Unkilled for so long: on Sir Arnold Lunn

Joseph Martin, "Unkilled for so long" (Imprimatur, October 28, 2016). Now I See, says Martin, was a 'find' - dated but still recommended. This is a detailed and thorough treatment of a convert to the Catholic Faith who was received into the Church on 13th July, 1933, by Mgr. Knox, unleashing thereby on a de-Christianised society one whom Evelyn Waugh called "the most tireless Catholic apologist of his generation." A post well-worth reading!!

There he goes again ...

I just saw this article by Edward Pentin: "Pope Francis: Rigid People Are Sick" (National Catholic Register, October 24, 2016). In this article, convention Catholics who insist on believing and practicing what the Church has always taught are told by the Holy Father that they suffer from a "pathological sickness" which renders them "heretics, not Catholics," that they are advocates of a "self-absorbed promethean neopelagianism," and need to loosen up and embrace the God of mercy whose gifts are "meekness," "benevolence," and "forgiveness," but "never rigidity."

I couldn't help thinking of Matthew 5:17-20 and wondering what the Pope of Mercy would have to say about the words of Jesus:

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

Why is the Gospel made to appear in the words of some Church leaders like a wax nose, which can be bent easily to serve the whims of prevailing ideologies?

[Hat tip to K.J.]

Christ of the Andes: a post Olympian reflection on Rio's South American icon

Jim Davis, "Rio's Christ statue: Washington Post adds a delightful angle to the Olympics" (GetReligion, August 10, 2016). This is a very stimulating and uplifting post: worth reading. The statue was built to combat secularism in the 1920s, when Brazil was solidly Catholic. Even in 1970 92% identified as Catholic. Which gives special meaning to the need for renewed evangelization today, as St. John Paul II saw in his day (each generation is faced with the need to appropriate its faith for itself):

The Olympics in Rio have already thrilled millions with the gold medal performances of champs like Michael Phelps and the Final Five gymnastic team. But the Washington Post takes the occasion to look even higher: at the statue of Christ who stretches his arms out over the city.

This delightful newsfeature, by the Post's veteran religion writer Michelle Boorstein, captures several sides of what she calls "the most recognizable Christian image in Latin America": the history, the sheer size, and the many meanings behind it.

Yes, meanings, plural. As Boorstein says, "Christ the Redeemer" stands high in that class of national symbols standing for many things to many people. And yes, religious and spiritual elements are on her list.

Her story smoothly blends background, color, humor and informed sources....

Read more >>

[Hat tip to JM]

What can a southerner's tragic sense of life teach a northerner?

I still remember when a history professor at the University of Pittsburgh handed me a copy of Walker Percy's Love in the Ruins one summer. A novel. I hadn't read many novels to that point. A few here and there, but not many. I was a grad student in philosophy. What did I want with fiction? I remember it became my recreational reading for a few weeks that summer, and at first I wondered what hit me. I had never ever read anything quite like this. His antihero characters were somehow captivating, despite all their banalities and flaws. There was an unexpected transparency about them -- like the guy (in another Percy novel) who argued with his psychologist, whom he was seeing because of the guilt he felt over an affair, that guilt was unavoidable after all, because he was guilty.

Love in the Ruins unfolded in its bizarre southern setting with antihero Thomas More musing over how much simpler life in the north was. To use a loose analogy, the northern mind is a bit like war movies made before Vietnam: think of The Sands of Iwo Jima, The Longest Day, or even The Green Beret, right at the outset of the war. The southern mind is more like Platoon, or Apocalypse Now. To read this as a simple contrast between absolutism and relativism would be to miss my point, because the northern mind is perhaps even more relativistic than the southern. No, it has to do with the level of reflection, the complexity of life and its existential questions, what Miguel de Unamuno called the Tragic Sense of Life. The North, despite its fashionable postmodern conceits, is more at ease with the rationalist projects of the Enlightenment than the South. The South is an untamed Faulknerian 'force of nature' that will destroy you, abandon you to the shallow puddle of your autoerotic self-indulgences, or show you how painfully deep the proverbial rabbit hole goes. Percy shows us how deep, and he does this by first hooking the reader unawares (why do I think of Kierkegaard's Diary of a Sedeucer?) into confronting the deep corners of his individual soul and the collective American psyche that he has never dared or even imagined examining.

Amy Welborn, "Walker Percy at 100" (The Catholic World Report, May 27, 2016) -- a good introduction.

[Hat tip to JM]

"A Presbyterian, his wife, and an Archbishop walk into a bar ..."

The Archbishop was Charles Cardinal Chaput! Seriously!

