Parent warning

As if the tragic meth epidemic isn't hard enough to control, there's a new drug being pushed cheaply to kids that mixes small amounts of heroin with crushed Tylenol PM. It's called "cheese." It's become a major problem in Dallas, which less than a decade ago dealt with a huge heroin problem in some middle/upper-class neighborhoods.

Vatican and SSPX: Reconciliation update

An article on Catholic Exchange gives a good update on where things stand between the Vatican and the Society of St. Pius X. The traditionalist group, which was led by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and protested many of the changes of the Second Vatican Council, was excommunicated by Pope John Paul II in 1988 for consecrating four bishops against orders from the Holy See. Before his passing, John Paul II sought to repair the relationship between the Vatican and SSPX but was not able to accomplish it.

Since the election of the tradition-minded Pope Benedict XVI, there has been renewed hope that SSPX will reconcile with the Vatican. One issue, unrestricted use of the Tridentine (Latin) Mass, could happen soon, the writer says. Currently, a priest must receive approval from the diocesan bishop to celebrate the Tridentine Mass, which was the Mass celebrated before Vatican II and is still celebrated by the members of SSPX. The second, and tougher obstacle, according to the writer, is full acceptance of the Vatican II documents by the society.

Pope Benedict seems determined to heal the rift, and if anyone is suited to do it, it is him. As prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, then-Cardinal Ratzinger was heavily involved in discussions with the society. Pope Benedict's love for the traditional Mass has been a key connection, but he is also adamant that the Vatican II documents are valid and should be implemented. What BXVI's context is for the Vatican II documents is an entire other post, as he told us after his election that a main task of his papacy is to elaborate on that. In a meeting with the Roman Curia late last year, he touched on this.

The pope said there was no denying that the reception of Vatican II has been difficult for the church. In explaining why, he said there was a right way and a wrong way to understand the council.

The wrong way, he said, sees the council as a break with the past -- a view that often has the sympathy of the mass media. Its proponents think the council's documents are imperfect, and so "one should follow not the texts of the council but its
spirit," he said.

He said the proper understanding of the council, on the other hand, understands the council's reforms in continuity with the church's tradition and its basic teachings.

At this point, the pope went off into a lengthy and complex reflection on the church's
relationship with the modern world. He said the council's great task was to help
heal the rift between the church and modernity, in three specific problematic
relationships: faith and science, church and state, and Christianity and other
religions.

Given the bold statements that came out of the council on these relationships, it was natural that some would see only the apparent discontinuity with church tradition, instead of understanding them as an evolution of core Christian beliefs, he said.

But that would be to misconstrue the council's intent, he said. "The church is, before and after the council, the same one, holy, catholic and apostolic church, moving forward through the times," he said. (John Thavis, Catholic News Service, Dec. 22, 2005)

Colorado Springs and Young Workers

The Gazette ran an interesting story this morning on why it is so hard for the city to attract and keep young workers. I tend to agree with the story. I've only been here 10 months, so I am not sure if this has long been the case. Will Colorado Springs always be considered, as Jon Severson says in the article, a "secondary market?"

A bright light at Notre Dame

The chair of the Theology Department at the University of Notre Dame has fired back an open letter today to the Notre Dame community in disagreement with Father John Jenkins' letter on allowing "The Vagina Monologues" play to be staged on campus. Prof. John Cavadini does not delve into the controversial issues surrounding the play (Christopher West does touch on it in his April 21 Herald column) but focuses rather keenly on Father Jenkins' description on the identity and function of a Catholic university.

The statement of our President barely mentions the Church. If the Church is ever mentioned in the responses I have read so far, it is in the gratitude expressed that we have not attempted to "appease" the Church or the Church hierarchy, or else in the (unintentionally) patronizing allusion to those who care about the University's relationship to the Church as implicitly conceiving the University along the lines of a seminary. It is as though the mere mention of a relationship with the Church has become so alien to our ways of thinking and so offensive to our quest for a disembodied "excellence" that it is has become impolite to mention it at all. The President's statement repeatedly refers to "the Catholic intellectual tradition," a phrase that in itself is unobjectionable but which has now become almost a circumlocution used to avoid mentioning what seems unfashionable and almost unthinkable to mention, namely, the Church.

Cavadini later raises this crucial question:

The ancient Gnostic heresy developed an elitist intellectual tradition which
eschewed connection to the "fleshly" church of the bishop and devalued or
spiritualized the sacraments. Are we in danger of developing a gnosticized
version of the "Catholic intellectual tradition," one which floats free of any
norming connection and so free of any concrete claim to Catholic identity?

