Leave of absence

Notice: I will be posting only intermittently if at all for the next three weeks.

Of your kindness, please offer a Hail Mary for us as we shall be travelling.

Pax in aeternum

Prayer request

Please kindly pray for Hannah Cabrini, our daughter, who is scheduled to be confirmed at the Cathedral this Sunday, June 4, at the Mass of the Holy Spirit. She has chosen the Confirmation name of "Perpetua."

Us and Them and Cultural Resistance

This just in from Guy Noir:

Amy Welborn on the home schooling movement ...

I hope readers of my blog over the last few years have picked this up from what I have written. Much of what moved me to homeschool in the first place was a dissatisfaction with the lifestyle school forces on a family. We have so little freedom in the way we lead our daily lives anyway: work limits our families, as do economic concerns. School – with its daily, weekly and yearly schedules, with its homework and projects, with its fundraisers – slams one more constraint on. As I have written over and over again, the reason we accept this is that we accept that what school gives is worth what we must give over to it. The tipping point for many of us comes when we realize that what the school gives is not worth it and what it demands is counterproductive to our children’s flourishing and our family lives and that the resources available to us, our own schools, and our childrens’ not-yet-deadened curiosity means that we can do the same thing at home just as well or even better, and have a lot more fun doing it.

Guy Noir again:

I found this doubly interesting since a teaching colleague, someone who tilts liberal, told me she moved her family inland to get it away from the materialistic encroachments of the urban center where they were. And she came in on Monday very pumped by the movie "Captain Fantastic." There is very real counter-cultural emphasis in the Faith that should appeal across political lines, as Alexi Sargeant gets, at "First Thoughts":

I recently saw the film Captain Fantastic, and enjoyed it immensely. The film stars Viggo Mortensen as Ben Cash, a man raising and schooling his six children off-the-grid in a remote corner of Washington State forest. The family are Leftist, slightly pagan hippies (the eldest son informs his father that being a Trotskyist was just a phase, “I'm a Maoist now”), and yet their homeschooling experience absolutely reminded me of my own. Sure, I wasn't learning to hunt animals with a bow and arrow or celebrating “Noam Chomsky Day” in my heavily Christian homeschool community, but I totally recognize these characters’ family solidarity, their quirky erudition, and their combination of regimented learning with an anti-authoritarian streak.

The film’s plot is kicked off when Ben hears from the parents of his wife, who left the forest to be treated in a hospital for bipolar disorder. She has committed suicide. Ben’s father-in-law, who blames his daughter’s mental illness on the family’s unconventional lifestyle, orders him not to come to the funeral. But the children insist on paying respects, so the whole family climbs into a battered bus named “Steve”—and set out on a collision course with contemporary America.

While there are immensely satisfying scenes of Ben’s young children demonstrating how real their education has been to skeptical aunts, uncles, and cousins, the movie is also committed to questioning Ben’s model of homeschooling. His motivation for raising his kids the way he has is twofold: both a great love of learning, and a fear of the corrupting influence of modern mediocrity. The movie’s conclusion sees Ben and his kids try to reach some sort of compromise with society—so it’s finally a film about the Benedict Option as well, asking how we can stay part of the wider world while modeling a more humane culture.

"Higher education" today: something's gotta give

We've been having a family debate about the status of higher education today, which has led to the exchange of some pretty substantial and provocative rants. Here's one from my son Jamie, which I thought you might enjoy. Feel free to comment:

One of the problems is that colleges serve two purposes (btw a great, very brief post on this is by Douthat of the NYT). First, the purpose they were originally designed to serve, to educate the small, aristocratic elite of the nation with the kind of cultural formation in the arts and sciences they would need to govern well, which required them to have a depth of understanding and wisdom regarding the human condition. But given American egalitarianism, it soon became clear (and rightly so) that this ‘glass ceiling’ kept the 99% of society (including all women, minorities, etc.) from upward mobility, so the pressure was on to give equal access to this ‘stepping stone to the middle class’ to all Americans. This has guided developments over the past century or so. But this shifts the purpose of colleges, or rather adds a second purpose, to teach job skills and enhance job placement, which (given the needs of an information society) means technocratic know-how, i.e. science and mathematics, business and engineering, etc. Hence the great schisms which rack most colleges like my own, between the dreamy, ivory tower liberal arts professors like myself who still think their purpose is to instill a deep sense of the human condition, and the realpolitik business and engineering professors who know that college (like real estate and retirement plans) is really a financial investment – put $30,000 in and over your lifetime you’ll get four times that out, so long as you know how to navigate the economic and professional spheres, which it is their business to train you how to do.

