Of Obsessions

WOULD Pope Francis Sign the New Catholic Teacher Contract?” Frank Bruni of the Times has noted this question posted on a dozen billboards around Cincinnati recently, presumably because of the Diaz case. This case and others, and the way the involved institutions handle them, are interpreted by Mr. Bruni as the Church vacillating between a message of greater tolerance and the traditional practice of intolerance, and "between the direction in which the Catholic Church needs to move and the matters of sexual morality on which it keeps getting stuck." Who determines the direction in which the Catholic Church needs to move? The New York Times Editorial page? No, it's founder, Jesus Christ, who has already, through his life, teaching, passion, death and resurrection determined the direction His Church is moving and will continue to move, in spite of all attempt by the gates of hell to prevail against her. Bruni opines, "The more things change, the more they remain mired in libido and loins." Here it would be pastoral to reflect on the teaching of Pope Paul VI, that human libido is one crack through which the Tempter enters the Church, wreaking havoc on souls. Read my book for examples of this, which are legion, and grow worse as we journey to the end times.

Bruni complains that diocesan Cincinnati teachers are being given a detailed prescriptive list of violations of Church teaching that could result in termination. I applaud this corrective, which is responsible episcopal oversight sadly not employed by all shepherds of the flock. The bishops as chief catechists in their dioceses are charged by Vatican II with the safeguarding of the Deposit of the Faith (which, by the way, Francis has no authority to change). The Cincinnati agreement rightly forbids a “homosexual lifestyle” (nothing said on "orientation") and any “public support” of one, interpreted to mean that an employee by his or her actions, not personal philosophy, violates the teachings of Jesus Christ. Bruni retorts that the agreement "says nothing about public support of the death penalty, something else that the church opposes. Here Bruni reveals a fundamental ignorance of Catholic teaching, set down in the Catechism:

2267 Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against an unjust aggressor.

As a catechist in a Catholic school, I always speak out publicly in opposition to the death penalty, but do not fail to give the full teaching of the Church.

The contract prohibits any use or advocacy of abortion rights, surrogacy, even in vitro fertilization. Rightly so. Bruni points out that it "doesn’t address possible advocacy of the sorts of bloody military engagements that the church often condemns." Again, Mr. Bruni should engage in a close reading of Catholic teaching on just war theory. Surely he is aware of the present day "cafeteria" brand of practice by Catholics, choosing to support men who have sex with men, and women who have sex with women, but condemning those who support "bloody military engagements." Should a man have sex with a man, and advocate a military engagement which does not meet just war criteria, the Church is bound to admonish him on both counts, and does in her teaching.

The new contract also forbids cohabitation and fornication, and any public endorsement of either. However, it must be said that Bruni notes, incorrectly, that there is "no reference to concern for the downtrodden, to the spirit of giving, to charity." Any Catholic institution by virtue of its Catholic identity is centered around charity, and Bruni is off the mark in intimating that those employed in her schools by the Cincinnati archdiocese are remiss in carrying out its mission, which reads:

"Vital to the evangelizing and educational mission of the Catholic Church, we are Christ-centered communities dedicated to the faith formation, academic excellence, and individual growth of our students, all rooted in the Gospel message of Jesus Christ."

To be rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ, the full Gospel, is to be caritas-centered.

What I find most disingenuous in Bruni's op-ed is his reference "to what Pope Francis said last year." Intellectual honesty requires that one read the full interview with Pope Francis, posted at America Magazine. In that translation here is the aforementioned passage:

“We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time. The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently. Proclamation in a missionary style focuses on the essentials, on the necessary things: this is also what fascinates and attracts more, what makes the heart burn, as it did for the disciples at Emmaus. We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel.”

So we see the word “obsessed” in there, but employed not quite in the same way the Times (and other progressive enthusiasts) see it.

That Bruni knows not of the institution of which he is writing is best seen in the following:

"Faithful Catholicism has never been a condition of employment in most Catholic schools, which have Protestant teachers, Jewish teachers, teachers of no discernible religion. They know to be respectful. They know to be discreet. But they’re there to decipher the mysteries of algebra, to eradicate the evils of dangling prepositions. They’re not priests."

