Sursum Corda

2007-07-27T19:34:00.001-07:00

This is a test

2006-03-09T10:55:00.000-08:00

RETURN FROM EXILE: Or perhaps I should title this "falling off the wagon?" Yes, the rumors you have heard are true. I'm returning to blogging on a limited basis. Starting today, I'll be blogging over at the new Commonweal magazine group blog, known as DotCommonweal. My own posting activity will probably be a little more sporadic (that is, from my perspective, the advantage of a group blog). Also, I expect DC to be a little more on the practical side, so I may post more spiritual pieces here at SC from time to time. But I wouldn't advise checking every day. Use an aggregator or newsfeed like Bloglines, which will alert you when a new post is up.

Also, haven't figured out whether or not to restore comments over here. Not expecting to need them and you have to monitor them for spam. If posting activity back here becomes frequent enough, I'll restore.

Until then, see you at DotCommonweal!

2006-03-03T10:34:00.000-08:00

HE'S NOT QUITE DEAD YET: Stayed tuned for an important announcement regarding future blogging by the proprietor...

2004-05-03T22:22:00.000-07:00

OKAY, OKAY, I WON'T DELETE IT: You guys are just too much. I've been tearing up all afternoon and evening reading my comments and mail.

Okay, here's the deal. My wife will change the password and keep it to herself. Since she has about a dozen things she'd rather have me doing than blogging, there is little chance of me getting it out of her. So the temptation will be removed, but the archives will sit here as long as Blogger will support them.

You guys are amazing. Take care of yourselves.

2004-05-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

CLOSING TIME: Well I don’t know how to say this so I’m just going to say it:

I’m shutting down the blog.

It’s been a good run, an amazing run in fact. Two years ago, would I ever have predicted that this thing would be written up favorably in Commonweal? No, I don’t think so. Traffic has risen dramatically over the past few months. I feel like a career .250 hitter who decides to retire after his first .300 season. It’s nuts.

But I’ve got too much to do and something has to give. I start a graduate program in theology at the GTU—part time—this fall, which means I’m going to have to get even better at time management. Joseph starts Kindergarten again in the fall, which means I’ll have more things to do at night. Work is getting more intense. I’ve also got a lot of house projects I need to do before the rains come next fall. And to top it off, we just lost a musician from our jail ministry team, which means that I have to practice my guitar more frequently so I can provide music when I lead the service.

I could try to “cut back,” of course, but I’ve tried that before. It doesn’t seem to work. I just don’t seem to have the willpower. And the truth is that this is a medium that favors immediacy. It just wouldn’t be the same if I only updated it once or twice a month.

So here’s the really hard part, and this may even upset some people: when I talk about shutting it down, I’m not just talking about letting it go dormant. I’m talking about deleting it. Because as long as it’s sitting there, it’s going to be a temptation to me and I can’t have that right now. And I’m not comfortable having something with my name on it floating around in cyberspace unless I’m actively maintaining it.

I’ll keep the site up—without new posts-- for another week or so. I’ve got copies of everything that’s been posted on the site. If you want a copy of something, I’m happy to oblige you. Just send me an e-mail. Maybe someday I’ll throw it all together into a book. Or maybe not, who knows. In any case, feel free to keep sending me e-mail. I’m happy to correspond anytime.

I’ve had a wonderful time out here and I’ve met a lot of great people. The hardest part about this decision is the letters and comments I’ve gotten from people who really enjoy the site and find it spiritually and intellectually helpful. I don’t want to let anyone down. But I need a break—a long one.

I know that I was sometimes a little out-of-step with the general zeitgeist at Saint Blogs. That was fine with me because I was being challenged and stretched in ways that might not have happened if I was surrounded by people who saw the world the same way I did. I hope it was fine with you. I think it’s helpful to get out of our own ideological or theological apartments on a regular basis and take a walk around the neighborhood. It might inspire us to do a little redecorating. Or maybe not, but at least we might realize we’re part of something that’s a lot bigger than we are.

It’s hard to stop writing when you know it will be the last post. But it’s time to turn out the lights and lock the door. Be careful about anger, okay? Cultivate the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. Always remember that you are the only Gospel that someone might read.

Vaya con Dios, hermanos y hermanas,

Peter

2004-05-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

SCENES FROM A COUNTY JAIL: This morning was a bit of an adventure for a variety of reasons. We just had a musician leave the ministry team (she and her husband moved out of the county) so I have agreed to provide my own music when I lead the service until we can find a replacement. This was the first time playing guitar in front of an "audience" for...well, longer than I can remember. I think I had longer hair back then and very little of the music I played was suitable for a Catholic worship service! In any case, the men love to sing and their loud voices covered my fuzzy chord changes.

This was also the launch of my (reasonably) bilingual service. After three semesters of Spanish, I figured it was time to give it a try. I did the opening and closing prayers, the Gospel and the Our Father in Spanish as well as English and threw a few lines of Spanish into my reflection.

How did it go? Well, there were a few moments where I saw a couple of the Spanish-speaking guys look at each other as if to say "What did he just say?" But I talked to one of the guys afterward who has been at the jail for a while and he said the guys appreciated the effort, because none of the other services out there are in Spanish.

"So how bad was my Spanish?" I asked him.

"Uh...it's improving," he said with a smile.

2004-04-30T13:35:00.000-07:00

LEARNING TO PRAY: George Weigel makes an important point about prayer in his weekly column:

Looking through the well-stocked "spirituality" section in your local bookstore, you may think that Americans are doing the same; in today's jargon, there seem to be a lot of "searchers" out there. Catholic faith, exemplified in this season's readings from Acts, teaches us something different about searching, however. Catholic faith teaches us that the spiritual life is not our search for God, but God's search for us --- and our learning to take the same path through history that God does. Our prayer must somehow reflect that truth.

2004-04-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

MCCARRICK: NCR has posted the transcript of John Allen's interview with Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. McCarrick comments on a wide range of issues, including the bishops' role in politics, abortion, war, and the United Nations to name just a few. Allen's weekly column is here.

2004-04-30T13:16:00.000-07:00

CATHOLICS AND POLITICS: I saw several stories today about Catholic bishops in other countries commenting on certain political issues. In Kenya, the Bishops have appealed to the wrangling factions in the ruling coalition to put an end to their power struggles. In the Philippines, a spokesperson for Bishops Conference reiterated that the Church will not be endorsing political candidates, although lay movements like El-Shaddai may do so. In Uganda, the Bishops there are calling for a "transparent" transition to multi-party government. In the United Kingdom, the Bishops Conference issued a statement on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

2004-04-30T09:58:00.000-07:00

THE BARQUE OF PETER: A friend of mine once joked that I was the “last man standing,” by which he meant that I’m the only person in my family who actively practices his faith.

But if you are looking for the family saint, don’t look here. My sister eclipses the rest of us in that regard. She is the mother of four children, one of whom has a genetic condition. When she was working, she was an early-childhood special education teacher who volunteered to teach in urban school districts because, as she once put it “these kids really need good teachers.” She would regularly tell me stories about her students that would have me in tears.

So I’ve never really cottoned to the idea that Catholics or Christians or even religious folks generally have cornered the market on holiness. The Spirit bloweth where She willeth and all that.

Which sort of raises the question: why bother? Why should someone pray, or believe in God, or follow Jesus, or do any of the things that believers tend to think are “necessary?”

I’ve tried in the past to offer answers to that question, but the truth is that I’m not sure I’m the best person to answer it. Because in the end, for me at least, it wasn’t a choice. I’ve never really sat down and analyzed the pros and cons of belief versus unbelief, or tried to compare the relative merits of various religious traditions. In my late teens, I tried to walk away from all of it. But in the end I was seized by something that pulled me back.

It’s one of the reasons I find the doctrine of “election” so interesting. Because that’s the way it feels sometimes. As the force of habit and custom in determining religious practice declines, it seems the churches are increasingly filled with people who need to be there, who were somehow called to be there.

And what of those who don’t have this call? I’m not sure. Subjectively, at least, it seems to describe a fair number of people I know, many of whom are “good people” by any reasonable standard. They are happy, well adjusted, and don’t give any outward sign that their lives are somehow deeply uncentered because they are oblivious to a central aspect of reality. Perhaps there’s something going on inside, but usually I can’t see it.

Since I’m still more of a failed poet than a theologian, I can take refuge in metaphor. It seems to me sometimes that the Church is a large ship manned by a reasonably competent but fractious crew who have been pressed into service. The ship sails through the seas, leaving a great wake behind it. There are many smaller craft who sail in the great space of calm created by this wake, sometimes unaware of its source. Perhaps it would be better to be aboard the great ship; certainly it would be safer. But as long as the great ship continues to move forward, the armada in its wake has a good chance of making it home.

But dangit, I’m never going to get the hang of tying these knots…

2004-04-29T19:42:00.000-07:00

WHY RAISING KIDS IN CALIFORNIA IS DIFFERENT: Yesterday my wife and 3 year old daughter were shopping in one of those premium grocery stores that are very popular out here when my daughter saw some snails--excuse me, escargot. She asked my wife about them and my wife told her that people ate snails. My daughter was very excited and said that she wanted to try them. So my wife bought two, along with some pesto sauce for dipping. My daughter loved them!

Let's just say that no one ever offered me snails for dinner when I was growing up in New Jersey. Of course, if they had, I probably would have had the same reaction my son had when my daughter cheerfully informed him he would be eating snails for lunch: he burst into tears!

2004-04-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

THERE'S NOTHING ORIGINAL IN ME, EXCEPT... Eve Tushnet has a fine post about the meaning of original sin. Much better than simply repeating that old Reinhold Niebuhr quote...

2004-04-29T10:26:00.000-07:00

VOTING: Well, if you want to get the spectrum of Catholic opinion on what issues should influence our voting, you can read this post from Fr. Rob Johansen and this editorial from the National Catholic Reporter.

I'm still a little skeptical of this idea that you can create some kind of algorithm in which you crossmatch Catholic teaching with the candidates' positions and "poof" out pops the appropriate way for a Catholic to vote. What if, for example, you are opposed to the death penalty, but doubt that there will be any legislation of significance on this topic during the next four years. How does that weigh in your consideration? Does the possibility of a candidate doing something positive in one area outweigh the certainty that he will do something negative in another?

Or let's take another thought experiment: let's assume that one candidate wanted to strongly increase the penalties for infanticide, while the other candidate thought they were fine the way they were. Let's even assume that the penalties in that state were rather mild compared to neighboring states. Do I have to vote for the candidate who wants to increase the penalties, even if I think the legislation is mostly symbolic and will have no impact on the rate of infanticide?

One might argue that these scenarios bear little resemblance to reality, and I'm willing to concede the point. But if you are going to articulate some kind of "general theory of Catholic voting," you need to take into account that there is often a very large gap between what candidates say and promise and what ultimately ends up happening in the legislative process.

2004-04-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

MICROCREDIT: The NYT takes a look at "microcredit." Organizations like the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh have been offering small loans--mostly to poor women living in rural areas--to encourage them to start small businesses. The idea has captivated development experts around the world, although the jury is still out on their overall impact on poverty and economic development.

2004-04-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

PLEASE PRAY for a friend, a pastor, who is going through a very difficult trial right now.

2004-04-28T09:59:00.000-07:00

TALES FROM THE BART: I had an interesting experience this morning as I was riding the train on the way into work. I had my bible open and was reading the Book of Job when a man across the aisle leaned over and asked “Can I ask you a question?” “Sure,” I replied. “Where do you fellowship?” I told him the name of my parish, which he didn’t recognize. “Where are you getting off?” he asked. “19th Street,” I told him. “I’m going to 12th. I’ll get off with you. I want to ask you a couple of questions and maybe we can pray.” “Sure,” I told him.

When we got off, I got a better look at him. He was a tall, slender African-American man with an unruly beard that was speckled with gray. He wore thick glasses that were in need of repair, and that magnified two eyes whose gaze was uncomfortable in its intensity. He had a green roll-away suitcase in reasonably good condition, a thick winter coat over his arm, and a cloth briefcase that was stuffed with papers. I strongly suspected that he was carrying everything he owned.

