Daily Update

Well, it's Saturday evening...Today was pretty relaxing, we are not required to be here at the seminary this weekend because of Labor Day, so I spent the day praying, cleaning my room, doing laundry, and eating good Chinese food. Other than that, nothing to report.  Maybe tomorrow I will find something to rant and rave about...so until then God Bless.

TGIF

Boy am I glad that the week is over and I can enjoy the long Labor Day weekend.  The first week of classes is always hectic, and so the first weekend is especially nice.  I am taking the afternoon off, and then this evening I am going to take in St. Louis Shakespeare's production of Romeo and Juliet with some friends...it should be alot of fun. 

Discrimination Against Catholics and Other Major Religions?

An article that you can read here states that the Governor of California is currently deciding wether or not to sign into law a bill that would require foster parents to support homosexuality, and not only that, it would require special pro-homosexual sensitivity training for all foster parents. This is an abomination, yet it passed in both the Assembly and Senate of the state of California...as would be expected, it was largely supported by democrats and rejected by republicans. The article also makes an interesting point..."When masses of Christian foster parents can no longer in good conscience participate in the state's foster program, who do you think will step in and provide homes for these needy children?" It think that the answer that the gay and lesbian community is hoping for is that they themselves will be the ones proving a home for these children which would be detrimental to the psycological health of the children involved.  We really need to keep Gov. Gray Davis in our prayers that he will have the moral backbone to veto the bill.

Baby Bush Born in Iraq???

This made me chuckle, so I thought I would share it with you. Fox News is reporting that "An Iraqi couple has named their 6-week-old baby boy George Bush to show their appreciation for U.S. efforts to force Saddam Hussein out of power...If the couple had had twin boys, the father wanted to name the other baby Tony Blair, because he said both the U.S. and Britain liberated Iraq."

Today's Check In

Well today is a busy day so I don't have a whole lot of time to write posts.  The conversation on Catholic priests, sexuality, and celibacy continues here, but I don't think I will continue in the discussion.  It is to time consuming (especially since classes are in full swing again), and I am not sure that there is any fruit coming from the discussion.  I encourage anyone else who feels able and is willing to jump right into the conversation...we need to stand up for the truth about the body and sexuality, especially in a world that is such desperate need of hearing it.

Things that make you go hmmm

Apparently Canadians don't find travel humorous...read more about it here.

Apology

I should probably apologize for the length of the last post.  It is so hard to say what needs to be said in a few words, especially this topic...I could write a book on the topic and still not respond adequately to the issues.  Anyway...sorry...

Cardinal Ratzinger (cont)

In response to my post below, Joe London has the following to say on his blogsite: 

"The words of cardinal Ratzinger (which can also be found here) are an absolute joke. The reason of the sexual abuse crisis is not weakness of faith or what has been roughly defined as weakness of human beings, which is indeed a natural drive present in all sexed species in the biological world.

The reason of the 'sexual abuse crisis' is the obstination of the Sacred Roman Catholic Church in not recognising that sexuality is a fundamental part of human life, and that forced abstinence for priests just brings about pathology and reactive behaviours. Being a natural drive (just like the need for food), sexuality cannot be eliminated, that is simply an unnatural pretense. In other words, rejecting sexuality from the main door, it simply comes back in from the window, as popular wisdom has it. But probably by the time they are ordained, most priests have already absorbed a unhealthy schizophrenogenic approach to reality according to which the corporeal world is the realm of sin, a false reality, a cage for the soul, compared to the 'real world' of afterlife.

And this is the real core of problem. The sexual abuse crisis lies in the Plato-Christian prejudice against the corporeal world, indeed a factor of pathology. In rejecting corporeality, the church shows a very poor sense of knowledge of human reality, and an appalling pedagogical approach. I would make it illegal for priests to teach children for the mere fact of creating this unhealthy conflict between 'body' and 'soul'."

My response follows:

Your opinion that the reason for the sexual abuse crisis is that the Catholic Church forces abstinence onto priests is erroneous  First, celibacy is not imposed, it is a choice.  In fact, before a seminarian makes a decision about the priesthood, he should first make a decision as to whether or not he is called to live chaste celibacy, if he is not called to that and is not willing to live it, then he is not called to the priesthood.  In the Seminary system today there is no excuse for a priest who does not want or cannot live chaste celibacy in a health way.

