Showing posts with label Spirit and Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spirit and Life. Show all posts
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Monday, December 15, 2008
Spirit & Life ® Volume 03, Number 44 | Friday, December 12, 2008
Election III - Assault on Conscience and Reality
November 4th was not just a historic date in history because of the election of the nation's first black president; it also marked a new division that was established in our country between those who have consciences formed in the truth and those who don't. I have constantly spoken of the need to battle for America's very soul, but I am seeing that there is more at stake here: we are engaged in a battle to define reality, and the outcome of that battle undoubtedly determines the fate of souls.
As evidence of this fight for reality, a court in Montana last week arbitrarily decided that doctors in that state can help people kill themselves. This was defined as an extension of a fundamental human "right" of the man who brought the case. That esteemed court pontificated thus: "The Montana constitutional rights of individual privacy and human dignity, taken together, encompass the right of a competent terminally (ill) patient to die with dignity...Montanans generally mind their own business and do not wish to restrict other people in their freedoms unless the exercise of those freedoms interferes with other members of society." Well, that's exactly the point, isn't it? Now that assisted suicide is the law of the States of Oregon, Washington and Montana, will the elderly, the sick and the handicapped begin to have a duty to die as well? Ask Terri Schiavo if she was "free" to choose life.
When the courts, or the policy-makers, divorce reality from sanity, then "other people's freedoms" will indeed interfere with the life of others in society, particularly the most vulnerable. Gone are the days when we could just say that we have to tolerate another's right to choose his own personalized belief system - pretty soon we will be forced to choose between his alien belief system and ours, and the results will not be pretty. Haven't we noticed in recent weeks, since the election, that the forces of lawlessness are marching in a militant fashion? Washington State legalized physician-assisted suicide in the election and Montana follows suit weeks later. Three states said a resounding "No!" to gay marriage, and churches and pro-marriage organizations have been attacked sadistically by homosexual activists. We also just learned that President-elect Obama has fawningly invited a radical Gay and Lesbian group called the Decadence Festival to march in the Inaugural Parade. We elect two pro-abort branches of government and these proceed to choose the most extreme abortion advocates for key positions in the Administration while all the world's attention is fixated on their money and their bailouts.
The distortion of meaning and sanity in the public forum will not be alleviated in the Obama Administration; in fact, it will be intensified. Americans have handed the institutions of political and social power over to people who have proven track-records of activism on radical issues that will destroy lives and souls. These have been emboldened by what they have interpreted as a national mandate for their agenda. Only the forces of conscience based on objective moral truth and common sense will counter the unholy agendas that will be visited upon our nation as a result of this election. We, for our part, must batten down the moral and spiritual hatches to make sure that we evaluate all things with the Mind of Christ, and when in doubt, let's look to the enduring wisdom of the Christian Tradition and the official teachings or our Church for guidance. We will be fortified in our battle by these blessings from on high.
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
Friday, November 21, 2008
Spirit & Life®Volume 03, Number 42 | Friday, November 21, 2008
Election Part II - Catholic Culture and the Election of Barack Obama
It is impossible to speak of a “Catholic culture” in America any longer. A whole segment of the populace who call themselves “Catholics” do not feel bound by any standard of Catholic orthodoxy or sanity. In fact, it is impossible to even speak of a Catholic culture in most parishes! At a recent “ministry faire” of a large Catholic parish in south Florida, the Respect Life ministry of the parish displayed its pro-life materials next to the table of the “social justice” committee of the same parish. Any commonality between the two ministries was simply in the space they shared. Their worldviews could not have been further apart, but they both call themselves Catholic.
In fact, the “social justice” people were positively aglow about the election of their new messiah, Barack Obama. Several of them were speaking of their plans to attend the Inauguration and were utterly unaware that there would be 100,000 people marching on the nation’s Capitol two days later for the right to life of unborn Americans which they had just voted into irrelevancy by electing Obama to the highest office of the land. One of them even expressed shock at the provisions of the upcoming Freedom of Choice Act until he was confronted with the nasty little fact that his messiah had been a sponsor of that pernicious bill in the last Congress. True to form, he steadfastly refused to allow that truth to have any effect on his euphoria. His mind was made up, and he would not let himself be confused by facts. Needless to say, the orthodox, practicing, believing Catholic pro-lifers will not be attending the Inauguration.
