Catholic Events Worse than the current Child-Abuse Scandals

My parents and I had another sort of fight tonight, by which I mean, our local newspaper covered a story of a priest who served at my parish church and was now pleading guilty for child molestation, etc.

My dad was furious and did the usual Protestant thing of the Church is evil, etc. And asked me why I defend it. My response was equally bold, I said its because the church is the bride of Christ (unblemished), and that "the Catholic Church is the Kingdom of Christ on Earth". This didn't go over well. My dad kind of stormed off and dragged my mom with him.

They hate it when I cite worse things the Church has done and that I will stand by it no matter what (barring doctrinal contradiction). So I stated worse things imputable to the Catholic faith, and in the interest of education - lest we think we suffer the worst - I will remind everyone of a day not celebrated much anymore: St. Bartholomew's Day.

The St. Bartholemew's Day Massacre:
On August 23, 1572, French Catholics massacred over 5000 Huguenots (French Protestants). Higher estimates say 20 000 Protestants. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Bartholomew's_Day_massacre#Death_toll)

The severed head of the leader of the Huguenots was sent to the Pope as a gift, and when they heard the news in Rome, they rang Church bells in celebration. In fact, the Pope commissioned paintings of this event, because it was a work of divine providence (according to his Holiness).

The Spanish Armada:
The Pope excommunicated Elizabeth I in late 16th century England, even though it is doubtful she was ever a Catholic. This was the late medieval equivalent to painting a target on a ruler, and some say that it was much more like puttinga price on her head. The Pope then supported in 1588 the Spanish in their attempt to invade England and violently overthrow the Queen in order to re-institute Catholicism on the then half-Protestant nation.

Confessional Rumors:
All across Victorian England it was a generally accepted fact that Romish priests had sex with women in the confessional and that Catholic clergy used convents as brothels. There were stories of priests who allegedly ran away with women they had secretly converted and stolen from their husbands, and in general Catholicism was seen as a subversive and virtueless system of priestcraft that destroyed morality and true Christianity. It was illegal until 1829 in Britain.

...so ya. The Roman Church has seen and survived much darker days...

On a different note, I got my package from the Jesuits today and am totally excited by all the info. But for the first time in my life I feel pressured into a more Roman Catholic position because of my parents. When you get alienated that much by your family, and you're even considering priesthood, it kind of skews your options in favor of it, if only to escape home and have someone else take care of you (the Society).

St. Ignatius and Our Lady of Monserrat

There's an interesting moment in the life of St. Ignatius Loyola, where he almost violently kills someone in defense of the perpetual virginity of Mary (St. Jerome would be proud), and then within days hangs up all of his sword and army equipment infront of an image of Our Lady of Monserrat, in what I perceive as a sort of spiritual surrender to God. It reminds me of the Newman quote where he writes that we are not merely civilians in need of a captain (Christ) but rebels who must lay down our arms.

I found an English translation of the hymn to Our Lady of Monserrat that is sung daily in the monastery:

"Rose of April, woman of the mountain,
star of Montserrat,
light up the catalan land
guide us to the sky
guide us to the sky

With a golden saw, the little angels sawed,
with a golden saw, those peaks,
to make your palace,
to make your palace.
Queen of the Sky, that the Séraphins took down
Queen of the Sky Give us a shelter in your blue coat,
in your blue coat.

Rose of April, woman of the mountain,
star of Montserrat,
light up the catalan land
guide us to the sky
guide us to the sky"

At the monastery, Ignatius confessed his sins before going off into a period of even greater conversion. I burst out laughing when I read in Catholic Encyclopedia the snide remark of the historian: "evidence tends to show that his own subsequent humble confessions of having been a great sinner should not be treated as pious exaggerations" (I want that on my gravestone).

The funny thing is the way I see -from albeit a very cursory glance at his life- him switch from one passion to the next. It's like Thomism in reverse. While that school teaches a man must subvert his passions to his reason, Ignatius seems to fall like Kierkegaard into the camp of Faith being the stongest passion. He was a very passionate man (and yet it was a passion for Christ). I think it's funny how he read about the saints and wanted to outdo them. I don't think that's pride necessarily as Holy Writ orders us to "provoke one another to love and good deeds" (Heb. 10:24).