Cavadini has stuck his neck out in defense of a "Catholic intellectual tradition" intimately and unapologetically tied to the magisterium of the Church. Here's hoping a lynch mob doesn't form among his peers and the student body to hang him.

Where were you when BXVI was elected?

One year ago today, Pope Benedict XVI was elected. Do you remember where you were/what you were doing that day?

And what are your thoughts on his first year as pope?

Baseball on Good Friday

A television station in Scranton, Pa., is not airing the Scranton/Wikes-Barre Red Barons' opening home game because it falls on Good Friday. It's good to see the many Catholics in that area standing up for this important day on the calendar, although the station's replacement shows aren't exactly stellar.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/sports/14343719.htm

For those of you wondering how news from Scranton made the blog, I admit there is also a bias involved. I attended the University of Scranton, a small Jesuit institution (OK, insert Jesuit university joke here) in the Pocono Mountains in Northeast Pa. I had a pretty good experience there. At least when I was there, you could find an authentic faith experience grounded in the tradition and teachings of the church if you took initiative. That journey led me to some outstanding Jesuits who balanced faith and reason, including one, Fr. Brendan Lally, who changed my life with his student mission programs. I haven't been there in more than 10 years, so I don't know how much has changed. I pray it hasn't gone the way of Notre Dame.

Getting back to baseball, the news from Scranton reminds of two years ago, when Boston Red Sox fans sought a dispensation from the archdiocese to eat hot dogs on Fridays during the Lent. The church's answer? "Nice try."

Archbishop saved by his Roman collar

An assassination is thwarted ...

http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,35888.html

A Good Friday reflection

The below post is lengthy but a nice read, I think. It came from a friend in Ohio, Maura McKeegan, who was moved to write after meditation on the Ninth Station of the Cross. It explores the importance of the number "3" in the Catholic faith.


"Jesus Falls the Third Time"
The strongest man who ever lived, freely gave up his strength for us. The universe, including every stone and stick onto which he fell along the road to Calvary, was created through him, belonged to him. He chose to let it bruise him, beat him, betray him. His ravaged legs buckled beneath the weight of the cross he carried, and he fell: once, then twice, then three times.

Only a few hours earlier, Jesus had asked his dearest, closest friends to stay awake with him while he prayed in the Garden. He knew what horrors awaited him, and he sought solace in his companions: Let me not endure this alone, but keep watch with me, that I might know you are with me. He went off to pray and returned to find them sleeping: once, then twice, then three times.

Later that same night, while Jesus suffered “thousands of insults, spits, blows, lacerations, and other unheard-of cruelties”* at the hands of his enemies, a cock crowed. Peter, who had vowed never to forsake Jesus, had just denied even knowing him: once, then twice, then three times.

The following day, in the most desolate hours of human history, Jesus hung on the Cross: for one hour, then two, then three. And in the third, he breathed his last and gave up his spirit.

Two thousand years later, the number three still seems to escort the dark hour of abandonment and death. On September 11, 2001, planes flew headfirst and deliberately into buildings filled with thousands of people: one building, then a second, then a third.

In another tragedy of unthinkable scope, millions of women are being deceived into using a pill that claims to “prevent” life from forming in their wombs. Hailed as a modern miracle, the birth control pill works in three ways. First, it tries to prevent ovulation. Second, it tries to stop sperm from reaching the egg. Third, if all else fails, it prevents a newly conceived life from attaching to the womb of the mother, so that the baby cannot receive the nourishment it needs to live and starves to death. The doctors who prescribe the pill know this may happen, but they don’t warn the mother. She never knows she had a son, a daughter. The lie hangs like a dense, unlifting fog over whole nations. The birth control pill secretly, silently snuffs out life: it tries one way, then two, and on the third, like two thousand years before, the innocent victim falls.

These situations that seem hopeless, where evil and despair seem to reign, all bear a common mark: the number three. Why three, the precious number, the very image of the Trinity? How could God allow this holy number to be tarnished? Why would he permit such a cruel paradox, where the very number that reminds us of him is the very number that accompanies such evil?

Like many things of God, at first glance it doesn’t seem to make sense. But like Mary Magdalene and the women accompanying her on Easter morning, we must go to the tomb to learn the Truth.

