Tag Archives: Catholic Church

Face of Christ

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Last week one of the St. Michael Society editors had the privilege to see the Shroud of Turin, arguably the Church’s most holy relic.  The shroud is controversial but I will leave that discussion to the scientists.  I believe it is the burial cloth of Jesus but if you want a good review of the science and history of the shroud I suggest these two books:

Stained with blood, sweat and tears as well as the remnants of an unknown “radiation” the shroud allows us to meditate about our faith as no other relic.  The face, clearly visible, calls to mind the humanity of Jesus.  The blood, dispersed in a pattern consistent with a man that has been scourged, crowned with a head dress of thorns and crucified with nails, is a lasting reminder of the suffering our Lord endured for our sake.  The illumination markings on the cloth, impossible to reproduce and unexplained to this day, are signs of His resurrection; the most important miracle of Jesus.

All four Gospels mention the shroud.  The garment left behind by Jesus as he broke open the gates to our salvation offers us a physical sign of the incarnation, passion and resurrection.   Meditating on the shroud allows us to reflect on the greatest events in the history of mankind.

After Pope Benedict XVI prayed before the shroud he spoke eloquently about Holy Saturday, “the day a great silence was upon the earth.  Great silence because the King sleeps.”

The most obscure mystery of faith is at the same time the most luminous sign of a hope without limits. Holy Saturday is the “no man’s land” between death and resurrection, but into this “no man’s land” has entered the One, the Only One, who has crossed it with the signs of his passion for man: “Passio Christi. Passio hominis.” And the Shroud speaks to us precisely of that moment; it witnesses precisely to the unique and unrepeatable interval in the history of humanity and the universe, in which God, in Jesus Christ, shared not only our dying, but also our remaining in death. The most radical solidarity. In that “time-beyond-time” Jesus Christ “descended into hell” (“agli inferi”) What does this expression mean? It means that God, made man, went to the point of entering into the extreme and absolute solitude of man, where no ray of love enters, where there is total abandonment without any word of comfort: “hell” (“gli inferi”). Jesus Christ, remaining in death, has gone beyond the gates of this ultimate solitude to lead us too to go beyond it with him.

A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Turin said more than 1.7 million people had made reservations to view the shroud up close and countless more without reservations will view the shroud from a distance in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.  It is unknown when the shroud will be on display again.

The same day that we visited the Shroud our group joined seminarians from Washington, DC in mass celebrated by Father Carter Griffin.  During his homily he encouraged us to allow our time with the cloth that is renowned for touching Jesus to renew our devotion to the Eucharist. 

The mystery represented by the shroud; the Incarnation, Passion and Resurrection, should be a source of great hope to us all.  God with love so complete enters history, shares in our pain and suffering, defeats death and invites us to join Him in everlasting life.  I pray that the Face on the Shroud inspires you to draw closer to Jesus Christ.

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The Catholic Church & the Ordination of Women

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The Roman Catholic Church has never ordained women to the priesthood, and never will. But that doesn’t stop some women from trying. Of course it doesn’t work and some of these women have broken off into their own sects or have joined other faiths that ordain women.

But this news story is reporting that Italy has ordained its first “woman priest.” In reality, the woman was “ordained” in an Anglican Church in Rome and belongs the Italian Old Catholic Church, which broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in the 19th century – so its not a Catholic Church in reality.

The woman, Mrs. Maria Vittoria Longhitano, said that she hoped to breakdown the prejudice in the Roman Catholic Church, who only believes in ordaining men to the priesthood.

“We are talking about an extremely hierarchical system; a male caste with a strong instinct of self-preservation,” she said. “And this is why there is this general attitude against ordaining women in the Church.”

Mrs. Longhitano gets it wrong on so many levels. The Catholic Church has never and will never ordain a woman as priest, for several reasons, none of which have to do with equality rights or any kind of attitude against women. Jesus himself treated women with the utmost respect and compassion, something that was unheard of in those days. His Church extends that treatment toward women today and recognizes the special place they play in the Church and in his ministry.

In 1976, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released Inter Insigniores, which laid out these reasons by women will not/cannot be ordained priests:

1)     Church tradition – The Catholic Church has never felt that priestly or episcopal ordination can be validly conferred on women.

