Haven't ever written that before. But I guess since the good news is just a negation of previously reported bad news, we are back at the status quo.
Jack Smith at "The Catholic Key," who brought the issue to light, reports that USF will drop abortion coverage, which was in their mandated health plan for students. "Our Sunday Visitor" also reports the news.
God Bless Jack for his work on this!
Friday, December 12, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
"Catholic" Mayor publicly attacks Catholic Faith
Ignatius Insight has an article about Mayor Gavin Newsom's remarks at the recent 11th Annual San Francisco Interfaith Prayer breakfast.
According to Bay Area Reporter, a recent Interfaith Thanksgiving Prayer Breakfast in San Francisco got a little tense when Mayor Gavin Newsom decided to turn the event into his personal bully pulpit:
From the Bay Area Reporter story that Ignatius Insight is citing:
"Comments made by Mayor Gavin Newsom about Prop 8 during his remarks at the 11th annual Mayor's Interfaith Thanksgiving Prayer Breakfast last month drew a standing ovation from '75 percent to 80 percent' of those in the room but kept Archbishop George Niederauer and Mormon representatives firmly in their seats. (God bless 'em!)
Prop 8, which passed five weeks ago, eliminated same-sex marriage in California. Newsom spoke 'about his personal struggles and specifically about the Catholic Church and the Mormon Church,' said openly gay Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who was at the breakfast and described the mayor's remarks as 'emotional and eloquent.'"
(To see what kind of "leadership" Supervisor Dufty provides, check out his interview [caution: obscenity alert!] with the owner of "Kink.com" a sado-masochistic pornography producer here in San Francisco. For those who live in other places it is probably difficult to believe that people like Supervisor Dufty actually hold power in a major American city.)
"Maurice Healy, spokesman for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, described Newsom's 'unprepared remarks' as 'an intemperate attack on those religions and people of faith who supported Proposition 8.'"
God bless His Excellency for going in to the lion's den!
Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney
According to Bay Area Reporter, a recent Interfaith Thanksgiving Prayer Breakfast in San Francisco got a little tense when Mayor Gavin Newsom decided to turn the event into his personal bully pulpit:
From the Bay Area Reporter story that Ignatius Insight is citing:
"Comments made by Mayor Gavin Newsom about Prop 8 during his remarks at the 11th annual Mayor's Interfaith Thanksgiving Prayer Breakfast last month drew a standing ovation from '75 percent to 80 percent' of those in the room but kept Archbishop George Niederauer and Mormon representatives firmly in their seats. (God bless 'em!)
Prop 8, which passed five weeks ago, eliminated same-sex marriage in California. Newsom spoke 'about his personal struggles and specifically about the Catholic Church and the Mormon Church,' said openly gay Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who was at the breakfast and described the mayor's remarks as 'emotional and eloquent.'"
(To see what kind of "leadership" Supervisor Dufty provides, check out his interview [caution: obscenity alert!] with the owner of "Kink.com" a sado-masochistic pornography producer here in San Francisco. For those who live in other places it is probably difficult to believe that people like Supervisor Dufty actually hold power in a major American city.)
"Maurice Healy, spokesman for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, described Newsom's 'unprepared remarks' as 'an intemperate attack on those religions and people of faith who supported Proposition 8.'"
God bless His Excellency for going in to the lion's den!
Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
USF Update: Abortion
From The Catholic Key comes this chilling but unfortunately unsurprising news on the (Jesuit) University of San Francisco. USF will force students to sign on to a medical plan that covers abortion:
"The only way students may opt-out of USF's plan is to prove 'that they have coverage comparable (equal or better) to the University-sponsored plan'. Otherwise, 'Students automatically will be enrolled in, and have their accounts billed for, the University-sponsored Student Health Insurance Plan.' (Emphasis added)
According to the plan brochure:
'The University of San Francisco Student Health Insurance Plan has been developed especially for eligible University of San Francisco students and their eligible dependents. The Plan provides coverage for illnesses and Injuries that occur on and off campus, and includes special cost-saving features to keep coverage as affordable as possible. University of San Francisco is pleased to offer the Plan, as described in this Brochure, to students and their eligible dependents.'
The specially developed plan, which is available as a pdf at both USF's and Aetna's website includes the following coverage under the heading of 'Maternity Expenses':
'Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy - Covered Medical Expenses are payable as follows:Preferred Care: 90% of the Negotiated Charge.Non-Preferred Care: 70% of the Reasonable Charge."Employers are not required to provide abortion coverage in California. Other Catholic institutions in San Francisco which offer health insurance, including the Archdiocese of San Francisco, do not provide abortion coverage.'
Unless USF's website is grossly incorrect, it would seem that the institution 'Educating Minds and Hearts to Change the World' forces those minds and hearts to fund 'an unspeakable crime'. (Gaudium et Spes)"
We call this "unsurprising" because we have been following USF for a while.
• On May 23, 2007 USF's Lane Center hosted the "Religion and Sexuality: What's the Connection" seminar. The seminar featured as guest speakers the Rev. Ignacio Castuera, President of the Clergy Network of Planned Parenthood and the Rev. Lisa Sargeant, Chaplain of Planned Parenthood Golden Gate.
Lest anyone think that the seminar was a disinterested pursuit of truth, let's examine a portion of the agenda:
1:45 – 2:30 Small Groups
• What Can Be Done to Change Policy Makers’ Understanding of Sexuality and Religion?
• What Can Be Done to Change Public Understanding of Sexuality and Religion?• How Can Scholars, Progressive Clergy, and Sexual and Reproductive Health Organizations Work Better Together?
• Recommendations for Action.
This is obviously an activists' planning session. The seminar was sponsored by the "Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing." To see where they stand on "Abortion as a Moral Decision" go here.
