"Not Remotely The Issue"

"Not Remotely The Issue" by MSW


We had the Virginia Catholic conference letter today at Mass. Interestingly, the bishops asked for two things: prayer and fasting and going to web pages and signing up for e-mail updates.

First off, fasting does not work as a bribe to God - but as a way to get to either self-mastery or a sense of powerlessness - doing it for a cause unless you are hunger-striking has no value.

Second, I am suspicious of calls to go to a web page to register one's opinion - especially if it is to a sponsor site rather than to your member of Congress or the White House. Too often these "petitions" become mailing lists to be used for fundraising and "voter education."

The pro-life movement is known for their ability to make and sell these lists. I expect the FOCA lists were sold to Republican operatives and this project will be no exception. Expect to get some kind of correspondence in October about this issue if you support the bishop's position - and expect it to contain slanted information opposing the President. Think I'm wrong? If you register on any of these pages, use your confirmation name and see what mail you get and from whom this fall.

Virginia's Mandated Ultrasound Law

Virginia's Mandated Ultrasound Law by Michael Sean Winters.

My response:

This law will have difficulty passing the undo burden test in Casey. It depends on how Kennedy votes.

Conservatives should be leery of the law, however, since if it succeeds in dissuading abortion, it will add fuel to the fire to pay more money to families to support each additional child, either through living wage requirements or increased tax credits (and tax rates) to support families. Once women fall in love with their children in the ultrasound room, they won't be giving them up for adoption. They will want to keep them and demand financial support to do so.

The tenor of the pro-life movement will be tested based on how they respond to this demand. It will show whether their movement is about affirming life or controling sexuality (since most pro-lifers, when faced with the prospect of increased benefits for families suddenly become interested in personal responsibility).

Finally, ultrasounds will reveal the extent to which many of these children were already dead due to genetic abnormalities. We had two D&Cs because ultrasound examinations showed no fetal heartbeat when there should have been one. Because we had insurance, we had them in hospitals. If we had not, we would have been in a Planned Parenthood Clinic, with self-righteous demonstrators praying at us as we went in.

HHS move amounts to 'to hell with you,' bishop says as protests mount

HHS move amounts to 'to hell with you,' bishop says as protests mount by Nancy Frazier O'Brien of the Catholic News Service (an arm of the USCCB)

Spare us the historionics. Health insurance benefits are earned, not a matter of largesse. They belong to the employees, not the employer, and the impact of covering birth control on the cost of the insurance is minimal.

The contention that birth control destroys a human life is far fetched and not in line with the natural sciences, which indicate that the energy that ends at death and protects against entropy throughout life by guiding development, does not and cannot start until gastrulation, which occurs after implantation. Preventing implantation does not, therefore, end life, merely potential life. As for the impact on birth control on sexual relations, the sexual relations of employees are plainly none of the bishop's business.

The only leg the bishops have to stand on in resisting birth control is in affirming that birth control should not be necessary in society because workers should be paid a just and living wage with the birth of each child, however that matter has nothing to do with health insurance coverage but the mortally sinful payment policies of the Catholic Church.

The Big Game Cometh

It is now that time again - my annual pre-Big Game rankings of what's at stake as far as all-time rankings. As people who follow this blog know, I count both Big Game victories, conference championships and league champships since an actual championship game has been played. Prior to the first such game, the league championship was based on win-loss records, essentially a division championship. To include those championships, one would also have to count all division championships in subsequent years as a "win." Others can do that, however unless someone pays me to do so and gives me a really good data file, I am not going to that kind of effort, especially since my current database includes year by year rankings so that you can follow the history of who was top ranked - although after a few decades this gets mind numbing to even look at.

That being said, I have two sets of rankings. The first stresses the number of wins in championship games, with ties broken by winning percentage. The second stresses the number of appearances, with ties broken by the number that resulted in wins. The reason I do separate stats is because the League ranks its all time greatest list by win-loss percentage in the last game, ignoring the fact that what was the league is now the conference - with conference championships still meriting a trophy. By their logic, an expansion team becomes the greatest team ever by winning the Big Game once. That is insane, but given that the alignment of divisions is geographically challenged, it is not unexpected.

Here is the first set of ranks. Click on the image to expand the table.

Green Bay, Pittsburgh and Dallas are safe in the one, two and three spots. New York is in number four and New England is at number five after last Sunday's game. This is a change, as these wins have moved them both past Washingon and San Francisco, who were tied for fourth at ten wins and seven losses. By losing yesterday, San Francisco moves down to seventh, while Washington moves to sixth by not losing. Baltimore dropped down from 21 to 22 by losing if you accept the fiction that they left their previous record in Cleveland with their name, even though there is continuity of personnel and ownership that indicates otherwise. If they have to leave their record, then they need to be given the prior record of a certain team in Indiana who used to be located there.

