Equal, not identical

A Catholic News Service piece from Dec. 18 records some of the discussion at a Dec. 15 Rome conference on "Feminism and the Catholic Church."

The event included comments from Mary Ann Glendon, a Harvard law professor and the president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences -- not a bad résumé. Overall, a good and needed reflection on the continuing need of reformation on the part of the institutional Church.

Excerpts:

Unless the Catholic Church can show the world concrete models of male-female cooperation in positions of responsibility and decision-making, the church will continue to struggle against charges that it is chauvinistic, said Mary Ann Glendon.

The Harvard law professor and president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences said church teaching that women and men are equal, but not identical, is a healthy corrective to the feminism of the late 20th century, which, she said, promoted a "unisex society."

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She said changes in the right direction can be seen in parishes and dioceses where "more and more priests, inspired by recent popes and comfortable with women" are relying on their talents and working with them for the benefit of the community.

She and [Lucetta] Scaraffia [a professor at Rome's La Sapienza University] argued that in any social institution directives from the top are essential, but lasting change flows from the grass roots up.

"The problem with the church today is the lack of women in positions of responsibility at the Vatican," Scaraffia said. "This must change and I believe it will," she added, saying her argument "has nothing to do with the question of women priests."

For the next 30 days, get the whole story on our Criterion Web site.

No bias here at all

When I saw this story today I couldn't help but post it to give props to my old Newman Center:

Newman Center at University of Illinois to expand

Here is an excerpt:

The new facility will address both an increasing demand for housing at Newman Hall -- a 300-bed residence hall built in 1929 that has a waiting list of nearly 200 -- and a lack of program space for outreach to the nearly 12,000 Catholic students at the University of Illinois.

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At a Nov. 21 press conference announcing the planned expansion, Bishop Jenky called St. John's "the premier Newman Center in America." It is staffed by six full-time priests and three women religious, and has a full-time lay staff of 55. In addition to the residence hall, it includes St. John's Catholic Chapel as well as the Institute of Catholic Thought.

"This project has statewide impact and a national scope because of the demographics of students at the University of Illinois," said Bishop Jenky, which he called "one of the world's best-known secular universities."

The 127,000-square-foot brick structure will have two wings, one six stories tall and the other three stories tall. Resident rooms will be a combination of suites, double bedrooms and single rooms configured in the latest style of college residential living, including private baths and commons areas.

The facility also will include a 300-seat cafeteria, a Newman Club, where nonresidents as well as residents can gather for study and relaxation, a fitness center, and various meeting rooms.

It's the end of the world as we know it

Not really, but this article from Catholic News Service provides a little bit of correction to those people that are always preaching the latest earth-death scenario: In scientific predictions, the only certainty is nothing is certain

Sometimes the great fun of science is knowing how small we are as human beings and how much bumbling around it takes to get to good, solid information. Think of the roller coaster ride that science has taken through the ages, all the theories that at one time were accepted by the world's scientists that ended up being at best in need of modification and at worst flat wrong. Usually they were the product of decent reasoning with a limited amount of knowledge or data. It makes religious look pretty even keel and sensible by comparison!

But, as the wise philosopher knows, its a good thing to know how little you know. We don't know the answers to many of life's scientific questions, and what we do know is subject to future revision. Still, the apple is tempting, and all too many politicians or scientists or other folks want to make absolute surety where there is none. From the article:

In an effort to remind science of the impact its predictions have on the public, the Vatican hosted a meeting on the limits and accuracy of predictability in science.

Dozens of scientists and several theologians from all over the world gathered for the Pontifical Academy of Sciences Nov. 3-6 plenary assembly to discuss how far the eye of science can see into the future and when calculations might be considered certain, probable or highly unlikely.

On the one hand, most scientists want to give as much early warning as possible about impending dangers such as earthquakes or climate changes.

On the other hand, they know the earlier the forecast, the more likely the prediction can be wrong, and being wrong makes scientists run the risk of losing the public's trust.

I've always sort of wondered why environmentalists in particular seem tempted to this sin against science. In the past few decades we've see the infamous failures of the theories of global cooling or catastrophic overpopulation (and we've also seen the ill effects of pollution and reckless consumerism), both accepted by many of the world's scientists. And now it is global warming, and the suspicious claim that not only can we tell the world's future with certainly, but that we can narrow it down to precise years.

The scientists in the story talk about the conflict between making bad predictions and living with not making predictions at all. As for me, I don't know why it isn't enough to say, for instance, "the earth is warming, and there is a decent chance that we have something to do with it and that it's going to cause us some harm. We ought to begin to practice good stewardship and care for the earth the way God intended." It's always that there has to be a disaster looming, and not just any disaster, but the possible destruction of all human life...and soon!!! Maybe its our sinfulness or (particularly Western) sloth that causes the movers and shakers and thinkers to keep insisting that the next disaster is around the corner. That kind of thinking -- and those kind of stakes -- make for bad predictions.

That's why I generally avoid those charged conversations with others about how we suddenly know all there is to know about the gay gene or global warming or why (INSERT FOOD HERE) is bad/good or the surety of embryonic stem cell research. My favorite is astronomy. It's got all the grand theories and predictions -- and yes, the changes and discoveries of bad theory -- on a time scale that prevents apocalypse now and on a level that keeps the politicians and lobbyists uninterested.

So go read the story -- it's a good balancing factor for us living at the end of the world as we know it.

Reflections from a young Catholic

Hands down, my favorite religious periodical out there is First Things, which bills itself as a "journal of religion, culture and public life." It's good stuff, and every issue is packed with much "meatier" articles than you'll find in a lot of other Catholic magazines.

This past October's issue featured a very long article by Joseph Bottum titled "When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano: Catholic Culture in America." The gist of the article is a trace in the decline of a Catholic culture in America and the rise of post-Vatican II in-fighting between often self-described liberals and conservatives.

His contention is that, through mysterious ways, a new Catholic culture is beginning to come together, like loose stars forming a galaxy -- and part of the core and start of that galaxy is opposition to the 1973 Supreme Court ruling on abortion. "The result," Bottum claims, "is the beginning of a new culture: a new Catholicism that, at its best, simply bypasses the stalemates of the 1970s."

While perhaps a simplistic theory, it's got many good points and insights. The whole article is well-worth reading and pondering, and is available free online. Of particular note to me, as a young Catholic, was what he said about us. He argues that there is a growing disconnect with young Catholics from older Catholics and leaders -- even bishops.

I quote quite liberally because he says it better than I could:

These were serious Catholic kids—daily communicants, pro-life marchers, soup-kitchen volunteers, members of perpetual-adoration societies. They were showing off a little for their guest, no doubt: taking stronger positions than they actually feel, arguing for the joy of arguing, the way college students do. It was revealing, however, that when one of them shyly mentioned the Tridentine Mass at the renegade chapel in Garden Grove, the others shouted her down.

Sure, they agreed, pretty Masses are better than ugly ones, and they all preferred high-churchy smells and bells to guitar services and liturgical dance: the things their parents’ generation, poor souls, fondly imagined would “engage today’s youth.” But the radical traditionalists seemed cut from the same cloth as the radical revisionists—and the students dismissed all that kind of 1970s stuff as simultaneously boring and infuriating: the self-obsession and self-glorification of the two sides that, between them, had wrecked Catholic culture in this country. We live with a million aborted babies a year, daily scandals of corruption in the Church, millions of uncatechized Catholic children, and this is what those tired old biddies are still squabbling over?

“You remember how, you know, the old hippie types used to say, ‘Never trust anyone over thirty’? Well, they were right. Only it was their own generation they were talking about,” the thin, quiet one in the back announced as we pulled up to the hotel. “You can see it clearly out here in California. That whole generation of Catholics in America, basically everybody formed before 1978, is screwed up. Left, Right, whatever....The best of them were failures, and the worst of them were monsters.”

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This quick, irritated impatience seems common in the emerging Catholic culture. You find it in the parishioners of the Polish Dominicans working at Columbia University, and in the conservatives gathered around the political theorist Robert George at Princeton. For that matter, it is present among the graduate students at such places as Notre Dame and Boston College, and among the younger theology professors around the country. The public figures of the new culture—the Catholic lawyers, magazine writers, and think-tank analysts—have it in spades: an intolerance, an exasperation, with everything that preoccupied an entire generation of American Catholics.

