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Pro-life

California death squads

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

SACRAMENTO � Physician-assisted suicide advocates � unable to pass legislation and short on cash to push a statewide ballot initiative � will announce today the creation of a consultation service to offer information to the terminally ill and even provide volunteers for those who would like someone to be present when committing suicide.

“Volunteers will neither provide nor administer the means for aid in dying,” said the Rev. John Brooke, a United Church of Christ minister from Cotati and one of the organizers of the new End of Life Consultation Service. “Clients will obtain and self-administer these means. We will not break or defy the law.”

But Randy Thomasson, president of the Campaign for Children and Families, part of an opposition coalition, said it sounded like the formation of “California death squads” to him.

Thomasson, pointing to laws against suicide, called for an investigation by authorities once the consultation service begins.

Representatives of the new End of Life Consultation Service say they will advise the terminally ill on how to better access pain treatment and end-of-life care. Clergy and trained volunteer counselors also will advise the terminally ill against violent suicide, instead helping identify a path to a peaceful death.

A counselor will remain present to comfort a terminally ill person taking their own life, if that person wishes, program representatives said.

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News

Gender descrimination

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

A reader sent me the following story.

Refusal to work with a woman pastor at a church in Hyvinkää last March has brought charges of discrimination to three men.
Hyvinkää District Court Prosecutor Jari Auvinen has decided to press charges of criminal discrimination against two members of the Lutheran Evangelical Association in Finland (LEAF), and charges of discrimination in the workplace against the then substitute vicar of the particular parish in Hyvinkää.

This is the first time that the controversy in the Finnish Evangelical-Lutheran Church – over the resistance of some conservative male clergy to the ordination of women – has extended into the realm of worldly law enforcement.

The case goes back to March of this year , when a woman pastor had been scheduled for a shift at a Sunday morning Holy Communion service, where she would help distribute wine and wafer.

When the pastor showed up for the service, a visiting preacher of the LEAF said that he would be unable to take part in any service in which a woman pastor was serving.

…In the prosecutor’s view, the visiting pastor and the chairman of the local LEAF association who helped arrange the visit were guilty of discrimination, as they prevented the female pastor from doing her work on the basis of her gender.

I wonder if this is a sign of things to come since women’s ordination proponents always put this in the light of gender discrimination in the first place? Though of course Lutherans and other denominations where there are some that are against women serving as Protestant pastors will have a much harder time defending themselves considering that they have already largely gone down that road.

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Punditry

Bodies the exhibit

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

A statement from the Diocese of Pittsburgh regarding Bodies … The Exhibition.

…With the assurances that the affidavits provide over the source of the bodies and fetuses, and the understanding that it is morally ethical that bodies unclaimed over a definitive period of time can be used for medical study and education, the Diocese of Pittsburgh concludes the following:

1. Bodies � The Exhibition� can provide worthwhile and effective opportunities to promote learning and to explore issues in the natural sciences, morality and spirituality;

2. �Bodies � The Exhibition� is certainly not appropriate for all audiences. Individuals in general and parents in particular must consider their own and their children�s sensitivities when determining whether or not to attend the exhibit;

3. The discussion generated in the public arena in anticipation of this exhibit is a valuable one that has raised serious questions about the dignity of the human person and how that dignity is expressed, protected and promoted. We applaud this public discourse on a matter so important to the fostering of a good society. We encourage continued dialogue on these important topics and welcome the opportunity to participate in them over the course of the exhibit�s stay in Pittsburgh.

The statement seems to me to be lacking in some of the moral issues concerning this display that go well beyond whether the bodies were obtained legally. Skinning bodies and posing them for entertainment value at the cost of admission is not exactly the same thing as the use of donated bodies for medical use.

Using the excuse that it can provide worthwhile discussions on morality and spirituality seems to be the same old excuse that is thrown out whenever they can’t justify it morally. The same excuse used by some to defend the Da Vinci Code movie and other events. Besides if worthwhile moral discussion were important then why aren’t any made in this letter besides the issue of where they got the bodies?

