US

Washington D.C., Jul 25, 2018 / 10:12 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The US bishops have drawn attention to the continual relevance of Humanae vitae, Blessed Paul VI’s encyclical on the regulation of birth, to mark the 50th anniversary of its promulgation.

In Humanae vitae Bl. Paul VI “reaffirmed the beautiful truth that a husband and wife are called to give themselves completely to each other,” stated Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the US bishops’ conference. “Marriage reflects the love of God, which is faithful, generous, and life-giving. Through their vocation, spouses cooperate with God by being open to new human life.”

“Blessed Paul VI, who bore the criticism of Humanae Vitae with charity and patience, courageously affirmed that when we love as God designed, we experience true freedom and joy. He has also been proven correct in his warnings about the consequences of ignoring the true meaning of married love.”

“On this anniversary, I encourage all to read and prayerfully reflect upon this Encyclical, and be open to the gift of its timeless truths,” Cardinal DiNardo wrote.

Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington wrote that “The wisdom of ‘Humanae Vitae’ still rings true in our time and reminds us that marriage lived according to God’s plan brings happiness and fruitfulness to the couple and their relationship.”

“Since the time it was published, the warnings contained within ‘Humanae Vitae’ have been realized to a devastating and tragic degree as the negative societal consequences and disregard of the life-giving and love-giving aspects of marriage continue.”

The columns were released throughout this month to prepare for Humanae vitae’s 50th anniversary on July 25. Written by Bl. Paul VI, the encyclical is noted for its teaching against the use of contraception and for healthy sexuality.

Besides the Bishop of Arlington, numerous American bishops wrote on the encyclical, including Bishop Robert Cunningham of Syracuse, Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle, Bishop Nelson Perez of Cleveland, and Bishop James Conley of Lincoln.

The bishops wrote on Humanae vitae’s explanation of the ends of the marital act, confirming that conjugal love is both unitive and procreative. They also commented on the document’s history, accurate predictions, and its promotion of self-gift.  

Bishop Cunningham evaluated the historical context in which Humanae vitae was received. Written in 1968, the encyclical was released at the time of the Vietnam War and the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, he said.

“Our country was divided by a war many miles away and at home by conflicts, often violent, surrounding racial tensions,” he said. “In the midst of this national turmoil, our Church also experienced unrest with the publication of Humanae Vitae.”

It was written “to reaffirm the teaching of the Catholic Church on married love, responsible parenthood, and the continued rejection of unnatural forms of birth control and abortion,” noted Bishop Cunningham.

Bishop Conley and Bishop Perez both emphasized the prophetic nature of Humanae vitae, which predicted the destructive effects birth control would have on marriages and society.

The Nebraskan bishop pointed to a decrease in birth rates in the last 30 years, noting the rapid decline is not expected to slow down for at least another 10 years. This, he said, will have effects on future economies, labor forces, and societies.

“This means that the American population will get older in the decades to come – that 40 years from now, senior citizens will make up 25% of the entire US population. Declining fertility rates mean labor shortages, shrinking tax bases, and insolvent social safety nets.”

Bishop Conley also wrote on how contraception conditions men and women to be against each other by denying the connection between sex and children.

“Contraception pits couples into a kind of unknowing war with themselves: they seek to discover one another, and themselves, in the mutual exchange and intimate embrace of sexuality, while, at the very same time, seeking to deny an essential component of their actual identity.”

Bishop Perez said Humanae vitae is “best known for its defense of the ancient teaching of the Church that the procreative dimension is an essential and inseparable element of the marital act,” and affirming the unitive and procreative ends as “two essential and related dimensions of conjugal love.”

“This teaching, which ran counter to changes being made in virtually every other Christian denomination of the time, can rightly be regarded as the most controversial teaching of ‘Humanae Vitae.’ While controversial, it has been extremely influential in subsequent development of Church teaching, from topics as diverse as sterilization, in-vitro fertilization, abortion and surrogacy, along with the Church’s teaching on same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria.”

“The negative reaction to ‘Humanae Vitae’ was predicted by Blessed Pope Paul himself,” he said, noting that the encyclical anticipated “broken marriages, further demeaning and objectification of women and a trivialization of sex.”

“What is unfortunate is that the almost exclusive attention given to this ‘negative’ aspect of the encyclical has resulted in a failure to appreciate the ‘positive’ element of the pope’s teaching.”