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Still, in at least one sense, these Catholics seem right to reject the battles of the recent past. The greatest work of John Paul II may prove his reintegration of Vatican II into the history of the Catholic Church: a swerve, a changing of the trajectory that both sides in the 1970s had assumed could not be altered. Far too many in those days believed the Second Vatican Council had definitively broken the Catholic Church from its past. Whether they wept or cheered, whether they were traditionalists or spirit-of-Vatican-II reformers, they acted as though the new Church were no longer in continuity with the old Church.

I find myself all too often getting pulled into these battles, taking various side, letting myself get angry and worked up...I find myself stepping back -- or yanking myself back -- into remembering my "JPII heritage." Ultimately Bottum's point about the pro-life movement gathering together a new Catholic culture that is ready to change our culture is tied up with the efforts of Pope John Paul the Great to preach an authentic vision of the Second Vatican Council and of the nature of man.

For me as a young Catholic, and for the many, many other young Catholics I know, this is what it's about: seeking through Jesus Christ the wisdom that answers the two great questions we have, that is, Who is God, and What is man? College students embark on their journey with these questions and there is a certain sickness that I feel when I think of how many get the wrong answers -- even by Catholic priests and teachers of the faith.

Pope John Paul was, for so many of us, the living icon of this answer. He was the genuine leader in whose shadow you could trace the life and teachings of the One he followed. More and more Catholic young people are growing up with the benefit of his scholarship: we are people whose whole lives have been informed by a rich, Catholic view of who we are and how we are to live. For us, the Church's answers to the hot-button questions of contraception, homosexuality, abortion, ESC research, the death penalty and female ordination are beautiful -- and more than that, they are true. To say that the teachings on those subjects in particular are true and beautiful is more than a little scandalous to many older Catholics I know -- almost as though I've crossed some invisible line that has actually called my Christianity into question.

One of the hallmarks, in my opinion, of this new, growing breed of young Catholics is not so much the rejection of the warring camps that Bottum suggests, but the simple joy with which they embrace Jesus Christ and his Church, the happiness with which they live the tenets of our faith. Those same warring camps are always trying to drag us into their battles -- trying to make us fight on their terms and fit their stereotypes and have their motivations.

But another hallmark is what Bottum mentions and what many of the saints had: the "get out of my way" attitude toward silliness and stalemate rivalries that is what Christ demands. The world is in danger, as it always is: the devil and sin stand to devour the souls of our brothers and sisters, and we must stand in their way -- we must sacrifice and battle and answer the heavenly call to action. There is no time for us to fight a battle that isn't ours and that distracts us needlessly from the task.

In the end, we're trying to be saints and to follow Jesus Christ and prophetic voices like that of Pope John Paul the Great -- we shouldn't care about all the hip buzz terms in lay ministry or whether we're for a "cultic" priesthood or if we like to be under the thumb of Rome or if we lack a pluralistic mindset or why we're too divisive or any of the other endless arguments...we're trying to live for Christ and to love what Christ loves, even those parts that make our culture hiss. And power politics and Church theories and doctrinal fighting cannot stop that.

Religion and science, etc., etc., etc.

Whenever I hear of religion and science I tend to think more in terms of faith and reason, and the miraculous balance that the Catholic Church has achieved between them. It seems like media types aren't the only ones endlessly interested in prolonging a dead war between two allies...it's hard to pick who to shake your head at more: those philosophers and thinkers who, generation after generation, insist that we are in the last days of religion, or the Christians who insist that the only reasonable way to read Scripture is an utterly reasonless literal interpretation.

I was treated this morning to a few minutes of local talk radio with call ins debating how Adam and Eve's sons had children and how the story of the Tower of Babel accounts for the different races of the world. Adam and Eve, the fall of man, the drama of salvation -- these are the great themes that interest me to no end...unless the conversation falls into either an obsession with whether our first parents had belly buttons or how the mere thought of anything outside of Darwinian evolution is a threat to democracy.

Time magazine apparently has a story about the debate, titled provcoatively enough: God vs. science: Can religion stand up to the test? I was not aware that religion had anything to prove, nor that science was in the business of testing God. The link I provided is only to a summary; the real story must be paid for, thus I have not read it, but it seems like the usual back and forth, noting that those on the side of what could be called "evangelical atheism" have come into new prominence:

It is not an epithet that fits everyone wielding a test tube. But a growing proportion of the profession is experiencing what one major researcher calls "unprecedented outrage" at perceived insults to research and rationality, ranging from the alleged influence of the Christian right on Bush administration science policy, to the fanatic faith of the 9/11 terrorists, to intelligent design's ongoing claims. Some are radicalized enough to publicly pick an ancient scab -- the idea that science and religion, far from being complementary responses to the unknown, are at utter odds.

I would gladly point anyone interested to this most excellent series of articles on the question of Catholicism and evolution (which was, by the way, adapted for publication in Our Sunday Visitor).

But, as always, Pope Benedict cuts through the chatter with a much simpler, more brilliant summation than I could ever offer:

"Christianity does not posit an inevitable conflict between supernatural faith and scientific progress," he stressed, recalling how "God created human beings, endowed them with reason, and set them over all the creatures of the earth." In this way, man became "the steward of creation and God's 'helper.' ... Indeed, we could say that the work of predicting, controlling and governing nature, which science today renders more practicable than in the past, is itself a part of the Creator's plan."

"Man cannot place in science and technology so radical and unconditional a trust as to believe that scientific and technological progress can explain everything and completely fulfil all his existential and spiritual needs. Science cannot replace philosophy and revelation by giving an exhaustive answer to man's most radical questions: questions about the meaning of living and dying, about ultimate values, and about the nature of progress itself."

There seems to me something almost intrinsically dehumanizes about using "hard science" alone to determine your world view, or to demand that only those things with absolute empirical evidence be allowed into the public life of humanity. And the defense against such a mindset needs to be more than forcing philosophy into every biology textbook.

There is a living and true God who created the universe -- and to the great majority of men who have ever lived, this is common sense. And that same God endowed us with the marvelous ability to study that wide world and grow in our understanding of how it works. To me, the scientist that uses DNA and brain patterns to "prove" that religious sentiments are no more than impulses is as silly and guilty as the religious who claims that evolution isn't real because you can't see it happening in a lab.

To quote the late, great John Paul II: "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth."

And to quote popular culture: come on, faith and reason, can't we all just get along?

(UPDATE: I saw on Amy Welborn's blog that she has a link to the whole text of Pope Benedict's comments to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences).

The devil makes a good argument...

I was on Mark Shea's blog recently and saw a link to this story: "Parish cancels 'Catholic' drag queens' bingo games"

What is most interesting to me is not how the parish of the chancellor of the Archdiocese of San Francisco ended up renting its hall to the notorious "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence," or how the grassroots strength of Catholics from around the country called and wrote in on this matter until action was taken...no, the most interesting part was contrasting the sordid details of this story with the response from the "Sisters" upon their bingo event lease being cancelled. An excerpt:

The primary mission of The Sisters is involvement in and support of the local community. This includes working with and supporting many local community organizations whose ability to serve their constituency is dependent on contributions from charitable groups like the Sisters. Without the thousands of dollars raised by the consistently sold-out monthly bingo event, their services may be cut at a time when charitable giving is more critical than ever.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence believe that our commitment to giving is in alignment with the philosophy of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, which represents a cross-section of the San Francisco population. It is unfortunate and extremely disappointing that this appears not to be the case, and that our shared values cannot overcome our differences of opinion when it comes to how we serve the community.

Let's imagine that you only heard that a group gay "Catholics" holding a charitable bingo game had been kicked out of a Catholic parish, then read that group's response. It sounds pretty reasonable, pretty squeaky clean, pretty convincing almost...almost...

