Archbishop Chaput on Of Human Dignity

Charles Chaput, the archbishop of Philadelphia, delivered an address at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary on March, 17 2015 on the topic Of Human Dignity.  The text of that speech is available at First Things.

He begins by talking about the Church's teaching about Religious freedom and ties it to the enlightenment and to the Church's early history.  He says:

To put it another way: Early Christians weren't hated because they were religious. They were hated because they weren't religious enough. They weren't killed because they believed in God. They were killed because they didn't believe in the authentic gods of the city and empire. In their impiety, they invited the anger of heaven. They also threatened the well-being of everyone else, including the state. The emperor Marcus Aurelius—one of history’s great men of intellect and character—hated the Christian cult. He persecuted Christians not for their faith, but for what he saw as their blasphemy. In refusing to honor the traditional gods, they attacked the security of the state.

He then begins to talk about the second Vatican Council and its' document (Dignitatis Humanae) on religious freedom saying:

To put it another way, Dignitatis Humanae is not just about freedom from coercion. It’s also about freedom for the truth. The issue of truth is too easily overlooked.

He then talks about the issues of our own time.  He says:

The biggest problem we face as a culture isn’t gay marriage or global warming. It’s not abortion funding or the federal debt. These are vital issues, clearly. But the deeper problem, the one that’s crippling us, is that we use words like justice, rights, freedom and dignity without any commonly shared meaning to their content.

This speech is extremely important in our day.  You should read it.

Barron and Cinderella

Fr Robert Barron  has a review of the recent live-action movie about Cinderella at ChurchPop.

He begins:

Kenneth Branagh’s “Cinderella” is the most surprising Hollywood movie of the year so far. 

I say this because the director manages to tells the familiar fairy tale without irony, hyper-feminist sub-plots, Marxist insinuations, deconstructionist cynicism, or arch condescension. In so doing, he actually allows the spiritual, indeed specifically Christian, character of the tale to emerge.

 It is a review well worth reading.

Cardinal Wuerl on trying to silence the Church

Donald Cardinal Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, DC, has a blog post regarding new challenges to the Church posed by those who would silence the Church.  He writes:

The Church presents a splendid vision for life. Yet, we also struggle to live it. The tension between what we know we should do and what we actually do is something referred to as the “human condition.” Nonetheless, we are called to strive to reach our potential, to manifest our faith in our actions. This is particularly true for those who minister in the name of the Church and teach and provide charitable and social services on behalf of the Church.

But today there is a new challenge. Some who reject the Church’s teaching – who choose to live by another set of values – not only find the voice of Christian values annoying, they would like to see it silenced or at least muted. Thus we have a whole new upside down version of words like “discrimination,” “freedom” and “human rights,” and laws to enforce the new meaning.

 He points specifically to recent legislation in DC that would:

deprive the Church of its right to ensure that those whom it entrusts to carry out its mission are faithful to its teachings on human life and sexuality.

This action by the government of DC is more egregious than the campaign in the Bay Area against the archbishop of San Francisco because it involves the laws governing the District of Columbia acting against the Church.  It is similar to the move last year or the year before to outlaw circumcision in the Bay Area, essentially outlawing Judaism.

Both situations are very troubling in America.  All Americans, not just Catholics, should be deeply concerned for this turn of events.

Cardinal Wuerl closes by saying:

But there is even more. This Lent we all need to ask ourselves if we are prepared to stand up for our beliefs and to speak up on behalf of our schools, parishes and charities.

Yes, Lent is always a time of renewed conviction and deepened faith. This Lent is also a time when we have to deepen our courage not just to hold to what we believe but to be able to speak up on behalf of that faith.

You'll want to read his entire post.

Cardinal Dolan and his lenten Reflections

Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the archbishop of New York, has a web page where he is posting 2 minute videos of daily reflections during Lent.

They, the reflections, are wonderful.

Here's the link to the most recent one:
http://cardinaldolan.org/index.php/acts-of-contrition-2/

They are posts on his blog.

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.