There are some homeless guys who tell you their stories, and there are some whose stories tell them. This guy was one of the latter. It all came out in a torrent, rising and falling like an arpeggio, with the occasional observation about Christianity, 9-11 and the Veterans Administration offered as asides. He showed me a veteran’s ID card that was obviously fake as well as a beat up credit card with the activation sticker still on it that looked like it had been fished out of the trash. The ID card said Albert, which for all I know was his real name.

He talked about money and I kept waiting for him to ask for it, but it was almost as if he couldn’t stop. He just kept telling his story, adding a detail here, a flourish there. But his eyes pleaded, and it was almost if what he was pleading for was not so much money as for me to break in and given him a brief moment of respite from the power of his disordered imagination.

I pressed some money into his palm. Then I asked him if we could pray together. We held hands and I asked Jesus to watch over Albert, to let him know that he wasn’t alone, to give him peace and health. It seemed to comfort and calm him, if only for a moment. Then we parted. I headed up the escalator and Albert boarded the next train, perhaps to tell his story—or an entirely different story—to someone else.

2004-04-27T17:30:00.000-07:00

CATHOLIC IRELAND: An Irish Catholic blog (from the old sod and everything!).

2004-04-27T17:19:00.000-07:00

195 DAYS TO GO: Are we really going to have to sit through six more months of this?

2004-04-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

DEBUNKING DA VINCI: The New York Times notices, although no mention of our friend Amy Welborn's new book.

2004-04-27T15:20:00.000-07:00

THE WRONG DEBATE: Richard Clarke argues the key to victory in "the war on terrorism" is the outcome of an internal struggle within Islam rather than a "clash of civilizations" between East and West. Interesting reading.

2004-04-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

THE MARCHING SEASON: Some interesting discussion of the March for Women’s Lives over at After Abortion, Open Book, and Scandal of Particularity. Lynn at Noli Irritate Leones has some good links. Annie Banno and her colleagues at Silent No More seem to have had a rough time of it at the hands of some particularly vociferous pro-choice demonstrators.

I’ve been to my share of demonstrations—all kinds of demonstrations—where things have gotten ugly. In the summer of 1989—the last time when abortion was as much of a front-burner issue as it is now—it seemed like things were getting ugly all the time in Washington, DC. In addition to the big NOW march in April, there were numerous other smaller demonstrations, as well as regular battles at local abortion clinics between Operational Rescue and the local clinic defenders.

And I was in the middle of all of it, because as longtime readers know I was strongly pro-choice in those days. So I spent a lot of time at demonstrations.

And boy did it get ugly. I remember a surreal moment in front of the Supreme Court where it just degenerated into one side yelling “Baby Killers! Baby Killers!” and the other side shouting “Women Killers! Women Killers!” I have photographs of that demonstration where a pro-life demonstrator (a young man) and a pro-choice demonstrator (an older woman) are just screaming at each other and shaking their fingers in each other’s faces.

I did some things back then I’m not proud off. There was the time at a clinic during a face off with Operation Rescue, I was asked to shadow a guy who was walking around with a sign that read “Hurting After an Abortion? Call xxx-xxxx.” I kept putting my placard up to block his, and we engaged in this absurd little dance for about 30 minutes.

Why did I do this? Well, he was…well…one of them, you know, the bad guys. And I was a good guy. Except he was the one who seemed peaceful and calm and I was the one who was flushed and angry.

At the same demonstration, I ran into an older couple. Among the 20 or so other buttons and stickers I had on, I was wearing a Catholics for a Free Choice sticker. At that time in my life, I was wearing it pretty much for its propaganda value. Or maybe not, given my subsequent direction in life. In any case, the conversation turned round to religion.

“Well, do you go to mass?” said the man, looking at the sticker. He seemed confused more than anything else.

“Uh…well no, actually,” I admitted. “I’ve got some problems with the Church.”

“Oh, that’s very sad,” he said. “Well we’ll pray for you to come back.” His wife nodded.

“Uh…thanks,” I said, not knowing what else to say.

There I was, ready to argue, to go eyeball to eyeball, to match angry word for angry word. And what I got was a “we’ll pray for you.”

I remember feeling ashamed. Not because I suddenly decided at that moment that I was wrong about abortion and this old man was right. But because I wanted to be the kind of guy who prayed for his “enemies” rather than harassing them and trying to prevent them from getting their message across.

I guess what impresses me the most about what Annie and the other folks at Silent No More did was the way they did it. No screaming, no getting in people’s faces. They just stood there silently holding signs that read “I Regret My Abortion” or “I Regret My Lost Fatherhood.” They absorbed a torrent of verbal abuse and did not return it.

I have to wonder whether among the hundreds of thousands of folks walking by SNM last Sunday, there were a few who looked at some of their comrades in struggle hurling insults, and then looked at the small crowd of peaceful, silent witnesses and asked themselves a question: not “who’s right and who’s wrong,” but rather “what kind of person would I rather be?”

2004-04-26T22:15:00.000-07:00

ROLHESIER ON TPOTC: Fr. Ron Rolheiser has some balanced commentary on The Passion of the Christ. After reviewing the film's strengths and weaknesses, he concludes with a good point:

In an age obsessed with celebrity, reality-TV, entertainment as an anesthetic, in an age which has turned with a nasty adolescent grandiosity upon its Christian roots and thinks "The Da Vinci Code" carries theological depth and meaning, perhaps this kind of portrayal of Jesus is a wake-up call. A wake-up call isn't intended to be deep, it's intended to rouse you from sleep.

Tens of millions of people are flocking to see this movie. Whatever else, they're leaving the theater a bit more awake and infinitely more cognizant of what it cost Jesus to die for us.

2004-04-26T22:11:00.000-07:00

GLOBAL SOLIDARITY: Interesting piece in U.S. Catholic about the work of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati's Global Solidarity Initiative. The initiative is trying to raise awareness among area Catholics--including local business leaders--about the impact of economic globalization. Many companies in Cincinnati--including the well-known Chiquita fruit company--have a strong presence in Central America. The Global Solidarity initiative is raising a number of important questions:

What responsibilities do Catholic business executives have to seek the greater good, even when it may be in conflict with achieving financial goals or other corporate objectives? What can individuals do to effect change, to make sure that their own companies are doing what they can to provide for the poor?

Do Catholics have an obligation within their secular vocations to place the church's call for social justice in front of other demands? In a difficult economic environment, how should a company deal with issues such as just wages and workforce reductions? Do Catholic businesspeople actually embrace the tenets of Catholic social teaching and act upon them, or do they either ignore or pay lip service to them and carry on with business as usual?

2004-04-26T22:03:00.000-07:00

ALL OF IT: I accidently left off about half of Fr. Shawn O'Neal's homily yesterday, for which I apologize. Click here to go read the rest of it now.

2004-04-26T15:49:00.000-07:00

BODY AND BLOOD: Catholic News Service provides a summary of 28 "grave matters" that the recent instruction from the Congregation for Divine Worship "put at risk the validity and dignity of the most holy Eucharist."

One thing that caught my attention was the moderately negative attitude expressed toward communion under both kinds (i.e. bread and wine). The instruction argues the practice should be avoided in situations where there is such a large number of communicants that is difficult to gauge the amount of wine for the Eucharist and there is a danger that "more than a reasonable quantity" will remain to be consumed after communion. In my experience, large numbers are the rule, but long experience has allowed for fairly accurate estimates of how much wine is needed. Usually, the problem is one of running short rather than having too much.

A related instruction proscribes the widespread practice in the United States of pouring the blood of Christ from one vessel (e.g. a large glass container) to another after the consecration. However, there is no problem with having multiple chalices filled with wine on the altar during the consecration as long as the main chalice is larger than the others.

I have to say that--in terms of something happening that would "be to the detriment of so great a mystery"--I'm a little more nervous about having so many chalices on the altar. The priest's hands are moving around a fair bit during this process: finding pages in the Sacramentary, the epiclesis, raising the bread and the wine during the institution narrative, etc. Lots of chalices creates what one might call a "target rich environment." This may be more of a problem in very large parishes. But I recognize that there are problems the other way too. My gut tells me that with sufficient intentionality, either approach could be done reverently.

2004-04-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

A DAY IN THE LIFE: Fr. Jim Tucker offers his readers "a day in the life" for readers who are interested in what a priest does.

On a humorous note (which I hope that Fr. Jim will take in the spirit it is given), I would observe that--judging from his choices of beverage and food--Fr. Jim has a slightly more refined palate than the rest of us. You can take the boy out of Rome, but you can't take Rome...:-)

On the other hand, given my recent digestive troubles, perhaps I should follow his example!

2004-04-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

TILLMAN: I’ve been thinking a lot about Pat Tillman over the last few days. Tillman was the Arizona Cardinals football player who walked away from a multimillion dollar contract to join the U.S. Army in the wake of September 11th. He was killed in a firefight in Afghanistan last Thursday.

Tillman himself was extraordinarily private about his reasons for this decision and refused all requests for media interviews. His family is continuing that tradition. Some of his friends who have commented suggested that Tillman was not known among his peers as particularly patriotic. “He just seemed to think that something had to be done,” said his college football coach, who talked to Tillman about his decision.

Pat Tillman’s life stands in judgment of our own. Not because that was the way he wanted it, but because looking at Tillman’s choices forces us to examine the ones that we’ve made. We wonder if we would have been willing to walk away from $3.6 million to put ourselves at risk of death on behalf of others. Even if the money wasn’t involved, we wonder if we would have had the courage to do the “something” that Tillman thought had to be done. Tillman had what our culture prizes above all—fame and fortune—and he walked away from all of it.

It may seem odd to compare a warrior like Tillman to a 13th century pacifist like Saint Francis of Assisi, but there are a few striking similarities. Both were men who gave up careers that would have assured them wealth and comfort to pursue a path that required arduous labor and even danger. Both men seemed to sense that life had a deeper purpose than the pursuit of comfort and security. And because they chose to pursue that deeper purpose, the lives of both men posed a challenge to the times in which they lived.

There have been times throughout its history when Christianity has been a movement that challenged people in the way that Pat Tillman’s life and death challenge us now. But are we still? Have we become so suburbanized that our lives have become indistinguishable from those who do not follow the Crucified One? What are we willing to walk away from? How much are we willing to risk?

2004-04-25T19:32:00.000-07:00

COMMENTS: I get the impression that a couple of comments people posted in the last few days have mysteriously gone missing. I don't know what's up with Haloscan. In any case, I just wanted people to know you hadn't been banned or anything.

2004-04-25T14:54:00.000-07:00

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER:

Fr. Shawn O'Neal's Sunday Homily

Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41
Ps 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12, 13
Rv 5:11-14
Jn 21:1-19

This is a wonderful day for all of you, for your families, and for this parish. I thank God that I am able to offer you the Eucharist for the first time during this Mass. Also, I thank God that I will be able to baptize one of you in a few minutes. All of this is truly an honor for me to celebrate with you, I must say.

Sometimes I am asked whether we can read happy readings now and then, especially during a First Communion Mass or a Mass within which we celebrate a baptism. Some of the people could be wondering why we have used a Gospel reading with a scary ending. I mean, could we not use a cute, nice, and happy reading on a day such as today that does not talk about either being told to go where someone did not want to go or signifying death? We could do that, but what is talked about within the Gospel is a part of history. You see, Peter was crucified, too. He was killed almost in the same manner as Jesus was. He was killed in the city of Rome – the city that is now the capital of Italy. Peter did not believe he was worthy enough to die in the same manner as Our Lord; therefore, he asked to be crucified upside down. His killers agreed to his request.

Now, if I end there, I end the story too soon. You see, the people who killed Peter did that because they did not like that he believed Jesus was the Son of God. They thought that Peter and other Christians were trouble. That was not a correct thought then and it should not be a correct thought now, but the Roman emperor and his friends thought that Christians were trouble; therefore, they had to be killed. It is as if they thought that by killing all the Christians they could find, people would not hear about Jesus anymore and there would be less trouble. Their thoughts were wrong. Even as Christians were sent to die, more people came to believe that Jesus is the Lord. Why? The power of the Holy Spirit helped them to believe what they refused to believe in the past. These Christians believed – and we believe the same thing – that as long as we seek to be united in Jesus, we can never die. The bodies we have here on earth are going to die one day whether we like it or not, but as long as we seek to be united with Jesus, our souls are never going to die.