And speaking of "Abortion as a Moral Decision," on October 30, USF's Lane Center for Catholic Studies and Social Thought hosted a lady named Sylvia Marcos. As we wrote at the time:
Ms. Marcos also happens to be one of the signatories to this document:
"A Faith-Filled Commitment to Development Includes a Commitment to Women’s Rights and Reproductive Health--Religious Reflections on the Millennium Development Goals--Prepared for the 2005 World Summit14-16 September 2005"
The document includes the following paragraph:
"Women must have access to comprehensive reproductive health services and information to prevent unplanned and high-risk pregnancies, which often lead women to abortion, even where abortion is unsafe and illegal. Unsafe abortion is a public health concern and where abortion is illegal governments and health systems should work together to change their country’s abortion laws and make safe abortion legal and accessible to those women who voluntarily choose to have one." (emphasis added).
The signatories of this document are arguing, on the basis of religion, that a woman has the "right" to kill her child.
For a comprehensive chronology of similar events at USF, go here.
"The only way students may opt-out of USF's plan is to prove 'that they have coverage comparable (equal or better) to the University-sponsored plan'. Otherwise, 'Students automatically will be enrolled in, and have their accounts billed for, the University-sponsored Student Health Insurance Plan.' (Emphasis added)
According to the plan brochure:
'The University of San Francisco Student Health Insurance Plan has been developed especially for eligible University of San Francisco students and their eligible dependents. The Plan provides coverage for illnesses and Injuries that occur on and off campus, and includes special cost-saving features to keep coverage as affordable as possible. University of San Francisco is pleased to offer the Plan, as described in this Brochure, to students and their eligible dependents.'
The specially developed plan, which is available as a pdf at both USF's and Aetna's website includes the following coverage under the heading of 'Maternity Expenses':
'Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy - Covered Medical Expenses are payable as follows:Preferred Care: 90% of the Negotiated Charge.Non-Preferred Care: 70% of the Reasonable Charge."Employers are not required to provide abortion coverage in California. Other Catholic institutions in San Francisco which offer health insurance, including the Archdiocese of San Francisco, do not provide abortion coverage.'
Unless USF's website is grossly incorrect, it would seem that the institution 'Educating Minds and Hearts to Change the World' forces those minds and hearts to fund 'an unspeakable crime'. (Gaudium et Spes)"
We call this "unsurprising" because we have been following USF for a while.
• On May 23, 2007 USF's Lane Center hosted the "Religion and Sexuality: What's the Connection" seminar. The seminar featured as guest speakers the Rev. Ignacio Castuera, President of the Clergy Network of Planned Parenthood and the Rev. Lisa Sargeant, Chaplain of Planned Parenthood Golden Gate.
Lest anyone think that the seminar was a disinterested pursuit of truth, let's examine a portion of the agenda:
1:45 – 2:30 Small Groups
• What Can Be Done to Change Policy Makers’ Understanding of Sexuality and Religion?
• What Can Be Done to Change Public Understanding of Sexuality and Religion?• How Can Scholars, Progressive Clergy, and Sexual and Reproductive Health Organizations Work Better Together?
• Recommendations for Action.
This is obviously an activists' planning session. The seminar was sponsored by the "Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing." To see where they stand on "Abortion as a Moral Decision" go here.
And speaking of "Abortion as a Moral Decision," on October 30, USF's Lane Center for Catholic Studies and Social Thought hosted a lady named Sylvia Marcos. As we wrote at the time:
Ms. Marcos also happens to be one of the signatories to this document:
"A Faith-Filled Commitment to Development Includes a Commitment to Women’s Rights and Reproductive Health--Religious Reflections on the Millennium Development Goals--Prepared for the 2005 World Summit14-16 September 2005"
The document includes the following paragraph:
"Women must have access to comprehensive reproductive health services and information to prevent unplanned and high-risk pregnancies, which often lead women to abortion, even where abortion is unsafe and illegal. Unsafe abortion is a public health concern and where abortion is illegal governments and health systems should work together to change their country’s abortion laws and make safe abortion legal and accessible to those women who voluntarily choose to have one." (emphasis added).
The signatories of this document are arguing, on the basis of religion, that a woman has the "right" to kill her child.
For a comprehensive chronology of similar events at USF, go here.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
IT'S OK TO SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS!
This is a Christmas Tree
This is a Christmas Tree
This is a Christmas Tree
This, too!
This is a Christmas Tree
This is a Christmas Tree
And these are Christmas Trees Also
IT'S OK TO SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS!
These are NOT Holiday Trees
They are not Hanukkah bushes
These are NOT Holiday Trees
They are not Hanukkah bushes
They are not Allah plants
They are Christmas trees. Say it...
They are Christmas trees. Say it...
CHRISTmas , CHRISTmas , CHRISTmasYes CHRISTmas - not Holiday
We are not celebrating the birth of a Holiday!
We are
Celebrating the Birth of
Jesus Christ!
So I would like to say to each and everyone of you
Have a Very Merry CHRISTMAS
and may GOD BLESS each and every one of you!
We are not celebrating the birth of a Holiday!
We are
Celebrating the Birth of
Jesus Christ!
So I would like to say to each and everyone of you
Have a Very Merry CHRISTMAS
and may GOD BLESS each and every one of you!
More Proof The Inmates Are Running The Asylum
Here's the first example Doug Patton cites in an article written for Copusa:
At the state capitol in Olympia, Washington, Gov. Christine Gregoire (a Democrat, of course), has approved the placement of an atheist sign for public display next to a nativity scene. The sign reads: "At this season of THE WINTER SOLSTICE, may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds. Placed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation on behalf of its Washington State Members."
I pray that reason prevail and Gov. Gregoire's constituency accept the God who made them before it's too late! Who wants to take a chnace on hell?
