February 9, 2007 - Issue #3
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Abortion opponents mark Roe anniversary
Last month, millions of Americans gathered across the country to mourn the passage of the 34th year since abortion became the law of the land in the United States.
Despite incremental victories that have established parental notification and informed consent laws before abortions can be performed in some states, pro-life groups continue to express frustration that roughly 1.3 million human lives are still aborted in the U.S. each year.
More than 48 million abortions have occurred in the country since the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Roe v. Wade — in which women were granted a constitutional right to an abortion.
Last month, approximately 80 Alaskans met at the Anchorage Memorial Cemetery to mark the Knights of Columbus Sixth Interdenominational Memorial Prayer Service.
Juneau Bishop Michael Warfel, the Knights’ state chaplain, issued a letter for the occasion.
"It is a cause of sadness," he wrote. "The sadness, of course, is not that millions will protest abortion. The sadness comes as a result that there is still need to mark this anniversary because abortion remains the law of the land."
Bishop Warfel warned of the "false liberty" which abortion advocates profess.
"Many women endure deep sorrow from the loss of a child because someone – boyfriend, parents, a counselor – convinced them, or they convinced themselves, that abortion was a good solution to unexpected pregnancy," he wrote. "Many men carry the burden of regret that they were powerless to protect their own child."
The Jan. 27 prayer service drew a diverse group, including advocates from the Anchorage Crisis Pregnancy Center, Birthright, Alaska Right to Life and Catholic Social Services.
"We gather here today to pray for all of those who were responsible for Roe v. Wade, those who support abortion and for all of the mothers and fathers and families that have been affected by abortion," said Ann Curro, one half of the Knights of Columbus State ProLife Couple. "It’s a prayer of healing for all of them and it is to recognize all of the babies that were denied their right to life."
Curro and her husband coordinate pro-life efforts across the state through education and legislative alerts.
Like many of her counterparts across the country, Curro is concerned about recent national elections in which many pro-life legislators lost seats in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. She worried that future pro-life legislation may be blocked.
"I think it will be more difficult politically," she said. "However, I think it’s becoming a little easier state by state to pass their own laws."
Curro said she expects Sen. Fred Dyson, R-Eagle River, to introduce a fetal pain bill during the current state legislative session that would allow unborn fetuses to be anesthetized before they are aborted, thereby reducing their pain. It’s a far cry from eliminating abortion but it’s one of many incremental steps in which Curro and others see a glimmer of hope.
"A lot of states are doing those kinds of things," she said.
In a phone interview with the Anchor, Dyson said that he is still in the process of crafting the bill, but ultimately hopes it would require that any fetus over 15 weeks gestation be given pain medication before they are aborted.
Another longtime political opponent of abortion, former Lt. Governor Loren Lehman, spoke at the prayer service and acknowledged the limited victories in the ongoing abortion struggle.
"Politically, we’ve been able to make some headway," he said. "But the reality is that most people in politics, especially on issues like this, will not step out and take a bold stand until the people are there. The people elected to office won’t take a lead on this issue and that’s why it’s gong to take a change in our culture – more people stepping up and defending life."
Lehman praised Alaska’s informed consent law, which took effect in 2005. The law requires abortion providers to distribute state-prepared information that describes the nature and risks associated with abortion, including information on fetal development.
But pro-life groups have also suffered their share of defeats recently, with Alaska legislators passing pro-life legislation only to see state courts overrule them a few years later. Since 1997, state courts have struck down Alaska’s partial birth abortion law, a parental consent law, a law that would have allowed hospitals to refuse to provide abortions and a law that banned state funding for "therapeutic abortions."
Lehman said he was frustration by the court’s decision to override the will of the legislature on the 1997 parental consent law.
"We got that passed over a governor’s veto but you know what, because of court hostility, that issue has still not been resolved to where the state can enforce it," he said. "That is a tragedy."
Curro and other pro-life advocates are watching the U.S. Supreme Court closely, especially as the high court prepares to issue a ruling on the legality of the federal ban on partial birth abortions.
Depending on the court’s ruling, Alaska could revisit its own partial birth abortion law in coming years, Curro said.
"It’s going to be interesting to see when the decision comes down, as to what the politicians are going to do and which way they are going to go with it," she said.
Speaker calls for ‘authentic masculinity’
Challenge a guy’s manhood and you’re bound to draw a crowd.
