|
L e t t e r s
Episcopal Parenting
|
This Rock
Volume 17, Number 5
 May-June 2006 
|
|
|
Thank you for publishing Fr. Robert Johansen’s article "Why Doesn’t the Pope Do Something about ‘Bad’ Bishops?" (February 2006). As a mother, I’ve noticed that the decisions I make with respect to my children are not always appreciated by strangers or even by members of my own family. But I’m the one who has to suffer (or rejoice) with the effects, and I’ve always found it to be more helpful to focus on how God will judge those decisions.
Fr. Johansen did an excellent job of pointing out how our bishops bear a burden—and a responsibility—far greater than my own. How much we need to pray for them!
Dawn Beutner
Annandale, Virginia
Who's in Charge Here?
Fr. Robert Johansen’s article about why bishops can’t be fired was very informative. But there is a statement at the top of page 668 in volume II of Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents that seems to conflict with Fr. Johansen’s thesis: "Those [bishops] who are rash or imprudent should be warned in all charity; those who are pertinacious should be removed from office." In the Catholic Church in America, persistent violations are all over the place, but still no removals. Who is in charge?
Mike Anderson
Kalamazoo, Michigan
The Bishops We Deserve
Fr. Robert Johansen could have made one additional point that, I believe, would have answered the objections raised in the letters section of the subsequent issue. Pope St. Gregory the Great pointed out that Catholics get the shepherds they deserve: When a community of faithful Catholics—in obedience to Christ, with humility, faith, trust, and love of God and neighbor in need—prays that the Lord send laborers into the harvest, God provides holy bishops and priests who are guided by the Holy Spirit and the papal magisterium. If we neglect to pray, we should lower our expectations. It would seem to be more biblical and productive to pray for our neighbors in the clergy than to grouse about them. Prayer should be the first step we take in solving a problem, not a last resort when all else fails.
Oscar M. Hudson
Austin, Texas
Shakespeare: Closet Catholic
Reading "The Bard and the Church" (Reasons for Hope, March 2006) brought to mind a review of a book entitled Shadowplay by Clare Asquith, which states that "Shakespeare was a closet Catholic at a time when the Church was banned." Asquith points out that most Elizabethans were Catholic up until the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Stratford was a center of religious resistance to the "new religion"; Shakespeare’s father left a written testament of his enduring Catholic faith; his daughter, Susannah, was a "recusant" charged with refusing to attend Protestant services. Asquith argues that the bard was using the theater of his day just as Hamlet did: to send dangerous, skillfully encoded messages to his audience and his monarch. The reviewer writes that "Catholic playwrights took huge chances, dropping hints and references in their scripts." Sounds like an interesting book.
Louise Fisher
via the Internet
Help for Roamin' Catholics
Louise Springer’s letter in the March This Rock related how a childhood friend told her there are over 3,000 "independent catholic churches" in the U.S. that claim to be Catholic but are not truly Catholic. Springer brought up the need to rely on trustworthy sources in finding Mass times and locations when traveling.
For several years, I have relied on using www.masstimes.org. If you enter a starting location, it returns a list of parishes, their Mass times, distance from your designated location, maps, parish web sites, etc.
Besides the web site, there is a computer generated assistance line at (410) 676-6000 where you can enter the zip code or phone number of the desired church location. There is also a live operator at (305) 598-2867. This number generally has a bilingual (English-Spanish) operator on certain days.
Ray Feldman
Cincinnati, Ohio
Alpha Mail
Regarding Trevor Collins’s letter in the March 2006 issue: While I cannot comment on Rick Warren’s theology, not having read any of his books thoroughly, I can discuss the use of the Alpha Course in a Catholic context with some familiarity.
Our parish has been running "Alpha for Catholics" for nearly five years with the full approval of our thoroughly orthodox pastor. At our parish, Alpha is a twenty-week course consisting of the basic ten-week Alpha Course followed by Marcellino D’Ambrosio’s video series Touching Jesus through the Church. "Alpha for Catholics," as we present it, introduces the unbaptized and baptized non-Catholics to the Church and is also an excellent way to "repatriate" returning Catholics. Faithful, practicing Catholics find Alpha to be an excellent refresher course as well.
When we researched the course prior to implementing it, the only substantial criticism we discovered had to do with Nicky Gumbel’s videos. While Gumbel is a very engaging speaker and is apparently "Catholic-friendly," he is Protestant, and this naturally expresses itself in his treatment of the sacraments and other matters we Catholics consider vital to our faith. Therefore, our parish does not use his videos but our own speakers—our pastor, parish staff, and other knowledgeable Catholics.
