The Sun Rises in the East

I've often wondered why it is that while the Western world as we know it is collapsing under our feet due to the decay of its moral foundation, Catholicism is flourishing and booming in the East, particularly Asia and Africa. Of course, there're many possible explanations that can be elucidated. Among them could be listed the following:

-Traditional family structure
-Respect for elders and tradition
-Rebellion against oppression
-Strong degree of importance placed on liturgical practice and community
-Deep-rooted reverence for the sacred
etc...

There're dozens of reasons that I could post with a little thought. It would be an injustice, however, to oversimplify, considering the vast diversity of the many nations turning their hearts towards the Lord and His Church.

Many signs are coming forth from the East indicating the rise of a renewed Church there. The vocation crisis has ended in large part because of the booming number of vocations in Africa, in particular. Churches are popping up everywhere. People across Asia and Africa are resonating with the Gospel. It is truly inspiring. Whenever I get discouraged at the deterioration of religion in the West, in general, I just remind myself of how the people in these relatively poor regions are placing their trust in Christ. It truly puts my life in perspective. Why do I whine when I have a bad day? Why do I get frustrated about unimportant things? Why don't I place my full trust in God when things are tough?

I'm curious to know what my readers think about the flourishing Church in Africa and Asia. I think it is a worthy topic to discuss...

In the News, 14 June 2008

Good morning, Anthony reporting for the De Profúndis News Service! We have a thrilling line up of beutifully Catholic-leaning news articles to discuss with you so let's get started! (Deo gratias!) (Fair and balanced reporting is for wimps).

The first story comes to us from the Catholic News Service: Baltimore Archbishop explains suspicion of Legionaries.

Now, this is quite a shocker, to begin with. The Archbishop is not just suspicious of the Legion, but he also plans to kick it ot of his archdiocese! Of course, I clearly respect whatever decision an archbishop makes because, well, he's an archbishop. But why would he be so suspicious of such a reputedly orthodox and faithful order as the Legion of Christ? Could there be some link here with the anti-Catholic left? Perhaps. When I first considered the vocation, I contacted the Legion and was overwhelmed by their kindness and devotion. I almost packed my bags and left before even graduating high school! However, such fervor often kindles suspicion among the less-faithful, who see such true faith as troubling. When I first mentioned the Legion to a certain nun subscriber to cox.net, incidentally the domain name with the most hits on my page (go figure!), I was told that the Legion was bad, that it was overtly militant in its language, and that it should be avoided. This coming from a person well-known to espouse grievously heretical views which I will not state here. I rest my case.

In other news, President Bush visited with the Pope yesterday and there are strong rumors that he may be considering converting to Catholicism! In some other articles I read, the President has clearly admitted that he finds greater depth and richness in the history, traditions, and theology of the Catholic Church as opposed to "evangelism"! Despite disagreeing over the Iraq War with the Pope, both men have agreed strongly on just about every other point. However, consider that earlier this week the President repudiated his earlier bravado rhetoric vis-à-vis the war as harmful. Does this spell a shift towards a more peaceful demeanor? Will President Bush follow Jeb's steps and become Catholic? We shall see. Pray for him.

Moving on, praise God, the good old Irish held strong. Yesterday the Irish people rejected the EU's Lisbon Treaty by a national referendum, striking a blow to the measure and putting heavy pressure on Britain to hold its own referendum. The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property- a really awesome group- stated the reasons why such a measure's destruction would be so crucial.

Apart from effectively eradicating whatever remains of Europe's Christian civilization, the Lisbon treaty would destroy the national sovereignty of its member states including Ireland- which is still staunchly Catholic and pro-life- and would impose the voice of a relatively tiny and quasi-dictatorial body known as the European Union in Brussels and Strasbourg. Of course, the EU is raving mad about the opportunity to destroy any remaining pro-life resistance to its message of death and replace it with its "progressive" framework of indiscriminate abortion, contraception, euthanasia, pornography, etc. So, God bless Ireland.

Well, that's all for today from the De Profúndis News Service. My name's Anthony. Have a great weekend!

Beyond the Pale

Two and a half weeks have passed my beloved grandfather passed away and it has taken just as long to collect my thoughts and feelings on this loss. I consider this to be a difficult topic to talk about, as my insufficient words can do no justice to the man who, for all intents and purposes, raised me and taught me true goodness. I would like to reflect a bit on his passing on what it has meant to me in the context of my faith.

My family spent almost the entire duration of my grandfather's two week stay in the hospital in prayer and in strong hope. I did my best to go as often as I could. He had been in the hospital a month before for swelling of the legs and water in his lungs. My grandfather had always been so strong before, so we were not overly worried even when we learned that there was a lymphoma in his stomach. Unfortunately, due to the medical bureaucracy, or perhaps pure negligence, his chemotherapy did not begin until the 2 weeks before he died.

My mother and I accompanied my grandparents to the oncologist’s office on Wednesday the 14^th of May. My abuelo dressed his best in a fine guayabera so as to hide the signs of his illness on his body. I couldn't stand to see my grandfather so worn out. After a long wait he went in, only to come out half an hour later with his clothes half off, a look of intense pain on his face, and his appearance disheveled overall as my grandmother escorted him to the restroom. My mother emerged from the room next with tears in her eyes saying, “El no va durar…He has cancer all over his body.” I was crushed and said little in response. A while later I went in to rub my abuelo’s back. He said in a low voice, “After so many illnesses, so many troubles…” I felt he was losing hope, and I had to fight back my tears. My grandmother urged him to maintain optimistic thoughts. Following a bone marrow exam in his spine, we decided to admit him to the hospital to undergo chemotherapy there.

Even though his spirits were sunk, my abuelo maintained his sense of humor, poking fun at a nurse who had come to prick him yet again for blood. So it always was with abuelo- always the most light-hearted person in the room. Being in his presence was uplifting in itself. He was the epitome of joy with life. I always told myself, and we all believed that, he would live to be at least 100, such was his vigor and strength.

I could never see my grandfather as a cripple, bent low by infirmity. Before going to the doctor, my father procured a walker for my grandfather. I watched in sadness as my abuelo stood up and tried it out. In my mind I knew he would never use it; it wasn’t in his nature. As it turns out, I was right. He only used it that once.

We were incredibly hopeful and optimistic when it came time for my abuelo to finally begin chemotherapy a week after his admission. The doctor had been busily giving him intravenous proteins, lipids, and sugars to rebuild his emaciated body and it worked. He was ready for chemotherapy and accepted it well, not experiencing any of the usual reactions to the first time.

On Sunday the 25^th of May, I was at the hospital again. We had to wear masks in the hospital room since my abuelo’s immune system was crippled by the chemo. He was weak but moving. The medicine was doing its work and all of our hopes were high. That day was considered the low point, after which his bodily would gradually recuperate from the medicine’s shock. Just before I left for Gainesville, the doctors gave my abuelo some painkillers- he was writhing in pain from his kidneys working on overload to flush out all of the dead cancers.

So I returned home in a mellow mood, but confident that, given my grandfather’s good acceptance of the therapy, he would be alright. That is, until I got a call on Tuesday morning of the 27^th from my mother telling me to hurry to Ocala. My abuelo’s vitals began to plummet and the nurses knew that he would not be able to hang on much longer.

We were allowed in the hospital room without masks this time, which troubled me as I felt it a sign that there was no more chance of recovery for my abuelo. My grandmother was in her chair by my grandfather’s bedside as she had been non-stop since he went in. She too had been suffering silently from the agony of seeing him the way he was. We had to give her medicine to calm her nerves. I feared as much for her as for abuelo.

Upon arriving, I sat at my grandfather’s side and read him the 23^rd Psalm and the Our Father in Spanish. I don’t think he heard me; he had been asleep for two days, gasping for air in short bouts. Again I felt like crying, but I held in my tears. All day long, asking myself why we were there, I told myself, “We are waiting for my grandfather to die”. I almost wish I didn’t have to go through that. The pain of having to repeat that all day is still with me. I never wanted to say good-bye to my abuelo, much less to have to wait patiently for his inevitable departure.

