Quoted

"The Cardinal has a particular bond with the virgin martyrs. They are a sterling example to him of how he is to love Christ and the Church, while, at the same time, they intercede powerfully for him, so that he may be a sign to the faithful of our Lord’s ceaseless and immeasurable love, ”to the end,” to the very outpouring of His life for us, on Calvary, His Sacrifice made ever present for us in the Holy Eucharist."

--His Excellency Raymond Cardinal Burke, in his homily at his Mass of Thanksgiving (HT).

A Reminder to Myself: God is Powerful

We all need little reminders about who God is. I got mine a couple of days ago. I have been praying for an understanding as to why God allowed me to waste my emotions and my time on a person who never really loved me and never wanted to marry me. On the very day that I was engaged last year, August 3, the Holy Spirit moved the heart of one of Peter's friends to write me an email. She grew up with Peter since Kindergarten and was supposed to be a bridesmaid in our wedding, or "the phantom wedding" as I now, sort of with a dark smile, refer to it.

Anyway, she wrote me telling me that she wants to become a Catholic and wanted some advice on what to read, what to do, etc. That was a very powerful moment for me, because she wrote to me even though she knows plenty of Catholics in very Catholic South Louisiana. So this is what I told God: "Dear God, if all You give me from this awful experience with Peter was a chance to give his friend one word that will bring her closer to your Church, then I guess I'll have to admit (but can I do so with a huff and maybe an eye roll...) that it was all worth it. Ok, no huff or eye roll. Drawing people to you is what we are all here to do. I accept. But please let the next guy be a good one, and no more devastating heart breaks would really be ideal! But that thanks for answering my prayers! Edith."

Yes, God is powerful. And my dear namesake St. Edith Stein says that "Whoever lives in the strong faith that nothing happens without the knowledge and will of God is not easily disconcerted by astonishing occurrences or upset by the hardest of blows." I guess despite myself or my feelings, God revealed to me what that means. I am sure it was through her prayers. All is in the hands of He who IS, and I just continually need to learn what that means. But it is a long journey indeed! Pray for me and pray for my friend - and also, pray for Peter too.

Pope's Letter to Ireland

Have you read the Holy Father's letter, released Saturday, to the Church in Ireland? You should. It is amazing. And new. And bold. And personal. And healing.

(Pope Benedict needs a lot of prayers, by the way. This is a hard time for the Church, but thank God he is our Head.)

Healing in His Way

Just a little update. Life has been well, better. The pain is still very much a part of day to day life, but I am allowing God in to heal me. I have just started attending a university branch of a group called Communion and Liberation. Have you ever heard of this movement? It is an ecclesial movement within the Church started by Father Luigi Guissani in Milan. He began this movement with a group of young people in Milan. The name 'Communion' and 'Liberation' signifies what they believe about Christian life -- only communion with the One, True God gives authentic liberation to the human person. This very much appealed to me, as I have just left a situation where I had no freedom. True love, true communion is always liberating and encourages us to become the best of ourselves, to become the person God ordained us to be.

The charism that marks the group I can only describe as making the event of the Incarnation truly known in the world - revealing Christ by their everyday witness. Communion and Liberation members do this in a special way every Good Friday by praying the Way of the Cross in major cities throughout the world (e.g. Chicago). It is a witness of carrying the Cross in a place that can be so impersonal, so inhumane, so full of human suffering. You can read more about it here. I expect great graces to come! Thanks for your prayers, and be sure I am offering mine for you!

A Surprise Treasure from Newsweek

I really encourage taking the time to read the article "Harvard's Crisis of Faith," found in this week's print and online version of Newsweek. Lisa Miller explores the debate at the Ivy League institution about whether or not to require undergraduates to take one (count it, one) class that falls under a "Reason and Faith" core curriculum category. Currently, this suggestion is being met with significant opposition from deans and professors at the university.