Let's be clear: bishops are charged with seeing that faithful Catholicism be a condition of employment, or, failing that, that non Catholics employed by Catholic schools conduct themselves in accord with Catholic teaching. If 37 years of teaching in Catholic schools has taught me anything, it is that since Vatican II certain Catholics and non-Catholics alike, heterosexual and homosexual male and female employees in Catholic schools have often failed in this regard. Bruni suggests as much in his piece: "Can a teacher be canned for attending a rally for a candidate who’s pro-choice?" What message would attendance at such convey to impressionable students' minds in view of Pope Francis' statements on abortion? To cite only one such sttement: "Every unborn child, though unjustly condemned to be aborted, has the face of the Lord, who even before his birth, and then as soon as he was born, experienced the rejection of the world....")

It is the responsibility of the bishop to see that faithful Catholicism be a condition of employment, and that all employees, Catholic and non-Catholic both, conduct themselves in accord with Catholic teaching. This charge not a few bishops have only very recently found the courage to accept, as I document in my book. So the Church moves in the direction that the Holy Spirit wills, the efforts of those who walk in darkness notwithstanding. Our Lord has promised she will, as He will be with her until the end of the age. Let us pray that the Lord continue to shine His light on those who dwell in darkness...

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Being Catholic is ALWAYS Fun

“ F ive years ago, I would have been afraid of saying anything like what the pope said in his [recent] interview,” the Rev. Tom Reese told Sally Quin . “I’m ecstatic. I haven’t been this hopeful about the church in decades....” “It’s fun to be a religion reporter again. For a while it felt like being on the crime beat. It’s fun to be Catholic again.” George Weigel has raised the question of whether or not Fr. Tom has been paying attention throughout the last quarter of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st. Among his findings on the legacies of Pope Francis' predecessors: Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J. millions of adults have been baptized as or entered into full communion with the Catholic Church. new forms of campus ministry in the mold of JPII's "New Evangelization" have developed across the United States. Catholic-studies programs have bloomed on genuinely Catholic campuses across the U.S. the Church has produced the most c...

This video of a young boy twerking at Pride has homophobes outraged | Gay Star News

DANCING WITH MR. D: This video of a young boy twerking at Pride has homophobes outraged | Gay Star News : 'via Blog this'

"The Spirit of Vatican II"

My advice to one confronted with doubt sown by those who make reference to “correct interpretations of Vatican II” is to reflect closely upon the words of John Paul II: With the Council, the Church first had an experience of faith, as she abandoned herself to God without reserve, as one who trusts and is certain of being loved. It is precisely this act of abandonment to God which stands out from an objective examination of the Acts. Anyone who wished to approach the Council without considering this interpretive key would be unable to penetrate its depths. Only from a faith perspective can we see the Council event as a gift whose still hidden wealth we must know how to mine . In short, it is this abandonment, this interpretive faith perspective that is woefully lacking in many who would offer to explain what the Council taught in “the spirit of Vatican II.” Watch here to see what abandonment looks like!

From "The Smoke of Satan in the Temple of God"

….At the close of Vatican II, Pope Paul VI remarked that Christianity, the religion of God-Incarnate, had encountered the religion of man-made God. He was of the opinion that much of the Council was given over to demonstrating the compatibility of Enlightenment belief with Catholicism. Several years hence, on June 29, 1972, Paul delivered another assessment of the state of the Roman Catholic Church since the close of Vatican II. As Cardinal Silvio Oddi recalled it (in an article first published on March 17, 1990, in Il Sabato magazine in Rome) the Holy Father told a congregation: We have the impression that through some cracks in the wall the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God: it is doubt, uncertainty, questioning, dissatisfaction, confrontation. And how did this come about? We will confide to you the thought that may be, we ourselves admit in free discussion, that may be unfounded, and that is that there has been a power, an adversary power. Let us call him by his name: the...

Neomodernism's Attack on Religious Life- (continued).

