“Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.”
Catholic public leaders inconvenienced by the abortion debate tend to take a hard line in talking about the "separation of Church and state." But their idea of separation often seems to work one way. In fact, some officials also seem comfortable in the role of theologian. And that warrants some interest,not as a "political" issue, but as a matter of accuracy and justice.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a gifted public servant of strong convictions and many professional skills. Regrettably, knowledge of Catholic history and teaching does not seem to be one of them.
Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Denver, CO. 8/25/08
'war is crucifixion: God’s place in war is on the cross'
The Muslims have a devotion to the Blessed Mother. They have adopted a lot of things from the New Testament, and one of them is regard for Christ, even though they do not accept his divinity, and also a very tender devotion to Mary.I pray for our Blessed Mother's intercession to enlighten radical, fanatical and terror prone Muslims on ways to assimilate themselves and tolerate other people with or without faith.
I am currently leading, together with Metropolitan Methodios of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston, a joint pilgrimage to Rome, Constantinople and Saint Petersburg. My blog gives me the opportunity to share the pilgrimage with Catholics from Boston and beyond who were unable to accompany us.Thank you, Cardinal Sean for blogging...
But why should this new form of cynicism appear just now, and why primarily among Democrats? I believe the answer to the first question lies in the modern (or actually the post-modern) intellectual climate. The essentially frivolous manner in which Clinton and Gore approach vital issues has clear parallels in current intellectual and academic thought. In the post-modern intellectual climate, “texts” (e.g., great literature, philosophy, and even laws and judicial opinions) are not valued in their own right, but rather exist to be appropriated by creative “scholars” for whatever purposes they see fit. Everything is up for grabs. The only limit on valid interpretation is the imagination, and political correctness quotient, of the
interpreter. In this world, it becomes possible for politicians to ask what “the meaning of ‘is’ is.” And once that point is reached, it becomes possible to suggest that whether one should vote to go to war does not necessarily depend on who has the better arguments.Why has this tendency surfaced largely among Democrats? One plausible answer is that Democrats are more closely linked than Republicans with academia, the true home of post-modernism. However, while Clinton and Gore undoubtedly have “breathed the air” of post-modernism, so too have many Republican politicians–it is all around us.
A better explanation is that necessity is the mother of invention. After 1964 and before 1992, the Democrats lost five of six presidential elections, including three landslides. Their positions had become so unpopular that the term “liberal” became an epithet of derision. The party’s options were to change its core beliefs or to disguise them. Opting largely for the latter alternative, it needed and found leaders who were particularly skillful in the art of deception.
But this deception could only be tried if the Democrats were confident of getting away with it. And only the Democrats could have that confidence. First, only
Democrats could be confident that the overwhelmingly liberal media would, by-and-large, give them a pass. More fundamentally, only Democrats could be confident that their core constituencies would do so too.
The Democratic Party contains at least two core constituencies – African-Americans and feminists – whose leaders view rules as instruments of their oppression and
barriers to their advancement. In fact, the centerpiece of much modern civil rights employment litigation is the attack on neutral rules that disproportionately exclude African Americans from a particular job. Examples include tests, educational requirements, and even the requirement that an employee not have been convicted of a crime. Similarly, what is the demand for affirmative action other than a demand that the normal rules for selecting employees based on merit be ignored to the extent that they interfere with desired outcomes? And the disregard of leading feminists for the basic rules of scholarship is apparent in the notoriously shoddy “feminist scholarship” that has been exposed by Christina Hoff Sommers and others.
The common thread here is something akin to cheating. No wonder these core groups, and the sophisticates who believe that rules exist only to be deconstructed, admired Clinton’s intellectual gyrations on key issues and now tolerate Gore’s less supple efforts.
You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons: "My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges."Lora, in hope and prayer to ease your aching heart with all my love,
Endure your trials as "discipline"; God treats you as sons. For what "son" is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are without discipline, in which all have shared, you are not sons but bastards. Besides this, we have had our earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not (then) submit all the more to the Father of spirits and live? They disciplined us for a short time as seemed right to them, but he does so for our benefit, in order that we may share his holiness. At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it. So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed.
When Calloway caught up with the Navy chaplain, the priest told him to go to church and sit in the back while he said Mass, and then they would talk to him. Donald did as he was told, waiting as a small group of Filipino women recited a repetitious prayer -- which of course was the Rosary. Then came the moment that changed his life. The priest came out with robes. Calloway thought it was some kind of performance. He had no idea what was going on. "I was amazed. All these ladies were kneeling and standing at the same time."
But it just clicked. All of a sudden, this young man -- this drug abuser, this runaway "knew" what was happening, that what was transpiring was a "real" re-presentation of what had happened 2,000 years ago, and that it was being poured out again. "Time ceased," he says. "I saw myself at Calvary with the faithful beholding the sacrifice of the lamb." Everything about it captivated him. He felt the Presence of Christ - knew He was there - as the priest held up the "white circle."
He was 20, going on 21, and "all I knew was that I was madly in love with God and Our Savior."
"I want to be a priest to be closer to God, be a man of God, become more spiritual and preach the Gospel," said Barboutz, a second-year theology student at the Theological College at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., who this summer is serving St. Joseph Parish here. "I want to celebrate the Eucharist, the center of the faith."
Do I feel blessed? Totally! Do I, even more so, feel humbled? Absolutely! I am so thankful to the Lord for having called me to serve Him and His Church as a priest. I am honored to serve the people of God in the Boston Archdiocese. I promise to pray for the grace that is needed for all of us to grow together toward a deeper knowledge of God’s Love. I ask you to continue to pray for me, for my six brothers who were also ordained in May and for all the priests who serve the Archdiocese of Boston. May God bless us all.
Fr. Robert J. Blaney
"I am speaking from experience, since I, too, lived through that period with all its hopes and confusion. And I have seen how arbitrary deformations of the liturgy caused deep pain to individuals totally rooted in the faith of the church."
In his “Jesus of Nazareth” the Judeo-Christian disputation enters a new age. We are able to meet one another in a forthright exercise of reason and criticism. The challenges of Sinai bring us together for the renewal of a 2,000 year old tradition of religious debate in the service of God's truth. Someone once called me the most contentious person he had ever known. Now I have met my match. Pope Benedict XVI is another truth-seeker.
To argue by analogy, it appears that the natural family as a whole has been the human symphony through which God has historically been heard by many people - not the prophets, not the philosophers, but a great many of the rest.Click here for whole article. Hat tip RealClearPolitics.com
