Are Catholic conservatives turning on Cardinal Timothy Dolan? - YES

Are Catholic conservatives turning on Cardinal Timothy Dolan?

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Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York greets a New York City firefighter while reviewing the 253rd annual St. Patrick’s Day in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York on March 17, 2014. RNS photo by Gregory A. Shemitz

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NEW YORK (RNS)  Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s positive reaction to this week’s decision by organizers of New York’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade to allow gay groups to march under their own banners initially drew charitable responses in many Catholic Church circles.

But it didn’t take long for conservative church critics to turn.

After initially signaling his grudging acceptance, William Donohue of the Catholic League came back with a revised view when he realized that more than one gay group could be allowed to march in the future.

“The goal of these activists, supported by the corporate elite, is to neuter the religious element of the parade,” Donohue said. “This is an Irish-Catholic parade, and if what comes after the hyphen is cut, so will the parade’s support, beginning with the Catholic League.”

The St. Patrick’s Day parade is closely identified with Irish-Catholicism but it is not a church-sanctioned event.

In his statement welcoming the decision of parade organizers to accept a gay and lesbian contingent from NBC, which broadcasts the event, Dolan stressed New York’s archbishops have never “determined who would or would not march in this parade.”

Maybe not, but the late Cardinal John O’Connor made it clear in the 1990s that allowing gays to march would be like editing the Apostles’ Creed.

One of the most blistering rips at Dolan and the parade organizers came from a Washington priest, Monsignor Charles Pope, who blogs at the website of the Archdiocese of Washington.

In a column, Pope took aim at the St. Patrick’s Day parade and also the annual Al Smith Dinner hosted by the archbishop of New York and featuring Democratic and Republican presidential nominees.

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William Donohue of the Catholic League, who was one of the biggest opponents of gay participation, initially signaled his grudging acceptance: “One would hope that all the new entries will conduct themselves in a manner that honors St. Patrick, lest another round of controversy emerges,” Donohue said. Photo by Patrick Novecosky/Legatus, courtesy of Catholic League

Dolan faced sharp conservative attacks in 2012 for following tradition and inviting President Obama as well as Mitt Romney. This latest move by Dolan was too much for Pope:

“It’s time to cancel the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the Al Smith Dinner and all the other ‘Catholic’ traditions that have been hijacked by the world,” he wrote. “Better for Catholics to enter their churches and get down on their knees on St. Patrick’s Day to pray in reparation for the foolishness, and to pray for this confused world to return to its senses.”

The Washington archdiocese took Pope’s post down, though it can still be read at the traditionalist website, Rorate Caeli, which called Dolan’s welcome of gays and lesbians to the parade “The St. Patrick’s Day Massacre.”

Rod Dreher, a writer for The American Conservative and a former Catholic-turned-Orthodox, chimed in with a post titled “You’ve Been Dolanized,” in which he said his Catholic friends in New York are very unhappy.

“I wonder how long it’s going to take before (Dolan) realizes that he will have earned no new friends — the people he’s trying to charm are still going to hate him and make fun of him — and alienated the old ones who would have normally been his most loyal ones?” Dreher wrote.

How much impact this criticism will have is unclear. But Dolan clearly seems to be comfortable with the more inclusive posture adopted by Pope Francis.

The cardinal last month gave a lengthy interview to the Boston Globe’s Vatican expert, John Allen, in which Dolan indicated that the days of the culture wars in the church were coming to a close.

The effort to withhold Communion from pro-choice Catholic pols “is in the past,” he said. And he also said that Francis wants pastoral, social justice-focused bishops “who would not be associated with any one ideological camp.”

YS/AMB END GIBSON

OBEDIENCE

The “O” Word

Obedience: few words are more likely to make an American shudder.It’s practically a swear word, like “truth,” “humility,” or “hierarchy.” We are a nation that was built upon liberation from a monarchical government, which our forefathers resented for imposing taxes on their tea and playing cards. Yet, as tempting as it might be to focus on the problem of obedience as something peculiar to the United States or even to modernity, we know that it’s nothing new:

The disobedient walk proudly, carrying the head of self-will high. And if they are sometimes forced to obey they do not bow down in humility but pass through the door proudly.

So said Catherine of Siena, referring to religious brothers and sisters in the fourteenth century. The Book of Genesis declares that disobedience was the sin of Adam, the root of original sin, and even the ancient pagans recognized the deadly effects of hubris. It makes sense, then, that obedience is difficult for us, and will continue to be difficult. We might even be tempted to despair and ask, “Why bother trying?”

Obedience is difficult because of what it is: the giving over of our will to another or, put another way, choosing to do what another chooses. Parents expect their children to obey them. Employers expect their employees to follow their directions. Obedience is a fundamental part of human society because it is a necessary part of justice, or giving what is due to others. This does not mean we do absolutely anything our “superiors” ask us to do, but it does mean we obey them in matters over which they have authority, as long as what they ask does not contravene the moral law. We do the extra spreadsheets that seem entirely unnecessary, but which our boss wants done. We follow our teacher’s directions on how to write a paper, even if we prefer another style. We listen to our parents’ life lessons and try to put them into practice, even if we don’t fully understand them.