I do agree with you, as does the Church, that sexuality cannot be eliminated, even from priests.  There seems to be a lot of confusion about this in society today.  Sexuality is more than genital sexual activity.  Contrary to what the failed sexual revolution my have wrongly taught us, sexuality is much more than genital sexual activity. 

Priests willingly give up genital sexual activity but do not, should not, and cannot give up sexuality.  Our sexuality is an inherent part of who we are as human beings, and as such cannot be separated from us.  The Church has never rejected sexuality or even genital sex.  Our present Holy Father, Pope John Paul II has devoted and extreme amount of writing and speaking to the topic of human sexuality both before and after he became pope.  His Theology of the Body is a monumental work on marriage and sexuality, and if you have not read it, you should.  It presents what the church really teaches about sexuality, including celibacy and other hot issues right now such as homosexuality, pornography, and fornication.  If the Church believed that sexuality had to be eliminated why would John Paul say that the nuptial meaning of the body, expressed through our sexuality is “the fundamental element of human existence it the world” (Theology of the Body, p. 66).  Sexuality doesn’t get more important than that.

You also claim that the problem is also a result of the “Plato-Christian prejudice against the corporeal world.”  In saying this, you are basically claiming that the Catholic Church is a follower of the Manichaean philosophy.  This is not true because first, Manichaeism has been condemned by the Church as a heresy because of the very reasons you stated.  The Christian belief is not that matter is bad and spirit is good, but that they both are good since they are both created by God.  This is especially seen in the human person who is a body and soul composite.  We are both!  Not a soul imprisoned in a body… to say that would be heresy.  Our bodies reveal who we are at the depths of our being.  If Catholics were truly of the Manichaean persuasion, why would we believe that a soul with out a body is incomplete, which is one of the reasons why the resurrection of the body is so important…it is there that the person will be once again complete having their soul and body reunited.

So as you can see the Catholic Church in no way denies or condemns corporeality, if you want to read more on this topic to find out the truth about the Church’s beliefs pick up a copy of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body and/or Christopher West’s book entitled The Theology of the Body Explained. If you want a more concise and less academic treatment of the Theology of the Body, West’s book entitled the Good News about Sex and Marriage is very good as well.  All these books will help us understand what the Church really teaches about sexuality…something which is severely lacking.

Cardinal Ratzinger and The Source of the Sex Abuse Crisis

Speaking of the Sex Abuse Scandal in the Roman Catholic Church... Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, one of John Paul II's right hand men was recently interviewed by Raymond Arroyo of EWTN News. In the interview he was asked what he thought was the root source of the sexual abuse crisis. His response in part was, "The general element is a weakness of human beings, even of priests. Temptations are present also for the priests. I think the essential point is a weakness of faith...So, two things are essential: Conversion to a profound and deep faith, with a life of prayer and sacraments, and clear moral teaching and awareness of the teaching that the Church has the Holy Spirit and can give us the way." So in otherwords, the source of the scandal comes down to a weakness on the part of the priest in the areas of a strong faith, prayer and the frequent use of the sacraments (especially the Eucharist and Penance), and the living and teaching of a Moral life that comes to us through the teaching of the Church. Let us all pray for our priests, who are weak human beings like the rest of us, so that they might be men of deep faith, men of prayer and the sacraments, and men who live a moral life and are not willing to compromise the teaching of the Church. If you want to see the entire interview it will air on EWTN at 7pm central time on September 5th.

Follow up about John Goeghan

Fellow blogger Domenico Bettinelli on his blogsite has pointed out some seeming inconsistencies in the media reports of the case of John Goeghan that I wrote about the other day. When the story of John Goeghan hit the media, thus beginnig the sex scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, everyone in the media made it quite clear that the problem with the scandals was not homosexuality, but rather pedophilia. This stance by the media, in the opinion of some, was their way keeping the waters calm so as not to create a monstrous tidal wave of protest from the gay and lesbian community. Now, however, the media has changed their tune a bit. In almost all the current reports on the death of John Goeghan, the murderer is described as a staunch anti-homosexual with a history of violence toward people who are same sex attracted. This seems to say two things: first, that the media is admitting that Goeghans problem in some way involved homosexual tendencies, and secondly, in order to once again appease the gay and lesbian community, the media is leading us to sympathize with those who live a homosexual lifestyle. Is this just another example of the media being biased against Christian, and particularly Catholic teaching? I don't know the answer, but I would love to hear your comments on the topic...

In the beginning...

Well, this is my first official entry...I don't really know what I am doing, but I thought this may be a good way for people to keep up with me and for me to share what's on my mind. God Bless.