This was certainly true last month when more than 80 people packed the basement of Snow Goose Restaurant for the largest Theology on Tap gathering of the winter.
Single guys, fathers, college students and working men all came to the Anchorage brewery to listen to recent John Paul II Institute graduate Drew Nelson address the dangers of "sissified" men.
Lots of women came as well – no doubt enticed by the lecture title, "Where have all the Cowboys gone?".
From the get go, Nelson threw down a series of challenges.
"Society does not really require a lot from men now days," he said. "They pretty much do their own thing. So they’re not expected to stay around and raise children in a lot of areas in our country."
But masculine men aren’t those rabble rousing bad boys often portrayed by popular culture, Nelson cautioned.
"Masculinity is an achievement — it is developed," he said. "That is why so many traditional cultures have had ceremonies to mark the transition from boyhood to manhood."
The problem, according to Nelson, is that much of the good and necessary elements of masculinity have been stripped away from the 21st century man.
While there are still plenty of macho-men who abuse their wives, lose their tempers and neglect their children and family responsibilities, these men fall far short of true masculinity, Nelson argued.
Citing several writings by Pope John Paul II, including "Theology of the Body, " Nelson described "authentic masculinity" as embodied by men who shoulder their God-given mission to protect their family, love their bride and inspire and teach their children to follow Christ.
Nelson highlighted several archetypes of the authentically masculine man: the servant leader, the warrior, the lover and the wise counselor.
The servant leader, he said "should always take into account the needs of his family before taking into account the needs for himself." The distorted version of the servant leader is either the domineering husband or the "wimpy nice guy" who is afraid to take up his role for fear of offending. Both fall short of true manhood, Nelson said.
The wise counselor archetype is the man of learning who faithfully passes on revealed Scripture and church tradition to his family, friends and society, he added.
Nelson described one archetype, the warrior, as absolutely crucial to the future health of the family and the church.
In a society where men are bombarded by pornography, empty materialism, politically correct speech and temptations to engage in pleasure-based sex, Nelson said the church needs warriors to combat sin, pornography, materialism and attacks on marriage and family life.
Echoing John Paul’s "Theology of the Body," Nelson said contracepted sex is a coercive force against marriage and family life.
"We live in an instant society and we no longer have the patience to wait for things and contraception is a part of this mentality," he said. "Instead of husbands and wives learning self discipline to respect each other during times of periodic abstinence, we’ve given into our society’s notions of sex on demand."
Contraception can lead a man to eventually see his wife as an object for personal satisfaction Nelson continued. "And many women will eventually realize this even if only subconsciously."
Contracepted sex, he explained, creates a situation where men can use women for personal pleasure, thereby twisting a natural, pro-creative bond between husband and wife into a sterile act, which is closed to new life.
Pornography, too, is a direct threat to masculinity, Nelson cautioned.
"It destroys the lives of men because it strikes them at their most basic level," he said. "It strikes them at their sexuality. The male sexual urge is so strong that images that were only viewed for a second or two are there years later."
Pornography undermines a husband’s dignity, Nelson suggested, as men close their doors and spend time on the computers rather than with their wives.
"Even for young men this is very dangerous," he added. "If he learns to look at women that way, he will look at his wife that way."
Despite the challenges, Nelson urged the crowd to seek the church and holy Scripture for inspiration and strength.
With more authentically masculine men, the church could very well see a rebirth and even a jump in priestly vocations, Nelson added. Examples of masculine priests inspire young boys, he said.
"Young men are not attracted to what they perceive as sissified occupations," he said. "They want to be firemen, they want to be soldiers, they want to be warriors. We have to think very carefully about how the priesthood is viewed nowadays. How do young men see the priesthood? Is it something where a priest would defend his parish and his family with his whole body and soul?"
In all these things a man must start with himself, Nelson concluded. "We don’t need any hypocrites. He has to work from inside himself and slowly work out to his family, to the people he knows."
Alaska women find healing after abortions
She drove 75 miles each way, alone, with just her sorrowful secret to keep her company.
She never told her parents that she was pregnant, and she never told them about the abortion. But she’ll never forget the next day when her mother looked at her closely and said, "Where’s the light in your eyes?"
Agatha (who requested her real name not be used) was one of two women willing to tell their story of abortion to the Anchor so that other women in similar situations might know there is forgiveness and healing after abortion. One of the best ways to find them, they said, is through a program in the Anchorage Archdiocese called Project Rachel.