We can see how obedience is necessary even in a merely human way, for the purposes of a well-ordered society, but it also operates on a much deeper level. Through obedience we can show God that our love for Him is genuine. “I’m going to do what my conceited co-worker is asking me to do on this project, even if he is incredibly annoying, and I’m going to do it for the love of God, who has placed me here at this particular time.” By offering our will to God in situations such as this, we imitate Christ himself, who “learned obedience” (Heb 5:8) in his humanity:

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. (Phil 2:5–8)

By obedience we become like Christ, who was obedient to His Father’s will, demonstrating in his own body that obedience is our means of sanctification. St. Catherine makes this point multiple times in her Dialogue: “Only the obedient can attain eternal life, for eternal life, which had been locked by Adam’s disobedience, was unlocked by the key of obedience.” The obedience of Christ frees us from sin and death and enables us to participate, by our own act of obedience, in the life of God.

Of course, obedience is not something limited to religious or to Christians, but it should be more evident and profound in those who have been conformed to Christ by Baptism or the profession of vows. Obedience is the path of the saints to perfect love. As St. Catherine writes, “Your entire faith is founded on obedience, for it is by obedience that you show your fidelity.” Obedience is the sign of fidelity, and fidelity is the sign of love. Our love and fidelity show themselves in repeated acts of obedience, over time and in difficult circumstances. This highlights the importance of patient humility: those who believe in, hope for, and love the Word they have heard will be obedient to that Word until the end.

In times of widespread dissent and individualism, we need to cultivate the virtue of obedience and affirm its value once again. Obedience is ultimately about giving what is due to Him who has given us all we have and are, including the power to know and will anything at all. Far from restricting our lives, obedience frees us to love God as He has loved us—unto death.

http://catholicexchange.com/o-word

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on Dominicana, the student Dominican blog of the Province of St. Joseph, and is reprinted here with kind permission. 

Br. Tomás Martín Rosado entered the Order of Preachers in 2010. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he studied theology.

The Heart of a Mystic

When we consider the concept of mysticism, most of us assume mystics are somehow set apart from the rest of humanity as mysterious and highly intuitive people who participate in an exceptional relationship with God.  Mysticism is easily translated across multiple religions, and even within Christianity, there is some debate as to what defines a mystic.  As a lifelong Catholic, I have always been drawn to the notable mystical saints: St. Padre Pio, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila.  Their extraordinary ability to sense and recognize God in vast mysteries has fascinated and lured me into the supernatural realm of knowing and being.

I was exposed to St. John of the Cross four years ago during a time of uncertainty and crossroads in my spiritual life; I had long wrestled with questions of my purpose and existence, lamenting to God incessantly and yet receiving no direct or clear answer.  My spiritual director at the time recommended that I become acquainted with John of the Cross, and so I dared to delve into the worn pages of his collective works.  The words were as I anticipated: mysterious, hidden, intuitive.  Most people had warned me that his writings were, at best, difficult to comprehend, and so I should not expect much of myself as I read them.  I was prepared for this, but I was also open to the possibility that perhaps God might permit me to understand even an iota of wisdom or truth that might be contained in the pages of that tattered volume I owned.

I believe it was in this openness of heart where God spoke to me through the fluid, perceptive and artistic wisdom of this Spanish saint; I was enthralled at the gaping distance between epochs – his and mine – and yet the relevance of his message as it pertained to my own life and personal spiritual journey.  I felt as if I were reading a letter from an old friend, one who knew me perhaps more intimately than I knew myself, and one who offered a message of great hope in the midst of contradiction.  It was during this time in my life when I realized that darkness does not always entail despair or despondency.  Darkness is not always interpreted as unholy or sacrilegious.  It is not a punishment, but rather a blessing and grace from our Heavenly Father.

St. John of the Cross so succinctly defined the difference between unholy darkness and the “dark night of the soul,” in which a soul is purposefully, for a time, not illuminated to the inner workings of God; the senses, will and intellect are all often darkened so that the person is incapable of viewing the good taking place within his or her heart and soul.  People who have entered this “dark night” tend to express a sort of “desert” spirituality: dryness in prayer, without consolations or adulations.  They feel an intense longing to feel God’s presence, for a deeper union with Him, and in their emptiness, they believe they are abandoned and forsaken by Him instead.

The mystical saints have spoken to my heart, because I have the heart of a mystic.  I do not approach mystical writings of the saints with trepidation or apprehension, because I know that there are others in this modern age who experience similar movements of their hearts and souls, similar to those of the saints who lived perhaps hundreds of years ago.  This occurs, I believe, because God longs to reconnect the hearts of His people with His Sacred and Eucharistic Heart in a unitive fusion of two hearts into one: a spiritual, mystical marriage, a communion.

Unbeknownst to many, mysticism does not necessarily entail spiritual ecstasies, visions, revelations, and locutions.  It is not an experience exclusive to an elite and holy few, but rather it appeals to many hearts who – right now, in this moment – are convicted with zeal, a hunger, a pining for the unitive love between God and the souls of all of humanity.  Mysticism unites the soul of one who actively engages in solitary and disciplined prayer with God’s own heart, but it also expands into the realm of a desire to suffer with and for all souls who are afflicted with the plight of the human condition resulting from sin and strife.

The modern mystic is one who is open to contemplation, in which God innocuously and spontaneously draws a soul into a deeper union with Him for a time – perhaps a fleeting moment or several hours.  Contemplation is a gift, an invitation from God to engage in an experience of His suffering for the sake of love.  It occurs when and how God wills it.  A mystical soul also meditates deeply on the mysteries of faith: the Trinity, the Eucharist, redemptive suffering, the consequences of original sin.  A mystic does not have to be a theologian and yet must remain true to the teachings of the Church, submitting oneself in full obedience and humility to the Magisterium and doctrines and dogma of our faith.