The biggest predictor of financial success remains, more and more every decade, a college degree. So colleges feel justified in doubling and tripling the price, as the financial payoff of a college degree rises. Also, massive increase in student populations, especially when these are not the highly-motivated yuppies of privileged households but the huddled, starving masses of a thousand demographic groups, raises immense complications for the ‘student life’ offices. Now we need to entertain these people, given them clubs and athletic activities, enforce disciplinary codes, monitor them with RAs and RDs, etc. So the biggest increase in COSTS for universities is administration. At some major universities DEANS almost outnumber faculty. And those guys get oodles of money in salaries. And that cost gets passed on to students.

I have always thought that we need two different types of colleges, liberal arts colleges and professional colleges. Liberal arts colleges can have very high admission standards, no quotas, and continue to recruit only the ‘best of the best’ American youth, and can dispense with most ‘babysitting’ administrative offices, all varsity athletics, etc. Professional colleges, whose chief purpose is to get young people jobs, can simply teach business skills and basic math. The latter can generally function online, like the University of Phoenix, which does a perfectly good job with this sort of thing – and again, you can dispense with all the administrative functions, get rid of dorms/residencies, get rid of varsity sports, etc. The latter could become dirt-cheap, potentially even free (i.e., taxpayer-funded), since running an online curriculum costs almost nothing.

The problem is that most state universities want to be all these things at once – a babysitting service, a professional sports team, a liberal arts academy, a research facility, and a job training agency. That’s massively expensive, hence the problems.

Homeschooling - The Pro-Family Counterrevolution (Video)

I am an enthusiastic proponent of home schooling. Blaise Pascal was home schooled. J.S. Mill was home schooled. I was home schooled in Japan during my elementary school years. We home schooled our first four children at various stages of their development -- for a few years, all four at once -- and our daughter was home schooled with the help of a wonderful home school co-op called St. Augustine's Homeschool Enrichment Program with the help of a very generous family during my sabbatical a couple of years ago when we needed a "portable" school program that would allow us to spend some time away in Japan.

For these and many other reasons, I was pleased to see this enthusiastic recent discussion by Michael Matt, which begins with a promo for a major film produced by -- believe it or not -- home schoolers:

A terrific apologia (defense) of homeschooling:

Click here to watch: Homeschooling- The Pro-Family Counterrevolution (VIDEO)

Mother's Day hilarity and profundity from Fr. Perrone

Fr. Eduard Perrone, "A Pastor's Descant" [temporary link] (Assumption Grotto News, May 10, 2015)

In a home school reading class we are reading a book which has certain passages in Elizabethan English. Such texts are charming to read and–at times–intriguing to decipher. I offer to you here a text in celebration of today’s secular observance taken from a pastor’s column from some legendary past time–first in contemporary English for your easy comprehension, and then in its original form. In my modern translation it reads:

To whom it may concern: Happy Parent B Day! you birthing persons and child-care givers. Though you were selfish in your inability to control your desires to have offspring, and though you have, as a result, burdened the environment and consumed precious resources of Earth–Blessed be It!–in order to provide for them, have nice day, all the same.

I now quote the original text:

To those irreplaceable ladies deserving of praise: Happy Mothers Day! you who gave birth to and loving cared for your children. How generous of you in sacrificing yourselves to become mothers and in providing for your children at great personal expense in feeding, clothing and educating them with all that almighty God–Blessed be He!–gave you. May you be specially honored and blessed for this today!

Ah, yes! It is with nostalgia that we look back to former times when motherhood was honored, not as a means of personal fulfillment for certain women who made that their choice, but for the noble and indispensable role mothers have in God’s plan for the human race.....

