TUESDAY QUOTE OF THE WEEK - XI

FINDING TRUTH WHEREVER IT MAY BE FOUND: “We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything for certain and which has as its goal one’s own ego and one’s own desire.” – Pope Benedict XVI

QUOTE II – “We are at a time for the Church in our country when some Catholics – too many – are discovering that they’ve gradually become non-Catholics who happen to go to Mass.” – Chaput

QUOTE III – “Why do dissenters stick around? That, gentlemen, is why you need a Church and a teaching magistarium.” – Fr. Bendict Groeschel.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Fr. D. sent in some interesting information. You may remember the talk given at his parish by Colleen Carroll Campbell which was reported here. She has sent news that she is now writing a new weekly op-ed column in the St. Louise Post-Dispatch each Thursday and it can be read on their website. In it she wishes to show how religion, politics, and culture interplay. You can read her first article here.

Also the second season of her show “Faith and Culture” is debuting on EWTN. For more information look here.

AND FINALLY

Here are the answers to Monday’s quiz.

PERSONAGES:

1. THE POPE – Your Holiness 2. CARDINAL – Your Eminence 3. PATRIARCH – Your Beatitude 4. PRO-NUNCIO – Your Excellency 5. ARCHBISHOP – Your Excellency 6. BISHOP – Your Excellency 7. ABBOT – Your Excellency 8. MONSIGNOR – Monsignor 9. PRIEST – Father 10. DEACON – Deacon 11. RELIGIOUS (MALE) – usually Father if ordained, otherwise Brother 12. RELIGIOUS (FEMALE) – Sister 13. SEMINARIAN – Mister 14. PRINCE GRAND MASTER OF MALTA – Your Highness 15. THE GRAND MASTER, THE EQUESTRIAN ORDER OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE OF JERUSALEM – Your Eminence

14 Right? – Your Holiness! (Monsignor Manners would be proud!)
11 Right? – Your Eminence
9 Right? – Your Excellency
7 Right? – Liturgist
5 Right? – Better go to Ecclesial Etiquette school if you are going to host this party.

WOULD YOU DIE FOR PIZZA?

There is a difference between running a social club and a youth or young adult group in a Catholic parish. It is not about get-togethers at all costs; it is about helping Catholics live a more authentic Christian life-style. If instilling the faith is not our objective goal, then we are stepping outside of our mission statement and wasting our valuable and limited time and resources. We are not a social organization. Community comes from living the mission; it is not to a mission simply to establish community.

Here are a couple of interesting insights from Colleen Carroll’s book, “The New Faithful”:

“[Y]oung Christians must find communities and fellowships that inspire and sustain them. Not every community fits that bill. Many churches, parachurch organizations, and religious orders struggle to attract young adults who seem hopelessly unresponsive. The attempts of these organizations to appeal to the next generations by diluting their message or softening their demands seem to backfire, leading many religious leaders to conclude that today’s young adults cannot commit to Christian communities of any stripe.” Page 95

“The decisions to be an orthodox Christian today entails a conscious choice, not a passive inheritance. And living that choice is no easy task.” Page 45

“’People think that if we make it easy on [young adults], we’ll draw them in,’ she said. ‘It’s the very opposite. Youth are looking for a cause, a reason to live. They need something to give their lives to.’” Page 70

“Law said, ‘I think every Christian knows it deep down – that it’s a life of self-sacrifice. But we never had a place to fall down and die.’”

It is truth that is compelling. I will not lay down my life, give of my earnings, wake up early on Sunday or devote my vocation to an organization because it will provide free pizza and games for me once a week for a couple of hours. Many places provide that already. Give me something to live for and die for and I will be there.

Now, that is not to say that we never have dances or pizza nights or open gym, but it must grow organically out of Christian fellowship, not be the attempted cause of it or the only people you will attract are those who simply have no place else to go that day. You will have visitors, not warriors for Christ.

A cool place for Clevelanders to check out is the Saint Rose Young Adults Group who seem to have a great balance. Good luck out there finding a place to lay down your life. If you can’t find one – start one.

FEMINISM - RISING FROM THE ASHES

fem'i-nism, 1 fem'i-nizm; 2 fem'i-nism, n. 1.

Beyond that I do not feel confident to write. Just as we watch the ground break open between factions within the Anglican Church threatening to cause the two movements to part company and go in their respective directions, so does it seem that there will be inevitable breaks in the common ground in feminism.

A woman was telling me of a conversation that she was having with her grandmother earlier this week (if you are reading this, I hope this is a fair reporting of that conversation) in which she stated her rejection of the modern feminist movement. The grandmother was aghast and emphasized how much life was better for women and indeed people in general now because of the work of the feminist movement. But that was countered with the notion that the feminist movement of today bears little resemblance to the movement of her grandmother's day which also focused on and protected the family.

Indeed there has been a shift. For example, consider what an early pioneer of the feminist movement, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, had to say about abortion, "When you consider that women have been treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit." Compare that to NOW's (the National Organization of Women) statement. "NOW affirms that reproductive rights are issues of life and death for women, not mere matters of choice. NOW fully supports access to safe and legal abortion, to effective birth control and emergency contraception, to reproductive health services and education for all women. We oppose attempts to restrict these rights through legislation, regulation or Constitutional amendment."

So where does that leave the faithful Catholic who also believes in the advocacy of the political and socioeconomic equality of men and women, the hallmark of the feminist movement? It causes a deepening abyss within feminism leaving many to redefine for themselves what feminism is. Whatever this new definition is, it will grow out of the ashes that we wear today. It begins, to borrow from Sheldon Vanauken, with the realization that this God who made the universe came to live in the world and was killed by the world and the proof of this is His resurrection. And that if this is true, this is simply the only really important truth. For all other supposed truths will come to an end. This one lasts for eternity. And we need to conform our lives to it. In the end what is truly good about feminism will reflect what is good about faith and the meaning of the human person in relation to and relationship with God.

I still will not pretend to know how to finish the above dictionary entry, but Colleen Caroll Cambell is willing to start the ball rolling. She is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a former White House speechwriter, and author of The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy. (Perhaps next time she could get Dawn Eden to help her with a snazzier title.) She has an international television talk show, "Faith and Culture," on EWTN, writes for a number of publications and speaks to audiences across the Unites States.

This Sunday, February 25th, she will be speaking at St. Mary Church in Hudson at 7:15 on The New Feminism: An Authentic Catholic Vision of Woman. I hope to get there myself if parish duties permit. Perhaps a tectonic shift is taking place and instead of feeling left apart, here will be discovered a new place to stand with feminism.