These Rosary Rallies are EVERY THURSDAY at the Wisconsin State Capitol, 7pm at the State Street Steps! It’s powerful, do not miss it!
People are raving about this inspiring video that captures the Capitol Rosary Rally and its purpose. Bishop Morlino’s remarks at the first Rally are included.
There is also the great, faith strengthening story and pictures of the Catholic family that found the balloon rosary we launched, the next day in Northern Michigan!
Fr Rick and Fr Isaac hope Catholics nationwide will join in praying the Rosary for Life, Family and the Conversion of the World at YOUR State Capitol.
Hundreds gathered for 15 decades of the Rosary at the Capitol: “That’s mighty!” as Fr Rick Heilman put it!
Families with small children or elderly, come even if you cannot stay for the whole length of the rosary. We love you. Invite everyone! You could print a poster to advertise the rally.
You could and should also use the social media sharing buttons below, to bring this to the attention of your friends!
[Update in Nov 2012: I still get many people landing on this page via search engine so I thought I’d point out that the predictions about a new feast day did not turn out to be true and there is no indication that was anything other than inaccurate information. The other update since then is that the Medj commission at the Vatican is not going to be presenting their report to the Holy Father till some time in 2013 because they wanted to make time to thoroughly investigate and report on the many people who came to Medjugorje and were spiritually helped. Even a very great amount of such “good fruits” cannot guarantee a positive ruling on the Medjugorje phenomenon–besides the other criteria that must be met, don’t forget there have been some real rotten fruits too. But the real good God has done in people’s lives must be valued and respected, and is not nullified even if the alleged private revelations are disapproved.]
Fr George David Byers says today that he’s been told by a Lebanese nun that the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has declared a new universal feast day of Our Lady of Peace [see Nov 2012 Update above]. Feasts of Our Lady under this traditional title are already celebrated locally in a few places in the world, but if Fr Byers is correct, the significance in this instance has to do with the Medjugorje phenomon. Fr Byers was also told that the Pope’s decision on Medjugorje is coming this November[again, see Update above]. We already knew that the Vatican’s Commission on Medjugorje was due to submit its report to the Pope by the end of the year, so this would make sense and it may be that they have already submitted it. There are likely millions of devotees of this doubtful private revelation, so the matter, and its pastoral handling, is intensely delicate.
I think the new feast day, if true (I can find no verification), offers to the many good people worldwide who have been devoted to Medjugorje a sound and truly ecclesial devotion to Our Lady, who indeed loves them as her children and gives peace… they were right about that all along even though not about Medjugorje. The other thing is, August 5 is the “Birthday of Our Lady” according to the Medjugorje apparitions, which they disobediently celebrate with liturgies and a big youth festival, even though the Church already HAS a liturgical feast of the Nativity of Our Lady on September 8th. That would have to stop, and a June 25th feast would supply a totally legitimate alternative celebration of Our Lady. Fr Byers interprets it thus:
The instant I heard that I thought that that means that the decision about Medjugorje will be negative, and that this is a way to demonstrate that our Holy Father and the Church don’t hate our Lady. And… really… they love Jesus’ Immaculate Mother. If it was to be a positive decision, it seems that one would wait for saying something about such a memorial of our Lady.
[…]
I bounced this off a most reasonable, faithful friend, and he said that this absolutely means without any doubt whatsoever that the decision about Medjugorje will be negative. He said no decision can be made positively about any apparitions while they are ongoing. Since the apparitions are continuous, daily, non-stop, this means that the only possible decision will be that the apparitions are not consonant with anything supernatural, or something even more negative than that, but nothing positive, except maybe to say some nice things about conversions that have taken place there, etc., trying to save any good that could have taken place just because so many people were involved from all over the world.
Some readers may need a refresher on what this is about. In 1981, 6 youths in the Bosnian town of Medjugorje (med-joo-GOR-ee-a)began to report that they were having visions and locutions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Every day, in fact, and they’re still at it. In the meantime they’ve grown up and all are married (one to a former Miss America). They and their once-obscure village have become the focal point of a large and lucrative industry, which the “seers” also make their living from, as people come to them from around the world, including very large numbers from the United States. There have been innumerable conversions, priestly and religious vocations and claims of miracles associated with Medjugorje. The alleged visionaries have also traveled the world, to receive “messages from Mary” at scheduled events in the presence of awed crowds in places as varied as the Vienna Cathedral, and, a number of years ago, a parish in the Madison Diocese.
Yet as it stands, the Church’s official ruling on it is that it is not held to be supernatural. Official pilgrimages undertaken on the basis that the occurrences at Medjugorje are supernatural are forbidden, and the local bishop forbids clergy to present it as being supernatural and has forbidden the parish church of St James in Medjugorje to be called a shrine or for the “seers” to have “visions” in there, and forbids the Franciscans there from publishing or promoting the messages. Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop them from doing so anyway–disobedience to ecclesiastical authority is a major feature of Medjugorje, with much detraction of the bishop too (even the locutions from “Mary” have detracted from the Bishop or urged disobedience). And there are many uglier things which I will not get into here, but this recent article in Crisis Magazine tells the sad story. For more detailed information, this website full of official documents on Medjugorje is the top resource.
Saint John of the Cross is the Doctor of the Church to whom the Church looks above all others as teacher in regards to mystical theology. This article describes his highly cautionary teaching in regards to private revelations.
If you read the Crisis Magazine article then this document written in 1978 for bishops on criteria for discernment of alleged private revelations, you will understand why many today conclude, to a moral certainty, that Medjugorje will be disapproved. For more insight into Pope Benedict’s traditional thought on the matter of private revelation, see his Theological Commentary on the Third Secret of Fatima at the end of this document, when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the CDF. His analysis wasn’t universally well liked by all Fatima devotees, but it truly follows John of the Cross and the other Doctors and I find it some of the best thought on the subject in recent times.
The Holy Father presented a Golden Rose most sweetly before the image of Our Lady in Fatima in 2010:
Our Lady,
Mother of all men and women,
I come before you as a son
visiting his Mother,
and I do so in company
with a multitude of brothers and sisters.
As the Successor of Peter,
to whom was entrusted the mission
of presiding in the service
of charity in the Church of Christ
and of confirming all in faith and in hope,
I wish to present to your
Immaculate Heart
the joys and hopes
as well as the problems and sufferings
of each one of these sons and daughters of yours
who are gathered in the Cova di Iria
or who are praying with us from afar.
Mother most gentle,
you know each one by name,
you know each one’s face and personal history,
and you love them all
with maternal benevolence
that wells up from the very heart of Divine Love.
I entrust and consecrate them all to you,
Mary Most Holy,
Mother of God and our Mother.
NCRegister’s article also fleshes out the bus trip’s origin as an attempt at retaliation against the Vatican for the CDF Doctrinal Assessment of the LCWR, and to detract from the Fortnight for Freedom.
