Obscure Anglo-Saxon Saints: St. Edmund the Martyr

The Abbey of Bury St. Edmund's, last resting place of St. Edmund of East Anglia

St. Edmund the Martyr was King of East Anglia from 855-870. Though his life was brief (840-870), he accomplished many great things and ruled in the tradition of the great Anglo-Saxon monarchs like St. Edward the Confessor and Alfred the Great, both his successors to the English throne. Though only fifteen when he took the throne, he showed a disposition towards justice and equity towards all his subjects. He turned a deaf ear to the words of flatterers and dismissed dishonest informers.

His zeal for the faith was so great that he hid himself away in Hunstaton for an entire year in order that he might learn the entire Psalter by heart, a deed which he accomplished with skill. Though this pious king desired solitude for prayer and penance, it was not to be. In 870, the Danes under Hinguar and Hubba invaded his realms and were only beat back with great effort. But they soon came again with overwhelming forces and forced St. Edmund to come to terms with them. Though he struck up a peace treaty with the Danes, on the way towards Framlingham he was waylaid on the road and taken in chains to the cruel Viking chief Hinguar. Hearing of Edmund's piety, he attempted to get the king to worship the Danish gods, but Edmund declard that his religion was more dear to him than life itself. At this, Hinguar ordered his martyrdom.

St. Edmund's martyrdom was as cruel as the Danes themselves. He was taken to Hoxne in Suffolk where he was beaten senseless by oaken cudgels. Then he was tied to a tree and whipped until his flesh hung in tattered shreds from his body. Still clinging to life and calling upon the holy name of Jesus, Hinguar ordered Edmund shot with arrows until he resembled a porcupine. Enraged at his constancy and still finding the breath of life in him, Hinguar finally ordered his head struck off.

His relics were at first buried at the place of his martyrdom, but in the 10th century they were transferred to Beodricsworth, ever since known as St. Edmundsbury. It was at this location that the famous monastery of Bury St. Edmund's sprung up and flourished. The feast of St. Edmund is kept on November 20th.

How much land does the Church own?

Have you ever been standing around the water cooler at work and, regardless of the conversation, somehow had the Catholic Church brought into the discussion? You think to yourself, "Oh boy. Let's see where this goes." Then some know-it-all says something like, "Of course, the Catholic Church is so rich and owns more land than anybody else on earth," or something like that. Everybody else nods in ignorant agreement and you try to resist the urge to throw your coffee on him. Well, I don't know about you, but I frequently hear people complain about "all the land" the Church supposedly owns and the supposed great masses of wealth that it contains. We all know it is not the case; anybody who has been involved in a parish for even one week knows that most parishes are either broke, operate at a break-even level, or (many cases) simply operate on a deficit. But, I decided to do some research and put some numbers behind the truth that we all already understand.

So, how much land does the Church actually own? Well, what do we mean by "the Church"? The first thing we have to understand is that there is no such concept as "the Church" owning land. The Vatican does not have centralized land holdings all over the world like, say, the Church of Scientology does. The dozens of parishes in any given county all over the country are not in any way owned by the Vatican, and the Vatican has no claim or title to them.

Parish land is owned by the diocese in which a local church is situated. Usually, the parish itself will own the buildings on the land. Catholic schools are private organizations whose land is either owned by the parish they are affiliated with or by a holding group or corporation set up in that school's name. So, instead of asking how much land "the Church" owns, you have to ask how much land does any given diocese own, and even then it is confusing since the diocese may own only the land, but not the buildings upon which the land is situated. Monastery lands are owned by those religious communities, and seminaries are owned by the diocese. Oh, and keep in mind that probably in any given parish, a sizable chunk of its land holdings (sometimes up to 50%) are cemeteries.

In order to figure out how much land these many organizations own collectively would be a very burdensome task. You'd have to figure out how much land and buildings are owned by every parish in the world - there is usually only one Catholic Church in every city of average size, and many more in larger ones. Then you'd have to figure out how much land each individual diocese owns - and there are 2,797 dioceses and archdioceses in the world, and each of them is completely independent. That's a lot of dioceses, and potentially a lot of land, although any given diocese rarely owns more land besides the land immediately adjacent to the land that the parish sits upon. Then you'd have to figure out how much land each religious order owns, how much land held by private Catholic schools not affiliated with a parish, etc. These are all independent; they are not agents of the papal government or in any way under the legal authority of the Vatican as regards property ownership. The only benefit the Vatican gets from the dioceses of the world is an annual collection called Peter's Pence that is voluntary.

But even if you could do this math and add up the land owned by every Catholic diocese and parish, it would be a meaningless number, because it would not tell you how much land "the Church" owns, but rather, how much land is owned by an artificial hodgepodge of thousands of organizations. To ask the question of how much land "the Church" owns is like asking how much land blond haired people own - there simply is no collective organization that centrally owns land on behalf of blond haired people, and even if you could add up all the land owned by individual blond haired people, you'd have just a number that didn't reflect anything in the real world.

This answer no doubt does not satisfy you. You are convinced that "the Church" owns more land than anyone else and want to prove it. If we were to take 'the Church' as being just the Vatican, what would the answer be?

The Vatican itself owns only the 108 acres it happens to be on and some other small sites outside of Rome. So, if we insist on interpreting "the Church" to mean the Vatican, then there is your answer: the Vatican owns 108 acres plus some smaller sites outside Rome.

Okay, you say, so maybe the Vatican as a central authority doesn't own all the land mentioned above, but the Catholics collectively do, and this is "the Church" in some degree, even if it is extremely decentralized. When you add up all of the parishes, monasteries, seminaries and diocesan owned buildings, surely the Church must be the single largest landowner on the earth? Not so. Not even close. Who are the biggest landowners?

By category, the largest public landowners in the world are the governments of various nations who own things like roads, airports, public parks, etc. The largest private landowner in the world is CNN”s Ted Turner, who own 1,800,000 acres. The other top ten landowners are all ranching families (sources: Forbes magazine, Oct. 6, 2003). The largest single landowner on the whole planet: LAND VALUES-GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS: “As of June 30, 1966, the world's largest land owner was the United States Government, with a holding of 765,291,000 acres (1,185,787 square miles) including 529,000 acres outside of the United States. The total value at cost was $69,357,000,000.” I’d imagine this is still true, though I'm sure the dollar value has gone up.

