The Papal Skateboard Winner

The winner of the Papal Skateboard contest has been chosen. The selection chosen was the one I preferred, with the Vatican crest. Keys and Papal tiara (no messing around with mitres here).

What's Intent Got to Do With It?

I was reading an article about Archbishop Burke of St. Louis and his order that Catholic schools in the Archdiocese remove the His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass) series from the schools.

That is not what this post is about. At the end of the article, there is a quote which proved how confused the commenter is about faith and morality:

The Reverend Bruce McCoy, of Canaan Baptist Church in Oakville, said the controversy really just comes down to what the writer's intent was.

While I have no doubt that Philip Pullman intended to use the trilogy to subvert the faith of young children, in all honesty, intent has very little to do with it. One is not permitted to commit evil even if he has a good intention.

Image this: A drunk driver kills a family, but the judge lets him off because he didn't intend to kill anyone. When's the last time this happened and if it did would it be right?

Here is another one: A company uses cheap foreign labor to manufacture children's products resulting in the death of several infants. They didn't intend to kill or hurt anyone.

Ready to let them off the hook? I didn't think so.

I don't care what Mr. Pullman's intent was. The only thing that really matters is the outcome. His books have the potential to harm the faith of young children whose "GPS system" is just being set. I want my children's "GPS" to be set to heaven. Where Pullman intends to set it isn't the issue, the issue is where he sets it to.

Rev. McCoy sounds like a typical relativistic Christian. There is no good or evil, it all depends on intentions and circumstance. Well, I am here to tell him and everyone else who will listen that that point of view is BULL!

Jesus Christ said in Matthew 18:6:

‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.

That is more than enough for me.

Papal Message for Youth Day

Made public yesterday was the Message of the Holy Father to the Youth of the World for the Occasion of the 22nd World Youth Day, which is to be celebrated in all dioceses on Palm Sunday, April 1, and has as its theme this year Jesus' words from the Gospel of John: "Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another." The Message is dated January 27, 2007. Ample extracts from the English-language version are given below:

"Love is possible, and the purpose of my message is to help reawaken in each one of you - you who are the future and hope of humanity-, trust in a love that is true, faithful and strong; a love that generates peace and joy; a love that binds people together and allows them to feel free in respect for one another."

"How is God-Love revealed to us? ... In Christ, true God and true Man, we have come to know love in all its magnitude. ... The manifestation of divine love is total and perfect in the Cross. ... Redeemed by His blood, no human life is useless or of little value, because each of us is loved personally by Him with a passionate and faithful love, a love without limits."

"Moreover, the Crucifix, which after the Resurrection would carry forever the marks of His passion, exposes the 'distortions' and lies about God that underlie violence, vengeance and exclusion. Christ is the Lamb of God Who takes upon Himself the sins of the world and eradicates hatred from the heart of humankind. This is the true 'revolution' that He brings about: love."

"Christ cried out from the Cross: 'I am thirsty.' This shows us His burning thirst to love and to be loved by each one of us. It is only by coming to perceive the depth and intensity of such a mystery that we can realize the need and urgency to love Him as He has loved us. ... To love as He loves us means loving everyone without distinction, even our enemies, 'to the end'."

"I would like to linger for a moment on three areas of daily life where you, my dear young friends, are particularly called to demonstrate the love of God. The first area is the Church, our spiritual family. ... You should stimulate, with your enthusiasm and charity, the activities of the parishes, the communities, the ecclesial movements and the youth groups to which you belong. Be attentive in your concern for the welfare of others, faithful to the commitments you have made. Do not hesitate to joyfully abstain from some of your entertainments; cheerfully accept the necessary sacrifices; testify to your faithful love for Jesus by proclaiming His Gospel, especially among young people of your age."

