Catholic Thinker

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I'm starting a new segment on this website as the first of, hopefully, many to kick-start Catholic Thinker back to active status. Each week, perhaps more often depending on what liturgies I attend during the week, I'll comment on my experience of the Sunday's Mass. Sometimes it'll be retelling what happened at that Mass, or a commentary that is based, more or less, on the events of that liturgy.

God-willing, it'll be mostly positive. It'll be real, however. If the Mass was uninspiring, I'll say so and why. If it was me and not the liturgy, I'll say that too.

This Sunday, I was in The Woodlands attending the older of the two Catholic parishes in the community. This isn't my home parish and I don't know anything about the clergy who shepherd the community.

A non-participating deacon gave the homily. Non-participating is my way to describe the practice of a priest or deacon offering the homily, then heading straight out of the church when they're finished. I'd submit that this is irregular and should not be a common practice.

I'll start by saying that we were late to Mass. A weird traffic light that never turned green followed by a couple of missed turns led us to entering during the first reading. We were far, far from the last ones in the church.

The Gospel today was a beautiful story of Jesus stating a simple truth--the person who sinned much and has been forgiven that many times over realize the power of God to heal in much more personal way than someone whose sins aren't "as bad."

A personal pet peeve of mine, which perhaps is way off-base, is when the homily seemingly ignores the readings. It may try to convey the same lesson, but nevertheless, it never directly discusses the actual readings of that Mass.

Our readings are beautiful, time-tested stories of our religious history and religious present through the lessons taught. Why are we so afraid of them? Why do we proclaim these readings, then ignore them and share another story that is far from biblical? (I'm willing to reconsider this thought when the priest or deacon shares a personal story that is applicable to the readings/liturgy.)

The homily should capitalize on the readings. The homily has this awesome place in our liturgy to take these timeless truths and timeless words and allow them to make sense in our present time and place. It isn't a sermon of a preacher sharing with us whatever topic makes sense at that moment.

The readings are truly a gift from God that are continually being gifted to us.

Is it just me? Am I expecting too much, or something not realistic, from the homily?

Image by John McNab via Flickr

I am a fan of the core thought behind Opus Dei--that all work is for God. In root, the main theory of this religious group is that all work, whether it be of a CEO or a janitor, is directed toward the glorification of God; therefore, all work can be sanctified.

Can all work be included? If a profession has two goals--one public and one private--and the public goal is truly a good goal, but the private goal is based on greed, can that work be sanctified?

The first thought that comes to mind is borrowed from the secular. Gordon Gekko from Wall Street is known to be the King of Green. For those who aren't familiar, the 1987 movie character has, perhaps, the best encouragement of greed in recent history. The famous scene can be seen on YouTube, but the moneyquote:

Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.

Of course, I find it safe to proclaim that Mr. Gekko is wrong and likewise, the private motivation of such a profession is also wrong. Greed, even if the intention of that greed (the well-being of the person's family) is good, is wrong. Work, by its very nature, demands a just wage to be paid for work and so the well-being of a family should, by the natural by-product of work, be satisfied without an artificial greed.

If we can judge the private goal as being detrimental to the common good, can the work be "saved" by the positive outcomes of the labor? Greed is not a requirement for those preforming the labor, although it is used as the carrot to keep them working. Can the worker ignore the carrot, ignore the quotas or production quantity standards, but do the labor for the greater good and the greater glory of God?

I submit that, if the good being produced and your personal methods of producing the wood are good, then yes. There is nothing opposing the sanctification of work toward the glory of God. There will be difficulty in turning out the voices of greed and it will be a temptation, but a strong spiritual life can focus and ground a person in such a profession.

Greed is never good. Greed is never truly productive toward the greater good. Greed is a virus that can infect someone doing actual good.

There has been a number of various "open letters" to our soon-to-be 44th President. I had the intent of writing a letter to him as soon as I thought there was no way Senator McCain would win out, but since everyone else is writing it openly, I might as well too.

Dear Mr. President-Elect,

Congratulations! The peaceful transfer of power is something that the United States demonstrated first to the world and we're again able to showcase it to the larger world community.