I find oftentimes that so much of my frustration comes with the oft-repeated human experience that the devil makes a mighty good argument...and distracts people from common sense. The common sense in this particular story comes in realizing who the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are, and how they were raising charitable funds. From the story:

The next game, featuring master of ceremonies "Peaches Christ" -- was scheduled for Thursday, All Souls Day, when Catholics typically pray for deceased loved ones.

The Sisters' motto "Go and sin some more" is indicative of their use of mockery to express opposition to Catholic moral norms. They are infamous for their offensive street theater, in which they use Catholic symbols and images to shock opponents and entertain allies. Catholics who walked in the West Coast Walk for Life in 2005 and 2006 report they were heckled and jeered with blasphemous catcalls by the group.

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A Sept. 14 article by "Sister Dana Van Iquity" in the homosexual newspaper San Francisco Bay Times stated, "The long awaited return of the Castro's longest running Bingo – Revival Bingo —kicked off at Ellard Hall on Sept. 7 at 100 Diamond Street and 18th [the address of Most Holy Redeemer] in the heart of the Castro. The new home includes more space, more seating capacity, a big stage, and a brand new sound & video system (thanks to Dave the bear) with all players on one main floor instead of having to hang from the rafters at the old venue. … A gaggle of nuns -- dozens really -- opened the show, carrying candles and acting rather solemn with slow, marching steps. But when the sound system played 'Gonna Make You Sweat,' the Sisters commenced to clapping and dancing wildly down the aisles, getting everyone's energy up."

The article went on to describe sexual "punishments" meted out to participants whose cell phones ring during the game or who call a false bingo. Prizes distributed to winners, according to the article, range from "wines to porn DVDs to sex toys to toasters and more."

So the group basically stands in ridicule and intense mockery of nearly everything that the Catholic Church is, then feigns disapointment that "our shared values cannot overcome our differences of opinion." Well, there are differences of opinion and there are differences of opinion, apparently.

Go read the whole story to see it all

You know it's a slow news day when...

...you see this headline come through the wire at Catholic News Service:

Retired bishop has close encounter with squirrel

There's not much more to this story that what the headline says, but still, it made me laugh to read it...and since not much else of interest was posted by CNS yesterday it made the cut on The Criterion Online Edition.

So go read it and enjoy the small Halloween treat.

Mother Theodore canonization coverage

Don't worry, the staff of The Criterion has not abandoned this blog. The past month and a half has consumed my efforts as I prepared to launch our new Archdiocese of Indianapolis Web site at www.archindy.org (an endeavor that included The Criterion Online Edition).

The other staff has been working hard to get ready for a coverage blitze of the canonization of Indiana's own Blessed Mother Theodore Guerin on Oct. 15 in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican.

We have a reporter in Rome on an archdiocesan pilgrimage and are sending two to the motherhouse of the Sisters of Providence near Terre Haute -- and all of the coverage is converging on our special event blog devoted to the canonization.

So, while we all hope to soon resume posting on this blog, for now, check out the Guerin blog on our Criterion site for all the latest updates.

George Weigel on bad liturgical hymns

We've all probably got our favorite Mass hymns/songs, and the ones that we don't care for so much. George Weigel makes the case that there are some hymns, though, that simply have no place being sung in a Catholic church -- and some based on such silly poetry and phrasing that we should put a moratorium on their use. This was written a couple of years back, but still a fun read:

For classic Lutheran theology, hymns are a theological "source:" not up there with Scripture, of course, but ranking not-so-far below Luther's "Small Catechism." Hymns, in this tradition, are not liturgical filler. Hymns are distinct forms of confessing the Church's faith. Old school Lutherans take their hymns very seriously.

Most Catholics don't. Instead, we settle for hymns musically indistinguishable from "Les Mis" and hymns of saccharine textual sentimentality. Moreover, some hymn texts in today's Catholic "worship resources" are, to put it bluntly, heretical. Yet Catholics once knew how to write great hymns; and there are great hymns to be borrowed, with gratitude, from Anglican, Lutheran, and other Christian sources. There being a finite amount of material that can fit into a hymnal, however, the first thing to do is clean the stables of today's hymnals.

Thus, with tongue only half in cheek, I propose the Index Canticorum Prohibitorum, the "Index of Forbidden Hymns." Herewith, some examples.

Go check out the rest of what he has to say here

Politicians, religion and spiced up history

On July 17, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) spoke on the Senate floor regarding the recently passed, then vetoed, bill that would loosen federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Amidst bringing up the usual candidates (e.g. Galileo, Columbus, etc.) to show the evils of allowing science to be checked by any kind of morality, he mentioned this tidbit:

"Pope Boniface VII banned the practice of cadaver dissection in the 1200s. This stopped the practice for over 300 years and greatly slowed the accumulation of education regarding human anatomy. Finally, in the 1500s, Michael Servetus used cadaver dissection to study blood circulation. He was tried and imprisoned by the Catholic Church."

Around the same time, another Senator (Tom Harkin) let loose with similar claims after comparing the President's veto with the actions of an ayotollah:

Sen. Harkin ... claimed that Bush is now aligned “with people like Pope Boniface VIII, who banned the practice of cadaver dissection in the 1200s. This stopped cadaver dissection for over 300 years, over 300 years.”

The problem with both statements is that there isn't a shred of truth to them. Not only did Specter get the name of the pope in question wrong, but both senators were likely fed grossly inaccurate information which was corrected by this swift Catholic News Service story:

What's a 13th-century pope got to do with stem cells? Nothing at all

In his 1845 textbook "The History of Medicine," German author Heinrich Haesar said dissection of cadavers continued without hindrance during the Middle Ages in European universities, run under the direction of church leaders.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, in its entry on anatomy, says that Guy de Chauliac, considered the father of modern surgery, encouraged the use of dissection in anatomical studies in the 14th century and insisted "on the necessity for the dissection of human bodies if any definite progress in surgery is to be made."

Since de Chauliac was the personal surgeon to three popes and encouraged dissection while a member of the papal household, "this fact alone would seem to decide definitely that there was no papal regulation, real or supposed, forbidding the practice of human dissection at this time," the encyclopedia says.

And what of Michael Servetus, supposedly imprisoned for his cadaverous crimes by the Catholic Church? He was actually executed by the Calvinists for his opposition to certain doctrinal questions relating to the nature of God.

Read the whole story

Day of Prayer for the Middle East

The Vatican Press Office relates this:

"The Holy Father is following with great concern the destinies of all the peoples involved and has proclaimed this Sunday, July 23, as a special day of prayer and penance, inviting the pastors and faithful of all the particular Churches, and all believers of the world, to implore from God the precious gift of peace.

"In particular, the Supreme Pontiff hopes that prayers will be raised to the Lord for an immediate cease-fire between the sides, for humanitarian corridors to be opened in order to bring help to the suffering peoples, and for reasonable and responsible negotiations to begin to put an end to objective situations of injustice that exist in that region; as already indicated by Pope Benedict XVI at the Angelus last Sunday, July 16."

More here

Two states of religious freedom

Catholic News Service posted two stories yesterday that will be in our archives for the next 30 days. Each takes a look at religious freedom -- one in Russia and one in England. The state of religious freedom in either country is, depending on how things turn out, heading in separate directions. The once-repressive Russia is now opening more to religious freedom, while England may be one the verge of restricting it under the guise of the homosexual movement (as is happening in other western countries.

Excerpts follow...

Freedom stable for church in Russia, say religious liberty experts

While the Catholic Church still has problems in Russia, the religious freedom situation has stabilized, said officials of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom after returning from a fact-finding trip.

- - -

"The Catholic situation in Russia is rather stable," said Tad Stahnke, commission deputy director for policy.

He described the situation as "half on, half off."

As an example, he cited a Catholic church that had been turned into a library under the Soviet government. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the new government decided to keep the building as a library but gave Catholics permission to build a new church, he said.

"I went to the construction site. The church was half finished but no one was working on it," said Stahnke.

Kathy Cosman, commission senior policy analyst on Russia, said that there are no new problems in getting visas for foreign Catholic priests and religious to work in Russia, but old problems have not been resolved.