By the way, please don't tell me that the Queen of England is the world's largest landowner or that she owns 1/6 of the earth's surface or any of that nonsense. The Queen only "owns" those properties that are specifically designated as holdings of the House of Windsor, her family. Even then, some of these holdings are not in her power to disposes of. You will say that there are millions are acres of "crown lands" around the world; for example, 89% of Canada is crown land. But the Queen does not own it personally in any meaningful sense. She cannot dispose of it as she pleases. It is basically government land. It is true 1/6 of the earth's surface is certainly made up of countries that claim the Queen as the head of state, but that does not mean she "owns" that land. The queen does not "own" Canada or Australia. That is way too simplistic.

But back to the Catholic Church. Even if the Church is not the world's largest landowner, with all of the tithes and offerings that come through it, surely it must be the world's largest financial institution then? This is very untrue, and one which many non-Catholics are confused about. They seem to think that the Church is financed from the top down, as if things at the diocesan and parochial level are paid for by the Vatican or something. But we know that the Church is financed from the bottom up: the diocese is supported by the community of parishes, and Rome is supported by the dioceses, as well as from collections like Peter’s Pence, etc. The Church is actually quite poor, because statistically most parishes are in Third World countries and have very little to contribute. The problem is that people tend to confuse the artistic treasures of the Vatican (the Michelangelos, Bernini architecture, etc.) with financial wealth. This is simply not the case. The world’s largest financial institution is Japan Post, the privately owned Japanese postal system, whose assets are estimated at $3.1 trillion. The second largest is Citigroup, with only half those assets. The Vatican, by contrast, has a revenue of only $355 million, hardly even close to the largest financial institution in the world.

I hope this provides you with some food for thought, and ammunition against those who arrogantly claim that the Church is the world's biggest landowner or biggest financial institution. The Church is not the biggest land owner because there is no centralized Church to own the land. It is not the biggest financial institution because it is funded solely by donations from a people who by statistical majority are located in the Third World.

Educate yourself.

Dictionary of Dissent

Thanks to the poster who brought this to my attention. This Dictionary of Dissent over at Fisheaters is very extensive and hilarious, but sadly true. Check it out.

Protestant & Catholic Lyrics

Protestant artist Keith Green (d. 1983), who though an anti-Catholic managed to write songs whose lyrics more faithfully expressed the truths of the Gospel than the garbage put out by Haugen, Haas, OCP and Spirit & Song. Why is that?

We often say that the Mass, as it is offerred in most Catholic parishes around the country, is being "Protestantized," but what do we mean exactly by this. Well, in general it means a shift in emphasis from the sacred Mystery to the person of the pastor and the participation in the congregatipn and an entertainment based "what do I get out of it" type of liturgy. But what do we mean more specifically in when we refer to Protestantizing in reference to our music? Curiously enough, this is one area of the liturgy that is not being Protestantized.

What do I mean by this? Are not the introduction of guitars, drums, clapping, dancing, and an excessive use of the pronoun "I" in the music characteristic of Protestantism? Maybe so, but only in an accidental way. If we simply compare on that level, of course we will say that our Catholic music is "Protestantized." But my intention here is to go beyond the mere external form that the music takes and look directly at the message being conveyed in the Catholic and Protestant "worship" songs. Unfortunately, we will see that the Catholic songs written and "performed" in liturgies around the world are actually worse than the songs the Protestants are using.

First off, let me say that there are a few Catholic parishes that simply use Protestant praise and worship music in their Masses, many of them from the Charismatic Renewal. Now, just for the record, I am against using any contemporary music in Mass at all, but I think we have to appreciate that in some sense, the parishes that use the Protestant songs are probably better off than the ones that are invested in the sorry ideological agenda behind the Catholic drivel of the OCP and Spirit and Song.

Let me explain. Most Catholic parishes who use contemporary music do not make use of Protestant praise and worship (with the exception of the Charismatic Renewal parishes). What they do use is the modernist, liberal self-affirming stuff by Haugen, Haas, Tom Conry, Michael Joncas, Daniel Schutte, etc. What are the messages conveyed by these groups of artists?

Let's look at three examples of Protestant praise and worship (some sung in church, some not) and compare it to the Haugen-Haas garbage.

First, we have "Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord" by the Protestant band "Sonicflood" that is well known to anybody who has ever been around Charismatic churches, Protestant or Catholic. The refrain says, To see You high and lifted up-Shining in the light of Your glory-Pour out Your power and love-As we sing holy, holy, holy. Now, if this were a liberal Catholic hymn, the writer would never call God powerful and glorious, much less "holy, holy, holy." The writer of this song is not expressing anything other than a desire to see God glorified and lifted up, "shining in the light" of His glory. In the Catholic Church, this would be considered too "vertical." If this were Catholic, it would say, "Open the eyes of my heart Lord, to see the poor oppressed around me, to see that I am Christ to the world, to see the plight of the immigrant."

Next, let's look at "Heart of Worship" by Protestant Matt Redman. Redman is a devout British evangelical who believes that man is sinful and needs Jesus' forgiveness. He believes the Bible is the literal Word of God (do Haugen and Haas believe in these tenets?). Let's look at the refrain from "Heart of Worship": I'm coming back to the heart of worship-And it's all about You-All about You, Jesus-I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it-When it's all about You-All about You, Jesus. This refrain ought to be sung by every bishop and priest who has ever fiddled with the liturgy. No matter how deficient the Protestant's forms of worhsip are, here Redman is saying that worship at its heart is all about Jesus, not about us. In the modern Catholic Church, parishes get criticized for making the worship too much about Jesus and not enough about man and community. Modern Catholic hymns tend to draw attention away from the man-God dynamic of worship and towards the man-man aspect, the exact opposite of what Redman is saying here.

