“Like the early Franciscans, we too are ‘joyous penitents’ who seek to spread the Gospel by showing what a happy thing it is to live it.” — Mary Agnes, PCC
(The early Christians were a joyful lot despite the persecutions. We all need to recapture the joy that ought to characterize a life well-lived.)
My youngest sister sent me today an article from the Washington Post about the future of the Catholic Church in America and Europe. The author makes some interesting points. I am not sure I agree with all of them, but the piece on humility, and the part on how we have acculturated our children out to the faith has my attention.
Interesting she sent this today as we had a missionary priest from India in the parish preaching about the wave of vocations they have experienced in that country and the difficulty his diocese has in funding seminary education.
The Church is alive and well in various parts of the world.
I would welcome your comments on this.
To read the Washington Post article log on to this link.
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.
It is so refreshing to read about the Church’s mission and efforts throughout the world. We in the United States tend to limit our awareness of Church to our immediate parish or diocese, with only a certain superficial acknowledgment of the Church Universal.
The Vatican’s website for it’s missionary work is www.fides.org When you have a few minutes, log on and you will find a wealth of information about the Church’s work in many places of the world.
It has a wonderful photo archive too, spanning decades.
Our Holy Father, I understand, wants more information to be shared about the Church’s missionary activity, more information about the Church in places other than North America or Europe. This webservice does a fine job doing just that.
Apparently, more and more information is now available about the Church in countries such as China. Let us keep ourselves aware of the Church’s needs, its character, its expression in foreign lands, and let us always keep in prayer our Catholic brothers and sisters in those lands.
I noticed that the counter has registered 140,000 blog visits since its inception a little less than two years ago. I began this weblog back in October 2008, at the suggestion of my son. I am very pleased that all of you find your Catholic faith of enough importance to look at the postings here and occasionally leave a comment or two.
Comments are always welcomed, but know that I reserve the right to edit out any offensive vocabulary, or to refuse to approve for posting comments deemed inappropriate. So far, the comments I have refused to post have largely been spam. I really do encourage dialogue here, and look forward to your thoughts.
I stumbled on to the website www.maritalhealing.com entitled “Institute for Marital Healing, Strengthening Catholic Marriages and Families.”
It has some wonderful pages on various issues modern couples are experiencing, including good information on the whole problem of pornography and family life from a Catholic perspective.
I would like to direct your attention to an article published by the Culture of Life Foundation www.culture-of-life.org/content/view/639/1/ on some research about the social consequences of internet pornography. Worth your time reading.
In my psychotherapy practice, I am seeing more and more the destructiveness of pornography, especially in marriages but also in the individual. It becomes for some a real “addiction” that the individual is willing to maintain despite severe repercussions. We are only beginning to understand all of this, although we see its impact.
By the way, you might want to bookmark this website. Seems to have some good content.
We deacons would do well to heed Deacon Sean’s words in the quote for the day. Challenging words, aren’t they, especially when we are weary from whatever and the last thing we may want is another person presenting themselves.
Sometimes, perhaps, we get caught up with preoccupations about what our ministry should be. “What is your ministry, deacon?” we often hear.
In all reality, we deacons are to make our primary ministry our families and our careers. We are to lead to Jesus our coworkers in the office, the patients and clients who seek us out, the customers we serve, and the society in which we live. The person in front of us most often must be our wives. Realizing that our primary ministry is to our wives and our children brings to fruition Pope John Paul II’s words of admonition to deacons during the Year for Deacons back in 2000, when he told us that being a deacon is full time. All that we do, we do as deacons. All that we do, if we are married, we do as married men. Both are vocations that completely permeate our entire lives.
Marriage and Holy Orders are both sacraments of service for the sake of others. They are not given to us to make us holier than someone else. We are called to be married and to Orders so others may be brought to Christ and be saved.
Think about it: How many times has your wife led you to Jesus? More than we would like to admit at first glance. Are you a deacon to her? How have you become a better husband since receiving the grace of Holy Orders?
Serve her as you would serve the Church, brothers.
I posted this quote a year or so ago, but I offer it again, as it is from Deacon Sean Curtan from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, whom I was privileged to meet several years ago when I attended the profession of my friend Mike into the Secular Franciscan Order.