After Jesus’ death on the cross, he was laid in the tomb where he remained lifeless: one day, then two. And then, on the third day, he rose. He conquered evil, sin, and death, and he brought the promise of everlasting life to the same world that had forsaken him. A situation that seemed hopeless became the very thing that brings us hope.

Could it be that from all eternity, Jesus stamped “three” on the circumstances where hope is most needed? If I look back over every one of these tragedies, painted in the light of the Resurrection, I can hear him saying: Even though this situation may look desolate, I am here. I am Three, and I will redeem. It is not an omen but a witness of his enduring promise of forgiveness and grace.

Three is the God who gave Peter a chance to convert each one of his denials into affirmations: “Peter, do you love me?” Jesus asked; “Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, once, twice, three times.

Three is the God who beckons his dearest friends to adoration in the middle of the night, that they may keep watch with him still, and they come: at one o’clock, at two, at three.

Three is the God who still creates new souls by uniting a husband and wife, and enabling them to share in the miracle of his creative power: first one person, then two together, and the two create a third.

Three is the God from whose heart Divine Mercy gushes forth upon the world each day and night at three o’clock, turning the hour of death into the hour of life.

Three is the Triune God who binds himself to the darkest of nights and the hardest of hearts so that we may know that where there is Three, there is hope.

*The St. Bridget Prayers

This was not an April Fool's story...

A research team from Jerusalem recently concluded that Jesus may not have walked on water, but rather found a patch of ice and stood on it, making it look like he was walking on water.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2006-04-05-galilee-ice-theory_x.htm

You can't make this stuff up, but it would add more legitimacy to this picture, of which I happen to have a copy in my office.

Academics and church doctrine

Notre Dame University in Indiana has decided to continue hosting performances of "The Vagina Monologoues" on campus.

If you're not familiar with the production, it features characters dressed on stage as a part of the female anatomy while they perform monologues, based on interviews with women, that focus on sexual encounters.

Father John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame, bases his decision on academic freedom, while Fort Wayne-South Bend Bishop John D'Arcy derides it as antithetical to the Catholic mission.

Is Notre Dame living up to its mission as a Catholic university by allowing the production on campus? Do the ends justify the means because the event raises money to fight violence against women? Do the panel discussions and the proposed student production effectively deal with the subject matter? How much sway does the Catholic Church hold over institutions of higher learning?

I think there is a huge difference between academic endeavors in the classroom -- where you are expected to put a critical eye on just about everything -- and public events.

When Chris Matthews, a Holy Cross graduate and avowed "pro-choice" advocate, delivered the graduation address at his alma mater a couple of years ago, it caused quite a stink among alumni. I know we have some Notre Dame grads among our readership. What do you think?

Voiced or silent prayer intentions during Mass?

A couple of months ago, a Herald reader wrote in to inquire about the practice of the priest allowing the congregation to vocalize their intentions during the general intercessions. This is common in U.S. churches, particularly at smaller Masses (often at daily Masses). The reader had questions about this practice, saying:

"Quite often, I notice that people ask for something that has already been mentioned during the intentions read by the commentator. One recurring example is '"Please pray for my grandmother, who died last week,' when we have already prayed for the deceased."

"In addition, I can tell that someone is saying something on the opposite side of the church, but there's absolutely no way I can understand what he or she is saying. It becomes very frustrating when one inaudible ntention after another is offered.

"Finally, I have noticed the awkwardness when the commentator tries to bring the intentions to a close, only to interrupt someone while he or she is trying to voice his or her intention."

How would you respond to this reader?

Pope John Paul II's passing -- one year later

One year has passed since the death of Pope John Paul II. I am curious as to what impact he had on your life, and if anything has changed in your regard of him during the past year.

Here is an excerpt from me from the next Herald:

I am the only one of my siblings never to see John Paul II up close. My two sisters and brother all had their pictures taken with him at audiences in Rome during various travels and studies. The closest I came was being in Camden Yards in Baltimore in 1995 — an appropriate setting for me, I guess, since I was immersed in sportswriting at the time.

I vividly remember sitting in my seat near the top of the lower level along the first base line watching on the Jumbotron the pope’s plane flying into Baltimore, him getting off the plane and getting into a car to come to Camden Yards. The emotion that swelled inside me when the popemobile appeared along the warning track of the outfield brought me to tears. I didn’t think that would happen.

But then John Paul II surprised a lot of people — with his wit and humor, with his fidelity to the magisterium and with his perseverance through illness in the last decade or so of his life.