Choosing Classical Education Over Common Core

Students at St. John Bosco, Rochester, NY
(Photo source: stjohnbosco.org.)

On April 28, the National Catholic Register published an article by Peter Jesserer Smith on the growing number of Catholic schools and systems converting from conventional progressive education to classical — or perhaps we should say neo-classical — liberal arts education. While one hundred American sees, just over half, have elected to conform to Common Core, widespread rejection of the controversial curriculum is creating greater demand for an alternative to homeschooling, leading to more charter and non-profit startups.

The Problem of Education

Catholics aren’t the only ones returning to the trivium. Philip Kilgore, director of the nonsectarian Hillsdale College’s Barney Charter Schools Initiative, told Smith that “[parental] dissatisfaction with contemporary education has been driving the demand for a return to the classical tradition.” Says Kilgore, “I speak with so many people from every corner of this land who are eager to do something about the problem of education.”

Many people from various ideological backgrounds agree that American K-12 education is failing. Some, like Prof. Jack Schneider, would contest this, pointing to tests of limited scope, like the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) test, that purport to show American schools as doing well. Others, like Frederick M. Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, seem to recognize the problem only insofar as it affects the production of hire-ready future employees, as if the only worthwhile goal of education were to generate Homo oeconomicus.

The most commonly-perceived problem, however, is that the current systems produce moral and cultural illiterates, that the systems have abandoned teaching children how to think in favor of teaching them what to think. Writes Patrick J. Deneen:

We have fallen into the bad and unquestioned habit of thinking that our educational system is broken, but it is working on all cylinders. … Our students are the achievement of a systemic commitment to producing individuals without a past for whom the future is a foreign country, cultureless ciphers who can live anywhere and perform any kind of work without inquiring about its purposes or ends, perfected tools for an economic system that prizes “flexibility” (geographic, interpersonal, ethical).

Book Review: To the Martyrs, by Cdl. Donald Wuerl

To the Martyrs: A Reflection on the Supreme Christian Witness

Cdl. Donald Wuerl

Emmaus Road Publishing

Cover Price: $22.95

Recommended

 Anti-Christians condemn Christians for their hypocrisy. However, not a single Christian martyr has ever suffered persecution by non-Christians for failing to live the gospel message perfectly. Rather, Christians were and are persecuted just for associating themselves with the gospel message in the first place. Imperfection of religious practice has hardly been a barrier to execution, imprisonment, maiming, rape, or torture by those who hate Christianity and that for which they think it stands.

This is the first thought that occurs to me after reading To the Martyrs: A Reflection on the Supreme Christian Witness by Cdl. Donald Wuerl. The title reflects both the title of a letter by the Church Father Tertullian and Wuerl’s own personal fascination with, and dedication to, the millions of martyrs and confessors who have been “the seeds of the Church” over the last two millennia. It’s a “reflection” as well in that it’s obviously not an exhaustive treatment of martyrdom intended for scholars and Church historians, but rather a brief overview for the ordinary layman. Written in a very accessible style, it has just enough footnotes to show that the good archbishop didn’t rely on his own memory or make things up as he went along.

As one reads To the Martyrs, though, a theme recurs. G. K. Chesterton famously noted that the Christian ideal hadn’t been “tried hard, and found wanting,” but rather had been “found difficult; and left untried.” However, as Cdl. Wuerl shows, the centuries of persecution didn’t come from people who found the Christian ideal too difficult to live up to, but rather from people who found that ideal too challenging, too uncomfortable to live with.

“A climate in which belief may flourish”

Austin Farrer. (Image source: bbc.co.uk)

Recently, my friend Devin Rose, who works for Fr. Joseph Barron’s WordOnFire.org and runs St. Joseph’s Vanguard, posted this lengthy comment on his Facebook page (edited for format):

Have you ever had an idea, one that is strong and meaningful but tough to articulate, and then you stumble upon a quote that brings it into sudden focus? Such a quote flashes like lightning around the idea, illuminating it and allowing you to see it clearly for the first time.
I had the experience tonight after discovering a remark by Austin Farrer, an Oxford scholar and close friend of C.S. Lewis:

For though argument does not create conviction, the lack of it destroys belief. What seems to be proved may not be embraced; but what no one shows the ability to defend is quickly abandoned. Rational argument does not create belief, but it maintains a climate in which belief may flourish. [in Jocelyn Gibb, ed., Light on C. S. Lewis (1966)]

I’ve spent hundreds of hours over the last couple years exchanging arguments with all sorts of unbelieving friends — atheists, agnostics, and other labels I didn’t know existed. Some fellow Catholics have warned me that, “Nobody has ever been argued into the Church,” or that, “Evangelization is more about the way you live than the arguments you give.” Neither sentiment ever rang true with me, at least not completely, but I couldn’t explain why.
Then I discovered Dr. Farrer’s quote, which affirmed two key convictions that have brewed within me during these many encounters. First, without arguments or good reasons to believe in God, most Christians will abandon their faith — especially while they are young. Religious experience and devotion can only carry people so far. Most of the atheists and agnostics I engage were raised in Christian homes, but ones that provided no intellectual support.
Second, Christianity is not even a viable option for most non-believers if, to them, it lacks respectable arguments. It’s not that they won’t find the Gospel compelling without good, supporting reasons; it’s that they won’t even consider it. Without a strong intellectual basis, they’ll pay Christianity as much attention as Scientology or Hinduism.

Pope Francis, Islam and jihad

A troubling passage in Evangelii Gaudium

Andrew Bieszad, a scholar on Islam, seems to believe Pope Francis is teaching error — or, at least, opiniones intolerata — about the “Ishmaelites”:

For Islamic scholars, there is a statement in the apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, which is particularly troubling:

Faced with disconcerting episodes of violent fundamentalism, our respect for true followers of Islam should lead us to avoid hateful generalisations, for authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence. (p. 253)

As the situation in the Middle East escalates, and the violence of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) spills rivers of innocent Christian blood, this statement seems incongruous with reality.

From Bieszad’s perspective, Francis is apparently taking an attitude not taken by our forefathers in the faith; to assert this, Bieszad not only quotes the defiance spoken by a big handful of martyrs, but also theological heavyweight Saints John Damascene, Thomas Aquinas, and Alphonse Ligouri, not to mention latter-day hero Hilaire Belloc. If Bieszad doesn’t go so far as to call the pope a heretic, he does manage to imply that Francis is both wrong and a Neville Chamberlain-type appeaser.

The funny thing, though, is that the Islamic scholar doesn’t directly dispute Francis’ assertion, “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence,” with any citation of the Koran or mainstream Islamic scholars. Rather, he seems content to let the juxtaposition of Francis’ words and ISIS’ deeds do the work for him.

Another funny thing: When I began writing about eleven years ago, I was initially writing to defend the Catholic faith against the slanders and misunderstandings of Protestants and non-believers. Now, I spend an increasing amount of time correcting fellow Catholics. And thereby hangs a point.

Pope Francis and the “issues trap”

Joanne McPortland’s amusing “Parable of the Papal Interview” expressed a simple truth: orthodox Catholics who have actually read the interview Pope Francis gave Fr. Antonio Spadaro, SJ have mostly loved it. Forget what you’ve read elsewhere: Pope Francis may be unorthodox in his style, but his substance is by no means heterodox.

So I had to chuckle when a troll popped up in the combox to say, “Not at all a good parable because it is so predictable. Right wing cognitive dissonance over the Pope’s interview prevents them from really hearing what he said.”

You see, this piece of complacent snottiness popped up after the rest of the progressive world was gobsmacked by what the AP’s Nicole Winfield, in her original lede, called Francis’ “bizarre U-turn”: a speech given Thursday to Italian gynecologists, in which he slammed abortion and euthanasia as parts of a “throwaway culture”. Talk about cognitive dissonance — Matthew Balan of NewsBusters observes that Winfield’s new lede still tries to preserve the “progressive” box in which media liberals have put Papa Bergoglio by calling it an “olive branch” offered to the “more doctrine-minded, conservative wing”.

