Quote of the Week

“The full guarantee of religious liberty cannot be limited to the free exercise of worship but has to give due consideration to the public dimension of religion and, hence, to the possibility of believers playing their part in building the social order."

- Pope Benedict XVI

Catechism for the Year of Faith

Part of a continuing series.

A selected quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church in honor of the Year of Faith (October 11, 2012 - November 24, 2013)

75 "Christ the Lord, in whom the entire Revelation of the most high God is summed up, commanded the apostles to preach the Gospel, which had been promised beforehand by the prophets, and which he fulfilled in his own person and promulgated with his own lips. In preaching the Gospel, they were to communicate the gifts of God to all men. This Gospel was to be the source of all saving truth and moral discipline."
 
76 In keeping with the Lord's command, the Gospel was handed on in two ways:

- orally "by the apostles who handed on, by the spoken word of their preaching, by the example they gave, by the institutions they established, what they themselves had received - whether from the lips of Christ, from his way of life and his works, or whether they had learned it at the prompting of the Holy Spirit";

- in writing "by those apostles and other men associated with the apostles who, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, committed the message of salvation to writing".
 
77 "In order that the full and living Gospel might always be preserved in the Church the apostles left bishops as their successors. They gave them their own position of teaching authority." Indeed, "the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time."

78 This living transmission, accomplished in the Holy Spirit, is called Tradition, since it is distinct from Sacred Scripture, though closely connected to it. Through Tradition, "the Church, in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes." "The sayings of the holy Fathers are a witness to the life-giving presence of this Tradition, showing how its riches are poured out in the practice and life of the Church, in her belief and her prayer."

79 The Father's self-communication made through his Word in the Holy Spirit, remains present and active in the Church: "God, who spoke in the past, continues to converse with the Spouse of his beloved Son. And the Holy Spirit, through whom the living voice of the Gospel rings out in the Church - and through her in the world - leads believers to the full truth, and makes the Word of Christ dwell in them in all its richness."

This Week's Headlines

As another week comes to an end, this is your chance to top off your glass with a final helping of news, current events, and just plain interesting stuff that may not have made into the mainstream media. A chance to linger for a few more moments before we close the door on the week. Below are some links to articles, blogs, and miscellaneous happenings that caught my eye over the past few days. Sample what you like. I'll serve up more next Friday...

Pope's Surprise Announcement: Names Six New Cardinals for the Church, Calls a Consistory - "The Cardinals have the task of helping the Successor of Peter in the performance of his ministry of confirming the brethren in the faith, and that of being the principle and foundation of unity and communion of the Church." [Video included]

Pope announces six new cardinals, including an American - "The lone American is Archbishop Harvey of the titular see of Memphis, who was named Prefect of the Papal Household by Blessed John Paul II in 1998. Pope Benedict XVI said he plans to appoint the Milwaukee native, 63, Archpriest of the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls."

Tekakwitha becomes the first Native American to be canonized - "'This is a great weekend for America in the Vatican, and it's really a great weekend for Native Americans. Sainthood is the guarantee that this person is close to God,' Vatican senior communications adviser Greg Burke said."

10 Reasons Why Obama’s Next 4 Years Would Be Worse Than the Past 4 Years

First They Came for the Catholics… - "I’ve been stunned to see how trivial the religious freedom issue has proved in the campaign, and how few Catholics realize the lethal stakes for which we’re playing. Have there been TV ads about this that I’ve missed? Why wasn’t this subject raised in the debates?"

Former Obama 2008 Voter: I Refuse to Be That Stupid Twice - [Let's repeat this millions of times over.]

It is vital that we as Catholics Stand against Obama:

Obama's performance in third debate described as 'rude and unpresidential' - According to U.S. historian Tim Stanley, Mitt Romney won the third presidential debate. Stanley says that while Romney looked like a proper head of state, Obama's antics made him 'look like a lawyer,' at the third and final debate in Boca Raton, Florida, last night." [Short video included]


Some Thoughts on the Final Debate - Bottom Line: "Romney made no mistakes and appeared presidential.  Mission accomplished."

Romney’s Brilliant Maneuver - "Everyone – including me – thought Romney would tear into Obama once again and engage in another slugfest, spending as much time as possible discussing the failures surrounding Benghazi. Instead, Romney completely walked away from Benghazi."

Romney During Debate: “I Will Get Rid of Obamacare” - ['nough said]

Terror attacks in Libya more sophisticated than previously thought - "New information about the nature of the 9-11 attacks in Benghazi is coming to light as intelligence officials are speaking to the media about what they know. The attacks in Benghazi were well-organized plots supported by al Qaeda."