Carl Trueman, "A Presbyterian, his wife, and an Archbishop walk into a bar ..." (Postcards From Palookaville, December 15, 2015):

In one of those surreal twists of fate that sounds like the start of a corny joke ('A presbyterian minister, his wife and an Archbishop walk into a bar....), the present Mrs Trueman and I recently found ourselves having dinner in a Philly pub with Charles Chaput, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Philadelphia.  Separated by a fair amount of theology, we are yet very much united by concerns over religious freedom and the chaos that is contemporary sexual identity politics.

At one point in the meal, I thanked the Archbishop for the difficult stands he has taken on a host of matters in Philadelphia, especially those on LGBTQ issues.  He paused, looked me in the eye and then commented 'You know, Carl, it is never difficult to do the right thing.  It can be very tiring. But it is never difficult.'

I thought of that comment when I read Todd's post of yesterday and wondered why there is such chaos and indifference in so much of Christian higher education.  It is never difficult to do the right thing.  Only tiring.  That's all.

[Hat tip to JM]

New Vatican document on Judaism provokes controversy

Under the signatures of Cardinal Kurt Koch, Rev. Brial Farrell, and Rev. Norbert Hofmann, SDB, respectively the President, Vice-President and Secretary of the Vatican's Commission for Religious Relations With the Jews, the new document has been just released on December 10, 2015), entitled: "The Gifts and the Calling of God are Irrevocable" (Rom 11:29) - A Reflection on the Theological Questions Pertaining to Catholic-Jewish Relations on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of "Nostra Aetate" (NO.4)

The New York Times immediately ran a headline: "Vatican Says Catholics Should Not Try to Convert Jews" (December 10, 2015), reporting: "Catholics should not try to convert Jews, but should work together with them to fight anti-Semitism, the Vatican said on Thursday in a far-reaching document meant to solidify its increasingly positive relations with Jews. John L. Allen Jr. posted an article on Crux the same day, entitled: "Vatican document on Jews proves that revolution is the new routine." Catholic News Service, like most other mainstream Catholic outlets, tiptoed around the issues without shedding much light (See New Vatican document reflects on relations between Catholics, Jews") -- um, yawn .... Not much help.

If you want to see what things look like in the klieg lights, turn from the "Everything is Awesome" cheerleaders to the "Everything is Damned to Hell" doomsayers, and you just might get a clear fix: According to John Vennari, "Blind Guides: Conciliar Vatican Announces 'No Mission' to Convert Jews" (Catholic Family News, December 12, 2015), the document claims:

• The New Covenant does not supersede the Old Covenant;[2]
• The Catholic Church, in principle, should have no mission to convert Jews;[3]
• The Word of God is present to todays Jews by means of the Torah (and equates this to the Word of God being present to Christians through Jesus Christ);[4]
• Modern Jews are in an acceptable position before God regarding salvation;[5]
• “The term covenant, therefore, means a relationship with God that takes effect in different ways for Jews and Christians”;[6]
• “It does not follow that Jews are excluded from God’s salvation because they do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah and the Son of God.”[7]

... and that's just the beginning of his long, long article.

No less interesting is conservative Protestant Peter Helland, on his talk show "Israel," interviewing E. Michael Jones on the recent document:


Why do I think here of the Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times"??? Seems to me that pretty soon those most guilty of being Messias-deniers may not be the Jews, but certain spokesmen for the contemporary Catholic Church.

"Video of Polish priest's speech slamming Islam goes viral"

Joseph Pellstier, "Video Of Polish Priest’s Speech Slamming Islam Goes Viral" (CM, December 15, 2015).

Father Jacek Miedlar warns crowd: "Be ready to be persecuted":

Warsaw -- Footage of a young Polish Catholic priest addressing a crowd of tens of thousands protesting Islam and liberalism is going viral.

The speech occurred at a march in honor of Poland's November 11 National Independence Day, which marks the anniversary of the country's restoration of sovereignty in 1918.

Inspiring! -- a "scandalous miracle" of grace!

Andre Gingerich Stoner, "Scandalous Miracle" (Mennonite World Review, September 28, 2015):

It was a miracle. Jun Yamada [pictured right], suffering from an aggressive leukemia, was on his death bed. He lost consciousness and went into cardiac arrest. The doctors told the family he was unlikely to live more than half a day. They began to make funeral plans.

Then, to everyone’s amazement, including the team of doctors, Jun’s marrow started producing normal blood cells again. There was no medical explanation. Over time, Jun made a full recovery. The family and friends were awestruck. Yet this healing was too scandalous to talk about for decades.
 