"The second area ... is your preparation for the future that awaits you. If you are engaged to be married, God has a project of love for your future as a couple and as a family. Therefore, it is essential that you discover it with the help of the Church, free from the common prejudice that says that Christianity with its commandments and prohibitions places obstacles to the joy of love and impedes you from fully enjoying the happiness that a man and woman seek in their reciprocal love."

"The period of engagement, very necessary in order to form a couple, is a time of expectation and preparation that needs to be lived in purity of gesture and words. It allows you to mature in love, in concern and in attention for each other; it helps you to practise self-control and to develop your respect for each other. These are the characteristics of true love that does not place emphasis on seeking its own satisfaction or its own welfare. In your prayer together, ask the Lord to watch over and increase your love and to purify it of all selfishness.

"Do not hesitate to respond generously to the Lord's call, for Christian matrimony is truly and wholly a vocation in the Church. Likewise, dear young men and women, be ready to say 'yes' if God should call you to follow the path of ministerial priesthood or the consecrated life. Your example will be one of encouragement for many of your peers who are seeking true happiness."

"The third area of commitment that comes with love is that of daily life with its multiple relationships. I am particularly referring to family, studies, work and free time. ... Develop your capacities, not only in order to become more 'competitive' and 'productive,' but to be 'witnesses of charity.' In addition to your professional training, also make an effort to acquire religious knowledge that will help you to carry out your mission in a responsible way. In particular, I invite you to carefully study the social doctrine of the Church so that its principles may inspire and guide your action in the world."

"My dear young friends, I want to invite you to 'dare to love.' Do not desire anything less for your life than a love that is strong and beautiful and that is capable of making the whole of your existence a joyful undertaking of giving yourselves as a gift to God and your brothers and sisters. ... Love is the only force capable of changing the heart of the human person and of all humanity, by making fruitful the relations between men and women, between rich and poor, between cultures and civilizations. This is shown to us in the lives of the saints. ... Try to know them better, entrust yourselves to their intercession, and strive to live as they did. I shall just mention Mother Teresa. ... The only desire of her life was to quench the thirst of love felt by Jesus, not with words, but with concrete action by recognizing His disfigured countenance thirsting for love in the faces of the poorest of the poor."

"Only the Lord's help will allow us to keep away from resignation when faced with the enormity of the task to be undertaken. It instills in us the courage to accomplish that which is humanly inconceivable. Contact with the Lord in prayer grounds us in humility."

"Above all, the Eucharist is the great school of love. When we participate regularly and with devotion in Holy Mass, when we spend a sustained time of adoration in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, it is easier to understand the length, breadth, height and depth of His love that goes beyond all knowledge. By sharing the Eucharistic Bread with our brothers and sisters of the Church community, we feel compelled, like Our Lady with Elizabeth, to render 'in haste' the love of Christ into generous service towards our brothers and sisters."

"The next World Youth Day ... will be an important stage on the way to the meeting in Sydney where the theme will be: 'You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses.' May Mary, the Mother of Christ and of the Church, help you to let that cry ring out everywhere, the cry that has changed the world: 'God is love!' I am together with you all in prayer and extend to you my heartfelt blessing."

VIS

The complete message is available here.

The Beauty of Children

In a traditional meeting for this time of year, the Pope today received a group of children from Italian Catholic Action, who came to the Vatican to wish him a happy Christmas.

Addressing the young people, the Holy Father made reference to the slogan - "Beautiful. True" - they had chosen for their formative journey this year. "Christmas," he said, "is the great mystery of the Truth and Beauty of God Who came among us for everyone's salvation. The birth of Jesus is not a fable, it is a story that really happened, in Bethlehem two thousand years ago. Faith brings us to recognize in that little Child born of the Virgin Mary, the true Son of God Who, out of love, chose to become man."

"In the face of the little Jesus," the Holy Father proceeded, "we contemplate the face of God, which is not revealed through force or power, but in weakness and the fragile constitution of a child. This 'Divine Child' ... demonstrates the faithfulness and tenderness of the boundless love with which God surrounds each of us. For this reason we rejoice at Christmas, reliving the same experience as the shepherds of Bethlehem."

