Almighty God, our heavenly Father, let thy protection be upon all those who are in the service of our country; guard them from all harm and danger of body and soul; sustain and comfort those as home, especially in their hours of loneliness, anxiety, and sorrow; prepare the dying for death and the living for your service; give success to our arms on land and sea and in the air; and grant unto us and all nations a speedy, just and lasting peace. Amen.
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From the dawn of the Republic, America’s quest for freedom has been guided by the conviction that the principles governing political and social life are intimately linked to a moral order based on the dominion of God the Creator. The framers of this nation’s founding documents drew upon this conviction when they proclaimed the “self-evident truth” that all men are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights grounded in the laws of nature and of nature’s God. The course of American history demonstrates the difficulties, the struggles, and the great intellectual and moral resolve which were demanded to shape a society which faithfully embodied these noble principles. In that process, which forged the soul of the nation, religious beliefs were a constant inspiration and driving force, as for example in the struggle against slavery and in the civil rights movement. In our time too, particularly in moments of crisis, Americans continue to find their strength in a commitment to this patrimony of shared ideals and aspirations. ...
Historically, not only Catholics, but all believers have found here the freedom to worship God in accordance with the dictates of their conscience, while at the same time being accepted as part of a commonwealth in which each individual and group can make its voice heard. As the nation faces the increasingly complex political and ethical issues of our time, I am confident that the American people will find in their religious beliefs a precious source of insight and an inspiration to pursue reasoned, responsible and respectful dialogue in the effort to build a more humane and free society.
Freedom is not only a gift, but also a summons to personal responsibility. Americans know this from experience – almost every town in this country has its monuments honoring those who sacrificed their lives in defense of freedom, both at home and abroad. The preservation of freedom calls for the cultivation of virtue, self-discipline, sacrifice for the common good and a sense of responsibility towards the less fortunate. It also demands the courage to engage in civic life and to bring one’s deepest beliefs and values to reasoned public debate. In a word, freedom is ever new. It is a challenge held out to each generation, and it must constantly be won over for the cause of good (cf. Spe Salvi, 24). Few have understood this as clearly as the late Pope John Paul II. In reflecting on the spiritual victory of freedom over totalitarianism in his native Poland and in eastern Europe, he reminded us that history shows, time and again, that “in a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation”, and a democracy without values can lose its very soul (cf. Centesimus Annus, 46). Those prophetic words in some sense echo the conviction of President Washington, expressed in his Farewell Address, that religion and morality represent “indispensable supports” of political prosperity.
You represent a nation that plays a crucial role in world events today. The United States carries a weighty and far-reaching responsibility, not only for the well-being of its own people, but for the development and destiny of peoples throughout the world. With a deep sense of participation in the joys and hopes, the sorrows, anxieties, and aspirations of the entire human family, the Holy See is a willing partner in every effort to build a world of genuine peace and justice for all. ...
The Founding Fathers of the United States asserted their claim to freedom and independence on the basis of certain "self-evident" truths about the human person: truths which could be discerned in human nature, built into it by "nature’s God." Thus they meant to bring into being, not just an independent territory, but a great experiment in what George Washington called "ordered liberty": an experiment in which men and women would enjoy equality of rights and opportunities in the pursuit of happiness and in service to the common good. Reading the founding documents of the United States, one has to be impressed by the concept of freedom they enshrine: a freedom designed to enable people to fulfill their duties and responsibilities toward the family and toward the common good of the community. Their authors clearly understood that there could be no true freedom without moral responsibility and accountability, and no happiness without respect and support for the natural units or groupings through which people exist, develop, and seek the higher purposes of life in concert with others.
The American democratic experiment has been successful in many ways. Millions of people around the world look to the United States as a model in their search for freedom, dignity, and prosperity. But the continuing success of American democracy depends on the degree to which each new generation, native-born and immigrant, makes its own the moral truths on which the Founding Fathers staked the future of your Republic. Their commitment to build a free society with liberty and justice for all must be constantly renewed if the United States is to fulfill the destiny to which the Founders pledged their "lives . . . fortunes . . . and sacred honor."
Respect for religious conviction played no small part in the birth and early development of the United States. Thus John Dickinson, Chairman of the Committee for the Declaration of Independence, said in 1776: "Our liberties do not come from charters; for these are only the declaration of preexisting rights. They do not depend on parchments or seals; but come from the King of Kings and the Lord of all the earth." Indeed it may be asked whether the American democratic experiment would have been possible, or how well it will succeed in the future, without a deeply rooted vision of divine providence over the individual and over the fate of nations.
John Paul II on the American Experiment - excerpts from Pope John Paul II's words to the Honorable Lindy Boggs as Ambassador to the Holy See on December 16, 1997.
The Catholic Church in the United States of America, by Fr. Robert J. Fox. (Exploring the early days of the English colonies, when the rights of Catholics were not respected, to the end of the nineteenth century).
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Sunday, June 29, 2008
Pope Benedict Roundup!
