It Really Does Matter

I saw a number of people on Facebook who were excited to hear that the Susan G. Komen Foundation had stopped funding Planned Parenthood. As much as I was all ready to send them an e-mail thanking them for doing this, something told me that I should approach with caution. I have a tendency to be pretty slow to react, and it comes in handy at times.

Surely enough, we now have this statement from the Foundation. They decided to “amend their criteria” to support organizations under investigation if the investigation is “political” and is not “conclusive.” So, I guess PP’s willingness to violate mandatory reporting for statutory rape doesn’t constitute a criminal act under Komen’s criteria. It must be just politics driving those investigations.

Under this “revision,” Planned Parenthood keeps its existing grants and may apply for new ones. While writing about how they don’t want their mission “marred by politics,” it is hard for me to interpret their statement as anything but either 1) bowing to political pressure from pro-aborts OR 2) ultimately wanting to maintain their ties with Planned Parenthood. For those who might think Komen hasn’t really reversed their earlier decision, note that Planned Parenthood is declaring victory on their web site.

Perhaps some people reading this wonder why I would be concerned as long as the money granted is being used for mammograms or other screenings. The answer is that money given for breast screenings means that more money from their general fund can then be used for their immoral activities like abortion and contraception. No matter what other services they provide, the fact remains that they are a MAJOR provider of abortions in this country. While breast cancer does kill many women, abortion is a directly intended killing of millions of unborn children.

So, as much as I’d like to support breast cancer research, I cannot and will not do it by supporting an organization that is helping to fund an organization such as Planned Parenthood. The great evil of abortion far outweighs any good that PP could possibly be doing. I will not take any chance on donating money to them.

I would urge anyone who values freedom of religion in this country, especially Catholics, to please take a moment to sign this petition to the President.  We need 25,000 signatures by February 27, 2012 to get an official response.  The US Department of Health and Human Services, in an unprecedented attack on religious freedom in the United States, has issued a mandate that all employer health insurance plans provide coverage for contraception and abortifacients.

In short, this means that nearly all Catholic employers, whether they are agencies of the Church or businesses owned by devout Catholics, will be required to pay for people’s mortal sin.  At best, the Obama administration is attacking freedom or religion.  At worst, the administration wants to stop the Church from providing health care and other social services or even wants to destroy the Church.  We cannot stand by and let this happen.

This is not about “the Church getting into people’s bedrooms.”  If people employed by the Church choose to use contraception, we aren’t performing bed checks.  God himself will do that, and those people will have to answer for having abused the gift by which God gave us to help him in bringing new life into the world.  This is simply about not requiring the people of this world who are standing with Christ on this not to have to pay the bill for people to sin.

We made it through our first Sunday Mass with the new translation.  I haven’t been so excited about going to Mass since the Easter Vigil Mass on which I was baptized. If you search for “language” or “translation” on this blog, you’ll find that I have written several posts about it, the earliest one being in May 2004.  Yes, that’s right, we have been waiting for years for this translation!

Naysayers may want to call the new translation “stilted” or some similar less-than-flattering word, but I am convinced that our former translation was just too casual.  We are doing the most important thing we will do all week when we worship God, and the one we are addressing in our worship is the one to whom we owe everything.  For more on the reason I’m convinced that a kind of elevated language is needed, go here.

In my parish, everything went very well.  I did have one occasion where I responded “And also . . . and with your Spirit” as my wife cracked a smile.  That one will be the hardest habit to break.  There was no detectable rebellion.  Our pastor made a great effort to prepare himself, and he did an excellent job.  I followed along using my Daily Roman Missal.  The translation does flow nicely for one who is prepared.  I only found one passage that seemed a bit awkward.

I am so grateful that we are now using the new Roman Missal.  I’m even more thankful that Simon will grow up with this being the way he will worship God.  I’m looking forward to using this text for years to come.

Ok, I admit it.  Sometimes when I’m online, I read the National Catholic Reporter.  Am I expecting something uplifting that will boost my faith?  No.  I’ve known for years that that won’t happen there.  It’s mostly bitterness.  One thing about my time in North Carolina is that I was able to learn the underlying current of thought that drives the thinking of these people.  I went to programs that used their resources and knew people who thought like these people do.

