2011 February archive at Being Frank

Archive for February, 2011

Feb

Shock horror – Catholics prefer priests.

By Kereopa 115 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

This Wellington story, while parochial, highlights wider issues in the Catholic Church – both in New Zealand and world wide. Namely the pressure on bishops to replace priests with laypeople. This is occurring in Wellington more because of preference than necessity.

In summary – Archbishop Dew has replaced the Samoan chaplaincy with a lay co-ordinator. This lay co-ordinator than made several, disturbing changes, many of them without warning or explanation, and this has angered parishioners. And quite rightly.

In light of this story, we’ve seen a massive backtrack and a whirlwind of activity from the burgeoning communications team at the Wellington Diocesan office. There are rumours of Fairfax editors being rung and pressured by senior Diocesan staff to re-run the story with revised lines from the Diocesan office. Apparently when first approached, the Archbishop was not so well meaning.

Bowing pressure, the online story has oddly changed the title “Archbishop angers Samoan Catholics” to “Call to get Pope to heal rift”. They’ve also changed “Samoan Catholics” to “Samoan Christians” in order to distance this faithful group of Catholics from mainstream parishioners. It has also removed quotes from Anthony Leaupepe.

Most interestingly of all, key damage-control tactics had been deployed around Wellington parishes prior to the story being run. This story has resulted in what can only be called pastoral activism with a number of priests using the pulpit to discredit the story, taking a pre-emptive strike at the Samoans, and reaffirming Diocesan lines – all on the Sunday before the story broke. It all seemed rather odd to parishioners that priests around Wellington uniformly referred to things like adverse disunity, disharmony, and warnings about factionists, until they read the Dominion Post on Tuesday morning.

I’m all for loyalty to the Church and her Bishops. Her priests, bishops, clergymen and the pontiff are all included regularly in my prayers but there comes a time when challenging our leaders to be honest and upfront about changes. Our Archbishop and more specifically his layperson-led Diocesan office, I fear, are being disingenuous and mischievous.

Wellington doesn’t promote the priesthood – it promotes tertiary-educated, non-descript, and loosely-Catholic laypeople administering parishes and chaplaincy. I’m yet to hear a prayer for vocations at a Cathedral mass. Simply put – priests don’t fit the Archbishop’s agenda. Mass attendance is falling. Interestingly, the Archdiocese of Wellington (along with Palmerston North diocese) is also one of the fastest shrinking dioceses in New Zealand, not to mention Australasia.

We need strong, courageous Bishops who will promote good Catholic teaching, not watered down, menial, politically-correct, all-inclusive theology. The NZ church is fast becoming a laughing stock, and are viewed less and less by our Australian cousins.

When will Rome step in?

St John Vianney, Pray for us.

Feb

The pros and cons of being righteous

By Joan of Arc 6 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

Maybe a more accurate title for this post would be ‘The pros and cons of being perceived as righteous’.

If someone described you as ‘righteous’ how would you react? take it as a compliment? be offended? What does it actually mean?

Recently I had a conversation with my mum in which she, surprised by some comment I had made, said “we usually see you as so righteous!” Her tone suggested to me that this was not a compliment and I took offence (linking the word ‘righteous’ with ‘self-righteous’). I’m sure she didn’t mean it as a criticism, just as an observation, but it certainly made me think.

I’ve never really stopped before to think about what the word ‘righteous’ means. I guess now after a couple of days of reflecting I would think of it as striving to be holy and living a morally upright life. In the conversation with my mum it was the way she said the phrase that concerned me and I had to ask myself… Is this the way my family and friends perceive me? And if so, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Does the way I try to live my life come across as me thinking I’m better or holier than they are? How does it impact my witness to others as a Christian? Is it better to be approachable, easy to relate to, and perceived as a ‘normal’, everyday, ordinary person or to hold yourself to high moral standards, allow others to know where you stand on moral issues, have a seriousness about what you believe, and risk alienating yourself from others because they perceive you as ‘holier than thou’?