[I have not blogged a "papal roundup" in quite some time -- January 2008, in fact. What follows is a compilation of news, stories and commentary which caught my eye over the past several months. Enjoy!]
To understand the papacy of Benedict XVI, one should become familiar with his formation as a theologian, affirmed the publishers of Father Joseph Ratzinger's thesis on St. Bonaventure.
This month in the Antonianum Pontifical University, an Italian translation of young Father Ratzinger's study of St. Bonaventure's theology of history, published in 1957 as part of the priest's preparation for becoming a professor, will be presented by Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy.
Father Pietro Messa, director of the Antonian's faculty of medieval and Franciscan studies, which collaborated in the publication of the translation, explained to ZENIT that current interest in this study is motivated by a desire to understand the thought of the man who is now Pope.
Cardinal Ratzinger himself discussed his thesis in a Nov. 13, 2000, address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, saying his study of the 13th century theologian uncovered untold aspects about the relationship of the saint "with a new idea of history." ... (Read more).
For all of Spe Salvi’s theological depth, however, it is what the encyclical does not say that has engendered no small amount of controversy. As numerous commentators quickly recognized, Spe Salvi contains not a single reference to any of the documents from the Second Vatican Council. Moreover, for one of the four major constitutions of the council, the very title of which contains the word hope (Gaudium et Spes), to be entirely absent from an encyclical devoted to hope begs consideration. Indeed, the omission is glaring: since the close of Vatican II, the four encyclicals of Pope Paul VI and all fourteen encyclicals of Pope John Paul II cite the conciliar documents in abundance. A brief look at the statistical compilation underscores the uniqueness of this omission. ...
"Summorum Pontificum" in the Seminary: Cardinal Rigali on Introducing Seminarians to the 1962 Missal March 14, 2008. Since Benedict XVI has said that the Mass celebrated according to the 1962 Roman Missal promulgated by Blessed John XXIII should be available to those who prefer it, seminarians should be taught to say it, says Cardinal Justin Rigali. To learn what some bishops are doing to implement the document in seminaries, ZENIT spoke with Cardinal Rigali, archbishop of Philadelphia, about his plans to introduce seminarians at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary to the extraordinary form of the Mass.
Holy Week: The Hidden Homilies of Pope Benedict www.Chiesa March 26, 2008. Hidden, except for those who were able to listen to them in person: a few thousand out of 1.2 billion Catholics in the world. Here are the complete texts. Required reading for understanding this pontificate.
If you said, "They're all German," you'd be wrong: Küng is Swiss. All three, of course, are Catholic theologians and priests. But, to the point: all three also had Dr. Thomas Loome as a student some forty years ago. In an article posted by Press Publications, Dr. Loome—who holds a doctorate in Philosophical Theology from the University of Tübingen, Germany—talks about studying under Fr. Ratzinger ...
NORTH HAVEN, Connecticut, April 11, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Many people are expecting Pope Benedict XVI to speak out in defense of human life and against abortion during his visit to the United States next week. What few people realize, however, is that the pope knows first-hand what happens when a society refuses to defend the most defenseless of its citizens.
As a boy of fourteen, Joseph Ratzinger had a cousin who had been born with Down's Syndrome, only a bit younger than himself. In 1941, German state "therapists" came to the boy's house and probably informed the parents of the government regulation that prohibited mentally handicapped children from remaining in their parents' home. In spite of the family's pleas, the representatives of the Nazi state took the child away. The Ratzinger family never saw him again. Later the family learned that he had "died," most likely murdered, for being "undesirable," a blemish in the race and a drain on the productivity of the nation. This was Joseph Ratzinger's first experience of a murderous philosophy that asserts that some people are disposable.
In April (15-20), Pope Benedict XVI made an apostolic visit to the United States of America, visiting Washington D.C. and New York City to commemorate the Bicentennial of the Catholic Church in America.
Several terrific websites were established to provide coverage of the events, including USPapalVisit.org (USCCB), Pope2008.com (Tim Drake / National Catholic Register) and Our Sunday Visitor's USPapalVisit2008.com.
The Pope Benedict Fan Club itself devoted an exclusive blog to providing day-by-day coverage of the events: BenedictinAmerica.blogspot.com, which is still being updated with post-visit stories and coverage.
So far most attention has rightly been paid to Benedict’s words and gestures in support of American Catholicsdeeply troubled by the legacy of the sexual abuse crisis and the reality of uncertain episcopal leadership. His pastoral remarks — simple, direct, and accessible — bear his characteristically forthright intellectual and moral imprint. Agree with him or not, there’s no doubt where Benedict stands.
Benedict’s remarks to the U.N. General Assembly belong to an entirely different genre. His purpose was to explore and develop the first principles that underlie state sovereignty and the international system as a whole. It’s tempting to view these remarks merely as an academic lecture, given Benedict’s long career as a professor and theologian, but it’s more helpful to see his words as a kind of final exam for practitioners of statecraft. For it’s above all an invitation to think through his recommended first principles, apply them to specific cases, and draw appropriate conclusions regarding the proper shape of international order, law, and institutions today. And it’s especially relevant for Americans considering how best to reconcile interests and ideals in U.S. foreign policy.