At the state capitol in Olympia, Washington, Gov. Christine Gregoire (a Democrat, of course), has approved the placement of an atheist sign for public display next to a nativity scene. The sign reads: "At this season of THE WINTER SOLSTICE, may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds. Placed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation on behalf of its Washington State Members."
I pray that reason prevail and Gov. Gregoire's constituency accept the God who made them before it's too late! Who wants to take a chnace on hell?
Without a Gay?
California Catholic Daily reports the following announcement:A nationwide movement of homosexuals is urging “gays, lesbians, and straight allies” to skip work tomorrow, Wednesday, Dec. 10, in protest of bans on same-sex marriage adopted by voters in California, Arizona and Florida last month.
Not all gays agree and it does seem tome to be an exercise in futility. I cannot understand how this will help the gay movement and change the will of the people to keep marriage between a man and a woman.
Steve Adams, president of the group Merchants of Upper Market and Castro, told the newspaper that, “instead of staying away, people should be encouraged to come to the Castro to shop.”
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Stem-Cells to Treat Arthritis in Your Pet
Yep, it's true.
While the majority of the public is still being swindled by the claims of the Embryonic Stem Cell Research advocates, which have produced zero results, there have been over 100 treatments/cures effected by adult stem-cells.
It's not even humans being treated anymore--adult stem cells are being used to cure animals.
From Don Margolis:
"In this blog, we have well documented the effects that Adult Stem Cells (or Repair Stem Cells as I call them) have on dogs. We have seen plenty of stories of stem cell therapy helping dogs. Now we have yet another dog helped by using his own Repair Stem Cells.
KC, a golden retriever was getting up in age- 11 years old. He was beginning to slow down. In his owner, Krista Moyes words, “He was having a hard time getting up in the morning and really wasn’t walking at all on his back leg.”
Krista took KC to the vet who said surgery wasn’t an option, it was typical for a dog KC’s age to start slowing down with arthritis and decreased range of motion in the legs- for KC it was the right leg.
The Vet, Dr. Lillian Rizzo suggested a new stem cell procedure. This stem cell therapy was developed by Vet-Stem, a stem cell company for horses, dogs, and cats that uses the animal’s own stem cells.
Dr. Rizzo then removed some fat tissue from KC, and sent it off to Vet-Stem where they isolate stem cells from the fat tissue and then send it back already packed in syringes and ready to go.
Then Dr. Rizzo simply injected the stem cells into the site of the injury and let the Repair Stem Cells do what they do best– REPAIR
I’ll let Dr. Rizzo have her say:
She explains, “I concentrate the stem cells at the site of injury and then the stem cells have mediated inflammation and repair. The injury to the joint cartilage and that’s really the only thing that can do that. The medications can help with pain and support to the joint cartilage but the stem cells actually rebuild the damaged joint cartilage.”
Dr. Rizzo says they are several benefits to this therapy. It is minimally invasive and pain medications may not be needed long term and you have a happier animal. And the results???
I’ll let KC’s owner, Krista handle this one:
“Two weeks after the surgery I looked at him one day and he was standing on his foot instead of just his toe,” Moyes says. “I really noticed an attitude change as far as his energy level he felt better so he was wrestling, carrying on and playing.”
Moyes says she is just glad she got her old friend back. “If it was going to help him just a little bit I was willing to do it.”
This is wonderful news and I’m very happy for Krista and KC. However, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could make the same thing available for humans- Repair Stem Cells- simple procedure, very little downside and it can help improve the quality of millions of lives. If we had the will, this could be done now."
While Californians are still waiting for some sort of return on the $3 billion plus they shelled out for immoral and unproven Embryonic Stem-Cells, adult stem-cells are treating people (and now animals!) left and right.
Every few days I try to check Mr. Margolis blog, because he is totally committed to spreading the word about adult stem-cells (which he calls "repair stem-cells") and he always has the latest news. I encourage you to do the same. Right now he is at the World Congress of Regenerative Medicine & Stem Cells 2008 in China, giving a talk on stem cell treatments for diabetes. From his report:
"I’m meeting lots of doctors and stem cell researchers, ALL OF WHOM know about Repair Stem Cells vs. dozens of diseases and 97% of whom know embryonic stem cells can’t cure even a hangnail."
God Bless Him!
While the majority of the public is still being swindled by the claims of the Embryonic Stem Cell Research advocates, which have produced zero results, there have been over 100 treatments/cures effected by adult stem-cells.
It's not even humans being treated anymore--adult stem cells are being used to cure animals.
From Don Margolis:
"In this blog, we have well documented the effects that Adult Stem Cells (or Repair Stem Cells as I call them) have on dogs. We have seen plenty of stories of stem cell therapy helping dogs. Now we have yet another dog helped by using his own Repair Stem Cells.
KC, a golden retriever was getting up in age- 11 years old. He was beginning to slow down. In his owner, Krista Moyes words, “He was having a hard time getting up in the morning and really wasn’t walking at all on his back leg.”
Krista took KC to the vet who said surgery wasn’t an option, it was typical for a dog KC’s age to start slowing down with arthritis and decreased range of motion in the legs- for KC it was the right leg.
The Vet, Dr. Lillian Rizzo suggested a new stem cell procedure. This stem cell therapy was developed by Vet-Stem, a stem cell company for horses, dogs, and cats that uses the animal’s own stem cells.
Dr. Rizzo then removed some fat tissue from KC, and sent it off to Vet-Stem where they isolate stem cells from the fat tissue and then send it back already packed in syringes and ready to go.
Then Dr. Rizzo simply injected the stem cells into the site of the injury and let the Repair Stem Cells do what they do best– REPAIR
I’ll let Dr. Rizzo have her say:
She explains, “I concentrate the stem cells at the site of injury and then the stem cells have mediated inflammation and repair. The injury to the joint cartilage and that’s really the only thing that can do that. The medications can help with pain and support to the joint cartilage but the stem cells actually rebuild the damaged joint cartilage.”
