Prayer Campaign for Boston College

Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ and our Mother, Mother of the Society of Jesus, we beg your intercession. For the conversion of souls, you have manifested yourself to Saint Juan Diego as Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas, and as Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal to Saint Catherine Laboure, giving to her the medal of the same name to be propagated throughout the world so that many graces would be shed upon those who wear one. We, your loving and trustful children, now turn to you, asking you, Mother, to draw all of us who study or work at Boston College closer to the Most Sacred Heart of your Son. Grant that, through your intercession, we may all be filled with a great faith and a burning love for your Son and our neighbor. Grant that our university may always desire to serve alone the Lord God and Mother Church, His spouse under the Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ on Earth. Allow Boston College to become a great beacon shining forth in this time of the New Evangelization. Keep us free from all error in our belief and protect us from falling into sin, which offends God so much, so that at the end of our Earthly life, we may enter into the Heavenly Kingdom, where you reign as Queen. Amen.

Another Article That Didn't Make It

After The Observer at Boston College received a letter to the editor from the directors of The Vagina Monologues, I realized that I was going to need to respond for the sake of dialogue.

First, the directors are correct in critiquing my article when I wrote that they agreed to “help put on” The Jeweler’s Shop. At the event, if I remember correctly, Ms. Riley and some members of the cast sitting in the front row whose names I do not know said that “we should have” (or similar words) it at BC. I took “we” to mean that some of the cast members were going to help with the event. After receiving the e-mail, I conferred with others I know who were in the audience, and they said that they took “we” to mean “we the BC community” and that my interpretation was wrong. I admit my error.

After my article was submitted for the last issue, I had a thought about on a more diversified panel. The directors say that they invited over ten professors to speak on the panel. I have heard people say that such a statement is unbelievable, as surely someone would sit on the panel. Not only does this uncharitably assume that the directors are liars, I do know that one professor was invited but had a prior commitment that evening and submitted other names as suggestions.

I wonder if professors have fears of speaking against the play if they are not tenured. To speak in favor of the play is to speak in favor of maintaining the status quo. To speak against is to claim that the university is doing something wrong. This is position professors may not want to be in. If, God-forbid, the play is still being performed on campus in five years, maybe a professor on staff now who receives tenure between now and then will come forward. In the meantime, maybe two students who are opposed to the play could sit on the panel.

The meat of the directors’ letter to the editor was on what it means to be a Catholic institution. The mistake that the directors make is confuse catholic with Catholic. The definition used for the word catholic came directly from the dictionary; however, Boston College advertises itself as Catholic with a capital C. The definition of a Catholic university is set forth by the Church in Pope John Paul’s Apostolic Constitution Ex corde ecclesiae. My thoughts on what it means to be a Catholic university, criticized by the directors, come directly from that document.

The directors’ objections of my article were three-fold: 1) that I underestimate the ability of our peers to find errors in a text and thus insult them2) that I only hire Catholics who have not excommunicated themselves by obstinately holding heretical beliefs 3) that the above suggestion would “de facto ban The Vagina Monologues and other non-Catholic texts: ‘academic freedom’ in such a situation would be a logical fallacy.”

I do not think I underestimate the ability of our peers at all. What are we paying here for if not to be taught? Are am I really paying $40,000+ a year for a piece of paper which says that BC has inspected me and certifies that I can think on my own? Or am I paying for BC’s faculty to impart knowledge to me? Lest I be misunderstood, let me clarify: professors are certainly teaching us not what to think but how to think, and students are capable of thinking on their own. That does mean, however, that students will not always get things right.

We live in a world that has many ridiculous ideas, and ideas have consequences. I remember my horror when during a class last semester I listened to a student defend pedophilia. Obviously, always loving a good debate, I challenged him, only to be told that I must be repressed because I believe that some things are wrong and that “even if we want to do them, we shouldn’t.” I was defending the typical Aristotelian concept of virtue: do the good, form habits, build virtue. Where was the professor in showing him his error? I can never explain Aristotle as well as she could, and while she was right in letting me make my best attempt, when my explanation was insufficient, she should have spoken. Can we imagine what the consequences in the future of not correcting his erroneous belief then might be? (And would the cast of The Vagina Monologues celebrate his rape of a young man by attending a play about male-sexual liberation called Cock Tales?)