In a July 2 profile of Sister Simone, Time magazine observed, “At times Nuns on the Bus can seem like Campbell’s personal act of retaliation against the Vatican for its virtual takeover of the nuns’ leadership conference and its rebuke of Network.” Indeed, the article quoted Sister Simone: “I’ve been a faithful woman religious for over 40 years. … And some guy who’s never talked to me says we’re a problem? Ooh, that hurts.”
Likewise, it was no accident that the sisters’ two-week bus tour was timed to coincide with the U.S. bishops’ June 21-July 4 Fortnight for Freedom….
The Network sisters support the HHS mandate that has been rejected by the bishops, and a press hungry for sensationalism was much more inclined to cover the sisters’ public disagreement with Catholic Church leaders than to cover thousands of Catholics — including many more sisters than those on the bus — praying in churches. The New York Times called the Nuns on the Bus tour a “spirited retort to the Vatican,” and Time’s headline on its July 2 profile of Sister Simone read: “Holy Strategist: A nun takes on bishops with a bus tour and Twitter.”
[…]
How did a handful of sisters on a bus get such wide media coverage? The answer might be found in the media professional who accompanied them on the bus and her employer. A perceptive blogger, Elizabeth at Laetificat, made the connection that the sisters’ media representative, Casey Shoenberger, is employed as a media relations assistant for the organization Faith in Public Life (FPL) and had worked in the associate program at Network.
Go read it. This is the most detailed and excellent faithful Catholic article there has yet been on the Nuns on the Bus and develops the story further. For the record, I read a comment at this link that brought up a connection between FPL and the Nuns on the Bus, what I did was research enough to demonstrate the truth of that, in the course of which I realized I’d interacted with and snapped a photo of Casey the FPL employee at the Janesville stop.
I was interested that the Register actually called up NETWORK and asked them about Casey Schoeneberger. Their response to this uncomfortable fact seems a bit defensive.
Network’s communications coordinator, Stephanie Niedringhaus, told the Register that FPL’s Schoenberger accompanied the bus tour only because she herself was unable to go due to family obligations. She said she was not aware of any funding for the tour from Faith in Public Life and said that the funding came from “a long list” of sources, with that funding still coming in.
Since Casey is a FPL employee, at it appears her services were funded by FPL, whose other staff of course were also actively working on promoting the Nuns on the Bus, through their website and so forth. We don’t know the specifics; Niedringhaus is vague enough that even if for instance FPL completely arranged and paid for the bus and driver it can still be true that Niedringhaus is unaware of FPL giving funds to NETWORK, and it can also be true that a long list of other donors, for instance small online donors, contributed.
The Register article also has this:
On the FPL “Successes” page is an entry about the March 17, 2010, letter on Network stationery to Congress urging passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. The bishops, while supporting health-care reform, did not support that bill because it included funding for abortion and did not have adequate conscience protection. The Network letterclaimed to represent all 59,000 sisters in the U.S., but was signed by only about 60 sisters.
The bishops’ conference issued a clarification about that letter the next day, explaining that the signers had “grossly overstated whom they represent” in that letter.
No wonder Sr Simone told me “it’s complicated” in response to my asking whether she opposes the HHS abortion, contraception and sterilization mandate. I understood this to be a euphemism for “no”. As the Register article says with refreshing directness: “The Network sisters support the HHS mandate.”
In contrast, the National Catholic Register, through its parent company EWTN, is one of the plaintiffs in the coordinated lawsuits challenging the mandate’s constitutionality.
UPDATE April 2017: A friend alerted me that a Facebook page associated with Fr Relyea is sharing this post. I want to point out it was from 2012. Fr Relyea is no longer in the Diocese of Madison, he was given a good chance to succeed ultimately it grew obvious that was not going to work, and sadly it is my understanding he may not have any official ministry in the Church at this time, so if that is the case I would not recommend such a retreat now [UPDATE of my update: Since some had been bothered by my comment which was based on no one seeming to know what diocese or institute of consecrated life he was incardinated in, I inquired to the Vicar General of the Diocese of Madison, WI who responded that although he is not aware of Fr Relyea’s current status, Fr Relyea had faculties through the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate during the time he was in the Diocese of Madison, and barring anything to the contrary that would presumably still be the case. I was very relieved and glad to hear this!]. Anyone could see he is a sincere man; I am a repentant sinner and do penance too so I loved him and was and continue to be inspired by him even while I saw rough edges. I hope he is well and I pray for him.
I was fortunate to attend, a couple of weekends ago, a traditional women’s silent retreat at beautiful Durward’s Glen retreat center near Baraboo, WI. I could also accurately say traditionalist, since Father Isaac Mary Relyea celebrated the Traditional Latin Mass each day and it was a very long skirt and chapel veil wearing group of women. This human environment of modesty, dignity, silence, and Christian sincerity was in itself refreshing.
But in digesting the experience, I have wanted to put the emphasis on the tremendous good of simply traditionalCatholic spirituality. Although it takes slightly different forms with different emphasis, there is actually only one authentic Christian spirituality, just as there is only one Holy Spirit and one Body of Christ in which we are united.
In fact I want to plead, if there are seminarians or young priests who happen to read my blog, I especially want to plead to you: study and be formed by the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, for your theology and spirituality, and draw on all the Evangelical Councils. It is strong, beautiful, saint-making stuff, this plain vanilla Catholicism.
It is necessary to apply the hermeneutic of continuity with Sacred Tradition to the field of spirituality. I feel that there is no particular 20th or 21st century spirituality or lay ecclesial movement or (least of all) private revelation that is “what the laity need today,” more than we need the one perennial and universal spirituality of the Fathers and Doctors. We can keep Garrigou-Lagrange. But for instance the Charismatic Movement is among the things that I don’t mind mentioning that I do not believe we have need of, and is not soundly in continuity with the universal and perennial Catholic spirituality of the Fathers and Doctors. “Interreligious spirituality” is another thing that we do not have any need of. Etc.
I do not accuse good priests I know of not liking traditional Catholic spirituality! But I guess the thought that crossed my mind was that the priest who is considered by some to be controversial and “not Vatican II enough” is among the few who gives us satisfying helpings of this.
From my retreat notes for the third conference on Saturday–my notes, not direct quotes of Father. I am assuming he would not mind me sharing this for others’ edification:
On the sin of “human respect”.
Are you afraid to proclaim God’s truth? Do I go the way most of the theologians are going, or do I speak the truth even if alone?
One of the biggest problems today is Catholics entering into [invalid] marriage outside the Church. The majority of priests lead souls astray, out of human respect. One cannot attend such a wedding.
Pilate gave in to human respect. He didn’t want to crucify Jesus. It is a wicked sin.
John the Baptist didn’t give in to human respect. He died for the sanctity of marriage.
If you give in, you will never have peace. The Saints had peace. They didn’t give in.
Don’t run from the Cross. Run to it. Did St Paul give in to human respect?
How many babies have been slaughtered in their mothers’ wombs because of human respect? Millions.
People must refuse to go to bad movies or let their children go to bad movies, which they may be tempted to by human respect when others are going.