I must admit that people have asked me what a soul looks like and how we can tell that this has happened. I do not know what a soul looks like and no person from heaven has stopped me and told me how it all works, but I believe in my heart that all of this is going to happen.

We can be united with Jesus by praying to Him and with Him. We can ask for His help. We can also pray as He taught us to pray. For example, He told us how to pray the “Our Father”. We didn’t make up that prayer; Jesus taught the first believers how to pray that prayer and Christians throughout the years have taught other Christians how to pray that prayer.

We can be united with Jesus by acting as He has told us to act. Do you know anyone who has a "What Would Jesus Do?" item? Those things can help us think about what we should do, but if we truly want to know what Jesus did and what He told us to do, then we need to read the Bible and pay attention to our parents, our teachers, and the priests. We are here to help teach you what Jesus did so you can do every day what Jesus did.

You can also be united with Jesus through the Sacraments of the Church. “Sacrament” means “mystery”; we do not know how they work, but we believe that, for example, through Baptism, through going to Confession and doing Penance, and through being confirmed, we grow closer to God and we become united with God in a way that we believe is so beautiful that it is beyond words. The greatest example of this union is by receiving the Eucharist. We call it “Eucharist” because that word comes from the Greek verb for “to give thanks”. When we receive the Eucharist, we should be thankful. We do not deserve something so great – and what I mean in saying that is that the best thing we ever do does not mean that we automatically deserve the Eucharist. When we get all the answers correct on a test, we deserve to get an “A” on the test. The Eucharist does not work in the same way. It is always a gift. When Jesus gave of Himself in the Eucharist to the men at the Last Supper, He did not tell them, “I am giving you this because you deserve it”; Jesus told them, “I am giving you this because I love you and I want you to never forget how much I love you. I want you to be with me so much that I am giving you myself to eat and drink so that I can be in you and you can be in me.” It was difficult for people who lived many years ago to understand and it continues to be something difficult to understand, but whether you understand it or not, bread and wine change into the Body and Blood of Christ. We might not understand it, but that does not mean that we should not say “Thank you.”

When I say, “The Body of Christ”, you respond with “Amen” as a way of showing that we believe together. Do not say “Amen” first before a priest or another minister of the Eucharist says “The Body of Christ”; as we say “Please” before we say “Thank you”, so we say “Amen” after someone says “The Body of Christ”. Also, you do not have to say “Amen” so that all the people can hear it; you can say it softly and that does the job.

One last thing about what Jesus told Peter at the end of the Gospel reading: moments will come in the lives of all people when we must be led to go where we do not want to go. That is part of life. But before anyone becomes sad because of that, remember that Jesus told the first people who followed Him that He would always be with them. Those words remain true today. God is with us and He wants us always to be with Him. Moments will come when we believe the only thing we can do is cry, but Jesus wants us to be with Him because He wants to share His happiness with all people forever. No matter how a story might end from what we hear at Mass, the ending is always meant to be happy because God wants it to be that way.

Fr. Shawn O'Neal is the Pastoral Administrator at Saint Joseph's Saint Joseph's Catholic Church in Bryson City, NC and Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Cherokee, NC.

2004-04-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

PRAY FOR THOSE WHO HAVE TO LISTEN TO ME: We're a little short of musicians for one element of this weekend's Cursillo, so yours truly is dusting off his guitar and getting up at a ridiculously early hour on Sunday morning. Pray for the poor bastards who have to listen to me....

2004-04-23T22:42:00.000-07:00

NO, THAT'S NOT QUITE RIGHT: My local CBS radio station got two major things wrong in its story about the new liturgical document, which focused entirely on Cardinal Arinze's off-the-cuff comment that Catholic politicians who are pro-choice should be denied communion. First, the reporter called Arinze's comment a "Vatican directive," which it most definitely was not. They then compounded the error by saying that "the decision about whether to obey the directive is up to the local bishop," making it sound like the bishop would be disobeying the Vatican if they didn't do what Arinze suggested, even though Arinze specifically and clearly stated that it was up to the local ordinary to make the call. The image conveyed was of renegade bishops defying the Pope, which is not what this is about at all. Couldn't they have called at least one competent theologian before going with this story? Sheesh...

On the other hand, a reader sends in these two possible headlines about today's story for your reading pleasure:

Boston Globe: Vatican Paper Tigers Oppress Lay Faithful Prophets

The Wanderer: Goofball Liberals Continue to Allow Girls to Defile Altar

2004-04-23T14:03:00.000-07:00

CULTURE WARS: HerbEly has some interesting comments on the culture wars.

2004-04-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

MAKE NO SMALL PLANS: Much worth reading in today's The Word From Rome column by John Allen. Allen provides some brief analysis of the liturgical document Redemptionis sacramentum, which was released earlier today. But the part of the column I liked best was his take on biblical scholar and Passionist Father Donald Senior's Raymond Brown lecture:

As an educator, Senior said he is conscious of the large numbers of young men and women who are seeking something vast, something transcendent, to which to commit themselves. A Chicagoan, Senior quoted the famous advice of architect Daniel Burnham to Chicago’s city planners a century ago: “Make no small plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood.”

In this context, Senior suggested the recovery of the deep sense of mission implied in the New Testament, and especially the life of Christ. This is more than the mission ad gentes, meaning the conversion of non-Christian peoples, though this remains valid. “Mission” in the Biblical sense means nothing less than the salvation and reconciliation of humanity.

“Its spirit is not imperialistic or dominating,” Senior said. “Even as the gospel is proclaimed with confidence and with gratitude for its proven beauty, evangelization is done in a spirit of respect for others and their sacred traditions and the integrity of their cultures.”

Senior characterized Jesus’ sense of mission in terms of “reaching out and drawing in,” which constituted one fluid movement analogous to breathing. Even though Christ did not pursue a mission to the gentiles, since his direct concern was for the lost sheep of the House of Israel, his outreach shattered religious and cultural boundaries. Jesus was, in the words of Matthew 11:18, “a lover of tax collectors and those outside the law.” Hence it was natural for Paul and the other leaders of the early church to extend this saving mission to non-Jews.

Having reached out, Christ then gathered in — drawing people into a loving community, both a sign and an anticipation of communion with God. That, Senior suggested, is the “inner meaning” of the numerous meals that punctuate the New Testament — “meals with Levi and his friends, meals with Simon the Pharisee, meals with crowds on the hillsides, meals with disciples, the ideal meals described in his parables.” (Senior laughingly quoted another New Testament expert to the effect that “you can eat your way through the gospels.”)

“The enterprise to which we are called,” Senior said, “is far more fundamental than any of our concerns and far more crucial than we can imagine.”

2004-04-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

IT'S STARTING: Yesterday my doctor called to say that my abdominal ultrasound had revealed a small gallstone in my gall bladder, so he wants to run an additional test to see if it's impeding the function of the gall bladder. Last night, one of my poker buddies couldn't make it because he badly pinched a nerve in his back and would take awhile to recover.

Message: we ain't as young as we used to be...

2004-04-23T11:20:00.000-07:00

REDEMPTIONIS SACRAMENTUM: here is the new Vatican document on the liturgy and here is a CNS news story about it. I have no comments at this time. Maybe next week

2004-04-23T10:59:00.000-07:00

HOW I GOT THIS WAY: My posts on the whole Kerry contretemps has generated a lot of mail and comments. Some readers think I’m being too hard on Kerry while others don’t think I’m being hard enough. It reminds me of an e-mail I got from a frustrated reader awhile back who said: “You never come to a conclusion. You just muse.” To those who believe the only thing in the middle of the road is “a yellow stripe and a dead armadillo,” I understand why my difficulty in committing completely to one point of view or another in disputed social and political questions is frustrating. So I thought I might tell you a story about how I got this way and maybe it will help you understand.

When I was in college, I was a radical leftist. I was really hardcore. I was involved in everything: anti-apartheid, Central America, abortion rights, support of obscure armed liberation struggles no one had ever heard of, etc. I was an angry young man and often the people I was most angry at were the folks in the middle of the road, the half-convinced, the sympathetic who couldn’t go all the way. This is an old theme in leftist politics, of course. The refusal of the German Communists to work with the Social Democrats (who they called “social fascists”) was one of the things that helped bring Hitler to power.

Now one of the real temptations when you are “in the struggle” as we used to say is to take a very casual and somewhat instrumental attitude toward the truth. After all, what’s a few fudged facts when you are struggling to prevent death squads from massacring Salvadoran peasants? It’s not so much that you explicitly lie (although the line becomes very blurry sometimes), but rather that you stop critically evaluating sources that agree with your point of view. If it sounds good and it supports your cause, you use it. You stop asking the question “is this true” and ask instead “will this help?” And of course, when you encounter material that is not helpful, you subject it to a degree of critical scrutiny that you never apply to the sources that support your point of view.

Now after I graduated, my politics gradually became more moderate. But I was still involved in political work of one form or another, and I found that the same rules applied: use the “good stuff,” discredit the “bad stuff.” But there was a voice inside of me—a voice that gradually became louder and louder—that kept asking the question “but is it true?” “Is what you are saying, writing, or putting on that picket sign the truth or something else?” I think there is probably a relationship between this voice and my “re-version,” but I’ll leave that for another time.

At some point, I made a decision that I was going to stop letting my worldview drive my assessment of the facts. I wanted to begin with the question “is this true?” And if it was true, what were its implications for my worldview? I also resolved that I was going to apply the same standard of evaluation to evidence regardless of what it said and where it came from. I’m not perfect at this—I’m still a sinner after all—but it seems to be a worthy goal to strive for.

I find sometimes that there are people who have gone through a similar experience that I have, but they have responded in a different way. They get disgusted with the Left, so they switch sides. But they don’t really change they way they think. They go from treating everything published in The Nation as Gospel to seeing the National Review as the font of all wisdom. And of course there are people who make a similar move from Right to Left. This is certainly change, but I would be hard pressed to call it growth. Because the reality is that the tendency to sacrifice truth in the interests of the “the cause” is a problem that crosses ideological boundaries. And perhaps it is most manifest in the marketing and advertising for products that surrounds us every day.

The problem that my letter writer noted is a real one, though. At some point you have to make a decision and take action. I find it’s sometimes harder to do that. With the recent grocery workers strike, for example, I felt that both sides had some good arguments and I was often uncomfortable with some of the union’s rhetoric that ascribed motivations to management that I didn’t think were true. But in the end, I felt that management’s proposal was unreasonably hard-line so I ended up supporting the strike. Longtime readers will remember that I went through a similar period of intellectual struggle about the war in Iraq.

I’m not trying to claim that I’m particularly virtuous here. I still see in myself a tendency to exaggerate in order to tell a good story (maybe it’s an Irish thing). It’s something I struggle with. But it seems to me a battle worth fighting, particularly when we find ourselves involved in a struggle for something that seems very important to us. The prophet Isaiah tried to remind Judah that if God’s people ensure their political survival at the cost of their communal identity, then the price is too high. Better to be conquered, to go into exile, than to betray the covenant with the Lord. It’s good advice.

2004-04-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

TERROR, FEAR AND THE ARMOR OF PRAYER: Johann Christoph Arnold of the Bruderhoff Community recently wrote an essay by this name. While I can't completely agree with every line in the essay (my analysis of Spain's withdrawl from Iraq is somewhat different), these paragraphs struck me:

Along with love, we have forgotten another biblical tactic: prayer. The early Christian Tertullian calls it the “fortress of faith” and says it is a “shield and weapon against any foe.” Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, speaks of it too, when he admonishes his fellow believers to put on the “whole armor of God” and thereby enlist his aid.

As someone who firmly believes that all war and all killing is wrong, I should say here that I cannot accept the simplistic idea that God is on the American side of the current struggle to control Iraq. I was brought up with the conviction that peace is the only answer to violence; that hatred is best countered and overcome by love. To quote Käthe Kollwitz, “Each armed conflict carries within it the seeds of the next”– and this has certainly been true of every war in my lifetime.

At the same time, I cannot simply stand on the sidelines and say that I am “against war.” The world is mired in a conflict of massive proportions. It stands at a momentous juncture. Each of us needs to consider his task—and to find it out, doesn’t each of us need to pray like never before?

