The Power of Not Praying

Rod Dreher, in a post by this title (The American Conservative, June 18, 2013):

A fallen-away Catholic named “Ellery” left an interesting comment this morning in the “Why They Left God” thread. I encourage you to read the whole thing. This was the most notable part of it, I think:

Years later, I have realized, especially after living in Israel and seeing Judaism in all its forms, that what is missing isn’t “liberal” or “conservative” but rather, a discipline of prayer. No one really taught me that, not my conservative, crazy 7th grade Catholic teacher who told us all the divorced & remarried parents of her students would go to hell for what they’d done, and showed us really horrible anti-abortion movies- nor the Jesuit church where God was sometimes referred to as “She” and Latin America was high on the list of things we talked about at Mass.

Marshall McLuhan — yes, the media theorist; he was a devout Catholic — said this:

I never came into the church as a person who was being taught Catholic doctrines. I came in on my knees. That is the only way in. When people start praying they need truths; that’s all. You don’t come into the Church through ideas and concepts, and you cannot leave by mere disagreement. It has to be a loss of faith, a loss of participation.

You can tell: when people leave the Church, they have quit praying. The active relating to the Church’s prayer and sacraments is not through ideas.

Me being me, I can’t be reminded of this often enough.

And me being me, I can't help being reminded of Francis A. Schaeffer's observation that the first step of apostasy among those who drift away from the Faith, is to stop giving thanks to God for His blessings.

[Hat tip to JM]

Austrian "Called to Disobedience" founder to be hosted by Fr. Bechard at Saints Simon and Jude in Metro Detroit

In what can be described only as a brazen gesture, the parish of Saints Simon and Jude, 32500 Palmer Rd, Westland, Michigan 48186, (734) 722-1343, is planning to host Fr. Helmut Schüller, founder of the Austrian Priests’ Initiative, a dissident priests' group, on July 26, on church property. Schüller's "Call to Disobedience," signed by a majority of Austrian dissenting priests, has brought worldwide momentum to the group's initiatives.

As their publicity literature shows, the group is now on world tour, promoting a "new season of dialogue" and creative dissent. The parish priest of Saints Simon and Jude, where the group is being hosted locally in Metro Detroit, Rev. Gerard V. Bechard, is apparently personally facilitating the event, as his email and phone number are given as contact info.

To be "fair," I suppose one should acknowledge that these priests are all doing what is right in their own eyes in order to address what they view as the crisis in the Catholic Church, including the "shortage of priests" and "necessity of reforming church governance."

The Book of Judges also refers to a time "in which there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes" (Judges 17:6, 21:25). The context, however, suggests anarchy rather than remedy. Dissent holds the attraction of autonomy, but its fruit is rebellion and dissolution. If this group had its way, there would soon be no need for priests at all, since, despite all its talk of the Holy Spirit, it would soon see to it that the supernatural task of the Church in the world is completely abrogated.

The correspondent who brought this event to my attention wrote, simply: "Disgraceful! I thought nonsense like this was put to stop years ago! I hope Fr. Bechard has a change of heart about hosting this scandalous group."

Amen to that.

Contact: Fr. Gerry Bechard pastor@stssimonandjude.com 734-722-1343

[Hat tip to B.C.]

God and gender

A concise resume by Taylor Marshall, "Why God is Father, not Mother" (Canterbury Tales, June 17, 2013).

New York Times reports white America Culture of Death

Sam Roberts, "Census Benchmark for White Americans: More Deaths Than Births" (New York Times, June 13, 2013):

Deaths exceeded births among non-Hispanic white Americans for the first time in at least a century, according to new census data, a benchmark that heralds profound demographic change.

Related: Demographic Winter (trailer)

EF liturgical humor

My daughter is getting old enough to take an interest in following along in the Latin-English Missal of the Extraordinary Form (EF) liturgy. For years, she has heard us accompany the choir in singing the Ordinary parts of the Mass.

Those of you acquainted with the EF liturgy will know that the Mass is preceded, in the High Mass, by the Asperges Me, called the "Rite of Sprinkling" in the post-Vatican II Ordinary Form of the Mass.