In a nutshell, Benedict sketches a familiar natural-law argument that unexpectedly points to some novel and potentiallycontroversial conclusions....READ MORE
There is no doubt that "Deus Caritas Est" directs itself to various groups in the Church. Nevertheless, the main burden of responsibility for its implementation in dioceses and parishes is placed squarely on the shoulders of the bishops. It is not only the pastoral realism of the Pope, but also theological reasons that make the ordained pastors the principal target group for the encyclical.
An excerpt of the April 7 address given by Cardinal Paul Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, to the spring meeting of the bishops' council of England and Wales. The talk titled "'Deus Caritas Est': The Splendor of Charity" is available in its entirety here.
Lessons to learn from the papal trip, by John Allen Jr. An address given at the annual World Communications Day luncheon of the Diocese of Brooklyn, hosted by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, in which the veteran Vatican reporter was asked to ruminate on lessons to be learned from the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States:
At the end of the day, it wasn't stagecraft or slick PR strategies that made the trip a success. It was the gut-level impression of kindness and candor that radiated from the pope. If Catholicism hopes to gain a sympathetic hearing, its capacity to project those two qualities loom as the essential prerequisite.
Here's the thing, however: It's not enough merely to project kindness and candor. We actually have to be kind and candid -- and that, as any spiritual guide will tell you, is never a "once and for all" deal. It requires daily resolve. Living up to that standard, personally and institutionally, represents perhaps the most lasting challenge left behind by Benedict XVI's six days in America.
America magazine reports on Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the ailing Cardinal Avery Dulles ("In All Things" May 16, 2008). The meeting took place in Cardinal Egan's suite in St. Joseph's Seminary, after the Pope's meeting with disabled children. The following account is taken from the New York Jesuits' newsletter, written by Anne Marie Kirmse, O.P., Cardinal Dulles's longtime assistant:
"The Pope literally bounded into the room with a big smile on his face. He went directly to where Avery was sitting, saying, 'Eminenza, Eminenza, I recall the work you did for the International Theological Committee in the 1990's.' Avery kissed the papal ring and smiled back at the Pope. Then the Pope looked at the people in the room who had accompanied Avery to the Seminary: Fr. Tom Marciniak, who served as Cardinal Dulles's priest-chaplain for the meeting; Sr. Anne-Marie Kirmse, O.P.; and Francine Messiah and Oslyn Fergus of the [Jesuit infirmary's] medical staff. After this warm and friendly exchange of greetings, the Pope sat down next to Avery to hear the remarks that Avery had prepared and which were read for him by Fr. Tom Marciniak. During the presentation, Fr. Tom handed the Pope a copy of Avery's latest book, Church and Society: The Laurence J. McGinley Lectures, 1988-2007, which was published earlier this month by Fordham University Press. The Pope expressed great interest in the book, and even interrupted the reading of the remarks to ask again when the book had been published. He eagerly looked through it, and was touched by Avery's inscription to him. Before leaving, the Pope blessed Avery, assuring him of his prayers, and encouraging him in his sufferings. He then said good-bye in turn to each of the four persons who accompanied Avery."
Ever since his famous warning about a “dictatorship of relativism” shortly before his election three years ago, Pope Benedict XVI has been trying to kick-start a global conversation about truth. In particular, Benedict yearns for a new look at truth within the Western secular academy, that exotic region where Jacques Derrida’s relativist maxim “there is nothing outside the text” has, ironically, achieved the status of a near-absolute.
This weekend, in the enchanting Alpine setting of Lugano, Switzerland, a cross-section of prominent Western intellectuals is taking up the papal challenge. Organized by the Balzan Foundation, which each year awards the Swiss-Italian equivalent of the Nobel Prize, this unique gathering of scientists, philosophers, and eggheads of all stripes, most of them without any specific religious conviction, is titled, simply, “The Truth.”
Whether it was HBO’s Bill Maher’s irreverent and downright sacrilegious remarks calling Benedict XVI a Nazi, and referring to the Catholic Church as a cult that houses and protects child molesters -- which he did later apologize for -- or the major broadcast networks of ABC, NBC and CBS referring to the Pope as a conservative, hardliner and traditionalist, the view from the media front did not look good.
That was, of course, until the Holy Father himself hit the media with a very pro-active one-two punch. Not only was it the Pope who first addressed the fallout from the priest sex abuse scandal here in the United States, but he did it before even landing on American soil. He discussed the sensitive and embarrassing issue during a question-and-answer session with reporters on Shepherd One. And then later in the week he met privately with several victims of the sexual abuse scandal.
Tim Graham, director of media analysis for the Media Research Center, explains it was the Pontiff’s humility and directness concerning the biggest white elephant in the room that may have forced the press to take a closer look at this Pope and make at least some effort to cover him more fairly and at least a bit more gently. ...
