Anthony Esolen: Reform and Renewal Starts with Us

Professor Anthony Esolen, writing today at Crisis Magazine:

Let’s get straight to the point. We no longer live in a culturally Christian state. We do not live in a robust pagan state, such as Rome was during the Pax Romana. We live in a sickly sub-pagan state, or metastate, a monstrous thing, all-meddlesome, all-ambitious. The natural virtues are scorned. Temperance is for prigs, prudence for sticks in the mud who worry about people who don’t yet exist. A man who fathers six children upon three women and now wants to turn himself into a “woman” attracted to other women—he is praised for his courage. Justice means that a handful of narrowly educated and egotistical judges get to overturn human culture and biology, at their caprice.

Professor Esolen does more than lament the current problems in our society, he offers nine concrete suggestions that, if followed, could at least begin to stop the advance of the decay in our culture.  To read more about his suggestions, click HERE.

Under his suggestion on what can be done to counter the sexual revolution, he offers the following on what Christians need to understand to confront the hedonists surrounding them.

We have to tell ourselves and our children the truth. There is no way to make it sound nice. “We are Christians, they are not. How God judges them is not ours to know. Our first task is to follow God’s law ourselves, before we can witness to them. We do not fornicate. We do not divorce. We do not engage in sodomy. We do not use porn. We do not flood women’s bodies with synthetic and carcinogenic hormones. We do not care for obscenities in film. We do believe in marriage according to the evident design of God, imprinted upon our bodies male and female. We encourage boys to be boys and girls to be girls.” 

 

Fr. Barron on Pope Francis and Catholic Social Teaching

Nigerian Bishops on The Propagation and Globalization of the Homosexual Lifestyle

From the Catholic World Report yesterday on the recently released statement by the Nigerian bishops:

The statement remarks on the recent vote in Ireland and the SCOTUS decision and warns of the influence Western countries have on Nigerian leaders and citizens

Here's a quote to remember from the statement:

On our part we hereby re-emphasize that Marriage is the sacred union of one man and one woman for the begetting and care of children. It forms the core of the family which is the bedrock and foundational cell of our civilization and as such it is sanctioned by God, upheld by our culture, celebrated in our society and protected by our government.  The family deserves the protection from all civilized institutions as it predates society and is not subject to it. So our role is to promote it, protect it and preserve it at a time like this when many countries have unfortunately chosen a different path. 


You can read the entire statement by clicking HERE:

Fr. Barron on Love, Tolerance, and Making Distinctions

If it sounds like a Death Panel, it probably...

The reports of the death of Death Panels might have been greatly exaggerated (to paraphrase Mark Twain).

"The federal government is proposing to pay health-care providers for talking to Medicare beneficiaries about end-of-life care after mounting calls for a better approach to conversations about dying that can both save costs and improve care," according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal article goes on:

"Efforts to provide compensation to providers who hold such consultations ran into opposition in 2009, after mostly Republican opponents of what would become the Affordable Care Act said the law would lead to “death panels” tasked with seeking out cost savings by rationing care. A provision to pay physicians for such end-of-life counseling was stripped from the final bill.

"Some doctors now hold such conversations, which often can be lengthy discussions about what type of lifesaving measures patients would want, without getting paid. The hope is that offering reimbursement will encourage physicians to speak frankly with patients about what they want and allow patients to engage in more frequent advance-care planning."

If you think this sounds like a good idea, wait until your palliative care doctor or nurse practitioner engages you in "the talk," then you might be reminded that the most important call in one's life is made by God. 

Duncan Stroik: The Crisis of Contemporary Sacred Art

Duncan Stroik, "is a professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame where he helped implement a new curriculum in classical architecture in 1990. He played a central role in the revival of interest in sacred architecture that led to the formation of the Society for Catholic Liturgy and the journal Sacred Architecture of which he is editor."

He wrote today at Crisis Magazine, a piece entitled: The Crisis of Contemporary Sacred Art," in which he describes the state of sacred art today as "mediocre, impoverished, or in crisis."   One need only enter one of today's many modern churches that can easily be confused with a waiting room at a greyhound bus station to understand Dr. Stroik's complaint.

Stroik lists the many reasons that sacred art has become almost extinct, but argues for its return:

"...why should the Church commission original art? First of all, to commission art is to acknowledge the importance of art as a living tradition. In patronizing art we speak to modern man through the vitality of the arts. We try to touch hearts and minds through beauty and originality. Portraying religious subjects in art can be likened to a sermon in paint or bronze."   

