"Cardinal Burke: 'with the leadership of Pope Benedict XVI and Bp. Fellay this reconciliation can take place'" (Rorate Caeli, June 15, 2012).
All of this against a background of leaked documents, and dark and hidden agents in the Curia, apparently undertaking to distort the will and words of the Holy Father.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
"No difference" thesis in same-sex parenting "not settled science"
Ana Samuel, "The Kids Aren’t All Right: New Family Structures and the 'No Differences' Claim" (Public Discourse, June 14, 2012).
Our correspondent on retainer in Rome, Zachary Mabee, summarizes:
[Hat tip to Z.M.]
Our correspondent on retainer in Rome, Zachary Mabee, summarizes:
This is a pretty thorough rundown of some recent research, as well as the more general state of the research, regarding what is commonly called, as the author notes, the "no differences" claim, according to which same-sex couples' child-rearing is statistically on par, more or less, with that of heterosexual couples. While such data, she also notes, is *not* demonstratively or indisputably conclusive, it does seem to suggest that the "no differences" claim, at least in a more straightforward formulation, is not empirically tenable.
[Hat tip to Z.M.]
For the record: Cardinal Levada - Bishop Fellay
- "Communiqué of the General House of the Society of Saint Pius X" (Rorate Caeli, June 14, 2012).
- "Holy See Press Office communiqué" (Rorate Caeli, June 14, 2012).
- "What is a Personal Prelature?" (Rorate Caeli, June 14, 2012).
- "Bishop Tissier de Mallerais: 'The irregularity is that of Rome, a Modernist Rome.'" (Rorate Caeli, Jun 13, 2012).
- "Rome-SSPX - New updates" (Rorate Caeli, June 13, 2012).
- "Rome-SSPX - Decisive moments? Pope's response to be delivered to Bp. Fellay today [Updated]" (Rorate Caeli, June 13, 2012)
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
The advent of Confessional Catholicsm and the decline of Cultural Catholicism
In The Future Church,
Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter John Allen projects a decisive shift in the future of world Catholicism. Among other things, he sees a Church whose center of gravity shifts decidedly south of the equator to Africa and South America.
Commenting on Allen's observations in Suicide of a Superpower,Patrick J. Buchanan writes:
I am not concerned here primarily with what has been called, now for several decades, the advent of a "post-Christian culture." I am concerned, rather, with what little is currently left of Catholicism as a vibrant and transformative cultural force, and what I see within this residue as a growing rift between two forms of Catholicism and the apparent ascendance of one and gradual eclipse of the other. What I mean is the contest between Cultural Catholicism and Confessional Catholicism.
Cultural Catholicism I would define, not merely as that Catholicism that has historically been identified closely with certain European cultures, like that of the Italian, Irish, or Polish; but as identified with that compendium of Catholic tradition that is our common inheritance from the past, including not only Scripture and Sacred Tradition, but the ancient liturgical rites of the Church, as well as her common devotions and liturgical seasons, feasts, observances and familial habits. This is the sort of Catholicism that regards as important not merely Holy Days of Obligation, but habits bespeaking the importance of belief in Purgatory, Indulgences, Patron Saints, Marian devotion, the Friday Penance, Holy Saturdays, blessed salts, holy water, candles, processions, pilgrimages, Scapulars, relics, Latin prayers and hymns, Masses for the dead, and the like.
Confessional Catholicism I would define as that form of Catholicism identifiable chiefly by two occasionally-but-not-always-overlapping subsets: (1) Propositional Catholicism, and (2) Evangelical Catholicism.
Propositional Catholicism exhibits primarily a concern for doctrinal clarity, for the clear articulation of and adherence to a body of propositions to be believed and followed, as summarized in the latest Catechism of the Catholic Church. This concern is expressed in an emphasis, for example, on expository Biblical theology and apologetics.