Dr. Rizzo says they are several benefits to this therapy. It is minimally invasive and pain medications may not be needed long term and you have a happier animal. And the results???
I’ll let KC’s owner, Krista handle this one:
“Two weeks after the surgery I looked at him one day and he was standing on his foot instead of just his toe,” Moyes says. “I really noticed an attitude change as far as his energy level he felt better so he was wrestling, carrying on and playing.”
Moyes says she is just glad she got her old friend back. “If it was going to help him just a little bit I was willing to do it.”
This is wonderful news and I’m very happy for Krista and KC. However, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could make the same thing available for humans- Repair Stem Cells- simple procedure, very little downside and it can help improve the quality of millions of lives. If we had the will, this could be done now."
While Californians are still waiting for some sort of return on the $3 billion plus they shelled out for immoral and unproven Embryonic Stem-Cells, adult stem-cells are treating people (and now animals!) left and right.
Every few days I try to check Mr. Margolis blog, because he is totally committed to spreading the word about adult stem-cells (which he calls "repair stem-cells") and he always has the latest news. I encourage you to do the same. Right now he is at the World Congress of Regenerative Medicine & Stem Cells 2008 in China, giving a talk on stem cell treatments for diabetes. From his report:
"I’m meeting lots of doctors and stem cell researchers, ALL OF WHOM know about Repair Stem Cells vs. dozens of diseases and 97% of whom know embryonic stem cells can’t cure even a hangnail."
God Bless Him!
Saturday, December 6, 2008
From around the web:
Priests and the importance of fatherhood, over at Ignatius Insight.
"Priests are not just 'hosts' to the parish community; they are really fathers and consequently the heads of their parish families."
"Priests are not just 'hosts' to the parish community; they are really fathers and consequently the heads of their parish families."
Capitalism: A Christian Heresy?, over at the New Oxford Review
"A group of theologians has been offering an extended critique of the deep-seated sickness affecting Western culture"
And over at Catholic and Enjoying It:
"When you lose any conception of the common good in your moral decision making and make consent the sole criterion...then there is nothing but custom left to say that something is "beyond the pale."
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Most Holy Redeemer Lector/Acolyte "Marries" Another Man
While Archbishop Niederauer is taking heat for his firm yet charitable stand in defense of marriage, fifth-columnist homosexual activists in the Archdiocese continue to undercut his efforts. We have demonstrated this here, here, and here.
The latest is from today's Bay Area Reporter (motto:"Serving the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community since 1971"). The BAR has a "Wedding Announcements" page.
Today's announcements:
"This week's wedding announcements include Ralph Lindsey and Philip Carrizosa...
Ralph K. Lindsey Jr. and G. Philip R. Carrizosa were married Saturday, November 1, 2008, at 6:30 p.m. at Terra Gallery on Rincon Hill overlooking downtown San Francisco. More than 75 friends and relatives attended the ceremony, which was officiated by retired Court of Appeal Justice Joanne Parrilli.
The story ends with:
"The ceremony was a mixture of civil and religious elements, reflecting the couple's deep faith. Mr. Lindsey is an active member of Glide Memorial Methodist Church while Mr. Carrizosa is an acolyte and lector at Most Holy Redeemer Parish."
We checked MHR's acolyte and lector webpages, and Mr. Carrizosa does indeed serve in those ministries. By our count that makes five persons serving in liturgical functions at MHR who have "married" persons of the same sex.
It will be good here to remind ourselves of Church rules.
From "Redemptionis Sacramentum" #46
"The lay Christian faithful called to give assistance at liturgical celebrations should be well instructed and must be those whose Christian life, morals and fidelity to the Church’s Magisterium recommend them."
Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney
The latest is from today's Bay Area Reporter (motto:"Serving the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community since 1971"). The BAR has a "Wedding Announcements" page.
Today's announcements:
"This week's wedding announcements include Ralph Lindsey and Philip Carrizosa...
Ralph K. Lindsey Jr. and G. Philip R. Carrizosa were married Saturday, November 1, 2008, at 6:30 p.m. at Terra Gallery on Rincon Hill overlooking downtown San Francisco. More than 75 friends and relatives attended the ceremony, which was officiated by retired Court of Appeal Justice Joanne Parrilli.
The story ends with:
"The ceremony was a mixture of civil and religious elements, reflecting the couple's deep faith. Mr. Lindsey is an active member of Glide Memorial Methodist Church while Mr. Carrizosa is an acolyte and lector at Most Holy Redeemer Parish."
We checked MHR's acolyte and lector webpages, and Mr. Carrizosa does indeed serve in those ministries. By our count that makes five persons serving in liturgical functions at MHR who have "married" persons of the same sex.
It will be good here to remind ourselves of Church rules.
From "Redemptionis Sacramentum" #46
"The lay Christian faithful called to give assistance at liturgical celebrations should be well instructed and must be those whose Christian life, morals and fidelity to the Church’s Magisterium recommend them."
Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Planned Parenthood at Work
From "Live Action Films" comes an undercover video of your tax-supported Planned Parenthood.
h/t American Papist
h/t American Papist
Your thoughts wanted.
Today the first reading was from Isaiah:
"On this mountain the LORD of hosts
will provide for all peoples
A feast of rich food and choice wines,
juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines."
In Father Harold’s homily, he remarked that we should try to imagine what a gripping image “a banquet” was for the people of Isaiah’s time.
But listening, my question was, what relevance does this passage have for us?
