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Contents © 1998
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

October 1998

In his letter to me, Fr. Kearns enclosed a letter he wrote to Dale Vree, Editor of the NOR, in which Kearns asserts that Vree acknowledges that Vree is not fully behind the NOR ads and is at the mercy of his advertising wizards. But this contradicts the Editor of First Things, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, who says Vree himself writes the ads. Whatever the case, I hope you won't soften the message of your ads.

Richard Dondero, Mayesville, South Carolina

Ed. Note: Vree writes the ads himself; he is not at the mercy of any wizards. Don't worry, our ads will not be softened.

-- "Catholics Aren't Stupid," letter to the editor, New Oxford Review, September 1998


MY WIFE AND I DO NOT FOLLOW THE APPROVED METHOD of natural family planning. I am in favor of it but my wife is not. Despite my efforts to approach the subject or have her become more informed on the method, she refuses and says those who lead the Church should have a few kids of their own before they come down so hard on the trench soldiers of the faith.... The priests have all but scolded me for continuing to feel guilty and confess this matter as sin....

Editor's reply:... First of all, immediately contact the Couple to Couple League, P.O. Box 111184, Cincinnati, OH 45211, (513) 471-2000.... Secondly, if I were you I'd search far and wide for a faithful priest. Any priest who tells penitents that contraception is not sinful doesn't have the qualifications to be giving spiritual advice to anyone.

-- Letters, This Rock, July/August 1998


MONSIGNOR KRAFT CELEBRATED A STRAIGHTFORWARD MASS [at St. Joseph cathedral]. His homily, delivered in clear, direct, grammatical English, was no-nonsense, too. Life is short, he told us. Life is a gift from God, and whether or not it turns out to our liking does not change the fact that it's a gift and therefore not something we may squander. A great many things led from that simple teaching: abortion, the Monsignor told us, is murder, pure and simple. Life begins at conception. Especially odious is partial-birth abortion, which he described as a "very pagan, un-Christian act." Euthanasia, which "Hitler so effectively practiced without remorse," is also murder.

-- "Sheep and Goats" by Abe Opincar, San Diego Reader, August 13, 1998


TWO MORE KENTUCKY PASTORS have informed their parishioners that extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist will no longer be used routinely.

Responding to the Holy See's Instruction "On Certain Questions Regarding the Collaboration of the Non-Ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priests," Fr. Lawrence Robotnik, pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Bellevue, Kentucky, stated in his August 9 church bulletin that "in order to fulfill these prescriptions from the Vatican for the Universal Church, Sacred Heart parish will no longer use Extraordinary Ministers for Holy Communion." Fr. Roger Arnsparger, pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Corbin, Kentucky (Diocese of Lexington), did likewise August 23.

The Vatican document, approved by the Holy Father in forma specifica (carrying the weight of a formal papal act) and signed by the heads of eight Vatican congregations, states that "Extraordinary ministers may distribute Holy Communion at Eucharistic celebrations only when there are no ordained ministers present, or when those ordained ministers present are truly unable to distribute Holy Communion."

"Ordinarily the two priests stationed here at Sacred Heart," wrote Robotnik, "will distribute the Sacrament of Holy Communion. We do not have such extraordinarily large crowds as to excessively delay the distribution. I feel confident it will work very smoothly."

Arnsparger, who formally changed his parish's policy in August of 1998, prepared the way earlier this year by mailing to his parishioners a copy of the Instruction back in January.

-- "Roman Fever in Kentucky," St. Catherine Review, September-October, 1998


IN AN UNUSUAL MOVE, the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego has removed a priest from a church after less than a month because of objections from parishioners tied to past misconduct....

"They just weren't willing to accept him," the Rev. Steve Callahan, the diocese's chancellor, said in an interview this week....

According to the diocese's statement, White resigned from Sacred Heart in 1996 "after admitting to misappropriating parish funds for renovation of the rectory and after acknowledging behavior inconsistent with celibate chastity as well as immaturity in relationships with teen-agers."

However, the statement said, "there was never any sexual misconduct on his part involving another person...."

"You just don't know what kind of response you're going to get from the faithful," Callahan said.

-- "Priest removed after objections from parishioners," by Sandi Dolbee, San Diego Union-Tribune, July 31, 1998


MANY PROTESTANTS (EVANGELICALS COME TO MIND) accept artificial contraception in marriage yet insist that unmarried sex, masturbation, homosexuality, and bestiality are wrong because they are condemned in Scripture. But even while they believe that these particular vices are forbidden by command of God, they do not grasp that these immoral uses of sexuality stem from a violation of the inner logic of human sexuality, and that contraception is a more subtle and therefore more dangerously seductive violation of this inner logic. If this inner logic is not grasped, the scriptural condemnations of these vices may come to appear quite arbitrary, and the desire to re-"interpret" them (explain them away) may become quite powerful, which is what we are seeing in the Protestant world.

-- "Unhappy Anniversary: Humanae Vitae at 30," by Kenneth D. Whitehead, New Oxford Review, September 1998


SO WHAT IS WRONG WITH A CONGREGATION adopting a more horizontal view of the Mass if it brings people together? In short, plenty. As [James] Hitchcock says, such a shift can create "severe damage" to "the liturgy and to the whole religious psyche of the people." If Christ is present due to the community of the people, "there is no sacred place in the church. It's just a meeting place." This results ina kind of "practical atheism" in which God is not seen as the greatest transcendent Creator of the universe but as something to be found in other people (or not at all).

-- "Why I Don't Hold Hands at Mass,"

by Ronald J. Rychlak, This Rock, July/August 1998


THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE [in Ojai, CA] was recently ranked No. 1 in a study of U.S. colleges whose bachelor degree recipients went on to earn a Ph.D. in the Humanities....

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, calculated the percentage rate at which bachelor degree recipients subsequently received Humanities doctorates during the ten-year period of 1986 to 1995. To be included in the study, the institution must have awarded at least 100 bachelor degrees during that period and have had at least three such degree recipients earn a Ph.D. in Humanities.

Thomas Aquinas College led the list at a rate nearly three times higher than the best of the rest of the field.

-- From Thomas Aquinas College Newsletter, Summer 1998

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