Thoughts and Faith to Share ~ Fredi D'Alessio

2011-07-03T07:56:00.000-07:00

Being Catholic

2007-12-30T13:50:00.000-08:00

BEING CATHOLIC

In this document:

Affirmation of Personal Faith Most Rev. Robert F. Vasa
Authentic Catholicism Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput
Dutiful Catholicism Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput
Formation of Conscience Most Rev. Raymond L. Burke
Making A Conscious Decision To Be Or Not To Be Catholic Most Rev. John J. Myers
Deepening our Understanding of the Truths of the Catholic Faith Most Rev. Samuel J. Aquila
Authentic Christian Discipleship Rev. Deacon Keith Fournier
Faithful Citizenship is living in a way worthy of the Gospel Most Rev. Joseph A. Galante
The Sunday Eucharist Catechism of the Catholic Church
Path to Sainthood Fredi D'Alessio
Responding to His Call to Love Fredi D'Alessio
Holy Sacrifice His Eminence John Cardinal O'Connor and His Holiness Pope John Paul II
Let us go forward with Christ and let us live our lives as true worshippers of God His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
Recommended Reading

An Affirmation of Personal Faith
every Catholic should make and live by

Most Reverend Robert F. Vasa presents an Affirmation of Personal Faith in his pastoral letter Giving Testimony to The Truth:

"The Affirmation of Personal Faith asks candidates for ministry to state unequivocally: "I believe and profess all that the Holy Catholic Church teaches, believes and proclaims to be revealed by God." This carries with it the affirmation of specific teachings of the Catholic Church. A non-exhaustive list of these is provided in the form of individual affirmations. They include statements on the inviolability of human life, the sinfulness of contraception, the evil of extra-marital sexual relationships, the unacceptability of homosexual relationships, the wrongness of cohabitation before marriage, the significance of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the legitimacy of Marian devotions, the existence of hell and purgatory, the uniqueness of the Catholic Church, the legitimacy of the Holy Father’s claim to infallibility and the moral teaching authority of the Catholic Church."

The Affirmation of Personal Faith applies to all Catholics:

"The summary statements which I have collected in the Affirmation of Personal Faith are all taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. They represent the authentic and authoritative teaching of the Catholic Church and acceptance of these tenets is expected of every Catholic."

"At the time that converts enter the Church they make the Profession of Faith and then they announce: "I believe and profess all the that Holy Catholic Church teaches, believes and proclaims to be revealed by God." This is the basic, fundamental affirmation required of all Catholics."

We are children of God. We should not allow anyone, who less than fully accepts and embraces the teachings of the Catholic Church, to negatively influence us in any way regarding the Catholic Faith and the Holy Catholic Church:

"Outstanding moral character necessarily entails a clear knowledge and proper understanding of the teachings of the Church and a firm adherence to those teachings. The need for persons involved in these ministries to be of "outstanding moral character" comes from the recognition that, in their capacity as ministers, they are official representatives of the Church and of Her teachings. As such, the 'Church' and the 'teachings' which these ministers represent are not the widely held, sometimes erroneous, opinions of the faithful but the authentically held teachings. These teachings are found clearly enunciated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Papal Encyclicals and Documents, Liturgical Rubrics and the Code of Canon Law to name a few of the authentic sources. There is certainly much room in the Church for diversity of opinion and choice but that diversity, if it is to be legitimate, must always be exercised and expressed within clearly defined moral parameters. A choice to act upon or express a view, under the guise of diversity, which falls outside of the defined moral parameters cannot be considered legitimate diversity. Such expressions, if given the semblance of official approval by way of some ecclesial ministry, become not only illegitimate for the person who holds them but divisive and confusing for those who seek to know the authentic teachings of the Church.

Such persons can become a "cause of stumbling" and if a Pastor or Bishop fails to act to correct the "false teaching" then he too incurs the Lord’s condemnation as a "cause of stumbling". There is perhaps no stronger condemnation uttered by our Lord than that used in regard to leading His "little ones" astray. He says unequivocally: "But if a man is a cause of stumbling to one of these little ones who have faith in me, it would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea." (Matthew 18:5-7) I am certain our Lord’s word to a Bishop who knowingly or negligently permitted such a person to be an official minister in His Church would be even more severe."

The 'CCC' references in Affirmation of Personal Faith are to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Click on them to read those specific paragraphs of the Catechism.

Affirmation of Personal Faith

“I believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church teaches, believes and proclaims to be revealed by God.” In particular:

I affirm and believe the Church’s teaching about the inviolability of human life. In accord with that teaching I affirm that human life is sacred and must be protected and respected from the moment of conception until natural death.

I affirm that I reject direct, intentional abortion and I do not recognize the legitimacy of anyone’s claim to a moral right to form their own conscience in this matter. I am not pro-choice. I further attest that I am not affiliated with, nor supportive of, any organization which supports, encourages, provides or otherwise endorses abortion or euthanasia. (CCC 2270-2283 & 2295)

I affirm and believe the Church’s teaching about the sinfulness of contraception.

I affirm, in accord with the teachings of the Church that “every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible” is intrinsically evil. (CCC 2366 - 2379)

I affirm and believe that every person is called to chastity in accord with their present state of life and that it is only in marriage between man and woman that the intimacy of spouses becomes a sign and pledge of spiritual communion. (CCC 1601 & 2331—2365) I accept the Church’s teaching that any extra-marital sexual relationships are gravely evil and that these include pre-marital relations, masturbation, fornication, the viewing of pornography and homosexual relations.

I affirm and believe the teaching of the Church about the evil of homosexual acts. I accept the formulation in the Catechism which states: “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.” They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.” (CCC 2357)

I affirm and believe all that the Church teaches about the Reality and Presence of Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist. Specifically I believe that Jesus is present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity under each of the forms of bread and wine and that receiving either one is Communion with the whole Christ. I recognize that worship and adoration are appropriate, not only during Mass but also outside of Mass and that the Most Holy Eucharist must always be handled with the utmost care and devotion. (CCC 1373-1381)

I affirm and believe the teachings of the Church regarding Mary, Mother of Christ and Mother of the Church. I accept with the Church that it is fitting and proper to honor the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. (CCC 963-975)

I affirm and believe that it is possible for a person to choose to remain separated from God for all eternity and that “This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called “hell.”” (CCC 1033)

I affirm and believe that those who die in God’s grace and friendship but are still imperfectly purified undergo additional purification so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joys of heaven. I affirm that the Church’s name for this final purification is Purgatory. (CCC 1030-1032)

I affirm and believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and embrace the teachings about that Church as enunciated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. (cf. CCC 748-962)

I affirm and believe that the Church teaches with God-given authority and that the promise of Christ to remain with His Church always, until the end of time is a reality. I further acknowledge that those teachings pronounced in a definitive manner, even though not as an infallible definition, are binding on the consciences of the faithful and are to be adhered to with religious assent. (CCC 892 & 2089)

To these and to all the teaching of the Catholic Church I give my assent. I attest that I believe these things and, while I am aware of my own sinfulness and shortcomings, I strive in my beliefs and life style to conform to this Affirmation of Personal of Faith.

The Affirmation of Personal Faith and full text of Bishop Vasa's comments can be found in his pastoral letter:
Giving Testimony to The Truth

Authentic Catholicism

"When we sin by theft, lying, adultery, pride, gossip, anger, envy, callousness to the poor, pornography or indifference, we do not live "in keeping with what Christ taught." We remove ourselves, by our actions, from friendship with God. That means we need to turn back to the sacrament of penance before we receive Communion. In fact, many of us today need a deeper devotion to confession simply to regain a basic understanding of grace and sin.

Likewise, if we ignore or deny what the Church teaches, or refuse to follow what she teaches, we are not "in communion" with the Catholic faith. We separate ourselves from the community of believers. If we receive Communion anyway, we engage in a lie.

Claiming to be Catholic and then rejecting Catholic teaching is an act of dishonesty and a lack of personal integrity. Worse, if we then receive Communion, we violate every Catholic who does believe and does strive to live the faith fully and unselfishly. And that compounds a sin against honesty with a sin against justice and charity. Again, as Justin Martyr said: 'No one may take part (in the Eucharist) unless he believes what we teach is true.'

If we claim to believe in Jesus Christ and the Catholic faith, then we need to act like it — without caveats, all the way, all the time, with all our heart, including our lives in the public square."

"We're at a time for the Church in our country when some Catholics — too many — are discovering that they've gradually become non-Catholics who happen to go to Mass. That's sad and difficult, and a judgment on a generation of Catholic leadership. But it may be exactly the moment of truth the Church needs." ~ Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop of Denver

The full text of Archbishop Chaput's comments can be read in his column:
It's a matter of honesty: to receive Communion, we need to be in communion

Dutiful Catholicism

".. Catholics see politics as part of the history of salvation. For us, no one is a minor actor in that drama. Each person is important. And one of the most important duties we have is to use our gifts in every way possible for the glory of God and for the common good. That’s why Catholics and other Christians have always taken an active role in public life. What we believe about God shapes how we think about men and women. It also shapes what we do about promoting human dignity.

Today’s national discussion about religion and politics is sometimes so very strange. If God is the center of our lives, then of course that fact will influence our behavior, including our political decisions. That’s natural and healthy. What’s unnatural and unhealthy is the kind of public square where religious faith is seen as unwelcome and dangerous. But that seems to be exactly what some people want: a public square stripped of God and stripped of religious faith.

Our duty, if we’re serious about being Catholics, is to not let that happen. But our work as citizens doesn’t end there. Our bigger task is to help renew American public life by committing ourselves ever more deeply to our Catholic faith -- and acting like we really mean it."

"What we really believe, we conform our lives to. And if we don't conform our lives to what we claim to believe, then we're living a lie. When public officials claim to be “Catholic” but then say they can't offer their beliefs about the sanctity of the human person as the basis of law, it always means one of two things. They’re either very confused, or they’re very evasive. All law is the imposition of somebody’s beliefs on somebody else. That’s exactly the reason we have debates, and elections, and Congress – to turn the struggle of ideas and moral convictions into laws that guide our common life." ~ Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop of Denver

The full text of Archbishop Chaput's comments can be read in his Keynote Address to the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast:
HOPE AND ITS DAUGHTERS

Formation of Conscience

"To the degree that our conscience is not informed by the divine truth, to that degree our conscience is liable to an erroneous judgment. There are times when we make a wrong moral judgment because of ignorance of the truth. Sometimes, we are responsible for the ignorance because we have failed to seek out the truth or have dulled our conscience through repeated sin. Sometimes, we are not responsible for our ignorance. In any case, it is always our responsibility to inform our conscience with the truth, especially with the help of our teachers in the faith, the Holy Father, the bishops in communion with the Holy Father, and our priests, co-workers with the bishops (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nos. 1790-1794). The "Catechism of the Catholic Church" summarizes well for us the means of forming a good conscience:

'In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path; we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church" (No. 1785).'" Most Rev. Raymond L. Burke, Archbishop of St. Louis

The full text of Archbishop Burke's comments can be found in his pastoral letter:
On Our Civic Responsibility for the Common Good

Making A Conscious Decision To Be Or Not To Be Catholic

"It is always a temptation to emphasize the personal aspect of faith with the intent of “reducing” the faith to those elements with which we are comfortable in our life. This is deeply erroneous. The commitment of faith is a commitment to grow not only closer to Jesus Christ but also to continue to grow, sometimes through questions and struggles, into the full faith of the Church."

"Clearly each human person has a conscience and should follow it because by definition conscience is the intellectual act of judgment of what is right and wrong to do or not to do. It is the last best judgment of what one ought to choose. Thus, conscience must be formed through education and prayer, and be informed by the teaching of Christ. We cannot form our conscience in solitary isolation or simply with reference to cultural practices or convictions. Conscience can only be formed authentically by reference to the truth. Truth and conscience go together. Following an authentic conscience builds the truly human. Following a conscience without reference to truth sets an individual and society adrift on a sea of hopelessness.

There are many implications of these principles. We profess our faith not merely in a formula of words, but rather in the realities to which those words refer. And that certainly applies in the matter of abortion, euthanasia, cloning and other issues which are before the American people and the world public at this time. Long before science made clear that each individual is genetically new and unique from conception, the Church taught that abortion is a great evil. She still teaches this even in the face of the tragedy in our country where respect for the sanctity of human life has been eroded."

"I have already said this before, in a previous Pastoral Letter in 1990: 'Although we must all follow our conscience, the task of conscience is not to create moral truth, but perceive it. It is quite possible for an individual to perceive the moral reality of a particular situation erroneously. Such a person may be sincere, but he or she is sincerely wrong.

Catholics who publicly dissent from the Church’s teaching on the right to life of all unborn children should recognize that they have freely chosen by their own actions to separate themselves from what the Church believes and teaches. They have also separated themselves in a significant way from the Catholic community.

The Church cannot force such people to change their position; but she can and does ask them honestly to admit in the public forum that they are not in full union with the Church.

One who practices such dissent, even in the mistaken belief that it is permissible, may remain a Catholic in some sense, but has abandoned the full Catholic faith. For such a person to express ‘communion’ with Christ and His Church by the reception of the Sacrament of the Eucharist is objectively dishonest.'"

"It is a time for honesty. I ask and urge that Catholic voters and Catholics in public life carefully consider their position if they find themselves in opposition to Church teaching in these matters. Sadly, I must point out that to continue down this road places them in danger of distancing themselves even more from Jesus Christ and from His Church." ~ Most Reverend John J. Myers, Archbishop of Newark

The full text of Archbishop Myers' comments can be found in his pastoral letter:
A Time for Honesty

Deepening our Understanding of the Truths of the Catholic Faith

"Proper conscience formation presupposes good will. We must be willing, no matter what the cost, to recognize moral truth when it becomes clear. We begin to discover moral truth by reflecting on the principles of natural law - the law God has written in our hearts. These principles are not externally imposed rules but the intrinsic requirements implied by true respect for everything that is humanly good. They include our awareness that we always should do what is morally upright, that we should love God and neighbor, that we should never intentionally harm ourselves or others, and that we should always treat others fairly.

We discover moral truth in greater detail when we reflect on the Ten Commandments, which are norms that flow from these principles. When we strive to understand these principles and norms in the bracing way that the Church understands them (CCC 2083-2557) we come to see more clearly what morality concretely requires of us. A properly formed conscience can never approve an evil or go against a law of God. Conscience recognizes objective truth which binds every human person. The “voice of God” and his law are never relativistic, telling one person “it is permitted to abort a child,” and telling another person “you may not,” for God never contradicts himself.

I urge the clergy, catechists, and laity of the Diocese of Fargo to read the Catechism of the Catholic Church to understand the true meaning of conscience. In order to facilitate this understanding, I am mandating today that every priest or deacon, who preaches on the first two Sundays in Lent of 2005, is to present a catechetical homily on conscience. The section on conscience of the Catechism is to be distributed to every Catholic in the pew on the First Sunday of Lent." ~ Most Rev. Samuel J. Aquila, D.D., Bishop of Fargo

The full text of Bishop Aquila's comments can be found in his pastoral letter:
You Will Know the Truth and the Truth Will Set You Free

Authentic Christian Discipleship

Rev. Deacon Keith Fournier

Our political involvement as Christian citizens should be to promote the common good.

At the foundation of our national and personal freedom is a concept called the "Common Good." Perhaps one of the oldest references to the concept is found in the "Epistle of Barnabus," an early Church document dating back to 130 A.D. Long enshrined in Christian social teaching, the concept of "the Common Good" is also one of the foundation stones of the political philosophy and patrimony of Western civilization.

The Catholic Catechism defines "Common Good" as "the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily." In the tradition the concept usually embraces three aspects of "fulfillment" as it relates to the human person and his/her rights to full participation in the social order; a respect for the human person, the social well-being and development of the entire society, and "peace" which is more than the absence of war, it is the stability and security of a just order (see CCC #1905-1912)

At an even deeper level the concept requires the embrace of a vital Christian social "hermeneutic," a lens through which Christians are supposed to view the very meaning of human existence. Christians should, if they understand the classical Christian faith, know that we were made for family, for community, and for social participation.

Contrary to the individualism and atomism of the age, which has even infected much of the post-Reformation Protestant Christian community, the individual is not the measure of all things. Freedom is not found in solitude. Nor is it found in retreating into our little enclaves and fighting to protect "us" against them. This is a recipe for division and despair, even when such an approach is followed by Christians--who of all people should follow in the footsteps of the one who gave Himself up for all!

Christian anthropology (the understanding of the nature of man/woman) introduced the very concept of "person" to civilized discourse. It is classical Christian thought that insists that we cannot be fully human without living together. We are social by nature and design.

Because of this we are also bound to one another by an obligation of solidarity (we simply are our brothers keeper) and we have a duty to participate in the social order and find a way to build a just society with all men and women, even those who are different then us or with whom we do not agree.

To not only understand all this but to live it--is to promote the "Common Good."

Catholic Social teaching addresses fundamental and universal truths such as the dignity of every human person, the sanctity of all human life, the primacy of true marriage and the family founded upon it, the nature of--and obligations attendant to--human freedom, and our obligations to one another in human solidarity, including our responsibility to the poor, in all of their manifestations. These are not simply “religious” truths, in the sense of requiring revelation to prove them. They are revealed by the natural law which is accessible to all men and women and then confirmed by revelation. They are also moral truths, affecting every aspect of our common life. They should be guiding lights for everyone who seeks to enact and implement social, economic and public policy.

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Faithful Citizenship is living in a way worthy of the Gospel

The Gospel consoles us, but also challenges us. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” (Jn 14:6) He also said, “Come, follow me” (Mt 19:21).

If we are to be Jesus’ disciples, we must in faith accept who Jesus says He is: God’s own Son. Yet, this belief has ramifications. We who really accept and believe that Jesus is who He says He is are compelled to follow Him, whatever the cost.

The Gospel, then, calls us to join our belief with action. Jesus tells us in Matthew’s Gospel, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt. 7:21). Here we have the necessity of belief, yet Jesus tells us that this belief is something more than inwardly focused intellectual assent. It involves discerning and doing God’s will.

Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is that we must love God with all our heart, soul and mind. Then, He adds, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:37-39). What does loving our neighbor entail? Jesus says, “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40). The “least of these” Jesus has in mind are the hungry, thirsty, naked, the stranger, the imprisoned, the sick, the weakest and most vulnerable in our society.

If we ever had any doubt, this passage confronts us with the reality that the Gospel is not just about Jesus and “me.” Rather, the essence of the Gospel always is Jesus and “we,” we His people. In some circles the term “social gospel” has become popular as a way to draw attention to those areas of social justice that require our Christian witness. Yet, really, there is only one Gospel, the Good News of Jesus, and it is “social” by its very nature in that Jesus saves us as a people and we are a people who are relational by virtue of baptism.

There is a simplicity to Jesus’ command to love our neighbor as we love God and ourselves. Note, however, that in this simple formula, Jesus does not provide us with a checklist of minimum requirements for discipleship. He leaves no room for complacency or indifference. Rather, if we are to call ourselves His followers, we must give over our entire life to discipleship and identity with Jesus. As Catholics, then, we are called not to be minimalists, but disciples in totality, in and out of season.

The full text of Bishop Galante's pastoral letter:

Faithful Citizenship: Living in a way worthy of the Gospel

The Sunday Eucharist

The Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice. For this reason the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor. Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin. (CCC 2181)

Participation in the communal celebration of the Sunday Eucharist is a testimony of belonging and of being faithful to Christ and to his Church. The faithful give witness by this to their communion in faith and charity. Together they testify to God's holiness and their hope of salvation. They strengthen one another under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. (CCC 2182)

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Being true disciples of Christ Jesus and thereby fulfilling our vocational call to holiness:

Path to Sainthood

Responding to His Call to Love

Holy Sacrifice

Let us go forward with Christ and let us live our lives as true worshippers of God

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI
EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION AT THE CLOSING OF THE XX WORLD YOUTH DAY
Cologne, Germany
Sunday, 21 August 2005

The Gloria

2007-08-06T19:34:00.000-07:00

The Gloria
[The Greater Doxology]
(omitted during Lent, Advent and Mass for the dead)
The priest stands at the middle of the altar, and says:

Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.
Laudamus te, benedicimus te, adoramus te, glorificamus te.
We praise Thee. We bless Thee. We adore Thee. We glorify Thee.
Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam.
We give Thee thanks for Thy great glory.
Domine Deus rex coelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens.
O Lord God, Heavenly King, God the Father Almighty.
Domine Fili unigenite, Jesu Christe.
O Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son.
Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris,
O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.
Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram.
Who takes away the sins of the world, receive our prayer.
Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, miserere nobis.
Who sits at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.
Quoniam tu solus Sanctus,
For Thou alone art holy.
tu solus Dominus,
Thou alone art Lord.
tu solus altissimus, Jesu Christe,
Thou alone art most high, Jesus Christ,
cum Sancto Spiritu † , in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.
together with the Holy Spirit, † in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Holy Sacrifice

2007-06-17T16:29:00.000-07:00

Holy Sacrifice

“...The letter to the Hebrews calls the priest 'a man taken from among men for the things that pertain to God.’ [5.1] The priest is given transcendent power to forgive sins, to administer the sacraments, but most of all to offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in which he becomes an alter Christus, another Christ. Cardinal Suhard's words describe beautifully the priest's role as alter Christus in the Mass:

‘…without the priest there would be no Eucharistic Celebration, no sacramental Victim, no Mass. If there were no Mass the whole offering of the world would be futile…The whole effort of men to bring the universe back to God would be ineffectual and incomplete. For the Sacrifice of the Mass, because it continues the Sacrifice of the Cross, constitutes the essential act and the culminating point of Christ's redeeming mediation. So by his power over the sacramental body of Christ the priest becomes by continuation the privileged instrument of the consecration of the world. In that brief moment when he holds the Host in his hands and allows the Sovereign Priest to utter the words of consecration through his lips, the most insignificant and humble priest embraces the whole universe and continues the process of redemption.’

This portion of our Pastoral Reflections, however, is not intended as an exaltation of the ordained priesthood, but as a suggestion that we must refocus on the Mass as sacrifice, not merely as fellowship, or a get-together, or a communion service. The celebrant specifically urges the entire congregation during the Offertory of the Mass:

‘Pray, my brothers and sisters, that your sacrifice and mine may be acceptable to God, the Father Almighty.’

… While the Mass should not be grim and forbidding, it is the profoundest of mysteries, in which all the power of the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Christ is again transmitted throughout the world. We pray as we believe. If we really believe what happens when the priest says over a piece of bread, ‘This is my Body,’ over a cup of wine, ‘This is my Blood,’ our prayer becomes one of profound reverence, of deep joy, of unbounded gratitude.”

Cardinal John O'Connor

PASTORAL REFLECTIONS ON THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

By Cardinal John O'Connor

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Excerpts from:

THE DIGNITY OF THE EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION
CHAPTER FIVE OF ECCLESIA DE EUCHARISTIA

ENCYCLICAL LETTEROF HIS HOLINESS POPE JOHN PAUL IION THE EUCHARIST IN ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE CHURCH

Reading the account of the institution of the Eucharist in the Synoptic Gospels, we are struck by the simplicity and the “solemnity” with which Jesus, on the evening of the Last Supper, instituted this great sacrament. There is an episode which in some way serves as its prelude: the anointing at Bethany. A woman, whom John identifies as Mary the sister of Lazarus, pours a flask of costly ointment over Jesus' head, which provokes from the disciples – and from Judas in particular (cf. Mt 26:8; Mk 14:4; Jn 12:4) – an indignant response, as if this act, in light of the needs of the poor, represented an intolerable “waste”. But Jesus' own reaction is completely different. While in no way detracting from the duty of charity towards the needy, for whom the disciples must always show special care – “the poor you will always have with you” (Mt 26, 11; Mk 14:7; cf. Jn 12:8) – he looks towards his imminent death and burial, and sees this act of anointing as an anticipation of the honour which his body will continue to merit even after his death, indissolubly bound as it is to the mystery of his person.