Leaked emails show Obama administration knew truth about Libya attacks - "Obama is pleading the fifth when asked about when he learned of three emails sent by the State Department to him on September 11, 2012, informing him that the US Consulate in Benghazi was under attack and that a terrorist group was claiming responsibility for the attack."

Joe Biden to Father of Former Navy SEAL Killed in Benghazi: ‘Did Your Son Always Have Balls the Size of Cue Balls?’ - [Yeah...classy, right? Read the whole article. It's a whole parade of stupidity from the Obama administration. These people need to be VOTED OUT!]

If Four Americans Killed is “Not Optimal” What’s 55 Million? - [It begs the question...]


Obama secretly meets with your enemies - "For those that do not know, Obama has been meeting secretly with an entire host of Islamic radicals in the White House. According to a year-long investigation by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), scores of known radicals have paid visits to Obama in the past four years." [The man supports the killing of infants born alive; it's no surprise that he would turn a sympathetic ear to other forms of evil.]

Planned Parenthood Has Spent $12 Million to Re-Elect Obama - "Never before has the abortion provider spent so much money in an election, reports say."

War on Women Fails: Romney Catches Obama With Women Voters - "Romney is now even with women when pitted against Obama, with both candidates getting the support of 47 percent of women voters. That is a drastic turnabout from the last poll, which had Obama ahead with women 16 percent."

New Obama video compares voting to losing virginity - [Watch the video and see for yourself. It really is worse than you think. Has Obama taken politics and the office of the President this low? Oh, yes, he has.]

Let’s Talk About the REAL War on Women -  "...once we realize the deception that has been foisted upon us, the lies that have been used for our own destruction can be stripped of their power, and the feminine genius can then be unleashed for the building up of a true civilization of life and love."

Obama’s “Equality” and “Liberty” for Women - "Unfortunately, President Obama and his entire administration view contraception and abortion as the panacea for maximizing women’s health and wellbeing."

Just 10 People Turn Out for Sandra Fluke Rally in Nevada - [Free contraception just isn't the hot topic liberals thought.]

Liberals Plan Anti-Mormon Lit Drops at Evangelical Churches - [I don't know about you, but that just sounds like desperation.]

The Actions Of Each Campaign Tells You Obama Is Losing Steam - "[Note the] emphasis the president is putting on Romney’s 'binders of women'. The silliness of the topic aside, the fact President Obama is making this his current campaign thrust suggests he feels the need to reach out to independent female voters—and a Democratic campaign that’s secure would normally have that vote sewn up by this point."


Archbishop Chaput: Be Catholic before you are Democrat or Republican - "'It’s very important for Catholics to make distinctions when voting that they never support intrinsic evils like abortion, which is evil in all circumstances. That’s a lot different from different economic policies" that people can reasonably disagree on, the archbishop explained." [Hmmm... I wonder how each Party squares with this rule of thumb?]

Archbishop Chaput: Democrats Have ‘Gotten Worse’ on Abortion Because Catholics Haven’t Abandoned Them - [Well that certainly helps answer my question above...]

The wrong side of history - "Communism imposed a total way of life based upon the belief that God does not exist. Secularism is communism’s better-scrubbed bedfellow. A small irony of history cropped up at the United Nations a few weeks ago when Russia joined the majority of other nations to defeat the United States and the western European nations that wanted to declare that killing the unborn should be a universal human right. Who is on the wrong side of history now?"

Ten Pro-Life Responses to Pro-Abortion Politicians - "If you’ve ever written to a pro-abortion politician about the right to life, you’ve probably received a form letter that utilizes one of several worn-out arguments. Let’s review how we answer them..."

Desiccated Christianity - "Often instead of a passion for the Faith a substitute passion comes into play—a passionate political agenda which attempts to bring the kingdom of God to earth through political means. Dissent if you like from any proposition of the Nicene Creed, but not from any piece of legislation cutting welfare budgets. That, to their minds, is the real heresy!"

Bono, Babel, and the Myth of Economist as Savior - "Bono, lead singer of U2 and co-founder of charity-group ONE, recently offered some positive words about the role of markets in reducing global poverty and spurring economic development..."

Mourdock and Rape: Should Angelina Jolie’s Daughter Have Been Aborted? - "Far from being labeled an extremist, Mourdock is to be commended for upholding the humanity of children conceived in rape."

Obama Video Trashes Ryan and Mourdock: “Extremists on Abortion” - "The video seeks to paint pro-life candidate for Vice President Paul Ryan as somehow identifying with Mourdock’s comments because the two share a position against aborting babies in cases of rape or incest. The video labels the two 'abortion extremists.'"

Will The Supreme Court "Roe" Gay Marriage? - "Predicting court decisions is like predicting which direction a tornado will choose. Nobody knows. All we know is that previous ones have ruined a lot of people's lives."