In this country, we’re not hungry, we have an epidemic of obesity. We’ve got a multi-billion dollar diet industry. Sure there are poor people—we feed them everyday here at Saints Peter and Paul. But it’s a tiny minority and in fact, many of them lead a life of leisure. We see them everyday drinking, playing around, spending the day in conversation across the street in Washington Square. A novel type of poverty.
So when I hear about the “preferential option for the poor,” it has no application to San Francisco as far as I can see. It looks to more to me that what we are in need of is “a preferential option for the rich.” I say this because sometimes I think the focusing on poverty, in a place where there essentially is no poverty, is a cop-out from Christian duties. I realize this sounds bad, but I'm being honest.
I ask for anyone's thoughts.
Posted by Gibbons.
"On this mountain the LORD of hosts
will provide for all peoples
A feast of rich food and choice wines,
juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines."
In Father Harold’s homily, he remarked that we should try to imagine what a gripping image “a banquet” was for the people of Isaiah’s time.
But listening, my question was, what relevance does this passage have for us?
In this country, we’re not hungry, we have an epidemic of obesity. We’ve got a multi-billion dollar diet industry. Sure there are poor people—we feed them everyday here at Saints Peter and Paul. But it’s a tiny minority and in fact, many of them lead a life of leisure. We see them everyday drinking, playing around, spending the day in conversation across the street in Washington Square. A novel type of poverty.
So when I hear about the “preferential option for the poor,” it has no application to San Francisco as far as I can see. It looks to more to me that what we are in need of is “a preferential option for the rich.” I say this because sometimes I think the focusing on poverty, in a place where there essentially is no poverty, is a cop-out from Christian duties. I realize this sounds bad, but I'm being honest.
I ask for anyone's thoughts.
Posted by Gibbons.
God or Ourselves?
Another fine homily, given this past Monday, by our friend Fr. Anselm Ramelow, O.P. Fr. Anselm is a Dominican Priest and Professor of Philosophy at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology here in the Bay Area.
Faith is Necessary for Salvation
I.
Jesus praises the centurion in today’s Gospel for his faith, the faith that lead to the healing of his servant. And indeed faith is necessary for our healing as well, for our salvation. Without faith, nobody can be saved. Jesus, whose first coming we remember during Advent, is the one and true mediator, and without faith in Him, we cannot be saved.
But if faith is necessary for salvation, how about all those before Jesus’ coming? How about those who did not know him? How about all the righteous people in the Old Testament? The Church teaches that all those who lived before Jesus, were saved by their faith and hope for the coming of the Messiah. This is described wonderfully also in the letter to the Hebrews, in the 11th chapter. There it also says: without faith it is impossible to please him [God], for anyone who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. So what we need is at least an implicit faith in God as our redeemer, and the readiness to accept everything he is going to reveal to us. It is faith as hoping for things unseen. During this Advent season we are entering in some way the mind of the patriarchs and fathers of ancient Israel again. We renew our faith.
II.
Faith is an attitude of trust, a trust that is ready to embrace all and everything that the heavenly Father is going to reveal. The patriarchs of the Old Testament had this trust.
In our age, however, we sadly see that even those, to whom all of this has now been revealed, are not ready to embrace God’s revelation. Even those who claim to be Christians often claim the right to pick and choose among those things that God has revealed. They are often called Cafeteria Catholics. A few days ago, the wife of the governor of California explicitly called herself a Cafeteria Catholic. She called herself a good Catholic who is going to Church every week, but claims the right to pick and choose among the teachings of the Church. She is for gay marriage, abortion and communion for those who are divorced and remarried; what she likes and picks from Catholic teaching is only the message on compassion and social justice.
Even though it is more scandalous if this is said by a prominent Catholic in the news, it is by no means an attitude that is rare in the Church today. If Jesus in today’s Gospel does not seem to find the Centurion’s faith in Israel, he might today not find much of it in the Church either.
I think we need to be very clear that this is not a path that leads us to heaven. Without faith nobody can be saved. But a faith that willfully excludes something that God puts before us to be believed cannot be called faith. It is less than the faith of the forefathers of the Old Testament who in their hope for the Messiah were ready to accept everything that God was about to do even thought they did not know yet, what it would be. They were saved in hope and expectation.
We on the other hand know and yet we do not accept. But that cannot be supernatural faith; it is at the most human credulity. Faith is a grace that cannot be had on our own terms, but only on God’s terms, and that is: as a whole or not at all. Everything else is not faith, but mere human opinion, our own subjective choice, picking and choosing according to our taste.
III.
Faith, I said, can be had only as a whole, or not at all. There are a number of reasons for this: the object of our faith, God’s revelation and all that is taught by the Church in matters of faith and morals, is one seamless garment. Everything hangs together, and you cannot have one without the other. Wherever in history we see groups rejecting one little detail, they will soon lose the rest as well; the fabric starts to unravel. Faith is then coming down like a house of cards, from which you remove just one. Because in our faith one element builds on the other, what we have left, when we deny any one of them, is something that cannot be understood and believed consistently. It does not have an inner unity. Unity without consistency is not unity, but confusion.
IV.
What we need, therefore, is the humble acceptance of everything that God shows us, regardless of whether we know all the details or understand them. Indeed, in some ways we find ourselves still in the situation of the Old Testament patriarchs. Who of us could say that he knows every detail of the Church’s teaching? Not even most theologians would claim that. And even what we know is something that we can still come to understand ever more deeply. Our faith is inexhaustible, and it is consoling to know that we do not have to know and understand everything all the time. We can be at peace in knowing that God entrusted this faith to the Church as a whole. She in the meanwhile guards it, keeping it in her profession of faith, even where we do not grasp the whole. The Church is the true subject of faith,[1] and we can only enter the Church’s faith as something that will always be greater than our minds.
