Pope's Mission Intention

The Pope's mission intention for August is particularly beautiful: 

"That the answer of the entire people of God to the common vocation to sanctity and mission may be promoted and fostered, with careful discernment of the charisms and a constant commitment to spiritual and cultural formation"

One Minute Monk

The Abbey of Mary, Help of Christians (Belmont Abbey) is a small Benedictine community and college, with a very noble history of evangelization and missionary zeal, in the verdant foothills near Charlotte in Western North Carolina. Belmont is a daughter of St Vincent's in Latrobe, Pennsylvania and was founded by a group of monks led by the indomitable Abbot Leo Haid in 1876. Before a diocese was established in North Carolina in 1924 (the Diocese of Raleigh) the Abbot of Belmont had succeeded Cardinal James Gibbons as the Vicar-Apostolic and the monks had responsibility for many of the parishes, missions, and stations in North and South Carolina. The Abbey remained a territorial abbey with territory comprising some of the surrounding counties with the Abbot exercising episcopal authority until the Holy See suppressed the territory shortly after the erection of the Diocese of Charlotte in the mid-1970's. 

I have the privilege of being a Benedictine Oblate of Belmont and since all of my family is from the Western Carolinas we well know the influence of the monks and their college (the current governor of North Carolina is an alumnus). Furthermore, their history is an excellent study in evangelization and home mission, since it was primarily their witness that drew many in those early days of the North Carolina mission to Catholicism, because they, as all Benedictines do, presented the Christian society in microcosm and offered a taste of it to Protestant North Carolina. In so doing, they drew many to the Faith and some even to the monastic life. 

The spirit of mission and evangelization continues... 

The Abbot of Belmont has recently begun a one-minute a day radio spot dedicated to exploring "the timeless wisdom of the Rule of St Benedict." It does not appear that you can listen to any of these spots on their website, but you can order a free copy of the Rule from the site and find out more about bringing "One Minute Monk" to a Catholic radio station in your area. 

American Catholic Polarization

h/t: the ever thoughtful Clarity Daily:

George Wesolek, Director of the Archdiocese of San Francisco's Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns, has a thought-provoking guest editorial in Catholic San Francisco about the upcoming election, the bitter polarization between US Catholics that our elections inflame, and how politicians have taken advantage of this polarization.

"Structural decisions made 34 years ago by American Catholic Church leaders - bishops, clergy, religious and laity - are a primary cause of these circumstances today. The fruit of these decisions continues to be an obstacle to American Catholic unity of thought and purpose and the cause of bitter division and partisan infighting.

When the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops set up a separate Pro - life ministry with its own staff and network right across the hall from its office for Social Development and World Peace ( Justice and Peace ) , it set in motion a chain of developments that has compartmentalized Catholic social teaching and helped to create two Catholic constituencies. Instead of establishing one office of Catholic social teaching which would expound one message - clearly and consistently about the human person from the unborn through the life cycle right until death - the decision makers set up parallel structures, each with its own message. These structures resulted in dysfunction and confusion that continues to this day.

Each message has created a constituency around it. These two constituencies often have little in common; have opposite world - views regarding culture and politics and, frankly, dislike each other.

More problematically, by dichotomizing the essence of the message of Catholic social teaching, it has allowed Catholic constituencies to pick and choose their favorite Catholic social teaching concept and discard or trivialize other important elements. In the present political climate, it has allowed "cover" for Catholics, especially Catholic politicians. With faith and values all the rage now in both political parties, it is clear Catholic politicians will continue to claim the mantle of faith by using terminology, sometimes taken directly from the "Compendium on Catholic Social Teaching," to describe their beliefs about the poor, the unborn and the like. Unfortunately, all too often, they will proclaim only part of the teaching, not all of it.

I cannot help but wonder what the present American political theater would look like if the Catholic Church had been teaching a unified, clear and consistent message for more than 30 years. Could it be that legalized abortion would be a thing of the past? Could it be that healthcare and housing would be available to all? If a core group of 65 million Catholics understood the Church's full message and acted on it, would there be the a Democratic Party today which still considers pro - life Democrats as somehow unfaithful? Would Planned Parenthood still have a stranglehold on the party? Would the Republican Party have a different slant on those who live on the margins of society as more than just collateral damage of Adam Smith's "invisible hand"? Could it be that with a unified and consistent message taught more than three decades, there would actually be a true "Catholic vote" in the U.S.?

The structural dysfunction caused by separate structures negates and distorts the fact that Catholic social teaching is seamless. The teaching of the Church does not have different principles for different social issues. There is no set of Catholic teaching that applies only to life issues or only to issues of economic or social justice. Each of the basic principles of Catholic Social Teaching is immediately applicable to all situations that involve the human situation, both personal and social. At the core of the teaching is the anthropological assertion that every human being has a dignity that is sacred - that every person is made in the imago Dei regardless of race or creed, whether rich or poor, smart or not, athletic or disabled. That principle extends from the moment of conception until the moment of natural death and includes everybody in between. It is the basis for our concern and legislative advocacy about the African who lives on less than 65 cents a day, for the millions of children with no medicine who die before the age of five, for those with no food or shelter both abroad and in our own country, for the unborn and the vulnerable elderly.

The precipitating event that instigated this structural course of action was the advent of Roe vs. Wade. What had been presumed as unthinkable became a legal reality - abortion on demand, for any reason to anyone, more available even than some common medical interventions. After some 48 million abortions to this day, the attacks on this fundamental human freedom, the right to life, become more widespread with the possibility of assisted suicide becoming legal in more states than Oregon.

