Punditry

From Father Z.

Proselytize is a bad word these days.

A lot off people are rushing to say that the Holy Father’s Anglican Provisions is not a matter of sheep stealing or, as Card. Kaspar put it “fishing in the Anglican lake”.

Card. Kaspar was stupendously conspicuous at the press conference yesterday – by his absence.

Archbishop Nichols of Westminster said: “This is a response and not an initiative.”

I respond saying: If we open up the door, hang up the open sign, and turn on the lights, we are inviting people to come in.

No doubt there is a form of proselytizing that is unethical. I just don’t understand how proselytizing has come to have such ominous overtones. I don’t like the fact that many Protestant churches are made up of a large segment of ex-Catholics. But if you believe in Protestant theology and don’t go after Catholics than something is seriously wrong.

This seeming truce called ecumenism is often so pointless. In England it seems that the Anglican-Catholic dialog just meanders along. That it is Rome and not the local Bishops that seemed to be mostly involved with bringing the TAC to full communion with the CHurch. I am Catholic simply because I believe the faith to be true. I want all people to enjoy the fullness of truth and to be able to withdraw from the immense spiritual treasury of the Church.

Proselytizing has been a touch issue with the Orthodox churches and the Catholic Church has been pretty sensitive to this. I can at least understand this since Orthodox churches are true churches in the Catholic theological understanding. They have retained Apostolic succession and can validly celebrate all the sacraments. The Anglican church is a totally different situations since they have lost Apostolic succession and only have the two sacraments that all Protestant churches have. This idea of fishing in the Anglican lake is idiotic unless you don’t think you are bringing people to the fullness of the truth. It seems rather uncharitable to leave people alone just because they are in some Protestant denomination and you don’t want to be seen as poaching.

Though it seems that Catholics have often sucked at evangelization and reaching out. We needed the help of Our Lady of Guadalupe to get things rolling and of course it was the Holy Spirit that moved things along on Pentecost. Though this is true for all evangelization. It is this tippy-toe approach worried about everything except actual evangelizations that annoys me. We should be fishing in any pond where the fish are willing to bite if we are going to be fishers of men.

So how does Michael Sean Winters at America Magazine react to the good news of the Traditional Anglican Communion comning into full communion with the Church?

There are members of the Anglican Church who have come to question the catholicity of their communion, and like John Henry Newman before them, their questioning is leading them to turn to Rome.

It is a fair question – and one that I worry these new structures are designed to obfuscate – why now? Were they not disturbed by their communion’s indifference to papal primacy all these years? When John Paul II sought some way to establish the validity of Anglican orders, but came up empty because the apostolic succession was clearly broken, why did they not seek incorporation into the Church of Rome then? I am sure that many of those who are now motivated to seek communion with Rome do so now primarily because the fractured nature of their own communion has become so manifest.

No doubt that is indeed part of the reason since it is rather hard to maintain the three branch theory with one of the branches branching off into so many other branches. Also glad to see that he recognizes that apostolic succession was clearly broken.

But, I worry, too, that some of these newcomers will also be nostalgists, anti-feminists, and anti-gay bigots. The ordaining of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire is not something I would have advised, but after all these centuries of schism, I am not sure why that should have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Yikes!!! Though I get the felling that is how Michael Sean Winters looks at many people who are actually faithful to the magisterium and the full range of Catholic thought. The word nostalgia has been tossed around a lot in reference to the TLM, regardless to the fact that many of us were never raised on it. Catholic truth never changes and you can never be nostalgic to what is an ever-present reality. Anti-gay bigot of course means anybody who actually think that homosexual activity is gravely immoral and anti-feminists are those who actually agree with the constant teaching of the Church that women can’t be ordained. Certainly Mr. Winters if he would have thought about it longer would find a way to see the newcomers as racist also just like he was able to discern the reason for the 9-12 Teaparty protests.

Maybe Mr. Winters can screen these converts to the Church for his brand of ideological purity. That they may be one – unless of course they actually believe in all the Church teaches. Though after he manages to worry about some of these newcomers he manages to say “It is a big church and there is room for everybody as I never tire of saying.”

The first email I received this morning was from a Jewish friend who saw this aspect of the development when he wrote: “Do you think Pope B- might set up a Jewish rite if we asked him? We could call it Judaism. He could call it unity with church. Everyone’s happy.”

What? I am not sure what this is suppose to mean?

Father Z catches this tweet from the National Catholic Reporter.

Pope okays new structures to absorb disgruntled Anglican conservatives

I guess ecumenism that actually leads to union with the Church is not the right approach. We must endlessly dialog and talk and never get anywhere. We can’t have ecumenism with an actually end to union.

Though it is rather ironic that the dissident National Catholic Reporter which is nothing but angry and dissatisfied when it comes to the Church would have this complaint of others.