The obligation of confessing God before man is ignored, due to human respect.
Women, never give in to sin to your husband, the due obedience cannot require that. Many women tell him their husband wants them to wear immodest things.
One man slept on a couch 6 months after he wouldn’t go with his wife to an invalid wedding. But his marriage after that was very blessed.
It is necessary to choose between a few scoffs from men now, and the torments of demons from all eternity.
Escape from the influence of those who will one day have to acknowledge, “we scorned them, but now they are in glory and enjoy God, and we do not.” Fear not them who can kill the body, but cannot hurt the soul.
It’s a beautiful thing to serve God. Painful, but beautiful.
In another conference, on the Eucharist, Father described a prison that hadn’t had a priest there in 15 years, yet a deacon and a layman would go in and distribute Communion to thousands each week, though none of the prisoners had access to Confession. He also says the enormous majority of people he visits in the hospital are not in the state of grace, average 25 years away from God. If a lay person comes around distributing Communion, most are too embarrassed to say they need to go to confession, and so they receive sacrilegiously.
Our Lord meekly, silently, patiently bears all affronts. Let us also bear all things, charitably forgiving those who injure us. Our Lord calls us to imitate Him in all things, let us be meek and humble when people offend against us.
We need grace. But when we receive Jesus we receive the author of grace. Receive with love. Petition Him for the grace to become a saint. One good Communion is enough to make you a Saint.
Let us praise traditional Catholic spirituality, and all priests who let themselves be deeply educated and formed by it, and refuse what is incompatible with it.
The following were among the reading Father recommended during the course of the retreat.
The Holy Bible. Link goes to EWTN’s helpful information about different Catholic Bible versions. Click here if you want to read the New American Bible on the USCCB site.
The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis. That link goes to a free online version translated on a protestant website. Click here if you want to buy Ignatius Press’ nicely bound yet affordable hardcover edition of the best Catholic translation of it. That’s the one to get. Makes a great gift for any Christian too.
The Soul of the Apostolate by Jean-Baptiste Chautard, OSCO. That link goes to a downloadable PDF of the book. I suspect you will want the book version though, which can be purchased here. A perennially highly recommended book that Pope St Pius X kept by his bedside.
Divine Intimacy by Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen. Father Isaac said everyone should read some sort of book that teaches about the spiritual life systematically and he recommends this beloved book written in the form of daily meditations.
I Want to See God and I Am A Daughter of the Church by Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen. Fr Isaac also suggested this highly regarded and readable 2-volume synthesis of Carmelite spirituality–basically a course in spiritual theology according to St Teresa and St John of the Cross.
Also the writings of St Teresa, especially The Book of Her Life (autobiography) and the Interior Castle. The book editions I linked to is the best one to read (though avoid the “study editions” from the same publisher). These books are also available in older translations for free online.
St Alphonsus Liguori’s pamphlet “Uniformity With God’s Will“. That’s the free online version; if you want a booklet of it click here.
Churches nationwide were urged to ring their bells at noon on the 4th of July, for the end of the Fortnight for Freedom. I was walking along West Gilman Street when I heard the Angelus bells ring at noon yesterday, as they do every day (this is one of the precious things about Holy Redeemer Church) and I stopped on the grass by the street and prayed. As I began walking again, I heard more bells, sounding now for the end of the Fortnight!
This evoked the ringing of the Liberty Bell, the big bell in the tower of Independence Hall, and the many church bells in Philadelphia, to announce the Declaration of Independence, signed on July 4, 1776. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Above, the Liberty Bell copy in the Wisconsin Capitol.
I hurried toward Holy Redeemer (the lovely interior of which is the top banner image of this blog). Rich Bonomo’s car was there, so that told me who was letting religious freedom ring. I found him in the innards of the church, up where the mechanism is that make the bells and the clock work. He loves Holy Redeemer Church as though it were, he said one time, a demanding wife, and maintains all this and keeps the old building in shape. “I should get a hooded robe, and a hunch back,” he said wryly. By the way, one of the other precious things about Holy Redeemer Church, is that since there is a Traditional Latin Mass there is still the possibility to experience “Quasi Modo Sunday”, “Low Sunday,” the octave day of Easter, and one may still hear this famous introit sung! The way up involves rickety ladders, the one leading up to this space requires standing on the very top end of the side piece of the ladder, which just seems like something one should never do. Wearing a long skirt as is my habit also makes this procedure more difficult.
I think this awesome gear thing has to do with turning the clock face.
I believe this has to do with ringing the Angelus three times a day. On the right you can see a piece bolted on, modifying the notch in the wheel in order to make the Angelus ring at 8am rather than the traditional 6am, out of respect for downtown neighbors who may not be early birds.
While I was up precariously exploring among the bells, Rich knocked something with his elbow and that bell there tolled very loudly (a bell tolls by a hammer stroke to the outside, considered a more mournful sound. It peals when it is swung, considered a joyful sound). He’d inadvertently activated the Angelus sequence, which he was then able to halt. I was not really in danger but I was so startled that then I trembled so I could hardly hold the camera steady to take pictures!
The church history indicates that the main church was completed in 1869 and a steeple was built some time after, which was damaged in 1877 and completely rebuilt in 1880. The three bells were installed in 1895. The largest bell was donated by the pastor, Rev. Aloisius Zitterl. It has a great motto: “I announce the Sabbath. I arouse the slothful. I scatter the winds. I appease the avenger.” It’s in English, though this was a German speaking parish, and it is recorded that in 1905 Father Zitterl wept on the occasion of the first English sermon at Holy Redeemer, “seeing that the days of the old language were numbered.”
There is yet another ladder leading up to the clock face. The clock face is somehow stuck and is temporarily not actually connected to the clock mechanism. I know Rich would like to fix this. The clock does run for now and the Angelus rings.
One of the seven-petaled rose windows, seen from the machinery room. These windows have clear plexiglas type plastic protecting them from the outside so they are only semi-visible now, but there are others over the main part of the church, which actually shed light on an attic area above the nave, that are deteriorating significantly and Rich is working with the UW art department to get new ones made with custom metal frames that will be more durable. Since there are remains up there of older window frames, even the current ones seem not to be the originals.
One of the satisfying things about old buildings is they were not made with power tools. Likely whoever made this beam fit and be stable in this spot would think I was strange for taking a picture of their work. An expert in historic structures told Rich that Holy Redeemer Church, with its massively thick stone walls, could be expected to stand another thousand years [correction: Rich says he was told 1500 years]. One must keep the long view in mind.
This concludes our tour of places that are not at all on the regular tour.
Richard “Quasimodo” Bonomo. His day job has to do with plasma physics research, in the Fusion Technology lab at UW. He is friend to so many in the local Catholic community, and has also long sung in the 9am Sunday (Novus Ordo) polyphony choir at Holy Redeemer, and is often a reader, cantor, altar server, catechist, etc, as well as for many years volunteer maintenance supervisor for the several buildings on the Holy Redeemer property.
