Notes: Saturday-Wednesday, November 27-December 1, 2010

1. The Spirit of Vatican II, home Masses, and child abuse

From an article in today's Herald:

From January 1981 Spillane joined a "renewal team" led by the provincial of the order, Father Keith Turnbull, which visited Vincentian parishes around Australia promoting what Spillane called "the teachings and the spirit of the Second Vatican Council". ...

[...] The day after the friend was killed in a car crash, Spillane turned up uninvited at T's house to celebrate a home Mass for the distraught young woman and her friends. ...
[http://www.smh.com.au/national/god-help-me-former-priest-found-guilty-of-child-abuse-20101130-18fe9.html?skin=text-only]

2. Classic Atheist straw man

In a letter in yesterday's Herald:

I am disturbed by the lack of logic in Cardinal Pell's view that atheists are ''frightened by the future'' and that our lives are ''without purpose, without constraints''.

Pell's religious faith is based on the idea that no evidence is required. In fact evidence, or reasoning contrary to religious ideals, is considered a challenge to faith. As such the rejection of that evidence or reasoning is treated as a virtue.

Unfortunately, by religious logic, reason and faith do live in an ''ideological apartheid''. I assume that when Pell says atheists have ''nothing beyond the constructs they confect to cover the abyss'', he is referring to the evidence-based logic of scientific process that I applied in coming to the conclusion that the God of the Bible does not exist.

Is he really asking me to replace my hard-fought epiphany with the vacuousness of faith? I wish he'd told me earlier. It would have saved me a lot of time and money on education.

Bill Bannister Castle Cove
[bold type in the original, my italics,
http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/frightened-no-finding-meaning-in-our-lives-20101129-18duq.html?skin=text-only]

Why would an Atheist erect such an obvious straw man as "Pell's [or any believer's] religious faith is based on the idea that no evidence is required"? (A similar thing was discussed in recent issues of Sydney Alumni Magazine.) I always want to put the best construction possible on whatever anyone of presumably good will says, so while on the one hand I don't want to infer that it's a lie (i.e., a falsehood which he knows to be false, which would require abandoning the presumption of good will), on the other hand the ignorance involved in thinking that "Pell's [or any believer's] religious faith is based on the idea that no evidence is required" is so gross that it seems not that much less an insulting alternative to the first possibility. Or is there a third possibility which I haven't considered? (And I don't ask that rhetorically. Can anyone think of a third possibility?)

3. "Wong backs SA Labor push on gay marriage"

http://www.smh.com.au/national/wong-backs-sa-labor-push-on-gay-marriage-20101128-18cfu.html?skin=text-only
See also
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/alp-must-support-same-sex-marriage/story-fn59niix-1225962378391
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/alp-brawls-over-gay-unions-greens/story-e6frg6nf-1225962962744

4. "Russian Orthodox Church okays use of condoms"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34925

5. Fr. Kelly on morality

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=24350

A weak article, because although factors other than the object of an act (what Fr. Kelly seems to call the intention involved in an act) influence the morality of an act, even when the other factors are good they cannot, of course, make an act with an evil object good.

6. H.H. The Pope on, among other things, the natural law, the death penalty, and the distinction (but not separation) between Church and State

Obviously it's always disappointing to see a Papal endorsement of opposition to the death penalty, but the disappointment is all the more acute, not to mention perplexing, when such an endorsement is proffered immediately after talking about the natural law:

CHURCH IN PHILIPPINES: CONTINUE TO BE A LEAVEN IN SOCIETY

VATICAN CITY, 29 NOV 2010 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican, the Holy Father received prelates from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, who have just completed their "ad limina" visit. Addressing them in English, the Pope referred to the close ties that for four centuries have united the Philippines and the See of Peter, highlighting the benefits the leaven of faith has brought to the Filipino people and their culture.

"To be such a leaven, the Church must always seek to find her proper voice, because it is by proclamation that the Gospel brings about its life-changing fruits", he said. "Thanks to the Gospel's clear presentation of the truth about God and man, generations of zealous Filipino clergymen, religious and laity have promoted an ever more just social order. At times, this task of proclamation touches upon issues relevant to the political sphere. This is not surprising, since the political community and the Church, while rightly distinct, are nevertheless both at the service of the integral development of every human being and of society as a whole".