The account continues, in the Synoptic Gospels, with Jesus' charge to the disciples to prepare carefully the “large upper room” needed for the Passover meal (cf. Mk 14:15; Lk 22:12) and with the narration of the institution of the Eucharist. Reflecting at least in part the Jewish rites of the Passover meal leading up to the singing of the Hallel (cf. Mt 26:30; Mk 14:26), the story presents with sobriety and solemnity, even in the variants of the different traditions, the words spoken by Christ over the bread and wine, which he made into concrete expressions of the handing over of his body and the shedding of his blood. All these details are recorded by the Evangelists in the light of a praxis of the “breaking of the bread” already well-established in the early Church. But certainly from the time of Jesus on, the event of Holy Thursday has shown visible traces of a liturgical “sensibility” shaped by Old Testament tradition and open to being reshaped in Christian celebrations in a way consonant with the new content of Easter. Like the woman who anointed Jesus in Bethany, the Church has feared no “extravagance”, devoting the best of her resources to expressing her wonder and adoration before the unsurpassable gift of the Eucharist. No less than the first disciples charged with preparing the “large upper room”, she has felt the need, down the centuries and in her encounters with different cultures, to celebrate the Eucharist in a setting worthy of so great a mystery. In the wake of Jesus' own words and actions, and building upon the ritual heritage of Judaism, the Christian liturgy was born. Could there ever be an adequate means of expressing the acceptance of that self-gift which the divine Bridegroom continually makes to his Bride, the Church, by bringing the Sacrifice offered once and for all on the Cross to successive generations of believers and thus becoming nourishment for all the faithful? Though the idea of a “banquet” naturally suggests familiarity, the Church has never yielded to the temptation to trivialize this “intimacy” with her Spouse by forgetting that he is also her Lord and that the “banquet” always remains a sacrificial banquet marked by the blood shed on Golgotha. The Eucharistic Banquet is truly a “sacred” banquet, in which the simplicity of the signs conceals the unfathomable holiness of God: O sacrum convivium, in quo Christus sumitur! The bread which is broken on our altars, offered to us as wayfarers along the paths of the world, is panis angelorum, the bread of angels, which cannot be approached except with the humility of the centurion in the Gospel: “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof ” (Mt 8:8; Lk 7:6).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With this heightened sense of mystery, we understand how the faith of the Church in the mystery of the Eucharist has found historical expression not only in the demand for an interior disposition of devotion, but also in outward forms meant to evoke and emphasize the grandeur of the event being celebrated.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All of this makes clear the great responsibility which belongs to priests in particular for the celebration of the Eucharist. It is their responsibility to preside at the Eucharist in persona Christi and to provide a witness to and a service of communion not only for the community directly taking part in the celebration, but also for the universal Church, which is a part of every Eucharist. It must be lamented that, especially in the years following the post-conciliar liturgical reform, as a result of a misguided sense of creativity and adaptation there have been a number of abuses which have been a source of suffering for many. A certain reaction against “formalism” has led some, especially in certain regions, to consider the “forms” chosen by the Church's great liturgical tradition and her Magisterium as non-binding and to introduce unauthorized innovations which are often completely inappropriate. I consider it my duty, therefore to appeal urgently that the liturgical norms for the celebration of the Eucharist be observed with great fidelity. These norms are a concrete expression of the authentically ecclesial nature of the Eucharist; this is their deepest meaning. Liturgy is never anyone's private property, be it of the celebrant or of the community in which the mysteries are celebrated. The Apostle Paul had to address fiery words to the community of Corinth because of grave shortcomings in their celebration of the Eucharist resulting in divisions (schismata) and the emergence of factions (haireseis) (cf. 1 Cor 11:17-34). Our time, too, calls for a renewed awareness and appreciation of liturgical norms as a reflection of, and a witness to, the one universal Church made present in every celebration of the Eucharist. Priests who faithfully celebrate Mass according to the liturgical norms, and communities which conform to those norms, quietly but eloquently demonstrate their love for the Church. Precisely to bring out more clearly this deeper meaning of liturgical norms, I have asked the competent offices of the Roman Curia to prepare a more specific document, including prescriptions of a juridical nature, on this very important subject. No one is permitted to undervalue the mystery entrusted to our hands: it is too great for anyone to feel free to treat it lightly and with disregard for its sacredness and its universality.

FULL TEXT

Unrepentant

2006-03-05T16:54:00.000-08:00

Unrepentant

Before Thine eyes, O Lord, we bring our sins, and compare them with the stripes we have received.

If we examine the evil we have wrought, what we suffer is little, what we deserve is great.
What we have committed is very grievous, what we have sufferred is slight.
We feel the punishment of sin, yet withdraw not from the obstinancy of sinning.
Under Thy lash our inconstancy is visited, but our sinfulness is not changed.
Our suffering soul is tormented, but our neck is not bent.
Our life groans under sorrow, yet amends not in deed.
If Thou spare us, we correct not our ways; if Thou punish, we cannot endure it.
In time of correction we confess our wrongdoing; after Thy visitation we forget that we have wept.
If Thou stretchest forth Thy hand, we promise amendment; if Thou witholdest the sword, we keep not our promise.
If Thou strikest, we cry out for mercy; if Thou sparest, we again provoke Thee to strike.

From a prayer by Saint Augustine

read Abbott Joseph's reflection on this prayer

Prayer Before Holy Mass

2006-01-18T11:15:00.000-08:00

Prayer Before Holy Mass

Eternal Father,
I unite myself with the intentions and affections of our Lady of Sorrows on Calvary,
and I offer Thee the Sacrifice which Thy beloved Son, Jesus, made of Himself on The Cross
and which He now renews on this holy altar:

To adore Thee and give Thee the honor which is due to Thee,
confessing Thy supreme dominion over all things,
and the absolute dependence of everything upon Thee,
Who art our one and last End.

To thank Thee for countless benefits received.

To appease Thy justice, provoked by so many sins - my own sins and those of the whole world,
and to make satisfaction for them.

To implore Thy grace and mercy for myself, for (names),
for Thy Holy Church, for all afflicted and sorrowing,
for all poor sinners, for all the world, and for the holy souls in Purgatory.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Of all the practices recommended by our holy religion - Morning and Evening Prayers, Prayers before and after Meals, Visits to the Most Holy Sacrament, Rosary, Way of the Cross, etc. - the august Sacrifice of the Mass is the greatest, the most precious, and the most holy, as well as the most conducive to man's salvation.

Holy Mass was instituted by Christ Himself at the last Supper. He commanded His Apostles to do the same that He had done, saying: 'Do this for a Commemoration of Me'.

Assisting at holy Mass you should have the fourfold intention of Adoration, by which we acknowledge our dependence on God as the Ruler over life and death; of Praise and Thanksgiving for the benefits conferred on us; of Reparation for our sins and negligences; of Impetration, to implore of Him the grace necessary for salvation."
The Roman Catholic Daily Missal, Angelus Press

Queen of Peace

2005-11-22T20:31:00.000-08:00

O Immaculate Lady,

Queen of Peace

and heavenly Prophetess
of the glorious coming of Christ,
we entrust ourselves to you.

Obtain for us the grace
to understand and live the Gospel
and your messages,
so that we may become
holy and living sacrifices
pleasing to God.

Mother Mary,
keep us ever close
to your Immaculate Heart
and surround us
with motherly love and protection.

Teach us to pray with our hearts,
to find our joy in the Lord,
and to prefer nothing to his will.

We love you, Blessed Mother,
and we thank you
for being with us always.

Lead us by the hand
until we see you
in the glory of heaven,
there to sing with you
the eternal praises
of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Abbot Joseph

A New Day

2005-11-20T00:08:00.000-08:00

Heavenly Father,
God of my life, I welcome this new day.
It is your gift to me;
a new creation, and a promise of resurrection.

I thank you for the grace of being alive this morning.
I thank you for the sleep that has refreshed me.
I thank you for this chance to make a new beginning.

This day, Father, is full of promise and opportunity;
let me waste none of it.
This day is full of mystery and the unknown;
help me to face it without fear and anxiety.
This day is blessed with beauty and adventure;
make me fully alive to it all.

During this day Father,
keep me thoughtful, prayerful and kind.
May I be courteous and helpful to others
and not turned in on myself.
Keep me from any word or deed
that would hurt or destroy or belittle.
And may the thoughts of my mind be pleasing in your sight.

When night comes again,
may I look back on this day with no grief or bitterness in my heart.
And may no one be unhappy because of anything I have done or failed to do.
Father, bless this day for me and for everyone.
Make it a day in which we grow to have the mind and heart
of Christ Jesus your Son.

~

Lord Jesus,
teach me to be sweet and gentle in all the events of life;
in disappointments,
in the thoughtlessness of others,
in the insincerity of those I trusted,
in the unfaithfulness of those on whom I relied.

Let me put myself aside
to think of the unhappiness of others,
to hide my little pains and heartaches,
so that I may be the only one to suffer from them.

Teach me to profit by the suffering that comes across my path.
Let me so use it that it may mellow me,
not harden nor embitter me,
that it may make me patient, not irritable,
that it may make me broad in my forgiveness, not haughty and overbearing.

May no one be less good for having come within my influence;
no one less pure, less true, less kind, less noble
for having been a fellow traveler in our journey toward Eternal Life.

As I go about my rounds from one distraction to another,
let me whisper from time to time, a word of love to you.
May my life be lived in the supernatural, full of power for good,
and strong in its purpose of sanctity.

May I know you more clearly,
love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly day by day.
Amen.

authors unknown

Another morning prayer with reflection by Abbott Joseph

Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory

2005-10-15T23:12:00.000-07:00

Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord ~
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored ~
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword ~
His truth is marching on ~

Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, Glory, Glory, Hallelujah ~
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, His truth is marching on ~

I have seen him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps ~
They have build-ed him an alter in the evening dews and damps ~
I can read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps ~
His day is marching on ~

Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, Glory, Glory, Hallelujah ~
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, His truth is marching on ~

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat ~
He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat ~
O be swift, my soul, to answer him ~
Be jubilant my feet ~
Our God is marching on ~

Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, Glory, Glory, Hallelujah ~
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, His truth is marching on ~

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea ~
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me ~
As he died to make men holy ~
Let us die to make men free ~
While God is marching on ~

Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, Glory, Glory, Hallelujah ~
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, His truth is marching on ~

Words: Julia Ward Howe, 1861
Music: John Brown's Body

As I Kneel Before You

2005-10-15T23:10:00.000-07:00

As I Kneel Before You

As I kneel before you ~
As I bow my head in prayer ~
Take this day, make it yours ~
And fill me with your love ~

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum, benedicta tu ~

All I have I give you ~
Every dream and wish are yours ~
Mother of Christ, Mother of mine present them to my lord ~

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum, benedicta tu ~

As I kneel before you ~
As I see your smiling face ~
Every thought, every word is lost in your embrace ~

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum, benedicta tu ~

Words & Music: Maria Parkinson

Immaculate Mary

2005-10-15T23:09:00.000-07:00

Immaculate Mary

Immaculate Mary, your praises we sing ~
You reign now in splendor with Jesus our king ~

Ave, Ave, Ave Maria ~
Ave, Ave Maria ~

In heaven the blessed your glory proclaim ~
On earth we your children invoke your sweet name ~

Ave, Ave, Ave Maria ~
Ave, Ave Maria ~

We ask you to pray for your children on earth ~
And bless and watch over the land of our birth ~

Ave, Ave, Ave Maria ~
Ave, Ave Maria ~
Ave, Ave Maria ~

Peace is Flowing Like a River

2005-10-15T23:08:00.000-07:00

Peace is Flowing Like a River

Peace is flowing like a river ~
Flowing out of you and me ~
Flowing out into the desert ~
Setting all the captives free ~

His love is flowing like a river ~
Flowing out of you and me ~
Flowing out into the desert ~
Setting all the captives free ~

His healing ’s flowing like a river ~
Flowing out of you and me ~
Flowing out into the desert ~
Setting all the captives free ~

Alleluia, Alleluia ~
Alleluia, Alleluia ~
Alleluia, Alleluia ~
Alleluia, Alleluia ~

His peace is flowing like a river ~
Flowing out of you and me ~
Flowing out into the desert ~
Setting all the captives free ~
Setting all the captives free ~

Words & Music by Carey Landry

Mary, Gentle Woman

2005-10-15T23:05:00.000-07:00

Mary, Gentle Woman

Hail Mary, full of grace ~
The Lord is with you ~
Blessed are you among women ~
And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus ~

Holy Mary, Mother of God ~
Pray for us sinners now ~
And at the hour of death, Amen ~

Gentle woman, quiet light, morning star so strong and bright ~
Gentle Mother, peaceful dove, teach us wisdom teach us love ~

You were chosen by the Father ~
You were chosen for the Son ~
You were chosen from all women ~
And for woman shining one ~

Gentle woman, quite light, morning star so strong and bright ~
Gentle Mother, peaceful dove teach us wisdom, teach us love ~

Blessed are you among women ~
Blessed in turn all women too ~
Blessed they with peaceful spirits ~
Blessed they with gentle hearts ~

Gentle woman, quiet light, morning star so strong and bright ~
Gentle Mother, peaceful dove, teach us wisdom teach us love ~

Copyright © 1975 by New Dawn Music, P. O. box 13248, Portland, OR 97213-0248. All rights reserved.

Unborn Babies and their Mothers

2005-10-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

Prayer for Unborn Babies and their Mothers

Heavenly Father,
Who has given us the great gift of life,
bless and guide all pregnant women
that they might respect and cherish
the gift of life growing within them.
Help each mother to accept her child
as an irreplaceable gift from You.

Bless all babies yet unborn.
Watch over them as they grow and develop
in the embrace of their mothers’ wombs.
Form them and shape them
that they might be born healthy.
Grant that they might be welcomed at birth
with tender love and deep joy.

O most loving Triune God
I ask You on behalf of all unwanted babies
who will never be born;
Baptize them in your Blessed Triune Name
and with the tears of Our Lady of Sorrows.
Welcome them into your loving embrace
that they might find their home in You.

Amen.

Sanctity of Life

2005-10-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

Prayer for Life

Heavenly Father,
We praise and thank you for the gift of our lives
and for the gift of your son, Christ Jesus,
who purchased, for us, Eternal Life.

Help us to bring your Kingdom of Truth and Love to this world.
Teach us how to lay down our lives for each other.
Have mercy on the children who are yet to be born.
Bless all families and give to mothers and fathers
the graces they need to lead holy lives.

Lead all those who have had an abortion to repentance
and grant them the assurance of your forgiveness.
May all those involved in this evil
turn away from their sins and return to you.

Raise up new laborers for the work that needs to be done.
Grant then the courage to respond to your call,
the gifts they need to carry out their tasks,
and the consolation of your promise of eternal glory.

Mary, Mother of Mercy,
pray for us, watch over us and guide us as
we uphold the sanctity of human life.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen

Provided by National Helpers

Path to Sainthood

2005-10-02T13:11:00.000-07:00

Path to Sainthood ~
Full Communion with John Paul II

By Fredi D'Alessio

Catholics are identified as such in varying degrees by their explicit or implicit words or deeds. Some may reveal that they are or are not in full communion with the teaching authority of the Church (the Magisterium). There are many who claim to be good Catholics because they accept all the dogmas of the Catholic faith.

They suppose that they are required to believe or obey the Holy Father only when he speaks ex cathedra in solemnly defining a doctrine of faith or morals. They claim that unless the Church makes an infallible pronouncement in a formal way one is free to dissent. Such is contrary to the official teachings of the Church as clearly explained in section 25 of the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium). [1]

“…religious submission of mind and will must be shown in a special way to the authentic magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra; that is, it must be shown in such a way that his supreme magisterium is acknowledged with reverence, the judgments made by him are sincerely adhered to, according to his manifest mind and will …” (Lumen Gentium)

Even when we distinguish between solemnly defined doctrines of faith and morals, which must be believed and are unchangeable, and Church discipline, which may be reformed, we are called at all times to be fully obedient. But is mere obedience enough to make us fully Catholic?

“The message of the Gospel invites us not merely to become disciples of Christ and children of God, but to enter into a process of transformation in Christ” (Dietrich von Hildebrand, Transformation In Christ).

What a different world would we live in if we were all transformed in Christ!

“Our surrender to Christ implies a readiness to let Him fully transform us, without setting any limit to the modification of our nature under his influence” (Transformation In Christ).

“This radical readiness to change, the necessary condition for a transformation in Christ, is not actually possessed by all Catholic believers. It is, rather, a distinctive trait of those who have grasped the full import of the Call, and without reserve have decided upon an imitation of Christ. There are many religious Catholics whose readiness to change is merely a conditional one” (Transformation In Christ).

“Our proper and ultimate vocation is to be transformed in Christ – that is, to become saints. ‘For this is the will of God, your sanctification,’ says St. Paul” (Transformation In Christ).

“The saints do die to themselves, in the sense of being absorbed by their love of Christ, losing themselves in Christ, and only thus do they find their true selfhood – their self as intended by God” (Transformation In Christ).

Unlike the rich young man, may we always stand ready to do what God asks and what we know in our hearts He wants - not merely what He commands. Only then will we rise above mere obedience and begin doing what it takes to become fully Catholic – to become saints.

Let us turn our focus to the person of Holy Father John Paul II who has made such a transformation — who indeed is an alter Christus. [2] A genuine full communion with him calls for more than mere obedience and reverence – it calls upon us to accept and embrace his teachings and follow him in thought and action to the point that we become like him. What a different world would we live in if we were all transformed in the likes of Pope John Paul II! [3-4]

The message I hope to convey (aided by Dietrich von Hildebrand) is that we should all strive to be Catholics to the degree that the founder of our Church, Christ Jesus, desires of us. If we begin by being transformed in the likes of John Paul II, Vicar of Christ, not only will we be in full communion with him, but we will have also crossed the threshold of that process of being transformed in Christ. [5-7]

NOTES:

1 “It is our belief that we have in the bishop of Rome the Peter upon whom Christ at Caesarea Philippi established His Church. In the light of this faith our Lord's words to Peter: ‘Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church,’ become at once promise and fulfillment. Has not history taught us, and are we not seeing every day, that it was, and is, and will be this one rock which supports the Church of Christ, and with that Church a living faith in the Incarnation of the Son of God? There is a sacred and profound significance in the fact that Simon's appointment to be the rock of the Church was preceded by his confession: ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God’. For faith in Christ, the Church and Peter: these three things belong together. Where there is no Peter, where men have broken faith with him, there the fellowship of the faith perishes and along with it belief in Jesus Christ. Where there is no rock, there there is no Church; there there is no Christ” (Karl Adam, The Spirit of Catholicism).

2 “The fundamental object of all her [the Church] educative work, of all her instruction, preaching and discipline, is to make the Christian a second Christ, an alter Christus, to make him, as the Fathers express it, ‘Christ-like’. This one highest aim of its endeavor gives Christian morality its inner unity. There is no two-fold morality in the Church, since there is but one Christ to be formed. But the ways and manners in which men strive towards this goal are infinitely various, as various as the human personalities which have to mature and grow up to the stature of Christ. Very many of the faithful will be able to form the image of Christ in themselves only in very vague and general outline. Yet, just as nature at times sees fit to give of her best and to manifest her superabundant power in some perfect types, even so the fullness of Christ which works in the Church breaks out ever and again in this or that saintly figure into brilliant radiance, in marvels of self-surrender, love, purity, humility and devotion” (Karl Adam, The Spirit of Catholicism).

3 All quotations taken from Transformation In Christ by Dietrich von Hildebrand pertain solely to Christ – not to the Holy Father.

4 To have been “transformed in the likes of Pope John Paul II” is to have imitated him “to the point that we become like him” – having been changed in character, our personalities have been transformed. There is no correlation to the “mystical experience” and “theological foundations” which are related to the "transformation in Christ".

5 “And where Peter is, there of a truth the gates of hell rage against the fellowship of the faith. There Marcion comes, and Arius, and the renaissance and rationalism, and the gospel of worldly culture. But still we abide in the Upper Room, gathered round our Lord and Master. Where Peter is, there is Christ. For us Catholics, faith in the Son of God, loyalty to the Church, communion with Peter: these things stand in an intimate and necessary connection. And therefore since we desire not to abandon Christ, we do not abandon Peter. And therefore is it our quiet but confident hope, a hope set in our souls by our Lord at Caesarea Philippi, that it cannot be otherwise, that it must be so again, that all who seek Christ shall likewise again find Peter” (Karl Adam, The Spirit of Catholicism).

6 “God has called upon us to become new men in Christ. In holy Baptism, He communicates a new supernatural life to us; He allows us to participate in his holy life. This new life is not destined merely to repose as a secret in the hidden depths of our souls; rather it should work out in a transformation of our entire personality…

Almost all the prayers of the ecclesiastical year refer to the succession of stages that leads from Baptism, imparting the principal of supernatural life, to our actual transformation in Christ – to the full victory in us of Him whose name is holiness” (Dietrich von Hildebrand, Transformation In Christ).

7 The “threshold of that process of being transformed” being a level of accomplishment - within the “succession of stages” - that equips us to advance toward the goal set for us by God.

“Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph. 4:22-24)

To quote Dietrich von Hildebrand one last time “These words of St. Paul are inscribed above the gate through which all must pass who want to reach the goal set us by God. They implicitly contain the quintessence of the process which baptized man must undergo before he attains the unfolding of the new supernatural life received in Baptism.” (Transformation In Christ).

Community of Believers

2005-10-02T12:50:00.000-07:00

Community of Believers

This letter to the editor of a Catholic Archdiocesan newspaper takes issue with the publishing of ‘letters to the editor,’ which express views contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church or in any other way promote disunity among believers. It suggests that the subject matter of those letters can be used to write and publish apologetic articles from which we can all grow in our common faith. It attempts to make the point that we Catholics need to learn and embrace the truth in its entirety and that the official newspaper of an Archdiocese should endeavor to help us grow in holiness so that we may live our earthly lives in accordance with the Will of God. To make its point it takes issue with an article published by a regular columnist of same paper, which also notes the disunity among the many contributors of ‘letters to the editor’. The columnist fails to make his point because he fails to acknowledge the primacy of the Church’s concern for the proclamation of the truth.

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ~ Mission - a requirement of the Church's catholicity

849 The missionary mandate. "Having been divinely sent to the nations that she might be 'the universal sacrament of salvation,' the Church, in obedience to the command of her founder and because it is demanded by her own essential universality, strives to preach the Gospel to all men":[339] "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and Lo, I am with you always, until the close of the age."[340]

850 The origin and purpose of mission. The Lord's missionary mandate is ultimately grounded in the eternal love of the Most Holy Trinity: "The Church on earth is by her nature missionary since, according to the plan of the Father, she has as her origin the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit."[341] The ultimate purpose of mission is none other than to make men share in the communion between the Father and the Son in their Spirit of love.[342]

851 Missionary motivation. It is from God's love for all men that the Church in every age receives both the obligation and the vigor of her missionary dynamism, "for the love of Christ urges us on."[343] Indeed, God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth";[344] that is, God wills the salvation of everyone through the knowledge of the truth. Salvation is found in the truth. Those who obey the prompting of the Spirit of truth are already on the way of salvation. But the Church, to whom this truth has been entrusted, must go out to meet their desire, so as to bring them the truth. Because she believes in God's universal plan of salvation, the Church must be missionary.

May 15, 2001

Dear Editor,

I hope you don’t consider this letter to be hostile, because I am truly grateful to have an Archdiocesan newspaper. This letter is written with love. I know this letter is too lengthy to be published so I don’t expect you to do so. My objective will be served if you read it. After all it is a letter to the editor.

In an article titled “The ultimate litmus test for Catholic orthodoxy” (May 11, 2001) the author notes that the letters to the editor of this newspaper reveal people divided over many issues. The author deduces that the proclamation of the truth is not the first concern of the Church. He states that the ultimate litmus test for Catholic orthodoxy is parish communities of believers who actually cherish one another. He later references Jesus’ commandment to love one another as He has loved us. He further mentions that in the Acts of the Apostles we are presented with a Church that can’t help being on the move, creating communities of newly evangelized with leadership to guide them and recognizing all along what God has done through their ministry. Lastly we hear that Jesus is the “truth” and we too can become the truth in loving communities.

You might suspect that the reason I have written this letter is to rebuke the previously referred to article. Not so, I believe that the article intended to unite rather than divide us. Although I think that article falls short, I was actually prompted to write to you because of a letter to the editor in that same issue titled “Pope apologizes to Orthodox”. That letter consisted of one sentence. Because its nature was divisive, it doesn’t belong in a Catholic newspaper and won’t be repeated here. After reading it I thought, “enough is enough”. I have read so many letters to the editor that do not belong in a Catholic newspaper and have often thought of writing to this newspaper to express this opinion; but I always talked myself out of doing so. This time, however, I had to follow through. This was the last straw so to speak. So you can see that this is a letter of complaint about letters that do not belong in a Catholic newspaper; but I still insist that I write not out of hostility; but rather Charity.

I must refer again to the five declarations made in the article if I hope to make my point. First mentioned is that the letters to the editor reveal division over many issues. Second, that the proclamation of the truth is not the first concern of the Church. Third, that the love for each other that parish communities of believers demonstrate is the litmus test for Catholic orthodoxy because Jesus gave a new commandment: love one another.

Just what is a community of believers? Surely they must be united not divided in what they believe. Just how do members of the community come to know what to believe? The fourth declaration made is that the Apostles left newly evangelized communities with leadership to guide them. In a homily given at Knock Shrine on 30 September 1979, John Paul II said the following: “Christ has not left his followers without guidance in the task of understanding and living the Gospel. Before returning to his father, he promised to send his Holy Spirit to the Church: ‘But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all I have said to you (Jn 14:26). This same Spirit guides the successors of the Apostles, your bishops, united with the Bishop of Rome, to whom it was entrusted to preserve the faith and to ‘preach the Gospel to the whole creation’ (Mk 16:15). Listen to their voices, for they bring you the word of the Lord”.

Just how do members of the community embrace the commandment of Jesus to love one another? Surely not without first embracing the greatest commandment: “And he said to him, ‘you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it; you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets’” (Mt 22:37-40). Love of neighbor cannot be separated from love of God.

Just how do members of the community come to love God? Surely they must come to know him. As Catholics we can do our best to know and love God by embracing all that the Catholic Church teaches. It does indeed proclaim the truth and the entirety of its proclamation is prerequisite for the community of believers to, as the fifth declaration makes, become the truth in loving communities. In fact, how can the community of believers come to know what God’s commandments are if the first concern of the Church is not to proclaim the truth?

All of the above has been said to support my point that we Catholics need to learn and embrace the truth in its entirety and that the official newspaper of an Archdiocese should endeavor to help us grow in holiness so that we may live our earthly lives in accordance with the Will of God.