How can these two groups sit side-by-side in the same pews and display their ministries in the same space at the same Catholic parish? Simply because this contradiction has been tolerated for years by those in charge of our Church. In this election season neither of these two groups received any guidance about voting according to Catholic principles because, as per usual, there was silence from the pulpit on the issue. The absolute failure of our church leaders to define for us what membership in the Church means—and then to enforce it—has led to the degradation of Catholic culture and the loss of meaning for things that are sacred. When Christ and Belial are considered equal partners in the sanctuary, then nothing in the sanctuary means anything any more and no meaningful standard exists to distinguish a true Catholic from a false Catholic.
The degradation of Catholic culture is largely, but not exclusively, the fault of the clergy.
The battle for Catholic culture begins with us, and there is no time like the present to don the armor of spiritual warfare. We either believe and practice what the Church teaches or we live as part of the shadow church, falsely trading on the Name Catholic for its benefits without at the same time shouldering the crosses that this entails.
There is, however, great hope for the future because the battle has already been engaged: new Catholic colleges are springing up to replace the old decrepit houses of heresy, new religious orders with abundant vocations and orthodoxy have arisen, home schooling families and strong lay movements are abundant now. Only when we take back our beloved Church from the false Catholics and clerics will our Church be able to stand up and rebuke the storm winds of paganism that are building faster than we care to admit. This project is not without its price, however. The cost of being a true believer will undoubtedly be much higher than ever before in our lifetime. Starting now and into the next generation we as Catholics will have to show the world not only what we believe but that we are willing to lay down our lives for it as a witness to the truth.
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International
Thank you Fr. Euteneuer...you and Frs. Newman, Longenecker, and all priests are in my prayers! May Our Blessed Mother continue to protect you all under her mantle and close to her Immaculate Heart.
Please remember a Holy Hour with OUR LORD in the BLESSED SACRAMENT for all priests!
It is impossible to speak of a “Catholic culture” in America any longer. A whole segment of the populace who call themselves “Catholics” do not feel bound by any standard of Catholic orthodoxy or sanity. In fact, it is impossible to even speak of a Catholic culture in most parishes! At a recent “ministry faire” of a large Catholic parish in south Florida, the Respect Life ministry of the parish displayed its pro-life materials next to the table of the “social justice” committee of the same parish. Any commonality between the two ministries was simply in the space they shared. Their worldviews could not have been further apart, but they both call themselves Catholic.
In fact, the “social justice” people were positively aglow about the election of their new messiah, Barack Obama. Several of them were speaking of their plans to attend the Inauguration and were utterly unaware that there would be 100,000 people marching on the nation’s Capitol two days later for the right to life of unborn Americans which they had just voted into irrelevancy by electing Obama to the highest office of the land. One of them even expressed shock at the provisions of the upcoming Freedom of Choice Act until he was confronted with the nasty little fact that his messiah had been a sponsor of that pernicious bill in the last Congress. True to form, he steadfastly refused to allow that truth to have any effect on his euphoria. His mind was made up, and he would not let himself be confused by facts. Needless to say, the orthodox, practicing, believing Catholic pro-lifers will not be attending the Inauguration.
How can these two groups sit side-by-side in the same pews and display their ministries in the same space at the same Catholic parish? Simply because this contradiction has been tolerated for years by those in charge of our Church. In this election season neither of these two groups received any guidance about voting according to Catholic principles because, as per usual, there was silence from the pulpit on the issue. The absolute failure of our church leaders to define for us what membership in the Church means—and then to enforce it—has led to the degradation of Catholic culture and the loss of meaning for things that are sacred. When Christ and Belial are considered equal partners in the sanctuary, then nothing in the sanctuary means anything any more and no meaningful standard exists to distinguish a true Catholic from a false Catholic.
The degradation of Catholic culture is largely, but not exclusively, the fault of the clergy.
For four decades in the Catholic Church in America we have seen:
- Liturgical abuses run rampant, aided and abetted by those in charge
- Two or three generations of Catholics left un-catechized or taught with flimsy, Protestantized fluff passed off as Catholic education
- Sexual abuse by clergy excused and unaddressed by the hierarchy
- A blind eye turned to high profile dissent and political class heretics
- Wholesale attacks on sacred teachings that receive virtually no response from our pastors (and if it weren’t for Catholic Answers, EWTN and the Catholic League we would have no defense whatsoever)
- The succumbing of our Catholic institutions of higher education to the ravages of political correctness, and the list goes on.