As a young person in Austin, TX, I was energized by your initial run, making my first and only contribution to a political campaign to afford myself a place to see you speak at The Backyard. I voted for you in the historic Democratic primary. In the weeks leading up to the general election, however, I had to pause and reflect upon casting my vote for you.

My confusion and hesitation was not because I started to doubt whether or not you would be a strong leader, or if I thought you had the better answers in this time of American's questioning on the conflict in Iraq, on the economy, on immigration and on other various, as the Catholic Church refers to them, "social justice" issues.

My pause was because of your position on abortion.

In your reflection on the 35th anniversary of the Roe v Wade decision, you refer to the choice of having an abortion as fundamental and the ability to have an abortion as "reproductive justice". Along the same line, on July 17, 2007, you answer a question at a Planned Parenthood event stating that the "first thing" you would do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act.

I do not expect to be able to change your mind on this issue and I do not expect to be able to convince you that a child inside the womb is still a child.

In good conscience, I could not vote for you in the general election. I believe the State has a vested interest in and a duty to maintain the safety and security of all in our country. Supporting any person's ability to cause the premature death of an unborn child is directly opposed to these ideals.

You have mentioned before that fathers of children must step up and take responsibility. The Freedom of Choice Act and other pro-choice measures you support would take away the ability of these fathers to take responsibility for their unborn children, it would continue to promote a culture that divides action from accepting the logical outcome of an action, and it would continue to divide this country.

As a Catholic who aligns himself more with the Democratic Party than anything else, I feel isolated from the Party that I think could do the most good because of the Party's desire to ignore the first victims of abortion, as well as ignore the impact of the death of their unborn children has on many of those who sought out abortions.

With four, possibly eight, years before you as the President of the United States, you will be constantly in my prayers that most of your visions become reality and I look forward, with hope, that my worst fears regarding this topic will not be realized.

I pray that your administration will be receptive of people of faith, including those that disagree with you so much on this issue. I will work with your programs, directly or indirectly, to help end poverty and promote a just living for those who are on the fringes of our society.

As a young adult (in my mid-20's), I want to be involved in the political process. I think working for a campaign and helping in the governance of this country would be exciting. But, there is no place for me in America's political landscape.

While your campaigned helped a generation have hope in the political process for the first time, I must confess that I feel hopeless that this division will change anytime in the near future. I look forward to the day that I can fully respect and support the Party that energizes me. I look forward to the day that I can make a donation to your campaign, the DNC or some other candidate. I look forward to the day that I can place a Democratic candidate's name on my Facebook profile, the sidebar on my website or their sign in my window. Until that day, however, the only support that I can give to you, in good conscience, in the support of my prayers.

May God bless you and the United States of America!

Sincerely,
Brandon J.G. Kraft
Austin, TX

This is the fourth in a series of posts over the course of 24 hours looking at poverty in Austin as part of Blog Action Day 2008.

Illegal immigration is directly related and connected to global poverty.

Period.

I don't have time to write a note that does this issue justice, but CNN has a story today about a Catholic priest who is putting his money and his mouth in service to this issue.

My wife used to work at Casa Juan Diego in Houston, a house that assisted undocumented individuals—while I was working there for a few days, there were protesters who told me how un-American I was by helping out these folks.

Near Austin, Taylor, TX was in the news regarding a former prison facility that was "converted" into the T. Don Hutto Immigration Detention Center. While the private facility is not very friendly to the media, it claims to house non-Mexican families on non-criminal immigration violations while they await hearings. The talking heads say that it is a family environment and does not feel like a jail or prison. But, how many prisons can be converted into family-friendly housing?

This is the third in a series of posts over the next 24 hours looking at poverty in Austin as part of Blog Action Day 2008.

I'm a bit late for my Noon entry today.

What tools do we take for granted? Our watches, our cell phones—or just any phone, an address.

A friend of mine recently started looking for a new job, a difficult process for anyone in today's economic climate, but he has most things working for him. A high school diploma, senior status at UT-Austin, a car, an address, a phone number with voice mail.

The homeless today face a much tougher time finding a job. If a person walked into a potential employer's office, looking perfectly groomed in a nice suit, but could not list an address or a phone number, would they get the job? Would you hire someone without that information?

Even a PO Box requires you to list a physical address; I honestly don't know if they'll accept a homeless shelter as a residential address.