Dissident opinions can only be useful if they are presented in articles written in apologetic form so that the holders of those opinions can be enlightened with the truth and hopefully come to be united with the community of believers.

So perhaps some thought should be given to refrain from publishing letters to the editor and instead utilize their subject matter to write constructive apologetic articles or essays from which we all can learn and be strengthened in our Faith.

Thank you for [name of newspaper].

Yours in Christ Jesus,
Fredi D’Alessio

TEACHING OF JESUS CHRIST

2005-10-02T12:28:00.000-07:00

THE TEACHING OF JESUS CHRIST

A Series of Articles on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Fr. John A. Corapi

~

The Catechism of the Catholic Church--Gift of the Second Vatican Council

Human Life--To Know and Love God

Divine Revelation - Part One

Divine Revelation - Part Two

Turn Away from Sin; Be Faithful to the Gospel

The Joy of Reconciliation

From the Glory of the Cross to the Glory of Easter

Angels and Demons - Facts not Fiction

The Holy Spirit: Life-Giving Breath of God

'Upon this Rock I shall build my church'

The Oneness of the Catholic Church

The Church: Indefectibly Holy Body and Bride of Christ

The Church is Catholic

The Church is Apostolic

The Laity in the Church: A Sleeping Giant

The Last Things: Judgment, Heaven, Hell and Purgatory

The Mystery of Christian Love

Mary: Mother of the New Evangelization

The Eucharist as a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

Marriage: Sacrament of Unity and Fruitful Love

Bring Emmanuel to All the World

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Facts of Life

2005-10-02T12:13:00.000-07:00

The Facts of Life
HLI’s popular pro-life manual
by Brian Clowes

The Facts of Life is for every pro-life family, library, classroom, home-school and church. It’s an invaluable reference for letters to the editor, talks, debates, homilies, school papers, testimonies and family discussions. The Facts of Life covers all the life issues you face each day, including: abortion effects and methods, types of birth control, facts on the pre-born child, Natural Family Planning, euthanasia, school-based sex education, population control agendas, clear explanations of Catholic Church teachings on these life issues, and a list of pro-life and pro-abortion organizations.

Only Chapter 1 of The Facts of Life is currently available online. To order a copy of the Facts of Life book click here.

Online Version of The Facts of Life Chapter 1: ABORTION DEFINITIONS, METHODS AND EFFECTS

Introduction

What Is the General Definition of "Abortion?"

What Is the Definition of "Abortionist?"

What Are the Different Types of Abortions?

What Are the Different Types of Surgical Abortions?

How Is a Suction Abortion Done?

How Is a Dilation and Curettage (D & C) Abortion Done?

How Is a Dilation and Evacuation (D & E) Abortion Done?

How Is a Saline Abortion Done?

How Is a Dilation and Extraction (D & X) Abortion Done?

How Is a Prostaglandin Abortion Done?

How Is a Hysterotomy Abortion Done?

How Is an Intercardiac Injection Abortion Done?

What Is "Menstrual Extraction" (ME)?

What Is a Selective Abortion (Pregnancy Reduction)?

How Do Abortion Mills Dispose of the Remains of Aborted Babies?

How Many Women Died from Illegal Abortions in the United States Before Roe v. Wade?

How Many Women Currently Die from Illegal Abortions Worldwide?

Does the Legalization of Abortion Contribute to Overall Improvements in Maternal Health

What Are Common Physical Dangers of Surgical Abortion?

What Is the Connection Between Breast Cancer and Abortion?

What Are the Common Psychological Problems Abortion Causes to Mothers?

What Are the Common Psychological Problems Abortion Causes to Fathers?

What Organizations Help Women and Men Who Have Been Injured by Abortion?

Peace on Earth

2005-10-01T23:21:00.000-07:00

Peace on Earth?

How to Sustain a Lasting Peace

Theologian urges U.S. to find security in global justice, not war.

‘Make me an instrument of your peace’ by Rev. Bryan N. Massingale

Trust in man's power rather than God's - An obstacle to peace

If the 'King of the nations', the 'Prince of Peace', 'Jesus the Christ', were to return to earth today to present his proposal for world peace to the leaders of all nations, a few wise ones would recommended him for the Nobel Peace Prize. But most would say "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" (Jn 6.60) then they would turn away and leave him.

If today you hear his voice, harden not your heart. For his truth endures forever and He speaks to us today and everyday through his vicar John Paul II, who addresses the path to peace in a special way through his annual World Day of Peace messages.

Ignoring the Holy Father - An obstacle to peace

An effective path to peace has and can only come from Christ Jesus and there is no man alive who has a more intimate relationship with him than his vicar John Paul II. Unfortunately the Holy Father constantly receives the same treatment as that given to Christ Jesus in the scenario above.

"Pope John Paul has set the stage for a reformulation of Catholic thinking about war, peace and non-violence. Will the squabbling factions in the U.S. debate engage him?" Hawks, Doves, and Pope John Paul II

Abortion - An obstacle to peace

"Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion." Mother Teresa - National Prayer Breakfast

"We are talking of peace. These are things that break peace, but I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing - direct murder by the mother herself. And we read in the Scripture, for God says very clearly: Even if a mother could forget her child - I will not forget you - I have carved you in the palm of my hand. We are carved in the palm of His hand, so close to Him that unborn child has been carved in the hand of God. And that is what strikes me most, the beginning of that sentence, that even if a mother could forget something impossible - but even if she could forget - I will not forget you. And today the greatest means - the greatest destroyer of peace is abortion. And we who are standing here - our parents wanted us. We would not be here if our parents would do that to us. Our children, we want them, we love them, but what of the millions. Many people are very, very concerned with the children in India, with the children in Africa where quite a number die, maybe of malnutrition, of hunger and so on, but millions are dying deliberately by the will of the mother. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today. Because if a mother can kill her own child - what is left for me to kill you and you kill me - there is nothing between." Mother Teresa – Nobel Lecture

“America, your deepest identity and truest character as a nation is revealed in the position you take towards the human person. The ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless ones. The best traditions of your land presume respect for those who cannot defend themselves. If you want equal justice for all, and true freedom and lasting peace, then, America, defend life! … Every human person - no matter how vulnerable or helpless, no matter how young or how old, no matter how healthy, handicapped or sick, no matter how useful or productive for society - is a being of inestimable worth created in the image and likeness of God. This is the dignity of America, the reason she exists, the condition for her survival - yes, the ultimate test of her greatness: to respect every human person, especially the weakest and most defenseless ones, those as yet unborn.” Pope John Paul II USA departure ceremony on 9/19/87

THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

SAFEGUARDING PEACE

Peace

2302 By recalling the commandment, "You shall not kill," our Lord asked for peace of heart and denounced murderous anger and hatred as immoral.

Anger is a desire for revenge. "To desire vengeance in order to do evil to someone who should be punished is illicit," but it is praiseworthy to impose restitution "to correct vices and maintain justice." If anger reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound a neighbor, it is gravely against charity; it is a mortal sin. The Lord says, "Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment."

2303 Deliberate hatred is contrary to charity. Hatred of the neighbor is a sin when one deliberately wishes him evil. Hatred of the neighbor is a grave sin when one deliberately desires him grave harm. "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven."

2304 Respect for and development of human life require peace. Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity. Peace is "the tranquillity of order." Peace is the work of justice and the effect of charity.

2305 Earthly peace is the image and fruit of the peace of Christ, the messianic "Prince of Peace." By the blood of his Cross, "in his own person he killed the hostility," he reconciled men with God and made his Church the sacrament of the unity of the human race and of its union with God. "He is our peace." He has declared: "Blessed are the peacemakers."

2306 Those who renounce violence and bloodshed and, in order to safeguard human rights, make use of those means of defense available to the weakest, bear witness to evangelical charity, provided they do so without harming the rights and obligations of other men and societies. They bear legitimate witness to the gravity of the physical and moral risks of recourse to violence, with all its destruction and death.

Avoiding war

2307 The fifth commandment forbids the intentional destruction of human life. Because of the evils and injustices that accompany all war, the Church insistently urges everyone to prayer and to action so that the divine Goodness may free us from the ancient bondage of war.

2308 All citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war.

However, "as long as the danger of war persists and there is no international authority with the necessary competence and power, governments cannot be denied the right of lawful self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed."

2309 The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:

- the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;

- all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;

- there must be serious prospects of success;

- the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modem means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.

These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called the "just war" doctrine.

The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good.

2310 Public authorities, in this case, have the right and duty to impose on citizens the obligations necessary for national defense.

Those who are sworn to serve their country in the armed forces are servants of the security and freedom of nations. If they carry out their duty honorably, they truly contribute to the common good of the nation and the maintenance of peace.

2311 Public authorities should make equitable provision for those who for reasons of conscience refuse to bear arms; these are nonetheless obliged to serve the human community in some other way.

2312 The Church and human reason both assert the permanent validity of the moral law during armed conflict. "The mere fact that war has regrettably broken out does not mean that everything becomes licit between the warring parties."

2313 Non-combatants, wounded soldiers, and prisoners must be respected and treated humanely.

Actions deliberately contrary to the law of nations and to its universal principles are crimes, as are the orders that command such actions. Blind obedience does not suffice to excuse those who carry them out. Thus the extermination of a people, nation, or ethnic minority must be condemned as a mortal sin. One is morally bound to resist orders that command genocide.

2314 "Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation." A danger of modern warfare is that it provides the opportunity to those who possess modern scientific weapons especially atomic, biological, or chemical weapons - to commit such crimes.

2315 The accumulation of arms strikes many as a paradoxically suitable way of deterring potential adversaries from war. They see it as the most effective means of ensuring peace among nations. This method of deterrence gives rise to strong moral reservations. The arms race does not ensure peace. Far from eliminating the causes of war, it risks aggravating them. Spending enormous sums to produce ever new types of weapons impedes efforts to aid needy populations; it thwarts the development of peoples. Over-armament multiplies reasons for conflict and increases the danger of escalation.

2316 The production and the sale of arms affect the common good of nations and of the international community. Hence public authorities have the right and duty to regulate them. The short-term pursuit of private or collective interests cannot legitimate undertakings that promote violence and conflict among nations and compromise the international juridical order.

2317 Injustice, excessive economic or social inequalities, envy, distrust, and pride raging among men and nations constantly threaten peace and cause wars. Everything done to overcome these disorders contributes to building up peace and avoiding war:

Insofar as men are sinners, the threat of war hangs over them and will so continue until Christ comes again; but insofar as they can vanquish sin by coming together in charity, violence itself will be vanquished and these words will be fulfilled: "they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."

Lasting Peace

2005-10-01T22:11:00.000-07:00

How to Sustain a Lasting Peace

Interview with Philosopher Jesús Villagrasa

ROME, FEB. 27, 2003

What guidelines for world peace can the Church offer amid the debate over Iraq?

For a perspective on the crisis, ZENIT interviewed philosopher Father Jesús Villagrasa, who gave an address entitled "Pacem in Terris, Dramatic Actuality and Permanent Endeavor," at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum, on the principles that sustain a lasting peace.

Q: The present international situation seems very different from that of the beginning of the 1960s, when John XXIII wrote the encyclical "Pacem in Terris," to which John Paul II dedicated the Message for the World Day of Peace 2003.

Father Villagrasa: Perhaps not so much. The euphoria of 1989 passed, when the Berlin Wall fell, symbol of the separation of the blocs confronted during the Cold War years and when Chateaubriand's famous phrase following the Napoleonic wars was repeated: "It might be said that the old world is ending and the new one beginning."

In fact, the leaders of the victorious superpower proclaimed the dawn of a "new world order" in which "the reign of law and not the law of the jungle" was going to prevail. The grandiose plan of the new world order, founded on democracy, the free market and global security seemed visible without the threat of nuclear terror and of Communist oppression.

In his book "The End of History," Francis Fukuyama looks forward to times of peace and prosperity with the triumph of democracy and the free market. This idyllic vision has not been realized. Freedom is more difficult to acquire and peace less certain than one might think.

Q: What signs are there of the crumbling of the new world order?

Father Villagrasa: The economy, politics, and defense function in great disorder. The world economy has disconnected and impoverished those who have not known how or have not been able to be added to the global markets.

The financial crises of Mexico in 1994, Asia in 1997, and Argentina in 2001 have shown the weaknesses of the global financial system. Large business groups, at times created by mergers, have exploded like soap bubbles: Enron, AOL Warner, WorldCom.

In Iraq's crisis a political authority has been lacking capable of guaranteeing international law and peace; and the U.N., NATO, and European Union reveal profound divisions. Relations among the great civilizations are threatened by fundamentalism in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. Outbreaks of intolerance explode in the multicultural cities of the West.

The growing economic, technological and computer interdependence of the planet have also empowered the threats to global security. The attacks on the Twin Towers showed in all its crudeness the evil of an international terrorism that can strike without scruples, and with awful cruelty and facility.

In a not-too-distant future, this terrorism could have at its disposal without much difficulty, biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. Given these new threats, recourse has been taken to the theory of the "preventive war," which causes serious moral reservations in large sectors.

Q: Why has the plan for a new world order not worked out, and why is the world in such a state of disorder?

Father Villagrasa: The answer is simple but full of consequences. A moral order has been lacking that would direct and sustain the economic, political, cultural and military order. This is the relevance of the content of "Pacem in Terris."

In his Message for this year's World Day of Peace, which recalls the encyclical, John Paul II has posed very serious questions: "What kind of order can replace this disorder, so that men and women can live in freedom, justice and security? And since the world, amid its disorder, continues nevertheless to be 'ordered' and organized in various ways -- economic, cultural, even political -- there arises another equally urgent question: On what principles are these new forms of world order unfolding? These far-reaching questions suggest that the problem of order in world affairs, which is the problem of peace rightly understood, cannot be separated from issues of moral principle."

Without a moral order, great projects, such as Communism or unbridled capitalism, are constructions that seem solid, but which in reality are very weak because they don't have foundations; they are like the enormous statue in King Nebuchadnezzar's vision: of extraordinary brilliance and terrible countenance; his head was of pure gold, his chest and arms of silver, his abdomen and loins of bronze, his legs of iron, his feet part iron and part clay. But it was enough to strike his feet with a stone and it was pulverized like chaff on the threshing floor in summer, which the wind blows away without leaving a trace.

Q: Concretely, what would be those moral foundations for peaceful civil coexistence and a new world order worthy of man?

Father Villagrasa: "Pacem in Terris" proposes four: truth, justice, solidarity and freedom.

It states realistically that war is no longer an apt means to compensate for a violated right in the international realm, and that differences that might eventually emerge among peoples and nations, must be resolved through negotiations and agreements.

It postulates realistically that for the promotion of the "universal common good" the constitution of a public authority at the international level is necessary, which should not be instituted through coercion or force, but through the consent of nations. It must not be a super-state, but must respect the principle of subsidiarity and the authority proper to each state.

Q: In other words, you are speaking about a preventive peace?

Father Villagrasa: The dreams in 1989 of a universal peace were, perhaps, only that -- dreams. Peace is a gift of heaven that must be prayed for, but it is also a "permanent endeavor," a conquest.

Some agree with the saying "If you want peace, prepare for war." It is more realistic, human and Christian to think, "If you don't want war, prepare for peace."

Peace is much greater than no armed aggression. Peace, the last Council said, is not the mere absence of war, nor is it reduced only to the balance of opposing forces, nor does it arise from a despotic hegemony, but with all exactness and propriety it is called the work of justice.

Q: Can the Church do something other than teach moral principles?

Father Villagrasa: The principal mission of the Church is evangelization and it includes the teaching of these principles. But it does more. The Church is mobilizing all its spiritual energies, especially prayer and penance for peace.

The Holy See is tirelessly deploying the good arts of its diplomacy. The Church does not formulate concrete solutions nor does it replace those who govern in making decisions.

It limits itself to instructing and enlightening the conscience of the faithful, especially the conscience of those who have the heavy duty, which cannot be delegated, to govern temporal affairs.

As "Pacem in Terris" did, it exhorts Catholics to participate actively in public life and to cooperate in the progress of the common good of humanity.

A Catholic who limits himself to lament the present disorder, to declare himself a pacifist at all costs, and does nothing to give a Gospel input to temporal realities, does not render a good service to the cause of peace, which is the work of justice.

Theologian urges U.S. to find security in global justice, not war.

‘Make me an instrument of your peace’ by Rev. Bryan N. Massingale

Global Justice

2005-10-01T21:43:00.000-07:00

Theologian urges U.S. to find security in global justice, not war.

While the United States is embarked on a policy of protecting its economic security with overwhelming military might, American Catholics should know true security can come only from working for justice and peace for all, Father Bryan N. Massingale told a national gathering of Catholic social action leaders.

Father Massingale, a moral theology professor at St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee, sharply contrasted the biblical vision of shalom, or a society made secure by peace with justice, with the official security policy documents of the Bush administration developed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The Bible and government policy, he argued, present “two fundamentally different and competing visions of life and ‘security.’”

He gave the opening keynote speech Feb. 8 for the 2003 Roundtable Symposium, an annual national meeting in Washington of The Roundtable, an association of U.S. Catholic diocesan social action directors. More than 100 diocesan leaders from across the country attended the symposium, whose theme was “The Security We Seek.”

Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, keynoter for the Feb. 9 session, struck a chord similar to Father Massingale’s. She suggested that if Americans were to enter deep partnerships to feed and educate the poor in Palestine, Pakistan and other troubled nations they would do much to eliminate the conditions of poverty and despair that offer the breeding ground for hatred and terrorism.

That, she said, would show the people of those regions a different side of America “than the underside of an F-16” fighter jet. Father Massingale opened and closed his talk with the prayer of St. Francis that begins, “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.” He used the opening line as a refrain punctuating his talk.

He said he finds the prayer “especially haunting these days. I am haunted by its vision and call of faith as I survey a world that is so much at odds with what I believe, with the values I espouse, with the way I seek to live.”

He cited the growing rich-poor gap that contradicts Catholic social teaching, the ongoing poverty of one in six American children, the racial profiling against Muslims and Arabs and those who are perceived as Muslim or Arab, the increasing suspicion of immigrants and the “perilous precipice of war” with Iraq.

The theologian urged participants to read two 2002 official U.S. public policy documents - “The National Strategy for Homeland Security” issued last July and “The National Security Strategy of the United States of America” in September – both available on the Web at www.whitehouse.gov.

“Among the most striking features of these texts is the underlying tone of pervasive fear,” he said. “Over and over, the documents speak of ‘threats’ and ‘enemies.’ Continually, they underscore and highlight our unprecedented ‘vulnerability.’ ... Repeatedly we are reminded that the enemy is ‘invisible,’ ‘evil,’ ‘smart and resolute.’”

He also highlighted that whenever the term “security” appears in the documents, “it is almost always preceded by the words ‘homeland’ or ‘national,’” and the stated goal of national security is “to protect ‘American interests’ and defend ‘our way of life.’”

American interests, he added, are described in the documents “as a triad of democracy, prosperity and free markets,” but free markets hold pride of place in the triad. He quoted from the September document: “Free markets and free trade are key priorities of our national security strategy.”

In that document, he said, “the United States goes so far as to elevate free trade into a central and defining moral principle.” He quoted from Page 18: “The concept of ‘free trade’ arose as a moral principle even before it became a pillar of economics. If you can make something that others value, you should be able to sell it to them. If others make something you value, you should be able to buy it. This is real freedom, the freedom for a person - or a nation - to make a living.”

Thus,” he commented, “our core American value, the freedom we seek to defend, is the freedom to buy and sell, the freedom to acquire and consume, the freedom - dare I say it? - to shop.”

He added that the “underside” of the free trade, consumerist ethos governing American security policy “is the belief that having a disproportion of goods is appropriate and that using force or violence to get or keep these goods is both necessary and legitimate. ... A consumer society – the American way of life – depends upon violence, or the threat of violence, to maintain itself.”

In the contrasting biblical concept of peace, he said, “Shalom is a vision of social wholeness, a state of well-being for all, where everyone has access to the goods of creation intended to meet the needs of all.”

Father Massingale said U.S. Catholics trying to live out the vision of peace and security expressed in the Bible and Catholic social teaching are also “part of America, part of its ‘interests’ and ‘way of life.’”

“We are divided between loyalties to our American ethos and to our Christian identity. ... We also are torn because we, like many of our fellow Americans, are afraid. We, too, witnessed the twin trade towers collapse in a ruinous heap,” he said.

He urged participants, in dealing with war and peace and security issues back in their home dioceses, to acknowledge and discuss those fears. “We achieve nothing by disparaging the fear of others or not owning up to our own,” he said.

But he also reminded them that courage does not mean being fearless: “Rather, courage lies in the determination to do what is right despite being afraid.” He also reminded them that it was because the disciples were afraid that Jesus is found saying to them, “Do not be afraid.”

Jerry Filteau
Catholic News Service

‘Make me an instrument of your peace’ by Rev. Bryan N. Massingale

How to Sustain a Lasting Peace

Vocation to be Peacemakers

2005-10-01T21:22:00.000-07:00

‘Make me an instrument of your peace’

Christian vocation poses serious challenges to talk of war

By Rev. Bryan N. Massingale

“Make me an instrument of your peace.” So begins the familiar prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. In it, we pray for the grace, wisdom, and courage to be peacemakers in a world of strife and conflict.

The vocation to be peacemakers weighs heavily upon U.S. Christians these days, as our nation debates, and apparently moves ever closer, to a military invasion of Iraq.

While all wars raise issues for Christian consciences, the one now being contemplated poses unique challenges. For a conflict with Iraq would be a preemptive war. That is, a war waged not to respond to present aggression, but to prevent possible future danger. Its aim is to take out or neutralize a potential enemy, based upon a probability that a nation could one day pose a threat to us.

Over the centuries, the Christian community and others of goodwill have developed what has become known as the “just war” doctrine. It is based upon the conviction that war must be avoided whenever possible, and gives stringent conditions that must be present in order to override the presumption in favor of peace. The Catechism of the Catholic Church lists these “rigorous” conditions, among which are just cause, last resort, lack of disproportional outcomes, and legitimate authority (2309).

Using these criteria, Catholic officials in Rome, the U.S. bishops, and other religious leaders have concluded that preemptive military action is not morally justifiable. Such a war violates — or stretches beyond recognition — the requirement that war is a means of last resort. Going to war is morally legitimate only after peaceful alternatives have been exhausted, and less lethal means have been shown to be ineffective. But a preemptive war signals a lack of patience with exploring peaceful alternatives. It shows a lack of confidence in diplomatic initiatives, and even demonstrates an arrogance that prefers bombs over negotiation. A preemptive war violates the spirit of our Christian conviction that wars, because of the grave harms they cause, should be undertaken with great reluctance only when such action is truly unavoidable.

But the criterion of proportional outcomes is the one perhaps most severely tested and violated by a preemptive war. Proportionality means that “the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated” (Catechism, 2309). That is, the costs and harms of a war should not outweigh the possible benefits that are gained.

One of the little-noted costs of a preemptive war against Iraq is that it sets a dangerous national precedent and establishes a policy that leads to international chaos and anarchy. Given the logic of preemptive strike, what would keep Pakistan from invading India, in a preemptive bid to eliminate a possible nuclear threat from its rival neighbor — a threat that is more clear and immediate than the danger that Iraq poses to the U.S.?

North Korea could also justify a military invasion of South Korea, on the grounds that over 50 years of diplomatic tension makes its neighbor a possible, potential threat that is better eliminated now than later. Taiwan could also justify a preemptive strike against mainland China to neutralize that nation’s superior military advantage, based upon a possible future threat to that island’s independence from communist rule.

In short, the cost of a preemptive war by the United States is that it gives every nation the right to justify wars against those who might someday become an enemy. Any disagreement between nations thus becomes a justification for war, to eliminate the possibility that the disagreeing party could become a threat. In such a world, peace becomes virtually impossible. Preemptive wars thus fail the criterion of proportionality. Their very logic introduces into the world a grave disorder that imperils whatever fragile peace might exist between nations.

“Make me an instrument of your peace.” There is little disagreement that the current Iraqi leadership has shown itself to be irresponsible and even oppressive. No one denies that the situation must be met with strong, determined action to ensure that this regime cannot harm innocent lives. The challenge for Christians, as we join the debate taking place in our nation and search for international consensus, is to raise questioning — even dissenting — voices that reject a policy of preemptive military action that leads to ethical relativism, moral chaos, and the end of any effective restraint upon evils of war.

Massingale is an associate professor of moral theology at Saint Francis Seminary, St. Francis.

Theologian urges U.S. to find security in global justice, not war.

How to Sustain a Lasting Peace

Helpless Unborn

2005-09-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

Prayer for the Helpless Unborn

Heavenly Father, in Your Love for us,
protect against the wickedness of the devil,
those helpless little ones to whom
You have given the gift of life.

Touch with pity the hearts of those
women pregnant in our world today
who are not thinking of motherhood.

Help them to see
that the child they carry
is made in Your Image
as well as theirs -
made for eternal life.

Dispel their fear and selfishness
and give them true womanly hearts
to love their babies
and give them birth
and all the needed care
that a mother alone can give.

We ask this through Christ Jesus,
your Son, Our Lord,
Who lives and reigns with You
and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever.

Amen.

*from a holy card*

A Sign in the Sky?

2005-09-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

A Sign in the Sky?

