Manhattan Declaration

LifeSiteNews has an article stating that Over 150,000 Sign Manhattan Declaration in Less than a Week.

November 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The unprecedented pro-life, pro-marriage and pro-religious freedom Manhattan Declaration, unveiled in a press conference last Friday, has already been signed by over 150,000 individuals in less than a week, and the numbers are continuing to rise by the second.

The 4,700-word “Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience” was drafted by Dr. Robert George, Dr. Timothy George and Chuck Colson. At the time of its release last week it was signed by more than 125 prominent religious figures, including figures from Orthodox, Catholic and evangelical Christian denominations. That number has now risen to over 170, including 18 Roman Catholic bishops, in addition to the 150,000 ordinary Christians.

Colson says he hopes that the document will eventually be signed by more than 1,000,000 individuals, which, given its current momentum, hardly seems out of the question.

The Declaration is a non-denominational statement that throws down the gauntlet to a secular culture that is increasingly encroaching upon the rights of Christians who hold to traditional moral values, especially on the issues of marriage and the right to life.  “We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers,” says the document, “that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence.”

The document goes on to challenge the growing movement to silence Christians by force of the law in the strongest terms, going so far as to intimate civil disobedience. “Unjust laws degrade human beings,” says the document. “They lack any power to bind in conscience. [Martin Luther] King’s willingness to go to jail, rather than comply with legal injustice, was exemplary and inspiring.”

The enormous popularity of the document appears to arise largely from its ability to bind together Christians from diverse theological and denominational backgrounds to fight for a common cause – the right to life, the preservation of true marriage, and the right to religious liberty.

The Catholic bishops that have signed the document so far are:

1. Bishop Sam Aquila – Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Fargo, ND
2. Most Rev. Robert J. Baker, S.T.D. – Bishop of Birmingham, Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama
3. Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput – Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, CO
4. Most Rev. Salvatore Joseph Cordileone – Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, CA
5. Most Rev. Nicholas DiMarzio – Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn
6. Most Rev. Timothy Dolan – Archbishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of New York, NY
7. Most Rev. Joseph E. Kurtz – Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville, KY
8. His Eminence Adam Cardinal Maida – Archbishop Emeritus, Roman Catholic Diocese of Detroit, MI
9. Most Rev. Richard J. Malone – Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, ME
10. Bishop Robert C. Morlino – Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Madison, WI
11. Most Rev. John J. Myers – Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, NJ
12. Most Rev. Joseph F. Naumann – Archbishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City, KS
13. Most Rev. John Nienstedt – Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, MN
14. Most Rev. Thomas J. Olmsted – Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, AZ
15. His Eminence Justin Cardinal Rigali – Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, PA
16. Most Rev. Michael J. Sheridan – Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs, CO
17. Most Rev. Donald W. Wuerl – Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
18. Most Rev. David A. Zubik – Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, PA

The Manhattan Declaration is a seven page document available here, and you can sign the declaration here.  The following is an overview from the home page:

The Manhattan Declaration

A Call of Christian Conscience

Christians, when they have lived up to the highest ideals of their faith, have defended the weak and vulnerable and worked tirelessly to protect and strengthen vital institutions of civil society, beginning with the family.

We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are:

1. the sanctity of human life
2. the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife
3. the rights of conscience and religious liberty.

Inasmuch as these truths are foundational to human dignity and the well-being of society, they are inviolable and non-negotiable. Because they are increasingly under assault from powerful forces in our culture, we are compelled today to speak out forcefully in their defense, and to commit ourselves to honoring them fully no matter what pressures are brought upon us and our institutions to abandon or compromise them. We make this commitment not as partisans of any political group but as followers of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. 

A Most Diligent Mother: Angelica

Check out this link for a wonderful article on Mother Angelica by John Zmirak at InsideCatholic.com. It seems like most of the article was compiled from Raymond Arroyo’s biography on Mother, but even still, she is such a wonderful, inspiring person we all need a good dose of Mother once in a while, and if you don’t already have the book, I highly recommend it. Mother’s story is awesome, and Arroyo is an awesome story-teller: Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve, and a Network of Miracles.