Ultimately, the heart of a mystic is transformed by Love Himself: from a heart of fear, anxiety, and vice into a heart that naturally loves with abundance and self-sacrifice.  Our once-stony hearts become hearts of flesh, alive and vibrant, ready and willing to be and do all that God asks of us in every facet of our lives.  A mystical heart is one that is moved to quiet and solitude when necessary, but also action and service when it is warranted.  It is a heart that is in waiting – waiting for God’s beckoning and discerning His will for us to respond, sometimes boldly and sometimes gently.  It is a heart that is not afraid of the periods of aridity in prayer, but one that also does not seek exuberance in spiritual experiences.  It is content with a holy indifference, always quietly waiting and yet simultaneously seeking God.

http://catholicexchange.com/heart-mystic

By Jeannie Ewing

Taking Offense: An Enemy of Truth

Taking offense certifies the modern man as one who cares. If we take offense on behalf of another we can number ourselves among the sensitive and loving. If we take offense personally we can brandish a stop sign declaring to all that the offense must cease. In either case the offending words must stop and the conversation must end. For the modern lover never offends. Instead he unfailingly affirms. He affirms us with an “okay” that builds our self-esteem, engenders good feelings, and requires nothing of us beyond self-affirmation.

But can people who love one another do so by simply remaining inoffensive? Is the purpose of love to enhance good feelings and discourage bad feelings? WWJD? What would Jesus do? Frequently, we find a modern interpretation of Jesus that would indeed prioritize feelings, one that asserts “I gotta be me” and “you gotta be you” because, after all, God made us that way and He wouldn’t want to offend us. The fact that the “I” that one has to be frequently walks over the “you” that somebody else must be seems largely irrelevant to the modern man. Jesus would certainly love. But what does that mean?

Because we are imperfect humans with our hidden biases, discerning what Jesus would do is more difficult that it seems. However, we can begin with the most basic assumption of love: we do not hurt others. But is being offended equal to being hurt? Certainly, some people offend with the intent to hurt and this is certainly contrary to love. The subjective act of one’s being offended, however, does not necessarily impugn the love of the one offending. Nobody offends the average teenager more than his parents, the ones who love him the most. A parent who does not offend his or her child’s sensibilities either has the perfect child or has decided that good feelings are more important than challenging the child. Children growing into adults get things wrong before they get them right, whether it be math or morals. The problem is not that the child needs correcting. Correction is the simple give and take of learning that every child requires. The problem is a childlike pride or inflated self-esteem which makes the process offensive to the child. A mother and father do not intend to offend but to engender the greater good of the child. It is a parent’s job to expose the falsehood in both poor arithmetic and the purloined lollipop. A child who sees love in correction will grow up understanding the contradiction between taking offense and seeking truth. A child unable to move beyond personal affront will always find the truth elusive.

Returning to “What would Jesus do?” the gospels clearly tell us that to love and not offend are certainly not synonymous. Whether you believe in Jesus’s divinity or you think Him simply a wonderful man, He set a standard by which love is judged across religions and across cultures. The modern world loves to claim the Jesus of the Beatitudes as the very essence of caring and love, forgetting that the same Jesus died lonely and forsaken on the cross, not to the crowd’s acclaim but to its disdain. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen in his Life of Christ makes clear that there is no disconnect between the two. Living the Beatitudes leads to the cross. In his introduction to the chapter on the Beatitudes, he wrote, “But let any man put these Beatitudes into practice in his own life, and he too will draw down upon himself the wrath of the world.” Innocent people who do not offend are not crucified. But an innocent man who speaks the truth with his life and with his words regardless of personal cost will offend those challenged by that truth. Not only do we see in Jesus that one who loves may offend, but that offense is in the very nature of love. In the very act of loving, Jesus called out the deceptions of those they seduced. Those offended demanded not a conversation but a crucifixion.

If it is the truth we seek we must pursue a conversation and not a crucifixion. A society that elevates disagreement to offense will not remain free. By its very nature the false promise demands approval. It cannot stand eye to eye with the truth but must dissemble and discredit it by other means. By its very nature it shuts the conversation down and demands the truth be crucified. Because a falsehood exposed quickly dies, the best deceptions cloak themselves in the guise of love. They are truth distorted, wolves in sheep’s clothing. They appeal to our goodness, telling us what we want to hear and blinding us to things we prefer unseen. Their cunning deceptions offer us a new truth, painting real truth as antiquated and outdated, something for another time, another place, and another people. However, all false promises destroy love. Love and truth go hand in hand. In Jesus love and truth are inseparable. To see one is to see the other. Destroy one and you destroy the other.

Destroying truth requires guile. Great deceptions appear as goodness to those seduced. Assuming the pain of one offended throws a defensive wall around one’s beliefs, immediately calling the love of the offender into question and placing the one aggrieved on high ground. But is it really high ground to demean the intentions of the other and condemn them as hateful? Frequently, the very person who has so judged and condemned another as less loving than himself is the first—when his behavior has been called into question—to declare, “do not judge.” To take offense and to condemn the offender shuts down the conversation and declares the other unworthy. The party that fears it is losing the argument is more likely to shut down the conversation. Reasoned debate often leads to uncomfortable truths.