The winner of the Big Game will move to fourth greatest overall. New York currently has eleven wins and twelve losses in championship games, while New England has ten wins and five losses. A New England will give them eleven wins with fewer losses, moving them to the number four slot. A New York win gives them twelve wins - one behind Dallas who has thirteen.

For those of you who think being in the championship is more important than winning it, we have the second ranking:

New York, by showing up, will move to number two overall, with 24 total appearances. The conference championship was their 23rd appearance, tying with Pittsburgh but with fewer victories, leaving them in third position for the next 13 days until they walk into the stadium (moving Pittsburgh to third, even if New York loses. Dallas will still have more wins, even though they also have 24 appearances - so New York must go to one more champship game to get to the top spot (if they play Dallas, they have to win to overtake them).

New England was already in the tenth spot, with 14 appearances and nine wins, which is one more win than Denver and Indianapolis who are tied at eleven. Had Denver won last week, they would have passed New England. On game day, by showing up, New England moves up to ninth with 16 appearances, which is the same as Chicago, but Chicago has only nine wins, so New England already holds the tie breaker.

I prefer counting wins as more important than appearances, with winning percentage breaking the tie. This year shows why, since if appearances are more important, the result of this year's Big Game will mean nothing in the overall rankings, which is a bit anti-climactic.

Vatican Insider on RCs & the Death Penalty

Vatican Insider on RCs & the Death Penalty
by MSW

My response: It is not enough to abolish the death penalty. Life without parole must also be abolished, as it is essentially the death penatly by different means. Indeed, the use of prison instead of rehabilitative mental health care flies in the face of basic Christian charity, which requires forgiveness to be forgiven. That being said, what the Holy Father does not understand is that if a convict cannot be reached therapeutically, the most humane option for both the convict and the society is to euthanize him witout fanfare, not as punishment, but for public safety. Last I checked, one of the duties of the sovereign, which is all of us, is the protection of the weak from the dangerous. This, by the way, is why abortion is legal as well - because some pregnancies are dangerous, or would be if abortion were self-induced or performed without licensed care givers. Guilt or innocence is God's to decide. Society must judge danger.

Bishop Zavala & Celibacy

Bishop Zavala & Celibacy by MSW

My response: The reason the orthodox have a two track system for married men who stay priests and unmarried men who can become bishops (and you can't marry after ordination) was because they did not want the children of bishops inheriting Church property. That can be avoided by abandoning a feudal personal ownership model for church property and institutions and joining the 21st century. Then both bishops and priests can marry and have kids.

More importantly, priestly celibacy must be abandoned because of the way it affects how the Church teaches about sex in the culture. While the kingdom of God is not of this world, it is IN this world. We don't obey sexual norms to get to heaven but to make life bearable - and when those norms make life unbearable they can't be from God and cannot be the result of natural law reasoning. Indeed, celibacy in the Latin rite has, in its origins, ideas on Continence that are offensive to married people and to womanhood in general that must be abandoned for their own sake. There is nothing incompatible with celebrating conjugal love and the Eucharist on the same day - and anyone holding to a belief otherwise should not be allowed to teach about sexuality or sexual ethics. Indeed, such a view is responsible for the warped clericalist views on contraception and unitive love and resistence to accepting homosexuality in a loving marital relationship.

Payroll Tax Cuts & Third Rails

Payroll Tax Cuts & Third Rails by Michael Sean Winters

My response:

The new third rail for Republican politicians is keeping capital gains and dividend taxes low, where they currently sit at 15%, rates they wish to make permanent. There would be some justification for doing that if there were also a Value Added Tax.

The current economic depression has taken the wind out of the sails for Social Security personal accounts, at least if they are invested in Wall Street index funds. There is an argument for investing them in your employer, provided that each employee gets the same number of shares, which would come from the employer.

As for the payroll tax holiday, what matters is not so much is that the stimulus come from this tax, but that it come from some tax. A better sweetener would be to let this tax expire and instead increase the child tax credit and make it refundable for everyone, since families are most likely to spend the money. Rick Santorum is currently the only candidate who proposes anything like this, as he would triple the child exemption - which in the political process may get turned into a higher child tax credit.