Jun was a Japanese Mennonite and a student at a Catholic university. His father was a Mennonite pastor. When Jun became ill, many Japanese Mennonites prayed for him. One of Jun’s professors, Catholic priest Alfonso Fausone, also prayed for Jun and mobilized members of his order to pray. They petitioned Joseph Freinademetz, one of the founders of their order who had lived 100 years earlier, to intercede on Jun’s behalf. Freinademetz is often quoted as saying, “The language that all people understand is love.”

From the hospital bed, one could see the light in the monastery tower that was lit each night as priests and students prayed.

For three months, the priests provided a place for the Yamada family to stay, since their home was 500 miles south. There was profound respect and affection between the Catholics and Mennonites who cared for and loved Jun. During the crisis, the Yamada family participated in eucharist at the seminary. When death seemed certain, Jun’s father asked Fausone if he would officiate at the funeral. All this was unheard of in 1987.

The father called Jun’s brother, Nozomu, then a student at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elk­hart, Ind., asking him to return home. Nozomu left the U.S. preparing to attend a funeral, but he found his brother still alive, although in extremely critical condition.

The father said, “Hope has arrived.” (Nozomu means hope in Japanese.) In those critical hours Fausone asked if he could offer the sacrament of anointing of the sick. The family welcomed this gift.

The next day, the doctors came with startling news that Jun was producing normal cells again. Six months later, Jun was discharged from the hospital. His doctors and other patients began to refer to him as a miracle man. Today, Jun is a professor of early church art.

The fervent prayers and the shared love of Catholic and Mennonite brothers and sisters that surrounded Jun were central to these events. Yet it was precisely this ecumenical boundary-crossing that made this healing too scandalous to talk about openly for decades.

Years later, first in the Catholic community, this miracle began to be told. The intervention of Freinademetz was credited with a role in Jun’s healing. In 2003 Freinademetz was named a saint. Jun traveled to Rome to meet the Pope and participate in the ceremony.

In August, about 90 people gathered at AMBS for an annual Mennonite-Catholic Bridgefolk gathering to hear the story of Jun’s healing and to celebrate the marvelous thing God had done through the shared love and intercession of Catholics and Mennonites. Some participants reflected that after years of quiet, going to Elkhart in 2015 was for Mennonites perhaps akin to going to Rome in 2003 for Catholics.

As I listened, I pondered the amazing healing God can bring when people who love Jesus and love each other work and pray together, despite profound differences.

Andre Gingerich Stoner is director of interchurch relations and director of holistic witness for Mennonite Church USA.

Related: Nozomu Yamada, "THE HEALING OF JUN YAMADA Mennonites and Catholics in Friendship Leading to the Canonization of St Josef Freinademetz, SVD" (Bridgefolk.net, October 27, 2012).

[Hat tip to Darvin Yoder]

From an Evangelical magazine: "Benedictine monks believe Gregorian chants can help make people's lives better"

They misspelled "Gregorian" in their title, but it's a good piece:

The Benedictine monks of Norcia believe that Gregorian chants will make people's lives better, especially since music can help heal the soul.

Father Cassian Folsom, prior of Norcia's Benedictine monastery, told the Catholic News Agency that these monks spend their lives in prayer and labour, then chant the psalms and produce other crafts in order to support themselves.

"The monks spend hours every day chanting the Mass and the Divine Office. It's part of the air we breathe. There's a lot of pollution in our world, and so the pure oxygen of Gregorian chant is like a breath of fresh air," he said.

Just this week, they released their first major label album called "BENEDICTA: Marian Chant from Norcia" through De Montfront Music, together with Decca Classics and Universal Music Classics. It has 33 tracks, most of which are liturgical chants which have become the monks' signature sound for over 1,000 years.

"The chant is beautiful, and our souls need beauty in order to grow and thrive. The chant is the Church's love song to her Lord; it expresses the love-longing of the monk's heart," Folsom explained. "I'm convinced that this beautiful chant will give spiritual nourishment to those who listen to it." ADVERTISEMENT

Since its release, fans have been raving about the album, with people giving it a five out of five stars rating at Amazon.

"The singing is very good and the material very old and deeply ingrained in the Catholic faith," wrote a customer named John J. Puccio.

A fan wrote that the Benedictine Monks of Norcia have come out with "the most beautiful chant ever recorded," adding that they have an "absolutely mesmerizing body of music."

"'Benedicta' has now become the soundtrack to my life! There are pieces here I have never heard and are just heartwrenchingly beautiful. This music is so good!" the fan further wrote.

Purchase here: BENEDICTA: Marian Chant from Norcia (Amazon)

Adam, Even, and Genesis - the implications of revisionism

It's always an interesting exercise to review the implications of revising the traditional account. We all know of Catholics we've met or heard about who dismiss the historicity of Adam and Eve, and who consign the first eleven chapters of Genesis to the murky primordial world of "myth."

