Restroom Rescue
I visited the local shopping mall and found the enclosed book, Final War [an anti-Catholic polemic by Ellen G. White, founder of the Seventh-Day Adventists], in a public restroom–obviously where it belongs. Each stall contained its own copy, delicately balanced on the jumbo toilet paper dispenser. After a light perusal I realized what an anti-Catholic bombshell this was and collected all the copies, tossing away all copies except this one.
Finally, and most important of all, my church’s Scripture study group leader is stating that Jesus was married. She hears this from a priest who does public speaking in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. I was wondering if you could address this issue.
Kayleen Farrington
Arlington, Texas
Editor’s reply: Taking your concerns from last to first, I’d guess that the priest is projecting his own desires into the life of our Lord. After all, if Jesus was married, the thinking may go, we can have married priests. There is, of course, absolutely no basis for the idea that our Lord was married. It is bad theology, bad exegesis, and bad thinking. The only people claiming such a thing, before the last few decades, have been a few odd cranks; why ally oneself with them?
As for your discovery in the restroom, did it not occur to you that the management may have been “making a statement” by deliberately filling the stalls with Final War? If the book is not good history and not good theology, perhaps, they may have thought, it still might be good for . . .
JWs Quoting Newman
The Jehovah’s Witnesses recently knocked at my door. They gave me a little book to read entitled Let Your Kingdom Come. In this book they quote Cardinal Newman to support their belief that Catholicism is full of false teachings from pagan origin. They quote Cardinal Newman from his book The Development of Christian Doctrine.
I have never read anything from Cardinal Newman. Can you tell me, did he write this before he converted to Catholicism, or are the Jehovah’s Witnesses quoting him out of context to support their anti-Catholicism?
I’ve ordered Leonard Chretien’s cassettes and your tracts on the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I hope they assist me in defending my Catholic faith to the missionaries.
Ann-Marie Hole
Auburn, New York
Editor’s reply: An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine was written in 1845. It was completed as Newman completed his conversion to the Catholic faith, the very writing of the book helping to convince him that the Catholic Church was the one Christ established..
In that book Newman said, “The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasion with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holydays and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields; sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and the Kyrie Eleison, are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church.”
Not just Jehovah’s Witnesses, but Fundamentalists and others opposed to the Catholic faith have used this quotation and quotations like it to argue that Catholicism is little more than overgrown paganism. These same people, though, never complain that the Jewish feast of Tabernacles coincided with a Canaanite vintage festival, and they are never up in arms about the fact that in the Temple in Jerusalem one could find “incense, lamps, and candles.”
They never worry that the ancient Jews had holydays, such as the sabbaths, and used religious calendars and processions (remember when David, in procession, danced before the Ark? [2 Sam. 6:14]). Nor do they point out that the Temple was adorned with giant statues of cherubim and that the Levitical priests wore vestments. And, naturally enough, they do not point to their own left hands and indicate that they wear wedding rings which, as Newman said, “are all of pagan origin.”
So what if Christians use symbols used by pagans? We don’t use them to symbolize belief in paganism, but in Christianity. The “ring in marriage” symbolized marriage both for pagans and for Christians, but for pagans it symbolized a purely natural marriage, for Christians (at least until the Reformation) a sacramental marriage. The incense pagans used was used to honor false gods. The incense Christians use (remember that incense was one of the gifts given to the newborn Child by the Magi) is used to honor the true God. Outward similarity? Sure–but what an inward difference!
An Angelic Commendation
I found the latest issue of This Rock in my mailbox. I am assuming that you have answered my request for a subscription for us to use here at Mt. Angel Seminary. I was especially happy to see the quotes on the inerrancy of Scripture by the Church Fathers, as that is a teaching of the Church much under fire these days. Please pray for seminarians. It’s often a struggle just to be faithful to the Church, since that is not in fashion these days.