No one is more likely to shut down a conversation than a man with a chip on his shoulder. Men in every age ably find chips to put on their own shoulders. Our age produces chips in industrial quantities and offers them gratuitously to all comers. A man no longer needs to find and cultivate his own chip. Today’s “reformers” will seek him out and give him one fully grown. But every chip placed invites offense. Every chip placed gives its recipient a reason to feel cheated and offended. Every chip placed shuts down, a little bit more, the conversation that leads to truth. This is the antithesis of love. Each chip centers a man on himself. The man placing the chip on the shoulder of another can marvel at his own goodness while actually giving nothing of his own. The man receiving the chip sees only the invoice due, not the gift to be given.

Love begins with each man freely removing the chip from his own shoulder. The rich man removes the chip that tells him, “I owe nothing to nobody.” The poor man removes the chip that proclaims to the rich man, “You owe me.” Only with both chips freely removed can the rich man and poor man enter into a conversation, a conversation that leads them to a relationship based on the gift each has to offer. Only when all men, male or female, black or white, rich or poor, or any given x and opposing y, have freely removed the chips from their own shoulders can we truly begin to see good people seeking good in a world of false propositions. Only then can a real conversation begin.

Conversations seeking truth require free speech. But truth is not only threatened when speech is restricted. Even silence offends those enslaved by deception. The ascendant lie, the one whose power reaches into a culture’s very core, cannot be ameliorated by silence. Pervasive deceptions require approval, not simple acquiescence. The distortions of Henry VIII required the life of his friend Thomas More, whose conscientious silence Henry refused to accept, demanding instead More’s public approval. In the twentieth century the falsehood that men could be forcefully molded into more perfect men assumed form in communism and fascism. These hubristic barbarisms raised the art of oppression to new levels of inhumanity as nations turned in on themselves, slaughtered large parts of their own populations, and forcefully “re-educated” those remaining. Those still standing were required to live the lie, to goose-step in unison to it, and to turn on neighbors who did not bow to it. There is no sanctuary in what is false, not even in silence.

Good deceptions sedate us before they enslave us. However, it is the very nature of truth to offend, to elicit the cry, “Crucify him!” But, unlike deception, truth cannot take offense without belying itself. Truth sees both the deception and the tragedy of love deceived. That tragedy permits no offense, only sorrow. Truth will die and triumph on a cross before it takes offense. Even though He was the one without sin, the one truly qualified to take offense and to throw stones, Jesus accepted the cross with all its loneliness: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) Contrarily, the unrepentant criminal repudiated the cross and cried, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” (Luke 23:39)

Truth is not a blunt weapon wielded to bludgeon the deceived. Truth offers more love to those who love incompletely. It rescues good people caught in great deceits. We offer truth, one fellow traveler to another, not to strike one down but to raise the fallen up and to help them on their way. Once embraced, truth is a gift that must be offered. To grasp it as ours alone transforms it into something false. Following Pentecost, the Apostles went forth bearing gifts, not swords. The gift was a truth so compelling they could not contain it. They must pass it on. Doing so brought the wrath of the world on their heads, with each martyred in turn.

The gift of the Apostles is the same gift we must seek and then pass on. To see a fellow traveler mired in a mud of deception he cannot see and not offer him the light he needs extinguishes the very light one carries. To offer a light expecting gratitude is to misunderstand the blindness of the mired traveler. Only when the falsehood is killed will he see and understand. If it is truly truth that is offered, the untruth will rage before it dies. One who carries the truth will not see an enemy to be conquered but a man enslaved. He will meet the fury of a lie exposed with the patience of Jesus carrying the cross.

Every age has a false promise with a conversation to shut down. The twentieth century holocausts burned through humanity on the false promise that some men could remake other men. The deceptive promise of the twenty-first century proposes that each man can remake himself into whatever he wants. This is the pernicious promise of the Sexual Revolution with its deceptive allure of “love” and “freedom.” Nothing offends like a critique of modern sexuality. Suggesting error in any of its various facets, whether it be contraception, abortion, gay marriage or the now ever multiplying number of genders, elicits cries of hate, bigotry or homophobia.

The Sexual Revolution tells us that we can destroy our own progeny in the womb and call it good, that a man or woman can “find” his or herself at the expense of others, and that the life-denying act of sodomy is equal to the life creating sexual act. Against Humanae Vitae it has raged and railed, declaring it offensive to the newly understood sexuality, effectively removing it from discussion even in Catholic churches. But a deception’s defense through taking offense is simply a beginning. The Sexual Revolution now seeks the participation of all through mandated insurance policies that have clothed the wolf of moral choices with a sheep’s clothing of medical need. Its advocates declare all objections as religion writ large, as superstition properly banished behind church doors, unworthy of a hearing in the public square. The Revolution insists itself triumphant. It demands the conversation end.

Truth requires conversation. There is no freedom without the free pursuit of truth. And without freedom, there is no love. Love requires choices freely made. Love requires truth because truth leads us to love. When we deny truth we deny love. As love cannot compel, neither does truth. Truth proposes and never demands. It sees the love we strive for and points us to even greater love. Its pursuit requires a conversation where offense is neither intended nor taken. Ultimately, truth tells us who we are and where we are going. Strangely, in a time when every man declares the right to define himself, we are on the verge of closing that conversation down. In a world seeking truth, that is truly offensive.