My father and I prayed fervently for abuelo in his last moments. I sat by his side and said a rosary while holding his cold but strong hand, which was clasping a string of sacrifice beads. I then pointed out the story of St. Lazarus’ resurrection in the Gospel of John, which my father read to my grandfather in Spanish. My grandmother had fallen asleep. It was quiet in the room. A bit later, once my father finished, he fell asleep with his head reposing on my abuelo’s bed. I stepped out into the waiting room to work on solving a jigsaw puzzle of a beautiful mountain and lake. How fitting that at the moment of my grandfather’s death, the consummation of a great mystery which we can barely understand, I should be piecing together a puzzle with my mind in a flurry of thought and anxiety.

A little while after working on the puzzle, my father appeared in the doorway and told me to come quick, as something had happened. “He’s not breathing!” he cried. My heart skipped a beat and I followed him. My grandfather had indeed stopped breathing. Panicking, I ran out of the room and yelled, “Nurse!” She came in and listened to his heart. The nurse took off her stethoscope, faced my father, and said, “I am sorry.” I looked to my right and my grandmother had a surprised look on her face as she had just woken up from the commotion. I did not know what to feel- I simply covered my face with my hands and beheld my grandfather in shock. Never before had I experienced death, and here I was with the man who I loved so much and who had always been there, who was no more.

I remember the moments following my abuelo’s death vividly, and they have haunted me. I ran to get my brother and mother in the next room and they came in. My brother burst into tears. I had been calling for a priest all morning and no one ever came, so I grabbed my phone and angrily berated the church for delaying so long in coming. Fortunately my grandfather had received Last Rites the week before, but I was so angry all the same. I embraced my grandmother and kissed her head as she wept, saying “El quería vivir…él quería vivir…” (He wanted to live). I lay across my grandfather and whispered into his ear that I loved him. That I had not told him before fills me with shame! At that moment two priests burst into the room and the first one cried out with great drama his prayers over the dead. I looked at him incredulously. My mind was in a storm of confusion. As he led my family in mournful prayer, I went over by the wall, turned away, and wept bitterly for my grandfather.

Just before my grandfather expired, my father had been by his side reading him the story of the resurrection of Lazarus again. He then lay his head down and dozed off. What awoke him was a voice in his head exclaiming “Cordero de Dios!” (Lamb of God!). At that moment he opened his eyes and saw my grandfather draw his last breath.

I think that all of us really knew, deep down in our hearts, that my grandfather was with God at that very moment. His life was spent in beautiful simplicity and deep faith. My abuelo was a man of little scholarly education, however I consider him to have been one of the most intelligent men I’ve ever known because he truly knew how to live. In his earthly life he had a deep love for all of us, especially his nietos, his grandchildren, and constantly asked about us. I know that he loves us still more in death. My grandmother said repeatedly that my grandfather wanted to live, and I think that, in a very real way, God answered his and our prayers. There is no fuller life than that spent in the presence of the Lord.

In the weeks following my grandfather’s death, in my thinking I have discerned two things of paramount importance that I have learned from this earth-shattering experience. The first thing that I learned stemmed not so much from a confused sense of nihilism in the void left by my abuelo’s passing, but rather such a radical re-prioritization of what I used to hold as important that it seems that I believe in far less now. That it to say, I realized most profoundly, witnessing the moment where my grandfather’s soul left his body and joined its Creator, how little so many things really matter, to the extent that almost nothing which we consider important really matters at all in the face of our Lord. As to what matters and what doesn’t is itself an important matter consisting of a lifelong pursuit of wisdom through prayer.

The second thing which came to light in my mind is not so much a teaching but a calling. I realized that the best way that I could honor my grandfather’s beautiful memory would be by emulating his wonderful example of living in my own life. My grandparents have been happily married for 57 years, and loyal to one another without fail. Rarely was there a time when anyone would see them apart. My grandfather was an incredibly hard worker. He would never be satisfied sitting still. As a carpenter he fashioned beautiful objects out of wood and as an entrepreneur he lived out the American dream in his pursuit of success in various small businesses. He was, and is, the unifying force for my family. All of us, near or far, have felt a great loss because that was my grandfather’s nature- he touched anyone who was blessed to see him in life. He loved to dance and to listen to music. His joy, smile, energy and love of life were infectious. He cared tenderly for his animals and his farm as did the great St. Francis. Most of all, he had a limitless compassion for our family and strangers alike and never hesitated to give a hand in help whenever anyone would need it, even in his moments of want.

Most importantly, my grandfather was a firm believer and a true Catholic. Often at table he would say, “Gracias a Dios todopoderoso!” (Thanks be to God Almighty). In the weeks before his death, he would not allow himself to be separated by a crucifix and a rosary that he wore constantly around his neck. In prayer he would hold out the crucifix and adore the image of Christ Crucified on it.

I do not feel that I can even remotely begin to live out the unparalleled example of my grandfather, but I think that in working to do so I honor his life. I am deeply grieved by his loss, and yet his peaceful death after a long and well-lived life is more than any of us could possibly ask for, as well as a sure sign of God’s deepest love for my grandfather, Ramón, his most humble servant.

Abuelo Ramonin, requiescant in pace… You are always in my heart.

Que descanse en paz, querido Abuelo

Ramón Eulalio Piferrer Catalá
July 14, 1926 - May 27, 2008

Que en paz descanse, querido Abuelo. Te quiero con todo mi corazon ahora y para siempre. Tú me enseñastes como vivir feliz. Tú me mostraste tu verdadera fe en Dios. Ahora entre en la felicidad y la gloria del Señor, quien tanto amaste durante tu bellísima vida, donde no hay sufrimiento, solo alegría, no hay muerte, solo juventud.

Ps 129
DE PROFÚNDIS CLAMÁVI ad te Dómine;
Dómine exáudi vocem meam.

Fiant aures tuae intendéntes
In vocem deprecatiónis meae.

Si iniquitátes observáveris Dómine:
Dómine quis sustinébit?
Quia apud te propitiátio est
Et, propter legem tuam sustínui te, Dómine.

Sustínuit ánima mea in verbum eius;
Sperávit ánima mea in Dómino...

Condoms in Place of Food

What in the name of...Do these people have no shame? Where is the humanity?

UN sends condoms to starving people in Myanmar
Bangkok, May. 23, 2008 (CWNews.com) - In answer to the grave humanitarian crisis among cyclone victims in Myanmar, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is sending nearly 250,000 condoms.

"We don't want regular use of contraception disrupted," a spokesman for the UNFPA told reporters. The UN agency is also providing oral and injected contraceptives.

More than 2 million people in Myanmar face an urgent need for food, clothing, medication, and shelter.

So, people are starving to death by the tens of thousands but, God forbid they start having unprotected sex! Because when people are dropping like flies from starvation all they want to do is have sex, right? This is despicable! Where is the humanity? This is lunacy. I just can't conjure up the words to describe this depravity.

PS (May 25) On the lighter side, after some thinking, I realize that the UN probably mistakenly delivered condoms instead of something else due to a linguistic error that I myself have committed. See, France handles a large amount of UN activity as do Anglophones. Once when I was in Paris I commented that the food was so delicious and that it undoubtedly had very few préservatifs, to which my colleague began laughing at me. Little did I know that this false cognate actually is the French word for CONDOMS. So I said that my food had very few condoms in it. The word I was looking for was conservateurs for preservatives. Surely, this mix-up would explain why the UN so erroneously shipped such a massive quantity of condoms to Myanmar instead of preservatives to help their food stocks last longer. Yep, that's right... (I had to lighten up such a grim piece of news).

"If" by Rudyard Kipling

Few things make me as happy as a good poem, especially a poem by Robert Frost. However, I'm posting here the poem "If" by Kipling because it is a beautiful poem and has many good lessons in it. Enjoy!

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

Open Letter from a Concerned Parishioner

If you have not yet read my post of today, "Lunatics on Parade", please read it before reading this post as it explains the duress by which I am driven to write this letter.

This is the text of a letter which I have just finished to the pastor of the church in my town where I go to confess often. I have ceased attending Mass there due to heretical activities in blatant disobedience to the Bishop and the Church. I have not yet submitted it to the church but will do so soon.

May 20, 2008

Dear Father,

I am writing to you regarding a matter of great concern which I have witnessed occurring in St. Augustine’s parish for some time and about which I have put off writing for many months.

Father, as a very devoted Catholic and parishioner I am always troubled by circumstances in the church environment which hamper the devotion and respect for Church teachings demanded in a Catholic parish. While I have noticed many illicit activities of varying gravity through the years, I will limit myself to one right now, namely, the activities of the Women’s Book Group, which has proven affiliations with groups and individuals either in dubious standing with the Church or who have been fully excommunicated by virtue of their actions. On a similar note, I wish to address a grave error published in the bulletin of May 11, 2008 which I hope will be rectified.