Evangelical Catholicism appears in the concern for the shared experience of confessional discourse confirming the reality of these beliefs, the experience of interior renewal and a living relationship with Christ, often finding expression in external dispositions of enthusiasm, evangelical fervor, and a willingness to share how the Holy Spirit is experienced as acting in one another's lives.
These distinctions may be somewhat arbitrary and overlap at points, to be sure, but I believe they have their conceptual uses.
On the one hand are those who see Cultural Catholicism as a dead relic. If anything, it is dismissed as the dead traditionalism of the past, if not, in Jaroslav Pelikan's words, "the dead faith of the living." What matters, from the point of view of these critics of Cultural Catholicism is what Kierkegaard called experiencing the "contemporaneity of Christ," the personal encounter with the living Christ of Faith, not the dead carcasses of extraneous medieval traditions.
On the other hand are those who see Confessional Catholicism as little more than an thin, etiolated form of religion, stripped substantively of its traditional Catholic roots. On the one hand, they see it as reduced (in Propositional Catholicism) to a body of discrete doctrinal propositions cut off from traditionally Catholic "habits of the heart," the living customs and devotions of hearth and home and liturgical seasons of one's parish. On the other, they see it as reduced (in Evangelical Catholicism) to a form of religion emphasizing the "lived experience" and discourse of the "believing community," but also as a phenomenon susceptible of transmogrification into the worst sorts of distortions described by Msgr. Ronald Knox in his classic tome, Enthusiasm. What matters most from the point of view of these critics is the preservation of Catholic identity enshrined in Catholic tradition, most of which is seen as jeopardized by these forms of Confessional Catholicism, which often strikes the them as differing little from Protestantism with a twist of Catholic Lite on the side.
In many ways, I see partisans of each side of this divide as missing what is prized as being of utmost importance by its opponents. Neither do I think that Cultural Catholics must represent a bloodless religion of dead and empty formalism, although it may indeed have become that in some quarters; nor do I think that Confessional Catholics must represent a pathological obsession with "living in their heads" (in Propositional Catholicism) or a mindless wallowing in subjective experience and "enthusiasm" described by Knox (in Evangelical Catholicism), although it may indeed have become that in some quarters.
I do think, however, that the most vulnerable point in the contemporary and short-term future development of Catholicism, at least if Allen and Buchanan are right, lies in a subjectivist detachment of emotional experientialism from propositional truth, and the detachment of both from the roots of Catholic identity historically embodied in the living traditions of Cultural Catholicism. This is precisely the Catholic legacy of the 1960s; and the prevailing winds these days are, unsurprisingly, subjectivism, experientialism, and personal preference. A Catholicism that indulges these and forsakes propositional truth is progressively weakened. By the same token, a Catholicism that lives too much "in its head," in abstract concepts and propositions at the expense of the life-embodying cultural forms of Catholic tradition, has cut itself off from its identity and recognitional form, which has more to do with habits of the heart than with propositions in the head. Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.
Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter John Allen projects a decisive shift in the future of world Catholicism. Among other things, he sees a Church whose center of gravity shifts decidedly south of the equator to Africa and South America.
Commenting on Allen's observations in Suicide of a Superpower,
Patrick J. Buchanan writes:With the number of bishops and cardinals from Latin America, Africa, and Asia inevitably rising, Allen sees a Church that is more Third World, Pentecostal, and Charismatic, with an African Pope before 2050.The decisive words here are "Third World, Pentecostal, and Charismatic."
I am not concerned here primarily with what has been called, now for several decades, the advent of a "post-Christian culture." I am concerned, rather, with what little is currently left of Catholicism as a vibrant and transformative cultural force, and what I see within this residue as a growing rift between two forms of Catholicism and the apparent ascendance of one and gradual eclipse of the other. What I mean is the contest between Cultural Catholicism and Confessional Catholicism.
