Archive for the ‘catholic’ Category

After reading this piece I think Stacy McCain is a Catholic….

Posted: November 25, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, opinion/news
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…he just doesn’t know it yet:

I am not Catholic – my ancestors were Ulster Scots, and I remain proudly Protestant – but over the years many Catholic readers have been attracted to this blog by my advocacy of a pro-family, pro-life philosophy which owes much to the doctrine expounded in Humanae Vitae. If you have never read it, you certainly should and please note that Humanae Vitae is addressed not merely to Catholics, nor even exclusively to Christians, but “to all men of good will.”

He writes about Pope Paul Vi (the pope of my youth) and Benedict XVI, read this post, it is a very Catholic one

Recall that Paul VI wrote this in 1968, eight years after the first oral contraceptive was made commercially available in the U.S., at the height of the ridiculous hysteria over “The Population Bomb,” and five years before Roe v. Wade.

As Benedict XVI says, Humanae Vitae was “prophetically right,” because Paul VI clearly warned that the embrace of artificial contraception would “open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards.”

Since most protestant denominations gave in on Birth Control more than half a century ago reading this from Stacy brings a grin to my face. It’s like reading an essay from my friend Jim Marley poet and student of Theology (and one of the guest for my Christmas show). Stacy sounds more Catholic than most Catholics, but then again he is starting by linking to the Anchoress which is the best way to find the way to the charity of truth.

The Anchoress tends to hit basic truths well, to wit:

Did Pope Benedict know he was sparking a debate with his responses in Light of the World?

I suspect he did. Benedict is not stupid, and he’s not unsavvy about media; he knows the press is reactionary and slavish to the sensational – that they would grab his answers to Peter Seewald and run with them, and that after their first noise, some of them would actually settle down and seek to understand, while others never would.

Meanwhile, the faithful would be jarred from their torpor, and others–who had been dismissive of all-positions-Catholic–would again be engaged.

Active engagement is always better than passive dismissal.

And the discussion continues:

Paul VI, he said, “was convinced that society robs itself of its greatest hopes when it kills human beings through abortion”.

Benedict XVI said: “How many children are killed who might one day have been geniuses, who could have given humanity something new, who could have given us a new Mozart or some new technical discovery?

“We need to stop and think about the great human capacity that is being destroyed here – even quite apart from the fact that unborn children are human persons whose dignity and right to life we have to respect.”

Humanae Vitae’s main argument, that sexuality separated from fecundity in principle through the contraceptive pill would lead to sexuality becoming arbitrary, remains correct, Pope Benedict said.

I’ve made that argument over and over and was answered with: “How many would have been crack heads?” To which I say this. Who makes more difference 1 great teacher or 30 crack heads? 50 crack heads? 100 crack heads?

The potential of life is limitless, all it takes is faith and effort.

Oh and another of my Christmas Show guests notes something else the rest of the media has missed:

One aspect about this story that is getting no coverage is that we are getting a book like this in the first place. A sitting Pope sitting down with a journalist and not limiting any questions asked. Sure he is comfortable in his long relationship with Peter Seewald, but Seewald is willing to ask the questions other people would be interested in having asked. The Pope being the brilliant theologian that he is does not give pat answers. The Pope is not concerned with public relations and acting as a spin doctors on his answers to reduce any possible misinterpretations. The Pope thinks deeply on subjects and then gives us his answer where he would trust us with the truth. The Pope could have easily answered the questions on condoms by outlining the Church’s teaching on contraception, but instead spoke honestly in addressing possible situations. Some might call this a PR disaster and certainly it is annoying when the press distorts what the Pope says, but they would find something to distort regardless.

Remember the first thanksgiving proclamation was to give thanks to God.

Wow!

Posted: November 23, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, opinion/news
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Via Damian Thompsom who will be on our Christmas show.

“I personally asked the pope if there was a serious, important problem in the choice of the masculine over the feminine,” Lombardi said. “He told me no. The problem is this … It’s the first step of taking responsibility, of taking into consideration the risk of the life of another with whom you have a relationship.”

“This is if you’re a woman, a man, or a transsexual. We’re at the same point,” Lombardi said.

Sensible, compassionate, logical – and a badly needed clarification of Catholic teaching rather a U-turn. But some commentators, who attached such weight to the Pope’s reference to a male prostitute, are going to have a really hard time talking themselves out of this one

I’m thinking screwtape:

the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

The pope is making the same argument in reverse, if the person uses the condom to prevent the spread of a deadly disease, he or she by showing that concerning is taking a small step toward the light. It doesn’t make the sins of Adultery or Fornication any less a sin, but you can’t walk away from the darkness without that first step toward the light.

And again the function here is intent. Using a condom to prevent pregnancy while trying to argue that you are just trying to prevent disease might allow you to convince yourself, but it doesn’t mean a thing, you can fool yourself, but at the gate your won’t fool St. Peter.

Here comes the media misrepresenting the Pope: Update Wow!

