The Gravity of Sins Disputed

I don't know what it is about America magazine, but the editors frequently seem to be drifting Leftward, and happen to be Jesuits.

On this occasion, Fr. James Martin S.J. takes issue with the Pope's declaration that Abortion and Homosexual "Marriage" are gravely evil sins. From America magazine's blog:

Pope Benedict XVI's comments last week in Fatima, Portugal, in which he stated that abortion and same-sex marriage were "some of today's most insidious and dangerous threats" to the common good seemed oddly discordant. The equation of abortion, something that clearly is about a threat to life, with same-sex marriage, which no matter how you look at it, does not mean that anyone is going to die, is bizarre.

The Pope said they are "insidious" threats, because all but the most wise would not believe them to be threats. Like Fr. Martin S.J., who seems to be under the impression that gay marriage is a socially and spiritually harmless diversion.

Why has same-sex marriage been equated with abortion? Are they really equivalent "threats" to life?

They aren't equated, but they do spring from a similar source: "My body is MINE, and I shall do with it as I see fit." Abortion denies life to a life already started, while homosexual relationships denies life to future life. Both refuse the rule of God over our sexuality and reproduction. This is mortal sin.

If you’re looking for a life issue with stakes as high as abortion, why not something that actually threatens life? Like war? Or the death penalty? Or the kind of poverty and destitution that lead to death? Why aren't “abortion and war” the most "insidious and dangerous" threats to the common good? Or “war and the death penalty”? Or “war and poverty?”

These are not "insidious and dangerous" because they are OBVIOUS and dangerous, and the Church speaks out about these things all the time, the Gospel also speaks out against theft, hatred and violence. But, War is not socially acceptable, and neither is poverty. It is not only against socially abhorrent sins, but also against the sins that our culture embraces that the Church is to speak out. Don't filter your message because you fear the loss of party invitations and the shallow goodwill of the social elites.

The great danger is that this increasingly popular equation will seem to many as having less to do with moral equivalency and more to do with a simple dislike, or even a hatred, of gays and lesbians.

Instead of condemning the message and messenger, the writer should be expounding on Church teaching, not just pounding on it. He'd be doing all his gay friends a better service by preparing them for the Kingdom of Heaven, rather than railing for their comfort on Earth.

Flogging

Yeah, it was another long, long Lent, complete with the media and every detractor against that Church that still draws breath flogging the Church and Pope Benedict. Jesus said "let he who is without sin cast the first stone". The New York Times says "rocks here, hard rocks, get your rocks here.."

Having been molested when I was 8 or 9, I can completely relate to, and still have to fight, the attitude of "string 'em up!" And I thank God that I don't know if my molester was a priest or not, and I try not to imagine it as so. Also, in the intervening years, I've learned some hard lessons about mercy and forgiveness, so I'm less apt to lash out about the issue.

I won't get into an analysis of the sexual abuse, the abusers, the bishops that kept it discrete, the therapists that enabled abuse to continue. I'm not an expert on any of those topics, and neither are most of the Church's current detractors. Most of the Church's fiercest critics are not interested in rooting out all sexual abuse in society, or else they'd be also relentlessly scouring the foster care systems, the public schools, and daycare programs as well.

Detractors' primary interest is the shame the Church by the failings of some of its' members, and to try and change the Church's doctrines and disciplines that they find most offensive to popular sentiments:

- Ordaining women won't eliminate abuse, or else you'd never see female teachers bedding male students.

- Married clergy won't eliminate abuse, or you'd never see married men sexually abusing minors.

- Blessing the use of contraception won't eliminate abuse either, instead it would just encourage already familiar forms of sexual abuse, like the current hook-up culture.

Sexual abuse is a feature of fallen human nature, not a feature of Catholic doctrine or discipline.

When Bad Things Happen

As most people are aware now, an angry young man stole a gun from a family member, and spread his agony by killing eight people and injuring others. My prayers have gone up for the dead, their families, and the rest of us witnessing this tragedy.

Some will condemn the young many as a monster, others will paint him as a victim.

Some will blame the gun, some will blame the State, and some will blame the parents. I wonder how many will blame the video games he played and other entertainment choices?

One of the first details about the shooter is how he was a nice kid who liked to drink alcohol, smoke pot, and play video games. I'm not a psychologist, but I have first-hand experience with ADD, depression, self-medication, and substance abuse. Here's my theory, and one that will likely never be seriously entertained: The shooter drank, smoked, and played video games to self-medicate his condition. When put through the tremendous upheaval of a romance and job, he needed to escalate the intensity of his self-medication. A mood swing that, in the past, was treated with a few hours of Halo or Splinter Cell, now required a live shooting rampage to deal with.

Despite years of tax-payer funded mental health treatment, it seems this young man was still completely unequipped to deal with his frustrations. I've always had a sneaking suspicion that mental health professionals are just fronts for the big pharmaceutical companies, pushing pills and feel-good platitudes about self-actualization(gratification). But I'll stop there.