1) The Women’s Book Group has expressed time and time again controversial feminist tendencies as well as overt declarations of support for female ordination- both grave violations of Church teaching. While I fully respect the right for any group to engage in study of books that will further appreciation for their particular callings in God’s plan, the outright endorsement of contrarian beliefs which challenge the teaching authority of the Church should not be supported by a parish of the Roman Catholic Church.

2) This group has also been actively affiliated with illicit groups and has invited speakers teaching positions directly contrary to Church teaching. As indicated, in a manner indicative of scandal, in the bulletin of 11 May, the group has direct connections to the Wild Iris Bookstore in Gainesville and even receives discounts from this store. The very publishing of this fact in the bulletin, which could, by virtue of mere curiosity, expose unsuspecting parishioners to the seriously immoral materials of this store, is remorsefully scandalous. If you are not aware, Father, this store is reputed, as evidenced by its website, to actively promote New Age, feminist and female divinity, LGBTQ- in a word- gravely sinful doctrines.

The current book selection of the group, written by Richard R Gaillardetz, is titled By What Authority? A Primer on Scripture, the Magisterium, and the Sense of the Faithful. As indicated by the title and by further research, the book is an attack on the primacy of the Magisterium with regard to the deposit of faith, written by a confessed critic of the Church.

The group has also invited Robert McClory, an errant priest openly critical of the male celibate priesthood as well as an affiliate of Call to Action, yet another organization devoted to opposing established and unflinching Church teachings.

3) On March 29, 2008, according to the website of Bridget Mary, an illicit female “priest” in Florida, members of the Women’s Book Group attended a “mass” celebrated illicitly by the aforementioned, who belongs to a group called the Roman Catholic Womenpriests, whose original members have been summarily excommunicated latae sententiae for grave disobedience to a Vatican order to cease heretical activities.

4) In the bulletin of May 11, 2008, however much I lament having to refer to this fact yet again, was published a prayer which features a deceptively placed line which seriously contradicts the theological position of the Church regarding the nature of God. The prayer begins with, “God, our Father and Mother” and ends with, “May God, who is mother as well as father bless you”. For the average Sunday schooler for whom this entry was intended this error would be virtually unnoticeable and thus poses a very grave perversion of Church teaching with respect to a vulnerable audience. This fact is repeated throughout the Catechism of the Catholic Church, particularly in sections 238 through 242 on the nature of God the Father. It is regrettable, to say the least, that such a fact was willingly overlooked as indicated by its repetition!

Father, I do not feel that I need to continue listing the reasons why this issue is of deep concern to me and many of my fellow parishioners. There should be no reason whatsoever for this group to continue meeting as an official part of St Augustine’s parish without any significant change in their behavior and renunciation of past affiliations. They, and any other groups preaching doctrines in overt contradiction to established teachings, have no right to be acting under the auspices of a Catholic church in good standing with the diocese. Likewise should there not be any reason for the church to allow blatant errors regarding authorized theological positions of the Church to be published in so public a medium as the church bulletin, where it poses the risk of confusing the ignorant and imparting incorrect teachings to the faithful.

Father Gillespie, I write this to you out of filial respect and concern as a parishioner of St. Augustine’s in good standing with the Church. I would greatly appreciate a response from you regarding this issue as I am unaware of whatever measures may be in place to prevent such serious problems from continuing. I pray that you will address these very important points soon and I patiently await your gracious response.

I am,

Yours in Christ,
Anthony M. Piferrer

Here is a link regarding why God is our Father and not our Mother. Click here.

Let the Crusade begin!

Lunatics on Parade

Thus far I have prided myself on fairly professionally-toned entries and aurally-palatable verbage becoming of a level-headed college upperclassman. I will thus take the liberty to suspend this trend this once, and likely not for the last time, because I'm just fuming right now. First off, kudos to my friend Jon Knox for his recent entries on the feminist invasion of the Catholic Church. They're my springboard.

What is with these feminazis, these liberals? Why, for goodness sake, can't they just live and let live? Everything has been turned into a parade, a mockery! First they began by infiltrating society, then they moved to destroy the family, and now they've turned their sights on the moral and intellectual pillar and heart of Western civilization: the Roman Catholic Church. Let's face it, nobody out there is remaining as steadfast with what has really held up Western civilization for the past two millennia as the Catholic Church in these, I daresay, apocalyptic times. Family values, a sense of reverence for authority, religious fervor, tradition, etc. The list goes on. Why can't these feminazis just go off to some island somewhere and make their heretical fantasies come true there where no one can see them?

I'm going to spell this out really clearly for all of the rebels out there right now. God has revealed Himself to us as the FATHER, that is, as a MALE figure. Jesus was not black, nor oppressed by racist Romans, nor, heaven forbid, a female! And here is the pill that you either swallow or leave on the plate and go join some hippy Protestant church: if you do not agree with Catholic teaching, you are not a Roman Catholic, nor a Roman Catholic in good standing; you are a Protestant, perhaps an apostate, but definitely a heretic! So keep your heresy out of my beloved Church! You can not support abortion at all and call yourself a Catholic, much less a Christian. You can not support feminism (feminazism) and call yourself a Catholic. You can not hold the delusion that the Eucharist is a symbol, rather than the true substance and Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Our Lord, and call yourself a Catholic. You can not pick and choose your favorite teachings that fit your pre-chosen agenda and call yourself a Catholic. You can not support homosexual "marriage" and call yourself a Catholic. You can not support destructive genetic research and call yourself a Catholic. Really, this is quite simple. You're either in or you're out. You can't have your arm in Heaven and your leg in Hell.

I'm having a lot of trouble containing myself. This is a masquerade, really, this parade of feminazis who think that they have been so gravely wronged, that the big bad Roman Catholic Church has deprived them of the right to become priestesses. I really think that these people live the most dismal lives ever experienced in the span of human history. There's no other explanation for why they'd hitch a ride on the lunatic fringe bandwagon and adopt the illusion that they're oppressed just to make themselves feel like they're righteous, like they're one with the early Church leaders who were truly persecuted.

These people make a mockery out of everything we have ever held dear. And here we have to take their crap, watch them destroy our Church traditions and Western civilization? If it were up to me they'd all be excommunicated by now and I'd already be propping the stake up in front of the church. They sicken me! They're the most deluded people in the history of humanity and yet they parade as the progressive and enlightened of our time! What in the world is going on here. Does anyone see what is going on here???

The Rock and Roll Morality

I am writing in great humility with regard to the writing of a great thinker of our past half-century in such a way as to render this text as a commentary more so than an actual personal production of real creative ingenuity. In fact, so humbled am I by the profundity of what I would like to discuss here that I feel a greater temptation to adulate the author rather than to dare comment at all. I will simply leave the commentary to the reader’s own spiritual turnings and disturbances.

At present I am reading a book which I have longed to read for quite some time called The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom. It is, as stated on the back cover, an argument that “the social/political crisis of 20th-century America is really an intellectual crisis.” Thus far he has touched on a multitude of topics and approaches, from relativism to religion to music, the great works of literature, etc. The list is already endless.

Anyways, today I read the chapter titled, “Music”, and was stunned by the fluidity and coherence of Bloom’s argument and observation on our current moral state and how it pertains to our obsession with music. He states that the entire nature of music, as well as its purpose, has changed. If I may sum it up in my own (potentially incorrect) terms, where music was once a means of conveying meaning, a message, and only acutely a form of expression, music as it is manifest in its most popular form today- rock- is now mostly a means of expression with the end of creating an effect, a feeling, and a predominantly physical sense of pleasure.

Before I quote Bloom, I will ask, “Why does this matter?” It matters because music and our relationship to it are intimately tied, as Bloom argues, to our spiritual condition. This should come as no surprise to a Catholic, who knows the centrality of music to the liturgy. And yet, the flux which our musical and, consequently, moral expression has undergone has been virtually overlooked and its effect and reflection of our moral state for the most part ignored. What does all this have to do with “sex, drugs, and rock and roll?”

