Recently in Teaching & Living the Faith Category

New Year greetings are exchanged between the Holy Father and the authorities of the City of Rome, the Region of Lazio, and the Province of Rome. On one level this meeting is a formality, because it is. But there is a deeper issue at hand: collaborate with others to build up the Kingdom even when your partner is perhaps secular. As Saint John Bosco did, as well as countless other good educators, if you want to influence others, then get to know the other person. Rome's ecclesial leaders aren't always on the same page as the civil leaders, but absenting oneself from the other is no way to advance the good life. And the Pope realizes this fact. 

"The challenges we are currently facing are numerous and complex, and can be overcome only if we reinforce our awareness that the destiny of each of us is linked to that of everyone else. For this reason ... acceptance, solidarity and legality are fundamental values. The present crisis can, then, be an opportunity for the entire community to verify whether the values upon which social life is founded have generated a society that is just, fair and united, or whether it is necessary to undertake a profound rethink in order to rediscover values which ... not only favor economic recovery, but which are also attentive to promoting the integral good of human beings."

The other day the Pope's Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone SDB celebrated Mass for the Vatican's jurists where he noted "with the beginning of a new judicial year ... we are again invited to reflect upon the relationship between divine and human justice, so that our consciences may be illuminated and our actions may, as far as possible, correspond to the divine will and its plan of love for each individual and for the community of man." Moreover, Bertone picked up a current theme of Benedict's these days, that is, that of justice, in which he called attention to the specific vocation of the Church to be "a sign and instrument of God's love [charity], and of His justice which is always an expression of His merciful love."

Father Steve Rossetti, a priest of the Diocese of Syracuse (NY) and a professor of Theology at the Catholic University of America, is spending the Christmas holiday at the South Pole. 

In today's editorial piece, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski personally addressed the US President Barack Obama on matters pertaining to conscience and religious freedom. Conscience is more than a policy; conscience is a basic human right given by God Himself. It is good piece for all to read --especially Catholics-- as it outlines recent history lest we forget. Wenski is right to bring to light the transgressions on conscience by this Administration. Our thanks to the Archbishop for teaching the faith. Thoughts?

In May 2009, President Obama gave the commencement address at Notre Dame University and received an honorary degree. That Notre Dame would confer an honorary degree on an elected official who advances abortion rights in contradiction to Catholic teaching caused no small controversy among many Catholics throughout the United States.

Those who supported Notre Dame felt vindicated, however, when in his speech the President promised to "honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion," stating that his Administration would provide "sensible" protections for those who wanted no involvement in the procedure. This would presumably include health-care providers, social-service providers, and consumers who might otherwise have to pay through their health-care plans for other people's abortions. Obama later reiterated this position to Catholic newspaper editors, stating that he would make such protections "robust."

Working with religious education of children and adults I see a bad trend: the over managed life. So much so that people are putting their social and personal activities above their religious duties and relationship with God. The Third Commandment is no longer holding sway; the Church's teaching on keeping Sunday for worship and family seeming is out the window. Of course, people strenuously rebut this accusation. Truth be told, you can't deny that there are activities competing with a proper Catholic observance of Sunday. Praying in Church --with a stable faith community-- is not merely an obligation (speaking of Sunday Mass as "an obligation" is a mediocre way of approaching the question of faith, relationship with God and Church observance).

The new Archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles Chaput, OFM, Cap., is doing what Saints Peter and Paul would have done: teach the Faith with clarity but pastorally: if you don't accept the teachings of Christ as found in the New Testament and articulated by the Church, then you really aren't Catholic. You may be Christian, but not really Catholic. Cafeteria Catholics --Catholics who pick-and-choose what to believe-- don't trust in Christ, nor do they believe in the objectivity of truth taught by the Church. The promises of Christ and the Church aren't too good to be true. The teachings of Christ and the Church are the way, the truth and the life for all Christians. Chaput has been clear about what it takes to be an authentic Catholic and picking and choosing is not the method. Sorry.

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.

~John 10:27, 28

 

Life is a passage from the less to the more.