This is what comes of not paying close attention to what the Pope is saying, of trying to pigeonhole any pope — hell, any major player. My buddy Frank Weathers, for instance, points us to a 2006 speech in which Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI also spoke of the “issues trap” to Swiss bishops on their ad limina visit. And Marcel LeJeune of Aggie Catholics includes other quotes that, taken by themselves, would lead one to conclude that B16 is a liberal. Quoth the wise man Thomas L. McDonald, “There is not a hairsbreadth of difference between the theology of Francis and Benedict.” Different styles, same substance.

The Catechism and the Year of Faith

On Thursday, October 11, in his motu proprio Porta Fidei (“The Door of Faith”)[*], Pope Benedict XVI officially opened the Year of Faith.  Thursday was chosen because it marked the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican II, and because “[it] also marks the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a text promulgated by my Predecessor, Blessed John Paul II [Fidei Depositum, 1992], with a view to illustrating for all the faithful the power and beauty of the faith” (Porta Fidei 4).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is itself a remarkable achievement.  Originally promulgated in French in 1992, when the English version hit the bookstands a couple of years later, it quickly rocketed to the top of the New York Times bestseller list and remained there for some weeks.  Revised once since then, it has become, as JP2 intended, the “sure norm for teaching the faith” (FD IV), the first reference of choice (outside of the Bible) for many Catholic writers. 

It’s also virtually become the ultimate “argument ender”, which is something of a misuse of its function. 

Certainly, the Catechism is an admirably comprehensive synthesis of two thousand years’ teaching and thought; it’s almost (but not quite) safe to say that “If’n it ain’t in the Catechism, the Church don’t teach it!”[†]  At the same time, though, Michael J. Wrenn and Kenneth D. Whitehead rightfully point out that the Catechism doesn’t distinguish between doctrines that are de fide (formally defined as part of the revelation) and those that are merely sententia communis (not formally defined but generally accepted).[1]  Indeed, for all its comprehensiveness and depth, the Catechism is by its nature only the beginning of one’s education in the faith, and constantly points outside itself to Scripture, patristics, conciliar documents and writings of the saints.

Some cold water for your chicken sandwich and waffle fries

Here it is, August 1, and the anti-Chick-fil-A crusade has reached “epic fail” proportions.  Far from hurting Dan Cathy through his pocketbook, the threatened boycott has generated the Atlanta-based QSR (and owner/CEO Cathy) millions of dollars of extra business plus new regular customers, assuring that the boycott will continue to generate revenue even after Mike Huckabee’s anti-boycott fades into memory.

The British Submarine Service used to have a saying: “Never mind your enemies; watch out for your friends.”  That was because a number of subs had been lost at sea when they were struck by surface ships from their own fleets.  Boston mayor Dan Menino and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel did the pro-SSM marriage cause more harm than good by their over-the-top threats to ratchet their zoning and permit laws against the chicken chain.  While other cities have joined the witch-hunt, the ACLU (mirabile dictu) has fired their own shot across the various cities’ bows:  barring Chick-fil-A over the personal views of its owner is an “open and shut” discrimination case.  The Boston Globe and the Chicago Sun-Times, neither of which qualifies as a right-wing paper, have both criticized their local leaders for their threats of repressive tactics, and even AndrewSullivan wrote a we’re-better-than-that piece for the Daily Beast [reposted to his blog on The Dish].  Put simply, the “ban Chick-fil-A” movement will die faster than Huckabee’s candidacy did.

What we’re seeing is an authentically liberal backlash against a budding ersatz-liberal totalitarianism.  However, we have to wonder if the backlash has enough staying power to open up space for traditional-marriage supporters to be heard.  The kids may eat the chicken, but will they listen to us after they’ve munched the last waffle fry?

“The best is yet to come!”

I’d like to start with a story my cousin Greg sent me the other day:

There was a young woman who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and had been given three months to live.  So as she was getting her things in order, she contacted her Pastor and had him come to her house to discuss certain aspects of her final wishes.  She told him which songs she wanted sung at the service, what Scriptures she would like read, and what outfit she wanted to be buried in.

Everything was in order and the Pastor was preparing to leave when the young woman suddenly remembered something very important to her.

“There’s one more thing,” she said excitedly.

“What’s that?” came the Pastor’s reply.

“This is very important,” the young woman continued.  “I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand.”

The Pastor stood looking at the young woman, not knowing quite what to say.