You can read the entire essay by clicking HERE.

A Retired Marine on The Desecration of the White House

Received today via email from a close personal friend and Vietnam veteran:

From an angry retired Marine:

Subject: White House, buildings across the country light up in rainbow colors to celebrate gay rights

I must confess that this subject is getting old.  When I first saw the picture of the White House in the Rainbow colors I just thought it was a joke.  Then I realized they were really doing this.... Must have had the lights, color filters etc all ready to go.      

How many times before has the White House been illuminated for any reason?  I don't think I have ever seen it or been aware. I know that there was some black bunting after Lincoln's assassination.  

 I have never seen it red and gold for the USMC birthday or awash in pink for breast cancer.  I've never seen it in green and red for Christmas or red white and blue for the forth of July. It wasn't blue and green when the Seahawks won the super bowl.  And, that is as it should be.  The White House is an icon known the world over. It is timeless and should exude dignity, grace,  class and style as the centuries old home of the President of the United States.  

From time to time some classless bastards have occupied 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.  Some have had affairs there, some have had some parties that are best not spoken of, one received oral sex from an intern in the Oval Office (how often we'll never know).  Some have had state dinners and awards ceremonies under its roof for some unsavory characters.     

The current occupant had the bad manners to put his feet up on furniture that are priceless historic pieces.  He just doesn't know better because he was never taught, I guess.  But, growing up in Malaysia I am sure he was taught not to present the soles of his shoes to others. 

But, we've never seen anything like this.  To bathe the White House in the garish colors of the most outspoken of the GLBT movement, like a cheap bumper sticker is classless and crude. A classic "in your face" move worthy of a stunt in a B rated teenage movie.  The perfect topper for a crass movement that was willing to go to any lengths to gain publicity.  For shame, for shame.  The White House as a bill board.  What is next?  Perhaps the White House in the colors of the Mexican Flag when immigration reforms fail again and another Presidential Executive Order substitutes for the law.  Or the colors of the Iranian Flag to celebrate our negotiations that insure they will never have nuclear weapons? 

One sad farce follows another in our delusional society where one bad idea follows another and we set the stage for our own demise.  At least we won't bow out with class.  We'll go out like so much tacky, cheap garbage. 

  

Traditional Catholic Priest: The Importance of Latin in the Church

Fr. Peter Carota posted the below video on his website, Traditional Catholic Priest, the other day.  It's 22 minutes long, but it's time well spent if you're interested in learning what happened to this sacred form of the liturgy.  If you think it was Vatican II that caused the disappearance of the Traditional Latin Mass, you would be wrong.  If you think it was Pope John XXIII, you would also be wrong.  You might be shocked to learn that the Traditional Latin Mass has never been "discarded" as you might have been told by today's progressive catholics (including, unfortunately, some members of the clergy). 

In fact, Latin has been the official language of the Church since the 4th century, and Vatican II did nothing to change that.  Fr. Barone, near the end of the below video, offers the following quote: 

"Without Latin we do not know who we are or where we come from."

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI: Listening to Mozart

From Associated Press via Patheos:

Benedict XVI, emeritus pope and theologian, reflected on Saturday on classical music as an “encounter with the divine,” saying listening to Mozart helps him experience “very deeply the Lord’s presence.”

Benedict’s reflections came at a ceremony where he received honourary doctorates from the Pontifical John Paul II University of Krakow and the Krakow Academy of Music for his promotion of respect for the traditions of sacred music in the Church.

Since retiring from the papacy in 2013, Benedict has dedicated his time at the Vatican to prayer, meditation and classical music. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who served as the Vatican’s guardian of doctrinal orthodoxy, he used to relax at home by playing his piano, with Mozart pieces a frequent choice.

"It remains indelibly impressed in my memory how, for example, as soon as the first notes resounded from Mozart’s ‘Coronation Mass,’ the heavens practically opened and you experienced, very deeply, the Lord’s presence,” Benedict, 88, said during his speech at the papal summer retreat in Castel Gandolfo, a hill town near Rome where he had first stayed after resigning, citing age and frailty.

Rarely making speeches as a retiree, Benedict told his audience music is born from the experiences of love, of “sadness, of being touched by death, by pain and by the abysses of existence” as well as from “the encounter with the divine.”