"The wonder we feel before the enchantment of Christmas" is, said Benedict XVI, in some way reflected in the birth of all children, "and it invites us to recognize the Infant Jesus in all babies, who are the joy of the Church and the hope of the world."

The Pope assured the children of his trust in them and called upon them "to be friends and witnesses of Jesus, Who came among us in Bethlehem. Is it not a beautiful thing to make Him better known among your friends, in cities, in parishes and in your families? The Church needs you in order to be close to all the children and young people who live in Italy. Bear witness to the fact that Jesus takes away nothing of your joy, but makes you more human, more true, more beautiful."

VIS

The Purpose of Marriage

On November 18th, the Pope received the second group of prelates from the German Bishops' Conference, at the end of their "ad limina" visit.

Opening his talk to them, the Holy Father highlighted how, "the encounter with the living Christ is always at the heart of our service, an encounter that confers a decisive orientation upon our lives."

Proceeding with his address, Benedict XVI referred to the bishops' concern "for an adequate development of pastoral structures to meet the present situation." In this context he pointed out how, faced with falling numbers of priests and of faithful attending Sunday Mass, various German dioceses are implementing models for restructuring pastoral care, in which the image of the pastor "risks being obscured."

I am sure, he told the prelates, "that you will give your approval only to those structural reforms that are in full harmony with the Church's teaching on the priesthood and with her juridical norms, ensuring that the implementation of reforms does not diminish the power of attraction of the priestly ministry."

Referring to the question of lay participation in ecclesial structures, the Holy Father recalled "the broad and open field of the lay apostolate ... and its multiple tasks." These include, he said, announcing the Gospel, catechesis, charity work, the media of social communication, and "social commitment for the integral protection of human life and social justice."

The Pope then turned to consider the question of "announcing the faith to the young people of our time," who live "in a secularized culture" in which God is absent. It is important, he said, that, in the Church, acolytes "encounter God, His Word, and the Sacrament of His presence, and that they learn to model their lives on this basis." As for ecclesial movements, the Pope told the bishops that "we must respect the specific nature of their charisms, and be happy that shared forms of faith come into being in which the Word of God becomes life."

The Church's charitable activity must, said Pope Benedict "be kept apart from the confusion of political interests, ... and used for the good of people." In this field, he called for "close collaboration with bishops and with episcopal conferences."

"The order of marriage as established at the creation," said the Holy Father, "is becoming progressively obscured today." In the face of a materialist culture, "it is difficult for young people to commit themselves to one another definitively," to have children, "and to offer them that lasting space for growth and maturity which only the family based upon marriage can provide."

In such as situation, he went on, "it is vitally important to help young people to pronounce that definitive 'yes,' which does not contrast with freedom but, rather, represents its greatest opportunity. In the patience of remaining together for a lifetime, love achieves its true maturity. And in such an environment of lifelong love, children also learn to live and to love."

Finally, the Pope turned to the question of ecumenism. "In Germany," he said, "our efforts must be directed, above all towards Christians of Lutheran and Reformed faith. ... Ecumenical commitment cannot be entirely fulfilled with joint documents. It becomes visible and effective where Christians from different Churches and ecclesial communities - in a social context that is ever further removed from religion - profess, together and convincingly, the values transmitted by the Christian faith, and emphasize them forcefully in their political and social activities."
VIS

New Teen Magazine

Brandi Lee and Stephanie Murphy had some time on their hands and an idea: creating a magazine for girls that features fashions that won't break their teen budgets and won't reveal most of their young bodies.Their idea will take fruition when True Girl magazine hits mailboxes in early 2006. True Girl is a faith-based publication. Readers won't find photos or advertising about the most revealing fashions, or see photos of the "coolest boys" from around the country.

More information on the magazine is available online at: www.truegirlonline.com.