Finally, I'd like to look at an oldie, but a goodie, from Protestant artist Keith Green , who died in 1983. Green was a very virulent anti-Catholic, but check out the lyrics to his song, "O God our Lord": Who you gonna throw in the lake of fire, O God our lord? Who you gonna throw when the flames get higher, O God our lord? The devil and the man with the dark desire, O God our lord.The devil and the man with the dark desire, O God our lord. My, my, my lord.I’m crying out to you master, Oh lord,Don’t you know I need you, oh lord. Have mercy on a poor sinner like me, oh jesus. Don’t you know I need you, oh lord. "Who you gonna throw in the lake of fire?" Do any Catholic songs even reference hell anymore? Do any modern Catholic songwriters even believe in it? This song, though written in first person, references God as "master," refers to the singer as "a poor sinner" and says repeatedly that hell awaits "the devil and the man with the dark desire." Would Haugen of Haas say anything like this in a million years?

So, in the three Protestant songs we looked at (and I think these are representative of the whole), we see a confession of man's need for God's mercy (My, my, my lord.I’m crying out to you master, oh lord,Don’t you know I need you, oh lord.Have mercy on a poor sinner like me, oh jesus.Don’t you know I need you, oh lord), we see an acknowledgement that worship at its heart is only about God (I'm coming back to the heart of worship-And it's all about You-All about You, Jesus) and we've seen a desire that God be magnified in power and glory (To see You high and lifted up-Shining in the light of Your glory-Pour out Your power and love-As we sing holy, holy, holy). These are all good and venerable things to contemplate.

Now let's look at a few "Catholic" songs. First and foremost on the list of offenders is Tom Conry's "Anthem": We are called, we are chosen. We are Christ for one another. We are promise to tomorrow, while we are for him today. We are sign, we are wonder, we are sower, we are seed. We are harvest, we are hunger. We are question, we are creed. Aside from not making any sense ("we are creed"?), these lyircs completely glorify man. Gone is the centrality on worship of Jesus, gone is any acknowledgement that man is a sinful being in need of Redemption. Everything is man centered. Though this song comes from a "Catholic" writer, it leaves out everything distinctively Catholic. Furthermore, the Protestants we mentioned (Sonicflood, Keith Green and Matt Redman) all firmly believe in the Gospel (as they know it), thoroughly believe in their own unworthiness and take the Bible as the inerrant Word of God. But we know that men like Conry, Haugen and Haas believe that the some of the moral teachings of the faith are no longer true, that doctrine can change, etc. To put it blankly, the Catholic songs are driven not just by an anti-Catholic agenda but by an anti-Christian agenda.

Have you ever noticed that Catholics will borrow Protestant songs, but you never hear Haugen and Haas in Protestant churches? Protestants would never stand for that drivel! They would see through it. Let's look at Haugen's "Gather Us In": We are the young - our lives are a mystery, We are the old - who yearn for your face. We have been sung throughout all of history, Called to be light to the whole human race. Gather us in - the rich and the haughty, Gather us in - the proud and the strong. Give us a heart so meek and so lowly, Give us the courage to enter the song. Again, it is all self-affirming, feel-good type stuff that is all man focused and has absolutely no reference to man's sin and the need for grace. Now, it could be argued that all of the Protestant songs I referenced were written in the first person "I" just as much as the Catholic ones. True, but when the Protestant songs use "I," they do so in relation and opposition to God, who is always sung of as being infinitely more exalted, powerful and glorious than the "I." Like Keith Green's lyrics, My, my, my lord.I’m crying out to you master, oh lord,Don’t you know I need you, oh lord.Have mercy on a poor sinner like me. There is no confusing the "I" and the Lord there. Or Sonciflood sings, "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord." So it is in first person, but why are they asking for their eyes to be opened? "To see You high and lifted up-shining in the light of Your glory." But when the Catholic songs sing in first person, it is always to glorify the people, not to confess sin. Two statements both made in first person can have a world of difference. "I need You, Lord! Have mercy on me!" versus, "I am the light of the world. I am Christ to the world." These have very different meanings.

Let's take a quick glance at David Haas's "Blessed are They": Rejoice and be glad! Blessed are you, holy are you, Rejoice and be glad! Yours is the kingdom of God! I think the comparison is clear.

So, what is my conclusion? What is the point I am trying to make by all this? That we should all use Protestant praise and worship? Absolutely not. Only this sad fact: Protestant praise and worship music by contemporary Protestant artists is more in keeping with the Gospel than the latest crap from OCP/ Spirit & Song. It is horrible, but I have come to realize that if our music was being Protestantized, that would not be as bad as what has actually happened to it. This was brought up to me by blogger Lisa, who commented on my NCYC post. I had said that I expected there to be lots of Protestant praise and worship there, and she said, "no, that would be much too Christian." She was right! The contemporary music being churned out of the modern Catholic music scene is not just un-Catholic but un-Christian; by this I mean that it is offensive to all forms of Christianity. That is why you'd never in a million years see the crap of Haugen and Hass being used in a Protestant church.

It is a sorry thing that an anti-Catholic writer like Keith Green can write a song that more faithfully expresses man's relationship to God than a supposedly Catholic artists like Tom Conry. One mor ereason why we need a return to Tradition.

"I always wanted to be a June bride."

Remember Gene Robinson? He was the first openly-gay (non) bishop to be consecrated in the Episcopal Church back in 2004. On November of this year he made an announcement during a speech at Nova Southeastern University that he intends to enter into civil marriage in June of 2008 with his longtime partner Mark Andrews. The union will take place in New Hampshire, which will recognize such unions come January, 2008. "I've always wanted to be a June bride," Robinson told the group of 200 who had come to hear him. His statement was greeted with laughs and warm applause. Robinson’s address concluded the 2007 Goodwin Symposium on Sex, Morality and the Law sponsored by Nova Southeastern University’s Shepard Broad Law Center. The four-part lecture series began Oct. 11 with Suzanne Goldberg, a leading attorney on lesbian and gay rights issues, who discussed how the U.S. Supreme Court addresses sexual orientation issues.

During his talk, the Episcopalian (non) bishop made the following comments: "It may take many years for religious institutions to add their blessing for same-sex marriages and no church, mosque or synagogue should be forced to do so. But that should not slow down progress for the full civil right to marry... The greatest single hindrance to achievement of full rights for gays and lesbians can be laid at the doorstep of the three Abrahamic faiths-- Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It’s going to take people of faith to end discrimination."