It was very apparent in this article.  The author, one of the “young voices,” is “longing for a new, unbroken church.”  She describes the Eucharist as a time when they “listened to one another’s stories” and “shared our brokenness.”  The people in this church want to “be a part of a community that is relevant” and share with “those we break bread with” and “want our experience of others to be affirmed.”  In her church, she is “looking for meaning and authenticity from ourselves, our friends and family, and our institutions.”  I could go on as there’s a lot more of this in the article.

Indeed, it’s what is left out that is telling.  All of the phrases of what the author longs for are about the people with whom she is present.  She even says they went to “uncover the wholeness found in ‘we’.”  There is no mention of having an encounter with the living God.

After all, God will “meet us where we are,” but he loves us too much to leave us there.  Far more than “sharing our brokenness,” God wants to give us life to the full.  There, we can find healing for our “brokenness,” which ultimately has its root in sin.  The article seems to imply that the people at this church are content to remain in their “brokenness” and possibly also in their sin.  Naturally, they will keep longing for happiness because they will never find it that way.

The Mass gives us our greatest opportunity to encounter Christ and be transformed.  It gets better; he is wanting to give us eternal life with him in Heaven where there will be no more “brokenness.” We don’t need to make it “relevant” or “meaningful,” it must change us and make us “relevant” and “meaningful” to it.

We need not simply share our story.  We need to know Christ’s.  Let him transform our story into something beautiful and joyful for him.

Recently, I was in the Confession line at a very large parish.  Well, actually, I wasn’t really in line.  There wasn’t one.  This parish has only a thirty-minute time period for Confession, and I found out why.  After one more person, there was no one left.

As much as I hear about no one going to Confession anymore, I don’t find it to be completely true.  I was actually surprised by what I saw at this particular parish, but then again, there are other signs that something isn’t quite right.  At my parish, there are often long lines for Confession.

Regular Confession is one of the greatest things we can do for our walk with God.  When we examine our conscience, we recognize how our lives are not in line with what God wants.  We have to admit that to the priest.  When we receive absolution, we not only receive forgiveness of our sins, but powerful grace to help us to avoid sin in the future.

It doesn’t end there, though. As we get closer to God, we learn more and more how we are falling short.  We bring those to the sacrament, and more grace is poured forth.  More and more of what is not of God is stripped away , or at least we get a second chance to work on what we weren’t able to accomplish since our last Confession.

It’s sad to see a large parish in which people are not taking advantage of this.  There is great grace available.  All one needs is a sorrow for sin and a resolve not to commit those same sins again. If we do fall in to the sin again, go back to Confession and try again.  God is ready to take us back and give us the grace.  Take advantage of it.

Your sorrow doesn’t have to be some totally altruistic motive either.  Even sorrow for sin because of fear of Hell is enough to receive the grace of the sacrament.  After all, Hell is separation from God, and if you don’t want to go there, you don’t want to be separated from God.  You will either go to Confession or Hell, so go to Confession.  Of course, you will want to get to where you have a pure love of God, but this is much more easily accomplished when God has forgiven your sins.  Then, there is not eternal punishment to fear.  So, let God give you the grace he so badly wants to give you.

Right now, you can find truckloads of articles and blog posts offering commentary on the recent news about Fr. Corapi, a priest who was once known as a great defender of orthodox Catholic teaching.  He has announced that he is leaving active ministry as a priest but will minister under another title.  Other people have written far too much about his situation, and I’m not going to pretend that I can add much to the discussion.  Besides, there are a few people who accept the possibility that the whole thing may be a hack job.  It’s not out of the question to me because the video doesn’t show him actually speaking, and the audio doesn’t sound quite right to me.

The more troubling part to me is that he isn’t the first on-fire, orthodox priest to do this.  Over the last few years I’ve seen a number of priests who appeared to be holy, orthodox, and happy priests leave their ministry.  Some just picked up and left; others were caught in scandal.  It has left me wondering what is going on.