"At the same time, the Church's prophetic office demands that she be free 'to preach the faith, to teach her social doctrine ... and also to pass moral judgments in those matters which regard public order whenever the fundamental human rights of a person or the salvation of souls requires it'. In the light of this prophetic task, I commend the Church in the Philippines for seeking to play its part in support of human life from conception until natural death, and in defence of the integrity of marriage and the family. In these areas you are promoting truths about the human person and about society which arise not only from divine revelation but also from natural law, an order which is accessible to human reason and thus provides a basis for dialogue and deeper discernment on the part of all people of good will. I also note with appreciation the Church's work to abolish the death penalty in your country. [...]
AL/ VIS 20101129 (600)

7. "Relations between Church and State: theological and historical perspectives": Theme of Catholic-Orthodox Forum

I was very interested to read the second-last paragraph of the following Vatican Information Service daily e-mail bulletin item:

MESSAGE TO BARTHOLOMEW I FOR THE FEAST OF ST. ANDREW

VATICAN CITY, 30 NOV 2010 (VIS) - As is traditional for the Feast of St. Andrew, a Holy See delegation, led by Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, has travelled to Istanbul to participate in the celebrations for the saint, patron of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Every year the patriarchate sends a delegation to Rome for the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul Apostles, on 29 June.

This morning the Holy See delegation attended a divine liturgy presided by His Holiness Bartholomew I, at the Church of St. George at Fanar. At the end of the ceremony Cardinal Koch delivered a special Message to the patriarch from Benedict XVI.

"In a world characterised by increasing interdependence and solidarity", the Pope writes, "we are called to proclaim the truth of the Gospel with renewed conviction, and to present the risen Lord as the response to the most profound spiritual questions and aspirations of the men and women of today.

"In order to carry out this great enterprise", he adds, "we must continue along the path towards full communion, showing that we have already united our strengths for a shared witness of the Gospel before the people of our time. For this reason I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Your Holiness and to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for the generous hospitality you offered to delegates of the European Episcopal Conferences who - on the island of Rhodes in October - met with representatives of the Orthodox Churches of Europe for the Catholic-Orthodox Forum on the theme: 'Relations between Church and State: theological and historical perspectives'".

Benedict XVI concludes his Message by assuring the patriarch of the interest with which he follows "your wise efforts for the good of Orthodoxy and for the promotion of Christian values in many international contexts".
MESS/ VIS 20101130 (320)

I would like to read the proceedings of that Forum (but only with the permission of its participants, of course).

Reginaldvs Cantvar

1.XII.2010

Notes: Thursday, June 10, 2010

"[Coptic Orthodox] Pope defies court: will not accept divorce and remarriage"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32025

Full text (very short):

Pope Shenouda II, the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, has confirmed that his church will refuse to abide by a decision of Egypt's highest court, which ruled that the Coptic Church must allow divorce and remarriage.

In May the court ruled that because "the right to family formation is a constitutional right," no religious body can deny that right. In Egypt all marriages must be endorsed by a religious body. The court said that the Coptic Church must alter its teachings to allow for the civil rights of divorced people.

Pope Shenouda said that the Coptic Church will disregard the ruling, insisting that the court has no authority to dictate religious beliefs and practices.

The latest rant from Fr. Kelly

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=21653

According to Fr. Kelly,

One of the heresies common among Catholics - I've even heard it from priests - is that the supreme significance of priesthood is that from Ordination on, the priest has the power to change bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord. It was put that starkly by one commentator responding to my recent blog on the Real Presence of Christ in the celebration of the Eucharist.

(The comment to which Fr. Kelly refers seems to be the one by "Byzcat" here.) Let me simply quote the teaching of the Council of Trent on doctrine on the Sacrament of Orders, in its twenty-third sesssion:

From Chapter 1, on the institution of the Priesthood of the New Law:

... that to the apostles and their successors in the priesthood was handed down the power of consecrating, of offering and administering His body and blood, and also of forgiving and retaining sins, the Sacred Scriptures show and the tradition of the Catholic Church has always taught ...
[http://www.catecheticsonline.com/SourcesofDogma10.php]

Canon 1 of the Canons on the Sacrament of Order:

If anyone says that there is not in the New Testament a visible and external priesthood, or that there is no power of consecrating and offering the true body and blood of the Lord, and of forgiving and retaining sins, but only the office and bare ministry of preaching the Gospel, or that those who do not preach are not priests at all: let him be anathema [cf. n.957 960].
[square-bracketed interpolation as in the source for this quotation,
ibid.]