Scientists in Oregon Create Embryos With Three Genetic Parents - "In the wake of yet another study that found that IVF is linked to a greater risk of birth defects, is it really ethical to take the manipulation of human life in the lab even further?"

Media: It’s Only Murder if She Wanted the Baby - "When a woman decides she wants it, it is no longer a fetus but a baby. It’s the most obvious and blatant double-mindedness that exists in our society."

President George W. Bush Awarded by Canadian Pro-Life Group for Abortion Fight - [Sure he had his flaws...but I miss him.]

Why This Third Party Voter is Voting for Romney, And You Should Too - "Obama’s defeat in this election may be the most important single event in the future of this country for generations to come."

Open Thread: How Can We Make the Catholic Vote Matter Where You Live? - "Here are a few ideas and areas, connections and thoughts that I think will help us appreciate the urgent responsibility we have to become the Catholic vote, and to see what a positive impact the Catholic vote can have across the country this election."

Is the online world part of the "real" world? - "But just because something is online or digital doesn't mean it's not real. As people of faith, we of all people should know that just because something can't be physically touched doesn't mean it's not real."

The Peril of the Lone Wolf - "It's interesting to note that in the Church's vision for every state of life, you're never a lone wolf; every individual has a person or group of people to whom he is intimately connected, at least one person who's opinion he's obliged to listen to, who is similarity obliged to give him honest feedback when he's veering off course."

Body, Soul and Spirit: Love and the Integral Unity of Human Nature - "Man cannot live without love. He remains a being incomprehensible to himself. His life is senseless if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it." [Includes video - address by Pope Benedict]

Should Children Be Baptized Without Their Parents Knowledge? - "Should Catholics take matters into their own hands and baptize the precious child they love so much, knowing that through this baptism the child will be saved from original sin and be marked for God’s kingdom? Or should they refrain, pray, and trust that God will take care of this child?"

Discovery Institute Fellow Is Dedicated to Christian Unity - "Richards holds a master of Divinity degree, a master of theology degree and a Ph.D. in philosophy and theology from Princeton Theological Seminary.  A convert to the faith, Richards and his family entered the Church three years ago at the Easter Vigil."

How One Parish Draws People to God - Through Beauty - "In order for a people to hear the truth, they first have to be listening. This is where sacred art comes in."

Male-only Priesthood, Part 6

We have shown in previous posts (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) that a solid theological argument can be made in favor of a male-only priesthood. Only a man can truly act in persona Christi; only a man can be conformed to the masculine spiritual identity of the High Priest, Jesus of Nazareth. But some Christians attempt to propose competing theological arguments in favor of women priests. These arguments are less rigorous than what we have seen in favor of male-only ordination. They tend to rely on the "common priesthood" of all believers and the fact that men and women are equally afforded the grace of salvation. They usually ignore the distinct roles of men and women in the community, the correlation between marriage and Christ's relationship with His Church, and the historic role of a male sacrificial priesthood especially in the Old Testament. Christianity  has a long history of male-only priests and this fact of history ought to weigh heavily on our understanding of Holy Orders in the Christian context.

Beginning with Jesus' call of the Twelve (Mark 3:13-19), we see men selected from among the disciples to receive special training and positions of leadership within the community. To these men he gave the authority to preach and the power to cast out demons. The Twelve accompanied Jesus wherever He went and He imparted knowledge to them that He withheld from the crowds. These men were obviously being prepared for a special purpose in the Church. Most importantly, they were with Him at the Last Supper where He instructed them to "do this in remembrance,"  and it is these Twelve men who received the Spirit for forgiveness of sins, and the charge to baptize.

These Twelve men beheld the risen Christ, received the Holy Spirit from Him, and were sent out into the world to establish the Church. It was these men who, through the laying on of hands, ordained the first deacons (Acts 6), and in like manner chose the man who would replace Judas, the betrayer (Acts 1:18-26). These Twelve male Apostles recognized Paul (another man) as chosen by God to be an Apostle like them; and together they went out into the world and establish local churches, ordaining men as elders (bishops) to lead the congregations. Paul instructed his congregations to choose upstanding men as their elders and deacons (1Timothy 3:1-13), but he warned against women even speaking in the church (1 Corinthians 14:34).

Now all of this may seem derogatory toward women. It may seem that Christianity is patriarchal, anti-woman, and chauvinistic. This is not the case.Women and womanhood are highly regarded in the Catholic Church. Many great women have been declared Saints and Doctors of the Church: St. Catherine of Siena, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, St. Hidegard of Bingen, and the list goes on. All of these holy women embody the best of what it means to be Christian, and they stand as examples to both sexes of how to live out the faith. Jesus included women among His close circle of friends, most notably Mary Magdalene, who was the first to see the risen Lord. And of course there is Mary, his own mother, who is honored above all Saints, enthroned above the angels as Queen of Heaven. How can the Church that honors Mary be called anti-woman?