Agatha was 18 and unmarried when she ended her pregnancy."We were all stuffed into this clinic like a bunch of sardines," she recalled. "The lady next to me was on her fifth abortion."
Agatha, who was born and raised a Catholic, clutched a small metal of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a gift from her grandmother, throughout the procedure."It’s just like everyone says it is – it’s like a vacuum inside of you," she said.
Anne (not her real name), also a cradle Catholic, was even younger when she underwent her abortion. At 16, she was pregnant and terrified. Her boyfriend, who three years later became her husband, didn’t want her to have an abortion. Neither did her mother, who knew about it.
But when Anne, as she said, "made my decision on my own," both her mother and boyfriend accompanied her to the clinic to support her and cried in the waiting area together.
For both women, their abortions were the beginning of a lifetime of working through pain and regret.
Within the past two years, each reached out to a national program that has a local chapter — Project Rachel. The program is a nine-week ministry based on Scripture, which according to volunteer Carol Szopa, "takes people through the stages of grief."
One needn’t be a Catholic to attend the nine-week sessions. Szopa said they also work with people of other faiths and even agnostics.
Many women who have had an abortion go through guilt, depression, self-destructive behaviors, even flashbacks, Szopa said."Forgiveness of self is the hardest part, even for Catholics who have already gone to the sacrament of reconciliation."
Anne agrees. She went to confession years before, and heard the priest tell her that she was forgiven for her abortion."But I never forgave myself."
Anne, who grew up outside of Alaska, said that in her large family she was thought of as "the smart one," her father’s "golden child.""I was supposed to go to college and do great things. I thought those dreams were over."
She and her boyfriend eventually married and have four other children. But even though her marriage was strong, she found herself slipping into depression."It stuck with me for years, but I never pinpointed the abortion."
Finally, on the verge of what she termed "a nervous breakdown," she admitted herself to the hospital. The psychiatrist who interviewed her asked many questions and finally hit upon the one that "made a light go on" — had she ever had an abortion?
Later, a Catholic chaplain prayed with her and gave her a Project Rachel brochure. After a few weeks of trepidation, Anne made the call that "absolutely turned my life around."
She especially remembers the healing Mass, held in the eighth session."That night, I felt so good. I talked to my husband, and when I woke up the next day, I was a different person. I had slept in the Holy Spirit," she said, adding, "I didn’t hate myself anymore."
Agatha’s journey was different, and yet in many ways similar. Her life was also affected by what she termed "confusion and great sadness.""I repressed it with drugs and alcohol and just completely destroying myself."
Once, watching the Catholic network EWTN, she remembers a priest saying, "To all you mothers who’ve aborted, wait until you die and your child will be waiting to ask you, ‘why did you kill me?’"
Agatha, who never married, said she found out about Project Rachel "by the grace of God."
After Project Rachel, Agatha said, she knows "God forgives you. That little baby is not going to say those words to me.""The women who run Project Rachel do not condemn you, they don’t sound like that priest," Agatha added. "They sound like Mother Teresa, they are loving us where we’re at."
Agatha said she prays for all the women who suffer because of abortion."It takes so much courage to step out of the darkness and pain," she said. "But once you do, you realize how much the Lord loves us."
The next Project Rachel group will form March 7. For information, call 297-7781. Those outside the Anchorage area can call toll-free 1-866-434-3344. Confidentiality is guaranteed.
Piles of boxes reveal an Alaska priest whose dying wish leaves deacon with 20th century knickknacks
"You never know what you’re going to find."
Deacon Bill Finnegan moved carefully as he spoke, weaving between the piles of boxes that fill a large room on the lower level of his South Anchorage home. In 2002, shortly before Father Ernest Muellerleile died, the founder and former pastor of Anchorage’s Holy Cross and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parishes asked a favor of his friend and deacon.
"He knew he was dying," Deacon Finnegan said. "He just asked me to look after it and do something with his stuff."
Those who knew "Father Ernie" well also knew that the task Deacon Finnegan agreed to was a job better suited for a museum curator.
"When I started—he had a basement room downstairs about this size, and it was just floor to ceiling boxes, at least three to four deep, all the way around. Easily like 500 boxes," Deacon Finnegan said.
Father Muellerleile was notorious for his tendency to collect things, and after nearly five years of sorting through his "archives," nothing surprises Deacon Finnegan anymore.