~Sofia Cavalletti, The Religious Potential of the Child, page 43

 

We have heard from [friends with the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd] in Rome that she had spent yesterday with Sofia who is now too weak even to speak. We would like to ask that everyone who has loved Sofia would pray for her now that she may continue to experience, in her body and her spirit, the peace and joy she has so often found in the atrium with the children. We praise God for the treasure she is for us and has illuminated for us in the child. We stand together in vigil and prayer, silently and at peace. Together may we pray the prayer Sofia herself has prayed with us this last year:

 

Lord, now you let your servant go in peace;

Your word has been fulfilled.

My eyes have seen the salvation

You have prepared in the sight of every people,

A light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people, Israel.

The first reading from today's Scripture readings at Mass call us to reflect on how Revelation is made known to us; in what ways do we meet God? How are we to understand the teachings of the many saints and others who have claimed to have encountered God? Knowing who are true visionaries is rather difficult, I have to say, and some are even frauds. The credibility of the witness is so crucial here since we only have indirect knowledge of God because only Jesus' Mother (and family) and apostles had direct experience of Him, how can we talk about an encounter with the Lord. One way to wrap our minds around meeting the Divine Majesty is to listen, in part, to Father Benedict Groeshel:

The best lesson one may learn from these authenticated and canonized visionaries is to do what you are supposed to do and leave the rest to God. The fulfillment of duty is the guiding principle of any decent moral life, in any religion of the world, because it expresses the natural law and is completely consistent with the revealed law of God. The fulfillment of duty placed before us by the providential circumstances of life, as we are guided by the commandments and the teaching of the gospel, is the straight road to God. Along that road any valid religious experience which occurs may be useful.

Venezuela's President, Hugh Chavez, 56, is suffering from cancer. This has been a diagnosis he's lived with for more than a month. And while this is not shocking news because many people live with cancer and face their mortality in a new way with such each day. However, I found a Fox News article a bit odd; odd because they found this event newsworthy, something out of the ordinary. I might even say Fox is a bit presumptuous for mentioning it. My reading of the story was that the un-named writer question the intentions of an outspoken president who would approach the sacraments of the Church for the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, that is, to ask God for a cure and a healing. Deo volente. The President's lived experience with the bishops of his country have reportedly been fragile, but so what. A baptized Catholic has a right to receive the sacraments and to seek forgiveness begging not from the Church but from the Holy Spirit the graces of conversion and healing of body, soul, and spirit regardless of politics. Should we be surprised or consoled that someone would recognize his place before God? Christ came for the sick, not the healthy. The Church is a hospital for the ill, not the well.

The rapture came and went...and this guy got caught up in it. Good for him. The rest of us will meander along...but in case you want to join the others in the rapture, the actual date is now October 21. So I am told.  But what time should people be ready? Harold Camping, founder of Family Radio and rapture prophet. Camping might be ready for the rapture as he's now recovering from a stroke. The 89 year old prophet of doom-and-gloom-Christian-style alters his guaranteed prediction of Judgement Day every so often.

Posted on his blog today, The Gospel in the Digital Age, Archbishop Timothy Michael Dolan wrote a piece on meaning of marriage and family according to natural reason and Catholic belief. His Excellency makes several and crucial points that require our clear attention. A sound-bite understanding of these important issues is insufficient for us.

The stampede is on.  Our elected senators who have stood courageous in their refusal to capitulate on the state's presumption to redefine marriage are reporting unrelenting pressure to cave-in.

The media, mainly sympathetic to this rush to tamper with a definition as old as human reason and ordered good, reports annoyance on the part of some senators that those in defense of traditional marriage just don't see the light, as we persist in opposing this enlightened, progressive, cause.

I am very glad that the first engagement of my visit should be with you, representing as you do key sectors of Croatian society and the Diplomatic Corps. My cordial greetings go to each of you personally and also to the important communities to which you belong: religious, political, academic and cultural, the world of the arts, finance and sport. I thank Archbishop Puljic and Professor Zurak for the kind words they have addressed to me, and I thank the musicians who have welcomed me in the universal language of music. This dimension of universality, characteristic of art and culture, is particularly appropriate for Christianity and the Catholic Church. Christ is fully human, and whatever is human finds in him and in his word the fullness of life and meaning.