Unsurprisingly, the commenters at the CathNews combox (which has lately, and sadly, degenerated into a cosy little mutual admiration society) failed to challenge Fr. Kelly on this, but surprisingly, neither have any bloggers. Nor did any of the commenters at CathNews challenge Fr. Kelly when he spoke of "the alcoholic cultures that have infected the clergy of many dioceses in Australia". It doesn't surprise me that CathNews published an heretical 'blog', but it does surprise me that it has published one with such a gratuitous, unsubstantiated slur against Australian clergy.

An interesting observation regarding priestesses

By Fr. Zuhlsdorf in an interpolation in a comment by someone else at his blog:

Temple prostitution was the inevitable result in the ancient world of the cult of priestesses.
[http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/06/prepare-to-be-amused-wymynprysts-protesting-vatican-blah-blah-blah/#comment-208889]

N.S.W. review of its laws on those who kill unborn children

From yesterday's Sydney Daily Telegraph, p. 18:

Laws for unborn

THE fight for "Zoe's Law" inched closer this week with the release of the terms of reference into a review of the laws involving unborn children.
Retired Supreme Court Justice Michael Campbell was appointed to head up the review after a campaign by The Daily Telegraph in support of Brodie Donegan's unborn child Zoe. The 32-week-old foetus was killed after an alleged drug-affected driver slammed into Ms Donegan on Christmas Day.
The review will consider if the century-old Crimes act 1900 -- which holds that if a child has not taken a breath, it is not human -- enables justice to be served in the criminal death of a foetus in modern society.

More on this in this earlier story from Sydney Archdiocese's Catholic Communications service.

Blog comment by me

At Mr. Schütz's blog:

Cardinal Pole
June 10, 2010 at 3:52 am

“[You] cannot imagine and did not as a Catholic know a single person who would so express that they were Catholic, let alone some construction like a member of the Archdiocese of Omaha as a church, in communion with the bishop of Rome”

So how would you imagine and/or how did Catholics when you were a Catholic express that they were Catholic?
[http://scecclesia.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/revisiting-the-summit-i/#comment-15215]

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Margaret of Scotland, Queen, Widow, A.D. 2010

Notes: Wednesday, June 2, 2010

A fashion industry czar with an interesting business philosophy

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/executive-lifestyle/prince-of-the-soft-sell/story-e6frg8k6-1225874158825

Here's an interesting excerpt from an article in today's edition of The Australian:

In 1987 [Brunello] Cucinelli ["king of cashmere"!] moved his business into the castle and slowly began to acquire neighbouring properties to create the type of business at which people of all ages would be proud to work.

Now 20 per cent of the company's revenue goes towards restoring and developing Solomeo. Cucinelli has constructed a magnificent 240-seat theatre, a sports centre and invested in impressive staff facilities.

"The theatre is an important part of my mission," Cucinelli says. "It is part of what I have tried to do by following the teachings of St Francis and St Benedict: to improve mankind through things such as the arts."

The teachings of St Benedict are always on the tip of Cucinelli's tongue as he strives to create a humanist business model. Other companies and institutions are keeping a close eye on his ethical improvements. In 2006, the business started a research and exchange program with students from Harvard University.

Dr. Wiltshire and Mr. Muehlenberg on English and History, respectively, under the new national schools curriculum

Dr. Wiltshire:

UNDER the new national schools curriculum students studying English as a Second Language will apparently study more literature than those studying Essential English.

The bulk of our students will encounter only a smattering of literature texts in something described as "functional English", while the true enjoyment of reading literature will be the preserve of just an elite few. This is hardly in line with true educational principles or Australia's egalitarian foundations.
[bold type in the original,
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/dumbing-down-english-teaching/story-e6frg6zo-1225874203101]

Mr. Muehlenberg:

Recent announcements about a new draft national history curriculum for Australian schools may result in even more parents making the move out of the public education system. A number of historians have warned that this curriculum appears to be yet more leftist propaganda masquerading as education.

