Catholic Culture
Phil Lawler
European leaders are meeting today to select a new president for the European Union. They will also choose an EU foreign minister.
With the final ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, the 27 member-states of the EU are now formed into a single entity, with a population of nearly 500 million and a GDP of over $18 trillion, wielding enormous economic and political influence. The president of this new federation will instantly become one of the most powerful figures in world affairs.
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Thanks to SBC for link.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Socialist Snakeoil in the CCHD
Capital Research Center
That’s not quite the way I see CCHD. The charity only reluctantly cut off ACORN last year and continues to fund the equally radical community organizing group Industrial Areas Foundation that was founded by Saul Alinsky himself. It also funds PICO, DART, and the Gamaliel Foundation.
The most noteworthy thing about this is the name Saul Alinsky, Hillary Clinton's mentor, who was one of the intellectual lights behind Cultural Marxism in the United States. Notworthy in all of this is the Bishop's tacit support for Marxist organizations that talk a good game about charity and fishing, are actually engaged in destablilizing what's best in the Republic and turning the Church into a government controlled Bureaucracy.
Link to CRC...
That’s not quite the way I see CCHD. The charity only reluctantly cut off ACORN last year and continues to fund the equally radical community organizing group Industrial Areas Foundation that was founded by Saul Alinsky himself. It also funds PICO, DART, and the Gamaliel Foundation.
The most noteworthy thing about this is the name Saul Alinsky, Hillary Clinton's mentor, who was one of the intellectual lights behind Cultural Marxism in the United States. Notworthy in all of this is the Bishop's tacit support for Marxist organizations that talk a good game about charity and fishing, are actually engaged in destablilizing what's best in the Republic and turning the Church into a government controlled Bureaucracy.
Link to CRC...
More 'Reform of the Reform' according to Ecclesia Dei
In an interview with the French journal L'Homme Nouveau, the secretary of the Ecclesia Dei commission has confirmed that the liturgical "reform of the reform" remains a high priority at the Vatican. Msgr. Guido Pozzo explained:
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What is essential today is to recover the deeper sense of the Catholic liturgy, in the two uses of the Roman missal, in the sacred character of the liturgical action, in the centrality of the priest as mediator between God and the Christian people, in the sacrificial character of the Holy Mass as an essential dimension from which derives the dimension of communion.
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Priest Criticizes USCCB Study and the USCCB
The Post-Standard
November 19, 2009, 7:10AM
In today's Post-Standard, a Roman Catholic priest criticizes bishops' handling of reported sexual abuse by priests.
Rev. Eric K. Harer
Constantia
November 19, 2009, 7:10AM
In today's Post-Standard, a Roman Catholic priest criticizes bishops' handling of reported sexual abuse by priests.
To the Editor:
As a Roman Catholic priest in good standing, I find myself in the midst of a great dilemma. Of which should I be more ashamed? The fact that less than 3 per cent of my priest brothers have been credibly accused of the sexual abuse of minors? Or the fact that 97 percent of the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops seem to be in a state of invincible denial?
The assertion that “homosexuality is no factor in abusive priests” (Post-Standard, Associated Press, Nov. 18) is so utterly absurd as to defy rational credibility. Fact: Ninety-five percent of all reported cases of sexual abuse by priests involved the homosexual predation of teenage boys! What was the bishops’ response as this crisis was festering for more than 50 years? Instead of reaching out in a pastorally responsible and sensitive manner to the victims and their parents, they called in their attorneys to protect their assets.
This adversarial relationship that the bishops themselves created exacerbated the problem to the point where it became completely unmanageable. They have destroyed the morale of many good and holy priests and have alienated the faithful to the point where no one now living will ever see the healing of the injuries caused by this unspeakable abuse of power.
Memo to bishops: “Denial” is not the name of a river in Egypt!
Rev. Eric K. Harer
Constantia
600,000 Serbs Mourn Patriarch Pavle at Holy Archangels Monastery near Belgrade
B92 News
The spiritual leader of the Serb Orthodox Christians was laid to rest this afternoon at the Monastery of the Holy Archangels in Rakovica, near Belgrade, next to Patriarch Dimitrije, who headed the Serb Church from 1920 until 1930.