Religious freedom (to circle back to the original topic) has many powerful enemies arrayed against it today. Holy Redeemer’s bells ring over a city where even our Capitol Rosary Rallies (non political and consisting entirely of praying 15 decades of the rosary) weekly attract anti-Catholic protesters who, for instance, shout vile things at children, accusing the good priests at the event as child molesters. Some are the same ones who went to Janesville in support of the dissenting “nuns on the bus,” and some of their signs and shouting “solidarity with the nuns on the bus!” reflect that. Make no mistake, the support for that is generally against the Church, a “soft” anti-Catholicism, as opposed to the “hard” anti-Catholicism of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Both the soft and the hard anti-Catholicism are set against the liberty of the Church and the freedom of individual Catholics to, as Bishop Morlino put it at the first Rosary Rally, “do what we need to do to go to heaven.”
In 1500 years, when Holy Redeemer Church is finally crumbling, there will still be faithful Catholics, and the world will still be against them, because although they represent true freedom, extended to all, in Christ they are indeed a sign of contradiction.
Sr Simone Campbell of NETWORK Lobby, head “nun on the bus” (center), with Casey Schoeneberger of Faith in Public Life (right), who is managing media relations for the bus tour.
After going to see the Nuns on the Bus in Janesville, WI, I found on facebook a video the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters had recorded of Sr Simone Campbell earlier the same day, in which Sr Simone described candidly that “we asked for help in DC, and our colleagues, all the big players, they came together and helped us brainstorm this.” Certainly made me wonder who were “the big players” in DC that helped make this happen. Well, we can now verify one of them: Faith in Public Life, the George Soros-funded, Center for American Progress-associated political progressive organization that is also engaging in a media campaign against the Fortnight for Freedom, as shown in this recent Advisory Memo to Journalists from the USCCB. Among other efforts, they put out talking points to try to get journalists to politicize the Fortnight for Freedom and trip up bishops — see also Fr Z’s coverage and commentary of the Advisory Memo.
Nuns on the Bus supporters hold up a peace flag behind Sr Simone, to block the view of the “Stop Obama’s HHS Mandate”/”Stand Up For Religious Freedom” signs, a message they seemed to regard as contradictory to their own. Here, the “stop sign” peeks out from behind the flag.
Well, no wonder the Nuns on the Bus so entirely wanted to evade and hide the religious freedom message we brought to them in Janesville. No wonder all Sr Simone had to say about it, while walking right next to FIPL staffer Casey Schoeneberger, was “it’s complicated”!
The photo at the top of this blog post shows Sr Simone with Casey Schoeneberger, who traveled on the bus doing media relations for them. The picture below is from the FIPL staff page, which also explains, “Before coming to Faith in Public Life, Casey participated in the Associate Program at NETWORK, a National Catholic Social Justice Lobby. At NETWORK, Casey advocated for the protection of federal safety net programs.”
Casey Shoeneberger, Media Relations Assistant for Faith in Public Life
“The sisters are merely raising concerns about Paul Ryan’s budget and saying that a budget that decimates services for the poor does not follow their religious values,” said tour spokeswoman Casey Schoeneberger.
When I met up with the Nuns on the Bus in Janesville, Casey accompanied Sr Simone closely and her media role was obvious. As I queried Sr Simone about her views on the HHS Mandate and the Fortnight for Freedom while she walked back toward the bus following the brief press conference, and she mainly only reiterated, as described above, that “it’s complicated”, Casey was also responding to me, for instance insistently correcting my perception of something eyebrow-raising I thought I heard Sr Simone say and hurrying Sr Simone away from me. The photo at the top of this post shows Casey accompanying Sr Simone to where CNN had set up for an interview.
If you visit the facebook page for FIPL, Nuns on the Bus is actually their “cover image” (their main image on the page, with which they represent themselves) and they are steadily sending messages about the NETWORK bus tour on facebook and on their website.
The bus tour has now just ended, but I think one thing it’s helped make it very crystal-clear is why the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was right to specifically suggest that women religious leaders should not be involved with NETWORK Lobby. This is pure progressive politics, in coalition with other progressive “big players”, without any distinction made (indeed a refusal to make a distinction) between NETWORK Lobby’s perspective and the stridently pro-abortion politics of secular progressivism.
[UPDATE: additional details you may find interesting:]
While Unitarian Universalism is my home base, I have spent the past eighteen years building relationships with national leaders across the faith spectrum. I have served on national boards including The Interfaith Alliance, Americans United for Separation of State, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and Interfaith Worker Justice. This means that I have relationships across a spectrum of faith.
I have been part of founding two nonprofits for interfaith work: In 1997, anticipating the Million Man March of the Promise Keepers, I worked with others to launch Equal Partners in Faith, which worked to link racism and homophobia and to challenge the Promise Keepers’ premise of being nonsectarian. Before the UUA even had a Public Witness team, I appeared on dozens of national TV shows.
Following the 2004 elections, I gathered with other people of faith at the invitation of John Podesta from Center for American Progress, to reflect about what we might do. I emerged from that meeting as the leader of a group empowered to start another nonprofit, which has become Faith in Public Life (FPL). See www.FaithinPublicLife.org. Next year I will complete two terms as founding board chair of that group. FPL is amazingly effective, well-connected, and creative. Founded on the principle of open source support for religious groups on the ground rather than institutional self-promotion, we have quickly become a go-to group for progressive religious initiatives.
From the site “Discover the Networks”, which was linked to by USCCB’s Sister MaryAnn Walsh to supply background information on Faith In Public Life:
Established in 2006, Faith in Public Life (FPL) is a tax-exempt charity which was originally launched to strengthen the progressive evangelical movement. Its founding mission was to counter what it describes as the modus operandi of President Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign, in which “faith was often deployed in service of a narrow and partisan agenda.”
A number of prominent leaders in the progressive movement serve as speakers and organizers for FPL. Among these are Greg Galluzzo, national director of the Gamaliel Foundation; Kim Bobo, founder of Interfaith Worker Justice; Sister Simone Campbell, national coordinator of NETWORK; and Rabbi Jonah Presner of the Industrial Areas Foundation.
On June 27th, Sr Simone was interviewed by a reporter for Bill Moyers’ PBS show. Her reponse to “Tell us about your own personal journey. Who are your greatest influences?” does not mention Jesus, or any Catholic leader. Her response to “What does being Catholic mean to you?” has only vaguely to do with Catholicism, but entails a rejection of the miracle of the loaves and fishes, in favor of a materialist interpretation of the story that George Soros would find entirely satisfying.
Fredericks: What does being Catholic mean to you?
Sister Simone: To me it’s that amazing history of spiritual practice, social engagement, witnessing to the fact that Jesus lives in our world now and says that there is enough if we share. The miracle of the loaves and fishes — one of the accounts says 5,000 men ate. Well, the reason they only counted the men was the women and children knew it was the women who had brought all the food! Only the guys thought it was a miracle, the women knew it was about breaking bread and sharing it. This isn’t biblical — this is just my interpretation of it, but to me the miracle was sharing.
