What injustice, you say? The fact that all four MLB teams left in the playoffs have payrolls of at least $100 million. Looks like you just buy a World Series title these days.

(Yes, I am from small-market Cincinnati and haven’t seen my beloved Reds in the playoffs since 1995, so excuse me if I’m a bit cranky. And the fact that I now live in a large-market [Washington, DC] which has a small-market payroll doesn’t help either.)

Whenever you read a quote like this:

The new interpretation is a complete shake up of the story of the Creation as we know it. (source)

you can be sure that some intellectual has turned the Bible into a mirror, reflecting her own personal beliefs.

Common sense can tell us that this “scholar” is full of hot air. Is it really possible that no Hebrew scholar over the past 2,000 years until this lady figured out what one of the most popular verses in the Old Testament really means? It’s not like no one has been trying to undermine Judaism or Christianity over that time.

It also shows a serious misunderstanding of the relationship of the Scriptures to the people of God. The Jews (and Christians) don’t believe that God is the Creator because of this one verse; they believe God is the Creator because that has been what has been handed on to them from previous generations since before the words of Genesis were even written down. If the original author of Genesis simply wrote that God “separated” the heavens from the (pre-existing) earth, the Jews of that time would have rejected that as an inspired text (as would later Christians).

And as Catholics, we can be confident that a true understanding of the Bible will be consistent with our Tradition, because we know that the same Spirit which inspired the biblical writers also guides the Church to all truth.

Unfortunately, this is the motto of too many biblical scholars today: “Let us make Scripture in our own image, in our likeness.”

On this day in 1492, Christopher Columbus made landfall in the New World, in present day Bahamas. Over the past 20-30 years, Columbus has become a controversial figure, but as Catholics living in the New World, we have much to be thankful for this fellow Catholic (and member of the Franciscan Third Order of Penance).

For your Columbus Day reading pleasure:

• An in-depth article about Columbus can be found at the New Advent site.
• Fr. John Harden gave a series of talks about Columbus a number of years ago and the transcripts can be found here.
• An archive of articles about Columbus from a Catholic perspective is at the Franciscan Archive website.
• And of course, the Catholic organization Knights of Columbus is named after the great explorer.

We do not have to endorse every action of men who came to this continent after Columbus to recognize the greatness of his accomplishments, especially in spreading the Gospel to the New World.

Fr. Michael Sinnott, an Irish Columban priest stationed in the Philippines, was abducted last night by six heavily-armed men. From the AP:

The six gunmen entered the Columban House in Pagadian city, Zamboanga del Sur province, and dragged Michael Sinnott into a van in front of his horrified aides, regional police commander Chief Supt. Angelo Sunglao said…

The van was later found abandoned and burned near the convent. The kidnappers then took the priest away by sea on board a motor boat toward a town called Tukuran, Sunglao said, citing fishermen who saw the abduction.

Police have been dispatched to pursue the kidnappers and rescue Sinnott, he said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, but suspicion could fall on Muslim guerrillas who have been fighting for a separate homeland in this region of the predominantly Catholic Philippines for decades and have in the past kidnapped foreigners, including priests.

Al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf militants and insurgents from the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front have a presence in the vast Zamboanga peninsula but Sunglao said it was too early to pinpoint any group.

Sinnott’s group, the Missionary Society of St. Columban, confirmed his abduction, saying he was taking an evening stroll in the convent’s garden when he was taken by the gunmen. The group appealed for prayers for his safe recovery.

Sinnott has worked in the Philippines for decades. The group said he was first assigned in the southern Philippines between 1957-66, then returned in 1976. He has been involved in a school for handicapped children since 1998.

Pray for Fr. Sinnott and his abductors and never forget that there are still places in this world where being a Christian is a dangerous vocation.

My parish priest had quite a unique interpretation of yesterday’s Gospel passage, one I had never heard before. The section he was commenting on is the following:

He replied and said to him,
“Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.”
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him,
“You are lacking in one thing.
Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor
and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
At that statement his face fell,
and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

My pastor made the point that the text does not say what the young man did after walking away except that he was “sad.” He noted that it is possible that the young man went away sad, gave away all his possessions and followed Jesus. Nothing in the text demands that we assume that he didn’t do this, although that is the more common interpretation.

I think this is a valid point. I know in my own life that whenever I give up something, one of my initial reactions is sadness. I don’t want to give it up, even if I know deep in my heart that the sacrifice is good for me. I am simply too attached to the things of this world to give them up without a fight. But then, if I am faithful in my sacrifice, I always end up joyful about it in the end. We are called to joyfully follow our Lord but it is unrealistic to think that there will not be stages in our path where we do not resist his radical call and are sad about the things of this world that we have given up for him.