Henri Nouwen says that when we pray, we “put our entire life in the balance.” And when I think of the countless soldiers (and civilians) whose lives are currently on the line throughout the Middle East, it seems the least I can do is pray that God is with them.

2004-04-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

NEGROPONTE: Interesting discussion of John Negroponte over at Open Book. With regard to some of the comments, I'll just say you don't see too many defenders of Augusto Pinochet and Francisco Franco these days.

2004-04-22T12:18:00.000-07:00

A LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP? A couple weeks back, Michael Spencer("The Internet Monk") posted an essay on "Why I Hate Theology." His friend, Jim Nicholson, now presents the other side of the story with an essay "Why I Love Theology." Both are worth reading.

2004-04-22T11:20:00.000-07:00

L’AFFAIRE EKEH: Amy Welborn and Todd Flowerday (hardlink not working, scroll down) both have comments up about Ono Ekeh’s article in the National Catholic Reporter. Ekeh was fired from his job at the USCCB after Deal Hudson and others raised concerns about Ekeh’s public support for John Kerry.

All I have to say on the subject of Ono’s firing is that it continues to highlight the speed at which lay employees of the Church who screw up are disciplined as opposed to….well, perhaps I better not go there.

Since I don’t share the hostility to political liberalism and the Democratic Party evidenced by most other Catholic bloggers, I thought I would offer my own thoughts on Ekeh’s essay. I find myself in general agreement with his position that abortion is not the only life issue, and that life issues are not the only issues that Catholic must consider when making choices among candidates and political parties.

On the subject of abortion itself, Ekeh draws a contrast between what he calls a “supply side” and “demand side” approach to reducing abortions. In his view, a supply side approach is about “criminalizing abortion providers” while a demand-side approach “seeks to address the social issues” that lead women to seek abortions.

Amy raises a very legitimate question of why these strategies need to be mutually exclusive. In my parish, for example, the couple that has led the pro-life work for years support legal restrictions on abortion, but spend the bulk of their time supporting the work of a local pregnancy center and Project Gabriel. They, at least, seem to have no problem walking and chewing gum at the same time.

For myself, I have said on multiple occasions that I do not support a return to the pre-Roe abortion laws. Whatever I may think about “protection of the law” in the abstract, I think a blanket prohibition on first-trimester abortions would lead to civil disobedience on a scale that would make a mockery of our system of law enforcement.

But that does not mean that the law or public policy can do nothing. Indeed, what is striking about abortion law in the United States—as compared to many European countries—is how unbalanced it is and how the tragic conflict between the interests of the mother and the interests of her unborn child has been resolved almost completely in the favor of the former. We can, and should, do better than this.

I’ve offered the following thought experiment before: imagine that there was a mysterious disease that caused more than one million women a year—most of them low-income and many of them women of color—to spontaneously miscarry halfway through their first trimester. Would we not see this as a national tragedy worthy of public attention? Would we not expect the Democratic Party, the historic defender of the health and welfare of working class people, to offer some solutions?

Where I must dramatically part company with Ekeh is his implication that someone like John Kerry wants “to change the culture, not just a law” with regard to abortion. I see no sign—absolutely none—that John Kerry or most Democrats with national stature have the slightest interest in this. There is nothing that John Kerry has done or said that suggests that there is even an ounce of daylight between him and the National Abortion Rights Action League. He fails even the minimum tests for sincerity on this issue.

The Catholic historian Eugene McCarraher recently wrote in The New Pantagruel about the problem of “embedded” Catholic intellectuals who have become apologists for the Bush Administration’s imperial pretensions and libertarian economics. But the problem McCarraher describes is not unique to Catholics with Republican leanings. There is a real need for Catholics in both parties to be exceptionally clear-eyed about the limitations of their own parties and candidates with respect to the demands of the Gospel. We need to be able to speak the truth to our own people, despite the personal and political risks that might entail.

I agree with Ekeh that one can be a committed Catholic and a committed Democrat. I even believe that one can be a committed Catholic and support John Kerry for President, if on no other grounds than that the incumbent has done such a poor job that he should not continue in office. There are certainly other things in John Kerry’s record to suggest that he has been, at times, an exceptional leader. But don’t try to convince me that John Kerry cares deeply about reducing abortions, because I see no evidence that it’s true.

2004-04-21T20:06:00.000-07:00

LATE ADOPTER: Other bloggers who see Sursum Corda showing up less often in your Site Meter should not despair. Lately I've started using a web-based newsreader service called Bloglines . It allows me to check one site and see if any of the blogs I read (or even publications like Slate) have been updated, which means I don't have to click on every single blog and wait for it to load only to find out there's nothing new. This is an important consideration since I don't have the highest speed Internet connection. Of course, it assumes an RSS or Atom feed, which not all bloggers have.

Lately I've been wondering if my template is too dull. But with the advent of RSS readers, I'm wondering whether there is much point in changing it.

2004-04-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

WRITING A DIFFERENT ENDING: The other day my son and I got into a conversation about Judas. He asked me what happened to Judas after he betrayed Jesus (his children's Bible is silent on this point). I went ahead and told him that Judas had killed himself. "Why?" he asked. "Well," I said, "Judas realized he had done something very bad, but he didn't think Jesus would ever forgive him." I explained that Peter had betrayed Jesus too, in a different way, but that Peter ultimately trusted in Jesus' forgiveness. A fairly heady conversation for a six year old.

Well tonight before bed, Joseph comes to me and says "Daddy, I want to be Judas."

"You want to be Judas?" I responded. "Why? Judas did a very bad thing."

"I know," said Joseph. "But I still want to be Judas. But this time I will ask Jesus for forgiveness and not hang myself."

Joseph also prayed tonight that God would give him "a wise heart." I think his prayer has already been answered.

2004-04-21T14:00:00.000-07:00

THE MASAI CREED: My wife sent me this version of the Creed developed by Catholic missionaries working with the Masai Tribe in African in 1960. I have no background on this and can't speak to the issue of why this version as opposed to the traditional one:

We believe in the one High God, who out of love created the beautiful world and everything good in it. He created man and wanted man to be happy in the world. God loves the world and every nation and tribe on the earth. We have known this High God in the darkness, and now we know him in the light. God promised in the book of his word, the Bible, that he would save the world and all nations and tribes.

We believe that God made good his promise by sending his son, Jesus Christ, a man in the flesh, a Jew by tribe, born poor in a little village, who left his home and was always on safari doing good, curing people by the power of God, teaching about God and man, showing that the meaning of religion is love. He was rejected by his people, tortured and nailed hands and feet to a cross, and died. He was buried in the grave, but the hyenas did not touch him, and on the third day, he rose from that grave. He ascended to the skies. He is the Lord.

We believe that all our sins are forgiven through him. All who have faith in him must be sorry for their sins, be baptized in the Holy Spirit of God, live the rules of love, and share the bread together in love, to announce the good news to others until Jesus comes again. We are waiting for him. He is alive. He lives. This we believe. Amen.

I have to say I like that part about the hyenas not touching him.

2004-04-21T09:55:00.000-07:00

CROSSING THE BORDER: Catholic News Service tells the story of a Catholic migrant shelter in Tijuana called Casa del Migrante. The shelter, run by Scalabrinian missionaries, provides hot meals, showers and a place to sleep for about 80 migrants each night. Doctors come to the shelter twice a week, usually to treat blistered feet or wounds from a beating. Father Kendzierski, the director, and another priest offer spiritual guidance to the migrants, who are overwhelmingly Catholic.

This story raises some hard questions about our loyalties. I suspect there are many who believe that Father Kendzierski is aiding and abetting criminal activity, since most of these migrants are trying to cross the border into the United States. But where do our ultimate loyalties lie? As Christians, is our task to defend the borders of the United States of America? Or are we called first to minister to fellow Christians who are suffering?

And having thrown that out there, let me make it even more complicated. What about those inside in the United States in low-wage jobs who, in some sense, are in competition with new migrants for jobs? Can we ignore the labor-market realities of the situation? Do we, as Christians, have obligations to them as well?

Tough stuff, this following Jesus Christ...

2004-04-20T17:26:00.000-07:00

WOMEN'S LIVES: There has been a fair amount of coverage and commentary about the upcoming March for Women's Lives, a pro-choice demonstration being held in Washington, DC this weekend.

Without getting into a shouting match, I would at least suggest that women are hardly of one mind on the subject of abortion. Silent No More, for example, will be having a silent counter-demonstration during the march. Feminists for Life will, not surprisingly, not be participating in the march. And one can always read the blog After Abortion to listen to the experience of women who have had abortions but do not think others should have to undergo that experience.

One can, of course, agree or disagree with the positions of any or all of these organizations. There are millions upon millions of Americans--women and men--who do not find that the organized pro-choice or pro-life movements speak to their deep ambivalence about abortion. I think there's a real need for their voices to be heard too.

2004-04-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

PRAYERS: My friend "Mike" who has renal cancer went under the knife today. Please keep him in your prayers for a full and complete recovery.

2004-04-20T13:40:00.000-07:00

WHERE ARE THE DOUGHNUTS? "Saint Blog's Parish Hall" offers a forum to discuss any and all things Catholic.

2004-04-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

CALL TO RENEWAL: Call to Renewal, an interdenominational anti-poverty campaign (Jim Wallis of the Sojourners Community is its most well-known spokesperson), is having a conference in Washington, DC May 23-25. Click here for more info. And while we're on the subject of poverty, you can click here to find out more about the work of the USCCB's Campaign for Human Development.

2004-04-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

RECORDAMOS: President Bush has appointed John Negroponte, his UN Ambassador, to be his ambassador to Iraq after the transfer of power.

Negroponte has, one might say, something of a past. He was ambassador to Honduras during the Reagan Administration, where he played a key role in the prosecution of the contra war in Nicaragua. As part of that work, he helped airbrush Honduras' atrocious record on human rights. See this brief from Maryknoll for more information. Some of us have long memories, Ambassador Negroponte...

2004-04-20T09:42:00.000-07:00

THINK EDUCATION IS EXPENSIVE? TRY IGNORANCE. John Cavadini, chair of the theology department at Notre Dame, writes in Commonweal about the religious illiteracy of "so many otherwise well-educated young Catholics."

Cavadini calls for a "renewed pedagogy of the basics," by which he does not mean a return to the days of the Baltimore Catechism. By "basics" he means the fundamental doctrines of the Catholic faith as summarized in the Creed and the catechism. By renewed, he means that the faithful will not only learn these doctrines, but understand why they are important. He concludes with a warning about the stakes:

We are at a crucial turning point. In thirty years we may find, as Hesburgh warned me, that we have “nothing to build on”—that we can no longer explain why we resist destroying the environment, why we should oppose abortion and capital punishment, why we should defend the family or workers’ rights, why we believe that evil will not triumph in the end, why the good is worth pursuing no matter what the cost, or why we find the courage to love in the practice of the sacraments. There will always be saints who cannot explain any of these things, but even saints depend for their ideals on an articulate, intellectual Catholicism that can nurture a culture that will go on generating ideals of heroic virtue. Without prejudice to any other area of catechesis—in fact, to enhance them all—let us return in a renewed way to a pedagogy of the basic doctrines of the faith. Those very doctrines will stretch our horizon for inquiry and action to a consummation as unbounded as the mystery they represent.

2004-04-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

BLOOD POURED OUT: There have been four funerals in the Bay Area in the last week for soldiers killed during the recent spike of fighting in Iraq: Marine Lance Corporal Kyle Crowley, Marine Lance Corporal Travis Layfield, Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, and Army Major Mark Taylor, MD. The funerals, coupled with the announcement of an extended deployment of the Army Reserve’s 341st Military Police Company, have brought the reality of this war home to people in this area. Those inclined to look askance at the “Left Coast” might note that California has the largest number of military deaths in Iraq of any state in the union.

Although it’s odd to feel pride for people you don’t know, I do feel proud of these young men who sacrificed themselves for a people they did not know. If any good at all comes out of this war, it will be because of the men and women who poured out their own blood on behalf of others. I hope that something good does result, so that the families of those who died need not fear that their loved ones died for no purpose.

