The Calling of St. Matthew Caravaggio

From the June/July issue, FIRST THINGS, Julie Stoner’s

“I Did Not Come to Call the Righteous”

Matthew 9: 9-13

We ninety-nine obedient sheep;

we workers hired at dawn’s first peep;

we faithful sons who strive to please,

forsaking prodigalities;

we virgins who take pains to keep

our lamps lit, even in our sleep;

we law-abiding Pharisees;

we wince at gospels such as these.

In referencing the Apostle Matthew, Pope Benedict XVI reminded his General Audience, Wednesday August 30, 2006 that “[t]he good news of the Gospel consists precisely in this: offering God’s grace to the sinner!”

Matthew — in Hebrew “gift of God” — was a tax collector. The Holy Father continues,

Matthew, in fact, not only handled money deemed impure because of its provenance from people foreign to the People of God, but he also collaborated with an alien and despicably greedy authority whose tributes moreover, could be arbitrarily determined. This is why the Gospels several times…

If you didn’t have a chance to watch the two-hour Saddleback Church/Rick Warren questioning of presidential candidates Obama and McCain, you can find the transcript here.

The chattering class had plenty to say about the evening, including the following:

McCain and Obama Face Questions About Faith - Associated Press

McCain Shines at Saddleback Forum - Michael Gerson, Washington Post

The Importance of Saddleback Church - Alan Wolfe, The New Republic

McCain, Obama at Saddleback Church - Carrie Budoff Brown, The Politico

John McCain, Barack Obama Display Abortion Divide at Evangelical Forum : LifeSite News

Are We Now Officially a Christian Nation? - Joan Walsh, Salon

McCain’s Back in the Saddleback - Chuck Todd, NBC News

McCain’s Depth & Experience Stood Out - Byron York, National Review

Obama’s Purpose-Driven Gamble - Mike Madden, Salon

Kristol: Showdown at Saddleback

Sullivan: McCain’s ‘Cross’ Story 

Podhoretz: Obama on Thomas 

Of special note are a couple of claims:

The New York Times reports that McCain was traveling by car to the broadcast and could easily have heard…

This week the Democratic party made clear its total support of abortion on demand.

Gone is the “safe, legal and rare” rhetoric of the past few years and in is this:

“The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.”

The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, clearly ultra liberal on the abortion issue — look at his Senate record — is surely pleased.

Less clear is whether the conflicted electorate will be.

And now, as of three days ago, we have new charges from the National Right to Life organization about candidate Obama’s  abortion obfuscation as well as his well known abortion extremism.

NRL accuses Barack Obama of being a whole lot less than truthful when he defends his opposition — three times as an Illinois state senator — to…

(1) The Olympics:The Wall Street Journal reports on China and religious repression:

Religious repression rears its ugly head again:

President Bush attended church in Beijing on Sunday, worshipping with Chinese Christians and singing “Amazing Grace.”

But what happened outside the church says more about the state of religion in China.

Earlier that morning, Hua Huiqi, the pastor of an illegal underground Christian church, was detained by police as he was biking to the service that Mr. Bush was to attend. His whereabouts are still unknown. Mr. Hua’s brother, who was briefly detained, said Mr. Hua only wanted to worship at the church where he was baptized.

China’s constitution allows freedom of religion, but in practice religion is tolerated only insofar as it is controlled by the state.

The only legal churches are those run by the State Administration of Religious Affairs.

Those who choose to attend “house” churches — roughly half of China’s Christians — face harassment or…

Calling all Civil Religion readers:

Self-described atheist Jack Orchard, St. Louis author of Extra Hands, has written an engrossing account of his battle against Lou Gehrig’s disease — formally amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

I’d first heard about Extra Hands while listening to KFUO-FM last autumn when Jack’s dad, Bob Orchard, introduced the book to the radio audience and described his son’s life and his recent medical travails. (Click onto the Bob Orchard link above and scroll down to Dec. 13, ‘07 to hear the interview.)

As engrossing as Bob’s description was, I did nothing then beyond checking to see if Amazon sold the book and promising myself to look into it.

Then a few weeks ago, a neighbor who knew of my interest gave me a copy. Once I began I couldn’t put the book down.

So I e-mailed Jack to tell him how much I enjoyed his writing — so fluid, insightful, funny and poignant.

Not bad for someone with ALS.…

(1)  CWNews: The new English Translation of the Order of Mass for the United States was approved by the Vatican July 28:

The United States Bishops Conference announced that it received the go ahead from the Holy See’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments to the first section of the translation of the third edition of the Roman Missal.

