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Contents © 2000
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

September 2000 CLIPS

The second part of John Paul's pontificate witnessed the tightening of the theological reins, the reaffirmation of papal primacy and an emphasis on the moral stand, especially in the field of sexual morality and later also against materialist consumerism. Devotion to Our Lady was proclaimed more strongly, following Paul VI's rather lukewarm attitude. The appointment of Cardinal Ratzinger as a prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in November 1982 was another step in the right direction. Ratzinger is one of the greatest modern theologians and it is well to record the rumor that he is among the Pope's collaborators the one John Paul most listens to.

--"Mixed Reviews, The Latin Mass, Summer 2000


...HASN'T THE CHURCH'S LITURGICAL music always drawn on popular music to renew itself? Isn't "pop" music just what the Church needs in order to "relate" with contemporary culture? Cardinal Ratzinger recommends "treading carefully" in this area (107-108). In the past folk music was the expression of a clearly defined community held together by language, history and a way of life. Springing from fundamental human experience, it conveyed a truth, however naïve the form may have been. Pop music, in contrast, is a standardized product of mass society, a function of supply and demand.

--"Cardinal Ratzinger on Liturgical Music," Homiletic and Pastoral Review, July 2000


"I WOULD SIGN A BAN ON partial-birth abortion, and I hope I have an opportunity to do so. And as I have said numerous times ... my judges will be judges who will strictly interpret the Constitution of the United States and will not use the bench from which to legislate."

--"Bush Does Life Teleconference with Catholic Press Association; Gore Refuses to Be Interviewed," National Right to Life News, June 2000


SINCE I HAD TOLD THE STORY of my daughter Karen, born in 1982 with Down Syndrome and a severe heart defect, the pro-abortion students were extremely vocal about the personal and societal justifications for aborting a baby like Karen. Hence the statement about no one wanting to adopt a "defective" baby.

Happily, sir, I told the senior student, You are wrong. Even back when I had Karen, I found out from the National Down Syndrome Association that there was a list of people waiting to adopt a baby with Down Syndrome. Just the night before, I added, I had found a new website for matching prospective parents with children who had chromosomal and physical defects.

The student refused to believe that this could be true. Nancy Volko, R.N.,

--"Who Wants a 'Defective' Baby?" Voices, Summer 2000


THEN THERE WAS THE MATTER of the cathedral in Nicaragua. Mr. Monaghan in the early 1990's gave $2.5 million to build a massive cathedral in Managua, and the project raised the ire of many Ann Arbor-area priests. In the wake of Nicaragua's civil war, they felt that Mr. Monaghan should spend his money on homelessness or poverty. Even his own parish priest, the Rev. Roger Prokop, says he took Mr. Monaghan aside to tell him "there ought to be some sort of social aspect to it."

Mr. Monaghan parries the criticism. "I felt it was a very important thing symbolically to build that cathedral. Nicaragua was the toehold for Communists to take over all of Latin America." He also says that he does help the poor, pointing out that poor children go to his schools. As for soup kitchens and homeless shelters, "there are a lot of people doing that sort of thing," he says. "There's no one doing the spiritual, morality kinds of things. There's more of a need there."

--"Pizza Magnate Mounts Catholic Crusade," The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, June 21, 2000


LETTERS TO EDITOR IN RESPONSE to the June 21 article "Domino's Theory: Pizza Magnate Mounts a Crusade to Restore Orthodox Catholicism":

The Roman Catholic Church is not the Orthodox Roman Catholic Church. Those who wander from the teachings of the church are not forming a new denomination, but simply being less of a practitioner of the faith than those that are true to their religion. Therefore, there is no crusade, by Mr. Monaghan or anyone else that I know of, to restore Orthodox Catholicism. Catholicism needs no restoration. It is still standing where it has stood for 2,000 years.

There is an interest by Mr. Monaghan and many others, both clergy and lay people, to encourage Catholics to be more diligent in the practice of their faith. When certain people purport to be Catholics for Women's Right to Choose or Catholics for Homosexual Marriage or Catholics for all manner of deviant behaviors, they are not changing the church, they are only diminishing themselves as Roman Catholics. To the extent that Archbishop Weakland or any other clerical or nonclerical Catholic figure espouses some doctrine that is not approved by the Vatican, they are immediately in error. Though they may have followers who espouse the same deviant doctrine, the impermissibility of that doctrine is not rectified by its having acquired a following.

