We live well in America and it is easy to be a Catholic. True enough we see increasing threats and limits coming to our religious liberty, but all in all we still live free and well. Not so in other parts of the world where the Church is openly persecuted and her freedom is limited, often quite severely.
This is a short interview of Cardinal Zen, the recently retired bishop of Hong Kong. It was filmed in April 2009.
The Church in China has not been allowed by the government to officially recognize the Pope since the 1950s, and as a result it split into an underground Church that recognizes the Vatican and an officially government recognized church which has cooperated with the government. Pope Benedict XVI issued a letter in 2007 in which it was announced that many of the bishops in the above ground church had made contact with Rome and announced their allegiance to the Pope. The Pope, in his letter asked them to declare openly their allegiance to Rome and for the Chinese state to cease preventing them from doing so, however, many of the bishops have still failed to do this and Cardinal Zen of Hong Kong has been strongly encouraging them to do so. In a letter he sent last year he told the bishops to have the spirit of St Stephen and that if they had to choose between not following the pope’s instructions and being martyred than they needed to be martyred.
In recent months there have been a number of incidents that remind us of how politics is a field ripe with corruption and disappointment. This past week the governor of South Carolina was caught in and then disclosed his adulterous relationship. This despite a pro-family image. The Governor of Illinois was also revealed to have engaged in a kind of buying and selling of offices. Going back even a bit further there scandals involving the Governors of New York and New Jersey. And, well I haven’t even mentioned the numerous scandals involving Senators and congressional representatives. But you get the point.
And then there is Political Disappointment. Many times Catholics and other Christians pin their hopes on a certain party or individual to “bring about needed reform” or to “stop the business as usual in Washington.” We want them to be paragons of virtue and be uncompromising in their stands on moral issues only to find that they compromise, or do not actually end up changing things dramatically. Or, perhaps we agree with them on certain issues but find their stands on other issues odious.
As Americans we usually have high expectations and high hopes in politics. (I have found that many Catholics are more passionate about their politics than their faith). But in the end, politics is pretty “down to earth” and quite dirty sometimes. We need to be sober about politicians, even the ones we like. They are politicians and politics can be very compromising and sometimes just plain dirty. Even the best can corrupted by money, power and prestige.
But as usual, I go on too long. I think I’ll get out of the way and let Fr. Robert Barron take on this issue. In this video he considers political corruption from a Biblical Perspective.
Did you catch the piece in the Washington Post last Saturday called “On Faith”? It featured an interview with a woman writing a book on Catholics on the Supreme Court. If Judge Sotomayor is confirmed there will be six Catholic justices. The author, Barbara Perry, opines that the number of Catholics is related to liberal and conservative politics more than religion. When asked how she thinks Judge Sotomayor’s Catholicism will play into her decisions if confirmed, she describes Judge Sotomayor as someone who attends church for family and special occasions, guessing she will be more liberal—a social justice type of Catholic. Whereas justices like Scalia and Roberts are conservative on issues such as abortion and church and state matters.
This kind of conversation is so common in political discussions and in church conversation and it is really misguided. There is only one kind of Catholic; the person who is baptized saved by God’s grace and called to share in the very mission of Jesus Christ. Happily, once baptized a Catholic, or baptized in another Christian community and later received into the Church through Confirmation, one is forever a Catholic.
The only real Catholic is the one who daily strives to love God through prayer, love the people God sends into one’s life, and regularly receive the sacraments, beginning with Sunday Mass. The sacraments are not magic and though Baptism is forever, one must continually grow in faith and love, one’s faith needs to mature in much the same way we mature physically, psychologically and socially.
Unhappily, we know that there is a wide range of ways in which people stop growing in the faith. In the field of Evangelization we try to identify (one might say label) stages in the practice of the faith in hopes that we can call all Catholics to full and active participation in the faith.
We speak of unchurched Catholics who were Baptized and maybe received Eucharist and confirmation but were not raised in the faith and so have no real understanding of what it means to be Catholic. We also speak of inactive Catholics, those Catholics who identify themselves as Catholics but go to Mass no more than a few times a year outside of weddings or funerals. A third group is called alienated Catholics and they are Catholics who though they call themselves Catholic, they stay away from participation in the church because of a negative experience of some sort. In many case there is a desire for reconciliation and healing in order to feel welcomed or at home in the Church.
Like a family, all of these people are Catholics and considered part of the Catholic family. We who are fellow Catholics or work for the Church have a responsibility for seeking out, listening, inviting, and encouraging these sisters and brothers to deepen their faith and rediscover the gift of the Catholic tradition.