“That surprises you, doesn’t it?” the young woman asked.

“Well, to be honest, I’m puzzled by the request,” said the Pastor.

The young woman explained.  “My grandmother once told me this story, and from that time on I have always tried to pass along its message to those I love and those who are in need of encouragement.  ‘In all my years of attending socials and dinners, I always remember that when the dishes of the main course were being cleared, someone would inevitably lean over and say, “Keep your fork.”  It was my favorite part because I knew that something better was coming ... like velvety chocolate cake or deep-dish apple pie. Something wonderful, and with substance!’

You like me! You really like me!

I've heard of chain letters ... but chain awards?

No worries.  The Liebster Blog (Liebster = Ger. "dear, darling") is really a good way to get people to follow some of the more obscure blogs in the Catholic blogosphere.  You can either follow forward and read the wonderful blogs I've picked — the trick was whittling them down to five — or follow backwards to see who picked me (Subvet from Blowing San #1), and who picked them, and so on and so forth.  Either way, you're bound to find some good new writers.

Here are the rules: 

1. Copy and paste the Major Award to my blog.
2. Link back the person who gave me the award.
3. Pick out five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.
4. Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs.

And my five picks?  Hmmmmmmm ....

• Linen on the Hedgerow: Just barely qualified with 181 followers, Richard Collins helps keep me up to speed with what's happening in the Catholic Church in England (as opposed to the Church of England — all that's happening there is a falling into a genteel desuetude).  Great fun, a ripping good read, with all the dry, understated humor you'd expect from an Englishman of some education.
• not a minx, a moron, or a parasite: Pretty, witty and wise beyond her years, Trista Leigh is one of the Bright Maidens whose praises I sing as "what feminism should have produced but couldn't".  For a good sample of her writing, try the first one I read: "Wearing Crucifixes and Condoms".
• St. Joseph's Vanguard:  The home of Catholic Answers apologist and author Devin Rose.  His book If Protestantism is True (which I reviewed on The Impractical Catholic) has 327 "likes" on Facebook — far too few for such a great apologetics tool — but his blog has a mere 57 followers.  A really nice guy who writes with great intelligence and charity.  Go read him and bulk up that number.
• The Corner with a View: Julie Robison is another of the Bright Maidens ... attractive, intelligent and confident.  Most of her posts have great extracts from great literature and poetry, wonderful passages from saints, mystics and popes, but occasionally doing the pop references (like this great quote from Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame).  Go have your mind enriched.
• Catholic Boy Richard:  I just discovered Richard a couple of months ago.  A former Protestant minister who was involved in LGBT causes, he writes with great charity and enthusiasm ... a truly pleasant change from all the bitter, sarcastic and angry blogs that (as Simcha Fisher once said) "always make me want to hide in the catacombs, to get away from those awful Catholics.  Brrr."
• HONORABLE MENTION — Kissing the Leper: You read Elise Hilton's blog and you'll see why I couldn't find it in my heart to leave her out.

So many other people I wish I could have listed but: 1) they have too many followers; or 2) I couldn't verify the number; or 3) he already nominated me, so nominating him back would defeat the purpose; or 4) their writing has been sporadic due to other obligations (the other Bright Maiden, Elizabeth Hillgrove at Startling the Day, and my friend Rob Hall's Road to Rome).

So what are you doing still here? Go read these great writers and spread their names around!

Thank God for atheists?

The Russian proverb tells us that “perfect” is the enemy of “good enough”. So it is.

I’ve argued before that, in our spiritual lives, God demands “perfect” from us in order to get “good enough”, that if we merely shoot for “good enough”, we fall short. He does this for our benefit, not His own, to get us to “be all that we can be”. Athletes don’t compete for “honorable mention” (cf. 1 Cor 9:24-27); actors and musicians don’t settle for a “tolerable” performance; cooks and bakers don’t aim to make their food merely edible. As Richard Nixon (ironically) growled to an aide that suggested he make his administration remembered for “competence”, “Hell, if all we do is manage things ten percent better, we’ll never be remembered for anything.”[1]

I mention this because in the reality of blogging, as in many other spheres of life, external pressures push us for settling for “good enough”. The more frequently you publish, the more likely your blog will come up on the first page of Google, Bing and Yahoo. To increase your chances of making a difference in one person’s life, you have to increase your readership; that’s the only justification for blogging, as far as I’m concerned … I can do other things to make money.