(Photo via Wikipedia) 

Taylor Marshall: 10 Radical Ways Catholics Can Reclaim Marriage

Taylor Marshall offered 10 Radical Ways Catholics Can Reclaim Marriage on his blog recently.

"Have no doubt about it. The legalization of same-sex marriage will change the legal status of matrimony for traditional heterosexuals. This will happen through the courts over the next several years."

You can read his entire post by clicking on the above link, but herewith his 10 ideas:

(1) Start using the term “Holy Matrimony”

(2) We must encourage Catholic Church to officially declare ex cathedra that our Holy Matrimony is a sacrament between a man and a woman

(3) The Catholic Church should consider all Western marriages “dubious” since most contemporary married people are generally lacking formal and material intent. 

(4) The Catholic Church has traditionally and charitably presumed that Protestant marriages are valid and even sacramental. The Catholic Church should rescind this presumption since most Protestant denominations believe in divorce and remarraige…and now same-sex marriage. 

(5) All Catholic marriage prep should end with a video recording of the male and the female to be married in which both personally articulate the Catholic teaching about matrimony, monogamy, indissolubility, procreation and contraception, and heterosexuality.

(6) Casual pre-marital sex should be seen as an impediment to Holy Matrimony.

(7) Recapture Holy Matrimony as a church event and this means we need to distance ourselves from the pomp of the afterparty, flowers, cake, guests, etc.

(8) We need to decouple civil marriage from Sacramental Holy Matrimony. 

(9) Hang on to your Catholic vocabulary. If you have a gay co-worker who is “married” don’t call his partner a “husband” and don’t call his union a “marriage.”

(10) Do not attend marriages that are not really marriages. 

Fr. Barron on the SCOTUS Same-Sex Marriage Ruling

Friedrich Hayek: The Meaning of Truth

Friedrich August von Hayek, the father of Classical Liberalism (not to be confused with the Liberalism of the Left), is featured in the Notable & Quotable section of today's Wall Street Journal.

From economist Friedrich Hayek’s 1944 book “The Road to Serfdom”:

The word truth itself ceases to have its old meaning. It describes no longer something to be found, with the individual conscience as the sole arbiter of whether in any particular instance the evidence (or the standing of those proclaiming it) warrants a belief; it becomes something to be laid down by authority, which has to be believed in the interest of unity of the organized effort and which may have to be altered as the exigencies of this organized effort require it.

The general intellectual climate which this produces, the spirit of complete cynicism as regards truth which it engenders, the loss of the sense of even the meaning of truth, the disappearance of the spirit of independent inquiry and of the belief in the power of rational conviction, the way in which differences of opinion in every branch of knowledge become political issues to be decided by authority, are all things which one must personally experience—no short description can convey their extent. Perhaps the most alarming fact is that contempt for intellectual liberty is not a thing which arises only once the totalitarian system is established, but one which can be found everywhere among intellectuals who have embraced a collectivist faith and who are acclaimed as intellectual leaders even in countries still under a liberal regime. . . .

The tragedy of collectivist thought is that while it starts out to make reason supreme, it ends by destroying reason because it misconceives the process on which the growth of reason depends. It may indeed be said that it is the paradox of all collectivist doctrine and its demand for the “conscious” control or “conscious” planning that they necessarily lead to the demand that the mind of some individual should rule supreme—while only the individualist approach to social phenomena makes us recognise the super-individual forces which guide the growth of reason. Individualism is thus an attitude of humility before this social process and of tolerance to other opinions, and is the exact opposite of that intellectual hubris which is at the root of the demand for comprehensive direction of the social process.

USCCB: SCOTUS Decision a "Tragic Error"

From the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Supreme Court decision, June 26, interpreting the U.S. Constitution to require all states to license and recognize same-sex “marriage” “is a tragic error that harms the common good and most vulnerable among us,” said Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). 

The full statement follows:

Regardless of what a narrow majority of the Supreme Court may declare at this moment in history, the nature of the human person and marriage remains unchanged and unchangeable. Just as Roe v. Wade did not settle the question of abortion over forty years ago, Obergefell v. Hodges does not settle the question of marriage today. Neither decision is rooted in the truth, and as a result, both will eventually fail. Today the Court is wrong again. It is profoundly immoral and unjust for the government to declare that two people of the same sex can constitute a marriage.