Labels like liberal, conservative, cultural, or radical Catholic tend to suggest that it’s possible for an individual Catholic to decide what it means to be Catholic. When I think of some of the American Catholic saints, life Mother Katherine Drexel or Elizabeth Seton I discover women who would defy all of our popular labels. They were passionate in their love of God, their love of the Church and their love for others, especially the poor and the marginalized. Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., once Master General of the Jesuits captures the passion that faith brings to life in this prayer.
“Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love
in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination,
will affect everything.
It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you will do with your evenings,
how you will spend your weekends,
what you read, who you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in love, stay in love and it will decide everything.”
Who is a Catholic? Enjoy this video displaying the rich Tapestry of the Catholic Church!
Michael Gerson has some interesting reflections on the inconsistency and selective application of governing principles at PBS here:PBS New Ban on Religious Broadcasting
Meanwhile, the local broadcast of the TV Mass for Shut-ins is moving to a new Channel and time: WDCW @ 10:30 am beginning July 5.
What do pong shots have to do with holiness? Very little! But what if holiness wasn’t so impossible after all and what it really took was God’s grace interacting with some practice and perseverance? Maybe the seemingly impossible would be seen by our very eyes. Think about it and get started. No, not with pong shots, but with virtue.
The DC Catholic Conference issued a statement today on the rejection by the Board of Elections on a Marriage Referendum. Such a vote would put the issue before the voters of the District of Columbia so that their voice could be heard in this matter. Here follows the Statement followed by a comment by yours truly in red.
DC Catholic Conference Statement on DC Marriage Referendum Rejection
The residents of the District of Columbia deserve to be heard, particularly on an issue as important as redefining marriage. Last month, the District of Columbia City Council voted to recognize same-sex marriages in the nation’s capital in an amendment process that prevented constituents from having a voice.
Today’s announcement by the DC Board of Elections and Ethics to deny a referendum on this issue has once again disenfranchised the residents of our city. The DC Catholic Conference is deeply disappointed by the decision to deny voters a voice.
Civil governments have recognized marriage throughout time as between a man and woman because of its unique purpose: to form a stable unit where children are created and raised with the complementary gifts of father and mother. This stability for children in turn forms a stable foundation for society.
As part of an organization that serves thousands of children and families throughout this city, it would be our hope that residents be given an opportunity to be heard on an issue with widespread implications for children and families. The DC Catholic Conference will continue to strongly advocate for the long-standing and proper definition of marriage as the union between one man and one woman.
The DC Catholic Conference represents the public policy interests of the Archdiocese of Washington on issues affecting the District of Columbia.
This is a second blow to the the ability of citizens to express their views in this matter. As the Statement above notes, last month the DC Council railroaded this measure through and refused to allow citizens to testify in a significant matter before the City Council. Now the DC Board of elections has once again refused the general populace a chance to be heard. Some will argue that we cannot simply run everything by plebiscite. This is true but this issue impacts on the most basic elements of any nation or civilzation: marriage and the family. This is not simply a referendum on which contractor to choose to pave the raods. This is about marriage and the family.
Advocates of the “new morality” will likely cheer this decision but they should examine their cheerfulness. They have long marched under the banners of tolerance and freedom. Now many of them wish merely to impose their views by judicial fiat and will not tolerate dissent or even discussion. Whatever the motives of the members of the Board elections were I do not know. But no one should cheer a silencing of the voice of the people in this matter whether it is by refusing to hold hearings or refusing a referendum.
Here’s another Fr. Barron Video where he ponders the awful decline of the Church particularly in Europe. Does this merely mean that the Church has failed? Or is there more at work? Surely there are things we have done things that need correcting, but even when we do everthing we ought to do, there will still be a waxing and waning. Let me get out of the way and Let Fr. Barron speak.
The following video is an interview with Ron Howard by Stephen Colbert. Of course Colbert is a comedian so don’t take any of this too seriously. But what I find most interesting is how uncomfortable Ron Howard seems to be. Most guests on Colbert’s show seem to know that he is playing a role of sorts as an obnoxious and egotistical medialogue. It’s his shtick. Most of the guests know this going in and play along quite well. Howard though, seems unprepared for it or ill at ease. I wonder why? I also find Howard poorly spoken. I had been led to believe by others in the general media that he is some sort of “genius” but here he seem not to know much about what he is speaking. Even when he talks about his own movie it seems more to be memorized talking points that he recites rather than a real discussion. Even Colbert has a hard time trying to get him too lighten up. See what you think.
