Fr. Z's Blog | Catholic commentary by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

U.S. Bishops Issue Call To Action To Defend Religious Liberty

Posted on 12 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From the website of the USCCB:

April 12, 2012

Urge strong lay involvement

Outline threats to First Freedom at all levels of government and abroad

Call upon dioceses to pursue religious liberty fortnight, June 21-July 4 [Mark your calendars. Get things going.]

WASHINGTON—The U.S. bishops have issued a call to action to defend religious liberty and urged laity to work to protect the First Freedom of the Bill of Rights. They outlined their position in “Our First, Most Cherished Liberty.” The document was developed by the Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), approved for publication by the USCCB Administrative Committee March 13, and published in English and Spanish April 12.

The document can be found HERE.

“We have been staunch defenders of religious liberty in the past. We have a solemn duty to discharge that duty today,” the bishops said in the document, “… for religious liberty is under attack, both at home and abroad.”

The document lists concerns that prompt the bishops to act now.Among concerns are:

• The Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate forcing all employers, including religious organizations, to provide and pay for coverage of employees’ contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs even when they have moral objections to them. Another concern is HHS’s defining which religious institutions are “religious enough” to merit protection of their religious liberty.

• Driving Catholic foster care and adoption services out of business. Boston, San Francisco, the District of Columbia and Illinois have driven local Catholic Charities adoption or foster care services out of business by revoking their licenses, by ending their government contracts, or both—because those Charities refused to place children with same-sex couples or unmarried opposite-sex couples who cohabit.

• Discrimination against Catholic humanitarian services. Despite years of excellent performance by the USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services in administering contract services for victims of human trafficking, the federal government changed its contract specifications to require USCCB to provide or refer for contraceptive and abortion services in violation of Catholic teaching. Religious institutions should not be disqualified from a government contract based on religious belief, and they do not lose their religious identity or liberty upon entering such contracts. Recently, a federal court judge in Massachusetts turned religious liberty on its head when he declared that such a disqualification is required by the First Amendment—that the government violates religious liberty by allowing Catholic organizations to participate in contracts in a manner consistent with their beliefs on contraception and abortion.

The statement lists other examples such as laws punishing charity to undocumented immigrants; a proposal to restructure Catholic parish corporations to limit the bishop’s role; [This is a complicated point, since in some states parishes are separate corporations. There are real advantages in that, since the assets of a whole diocese can’t be attacked through one institution.] and a state university’s excluding a religious student group because it limits leadership positions to those who share the group’s religion.

Other topics include the history and deep resonance of Catholic and American visions of religious freedom, the recent tactic of reducing freedom of religion to freedom of worship, [!] the distinction between conscientious objection to a just law, and civil disobedience of an unjust law, the primacy of religious freedom among civil liberties, the need for active vigilance in protecting that freedom, and concern for religious liberty among interfaith and ecumenical groups and across partisan lines.

The bishops decry limiting religious freedom to the sanctuary. [This is IMPORTANT. This is what the Obama Administration is trying to do. They are trying to shift, with a shift of language and by direct attacks, the influence of religion out of the public square and confine it to inside churches or homes. They are working to repress any influence that opposes their agenda and therefore they are undermining religious liberty.]

“Religious liberty is not only about our ability to go to Mass on Sunday or pray the Rosary at home. It is about whether we can make our contribution to the common good of all Americans,” they said. “Can we do the good works our faith calls us to do, without having to compromise that very same faith?”

“This is not a Catholic issue. This is not a Jewish issue. This is not an Orthodox, Mormon, or Muslim issue. It is an American issue,” they said.

[…]

Be sure to go read the rest there.

Discuss.