David Keefe
Rye, N.H.

Ms. Miller's [Monaghan article author] use of the term "heterosexual marriage" betrays her. What's next? Wet water? It is problematic to evaluate a global 2,000-year-old institution through the view of a single generation in one place.

Ms. Miller suggests that Mr. Monaghan -- and by implication others who share his views -- are at odds with Vatican II. A hallmark of the council, however, was a call for leadership by the laity, a call Mr. Monaghan has answered. At times of crisis, new institutions often have arisen to reinvigorate the church. Indeed, the Catholic Church endures precisely because it remains the world's most flexible and truly multicultural institution.

John Coyle
Scottsdale, Ariz.

Thank God for pizza magnate Thomas Monaghan. As a practicing "30-something" Catholic involved with parish activities, I can confirm that some Vatican II reforms have indeed led to confusion and erosion of Catholic Christian belief, practice and identity. The nuns attached to our parish -- Sisters of St. Joseph -- are unknown to many parishioners, partly because they attend Mass in jeans, sweatshirts and tennis shoes. Our parish's instruction for Rite of Christian Initiation (for converts) and youth catechism are so diffuse and lame that graduates from these programs fail to learn moral absolutes and richness of the Catholic faith. Mr. Monaghan is not "creating a conservative brand" of Catholicism -- it already exists; he is just giving us more support.

Laura Graham
Severna Park, Md.

Mr. Monaghan is not unlike many mainstream Catholics. He is thankful for his formation by priests and religion. He holds to orthodox teachings on faith and words as this is how the church thrives. He invests his time and resources in what he believes. He is challenged by others within the church and outside the church and makes adjustments accordingly. This is the faith life most Catholics share. It is life-giving, not rancorous.

Peter J. Clark
Lansing, Mich.

Although I am in near complete disagreement with Tom's vision of Catholic utopia, I do respect him. Unmentioned in the article is the fact that he has knowingly put himself in harm's way by adhering to his principles. For example, when I met him 15 years ago he had to have round-the-clock security because he refused to purchase pizza ingredients from mobbed-up companies.

Unfortunately, much of what Tom does with his money is indulgent of a harmless yearning for the old ways of the church, some of which were appropriate in their time, but many of which should never have been in the first place.

Anthony Oliver
Chicago

The article's description of Monaghan's "conservative brand of Catholicism" appears to equate regular Mass attendance and praying of the rosary as "old-fashioned views," whereas I know many happy Catholics who do both, without also calling for a return to Mass in Latin. Ms. Miller oddly characterizes Mass in Latin and religious habits as "formalities" (as if they were quaint courtesies, like holding a door open for a woman or wearing a carnation in one's lapel), rather than centuries-old traditions that meant a great deal to many people. She also subscribes to the canard that the church's teaching on birth control and pre-marital sex are merely "the pope's rules," and not the consistent teaching of the church for centuries.

I am a "young" priest (39), and I do not recall Mass in Latin. I have no desire to return to it, or to many other aspects of the Catholicism of the first two-thirds of the 20th century. But I can respect the devotion many people had to the "formalities" of the church in that age, and their concern over the lack of such devotion in the lives of many Catholics today (e.g., attending Mass in clothes more appropriate to a beach or barbecue; the ebbing of the conviction that the Gospel has something important to say to our "culture of death"). However, Catholicism is called to be "orthodox" in every age -- the use of "orthodox Catholicism" as interchangeable with "old-fashioned" perpetuates the stereotype that a concern for truth in the preaching of the Gospel (orthodox means "correct belief") is a throwback to a previous age.

Francis J. Caponi
Washington

-- The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, July 11, 2000

Mr. Bartley notes that no one knows when the soul enters the body and doesn't think that science can help answer the question. Although he's right that science does not address spiritual matters, it does have a lot to say about the development of unborn life.

For example, science has found that the sex of the child is determined at the moment of conception, and the heart starts beating about 17 days after conception. The foundation of the child's brain, spinal cord and entire nervous system is established roughly 20 days after conception and the eyes are heavily pigmented by the 40th day. The major organs and organ systems are established during the third to the eighth week. By the end of the embryonic period (eight weeks), the face has a human appearance and few, if any, new structures are formed. At 10 weeks, local stimuli may evoke squinting, opening the mouth and incomplete finger closure.

-- Letters to the Editor, The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, June 21, 2000

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