"Father Ernie never had one of anything," he said. "He never threw anything away. That was the problem. You’d find a box and you’d open it up … and the first thing you’d do is say, ‘oh, this is all junk.’ I mean, there were coupons in there for oleomargarine from 1954—10 cents off. But then, all of a sudden, you’d turn something over, and you’ll find that," he said, turning up an early 20th-century graduation photo and a portrait of Father Muellerleile’s uncle, a bishop.
One entire stack of boxes is dedicated to Father Muellerleile’s travels.
"When he was planning a trip, he would keep his correspondence. He’s got pouches for all these different countries," Deacon Finnegan said, reaching into a box and pulling out a homemade cardboard folder labeled "Tyrol."
"He wanted to go to Europe in late ‘38-’39, and he wrote to all of these countries, to their consulates and their tourist boards, saying, ‘I want to come to your country, tell me how it is,’ and so he’s writing to Tyrol, to Austria, to Poland, to Hungary, to Germany, and they’re all writing back: ‘Everything’s fine. Come and visit.’ So he’s got all this correspondence with these people just as Hitler’s about to invade the whole place. Clearly you can see he abandoned that plan."
When the political situation proved too unstable, young Ernest Muellerleile instead spent the summer traveling the U.S., and the boxes are packed with brochures, scrapbooks and hostelling guides from his American adventures.
The boxes and their contents provide a glimpse into the life and personality of a priest who was identified as much with his ancient, overstuffed wallet, held together by a wide rubber band, as he was with the parishes he founded.
"There are certain things about Father Ernie that started and never changed," Deacon Finnegan said, holding up a prayer book from the priest’s seminary days—held together by a rubber band.
Father Muellerleile also left behind thousands of pages of his own writings and a few childhood relics: long rolls of comic strips pasted together and coiled around dowels, and tiny booklets filled with drawings carefully clipped from Buck Rogers comic strips. As an adult, Father Muellerleile put those same skills to use in his parish work.
"He would type up these little booklets," Deacon Finnegan said, turning the pages on a mimeographed, hand-illustrated booklet entitled "Blessings of the Church." "He gave them out at church. Instead of buying pamphlets, he made them."
An avid observer of the world around him, Father Muellerleile had a passion for documenting his adventures that is evidenced in the records he kept.
"This is another one of his great scrapbooks," Deacon Finnegan said, reaching into a shallow box balanced atop one of the taller stacks. "He was at St. Luke’s church for a long time, and he was there as a seminarian as well, and he ran the camp … which was out at a lake somewhere, and so here’s the camp layout, all drawn by him — by hand." The St. Luke’s scrapbook details the summer of 1942 with photographs, drawings, and a log recording the events of each day.
"I’m perplexed with what to do with some of this stuff," Deacon Finnegan said, returning the scrapbook to its box. "I keep waiting to find some great treasure, and that hasn’t happened. Anything that he had of value, that we would consider of value, he usually gave away. Things of value are not here in that sense, but things of amazing history are here."
A smaller collection in an upstairs closet yielded a grade-school report card, an original "I Like Ike" Eisenhower campaign button, a 1938 Chicago Cubs and White Sox schedule.
"There was not a thing that did not interest the man, from religion to politics," Deacon Finnegan said. As if to prove his point, he pulled out a personal response from Andrei Gromyko, the Soviet diplomat who would later play a key role in the Cuban Missile Crisis, to a request Father Muellerleile sent for the text of a speech by Josef Stalin.
Deacon Finnegan said his hope is to donate much of the archives to the parishes at which Father Muellerleile served. A large collection of religious periodicals from the 1930s and 1940s has already been donated to the University of Notre Dame library.
"This has been a labor of love," Diane Finnegan, the deacon’s wife, said. "He’s been such an amazing person in our lives. He’s still there. It’s just really nice that we have the memories."
"It really doesn’t bother me like I thought it would when he unloaded the truck—several times," she added.
Actually, according to Deacon Finnegan, it took more like 20 trips in Father Muellerleile’s own truck to get the hundreds of boxes up the hill.
"There’s a little bit of everything here," he said. "I guess at some point in time we’ll just have to throw some stuff out, which is going to break my heart, but at least I will have seen it. It’s just an amazing thing to go through."