The funeral service at the grave was served by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I and the keeper of the throne of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) until a new patriarch has been elected, Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and Littoral.
A message from Russian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Kirill was also read.
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Wednesday, November 18, 2009
USCCB does not find that there is Intelligent Life at Commonweal
The USCCB is still ignoring the problem. In a usual pattern of deception, they seem bent on ignoring reality and their own canon law. By all appearances, they will most likely continue to ordain homosexuals in large numbers despite the danger they pose to the purity of boy chilren.
A preliminary report commissioned by the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops on the roots of the clergy sex-abuse scandal found no evidence that gay priests were more likely than heterosexual clergy to molest children, the study’s lead authors said yesterday.
First their title dishonestly implies that the USCCB states that "Homosexuality is not linked to sex-abuse, rather it's the other way around. Then another journalist steps in and sights a spurious study with some poorly reasoned arguments.
The full $2 million study by researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice won’t be completed until the end of 2010. But the authors said their evidence to date found no data indicating that homosexuality was a predictor of abuse.
It's still amazing that the USCCB spent all that money to tell us that sodomites and criminality were at the heart of the problem.
UPDATE: Longer analysis by David Gibson over at Politics Daily.
“What we are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse,” said Margaret Smith, a researcher from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, which is conducting an independent study of sexual abuse in the priesthood from 1950 up to 2002. “At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and an increased likelihood of sexual abuse.” [The Soviet Union made all kinds of "scientific" studies like this]
A second researcher, Karen Terry, also cautioned the bishops against making a correlation between homosexuality in the priesthood and the high incidence of abuse by priests against boys rather than girls — a ratio found to be about 80-20. [It's actually more than that]
“It’s important to separate the sexual identity and the behavior,” [But why?] Terry said. “Someone can commit sexual acts that might be of a homosexual nature but not have a homosexual identity.” [This is a false distinction and we don't in any case know what Terry means. Based on her special pleading, I doubt that it's very well defined.] Terry said factors such as greater access to boys is one reason for the skewed ratio. [Not really, priests have more freedom, and less accountability than average workers and can go anywhere they want. Fact of the matter is that they don't go after girls because most of them are homosexuals] Smith also raised the analogy of prison populations where homosexual behavior is common even though the prisoners are not necessarily homosexuals, or cultures where men are rigidly segregated from women until adulthood, and homosexual activity is accepted and then ceases after marriage. [Still reaching for an excuse. She's like he guardian of an alcoholic child who refuses to acknowledge reality.]
(…)
When asked by a bishop at Tuesday’s meeting whether homosexuality should be a factor in excluding men from the seminary, Smith responded, “If that exclusion were based on the fact that that person would be more probable than any other candidate to abuse, we do not find that at this time.”
Read at ... Commonweal.
A preliminary report commissioned by the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops on the roots of the clergy sex-abuse scandal found no evidence that gay priests were more likely than heterosexual clergy to molest children, the study’s lead authors said yesterday.
First their title dishonestly implies that the USCCB states that "Homosexuality is not linked to sex-abuse, rather it's the other way around. Then another journalist steps in and sights a spurious study with some poorly reasoned arguments.
The full $2 million study by researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice won’t be completed until the end of 2010. But the authors said their evidence to date found no data indicating that homosexuality was a predictor of abuse.
It's still amazing that the USCCB spent all that money to tell us that sodomites and criminality were at the heart of the problem.
UPDATE: Longer analysis by David Gibson over at Politics Daily.