Bishop Sartain said it is important to heed Humanae vitae’s prophetic words on the consumerization of sex in secular culture: “Humanae vitae remains to this day the prophetic words of a shepherd. In a world that can easily abide on the surface of things, Blessed Paul VI teaches us to look deeply into human life, our origin, our fulfilment, and our destiny.”

“In a world that prizes expediency and consumerism … Blessed Paul VI challenges us to cherish the gift of human life. In a world whose religion is science and that gives blind adherence to the principle that ‘what is possible is therefore good,’ Blessed Paul VI reminds us that at the core of a truly fulfilled human life is the act of opening our minds and hearts to the wisdom of God, who created the world and all that is in it, and who knows and loves us more than we can fathom.”

“In a culture where the human body and human life itself are exploited for entertainment and shameful profit, Blessed Paul VI begs us not to forget that the human body has beautiful, God-given worth and wisdom all its own, wisdom that is to be plumbed for its richness and lived with humility and joy,” Bishop Sartain reflected.

Cardinal Wuerl noted that the 50th anniversary of Humanae vitae impresses on the Church “the need for both clarity in our teaching and accompaniment in our effort to achieve reception of the teaching as part of the Church’s healing and saving mission.”

“In this modern age when sexual activity is often seen as recreational and without consequence, the message of Humanae Vitae is a sign of contradiction to the world and is challenging for some. But … it goes back to our basic understanding of the dignity and role of human beings, male and female, complementary and equal, in God’s plan.”

[…]

Washington D.C., Jul 25, 2018 / 05:00 am (CNA).- During the early cultural battles over birth control in 1920s America, social thinker Monsignor John A. Ryan brought a unique perspective to the debate: he argued that contraception hurt solidarity and o… […]

Columbus, Ohio, Jul 24, 2018 / 06:46 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Ohio Catholic Conference on Friday welcomed the state governor’s decision to grant reprieve and commutation to two men who were to have been executed.

“The Catholic Conference of Ohio commends Governor Kasich for his leadership, courage, and pursuit of justice in commuting the death sentence of Raymond Tibbetts, as well as granting a reprieve for Cleveland Jackson,” the organization stated July 20.

“Each case presented strong evidence that corrective actions were needed by the Governor. Thank you, Governor Kasich.”

“The Catholic Church believes that the death penalty is an unnecessary and systemically flawed form of punishment,” wrote the Ohio Catholic Conference. “We seek mercy for those on death row because we believe that spiritual conversion is possible and that all life – even that of the worst offender – has value and dignity.”

Earlier on Friday, Kasich had commuted the death sentence of Raymond Tibbetts to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Tibbetts would have been executed Oct. 17.

Tibbetts was convicted for the 1997 murders of Judith Crawford, his wife, and Fred Hicks, their landlord.

The commutation was granted “as a result of fundamental flaws in sentencing phase of his trial,” the governor’s office announced, noting that “the defense’s failure to present sufficient mitigating evidence, coupled with an inaccurate description of Tibbetts’s childhood by the prosecution, essentially prevented the jury from making an informed decision about whether Tibbetts deserved the death penalty.”

Jurors were not told that Tibbetts had suffered abuse as a child in the foster care system, and one of the jurors has said he would have voted for life without parole instead of the death penalty had this been disclosed.

“The system failed to provide me with the information I needed to make an accurate and fair determination,” Ross Geiger wrote in an opinion piece earlier this year.

Kasich also chose to grant a reprieve to delay until May 29, 2019 the execution of Cleveland Jackson, which had been scheduled to take place Sept. 13. The delay will “allow his newly appointed legal counsel sufficient time to review the case and properly prepare for his clemency hearing before the Parole Board.”

“Jackson’s previous court-appointed counsel withdrew their representation just four months prior to his initially scheduled execution after admitting that they failed to do any work to prepare his clemency application over the course of the previous four years,” according to Kasich’s office.

Jackson was convicted for the 2002 murders of  Leneshia Williams, 17, and Jayla Grant, 3.

Kasich, a Republican, rejected calls for clemency in 2016 in the case of Ronald Phillips. Phillips was executed in July 2017, having been convicted of the 1993 rape and murder of three-year-old Sheila Marie Evans, his girlfriend’s daughter.

[…]

Washington D.C., Jul 24, 2018 / 05:08 pm (CNA).- Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is reported to have lived alongside a Maryland house of formation for members of a religious order whose founder has faced Vatican charges of sexual misconduct.

