POLITICIANS AND SCANDAL
PRAISE AND OBLIVION
GET ME TO THE CHURCH ON TIME
WHEN AT DEATH'S DOOR
Dear Friend of Catholic Answers:
In an article last month in "Commonweal," Joseph A. Komonchak, who teaches at Catholic University of America, wrote:
"When a bishop complained about some of the books being published after the council, Paul VI replied that the best way to oppose bad books is with good books. Joseph Ratzinger has been of the view that Paul VI’s patient attitude with regard to theological developments after the council failed and that, as in the thirteenth century, it is the task of ecclesiastical authority to intervene."
As a sometime writer of books, I appreciate Paul VI's sense of their power and his expectation that truth will prevail in the long run. But sometimes the long run is very far off, and what damage is done in the meantime?
While some heresies disappeared as soon as they were exposed to the light of Catholic truth, others persisted. Good books did not succeed in driving out bad books. It took something more for those heresies to be vanquished: intervention by Church leadership.
"Commonweal" fears that Benedict XVI will be more interventionist than was John Paul II. I suspect he might be. I hope he will be.
ENDING SCANDAL: CONVERT OR CONDEMN
Catholics for a Free Choice--the pro-abortion lobby that calls itself "Catholic" only so it can get publicity--complains in a press release that "a small minority of bishops and ultra-conservative Republican Catholics" tried to deny pro-abortion candidates "the right to receive Communion." (Of course, there is no such "right.")
CFFC complains further that Pope Benedict XVI "intimat[es] that pro-choice Catholic policy makers might be committing sin or causing scandal and thus would not be eligible to receive Communion."
"Might" be causing scandal by being pro-abortion? As Msgr. Ronald Knox used to say, scandal is not, as many people think, the giving of a bad example but is an action that causes someone else to stumble and fall off the right path. You commit scandal when what you do causes someone else to go awry, morally or intellectually or both.
When nominally Catholic politicians push abortion, other people see their actions and tend to think to themselves, "If they argue it's okay, I guess it must be."
The best way to prevent the scandal is to have the politicians accept and apply Catholic moral principles. This would involve conversion of heart on their part.
The next-best step is to have Church leadership publicly correct erring politicians, even excluding them from Communion if necessary. Public rebukes can go a long way toward neutralizing the politicians' scandalous behavior. Rebukes may not change their minds, but they can make it much less likely that observers will conclude that what the politicians do and say is something that other Catholics are free to follow.
WE ARE ALL PROPHETS NOW
In the first week of November I'll be making final preparations to be on the Catholic Answers apologetics cruise. Our ship departs on November 6. Since I have not yet learned to bilocate, this means I will miss Call to Action's national conference, which is schedule for November 4-6 in Milwaukee.
This year's lineup includes Charles Curran, who is listed in promotional literature as "theologian and prophet." In 1968 Curran was a leader in the opposition to "Humanae Vitae." At this year's conference he will be given the 2005 Leadership Award--37 years late, but that's okay.
In 1986 Curran lost his license to teach theology and ever after has not had kind things to say about the man responsible, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger. "Despite my personal hurt," he wrote after Ratzinger was elected pope, "I have more influence in the church now than I would have if I were never condemned."
This is self-delusion. Curran has almost no influence today. Just as Hans Küng disappeared off the radar screen after similarly losing his right to teach as a Catholic theologian, so Curran has declined in prominence since 1986.
Matthew Fox also will be speaking at Call to Action. He too has become a non-person. After being disciplined by the Dominican Order, he left the Catholic Church and faded from view. Today he is just another New Ager. Does anything seem more old-fashioned than the New Age movement?
Fox will talk on "What Does a Mature Christian Look Like?" He says a mature Christianity is one that "develops the lower chakras instead of forbidding them," whatever that means. A mature Christianity "brings alive the mystic and prophet in us all."
This suggests that Charles Curran will not be the only prophet at Call to Action. Everyone in the audience will be a prophet. Knowledge of this will be good for their self-esteem.
MASS ATTENDANCE
In the late 1950s weekly Mass attendance in the U.S. was as high as 74 percent. Now, according to a poll conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, it is 31 percent.
As might be expected, older Catholics attend more faithfully. This is due in part to retirement-age laymen having been catechized before the changes that followed Vatican II, but it also reflects the fact that people tend to return to the practice of the faith or to deepen their practice as they get older.
(Some would add that it means that wisdom really does come with age.)
THINKING WITH THE CHURCH AT LIFE'S END
Each one of us will be leaving here some day. Some will leave suddenly, and others will linger for some time before taking that final journey.
To help you understand Church teaching on such things as advance directives, euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide, the National Catholic Bioethics Center provides "A Catholic Guide to End-of-Life Decisions." It includes a health care proxy and an advance medical directive that are in full accord with Catholic teaching.
You can obtain the "Guide" by going to the Center's web site:
www.ncbcenter.org
or by phoning 617-787-1900.
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' discussion forums at
http://forums.catholic.com
where you may post your comment in the forum dedicated to the E-Letter. You will find a thread devoted to this issue of the E-Letter. Feel free to add your comment in the form of a reply to that thread.
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