No Room For Those Who Nail Heresies to Church Doors?

E. J. Dionne Jr. has officially joined the chorus of whiners mouring the resignation of Rev. Thomas Reese from America Magazine. Dionne's latest column, titled "No Room For Dissent?", is just another example of how misunderstood Catholicism really is.

Dionne writes "...I failed to see hostility toward the church in Reese's magazine" and disagrees that Rev. Reese was writing against the sacred Tradition of the Church "because I think we see tradition differently". In other words, Dionne thinks the very definition of sacred Tradition is open for debate. He goes on to quote Jaroslav Pelikan as saying "Tradition is the living faith of the dead" and "Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living" - a clear attack on those who (rightly) attune their thinking to what the Church has not wavered on for 2000 years.

If Dionne thinks traditionalists have a "dead faith", he ought to do a survey to see how many of us are frequenting the sacraments and actively contributing their time, money, and energy to different Catholic ministries and works of charity in comparison to the liberals. Those who are too proud to conform their thinking to Christ's usually have other priorities.

Editor's Ouster is Only the Beginning

This New York Times article was a fun read. "'Pope Benedict XVI is clearly attending to lots of administrative and housekeeping concerns in the church,' the Rev. Joseph Koterski, the chairman of the philosophy department at Fordham University in New York City, said Friday. As for Father Reese's removal, Father Koterski said: 'There's a great desire for clarity about church teaching. A religious magazine that offers itself as a Catholic magazine does have to have clarity about what the church holds and why it holds it, and not simply be a lobbying force for changing position.'" Amen to that! But the best quote was from the Rev. Robert Drinan, who could only say "oh, boy" when learning that Archbishop Levada was selected to take over the position formerly held by Pope Benedict XVI.

Those who promote the "dictatorship of relativism" have no spider holes in which to hide.

Archbishop Levada to Assume Pope Benedict's Former Position

Archbishop Levada will become the new prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. What does this mean? Continuity for one thing. Archbishop Levada is by any measure an orthodox Catholic, and has even been a consulting member of the Congregation since 1997. But Archbishop Levada also has what can only be called "battlefield experience" in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, dealing with sexual scandals, homosexuality, same-sex marriage issues, church closings, and the decline in vocations. In other words, he knows first-hand of the troubles the Church has in the United States and might be very instrumental in bringing about the best possible solutions. I couldn't think of a better man for the job.

Pope Benedict XVI's Coat of Arms

EWTN has this really good description of the symbols. No apparent reference to olives is here. However, the combination of symbols indicates to me that this is a humble man (the use of the Miter rather than the Tiara), but one who is nonetheless authoritative (the Pallium strung through the keys) and will not fear to tame even a bear (Bear of Corbinian).

Pope Holds Out an Olive Branch to Nations without Vatican Ties

Pope Benedict XVI has invited countries not having diplomatic relations with the Vatican to do so. This might be an attempt to establish relations with certain countries that sent condolences or made other gestures after the death of Pope John Paul II, like Saudi Arabia, China, and Vietnam. Saudi Arabia and Vietnam both sent representatives to Pope Benedict's inaugural Mass.

Artificial contraception

This Op-Ed piece in the NY Times titled "The Pope and AIDS" illustrates how little understood Catholic theology is on the subject of artificial contraception.

Nicholas Kristof writes "the Vatican's ban on condoms has cost many hundreds of thousands of lives from AIDS. So when historians look back at the Catholic Church in this era, they'll give it credit for having fought Communism and helped millions of the poor around the world. But they'll also count its anti-condom campaign as among its most tragic mistakes in the first two millennia of its history." It basically comes down to the fact that people like Kristof seem to think that extra-marital sexual relations are OK, and therefore it is ridiculous to ban condoms. No - extra-marital sexual relations are grave sins. In fact, I think it could be argued that the use of a condom in extra-marital sexual relations is like slapping a guy in the face after you shoot him. Yes, it's wrong, but the more grave sin was the shooting.

Kristof uses examples like prostitutes and HIV positive teenagers who have extra-marital sex as reasons why condoms should be allowed. No, the proper counsel to give those people is to stop having sex outside the bonds of marriage! After all, it is THIS that is by far the biggest cause for the spread of AIDS.

Kristof even goes so far as to "quote" (the NY Times is not very reliable in news reporting, so I have reason to doubt the authenticity of anything they print) a seminarian who supposedly argued that Jesus would encourage the use of condoms. Well, Jesus did exchange words with a prostitute, and what did he say? "Go and sin no more."

Relations with the Jews, the culture of death, and America magazine

Pope Benedict apparently wrote in a note prepared for the 90th birthday of Elio Toaff (former chief rabbi of Rome) that Catholics and Jews can continue their dialog "looking with confidence to the future." This news item is of possible significance to the fulfillment of the prophecy in that olives are traditionally associated with Israel (not to mention Italy). The article says "Benedict has reached out several times to Jews in the first weeks of his papacy. One of his first acts was to invite Rome's chief rabbi to his April 24 installation Mass. During his homily that day, Benedict made specific mention of 'a great shared spiritual heritage' with Jews." Catholic/Jewish relations improved significantly under Pope John Paul II, who made groundbreaking visits to the synagogue in Rome in 1986 and his visit to Israel in 2000. Pope Benedict, in one of his first acts, invited the chief rabbi of Rome to his installation Mass (April 24) and in that Mass referred to the "great spiritual heritage" Catholics have with Jews. It would certainly be a magnificent thing if Catholics and Jews were able to work more closely together to combat things like secular humanism.

On Saturday, the Pope assumed his role as Bishop of Rome and came out hard against euthanasia and abortion saying "The freedom to kill is not a true freedom but a tyranny that reduces the human being to slavery." And this was just his first address as bishop of Rome.

Last week, heavy criticism from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Pope Benedict's former office) forced the resignation of Father Thomas Reese as editor of the Jesuit magazine America. This magazine has simply ignored the Vatican's decision on (among other things) women becoming priests, and has continued to push for it as if the matter was not settled. The fact that this resignation has happened in the opening days of the new potificate and not years ago is a sign that Pope Benedict is going to be more aggressive at pulling out the weeds in the vinyard than his predecessor. As an orthodox Catholic in America, I have to say that I couldn't be more happy. The Catholic Church in America is drowning from the watering down of doctrine by so-called "progressives" and this problem has pervaded into our seminaries, our Catholic Universities, and even our parish schools. It's almost impossible for an orthodox Catholic to join most seminaries. This is why vocations are in such a crisis situation here.

Vatican blasts Spain's gay marriage law

The Vatican has condemned Spain's gay marriage law in what appears to be the first major act of the Vatican since the installation of Pope Benedict XVI. This also represents what I think will be the first shot fired against moral relativists by our new Pope. Calling adoption of children by same sex couples "moral violence", this is a very strongly worded rebuke which is, in my opinion, of the type sorely needed. When children ignore a parent's softly spoken warnings, a firmer tone is necessary.