Good article on Alfred Kinsley the scientific fraud behind the sexual revolution. Good overview of how his fraudulent research changed the culture – none to the good. Though it does not cover the aspects of Kinsey the man who was a pervert’s pervert. Yet of course Hollywood made a movie about the man that of course didn’t mention that he masturbated babies as part of his research.
Fr. McBrien in The Tidings:
Religious communities of women have been responsible for many of the good things that the Catholic Church in the United States has achieved, both before and after the Second Vatican Council.
It is all the more distressing, therefore, that two Vatican agencies — the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) — have targeted these communities and their principal leadership organization for a “visitation” and “doctrinal assessment” respectively.
One of the most disturbing aspects of the “visitation” is the requirement that each of the visitors will be required to make a public profession of faith and an oath of fidelity to the Apostolic See.
This requirement will discourage a number of potential visitors from volunteering their services in this study, and thereby skew the visitation teams in a particular ideological direction.
Matthew at Creative Minority Report responds:
Did you get that? An oath of fidelity to the Apostolic See skews you in a particular ideological direction, ie conservative.
Fr. McBrien, it’s called being faithful. It’s not ideological.
But using logic would lead one to an inescapable conclusion. If being a conservative Catholic is defined as being faithful to the Apostolic See, then how must a liberal Catholic be defined?
Tsk Tsk Fr. McBrien. The first rule of Heresy club is you don’t talk about Heresy club. And you never ever say what you really mean.
Yes having an religious order actually taking an oath to the Apostolic See is too much. What to they think they are authentically Catholic or something? Actually the whole refusal of taking the oath of fidelity seems a hard one to understand. I remember when Bishop Baker when he was installed as Bishop had everybody working for the Diocese take it and there was some anger about this. Seems a good idea to me for a new Bishop to find the tares among the wheat. Every time I started a new enlistment in the Navy I had to take an oath. An oath is a serious thing and their is a good reason for the military to have one. The same goes for religious orders which comes under the control of the Holy See. I appreciate the honesty of those who refuse such an oath, but those that do should not be in a Catholic religious order.
As President Obama presses for Congressional action on a sweeping health-care proposal that would include funding for abortion, the president of Catholic Charities USA has written to legislators urging them to “make comprehensive health care reform a top priority,” without mentioning the heated debate over abortion coverage.
In his July 22 letter, Father Larry Snyder does not specifically mention the Obama health-care proposal. And he does remind lawmakers that a Catholic approach to health care would “address health needs at all stages of life, from conception to natural death.” But the thrust of his letter is clearly favorable to the Obama proposal. And a time when pro-life organizations are working diligently to strip abortion funding from the initiative, Father Snyder does not address that concern.
“Catholic social teaching affirms that health care is a fundamental issue of human life and dignity,” writes the head of Catholic Charities USA. He urges Congress to implement legislation that will “expand and strengthen Medicaid…cap out of pocket costs… address health disparities.” Father Synder emphasizes the need for reform that will offer protection to those who are most vulnerable, provide help for populations currently underserved by health-care agencies, ensure coverage for racial minorities, extend protection to all legal immigrants, and emphasize prevention.[reference]
Catholic Charities and the USCCB need to go to Damascus to do something about their blindness to what Obamacare portends. At least the USCCB has finally objected to the funding of abortion in the current bill, but still they see the whole project as a positive goal.
Father Snyders’ mention of Catholic teaching of course does not address that it does not teach that it must be at the national level. I see nothing but danger along this path. The government has already forced multiple mandates such as contraceptive coverage with no conscience clause allowed for groups such as Catholic Charities. The Culture of Death will continue to use government force to force medical institutions along the path of their “enlightened” mind under the we are a secular society excuse.
To look at nationalized healthcare in general we can see that it tends towards allowing funding for abortion. Malta is an exemption to this rule, but a small country actually causes subsidiarity to some extent. Bureaucratic health care such as so-called Obamacare moves life and death decision to a committee. Now committees have been known to bore people to death, so I guess they want to expand this. Though of course this whole debate is of a prudential nature, but I think subsidiarity is an important principle in Catholic thought and I don’t see how moving this to the Federal level follows this.
