Dear Friend of Catholic Answers:
Yesterday was Labor Day. I didn't engage in any labor. Does that mean I sinned?
At Catholic Answers most of our holidays from work are holy days. I suspect there aren't too many companies that give time off for the Assumption, the Immaculate Conception, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the like.
Sure, we also have some secular holidays off, but not all of them. One example: Presidents Day.
Who are we supposed to be honoring on that day? I can think of some presidents who shouldn't be commemorated except through the playing of dirges. When someone asks me who I think was the last great president, usually I say, "Washington, and I'm not too sure about him."
I can't say that all my colleagues would agree with that opinion, but they do agree that Presidents Day doesn't make much sense. So we don't take it off. Ditto for some other secular holidays. But we take off enough holy days to more than make up. Now, if the bishops would just stop transferring holy days to the nearest Sunday!
I used to joke that our apologists sometimes field odd questions, such as "What day of the week will Ash Wednesday fall on this year?" At the rate it's going, that may no longer be an unthinking question.
Just imagine this news item in your diocesan paper: "This year Bishop X has transferred observance of Ash Wednesday to the following Sunday, so more people will have a chance to get ashes. As a bonus, the rigors of Lent will be reduced by four days."
CATHOLIC PRINCIPLES IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE
Our "Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics" is getting a lot of play.
As you know, on August 31 we ran the full text, in the form of a full-page ad, in four regional editions of "USA Today." We reached more than one million readers, and we got a fair amount of interest from the media. Several newspapers called for interviews, including Long Island's "Newsday" and the "San Jose Mercury News" Catholic News Service did too. The ad has been picked up for reproduction in several smaller papers, at no charge to us.
As you might suspect, not everyone is happy with what we did. Janine M. Miller is one such person:
"I am Catholic, and I disagree with the Church advising their [sic] people how to vote. It is time to stop using God's name in the wrong places."
I'm not sure what she means by the last sentence, but I don't think it's an admonition against swearing. More likely she means that we should keep our religious principles so private that they do not influence our civic life.
The Church, of course, does not tell you which candidates to vote for, nor does it tell you which candidates to vote against. It does tell you which moral principles you should apply when in the polling booth. Some of those principles are given in our voter's guide--and are backed up by quotations from authoritative Church documents.
Mary McLellan dittoed Ms. Miller:
"Church and State (i.e. politics) need to remain separate. As a Catholic, I resent the Church telling me how to vote."
No, you do not resent the Church "telling you how to vote," just as you do not resent hundreds of politicians "telling you how to vote" in their television, radio, and print ads. What you resent is what the Church teaches. If the Church taught the way you wish it taught, you would not resent its "telling you how to vote." Quite the contrary. You would say that it should proclaim all the louder how you and others should vote.
James E. Naumann of Prescott, Arizona, wrote:
"I am a 'good Catholic' with 12 years Catholic education and attend Mass and have raised (actually wife raised) 6 successful children. I do not agree with this ad, and I am upset by it. Shame on this organization. You are not truly practicing the Catholic faith."
So, we fail to practice the Catholic faith if we publicize Church teachings? Does it follow that we are better Catholics if we don't share our beliefs with others?
Mr. Naumann's comment reminds me of a line from a book critiquing radical scriptural exegesis. The writer criticized theologians who say the miracles attributed to Jesus didn't really happen but still, in some way, were true. These theologians thought the miracles "were all the truer for never having happened."
So maybe our faith is all the truer if we never tell others about it--including other Catholics, the target audience of our ad.
CELIACS REVISITED
I can understand how celiacs--people who can't eat wheat and certain other grains because they have gluten in them--might feel left out at Communion time. Not that they can't receive Communion. They can receive from the cup if not from the ciborium. Still, they no doubt wish they were able to receive hosts as do other communicants.
Now there is a solution for almost all of them.
Celiac disease is like other diseases in that it affects people variously. Some who have the disease, which is a digestive disorder, can eat bread and suffer only lightheadedness. Others can't have even microscopic particles of bread without getting very ill. Most celiacs are somewhere in between. How might they be helped at Communion time?
For them the solution lies in wheat hosts that have a very low gluten content. But there has been a problem with that. Until recently it didn't seem possible to fashion hosts with almost no gluten and yet with the consistency of bread. Each attempt resulted in something inedible.
But then some nuns who specialize in making hosts stumbled on the solution. Their story is told in this article:
http://catholickey.org/index.php3?gif=news.gif&mode=view&issue=20040409&article_id=2858
Greg Gaulin's teenage daughter may find comfort in this. She was diagnosed with celiac disease when she was about four. When it was time for her First Holy Communion, she seemed to be out of luck.
Gaulin said that, "as her father, I was incensed. I felt responsible for her spiritual well being, and I intended to fight for her to receive our Lord, just as I would fight for her to have adequate food, perhaps more so. But then I came to appreciate a few essential points."
He realized that he should "trust Christ," who "loves my daughter more than I do. Don't you think he might have considered this problem? Any drop of the Precious Blood is totally and completely the whole Lord. It's simply not a question or proportion or quantity.
"My daughter walks up to Communion with us at Mass but diverts to the Eucharistic minister who provides the Precious Blood. What a blessing that is! When I was younger, this was not an option. Of course, no one knew about celiac disease either."
Now Gaulin has another option, if the parish will go along with it: using, at least for parishioners such as his daughter, the hosts baked by the nuns mentioned in the article. If that happens, Gaulin's daughter will be able to remain in the same Communion line as her parents.
p.s., If you have a comment about anything appearing in this E-Letter, please do not hit your Reply button. Instead, go to Catholic Answers' new discussion forums at:
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p.p.s., Catholic Answers' third annual apologetics cruise will take you from Montreal to Boston by way of the Canadian maritime provinces. Our voyage is from October 2-9. Find out more at:
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