P reviously I posted on the letter from the seven bishops of the State of Michigan denouncing the federal district court’s recent decision to overturn the 2004 voter-approved Michigan Marriage Amendment, which upheld the truth that marriage can only ever be between one man and one woman. This judicial decision is further proof that the shared mind of American culture has darkened. It was God Himself who created marriage when He created Adam and Eve and ordered them to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen 1:22).  Here the Father ordered marriage toward the transmission of human life .  The Catechism of the Catholic Church instructs the faithful that marriage exists for the reciprocal good of the partners   (husband and wife are called to help each other get to Heaven) and   the procreation and education of children .  These two purposes cannot be separated, for “ What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder."   (Mt 19:6). Marriage be...

H ardly. Read the documents!  The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church ( Lumen Gentium ) ,  no. 25, states that, even though the bishops of the Catholic Church are not individually infallible, they teach infallibly the Church’s doctrines of faith and morals “when, gathered together in an ecumenical council, they are teachers and judges of faith and morals for the universal Church, whose definitions must be adhered to with the submission of faith.” So— Lumen Gentium , No. 25, says that one such case of the bishops teaching infallibly is when they teach a matter of faith and morals in “an ecumenical council.”  Such as Vatican II.  Lumen Gentium No.25 further states that these definitions of the bishops on matters of faith and morals must be held with a “religious assent,”  and, “This religious submission of mind and will must be shown in a special way to the authentic magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking  ex cathedra  …...

I view of the Federal Disctict Judge's ruling on same-sex "marriage" in Michigan, and the Circuit Court's stay : Marriage is and can only ever be a unique relationship solely between one man and one woman, regardless of the decision of a judge or future electoral vote. Nature itself, not society, religion or government, created marriage. Nature, the very essence of humanity as understood through historical experience and reason, is the arbiter of marriage, and we uphold this truth for the sake of the common good. The biological realities of male and female and the complementarity they each bring to marriage uniquely allows for the procreation of children. Every child has the right to both a mother and a father and, indeed, every child does have lineage to both. We recognize not every child has the opportunity to grow in this environment, and we pray for those single mothers and fathers who labor each day to care for their children at times amid great challe...

The title of this post was the theme for the Los Angeles 2014 Religious Education Congress , post-Cardinal Mahony (taking place amidst the recent earthquake). It managed to catch the attention of the blogger of Catholic bloggers   in addition to my own, having discussed it previously. A smidgen of the Congress' history: ….the Los Angeles Religious Education Conference. A quick fo ray via a wonderful means of social communication, the Internet, shows that many victims of modernist theories are featured at the conference today (though it is not as heterodox as the twentieth century occurrences). The Congress originated in the 1950s to educate catechists to teach the Faith more effectively, but by 1987 the influence of neomodernism on presenters at the Congress had produced a creedless, experiential catechesis under the auspices of Sister Edith Prendergast, yet another of our influential circle of religious education experts.       Perusal of both ...

.... W hen I did return to the Faith, I was unable to find employment in my undergraduate major, history, so I began to volunteer teaching CCD in my parish, St. Agatha in Redford Twp., hoping eventually to land a job there teaching history. This required me to earn catechist certification offered by the Archdiocese of Detroit, which I did in 1978. No sooner had I completed the requirements, when a combination Religion/History opening occurred at Benedictine High School in Detroit. I taught there for one year, after which I landed a job teaching Scripture (for which I, by true Catholic standards, was woefully unprepared to do) at St. Agatha, where I remained for one year. I then took a position at a Catholic high school in a suburb of Detroit, where I have been ever since. Since 1995, however, and my “reversion” (no doubt through the prayers of my Mom) to the fullness of Catholic teaching, I have made ten year study of the post-conciliar years in the United States, for which my trai...

A certain person very dear to me watches too much of the Soprano reruns, and thus I too get caught up in it (to my shame--this HBO show and reality TV shows in general will make adjectival use of the F-bomb routine if we do not repent....) Thus it piqued my interest to run across this video of the Pope, who in the past has said, "Who am I to judge?" This video is heartening, for though we are not allowed to judge people, we are allowed to, even have a responsibility to, judge behavior . Nice going, Holiness!

In 1941, Tolkien wrote a masterful letter to his son Michael, dealing with marriage and the realities of human sexuality. The letter reflects Tolkien's Christian worldview and his deep love for his sons, and at the same time, also acknowledges the powerful dangers inherent in unbridled sexuality. From the letter: This is a fallen world…. the dislocation of sex-instinct is one of the chief symptoms of the Fall. The world has been 'going to the bad' all down the ages. The various social forms shift, and each new mode has its special dangers: but the 'hard spirit of concupiscence' has walked down every street, and sat leering in every house, since Adam fell….The devil is endlessly ingenious, and sex is his favorite subject. He is as good every bit at catching you through generous romantic or tender motives, as through baser or more animal ones.  Tolkien advised his young son that the sexual fantasies of the 20th century were demonic lies, intended to ensnare u...