2)     Jesus Christ himself never chose a woman to be an Apostle – Despite the radical and novel way Jesus treated women during his time, Jesus Christ did not call any woman to become part of the Twelve. If he acted in this way, it was not in order to conform to the customs of his time, for his attitude towards women was quite different from that of his milieu, and he deliberately and courageously broke with it.

3)     The Apostles never chose a woman to be part of the Apostolate – In spite of the so important role played by women on the day of the Resurrection, their collaboration was not extended by Saint Paul to the official and public proclamation of the message, since this proclamation belongs exclusively to the apostolic mission.

4)     Jesus’ actions were a “permanent normative” for the Church so the Church simply cannot ordain women – This practice of the Church therefore has a normative character: in the fact of conferring priestly ordination only on men, it is a question of an unbroken tradition throughout the history of the Church, universal in the East and in the West, and alert to repress abuses immediately. This norm, based on Christ’s example, has been and is still observed because it is considered to conform to God’s plan for his Church.

5)     A priest should naturally resemble Christ – whole sacramental economy is in fact based upon natural signs, on symbols imprinted upon the human psychology: “Sacramental signs”, says Saint Thomas, “represent what they signify by natural resemblance”.[19] The same natural resemblance is required for persons as for things: when Christ’s role in the Eucharist is to be expressed sacramentally, there would not be this “natural resemblance” which must exist between Christ and his minister if the role of Christ were not taken by a man: in such a case it would be difficult to see in the minister the image of Christ. For Christ himself was and remains a man.

6)     This is not a human or equality rights issue since no one has the right to be a priest - It is sometimes said and written in books and periodicals that some women feel that they have a vocation to the priesthood. Such an attraction, however noble and understandable, still does not suffice for a genuine vocation. In fact a vocation can not be reduced to a mere personal attraction, which can remain purely subjective. Since the priesthood is a particular ministry of which the Church has received the charge and the control, authentication by the Church is indispensable here and is a constitutive part of the vocation: Christ chose “those he wanted” (Mk:13).

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Giving Up Sex – At Least in New York

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A very interesting story in the New York Post this week talks about how women in New York are foregoing sex in favor of a celibate life because it is more rewarding than waking up all the time to men who don’t know their names.

 “Not having sex is like giving up junk food,” says [Katie Lee] Arnold. “Sex in New York for me had become like the 99-cent package of Ding Dongs on the corner.”

Celibacy is truly a rebellious act since it goes directly against the culture. The HBO hit show “Sex and the City” (SATC) about four single women and their various outside-of-marriage sexual escapades has become the standard to which women compare themselves. Which SATC girl are you quizzes? are plentiful online, asking women if they prefer “Wham-bam-thank you ma’am quickies?” to the “A little dirty talk and some lively role-playing?” What kind of message does this send to women and the men who pursue them? Not a good one.

Celibacy, and its closely related cousin, the virtue of Chastity, is not something our culture looks kindly upon, yet it’s what the Catholic Church has espoused since the beginning. A Church teaching that’s against the culture, you ask? Really? God truly knows what is good for us, even though it may be unpopular.

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church 2339: “Chastity includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery which is a training in human freedom. The alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy.”

The New York Post article doesn’t say whether these women have any religious tendencies but they are on the right track. But on a practical level, what to do with that sexual energy that’s not going where it used to go?

“I totally sublimate all of my sexual energy into making wedding dresses because I feel like I need something constructive to channel my energy into,” says Colette Komm, a 28-year-old couture designer who lives on the Upper West Side.

Another woman decided to channel her energy into writing. There are lots of things to channel that energy – train for a marathon, take up a new hobby, write letters to your grandparents, pray the Rosary, volunteer, take a bike ride…..

Celibacy until marriage is a great thing. You may be surprised how rewarding it is.

So go ahead – be a rebel.

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Welcome Hadley Arkes to the Catholic Church!

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Political philosopher, constitutional theorist, professor at Amherst College and contributor to First Things, Hadley Arkes was welcomed into the Catholic Church on Saturday in Washington, DC.

Mr. Arkes is widely known for his efforts to protect the unborn and was one of the chief architects of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act – the one that then-Senator Obama voted against 4 times.

Francis Beckwith, an author and professor of Philosophy at Baylor University, was at the Mass where Hadley was baptized, confirmed and received his First Communion. His account is here.

 Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, writes in his blog about Hadley’s conversion and entry into the Catholic Church:

 In remarks after the service yesterday, [Hadley] explained that his faith in Christ had come through the Church.  The Church’s moral witness, especially on the sanctity of human life and on marriage and sexual morality—a witness that has in our time made the Church a “sign of contradiction” to the most powerful and influential elements of the elite sector of contemporary western culture—persuaded him that the Church is, despite the failings of so many of its members and leaders, fundamentally “a truth-teaching institution.”  In teachings that many find to be impediments, Hadley found decisive evidence that the Church is, indeed, what she claims to be.

Hadley Arkes is Jewish and said this of his conversion:

Speaking of his Jewish identity, Hadley said that he neither would nor could ever leave the Jewish people.  His entry into the Church was for him, he stated, a fulfillment of his Jewish faith, and in no way a repudiation of it.  Invoking the testimony and authority of the late Cardinal Lustiger of Paris, he declared that he was and would always remain a Jew, though a Jew who, like the earliest Christians, had come to accept Jesus as ”the Christ, the Son of the living God.

He is right that the first Christians were Jewish and Catholics today retain quite a lot of the Jewish rites, rituals and traditions because of those early believers who were Jewish but were trying to incorporate their newfound faith in Christ into their Jewish faith.

So congratulations to Hadley Arkes and welcome home!

(h/t CatholicVoteAction)

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Defending the Pope

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The following are two articles that completely shred the accusations that have been unfarily leveled against the Pope in the wake of the latest sex abuse scandal.   The first comes from Jimmy Akin and goes to great lengths to use the actual relevant documents and canon law.

The second piece is a correction of the NY Times that comes from Cardinal William Lavada, Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  Cardinal Lavada gives a clear explanation of the errors that are being promoted in the media as fact and specifically exposes the anti-Catholic bias over at the NT Times.

Both are necessary reads for anyone who is sick of hearing the Pope get smeared in the media, but feels they don’t have the information to respond.

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Bart Stupak’s Betrayal

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For the Editors of St Michael Society, the shock over Bart Stupak’s betrayal this weekend has begun to turn into anger and grief. Its one thing to cave to pressures and intimidation but Stupak’s speech on the House floor sheds new light on the man. This was not a man who changed his vote because he was worn down by attacks. Bart Stupak’s speech on the House floor revealed a man, who in the end, decided to put the Democratic Party ahead the life of the unborn, the lives of women who will suffer from abortion, obedience to the bishops and sadly his faith. We need to pray for him and we must work to undo the damage he has done.

Here are the writings of respected voices on the topic:

Kathryn Jean Lopez:  

Unfortunately, if Bart Stupak truly wanted to ensure that human dignity was respected in this legislation, he wouldn’t have surrendered. But surrender he did — and then some, declaring the Democratic party the protectors of the unborn on the House floor last night.

The Democratic party is nothing of the sort — which is another reason no one who wanted to defeat the taxpayer funding of abortion in Obamacare should have expected a Stupak-led victory in this Washington environment. It’s the party that will never offend the abortion industry. It’s the party that owns partial-birth abortion.

William McGurn

By caving at the last hour, he discredited all who stood with him. (What does it say about Ohio’s Marcy Kaptur and Pennsylvania’s Chris Carney that they had already agreed to vote yes even before the fig leaf of the executive order had come through?) In addition to undermining an encouraging partnership with pro-lifers across the congressional aisle, Mr. Stupak signaled that, in the end, you can’t count on pro-life Democrats.

Susan B. Anthony List

Let me be clear: any representative, including Rep. Stupak, who votes for this healthcare bill can no longer call themselves ‘pro-life.’ The Susan B. Anthony List Candidate Fund will not endorse, or support in any capacity, any Member of Congress who votes for this bill in any future election. Now through Election Day 2010, these representatives will learn that votes have consequences. The SBA List Candidate Fund will work tirelessly to help defeat Members who support this legislation and make sure their constituents know exactly how they voted.

CWA

…in the 11th hour, he caved. He succumbed to the pressures of the most pro-abortion Administration in history just because they said they would write on a piece of paper that the federal government won’t fund abortion. It’s not even a law the President wrote. It’s not worth the Post-It note he wrote it on.

 Shame on you Bart Stupak. Shame on all the other Members who walked the plank with you. You all sold out and scorned millions of voters who trusted you and believed in you. 

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