All joking aside, this is a serious point. Should students be left alone to discuss such a controversial play? If the relativism that the panel promoted is reality, then there is no benefit to having wiser professors help guide a discussion. To think that we can explain the problems (and merits) of the play sufficiently without their guidance stems, possibly, from intellectual pride.

As for the second point, I did not suggest that we only hire Catholics but that we hire more faithful Catholics. Non-Catholics should always be welcomed to attend and teach at Boston College and to offer their ideas as part of the dialogue we are having here, but the Catholic position must be articulated clearly enough so that all students encounter it on campus. This is what makes a Catholic education different from a secular one.

Finally, this would not make academic freedom a fallacy. The Catholic tradition is one of dialogue, as the directors rightly noted, and this dialogue would continue in the classroom. How many works by great Catholic thinkers are titled “Against Someone or Something”? What may happen is that professors would not necessarily endorse ideas contained in such works. Do the faithful Catholic professors are on campus today ban the works of Nietzsche and Freud in class? They are read because, in typical Jesuit, humanist fashion, it is believed that grace builds upon nature. Even in works that contain errors (including The Vagina Monologues), some truth or something useful may be found. Similarly, there already non-Catholic professors on campus who contribute to our discussion?

I understand why my previous article may have been interpreted wrongly as to say that only Catholics should be hired and that they might ban works they disagree with in class. Now that I have clarified, is this really such an absurd idea? I think not. To think otherwise stems from one of two possible roots as I see it: a strong disagreement in the beliefs of the Catholic Church and a desire to ensure Her teachings are not defended because one holds to something else, or the relativism of which I spoke of in my last article. As one Jesuit wrote to me after reading my article, “As you said, there is Truth and then there is the relativism that some are desperate to promote as ‘a truth.’”

An Apologists' Book List

Have you ever thought that maybe your gut feeling about a Church teaching you disagree with may be wrong and that the Church may be right? You’d be surprised what you’ll find if you investigate why the Church teaches what it does. Here’s a list of resources (which the theology department doesn’t want you to see) that may be helpful to you:

• Is there a difference between blind obedience and religious obedience? Yes! http://bcatholic2.blogspot.com/2008/01/on-blind-faith-and-obedience-to-holy.html
• The Handbook of Christian Apologetics by our very own Kreeft and Tacelli demonstrates that Jesus Christ is God and He rose from the dead. Christianity is metaphysical and not just a moralism. It corresponds to reality.
• Refutation of Moral Relativism also by Kreeft. Title says it all.
• Karl Adams’ The Spirit of Catholicism is a great overview of what the faith is.
• Upon This Rock by Stephen Ray is a great defense of the papacy.
• Audio talk “The Conversion of Scott Hahn” available at www.catholicity.com. Catholicism is Biblical. www.Biblechristiansociety.com has more audio that is helpful.
• The Ratzinger Report, Salt of the Earth, and God and the World. All three include great commentary by Joseph Ratzinger on modern Church issues.
• Christopher West The Good News About Sex and Marriage. You’ve been lied to about your sexuality and the Church has good news about what it’s really for.
• Joseph Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy. A deeply theological book on the Mass and why more ‘traditional” Masses are more fitting for worship.
• Patty Schneier “Prove it God” and He did audio talk from omsoul.com. One practicing Catholic’s conversion story on an issue of Church teaching that can apply to all of us in other areas.
• The Theology of the Body talks by Pope John Paul II
• “Humanae Vitae and Conscience” audio talk by Janet Smith. What is the role of conscience in Church teaching?
• Companionofjesus.org explains Ignatian spirituality without watering it down.
• “Development or reversal?” by Avery Cardinal Dulles. How many times are we told Church teaching has changed on X so it can change on Y? This exposes that fallacy. http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=234
• History of Christendom by Warren Carroll. The first book debunks a lot of myths about Scripture that we are taught at BC. Read all of them.
• Person and Being by Father Norris Clarke. The Church has long held that men and women complement one another. A lot of feminists reject this, seeing receptivity (a fact of sexuality) as something bad. They get this belief from Simone de Beauvoir and Sartre. Clarke shows how both men and women are at times receptive and that this is something good. The first chink in the armor of feminism.
• The Priest is Not his Own by Fulton Sheen. This explains what priesthood is all about, in case there was any confusion.
• The Courage to be Chaste by Groeschel shows that a celibate life can be a joyful one. This applies to those with same-sex attraction and those without it.
• Beyond Gay by David Morrison. This book shows that not every person with same-sex attraction has the same experience that tells them there is nothing wrong with what they are doing and how conversion to Christ brings about true happiness.
• The Truth about Homosexuality by Father John Harvey. Explains Church teaching and debunks the myths that in all circumstances same-sex attraction is innate and unchangeable.
• God or goddess by Manfred Hauke. Think it’s okay to call God “Mother” or “She”? Think again.
• Women and the Priesthood by Alice von Hildebrand and Kreeft. A short little book on the topic.
• Women in the Priesthood by Manfred Hauke. To my knowledge, the definitve work.
• Priesthood and Diaconate by Gerhard Muller. Women aren’t going to be deacons either.
• Why Catholics Can’t Sing by Thomas Day. This is just for fun, and it explains why so many people find Mass boring and the music is so bad.
• www.Catholiceducation.org has articles explaining everything.

