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D r a g n e t
FLOYDIAN ANALYSIS
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This Rock
Volume 10, Number 1
 February 1999 
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The Russian Orthodox Synod revealed in late January that an increasing number of its priests have abused their authority by intruding into believers' private lives and establishing cult-like followings. The Synod-the church's supreme body-in an encyclical complained of priests who banned parishioners from marrying for love, forced others to divorce because they were not married in the church, and in some instances compelled believers to enter the monastery or nunnery. Some priests, it charged, are less concerned with leading people to God than surrounding themselves with tight-knit groups of admirers and warring against rival parishes.
It was the second time in a month that the Russian Orthodox hierarchy, historically reluctant to air internal problems, has blasted its priests. In December 1998 Patriarch Aleksiy II criticized some Moscow clergy who he said were imitating the lifestyle of Russia's super-rich by acquiring cell phones and expensive foreign cars.
Archie Comic Publications is threatening to sue the family of 22-month-old Veronica Sams over her Internet web site, veronica.org. The company claims its owns a trademark on the name, which little Veronica shares with a character in the Archie comic strip.
David Sams registered the Internet domain name in 1997 when his daughter was born. The web site features photos of the toddler in the tub and in a high chair, her face smeared with baby food. "How can a company own my name?" says a letter written from little Veronica's perspective posted on the web site. "It's a common first name. Veronica in Archie comics is a brunette. I'm a blonde. How could the world confuse me with her?"
We hope this lawsuit doesn't give our local diocese's canon lawyer any wise ideas about our domain name, catholic.com.
Last month we mentioned new California governor Gray Davis's unwavering support for abortion in all forms, including partial-birth abortion. Davis is a practicing Catholic, but his pro-abortion stance caused Sacramento bishop William K. Weigand to deny his request to use the city's cathedral for an ecumenical service the day before his swearing in. Still, invitations went out to some Catholic clergy to attend the service. A reply to the rabbi who signed the invitations from a priest who was invited is rousing enough that we quote it at length:
"Dear Msgr. [Edward J.] Kavanaugh:
"Governor-elect Gray Davis and Mrs. Sharon Davis would be honored if you would join them at an ecumenical service on Sunday, January 3, 1999 at 10:30 a.m. This special service will be held in the ballroom of the Sacramento Convention Center. Seating and pre-ceremony gathering will begin at 10:00 a.m.
"Governor-elect and Mrs. Davis have chosen to begin the inauguration of California's thirty-seventh governor with a special convocation on faith and community. They hope you will be able to join them in prayer and celebrate this special time in California's history. If you are able to attend we would be pleased if you would participate in the entrance processional.
"If you would like to attend and participate in the ecumenical service please respond by calling . . . and provide us with your name and church or temple representation.
"Shalom,
"Rabbi Brad L. Bloom
"President, Sacramento Interfaith Service Bureau"
* * *
"Dear Rabbi Bloom:
"Your invitation of December 24th to attend an inaugural event on Sunday morning, January 3, 1999, for Governor-elect Gray Davis causes me profound distress and grave insult. Surely you must know that Gray Davis is an outspoken, militant champion of violence-the most cold-blooded violence of killing pre-born and partially born human beings. He incessantly and obsessively proclaimed his commitment to unrestricted and taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand in his TV campaign commercials, debates, campaign position statements, and even on his Internet campaign site. He would force every California taxpayer, including all the Catholic bishops, priests, and lay people, to be his fiscal accomplices in payments to abortionists for over 100,000 Medi-Cal abortions per year (out of about 300,000 to 400,000 abortions per year in California) . . .
"To presume that any true Catholic, and in particular a Catholic priest and pastor, would violate the moral teachings of the Catholic faith and the very moral foundation of human rights and would betray and scandalize the faithful by attending a political function dedicated to a leader of the American Holocaust is mind-boggling. Any Catholic priest and pastor who would publicly give honor and affirmation to Gray Davis would be subject to severe penalties and would rightfully expect the just denunciation and harsh censure of not only Catholics but all who defend the right to life.