In our parish’s experience, "Alpha for Catholics" encourages personal conversion by inspiring each participant to enter into a personal relationship with Christ and lights a spiritual fire within old and new Catholics alike. It provides a solid foundation of basic knowledge about the faith, and it builds community as well.
Jeannette Schlicher
Rio Rancho, New Mexico
High-Speed Access to God
I really enjoyed reading your article on the rosary by Edward Sri ("The Scandal of the Decades," March 2006). My friend Professor Rex Kochanski says that to choose between going to God with Mary’s assistance and going it alone is like choosing between going to an Internet cafe that has a high-speed broadband connection and being stuck at home with dial-up.
John Raphael Hellmann
via the Internet
Better to Light a Candle
Thank you for your recent article "Catholic Pioneer Conquers Public School Prejudice" (March 2006). My husband and I are both public school teachers, and we realize the problems public schools have. We can’t talk about our Catholic faith, but we lead our students by our Catholic example. This past year our first child was ready to enter kindergarten, and we had four choices of school districts, one of them being Catholic. After much prayer and discernment, we decided to send our daughter to my husband’s public school district.
I have been criticized by some of my Catholic friends who are homeschooling their kids or are sending their kids to Catholic schools. My answer is always the same: This is where God wants my daughter to be at this time in her life. She has already told her friends not to take the Lord’s name in vain, and she explained to her Mormon friend that Mary is the Mother of God.
I believe God wants our kids to be the light for those who are in the dark. The only way we are going to make the public school system better is to get involved. Please don’t criticize me and my family for putting our child in the public system. Only God knows how he wants to use us to better this world.
Jennifer Velasco
Bakersfield, California
Too Many or Not Enough
I thought that Fr. Michael P. Orsi’s article "Catholic Pioneer Conquers Public School Prejudice" was a thoughtful account of those fighting the good fight to uphold the rights of Catholics in public schools. But I am not sure what he means when he says that "too many parents have resorted to private school education or homeschooling in order to isolate their children from the moral decrepitude that public schools promote." The Code of Canon Law states that "parents are to entrust their children to those schools in which Catholic education is provided, but if they are unable to do this, they are bound to provide for their suitable Catholic education outside the schools." Should Fr. Orsi have said "not enough" parents instead of "too many"?
Bill McKenna
via the Internet
Fr. Michael P. Orsi replies:
Mr. McKenna misses the point of my article. Vatican II reminds us that Catholics should be "leaven in society." To abandon the public forum to those forces inimical to gospel values will only enable further evil. As taxpayers and Christians, we have a moral obligation to reclaim our culture for Christ. The public schools are fertile grounds for evangelization. I think Betsy Hansen’s victory should discourage flight and encourage us to continue in the good fight of faith.
Choosing the Better Part
I was offended by the seemingly secular attitude behind the wording of Christopher Kaczor ("Does the Catholic Church Hate Women?", March 2006) when he stated that "Christ insisted that Mary had chosen the better part by listening to him rather than performing the traditional woman’s role her sister, Martha, had chosen."
I believe that Jesus Christ has elevated the dignity of women by elevating the dignity of the traditional role of women. This is clearly different from the secular approach of elevating women by "lifting" them out of their traditional role—and their fertility as well.
Our society, our culture, and even many within my own parish insist that my contracepting, day-care-reliant "sisters" have "chosen the better part" by fulfilling themselves with a career—thus being "relevant" to their communities—rather than performing the often mundane and non-necessary traditional woman’s role (which they characterize as hiding out in the home due to minimal intelligence, skills, and self-esteem).
I believe that all people—men, women and children—choose the better part by listening to Jesus; religious vocation is a higher calling than married or single life. But didn’t Jesus say, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them" (Matt.19:14)?
Can a woman’s role get any more traditional than by listening to Jesus in this specific directive?<
Susan Yanish
Fairbanks, Alaska
Christopher Kaczor responds:
I certainly agree that secular society "puts down" the work typically done by women, and I certainly did not intend to contribute to this unfortunate trend. I was trying to say, however clumsily, that whatever work one does is less important than one’s relationship with God. Fortunately, though, whatever work one does (so long as the work itself is not evil) can enhance one’s relationship with God and neighbor if the work is done out of love and as well as possible.