The bill itself for those who actually read it only leads to concern. As Karen Hall points out – The Devil is in the details
People constantly complain about customer service at some big cooperation. Yet think that socialized (bureaucratic medicine) is the answer to the problem. They complain about the cost of medical insurance, yet ignore that it was the government through its insurance mandates that helped to raise the price of the policy in the first place.
This whole bill should be called stealth care since it is to get the nose of the camel under the tent in the first place. Once that happens we will see just how long private insurance and being able to pick your own care will remain. Just how long will Catholic health care be able to advertise their “Gospel Values” on their web site and have it mean anything?
I also don’t understand the whole thing of why Federalizing something makes it better. It never makes anything more efficiently and always does it most costly. People are like Bullwinkle thinking that eventually something right will come out of the Federal hat. While in the military I once found that we were paying $500 dollars for a single externally relieved screw we used to secure the top of an avionics black box. After filing a fraud, waste, and abuse claim it came down to something like just over a buck for a hundred of them. But we will get federal health care right – right?
Visitors to a gallery in Scotland have been defacing the Bible in the name of art.
The Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow has invited art lovers to write their thoughts down in an open Bible on display as part of its Made in God’s Image exhibition.
Next to the Bible lie several pens with a note saying: “If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it”.
Several visitors have already taken up the offer, choosing to leave messages of abuse and obscenity rather than support for the words of God.
“This is all sexist pish, so disregard it all,” one message read.
Another scrawled over the first page of Genesis: “I am Bi, Female & Proud. I want no god who is disappointed in this”.
Others wrote: “The Gospel According to Luke Skywalker”, “F*** the Bible” and “Facist God”.
The exhibition, which also includes a woman ripping pages from a Bible and stuffing them into her underwear, has outraged the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Scotland.
This has got to be the perfect illustration of the progressive mindset. Stuffing scripture pages into your underwear – because you know it is the Church that is obsessed by sex. The other day I heard Fr. Peter Stravinskas talk about his many visits to the Larry King show. He was being interviewed on “Al Kresta in the Afternoon” where he talked about how it is the Church that is obsessed by sex, yet he was always invited on the Larry King show in relation to some sex scandal.
But the gallery’s artist in residence, Anthony Schrag, is unrepentant.
“Any offensive things that have been written are not the point of the work,” Schrag told The Times newspaper.
“It was an open gesture. Are those who say they are upset offended by the things that people write, or just by the very notion that someone should write on a Bible?
People are not offended that people might write in a Bible, we do in all the time taking notes in the margin. It does seem more and more to me that “artists in residence” is one of the most amazing con jobs ever. It is like the Emperor News Clothes, but with people afraid to say “Thats’ junk.” For example I give you this artists “The Beer Tree” – you must read the description and watch the video.
“If we are to open up the Bible for discussion, surely we have to invite people to speak out.”
The Metropolitan Community Church originally proposed the exhibition as a way of reclaiming the Bible as a sacred text.
No surprise that this church is “inclusive Christian ministry to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.” Inclusive that is if you fit in the category they want. Not very inclusive to those of us who take Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition seriously.
However, some of its members have been shocked by the insults written in the Bible on display.
“The Bible should never be used like that,” church minister Jane Clarke said.
“It was our intention to reclaim it as a sacred text.”
Yes the “write yourself in” really pushes the sacred aspect. They did not advance past what Mark Shea calls “What can it hurt?” Funny how so many “prophetic ministries” can’t seems to get a grasp on predicting predictable results.
A Catholic Church spokesman said: “One wonders whether the organisers would have been quite as willing to have the Koran defaced”. [reference]
There exists within the halls and corridors of America’s great universities a Great War–the War of Ideas. It is a horrific war with lots of casualties, mostly freshmen, who get caught in the crossfire before they find the right office door to duck behind for cover. The most confusing part about this war is that it is not just one war. No, it is an intricate set of ongoing conflicts between colleges, schools, professors, and students, each with their individual alliances and treaties. Amidst these brawls is the age old conflict over the role of government in a society–a conflict the United States has fervently carried on for the past 233 years.