And don’t give me any blatteroon blather about “the bishops for decades have been weak and they brought this on themselves”. That is pointless. We are all in this now.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Blatteroons, Brick by Brick, Dogs and Fleas, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The Drill, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged 1st Amendment, freedom of religious, freedom of worship, Obama Administration, Pres. Obama, public square, religious liberty, USCCB
35 Comments

WDTPRS Easter Thursday – diversity and wholeness

Posted on 12 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Collect for the Ordinary Form and the Extraordinary Form caught my eye:

Deus, qui diversitatem gentium in confessione tui nominis adunasti,
da, ut renatis fonte baptismatis
una sit fides mentium et pietas actionum.

This is a modern tinkering with an ancient prayer. In the post-Tridentine Missal there is a prayer from Holy Saturday after the 10th prophecy: Deus, qui diversitatem gentium in confessione tui nominis adunasti: da nobis, et velle, et posse quae praecipis; ut populo ad aeternitatem vocato, una sit fides mentium, et pietas actionum.

In the Gregorian Sacramentary this shows up on the Thursday in the Octave of Easter, when the Station is at XII Apostoli. That just happens to be today, of course.

Pietas actionum is hard. When used for humans, pietas has to do with “duty”, but when it is applied to God it is more along the lines of “mercy”. But a further distinction must be made a our pietas. When applied to us humans and in respect to created things pietas is “dutifulness, conscientiousness” while in respect to our pietas toward God it is a sense of duty that verges strongly towards “love, affection, loyalty, gratitude”. In other words, when applied to us but in respect to God, it taps into the content of the virtue of religion, what we owe to God by the fact that He is God. In a sense, contained within the distinctions about pietas are the two-fold commands of Christ to love God and, flowing from that love of God, love then ourselves and our neighbor in the proper way.

When I deal with pietas I get this image, from the medieval period and heraldry of the pelican “in her piety”. There is a symbol of Christ and His Church as a pelican who, in time of famine and drought, pierces her own breast with her bill to feed her chicks from her own blood. This sort of piety harks to the sense of pietas as “duty”. This is what she must do for her young. And, in a sense, the chicks then must drink!

Perhaps you have sung the hymn by St. Thomas Aquinas (+1274) called Adoro Te devote, in which we find the words, “Pie pelicane, Iesu Domine, / me immundum munda tuo sanguine. … O dutiful pelican, Lord Jesus, cleanse me, unclean, in your blood.”

ULTRA-LITERAL VERSION:
O God, who united a variety of peoples in the profession of your Name,
grant to those reborn in the font of baptism
that there may be one faith of minds and (one) duty of actions.

What on earth does that mean?

SMOOTHER VERSION:
O God, who united diverse peoples in the profession of Your Name,
grant that for those reborn in the font of baptism
there may be one mind in faith and one love in action.

In the phrase “una sit fides cordium et pietas actionum” we have an expression of Christian wholeness. Just interior faith alone does not suffice for the Christian life, nor do mere outward actions of charity and mercy. Pope Benedict spoke to this in his first encyclical letter Deus caritas est. All good outward actions are good not just because they are performed, but because they are performed from charity, the a deep sacrificial love which reflects and imitates the Lord on the Cross.

CURRENT ICEL (2011):
O God, who have united the many nations in confessing your name,
grant that those reborn in the font of Baptism
may be one in the faith of their hearts
and the homage of their deeds.

The is a great play with diversity and oneness. In the first line there is “variety”, diversitas and in the last line there is unity. Christ is the unifying force and baptism is the means.

There is even a play with the forms of words… diversitas gentium… pietas actionum… (unitas) mentium.

Consider now again my reference to Christ’s two-fold command.

Posted in WDTPRS | Tagged EASTER, Latin, liturgy, Octave, pelican, pelican in her piety, pietas, piety, prayer, sacrifice, St. Thomas Aquinas, worship
4 Comments

Condom-promoting Nun v. U.S. Catholic Bishops. The Magisterium of Nuns is still shrill.

Posted on 11 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

On Indy.com we find this. There is a backstory which the article will explain:

There’s good news and national news at RecycleForce, the Eastside non-profit that provides jobs and re-entry assistance to ex-offenders.

Less than a month after having $20,000 in grant money yanked away by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the organization has made up the loss, thanks mainly to a local foundation and a Catholic businessman.