I would think at least that the dignity of the body would be discussed especially in the context of what has become a billion dollar plus exhibit. Or whether these so-called unclaimed bodies from the unreliable Chinese government really are treated with the respect and charity as specified in the Catechism. Archbishop Burke in St. Louis cancelled Catholic school field trips to the exhibit, but left it up to the parents as to whether this exhibit contradicted the Catholic faith.

First Things magazine had serious discussion on this exhibit with Robert T. Miller (anti) and Claire V. McCusker (pro) on the subject. Maybe this exhibit can be moral, I just wished the diocese letter attempted to address those issues.

Hat tip to the reader that sent this to me and Power Blog.

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Parody

Higher Calling

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

I have quite an announcement to make. I am now a reporter for Newsweek magazine! I always felt a call to be a reporter for Newsweek magazine so this is something very important for me. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am at this news and the impact this has on my life and hopefully the lives of others.

The hierarchy of Newsweek magazine though doesn’t recognize my call to be a reporter for them. So I had to have reporter credentials given me by an Ecumenical magazine group that also see themselves nevertheless as Newsweek employees and don’t recognize the authority of Newsweek’s editors to make hiring decisions.

So for my first article as a Newsweek employee I am going to interview myself, this way nobody can charge me with making up interviews as in the case of ABC’s Alexis Debat.

NEWSWEEK: What made you decide to become a Newsweek reporter?
Jeff Miller: It was a long process that started at a very young age. I grew up reading bad religion reporting and was always attracted to Newsweek’s egregious reporting and I was affirmed by others that I had gifts for bad reporting.

Have you heard from the Newsweek hierarchy?
The reporting community I belong to hasn’t felt anything from the editors, but local stringers have informed others not to read my reporting since I wasn’t a "validly credentialed" reporters for Newsweek.

How has your family handled your decision? Are they still Newsweek readers?
They are. They are actually incredibly supportive. My immediate family came for my giving a Newsweek credentials. My grandmother bought me an old typewriter.

How many people read your Newsweek articles?
We have 80 registered members. And we have a number of people who come who are subscribe to Newsweek but who come to read with us as a place to refresh their souls—a lot of them are ex-Newsweek readers who are uncomfortable with Newsweek’s discriminatory hiring practices.

Do you know the other Ecumenically credentialed Newsweek reporters?
In the Ecumenical Newsweek Communion there are six other reporters. I know all of them. In the Ecumenical Reporters Communion we no longer claim that we’re underneath the authority of the editors. [There’s also a group called the Roman Newsweek Reporters, which also credentials some reporters.] During the last several years there have been organized giving of Newsweek reporter credentials primarily on river boats.

Have you received any hate mail?
I personally have not received hate mail, although there are plenty of blogs that I have found online that like to slander my name when they get hold of information about my credentials. It’s unfortunate and sad. The people I serve are excited to see a place where men and women can read my articles side by side. Just because I wasn’t actually hired by Newsweek and I receive no salary from them or actually turn my stories over to them to be published doesn’t prevent me from being a validly credentialed Newsweek reporters. Defenders of Newsweek’s reporter tradition says that since founders of Newsweek (Ward Cheney, John Hay Whitney, and Paul Mellon) didn’t allow people to call themselves Newsweek reporters without actually being hired by them that this can’t be changed. There has been recent archaeological evidence in Newsweek headquarters of a statue of a reporter who does not seem to have ever been on their pay role. I think this is evidence of self-named Newsweek reporters in the early history of the magazine. If only people would get with the modern time and to understand how discriminatory Newsweek’s present hiring practices are by not hiring everybody that would apply.

Is there anything else you wish people knew?
It’s important to me that people see that I did what the others do to prepare to be a reporter. I took that traditional path. I got a certificate from an online journalism school for a reasonable fee. I forced myself to cover local news of minor happenings to prepare myself. I just wish more reporters who find themselves alienated from the magazine could find a magazine home. I am taking this step forward so that others in the future will have the opportunity to be a Newsweek reporter without having to face their discriminatory hiring practice of only hiring those with a journalism degree and having the ability to write and to act as a reporter.

