article largely reinforced a stereo-typical integrity and character issue of people involved in the pro-life movement.

Yvonne Gutierrez, vice president of community affairs for Planned Parenthood of San Antonio and South Central Texas, disputes organizers’ claims that the protest has been free of harassment. She said there have been flare-ups that have required staffers to call police.

“What bothers us is the yelling and screaming at the patients,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez said the clinic called police on a recent Saturday when a protester was harassing a patient. Authorities did respond, but no arrests were made. She also said some material that’s handed out contains erroneous information, meant to “scare” patients — a claim protesters deny.

Where there is no crisis, just lie and invent one. Planned parenthood’s 911 trigger finger was evident from day one, when they called the police for no other reason than people gathering for a rally in a parking lot across the street from their clinic. There have also been multiple calls to police by phantom pedestrians who were allegedly blocked from using the sidewalk by pro-life advocates.

Unfortunately, the Planned Parenthood play book not only relies on slander to blunt the effectiveness of the pro-life movement, but also employ tactics of intimidation and manipulation against their own customers. You can read here how a planned parenthood escort referred to our literature as trash and would not physically allow an interested woman to take our material. Last Saturday a mother, whose daughter had changed her mind about getting an abortion after spending 30 minutes with a counselor and making an appointment with the pregnancy crisis center, was denied a refund of her money until she physically brought the girl inside of the clinic. They both went inside the clinic with the assurance of refund, but were never seen leaving the clinic up to 3 – 4 hours after the fact.

To date, there have been success’s including at least 4 who have decided against abortion after being processed through the pregnancy center, one of which who has decided to heroically carry her baby to term despite a very poor prognosis for a very sick baby, may God bless all of them.

LifeSite article on 40 Days for Life halfway point.

LifeSiteNews reports on a Norwegian pre-school operator, backed by child psychologists, who are pressing to encourage kindergarten children to dance naked and masturbate. The psychologist fears that unless these children learn to their sexuality, “thing can go very wrong.” He doesn’t seem to have a clue though, that their is a wrong way and a wrong time to try to learn it. However, I must admit that these would be child abusers are not without any restraint. They say:

“… their sexuality must also be socialized, so they are not, for example, allowed to masturbate while sitting and eating. Nor can they be allowed to pressure other children into doing things they don’t want to,

Sure, I can see that. Eating and masturbating would just be plain impolite. The article reminds of a German government education pamphlet from earlier this summer in which the German Ministry for Family Affairs encouraged parents to sexually massage their children, for fathers to pay attention to their young daughters’ genitals, and for parents to teach their children the movements done in copulation.

Recently the APA released a report on the dangers of early sexualization of children. At least some professionals are still able to see clearly enough in this country to realize that children need to be protected from sexualization. However, given the way that we follow Europe in the slippery slope to social mayhem, I would not be surprised if the APA doesn’t reverse themselves on this in the not too distant future. Remember, this is the group that allowed activist pressure to force them remove from their list of sexual disorders same sex attraction disorder such that now any doctor who tries to treat it as a disorder is in danger of being punished or expelled for “unethical” practices.

When man forgets God, he becomes an enigma to himself and eventually turn on himself. This is what we are seeing today. Science has no resources for ascertaining morality, nor do they have the resources to understand the complete human person. Empirical data can and is interpreted in ways that support ideologies and so I would argue that because Europe has removed God from public life they have no defense against the implosion of their culture. Unfortunately, because our cultural “elite” in the entertainment and news media, and among social “progressives” are intent on following Europe in this secularization of public life, our hopes don’t look very promising either.

Here are a couple of articles that you might find interesting (at least I do), from the Peoria Diocese Newspaper, The Catholic Post:

Here is one on the director of the Institute of Catholic Thought

Here is one on the Institute itself

CNA has run an article (posted on EWTN’s news review) on a book by Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, Australia on the issue of Catholics and the practice of artificial contraception. Well, Cardinal Pell is at it again. I guess that he did not learn his lesson when he was reported to the CDF last year for ignoring Church teaching on the primacy of conscience.

In a new book, Cardinal Pell identifies the main problems with the heresy of rejecting this irreformable Church teaching on the supposition that one’s conscience can contradict Magisterial authority. Here are some snippets from the article:

Taking a metaphor from Oxford professor Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, the cardinal called this belief that has spread among Catholics the “Donald Duck heresy,” referring to the Disney character who “knows it all”, and “has an unshakeable conviction of self-righteousness.” The self-indulgent duck, explains Pell, is well-meaning but “his activity is often disastrous for himself and others.”