The battle for Catholic culture begins with us, and there is no time like the present to don the armor of spiritual warfare. We either believe and practice what the Church teaches or we live as part of the shadow church, falsely trading on the Name Catholic for its benefits without at the same time shouldering the crosses that this entails.
There is, however, great hope for the future because the battle has already been engaged: new Catholic colleges are springing up to replace the old decrepit houses of heresy, new religious orders with abundant vocations and orthodoxy have arisen, home schooling families and strong lay movements are abundant now. Only when we take back our beloved Church from the false Catholics and clerics will our Church be able to stand up and rebuke the storm winds of paganism that are building faster than we care to admit. This project is not without its price, however. The cost of being a true believer will undoubtedly be much higher than ever before in our lifetime. Starting now and into the next generation we as Catholics will have to show the world not only what we believe but that we are willing to lay down our lives for it as a witness to the truth.
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International
Thank you Fr. Euteneuer...you and Frs. Newman, Longenecker, and all priests are in my prayers! May Our Blessed Mother continue to protect you all under her mantle and close to her Immaculate Heart.
Please remember a Holy Hour with OUR LORD in the BLESSED SACRAMENT for all priests!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
Spirit & Life Volume 03, Number 40 | Friday, October 31, 2008
Commending the Bishops
Faithful Catholics in the US have been both stunned and gratified by the recent show of episcopal strength in dealing with the heretical nonsense of "Catholics" in public life who clearly misrepresent the Church's teaching on vital issues. To date, more than fifty bishops have spoken out about this kind of misconduct or issued guidelines about voting at this critical juncture in our nation's history. The trend is truly heartening. Let's pray that it continues! Much more could be done, of course, but I am grateful that more bishops are standing up to strengthen and protect the faith of millions. Many have been longing for this show of valor from our fathers in the faith - and yes, they are our spiritual fathers. When they are strong, we are strong; and when they are weak - the flock is ravaged by wolves.
A few bishops deserve special mention. A good example is Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, CA, who stood up before the misnamed "Catholic Gay and Lesbian" conference last month and proclaimed the Church's natural law teaching that homosexual acts are mortal sins. A whole group walked out of his speech in protest, and he was reviled afterward for daring to present Catholic teaching to them. The organizer of the conference actually apologized to the attendees for the talk! Bishop Soto made no apologies though. Likewise, San Diego Auxiliary, Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, has been the strongest champion of the legal effort to define marriage as between one man and one woman to combat the radical homosexual lobby in California.
Nor can we fail to mention the strong pro-life stances of Archbishops Burke (now in Rome) and Chaput (Denver) as well as Bishops Vasa (Baker, OR), Farrell and Vann (Dallas, TX), Martino (Scranton, PA) and Mallooly (Wilmington, DE) who are representatives of a group of other bishops who have made their voices heard forcefully on the Catholic voting issue.
It is not just in the US, however, where bishops have been applying their authority in an astonishing fashion. Here are just a few more of the good things happening around the world in the episcopal college:
The Bishops of Canada issued a statement criticizing the bestowing of Canada's highest honor, the Order of Canada, on extreme abortionist Henry Morganthaler as if he were an example of all that makes Canada proud. Cardinal Turcotte of Montreal actually returned his own Order of Canada medal as a sign of protest to this mockery; John Cardinal Njue of Nairobi, Kenya recently issued a marvelous, hard-hitting pastoral letter to his Archdiocese concerning the efforts to legalize abortion in that pivotal African country which to date has been such a stronghold against the culture of death; The Philippines Episcopal Conference came out forcefully against the US- and UN-inspired Reproductive Health Bill which attempted to legalize every form of perversion on that Catholic populace; the bill was subsequently defeated but the bishops know that theirs is a regular battle in which they must engage for the souls of their people.
Thankfully, there are many more examples of episcopal courage that we could add to the reflections but suffice it to say that there seems to be a new wind blowing through the College of Bishops all around the world these days. Perhaps that wind is originating from Bavaria, but whatever its origin, let us continue to pray for our bishops and priests who are always on the firing line between the culture of life and the culture of death. We also need to thank them personally when they speak out in order to encourage them to do even more! Now that the example has been set, let us hope that other bishops and priests will have the audacity of our hope in Christ to go out and do the same!