St. John Baptist de la Salle is located in Chillum, Md., adjacent to Washington, D.C. The parish is staffed by the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE), and the property serves as the headquarters of the community’s Province of the Immaculate Conception.

The Institute of the Incarnate Word was founded in 1984 in Argentina by Fr. Carlos Miguel Buela. In 2016, the Vatican affirmed the veracity of allegations that Buela engaged in sexual improprieties with adult seminarians of his community.

Buela, who retired in 2010, was forbidden by the Vatican from contact with members of the IVE, and from appearing in public.

In addition to the church building, the Maryland property includes two additional buildings, one of which is Ven. Fulton Sheen Seminary. The seminary forms men aspiring to be priests of the IVE, and opened in 1998. According to its website, the seminary currently houses 41 men in formation.

The third building, perhaps where the cardinal stayed, was not visible in a Google Street View Image dated July 2009, but had been constructed by May 2012.

Sources told CNA that Cardinal McCarrick lived with the IVE community at St. John Baptist de la Salle during his retirement, after residing for a period at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary of the Archdiocese of Washington.

One source close to the Archdiocese of Washington told CNA that the cardinal had for a time an IVE brother in formation living in his residence, which was on the parish property but separate from the house of formation.

An additional source also told CNA that McCarrick had young priest and seminarian assistants while living with the IVE, but did not comment on whether any seminarian resided with the cardinal.

An Archdiocese of Washington spokesperson did not confirm those reports. The spokesperson told CNA that Cardinal McCarrick “made his own living arrangements for his retirement,” as well as his own arrangements for secretarial assistance.

“I can’t comment on how long he was at the John Baptist de la Salle property,” the spokesperson added.

Cardinal McCarrick is reportedly close to the IVE, often conferring ordination for the Immaculate Conception province, doing so as late as May 28.

Directories from the Archdiocese of Washington demonstrate that Fr. Andrew Whiting, IVE, served as priest secretary to Cardinal McCarrick from at least 2014 through 2017. Whiting was ordained a deacon by McCarrick in 2013, and a priest in 2014.

The 2018 directory lists Br. Andy Kemtz, IVE, as secretary to the cardinal, and gives St. John Baptist de la Salle as his residence.

Cardinal McCarrick has been the subject of several accusations of child sexual abuse and sexual misconduct involving seminarians and priests in recent months.

He was suspended from exercising his ministry in June following an investigation into a charge of sexual abuse, and last week he was accused of the sexual abuse of a minor.

McCarrick was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, and then served there as an auxiliary bishop.

He was bishop of two New Jersey dioceses before he was appointed Archbishop of Washington in 2000, where he served until his retirement in 2006.

In 2005 and 2007, two men received settlements from New Jersey dioceses over their abuse at the hands of McCarrick, who abused them while they were seminarians and priests.

The Institute of the Incarnate Word could not be reached for comment.

[…]

Boston, Mass., Jul 24, 2018 / 04:57 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After numerous accusations of sexual abuse of minors and adults have arisen against a former Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston called Tuesday for bishops to be held accountable for sex abuse.

“These cases and others require more than apologies. They raise up the fact that when charges are brought regarding a bishop or a cardinal, a major gap still exists in the Church’s policies on sexual conduct and sexual abuse,” Cardinal O’Malley wrote July 24.

“While the Church in the United States has adopted a zero tolerance policy regarding the sexual abuse of minors by priests we must have clearer procedures for cases involving bishops. Transparent and consistent protocols are needed to provide justice for the victims and to adequately respond to the legitimate indignation of the community. The Church needs a strong and comprehensive policy to address bishops’ violations of the vows of celibacy in cases of the criminal abuse of minors and in cases involving adults.”

He said he had reached this conclusion through his experience in several dioceses and with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

“The Church needs to swiftly and decisively take action regarding these matters of critical importance. In every instance of claims made by victims of sexual abuse, whether criminal violations or the abuse of power, the primary concern must be for the victim, their family and their loved ones. The victims are to be commended for bringing to light their tragic experience and must be treated with respect and dignity.”

The accusations “are understandably a source of great disappointment and anger for many,” Cardinal O’Malley stated.

The cardinal also addressed reports that he was contacted in 2015 by Fr. Boniface Ramsey, who was reporting allegations of McCarrick’s misconduct with seminarians.