In a more sober vein, I will have a word about Holy Mary, our spiritual mother and Mother of Christ, about Her own indispensable part in God’s plan for the human race, precisely as a mother–not only in the obvious sense of Her divine maternity through consenting to what was revealed to Her by the Archangel, but also in the sense of Her place in establishing, with and under Christ, the new order, the new Testament, the new religion of Christ. I’m thinking here of the fascinating event that took place at the wedding in Cana. Notice that it was Mary’s astute observation which precipitated the miracle our Lord was to perform. “They have no wine,” She said. As in the case of Saint John’s writings, there is a deeper significance to this than may appear at first. Our Lady was not only noticing an approaching predicament for the wedding guests, but one for all of Israel whose people had become spiritually depleted. The miracle of Christ made the new and superior ‘wine’ of the New Testament: a new faith, a new sacrifice, ceremonies and sacraments. But what concern was this of Hers? Indeed, that’s the very question Christ put to Her, not in order to belittle Her (as some have thought) but to indicate that She indeed has that concern because She has claim to the graces Christ imparts. The interceding, mediating role of Mary is one part of Her spiritual maternity. (The greater part is being the literal Mother of Christ.) We will meet with Her again on Pentecost Sunday where Her maternal position in the Church is highlighted further. Although She was not one of the apostles, She was there with them, mothering them and through them the entire Church. This event was somewhat of a parallel to the incarnation: Mary, by the fertility of the hovering of the Holy Spirit, brought about a conception and a birth: the first time to Christ; at Pentecost to the Church, His mystical body.

If even in today’s radically secularized world we have a remnant of recognition for the indispensable place of mothers, we Christians ought not to forget as well the necessary place of Holy Mary (by God’s choosing) in bringing about the salvation of mankind.

Today, at the noon Mass, we will celebrate First Holy Communion for some of our children. How much we wish this to be a memorable day for them with their beloved Jesus, and the first of many devout receptions of the Holy Sacrament! In an image from the Book of Revelation, one can see a dragon ready to devour the offspring of the woman–the evil one scheming to snatch these innocent ones from the hand of God. May Holy Mother Mary keep them ever near Christ through His sacraments!

Fr. Perrone

"Is the Synod Secretariat Stacking the Deck Again?"

Edward Pentin, "Is the Synod Secretariat Stacking the Deck Again?" (National Catholic Register, March 14, 2015). A suspicious squint at developing plans.

Fashionista alert

Matthew Schmitz, "Dolce & Gabbana: 'The only family is the traditional one'” (First Things, March 14, 2015).

An exclamation!

And a question from Guy Noir: "So is a downturn in the number of Ministers of Music sprightly sporting D & G ware now pretty much inevitable?"

The war for the minds of our children: will you watch from the sidelines?

“The class-war of the future will be a war of intellectual classes and the conquest will be the souls of the children.” For effective soldiering, we must give our minds to the study of both minds at war, Christ’s primarily, but the world’s too....To think we can do this by giving it as much of our free time as we can comfortably spare is foolishness. Paul would have delighted in Rudyard Kipling’s phrase, “There’s no discharge from the war.” Unless we see it as of that urgency, we may as well stay on the sidelines while others fight for the souls of the children. —F.J. Sheed, Theology and Sanity,Pg.13.

[Hat tip to JM]

Monica Miller: "Whither the Kasperian Church"

In case you missed it, here is Prof. Monica Miller's endeavor "to understand how Kasper's faction argues its position."  It is a detailed analysis involving careful Biblical exegesis, well-worth reading:

Wither the Kasparian Church? Playing Fast and Loose with Matthew 19

A Critique of Arguments for Permitting Holy Communion to the Divorced and Remarried

By Monica Migliorino Miller, Ph.D.

The final draft report on the Synod on the Family is out. Those who were concerned about the hijacking of the faith in a heterodox direction can breathe at least a small sigh of relief as the new report scraps language in the draft that appeared to approve of or find “value” in the homosexual “orientation” and also because it did not alas seriously take up the issue of Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried as this proposal failed to gain the needed two thirds support of the bishops. However, this does not necessarily mean that this hugely troublesome and controversial proposal is going to simply be shelved in some dark closet of the Vatican. We need to be prepared to provide well reasoned arguments against what may be called the Cardinal Kasparian agenda. It’s not too early to put those arguments forward in anticipation of next year’s Ordinary Synod. This article seeks to respond to two of the arguments put forth in favor of admitting divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion.

It has become as clear as it could be that Cardinal Walter Kasper, in league with a majority of German bishops and other European prelates, did all that he could to facilitate this major pastoral change. While Kasper repeatedly stated that there can be no change in Church doctrine on the indissolubility of sacramental marriage—nonetheless there is just no way of getting around the fact that were such a pastoral change ever to be made it would undermine Catholic teaching on marriage and legitimize adulterous unions contrary to the teachings of Christ and the Faith of the Church.