Miller notes the significance of Harvard's lack of religious education:

In the end, Menand & Co. backed down, and the matter never made it to a vote. A more brutal fight was put off for another day. But that's a pity—for Harvard, its students, and the rest of us who need leaders better informed about faith and the motivations of the faithful. Harvard may or may not be the pinnacle of higher learning in the world, but because it isHarvard, it reflects—for better or worse—the priorities of the nation's intellectual set. To decline to grapple head-on with the role of religion in a liberal-arts education, even as debates over faith and reason rage on blogs, and as publishers churn out books defending and attacking religious belief, is at best timid and at worst self-defeating.

She follows:

Harvard's distaste for engaging with religion as an academic subject is particularly ironic, given that it was founded in 1636 as a training ground for Christian ministers. According to the office of the president, Veritas was only officially adopted as its motto in 1843; until then it had been Christo et Ecclesiae ("For Christ and the Church"). While it's true that other Ivy League colleges don't require undergrads to take religion (with the exception of Columbia, where readings in the mandatory Contemporary Civilization course include selections from Exodus, the Book of Matthew, Saint Augustine, and the Quran), it's fair to say that the study of religion at Harvard is uniquely dysfunctional.

Read until you reach the end -- Catholics will really appreciate the interview with a young man who knows that faith is actually quite reasonable. Well done, Newsweek.

What I've Been Doing This New Year

Well, the year has already proved to be a crazy and busy one! I guess I should have figured that since my wedding is getting so close. Aside from lots of family time, many stresses from UPS about my wedding gifts (I recommend you DO NOT use them if you have a choice), I've been trying to help Iraqi Christian refugee families who have relocated to my city get settled and start to feel at home. My sisters, you have no idea of the depth of suffering that they have been through and are going through.



Although I'm certainly no expert on Iraq, but I do know a little bit about the Arab world and its culture. These people are a beautiful and proud people. Not proud in a bad way. But proud of who they are as a people. And they should be! Do you know that Iraqi Christian community is one of the oldest in the world? Do you know that the Magi, the priests of Zoroaster, are said to have come from Iraq? And now, well now, they've been so persecuted, attacked, and de-humanized by their compatriots because they are not Muslim. One young woman told me that an American Muslim woman told her that when she came to the US, she should convert and where the hijab. Probably not the best thing you want to tell someone who just got ran out of her country because she would not become Muslim. With a look of utter sadness, another young woman said to me, "There really is no freedom for us [Christians]. They will kill you. They will kill you."



I just cannot describe to you the sorrow that took hold of me yesterday as Peter and I went to visit the families. One family is a mother and father and three young sons. The father is struggling to find work, and the rest of them are struggling to learn English. The other family is three siblings - two sisters, one brother. They are well educated and rich in their own land, but here, they have nothing and finding jobs seems almost impossible. Their parents and another brother are stuck in Syria, unable to join them here in the US. No one quite knows why their case is getting rejected. I know too well the pain they feel in being in such a strange land, without even the comfort of their own language being spoken in the streets. But I cannot imagine how horrible it must be, to be so persecuted by your own neighbors for your faith. I believe they are God's holy ones. Oh pray for them!

What Kind of King Is This?

My brothers in Christ. What kind of king is this?-born in a borrowed stable, preaching from a borrowed boat, rejected by His putative subjects, and executed as a felon and buried in a borrowed tomb. Here, today, we behold Him interrogated by the procurator of a minor Roman jurisdiction who, with understandable perplexity, asks, "Are you the king of the Jews?"

What kind of king is this, Pilate must be thinking? Are we not a little perplexed ourselves? The readings don't help us much. There are places in the Gospels where we read of Jesus being surrounded by people hanging on His every word, where an excited crowd is ready to proclaim Him king, where He is transfigured in glory before the amazed eyes of His disciples, where He rides triumphantly into the city of Jerusalem with palm branches at His feet. Would not any one of these gospel passages have been more suitable for this Sunday of Christ the King than one in which He stands meekly before Pontius Pilate?

