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Contents © 1999
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

September 1999

Bolt, in a familiar passage, has More say when assailed by his son-in-law with the charge that he would give the devil the benefit of law:

MORE: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the devil?

ROPER: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

MORE: Oh? ... And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you -- where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat?...

Individualism in the law, as in matters of faith, produces the substitution of private morality for public law and duty. This is precisely what More thought Luther was encouraging in his own day, and it is even more prominent in ours....

Now we have seen Senate nullification of the law of impeachment. The evidence left no doubt that the President had deliberately and repeatedly committed perjury, tampered with witnesses, and obstructed justice. Felonies, all of them. Not is there any doubt, based on the Framers' understanding and prior Senate precedent, that these offenses constituted "high crimes and misdemeanors" requiring removal from office. Yet the Senate felt free to prefer partisan interests to law, and refused to convict.

--Robert H. Bork, "Thomas More for Our Season," First Things, June/July, 1999

K-MART TAKES MORE CARE TO SAFEGUARD its tubes of toothpaste than Catholics do to safeguard the Body and Blood of Our Savior. A reliable priest in Perth has told me that a single consecrated wafer can fetch $400 from those who would make use of it in Black Masses or for other perverse rituals. A Host placed on the tongue is less easy to remove to a pocket than a Host put into a cupped hand.

I have argued that Communion on the tongue is the better practice. But there remains the ungainsayable fact that it is also a right.

--"God Be in My Hand -- or on My Tongue," New Oxford Review,
June, 1999

PLANNED PARENTHOOD IS THE NATION'S LEADING PROVIDER and promoter of abortion, promotes contraceptives to minors without the parents' knowledge, promotes emergency contraceptives that are used after an act of "unprotected" sex. The International Federation of Planned Parenthood is around the world promoting contraception, sterilization and abortion with millions and millions of American dollars. Helen Alvare, director of Planning and Information, Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C. states: "So why does Planned Parenthood -- with its much vaunted PR message on 'preventing abortion' continue to pursue its 'condom-in-every-pocket' campaign, when, in the United States, decades of hawking condoms and other contraception to teenagers and unmarried adults -- via our tax dollars -- have coincided with increased premarital sex, increased out-of-wedlock pregnancies, staggering increases in sexually transmitted diseases and skyrocketing abortion rates?..."

As your bishop and shepherd, I ask all Catholics not to use their services, not to belong to any of their boards, not to serve as a volunteer and not to be employed there. In resigning your employment there, I will be happy to assist you in finding employment elsewhere so you will not be cooperating in these immoral practices and being a source of scandal both within and outside the Church and community. I make this plea, in love, as my duty to continue the mission of Jesus Christ: to teach, to sanctify and to govern.

--Reverend John W. Yanta, "Texas Bishop Opposes PP, The Ryan Report, March/April 1999

QUESTION: I FOUND THE PASTORAL LETTER OF DENVER'S Archbishop Chaput on Humanae Vitae both welcome and instructive. However, he focuses so much on HV n. 17 (predicted consequences of contraception) that it seems a bit too much. Would you agree?...

It [anti-life mentality] truly is a genuine American export. This perverse and pervasive "conspiracy against life" is so peculiarly American (and U.N. delivered) that the Latin text of Pope John Paul II's Familiaris Consortio had to say in Latin: "'anti-life mentality' Anglice vocatur " -- what is called in English the "anti-life mentality" as the most accurate description since the Latin description is somewhat anemic: "Sic habitus animi vitae adversus" (AAS 74 [1982] p. 116).

A year ago, the Santa Claus of Population Control, Ted Turner along with his "moral" advisor Jane Fonda, promised to give $100 million to the U.N over a 10-year period. Note and note well, these millions will not be direct and to the poor of the world, rather millions of dollars are targeted for world population control. Similarly, Warren Buffet the market wizard and Microsoft's Bill Gates donate great sums to the same population control programs.

The argument is not really that there are too many people, rather that there are too many of the wrong (poor) kind of people, and these big hitters intend to correct that anomaly by their "charity." No greater love has any big hitter than to lay down his bucks to make sure there are fewer hitters.

No, neither Archbishop Chaput nor originally Paul VI had in wrong in HV , no.17; the facts are there and they are playing out as predicted. Paul VI was right and the Archbishop was right in pointing out just how right he was.

--Wm. B. Smith, "Questions Answered,"Homiletic and Pastoral Review, June, 1999

SENATOR BOB SMITH HAS REJECTED the One Party position on the decisive issues, including abortion, NAFTA, the WTO, the Yugoslav war, spending, taxation, gun control, the expansion of federal control beyond constitutional limits, and so on. Sen. Smith, a solid Catholic, is a man of sound principle and demonstrable courage.... But if Sen. Smith is to take the third-party option, he will have to move quickly to get on the ballot in all 50 states.

--"Senator Smith and a Third Party," The Wanderer, June 3, 1999

FORNICATION IS AN UGLY WORD WITH UGLY consequences also. While last year's fictional love affair between Jack and Rose aboard the doomed Titanic was not responsible for sinking the ship, it probably has been at least partly responsible for the loss of virginity in countless back seats over the recent months. The soft focus works its magic again: He's beautiful, she's beautiful, the music is beautiful, and there's that same firelit glow. True, Jack and Rose are not married. In fact, they've just met and can't be said to know each other in any meaningful way, but those are minor details. Their "love" is irresistible -- or that's the message of the camera.

--Janie B. Cheaney, "Sin in soft focus: How movie cameras, music, and lighting make sin look good," CCL Family Foundations, May­June, 1999.

A PROMINENT NOTRE DAME OFFICIAL WENT TO Father Hesburgh as to a mentor, worrying that the implementation of the Vatican document Ex Corde Ecclesiae might bring the American bishops into the governance of the university. The retired president consoled his worried friend, ending his counsel with this message:

What is the worst thing that can happen to us? John Paul II will tell the world that Notre Dame is not a Catholic university. Who will believe him?

--"A Man of Influence," The Catholic World Report, July 1999.

LAST SUMMER WHEN OUR SCHOOL NEWSLETTER announced that a new religious education series deemed to be in conformity with the Catechism had been purchased, I thought that finally my children would be receiving solid information on the Catholic faith at school as well as at home.

That thought lasted until the new books came home. When I opened the new second grade text, This is Our Faith, published by Silver Burdett Ginn, I was amazed -- and dismayed. Although the series bears the bishops' approval for conformity with the Catechism, the subject matter presented was far from complete.

I'll use the Sacrament of Baptism (Unit 1, Chapter 1) as an example. The entire theme involves entering a community and being welcomed. There is not a single mention of the words "original sin" -- not even in the glossary. But Item 8 on the bishops' 1997 "deficiencies" list was "Deficient teaching on original sin and sin in general...."

But here is the definition of baptism as given on page 26 of the new textbook:

[Baptism is] a sacrament that joins us to Jesus and welcomes us into the church. We are baptized with water. Water is a sign that we share Jesus' new life....

So a second-grader walks away from religion class thinking that the Sacraments of the Catholic Church are simply things we do in a community, not much different from Brownies or Girl Scouts.

--Theresa Foster, "Teaching Your Children the Faith: It's Really Up to You," [Women for Faith & Family's] Voices, Vol. XIV: No. 1, Spring 1999

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