Religious Freedom and Identity

National Review has had several articles over the last day or so involving the Archbishop of San Francisco, the Catholic High Schools there and the political activity.

These are better articles than the article I commented on at Slate, where the author was antithetical to Catholic teaching.

Ian Tuttle writes in regard to Religious Liberty:

Cordileone, for his part, has posed the simple question, What is a Catholic school? and offered an answer: A Catholic school is a school that embodies and promotes the vision of the Catholic Church.

And:

By contrast, Cordileone’s opponents think that a Catholic school should not be allowed to partake in the mission of the Church of which it is part. It should simply be a privately funded public school.

This is the inevitable consequence of a principle that views religion as a private affair. Recall President Obama’s gloss of the First Amendment as “freedom of worship.” He was rightly criticized, because his reading suggested that freedom to practice one’s religion is restricted to churches and synagogues and the ceremonies that happen therein. Exit the sanctuary, and your religion should be hung up until the following weekend. Much the same is happening in the Bay Area.

Anne Hendershott writes about the publicist that has been hired to fight a war against the archbishop's plans, and the tactics employed by the publicists firm.  It addresses consequences beyond the Bay Area:

Other U.S. dioceses face similar battles in their K–12 schools. What happens in San Francisco is happening elsewhere, and the foe is formidable. Singer is not working for free. Parents of pupils in San Francisco’s Catholic schools are not able to buy the kind of “services” he sells. The war against the archdiocese is being funded by sources with much more to gain than a clause in a faculty policy manual.

Kevin Williamson isn't particularly diplomatic in his post about the political goings on related to this controversy:

Catholic sexual teaching, and Archbishop Cordileone’s insistence upon it, annoys a great many people in San Francisco. Among the annoyed is Mark Farrell of the board of supervisors, which is what San Francisco calls its city council. Farrell protests that the sexual conservatism of Archbishop Cordileone and his subordinates—one of whom recently returned to the tradition of having all-male altar servers—is at odds with the local culture, “an affront to the values most of the residents of this city, in good conscience, hold dear.” The Los Angeles Times reports that many San Franciscans find the policy “divisive.” Farrell and the Times are without any question absolutely correct: The city may be named after St. Francis, but all indicators are that most residents of the city hold the moral teachings of St. Francis’s to be an affront to their values.

 

Which is why we have a First Amendment.

I recommend reading these articles, and praying for the conversion of the opponents of the archbishop.

Reflection -- February 28, 2015

In the readings for today Jesus says:

“Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Mathew 5: 48

In the reading from Deuteronomy, Moses admonishes the People of God: Be careful then to observe the statutes and decrees of the Lord with all your heart and all your soul.

In ps. 119, a hymn of praise to the Law of God, we pray: oh that I might be firm in the ways of keeping your statutes.

In the Gospel, Jesus, in delivering the new Law, the Sermon on the Mount, tells us to be perfect, just as our heavenly Father is perfect.  But who can be perfect or can perfectly keep the laws of God?

On our own we cannot.  But,  God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"  It is Christ who lives in us and enables us to keep the Law of God, not only "You shall love your neighbor" but also "to love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you."

To keep the love of God burning in our hearts requires regular renewal through prayer and the Sacraments, especially Eucharist and Reconciliation.  This is like a good friendship which requires regular visits and conversations.  It is also like a marriage which requires frequent refreshing of the love between the husband and wife, and reconciliation when difficulties arise.

Fr Barron, the Cross and taunting ISIS

At Real Clear Religion, Fr Robert Barron writes concerning the Cross of Christ and the beheadings by ISIS during the week of 16 Feb 2015:

Just before their throats were cut, many of the murdered Coptic Christians could be seen mouthing the words "Jesus Christ" and "Jesus is Lord." The first of those phrases is a rendering of the Aramaic Ieshouah Maschiach, which means "Jesus the anointed one" and which hearkens back to King David, the paradigmatic anointed figure of the Old Testament. The second phrase is one that can be traced to St. Paul's kerygmatic cry Iesous Kyrios (Jesus Lord!), which was intended to trump a watchword of the time, Kaiser Kyrios (Caesar is Lord). In short, both declarations assert the kingship of Jesus, but what a strange kingship! The new David reigns, not from a throne, but from a cross; the one who trumps Caesar doesn't lead an army, but embodies the divine forgiveness.

The ISIS barbarians were actually quite right in entitling their video "A Message Written in Blood." Up and down the centuries, tyrants and their lackeys have thought that they could wipe out the followers of Jesus through acts of violence.

It is a good read, and you should read it in its' entirety.

Robert Barron, Stephen Fry, and the Problem of Human Suffering

At Real Clear Religion, Fr Robert Barron has an article involving a British writer, actor, and comedian (Stephen Fry), who is a fairly ferocious atheist.

