Commanding Officer or Teaching Bishop

My heart cries that the situation in Phoenix should come to the point where the Bishop had to exercise his authority to revoke St. Joseph Hospital's use of "Catholic" in its title. I pray for the Bishop because it must hurt him to have to do this and I pray for the hospital that they continue to provide the best care possible.

In the articles I have read over the past year either the Bishop or the media reporting seemed more interested in enforcing a code rather than seeking ways to agree.

Benedict Wows Britain | Register Exclusives | NCRegister.com

What a great trip it was - going far, I believe, in restoring faith in some British souls.

Benedict Wows Britain | Register Exclusives | NCRegister.com: "Benedict Wows Britain"

Ground Zero Mosque: ‘Wounded Site’ | Register Exclusives | NCRegister.com

This article from the National Catholic Register described, pretty much, my own feelings and hope that an accommodation can be found that will tamp down some of the almost hysterical comments being generated. There are some folks who obviously did not read President Obama's word and choose to put the focus on him.

Calif. coach, USA Swimming sued over alleged abuse

Calif. coach, USA Swimming sued over alleged abuse

A California woman sued the governing body of U.S. competitive swimming and her former coach, claiming he sexually abused, humiliated and harassed her when she was a teenager training under his supervision.

I can't help but wonder whether the press will run with this like the Catholic priest coverage. New York Times please note.

The Efforts to Show Jesus as a Historical Person

In the National Catholic Weekly "AMERICA" (Aug 2-9, 2010) Luke Timothy Johnson authored "The Jesus Controversy" in which he takes issue with Marcus Borg and the other folks who pursue the historical Jesus. Its worth reading.

Limits of History: There is absolutely nothing wrong with studying Jesus as a historical figure, and if we so study him, it is correct to bracket the premises of faith. The sort of project undertaken by Msgr. J. P. Meier in A Marginal Jew, which tests what elements in the Gospel accounts can be historically verified, is perfectly legitimate and yields genuine results. But as Monsignor Meier himself recognizes, the empirically verifiable Jesus is by no means the "real" Jesus. It is more than legitimate, moreover, to learn as much history as possible about the first-century world of Jesus. The point of this knowledge, however, is to become better and more responsible readers of the Gospels themselves. It is not to deconstruct the Gospel narratives in order to reconstruct a "historical Jesus" and claim thereby to have discovered who Jesus really was. Still less is it to propose such a reconstruction as normative for Christians today.

History is a limited way of knowing reality. Dependent on the fragmentary bits of what was observed, recorded, saved and transmitted from the past, recognizing that all human witness is biased and cautious about speculating beyond available evidence, responsible historians know they deal only in probabilities, not certainties. Theirs is a descriptive art rather than a prescriptive science. And in the case of Jesus and the Gospels, the critical problems facing all historical reconstruction are extreme, warning investigators against pushing against the limits.

Finally Some Sanity

America Magazine - Cul-de-Sac Catholicism

During the debates on the Health Reform Bill I become discouraged by the frequent positions voiced by the US Catholic Bishops that seemed closer to the Republican talking points than to our Catechism. The new book by Professor Cafardi lays out clearly (to me) the political positions taken by the Bishops.

Why did the bishops fight health care reform until the end?

NICHOLAS P. CAFARDI | APRIL 12, 2010

I n the second temptation of Jesus in the desert, the devil offered Jesus political power. Jesus turned him down. The American bishops—or rather their leadership and staff—succumbed. How heady it must have felt for those staffers from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops who were present in the room with Rep. Bart Stupak when he was negotiating with Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the anti-abortion language in the House health care reform bill.

But what the lords of this world give, they can take away. How bitter it must have been for these same staffers when Congressman Stupak worked out a reasonable compromise with the administration—an executive order clarifying the anti-abortion language of the Senate bill—so that the Congressman, acting as a pro-life Catholic layman, with a fully-informed conscience, could vote for the Senate version of the health care reform bill.

The Catholic Church has always been a strong supporter of universal health care, ever since Pope John XXIII included it in his list of basic human rights in his encyclical, Pacem in Terris. Yet when the United States finally adopted near (not complete) universal coverage, the bishops of the United States found themselves opposed to it for reasons that were, at best, hard to decipher.

It is worth your time to read the full review.

Report on History of Christianity

In a past blog, I might have noted my intended construction of a "timeline" to help with my learning and retention. So far, "the mother of all timeline" has grown to 33 pages beginning about 3500 BCE in Mesopotamia and continuing on to 1996. At the moment I am reading Reynolds biography of Saint Thomas More. More, I discovered was twice married with several children. I am curious about how he was led to to his own choice of martyrdom.

What a Great Idea!

My grandson recently graduated from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. I hope that BC takes a tip from U of Mary.

New Catholic Studies Program Unveiled
by Tim Drake Monday, February 01, 2010

According to Prairie Business, Bismarck, North Dakota’s University of Mary, plans to offer a Catholic Studies program beginning this fall. By doing so, it becomes one of fewer than 50 colleges and universities to offer such a program.
“This new initiative is a wonderful way to carry forward our founding Benedictine Sisters’ mission to serve the religious, academic and cultural needs of the people of our region,” stated Father James Shea, university president. “We see this new program as an innovative way both to enhance the university’s Catholic identity and to provide an avenue through which students of all faiths can deepen their knowledge of Catholicism’s rich and living heritage. We hope Catholic studies will offer our students space for reflection on the crucial issues of our time and a deeper maturity of faith.”
The program will allow students to develop a deeper understanding of the Catholic faith within the context of science, literature, the arts, history, and other liberal arts courses offered by the university.
A minor in the program would require two core courses and three electives, such as The Catholic Literary Tradition, Sacred Music of the Catholic Heritage, The History of the American Church, or Science and Christian Theology.
Over the past three decades, an increasing number of universities have sought to bolster their Catholic identity by adding such programs.

History of the Catholic Church in ... - Google Books

History of the Catholic Church in ... - Google Books

For several months, my spare time has been devoted to learning about the history of Christianity and its Jewish antecedents. Currently I am reading Father Shea's History of the Catholic Church in America available in full via Google Books. At the same time I am reading Hans Kung's The Catholic Church; a Short History. These two books represent viewpoints almost 180 degrees different. Hopefully I will blog some of my thoughts as I move along.