Countering Kissling’s Crusade
According to a February 5 report from LifeSite News, “The pro-abortion group that calls itself Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) has launched a campaign in Toronto to target the 750,000 youth expected at the upcoming World Youth Day. The campaign includes billboard and public transit advertising as well as a planned condom and propaganda distribution.”
The young people who flock to hear the Pope at World Youth Day are always targeted by anti-Catholics with their literature. This is different, and more pernicious: an ostensibly Catholic group trying to undermine the Church’s moral teachings while simultaneously mocking them. (The condom packages to be passed out reportedly will carry the message, “Don’t leave it up to your guardian angel.”) Frances Kissling, the president of CFFC, and her ilk figure that if they can bring moral teachings into question, the truth of Catholics dogmas and doctrines might also be questioned.
Hawkers of the culture of death have not yet g.asped the fact that the reason John Paul II is so attractive to youth is that the soul of youth cries out to be challenged to holiness and heroism, not soothed by appeals to hedonism. Please pray that Catholic Answers’ massive campaign to counter Kissling’s propaganda will be massively successful.
From the ‘Islam Means Peace’ Files
Kudos to the folks at www.memri.org for their tireless exposure of the virulent Jew-hatred promoted by the Islamic press. Recently, their translation of an article on Purim published by the Saudi government daily Al-Riyadh included the following bit of slander, worthy of Joseph Goebbels:
“Special Ingredient for Jewish Holidays is Human Blood from Non-Jewish Youth,” read the headline. The article said, “During this holiday, the Jew must prepare very special pastries, the filling of which is not only costly and rare—it cannot be found at all on the local and international markets.
“Unfortunately, this filling cannot be left out or substituted with any alternative serving the same purpose. For this holiday, the Jewish people must obtain human blood so that their clerics can prepare the holiday pastries. In other words, the practice cannot be carried out as required if human blood is not spilled!!
“For this holiday, the victim must be a mature adolescent who is, of course, a non-Jew—that is, a Christian or a Muslim. His blood is taken and dried into granules. The cleric blends these granules into the pastry dough; they can also be saved for the next holiday. In contrast, for the Passover slaughtering, about which I intend to write one of these days, the blood of Christian and Muslim children under the age of ten must be used, and the cleric can mix the blood [into the dough] before or after dehydration.”
The article also informed Muslim readers that “The Actions of the Jewish Vampires Cause Them Pleasure.”
No word yet from the New York Times on the resolute silence of the American media toward the Islamic world’s brisk sales of Mein Kampf and its determined efforts to whip up enthusiasm for Jewish genocide. Maybe the Times et al. are too busy scolding Pope Pius XII for being responsible for more Jewish rescues than any other single figure in Europe during the Holocaust.
From the Art as Propaganda Files
There’s a painting being pushed by the FutureChurch crowd called “The Invitation.” According to www.new-insights.com, a web site promoting the painting by Jan Von Bokel, it “reflects theology by scripture [sic] scholars that women and children were present at Jesus’ last meal with his disciples.”
The natural reply for any apologist to such claims is “Documentation please?” The New Testament is remarkably sparse in its records—as in no mention at all—of any women or children present at the Last Supper, so it would appear that these “scripture scholars” are trying to build a fire without much in the way of fuel.
The true motivation behind the painting is revealed on the web site: “A correct understanding of the Last Supper is critical because of its significant impact on many women’s equality issues in the Catholic Church today. The most relevant of these issues is the topic of women’s ordination. The argument for allowing only male ordination of priests was presented visually by Leonardo da Vinci in his famous painting entitled ‘The Last Supper,’ which shows only men present. The previously popular belief that women were not present is one of the leading arguments against women priests in the Catholic Church.”
There you have it: da Vinci was acting as a propagandist for a male-only priesthood rather than faithfully depicting the biblical accounts of the Last Supper. And calling the fact that women were not present a “previously popular” belief is an awfully big chunk of wishful thinking. Indeed, we have evidence from Justin Martyr—a man who was a lot closer than we are to Jesus in his culture, language, trials, and table manners—that the Gospels mention only the apostles at the Last Supper for a particular reason: They were the only ones there. Most especially, they were the only ones he ordained as priests:
“For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, said, ‘This do ye in remembrance of me, this is my body;’ and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, he said, ‘This is my blood’; and gave it to them alone” (First Apology [c. A.D. 100], emphasis added).
All the baptized are, to be sure, participants in the offices of “prophet, priest, and king” in their baptism. But it is because our Lord (and the apostles after him) ordained only men that the Church has never seen itself as free to ordain women.
Of course, the idea of a special mission for some members of the Body of Christ does not confer on them a special moral superiority. Nor does it guarantee sanctity (see the discussion of the priest scandals below). But it does mean that appeals to egalitarianism and civil rights are pointless in the ongoing attempt to lobby for a Church modeled on a high-school sophomore political science paper titled “What Equality Means to Me.”
Vocation Assistance
It’s a safe bet that some members of This Rock’s sixteen thousand subscribers might be considering becoming a monk, nun, or a priest. Now there is a free service called Vocations Placement Service, Inc. that assists such individuals in their decision. Many people who feel called to a religious vocation do not know where the various communities are, what their requirements are, or even how to go about applying.
Vocations Placement Service, located in Coral Springs, Florida, can arrange for individuals to attend a free “live-in experience” retreat at a religious community that interests them. There are many weekend, college-break, and summer dates available, and extended, month-long retreats can be arranged.