The same thing happens with Catholics who practice and promote a disordered vision of human sexuality through contraception, abortion and the destruction of embryos.

With claims to “primacy of conscience,” he said, “they falsely believe themselves in the right, while they thus distort the image of God which the Creator intended to convey in the fruitful sexual union of husband and wife.”

“Too many ‘Donald Ducks’ produce a ‘feel good’ society, which works to remove personal guilt, anything that would make people feel uncomfortable, and complacent self-satisfaction becomes a virtue,” writes Pell. “Confession of sins is replaced with therapy, and self-reproach with self-discovery.”

Well, in case you don’t make it to the article I linked to from last year, here is my short summary of Church teaching on conscience that explains what the Cardinal says what he does:

Conscience is not a source of Divine Revelation, nor it is a process of reflective moral speculation on par with the Magisterium. Rather, it is a faculty by which one 1) becomes aware of objective moral norms, 2) applies the norms to the given situation, 3) judges whether one’s actions are in conformance with these norms, and then 4) either acquits or condemns the person in his action or failure to act. Notice here there is no place for determining whether the Church teaching on objective moral norms is correct or not. That is not a function of conscience. A person can honestly err in any of the above steps and be morally inculpable. However, he cannot consciously dissent from revealed truth as authoritatively taught by the Magisterium and inculpably absolve himself from acting justly, by falsely classifying his action as a judgment of conscience.

You know, I never thought about it before but since an errant will is the primary source of all error it is quite appropriate to use a clown symbol like ole Donald to represent those who steel their wills against the authority Christ left here on earth. In the end, those of us who do so often end up looking quite foolish in our attempts at rationalization.

In celebration of the Year of St. Paul, join us for an…

IN-DEPTH CATHOLIC BIBLE STUDY ON

ST. PAUL’S LETTER TO THE ROMANS with Prof. Michael Barber

Come and learn the biblical roots of the Catholic faith!!! Learn what St. Paul really said about good works, the sacraments, Original Sin, the fate of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, etc.
When: Tuesdays beginning October 16th @ 7pm
Where: John Paul the Great Catholic University ( 10174 Old Grove Road / San Diego , CA 92131 )
For more information: tel. (1-858-653-6740) / www.jpcatholic.com

Free Admission!!!

Michael Barber is the Professor of Theology, Scripture & Catholic Thought at John Paul the Great Catholic University. Prof. Barber is currently finishing a Ph.D. in Theology at Fuller. He is the author of a number of books on Scripture and hosts the nationally syndicated radio show, Reasons for Faith Live. You can read the Biblical Theology blog he shares with Catholic New Testament scholar Dr. Brant Pitre at www.singinginthereign.blogspot.com.

You will discover…

• Why Catholics are called “Roman” Catholics

• How St. Paul’s teaching is related to that of Christ’s in the Gospels

• How the Dead Sea Scrolls relate to Romans and confirm the Catholic interpretation of this book

• How studying the writings of ancient Rabbis helps us understand St. Paul

• How nature itself points to the existence of God

• How Paul describes himself as a priest

• The meaning of Jewish kosher (food) laws, circumcision and animal sacrifice

• Why Christians are not bound by such rituals and laws today

• Why faith alone is not enough for salvation

• What happened to the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel… will they be found & saved?

• What St. Paul really said about original sin and mortification

…and much, much more!

Here is a summary of the subject issue of Dappled Things, courtesy of Bernard Aparicio, magazine President:

With all the pied beauty of fall leaves upon the still-green grass, comes the “Mary, Queen of Angels 2007″ edition of Dappled Things, now available online. The new issue is brimming over with wonderful essays, stories, poems, and works of art by talented young writers and artists working within the Catholic tradition. I hope you will have a chance to explore our website and invite your readers to do the same.

Herewith a sampling of the marvelous pieces you will find in our “Mary, Queen of Angels 2007″ edition:

- Following the September implementation date of Pope Benedict’s much talked-about motu proprio, comes Philip Carl Smith’s “The Monastery, the Motu Proprio, and the Heart of the Church,” a personal meditation on the importance of liturgy for the Church’s life:

Dom Antoine Forgeot, the abbot of Notre Dame de Fontgombault, greeted me upon my arrival at the monastery by pouring water on my hands before the evening meal, welcoming me as if I were Christ. Fontgombault, founded in the eleventh century, has had an immense influence on the religious life of France and the United States since its reestablishment in 1948 by the Benedictines of Solesmes, and it is now an important center of Gregorian chant. For several days this past summer I received the hospitality of the monks, attending the singing of the Divine Office and participating in the solemn conventual Mass chanted each day according to the Missal of Blessed John XXIII—a form of the Mass also known as the usus antiquior or the Tridentine Mass.