The structural response by the Church after Roe was to institutionalize the educational and advocacy efforts to overturn the decision and to stop the tide of other dehumanizing legislation akin to it. At the time, it perhaps seemed logical to set up a separate office to meet this threat. Many dioceses followed the model.

The two separate constituencies created and galvanized by this structural framework began fighting early and still wage war in a cultural and political context. "Justice and Peace" constituents quickly grabbed onto Cardinal Joseph Bernadin's "consistent ethic of life" metaphor implying if not asserting outright that certain Catholic politicians who were pro - abortion made up for it by being good ( and therefore acceptable under the Catholic mantle ) on a host of other issues on the spectrum: poverty, health care, etc. Many in the pro - life community, on the other hand, developed a tunnel vision approach, which would not even mention any other issue regarding the poor other than abortion. Their passion for this issue drove them completely into the embrace of the Republican Party. This embrace brought with it support for no tax - and - spend policies and a philosophy of government that does not align with classical Catholic social teaching and Vatican encyclicals of the last 100 years. The other side, the classic "economic justice" Catholic ( most of whom are now in their waning years ) will overlook a Catholic politician's perfect 100 percent rating by NARAL ( National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws ) and do anything to elect them with an equal amount of passion. Although it is now difficult ( one hopes ) to maintain Catholic identity and be "pro choice," they survive by winking and nodding at the abortion issue, basically trivializing it.

A unified structural model of social action works. Both the life constituency and the peace and justice constituency get the same message. The action on behalf of justice at the "Walk for Life" and at the Conference on Global Poverty model to them the completeness of the Catholic social teaching message. Pro - life people are becoming aware and supporting action for the poor, supporting the end to the death penalty, while "justice" people are marching at the West Coast Walk For Life.

Over the course of these 30 - plus years, there has been a gradual evolution of the bishops' clarity on Catholic social teaching. The confusion about abortion and euthanasia being "one of many issues on the spectrum of life" has been rejected. The bishops now state: "The direct and intentional destruction of human life is always wrong and is not just one issue among many. It must always be opposed." ( Faithful Citizenship 2007 )

The bishops are also clear that: "Opposition to abortion and euthanasia does not excuse indifference to those who suffer from poverty, violence and injustice. Any politics of human life must work to resist the violence of war and the scandal of capital punishment. Any politics of human dignity must seriously address issues of racism, poverty, hunger, employment, education, housing and health care." ( Living the Gospel of Life )

So now the catechesis is whole and integral again. The structures and educational strategies to communicate them are not."


I would certainly agree that separate structures has perpetuated separate factions. But I think the author doesn't go back far enough in history. The separate factions already existed and were driving the whole debate about abortion in the early 70's.

The one factor that Wesolak has not mentioned iis the huge cultural upheaval of the 60's. Timing is everything. By the time the Roe V. Wade decision was made in the early 70's, political discourse in this country had already radically changed. Peace and justice issues, including racial justice and opposition to the Vietnam war, had already become inexorably tied to the sexual revolution and so had the right to abortion through the early feminist movement. If Roe V Wade had been handed down in 1963, before things became so polarized, the Catholic response might have progressed very differently.

Conservatives who opposed abortion were simultaneously resisting the sexual revolution (and remember, often opposing racial justice and supporting the Vietnam war) and in midst of an even more charged climate than we have today, naturally came to associate the advocates of social justice with the opposition. It was a kind of political and pastoral civil war. The structures of the US Bishop's Office reflected a divide that had already torn apart the entire country.

As Wesolak notes, it has taken 45 years for the US Bishops to reintegrate the disparate strands of Catholic social teaching into a coherent whole. But the echoes of our social civil war still drive so much of our political realities and it is those realities, not Church teaching, that drives most of our Catholic discourse on the subject.

Catholic Writing in Singapore

Daniel Tay of Singapore, writes of his experience at World Youth Day and specifically about what he learned at our Australian team's presentation at the Days in the Diocese in Melbourne. A view of the Called & Gifted process from the flip side of the world.

"During World Youth Day in Sydney, and the Days in the Dioceses leading up to it which I experienced in Melbourne, I gained three important insights. The first one was to start loving myself more.

The second spiritual insight I gained was an affirmation of what I had been working on while I was still in Singapore. It was during the FireBrandz Conference that I first had an inkling on what it was about. It concerns using our God-given gifts. When I later heard it again during a workshop “Called To Witness” conducted by members from the Catherine of Siena Institute, I couldn’t believe my ears.

One of the speakers spoke about how we could use our God-given charisms to achieve supernatural effects, and how using these charisms were our path to holiness. The speaker also explained the difference between charisms and gifts, which is something I had been grappling with for some time.

A gift is a natural talent that we have. A charism, on the other hand, combines our gifts together with the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives to achieve supernatural effects. The key word here is “supernatural”, because most of us know that we can only achieve so much on our own, or even when we work as a team. But when we work together with God, we can effects that are naturally impossible, hence the word “supernatural”.

Another insight that I gained from the talk is that while we are born with gifts, charisms are given to us only at baptism and at confirmation. This teaching irons out another issue I had been grappling with, and I am pleased to learn that the insights I had late last year on gifts and using them to change the world were not just something I came up with, but are really part of the richness of our Catholic faith.

For example, one of my charisms lies in writing, and when I started, I knew only this much. Later on, as I started to explore different ways to use my writing, I came to see that I was called to Catholic writing, hence the title of this blog, and journalism."

Another journalist from Singapore is attending MD in Spokane in 10 days and then Called & interviewer/facilitator training in Greenville, SC where she will meet up with Fr. David Seid, OP of Hong Kong for the first time. So we are excited about what might emerge in Singapore.

Reclaiming Who I Am

Susan over at Creos & Dios has a new and very interesting podcast for us to enjoy.