It includes most of the texts used in every celebration of the Mass, and involves new translations of the penitential rite, Gloria, creed, Eucharistic prayers, Eucharistic acclamations and Our Father.

Amanda Shaw, blogging at FIRST THINGS, is enthusiastic about the changes, to put it mildly:

Some of the oddities and abominations of the English translation of the liturgy are about to go extinct, reported the Congregation for Divine Worship last week……

Go here to see  some of the changes.

(2) The Knights of Peter Claver, a black Catholic fraternal organization, held its 93rd convention in Florida,…

One of the reasons Humanae Vitae was resisted in 1968 is that women’s reproductive cycles were far less understood than today. The only natural method available then, the much derided rhythm method of spacing children, was a one-size-fits-all template that didn’t take into account the differences between one woman and another or one woman from month to month.

This is why Pope Paul VI, in writing Humanae Vitae, made an appeal to scientists:

Our next appeal is to men of science. These can “considerably advance the welfare of marriage and the family and also peace of conscience, if by pooling their efforts they strive to elucidate more thoroughly the conditions favorable to a proper regulation of births.” (28) It is supremely desirable, and this was also the mind of Pius XII, that medical science should by the study of natural rhythms succeed in determining a sufficiently secure basis for the chaste limitation of…

Posted earlier this week, Jennifer Fulwiler’s America magazine article,  A Sexual Revolution: One woman’s journey from pro-choice atheist to pro-life Catholic, hinted at Humanae Vitae :

Given my [secular] background, the Catholic idea that we are always to treat the sexual act with awe and respect, so much so that we should simply abstain if we are opposed to its life-giving potential, was a revolutionary message…..

In fact, Humane Vitae, promulgated 40 years ago, was not revolutionary. It was consistent with Christian tradition and teaching, Catholic and Protestant, going back 2000 years. What was revolutionary was the public reaction to Humane Vitae by various Catholics — and others –who demanded the teaching not apply to them.

There was so much outcry, in fact, that few would have forseen a new, vigorous, growing defense of Humane Vitae 40 years later. Thirty-one year old Jennifer Fulwiler is but one of many today who understand that Pope Paul VI was not only right…

America Magazine, a national Catholic weekly, recently published “A Sexual Revolution: One woman’s journey from pro-choice atheist to pro-life Catholic” by Jennifer Fulwiler.

Hers is an interesting chronicle. The beginning of her journey will be familiar, I think, to many in our culture. She writes:

Growing up in secular middle-class America, I understood sex as something disconnected from the idea of creating life. During my entire childhood I did not know anyone who had a baby sibling; and to the extent that neighborhood parents ever talked about pregnancy, it was to say they were glad they were “done.”

In high school sex education class, we learned not that sex creates babies, but that unprotected sex creates babies.

Even recently, before our marriage was blessed in the Catholic Church, my husband and I took a course about building good marriages. It was a video series by a nondenominational Christian group, and the segment called “Good Sex”…

National Right to Life News, June, 2008 reports that the United Methodist Church is continuing to move in the pro-life direction.

Back in 1972 the church, America’s second-largest Protestant denomination, officially endorsed legalized abortion, going so far at one point to state that legalized abortion was “in continuity with past Christian teaching.”

What a difference 36 years makes. While the church is still affiliated with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), the recent vote to maintain this alliance was by a margin of only 32 votes out of 800 cast. This was a closer vote than at any previous conference.

Meanwhile, the April 23-May 2 General Conference of the policymaking body decided to:

“Affirm and encourage the Church to assist the ministry of crisis pregnancy centers and pregnancy resource centers that compassionately help women find feasible alternatives to abortion.”

Delete from a previously adopted statement the assertion that supporting legalized abortion was somehow “[i]n continuity with…

(1) Pope Benedict XVI has been giving weekly talks on the early Church, including his June 25 discussion of St. Maximus the Confessor. Born in Palestine around 580, Maximus defied an imperial ruling — and incurred punishment — to insist that Jesus was both human and divine.

Maximus should be an example to contemporary Christians, the Pope said, and we, too, must not accept every thought proffered in the modern world:

“Tolerance that does not know how to distinguish between good and evil would become chaotic and self-destructive. Dialogue that does not know what to dialogue about becomes mere empty chatter.”

(2) Mark Shea, columnist for the National Catholic Register, wrote a thoughtful 6/1-7/08 column on Fake Courage, Real Cowardice. You will perhaps recognize the examples he provides, some from TV and some from right around the corner. Here’s an example:

Item: At the kickoff for the 40 Days for Life in Seattle, a number…

If you are running short on patience with what you see as various jackanapes who publicly criticize Archbishop Burke on his style rather than on his message — which is what really ticks them — you might be interested in veteran Vatican watcher John Allen’s recent column.