Cultural Catholicism I would define, not merely as that Catholicism that has historically been identified closely with certain European cultures, like that of the Italian, Irish, or Polish; but as identified with that compendium of Catholic tradition that is our common inheritance from the past, including not only Scripture and Sacred Tradition, but the ancient liturgical rites of the Church, as well as her common devotions and liturgical seasons, feasts, observances and familial habits. This is the sort of Catholicism that regards as important not merely Holy Days of Obligation, but habits bespeaking the importance of belief in Purgatory, Indulgences, Patron Saints, Marian devotion, the Friday Penance, Holy Saturdays, blessed salts, holy water, candles, processions, pilgrimages, Scapulars, relics, Latin prayers and hymns, Masses for the dead, and the like.
Confessional Catholicism I would define as that form of Catholicism identifiable chiefly by two occasionally-but-not-always-overlapping subsets: (1) Propositional Catholicism, and (2) Evangelical Catholicism.
Propositional Catholicism exhibits primarily a concern for doctrinal clarity, for the clear articulation of and adherence to a body of propositions to be believed and followed, as summarized in the latest Catechism of the Catholic Church. This concern is expressed in an emphasis, for example, on expository Biblical theology and apologetics.
Evangelical Catholicism appears in the concern for the shared experience of confessional discourse confirming the reality of these beliefs, the experience of interior renewal and a living relationship with Christ, often finding expression in external dispositions of enthusiasm, evangelical fervor, and a willingness to share how the Holy Spirit is experienced as acting in one another's lives.
These distinctions may be somewhat arbitrary and overlap at points, to be sure, but I believe they have their conceptual uses.
On the one hand are those who see Cultural Catholicism as a dead relic. If anything, it is dismissed as the dead traditionalism of the past, if not, in Jaroslav Pelikan's words, "the dead faith of the living." What matters, from the point of view of these critics of Cultural Catholicism is what Kierkegaard called experiencing the "contemporaneity of Christ," the personal encounter with the living Christ of Faith, not the dead carcasses of extraneous medieval traditions.
On the other hand are those who see Confessional Catholicism as little more than an thin, etiolated form of religion, stripped substantively of its traditional Catholic roots. On the one hand, they see it as reduced (in Propositional Catholicism) to a body of discrete doctrinal propositions cut off from traditionally Catholic "habits of the heart," the living customs and devotions of hearth and home and liturgical seasons of one's parish. On the other, they see it as reduced (in Evangelical Catholicism) to a form of religion emphasizing the "lived experience" and discourse of the "believing community," but also as a phenomenon susceptible of transmogrification into the worst sorts of distortions described by Msgr. Ronald Knox in his classic tome, Enthusiasm.
What matters most from the point of view of these critics is the preservation of Catholic identity enshrined in Catholic tradition, most of which is seen as jeopardized by these forms of Confessional Catholicism, which often strikes the them as differing little from Protestantism with a twist of Catholic Lite on the side.
In many ways, I see partisans of each side of this divide as missing what is prized as being of utmost importance by its opponents. Neither do I think that Cultural Catholics must represent a bloodless religion of dead and empty formalism, although it may indeed have become that in some quarters; nor do I think that Confessional Catholics must represent a pathological obsession with "living in their heads" (in Propositional Catholicism) or a mindless wallowing in subjective experience and "enthusiasm" described by Knox (in Evangelical Catholicism), although it may indeed have become that in some quarters.