This podcast is the first in a series entitled, Reclaiming Who I Am, drawn from a three-day retreat I gave in February 2008. The title refers to the fact that over the course of our lives things happen that cause us to lose sight of who we really our. Our expierences creat certain baggage in us; we develop certain myths. In this first podcast, I identify some of the myths we live with that block us from seeing ourselves as God sees us, and that therefore block our ability to receive God’s love fully.

Welcome to EWTN Viewers

Welcome to all who found our blog by listening to Ralph Martin's interview with me on EWTN this evening. (Somehow we didn't expect it to run at 6pm in prime time!)

We are delighted that you are seriously seeking to know what God desires of you and might be calling you to.

Our offices are located in Colorado (Mountain time). Our office will already be closed for the day by the time most of you see the show. Feel free to leave a phone message or e-mail us at info@siena.org and our small but very responsive staff will get back to you as soon as possible.

You can also take immediate action through our website.

If you would like to attend a live Called & Gifted workshop, visit our website calendar and find out when one is scheduled near you.

If you are interested in bringing the Called * Gifted workshop to your parish or area, send an inquiry to austin@siena.org.

If there isn't a live "Called & Gifted workshop scheduled near you, the entire workshop (recorded live) is available on CD via our web store. As is the Catholic Spiritual Gifts Inventory that all workshop participants take. You will need both to duplicate the experience of a live initial workshop in the comfort of your home.

We also have a small group version of initial Called & Gifted workshop which is great if you and several friends would like do discernment together.

To lead more about how discernment changed one woman's life, read our July E-Scribe newsletter.

Joe reminds me that the video of the interview is up on the Renewal Ministries website.

God bless you as you join the 45,000 Catholics all over the world who are discerning God's call by discerning the charisms they received at baptism and confirmation.

"Colonies of Heaven"

I have been doing some reading today on the "Missional Church" movement and have discovered some things I like about the movement that could easily stimulate our (Catholics) thinking on parish life. While there are problems with this movement, it can be helpful to see how other Christians are responding to contemporary culture, so that we can learn new, innovative ways- and appropriately adapt them- to more faithfully fulfill the Lord's mandate to "make disciples" in every time and culture.

1. The Missional Church is a pan-Protestant movement that locates the church's reason for existing in the "mission of God." Thus the heart of the local congregation's activity is rooted in incarnating God's life in the world. The local congregation is a "colony of heaven" on earth and that we are "resident aliens," with an equal emphasis on "resident" and "alien."

2.  The Missional Church takes "covenant" and "context" very seriously as a way of understanding the life of the local congregation. I am inextricably caught up in the mission of the Church by virtue of my baptismal covenant. The context or place in which I participate in the mission of the Church is to be valued and relied upon as a clue to the means and the method I employ to participate more fully in the mission of Christ in the Spirit (i.e. my work, my home, my social location, etc. are all contexts for mission). 

3. The local parish must be aware of its own context and value that context as the location in which they are called to incarnate Christ's life through the witness of their own regeneration and forgiveness through "water and the Spirit." While the world must not set the agenda for the Church, the Church must recognize that the world exists to be brought back in communion with God through the Church. Therefore, the world is not simply theological "other" as far as the Church is concerned, but the very object of mission and "arena of God's action in history." (George Weigel, see below)

4.  The Missional Church is rooted in the mission of the Trinity. The Trinity seeks to bring all things into communion with Them. Therefore, mission and communion are intrinsically related. 

As Catholics we have the fullest understanding of both mission and communion, but our grounded-ness in the Trinity and the relationship of Trinitarian life to mission are undervalued as a source for the life and work of our local parishes. We must relearn (in practical ways, because we well know it theologically) that to make disciples is to begin the process of incorporation into the life of the Church, which is "a people made one with the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit" (Lumen Gentium 4, St Cyprian).

Sources: Missional, Emerging, Monastic: A Traveler's Guide by Len Hjalmarson, On Making Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, William Abraham in Marks of the Body of Christ, ed. by Carl Braaten and Robert W. Jenson (Eerdmans, 1999),  Robert W. Jenson, The Church's Responsibility for the World, in The Two Cities of God, ed. by Carl Braaten and Robert W. Jenson (Eerdmans, 1997), and George Weigel, The Church's Political Hopes for the World in The Two Cities of God. 

God is Back in the Game

Love this summation of the impact of World Youth Day via Mercatornet.

Catholic and Cool in Sydney

World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney was a triumph for the Catholic Church and its 81-year-old head, Pope Benedict XVI. About 400,000 people attended a final Mass on Sunday (July 20), briefly making the pilgrims’ destination bigger than the nation’s capital, Canberra. Some baffled journalists described it as a Catholic Woodstock – the 1969 orgy of, drugs and sex and rock ‘n roll which became an iconic moment for baby-boomers. But 40 years later, the world has moved in an unexpected direction. WYD, the biggest youth event in history, is an anti-Woodstock, a repudiation of the materialism and secularism of the baby-boomers.

After years of being booed offstage, the curtains have again opened and God is being greeted with tumultuous applause. As a young woman commenting the event on Australian TV said, with unabashed confidence, it used not to be “trendy” to be a Catholic in Sydney, but now “it’s become cool again”. No wonder the news that Madrid will host WYD 2011 was greeted with such jubilation.