Objectively I would say that in the long run you shouldn’t worry about others’ perceptions if you are striving towards holiness, but experiences with friends and family are starting to make me wonder about this. Am I not being as good a witness in the moment because they feel they can’t relate to me and already know what my opinion will be (the same as the Church’s teaching which they know) and therefore distance themselves? Seems I’ve found another one of those fine lines to walk along.

Feb

A Major Pro-life Victory in the U.S

By Voice in the wilderness 135 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

Well, after a massive few weeks for pro-life efforts in America, a major victory has been won.

I, like many others, have been watching the incredible efforts of Live Action, a youth based, infiltration organisation, who seek to uncover the shocking operation of Planned Parenthood – the largest abortion provider in America (and I think the world).

They released a series of videos where actors pretended to be pimps and prostitutes who were trying to get assistance, in terms of birth control and abortion, for under-age prostitutes who had been trafficked into the States. The Planned Parenthood employees who were caught on tape ASSISTED the trafficker/pimp in his wishes, and one even said that she would be open to bribery. This organisation claims to have the best interest of women at heart.

Please watch the videos yourself.

Well, the thing is that Planned Parenthood receives the bulk of its funding (somewhere in the region of $330 million) from the taxpayer.

Recently, a bill was put forward to de fund Planned Parenthood of its federal (taxpayer) funding. In the last few hours, that bill was passed. This is a great victory for life.

Feb

“Mr. Simpson, don’t you worry. I watched Matlock in a bar last night. The sound wasn’t on, but I think I got the gist of it.”

By Methuselah's Beard 19 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

I was at McDonald’s this evening (food of champions) and was taken aback when asked if I wanted the fizzy or still Fanta. What? Still Fanta??? When did they start making two types of Fanta? Too much choice and I didn’t really need to know that. It’s like Coke, or Diet Coke, or Coke Zero, or Vanilla Coke, or Cherry Coke, or New Coke, or *ahem* Pepsi. Weren’t things much simpler when all you could get was Coke.

I sometimes wonder if we’ve made Catholicism a little too complex. Did Jesus really contemplate the need for Canon lawyers when this all started way back when. If you need lawyers to pick through the finer points of anything then surely it’s a little too complicated. At the heart of it, being a Christian is a simple thing is it not? Love God, love your neighbour. Isn’t that what it all boils down to? Do we really need all the tomes of rules and guidelines?

Feb

The little ones

By Filia Day 77 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

A friend of mine who’s a doctor popped round for a video the other night. Currently, she is working at a hospital in NZ. She’s a practicing catholic and predictably has seen and heard many a tragedy when it comes to abortion. One of the most abominable things she mentioned was a nurse who looks after all the referrals for abortion at the hospital. Now the nurse had an interesting take on a case of child neglect that ended very tragically. My friend told me that said nurse went and looked through the referral records to see if the mother had come in to try and get an abortion. She then proceeded to say that it would have been better if they had been murdered at our hands than to suffer neglect of this magnitude (it resulted in death) at the hands of the parents. Shock Horror. It’s a common way of looking at abortion though – one may not say it outright but I’ve heard it been insinuated on more than one occasion. When I brought up the morality of abortion in a tutorial I was teaching a few years back, one student (a graduate of Baradene, might I add) stated that research has found that children born out of unwanted pregnancies are more likely to go on to commit crime. Hmmm…..Never really been into predestination, myself.

Oooo Oooo just as a side Minority Report is a very thought provoking movie when it comes to freedom. Must see, if you ask me.

Anyways, at the start of the year I saw an article on a case in Australia where a couple aborted their male twins based on their gender. After losing a daughter quite soon after her birth, the couple had been using IVF therapy to try and have another child, namely a female child. When they found out they had conceived a set of male twins, they decided to abort. Hunting for the story online, I found a particularly appropriate musing.

The abortion of the twin boys precipitated an international outcry, with headlines carrying the news around the world. But, even as millions were morally troubled by the account, many were unable to muster a moral argument against the abortions. Why? Because the logic of abortion has been so widely accepted in the larger society.

