“Our society permits everything, and forgives nothing.” –attributed to Francis Cardinal George by Fr. R. Simon
(Perhaps a little hyperbole, but the point is well made. For some reason, we don’t like to let go of perceived or received hurts and offenses against us, and we dislike the demands of love opting instead for the slavery of “freedom for indifference” in the social fabric of our lives.)
Let me try to succinctly summarize one reason why pornography and contraception are wrong and destructive to the human person and the human community. Both are rampant in our society, and the mainstream media and perhaps most of society today normalize and tacitly if not openly support them. But here is the problem:
A fundamental question that must be asked whenever the human body is visualized, displayed, shown in its nakedness and approached in that way is,
“Is the body offered as gift from a man to a woman or a woman to a man so as to form a communion of persons, or is it seen as an object for consumption, thus violating the body’s right to intimacy in its masculinity and femininity as a whole person?”
In both pornography and contraception we objectify the other and either make impossible a true communion of persons (in the case of pornography) or withhold from our partners an fundamental aspect of who we are as persons, i.e., co-creators of new life.
In the case of pornography, its objectivization of the body for the purposes of sexual gratification, raises the real possibility of devaluation of one’s spouse and desensitization of a man’s ability to give himself fully to his wife.
In the case of contraception, with its deliberate preclusion of fertility, the risk of objectivization of the body is high, self-acceptance declines, faith in each other erodes, and the ability to create a true communion of persons wanes.
The human body is made to be given as gift, male to female, female to male, so as to enter into the Trinitarian life of God himself. For man is to be united to woman to strengthen the bonds of love to the point in which new life is generated, and the communion of persons is complete.
Contraceptive sex inhibits this in a grave manner. Pornography renders it impossible, and gravely so.
Celibacy is a special vocation to live life without sexual intercourse and to integrate one’s sexuality completely into one’s life — into all that one does and says.
All of us are called to live an integrated life, expressing our masculinity or femininity in who we are as human persons, but so often we make the error of thinking that only priests and bishops, monks and nuns are called to celibacy. It is thought of as a “religious vocation.”
We make another error, I think, when we fail to see that all of us are called to integrate our sexuality into all we do as men or women, as masculine or feminine, when we compartmentalize our sexuality from our daily lives.
Not only are priests, bishops and religious called to celibacy but so too are single men and women. Their’s is a special vocation.
All our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters are called by God to celibacy and a healthy integration of their sexuality into their lives and relationships. God gives them a special vocation, and special graces. Do we treat them as people in that way? Do we recognize their struggle to express their masculinity or femininity in a healthy celibate way, a special struggle, a difficult one, and for so many a silent one?
As anyone knows who tries to live a chaste life — celibate or married — it is not easy. Our sexuality touches our core. To integrate it completely into who we are is a journey of faith and a journey into our minds, hearts and bodies.
Let us pray for all our brothers and sisters called to the celibate state of life. Let us pray for all of us married folk who together with them are called to holiness of life which includes a healthy regard for our sexuality and its integration into our whole lives.
One of the things that really bothers me in the field of contemporary healthcare has to do with Advanced Directives (AD) and their effect on the patient-professional relationship.
At face value, one might say, ADs are an expression of the desires of a patient regarding future healthcare interventions if and when the patient is unable to express those desires due to illness, injury or the natural process of death. They also give family members a clearer indication of a family member’s preferences or desires should the patient not be able to communicate them clearly in the moment.
The problem I have with them are these:
While patient consent to any medical procedure is sacrosanct, issuing future direction for feared situations may not be. Of great concern is the a good understanding of what motivates and develops patient consent. Similarly, patient directives as provided by ADs, are of great importance, but also of major significance is the process and motivation leading to those directives.
Secondly, medical personnel are not mere providers of services in a contractual sense. I get so frustrated with the current language prevalent in today’s medical world. Patients have become “customers” and we doctors, nurses, social workers and others are “providers of service.” The business mentality has infiltrated American medicine. Medical personnel have become individuals who provide a service that is “purchased” by our “customers.” This is a the great de-professionalization of healthcare. We no longer are as free as we once were, (and we are losing more and more of what freedom remains), to act in the best interests of our patients.
