Here is a simple question with an obvious answer: Is President Barack Obama more deferential to the religious sensibilities of Afghan Muslims or the religious freedom of American Catholics?
The answer: Obama is more deferential to the religious sensibilities of Muslims in Afghanistan than to the religious freedom of Catholics in the United States.
Let’s stipulate a point of principle out front: People should not burn Korans, period. To burn a Koran, whether as a premeditated act of spite or as a boneheaded mistake, is wrong.
That being said, the Korans burned at Bagram Air Force in Afghanistan were burned as the result of a boneheaded mistake--not as a conscious effort to affront Muslims.
Here in the United States, President Obama’s decision to order Roman Catholics to act against the teachings of their faith by forcing Catholics to buy insurance that pays for sterilizations, artificial contraceptives and abortifacients was not made by mistake. Obama did it with long and careful premeditation--fully understanding that the Catholic Church would (correctly) perceive the regulation as a very serious and direct attack on the free exercise of religion by Catholics.
We know this because from August to February, the Catholic bishops of the United States repeatedly warned the Obama administration directly and through public statements that the administration's sterilization-contraception-abortifacient mandate was an attack on the religious liberty of Catholics and that Catholics would adamantly oppose it as an attack on their religious liberty.
Read the rest at CNSNews.comhttp://cnsnews.com/blog/terence-p-jeffrey/obama-s-more-deferential-afghan-muslims-american-catholics
Making a good Lenten confession
Fr. Philip Neri’s Ten Commandments for a Good Lenten Confession:
1. Thou shall know that thy presence in the confessional is the wondrous work of the Holy Spirit. That’s right. If you find yourself in the Box with Father, you are there first because the Holy Spirit prompted you to go. You agreed to follow that prompt, but like all forms of prayer and charitable work, the human person requires a little graced nudge. So, go into your confession confident that you are there by the grace of God to be reconcile to Him!
2. Thou shall not waste your time or Father’s time with obsessive-compulsive sacramental trivia such as, “OK, Father…so I was still a little drunk but I had to pee so I got up and I wasn’t all the way awake yet and I did it but is that a sin still?” Or, “Father, canon 1765.4 forbids X and I heard recently that Blessed Mary spoke to a woman in Mobile, AL and she said that X is OK and she has the bishop imprimatur!” Hint: if you find yourself discussing the distinction between a valid sacrament and a merely licit sacrament, you must RUN to the nearest park and lay in the sun.
3. Thou shall simply and clearly state your sins without excuse, explanation, or decoration. It is rather pointless to confess your sins with flourish or verbal decoration. Also, the priest really doesn’t need to know why you committed a particular sin. He’ll ask you if more info is needed.
4. Thou shall not use weasel words, dodges, or euphemisms when confessing individual sins. “Impure with self” is not a sin. Masturbation is a sin. “I watched inappropriate images on the computer and abused myself.” Do we confess inappropriate behaviors or sin? In other words, you watched porn and masturbated. Just say so.
5. Thou shall keep Penitent Drama to a minimum. Confessions can be quiet dramatic and even confusing. But confession time is not the right time to show everyone in line outside what a horrible sinner you have been and what a wonderful saint you are now. Also, Father doesn’t need to hear twenty-minutes of highly detailed narrative building up to the actual sin. This is attention-seeking behavior and a waste of precious time.
6. Thou shall not use the “face to face” option as an excuse to chit-chat with Father. Confession is not about story time nor is this option a chance to ask Father for advise on a complicated spiritual issue. Make an appointment with him for that. You have a whole lotta people waiting to see their confessor in the Box.
7. Thou shall confess thine own sins and no one else’s. This seems to be a particular problem among mothers and grandmothers of wayward children and grandchildren. Having failed to persuade said wayward child into the Box, mother or grandmother try to sneak the child’s sin past the priest. There is no vicarious confession in the church.
8. Thou shall not request of Father a confession only a few minutes before Mass begin. The time right before Mass is usually very chaotic in the sacristy and in the church. Father is preoccupied with setting up the sacramentary, placing his homily on the ambo; adjusting the speed of his fav fan, and just generally trying his best to prepare for Mass.
9. Thou shall ask questions about your assigned penance if you do not understand it. Do not leave the Box wondering what it is you are supposed to do for your penance. Just ask Father to clarify quickly his assignment. He will welcome this because it shows you are serious about the sacrament.