The importance of thinking more deeply about the implications of such moves on the Biblical-theological chessboard, however, is not always readily seen. For example, an alternative to the traditional Catholic view that Adam and Eve were historically real, first parents of humanity (as Jesus Christ is the "New Adam" and new root of regenerated and redeemed humanity), is the view that they are only "symbols," whatever that is taken to mean. On that view, the Fall (Original Sin) is not to be taken as anything so naively parochial as a "historical event," but rather to be understood as a "fatal flaw" in our nature, empirically confirmed by the pervasive selfishness of human beings we see all about us and in ourselves. Problem with that: it makes God the author of sin, of our sinful nature, because it means there was never a human being with a pre-lapsarian (non-fallen) nature and so God made us selfish and sinfully-disposed. In this case, as Baudilaire famously quipped: if God exists, he's the Devil! (Something like that)

Well here we have an example of someone toying with revisionist interpretation of Genesis, only he's not nearly so radical as the aforementioned views, because he still believes that Adam was a "historical" person. Yet the implications of even his views are far more revolutionary that he suggests. Have a look: "The Lost World of Adam and Eve" (Christianity Today, March 19, 2015): "Old Testament scholar John Walton affirms a historical Adam -- but says there are far more important dimension to Genesis." Yeah. Right. Interviewed by Kevein P. Emmert, John Walton is Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, the flagship academic institution of Billy Grahm Evangelicalism in the United States.

Here is what one of our readers writes about this piece:

Let's be frank and let's be honest. If you are going to say "I believe Adam was a real person, but literarily he represents more than just who he was," shouldn't we ask, "How can someone literally be more than who he was?" Are we so determined to try to reconcile the Bible and 'science' that we will swallow such sophistry? And that [sophistry] is without question just what this is, well-intentioned or not. If Walton's take is accepted, it will not only be the world of Adam and Eve or Genesis that will be lost -- all the eager and impassioned endorsements to the contrary. I am increasingly convinced that Original Sin as classically understood is the acid test of orthodox Christianity. [Amen to that!]

From Christianity Today, of all places. Reported as if it is nothing unusual at all [emphasis added]. With no com box option! The ghost of Carl Henry would be spinning in its grave if it hadn't been here diced and quartered under a cone of silence. [Not to mention what Billy Graham would think of this, if he could attend to its import at age 97.]

For further reading:

• Dennis Bonnette, "Did Adam and Eve Really Exist?" (Crisis Magazine, November 24, 2014)
• "Adam," Catholic Encyclopedia [makes use of a great deal of historical criticism, but fairly cautious]
• Dave Armstrong, "Fr. Robert Barron's Denial that the Adam and Eve of Genesis Were Historical Figures and the Primal Human Pair" (Biblical Evidence for Catholicism, November 28, 2013). [And HERE is Fr. Barron offering boiler plate accommodations to prevailing prejudice]
• C. John Collins, Did Adam and Eve Really Exist?: Who They Were and Why You Should Care(Crossway, 2011)
• Ardel B. Caneday, et al., eds., Four Views on the Historical Adam (Counterpoints: Bible and Theology)(Zondervan, 2013)
• J. P. Veersteeg, Adam in the New Testament: Mere Teaching Model or First Historical Man,translated by Richard Gaffin (P & R Publishing, 2012) [Excellent]
• "The Fall," Catechism of the Catholic Church (285-421)
• John Murray, The Imputation of Adam's Sin(P & R Publishing, 1992) [Theological implications]
• Francis A. Schaeffer, Genesis in Space and Time: The Flow of Biblical History (Bible commentary for layman) (InterVarsity Press, 1972) [Basic. Good. Clear.]
• Fr. Chad Rippinger, The Metaphysics of Evolution(Books on Demand, 2012)
• Alvin Plantinga, "When Faith and Reason Clash: Evolution and the Bible" [PDF] Christian Scholar's Review, XXI:1 (September 1991), 8-33 [Excellent]
• Brian W. Harrison, "Early Vatican Responses to Evolutionist Theology" (Roman Theological Forum, May 2001)
• George Sim Johnson, Did Darwin Get It Right?: Catholics and the Theory of Evolution(OSV, 2006)
• Benjamin Wiker, The Darwin Myth: The Life and Lies of Charles Darwin (Regnery Publishing, 2009)
• John Wynne, A Catholic Assessment of Evolution Theory: Weighing the Scientific Evidence in Light of Thomistic Principles and Church Teachings on Origins(RTM, 2011)
• Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation
• "Center for Science and Culture" (Discovery Institute)
• Msgr. Charles Pope, "The Problem of Polygenism in Accepting the Theory of Evolution" (Archdiocese of Wathington, October 24, 2010)

[Hat tip to JM]