I have to get back to work, but let's start thinking about how to help get the right tools into the right hands.

This is the second in a series of posts over the next 24 hours looking at poverty in Austin as part of Blog Action Day 2008.

As being a Campus Ministry Intern at the University Catholic Center serving The University of Texas at Austin, I see quite often the poverty that exists on campus, taking a few different forms.

First, many homeless individuals spend their time along Guadalupe Street ("The Drag"), some asking students for their generosity, some just experiencing the day. Some students are generous—giving individuals cash, food, water and more. Other students try to only walk on certain sections of Guadalupe to avoid the usual hangouts in fear of being asked by a "Drag Rat" for some change.

Second, the University is a city in itself with an army of non-student food service employees, janitors and many others that are most likely earning well under the average wage for someone in the city of Austin. Some are the only breadwinner in a household bursting at the seams. Not nearly enough students pay them the time or attention that a person deserves, but looking through them as only a thing that is there to provide them food, clean up their trash off the floor or whatever else. Thankfully, many students do see the dignity of these folks who work extremely hard to meet the students' needs, but still, many don't.

Third and very much related to the above two, is the poverty in spirit that exist in some students. From my position at the UCC, I see many students who realize the world around them, the role they play into it and the role that others—from President Powers down to the hourly temp worker—play into the world. They're full of life, generally happy and what.

Those students are a light to others on campus and I count them among my many blessings.

But, many students are troubled, feel alone, are full of anger and hatred, depressed. While they may be surrounded by more material things than I myself will ever know, they're nevertheless impoverished. For them, they may know realize their poverty, which is the saddest part. While we need some material things to survive (food, shelter, etc), to be fully alive, we need more than just the material.

In so many cases, if we can connect these two types of poverty—the poor in spirit with the poor in material—both sides can come out better and less impoverished than before.

This is the first in a series of posts over the next 24 hours looking at poverty in Austin as part of Blog Action Day 2008.

On the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar, today is the memorial for St. Callistus I. Callistus was a third century pope whose life didn't seem to be leading to the Chair of St. Peter.

Callistus was a slave and apparently, not too great of one at that. He was entrusted with money, only to lose it. He was jailed, only let out of prison so he could make the money back.

Yet, after a rocky start, he was freed, befriended the current pope and entered the priesthood. He himself became pope upon election of the clergy of Rome.

One major critique made of him was that he was too merciful to sinners.

Today, we celebrate something who is impoverished in his time who became the16th pontiff of the Church. When he was a slave, did his master see this potential in him? I don't know, but how often do we see the potential in slaves today? True, legally, no one owns another as a slave, but the poor are the slaves of today. They are slaves to a socio-economic reality that looks down upon them for their lot in life—no matter how they came to it. They are slaves to the assistance programs that are offered and their insane rules and regulations.

In Austin, it is hard to go far without having the poor with you. The homeless. The unemployed. The underemployed—the working poor who have jobs, yet do not earn enough to make ends meet. Very often, we ignore them. We pass them with our windows rolled up along the access road to IH-35 or we look through them as they work for us, thinking of them as servants rather than people.

The local topic related to Blog Action Day is putting a face to the poor in Austin. I can't do that for anyone, but it isn't hard to do. Look for the guy on the side of the road. Or the one sleeping on a bench downtown. Look at the middle-aged man who is bussing your table at a restaurant.

They maybe poor, but that isn't the only thing about them. With the right person caring, they might not become the next pope, but maybe they'll be able to surprise you with their potential.

I'm drafting this message in flight on American 384, non-stop service from DFW to JFK, on my way for my Papal weekend. This morning was the public Mass at National's Stadium in Washington, DC, yesterday included a ceremony at the White House (complete with the Battle Hymn of the Republic and Happy Birthday for the pontiff's 81st birthday) and a celebration of Vespers (Evening Prayer) with all of the bishops of the United States (last I heard, not one sent their regrents).

Last night, I was interviewed by KEYE CBS 42 for a set of pieces they're putting together about the Papal visit; the first one with me was aired last night at 10 pm. I've seen myself in HD—somewhat scary, but I digress. In that interview, I mentioned that one of the aspects of Pope Benedict that makes him unique is his status as Pope of the Internet.