10. Thou shall not make a false confession in order to test Father’s orthodoxy nor record the sacrament without Father’s express approval. Yes, this has happened to me and it is a violation of just about everything we believe is holy in the Church, and I believe it constitutes a mortal sin. [NB. I should've struck the phrase above when I reposted this. Confessions are not to be recorded. period.]
1. Thou shall know that thy presence in the confessional is the wondrous work of the Holy Spirit. That’s right. If you find yourself in the Box with Father, you are there first because the Holy Spirit prompted you to go. You agreed to follow that prompt, but like all forms of prayer and charitable work, the human person requires a little graced nudge. So, go into your confession confident that you are there by the grace of God to be reconcile to Him!
2. Thou shall not waste your time or Father’s time with obsessive-compulsive sacramental trivia such as, “OK, Father…so I was still a little drunk but I had to pee so I got up and I wasn’t all the way awake yet and I did it but is that a sin still?” Or, “Father, canon 1765.4 forbids X and I heard recently that Blessed Mary spoke to a woman in Mobile, AL and she said that X is OK and she has the bishop imprimatur!” Hint: if you find yourself discussing the distinction between a valid sacrament and a merely licit sacrament, you must RUN to the nearest park and lay in the sun.
3. Thou shall simply and clearly state your sins without excuse, explanation, or decoration. It is rather pointless to confess your sins with flourish or verbal decoration. Also, the priest really doesn’t need to know why you committed a particular sin. He’ll ask you if more info is needed.
4. Thou shall not use weasel words, dodges, or euphemisms when confessing individual sins. “Impure with self” is not a sin. Masturbation is a sin. “I watched inappropriate images on the computer and abused myself.” Do we confess inappropriate behaviors or sin? In other words, you watched porn and masturbated. Just say so.
5. Thou shall keep Penitent Drama to a minimum. Confessions can be quiet dramatic and even confusing. But confession time is not the right time to show everyone in line outside what a horrible sinner you have been and what a wonderful saint you are now. Also, Father doesn’t need to hear twenty-minutes of highly detailed narrative building up to the actual sin. This is attention-seeking behavior and a waste of precious time.
6. Thou shall not use the “face to face” option as an excuse to chit-chat with Father. Confession is not about story time nor is this option a chance to ask Father for advise on a complicated spiritual issue. Make an appointment with him for that. You have a whole lotta people waiting to see their confessor in the Box.
7. Thou shall confess thine own sins and no one else’s. This seems to be a particular problem among mothers and grandmothers of wayward children and grandchildren. Having failed to persuade said wayward child into the Box, mother or grandmother try to sneak the child’s sin past the priest. There is no vicarious confession in the church.
8. Thou shall not request of Father a confession only a few minutes before Mass begin. The time right before Mass is usually very chaotic in the sacristy and in the church. Father is preoccupied with setting up the sacramentary, placing his homily on the ambo; adjusting the speed of his fav fan, and just generally trying his best to prepare for Mass.
9. Thou shall ask questions about your assigned penance if you do not understand it. Do not leave the Box wondering what it is you are supposed to do for your penance. Just ask Father to clarify quickly his assignment. He will welcome this because it shows you are serious about the sacrament.
10. Thou shall not make a false confession in order to test Father’s orthodoxy nor record the sacrament without Father’s express approval. Yes, this has happened to me and it is a violation of just about everything we believe is holy in the Church, and I believe it constitutes a mortal sin. [NB. I should've struck the phrase above when I reposted this. Confessions are not to be recorded. period.]
25 Ways to Live the Lenten Season
Fr. Michael Najim...Lent is a time of great grace, a time a spiritual renewal. Traditionally there are three main components to Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. So, here are 25 ways to live the Lenten season in a spirit of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. There is no particular order to these 25 ways, and I don’t pretend that these are the best or most creative ways. However, if you’re looking for some ideas, hopefully you will find one or two here. I’d love to hear some ways that you are planning to enter into the spirit of Lent, so please feel free to leave a comment. Your comments may be helpful to the readers of this blog as well.
Without further adieu, here are 25 way to live the Lenten season.