And ends:

Despite the shadows, Benedict’s rapturous reception in Sydney shows that Christianity is far from dead, or even dormant. Flags from dozens of countries were waving in the stiff breeze which blew up as World Youth Day drew to a close. Amongst them was the red star of the People’s Republic of China. Even there, in an officially Communist regime, the Pope has enthusiasts. Over the past five years a bitter secularism has sought to push religion into a closet. Books by proselytising atheists have captured the imagination of the media. Now, after a week of joyful, unashamed religious sentiment Down Under, everyone knows that there is a viable alternative. God is back in the game.

h/t Gashwin Gomes

Savoring Home

In the rush of work and gardening, it is possible to forget (and be intensely grateful) that I live in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

But today, I was reminded again as we drove around the mountain backroads of the Pike National Forest near home. 1.2 million acres. A few glimpses of what we encountered. Almost anywhere else, such beauty would be a community's greatest treasure and attraction. As Theodore Roosevelt summed it up when he visited a century ago: "Scenery that bankrupts the English language." But in Colorado, they are considered rather ho-hum and treasured mostly by locals.





My most memorable present was the time to savor being home.

Happy Birthday, Sherry!

Yes, it is the blessed day in which we remember the birth of the Queen of Charisms, the Diva of Discernment, the one, the only



SHERRY WEDDELL!!!

I know many of you are wondering, "Just how old is Sherry today?" Well, your wondering days are over. In just a few moments, I will be revealing the year when the stars aligned just so when the angels got together, and decided to create a dream come true, etc., etc.

Oh, wait, there's someone at the door...pounding rather insistently.

I'd better get it.

Oh, no, they've broken down the door and are running up the stairs.

IT'S HER!!!!!

The year waspiohqpoewia4 aa was 19 aspdotipoin/bp[ohpoi 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

Randy Pausch on Life & Death

Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon professor who delivered the world famous "last lecture" after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, died this morning.

I've been tracking his treatment on his personal website from time to time. Like so many of us, I was taken by his courage, grateful spirit, joi de vive, and love for his family. I prayed that he would also somehow encounter God on this journey since religious faith was a subject that he didn't talk about.

Pray for Randy, his wife Jai, and his three small children.

And listen to Dr. Pausch's "surprise" talk to Carnegie Mellon grads in May.

Pope Benedict on Personal Vocation

I was searching for an unrelated quote today and came upon this wonderful bit by Pope Benedict on personal vocation and the priest's role in reawakening the awareness of personal vocation, mission, and the call to act in the history of the Church. Enjoy!

Every person carries within himself a project of God, a personal vocation, a personal idea of God on what he is required to do in history to build his Church, a living Temple of his presence. And the priest's role is above all to reawaken this awareness, to help the individual discover his personal vocation, God's task for each one of us. I see that many here have discovered the project that concerns them, both with regard to professional life in the formation of today's society - where the presence of Christian consciences is fundamental - and also with regard to the call to contribute to the Church's growth and life. Both these things are equally important.

- Pope Benedict XVI, March 25, 2007 to the Pastoral Council of the Parish of St Felicity and Her Children, Rome

What I'll Be Doing During My Fall, Winter, and Spring Unvacation

Sorry about the slow blogging.

Today we film an important segment for Making Disciples. We are still in the throes of final editing for our Spokane seminar.

I also have to finish writing up my tentative proposal to the archdiocese wanting a plan to make their parishes "Missional". Oh, and get back to that Director of Diaconate formation. And prep for all my upcoming commitments in the fall.

My schedule: Detroit, Pueblo, Athens, OH, Chicago, Munich, (maybe Warsaw, we'll see!), Chicago, LA, Iowa, Omaha, Canton, Seattle, maybe Oakland. Fr. Mike's travel schedule is even more complicated. We'll see each other mostly on the road.

The topics? Missionary formation, historical research into the 17th century Catholic revival in France, the Stewardship of mission and vocation,, military wives, discerning charisms, parish mission, training teachers, Making Disciples, our first C & G for an Orthodox community, writing a book. Hence the need for so much preparation.

Variety being the spice 'o life

And then in the next year I must plunge whole-heartedly into preparation for two big events, both at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit:

The first is a Pauline Year Convocation with Archbishop Chaput on March 21

The second is a two week intensive graduate course on The Theology of the Laity taught by me and my old partner in crime and co-founder, Fr. Michael Sweeney, OP (May 27 - June 5). Mark your calendars now.

Oh, and then there is that little spring Tour of Tuscany and Rome "In the Footsteps of St. Catherine of Siena" April 27 - May 7. We are just finalizing the details and will let you know asap how you can join us. Spring in a fabulous Tuscan villa ending with a pilgrimage to Rome? How can you resist?

All of which is to say: that's why you aren't hearing much from us. But I hope to do better this weekend.

Restoring Creation

More from Inheriting Paradise by Vigen Guroian, Armenian Orthodox theologian and gardener:

"Man is a microcosm in whose flesh resonates and reverberates the pulse of the whole creation, in whose mind creation comes to consciousness, and through whose imagination and will God wants to heal and reconcile everything that sin has wounded and put in disharmony."


"the lay faithful are called to restore to creation all its original value. In ordering creation to the authentic well-being of humanity . . . they share in the exercise of the power with which the Risen Christ draws all things to himself . . .” - The Lay Members of Christ’s Faithful People, (Christifideles Laici)14

Dancing Around the World

Here's a video sent to me by my dear friend/physical therapist, John W. It is a phenomenally hopeful video of one man dancing across 42 countries.


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Makes me want to bust a move myself.

I'm getting out of my seat right now, in fact.
Back in a sec....




Oooh, ooooh, oooh, I hurt my shoulder.



Jooooohhhhhhnnnnnn!

noassistedsuicide.com

Last winter, I happened to be seatmates on a flight to Colorado with a woman physician who was going skiiing. She mentioned that she had retired early to work on a campaign against a new attempt to legalize euthanasia in Washington State. I was very interested. being a native Washingtonian, and having worked on an oncology unit during the last such campaign in Washington State.