Here is how one press account introduces the story: “Historians say the new national modern history curriculum for schools reads like a Marxist manifesto that ignores popular aspects of our past and neglects Australia’s role in world politics and war. The course, designed for years 11 and 12, is heavily focused on revolutionary struggles, colonial oppression and women’s struggle for equality.
[http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2010/05/31/history-wars/]

CathPews poster 'John' and Coo-ees's 'Hound of Heaven' on Fr. Kelly's latest CathNews piece

Here's John's nice rebuttal of that piece:

http://members7.boardhost.com/CathPews/msg/1275354860.html

And here's Hound of Heaven:

http://coo-eesfromthecloister.blogspot.com/2010/06/veiled-secrets-of-cathnews.html

where I've left the following comment:

Cardinal Pole said...

"Every man praying or prophesying with his head covered disgraces his head. But every woman praying or prophesying with her head not covered disgraces her head: for it is all one as if she were shaven. For if a woman be not covered, let her be shorn. ..."
1Cor11:4-6

June 02, 2010 4:48 AM
Your comment has been saved and will be visible after blog owner approval.

Msgr. Scicluna and Fr. Zuhlsdorf on the sin of scandal

A timely reminder of the seriousness of the sin of scandal ('scandal' in the proper sense of the word--unreasonably giving someone else an occasion of sin):

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/05/the-bitterness-of-hell-amplified-by-those-whom-the-damned-has-caused-to-fall/#comments

Msgr. Scicluna:

Referring back to the “terrible” words written by St. Mark, Msgr. Scicluna quoted St. Gregory the Great who said that any person who, having made vows to holiness, "destroys others through word or example" would have been better off having died of their misdeeds in a secular position, "rather than, through their holy office, being imposed as an example for others in their faults.

"Without a doubt, if they were to fall on their own, their torment in Hell would be easier to bear."

Fr. Zuhlsdorf:

The torments of everlasting Hell are surely proportioned to the sins one committed. But would they not also be proportioned to the number of people one causes to sin and therefore also lose the happiness of heaven? How might the bitterness, despair, fury, woe of eternal separation from God by amplified by the knowledge of your part in their fall as well as in their presence… and their cries.

Egyptian State-Church clash over divorce and re-marriage (a foretaste of what's to come in countries which legislate for so-called gay marriage?)

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31888

Here's an excerpt from an item posted at AQ:

Egypt's highest court has ruled that the Coptic Orthodox Church must allow divorce and remarriage.

The Supreme Administrative Court, siding with a lower court decision, rejected an appeal by Coptic Pope Shenouda II. The court said that "the right to family formation is a constitutional right."

In Egypt all marriages must be solemnized in a religious ceremony. The court ruled that the Christians who make up 10% of the country's population have the same right to marriage and remarriage as their Muslim neighbors, and Christian churches, regardless of their religious doctrines, must allow divorced people to remarry. The decision cannot be appealed.

Mr. Obama again proclaims June to be "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31887

Blog comments by me

At Joshua's blog:

Cardinal Pole said...

"(Unfortunately, there are two exceptions ... to the virtue of the Don: he was quite anti-Catholic, and was suspected of shonky dealings in his career as a stockbroker.)"

Make that three exceptions (though this third one is inseparable from the first): Sir Donald was a Freemason (source).

Wednesday, 02 June, 2010
Your comment has been saved and will be visible after blog owner approval.
[http://psallitesapienter.blogspot.com/2010/06/cootamundra-young-cowra.html]

At Mr. Schütz's blog:

"There is no social reign of the one who said his kingdom is not of this world."

If I had a dollar for every time someone said something like that as an objection to the dogma of the Social Kingship of Christ ...

Quas Primas really is a magnificent document, by the way.

"That is a self-justifying fantasy of state churches"

I've never heard of any Protestant State church arguing for the continuation of their establishment on the basis of the Social Kingship of Christ. Presumably they would argue for it on the basis of the high proportion of the populace belonging at least nominally to that church. Maybe I should check with, say, Denmark's Ministry for Ecclesiastical Affairs.
[http://scecclesia.wordpress.com/2010/05/29/simon-shama-on-the-snares-of-history-for-the-secular-humanist/#comment-15050]

At Terra's blog:

[I accidentally posted the final version of the following comment without saving it, but there should be only one small difference, so I'll publish this earlier draft and correct it when and if Terra posts it]

"1. While sexual purity is certainly highly desirable for the celebration of the sacraments it is not necessary - the sacraments are still valid."