Rick Santorum’s Tax Plan

Rick Santorum’s Tax Plan by Howard Gleckman

I am still troubled that you wait until he has supporters to score his plan. In the pursuit of both truth and solutions, any good idea - and bad idea - should be scored - especially if it gives good solutions more exposure than they would otherwise get. While it is true that Santorum likely won't win the nomination and certainly not the general election, his ideas should still be scored because they add to the debate.

I agree with his approach of funding families more through the tax code, although the exemption for children and EITC should be merged to a larger refundable Child Tax Credit. Generally, his plan for more tax benefits for families is in line with his pro-life beliefs.

It seems that some of his proposals, like the expensing of equipment right away, might work as a transition to consumption taxes. A good consumption tax regimine combined with a surtax on high income might not be as much of a revenue loser, especially if the Democrats retain enough power in the Senate to force concessions and the anti-compromise/anti-fact members of the Tea Party are banished from Congress by the voters.

Holding all things in our hearts

Holding all things in our hearts by Patricia Datchuck Sanchez. My response:

The signifant thing about this passage is that it hints at the source of Jesus knowledge about himself - that it was not simply from the fact that he was full of grace, which he did have - or because he had a full share of the divine mind (which he did not have prior to his resurrection) - but because Mary told him of these things, causing him to search the scriptures for confirmation and believe, which is more meritorious than knowing. When he suffered on the cross and gave care of his mother to John, he was in a way rejecting this belief, which led to his psychic crushing when he cried out to God in anguish, which is the real instrument of our salvation, much as his taking of the fruit of the vine is a sign that he and we had entered the Father's kingdom.

Heading for the Hawkeye State

Heading for the Hawkeye State by MSW

My response:

Kerry's win was no surprise. The DNC decided he was going to win a lot sooner than Iowa. The reason no one is going after Romney is because they can count delegates and read fundraising reports. They want to have a chance at the VP nod. As for abortion, are you saying that Barack Obama is more pro-life in practice than is Mitt Romney? That is an interesting development.

On end of life, I doubt that removing a feeding tube from a child rises to gubernatorial decisionmaking. As for Schaivo, the Florida Catholic Conference originally sided with her husband, finding a feeding tube is an extraordinary measure. She is not like a declining cancer patient - she was incompletely resuccitated and efforts to revive her should have been ended sooner. Nowadays, using hypothermia as part of the process, she might have both lived and woken up. This issue should never have been demagogued by self-serving pro-lifers.

Newt was on a book tour until his wife got designs on the East Wing. He will be out of the race shortly.

Santorum made his career campaigning on policy positions outside the sphere of legislation. Abortion is in the realm of constitutional law and his partial birth abortion law was not designed to be enforced, but to try to change the status quo - something Bush appointees Alito and Roberts declined to do - which shows why abortion is not an electoral issue. The courts are about to make gay marriage a national right - and barring a constitutional convention to overturn it, will be settled law soon. Still, he has a shot of picking up Paul, Gingrich, Bachmann and Perry castoffs, though he will likely falter after South Carolina.

Ron Paul's doctrinaire supporters may alienate his casual supporters, causing them to flee to either Romney or Santorum. Perry won't attack Romney, since he can do the math on who Romney is most likely to pick to shore up his strength in the South - and its not Newt (who can't be counted on to behave) or the publicly Catholic Santorum.

I suspect football and parties will probably take up most people's time, although the Sunday morning news programs will likely focus on Iowa.

Bishop Aquila's Outrageous Statement

Bishop Aquila's Outrageous Statement by Michael Sean Winters.

My response:

Someone needs to inform the Bishop that Hitler considered himself a faithful Catholic. He was not an atheist. He delusionally believed he was the Great Catholic Monarch whose line would rule in Christ's name for a thousand years of peace. I suspect Rick Perry is laboring under the evangelical equivalent of this delusion.

Someone also needs to tell him that secularism and atheism are not the same thing. Secularism means that society is not subject to the dictates of Christendom, which allows the Church to veto the actions of Catholic kings and princes or declare them unfit to rule. Christendom is not compatible in a constitutional republic, where the divine right to rule comes from the free will of voters rather than the dictates of the Church.

Atheism should make the Bishop uncomfortable. Modern atheists justify their position in part from abuses of power by the hierarchy. All bishops should pay attention to what they say and change their behavior accordingly, especially before telling us how to vote.

The Event of Christmas

The Event of Christmas by Michael Sean Winters

My response:

To do the New Evangelization, the Bishops must first reestablish its teaching credibility, which requires new ventures in humility that I don't see some of them making. Even now, there is resistance to the Dallas norms and some bishops reject Faithful Citizenship as not binding on them, nor the determination not to use the Body of Christ as a political weapon. Seeking a conscience right not available to other employers is also not a move which inspires confidence in the messengers, unless you are seeking a New Evangelization based on the threat of Hell.