As an ordained deacon I’m called never to forget that the person in front of me is the most important person at the time and I’m called to lead them to Jesus Christ.” — Sean Curtan, SFO
I discovered today that in Malta there is a home for the disable named Id-Dar tal-Providenza. It was founded in 1965 by Mgsr. Mikiel Azzopardi who had a dream of offering a home with a warm and family-like atmosphere for persons who couldn’t remain with their own families. Currently, there are 100 residents between the ages of 9 and 80 years. A small community of sisters from the Sisters of Charity live there and render service.
As part of their efforts, they inaugurated a new villa named Villa Papa Luciani on September 8, 1987.
It is always good to find out that Papa Luciani continues to be remembered in so many ways.
Log on to: www.dartalprovidenza.org for more information.
I haven’t had time to post anything in three days. Life is busy. I was on the road yesterday and today, and have been enjoying and consumed by family gatherings and celebrations.
I and others had the good fortune of hearing an excellent homily this morning given by Deacon Kevin from the Diocese of Green Bay. His presentation style was great and his points were well-made with a simplicity that all could enjoy.
I couldn’t help but notice the contrast between Deacon Kevin’s appearance and liturgical manner and that of the presiding priest. I think Father was a bit preoccupied or something. His health was obviously not the best either despite his relative youth, so he had to lean against a kneeler as he prayed the Eucharistic Prayer.
I don’t know what it is really. Perhaps the life of a parish priest is so much more emotionally and physically draining than that of a deacon, but we married men and fathers know from first hand experience that living the life of a husband and dad can at times be quite demanding. We permanent deacons who still maintain a career in addition to our family responsibilities and our diaconal ministry in parishes or the wider community know that 14 – 18 hour days are not uncommon. What is it then, that seems to exhaust our priests?
In light of the subject matter of my last post (by the way, that story remains in the local headlines), I can’t help but wonder what we can do to better encourage and support our priests, and what they can do to maintain their physical, emotional and spiritual health.
Any thoughts from you, the readers of this weblog?
The local area is once again faced with headline news of a priest arrested for allegedly having child pornography on his computer. (The accused man is not from the Winona diocese.)
The pain that this evokes in all of us is difficult to describe. The confusion it creates in the body of the faithful is significant. Already today, someone has approached me with the question, “Why, Deacon Bob, do they do this? I don’t understand.”
I have no real answer but to say, “It is so difficult to understand.”
Some will attribute this kind of behavior to the over-sexualization of our culture. Some to celibacy. Some to psychological illness. Some to earlier trauma and the inability to tolerate and moderate uncomfortable affects. Some to power structures gone awry. Some to criminality. Some to secrecy and lack of transparency.
Perhaps it is all of that, or none of it. What I do know is that it exists and cannot be denied or minimized.
I am firmly convinced that it surfaces in the context of inner emptiness and a paucity of outer connections, healthy relationships and accountability. Because of this, I find myself whenever possible trying to convince others of the imperative nature of healthy communities within the church….. we clerics cannot minister in isolation….. we need be accountable for each other…… we need to be genuinely concerned for ourselves and our brother deacons, priests and bishops….. and we have to always be thinking and directing ourselves toward the common good of the flock of Christ.
Let us pray for forgiveness and wisdom.
A reader left an informative comment on the last post to which I would direct your attention.
A couple of additional sources of information are: www.ucanews.com and www.fides.org
I can find none of the ordaining bishops listed in the article on www.asianews.it as being bishops recognized by the Catholic Church on www.catholic-hierarchy.org
That would seem to call question to the veracity of the report that Fr. Anthony Xu Jiwei’s episcopal ordination was recognized by the Holy See.
Sorry for all this confusion!
Interestingly, the episcopal ordination of Anthony Xu Jiwei is not reported on the listing of events in the Church published by www.catholic-hierarchy.org which is very up-to-date on episcopal ordinations, deaths, etc. The Diocese of Taizh0u is listed as the Diocese of Taichow, and the See is noted to be vacant.
I will try to sort this out for us.
