For Better, For Worse
Jimmy Akin did a fine job in “Spiritual Headship” (Brass Tacks, February 2005) explaining how a Catholic wife could not validly follow her husband’s spiritual headship if he desired her to join his Protestant church. Akin bases this conclusion primarily on the fact that the Protestant husband does not share the fullness of the Christian faith.
There is one problem with Akin’s contention: In the reverse situation, a Protestant wife could argue with her Catholic husband that the Catholic Church is not the true Church. Notwithstanding the seemingly clear teachings of Holy Scripture, including the passage that the Church is the “pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15), Protestants use their private right of interpretation to convince themselves that there is no one true visible church. My Protestant wife has done this.
The lesson of all this is that Catholic parents should communicate passionately to their children in both word and action the treasure that Jesus gave us in the Catholic Church. And parents should stress the importance of marrying a Catholic spouse. When their children hear about the heartache of not being able to share one’s faith with those whom one dearly loves, it may penetrate their skulls (unless they are as thick as mine was).
—Victor M. Casini
Burr Ridge, Illinois
Don’t Forget ‘Joe’
I have been a subscriber to This Rock since 1998. I loved (and still do) your magazine from the very first issue I read. But I must agree with Roger Akers (Letters, March 2005) that some of the articles of late are “difficult to understand” and “tedious.” Like Akers, I have had some of the articles go over my head. Unlike Akers, I do not have a college degree. I am a “Joe Sixpack” who sits in the pew. I did not get a degree in moral theology or philosophy from Thomas Aquinas College, Franciscan University of Steubenville, or Christendom College. It seems to me that this is the target audience of late. Not that that is a bad thing, but please don’t forget us limited thinkers with minimal or no education in the faith from childhood.
By the way, a profound thanks for uploading on your web site all of those back issues. And welcome aboard, Tim Staples!
—Kevin Lents
Loogootee, Indiana
Turnabout Is Fair Play
I agree with Roger Akers that the articles in This Rock are sometimes difficult to comprehend quickly. I think those with prior college classes in theology, Scripture, or apologetics find it easier going than those of us with educational backgrounds in other directions. I can breeze through medical journals because my educational background is in that field, but perhaps your writers would find medical articles difficult and sluggish reading.
—Joan Pleban
Via e-mail
Clarity on Gravity
I enjoyed “Is Natural Family Planning a Heresy?” by Fr. Brian Harrison in the February 2005 issue. It was nice to read an article that mentioned the need of a just cause for using NFP. I have found statements to this effect in encyclical letters written by two popes: Humanae Vitae (On Human Life) by Pope Paul VI and Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) by Pope John Paul II.
It would have been nice if Fr. Harrison had placed more emphasis on the present day lax attitudes concerning NFP. Many people these days seem to be ignoring the requirement of “just cause” or, as Humanae Vitae states, “grave motive.” It seems as if NFP is being used more and more for straightforward birth control rather than being restricted to rare cases with grave motives. It is not acceptable for Catholics to use NFP merely to choose when they want children and when they don’t.
As Humanae Vitae states: “In the task of transmitting life, they [spouses] are not free, therefore, to proceed at will, as if they could determine with complete autonomy the right paths to follow; but they must conform their actions to the creative intention of God expressed in the very nature of marriage and of its acts and manifested by the constant teaching of the Church” (HV 10).
Two recent popes in separate encyclicals have required serious reasons to use the infertile period as a means to avoid bringing new life into the world, so it fits the criteria of “the constant teaching of the Church.” This teaching needs to be shouted from the mountaintops. People need to know that NFP is not the Catholic version of birth control but rather an option only for those facing grave situations in their life.
—Clare Rhodes
Federal Way, Washington
Editor’s reply: Humanae Vitae does not use the phrase “grave motive” in either the original Latin or in the Vatican’s English translation. In section 10, the pertinent phrase in the original Latin is seriis causis (serious causes). In section 16 the pertinent phrases are iustae causae (just cause) and probabiles rationes (“acceptable,” “credible,” or “justifiable” reasons).
These are lower standards of necessity than “grave.”
The Broad Path
Matthew Bunson’s fine article on bringing lapsed Catholics back into the Church (“Bring Them Back,” March 2005) certainly had to be written, but it is highly unlikely that the program Bunson has laid out will find a home, or is in place, in more than a few hundred of our 25,000 parishes.
Why is this? Because the vast majority of our pastors are functioning more like administrators than shepherds diligently striving to guide and direct their assigned flock to the Father’s house. Their mantra is: “All God expects of us is to be good people [which is never defined] and love God’s people just as they are.”
And with these two very loose qualifications, just about everybody will make it through those pearly gates. Therefore, when people conclude that they don’t need any help in working out their salvation, they see no need to attend church.
—Tom Fath
Lexington, Kentucky