The very idea of gender-selection abortions is abhorrent, and most people would almost surely argue that such abortions should not be allowed. But the logic of abortion rights demands that a woman be recognized as having a right to an abortion at any time for any reason or for no reason. Once you accept abortion as a moral option, it is virtually impossible to preclude any abortion for any reason. The Culture of Death is built upon the logic of abortion on demand. Once the floodgates were opened, it is almost impossible to stem the tide.

Now they’re asking for the opportunity to continue to try and have a child, and abort again if it is male. But then, if you want to take the pro-choice argument to its natural end, choosing whether to have a baby or not based on gender doesn’t seem like such a nasty thing, does it?

It’s a sick world out there, that’s all I can say.

Feb

Bigger picture, please!

By Inkling 22 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

The danger of heresy, it is said, is that the heretic focuses too closely on one small aspect, and makes it all-important, when it is not, and as a result loses all sense of proportion and loses sight of the truth. In the same sense I think it is easy for anyone (without necessarily being heretical in the slightest) to fall into the danger of focusing too closely on the small things, while neglecting the bigger picture. Root causes and the big issues that the Church faces give way to discussions about petty things, which would be solved anyway if the real overarching problem was addressed.

It seems a bit ridiculous, for example, that any Catholic in New Zealand should feel the need to ask why we don’t have married clergy and women priests in the Catholic Church, when we’re somehow not producing the right conditions to encourage vocations in the first place. We should, perhaps, rather ask why our Catholic schools can hardly be said to be teaching Catholic values, why non-Christian parents complain that the Catholic school they send their children to does not say prayers to open and close assemblies and prize-givings, and how it is possible that a child can go through a supposedly Catholic education having never seen the inside of a Catechism until after they leave school. Let’s also ask why catechesis talks held for adults are so infrequently held and so poorly attended.

On the most fundamental level, what are we as Catholics doing to ensure that the most fundamental thing of all, a good understanding of Catholic teaching, is given to every member of the Church? It’s like never giving kids who want to be politicians the opportunity to read Marcus Aurelius, and Julius Caesar, and Livy, and Plato (oh, hang on, this probably happens in NZ too). How can we place any issue in proper context if we don’t know the context we ought to be placing it in?

In short, I think there is a greater need to worry about how well the fundamentals of the Catholic faith are being taught and understood, and to direct our energies on the real big-picture root-cause issues that will strengthen the Church, before spending time and energy on side issues that only cause discord and disunity.

Feb

A day in the life

By Marty Rethul 39 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

A friend of mine emailed a link to me the other day. It’s from a show on EWTN called ‘House and Home’ which, it would seem, goes through the houses of various Catholics, seeing how they turn their houses and daily life into a prayer to God.

The particular episode in question visits the home of Pope Benedict XVI.

The priest who hosts it is very enthusiastic. He also likes to use anaphora. We see a fairly full day, starting with an early morning Mass from about four minutes into the episode. Of course, the episode goes through his entire day, but it is his morning Mass upon which I’d like to focus.

The Mass is very simple, celebrated by the Holy Father without the various insignia of his office – simply the zucchetto. It is almost a private Mass, concelebrated by his two secretaries (priests), and attended by the papal household.

The Holy Father vests from 4.54 mark – the first shot is a beautiful one of him vesting in the amice – the Helmet of Salvation. Great stuff.

At about 5.32 you see him processing out to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. What do we learn? Every Mass of the Holy Father, celebrated in his own chapel, is offered ad orientem. That’s right, in all his Masses at his private chapel, he follows the traditional direction of prayer – the one that the Roman Rite shares with every other rite in the Church.

I hope you all have the time to watch the entire video – it’s about 28 minutes in length. You can find it here.

Enjoy – and don’t forget to pray for the Holy Father!

Post Scriptum: Yesterday, 14 February 2011, marked the 125th anniversary of the solemn dedication of St Joseph’s Cathedral, Dunedin. Pray for the Dunedin Diocese! You can watch a tribute clip here.