I do think, however, that the most vulnerable point in the contemporary and short-term future development of Catholicism, at least if Allen and Buchanan are right, lies in a subjectivist detachment of emotional experientialism from propositional truth, and the detachment of both from the roots of Catholic identity historically embodied in the living traditions of Cultural Catholicism. This is precisely the Catholic legacy of the 1960s; and the prevailing winds these days are, unsurprisingly, subjectivism, experientialism, and personal preference. A Catholicism that indulges these and forsakes propositional truth is progressively weakened. By the same token, a Catholicism that lives too much "in its head," in abstract concepts and propositions at the expense of the life-embodying cultural forms of Catholic tradition, has cut itself off from its identity and recognitional form, which has more to do with habits of the heart than with propositions in the head. Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Boxes for abandoned babies proliferate in Europe
A baby bank in Hamburg, Germany: over 400 children have been abandoned in hatches
in Europe since 2000. Photograph: Nina Ruecker/Getty Images
Unbelievable. But then, I must be getting old fashioned. Randeep Ramesh, "Spread of 'baby boxes' in Europe alarms United Nations" (The Guardian, June 10, 2012). And if even the UN is concerned, well ... it must be bad.
A Post-Rally Critique from Monica Migliorino Miller
From Citizens for a Pro-Life Society News, Dr. Monical M. Miller, National Co-Director of Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally asks "Where Do We Go From Here?" and declares: "It's a War Against Religion! Not a War Against Women!" See her summary and critique HERE.
Beginning in March 23rd, there were rallies in 144 cities across the country attended by thousands, including Catholics, Protestants, and Jews (including Rabbi Philip Leskowitz from Skokie, IL, who addressed a Chicago rally), old and young alike.
Cardinal George, archbishop of Chicago, declared in light of the mandate: "As a bishop of the Church now, I will die in my bed. My successor will die in jail. And the bishop after him will die a martyr."
Beginning in March 23rd, there were rallies in 144 cities across the country attended by thousands, including Catholics, Protestants, and Jews (including Rabbi Philip Leskowitz from Skokie, IL, who addressed a Chicago rally), old and young alike.
Cardinal George, archbishop of Chicago, declared in light of the mandate: "As a bishop of the Church now, I will die in my bed. My successor will die in jail. And the bishop after him will die a martyr."
Another pro-Moloch Obama judicial appointment
The Senate voted today to end debate on President Obama's nomination of Andrew David Hurwitz for the Ninth Circuit Court. The Senate is expected to give final confirmation of the judge later this week. Hurwitz is credited with having helped craft Roe v. Wade in 1973, legalizing the sacrifice of unborn human children on newly-erected altars of Moloch in abortuaries throughout the land.
[Hat tip to Fr. Z.]
[Hat tip to Fr. Z.]
Peoria bishop pulls out all stops, draws line
"Full text of Bishop Jenky's homily at men's march and Mass" (The Catholic Post, June 10, 2012). Excerpts:
“In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama – with his radical, pro- abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.
“Now things have come to such a pass in America that this is a battle that we could lose, but before the awesome judgment seat of Almighty God this is not a war where any believing Catholic may remain neutral.
“This fall, every practicing Catholic must vote, and must vote their Catholic consciences, or by the following fall our Catholic schools, our Catholic hospitals, our Catholic Newman Centers, all our public ministries -- only excepting our church buildings – could easily be shut down. Because no Catholic institution, under any circumstance, can ever cooperate with the instrinsic evil of killing innocent human life in the womb.
“No Catholic ministry – and yes, Mr. President, for Catholics our schools and hospitals are ministries – can remain faithful to the Lordship of the Risen Christ and to his glorious Gospel of Life if they are forced to pay for abortions.”
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Extraordinary Community News
The International Eucharistic Congress
Much has been written about World Youth Day. Every two or three years, the Vatican holds a major event for Catholic youth and young adults in a prominent city of the world. Venues have included Toronto in 2002, Sydney in 2008, and Madrid in 2011. The next one will be held in Rio de Janeiro in 2013.
The Church also holds similar events geared more towards adults, the International Eucharistic Congresses. These have a longer history, dating back to 1881. In recent years, host cities have included Guadalajara in 2004, Quebec City in 2008, and the next one commencing today, June 10, and running through next Sunday, June 17 in Dublin, Ireland. As seriously as the media might take World Youth Day, the Church provides a great motivation to attend its Eucharistic Congresses: Participation at the closing Mass of a Eucharistic Congress is enriched with a Plenary Indulgence.