But I remain angry about this war. I feel angry because I believe that from the very beginning our leaders misled us with exaggerations and distortions about the threat that Iraq posed. I feel that we were misled about the reasons for the war, about how long it would take, and about the cost—both in money and in lives. I don’t believe the Administration has ever come clean about these distortions, about the exaggerated intelligence of WMDs, about the specious “links” between Hussein and Al-Queda, and about the idea that we would be welcomed as liberators.

I did not support this war. I do not believe that the United States has the unilateral right to determine which regimes (e.g. Iraq) are so dangerous they need changing and which regimes (e.g. Sudan) are apparently not yet sufficiently evil to require changing. I had to think hard about this position a number of times, both after reading Ken Pollack’s excellent book The Threatening Storm, and after listening to Colin Powell’s presentation of the (now largely discredited) evidence of Iraqi WMDs to the United Nations. But in the end, I did not feel the justifications for war met the criteria for a “just war” that are part of the Catholic tradition.

At the same time, I do not believe that the United States can simply pull out of Iraq at this point. Whatever one feels about how we got in, we are there now and we are the only source of political and social order that Iraq has right now. We need to stay and clean up the mess that is at least partly (but not completely) of our own making.

But my hands almost shake as I write those words, because I know that others have uttered them before, sometimes with disastrous consequences. How many more must die or be wounded—American, Iraqi, British, Polish, Italian, and others—before peace comes to this troubled land? And what if it never comes? How long are we willing to stick it out? As one wise military planner once said, “hope is not a plan.”

2004-04-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

FAITH, TERROR AND MARTYRDOM: Godspy has an essay about the Trappist monks of Tibhirine, Algeria who were killed in 1994 by member of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), who slit their throats. What is remarkable (or perhaps not so remarkable) about these men were their courage, their love of the Algerian people, and their commitment to loving and praying for men who they knew might well come to kill them one day.

In December 1993, several weeks before the monks were killed, Dom Christian de Cherge, the Abbot, wrote a letter that served as his final testament. I'll except the opening and closing below, but you should really read it in its entirety:

If it should happen one day - and it could be today - that I become a victim of the terrorism which now seems ready to engulf all the foreigners living in Algeria, I would like my community, my Church and my family to remember that my life was GIVEN to God and to this country.
I ask them to accept the fact that the One Master of all life was not a stranger to this brutal departure.
I would ask them to pray for me:
for how could I be found worthy of such an offering?
I ask them to associate this death with so many other equally violent ones which are forgotten through indifference or anonymity.
My life has no more value than any other.
Nor any less value...

...And also you, my last-minute friend, who will not have known what you were doing:
Yes, I want this THANK YOU and this GOODBYE to be a "GOD-BLESS" for you, too, because in God's face I see yours.
May we meet again as happy thieves in Paradise, if it please God, the Father of us both.

2004-04-19T08:20:00.000-07:00

SODAKMONK: Benedictine priest Fr. Matthew Kowalski finally breaks down and gets into the blogging thing. You, too, will eventually become a blogger. Resistance is futile...

2004-04-19T08:16:00.000-07:00

SCENES FROM A COUNTY JAIL: Not mine this time! Saturday, I was at a formation meeting for Kairos, which is an interdenominational ministry that works to create Christian communities inside prisons. It's very similar to Cursillo and other three-day renewal movements (Tres Dias, Walk to Emmaus, etc.). We're planning a retreat for Memorial Day weekend. I met a man there, a Catholic deacon, who volunteers in a county jail in the county next to ours and he told me a great story.

In this jail, there was a man I'll call "Big Red." Big Red had been in and out of this jail for years and had a serious addiction. But he was also a Christian and he knew a lot about his faith. Well, one time after he was released from a stretch he overdosed and died.

Well the next Sunday this Deacon went out to the jail and during the service, the men began to eulogize Big Red. One man after another spoke of things that Red had said or done that had made jail life more bearable for them. It was clear that despite his past and present struggles, he had had a profound influence on the men around him in this environment.

All of which goes to show that no matter who you are, where you are, or what you've done, you have the ability to bring Christ into people's lives.

2004-04-18T14:03:00.000-07:00

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER:

Fr. Shawn O'Neal's Sunday Homily
Second Sunday of Easter

Acts 5:12-16
Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
Rv 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19
Jn 20:19-31

In the Book of Revelation, we have heard Jesus described in a manner meant to strike awe within us. We do not encounter a weak image of Jesus here; we see an almighty, powerful Jesus – far from cute and cuddly. This might is magnified even more if I describe him as He is presented within the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth verses of the first chapter, not provided within the Lectionary reading: “The hair on his head was like snow-white wool, and his eyes like flaming fire, his feet like bronze from the furnace, and his voice like the roaring of the waves. In his right hand were seven stars, from his mouth came a sword sharpened at both its edges, and his face was like the sun when it shines at full strength.”

If I caught sight of those images, I would probably fall down at his feet as though dead, too. I would fear that the blade of the sword has my name written all over it. I would fear that the mighty feet were going to step on me as if I were a tiny insect. I would fear that the mighty voice was going to speak words unto me that I would not want to hear – as if this Jesus came to cast me away rather than draw me closer unto Himself. Yet this is the same Jesus who describes Himself within the Gospel of Matthew as being gentle and humble of heart. This is the same Jesus who calls himself the Good Shepherd within the Gospel of John – the shepherd of whom the sheep follow because they recognize His voice as He calls them by name.

Can it be possible that the roaring of the waves comes from the same mouth that speaks words of comfort to me? I know the answer is “yes”, but it would not surprise me that people are accustomed to seeing Jesus in only one way, or, even worse, that Jesus cannot exist beyond their ideas and impressions. Such people make for terrible disciples. Jesus should never be held captive according to the limits of finite human reason and imagination. Jesus reveals His power to us, but we do not reveal to Jesus how He can be and how He can behave. When we do that, we make Jesus become our disciple. It simply doesn’t work that way.

I present these images for more than one type of people. Some people want to force Jesus to play a role that fits their whim. They like the fact that Jesus calls for forgiveness and unity, but they do not wish to recognize why Jesus called them. It is as if the words of Jesus when he spoke that sick people needed a doctor have been replaced with the concept that good-enough people living adequate lives simply need affirmation.

At the same time, some people find it difficult to believe that Jesus calls out to sheep other than the ones whose company they prefer to keep. If all decisions were up to these people, then the workers hired near the end of the day as presented within the Gospel of Luke would receive only a small percentage of what was paid to the workers hired at the beginning of the day – with the first chosen workers being able to hurl an insult or two such as “You should be so thankful!” These people find it difficult to believe that the Lord offers compassion and an invitation to conversion to people not included on their short lists.

These images of Jesus are far from comprehensive, of course. This supposed lack of comprehension can confuse disciples who want to know the infinite God in a concise manner. As confusing as Jesus may seem to us, we can rest assured in the trust that Jesus wants to reveal Himself to us constantly in ways that will edify us, cause us either to rejoice or to repent, and perhaps cause us to be so shaken for whatever reason that we fall at his feet as though dead. If such a thing happens to us, then we must trust that Jesus will touch us with his right hand and tell us not to be afraid. Jesus wants to reveal of himself as many images as he can reveal to us during our earthly lives so that we can grow in desire to see him as he is in the world to come – in the world that he has called us to be part of. He wants us to reveal his many images, too, so that we bring all people to him in order for all people to look upon him in awe, wonder, love, and security forever and ever.

Fr. Shawn O'Neal is the Pastoral Administrator at Saint Joseph's Saint Joseph's Catholic Church in Bryson City, NC and Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Cherokee, NC.

2004-04-17T15:59:00.000-07:00

PRAYER: Jennifer at Scandal of Particularity has a good post on prayer featuring a story about Orthodox Metropolitan Anthony Bloom (who died earlier this year). Worth reading.

2004-04-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

DEATH: And while we're on the topic of politicians this week, California Senator Diane Feinstein, attending the funeral of a slain San Francisco police officer, called for the killer to receive the death penalty from the pulpit of Saint Mary's Catholic Cathedral. Comments, anyone?

2004-04-16T09:49:00.000-07:00

CARDINAL FOR A NEW EUROPE: If the Cardinals at the next Conclave decide to go for a European, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna, would be a leading candidate. The Tablet has an excellent profile of the Cardinal that talks about his theological perspective, the work he did on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and his role in helping the Church in Austria begin healing after its own version of the clerical sexual abuse scandal.

2004-04-16T08:06:00.000-07:00

OUR LAST REAL CHANCE: Fareed Zakaria writes in Newsweek about how bad things have become in Iraq. He notes that while the United States "has gotten thousands of things right in Iraq," it has also made crucial political mistakes. Zakaria outlines those mistakes--and what we might do now--in detail, and also notes one of the key problems:

The tragedy is that so much of this was avoidable. The Bush administration went into Iraq with a series of prejudices about Iraq, rogue states, nation-building, the Clinton administration, multilateralism and the U.N. It believed Iraq was going to vindicate these ideological positions. As events unfolded the administration proved stubbornly unwilling to look at facts on the ground, new evidence and the need for shifts in its basic approach. It was more important to prove that it was right than to get Iraq right.

2004-04-16T07:57:00.000-07:00

BISHOPS AND LAITY: John Allen is up this week, with lots of interesting stuff as usual. He notes that the U.S. bishops will soon be making their ad limina visits to Rome. The view in Rome is that the clerical sexual abuse crisis was primarily one of episcopal governance, and the Pope is expected to issue something of a "wake up call" in this regard.

Allen also provides highlights (in his own translation) of the new Directory for the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops, which was issued in February 2004 and is a 300 page job description for a Roman Catholic Bishop. Allen offers an interesting excerpt on the role of the laity:

Laity may be called to collaborate with pastors, according to their conditions, in various ambits: 1) in the exercise of liturgical functions; 2) in participation in the diocesan structures and pastoral activity; 3) in incorporation in the associations erected by ecclesiastical authority; 4) and, singularly, in the work of diocesan and parochial catechesis. All these forms of lay participation are not only possible, but necessary. However, he must avoid that the faithful have a preponderant interest in ecclesiastical services and functions, aside from special vocations, so as not to distance themselves from the secular realm. Professional, social, economic, cultural and political [spheres] are the ambits of their specific responsibility, in which their apostolic action is irreplaceable.”

Hmmm...does Catholic Blogging amount to having a "preponderant interest in ecclesiastical services and functions?" Something to think about....

2004-04-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

WANT TO GET INSPIRED? Then read this Catholic New World interview with Edward McGovern, who will soon be ordained a Maryknoll Priest. He talks about his work in Cambodia, working with HIV patients.

There's been a lot of talk on the blogs this week about whether someone like John Kerry is a "good Catholic." Well all I can say is that compared with someone like Edward McGovern, I don't feel like a very good Catholic either.

Maybe rather than kvetching about how others offer poor witness, we ought to ask ourselves how we ourselves can offer better witness.

2004-04-15T11:37:00.000-07:00

EXTENDED: There's a fellow here in my office this week doing some building maintenance work whose daughter is serving in Iraq. She's a reservist in an MP unit who is also a medic and who regularly drives convoys. She was due to come home in two weeks, but her tour has been extended. Her name is Samantha, and I'd ask you to keep her, her family, and all the men and women serving in Iraq in your prayers.

2004-04-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

TRUTH TELLERS: The other day I had some less than complementary words about Senator Kerry, which led some of my readers to ask if I’m signing up with Team Bush.

Nope.

If you want to know why, check out these reports from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a DC think tank that works on poverty issues. In the name of “deficit reduction,” the Bush Administration and its allies in Congress are planning to freeze and/or cut a number of programs that serve low income families. There are proposed cuts in housing vouchers, WIC, Head Start, and the State Child Health Insurance Program, just to name a few. And despite the fact that there is so much concern about the deficit, the Administration continues to push tax cuts for people who seem to be doing very well indeed.

Now this being the Internet, I suspect that there will be many of a libertarian temperament who will try to convince me that government is the root of all evil and that all these programs are just a big waste of money, etc. Fine. I’m a veteran of far too many Internet debates on this topic to believe that I’m going to change anyone’s opinion here. Let’s just say that I share Abraham Lincoln’s view that “we must have only the government we need, but we must have all the government we need.”