The English translation of the Latin in the traditional form begins like this:

P. Thou shalt sprinkle me,
C. Lord, with hyssop and I shall be cleansed; thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow. [from Ps. 50/51] Have mercy on me, O. God, according to thy great mercy.

The Latin form reads as follows:

P. Asperges me
C. Domine, hyssopo, et mundabor: lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor. Misere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam.

Looking at the Latin form on the left page of the Missal, my daughter asked me an innocent question that made me both almost lose my composure and wonder whether Veggie Tales was such a good idea: "What does it mean," she asked, "when it says 'Asparagus me'?"

Don't you just love "teaching moments?" The hard part is trying to look serious.

More cardinals and bishops cave to SS unions

Sandro Magister, "Vatican Diary / Six more votes for 'gay' unions" (www.chiesa, June 10, 2013) -- including Archbishop Piero Marini, president of the pontifical committee for Eucharistic congresses and formal master of papal ceremonies; Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the pontifical council for the family; Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, archbishop of Vienna, who afterward corrected himself; Colombian Cardinal Rubén Salazar Gómez, archbishop of Bogotà, this latter forced to make a rapid retraction before he received the cardinal's biretta in November of 2012; and, of course, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, archbishop emeritus of Mechelen-Brussells, and Vatican spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi.

As our correspondent on retainer comments from an eastern seaboard city that knows how to keep its secrets: "I continue to be exasperated, to put it kindly, at the retreat to: 'Marriage, of course, must be maintained tobe between a man and a woman,' while the same voices bend over backwards to affirm the domestication of homosexuality."

Vatican "gay lobby" confirmations

The "Gay Lobby": confirmations all around
- Bergoglio ends Vatican omertà
- Fr. Oko: "The true challenge of the Pontiff is the heresy of homosexuality" (Rorate Caeli, June 13, 2013)

Related (More unhelpful confusion):

Matthew Schmitz, "Archbishop of Canterbury: Gay Marriage Not a Faith Issue" (First Thoughts, June 3, 2013).

Related: Special report: Gay Vatican (ChurchMilitant.TV, June 17, 2013).

[Hat tip to JM]

Has Pope Francis been reading the Care Bears?

"Pope says everyone can do good, regardless of belief" (CNA/EWTN News, May 22, 2013):

Vatican City, May 22, 2013 / 04:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Every human person despite his or her beliefs can do good, and a sharing in good works is the prime place for encounter among those who disagree, Pope Francis said at his Mass today....

“The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone."

“Even the atheists. Everyone,” Pope Francis stressed.

He said that the saving blood of Christ “makes us children of God of the first class. We are created children in the likeness of God and the blood of Christ has redeemed us all. And we all have a duty to do good.”

Well, I know there must be a proper hermeneutic out there somewhere for interpreting the words of the Holy Father. The immediate counterfactual that comes to mind is the depravity of the human heart stemming from Original Sin. The Prophet Isaaiah says, for example, that "all our righteous acts" -- acts performed naturally, apart from divine prevenient grace -- "are as filthy rags" (Is. 64:6), and the Prophet Jeremiah says: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17:9).

In any case, here's what our correspondent on retainer emailed me with the link:

"I read things like this, and I just wonder: (1) How is this theology any different from liberal Protestantism, and (2) why do popes seem keener nowadays on talking to the World than the Church?

Everyone has a call to holiness, even non-believers? Huh?! This to my mind makes no sense. It raises a whole series of questions. Anyway, If the Pope cannot carefully explain theology, who can?!

I simply am mystified on how Vatican leaders read the signs of the times.

Okay, here to the rescue come the hermeneutical theology buffs. Pope Francis, on their view, is only saying what has already been said by St. Paul, Pope Leo XIII, Vatican II in Gaudium et spes, Pope John Paul II, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church; and Fr. Dwight Longenecker "takes it away" with his final explanation of what Pope Francis actually meant to say.