I see in him a successful version of what I want to be. I told a friend the other day that I want to be a priest/Jesuit because I want to love the poor and completely follow Christ, not because I am doing that already. It's more a means to an end. Apparently that's not the 'right' answer to becoming a priest nowadays. Fr. McNabb's response that he took Holy Orders to 'save his soul' is now uncommon, but it really is how I feel.

May the example of Christ, Our Lady, and the saints provoke me to love.

Blessed Divine Mercy Sunday to all!

Death, Sparrows, Tooth Decay, and The Jesuits

I've heard this story like 5 times in the last month and apparently read it last year in Medieval British history but had forgotten it. In A.D. 627, King Edwin was trying to decide whether to become a Christian or not, and so he conducted a little council wherein he asked all his advisors whether he should or not.

"Another of the king's chief men, approving of his words and exhortations, presently added: "The present life of man, O king, seems to me, in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door, and immediately out at another, whilst he. is within, is safe from the wintry storm; but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, into the dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before, or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant. If, therefore, this new doctrine contains something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed." The other elders and king's councillors, by Divine inspiration, spoke to the same effect." - St. Bede the Venerable (Ecclesiastical History Bk. II)

I was thinking today that I feel (I usually never trust feelings) fairly certain that I want to enter the priesthood and that I want to meet with our vocations director tomorrow. I thought about my life, dying without children or a wife, and of a hundred years from now when no one will remember me. The only fear I had - honestly - was that I wouldn't be able to become a Jesuit. I'm planning -as of now- on becoming a religious priest (hopefuly SJ), but I thought about how fleeting life is, and how my only real passion is for Christ's kingdom (as terrible a sinner as I am, this is still my deep longing). If I can serve it as a layman, that's great, but I really feel that I want to give up everything. The reading today was from Philipians 3, and it was one of my favourite passages, St. Paul writes that he counts all as rubbish compared to knowing Christ, and that he counts it all as loss that he may be found in Him. That's what I thought: I only want to be found in Christ.

As I brushed my teeth tonight I noticed that a tooth my dentist pointed out 6 months ago looks pretty bad, and I figured it might be decaying. I wasn't worried. I thought 'i'm going to be a priest, who cares what I look like. Perhaps it'll be a form of penance and detachment from vanity.'. Like I said, I'm no saint, but I was actually finding joy in bad things.

All of this connects to a sermon I heard from an English Monsignor today on EWTN who only had one hand. He said that he wasn't sad about it, and that as far as he knew, having two hands doesn't make most people happy anyway. He had a chance to help manage a bank, but left it all and became a missionary priest. He eventually worked with Pope John Paul II. He talked about God bringing good out of every evil and grace out of every sin. It gave me alot of hope to hear someone speak with such faith. The more I think about it, we're all just sparrows in the great hall of life. Some of us don't have hands, some of us have rotten teeth, some of us have rotten souls. But only the last ailment is truly mortal. You can survive anything with the grace of Christ.

I don't know if tomorrow I'll resign myself to complaining or commit grave sins, but in this present moment, I'm grateful to God for the peaceful acceptance of his providence. There are days I am overwhelmed with love for God, and this is one of them. To him be Glory forever.

Newman Club Retreat & Vocation

Well, this weekend we had a Newman Club retreat. It went alot better, I mostly shut up about contentious stuff so it worked out. Actually it was a great time. We had alot of time for reflection and prayer. I relearned alot of things, and had a great discussion with a Peruvian Catholic philosopher about the stuff I'm taking in my Existentialist class. I definately need to read more papa jpII (I want to pick up 'love and responsibility'). I found some more latent Calvinism that I had to root out (I'm not even joking) and how it effects my relationships with others, God, and in my reception of the Sacraments (i've kind of been a crypto-Jansenist perhaps).