A great example in my own life is when I gave up my television. For the first week I was happy to do this and it was quite easy. However, after that first week I started to be sad that I didn’t have a TV to use to waste my time (in other words, I was having withdrawals from my TV drug). I had been connected to TV my entire life (I even had a TV in my room growing up), so to think I could just give it up without some sadness is unrealistic. But after about a month or so of no TV I began to appreciate how much it simplified my life and allowed me to focus my time on greater things. My sadness did lead to joy.

We don’t know what the young man did after he walked away from Jesus, but I do think it helpful to consider the possibility that he did follow our Lord’s commands, even though they made him sad.

As is obvious, I’ve redesigned the blog. When I originally set up the blog, I went with the default design, but I always intended to do something different. The old design was a bit dull, and I thought the text was too small. Well, I finally got around to redesigning it this weekend. Hope you enjoy the new look!

Surveying the Catholic blogosphere, one cannot help but notice that one of the more common attributes of many Catholic bloggers is that they are angry. Whether it is directed at bishops, President Obama, the mainstream media, Hollywood, liturgical innovators or heterodox-leaning parish priests, anger is all too prevalent. I think one of the main reasons Catholics so easily fall into anger is that they are not, to use Newman’s phrase, “deep in history.”

But wait a minute, you might say, what about the hard-core traditionalists? They practically live in history, yet they are the angriest of all Catholics. I would argue that they are not truly deep in history; instead, they only see a caricature of a specific time and place in history, such as a Roman Catholic parish in 1954 Kansas. This is not being historical in the true sense, but instead nostalgic for an era that never really existed and had its own flaws which they now gloss over.

Personally, I have always enjoyed reading history, and after my conversion to Catholicism over 17 years ago, my historical reading shifted into a deeper reading of Church history, both East and West, as well as Catholic and Protestant. One of my main conclusions of all this reading is: boy, the doctrine of Original Sin really does get proven in every generation. There has never been a time in which members of the Church have not been full of avarice, lust, pride and gluttony. There has also never been a time in which at least some members of the Church have not been persecuted for their faith. Yet the Faith has endured, saints have been produced, and God’s grace continues to be poured onto the world. Even man’s best efforts to destroy the Church have done little to slow down its march to eternity.

Being deep in history thus changes one’s perspective: you see the problems of today in light of past problems. When the local parish priest does something a bit loopy, you remember that in Middle Ages Russia, most parish priests were illiterate alcoholics who stumbled through the liturgy and didn’t know even the basics of Christian theology. When Hollywood produces (yet another) anti-Catholic film, you remember the terrible persecutions that Christians of past ages (and even today) have endured to pass on the faith. When President Obama proposes legislation that goes against the Catholic Faith, you recall the times in history in which temporal power was abused even by Churchmen.

Ultimately, the Catholic who is very angry is a Catholic who is full of fear. He sees what is going on around him and he fears that God cannot overcome it. He fears that perhaps it is possible that our sins really will rule the day and that the gates of hell will in fact overcome the Church. Yet the more one surveys history, the more one sees that no matter how terrible man can be (and terrible indeed he can be), God is still at work in the world and He cannot be overcome. The Church endures, saints still live in the world, and the Gospel is still preached to the ends of the earth. There is absolutely no reason to fear, as we have already read the end of the book and we know that God wins.

All this is not to say that we should not resist evil; on the contrary, we are called as disciples of Jesus to proclaim the Gospel even when the world attacks it. Yet we can do so with a joyful spirit, because we know who the Victor is. Let us therefore follow the advice of St. Paul:

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:29-32)

After I uploaded my last posting, I realized that the first sentence read, “Often when there is debate within the Church about some controversial movement or vision or person, defenders will trout out the positive “fruits” as a definitive proof that the phenomenon is legitimate and from God.” Now, I realize there often can be grammatical and spelling mistakes in blog posts, as they are not heavily edited, but I usually do check my posts for errors, but somehow this one was missed.

I’m not sure exactly how a defender can “trout” out a fruit – perhaps they swim down the river to grab it? I do know that when I was a boy my uncle would often trot me down to the river to do some trout fishing; perhaps that was the cause of my confusion?