But it's not quite all as easy as that. For one thing, as one commentor on Fr. Longenecker's original post says, "[I am] concerned about the tone. It will be a long haul if 'conservatives' have to keep explaining him, as Fr.Longenecker's post does."

For another thing, however, the efforts to explain can get sloppy; for whatever they may have intended, Pope Francis, Pope John Paul, St. Paul, etc. don't actually say exactly the same thing in the quoted texts. For example, St. Paul says that God desires all to be saved (not that they are saved); that Jesus gave himself as a ransom for all (not that all are partakers of the ransom); that the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men (not that all are saved).

John Paul says, however, that all people have become children of God and partakers in the divine nature and heirs to eternal life. This is something altogether different, regardless of what he may have intended by his words.

This sort of seeming carelessness and ambiguity of meaning, this constant need for clarification, for explanation, for hermeneutical rescuers, it seems to me, is a problem.

Your thoughts?

Update: Here are a list of the Pope's "hermeneutical rescuers":

• Mark Shea’s “Friends don’t let HuffPo writers do theology”
• Fr. Dwight Longenecker’s “Did Pope Francis Preach Salvation By Works??”
• Carl Olson’s “Pope Francis teaches that everyone is saved! Wow! (Hold on. Wait a second.)”
• Brandon Vogt’s “Did Pope Francis Really Say that All Atheists are Redeemed?”
• Jimmy Akin’s “Did Pope Francis Say that Atheists can get to Heaven by Good Works?”
• Scott Hahn’s “Pope Francis’ teaching on Atheists”
• Terry Mattingly’s “Yes, Pope Francis said: “All are ‘redeemed!’ Is that news?”

[Hat tip to J.M.]

Good homily on the true meaning of joy

Dispelling the common misconception that joy, like love, are emotions, Michael "Jeremiah" Voris stresses that emotions are at the service of true joy and love, which are grounded in knowledge of truth (and our Lord Who is Truth itself).

Homeschooling growing seven times faster than public school enrollment

Breitbart, via Rorate Caeli, who adds: "And test scores of students educated at home by their parents, compared to government-schooled children, are much higher, while absurd fears of the children not being "socialized" are put to rest."

Pope on Traditional groups: "Pelagian current. It's like turning back 60 years! They count rosaries... Please, don't laugh."

A portion of the transcript from the Papal audience with the presiding board of the CLAR (the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious Men and Women - Confederación Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Religiosos y Religiosas) on June 6, 2013, via Rorate Caeli (June 10, 2013):

I share with you two concerns. One is the Pelagian current that there is in the Church at this moment. There are some restorationist groups. I know some, it fell upon me to receive them in Buenos Aires. And one feels as if one goes back 60 years! Before the Council... One feels in 1940... An anecdote, just to illustrate this, it is not to laugh at it, I took it with respect, but it concerns me; when I was elected, I received a letter from one of these groups, and they said: "Your Holiness, we offer you this spiritual treasure: 3,525 rosaries." Why don't they say, 'we pray for you, we ask...', but this thing of counting... And these groups return to practices and to disciplines that I lived through - not you, because you are not old - to disciplines, to things that in that moment took place, but not now, they do not exist today...

Pope Francis: 'Gay lobby' exists inside Vatican

Daniel Burke (CNN, June 11, 2013) reports:

Pope Francis said a “gay lobby” exists inside the Vatican ... a surprising disclosure from a pope who has already delivered his share of stunners, and a resurrection of church conflicts that had bedeviled his predecessor's papacy.

“In the Curia,” Francis said, referring to Catholicism’s central bureaucracy, “there are holy people. But there is also a stream of corruption.”

“The 'gay lobby' is mentioned, and it is true, it is there,” Francis continued. “We need to see what we can do.”

Update:

The "Gay Lobby": confirmations all around
- Bergoglio ends Vatican omertà
- Fr. Oko: "The true challenge of the Pontiff is the heresy of homosexuality" (Rorate Caeli, June 13, 2013)

"A Bishop in Hell"

What you gotta love about Michael Voris is, to borrow a description from Fr. Z., "his usual non-committal, indifferent, ambiguous, vague, tepid, ho-hum style."