But our perplexity would not be allayed by a different selection of biblical texts. The problem goes deeper. Could not Jesus have secured a more receptive hearing for His message of love and justice for the oppressed? Why did He not come among us as the son of an earthly king, or indeed as the son of the Roman emperor? Then He would have been the most powerful man in the world, a real king, with armies, governors, senators, secretaries, counselors-people who could execute His plans effectively. What is more, He would have won over many followers.
--Archbishop J. Augustine DiNoia, O.P. Read the full text here. (do it!)

Close But No Cigar, Newsweek

I was pleasantly surprised to read an opinion piece by Lisa Miller in Newsweek this past week entitled "Sexual Revolution: Part II." The magazine was highlighting Harvard University's True Love Revolution, an organization promoting abstinence and the reintroduction of romance into relationships (as opposed to random, casual hookups). Miller includes in her piece the following:

Donna Freitas, a visiting scholar in religion at Boston University, studied attitudes about sex on seven college campuses and published her findings in her 2008 book, Sex and the Soul. She believes college students are not given an opportunity to tell the truth about what they want out of sex and relationships—desires that can include courtship, romance, and, yes, chocolates—without drawing the derision of their peers and even their professors. Their health service gives them condoms and lectures about sexually transmitted infections; their friends boast and complain endlessly about hookups real and imagined. "The average college student is miserable about sex. The idea of getting to step away from it is really appealing."

Though she praises the movement for giving women "liberation to say no," she does say that "True Love Revolution might do better...to leave aside the divisive and wrongheaded 'one man, one woman' language and help guide students through this modern sexual wilderness."

Why must an abstinence-based organization refrain from suggesting that heterosexual monogamy IS a way through the sexual wilderness? Why exactly is the organization's suggestion divisive? Why is it wrongheaded? Can we no longer dare to suggest that heterosexual monogamy may in fact be good for someone's well-being?

I guess the question I pose is whether or not we should be happy that sources like Newsweek are paying attention to the good found in these organizations (or the aspects which they deem good), or if we should demand even more from them.

A True Woman Warrior

Here's to Eunice Shriver, who served life in all of its stages and in all of its unique packages. Thanks for teaching us women how to serve our country, our culture, and our Church. Resquiat in pacem.

Humble Hope

“To God who has so abundantly blessed the church through the Dominican Order; may the Order of Preachers, under the mantle of the Mother of God, continue to flourish in fraternal love purified in obedience to the truth.”
--Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia, O.P.


(HT: Whispers)

Travels

Well, I've been skipping around the country the last two weeks, and I'm finally able to sit and post.  I had a wonderful week rebuilding homes with teenagers through an amazing program run through my diocese.  It was seriously such an inspiring week, being among the less fortunate with teenagers who really have their heads and hearts fixed on Christ.  I was originally angered by the poverty that I encountered, and while I'm still uneasy about it, the time we spent talking to our resident and his granddaughter took away my anger and helped me to connect with two individuals who had the same questions about life that I had.  I have a real sense of a human family right now, and as cheesy as that sounds, in the week that followed, I found myself becoming aware of the need to really talk with people, to look them in the eye, and to hear their stories.  I pray this attitude continues for a lifetime.  It's so much easier to see Christ during the day if we slow down and talk to Him in the people we are often too busy to meet. 

The conference I went to at Notre Dame was okay in itself.  I found myself a little frustrated at other educators who were disgruntled at younger colleagues (like myself) who had different concerns than they did about the Church, insofar as someone my age would be considered a "post-Vatican II" Catholic educator.  But differences and motivations aside, we all sat listening to two pretty amazing speakers: Sr. Helen Prejean, who's life story was the backstory of the movie Dead Man Walking, and Imaculee Ilibagiza, who we've mentioned numerous times here on the blog.  And the greatest blessing of all?  I got to meet Imaculee!!! I truly believe that I was standing in the presence of a saint.  Her story of the power of the rosary, the power of forgiveness, the people of Rwanda, and the very real human fear of facing death moved me beyond words.  When she was speaking, the song "Gentle Woman" kept playing over and over in my head.  I can't wait to read more about Our Lady of Kibeho.  While Imaculee is still speaking about her experience during the genocide, she feels truly called to spread the message about Our Lady who appeared in Rwanda before the genocide.  All in all, I have been blessed with ample opportunity for God to profoundly remind me that this whole faith thing, this whole Catholic thing, is real.   