The unique meaning of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is inscribed in our bodies as male and female. The protection of this meaning is a critical dimension of the “integral ecology” that Pope Francis has called us to promote. Mandating marriage redefinition across the country is a tragic error that harms the common good and most vulnerable among us, especially children. The law has a duty to support every child’s basic right to be raised, where possible, by his or her married mother and father in a stable home. 

Jesus Christ, with great love, taught unambiguously that from the beginning marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman. As Catholic bishops, we follow our Lord and will continue to teach and to act according to this truth.

I encourage Catholics to move forward with faith, hope, and love: faith in the unchanging truth about marriage, rooted in the immutable nature of the human person and confirmed by divine revelation; hope that these truths will once again prevail in our society, not only by their logic, but by their great beauty and manifest service to the common good; and love for all our neighbors, even those who hate us or would punish us for our faith and moral convictions. 

Lastly, I call upon all people of good will to join us in proclaiming the goodness, truth, and beauty of marriage as rightly understood for millennia, and I ask all in positions of power and authority to respect the God-given freedom to seek, live by, and bear witness to the truth.

Good news for Seniors: A Death Knell for the Death Panel

From Lifenews.com:

The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday voted to repeal a portion of the Obamacare law that pro-life advocates strongly opposed because it could lead to rationing of health care for patients across the nation.

This is the first step toward giving the elderly a better chance that their end date will come when God makes the decision - not a panel of "15 unelected members of the President’s choosing."

If you or someone in your family is currently fighting an incurable disease, but hope, in the way of new treatments and new drugs, is on the horizon, it would be beneficial to make yourself aware of IPAB: one of the most heinous elements of Obamacare.

You can start by reading the entire piece from Lifenews.com, HERE.

You can also go HERE and HERE for additional information.

The Samsung Safety Truck

This two minute video was posted, on June 9, 2015, and as of today it has been viewed more than 2 million times.  Good ideas deserve a wide dissemination.

 

Fr. John Jamnicky: “The people wanted a church that looks like a church, and honestly, so did I”

Fr. John Jamnicky, pastor of St. Raphael the Archangel Church in Old Mill Creek, Illinois, with the help of Francis Cardinal George, former Archbishop of Chicago (RIP), played a major role in an effort toward "Restoring the Sacred" in Illinois, and that effort is still ongoing.  It's a fascinating story, and it was told in some depth by Michael Tamara today in Crisis Magazine.

Fr. Jamnicky, commented on the ongoing project, and the why behind such a huge undertaking:

“The people wanted a church that looks like a church, and honestly, so did I,” declares Fr. Jamnicky. “The newer parishes in Lake County have been built in ‘big box’ styles, so this is very unique in this area of the archdiocese. People comment about the monumental scale. It’s otherworldly. It’s a little bit of heaven.”

The essay by Michael Tamara details how parts of two old and closed churches in the Illinois archdiocese were combined (and are still being combined) to restore the sacred, and once again to create a beautiful place in which the Catholic faithful can honor God.
You can read the entire essay HERE.

Fr. Rutler on Faith, Morals, and Global Warming

Fr. George Rutler wrote an essay today at Crisis Magazine, which is the most forthright explication of the much ballyhooed, and just published, encyclical of Pope Francis on the environment.  He addressed the historical problem of Mixing Up the Sciences of Heaven and Earth, which is the title of his essay.

Pope Urban VIII and his advisers, in the misunderstood (and sometime deliberately misrepresented) Galileo case, inadequately distinguished the duties of prophecy and politics, and of theological and physical science. St. John Paul II said that “this led them unduly to transpose into the realm of the doctrine of the faith, a question which in fact pertained to scientific investigation.”

If you see the above as possibly analogous to the issuing of this new encyclical, you might be right.  Fr. Rutler went further, intimating that Pope Francis might have written an encyclical on a more clear and pressing problem:

While the Holy Father has spoken eloquently about the present genocide of Christians in the Middle East, those who calculate priorities would have hoped for an encyclical about this fierce persecution, surpassing that of the emperor Decius.  Pictures of martyrs being beheaded, gingerly filed away by the media, give the impression that their last concern on earth was not climate fluctuations. 

Finally, he points out that papal encyclicals are considered infallible only when they deal with matters of faith and morals such as Church teaching on contraception, abortion and marriage.  Interestingly, those who ignore encyclicals that deal with such matters, are rushing to expound on the infallibility of papal teaching on the matter which is the subject of the current encyclical which, as Fr. Rutler points out, "does NOT involve faith or morals."

