Dear Friend of Catholic Answers:
When I first glanced at the online photo, I thought it was of William Jennings Bryan. It turned out to be Rafael Rodriguez, who happens to live not far from the Catholic Answers office, in the San Diego suburb of Lemon Grove. He runs a ministry called the Christian Advance.
Rodriguez has written many books, chiefly against the Catholic Church. Most of the books were written in Spanish, but, curiously, the marketing for them at his web site is exclusively in English. If you're looking for some bedtime reading, you might consider these snappy titles:
"The Vatican Exposed": "The author demonstrates how the Vatican is a party of National-Catholicism, is a millennial sect, and the sexual deviations of the Catholic clergy [and] the lies of Pope John Paul II are also exposed clearly for the first time."
"Arousing the Consciences of Roman Catholics": "I prove by my 50 years of personal experiences how I was able to arouse my own conscience from the brainwashing I suffered during my Catholic education and how Catholics are commanded by God to come out of the Satanism which they are part of by obeying Catholicism's false teachings and laws."
"The Vatican's Finances": "Demonstrates how the Vatican is the richest state of Italy in the whole world, how she has the major percentage of the biggest companies of the world, and how the pope and cardinals are involved in the counterfeiting of billions of dollars."
Then again, maybe you'd prefer something a bit more reliable to read, such as "The National Enquirer."
IS YOUR DIOCESE A WINNER?
Last week I listed a few statistics regarding the growth of the Church throughout the world. Now let me give you some figures that relate to priestly ordinations. The figures are reported in the latest issue of "The CARA Report" and rely on numbers found in "The Official Catholic Directory" (often referred to as the "Kenedy Directory" after the publisher), which gives statistics on each diocese in the country.
If you add up the number of priestly ordinations that occurred in 2000, 2001, and 2002 and then divide that into the number of Catholics living in each diocese in 2002, you get a number that represents how many Catholics there are per ordinand for that three-year period. The lower the number, the better.
"The CARA Report" tallies ordinations over three years because ordination figures tend to fluctuate wildly. A three-year period gives a better picture of trends than does a one-year period.
Here are the top-ranking dioceses and the number of Catholics per new priest (again, based on three years' worth of ordinations):
| Tulsa: | 5,455 |
| Fargo: | 5,849 |
| Mobile: | 5,893 |
| Bismarck: | 6,820 |
| Charlotte: | 7,965 |
| Tyler: | 8,018 |
| Steubenville: | 8,112 |
| Spokane: | 8,284 |
| Yakima: | 9,332 |
| Memphis: | 9,397 |
Those are the top ten dioceses. The only big dioceses (archdioceses) near the top of the list are Atlanta (number 18, with 13,124) and Omaha (number 20, with 15,924). The average for the country is 53,282. Eight Latin-rite dioceses had no ordinations at all during that three-year period.
Now look at those figures again. The average diocese has 53,282 Catholics per three years' worth of ordinands. This is almost ten times as many as Tulsa has. Just imagine how many Catholics there are per ordinand in the dioceses toward the bottom of the list. A diocese with a million Catholics and only four ordinations over three years would have 250,000 Catholics per ordinand, about 46 times as many as Tulsa has!
Kind of makes you think that the dioceses at the top of the CARA list might have something to teach the remaining dioceses, don't you think?
GUIDED VOTING
You already know about our "Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics." You probably have a copy of it on your nightstand, conscientious Catholic and voter that you are.
The guide has been getting wide distribution. At a minimum Catholic Answers will distribute two million copies of it this year. We have been talking with many people who would like to obtain large quantities of the guide, for distribution close to the election. If these discussions pan out, we may see a total of four million copies or more--not bad for a first effort.
The guide makes it clear that the principles it enunciates should be applied to every political race, not just to the ones that make the front page of the newspaper. It isn't enough to consider the five "non-negotiables" as applying only to the presidential or gubernatorial or senatorial races. They should be applied even down to the local level.
Some readers miss this. They think the "Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics" ought to be used as though it were titled "How to Choose a President."
The presidency is an important office, but lesser offices are cumulatively more important. Officeholders at lower levels have more actual influence on your day-to-day living than does the occupant of the White House, just as your parish priest has more influence on your day-to-day Catholic life than does the Pope.
You go to your priest, not the Pope, for the sacraments and for your Masses. (If you usually go to the Pope for these, I want to hear about it--maybe you can get me an invite?) You deal chiefly with local or state governmental bodies, less often with federal.
However important the presidency is (and it is important), it is not as important as some people make it out to be. In fact, politics as a whole is not as important as some people think. If you live in Washington, D.C., you can be forgiven for thinking that politics should be the No. 1 thing on everyone's mind--every day, all year long, throughout life.
But if you live in the lower lefthand corner of the country, as I do, or if you live anywhere much beyond commuting distance to Capitol Hill, you know (or at least you should know) that government, while important, does not occupy most people's every waking thought. Most of us just live our lives, and, to the extent we interact with government, it's at the local level, not the national.
So, on the one hand, we don't want to give politics a position it doesn't deserve and that it doesn't in fact have. It should not be given a disproportionate amount of our attention.
On the other hand, to the extent we concern ourselves with politics, we should manifest a Catholic concern, and that means applying Catholic principles.
Since most of our political involvement is at something below the federal level, we should make sure that we don't confine our principles to just the big-name races. We should do what we can to inculcate Catholic ideas at all levels.
p.s., Hmmm. This E-Letter goes out to tens of thousands of readers, but so far the large majority of you have not signed up for the third annual Catholic Answers apologetics cruise. What gives?
Are you already occupied October 2-9? Change your plans! The cruise is far more important--and far more fun--than whatever else is on your calendar.
You don't want to be with other Catholics, learning and living your faith? Get your head straight! Your faith is key, and here's a great way to know it and enjoy it.
You don't want to hear me talk? Well, okay, I realize I'm not much of a draw, but we do have Rosalind Moss, Jimmy Akin, Thomas Howard, and Tim Staples making up for my deficiencies.
Time is short--very short. We sail in only six weeks, but there are still fine staterooms available. Won't you give some last-minute consideration to joining us as we go from Montreal to Boston by way of some of the most beautiful scenery in Canada?
Find out more at:
www.catholicanswerscruise.com
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