Thus starts an interesting blog post from a seminarian doing a internship with Catholic Charities.
The Anchoress has a post on the Little Sisters of the Poor that includes pictures, video’s and their address for donations.
Parents have spoken of their shock after it emerged a popular headteacher at a Catholic primary school in Sheffield is quitting his job because he plans to remarry.
Michael Cassidy has written to parents at St Patrick’s Primary on the last day of term informing them of his decision.
He told them: “This is a decision that has been taken for me as a result of the forthcoming change in my personal life which is that I am to remarry in the autumn.
“As a consequence my position as headteacher is no longer compatible with the conditions and services of my contract. Therefore I have no option but to leave.
“It goes without saying that leaving St Patrick’s will be very difficult for me as I have become very much part of this special community.”
Mr Cassidy, who has been head at St Patrick’s for the past four years, is believed to be a divorcee who is marrying his long-standing partner. He will be leaving the school at the end of the autumn term.
John Cape, director of schools for the Hallam Diocese, said he was aware of Mr Cassidy’s resignation with effect from December 31.
He added: “It is a matter of personal choice made by a man of great integrity. As director of schools I will continue to offer pastoral and professional support to him in the decision he has taken.”
It is believed parents are drawing up a petition in protest about Mr Cassidy’s departure and are planning a campaign on social networking website Facebook.
One mother, Claire Bolsover, told the Sheffield Star: “Mr Cassidy is a fantastic head and both children and parents are really upset. Any school occasion and he’s there, and he knows every child’s name. There are a lot of upset and angry parents.”[reference]
I guess this headmaster is doing the right thing after planning to to do the wrong thing. At least he is resigning knowing he would provide scandal by remaining, too bad some of these parents don’t seem to understand that. I guess not wanting a headmaster of a Catholic school to be an adulterer is passe.
Plus why is it that in every story about some teacher who gets into trouble always a “popular” teacher? Never seen a story where a “unpopular” teacher got into trouble.
When I first saw mention of “Diagnosis Critical: The Urgent Threats Confronting Catholic Health Care” by Leonard J. Nelson III on Amy Welborn’s blog I knew this was a book I wanted to read. The issue of Catholic Health Care has certainly emerged on this blog as I have covered stories regarding this important subject. There are plenty of comparison between Catholic health care and the Catholic education system with the decline of so-called Catholic identity. But as this author points out in his conclusion the Catholic health care system has faired better in this regard for the most part. Not that there are not major ethical problems which are certainly pointed out.
The title of the book certainly gives it an urgency about the seriousness of some of the real problems. Though this is not a book containing chapter after chapter of horror stories of bad things going on in Catholic health care. The author who is a professor in a school of law and an expert surrounding healthcare law goes way beyond just detailing problems.
In fact the book take as systematic approach and starts with moral theology and especially the Catholic natural law tradition. He gives a good overview of this in regards to health care along with a history of the applicable theology. As you would expect there is coverage of the theologians who have departed from traditional moral theology into relativism, proportionalism, and consequentialism which has caused damage to the culture of life in this area.
In the area of bio-ethics they have tried to create a system apart from natural law that develops a consensus in the secular world. There is of course no such consensus and this area of ethics has turned more and more into defending the indefensible. The Pope in his latest encyclical addressed the problem in this area where ethics has come to mean something entirely unethical
Eventually, those who dissented from Humanae Vitae realized that the traditional natural-law approach did not approved a satisfactory basis for their dissent and began to develop alternative approaches. Building on the principle of double effect, they developed a new approach that deemphasized the application of absolute moral norms.
This paragraph is a very good synopsis of what has happened in theology by dissident theologians throughout the world and not just in health care. Once you separate theology from absolute moral norms than it is no surprise they find reasons that evils such as abortion, contraception, euthanasia, doctor-assisted suicide, and sterilization
He spends five chapters on moral norms that ends with a discussion and history of Ethical and Religious Directives (ERDs) used in Catholic health care settings. The discussion of ERDs is actually very interesting to see how they responded to changing medical technology. They have remained consistent with the teaching of the Church. What has not been consistent is personnel in health care following them.