The collected talks are now being read and pondered by Catholics across the country who want to delve a little more deeply into the pope's message during his April visit.
But what about the rest of his pontificate? What about the hundreds of speeches, homilies, encyclicals, messages, prayers and letters that he's produced during the first three years as pope?
For those unable to keep up with everything Pope Benedict does and says, here is a starting point: a list of 10 fundamental texts that can help people understand the man, his thought and his ministry.
One caveat: The list makes no claim to be a "top 10," just a useful anthology. And where the works are particularly lengthy, this list indicates specific chapters or passages. ...
Vatican security forces now include an anti-bomb squad and a rapid response team, according to Domenico Giani, the head of the Holy See's 130-man gendarmerie [in an interview with L'Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper].
"The rapid response team will carry out investigations across the spread of information channels and will be supported by a sophisticated technical team. It will be able to intervene immediately in case of danger," said Mr Gianni.
"The second group is made up of highly-specialised experts, armed with sophisticated and innovative technology," he added.
He said the two teams would not be confined to the Vatican, but would also travel with the pope.
The Swiss Guards have also been given anti-terrorism training, and now carry SIG P75 pistols and Heckler-Koch MP5 sub-machine guns, as well as their traditional halberds.
The Pope and President Bush gave each other the same gift: a framed photograph of the Pope's visit to the White House.
According to the Vatican, the two discussed the Middle East peace process, the food crisis and other international issues, the Vatican said. The pontiff also thanked Bush for his "commitment in defence of fundamental moral values."
The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, has launched the site http://www.ybenedict.org which will release news in English and Spanish.
The website is a project of Towards 2008 - the national student and young adult campaign for WYD2008.
World Youth Day, which will include a visit by Pope Benedict XVI Joseph Ratzinger, will be held from July 15-20.
Organisers are expecting around 125,000 registered pilgrims from overseas, plus a further 100,000 from all parts of Australia, to converge on Sydney for the six-day Catholic event.
XT3 is the official "social networking" site for World Youth Day Sydney and Beyond - Attention Catholic youth! "Xt3.com is a site to help you connect with other young people interested in knowing more about the Catholic faith, to plug in to the Church and get to know what's going on in your area. If you are going to WYD use Xt3 to connect with millions, make new friends, and keep in touch with those you meet there." Kind of like Facebook, only without the trash.
In his encyclical, the cardinal said, "[Pope Benedict] does not want to repeat obvious truths of Catholic social teaching," but will apply Church teachings to contemporary problems.
Il Giornale's Andrea Tornielli reported last week that the committee working with the Pope on the encyclical includes the Pope's recently named successor as archbishop of Munich and Freising, Reinhard Marx, a specialist in Catholic social teaching, the top two officials of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Renato Martino and Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, and Stefano Zamagni, a lay Italian economist.
Why do you think the Pope’s early life and his cultural background are often mischaracterized?
There are a number of reasons for this nasty tendency, none of them pleasant. First of all, in America today most people still immediately associate Germany with Nazism, World War II, and the Holocaust, or, if one is feeling charitable, with Martin Luther.
The weight of evil in Germany’s past is still a very real burden, as it ought to be, but people really should acknowledge that there is more to Germany than all that. Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, is no exception.
In his case the mischaracterization is even worse because of his two decades as head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, commonly referred to as the living ancestor of the Inquisition, something which we in American automatically loathe.
What inspired you to write this particular perspective on the Pope?
Mainly the problem described above. Besides, through my own research and personal experience, I know there is more to Germany than its worst crimes against humanity. Also, Pope Benedict is a first-class, bona fide genius, and most people have no idea about how smart he is.
He is a world-class intellectual, and one who can talk to anybody and make himself understood. Too often we hear people saying that he seems cold or distant. He’s the opposite of that, actually.
The Lyceum Society of Vermont is set to host a luncheon and symposium on Pope Benedict XVI. On August 16, 2008 the Society will host “The Christian Humanism of Pope Benedict XVI” at the Hoehl Center at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont. The event is set to feature Dr. John P. Kenney of Saint Michael’s College, Dr. Thomas Albert Howard of the Jerusalem and Athens Forum at Gordon College, and Dr. Jeffrey O. Nelson, President of the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts (Dr. Nelson is a son-in-law to the late great traditionalist scholar and social critic Russell Kirk).
A famous kosher Italian bakery has an important local patron: Pope Benedict XVI.
Wilma Limentani, the owner of the Boccione bakery in Rome's ancient ghetto, said she recently received a letter of thanks from the Vatican revealing the pope's love for her biscotti and an almond-and-raisin confection dubbed "Jewish pizza."
One of the pope's doctors -- a Jew who stopped by the 453-year-old bakery en route to administering a routine checkup of the pontiff -- introduced the pastries to Benedict.
Goodbye, Kitty.I said goodbye to my cat of 15 years this weekend.
I inherited him from a friend in college -- a wee kitten, she had to part with him as his presence violated dorm regulations. For a while we had taken to calling him "kitty" until a roommate conferred upon him the name "Dashiki." Somewhow it stuck.