“What we are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse,” said Margaret Smith, a researcher from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, which is conducting an independent study of sexual abuse in the priesthood from 1950 up to 2002. “At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and an increased likelihood of sexual abuse.” [The Soviet Union made all kinds of "scientific" studies like this]
A second researcher, Karen Terry, also cautioned the bishops against making a correlation between homosexuality in the priesthood and the high incidence of abuse by priests against boys rather than girls — a ratio found to be about 80-20. [It's actually more than that]
“It’s important to separate the sexual identity and the behavior,” [But why?] Terry said. “Someone can commit sexual acts that might be of a homosexual nature but not have a homosexual identity.” [This is a false distinction and we don't in any case know what Terry means. Based on her special pleading, I doubt that it's very well defined.] Terry said factors such as greater access to boys is one reason for the skewed ratio. [Not really, priests have more freedom, and less accountability than average workers and can go anywhere they want. Fact of the matter is that they don't go after girls because most of them are homosexuals] Smith also raised the analogy of prison populations where homosexual behavior is common even though the prisoners are not necessarily homosexuals, or cultures where men are rigidly segregated from women until adulthood, and homosexual activity is accepted and then ceases after marriage. [Still reaching for an excuse. She's like he guardian of an alcoholic child who refuses to acknowledge reality.]
(…)
When asked by a bishop at Tuesday’s meeting whether homosexuality should be a factor in excluding men from the seminary, Smith responded, “If that exclusion were based on the fact that that person would be more probable than any other candidate to abuse, we do not find that at this time.”
Read at ... Commonweal.
Cardinal Schönborn’s visit to Medjugorje 'not a statement,' spokesman says
Cardinal Schönborn's masonic sympathies were well explained and demonstrated by Kreuz.net earlier this year when wrote about how he had attended his masonic father's masonic funeral and enjoys the good opinion of Masonic leaders in Austria today, leaders who are not quite so fond of some of his less correct brother Bishops. So, with these strong sympathies, it seems safe tocall them so, the Cardinal is attending another Masonic locale, Medjugorje.
However, his communications director, Father J. Fürnkranz indicates that this was not to be a public visitatio.
Cardinal Schönborn’s visit to Medjugorje 'not a statement,' spokesman says
Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Nov 16, 2009 / 02:55 pm (CNA).- Cardinal Christoph Schönborn will visit Medjugorje, the small town in Bosnia-Herzegovina where six young people have allegedly been witnesses of apparitions from the Virgin Mary. But according to the Archdiocese of Vienna, the trip is “completely private” and does not imply a statement from the cardinal on the veracity of the apparitions.
“It was supposed to be a completely private visit, it was not supposed to go out to the internet,” Fr. Johannes Fürnkranz, personal secretary to the Archbishop of Vienna, explained to CNA.
The cardinal’s visit will take place between December 8th and January 4th.
“The cardinal's visit was supposed to be absolutely personal and not public, but since it has been leaked, I can only confirm that it will take place. There is no statement whatsoever involved (in the visit),” Fr. Fürnkranz told CNA.
The local Church authorities, including Bishop Ratko Peric, whose diocese encompasses Medjugorje, have declared that the alleged apparitions are not to be published or promoted.
Story here...
However, his communications director, Father J. Fürnkranz indicates that this was not to be a public visitatio.
Cardinal Schönborn’s visit to Medjugorje 'not a statement,' spokesman says
Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Nov 16, 2009 / 02:55 pm (CNA).- Cardinal Christoph Schönborn will visit Medjugorje, the small town in Bosnia-Herzegovina where six young people have allegedly been witnesses of apparitions from the Virgin Mary. But according to the Archdiocese of Vienna, the trip is “completely private” and does not imply a statement from the cardinal on the veracity of the apparitions.
“It was supposed to be a completely private visit, it was not supposed to go out to the internet,” Fr. Johannes Fürnkranz, personal secretary to the Archbishop of Vienna, explained to CNA.
The cardinal’s visit will take place between December 8th and January 4th.
“The cardinal's visit was supposed to be absolutely personal and not public, but since it has been leaked, I can only confirm that it will take place. There is no statement whatsoever involved (in the visit),” Fr. Fürnkranz told CNA.
The local Church authorities, including Bishop Ratko Peric, whose diocese encompasses Medjugorje, have declared that the alleged apparitions are not to be published or promoted.
Story here...
Cloudy, USCCB Study on Clerical Sex Abuse
An impressionistic but very extensive and expensive study indicates that the abuse of [homosexual] clergy dropped off after 1985 and that it was most prevalent beginning with the Age of the Big Baby Boomer. It indirectly points the finger at that popular post-war generation, but shouldn't it also include "homosexuals"?