* Here is the Newsweek article I am parodying.

Have you heard from the Roman Catholic hierarchy?
The community I belong to hasn’t felt anything from the bishop, …

Update: Shaking Off Sleep has a short parody on my parody and about Newsweek’s credentialism.

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Liturgy

Pitting the Mass

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

There have been several of these films celebrating Summorum Pontificum by contrasting clown Masses and other such nonsense with the extraordinary form of the Mass.

While on one level I enjoy the humor of these films there is another level that bothers me. For one I think it is a problem to compare the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Mass in the Latin rite by taking the worse example and excesses and then to compare them to the Masses celebrated properly in the older form. You don’t see examples of the ordinary form being celebrated properly and reverentially as you would for example see on EWTN or in my own parish. There are "Novus Ordo" Masses being celebrated according the the rubrics and in a way that turly helps you to worship God. I am not all that tearful, but I can certainly testify to having tears form while participating at Mass at my parish. Though I must admit the Mass celebrated at other parishes at times could invoke tears, but not for joy.

I am all for critiquing experimental Masses that depart from the GIRM into a world of someone else’s creation where entertainment becomes the prime purpose. The so called do-it-yourself Mass is of course a problem. I just don’t think we should pit one valid form of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with another valid form of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We don’t see video’s pitting an Eastern rite Mass against the so-called Tridentine form of the Mass, even though the Eastern rites are really quite beautiful and transcendent and really kick smells and bells up a notch.

There seems to be this idea out there if the 1970 Missal of Paul VI was never promulgated that we would have escaped all the conscience that has occurred. Man with black hat had a good post previously on the People’s Mass Book issued in 1964 where we can see the experimental tendency being used with the 1962 missal. That somehow people who don’t even stick with the reduced rubrics of the 1970 missal would have stuck with the 1962 one. Possibly some of the worst excesses might have been avoided if the missal had not been promulgated during this tumultuous time. I just think the idea that we wouldn’t have had clown masses using the 1962 missal to be naive.

Now I am all for the reform of the reform and I am hopeful that Summorum Pontificum is a movement along this path. New translations coming within the next couple of years are also going to be quite helpful along this path.

People complain about abuses precisely because they are abuses – they depart from the missal. I just think it sets up a false dichotomy to make a comparison between ordinary form of the Mass celebrated improperly and irreverently with the extraordinary form of the mass celebrated correctly. These attitudes against the ordinary form of the Mass are common among schismatics and sedevacanist and I wish they were less common among those who don’t fall into these groups. Lets have both forms of the Mass in the Latin rite celebrated properly and work to those ends.

As I end this post I am watching the start of the Solemn High Mass: Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite on EWTN.

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Pro-life

Doctor Sacrifices Life For Unborn Daughter

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

A reader sent me the following story:

Family and friends farewelled Dr Ellice Hammond, 37, at a funeral service yesterday, the same day anti-solarium campaigner Clare Oliver succumbed to melanoma.

Dr Hammond lost her battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma on Sunday, three weeks after daughter Mia Ellice was born nine weeks prematurely at the Monash Medical Centre, where she remains in neonatal intensive care, The Herald Sun said today.

Dr Hammond was diagnosed in the 22nd week of pregnancy and refused high-level chemotherapy that could have saved her but might have killed Mia, whose induced birth took place on August 20.

Dr Hammond had three reduced-strength chemotherapy treatments during the pregnancy, but the cancer returned worse than before each time and full-strength treatments following Mia’s birth did not save her.

Husband, Peter Wojcik said he was proud of his wife’s devotion to their child.

�It feels like I got robbed of a wife and a mother,� he told the Herald Sun.

�I guess she didn’t expect it to go this way, and if she did she wasn’t telling us.