Another thing, which screams out from this episode: If you are not ready to meet your maker right now, get ready today, as you may not get another chance. Whatever preparations your faith demands, get them done, be it reconciliation, confession, prayer, repentance, or any other act of contrition and penitence. Do it today!

Satan Workin' It.

A couple things jumped out at me from recent statements from different people. Here's the first:

"When I stopped communicating about my problems," he wrote, "the darkness increased and finally dominated me." - ex-pastor Rev. Ted Haggard

Ladies and Germs, get to Reconciliation. Find time if you're busy, and make time if you're really busy. Be wary of the excuses that keep you from making a good confession. Don't fall for the placation that "Well, Jesus has already forgiven my sins, so there's no need." I think Ted will now agree that that sophistry just doesn't hold when you're in battle.

Another tidbit, this time from Madison, Wisconsin, from people upset that the bishop is very intent on informing his flock:

Later, Scott said he thought the church leaders over-reacted and showed that they don't trust their parishioners to form their own opinions on civil matters.

If you are in a Catholic Church, there is an implied obligation to listen to your bishop. And the bishop has the obligation to inform the souls under his care with the Gospel and pertinent spiritual guidance. That's the way the Church has run for thousands of years. People are free to leave the Church and do their own thing, another long-standing tradition: schism.
There should be no differences between your civil and spiritual politics if Christ is truly Lord of All. If there are areas where you won't let Christ reign, then you really don't accept His reign at all. The Bishop of Madison, Wisconsin is trying to remind his flock of that.

Pertinent Scripture for Last Week's News

Romans 7:14-25

"For we know that the law is spiritual. But I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I work, I understand not. For I do not that good which I will: but the evil which I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I will not, I consent to the law, that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it: but sin that dwelleth in me.

"For I know that there dwelleth not in me, that is to say, in my flesh, that which is good. For to will is present with me: but to accomplish that which is good, I find not. For the good which I will, I do not: but the evil which I will not, that I do. Now if I do that which I will not, it is no more I that do it: but sin that dwelleth in me.

"I find then a law, that when I have a will to do good, evil is present with me. For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inward man: But I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind and captivating me in the law of sin that is in my members.

"Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself, with the mind serve the law of God: but with the flesh, the law of sin."

This is for all the unhappy sinners out there, who's sins were public entertainment this past week.

Detraction (a timely reminder)

Crossed the Tiber has a great and timely reminder on the sin of Detraction.

With everything on the news and blogs lately, it becomes easy to participate in the sin of Detraction without giving it much thought. I am ashamed to admit that this is one area of sin that continues to trip me up. As Christians, we overcome the "big sins" easily but these so called" little sins" seem to go unnoticed and at times are not so little. I think gossip becomes a sin that is justified by many Christians because we "share" information about another with the intention of "praying for them." This may be worse since it is using spirituosity to mask our sin! Yes , I have done this as a "concerned brother in the Lord."

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. It's contagious, it's affirming (in a twisted way) to denounce our adversaries. If were to silence all Detraction, and it's next-door neighbor, Calumny, the world would be a much quieter place. For example, this week, John Kerry felt entitled to fling some calumny/detraction towards the President, only it ended up hitting the military instead. The ensuing ruckus of calumny and detraction, in response to Kerry's comments, was similarly untoward. Myself included. C'est la guerre.

MIGHT be Perceived as Sexually Inappropriate?

From the Sarasota Herald-Tribune:

"From his home on the island of Gozo, near Italy, Anthony Mercieca described a series of encounters that he said Foley might perceive as sexually inappropriate.

Among them: massaging Foley while the boy was naked, skinny-dipping together at a secluded lake in Lake Worth and being naked in the same room on overnight trips."

Talk about oblivious. These events are not just perceived as inappropriate, they are inappropriate, and a priest should know that. Unless the priest gig is only active so long as one's clothes are on.

Mercieca, 72, told the Herald-Tribune he and Foley became fast friends when Mercieca moved from Brazil to Florida in 1966 and "loved each other like brothers."

Mercieca said he taught Foley "some wrong things" related to sex, though he wouldn't specify what he meant. He also said they were naked together in a sauna twice.

Mercieca said that, at the time, he considered his relationship with Foley innocent. But he now says he could see how his actions could be labeled inappropriate.

Once again, the disconnection from reality and sound moral judgment is appalling. Are we penitent yet?

Mercieca was adamant that his encounter with Foley was an aberration, and that the Catholic Church never had to send him for counseling during his 38 years in the priesthood in Florida.

"I have been in many parishes, and I have never been" accused, he said.

Never been accused, or never been caught and PUBLICLY accused? Forty years ago, this was unthinkable, and so many abuse tales were relegated to 'Twilight Zone' credibility. Not so anymore.

Is the deference to sin to blame for the Foley episode? Of course not:

One night, when Mercieca says he was in a drug-induced stupor, there was an incident he says he can't clearly remember that might have gone too far.