Yikes. She’s right that isn’t Biblical. Neither is it Catholic. As Steve Ray points out in his Catholic response to this fashionable error, “the entire patrimony of the Catholic Church upholds without any deviation whatsoever that our Lord actually did multiply loaves and fishes by divine power to feed the multitudes.” But oddly enough… one thing I get out of Sr Simone’s re-conception of it is that subsidiarity works.
Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act surprised me–and upset me a good deal. The bishops immediately called (again) for Congress to fix the problems with the law that infringe our religious liberty, though making clear they had never joined in “efforts to repeal the law in its entirety”. But neither did they think it was morally necessary to have this particular approach to providing health care; Archbishop Chaput explained in an interview that “Health is a basic human right; we have a right to be healthy. There’s no declaration on the part of the Church that that has to be accomplished through government intervention.”
Archbishop Naumann of Kansas City, the bishop who had the courage to publicly direct Kathleen Sebelius to abstain from Holy Communion, gave a good interview too, to Catholic World Report, “I think, perhaps, in recent years more and more people—myself included—have come to appreciate how important [the principle of subsidiarity] is. And part of that comes from our experience. I think one of the things counseled against in various Church is what Pope Benedict XVI has sometimes referred to as ‘statism,’ that the state becomes the solution for everything, whereas in the past the family and other mediating institutions were really the vehicles for providing health-care, food, and shelter for the poor. All of these things become more amalgamated, in our case, into the federal government, and that isn’t good for a couple of reasons. One, because there is a big bureaucracy and it is very inefficient. But it also gives too much power to a central authority, and that power is vulnerable to being abused. And I think we are now seeing an example of that with this health-care reform, by their putting into the implementation of that a real attack on conscience rights and on religious liberty, and actually making it a vehicle to redefine what it means to be “religious” in this country, and what qualifies for religious exemptions.”
Abp Naumann chooses the word “statism” rather than daring to mention socialism, which is so plentifully condemned by the popes. But this wording is in keeping with what Benedict XVI wrote about, basically, socialism, in his 2005 encyclical Deus Caritas Est: “The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering person – every person – needs: namely, loving personal concern. We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need. … In the end, the claim that just social structures would make works of charity superfluous masks a materialist conception of man: the mistaken notion that man can live ‘by bread alone’ (Mt 4:4; cf. Dt 8:3) – a conviction that demeans man and ultimately disregards all that is specifically human.” This strikes me very much also as pointing to the problem with the US Society of St Vincent de Paul, which has always been focused on direct service to the poor, now pushing its members into progressive-type activism to “end poverty through systemic change,” as I wrote in May.
But in spite of, for instance, health clinics run by religious sisters being redefined as not-religious, wouldn’t you know that Sr. Simone, head of the NETWORK political lobby “nuns on the bus”, said: “We at NETWORK are thrilled by the Supreme Court decision regarding the Affordable Care Act.” Perversely, she claims to believe the Act, which among other things will fund direct abortions, murders, “is pro-life and we must do everything possible to preserve and expand its reach.”
In Janesville, WI, June 19th, Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director of NETWORK and head “nun on the bus”, ignores Jeanne’s signs begging her to help stop the immoral “HHS mandate” of the Affordable Care Act.
If the Supreme Court had overturned the law, that would have been one sure way to moot the offense against our religious liberty. But the specific issue of the law’s impact on free exercise of religion hasn’t actually been considered by the courts at yet. It will be:
“It seems to me the (Obama) administration has won one legal challenge and there are 23 others waiting in the wings,” said Mark Rienzi, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and a professor of constitutional law at The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law.
The Becket Fund represents Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, Colorado Christian University in Denver, Eternal Word Television Network in Birmingham, Ala., and Ave Maria University in Florida in lawsuits challenging the Department of Health and Human Services’ mandate requiring most religious employers to provide contraceptives and sterilization to their employees free of charge.
Another 12 lawsuits involving 43 Catholic dioceses, schools, hospitals, social service agencies and other institutions were filed simultaneously in May; several private employers, Catholic organizations such as Priests for Life and Legatus and some non-Catholic colleges also are challenging the mandate in court.
The June 28 decision dealt with the individual mandate — the requirement that individuals buy health insurance or pay a penalty to the Internal Revenue Service — but the lawsuits against the HHS mandate relate to the law’s employer mandate, which punishes employers who do not provide health insurance to their employees.
“The court’s opinion today did not decide the issues in our cases,” said Hannah Smith, another Becket Fund senior counsel. “We are challenging the HHS mandate on religious liberty grounds which are not part of today’s decision. We will move forward seeking vindication of our client’s First Amendment rights.”
By the way, I have not been diligent about blog posting but have meant to share this:
This is my favorite article related to the “Nuns on the Bus” that I have come across–not least because she is truly kind to the bus sisters and finds things to like, while presenting a different perspective and, as I did to Sr Simone, raising the matter of religious freedom which Sr Simone seemed to want to evade. Kathryn Jean Lopez also draws attention to Bishop Morlino’s words that Rep. Paul Ryan is a very responsible Catholic layman who carries out his mission very much in accord with Catholic principles. She also points to Fr Robert Sirico’s Acton Institute as a group with an effective approach to helping people out of poverty that isn’t heavily focused on government aid like Network Lobby, but develops the potential of the people themselves, and I found that helpful to more fully understand the credibility of Ryan’s contention that he also is guided by Catholic social teaching.
Father Robert Sirico and his Michigan-based Acton Institute are involved in a project called PovertyCure, which is an important part of this conversation. The project asks if we have been raising “the wrong questions” about the causes of poverty and how to address them. Its goal is “advancing entrepreneurial solutions to poverty.” “PovertyCure is different because it places the focus on the human person, created in the image of God, with dignity and creative capacity as the source of wealth,” Father Sirico tells me. “The dominant model among both secular and religious agencies has been one of aid or charity. PovertyCure shifts the focus to unleashing the entrepreneurial capacity that already fills the developing world. Long-term sustainable development does not come from aid or charity but from helping to foster the conditions where people create wealth and prosperity for themselves, their families, and their communities.”
The PovertyCure website gives you a sense of the project’s approach, which is to do what every good teacher does: unleash potential. Rudy Carrasco, a Christian minister, explains: “Everybody has capacity, talent, and ability. Everybody has responsibility. Everybody has stewardship responsibility. I don’t care what dirt hovel you’re living in, in Brazil or Mexico City or Manila. You have a responsibility to be a steward of the resources under your control because you have a heavenly Father who has put great things inside of you, that [are] waiting to be called out and developed and extracted.”
I’d like to think that the nuns on the bus would be encouraged by these sentiments.