– The main character in Eve Tushnet’s “Distortions” struggles with questions as applicable to a distopian world as to our own:

And that’s how my thing is all over. Crumpled up, crippled. Like a glob with deep wrinkles, almost folds or fissures, covered with lanugo, and a thing like a face on one end. You can definitely see the noseholes and the mouth, and you can tell where the eyes should be, but either they aren’t there or they’re gummed shut. I’m not really interested in that part; what I’m supposed to be investigating are the flippers and the wings. I don’t like these ones, the very large malformations. They’re part of the reason I want to move into a more administrative or research-design position, rather than directly carrying out the work.

– Author Eleanor Bourg Donlon treats us to a second installment of her developing Magdalen Montague saga in “The Flight from Magdalen Montague” :

I found the girl on the street, as one does. Down by the Danube. I glanced into the ugly green depths of the river and thought of filth. And then I looked up and saw her. A miserable object, but well suited to my purpose. Blonde, with straggling hair, and small, dull eyes. Rather like that girl in Vienna. Do you remember her? She wept when we left, but I think it was because she had wanted more money.

- Poet Gabriel Olearnik ponders the end of times in “An English Apocalypse” [C-L-S apology: our formatting options are few and it is somewhat cumbersome to accommodate each stich so please consider each semi-colon as a new line...or better yet, follow the link]:

Death, War, Famine; and the other member of the band; (you know the one, his name escapes me); Will run amok in Camden market; And overturn three stalls of leather goods; And upset some arrangements; Of ersatz Gucci handbags.

- Pope John Paul II’s theology of the body has much to say about relations between the sexes, but what is its connection to social justice? Catherine Rose explores this question in “Social Justice and the Theology of the Body”:

Secular governing bodies have their particular roles in the temporal sphere. But they cannot substitute the work of the Church, who addresses the needs of the whole person, including the ultimate transcendent need. It is an impoverishment for Catholic charitable organizations to discount or deny their spiritual ministry.

- Our featured article for this issue explores the nature of art and beauty through the work of 20th century Catholic painter Carl Schmitt in a profound essay written by his son, historian Carl Schmitt, Jr.:

Artistic beauty is only possible because of the Incarnation. In this world, we cannot see God’s supreme beauty: We can only find our way to it through the light of faith. Through the Incarnation, we may now experience God in this world through our own discovery of the beauty in people and things.

Visit our website (www.dappledthings.org) to enjoy these works and many more. Spread the Word!

Sincerely in Christ,

Bernardo Aparicio, President, Dappled Things

Earlier this year we did a post about Ashley’s treatment in which a young, disabled girl was surgically “mutilated” in the misguided thinking that keeping her from sexually maturing and growing to normal size would make her life more comfortable.

MSNBC reports today that the doctor who performed the surgery, Daniel F. Gunther, killed himself last month.  There was no reporting on motive.

I was surprised the other day when some students asked me about Friday abstinence. I was not surprised that one of them did not realize that every Friday of the year was supposed to be observed but that another student had read an article in This Rock magazine (from a couple of years back) saying that Friday penance outside of Lent was optional.

The article was by James Akin whom I usually, but not always, agree with. He is a fairly logical thinker and as usual, in his article he presents a reasonable case. He cites both Canon Law (CIC 1251 and 1253) and the NCCB/USCCB Pastoral Statement on Penance and Absitnence from 1966 which removed the obligation for abstaining from meat outside of Lent. The canons read as follows:

Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Can. 1253 The conference of bishops can determine more precisely the observance of fast and abstinence as well as substitute other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety, in whole or in part, for abstinence and fast.

Akin understands the 1966 Pastoral to be still in force, which is correct. Further, he reads the Pastoral in the context of his understanding of the first clause of Canon 1253, giving the conference of bishops the authority to more precisely determine the observance of fast and abstinence. The Pastoral unmistakeably says that abstinence from meat on Fridays outside of Lent is no longer mandatory under the pain of sin.