Silencing homosexuals who changed

For some time now, Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH International) has been the target of those who wish to silence their successes in offering resolution and healing to sexual conflicts, including unwanted same sex attractions:

December 19, 2012 -- The Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund (FCDF) announced today that it has accepted the role of lead defense counsel for Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing(JONAH) in a precedent-setting lawsuit. FCDF is a national public interest law firm that represents people whose freedom of conscience has come under attack. JONAH is a faith-based, nonprofit organization that offers assistance to men and women seeking to resolve their sexual conflicts,including unwanted same sex attractions.

JONAH has been unjustly sued by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) who claims that homosexuality is permanently fixed and that people cannot be helped in overcoming their unwanted same-sex attractions.

SPLC 's position is inconsistent with numerous scientific and medical opinions and studies, finding that sexual attraction is influenced by many factors, both environmental and biological. Even certain gay activist groups claim that sexual attractions can be fluid and change throughout people’s lives. SPLC's allegations also ignore the thousands of people who have already benefitted from programs,such as those offered by JONAH and others, many of whom are now living their life long dreams,including traditional marriage and children.

Charles LiMandri, the President and Chief Counsel of the FCDF, stated, “The SPLC lawsuit is ill-conceived and legally untenable for multiple reasons. It seeks to violate the First Amendment freedoms of speech, religion and association not only of JONAH and the other defendants, but also untold numbers of people in need that stand to benefit from their services." (emphasis added)

Best commencement speech ever

Class of 2013

Graduation Speech Given by Mr. Christopher Check at St. Michael’s Preparatory School, May 29, 2013:

The confreres of St. Michael’s Abbey each day draw down from heaven countless graces as they unite their voices in song in the Divine Office with the voices of the heavenly host. And let me underscore here--men of the class of 2013--host means “army.”

It is the army before which your Archangel patron unsheathes his broadsword and leads these eager confreres into battle against the organized forces of evil. Now—men of the class of 2013—it is common in our age—to regard evil as some vaguely defined failure on the part of men to organize properly human society, but—once we apply the right social systems and the right technologies, we will at last eradicate all forms of human suffering. This fool’s errand in the perfectibility of human society often goes by the name of progress and its chief proponents throughout history include such figures as guillotine enthusiast Robespierre, communist Karl Marx, eugenicist Margaret Sanger, and mass murderers, Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse Tung.

And following in the footsteps of these monsters, knowingly or not, is virtually every commencement speaker at virtually every commencement exercise. I’ll give you their speeches in one sentence: This venerable institution has made you brilliant and wonderful, now go out beyond its walls and make the world a better place.

Very well. Here’s my question: How is it then that countless graduating classes have been sent forth by countless commencement speakers to go forth and make the world a better place, and yet it is patently obvious that we are well into what Christopher Dawson seventy years ago called the “disintegration of Western Civilization.”

... Gentlemen, there is only one meaningful way to change the world and that is to restore the binding force that Christianity once exercised on the world. You can be part of this effort only if you first transform your heart in Christ. You cannot help save the world if you do not see first every day to your own salvation. Our Lord is explicit on this point: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God.”

You have had the best Catholic formation available in America. I don’t need to tell you about the Sacraments, personal devotions, and norms of piety. But let me underscore something you have heard about everyday here. The interior life. You must attend every day to your interior life: spiritual reading, the reading of Scripture, especially the life of Christ, prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. It is impossible for you to do good work if you first do not put your own soul in order. Nemo dat quod no habet. You cannot share love of God if you do not have it, and it is in the interior life that you will cultivate love of God. The venerable French Abbot Dom Chautrard in the book that would become Pope Saint Pius X’s beside book, The Soul of the Apostolate, makes clear that unless apostolic work is suffused with Love of God it will bear no fruit....

There's much more. This is a very substantial commencement address, far too substantial for any university -- especially a secular one. Only a solidly Catholic high school like St. Michael's Preparatory School could possibly have garnered such a meaty oration as this. Congratulations to all of them! Read more >>

[Hat tip to A. Sistrom]