David Ancell / Friday, February 07, 2003 / Comments(0)
Pete Vere posts a very real concern on the penalty of excommunication for procuring an abortion. I wonder if they penalty should be applied only to those who were involved other than the woman. People who pressure a woman into abortion and doctors who perform them ought to be excommunicated for having directly advocated murder.
Of course, I really wish the Church would excommunicate politicians and others who publicly advocate abortion rights. The scandal is unspeakable, and yet they get away with it. I’m scandalized by the fact that they get away with the scandal.
Someone asked why abortion but not other murders incur the penalty of excommunication. Here is what I said in the comments (both concerning this question and Vere’s post):
Hmmm . . . I always thought that emotional distress would, in most cases, cause the penalty of excommunication not to apply.
In any event, my understanding of why murder doesn’t carry a canonical penalty is that there are normally very severe criminal penalties for murder. Because of this, almost anyone will understand the severity of murder.
However, abortion often goes unpunished by civil authorities and therefore the seriousness of the sin may not be recognized. Therefore, the canonical penalty is necessary.
In fact, few serious crimes carry a penalty of excommunication. Many of the things that do are such things as desecration of the Eucharist. This might carry only a minor vandalism charge in the United States, but it carries the penalty of excommunication reserved to the Holy See.
Category: Posts imported from Danger! Falling Brainwaves, Uncategorized
David Ancell / Friday, February 07, 2003 / Comments(0)
Yesterday, I blogged about a lost sense of reality. Today, inspired by this post by Greg Popcak, I will blog about concrete . . . not the stuff you put on sidewalks and streets, mind you.
When I was in the Doctor of Pharmacy program down in Jackson, Mississippi, I went to a church pastored by a middle-aged Irish immigrant priest. On many an occasion, I felt a need to do something with my life after hearing his homilies. I have hardly felt that since leaving that parish.
It seems that most homilies and other statements I hear are so generalized that I can easily rationalize saying that I’m already living that message. Rather than stating we have a duty to oppose a specific war that may occur in the near future (not that I am necessarily opposed to it), we might hear something about how we need to work for “peace and justice.” As a result, few are aware that there are concrete changes that need to be made in their lives. I have often been one of them. Not only that, but many resent it or ignore it when someone finally does preach that something that they are doing is not right. For example, look at the reactions of some politicians to the recent CDF statement on Catholic politicians.
How we so desparately need concrete formation for living as a Christian in today’s world! How we could be making a world of difference right now if we had it!
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David Ancell / Thursday, February 06, 2003 / Comments(0)
I have often thought that, as a society and a church, we have lost a sense of the sacred. I still think so. However, I think that the problem is far deeper than that.
I see that we have lost a sense of, well . . . . er . . . . reality. This precedes the sense of the sacred. In other words, there is not much sense that there is a real God who really sent his son to die on a cross and who really hears our prayers and who will really judge us at the end of time. Even where there is belief in God, the sense of his reality is lost.
Perhaps some people feel free to play around with the Liturgy because it doesn’t “really” matter in their eyes. We think we can gather whatever insight we want that leads us “closer to God.” Nevermind that things which contain bad theology lead us not towards God but towards something else. As for sin, well, what does that really matter anyway.
In a pluralistic society, we can be misled into thinking we can decide for ourselves who God is because there is supposedly no objectively real God out there. We deceive ourselves into thinking that beliefs are all arbitrary.
Category: Posts imported from Danger! Falling Brainwaves, Uncategorized
David Ancell / Thursday, February 06, 2003 / Comments(0)
Has the popularity of blogging run it’s course? It seems that there are a lot of blogs shutting down.
Tom Abbott left rather suddenly. He didn’t say goodbye. He didn’t even leave his old posts up. We just one day go to his blog and see that it was deleted.
Jeff Miller has stopped his blog. I’m glad he left his existing posts because there is plenty of fun reading there. Fortunately, he says he’ll be back with another blog. I hope he comes back soon.
However, the biggest surprise came from Amy Welborn. She was one person whom I could always count on to blog no matter what day it was. It’s like she felt it was her sworn duty to blog every day. Then again, maybe that’s why she decided she needed to shut down.
Well, I will continue on for now. There may be times when I don’t post very often, but I have no plans to shut down anytime soon, especially since this blog is now integrated with my site.