This sets up real moral and ethical problems. My patient may want me to perform or withhold certain interventions that clearly are not in the best interest of his or her health and life. My patient may believe they are paying for my assistance, and demand I comply with their wishes even though to do so would violate basic ethical or professional standards of care. No professional should be obligated to comply with such requests. To do so renders the medical professional a technician or a craftsperson, but not a person of profession.
The patient-professional relationship is a covenanted relationship, not a simple contractual one. It is based on a deep conviction that one is obligated to treat the person with respect and to act based on the spiritual/ethical bases for engagement of the individual.
I strongly suspect that if more doctors, nurses, social workers and others practiced their professions from covenanted commitments to their patients, these concerns would evaporate.
The problem in healthcare does not lie with the patients, as much as we would like to blame them. The problem is not that there are too many sick people that we can’t afford to treat. The problem is not that the elderly are consuming too many of our healthcare dollars in the end stages of life.
The problem is that we healthcare professionals have more and more abandoned our sacred covenant with the sick. We are caving into the power of the dollar. Not only are the sick endangered, but we give away our professionalism.
We have more than enough money to do this right. Just stop fighting a war or two.
But nowadays, with the paucity of good liberal arts education that includes philosophy and theology, and with the erosion of the experience of covenant in other areas of life, words like covenant are treated with scorn.
God help us!
Deacon Gordon sent me a quote that I would like highlight. Please read the first comment on yesterday’s “Quote of the Day”, or read on below.
“Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or lofty ideas, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” (Deacon Gordon attributes this quote to Benedict XVI in his book on Jesus, so I assume the book is entitled, Jesus of Nazareth.)
This so nicely sums up what I was trying to say a few posts ago about “once meeting Jesus, I dare not turn my back on him.” An encounter with Jesus and his resurrection is decisive. It completely reorients one’s life.
Now I strongly suspect Pope Benedict does not agree with much of what Fr. Josef Fuchs S.J. taught in his moral theology, but Benedict’s thoughts, quoted above, do express one thing Fuchs was so clear about: That the encounter with God in baptism is so radically transformative that it orients one to a new “horizon”.
Being Christian is fundamentally about being in relationship with Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit and oriented toward the Father who calls us to himself. All of this happens in the context of the Church, his body, of which we all share.
Thanks, Gordon!
With the passage of the health care reform bill, many are left with a great deal of ambivalence. Yes, there are many others of sharp opinion both pro and con, but many of us simply really don’t know what the details are and how they will play out in the short and long run.
Catholic social teaching speaks of the common good. We all would do well to pick up a copy of the Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching and become familiar with this term and its meaning.
I want to share an excerpt from an email I received on March 23, 2010, from Marie T. Hilliard, Ph.D., JCL, RN who is the Director of Bioethics and Public Policy at the National Catholic Bioethics Center. Thank you, Dr. Hilliard for this message.
“When the common good takes back seat to political and corporate interests, all, especially the vulnerable, are at risk. As the largest provider of non-governmental, non-profit health care in this country, the Catholic Church, and those who work as Catholic agencies and organizations, have a special obligation to vulnerable populations, such as the unborn, those with disabilities, and those at life’s end. These populations cannot be compromised in an effort to secure “the greater good.” This is utilitarianism, seeking the greatest good for the greatest number, and never equates to the common good.
“It is undeniable that the enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes public funding of programs that provide abortion on demand…. Furthermore, there is no restriction on converage of assisted suicide costs. President Obama’s executive order cannot override federal law…… There is no evidence of conscience protections for individuals or employers…. There is limited evidence of conscience protections for providers, and the legislation does not provide for protection against coercion of health care providers and employers related to contraceptives or abortifacients….
“One is left to ask, does this health care legislation truly advance the common good? More importantly, when members of a divided house make compromises with principle, has the common good been advanced? The answer is contained in Caritas in Veritate, within which all of the hallmarks of a sound health care reform policy are contained: integral human development; fundamental rights to life and religious freedom; charity in truth; humanistic synthesis; the common good; earth as a gift to humanity to use and protect; civilizing the economy; subsidiarity; a person-based and community oriented culture; people-centered development programs; cooperation on the human family; recognition that every migrant is a human person; and bioethics and human responsibility in human technology. As the encyclical states, in charity and truth, “when a society moves towards the denial or suppression of life, it ends up no longer finding the necessary motivation and energy to strive for man’s true good.” (N.28)
(Caritas in Veritate is Pope Benedict’s recent encyclical)
I want to include in today’s posting section 7 of the Pope’s letter to the Church of Ireland in which he addressed priests and religious who are or have been perpetrators of abuse.