Local Columns
Stem cell research: Dissecting the myths
Pope John Paul II once said, "If you want justice, defend life. If you want life, embrace the truth — the truth revealed by God." With this thought in mind, let’s explore the truth about stem cell research.
A stem cell is a cell able to reproduce itself and mature into many different specialized types of cells, such as skin, heart, or nerve cells. There are two types of stem cells, adult and embryonic. Adult stem cells are found in the bloodstream, brain, bones, spinal cord, skin, gastrointestinal tract, retina, liver, muscle tissue, and even human fat. Presently, doctors use stem cells to treat different types of diseases including autoimmune and cancer.
For years, scientists assumed stem cells present in adult tissue could only form cells of that particular tissue. However, evidence shows adult stem cells can change into any cell of the body. Additionally, stem cells collected from umbilical cord blood and placentas show great promise. Stem cells from these areas are not contrary to natural law or Catholic teaching, because no human being dies when these stem cells are collected.
Embryonic stem cell research, however, is unacceptable because scientists cannot harvest these cells without destroying the embryos themselves. Researchers harvest stem cells from five-day old embryos by removing the inner cell mass – the thirty cells that would have developed into organs and tissues. This act is morally reprehensible and degrading to the scientist’s dignity.
In addition to violating the Fifth Commandment, evidence shows scientists do not gain much from their massacres. Scientists cannot coax embryonic stem cells into changing into other types of cells, nor have scientists been able to use embryonic stem cells for even one successful therapy. The mirage of promised cures for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and others reported by ill-informed celebrities is a deception promoted by the media. Embryonic stem cells typically form tumors when transplanted into patients, as they lack an important identifier distinguishing them from cancer cells. This problem is nonexistent with adult stem cells because of their greater differentiation. Rejection reactions, common with embryonic stem cells, are non-occurring with adult stem cells as they can be harvested from the same body. Thus, embryonic stem cell research is immoral and unsuccessful.
It is against Catholic teaching and morally reprehensible to mass-produce human beings in a laboratory for the purpose of killing them for spare parts. Many advocates favor using frozen embryos left over from fertility clinics. These embryos were created during in-vitro fertilization but never implanted inside the mother. Couples have the option of destroying or freezing them, and over 100,000 unborn babies are currently frozen in cryobanks. This is a powerful example of why the Church opposes in-vitro fertilization. Catholicism teaches we may not perform an evil act even if some great good might flow from it.
On Monday, Jan. 22nd, the day Roe v. Wade became law thirty-four years ago, I will join 100,000 high school students in Washington, D.C. We will March for Life along Constitution Avenue to remind America of the equal right to life of each innocent human in existence at fertilization. We will end our March at Capitol Hill. There, we will pray in front of the Supreme Court and visit Senate and House members to remind them no one owns the unalienable right to life of another human vested at fertilization and may intentionally kill a pre-born human. No exceptions! No compromise! I will inform my legislators that it is immoral to produce human embryos intended for exploitation as disposable biological material and any federal funding is a violation of natural law and of God’s moral law. Using human embryos for stem cell research is completely contrary to man’s dignity and the dignity he has been given by God through his Son Jesus Christ.
Someone once said for the triumph of evil it is necessary only that good people do nothing. I urge all young adults to join me in this fight for life by educating everyone on the truth about stem cell research and to write or call their legislators. "I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live." Deuteronomy 30:19.
The writer is a parishioner at Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Anchorage and is currently attending 11th grade at Portsmouth Abbey School in Rhode Island. This essay placed second in the SEAS Respect Life Group essay contest for 11th and 12th graders.
Consider the morality involved with stem cell research debate
In his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," human rights activist and devout Christian clergyman Martin Luther King Jr. makes the claim that not only is it "wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends," but also to "use moral means to preserve immoral ends." In a modern culture in which ability has replaced responsibility, science has become an end rather than a means to achieve a greater good. This paradigm shift is evidenced in painfully clear fashion in the new field of embryonic stem cell research. By choosing, through science, to respect the lives of the ill or disabled over the lives of the unborn, modern culture has turned away from the First Commandment, choosing to "play God" in a laboratory rather than advocating for all human life.