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2014/lie-taking-offense-2

Failing to 'see' the Supernatural in Life is Insanity

Is Bill Gates Insane?

Over the last few days Catholic radar screens have picked up an interview Bill Gates had with Rolling Stone magazine. Here are the questions and answers that have some Catholics talking:

RS: You’re a technologist, but a lot of your work now with the foundation has a moral dimension. Has your thinking about the value of religion changed over the years?

BG: The moral systems of religion, I think, are super-important. We’ve raised our kids in a religious way; they’ve gone to the Catholic church that Melinda goes to and I participate in. I’ve been very lucky, and therefore I owe it to try and reduce the inequity in the world. And that’s kind of a religious belief. I mean, it’s at least a moral belief.

RS: Do you believe in God?

BG: I agree with people like Richard Dawkins that mankind felt the need for creation myths. Before we really began to understand disease and the weather and things like that, we sought false explanations for them. Now science has filled in some of the realm—not all—that religion used to fill. But the mystery and the beauty of the world is overwhelmingly amazing, and there’s no scientific explanation of how it came about. To say that it was generated by random numbers, that does seem, you know, sort of an uncharitable view [laughs]. I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don’t know.

. . . . .

So what do we have here?

The Gates’s children go the Catholic parish that Melinda Gates attends. Bill sometimes attends too, but apparently not out of conviction. He subscribes to the myth (that’s what it is) that ancient man took up religion because he was afraid of things he saw around him in nature and that science largely has supplanted religion because science can explain just about everything (though Gates admits that science can’t explain “the mystery and beauty of the world”).

I think there is less substance here than some Catholic bloggers are finding. If you think about it, the wealthiest man in the world doesn’t have any more insight into that world than does the random man on the street—perhaps even less, if, like so many people wrapped up in technology, his mind is occupied with gadgets rather than with The Meaning of Things.

We do know that, while Melinda Gates is a Catholic, she hardly can be termed a solid Catholic. The foundation that she and Bill run is a major underwriter of abortion and abortion propaganda. So long as Bill and Melinda Gates send their money in that direction, we can be sure that their hearts and minds are not yet close to the heart and mind of the Church, even if they pass through a church door every Sunday.

The problem, at least with Bill Gates—perhaps also with Melinda, but she wasn’t interviewed so it’s harder to tell—is that he isn’t quite sane. Before you mistake what I’m saying, let me say that I’m making use of something Frank Sheed said in what I think was his best book, Theology and Sanity.

His very first sentence reads, “My concern in this book is not with the will but with the intellect, not with sanctity but with sanity.” A few pages later he says, “To overlook God’s presence is not simply to be irreligious; it is a kind of insanity, like overlooking anything else that is actually there. . . . God is not only a fact of religion: he is a fact. Not to see him is to be wrong about everything, which includes being wrong about one’s self.”

Sheed goes on to note that modern man, who thinks himself supremely sane, is ignorant of or actually rejects half of reality: the supernatural half. In this sense modern man can be said to be insane, and Bill Gates is a supremely modern man.

While he may tag along with his family to church, Gates seems to have no real appreciation of the supernatural. For him, the natural seems super enough. In this he is like many people, so this is not to lay special blame on him.

In the way Sheed was using the term, and in the way that I’m using the term, we can say that many people we run across are insane: They see and accept the natural or the visible; they don’t see and so reject the supernatural or the invisible. Because they reject half of reality, they end up having to live myths of their own making.

This article is reprinted with permission from our friends at Catholic Answers.

Catholic Answers is an apostolate dedicated to serving Christ by bringing the fullness of Catholic truth to the world. They help good Catholics become better Catholics, bring former Catholics “home,” and lead non-Catholics into the fullness of the faith. Visit them online at www.Catholic.com.

Fr. Jozo, Legendary priest breaks lengthy silence

Legendary priest breaks lengthy silence

By Jakob Marschner on Jul 24, 2014

Fr. Jozo Zovko is back at writing commentaries on the Virgin Mary’s monthly message. Medjugorje’s charismatic parish priest by the time the apparitions began has been away from public spotlight for more than five years, asked to stay silent until the Vatican Commission had finished.

Among the few recent photos to emerge of Fr. Jozo Zovko, this one stems from the Autumn of 2011

Publically silent since early 2009, Fr. Jozo Zovko has now resumed his meditations or commentaries on the Virgin Mary’s monthly message given on every 25th day of the month to Medjugorje visionary Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti.

Now 73 years old Fr. Jozo, the parish priest in Medjugorje when the apparitions began and quickly imprisoned by the communist regime for refusing to denounce the Virgin Mary’s appearances, has only met with very few pilgrims since February 2009. His most recent message commentary dated back even longer when he wrote the first of now three in April this year.

Fr. Jozo with visionary Mirjana Dragicevic around 1983 when the priest had just been released from 18 months of prison for refusing to denounce the apparitions in Medjugorje

Fr. Jozo’s comeback as a writer coincided almost precisely with the Vatican Commission on Medjugorje finishing its work, as this took place in January this year. His Franciscan superiors had asked him not to speak about Medjugorje in public until the Commission had finished, an order Fr. Jozo obeyed without viewing it as a punishment.