Of course, Terra--that's why I made sure to say "worthily"! (And to pre-empt the objection which someone else raised to me saying that in the past: I speak of worthiness in the same sense in which we speak of receiving Holy Communion worthily or unworthily.)

"2. There remains the problem of married clergy in the Eastern Catholic rites, ex-Anglicans etc."

I don't see how that's a problem for my argument; as Msgr. Lefebvre noted in his Open Letter to Confused Catholics, clerical marriage in the Eastern Catholic Churches is something which is tolerated, not something to be encouraged, and where the Eastern Patriarchs fail to enforce continence for priests who are married, that is indefensible except, again, insofar as it is a question of tolerating a lesser evil in order to avert a greater evil. The latter holds with respect to ex-Protestants too.

"Its a reminder that we shouldn't think of priests as sacrament producing machines."

Fair enough, but nevertheless, the priesthood is primarily about the celebration of the Mass, and hence the primary reason for celibacy naturally will be connnected to that.

"[You] don't personally think Fr Blake's argument is the only one for clerical celibacy, or that he is suggesting that it is, just that it is a good one."

But clearly he goes much further than just saying that his argument is a good one--he says that it is of "supreme importance".

"There is nothing impure about a married man having sex with his wife, however, so there is nothing wrong per se about a married priest offering Mass."

Louise, you're comparing apples and oranges there--you go from talking about impurity to talking about wrongness. It is not wrong for a married man not to be in the state of Levitical purity, but it is wrong for a priest not to be. And on the contrary to what you said at the start: It is impure, by definition, (but not wrong in se, of course) for a married layman to have conjugal relations. The Roman Catechism teaches, where it deals with the preparation for Holy Communion in the section on the Sacraments, that

"The dignity of so great a Sacrament also demands that married persons abstain from the marriage debt for some days previous to Communion. This observance is recommended by the example of David, who, when about to receive the show-bread from the hands of the priest, declared that he and his servants had been clean from women for three days."
[http://www.catecheticsonline.com/Trent2.php]

(And hence obviously this holds a fortiori for the one who not just receives the Sacrament, but confects it.)

"If you want to argue that celibacy is a higher good (which it is) and that therefore a priest should be celibate, then that's reasonable."

I am arguing here not that clerical celibacy and non-celibacy are two goods, the greater of which is the former, but that clerical celibacy is a good--indeed mandatory--and that clerical non-celibacy (at least where the cleric in question is not continent) is an evil.
Your comment has been saved and will be visible after blog owner
approval.
[http://australiaincognita.blogspot.com/2010/05/church-and-mission-2-importance-of.html]

Cardinal Pole said...
You're welcome, Terra!

(P.S. (off-topic) You might be interested in the following article:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/executive-lifestyle/prince-of-the-soft-sell/story-e6frg8k6-1225874158825

Excerpt:

"In 1987 [Brunello] Cucinelli ["king of cashmere"!] moved his business into the castle and slowly began to acquire neighbouring properties to create the type of business at which people of all ages would be proud to work.

"Now 20 per cent of the company's revenue goes towards restoring and developing Solomeo. Cucinelli has constructed a magnificent 240-seat theatre, a sports centre and invested in impressive staff facilities.

""The theatre is an important part of my mission," Cucinelli says. "It is part of what I have tried to do by following the teachings of St Francis and St Benedict: to improve mankind through things such as the arts."

"The teachings of St Benedict are always on the tip of Cucinelli's tongue as he strives to create a humanist business model. Other companies and institutions are keeping a close eye on his ethical improvements. In 2006, the business started a research and exchange program with students from Harvard University."

June 2, 2010 5:41 AM
Your comment has been saved and will be visible after blog owner approval.
[http://australiaincognita.blogspot.com/2010/05/on-judging.html]

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of Ss. Peter and Marcellinus, Martyrs, A.D. 2010