"I have to confess, I was going through a nervous breakdown," he said. "I was taking pills -- tranquilizers. I used to take them all the time. They affected my mind a little bit."

Substance abuse and depression are the hallmarks of closeted gay men, regardless of vocation. Maybe the reviled "Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations With Regard to Persons With Homosexual Tendencies in View of Their Admission to the Seminary and to Sacred Orders," has some merit, and should be used instead of thrown in a seminary closet, along with the seminarians who persist in deference to the Magisterium.

Tolerance &ne Mercy

"Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore and do penance."

In a recent e-mail, an old friend of mine stated that tolerance IS mercy. I think otherwise, and wrote the following to him:

As for mercy and tolerance, I would posit this: There are times when mercy requires intolerance. Look at the world today, and look at the conditions that we tolerate. We tolerate Arab militias to rape, murder, and pillage in the Sudan. We tolerate Maoist repression of Christians in China. We tolerate the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. We tolerate the in utero eradication of our future. Sure, we throw fund-raisers, put ads on the tele, wag our fingers at our politicians and the U.N., but nothing changes. The status quo is tolerated.

2000 years ago, when fallen Man was in direst need, God changed the status quo. Sin, and it's dominance over Man, could no longer be tolerated, which is why He sent His Son. Jesus did not tolerate sin, and exhorted us to be perfect. Not just be good, but be perfect, as God is perfect. Jesus told all He came into contact with to sin no more. Some listened, like the adultress, Zaccheus, and Nicodemus. Others could not bear His admonishments, like the wealthy man who could not give it away, and the Pharisees.

It is not merciful to tolerate slavery. Would you agree? Merton did not think that tolerating segregation was merciful. Jesus did not think that letting someone persist in sin was merciful either.

Discrimination (as in perception of difference) is vital to our ability to see need in others and to give of ourselves to fill those needs. If I see someone panhandling on the street, this discrimination comes into play. I know I am well fed, and I can tell that he is not, and that his need requires something from my bounty. If I am oblivious to all differences, I cannot know his need, and I will walk past, like all the others in their self-centered oblivion, because they can tolerate his situation.


ego quos amo arguo et castigo aemulare ergo et paenitentiam age

Pro-Life Petition @ Modern Commentaries

h/t Kasia
http://moderncommentaries.blogspot.com/2006/10/battling-ms-magazine.html

Abortion is bad, even most Democrats squirm when discussing it, so let's sound off in the face of shameless advocacy of this horrible practice. From a news article about the Ms. campaign:

Jones said she got an abortion 10 years ago _ enduring harassment from protesters when she entered the clinic _ in order to finish high school. She went on to become the first member of her family to graduate from college, and hopes at some point to attend law school.

"I wanted to do something bigger with myself _ I didn't want to be stopped by anything," she said in a telephone interview.

It's all about 'Me', isn't it?

Surrender Saves Lives

1780, West Point, New York:

General Benedict Arnold, commander of the fort at West Point, doesn't mince words. "People are dying out there, and we have a means to stop it, but for the Continental Congress' insistance on fighting the British" Arnold states. At a meeting of the Concerned Tories of New York gathering, General Arnold laid out his opposition to the continued resistance to the Crown, despite the huge toll it's taken in colonial lives." There are these grand notions of taxation, representation, and civil liberties, but to demand that colonists lay down their lives for these principles is outside their experience. Accepting British rule and tyranny is the lesser evil."

Arnold is currently on a speaking tour of the greater New York area with aide Major André, winding up in August.

In other, more modern news:

Bishop goes to bat for AIDS victims

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Bishop Kevin Dowling's toughest fight is agains HIV/AIDS, which infects more than 5 million people in his native South Africa

His most courageous battle is against the Vatican, which has denounced the use of condoms, saying they promote immorality and promiscuous behavior.

But they're also considered key to promoting safe sex, and in 1994 Dowling became the first African bishop to urge the Roman Catholic Church to consider lifting its ban.

'In certain moral issues the church closes off debate,' said the 62-year-old bishop. 'I don't believe that's healthy. Moral and ethical issues are not black and white.
...
For millions of sub-Saharan Africans, the whole concept of pre-marital abstinence and being faithful to one's mate, as prescribed by the church, is totally outside their real-life experience, Dowling said. Dowling compared the church's stance on condoms to the impossible rules Pharisees imposed on people during Christ's day.

'How do you protect life in a far from ideal situation?' he said. 'Why do we maintain this stance when the issue is that millions are dying? To be authentically pro-life, we can't focus entirely on issues like abortion.'

[ emphasis mine]

Continuing a tradition of traitors in New York.

So, the availability and advocacy of condoms is the answer for preventing STDs AND doesn't encourage an atmosphere of licentiousness? Well, then America should be disease free and very modest in it's respect for human sexuality. Oh, what's that you say? It isn't? Well, I guess that we should listen to the Magisterium instead of the horomonal urges, eh.