The Catholic Catechism

The current Catechism of the Catholic Church was published in 1994 and revised in 2000. On the 20th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council in 1985, Pope John Paul II called together an extraordinary assembly of the Synod of Bishops. It was at this assembly that the need for a new catechism was discussed, and the pope commissioned twelve Cardinals and Bishops to prepare a draft of the catechism. The chair of this commission was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is today Pope Benedict XVI. After many rewrites and theological consultations the Catechism of the Catholic Church was finalized on October 11, 1992.

The Catechism encompasses all of the “Catholic doctrine regarding both faith and morals… and the presentation of the doctrine is biblical and liturgical.” (CCC pg.3)

The Catechism has four main parts:

1. The Profession of Faith
2. The Sacraments
3. Life in Christ
4. Christian Prayer

The first part, The Profession of Faith, outlines our creed, what we believe as Christians. Firstly, we have the desire to know God; and God has revealed himself to us in two ways, by Divine Revelation (the Apostolic Tradition) and by Sacred Scripture; and man responds with obedient faith which includes the Creed. Secondly, the Creed is explained line by line in great detail. (That’s a whole post in itself.)

The second part is the Celebration of the Christian Mystery which is the Sacramental Economy and the Seven Sacraments of the Church. The Sacramental Economy explains Christ’s work of salvation through the liturgy of his Church, i.e. the Mass. This includes the work of the Holy Trinity, how each Person of the Trinity guides us to salvation. Then it tells us who can celebrate Mass, and how, when and where it can be celebrated. There is also a discussion on the diverse unity of the celebration of the Mass; Mass is the same all over the world, but differences in culture are allowed as well.

The second half of the second part details the seven sacraments. The first three are the sacraments of Christian Initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist. The next two are the sacraments of healing: Penance and Reconciliation, and the Anointing of the Sick. The final two sacraments are at the service of communion: Holy Orders and Matrimony.

The third part of the Catechism outlines our Life in Christ, which covers a lot of ground. First is the Dignity of the Human Person. We are born in the image of God. The Beatitudes are Jesus’ promises to us, provided we respond obediently, just as freedom has responsibility. Morality, the Virtues and Sin are also outlined here. We are all part of the human community. We must participate in the social life, working toward the Common Good for all. We must respect one another. God’s salvation comes to us through both the law and grace. We must do good and follow the moral law. The Holy Spirit has the power to justify us (cleanse us) when we fail, and it is purely by the grace of God that he does so; we do not deserve it.

Part Three continues with the Ten Commandments. The first three commandments are focused on love of God, worshipping only Him. The remaining seven commandments focus on love of neighbor.

The last part is on Christian Prayer. What is prayer? What kinds of prayer are there? And most important, pray always, God wants us to pray to him unceasingly. The Catechism ends with an explanation of the Our Father.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is over 800 pages, a very detailed presentation of our faith. If you want to start out a little slower with a smaller volume, there is also the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also find the entire Catechism on-line on the USCCB website.

EWTN Audio Series

I have listened to various EWTN audio series over the last few years, most of which are excellent. I was subscribed to EWTN in iTunes and I would get which ever series was made available.

Currently I am listening to The History of the Catholic Church in the U.S. by Fr. Charles Connor. Maryland was the center of the Catholic population in the colonial days, and the Jesuits were the priests who served them. There were other scattered Catholics throughout the colonies, but many of them rarely or never heard Mass due to no priests. The Carroll family of Maryland was prominent in our country’s formation. Charles Carroll was the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. Sadly, as human nature often takes us, many of the Catholics of the new country got on the bandwagon of thumbing their noses at their European roots, and this even meant the Vatican. There were already rumblings of anti-Catholicism in the colonies, but they were mostly suppressed due to the patriotic nature of most of the Catholics during the time of the Revolution. But, in the first 50 or so years of the new country, many Catholics refused to be “ordered about” by Rome and the Pope. Finally, their disorderly conduct reached the Pope and he sent letters to the abusers and to the bishops, and the bishops began to take back control. One rogue priest, a Fr. Hogan, was excommunicated, and eventually he was forced from his parish. He took on a secular life, married twice and became a lawyer, and he started to bash the Catholic Church. So we have anti-Catholicism from outside the Church by those who don’t understand her, and we have anti-Catholicism from inside the Church by those who choose not to live a life according to the Church’s teachings. These people probably contributed greatly to the anti-Catholicism of the early 1900’s in the United States. (I will find out more as I continue to listen to this series.)