This inevitably means that you’ll publish posts that, on re-reading, will disappoint. Only one so far has been so bad I had to delete it. Yesterday’s post said more or less what I mean, but it leaves open a big question: “If atheism is so unattractive and unpersuasive, then why is atheism growing?”

Come now, let us reason together

On October 1 on The Impractical Catholic I posted the news out of Rockford, Illinois that the state Department of Public Health had suspended the license of the Northern Illinois Women’s Center, an abortion mill most notable for the anti-Catholic antics of its owner and employees, and now established as completely uncaring of their patients’ health. After making some grimly celebratory remarks, especially on how access is far more important to the hard-core pro-aborts than is women’s health, I added a YouTube clip of Queen’s video “Another One Bites the Dust”.

The only comment I got was this piece of whiny snottiness:

I find it quite ironic that you use a song that was written and performed [by] a *gasp* HOMOSEXUAL to celebrate this.

Why do I even waste my time, we all know you are going to keep on trying to keep others down ....

I no longer make any attempts to prove I’m a nice guy with plenty of friends both straight and gay, conservative and liberal, Catholic and non-Catholic. For one thing, people like “Poosy” don’t listen, don’t care, and won’t believe me anyway. For another, it reminds me too much of the old Jewish joke about anti-Semites: “Some of my best friends are Jews.” So of course “Poosy” finds it ironic: in the cramped, angry little box of her ideology, I’m not allowed to have gay friends or to appreciate good music performed by homosexuals because it would detract from my all-encompassing homophobia.

Salvation and invincible ignorance

In the combox under “Startling revelation! Catholic Church against gay marriage!” writes concerned reader Lori Bisser:

Hi, I am respectfully wondering in this portion: “Should the liberals leave the Church? I’m sure a few of my fellow bloggers would wish for it. But when Jesus asked the Twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ they responded, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life’ (Jn 6:67-68). If you care for someone, you wish for their conversion of heart; to wish them out of the Church is not much better than wishing them to go to hell … in fact, the two desires are almost equivalent.” Are you saying that if a person is not Catholic, they are going to hell? Or am I making a giant leap?

Yes, you are respectful, Ms. Bisser, and for that I thank you. As for whether it’s a leap …?

Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus: “Outside the Church there is no salvation.” You hear this quite frequently with hard-line conservatives, especially those who wish Vatican II undone and hold little respect for the popes who have followed Ven. Pius XII (1939-1958). But this maxim is not as absolute as some might think (or wish).

The Catholic circular firing squad

Lyndon Johnson once quipped that he didn’t play favorites with any of his staff: “I treat everyone with the same general inconsideration.”

Mark Shea is fair in a similar fashion — he’s just as sarcastic towards the idiots on the right as he is towards the idiots on the left. One day he defends Michael Voris and his webmaster Simon Rafe against unjust accusations; another day he tells us what Voris’ real failings are. How can you not like him?

(Very easily; some people just can’t get past the snark to see the passionate, sincere concern that drives his incessant output. For all that, I find I like his brand of no-holds-barred apologetics much better than I like Voris’.)

But Shea believes that, to a certain extent, many of the attacks on Rafe are logical outcomes of the “inquisitorial culture Voris is fostering”; that is, many Catholic pundits are no longer drawing bright lines between fraternal correction and judgmentalism. “This sort of rubbish illustrates everything I was trying to say [in criticism of Michael Voris (see the above link)] about the tendency of this small but growing subculture in the Church to eat its young,” he huffed this morning.

One comment, by Dale Price, captured the image perfectly: “The Circular Catholic Firing Squad is an awful thing to watch.” [Alas! since The Blogger Who Must Not Be Named has moved his blog to Patheos, you can't see the comment in context — the old Blogger site forwards you to the copy on Patheos.]

Christians: Read the atheist's whole post!

If anything, the responses I got to “The Golden Calf of Scientism” on The Impractical Catholic have provided some good blogging material. One reply, in fact, dovetails nicely with a reply Jennifer Fulweiler got on a recent post.