I have to remind myself that there are a lot still standing, and they really need our prayers.  They have an indelible mark on their souls and a target on their backs, as Fr. Z explains very well. Perseverance to the end in service to Christ is difficult for any of us.  All of us who wish to attain eternal salvation much support each other and especially our priests.  There are just so many traps set by the enemy for all of us that I can’t name all of them in this post.  We can easily grow tired of fighting the good fight, especially in today’s world.  Our priests are often on the front end of this battle, and their perseverance is often what brings the salvation of many.

This weekend, the news has come out that Dr. Jack Kevorkian has died.  We know full well that he was a man who did much to bring about the Culture of Death.  It would be easy to be glad that he is gone, but be careful.  The same goes for any man who has done great evil.  One who comes to mind for me now is George Tiller.

It’s one thing to be glad that they cannot do their evil deeds anymore.  However, to actually desire or rejoice their demise is quite another.  To desire their damnation is even worse.  There is a point at which we can desire the justice of God, but often the line between that and desiring their damnation is a very fine one that is difficult to walk.  It would be very dangerous for our souls to end up on the wrong side of that line.

Simply put, we know that God would much rather have had their repentance.  Can you imagine what a powerful witness either Kevorkian or Tiller would have been had they repented?  Let’s not forget that the rejoicing in Heaven would have been tremendous.

Even now, we can still hope and pray, as I always do men like these die, that they repented at the last minute.  You and I may never have done anything like what these men did, but we are sinners.  By hoping in the mercy of God for them, we realize that we, too, are in need of his mercy.  If they did repent because of our prayers, they could become a powerful intercessor for us. By being merciful, we have hope of receiving God’s mercy.

File this one in the “I wish I had this a long time ago” category.  I got an e-mail from Ascension Press, whose works I really like, about a new book named Disorientation.  It’s about the “-isms” (ideologies) that college students are bombarded with from the very beginning.  The site itself is worth seeing even if you don’t plan to buy the book because it gives a short description of each “-ism.”  Even though I’m twelve years past college and my son isn’t born yet, I just might go for a copy of this book.

Several years ago, I can remember someone saying that the best defense against false teaching is to know the true Catholic faith.  Well, this has a lot of truth to it.  Still, I do believe that it sharpens ones knowledge of the faith to learn about ideas that are opposed to it and what is wrong with those ideas.  This is why books like this provide great resources that I wish I had just before I entered college.

This week, I got the news that a new letter of instruction was released on the celebration of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form from the Ecclesia Dei commission and approved by Pope Benedict.  This came as kind of a clarification on Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict’s letter authorizing wider use of the rite.  In both texts, the Holy Father is asking for wider availability of the older form for those who request it.

When Summorum Pontificum was published in 2007, it generated a variety of reactions.  Bishop Burbidge of Raleigh, NC welcomed it.  Meanwhile, in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, a strange list of “norms” was published regarding its use that seem to defeat the purpose of the Holy Father’s decree.  In fact, what I’ve read about this past week’s new letter seem to have been written to specifically counter what they are saying in Cincinnati.

Here’s my question:  Why are there people so afraid of allowing the celebration of the Extraordinary Form?  Pope Benedict is only asking for it to be made available for those who desire it.  What is the problem that a bishop or an office of worship in a diocese would need to set up such barriers?

Well, there is one legitimate concern.  Some people who favor the old rite do so because they don’t respect the validity of the Ordinary Form of the Mass.  This is a form of dissent against the Church that cannot be supported.  The new instruction addresses this by saying that groups such as these should not be accommodated.  The purpose of Summorum Pontificum was to promote reconciliation, not schism.

Do people (whether laity, priests, or the local bishop) worry that priests, especially younger ones, will just up and decide that they aren’t going to offer the Ordinary Form anymore?  This is highly unlikely.  The greater availability of the Extraordinary Form is for people who request it.  If there is not a group of people requesting it, it’s difficult to imagine priests eager to impose it on them.  Are people going to want the Extraordinary Form in such numbers that priests everywhere will be compelled to offer it?  I doubt this.  Too many people (out of ignorance, mostly) believe that the Extraordinary Form is a relic of the Dark Ages.