Who’s that on page 180 of that book? This is Sister Mary Benjamin, IHM. Sister Mary Benjamin got involved with us in the summer of ‘66, and became the victim of a lesbian seduction. An older nun in the group, “freeing herself to he more expressive of who she really was internally,” decided that she wanted to make love with Sister Mary Benjamin. Well, Sister Mary Benjamin engaged in this; and then she was stricken with guilt, and wondered, to quote from her book, “Was I doing something wrong, was I doing something terrible? I talked to a priest—” Unfortunately, we had talked to him first. “I talked to a priest,” she says, “who refused to pass judgment on my actions. He said it was up to me to decide if they were right or wrong. He opened a door, and I walked through the door, realizing I was on my own.” This is her liberation? How excited they were, to be delivering someone into God’s hands! Well, instead they delivered her into the hands of nondirective psychology. ...

Do Not Be Ashamed

T he demeaning and of Pope Benedict is quickening in combination with the growing exaltation of Pope Francis in the secular world and among the "progressive" dissidents within the Church. Thus I believe a little review of his Pontificate is in order, as the signs of the times required him to shoulder a heavy cross and suffer a quiet type of crucifixion due to his exceptional faith and courageous writings and actions. Pope Benedict took strong, long overdue and very necessary actions against moral corruption within the clergy, the religious orders and within Catholic aid agencies. He appointed many bishops faithful to the true Vatican II, and removed many who were a cause of scandal to the Church. He took actions on the liturgy and other issues that were not popular, but which he saw as essential to preserving Catholicism and Christian culture much as laid down in his The Spirit of the Liturgy. The full story of his papacy remains to be told. “And blessed is he who ...

Satan makes his way to us through the libido!

Let us take a great civilization historically devoid of pornography, and examine what happens once the door is opened a crack, for smoke to enter:

Popes are not Presidents...

John Allen of the Globe has opined today that there are two key words that capture why many church officials believe it’s so important to avoid what they regard as false expectations of swift change to the church’s ban on divorced and remarried Catholics receiving communion and the other sacraments: Humanae Vitae, Paul VI's 1968 document reasserting the church’s traditional ban on birth control. It rocked the world, Allen writes, "in part because the reforming energies of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) had led people to suspect change was just around the corner, in part because the pope himself had created a commission to study the issue." The o utcome of the Pope’s evential reassertion of the ban “soured public opinion on Pope Paul, in some ways inflicting a blow from which his papacy never really recovered. ” On matters related to marriage and the family, the Church has always seen the fertility of the husband and wife as a gift from God and the end ( telos...

My Intended Audience

I have written for those Catholics born and perhaps catechized before Vatican II or immediately thereafter who as yet are unaware of the true teaching of the Council. It should not surprise the reader that there are Catholics whose lifestyles do not differentiate them all that much from those who are not Catholic and/or Christian. Moreover, many Catholics of the “baby-boom” generation are alienated from the Church all together because their only exposure has been to a superficial, cultural Catholicism, impotent in the face of an American culture increasingly without faith. Conversely, many others have left the Church – hungrier, as they say, for a more “biblically-based church.” The book is also intended for young people of the “JP II” generation of Catholics, born long after the council but perhaps not fully aware of the turmoil spawned by dissent in the Church which, though on the wane, is still with us today. These young people, especially those in authentically Catholic college...

Parent Trap? No, Cohabitation Trap!

And here I thought people were wising up to the fact that living together in sin before marriage wasn't leading to human fulfillment and bliss, and then to come across Mr. Johnston'e piece: The Co-Habitation Trap GEORGE SIM JOHNSTON There's no such thing as a trial marriage. Recently, a college classmate told me that her 25-year-old son has a girlfriend about whom he can't make up his mind. The couple have been going together for two years. He is serious about the girl, thinks she'd make a good wife, but tells his mother that he's not sure about taking the plunge. Should he propose? Should he take more time to think about it? Maybe date other girls to gain perspective? The son is at a loss. My friend is generally a sensible person, and she gave her son what she thinks is good advice: why not move in with her and see how it goes? In other words, do a trial marriage. If the sharing of bed and board goes smoothly, then tie t...

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