Readers of this column are surely aware by now of the Juventútem movement, in the news recently because of the plethora of activities being offered by our new local chapter. Juventútem started as an effort to serve young adults attending World Youth Day who wished to attend Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form. Chapters of Juventútem are forming across the globe; in addition to the primary mission of organizing pilgrimages to World Youth Day, local chapters are arranging a variety of local religious and social events.
It should therefore not be surprising that a similar movement is taking shape at International Eucharistic Congresses. As an increasing number of people find their spiritual home in the Tridentine Mass, it is only pastoral for Congress organizers to offer these pilgrims access to their preferred form of Sacred Liturgy. At this week’s Congress, a program of Extraordinary Form Masses and events is planned at Dublin’s St. Kevin Church, as can be seen in the adjacent excerpt from their IEC brochure. Particularly noteworthy is the Pontifical Mass to be celebrated by Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, the same prelate who conferred Minor Orders at the FSSP Seminary in Nebraska last fall. His Excellency is setting a commendable example of support for the EF for his fellow Canadian bishops.
While such efforts at IECs have not yet been given a “brand name” à la Juventútem, the point is clear: The EF will have a growing role at major Church events going forward.
Marquette Sacred Music Conference
Closer to home, Diocese of Marquette Bishop Alexander Sample – a regular celebrant of the Tridentine Mass – has organized a Conference on Sacred Music to be held at Marquette’s St. Peter Cathedral Monday-Tuesday, June 18-19. Presenters include the ubiquitous Jeffery Tucker and Arlene Oost-Zimmer of the Church Music Association of America, as well as our own Dr. Steven Ball. Befitting any event involving Mr. Tucker, a principal focus will be singing the Propers at [Ordinary Form] Mass. It is an encouraging sign of the times to see a diocesan-sponsored conference advocating traditional norms for sacred music. Further information is available at www.marquettesacredmusic.com. [Some of us note with enthusiasm that the Conference Chair for this event is none other than our own Sacred Heart Major Seminary grad, Fr. Ryan Ford.]
Juventútem News
Congratulations to Juventútem Michigan for having been invited by the Archdiocese of Detroit to participate in today’s Corpus Christi Procession at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral. This is the first time since Vatican II that a group associated with the Extraordinary Form has been explicitly requested to be involved in a Cathedral liturgy, albeit in the Ordinary Form.
This Friday, June 15, Juventútem will be holding its next dinner for young adults age 18-35 at the St. Josaphat Social Hall after the 7:00 PM High Mass for the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. [All ages are invited to the Mass.]
Young adults are invited to carpool with Juventútem to the Marquette Sacred Music Conference; please e-mail contact@juventutemmichigan.com if you are interested.
Tridentine Masses This Coming Week
Mon. 06/11 7:00 PM: High Mass at St. Josaphat (St. Barnabas, Apostle)
Tue. 06/12 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Assumption-Windsor (St. John of San Facondo, Confessor)
Fri. 06/15 7:00 PM: High Mass at St. Josaphat (Sacred Heart of Jesus)
Please note the two separate Feasts being celebrated next Sunday:
Sun. 06/17 9:30 AM: High Mass at St. Josaphat (Third Sunday After Pentecost)
Sun. 06/17 2:00 PM: High Mass at Assumption-Windsor (External Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus)
"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
The facts about St. Padre Pio's Stigmata
Those with a special devotion to St. Padre Pio might find interesting Frank M. Rega's "The Truth about Padre Pio's Stigmata: Answering the carbolic acid accusations" (CFN, June 2012).
Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)
My son, Christopher, offers a detailed appreciation of the author, whose Farenheit 451 was a favorite of mine I remember well from my college years. If you're a fan too, I suggest you take a look at his reminiscences, since they contain some great detail, some of it previously unknown to me. In a personal email to me, in which he sent me the link to his post, Christopher summarized thusly:
Just a note that Ray Bradbury, science fiction author, died this past Tuesday at 91. Jamie has probably read some of his books and Jon and Nate might have been obliged to in public school, at least 'Fahrenheit 451' about the firemen who burn books instead of fight fires.