This does, therefore, require from us an act of trust, humility and faith before the Church that God has entrusted with this faith, knowing that it would be too big for us. That is why we confess: “I believe in one holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” Without the Church we cannot believe, we could only, like the Protestants, go our own ways, believing with our subjective credulity various things, contradicting each other, not knowing who is right; because none of us can exhaust the whole; only a Church guided by the Holy Spirit can safeguard the whole “deposit of faith.”
V.
What is reflected in our relationship with the Church is ultimately our relationship with God himself. I said: what we believe, always remains a reality that is greater than we and the capacity of our minds, something that does not enter our mind (which could never contain it), but rather something into which our minds are entering. The reason for this is that the ultimate object of faith is God himself, who will always be greater than our minds. He is the principle of everything else; he is the author of his revelation as well as of our faith.
The traditional definition of faith is the following:
“Faith is the theological virtue that inclines the mind, under the influence of the will and of grace, to yield a firm assent to revealed truths, because of the authority of God.”
We believe because of God’s authority who witnesses to the truth. He is the one in whom we believe, as well as the one whom we believe. We believe in a God whose witness is truthful, because he reveals to us nothing else but what he himself knows to be true. Faith amazingly is a participation in God’s own self-knowledge here on earth. This is obviously not something we can have on our own power, but a gift from God, a pure grace. As such, faith is itself the beginning of our justification and salvation, because it is the beginning of our union with God, which will find its fulfillment in the beatific vision of heaven. But already here and now, faith enlightens our hearts and minds, giving us the strength to carry our crosses and endure our sufferings.
God’s own self-knowledge, in which we participate, is his own knowledge of who he is, and of what he decided to do here on earth, in creating this world and revealing himself in it. All of the content of our faith is contained in God’s self-knowledge. But just as God is utterly simple, so is his knowledge. He knows everything in one concept, in one word, in the Eternal Word which is his Son, who came to bring us the faith as the Messiah.
It is in the simplicity of this one word of God’s self-knowledge that we participate when we have true supernatural faith. This faith can only be total, it cannot pick and choose; it cannot be partial or half-hearted. As the philosopher Aristotle pointed out: something simple can be had only as a whole or not at all. You cannot pick and choose a part from a mathematical point, because a mathematical point does not have parts. And so it is with God’s self-knowledge, in which we participate by faith: it is simple, and we can participate in it only if we are that simple, too, i.e., if we are single-hearted and simple-minded enough to allow this faith to enter into us. We can only believe with whole-hearted surrender or not at all. [In the simplicity of God, everything in our faith holds together consistently, and in true unity rather than in confusion. Something simple does not have parts that could contradict each other.]
It is this simplicity which is the sign of true supernatural faith. It is a faith that does not make itself into a judge over God’s revelation. It is the single-mindedness that is itself a sign of the presence of God. It is this simplicity that is required of us, in order to go through the narrow gate, the needles ear, which is too small for anything to pass through except something that is simple and total. Just as the rich young man had to give up his riches to get through this needles ear, we have to give up the richness of our personal opinions that we reserve to ourselves in spite of what God shows to our faith through his Church.
What we receive in faith is simple and round like the host that we receive at communion. And just as we say our “Amen” there, we say it to the faith of the Church as a whole. The host contains the whole of God, as well as his mystical body the Church, under each and every particle. As we say “Amen” at communion, we say Amen to the whole God, and the whole Creed, and the entire faith of the Church.
VI.
The San Franciso Chronicle a few days ago quoted a parishioner of St. Dominic’s being upset about how backwards the Church is, and how she is trying to change the way the Church is thinking. Now we always want to give people the benefit of the doubt, but taken at face value, this statement is a counterexample of what I have just said. To think that we can teach the Church a lesson is not only a lack of the necessary humility, it also indicates a lack of insight into oneself. It indicates that we do not really know who we are, and who the Church is: we overestimate ourselves, or rather the influence of the secular culture that we have allowed to take over our minds; and we underestimate the Church, because we are already lacking the necessary faith that would acknowledge that the Church is not just a human institution or a party whose party-line we can change by our lobbying. The Church is divine in origin; it is founded in Jesus Christ himself, who built it on the foundation of the apostles. He charged the apostles with keeping the deposit of faith, because he knew that this faith would be questioned, and he asked Peter above all others, to strengthen the faith of his fellow apostles – something Peter and his successors have done ever since.
VII.
Without the Church, or even sitting in judgment over the Church, we are left to our own devices and credulities. We are making our own religion in our own image and likeness, i.e. according to our taste rather than God’s revelation. This faith of ours will be a form of idolatry, a work of our own making, be it our hands or minds. “I am spiritual, not religious”, often means that we want to fabricate our own beliefs. But it was always foolish to give our faith to an idol, the work of human hands and minds: idols cannot speak, they cannot hear; they are dead wood. And so are the fabrications that we call our religions or spiritualities, made according to our personal tastes and preferences. But indeed that is exactly what we need to be liberated from, because they will not save us as little as idols of wood. Salvation cannot be something that we make ourselves, as if pulling ourselves out of the mire by our own bootstraps. We need God to tell us the truth in such a way that we cannot replace his revelation again through our own productions and opinions, or worse, those of the secular world. In other words: we need the Church to believe. Faith comes from hearing, not from imagination.
VIII.