Fr. Jozo was among the key figures the Commission called and questioned. According to Medjugorje Today’s informations, the Commission members were particularly impressed by Fr. Jozo, a well-known charismatic whose talks and writings have affected very many people throughout the years.

Recent photo of Fr. Jozo Zovko

In his most recent message commentary, Fr. Jozo calls his readers to true Christian apostleship, noting that only Christians have the tools and answers needed to solve contemporary problems:

“Our time of trials and troubles – like floods, earthquakes and wars – has shown who is a Christian, and who is a man-humanist. This is the time of those who have the heart and the time for prayer, the time for good deeds. Such Christians have the eyes to see the wounds and pains, the sufferings and needs of their neighbors. And today only love – Christian, Jesus’ love – saves and that is why we must stop interpreting and making new theories why and from where problems and troubles come”. Fr. Jozo Zovko states.

“So many live unwisely, and many have lost the joy of life and are fighting against the forces of evil and darkness losing the last hope. Everything is contrary to their wishes and dreams and they simply are losing the will to live. In that night of ignorance and trial man needs God. He is the light. He is a new day. He is our safety.”

Taken in July 1981, shortly before he was arrested, this is one of the earliest known photos of Fr. Jozo with the Medjugorje visionaries. Left to right: Marija Pavlovic, Mirjana Dragicevic, Vicka Ivankovic, Jakov Colo, and Ivanka Ivankovic. Only Ivan Dragicevic is missing in this photo from the first summer of the apparitions

“Our generation seeks and needs its apostles. They are not the people who pride themselves on their diplomas and knowledge but the people who have changed their lives – converts. Today only true converts, or rather saints, have the opportunity to help neighbors. Today’s Samaritans watch how Levites and priests passing by the neighbors knowing they have nothing to give them because they have no time, because their time that should be devoted to the neighbor is lost” Fr. Jozo further notes.

“Such lost time makes man nervous and unhappy. Our wrong education makes the love for the neighbor difficult for us, and our conflicts make wounds on the body of the Church family. We are waiting for the good Samaritan, the Samaritan who wholeheartedly meets and helps the needy. He always has something to give and offer, and never walks without the indispensable oil and wine. He knows where the medical clinic is and to whom the patient should be taken to have his health restored.”

Fr. Jozo met Pope John Paul II in 1992. Ten years later, he was positively surprised upon receiving an apostolic blessing from the Pope in his mail. The text reads: “I grant from the heart a particular blessing to Father Jozo Zovko, o.f.m. and I invoke a new outpouring of graces and heavenly favors, and the continuous protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary”.

Since December 2011, Fr. Jozo Zovko has served in a Franciscan monastery in Zagreb, Croatia. Since he left Siroki Brijeg near Medjugorje in early 2009, the last place where he was available to pilgrims on a larger scale, he has also been in charge of rebuilding a Franciscan monastery on the Croatian island of Badija.

Published on the website of his organization “International God-Parenthood for the Herceg-Bosnian child”, dedicated to helping orphans of the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and Hercegovina, Fr. Jozo’s message commentaries from April and May this year are also available in English.

Spirit Daily is circulating this article

http://www.medjugorjetoday.tv/10643/legendary-priest-breaks-lengthy-silence/

Approaching Alcohol and the Addict

Summer heat and sun conjure images of laidback, outdoor fun enveloped in a carefree, capricious atmosphere, and it is not uncommon to envision or expect alcohol to be a central (or at the very least, peripheral) aspect of our annual summer fun.

While alcohol in and of itself is not evil, of course, it is prudent for us to examine our use of it.  I say this, because alcohol (and now marijuana in some states) is considered a legal substance in our American culture; therefore, most of us believe this means it is also a safe substance.  The truth is both alcohol and marijuana are classified as drugs, so they must be approached with caution and propriety.

Moderation may be a goal for some of us as we enjoy our gin and tonics or an ice-cold beer at a cookout, but for others of us, moderation is an abstract and futile goal, especially those of us who have a predisposition to alcoholism or addictions in general.  We can know this by being familiar with the disease itself: its neurological and biological origins and manifestations, the psychological aspect of compulsion, and also by acknowledging the pattern of substance abuse in our families of origin.  Finally, we need to be very self-aware and honest with ourselves if we have a tendency toward any sort of addiction, be it an illicit or legal substance or a compulsive behavior.

I have often heard my non-Catholic friends remark that their only experience with Catholicism is the hypocrisy that one can imbibe excessively on a Friday evening with the intention of confessing the sin of drunkenness on Saturday so that s/he can still receive Communion on Sunday morning with the majority of the congregation.  My heart is instantly immersed in a deep sorrow that this is the perception we offer to our modern culture. 

While it’s true that, as Catholics, most of us have justified our own – or someone else’s – excessive indulgence in food or drink at least occasionally, it’s only perpetuating the fallacy that we can engage in sinful behavior as long as we ease our guilty consciences with the misuse of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Confession must be approached with a sincere and authentic spirit of contrition and with the intent to change.  That is what the rest of the world does not witness when we do not exemplify one who is actively engaged in ongoing, personal transformation.

Approaching substance abuse with an open and humble heart extends beyond our personal understanding to how we respond to other people who suffer from various addictions.  As I was browsing my Facebook feed recently, I noticed a video posted by a friend; curious, I began to watch it, and I quickly realized it was an exploitation of a young woman who clearly suffered from substance abuse.  Most of the comments displayed were made in jest or a mockery of her obvious addiction.