His language reveals a glaring misunderstanding of the nature of marriage in a few different areas. First, no religious institution can give its "blessing" to same-sex marriages and this terminology ought never to be used. This implies that the homosexual couple is already married and simply seeks the legal (or what we would say, canonical) recognition of their churches. No religious body can "bless" a same-sex marriage because no such marriage can exist ever, no matter what civil government declares. Let us never use this language of "blessing" same-sex unions. Any attempt at a homosexual so-called marriage is invalid from the beginning (sacramentally, we could say due to "defect of matter"; ie, lack of one man and one woman).

Second, Robinson says that it will take a long time for religions to accept homosexuality, but that it should not impede the progress of gay rights in the civil arena. Essentially he believes that the religious aspect of matrimony is completely divorced from the civil aspect, the same way people assert that faith and morality are "private" issues and cannot be brought into the public. He fails to recognize that marriage is fudnamental to the existence of the state, both in the mathematical sense that the state is built of many smaller units called families, and in the sense that the good of the family is the good of the state and that broken or abnormal families are bad for the state. It is precisely because of this reality that states have historically taken it upon themselves to legislate regarding marriage. If homosexual so-called marriage is something we cannot sanction religiously, why on earth would we sanction it civily? Why would we approve something politically that we understand to be sinful morally? Can something be simultaneously bad for piety and good for the state? For the Catholic, the answer is a resounding "no." These two spheres are united and compenetrate each other, though of course the civil is subordinate to the spiritual. For Gene Robinson and his ilk, the civil is completely divorced from the spiritual and it is the spiritual that must take a backseat to the progress of the civil. And don't talk about "compenetrating" around Robinson; it might get him excited (okay, that was uncalled for).

By the way, what justification does Robinson, a professing Episcopalian, find for his position in Scripture? It so turns out that it is the same liberal-relativist Scripture scholarship that gave us the NAB that gives Robinson his biblical "foundation" for his position. He said that "scripture must viewed in its historical context" and compared the prohibitions on homosexuality with the prohibitions on pork eating; i.e., something binding at one time but that have since passed away as cultural traditions have changed.

First, this should demonstrate why modern biblical criticism is not the friend of the Catholic Church. Second, Robinson obviously fails to pick up on what I was taught in my first semester of my freshman year of theology at Ave Maria: that the ceremonial precepts of the Mosaic Law were binding only on the Jews of the Old Covenant while the moral precepts (like the prohibition of homosexuality) are binding for all men for all time. Third, even given the fact that we no longer follow the Jewish ceremonial code, it is not the case that we don't follow it simply because times have changed. We don't follow it because it was finally and definitively abrogated by Christ, not because times and cultural sensitivities have evolved.

"We changed our mind as a culture, as a nation, as a church about something we have been very sure about for a couple thousand years," Robinson said. Whatever culture and nation say, the Church, the true Church that is, can never "change our mind." But that is what happens when you belong to a ecclesial community that rejects Catholic Tradition in favor of modernist innovations and fads. The Episcopal-Anglican communion rejected Tradition in favor of a novel marital issue back in 1535, and again marital issues are dividing this community.

Of course, there were several asinine comments reported from people attending this conference. Nova law student Brian Kirlew, a professed Catholic, said he opposes discrimination against anyone, and thinks people often cloak it with religious justification. "The essence of Christianity is helping the less fortunate", he said. The debate over homosexuality is distracting. "Jesus’ predominant message is taking care of the poor," Kirlew said. Taking care of the poor is the "essence" of Jesus' teaching?

This is probably a result of the Catholic Church's excessive focus on "horizontalism" that this Catholic could make the comment that care of the poor is the "essence" of Jesus' mission. What about the redemption of humanity? What about the revelation of God as Trinity? What about the self-giving reality of God's divine love? What about the recognition of Christ as the Messiah? No, those are all too exclusivistic because they immediately create a divide between you and somebody who does not accept it, and because it is too "vertical." No, it is much easier to say that Jesus is all about compassion and love of the poor. Jesus certainly preaches these things, but to say that they are the center of His preaching is to radically miss the point.

This whole sorry affair is just another effect of modernism in contemporary religious life.

Old Pro-Lifer Dies

Last week former Illinois Representative Henry Hyde passed away at age 83. Are you saying to yourself, "So what? Who the heck was Henry Hyde?" Let me elaborate.

To those familiar with pro-Life history, Hyde's legacy is monumental. He was first elected to the House in 1974, only one year after the Roe vs. Wade decision. In 1976 he made a name for himself by attaching an amendment to a spending bill banning the use of federal funds to carry out abortions.What came to be known as the "Hyde Amendment" has since become a fixture in the annual debate over federal spending, and has served as an important marker for abortion foes seeking to discourage women from terminating pregnancies.

He was also a leader in passing the ban on partial-birth abortions, which he saw as an extension of society's duty to defend the weak. "The people we pretend to defend, the powerless, those who cannot escape, who cannot rise up in the streets, these are the ones that ought to be protected by the law. The law exists to protect the weak from the strong" (from a 2003 debate). As a devout Irish-Catholic, fighting abortion was simply a matter of conscience for Hyde, who never deviated from his pro-Life roots.

Perhaps more famous is his tenure as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in 1998 that oversaw the impeachment case against Bill Clinton.

Hyde was well respected by legislators on both sides of the aisle, and seemed to many to be a throwback to an earlier time, a time when wit and civility counter for something in the legislative process and helped make things run more smoothly.

Hyde was born in Chicago on April 18, 1924. After serving in the Navy from 1944 to 1946, seeing combat in the Philippines, he graduated from Georgetown University in 1947 and returned to Chicago to earn a law degree from Loyola in 1949.

Spe Salvi, part 2

One of the most profund aspects of the new encyclical Spe Salvi is the way the Holy Father distinguishes the Christian virtue of hope from the secular concept. Christian faith is not simply a looking forward to the future, but something that we interiorize and allow to change us here in the present. It is not simply information about doctrines and dogmas and events that we intellectually believe will occur in the future. As Benedict says, Catholic faith and hope are "not just "informative" but "performative" (SS 4). It is a vibrant hope that the Catholic (by the very act of faithful hoping) actually changes himself in Christ and brings himself closer to the very object of his hope. We do not hope for heaven in a merely future looking way, but by hoping for heaven we actually bring heaven closer to us and in a way participate in it here and now. Consider this quote:

"Faith is not merely a personal reaching out towards things to come that are still totally absent: it gives us something. It gives us even now something of the reality we are waiting for, and this present reality constitutes for us a “proof” of the things that are still unseen. Faith draws the future into the present, so that it is no longer simply a “not yet”. The fact that this future exists changes the present; the present is touched by the future reality, and thus the things of the future spill over into those of the present and those of the present into those of the future" (SS 7).