This faith requires a decision, an assent of the will. It requires a conversion from the world and its opinions; we cannot listen to two masters, God and Mammon; we need to be single-minded. This can sometimes be harder to realize for cradle Catholics. But in these times we all will have to make a decision. These times force us into an examination of conscience: if you feel you cannot agree on some established teaching of the Church, be it matters of faith, as for the example the virgin birth, the divinity of Christ or his presence in the Eucharist; or be matters of morals, as euthanasia, gay marriage or abortion – if you cannot agree on this, then you have to do some serious soul-searching, because that is not optional. Read up on it; that is, if not an act of humility, at least an act of fairness of hearing all the sides, not just that of the secular world. (If you are getting your knowledge about the teaching of the Church from the secular media, then this might already be where your problem is.) And while you read also remember that, as Immanuel Kant and Cardinal Newman said: difficulties are not doubts. Finally bring it in prayer before God; say the Creed meditatively, asking yourself, whether you believe everything that is said there; and pray: “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief”, help me to believe like the patriarchs of the Old Testament.
Again: faith is neither irrational or arbitrary; nor is it ever merely knowing something; it is an acceptance of something greater than our minds, of something that requires an assent of our will. This decision is a grace, a gift from God, something you need to pray for. And then you have to make that decision, knowing that what is at stake is nothing less but the salvation of your soul.
[1] “We believe…” has its truth after all; but the formula “I believe …” is important too, because by it we enter personally the faith of the Church.
Faith is Necessary for Salvation
I.
Jesus praises the centurion in today’s Gospel for his faith, the faith that lead to the healing of his servant. And indeed faith is necessary for our healing as well, for our salvation. Without faith, nobody can be saved. Jesus, whose first coming we remember during Advent, is the one and true mediator, and without faith in Him, we cannot be saved.
But if faith is necessary for salvation, how about all those before Jesus’ coming? How about those who did not know him? How about all the righteous people in the Old Testament? The Church teaches that all those who lived before Jesus, were saved by their faith and hope for the coming of the Messiah. This is described wonderfully also in the letter to the Hebrews, in the 11th chapter. There it also says: without faith it is impossible to please him [God], for anyone who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. So what we need is at least an implicit faith in God as our redeemer, and the readiness to accept everything he is going to reveal to us. It is faith as hoping for things unseen. During this Advent season we are entering in some way the mind of the patriarchs and fathers of ancient Israel again. We renew our faith.
II.
Faith is an attitude of trust, a trust that is ready to embrace all and everything that the heavenly Father is going to reveal. The patriarchs of the Old Testament had this trust.
In our age, however, we sadly see that even those, to whom all of this has now been revealed, are not ready to embrace God’s revelation. Even those who claim to be Christians often claim the right to pick and choose among those things that God has revealed. They are often called Cafeteria Catholics. A few days ago, the wife of the governor of California explicitly called herself a Cafeteria Catholic. She called herself a good Catholic who is going to Church every week, but claims the right to pick and choose among the teachings of the Church. She is for gay marriage, abortion and communion for those who are divorced and remarried; what she likes and picks from Catholic teaching is only the message on compassion and social justice.
Even though it is more scandalous if this is said by a prominent Catholic in the news, it is by no means an attitude that is rare in the Church today. If Jesus in today’s Gospel does not seem to find the Centurion’s faith in Israel, he might today not find much of it in the Church either.
I think we need to be very clear that this is not a path that leads us to heaven. Without faith nobody can be saved. But a faith that willfully excludes something that God puts before us to be believed cannot be called faith. It is less than the faith of the forefathers of the Old Testament who in their hope for the Messiah were ready to accept everything that God was about to do even thought they did not know yet, what it would be. They were saved in hope and expectation.
We on the other hand know and yet we do not accept. But that cannot be supernatural faith; it is at the most human credulity. Faith is a grace that cannot be had on our own terms, but only on God’s terms, and that is: as a whole or not at all. Everything else is not faith, but mere human opinion, our own subjective choice, picking and choosing according to our taste.
III.
Faith, I said, can be had only as a whole, or not at all. There are a number of reasons for this: the object of our faith, God’s revelation and all that is taught by the Church in matters of faith and morals, is one seamless garment. Everything hangs together, and you cannot have one without the other. Wherever in history we see groups rejecting one little detail, they will soon lose the rest as well; the fabric starts to unravel. Faith is then coming down like a house of cards, from which you remove just one. Because in our faith one element builds on the other, what we have left, when we deny any one of them, is something that cannot be understood and believed consistently. It does not have an inner unity. Unity without consistency is not unity, but confusion.
IV.
What we need, therefore, is the humble acceptance of everything that God shows us, regardless of whether we know all the details or understand them. Indeed, in some ways we find ourselves still in the situation of the Old Testament patriarchs. Who of us could say that he knows every detail of the Church’s teaching? Not even most theologians would claim that. And even what we know is something that we can still come to understand ever more deeply. Our faith is inexhaustible, and it is consoling to know that we do not have to know and understand everything all the time. We can be at peace in knowing that God entrusted this faith to the Church as a whole. She in the meanwhile guards it, keeping it in her profession of faith, even where we do not grasp the whole. The Church is the true subject of faith,[1] and we can only enter the Church’s faith as something that will always be greater than our minds.
This does, therefore, require from us an act of trust, humility and faith before the Church that God has entrusted with this faith, knowing that it would be too big for us. That is why we confess: “I believe in one holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” Without the Church we cannot believe, we could only, like the Protestants, go our own ways, believing with our subjective credulity various things, contradicting each other, not knowing who is right; because none of us can exhaust the whole; only a Church guided by the Holy Spirit can safeguard the whole “deposit of faith.”
V.
What is reflected in our relationship with the Church is ultimately our relationship with God himself. I said: what we believe, always remains a reality that is greater than we and the capacity of our minds, something that does not enter our mind (which could never contain it), but rather something into which our minds are entering. The reason for this is that the ultimate object of faith is God himself, who will always be greater than our minds. He is the principle of everything else; he is the author of his revelation as well as of our faith.
The traditional definition of faith is the following:
“Faith is the theological virtue that inclines the mind, under the influence of the will and of grace, to yield a firm assent to revealed truths, because of the authority of God.”