“Rock gives children, on a silver platter, with all the public authority of the entertainment industry, everything their parents always used to tell them they had to wait for until they grew up and would understand later.” (73)

“In alliance with some real art and a lot of pseudo-art, an enormous industry cultivates the taste for the orgiastic state of feeling connected with sex, providing a constant flood of fresh material for voracious appetites. Never was there an art form directed so exclusively to children.” (73-4)

This fosters a sense of rebellion against authority, that rebellion so emblematic of the era of sex, drugs, and rock and roll that was the 1960’s.

“The inevitable corollary of such sexual interest is rebellion against the parental authority that represses it. Selfishness thus becomes indignation and then transforms itself into morality. The sexual revolution must overthrow all the forces of domination, the enemies of nature and happiness. From love comes hate, masquerading as social reform. A worldview is balanced on the sexual fulcrum. What were once unconscious or half-conscious childish resentments become the new Scripture. And then comes the longing for the classless, prejudice-free, conflictless, universal society that necessarily results from liberated consciousness—“We Are the World,” a pubescent version of Alle Menschen werden Brüder, the fulfillment of which has been inhibited by the political equivalents of Mom and Dad. These are the three great lyrical themes: sex, hate and a swarmy, hypocritical version of brotherly love. Such polluted sources issue in a muddy stream where only monsters can swim. A glance at the videos that project images on the wall of Plato’s cave since MTV took it over suffices to prove this. Hitler’s image recurs frequently enough in exciting contexts to give one pause. Nothing noble, sublime, profound, delicate, tasteful or even decent can find a place in such tableaux. There is room only for the intense, changing, crude and immediate, which Tocqueville warned us would be the character of democratic art, combined with a pervasiveness, importance and content beyond Tocqueville’s wildest imagination.

Picture a thirteen-year-old boy sitting in the living room of his family home doing his math assignment while wearing his Walkman headphones or watching MTV. He enjoys the liberties hard won over centuries by the alliance of philosophic genius and political heroism, consecrated by the blood of martyrs; he is provided with comfort and leisure by the most productive economy ever known to mankind; science has penetrated the secrets of nature in order to provide him with the marvelous, lifelike electronic sound and image reproduction he is enjoying. And in what does progress culminate? A pubescent child whose body throbs with orgasmic rhythms; whose feelings are made articulate in hymns to the joys of onanism or the killing of parents; whose ambition is to win fame and wealth in imitating the drag-queen who makes the music. In short, life is made into a nonstop, commercially prepackaged masturbational fantasy.

This description may seem exaggerated, but only because some would prefer to regard it as such…” (74-75)

Bloom introduces a moral sociopolitical aspect to his critique of the new musical phenomenon a few pages later:

“It is interesting to note that the Left, which prides itself on its critical approach to ‘late capitalism’ and is unrelenting and unsparing in its analysis of our other cultural phenomena, has in general given rock music a free ride. Abstracting from the capitalist element in which it flourishes, they regard it as a people’s art, coming from beneath the bourgeoisie’s layers of cultural repression. Its antinomianism and its longing for a world without constraint might seem to be the clarion of the proletarian revolution, and Marxists certainly do see that rock music dissolves the beliefs and morals necessary for liberal society and would approve of it for that alone. But the harmony between the young intellectual Left and rock is probably profounder than that. Herbert Marcuse appealed to university students in the sixties with a combination of Marx and Freud. In Eros and Civilization and One Dimensional Man he promised that the overcoming of capitalism and its false consciousness will result in a society where the greatest satisfactions are sexual, a sort that the bourgeois moralist Freud called polymorphous and infantile. Rock music touches the same chord in the young. Free sexual expression, anarchism, mining of the irrational unconscious and giving it free rein are what they have in common. The high intellectual life…and the low rock world are partners in the same entertainment enterprise. They must both be interpreted as parts of the cultural fabric of late capitalism. Their success comes from the bourgeois’ need to feel that he is not bourgeois, to have undangerous experiments with the unlimited. He is willing to pay dearly for them. The Left is better interpreted by Nietzsche than by Marx. The critical theory of late capitalism is at once late capitalism’s subtlest and crudest expression. Anti-bourgeois ire is the opiate of the Last Man.” (77-8)

The Beauty of Family Values

I ran into this really cute video on YouTube made back in the day as a tool to teach kids to appreciate their parents. Although it seems like something that hearkens back to a better time, these are values that have been treasured for generations and that should be held for many more to come.



Appreciating Your Parents - Honoring Your Father and Mother

All that is necessary in life is family and faith in God and His Church; all else is secondary.

On politics and religion

It has been some time since I last posted an entry of interest. Hopefully this atom bomb of a post-combining two taboo topics in one- will not come as too much of a shock.

Why have I chosen to touch on this right now? Well, it is an election year, and a particularly volatile one at that. For weeks I have heard so much spoken about politics and religion side-by-side along with varying viewpoints on this relationship- some flawed, some spot-on, others distorted. I address this mostly to my fellow Catholic brethren in the hopes of enlightening them about this essential relationship.

The question of politics, religion, and their relationship to each other has been the defining question of my academic career as a political science student thus far. How do I reconcile my firm religious convictions with the necessity of engaging others who hold conflicting beliefs in varying systems and approaches? This is a FUNDAMENTAL question which we should all ask. Many Catholics, sensing the futility of political pursuits, simply shrug it off in frustration- my original temptation. This comes, perhaps, from a misunderstanding of what exactly the "political" is.

Hannah Arendt, one of my favorite philosophers, said that while philosophy is the study of Man, political theory is the study of Men, which is why the latter interested her much more. We live in the world not in isolation, but amongst others. All the same, we have moral decisions and choices to make each and every day for which we ourselves are held to account. How do we as individuals situate these obligations? Since the dawn of time, and I believe until the end of time, people will situate their existence in the framework of faith, faith in God, who is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, in a word, the summation of all things. To flesh it out just a bit, we could say that while philosophy and political theory exist relatively independently of one another, strictly speaking, religion is a unification (an essential unification) of the two.

The great tragedy of modernity, particularly of secularism, is the fatally flawed view that we can look at humanity through a lens that estranges, and ultimately discards, religion as a fundamental aspect of our existence. The same goes for the belief that religion must be divorced from our politics.

Every major political philosopher from Plato to Arendt has had to grapple, in some way or another, with the question of religion vis-á-vis the political. For Plato, the purpose of the political was to give mankind access, in some way, to the Good, which Christians later called "God". Augustine saw the world as divided and in tension between two "cities"- the city of God and the city of Man, out of which the former would ultimately triumph. Machiavelli and Rousseau proposed the idea of a "civil religion", the earliest ideas of state religion as legitimizing the governing order. Burke, the father of modern political conservatism, saw religion and the state as coinciding, with the state defending the church and the church sanctifying the state. Marx saw religion as "ideology" born of the fetters of man that sought to anesthetize man to the conditions of his existence. And so on.

So why must we not fear to let our religion guide us in the realm of the political? The word "politics" is derived from the Greek word polis meaning "city". The political is that which deals with the affairs of the city, of the people. How do people influence one another? How do they interact and make decisions that buttress their social order and manage their limited resources? That is the realm of politics. As you can see, everything that we do is to some extent political, and what we hold in faith through our religion is the source (hopefully) of our political impetus. In an age where religion is increasingly pushed to the side, we must engage our national polis all the more and assert the force of moral authority where it is severely lacking. We must not fear allowing God to guide us in our politics, that is, in our dealings with our fellow men. In a democratic society, the need for religion as a guide for our political decisions becomes all the more essential. Where once politics was reserved for the elite and far-off rulers, now the commonplace is political. As such we can not help but make our religion an integral part of our political decision-making, in large part because of the need for moral responsibility as individuals and as a society.

St. Augustine warned Christians to avoid over-involvement in public affairs as detrimental to the spiritual life. All the same, to sustain our democratic society as a righteous and morally-guided one, we must not fear to assert our faith in Christ and His Church and cherish the guidance that faith gives to our lives and to our dealings with others.

Welcome to the US, Pope Benedict!

Ladies and gentlemen, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Episcopus Romanus, Vicarius Christi, Patriarcha Occidentis, Primas Italiae, Archiepiscopus et metropolitanus provinciae ecclesiasticae Romanae, Princeps sui iuris civitatis Vaticanae, Servus Servorum Dei



The coolest thing in the world: Seeing a Marine Honor Guard bearing the Vatican colors. AMAAAAAAZING!!!! The Catholic Church reigns!

