Book Review

Review: The Encyclicals of John Paul II: An Introduction and Commentary

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

A couple of weeks ago I finished The Encyclicals of John Paul II: An Introduction and Commentary by Richard A. Spinello. I was all set to review the book when then-Pope Benedict XVI resigned. I just couldn’t write a review of this book at that time since I was a bit depressed over the fact that we were limited to only three encyclicals from him. It was hard to write about a book on the plethora of Blessed John Paul II’s encyclicals in comparison at that time.

So my BXVI funk is over for the most part and I will try to give a review this book deserves. I had previously read and reviewed his previous book The Genius of John Paul II: The Great Pope’s Moral Wisdom and found it quite worthwhile. It also is a good companion to this current book.

I came in to the Catholic Church in the last years of Blessed John Paul II’s papacy and so am only partially familiar with the breadth of his writings and encyclicals. This book really explores his writings and the consistent vision behind them. It helps to provide a better understanding of his underlying philosophy and how to get the most out of them and his other works.

The book starts with a short biography which mainly concentrates on Blessed John Paul II’s development as priest, philosopher and theologian. Focusing on his influences for his personalist metaphysics that took much from St. Thomas Aquinas and St. John of the Cross along with a phenomenological viewpoint. The following chapter deals with his writings before he was pope and how they were a basis for what he wrote after. This was an in depth chapter with plenty of insights and more than just a quick summary. I also appreciated the chapter just dealing with encyclicals as I learned there is much more to the subject than I had thought.

The rest of the book focuses on Blessed John Paul II’s encyclicals and the chapters are ordered basically chronologically from the year they were released or grouped together by topic. These chapters really go into analyzing the contents while connecting them both to the late pope’s philosophy and to his other writings. Much more than just a quick summary and really a insightful guide into understanding these encyclicals. You definitely require at least a passing knowledge of some philosophical terms to get the most out of this often scholarly work. The fact that I mostly understood it means that the bar is not that high.

One thing this book made me realize is that I really do need to go back and read the encyclicals of Blessed John Paul II I have not read and really to reread some I have. Blessed John Paul II is not always the easiest writer to take in and I think I can draw a bit more out of him now. It is rather amazing to live in this age of giants. From the relatively long papacy of Blessed John Paul II to a short but packed papacy of Pope Benedict XVI. We really were quite blessed to have these two great men and more blessed to be able to access their writings.

The only downside to this book is that it is priced like a textbook. Although considering the content I guess that follows.

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News

An important part of the historical record – or not

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Wow either spam is getting really content specific or I got a interesting email from the Library of Congress.

To Whom It May Concern:

The United States Library of Congress has selected your website for inclusion in the Library’s historic collection of Internet materials related to the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI. We consider your website to be an important part of this collection and the historical record.

The Library of Congress preserves the Nation’s cultural artifacts and provides enduring access to them. The Library’s traditional functions, acquiring, cataloging, preserving and serving collection materials of historical importance to the Congress and the American people to foster education and scholarship, extend to digital materials, including websites.

The following URL has been selected:

www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester

…

Thank you.

Web Archiving Team
webcapture@loc.gov

http://www.loc.gov/webarchiving/

Library of Congress

Washington, D.C. 20540

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Humor

The Beverly Papabilies

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Come and listen to a story about a man renamed Peter
A poor fisherman, barely kept his family fed,
Then one day Andrew brought Simon to see him,
And Jesus invites them to be fishers of men

Messiah he is, Son of God, Second person of the Trinity

Well the first thing you know ole Peter’s got a chair,
Kinfolk said “Peter move away from there”
Said “Rome is the place you ought to be”
So they loaded up the ship and moved to Babylon.

Seven Hills, that is. Swimmin pools, Caesar.

Well now its time to say goodbye to B Sixteen
And invoke the conclave for Cardinals kindly droppin in.
The Sistine Chapel will be the locality
To see which man will head the Holy See

Pababile that is. burn the ballots, white smoke

Y’all pray now, y’hear?

beverly-papabiles

* Cardinal pictured are just some at the top of the New Advent Buzz Meter.

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Punditry

Suggestions, we get suggestions

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Suggestion BoxMedia coverage of the Catholic Church can drive can drive faithful Catholics batty. Conclave coverage from the media kicks up the typical stupidity up a notch to 11 (using the Spinal Tap measurement scale.)

Yet really why should their coverage annoy us so? The media, for the most part, is highly secular and filled with people with little connection to any faith. Should we really expect them to have other than an highly secular understanding of the Church? For them the Church is just another human institution and so suggesting what direction the Church should go in and what doctrines should be up for grabs is totally consistent from their viewpoint. Of course their advice is to make the Church more like them and what they believe.

That the Catholic Church was founded by Christ has no impact since the secular messiah is government. As far as they think about Jesus it is certainly not as the Messiah and the Son of God, at most a kind of nice social worker who got divinized by his later followers. This type of understanding of Jesus and his Church of course leads to exactly the type of ignorant coverage we get.

