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Contents © 1999
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

February 1996

"What is omitted from the Catholic Conference statement is any discussion of subsidiarity, a core principle of Catholic social thought...Pope John Paul II writes at length about subsidiarity in his ground-breaking 1991 social encyclical ,'Centesimus Annus.' In the encyclical, the pope decries the 'malfunctions and defects' of the welfare state. These lead to 'a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase in public agencies which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients.'"


GOOD ENOUGH TO PAY FOR. Noting how many Republicans would like presidential candidate Alan Keyes to tone down his opposition to abortion in the Jan. 10 Wall Street Journal, reporter Bob Davis comments, "That's probably wishful thinking. Mr. Keyes, a former radio talk-show host and Reagan administration diplomat, is the most eloquent of the Republican candidates. He combines a tenor's timbre, a preacher's cadence and a Puritan's self-certainty. During a candidates' forum in New Hampshire this past weekend, the crowd shouted its approval when Mr. Keyes argued that the presidential campaign should focus on the strength of families, not of the federal government.

"In speech after speech, debate after debate, he rails that ending abortion is as important to our times as ending slavery was last century. There is no room in a Keyes Republican party for pragmatism on abortion -- or for pragmatists. 'What a bunch of elitists say in their magazines won't settle this issue,' he says. 'They can't bring a crowd to it feet.'... Cassettes of Mr. Keyes's past speeches sell briskly, making him one of the few American politicians whose remarks are considered good enough to pay to hear."

Three days earlier (Jan. 7) in the San Diego Union-Tribune comic section, syndicated cartoonist Bruce Tinsley's hero, Mallard Fillmore, a conservative newsroom duck, gives some of his predictions for '96.


WOULDN'T WE ALL? In the January Uptown (published in Hillcrest) a letter to the editor expresses this wish: "I just want to know once and for all -- what is Juan Vargas' position on a woman's right to choose abortion? He describes himself as pro-life, says that abortion is wrong, but then tells pro-choice advocates that Roe vs. Wade, which legalized abortion in the U.S., was a good decision."


DISPOSABLE CASTE OF PEOPLE. In an Oakland-area paper (Dec. 17): "Robert [Wendland] is the subject of a bitter controversy. His wife, Rose Wendland, wants to cut off the 'medical treatment' of food and fluids provided through a tube. In fact, Robert would be dead now but for his mother and sister, Florence Wendland and Rebekah Vinson, fighting to keep him alive.

"Despite the fact that Robert is conscious and interactive, Rose's decision to cause Robert's death is supported unanimously by the Lodi Memorial Hospital ethics committee... As far as is known, no one argued on behalf of saving Robert's life. The nurses and therapists, the very people who spend the most time with Robert, were never asked to appear before the committee.

"Indeed, the ombudsman, whose specific job is to advocate on Robert's behalf, wasn't even aware that Robert was able to manipulate a motorized wheel chair when she, too, decided to support Rose's plans.

"Wait, there's more. Right after Robert's mother and sister received an anonymous tip and decided to go to court to save his life, Robert was moved from a ward where he was known by staff who truly care about him, to another, where he would be cared for by strangers."


ONLY IN A SINCERE GIVING OF HIMSELF. The January Catholic World Report gave Msgr. Cormac Burke (who sits on the Church's highest appeals court, the Roman Rota), a chance to respond to "Polonaise," a writer who claimed in the June CWR that the new code of canon law is lax in preventing annulments. "Polonaise" claimed the new code doesn't uphold the traditional "primary" and "secondary" ends of marriage. Mentioning that "Polonaise" identifies the "good of the spouses" (bonum coniugum) with the "goods of marriage" (bona matrimonii) taught by St. Augustine, Msgr. Burke explains, "The term bonum coniugum does not express a value or property of marriage in any sense parallel to that of the Augustinian 'goods.' The bonum of this new term is not predicated of...marriage, but to the spouses.

"While 'Polonaise' may not like canon 1057 of the new code, it does nevertheless seek to find a valid juridic way of expressing this Christian personalism as it applies to marriage. The canon describes matrimonial consent as the act by which the spouses 'mutually give and accept each other in order to establish a marriage.'"

Stressing that the omission of the 'primary/secondary' ends of marriage does not lead to a selfish individualism Msgr. Burke expounds, "As effortless romance fades, the stage is set for each of the spouses to get down to business of learning to love the other as he or she really is."

Msgr. Burke concludes, "For me, the real problem is that we have lost sight of the full value and purpose of marriage, which is not only the begetting of children, but also (in very close connection) the growth and maturing of the spouses -- their good -- in mutual and faithful self-giving, and in shared parental dedication to their children."


COUNT THEM IN. In the Washington Post (Jan. 3), Nat Hentoff's opinion piece: "Northwestern University Prof. Adolph Reed Jr. states unequivocally in the Village Voice, a fortress of pro-choice sentiment: 'A fetus is not a human being, it's an organism growing inside a woman's body, albeit an organism with the potential to become a human being.'

In "interviews I've done with physicians specializing in prenatal development, they point out that human life is a continuum from implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterine lining to birth and death. So, in abortion, it is the life of a developing human being that is killed. At whatever stage, he or she is human, not merely potentially human.

"Naomi Wolf quotes from 'The Well Baby Book,' which is not a pro-life manual: 'Knowledge is increasing the awe and respect we have for the unborn baby and is causing us to regard the unborn baby as a real person long before birth.'

"Adolph Reed, however, remains convinced that a fetus is not a human being. He ought to look at a sonogram. He will see one."


READ YOUR BIBLE! In the Currents section Laura Principato writes in to the San Diego Union-Tribune (Dec. 31, 1995), "I'm writing in response to the letter by Deacon Jim Keeley. He complains about the Rev. Fred Phelps as being a hater of gays, and goes on to say that the 'Catholic church teaches that God loves gay and lesbian people and welcomes them into his Kingdom.'

"While it's true that we have a loving God, the Bible clearly states in Corinthians that homosexuals (as well as alcoholics, drunks, prostitutes, thieves and idol-worshipers) will not enter the Kingdom of God.

"My suggestion to Deacon Keely is to open his Bible and read this scripture passage and to stop believing the lies preached in his church."


IF IT'S ROMAN, IT HAS TO BE WRONG. Fr. Ray Ryland is writing a series of articles on the Eastern Orthodox churches. In This Rock, Oct. 1995, he discusses some Eastern theologians' ecclesiology called Eucharistic ecclesiology which begins with a statement by St. Ignatius of Antioch: "'Where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.' ...Each local church [is] regarded as 'the Church of God in all its fullness.'" Noting that these theologians claim that the universal Church is the sum of its parts, Fr. Ryland asks, "What is the relation of each parish to the local church? If each local church cannot be part of a universal Church, how can each parish be part of a diocese? After all, the parish itself, not the diocese, is the Eucharistic community." Interesting to note these theologians say the old notion of universality makes no sense without primacy; something lacking in the Eastern churches. Quoting a theologian Fr. Ryland exclaims, "'A unique personal power founded on rights is a necessity. You cannot construct a universal ecclesiology without admitting the idea of primacy.' A Catholic can only say 'Amen!'"

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