David Ancell / Thursday, June 26, 2003 / Comments(0)
I see that the Busted Halo discussion on Dissent and Faithfulness has been banished to the archives. I almost wonder if they do this as soon as they know that they are losing. Well, I guess it’s on to other things.
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David Ancell / Thursday, June 26, 2003 / Comments(0)
I now know that Robert Gotcher got my e-mail. There have been several posts about Fr. David Knight’s book on human sexuality. I once took an interest in reading him because he is a Memphis priest. I haven’t read the book they are discussion. I have read His Way, Reaching Jesus, and Confession Can Change Your Life.
The book on confession is one that I’m not so sure about. It starts off with a great premise: that we should be trying to change those things in our lives that we are confessing. As was discussed in the HMS blog, Fr. Knight does not like a rules based approach. However, because he omits the concepts and rules from his writing, it is very easy to read (or misread) him as having simply thrown the rules out. I’ve heard him preach before and can get that impression there, too.
For example, he mentions in the book the last judgement in Matthew 25. He goes on to say that no one went to Hell because they committed a mortal sin but because they didn’t “feed the hungry, clothe the naked,” etc. However, those can very well be considered to be mortal sins of omission. Therefore, the goats are going to Hell because of mortal sins committed.
He also criticized the fact that some people go to confession because they are afraid of going to Hell. Well, given that this is a real possibility, it’s difficult for this to not be at least part of the motivation for going to confession. In the CCC, this is named imperfect contrition. Such is sufficient to gain forgiveness in the Sacrament of Penance. I would hate for anyone to avoid the sacrament because they felt they were only concerned about staying out of Hell. Of course, I agree that we should be led to perfect contrition, sorrow for offending a good and loving God. However, this often comes after one is forgiven when there will be do eternal damnation for those sins.
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David Ancell / Wednesday, June 25, 2003 / Comments(0)
In my recent debate with some rather confused Catholics, I’ve encountered two “arguments” that we must be aware of when talking to them. The reason that we must be careful with them is that we must be careful of attributing any sort of logic to them. They are really emotional rather than logical arguments.
First, the “a loving God wouldn’t do that argument.” This can be found in many places, such as the Skeptics Annotated Bible (link found on Fr. Bryce Sibley’s blog). The argument takes many forms such as calling something “offensive to women” or “absurd” or “cruel” or some other variation thereof. The problem with such an argument is that it makes one’s personal emotions the standard by which God is to be judged. If we feel bad about something, then it can’t be of God. This argument neglects the fact that our loving God deisres our eternal happiness above all things and sees a much bigger picture than we do.
The other one is an argument that I will call the “it’s all about us” argument. In it, an article of faith may be rejected because “it’s not my experience of God.” Perhaps one doesn’t go to Eucharistic Adoration because it is “not their experience of God.” This holds absolutely no water since the Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord and therefore is objectively God himself. If you don’t experience him there, then you have a problem. Other arguments of this nature may be complaints that the Church has not allowed “open debate” on an issue. Did it ever occur to such people that if God declares something, then it isn’t open for debate? Others view dissent as disagreement with what “the faith community says.” This makes the Church’s teaching out to be nothing more than an opinion formed by a group of people who have no more idea of what they are doing than the person making the argument. Needless to say, that ain’t true.
The simple answer to both of these is that God is not subject to our personal feelings and preferences. We may not like some of the Gospel, but it is as Christ has taught. Either we accept it or we don’t. To reject even one part of the Gospel is to make the entire Gospel subject to our own personal opinion. It also endangers the very soul that God is trying so hard to save.
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David Ancell / Monday, June 23, 2003 / Comments(0)
I was reading through the Our Sunday Visitor, and one columnist wrote an article containing one of the lines used by detractors from the authority of the Church. It proposes that, since the Church changed the law against eating meat on Friday, all those who are burning in Hell for doing so should be released from Hell.
The problem arises in that he fails to consider the reverse. If the Church once again reinstated the practice, then would all those in Heaven who ate meat on Friday when it was lawful be thrown down to Hell? Oh, by the way, I’m aware that the discipline was not so much abolished but changed to allow people to substitute their own penance.
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David Ancell / Sunday, June 22, 2003 / Comments(0)
If you read St. Francis de Sales’ Introduction to the Devout Life, you will find that the first step if purification from sin, first from mortal, then from the attachment to mortal sin, then from the attachment to venial sin, and then from the attachments to things not sinful in themselves that could lead to sin (termed “foolish and dangerous things”).
I don’t know if I care for the Off the Record blog of Catholic World News because many of their posts seem downright uncharitable to me. However, this one caught my eye. The Bishops claim that those who make too big of a deal of the scandal fail to see “the whole picture” of the good the Church has done. This is probably true, but the task of avoiding evil is also very important. The good that was done is not too impressive if the evil that was also done is too great.
Therefore, no matter what good the Church is doing, repentance of sin is very necessary. This is not just for our bishops, by the way. I have long argued that if “We are Church,” then personal reform is necessary for every one of us. We must repent of our sins, regardless of whether or not we had anything to do with the scandal.
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David Ancell / Sunday, June 22, 2003 / Comments(0)
I just found out that Archbishop Michael Sheehan has been named as administrator of the Diocese of Phoenix. No doubt he will be a busy man as he will also retain his position as Archbishop of Santa Fe. I do believe that he will do good for the diocese, as evidenced by this pastoral letter on the Eucharist. A return to Eucharistic devotion is likely just what they need in Phoenix.
Phoenix has had a difficult time with first the scandals and then the hit-and-run incident. I hope that they will look not at their fallen leader but at Jesus Christ as he whom they serve. Let us pray that they will not commit spiritual suicide by leaving the Church.
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David Ancell / Saturday, June 21, 2003 / Comments(0)
I posted this piece on the language of dissent on Spiritual Pyromania.
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David Ancell / Saturday, June 21, 2003 / Comments(0)
I just hate it when I see articles like this one. It says some parish employees were fired, but very little in the article says why. However, the fact that the article mentions Call to Action at the bottom may be telling.
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David Ancell / Saturday, June 21, 2003 / Comments(0)
Perhaps this can be considered a historic moment in the history of this blog. Although my blog has long carried a link to Spiritual Pyromania, I’m actually the webmaster of it. Today is the first time that I can remember linking to someone whom I know. I added my link to Dennis Schenkel’s blog. Dennis is soon to be a seminarian for the Diocese of Memphis. He is also a contributor to Spiritual Pyromania.
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David Ancell / Friday, June 20, 2003 / Comments(0)
It’s a beautiful weekend in the forecast, and it may be the last one like it for the summer. It will be hot as Gehenna and very humid soon. However, I won’t be getting to enjoy it. I am on call. The problem with this is that I will get a ton of calls during the weekend, and over 90% of them will be frivilous. I’d love to share stories of some of the stuff that I get, but with my luck one of the crazy callers will read this blog. Besides, it’s probably a violation of the new federal laws on patient confidentiality. (HIPPA = Health Information Pain in the A– Act)
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