By Fredi D’Alessio

Many people who have made a pilgrimage to Medjugorje have reported being able to gaze at the sun and see a wondrous event.

One such person has described this event as follows:

"When I look at the sun I see another celestial body that almost totally eclipses it. What I see is an annular eclipse in which a thin outer rim of the sun's disk is not obscured. The eclipse does not reduce the amount of light generated by the sun. It acts more like a protective filter. The sky is as bright as it would be without an eclipse. The area of sky immediately surrounding the sun is as intensely bright and yellow as it would be without an eclipse. Beyond that area, the sky is as blue as it would normally appear. However, as I continue to gaze at the eclipse the intensely bright yellow radiance immediately surrounding the sun dissipates and that area becomes as blue as the rest of the sky. At first sight, before the intensely bright yellow radiance immediately surrounding the sun dissipates, this celestial body appears to be very dark. This is due to the contrast between it and the brilliant background. As soon as the brilliance dissipates, the celestial body is revealed to have a light grayish color and resembles the Holy Eucharist.”

The following is worthy of reflection:

It is certainly possible that this is of divine origin. That it may be a miracle of the Son - not the sun. That it may be a sign of Jesus’ perpetual presence among us. That it may represent the miracle of His Sacred Heart, which is here on earth in the Most Blessed Sacrament. [Tests conducted on the Blessed Sacrament at Lanciano, which visibly changed into flesh following the words of consecration, revealed that the flesh consists of the muscular tissue of a human heart.] Or that it may represent Our Blessed Mother as the dawn, which is preparing the birth of the brilliant sun of Christ - the Woman clothed with the sun. Or that it may be representative of both Mary and Jesus. [ Many beautiful meditations have been written regarding the devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and of their inseparableness.]

Our Blessed Mother communicated to Fr. Gobbi "My Immaculate Heart is the way which leads you to his reign. In fact, the triumph of my Immaculate Heart will coincide with the triumph of my Son, Jesus, in his glorious reign of holiness and grace, of love and of justice, of mercy and of peace, which will be established in the whole world." At a later date She communicated "Because in the Eucharist Jesus Christ is really present, He remains ever with you and this presence of his will become increasingly stronger, will shine over the earth like a sun and will mark the beginning of a new era. The coming of the glorious reign of Christ will coincide with the greatest splendor of the Eucharist." So She tells us that the triumph of Her Immaculate Heart and the glorious reign of Jesus and the greatest splendor of the Eucharist will occupy the same place in space or time. Many beautiful meditations have been written regarding the devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and of their inseparableness. Her words "..this presence will become increasingly stronger" may confirm that we are in the midst, although not yet the conclusion, of the Triumph of Mary's Immaculate Heart.

The following are messages of Our Blessed Mother to Father Gobbi recorded in ‘To The Priests Our Lady's Beloved Sons’.

#25 j, November 1, 1973:

"...They must begin again to pray more, to love Jesus more, to adore Him more in the mystery of the Eucharist, so that He becomes the Sun which illuminates their whole life. What a joy and what a gift of love will Jesus in the Eucharist communicate to these faithful who are consecrated to me!"

#137 b-1, October 13, 1977:

"Today you recall with joy the sign which, sixty years ago, I gave in this place chosen by me to manifest myself. You call it the miracle of the sun. Yes, children, even the sun, like all creation, obeys the laws established by its Creator. But sometimes it can act otherwise when God requires this... Through this miracle, I have desired to indicate to you that my victory will consist in leading men back to a docile obedience to the will of God... But the greatest victory of my motherly and Immaculate Heart will be to cause Jesus to shine in the souls of all my children...

And so the miracle of the sun, which took place here was but a sign. The eyes of those present perceived this extraordinary phenomenon which caused many to believe in the action of your Mother whose duty it is to set burning in the hearts of all men the light of Jesus, the true Sun of the world."

#355 k, June 7, 1987:

“I am the dawn which is arising to announce the arrival of the brilliant Sun of Christ."

#360 v, August 21, 1987:

“Because in the Eucharist Jesus Christ is really present, He remains ever with you and this presence of his will become increasingly stronger, will shine over the earth like a sun and will mark the beginning of a new era. The coming of the glorious reign of Christ will coincide with the greatest splendor of the Eucharist.”

#369 i, December 24, 1987:

"...I want again to repeat to all: I am the dawn which is preparing the birth of the brilliant sun of Christ."

#370 g, December 31, 1987:

"Finally, in your time, there are occurring great signs in the sun, on the moon and in the stars. The miracle of the sun, which took place at Fatima was a sign which I gave to you to warn you that the times of these extraordinary phenomena which are taking place in the heavens have now arrived. And how many times during my present apparitions have you yourselves been able to contemplate the great prodigies that are taking place in the sun."

#387 m-n, August 31, 1988:

"The coming of the glorious reign of Christ will coincide with the triumph of the Eucharistic Reign of Jesus. Love Jesus, imitate Him, walk along the road of disdain for the world and for yourselves. Let the light of Christ be the only light, which illumines you, under the gaze of my motherly and merciful eyes, at the moment when you live through the great tribulation.

My light, as a dawn, which is arising, is spreading from the East and becoming ever stronger, until it covers the whole world.

Leave this cenacle with the light of Christ and of your Immaculate Mother and go to lighten up the earth, in these days of profound darkness."

#388 l, September 11, 1988:

"...Only in this way will you be able to illuminate the earth, with the Sun of divine love, who will in the end succeed in driving away all darkness, so that the new era of the civilization of love will at last be able to shine forth resplendently upon the world."

#458 a-m, October 13, 1991:

"...I am the Woman clothed with the sun.

I am the great sign, which appears in heaven.

Today you are calling to mind my last apparition, which took place in Fatima in the Cova da Iria, and which was confirmed by the miracle of the sun. This miracle shows you in an extraordinary way, that I am the Woman clothed with the sun...
Today, I am inviting you to look to me, as to the great sign which is appearing in heaven, in order to live in trust and in serenity, as you are enlightened by my own light and signed by my motherly seal."

#505 j-k, November 21, 1993:

"The glorious reign of Christ will coincide with the triumph of the eucharistic reign of Jesus, because in a purified and sanctified world, completely renewed by Love, Jesus will be made manifest above all in the mystery of his eucharistic presence.

The Eucharist will be the source from which will burst forth all his divine power, and it will become the new sun, which will shed its bright rays in hearts and souls, and then in the life of individuals, families, and nations, making of all one single flock, docile and meek, whose sole Shepherd will be Jesus."

In 'Blessed Be Christ The King a Meditation on the Immaculate Conception' Saint Padre Pio says of the Virgin Mary and Jesus:

"...She will be the sure guide who will direct our steps toward the Divine Sun which is Jesus Christ...

All is darkness compared to the pure light that renews all creation through Him Whom she bore in her womb, as the dew on the rose."

Pope John Paul II's letter to the Archbishop of Lanciano

Apostolic Letter Mane Nobiscum Domine of His Holiness John Paul II to the Bishops, Clergy and Faithful
for the Year of the Eucharist

Pope John Paul II and the Eucharist ~ in depth

Private Revelation

Miracle of the Son

Mane Nobiscum Domine

The Sacrament of Confirmation

2005-09-29T19:36:00.000-07:00

The Sacrament of Confirmation

“Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.” Acts 8:14-17

This passage of sacred scripture teaches us that while Confirmation is a complement to Baptism, it is a distinct and complete sacrament in its own right. Its purpose is to complete in us that which was begun in the sacrament of Baptism. The Samaritans had already been baptized, yet it was still necessary for them to receive the laying on of hands.

We might say that we are baptized in order that we may be confirmed.

In the sacrament of Baptism we are born spiritually. We become sharers in the divine life of the most Blessed Trinity. We begin to live a supernatural life. As we practice the virtues of faith, hope and love and as we unite with Christ in his Church in offering worship to God, we also grow in grace and goodness.

A useful comparison is the difference, in natural life, between conception and later growth.

When we are confirmed we receive a special grace by which our faith is deepened and strengthened, so that it will be strong enough not only for our own needs but also for the needs of others with whom we shall try to share it. With the onset of adolescence a child begins to assume, progressively more and more, the responsibilities of adulthood. Young men and women begin to see their place in the total family picture and in the community at large. Similarly, confirmed Christians should begin to see more clearly their responsibility to Christ for their neighbors and become deeply concerned with the welfare of Christ in the world – which is the Church – and the welfare of Christ in their neighbors. It is in this sense that Confirmation is a spiritual growing up.

The sacrament of Confirmation makes them feel more identified with the Church, their Mother, and helps them live in accordance with their Catholic beliefs and convictions. It reminds them of the fact that they have a vocation to holiness and calls them to go forth joyfully in fulfillment of their vocations - strong in their faith and with an ardent love for souls, which stems from their love for Christ.

They should feel a continual concern for others and a restless discontent unless they are doing something worthwhile for others – something to ease their burdens in this life, and something to make more secure their promise of eternal life. Their words and actions should proclaim to those around them: “Christ lives, and He lives for you”.

The grace to do this is the grace which Jesus promised to his apostles (and to us) when He said: “But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth". Acts 1:8

The Catechism states, “The reception of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace” and defines Confirmation as the sacrament by which “the baptized are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed”.

Jesus instituted each individual sacrament because He foresaw, in his infinite wisdom, that we would have a need of certain special graces under certain particular circumstances. He foresaw, among other things, the dangers to which our faith would be exposed.

In the sacrament of Confirmation divine grace anticipates the dangers of temptation young (and old) men and women are likely to experience.

Some of these dangers would come from within, as when passion or self-will conflicts with our beliefs. We may wish to pursue some course of action that our faith forbids. We cannot live with a continual conflict raging inside ourselves. We want interior peace. So something has to give. If we could just convince ourselves that our faith is wrong, then we could follow our desires and still be at peace. It is at a time like this that the grace of Confirmation comes to our aid (if we will let it) and pushes back the urgings of self-will so that faith may triumph. The peace we find in overcoming these temptations is a genuine peace.

Sometimes the dangers to our faith come from without. For example, there exists a danger for us who live in an atmosphere of religious indifferentism to give in to the temptation to diminish our profession and practice of our Catholic faith. To do so would risk losing our faith and our path to heaven entirely.

It is the effects of the sacrament of Confirmation that gives Catholics the necessary spiritual strength to:

1. Witness for Christ and his one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
2. Spread and defend the fullness of their Catholic faith.
3. Live authentic Catholic Christian lives.

The Catechism puts it this way:

It is evident from its celebration that the effect of the sacrament of Confirmation is the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost. From this fact, Confirmation brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace:

- it roots us more deeply in the divine filiation, which makes us, cry, “Abba! Father!”
- it unites us more firmly to Christ;
- it increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us;
- it renders our bond with the Church more perfect;
- it gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross:

Recall then that you have received the spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence, the spirit of holy fear in God’s presence. Guard what you have received. God the Father has marked you with his sign; Christ the Lord has confirmed you and has placed his pledge, the Spirit, in your hearts.

Like Baptism which it completes, Confirmation is given only once, for it too imprints on the soul an indelible spiritual mark, the character, which is the sign that Jesus Christ has marked a Christian with the seal of his Spirit by clothing him with power from on high so that he may be his witness.

This character perfects the common priesthood of the faithful, received in Baptism, and the confirmed person receives the power to profess faith in Christ publicly and as it were officially. CCC 1302-1305

The majority of this text was extracted from The Faith Explained by Leo J. Trese, Scepter Publishers

The Faith Explained is an all-in-one handbook to help you understand, explain, and defend the great truths of the Catholic Faith. In easily readable chapters, it explains the purpose of human existence, God and his perfections, the creation and fall of man, the Incarnation, the Redemption, the sacraments, sacramentals, prayer, the importance of the Bible, and much more. Perfect for RCIA classes, this book is also a magnificent refresher course on the Faith for Catholics and an illuminating resource for non-Catholics with questions about the Church.

The Holy Spirit and Grace

2005-09-29T19:03:00.000-07:00

The Holy Spirit and Grace

Many people have a pretty good idea of what goes on inside our bodies. But not so many have a clear idea as to what goes on inside our souls. We talk rather easily of grace – actual grace and sanctifying grace – and of supernatural life and of growth in holiness. The question is, what do these words mean?

To answer that question adequately, we need first to know the place of the Holy Spirit in the divine scheme of things and understand the part that the Holy Spirit plays in the sanctification that goes on within the human soul.

We know that the Holy Spirit is the infinite love flowing eternally between God the Father and God the Son. He is love in person, a living love. Since it is God’s love for us that has led him to make us sharers in his own divine life, it is quite natural for us to ascribe to the Holy Spirit the operations of grace in our souls.

However, we have to keep in mind that the three divine Persons are inseparable. Where one is, all are. We might say (in human terms) that none of the divine Persons does anything separately or alone outside their one divine nature. Within that one divine nature each Person has his own particular activity, his own particular relationship, one to the other. God the Father is God knowing or seeing himself, God the Son is God’s knowledge or living image of himself, and God the Holy Spirit is the result of God’s love for himself. That is why we say, in the Nicene Creed, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. In the same creed we also profess our faith in the Holy Spirit as "the Lord, the giver of life".

This is the Blessed Trinity – three divine Persons in one God having one divine nature – a Triune God.

Here is a little illustration that may make somewhat clearer the relationship that exists between the three divine Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Suppose you look at yourself in a full-length mirror. You see there an image of yourself; it is just a reflection in the glass. But if that image were to step out of the mirror and stand beside you, living and breathing like yourself – then it would be a perfect image indeed. There would not be two of you. There would be just one you, one human nature. There would be two persons, but only one mind and one will, sharing the same knowledge and the same thoughts.

Then, since self-love is natural to an intelligent being, there would flow between you and your image an ardent love, one for the other. Now think of this love as being so much a part of yourself, so deeply rooted in your very nature, as to be a living, breathing reproduction of yourself. This love would be a third person (still only one you, one human nature), standing between you and your image; the three of you linked hand in hand, three persons in one human nature.

Perhaps this flight of imagination may help you toward a faint understanding of the relationship that exists between the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity: God the Father looking at himself in his divine mind and beholding there the image of himself that is so infinitely perfect that it is a living image - God the Son; and God the Father and God the Son loving the divine nature that they posses in common as a living love - God the Holy Spirit. Three divine Persons, one divine nature.

Even though, as we have noted, outside the divine nature no Person does anything by himself, certain roles seem more appropriate to one Person than to another. Theologians use the word appropriate to describe the way the work of the Blessed Trinity is divided up among the three divine Persons.

The role of Creator has been appropriated to God the Father. The role of Redeemer has been appropriated to God the Son. Finally, since the work of sanctifying souls is preeminently a work of divine love, this role has been appropriated to God the Holy Spirit. Actually it is the Blessed Trinity who sanctifies us and who dwells within our souls (and also who created and redeemed us), but we appropriate the action of grace to the Holy Spirit.

What is grace? You can find many meanings of the word grace in a dictionary, but when associated with theology, grace has a very definite and restricted meaning. It means a gift from God. Not just any kind of gift, but a very special sort of gift. The word grace is used to describe those gifts to which we are not even remotely entitled, not even by our nature as human beings. The word grace is used to identify those gifts that are above human nature. So we take the Latin word super, which means above and we say that grace is a supernatural gift of God.

There are many supernatural gifts that are sometimes referred to as graces, but we are concerned here with the grace that was bestowed on us through the merits of Christ Jesus for our own salvation. We call this supernatural gift sanctifying grace.

When we are baptized we receive sanctifying grace for the first time. God makes himself present within us. We are made living temples of the Blessed Trinity. By his presence God imparts to our soul that supernatural quality that makes it possible for him to see himself in us and therefore to love us. And, because this supernatural quality was purchased for us by Christ Jesus, we are bound by it to Christ, we share it with Christ, and God the Father consequently sees us as he sees his Son - we become children of God.

Sanctifying grace is sometimes called habitual grace, because it is intended to be a habitual or permanent condition of the soul. Once we are united with God in Baptism, it is intended that we remain united with him forever.

Through sanctifying grace our soul is constantly receiving from God its supernatural life just as our body was constantly receiving vital sustenance from our mother when, as a pre-born baby, it dwelled in her. Thus our supernatural life is a living organism and it requires constant nourishment.

After our natural birth our life became somewhat dependent on my own actions. For example, we could choose to refuse the food that was provided for the nourishment of our body. If we did so to the extreme, our life would perish. Likewise, the life of our soul will perish if it is not nourished by a continual presence of sanctifying grace.

God cannot dwell in a soul void of grace. If we go into eternity deprived of sanctifying grace, then we have lost God forever. Therefore, once we have received sanctifying grace in Baptism, it then becomes a matter of life-and-death importance that we preserve this supernatural gift throughout our entire life.

It is also important that we increase sanctifying grace within our soul.

These, then, are our three needs with regard to sanctifying grace: firstly, that we preserve it permanently; secondly, that we recover it immediately if we have lost it by mortal sin; thirdly, that we seek to grow in sanctifying grace with an eagerness that sees the sky as the limit.

Now none of these three things is easy to do. In fact, by our human wisdom and strength alone, none of these three things is even possible. That is why sanctifying grace is preceded by and accompanied by a whole train of special helps from God. We call these special helps actual graces. An actual grace is a momentary, transient impulse, a spurt of spiritual energy with which God touches the soul. They are divine impulses that move us to judge what is right and to do what is good.

Without God’s help we cannot succeed in getting to heaven. The story of grace is as simple as that. Without sanctifying grace we are not capable of the beatific vision. Without actual grace we are not capable of receiving sanctifying grace in the first place. Without actual grace we are not capable of remaining for any long period in the state of sanctifying grace. Without actual grace we cannot recover sanctifying grace if we should lose it.

In view of the absolute necessity of grace, it is comforting to know another great truth. That is the fact that God gives to every soul he creates sufficient grace to get to heaven. No one will lose heaven except through his own fault, through his own failure to use God’s grace.

For it is possible to reject grace. God’s grace works in and through our human will. God’s grace does not destroy our freedom of choice. It is true that grace does most of the work, but God requires of us our cooperation. At the very least, our part is to place no obstacle to the operation of grace in our soul.

There are two sources of divine grace: prayer and the sacraments. Once we have received sanctifying grace through Baptism, then it is by means of prayer and the other six sacraments that sanctifying grace is increased in the soul.

If we lose sanctifying grace through mortal sin, then it is by means of prayer and the sacrament of Penance that sanctifying grace is restored to the soul. Though forgiveness and restoration of grace is indeed the primary purpose of the sacrament of Penance, it would be wrong to suppose that the sacrament is to be reserved only for the forgiveness of mortal sin. It also has a secondary purpose. For the soul that already is in the state of sanctifying grace, Penance is an increaser of life. That is why those who aim at more than mediocrity in their spiritual lives love to receive the sacrament of Penance frequently.

Above all other sacraments, it is the Holy Eucharist that enriches and intensifies the life of grace within us. There is no other sacrament that unites us so directly and so intimately with God.

The majority of this text was extracted from The Faith Explained by Leo J. Trese, Scepter Publishers

Gospel of Life

2005-09-28T19:34:00.000-07:00

O Mary,
bright dawn of the new world,
Mother of the living,
to you do we entrust the cause of life:
Look down, O Mother,
upon the vast numbers
of babies not allowed to be born,
of the poor whose lives are made difficult,
of men and women
who are victims of brutal violence,
of the elderly and the sick killed
by indifference or out of misguided mercy.

Grant that all who believe in your Son
may proclaim the Gospel of life
with honesty and love
to the people of our time.
Obtain for them the grace
to accept that Gospel
as a gift ever new,
the joy of celebrating it with gratitude
throughout their lives
and the courage to bear witness to it
resolutely, in order to build,
together with all people of good will,
the civilization of truth and love,
to the praise and glory of God,
the Creator and Lover of life.
Amen.

Pope John Paul II, The Gospel of Life

House of Prayer

2005-09-28T01:04:00.000-07:00

A House of Prayer

There was a time when a Catholic who happened to be passing by a church would make some sign of respect or reverence. We were taught to believe that within the church residing in the tabernacle is the real presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. As time passed, the reverence we once displayed both inside and outside of the church was replaced with an attitude of such familiarity that some of our churches look or feel more like social halls than places of prayer and worship. A parish hall is often available for socializing. A church, however, is the house of God Our Father and though we should find ourselves very comfortable in Our Father’s house, we should not feel so familiar as to be irreverent. Silence is a sign of respect, veneration and adoration for Jesus present in the tabernacle.

A church is a place of worship and should provide God's children with ample quiet time for prayer and adoration. We can and should pray anywhere; but to pray well, with concentration of mind and heart we sometimes need an environment more conducive to prayer. The presence of Christ Jesus in the tabernacle, along with the Crucifix, statues of Our Lady and Saint Joseph, statues or stained glass windows of the Apostles and other saints, and the Stations of the Cross all help to inspire prayer through which we converse with the Triune God.

Silence is necessary for a prayerful environment. At times we seek the silence of a library to be in an environment conducive to study and concentration. There are times when we seek the solitude and silence of a church to pray. When Jesus wanted to pray, He often went to places of solitude and silence.

Prayer in church helps us to concentrate our attention on Jesus in his human nature. Surrounded by the Stations of the Cross, we are reminded of the sacrifice Jesus made for us. As we meditate on his passion and death, we have an awareness of the intensity of his suffering, the price of our Redemption, and his infinite Love for us. Compassion and love for Him are evoked in us and we contemplate Jesus as a truly historical and human person, thus making Him easier to visualize, talk to, and thank in prayer. Moved to compassion by contemplation of his awful wounds and bruises, we pray and suffer with Jesus and come to understand that suffering, accepted in obedience to God, has a spiritualizing power. We then rejoice in his Resurrection and leave the church reminded that his Spirit is with us. But our day-to-day existence will evoke the desire and need to return. Hopefully will find an open door to enter through and an environment, which beckons us to enter into a profound sate of prayer.

Adapted from a pamphlet on Holy Face Monastery

Mom

2005-09-28T00:50:00.000-07:00

To Our Dear Mother

As we honor you today mother, we want you to know
how very much we appreciate you
and everything that you have done for us.

We are aware of the sacrifices you made for us
and of how very much you deprived yourself,
for at the moment that you gave us life
you gave us your life too.

We know that at times your motherly heart was sorrowed,
sometimes because of us, sometimes for us.

You were always there to heal our wounds,
those of the flesh or of the heart.

You were always there to teach, to correct,
to nurture and to encourage.

We learned so very much from you.
Most important we learned to love.

We know of no gift greater than the one we give to you today,
the return of all the love you carried in your heart for us
throughout all of our lives.

We thank you for your motherly love and care,
for all that you have given us,
for all that you have taught us,
for all of your sacrifices.

Most especially we thank you for teaching us about God
from whom all your love comes.
And we thank God for giving us you.

We pray that your life be filled with God’s blessings and peace.

We love and cherish you mother and wish you a very

Happy Birthday!

Dad

2005-09-28T00:46:00.000-07:00

In Loving Memory of Dad

The ways in which Dad will be remembered are as many as his virtues.

Our father was gifted with ingenuity and ability and

he endlessly applied his talents to help others.

He was gentle, sensitive, patient, kind,

dependable, loyal, dignified,

loving and generous.

He won the love and respect of many and to us, his children; he was our 'Winner'.

We miss his playful and genial manner,

his guidance and wisdom,

but remain fulfilled with his presence.

For our father has become like an 'angel' and will be our guardian forever.

We love you Dad.

Peace

2005-09-28T00:33:00.000-07:00

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is error, truth;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light; and
where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying to ourselves that we
are born to eternal life.
Amen

Let us pray and live the prayer of St. Francis
and let us also ask our divine Master that
we may not so much seek to consume
as to be consumed by the fire of his Love.

Holy Spirit

2005-09-28T00:28:00.000-07:00

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Come O Spirit of Love and renew the face of the earth; grant that it may entirely become once again a new garden of grace and of sanctity, of justice and of love, of communion and of peace, so that the Most Holy Trinity may once again be reflected, pleased and glorified.

Come, O Spirit of Love and renew the whole Church; bring it to the perfection of love, of unity and of holiness, that it may become today the greatest of all lights which shines upon all in the great darkness which has spread everywhere.

Come, O Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding and open the way for hearts to the understanding of the truth, whole and entire. With the burning force of your divine fire root out every error, sweep away every heresy, so that the light of the truth, which Jesus has revealed, may shine forth for all in its integrity.

Come, O Spirit of Counsel and Fortitude and make us courageous witnesses of the Gospel we have received. Sustain the persecuted; encourage the spurned; give strength to the imprisoned; grant perseverance to the downtrodden and tortured; obtain the palm of victory for those who, again today, are being led to martyrdom.

Come, O Spirit of Knowledge, of Piety, and of Fear of God and renew, with the lymph of your divine love, the life of all those who have been consecrated in Baptism and signed with your seal in Confirmation, of those who have offered themselves in service to God, of the bishops, the priests and the deacons, that they may all be enabled to correspond to your plan which you are bringing about in these times of the second Pentecost, so long implored and awaited.

Come, Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well-beloved Spouse.

anonymous author

Blessed Trinity

2005-09-28T00:23:00.001-07:00

O my most loving Triune God,

I love You as my Life, my Hope and my Salvation.

I adore You as the Author of my being.

I desire You as my End.

I praise You as my Perpetual Benefactor.

I invoke You as my Sovereign Protector.

I worship You as my Divine Master.