It's unclear why the Bishops had to spend all of this money to determine what the problem was. Referring to the historical nature of the problem, they would have disclosed that it was not foreign to the Middle Ages or the Ancient World and was often seated, along with homosexuality, in the actual practice of Witchcraft and the consequent diabolism or insanity, if you wish. The methods for dealing with these individuals, who in some cases murdered and raped children, as what the case with the a friend and companion of Joan of Arc, Baron Gilles de Rais and his friends, was burning at the stake.
Would that the Bishops would spend more time being environmentally as well as economically conscious and spare us the time of moving such individuals from parish to parish to escape the long arm of the law by simply handing them over to the secular arm for due punishment after an admissible ecclesiastical trial.
Strangely, the report also offers a solution, in terms of formation, related to a mysterious "human formation preparation". It sounds like something that might have caused the problem in the first place.
We don't know, but perhaps if they spent as much time affirming the truths of the Catholic Faith as they did avoiding it out of what, embarrassment (?), they might have an easier time helping people understand whether or not they're useful in the first place.
Link to spero article...
It's unclear why the Bishops had to spend all of this money to determine what the problem was. Referring to the historical nature of the problem, they would have disclosed that it was not foreign to the Middle Ages or the Ancient World and was often seated, along with homosexuality, in the actual practice of Witchcraft and the consequent diabolism or insanity, if you wish. The methods for dealing with these individuals, who in some cases murdered and raped children, as what the case with the a friend and companion of Joan of Arc, Baron Gilles de Rais and his friends, was burning at the stake.
Would that the Bishops would spend more time being environmentally as well as economically conscious and spare us the time of moving such individuals from parish to parish to escape the long arm of the law by simply handing them over to the secular arm for due punishment after an admissible ecclesiastical trial.
Strangely, the report also offers a solution, in terms of formation, related to a mysterious "human formation preparation". It sounds like something that might have caused the problem in the first place.
We don't know, but perhaps if they spent as much time affirming the truths of the Catholic Faith as they did avoiding it out of what, embarrassment (?), they might have an easier time helping people understand whether or not they're useful in the first place.
Link to spero article...
USCCB promises to set a new Course for Catholic Education
There was no mention of Land O'Lakes or the veritable wasteland that Catholic Education has become, but perhaps, putting an unimposing silk folding dividing screen with cranes and pastoral scenes from Chinese romances, between the laity and the public, the USCCB intends to "handle" the situation by waiting for the legion tenured heterodox to die and replacing them by enthusiastic orthodoxesque like Christopher West. Meanwhile, we perhaps can try to imagine ourselves in a kind of Gothic, ivy covered paradise where Dominicans sit with their students in gardens, explaining St. Thomas Aquinas without the usual attempts to bring things up to date with the latest in philosophical, post-post modernism.
Cardinal Newman Society
At a subsequent press conference, Cardinal George declined to name specific universities that the bishops have in mind, although he added “if any institution… calls itself Catholic,” it is the moral responsibility of a bishop to assure that it is Catholic, according to the National Catholic Reporter. Cardinal George said this offers the bishops “a chance to clarify the relationship” and see if the entity in question is operating within the bonds of Catholic communion. He said that it is the bishops’ responsibility, when institutions or organizations call themselves Catholic, to sort out what that means in each case.
Also highlighting their support for a university that became a model for reform, the bishops gave a standing ovation to Very Rev. David O’Connell, C.M., president of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Delivering a farewell report as he prepares to retire next year, Father O’Connell said that “the greatest progress the university has made in the past 12 years is in its Catholic identity.” He contrasted that to the “antagonism and cynicism that was present on the campus the day I arrived.”
Link to article...
Cardinal Newman Society
At a subsequent press conference, Cardinal George declined to name specific universities that the bishops have in mind, although he added “if any institution… calls itself Catholic,” it is the moral responsibility of a bishop to assure that it is Catholic, according to the National Catholic Reporter. Cardinal George said this offers the bishops “a chance to clarify the relationship” and see if the entity in question is operating within the bonds of Catholic communion. He said that it is the bishops’ responsibility, when institutions or organizations call themselves Catholic, to sort out what that means in each case.