I recall a time where he had escaped and was gone for weeks on end. One summer's night I was watching television when a ball of fur burst literally through the screen door, tearing across the living room seeking refuge. To my suprise it wasn't Dashiki, but he came trotting in a few minutes later, looking smug in hot pursuit. Just another of his romps through the neighborhood.
Somehow we survived those crazy years and upon graduation, he accompanied me from Hickory, NC to New York City. He settled down and adjusted rather well to the big city -- and to my wife's younger kitten, Lila. The two would put on a good show of disliking each other, but we'd often catch them snuggled up on the bed.
If cats have 9 lives, Dashiki used up quite a few. One time when we were living on the Upper West Side he disappeared from an open second-story window that a roommate had left open. I had feared the worst, putting up signs and combing nearby animal shelters in vain hoping for a familiar glimpse.
A week later, still unsuccessful, I had resigned myself to his loss when a neighbor found him huddled in a trash can in the basement. Turned out New York City was a little too intimidating for a country kitty. Needless to say he abandoned all desire to go exploring outdoors thereafter, content to gaze from the windowsill.
He was a reclusive, curmudgeonly-yet-immensely-loveable kitty. He'd spend most of the day in hiding, quietly napping -- save for those occasions where he'd succumb to the smell of fried fish when we'd order Chinese takeout; or the lure of catnip, or at night, when he would jump on the bed and sprawl across my chest, purring madly in what became an evening routine.
I woke up Saturday morning to find him in our bathroom -- an unusual place for him given his tendency to hang out in the closet. He didn't protest (as he usually does) when I picked him up, and spent the rest of the morning in the living room, noticeably more lethargic than usual.
We took him to the vet. They discovered a tumor in the very back of this throat, probably melanoma. She explained the various measures that could be taken to buy him some time -- hospitalization, tests, surgery, but the prognosis was grim.
I got to hold him one last time; to hear beneath the labored breathing a faint purr. It was hard to say goodbye.
The house feels empty without him -- I didn't sleep the night he died. Part of me kept waiting, to feel the weight as he jumped on the bed, nuzzling his head against my palm in the dark.
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Saturday, June 28, 2008
"Year of St. Paul" BeginsAnno Paolino - As Pope Benedict XVI ushers in "The Year of St. Paul", Amy Welborn has a comprehensive roundup of information and resources, along with a stirring reflection:
There is nothing abstract about this. It is not about filling a gap in our religious education or ticking off “need-to-know” items off a checklist.
It’s about Jesus Christ, and the world he came to redeem.
A world which is no different from the world of St. Paul. If you don’t believe this, simply do as has been suggested - read the Letters of Paul and see how many times you nod in agreement. Yes, this is the way things are. This is the world that needs Christ.
But because of so many factors, we are tempted to forget this. Caught up in a culture in which religion is nothing more than one aspect of a socially acceptable life, a box that we stack next to those labeled Work, School, Shopping and Vacation, a box that we shop for and trade in according to how busy it keeps us or how little it challenges us, we forget this. Still stumbling out of the shadows of a cultural Christianity, still blinking in the harsh light of new paganism, high materialism and a society that is absolutely indifferent to Christian claims, we forget this, and are confused as to why our institutional claims are ignored and even reviled.
Fearful, lazy, selfish and comfortable, we forget this. ...
What happens when you get Fr. Neuhaus, George Weigel, Jody Bottum, Russell Hittinger, David Novak, Robert P. George and company in the same room? A First Things Hootenanny
Seven years ago, Europe's leaders decided that, as the consummation of their great "project", they would draw up a Constitution for Europe. After extending its powers for nearly 50 years, often by subterfuge and deception, the European Union could emerge in its true light on the world stage, as an all-powerful, supranational government.
Under the Laeken Declaration of 2001, full of references to "democracy" and the need to bring "Europe closer to its people", they set up a convention which spent 18 months drafting the constitution, tightly controlled at every point by its president, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
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For 18 months more they fine-tuned its details until it was ready to be ratified, by compliant national parliaments or by the referendums which various governments had been reluctantly forced to concede.
Then came that shocking moment in 2005 when the constitution was thrown out by the voters of France and Holland. The EU's leaders were stunned, and bemused as to what to do next.
Then, last summer, they came up with a breathtakingly bold plan. They would rearrange the contents of the constitution in a way that made it virtually incomprehensible, omit the provocative references to a constitution, and railroad it through their parliaments without risking any more referendums - except for the only country, Ireland, whose constitution made one unavoidable. ...
The new European Union will have its own government, with a legislative, executive and judicial arm, its own political President, its own citizens and citizenship, its own human and civil rights code, its own currency, economic policy and revenue, its own international treaty-making powers, foreign policy, foreign minister, diplomatic corps and United Nations voice, its own crime and justice code and Public Prosecutor. It already possesses such normal State symbols as its own flag, anthem, motto and annual official holiday.