And just remember, none of any of this matters if you don’t live as a disciple. So study, yes, but love and follow Christ.

Articles that Never Made It

As a writer for The Observer, many times pieces I write never go to print. This may happen if we run out of room or after I write the article, something happens and I make a last minute change in what I submit. Here is one of those articles.

Catholicism is not a set of rules

My roommate is from Long Island, and as such has a great love for Billy Joel. Last month, when I should have been at an Observer meeting, we were busy going through his iPod and listening to every Billy Joel song ever, looking for a particular song. It turns out that what I was seeking is in fact by Jim Croce, but at one point he said to me, “Do you like ‘Only the Good Die Young?’”

I responded by saying that it has a catchy tune but dislike the text. At the same time, I was on Wikipedia and other websites seeing if I could see anything that would point me towards the song I was looking for. I noticed that on Wikipedia, the song was described, in Joel’s own words, as not being anti-Catholic but “pro-lust.” Joel, who is a former Catholic, is certainly not anti-Catholic. I’d say that pro-lust is accurate.

The whole instance reminded me of a question an atheistic friend of mine once asked me. “Donato, if we proved that Christianity was false, which commandments would you still keep?” He was trying to show that I was “enslaved to God” and arbitrarily doing His will, as He is a tyrannical lawmaker. It’s a very common view, one which I have had many people express to me, and I must admit I one-time myself believed it, both when I was an agnostic and when I first came back to the Church. However, at this point in my life, I said to my friend, “The only things that I would stop doing are going to Mass and praying Catholic prayers.” I think he was hoping that I would say I’d go out and hire a prostitute or at least be willing to go to the local porn store and do what he deemed as “having fun.”

What I was trying to explain to him, I recently heard Father Michael Himes homilize on very well. “If you abide in My word, then you are My disciples, and you shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.” He said that we should note the order. If we abide in His word, then we will understand the Truth. It wasn’t until I lived the Church’s teachings that I understood that nothing had ever made me so happy. I had previously decided these teachings must be right because the Church that logic had shown me to be infallible had said these teachings were true.

The thing about Pascal’s Wager, and Father Himes said this in the same homily (although I’ve said it many times, so this wasn’t new to me) is that it’s not just “fake your faith to get into Heaven.” Pascal says, if you live it and try to understand it, you will eventually understand the Truth. “All who have ears ought to hear,” said our Lord. It isn’t until we understand what the Mass is and begin going that we learn how much joy it brings. It isn’t a burden at all! The same thing goes for all prayer, reading the Bible, and any number of the moral teachings of the Church.

This is why the teachings must not become simply a moral law. They must flow out of the relationship we have with Jesus. For example, the “rules” about going to Mass feed us and help us fall more truly in love with He who is Love itself (source of all happiness) and the ones about sexuality explain to us how we ought to love our neighbor. It isn’t until we study them and then try living them that they be comprehend as the meaning of our lives. It’s a beautiful experience.

RIP Father W. Norris Clarke

This was sent to me today.