That’s the temptation most of us face, isn’t it?  We may witness the embarrassment of someone whose speech is slurred from drunkenness or, even worse, a person who has developed substance-induced psychosis due to prolonged abuse of drugs and alcohol.  We find that laughter and jokes are the cover, the façade, we carry in an attempt to conceal our discomfort or perhaps even to justify our own sins.  We tell ourselves that we are nothing like these people who are sloppy in speech and social graces, unkempt in appearance and humiliated as a direct consequence of a lifestyle choice; we put ourselves at least one tier above them, rationalizing that we, at least, have a good grip on our lives and would never lose control like that.

All of my life I have been surrounded by drugs and alcohol.  That is not to say I grew up in a sketchy neighborhood that was unsafe and riddled with overt addiction.  On the contrary, my childhood was filled with warmth, love, and security.  I grew up in a middle class family with both parents who loved my brother and me and each other.

Even so, somehow I have known, loved, and lost several people in my life to drugs and alcohol.  From family members to close friends, I have witnessed the demise and decay of good people’s bodies, hearts and souls because of substance abuse.  As a child, this (rightfully) frightened me and served as a powerful witness that I carried with me throughout high school and college.  I vowed silently and secretly to never, ever touch drugs and to be extremely cautious with alcohol.

But it wasn’t until more recently that I recognized the pain behind the addict and alcoholic.  The fear and trepidation of my childhood was replaced with empathy and a deep, deep sorrow.  I believe it is because I finally realized that substance abuse is a disease, and it can afflict virtually any of us.  It does not discriminate among socioeconomic status, age, race, or gender.  The stereotypes of addicts and alcoholics I subconsciously adopted for so many years – the dirty, homeless, toothless, jobless slobs talking to themselves on the street corners – vanished slowly and steadily over time.  I realized that good people with good hearts can develop this disease; I realized that I could fit the demographic of a potential alcoholic, especially since it is pandemic in my family of origin.

God unveiled my intense aversion to the addicts and alcoholics with whom I came in contact so that, in an unprecedented humility, I saw for the first time theperson, the soul behind the disease.  I was able to separate the sickness from the dignity of the person, something I was incapable of achieving without Divine Grace.  What’s more is that I noticed that I had reacted to the addicts and alcoholics with misplaced fear.

I have come to believe that we fear what we do not understand.  The only way we will change our perception about those who suffer from addictions of various types is to respond to them with love instead of fear.  “Perfect love casts out all fear” (1 John 4:18).  This, I believe, is the key to self-mastery and to humility: the grace we receive by opening our hearts to truth in charity, in our awareness of self and others, and in embracing the reality that we can enjoy life with or without alcohol! http://catholicexchange.com/approaching-alcohol-addict

By Jeannie Ewing

Jeannie Ewing has a Master of Science in Education and practiced high school counseling for one year before becoming a full-time stay-at-home mom to Felicity, a preschooler, and Sarah, a toddler who was born with a rare chromosomal anomaly called Apert Syndrome.  Jeannie is a regular contributor at CatholicMom.com, a former freelancer for her diocesan newspaper, Today's Catholic, and currently maintains a personal blog, lovealonecreates.com, where she writes about parenting children with special needs, faith in everyday life, and personal reflections.  Jeannie and her husband, Ben, live in northern Indiana.

GUILTY: For Just Being Christian

The Mayor of Salem, Massachusetts, Kimberly Driscoll, is actively attempting to destroy Gordon College.

Dissatisfied with the Christian college, practicing its own beliefs, last week Driscoll began to take out her hostility against them. The angry tone of the actions taken against the school reveal a few things that are important for the rest of the nearly 6,400 Christian colleges in America to understand.

First and foremost--none of them are safe. Not a single one.

The activists--having lost the Hobby Lobby case before the Supreme Court--are looking for a place to focus their vengeance. Christian schools now seem to be their target of choice.

Some backstory: Gordon's President Michael Lindsay signed a letter to President Obama asking for a waiver to be granted to Christian schools from his impending executive order. The President has pledged to compel Christian organizations that believe in biblical sexual practice--to be forced to violate that belief and hire people who violate those practices.

Almost universally across the spectrum Christian colleges and universities have "Behavioral Standards" codes that they ask employees and students to observe for the length of time they wish to be employed by or a student at said school.

The Christian school is desiring to advance and deepen the faith of the person attending. The school believes it is important to be consistent in moral worldview as well as moral practice so as to set a good example for the students. This is why when a professor at a state run university conducts themselves in immoral practices, no one knows nor cares. But if an instructor, faculty member, or President of a Christian college conducts an immoral choice--they are more often than not fired upon discovery.

From the Christian school's perspective, it is not wise to ask teachers to instruct something they themselves are not observing.

Almost universally across the spectrum Christian colleges also believe the Bible is the final authority on sexual practice. And the understanding of Biblically approved sexual practice is that it is reserved for man woman marriage, before God, for life. This is why students get kicked out of Christian colleges because they are discovered to be casually sexually involved with each other (and more than 99% of the time on the Christian college campus it is involvement in heterosexual behavior.)

To be clear Gordon College had not set up two different sets of rules--disallowing sex for students who wished to be involved in heterosexual behavior, and a different set of rules for those who wish to be involved in homosexual behavior. Nope--equal treatment under the Gordon College behavior standards was practiced. No sexual behavior by any student while a student outside of marriage period.