He said he did not “personally receive” the letter from Fr. Ramsey. “In keeping with the practice for matters concerning the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, at the staff level the letter was reviewed and determined that the matters presented did not fall under the purview of the Commission or the Archdiocese of Boston, which was shared with Fr. Ramsey in reply.”

Cardinal O’Malley added that three actions are now required of the Church: a fair and rapid adjudication of these accusations; an assessment of the adequacy of our standards and policies in the Church at every level, and especially in the case of bishops; and communicating more clearly to the Catholic faithful and to all victims the process for reporting allegations against bishops and cardinals.

“Failure to take these actions will threaten and endanger the already weakened moral authority of the Church and can destroy the trust required for the Church to minister to Catholics and have a meaningful role in the wider civil society,” said Cardinal O’Malley. “In this moment there is no greater imperative for the Church than to hold itself accountable to address these matters, which I will bring to my upcoming meetings with the Holy See with great urgency and concern.”

[…]

Boston, Mass., Jul 24, 2018 / 04:30 pm (CNA).- Lawmakers in Massachusetts have passed new legislation that would ensure abortion remains legal in the state should the Supreme Court ever overturn Roe v. Wade. The full title of the bill is the “Negating Archaic Statutes Targeting Young Women Act,” but has been shortened to the “NASTY Women Act.” 

The bill overturns an 1845 law that made “procuring a miscarriage” illegal. That law, and other similar laws in other states, were rendered null after the Supreme Court found a constitutional right to abortion in its decision in Roe v. Wade.

Laws outlawing abortion remain on the books in several states. Abortion advocates fear that, should the Supreme Court reverse itself, they would come back in to force automatically.

The title of the bill is a reference to a comment made by then-candidate Donald Trump during a presidential candidates debate on Oct. 19, 2016. Trump referred to Hillary Clinton as a “nasty woman,” and the phrase then became a rallying cry among some female Clinton supporters.

Clinton carried the state of Massachusetts by 27 points during the 2016 presidential election.

The state legislature, where Democrats hold a two-thirds majority in both houses, passed the NASTY Women Act by a wide margin.

Massachusetts is the first state to move to preserve abortion access in the event of a Supreme Court reversal of cases like Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. If those decisions were overturned, states would again be free to make their own laws regarding abortion, including banning the procedure outright.

The quick passage of the bill was “not surprising, but disappointing,” said James Driscoll, director of the Catholic Conference of Massachusetts.

Driscoll told CNA he found it interesting that the nearly two-centuries year old law prohibiting abortion in the state had remained on the books. He identified Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement as the motivation to pass the bill. 

“I just think it’s something no one paid attention to until the whole Supreme Court vacancy opened up. It seemed to have gained steam through there.”

In June, Kennedy announced he would be retiring from the Supreme Court, effective July 31. President Donald Trump has since nominated District of Columbia Court of Appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill the vacancy.

Kavanaugh’s nomination was cheered by pro-life groups, who are hopeful that he could form part of a majority in favor of overturning Roe, should a suitable case come before the court. Kavanaugh has 12 years’ experience as an appellate court judge, is a father of two, a practicing Catholic, and a graduate of Yale University.

Massachusetts law presently requires that a parent or guardian consent for a minor to have an abortion. A state law prohibiting protests and prayer vigils within a 35-foot “buffer zone” of an abortion facility was unanimously struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2014.

Republican Governor Charlie Baker is expected to sign the bill into law.

[…]

Denver, Colo., Jul 24, 2018 / 04:16 pm (CNA).- This week, CNA says farewell to our summer intern, Lizzy Joslyn. In her final week at CNA this summer, Lizzy offers “The Genius of Woman,” a four-part series of interviews and profiles, based on Pope St. John Paul II’s “Letter to Women,” and interviews with seven Catholic women from very different walks of life. This is the second piece in that series:

John Paul II’s 1995 “Letter to Women” was written to praise and encourage women to embrace the beauty that God gave them – the“feminine genius”- despite social and cultural messages telling them to become something different.

In contemporary society, the pope wrote, “women’s dignity has often been unacknowledged and their prerogatives misrepresented; they have often been relegated to the margins of society and even reduced to servitude. This has prevented women from truly being themselves and it has resulted in a spiritual impoverishment of humanity.”