Today homosexual activists are demanding the legalization of same-sex “marriage.” In some places they have even achieved this goal. They assert that this is a matter of equality. If heterosexuals can marry people of the opposite sex, they argue, then equality demands that homosexuals be allowed to marry people of the same sex. Many have found this argument compelling. Others have no objection to the idea of homosexual marriage. Both of these are grave signs. They reveal just how much damage the institution of marriage has already suffered. Opponents of homosexual marriage argue that if marriage were redefined to include same-sex couples, then both marriage and families would suffer great damage. That is quite true, but marriage has  already  been greatly damaged or else the idea that two people of the same sex could marry each other wouldn’t even be under discussion. The fact that it is shows that a large segment of the public does not understand the basics of marriage. The...

I graduated from St. Eugene’s in 1966, when the liturgical changes after the close of the council promulgated in Sacrosanctum Concilium to the best of my memory had not yet been thoroughly implemented. I journeyed off to Detroit Cathedral High School downtown, where my experience of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist began to fade, as I no longer was required (sadly, in retrospect) to attend daily Mass, and cannot to save my life remember one thing taught to me in high school religion class by my teacher, who was also the Business Ed. and Typing teacher and track coach. A rumination of the yearbooks for these years reveals photo captions such as “DC Sodality Men Reach Out,” and “Fr. Trainor Celebrates Mass Facing the Seniors as he Closes the Senior Retreat.” To be sure, in my adolescent years I hadn’t the foggiest idea of what was happening in the Church in the United States after the Council, and, after seeing a pretty, red-headed Sophomore on the bus on her way to Immaculat...

In the years prior to the Second Vatican Council, I also remember attending daily Mass before elementary school, which, because we had fasted for three hours, allowed us to eat breakfast in Mr. Sullivan’s math class. I remember bellowing out Tantum Ergo   at Wednesday Evening Benediction, which I was in the habit of attending with my Mom, siblings and “Gramp,” (her Dad, John). I also remember looking forward to participating in the praying of that most sublime form of prayer, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, with my St. Joseph’s Daily Missal. With Pope Benedict’s having granted permission for priests to offer the Extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, we hear much ado in the form of reaction against this from Catholic “progressives,” and about how the Council placed a new emphasis on the laity’s participation at Mass, the implication being that Catholics did not actively participate at Mass prior to Vatican II, opting for such devotions as the praying of the Rosary or Holy Car...

L ike many of the twenty-five percent or so of the American people who would respond with “Roman Catholic” when asked their religion in an emergency room, I am a “cradle Catholic,” born into an Irish-American family in Detroit as a baby boomer in 1952, baptized at St. Gabriel’s on the southwest side in the same year. I first received the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in second grade at St. Eugene’s parish in northwest Detroit, for which the Sisters of Notre Dame DeNamur admirably prepared me. I still stand amazed at the reverence instilled in the second-graders in the black-and-white photos shot by my father, Don, that day. I was also confirmed at St. Eugene’s parish in the fourth grade, after which my mother, Ann, took me out for my favorite breakfast, strawberry pancakes, where I played “Fun, Fun, Fun” by the Beach Boys at least twice. Since my return and faithful assent to all that the Catholic Church teaches in 1995, (from which admittedl...

Ruminating on excerpts from John Allen’s one year review of the pontificate of Pope Francis (in red): Many Points of Praise for Pope’s First Year By  John L. Allen Jr. GLOBE STAFF   MARCH 12, 2014 ….In the year since, Pope Francis has electrified the world with his taste for the improbable: his spurning of the papal apartment, his resolutely informal personal style, his startling words, such as his instantly immortal “Who am I to judge?” line on gays. Quite right! Who are we to judge anyone? He’s popular at the Catholic grass roots and may be the most celebrated pontiff ever in non-Catholic venues, and even some secular circles where criticism of the papacy is much more common than praise. I rejoice at this, and pray that the world will listen to all of Francis, even the hard sayings…. Symbolically, Francis, 77, has changed the narrative about Catholicism. Substantively, he has taken bold steps toward reform and reoriented the church toward the political an...

David Gibson of the Huffington Post in a recent editorial entitled, " Pope Francis' Reforms for The Catholic Church May Be Bigger Than Anyone Dreamed." Here is his piece, with my commments in red: VATICAN CITY (RNS) As Pope Francis approaches the one-year mark of his papacy, his global flock and a fascinated public are starting to measure the changes he is making against the sky-high hopes for transforming an institution many thought impervious to change. Every personnel move and every new proposal is being scrutinized for what it might indicate about the direction of the church, what it might augur about possible adjustments to church teaching and whether the aspirations of so many will be fulfilled — or frustrated. This is unclear- Francis has no authority to change the Deposit of the Faith. Perhaps Gibson is confusing teaching with practice? But as important as such structural and policy moves can be, church leaders and Vatican insiders say the 77-year-old...