Constrasted to this theological, substantial hope is the prevalent secular hope, which is an empty, forward looking hope that can be reduced to a longing for something that at present does not exist. In secular culture, this "hope" is manifested in the cult of progress, the belief that man will by his own ingenuity find a solution to all of the world's problems through science and politics. While Christianity has been criticized by many for focusing men's minds too much on the future and not enough on the world's present ills (Nietzsche), Benedict says it is actually the other way around: it is modern man who by his focus on an illusive better world to come actually loses sight of the giftedness of the present. The Catholic, though seeking a heavnly homeland, is not in the least way unconcerned with what happens in this world, as the atheists argued. Benedict says:

"Even if external structures remained unaltered, this changed society from within. When the Letter to the Hebrews says that Christians here on earth do not have a permanent homeland, but seek one which lies in the future (cf. Heb 11:13-16; Phil 3:20), this does not mean for one moment that they live only for the future: present society is recognized by Christians as an exile; they belong to a new society which is the goal of their common pilgrimage and which is anticipated in the course of that pilgrimage" (SS 4).

Christian hope changes its possessor and allows the goodness of heaven to spill out into this life, manifesting itself in the joy of the Christian life and in the way that joy in Christ's salvation procured for us is allowed to transform all of society even as it transforms our own souls.

Another good point of Spe Salvi is that it disentangles Catholic hope from the slang way in which the term is used. For example, "I hope to win the lottery," can be translated as "That would be nice if I won the lottery, but you and I know it will never happen." In the slang usage, the word "hope" almost is used as an antithesis to "certainty." If I were certain I would win the lotto why would I hope? I only hope because it is far from certain. Not so with Christian hope. Hope, Benedict tells us, has a real "substance" to it, as the Epistle to the Hebrews tells says (Heb. 11:1). It is not opposed to certainty but in fact establishes our certainty, though in an embryonic form:

"Est autem fides sperandarum substantia rerum, argumentum non apparentium—faith is the “substance” of things hoped for; the proof of things not seen. Saint Thomas Aquinas, using the terminology of the philosophical tradition to which he belonged, explains it as follows: faith is a habitus, that is, a stable disposition of the spirit, through which eternal life takes root in us and reason is led to consent to what it does not see. The concept of “substance” is therefore modified in the sense that through faith, in a tentative way, or as we might say “in embryo”—and thus according to the “substance”—there are already present in us the things that are hoped for: the whole, true life. And precisely because the thing itself is already present, this presence of what is to come also creates certainty: this “thing” which must come is not yet visible in the external world (it does not “appear”), but because of the fact that, as an initial and dynamic reality, we carry it within us, a certain perception of it has even now come into existence" (SS 7).

For me, this is one of the most profound parts of the encyclical and I know I will be studying and rereading it many more times to make sure I really get it. But it is so important for us to be able to define Christian hope as being very different from worldly, empty hope. Our hope has substance and establishes our certainty in the promises of God; worldly hope is said to be hope precisely because it has no certainty. Our hope is a proof, "not only a reality that we await, but a real presence" (SS 8).

In paragraphs 10-15, Benedict then goes into a very interesting and pertinent discussion on hope in its relation to eternal life and whether or not Christina hope is too individualistic. I will examine these parts of the document next time.

Spe Salvi, Part 1

I have spent the entire weekend attempting to digest Benedict XVI's new encyclical Spe Salvi on the theological virtue of hope. I am going to spend a few posts dissecting this very interesting letter, but here will only say a few general comments. The first thing I want to point out (and that I have said before but it bears repeating) is that Benedict's encyclicals are a welcome repose from the more weighty tomes churned out by John Paul II. John Paul's encyclicals were always worded in the terms of personalist philosophy and were very dense; whether or not they were actually longer I'm not sure, but the philosophical jargon in them often made them difficult to read and at least gave the impression that they were longer. By contrast, Benedict clearly writes as a theologian and not so much as a philosopher.

One more note on philosophy. I have noticed that many post-conciliar papal documents take on a more philosophical rather than theological tone (especially those of JPII). Perhaps this is one factor in the present confusion in the Church, for philosophical language, unlike traditional ecclesiastical theological language, is nebulous and ambiguous by its very nature; it tends to take on whatever meaning the philosopher intends for it. Theological language on the other hand is precise and employed for the sake of clarifying terms and distinguishing with razor precision exactly what a thing is and what it isn't. A papal document becomes more nebulous and up for interpretation to the degree that it is full of philosophical language. Likewise, a document is clear and concise to the degree that it employs traditional theological terms. Traditional language safeguards the dogmas of the faith against misinterpretation. Whatever else one may have to say about him, I am glad that Paul VI made this point in his encyclical Mysterium Fidei (in that case, with reference to the word transubstantiation).

Now, on to Spe Salvi. Spe Salvi quite rightly points out the salvific power of the virtue of hope, its connection with the virtue of faith, and then goes on to point out different reasons the Christian ought to have hope over and against the secular world. In the beginning of the encyclical, in paragraph 2, Benedict talks about the place of hope in the early Church and how Catholic hope is contrasted with the hopelessness of the world without God:

We see how decisively the self-understanding of the early Christians was shaped by their having received the gift of a trustworthy hope, when we compare the Christian life with life prior to faith, or with the situation of the followers of other religions. Paul reminds the Ephesians that before their encounter with Christ they were “without hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12). Of course he knew they had had gods, he knew they had had a religion, but their gods had proved questionable, and no hope emerged from their contradictory myths. Notwithstanding their gods, they were “without God” and consequently found themselves in a dark world, facing a dark future.