“You betrayed the trust that was placed in you by innocent young people and their parents, and you must answer for it before Almighty God and before properly constituted tribunals. You have forfeited the esteem of the people of Ireland and brought shame and dishonour upon you confreres. Those of you who are priests violated the sanctity of the sacrament of Holy Orders in which Christ makes himself present in us and in our actions. Together with the immense harm done to victims, great damage has been done to the Church and to the public perception of the priesthood and religious life.
“I urge you to examine your conscience, take responsibility for the sins you have committed, and humbly express your sorrow. Sincere repentance opens the door to God’s forgiveness and the grace of true amendment. By offering prayers and penances for those you have wronged, you should seek to atone personally for your actions. Christ’s redeeming sacrifice has the power to forgive even the gravest of sins, and to bring forth good from even the most terrible evil. At the same time, God’s justice summons us to give an account of our actions and to conceal nothing. Openly acknowledging your guilt, submit yourselves the demands of justice, but do not despair of God’s mercy.”
Amen, I say.
The Holy Father today release a pastoral letter to the people of God in Ireland. His words in this letter can well be applied to all countries where the sexual abuse by clergy and religious has occurred. I want to share with you just one section of this letter, the most poignant and heart felt expression of sorrow I have heard from the Pope on this tragedy.
“To the victims of abuse and their families: You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured. Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated. Many of you found that, when you were couragious enough to speak of what happened to you, no one would listen. Those of you who were abused in residential institutions must have felt that there was no escape from your sufferings. It is understandable that you find it hard to forgive or be reconciled with the Church. In her name, I openly express the shame and remorse that we all feel. At the same time, I ask you not to lose hope. It is in the communion of the Church that we encounter the person of Jesus Christ, who was himself a victim of injustice and sin. Like you, he still bears the wounds of his own unjust suffering. He understands the depths of your pain and its enduring effect on your lives and your relationships, including your relationship with the Church. I know some of you find it difficult event to enter the doors of a church after all that has occurred. Yet Christ’s own wounds, transformed by his redemptive suffering, are the very means by which the power of evil is broken and we are reborn to life and hope. I believe deeply in the healing power of his self-sacrificing love – even in the darkest and most hopeless situations – to bring liberation and the promise of a new beginning.
“Speaking to you as a pastor concerned for the good of all God’s children, I humbly ask you to consider what I have said. I pray that, by drawing nearer to Christ and by participating in the life of the Church – a Church purified by penance and renewed in pastoral charity – you will come to rediscover Christ’s infinite love for each of you. I am confident that in this way you will be able to find reconciliation, deep inner healing and peace.”
There are other sections this letter address to parents, priests, and others — all worth your time to read.
Log on to www.vatican.va click on “English” and then click on the link to the Pastoral Letter to Ireland. The button is prominently displayed on the upper center of the page.
As I am sure you are aware, on Christmas Eve at the beginning of Midnight Mass at St. Peter’s, Susanna Maiolo jumped the barricades separating the faithful from the Holy Father, grabbed his vestments and took him to the floor amid a rush of security personnel and onlookers. The pope was unhurt and continued with the Mass.
Ms. Maiolo had attempted to do the same thing last year, but was prevented from doing so. Somehow she got through security this year despite her past attempt. It is reported she has a history of unspecified mental illness and was involuntarily confined to a psychiatric hospital for treatment following the assault on the pope. She has been released in recent days and this morning it is being reported by the Italian news agencies that the pope has met with her privately following his general audience. She expressed her sorrow and the pope forgave her.
If only all of us, especially those of us who have been victims of crimes, could approach injustices done in the way both Susanna and the pope have done: asking forgiveness and being willing to forgive.
God bless both of them!
Here is a good definition of vice and virtue, as described by Saint Basil the Great. My translation to English:
“In fact, the definition of vice is this: to use in an evil manner, or in a manner alien from the precepts of the Lord those abilities given to us to do good. Contrarily, the definition of virtue, that God wants from us, is: the upright use of these same capabilities, which derives from a good conscience according to the teaching of the Lord.” (St. Basil the Great, Regole piu ampie, Risp. 2, 1: PG 31)
Goes back to what we all were taught in catechism. Everything God created was good, and an expression of his love for us. All of creation, then, give back to God what has been given to us, to his greater glory and praise. His gifts are for doing good which is virtue on a natural level, holiness on a supernatural level.
