humanity – Communio

New York-native Benedictine monk illuminates the Word

Pope Paul VI told us we need more witnesses to the faith. I’ve quoted the pope several times on this just point. True, the personal witness of a man and woman to the inner and outer works of the Holy Spirit is what concretely moves the heart. Truth is encountered in the witness. Father Tom Rosica, CSB, of Salt and Light TV interviews known and less known witnesses of the faith that for me, really opens new vistas.

That I am interested in sharing the beauty of the Benedictine charism on Communio as the baptismal vocation is lived through monks, nuns, sisters and the laity. Father Rosica interviews Benedictine priest and monk Father Michael Patella of Saint John’s Abbey (Collegeville. MN). It is linked at the end of this post.

Saint John’s is a very large large abbey. At one time it was the largest in the world, now the monks numbers about 150. The monastic community administers a university, a high school, a press, an ecumenical center, a critically acclaimed international library of digital manuscripts, and several parishes. The monks of this abbey also serve the Church in a variety of places in the USA and other countries. No one can doubt the creative genius as a gift the Spirit with the men called to live a monastic vocation at Saint John’s Abbey.

Father Michael’s interview happened in August 2012 and was released in April 2013.

Continue reading New York-native Benedictine monk illuminates the Word

In a fractured world is Pope Benedict calling for political engagement?

Pope Benedict
gave his annual address, a “State of the Church,” if you will, to the curial officials
of the Holy See today.

You might say the content talk is crucially relevant for the
work of the Church and the proclamation of the Gospel as he reviews key events
and focuses on some themes. Among many things which need our attention and reflection,
the Pope spoke about nature of man, family life, and inter-religious dialogue.
Regarding man in which he gave insight into, he speaks of how evil and destructive vague and
ideological the “gender conscious crowd” is to the nature of the person and removes God from conversation. Read the full text here.

The Pope notes the crisis of the family and its effect on society, caused by the
unwillingness to make a commitment and by unwillingness to suffer. But he
goes beyond the symptoms to diagnose the cause of the crisis. This talk is not an attack, it is an appeal to truth.

Each of Pope
Benedict’s addresses to the Roman Curia are important, certainly the 2005
address stands out, but today’s will be memorable.

Here’s a section:

First of
all there is the question of the human capacity to make a commitment or to
avoid commitment. Can one bind oneself for a lifetime? Does this correspond to
man’s nature? Does it not contradict his freedom and the scope of his
self-realization? Does man become himself by living for himself alone and only
entering into relationships with others when he can break them off again at any
time? Is lifelong commitment antithetical to freedom? Is commitment also worth
suffering for? Man’s refusal to make any commitment – which is becoming
increasingly widespread as a result of a false understanding of freedom and
self-realization as well as the desire to escape suffering – means that man
remains closed in on himself and keeps his ‘I’ ultimately for himself, without
really rising above it. Yet only in self-giving does man find himself, and only
by opening himself to the other, to others, to children, to the family, only by
letting himself be changed through suffering, does he discover the breadth of
his humanity. When such commitment is repudiated, the key figures of human
existence likewise vanish: father, mother, child – essential elements of the
experience of being human are lost”.

Continue reading In a fractured world is Pope Benedict calling for political engagement?

Recent book explores ethical dimension of human cell research

Is this Cell a
Human Being? Exploring the Status of Embryos, Stem Cells and Human-Animal
Hybrids (Springer, $139; slightly less expensive on Amazon). Antoine Suarez and Joachim Huarte are the editors. The book follows the 2009 meeting of international experts who worked with the ethical considerations of human
cell use and the implications and hope of the research.

The book has 10 articles and an introduction published by the Social Trends Institute of Spain and the US which explores matters of family, bioethics, culture & lifestyles and corporate governance. One of the contributors to Is this Cell is Dominican Father Nicanor Austriaco of Providence College. Father Nicanor is also the author of the popular monograph, Understanding Stem Cell Research: Controversy and Promise (www.kofc.org/un/en/resources/cis/cis326.pdf).

Of their new work STI said, “The central question of this book is whether or not particular cell entities of human origin ought to be considered human beings.”

The CNA article is here.