From the Traditionalist point of view, this paragraph is quite excellent in that it points out that depsite the fact that the pagans had their own gods, nevertheless their religions were not adequate and not able to give them any reason to hope. This is a welcome change from too many documents that tended to overemphasize the "elements of truth" found in the other religions; this statement serves as a counterbalance to the errant belief that all religions are somehow ways to the true God. Benedict brings us back to sanity here by reminding us that these other religions and their gods are "questionable" and that no hope can come from them. Benedict here says this with reference to pre-Christian paganism, but it is just as applicable to post-Catholic heathenism.

There is so much more to be said about this document, and I will be doing more segments on it, but I unfortunately am very busy now (my wife is about to give birth to our third child any time now); I will try to get to it soon. In the meantime, check out Spe Salvi here.

The Evangelical Power of the Faith

I want to offer a brief reflection on an aspect of the faith that I think gets overlooked in some traditionalist circles, and that I myself tend to forget sometimes. Too often I emphasize traditional Catholicism from a standpoint of, "This is the way we have always done it," or, "This is the way the rubrics say it ought to be done," or from any other varying viewpoints that all revolve around the obligation of Catholics to live the traditions of the faith. I guess you could call this the legal or canonical aspect of Traditionalism. It is a very valid point: doing something because its always been done is an extremely important reason for doing something in the Church; indeed, it is often the best reason. And it is no less important to stress conformity with known regulations and canonical measures over and against unrestrained creativity and liturgical dabbling.

But here I want to dwell for a moment not on the legal/canonical side that we are obliged to keep, but on the evangelical power of Catholic Tradition. The Catholic Faith, in all its fullness and splendor, is the most powerful tool of evangelization we have. It is a paradox: the Faith is what we want to bring people to (faith in the Person Who is Christ), but the Faith is the tool that we use to bring people to the Faith. The Faith is Truth, and when we fearlessly teach the truth, it has a power behind it—a power that Pope Benedict calls "performative"(Spe Salvi, 2) The Catholic Faith is like a lion: all we have to do is let it out of the cage and it will take care of the rest.

How beautiful the Faith is! How interesting and powerful, inbued with the grace and power to transform lives and purify souls! I recall my brother-in-law, who is coming into the Church, tell me that the Mass was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen (and he said this about a tolerably well done NO!); if the Faith is ever presented in its fullness, it cannot help but win people to it. The Mass is our Faith acted out; by attending Mass (especially the TLM), one does not simply learn about the articles of the faith but one lives and experiences the Faith; it is inhaled and basked in, culminating in the great Mystery of the altar.

I was told today about a couple who went through RCIA in a very liberal parish. The DRE would not explicitly state that Jesus was the only way to God; he hemmed and hawed on the question of homosexuality, he tacitly accepted and even encouraged dabbling in other religious traditions. Needless to say, the liturgical life of the parish was a nightmare. RCIA sessions did not impart instruction but instead consisted of "group sessions" where people were encouraged to talk about their "feelings." Guess what? Within a year after Easter, that couple were no longer practicing Catholics. Maybe they just decided to stay home; maybe they are Protestants, maybe they are Hindus or athiests. I don't know, but it is certain that the soppy, weak, milky-cereal Catholicism they were given did not hold them. But the true Faith is so unlike that! The watered down faith makes only excuses and apologies; the true Faith makes martyrs and confessors.

Somebody asked me recently about the Church and Judaism. To make a long story short, I responded by pointing out that the rituals of the Jews were never salvific, even in Old Testament times, and that everybody, Jews not excepted, needed to come to God through Jesus. The person thanked me for my answer and went their way satisfied. It took five minutes to explain. Then I thought to myself, "There are people in the Church, even members of the hierarchy, who would never in a million years give that answer. They would set up committees, exchange letters, have dialogues, issue ambiguous and useless documents and beat around the bush for a hundred years before saying that Jews needed Jesus." Not to pride myself on my statement, but isn't it true! The lengths they go to in order to avoid saying the simple truth!

The Faith is so simple if we let it be itself, and so powerful to attract, transform and save if we simply trust it and trust Jesus to do what He promised. We were simply called to preach; He'll take care of the rest. If we take Him at His word, then away for ever with any Catholicism that denies the fundamental truths and traditions of the Faith, for not only is it disobedience, but it will not win any converts. It will actually drive them away. Why do you think so many people are leaving the Church while the traditional parishes are exploding in membership? We all know, for it is self-evident. It takes an intentional act of intellectual dishonesty to not see the connection. Bring back Catholic Tradition in all its fullness and watch the converts flock in.

Benedict's New Enyclical

Today Benedict XVI released his second encyclical, "Spe Salvi," which people are translating as "Saved by Hope." I will spend the rest of today pondering over this encyclical and will try to have some commentary on it by tomorrow. I am pretty busy today so I probably won't post again. Here is a link to the official English version of the text. Have a blessed Feast of St. Andrew.

Benedict Responds to Muslim Letter

This morning, Pope Benedict XVI responded to last month's "Open Letter" from 138 Muslim scholars calling for a new dialogue based on love of God and love of neighbor. The document issued by the Pope today (and signed by Tarscicio Bertone) is addressed to Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal, a Jordanian academic thought to be the leader of the effort. Before I say anything about this letter (and there are some positives and some negatives), I will reproduce it in its entirety here:

Your Royal Highness, On 13 October 2007 an open letter addressed to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and to other Christian leaders was signed by one hundred and thirty-eight Muslim religious leaders, including Your Royal Highness. You, in turn, were kind enough to present it to Bishop Salim Sayegh, Vicar of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem in Jordan, with the request that it be forwarded to His Holiness.

The Pope has asked me to convey his gratitude to Your Royal Highness and to all who signed the letter. He also wishes to express his deep appreciation for this gesture, for the positive spirit which inspired the text and for the call for a common commitment to promoting peace in the world.

Without ignoring or downplaying our differences as Christians and Muslims, we can and therefore should look to what unites us, namely, belief in the one God, the provident Creator and universal Judge who at the end of time will deal with each person according to his or her actions. We are all called to commit ourselves totally to him and to obey his sacred will.

Mindful of the content of his Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est ("God is Love"), His Holiness was particularly impressed by the attention given in the letter to the twofold commandment to love God and one’s neighbour.