We believe because of God’s authority who witnesses to the truth. He is the one in whom we believe, as well as the one whom we believe. We believe in a God whose witness is truthful, because he reveals to us nothing else but what he himself knows to be true. Faith amazingly is a participation in God’s own self-knowledge here on earth. This is obviously not something we can have on our own power, but a gift from God, a pure grace. As such, faith is itself the beginning of our justification and salvation, because it is the beginning of our union with God, which will find its fulfillment in the beatific vision of heaven. But already here and now, faith enlightens our hearts and minds, giving us the strength to carry our crosses and endure our sufferings.
God’s own self-knowledge, in which we participate, is his own knowledge of who he is, and of what he decided to do here on earth, in creating this world and revealing himself in it. All of the content of our faith is contained in God’s self-knowledge. But just as God is utterly simple, so is his knowledge. He knows everything in one concept, in one word, in the Eternal Word which is his Son, who came to bring us the faith as the Messiah.
It is in the simplicity of this one word of God’s self-knowledge that we participate when we have true supernatural faith. This faith can only be total, it cannot pick and choose; it cannot be partial or half-hearted. As the philosopher Aristotle pointed out: something simple can be had only as a whole or not at all. You cannot pick and choose a part from a mathematical point, because a mathematical point does not have parts. And so it is with God’s self-knowledge, in which we participate by faith: it is simple, and we can participate in it only if we are that simple, too, i.e., if we are single-hearted and simple-minded enough to allow this faith to enter into us. We can only believe with whole-hearted surrender or not at all. [In the simplicity of God, everything in our faith holds together consistently, and in true unity rather than in confusion. Something simple does not have parts that could contradict each other.]
It is this simplicity which is the sign of true supernatural faith. It is a faith that does not make itself into a judge over God’s revelation. It is the single-mindedness that is itself a sign of the presence of God. It is this simplicity that is required of us, in order to go through the narrow gate, the needles ear, which is too small for anything to pass through except something that is simple and total. Just as the rich young man had to give up his riches to get through this needles ear, we have to give up the richness of our personal opinions that we reserve to ourselves in spite of what God shows to our faith through his Church.
What we receive in faith is simple and round like the host that we receive at communion. And just as we say our “Amen” there, we say it to the faith of the Church as a whole. The host contains the whole of God, as well as his mystical body the Church, under each and every particle. As we say “Amen” at communion, we say Amen to the whole God, and the whole Creed, and the entire faith of the Church.
VI.
The San Franciso Chronicle a few days ago quoted a parishioner of St. Dominic’s being upset about how backwards the Church is, and how she is trying to change the way the Church is thinking. Now we always want to give people the benefit of the doubt, but taken at face value, this statement is a counterexample of what I have just said. To think that we can teach the Church a lesson is not only a lack of the necessary humility, it also indicates a lack of insight into oneself. It indicates that we do not really know who we are, and who the Church is: we overestimate ourselves, or rather the influence of the secular culture that we have allowed to take over our minds; and we underestimate the Church, because we are already lacking the necessary faith that would acknowledge that the Church is not just a human institution or a party whose party-line we can change by our lobbying. The Church is divine in origin; it is founded in Jesus Christ himself, who built it on the foundation of the apostles. He charged the apostles with keeping the deposit of faith, because he knew that this faith would be questioned, and he asked Peter above all others, to strengthen the faith of his fellow apostles – something Peter and his successors have done ever since.
VII.
Without the Church, or even sitting in judgment over the Church, we are left to our own devices and credulities. We are making our own religion in our own image and likeness, i.e. according to our taste rather than God’s revelation. This faith of ours will be a form of idolatry, a work of our own making, be it our hands or minds. “I am spiritual, not religious”, often means that we want to fabricate our own beliefs. But it was always foolish to give our faith to an idol, the work of human hands and minds: idols cannot speak, they cannot hear; they are dead wood. And so are the fabrications that we call our religions or spiritualities, made according to our personal tastes and preferences. But indeed that is exactly what we need to be liberated from, because they will not save us as little as idols of wood. Salvation cannot be something that we make ourselves, as if pulling ourselves out of the mire by our own bootstraps. We need God to tell us the truth in such a way that we cannot replace his revelation again through our own productions and opinions, or worse, those of the secular world. In other words: we need the Church to believe. Faith comes from hearing, not from imagination.
VIII.
This faith requires a decision, an assent of the will. It requires a conversion from the world and its opinions; we cannot listen to two masters, God and Mammon; we need to be single-minded. This can sometimes be harder to realize for cradle Catholics. But in these times we all will have to make a decision. These times force us into an examination of conscience: if you feel you cannot agree on some established teaching of the Church, be it matters of faith, as for the example the virgin birth, the divinity of Christ or his presence in the Eucharist; or be matters of morals, as euthanasia, gay marriage or abortion – if you cannot agree on this, then you have to do some serious soul-searching, because that is not optional. Read up on it; that is, if not an act of humility, at least an act of fairness of hearing all the sides, not just that of the secular world. (If you are getting your knowledge about the teaching of the Church from the secular media, then this might already be where your problem is.) And while you read also remember that, as Immanuel Kant and Cardinal Newman said: difficulties are not doubts. Finally bring it in prayer before God; say the Creed meditatively, asking yourself, whether you believe everything that is said there; and pray: “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief”, help me to believe like the patriarchs of the Old Testament.
Again: faith is neither irrational or arbitrary; nor is it ever merely knowing something; it is an acceptance of something greater than our minds, of something that requires an assent of our will. This decision is a grace, a gift from God, something you need to pray for. And then you have to make that decision, knowing that what is at stake is nothing less but the salvation of your soul.
[1] “We believe…” has its truth after all; but the formula “I believe …” is important too, because by it we enter personally the faith of the Church.
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