You might wonder at the arrogance of them saying what is best for the Catholic Church, but from their viewpoint it is not really arrogance. For example I might make suggestions for the Democratic Party even though I am no longer one of their members or one who believes in their prudential applications of politics. It would not make me arrogant to do so since this is a human institution and thus one anybody could make suggestions for. The fact that my suggestions would be strikingly different than the current leadership of the Democratic Party would not necessarily make them wrong. The media and others just see the Church in this light.

Still much of what they say is also intellectually dishonest even within this viewpoint. For them to go on and on about women’s ordination is rather silly since they don’t believe in the priesthood in the first place. The Church is just a kind of social club for them and so within that framework it makes sense for them to demand equality for just another job position. Theological arguments can be disregarded because there are no theological arguments.

We also should not be surprised for a similar attitude among even those of the Christian faith. The rending of Christendom has worked towards moving Christian beliefs to a smaller and smaller subset. If what was believed in the past can be dropped and the opposite embraced, then why is that also not true for the Catholic Church? They see the consistency of Catholic beliefs not as the protection of the Holy Spirit, but as a historical oddity and pure pigheadedness to not roll with the times. Protestantism has always had these tensions in it to both reject what came before and to at the same time a desire to return to the practice of an imagined early church. Christianity becomes a constantly moving target always redefining itself. The scandal of the fracturing of the Church into thousands of different bodies makes it harder to discern the truth and to believe there is one true Church. The dictatorship of relativsim is not only embraced by the secularists.

So really we should expect such unhelpful advice from these areas. Father forgive them for them do not know what they are talking about. That we get this same type of “advice” from within the Church is annoying and also to be expected. The nature of the Church is lost on the critics and those inside the Church whose vision of the Church can not be differentiated from the secularists.

The fact is during the coming weeks everybody with some agenda is going to have some advice for the Church. This is true even for faithful Catholics. We all have our hobby horses of what we want to have addressed. Some of these ideas might actually intersect with the mission of the Church to go out into the whole world and spread the good news.

In related news Elizabeth Lev writing for Zenit has some great suggestions for reporting that will be ignored.

From The Ten Commandments of Reporting on the Vatican:

1) Thou shalt leave your personal prejudices at the door. I have often seen Al Qaeda treated with more respect than Pope Benedict and the Roman Catholic Church. While you may disagree with the Church’s teaching on any number of things, there is no excuse to let your personal agenda define your coverage. In reporting on other world events, it is unthinkable to insert one’s personal ideas, so why is it acceptable when reporting on the Church? If all you can focus on is birth control, gay marriage and abortion and how the papacy should change its teaching, you should probably just go home. Whether you agree or disagree isn’t really the question. Your job is to understand and to report, to give background and help viewers and readers to get a sense of the bigger picture. Pope Benedict XVI has led the 1.2 billion members of the Catholic Church for 8 years, drawn crowds of millions in gatherings worldwide and brought a message of hope and love to the farthest reaches of the earth. The Pope’s CV is impressive to say the least, and he deserves respect.

Photo credit: Ms. Tina via photopin cc

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Humor

Prepare the Kitty Conclave

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Finally the media is getting to meatier stories regarding Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.

Benedict XVI, no-longer-pope, is resuming pleasures once crowded out of his stressful life: Reading, strolling in the gardens and playing the piano, according to the Vatican.

So, can the pontiff emeritus finally have a cat again? Maybe.

No pets were allowed in the papal residence in Vatican City. But there are kitties all over the enormous garden at the papal retreat, Castel Gandolfo. That’s where Benedict is now ensconced for a few weeks until he can move to a residence being readied for him within Vatican City.

In the archives at Catholic University, there’s a 1958 comic book calledThe Cat from Castelgandolfo in which a fictitious kitty hung out with Pope Pius XI. And undated Web images show some plump felines languishing on the garden walls.

The pope’s brother, Rev. Georg Ratzinger, in his 2011 book, My Brother, the Pope, describes Joseph-who-became-Benedict as someone “very tenderhearted; he loves animals and flowers.” Back in 1968, when Rev. Joseph Ratzinger was a theology professor in the Bavarian town of Tubingen, a neighbor’s cat visited him daily.

“It even accompanied him to his lectures and to Mass. It was a black cat, a very intelligent pussycat,” the older brother writes.

In 2005, Georg Ratzinger’s housekeeper in Germany told MSNBC that the pope’s personal cat, Chico, was under the care of the person who tends the pope’s private residence there and another neighborhood cat visited Chico often.

So, if Georg wants to bring Chico along for a visit, there are two hotels in Castel Gandolfo that advertise they are “pet friendly.”

Once Benedict returns to live at the Mater Ecclesiae (Mother of the Church) refurbished apartment inside the Vatican City State, there are countless cats already afoot that could cozy up to a known soft touch. (source)

Really we need a Kitty Conclave to help him to ge an appropriate cat.