SL Action Items
Bishop Martino's Pastoral Letters
Joint Statement from Bishop Kevin Farrell and Bishop Kevin Vann
Archbishop of Omaha Issues Voting Statement To Be Read At All Parishes This Sunday
Scranton Bishop Releases Video Slamming Groups "Treading on the Name Catholic" with False Voting Doctrine
Bishop Compares Election to Battle of Lepanto
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International
Faithful Catholics in the US have been both stunned and gratified by the recent show of episcopal strength in dealing with the heretical nonsense of "Catholics" in public life who clearly misrepresent the Church's teaching on vital issues. To date, more than fifty bishops have spoken out about this kind of misconduct or issued guidelines about voting at this critical juncture in our nation's history. The trend is truly heartening. Let's pray that it continues! Much more could be done, of course, but I am grateful that more bishops are standing up to strengthen and protect the faith of millions. Many have been longing for this show of valor from our fathers in the faith - and yes, they are our spiritual fathers. When they are strong, we are strong; and when they are weak - the flock is ravaged by wolves.
A few bishops deserve special mention. A good example is Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, CA, who stood up before the misnamed "Catholic Gay and Lesbian" conference last month and proclaimed the Church's natural law teaching that homosexual acts are mortal sins. A whole group walked out of his speech in protest, and he was reviled afterward for daring to present Catholic teaching to them. The organizer of the conference actually apologized to the attendees for the talk! Bishop Soto made no apologies though. Likewise, San Diego Auxiliary, Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, has been the strongest champion of the legal effort to define marriage as between one man and one woman to combat the radical homosexual lobby in California.
Nor can we fail to mention the strong pro-life stances of Archbishops Burke (now in Rome) and Chaput (Denver) as well as Bishops Vasa (Baker, OR), Farrell and Vann (Dallas, TX), Martino (Scranton, PA) and Mallooly (Wilmington, DE) who are representatives of a group of other bishops who have made their voices heard forcefully on the Catholic voting issue.
It is not just in the US, however, where bishops have been applying their authority in an astonishing fashion. Here are just a few more of the good things happening around the world in the episcopal college:
The Bishops of Canada issued a statement criticizing the bestowing of Canada's highest honor, the Order of Canada, on extreme abortionist Henry Morganthaler as if he were an example of all that makes Canada proud. Cardinal Turcotte of Montreal actually returned his own Order of Canada medal as a sign of protest to this mockery; John Cardinal Njue of Nairobi, Kenya recently issued a marvelous, hard-hitting pastoral letter to his Archdiocese concerning the efforts to legalize abortion in that pivotal African country which to date has been such a stronghold against the culture of death; The Philippines Episcopal Conference came out forcefully against the US- and UN-inspired Reproductive Health Bill which attempted to legalize every form of perversion on that Catholic populace; the bill was subsequently defeated but the bishops know that theirs is a regular battle in which they must engage for the souls of their people.
Thankfully, there are many more examples of episcopal courage that we could add to the reflections but suffice it to say that there seems to be a new wind blowing through the College of Bishops all around the world these days. Perhaps that wind is originating from Bavaria, but whatever its origin, let us continue to pray for our bishops and priests who are always on the firing line between the culture of life and the culture of death. We also need to thank them personally when they speak out in order to encourage them to do even more! Now that the example has been set, let us hope that other bishops and priests will have the audacity of our hope in Christ to go out and do the same!
SL Action Items
Bishop Martino's Pastoral Letters
Joint Statement from Bishop Kevin Farrell and Bishop Kevin Vann
Archbishop of Omaha Issues Voting Statement To Be Read At All Parishes This Sunday
Scranton Bishop Releases Video Slamming Groups "Treading on the Name Catholic" with False Voting Doctrine
Bishop Compares Election to Battle of Lepanto
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Fr. Euteneuer - "An Open Letter to the Bishops of the Anglican Church"
Spirit & Life®
"The words I spoke to you are spirit and life." (Jn 6:63)
Human Life International e-Newsletter
Volume 03, Number 28 Friday, July 18, 2008
Dear Right Reverend and Most Reverend Bishops of the Anglican Communion:
At the Lambeth Conference of 1908, your brothers of a saner age offered an unequivocal condemnation of the evils of contraception, abortion, and other degrading immoralities. One century later, in marked contrast, one quarter of the churches of the Anglican Communion are boycotting the Lambeth Conference because of homosexual activism in your ranks, capitulation to every form of political correctness, declining numbers, and the abysmal state of Anglican discipline throughout your church. This contradictory situation is entirely of your own making - it is not the work of the Holy Spirit - and there is really only one proper response that you could make to this desperate situation; namely, repentance and a return to true and full communion with the Church from which you were divorced by your founder.