The pope, on the contrary, encouraged viewing, and valuing, women, from the perspective of their dignity, and the natural complementarity of men and women:“The creation of woman is thus marked from the outset by the principle of help: a help which is not one-sided but mutual. Woman complements man, just as man complements woman: men and women are complementary. Womanhood expresses the “human” as much as manhood does, but in a different and complementary way.”

Rejecting women’s instinct for nurture and self-sacrifice is a part of a modern effort that “overcorrects” gender imbalances and discrimination against women, “by either repressing men and suggesting that men are bad and pushing them down… or on the other hand by trying to treat women as men,” said Michelle La Rosa, managing editor at CNA.

Careers and vocations based in self-giving are often looked down upon by a “feminist” society. Adding a family, or focusing on motherhood, can also be the source of criticism for some women in contemporary society.

 But the Church lifts high the call for women to serve, regarding such selflessness with great respect and importance. John Paul II, speaking of Mary, wrote,“For her, ‘to reign’ is to serve! Her service is ‘to reign’!” The same can be said for every woman’s–and person’s–call, he said.

 In light of that encouragement, some Catholic women have learned that lesson- “to reign is to serve.”

“Humanity itself owes much of its survival to the fact that women are nurturing,” said Amy Shupe, a teacher at Christian Brothers High School in St. Louis, Missouri.

Their talents in this area does not necessarily restrict them to one vocation. La Rosa and Ginny Kochis, a blogger on Catholic motherhood, both mentioned the life of Saint Zélie Martin–a woman who worked and raised a family with her husband, Louis Martin, who also worked.

“If a woman doesn’t want to work full time, if she wants to be a stay-at-home-mom, if men or women want to prioritize relationships and family above work, it’s almost seen as weakness and women are looked down upon if they can’t have it all,” said YouTuber Lizzie Reezay.

Two women shared their vocation stories with CNA—they are are wildly different, but both expressions of the “feminine genius” that John Paul II celebrated.

Women educating, raising generations to come

Amy Shupe felt a calling to dedicate her life to teaching a subject she never found easy. Her early years in school, she said, involved a lot of standardized test-taking. Seeing her poor results on such tests–particularly in math–discouraged her.

Her teachers’ reactions didn’t exactly uplift her, either.

“They didn’t point-blank,” tell her she couldn’t achieve higher scores in math, she said, but teachers would place a lot of weight on their students’ scores. “You kind of get the feeling that… it’s gonna be a real struggle for you, so maybe you should think about something else,” Shupe said.

In high school, though, she began to receive greater encouragement from her teachers. That’s when she discovered that she wanted to be that same source of encouragement for students who felt like they couldn’t do math.

“I have to help other people not feel the same way that I felt,” she said.

Now, Shupe is a high school teacher at Christian Brothers High School in St. Louis, Missouri. A 2017 recipient of a prestigious teacher’s award, the Distinguished Lasallian Educator Award, she invests copious amounts of her time and energy to the growth of her students.

“I work very hard at my job. I’m constantly thinking about it,” she said.

The role of a teacher can most certainly be taken on by men or women, but there’s something to be said for the emotionally intuitive side of women that lends itself to working with children, she said.

A mother of two children, Shupe exercises similar skills at work and at home.

“My number one role…is mom,” she said. “First, I’m a mother. I have two kids and I take care of them. And so then I think it easily translates into my classroom. You know, while those boys are not my flesh and blood, but I do know that… they have parents that are looking out for them,” said Shupe. Granted the trust of her students’ parents, she said, they are “put in my care day after day after day and I’m not there just to help them with math. I’m there to help them… learn about life… and have good influence on others.”

 

A Bride of Christ

A nun.

What the world sees: a humble, quiet, unsuspecting woman. Not exactly the “ideal” successful, commanding businesswoman. Mental pictures of “The Sound of Music” abound.

What Christ sees: His bride.

Sister Maria of the Capuchin Poor Clares in Denver, Colorado grew up in a strong Catholic household, but she never thought she would commit to the consecrated life.

In her younger years, Sister Maria was never a very committed practicer of the faith, she said. She attended Mass and received the Sacraments not “out of my own conviction,” she said, but more “of out of duty” to follow along with her family.

Things began to change one summer when she attended a retreat–one priest’s homily on God’s love “struck” her.

“This priest, I remember very, very clearly… he was talking about the love of God and he said, you know, ‘God loves us all the time, every moment. If he would just stop to love this one moment, we would just stop existing!”