Could Contessina, a cat that roams the gardens at Vatican City, be pontiff emeritus Benedict XVI's first post-papacy cat? He couldn't have one when he lived in the papal residence. / Filippo Monteforte, AFP/Getty Images

Could Contessina, a cat that roams the gardens at Vatican City, be pontiff emeritus Benedict XVI’s first post-papacy cat? He couldn’t have one when he lived in the papal residence. / Filippo Monteforte, AFP/Getty Images

The pope being a cat person is not put of by their standoffish ways and the fact cats are friendly only when they want something. Really every pope should be a cat person since it will prepare them in working with the Curia. The cat above is really not really wearing liturgically appropriate fut. The emeritus pope needs a cat wearing appropriate fur. Perhaps all white with brown paws.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict has decided what he will wear once he is no longer pope: a simple white cassock and brown shoes given to him in León, Mexico.

“The city of Leon is known for beautiful shoes and very comfortable shoes. And when the Pope was asked what he wanted to wear, he said, ‘I want the shoes from León in Mexico,’” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told journalists Feb. 26.

“It will no longer be the red shoes that you have seen him wear. He has chosen to keep brown shoes that were given to him on his recent trip,” he said.

As for his apparel, the pope emeritus will wear a simple white cassock without the mozzetta (the short cape that covers his shoulders). (source)

I especially like that Benedict will be wearing brown shoes. In the Navy officers and chiefs involved in aviation were allowed to wear brown shoes. So my being a Chief with the Aviation Electionic Technician rating I got to wear brown shoes instead of black. So finally I have exactly one thing in common with him (besides being male and Catholic).

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LiturgyPunditry

The disappearance of the pipe organ

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Officials at a Roman Catholic church in Pittsburgh have a holy mystery on their hands. They say someone, somehow stole the building’s organ — and the 200 massive pipes required to play it.
WPXI-TV reported Friday that the music equipment worth $200,000 has disappeared from St. Justin’s Church.

Church business manager Skip Hary (HAW’-ree) says he’s baffled how anyone could get the organ out of the building.

He says it would either have to be maneuvered down narrow flights of steps, or lowered over a balcony. And the pipes can only be accessed by a ladder into the ceiling.

St. Justin’s, in the city’s Mount Washington neighborhood, closed last month after merging with another church.
Police say there were no signs of forced entry. (source)

Well this time the dissappearance of the organ is an actually mystery. In most parishes the organ wilfully disappeared. Really in most parishes if someone stole the organ nobody would notice since it was never used.

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Punditry

His Awesomeness, Bishop Vasa

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

The Santa Rosa Catholic Diocese is requiring its 200 schoolteachers to sign an agreement affirming that “modern errors” such as contraception, abortion, homosexual marriage and euthanasia are “matters that gravely offend human dignity.”

That means means abiding by the Ten Commandments, going to church every Sunday and heeding God’s words in thought, deed and intentions, according to a private church document that is an “addendum” to language in the current teachers’ contract.

The move is an effort by Bishop Robert Vasa to delineate specifically what it means for a Catholic-school teacher — whether Catholic or not — to be a “model of Catholic living” and to adhere to Catholic teaching.

When Bishop Vasa some years ago became the Bishop of the Diocese of Baker he did the same thing. No doubt there will be some similar results.

From an unidentified teacher who fears repercussions (according to the article):

“Personally, it’s probably something that I can’t sign,” said a teacher at Cardinal Newman High School in Santa Rosa.

Such a loss to Catholic education if this teacher does leave. Well not really. Although I have these funny ideas about actually teaching the fullness of the faith. Still exactly why does this teacher fear repercussions?

  • If the teacher objects to the document and refuses to sign it than being anonymous doesn’t matter.
  • It only matters to remain anonymous if you plan to lie and agree to it while actually rejecting parts of the oath. The teacher wants to keep their option open and is actually considering lying.

Bishop Vasa is also the only bishop that ever responded back to me in an email. I rarely write bishops, but I did email my thanks to him for his actions in the Diocese of Baker. Looks like it’s time to send another email of thanks.

source via Scott W

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Humor

Feeling flushed

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Feeling especially rather “Lenty” today I needed a good laugh.

The local Sisters of Charity’s Office of Peace, Justice and Integrity of Creation has produced a Lenten “Care for Creation” calendar that has been circulated by a few like-minded parishes. Each day includes a recommended activity, and some of them are laugh-out-loud funny. Take a look at the recommendation for last Friday, Feb. 22:

Try a “water fast” by flushing your toilet half as often. Be mindful that many people around the world have access only to the amount of water each day that U.S. citizens use in one toilet flush.

The Office of Peace, Justice and Integrity of Creation (OPJIC, ‘natch) was founded by would-be priestess Louise Akers, who came to minor fame when Archbishop Pilarczyk barred her from teaching for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati when it was revealed she was a member of the Women’s Ordination Conference. But rest assured OPJIC has retained its founder’s spirit. The website includes a quote from notorious women’s ordination advocate Theresa Kane and an announcement that equally notorious dissident Joan Chittister will be the featured speaker at a symposium hosted by Xavier University. (source)

I guess this is the new version of “Eat all the food on your plate, there are starving people in the world.” Like that suggestion is actually does nothing for real problems and access to water is a serious problem in some parts of the world. Just as long as an action makes you feel good about yourself actual connection to doing good isn’t important. As an exercise in solidarity this one is pretty silly,

Now if you really wanted to flush half as often, get rid of your government mandated comode and buy a classic one where only one flush is actually required.

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