My unit was filled with former Catholics (i used to think that 12 years of Catholic school ending in total abandonment of the faith was a pre-requisite for getting hired there) but there was one remnant of their Catholic upbringing. Surrounded by patients who were likely going to die soon, these nurses were against euthanasia.

I remember a nurse telling me at that time: "I'm against it because I know who is going to have to actually do the deed - and it won't be doctors. It will be nurses."

So check out noassistedsuicide.com and send them some support. My friend Mark has posted this urgent appeal on his blog.
They have only been able to raise $ 100,000 so far to fight this initiative.

As Susan Harmon, director of No Assisted Suicide writes:

We know this because the supporters of the measure have labeled the campaign “Oregon Plus One.” Despite losing in 25 other states (including here in Washington in 1991), the proponents believe that if only one state besides Oregon would legalize Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS), the rest of the states will fall like dominoes.

Washington is a very liberal state. It is the only state in the union to have legalized abortion by a vote of the people prior to Roe v Wade. And the same arguments are being used to support I-1000. They claim that it is a matter of “choice”. And for the predominantly wealthy white men who advocate this, it may well be.

Yet there is word from Oregon that some of those who asked for the lethal dose of pills were being manipulated by adult children wanting their inheritance sooner. Not one of those requesting PAS was evaluated for depression in the latest 2007 statistics. And as to the rest, who knows--the Oregon law does not allow investigation of assisted suicide cases and requires the destruction of all records within a year, so it is nearly impossible to track who is requesting PAS and how people actually died.

I-1000 goes even farther. It actually re-writes the definition of suicide. It will require physicians to lie about the cause of death--they must ascribe it to the terminal illness that the patients did not have the chance to die from. Tracking use of PAS will be impossible. Neither will surviving families be able to sue unscrupulous doctors for malpractice;

I-1000 gives doctors prescribing PAS immunity from law suit. How is this good for consumers?

Even worse, families will not be notified if a loved one requests PAS. And as in Oregon, those who suffer from depression may not be evaluated first and treated. Anyone over 18 who is diagnosed as being 6 months from dying can request this--no questions asked.

Nor are there any safeguards to protect the poor from exploitation by heartless insurers. In Oregon, coverage of end of life treatment has been slashed while lethal prescriptions are covered as “pain management.”

What happens in places which have legalized PAS? Recently the London Telegraph reported on new legislation introduced in Belgium where PAS was legalized several years ago. The proposed legislation would allow teenagers to request PAS for themselves and for parents of handicapped children to ask for PAS for their minor dependents.

In Holland, which is the pioneer of the pro-euthanasia movement, doctors euthanize patients without permission. One physician told how he had killed an elderly nun because he knew that her religious scruples would never have allowed her to request this herself--so he did it for her.

In Oregon, people who voted for PAS are now getting nervous, contacting the pro-life physicians group to find out if their doctor is one of those who prescribes death pills. Pro-life doctors now hang signs in their waiting rooms which are meant to reassure patients that they will only pursue life-affirming therapies.

What happens in Washington state this year will affect all of us and our children and grandchildren.

Check it out.

This Land Which Was Waste

The story of my life - and my garden's life:

"The Prophet Ezekiel says" " The land now desolate will be tilled instead of lying waste for every passerby to see. Everyone will say that this land which was waste has become a Garden of Eden." (Ezekiel 36: 34-35)

From Inheriting Paradise.

Good Soil

The Western Dominican website is featuring a homily that Fr. Mike preached Sunday before last on the parable of the sower. It is simply marvelous and so I wanted to share it with you.

Here's a taste:

The miraculous yield that the good soil produces flows not from simple
intellectual assent to what Jesus reveals, but from remaining in him – relating to and with him throughout the day; asking for guidance, putting his word into action, doing his will, praying to him, expecting him to respond, thanking him when he does. The miraculous yield is part of the life of a disciple. This is the life each of us is invited to live, with the help of God's grace and the Holy Spirit.

Do read the whole thing!

A Garden is a Lovesome Thing

Busy. Beside all the stuff we already had going, we got two interesting requests this week. One archdiocese wants us to help them make their parishes "missional" (very much an emergent Protestant term - this is the first that a diocese has adopted it as a goal that I'm aware of.) And another archdiocese in another country wants to incorporate Called & Gifted into their diaconate candidate discernment process.

Most of our "crisis" these days are prompted by the need to respond meaningful to the requests we are getting.

Whatever time and energy I have left goes into the garden. Finished mulching the yard and cleaning up the path after our large scale planting of bushes. So even though there is more to do, it looks increasingly garden-like.

4 large shrubs and 9 vines yet to be planted. Irrigation system to finish. Fence posts to erect somehow in hardpan that makes diamonds look soft. And the large project: planting another 400 sf bed - this time with wild grasses which is relatively easy. A truck full of topsoil sits on top of that bed at the moment. So the worst is over - for this summer.

My scarlet penstemons are just beginning to bloom and I had my first visit from a humming bird this morning as a result. The California poppies (pictured above) in their hundreds have been my glory and joy for weeks now.

Mark & Jan Shea sent me a lovely gift for my birthday: Inheriting Paradise: Meditations on Gardening by Vigen Guroian, an Armenian Orthodox theologian who teaches at Loyola College in Baltimore. The book is a series of four essays that Guroian wrote in the mid 90's for The Christian Century.

I'll share good bits as I read. But I must begin with this:

A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!
Rose plot,
Fringed pool,
Ferned grot -
The veriest school
of peace: and yet the fool
Contends that God is not -
Not God! In garden! When eve is cool?
Nay. But I have a sign.
'Tis very sure God walks in mine.

Thomas Edward Brown, "My Garden"

Brown was one of the great, brilliant, loveably eccentric English school masters - and a gardener.