In “The Golden Calf”, I listed some ways that some scientists misuse or violate the scientific method. One example was, “They cherry-pick statistics and results that support their arguments, while leaving out those that contraindicate.” A respondent jumped on that line:

[I]s this the definition of science or religion. Is this not what most, if not all, [Christians] do today. Scream/preach about the parts that make others sinners and ignore and overlook the parts that make you one. [How original … a tu quoque argument. Yawn.]

Fulweiler, for her part, was telling us that, for some atheists, it’s insufficient merely to reason with them because they’re “trapped in a prison of reason”; that is, they have an answer for everything, so logical arguments become fruitlessly repetitive. To this end, she quoted a couple of paragraphs about the insane from G. K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy. And in her combox, what do I find?

“[Prison] of reason”? Some might call that sanity. [Yes, and some North Koreans might find their cultural paranoia very reasonable. But that’s not the point.]

Why Eucharistic adoration builds parishes

Is perpetual adoration “THE solution”?

You keep reading Catholic blogs long enough, and you start amassing a load of anecdotal evidence for any number of antidotes to the illnesses besetting the stateside Church: getting rid of the EMHCs, restricting the post of altar server to boys only, reverting to chant and sacred polyphony, even getting rid of the Novus Ordo Mass altogether and going back wholesale to the 1962 Missal. Certainly it seems that the closer a parish gets to Catholic orthodoxy and traditional emphases, the more likely it is to start flourishing again.

Now, I have an ingrained, constitutional suspicion about magic cure-all elixirs, especially when it consists of drastic policy changes sprung on unprepared, unsuspecting congregations. Again, working from anecdotal evidence, it seems to me that most such things work best when the pastor works enthusiastically to get the parish movers and shakers on board and introduces the changes gradually.

Of the long-term approaches, one I favor is switching parish schools to a classical curriculum as has been done by a few already, such as The Atonement Academy at Our Lady of the Atonement parish in San Antonio, St. Jerome Academy in Hyattsville, MD, and St. Pius X Classical Academy in Nashville. The other is the re-introduction of perpetual adoration.

Father Corapi and authentic Christian witness

In about the year 52 BC, the great Roman demagogue Publius Clodius Pulcher was accused of profaning a religious ritual. In this escapade, Pompeia, the wife of Julius Caesar, was also accused as his accomplice. At Clodius’ trial, Caesar refused to give evidence: he wasn’t present, since it was a women’s festival. However, he also divorced Pompeia. When asked why, he stated, “Because my wife shouldn’t even be a suspect.” (Another tradition phrases it: “Caesar’s wife, like all Caesar’s family, must be above suspicion.”)

Another story: The chief rabbi of the yeshiva approached young Moskowitz, and said, “My heart is heavy, and my words are like lead: for I have heard a rumor about you—” Young Moskowitz interrupted, “It’s all lies! I know the rumor you’re speaking of, Rabbi, and there’s not a shred of truth in it!” Upon which the rabbi reared up and thundered, “True it should be yet? Isn’t it bad enough that there’s a rumor?”

It was said that the great Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner “would not allow himself to fall into a position in the privacy of his bedchamber that he would not assume in the chamber of the Senate.” Just so; the secret to maintaining the appearance of a moral person is to maintain the appearance even when no one’s watching and there’s no way you could get caught being immoral.

Lost in transmission

Let’s reflect for a moment on some words Cdl. Séan O’Malley of Boston wrote about the recent flap over a church offering a Mass in celebration of Gay Pride Month:

The Church opposes changing the definition of marriage because to do so would weaken one of the oldest and most sacred institutions of human society. The most recent Census revealed that married households are, for the first time, in the minority in our country. The culture of easy divorce, cohabitation and the redefinition of marriage are all threats to strong family life. For this reason, the Church will always defend traditional marriage. This does not mean that we reject anyone.

Before moving forward, we should pay careful attention to what he’s saying. Whatever else can be said about gay relationships — and there’s much that bears discussion — they’re not the only concern the Catholic Church has about the state of marriage and sexual relationships today. And marriage and sexual relationships aren’t the only concern of the Church. Gay marriage simply happens to be one of the hot topics of today.