I’m actually interested in making a broader point: to the extent that my Catholic faith influences how I vote—and it does—it often pulls me in opposite directions. There’s no question that when it comes to issues like abortion, the importance of families and fathers, and the role of religious communities in public life, the Republicans have generally been there in ways the Democrats just haven’t. But it’s equally true that when it comes to issues of economic injustice, civil rights, and some of the evils committed in the name of U.S. foreign policy, the Democrats have generally been there in a way the Republicans haven’t. It’s also true that the commitment of either party to any of these issues has all too often been more a matter of rhetoric than substance.

To some Catholics of a liberal or conservative stripe, or for whom a particular issue takes preeminence, it’s a scandal that Catholics are so evenly divided between the two parties. “If all Catholics could come together to support candidates who opposed abortion/cuts in social programs/gay marriage/the war then we could….” Given the diversity among American Catholics, I’m not sure such a vision is realistic. I’m not even sure it’s desirable. I’m not sure that “sanctification of the world” should be equated with the victory of a political candidate, movement or program.

I think we need Catholics in both of the major parties (and even some of the minor ones). And one of the roles we need to play there is that of truth tellers. Because we’re at the point where the rhetoric, the exaggerations and distortions, and the politics of personal destruction on both sides have gotten out of control. We need to call both parties back to their better selves. And sometimes we’re going to need to get in the faces of our own people and ask some tough questions.

Catholic Democrats need to be willing, for example, to ask how the party’s historic commitment to the excluded and disenfranchised is compatible with its aggressive opposition to any effort to protect human life in the womb. Catholic Republicans need to ask whether continuing to push tax cuts for the well-off while cutting programs for the poor really deserves the name “compassionate conservatism.”

Sometimes we’ll do this from a position of critical loyalty, remaining within a political party that—like us—is imperfect. Sometimes we might find ourselves led to the point where we have to vote against our own party or even switch parties. And, of course, there are the increasing number of people who will choose to affiliate with no party and who feel free to speak truth to all or none as the opportunity arises.

I think there is room for all of these in the Church. Because in the end, our Kingdom is not of this world and our ultimate loyalty is not to a candidate, a party, or even to our country. It is to Jesus Christ, our Messiah and Lord. Our challenge is not to win a political victory, because the most important victory has already been won—2,000 years ago at Calvary. Our political challenge as a Church is to live this truth, radically and fully, revealing a vision of human destiny that is beyond the imagining of our present politics.

“The overriding political task of the Church is to be the community of the cross…We would like a church that again asserts that God, not nations, rules the world, that the boundaries of God’s kingdom transcend those of Caesar, and that the main political task of the Church is the formation of people who see clearly the cost of discipleship and are willing to pay it.”

--Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, Resident Aliens

2004-04-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

THE "CATHOLIC SCORE": The Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill has a story about a group of Democratic lawmakers who are preparing their own Catholic Voting Scorecard in an attempt to show that Catholic lawmakers vote with the Bishops more often than their Republican counterparts. Not suprisingly, Catholic Democrats score higher on this "Catholic scorecard" than Republicans.

Beyond the partisan silliness (doesn't this remind you of that old Dr. Seuss cartoon about the Beetle Bottle Battle?), there is actually some interesting information farther down in the story about the work of the USCCB committee looking at how to deal with Catholic politicians whose positions do not reflect Catholic teaching:

[USSCB Government Affairs Liasion Frank] Monahan said a task force in the conference has been assembled to develop a policy for dealing with Catholic politicians whose positions do not reflect Catholic teaching.

But in a report published in March, the conference stated that Catholics should not become single-issue voters: “The Christian faith is an integral unity, and thus it is incoherent to isolate some particular element to the detriment of the whole of Catholic doctrine.”

The task force “is looking at everything,” said Monahan, adding, “It’s not formed around Senator Kerry or members of Congress. It’s dealing with Catholic politicians at all levels. Everything is on the table. They haven’t got too far down the line in their work yet. You’re dealing with a lot of bishops and a lot of points of view.”

2004-04-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

800 YEARS: 800 years ago, European Crusaders sacked Constantinople, widening the rift between the Latin Church and the Orthodox Church. Pope John Paul II has apologized on behalf of the Church for the incident and yesterday Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios accepted that apology and forgave the Catholic Church during a liturgy in Instanbul marking the anniversary. Ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and the Orthodox is often a game of inches, and this can be seen as moving the ball downfield a bit. So let's give thanks for that.

2004-04-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

ALL THE RIGHT QUESTIONS: Real Live Preacher finds he is unable to answer a visiting deacon's questions about his church, but wonders whether they are the right ones.

2004-04-14T09:44:00.000-07:00

HARD QUESTIONS: Telford Work asks some hard questions about blogging today:

I have enjoyed doing this, but my experience has raised questions beyond whether my own commitment level is adequate. The immediacy of the medium has considerable costs and dangers as well as benefits. How many of our prayers are answered immediately? Are Jesus' disciples a discussion group? If so, doesn't Jesus rather often cut off their banter because they aren't getting anywhere? Is this tradition training us to be faithful to the apostolic tradition?

Someone claimed a while ago that if Jesus were alive today (and, er, he is) he would have a blog. Nope. I see the Athenian pundits of Acts 17:21 as the true bloggers.

To be honest, I'm not sure I would recommend blogging to someone at this point. I'm in so deep at this point it's hard to get out, but it consumes a dangerous amount of my time. Telford's questions are worth pondering.

2004-04-14T09:40:00.000-07:00

POST YOUR VIEWS: Feministe has an "open thread" on abortion where you are invited to post your answers to five questions. This is not a debate between posters, just a chance for you to speak for yourself. I would ask everyone to be civil, although with my readers that is generally not a problem. Thanks to Lynn for the link.

And will someone please explain to me how the whole "Track Back" thing works? Am I supposed to link to the TrackBack URL or what?

2004-04-13T21:12:00.000-07:00

SEEKER FRIENDLY: On my way to my Spanish class tonight, I passed the following sign outside a mainline denomination's campus ministry center.

We are an open, inclusive, tolerant campus ministry center open to people of all religions or no religion. If you are a seeker, this is the place for you.

I suppose they felt they had to one-up the denomination two blocks down the street that advertised itself as "Preaching the Inclusive Gospel of Jesus Christ."

Let's just say that churches in Berkeley compete on a different basis than churches in, say, Cleveland.

2004-04-13T17:25:00.000-07:00

STORIES: Doing prayers before bed with a six year old and three year old is always something of a struggle. My kids are pretty wiggly, and have trouble sitting still for the process.

Lately I've tried a new idea. One of the things my kids really enjoy is having me read them stories before bed. So, in addition to the two we do before they brush their teeth, I've agreed to read a story from their children's bible before lights out and we make up a prayer to go with it. Last night was Jesus turning water into wine and we prayed that, like Jesus, when we have the chance to do something nice for someone that we will do it. Nothing profound and the exegesis isn't exactly out of the New Jerome Biblical Commentary, but it works.

My kids are fascinated by stories generally, and seem particularly fascinated by stories from the Bible. They ask all kinds of great questions. My son Joseph wants to be Peter right now. Why, you ask? Well, alas, it's not because Peter seems like such a great disciple. It's because he has a sword and gets to cut off the ear of the high priest's servant. Last year, if you asked my son what his favorite bible story was, he would tell you "Solomon, because he cuts the baby in half!" When it comes to young boys, blood and guts will get them every time! Megan, of course, is fascinated by Mary. Often when we give her a bath, she puts the towel over her head like a hood and says "I'm Mary! I'm Mary!" and dances down the hall. Sort of a naked, Disney Princess Mary, but there you go.

Stories, particularly the stories we read when we're young, have the power to form us. So I'm glad that the stories from scripture are such a big part of my kids' imaginative world right now.

2004-04-13T14:11:00.000-07:00

WELL DESERVED: One of my favorite columnists, Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald, won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Pitts runs in my local paper and I really enjoy his work. He's able to write from a point of view without being preachy and about his family life without being sentimental. At the end of a recent column about winning the award, he had a great paragraph about writers and readers that really spoke to me:

Idealistic young scribes who insist their work is for them alone will disagree, but a writer without readers is like a person shouting in an empty room. And I'm humbled to think how much I owe to all the people who've kept me from shouting into that silence all these years. It is a line that stretches from you who are reading this right now all the way back to a woman in the projects trying to get dinner on, but still finding time to hear stories about a boy who can fly.

Thanks to all the Sursum Corda readers who make this place something more than an empty room.

2004-04-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

RE-PURPOSED: Methodist pastor Jason Byassee asks some tough questions about Rick Warren's "The Purpose Driven Life" in The Christian Century. He has an interesting couple of paragraphs about Warren's views on liturgy:

My final questions concern liturgy. I know, Baptists don't have liturgy. (Saddleback is a Southern Baptist church, though it wears this affiliation lightly.) But Methodists and other churches do. We do not share Warren's exasperation at bringing a nonbeliever to church on one occasion and finding out that it was a communion Sunday. For some churches, communion--with God and one another, instantiated sacramentally--simply is church. Warren warns against churches that "overdo mystical, religious symbols" in their buildings. But what of church traditions for which these are nonnegotiable elements?

Furthermore, it is not obvious to me that nonbelievers are repulsed by what is foreign, odd or "mystical"--not when Hollywood movies gross billions precisely by delivering symbols that defy easy assimilation and require work to understand. I argue this point perhaps less against Warren and more against fellow church members in bodies whose ecclesiologies should drive them to act differently, yet whose lust for numbers and dollars turns them toward mimicking Saddleback (something Warren himself consistently discourages).

2004-04-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

SPRED: In the "good things Catholics do" department, I just wanted to put in a brief plug for SPRED (Special Religious Education), which is a network of services designed to assist persons with developmental disabilities and/or learning problems to become integrated into parish assemblies of worship through the process of education in their faith. Here's a link to the Chicago Diocese SPRED web site. A number of other dioceses, including my own diocese of Oakland, have worked with Chicago to develop their own programs.

2004-04-12T16:49:00.000-07:00

SUDAN Christianity Today has coverage and links of the crisis in the Sudan. Wracked for years by a civil war between the Muslim North and the Christian and animist south, the nation is now facing an intra-Muslim dispute caused by the negotiations to end the North-South conflict.

2004-04-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

EVENLY DIVIDED: A new poll from CARA shows Catholics to be about evenly divided between Kerry (46 percent) and Bush (41 percent). It's unclear whether an option for Nader (or any third-party candidate) was included in the poll.

2004-04-12T11:36:00.000-07:00

THE KERRY PROBLEM: Since I’m a Catholic blogger, I guess I’m supposed to have an opinion about the Kerry mess. So here goes:

First of all, let me say that whether Kerry is a good, bad or indifferent Catholic has absolutely no bearing on whether or not I will vote for him in November. I’d cheerfully vote for an atheist if I thought he would be a good president. In fact, it might be an improvement compared to the dime-store sanctimony one usually hears coming out of the Oval Office from both Democrats and Republicans.

For me, at least, abortion is not the only issue I will consider when making a choice of a candidate. Yes, I’d like to see the Supreme Court get out of the business of legislating on this issue and let the states have a shot at it. That’s the way it works in Europe. But that’s not the only issue I judge candidates for the Supreme Court by and, by extension, what a Presidential candidate may or may not do with the Court is only one factor among many that go into my decision-making process.

I would also note that the Democratic nominee doesn’t stand in a vacuum. One has to compare him to the gentleman currently holding the office of President. It seems to me that one could, if one were so inclined, conclude that the current occupant has done such a poor job that he must be removed, even if the man most likely to replace him suffers from numerous flaws. That is generally the kind of choice that our system leaves us with. But there are worse things in the world than a stable political system that generally produces flawed leaders. Look at Iraq, for example.

But there is this second issue of what the Church, internally, should do when it has a high-profile member who is “way off the reservation,” so to speak. And this really is a difficult issue.

I wrote a piece for U.S. Catholic last July that tried to wrestle with this problem. It’s not just that the Bishops or the Vatican are getting tougher, although they clearly are. It’s also that pro-choice Catholic candidates themselves are becoming more extreme in their stands. Someone like Mario Cuomo clearly felt a sense of accountability to the Catholic Church’s historic witness against abortion, even if he felt that this wasn’t a reasonable basis for public policy. But increasingly, pro-choice Catholic politicians don’t even seem to be trying anymore.