Itinerary

My apologies for falling off the blogging bandwagon.  This past week I was doing this, and the upcoming week I will be doing this.  And guess who is speaking at the conference?  Immaculee!  I'm in the process of finishing her second book, Led by Faith, that Edith mentioned awhile back.  When I return from Notre Dame I'll be posting up the wazoo about all that I've experienced in the last few weeks.  God has been SO good to me.  Blessings on my sisters and our readers! Thanks for your patience!  

Corpus Christi and the Single Life

Today is the beautiful feast of Corpus Christi - the body and blood of Jesus Christ.  Our blog is a forum to think about what it means to be "single, lay, Catholic, and modern," so I wanted to muse about what the body and blood of Christ has to do with the single life.  

If there is one thing that I feel is certain about the single life, that is that there is no real palpable sense of "home."    Singles tend to work or study in various locations...big cities, suburbs, some domestically and some around the globe.  Many of us work to support ourselves.  We have the luxury of specialized study, the ability to think about what we want to do opposed to what we have to do.  We have no real roots down anywhere because we don't have obligations to others besides ourselves.  I've already moved twice since graduating from college, and in reality, I have no real ties to any one location.  All of this "rootlessness" is for better and for worse, though.  To be without obligations is a blessing in that we can serve the people that we're called to serve in our work and social circles, but it is really difficult in that we have no one at home asking of us and for us each day or night in an intimate, familial way.  When we return from work each day, do we really feel like we can put our feet up and feel secure, safe, and wanted?  I don't know about you, but I long for a sense of home on a daily basis.  Today, on this feast, I realized that when I approach the altar, I am going home.  There my king welcomes me with joy and love every time I approach Him there.   When we received the Eucharist, we find our home.  

The other thought that I had about this feast day in relation to the single life is that lay, modern, Catholic women ARE the corpus in the world.  We have the freedom, the time, the energy, and the opportunity to make Him present to others who need Him.  And that includes making Christ present to married people, to clergy, to religious, and to our fellow lay men who are all seeking gentle compassion, intelligent discussion, warm hospitality, and honest observation from women.  Single ladies, be the Body of Christ today, and know what we all have a home at the table.   

Mama Mia

I had promised a month or two back to provide some more notes from the ENDOW conference that I attended on the New Feminism, and now that the school year is ended, I can sit and share some things.  

During one point in the conference we were permitted to pick a "mock ENDOW study" of our choice.  I believe one was called "Knowing Your Dignity," another was on Mulieres dignitatem, and the third was a study of Redemptoris mater, or John Paul II's encyclical on Mary, mother of the redeemer.  I opted for the third talk as I had studied M.D. in depth and was pretty confident in my own dignity.  What I received was a brilliant, albeit concise, study on the Blessed Virgin.   Though the study spanned an hour and a half, I'll just provide two main ideas which are very similiar. 

The first thing that was said was that to the modern woman (that's us, folks), Mary can be a confusing figure.  How can she relate to us in the twenty-first century, with our crazed lives, many demands, stress-induced jobs, and quest for purpose and meaning in postmodernity?  Moreover, the modern woman is told that obedience is equated with subjugation and a threat to our dignity.  Here was this young virgin who says, "I am the handmaid of the Lord.  Let it be done to me according to your Word."  Where's Mary's autonomy?  Is she merely obeying out of some subservient, handmaid-y attitude? 