---

U.K. bishops worry rules to protect gays could hurt adoption agencies

Catholic adoption agencies in Britain could be forced to close if legislators pass regulations to give gays and lesbians more rights, said the bishops of England and Wales.

Church leaders are seeking exemptions to the British government's proposed sexual orientation regulations, designed to make discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation illegal in the same way as discrimination based on race or sex.

- - -

In their submission, the bishops also expressed concern about the implications of the regulations for Catholic schools, which they said would be limited in what they could teach children about the church's moral teaching.

The regulations also would force the church's marriage preparation and guidance agencies to cater to gay couples and would not allow parishes the right to refuse the use of their halls to groups at odds with church teaching. It could also become illegal for Catholic conference and retreat centers to refuse bookings from gay and lesbian groups, and the Catholic press would be unable to refuse certain advertisements, the bishops said.

They said they have "serious misgivings" about the regulations because they make no distinction between "homophobia" and a "conviction, based on religious belief and moral conscience, that homosexual practice is wrong."

Plenary Indulgence for World Meeting of Families

This from the Vatican Information Service yesterday:

VATICAN CITY, JUN 28, 2006 (VIS) - For the occasion of the Fifth World Meeting of Families, due to be held in Valencia, Spain from July 1 to 9, Benedict XVI will concede Plenary Indulgence to those faithful who participate in any of the associated celebrations and in the closing ceremony, according to a decree from the Apostolic Penitentiary made public yesterday afternoon.

- - -

"The Supreme Pontiff," the decree adds, "grants Plenary Indulgence to the faithful under the usual conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion and prayer in keeping with the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff, with the soul completely removed from attachment to any form of sin), if they participate in any of the solemn functions held in Valencia during the Fifth World Meeting of Families, and in the solemn closing ceremony.

"All other faithful who are unable to participate in that event, may obtain the same gift of Plenary Indulgence, under the same conditions, over the days the meeting is held and on its closing day if, united in spirit and thought with the faithful present in Valencia, they recite in the family the 'Our Father,' the 'Creed,' and other devout prayers calling on Divine Mercy to concede the above-mentioned aims."

Read the whole release

We need your opinion!

The Archdiocese of Indianapolis (www.archindy.org) is preparing to launch a newly designed, interactive website with lots of new features and information. We would like your input as to what you'd like to see on the new site.

TAKE OUR REDESIGN SURVEY

The questions are simple, and you can answer as many or as few as you want. Once you've filled out the fields, click the "Submit" button at the bottom of the page.

While we can't follow every suggestion, we will take them into consideration. We hope to launch the site this fall.

Changes in the Mass

From Catholic News Service:

Bishops approve new Order of Mass with U.S. adaptations

In what Bishop Donald W. Trautman called "a truly important moment in liturgy in the United States," the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a new English translation of the Order of Mass and adopted several U.S. adaptations during a national meeting June 15 in Los Angeles.

The new translation of the main constant parts of the Mass -- penitential rite, Gloria, creed, eucharistic prayers, eucharistic acclamations, Our Father and other prayers and responses used daily -- will likely be introduced in about a year or two if it is approved by the Vatican, said Bishop Trautman, a Scripture scholar who heads the Diocese of Erie, Pa., and is chairman of the USCCB Committee on the Liturgy.

He said he thought the bishops would wait until they have approved -- and received Vatican confirmation of -- an entire new Roman Missal in English before implementing the new Order of Mass.

READ MORE...

Unusually blunt

Cardinal Walter Kasper, who serves in Rome as the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, has a sensitive job and tries in all things to bring Christians together -- to bridge the divides of schisms and the Reformation.

Which is why this story, "Vatican official to Anglicans: Women bishops would destroy unity," caught my eye. In it, Cardinal Kasper is quoted as saying some rather direct things to members of the Church of England.

The background to his comments is this: "His remarks came in a speech to a private meeting of the Church of England bishops in Market Bosworth, England, just four months after the bishops agreed to set up a working group to outline a process through which women might be consecrated as bishops.

Although three of the world's Anglican provinces have already agreed to consecrate women as bishops, Cardinal Kasper said decisions made by the Church of England had a "particular importance" because they gave a "strong indication of the direction in which the communion as a whole was heading." "

Such a move would effectively end any hope of the Catholic Church ever coming to recognize Anglican holy order (bishops and priests) as valid.

And what were the cardinal's direct comments? Here are a few:

"shared partaking of the one Lord's table, which we long for so earnestly, would disappear into the far and ultimately unreachable distance."

the goal of restoring full church communion "would realistically no longer exist"

this meant that the Anglican Communion would no longer occupy "a special place" among the churches of the West

The ordination of women bishops, Cardinal Kasper added, would "most certainly lower the temperature even more; in terms of the possible recognition of Anglican orders, it would lead not only to a short-lived cold, but to a serious and long-lasting chill."

Go read more of the story for yourself. This is just one of the things going on in the Anglican Communion these days that have the eyes of ecumenists watching.

Into God's hands

A special exclusive from an upcoming issue of The Criterion:

Put family tragedy ‘in hands of God,’ pastor says

By John Shaughnessy

In his mind, Father Michael O’Mara can picture the two boys proudly standing in front of the altar on May 21—the two brothers preparing to receive their first Holy Communion while their parents and their extended family beamed with the joy of this special moment in the life of a Catholic.

In his mind, Father O’Mara tries to imagine the horror and the suffering that these two brothers endured less than two weeks later when they were shot and killed in their eastside Indianapolis home, along with their parents and three other family members.

The seven murders on June 1 marked the worst mass killing in Indianapolis history. And like most people who were shocked and horrified by the killings, the murders left their mark on Father O’Mara—the priest who gave the homilies at funeral Masses for family members on June 6 and 7.

As he prepared to give the homilies, the Indianapolis priest called upon his memories of the family while he tried to make sense of the deaths.

Read the rest of the story | See photos of a streetside memorial

Vatican document on the family

Today's Vatican Information Service report contained the following:

"The Pontifical Council for the Family, founded 25 years ago by John Paul II with the Motu Proprio "Familia a Deo Instituta," and presided by Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, today published a document entitled: "Family and Human Procreation."

. . .

This theme is then developed over four chapters covering "procreation; why the family is the only appropriate place for it; what is meant by integral procreation within the family; and what social, juridical, political, economic and cultural aspects does service to the family entail" The fifth chapter presents the theme "from two complementary perspectives: the theological, in that the family is an image of the Trinity; and the pastoral, because the family lies at the foundation of the Church and is a place of evangelization." "

Read the rest of the news report

The pope in Poland

Read all about Pope Benedict's recent trip to Poland with the links provided here from mini-stories put togeter by the Vatican Information Service.

SUMMARY OF BENEDICT XVI'S APOSTOLIC TRIP TO POLAND: MAY 25 - 28
- Young People: Build Your House on the Rock of Christ
- Two Million People Attend Krakow Mass
- May the Living God Never Let This Happen Again
- To Poles: Remain Faithful Custodians of Christian Deposit
- Mary, School of Faith
- Visit to John Paul II's Home Town and to Shrine of Kalwaria
- A Journey of Faith in the Footsteps of John Paul II
- Priests: Promoters of the Encounter between Man and God
- Charity and Family: the Keys to Ecumenical Collaboration
- Cultivate the Rich Heritage of Faith

Da Vinci Code Resources

Posted at The Criterion Online Edition

The page includes a news story posted today by Catholic News Service about the premiere of the movie at the Cannes Film Festival, local stories both current and past, and a collection of links for more information.

Anniversary of Fatima and Pope's assassination attempt

This past Saturday marked the 25th anniversary of the attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II (May 13, 1981). A special ceremony at the Vatican marked the occasion.

The day is also the 89th anniversary of the first appearance of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal.

The similarity between the two events is striking -- it was the famed "Third Secret of Fatima," hidden for years and known only by the popes and the last surviving child whom the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to, the eerily predicted the assassination attempt on the life of a pope (which turned out to be John Paul II). The late pope attributed the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima to narrowly saving his life on that fateful day -- claiming that she diverted the course of the bullet fired into him.