Jerry Usher
Mt. Angel, Oregon
And One from Prison Too
Thank you ever so much for the materials you donated to us Catholic prisoners in Ely State Prison! They’re truly a treasure of faith-support. You’d be amazed how much our Catholic faith is attacked in prison. All denominations must share the same chapel, and lots of guys are, for the first time in their lives, really trying to grasp the first sliver of faith they’re exposed to. And it’s easier to support your own belief by stomping on the other guy’s. Born and raised a Catholic, I first g.asped Christ for real in prison, but the Fundamentalist attack, coupled with little support from the Catholic chaplain, soon swayed me away from Christ’s Church.
But I discovered that the very things the Fundamentalists convinced me were wrong were right there in God’s Word. The very things I was taught as a twelve-year student in parochial school were truth. If I had been exposed to This Rock, or to the pamphlets you sent us, seven years ago, it would have spared me a lot of pain and doubt.
I have been blessed to find a donor (a perfect stranger!) who is underwriting my quest for twelve college theology courses and a catechetical diploma through the Catholic Home Study Institute. The knowledge I am gleaning helps answer questions about the faith constantly aimed at me by Catholics and non-Catholics.
Paul Fletcher
Ely, Nevada
We Shoulda Been Fortified
I suspect many people in our age group are in the same boat. Grown children, enticed into Fundamentalist-type Bible teaching without the benefit of our Catholic teachers–in fact, they’re being taught against Catholic traditions, our Mass, the Eucharist, and Mary ever virgin and are given Scripture to back it all up.
I wonder, could we have avoided all of this? If we were aware, we might have been better fortified with quotes and answers to questions and accusations of our children with their “newly found” Bible. For that matter, their attendance in Catholic schools should have given them the scriptural basis to defend our Catholic faith.
Mary Ennis
Newport, Rhode Island
Helpful Material
Many thanks for all the material you sent in response to my letter concerning my son leaving the Church to join a Fundamentalist church. The numerous items are so appropriate, readable, and well done. I marvel at the good work you are doing. May God bless you and his grace continue to inspire others to support your ministry.
Frank R. Kromka
Pueblo, Colorado
Fifteen-Month Cram Course
I left the Catholic Church and had been involved with Protestant groups for the past eleven years. My husband is Protestant. Through your ministry and that of others, I have rediscovered my Catholic faith. I have learned more in the past fifteen months than I had in all my years as a Catholic. I had missed so much! I pleased to say that now I’m back home. Home is Rome for me!
Deborah S. Burns Frazier
Fort Lewis, Washington
“You Don’t Respect God”
Before you dismiss this as another letter from a traditional Catholic crank, please keep an open mind. Since I am old enough to remember holier and happier times for the Roman Catholic Church in this country, I often wonder what was the core reason which led to the disaster which the Church is in today. The answer is that it allowed a critical flaw to exist, which your magazine unfortunately has also.
You seem to have faith and good intentions. You are knowledgeable and express your ideas well. But, with all this, you don’t show respect to Almighty God and the means he has established for our sanctification.
An example: I am sure that you know what a plenary indulgence is. But do you know the conditions for obtaining one? Do you know why we offer it to Almighty God for a poor soul in purgatory? It may not seem important for most, but for that poor soul it is. We may be in that situation some day. Your subscription postcard, with the title “Almost as good as a plenary indulgence,” is in poor taste. It reminds me of the money changers in the Temple and Luther’s charges against the Church.
Richard Szabo
Sacramento, California
Editor’s reply: Thanks for your kind remarks about our work. Since I authorized its printing, naturally I disagree with you about the propriety of the postcard. I don’t think it shows any sort of disrespect–quite the opposite, actually, since it suggests that a plenary indulgence is a very good and very desirable thing, which, of course, it is.
I don’t think what is at issue here is a matter of respect or a lack of respect for God and his ways. (No one else has ever suggested to us that we don’t respect God and what he has done for mankind, and yours is the first complaint we have received.) What is at issue, I suspect, is a question of the attitude one takes toward reality.
Like you, I count the supernatural as part of reality–and the more important part at that. But what temperament should one hold in considering reality? I think a certain latitude is permissible. The title on our postcard is something G. K. Chesterton or Hilaire Belloc could have written and would have smiled at, I think, and I don’t recall anyone accusing either of them of disrespect for God.