 The answer is no.  To be a handmaid in the Old Testament was to participate in God's unbreakable covenant.  A covenant is never-ending and involves the mutual protection of the parties (and here, since God's pretty set on his own self-protection, Mary's got a good gig going).  It's a good move on Mary's part...a beautiful move...a courageous move.  Moreover, obedience never means subjugation if the person in authority (or the person asking) is loving and wise (in Mary's case, Charity and Wisdom itself!).  To obey, in Latin, means to hear or to listen.  Mary is listening to a call, and she is autonomously responding to it.  God never infringes on her free will.  It's as modern as you can get! 

The second theme that the leader picked up on was that Redemptoris mater primarily defines Mary by her faith.   Though Mary is born without original sin, she is thoroughly human in all other things.  We tend to stop at the Annunciation after Mary makes this grand "yes" to God entrusting her.  But what follows this "yes" is a series of paradoxes and contradictions in her own life that must have made her question that "yes" and the covenant that she made with God.  And if she didn't, then she is a better woman than me (well, of course she is).  Mary's faith, in all of is humanness, was tested immediately after the Annunciation.  She conceives Jesus and while 8 or 9 months pregnant, has to travel (sans SUV) to Bethlehem.  Once she gets there, there is no comfortable place to rest, or to give birth, and so I can just imagine her (this is me projecting me onto Mary!) looking up to heaven and saying, "You want me to give birth to the Christ where?!?"  How confused Mary must have been after her "yes."  After the birth what does she have to do?  Just travel with a newborn to Egypt to flee death and persecution.  Life continues and when her son is in his thirties, his life is threatened as he preaches God's word.  And finally, what must Mary have been thinking as she walked with her son to Calvary?  Would she not have demanded answers from the Father?  What did her "yes" mean then?  Christ asks if He had been abandoned...would not Mary's cry have echoed that, too?  I can't imagine her life, faced with so many paradoxes and contradictions. 

The modern woman, whether single, married, or consecrated, faces such similar experiences everyday.  If we have been privileged enough to listen, hear, and respond to a call from the Father, how often do our lives turn out how we think they will after our own "yes"?  Hardly ever, in my experience.  My own projection about my life looks very different from what is unfolding.   Mary is the model for women in all eras and ages, to trust that when God calls us, He means it, all the way to the end.  

Christopher West Goes South

I'm sure by now those in the Catholic blogging world are familiar with Christopher West's Nightline interview with ABC in which he explained how both John Paul II and Hugh Hefner "rescued human sexuality from prudish Victorian morality." While many of us do not doubt West's good intentions in his work and his love of the Church, I have always had some problems with his apostolate, and it seems that I'm not the only one. David L. Schindler, Provost of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family, wrote a thorough and thoughtful response to West's interview about his need for "renewed theological reflection." The full response can be found here. It's worth the read.

Let me stress that I agree with those who vigorously defend West’s
intention of fidelity to the Church. Certainly he has had positive results in
drawing many Catholics into a deeper understanding of their faith. As for
myself, I do not initiate anything about West in my classes, but only respond
when asked a question. Then I begin by emphasizing West’s intention of
orthodoxy. As I have often put it, "he would throw himself in front of a bus for
the Church." It is important to understand, however, that good will is not
synonymous with sound thought; and I must say, not without reluctance, that
West’s work seems to me to misrepresent in significant ways the thought of John
Paul II.

The following examples have been verified by persons directly involved
or by things written by West himself (and I regret the necessary adoption of
West’s own language).