Allen writes:

“Since news of St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke’s appointment as prefect of the Apostolic Signatura was announced June 27, I’ve received numerous telephone calls and e-mails, from both sides of the Atlantic, posing some version of the following question: Was this a case of what the Italians call promuovere per rimuovere … promoting someone in order to get rid of him?

“…..The following … is not based on any insider insight. Nonetheless, my hunch is that this is not a case of promuovere per rimuovere, but what one might call “promotion for multiple motives.” In no particular order, I suspect that at least the following…

Heads up, ladies. Gentlemen, you’re welcome to eavesdrop.

Maureen Dowd — yes, Maureen Dowd! — introduces us to

“Father Pat Connor, a 79-year-old Catholic priest born in Australia and based in Bordentown, N.J., [who] has spent his celibate life - including nine years as a missionary in India - mulling connubial bliss. His decades of marriage counseling led him to distill some “mostly common sense” advice about how to dodge mates who would maul your happiness…..

Here’s an example of Fr. Connor’s wisdom:

‘Hollywood says you can be deeply in love with someone and then your marriage will work,” the twinkly eyed, white-haired priest says. “But you can be deeply in love with someone to whom you cannot be successfully married.’

If that statement has you nodding your head, read here for more.

Tyree Comment: Excellent article, a must-read, must-print, must-remember and must-give-to-every-single-woman-you-care-about. To Father’s insightful advice I would add, first, be the best person you…

(1) Happy Birthday, Archbishop Burke. Ad Multos Annos!

(2) A local nun looks back on imprisonment in a WWII camp:

“On Chinese New Year the sisters’ hearts skipped a beat when they were told they had been summoned to the office of the camp’s commander.

“We were told to come to the Japanese headquarters and we wondered what in the world was going to happen,” Sister Mathews said. “So we marched, I think it was a mile and a half. We had a soldier behind each one of us and two soldiers at the tail end (of the group). We wondered what in the world would happen when we got there…..”

(3) The Pope does not wear Prada.

(4) Bad tenured teachers are hard to fire:

MIDDLE ISLAND, N.Y. (AP) — Few people know better than school superintendent Allan Gerstenlauer that disciplining a tenured teacher can be a long and expensive process.

An English teacher in his…

There are religion blogs and then there are religion blogs.

The Civil Religion blog is civil, the writing is good and the posts are frequent.

(1) When we were discussing the set-up of this blog, religion reporter Tim Townsend suggested we look at the Washington Post religion blog, On Faith, to see what a religion blog looks like. I found it confusingly laid out and not appealing and said so to Tim. Today I have another reason to stay away. Look at this from the Dallas Morning News blog:

“Sally Quinn, the Washington socialite and journalist, attended Tim Russert’s funeral.

Russert was Catholic. Quinn isn’t. In fact, as far as I can tell, she isn’t demonstrably religious at all, despite being one of the founders of the On Faith blog published by Newsweek and The Washington Post.

She decided to receive Communion at Russert’s funeral Mass.

In some churches, this would be no big deal. In the Catholic Church,…

Civil Religion reader hs commented on the initial post, “Same sex-attraction and Christianity”. Here is his comment in its entirety:

Sherry, I guess I have to ask the question, and I’m completely serious and not trying to be flip at all: WWJD with an affirmed homosexual who wanted to be a part of the church?

We need to be really, really careful here: If the church is not a place that welcomes the homosexual as another struggling, imperfect human then we’re all in trouble. Sin is Sin is Sin. The homosexual is no worse or different from anyone else. My Bible has a famous text that says that “ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”.

I’d also suggest we really try to understand the concept of loving the sinner and hating the sin. And, pose this question: is it a sin to BE homosexual? What, exactly is the sin we’re worried about?…

For your perusal, ten news stories from yesterday and today:

(1) The Catholics and Orthodox won’t soon be unified:

Moscow, June 9, Interfax - A complete holy communion between Orthodox believers and Catholics is very unlikely, Russian Orthodox Church Representative to European International Organizations, Archbishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria, said in an interview with the newspaper Soyuznoye Veche of the Russia-Belarus Union Parliamentary Assembly…..

(2) Great Britain’s ranking prelate Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor has decided to challenge the new UK regulations allowing adoptable children to be placed with same-sex couples.

(3) Pope Benedict XVI has said that inter-religious dialogue is inspired by Christ’s command of for love of neighbors.

(4) In Jordan, archaeologists have uncovered the oldest known Christian church:

“We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world, dating from 33 AD to 70 AD,” the head of Jordan’s Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies, Abdul Qader al-Husan, said.

He said it was uncovered…