The primary misunderstanding behind stem cell research is not so much a myth, but rather, an oversimplification. Stem cells, which are essentially human cells that have not yet become "specialized," can come from many sources. In adult humans, bone marrow, dental pulp, and other tissues contain stem cells that could be used in biomedical applications. Additionally, the blood from the umbilical cord, as well as unused placenta are both laden with these potentially disease curing cells. The problem in this promising field however, is the use of embryonic stem cells; that is, the cells of newly created human embryos (defined as the organism created from the conjunction of male sperm and female egg) in medical research. Pro-research advocates contend that these cells are easier to grow in a stem cell line (a colony of cells that can be used for research), but little medical research supports this claim. In addition to its unsubstantiated usefulness, harvesting these embryonic cells for research requires the scientist to kill the embryo, thereby taking a human life in the name of research. This practice violates nearly every doctrine of the Catholic Church regarding the respect of human life. The act is no more ethical than abortion, the only difference lying in the location of the cell (the laboratory rather than the womb).
The popular justification given in defense of embryonic stem cell research is its potential to provide mankind with lifesaving medications and medical procedures.
This reasoning, however, holds one fundamental flaw. In this research, the lives of the many (recipients of a potential cure) are chosen over the lives of the few (the embryos killed in the research). This selective respect of human life must be deemed immoral by any person believing in a God who preaches, "Love your neighbor as yourself." For Jesus did not teach us to love the majority as ourselves, but rather, to show an unconditional love for all people.
In addition to the moral issues with this research, all tests to date have proven remarkably unsuccessful. At this point, any cures or vaccines produced from stem cells are purely speculative, since no human patients have been treated with embryonic stem cell procedures.
On the other hand, adult stem cell research, which the Catholic Church supports, has already provided cures or relief to patients. In 2001, doctors at the Dusseldorf University Clinic were able to repair a cardiac infarction (heart attack) with bone marrow stem cells. The cells were transplanted from the pelvis to the heart, where, according to cardiologist Prof. Bodo Eckehard Strauer, they transformed into healthy heart muscle tissue.
Stem cell research, both embryonic and adult, has rapidly become one of the most controversial issues of the 21st century. Though the allure of success and potential cures can sometimes be overwhelming, we must, as a Catholic people, continue to advocate for research that is in accordance with God’s moral law, as taught through the Bible and Catechism. Science’s tunnel vision of success makes it our duty to continue to fight research that contains infractions against moral law, no matter how minor. Just as Catholics cannot support the destruction of human life in the mother’s womb, so must they also fight against the same destruction in the Petri dish. And though popular society, the scientific community, and the political system may say otherwise, we must always remain firm in our belief that scientific or social success is no justification for immorality."
The writer is the winning essayist for the Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Church annual essay competition. He is an 11th grader at South Anchorage High.
Forgive and forget, it’s a high ideal
Although I am not a regular viewer of Law and Order, CSI Miami or even Judge Judy, it often occurs to me to ask why such crime-genre pieces continue to attract the interest of millions of Americans. One would think that after a certain length of time these "cops and robbers" scenarios would have run their course and people would begin to seek other avenues of more intelligent television entertainment.
Not so, however. Four out of five evenings, each week, you will find them on your screen under various attractive titles.
Then one day a light came on in my brain and I said to myself: "Hey, we love these fictional crime stories because they are telling the truth, indeed, they are talking about us." I don’t mean to say that we are murderers or even violent people, but that most of us do seem to have an innate tendency to try and get even if we have been offended. We find it terribly difficult to forgive one another even in simple and non-violent assaults on our character or our values. Perhaps it all goes back to the story of Cain and Abel and their dispute over whether God valued sheep or grain the more. Who knows?
It does seem true nonetheless that we do protect our personal interests against all intruders, true or imagined. At least that seems to be the central and often humorous point in the altercations between contestants on the Judge Judy show. The good judge, of course, merrily traipses off to the bank with the monetary gains she deserves for her efforts to settle human problems.
Are there any answers to this long-standing human struggle to forgive one another? Law has not been very successful thus far, nor has psychological research.
At the risk of offering a "pie in the sky" solution, let me suggest that sacred scripture offers a recommendation in the readings assigned for this forthcoming Seventh Sunday in the Church calendar. The general headline for both selections might be: "Forgiveness Works, Try It Out!"
The first is the story of the ancient dispute between Saul, the king of Israel, and David who longed to be king. David and his school of rascals have the opportunity to kill Saul in his tent as he sleeps. At the last moment, however, compunction takes control of David’s conscience and he says: "We can’t do it, Saul is the Lord’s anointed, he’s the king." I leave the reader to consult the remainder of this little tribal skirmish. There’s a good bit of humor in it.