There are some exceptions to this. I was interested to see, for example, former PA Governor Tom Ridge’s reaction when some of the Pennsylvania bishops started preventing pro-choice politicians from speaking on Church property. One of the things he said was “I’m the one who has created the problem, because I’ve moved away from my Church on this issue.” To me, that’s a very different response than the one CA Governor Gray Davis once gave: “Who is the bishop to tell Catholics how to practice their faith?” The latter response, even if it is not stated quite so boldly, undermines the teaching authority of the Bishops and the Catholic understanding of the Church. It cannot go unchallenged.

Statements like Ridge’s, alas, are increasingly the exception. Many pro-choice politicians—Catholic or otherwise-- seem to be as beholden to NARAL as the GOP is to the NRA. In my view, the comparison is quite apt, because NARAL opposes any legislation that would recognize the value of life in the womb, even if does not directly affect access to abortion. Pro-choice pundits like Bill Saletan at Slate have noted the increasing extremism of NARAL and its allies in this regard.

Politicians like Kerry simply cannot expect the Bishops to sit idly by and do nothing in this situation. I have often said (and there are many who disagree with me) that people committed to the proposition that abortion is the taking of human life can differ about the appropriate policy strategies for dealing with it. But indifference is not an option, and indifference—not to mention active support—is what the Bishops are increasingly faced with.

I’m not really competent to speak on the issue of whether Kerry should be denied communion. Given what we believe as Catholics about the Eucharist, I think that denial of communion would be a very, very big deal. I would note that both Kerry’s own bishop, Bishop O’Malley, and Francis Cardinal George have been reluctant to pull the trigger on this one. The Bishops have to find a way to be firm in their teaching without giving the impression that they are taking sides in an election. That’s not their role, and most of them understand that.

It seems to me that one thing they can say about Senator Kerry, though, is that he’s hypocrite. He says that he is “personally opposed” to abortion, but there is nothing in his record to suggest that he has even said anything negative about abortion, let alone done anything. Even Mario Cuomo was willing to say publicly that abortion was a “tragedy” and that “1.5 million abortions a year are too many.” Will there every be a Sister Souljah moment when Kerry looks his pro-choice supporters in the eye and says “you’ve gone too far.” Don’t bet on it.

2004-04-12T06:17:00.000-07:00

ABOVE THE FRAY? Well Lent is over, which means I can break my self-imposed ban on commenting on current events. It was very hard to stick to at times, but on the whole I think it was good for me. The focus on inner work paid significant dividents.

But I was a wee bit concerned when The Revealer described Sursum Corda as "an elegant selection of ideas, sermons, and prayers that tries to remain above the fray." Now who can argue with being "elegant?" And I'll admit that I have little stomach for the kind of polemical assaults that seem to be the currency of exchange in certain parts of the Internet.

But I certainly haven't been shy about offering viewpoints on current events, hence this blog's subtitle: "Topical musings from a Catholic perspective." What I have tried to do is be reasonably civil and avoid characterizing those with different views as the spawn of Satan. If that makes me "above the fray" so be it. I guess I have the hope that "the fray" can be something more than a mosh pit.

You'll be hearing from me soon...

2004-04-11T12:30:00.000-07:00

STILL TRYING TO RISE: Well, I missed it all, the whole dang Triduum. I was hoping I'd feel better this morning, but no dice. Gina went to the Vigil Mass last night and saw our pastor, who sardonically remarked that maybe God was trying to send me a message. He's a little worried that I don't seem to get enough sleep and he's right, of course.

So as Gina and the kids headed off to the big family Easter shindig, I was all set to feel sorry for myself. But then an e-mail from a friend arrived, with something written by Michael Garvey that cheered me up:

God does the choosing and you find out about the rest gradually from your folks: How you have landed in a turbulent and global household with the galaxy's most eccentric rules; that the lights are never to be put out and the stranger never to be turned away; that the meals are to be served whenever there is hunger; that the groceries must be generously depleted and generously replenished with everything everyone has; that those who fret and grouse and cheat and lie and steal and kill must be relentlessly sought out and brought back to life; that those who break the rules and those who abandon the house must be pursued to the remotest frontiers of their souls and forgiven; that those who pass judgment on the violators of house rules, like those who take their author for granted, are doomed. And that those who inhabit the household must always remember that what is outside is ending.

Amen, bro. Happy Easter everyone!

2004-04-10T11:52:00.000-07:00

EASTER VIGIL:

Fr. Shawn O'Neal's Easter Vigil Homily

Gn 1:1–2:2 or Gn 1:1, 26-31a
Ps 104:1-2, 5-6, 10, 12, 13-14, 24, 35
Gn 22:1-18 or Gn 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18
Ps 16:5, 8, 9-10, 11
Ex 14:15--15:1
Ex 15:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 17-18
Is 54:5-14
Ps 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12, 13
Is 55:1-11
Is 12:2-3, 4, 5-6
Bar 3:9-15, 32--4:4
Ps 19:8, 9, 10, 11
Ez 36:16-17a, 18-28
Ps 42:3, 5; 43:3, 4
Rom 6:3-11
Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
Lk 24:1-12

You would be surprised how many long discussions and arguments have started as a result of the last verse of our Gospel reading. Scholars and historians have been attempting to determine for decades whether the last verse concerning Peter was an original verse written by the evangelist or a verse included by a later editor. I make these comments especially because some Bibles do not include the verse at all as if they move from the eleventh verse to the thirteenth verse without a twelfth verse in between them.

You would be amazed, too, if you discovered how many people become frustrated by the lack of consistency about the Resurrection of Our Lord as this scene is presented within all four Gospels.

It is too bad that people become frustrated about these things. People throughout the world should rejoice in the fact that our Gospels reveal one common belief – that the Savior of the World conquered death and sin through his death on the cross and his resurrection from that same death. That is nothing at all to become frustrated about. We should grow in joy as a result of what we have heard. There are times when we need to ignore the small details and rejoice when we receive great news. There are times when we should attempt to fill the imperfect cracks in the world and in our lives, but more time should be used to unite ourselves with the One who has called us to share in his perfection.

The details could seem inconsistent, but the important aspect that we need to remember now and always is that Our Lord did as He said he would do. He suffered, he died, and he has risen. That is what we should always remember and be thankful for most of all.

2004-04-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

GOOD FRIDAY:

Fr. Shawn O'Neal's Good Friday Homily

Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Psalm 31:2,6,12-13,15-17,25
Hebrews 4:14-16;5:7-9
John 18:1-19:42

When a person confesses something, the matter confessed is usually considered to be something that many people would not like to know or would like to hope never happened. It is a pity that the word “confession” causes people to think only about negative deeds. Many people within our society have no idea that confession can be a good thing – as if “to profess” means that something good will be said and “to confess” means that something bad will be said. It is unfortunate that our culture has attempted to place strict negative meaning on an otherwise positive verb.

In the letter to the Hebrews, the author reminds the disciples of Jesus to hold fast to what they believe in good faith. Confession can mean that, too – as in holding fast. In this case, the author of the letter wants people to speak of the power and love of God during times of great struggle with the same hope and joy as would be used during times of great happiness. The author wants to help disciples to never become fair-weather-only disciples. I thank God that we have this reading today, because if there is ever a foul-weather day, to put it lightly, it is today. But even today, through the power of God, we can have the courage to tell the world that the love of God is stronger than anything anyone can put up against it.

If you want to meditate on something odd during the next 24 hours, then meditate on all the times Saint Paul considered the crucifixion as a glorious moment for all humanity. At first glance, it seems an odd thing to boast. He told people that he was proud to preach about the crucified Christ. He rejoiced in the fact that Jesus was nailed to the cross. At one point in his life, he rejoiced in the fact that the insurgent Jesus was going to be put away for all time; later on, thank God, Paul rejoiced that Jesus put away any barrier that kept Paul and everyone else out of Heaven.

Paul confessed his faults and his faith, and we are called to confess both of those for the sake of the salvation of the world. We called to confess our faults so we can receive the Lord’s healing power and we are called to confess our faith so everyone around us can know how much God loves his people. The fair-weather disciples have scattered in disbelief; the true disciples, although saddened by what they have seen their Lord endure, hold fast in their confession in order to reassure each other and assure strangers that what Jesus promised is going to come true.

2004-04-08T20:46:00.000-07:00

HOLY THURSDAY:

Fr. Shawn O'Neal's Holy Thursday Homily

Exodus 12:1-8,11-14
Psalm 116:12-13,15-16bc,17-18
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-15

If you either receive or buy Time magazine, then you know the main story featured on the cover. You know that theologians, ministers, and various experts have speculated on why Jesus endured what we celebrate tonight and tomorrow. I choose not to cast aside all the speculation that has occurred within the article. I choose not to consider as useless all the speculation, dialogue, and writing that has been done in an effort to examine why Jesus did what He did.

However, no enlightened academic can provide a sufficient explanation for the suffering Jesus endured. Numerous people have neither read a theology book nor attended a theology class during their years in school. Their latest theological reference point might be “The Passion of the Christ.” Yet these amateurs ask the same questions asked by the supposed professionals. They want to know why Jesus did everything he did as he did it. Could there have been another way to do it?

As we seek to understand this great question, we can act as Peter acts in many portions of the Gospel – and as a result, we can imitate his frustration. When we think we know the best course of action, Jesus directs us onto a different path. When we believe we understand comprehensively the context of any given situation, Jesus informs us that we do not know well what we believe we understand well. This type of dialogue can frustrate many people.

Jesus knows this can happen; in order to keep faith alive and to remove any frustration, Jesus gives us a statement filled with hope: you are going to understand later. Jesus is going to make sure that we understand later. Jesus promises us that we are going to understand later. Unfortunately for humanity, the promise given by Jesus can provoke an immature response: How much later is later? Humanity has the ability to take a statement that was meant to inspire us and turn it into a statement that can discourage us simply because we do not know all the specifics. We do not know when later is. Later is out of our control and we grow angry because we find this concept difficult to accept. When we do not know the specifics, we act as the disciples acted as they walked to Emmaus after Jesus was crucified and buried: we have a burning heart filled with hope, but we do not give our attention to the heart because the head is unnecessarily confused. But we walk by faith; we do not walk by sight. If we walk simply by sight as our own two eyes present the world to us, then we do not see everything as it is.

For the next few days and for the whole of our lives, Jesus wants us to use something greater than the gift of sight He gave us so we can receive this new understanding when Jesus wants us to have it. Throughout these liturgies and throughout our lives, it would be good for us to tell God that we believe, but we need help understanding what He does for us. If we ask for understanding, then we are going to receive it. When we receive it, I hope that we accept it and rejoice in it.

2004-04-08T17:12:00.000-07:00

HOLY THURSDAY: Well, I had a bit of a relapse and I'm home sick again and not much in the mood for blogging. Looks like I'll be missing the Holy Thursday mass tonight and Good Friday isn't looking good either. Kind of a tough end to my Lent.

But enough whining. One thing I did want to do before signing off was to offer a prayer for all of our priests tonight. We make a lot of demands on these guys and we give them a lot of grief. But the priests I know well have helped me know Christ more deeply and walk more closely in His footsteps. So on Holy Thursday 2004, I just wanted to say "thanks" and ask God to watch over them.

Back to bed....

2004-04-07T16:52:00.000-07:00

EVENING PRAYER:

Breathe into me, Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy.
Move in me, Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy.
Attract my heart, Holy Spirit, that I may love only what is holy.
Strengthen me, Holy Spirit, that I may defend all that is holy.
Protect me, Holy Spirit, that I may always be holy.

--Saint Augustine

2004-04-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

A SUFFERING GOD? When I first began to study theology, one of the most challenging ideas I encountered was the notion of divine impassability. The word "impassible" means impervious to suffering and is often taken to mean that God is impervious to any emotional states at all.

Such a notion seems to fly in face of what many of us learn about God as children. We are taught that God loves us, that he hears our prayers, and that he becomes angry if we are cruel to others. Because we are Christians, we believe that—as my six year old son likes to declare vehemently—"Jesus is God!" Even if, theologically, such a statement cannot be accepted without some refinements, it reflects a popular Christian belief that things that can be attributed to Jesus—including, of course, emotional states—are also part of God’s nature.

