Nay and Yea
I receive This Rock magazine because I believe my brother sent in a subscription for me. I used to be Catholic until twelve years ago, when I became a “born-again” Christian.
I feel sorry for people who go through crisis and have their hope in people, places, and things instead of in God and his Word, the Bible. I have counseled several hundred people, especially those who have gone through divorce. I went through one, too. Most people are looking for answers and don’t understand, like Ephesians 6:12 says, that our enemy is four levels of Satan’s followers instead of people.
The problem I have found through reading spiritual warfare books where deliverances have occurred is that people open doorways for Satan to send his evil spirits into them. My ex-wife became involved with another feminist and rock music. Needless to say, the rebellious spirit prevailed, and she decided to leave.
I do consider my born-again Christian status more important than my Ph.D.! I find Colossians 2:8 very important: “Do not be taken captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy that depends on human traditions and the basic principles of this world.” James 3:15 talks about the four sources of wisdom. I prefer God’s wisdom in the Bible rather than traditions passed down that aren’t in the Bible.
Please discontinue sending your monthly magazine to me.
David J. Meyer
Cambridge, Illinois
Fundamentalist Suffering
My compliments on your magazine. This Rock is very enjoyable to read and full of useful information. I admire the way you mix solid scholarship with humor and keep charity your foremost principle.
I especially liked the article in the March 1993 edition by Jack Taylor, “Javert’s Progeny.” From the moment I was first exposed to Les Miserables I knew it was a wonderful gospel parable about the power of love (God) in transforming human life. To compare Javert and Valjean’s struggle to that of Fundamentalism and Catholicism was very clever.
I would like to share one other insight in this regard. Les Miserables shows the different ways suffering can be viewed. Like Javert, Fundamentalism tends to look at suffering simply as punishment for evil and takes lack of suffering as a sign of righteousness.
Valjean and Catholicism, however, learn that while suffering can flow from evil, it can also be very redemptive, teaching us the hard lessons we need to learn and transforming our love into a closer image of God’s love. It is suffering that transforms Jean Valjean from an embittered outcast to someone who can make the great sacrifices love demands. Javert, tragically, cannot face the sufferings that his act of love engenders.
Br. Robert A. Barbato, OFM Cap.
Berkeley, California
Suggestions & Queries
If you are ever at a loss for articles in This Rock, may I make some suggestions?
I would very much like to read a detailed account of just exactly what the Mormons believe. And another on just what the Jehovah’s Witnesses believe. You mention both these churches frequently, but I have not seen their beliefs detailed.
Another suggestion: something about the “historical Jesus.” I am by now an old timer. I was ordained in 1943. The Scripture course I took was wretched. I have not been able to find a good treatment of this subject. Perhaps you can help.
In the March issue of This Rock you mentioned two books, Neuner and Dupuis’s The Christian Faith in the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church and Ott’s Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma. Would you mind printing how these books might be obtained?
Rev. Joseph G. Sullivan
Hollister, California
Editor’s reply: Thank you for your suggestions. Over the last three years we have published several articles on Mormonism and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Additional articles on those religions will be published in upcoming months. Stay tuned.
For the “historical Jesus,” try William Most’s Catholic Apologetics Today. It is available from This Rock for $9.95 postpaid, plus $0.62 sales tax for California residents. Craig Blomberg’s The Historical Reliability of the Gospels, can be obtained through local Christian bookstores.
Neuner and Dupuis’s book may be purchased from Alba House. Call (800) 343-2522. Ott’s book is available through This Rock for $21.95 postpaid. California residents must add $1.55 sales tax.
Putting Converts to Work
I have a couple of suggestions for paid employment within our Church for newly-converted Protestant ministers:
1. Directors of, or associates at, Newman Centers or campus ministries at colleges and universities. Who better knows the minds of wavering young Catholics and non-Catholics alike?
2. High-visibility positions within one of the following departments in the chancery office of a sympathetic, orthodox, and supportive bishop: religious education, evangelization, or ecumenism.
Appointment to any of these positions will produce a double benefit:
1. Fr. Campus or Fr. Chancery can spend more time at the work (celebrating Mass and hearing confessions) for which he was principally ordained and for which he is irreplaceable. Likewise, Sr. Campus or Sr. Chancery can be re-attached to her religious community to help with its professed mission.
2. In many instances the quality of the diocesan services would be vastly improved, certainly in the area of orthodoxy and adherence to the magisterium.
Paul J. LaFreniere
Inverness, Illinois
Prison Frolics
A few weeks ago I wrote Catholic Answers seeking information about books and tapes that you had available as well as your prices. I learned about Catholic Answers from The Mary Foundation. In my letter to you I explained that I am in a Michigan prison and have been incarcerated for almost 17 years.