Again and again throughout the book we are treated to the history behind Catholic health care and I thought this was one of the most important parts to understanding how we got to where we are today. He devotes some time to talking about the transition from hospitals mainly run and staffed by a religious order to the situation we see today where there is some connection to the founding order, but is mostly run by lay people who often are not even Catholics. Plus you have all the mergers and takeovers by Catholic health care systems of secular assets and the problems that has occurred. A couple of chapters detail specific Catholic health care systems and problems that resulted when local bishops and/or the Vatican complained about evils such as surgical sterilization and even abortion occurring at these acquired assets.
There is much in the state of Catholic health care that frankly angers me. Often it seems that some are seeking loopholes instead of following the moral law. While surgical abortion is for the most part not occurring in Catholic hospitals, it has in the past along with other morally dubious practices. But in the area of surgical sterilization they seem to be gaming the system by referring people to other centers or in one case having a hospital within a hospital on the fifth floor of one institution that did it for them. Sterilization is mutilation and destroys a functioning part of the body. There is no medical need for direct sterilization. But it seems like this is a wink-wink situation where “Hey we don’t do this because we are not suppose to, but we will help you out in getting it done.” So much for teaching the Gospel and an actual teaching opportunity of explaining why sterilization is gravely evil. The same goes for contraception and euthanasia where some Catholic health care have formally cooperated with evil.
As this book and in fact the daily news demonstrates is that we are being attacked both from without and within. No we aren’t ready to run to the catacombs, but the government and other outside groups are doing what they can to make Catholic health care not a whit different from secular health care. From within we are being attacked by dissident theologian and those who follow them. Some specific cases of government interference is also covered in this book and goes through some famous cases where legislatures tried to force their will on Catholic institutions by mandating contraceptive coverage or in myriad other ways. Increased pressures by the Culture of Death are certainly trying to force Catholic hospitals into gravely evil areas and the same goes for individuals with the attacks on conscience clauses.
I think we will only see more of these problems especially with the push for national health care. The author makes note of how these mandates for services not allowed under the ERDs is moving ahead and says “Despite these possibilities, Catholic organizations have continue to be strong advocates of a governmental system of universal health care.” When it comes to providing for our neighbor in terms of the Gospel – the government is not our friend. The USCCB calling for national health care even with the caveats they mention is very shortsighted in my opinion. This is not subsidiarily in any way and only funnels our health care dollars through the government so that there will be even less to pay for actual health care. It also opens up our non-profit hospitals for even more attacks at they try to standardize everything. It would be rather ironic if Catholics were forced out of the hospitals considering we were the ones that created them in the first place.
Well I don’t want my review to be longer than the book. But the subjects covered and the thorough way they are covered really makes me want to write about them. This is such and excellent book in so many ways and is not just gloom and doom. There is a lot covered even interesting information about Catholic health care in regards to canon law. For anybody wanting to learn more about Catholic health care from the morality and history on I can’t think of a finer book to recommend. This book is quite well researched and footnoted and the notes take up over a hundred pages at the end.
This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Diagnosis Critical.
In a type of mock ceremony that’s now been performed in at least four states, a robed “priest” used a hairdryer marked “reason” in an apparent bid to blow away the waters of baptism once and for all. Several dozen participants then fed on a “de-sacrament” (crackers with peanut butter) and received certificates assuring they had “freely renounced a previous mistake, and accepted Reason over Superstition.”
For Gray, the lighthearted spirit of last summer’s Atheist Coming Out Party and De-Baptism Bash in suburban Westerville, Ohio, served a higher purpose than merely spoofing a Christian rite.
“It was very therapeutic,” Gray said in an interview. “It was a chance to laugh at the silly things I used to believe as a child. It helped me admit that it was OK to think the way I think and to not have any religious beliefs.”
…Atheist Gary Mueller recently mailed his de-baptism certificate to St. Bonaventure Catholic Church in Concord, Calif., and asked to be dropped from its baptismal record. The church told him, in effect, that he was all wet.