Direct me by your Wisdom.

Restrain me with your Justice.

Comfort me with your Clemency.

Protect me with your Power.

I consecrate to You my thoughts, that I may think of You,

my words, that I may speak of You,

my actions, that they may be according to your Will,

my sufferings, for your greater Glory.

I beg your Pardon for my faults.

Strengthen me with your Grace and keep me from falling.

Come and take Possession of my heart.

Live and Reign in it making it wholly yours.

Fill it with your Love and Mercy and Peace.

Amen.

an adaptation

photos

2005-09-27T00:11:00.000-07:00

THE 'SLIPPERY SLOPE'

2005-09-26T20:47:00.000-07:00

THE 'SLIPPERY SLOPE' AT THE PERSONAL LEVEL (Brian Clowes HLI)

I don’t need to confess to a priest. I’ll just tell my sins directly to God.

Enjoy! If it feels good, do it!
I did it my way.
I’m as good as you are [you’re just as bad as I am].
All religions are the same. There are many different roads to Heaven.
I accept alternative lifestyles. We mustn’t be judgmental or intolerant of how others live.
Live and let live. Mind your own business.
The Ten Commandments are just guidelines. Ordinary people can’t live up to them.
Just do the best you can. God loves us just the way we are.
Society is to blame for all of our troubles.
The only true virtues are tolerance, nonjudgmentalism and compassion.
Our merciful and loving God would never condemn anyone to Hell.
The concepts of ‘sin’ and ‘guilt’ are outmoded.
You have no right to foist your morality off on me.
My individual conscience is my guide.
I have my rights!

THE 'SLIPPERY SLOPE' AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL (Brian Clowes HLI)

1931 - The Federal Council of Churches (now the National Council of Churches) begins the process of moral disintegration
by following the example of the Anglican's 1930 Lambeth Conference and approving contraception for just the ‘hard cases’.
1960 - American society begins to come apart as the ‘me generation’ assumes control.
The oral ‘contraceptive’ pill is widely distributed.
The ‘Sexual Revolution’ begins in earnest.
1968 - Contraception becomes widespread after the United States Supreme Court's 1965 Griswold decision.
Some states allow abortion - for just the ‘hard cases’ - to save the life of the mother and for rape and incest.
1970 - Drug use, child abuse, and crime rates escalate rapidly.
There is systematic suppression and ridicule of conservative religious views by anti-life groups and the media.
Mainline Protestant churches succumb to anti-life infiltration and subversion.
1973 - Supreme Court allows abortion for any reason through birth in all states.
North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) founded.
Forced funding for abortions.
1975 - Several states reluctantly end their programs of involuntary sterilization of tens of thousands of mentally handicapped men and women.
1976 - Passive adult euthanasia first upheld by the courts [Karen Quinlan].
1982 - Direct infanticide first upheld by the courts [Baby Doe of Bloomington, Indiana].
1985 - Food and water withdrawal from handicapped newborns widespread; more than 2,000 cases per year are estimated.
1987 – ‘Bioethicists’ deem fetal organ harvesting acceptable.
Organs harvested from live anencephalic newborn infants.
Abortion for sex selection becomes popular.
Satanic ‘breeders’ exposed (infants grown for ritual sacrifice to Satan).
United States pharmaceutical corporations test Norplant, Depo- Provera and other abortifacients on third-world women.
1988 - Sale of live foreign babies to the USA for ‘spare parts’.
Some euthanasia groups see the comatose as ‘organ farms’, and begin calling them ‘neomorts’.
1995 - All pro-abortion groups vigorously defend the gruesome and inhumane partial birth abortion procedure done to deliver infants alive for organ
harvesting. Widespread abuses by US-funded population control programs are exposed.
SOON - Nursing homes ‘cleaned out’ as in Holland.
Widespread mandatory euthanasia of the sick, mentally handicapped, and socially unfit.
Eventually: genocide and anarchy.

THE 'SLIPPERY SLOPE' AT THE WORLD LEVEL (Brian Clowes HLI)

1913 - Margaret Sanger founds the American Birth Control League (ABCL, later known as the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA)).
1921 - The ABCL advocates eugenics to eliminate ‘human weeds’.
1930 - Anglican Lambeth Conference okays contraception for ‘just the hard cases’.
1934 - The Nazi euthanasia program is launched by doctors who have accepted the eugenicist philosophy of American thinkers.
1950 - Extensive eugenic sterilization of the ‘unfit’ in developing countries and in the United States.
1955 - Establishment of officially atheistic states such as Albania and the People's Republic of China.
1973 -Widespread fetal experimentation and research conducted on living aborted babies in the West.
1978 - Dutch nursing homes ‘cleaned out’ by euthanasia advocates; 100,000 estimated killed in 15 years.
1980 - All but two developed countries slip under population replacement levels.
1983 - Aborted preborn babies used in French cosmetics at Madame Renee Ibry's Henri Chacon Centre.
1985 - Initial development of the RU-486 abortion pill.
55 million surgical abortions annually worldwide and at least four times as many more caused by abortifacient ‘contraceptives’.
1986 - Forced third-trimester abortions and forced sterilizations in China exposed.
Pro-abortion groups in the United States voice their approval of this program.
1987 - Abortion advocated by East Germans to enhance athletic performance.
1996 - Third trimester D&X (partial birth) abortion for convenience vigorously defended by pro-abortion groups.
All developing countries except Albania drop under birth replacement rate.
For the first time since the Black Plague (1350), the population of an entire continent (Europe) begins to crash.
SOON - Disintegrating respect for larger and larger groups of people.
Respect for human life continues to decline to the unknown and unseen ‘flash point’ where there can be no turning back - what then?

I AM GOD, THERE IS NO OTHER

2005-09-26T20:09:00.000-07:00

I AM GOD, THERE IS NO OTHER

You who mislead My People

by perverse and wicked laws

that rob the innocent of life,

I ask you to give pause -

When I require your soul

and strict accounting you must give,

do you plan then to tell your God

who should and should not live?

Shall I be swayed by clever phrase,

such as "the right to choose"?

Shall mortal mind for God define

the plan of life to use?

Will loud applause support your cause

as you approach My throne?

Will votes and fame surround your name?

No man, you'll stand alone.

O foolish and deluded ones,

your eyes no longer see

how far you've wandered from the truth,

how far you've strayed from Me.

You've made a law unto yourselves,

you've lost your sense of sin.

No longer do you listen to

the guiding voice within.

To quell abroad the tide of strife

you go to foreign shores,

yet work out laws to kill your own

at home - behind closed doors.

I ask you how in judgment's hour

you'll manage to explain

the loathsome act of suctioning out

a living infant's brain?

And will you then, O mighty man,

dare justify to Me

your laws that kill (and help to kill)

the Sick and Elderly?

You leaders of My People

and all who tear apart

the Moral Law inscribed by Me

on every human heart,

I warn you now, come back, repent,

take heed and mark this well:

The Hand that opens Heaven's door

holds, too, the keys to Hell.

What you have done to others

shall be meted out to you,

And those who dare to close life's door

risk finding Mine closed, too.

You who would lead My People then,

delay not to discover

Your "platforms" must uphold My Law. . .