Even more interesting to note, I've found, is that the pope was at his weekly audience and about to announce the founding of the John Paul II Institute on Marriage and the Family, which has since gone on to be a driving force in spreading his "Theology of the Body" and fighting the culture of death that has gripped the West.

The same institute recently sponsored a plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Family. This all comes at a time when questions of bioethics and the family are becoming the major moral dilemmas facing countries and cultures.

Archdiocesan Pilgrimage to Poland

Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein is leading a pilgrimage to Poland May 12-21, and has provided the intentions for the Mass that he will celebrate each day. Catholics in the archdiocese are encourage to pray with him.

I've also posted an article (available for the next 30 days) about a Marian shrine in Poland. Pope Benedict XVI will be visiting the country later this month.

Catholic Flash Drive

This headline from the Catholic News Agency caught my attention: Austrian diocese sending USB hard drives with Church info as gifts to young people

Turns out that the Diocese of Graz, Austria, has taken to giving 18-year-olds a birthday gift with a purpose:

Since the start of 2006, the Austrian Diocese of Graz has begun sending a curious gift to all young people who celebrate their 18th birthday: a USB hard drive with information about the Catholic Church.

According to the Kath.net news agency, the portable hard drives contain information about the Diocese of Graz presented in a manner that is attractive to young people, as well as texts about the Catholic faith and a series of basic Christian prayers.

Pretty cool -- a great way to use powerful new technology in a simple, easy-to-use way, and at the same time to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Vatican and Condoms

The blogging world has been afire with news reports back and forth on the topic of a possible Vatican document regarding the use of condoms within a marriage for people who don't want to give AIDS to their spouse.

I haven't posted on it much because their simply isn't much to know. A document like this, based on a study now underway by theologians, would be entirely up to the pope in the end. Endless speculation and assumptions about what Humanae Vitae would say did immense damage to the Church in 1968 and beyond. Likewise, too much conjecture about a document like this and what it might mean and the direction it might point is almost entirely useless, especiall at this time.

Still, you can read a CNS story that I posted that is fairly balanced.

Immigration Rally

An estimated 15,000 people marched from St. Mary Church in downtown Indianapolis on April 10 to the City-County Building as part of protests around the nation to mark a "Day of Action for Immigrant Justice."

See photos of the event here. A story, especially regarding Catholic involvement in the rally, will be coming in an upcoming issue of The Criterion.

Compendium of the Catechism released

The English translation of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church was released on March 31. You can purchase it through the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops or at Amazon.com (for cheaper, I might add).

A much shorter version of the full Catechism, this paperback is composed of 598 questions about the faith that each have answers that average 2-4 sentences -- extremely compact, concise, clear and accurate answers about what we believe as Catholics. It really is a special gift to be able to simply explain concepts that "unpacked" could be studied for a lifetime. I'll give you an example:

53. Why was the world created?
The world was created for the glory of God who wished to show forth and communicate his goodness, truth and beauty. The ultimate end of creation is that God, in Christ, might be "all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28) for his glory and our happiness.

The Compendium also makes use of full-color sacred art from across the history of the Church, as has a list of common prayers in the back that are in both English and Latin.

I would recommend that every Catholic household -- especially those with children -- get a copy. The Catechism was called a "gift" to the Church when it was published more than a decade ago -- and this is another such gift.

(Note: This is our 100th post on this blog, and I'm pleased that it could be about something as wonderful as this new Compendium.)

The "Gospel" of Judas

Posted on Friday was this story from Catholic News Service: Found 'Gospel of Judas' paints alternate portrait of Jesus' betrayer

This is, of course, a story that has been thrown about in the secular media for several days now. Taken from the CNS story:

The document, a third-century Coptic translation of what had originally been written in Greek before 180 A.D., paints Judas in a more sympathetic light than his well-known role as Jesus' betrayer in the canonical Gospels.

In it, Jesus said Judas would "exceed all" of the other disciples, "for you will sacrifice the man that clothes me" -- a reference to Judas' impending betrayal of Jesus. It is also an allusion to gnostic belief that held the spirit in higher esteem than the body, and that, through the liberation of Jesus' body, his spirit would be freed.

The Gospel of Judas was mentioned in a book condemning heresies that was written by St. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, France, in 180 A.D.

A news brief from the same day deals bluntly with the find:

The Gospel of Judas was unimportant to most Christians when it was written hundreds of years ago and it is unimportant today, said a Jesuit professor who has convoked a series of ecumenical studies of the historical Jesus. Jesuit Father Gerald O'Collins, a longtime professor of Christology at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University, said the text, like the gospels of Mary Magdalene and Philip, "does not merit the name 'Gospel.'"

Marian image in Moline

In leafing through the online editions of the newspapers of our neighboring dioceses, I could help but stop at this gem: Marian image in Moline draws crowds

Since most of my wife's family is from the Moline (Quad Cities) area, I had to stop and give it a look. I know of at least one time in the past year when there were rumors of a Marian image at an underpass, so it gave me even more reason.

I should clarify that I have no doubts that Mary appeared at Fatima and Lourdes, and that she very well may be casting her image in Moline for the edification of the faithful -- but I can't help but have a knee-jerk chuckle reaction to these stories. I probably shouldn't have such a reaction, because the people that find the images of Mary on trees or Jesus in a tortilla are among the simplest and most earnest souls in the world (people whose childlike faith and love will probably put them in heaven far ahead of me).

And sure enough, look who found the image in this story:

The first to notice such an image was Abraham Handel, the 5-year-old son of Larry and Andrea Handel, members of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in nearby Silvis.

On the night of March 17, the Handels were at the riverfront to find a piece of driftwood to adorn a box for a newly purchased pet turtle. As Larry Handel went to the river, Abraham -- who was wearing a parish sweatshirt with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe as he sat in the car -- exclaimed to his mother: "Look at that lady, she looks like the one on my shirt."

Mrs. Handel also saw the image on the bridge pillar, and told her husband.

"I said 'Mother Mary,'" recalled Mr. Handel to The Catholic Post on Tuesday. "I could see her, too."

The story also says that the spot has become a place of prayer and popularity:

A front page story and photo in the Moline Dispatch on Saturday, March 25, resulted in hundreds of onlookers that evening. Television coverage and more news stories followed, with others saying they, too, saw what appeared to be Mary in the oval glow.

Keeping your kids Catholic

This article, which centers around a presentation given by Marcellino D'Ambrosio, appeared in the Catholic Explorer of the Diocese of Joliet, Ill.: Theologian urges Kankakee faithful to keep kids Catholic

Among his advice:

Describing a technique that he and his wife, Susan, have employed in their home over the years to help their children “bond with the church,” D’Ambrosio encouraged the parents gathered to regularly invite clergymen, religious sisters or “any adults who are really living their faith” into their homes for dinner. The examples of people totally devoted to the faith underscores the goodness of the Catholic Church, he said. In the meantime, witnessing the lives of these individuals and their inspirational deeds could stir the young people to pursue religious vocations in the future. He revealed that his two eldest sons are currently pondering the notion of pursuing the priesthood.

Meanwhile, he suggested that parents and others surround their children with books and movies that explore the themes of right and wrong. He cited “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” as prime examples of current films that emphasize the triumphs of good over evil. “There is so much doctrine in those movies.” Offering spiritually charged musical selections is also an established method for grabbing the interest of young people at Masses, he added.

Good advice -- though I don't have any young ones yet, it's simple things like dinner with friends and good books that really help to keep my faith alive (outside of the sacraments, of course).

Youth trip to Biloxi

Right now more than 100 youth from around the archdiocese are participating in a weeklong spring break mission trip to Biloxi, MS, to help rebuild the area devastated by Hurricane Katrina -- and they are going with help from the funds that the archdiocese collected last year for relief efforts.

One of the chaperones on the trip -- Katie Berger -- also does freelance work for The Criterion and is sending back photos and news (and possibly video) each day that is being posted on our special blog devoted to the trip: www.archindy.org/biloxi

Be sure to check it out -- these young people are making a significant sacrifice to help people who need it.

Bishop closes parish because of sacrilege

Parish closings are something not uncommon in this country -- but it is uncommon to hear of a parish being closed because of sacrilege.