Archbishop Chaput writes an excellent essay in First Things on Catholic charitable institutions and the increasing attacks from the government. He makes some excellent points as he follows the history or our country and the reason for the attacks from a strange bedfellow partnership of individuals and the government.

Though one aspect he missed out on is that Catholic charitable institutions are being attacked both from within and without. He cites the case of Catholic Charities in Massachusetts being forced out of adoptions because of laws forcing them to adopt to homosexual couples. Though the truth was that Catholic Charities was already performing such adoptions at times until their hand was forced. The same goes for Catholic Charities in San Francisco that was also forced out of the adoption business. Unfortunately many Catholic charitable institutions are staffed with people not exactly friendly to the whole gamut of Catholic teaching. Blessed Mother Teresa disliked being called a social worker because her work transcended the purely humanitarian model. Often though those working in our institutions could easily be classed just in the social worker mode.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – The Rev. John I. Jenkins, who came under fire for inviting President Barack Obama to the University of Notre Dame campus, has been re-elected to a second five-year term as president of the school.[reference]

Such a smooth move after loosing millions of dollars in donations. Keep up the great work!

The trustees also approved a resolution Friday expressing their “respect and full confidence” in Jenkins, saying he has nurtured an environment where “the Catholic faith and intellectual tradition are celebrated and lived.”

Yes Fr. Jenkins is the poster boy for “Catholic faith and intellectual tradition are celebrated and lived.” Arresting pro-life protesters is the mark of living your faith. Approving pornographic plays is a great way to live your faith. Having a campus where travel expenses to homosexual pride events is another mark of an authentic Catholic university. Honoring the most radically pro-abortion President ever who even supported infanticide is evidence to the Church’s teaching. Oh wait.

I do wonder why Sarah Silverman suggestion that the Vatican sell everything to help the poor keeps getting more and more news attention? I keep seeing stories covering it via Google News. Though in a world where CNN fact checks a Saturday Night Live parody piece on the President I guess it is par for the course for the media to cover the rantings of some shock Comedienne. We of course can’t expect them to actually fact check her routine.

Though it does remind me of the story of St. Laurence and the treasure of the Church. He was captured and told to bring the treasure of the Church to his captors. The following day he brought a bunch of poor people and told them that they were the treasure of the Church. Though I have the odd feeling that this wasn’t what Sarah Silverman had it mind.

I also doubt that she thought of or even knew of the efforts in the Vatican during World War II and this notable example.

Joseph Lichten records that on September 27, 1943, one of the Nazi commanders demanded of the Jewish community in Rome payment of one hundred pounds of gold within thirty-six hours or three hundred Jews would be taken prisoner. When the Jewish Community Council was only able to gather only seventy pounds of gold, they turned to the Vatican.

“In his memoirs, the then Chief Rabbi Zolli of Rome writes that he was sent to the Vatican, where arrangements had already been made to receive him as an ‘engineer’ called to survey a construction problem so that the Gestapo on watch at the Vatican would not bar his entry. He was met by the Vatican treasurer and secretary of state, who told him that the Holy Father himself had given orders for the deficit to be filled with gold vessels taken from the Treasury.

I guess it also escaped her attention that the largest organization in the world to help the poor is the Catholic Church. That it was Catholics throughout history who via very apostolates, ministries, and personal attention have always had a preferential love for the poor. When people are in need of help they go to the door of a Catholic institution or the rectory and not the local chapter of for example the Atheist Alliance International.

No doubt she is also unaware that the operating budget for the Vatican is around $260 million compared to Harvard’s annual budget is $1.3 billion. So I guess she means we are to sell off the artistic treasures in Vatican CIty and Catholic churches throughout the world. Hey great idea. Next time France has a budget deficit they should sell off the Louvre. Yell allowing people to see these artistic treasures is a bad idea and they should be distributed around the world locked up in private collections. Well how about Vatican owned real estate – well with a total value of $1 Billion and less than Oprah’s personal fortune it won’t go very far.

n September 15, “StandForMarriageMaine.com” released a television ad. In it, Scott Fitzgibbon, a professor at Boston College Law School (a Catholic institution), argued for the traditional understanding of marriage as between one man and one woman and in favor of an upcoming referendum to overturn a law passed by the Maine legislature legalizing same-sex marriage. The ad unleashed a fire storm, directed at the courageous professor.

Fellow professors at B.C. Law School – one hesitates to call them colleagues – contacted the dean to express their anger. So fiery was the blast that the dean was forced to issue a statement that defended Fitzgibbon’s academic freedom (or right to speak his mind). But the dean also later joined a statement from faculty and administrators assuring homosexual students (and staff) that they were welcome at BC Law. Apparently, it is no longer remarkable that a Catholic law school in this country prides itself upon being “one of the first” to set up a non-discrimination category for homosexuals at a time when everyone, including surely BC law professors, knows that just such a category in federal law will be the nail in the coffin of religious liberty for America’s Catholic institutions.