�But she would just want what is best for Mia and for everyone to love her and carry on with life.

�Her whole life was looking forward to being a mum. She loved it.

Please pray for her family.

The story does remind you of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla another doctor, though in her case she had developed a fibroma on her uterus which was successfully removed. She actually died of peritonitis after delivery of her child suggesting a botched C-section.

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Pro-life

Artificial nutrition and hydration

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith responses to certain questions of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops concerning artificial nutrition and hydration.

First question: Is the administration of food and water (whether by natural or artificial means) to a patient in a "vegetative state" morally obligatory except when they cannot be assimilated by the patient’s body or cannot be administered to the patient without causing significant physical discomfort?

Response: Yes. The administration of food and water even by artificial means is, in principle, an ordinary and proportionate means of preserving life. It is therefore obligatory to the extent to which, and for as long as, it is shown to accomplish its proper finality, which is the hydration and nourishment of the patient. In this way suffering and death by starvation and dehydration are prevented.

Second question: When nutrition and hydration are being supplied by artificial means to a patient in a "permanent vegetative state", may they be discontinued when competent physicians judge with moral certainty that the patient will never recover consciousness?

Response: No. A patient in a "permanent vegetative state" is a person with fundamental human dignity and must, therefore, receive ordinary and proportionate care which includes, in principle, the administration of water and food even by artificial means.

Once again the CDF has issued a document with nothing really new in it, but it is great to see them give such a clarification since there is so much confusion on the subject and theologians around the world and especially here in the states whose own views are out of whack with what Pope John Paul II had taught on the subject.

The CDF has also issued a lengthy commentary on this.

American Papist

In a document approved by Pope Benedict, the Vatican’s doctrinal department said tube-feeding such patients presumed to be near death was "ordinary" care that should not be discontinued because the patients still had human dignity.

Reuters in an article distorts what the CDF said since there is no mention of "near death."

The Church opposes euthanasia but teaches that extraordinary — that is, overly aggressive and possibly painful — means of artificial life support can be stopped if the family wishes.

The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care services states:

A person has a moral obligation to use ordianr or proportionate means of preserving his or her life. Proportionate means are those that in the judgment of the patient offer a reasonable hope and do not entail an excessive burden or impose excessive expense on the family or community.

A person may forego extraordinary or disproportionate means of preserving life.

Notice how it is not what the family wishes, but what the individual wishes and that the criteria is not pain.

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Liturgy

Little Office

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Baronius Press announces the publication of a new edition of The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the Breviary of the Extraordinary Latin Liturgy, as permitted by Summorum Pontificum.

“The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been a corner stone of Catholic devotion, for both priests and lay people, throughout the centuries. We hope that by publishing this new edition, people today will discover the fruits of these beautiful prayers to the Mother of God” notes Dr. John Newton, Editor of Baronius Press.

Of particular note is the inclusion of the complete Gregorian chant for the Office in this book. The music for the Little Office has never before been gathered together in one volume.

Fr. Berg, Superior of the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter warmly welcomed this new publication: “Devotion to Our Lady is part of the spiritual life of the Church, and fulfils her words that all generations will call her blessed (Luke i.48). The Little Office will help the Faithful to pray with even greater devotion to Our Blessed Lady. ”

This publication is published in cooperation with the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, A Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right founded with the approval of His Holiness Pope John Paul II in 1988, for the formation and sanctification of priests in the framework of the TRADITIONAL LITURGY of the ROMAN RITE and their pastoral deployment in the service of the Church.

The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a shorter version of the Liturgy of the Hours, but follows the same format as the Morning and Evening Prayers found in the Breviary. I started with the The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary in my own prayer life before I moved on to the four volume set of the Liturgy of the Hours. Though the little office is more than just the breviary on training wheels, but a devotional practice that will meet the needs of many.

Baronius Press besides the little office also has a ‘Summorum Pontificum’ edition of the Daily Missal 1962.

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