I AM GOD, THERE IS NO OTHER.

~~~~~~~~

S.M.E.

Sisters of the Precious Blood

5400 Fort Hamilton Parkway

Brooklyn, NY 11219-4037

Pro-life Educational Resources

2005-09-26T19:55:00.000-07:00

Pro-life Educational Resources

Serious Health Care and End of Life Decisions - A compilation of authoritative and reliable resources that address the principles that must be applied when making serious health care and end of life decisions.
Compiled by Fredi D'Alessio

http://healthcaredecisions.blogspot.com

THE INHERENT RACISM OF POPULATION CONTROL By Paul Jalsevac - A well-researched document that reveals the why of attacks against life and family over past decades. The racism referred to in the paper is about much more than skin color and exposes the wider 'scientific racism' of eugenicists. Paul Jalsevac takes the reader through the creation and application of the deeply flawed overpopulation theories of Thomas Malthus, through Darwin, eugenicist Francis Galton, the extremely racist Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, the United Nations and the involvement of the wealthy Rockefeller, Ford and other foundations and billionaires such as Warren Buffet and Ted Turner - all participants in what has been labeled "The Population Firm".

http://www.lifesite.net/waronfamily/Population_Control/Inherentracism.pdf

WHY CAN'T WE LOVE THEM BOTH - QUESTIONS & ANSWERS ABOUT ABORTION
BY JOHN C. WILLKE, MD and BARBARA H. WILLKE, RN

http://www.abortionfacts.com/online_books/love_them_both/why_cant_we_love_them_both.asp

ABORTION: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
BY JOHN CARDINAL O'CONNOR

http://priestsforlife.org/magisterium/cardocqanda.html

Info from Priests for Life

http://www.priestsforlife.org/educationalresources.htm

When Does Life Begin - Fetal Development

http://www.mccl.org/stages1.htm

http://hgpi.blogspot.com/2006/07/fetal-development.html

http://www.w-cpc.org/fetal1.html

Voting - A Guide For Making Moral Choices At The Voting Booth

http://www.ewtn.com/vote/index.htm

Human Lives, Human Rights

2005-09-26T18:57:00.000-07:00

Human Lives, Human Rights

by Archbishop John J. O'Connor
October 15, 1984

"…we affirm as an incontestable and sacred principle, respect for every form of human life, life that is awakening, life that asks only to develop, life that is drawing to a close; life especially that is weak, unprovided for, defenseless, at the mercy of others."

Following is the prepared text of Archbishop John J. O'Connor's October 15 address, sponsored by the Institute on Human Values in Medical Ethics of New York Medical College with Flower Hospital, at Cathedral High School in Manhattan.

A Nation's Enduring Heartache

Let me start by telling you the story of the man who puzzled his daughter when he told her that the day he had his heart attack was the happiest day of his life. Then he explained why.

"It is very simple, my child," he said. "I have witnessed so much death and suffering and survived it all. At times I wondered if I had a heart at all. This heart attack reassured me that I indeed have one. For how can a man without a heart have a heart attack?"

The story is my favorite among the Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust told by Professor Yaffa Eliach of the Department of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College.

The pain of the heart attack was reassuring to the man because it proved to him that he had not been hardened to human suffering by the experiences he had survived. He still had a heart!

There is a great deal of pain in our country today. I am not happy about it, but I am encouraged by it. I am encouraged to believe that there is deep pain throughout the land in respect to a number of crucial problems. I believe, further, that this profound and pervasive anxiety is rooted in the reality that as a people we do have a heart--an enormous heart, a warm and generous heart, a heart that is experiencing a gnawing pain, an enduring heartache, if not an outright spiritual and emotional heart attack.

Our Unease Over Injustices

We know that we are doing so many things right as a nation, but we know, too, or we feel, a vague uneasiness and, at times an acute anxiety, that we are doing some things wrong -- terribly wrong.

We know there is something wrong as we pass the bag ladies, the bagmen in the streets. We know there is something wrong about gentrification that flushes lonely, elderly people out of homes and apartments with absolutely no place to go. We know there is something wrong when drugs control and destroy our neighborhoods, when we can't build prisons fast enough to meet the demand. We know there is something wrong when the most incredible pornography is defended as freedom of speech, when child abuse reaches horrifying proportions, when people are disenfranchised or exploited because of where they were born, or their sex, or the color of their skin. We know there is in the sexual exploitation and violence that Father Bruce Ritter deals with every day right here in Manhattan, and in the hopelessness of the burned-out buildings in cities all over the country. We know there is something wrong in Central America, in the Middle East, in the north of Ireland, in Cambodia and in Poland, in much of the vast continent of Africa, and elsewhere in the world. We know there is something wrong, something terrifyingly wrong, about the arms race, and about the horrifying potential of nuclear weapons.

And all of this knowledge and more pains us, because we are basically a good people, a good and kind and merciful people. And the pain comes in knowing that we are doing some things terribly wrong and in either not truly wanting to right them, or in not seeming to know how to right them. So, many of us -- a great many of us -- do what is very understandable: we try to forget the problems, to busy ourselves with a thousand legitimate preoccupations, to hope that someone else will solve the problems, or that they will simply go away. Like the bag people. We didn't put them on the streets. We don't want them on the streets. We can't understand why they are on the streets, we disbelieve how many are on the streets, we wish they would go away, or someone would take them away. But in the meanwhile, particularly as we hustle to our own homes on bitter winter nights, we, pass them by, and we know they are there, and the knowing pains us, because we know simultaneously that somehow, there has to be a better way.

National Anxiety Over Abortion

I am deeply concerned that it is this kind of uneasiness, this same kind of anxiety, this same kind of pain that we feel as a nation, knowing that we lose 4,000 lives every day through abortion. And that's a large part of the answer to the question people ask me all the time: Why is this front-page news all over the country? Why are people talking about it all over the world? No single statement by any one bishop--no series of statements by all the bishops combined -- could have created the depth and the breadth and the intensity of feeling about this if it hadn't been there all along, stirring down inside us, gnawing at our hearts. You can't make an issue out of a non-issue. This one was there, long before a single bishop said a single word.

We know, somehow, whatever our religious persuasion, that there is something wrong when one and a half million unborn human lives are taken every year in our beloved country. We know that, whatever the reason, there must be a better way. We know that this magnificent country, with its incredible resources, its ability to put a man on the moon, the skill to transplant hearts, the heart to give our lives for the oppressed all over the world -- this marvelous country must surely have a better answer to the violence of poverty, than to inflict the violence of death on the innocent; it must surely have a better answer for the lonely, confused, frightened young woman, the teenager, the 10- or 11- or 12-year-old pregnant girl, than to destroy the new life within her. Our nation must surely have more to offer a bewildered family than the money to help pay for a daughter's abortion. Our society must, surely must, have more support for the woman torn with conflict over a pregnancy than to point her toward an abortion clinic.

Is this simply a religious perspective? Is my grief over abortion born merely of what I have been taught as a Catholic? I can't believe that. I know that millions of Jews, Protestants, Orthodox, Muslims, people of many other religious persuasions and people who profess no religion at all, grieve as I do over this destruction of life.

Abortion: The Destruction of Life

Or is abortion not the destruction of life? Are we, in fact, not putting babies to death?

If we are not destroying human life, of course, then our concern, our anxiety, our pain over abortion virtually disappears. There is a dramatic difference between removing 4,000 pieces of tissue each day from the bodies of 4,000 women and taking the lives of 4,000 babies.

Human Life Before Birth: Medical Evidence

What is abortion, then? Can we face that question honestly? Can we raise it without rancor, without accusation, without judgment or condemnation of anyone? Surely it is a crucial question. Surely it deserves an answer. One of the very reasons I wanted to give this talk to an audience composed largely of medical people, is that I believe that you, in particular, must ask and answer this question honestly. I turn to you and to your medical colleagues for what you and they have to say. I do not ask you or them to speak from religious beliefs. I do not ask you or them to determine at what point the unborn becomes a human person. I ask you and them to speak from your common sense experience of human life and from the scientific evidence you observe.

I turn, for example, to Dr. Bernard Nathanson, the well-known Jewish obstetrician-gynecologist who identifies himself as an atheist. Doctor Nathanson's background is fascinating. By his own admission, he presided over 60,000 abortions in the first and largest abortion clinic in the Western world, the clinic he directed. He now calls those abortions 60,000 deaths. Here are his own words:

Some time ago -- after a tenure of a year and a half I resigned as director of the Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health. The Center had performed 60,000 abortions. . . . I am deeply troubled by my own increasing certainty that I had in fact presided over 60,000 deaths.

There is no longer serious doubt in my mind that human life exists within the womb from the very onset of pregnancy, despite the fact that the nature of the intrauterine life has been the subject of considerable dispute in the past.

Electrocardiographic evidence of heart function has been established in embryos as early as six weeks. Electroencephalographic recordings of human brain activity have been noted in embryos at eight weeks. Our capacity to measure signs of life is daily becoming more sophisticated, and as time goes by, we will doubtless be able to isolate life signs at earlier stages in fetal development.

Doctor Nathanson now spends a large part of his life pleading against abortion, not because of a religious conversion, but because of the evidence yielded by ultrasound scanning, intra-uterine surgery, in vitro fertilization and other advances in science and technology. Dr. Nathanson previously used the impersonal term "alpha" to describe what he now calls "the person in the womb." Scientific findings have convinced him beyond a shadow of a doubt that "prenatality is just another passage in our lives -- lives which commence with fertilization and end with death."

Dr. Nathanson is far from alone. Indeed, the American Medical Association itself urged strict laws against abortion more than a century ago, simply because the scientific evidence said that human life begins at conception. In 1871, the AMA told its members that a fetus becomes animated long before quickening. Quoting from Archbold's Criminal Practice and Pleadings, it said this: "No other doctrine appears to be consonant with reason or physiology but that which admits the embryo to possess vitality from the very moment of conception." No statement by the AMA in more recent times has contradicted the position it took then.
In our own day, miracles of modern science confirm what we have known all along -- that life exists in the womb. Reporting on an article by Dr. Mitchell S. Golbus called "Healing the Unborn," the 1983 Medical and Health Annual of the Encyclopedia Britannica says: "Prenatal medicine is now beginning to he able to intervene, before birth, to alleviate, and even cure conditions that previously would have severely compromised the fetus. This promises survival for thousands of threatened lives.... The concept that the fetus is a patient, an individual whose disorders are a proper subject for medical therapy, has been established."

But sadly, all of our new knowledge seems to have taught us very little. A famous article in the journal called California Medicine, written in 1970, concedes that life is present before birth, but warns physicians that if they want people to think that abortion is morally acceptable, they'll have to come up with a brand new language. Semantic gymnastics, they call it.

This was surely the attitude Sir William Liley had in mind when he lamented the direction that too many in the medical world and society in general have taken. Sir William, of the faculty of the Postgraduate School of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the University of Auckland, listed a series of developments that gave us new insights into the miracle of life before birth, and then continued:

For a generation which reputedly prefers scientific fact to barren philosophy, we might have thought this new information would engender a new respect for the welfare and appreciation of the importance of intra-uterine life.

Instead, around the world we find a systematic campaign clamouring for the destruction of the embryo and fetus as a cure-all for every social and personal problem. I, for one, find it a bitter irony that just when the embryo and fetus arrive on the medical scene there should be such sustained pressure to make him, or her, a social nonentity.

Human Life Before Birth: Everyday Evidence

Some evidence, however, does seem to make a profound impression on many medical and lay people as well. That's what happened when Congressman Lawrence J. Hogan saw some startling pictures, as he told a congressional subcommittee on constitutional amendments:

Until a few years ago, I did not think much about abortion. It did not mean very much to me. I somehow equated it with birth control.

My brother, Doctor William Hogan, who. . . is with me today, and is an obstetrician, had been trying to discuss abortion with me, but I kept putting him off saying that it was not a popular political issue.

Finally, one day he came to my house and showed me some color pictures of what unborn babies look like. I saw what some people call a chemical reaction, sucking a thumb. I saw perfectly formed human babies just a few weeks from conception. I saw the pictures of the 21 week old fetus, a little girl, who survived out of the womb. I saw other little babies who did not survive. Some were scalded red from saline solution which flushed them from the womb. I saw others torn apart from the machine. I could see a little foot and a little hand. I was stunned. I was shocked. And I was bitterly ashamed.

I did not know what I really thought abortion was. I just did not think very much about it. But, certainly I did not think we were killing babies. How could I have been so stupid?

It' we are not killing babies in abortion, what are we doing?

When discarded fetuses are found in the trash, why are we horrified? Why do we rebel when our highest court tells us that the matter of when life begins is constitutionally irrelevant? In the light of all that, we know, and in the name of sheer common sense, is it not because we are profoundly convinced that the unborn child is human? What can we possibly say except that we are putting to death 4,000 human beings every day - one and a half million every year.

Isn't there something wrong with this? Where does it all stop?

The Agony of Decision

I know there are those who sincerely believe that abortion is an evil, but that not to have an abortion might be even worse. I know it, and my heart goes out to them. I know there are women and parents and young girls who are frantic about a pregnancy. They don't know which way to turn or what to do. They're under enormous pressure. Who can condemn them? Who can fail to understand all they're going through? Their abortions are still tragic; their babies are still put to death. But they think they're doing the right thing. Do I condemn them for feeling that way? No, never. I would do anything I could to help them pick up the pieces of their lives after an abortion.

The same is true of families, of parents who might abhor the idea of abortion, but when their own daughter is pregnant, believe that unless she has an abortion her life will be ruined. There can be no question of the grief they feel, the conflict that rips at their very hearts, the deep suffering they endure in coming to a decision that an abortion is the only way.

But is it? Is it the only way? Is it the best answer we can come up with after these many centuries of civilization? What does it do to the woman herself, the young girl, the family?

I wish there were time to read to you some of the letters I have received from women who have had abortions, or from families that encouraged or urged or even pressured them to do so. I am speaking of women and of families of all religious persuasions and of none. Many suffer for years. My own heart aches for them. I try to respond to the best of my ability, to offer them whatever help I possibly can. But in some cases, I fear, the wound never seems to heal. In my view, the tragedy in every such case is at least doubled: an innocent baby has been deprived of life, a woman has been deprived of peace of mind and heart, sometimes for the rest of her life. Indeed, in every such case there are at least two victims, the baby and the woman herself. In many cases, the fathers of the baby aborted, the families involved, suffer terribly as well.

It is inevitably the woman, however, who is confronted most immediately and intimately with the terrible conflicts that can accompany a pregnancy and with the anguish of decision. We have no sympathy with the man who judges a woman's dilemma glibly, or who detaches himself from the reality of the conflict and the suffering involved. Nor can we respect the man who walks callously away from his own obligations when confronted with a woman's unplanned pregnancy. Such, of course, is not always the case. It can happen that the father of an unborn baby who is deliberately aborted can suffer deeply.

One of the most poignant stories I have ever read was by a former CBS correspondent. Writing in the Los Angeles Times in March of 1976, he describes his joy when his wife told him she was pregnant, and his shock and fury when she told him she had already talked with several friends, had a doctor's name and intended to have an abortion. Shouting and pleading followed, with his wife insisting it was her body and should be her decision alone. Finally be drove her to the doctor's office and waited in the car.

He tells the story 20 years later. Why? Because suddenly and unexpectedly he passed the corner of the doctor's office, and it all came flooding back, and he found himself wondering over and over what might have been. By the time he arrived at his meeting, the tears were flowing and wouldn't stop.

"Whatever sort of person the lost one might have been," he writes, "I feel even now that we had no right to take his/her life."

"Religion has nothing to do with my feelings. It is a gut response -- still so strong that it overwhelmed me" some 20 years later.

Even now I find myself wondering about my first child that never was and I wonder, too, about others in my shoes. How many men share my haunted feelings about children who might have been, but were denied. Why are we, the fathers who never were, so reluctant to talk about such feelings? If it all so painful for us, how much worse must it be for the women who nurture and then give up the very fact of life itself?

A sad story? Of course it is, and there are countless stories like it. I know that your hearts go out, just as mine does, to all those whose lives have been so tragically touched. I do not repeat the story to reawaken bitter memories or to revive buried guilt. On the contrary, I believe as profoundly as I believe anything in this world, that God wants nothing more than to forgive whatever mistakes we have made, and pleads with us to let Him do so.

A Plea to the Medical Profession

But what of the future? Can we do more? Of course we can, all of us. And here I appeal particularly to you in the medical profession. I ask boldly that you help in at least three ways.

First, very simply, I ask you to think about the Hippocratic Oath. Ask yourself with absolute honesty what abortion really is. Test what is done to the unborn against the Hippocratic Oath many of you once took. You remember how it used to go: "I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give a pessary to a woman to produce an abortion." And you know that the words about abortion are now so frequently omitted. Why? Why?

Secondly, teach us what we must learn about taking care of the whole person--the entire family, physically and emotionally. Teach us far, far more than we have been willing to learn to date about the critical importance of decent housing, of security in our streets, of the destructiveness of drugs. Teach us that good medicine requires that people need jobs, and meaningful jobs, to be able to hold their heads high, to feed, to clothe, to educate their children. Teach us that poverty is dangerous to our health, that malnutrition in mothers breeds disabilities in children. Plead for daycare centers, increased numbers of facilities for the handicapped. Raise your voices precisely as medical professionals to plead for a just social order indispensable to effective medicine. Teach that abortion is what it is, without pretense, but help bring about circumstances which will help a pregnant woman recognize that there is a better way for her than to have her own child destroyed.

Teach us above all, however, that you of the medical profession recognize the absolutely crucial role you play in regard to the entire issue of abortion. The overwhelming number of the 4,000 abortions carried out every day are carried out by members of the medical profession. What enormous power is yours, what leadership for life you could provide! Do you consider abortion your responsibility, whether or not you personally have ever been involved in or would be involved in an abortion? As the Holy Father reminded us recently when he spoke to a group of anesthesiologists, the responsibility extends to everyone in the medical field. For whatever my personal opinion is worth, I am convinced that the medical profession could change the entire picture of abortion in America and the world. Such is your influence, your prestige. Such is our dependence on you as nurturers and guardians of human life.

And thirdly, here is a request as direct as I can make it; if it's needed to save the life of an unborn child, give your medical services without cost. I do not know how many abortions are performed free of charge, but I would like to believe that you and your colleagues would be willing to deliver live - and free of charge, where necessary - every baby that would otherwise be aborted. I am certain that many of you do this already, but I urge you to make it widely known that you want to go out of your way to help, at no cost to the pregnant girl or woman in need.

And I appeal to you, our hospital administrators, boards and staff to provide free of charge, when necessary, all the medical care required for both mother and child.

My appeal is extended to those in the legal profession, as well, to assist women and families without charge, when necessary, to learn what federal or state or city funding may be available to them, and to help them in adoption processes, should they choose this route.

The Commitment of the Archdiocese

I can assure all of you, as I appeal to you, and can assure every single or married woman facing an unplanned pregnancy, that the Archdiocese of New York will give you free, confidential help of highest quality. Here are just some of the services the Archdiocese will provide, whatever your religious affiliation. It makes no difference whether you are Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim or any other religion, or of no religion at all, or single or married--and your confidentiality will be completely respected.

You will get help with medical care and you do not have to worry about the bills. If you have medical insurance, you may be able to use this. If you choose adoption, the adopting family is responsible for your medical bills. If you wish to keep your baby, your social worker will help you get Medicaid. There is no fee for our services to you.

Our social workers will make arrangements to meet you close to your home. They travel widely throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. If you live in another state, we will help you get service from another agency or arrange for you to come to New York whenever possible.

If you cannot live at home during your pregnancy, other living arrangements can be made for you. The social worker we will provide you will suggest to you a variety of arrangements. You can choose the one best for you.

If you decide to keep your baby, your social worker will locate medical services, community resources, financial aid and support services to help you.

If you choose adoption, you will have a choice about the family with whom your baby is placed. Your social worker will give you profiles of approved couples on the waiting list. She will discuss these with you, but you make the selection. Let me say it simply and straightforwardly. The Archdiocese of New York is prepared to do everything in its power to help you and your unborn baby, to make absolutely certain that you need never feel that you must have an abortion.

A Plea to Those in Public Service

I have appealed to you members of the medical professions, to those of you in the legal profession and to those of you who may personally experience an unplanned pregnancy. May I now address all who hold or who seek public office, and ask this: Commit yourself unconditionally to a just social order for all--to decent housing, to jobs, to the end of all discrimination, to the ultimate ending of the arms race. Do these things not for political gain, but out of respect for all human life. I've heard it said that those who plead for protection for the unborn are obsessed with a single issue. But what is that issue other than life itself? No one in public life would dare admit to being a racist or a warmonger. But suppose someone did? Would we be accused of obsession with a single issue if we challenged that position? And is any value that is threatened anywhere greater than life itself?

Advocates for Change

Why, then, is it argued that questioning a candidate about abortion is somehow unfair or unethical? Must a candidate or in office holder explicitly support abortion? Of course no! He or she is free to tell the world: "I am not only personally opposed to abortion, but I intend to do everything I can within the law to bring about a change in the law. I do not believe that the right to privacy overrides the right to life of an unborn child." There's nothing constitutional about that. You have to uphold the law, the Constitution says. It does not say that you must agree with the law, or that you cannot work to change the law.

What do we ask of a candidate or someone already in office? Nothing more than this: a statement opposing abortion on demand, and a commitment to work for a modification of the permissive interpretations issued on the subject by the United States Supreme Court. It will simply not do to argue that "laws" won't work, or that "we can't legislate morality." Nor will it do to argue, "I won't impose my morality on others." There is nothing personal or private in the morality that teaches that the taking of unborn life is wrong.

Abortion: Beyond Politics

And so I plead with you above all for the most innocent, those who have no voice of their own to cry out for your protection. Your personal belief is not an issue with me, nor are your politics. Whether you hold political office or aspire to such, whatever your party, my appeal is precisely the same. I speak to elect no candidate, to reject no candidate. There are critical needs in our society. All must be addressed on a continuing basis. None will go away overnight regardless of who holds public office, at whatever level. Some needs are so crucial that they require absolutely the best leadership this country can provide. It is neither my prerogative nor my desire to determine who those leaders are to be. But I am passionately convinced that no need is more crucial than to protect the rights of the unborn. I can but pray that those who are chosen to lead us will do everything possible to protect those rights, for such, in my judgment, is the indispensable step in protecting the rights of all who cannot protect themselves--and one day that can be any one of us.

In a speech last April at Mount Saint Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Maryland, Speaker of the House Thomas P. O'Neill quoted the truly noble words of Senator Hubert Humphrey that could be read as an ominous warning as well: "The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and handicapped."

Abortion and the Law

Since 1973 some of the finest scholars in the United States have argued that the Supreme Court decisions were not solidly based on the Constitution, and one Supreme Court Justice who dissented, from the majority called the abortion decision an act of "raw, judicial power." In other words, the will of seven justices was imposed on an entire nation.

A Decree Against the Consensus

Given this reality, when charges are so loosely made that those who plead for a recovery of legal protection for the unborn are trying to impose their will on the majority, it is apparently forgotten that virtually every state in the union had some kind of protective law which was swept away by the Supreme Court. If we are going to argue that law must reflect a consensus, we must admit that there was a strong, national consensus against abortion on demand before the Supreme Court issued its decree that the unborn is "not a person whose life state law could legally protect."

There are those who argue that we cannot legislate morality, and that the answer to abortion does not lie in the law. The reality is that we do legislate behavior every day. Our entire society is structured by law. We legislate against going through red lights, selling heroin, committing murder, burning down other peoples' houses, stealing, child abuse, slavery and a thousand other acts that would deprive other people of their rights. And this is precisely the key: law is intended to protect us from one another of private and personal moral or religious beliefs. The law does not ask me if I personally believe stealing to be moral or immoral. The law does not ask me if my religion encourages me to burn down houses. As far as the law is concerned, the distinction between private and public morality is quite clear. Basically, when I violate other peoples' rights, I am involved in a matter of public morality, subject to penalty under law.

Is it outlandish to think that laws against abortions might have some protective effect? It is obvious that law is not the entire answer to abortion. Nor is it the entire answer to theft, arson, child abuse, or shooting police officers. Everybody knows that. But who would suggest that we repeal the laws against such crimes because the laws are so often broken?

Teaching Function of Law

Of course we need far more education, and speaking in this high school auditorium I call upon our school administrators and teachers to carry out this responsibility. Of course we need far more love and respect and reverence for human life. Of course those churches that believe abortion to be sinful have the obligation to teach their adherents. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops testified before the Senate in 1981: ". . . we have no intention of asking the government to take over our own task of teaching moral principles and forming consciences." The testimony went on to argue, however, that the law has a critical teaching function. On this basis, too, we would appeal to those in public life who could do so much to help achieve modifications in the current laws.

Every American is brought up, ideally, to respect the law. We know that some individual laws are good, some bad, some just, some unjust, but it's the concept of law that we respect. We know laws are necessary because we are all weak human beings, and while we may chafe under laws that are personally inconvenient to us, we know we must have laws or have chaos. It is one of our proudest traditions that bad laws can be changed. There is no better example than the Slave Laws. And while many blacks still suffer in our country, and are still far from enjoying all the human and civil rights due them by both moral and civil law, the reality is that if the 1857 Supreme Court decision in the famous Dred Scott case had been allowed to stand, they would still be legally slaves, non-citizens, forever unable to become citizens. In 1857, it was not enough for people of good will to call slavery wrong; it was absolutely essential that they call the law wrong, and worked to change it.

Consequences of Abortion Mentality

We need only look at the mentality that has developed under current laws in recent years. An assistant district attorney argues in the case of the smothering of a newborn by her grandmother: "This is what you might call a two-minute abortion because the baby was unwanted." A Nobel Prize winner has suggested that parents should be given a period of three days after the birth of a baby to determine whether the baby should live or die. Physicians are asked to determine by amniocentesis and other means the sex of the unborn so that an abortion can be performed if the sex is not acceptable to the parents. We hear of trafficking in fetuses which are sold nationally and internationally for commercial purposes such as the manufacture of cosmetics. The judicial trend since 1973 has even allowed a court's ordering abortion for a mentally retarded or incompetent woman.

Why maintain laws against child abuse when abortion--the most violent form of child abuse in society--is protected as a right? Why have laws against racism when--as the ten black Roman Catholic bishops of the United States recently charged -- liberal abortion policies amount to another form of subjugation of poor black people.

Deeply as we feel the pain of the individual, and aware as we are that many, many women have abortions because that seems to them their only choice, we cannot, we must not treat abortion as though it were a matter of concern only to an individual woman or man or family. We are already seeing cruel signs of what an abortion mentality can mean for all society.

Again we ask how safe will the retarded be, the handicapped, the aged, the wheelchaired, the incurably ill, when the so-called "quality of life" becomes the determinant of who is to live and who is to die? Who is to determine which life is "meaningful," which life is not? Who is to have a right to the world's resources, to food, to housing, to medical care? The prospects are frightening and far too realistic to be brushed aside as "scare tactics."

Father Hesburgh of Notre Dame phrases the issue well. "It is difficult to explain how a moral America, so brilliantly successful in confronting racial injustice in the '60s, has the most permissive abortion law of any Western country, recognizing virtually no protection for unborn human beings. . . ."

A Call for Change

So we must change the laws. This is one reason why I am encouraged by Governor Cuomo's calling for a task force to "take our highest aspirations and most notable pronouncements about life and seek to convert them into working laws and policies." I applaud such an objective vigorously as long as it, is indeed pointed toward changing the current laws, as long as we forthrightly recognize that a task force, can but recommend. We continue to look to our highest elected officials for leadership in bringing about those changes in current laws and policies so critically needed to protect every human life at every stage of its existence.

False Charges of Abortion Advocates: A Response

There is strong resistance by some to any change in the laws to make them less permissive or to reduce the possibility of "abortion-on-demand" (for that is the real issue). Some costly advertising campaigns are designed to discredit the "pro-life" movement.

Some pro-abortionists convey the impression that "masses" of women would die undergoing "back-alley" abortions if abortions were illegal. We are informed that this is not supported by figures issued by the United States Government before 1973 nor following the 1979 cutoff of Medicaid funds for abortion.

Certainly rape is always a frightening possibility and a crime to be abhorred in every way. It is understandable that many would feel that an abortion should be justifiable if a woman or a young girl becomes pregnant through rape. We in no way minimize the horror and trauma of rape. Obviously, whether we are speaking of a thousand cases or one case, a woman's life, a family's future, can be virtually destroyed. But as we have asked before, will violence against an unborn child compensate for the violence against the woman raped, or will it, in many cases, simply increase her suffering? Is it at least possible that bearing a child, however conceived, and either rearing it or offering it for adoption to the hundreds of thousands of couples pleading to adopt, might bring, even out of the tragedy or rape, a rich fulfillment?

Permit me to read you just one of the letters I have received from women who have been raped.

Twenty-two years ago I was raped. I had no home at this time. Some sisters took me in when I became ill.

I could not give my daughter what she needed when my own life was so hard, so I let her go (for adoption).

Sixteen years later - without even knowing her name I found my daughter. My daughter and I are close friends. She is now married.

I tell you all of this because no matter how life was conceived, we are to stand firm in being thankful for the gift of life no matter what tragedy is connected with it.

Yes, it was a horrible experience to be raped. Yes, it was I who felt like the bad person. Yes, there was worry if my child would be healthy. Yes, I had no idea how I could take care of my baby. Yes, I was ashamed to be seen - so young and not married.

Still, I suffered through this nightmare that deeply affected me rather than have an abortion because of my deep reverence for all living creatures created by God. I wasn't a Catholic at the time and yet I knew what the truth was, and still is. I had taken, my child's life before she was born, there wouldn't be a daughter telling her friends that she is proud of me for being just me.

The charge that the "pro-life" movement considers abortion a political decision, rather than personal and medical, is equally misleading. Certainly the lives of its future citizens are of concern to the "body politic." Appropriate political activity is both a right and duty for every citizen. It is precisely concern for the personal that prompts us to exercise our right and duty to use the political process to try to bring about legislation that protects the right of every person, including the unborn. This is a far cry from asking our politicians to tell us what is morally good for us. We have no more desire to see politicians determine what is moral and immoral than we have to see such abortion decisions forced upon medical doctors.

There is also the implication that the "pro-life" movement sees "birth control" and abortion as equal evils. These are, of course, grossly untrue. Abortion destroys life already conceived.

Again, while anything is possible, and therefore some groups or individuals somewhere may be attempting to have all contraception declared illegal, this is not the intention of the "pro-life" movement, whatever may be proposed by individuals within the movement. And it is certainly not an intention approved by the bishops.

Nor is the "pro-life" movement dedicated, as some critics imply, to a world without sex and the legitimate, joys it can bring to those who engage in sexual activity responsibly in marriage. The Church teaches very explicitly that married couples need not intend to conceive a child to enjoy the sexual relations of marriage, and those of our acquaintance in the "pro-life" movement share this belief. They see the sexual as beautiful, sacred, meaningful, joyous. They would add what some others might deny - that it must also and always be responsible.

Much of the argument of pro-abortionists is based on the assumption that the right to be born is dependent on being wanted. How many unplanned children have been born to parents whose attitudes changed completely to total acceptance and love? How many unwanted children have made enormous contributions to the world, as musicians, writers, doctors, entertainers, teachers, parents, or in other capacities?