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David Ancell / Thursday, February 06, 2003 / Comments(0)
I’ll be blogging some better stuff tonight, I hope. For now, feast your eyes on this HMS post. Ave Maria is suing the state of Michigan because the state prohibits their scholarship fund from being used towards a theology or divinity major. I hope someone goes after my home state of Missouri for the same thing. The “Bright Flight” scholarship, at least when I was in school, is subject to the same restriction.
Come on, if the students earned the scholarship, let them use it towards their major of choice.
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David Ancell / Wednesday, February 05, 2003 / Comments(0)
I had a great time in Kansas City. Lots of good people there. I found this church near where I was working, so I could go to weekday Mass. They even have a Perpetual Adoration chapel, which I went to visit. In fact, in looking through parish web sites, it looks like this is a common feature of Kansas City parishes. Good for them!
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David Ancell / Sunday, February 02, 2003 / Comments(0)
Jeanetta and Donna Marie Lewis make their comments on the article that I linked to on this post. We just had our class on confession for our RCIA candidates today. The Third Rite is only to be used in emergencies, and any mortal sins forgiven in this rite must be confessed to a priest within one year if the person survives.
The sickening part of the article is not only that this rite is being illicitly and probably invalidly used, but also the “case” stated by the article for its use. In a nutshell, it says “If people prefer this, why not let them do it.” Such is the attitude of adolescence. People may prefer it all they want, but it won’t make it any better for them spiritually. It’s like the kid who asked his parents, “Why can’t I eat cookies all day. They taste better.”
Such is an attitude that treats the Church as only a body of opinions or, worse yet, an extracurricular activity. Such is an attitude that denies either the existence of God, the fact that God does have a will and does care what goes on down here on Earth, or the fact that our words and actions have real meaning. This “It doesn’t matter.” attitude is what has gotten us into the shape we are in today both in our Church and our society. Until we start to realize that there is objective reality that we need to learn, I’m afraid that we will remain in this mess.
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David Ancell / Sunday, February 02, 2003 / Comments(0)
Dennis Schenkel poses an interesting moral question, and I post my answer.
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David Ancell / Sunday, February 02, 2003 / Comments(0)
I’m off to Kansas tomorrow morning, so there will likely be light, if any, blogging until Wednesday or Thursday. I’m not sure whether to tell you to pray for my safety or to pray that I get blown away to Oz.
Category: Posts imported from Danger! Falling Brainwaves, Uncategorized
David Ancell / Sunday, February 02, 2003 / Comments(0)
Courtesy of Amy Welborn and JMT, one finds a link from the Cardinal Newman Society listing “Catholic” colleges and universities who have scheduled a performance of the “Vagina Monologues.”
These were shown in Memphis last summer. I remember driving a friend (who will be entering the seminary this fall) to the Cathedral to attend an ordination to the priesthood when we encountered a big billboard about this filthy show on Central Avenue. All he could say is that people have no taste. Fortunately, it was not our “Catholic” university that was presenting it.
Well, I guess the bright side is that, if you are looking for a Catholic school for yourself or your son or daughter, this sight provides a list of colleges to cross off your list. Too bad it endangers souls in the process. In fact, since the leadership of our Chuch isn’t likely to do anything, we’ll just have to make sure we don’t go there and support them.
When I see such outrageous garbage going on in our Catholic schools, several thoughts come to mind:
1. Since the likelihood of Ex Corde Ecclesiae being enforced at this present moment by our bishops is about the same as the likelihood of a salesman selling WorldComm stock, maybe a grassroots accrediting body needs to be formed. For example, Peter’s Net reviews web sites. I don’t agree with all of their reviews, but at least they are trying to help separate the wheat from the chaff. An independent group, faithful to the Magisterium, could come and see what is being taught. Some of the investigation would have to be made unexpectedly so that the colleges could not fake it.
2. Those who promote such events, calling themselves “tolerant” and “with it,” sure don’t want to be tolerant of those who disagree with them. Look at this piece of the article concerning Georgetown University:
In 2000, a campus newspaper censored a student’s regular column that was critical of the play and subsequently fired him for objecting. Robert Swope, then a Georgetown senior, dared to complain about the production’s sponsors, arguing that the event “exposes the [Georgetown] women’s center for what it really is: an indoctrination camp for lesbians and feminists”.
They censored and fired one who criticized them. Don’t ever let these liberals tell you how tolerant they are. Another college is suing people for using their alumni directory to solicit protests.
3. Why do people want to see this vulgar stuff, anyway? This is an obsession I will never really understand.
Category: Posts imported from Danger! Falling Brainwaves, Uncategorized