As to the signifance of the Infancy narrative, the key verse in the entire story is that Mary treasured all these things and saved them in her heart and how this relates to how Jesus understood his divinity and how this relates to the story of salvation. Understanding how Jesus experienced these events as a person, rather than as an icon, is key to an adult understanding of both these events and morality as a whole. I don't believe that the bishops are ready to take this step either.

Be that as it may, Happy Christmas! There is hope in the engagement over the New Evangelization - with the Spirit working in ways that the Bishops cannot contain, and should not try to.

New Data from Pew

New Data from Pew by Michael Sean Winters

It is amazing that Santorum, who is promoting his Catholicism, is still stuck at 2 percent. White evangelical/Tea Party voters have less influence in the nomination process than they did in 2010. What has changed is that there is no John McCain in the race. If Newt becomes the new Huckabee (and I don't think he is working hard enough to do that good), who get's the McCain cross-overs? I don't think it will be Newt.

That still leaves Mitt. He will keep his 2008 base and with the McCain voters, should clean up. He may need some Evangelical ticket balancing, which keeps Newt out when people start paying attention to his conversion. Its a long time until August. Primaries are not just about poll support. They are about mobiliizing party infrastructure. Getting the grass roots to give you money with a hot button fundraising letter is not the same thing as getting the support of state party elites.

HHS, Plan B & Scientism

HHS, Plan B & Scientism by Michael Sean Winters


My response: I don't see the FDA as promoting scientism so much as professionalism, however we have civilian control of the Uniformed Public Health Service for the same reason we have civilian control of the uniformed military services. Secretary Sebelius charge is the public health, not the public morals and it is OK with me that she brought her experience as a mother and a woman to her job. There are no other implications.

She was not swayed by some Catholic Illuminati nor by the need to even things up with the Church regarding their desire for conscience protections for the bishops but not Catholics doctors, employees, patients or students. If she had been, she would have been bowing to some impulse of Christendom, where direction from the hierarchy trumps her obligation to discharge the public good using her best judgment. If she had done this for a quid pro quo to go back to the communion rail, then she would have to resign and the Papal Nuncio would have to be expelled.

I can also see the other side. If Plan B would prevent an abortion (it is not the same thing as one - life begins at gastrulation, not fertilization), then it is better than putting a 13 year old in the position of getting one or in facing parents who may prove less than understanding. There is also the possibility a relative fathered the child and the trauma of revelation adds yet more pressure - adding a risk of suicide - or that the parent is the father. Sometimes, feminists speak in the best interest of the child.

Finally, any decision the under 17 child makes as a parent is their right, not the right of their child. Allowing Plan B follows that legality.

Reflections on the readings for Dec 8

Some stray thoughts from today's Mass readings on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception:

Does a perfect God care if we are justified (and would such a God be perfect) or is the moral of the Jesus story that God reaches out to us because we cannot reach out to him. One can look again at the Fall story and see it not as a decision point but as a test with a foregone conclusion that illustrates rather than expirments. It says something about the nature of man, not the description of a mythical event.

I could easily see this story as part of a larger narrative of an argument of God with Satan, but Satan in the role of tester, not the modern day Zorastrian demon - in an argument over whether any man is worthy of being the instrument of salvation. It would be an interesting play, starting with the casting out of Lucifer from Heaven, going to the garden of Eden, stopping at Job and then ending up with Jesus in the Desert, after Peter urges him to not go to Jerusalem, the crucifixion and the resurrection. The apocolyptically minded may add some later incidents from Revelation, but one wonders how it would end.

Prevenient grace is only necessary if you believe God has feet of clay. One single tinge of grace does not a Holy life make. The Gospel is very clear that the gift to Mary was a lifetime outpouring and relationship between her soul and the Spirit. The Torah reading shows that the original sin was not disobedience, but blame, which the allegory shows well. Grace can't force you to forgive, even previent grace. That is a free choice.  The choice becomes whether to accept the forgiveness of the Cross at the cost of granting it ourselves.

Belgian Catholics issue reform manifesto

Belgian Catholics issue reform manifesto

My comments on their demands:

•Parish leadership be entrusted to trained laypeople;

I would still ordain the lead administrator as a Lay Deacon (no promise of celibacy), but I would entrust the parish council with more responsibility and strip the other clergy of all control of property

•Communion services be held even if no priest is available;

This goes without saying, although the lay deacon could lead it.