But they did have a decidedly non-Puritanical way of looking at the world. I mean by that that they weren’t glum. They probably agreed with the quip made by that old atheist H. L. Mencken. He defined a Puritan as a man who is afraid that someone, somewhere is having fun, and surely there are forms of fun that aren’t disrespectful toward God.
What am I getting to? That temperaments found in good Catholics differ. (After all, ours is a pluriform, though not a pluralistic, Church.) Some people can see something worth smiling about in everything; some can’t see anything to smile about in anything. Most of us are in between. But even in between there are gradations. What one takes as unnecessary glumness, another takes as proper seriousness. One takes as improper levity, another takes as commonsensicalness.
And all this brings us to that Latin phrase which you and I both imbibed: De gustibus non est disputandum, which may be translated colloquially as, “There’s no accounting for taste.” Or, to rephrase it, there will be times when loyal Catholics will differ on what shows or doesn’t show respect, and they should be able to disagree without calling into question one another’s intentions and religiosity.
We have been raised up in a culture tinged with a Protestant spareness that influences even Catholics. We should not allow it to make us condemn, even though we might not embrace, the often vibrant (but not disrespectful!) forms of devotion shown by, say, Latin American Catholics. Let’s follow Augustine’s counsel: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”
Better Late than Never?
Thank you, Mr. Keating, for appearing on Herman Bailey’s “Action Sixties” television show [opposite anti-Catholic writer Dave Hunt]. I wish I had heard you years ago, before I became a Catholic. It wouldn’t have taken so long! I am glad Herman Bailey was fair enough to give you an opportunity to speak.
Christina Brundage
St. Petersburg, Florida
Animals as Apologists
I blew an opportunity today when two Jehovah’s Witnesses came over unannounced. My dog was in the yard barking so much that they had to walk down my neighbor’s driveway and reach over the fence to knock on my porch window. Despite my telling her to be quite, Sheeba barked non-stop, apparently not content just to keep them out of the yard, but also determined to protect me from hearing what they said. I didn’t know my Australian shepherd was such a zealous Catholic.
Robin J. Stojda
Adams, Massachusetts
Editor’s reply: It is widely reported that certain animals can sense impending anomalies of nature, such as floods, storms, and earthquakes. Perhaps they also can sense anomalies of theology.
To Farrakhan and Back
Like many of your readers, I got off the road to Rome. Despite being born into a Catholic family and graduating from a Catholic high school, I stopped believing in the Church at age nineteen. Due to an acquaintance I met in college, I let myself get into Roy Masters’ Foundation of Human Understanding and the Worldwide Church of God. From 1980 to 1987 I got their publications. For a while I also received the publications of Jews for Jesus and the Assemblies of Yahweh. I also listened to Louis Farrakhan and read the Koran. By 1986 I began to sense something wrong about all this anti-Catholic propaganda I bought into.
In 1987 three events happened which started my journey back into the Church. One was I finally graduated from college. The second was the death of my father. The third was the visit of the Pope to Los Angeles. I began to read books on Catholicism. This is how I came across Catholicism and Fundamentalism and your organization.
My return to the Church has not been without a price. I ended my ten-year friendship with the college friend who turned me on to all these anti-Catholic organizations.
Keep up the good work. We need you now more than ever to give us lay persons ammo to defend our Church from the attacks coming from all quarters.
Norbert Perevia
Los Angeles, California
Spiritual Director Has Class
Last year I gave my spiritual director a subscription to This Rock. He loves your magazine so much that he uses it when he gives retreats; therefore I wish to renew This Rock for him. Your magazine is worth every cent and more.
Sr. Mary Joseph, D.M.
Ware, Massachusetts
It’s Right There in the Text!
I just finished reading Catholic Answers’ tract on the Eucharist. As you say, this is the core doctrine of our faith. The negative reaction of some of Jesus’ disciples to the teaching “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” is told beginning in verse 60 of John 6 and comes to its conclusion in verse 66: “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” This line concludes that the rejection of this core doctrine caused the loss of many disciples. Interesting coincidence, is it not, that this is the sixty-sixth verse of chapter six–the classic number, 666?
David Hampel
No Address Given
Don’t Throw the Dog at ‘Em!