But that is just what is happened in New Orleans.

The background for this story is here:

Citing "sacrilege" by demonstrators who disrupted a Mass, Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans has ordered the removal of the Blessed Sacrament from historic St. Augustine Church and said it will be closed "for the foreseeable future."

The order came March 27, the day after sign-waving protesters repeatedly interrupted a priest trying to celebrate Mass in the church, causing the liturgy to be terminated.

- - - - - - - -

Following the recommendations of an archdiocesan pastoral plan in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Archbishop Hughes had earlier decided to close the small parish, merging it with neighboring St. Peter Claver Parish, but to keep the church building open for one Mass each Sunday.

Under the plan, announced in February, seven parishes in the archdiocese were closed and 23 others have been put on hold until enough people return to warrant their reopening.

It is a sad sight that too often today the Mass is seen as an opportunity to protest. This story is that logic carried to its extreme: that you would protest a bishop's decision at a Mass to the point that the Mass would actually have to be stopped.

It also shows, I think, a gap in the understanding of Catholics that some would not see the difference between a protest outside the chancery and the sacrilege of Mass -- the same principle was on display in St. Louis a few months ago when some Catholics quoted in the media clearly did not understand the difference between disagreeing with a parochial decision made by a bishop and the formation of a schismatic parish outside the Catholic Church.

It's a shame that now this parish in New Orleans will no longer even be open for Mass on Sundays, but the bishop had no choice in the matter.

Immigration Reform Resources

The USCCB has teamed with other organizations to produce a website that offers not only information about immigration reform in the United States but also specifically resources for parishes that have people asking about these issues.

Log on to the site at www.JusticeForImmigrants.org

More on the "Patriarch of the West" removal

One of my recent posts commented on how the Vatican had removed one of the pope's titles -- "Patriarch of the West" -- from the official Vatican Yearbook.

After a couple of weeks of media speculation, the Holy See has offered a clarification.

Read their explanation here

A great collection of talks

The website for Peter Kreeft, a a professor of philosophy at Boston College and phenomenal Catholic writer, not only has a collection of his writings but also a large collection of presentations that he has given (in free, downloadable audio files).

The sound files can be found here -- do yourself a favor and download a few and see if you don't get hooked. My favorites so far are "How to Win the Culture War" and "10 Uncommon Insights into Evil from Lord of the Rings."

Is God a tempter?

Father William Saunders writes a column called "Straight Answers" that I heartily recommend that appears in the newspaper of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia.

One of his more recent offerings deals with that phrase in the Our Father: "Lead us not into temptation."

A passage:

Upon first hearing, this petition of the Our Father does sound like we are asking God not to lead us into temptation. (The Our Father is found in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4.) In this sense, the petition sounds like God would purposely place us in temptation and set us up for a fall to sin. The literal translation of the Greek text is indeed, as we recite, "and lead us not into temptation."

Consequently, we must understand this petition in its context. The preceding petition asks our heavenly Father to forgive us our sins as we forgive others — a very positive petition imploring an outpouring of God's healing grace. The petition in question must also be viewed positively: it asks the Father not to lead us into temptation, but not in the sense of God putting us into temptation. St. James reminds us, "No one who is tempted is free to say, 'I am being tempted by God.' Surely God, who is beyond the grasp of evil, tempts no one" (Jas 1:13). Our Lord would never set us up for a fall to sin.

Want to know more? Read the column

"America's Cathedral"

If you had to guess what "America's Cathedral" is for Catholics, what answer would you give? New York? Los Angeles? George Weigel has an answer -- and for those interested in history and architecture, cool news about the future:

St. Patrick’s is, arguably, the most famous Catholic cathedral in the United States. The Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis is, arguably, the most beautiful. But Baltimore’s Old Cathedral, now the Basilica of the Assumption, is indisputably the most historic.

It was conceived by Archbishop John Carroll, the founder of the American hierarchy, whose diocese originally encompassed the entire United States. Archbishop Carroll wanted the first Catholic cathedral in the new republic to embody the nation’s commitment to religious freedom and turned to Benjamin Henry Latrobe, architect of the U.S. Capitol (and son of a Moravian minister), the leading architectural practitioner of the day.

- - -

Baltimore’s Old Cathedral is undergoing a massive restoration, the completion of which will be marked with appropriate ceremony in November. The dome’s skylights are back, and their restoration, combined with a brave decision to restore the original plain glass to the basilica’s windows, will let 21st-century Americans experience the luminosity that Carroll and Latrobe intended.

Get the whole article via the Denver Catholic Register

"Jesus Decoded"

A Catholic News Service story reports that a "new Web site sponsored by the U.S. bishops' Catholic Communication Campaign has been established to provide accurate information about the life of Jesus, the origins of Christianity and Catholic teaching to counter claims made in the best-selling novel 'The Da Vinci Code' by Dan Brown."

The site, which is coming out about two months ahead of the debut of a film version of the book, can be found at: www.jesusdecoded.com.

Catholic Charities in Boston draws a line in the sand

Catholic Charities in Boston has recently been at the center of a firestorm over the matter of placing children in adoptions to gay couples. While the agency has done it about a dozen times in its history, the bishops of Massachusetts have called for an end to it -- and the state has said that Catholic Charities must continue adopting to gay couples as part of keeping with anti-discrimination laws. On top of that, there have been rumblings that United Way would cease funding Catholic Charities if they did not comply with the state.

So, in reply, Catholic Charities in Boston will cease its adoption services. Archbishop Sean O'Malley had this to say:

Most Catholic Charities in the United States had their beginnings in providing adoption services for children from Catholic working class families who had lost their parents. Prior to Catholic Charities providing adoption services, the state might have placed these children in non-Catholic homes. Excercising constitutionally guaranteed religious freedom, Catholic Charities stepped forward to provide placement for orphaned children in a manner that was in accord with the faith and religious practice of the children´s parents.

Over time, Catholic Charities expanded its adoption services so as to provide placement services for children of many faiths and circumstances, always seeking to care for the children.

Sadly, we have come to a moment when Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Boston must withdraw from the work of adoptions, in order to exercise the religious freedom that was the prompting for having begun adoptions many years ago.

The archdiocese has also posted this article, which I found be of great use in explaing, quite simply, the position of the Catholic Church on this issue:

Catholic scholar explains Church’s position on adoption by same-sex couples

Canadian religious orders criticize Church

Sometimes it is shocking to see a real world example of just how much disagreement there are in some parts of the world -- mostly the western world -- with what the Church rightly considered settled doctrine, such as the teaching handed down from Jesus himself that divorce and remarriage is wrong in all cases but those involving invalidity.

Catholic News Service posted a story yesterday that was one of those real world examples -- a letter on behalf of more than 200 religious orders in Canada was sent to the Canadian bishops to criticize the Church's teaching on sexual morality (what else?), the role of women, the rigidity of the bishops' teaching authority and their adherence to policies orinating from the Vatican.

Franciscan Sister Louise Stafford, a Canadian Religious Conference spokeswoman, did say that the letter was intended to be part of private dialogue and that it was leaked to the media. On that point, I at least admire her a bit -- there is quite a difference between a private dialogue with the Church and a public challenge, which this unfortunately has become.

Still, one wonders how far religious orders in Canada have strayed from the truth of the Church's teachings to challenging them on so many fronts.

Bishop Gilles Cazabon of Saint-Jerome, Quebec, president of the Assembly of Quebec Catholic Bishops, had this to say about the whole affair:

"We welcome any views they would like to express," he said. "Sometimes, though, in reading their message, I had an impression that they speak to the church ... as if they are not in the church.

"We are not antagonistic bodies. We are, together, the church. So I'm afraid what comes out of their document is that they don't come across as being very self-critical," the bishop said.

In response to the criticism that the bishops are aligned with the Vatican, Bishop Cazabon said: "When it comes to the basic doctrinal content, of course, we are all one. When it comes to more disciplinary aspects, we are one on the main things. On the other hand, we as bishops, we are members of the college of bishops, and the head of this college is the pope. So we always try to accomplish our ministry with our brother bishops and with the pope.

. . .