"While I would never remotely consider attending any anti-Semitic, anti-life political event, I would find it even more outrageous to invite you or any other rabbi, priest, minister, pastor, or religious leader to attend such an event. How is it that you so casually do so, not only with me but presumably with many or even all other priests in the Sacramento area or diocese? As you must also know, our Sacramento bishop, William K. Weigand, has spoken firmly and often against the killing of innocent human beings and we fully support him in this. Gray Davis and his inaugural committee were denied the use of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament for this event. Rightly so! . . .
"It reminds me of the actions of Pope Pius XI when Adolph Hitler, the recognized leader of Germany, visited Rome in 1938, before World War II and before Hitler was widely recognized as a genocidal monster. Pius XI ordered all the Vatican museums with their art treasures to be closed during Mr. Hitler's visit, to deny him any opportunity for an appearance or semblance (Photo 'ops' and the like) of approval or acceptance. In fact, the Pope referred to Hitler as 'the Nordic pest,' and to further shun and snub Hitler the Pope left Rome.
"Recently Pope John Paul II issued an encyclical letter, The Gospel of Life. This was affirmed in November by the Catholic bishops of the United States in a statement entitled 'Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics.' It stated: 'Excommunication affects all those who commit this crime (of abortion) with knowledge of the penalty attached, and this includes those accomplices without whose help the crime would not have been committed. The purpose of the penalty. . . is to make an individual fully aware of the gravity of a certain sin and then to foster genuine conversion and repentance.'
"Certainly those politicians like Gray Davis who not only proclaim a universal right to abortion but demand that taxpayers be fiscal accomplices in the abortion Holocaust are responsible for the fact that California now has an abortion rate twice the rest of the nation, almost one-quarter of all abortions in the United States being committed in California. It is clear that Gray Davis, by promoting what the Pope has called the 'culture of death' and demanding taxpayers' money for abortions, has brought on himself automatic excommunication from the Catholic Church.
"In California abortion has a strong racial, genocidal aspect. Abortion mills are disproportionately located in poor and Latino areas of cities, especially in Los Angeles (one need only consult the Yellow Pages ads and other promotions to see this), and are marketed in the Spanish language to prey upon young, poor, and undocumented women, especially Catholic latinas and blacks, with Medi-Cal funding providing a strong financial incentive for the greedy mill operators.
"I must ask you to reconsider your role in promoting Gray Davis's political inaugural event and to immediately send out a letter of regret to all the Catholic priests and pastors whom you have invited and encouraged to attend this travesty.
"Sincerely,
"Monsignor Edward J. Kavanaugh"
To which we can add only: hurrah. Defense of life by the clergy is heard (sometimes) from the pulpit but seldom in the public square. The great scandal of this silence is that many Catholics like Mr. Davis believe political support of "the right to choose" is a matter of personal conscience. If all Catholic clergy were as forceful in their defense of the Church's stance on the sanctity of life, Catholic lay people and politicians might think twice, if not about supporting abortion then at least about calling themselves Catholics.
The 1999 Catholic Almanac says the top three countries in the world in total number of Catholics are Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. This means the U. S. has inched ahead of Italy and the Philippines, which both have traditionally large Catholic populations. There are 61.5 million Catholics in the U. S. That's 22.7 percent of the total population, with California, New York, and Texas leading the way in Catholic population among the states. The Catholic Almanac is published by Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.
A British group styling itself Christian Survivors of Sexual Abuse has called for glass doors to be installed on confessionals to protect children from predatory priests. In a pamphlet entitled "Safe Church, Safe Children" disseminated in January, the group outlines what constitutes sexual abuse and suggests to parents precautions to take to protect their children from predatory priests.
Cardinal Basil Hume of Westminster said, "To suggest that children should never be alone in the confessional is outrageous." He sent the group a letter saying he did not want the pamphlet distributed in his diocese. "I believe this statement only compounds the media image of priests as pedophiles awaiting their prey," Cardinal Hume added. The group's leader, Margaret Kennedy, pledged to distribute the pamphlet anyway.