With all due respect for persons and motives, the historical record of Anglicanism's doctrinal surrender has clearly prepared the way for the problems you are now having, problems which get increasingly worse as time goes on. The Anglican Church was created by an act of rupture of unity from the Church that Christ founded and its apostolic succession in 1534. It capitulated on the fundamental question of divorce and re-marriage in 1536; presided over thousands of unconscionable martyrdoms between 1534-1729; broke the centuries-old Christian consensus on contraception in 1931; took the unprecedented step of ordaining women priests beginning in 1944; caved in on abortion in 1967; allowed women's episcopal ordination in 1989; and endorsed openly gay clergy in 2003.
And to be blunt about it, just last week in London, two Anglican priests were "married" by a third Anglican priest in a public ceremony at the threshold of your conference - to make an obvious statement - and not a one of them has been called to account for his sin. How can this church be called a "communion" with anything other than the spirit of the age - any age? My purpose in listing these anomalies is simply to make the point that it's time to stop playing church and start getting back to church.
The present state of decline leaves little hope of your church's survival as a recognized body of Christian believers. A significant portion of your own bishops are so fed up with the betrayal of both doctrine and discipline that they are having a parallel conference in Jerusalem as you meet in the staid halls of Lambeth. This fissure will leave the Anglican Communion permanently damaged and demoralized. Not only that, but the contrast between the precipitous decline of the Anglican Church and the vibrancy of the Roman Catholic Church is nothing short of astounding. While Pope Benedict is in Sydney at World Youth Day evangelizing the future - Anglicans are wondering whether they have a future.
As you gather for your 14th Lambeth Conference I ask you to honestly face the truth of the appalling mess that your church is in and address it like true men and women of Christ, unafraid to confront the moral decay and doctrinal disorder in your ranks. The Anglican ship is sinking, not because God has abandoned you, but because almost five hundred years ago King Henry VIII cut you adrift in a turbulent sea of confusion, called human respect. We, as Roman Catholics, stand on the Rock of Peter and would welcome you generously back into the hold of his ship, assured that your homecoming would immensely strengthen the Body of Christ for the work of evangelizing the world. In the United States there are already five Anglican Rite parishes so a precedent already exists for receiving Anglicans back into true and full communion with the one Church of Christ! Undoubtedly, the Roman Church has enough life preservers for all our separated brethren when you are finally unable to hold off the onslaught of the winds and the sea.
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, President, Human Life International
"The words I spoke to you are spirit and life." (Jn 6:63)
Human Life International e-Newsletter
Volume 03, Number 28 Friday, July 18, 2008
Dear Right Reverend and Most Reverend Bishops of the Anglican Communion:
At the Lambeth Conference of 1908, your brothers of a saner age offered an unequivocal condemnation of the evils of contraception, abortion, and other degrading immoralities. One century later, in marked contrast, one quarter of the churches of the Anglican Communion are boycotting the Lambeth Conference because of homosexual activism in your ranks, capitulation to every form of political correctness, declining numbers, and the abysmal state of Anglican discipline throughout your church. This contradictory situation is entirely of your own making - it is not the work of the Holy Spirit - and there is really only one proper response that you could make to this desperate situation; namely, repentance and a return to true and full communion with the Church from which you were divorced by your founder.
With all due respect for persons and motives, the historical record of Anglicanism's doctrinal surrender has clearly prepared the way for the problems you are now having, problems which get increasingly worse as time goes on. The Anglican Church was created by an act of rupture of unity from the Church that Christ founded and its apostolic succession in 1534. It capitulated on the fundamental question of divorce and re-marriage in 1536; presided over thousands of unconscionable martyrdoms between 1534-1729; broke the centuries-old Christian consensus on contraception in 1931; took the unprecedented step of ordaining women priests beginning in 1944; caved in on abortion in 1967; allowed women's episcopal ordination in 1989; and endorsed openly gay clergy in 2003.