West’s work has involved suggesting that a man and
woman bless their genitals before making love; blessing the ovaries of women in
his classes; advising young men in college and the seminary to look at their
naked bodies in the mirror daily in order to overcome shame; using phallic
symbolism to describe the Easter candle; criticizing “flat-chested” images of
Mary in art while encouraging Catholics to “rediscover Mary’s ... abundant
breasts” (Crisis, March 2002); referring to the “bloodied membrane” of the
placenta as a "tabernacle" (Colorado Catholic Herald, 12/22/06); stating that,
while “there are some important health and aesthetic considerations that can’t
be overlooked,” “there's nothing inherently wrong with anal penetration as
foreplay to normal intercourse," (Good News About Sex and Marriage, 1st ed.,
emphasis in original), though qualifying this in the revised edition and
stressing the subjective dangers of lust in such activity; and, on Nightline,
praising Hugh Hefner for helping rescue sex from prudish Victorian attitudes,
saying that there are “very profound historical connections between Hefner and
John Paul II,” while emphasizing that John Paul II took the sexual revolution
further and in the right direction.

I offer these examples not merely because they are vulgar and in bad
taste, not to mention sometimes bordering on the just plain silly, but because
they indicate a disordered approach to human sexuality. An objective distortion
in approaching sexuality does not cease to be such simply because it is
theologized. West to be sure will point toward the “orthodox” intentions and
context of the examples, but my criticism bears on the substance of his
preoccupation as reflected in the examples.

Schindler continues with a delineation of some serioues theological problems in West's writing and thought. For my part, West's reading of the Theology of the Body and my own reading have never really matched up. I studied the T.O.B. along with Karol Wojtyla's The Acting Person, which is his philosophical antropology about the human person "in act." The T.O.B. says as much about our bodies' experience of another person's body in other actions besides sex as it does discuss sexual intercourse (as well as discussing the spiritual body that we will have in heaven).

Though it is truly admirable of West to want to preach about Catholicism's understanding of human sexuality as good, true, and beautiful, it seems to me to be slippery slope into hyper-sexualizing human sexuality in the Catholic tradition in order to reach the culture.

The final point from Schindler:

But sex is not even the most important part of human love, let alone the key
to the Christian mysteries–the Eucharist, for example. Missing in West’s
work is an adequate idea of the radical discontinuity (maior dissimilitudo )
between the divine love revealed by God–and indeed the (supernatural) love
to which we are called–and sexual love or intercourse. To be sure, the
spousal love between man and woman is central in man’s imaging of God, and
the gendered body and sexual relations are an integral sign and expression of spousal love, which also includes what John Paul II calls all the other manifestations of affection. However, as Joseph Ratzinger says, it is only because man has a capacity for God that he also has a capacity for another human being. The former indicates the “content,” the latter the “consequence,” of man’s likeness to God.

It seems to me, then that we, as Catholics, must still live our lives as if sex is not everything, because it's not. I feel especially priviliged to be single and to witness to this truth!

Feast of Blessed Julian of Norwich

Today is the feast of my "blogging patroness," Blessed Julian of Norwich. Agatha asked me to write a little bit about why I chose her to guide my writing.

To begin, there are many saints and blesseds whom I love dearly and hope to emulate. My Confirmation saint, St. Maria Goretti, has seen me through so many experiences in which my purity (in many different dimensions) has needed protection. As I have mentioned before, St. Catherine of Siena has moved me to trust in God's providence. But I met Blessed Julian of Norwich at a crucial time in my life when I desperately needed to know why I had felt abandoned by God.  She has continued to play an instrumental role in my early adulthood, and so I thought that she might be of some help to me as I figure out what it means to love as a young woman in the modern world, as she herself had to discern the meaning of many life experiences.  

During my senior year of college I experienced a very profound spiritual drought. I would not call it a "dark night" like that of St. John of the Cross or the many saints who have endured something like it. But my experience mimicked on a small scale the feeling of abandonment by God, and there were many nights where I went to the chapel on our campus and literally wrestled with both God and the devil at the same time.

It was during this period that I was taking an elective on Christian Mysticism with an absolutely brilliant professor (actually an Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism and so also had a family!). During this class I met Blessed Julian, one of the most renowned writers of medieval England.  Over the course of several decades, Julian was given many "shewings," or revelations.  In her own bodily suffering, she learned the meaning of Christ's suffering, as she had visions and experiences of Him explaining it to her.  This passage of hers has been a constant source of comfort to me when I ask God the inevitable question: Why? 