But beyond such questions lies an even more basic one: Who can claim the right to be wanted? Does the Constitution guarantee such a right? Could the Congress legislate that babies are to be wanted by parents, or that a husband is to be wanted by his wife, a wife by her husband? When we speak of Equal Employment Opportunity we don't argue that employers must personally want to hire given individuals. The law requires only that individuals not be refused employment because of a characteristic unrelated to the nature of the job, such as color. Is anyone arguing seriously today that an employee has a right to be wanted? Hardly. But certainly an employee has a right to life!

Is an unborn baby to be denied such a right? Is an unborn baby to be denied even the opportunity to have someone plead with a mother to let the baby live, wanted or not? Is the unwanted baby to be denied the opportunity given to millions of refugees who have been admitted into the United States?

Finally, we deeply regret any allegations that in arguing for the protection of the unborn, or in questioning the positions held by others, any of our bishops have encouraged violence in any form, or have invited attacks on property. First, such charges take the spotlight off the basic violence of the deaths of 4,000 unborn every day. Secondly, in any movement involving millions of people, the possibilities of reprehensible activity on the part of a minority--particularly a very small minority--are obvious. Such activity is to be abhorred. It has no place in a true "pro-life" movement. We reject it completely. Violence is not the answer to violence.

Responsibility of Catholic Bishops

I come finally to the questions that have been raised about the involvement of the bishops of the United States in the matters at hand and the allegations of undue intervention in the political process, including even the charge that in a programmed and conspiratorial fashion, the bishops, or some of us, are trying to destroy the so-called wall between Church and State; that the bishops are "perilously close" to threatening the tax-exempt status of their churches, or even more crudely, that the bishops are simply lusting for power.

Long and Consistent Tradition of Addressing Social Issues

What is actually going on? The bishops have been saying substantially the same thing about abortion for years. Likewise, for years the bishops have been challenging the state on a broad spectrum of laws and policies, economic, racial, social, military. Most recently the challenge was addressed to issues of war and peace, with the widely publicized formulation of the pastoral letter, The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response. While much was made in that letter of nuclear war, even more was made--and has been little noted--of the causes of war, injustice, oppression, economic and other forms of violence and exploitation and indignities against the human person. It was not by accident that the bishops included in that document on war and peace the following:

No society can live in peace with itself or with the world without a full awareness of the worth and dignity of every human person, and of the sacredness of all human life. When we accept violence in any form as commonplace, our sensitivities become dulled… Abortion in particular blunts a sense of the sacredness of all human life. In a society where the innocent unborn are killed wantonly, how can we expect people to feel righteous revulsion at the act or threat of killing noncombatants in war?…

What would those who criticize our speaking out during an election campaign have us do? Were those holding or seeking public office expressing explicit support for racism, for drug abuse, for pornography, for rape, for nuclear war, would we be expected to remain silent? Or would we be damned for doing so? Obviously, no one in or seeking office is calling for any of these. Are we to remain silent, then, on the question of abortion, if we are convinced that it is the taking of human life? Why would we be free to indict racism - indeed, be generally applauded for doing so - but damned for indicting abortion? Why would we not be "imposing our morality" on others if we opposed rape, but "imposing our morality" on others when we oppose abortion? What a strange democracy it would be that would encourage bishops to cry out their convictions as long as these were popular, but to remain mute when so ordered!

Welcome in the Marketplace: Right and Duty of Bishops to Speak

In his speech previously mentioned, Speaker O'Neill referred to the letter on national economic policy being drafted by the Catholic bishops of the United States, predicting that it will have "a dramatic impact on public debate in our country," He cited critics who "say the Church should stay out of economic issues ... argue that religious concerns have no place in the market place ... that the only thing that matters in the business world is personal drive and ambition; that the only thing that matters in the affairs of man is force of arms," and he replied: "I believe that we who share Christian values have a responsibility to put those values into action--whether those values are popular or not, whether they are fashionable or not, whether they are high in the polls or not."

As one who argued strongly on Labor Day of this year that the bishops have a long tradition of addressing economic issues and the right and the obligation to do so, I am personally grateful to Speaker O'Neill for his statement and applauding efforts to put values into action, whether or not they are popular, fashionable or high in the polls. In the same address, he stated that "We must protect those people who cannot, protect themselves." I must assume that the Speaker would want to include all people, certainly those least able to protect themselves, the unborn, and would want to welcome the bishops into today's debate on this issue of critical public policy, as well.

I am grateful, too, for a letter from Governor Cuomo to the President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1983, in which he praised the bishops' pastoral letter on war and peace. As a member of the committee of bishops that formulated the pastoral I am proud of the Governor's words:

It would have been easy to compromise your position so as to offend no one. You chose instead to tend to your duties as shepherds, to teach the moral law as best you can. You can do no more.

Our Church has sometimes been accused of not having spoken out when it might have. Now you, our bishops, show the courage and moral judgment to meet this issue of nuclear holocaust with a collective expression of where the Church in America stands.

The pastoral letter on war and peace, of course, made much of a fundamental principle of moral law that we can never, under any circumstances for any reason, deliberately and intentionally attack the innocent. Since the pastoral explicitly referred both to innocent civilians who must be protected in war, and to the innocent unborn who must be protected in their mothers' wombs, I must assume, also, that the governor would have intended to include our protection of the unborn in his praise of the pastoral letter. I know, of course, that the governor welcomes the bishops into the debate on the subject. He has said so, loudly and clearly.

My Obligation to Speak

I feel an obligation as a citizen to address issues of critical moral import whenever opportunity is given me to do so within the framework of our political system I have another obligation, however, that I can delegate to no one. The primary teacher of Catholic doctrine in any diocese is the bishop. As Archbishop of New York I have the responsibility of spelling out for our Catholic people with accuracy and clarity what the Church officially teaches about all human life, the life of the unborn, and abortion. I have simultaneously the obligation to try to dispel confusion about such teaching wherever it exists, however it has been generated, regardless of who may have generated it. It is easy to dismiss a bishop as narrow, rigid, ultraconservative, unfeeling, lacking in theological training or understanding, anti-feminist, or guilty of a thousand other alleged charges for presenting this teaching exactly as it is, rather than as some might like it to be.

Church Divided?

But let no one be mistaken about the unanimity of this teaching on the part of the bishops. Those who would seek divisiveness between or among bishops do not understand the principles on which we stand. Those who would seem to suggest, for example, that the "consistent ethic of life" approach so well articulated by my good and valued friend, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Archbishop of Chicago, differs in what it has to say about abortion from what some others of us are saying, including myself, simply do not understand Cardinal Bernardin, or me, or our mutual unconditional commitment to the life of the unborn and to life at every stage of its existence.

Those who would try to derive comfort from the "consistent ethic of life" approach, by interpreting it to suggest that an office holder's or a candidate's position on abortion does not matter, so long as positions on other life issues are acceptable, miss the point of Cardinal Bernardin's argument altogether. Indeed, they distort the very essence of his argument.

Teaching Clear and Unequivocal

So what does the Church really teach? Catholics the world over recognize the authority of the Second Vatican Council. Its teaching is as clear and unambiguous as anything could possibly be. "God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to human beings the noble mission of safeguarding life, and they must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes."

Pope Paul VI left no doubt. In his words: "To attack human life under any pretext whatsoever and under whatever form ... is to repudiate one of the essential values of our civilization. In the very depths of our consciences--as each one of us experiences--we affirm as an incontestable and sacred principle respect for every form of human life, life that is awakening, life that asks only to develop, life that is drawing to a close; life especially that is weak, unprovided for, defenseless, at the mercy of others."

The bishops of the United States have been equally clear and unequivocal. In 1970 they stated: "Our defense of human life is rooted in the biblical prohibition, 'Thou shall not kill'… The life of the unborn child is a human life. The destruction of any human life is not a private matter, but the concern of every responsible citizen."

Pope John Paul II has stated forcefully: "It is the task of the Church to reaffirm that abortion is death, it is the killing of an innocent creature. Consequently, the Church considers all legislation in favor of abortion as a very serious offense against primary human rights and the Divine Commandment, 'You shall not kill.'"

The Declaration on Abortion issued by the, Vatican's Sacred Congregation of the Faith and promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1974, declared: "It must be clearly understood that whatever may be laid down by civil law in this matter (of abortion), one can never obey a law which is in itself immoral, and such is the case of a law which would admit in principle the liceity of abortion. Nor can one take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it. Moreover, one may not collaborate in its application."

Who Speaks for the Church?

So speaks the Church. What do I mean here by "the Church"? I mean what the average individual means when he or she asks: "What does the Catholic Church teach?" Such a question is not intended to ask what occasional theologians may speculate, or what any group of individuals who form organizations have to say, or what one finds in letters to the editor or on Op/Ed pages. Indeed, it is sometimes these speculations and accusations and claims that lead people to ask: "What does the Catholic Church really teach?"

It has ever been the belief of the Church and is no less so today, that we must turn to the bishops, the teachers of the Church, when we seek to discern the truths of our Faith. The Second Vatican Council stated it simply and clearly: "By virtue of the Holy Spirit who has been given to them, bishops have been constituted true and authentic teachers of the faith. . ."

'Church teaching on abortion is quite clear, regardless of allegations that it has changed through the years. Speculations on such questions as when the soul enters the body have changed, as scientific knowledge has accrued. Church penalties for abortion have changed. The teaching about the grave immorality of abortion itself has never changed.

We hear a great deal about opinion polls and are frequently told that Catholics seem to approve of abortion in about the same percentages that other people do. There are several things wrong with such statements. Polling results depend in part on the knowledge of the persons polled; ignorance concerning the real nature of abortion and many of the so-called facts surrounding abortion is appalling. Unfortunately, some ignorance and confusion even seem to be provoked. The main issue, however, is that polling results depend primarily on the way the questions are asked. Who would be prepared to ask, for example, "Under what circumstances would you feet justified in putting your unborn baby to death?" The fact is, that in poll after poll, only 25 percent of those polled support abortion on demand. Much abortion advertising would have us believe that an overwhelming majority would favor it. Even were such the case, however, Catholic teaching on morality is simply not determined on the basis of polls.

I recognize the dilemma confronted by some Catholics in political life. I cannot resolve that dilemma for them. As I see it, their disagreement, if they do disagree, is not with me; it is with the teaching of the Catholic Church.

CONCLUSION

A Plea to Those of Good Will

I beg leave to add one further plea--that all women and men of good will try to open their minds and hearts to at least the possibility that we are unjustifiably taking 4,000 innocent human lives each day, regardless of whatever conclusions they may hold to the contrary. I plead for the understanding that it is not the national effort to protect the unborn that is divisive; it is the destruction of the unborn that is divisive. And I plead for honest and open dialogue toward the goal of saving human lives. As Father Hesburgh of Notre Dame has observed: tragically, in essence, we may never come again to an agreement in our land that all abortion should be declared illegal, and some may passionately believe that exception should be made in cases of rape, of incest, or truly grave threat to the actual physical survival of the mother. Whatever we may believe about such exceptions, however, we know that they constitute a fraction of the abortions taking place, so that at the very least we can come to grips with what is the real and the frightening issue of the day: abortion on demand.

The Power of Love

And so I come to the end of this long address this personal--pilgrimage, if you will--fearing I have said so little of what must yet be said, and that I have said virtually nothing of what, in the final analysis, alone makes everything understandable--the indispensable power of love. Before leaving a recent visit to Flower Hospital, now the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center, I told the director of the hospital that I really need not give a speech at all. I need but ask the world to visit that hospital, to see, not merely what doctors and nurses and staff are doing for their helpless patients, but what the helpless patients are doing for the doctors, the nurses and the staff.

The love those helpless ones generate in those who serve as their arms and legs and eyes and ears and tongues is more beautiful to behold than the most magnificent work of art in our own Metropolitan Museum. Except that such love is not a museum piece. It is vibrantly alive, pulsating through the corridors of that hospital and through the very being of those medical professionals and staff, women and men, literally giving their own lives every day, that the least of God's little ones may not only live, but that in the depths of their beings, far removed from our sight and unfathomable by the most sophisticated techniques that science can devise, they, the helpless, may, in turn, love and teach us to love, who need so desperately to learn how.

And thus it can happen through the creative power of God's own mysterious love for each one of us, of whatever color, or creed, or background, or sex, or personal beliefs--thus the miracle can happen in the strange design of that God who writes straight with crooked lines--that every child in this world, born or unborn, wanted or unwanted, with or without limbs or hearing or sight, nurtured lovingly, or horrifyingly battered, abused and neglected, becomes not only what Mother Teresa of Calcutta calls something beautiful for God, but someone extraordinarily beautiful for every one of us, their brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Triumph

2005-09-26T16:41:00.000-07:00

Triumph

Immaculate Heart of Mary Deliver Us

On 25 March 1984 Pope John Paul II in spiritual union with the Bishops of the world entrusted all men and women and all peoples to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. At the end of the consecration the Holy Father prayed the following prayer:

Immaculate Heart! Help us to conquer the menace of evil, which so easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today, and whose immeasurable effects already weigh down upon our modern world and seem to block the paths towards the future!

From famine and war,
deliver us.

From nuclear war, from incalculable self-destruction, from every kind of war,
deliver us.

From sins against the life of man from its very beginning,
deliver us.

From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity of the children of God,
deliver us.

From every kind of injustice in the life of society, both national and international,
deliver us.

From readiness to trample on the commandments of God,
deliver us.

From attempts to stifle in human hearts the very truth of God,
deliver us.

From the loss of awareness of good and evil,
deliver us.

From sins against the Holy Spirit,
deliver us, deliver us.

Accept, O Mother of Christ, this cry laden with the sufferings of all individual human beings, laden with the sufferings of whole societies.

Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit to conquer all sin: individual sin and the ‘sin of the world', sin in all its manifestations.

Let there be revealed, once more, in the history of the world the infinite saving power of the Redemption: the power of merciful Love!

May it put a stop to evil! May it transform consciences! May your Immaculate Heart reveal for all the light of Hope!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Following is the text of the consecration, which preceded the above prayer:

O Mother of all men and women, and of all peoples, you who know all their sufferings and their hopes, you who have a mother's awareness of all the struggles between good and evil, between light and darkness, which afflict the modern world, accept the cry which we, moved by the Holy Spirit, address directly to your Heart. Embrace with the love of the Mother and Handmaid of the Lord, this human world of ours, which we entrust and consecrate to you, for we are full of concern for the earthly and eternal destiny of individuals and peoples.

In a special way we entrust and consecrate to you those individuals and nations, which particularly need to be thus entrusted and consecrated.

We have recourse to your protection, holy Mother of God! Despise not our petitions in our necessities.
Behold, as we stand before you, Mother of Christ, before your Immaculate Heart, we desire, together with the whole Church, to unite ourselves with the consecration which, for love of us, your Son made of himself to the Father: "For their sake, he said, I consecrate myself that they also may be consecrated in the truth" (Jn 17:19). We wish to unite ourselves with our Redeemer in this his consecration for the world and for the human race, which, in his divine Heart, has the power to obtain pardon and to secure reparation.

The power of this consecration lasts for all time and embraces all individuals, peoples and nations. It overcomes every evil that the spirit of darkness is able to awaken, and has in fact awakened in our times, in the heart of man and in his history.

How deeply we feel the need for the consecration of humanity and the world: our modern world, in union with Christ himself! For the redeeming work of Christ must be shared in by the world through the Church.

The present Year of the Redemption shows this: the special Jubilee of the whole Church.
Above all creatures, may you be blessed, you, the Handmaid of the Lord, who in the fullest way obeyed the divine call!

Hail to you, who are wholly united to the redeeming consecration of your Son!

Mother of the Church! Enlighten the People of God along the paths of faith, hope, and love! Enlighten especially the peoples whose consecration and entrustment by us you are awaiting. Help us to live in the truth of the consecration of Christ for the entire human family of the modern world.

In entrusting to you, O Mother, the world, all individuals and peoples, we also entrust to you this very consecration of the world, placing it in your motherly Heart.

Our Lady

2005-09-26T10:42:00.000-07:00

Our Lady

On The Annunciation

More On The Annunciation

Triumph

Litany of Loreto

Meditations on the Litany of Loreto

Private Revelation

Fatima

Medjugorje

Reflections on My First Pilgrimage to Medjugorje (October 1995)

Marian Movement of Priests - USA

Mary ~ Seat of Wisdom

2005-09-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

Mary is the Seat of Wisdom

LET IT BE

Written By: Lennon/McCartney
Revised By: Fredi D’Alessio

When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, follow me
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, follow me

Follow me, follow me
Follow me, follow me
I am Seat of Wisdom, follow me

And when the broken hearted people
Living in the world agree
I will be their answer, follow me
For though they may be parted
There is still a chance that they will see
I will be their answer, follow me

Follow me, follow me
Follow me, follow me
I will be your answer, follow me
Follow me, follow me
Follow me, follow me
I am Seat of Wisdom, follow me

Follow me, follow me
Follow me, follow me
I am Seat of Wisdom, follow me

And when the night is cloudy
There is still a light that shines on me
Shine on 'till tomorrow, follow me
I wake up to the sound of music
Mother Mary comes to me
I am Seat of Wisdom, follow me

Follow me, follow me
Follow me, follow me
I will be your answer, follow me

Follow me, follow me
Follow me, follow me
I will be your answer follow me

Follow me, follow me
Follow me, follow me
I am Seat of Wisdom, follow me

Mary is the Seat of Wisdom

Reflections on Medjugorje

2005-09-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

Reflections on My First Pilgrimage to Medjugorje (1995)

Where do I begin? What words do I choose? How do I convey the story of my soul’s journey? Perhaps by recalling that I never wanted it to end, that I desire to relieve it now, and that when I picture myself praying on my knees at the foot of the cross on top of Mt. Krizevac I long to live through that moving encounter with God again. Most especially, I desire to be with Jesus and Mary in Heaven. Nothing on this earth could ever satisfy my mind, heart, and soul. Thank you Mother Mary for calling me to Medjugorje. Thank you for planning and arranging for my sister, mother, wife, and me to make this pilgrimage together. Thank you for inviting my fellow pilgrims and me to the top of Mt. Krisevac to receive your message and special blessing. Never allow me to forget your humility, hospitality, generosity, and love or my unworthiness of such a privilege.

Mass and Adoration in St. James Church:

The simplicity of this church enables the participants at Mass and Adoration to perceive how truly pious is the manner of the congregation. God’s inspired reverence displayed by each individual participant unites with that of all those present and adorns the church with more sanctity than all of the man-made icons of Rome’s St. Peter’s basilica could hope to animate. The opening song at our first Mass was “ Make Me a Channel of Your Peace”, the prayer of St. Francis. This song always moves me to tears, so much so that I am never able to completely participate. This time I was able and I felt fulfilled. I recall being gifted with multiple visions of a cross projected on the wall behind the alter during this Mass and at least one other. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament nurtured by the reverent Father Slavko Barbaric absorbs every soul present and permeates the entire church with love of God and repentance for offenses inflicted upon Him. Father Slavko understands Mary’s messages and has ably communicated their meaning to the faithful through his talks and writings. God has truly blessed us with the gift of this saintly priest.

The Divine Peace at Medjugorje:

Elsewhere we tend to forget that our Heavenly Father and Blessed Mother are with us and protect us during our trials; but at Medjujorje we are constantly aware of their intervention. My wife Julie was healed for the duration of our pilgrimage and even climbed Mt. Krisevac barefooted by flashlight. My seventy-four year old mother climbed Mt. Krisevac by flashlight as well as my sister who could barely walk as a result of being injured earlier that day. Our group prayed over her just prior to our climb. Each of them had climbed Mt. Podbrdo earlier in the week. More than just our bodies were protected from harm and made receptive to do God’s will. Our minds, hearts, and souls were enveloped in peace and open to all of the miracles that we perceived without surprise or astonishment. The healings, the miracle of the sun, our personal visions, and the apparition of our Blessed Mother to Vicka during which the aroma of flowers permeated the air.

The Apparition on Mt. Krisevac:

The visionary Vicka notified everyone that Our Lady invited all of us to the top of Mt Krisevac on Friday night (the eve of the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary) where she would appear to Vicka at 10:30. We began our climb around 6:30 and prayed before the Stations of the Cross along the way. I will not attempt to describe this experience. After the apparition Marina translated Vicka’s words as follows, “ Our Lady was joyful as always, she greeted us with ‘praised be Jesus’ and this is the message she gave to us: ‘Reinforce your prayers, pray for the realization of our plans’; then she blessed all of us and she extended her hands over all of us and she prayed for us; after that she greeted us with the words ‘go in the peace of God’”

About Private Revelation

MEDJUGORJE

Private Revelation

2005-09-26T09:39:00.000-07:00

Private Revelation

If you are inclined to dismiss the thoughts or opinions of those who claim to believe in or to have been affected by a so-called private revelation, please take the time to read this page. Rather than presenting my personal opinions I present excerpts from A Still, Small Voice – A practical Guide On Reported Revelations by Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel, C.F.R and end with an excerpt from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Excerpt from the book’s cover:

“Fr. Benedict Groeschel, author, psychologist, spiritual director and leader of renewal in the religious life, has written a brief but comprehensive practical guide for all those interested in private revelations, the reports of visions and other extraordinary religious phenomena that is so widespread in these times. Because of the intense interest in extraordinary religious experience that ranges from Medjugorje to the New Age, Fr. Groeschel’s book is an urgently needed resource that gives practical norms for everyone on how to evaluate these claims. Drawing on spiritual classics and Church documents not readily available, he summarizes the Church’s perennial wisdom on this topic.

He also offers an alternative to unusual and extraordinary ways of knowing the things of God which is a normal everyday opportunity open to all called ‘religious experience’ – the action of grace operating in the context of human life that can become a powerful source of virtue and holiness.”

Excerpt from Introduction:

“A person concerned with his own spiritual life should be aware that ‘God has visited his people’ throughout the ages, beginning with the prophets and continuing down through the history of the Church. These visitations do not add to the single, unique, and complete message of the Messiah, but apply and, as it were, highlight certain aspects of his teaching in different times and circumstances. In Christ are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (cf. Col 2:3), but he did send apostles like Peter and Paul to deliver this message with their own particular gifts. Can he not speak now through seers and even through others like creative teachers to renew the impact of the gospel? However, to make one’s way through the confusing possibilities, to sort out all the subjective elements that individuals inevitably add, to discard the rubbish, to dismiss kindly those who with the best of intentions have misled, and to filter out what is, in fact, a grace of God – all this is no small task.”

Excerpt from Chapter One (regarding Medjugorje):

“In such a complex situation it is surprising to find someone [the bishop] in such a no-lose situation. The worst that can happen is that the bishop may have to make some apologies to the Virgin Mary – but then we have it on the best authority that she is very benevolent and understanding. One might assume that with a couple of Rosaries the bishop will be out of trouble with the Blessed Mother. My problem with the bishop and his advisors, as well as with everyone else except the visionaries themselves, is that they are all so sure of their respective positions. The visionaries have at least a subjective excuse for being certain. I had the opportunity to interview one of the young visionaries, Maria Paprovick, for over an hour, through an interpreter. I found her to be a rather levelheaded, sensible peasant girl. Without clear evidence of fraud or mental illness, how can anyone else be so certain in completely rejecting their accounts?

Excerpts from Chapter Two:

“Private revelations are not the most important things in the world. The consistent and authentic pursuit of holy life leading to a loving union with God is the essential element of true religion.”

“It is important to keep clearly in mind that private revelations have no significance apart from the public revelation of Sacred Scripture, interpreted by the traditional teaching of the Church.”

“This public revelation is available to all. It is most important to keep this truth in mind.”

“One may legitimately ask: Why do we have private revelations at all? The obvious reply is: Ask God. True revelations, public or private, are never contrived or planned by human beings. They happen as the result of causes beyond human control or knowledge. Public revelation is given to the people of God in Scripture and is addressed to all for all times. It must be accepted and believed. Public revelation in this precise sense ended with the close of the apostolic age. The end of public revelation does not at all mean that God no longer reveals himself to his children. He continues to do so, but now indirectly or in what we call private revelations, as by other means of Divine providence.”

“Private revelation is possible for the same reasons that public revelation is possible: the Divine Being can and does communicate with limited created beings. Private revelation may be said to encourage or even guide individuals or the whole Church at a particular time.”

Excerpt from Chapter Seven:

“I also believe that the Lord can send warnings to an age that certainly could use plenty of warning. I assume that this need has been fulfilled by the Weeping Virgin of La Salette in the nineteenth century and the somber message of the Virgin of Fatima in our own time. I am open to considering new private revelations seriously. Who am I to suggest to God when and how he will make himself known? I think it is the height of incredible opacity to reject a reported revelation simply because one does not agree with its content, so long as it is not doctrinally erroneous or, clearly, mentally unbalanced. God has never consulted men, nor is there any evidence that Christ fitted his teaching to what people wanted to hear.”

Excerpts from Chapter Eight:

“As we have seen, the religious discord observable among believers both clerical and lay along with the cultural confusion of our times have caused much uncertainty. I believe that this has given rise to a plethora of reports of private revelations and extraordinary phenomena. What is one to do with all these reports? The two easiest responses – skepticism on the one hand and unbounded credulity on the other – are both unintelligent when one considers all the authentic as well as fraudulent revelations of the past. The truth is to be found between skepticism and credulity. This is not an easy path to walk. The following suggestions are culled from many informed writers, especially Poulain, and may prove helpful.”

[Father Groeschel then gives suggestions and guidelines under the headings “Remain Calm and Discerning” and “Learn As Much As You Can Before Making Any Judgment”. He then makes some conclusions from the above and ends his conclusions with the following statement.]

“It is strangely observable that the reports of alleged revelations attract prejudiced people, that is, those who prejudge, or judge before the facts are known. All shrines appear to have their friends and foes. The friends refuse to hear criticism and the foes refuse to hear anything good… It has been my observation that those opposed to a revelation are often victims of pre-existing prejudice, such as pseudo-scientific attitudes against any miraculous phenomena, hostility to the form of piety expressed at the event, and so forth. This kind of hateful response may lead to character assassination and calumny. If one must be careful not to be carried along by the credulous, one must also resist the contrasting incredulity. The skeptical inquirer may not be any more objective than the devotee.”

Excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

66 "The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ."28 Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries.

67 Throughout the ages, there have been so-called "private" revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.

Christian faith cannot accept "revelations" that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such "revelations".

Catechism of the Catholic Church

On the tsunami tragedy

2005-09-26T09:06:00.000-07:00

On the tsunami tragedy

It may console you to know that the American Red Cross has counselors available to help you deal with your feelings of depression, anxiety or guilt as a result of the current tsunami tragedy. The recommendation is that we should not watch too much of the media coverage so as to protect ourselves from trauma.

What I wrote a year ago in 'Responding to His Call to Love' is particularly relevant today:

"An Advent meditation suggests that in order to cultivate a joyful spirit, we must first reject self-pity. It goes on to say "the daily news reports can be toxic. Too much exposure to the woes of the world can be damaging to your mental health, as well as your spirit of joy", and suggests we limit our television viewing. There are many good reasons for us to limit that very intake, but doing so in order to shield ourselves from the woes of the world may actually leave us committing a deplorable act of self-pity.

We cannot empty ourselves of self-pity by focusing on ourselves, by turning our backs on others or burying our heads in the sand. We cannot risk deceiving ourselves into believing that if we do not see the horrors which many of our brothers and sisters throughout the world are daily confronted with, they are not happening. That is to inadvertently risk exempting us from caring enough about their plights to help. Surely if members of our immediate families were suffering, we would not risk 'tuning them out' so that we would not have to suffer with them. Shall we then tune out any others? Rather, we need to tune ourselves out and tune the world in.

God arranged for us to be on this earth during these times - times in which technology enables us to be informed about what is happening to our brethren all over the world. In many ways, perhaps there isn’t enough coverage of the most serious woes of the world.

We should share in the sorrows of those who are suffering. We cannot allow ourselves to be overcome by sadness, but we should be appalled when others suffer due to injustice, negligence or contempt. Being emotionally deaf, dumb and blind to the world will not bring us joy. In order to answer the call to love, we must balance our emotions - not bury them or hide from them. We would do well to develop a deeply devotional prayer regimen on our neighbors’ behalf with the hope that one day we may share their joys."

Obviously natural disasters have nothing to do with suffering "due to injustice, negligence or contempt" (unless they could have been somewhat diminished by already available technology such as warning systems), but that does not diminish our responsibility to respond appropriately.

Perhaps God is asking us in the aftermath of this tragedy: "What will it take for you to transform yourselves; for you to beat your swords into plowshares, and your spears into pruning hooks; for you to remove the speck of personal suffering from your eyes' focus so that you may see the log of suffering reflected in the eyes of your neighbor?”

If we are to become more like God as I believe we are called to do, should we expect God to divert his sight for even a nanosecond from those who are suffering from this present tragedy? To be like God, Who is with us (Emmanuel), demands that we be with them.

Money will not solve the world's problems - love will. Love is not a gift of the moment, but a gift of ourselves for life. It is not a gift of convenience, but of inconvenience. Jesus, The Divine Solution, made this very clear by being born in poverty.

Please do give financial assistance, but do not stop there. Rather do all in your capacity to build a civilization of love. We must strive to keep our hearts open at all times so that we are able to recognize each and every opportunity that comes our way to further develop that civilization of love. This demands that we do not divert our eyes from the suffering around the world. It also demands that we direct our children and others whom we are able to influence to give of themselves to others through, with and in God, Who is Love.

We can give money until it hurts our purses, but the people of the world will not stop hurting until we give them our very selves.

Let us pray that we may be able to follow the way, which God has shed his light upon. With a light so bright one would think that the path should be easy to follow, but somehow the less lightened paths - those without the fullness of revelation - present a false and tempting hope of easier passage.

May God bless you and protect you from all harm,

Fredi D’Alessio
Jan 1, 2005

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Walk in the path of ‘His’ love
God never abandons us, even in a calamity, says Pope

2 January, 2005
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=2243

In the mystery of Christmas, God “has come to share our existence”. Even in “the most difficult and painful trials—as in the recent calamity in south-east Asia—God does not abandon us”.

This is the core of what John Paul II told pilgrims in St Peter’s Square before the noon prayer.

In recent days, secular voices asked how one can believe in a God that lets underwater quakes happen and hundreds of thousands of people die.

The Pope, who yesterday spoke of a great race of compassion and empathy on behalf of tsunami victims and survivors, said today that in “the commandment ‘as he has loved you, so you also should love one another’ . . . He makes his presence felt”.

Here is the full text of what John Paul II said before the Angelus:
“In this first Sunday of the New Year, the Gospel’s Christmas liturgy resonates once more: ‘And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us’ (Jn 1:14).

“The Word of God is the eternal Wisdom that works in the Cosmos and History; Wisdom that is fully revealed in the mystery of the Incarnation to establish a kingdom of life, love and peace.

“Faith teaches us that the most difficult and painful trials—as in the recent calamity in south-east Asia—God does not abandon us”.

“In the mystery of Christmas, He ‘has come to share our existence’.

“The Babe of Bethlehem is the One who, on the eve of his redemptive death, left us with the commandment that as he has loved you, so you also should love one another (cf Jn 13: 34). It is in fulfilling ‘His’ commandment that he makes his presence felt.

“This evangelical message is the foundation for hope in a better world on the condition that we walk in the path of ‘His’ love.

“May the Mother of the Lord enable us in the beginning of the New Year make this our life plan.”

Copyright 2003 AsiaNewsAll rights reserved

32 Years.....and Counting

2005-09-25T19:24:00.001-07:00

35 Years.....and Counting

By Fredi D'Alessio

This article first appeared on TCRNews.com as 31 Years.....and Counting.

Each of us is called to represent Christ to others and to be his instruments of love, mercy, and peace. Although each of us may encounter different ways of embracing that calling, all of us should open our minds and hearts to a multitude of opportunities. Today it is appropriate for each of us to reflect on how we represent the mind and heart of Christ with regard to the sanctity of life and the evil of abortion. Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me... Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me. (Mt 25:40,45)