Do people have some problem with the Extraordinary Form? If so, what?  It had been the only form of the Roman Rite for centuries, and it is a very beautiful rite.  Whenever I have been, I see people who truly want to be at Mass and give worship to God.  So, I ask (please feel free to comment), what are we afraid of?

Alleluia!  He is risen!  I wish a most Blessed and Happy Easter to all of my family, friends, and anyone who is reading this.

As we were getting up this morning, my wife reminded me that this Easter marks twenty years since I became Catholic.  I was baptized on the Easter Vigil in 1991 as a sophomore in high school.  Somehow, this had slipped my mind.  Good thing I have a wife!  This is one blogging occasion that I don’t want to miss!

Truly, I am thankful that God has led me to the Catholic Church.  It has become so much of who I am that I cannot imagine being anything else.  Nothing compares to being able to be fed, sometimes daily, with none other than the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ, whose resurrection we celebrate this day.

This doesn’t mean that it was always easy, nor have I always felt the way that I do now.  When I was in college and pharmacy school in Mississippi, I was jealous of the Protestants.  They seemed to be happy in their faith.  At the time, I knew of few Catholics whose love for Jesus Christ was so visible.  Campus ministry wasn’t too helpful either.  I tried to accept what I was being taught, but something didn’t seem quite right.  It probably didn’t help that I was also somewhat anti-intellectual at the time.  Well, actually, that may have been the grace of God at the time as I might have fallen for who knows what.

However, something sustained me.   To explain this, I need to go back to the time before I became Catholic.  When I was about three or four, I have a vague memory of being in church and watching someone put something in my aunt’s mouth.  I remember thinking “I want one of those.”  This never left me, and I would later come to know just what it was that I wanted.  It was nothing less than the Holy Eucharist, God himself, and I believed in it!  While I was preparing to enter the Church, I longed to receive him.  During the last few weeks before the Easter Vigil, I was really counting down the days, tired of watching people receive what I so badly wanted but could not yet receive.  The thought that I would get to join the Church the night before Easter Sunday really appealed to me.  It was one less day I had to wait to receive him.

It was that total self-gift that God has given us in the Eucharist that sustained me during years of kind of “wandering in the dessert.”  I was always at Sunday Mass.  No matter what others had to offer, I knew that only in the Catholic Church was I receiving Jesus himself in the Eucharist.  Despite sensing that something wasn’t really right (though I couldn’t put my finger on it), I wasn’t leaving the Church.

Shortly after graduation from pharmacy school, I reached the stage where I learned that the things that didn’t seem right really weren’t right.  In many cases, this wasn’t really the fault of those involved.  However, now I was being fed with the authentic faith.  I came back to my practice of praying before the Blessed Sacrament that I had kind of fallen away from.  The result was a transformation that would still be a difficult road, but now I realized I had a purpose.  The things I discovered about the faith shortly after graduating from pharmacy school started me a path of falling in love with the Church all over again.  It became clear that there were many people who were near my age may never have had a chance to know what I had learned.   I figured out what had been bugging me.  I wanted to do something about it.

What would I do?  This would take years to fully develop.  The seeds were actually planted while I was in pharmacy school.  There were web sites being put out by people defending the teachings of the Church.  I had rarely seen people defend the teachings, and I must admit that I didn’t like them at first.  Still, I had my own web page and did some of the same stuff.  Later, when I was working and had money, I would buy some Catholic teachings on tape.  God was telling me that I could do this on a local level.  So, I began recording RCIA talks into my computer and making CDs (later MP3s).  A couple of years later, I joined an RCIA where I was allowed to give some talks, which I also recorded.  God was using my desire to teach, my media hobby, and my geekiness for his own purpose.

Things have continued to change.  I am learning more about the faith, and especially about liturgy.  Yana and I will have our first-born son this September.  I am going to be working in my own domestic church. Don’t get me wrong; I never want to stop working however I can in evangelization and the use of new media.  I don’t think God called me to it just to take it away completely, especially since I still have the desire.  However, I do know that my ultimate responsibility will be for the souls of those whom God has entrusted directly to Yana and me.  I thank God for all he has given me these past twenty years and pray for his continued help for me and my family.