We have come quite far from the world of the early Church fathers, where divine impassability was taken not so much as something to be proved, but rather as an axiom from which theological speculation had to proceed. One of the reasons that the paths to Nicea and Chalcedon sometimes seem so tortuous in retrospect is that the professed divinity of the demonstrably human and passable Jesus needed to be reconciled with a strong belief in divine impassability that was shared by virtually all of those involved in the debate.

But why was this so important? And does it remain important for us today? Does the doctrine help us to "think rightly" of God? Or does it obscure Him?

Some 20th century theologians, such as Jurgen Moltmann, have made powerful arguments for a "passionate" God, a God who suffers along with His suffering creatures. Moltmann argues that if God were incapable of suffering in every respect, then he would also be incapable of love. But unlike human beings, who must suffer out of necessity, Moltmann argues that only God is capable of making a completely free decision to suffer with his creation.

There are a number of reasons that the arguments of Moltmann and others like him resonate so powerfully in contemporary culture. Faced with the enormous human suffering of the last century, the idea of an impassible God seems almost to be an obscenity. How can God not weep when faced with the horrors of Auschwitz, Srebrenica, and Rwanda? Furthermore, our contemporary understanding of personhood leads us to assume that a "personal" God must be capable of emotional states and to resist the idea that a lack of emotional states is a perfection.

I find that when I preach on the scriptures out at the county jail where I volunteer, something close to the idea of a "suffering God" often resonates with these men. When speaking of the problem of men returning to jail after being released, I sometimes ask the men to remember that Jesus stumbled three times on the way to Calvary. When speaking of their pain and loneliness, I ask them to remember that Jesus also suffered pain and that He understands what they are going through. I often see heads nodding when I speak words like this.

But we shouldn’t assume that this is the only image of God that can speak to people in their suffering. I remember the words that a woman in our parish small group spoke one night: "I don’t really need a God who is as bad off as I am." What this woman needed was not so much solidarity with her suffering, but the hope of transcending that suffering. Knowing the ebb and flow of her own emotional states and the inconstancy of love that often resulted from them, she trusted in a God who, in all times and all places, was faithful and loving.

Perhaps the problem is not so much impassibility per se as the way we have explained it. Fr. Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM Cap, author of Does God Suffer?, once argued in First Things that contemporary theologians have interpreted impassibility as a positive attribute, i.e. that God is static, lifeless and inert. Weinandy argues that, on the contrary, the impassibility of God should be seen as a negative attribute, i.e. that God is not anything that would prevent him from being perfectly loving. God’s emotional state does not change because no change is needed to perfect his love for us. Rather than being a manifestation of “emotional inadequacy,” God’s impassibility is the guarantor of His everlasting fidelity and love. God already is what we strive—and often fail—to be.

In the end, I find myself torn in both directions in this debate. But I am increasingly drawn to the position that God’s impassibility—properly understood—may well give me a better way of understanding the fidelity and love of God than some of the contemporary alternatives.

Be a rock of refuge for me,
a mighty stronghold to save me,
for you are my rock, my stronghold.
For your name’s sake, lead me and guide me.

--Psalm 31

2004-04-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

TEN YEARS: Today is the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the Rwandan genocide. Of all the remarks made in the days leading up today, these words from Romeo Dallaire--the Canadian general who commanded the ill-equipped U.N. forces in Rwanda at the time of the genocide--stayed with me:

I still believe that if an organisation decided to wipe out the 320 mountain gorillas [in Rwanda’s Virunga Mountains], I believe there would still be more of a reaction to curtail or stop that today than there would be in attempting to protect thousands of human beings slaughtered in the same country.

Not all humans are ‘human’ in the international context. Some countries are seen as important, but we have coldly created a [lower] tier of orphan nations. I’m afraid we haven’t learned, and the same thing could happen again. How do you live with that?

And of course, as a Catholic, I must ponder the complicity of Catholics--indeed, of Christians of all stripes--in the genocide as well.

If you are looking for a good book to read about the Rwandan genocide, try Philip Gourevitch's We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda.

2004-04-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

MORNING PRAYER:

Grant our brothers and sisters of Rwanda peace.
Uhe amahoro abavandimwe bacu b'abanyarwanda

--Catholic Relief Service

2004-04-06T15:07:00.000-07:00

EVENING PRAYER:

Give us, Lord, a lively faith, a firm hope, a fervent charity, a love of you.
Take from us all lukewarmness in meditation, dullness in prayer.
Give us fervor and delight in thinking of you and your grace, your tender compassion towards me.
The things we pray for, good Lord, give us grace to labor for: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

--Saint Thomas More

2004-04-06T14:54:00.000-07:00

PSALM 116: Fr. Jeff has composed his own chant for Psalm 116, which will be sung on Holy Thursday. Listen to it here.

2004-04-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

THROW AWAY EVERYTHING: This was a great Lent. In fact, it might have been my best Lent ever. I don't think I did anything particularly different or special. It was just a grace, and I'm very grateful for it. I particularly grateful for all the people who wrote me or commented about the things I posted along the way. It was like pilgrims conversing on the road to Canterbury or the Tomb of Saint James.

But I sort of came crashing down from my high over the past few days while I've been sick. My stomach hurt like hell and I got way behind on various assignments I had undertaken. All in all it wasn't an auspicious start to Holy Week.

But I came across this quote from Flannery O'Connor's story A Good Man is Hard to Find that helped set me straight. It comes from the lips of The Misfit, the escaped criminal who is central to the story:

"Jesus is the only One who ever raised the dead." The Misfit continued, "and he shouldn't have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it's nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow Him, and if He didn't, then it's nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can--by klling somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness," he said and his voice had become almost a snarl."

The events of this week present us with a choice. Is Jesus just another prophet who died a violent death (of which there are no shortage)? Or was he something more? Did He really rise from the dead? And if He did, how should our lives change? Something to think about...

2004-04-06T06:57:00.000-07:00

MORNING PRAYER:

Father, may we receive your forgiveness and mercy as we celebrate the passion and death of the Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

--Opening Prayer for Tuesday of Holy Week

2004-04-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

PALM SUNDAY:

Fr. Shawn O'Neal's Sunday Homily
Palm Sunday 2004

Lk 19:28-40
Is 50:4-7
Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
Phil 2:6-11
Lk 22:14--23:56

The following text is an open letter to the criminal who reviled Jesus:

I hope that you understood Jesus’ intentions before you died on the cross. I hope that you corrected your words while you had the chance to do so. Jesus chose to save us first rather than save himself at all. Jesus chose to lead us into greater freedom than can be put into words. Jesus wanted all humanity to ascend into heaven once again; therefore, he refused to descend from the cross.

Dear Sir, you are not the only person to be confounded by what you saw and heard. It is a great mystery for all believers in Jesus the Christ – even the most steadfast believers – who want to know the specific “how” and “why” of the release of God’s people from sin and death through such a sacrificial self-offering. But Jesus said he would do it because He loved us. Love cannot always be explained, but that does not make it any less powerful. There is no greater love than this, that Jesus gave his life for the sake of the people whom he loved.

He could have saved himself. He was powerful enough to do it. Yet he placed his love of others ahead of any love of self. That is something that humanity is always going to find difficult both to understand and to imitate.

Fr. Shawn O'Neal is the Pastoral Administrator at Saint Joseph's Saint Joseph's Catholic Church in Bryson City, NC and Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Cherokee, NC.

2004-04-03T19:55:00.000-08:00

LIFE FORCE gradually seems to be returning. Will try more vertical activity tomorrow. Am getting very tired of rice, bread and applesauce...

2004-04-02T13:55:00.000-08:00

STILL DOWN: Still feeling awful today. Doc thinks its probably a stomach flu, but scheduled a few tests anyway. My first abdominal ultrasound, whoopee!

Thanks for continuing to check in. Sorry I don't have any great inspirational words to offer right now. I've posted a couple of daily digs from the Bruderhof folks below.

I will say this, though. My prayer life--at least my organized prayer life--gets shot to you-know-where when I'm sick like this. But maybe that's the point. Maybe we're never more truly at prayer then when we are reduced to simply clutching a bible to our chest and saying "Please God, just take the pain away so I can sleep."

And, of course, I can't help but wonder if God's sense of humor is operative here somewhere. This weekend I had a number of events scheduled, including a planning meeting for a prison retreat, a class at pastoral ministry school, and a stint out at the county jail on Sunday. I've been forced to abandon all plans. "Be still and know that I am God," and all that.

Okay, back to bed....

2004-04-02T13:48:00.000-08:00

THY WILL BE DONE: Here's a thought for the day from the Bruderhof folks, who really seem to know how to pick these. This one is from Edith Stein, a.k.a. Sister Teresa Bendicta of the Cross

"Thy will be done," in its full extent, must be the guideline for the Christian life. It must regulate the day from morning to evening, the course of the year, and the entire of life. Only then will it be the sole concern of the Christian. All other concerns the Lord takes over. This one alone, however, remains ours as long as we live. And, sooner or later, we begin to realize this. In the childhood of the spiritual life, when we have just begun to allow ourselves to be directed by God, we feel his guiding hand quite firmly and surely. But it doesn’t always stay that way. Whoever belongs to Christ must go the whole way with him. He must mature to adulthood: he must one day or other walk the way of the cross to Gethsemane and Golgotha.

2004-04-02T13:45:00.000-08:00

FLESH AND BLOOD: Here's another Thought for the Day from the Bruderhof, this one from Christoph Blumhardt:

I do not think much of “spiritual” communities. They do not last. People are friends for a while, but it eventually ends. Anything that is going to last must have a much deeper foundation than some kind of spiritual experience. Unless we have community in the body, in things material, we will never have it in spiritual matters. We are not mere spirits. We are human beings of flesh and blood.

2004-04-01T10:03:00.000-08:00

OTHER BLOGS: Since I'm still feeling lousy today, I thought I would direct your attention to some other blogs that have come to my attention recently, such as One House: An Exploration of the Contemplative Life, and Rolling Rains: Precipitating Dialogue on Travel, Disability, and Universal Design.

2004-04-01T09:29:00.000-08:00

MORNING PRAYER:

Lord Jesus, you came into the world
to heal our infirmities
and to endure our sufferings.
You went about healing all
and bringing comfort
to those in pain and need.
We come before you now
in this time of illness
asking that you may be the source
of our strength in body,
courage in spirit
and patience in pain.
May we join ourselves more closely
to you on the cross
and in your suffering
that through them
we may draw our patience and hope.
Assist us and restore us to health
so that united more closely
to your family, the Church,
we may give praise and honour to your name. Amen

--Catholic Doors Ministry

2004-04-01T09:26:00.000-08:00

KEEP THOSE PRAYERS COMING: My friend who has been diagnosed with Renal Cancer wrote to say how grateful he was for the prayers of my readers. So keep 'em coming. The cancer appears to be confined to one kidney, so if it can be removed there is a strong chance for a complete recovery. For those of you who find it difficult to pray for someone without some kind of name, you can just call my friend "Mike." I'm sure the Good Lord will know who you are talking about. Apparently the phone is ringing off the hook up there....

2004-03-31T10:01:00.000-08:00

SICK AS A DOG: That's me right now. Don't know whether this is a garden variety GI bug or a sign that I need to raise the dosage on the purple pill. In any case, blogging may be scant today.

Can I just put in a pitch for prayers for my wife Gina, who is a real saint. She's had some kind of respiratory ailment for about eight weeks now that makes her very tired. They've got her on all the appropriate meds, but the pace of improvement is slow. But she's still up every morning to get the kids to school. I feel rather bad about adding to her burdens.

Thanks. Back to bed...

2004-03-30T17:09:00.000-08:00

EVENING PRAYER:

O Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul
I adore you.
Enlighten me, guide me,
strengthen me and console me.
Tell me what I ought to do
and command me to do it.
I promise to be submissive in everything that you ask me to do
and to accept everything that you permit to happen to me.
Only show me what is your will
And give me the grace to do it.
Amen.

--Désiré Joseph Cardinal Mercier