As regards the State authority of the new Union, it is embodied in the Union' s own executive, legislative and judicial institutions: the European Council, Council of Ministers, Commission, Parliament and Court of Justice. It is also embodied in the Member States and their authorities as they implement and apply EU law and interpret and apply national law in conformity with Union law. Member States will be constitutionally required to do this under the Lisbon Treaty. Thus EU "State authorities" as represented for example by soldiers and policemen in EU uniforms on our streets are not needed as such.
Allowing for the special features of each case, all the classical Federal States which have been formed on the basis of power being surrendered by lower constituent states to a higher Federal authority have developed in a gradual way, just as has happened in the case of the European Union. Nineteenth century Germany, the USA, Canada and Australia are classical examples. Indeed the EU has accumulated its powers much more rapidly than some of these Federal States – in the short historical time-span of some sixty years.
The key difference between these classical Federations and the new European Union is that the former, once their people had settled, share a common language, history, culture and national solidarity that gave them a democratic basis and made their State authority popularly legitimate and acceptable. All stable States are founded on such communities where people speak a common language and mutually identify with one another as one people – a "We". In the EU however there is no European people or "demos", except statistically. The Lisbon Treaty is an attempt to construct a highly centralised European Federation artificially, from the top down, out of Europe's many nations, peoples and States, without their free consent and knowledge.
If there were to be a European Federation that is democratic and acceptable, the minimum constitutional requirement for it would be that its laws would be initiated and approved by the directly elected representatives of the people either in the European Parliament or the National Parliaments. Unfortunately, neither the Lisbon Treaty nor the EU Constitution it establishes contain any such proposal.
Speaking to diplomats and authorities in 2007, Pope Benedict XVI noted that:
"The 'European home', as we readily refer to the community of this continent, will be a good place to live for everyone only if it is built on a solid cultural and moral foundation of common values drawn from our history and our traditions. Europe cannot and must not deny her Christian roots. These represent a dynamic component of our civilization as we move forward into the third millennium.
While acknowledging that the preamble to the Treaty includes a reference to Europe's 'cultural, religious and humanist inheritance,' it is regrettable that there is no explicit recognition of the Christian heritage of Europe in the Treaty. However, in keeping with the spirit of the Founders of the European project, the aims and aspirations that underpin the initiatives of the EU in many respects reflect the Christian humanist vision of the good society. For example, Article 1.4 of the Treaty of Lisbon promotes full employment, social progress and a high standard of environmental protection alongside respect for the rich cultural and linguistic diversity in the member states. It also includes a commitment to promote social justice and protection, equality between men and women, solidarity between generations and protection of the rights of the child, and to combat social marginalisation and discrimination in whatever form it may take.
On the contrary, I would think that the deliberate refusal to acknowledge Europe's Christian heritage calls into question its "aims and aspirations." Indeed, Ireland's Bishops express the subsequent concern that:
In a climate of legal positivism attempts may very well be made to use traditional language concerning human dignity in ways which are contrary to the traditional sense."
In March 2008, Polish President Lech Kaczynski expressed concerns that the European Union's "Charter of Fundamental Rights" lack of clear definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, warning that may leave signatory nations open to attacks on the institution by the homosexualist lobby. (Polish President Warns EU Charter Could Force "Gay Marriage" on the Catholic Country LifeSiteNews.com March 19, 2008):
"An article of the charter," he said, "...may go against the universally accepted moral order in Poland and force our country to introduce an institution in conflict with the moral convictions of the decided majority of our country." The Polish constitution states that marriage is only between a man and a woman.
The European Union and other pan-Europe bodies have consistently attacked Poland's constitutional protections of natural marriage and the unborn. Poland remains, despite declines, 89.8 percent Catholic, with about 75 percent practicing their faith, one of the highest rates of religious practice of any of the Catholic European countries.
Completely oblivious to the voice of the Irish church, some US Catholics (the usual suspects) laud the no vote, the the grounds that Ireland has given the finger to “Brussels elitists”. As always, they are reflecting their own political and ideological biases onto Europe. They see the debate through the eyes of the kind of Enlightenment-era liberalism that prizes the liberty of the individual over the common good and solidarity (notice the whole comment is about economics- when the Irish bishops say that is exactly the wrong way to look at it). They are also wedded to a form of nationalism that elevates the role of the nation state above any supranational cooperation. Clearly, the dream of Erasmus and Thomas More for a united, peaceful, Europe was misplaced then…
All Hail the Irish! - Jeff Martin (Maximos) What's Wrong with the World responds:
the notion that the European Union instantiates a Christian conception of solidarity ought to be risible on its face. The EU commissars pointedly refused to acknowledge the Christian heritage of Europe in drafting their Constitution, and true to form, conceived of their union as a custodian of universal human rights doctrines owing much, much more to Enlightenment fabulisms than to anything that Christian natural law philosophers would recognize. Such protocols, as enshrined in the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms", are expressions of the managerial, technocratic, secularist ethos of contemporary Western elites, which strives to normalize every moral deviation proscribed by Christianity, to the ends of making straight the paths of administrative and economic efficiency, and creating fields and pretexts for the exercise of power. We should be forthright, undissembling, undeceived, and absolutely settled in mind as regards what these technocratic powers are, what they entail, and the manner in which they will be exercised: they are employed, and will continue to be employed, to batter and buffet the tattered remnants of Christian civilization in Europe, and to facilitate the mass immigration of culturally alien, unassimilable, hostile Others into the European heartland, all the better to bury, and secure against the remotest possibility of resurrection, a possible alternative popular and elite formation predicated upon the Christian traditions of the West. When the indigenous traditions and cultures of the European peoples have been simultaneously subverted by the post-Marxist cultural enthusiasms of the partisans of universal human rights, and displaced by alien cultures, their historic bearers thus disinherited and dispossessed, what possibility of resistance will remain? Ah, yes, we've already been warned: any resistance will be stigmatized as fascist, Marxist, extreme, terrorist, and corrupt. One is sent into reminiscences of Auguste Comte, who inveighed against the opponents of his Religion of Humanity as "retrogrades and perturbators" who would be proscribed under the administrative reign of the positivist vanguard of humanity.