Now I’m getting hungry for some fresh trout…I think I’ll trot down to the grocery store to see if any is available…

Often when there is debate within the Church about some controversial movement or vision or person, defenders will trot out the positive “fruits” as a definitive proof that the phenomenon is legitimate and from God. For example, those who believe that the Virgin Mary is appearing in Medjugorje will note all the good fruit – conversions, increased prayer, return to the sacraments – as proof positive that it is not a hoax or delusion or something man-made. In this article, the author advocates rejecting the legitimate authority Christ has instituted – the local bishop – based solely on the fact that “the fruits, as many have said, are undeniable.”

Likewise, defenders of the Legion of Christ, founded by the fraud Fr. Marcial Maciel, note all the good fruit that the Legion has produced – thousands of priests, support of Catholic orthodoxy – as proof that even if Maciel was a deceiver, the order he founded and which is largely based on his personality is still legitimate.

The Scriptural support for such defenders is of course Christ’s words in Matthew 7:15-20:

¹⁵“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. ¹⁶By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. ¹⁹Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

So what should we make of these arguments? Most people take one of two views:

1) Deny that there is any good fruit. I think this is a mistake in the case of both Medjugorje and the Legion. The evidence is simply overwhelming. I myself became Catholic partially through the influence of Medjugorje and I know many faithful Catholics who have deepened their faith through their associated with the Legion of Christ. It is unquestionable that these phenomenon have produced good fruit.

2) Deny that there is any bad fruit. Again, in both the case of Medjugorje and the Legion, there are documented cases of “bad fruit.” A priest closely associated with the Medjugorje seers has been defrocked, many followers of the visions are openly advocating disobedience to legitimate authority, and there have been cases of theological errors in some of the messages from “Mary.” Likewise, the “bad fruit” from Fr. Maciel should be obvious, as news of his double life has been leaking out for months now. It is clear that these two phenomenon are not immaculate.

I think the problem is that people are using the wrong biblical passage to evaluate these events. We should not look to the “good fruit/bad fruit” passage, but instead listen to Christ’s words about the wheat and the weeds found in Matthew 13:24-30:

²⁴Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

²⁷“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

²⁸” ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

²⁹” ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. ³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ “

In this passage, Jesus makes it clear that things will not be clear-cut on this side of heaven. Both the wheat and the weeds will grow together and we must wait until the harvest – the return of Christ – to have them separated. Thus, God can work good out of even bad situations (and, likewise, the devil can work evil out of good situations). We cannot simply assume a phenomenon like Medjugorje or the Legion is completely evil because of the evil associated with it, nor can we assume it is 100% from God because good has come out of it. As Scripture says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28); in other words, God is not afraid to use ANY situation or person to work out His holy will – even if the situation or person is against God themselves.

This might sound quite confusing for the average Catholic – how are we supposed to evaluate these phenomenon which have both good and evil associated with them? Fortunately, we have the magisterium of the Church to guide us; it is their job – guided by the Holy Spirit – to weigh both the good and bad associated with these phenomenon and determine if it is something that is fundamentally good with some “bad apples” or if it is something that should be rejected by Catholics because the weeds are so strong that they ultimately choke out the wheat. In both the case of Medjugorje and the Legion, this is exactly what the magisterium is doing now, and we would do well to listen and follow their guidance.

Today is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, which honors the incredible power that praying the Rosary can have. I can attest to this great power in my own life – it was the Rosary that was the final step in my conversion to Catholicism. As I recount in my conversion story:

One Sunday I made a decision I still do not understand: I decided to pray the Rosary every day for a week to see if I would receive any illumination in my struggle. I had never prayed a Rosary and was still uncomfortable with Marian devotion, even if intellectually I accepted that Mary had a pivotal role in salvation history. But I had seen many instances of Catholics praying the Rosary – usually in front of an abortion clinic – and there was a peace about them that I could sense, though not describe. I especially remember a night when a pro-abortion protester stood yelling obscenities at my fellow pro-lifer (who, incidentally, would later become my wife). In response she peacefully prayed a Rosary, while my insides were raging. This image still strikes me today.

So one Sunday morning as I sat alone in my dorm room, I picked up a Rosary and a Rosary booklet (both of which my Catholic roommate had the suspicious habit of leaving out on his desk) and knelt at my bed reciting the words. I didn’t feel any different after I was finished, but I had decided to give it a week, so that didn’t bother me. That night, though, I told my roommate about praying the Rosary. His response shocked me. He’d been trying to convert me for two years but all he said was “you shouldn’t have done that.” I thought he must have been kidding but then he said, “you don’t know what you just got yourself into.” Prophetic words.