Religiously he was something of an eclectic Christian.
"I sit there and cry because I haven't done any of this," he told Sam Weller, his biographer and friend. "It's a God-given thing, and I'm so grateful, so, so grateful. The best description of my career as a writer is, 'At play in the fields of the Lord.'"
What is often left out of obituaries is his turn to conservatism in later years (the last Democrat he voted for was Carter). He held Ronald Reagan in high esteem and called Bill Clinton a "shithead." And he wasn't too happy when Obama decided to pull the plug on NASA's return trip to the moon.
Saturday, June 09, 2012
For the record: Rome-FSSPX update
"Rome-SSPX - Important: Interview with SSPX Superior General Bp. Fellay on current affairs" (Rorate Caeli, June 7, 2012).
More sensitive hand-wringing by '60s 'new church' Caths
The latest episode of defensive whining by Catholics who think the Church began in the 1960s concerns the "pain and suffering" some have alleged over photographs of Bishop Alain Castet of Luçon, in the Vendée -- photos that "rocked the diocese" by picturing him wearing traditional vestments and ordaining six deacons according to the extraordinary form of the Roman rite.
Get a grip, folks. This isn't child pornography. The daily "Ouest France" laments the ordination as an even "that hurts a part of the Church in Vendée." A priest is quoted as saying: "Too much, this is too much, it is a return to a past that the Bishop proposes to us, we turn our backs to the Vatican II Council." Oh, please. Grow up. (A full account via Rorate Caeli today.)
I personally remember parishioners at St. Aloysius Church in North Carolina up in arms over a new priest's use of a Chalice Veil during his Masses, as well as the hue and cry they raised when he had the choir sing Ave Verum Corpus during Communion on the Feast of Corpus Christi. The pain and suffering was just too much, apparently, for those accustomed to a diet of Marty Haugen and David Haas; and the poor priest never used anything in Latin again.
I even remember a faculty member walking out of a guest lecture by a visiting European philosopher at Duquesne University specifically because the reality of the Devil was asserted in the course of the lecture. O medieval horror! What would these sensitive souls fare if they knew that their gentle, meek and mild Jesus spoke more about the frightening torments of hell than anyone in the Bible?
Amazing. Simply amazing.
You know, it strikes me that we have here a new sort of Integrism, Fundamentalism, or even Traditionalism. Call it 1960s Integrism, 1960s Fundamentalism, 1960s Traditionalim. It's the kind of outlook that will give you a nosebleed if you see a priest wearing a biretta, indigestion if you happen to glimpse liturgical lace, and a heart attack if anyone seriously mentions the Devil.
Good gracious! Haven't any of these folks heard a word spoken by the Holy Father? Can they even spell "H-e-r-m-e-n-e-u-t-i-c o-f C-o-n-t-i-n-u-i-t-y"?
Get a grip, folks. This isn't child pornography. The daily "Ouest France" laments the ordination as an even "that hurts a part of the Church in Vendée." A priest is quoted as saying: "Too much, this is too much, it is a return to a past that the Bishop proposes to us, we turn our backs to the Vatican II Council." Oh, please. Grow up. (A full account via Rorate Caeli today.)
I personally remember parishioners at St. Aloysius Church in North Carolina up in arms over a new priest's use of a Chalice Veil during his Masses, as well as the hue and cry they raised when he had the choir sing Ave Verum Corpus during Communion on the Feast of Corpus Christi. The pain and suffering was just too much, apparently, for those accustomed to a diet of Marty Haugen and David Haas; and the poor priest never used anything in Latin again.