Our parish will be going out into the neighborhood to evangelize. As you and I know, it is impossible to evangelize without being an apologist for our Catholic faith. In time, when my finances can afford it, I will send for your Catholic Answers tracts. I’ve used them against the JWs effectively, I know, because they haven’t been back, and I don’t even have a pit bull!
Paul Michael Blujus
Tonawanda, New York
“The Mass Biblical? Nah!”
I have had several conversations with Catholic lay people, former Catholics, a Catholic pastor, and asked if they thought much of the Mass was of biblical origin. Most had no idea. The pastor said he thought that maybe twenty percent of the congregation had any idea that the readings are from the Bible.
Is there any way of encouraging priests who read This Rock to tell their congregations that “today we are going to read from the Bible”? He could explain that we have been reading from the Bible all along, for centuries and centuries. Friends of mine have accused the Church of totally ignoring the Bible. When I ask them where the readings come from, they have no idea. Made up by the priest or something, I guess. They go into a shocked disbelief when I tell them.
Albert Masetti
Ridgewood, New Jersey
Enough Devotion to Mary?
While I understand the point you were trying to make about the abuses of sacramentals (“Quick Questions,” November 1992), I was a bit dismayed at two statements you made. You said that “the Church does not teach that one must . . . cultivate a devotion to Mary” and that “one can be a good Catholic and go to heaven never . . . having said a single Hail Mary.”
I have a handy little book written by Fr. William G. Most, Catholic Beliefs: The Bottom Line, in which he sets out what one must believe in order to be able to profess the Catholic faith. He states that “at least some devotion to Mary is indispensable.” He notes that “because the Father has placed her everywhere in his approach to us, to decide to place her nowhere in one’s own spiritual life is to leave the mainstream of Catholic life.” How do you take these statements into account?
Estelle Wisneski
Charlotte, North Carolina
Editor’s reply: There is no contradiction. Fr. Most rightly says that an entire absence of devotion to Mary betrays a skewed understanding of the Christian faith. We should expect some level of devotion to her since she played a key role in our redemption. (Had she said “No” to Gabriel, the Incarnation would not have occurred. Just think of the consequences.)
But our comment was that it is not necessary to cultivate a devotion to Mary, and we meant by that that it is not necessary to go to special or great lengths in devotion to her. (This is not to suggest, of course, there is anything wrong with proper devotion to her, no matter how intense.) The key words are “necessary” and “cultivate.”
Devotion to Mary may take any number of forms. The most common, perhaps, is the recitation of the rosary, and that means the recitation of the Hail Mary. But it is possible for one to be devoted to Mary and yet not use the forms of devotion that you and I may use. That is why we wrote that it is possible for a good Catholic never to say a single Hail Mary.
Perhaps the point would be easier to see if we were to say that it is a good thing to show devotion to Mary by going on pilgrimage to a Marian shrine such as Fatima or Lourdes, but you can be a good Catholic without ever leaving Anaheim, Azusa, or Cucamonga.
See You in Denver, Guys!
Thanks for much for your apostolate to the youth in Denver this summer. I will be among their number, and I hope to see you guys in action there! I don’t want to see my fellow-generation Catholics lost to these people. Please keep up the orthodox work, and I will keep your spiritual and temporal needs in my prayers.
Dennis T. Purificacion
Milpitas, California
Free Subs for Seminarians
I have been a subscriber and great fan of This Rock for the last two years. I cannot think of a magazine I enjoy more or which is more useful for the Catholic faithful. Unfortunately, because of my present financial situation as a third-year seminarian, it is not possible for me to continue my subscription. Could it be possible for me to defer payment? I would hate to miss one issue of your tremendous magazine, but it would just not be right to continue my subscription in my present debt. I trust in your good judgment.
Edward J. Filandi
Emmitsburg, Maryland
Editor’s reply: I’m glad someone trusts in it. We’re happy to extend your subscription at no charge for the duration of your seminary training. Many generous readers send money precisely for this purpose. Please keep them in your prayers.
A Friend in Deed
I like your magazine so much I wish I could send one to everyone I know. I am 76 years old and on a restricted budget. So far I have subscribed for two people and now am subscribing for another.