As Bishop Naumann said in that interview I quoted from above: “[P]eople—who have good intentions and motivations—have too often looked to massive government programs to help the poor, yet we have a history now of almost 50 years with these programs and we don’t have fewer poor and we don’t have more people empowered. But we do have a weaker family life and weaker public morality. And so we have to look at it and ask, “Are these really the best ways to go about addressing the problem?”“
Fr Isaac Mary Relyea leads prayer at the Capitol Rosary Rally June 20 2012. Photo by Tom Reitz, TomReitz.com
Bishop Morlino joined what looked to me about 500 Madison Catholics last night for the first in a series of Capitol Rosary Rallies. A beautiful evening. The bishop spoke very briefly, explaining what we were doing was entirely not political. Fr Isaac Mary Relyea then led us in 15 decades of the Rosary, the traditional Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries, offered for life, family, and the conversion of the world. The rosary was followed by the Prayer for the Protection of Religious Freedom, led by Fr Rick Heilman, which may be found on the USCCB’s Fortnight For Freedom main page.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I found my camera battery was dead, so I could just concentrate on prayer. Syte Reitz has written a blog post about the rally with her photos and an audio download of the rally. Her son Tom was also there taking pictures which are always lovely!
The Wisconsin Reporter has an interesting article, from a political angle in spite of Bishop Morlino’s introductory words and the fact we merely prayed the rosary and a prayer for religious freedom, and there were really no speeches.
It was a familiar scene in Madison Thursday night.
Hundreds of protesters gathered on the steps at the Capitol, some wearing T-shirts with a clenched fist.
But this time, enclosed in the clenched fists were rosary beads.
It wasn’t a recall rally, but a demonstration with a conservative feel – led by Catholics who believe religious liberty is under attack.
….
“We came here to pray hard that the Lord will continue to help us to defend our own religious freedom and our freedom of conscience when those are somehow endangered,” said [Bishop] Morlino.
….
Constance Nielson, dean of faculty at St. Ambrose Academy in Madison takes issue with the characterization [that Catholics struggle to reconcile sanctity of life and social justice], arguing the dignity of life and social justice are a natural fit.
“I don’t care for that, because I think the right to life is social justice,” she said. “You’re often forced one way or another as a Catholic to concede something. There’s a tendency for people to separate poverty, education, immigration, and then put respect for life all by itself. I think it’s all one list and you wrap your arms around it.”
Oh, and there was a pro-life Balloon Rosary released at the end of the rally, which floated gracefully past the Capitol dome!
I LOVED it! And these Rosary Rallies will be weekly, every Thursday at 7pm right at the Capitol, through November 1st! Please join us! And take a look at the whole schedule of Diocesan Fortnight for Freedom events.
Recently the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a long awaited doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an official Church organization consisting of the leaders of most (but not all) of the communities of active religious sisters in the United States. One point of concern was the association of the LCWR with a self-described progressive Catholic social justice political lobby group, NETWORK:
“On June 25, 2010, Bishop Blair presented further documentation on the content of the LCWR’s Mentoring Leadership Manual and also on the organizations associated with the LCWR, namely Network and The Resource Center for Religious Institutes. The documentation reveals that, while there has been a great deal of work on the part of LCWR promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the Church’s social doctrine, it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States. Further, issues of crucial importance to the life of Church and society, such as the Church’s Biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes Church teaching. Moreover, occasional public statements by the LCWR that disagree with or challenge positions taken by the Bishops, who are the Church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose.” While here directed directly toward the LCWR, these concerns are also applicable to NETWORK Lobby–presumably why it is mentioned in the same paragraph.
The CDF was concerned enough that one of the five action mandates in the doctrinal assessment was “To review LCWR links with affiliated organizations, e.g. Network and Resource Center for Religious Life.”
Well, recently NETWORK announced that it was going to be having a 9-state tour entitled Nuns on the Bus, its stated purpose opposition to Rep. Paul Ryan’s federal budget plan, as bad for the poor. The tour was also described in the New York Times as thumbing their noses at the CDF and the US Bishops’ Fortnight for Freedom to fast and pray for religious freedom.
Day 2 of the Nuns on the Bus tour would visit the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters and then Paul Ryan’s office in Janesville, Wisconsin. That was yesterday, and I and my friend Jeanne Breunig were there.
The Sinsinawa Dominicans are a teaching order that thrived in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and has precipitously declined in numbers following excessive “modernization.” Many people here in Madison have positive memories of them from years back. One gentleman in Madison, when he learned a couple days ago that the Nuns on the Bus would be stopping at the Sinsinawa Dominicans’ motherhouse, wrote me this:
To say the very very least I am shocked and disheartened. The nuns who taught me in my formative years at Edgewood HS (grad 58) did not have this ideology nor were they involved in any kind of politics unless it happened to deal with preserving the private drive along Lake Wingra from public takeover by the city. They were teachers and not political activists.
They still wore habits in those days. Vatican II was looming. All my teachers for all 4 years were Sinsinawa Dominican nuns except 2 – Band and Civics. Do they still teach Civics? Every one of them were well steeped in Church Doctrine and taught it at every opportunity – not just in Religion class. I’m not sure any of them are still alive anymore, but I’m sure many of them are turning over and over in their eternal resting places.
I did have an encounter with a lay person teaching an RCIA class I attended, although I’m a “cradle Catholic”, and asked that person if that person was teaching religion at Edgewood. That person said no. That person was teaching “social justice” . That was several years ago and I’ve kind of wondered what’s been going on at my alma mater every since.
I receive many solicitations for money from Edgewood along with the usual alumni news letter. For some reason I read, very carefully, one of the newsletters I received about a year ago . I felt very sad since in all 8 pages there was not one single word or words “Jesus” or “Jesus Christ” in the entire newsletter.
Deceased or still alive, I don’t think Sister Marie Christine would approve of Nuns on the Bus. I doubt, if I were of HS age today, my parents would send me to Edgewood.
While writing this I decided to go to http://www.sinsinawa.org/ and browse the website. I think my concern is way too late. The Holy Father’s “heavy hand” may have to do.
We were delayed a little in the morning and arrived at Sinsinawa Mound at about 11:45 to attend the scheduled 11:30 “Friend Raiser” which was listed as open to the public but not the press. The bus wasn’t there, though. I went inside the center and a reception lady indeed had a big “Nuns on the Bus” sticker on her shirt. I said I was there for the NETWORK event, the Nuns on the Bus.