1) Read a little Scripture (maybe choose one of the Gospels)
2) Read a spiritual book for ten minutes
3) Spend ten extra minutes in silence
4) Pray the rosary
5) Pray the Way of the Cross
6) Stop by a church for five minutes on your way to/from work (if possible)
7) Go to daily Mass or try to go once or twice during the week besides Sunday
8) Put aside $1-$2 a day and give it to charity at the end of Lent (consider giving to Haiti if you haven’t done so)
9) Give up desserts
10) Give up unhealthy snacks
11) Give up alcohol
12) Give up or cut down on coffee or tea
13) Give up bread
14) Wake up earlier than usual (get up as soon as the alarm goes off)
15) Go to bed earlier than usual
16) Give up or spend less time on the Internet, especially facebook, twitter, and other social networking sites
17) Give up or cut down on Television
18) Don’t listen to the radio while you drive; use the silent time for prayer
19) Cut down on the number of times a day you check email
20) Fast on Fridays if your health allows for it (one meal or just bread and water)
21) Call a friend or family member each day—or a few times during the week— to see how they’re doing
22) Volunteer your time at a local soup kitchen, homeless shelter, or another place that is committed to serving the poor, addicted, or abused.
23) Remain calm when driving
24) Simplify your life: each week go through your closets and drawers and get rid of clothes and give them to the needy; each week get rid of books and find a place to give them away
25) Begin and end your day on your knees
I pray that you have a blessed and holy Lenten season!
P.S. I’m leaving for Rome on Thursday to visit our three seminarians at the North American College. Please know that I will pray for you. I may not get a chance to post another article until after I return on the 24th. I will try to tweet from Rome if possible.
American Catholic Saints, Pope Sets Oct. 21 Date For Canonization
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI has set Oct. 21 as the date to make two U.S. saints: Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk Indian who spent most of her life in what is now upstate New York, and Mother Marianne Cope, who began religious life in the same area but moved to Hawaii to care for leprosy patients.Benedict had already approved miracles attributed to the two, the final step toward sainthood. At the end of a ceremony Saturday to make 22 new cardinals – including New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan – Benedict announced the date for canonization of the two women and five others.
Dolan marveled that his first official act as a cardinal was to formally OK the New York-area saints. He quipped: "As grateful as I am for being a cardinal, I really want to be a saint."
Lenten Reflection
Do you still not understand?
From all this it is clear that we ourselves are our own worst enemies, and consequently that, in order to be truly spiritual, we must renounce ourselves. If fact our own experience shows us that our want of progress results from our want of mortification. Our flesh inclines us to seek sensual satisfaction, to provide for our wants with unnecessary solicitude, to fly hunger, cold, contempt, sickness, afflictions; to murmur and complain when any little convenience is wanting to us. To all these natural and sensual weaknesses we must die, for, if we would live according to the spirit, we must mortify the deeds of the flesh.
Plato elegantly says that God has attached two wings to our souls, which wings are two inclinations to celestial things: one enables our understanding to fly to the first truth, the other raises our will toward the Sovereign Goodness; and he adds that these wings are fettered and broken by the inordinate affection we have to our flesh. The felicity of man consists in the sovereign food, that is, in true wisdom; and the greatest obstacle to the attainment of this is the burden of the body, which is subject to the illusions of the senses, and has, besides, its own peculiar necessities and infirmities. Hence, whoever desires to be truly wise and happy, must daily die more and more to the inclinations of corrupt nature. Our soul, according to the old philosophers, is inflamed with two contrary affections: the one impels us upward, toward the sovereign beauty; the other drags us downward to corporal things.
By Father Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure, S.J.
Weigel: Divide and Conquer?
In 1849 and then again in 1852, the Catholic bishops of the United States petitioned the Holy See to grant the archbishops of Baltimore the title of “primate” of the Catholic Church in the United States: an honorific, to be sure, but one that implied that the head of America’s oldest Catholic diocese would enjoy a de facto preeminence as leader of American Catholicism. But the Vatican, nervous that an American “primate” would assert himself in some fashion against Rome, declined to bestow the title (although, interestingly, it didn’t cavil about the title “primate” being given to the archbishop of Quebec City, the Primate of Canada, and the archbishop of Gniezno remained the Primate of Poland even when “Poland” disappeared from the map of Europe in the 19th century).
The notion of a “primate” has little operational meaning throughout the Catholic Church in the 21st century. The Second Vatican Council mandated that every country have a national bishops’ conference. So, today, the president of the national conference is understood to be the principal figure in any local Church. Everyone understands, for example, that Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaks for the Church in the United States in a singular way, especially when he speaks for a united bishops’ conference on matters of first principles.