However, the language he finds in the Patoral with regard to substituting other acts of penance, Akin interprets as recommended. This is not an unreasonable reading of the Pastoral itself, I will admit. Thus, he concludes that the bishops removed the obligation from abstaining from meat but put no obligation back in its place. Therefore, one is not obliged to observe Fridays outside of Lent. Please read his article for more precision on this.

This, it seems to me, is where Akin errs in his analysis. What he seems to be doing is to read the first clause of Canon 1253 as having given the national bishops conference carte blanche authority over the practice of fasting and abstinence. This is not the case and to see why we must look back at the relevant canons.

Canon 1251 clearly makes Fridays of the whole year days of abstience from meat, or some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, oblagatory. Canon 1253 further says that the Episcopal Conferences can determine the observance of fast and abstience more precisely. The question is what is meant by determining the observance more precisely. Do the national conference of bishops have the authority to abrogate the Friday observance for parts of the year (or for all of the year for that matter)? That authority is certainly not explicitly given and, as I will argue, therefore, cannot be implicitly given either.

Between Canons 1251 and 1253 the national conference of bishops is given the authority to substitute another meat or to substitute some other penance. It is not given the authority to abrogate the observance for any part of (or all of) the year. If the relevant portion of 1253 means what Akin assumes then canon 1251 has no meaning at all. 1251 becomes irrelevant. If the content is to remain at all, then 1251 should read as a suggestion and perhaps even be incorporated into 1253.

I admit I am not a canonist (phrases such as this always seem to prepare the reader expect to hear “but” or “however”… so I will try something else). Nevertheless, I am able to read the canons for interpreting Canon Law, specifically Canons 17, 20, & 21. These indicate that text and context must be understood, parallel texts must be consulted, that abrogation of a previous law must be explicit, and that in cases of doubt, abrogation cannot be presumed. Thus, I think that Akin went wrong in his assumption that the Pastoral needed to impose a new obligation. The obligation already exists (with three options: abstain from meat, some other food, or some other penance) in Canon Law and the NCCB was never given the authority to abrogate the requirement explicitly and so it cannot exist implicitly. Thus, the authority the bishops received in 1253 must be interpreted in light of the obligation instituted in 1251.

So what did Canon 1253 mean with regard the bishops’ conferences more precisely determing the observance of fast and abstinence? Following the interpretive canons, it would seem that first it is referring to their authority to substitute some other food and also it refers to the subsequent statement that in addition, they are able to substitute some other form penance.

I do not know the intention of the Pastoral in not making it clear that their recommendation for substituting some form of penance was another obligatory option, according to Canon Law. Though, perhaps one could surmise that it had to do with the hope that more fruit from abstinence/penance would come from encouragement rather than feeding into the prevailing legalist outlook that most Americans suffer from.

Unfortunately, whatever the reason, the approach did not seem to have a salutary effect. There is little understanding about the meaning and need for Friday observance. Neither do I wish to appear to be legalistic (which almost always happens when the term obligatory is heard).

What is important is knowing why fasting and abstinence are so fundamental that the Church obligates the faithful to some minimum observances (which as we mature spiritually, we should willingly desire and strive to exceed). It is also important to understand the liturgical year and why Fridays are significant days for fasting and abstinence. If we recognize the liturgy as our incorporation into the Paschal Mystery and the source of our salvation and sanctification that comes from putting on Christ. If we recognize that each week is a mini liturgical year, thus a Good Friday, then we will understand why we ought to make it a mini-Lent. We will desire to seek to join ourselves more closely to Christ on His Cross. If we understand these sufficiently, then the concern over whether it is mandatory or not recedes into the background. If we are not yet sufficiently spiritually mature, then we might still need to hear that it is mandatory.

Fasting and abstinence are fundamental to Christian life and to God’s plan of salvation for us. That is why the observance of the minimum requirements are considered precepts of the Church. This makes them grave matter. They are grave, not because they are some arbitrary discipline, but because we need them for our sanctification. There has to be some way of presenting the truth that there are minimums for being Christian and that as Christians we need to at least meet the minimums. So far, the term obligatory is about the best we can do.

Monica mentioned to me yesterday that Bill Schneeberger would be on EWTN radio today with Teresa Tomeo (Shelray’s travel guide to the Holy Land). Well I missed it since she broadcasts at 8am central. Did anyone catch it?