“Oh,” she said, “they got here early, and they left about a quarter of an hour ago, you’ve missed them.” I asked if there had been many people, and she said they had mostly met with some of the sisters and staff. “It was just kind of a spur of the moment thing,” she said. I said they must have moved on to their next stop, which she acknowledged was Janesville, though she was not sure where. “Paul Ryan’s office,” I said. She asked where I was from and I told her Madison, which surprised her, that being a bit of a drive. The Sinsinawa Dominicans’ Facebook page supplied a photo of the bus at the Mound:
Nuns on the Bus at Sinsinawa, from Sinsinawa Dominicans’ Facebook page
There is also a video of Sr Simone Campbell’s opening remarks at Sinsinawa. “I’m not used to this celebrity kind of stuff,” she said. She also had some details on the genesis of the trip: “The whole bus trip is a gift of the Spirit. The only inspiration I had was to ask for help. And we asked for help in DC, and our colleagues, all the big players, they came together and helped us brainstorm this. None of us remember exactly who thought of a bus trip in this brainstorm session, but it just caught on. And then somebody has done a bus trip, so they knew you can wrap a bus. You know, if it had been left to us, we would have cut out felt letters and stuck them on cardboard and we would have tied it onto a Prius, and driven around, and thought we had done it. No, no, no! So they said no, we wrap a big bus, and then I think, we have forty-five seats, that’s what I thought. Oh good, it’s on now, and I can call all my friends to get on. And they told me, Simone, you don’t have forty-five seats, you got seven, that’s all you control. Seven seats? So then I thought it was a little bus; they say no…” (end of video. Tried my best for an accurate transcription.)
Hmm. The gift of the Spirit, or maybe of the big players in DC? Does this explain the recent “tweet” sent by Network: “One bus is called “#NunsOnTheBus”, the other “Romney’s Every Town Counts” tour. Which one are you on board with? http://exm.nr/P0b9ul” Surely the players have not sent dissenting nuns on the road as difficult-to-attack Obama surrogates?
Anyway we got back on the road toward Janesville. I took this picture of the sign along the road, to show we were there. We stopped along the way and dropped off Capitol Rosary Rally fliers (kickoff event for the Fortnight for Freedom, 7pm this Thursday at the State Street steps of the Capitol in Madison, which we learned later in the day yesterday that Bishop Morlino will be attending), at beautiful St Patrick’s church in Benton, which was actually built by Fr Samuel Mazzuchelli, founder of the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary, who are still part of the staff there. We are sorry we forgot to drop some off at the Sinsinawa Mound Center itself!!
We were approaching Janesville when we saw them! Jeanne happens to be the aunt of Matt of Badger Catholic blog, and she excitedly called and left him a voicemail that we were right behind the Nuns on the Bus!
We let them show us the way to Congressman Ryan’s office. There were already sign-carrying supporters there. Beforehand, I’d noticed a Twitter “tweet” to the Nuns on the Bus from the “Solidarity Sign Brigade” in Madison (“recall Walker” protesters from the Capitol) saying they would be there. They were certainly there, and some of them even had union shirts or signs with a “recall Walker” message. One man, an atheist, responded to Jeanne’s message about freedom of religion, “no, freedom FROM religion!” There was also a man affiliated with “Holy Wisdom Monastery” (see information from the Diocese of Madison about them), we knew each other from a long conversation recently at the Farmer’s Market, where they were collecting signatures for the Nun Justice Project petition “in support of the nuns” against the CDF doctrinal assessment. He wore a Dignity USA shirt, and I saw at least one other person with a Dignity sign. Holy Wisdom, near Madison, voluntarily “went non canonical”, ie gave up its status as a Catholic monastery, and is now a place where fallen-away Catholics and protestants attend a lay-led “eucharistic” service on Sunday mornings. Here is the crowd in front of Congressman Ryan’s Constituent Services Center:
Finally the bus pulled around and the sisters disembarked! Jeanne was there too, with her religious freedom signs.
Sr Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK, heads toward Paul Ryan’s office, to go in and talk with him. On the left, Jeanne; on the right with mic, a young woman who was half of the Bill Moyers crew traveling with (but not necessarily on) the bus.
The crowd was very enthusiastic, and pressed into Congressman Ryan’s center, some going up on a balcony, and sang and chanted. Since they seemed to know the songs (which I didn’t recognize or catch the words to) and sing harmoniously, I had to wonder if the singing contingent was from Holy Wisdom or another like minded religious group. I also spotted a couple distinctively-garbed ladies of the “Raging Grannies” progressive protest song group, but the songs in Ryan’s office were not their type of songs. While Sr. Simone was in the office, Jeanne, who had as much right to be there as anyone else, held her signs up in the office doorway, displeasing some people with cameras. Sister Rosalia Bauer, habit-less like the NETWORK sisters but totally pro-life (Jeanne knows her) and disagreeing with them, stood up on a coffee table and was swarmed by reporters wanting to talk to her. “You disagree with what they’re doing?” asked a Milwaukee TV reporter. “I certainly do, and I’m embarrassed that my fellow religious sisters are doing this,” she replied.
Inside Paul Ryan’s constituent center.
After that, Sr. Simone came back across the street where a Nuns on the Bus podium had been set out. She gave a quite brief press conference. I asked, because I really couldn’t figure out what she meant, what she meant when she said recently that she feels like she would get a rash if she described her social justice work as being pro-life. She didn’t comment on that.
Their idea was that the awning for Paul Ryan’s office would be in the background, but the religious freedom signs were not a welcome message for the Nuns on the Bus crew. They sacrificed their photo op in front of the Paul Ryan office, holding up a peace flag:
On her way back to the bus, I asked Sr Simone whether she supported the Fortnight for Freedom. She said something about it being complicated. I asked if she opposed the HHS contraceptive mandate. It’s complicated, she said. NETWORK supported passage of the Affordable Care act, and after the Obama administration made very fake “conscience accommodations” this February, the group stated: “NETWORK applauds today’s announcement about the administration’s accommodation of religious conscience objections to the provision of insurance coverage coverage for contraceptives to women at no cost to them.”As far as I know NETWORK has not expressed any concern since for religious freedom issues the legislation raises.
After the crowd of supporters was diverted toward a nearby park where the three other sisters (they were all elderly–older than Sr Simone) on the bus met with them, Sr Simone came back in front of Ryan’s office to be interviewed by CNN. That’s John Nichols, columnist for Madison’s Capitol Times in the light blue shirt with his back to me, in the photo below. We had a conversation in which I told him how I differed with the Nuns on the bus, about our June 8th religious freedom rally in Madison with 300 people present. Although I remember John Nichols from years ago when I myself was a liberal/progressive and saw him speak at Fighting Bob Fest, and know he is not pro life, he commented that he agrees that being totally pro life is an essential Catholic belief. Then he said our conversation gave him an idea, which I didn’t assume was a good idea. The column he just posted isn’t about the Nuns on the Bus, whom he’d devoted a column to on Sunday portraying them as the counterpoint to Romney’s bus tour (see NETWORK’s “tweet” quoted above), rather, it’s a ridiculous polemic against religious freedom as a fear mongering plot by Mitt Romney! I pay very little attention to political news, so I have very little idea what Mitt Romney is up to, and am not aware of my desire for religious freedom having anything to do with him.
I struck up that conversation through my own foolishness. I was also interviewed on camera for TV news (I am not sure what station), and by two or three other journalists. To each I emphasized particularly that faithful Catholics could believe either way about Ryan’s budget, but for us sanctity of life from conception to natural death and religious freedom are non negotiable issues.
Finally, I was interviewed on camera for the PBS show Bill Moyers Journal, for which a reporter and his assistant are traveling along with the bus, but apparently in a separate vehicle… there is quite an interesting story that I want to tell about my connection with Bill Moyers and how that has to do with this, but I am going to make this post this so people can read about it, then add that story.
