faith and reason – Page 5

It’s Christianity. Simple.

We seem to be asking the same question: What is Christianity? A perplexing question for believers, I suspect. Test everything, Saint Paul tells us. Indeed, probe the question and don’t be afraid of doubt and the questions. The certainty of faith is known in the experience and the investigation of the reasonableness of the faith.

Antonio Quaglio in article published today on ilsussidiario.net, “It’s Christianity. Simple.” reflects on what Father Julián Carrón spoke on at the New Encounter 2012 this past weekend: that Christianity, in its true sense, need to be lived without reservation and without excuses and justifications.

Continue reading It’s Christianity. Simple.

Unpacking the Pope’s World Day of Peace message for 2012

On January 1, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Mother
of God, the open the new civil year, and we observe the World Day of Peace. The
Pope gives a message on this day that sort of works as a programmatic statement
for his work throughout the year. 2012 is a year to work on the virtue of
justice. At some point the future I will define the virtue of justice more than
“giving another his or her just due.” The Pope clarified his thinking on justice which can be read here.

The secretary of the Pontifical Council
for Justice and Peace, the number 2 person at the Council, Bishop Mario Toso,
SDB, 61, spoke about the meaning of the Pope’s message for the Day, titled “Educate
Young People in Justice and Peace.” His interview with Mercedes de la
Torre from January 10 with Zenit follows:

ZENIT spoke with the Salesian bishop,
professor of social philosophy, former rector of the Pontifical Salesian
University and Consultor for 20 years of the Pontifical Council for Justice and
Peace, about Benedict XVI’s message.

ZENIT: Why does Benedict XVI address young
people in particular in this 45th Message for the World Day of Peace?

Continue reading Unpacking the Pope’s World Day of Peace message for 2012

Christopher Hitchens, 62, RIP

The widely known public atheist Christopher Hitchens, 62, died from complications of pneumonia and cancer of the esophagus. He was Oxford educated and the author of several books who worked as a new correspondent and literary critic.

There’s a YouTube 2008 presentation of an interview between Christopher Hitchens and Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete that I recommend. They are here: Video (you and access the video clips by looking at the index).

May God be good to him. (I can say this because I believe in God even if Christopher didn’t.)

US Commission on International Religious Freedom could cease in November

US Congressman Frank R. Wolf, 72, (Virginia 10th District) proposed the bill in 1998 which created The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom is a bi-partisan US Federal commission, appointed by the US President to advise him and Congress on matters pertaining to the freedom of religion. The CIRF reports to Congress and the State Department, is now in jeopardy.

It’s work is research and advocacy for freedom and human rights. It looks at the practice of religion and it’s freedom to exist.

HOWEVER, there is one senator who is blocking funding, anonymously. We need to write to our senators. We need to speak out!!!

After November 18 the Commission may go out of business.

Congressman Wolf thinks that if the bill is passed, Obama will sign the bill. But truth be told, the President is not really in favor the Commission’s work.

14 countries deny religious freedom, says a US agency

The annual report on religious freedom lists 14 countries which deny religious freedom to their citizens. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (www.uscirf.gov) is a bi-partisan US Federal commission, appointed by the US President to advise him and Congress on matters pertaining to the freedom of religion.

Visit the above link for the report and other interesting information.

Of particular concern are: Burma, China, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Viet Nam.

Rome Reports gives the story.

Was John Paul II euthanized?

Well, that’s a question. Provocative or not, I am quiet sure that it is germane 6 years later with little evidence. But Time magazine’s Jeff Israel brings to our attention the hypothesis of Dr Lina Pavanelli who, in an article, “The Sweet Death of Karol Wojtyla” (Micromega), claims Blessed John Paul II was euthanized. The first thing I think of is: someone is trying to make a book deal with conspiracy theory accusing the Vatican of hiding something. But I am wondering, as Israel pointed out, that if the issue is actually the doctor’s reception of Church teaching on life –or not–, especially on issues like euthanasia. Many in the medical community want to dismiss the Church’s teaching on life in order to liberalize medicine enough to reduce the dignity of the human person to absurdity. There’s a vibrancy in questioning Magisterial teaching on life in Europe because of proposed legislation.

Remember all the questions about the death of Pope John Paul I?

Here’s Israel’s article.

Yousef Nadarkhani sentenced to death for being Christian in Iran, the Church silent

Yousef Nadarkhani, 33, is a Christian; he’s never practiced Islam, the faith of his family. He converted Christianity at the age of 19. A court ruled that he’s guilty of apostasy but he’s also being accused of security charges, running a brothel, being a rapist and being a Zionist. And now he faces death.

BUT it seems that the charge of apostasy is being minimized or completely discounted now; information conflict. Nadarkhani was arrested October 13, 2009.

“I am resolute in my faith and Christianity and have no wish to recant,” Yousef Nadarkhani said.

Benjamin Weinthal’s article in The Jerusalem Post gives some more detail.

Continue reading Yousef Nadarkhani sentenced to death for being Christian in Iran, the Church silent

Why Bill Keller misses the mark with Catholicism

In the NY Times yesterday the editors published a few paragraphs on Bill Keller and his coverage of Catholicism for the 8 last years. It was really a screed on being the priests of truth. However, the article indicates that he has gratitude for his Catholic education, noting his the fervent faith of his parents, especially his mother. But the rub for me is that now Keller identifies himself as a “collapsed Catholic” meaning “beyond lapsed.” Of course, he doesn’t explain how or what concrete events led him to arrive at being a collapsed Catholic.

Essentially Bill Keller’s understanding of Catholic faith is reduced to a set of rigid moralisms that have no vitality, no freedom, no desire. I can only surmise that Keller’s skeptical attitude toward the beauty of Catholic faith rests in his inability to see Jesus Christ as the answer to his human need now due to an absence of wonder, gratitude and true charity. I think he blames his skepticism on the “institution” of the Church on incidental things versus on things of depth. On one level who could disagree with Keller and those like him who walk away from the Church when the desire of the heart is played down.

I’d like to know what Bill Keller’s experience of Jesus is, and what his experience of receiving the sacraments is. Perhaps his problem of a lack of satisfaction in the Faith is a true lack of gratitude for what is given by the newness of the Risen Lord and that Christ is not a thing but a person.

But is there really such a thing as a collapsed Catholic? Or, a Catholic who needs a reawakening by meeting Christ personally?

Adult Stem Cells: Science and the Future of Man and Culture: a deeper dialogue between science and faith

The Pontifical Council for Culture has been doing some good work in promoting serious dialogue among those who work in science, the humanities and theology. You may be familiar with the Council’s “Science, Theology and the Ontological Quest” (STOQ Project). The most recent collaboration has been with NeoStem in organizing a forthcoming conference dealing with the theme of “Adult Stem Cells: Science and the Future of Man and Culture.” Regenerative medicine is now on the front burner for dialogue and research among scientists, theologians and pastors. This field of study has wide applications for work in culture, law, theology, pastoral practice, scientific research and practical application for all peoples on the planet.

The Council for Culture is working also with the Pontifical Academy for Life and the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers to give a united front and clear witness to the importance of this topic to all interested parties.

Continue reading Adult Stem Cells: Science and the Future of Man and Culture: a deeper dialogue between science and faith

“Reality holds a signature from God … we must seek to decipher”

The transcript for the talk on whether a scientist can be a believer that was given at a lecture hosted by the New York Encounter in January has just been released by the Crossroads Cultural Center. Faith and reason is being explored here. It is a great question to ask if a believer in Christ –or perhaps a Jew or Muslim adherent– can be credible, true to his or her being given a certain intellectual formation. Does belief in God forfeit our true search for the Divine? Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete’s portion of the discussion is the most interesting to me and it is noted below (emphasis mine). A believer sometime has to work overtime to convince him or herself that faith and science are compatible. The other day my attention was drawn to what a little girl said about Lent: her view of life and the simplicity by which we have to look everything realizing that we don’t make ourselves; everything is given. Albacete answers the question of the compatibility of faith and science: The answer, I propose, is not only yes he can, but, in fact, it is faith that will sustain his or her passion for investigating nature, and prevent the process itself and its results from becoming enslaved to political, economic, and religious ideology.Let me know what you think.

In such a case, is awe, wonder, and joy at scientific
discoveries possible? When I was thinking about this, a friend sent me the text
of a speech given by Msgr. Luigi Giussani about the “love of being” that is
remarkably appropriate to this reflection. Giussani’s argument is that the truth of Christianity can be
verified by a proper consideration of the evidence for it. Evidence, he says,
is the correct word, even if the evidence for the Christian claim is given to
us through signs. Signs are things that can be touched, seen, and experienced. The Apostles had Jesus in front of them and this presence was a sign of His
victory over death, and therefore of His mysterious identity. But what about
us? What happens with the passage of time? What signs are there for us as
evidence of the truth of the Christian claim, of the reasonableness of the
Christian claim?

The interpretation of the signs available to us engages our
liberty, he says. In this drama, our liberty is a manifestation of our love for
being. Without this love for being we are not truly free and we will never
grasp the evidence of the signs given to us. At this point, as an example of
this love for being, Giussani invokes the Magi.

Continue reading “Reality holds a signature from God … we must seek to decipher”