I prayed (read, actually) the Rosary the next day, and again the next. At the end of that third Rosary, my “week-long” prayer had been answered: I knew that I should become Catholic. After two years of arguments and struggle, it took Mary only three days to show me the path to her son: the Catholic Church.

If you do not pray the Rosary regularly, I beg you to start. Along with it being the cause of my conversion, praying the Rosary has also been instrumental in every spiritual advancement I have experienced. I shudder to think what I would be like today if not for the Rosary.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

A few weeks ago I wrote about the rumors of a possible reunion between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches (rumors which were started by the overenthusiastic comments of a Catholic bishop in Russia). I was very skeptical about the possibility and I later wrote that a forced reunion right now could be disastrous. Well now someone much more qualified than I is saying the same thing: Metropolitan John of Pergamon, a bishop of the Greek Orthodox Church, who is well-known as one of the most ecumenical Orthodox bishops (and who is also, quite simply, brilliant), states quite clearly that no reunion is imminent:

the ongoing theological Dialogue has yet to span an extremely long course, because the theological differences that have accumulated during the one thousand years of division are many; and secondly, that the Committee for the Dialogue is entirely unqualified for the “signing” of a union, given that this right belongs to the Synods of the Churches

Yet Metropolitan John also criticizes those Orthodox who so quickly condemn any possible reunion with Rome as being prima facie illegitimate and undesirable. It is true that reunion is far off, but both Catholics and Orthodox should desire it deeply and ask for the Lord’s mercy in the face of our continued division.

A division, I might add, that is still quite strong in certain segments of the Catholic world, if this comment on the linked blog is any indication:

Patriarchs Bartholomew and Kiril should catch the next flight to Rome, crawl to St Peter’s on their blooded knees, kiss the Sacred Feet of the Supreme Pontiff, then kiss his ring.

After which, they can beg mercy and forgiveness for a thousand years of schism.

After which, they can prostrate themselves while the Holy Father pronounces absolution, with both his feet resting on their necks.

Then, and only then, will there be reunion.

Hey, a Papophile can dream, can’t he?

Clearly, this was written by someone who never subscribed to the “What Would Jesus Do?” movement.

A number of years ago, I read the book “Becoming Orthodox” by Peter Gillquist, which is the story of 2,000 Evangelicals, many of them members of Campus Crusade for Christ, becoming members of the Antiochian Orthodox Church during the 1980′s. As a former member of Crusade who took a similar journey (although mine ended in the Roman Catholic Church), I found it a very interesting read.

One thing that struck me about Gillquist’s story is that when he was exploring the Orthodox Church, he met resistance from many Orthodox bodies – most of them didn’t want him to join! Talk about not understanding the importance of evangelization to Christianity. However, one Orthodox body – the Antiochian Orthodox Church – welcomed the Evangelical converts with open arms. The Antioch Church traces it origins to the first place where followers of Christ were called “Christians” (Acts 11:26) and that Church has since become a haven for Protestant converts, as this recent article in the New York Times attests:

Yet in its broader outlines, his movement from the Protestant realm into the Orthodox one, specifically into the Antiochian branch, attests to a significant and fascinating example of denominational migration. Over the last 20 years, the Antiochian Orthodox Church — with its roots in Syria and Lebanon and its longtime membership in the United States made up almost entirely of Middle Eastern immigrants and their descendants — has become the destination of choice for thousands of Protestants of Northern European ancestry.

The visible shift began in 1987 with the conversion of nearly 2,000 evangelical Christians, led by Peter E. Gillquist and other alumni of the Dallas Theological Seminary and the Campus Crusade for Christ. More recently, a wave of converts has arrived from such mainline Protestant denominations as the Episcopalian and Lutheran.

Some 70 percent of Antiochian Orthodox priests in the United States are converts, according to Bradley Nassif, who, as a theology professor at North Park University in Chicago, is a leading scholar of the religion. A generation or two ago, Professor Nassif said, converts made up barely 10 percent of Antiochian clergy.

What is attracting these Evangelicals to Orthodoxy? For most, it is a reaction to two things in modern Evangelicalism: (1) the jettisoning of tradition; and (2) the diminishment of the importance of theology. In many Evangelical churches today the emphasis is on watering down both the worship and the doctrines of the Church in order to make Christianity more palatable to modern sensibilities. This is the exact opposite of Orthodoxy, which (proudly) does nothing to make itself attractive to the post-modern world; it revels in maintaining a worldview that lies somewhere between the 1st and 7th centuries. Whereas this might turn off many people with a modern mindset, this attitude can be very attractive to those who recognize the shallowness of much of modern Evangelicalism and want to dive into the deep waters of ancient Christianity.