Mary Ciccarone
Havertown, Pennsylvania
CRI as God’s Instrument
I want to congratulate you on the series of articles by Father Mateo [available now as a booklet, Refuting the Attack on Mary; see advertisement elsewhere in this issue]. I must admit, when I read the original article written by CRI (I had written in protest of a radio program they did), I was upset and saddened that other Christians could say such things about our Lady.
But Father Mateo’s articles are scholarly, charitable, and well written. He has shown how ignorance and misunderstanding of Catholic teaching can lead to error. In a way, we all have to thank CRI for its article: If it hadn’t been written, we would not have been so blessed and edified by Father Mateo’s response. It just goes to show how God makes all things work together for those who love him.
Bill Waldman
Burbank, California
Can We Get the Booklet?
Thank you for everything you are doing and for your letter about World Youth Day. I’m sorry to hear of the opposition to the Pope’s visit. I hope the 32-page booklet outlining the Catholic faith will be available to those who are not going to Denver.
Viola Weaver
.asper, Indiana
Editor’s reply: The booklet we plan to distribute to the 300,000 young Catholics who will go to Denver in August will be made available to the public after the conclusion of World Youth Day. We hope additional copies of the booklet will be distributed in parishes throughout the country.
In this issue of This Rock we reprint a letter I sent to folks on our mailing list. If you haven’t had a chance to help with our Denver project, won’t you please consider doing so now? Many thanks!
Peanut Butter Cookie Hosts
I would like to put in my two cents on the issue of the peanut butter cookie host. Here’s a real-life scenario.
When I was a summer volunteer for the Christian Appalachian Project some years ago, we ran into an unusual problem. When Sunday rolled around, we found we had run out of the paper-thin wafers usually used at Mass. Someone goofed when ordering from the nuns. One of the volunteers baked a nothing-but-whole-wheat-flour-and-water unleavened loaf, which was flat yet much thicker than the average host.
Now, unless there was information provided to you that was not included in the “Quick Questions” column, such as a distinct nutty flavor noticed by the questioner, I submit that one of these homemade hosts might look very like a cookie to the congregation.
So, if you run out of hosts, do you just do without Mass? Does the priest announce prior to Mass that the host will be homemade, so as to avoid scandal?
Cathy Koenig
Dale City, Virginia
Editor’s reply: The homemade host as you described it would have been valid matter, so no problem. If one runs low, instead of out, of hosts, the easy solution is to break the regular hosts in half. After all, in Communion, a half is as much as a whole.
Trouble in River City
The letter from Richard Pickard [“Letters,” February 1993] warns readers to beware of non-Catholic Bible study programs. Unfortunately, the three Catholic Bible study programs I have attended in the Archdiocese of Washington are probably worse, in terms of undermining Catholic doctrine, than the non-Catholic ones.
Lloyd Hysan
College Park, Maryland
“You Promote Divination”
After reading the feature article in your February 1993 issue [“CRI’s Attack on Mary, Part VII”], I see that you actively encourage others to reach out into the spirit world and seek out those who are dead and gone from this earth. I must admit that I haven’t read the CRI article which Mr. [sic] Mateo seems to think he has utterly demolished. However, I have read the timeless warning God wrote for all in Deuteronomy 18:10-12:
“There shall not be found among you one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord.”
I heard that you are a very schooled man, Mr. Keating. Surely you know that the two qal participles and prepositions that lie beneath the English word “necromancer” have a literal translation of “one who seeks unto those who are dead.” All who do such things are viewed by God as “abomination, detested, disgusting.”
The honest exegete will note that these are not civil or ceremonial type commands which might be confined to a limited nation or time period. These are moral commands which are fully valid in all cultures and ages. God summarizes the warning in verse 13: “Thou shalt be perfect [blameless, simple, upright, honest] with the Lord thy God.”
My household is dedicated to Jesus Christ. I’m the God-appointed head of this household (Eph. 5:23). I’m very serious about maintaining a godly purity and blamelessness in this household. I don’t allow anything that even resembles the occult in this house. That means no ouija boards, tarot cards, crystal balls, or any literature that encourages communication with the spirits of dead humans.
