I Love Our Pope

Letter of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to the Bishops of the Catholic Church Concerning the Remission of the Excommunication of the Four Bishops Consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre

A highlight:

The Church’s teaching authority cannot be frozen in the year 1962 – this must be quite clear to the Society. But some of those who put themselves forward as great defenders of the Council also need to be reminded that Vatican II embraces the entire doctrinal history of the Church. Anyone who wishes to be obedient to the Council has to accept the faith professed over the centuries, and cannot sever the roots from which the tree draws its life (Emphasis added).

And another:

The real problem at this moment of our history is that God is disappearing from the human horizon, and, with the dimming of the light which comes from God, humanity is losing its bearings, with increasingly evident destructive effects (Emphasis added).

And finally:

At times one gets the impression that our society needs to have at least one group to which no tolerance may be shown; which one can easily attack and hate. And should someone dare to approach them – in this case the Pope – he too loses any right to tolerance; he too can be treated hatefully, without misgiving or restraint (Emphasis added).

Something worth reading

Sandro Magister, "A Philosopher Reissues the Pope's Wager: To Live as if God Exists."

A brief article on Robert Spaemann's newest - at least as of October 31, 2008 - book, which does not yet seem to be available in English. Following the article are some excerpts.

My favorite bit:

With the loss of the idea of truth comes the loss of the idea of reality. Our speaking and thinking that which is, is structured in an inevitably temporal form. We cannot think of something as real without thinking of it in the present, meaning that it is real "now." Anything that has been only in the past, or will be only in the future, has never been and never will be. That which is now, at one time was in the future and will be in the past. The "futurum exactum," the future perfect, is inseparable from the present. Saying that a present event will no longer have been in the future means that in reality it does not exist even now. In this sense, everything real is eternal (emphasis added). There cannot be a moment in which it will no longer be true that someone has felt a suffering or joy that he is feeling now. And this past reality is absolutely independent of the fact that we remember it.

That might be the most profound thing I've read in awhile. I wish I read either German or Italian so I could pick up a copy of this book. Hopefully we'll eventually get an English translation. Or, barring that, I'll eventually work my way through my list of "Languages to Learn" to German or Italian.

Ash Wednesday

"For dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return" (Genesis 3:19).

"Repent, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15).

I'm glad I'm not looking for a teaching position anytime soon.

See this petition.

The most interesting bit:

Read this:

"Many colleges and universities require faculty, students, and staff to follow certain 'ethical' standards which prohibit engaging in homosexual acts" (Emphasis mine; also note their use of scare quotes).

Now compare it with this:

"The American Philosophical Association rejects as unethical all forms of discrimination based on... sexual orientation..." (Emphasis mine).

Sing all together now: ♫ One of these things is not like the others,/One of these things just doesn't belong,/Can you tell which thing is not like the others/By the time I finish my song? ♫

I learned about Aristotle’s categories when I was a first year undergraduate philosophy major. Perhaps that is not how it is done anymore, or how it was done in most places even then, but that’s how it was done at my undergraduate university ~7-8 years ago.

An orientation is a disposition, an inclination, a tendency. This would fall under the category of quality.

Acts, on the other hand, would obviously fall into the category of action.

The categories are the supreme genera. Orientation and acts fall into different categories. Thus orientation and acts do not share even the most basic genus and must be recognized as fundamentally different. One would think a group of philosophers would realize that.

Well, a group of philosophers would. A group of philosophy professors, on the other hand...

Hat tip: Dr. Francis Beckwith at What's Wrong with the World, who offers his own commentary here.

Novena for the Pope

The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter has asked the members of the Fraternity and all the lay faithful in their Apostolates to pray a novena for Pope Benedict XVI, starting today, February 14, and going until the feast of the Chair of St. Peter, February 22.

The novena, in Latin and English, and further information are available here. I have reproduced the English below. I ask all who read this to consider joining them and offering prayers for our Papa, so that God bless and keep him, and that he "may not flee for fear of the wolves."

God bless our Pope! The great, the good!

Our Father, 3 Hail Marys, Glory be.

V: Let us pray for our Pope Benedict.
R: May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

V. Thou art Peter,
R. And upon this Rock, I will build My Church.

Let us Pray,
Almighty and everlasting God, have mercy upon your servant, Benedict, our Sovereign Pontiff, and guide him in your goodness on the way of eternal salvation; so that, with the prompting of your grace, he may desire what pleases you and accomplish it with all his strength. Through Christ Our Lord. R. Amen.

V. Mother of the Church. R. Pray for us
V. St. Peter. R. Pray for us

A Rabbi speaks

"Left Wing of the Catholic Church Destroying the Faith Says Orthodox Rabbi," by Hilary White.

Hat tip: Fr. Zuhlsdorf, who offers his own commentary here.