Bishop Cazabon said he hoped the pope's first encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est" ("God Is Love"), would help dispel the image of the church as legalistic, another criticism in the letter.

Read the whole story

A call to disobedience from a Cardinal?

This story is probably only starting, but it's certainly with interest to follow it -- after all, today's New York Times editorial bills this as a call from a Cardinal of the Catholic Church to violate a U.S. law should it be passed. That may be a bit extreme or premature, but it's what some people are saying.

Read for yourself: Cardinal says to use Lent to oppose hostility toward immigrants

Here is one of the pertinent excerpts:

In interviews with the Los Angeles Times and The Tidings, the archdiocesan newspaper, the cardinal harshly criticized a recent bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that emphasizes enforcement measures against people who are in the country illegally.

Cardinal Mahony called the House legislation, which would penalize people who aid illegal immigrants, a "blameful, vicious" bill.

"Anyone who does anything for someone here who doesn't have documents would be a felon under this bill," the cardinal told The Tidings.

"And it targets everybody, churches included. So on its face value, it means that anyone coming for Communion or baptism or to be married, I should stop and ask to see their legal papers," he said in an interview that appeared in the Feb. 17 issue of The Tidings.

"That's absurd, and we're not going to do it -- even if Congress says we have to. We're not going to be immigration officers. Our role is spiritual and pastoral, and that's going to prevail. But the foolishness of this whole out-of-control thought process is just astounding," he said.

It's always surprised me how much hostility and debate this topic brings up between Catholics. Yet with the other "hot-button" topics of the day, the discussion about immigration reform can get pushed to the back burner. If you want to know more about this, check out these links to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles:

Immigration proposals: Contentious debate looms

Cardinal Mahony Calls On Catholics To Fast For Immigration Reform This Lenten Season

Lenten message of Cardinal Roger Mahony

This link was provided as well: Justice for Immigrants Campaign

Pope drops one of his nine titles

One thing that most of us in The Criterion's offices love is good Catholic trivia. A question that came up about a year ago was: What are the nine official titles of the pope? The answer was in the offical Vatican Yearbook, which describes the pope as:

-Vicar of Jesus Christ
-Bishop of Rome
-Successor of the Prince of the Apostles
-Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church
-Patriarch of the West
-Primate of Italy
-Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Province of Rome
-Sovereign of Vatican City State
-Servant of the Servants of God

According to a recent Catholic News Service story: "The last time the list of titles was changed was with Pope Paul VI's publication of the 1969 edition of the yearbook, the Annuario Pontificio. Pope Paul added the title 'servant of the servants of God' and deleted the phrase 'gloriously reigning.' "

Now, Pope Benedict XVI has made another change -- he removed one of the titles. Any guesses?

If you want to know which one, and the guesses as to why he did it, follow the link below:

Vatican removes title after pope's name

Ash Wednesday

This Ash Wednesday we're launching a special Lenten page as a resource to Catholics.

The page, located at www.archindy.org/lent, contains links to the daily readings, a column by Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein, the Lenten regulations, suggested links and the Stations of the Cross.

As Lent progresses I will add more links to the page as I come across them.

- - - - - - -

UPDATE: You can find pictures from the Ash Wednesday Mass at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis here.

South Dakota moves to ban abortion

South Dakota is in the process of directly challenging the 1973 ruling Roe v. Wade -- and would be "the most sweeping ban" on abortions passed in more than 30 years.

Check out the story here: South Dakota Legislature bans nearly all abortions

The state has tried this before, in 2004, but the governor did not sign the bill for various reasons -- though it sounds optimistic that he will sign it this time. One interesting aspect of the story is how punishment will be doled out under the law for abortions:

The bill, called the Women's Health and Human Life Protection Act, specifically exempts women from any criminal conviction or penalty for obtaining an abortion. But it says that anyone who performs an abortion except to save a mother's life commits a Class 5 felony, which is punishable by a fine up to $5,000 and up to five years in prison.

The legislation says the law does not apply to medical treatment "that results in the accidental or unintentional injury or death to the unborn child."

Mother Theodore's Cause, forward again

More good news on the Mother Theodore Guerin front. The foundress of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind., has had the way to her canonization cleared.

Check out this press release from the Sisters of Providence for more information and look for a story to come in The Criterion on March 3.

Also, if you want to know more about this saintly woman, go to our new archdiocesan page dedicated to her with articles going back to her beatification in 1998.

Pope names new cardinals

At his general audience today, Pope Benedict XVI announced that next month 14 bishops and one priest would be elevated to the status of cardinal.

Twelve of the bishops are younger than 80, which means that they could elect a new pope. Two other bishops and the one priest were over 80 and given the red hat as an honor to them for their service to the Church.

Read the story here:

Pope names 15 new cardinals, including two from U.S.

What are you giving up for Lent?

How about television?

Now that would be a penance for most of us. And it would probably do most of us a lot of spiritual good. While I was in college -- not so long ago -- I didn't have access to a television my senior year. It was amazing how much I didn't miss it after a while, and amazing how much I started to get a distaste for many of my "favorite" shows. Suddenly, it was like the mask was pulled away and I realized "This show really is senselessly violent. This other show really does mock my core values. This show is simply a waste of my time."

It's not that I don't enjoy several television shows right now, but when I read the beginning of a recent CNS story I had to read the rest:

Television is like the weather. Everybody complains about it, but nobody does anything about it.

But what if the one thing that could be done about it is nothing?

You could simply turn off your TV. And keep it off.

Later, there is this interesting tidbit:

Chris Rose, an attorney who lives in Sutton, Alaska, in an essay published in the Anchorage Daily News, cited a study by Rutgers psychologist Robert Kubey which found that millions of Americans are so hooked on TV that they fit the criteria for "substance dependence" as defined by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Those symptoms include using TV as a sedative; indiscriminate viewing; feeling loss of control while viewing; feeling angry with oneself for watching too much; an inability to stop watching; and feeling miserable when kept from watching.

"It's really not too far of a stretch to liken people being 'on' TV with people being 'on' drugs," Rose concluded.

If you quit TV for Lent, you may be doing yourself and your family a favor.

If you feel like you're watching too much television, think about giving this a try during Lent and get the rest of the story here

Catholic movie reviews

More than a few people have asked about The Criterion's on-again-off-again relationship with printing the movie reviews from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Quite some time ago, we used to devote a whole page in the print edition to entertainment news -- but because of the small size of our paper and limited space, the page disappeared.

It re-appeared in the form of a small box on the bottom of page six (our events page) that listed the ratings -- and the reasons for them.

As our online edition flourished, we began posting the whole reviews there, and eventually phasing them out in the print edition.

Then again, as the demands for more features online increased -- and as I began to devote more time to planning for an upcoming redesign of the archdiocesan website -- the online version of the movie reviews fell by the wayside.

We have, though, continued to include a link to the USCCB's movie review webpage on the "Links" page of The Criterion Online Edition.

I suggest you put it on your favorites list and check it our regularly for updates. Meanwhile, those reviews may one day come back to either our print or online editions if we can find a way to make it feasible.

Listen to Criterion stories

Today another new feature was launched on The Criterion Onlne Edition which is meant to go hand-in-hand with the beginning of our podcast.

Readers may now listen to selected Criterion stories each week -- and may either do so on their computer or download them as an mp3 to listen to on an mp3 player, such as an iPod.

Because of our small staff, it is simply not possible to record everything that appears in print, but we are able to offer a few stories each week, along with the editorial and the column of the Archbishop.

While I read the text of the editorials, the rest of the stories (including the archbishop's column) are read the the actual authors, which I think brings some variety to it.

Here is this week's selection (each is between 1 and 2 MB):

Bereavement specialist says help grieving people by listening

Growing in faith: Hundreds of archdiocesan Scouts receive religious awards

Editorial: We are called to be stewards of joy

Now he really is a bishop with a podcast

An archbishop with a podcast, to be exact.

Check out the lastest venture of The Criterion Online Edition: a podcast featuring the weekly column of Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein.

As a brief aside: a podcast is special type of webpage that updates with the latest audio "episodes" of a various topic. In our case, usually each Monday our podcast will be updated with a new column read by Archbishop Buechlein.