Also highlighting their support for a university that became a model for reform, the bishops gave a standing ovation to Very Rev. David O’Connell, C.M., president of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Delivering a farewell report as he prepares to retire next year, Father O’Connell said that “the greatest progress the university has made in the past 12 years is in its Catholic identity.” He contrasted that to the “antagonism and cynicism that was present on the campus the day I arrived.”
Link to article...
Syrian Archbishop Al-Jamil addresses Christian Persecution in Iraq
In a talk sponsored by "Save the Monasteries" foundation, Archbishop Archbishop Al-Jamil, procurator of the Syrian-Catholic Patriarchate in Rome has given a talk about the perils and plights facing Catholics in Iraq who, despite having made significant contributions to Iraqi society in the past are now in danger of disappearing from the country entirely if the situation of current Muslim hostility is not addressed. Before the war, Christians were highly respected and considered an integral part of Iraq, but things have changed.
Link to article in Zenit...
Earlier discussion where Archbishop Al-Jamil addresses the question in 2007, link...
An independent Kurdistan...article.
Link to article in Zenit...
Earlier discussion where Archbishop Al-Jamil addresses the question in 2007, link...
An independent Kurdistan...article.
Hugo Chavez wants a War against the Church and USA
Amid talks of a coup and doubts about Chavez's mental stabillity alongside the failed economic Marxist economic policies in an oil rich Venezuela, General Chavez is intent on sabre rattling, confiscating Venezuelan Coffee productio and has also set his greedy eyes on the property of the Venezuelan Church.
Link here...
He has also looked outside of Venezuela for a source of these problems and has found a handy scapegoat in the "gringo" as he seems poised for war, although like many drug addled and confused people, he will look for convenient excuses to explain away his mania.
Link here...
Link here...
He has also looked outside of Venezuela for a source of these problems and has found a handy scapegoat in the "gringo" as he seems poised for war, although like many drug addled and confused people, he will look for convenient excuses to explain away his mania.
Link here...
Don't support the Catholic Campaign for Human Development
California Daily
Editor: The following announcement comes from the website www.reformcchdnow.com.
Every year on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, many Catholic parishes take up a second collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.
Recognize that organization? If you don’t, you should. Here’s why:
Until 2008, the campaign had been funding ACORN for several years, giving over $7 million to the corrupt organization. The same organization that is being investigated for voter fraud, embezzlement, and other wrongdoing was recently caught in undercover videos in recent months helping a pimp and prostitute set up a business and traffic underage girls for prostitution.
Read further...
Editor: The following announcement comes from the website www.reformcchdnow.com.
Every year on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, many Catholic parishes take up a second collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.
Recognize that organization? If you don’t, you should. Here’s why:
Until 2008, the campaign had been funding ACORN for several years, giving over $7 million to the corrupt organization. The same organization that is being investigated for voter fraud, embezzlement, and other wrongdoing was recently caught in undercover videos in recent months helping a pimp and prostitute set up a business and traffic underage girls for prostitution.
Read further...
Jesuit law Professors condemn Stupak Amendment
What's interesting about the Stupak amendment is that it would prohibit abortion coverage even by private insurance companies, but Brietta Clark and Karl Manheim professors of law at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, think this is a bad thing.
Read more:
Read more:
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Divisive Liberals over Celibate Priests
In what could be a scene from a Lasse Hallstrom film, a 50 year old Irish priest in an romantic locale, falls in love and tells his congregation who respond with a heartfelt standing-o. He breaks with tradition, like a man who turns his back on the tumult and chaos of a tired but loyal wife and riotous children for another woman, he's turned his back on the priesthood to which he was commited for 20 years.
It would be easy to spit on him in print. Could those who've met his departure with the cheers in the closing scene of an adolescent feel-good coming of age film really understand what this man has done? Do they understand the priesthood?
What is greater in scope in the treatment of this story is that there are others, mostly comfortable elitist journalists and liberal priests, who want to make this issue and others like it, with its subjective emotional mental states, self-realization and betrayals, into something else. These men, many of whom aren't actually Catholic, want to determine how the Church is run. Their spite is palpable and it's what has always given us an inkling of the truth of the Catholic Church's claims to be what She is, "One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic".