Meanwhile, there’s a larger story, told by The New York Times last week. RecycleForce was listed as one of nine recipients of Catholic Campaign funds that have been cut off in the face of pressure from conservative Catholic groups opposed to contraception, abortion and gay rights. [Note the stress on “rights”, as if conservatives want to deny “rights” to people. Conservatives want to uphold natural law.]

Merely being associated with a disapproved entity could bring the axe. RecycleForce is such a case. It hosted AmeriCorps personnel for health tutorials, which included distribution of condoms to prevent AIDS and other disease, a common scourge of ex-convicts. Learning of the service, the Catholic Campaign refused to pay the final half of a sorely needed $40,000 grant, even after RecycleForce agreed to banish the condoms.

As has happened elsewhere, RecycleForce found rescuers, including Catholics, who were outraged by what they saw as dogmatic rigidity overriding common sense. [The classic liberal pitting of intellect against authority, reason against faith, as if they are not to be reconciled.]

The Health Foundation of Greater Indianapolis, funder of the AmeriCorps project, gave $10,000. A man who asked to remain anonymous, citing his deep involvement in Catholic charities, gave a like amount. He and Betty Wilson, executive director of the foundation, both saw a vital good deed — an indirect deed at that — being punished. [Conservatives are mean.]

Concurring is Barbara Battista, a Catholic nun and president of the Indiana Academy of Physician Assistants. [Get those elements? Now she will place herself OVER the bishops. She is an expositrix of the Magisterium of Nuns.]

“Please, let’s ask the Hoosiers, not our bishops, [!] what we want RecycleForce to do,” she said by email.”I bet that condom bowl will be put back out! I am a health-care provider gratefully working in a public facility.We happily have free condoms in our exam rooms.”

Thomas Gray, [“whipped” minion and] vice president of RecycleForce, submits that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which runs the Campaign, has become “trapped” in cultural politics.

[…]

The rest is available there. It is slimy.

UPDATE 12 April 17:50 GMT:

More about the Nun Who Pushes Condoms, HERE.

And some of her compatriots, HERE. An excerpt, just so you know which crowd of women religious she runs in…

[…]

Since I ordinarily live on the south side of Chicago and am a registered Democrat, I have been an ardent supporter of Barack Obama. I remember when he was a member of the Illinois State Legislator [Legislature]. He supported the Illinois Hunger Coalition on several of our legislative endeavors including universal school breakfast and summer feeding programs. [He also actively promoted direct infanticide.]

[…]

Posted in Dogs and Fleas, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The Drill, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice, Throwing a Nutty | Tagged Archd. Indianapolis, Catholic Campaign for Human Development, CCHD, Democrats, infanticide, magisterium of nuns, Pres. Obama, RecycleForce
57 Comments

QUAERITUR: English translation of Breviary to fulfill duty of saying the Office

Posted on 11 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a seminarian:

Just wondering if the new Latin / English Breviaries put out by Baronius Press fulfill the canonical objection of priests?

Particularly, can a priest say the English translation and fulfill his obligation? I am currently a seminarian and find that the English translation of this Breviary is much more literal than the 1970’s ICEL translation.

Can. 276 requires that clerics fulfill their Office “in accordance with their own approved liturgical books”. If the translation in the Baronius edition has ecclesiastical approbation, then it is acceptable. If the translation is not approved, then praying the Latin whilst glancing at the English would be acceptable.

However, as I look at the Decree in the front of Vol 1 of the Baronius edition in question, a Decree issued by Bp. Bruskewitz, I read:

In accordance with Canons 826 §3 and 827 § 3, permission is hereby granted for the English translation and the editorial material to be published for private use, not for liturgical use.

Recitation of the Office by those bound to it is a liturgical act. So, I am of a mind that a cleric does not fulfill his Office by saying just the English. He does so by using the Latin.