A message from our Holy Father, HH Pope Benedict XVI

April 8, 2008
The Vatican

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the United States of America,

The grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you! In just a few days from now, I shall begin my apostolic visit to your beloved country. Before setting off, I would like to offer you a heartfelt greeting and an invitation to prayer. As you know, I shall only be able to visit two cities: Washington and New York. The intention behind my visit, though, is to reach out spiritually to all Catholics in the United States. At the same time, I earnestly hope that my presence among you will be seen as a fraternal gesture towards every ecclesial community, and a sign of friendship for members of other religious traditions and all men and women of good will. The risen Lord entrusted the apostles and the Church with his Gospel of love and peace, and his intention in doing so was that the message should be passed on to all peoples.

At this point I should like to add some words of thanks, because I am conscious that many people have been working hard for a long time, both in Church circles and in the public services, to prepare for my journey. I am especially grateful to all who have been praying for the success of the visit, since prayer is the most important element of all. Dear friends, I say this because I am convinced that without the power of prayer, without that intimate union with the Lord, our human endeavors would achieve very little. Indeed this is what our faith teaches us. It is God who saves us, he saves the world, and all of history. He is the shepherd of his people. I am coming, sent by Jesus Christ, to bring you his word of life.

Together with your bishops, I have chosen as the theme of my journey three simple but essential words: "Christ our hope." Following in the footsteps of my venerable predecessors, Paul VI and John Paul II, I shall come to United States of America as Pope for the first time, to proclaim this great truth: Jesus Christ is hope for men and women of every language, race, culture, and social condition. Yes, Christ is the face of God present among us. Through him, our lives reach fullness, and together, both as individuals and peoples, we can become a family united by fraternal love, according to the eternal plan of God the Father.

I know how deeply rooted this Gospel message is in your country. I am coming to share it with you, in a series of celebrations and gatherings. I shall also bring the message of Christian hope to the great assembly of the United Nations, to the representatives of all the peoples of the world. Indeed, the world has greater need of hope than ever: hope for peace, for justice, and for freedom; but this hope can never be fulfilled without obedience to the law of God, which Christ brought to fulfillment in the commandment to love one another. Do to others as you would have them do to you, and avoid doing what you would not want them to do. This "golden rule" is given in the Bible, but it is valid for all people, including non-believers. It is the law written on the human heart; on this we can all agree, so that when we come to address other matters we can do so in a positive and constructive manner for the entire human community.

Dirijo un cordial saludo a los católicos de lengua española y les manifiesto mi cercanía espiritual, en particular a los jóvenes, a los enfermos, a los ancianos y a los que pasan por dificultades o se sienten más necesitados. Les expreso mi vivo deseo de poder estar pronto con Ustedes en esa querida Nación. Mientras tanto, les aliento a orar intensamente por los frutos pastorales de mi inminente Viaje Apostólico y a mantener en alto la llama de la esperanza en Cristo Resucitado.

Dear brothers and sisters, dear friends in the United States, I am very much looking forward to being with you. I want you to know that, even if my itinerary is short, with just a few engagements, my heart is close to all of you, especially to the sick, the weak, and the lonely. I thank you once again for your prayerful support of my mission. I reach out to every one of you with affection, and I invoke upon you the maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Que la Virgen María les acompañe y proteja. Que Dios les bendiga.

Planned Parenthood budget passes $1 billion despite negative publicity

I am working to jump-start a topic series on "Bioethics and the Dignity of Life" on this blog in hopes of incorporating it into the overall discussion on Catholicism and Catholic values (where it forms a most important part as it is). I'm really looking forward to devoting my skills as a writer to furthering knowledge of this issue. The following is a very revealing article recently published that puts the economic exploitation of the unborn by the murderous corporation, Planned Parenthood, into startling perspective.

~~~
Washington, Apr. 1, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The Planned Parenthood Federation of America reported income of over $1 billion for the 2006-07 fiscal year, showing an 11% increase in funding driven by over $335 million in subsidies from American taxpayers.

The heavy government funding for Planned Parenthood-- up $31.4 millon over the previous year's figure-- came despite the heavily negative political impact of stories linking Planned Parenthood offices to failure to report statutory rape and to racist fundraising appeals.

Planned Parenthood is America's leading abortion provider, accounting for 289,650 abortions in the year 2006. The group has sold 1.4 million "emergency contraception" kits during that year. But while the organization claims to support a woman's "right to choose," only about 2,400 pregnant women were referred by Planned Parenthood to adoption agencies.

Douglas Scott, Jr, the president of Life Decisions International, noted that Planned Parenthood showed more than $100 million in "excess revenue over expenses" for the fiscal year. Although Planned Parenthood is a non-profit organization, Scott noted, that figure represents what is "known to regular people are profit." The group had net assets of nearly $1 billion, he noted, in what is "essentially a savings account."

Beyond "Sola Scriptura"

During my last trip to our nation's capital, I came across a charming (and tiny) little book at the National Basilica gift shop titled Scripture Alone? 21 Reasons to Reject Sola Scriptura by Joel Peters. I couldn't help buying it. Just some preliminary skimming and I was thoroughly impressed. What do we do in an incredibly post-sola scriptura world? What do we do beyond the light of Biblical inerrancy? I will attempt to conjecture a few points.

In our "postmodern" era (as if the modern era wasn't bad enough!) we are faced with the tenet of modernism which, in part, rejects the inerrancy (lack of error) in the Bible, as if it was just another book written by a bunch of humans. What has been accepted by the knowledge of faith, i.e., that God can not err in His revelation is now, as with everything else, questioned.

In Timothy, it is written that all Scripture is useful for teaching- not all-sufficient- but useful. When a Catholic needs further clarification or further teaching on a scriptural point, he or she turns to the teaching authority of the Church, from whence came the Bible itself and which has amassed the knowledge and doctrine of God's revelation- scriptural and extra-scriptural- throughout time. In this way, Catholics as a body have a "catholicity"- uniformity- of belief, unlike the diaspora and multitude of Protestant sects. What happens, then, if a Protestant sees the Bible as deficient, if a Catholic sees the Bible as deficient and errant or, worse, if a Catholic sees the Magisterium as bunk?

The usual recourse nowadays is to books written by a variety of authors with wildly varying beliefs (made possible by lack of imprimatur or nihil obstat) or even, particularly among more academic works, anti-Christian rhetoric. We live in an era of Christian self-help books. Unfortunately, more often than not, one begins with Christian self-helpers, then just plain self-helps, and then eventually one begins to believe that the Bible just isn't necessary, nor is "anybody else telling me what to think or do" (because I'm such a genius, God has spoken to me personally, and I'm the boss of me, &c.). Among Christian academics and students who often fallaciously reject biblical inerrancy and/or the religious teaching authority of the Church, I have noticed recourse to writers across the spectrum- from Rousseau to Kant and- far, far worse- Nietzsche (the self-proclaimed anti-Christ), Marx (an atheist Jew), Sartre (another atheist), &c. When I express concern about reading such works as a means to spiritual enrichment (depletion, really), I am simply told that it is good to read such authors to deepen in faith (by cultivating doubt, I may add).

Well, I confess I have read Rousseau, Kant, Nietzsche, and Marx- for academic means as I am a political scientist. I have very easily noticed their grave attacks on religion, in general, and have noticed the dangers of using such books too often for the purpose of one's spiritual pursuits.

If Christ gives us all things, why do we insist on asking for more? For the dissatisfied and faithless, behold, the descent of the modernists...


("The Descent of the Modernists", by E. J. Pace, first appearing in his book Christian Cartoons, published in 1922.)

Think you are stronger than that? Do not have so much faith in yourself as I once did. I nearly fell down the path before realizing my immense foolishness.

The Vocation Sensation (Abridged)

I have received no comments nor do I believe many people have endeavored to read my last blog entry. As such here is a slightly abridged version which I hope will be easier to read, and I encourage my readers to read it as it is a very important topic. AP

~~~

I have read quite frequently lately about the hot topic amongst many Catholics which is the question of priestly vocations. I intend to try my best, with the help of the Spirit, to shed some light on this.

As most of us may well know, there has been a shortage of priests in recent years as well as a decline in the number of vocations. Some parishes do not have a resident priest and do not take Holy Communion as often as other parishes do. Other parishes have closed down. The whole doomsday scenario goes on. I used to worry about this question quite a bit but now I've tried my best to confide in the Lord and surrender my qualms to Him because, in the end, He will see His Church through. Correction: He is seeing His Church through.