And to be blunt about it, just last week in London, two Anglican priests were "married" by a third Anglican priest in a public ceremony at the threshold of your conference - to make an obvious statement - and not a one of them has been called to account for his sin. How can this church be called a "communion" with anything other than the spirit of the age - any age? My purpose in listing these anomalies is simply to make the point that it's time to stop playing church and start getting back to church.
The present state of decline leaves little hope of your church's survival as a recognized body of Christian believers. A significant portion of your own bishops are so fed up with the betrayal of both doctrine and discipline that they are having a parallel conference in Jerusalem as you meet in the staid halls of Lambeth. This fissure will leave the Anglican Communion permanently damaged and demoralized. Not only that, but the contrast between the precipitous decline of the Anglican Church and the vibrancy of the Roman Catholic Church is nothing short of astounding. While Pope Benedict is in Sydney at World Youth Day evangelizing the future - Anglicans are wondering whether they have a future.
As you gather for your 14th Lambeth Conference I ask you to honestly face the truth of the appalling mess that your church is in and address it like true men and women of Christ, unafraid to confront the moral decay and doctrinal disorder in your ranks. The Anglican ship is sinking, not because God has abandoned you, but because almost five hundred years ago King Henry VIII cut you adrift in a turbulent sea of confusion, called human respect. We, as Roman Catholics, stand on the Rock of Peter and would welcome you generously back into the hold of his ship, assured that your homecoming would immensely strengthen the Body of Christ for the work of evangelizing the world. In the United States there are already five Anglican Rite parishes so a precedent already exists for receiving Anglicans back into true and full communion with the one Church of Christ! Undoubtedly, the Roman Church has enough life preservers for all our separated brethren when you are finally unable to hold off the onslaught of the winds and the sea.
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, President, Human Life International
Thursday, April 17, 2008
From Fr. Euteneuer: "My Hopes For Pope Benedict's Speech To The Intelligentsia"
***REMINDER: Fr. Euteneuer will be on the Fox News Channel Your World with Neil Cavuto today at 4:00 pm east. 3:00 pm cent. GO HOLY SPIRIT!
Spirit & Life®
"The words I spoke to you are spirit and life." (Jn 6:63)
Human Life International e-Newsletter
Volume 03, Number 16 Friday, April 17, 2008
Pope Benedict has put on his schedule a meeting with presidents and other top personnel of Catholic universities in the United States. The former university professor himself is well aware of the impact academia can have on impressionable young souls, for good or bad, and he knows that the U.S. is home to the largest single concentration of Catholic universities in the world, so there is a lot at stake in this talk. My hope is that he will set them straight about a few items that these most intelligent people in higher education seem to be confused about. I would think that a few of the following issues would be of highest importance, as regards both theory and discipline.
Let's start at the beginning: I think he should demand that Catholic colleges and universities go back to actually teaching the fullness of the Catholic Faith to young people. What would be unreasonable about that? The fact that a handful of newer, unabashedly traditional, Catholic colleges have sprung up in recent years to defend and teach Catholic orthodoxy is in itself an indication that most of the other ones are not doing their job. I am not talking about presenting a façade of Catholic teaching to the kids. I am talking about immersing the youth of these schools in the Catholic intellectual tradition and forming their minds and souls to offer our dynamic Faith as a gift to our nation so desperately afloat in a sea of relativism and intellectual degradation.
Secondly, in order to do that, universities would basically need professors who are steeped in the Catholic intellectual tradition themselves and capable of applying that to modern times. Not only is the percentage of Catholic faculty declining in some major Catholic universities around the nation, but the quotient of orthodoxy of those who call themselves Catholic is highly questionable. Right now, it is virtually impossible even for Catholic university presidents to know which of their theology professors have actually signed the "Mandatum" (a statement that a professor can and will teach the Catholic Faith) required by the document Ex Corde Ecclesiae. If a Catholic professor at a Catholic university or college is not willing to formally be recognized as a teacher of the orthodox Faith, why is he or she on the faculty?