The only possible slight that might be able to be conceived was if the college had attempted to tell students who would claim they were married homosexuals. But those students likely would never have interest in studying at a school where core to the tenants of its belief system was rigorously observed biblical sexual standards.

Those who desire homosexual behavior do not simultaneously also desire biblical standards. The two are completely incompatible.

So the Mayor of Salem doesn't care for any of the standards of Gordon College. She doesn't like that they hold their students accountable to the student's own desires (they each agree to the behavioral code before attending.) And now she is attempting to destroy the school.

Which reveals something important to understand.

It is not enough to merely disagree with leftists. They will work with every bit of force they can muster to compel you into agreement with them.

In Driscoll's case she immediately tore up a contract with the school.

Gordon College had been caring for the town's Old Town Hall. They maintained it, had given tours to the community and visitors to the area. They had used it for Gordon events. And they had allowed outside groups to schedule events there as well--all part of the agreement with the town.

Never once has there been an accusation that the Christian college maintaining the Old Town Hall had ever prevented any single group from using the facility. Likewise there is no record of the college denying the use of the facility by people who disagree with their own behavioral standards.

But now the city will deny the school the opportunity to fulfill its contract, because the mayor disagrees with them.

In addition she is among those pushing hard to have Gordon College's accreditation stripped from their programs. Accreditation is one of the key attractions for people to attend colleges and universities, and in doing this the mayor is attempting to choke the very life out of an institution that has been part of it's community and the religious life of this nation for 125 years.

If successful in repealing Gordon's accreditation look for this strategy to be copied by endless numbers of activists against the 6400 Christian colleges across America. It's all part of an ugly and angry campaign to punish Christian colleges for being--in essence--Christian in what they believe, and what they practice.

The intolerance of the left and the ignorance of the faithless will only succeed if the faith-filled show complete indifference.

http://townhall.com/columnists/kevinmccullough/2014/07/20/guilty-for-just-being-christian-n1863932

Healthy Vegan Lifestyle

Back to Basics

We journeyed back in time this past weekend.  Ok, we didn’t use one of those fancy time machines like Michael J. Fox used in his movie, but we did witness things that are lost concepts for all of us with our modern conveniences. Paul’s sister lives in a rural area of Tennessee where time seems to stand still and no one notices.

The extreme quiet of the area was one of the first things we noticed. It’s amazing how much ambient noise we are exposed to without ever realizing it. Then we saw first hand how she has set herself up as a modern day homesteader. From the stick built green house and hand dug, large root cellar to the reclaimed orchard and garden, we were reminded of the days gone by when people had to be more responsible for producing and preserving the foods they consumed. She showed us the fruits and vegetables that she had preserved for use later in the year when the growing season will be over.

She took us to an Amish community.  There, we met Willie who is the shoemaker for the community and anyone else who would like a pair.  What an incredible skill that is!  With a twinkle in his eye he told us he could “heal us, save our souls and that he would even die for us!”  More powerful words have never been spoken, and we were astonished at his passion!  As he reached over the table and showed us the true “souls, heels and dye” that he was talking about, we began to see that humor in this part of the country was readily available and brought out the best in everyone.

The produce at their market was unlike foods we had tasted since we were very young. The pure sweetness that comes from non-GMO, non-hybridized, organic seeds that are grown in virgin soil that has plenty of nutrients had grown foods with flavors that we hadn’t tasted in over 30 years.  It truly took us back to the days when we ran in our parents’ and grandparents’ gardens, grabbed food directly from the plant and popped them in our mouths. The cantaloupe was sweet, but not so sweet that you felt thirsty after you eat it.  The fresh corn was tender, sweet and crunchy—a combination that is addictive, even without the addition of butter or salt. We can’t wait to try the watermelon and beautiful okra we bought.

We also visited the community iridologist, who took one look into Ann’s eyes and told her she was severely chemically toxic.  Together, we determined that all of the years that my parents had used polyurethane on the hardwood floors, paneling and the shellac on the window frames and doors, had been soaked into my young little body and as I have aged, many of my symptoms can be traced to those toxins.

Paul and I were astonished how this 70 plus year old gentleman could so swiftly identify what we have been achingly searching to understand for decades of our own.  We knew I had a heavy metal issue, but no one identified the chemical toxicity and we never realized it could be so detrimental to the hormones, thyroid and adrenal.

The children ran around bare foot playing amongst themselves just as we did when we were kids. No computes, Xbox or Nintendo game machines or TV’s to keep them occupied.

The men in the community were lean and active.  You would see them riding their horses, working in the gardens or actively working in the many other facets of the community.

Although the bakery looked inviting with the cookies and pies, we never saw any of the community eating those types of foods.  Rather, we saw a man harvesting a wheelbarrow filled with cantaloupes, which we learned, would be canned for their winter food.

As we left, we realized that this community of truly happy people, who live simple lives, had created a world where clean living and supporting others in such unique ways is a form of servant hood that depicts the wisdom and intelligence of those who are well nourished.

The many facets of the Amish community are still unknown to us, but one thing is certain—their dedication to God, their family, their community and to their health is powerfully obvious as they spend much of their day ensuring that the foods they consume are natural, organic and nutritious.

http://www.hahealthnews.com/ampm/back-to-basics/