Viewing the Sistine Chapel ceiling will give you the wrong idea. In an address to pilgrims in St. Peter's Square in mid-January, Pope John Paul II said God is "not to be imagined as an old man with a flowing white beard." His point, of course, was that it is wrong "to imagine the Divinity with anthropomorphic traits which reflect too much the human world." However, the Pope also noted there is a "long and universal tradition of religious literature" in which God is seen a "father figure."
The superintendent of fine arts in Rome, Mr. Claudio Strinati said the image of a bearded, paternal God derived both from Zeus of Greek mythology and from the assumption by medieval and Renaissance artists that the father of Jesus "must have looked something like him only older."
Vatican officials said the Pope was "responding to modern feminist critiques" which dismiss Christianity as patriarchal. The jackals of dissident theology, of course, shredded the Pope's words into a mishmash. The Daily Telegraph in England reported, "One leading theologian [who is not identified] said that the Pope's comments had implications on the question of the ordination of women and married priests in the Catholic Church." And good old Hans Kung, censured by the Vatican in 1979 but still identified by the Telegraph as "a leading Roman Catholic theologian," called the Pope's comments "a slow, modest process to enlightenment."
John Wilkins, editor of the Tablet, a prominent British Catholic weekly, pointed out, "Not many Catholics think of God as an old man with a flowing white beard. God is love."
And while you're at it, you might have throw out that outdated mental image of Satan too. On January 26 the Congregation for Divine Worship released De Exorcismus et Supplicationibus Quibusdam, the first revision of the Church's ritual for exorcism since 1614. According to press reports the day prior to its release, the new version drops references to "Satan" or "the Devil" as the embodiment of evil in favor of definitions more compatible with modern concepts of "psychological disturbance." But the day of the document's release Catholic World News reported that the text acknowledges the reality of both "angelic creatures" and others "called demons, who are opposed to God."
The London Times reported that under the new rituals priests are encouraged not to refer to the problem as "the Prince of Darkness" or "the Accursed Dragon" or "the Foul Spirit" or "the Satanic Power" or "the Master of Deceit." Instead the formulas refer to "the cause of evil." According to CWN, however, the document says that the Church "has prayed, and continues to pray, that men will be freed from the snares of the Devil" and confirms "the victory of Christ and the power of the Church over demons." The document was released only in Latin.
According to the Times, Msgr. Corrado Balducci, the Vatican's chief exorcist, says every diocese is supposed to have at least one priest qualified in exorcism. Under the old rituals the priest lays his hands on the head of the possessed person while reciting the words " Exorcitio te" ("I exorcise you"). He then calls out " ex cruciem Domini" ("through the cross of Christ") while wrapping the hem of his stole around the neck of the possessed person and keeping his right hand on the person's head.
Exorcists say the evil spirits emerge "sometimes a bit at a time, sometimes in one big convulsion."
Msgr. Balducci said that out of every thousand people who sought the help of an exorcist only five or six were really possessed. Thirty cases in a thousand qualify as "demonic obsession, infestation, or disturbance." The rest (to state the obvious) were in need of "psychological help."
The Times account said that many modern theologians regard the depiction of Satan as a reptilian beast with cloven hooves, wings, and a tail as a medieval invention and prefer Augustine's definition of evil as "the absence of good."
Try depicting that in art.
As we were going to press, an e-mail dispatch from This Rock contributor Larry Nolte arrived from St. Louis where he lives. Catholic Answers's plan was to hand out copies of our mini-catechism, Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth, during the Pope's January 26-27 visit in order to counteract the legions of anti-Catholics who had announced they would be in St. Louis to prosyletize Catholics (especially the young ones). Larry's was the first account we'd heard of the goings-on there:
"Monday, January 25
"John Paul II is scheduled to arrive around 1 p.m. tomorrow and the whole town is abuzz. The media picked a downtown hotel, the Regal Riverfront, for their base of operations and took over one of the convention floors to set up audio and visual feeds. In a somewhat smaller corner of the hotel Catholic Answers has set up its own HQ from which it will organize the distribution of 100,000 copies of Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth. I attended an orientation there tonight with about a dozen others. Met some of the CA regulars including Jason Evert. Before I arrived tonight Jason and his girlfriend had slipped copies of Pillar under four hundred hotel room doors. Someone complained and the hotel has asked CA not to proselytize in the hotel.