What makes abortion so abominable is that it kills. No matter what procedure is used nor whether it is surgical or chemical, a life is snuffed out. Someone’s future eliminated. A pre-born infant, child, adolescent, adult - a person - is deprived of its very existence in the physical realm. Can any deed be more anti-Christian?

Unfortunately, there are a great many places throughout this land, which we continually ask God to bless, where his precious infants are put to death in horrific numbers and in horrific ways. These killing centers present us with daily opportunities to represent Christ. Indeed if we go to them with the mind of Christ, with the intent to save lives and souls, we can in effect represent the Blessed Trinity.

We can be helpers of God’s precious infants as we pray for them and their parents. We can pray for the conversion of their parents that they will say "yes" to the life created by God and entrusted to their care. We can offer counseling and practical assistance to parents. We can pray for the conversion of the abortionists and their staff and all who support them in any way. We can pray for the conversion of those who live or work in the area or who pass by and who are pro-abortion, pro-choice, or ambivalent. We can pray for God's forgiveness and mercy.

For those babies who will die, we can remain with them at these modern day Calvarys, as Mary and John did at the foot of the Cross, and offer what might be the only human love they will have encountered during their very short lives. We can pray that God be with them before and during the time of their death, and that, in his Blessed Triune Name - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - and with the tears of Our Lady of Sorrows, He baptize them and carry the sacred souls of these Holy Innocents to Heaven.

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, I invite you to learn about the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants apostolate, and I pray that you may be open in mind and in heart to "listen to him".

2005-09-25T18:48:00.000-07:00

The Ultimate Test of America's Greatness
The Condition for Her Survival

An official departure ceremony for John Paul II was held at the Detroit Airport on 19 September 1987. In the presence of Vice-President George Bush and other dignitaries, the Holy Father delivered his farewell message.

Mr. Vice President,

Dear Friends, dear People of America,

1. Once again God has given me the joy of making a pastoral visit to your country - the United States of America. I am filled with gratitude to him and to you. I thank the Vice President for his presence here today, and I thank all of you from my heart for the kindness and warm hospitality that I have received everywhere.

I cannot leave without expressing my thanks to all those who worked so hard to make this visit possible. In particular I thank my brother bishops and all their collaborators who for many months have planned and organized all the details of the last ten days. My gratitude goes to all those who provided security and ensured such excellent public order. I thank all those who have worked to make this visit above all a time of fruitful evangelization and prayerful celebration of our unity in faith and love.

I am also grateful to the people of other Churches and creeds and to all Americans of good will who have accompanied me, in person or through the media, as I traveled from city to city. A particular word of thanks goes to the men and women of the media for their constant and diligent assistance in bringing my message to the people, and in helping me to reach millions of those with whom otherwise I would have had no contact. Most importantly, I am grateful to all those who supported me by their prayers, especially the elderly and the sick, who are so dear to the heart of Jesus Christ.

As I leave, I express my gratitude to God also for what he is accomplishing in your midst. With the words of Saint Paul, I too can say with confident assurance "that he who has begun the good work in you will carry it through to completion, right up to the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil 1:6-7). And so I am confident too that America will be ever more conscious of her responsibility for justice and peace in the world. As a nation that has received so much, she is called to continued generosity and service towards others.

2. As I go, I take with me vivid memories of a dynamic nation, a warm and welcoming People, a Church abundantly blessed with a rich blend of cultural traditions. I depart with admiration for the ecumenical spirit that breathes strongly throughout this land, for the genuine enthusiasm of your young people, and for the hopeful aspirations of your most recent immigrants. I take with me an unforgettable memory of a country that God has richly blessed from the beginning until now.

America the beautiful! So you sing in one of your national songs. Yes, America, you are beautiful indeed, and blessed in so many ways:

- in your majestic mountains and fertile plains;

- in the goodness and sacrifice hidden in your teeming cities and expanding suburbs;

- in your genius for invention and for splendid progress;

- in the power that you use for service and in the wealth that you share with others;

- in what you give to your own, and in what you do for others beyond your borders;

- in how you serve, and in how you keep alive the flame of hope in many hearts;

- in your quest for excellence and in your desire to right all wrongs.

Yes, America, all this belongs to you. But your greatest beauty and your richest blessing is found in the human person: in each man, woman and child, in every immigrant, in every native-born son and daughter.

3. For this reason, America, your deepest identity and truest character as a nation is revealed in the position you take towards the human person. The ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless ones.

The best traditions of your land presume respect for those who cannot defend themselves. If you want equal justice for all, and true freedom and lasting peace, then, America, defend life! All the great causes that are yours today will have meaning only to the extent that you guarantee the right to life and protect the human person:

- feeding the poor and welcoming refugees;
- reinforcing the social fabric of this nation;
- promoting the true advancement of women;
- securing the rights of minorities;
- pursuing disarmament, while guaranteeing legitimate defense;

…All this will succeed only if respect for life and its protection by the law is granted to every human being from conception until natural death.

Every human person - no matter how vulnerable or helpless, no matter how young or how old, no matter how healthy, handicapped or sick, no matter how useful or productive for society - is a being of inestimable worth created in the image and likeness of God. This is the dignity of America, the reason she exists, the condition for her survival - yes, the ultimate test of her greatness: to respect every human person, especially the weakest and most defenseless ones, those as yet unborn.

With these sentiments of love and hope for America, I now say goodbye in words that I spoke once before (7 October 1979): "Today, therefore, my final prayer is this: that God will bless America, so that she may increasingly become - and truly be - and long remain - one Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all".

May God bless you all.

God bless America!

John Paul II

Responding to His Call to Love

2005-09-25T15:43:00.000-07:00

Responding to His Call to Love

By Fredi D'Alessio

This article first appeared on TCRNews.com.

And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets." (Mt 22:37-40)

In a previous writing (View from the Top), I quoted a reflection by Pope John Paul II on praying the Rosary, which succinctly presents us with the domestic and foreign policy we are called by God to embrace:

"The Rosary is also a prayer for peace because of the fruits of charity which it produces. When prayed well in a truly meditative way, the Rosary leads to an encounter with Christ in his mysteries and so cannot fail to draw attention to the face of Christ in others, especially in the most afflicted.

How could one possibly contemplate the mystery of the Child of Bethlehem, in the joyful mysteries, without experiencing the desire to welcome, defend and promote life, and to shoulder the burdens of suffering children all over the world?

How could one possibly follow in the footsteps of Christ the Revealer, in the mysteries of light, without resolving to bear witness to his "Beatitudes" in daily life?

How could one contemplate Christ carrying the Cross and Christ Crucified, without feeling the need to act as a ‘Simon of Cyrene’ for our brothers and sisters weighed down by grief or crushed by despair?

Finally, how could one possibly gaze upon the glory of the Risen Christ or of Mary, Queen of Heaven, without yearning to make this world more beautiful, more just, more closely conformed to God's plan?"

All of the 'fruits of charity' above - products of our “encounter with Christ in his mysteries” - must not be allowed to perish. They become useless if stored away. We must give them away by living them out in our daily lives – by acting upon the desires, resolves, feelings, and yearnings which they evoke. It would be helpful if we include the Holy Father’s reflection as part of our intentions when we begin to pray the Rosary. We must make them our own, and because we must have an intimate knowledge of ourselves, it would also be helpful to examine our progress.

As individuals we may feel incapable of doing great things. If we agree with Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, “We can do no great things; only small things with great love”, we can begin to give serious consideration to the question of what we can do in response to the call to love.

Needed first, perhaps, is an increased spirit of joy. An Advent meditation suggests that in order to cultivate a joyful spirit, we must first reject self-pity. It goes on to say "the daily news reports can be toxic. Too much exposure to the woes of the world can be damaging to your mental health, as well as your spirit of joy", and suggests we limit our television viewing. There are many good reasons for us to limit that very intake, but doing so in order to shield ourselves from the woes of the world may actually leave us committing a deplorable act of self-pity.

We cannot empty ourselves of self-pity by focusing on ourselves, by turning our backs on others or burying our heads in the sand. We cannot risk deceiving ourselves into believing that if we do not see the horrors which many of our brothers and sisters throughout the world are daily confronted with, they are not happening. That is to inadvertently risk exempting us from caring enough about their plights to help. Surely if members of our immediate families were suffering, we would not risk 'tuning them out' so that we would not have to suffer with them. Shall we then tune out any others? Rather, we need to tune ourselves out and tune the world in.

God arranged for us to be on this earth during these times - times in which technology enables us to be informed about what is happening to our brethren all over the world. In many ways, perhaps there isn’t enough coverage of the most serious woes of the world.

We should share in the sorrows of those who are suffering. We cannot allow ourselves to be overcome by sadness, but we should be appalled when others suffer due to injustice, negligence or contempt. Being emotionally deaf, dumb and blind to the world will not bring us joy. In order to answer the call to love, we must balance our emotions - not bury them or hide from them. We would do well to develop a deeply devotional prayer regimen on our neighbors’ behalf with the hope that one day we may share their joys.

To avoid cultivating a selfish joy, we must respond to the simple call to love. Then, merely seeing a smile on another's face could bring us immense joy, especially if circumstances have prevented this person from smiling for a very long time.

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back’. Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed mercy on him." And Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." (Lk 10:29-37

Just as the Good Samaritan acted, Blessed Mother Teresa (a foreigner in Calcutta) did not pass by her abandoned brethren lying in the streets while asking God to have mercy on them. She took action. She became instrumental and brought God’s mercy to them.

In the Peace Prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, we ask God to make us instruments of his peace in sowing love, pardon, truth, faith, hope, light, and joy. We also ask that we have less concern for our own feelings and more concern for the feelings of others. We acknowledge that it is in giving that we receive, in pardoning that we are pardoned and in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.

Certainly we are confronted with many obstacles that limit and conflict with our ability to respond to the simple call to love. We should ask Our Lord daily, perhaps during our Communion prayer, to remove from within and about us everything that is an obstacle to our sanctification and in conflict with his Holy Will.

One very prominent obstacle that hinders our response is resentment. This feeling of ill will is toxic to the 'fruits of charity'. This lingering anger chokes our hearts with living thorns, so that when the seeds of the fruits of charity are sown among those thorns, they prove unfruitful. Resentment needs to be conquered by the very love - the antidote - that it has grown resistant to. Although it may seem nearly impossible to overcome, it isn’t; we can chip away at resentment one Rosary bead at a time.

These actions will also bring forth a greater response to the call to love:

* To become more conscious of the feelings of others and, in being less defensive of our own, to open our hearts to them.

* To become more thankful for our possessions and, in being less attached to them, to share them with others.

* To become more thankful for our talents and, being less selfish with them, to use them in our service to others.

* To become more aware of our shortcomings and, being less judgmental of others, to pray that we are not put to the test.

* To become more aware of and empathetic to the problems of others and, being less focused on our own, to more greatly empty ourselves of self-pity.

* To become more helpful to others and, while being less expectant of our receiving in return, to purify our intentions.

* To become more informed about ways to help in our parishes and communities and, being less preoccupied with our own interests, to participate in some and truly improve life for those around us.

In all of the above we will find opportunities for fulfilling those corporal and spiritual works of mercy to which He calls us: feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, burying the dead, counseling the doubtful, instructing the ignorant, admonishing sinners, comforting the afflicted, forgiving offenses, bearing wrongs patiently, praying for the living and the dead.

When we serve our sisters and brothers we serve God:

Then the King will say to those at his right hand, "Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me." (Mt 25:34-36)

Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me... Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me. (Mt 25:40,45)

In the Penitential Rite we confess that we have sinned in what we have done and in what we have failed to do. May we strive to shorten both of these lists.

Oh, that today you would hear his voice: Harden not your hearts. (Heb 4:7) If today we hear his voice, let us respond to His call with a loving heart - by giving away the 'fruits of charity' as we live them out in our daily lives.

In responding prayerfully, actively, joyfully to the simple call to love, we cannot fail to "make this world more beautiful, more just, more closely conformed to God's plan".

As individuals we can do little things with great love, and as a nation we can do greater things with great love. We can be a great people - people of truth, light, forgiveness, joy, life, peace, faith, hope, love – people of God.

© Copyright Fredi D’Alessio

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Conclusion to:

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE JOHN PAUL II FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE WORLD DAY OF PEACE 1 JANUARY 2004

Christians know that love is the reason for God's entering into relationship with man. And it is love, which he awaits as man's response. Consequently, love is also the loftiest and most noble form of relationship possible between human beings. Love must thus enliven every sector of human life and extend to the international order. Only a humanity in which there reigns the “civilization of love” will be able to enjoy authentic and lasting peace.

At the beginning of a New Year I wish to repeat to women and men of every language, religion and culture the ancient maxim: “Omnia vincit amor” (Love conquers all). Yes, dear Brothers and Sisters throughout the world, in the end love will be victorious! Let everyone be committed to hastening this victory. For it is the deepest hope of every human heart. - JOHN PAUL II

Ideology As Religion

2005-09-25T13:39:00.000-07:00

Ideology As Religion

by Thomas Stork

This article first appeared on TCRNews.com and is reprinted here with permission.

For many years, whenever anyone would tell me that he was a conservative Catholic, I would generally reply, "No, don't say conservative, say orthodox. We're orthodox, not conservative." But just lately I have come to realize that I was wrong. Very many of those people who describe themselves as conservative Catholics are in fact conservative Catholics. That is, although to some extent they may be orthodox, their religious faith, to a greater or lesser degree, is a function of a socio-cultural ideology. It is not their primary loyalty. It is derivative.

Let me, at the outset, state that I will be describing ideal types in this article. That is, many of those who call themselves and are either conservative or liberal Catholics, are not perfectly so. In many cases they have an uneasy adherence to orthodoxy coexisting with their liberal or conservative cultural commitment. But by describing these ideal types - who by the way do really exist - we will be able to see the difference between a primarily religious orientation, which has cultural and even political implications, and a primarily socio-cultural orientation, which has religious implications.

To call oneself an orthodox Catholic is to see oneself from a theological and ecclesiastical perspective. For the opposite of orthodox is not liberal, it is heretical. There have been many heresies which have troubled the Church of God throughout her history, but today the major one which threatens the Church, and which indeed has captured many of her organs and members, is modernism. But the opposite of conservative is liberal. Neither of these terms has primary reference to theology or the Church.

There are in the United States today two different cultural camps, namely the Right and the Left, or conservatives and liberals. It is difficult to define precisely either of these two camps or to say what distinguishes them from each other. For among conservatives are those who favor and who detest democracy; who are religious and who are agnostic; who support a strong government and who want either decentralized authority or almost none at all. Some on the right criticize turning higher education into simply preparation for a job; others are trying their best to make the nation's colleges and universities into training schools for corporations, paid for either by government or parents or students themselves, but certainly not by the employer. Some support an interventionist foreign policy; some want America to look after herself first and not worry too much about the rest of the world. And among liberals the same kinds of divisions can be found. Some are religious; some fear and detest religion. Some favor strong central government; some oppose it, again either in the name of decentralized government or of anarchism. Even on so-called family issues, such as abortion and homosexuality, one can find people on either side of the divide who do not agree with their ideological brethren, although admittedly here the divide between liberal and conservative is sharper than on some issues.

But if this is so, how can we distinguish these two sides? Actually it is hard to do so with any precision. It is in many ways a matter of culture, almost of style. With whom do people feel comfortable, with whom do they identify? What buzz words do they use? Even what clothes do they wear and what foods do they eat?

Some of the distinctions between these two groups is founded on that old and noxious maxim that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Thus during the 1950s traditionalists and free market libertarians banded together to form the American conservative movement, based on little but a common hostility toward Communism and big government. But a principled and knowledgeable traditionalist ought to detest the free market as much as he does socialism, for both are alien and utopian systems which were foisted upon Western culture by the innovators of their time. Frank S. Meyer, widely held as one of the founders of this so-called conservative "fusionism," attempted to set forth seven ideas or principles to which American conservatives, by and large, adhered to, and which liberals, by and large, did not. Yet his very first one, "the existence of an objective moral order based upon ontological foundations," a belief I am in entire agreement with, hardly seems to justify many of the actual political positions commonly associated with conservatism. For example, people who recognize "the existence of an objective moral order" need hardly favor a free-market economy or a bellicose foreign policy that seems in fact to reject objective moral norms in favor of messianic American expansionism. The greatest upholder of "an objective moral order" throughout history has been the Catholic Church, but the Church by no means accepts many of the common presuppositions and tenets of American conservatism. I do not necessarily dispute the fact that many or even most of those who call themselves conservatives recognize an "objective moral order" - simply that the rest of their program and ideas do not logically follow from that recognition.

So even though the beliefs of liberals and conservatives sometimes overlap and neither forms a coherent whole, nevertheless these groups do exist. And, I will argue, the primary identification of many active Catholics in the United States is to one of these two groups, and their religion is, to that extent, simply a part of their ideological identification. That is, they are conservatives and thus conservative Catholics, or liberals, and thus liberal Catholics. They do not identify primarily in a theological manner. If they are at all orthodox, it is almost as an afterthought or accident.

The majority of conservatives, Meyer says, "hold theistic views." And the majority at least gives lip service to notions of absolute moral standards, which they often call "traditional morality" or even just simply "values." This is especially so in areas relating to sex and the family, although hardly at all in areas relating to economic justice or foreign affairs. In fact, many of the upholders of "traditional morality," hardly recognize that these latter are also spheres in which there are moral concerns.

Thus Catholics who are attracted by conservative rhetoric and uphold (as they should) absolute moral norms in relation to the family are naturally drawn to the conservative side in our socio-cultural debates and thus tend to identify with the conservative cause as a whole. Not well versed in Catholic social teaching or the history of the Church, and unable to distinguish between adherence to Catholic orthodoxy and adherence to a conservative movement that happens to overlap with orthodoxy on some points, they often become enthusiastic partisans of the conservative cause. They are religious; conservatives seem to be religious; therefore they are conservatives. Their religion gradually becomes a by-product of their commitment to conservatism, and conservatism becomes the standard by which they judge everything. Thus they are often puzzled and even shocked when they discover papal statements which contradict important elements of American conservative programs, particularly when these were issued by the popes of the early twentieth century, whom they have been taught to regard as more "conservative." So they may adopt various theories to explain away this dissonance, such as that the popes were overstepping the proper bounds of their teaching when they spoke to social and political issues, or that somehow the 1991 encyclical of John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, has changed two millennia of Catholic teaching. But the real difficulty here is that they are conservatives first and Catholics second.

Of course, a similar process occurs with Catholics who call themselves liberal. Like their conservative brethren, they are often attracted to the liberal cause by concerns which are entirely valid: a desire to help the poor, to promote peace, to end discrimination, all of which they recognize as in accord with Catholic teaching and tradition. And because it is liberals who generally promote such causes (or at least claim to), they become liberals and their religion becomes an adjunct of their liberal commitment. They too tend to drift away from the authentic standard of faith, and too often will oppose Catholic teaching on such subjects as abortion or the ordination of women because it conflicts with their fundamental adherence to liberalism. They are liberals first and Catholics second.

But with Catholics who are orthodox it is otherwise. They are happy to be docile to the Church's genuine teaching, to oppose abortion and the unfettered free market with equal gusto, not caring whether this fits in with either the conservative or the liberal position as long as it is faithful to Catholic teaching. Sometimes they may make alliances with conservatives, sometimes with liberals, but knowing all the time that they belong to neither camp. Their social, political and cultural positions result from their commitment to the Catholic faith. They do not use religion as a means of expressing either a conservative or liberal commitment or ideology.

The particular positions of both conservative and liberal Catholics can usually be predicted in advance. Are you a conservative Catholic? Then you probably are suspicious of labor unions, look with at least some measure of approval on free-market capitalism, and, of course, oppose legalized abortion. Are you a liberal Catholic? Then your positions are probably the opposite of these. But an orthodox Catholic often holds beliefs and positions that confound those who know nothing but the liberal/conservative charade. Thus an orthodox Catholic will obviously oppose all legalized abortion, but, if he is well-informed, will realize that papal teaching and Catholic tradition have never seen man's economic appetites as trustworthy guides to justice or even prosperity. Likewise an orthodox Catholic will confuse people by supporting strict adherence to Vatican guidelines on liturgical celebrations and perhaps even a widespread restoration of the Tridentine form of the Latin liturgy, at the same time as he speaks against corporate domination of the economy and warns that the policy of "my country right of wrong" originated in Hell.

Nor do I mean to suggest that for orthodox Catholics religion is something so unworldly as to have no implications in the real world. Far from it. If we read the encyclicals of the popes, not just John Paul II, but all of them, we will see men passionately concerned with this world, with the great political, economic and social questions of their times. But this papal concern flowed from the Faith, from the teaching of Jesus Christ, not from any ideological position. Their theology necessarily had implications for the life of the world. To follow the example of the popes and of Catholic tradition is to be an orthodox Catholic. This is what every Catholic should strive to be.

So now then, whenever someone tells me that he's a conservative Catholic, perhaps I'll reply, "Too bad. For myself, I try to be orthodox."

View from the Top

2005-09-25T12:23:00.000-07:00

View from the Top

By Fredi D'Alessio

This article first appeared on TCRNews.com.

"If you scored Republican ... You've now proved you're a true-blooded American who not only understands that there is a right and a wrong, but has the brains to know the difference between the two." So says Adam Sparks in his article 'Arnold's Quiz To Determine Political Affiliation VIEW FROM THE RIGHT' (SFGate.com 10/27/03).

The quiz instructs you to score one point as a Democrat or a Republican each time you align yourself with one party or the other on the following issues: Taxes, Regulation, Environmentalism, Media Bias, Trade Policy, Fighting Tyranny, Affirmative Action, Education, Sexual Abuse, Purpose of Government, The Problem with the World Is Us (U.S.), Immigration, Crime and Punishment, Corporations and Unions, Families.

The problem is that neither party demonstrates that it "not only understands that there is a right and a wrong, but has the brains to know the difference between the two". Or is it that they do understand that there is a right and a wrong, but their selfish, superficial and shortsighted ideologies inhibit their ability to know the difference between the two?

Either way, something vital is lacking in the political arena. And not just at a Party level, but also at a personal level. It is my opinion that there is an absence of knowledge of God's perspective or even an awareness or concern that He has one. Despite all the rhetoric we hear about "In God we trust", nothing is more apparent than the fact that we do not trust in God. If we did, we wouldn't continually disregard His Statutes and try to usurp His Throne. It should be of no surprise that the aforementioned void has been filled with injustice and immorality.

We should not be viewing the world from the Left, Center or Right. It is imperative that we view it from the Top - from the perspective of its Creator. We can only do that with eyes of love. Firstly, love of our Creator and secondly, love of all his creatures. We must also acknowledge that we do not own what He has created. In the beginning God entrusted the earth and its resources to the common stewardship of mankind to take care of them, master them by labor, and enjoy their fruits. The goods of creation are destined for the whole human race. Although, mankind is called to respect both the universal destination of goods and the right to private property, the right to private property does not do away with the original gift of the earth to the whole of mankind. Further, we must acknowledge that God loves everyone equally. If we are to love them as well, we must not only share their joys, but also their sorrows.

As the antidote to selfish, superficial and shortsighted ideologies, I present the following reflection by Pope John Paul II on praying the Rosary:

"The Rosary is also a prayer for peace because of the fruits of charity which it produces. When prayed well in a truly meditative way, the Rosary leads to an encounter with Christ in his mysteries and so cannot fail to draw attention to the face of Christ in others, especially in the most afflicted.

How could one possibly contemplate the mystery of the Child of Bethlehem, in the joyful mysteries, without experiencing the desire to welcome, defend and promote life, and to shoulder the burdens of suffering children all over the world?
How could one possibly follow in the footsteps of Christ the Revealer, in the mysteries of light, without resolving to bear witness to His Beatitudes in daily life?

And how could one contemplate Christ carrying the Cross and Christ Crucified, without feeling the need to act as a Simon of Cyrene for our brothers and sisters weighed down by grief or crushed by despair?

Finally, how could one possibly gaze upon the glory of the Risen Christ or of Mary Queen of Heaven, without yearning to make this world more beautiful, more just, more closely conformed to God's plan?"

The Holy Father has succinctly presented us with the domestic and foreign policy we are called by God to embrace. Whatever one's religion, if we believe that God is the giver of life, we must ascend the Holy Mountain, view the world from the top, shout from it "In God we trust", and descend from it filled with Wisdom and Love.

I personally am not a Democrat or a Republican. I am an American. One who believes that we are not called to possess great things, but to be a great people. That should be our intention when we say "God bless America".

© Copyright Fredi D’Alessio

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Responding to His Call to Love:
This reflection, picks up where 'View from the Top' leaves off. Read it here

Diane

2000-03-25T21:41:00.000-08:00

Remembering Diane
March 25, 1944 ~ May 27, 1999

This gentle lady radiated love. She gave her love unconditionally to one and all and she cherished the love returned to her by family and friends.

Her influence in our lives has been dramatic. The supernatural love she possessed made a supernatural difference in our lives. Regardless of our personal relationship, she was to us above all a glowing Christian, a true disciple of Christ Jesus. She had a vocation to the Beatitudes, which are at the heart Jesus’ preaching. Thus her actions and attitudes were characteristic of the Christian life. By the image of God shining forth in her we learned by word and example how we too could be Christ’s disciples. We learned how to love God and our neighbors, to share, to sacrifice, to do good and avoid evil, to be pure and chaste, to offer our sufferings, to know our guardian angles, to live in the supernatural, to strive for supernatural grace and holiness, and to be devoted to our Blessed Mother Mary who intercedes on our behalf and helps us in all these things.

Blessed are we whose lives Diane touched for she has not left us empty; but rather full of memories, lessons, and examples.

Diane loved Jesus and Mary so much that she longed to shout it from a mountaintop. She has reached the mountaintop. Listen carefully and in the silence of your heart receive the love of and for Jesus and Mary, which she proclaims. Carry that love with you always; all the way to the mountaintop.

We love you Diane beyond our ability to relate. We ask Archangel Gabriel to announce to you the magnitude of love and emotion that we carry in our hearts. We thank you for all that you have taught us through word and example. And while we await that most glorious of family reunions to come we ask that you intercede for us in prayer that we might come to lead lives of exemplary holiness.

SOS

1990-10-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

10/22

Father, I was going to extract some excerpts from this excellent article, but there are too many from which to choose. I recommend a read of the entire article and selecting whatever comments you may want to use. Click on Affirming a Culture of Life Together

This too: click on Slippery Slope

Click on My Posts for Respect Life Month 10-23

I also have a packet of information for you from the Respect Life office. You may find material within that you could use.

What of that massive political movement known as global warming, today's fashionable secular substitute for the Biblical apocalypse? Bored of combating everyday environmental problems such as mercury in seafood and hormones in drinking water, environmentalists invented something much sexier: The imminent destruction of Earth unless you do what we say! Why trudge to local land-use meetings to lobby for preserving open space when you can preach the salvation of the world like an Old Testament prophet? One gains so much more social importance if people think you have the answer to averting Armageddon.
Perhaps it's just a coincidence, but global warming theology produces the same practical results as the socialism Western leftists have been forced to abandon: An immense increase in the power of the political/regulatory class and an immense reduction in the standard of living of ordinary people. Why have so many scientists jumped on the bandwagon? Contrary to popular myth, scientists are just as venal and fallible as anyone else,and he who pays the piper calls the tune.
As Patrick J. Michaels of the Cato Institute wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer on March 9, 2004, "Politics distorts science, particularly environmental science, because 99.99% of those sciences' financial support comes from the federal government. Scientists distort science because their careers depend on the money they bring to their university or their laboratory. Both the employees of the academy, and the academy itself, must support a political process that results in the exaggeration of threats. In competition for a finite federal outlay, scientists present their particular issues (global warming, cancer, AIDS) in the most urgent light possible, threatening societal ruin if their work isn't funded." And why wouldn't federal bureaucrats want to hear evidence of a massive crisis that massively enhances their own power and budgets?
I've written about global warming hysteria before, so I will restrict myself today to noting the following:
* The Earth's climate is always trending warmer or cooler at any givenmoment. There is no genuine evidence that any current warming trend (if one even exists) falls outside the range of natural climatic variation.* According to global warming hysterics' own studies, there is no correlation between when the bulk of man-made greenhouse gases were put into the atmosphere and warming. In fact, temperatures declined for decades during at least one of the most intense periods of industrialization.* Proponents of the Kyoto protocol, which would decimate the standards of living of the common peoples of America and Western Europe, themselves admit that it would have no significant effect on stopping warming. They want something far more radical and which would have to apply to the whole world to work.* The Western world continues to transfer its industrial capacity to theThird World. China and India, which together have over one-third of the world's people, are rapidly industrializing and aren't going to stay mired in poverty no matter what Western political hacks and their bought-and-paid-for pointy-headed experts say. Reducing the world's overall greenhouse gas emissions is impossible. Instead, it is as certainas such a thing can be that greenhouse gas emissions will continue to rise for decades to come, even if Al Gore becomes President of the UnitedStates--unless affordable technologies that allow unfettered industrial development but prevent greenhouse gas emissions are invented and then adopted by the Third World.* In the 1970s, it was fashionable to worry about "global cooling, "supposedly caused by man-made pollution in the atmosphere blocking out the sun's energy. Fifteen years later, media-favored experts starting talking about global warming supposedly caused by man-made pollution trapping in the sun's energy.
There is no correlation between population growth or population density and environmental degradation. Instead, wealth correlates to environmental degradation and then improvement. When a country begins to develop, her environment suffers. But when she has reached a certain level, between $3,500 and $15,000 in per capita income, her environment begins to improve as people can afford (and demand) cleaner technologies. And then the wealthier they get, the cleaner their environment becomes. That's why ultra-poor subsistence-level areas, Western Europe, Canada, and the United States all have the cleanest environments. Getting China, India, and other developing countries over the wealth hump is the surest way to improve the world's environment. Preserving America's economic and per capita wealth growth is the best way of continuing to improve ours.
Joseph A. D'Agostino is Vice President for Communications at the Population Research Institute.

10/20

Father, this is a private page. It is not available to anyone else. Please bookmark it. I will use it to provide the information that you requested. Hopefully I will come up with some resources that you will find helpful. I haven't had time to do so as yet.

I hope this page works out for you. It is much easier to provide information in this maner rather than having to print out lots of pages. The information may contain links to webpages, so this method will enable you to just click and go rather than having to type in the URLs. And I can just leave you a telephone message when I have added something to this page.

The double-sided flier that I dropped off for you today is my recommendation for use in our parish. There were many from which to choose. After reviewing all of them, I felt these two pages would be best. If they meet with your approval, I will make enough copies to stuff in our bulletin. I think a good day on which to include them in the bulletin would be Nov 5th, just two days prior to Election Day. That way the info will be fresh on everyone's mind. If that's fine with you, I'll confirm it with Chris. It would be great if I could use the parish copier, but if not, I will make the copies elsewhere.

Thank you Father.

Fredi@prolifeamerica.com

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SOS