“While we do not remove a name/person from a Baptism register, we can note alongside your name that ‘you have left the Roman Catholic Church,’ ” the Rev. Richard Mangini replied in an e-mail. “I hope that God surprises you one day and lets you know that He is quite well.” [reference]
As a former atheist I would like to debunk what they are saying, but since I can only rely on superstition and not reason I am unable to. When I became Catholic I had to sign one of those documents about promising to abstain from reason and other bad habits I had picked up in a lifetime of atheism. In the last ten years I have been much happier now that religion is a crutch and life is easier now also since I don’t have to think anymore and can just blindly follow some foreign guy in a robe! I embrace my sheepleness.
Besides reason is not what it is cracked up to be. Just what had it done for St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas. Pascal, or even our present Pope? Remember that encyclical Pope John Paul II wrote “Faith and Superstition”? Oh wait.
Now if these people were serious about giving up Christianity and the fruits of Christendom, they should also denounce hospitals, universities, and even modern science, and of course acts of charity. They want to denounce Christianity while at the same time enjoying the fruits of it.
I am so glad that this man showed us how to use reason! Forming judgments by a process of logic always leads you to sticking a piece of paper with REASON on it to a hair dryer. Mocking Christians with phony rituals that have not ability to cancel out an ontological change screams reason. Though ‘Reason itself is a matter of faith,” G. K. Chesterton wrote. ”It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all.”
Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth–in a word, to know himself–so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves. – Pope John Paul II Fides et Ratio.
The Catholic Key blog titled the post on this “Atheists Need Better liturgists” Actually a stunt as silly as this sounds just like something a liturgist would recommend. Rocks in baptismal fonts and blow-dryers marked reason kind of go together.
This morning, (Monday, July 20th) Dr. Jack Sites, Academic Vice President of Ave Maria University, flew from Houston, where he was attending a meeting of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, to San Francisco, to inform me personally that I was being dismissed from Ave Maria University. Our meeting was amicable and Dr. Sites, as always, acted as a Christian gentleman.
He said that the reason for my dismissal stemmed from a conversation I had in November of 2008 with Jack Donahue, then chairman of the board of AMU. At that time I felt it an obligation to speak to the board chairman before the upcoming board meeting, to make sure he was aware of the urgency of the university’s financial situation. After I had informed him, using projections based on publicly available documents and statements, he asked me what I thought was the solution. I told him that there were policies being followed that were at the root of the problem, that the present administration was irrevocably wedded to those policies, and that without a change of administration the university was at great risk.
Dr. Sites said that Jack Donahue related this conversation to Tom Monaghan, and it was decided (I don’t know specifically by whom) that the university could not have a faculty member making these criticisms of the administration and thus undermining the university.
Dr. Sites told me that there were unspecified others who had similar substantive concerns that I was undermining the university.
I continue to support the university. I pray for its success. I have great admiration for the faculty, students, and many of the staff. I do disagree with some of the policies of the administration. This seems to be the reason I was fired the first time, in March 2007, since the official explanation was “irreconcilable administrative differences”.
Nevertheless, I think it is an accurate summary to say that I am being dismissed as a faculty member because of a private conversation with the chairman of the board in which I made known my criticisms of the university administration; and because of allegations which have not been made known to me and to which I have not been given an opportunity to respond.
I will continue to recommend AMU to students and parents. And I will continue to think my dismissal is another mistake in a long series of unwise decisions. [reference]
I guess it is that time of year again. Back in March of 2007 he was also dismissed from Ave Maria University as provost and as I remember there was quite an outcry until hired back as a theologian. I don’t know Fr. Fessio personally, but he certainly seems to be one who speaks his mind and as this letter shows while remaining quite charitable. He founded Campion College of San Francisco, though had to leave when his order made him go. Though as with all actually obedient priests he does not whine about something being unfair and is actually obedient to his superiors even when I think they were being jerks.
I wish him well on whatever his next endeavor is and will always be thankful to him just for founding Ignatius Press beyond his orthodox awesomeness.