Here are the facts that many in the women ordination/end-priestly-celibacy camp won't tell you.

(1) The fact that priestly vocations have declined in the US does not mean they have declined all over the world. While priestly vocations have declined precipitously in the Western world, they have either remained steady in number or increased in more underdeveloped countries. Relatively modernized countries like Poland and Ireland actually have priest surpluses and are "exporting" priests around the world to help. Many parishes in secular France have at least 8 priests for tiny parishes. Consider this: statistically speaking, would it not make more sense that in a more strongly Catholic area where there are large numbers of true faithful, there would also be a comparatively adequate number of pure vocations to the priesthood?

(2) Although unfortunate, it is not the end of the world if a parish goes without Holy Communion from time to time. There are countries in the world where parishes only take the Eucharist once or twice a year at most due to supply shortages.

(3) The number of Catholics in the world right now is a bit over 1 billion (1,000,000,000)- one sixth of the world population. That is not the number of practicing Catholics, the ones who most call upon the presence of a priest, which is surely quite a bit less. So when someone says that there are well over a billion Catholics in the world, and that there are way too few priests, and that there simply aren't enough priests to deal with the massive population of Catholics- think again.

There are many groups and dissident factions within the Church today who have created a sort of doomsday sensationalism regarding the vocation question such as FutureChurch and Call to Action which have been plotting to bring down our sacred tradition and who have waited patiently for the moment to strike during which to push their divisive agenda. They scored a minor victory in Vatican II but the Church stood firm.

I have consulted graphical data from the Georgetown University Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, which I'll describe here (to see the graphs, go to the original blog). In the period where the Catholic Church in the US really got momentum going from 1899 all the way up to the period around 1956-1965, the number of religious priests and brothers rose dramatically. The rate of growth did not begin to seriously decelerate until the '65-'76 period- right in the wake of Vatican II. Then, in the 1976-1985 period, the number begins to plummet. (Incidentally, while many pro-women ordinationists would like to say that there is an ample supply of women to be priestesses, the fact is that the number of women religious has plummeted just as dramatically if not more as with the men.)

How does one account for these trends? Well, there are many reasons to explain the gradual decline in vocations in the post-WWII period- the rebellious spirit of the times, the rise of secularism in the US, the sexual "revolution", the overall assault on traditional authority and morality, etc. However, the plummeting of vocations in the period around 1975-1985 can be most easily explained by the changes enacted during Vatican II and the Protestantization of ministry with an overemphasis on the laity. If the laity are made to think that they are equal in authority as the priest, that they can perform many of the same functions as the priest, and that they do not need ordination to engage in the ministry of the Church, what reason do they have to go through the trouble of ordination? The Novus Ordo Mass in itself does not require much particular skill or expertise to perform. If I dare speak of appeal, the appeal of the post-Conciliar priesthood is not as strong as it once was, when being a priest was something exceptional, loftier, requiring a deeper spiritual retreat from the world and commitment to prayer that has been greatly de-emphasized in our modern times. The overall emphases made in the "spirit of Vatican II" create the impression that being a priest is not as necessary as just doing your duty. Let us not forget that the practice of receiving a tonsure in the pre-Conciliar Church and having strictly altar boys (who were in that position as potential seminarians) contributed greatly to the number of vocations.

Somehow I get the feeling that persisting in the modernist liberalization of the Church will not really help the vocation question since it seems to have done immense harm as the "reforms" have crept in during the past 40 or so years. Perhaps a return to the traditional theology and teachings of the Church is in order. If the Church enters and becomes of the world, it loses its moral authority and its source of strength and sanctity that has so drawn the many religious to its ranks for centuries. This is why priestly celibacy, the deepest sign of a priest's complete commitment to his supremely vital labor and his bride, the Church, must be retained. Regarding "priestesshood", I reiterate the millennial position of our Holy Mother Church that we have only male priests because Christ only chose men to be his Apostles. Men, by virtue of their bodies (as explained in JPII's Theology of the Body) and their scriptural role as the stewards of God's Creation, are the initiators of the sacrifice, they have been chosen throughout history to be God's priests. They are not superior to women nor are women, thus, inferior. Men are ordinate and women subordinate. This is in Scripture (1 Corinthians: 1-16, Ephesians 5:21-33). This is not oppression nor an expression of a lesser worth on the part of women nor even the blind assertion of social practice. Men and women have distinct roles- this is what makes society run. Rather than bicker all day about "liberation" or "rights", why don't we get to work doing what we are called to do, either as men or as women, each called in unique ways to serve God the Father. There is much work to be done. There is no time to waste on this frivolous debate.

O Holy Spirit, Spirit of wisdom and divine love, impart Your knowledge, understanding, and counsel to youth that they may know the vocation wherein they can best serve God. Give them courage and strength to follow God's holy will. Guide their uncertain steps, strengthen their resolutions, shield their chastity, fashion their minds, conquer their hearts, and lead them to the vineyards where they will labor in God's holy service.
Amen.

The Vocation Sensation

I have read quite frequently lately from a number of people, sources, websites, etc. about the hot topic amongst many Catholics which is the question of priestly vocations. With it comes the anti-Church quick-fix: female ordination and/or married priests. I intend to try my best, with the help of the Spirit, to shed some light on this.
As most of us may well know, there has been a shortage of priests in recent years as well as a decline in the number of vocations. Some parishes do not have a resident priest and do not take Holy Communion as often as other parishes do. Other parishes have closed down. The whole doomsday scenario goes on.

I used to worry about this question quite a bit. It still causes me an acute bit of anxiety but I've tried my best to confide in the Lord and surrender my qualms to Him because, in the end, He will see His Church through. Correction: He is seeing His Church through.

Here are the facts that many in the women ordination/end-priestly-celibacy camp won't tell you.

(1) The fact that priestly vocations have declined in the US does not mean they have declined all over the world. We like to project our problems here and think they are global in scope since, after all, the US of A is the center of humanity as we know it, right? Right?... No. While priestly vocations have declined precipitously in the Western, secular, increasingly irreligious, capitalist, economic powerhouse world, they have either remained steady in number or increased in "second" and especially Third World countries. In the poorest countries of the world God is calling the loudest for the children of the poor to shepherd His flock. Somehow this does not surprise me at all.

Relatively modernized countries like Poland and Ireland actually have priest surpluses and are "exporting" priests around the world to help. During my time in France, it was not uncommon to find parishes with 8 priests and up for dwindling parishes. So the argument that the number of Catholics is skyrocketing and the number of priests is dwindling is only an iota correct. Every area has its own situation. Consider this: statistically speaking, would it not make more sense that in a more strongly Catholic area where there are large numbers of true faithful, there would also be a comparatively adequate number of pure vocations to the priesthood? In Europe, despite its radical secularism and assaults on religion, there are still steady numbers of vocations to the priesthood. They're not as high as they used to be but they are there. Thanks be to God.

(2) Although unfortunate, it is not the end of the world if a parish goes without Holy Communion from time to time. There are countries in the world where parishes only take the Eucharist once or twice a year at most due to supply shortages. In the city where this was written (Gainesville, FL) the Eucharist is taken on at least 54 occasions PER WEEK. And this is in the South where Protestantism is strong. Consider that before you whine and complain.

(3) Throwing out data is one thing. Interpreting it is another. As we all know, 47% of statistics are made up! All the same, this we do know: the number of Catholics in the world right now is a bit over 1 billion (1,000,000,000). That is one sixth of the world population. That number is primarily compiled from parish registrations, which are required by churches. Now, any one Catholic could be registered in more than one church at any time. I am one of those. Any Catholic could also register at a church and then never go to Mass or practice his or her faith at all. Assessing the number of practicing Catholics is trickier than just looking at registrations and it is they who most call upon the presence of a priest. So when someone says that there are well over a billion Catholics in the world, and that there are way too few priests, and that there simply aren't enough priests to deal with the massive population of Catholics- think again. Yes, it would be nice to have more priests who can go out and evangelize, bring people back, etc. but at this time there aren't. This is not a bad thing. We make do with what we have and let God work His wonders.