I finally found the location on EWTN’s website that has all of their audio series. There are over 200 of them with a wide range of Catholic topics. You can find the list of series on EWTN’s site under the Libraries – Audio Library menu. Either click on All Series or search on a keyword and listen! What a wonderful way to grow in your faith.

Here are a sampling of some of the topics

• St. Thomas Aquinas in Today’s world
• A Widow’s Walk with Christ
• Divine Mercy in Our Souls
• Does the Church Still Teach That
• Five Pillars of the Spiritual Life

Anti-Catholicism Op-Ed by Archbishop Dolan

Anti-Catholicism

October 29, 2009

The following article was submitted in a slightly shorter form to the New York Times as an op-ed article. The Times declined to publish it. I thought you might be interested in reading it.

 
FOUL BALL!
By Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan
Archbishop of New York
 
October is the month we relish the highpoint of our national pastime, especially when one of our own New York teams is in the World Series!
 
Sadly, America has another national pastime, this one not pleasant at all: anti-catholicism. 
          
It is not hyperbole to call prejudice against the Catholic Church a national pastime. Scholars such as Arthur Schlesinger Sr. referred to it as “the deepest bias in the history of the American people,” while John Higham described it as “the most luxuriant, tenacious tradition of paranoiac agitation in American history.” “The anti-semitism of the left,” is how Paul Viereck reads it, and Professor Philip Jenkins sub-titles his book on the topic “the last acceptable prejudice.”
          
If you want recent evidence of this unfairness against the Catholic Church, look no further than a few of these following examples of occurrences over the last couple weeks:
 

• On October 14, in the pages of the New York Times, reporter Paul Vitello exposed the sad extent of child sexual abuse in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community. According to the article, there were forty cases of such abuse in this tiny community last year alone. Yet the Times did not demand what it has called for incessantly when addressing the same kind of abuse by a tiny minority of priests: release of names of abusers, rollback of statute of limitations, external investigations, release of all records, and total transparency. Instead, an attorney is quoted urging law enforcement officials to recognize “religious sensitivities,” and no criticism was offered of the DA’s office for allowing Orthodox rabbis to settle these cases “internally.” Given the Catholic Church’s own recent horrible experience, I am hardly in any position to criticize our Orthodox Jewish neighbors, and have no wish to do so . . . but I can criticize this kind of “selective outrage.”

Of course, this selective outrage probably should not surprise us at all, as we have seen many other examples of the phenomenon in recent years when it comes to the issue of sexual abuse. To cite but two: In 2004, Professor Carol Shakeshaft documented the wide-spread problem of sexual abuse of minors in our nation’s public schools (the study can be found here). In 2007, the Associated Press issued a series of investigative reports that also showed the numerous examples of sexual abuse by educators against public school students. Both the Shakeshaft study and the AP reports were essentially ignored, as papers such as the New York Times only seem to have priests in their crosshairs.  

• On October 16, Laurie Goodstein of the Times offered a front page, above-the-fold story on the sad episode of a Franciscan priest who had fathered a child. Even taking into account that the relationship with the mother was consensual and between two adults, and that the Franciscans have attempted to deal justly with the errant priest’s responsibilities to his son, this action is still sinful, scandalous, and indefensible. However, one still has to wonder why a quarter-century old story of a sin by a priest is now suddenly more pressing and newsworthy than the war in Afghanistan, health care, and starvation–genocide in Sudan. No other cleric from religions other than Catholic ever seems to merit such attention.

• Five days later, October 21, the Times gave its major headline to the decision by the Vatican to welcome Anglicans who had requested union with Rome. Fair enough. Unfair, though, was the article’s observation that the Holy See lured and bid for the Anglicans. Of course, the reality is simply that for years thousands of Anglicans have been asking Rome to be accepted into the Catholic Church with a special sensitivity for their own tradition. As Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican’s chief ecumenist, observed, “We are not fishing in the Anglican pond.” Not enough for the Times; for them, this was another case of the conniving Vatican luring and bidding unsuspecting, good people, greedily capitalizing on the current internal tensions in Anglicanism.