Charisms and Priesthood

I get nauseous on swings and merry-go-rounds. There's something about the repetitive motion, or perhaps the sensation of motion without really going anywhere that makes my body revolt. Truth be told, parish life can be similar: lots of activity, but little progress regarding the mission of the Church. And that mission is twofold: to help every person in the parish (Catholic or not) have a living encounter with the risen Jesus, and to help change the structures and institutions in the parish boundaries so they reflect what's truly human and promote the common good.

Each of us who have been baptized share in Jesus' three-fold office of priest, prophet and king. When I was ordained, my sharing in priesthood was directed towards the Church itself as a minister of the sacraments; my prophetic ministry fulfilled as I proclaim the Gospel and teach. Most priests (myself included before I began working with the Institute) do not know that our royal office focuses on calling forth and celebrating the spiritual gifts (charisms) of the laity and coordinating them so that our mission described above can be fulfilled. Administration of the parish is actually a small – and much less interesting – part of my royal office.

Having a knowledge of and an ability to help others discern their charisms, having a vision of how they might work together or be useful in pastoral initiatives is a crucial skill set for a priest, and is actually imperative if any aspect of my ministry is to be effective, because, in the words of Pope John Paul II, "the three [powers] of teaching, sanctifying and ruling are clearly inseparable and interpenetrating." and "directed both to gathering the flock in the visible unity of a single profession of faith lived in the sacramental communion of the Church and to guiding that flock, in the diversity of its gifts and callings, towards a common goal: the proclamation of the Gospel to the ends of the earth." ad limina address of Pope John Paul II to the bishops of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, September 11, 2004.

Gloria a Te, Cristo Gesu

I enjoyed hearing the "Great Hymn of the Jubilee" sung as Pope Benedict processed in for the final Mass of WYD and so went hunting on line for it and found this:

Andrea Bocelli singing "Gloria a Te Cristo Gesu" with moving video of John Paul II at the great Jubilee and WYD 2000 in Rome interspersed with pictures of him laying in state nearly 5 years later.

Tears came to my eyes as I watched. Especially the overhead shots of the 2 million pilgrims at World Youth Day and most poignant of all: A frail John Paul closing the great bronze doors to mark the end of the Jubilee.

It was his inspiration that birthed WYD: a stunningly powerful evangelizing moment that has an Olympic-sized impact on its host nation, on the Church, and innumerable others who witness it via the internet or television.

Anyway - the video brought back a lot of memories. Take a look.

Homilies

One of the chief opportunities for evangelization and formation is the homily during the Mass. It is in the homily that most Catholics will receive their formation and those who may not be intentional disciples have an opportunity to hear the "ardent proclamation" that Jesus is Lord and that a personal relationship with him is possible. However, it is my experience that many homilists fall into a standard homiletic pattern in which the Word-upon which the homilist is charged with commenting-is not given priority, but only becomes a tool for illuminating or commenting upon experience. 

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal says that "It (the homily) should be an exposition of some aspect of the readings from Sacred Scripture or of another text from the Ordinary or from the Proper of the Mass of the day and should take into account both the mystery being celebrated and the particular needs of the listeners." 

Richard Lischer, a well-known Lutheran preacher and professor of Homiletics at Duke Divinity School says that many prefer 

to build the sermon on the authority of the needs, capacities, and experiences of the listener.... The common solution appears to be: Scratch deeply enough into the postmodern psyche and you will hit a vein of genuine spirituality. One way to tap into it is to tell stories whose religious dimension is recognizable and acceptable to all, and then to correlate the experience generated by these stories with the Christian message, e.g., "grace." When done successfully, the presence of Christ radiates as a spiritual dimension of everyday life. When the reliance on experience dominates the sermon, the gospel becomes an illustration of a greater truth. 

Richard Lischer, "Resurrection and Rhetoric." In Marks of the Body of Christ, ed. by Carl E. Braaten and Robert W. Jenson, 13-24. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999. 

Of course, the problem is clear: the gospel is neither a mere "illustration" nor an indicator of some deeper, more transcendent truth that is really the heart of what we preach, rather it is itself the very content of our preaching and the "power of God for salvation." (Romans 1.16) 

World Youth Day 2011: Madrid, Spain

By now most of you have heard that Pope Benedict has designated Madrid, Spain as the host city for World Youth Day 2011. Early reports from the Spanish Episcopal Conference are that the event is slated for August 15-21, 2011. If that report is true, those dates could pose some problems for Americans wishing to go, since many schools and universities in this country now start around that time. Also, I am sure that many are disappointed to hear that WYD '11 will be hosted yet again by a European city (the second time in Spain) even though WYD has never been held in Africa and it has been some time since it was held in Asia or South America. However, if we look closely at the situation of the Catholic Church in Spain and the increased antagonism towards the Church by the Zapatero government, not to mention the increasing secularism and embattled position of the Catholic Church and traditional Christian morality, WYD '11 has great potential to effect real progress in efforts to re-evangelize Spain. 

In an interview with Zenit Nineteen year-old Paola Callas said:

"It's so necessary that Madrid may be able to experience a living Church as we have done here in Sydney over this week," said Callas.

"People don't associate the Church with relevance, joy or even fun over in Spain," added Ramírez. "We have a lot of political upheavals and secularism taking over the contemporary climate so it would be relevant for youth to experience the truths of the Church in a package like that of World Youth Day."

This announcement must mean a lot and be very encouraging for Spanish Catholics who have surely been discouraged by what has transpired in their country over the past several years. 

"One of the Most Exuberant Weeks in Sydney's History"

The Australian's final word on WYD:

"It will be remembered as one of the most exuberant weeks in Sydney's history: a celebration of faith and youth that breathed life into the city and charmed even the most cynical and secular residents."