Martin Mosebach on the Pope and the SSPX

Martin Mosebach, author of The Heresy of Formlessness, has an article on the Pope's lifting of the excommunication of the four SSPX bishops in the German magazine Der Spiegel. An English translation of the article has been posted on the blog of the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny and can be found here.

Hat tip: Fr. Zuhlsdorf, who offers his own comments of the article here.

On religious liberty

If one actually wants to understand the "plain meaning" behind the Church's teaching on religious liberty, one might want to look at the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2104-9) and follow up on its footnotes. One would then be pointed towards Leo XIII's Immortale Dei and Libertas praestantissimum; various writings of Pius XII in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis; Pius XI's Quas primas; Pius IX's Quanta cura; and Pius VI's Quod aliquantum. One might find one's self surprised at how many restrictions on false religion can fall under "due limits" when prudence properly takes into account the objective moral order.

Catholicism is true and other religions are false. The truth is owed duties that falsehoods are not. I know such an idea is radically contrary to modern pieties, but it is true none the less.

Between two thieves...

And one of those robbers who were hanged, blasphemed him, saying: If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering, rebuked him, saying: Neither dost thou fear God, seeing thou art condemned under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done no evil. And he said to Jesus: Lord, remember me when thou shalt come into thy kingdom. And Jesus said to him: Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise

"Neither dost thou fear God, seeing thou art condemned under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds..."

One criminal refuses to admit that he is being justly punished and tries to escape it. He dies with blasphemies fresh from his lips.

The other admits that his punishment is just and accepts it. He obtains a moment of grace and the promises of eternal joy.

The conclusion to be drawn from this I will leave to the reader.

Support the Holy Father

Please go here and sign the letter.

Hat tip: Fr. Zuhlsdorf.

God vs. Chance

Formerly anonymous Thomist James Chastek writes rants in his comments more profound than most of my posts on the same issue. Go and read.

On empiricism

I have no problem with empiricism properly understood. Aristotle and St. Thomas were both empiricists: "All knowledge begins in the senses."

I do, however, have a problem with the kind of "empiricism" that moves from, "all knowledge is derived from sense experience," to, "sense experience is all that we know." To which I can only respond: "Please show me Newton's law of universal gravitation."

A Day of Mourning

Today is the 34th anniversary of the travesty and abomination that is Roe v. Wade. Please remember in your prayers the countless lives lost.

Please pray for an end to abortion in the United States and the world.

Prayer to End Abortion

Lord God, I thank you today for the gift of my life,
And for the lives of all my brothers and sisters.
I know there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion,
Yet I rejoice that you have conquered death
by the Resurrection of Your Son.
I am ready to do my part in ending abortion.
Today I commit myself
Never to be silent,
Never to be passive,
Never to be forgetful of the unborn.
I commit myself to be active in the pro-life movement,
And never to stop defending life
Until all my brothers and sisters are protected,
And our nation once again becomes
A nation with liberty and justice
Not just for some, but for all,
Through Christ our Lord. Amen!

Written by Priests for Life

Aphorism XV

Contra Voltaire, it is to the living that we owe truth; to the dead we owe only respect.

Update on the Seminary

Since someone asked, and since it is National Vocation Awareness Week - even if it is the last day of it - I thought I would offer an update on my current situation.

On the licentiate front:

No news, which may be good news. Classes have only recently resumed after Christmas break, and even professors deserve some time off. My director received at least two other thesis papers the day before mine, so he is reading them in the order that he received them. Hopefully I will hear something in the next few weeks.

While I wait I am preparing to answer the questions I may be asked during my oral examination.

On the seminary front:

I have had my first interview with the Diocese vocations director and have truthfully sworn that I have never committed any actions that would pose an impediment to my potential ordination - i.e. that I have never killed anyone, adhered to heresy with full knowledge and consent of the will &c.

I have visited the seminary my diocese sends her candidates through.

I have received and begun filling out the application for the seminary and sponsorship by my diocese.

I have signed most of the necessary waivers and permission forms.

I have just finished my handwritten letter to my bishop telling His Excellency that I am entering into this under my own free will, that I am doing so for the good of the Church and my own soul and that I understand, insofar as I am able, that the priesthood entails commitments to celibacy and obedience to His Excellency and his successors.

I have scheduled the necessary physical.

I have scheduled the first part of the necessary psychological exam - the written portion.

I have contacted most of the people I am going to ask for recommendations. Three have already sent them in. One has the necessary information and should be working on it (I had better give him a gentle reminder). Two or three others all work in education, so I will contact them in another week or two after first giving them time to ease into and prepare for the new semester.

I still need to write a detailed autobiography. (I was asking my mother some questions the other day, making sure I remembered various childhood details correctly. She asked me why I was writing an autobiography. She had forgotten I needed to write one for the diocese's application process and so she though I was beginning my memoirs a little early.)

I need to begin answering some of the longer questions on the seminary application. If any of them are interesting, I may share my answers here.