“Congress continues to debate health care reform. While the House passed a health care bill that prevents the federal government from funding elective abortions, and includes provisions making health care affordable and accessible for all, the Senate rejected this and passed a bill that requires federal funds to help subsidize and promote health plans that cover elective abortions, while forcing purchasers to pay directly for other people’s abortions. These two bills must now be combined into one bill that both the House and Senate will vote on in final form. The U.S. bishops continue to strongly oppose abortion funding, while calling for critical improvements in conscience protection, affordability for the poor and vulnerable, and access to health care for immigrants…. the U.S. Bishops Conference [is] asking you to please contact your congressional representatives immediately and urge them to address the moral issues… Health care reform should be about saving lives, not destroying them.” — United States Council of Catholic Bishops
People have been asking me, “Do you support health care reform?” My answer is, “Yes, I support reform of our current health care system.” Until recently, when someone went further and asked me, “Do you support the health care reform bills in Congress?”, my answer was, “I do not know. I don’t think anyone really understands the bills as they are thousands of pages in length.”
Unfortunately, given what I am hearing from sources I believe are credible, I cannot support the Senate version of the bill for sure. To deny certain groups of people living in our country access to affordable health care, to put professionals in situations where for all intents and purposes they will be pressured to violate their consciences, and to provide funding for aborting our children, is unconscionable. I cannot support that.
I find it more and more difficult the older I get and in the context of contemporary society to find it EVER permissible to take another human being’s life. Especially under the pretext of “health care”. I understand the longstanding teaching that one has the right to defend one’s own life and when faced with an aggressor who in all likelihood will take your life you can respond in proportion to defend yourself. I cannot say I wouldn’t exercise this right if in such a situation. But a right does not demand its use.
It may be trite or cliché, but “What would Jesus do?” How would Jesus speak about these current issues?
How do you?
I would like to alert you to a soon to be released book entitled, Affirming Love, Avoiding AIDS – What Africa Can Teach the West, authored by Matthew Hanley and Jokin de Irala. I believe this book is being published by the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia.
In December 8, 2008, I posted on AIDS prevention and received a welcomed comment from Dr. Edward J. Furton, the editor for Ethics and Medics, a publication of the National Center Bioethics Center, in which he apprised me of this upcoming book.
We as a nation have spent millions of dollars on HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention in Africa. A lion’s share of the effort has been in providing condoms and promoting “safe sex.” This new book is reported to be filled with epidemiological evidence that such an approach doesn’t work well. The most successful programs in Africa in reducing the incidence of AIDS have been in those African countries which have stressed the importance of limiting sexual contacts before marriage and remaining faithful to one’s spouse.
I intend to read this book as soon as I am able to secure a copy. I would encourage all of you to do the same.
To do so, contact the National Catholic Bioethics Center at: 6399 Drexel Road, Philadelphia, PA 19151 or telephone them at: 215-877-2660. Cost is $17.95, plus shipping.
By the way, thanks to all at the National Catholic Bioethics Center for all the great work they are doing!
In the Cathedral of Agrigento, Italy, the manger scene this year will be without the three wise men. Instead, there is a sign that reads, “Please be advised that this year the baby Jesus will be without gifts. The Magi will not arrive because they were turned back at our borders with the other immigrants.”
The archdiocese of Agrigento is making a statement about the controversy in Italy over illegal immigration.
The creche without the Magi is an idea of the director of Caritas, Valerio Landri, with the awareness and concurrence apparently of the Archbishop Francesco Montenegro who is the Italian national president of Caritas. They are hoping it give people pause to think about the whole issue of immigration. The article in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, states (my translation): “… today the baby Jesus, if he wished to come to us, probably would be turned back at our borders. We do not intend to create a political controversy, and we are aware that it is necessary to manage our borders, but we are convinced that it is necessary to understand that these people are fleeing their own countries and thus need acceptance.”
You can read it in its entirety (sorry, in italian only) at: www.palermo.repubblica.it/dettaglio/agrigento-il-presepe-senza-i-magi-li-hanno-bloccati-alla-frontiera/1820984
The whole issue of immigration is not just an American phenomenon. It is affecting Europe too. It is not going to go away. How we justly embrace these people will shape our society for generations.