And we have caught a tiny glimpse of all that God has and will do through this gathering in the days and years ahead.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!

Rosemarie Goldie: Human Microchip on the Development of the Lay Apostolate

The Pope paid a visit to Australian Rosemarie Goldie, now 92, the first woman to hold a major position in the Vatican. (first undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.)

Rosemarie was the witness to remarkable changes at the time of Council:

Via Catholic Online:

"Goldie is the Roman Curia's human microchip memory on the development of the lay apostolate. One of her tasks (which include translating documents into English from Italian, French, Spanish and even Portuguese) is ordering the Laity Council's archives to make them accessible.

She is also completing a book on the development of the lay apostolate in the past 40 years. Presumably, it will recount how she was caught up in this work when it seemed she was destined to be an academic, and how, because she was the first woman to be an Under-Secretary of a Vatican office, she also became the first full-time woman teacher in a pontifical university in Rome, although without any formal qualifications in theology."

Goldie's memoir "From a Roman Window" was published in 1998. It seems to be out of print but I for one, would love to hunt around and find a copy.

WYD: Evangelical Witness

John Allen is utterly right on here, I think:

"Traditionally, a pilgrimage has been understood as a journey that takes one progressively away from “the world,” towards a famed spiritual center – Lourdes, for example, or the Holy Land, or, as in Chaucer's case, Canterbury. That’s the sense in which people today still refer to a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, or to San Giovanni Rotondo, the principal shrine of Padre Pio in southern Italy.

In the beginning, World Youth Days were conceived as pilgrimages in this classic sense. The 1989 edition, for example, was held in Santiago de Compostela in Spain, and in 1991 Catholic youth converged upon the famed Polish shrine of the Black Madonna in Częstochowa. Both have been traditional pilgrimage destinations for centuries.

Along the way, however, something unexpected happened. Turnout exceeded even high-end estimates, and the youthful passion of the pilgrims elicited strong media interest. As a result, World Youth Day went from being largely an inner-Catholic affair to a "happening" that captured the imagination of the broader culture.

In the wake of those experiences, church officials began to grasp that the value of World Youth Day lies not only in the spiritual formation it offers to young people, but also the evangelical witness those young people offer to the world.

One could date the emergence of World Youth Day as a model of "Evangelical Pilgrimage" to 1993. In that year, the event was held in Denver, Colorado, hardly anyone’s idea of a traditional pilgrimage center. In the years since, World Youth Days have been held in such disparate locales as Paris, Toronto, Cologne, and now Sydney. Some might be considered traditional pilgrimage destinations and some not, but that’s no longer the common term.

Rather, sites now seem to be chosen for World Youth Days not because they’re seen as reservoirs of spiritual energy, but rather because they’re suffering from spiritual drought. In other words, the aim is not to escape secularism, but rather to challenge it on its home turf.

By all accounts, Denver was the key to this paradigm shift. Prior to the event, staging World Youth Day in a city without a strong Catholic culture, and with a strongly secular ethos, was considered an enormous gamble. Behind the scenes, organizers and Vatican officials worried about low turnout and public indifference.

In the end, the event was perceived as a huge success that energized the local church.

“Looking back, the church in northern Colorado is dramatically different” because of what happened at World Youth Day, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver said in 2002. Among other things, Chaput said that Denver’s two seminaries were “literally running out of room for candidates,” one expression of a renewal that he traced to 1993."


It is hard to imagine a more powerful evangelical tool than WYD in the day of the internet and 24/7 streaming video.

It is interesting that Allen has just moved his family to Denver this summer, to escape the impossible cost of housing in New York. One of the most vibrant centers of "new Catholicism" in the country.

Sunday morning in Australia

He is everywhere this Sunday morning. The Pope, that is.

Here's the lead from the Sydney Morning News:

Pope Benedict XVI has used his keynote address at the closing Mass of World Youth Day to issue a plea to young Catholics to join the priesthood and consider life as a nun or brother in a Catholic religious order.

In his homily, the Pope asked the tens of thousands of pilgrims gathered:
"'What will you leave to the next generation? What difference will you make?"

In Australia, as in the rest of the developed world, the Catholic Church is facing a severe shortage of priests, necessitating the twinning of parishes and forcing priests to travel vast distances to administer the Scaraments.
The church needed the gifts of young people.

''I address this plea in a special way to those of you whom the Lord is calling to the priesthood and the consecrated life,'' the Pope said.

''Do not be afraid to say 'yes' to Jesus to find your joy in doing his will, giving yourself completely to the pursuit of holiness, and using all your talents in the service of others.''

Both the Morning News and the Australian (the national newspaper) play up the "spiritual desert" theme - and how many hearts will that resonate with?

"POPE Benedict XVI urged 350,000 young pilgrims today to become prophets of a new age bringing renewed faith to a spiritually barren world.

The Pope's ringing challenge echoed over a vast sea of Catholics packing Sydney's Royal Randwick Racecourse at the concluding mass of week-long World Youth Day (WYD) celebrations, which at times attracted up to half a million pilgrims and well-wishers.

His message capped a triumphant first trip to Australia for the 81-year-old pontiff, who flies back to Rome tomorrow after a landmark visit that included a papal apology to victims of church sexual abuse.

Declaring the spirit of the church alive and well, the Pope told pilgrims from more than 170 countries he had shared an "unforgettable experience" in the great south land.

"Our eyes have been opened to see the world around us as it truly is, 'charged' as the poet says, 'with the grandeur of God', filled with the glory of His creative love," he said.