Finally then we come to that beautiful and puzzling sermon Jesus gave on forgiveness. The one Luke calls The Sermon On the Plain: "Turn the other cheek, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, forgive and you will be forgiven."
Many skeptics throughout history have passed these words off as pure idealism. "It may all sound very nice," they will say, "but has it ever worked?" Let me suggest that Jesus was the consummate idealist. Some would say that he paid for it with his life, but Jesus consistently thought not in terms of what would work, but rather what would satisfy our highest human ideals, what we would wish for if it were possible.
Occasionally I have asked myself how Jesus would solve those interpersonal cases that Judge Judy does so well. My hunch is that Jesus would make it all simpler. He might say, "Ok, if you are guilty, pay whatever you owe, but when you leave this courtroom, shake hands or give each other a hug and forget about it." Will it ever work? Who knows? Of course, it’s not about what works, but what is best for the peace of our soul.
Forgive and forget.
The writer is archdiocesan director of Pastoral Education. He also serves as canonical pastor and coordinator of parishes without resident pastors.
Editorial
True love on Valentine’s Day
Red roses, balloons, candy hearts and pink cards now line the isles of our local grocery stores. Newspapers and magazines are packed full of discount ads for everything from jewelry and nightgowns to exotic perfumes and Swiss chocolates.
Yes, love is certainly in the air — it’s the aroma, however, that seems a bit off.
A generation ago, due to confusion over the identity and actual accounts of Saint Valentine’s life, Catholics decided to drop Valentine commemorations from the official church calendar. In popular culture, however, the heart-shaped holiday beats strong.
It’s appropriate to ask what this great outpouring of affection means for America in 2007. More to the point, what is this affection we call love?
There is always a danger in sweeping generalizations but they can shed light on certain aspects of the general flow of culture and life in the country.
When it comes to contemporary expressions of love, it’s hard not to think of broken hearts. Divorce rates hover around 50 percent. Skeptical of marriage, men and women wait longer and longer to wed and unwanted pregnancies and abortions continue to plague many romantic interludes.
Perhaps it’s a bit blunt, but sexual intimacy naturally flows from flowers, late night conversation, holding hands and kissing. It might not happen all in one night (and hopefully doesn’t) but if left to run its course, these actions eventually lead to greater and greater physical intimacy.
This has always been the case and probably always will be. The difference is that we’ve lost the context for sexual intimacy. Once reserved for the sacrament of marriage, sex is now viewed as a natural urge (like hunger or thirst) which all people have a right to fulfill however they please.
This change happened pretty fast.
Historian and cultural critic Lawrence Stone summarized the shift in a talk he prepared for a conference on passionate attachment back in 1984.
The concept of individualism grew in the 17th and 18th centuries and as it did, the idea of marriage as an arranged contract for economic and political benefits was quickly losing ground.
The newer version of "holy matrimony" was best achieved by allowing couples to make their own choice of mates. This legitimate freedom, however, soon lead to an excessive view of freedom, Stone argues.
"By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, individualism had so far taken precedence over the group interests of the kin that the couple were left more or less free to make their own decision, except in the highest aristocratic and royal circles," Stone says. "Today individualism is given such absolute priority in most Western societies, that the couple are virtually free to act as they please, to sleep with whom they please, and to marry and divorce when and whom they please to suit their own pleasure."
Returning to the days of arranged marriages is completely out of the question and highly ill advised for modern Western society. We’ve grown accustomed (and rightly so) to freely choosing our mates.
Unfortunately, we’ve also gotten used to the idea that dating, love, and sex can find legitimate expression in whatever form we personally see fit, so long as we’re "safe." This is individualism gone awry and it leads to broken bodies, broken spirits and broken hearts.
Sadly, this mentality has taken firm root in our society. Romantic love is now something we define on our own terms without thought to its natural limits and proper context.
Perhaps this is why you won’t see any mention of marriage, children or family life in the Valentine’s Day cards and advertisements this month. These topics address the duty and obligation that comes from the high calling of married love. Many don’t want to face this reality.
Church teaching regarding sexuality, however, remains lofty and inspiring. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (2337) offers this view of sexual intimacy:
"Sexuality, in which man’s belonging to the bodily and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of a man and a woman."
Letters to the Editor
There are no letters to the editor for this issue.