This is worth underlining because of the impression people have about the Church’s “obsessive concern” over what people do in the sack. If there were a movement to legalize perjury or petty larceny, we’d doubtless hear moans about the Church’s antiquated and unscientific hatred of lying and theft, along with some resentful condemnations of the Church’s resistance.

Will iPhones replace churches?

Lisa Miller, the former religion editor of Newsweek, sees in smartphone apps the death of the church as we know it. And from all appearances, she’s happy about it.

“With Scripture on iPhones and iPads, believers can bypass constraining religious structures — otherwise known as ‘church’ — in favor of a more individual connection with God,” Miller gloats in “My take: How technology could bring down the church” on CNN.com’s “Belief Blog”. “This helps solve a problem that Christian leaders are increasingly articulating: that even among people who say that Jesus Christ is their personal Lord and savior, folks don’t read the Bible.”

Young Christians “have come to expect experiences that appear unscripted and interactive,” the Christian demographer Dave Kinnaman told the Christian magazine Charisma in 2009, “that allow them to be open and honest with their questions, that are technologically stimulating, that are done alongside peers and within trusted relationships.”

This yearning for a more unmediated faith — including Bible verses live in your pocket or purse 24/7, available to inspire or console wherever and whenever they’re needed — has met an enthusiastic embrace.

“It is not too much to say that the King James Bible … democratized religion by taking it out of the hands of the clerical few and giving it to the many,” Miller claims a little earlier. “Just like the 500-year-old Protestant Reformation …, changes wrought by new technology have the potential to bring down the church as we know it.”

Oh yes, those big, bad clerics. Christianity versus “Churchianity”.

Cohabitation versus conforming to Christ

In a clear contender for the Spinal Crosier Award of 2011, Archbishop Michael Sheehan of Santa Fe has issued a pastoral letter to his see, “Pastoral Care of Couples Who Are Cohabiting”.

In the letter, Abp. Sheehan forbids couples who are not married in the Church yet living together to receive the sacraments until their situations are regularized, as well as from acting as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion and as godparents. Even more remarkably, he instructs pastors to “preach on the gravity of sin and its evil consequences, the 6th and 9th Commandments of God, and the sacramental nature and meaning of Christian marriage”, and insists that “Our catechetical programs in our parishes—children, youth, and adult—must clearly and repeatedly teach these truths.”

Of course, we’ve already gotten a whine from the Fishwrap. In a comment hysterically titled “Sheehan’s threats to cohabiting couples”, Heidi Schlumpf (I’m not making this up; I swear that’s her name) sneers, “It seems Sheehan has no real interest in persuading or teaching, but rather only punishing those who disagree with him. Oh, and making those who already agree with him happy for ‘laying down the law.’” Father John Zuhlsdorf rightfully diagnosed Schlumpf’s complaint: “Bishops who talk clearly and straight, even when they are right … are mean.  They are mean old mean meanies.”

But my purpose here is not to take her argument apart; I leave that to Fr. Z and LarryD of Acts of the Apostasy. Rather, I’d like to compare it with a post recently written by Melinda Selmys of Sexual Authenticity, “God Made Me This Way”.

Catholicism and sanity

There are not a hundred people in America who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions of people who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church—which is, of course, quite a different thing.

—Abp. Fulton J. Sheen

Last week, when I had that attack of writer’s block, my good friend Larry sent me an email reply. Here it is, in part:

… [Y]ou are attracting readership because you have strong spirit in your writing and you have passion for the subject matter. There is a lot going on in the world. “Scary wrath of God stuff”; maybe what your readers need is some comfort (perhaps a new perspective wouldn’t hurt you either). God is with us always; I am reminded of the poem “Footprints”. He carries us in our time of need. … Catholicism has been providing this confidence to parishioners for centuries. This is the one thing that sets it apart from other Christian ideals.

Larry does have a point. I did say, in reply, that there are two sides to the doctrinal coin; as I’ve pointed out elsewhere, God’s mercy is meaningless if we deny God’s justice. However, a steady diet of “scary wrath of God stuff” does tend to beat the joy out of anyone.