Category: Columns

On
George Weigel

The covenant of marriage

My son Stephen and I recently attended the golden wedding anniversary celebration of my friends Piotr and Teresa Malecki.

It began with a Mass of Thanksgiving in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of Cracow’s Wawel Cathedral — the place where Piotr and Teresa had exchanged vows on July 4, 1964, kneeling before their old kayaking and hiking friend, the archbishop of Cracow (who, as St. John Paul II, was canonized two months before the Maleckis’ jubilee).

Network of Wojtyla’s friends

Piotr Malecki, Karol Wojtyla’s altar boy at St. Florian Parish and the self-described “enfant terrible” of that network of Wojtyla’s friends known as Srodowisko, is a distinguished physicist.

Teresa Malecka, who had to convince Wojtyla (whom she and others called Wujek, “Uncle”) that she was ready for marriage at age 20, is an accomplished musicologist and the former vice-dean of the Cracow Academy of Music.

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Fr. Robert Barron

Christian themes in The Giver

Lois Lowry’s 1993 novel The Giver has garnered a wide audience over the past two decades, since it has become a standard text in middle schools and high schools across the English-speaking world.

With the enormous success of the Harry Potter, Twilight, and Hunger Games films, Hollywood has been busy adapting books written for the young adult audience. The most recent is the movie version of The Giver, produced by Jeff Bridges and starring Bridges and Meryl Streep.

Having never heard of the novel, I came at the film with no expectations, and I confess I was surprised both by the power of its societal critique and its implicit Christian themes.

Seemingly perfect city

The story is set in a seemingly utopian city, where there is no conflict, no inequality, and no stress. The streets are laid out in a perfectly symmetrical grid, the buildings are clean, and people dress in matching outfits and ride bicycles so as not to pollute the environment.

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On
Tony Magliano

Revisiting the just war theory

Is there such a thing as a just war? Can the massive death and destruction of armed conflict ever be morally justified by followers of the Prince of Peace?

For the first disciples of Christ the answer was a resounding “No!”

Following Jesus’ command

During the first 300 years of Christianity, it was unthinkable for followers of the nonviolent Jesus to kill a human being.

They took most seriously Jesus’ command: “But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other as well. . . . Put your sword back into its sheath, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”

Typical of early Church teaching on nonviolence, St. Clement of Alexandria said to wealthy Christians, “Contrary to the rest of men, enlist for yourself an army without weapons, without war, without bloodshed, without wrath, without stain — pious old men, orphans dear to God, widows armed with gentleness, men adorned with love.”

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On
Fr. Robert Barron

Arguing about moral matters

In his classic text After Virtue, the philosopher Alisdair MacIntyre lamented, not so much the immorality that runs rampant in our contemporary society, but something more fundamental and in the long run more dangerous; namely, that we are no longer even capable of having a real argument about moral matters.

The assumptions that once undergirded any coherent conversation about ethics, he said, are no longer taken for granted or universally shared. The result is that, in regard to questions of what is right and wrong, we simply talk past one another, or more often, scream at each other.

Red flags go up

I thought of MacIntyre’s observation when I read an article on the Supreme Court’s consideration of the much-vexed issue of gay marriage.

It was reported that, in the wake of the oral arguments, Justice Elena Kagan remarked, “Whenever someone expresses moral disapproval in a legal context, the red flag of discrimination goes up for me.”

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On
Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

Is artificial insemination wrong? Even among married couples?

Editor’s note: This column contains some information that might not be suitable for younger readers.

Artificial insemination introduces sperm into a woman’s body by use of a thin tube (cannula) or other instrument to bring about a pregnancy.

Artificial insemination can be either homologous (using sperm from a woman’s husband) or heterologous (using sperm from a man she is not married to). Both forms of artificial insemination raise significant moral concerns.

Treating people as objects

Bringing about a pregnancy by introducing a cannula through the reproductive tract of a woman and injecting sperm into her body raises concerns about reducing her to a kind of conduit for the purposes of obtaining a child.

These actions fail to respect the most personal and intimate aspects of a woman’s relational femininity and her sexuality. She ends up being treated or treating herself as an “object” for the pursuit of ulterior ends.

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Fr. Donald Lange

Reflections on work as we mark Labor Day

Labor Day offers us opportunities to reflect upon the value, blessings, and crosses of work from the perspective of Catholic spirituality. Since we spend much time working and commuting to work, such reflection is important.

In Genesis 1:26 God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” By our work, we honor the gifts and talents we received from God. Our work helps us to co-create with God by transforming creation in ways that benefit humanity, reflect Christ-like values, and bring creation to its completion and fulfillment.

Transforming the world — and ourselves

When we make crutches or rosaries, or write about poverty, we ought to feel good because our work benefits others. When we prepare meals, grow crops, or repair computers, we should be proud because our work serves others.

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Fr. Donald Lange

Teachers are important for a good school year

The new school year invites us to reflect upon teachers’ importance.

Though they sometimes fall short like other humans, good teachers influence our youth who are the hope of the future. Through their classes pass future lawyers, doctors, reporters, writers, farmers, secretaries, engineers, and other shapers of tomorrow’s world.

Good teachers know and love their subject and their students. Coaches, chaperones, parents, counselors, and others who contribute to the school also teach youth. They often are role models.

We may have memories of teachers who made a difference. Some taught elementary school; others taught junior high, and still others taught high school or college. They often differed, but they had one trait in common. They cared about us, shared the subject that they loved, and helped us to grow. We should remember to thank them.

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Fr. Robert Barron

Why I love my invisible friend

One of the favorite taunts of the New Atheists is that religious people believe in an “invisible friend.”

They are implying, of course, that religion is little more than a pathetic exercise in wishful thinking, a reversion to childish patterns of projection and self-protection. It is well past time, they say, for believers to grow up, leave their cherished fantasies behind, and face the real world.

In offering this characterization, the New Atheists are showing themselves to be disciples of the old atheists such as Feuerbach, Marx, Comte, and Freud, all of whom made more or less similar observations.

I’m writing here to let atheists know that I think they’re right, at least about God being an invisible friend. Where they’re wrong is in supposing that surrendering to this unseen reality is de-humanizing or infantilizing.

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Lillian Quinones

POLST: A Catholic moral dilemma (part two)

Author’s note:  “God is the foundation of hope: not any god, but the God who has a human face and who has loved us to the end, each one of us and humanity in its entirety. His Kingdom is not an imaginary hereafter, situated in a future that will never arrive; his Kingdom is present wherever he is loved and wherever his love reaches us. His love alone gives us the possibility of soberly persevering day by day, without ceasing to be spurred on by hope, in a world which by its very nature is imperfect” (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Spei Salvi).

The words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI articulate the unique aspect of hope in the Catholic paradigm. In Part II of POLST: A Catholic Moral Dilemma, Dr. Franklin Smith contrasts POLST to the Catholic approach to end-of-life decision-making.

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Jean Mueller

Concerns about parent’s financial status

Q Our family is very small, just my brother and me. “Roger” is younger and always seemed to have trouble keeping a job. The result is he has lived at home all of his life. He is in his 40s.

My concern is that he is heavily dependent on my mom — dad died a few years ago. Mom is 73 years old and has the means to support him for now, but her health is changing, and I am worried that she will not have enough to provide for her own needs because she always puts his needs first.

He recently accompanied her to the bank and had his name placed on her checks so he can write checks for her. He stated it was to make it easier for mom. I think he is going to help himself to her money. Mom seems to trust that he will be responsible.

Is this financial abuse? And, what are the options to change this?

(From a son in Sauk City)

A This is a great question about a very difficult situation.

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