Archive for Obedience

With Clarity, Force, and Love

July 14, 2015 Obedience 2 comments

There has been a lot of attention given (for obvious reasons) to Latin America the last few years.  Though the Church once thrived to the south, as of late She has begun to lose her popularity.  Attention should be given to Latin America, and an attempt to fan the flames of faith should be made.  But, I do not think we should be looking south for the future of the Faith.  Well, at lease not due south. I stumbled across the following video excerpt from the Q&A session with Francis Cardinal Arinze at the 2007 Totus Tuus Conference (full video here – highly recommend).  When I

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The Groin Supremacy

July 6, 2015 Moral Action, Obedience No comments

It was an odd week for me.  Once upon a time I took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic.  At that time we were mostly preparing to face the Red Army pouring through the Fulda Gap.  Yet the enemies of the Constitution today are domestic, and live within the institutions that it created.  I couldn’t think of anything much to celebrate about the U.S. this 4th, so I mostly just kept busy and tried not to  think about it.  Then I saw the story of the 22-year old

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A Narrowing of the Option

June 23, 2015 Moral Action, Obedience One comment

The preferential option for the poor and vulnerable, is a principle of Catholic social teaching.  On their website the USCCB says the following of this principle: A basic moral test is how our most vulnerable members are faring. In a society marred by deepening divisions between rich and poor, our tradition recalls the story of the Last Judgment (Mt 25:31-46) and instructs us to put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first. Though incomplete, and so incorrect, this principle is often shortened to the preferential option for the poor.  It’s the often excluded “and vulnerable” clause which has allowed the principle

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Iron Eyes Redux!

June 22, 2015 Intellectual Formation, Obedience No comments

Early this year I wrote a post in anticipation of the Holy Father’s then-planned encyclical on the environment.  As stewards of creation, man of course has a clear responsibility to the environment, which the Church has expressed in many ways through the years.  My concern was that he not take on the role of Global Science Officer.  While I’ve only made it through twenty percent or so of the actual document, it seems that my concerns have been realized.  But it’s not just the science that bothers me, it is the seeming political and economic naivete about the problems.  Here

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Today’s Ecclesial Brinkmanship

June 17, 2015 Moral Action, Obedience No comments

On Monday, we awoke to the news that Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piche, both of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, had resigned amid criminal charges against the archdiocese concerning the mishandling of sexual abuse cases, and the associated swirl of who knew what, and when, and the recent announcement that the archdiocese had filed bankruptcy.  It was a sad, but not all that surprising development.  In perusing the news I’ve read more than one legal or church official claim that the resignations are “closing a chapter” or “will begin the healing.”  I don’t think so,

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Quid Est Veritas? Cardinal Kasper’s
Troubling Foundations

June 13, 2015 Intellectual Formation, Obedience 2 comments

On Tuesday, the Catholic World Report posted a paper by Prof. Thomas Heinrich Stark of the Benedict XVI Institute of Philosophy and Theology in Austria, entitled “German Idealism and Cardinal Kasper’s Theological Project.” It is a lengthy read, and reminded me of everything I disliked about the philosophy classes I took in college and my brief forays into academic writing. But I understood enough to be alarmed. Using one of Kasper’s early theological works, Prof. Stark shows the philosophical foundations that appear to have brought the cardinal to the point positions he currently holds on questions of morality, marriage, sexuality, and the sacraments. I

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Bye Bye to the Sacrament of Farewell

June 12, 2015 Obedience No comments

This week, the National Catholic Register reported that the Archdiocese of Denver has decided to re-order the Sacraments of Christian Initiation to the order set forth in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) by placing Confirmation after Baptism but before 1st Holy Communion. Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila told the Register, “The theology on the order of the sacraments of initiation is clear, and through my many experiences as both a parish pastor and a bishop, I knew that this was the right decision to make …. the decision to restore confirmation to its original place is motivated by my

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‘We Need a New Boniface’

June 6, 2015 Moral Action, Obedience No comments

Yesterday was the Feast of St. Boniface, patron of the German people. The St. Paul Street Evangelization Facebook page published this photo of the great bishop and missionary whose statue graces our Sanctuary, as well as the excerpt below, taken from his writings: Let us stand fast in what is right, and prepare our souls for trial. Let us wait upon God’s strengthening aid and say to him: “O Lord, you have been our refuge in all generations.” Let us trust in him who has placed this burden upon us. What we ourselves cannot bear let us bear with the

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Kung Fu, Apostate-Style

June 3, 2015 Moral Action, Obedience No comments

As soon as I read the Catholic World Report article linked within Timshel’s comment on the May 28 post about rogue bishops, a name mentioned in the article began rattling around in the foggy recesses of my memory:  Hans Küng.   I finally remembered and located the reference to this long-time dissident.  In researching the communist period in Poland I had previously read the following passage in a journal article on this notable period of modern Polish history.  Pardoning the length, here it is: Yet many devout Catholics, both within and outside Poland, were beginning to lose sympathy with the position of

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Rogue Bishops – Take 2

May 28, 2015 Moral Action, Obedience 3 comments

     Fresh on the heels of the German episcopate’s recent decision to jettison the Church’s ecclesiastical law in favor of “human justice” regarding the employment of those living in irregular unions comes word of this leaked meeting – linked here. This secretive invitation-only meeting in Rome, convened by the increasing infamous Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Germany, included Bishop Markus Büchel and Archbishop Georges Pontier, presidents of the bishops conferences in Switzerland and France, as well as select clergy, theologians and … media.  The topics centered around strategies to liberalize the Church’s stance on marriage, sexuality and so-called same-sex marriage in advance of the

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