They are are brothers and sisters in Christ.
I read today that Fr. Carl Kabat, OMI was arrested on August 6 in Weld County, Colorado after having trespassed onto a US missile site. He was later convicted and sentenced to time served.
Fr. Kabat is 76 years old. He has spent over fifteen years in jail for numerous faith witnesses challenging U.S. nuclear weapons policy. His latest arrest came after he, dressed in his usual clown suit, cut a hole in a fence surrounding a missile silo and left a message on the fence.
The prosecuting attorney is said to have asked him, “Are you above the law?”
Fr. Kabat replied, “All wrong law, yes. God’s law is above all these man-made things.”
Can’t argue Father’s logic. We must oppose any man-made law that is in contradiction of God’s divine law or natural law. One could argue with the manner in which Fr. Kabat goes about it, I suppose.
But then, sometimes our arguments are simply ways of excusing our own inaction.
For more information, log on to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate website: www.omiusajpic.org
As you may have already read, a large contingent of Catholic bishops (including Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York), evangelical leaders, Orthodox bishops and other religious leaders have signed and promulgated The Manhattan Declaration. It speaks to the sanctity of human life, the sanctity of marriage as a union of one man and one woman, and the rights of conscience and religious liberty.
The unfortunate effects of poorly formed consciences have led to an upswing of attacks on human life and a truly free human society, a freedom that can come only with a recognition of the common good and by orienting all we do toward that which is knowably good and in accord with objective truths.
So much of our world today bristles at the Church because it dares to proclaim that there are objective truths that are knowable and binding on all of humankind, not just Catholics. Truths that are not the creation of caprice or whim or personal construction, but known by us through full use of our reason and amplified by Divine Revelation.
You can read the Declaration at: http://manhattandeclaration.org
Thanks to parishioner Michelle for renewing my attention to this declaration.
I would ask that all of us remember in our prayers John Allen Muhammed, who was executed last night in Virginia.
I do not support the death penalty nor do I support abortion or euthanasia. God alone is the author of life and permits in his own time the death of any of us.
Violence doesn’t solve much, if anything. Taking the life of a convicted killer is unneeded when other effective means of rendering punishment and justice exist.
Let us pray also for the victims of violent crime in our society, especially for the victims of Mr. Muhammed.
The Catholic New Service is running a story about Margaret Mary McCullough of Lubbock, Texas who recently forgave the killer of her husband.
She has been a vibrant witness of the primacy of mercy and forgiveness in our faith. Violence ultimately fails in its efforts to address injustice. Hatred only kills, never heals.
Read about Margaret Mary McCullough at this link:
Click on the story regarding Lubbock bishop.
Some more wonderful quotes from the Pope’s Encyclical:
“Man is not a lost atom in a random universe: he is God’s creature, whom God chose to endow with an immortal soul and whom he has always loved.” (29)
“Knowledge is never purely the work of the intellect…. if it aspires to wisdom capable of directing man in the light of his first beginnings and his final ends, it must be ’seasoned’ with the ’salt’ of charity.” (30)
“Deeds without knowledge are blind, and knowledge without love is sterile.” (30)
“Intelligence and love are not in separate compartments: love is rich in intelligence and intelligence is full of love.” (30)
“Openness to life is at the center of true development. When a society moves towards the denial or suppression of life, it ends up no longer finding the necessary motivation and energy to strive for man’s true good. If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of a new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away.” — Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 28
Here Benedict again makes the point of the intrinsic connection between life ethics and social ethics. He, in effect, is saying there is a real connection between Humanae Vitae and Populorum Progressio. He is calling for a “new humanistic synthesis” (Caritas in Veritatis, 21) in our understanding and implementation of political, social, and economic development based on the foundation of respect for and openess to human life.
As he quotes from Gaudium et Spes from Vatican II: “..the primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man, the human person in his or her integrity: ‘Man is the source, the focus and the aim of all economic and social life’ [Gudium et Spes, 63]” (Caritas in Veritate, 25)
An amazing insight into the thinking of Pope Paul VI and his two encyclicals. It puts Humanae Vitae into a whole new light when it is read in the light of human development.
“Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word ‘love’ is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite….
“Charity is love received and given. It is grace (charis).” —Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 3, 5