"Filial Appeal to Pope Francis on the Future of the Family"

Read it. Sign it. Spread the word.

Christ, the great Prophet, who proclaimed the Kingdom of His Father both by the testimony of His life and the power of His words, continually fulfills His prophetic office until the complete manifestation of glory. He does this not only through the hierarchy who teach in His name and with His authority, but also through the laity whom He made His witnesses and to whom He gave understanding of the faith (sensu fidei) and an attractiveness in speech so that the power of the Gospel might shine forth in their daily social and family life.

Lumen Gentium, 35

Cardinal Burke’s Appeal to All Catholics

           In an age filled with confusion — as can be seen with gender theory - we need the teaching of the Church on marriage. But we are being
pushed in the opposite direction to admit divorced and remarried Catholics to the Eucharist. And this is without even mentioning the obsession to make easier the procedures to annul the marital bond….

I am therefore very worried. And I call upon all Catholics whether laymen,
priests or bishops to get involved — from now until the upcoming Synodal

Assembly — in order to highlight the truth on marriage.  

(Excerpt from an interview granted in Rome to Jean-Marie Guénois - Le Figaro Magazine, 19 December 2014 issue, p. 46)

- See more at: http://filialappeal.org/#sthash.Mxar8WLO.dpuf

Cardinal Burke’s Appeal to All Catholics

           In an age filled with confusion — as can be seen with gender theory - we need the teaching of the Church on marriage. But we are being
pushed in the opposite direction to admit divorced and remarried Catholics to the Eucharist. And this is without even mentioning the obsession to make easier the procedures to annul the marital bond….

I am therefore very worried. And I call upon all Catholics whether laymen,
priests or bishops to get involved — from now until the upcoming Synodal

Assembly — in order to highlight the truth on marriage.  

(Excerpt from an interview granted in Rome to Jean-Marie Guénois - Le Figaro Magazine, 19 December 2014 issue, p. 46)

- See more at: http://filialappeal.org/#sthash.Mxar8WLO.dpuf

Cardinal Burke’s Appeal to All Catholics

"In an age filled with confusion — as can be seen with gender theory - we need the teaching of the Church on marriage. But we are being pushed in the opposite direction to admit divorced and remarried Catholics to the Eucharist. And this is without even mentioning the obsession to make easier the procedures to annul the marital bond….

I am therefore very worried. And I call upon all Catholics whether laymen, priests or bishops to get involved — from now until the upcoming Synodal Assembly — in order to highlight the truth on marriage."

(Excerpt from an interview granted in Rome to Jean-Marie Guénois - Le Figaro Magazine, 19 December 2014 issue, p. 46) 

Sign the Filial Appeal
[Hat tip to R.C.]

"The Bishops and the Catholic 'man-crisis'"

Matthew James Christoff, "The Bishops and the Catholic 'man-crisis'" (CWR, December 15, 2014). "The Extraordinary Synod held in October failed to adequately mention, address, and encourage two groups of Catholics.... Shocking Omission 1: Men; Shocking Omission 2: Intact Families."

Father's Day: Swiss study shows father's role crucial in children's faith

A barely-noticed but large and important study conducted by the Swiss government in 1994 and published in 2000 revealed some astonishing facts about the generational transmission of religious faith and values:

• When the father and mother attend church regularly, 33% of their children end up as regular churchgoers.
• When the mother attends regularly but the father is non-practicing, only 2% of their children become regular churchgoers.
• When the father attends regularly but the mother is non-practicing, 44% of the children become regular churchgoers.

Why? Hard to say. Particularly, why is the result for regular churchgoing children higher when the mother alone is non-practicing than when both father and mother are practicing? Again, hard to say. What is clear is that the roles of fathers in their children's faith-formation is critical.

(The full title of the Swiss study is: “The Demographic Characteristics of the Linguistic and Religious Groups in Switzerland” [beginning on p. 113] by Werner Haug and Phillipe Warner of the Federal Statistical Office, Neuchatel. The study appears in Volume 2 of Population Studies No. 31, a book titled The Demographic Characteristics of National Minorities in Certain European States, edited by Werner Haug and others, published by the Council of Europe Directorate General III, Social Cohesion, Strasbourg, January 2000.)