There are many groups and dissident factions within the Church today who have created a sort of doomsday sensationalism regarding the vocation question such as FutureChurch and Call to Action which have been plotting to bring down our sacred tradition and who have waited patiently for the moment to strike during which to push their divisive agenda. They scored a minor victory in Vatican II but the Church stood firm.

Allow me to show you exhibit one: graphical data from the Georgetown University Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. I have been yearning for some time now to locate this data and see if my suspicions regarding the trends in the 20th century were true. They proved true.

As you can see from the below chart, in the period where the Catholic Church in the US really got momentum going from 1899 all the way up to the period around 1956-1965, the number of religious priests and brothers rose dramatically. The rate of growth did not begin to seriously decelerate until the '65-'76 period- right in the wake of Vatican II. Then, shockingly, in the 1976-1985 period, the number begins to plummet. (Incidentally, while many pro-women ordinationists would like to say that there is an ample supply of women to be priestesses, the fact is that the number of women religious has plummeted just as dramtically if not more as with the men.)

(If you can't see these charts, click them)



Below, exhibit two: women religious trends.



How does one account for these trends? Well, there are many reasons to explain the gradual decline in vocations in the post-WWII period- the rebellious spirit of the times, the rise of secularism in the US, the sexual "revolution", the overall assault on traditional authority and morality, etc. However, the plummeting of vocations in the period around 1975-1985 can be most easily explained by the changes enacted during Vatican II and the Protestantization of ministry with an overemphasis on the laity. If the laity are made to think that they are equal in authority as the priest, that they can perform many of the same functions as the priest, and that they do not need ordination to engage in the ministry of the Church, what reason do they have to go through the trouble of ordination? The Novus Ordo Mass in itself does not require much particular skill or expertise to perform. If I dare speak of appeal, the appeal of the post-Conciliar priesthood is not as strong as it once was, when being a priest was something exceptional, loftier, requiring a deeper spiritual retreat from the world and commitment to prayer that has been greatly de-emphasized in our modern times. Is this to say that all post-Conciliar priests are bad? NO! Nonetheless, the overall emphases made in the "spirit of Vatican II" create the impression that being a priest is not as necessary as just doing your duty. Let us not forget that the practice of receiving a tonsure in the pre-Conciliar Church and having strictly altar boys (who were in that position as potential seminarians) contributed greatly to the number of vocations.

Somehow I get the feeling that persisting in the modernist liberalization of the Church will not really help the vocation question. It seems to have done immense harm since the "reforms" crept in during the past 40 or so years. Perhaps a return to the traditional theology and teachings of the Church is in order. Perhaps doing things the way we did for so many centuries is the solution. If the Church enters and becomes of the world, it loses its moral authority and its source of strength and sanctity that has so drawn the many religious to its ranks for centuries. This is why priestly celibacy, the deepest sign of a priest's complete commitment to his supremely vital labor and his bride, the Church, must be retained. Regarding "priestesshood", I reiterate the millennial position of our Holy Mother Church that we have only male priests because Christ only chose men to be his Apostles. Men, by virtue of their bodies (as explained in JPII's Theology of the Body) and their scriptural role as the stewards of God's Creation, are the initiators of the sacrifice, they have been chosen throughout history to be God's priests. They are not superior to women nor are women, thus, inferior. Men are ordinate and women subordinate. This is in Scripture (1 Corinthians: 1-16, Ephesians 5:21-33). This is not oppression nor an expression of a lesser worth on the part of women nor even the blind assertion of social practice. Men and women have distinct roles- this is what makes society run. Rather than bicker all day about "liberation" or "rights", why don't we get to work doing what we are called to do, either as men or as women, each called in unique ways to serve God the Father. There is much work to be done. There is no time to waste on this frivolous debate.

O Holy Spirit, Spirit of wisdom and divine love, impart Your knowledge, understanding, and counsel to youth that they may know the vocation wherein they can best serve God. Give them courage and strength to follow God's holy will. Guide their uncertain steps, strengthen their resolutions, shield their chastity, fashion their minds, conquer their hearts, and lead them to the vineyards where they will labor in God's holy service.
Amen.


An explanation for the male priesthood
Priestly celibacy
Vocations Blog (Very interesting)

Happy Easter

A very blessed and happy Easter to all, in commemoration of the Resurrection of our Lord, which opened the doors of Heaven to humanity and sealed our fates to our discipleship to Him and His Church.





Et cum transisset sabbatum Maria Magdalene et Maria Iacobi et Salome emerunt aromata ut venientes unguerent eum 2 et valde mane una sabbatorum veniunt ad monumentum orto iam sole 3 et dicebant ad invicem quis revolvet nobis lapidem ab ostio monumenti 4 et respicientes vident revolutum lapidem erat quippe magnus valde 5 et introeuntes in monumento viderunt iuvenem sedentem in dextris coopertum stola candida et obstipuerunt

6 qui dicit illis nolite expavescere Iesum quaeritis Nazarenum crucifixum surrexit non est hic ecce locus ubi posuerunt eum 7 sed ite et dicite discipulis eius et Petro quia praecedit vos in Galilaeam ibi eum videbitis sicut dixit vobis 8 at illae exeuntes fugerunt de monumento invaserat enim eas tremor et pavor et nemini quicquam dixerunt timebant enim 9 surgens autem mane prima sabbati apparuit primo Mariae Magdalenae de qua eiecerat septem daemonia 10 illa vadens nuntiavit his qui cum eo fuerant lugentibus et flentibus

11 et illi audientes quia viveret et visus esset ab ea non crediderunt 12 post haec autem duobus ex eis ambulantibus ostensus est in alia effigie euntibus in villam 13 et illi euntes nuntiaverunt ceteris nec illis crediderunt 14 novissime recumbentibus illis undecim apparuit et exprobravit incredulitatem illorum et duritiam cordis quia his qui viderant eum resurrexisse non crediderant 15 et dixit eis euntes in mundum universum praedicate evangelium omni creaturae

16 qui crediderit et baptizatus fuerit salvus erit qui vero non crediderit condemnabitur 17 signa autem eos qui crediderint haec sequentur in nomine meo daemonia eicient linguis loquentur novis 18 serpentes tollent et si mortiferum quid biberint non eos nocebit super aegrotos manus inponent et bene habebunt 19 et Dominus quidem postquam locutus est eis adsumptus est in caelum et sedit a dextris Dei

Chat With an Anglican & What is Community?

(This is very long, but I beg that you will read it all attentively).

I will begin my post saying that I spent about two and a half hours this evening having come across, quite fortuitously, a devout Anglican with whom I had perhaps the most enriching, profound, and just plain amazing conversation about faith and Catholicism that I've had in eons. It goes beyond words how great it was. Conversations like that are few and very far between. Part of our conversation involved a chat on the meaning of community, which I'll get to in a bit.

As I was doing my barista work at the Christian Study Center, this good gentleman, about 50 years old or so, happened to come in to purchase a coffee and casually asked me what the Study Center was. I don't know how it began but we got into a preliminary chat on theology. We quickly realized who we were and our stances on this and that and the conversation took off from there.

I was stunned to find that on virtually every single point on theology, traditional Catholicism, the liturgy, in a word- everything- we were in perfect agreement. I daresay I have spoken so candidly about my Catholicism with few if any Roman Catholics. Why is this man an Anglican you ask? Well, he was raised Catholic, but left the Church to become an Anglican because after Vatican II, the Church was simply not that Catholic anymore. The traditional Anglican Church, so it seems, has maintained virtually intact so many practices and beliefs, &c. &c. that its brand of Catholicism, per se, is more "Catholic" than that which emerged from the chaos of the 60's post-Vatican II.

Take a moment and digest that.

Wait, you mean, a Protestant thinks the post-Vatican de facto Church is not Catholic enough?! Now, hold your horses! Don't go running off to Westminster now! All is not lost in Rome. In fact, nothing is lost! The reforms of Vatican II were just hijacked by, dare I say, ideological flappers that just took off into Kumbayah land such that it really, really looks like all hell and happy-holding-hands-quasi-Protestantized-Catholicism has broken loose. In many ways it has, but fear not! The gates of hell will not prevail and Sacred Tradition will triumph! It is already happening! I desist.