Thirdly, the Holy Father should just tell these elite members of higher education to get the secular, dissenting and hedonistic garbage off Catholic campuses and to do it immediately. Certain things are totally inconsistent with Catholic faith and practice. For starters, he can ask them to get over their obsession with the V-Monologues and eradicate every vestige of that wretched play from Catholic campus life. They should then decommission and remove all gay and lesbian groups from their lists of approved organizations on campus, and then uproot all radical, leftist causes and courses that both give scandal and cause a distortion of Catholic thinking on social issues. Presumably parents send their kids to these places to be fed with solid food for their souls; the intellectual junk food of our society should be taken off the menu at every institution that calls itself Catholic.
The most important part of his approach to these issues, however, has to be discipline, something that can only come from the top. University presidents who refuse to clean up their acts should just be removed, no matter how popular they are or respected in the communities. Their first responsibility is to God and the young people entrusted to their care, and the official church hierarchy has to ensure that. Tenured radicals should be gently set out to pasture so that they can no longer contaminate young souls - and vibrant, orthodox, faithful and intellectually honest Catholics should be given positions of authority at the institutions forming the next generation of Catholics. Remember that this is the generation that will uproot the culture of death from our land and transform it into a culture of life - but only if they are truly Catholic. Who else can set them straight on that except the Vicar of Christ?
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International
Spirit & Life®
"The words I spoke to you are spirit and life." (Jn 6:63)
Human Life International e-Newsletter
Volume 03, Number 16 Friday, April 17, 2008
My Hopes For Pope Benedict's Speech To The Intelligentsia
Pope Benedict has put on his schedule a meeting with presidents and other top personnel of Catholic universities in the United States. The former university professor himself is well aware of the impact academia can have on impressionable young souls, for good or bad, and he knows that the U.S. is home to the largest single concentration of Catholic universities in the world, so there is a lot at stake in this talk. My hope is that he will set them straight about a few items that these most intelligent people in higher education seem to be confused about. I would think that a few of the following issues would be of highest importance, as regards both theory and discipline.
Let's start at the beginning: I think he should demand that Catholic colleges and universities go back to actually teaching the fullness of the Catholic Faith to young people. What would be unreasonable about that? The fact that a handful of newer, unabashedly traditional, Catholic colleges have sprung up in recent years to defend and teach Catholic orthodoxy is in itself an indication that most of the other ones are not doing their job. I am not talking about presenting a façade of Catholic teaching to the kids. I am talking about immersing the youth of these schools in the Catholic intellectual tradition and forming their minds and souls to offer our dynamic Faith as a gift to our nation so desperately afloat in a sea of relativism and intellectual degradation.
Secondly, in order to do that, universities would basically need professors who are steeped in the Catholic intellectual tradition themselves and capable of applying that to modern times. Not only is the percentage of Catholic faculty declining in some major Catholic universities around the nation, but the quotient of orthodoxy of those who call themselves Catholic is highly questionable. Right now, it is virtually impossible even for Catholic university presidents to know which of their theology professors have actually signed the "Mandatum" (a statement that a professor can and will teach the Catholic Faith) required by the document Ex Corde Ecclesiae. If a Catholic professor at a Catholic university or college is not willing to formally be recognized as a teacher of the orthodox Faith, why is he or she on the faculty?
Thirdly, the Holy Father should just tell these elite members of higher education to get the secular, dissenting and hedonistic garbage off Catholic campuses and to do it immediately. Certain things are totally inconsistent with Catholic faith and practice. For starters, he can ask them to get over their obsession with the V-Monologues and eradicate every vestige of that wretched play from Catholic campus life. They should then decommission and remove all gay and lesbian groups from their lists of approved organizations on campus, and then uproot all radical, leftist causes and courses that both give scandal and cause a distortion of Catholic thinking on social issues. Presumably parents send their kids to these places to be fed with solid food for their souls; the intellectual junk food of our society should be taken off the menu at every institution that calls itself Catholic.
The most important part of his approach to these issues, however, has to be discipline, something that can only come from the top. University presidents who refuse to clean up their acts should just be removed, no matter how popular they are or respected in the communities. Their first responsibility is to God and the young people entrusted to their care, and the official church hierarchy has to ensure that. Tenured radicals should be gently set out to pasture so that they can no longer contaminate young souls - and vibrant, orthodox, faithful and intellectually honest Catholics should be given positions of authority at the institutions forming the next generation of Catholics. Remember that this is the generation that will uproot the culture of death from our land and transform it into a culture of life - but only if they are truly Catholic. Who else can set them straight on that except the Vicar of Christ?
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International
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