If you're set up with iTunes or a similar podcast "aggregator" that will collect the latest audio updates on a podcast, then simply subscribe to the following link:

http://www.archindy.org/criterion/podcast.xml

In the very near future, we will be including weekly audio versions of some of the stories in our print edition.

I'll also include a link to the podcast permanently on the right-hand menu of links.

A Vatican Olympic team?

I've got to admit, I'd never even thought of this as a possibility.

It sure would be neat though, to see the Vatican flag waving at the opening ceremonies and the athletes wearing the white and yellow.

At least one priest says it probably won't ever happen, though. U.S. Father Kevin Lixey, a member of the Legionaries of Christ in Turin to represent the Vatican, gives an explanation in the story:

The priest said some people tend to see the Vatican as a country that might want to boast its own national identity, but the pope is not the leader of a nation; he is the universal shepherd guiding the world's faithful.

"We're every country really. We represent the church throughout the world, not just the small city state of Vatican City," said the priest, a native of Flint, Mich.

The Vatican, in fact, prefers not to be a voting member of the United Nations, but instead to hold observer status, he said.

Also on the Olympics beat...in addition to the post previous to this one, here's another Shroud of Turin story:

Church should stress shroud's spiritual value, official says

The Shroud of Turin

It may have slipped past many peoples' attention that the English version of "Torino," where the XX Winter Olympics are currently being played out, is "Turin." Due to NBC's unusual choice to broadcast the name of the city in its native tongue, I've heard of many people (myself included) that did not realize until recently just exactly where these games were in Italy.

But the word "Turin" for many Catholics -- and other Christians -- immediately brings to mind the famous Shroud that is kept there. It's a Shroud that many contend bears the image of Jesus Christ as he was after he was taken down from the cross.

Not the least of those convinced is Barrie Schwortz, who nearly 30 years ago was THE official photographer of the Shroud. Since those days, he's had a great interest in it, and has become convinced that it is what it's always been thought to be -- the twist in Schwortz's case is that he remains Jewish.

I've posted a news story that was published in The Criterion two years ago that centers around an interview with Schwortz. His main contention is that the famous carbon-dating that supposedly debunked the myth of the Shroud was not valid:

Originally, seven samples from different parts of the shroud were to be given to seven different labs, which were also supposed to do a chemical analysis.

At the last moment, the plan was changed. One sample would be taken and split three ways to three labs. Each lab neglected to do a chemical analysis. The reason given was “expediency.”

“Well,” Schwortz said, “when you have, potentially, the most important relic of Christianity, and you, for expediency, change the test that could make or break its authenticity, that’s not good judgment
in my opinion.”

It turns out that the sample the carbondaters chose was enormously bad—it was an area of the cloth damaged by years of handling and which showed up as being drastically different than the rest of the shroud in ultra-violet photography.

Fascinating stuff. You can even check out a website that he runs as a way to bring the latest in Shroud news and data to the public: www.shroud.com.

The weekly audio column of the archbishop

The Feb. 10 column of Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein has been posted at our online edition.

As had been brought to my attention, the audio on the recordings made by the archbishop was a bit low, and hopefully I've fixed it (or at least it seems to be so.).

The Vatican and the liturgy

Catholic News Service has posted the first in what it says will be an ongoing series of stories that feature interviews with the heads of the various parts of the Curia -- the official offices of the Vaticans, and "arms" of the pope, that oversee such things as the liturgy or Causes for Canonization or priests.

The first posted story was an interview with Cardinal Francis Arinze, the Nigerian prelate who heads the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments. He talks about how Pope Benedict XVI will approach correctly abuses in the liturgy -- mostly caused by priests and lay people who deviate from the form and prayers of the Mass.

He said that many liturgical abuses are " 'based on weakness of faith or ignorance' or on a wrong idea of creativity. Where improper practices occur, it is important to begin identifying them and talking about them, but without harming the people involved, the cardinal said.'

Later on in the story comes a classic quote from the cardinal -- who is known for being blunt. Sean Gallagher pointed this gem out to me:

Celebrating Mass well involves lay ministers, but primarily the priest, who sets a tone through every word and gesture, the cardinal said.

"Suppose a priest comes at the beginning of Mass and says: 'Good morning, everybody, did your team win last night?' That's not a liturgical greeting. If you can find it in any liturgical book, I'll give you a turkey," Cardinal Arinze said.

Check out the rest of the story.

New local stories

This week's batch of local news stories has been posted over at www.CriterionOnline.com. This includes a few stories along with the editorial, events calendar and the column of Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein.

If you haven't checked out the work of our newest reporter, John Shaughnessy, be sure to do so (his is the lead story on our online edition). You'll find that his articles are a good read and bring a great new style to each issue of the paper.

Pope going to Turkey

I meant to post this yesterday. There isn't much to the news as of yet, but the Vatican has officially announced that Pope Benedict XVI will be traveling to Turkey later this year.

God save Boo Boo the chicken

Every now and again it's good to post something totally unrelated to the Catholic world.

So, without further adieu, is the inspiring story of Boo Boo the chicken.

Quote of the week:

"I breathed into its beak, and its dadgum eyes popped open."

Compendium of the Catechism Available March 31

The compendium is finally due out before the end of Lent!

The USCCB put out this press release a couple of days ago. Be sure to give it a look and reserve your copy!

The King of Pop meets the Vicar of Christ

This is one of the stranger stories that's been circulating around the Catholic blog circuit lately -- that Michael Jackson could be involved in helping to put Pope John Paul II's prayers to song.

To get the scoop, check out this story from the Catholic Explorer of Joilet, Ill.

And by the way, whoever the website genius was who put the photo with the story linked above, I salute you.

Olympic coverage with a Catholic twist

Some various stories are already floating around the Web that make a Catholic connection to the soon-to-begin Winter Olympics in Turin.

Olympic hopeful finds faith in the journey

Turin Olympics draw interest to Italy's city of the Shroud

As Olympics begin, Catholic involvement seen in Turin, on slopes

There will be more to come, no doubt.

St. Valentine

For all your "Who was St. Valentine again?" needs...

Such little significance is attached to the memory of St. Valentine that even in the Spanish capital of Madrid in 2005 only a handful of people visited the Church of St. Anton, where what is believed to be his skeleton is kept on a side altar in a glass-fronted baroque case.

The giving of valentines originated in northern Europe soon after the arrival of Christianity. In England, St. Valentine's Day customs were mentioned by St. Bede, a Benedictine monk, as early as the eighth century. References later appear in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare.

In medieval France, the feast day was marked by jousting tournaments punctuated by recitals of amorous poetry. In European countries, as in North America, St. Valentine is very much the "patron saint of lovers."

The story is here.

Cardinal Newman Society

The Cardinal Newman Society is one of those groups that, for good or for ill, usually finds itself in the middle of a firestorm. The goal of the group is described as such on it's site: "Cardinal Newman Society is a national organization dedicated to the renewal of Catholic identity at Catholic colleges and universities in the United States. We are an intercollegiate organization of more than 16,000 college leaders, educators, students, alumni, and others dedicated to promoting John Henry Cardinal Newman's vision, further developed by Pope John Paul II in his 1990 Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae."

Recently, the president of the group gave a talk at Georgetown University. Below are some excerpts of the event from a Catholic News Service story:

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A self-described watchdog organization that claims many Catholic colleges are losing their Catholic identity is not setting up a teaching authority independent of the bishops, said the head of the group.

The Cardinal Newman Society is exercising a "concurrent magisterium" in keeping with the church's teaching authority, said Patrick Reilly, the society's president.

He said that the organization presents to bishops its concerns that some Catholic colleges hire professors and invite speakers who oppose Catholic teachings, especially on abortion and sexual morality.

But the society needs no prior permission from bishops to issue its criticisms, he added.

Get the rest of the story.

Another bishop with a podcast?

Well, not really, but it's a start.

The Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Illinois has a nice site for their newspaper, and this week they include a link to not only look at but also listen to their bishop, George Lucas, read the text of his reflection on the recent encyclical letter of Pope Benedict XVI.