Rosary Novena

Someone at my parish was passing out this information. I thought I'd pass it on. I've already started, since it began today.

If you are apposed to abortion then there is bad news on the horizon. For those of you who do not know, the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) is set to be signed if congress passes it on January 21-22 of 2009. The FOCA is the next sick chapter in the book of abortion. If made a law then all limitations on abortion will be lifted which will result in the following:

1) All hospitals, including Catholic hospitals will be required to perform abortions upon request. If this happens Bishops vow to close down all Catholic hospitals, more then 30% of all hospitals in the United States .
2) Partial birth abortions would be legal and have no limitations.
3) All U.S. tax payers would be funding abortions.
4) Parental notification will no longer be required.
5) The number of abortions will increase by a minimum of 100,000 annually.

Perhaps most importantly the government will now have control in the issue of abortion. This could result in a future amendment that would force women by law to have abortions in certain situations (rape, down syndrome babies, etc) and could even regulate how many children women are allowed to have.

Needless to say this information is disturbing, but sadly true. As Catholics, as Christians, as anyone who is against the needless killing of innocent children, we must stand as one. We must stop this horrific act before it becomes a law.

The Plan :

To say a novena ( 9 days of prayer ) along with fasting starting on January 11th. The prayer of choice will be the rosary with intentions to stop the FOCA. The hope is that this will branch and blossom as to become a global effort with maximum impact. We have very little time so we all must act fast. Just do three things:

1) Pass this letter to 5 or more people
2) Do it in three days or less
3) Start the novena on January 11th and pray for nine consecutive days. (please also fast for at least two days during the novena)

Remember that with God all things are possible and the power of prayer is undeniable. If you are against the senseless killing of defenseless children then the time is now to do something about it!

Please join in if you can.

Aphorism XIV

I have never met an anti-dogmatist, but I have met people who are opposed to anyone other than themselves making ex cathedra statements.

The Solemnity of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ

"For a CHILD IS BORN to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace" (Isaias 9:6).

"For while all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of her course, Thy almighty Word leapt down from heaven from Thy royal throne, as a fierce conqueror into the midst of the land of destruction" (Wisdom 18:14-15).

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw His glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1:1, 14).

On St. Thomas Aquinas, the soul and conception

A distinction between human life and the presence of a human soul is not philosophically tenable. Or at least not insofar as many who put it forward attempt to use St. Thomas Aquinas as support for their position.

It is true that St. Thomas, following the received embryology of his day, did not believe that the ensoulment of an immortal, rational soul happened until some few months after conception. What is never mentioned is that, given St. Thomas' understanding of the relationship between body and soul, this means that there was no human life until after the ensoulment of an immortal, rational soul.

The soul is the substantial form of the body. This means that the soul makes the body be the kind of being that it is and grants to it all the powers that it possesses. Now, a human being is a rational animal. This means that it possesses a rational soul, from which stem its powers of intellect and will. But, since the soul is the substantial form of the body, this rational soul is also the origin of a man's vegetative and animal powers, i.e. the powers of life, reproduction, growth, nutrition, sensation and local motion.

Now, in the received embryology of the day, the being in the womb after conception first possessed only a vegetative soul. Thus it possessed only the powers of vegetative life, nutrition, growth. After some development this vegetative soul was replaced by an animal soul. Thus the being no longer had simply vegetative life, but animal life. Thus, in addition to the powers of nutrition and growth it now began to develop the powers of sensation and local motion, as seen through the development of sense organs and limbs. Finally, when this animal development had reached a fitting stage, God would infuse the being with an immortal, rational soul. Animal life would now be replaced by human life, and the rational soul would be the origin not only of the powers of nutrition, growth, sensation and local motion, but also of the powers of intellect and will.

As this brief sketch hopefully makes clear, there was no human life before the infusion of an immortal, rational, human soul. For to have a human life is to be a human being, to be a human being is to be a rational animal, and to be a rational animal is have an immortal, rational soul.

Thus those who would use St. Thomas as cover for their pro-abortion positions demonstrate only that they know nothing of St. Thomas. For in St. Thomas there can only be human life were matter is informed by an immortal, rational soul. If it can be demonstrated that human life begins at conception, then, for St. Thomas, it would be demonstrated that a human soul is infused by God and present at the moment of conception. To say otherwise would be to imply a duality between body and soul that is entirely foreign to the thought of St. Thomas.

An interesting note: The Council of Vienna formally declared that "whoever shall obstinately presume in turn to assert, define, or hold that the rational or intellective soul is not the form of the human body in itself and essentially must be regarded as a heretic" (Denzinger, 30th ed., no. 481). The conclusion that can be drawn from this pronouncement and the brief philosophical sketch given above I will leave to the reader.

Aphorism XIII

Anyone who tells you the Gospel is about love is speaking the truth; but anyone who says the Gospel is about love and defines love simply as warm, fuzzy feelings is a fool or a liar and should be instructed, admonished or ignored as necessary.