Also, on p. xxii of an introductory note in the Baronius edition I read:

It should be stressed that the English translation is primarily provided as a guide to help those with little or no Latin understand the text of the Office. While we hope that by providing a bilingual version of the Breviary we will make it more accessible to those who wish to use this form of the Hours, it is the Latin text which is the approved form of the Church’s prayer.

So, my answer is “No, using the English does not fulfill a clerics obligation.”

Lay people who are not religious or consecrated virgins bound to say the Office can do exactly as it pleases them.

By the way, as a seminarian I would not let ANYONE else know that you are using that book regularly. Take your cue from Matthew 6:6 and be like the man who prays in his room with the door closed.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Mail from priests | Tagged English, Latin, liturgy, Office, prayer, Roman Breviary, worship
34 Comments

Card. Burke on the HHS mandate: “There is no way to justify it. It is simply wrong.”

Posted on 11 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In an interview, Raymond Card. Burke has offered his view on Pres. Obama’s attack on religious liberty, his erosion of the 1st Amendment, his duplicitous, anti-Catholic… okay.. you get it.

From Life News with my emphases:

Thomas McKenna: “It is beautiful to see how the faithful have rallied behind the Hierarchy….How does your Eminence comment on the union of solidarity of our bishops?”

Cardinal Burke: “Yes, I have received emails and other communications from lay faithful who say that they are supporting their bishops 100% and they have communicated to their bishops their gratitude and assured them that they want them to continue to be courageous and not to be deceived by any kind of false accommodations which in fact continue this same kind of agenda which sadly we have witnessed for too long in our country which is totally secular and therefore is anti-life and anti-family. I admire very much the courage of the bishops. At the same time I believe they would say it along with me that they are doing no more than their duty. A bishop has to protect his flock and when any individual or government attempts to force the flock to act against conscience in one of its most fundamental precepts then the bishops have to come to defend those who are entrusted to their pastoral care. So I am deeply grateful to all of the bishops who have spoken about this and who are encouraging the members of their flock to also speak up because our government needs to understand that what is being done with this mandate is contrary first of all to the fundamental human right, the right to the free exercise of one’s conscience and at the same time contrary to the very foundation of our nation.” [Do I hear an “Amen”?]

Thomas McKenna: “So a Catholic employer, really getting down to it, he does not, or she does not provide this because that way they would be, in a sense, cooperating with the sin…the sin of contraception or the sin of providing a contraceptive that would abort a child, is this correct?”

Cardinal Burke: “This is correct. It is not only a matter of what we call “material cooperation” in the sense that the employer by giving this insurance benefit is materially providing for the contraception but it is also “formal cooperation” because he is knowingly and deliberately doing this, making this available to people. There is no way to justify it. It is simply wrong.”

Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The Drill, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged 1st Amendment, anti-catholicism, Card. Burke, formal cooperation, HHS, mandate, material cooperation, Pres. Obama, religious liberty
14 Comments

Geostationary satellites and the Sun rising in the West

Posted on 11 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I had a flight yesterday evening that took off just at sunset. Thus, I had the interesting experience of watching the Sun rise in the West.

As we gained altitude, the Sun came back up above the horizon and appeared to rise but into the wrong side of the sky. Very cool.

Here is another very cool thing.

Some of those points of light up there don’t appear to move as the Earth spins. Why not? They are Geostationary satellites.

Via APOD:

Posted in Just Too Cool, Look! Up in the sky! |
6 Comments

QUAERITUR: A Baptist going up for a blessing during Communion time

Posted on 11 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Please use the sharing buttons!

From a reader:

I am a Southern Baptist woman ( born and raised). I have been listening to EWTN For a year and attending Mass since Christmas. I had not gone down for a blessing until Easter at the suggestion by the “cradle Catholics” around me. After reading your blog today, I am confused. Is it wrong for Adults who are journeying to conversion to receive a blessing during Communion? Should I wait until I complete RCIA next Easter? I don’t mind waiting; I also don’t want those around me to think I am not sincere in my journey. Catholicism is so different. I keep a dictionary and Catholic Encyclopedia at hand.
Please advise. thanks.