But the role of women is different than the role of men. This is true of marriage, child rearing, and life in general, and it is true of our spiritual roles as well. It is not anti-woman to say that men and women are called to different vocations. The history of the Church bears this out - a history going back to Jesus Himself. If Jesus intended women to be a part of the priesthood He could have called six men and six women to be a part of the Twelve. Why not Mary Magdalene? Why not His own mother? The Blessed Virgin bore Christ's flesh and blood in her womb...she was the sinless tabernacle of the Lord...who would be a more fitting priest to hold His flesh and blood at the altar? Yet, she was not called to the priesthood. Nor was any woman in the ancient Church. There is no example of women being ordained into the priesthood until recent Protestant denominations introduced the practice.

The strongest argument that can be made in favor of such female ordination are references to deaconesses (female deacons) in ancient Christian writings. On this rests the claim that the early Church ordained women. How solid is this claim? Is this enough to demolish our argument in favor of male-only ordination? We will examine this claim next...

Quote of the Week

“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The Tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.”

- Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Catechism for the Year of Faith

Part of a continuing series.

A selected quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church in honor of the Year of Faith (October 11, 2012 - November 24, 2013)

51 "It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself and to make known the mystery of his will. His will was that men should have access to the Father, through Christ, the Word made flesh, in the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine nature."

52 God, who "dwells in unapproachable light", wants to communicate his own divine life to the men he freely created, in order to adopt them as his sons in his only-begotten Son. By revealing himself God wishes to make them capable of responding to him, and of knowing him and of loving him far beyond their own natural capacity.

53 The divine plan of Revelation is realized simultaneously "by deeds and words which are intrinsically bound up with each other" and shed light on each another. It involves a specific divine pedagogy: God communicates himself to man gradually. He prepares him to welcome by stages the supernatural Revelation that is to culminate in the person and mission of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ.St. Irenaeus of Lyons repeatedly speaks of this divine pedagogy using the image of God and man becoming accustomed to one another:

The Word of God dwelt in man and became the Son of man in order to accustom man to perceive God and to accustom God to dwell in man, according to the Father's pleasure.

Monday Musings

A few random thoughts and ponderings to stat the week...

Not much to say tonight... Waiting to watch the third and final Presidential debate. Remember to vote! And vote with your conscience.

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Speaking of "conscience" - that reminds me of a picture I saw earlier today:

Obama's disregard for the conscience rights of Christians at home is matched only by his inability to stand up to religious thugs abroad. This election is important! Your vote can help defend religious freedom!

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Continuing with the same theme, you may want to check out this article: Obama Wages War on Catholicism.

By the end of 2009, the real agenda of the Obama administration had become so transparent that even its friends at The New York Times felt obliged to come clean. That November the Times ran a news story showing how Obama had betrayed his promise. Reporter Robert Pear wrote that the president “was not comfortable with abortion restrictions inserted into the House version of major healthcare legislation, and he prodded Congress to revise them.” The pro-life community, largely faith-based, felt disabused by these shenanigans. But they had no idea how bad matters would soon become.

On Jan. 20, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius rolled out what would come to be known as the HHS mandate: Catholic institutions would be required to pay for contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs in their healthcare plans for employees.

The inclusion of abortion-inducing drugs was striking. The administration could have settled for contraception, but instead it sought to stick the camel’s nose in the tent. Its real long-term interest was plain: eventually, as broached by FOCA, Catholic hospitals would be required to perform abortions.

On Jan. 31, Press Secretary Jay Carney stunned even Obama supporters when he said, “I don’t believe there are any constitutional rights issues here.” No one was buying it, especially not the bishops.

After Catholics pushed back, a new version was introduced three weeks later. But it was a distinction without a difference: It mandated that the insurance carrier of Catholic non-profits must pay for these services.

This was just a shell game. In reality, many Catholic non-profits are self-insured (for example, the Archdiocese of Washington is self-insured). Then there is the issue of Catholic entities that are not self-insured: Why should they have to pay their insurance company for services they deem immoral? Another issue that won’t go away is the right of Catholic business owners not to pay for services that violate their conscience.

It is important to acknowledge that Catholics are not asking for special rights — they are simply asking the Obama administration to respect the status quo. The administration won’t budge, saying the best it will do is exempt Catholic churches.

The entire article details the diabolical policies of this President. He must be stopped. Please spread the word and vote for real CHANGE this November.