•Laypeople be allowed to preach;

See lay deacon above

•Divorced people be allowed to receive Communion;

They should be now - it is only remarriage without an annulment when receiving communion is discouraged - although this should be changed with divorce allowed with remarriage if one spouse either abused the other physically or sexually or was otherwise dangerous (for example, if the person was an addict or alcoholic) or if the partner committed adultery. It should be the wronged person's option to remain within the marriage or let it be dissolved - but the offending party who committed adultery should never be allowed to remarry, nor should the dangerous party unless they are in recovery.

•"As quickly as possible, both married men and women be admitted to the priesthood.

That makes sense too.

The New Translation of the Mass - Reforming the Reform

Today, the Catholic Church in the English speaking world began using a revised translation of the Roman Rite that more closely resembles the idioms in the Latin.  After Vatican II, when the English speaking Church began using a vernacular translation, the basis for the translation was to make the concepts understandable to English speakers, translating the meaning rather than simply translating the words.  Pope John Paul II, in a reform of the reform, instructed that the translation be revised to reverse this.

Last night, I compared a copy of the new translation to my Loras College Missal, which was written prior to Vatican II.   The new translation and the translation for congregants to follow along are not dissimilar.  While some prayers have changed - mostly to remove invocations to St. Michael and Saints Peter and Paul, the similarities are surprising - especially in the language used by the priest.

At Mass today, it was easier for the congregation to adjust to the longer prayers (the sung prayers have little participation anyway on the best day).  What was the hardest was the response to the prayer "The Lord be with you."  The new response, which is actually quite ancient, is "And with your spirit."  It was the one that no one got.  Whether automatically or intentionally, most of the congregation responded with "And also with you."  The reform will be complete when the automatic response becomes "And with your spirit."

When the new/old translation was being implemented, there was a bit of resistance to it, even among some of the bishops - especially with how it was done from the top down.  While the bishops adopted it cooperatively, it was pretty much an offer that they could not refuse.  This brings up an interesting question on Church governance.

The Roman Catholic Church in America and throughout the English speaking world uses the Roman Rite because our patriarch is the Roman Pontiff.  In the Latin Church, all patriarchs are in union with Rome, however there are patriarchates leading other Great Churches in Catholicism which do not.  They regard their leader, the Ecumenical Patriarch and Archbishop of New Rome and Constantinople as the first among equals - however they are autocephalous (self-headed).  There is no Curia which governs Orthodoxy the way the Pope and his Curia govern the Latin Church.  As the existence of Orthodoxy shows, more local control is possible while still remaining Catholic.

The imposition and acceptance of a new translation ultimately must pass the test of popular acceptance.  Whether the people accept "and with your spirit" rather than "and also with you" is the acid test.  If they do not, they could demand a more "Orthodox" relationship with Rome, with an authentic English Rite and an English speaking patriarch, with or without their own code of Canon Law.  While any adoption of such a reform is best done with the permission of Rome, if the people speak with a clear voice and claim that the Lord is truly with them on this, they cannot be denied - especially by a Pope who seems to be making overtures to Constantinople himself.  There was an ancient Church, the Church of the Galatians, which were made up of Gallic/Celtic people rather than Latins.  It could be officially revived rather than thought of being a new invention.

Of course, the people could simply conform to the new/ancient usages - which do have a certain poetry to them.  Whether they do or not is ultimately up to God, not the Pope or the Bishops.  I personally like the reform of the reform, just not how it was done.  More will be revealed.

The theological implications of "and with your spirit" are also interesting.  They invoke a rather Aristotelian/Cartesian world view of the soul controlling the body but being somehow separate from it.  This contrasts with both modern neuroscience and the ancient beliefs about the necessity of the bodily resurrection for eternal life.  Experiments on perception show that the brain first has a thought before the consciousness perceives it, so our perceptions are best regarded as a reflection of what goes on within our beings rather than our beings themselves.  This does not mean we are not free, as some would infer, only that our freedom is tied into a more integrated self.  Part of who we are is our brains working rather than being our physical servant.  This is actually a reflection of the Trinity.  The Father is the Mind and Perfection of God and the Son is the expression or Word of the Father. Taking us back to the Mass, it would seem that "and also with you" may be the more authentic expression of what is happening with the human soul than "and with your spirit," although the latter is more poetic in Latin and English.

Who could have thought that the new translation had implications for neuroscience?  This could very well be a learning and teaching moment for the Church if others take up this discussion, which is ripe to have given the debate with the new atheists over just this topic.