Fr. Tacelli asked me to inform you that Fr. Norris Clarke S.J. passed away early this morning. Fr. Clarke was not only one of the most distinguished and brilliant Thomistic philosophers of his day, but he was also a wonderful man and holy priest. He came up to BC numerous times for lectures and conferences and was a very good friend to the St. Thomas More Society. He will be solely missed. To read more about this amazing Jesuit go to http://www.fordham.edu/Campus_Resources/Public_Affairs/topstories_1280.asp.

I have recommended his book Person and Being here before and have also enjoyed his The One and the Many.

Welcome into your Kingdom Lord, our dearly departed brother. May Your face shine upon Him and may He experience the dynamic bliss which is Your Presence.

Is God "Mother" or "She"?

Recently, I was at confession and the priest called God “She.” This is something that I’ve heard a lot recently and have posted on before. Is it appropriate to call God “She” or “Mother?” I have taken the time to think and pray about this, and I think that it is inappropriate. I’ve been told that I’m making a big deal out of nothing, and I really don’t think I make a big deal out of this. It’s not something I go around talking about unless it comes up. When people say I’m making a big deal, I ask them: is it a big deal because what I’m saying is untrue or because I make my response too philosophical? Philosophy is the language of theology.

I’ve been told that saying “He” and saying that “She” is inappropriate hurts the faith of some Christians, in particular those who have been hurt by their fathers and women. That makes this a pastoral issue, not just one of doctrine. I don’t know if this is something I would ever preach from the ambo. Wouldn’t this be something to speak to someone one on one about? Wouldn’t that include lots of listening on my part first? Indeed. It would include helping the woman see how the abusive father is nothing like our true Heavenly Father. And while there may certainly be occasions when I listen to others use this language which I find theologically inaccurate and say nothing at that time, I would never myself use that language because to do so is to encourage it.

The reason for this is that we are growing still. While one may at one time not be ready to understand why Jesus revealed God as Father in the prayer he gave us to say, and not “parent” or any other term, at some point the theology behind it must come to light to help the faith of the individual Christian grow. Some frame the whole issue as a pastoral one and not one of revealed theology, but the truth always sets people free and any fear on our part to testify to it would be a betrayal of love for God, self, and the person with whom we are dealing. It may be hard to accept, like the Eucharist, but Jesus preached that, too. If this teaches us something about God, reality, and ourselves, it is something that at some point we must preach.

First, just because some large figures in the history of the Church did something does not justify it. Saint Thomas Aquinas was wrong on the Immaculate Conception, but we must not follow in his error.

Now, obviously to understand God as actually male in sex would be simply wrong as well. This is another danger one must guard against. This is why priests must be teachers. As usual, the truth is really the golden mean. The problem is that theology here is being done bottom-up and not top-down as revealed. God is three-persons, and when we say “Father” we are speaking to only one of them. To whom is the person saying “mother” referring? Earthly fatherhood is named after the Fatherhood as found in the Trinity’s very essence, not the other way around. We are the ones made in His image, not He in ours. To understand the Father as a mother is to alter the way in which He and the logos (which is the feminine side of God) relate. Christ called God Father for two reasons. The first is that Mary was His mother. The second was because in the Trinity’s very nature the Father is the active one, not the receptive one. We have been baptized into Christ’s Body, and so we must call God “Father” as well. Similarly, to call God “she”, as alters the way in which we view God’s grace being given to us. Like in intercourse, God puts grace into us, not the other way around. In all seriousness, I think calling God-mother has implications which help to justify homogenital activity. It makes the Father-Son relationship one that cannot be fruitful. That people are confused about all the issues involving women is because people do not know the beauty of receptivity and degrade it. To better understand the beauty of receptivity, I would recommend Person and Being by Father Norris Clarke.

Start of Summer Update

It's been such a busy end of the semester that I have not had a chance to post. I wanted to mention a few things.

Congratulations to Father Paul McNellis, chaplain for the undergraduate Catholic men's group, the Sons of Saint Patrick. He won the Mary K. Waldron award and was honored with a video by students.

Last weekend I attended the final vows ceremony for two FPO brothers and the ordination for two more FPOs. What a beautiful order. The Franciscans of the Privative Observance are located in Lawrence, MA and worth checking out.

Tomorrow is the ordination of seven men for the archdiocese of Boston. I'll be there. You should be, too.

I am spending this summer as a summer intern in the vocation office for Boston. I encourage you to pray for vocations.