Posted: November 22, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, media
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A couple of days ago my son came to me saying its on the news that the Pope is now allowing condom use. As I was busy with show prep etc I didn’t have any time to check on it and I hadn’t seen it myself, so I told him to ignore the media and read the actual statement that the Benedict XVI made to see if that is what it actually says.

Later that day he came to me saying. “You’re right it not what the media is saying at all”

It hasn’t taken long for activists to try to spin what has been said:

British gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell did just that in his reaction to the book, saying: “If the pope can change his stance on condoms, why can’t he also modify the Vatican’s harsh intolerant opposition to women’s rights, gay equality, fertility treatment and embryonic stem cell research?”

Forgetting the hateful and false hyperbole Mr. Tatchell manages to miss that the Holy Father has not changed a thing at all, as the Anchoress points out first quoting deacon Greg who directly quotes the Pope:

“The Church does not consider at all illicit the use of those therapeutic means necessary to cure bodily diseases, even if a foreseeable impediment to procreation should result there from–provided such impediment is not directly intended for any motive whatsoever.”

Big change isn’t it? Not quite, the pope he is quoting is Paul VI in 1968.

She then quotes the best post I’ve seen on the subject:

To the son who is a male prostitute, she advises, again, the Catholic teaching on human sexuality. She tries to explain it, but he cannot understand it and completely rejects it. He simply cannot get his mind around it. He is adamant that he is going to continue in his lifestyle, no matter what. When she realizes that she is never going to get anywhere with him on this issue, she advises him that if he absolutely insists that it must be this way, then he should use a condom. He agrees that he should think enough of the other person’s value as a human person not to intentionally risk AIDS infection, and she rejoices that he, at least, understands this much about human dignity. It’s enough for her to hope that it is spark enough for him to, as the Pope said, “re-develop his understanding” and come eventually to the fullness of the Faith. Again, as assuredly as she was with her other son, she is being a good Catholic mother.

It is contraception not condoms that have and always have been forbidden. As the Anchoress put it herself this time:

I think it is a very good thing that Pope Benedict has spoken about this issue via the book – it takes the whole matter out of the world of encyclicals and exhortations (which are often either unread or mischaracterized) and brings it into the light of the public square and open discussion. If it gets a few people to pay attention, smack their foreheads and say, “wait…you mean the church was never as unreasonable and inhumane as we’d been told?” That will be something, won’t it?

The Holy Spirit uses what is at its disposal for its own purposes, and moves as it will. This pope has been all about giving the Holy Spirit room to move and work.

This is all true but it doesn’t matter we will still see more HuffPo headlines not withstanding the actual truth.
I think the problem is the media isn’t actually interested in what the Pope is saying, they have an agenda and we WILL talk about this on Saturday and on our Christmas show. That being said Willie Geist dealt with it fairly on Way Too Early. I’ll see what Morning Joe has to say.

Update: Wow! very wow!

The value of a reminder

Posted: November 7, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, personal
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For reasons I won’t go into I’ve been feeling low for quite a while.

Oh I’ve managed to have fun and enjoy people’s company but for quite a few weeks I’ve been kinda down and some issues that have come up lately haven’t helped.

I put up a post and wrote a review but was still angry.and I was determined to stay put Sunday or no Sunday. I could get away with it too, the wife was gone for the day, one son was at work and the other was so deep into his gaming he would never notice. I had missed confession anyways so I wasn’t able to receive so what was the difference; or so I rationalized to myself.

I had tweet deck up in the background and happened to look at my screen when suddenly a tweet came up from Father Z. I don’t remember what the tweet was but I could see his icon and the priest’s robes and it reminded me of my duty. I kept thinking to myself trying to stay angry but the image of Fr. Z in his robes holding the host wouldn’t go away. Finally 5 minutes before the start of mass, I pulled myself out of bed, dressed quickly and dashed to church sitting in the side room alone just in time to make the start of mass.

Ironically it was a commemorative mass for the Venerini Sisters. It was the mass that marked the end of their US centennial. As I sat in the el section of the church during communion (I abstained having missed confession) and watched the line of people going up to receive it occurred to me that if that tweet had been from any of the sisters in attendance I would have still been in bed. Other than my 7th grade teacher who I recognized I couldn’t tell the nuns from the little old ladies that prayed in the church as not a single one of them remained in the habit.

The sisters have done a lot of good work and do so in many countries but I couldn’t get the irony out of my head. It reminded me of a story from my youth at St. Anthony’s. My mom was coming to pick me up when one of the sisters was crossing the street. She was fairly young, not in a habit and wearing a very short skirt when a guy in a convertible came by noticed the sister and pulled over and said something to her. I couldn’t hear what he said but she got VERY angry.

As my mom pulled up, Sister still angry commented to my mother how shocked she was at what that guy had said. This was a mistake. My mother isn’t one to volunteer an opinion but if you ask her she will tell you exactly what she thinks without holding back. She had seen what happened and didn’t miss a beat.

What are you angry about? How can you expect to get the respect of a nun if you are unwilling to dress like one?

I think my mother shocked sister more than the guy in the convertible did.

When a nun in a habit enters a room everyone notices it speaks a universal message of service to Christ.

When an old lady, no matter how devout enters the room, it does not.

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