This is a highly instructive event that invites comment.

Clearly what is going on here is an effort to “shame” Professor Fitzgibbon (and those who agree with him) into silence. The assumption by the angry members of the BC Law “community” is that his views are so far outside the “mainstream” that all right-thinking persons must reject them. They are so poisonous, on this view, that they make civic life impossible; anyone who holds them should be ashamed; they are intolerable. [reference]

Wow here is a director who really understands how to make movies for children and has a proper undertanding of issues that concern parents.

Jonze: What do you say to parents who think the Wild Things film may be too scary?

Sendak: I would tell them to go to hell. That’s a question I will not tolerate.

Jonze: Because kids can handle it?

Sendak: If they can’t handle it, go home. Or wet your pants. Do whatever you like. But it’s not a question that can be answered. [reference]

So surprised that Pixar hasn’t hired him yet.

Manassas, Va. – The University of Notre Dame gave financial assistance to five students to participate in Sunday’s national gay rights demonstration, which was organized in part to advocate homosexual “marriage,” a campus newspaper has reported.

The “National Equality March” on Sunday, October 11, in Washington, D.C., was sponsored by Equality Across America, which aims to build a national grassroots network asserting homosexual couples’ “right to marry” as well as other demands. The Catholic Church believes that marriage is possible only between a man and a woman.

“Faithful Catholics will ask whether Notre Dame has learned its lesson from the scandalous commencement ceremony last spring,” said Patrick J. Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society. “What university seeking to reassure families of its Catholic identity would pay for students to attack the family and oppose Catholic teachings on marriage?”

Students from Notre Dame’s Progressive Student Alliance (PSA) petitioned the Student Activities Office and were granted funding to travel to and participate in the demonstration. The Notre Dame students marched two miles across D.C. and then joined gay rights activists for a Capitol Hill rally.

The president of the Progressive Students Alliance told The Observer, “The fact that we were University-approved was surprising but it was a wonderful surprise. The University hasn’t always been entirely receptive in the past.” [reference]

One of the parishes we sometimes go to has a school next it that was built in 2000. When the school was completed under the name of the school in big letters was 2000 C.E. C.E. stands for Common Era which is a secular way not to have to refer to Christ. Though I always thought it was rather silly since it starts as what was reckoned as the birth of Christ. I guess they couldn’t go whole hog like the French Revolution that increased the number of the days of the week and changed the names in the calendar. I mean if you were to really choose a date for the common era it would certainly start sooner than zero A.D.

Regardless every time I would see C.E. used on this Catholic school it always puts me in a mood for a rant which is not a good thing on the way to Mass. Today I was in for a pleasant surprise. The C.E. had been replaced by A.D. (Anno Domini – Year of the Lord). I guess I was not the only person annoyed by this.

Now many people mistake A.D. for meaning After Death as I use to think. I was wondering if maybe we should apply the same style mistake to the secular B.C.E and C.E. Anybody that has to work in a secular environment having to use this can just refer to them as Before Christ Era and Christ Era. We should do it often enough that it sticks and the secular form is forgotten. After all the secular world has stolen a bunch of stuff from us so why not reverse this?

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) – The newly-formed Virginia Chapter of a more than 50-year-old Catholic peace movement, Pax Christi, was refused access to Holy Family Church in Virginia Beach for their organizational meeting in the Diocese of Richmond as they were not a diocesan organization.

Retired Richmond Bishop Walter Sullivan, a former president of the international movement, was one of the featured speakers. He, along with Marie Dennis, the global-concerns director for Maryknoll, a Catholic religious community of priests, nuns and laypeople, keynoted the event, which was held at Virginia Wesleyan College.

Asked Tuesday by Steven Vegh, a reporter from the Virginian Pilot, why the event was rejected, Vincent Sansone, the diocesan theologian stated that Pax Christi is not a diocesan organization.

Bishop Sullivan and other chapter organizers expressed surprise at the decision of the diocese.

The “Guidelines for Speakers in the Richmond Diocese” state that those “from outside the diocese must be approved through the Office of the Diocesan Theologian. Keep in mind that the approval process must be completed and the proposed speaker must be approved before an invitation is extended to the speaker.”

According to the qualifications instituted shortly after the installation of Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo in 2004, speakers must be in good standing in the Church, possess proof that they have taken a course regarding child abuse, provide their curriculum vitae and a letter of confirmation regarding their orthodoxy from a bishop or pastor. [reference]

Well considering the dubious orthodoxy of so many in Pax Christi this decision is not surprising. Pax Christi concentrates on a subset of social justice issues and has been know to support contraception and homosexual acts. It is also not surprising that Bishop Sullivan is associated with them.