Astounded by the gravity of this statement, Sister Maria began her search for ways to serve the God whose love, she had found, allowed her very existence. The next summer, she went on a mission to a poverty-ridden mountain town in Mexico.

There, she said, she found the poorest–yet, the richest–people.

“They were so pure and simple and giving and generous and they treated us like we were angels from God… they offered everything they had, they took us into their homes,” she remembered. “This pure life!”

Inspired after the mission, Sister Maria began to frequent a monastery near her home. The sisters, she observed, had a strangely similar poor-yet-rich complex. It took her months to admit it to herself, but Maria finally decided to discern her calling to be a nun.

A strong woman, says the world, is independent. But what if there is strength in dependence–on God?

John Paul II, in expressing his thanks for consecrated women, wrote, “Following the example of the greatest of women, the Mother of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, you open yourselves with obedience and fidelity to the gift of God’s love. You help the Church and all mankind to experience a ‘spousal’ relationship to God, one which magnificently expresses the fellowship which God wishes to establish with his creatures.”

This specific and crucial mission, to “help the Church and all mankind to experience a ‘spousal’ relationship to God” is one only women can fulfill. And, because of the world’s disdain for obedience and quietness, this noble mission is also often looked down upon.

Although Sister Maria lives behind closed doors, she lives pray for people outside those doors. “We are here for the world, for the sake of others,” she said.

To some women, a life like Sr. Clare’s might seem to impossible- too simple, too humble, not empowered.

Consecrated life, like motherhood, is sometimes regarded as less significant work than traditional employment.

“People are so afraid of permanent commitment,” said Sister Maria, adding that she has seen fewer and fewer vocations to the Poor Clares.

A strong woman, says society, is a woman who isn’t afraid to invest in herself and do what she pleases.

But a strong woman of faith, says God, is a woman who isn’t afraid to fully commit herself to Christ.

Not only do “feminists” disregard the gravity of such commitment, but they also constantly reach for ways to prove that they are not “different than men, instead of trying to compete or equal in their own way,” the nun said.

Even when it comes to roles in the Church.

“Some groups continue to demand priesthood for women,” she said, but this “doesn’t make much sense.”

Considering Mary, she said, there are many opportunities for women to have a strong influence on the church.

Mary “never claimed to be one of the apostles…. She had her own role, and continues to have it in the church,” she said. “Who can be more important… her role in salvation history… than Mary’s?”

Disclaiming that she did not encourage priesthood for women, she added, “In a way, Mary was a priest. She was the first one who carried Jesus… The body of Christ is Mary’s body. The Eucharistic Body, in a way, is Mary’s flesh.”

“Every Communion, you carry Jesus,” she said, and, quoting St. Francis, “You give birth to Jesus through your good works.”

Sister Maria referenced St. Clare’s teachings: “We can carry Jesus the same way that Mary carried him… Mary carried Jesus in her womb for nine months, but the faithful soul can carry him spiritually, always.”

Women, she said, should embrace the roles in the church that God has offered to them rather than scrambling for more roles. If man and woman were the same, she said, it wouldn’t be as beautiful.

Ultimately, each woman–and man, for that matter–is called to be vigilant of God’s wish for their life, said Sister Maria.

“It’s a journey that never ends. You will always be receiving the vocation from God every day and answering to a vocation every day,” she said. “Do not be afraid to give yourself to Christ.”

 

 

[…]

Denver, Colo., Jul 24, 2018 / 02:57 pm (CNA).- Sex “untethered” from reproduction can mean “whatever individual men decide it means to them, even violence and power,” says law professor Helen Alvaré, adding that the #MeToo movement can learn from the wisdom expressed by Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae vitae.

“When even the very thought of children is far removed from sexual intimacy, sex struggles to serve the man and woman together. Why? Because the man and woman’s possible future — i.e., a child, a family, a marriage, extended kin, even love — is cut off from their present,” Alvaré wrote in the July issue of the Knights of Columbus’ Columbia Magazine.

“What Catholics are so concerned about when it comes to contraception,” Alvaré wrote, is “the breaking apart of what should be held together, with the result that sex loses its beautiful mutuality and becomes something else.”

Humanae vitae teaches that “a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods,” he wrote, “may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires.”

“This is more than a little relevant to the current #MeToo moment. Without descending into the detailed accusations of so many women, we can summarize #MeToo sex as a set of words and acts of a sexual nature done to project power or to gain pleasure for one person. It is the understatement of the year to say that these words and actions “lack mutuality” or a common — let alone good — end.”