As you may know, at the beginning of his Pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI stated: "I am profoundly convinced that we must not yield to the negative pressures in our midst, but must affirm the values of mutual respect, solidarity and peace. The life of every human being is sacred, both for Christians and for Muslims. There is plenty of scope for us to act together in the service of fundamental moral values" (Address to Representatives of Some Muslim Communities, Cologne, 20 August 2005). Such common ground allows us to base dialogue on effective respect for the dignity of every human person, on objective knowledge of the religion of the other, on the sharing of religious experience and, finally, on common commitment to promoting mutual respect and acceptance among the younger generation. The Pope is confident that, once this is achieved, it will be possible to cooperate in a productive way in the areas of culture and society, and for the promotion of justice and peace in society and throughout the world.

With a view to encouraging your praiseworthy initiative, I am pleased to communicate that His Holiness would be most willing to receive Your Royal Highness and a restricted group of signatories of the open letter, chosen by you. At the same time, a working meeting could be organized between your delegation and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, with the cooperation of some specialized Pontifical Institutes (such as the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies and the Pontifical Gregorian University). The precise details of these meetings could be decided later, should this proposal prove acceptable to you in principle.

I avail myself of the occasion to renew to Your Royal Highness the assurance of my highest consideration.

Cardinal Tarcisio BertoneSecretary of State

I think this was a tolerably well-thought out response by the Holy Father. It is not as strong as I would have liked, of course (there are no calls for the Muslims to convert and accept the Gospel), but neither is there any dribble about us praying together or any nonsense like that. Let's look at a few of the strong points of the letter.

First, Benedict refernces Deus Caritas Est in the context of love of neighbor. This is a very subtle point, but very important. In Islamic theology, Allah cannot love us the way God the Father loves in our Faith. Allah relates to his people as a master to slaves, but not as a father to children. Thus, the concept of God being substantially love is foreign to Islam. Allah may be merciful, powerful, all-knowing, etc. But he is not love and he certainly is not father. By referring to Deus Caritas Est, Benedict reminds them of the vast difference in the Catholic conception of God and the Islamic belief.

The next part is what I particularly like. If you recall, the Muslim letter said that we ought to base our common ground and our dialogue on two religious doctrine that they believe we share in common: belief in one God and love of neighbor. Both of these, although common to many religions, are nevertheless religious doctrines. Now, look at how Benedict responds:

Such common ground allows us to base dialogue on effective respect for the dignity of every human person, on objective knowledge of the religion of the other, on the sharing of religious experience and, finally, on common commitment to promoting mutual respect and acceptance among the younger generation.

Notice what he did? The Muslims asked to base dialogue on the religious grounds that we worship the one God and love our neighbor. Benedict turns around and says that we can base our dialogue on "respect for the dignity of every human person, on objective knowledge of the religion of the other, on the sharing of religious experience and, finally, on common commitment to promoting mutual respect and acceptance," all of them natural, worldly things. I like the line "objective knowledge of the religion of the other," which draws a good distinction that we can have dialogue with each other without having to accept each other's faith; objective knowledge of each other's religion suffices. I am not sure what "shared religious experience" means, but I don't think he means it the way JPII did at Assisi. But what Benedict categorically did not say is, "Okay, let's base our dialogue on love of God and love of neighbor, just like you said." No; he understands that their god is profoundly different from ours and that the way Muslims "love" their neighbors (like by taxing them for being Christians?) is not the type of love Jesus mentioned. Therefore, he accepted the call to dialogue, but gave different, more worldly ground son which to base it.

This letter has many weaknesses, too. I wish he would not have invited them to a meeting. If they accept, I hope he actually preaches the Gospel to them. That would be nice. But probably it will turn into some clap-trap about mutual understanding, fruitful dialogue and reciprocal respect. I think people imagine that just learning about each other will help us get along. Well let me tell you, it is precisely because I know exactly what Islam is that I despise it so much. So, just learning about each other's religion is not going to do anything at all. Let's pray to Our Lady of Victory, St. John Capistrano and Pope St. Pius V that this"meeting" does not turn into another Assisi.

Is Sin Inevitable?

When discussing moral issues that affect society, have you ever noticed the presupposition behind many of the positions taken by liberals and modernists? Whether it is with legalizing prostitution, legalizing abortion or promoting abstinence in schools, there is a moral position that underlies all of their arguments in favor of their immoral agendas. What is this presupposition? The concept that it is inevitable that people will commit evil and therefore the only thing we can do is try to soften the blow when the evil happens.

Is it inevitable that we will all commit sin? We have to be very careful here. It is certainly not inevitable that we will all commit mortal sin; many of the saints, like St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Dominic, had their confessors testify that they never committed a mortal sin. But what about for the rest of us? It is pretty certain that we will all be guilty of at least venial sin during our life; the Apostle John says as much ("If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us," 1 John 1:8). I think you could make a pretty good generalization this way: while it is inevitable that we will all commit some sin (at least venial) during our lives, it is not inevitable that we will commit any certain sin. Because I am fallen, I am sure to slip up somewhere; but I don't think you could say that it is inevitable that I will commit slander, or theft, or gossip, etc. I may live my life without committing any of those. But I think it is certain that the best of us will slip up somewhere (Proverbs 24:16 says that even the righteous man falls seven times a day), but it cannot be said with certainty that I will fall into any specific sin.

That being said about venial sin, it is definitely not inevitable that anybody has to commit mortal sin, which is what we are concerned with here. But this is exactly what many proponents of vice would have us to believe. Look at the implications of the following statements:

"It's no use teaching abstinence. Kids will be kids, and they're going to have sex anyway. Do you want them to be totally unprepared when they do start having sex? The best thing we can do is educate them about safe sex and give them access to condoms and contraceptives."

"It doesn't make sense to outlaw prostitution. People are going to do these this anyway and you can't stop it. Just legalize it, since it's already going on."

"If abortions were illegal, women would be forced to have recourse to back alley abortionists and unsafe medical conditions that could greatly endanger them. Therefore, abortions should stay legal."