Everyone, that is, but the Obama White House.
In his appearance on Fox News Sunday on February 12, White House chief of staff Jack Lew discussed with host Chris Wallace what the administration was determined to sell as an “accommodation” to Catholic concerns, an “accommodation” that tweaked an HHS mandate requiring that all health insurance provide no-co-pay abortifacients, sterilizations, and contraceptives. Lew tried, unsuccessfully, to shore up the administration’s pretense that something in the moral calculus of the original mandate had changed with the administration’s “accommodation” — which, of course, it hadn’t. What was truly striking about the administration spin, however, was Lew’s suggestion that the Catholic Health Association (whose president, Sister Carol Keehan, had quickly and publicly applauded the administration’s “accommodation”) trumped the bishops’ conference when it came to who-speaks-for-the-Catholic-Church-in-America.
Chris Wallace quoted the bishops’ February 10 statement rejecting the “accommodation,” to which Lew replied, “We didn’t expect to get universal support of the bishops or all Catholics.” Wallace pressed on, noting that the February 10 statement was “the most powerful statement by the Catholic Church in this country” and that it expressed “grave moral concern.” Lew said that he couldn’t “speak to the differences within the Catholic Church,” and when Wallace asked how, then, he would “respond to [the bishops’] statement that this [is] government coercion,” Lew played the CHA card as a trump: “I would point to the statement put out by the Catholic Health Association, which knows a fair amount about . . . health care in this country. They thought this was a very good solution.”
In the administration’s view, then, primacy in the Catholic Church is not conferred by the pope, but by the White House. Thus Sister Carol Keehan could be recognized by the president’s chief of staff as primate of the Catholic Church in the United States, because she headed an organization that “knows a fair amount about . . . health care in this country” — unlike, for example, those mulish bishops who had failed to be taken in by the administration’s shell game.
That the administration would play divide-and-conquer with the Catholic Church in its attempt to ram through the HHS mandate was obvious from the outset, although the White House was likely surprised by the virtual unanimity of Catholic opposition to the mandate’s announcement on January 20 — a unanimity breached only by the likes of Catholics for Choice, a front group for pro-abortion donors that Lenin would have recognized as a gaggle of “useful idiots.” Indeed, the very rollout of the “accommodation” on February 10 reeked of divide-and-conquer. As Cardinal-designate Dolan has made clear in recent interviews, the White House called Father John Jenkins, C.S.C., president of the University of Notre Dame, with news of the “accommodation,” before it called the president of the bishops conference. Father Jenkins, to his great credit, told the White House that they had the wrong number and that they had to call Dolan. Jenkins later issued a statement welcoming what he took to be the administration’s recognition of “the freedom of religious institutions to abide by the principles that define their respective mission,” although he also expressed concern about “a number of unclear and unresolved issues” to be explored.
To read the article in full go here.
Catholic schools and vocations to the priesthood - The example of Don Bosco
January 31st, Feast of St. John Bosco
John Bosco (Italian: Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco; 16 August 1815 – 31 January 1888), was an Italian Roman Catholic priest, educator and writer of the 19th century, who put into practice the convictions of his religion, dedicating his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth and employing teaching methods based on love rather than punishment, a method known as the Salesian Preventive System. A follower of the spirituality and philosophy of Francis de Sales, Bosco dedicated his works to him when he founded the Salesians of Don Bosco. Together with Maria Domenica Mazzarello, he founded the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, a religious congregation of nuns dedicated to the care and education of poor girls. In 1876 Bosco founded a movement of laity, the Association of Salesian Cooperators, with the same educational mission to the poor. In 1875 he published the Salesian Bulletin. The Bulletin has remained in continuous publication, and is currently published in 50 different editions and 30 languages.
Catholics rally against Obama contraception mandate
By Rick Jervis
From Maine to Arizona to southern Louisiana, Catholic churches across the country echoed with scorn for a new federal rule requiring faith-based employers to include birth control and other reproductive services in their health care coverage.
Dozens of priests took the rare step of reading letters from the pulpit urging parishioners to reach out to Washington and oppose the rule, enacted Jan 20.
The rule requires nearly all employers to provide their employees access to health insurance that covers artificial contraception, sterilization services and the “morning after” birth control pill.