One of the main objectives of the virtually unreadable treaty is to turn the EU into a “global geopolitical actor” that can counterbalance the United States on the world stage. To achieve this, European elites say the EU needs to speak with “one voice” in international affairs. In this context, the new treaty is designed to create the job position of (an unelected) European president as well as a powerful European foreign minister. It would also establish a European diplomatic corps with European embassies and a European army.
As many observers of European politics know, democracy does not come easy on a continent where European elites view themselves as an aristocracy entitled to rule over the ignorant masses. Indeed, the entire European social welfare state has been built upon the unspoken quid pro quo of “bread and circuses” (ie, the cradle-to-grave nanny state) for the general populace, in exchange for their loyal submission to the political and intellectual classes.
Thus it should come as no big surprise that the word ‘No’ does not exist in the European political lexicon. ...
He was, over his long life, the indefatigable teacher, enthusiastically discovering with each new generation of students at Fordham University the inexhaustible riches of the Angelic Doctor.
In season and out, he sought to demonstrate, in the face of every new philosophical fashion or school, that St. Thomas had been there first. He was the original inspiration for my definition of a Thomist of the Strict Observance: Someone who believes that Thomas is the hardware that will run any software. I was never entirely persuaded, but his many books — for instance, The Philosophical Approach to God, The One and the Many: A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics, and interviews in The Universe as Journey — are warmly recommended to anyone seriously interested in exploring the riches of the Christian intellectual tradition.
Please join in the prayer that Father W. Norris Clarke will be welcomed with the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
A native New Yorker, Father Clarke was born in 1915 and attended Loyola High School. He graduated, enrolled at Georgetown University in 1931 and entered the Society of Jesus two years later.
His deepening interest in Thomist philosophy was developed at College St. Louis in England in 1936. He continued his studies at Fordham, earning a master’s in philosophy in 1939. He earned his doctorate from Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, where he studied under Roman Catholic philosopher Louis De Raeymaeker.
Father Clarke was ordained into the priesthood in 1945 and joined the Fordham faculty 10 years later as an assistant professor of philosophy. He taught for three decades before becoming an emeritus professor in 1985.
In 1961, Father Clarke helped found the International Philosophy Quarterly (IPQ), a journal promoting philosophical dialogue between Europe and the Americas. He served as editor until his 1985 retirement.
Even though officially retired, Father Clarke continued to teach in Fordham’s philosophy department and to publish articles. In 2007, he was honored by his peers at a philosophy colloquium on campus, where he presented a talk, “Integration of Personalism and Thomistic Metaphysics in Twentieth-Century Thomism.”
Father Clarke considered his philosophical journey as one moving from strict Thomism to a perspective revitalizing Thomistic philosophy to include an “implicit dimension of personalism.” He felt that the latter was inspired by the writings of Pope John Paul II.
The author of eight books and more than 70 articles, Father Clarke was the recipient of numerous awards, among them the “Aquinas Medal” from the American Catholic Philosophical Association and a Fordham “Outstanding Teacher Award.” He held honorary doctorates from Villanova University and Wheeling Jesuit College.
In June 2000, International Philosophy Quarterly published a Festschrift in honor of Father Clarke’s 85th birthday and his longstanding editorial service. Presenting articles were religious philosopher Louis Dupré, the T. Lawrason Riggs professor of the philosophy of religion at Yale University, and the late Gerald A. McCool, S.J., (FCRH ’40) professor emeritus of philosophy and former chair of the department.
Father Clarke resided at Loyola Hall, where he was house confessor.
His wake will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. and from 7 to 9 p.m. on Sunday, June 15 in the Loyola Hall Chapel on Fordham's Rose Hill campus, and his funeral will be at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, June 16 in Fordham's University Church.
Inspired by the writings of Pope John Paul II, Clarke stressed that “we cannot know a person just by metaphysics...which can describe [only] the general structures of being. The interior life of conscious reflection can only be described phenomenologically.”