Hilarem familiam diligit Deus

Sometimes you just have to sit down and laugh. There's nothing so absolutely, insanely wonderful as a good Catholic family life. We received a belated Christmas newsletter (now re-edited as a Valentine's Day newsletter) from one of my sons. I was reading the letter aloud and had to stop, because my eyes had become so blurred from tears of laughter that I could not go on. Here are some bits of what I was reading about his own family of six sons, all named after one of the Church fathers (Ambrose, Augustine, Cyprian, Basil, Cyril, Clement):

• "... And Cyprian goes to art class -- alone, since both Augustine and Ambrose have been withdrawn after decorating nearly every piece of art they produced, over a space of two years, with depictions of a zombie apocalypse."
  
  
• "... Augustine (10) and Ambrose (8) are in the 5th and 3rd grade, respectively, and taking on a rapidly expanding curriculum under the ever-vigilant and never-blinking Eye of Sauron (i.e., their mother)."
  
  
• "... Unfortunately, the six kids we have render us ineligible to resume foster care in the future (for utterly unintelligible reasons, the State of Kansas considers six children a large family!?) ..."
  
  
• "... [Basil] also, quite earnestly, asked the other day if he could have his own socks, which no one else could share. No, Basil: you have to get them out of the 'sock bucket' like everyone else."

Why anyone would not want to have kids -- lots of them -- I find incomprehensible.

Assignment: write three sentences - one with a possessive verb, one with an action verb, and finally an exlamatory sentence

One of my sons recently sent the following email to family members:

I have sworn on my grandfather’s grave never to send out cute things my kids say, but I’m going to make an exception. Augustine [his son] was asked in grammar yesterday to write three sentences: one with a possessive verb, one with an action verb, and finally an exclamatory sentence:

1. I have a flamethrower.
2. I torched my grammar books.
3. “Wow! I have no more grammar books!”

Sorry, I couldn't help sharing ...

Return

A word of thanks to those of you who have been praying for me and my family during our leave of absence. Your prayers have been amply answered, and, as the previous couple of posts indicate, we are back again.

Pertinaciously yours,
PP

Why the Catholic Church opposes same-sex marriages

A very well-written piece, by Bishop Cordileone of San Francisco, "Archbishop Cordileone states case against gay marriage" (USA today, March 21, 2013):

'To legalize marriage between two people of the same sex would enshrine in the law the principle that mothers and fathers are interchangeable or irrelevant.'

Q: What is the greatest threat posed by allowing gays and lesbians to marry?

A:The better question is: What is the great good in protecting the public understanding that to make a marriage you need a husband and a wife?

I can illustrate my point with a personal example. When I was Bishop of Oakland, I lived at a residence at the Cathedral, overlooking Lake Merritt. It's very beautiful. But across the lake, as the streets go from 1st Avenue to the city limits at 100th Avenue, those 100 blocks consist entirely of inner city neighborhoods plagued by fatherlessness and all the suffering it produces: youth violence, poverty, drugs, crime, gangs, school dropouts, and incredibly high murder rates. Walk those blocks and you can see with your own eyes: A society that is careless about getting fathers and mothers together to raise their children in one loving family is causing enormous heartache.

To legalize marriage between two people of the same sex would enshrine in the law the principle that mothers and fathers are interchangeable or irrelevant, and that marriage is essentially an institution about adults, not children; marriage would mean nothing more than giving adults recognition and benefits in their most significant relationship.

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.

What's a Catholic parent to do, now that 'gays' have won the coveted 'BSA' trophy?

To begin with, don't be sidetracked by Catholic leaders offering palliative answers to the wrong questions. "Scouting is still the best youth-serving program available to all youth" is such a distraction. With that pixie dust in your eyes, you'll never see what's coming. Be prepared..

Related: Eve Tushnet, "I'm Gay, but I'm Not Switching to a Church That Supports Gay Marriage" (The Atlantic, May 30, 2013).

[Hat tip to JM for Atlantic article]

Looming threat to home schoolers in Germany and the U.S.

"Yesterday, surrounded by friends and supporters, the Romeike family sat silent in the courtroom before the three-judge panel that will decide whether or not the family can remain in the United States to homeschool their children. The six wooden benches in the small courtroom quickly filled up with homeschooling families—some with children finishing their schoolwork for the day—and several more stood in the back during the 38-minute hearing.

"... Farris quoted published decisions from German courts, which explained that the ban on homeschooling exists to prevent the development and spread of religious or philosophically-motivated “parallel societies,” and which concluded that it was dangerous for a child to be taught by their mother." (Emphasis added by Rorate Caeli; cf. source.)

Read more >>