And from the time that [the vision] was shown, I desired often to know what our Lord's meaning was. And fifteen years and more afterward I was answered in my spiritual understanding, thus: 'Would you know your Lord's meaning in this thing? Know it well, love was his meaning. Who showed it to you? Love. What did he show you? Love. Why did he show it? For love. Keep yourself therein and you shall know and understand more in the same. But you shall never know nor understand any other thing, forever.'
Thus I was taught that love was our Lord's meaning. And I saw quite clearly in this and in all, that before God made us, he loved us, which love was never slaked nor ever shall be. And in this love he has done all his work, and in this love he has made all things profitable to us. And in this love our life is everlasting. In our creation we had a beginning. But the love wherein he made us was in him with no beginning. And all this shall be seen in God without end ...

Love.  That is the answer to all of my questions.  So, thank you, Julian.  I really hope to name a daughter after you one day.  And, in any event, who doesn't like to hear, "All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well"? 

National Catholic Prayer Breakfast

Last friday I had the pleasure of attendin the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, a veritable who's who of Catholics in Washington, D.C. This year's keynote speakers were Justice Scalia and Archbishop Burke, of St. Louis.

Scalia was wonderful--wry and grave--as he discussed the "foolishness" of believing in the Ressurrection. It was a stirring talk, charging Catholics to act with courage in the public sphere, calling on the example of St. Thomas More.

But it was Burke's thoughtful and powerful address, "The Teachings of the Catholic Church" that stole the show. The speech is amazing, and I encourage you all to read it in full.

The path of violation of the most fundamental human rights and of the integrity of marriage and the family, which our nation is traveling, is not accidental. It is part of the program set forth by those whom we have freely chosen to lead our nation. The part of the program in question was not unknown to us; it was announced to us beforehand and a majority of our fellow citizens, including a majority of our fellow Catholics, chose the leadership which is now implementing it with determination. For example, I refer to our President's declared support of the Freedom of Choice Act, which would make illegal any legislation restricting procured abortion; his repeal of the Mexico City Policy, permitting U.S. funding of procured abortion in other nations, together with the grant of fifty million dollars to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities which, for example, supported the Republic of China's policy of one child per family by means of government-dictated sterilization and abortion; his proposal to rescind the regulations appended to the federal Conscience Clause, which assure that, not only physicians, but also all health-care workers may refuse to provide services, information or counsel to patients regarding medications and procedures which are contrary to their conscience; his removal of limitations on federal funding of embryonic-stem-cell research, involving the wholesale destruction of human life at the embryonic stage of development; and his choice of the members of his administration, who are remarkable for the number of major officials, including several Catholics, who favor the denial of the right to life to the unborn and the violation of the integrity of marriage and the family. These are only some examples of a consistent pattern of decisions by the leadership of our nation which is taking our nation down a path which denies the fundamental right to life to the innocent and defenseless unborn and violates the fundamental integrity of the marital union and the family.

As Catholics, we cannot fail to note, with the greatest sadness, the number of our fellow Catholics, elected or appointed by our President to public office, who cooperate fully in the advancement of a national agenda was is anti-life and anti-family. Most recently, the appointment of a Catholic as Secretary of Health and Human Services, who has openly and persistently cooperated with the industry of procured abortion in our nation, is necessarily a source of the deepest embarrassment to Catholics and a painful reminder of the most serious responsibility of Catholics to uphold the natural moral law, which is the irreplaceable foundation of just relationships among the citizens of our nation. It grieves me to say that the support of anti-life legislation by Catholics in public office is so common that those who are not Catholic have justifiably questioned whether the Church's teaching regarding the inviolable dignity of innocent human life is firm and unchanging. It gives the impression that the Church herself can change the law which God has written on every human heart from the beginning of time and has declared in the Fifth Commandment of the Decalogue: Thou shalt not kill.