Well who is Bill Schneeberger you might ask. He is the owner of BOGO wines, a winery that contributes from its proceeds to great Catholic, pro-life organizations:

Monica shared with me that he has developed a plan modeled after that of Susan Komen of the “pink ribbon” campaign. The focus of his plan is to generate awareness, interest, and funding for ethical stem cell research (adult, cord, autologous, etc). Monica writes:

He studied the Susan Komen plan to find out what made it so successful. You can barely buy a bag of chips now without inadvertently funding the the Komen foundation — it’s crazy – they are wildly successful at doing what they have done. I was at Target tonight w/ my husband and noticed they’ve got a whole “October is breast cancer awareness” promotion thing with all these pink products you can buy to help the Komen foundation. If Schneeberger’s initiative is only a fraction as successful as the Komen one, it will still do so much to help advance ethical research.

Schneeberger has obtained a patent trademark/logo for Adult Stem Cell Awareness. Yes, it is meant for car magnets – among other things, but please don’t think this is just about silly car magnets and even “Adult Stem Cell Awareness Month” . . . it’s about finding a way to get “adult stem cell awareness” into the world of the regular guy — and as small as it sounds, things like car magnets and awareness campaigns are incredibly effective. Well, just ask the Susan Komen foundation, right?

Now, it’s true, I’m hoping therapies such as autologous tissue engineering will help my child survive her heart defects, God-willing. But there are millions of people out here who stand to benefit from this kind of awareness campaign — not only because it is ethically sound, but because adult stem cells are really producing life-saving results. One of the orgs that this kind of campaign will help, certainly, is Dr. Moy’s John Paul II Stem Cell Research Institute. This is the kind of organization that we Catholics need to stand behind.

So, the goal is to try to get the info about the awareness campaign initiative in the hands of people who can really lobby for it. Politicians – for sure. I’ve already written my congressman. Unfortunately, it’s pretty slim pickings up here in terms of “pro-life” legislators. But can we be creative about who can help? Any ideas? What about professional societies who can lobby – how about Catholic hospitals? Catholic Universities?

In conjunction with Bill’s efforts, Monica has set up a blog which focuses on promoting Adult Stem Cell awareness. Go check out the blog, add it to your daily blog visits, and if you can get involved in some way, please contact Monica.

I read an article earlier today about a scientist, Craig Venter, who believes that the artificial chromosome he has created from lab chemicals will be able to take over a donor bacterium cell in order to replicate and metabolize. While the construction of an artificial 381 gene, 580K base pair chromosome has not been done before, I wonder why this announcement comes prior to verifying that this chromosome will in fact work as he plans.

While it appears to me that at this point the concerns here are more over safety than morality, what does cause me pause is the attitude he seems to display in the comments attributed to him. Venter told the reporter that this is:

“a very important philosophical step in the history of our species. We are going from reading our genetic code to the ability to write it. That gives us the hypothetical ability to do things never contemplated before”.

The phrase “philosophical step in the history of our species” seems quite misplaced for a scientist. What does he mean by this? At most here, as I understand it, is that if he is successful he may coax a cell of one bacterium species to replicate according to the genome of an artificially assembled chromosome that was based upon another bacterium’s genetic sequence which had been pared down to the minimum they think necessary to support life. I suppose that this could mean that he thinks that this project in some way brings man more to the level of creation ex nihilo? If this is what he is getting at, it seems that he ought to keep his day job or go back and take some classical philosophy.

The final quotation is just as vexing. He states:

“We are not afraid to take on things that are important just because they stimulate thinking,” he said. “We are dealing in big ideas. We are trying to create a new value system for life. When dealing at this scale, you can’t expect everybody to be happy.”

Well, again, it seems that his purpose is not so much for improving life and healing disease, but in dealing with”big issues” and “trying to create new value systems for life.” Perhaps this might be the reason for his early announcement. A failure might dampen or even put the breaks on his ability to deal with big issues and create new value systems. For that he needs media attention. If his primary interest for the sake of the science and medicine, the artificial chromosome construction would probably be sufficient even if he cannot get the last phase to work.

I dunno. This sounds to me more like the “science” of Richard Dawkins than Louis Pasteur. That is, the abuse of science to promote an ideology. I don’t want to say megalomaniacal ideology but does this not smell like an attempt to wangle an apparently significant biotechnical achievement into a bully pulpit for promoting what seems to be a Nietzschean world view in which Venter is the ubermensch? I wouldn’t mind being wrong here.

The number of girls and young women who have unexpectedly died after being injected with Gardasil has climbed to 11 with 3779 Adverse Reactions.  Judicial Watch filed a request with the FDA on August 20, 2007  for updated adverse event reports which was suspected to be only a “partial response”.  On October 3, 2007, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the FDA.

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