Alvaré, cofounder of the movement Women Speak for Themselves, said that artificial contraception, which was expected to improve marital love and “free women,” has instead led to declining marriage rates and declining rates of happiness among women.

Because contraception separates sex from the “joint future” for husbands and wives implied by openness to conception, “sex becomes something less than it is meant to be. Perhaps our current #MeToo crisis has the potential to provoke greater sympathy for Humanae vitae‘s holistic vision of human sexuality and a second look at the Church’s age-old wisdom.”

Alvaré’s essay was featured in an issue of Columbia Magazine dedicated to the fiftieth anniversary of Humanae vitae, which was promulgated July 25, 1968. The issue also included reflections from authors Mary Eberstadt and George Weigel, lawyer Elizabeth Kirk and theologians Janet Smith and David Crawford, along with profiles of Knights of Columbus members and their families.

[…]

Denver, Colo., Jul 24, 2018 / 01:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Ramping up to the 50th anniversary of Humanae vitae, a Catholic professor analyzed the encyclical’s guidance on responsible parenthood- discussing when a couple might be open to more children, and when they might choose to delay openness to new life.

Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical explained that “with regard to physical, economic, psychological and social conditions, responsible parenthood is exercised by those who prudently and generously decide to have more children, and by those who, for serious reasons and with due respect to moral precepts, decide not to have additional children for either a certain or an indefinite period of time.”

The encyclical said that couples may never licitly use artificial contraception, though couples may use their awareness of a woman’s natural fertility cycle to determine whether to engage in potentially procreative acts; this is ordinarily referred to as “natural family planning,” or NFP.

But what is a “serious reason?” How should couples discern when to be open to children, and when it might be prudent to wait?

Dr. Kevin Miller, a professor of Franciscan University of Steubenville and a bioethics consultant for the online NFP program of Marquette University College of Nursing Institute for Natural Family Planning, discussed Pope Paul VI’s encyclical with CNA.

Miller said that he has very rarely witnessed examples of practicing Catholics- those using natural family planning methods- abstaining selfishly from procreation. More often, he said, he has seen couples struggle with scrupulosity about openness to new life.

“I sometimes run into this idea that there is this crisis in the Church today of couples using NFP for bad reasons, for selfish reasons, or for inadequate reasons to avoid procreation. Honestly, I’m not seeing that.”

“When I’m dealing with people who are using NFP, I actually witness more cases in which there is a significant underestimation of the seriousness of a situation than I do situations in which there is a problem of overestimating the seriousness of the situation.”

“Serious reasons” for using NFP to avoid conception, Miller said, are not limited to life-and-death situations.

The professor said that years before Humanae vitae’s publication, Pope Pius XII issued two addresses: one to Italian midwives and one to an Italian family association. He said the statements, both released in 1951, further clarify the Church’s use of the word “serious” in this context.

“Humanae vitae uses that language- ‘serious reasons.’ I think it ought to be interpreted in continuity with what Pope Pius XII had said 17 years earlier.”

Pius “referred to ‘serious reasons that not rarely occur,’” said Miller.

Reasons can be “serious in the sense of not just a trivial reason…[but Pope Pius XII] indicates that that can happen commonly,” he said.

Miller also pointed to the language used by John Paul II regarding family planning. He said the late pope’s word choice leaned towards “unselfish reasons.”

“In other words, you get the idea that if a reason is an unselfish one, if it doesn’t have to do with hedonistic wishes or something like that, then it’s probably a serious reason.”

In his encyclical, Pope Paul VI gave four broad categories that qualify as serious reasons to avoid potentially procreative acts – medical, psychological, economic, and social reasons.

Miller said if the medical or psychological risks of pregnancy are more than trivial, they qualify as serious reasons. This could mean a physical or mental strain on the mother, he said, but also health issues for other members of the family.  

Using NFP to attempt avoiding or delaying pregnancy is acceptable “if having another child, at least for a time, is going to impose significant health risks on typically the mother, but possibly on some other family member,” he said.

“Maybe there is already a child in the family who has health problems who would be harder to afford to care for that child if you have another child,” he added.

Miller also pointed to the economic factors that could qualify as serious reasons to delay pregnancy through natural family planning, among them the likelihood that additional children would restrict a family’s basic necessities, including food, shelter, clothing, and education.