A week later, to my unbelievable surprise, I received several books, including the Radio Replies series. With the books came a note from Matthew Rodriguez telling me that if I was allowed to receive audio/video tapes to let him know, and he would send some along. Ten days later I received several video tapes, including the “Justification Debate” featuring Karl Keating.
The past 17 years have been difficult, especially spiritually. God and my religion have not always been the center of my life. Several prisons in Michigan do not have priests available for weekly Mass or the sacraments. At this prison we have Mass monthly, and we are grateful for that. But one of the most difficult and annoying things I experience regularly is the Fundamentalist inmate who scoffs at Catholicism.
Having been born a Catholic and educated in Catholic grade school and high school, I always accepted my religion without question. I don’t know how to respond to the questions about salvation, Mary, the pope, etc. I knew my beliefs were right, but I was ignorant about the Bible, and that was frustrating. Along came Catholic Answers.
I cannot begin to tell you the profound impact your material is having here. After “devouring” Radio Replies along with the other books and tapes you sent, I was ready to defend Catholicism. It was great fun.
First of all, the Fundamentalists didn’t even know what sola scriptura was, but they all believed in it. They quickly realized they couldn’t prove any foundation or authority on which to base their beliefs. Within five minutes, and with an understanding of how to rebuke sola scriptura, the guys who ridiculed the Catholic faith so vehemently were scrambling to support their position. And that is not all.
Within a month the number of guys attending our Catholic Communion service as well as the Mass doubled. And guys are seriously looking at their own beliefs. I believe more good things are ahead. In fact, a Muslim has been questioning his beliefs, and he truly feels he has been worshiping the wrong God!
Within the next couple of weeks we are planning to show the “Justification Debate” on the prison closed-circuit television channel. It will probably be shown twice a week, and the Protestants are upset about this. They don’t want it shown, yet they want to continue having religious tapes supporting their religious beliefs shown, as they are now. The truth will begin to become obvious to many more guys when this tape is shown for everyone to view. And my three volumes of Radio Replies are the most popular books in the prison!
Thank you so much for having a program in place to help guys in prison. You may never be able to appreciate how much you have given to Catholics here and, I’m sure, at other prisons throughout America. Thanks to your organization and Matthew Rodriguez.
Tom Meagher
Ionia, Michigan
Editor’s reply: “The Justification Debate,” in which my opponent was Lutheran scholar Rod Rosenbladt, is available on video from This Rock for $21.95 postpaid. California residents must add $1.55 sales tax.
They Didn’t “Take”
Please permit me to respond to the objections raised in connection with Archbishop Lefebvre and the Society of St. Pius X (This Rock, April 1993). You state that according to “generally accepted interpretations of canon law” Archbishop Lefebvre, Bishop Castro de Mayer, and the four bishops they consecrated were automatically excommunicated and that few canonists think the arguments against the validity of the excommunications hold any weight.
To begin with, Cardinal Thiandoum of Dakar, Senegal, who succeeded Archbishop Lefebvre in this see and was consecrated by him, will not hear of excommunication where the Archbishop is concerned. Of course, this could be viewed as merely a sentimental attachment on the part of the Cardinal to his spiritual father, but there are eminent canonists having no connection with the Society who would agree that no excommunication has occurred.
No one can deny there is a crisis in the Church today with the shortage of vocations, dismally low Mass attendance, and dogmas of the faith questioned or rejected by a large percentage of the laity as well as by numerous priests and more than a few bishops.
The Archbishop claimed that he was doing these consecrations because of the state of emergency in the Church. Canon 1323 of the new Code of Canon Law states that a person is not subject to a penalty if he acts out of grave necessity, provided the action is not intrinsically evil or prejudicial to souls. It could be argued that if Archbishop Lefebvre had only gone along with the accord he signed with the Vatican on May 5, 1988 that he would not have had to disobey. However, the Archbishop had good reasons to wonder about Rome’s resolve to carry out the accord.
In a recent interview published in The Latin Mass magazine, a journal which often criticizes Archbishop Lefebvre and the Society, Count Neri Capponi, retired professor of canon law at the University of Florence and no friend of the Society himself, admits that “the excommunication may not in fact be valid, because of the allowances for extenuating circumstances” and, “under the rulings of the new Code” the excommunications were “certainly ambiguous.”
Among the canonists who question or deny the charge of schism are Professor Geringer of the canon law faculty of the University of Munich, Fr. Patrick Valdrini, dean of the faculty of canon law at the Catholic Institute at Paris, and Cardinal Castillo Lara, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of Canon Law.
As to the charge of sedevacantism, there may be those who privately hold that opinion among the laity who attend Masses at Society chapels, but they are in no way given encouragement by either the late Archbishop or by the current leaders of the Society. The Archbishop was quoted in 1988 in 30 Days as saying, “We pray for the Pope everyday. . . . We are not sedevacantists. We recognize that John Paul II is the legitimate Pope of the Catholic Church.”
Tracy B. Hummel
Hurst, Texas