I, too, am a convert. I can understand both your confusion and your desire to do the right thing.

We really drill into questions on this blog. We veteran, battle-hardened Catholics can get deep into details and particulars, thus leaving the less-schooled scratching their heads.

First, be at ease. You haven’t done anything wrong by not going up for a blessing and, even if you had gone up, you wouldn’t have done anything wrong. Relax about this. On the scale of “Catholic Things We Really Need To Fix”, this is not one of the very most pressing. Communion in the hand is a more urgent problem by far, but I digress.

According to the Church’s liturgical laws, Communion time is for Communion. Doing something other than what the liturgical rites prescribe during Mass is not permitted. The Communion portion of Mass is governed by the rubrics, rules, just like every other part of Mass. Priests and others have no authority to change those rubrics on their own. They shouldn’t be giving blessings during Communion time. This is, nevertheless a wide-spread practice. In my opinion, all those people going up for a blessing, with good will and in good faith, are not doing anything wrong. I and others think (correctly) that the practice should be ended and people should be given the whys and wherefores. Ending it should be accompanied by lot of instruction and it should be ended through a careful and kind process.

You can ALWAYS ask the priest when you see him for a blessing outside of Mass! I am sure he will be pleased to give you one.

And if Father ever says that you can just come up at at Communion time for a blessing, you can smile, and thank him, and think to yourself, “I know something you don’t know.”

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, The Drill | Tagged blessings, Communion
31 Comments

Planned Parenthood copycats 40 Day for Life to pray FOR abortion

Posted on 11 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Planned Parenthood is evil. Planned Parenthood is evil to its roots.

From Life News:

Planned Parenthood Sets Up 40 Days of Prayer for Abortion

by Steven Ertelt

A local Planned Parenthood abortion business in California is copycatting the 40 Days for Life campaign, which recently resulted in saving the lives of more than 700 unborn children from abortion. [Therefore cutting into Planned Parenthood’s profit margin.] The abortion business has set up its own 40 Days of Prayer for the local abortion center.

“We trust you to decide about your sexuality, having your children, and planning your family,” [This is the point of a recent Commonweal article, praised by Fishwrap.] says a flier promoting the Humbolt County Clergy for Choice event. “We are religious leaders who value all human life. We accept that religions differ about when life begins. We are here to help.”

“We believe that human life is holy. That’s why we believe in your right to choose to be a parent or not,” the pro-abortion religious leaders continue. “It can be helpful to talk with friends you trust, with licensed counselors, and with whatever religious person you choose. Humboldt County Clergy are available to talk with you about the spiritual aspects of choice. Find out more by calling Six Rivers Planned Parenthood.”

“Humboldt County Clergy for Choice invite you to set aside time with your family and community to support women and reproductive justice for 40 days from March 18th through April 27th,” they say. [“Reproductive justice”. My Jesus, mercy! What a distortion of the concept of justice! The greatest victory of liberals and feminists in this matter is the shifting of abortion to being a “women’s issue” and away from being a true social justice issue. There is no more fundamental concern in the sphere of social justice, but everyone has been lured into thinking it is located elsewhere.]

The flyer promotes specific prayers for abortion for each day:

* “Day 1: Today we pray for women for whom pregnancy is not good news, that they know they have choices.”

* “Day 34: Today we give thanks for abortion escorts who guide women safely through hostile gauntlets of protestors.”

*”Day 36 Today we pray for the families we’ve chosen, May they know the blessing of choice.”

* “Day 38: Today we pray for a cloud of gentleness to surround every abortion facility. May everyone feel calm and loving.” [and lethal.]

* “Day 40: Today we give thanks and celebrate that abortion is still safe and legal.”

Some of the local “churches” participating in the pro-abortion prayer event include: Temple Beth El in Eureka, Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Bayside, St. Francis in Fortuna [Episcopal], Old Town Gazebo in Eureka, and Arcata United Methodist.