There is an “implicit dimension of personalism” hidden in Thomism that Aquinas himself never developed, said Clarke, noting that the Saint died at age 49 and perhaps had not had time to explore the concept.
Father Clarke said that he tried to first explicate this idea in Person and Being (Marquette University Press, 1993), which encountered some resistance upon publication. “But it was not overthrowing the ideas of Thomism,” he said. He said the two concepts he wished to add to Thomistic thought are that receiving is equal to giving, and that the highest being in all of nature is the self-communicating person. “The interpersonal … was never developed by St. Thomas, but I think it’s waiting to be done. The highest level of being is not solitary, but persons in communion,” he said.
WASHINGTON — The leader of the tribal confederation that has fought to expel Al Qaeda from most of Iraq's Anbar province is offering his men to help gin up a rebellion against Osama bin Laden's organization along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
In an interview, Sheik Ahmad al-Rishawi told The New York Sun that in April he prepared a 47-page study on Afghanistan and its tribes for the deputy chief of mission at the American embassy in Kabul, Christopher Dell. When asked if he would send military advisers to Afghanistan to assist American troops fighting there, he said, "I have no problem with this, if they ask me, I will do it."
The success of the Anbaritribal rebellion known as the awakening spurred Multinational Forces Iraq to try to emulate the model throughout Iraq, including with the predominately Shiite tribes in the south of the country. Today, the tribal-based militias formed to protect Anbaris from Al Qaeda are forming a political alliance poised to unseat the confessional Sunni parties currently in parliament in the provincial elections scheduled for the fall and the federal ones scheduled for 2009.
During his nomination hearing for taking over the regional military post known as Central Command, General David Petraeus said one of the first things he would do would be to travel to Pakistan to discuss the current strategy of the government in dealing with Al Qaeda's safe haven in the Pashtun border provinces. A possible strategy for defeating Al Qaeda would be an effort there along the lines of the Anbar awakening to win over the tribes that offer Osama bin Laden's group protection and safe haven.
"Al Qaeda is an ideology," Sheik Ahmad said. "We can defeat them inside Iraq and we can defeat them in any country." The tribal leader arrived in Washington last week. All of his meetings, including an audience with President Bush, have been closed to the public, in part because the Anbari sheiks, while likely to win future electoral contests, are not themselves part of Iraq's elected government.
Of his meeting with Mr. Bush, Sheik Ahmad said he was impressed. "He is a brave man. He is also a wise man. He is taking care of the country's future, the United States' future. He is also taking care of the Iraqi people, the ordinary people in Iraq. He wants to accomplish success in Iraq ..."
Sheik Ahmad has also expressed his cooperation with the Vatican in Muslim-Christian dialogue and expressed his concern over Al Qaeda's persecution of Chaldean Catholics in Iraq. In March 2008, Sheik Ahmad received a letter of commendation by the Vatican for "efforts to promote harmony and reconciliation throughout [the] region." See The Vatican, The Anbar Awakening and the "Protector of the Chaldean Catholics" May 1, 2008.
How Charles Carroll Influenced U.S. Founding Fathers Part I | Part II - From 2005, a Zenit News interview with Scott McDermott on the Catholic Signer of Declaration of Independence.
In April (15-20), Pope Benedict XVI made an apostolic visit to the United States of America, visiting Washington D.C. and New York City to commemorate the Bicentennial of the Catholic Church in America.
I said goodbye to my cat of 15 years this weekend.
Fr. Richard J. Neuhaus relays the news that W. Norris Clarke, SJ has died:
Iraqi Sheik Offers To Take Fight to Bin Laden: Hero of Anbar Would Stir a Revolt in Afghanistan, by Eli Lake. New York Sun June 9, 2008:
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The Founding Fathers of the United States asserted their claim to freedom and independence on the basis of certain "self-evident" truths about the human person: truths which could be discerned in human nature, built into it by "nature’s God." Thus they meant to bring into being, not just an independent territory, but a great experiment in what George Washington called "ordered liberty": an experiment in which men and women would enjoy equality of rights and opportunities in the pursuit of happiness and in service to the common good. Reading the founding documents of the United States, one has to be impressed by the concept of freedom they enshrine: a freedom designed to enable people to fulfill their duties and responsibilities toward the family and toward the common good of the community. Their authors clearly understood that there could be no true freedom without moral responsibility and accountability, and no happiness without respect and support for the natural units or groupings through which people exist, develop, and seek the higher purposes of life in concert with others.
Two editions of Pope Benedict's addresses during his Apostolic Visit to the United States will be published shortly -- 
Allowing for the special features of each case, all the classical Federal States which have been formed on the basis of power being surrendered by lower constituent states to a higher Federal authority have developed in a gradual way, just as has happened in the case of the European Union. Nineteenth century Germany, the USA, Canada and Australia are classical examples. Indeed the EU has accumulated its powers much more rapidly than some of these Federal States – in the short historical time-span of some sixty years.