“One way I like to look at it would be to say if having another child would put the family in the sort of economic situation that if it were the result of, let’s say, a low wage would be called an unjust situation by the Church. I would say that counts as a serious economic reason for using natural family planning.”

He said the last category, social reasons, is not as clearly defined by the Church, but he said it might include those situations in which a family could better serve the common good by having a “somewhat of a smaller family.”

“Some families, in response to the teachings of the Church in places like Familaris consortio, wish to serve society in some special way, maybe like reach out to the needy in society,” said Miller.

These reasons, he said, certainly do not require couples to refrain from procreation, he said, noting there is no flowchart or algorithm for decision-making.

Rather, he said the decision should be made with honesty and prayer, using moral reasoning over moral rationalizing.

“First of all a couple has to make sure they are being honest with themselves, make sure they are reasoning honestly about their situation and not rationalizing,” he said. “Secondly, I would also say…do your moral reasoning in light of your relationship with God. It should be a prayerful as well as an intellectually honest discernment.”

Miller cautioned that couples ought “not to be scrupulous in these matters” if prayer and honesty accompany their decision. He said that unlike artificial contraception, NFP calls couples naturally to be sacrificial.

“I would also even say that, if a couple used natural family planning, the self-mastery and the discipline, that the Church has said comes with use of natural family planning, the more it is likely that as time goes by they will develop even more the virtues of generosity and selflessness.”

[…]

Erie, Pa., Jul 24, 2018 / 12:30 pm (CNA).- Bishop Lawrence Persico of Erie has warned Catholics that the results of a Pennsylvania grand jury investigation into sexual abuse of minors will make for disturbing reading. The release of the 800-page report has been delayed by order of the state’s supreme court.

“It certainly is going to be sobering,” said Bishop Persico to news outlet Penn Live.

“The report is rather graphic, and it will be very detailed on what has occurred,” he added.

The report is the result of a two-year investigation by state authorities into the handling of clerical sexual abuse in the five Pennsylvania dioceses – Altoona-Johnstown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. The dioceses were served with wide ranging subpoenas and turned over decades’ worth of files concerning the handling of abuse allegations by Church authorities.

A former diocesan official in Pennsylvania, who was involved in developing responses to the subpoena, told CNA that complying with the court order took considerable time and effort.

“It covered everything we had, it was very broadly drawn. We handed over years’ and years’ worth of files.”

It is expected that the report will include details of instances of abuse, the handling of allegations by diocesan authorities, and also measures taken by local bishops to deal with accused clerics.

In some cases, priests who were credibly accused of sexual abuse were moved from parish to parish over a period of years, or even allowed to remain in active ministry outside the diocese. Bishop Persico alluded to this kind of behavior while speaking about the report to local media on 23 July.

“I think in looking historically at it you may see bishops named who probably in view of the way we do things now as compared to 20 or 30 years ago, it would not be considered acceptable that type of action.”

The final report was scheduled for public release at the end of June, but it has been held back following legal challenges from a number individuals named in the report, including some priests. They argue they were denied due process because they were only allowed to submit written statements, not testify in person or cross-examine other witnesses.

They also claim that their reputational rights, protected by the state constitution, were harmed by the inclusion of their names even though they were not accused of a crime.

The same former official told CNA that while he did not know anyone challenging the report’s release, those doing so may have legitimate concerns.

“There’s a feeling, at least among some people, that they are being made to carry the can for a previous generation’s misdeeds.”

Bishop Persico’s own diocese, Erie, has been unusually forthright in handling abuse allegations, publicly listing the names of all priests and lay employees against whom credible allegations have been received.

Bishop Persico said this policy has helped victims.

“It’s an opportunity for them to feel validated. To tell you the truth, ever since we started publishing names I’m really surprised at how that has been helpful to victims. I’m a firm believer in that because of what I experience in just speaking to victims.”

Persico also said he does not know who is challenging the report’s release, but that he looks forward to it eventually being made public, even if it will be hard reading for Catholics.

“I know I did not [block publication],” he said. “I’ve been calling from the very beginning that the grand jury report be released so it can be a voice for the victims. I’m not sure who all is behind this.”

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro, whose office led the investigation, is fighting the court-imposed stay.

“The people of Pennsylvania have a right to see the report, know who is attempting to block its release and why, and to hear the voices of the victims of sexual abuse within the Church.”

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is still considering when and in what form the report will be released.  

[…]