The mandate exempts individual churches but applies to Catholic universities, Catholic-based charities and to groups affiliated with Methodists, Baptists and other denominations.
Roman Catholic leaders morally oppose artificial birth control and related services, and they called the rule an infringement on their constitutional rights.
“This is the government interfering in the workings of the church,” said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has made fighting the contraception mandate a top-shelf priority.
Catholic Church actions in opposition to the federal edict included:
— New Orleans-area churches read a letter from Archbishop Gregory Aymond at weekend Masses, directing churchgoers at the diocese’s 108 parishes to denounce the rule and contact Congress to reverse the ruling. “This ruling is an example of government violating our rights,” the letter read.
— The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix issued a similar letter to its 92 parishes, saying it plans to flout the law and urging churchgoers to write Congress.
— Church leaders in Maine read a letter from Bishop Richard Malone protesting the rule he called a violation of the church’s First Amendment right to freedom of religious practices and urging parishioners into action.
— In a letter to his diocese, Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh said the Obama administration’s message to U.S. Catholics is clear: “To hell with your religious beliefs; To hell with your religious liberty; To hell with your freedom of conscience.”
It was not known exactly how many churches addressed the issue. About one-third of America’s 67 million Roman Catholics attend weekly Mass, according to William D’Antonio, a sociologist at the Catholic University of America. However, in recent polls, about 95 percent of Catholics have said they use contraceptives, and 89 percent say the decision to use them should be theirs, not the church’s, he said.
Judy Waxman of the National Women’s Law Center said easier access to contraceptives could prevent unwanted pregnancies and cut down on the number of abortions. “This is such a major step forward for women in this country,” she said.
Wesley and Lesley Sterling of McComb, Miss., heard about the rule for the first time while attending Saturday Mass at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. Both side with the church on the debate.
“It’s wrong,” Wesley Sterling, 30, said of the rule. “It should not be forced upon what we believe in as Christians.”
(Rick Jervis writes for USA Today.)
From Maine to Arizona to southern Louisiana, Catholic churches across the country echoed with scorn for a new federal rule requiring faith-based employers to include birth control and other reproductive services in their health care coverage.
Dozens of priests took the rare step of reading letters from the pulpit urging parishioners to reach out to Washington and oppose the rule, enacted Jan 20.
The rule requires nearly all employers to provide their employees access to health insurance that covers artificial contraception, sterilization services and the “morning after” birth control pill.
The mandate exempts individual churches but applies to Catholic universities, Catholic-based charities and to groups affiliated with Methodists, Baptists and other denominations.
Roman Catholic leaders morally oppose artificial birth control and related services, and they called the rule an infringement on their constitutional rights.
“This is the government interfering in the workings of the church,” said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has made fighting the contraception mandate a top-shelf priority.
Catholic Church actions in opposition to the federal edict included:
— New Orleans-area churches read a letter from Archbishop Gregory Aymond at weekend Masses, directing churchgoers at the diocese’s 108 parishes to denounce the rule and contact Congress to reverse the ruling. “This ruling is an example of government violating our rights,” the letter read.
— The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix issued a similar letter to its 92 parishes, saying it plans to flout the law and urging churchgoers to write Congress.
— Church leaders in Maine read a letter from Bishop Richard Malone protesting the rule he called a violation of the church’s First Amendment right to freedom of religious practices and urging parishioners into action.
— In a letter to his diocese, Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh said the Obama administration’s message to U.S. Catholics is clear: “To hell with your religious beliefs; To hell with your religious liberty; To hell with your freedom of conscience.”
It was not known exactly how many churches addressed the issue. About one-third of America’s 67 million Roman Catholics attend weekly Mass, according to William D’Antonio, a sociologist at the Catholic University of America. However, in recent polls, about 95 percent of Catholics have said they use contraceptives, and 89 percent say the decision to use them should be theirs, not the church’s, he said.
Judy Waxman of the National Women’s Law Center said easier access to contraceptives could prevent unwanted pregnancies and cut down on the number of abortions. “This is such a major step forward for women in this country,” she said.
Wesley and Lesley Sterling of McComb, Miss., heard about the rule for the first time while attending Saturday Mass at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. Both side with the church on the debate.
“It’s wrong,” Wesley Sterling, 30, said of the rule. “It should not be forced upon what we believe in as Christians.”
(Rick Jervis writes for USA Today.)
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