In each case, the sinful activity is presented as inevitable: teens have to have sex, there's no way around it. People are going to use hookers no matter what, so it's pointless to try to curb it. And most offensive, the implication in number three, women simply must have to murder their babies; if you stop them legally, they'll find some other way to do it. Do you see how in each case the sin is presented as an inevitability? The proponents of these positions then say that all we can do is cushion the sin so that the impact of it is not so great (i.e., giving out condoms). This is not unlike the political view of many leftists during the Cold War who said we can't possibly beat Communism, so the best we can hope to do is think of ways to peacefully coexist with them. That argument was rubbish in that situation, and it is certainly rubbish when applied to the question of grave moral evils.

God said to Cain in Genesis 4:7, "Sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it." Nobody denies that there are strong temptations to sin; that much is common to all human nature. Sin does lurk behind many corners, and it does desire to ensnare us. But God tells us, "you must master it." This is what St. Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 10:13: "No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it." Even on the natural level, God has given man a reason and a will sufficiently powerful enough to overcome the often disordered desires in us that lead us to commit sin. With the grace of Christ, it is not only possible to overcome sin but not possible to attain great heights of sanctity.

Nobody has to have premarital sex or have abortions. People choose to willingly and then try to lessen their culpability by saying that their evil act was unavoidable. Who would have thought our culture could ever have gotten to a place where people commit mortal sin flagrantly and claim that it is inevitable? But let them go their own way to their own place. For us, we will remember God's warning to Cain, that it is we who must master sin. If we don't, we run the risk of becoming like Cain, both as individuals and as a society.

"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still". Revelation 22:11

Latin Making a Comeback

This is actually from a few days ago, but check out this article from the Washington Post on the popularity of Latin. Especially encouraging is all the young people the article mentions as attending these Masses and how the attendance at them is a lot greater than what was expected. The Party Line of the bishops is that there is no interest in the traditional Mass; well, the only way to find out is to offer it and see who comes! If they did, I think they would be surprised at the turnout.

Various News Items...

Catholic Eco-Spirituality? I think I'm gonna hurl...

This is a link to the website of St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Minneapolis. This parish has an "Eco-Spirituality Committe" that is dedicated to helping people realize that "Our human journey is intricately connected with the earth and all its creatures; our way to healing and wholeness (= salvation) plays out through our inter-relationship with the living systems of the earth." I don't know what "wholeness = salvation" means, but check out their website here.

Archbishop Burke Puts Parish Under Interdict

Click here and here to read about the ongoing struggle between Archbishop Raymond Burke and the parish of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in St. Louis. Here is the parish's side of the story.

Is Nothing Sacred? Detroit Priest Mentions Red Wings During Consecration

They say that true life is stranger than fiction. Isn't it true! I thought I had seen every type of liturgical abuse imaginable, but then I came across this picture of Fr. Pat Casey of St. Dominic's in Detroit:

No, this has not been PhotoShopped; he actually has the Detroit Red Wings logo on his vestments. This is even sadder because it is in my own backyard (and because I like the Red Wings). Click here for the whole sad story. He even "intoned" the score of the hockey game during the Mass. Grrr...

How can people see things like this and then go on to assert that we need to continue to break away from Tradition? Tradition is the only anchor that keeps us from going off into heresy (case #1), disobedience (case #2) or just plain absurdity (case #3). Only in America!

Romney on Punishment for Abortions

I have been suspicious of Governor Mitt Romney's pro-Life credentials since the beginning, and the recent comments from the Republican presidential hopeful give me more reason to question his stance. When asked in an interview whether or not he supported (if abortion were outlawed) punishing women who have abortions and doctors who perform them, Romney made the following comment:

You know, I don’t see putting doctors and women in jail. I don’t believe that’s ever been part of our history, even when states were able to put in place effective pro-life legislation. I haven’t seen provisions of that nature ever being proposed. But I do believe that the next step that should be taken is to overturn Roe v. Wade, and to no longer have the Supreme Court impose its one-size-fits-all philosophy on the entire nation. There will be steps beyond that, of course, but the next step is to overturn Roe v. Wade.

First of all, I think Romney is wrong when he said that punishing those guilty of involvement in abortions has never been part of our history. The Federal Comstock Law of 1873 stated that any person who attempted to sell any drug "for causing unlawful abortion, or shall advertise the same for sale, or shall write or print, or cause to be written or printed, any card, circular, book, pamphlet, advertisement, or notice of any kind, stating when, where, how, or of whom, or by what means, any of the articles in this section…can be purchased or obtained...he shall be imprisoned at hard labor in the penitentiary for not less than six months nor more than five years for each offense, or fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than two thousand dollars, with costs of court." Under this law, any person who even printed information telling a person where to go to get an abortion could be sentenced to hard labor for six months.

A Connecticut State law of 1821 (and amended in 1830) made any attempt to induce abortion by either poisoning of herbal treatments punishable by life in prison (later reduced to ten years). An 1828 New York law declared that an intentional abortion be treated as Second Degree Manslaughter and punished as such, applied to the doctor who performed the abortion. In 1845 a revision charged the mother with a misdemeanor; in 1881, the law was amended again, this time charging both the mother and the doctor with Second Degree Manslaughter. So, it is nice that Romney thinks that punishing mothers and doctors for abortions has not part in our history, but it is simply not true. By 1910, every single state had penalties in place for those involved in abortion. Clearly, putting women and doctors in jail for abortions is very much a part of our legal tradition.

Well, many pro-Lifers were not convinced by Romney's answers on the matter, and so Cybercast News Service (CNS) later asked for a clarification of Romney's position and was told by a Romney campaign spokesperson: "The people who should be held accountable for violations of this nature are the people who perform an illegal abortion, the penalties of which could include anything from disciplinary action to incarceration."

Now he seems to be flip-flopping: a minute ago, he said he did not envision putting women and doctors in jail. Now he says that penalties should include incarceration. This uncertainty of how to answer the more complex pro-Life questions leads me to believe that his pro-Life position is a bit shallow. It is one thing to say that you want to overturn Roe v. Wade, but that is not all there is to being pro-Life, as Romney is painfully finding out at the expense of his credibility.

But this whole discussion begs the question: if abortion were outlawed, what penalties would be appropriate for those involved? I have my own opinion on the matter, but I'll leave it until some others have commented.

Click here for info on the history of abortion law in the United States