Fr Barron begins by citing a youtube video made by Fry in which Fry says:

what he would say to God if, upon arriving at the pearly gates, he discovered that he was mistaken in his atheism.

Fry says that he would ask God why he made a universe in which children get bone cancer, a universe in which human beings suffer horrifically and without justification.

Pointing to many Fathers of the Church, Fr Barron points out that this question has been posed repeatedly thoughout Christian history.  He comes at last to Sacred Scripture and recalls the Book of Job.

If you recall, a portion of that Book was the 1st reading at Mass on 8 Feb 2015.

Fr Barron's article does not stop with Job, but goes on to several more points which are decidedly Christian.  It is well worth reading.

San Francisco Catholic High Schools

At Slate, William Saletan writes about a controversy among some Catholics with regard to Catholic High Scool teachers and Archdiocesan requirements.

Saletan writes about the positions of those in contention with their archbishop:

It’s a mess of new-age babble. It starts with denials of morality. The protesters’ Facebook page, Support SF Teachers, declares: “A morality clause has no place in our schools. We want teachers to be able to be themselves.” Christine Haider-Winnett, the coordinator of Equally Blessed, a Catholic pro-LGBT coalition, says lay Catholics will “make our own decisions about what is right and wrong.” A tweet posted as part of the social media campaign against Cordileone advises: “Be who you are and don’t care who says what.”

The dictionary says churches are supposed to teach doctrines.

I would only recall that in Eden, Adam and Eve thought they could decide what was right and wrong.  The consequences of that decision were disastrous for all of mankind.

Yet in the Exultet we sing "O happy fault that earned for us so great, so glorious a Redeemer!"

Thank God for the great mercy bestowed on us poor sinners.  Let us not repeat the sin of Adam, thinking we could decide what is right and wrong.

Maggie Gallager and Religous Liberty

At National Review Online, Maggie Gallagher, has an article discussing what social conservatives should ask of a GOP nominee. Citing an article by Russell Moore at the Wall Street Journal, she quotes him:

In recent years candidates have assumed that they can win over evangelicals by learning Christian slogans, by masking political rallies as prayer meetings, and by basically producing a long-form new birth certificate to prove they’ve been born again. This sort of identity politics is a luxury of a past era when evangelicals were part of a silent majority in the U.S., with our First Amendment freedoms assumed and guaranteed.  That is not the present situation.

She goes to say:

Indeed it is not. Let me speak for traditionalists of all religions for a moment.

A few months before the Supreme Court is likely to rule on gay marriage, the incidents causing concern about what gay marriage will mean for dissenters (especially traditional Christians, Orthodox Jews, and Muslims) multiply: 

She then details a large number of instances where conservatives (many of whom are Christians) are excluded, publicly shamed and humiliated and sometimes heavily fined because of their religiously based views of Marriage, as opposed to the view proposed and held by advocates of Gay Marriage.

Read the whole article.

Reflection on Mass Readings -- 14 Feb 2015

The Readings  from Mass this morning (14 Feb 2015), the Memorial of Saints Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop include a portion of Psalm 90:

Return, O LORD! How long?

The first reading describes the consequences of the Fall of Adam and Eve.  God addresses Adam:

“Because you listened to your wife
and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat,

“Cursed be the ground because of you!
In toil shall you eat its yield
all the days of your life.
Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you,
as you eat of the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
shall you get bread to eat,
Until you return to the ground,
from which you were taken;
For you are dirt,
and to dirt you shall return.”

In the Gospel Jesus feeds the crowds with seven loaves and a few fish.

There is a counterpoint here between the lot of man following his loss of innocence during the original disobedience, and how the lambs of Christ are fed, not by the sweat of their brows, but the gracious gift of Christ.

Indeed, in Christ the cry from psalm 90 is answered.  "Return oh Lord, How long?" is finally answered by God in the person of Christ who came into the world that we might be saved.  Not merely restored to the original innocence of Adam and Eve, but called into an even more intimate union, an eternal union with God who loves and has prepared a place for us in his Kingdom.



As a final point, this reading from Genesis is like a preview of next Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, when Lent begins and we pray:

Remember man you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

 

The Presentation of the Lord

Today, 2 February 2015, the Church celebrates the Presentation of the Lord.  In the readings from today, the prophet Malachi says:

And suddenly there will come to the temple the LORD whom you seek, And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire.

The Gospel tells us:

Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem

to present him to the Lord,
just as it is written in the law of the Lord,
Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,
and to offer the sacrifice of
a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,
in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.

Jesus is brought to the Temple to fulfill the prescriptions of the Law.  He who in and of himself is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets is brought to the Temple, and is recognized by Simeon and Anna.

May we who have become Temples of the Lord lift high our lintels to let him enter.  Who is the king of Glory?  It is the Lord.