Pope Benedict said a new generation of Christians was being called to help build a world in which God's gift of life was welcomed and love was not greedy or self-seeking but pure, faithful and genuinely free.

He spoke of a "new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy and self-absorption which deaden our souls and poison our relationships".

"The world needs this renewal,'' he said in a homily beamed to hundreds of millions of television viewers worldwide.

"In so many of our societies, side by side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair.

"How many of our contemporaries have built broken cisterns in desperate search for meaning - the ultimate meaning that only love can give?"

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC television), which has been notorious for its negative coverage, didn't cover the content of the Pope's homily at all. They focused on stirring up a controversy over the numbers that showed up for the final Papal Mass. The organizers had predicted 500,000 and most people don't think that many were present. Being the biggest gathering in the history of Australia wasn't enough for them.

But even ABC had to call it "unforgettable".

Mebourne's The Age highlighted the Church's role in Australian history:

"Here in Australia, let us thank the Lord for the gift of faith which has come down to us like a treasure passed on from generation to generation in the communion of the church," Pope Benedict said today.

"Here in Oceania, let us give thanks in a special way for all those heroic missionaries, dedicated priests and religious, Christian parents and grandparents, teachers and catechists who built up the church in these lands - witnesses like Blessed Mary MacKillop, Saint Peter Chanel, Blessed Peter To Rot, and so many others.

"The power of the spirit revealed in their lives, is still at work in the good they left behind, in the society which they shaped and which is being handed on to you."

He asked the pilgrims what their legacy would be to future generations, posing the question: "Are you building your lives on firm foundations, building something that will endure?"

Clara will be disappointed that the name of the remarkable lay apostle, Carolyn Chisholm, was not mentioned (but then Carolyn's cause is not formally underway yet.)

Who knows what future saints and apostles are beginning the long journey home today; their bodies exhausted and their spirits enflamed?

Note from WYD

This little note just arrived from Fr. Anthony, our OP co-director dow under:

Just a quick note - just walked back from Randwick. I can't express the
experience, especially Benedict's homily and his small reflection on Mary
and the Holy Spirit for the Angelus. The graces from this are just mind
blowing.

I have to tell you about 3 chinese (mainland) priests whom I talked with
as well as a young Texan who was their mentor (he lives in China - he
really must have missionary charism in a big way.

Sherry's note: This is the same Chinese group of pilgrims that I blogged about here>

Have to go, about to collapse.

Sleep with the angels, Father! And Clara and all your family. And our whole CSI team. Strong work!

The whole of what God is doing in the lives of so many - not just those who were pilgrims - but millions of ordinary Australians and others around the world who witnessed it - will not be revealed until eternity.

Local Town Makes Good - and Clean and Skinny and Smart - and Goes to the Dogs

And the good news is, you can't die until you've been here.

In 2006, Colorado Springs was Money's Magazine's "Most Liveable Big City." (MSNBC named us 3rd best metro area to live in, and Kiplinger gave us #5 in 2008.)

It helps that we are in Colorado which is not only one of the most beautiful places God ever created but apparently also the slimmest state in the union for the past 18 years.

Year after year, Colorado Springs makes the American Lung Association's list of top "clean air" cities.

Apparently, we are the 9th best place to raise a family.

We have the honor of being the country's best city for dogs according to Mens' Health Magazine: (Hmmm, Pippin, what do you think of that?)

"Colorado Springs is a real playground for pooches, with about 250 days of sunshine a year and an abundance of outdoor activities. It earned top marks for the number of boarding and daycare facilities, and it had the highest maximum fine for animal cruelty--half a million bucks."

Forbes awarded us the title of "Most Pet-Friendly City" a title which explicitly includes cats. (Pippin is greatly relieved.)

We are also one of the top 10 "smartest cities" :

'This mountain city is a small-scale Seattle, a burgeoning high-technology center that is attracting highly educated workers. Seventy-one percent of Colorado Springs' adults have gone to college. That's the second-best rate in the nation, topped only by Madison's 75 percent.'

I must forward this to my friend, Mark, who refuses to see reason about all this.

Apparently, CS is also listed in the Book "1000 Places to See Before You Die." Who knew?

And now, Men's Fitness Magazine has just named us the fittest city in America. This whole post is just a chance to quote the first paragraph of the story - which I found funny - run on sentences and all.

(Warning, this is a secular men's magazine so that language is a bit less refined than one would normally expect to find here. But most of you are Catholics, not Baptists, and Catholics are usually an earthier lot where language is concerned.)

"There are 300-plus sunny days a year in Colorado Springs, but this is not one of them. While the peaks of the Front Range to our west are slathered in deliciously skiable snow, those of us in the Garden of the Gods, a century old city park with the grandeur of a national reserve, are being bitch-slapped by the kind of moist, icy winter blast that leaves the sky the color of a forehead knot three days after hitting a steering wheel in a head-on fender bender. But man, is it gorgeous. You know those bumper stickers that claim the worst day fishing is better than the best day working? That's how it is in "the Springs"-the ugliest day here is prettier than the prettiest day in a whole helluva lot of places. That's why tall, trim orthodontist/marathoner Ed Poremba and his pink-cheeked teenage daughter/future marathoner, Becky, are still getting in their six-mile Saturday morning run amid the jagged red rocks, clingy junipers, and placid deer, despite the fact that the Garden of the Gods has been coated in a vast, flavorless Slurpee.

"It's the best!" Poremba proclaims of his town, without knowing that the Men's Fitness 10th annual survey of the Fittest & Fattest Cities in America had reached the same conclusion. "Of all the places I've lived in, you can't beat it."



(The Garden of the Gods - in non Slurpee mode)

Colorado Springs: where all the women are smart, all the men are skinny, and the cost of living is below average.