The Heart of the Matter

More on the abortion and slavery comparison

For a while now there has been an ongoing drama in the interaction between the Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island, Thomas Tobin and the congressman from Rhode Island, Patrick Kennedy.  The bishop told the congressman, a Catholic and the son of now deceased Senator Edward Kennedy, that he should refrain from taking Holy Communion because of his strident defense of a woman’s right to choose an abortion.  

Recently Bishop Tobin was interviewed by Hardball host, Chris Matthews, on his MSNBC show.  Matthews spent much of the time insisting on an answer to the question: should women who have an abortion be imprisoned for their “crime” if the Catholic Church’s stand on the abhorrence of abortion should become the law of the land.

    I’d like to answer that question.

    No.  No one wants to see a woman going to jail for having made a decision to have an abortion.  She's already in a prison of her conscience, and that is enough.

    How then can there be a push to make abortion illegal and at the same time not put a woman in jail for having one?

    In an earlier blog posting of mine (November 11^th) I suggested that we compare the abortion debate with the slavery debate of our nation’s pre-Civil War era.

    As there came to be a major push to eliminate slavery from American life, no one was pushing for slave owners to be put in jail.  It was the slave trade that was on trial, as it were, not the slave owners.  Most people recognized that there had been such a longstanding acceptance of slavery that a mindset had to be changed in order to conquer this evil.

    Similarly, it is the abortion trade that is “on trial”, not women in desperate situations.  It’s the tendency, aggravated by the easy access of the abortion industry, to see children as a problem, a problem that has to “be dealt with.”  What needs changing is the mentality of seeing abortion as a perfectly fine choice, and as merely an issue for the woman and her doctor, without any regard for what one choice does to contribute to the destruction the moral fabric of society.

    No one wants to put a cigarette smoker in jail; but slowly, bit by bit, including creating different kinds of laws limiting smoking, there are fewer and fewer smokers.  Smoking is less acceptable as a choice one should be making.

    Using legal means to push agendas has become a common and powerful way to make progress as a nation.  We attempt to create laws to push choices some in society want the society to adopt.  Think of the laws about food labels, about valuing and protecting animals, about carbon emissions and other ecology issues, and so on.  

    No one wants to put a carbon-emitter in jail, at least not yet!  And no one wants a woman to go to jail for having an abortion.  But the law can, and should be used, to create laws that bespeak a greater defense of the vulnerable ones in society.  And there is no one more vulnerable than a baby in the womb.

Phew!

I am sure every Catholic pastor loves Holy Week: confessions, the Chrism Mass, the services of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil, and the cast of thousands on Easter Sunday. But I am also sure every pastor loves a bit of down time in the week after Easter. So, I say, phew!

The beauty of Holy Week, the Triduum and Easter is that the expanse of our Catholic faith is dynamically entered into liturgically within a few short days.  Even if one were a cloistered monk with little experience of being with thousands, the liturgical events from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday are thrilling and exhausting at the same time. To grasp the scope of what our Savior has done for us, to come face to face with the humility of Christ's self-emptying on the cross, to enter into these events has more meaning and becomes more profound every year. Each year the meaning of the Eucharist, the power of the cross, and significance of the Easter Vigil with the joy of the Resurrection take on an ever greater importance.  Words fail in describing the reality we express liturgically. I'm 61 and I am only beginning to understand the length and breadth and height and depth of God's love for us.

How to interpret Halloween

Halloween is one of those age old holdovers from centuries past, like the song "Ring Around the Rosie," which started being sung during the Black Death of the 1300's.  Why, you may ask?  Because the pustules of the disease looked like a ring around a rose-colored spot. 

There's much discussion about the origins of Halloween.  For instance, Halloween is old English for All Hallows Eve, the Feast of All Hallows being the Feast of All Saints, which is still celebrated on November 1st.  And the Eve-ning before being October 31st.  Ah, yes, there is some Celtic pre-Christian background, and who knows what else, behind the ghosts and monsters and vampires.

The key insight on why Halloween has survived is, I think, this: there's something fundamentally healthy about making fun of those things we are most afraid of.  As soon as we bring humor into our most fearful moments, that's when we capture some semblance of control over those very scary things, like death, and blood and gore and things that go bump in the night.

So, this Halloween, enjoy the fun!  And let's not be so pious that we forget to have fun.

One way to be more human

What is it about a dog that makes people more human?  If you go walking alone through the neighborhood, people ignore you.  If you go walking through the neighborhood with your dog, people will greet the dog, and will ask you questions like the breed or the name of the dog.  If the dog is cute, then even more conversation happens. 

So today I took my dog for a short walk, not my usual walk through the neighborhood, but a walk around the block, around the perimeter of our school.  I didn't have enough time for the longer walk.  It happened to be recess time and kids swarmed over to the sidewalk to greet Jabba.  Yes, they greeted me, but they were far more interested in Jabba.  They even told their parents later that they saw Jabba today.

I think it's the fact that a dog draws you out of yourself.  They say that it's very good for kids to have a dog, because the dog can be a way for kids to care about someone other than self.  Likewise, if a child is upset about something, they can go be with the dog who will listen in a way that looks like caring. 

What a wonderful gift from God is a dog.

Why no longer "Peace to men of good will"?

Here's a Christmas insight from the Preacher to the Papal Household, Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM, Cap.  "In the past this expression [of what the angels sang on the night of the first Christmas] was translated differently, that is, as 'Peace on earth to men of good will.' In these words the expression entered into the Gloria and it became common in Christian language. After Vatican II this expression was used to indicate all the honest, who seek the true and the common good, whether or not they be believers.

"But it is an inexact translation and for this reason it has been abandoned today. In the original biblical text it is a matter of men who are loved by God, who are the object of the divine good will, not that they themselves are gifted with good will. In this way the proclamation becomes more consoling. If peace were accorded to men on account of their good will, then it would be limited to a few, to those who merit it; but since it is accorded through God's good will, through grace, it is offered to all. Christmas is not an appeal to the good will of men but a radiant proclamation of the good will of God toward men."

Merry Christmas!

Ouch! Now I understand

Every now and then an older parishioner will tell me how awful the loud music sounds.  I've been listening to the same music: piano, organ, voice, etc. and I think, it must be a matter of taste.  An occasional off note can't be the problem; and it hasn't seemed to be too loud to me.  Then, just recently, a sinus infection went into an ear infection and resulted in a ruptured ear drum.  After the pain was over and while putting ear drops in every day for two weeks, I have (temporarily, I hope) lost most of my hearing in my left ear.  What I am experiencing now is a slightly delayed shrill echo to every note I hear.  Singing and music is cacophonous and sounds simply dreadful - and somehow loud!  Even usually pleasing music.  Now I understand!  Now I understand that hearing deficiencies can make something very pleasant sound like something Bela Bartok composed.