They say that celibacy is a ridiculous rule and that the new incoming Anglicans will call all of this into question. The only thing that's certain is that any avenue of attack will do. Like the crowd that mocked our Lord at Calvary, a diabolical tumult will sound from the electronic media whose malice and desire to corrupt can reach unto every hearth and twist men's minds and make them unwhole; make them unwholesome.
The decision of Londonde cleric Fr Sean McKenna to leave the priesthood because he is in a relationship with a woman has raised again the issue of celibacy within the Catholic Church. It is obvious from the reception given to Fr McKenna by his congregation when he broke the news to them on Sunday that he was much admired as a priest and that that admiration follows him into his life as a lay person. The sadness that many people feel is that he had to choose between his vocation and his new relationship.
The Catholic Church has for centuries held the view that priests must be celibate. That, like its strict views on issues such as abortion and divorce and the ordination of women, is one of the attractions of the Church to those seeking certainties in their lives. However, others see celibacy as an outmoded restriction on the lives of priests.
Read more:
Diogenes comments here...
"Who is a Neo-Conservative" an Interview with Michael Novak
Insidecatholic
Prominent writer, thinker, and Crisis Magazine co-founder Michael Novak sat down with Italian scholar Alia K. Nardini to discuss neoconservatism, Catholicism, and the future of the West.
♦ ♦ ♦
Alia K. Nardini: Professor Novak, generally people in Italy and the rest of Europe want to know how much American neoconservatives share with the Republican Party. However, I find that the most interesting question really concerns the relationship between neoconservatives and the Democratic Party, especially in terms of conceptual differences that developed during the 1960s and 1970s. What is your view on this?
Michael Novak: In the first generation, virtually all neo-conservatives -- Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Irving Kristol, Daniel Bell, Norman Podhoretz, Midge Decter, Richard John Neuhaus, George Weigel, and Paul Johnson in England -- were not only Democrats; we were on the left wing of the Democratic Party. We were Kennedy Democrats. But from about 1972, the Democratic Party, drawing the wrong lessons from the war in Vietnam, chose as its campaign slogan, "Come home, America!" and began retreating from the world and its international burdens. Then, after 1973, the Democratic Party increasingly became the party of abortion. It is still the party of abortion. From our point of view, we did not leave the Democratic Party, the party left us.
AKN: Is it true that the American public did not vote in favor of abortion, but that the Supreme Court, in effect, decreed it?
MN: Actually, prior to 1973, any time abortion had been put to a vote in the United States, it was overwhelmingly defeated. The American people prefer pro-life [legislation] by a good majority. But the Supreme Court stepped in, and in 1973 made a ruling that permitted abortion for almost any reason (in practice) and during all nine months of pregnancy. This was an illegitimate exercise of judicial power. It is not the business of the Court to make legislation. Legislation should be made only with the consent of the governed, through the Congress. The American people have never consented to this ruling, [which] has caused turmoil in our politics and culture for 34 years now, as nothing else has. Together with other factors, it brought a long series of defeats to the Democratic Party.
AKN: What other major issues made you move away from what was becoming the official position of the Democratic Party in the 1970s?
MN: Economics. Many of us once thought that socialism was basically a good idea, but socialists had not found a practical way to implement it successfully. Then we actually started to examine the many different national experiments in socialism -- almost 70. None of them worked. So socialism cannot be a good idea. Now, if you are on the Left and you cease being a socialist, what are you? If you do not take the state as the main engine of progress, where do you turn?
In these circumstances, and independently, several writers started re-examining the American founding. Irving Kristol in particular wrote a beautiful book about that, and discovered a new way of thinking about the future.
Like socialists, neoconservatives try to imagine, and to work toward, a better future. Unlike socialists, neoconservatives saw in a dynamic free economy a better way of breaking the chains of poverty than socialism ever discovered.
Again, at the time of the American founding, the term "republican" was much preferred to "democratic." The latter meant rule by the majority, but that has often proven dangerous and tyrannical. A "republic" places checks and balances on the majority through representative government and stresses the rule of law and the protection of the rights of the free.