• Finally, the most combustible example of all came Sunday with an intemperate and scurrilous piece by Maureen Dowd on the opinion pages of the Times. In a diatribe that rightly never would have passed muster with the editors had it so criticized an Islamic, Jewish, or African-American religious issue, she digs deep into the nativist handbook to use every anti-Catholic caricature possible, from the Inquisition to the Holocaust, condoms, obsession with sex, pedophile priests, and oppression of women, all the while slashing Pope Benedict XVI for his shoes, his forced conscription — along with every other German teenage boy — into the German army, his outreach to former Catholics, and his recent welcome to Anglicans.

True enough, the matter that triggered her spasm — the current visitation of women religious by Vatican representatives — is well-worth discussing, and hardly exempt from legitimate questioning. But her prejudice, while maybe appropriate for the Know-Nothing newspaper of the 1850’s, the Menace, has no place in a major publication today.

I do not mean to suggest that anti-catholicism is confined to the pages New York Times. Unfortunately, abundant examples can be found in many different venues. I will not even begin to try and list the many cases of anti-catholicism in the so-called entertainment media, as they are so prevalent they sometimes seem almost routine and obligatory. Elsewhere, last week, Representative Patrick Kennedy made some incredibly inaccurate and uncalled-for remarks concerning the Catholic bishops, as mentioned in this blog on Monday.   Also, the New York State Legislature has levied a special payroll tax to help the Metropolitan Transportation Authority fund its deficit. This legislation calls for the public schools to be reimbursed the cost of the tax; Catholic schools, and other private schools, will not receive the reimbursement, costing each of the schools thousands – in some cases tens of thousands – of dollars, money that the parents and schools can hardly afford. (Nor can the archdiocese, which already underwrites the schools by $30 million annually.) Is it not an issue of basic fairness for ALL school-children and their parents to be treated equally? 
 
The Catholic Church is not above criticism. We Catholics do a fair amount of it ourselves. We welcome and expect it. All we ask is that such critique be fair, rational, and accurate, what we would expect for anybody. The suspicion and bias against the Church is a national pastime that should be “rained out” for good.
 
I guess my own background in American history should caution me not to hold my breath.

Then again, yesterday was the Feast of Saint Jude, the patron saint of impossible causes.

Shouldn’t there be more than this?

I was a catechist for today’s mass, this time for the children, but neither showed up today for various reasons. So I sat in the adult session. It went well, the other catechist handled the session well for both the readings and the Feast of All Saints.

Towards the end the RCIA director came in to see how things were going. She said I haven’t seen you guys in a few weeks. My jaw just about dropped! All this time I thought the Breaking Open the Word sessions were supplementary to the “main” RCIA classes. Not so. I’m just flabbergasted. Shouldn’t RCIA be more than just breaking open the word?

I talked with the other catechist about this some. She already knew this and she has been struggling with it. She and I are on the same page it seems. Please join us in prayer to find a way to provide the best catechesis we can for our candidates and catechumens. I need to think over this revelation for a while.

Catechesis on the Priesthood – Part 2

Well, I have my second Breaking Open the Word session under my belt. I prepared three pages for discussion and it didn’t seem like enough at first, but in the end it turned out to be just right.

Like I said in my last post, a lot of the content came directly from the catechist guidelines, but I enhanced the discussion for the first reading from Jeremiah 31:7-9, explaining why the Jewish people were in exile, and this turned out to be helpful for the catechumens and candidates. This reading focused on the prophecy of future joy of returning from exile, but what is the background of the exile? Once again the nation of Israel had been conquered by another nation, and the people had been scattered. God will go to the ends of the earth to bring his people home.

In the Letter to the Hebrews, Aaron and Melchizedek were mentioned. Again, they needed some background on who these priests were. Not that I am a Biblical scholar by any stretch, but our candidates and catechumens are coming to us with a clean slate so to speak as far as faith and religious/Christian history goes. Everything is new to them!

And finally, we discussed the three tiers of the priestly ministry, bishop, priest and deacon. They did have quite a few questions here. I brought up apostolic succession without having prepared for it and I basically fumbled through that, trying to find the right words even though I understand it for myself. But in the end they had some sense of the differences between the three layers of holy orders. One asked how many bishops are there, and while I couldn’t give her an exact count, I explained that we are in the archdiocese of Detroit with an archbishop and several auxiliary bishops, and then there are the near by dioceses of Lansing and Saginaw and Grand Rapids, and that’s just part of the state of Michigan. They also asked how does one go about becoming a priest. I gave a little explanation about the calling, and then attending seminary.