Why am I so excited about the long and exciting chat I had with this gentleman? I am excited because it gives me hope- profound hope. It gives me hope that the Church will reunify, not in the ridiculous ecumenical way whereby everyone descends into a sort of least-common-denominator Christianity, which really has no semblance to Christianity, and which ultimately will spell the doom for what Catholicism has stood for for 2000 years. NO! The body of Christ will reunify into one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church when all Christians the world round come to the realization of the Gospel Truth (can I hear an Amen?) that is professed and safeguarded by the Holy Catholic Church as it has been all these centuries past. It will be, once again, a genuine, unified, body of believers in true community, i.e., in true COMMUNION with Christ the Bridegroom.

Can I hear an amen?

That brings me to the coup de grâce: what is community? Why do I suddenly decide to talk about this? You shall see.

The man with whom I spoke, named Ed, is an architectural historian. He is about to write a book on the liturgical functionality of traditional churches; quite fascinating, I'd say. Anyways, as we all know, one of the developments in contemporary churches is the abandonment of traditional church architecture- the Latin cross form, the altar is smack in the middle and nothing obstructs its view, etc.- for a more "open" and "liberal" architecture. One predominant form is the circle, whereby a church is designed in such a way that the congregation surrounds the altar and forms a circle with the priest, who faces them. "This is," Ed stated, "quite a communistic arrangement."

Whoa! Communism? Yes. Communism. Not the Fidel Castro kind, but rather the "we're all equal and we're happy holding hands" etc. This begs the question: isn't a community formed of a group of equals, all together and loving each other. Well, yea, but that's just a super tiny aspect of it.

Ever since the dawn of humanity, human societal organization, from the most primitive hunter-gatherers to the most advanced societies, have been characterized by a number of shared characteristics. Here are the big ones:
~Shared customs, practices, beliefs, ideals, etc.
~A common language or communicative symbology
~Sacred places and/or dwellings/places of gathering
~A leader (uh-oh...)

Just think a little bit and see that it is virtually impossible for a human society to function without these things. Is not a religious denomination organized thus, as well? Catholicism sure is! We have shared customs and beliefs, etc. that define us and distinguish us as Catholics. We share a common language of worship, be it the literal language which, traditionally, is Latin, or be it the vocabulary of the faith. We have sacred places set aside for special purposes called CHURCHES to which we invest much time and energy to make beautiful and useful in keeping with their extraordinary purpose. Lastly, we have a leader/leaders. Our Leader is the Pope, the Vicar of Christ. We are led by bishops and by priests, who lead us in prayer. When one or more of these things is absent, community degenerates into a mob, or at best a gaggle (since mobs often have leaders, too!).

Armed with these weapons, we now proceed to take a good look at our contemporary situation. The "spirit of Vatican II" has caused a (fictitious) shift in the Church's thinking from a more individualistic notion of salvation to a more socialized one. Therefore, we throw around the word "Church community" quite a bit and forget what that means. Point blank: this is false. Why? Well, if everyone is allowed to believe whatever they want to believe (shopping at the cafeteria, being "open-minded"), criteria number 1 breaks down. Suddenly, we are no longer united in belief and such. Then, every church in the world is allowed to use its own vernacular, such that an American Catholic going to an Ethiopian Catholic church has no idea what the heck is going on in terms of language. He is not a part of that community. Criteria 2 has been shot down. Don't even get me started on how 3 has been chiseled away with these hideous modern megachurches, or outdoor "camp" masses on the grass, etc.

The kicker is with number 4. It is anthropologically impossible for a human society, on whatever scale, to exist without at least a rudimentary degree of leadership. And we wonder then how it is that liberal Protestantism has shamed Christianity with this indescribable multiplicity of beliefs and sects. Why has this happened? There is NO leadership of any sort. Anyone who says that they can be in a church community or a legitimate religious denomination without a spiritual leader is absolutely off their rocker! Is a church pastor who preaches day in and day out a leader to his flock? NO! Somebody who stands in front of you and talks to you is not leading you. They are talking to you. Now, is a person, specially set aside for a particular purpose- as a military officer is set aside with a distinct uniform, distinct responsibilities, and a distinct role- a leader? Yes. A leader is not a God-like figure, although if they do well they can be a beautiful manifestation of God's presence. He does not have to be divine or all holy, although an extraordinary degree of exemplarity is a prerequisite to leadership. Who on earth plays such a role in the ordinary Catholic Church adherent to the true Faith?-- a priest. A priest, like a person driving a car, faces his back to the group not because he does not care about them, but because he is leading. (Who ever saw a general run into battle with his troops running backwards on his horse? I mean, seriously). He has exceptional knowledge in his role, appears slightly different, etc. but has the same innate essence as those he leads. THIS IS TRUE COMMUNITY. United behind the priest, the Catholic parish offers itself up as a group in the purest form of community, most especially while taking Holy Communion (communion = come + union), in a specially set-aside place, with a set of shared practices and beliefs, and with a common language. Nothing comes closer to community than this. The parishioners in this community understand that from among them is a person chosen to perform special different roles in order to help preserve their community. They come to him for advice, address their grievances and troubles to him, and trust in his expertise in his specially-assigned role, reserving judgment of his capacities to a more competent authority higher than him out of humility, reverence, and respect for a fellow man.

I can not stress any more strongly how profoundly the traditional faith of the Holy Roman Catholic Church is the purest and most beautiful manifestation of human community united in love of God in Christ ever witnessed on the face of this earth. Nothing else competes at all.

Thou shalt not...pollute your backyard?

A top Vatican official just recently "updated" the old list of sins by adding in such things as polluting the environment, genetic manipulation, and (my favorite) extreme inequality as exemplified by the quote: "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer." It seems that the modern legalistic spirit of wanting to get away with anything that is not expressly forbidden has necessitated that the Vatican spell things out.

The hallmark of a liberal moral conscience, and by that I mean an unrestrained one (not a hippy one, although those come close), is the usage of moral laws only when they are to one's moral benefit. For example, freedom of speech is essential! (but it must exclude religious talk in schools). Freedom of assembly is crucial! (but churches must keep wholly on their own property and not demonstrate publicly). Killing is evil! (unless I need to abort my baby because of my own irresponsibility). See the inconsistency?

The same sense of moral exploitation, if you will, rears its head when it comes time for an examination of conscience before confession. One of the main definitions of a mortal sin is that it is a grave and wanton violation of God's law. More often than not, the benchmark for God's law is the Ten Commandments. Ok, let's begin there. Now, (to borrow names from the Baltimore Catechism), Felonius may egg on a buddy of his to view pornography but, since Felonius is such an angel, he refrains from doing so while his friend does. Confession times comes about. Felonius says, "I didn't commit the sin by watching the pornography so I don't need to confess!" Well, yeah, that's right, Felonius, you didn't watch the pornography. But you forgot one minor detail: you drove your neighbor to sin, and to sin quite gravely. The Pharisees had a similar logic when they felt that by paying Judas to betray Jesus they would have no blood on their hands. And yet, even they accept their own guilt when the blood money is returned and they do not place it in the temple coffers. This act of leading someone else to sin is called "scandal" and it is indeed mentioned in the Ten Commandments as "Thou shalt not kill." In this case, scandal spiritually kills by driving another to sin. It could be said that one who commits scandal is a particularly nasty opponent of God's will, an accomplice of Satan one might say.

Allow me to venture a bit further on my scandal tangent. Now, what about free will? The dude who watched the pornography could easily have just not done so. True. We do not know the circumstances by which, let's call him Jasper, was driven to view pornography. All the same, Felonius was what the Church calls an "accessory to sin". Had Felonius not egged Jasper on the chances of his viewing pornography on his own may have been far less or even nonexistent. Maybe he used such Satanic poetry as "Oh, it's not that bad! You have to release your sexual urges somehow! EVERYONE DOES IT!"

Right there before your eyes is an examination of conscience over one sin- a particularly grave one. Contrary to the legalistic cognition of our time, things do not need to be spelled out all the time for us to know that they are immoral. If we approach confession and sin in terrible fear of the Judgment, like we ought to, we would not be so lax in our "interpretations"- another lovely word from Satan's opus.

The Vatican is to be commended for being well abreast of the times as it has always been and reiterating the need to look between the lines when it comes to examining our moral conscience. The need to care for our environment, avoid genetic manipulation, and fight economic inequality are perennial Christian virtues with a slightly different look but with all the same essence.

"Si iniquitátes observáveris Dómine: Dómine quis sustinébit?"

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/vatican-updates-thou-shalt-not-list/20080310151509990001