Then there was this second discovery: not just that the American founding held a superior economic idea (which is why socialism never took root in the United States), but also that the American people, when given a free choice, would usually come down on the conservative side of most issues. Polls reveal that even in Europe the vast majority of people believe in capital punishment. It is the political class -- the elites -- that does not. The Left thinks it speaks for the people, but rarely does so.
Link to article...
Prominent writer, thinker, and Crisis Magazine co-founder Michael Novak sat down with Italian scholar Alia K. Nardini to discuss neoconservatism, Catholicism, and the future of the West.
♦ ♦ ♦
Alia K. Nardini: Professor Novak, generally people in Italy and the rest of Europe want to know how much American neoconservatives share with the Republican Party. However, I find that the most interesting question really concerns the relationship between neoconservatives and the Democratic Party, especially in terms of conceptual differences that developed during the 1960s and 1970s. What is your view on this?
Michael Novak: In the first generation, virtually all neo-conservatives -- Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Irving Kristol, Daniel Bell, Norman Podhoretz, Midge Decter, Richard John Neuhaus, George Weigel, and Paul Johnson in England -- were not only Democrats; we were on the left wing of the Democratic Party. We were Kennedy Democrats. But from about 1972, the Democratic Party, drawing the wrong lessons from the war in Vietnam, chose as its campaign slogan, "Come home, America!" and began retreating from the world and its international burdens. Then, after 1973, the Democratic Party increasingly became the party of abortion. It is still the party of abortion. From our point of view, we did not leave the Democratic Party, the party left us.
AKN: Is it true that the American public did not vote in favor of abortion, but that the Supreme Court, in effect, decreed it?
MN: Actually, prior to 1973, any time abortion had been put to a vote in the United States, it was overwhelmingly defeated. The American people prefer pro-life [legislation] by a good majority. But the Supreme Court stepped in, and in 1973 made a ruling that permitted abortion for almost any reason (in practice) and during all nine months of pregnancy. This was an illegitimate exercise of judicial power. It is not the business of the Court to make legislation. Legislation should be made only with the consent of the governed, through the Congress. The American people have never consented to this ruling, [which] has caused turmoil in our politics and culture for 34 years now, as nothing else has. Together with other factors, it brought a long series of defeats to the Democratic Party.
AKN: What other major issues made you move away from what was becoming the official position of the Democratic Party in the 1970s?
MN: Economics. Many of us once thought that socialism was basically a good idea, but socialists had not found a practical way to implement it successfully. Then we actually started to examine the many different national experiments in socialism -- almost 70. None of them worked. So socialism cannot be a good idea. Now, if you are on the Left and you cease being a socialist, what are you? If you do not take the state as the main engine of progress, where do you turn?
In these circumstances, and independently, several writers started re-examining the American founding. Irving Kristol in particular wrote a beautiful book about that, and discovered a new way of thinking about the future.
Like socialists, neoconservatives try to imagine, and to work toward, a better future. Unlike socialists, neoconservatives saw in a dynamic free economy a better way of breaking the chains of poverty than socialism ever discovered.
Again, at the time of the American founding, the term "republican" was much preferred to "democratic." The latter meant rule by the majority, but that has often proven dangerous and tyrannical. A "republic" places checks and balances on the majority through representative government and stresses the rule of law and the protection of the rights of the free.
Then there was this second discovery: not just that the American founding held a superior economic idea (which is why socialism never took root in the United States), but also that the American people, when given a free choice, would usually come down on the conservative side of most issues. Polls reveal that even in Europe the vast majority of people believe in capital punishment. It is the political class -- the elites -- that does not. The Left thinks it speaks for the people, but rarely does so.
Link to article...
Official and underground priests in China ponder Card. Bertone’s letter
The document of the Vatican Secretary of State is "encouraging." Underground priests and nuns have begun to study the letter in groups. Others hope that the Vatican will give more precise information. A young bishop: We too need to be trained". Among the problems: priests too distracted by the Internet and a lack of educators in seminaries.