Vocations Placement Service’s toll-free phone number is 866-548-3463; its web site is www.vocationsplacement.org.
Ann Nails It, Andrew Flails It
Augustine once lamented, “So many sheep without, so many wolves within.” Self-confessed conservative bomb-thrower Ann Coulter (who is not, apparently, a Catholic) writes for Jewish World Review (www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/coulter1.asp), “Despite the growing media consensus that Catholicism causes sodomy, an alternative view—adopted by the Boy Scouts—is that sodomites cause sodomy.”
Coulter points out the elephant in the living room that the pro-homosexual media does not want you to think about: “It is a fact that the vast majority of the abuser priests—more than ninety percent—are accused of molesting teen-age boys. Indeed, the overwhelmingly homosexual nature of the abuse prompted The New York Times to engage in its classic ‘Where’s Waldo’ reporting style in which the sex of the victims is studiedly hidden amid a torrent of genderless words, such as the ‘teen-ager,’ the ‘former student,’ the ‘victim’ and the ‘accuser.’”
Catholics who wish to defend the Church in this confusing and tragic moment of history must pay attention to this point: The problem is not the Church’s demand for chastity, it is the failure by some priests to heed that demand.
Meanwhile, Andrew Sullivan, a dissenting gay Catholic, does not understand any of this and does not want to understand it. His web site (www.andrewsullivan.com) has been a torrent of incoherence on the subject of priestly abuse. It’s all due to celibacy, cries Sullivan. Coulter’s reply: “If celibacy is to blame, this is a show-stopping, Nobel Prize–winning discovery overturning years of liberal claptrap. In all other circumstances, it is punishable by death to suggest that sexual behavior is not determined at birth or that gays can be ‘cured.’ Now liberals are hawking the idea that gay priests could have been cured by marriage!”
Sullivan claims that the point Coulter makes is an attempt to scapegoat gays—after all, he says, African heterosexual priests have raped nuns. So he concludes with stunning illogic, “The strained sexual doctrines of the current church [sic]—with regard to both priests and laity—are beginning to destroy the Church from within.”
No, Mr. Sullivan, the problem is not the doctrine of chastity but a culture of contempt for chastity and orthodoxy, whether here or in Africa. Most good Catholics would take a chaste, orthodox priest with a homosexual orientation over an unchaste, dissenting heterosexual priest any day.
Switching gears again, Sullivan argues that ordaining women is the issue: “None of this hideous abuse of children would have occurred in the same way if women were fully a part of the institution.” The fact is that ordination of women is a theological question, not a political one, and not one that has a thing to do with this issue. Ordination is not a civil right but a supernatural gift from Jesus Christ. It is he, not the pope, who sets the terms on who can receive it. Mentioning it in connection with homosexual abuse by priests is a red herring.
Completing his litany of incoherent arguments, Sullivan declares, “The evil that we have discovered in our church [sic] these past few months is not simply incidental. It is structural. It comes from a hierarchical structure that, far from reflecting the truth of the Gospels, has become its own rationale.”
When is the last time Sullivan read the New Testament he cites as proof against a hierarchical Church? It is one thing to say that bishops can err and sin. It is quite another to say that the hierarchical structure of the Church is “evil” and “far from reflecting the truth of the Gospels.” In fact, the hierarchical structure of the Church is obvious from the Gospels (which record Jesus choosing the twelve apostles to govern the Church), Acts (which show the apostles ordaining elders to govern the Churches), and the epistles of Paul (which say “his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” [Eph. 4:11–12]).
Indeed, three New Testament epistles (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus) are written precisely to give guidelines to bishops on how to govern the Church. Member of the hierarchy will sin; that’s man’s fallen nature. That does not mean there’s no such thing as a hierarchy.
The reality is that Coulter nails the problem because she doesn’t have to serve an agenda of obfuscation and can say in plain English that the overwhelming numbers of priestly abusers are homosexual. Sullivan’s gay dissent from the demand for chastity and obedience to the Church’s teaching cannot afford to admit that. Instead he flings red herrings into the troubled waters of the American Church in the hope—shared by the pro-gay media—that we will pay no attention to the man chumming from the lavender boat.
The Church will recover from this scandal as she has from so many other troubles. Will the gay lobby?
Attention Catholic Writers
Franciscan University of Steubenville, in Steubenville, Ohio, will host a Catholic Writing Festival September 13–15, 2002. More than thirty-five published Catholic authors will participate including Scott Hahn, Barbara Nicolosi, Bert Ghezzi, Ralph McInerny, Joseph Pearce, and Bud Macfarlane. New York Times bestseller Ron Hansen will give the keynote address, “Religion and Art.” Lectures and workshops will be presented on topics including playwriting and screenwriting, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, journalism, mystery, publishing, spirituality and apologetics, and children’s literature.
Here are a few of the scheduled special events:
- A dramatic presentation of Tamara L, a new play by Polish playwright Kazimierz Braun
- Multiple presentations on Catholic art
- Poetry readings and book signings
- A publishers’ round-table where publishers will discuss what they want in a manuscript
- An authors’ round-table where authors will offer insights on how to get published
- A publishers’ mart where publishers will market their wares.
Visit the festival’s web site at http://kolbe.franuniv.edu/sdougherty2 for information on events and speakers, a detailed schedule of the weekend, and registration information.