I even remember a faculty member walking out of a guest lecture by a visiting European philosopher at Duquesne University specifically because the reality of the Devil was asserted in the course of the lecture. O medieval horror! What would these sensitive souls fare if they knew that their gentle, meek and mild Jesus spoke more about the frightening torments of hell than anyone in the Bible?
Amazing. Simply amazing.
You know, it strikes me that we have here a new sort of Integrism, Fundamentalism, or even Traditionalism. Call it 1960s Integrism, 1960s Fundamentalism, 1960s Traditionalim. It's the kind of outlook that will give you a nosebleed if you see a priest wearing a biretta, indigestion if you happen to glimpse liturgical lace, and a heart attack if anyone seriously mentions the Devil.
Good gracious! Haven't any of these folks heard a word spoken by the Holy Father? Can they even spell "H-e-r-m-e-n-e-u-t-i-c o-f C-o-n-t-i-n-u-i-t-y"?
Friday, June 08, 2012
Stand Up For Freedom Rally
As most of you know, the USCCB has called for "Stand Up For Religions Freedom" rallies across the country. There are hundreds of cities in which such events have been occurring. Today there was a major rally scheduled in Downtown Detroit at which Archbishop Vigneron was scheduled to speak at noon, but in light of his father's passing, I am not sure he was able to make it.
We were hoping to attend the event ourselves, but I was among others invited to address a similar but smaller rally at St. Mary Mercy Hospital in Livonia, MI.
I said few words about how President Obama has done more to unite the Catholic Bishops and unite Catholics with non-Catholic Christians in a unified ecumenical voice of protest against the HHS/Obamacare mandate. It was also my privilege to read a letter from Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette addressed to Dr. Monica Miller, President of Citizens for a Prolife Society, expressing his support for the efforts of those citizens united in protest against the HHS mandate.
A few excerpts:
Schuette continues a paragraph later in his letter:
We were hoping to attend the event ourselves, but I was among others invited to address a similar but smaller rally at St. Mary Mercy Hospital in Livonia, MI.
I said few words about how President Obama has done more to unite the Catholic Bishops and unite Catholics with non-Catholic Christians in a unified ecumenical voice of protest against the HHS/Obamacare mandate. It was also my privilege to read a letter from Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette addressed to Dr. Monica Miller, President of Citizens for a Prolife Society, expressing his support for the efforts of those citizens united in protest against the HHS mandate.
A few excerpts:
This is a defining moment for our country. There is an increasing effort to force Americans with religious convictions out of the public square, so that they may only act on their beliefs in private. That is not the nature of faith, and that is not what our Constitution requires.Such lucid brevity from a public official is stunning these days. Exceptional.
Schuette continues a paragraph later in his letter:
I have joined with six other Attorneys General and filed suit to challenge the HHS mandate in federal court in defense of religious liberty, and have pledged to support the Michigan Catholic Conference as well as a Catholic college, Belmont Abbey, and in their suits against the Department of Health and Human services.Thank you, Attorney General Bill Schuette.
This is the time to stand and be counted. Religious freedom is the cornerstone of our democracy. It is precious. And it must be defended. Is stand with you. May God bless you.
Corpus Christi: a glimpse of glory
On the Feast of Corpus Christi yesterday (Thursday), St. Josaphat mounted an impressive procession after Mass outside of the church along Canfield Avenue to four outside altars erected along the route. There were scripture readings, hymns in Latin and English and Benediction at each altar, with dauntless parishioners kneeling not only on the grass but on the hard sidewalks. Concluding in the church with final Benediction, accompanied by the usual Thomist hymns, Divine Praises, and Adoremus in Aeternum, the thought came to me that surely, if this was far removed from the splendor of Heaven, it was at least a fleeting glimpse of glory. Sorry, you had to be there. And, yes, I know that for most of you this Feast does not arrive until you find it upon you at your customary Sunday hour in the ordinary form of the liturgy. May you find yourselves as blessed.
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