"I Come as a Pilgrim of Peace"

Today the Holy Father begins his pilgrimmage to the Holy Land. Just listen to his beautiful words about this trip. Sisters and readers, let's make a concerted effort to pray for the pope's intentions for peace, especially in the Middle East. I love how he says that he's visiting the places "made holy by the life of Jesus." I hope that we, the Body of Christ, make places and people holy with His life, too.

Feast of St. Catherine of Siena

I'd like to think the first time I encountered St. Catherine of Siena was in fact in Siena, Italy.  I was about 11 or 12, standing in a piazza with my family, and some eerie feeling came over me.  I can't really put words to the feeling, but I knew that something special had happened there, or something special was happening there.  On our tour of the city, the guide mentioned St. Catherine's name, but nothing really came of it beyond a passing acknowledgment.  

I met St. Catherine again during my college years.  In a Western Civilization course our class was studying the period of the Avignon papacy, and we spent time learning about St. Catherine's courageous efforts in healing the Great Schism.  I remember being struck by her moxie; here was a young, illiterate, Italian peasant girl, telling the pope(s) to get his act together.  Naturally, as an idealistic college co-ed, I found in her a role model who could teach me how to bring justice where I found injustice, and how to bring truth where I found falsity.  

But Catherine does not fit into a simple mold of an idealistic young, Catholic woman.  I encountered her even more intimately in graduate school during a class on Dominican spirituality.  In my study of St. Catherine's Dialogue, I learned not just about her but from her.  St. Catherine has taught me that I am a daughter of God.  Knowing this is something that has been life-changing.   In her intimate dialogue with God, he repeatedly calls her "figlia," or daughter.  He repeatedly refers to us as his children, and she addresses him as "babbo," or "daddy" in Italian.  It's so beautiful because God is communicating serious theological truths to her in gentle, familial language.  I think it is this gentle relationship with a God who is so awesome (worthy of awe) is what gave Catherine the strength to serve the poor, to serve the pope, and to care so deeply about Christ's Church, His Body.  And even though Catherine suffered her own spiritual drought (she has a whole dialogue with God on tears!), she never failed in her obedience or in her trust of Divine Providence (two other dialogues).  

Just a taste of the dialogue on Divine Providence (this is God speaking to her): 

I have also shown you how pleasing and dear to me such a soul is, and how I provide for her.  I have told you all this to commend this virtue to you along with the most holy faith that brings one to this marvelous state.  I wanted to make you grow in faith and in hope, to make you come knocking at the door of my mercy.  Believe with lively faith that I will fulfill your longing and that of all of my servants, along with great suffering even to the point of death.  But take courage and rejoice in me, because I am your defender and your consoler.

I have a very odd relationship with Catherine.  Though I love her dearly, I stay a little distant from her.  She is more of a role model for me, someone who has struggled with doubt, suffering, and anxiety.  I keep her at an arm's length because I admire her so much, but feel unworthy of speaking to her and asking for her intercession.  I hope that in the near future, I have the courage to ask her to be my friend.  I believe she still has so much to teach me as a young, lay, single woman with whom I share a deep love of Christ's Body, though this love is one simultaneously seasoned with struggle and hope.    

Doctor's Office Follow-Up

Hi Sisters! Just a little follow up to our many posts on going to the Doctor.

I took commentator Louis' advice: I went to cathmed.org, which linked me to a site called One More Soul. One More Soul has a list of contact for Catholic doctors by state and by type of doctor. It's a great resource!!

I found a doctor on there, and made an appointment. He was a great doctor, informing me of what vaccinations are currently made from aborted fetuses, and then told me that the Vatican has not officially stated any thing about the ethical and moral responsibility of receiving these vaccines. He also gave me information about classes on the Creighton method for when I may need it. In fact, even though I am not married, he told me that I could still attend these seminars and that it is a good thing to know how my body works. Anyway, hope these resources help you. Praise God for informative and faithful doctors!!