Kudos from across the Pond
I have just finished reading the March issue of This Rock and just wanted you to know that the new format is excellent. The new articles and writers are just perfect.
The article on the Fathers of the Church (Marcellino D’Ambrosio, "Getting Started with the Fathers of the Church") will help me get to know these writings, as I never really knew where to start! The article on the Crusades (Robert P. Lockwood, "Crusading for Truth") was also very timely indeed. I have friends who have repeated the modern anti-Catholic viewpoint on the crusades, and although I knew their comments to be blatant lies started by people with an agenda to pursue, I never really knew how to answer the arguments. Thanks to Robert Lockwood and This Rock, I now have a firm rebuff to the anti-Catholic propaganda that people repeat and take for granted as "truth." I must also mention "Questions and Answers" by Cecily Hastings. The answers given are not longwinded and easy to understand—a true classic from the Catholic Truth Society.
Thank you for such a great read. I look forward to each issue arriving. I eagerly look out for the "U.S. postage paid" envelope, and as soon as it arrives, everything stops as I scan through to see what knowledge is on offer that issue.
Peter Conway
Coventry, Warwickshire, England
Catholic v. Protestant Bibles
I am new to This Rock magazine, and a story in your April 2006 had a reference that surprised me. In Anthony Clark’s article "What Do You See at Mass?" a paragraph starts out: Altars today contain a small altar stone representing both Calvary—the rock on which our Lord was sacrificed—and Christ himself, "the spiritual rock" (1 Cor. 10:4, NIV). I was shocked and frankly very disappointed to see the reference to a Protestant Bible. What gives? Are Catholic Bibles lacking in some way? Why was the decision made to quote from a non-Catholic Bible?
Joe Smith
via the Internet
Editor’s reply:
Using the New International Version is not necessarily prohibited (see "Bible Translations Guide" at www.catholic.com/library/Bible_Translations_Guide.asp). However, the translation we normally use is the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition. In certain instances, though, we choose other translations that better convey the point being made. In the case you cite, the RSV:CE uses the phrase "supernatural Rock" in 1 Corinthians 10:4, whereas the New International Version renders it as "spiritual Rock." We chose the latter.
Bishops v. Bishops' Conferences
In the Quick Questions section of the April 2006 This Rock, someone asks if individual bishops have the authority to "overrule" the Church’s liturgical laws and papal teachings when they deem it necessary. Peggy Frye responds: "Local bishops are not individually infallible [okay] and cannot violate canon law [true], the Vatican’s directives [heaven forbid], or their national conference’s directives" [wrong!].
In The Ratzinger Report, our current Pope spoke against that notion while he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He says that national conferences of bishops vote on things, but votes cannot define truth. An ecumenical council, on the other hand, can have the character of not mere "consensus building" but of giving testimony to the truth. Ratzinger related having spoken to bishops who confessed they might have decided differently on their own than the conference did but failed to speak up for fear of seeming "backward" or "not open."
Martin Fecher
via the Internet
Peggy Frye replies:
I agree with your statement that the "national conferences of bishops vote on things, but votes cannot define truth." Apparently, the last part of my answer was overlooked where I quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church as saying that the authority of bishops’ conferences "must be exercised in communion with the whole Church under the guidance of the pope" (CCC 895).
The Truth about the Easter Duty
I believe Pete Vere made a mistake in saying that the "Easter Duty" binds Catholics to approach the sacrament of confession at least once a year ("Apologetics and Canon Law," April 2006). I believe the "Easter duty" obliges Catholics to receive Holy Communion once a year during the Easter season. Of course the precept about confession obliges Catholics to go to confession within a year if they have sinned seriously by mortal sin. It doesn’t necessarily have to be during Easter time. Confession, of course, is necessary during Easter time if a person has committed a mortal sin and wishes to fulfill his Easter duty of receiving Holy Communion worthily. It does seem that many Catholics seem to think that the Easter duty has to do with confession, but it really has to do with going to Holy Communion.
Fr. John E. Leitner
Kansas City, Missouri
Correction:
In the April 2006 cover story by Russell Shaw, we mistakenly included John Allen’s book Pope Benedict XVI: A Biography of Joseph Ratzinger in the list of suggested readings. The one we meant to include is Allen’s The Rise of Benedict XVI. We regret the error.
|
C A T H O L I C A N S W E R S :
[TOP]
of