I insist on this because God has clearly said he hates all this. For the exact same reason, I don’t allow rosary beads, Marianist statuary, Marianist icons, or any religious style literature which encourages communication with “the spirits” or the spirits of dead humans.
Dressing up a seance in religious robes just makes it a religious abomination rather than a generic abomination. Just because a spirit says he’s [sic] the Virgin Mary doesn’t necessarily mean that he is. Lying and deception are Satan’s calling card (2 Cor. 11:13-15).
Your magazine, This Rock, is no longer welcome in this household. Cancel this subscription.
Dan Maciejeski
Little Canada, Minnesota
Editor’s reply: We’re sorry to see you drop our magazine, which has been going to your house for several years, I believe. I can see that you’re “very serious,” but I also can see that you’re very mistaken if you confuse veneration of saints with divination and if you lump the rosary with such things as ouija boards and tarot cards. Perhaps you should read Father Mateo’s entire essay, which is available in booklet form. (Since you insist on referring to him as “Mr.” Mateo, I presume you aren’t Catholic, and I suppose the magazine really had been read by your wife.)
I agree with you that “lying and deception are Satan’s calling card,” but I wonder if you have considered the possibility that in this instance you might be the one he is deceiving. I suppose you have not seriously and industriously considered that, since you seem so fiercely, even stubbornly, convinced of the correctness of your position, even though it is a position you will find nowhere held in Christian history until very recent times–and then only in certain brands of Protestantism.
I don’t mean that in any way as an insult, merely as an observation. Your attitude is so sharp that it suggests that you have not had the chance to study the issue at leisure and at length and from Catholic sources. I hope you will.
How Low Can They Go?
The “Dragnet” section of the February issue informed readers that TV Guide has been masquerading as a guide to morally correct behavior. The example given was of actress Moira Kelly’s confession that she asked her priest if it was against her religion to play the part of a promiscuous character. The priest told her it was okay.
That’s what was written in TV Guide. What we see on TV is indescribably worse.
My husband and I tuned into a program (the title escapes me) that had a wholesome, female teacher who, it was discovered, was once a man. She (he, it?) was cast to play the Virgin Mary in the upcoming Christmas play.
The townspeople were split. Half of them were outraged, while the others defended her right to “privacy.” A court sided with the teacher. The judge ruled that she could continue to teach even though parents didn’t want a transsexual as a role model for their kids. Further, the judge said she could play Mary in the pageant.
The next scene showed the cast rehearsing, with the transsexual dressed as the Mother of God. That was enough for us. It hurt us to see the Blessed Mother degraded, so we turned the TV off. Another reason for apologetics!
Jeanine Notter
Moreno Valley, California
Editor’s reply: Hmmm. Are you suggesting that this is something we should have covered in “Dragnet”?
Getting Right with God
Your organization is absolutely the best. Since I discovered you about a month ago, I’ve read almost all the books you have recommended. They have enlightened me considerably. I have so much to thank you for. I always hoped I could find the real answers I always wanted and not distorted facts.
I am a 23-year-old college student. I was raised Catholic, but never understood my faith. You have helped me understand it so clearly that all I want to do is share it with the world. I thank God for Catholic Answers. If I would have only found you earlier, I could have been right with God sooner.
Rober A. Schreiber, Jr.
Westminster, California
Papal Plot in Florida
I thought you might be interested in the enclosed photos. They are of billboards that are on all the major streets in the Orlando, Florida area. Perhaps your staff could uncover what is going on.
Beverly Miller
Orland, Florida
Editor’s reply: The photos show large billboards featuring, on the left, a photograph of Pope John Paul II and, on the right, a book, The Great Controversy. In between is the question, “Why is the Vatican trying to change our Constitution?” At the bottom is a phone number, 1-800-6LIBERTY, a price ($19.95), and the logos for Visa and MasterCard.
The Great Controversy is widely distributed by certain Seventh-Day Adventists, though not by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, so far as we know. The author is Ellen G. White, and the words are the usual anti-Catholic babel. Save your money.