[Update: Bishop Morlino was on EWTN’s The World Over and commented on the Nuns on the Bus. His comments are in keeping with previous comments he had made on the same program in regards to Ryan, whom he said then was a “very responsible lay Catholic . . . who makes his judgment very much in accord with all the teachings of the Church.” I meant to include that in the article and forgot. I am including the transcript that was made by Matt of Badger Catholic:]
Congressman Ryan has made his prudential judgment about how best to serve the long term needs of the poor. He has done that in accord with Catholic principles. I don’t have to approve his decision, or his budget or anything else. What I do approve of is that he is a responsible Catholic layman who understands his mission and carries it out very responsibly. I feel very strongly about that. The details of his solution are not mine to approve or disapprove. That’s not my field. So, I would think that the religious sisters, though, should concentrate on giving that witness of holiness of all of the wonderful works that they do rather than busing around for political issues. Because, when anything happens like that, if I were to come out in a very political way, I would probably win more followers for the opposition. And, there are many Catholics who feel that very way about the sisters. They really don’t like this. They feel that, their expectation from the sisters is really not this kind of leadership.
MOST sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us prostrate before Thee, eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries to which Thy loving Heart is everywhere subject.
Mindful, alas! that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask Thy pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation, not only for our own personal offenses, but also for the sins of those, who, straying far from the path of salvation, refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow Thee, their Shepherd and Leader, or, renouncing the promises of their baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of Thy law.
We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage committed against Thee; we are now determined to make amends for the manifold offenses against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and behavior, for all the foul seductions laid to ensnare the feet of the innocent, for the frequent violations of Sundays and holydays, and the shocking blasphemies uttered against Thee and Thy Saints. We wish also to make amends for the insults to which Thy Vicar on earth and Thy priests are subjected, for the profanation, by conscious neglect or terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very crimes of nations who resist the rights and teaching authority of the Church which Thou hast founded.
Would that we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood. We now offer, in reparation for these violations of Thy divine honor, the satisfaction Thou once made to Thy Eternal Father on the cross and which Thou continuest to renew daily on our altars; we offer it in union with the acts of atonement of Thy Virgin Mother and all the Saints and of the pious faithful on earth; and we sincerely promise to make recompense, as far as we can with the help of Thy grace, for all neglect of Thy great love and for the sins we and others have committed in the past. Henceforth, we will live a life of unswerving faith, of purity of conduct, of perfect observance of the precepts of the Gospel and especially that of charity. We promise to the best of our power to prevent others from offending Thee and to bring as many as possible to follow Thee.
O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mother, our model in reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make of this act of expiation; and by the crowning gift of perseverance keep us faithful unto death in our duty and the allegiance we owe to Thee, so that we may all one day come to that happy home, where with the Father and the Holy Spirit Thou livest and reignest, God, forever and ever. Amen.
Today is the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus!There is a plenary indulgence–a grant from the Church’s treasury of the merits of the Saints, of complete remission of the temporal punishment due to sin–that can be received for public recitation of this beautiful prayer; one must also receive Holy Communion, go to confession, pray for the intentions of the Holy Father, and have an interior disposition of complete detachment from sin, even venial sin! Is that possible, you ask?! Yes, Fr Z explains!!
This is very wonderful:
At the top of the post we had an ancient and classic image of the heart of Our Lord. This one is not one iota less wonderful and whereas the artist of the top image is unknown to us, the story of the young artist of this picture was recounted today by Fr George David Byers on his blog, Holy Souls Hermitage. I think Fr George won’t be mad at me for quoting him extremely liberally! This post is titled: Atheism answered by the Most Intense Suffering of a Little Boy and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
When I was a parish priest in a certain country parish, one of the children of the parish family — some nine years old – was suffering in a most horrific way. I’ll spare you the details of his suffering which continued for very many years. His doctors said that he should be continuously screaming in pain.
I would go over to their house to bring Jesus in Holy Communion. The whole family would be there. We would all talk for a bit as a lead up to him receiving Jesus. He was always eager to learn more about Jesus. Always.
When it was time to begin the short rite for Holy Communion outside of Mass, he would instantly stand up, now totally oblivious to all other things, hands folded, in wrapt attention before our Lord and Savior, who was very much known by this little boy to be a close Friend.
Afterwards, with the whole family — a large family! — gathered in the living room around the television, the young fellow would want to compete with me on some sort of car racing video game by way of some gadgets hooked up to a gadget hooked up to their television. I never did, since I know nothing about such things. Instead, his older brothers would pitch in and have a great time of it, all for my benefit, it seems, as they were intent on getting me up to speed, as it were, on the Who’s Who of the car racing world. And they knew everything, up to the minute, of racing right around the world.
Because of the almost unlimited expenses of health care interventions on his behalf, I wanted to have a fund-raiser in the parish. This went extraordinarly well, reaching well into six figures, and then well beyond that. We had a prayer written up on the raffle cards that everyone sold to everyone far beyond the territory of the parishes by about 500 miles in every which direction. The prizes included a semi-automatic browning 12 guage shotgun. Yikes!
It soon became an ecumenical project simply because so very many non-Catholics were pitching in as a project of their local communities, again, even from more than a 1000 miles away.
This brought some trouble, which our Lord permitted, it seems to me, to instruct a few people of the reality of Jesus among us.
The freakish atheist groups started harrassing the little guy, saying that because of suffering, he should just spit in the face of Jesus and be done with religion. Some would even visit the family home to convince him at any cost to give up on religion. They were, of course, working out problems in their own lives by way of this little boy.
And then everyone would witness what always happens when suffering is conjoined with fidelity, fidelity, fidelity, with good friendship with Jesus. When these knuckleheads would come over, they would be greeted politely. They would start into their impassioned pleas. With some in took only thirty seconds. Others were allowed to go on for a minute or two, but then it would happen.
The little fellow would give them a response, going to the heart of their personal problems, right to their core of their beings, baring their souls for all, particularly for themselves to see, starkly, surely for the very first time. And with only a few words.
They would then leave, jaws dropped, dumb-founded, shaken, perhaps enough to get them to be on their way to heaven.
Fidelity amidst suffering — looking to Jesus instead of to ourselves – brings one to this awareness of the plight of others, for suffering sets priorities straight, casting off what is unimportant and pointing us right to heaven, to Jesus. We see how bad a situation original sin has cast us, and we thank Jesus all the more, with rejoicing humble thanksgiving, for reaching into this world to get us, taking on what we deserve, having the right in justice to have mercy on us, to have us die to ourselves to live for Him, to have us not just carry the the consequences of original sin as our cross (weakness of will and mind, emotions all over the place, sickness and death), but to have the capactity, the grace, to look to Him, to Jesus, following Him, in close friendship with Him.
When this little fellow and I were talking after Holy Communion, he quietly blurted out the sentence which you can read in the above image:
