On the 40th Anniversary of Humanae Vitae by Fr. John Corapi, S.O.L.T.

     The Catholic Church is in the process of celebrating the 40th anniversary of the prophetic and landmark encyclical of Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, on human life. At the time the Holy Father promulgated the encyclical there was a general spirit of dissent in the air. This inspired document put the dissenters into yet a new orbit, even further from the center of Church teaching. Their lack of humility resulted in disobedience, ultimately resulting in moral death for them and countless others.

     What has resulted from the rejection of the principles contained in this great document is a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions. “Life begins at conception. Abortion begins at artificial contraception.” Pope Paul VI prophetically predicted that if artificial contraception were to become generally acceptable in society, then abortion would inevitably become just another means of artificial contraception. Today, not only have what is approaching one billion children been murdered in the name of “choice” worldwide, but a host of incredible evils have followed in the wake of the rejection of the Holy Father’s teaching on life.

     Pope John Paul II called abortion murder in the clear and inspired language of his encyclical Evangelium vitae. If a single abortion is homicide-and it is-then the cumulative result of abortion on demand is genocide. Numbers of innocent and helpless children totaling more than the population of large countries have been annihilated. Can a society that elevates such an outrage to the noble status of law be pleasing to God? Or, will God’s patience soon run out and visit an avalanche of natural disasters, wars, chaos, and economic collapse on the perpetrators of such violence and evil?

     I have no doubt whatever that the Western world is headed for collapse and annihilation, and it will be by suicide, not at the hand of terrorists or enemy states-although that may well facilitate the demise. As Abraham Lincoln asserted, “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

     The Western world’s wholesale rejection of the teaching of “Humanae Vitae” ushered in a death wish that is even now well on its way to completion. Pseudo-Christian Europe has had an extremely low birthrate for decades, while the burgeoning Muslim population is growing exponentially. With the average European family having less than 2 children and the average Muslim family having 8-10 children it won’t be long until Europe as we know it will be no more. Muslims vote and they will vote to radically alter laws that facilitate gross immorality. God may use them to chastise a decadent West. I assure you they will not need bombs and bullets; mathematics will more than suffice.

     The unspiritual person cannot see reality as it is, hence they cannot discern the advancing disaster of our rejection of both common sense and proper morality. The spiritual person must pray fervently for the Spirit of God to discern reality as it is. (i.e., 1 Corinthians 2:12-16). Things such as artificial contraception, abortion, homosexual sex, and euthanasia all have something in common-They have no life in them. They are part of a death wish that when brought to its inevitable conclusion will result in the annihilation of the West as we know it, if something isn’t done to change course immediately.

     Every one of us, as disciples of Christ, must pray and sacrifice for the cause of life, and do so with earnest. The hour is late and time is now short. The battle between truth and lies, good and evil, life and death rages on toward its consummation. We know the ultimate outcome-truth, the good, and life is victorious in Christ the Conqueror. We, however, must fight the good fight. How we shall live forever is determined by how we live now. We are being called upon by the Spirit of God to be the saints of these times. How we respond to the call will dictate the rise and fall of nations, and the eternal salvation of many.

“Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).

God bless you,
Fr. John Corapi

Fr. John Corapi Website- This blog highly recommends all the works of Fr. John Corapi and encourage you to visit his site for sound teaching on the Catholic faith.

Satan to God… ‘Nothing must be held sacred’

…By the way, I didn’t want to single out just the cracker, so I nailed it to a few ripped-out pages from the Qur’an and The God Delusion. They are just paper. Nothing must be held sacred. Question everything. God is not great, Jesus is not your lord, you are not disciples of any charismatic prophet. You are all human beings who must make your way through your life by thinking and learning, and you have the job of advancing humanity’s knowledge by winnowing out the errors of past generations and finding deeper understanding of reality. You will not find wisdom in rituals and sacraments and dogma, which build only self-satisfied ignorance, but you can find truth by looking at your world with fresh eyes and a questioning mind.”     

PZ MYERS

          There is nothing new under the sun with the PZ Myers’ of this world. He is not the first creature to suffer from intellectual pride and hatred of God. And unless the world ends in the next few moments, he will not be the last. What is new within this horrifying display of desecration and abomination is the great agitation of spirits present within the current situation and the coordinated promotion of what can only be described as Eucharistic Terrorism. Seldom does Satan so openly flaunt and act out his absolute hatred of the sacred species, the medicine of immortality, within the public forum. Which raises obvious pastoral and security questions for the Church that need to be addressed promptly if we are to avoid future offenses to the heart of God and man…

Here’s a simplified outline of the works of Satan at work within the heart of PZ Myers…,

1. “‘It is finished!’ Utilizing the last words of Jesus Himself, Satan proclaims the victory of the spirit of this world and His Kingdom of hell in desecrating the Sacred Host, mocking the very precious moment of man’s redemption. Like then, as now, Satan and His minions are self-deceived by the divine reality that the whole life of Jesus in its entirety on earth was ordered toward this precious moment-‘I have ardently desired to eat this pasch with you before I suffer.” Jesus desired to consummate His passion and death on our behalf–and this is true too for Mr. Myers despite his current spiritual blindness.

2. Satan Accuses the Church of its past and present human sins in the attempt to divide and kill current relations between all God fearing/searching souls. How new is this one? Every Catholic having allowed his or her self to be possessed by the Love of God is fully aware of the sin present within themselves. In fact, the Spirit of Love acts to convince us of the sinful nature of fallen flesh through intimate union within the absolute spiritual purity and innocence of the divine flesh and blood of the glorified and risen Christ.

3. True to form, Satan having fallen to earth turns on the redeemed of the Lord. Knowing that the power of prayer has the great power to bind Him, of changing hearts and situations, he belittles such as mere superstition along with the love men have for God. Thus, suggesting to his spiritually ignorant adherents that such devotion and love should be judged either true or false only through the prism of human intelligence alone. The reality is, these are all bound in spiritual darkness by the danger of practical atheism.

4. Finally, after spewing out all that is detestable and vile in opposition to the all good and beautiful God through His subject, the desecration is carried out…

A personal note to Mr. Myers:

          Having once by the same intellectual pride and spiritual ignorance committed the grave act of desecrating a Cross of my own construction, it is my solemn prayer for you Mr Myers that the holy regret you will come to know will be experienced in this life and not the next–for you will have come to know The Divine Mercy. God is fully aware that you do not know what you are doing, even despite the fact that you truly believe you do. The reality is, He knows you better than you know yourself…

If you hear his voice, harden not your heart,

james mary evans

Here’s the link to Pharyngula, Mr. Myers site.

The “Butterfly Effect”: Indulgences a way mercy is applied to sin’s unseen effects

Indulgences a way mercy is applied to sin’s unseen effects

By Bishop Robert Vasa/Bishop of Baker, Oregon

BEND – While you are reading this, I hope to back in the United States. I hope to have returned safely from Australia and I hope to have had a very positive and uplifting experience with the Holy Father in Sydney. I hope all of these things because, as of the time of this writing, I have not yet boarded the plane for the southern hemisphere. As the time for that embarkation nears I find that I am more and more hopeful and possibly even a little excited. While I do not travel well it has been my experience that travel is enriching and rewarding. One of the spiritual benefits of travel is the opportunity to break out of some of the encrusted ways of thinking that can adversely afflict us. This would entail a fracturing of some of the provincial or “parochial” modes of thinking to which we are all susceptible.

This can entail a kind of “conversion.” It requires an openness to God’s grace, an openness to a fresh reading of the Gospels and an openness to the teachings of the Catholic Church. While travel is not absolutely essential to this conversion process it does seem to play an important part. At least a part of the Church’s notion of pilgrimage is the physical action of going from one place to another, from one state of mind to another, from one spiritual state to another. The movement is symbolic of the spiritual journey which often coincides with the physical journey.

This year, from June 2008 through June 2009, has been designated by the Holy Father as the Year of Saint Paul. It is also designated as a “Pilgrimage Year” in that various churches both in the Diocese of Baker and in every diocese of the United States have been designated by the respective bishops as “Pilgrimage Churches.” Here in the Diocese of Baker the churches include Saint Francis de Sales Cathedral in Baker City; Saint Francis of Assisi in Bend, the downtown Church; Holy Family in Burns; Saint Patrick in Heppner; Sacred Heart in Klamath Falls; Saint Patrick in Lakeview; Blessed Sacrament in Ontario; and Saint Peter in The Dalles.

Information has been sent to every pastor and occasional reminders will be generated throughout this Year of Saint Paul about the possibility of gaining a plenary indulgence on the occasion of a prayerful visit to one of these churches with the fulfillment of designated spiritual works including recent reception of the sacrament of reconciliation, reception of Holy Communion and prayers for the Holy Father.

There is perhaps some concern raised the moment the Church begins to make reference to “indulgences” since the concept is frightfully plagued by rumors, innuendoes, misconceptions, myths, lies and accusations. First, a definition: An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment for sins, whose guilt is forgiven, which a properly disposed member of the Christian faithful obtains under certain and clearly defined conditions through the intervention of the Church, which, as the minister of Redemption, dispenses and applies authoritatively the treasury of the expiatory works of Christ and the saints. The concept of indulgences requires an acceptance of the existence of purgatory since it is in purgatory that the “temporal punishment for sins whose guilt is forgiven” is worked out.

To some this may sound like forgiven does not mean forgiven at all. Perhaps examples will help. Imagine that you broke a window on purpose out of anger and spite. Imagine the subsequent sadness, sorrow, remorse and then a resolve to go to confession but the window is still broken. In confession the sin is forgiven but the window is still broken. The priest will indicate the need to make restitution for the broken window and you may well anonymously send $20 to the owner of the now broken window but the window is still broken. Then you die with all your sins forgiven and restitution having been made but the window is still broken. The need to fix the window which you broke is a part of the “temporal punishment due to sin.”

There may also be some residual delight in having vented your spleen on your neighbor via his window and this too needs yet to be spiritually resolved. Imagine also the intangibles which may flow from your initial action. Perhaps the father comes home to find the window broken and wrongly blames and punishes one of his own children for the breakage. Who is responsible for that subsequent spiritual harm? Certainly the father is uniquely responsible but you have played an unintentional and unwitting part. The innocent child could well look at you and say that it was all your fault, and, in some sense, he would be entirely right. How do we make spiritual amends for all of the unseen and unintended consequences of our sinful actions? While responsibility to “make amends” is required, the truth is that it is impossible for us to have any genuinely accurate idea of the vast ramifications of our sins.

There is a science fiction theory known as the “butterfly effect” which posits that something as simple as a butterfly flapping its wings in South America impacts to the tiniest degree on the air currents and participates, in some miniscule fashion, in the formation or direction of a subsequent hurricane. Every sin participates in a real and spiritual “butterfly effect” for which the perpetrator of the sin is partially responsible. You will be thrown into prison (purgatory) until the last element of the debt is paid.

If the actions required to gain the plenary indulgence were merely perfunctory then this would seem to be rather “mercenary.” One of the requirements, however, is an authentic freedom from any and all attachment to sin, even venial sin.

Now, being free from sin after confession is a lot different than being free from an attachment to venial sin. Yet the Church is quite explicit: “It is further required that all attachment to sin, even to venial sin, be absent. If this disposition is in any way less than complete – the indulgence will only be partial.”

The pilgrimage to Australia will be spiritually enriching but your interior graced pilgrimage and your pilgrimages to your Diocesan “Year of Saint Paul” sites can likewise be opportunities for grace and conversion. Remember the “butterfly effect.”

The Catholic Sentinel

Photo Hattip – Pierre Pouliquin

Lest We Forget the Woes of Atheistic Communism… The Blessed Martyrs of Guadalajara (Died in 1936)

In 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, Communist troops murdered three Carmelite nuns at Guadalajara, Spain. They were: Sr. Maria of the Angels of St. Joseph (born Marciana Valtierra Tordesillas), thirty-one years oId; Sr. Maria Pilar of St. Francis Borgia (Jacoba Martinez Garcia), fifty-eight; Sr. Teresa of the Child Jesus (Eusebia Garcia y Garcia), twenty-seven.

    On July 22, with soldiers roaming the city, the eighteen nuns of the Monastery of St. Joseph scattered through the streets disguised in secular clothes. Some found shelter with Catholic families, and Srs. Maria of the Angels, Maria Pilar, and Teresa, along with two other nuns, hid in the basement of the Hibernia Hotel. Two days later, the five left the hotel, two going to a nearby boarding house, the three martyrs making their way up a street. A soldier eating lunch in a parked jeep recognized them and shouted to her companions, “Shoot them! They are nuns!”

    Sr. Maria of the Angels died instantly when a bullet struck her in the heart. Sr. Maria Pilar, also hit, cried out, “Viva Cristo Rey (Long live Christ the King)!” The soldiers, furious at the pious exclamation, shot her repeatedly and slashed her with a knife. She died, having lost most of her blood, saying, “My God, pardon them. They don’t know what they’re doing.”

    Sr. Teresa was not harmed, and a soldier, pretend­ing concern, gathered some of his com­panions and led Teresa to a nearby cemetery, apparently intending to rape her. As they went, she spoke out fearlessly against them, and they angrily insisted she praise communism. To each of their commands she cried, “Viva Cristo Rey!” Told to walk a few steps ahead, she spread her arms in the form of a cross and was shot in the back.

    Feast: July 24.

Hat Tip/Cynthia Cavnar

Sacramental Integrity: Archbishop John Vlazny on Women Priests, Same-Sex Marriage, Inclusive Language, False Confession, Phony Anointings and Eucharistic Abuse

Sacramental Integrity

by Archbishop John Vlazny/Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon

At heart we Catholics are a sacramental people. The whole liturgical life of the church revolves around the Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments. These sacraments have both a visible and invisible reality. The visible reality is the way in which they are administered and received. The invisible reality is God’s grace, the precious gift of God by which we share in his life and through which he shows us the way to salvation.

Sacraments are not simply holy rituals that people of faith have devised over the centuries. We do have such actions but we refer to them as sacramentals. Holy water, blessings with ashes and veneration of sacred objects fall into this category.

Sacraments are different. Again, the Catechism of the Catholic Church instructs us that “the sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the church, by which divine life is dispensed to us.” The old Baltimore Catechism definition which many of us learned in our youth was even simpler, “Sacraments are outward signs instituted by Christ to give grace.” My generation will never forget that definition. The present generation may not be acquainted with any definition. No wonder there is confusion at times.

Because of this confusion and consequent uncertainty, all-too-often there are sacramental celebrations which lack integrity. In fact, many of them are not even sacraments. But their agents pretend they are and gullible people go along. Good Catholics become frustrated with us pastors who don’t speak up and condemn such practices. Most of us aren’t very good at condemnation because we know our own failings. But clarification about important matters is very much a part of the responsibility of us pastors. I would like to offer some clarifications.

In recent years the media has informed us about the so-called “ordination of women priests.” There are those who proclaim that it’s a matter of justice that women be allowed into the priesthood. Jesus was clearly an agent for justice in his time and he did not call women to the apostolic ministry as he did the twelve apostles. Priests share in that apostolic ministry with their bishops.

 

Certainly a woman can pretend to be a priest. There are also many men who pretend to be priests but who are not ordained validly, let alone legitimately. But because they claim to be priests and are talented and generous, many choose to accept them as priests and participate in their alleged sacramental celebrations. This is a serious blow to the sacramental integrity which is a hallmark of our church.

In recent times marriage as we know it has been challenged to the limit. People presume that civil marriage can be whatever civil society wants it to be in this present age of secularism and relativism. But that is not how marriage has been understood over the centuries both by civil society and by the church.

This matter is all the more significant for us Catholics because in our community marriage is a sacrament, the love of husband for wife mirroring the love of Christ for his spouse, the church. Even if civil society acknowledges same-sex marriage as legitimate, this is impossible for the church. Because we also see this as harmful to family life, we speak out against such civil marriages and we certainly work to preserve the integrity of sacramental marriage.

Recently the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome had to offer a clarification about Baptism. Because of the concern some folks had about exclusive language, there were actually some church ministers who were baptizing “in the name of the Creator and of the Redeemer and of the Sanctifier.” But that is not the form for the sacrament of Baptism. Remember! What is a sacrament? A sign of grace instituted by Christ and entrusted to the church. It is not entrusted to individual Christians. It is entrusted to the whole church under the leadership of its pastors. People who take these matters into their own hands cause problems for others. Sacramental integrity requires that ministers of the sacraments follow the rituals as defined by church authority.

Even the sacrament of Reconciliation has been too often misunderstood. I heard about a Reconciliation service where participants were instructed to go and confess their sins to any adult, priest or lay person. Yes, we can all confess our sins to whomever we wish but only an ordained priest is able to confer sacramental absolution. Confessing sins to a friend or neighbor may be helpful. But it is not a sacrament, not a sign which produces the effect of forgiveness from God through the action of the church.

The Anointing of the Sick is also something which is at times non-sacramental. Because priests are not always available, some folks take it on their own initiative to anoint sick persons as a sign of their prayers for healing. This can be a gracious gesture, one that leads people to a closer union with God at a difficult time. But it is not a sacrament. It is not that sacred sign entrusted to the church through which God confers physical, emotional or spiritual healing.

The celebration of the Eucharist is our central action as a Catholic people. Over the past forty plus years many changes have been introduced into the rituals of the church. Unfortunately, because some things changed, there were people who thought all things were about to change and they themselves would decide what to change. Other Catholics who do not appreciate the Novus Ordo, the new rite proposed by Vatican II, have chosen to participate in schismatic liturgical celebrations presided over by ministers not in union with the local Catholic bishop.

From the earliest days of the church, there has been a principle which defines integral catholicity, “ubi episcopus, ibi ecclesia.” In other words, the true church of Christ is one that serves the mission of Christ in union with the local bishop. A bishop is the chief shepherd, the chief catechist and the chief liturgist in the diocese. It is his responsibility to define sacramental integrity. His teachings may be challenged, but when they are clearly in union with those of the Bishop of Rome and the other members of the college of bishops, it is more than likely that the challenger is way off base.

In this local church it is my duty from time to time to insist upon sacramental integrity where abuses may occur. Overall, I am greatly impressed with the liturgical life of this local church. But I am also aware that there are those who think they can do things better and as a result cause great harm to the integrity of our sacramental life. When all is said and done, it is important for all of us to remember what the Catechism of the Catholic Church instructs, namely, that “liturgical services are not private functions but are celebrations of the church.” Enough said. I thank God for the good Catholic people among us and those who have gone before us whose good works and holiness are attributed to the power that comes from prayer and especially from the sacraments.

The Catholic Sentinel

The Holy Spirit, Soul of the Church

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput O.F.M. Cap.

“For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body; and we were all given to drink of one Spirit” (I Cor 12:13)

How many of you have heard people from your own generation or older say something like this: “I believe in Jesus, but I don’t need the Church.” Or: “I’m a spiritual person, but I’m not religious.”

Here’s the problem with those statements: Without Jesus, there’s no Church. It’s that simple. And it’s also true the other way around: Without the Church, there’s no way we can have a lasting, personal relationship with the true Jesus Christ. The original Greek word for the Church is ekklesia, which means a gathering of those who are “called out” — called out of the darkness of the world by God for a new life in Jesus Christ. The whole reason for Jesus’ incarnation was to bring salvation to all humanity, not just his contemporaries. So He had to form a community of believers that would preserve his mission and continue it for all the generations to come. This is why He founded the family of faith we call the Church. He then made sure that his Church would become God’s people forever, by sending the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

No matter how flawed or sinful individual Catholics may be, the Holy Spirit dwells in the Church and guarantees that she will always remain the sacrament of Salvation. In other words, the Church is the only certain way by which all men and women can find the gift of salvation brought by Jesus.

Today, many people try to discredit the historical fact of Jesus in sensational ways. You know some of these efforts: the Da Vinci Code, the phony “gospel” of Judas, the bogus discovery of the “tomb” of Jesus. This has been going on for a long time. Years ago, when I was a seminarian, a book about the “lost years of Jesus” was popular. It claimed that Jesus was actually a guru who spent most of his youth in Tibet, learning from other spiritual masters. Like all the other theories, the book came, sparked some controversy, made some money for its author and then disappeared. And during your own lives as Christians, you’ll encounter theories of the same kind, with the same purpose: to disconnect Jesus Christ from his Church; to make us believe that Jesus was a very “wise man,” or an “important teacher,” or someone with a “great message,” but not the Son of God, not our Savior, and certainly not the founder of a Church — especially not our Catholic Church.

This is nonsense, and not because “the Church says so,” but because it’s historical fact. Jesus repeatedly claimed that He was the only way to salvation, that He was the Son of God, that we had to eat his flesh and drink his blood to be saved, and that we had to follow Him and make disciples of all nations.

So it’s false to say that Jesus was simply a “great master,” or “a very wise man,” or a “good leader.” You can’t be a “good man” or a “great master” and a liar at the same time, and Jesus quite openly claimed that He was the Son of God who came to save the world. He was either a complete fraud or He was the Son of God. Anything in between is just muddled thinking, inconsistent with Christ’s message. In fact, as a believer, I have more respect for someone who rejects Jesus as an impostor or lunatic, than for someone who conveniently rearranges the Christian faith to say that Christ was a “great ethical teacher.”

Of course, Catholics believe Jesus was neither crazy nor an impostor, but truly the Son of God who came to save us and to be with us always. But how is that possible? How does Jesus Christ remain in our midst?

Can any one of you see Jesus physically, with your own eyes, right here and now? No. But when Christ promised to be with us always, He specifically referred to the Church. The Church is the way Jesus fulfills his promise to remain among us until the end of time. And because we belong to the family of believers that we call the Church, we claim the presence of Jesus among us right here, right now. Why? Because Jesus said that whenever two or more would be gathered in his name, He would be present among them. And in a while, also thanks to the mystery of the Church, we will ask the Holy Spirit to come to us at Mass and transform the bread and wine into the real body and blood of Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI has talked about the relationship between Jesus and the Church in many of his weekly talks in Rome. He’s been focusing on the disciples who first surrounded Jesus, He spoke about the Apostles, and then about the different persons mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. After this he talked about first followers of the Apostles, like Bishop Polycarp, a direct disciple of St John the Evangelist; then on the “disciples of the disciples,” like St. Irenaeus, a follower of St. Polycarp. In this way, he’s been offering, over the last two years, the great history of the Church based on all the great personalities of our tradition, from St. Augustine to St Gregory the Great, from St. Ignatius of Antioch to St. John Chrysostom.

Why is Pope Benedict doing this? What’s the core message of the Holy Father’s teachings in these weekly talks? Besides giving us an extraordinary summary of the history of the Church that no serious Catholic should miss, he’s delivering a very clear message. The message is this: We Catholic believers today are part of the same, living, community of faith founded by Jesus Christ Himself. There’s an unbroken continuity that starts with Jesus, flows down through the Apostles and arrives to us through the discipleship of previous generations and the authority of Scripture itself. In a humble, systematic way, Pope Benedict is responding with hard historical evidence to all those who argue that the Church was somehow “invented” by an emperor or some very clever human beings later in history, but has no connection with Jesus Christ.

Let’s remember that we’re celebrating this World Youth Day in the context of the Year of St. Paul, the Jubilee convoked by Pope Benedict to celebrate the 2,000 years since St. Paul’s birth. Pope Benedict explained that, when Jesus spoke to Paul at the moment of his conversion, He told Paul that Paul’s brutal persecution of Christians was a persecution of Jesus Himself. In the words of Pope Benedict, “Jesus identifies Himself with the Church as one single object. It is this revelation of the Risen Christ that transformed Paul’s life, and in which is contained all of the teachings about the Church as the body of Christ . . . The Church is not an organization that wants to promote a certain cause. [The Church] is not about a cause. It is about the person of Jesus Christ, who, even though He is risen, has remained ‘flesh’.”

Who keeps the Church alive, and who guarantees her mission? The Holy Spirit. No one else. Heinrich Himmler, the chief of Adolph Hitler’s security services during the Nazi era in Germany, once threatened the Archbishop of Berlin, Cardinal Konrad Graf, with plans to crush the Catholic Church. Cardinal Graf listened politely and then responded: “Well, good luck. We’ve been trying to do that for 2,000 years, and [the Church is] still here.” Of course, the Cardinal was being ironic, but he was also quite accurate: Even the failures and sins of her own leaders have not destroyed the Church. And the reason is simple. The holiness of the Church ultimately depends on the Holy Spirit, not on us.

The same is true today. Obviously, you and I are called to be holy. That’s a call we received at our Baptism, when we received the Holy Spirit. God renewed our vocation to holiness in our Confirmation. But the Church’s holiness is a reality that does not depend on us. As a bishop, I’m familiar with many of the problems in the Church because they usually end up on my desk. But precisely because I see the flaws of people in the Church everyday, I see more clearly that we’re guided by the Holy Spirit, and that Jesus dwells in his own true Church — the Catholic Church. I also see that the Holy Spirit raises up many, many holy people, parishes, movements and new spiritual families that are bringing new hope and fresh energy to the Church.

So make no mistake: If you want a full, meaningful life in Jesus Christ, you will only find it in the Catholic Church. Remember that the Holy Spirit is the “Lord and giver of life”: Take those words to heart. There is no real life without the Holy Spirit or without the Church that Jesus Christ founded.

To love Jesus Christ is to love the Church. This is also true the other way around: To love the Church is to love Jesus Christ. We need to have a true passion for the Church, a love that moves us to a deeper zeal for her mission, a love that makes us eager to explain and defend her. We need to rediscover the kind of unabashed love for the Church we find in the early Fathers of the Church and the great Catholic saints. Their fidelity to the Church was not abstract. Many gave their lives to prove their love.

St. Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of St. John the Apostle, on his way to being thrown to the beasts in the Roman Coliseum during one of the great persecutions against Christians, wrote a letter with these words: “I am the wheat of God, and let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ.”

Is our love for the Church this deep; so true and so pure that we’re ready to be “ground down” to become the wheat of God?

As a bishop, I have the privilege of receiving back into the Church many fallen away Catholics every year. The reasons these people abandoned their Church are varied. Many of them had a normal Catholic childhood; they were happy kids in a Catholic family that would say family prayers, go to Mass on Sundays, and practice Catholic traditions and devotions.

What led them away from their faith? In many cases, it was simply encountering the world, usually at college age, without a well-rooted understanding of their faith or the tools to defend it. Many had personal devotion to God, sympathy for the Church, and respect for priests and nuns; but they had no mature intellectual and spiritual formation in their faith. They were intellectually unarmed. They met the usual “false prophets” — about which Jesus Himself warned us — who filled them with doubt, peer pressure and academic cynicism, and these experiences completely undermined their Catholic soul. They became not only embarrassed about their faith but hostile to it.

Some of the most ferocious and bigoted critics of the Church I’ve met over the years have been formerly serious Catholics. And of course that makes them more effective in their ability to hurt the Church. It’s a lot like breaking up with members of your family. Because you know your spouse, or your parents, or your siblings so well, you also know better than anyone else how to hurt them.

How can we prevent joyful members of the Church from sliding into indifference or even hostility to their Catholic faith?

A strong Catholic sacramental and prayer life is indispensable. But it’s not good enough. We also need on-going Catholic formation — intellectual, spiritual and human formation. This kind of formation is almost impossible to find outside the context of a living Catholic community, be it a parish, a renewal movement or some other type of Catholic association to which we deeply commit ourselves.

Our connection to the Church is never an abstraction. It always comes alive through our engagement with a community of believers. That’s why, from the beginning, the Church was organized into territories, what today we know as parishes or dioceses. That’s also why the Church has always encouraged many different forms of Catholic spirituality and community life.

Remember that each one of you is precious to Jesus Christ as an individual, as a son or daughter of the Church. No one is a minor player in the history of salvation, and none of you is just a number in the Church. You have a purpose that only you — in all of human history — can fulfill. You are loved by God and needed in God’s plan in a unique and irreplaceable way.

St. Ignatius of Antioch once wrote:

“Christ is our leader, and we His soldiers. Let us then, brothers and sisters, with all energy, act the part of soldiers, in accordance with His holy commandments. Let us consider those who serve under generals, with what order and obedience they perform the things that are commanded them. All are not generals, nor commanders of a thousand, or a hundred . . . but each one in his own rank performs [what must be accomplished]. The great cannot subsist without the small, nor the small without the great.”

More than 40 years ago, Pope Paul VI gave his great first encyclical the title Ecclesiam Suam. Those are Latin words that mean “His Church.” Pope Paul meant that the Catholic Church does not belong to the bishops, or to the priests or deacons or nuns or laypeople, or even to the Pope himself. The Church belongs to Jesus Christ. Each one of you is needed to live and witness Jesus Christ. Do not evade that responsibility. Do not break faith with the Lord who loves you — Jesus Christ, whose Catholic Church is the path to your own and the world’s salvation.

May God bless you.

Called to Live in the Holy Spirit

By Archbishop Charles J. Chaput O.F.M. Cap.

“If we live by the Holy Spirit, let us be guided by the Holy Spirit” (Gal 5:25)

Good morning, and congratulations for being here. All of you have been blessed. A lot of young Catholic men and women around the world would love to be here

Our theme today is “Called to live in the Holy Spirit.” Describing the Holy Spirit isn’t easy. One of the great minds of early Christian history, St. Augustine, wanted to write a book explaining the Holy Trinity, the fundamental Christian belief that God is one God in three Divine Persons. There’s a legend that one day Augustine was walking along the beach at Hippo, his diocese in North Africa. He was trying to figure out the mystery of the Trinity. And as he moved along, he saw a boy running back and forth from the surf, carrying water in a bucket and pouring it into a small hole in the sand.

Augustine was curious. He asked the child what he was doing. The boy responded: “I’m pouring all that water” — meaning the ocean — “into this hole.” Augustine said: “That’s impossible. The ocean is huge, and your hole in the sand is tiny.” The boy responded: “Then how can you expect to put the mystery of the Holy Trinity into that little head of yours?” And then the boy disappeared.

Augustine didn’t stop thinking about the Trinity. In fact, he gave the Church her single most important Christian reflection on the Trinity, called De Trinitate, which is as profound and powerful today as it was 1,600 years ago.

But Augustine did learn to be humble. He learned that no matter how hard he thought about mysteries like the Trinity, he would never fully understand them. The same is true for us. We’ll always need faith to guide us in our lives. In all our searching for God, we need to remember what Pope John Paul the Great taught us: Our minds need to fly on two wings — faith and reason. We need both. They’re meant to go together.

All of you will recall what we say every Sunday at Mass when we profess the Creed. The Creed is the summary of what we believe as Catholics. It’s a public statement of our Christian faith. In the Creed, we use our first wing, the wing of faith. The Creed describes the Holy Spirit as “The Lord the giver of Life”. Now let’s use our reason. Let’s think about those words: “The giver of Life!”

What do we thirst for more than anything else in the world? Life. We want as much life as we can get. We want a long life, a happy life, a healthy life. Everything we hope for is somehow summarized in that powerful word, “life.”

In everyday slang we speak of “having a life.” We all worry about “the meaning of life.” We especially like to tell annoying people to “go get a life.” We make big plans for our future. We spend huge energy and resources to “build a life.” And yet the Church has been telling us all along that the Holy Spirit is none other than the “giver of life,” a kind of fusion engine of love who runs the whole thing. So maybe we should pay a little more attention to Him.

Pope John Paul, one of the patrons of this World Youth Day, wrote a letter to the Catholic bishops and people of the world about the Holy Spirit. He entitled it, quite sensibly, The Lord and Giver of Life. In his letter, John Paul reminded us that Jesus revealed Himself with these words from Scripture: “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).

So if the Holy Spirit is the giver of life, it means He’s the one that brings us to a full understanding and union with the real Jesus Christ — not with the “nice guy” or interesting teacher that the world would prefer Jesus to be, but the true Jesus Christ who is the only Son of the Father, the Savior of the world, and the source of all life and happiness for you, for me and for all humanity.

Catholic imagery usually shows the Holy Spirit as a dove. That’s the way He’s described in the Gospels: a dove descending over Jesus during his baptism. But have you ever wondered, Why a dove? Maybe one of the reasons is that there’s nothing threatening about a dove. A dove typically embodies purity, beauty and gentleness. The kindness of the Holy Spirit operating in our lives is exactly the opposite of the violence that the world and the devil rely on.

Violence isn’t always painful. It isn’t always bloody. Some things can feel very pleasant but leave a deep wound that we only discover much later. Every day, all of you drink in a river of bad ideas pushed by marketers who want your money, your approval and your conformity — and they make very sure they get it by using the radio, television, internet, popular songs and peer pressure to wrap you up in, like a spider getting ready for dinner. Today’s popular culture is based on a message that seems liberating, but it actually diminishes your humanity. It’s a message that reduces human dignity to what we can see and touch and own. It’s a message that squeezes great moral ideals and religious truths down into personal idiosyncrasies. In a nutshell, the modern world suggests that you can do whatever you want, whenever you want. If someone else suffers as a consequence, if some damage is unintentionally done to other people by your actions, well, that’s not your fault.

Does that sound genuinely human to you? I don’t think so.

There’s a curious kind of irony at work when some young people criticize their parents, the Church and other authority figures, claiming that they want to be “free” or that they want to “live their own lives.” Many of those same young people then go out and dress the same way, listen to the same music, follow the same fashions and generally behave not like social reformers, but like lemmings.

It’s the worst kind of slavery when corporations and fashion designers and political opinion makers treat people like chumps. They trick a whole generation into doing what the world demands, while at the same time telling young people that they’re “free,” “original” and even “revolutionary.”

God acts in a completely different way. That’s why the Holy Spirit is shown as a dove: He reveals to us the truth, helps us understand who Jesus really is, and calls us to a radically new life in Christ. But He never forces us or deceives us into doing anything we don’t willingly choose to do. That’s real freedom: when we choose, against our shortcomings and temptations from the world, to live the true life brought to us by Jesus Christ.

In an age when our minds are soaked by so many distractions, it’s not easy to experience the Holy Spirit and his action in our lives. I find very helpful what that great Christian writer, C.S. Lewis, wrote about the Holy Spirit: “Do not be worried or surprised if you find the Holy Spirit rather vaguer or more shadowy in your mind than the other two persons [of the Trinity]. In the Christian life you are not usually looking at [the Holy Spirit]: He is always acting through you. If you think of the Father as someone in front of you, and of the Son as someone standing at your side, helping you to pray, trying to turn you into another son, then you have to think of the third Person as someone inside you.”

The Holy Spirit is not floating around “somewhere out there”.” We received Him into our lives at our Baptism and our Confirmation. Beginning with those sacramental moments, He has always been dwelling within us. Someone may be tempted to ask: “Well, where is He, because I don’t feel Him.” If you don’t perceive Him, it’s probably because you’re not letting Him act in your life. Remember: He will not violate your freedom.

C.S. Lewis said something even more radical about the Holy Spirit. Listen: “If you are close to Him, the spray [of the Holy Spirit's love] will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a person is united to Him, how could he or she not live forever? Once a person is separated from Him, what can he or she do but wither and die?”

Another common image of Holy Spirit is fire. The Holy Spirit came as “tongues of fire” in the story about the first Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles. Why is the Holy Spirit a kind of fire? It’s because fire is something that indicates intensity, energy and purity. Anything that comes close to fire is either consumed or becomes fire itself. Fire clarifies and purifies. We either become one with the fire, or we flee it.

Such is the Holy Spirit. He brings us the holy fire of God to transform us, to turn us into what He is, to make us God-like.

The Church teaches us that the Holy Spirit brings us seven gifts: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Courage — which we also call Fortitude — Knowledge, Piety and Fear of the Lord. Each one of these gifts really requires a whole separate talk, but let me highlight one of the seven today: Courage. Through the gift of Courage, the Holy Spirit strengthens us to do the will of God in all things. All seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are equally precious, but I would stress Courage in a special way for you young women and men, because much of our culture today is aimed at making things effortless and quick, without any investment of time, personal energy or suffering.

Today’s technology can certainly make life easier and in many ways better. But lasting personal happiness and salvation can only be had the “old fashion” way, the timeless way, the way Jesus Christ showed us. The only way to true peace in our hearts and in the world is the hard way, the way of the Cross, the way of self-giving and sacrifice.

We live in a “lite” culture, a culture eager for shortcuts; a culture desperate to avoid inconveniences and pain. We need to remember St. Augustine’s famous phrase that “love is heavy.” Love takes no shortcuts. Love is not “light” or easy, but love is also the only thing that can really fulfill our deepest hunger.

That’s why Courage is so vital. And Courage requires a sister virtue that modern culture despises, a virtue that you should daily pray to obtain: Patience. Patience is much more than just a capacity to wait. Patience requires the will and the strength to do the right thing — not just now, and not just for a little while, but constantly and steadily, and especially if it involves suffering over an extended period of time.

One of my favorite Bible passages is the beginning of the second chapter of the Book of Sirach in the Old Testament:

“My son, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials. Be sincere of heart and steadfast, undisturbed in time of adversity. Cling to him, don’t abandon him; and your future will be great. Accept whatever befalls you, in crushing misfortune be patient; for in fire gold is tested and worthy men in the crucible of humiliation. Trust God and He will help you; make straight your ways and hope in Him . . . You who fear the Lord, hope for good things, for lasting joy and mercy.”

This is the kind of Courage God asks from us. This is the kind of Patience implied in the Christian life God calls each of you to witness: a life that is pure, devout, chaste, generous to the poor and to those in need, courageous in protecting the human person from the moment of conception to natural death. And you’re asked in a special way to be generous to God, being ready to leave everything behind and follow His calling, be it to priestly, consecrated or married life.

This isn’t an easy task. And you know that too, of course. But the good news is that God also knows that it can be difficult, and so He has sent us his Holy Spirit, our Friend, our Comforter and our Counselor. A very ancient prayer of the Church, the Sequence of the Solemnity of Pentecost, describes the Holy Spirit by what He brings to our lives: He is the “giver of gifts”, “light of the hearts”, “sweet guest of the soul.”

The Holy Spirit is the one who brings us “rest and relief” in the midst of our toils; the one who provides “rest and ease” in our struggle with the anxieties of every age, especially this age which is our own, so filled with hopes and fears. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings consolation when our hearts grieve, and when we’re tempted to despair.

With such a gift, the gift of God Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit, it really doesn’t matter how hard the challenges might be that we face. God is stronger, Love is stronger. Grace is stronger. So, like every generation of Christians before us, and even in the midst of this difficult age, we have every reason to take joy in the phrase that Pope John Paul turned into his motto: “Be not afraid!”

Angels and Demons by Fr. John Corapi

Ten years ago I preached a spiritual conference entitled “Angels and Demons.” This is one of the regular sermons in our major series “Thunder and Lightning.” We are this weekend making it available to our friends and supporters because we feel that the subject matter is so important. It is rare today that you will find any teaching or preaching on this subject in the Catholic Church. This is strange because it is in fact the teaching of the Catholic Church and always has been.

One cannot understand reality if one brackets out a large portion of reality–the preternatural order (angels and demons). If you try to arrive at valid conclusions concerning reality, but have left out a good part of that reality you are engaged in an exercise in futility. So many things today can only be understood in the light of this spiritual reality. Have you ever wondered why so many apparently educated and intelligent people just don’t get it, especially with respect to such life and death matters as abortion?

There is a battle that goes on in the spiritual order between the forces of God and the forces of Satan, “the adversary.” This battle between cosmic good and evil, between angels and demons, has man caught in the crosshairs. Man is an active player in his own salvation. We need the help of our allies the angels. To fail to enlist their help is reckless. To fail to realize the reality of the enemy forces, the demonic legions, can be ultimately and eternally fatal.

We are at war and our battle is not against flesh and blood, as St. Paul warns us in Ephesians 6. The battle between good and evil, truth and lies, life and death involves these angelic legions-good and evil. We are soldiers in God’s army, like it or not, believe it or not. We must be aware of these fundamental teachings, learn them, and live in accordance with them.

God bless you,
Fr. John Corapi

Editors Note: Here below is the link to Father Corapi’s website. From personal experience of having previously attended Father’s conferences during my own conversion, I can attest that for any soul in search of no nonsense answers to questions concerning divine truth, the spiritual life or Holy Mother Church, you’ll find it here–and without error… He, (along with his works) is a true light on the road of faith seeking understanding. Find it here: fathercorapi.com

The False Idols of Materialism, Possessive Love, and Power: Full Text of Pope Benedict XVI Discourse To Troubled Youth

Dear Young Friends,

       I am pleased to be with you at Darlinghurst today, and I warmly greet all those taking part in the “Alive” programme, as well as the staff who run it. I pray that you will all benefit from the assistance offered by the Archdiocese of Sydney’s Social Services Agency, and that the good work being done here will continue long into the future.

       The name of the programme you are following prompts us to ask the question: what does it really mean to be “alive”, to live life to the full? This is what all of us want, especially when we are young, and it is what Christ wants for us. In fact, he said: “I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10). The most basic instinct of all living things is to stay alive, to grow, to flourish, and to pass on the gift of life to others. So it is only natural that we should ask how best to do this.

       For the people of the Old Testament, this question was just as urgent as it is for us today. No doubt they listened attentively when Moses said to them: “I set before you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live in the love of the Lord your God, obeying his voice, clinging to him – for in this your life consists” (Dt 30:19-20). It was clear what they had to do: they had to turn away from other gods and worship the true God who had revealed himself to Moses – and they had to obey his commandments. You might think that in today’s world, people are unlikely to start worshipping other gods. But sometimes people worship “other gods” without realizing it. False “gods”, whatever name, shape or form we give them, are nearly always associated with the worship of three things: material possessions, possessive love, or power. Let me explain what I mean.

       Material possessions, in themselves, are good. We would not survive for long without money, clothing and shelter. We must eat in order to stay alive. Yet if we are greedy, if we refuse to share what we have with the hungry and the poor, then we make our possessions into a false god. How many voices in our materialist society tell us that happiness is to be found by acquiring as many possessions and luxuries as we can! But this is to make possessions into a false god. Instead of bringing life, they bring death.

       Authentic love is obviously something good. Without it, life would hardly be worth living. It fulfils our deepest need, and when we love, we become most fully ourselves, most fully human. But how easily it can be made into a false god! People often think they are being loving when actually they are being possessive or manipulative. People sometimes treat others as objects to satisfy their own needs rather than as persons to be loved and cherished. How easy it is to be deceived by the many voices in our society that advocate a permissive approach to sexuality, without regard for modesty, self-respect or the moral values that bring quality to human relationships! This is worship of a false god. Instead of bringing life, it brings death.

       The power God has given us to shape the world around us is obviously something good. Used properly and responsibly, it enables us to transform people’s lives. Every community needs good leaders. Yet how tempting it can be to grasp at power for its own sake, to seek to dominate others or to exploit the natural environment for selfish purposes! This is to make power into a false god. Instead of bringing life, it brings death.

       The cult of material possessions, the cult of possessive love and the cult of power often lead people to attempt to “play God”: to try to seize total control, with no regard for the wisdom or the commandments that God has made known to us. This is the path that leads towards death. By contrast, worship of the one true God means recognizing in him the source of all goodness, entrusting ourselves to him, opening ourselves to the healing power of his grace and obeying his commandments: that is the way to choose life.

       A vivid illustration of what it means to turn back from the path of death onto the path of life is found in a Gospel story that I am sure you all know well: the parable of the prodigal son. When that young man left his father’s house at the beginning of the story, he was seeking the illusory pleasures promised by false “gods”. He squandered his inheritance on a life of indulgence, and ended up in abject poverty and misery. When he reached the very lowest point, hungry and abandoned, he realized how foolish he had been to leave his loving father. Humbly, he returned and asked forgiveness. Joyfully his father embraced him and exclaimed: “This son of mine was dead, and has come back to life; he was lost, and is found” (Lk 15:24).

       Many of you must have had personal experience of what that young man went through. Perhaps you have made choices that you now regret, choices that led you down a path which, however attractive it appeared at the time, only led you deeper into misery and abandonment. The choice to abuse drugs or alcohol, to engage in criminal activity or self-harm, may have seemed at the time to offer a way out of a difficult or confusing situation. You now know that, instead of bringing life, it brings death. I wish to acknowledge your courage in choosing to turn back onto the path of life, just like the young man in the parable. You have accepted help – from friends or family, from the staff who run the “Alive” programme: from people who care deeply for your well-being and happiness.

       Dear friends, I see you as ambassadors of hope to others in similar situations. You can convince them of the need to choose the path of life and shun the path of death, because you speak from experience. All through the Gospels, it was those who had taken wrong turnings who were particularly loved by Jesus, because once they recognized their mistake, they were all the more open to his healing message. Indeed, Jesus was often criticized by self-righteous members of society for spending so much time with such people. “Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?”, they asked. He responded: “It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick … I did not come to call the virtuous but sinners” (cf. Mt 9:11-13). It was those who were willing to rebuild their lives who were most ready to listen to Jesus and become his disciples. You can follow in their footsteps, you too can grow particularly close to Jesus because you have chosen to turn back towards him. You can be sure that, just like the Father in the story of the prodigal son, Jesus welcomes you with open arms. He offers you unconditional love – and it is in loving friendship with him that the fullness of life is to be found.

       I mentioned earlier that when we love we are fulfilling our deepest need and becoming most fully ourselves, most fully human. Loving is what we are programmed to do, what we were designed for by our Creator. Naturally, I am not talking about fleeting, shallow relationships, I am talking about real love, the very heart of Jesus’ moral teaching: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” and “You must love your neighbour as yourself” (cf. Mk 12:30-31). This, if you like, is the programme that is hard-wired into every human person, if only we had the wisdom and generosity to live by it, if only we were ready to sacrifice our own preferences so as to be of service to others, to give our lives for the good of others, and above all for Jesus, who loved us and gave his life for us. That is what human beings are called to do, that is what it means to be truly alive.

       Dear young friends, my message to you today is the same one that Moses proposed all those years ago. “Choose life, so that you and your descendants may live in the love of the Lord your God”. Let his Spirit guide you onto the path of life, so that you obey his commandments, follow his teachings, leave behind the wrong turnings that lead only to death, and commit yourselves to a lifelong friendship with Jesus Christ. In the power of the Holy Spirit, choose life and choose love, and bear witness before the world to the joy that it brings. That is my prayer for each one of you this World Youth Day. May God bless you all.

[01113-02.02] [Original text: English] Vatican Information Service

World Youth Day is time to pray for religious fidelity: By Bishop Robert Vasa

Catholic Sentinel 07.18.08

BEND, OREGON — While you are reading this I hope to be in Australia. Sydney to be more precise. World Youth Day to be exact. The Diocese of Baker is being represented by more than forty individuals who have made the commitment to make this pilgrimage to be with the Holy Father on the occasion of this worldwide youth event. I must confess that I have not yet attended a World Youth Day event and I have been rather cool to the idea of doing so. My experience in Washington, D.C. on the occasion of the recent Papal visit, however, has significantly raised my level of positive expectation. I can recall years ago being a bit amazed at the popularity of the older and more frail Pope John Paul II among the young. He was popular among them to the pop star level. The question which was always in the back of my mind, however, was whether that popularity translated into personal religious fidelity. Over the years millions of young people have flocked to these papal appearances and I pray that the effect remains with them. I pray that they are faithful to Mass attendance, to keeping the Commandments, to prayer and to the teachings of the Church. Is not this fidelity, in many ways, the measure of the ultimate effectiveness of these international papal events?

Pope John Paul II was charismatic and he had a wonderful way to connecting with the youth. He preached a firm and consistent message and he always preached it with great love. The same can be said of pope Benedict XVI. During his trip to the United States he was most gracious and kind and yet there were strong messages in his words. Recall especially his words to Catholic educators. In effect, he said, “You cannot teach what you do not live!” There are volumes spoken in this simple admonition. While Pope Benedict XVI was well received in the United States I do question whether the enthusiasm of the reception he received translates into personal religious fidelity. Perhaps a part of that question comes from a recollection of an interview with a “man on the street.” When asked what he thought of Pope John Paul II he indicated that he thought he was wonderful, great, even splendid. When asked what he thought of his teaching the response was entirely negative. I hope that there were many in our U.S. culture who were not only positively impressed with Pope John Paul and with Pope Benedict but who actually took their words to heart. My fear is that the heart of Catholic America is so encrusted with secularism, relativism and materialism that the message of truth which these popes speak is not readily allowed to take root, much less germinate, much less grow, much less bear fruit. Do not misunderstand me, I do recognize that there are significant conversions which take place on the occasion of these events and many of those conversions are genuine and long lasting. Pray ardently that the youth who travel to Sydney have wonderful and positive religious experiences but pray especially that these experiences are translated into zealous, personal religious fidelity.

There seems to me to be a disconnect when someone insists that they have a personal appreciation for the person of the Holy Father while adamantly rejecting the very things which he is teaching and upholding. Pope Benedict made reference to this during his visit. He talked about the impossibility of separating our private life from our public life. Consistency between what we believe and what we do is essential. Remember the politicians of a decade or two ago who were straddling the fence on abortion. Their standard line: “I am ‘personally opposed’ to abortion but I would not impose my view on anyone.” They seemed to recognize the need to present a pro-life private life while maintaining a pro-abortion public life. Now they feel no such need. Now even Catholic politicians, not all of them certainly, seem to have no qualms of conscience about making public declarations that they will always act, in their public life, to defend and protect, not the life of the child, but the right of the mother to kill that child, while maintaining that they are Catholics in “good standing,” not excommunicated, and communicants. There does not even seem to be any vestige of “personal opposition” to abortion left. Indeed, this is not surprising. It is simply not possible to hold to a so-called “personal opposition” and to act, in a public or external fashion, in a way which consistently undermines that “personal opposition.” Perhaps the spiritual progression would look like this:

• Personally opposed but publicly supportive of abortion while working to restrict abortion to those times when the life of mother is at stake or in cases of rape and incest.

• Then personally opposed but publicly supportive of abortion while working to minimize the number of abortions or the need for abortions.

• Then personally opposed but publicly supportive of abortion while working to assure greater access to abortion.

• Then personally opposed but publicly supportive of abortion while working to ensure the right to abortion even up to and including the day of birth.

• Then personally opposed but publicly supportive of abortion while working to overturn the ban on partial-birth abortion.

• Then a Catholic in “good standing” but publicly supportive of abortion as a woman’s Constitutional right to choose.

• Then a Catholic in “good standing” who thinks the Church needs to rethink its centuries old opposition to abortion.

• Then a Catholic in “good standing” who personally likes the Pope but who rejects everything the Catholic Church holds to be true, right and good.

• Then a Catholic who is not excommunicated and thus not forbidden to receive Holy Communion.

• Then a Catholic who has been informed that he or she should rethink their position on abortion or refrain from receiving Holy Communion.

• Then an oppositional Catholic who maintains that the Bishop has no right to tell them how to live or what to do.

• Then an excommunicated Catholic who publicly defies the excommunication by continuing to receive Holy Communion.

• Then a “Catholic” who must answer to our Lord who will simply say: “That which you did or failed to do for the least of my brothers, you did or failed to do for Me.”