I pray that more and more Evangelical Christians see the beauty and depth of ancient Christianity and find their home in one of the apostolic Churches.

Over at Inside Catholic, Deal Hudson profiles Divine Mercy Care, a pro-life ob-gyn practice and pharmacy located in Northern Virginia. Divine Mercy Care is run by Dr. John Bruchalski, a well-known Catholic doctor who has appeared on EWTN and at numerous Catholic conferences around the country. From the article:

Bruchalski’s vision of pro-life medical care goes beyond the rejection of abortion and contraception as medical options. He was emphatic when he told me, “I have to see the underserved in my daily life.” As a result, Tepeyac is the largest provider of obstetric services to Medicaid patients in northern Virginia.

DMC has three pillars, according to Bruchalski: to offer excellent medicine, serve the underserved, and make daily use of Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. These commitments grew out of Bruchalski’s own conversion from conventional obstetrics as a medical student and resident.

I asked what changed his view of medicine. “We were taught to believe that fertility could be controlled and would lead to happiness,” he said, “but my experience changed my mind. Just the opposite was the case: diseases were becoming epidemic; relationships broke up; women using contraceptives were being hurt by being subjected to men — all leading to sadness, depression, and loss of libido.”

I am completely biased when it comes to Dr. Bruchalski and Divine Mercy Care. He delivered my fifth child, and to be honest, we would not have her if not for Dr. Bruchalski. My wife had a number of problems which led to multiple miscarriages and our previous OB could not determine the root cause. Dr. Bruchalski, however, was able to put her on a series of medications which helped her and led to the birth of child number 5. I am eternally grateful to him.

Dr. Bruchalski also told us a story about an African woman who came to his clinic after having 12(!) abortions. She had converted to Christianity and wanted to conceive a child, but of course her uterus was in terrible condition. He was able to determine a plan of medications that led her to conceive and bear a healthy child. What he does is truly miraculous.

What is so awesome about Dr. Bruchalski is that he doesn’t succumb to the powerful peer pressure that exists in the medical community. This is most obvious in his strong pro-life and anti-contraception views, but it pervades his entire outlook. He takes what is best from the medical community, but he is not afraid to do something that his own experience tells him works. Just because something is a fad doesn’t mean he will accept it blindly, and just because something falls out of favor with the medical establishment doesn’t mean he rejects it as well. I can testify from personal experience that he was able to help us when no other doctor could because he was willing to think “outside the box.” May God bless his work.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!

The Guardian has an interesting, if somewhat depressing, story about the rise of Evangelicalism in Brazil. If Brazil were an atheistic or Muslim country, the story would actually be uplifting, but since Brazil is a predominantly Catholic country, Evangelicalism’s rise has meant in many ways Catholicism’s fall.

In the past 20 years or so, Brazil, cited as the country with the biggest catholic population in the world, has witnessed a migration from Rome to the booming evangelical churches. According to IBGE (the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), the Catholic population in the country was 91.8% of the total in 1970. But the most recent survey, in 2000, revealed that the number of Catholics had fallen to 73. 8% with the number of evangelicals up from 5.2% to 15.6%.

Based on the article, it appears that most of the shift has come in the lower classes and has a definite Pentecostal flair. This seems to be the trend throughout Central and South America, as more and more people leave the Catholic Faith of their youth for an Evangelical community. Interestingly, it appears that very few are choosing to reject religion altogether, as is happening in America and Europe.

What is the cause of this shift? There are no simple answers, but I would be willing to bet that poor catechesis plays a strong part in the changes. People naturally desire an experience of Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. If someone believes that he can draw closer to Jesus in an Evangelical church than in a Catholic church, then he naturally will choose the former over the latter. But if this is the case, it means that he has not been properly formed; he does not understand that you cannot get any closer to Jesus than is possible in the Eucharist, which is not available in Protestant communities.

And this trend is not bound to South and Central American borders. Many immigrants to America from these countries are leaving the Catholic Church for Evangelical – especially Pentecostal – communities. Again, they believe they can draw closer to Jesus in those communities than they can in the Catholic Church. Let us re-double our efforts to catechize Catholics of the immense gift we have in the Eucharist, in which Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, comes to us directly, even physically, and we encounter him in a way not possible anywhere else.

This is a great story. A 92-year-old woman is held at gunpoint and ends up evangelizing her attacker and bringing him to tears of repentance:

Next time you think you can’t evangelize, remember Pauline Jacobi.