"At the CA meeting I met Catholics from Los Angeles, Idaho, Ohio, and other locations, including one guy from LA. who flew in today with no idea of where he was spending the night or how he'd see the Holy Father. He's just trusting the Holy Spirit.
"Catholic Answers's effort is in response to a well-publicized push from a Baptist megachurch to 'bring Catholics the word of God' by handing out a pamphlet called Mary's Command for Catholics. We volunteers have huge canvas bags-the old-fashioned paper-boy kind-stuffed with copies of Pillar. We've had a scant hour of orientation, including how to deal with our Baptist friends: 'Be charitable, but firm.'"
Tuesday, January 26
"The day started with the bus running a half-hour late. As we arrived downtown we still had a few blocks to hike to 'Papal Plaza' (as one of the city parks has been christened). There were two events, one inside for ticketed youth and one outside for everyone who couldn't get a ticket inside. The first thing that hit us was a veritable gauntlet of people handing out very slick material. I had my Catholic Answers bag and pressed each of them to read the Pillar tract if I took theirs. By the time we got inside the plaza perimeter I had quite a collection.
"We arrived in time to catch Father Stan, one of Fr. Benedict Groeschel's order, Franciscan of the Renewal. He gave a very powerful evangelistic witnesses from the main stage, occasionally lapsing into rap. Kids responded wildly to his call for total conversion in Christ Jesus. My 11-year-old son announced that he was 'cool!'
"What followed was a series of testimonies from Catholic teens who have seen their own lives turned around by Christ. In fact, there were a whole series of these between each band or speaker. Next came a short concert by Jennifer Knapp. She is Protestant (as far as I know) but very respectful of the Pope and gave a great performance and witness.
"Mary Beth Bonacci talked on chastity [what else?] and was another powerful speaker. She invited teens to give not just their hearts to Jesus, but their bodies as well. And she was very funny.
"Skipping ahead, the Pope's plane was half an hour late arriving from Mexico. In the plaza we watched it all on big screen TV. When John Paul disembarked the people went wild. The late arrival threw the rest of the day's schedule into havoc.
"The kids and I went for an extended lunch break, during which I could look over the material I'd gathered. A lot of it was designed to look very Catholic. Some pamphlets had pictures of Mary or the Pope. Some had roses and looked pro-life. But in reading through it, the 'Sabbath issue' kept coming up. I determined most of the slick 'Catholic-like' material was from a Seventh-Day Adventist group. But Catholics aren't as stupid as some seem to think, and the streets were littered ankle-deep with this material by the end of the day.
"The counterfeit Catholic material made it difficult for us to hand out Pillar. People were very skeptical and we had to take an aggressive approach, announcing that it was 'completely Catholic, one-hundred-percent faithful to the Pope, not like the other junk littering the street.' We even had priests vouching for us. The kids and I handed out uncounted thousands of Pillar tracts, and most people were relieved to find out it was really Catholic. Having people thank you for giving them free material is a unique experience.
"We waited for the motorcade, over an hour late, and when the Holy Father did pass by he was traveling at about thirty-five miles an hour. Not much chance to get a glimpse or a good photo. Nevertheless, I had goose bumps. Many people were waving flags and openly crying.
"John Paul II's address to the youth rally was centered on serving Christ. I tried to listen critically (it was broadcast outside on a giant TV) and didn't hear anything that the average Protestant could take offense at. My mother-in-law, who is Assemblies of God, will vouch for that.
"The only real hitch in the day was trying to get home. Police security made us go four blocks out of our way just to cross the street, and when we finally got to our stop we waited an hour for a bus without seeing a single one go by, despite the fact that six policemen swore the buses were running. Stranded with no ride, we hiked back towards the crowd and tried to find someone with a cell phone.
"Out of nowhere we bumped into my niece and her boyfriend (in a crowd of 100,000) whose prearranged ride had room for us. My daughter claimed it was a miracle. I prefer to think of it as just another of the many ways God takes care of his children."
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