Saint Peter, from his fishing days, had enough hydrometeorology to know that he could not walk on water. Then the eternal Logos told him to do it, and he did, until he mixed up the sciences of heaven and earth and began to sink. As vicars of that Logos, popes speak infallibly only on faith and morals. They also have the prophetic duty to correct anyone who, for the propagation of their particular interests, imputes virtual infallibility to papal commentary on physical science while ignoring genuinely infallible teaching on contraception, abortion and marriage and the mysteries of the Lord of the Universe.  At this moment, we have the paradoxical situation in which an animated, and even frenzied, secular chorus hails papal teaching as infallible, almost as if it could divide the world, provided it does NOT involve faith or morals.

You can read the entire essay by clicking HERE.

Hilaire Belloc: Politics and Religion

Hilaire Belloc, one of the most prolific 20th century English writers, provided a lesson for today's overly ambitious and hypocritical seekers of political office.  He declared himself a candidate for the House of Commons, in 1906, at South Salford, in the general election.  His opponents immediately attacked him because of his religion and his nationality (he was born in France).  At least today's candidates here in America can only be attacked on religious grounds since religion, especially Catholicism, is the last acceptable prejudice in this country.

Unlike today's candidates who are apt to avoid confronting such attacks, Belloc confronted them head-on, and in his first public appearance as a candidate, addressed a packed audience as follows:

Gentlemen, I am a Catholic.  As far as possible, I go to Mass every day.  This [taking a rosary out of his pocket] is a rosary.  As far as possible, I kneel down and tell these beads every day.  If you reject me on account of my religion, I shall thank God that He has spared me the indignity of being your representative.

Belloc was elected, perhaps because voters in the England of 1906 valued honesty.


The above is from Literary Converts
by Joseph Pearce, Ignatius Press.

Gov. Bobby Jindal: Obama's "Moral" Case for Socialism

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is featured in the Notable & Quotable section of today's Wall Street Journal.  No comment is necessary as Gov. Jindal states the obvious.

From Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s response to a question on Mike Gallagher’s June 10 syndicated talk-radio show about the “moral case” made this week by President Obama for ObamaCare:

Let’s call his remarks exactly what they are. He made the moral case for socialism. Let’s not sugarcoat it, that’s exactly what he believes. He doesn’t hide it, he doesn’t pretend, we shouldn’t either. This isn’t new. Those who favor socialism always make the moral case for it. The truth is, maybe they actually believe in it, but in the real world, socialism harms, it weakens the economies of countries that have tried it. It just does. Weaker economies hurt everybody in them. Socialism kills incentive, opportunity, freedom. It is the opposite of what America is all about. Look, socialism always harms the people it claims to help the most. It handicaps them, leaving them weaker, less self-determined, less free. We should have this debate out in the open. His “moral case” for ObamaCare is actually immoral. Spending money you don’t have is immoral. Borrowing more money than you can pay back is immoral. Lying to the American people is immoral, so it’s ironic he chooses to use the terms “moral case” or “moral imperative” to make the case for what I think is a very flawed law. The Supreme Court, I hope, rules the correct way. We need to repeal this, replace this. Mike, we cannot measure success by how many people are dependent on government. That’s what President Obama wants. That is the opposite of what America stands for.

Crisis Magazine: "German Bishops have Prepared the Way for a De Facto Schism"

Marie Meaney, who received her doctorate and an M. Phil. in Modern Languages from the University of Oxford, wrote an essay today on Crisis Magazine entitled: German Bishops have Prepared the Way for a De Facto Schism, which you can read in its entirety HERE.

The constant meme of Mercy espoused ad nauseam by many German bishops, and others who have bought into the meme, came in for sharp and damning criticism in the essay, as is clear in the below quote.

Here's the quote:

 A Christianity that pretends it can do without marriage while claiming to be acting out of compassion, has taken on the trappings of Christianity while leaving us with an empty shell. This is one of the faces of the anti-Christ rearing its ugly head as it has throughout history. Our society has already fallen for it hook, line and sinker. We abort our children in the name of compassion, and kill the elderly out of mercy. We produce children for the infertile while killing the imperfect in the process. We call for mercy for the divorced and remarried, yet throw the children of the original marriage together with the abandoned spouse under the bus. This is the nasty underbelly of a false kind of compassion and mercy.