The guidelines say to prepare for an hour and a half, but based on the timing of the youth catechist joining us the last two times, just over an hour of material is more in line with what is happening in the sessions that I have been participating in. It’s probably better for the participants anyway, to get smaller bites of information. I am on the schedule for next Sunday, which is All Saints. I have a lot of information about saints so preparing should be easier, but I have the kids next week, an 11 year old and a 14 year old, so I will have to modify what I do to fit discussion for kids.

Catechesis on the Priesthood

This Sunday I will be leading the Breaking Open the Word again for our RCIA participants. The guideline that I have says to focus the discussion on the priesthood, both the ministerial priesthood and the common priesthood. This entails a lot of prep work, for me at least.

So I have read through the Letter to the Hebrews, in which Paul discusses the priesthood of the old covenant and the priesthood of the new covenant.

I did an internet search on the priesthood and I found a number of conference talks by Fr. John Hardon here.  There are 29 talks on the priesthood by Fr. Hardon collected on this site. Fr. Hardon suggests reading the Letter to the Hebrews and a document by Pope Pius XII, “Mediator Dei“, on the sacred liturgy. This I have not read yet, and probably won’t before my RCIA session tomorrow.

I am polishing up my outline for tomorrow, most of it is based directly on the guideline that the director had given me. (Sorry I don’t know the source for it.) The essence of the outline is the difference between the priesthood of the old and new testaments, some discussion on the ministerial and common priesthoods, and the three tiers of the sacrament of holy orders.

Sweet and Profound – God and Dog

Through the never ending sharing of information on the internet, here is a beautiful little video about the love we receive from God and from dogs. How will we ever learn to love that completely?

Call to Holiness Conference – Detroit

I went to the Detroit area Call to Holiness Conference at the National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak last Saturday. They had a great lineup of speakers who gave awesome talks on the Treasures of the Mass while in the setting of a beautiful Art Deco church.

The first speaker of the day was Michael P Foley, Ph.D., speaking on How the Mass Shaped the Western World. It was a very interesting talk explaining how, among other things, the layout of the court room has many parallels to the layout of a church, such as the jury box is likened to the choir stalls. He had his book, Why Do Catholics Eat Fish on Friday?, for sale in the vendor area. It is now in my library.

Next up was Father Eduard Perrone, pastor of Assumption Grotto Church in Detroit. His talk was The Treasures of the Mass Explored. Father started his day with some technical difficulties. The laptop that contained his presentation for his talk crashed that morning so he and his assistant had to scurry to put a new slide show together. Father apologized for the crudeness of the second effort. The first must have been truly dazzling because the one we saw was very good. This talk walked us through the Mass explaining the vestments and ritual gestures and the ceremony and prayers. He also explained the translation updates that are coming soon for the English Mass.

Then we had lunch. The Shrine docent was giving tours during the lunch break. He gave us an overview of the Shrine’s interesting history. The parish was established on the heels of St. Therese’s canonization. The first pastor, Fr. Charles Coughlin, started a radio program to help pay for the Shrine. They even had troubles with the KKK (which isn’t in the on-line history). That is why the Shrine has the huge tower with the Crucifix, so that no one could ever burn it down again.

After lunch the auxiliary bishop of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, spoke on The Sacredness of the Holy Eucharist and the Fathers of the Church. The bishop is calling for an end to receiving communion in the hand. While it is claimed that the early Church also received communion in the hand, Bishop Schneider said those same hands that received the Eucharist also needed to be purified. The Eucharist is sacred and we must treat it as such.

Following the bishop was Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, aka the blogging Fr. Z. His address was Mystery Both Fearsome and Alluring: Holy Mass and True Active Participation. Active participation does not mean having everyone run around the church during Mass with some little job. Active participation means being prayerfully in tune with the Mass.

The final speaker was Ronald Prowse, Ph.D. He spoke on sacred music. His talk was cut short due to overruns earlier and the need for Mass to start at 4:30. Dr. Prowse discussed the evolution of chant and showed us how to read and sing sacred music.

The conference ended with Mass, the main celebrant being Bishop Schneider.

Pictures of the conference can be seen here.