Anyway, the biggest moment of the retreat was my continued 'mood/feeling/disposition' - I don't know if it's strong enough to be a calling. It usually happens most strongly when I'm praying the Rosary. We had a time of confession and adoration, and we - by some twist of fate - got to sing 2 hymns in Latin which were beautiful. It was basically the priest and I singing, and I had the feeling that I'm supposed to become a Jesuit. It was the weirdest thing, because lately I've been having alot of problems with the Society, and have been looking at other religious orders. But strangely enough, it's like I'm not even feeling a calling to the priesthood so much as a calling to be a Jesuit. Perhaps one would call this a 'calling' (remembering my reservations about the term) to the religious vocation of priesthood?

So that was basically it. I met some pretty young Catholic girls, but this didn't seem to make me change my feelings, or even want a different life. I have no idea. I talked to my priest about it and he said I should wait at least 5 years as I'm, 'a newly minted Catholic'. That's probably good advice.

Today we had time to start watching "the Black Robe" about the Canadian Jesuits who were missionaries (maybe it's all the movies that's doing it?) and martyrs to the Huron. We only got about 40 minutes in, but I felt so simultaneously inspired by it, and unworthy/unable to live such a heroic life. By God's grace perhaps I will.

The funny thing about vocations is that seemingly the only thing we say about them is "it's not just for priests and religious!". This goes on to the point that I began to wonder if priesthood is a vocation (I immediately realized the ridiculousness of such a quandry), but it goes to show you how much things change sometimes.

St. Petrus Canisius (Peter Kanis) - A Saint For Our Times

I just read from Whosoeverdesires that it was St. Peter Canisius/Peter Kanis/Petrus Canisius feast day today. I'm good at reading about the saints (especially the early Jesuits) but bad at remembering their feast days.

I was studying for Reformation history and I read about him and St. Charles Borromeo, and other Cardinals of the era (Reginald Pole and Contrarini), and was fascinated by what I read about Canisius.

I read some of his work, and he doesn't seem like that great an author, but his actual preaching apparently drew crowds of even Protestants. I found it interesting how he seemed to say that Germans were open to Catholicism, it just wasn't being preached there. St. Peter said on anti-Lutheran and anti-Reformed polemics: "With words like these, we don’t cure patients, we make them incurable".

His method was much less reactionary, he emphasized devotion to Mary to the point that the Germans of Bavaria became so enamoured with the cultus of Our Lady that Lutheran apologists began to write tracts on Mary and how one could remain Lutheran and still have great respect, etc for her.

He was a great man, and his emphasis on the positives of Catholicism rather than the negatives of the Reformers seems to make him an ideal saint for our times. His missionary work is after all why Germany is half Roman Catholic rather than completely Lutheran.

Sanctus Petrus Canisius, Ora Pro Nobis

A Short Story of St. Robert Bellarmine, SJ

"One day Robert Bellarmine came into a room of a sick man. Robert Bellarmine had told the patient he had begun to seriously doubt whether he would be able to go on with working or fulfilling his duties because of the disease he was suffering. But hope did not die in Bellarmine's heart that God would take away this obstacle to the better service of His Divine Majesty. And so he prayed. 'Dear Lord, I do not want to die now because I want to work for You.'"

I like St. Robert Bellarmine alot as I read about him. The fact that 4 different chairs at universities were set up just to respond to his disputationes a systematic attack on Protestantism and an affirmation of the Catholic faith. I really want to read this polemic he wrote, but I can't find it anywhere, apparently it's not translated into english! But I'm reading bits of his other books which are really good. He reminds me of a Roman Catholic Beza (who ironically was one of his opponents). The stories of his personal piety like that one above really amaze me too. He's another reason I hope that perhaps - by some long shot - I could become a Jesuit.

St. Robert Bellarmine, pray for me!

An Ignatian Insight on Authority

“We should always be prepared so as never to err to believe that what I see as white is black, if the hierarchic Church defines it thus.” or in less convoluted english:

“We should always be disposed to believe that that which appears white is really black, if the hierarchy of the Church so decides” - St. Ignatius of Loyola.

Our professor read this in Reformation History yesterday to the horrified gasps of everyone else and to my 'amen'.