Beijing (AsiaNews) - The Letter of the card. Bertone to Chinese priests, published yesterday, was received and read carefully. Bishops and priests in China are convinced that the formation and spiritual growth of priests should be the first concern of the Church.
Marking the Year for the priesthood, the Vatican secretary of state, yesterday issued a letter to all priests in China, official and underground, calling for reconciliation and exhorting them to live out their vocation.
Read More...
Beijing (AsiaNews) - The Letter of the card. Bertone to Chinese priests, published yesterday, was received and read carefully. Bishops and priests in China are convinced that the formation and spiritual growth of priests should be the first concern of the Church.
Marking the Year for the priesthood, the Vatican secretary of state, yesterday issued a letter to all priests in China, official and underground, calling for reconciliation and exhorting them to live out their vocation.
Read More...
Congressman Cao explains his Vote refers to Jesuit Training
America Magazine
National Jesuit News: As a Jesuit scholastic, you experienced the Spiritual Exercises, a foundational piece of Ignatian spirituality from Jesuit founder Ignatius Loyola. Now, as a congressman, do you find that you use the Ignatian principals of discernment as you reach your political decisions? Has a grounding in Ignatian spirituality helped shape your political decision making process?
Cao: I still use the Ignatian methods almost every day, from examination of conscience back to the methods of the 30 day retreat. I do that very often. Using the whole process of discernment to see where the Sprit is moving me has been extremely important, especially in my recent decision to support the health care reform plan. The Jesuit emphasis on social justice, the fact that we have to advocate for the poor, for the widow, for those who cannot help themselves, plays a very significant part. But at the end of the day, I believe that it’s up to, at least from my perspective, understanding what does my conscious say, how is the Spirit moving me. I use that almost every day in my decision making process. The issues that we contend with in Congress affect every single person here in the United States, so I want to make sure that my decisions are based on good principals and good morals.
For example, right before the [health care] vote, I actually went to Mass and I prayed. And the theme of the day was one of the readings from Isaiah. The priest gave the homily about be not afraid, so I really felt a personal touch during this homily, that this homily was meant for me. I was going through a lot of turmoil, debating on what was the right decision, knowing the fact that if I were to vote ‘yes’, I would be the most hated Republican in the country. [laughs]. So, it was a tough discernment process but I felt during the Mass that it was speaking directly to me. It gave me the strength to say ‘yes, you have to make the right decision’ and 'be not afraid’ to do it because ‘I will go before you’ so that is why I supported the bill knowing the fact that I would be the only one.
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National Jesuit News: As a Jesuit scholastic, you experienced the Spiritual Exercises, a foundational piece of Ignatian spirituality from Jesuit founder Ignatius Loyola. Now, as a congressman, do you find that you use the Ignatian principals of discernment as you reach your political decisions? Has a grounding in Ignatian spirituality helped shape your political decision making process?
Cao: I still use the Ignatian methods almost every day, from examination of conscience back to the methods of the 30 day retreat. I do that very often. Using the whole process of discernment to see where the Sprit is moving me has been extremely important, especially in my recent decision to support the health care reform plan. The Jesuit emphasis on social justice, the fact that we have to advocate for the poor, for the widow, for those who cannot help themselves, plays a very significant part. But at the end of the day, I believe that it’s up to, at least from my perspective, understanding what does my conscious say, how is the Spirit moving me. I use that almost every day in my decision making process. The issues that we contend with in Congress affect every single person here in the United States, so I want to make sure that my decisions are based on good principals and good morals.
For example, right before the [health care] vote, I actually went to Mass and I prayed. And the theme of the day was one of the readings from Isaiah. The priest gave the homily about be not afraid, so I really felt a personal touch during this homily, that this homily was meant for me. I was going through a lot of turmoil, debating on what was the right decision, knowing the fact that if I were to vote ‘yes’, I would be the most hated Republican in the country. [laughs]. So, it was a tough discernment process but I felt during the Mass that it was speaking directly to me. It gave me the strength to say ‘yes, you have to make the right decision’ and 'be not afraid’ to do it because ‘I will go before you’ so that is why I supported the bill knowing the fact that I would be the only one.
Read entire article...
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