Pope John Paul II, of happy memory, was considered the Pope of TV. Anyone who saw any images—stills or video—were inspired by him. Whether it was the picture of him standing in front of a teepee in Native American-styled vestments or with sunglasses on or holding his cane upside down acting like it was a hockey stick, you felt a connection to him. He wrote many profound things, and by all means, they should be read and examined. His Theology of the Body and texts examining the role of Mary were groundbreaking in many ways, but he is remembered by the way he captured people.

Pope Benedict XVI is different. He's cute and hearing him with his German accent is great, but he is much more reserved than John Paul II. I can't imagine Pope Benedict ever using his cane as a hockey stick, for example. His gifts, however, lie with the written word. You may hear, or not, the Pope speak, but you want to go online and download the text. His gift isn't in the presentation of Truth, but in his explanation of the Truth. By training, he is a teacher, serving as a professor in Germany before being called up to the Major Leagues (in reverent terms, the fullness of priesthood as a bishop and then to Rome to serve in the Curia) and his natural gift for teaching is obvious.

He teaches when he speaks—from his weekly General Audiences to his Apostolic Exhortation on the Eucharist to the Moto Proprio allowing for the more widespread use of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite to, of course, his encyclicals, God is Love and Saved by Hope. Now three years after he was called to the Chair of Peter, Pope Benedict still has more people attend his General Audiences than our rock star John Paul II did. Why? Because they learn from this teacher. This is not to say anything negative about John Paul II, not at all, but only that the timid, quiet German who many consider quite dry has a mystical attraction that people are drawn toward through his catechesis.

The Internet is Pope Benedict XVI's biggest aid in his efforts. In the days after any text of his is released, people from around the world are reading it, discussing it, sharing it, wrestling with it and ultimately, finding a greater understanding of the Catholic faith.

I haven't had the chance to read the full-text yet, but apparently, what he had to say to the United States' bishops last night is worth the read.

Voters overwhelmingly approve ordinance that bans renting to illegal immigrants

Farmers Branch, Texas, near Dallas, became the first community in the country to outlaw local landowners from renting to "illegal immigrants". I hope the community discovers how much of their quality of life depends on undocumented individuals: new construction should slow down quite a bit, or at least skyrocket in price. The same should go for most low-skilled labor, such as dishwashing, lawn work and similar areas.

I am disgusted by the way individuals in this country treat undocumented immigration like a plaque upon this land, yet have zero issues with the United States' lead in developing economic policies that allow multinational corporations to, for lack of a better word, screw individuals in Latin America, among other places.

NAFTA, the North American Free-Trade Agreement, truly did not help Mexican citizens. NAFTA enabled large multinational, U.S.-based agribusinesses to setup shop in Mexico. How can Mexican farmers compete in the corn market when an U.S. business moves in and is able to produce and sell corn in both the United States and Mexico while their production is subsidized by the United States government. There is much debate on this, with studies published supporting this statement and studies published refuting it. In all cases, parties agree that removing U.S. farm subsidies would allow Mexican farmers to improve their condition.

Undocumented immigrants are not coming into America to have "a better life"; they're coming into America to have a life. Why else would husbands or wives leave their family, take a journey to the United States that takes the lives of many only to be treated as a second-class individual in the United States?

I find it disturbing and disgusting that lack of charity people possess or the lack of recognition of the inherent human dignity possessed by these migrants. While they have broken the law, their offense is not on par with murder or a sex crime, yet, we label them as criminals. I broke the law when speeding on Mopac or when my tax advisor gave me the Telephone Tax Refund*, yet I'm not worried about having a paramilitary police force raid my apartment, have people spit at me or yell insults, be banned from renting an apartment, have my name listed on a criminal database or all those other things we reserve for the "worst" of our criminals.

The local diocesan newspaper quoted the a city parish's pastor as saying,

"I haven’t preached directly about the ordinance.I’ve mentioned that we are challenged to welcome the stranger, but we are also challenged to maintain the social order in our society. We must do it humanely and justly. People are not disposable. People have innate dignity. People get very emotional about this undocumented business. Part of that is that there is fear of some type of chaos.”

Perhaps this is part of the problem? Are we challenged to maintain the social order in our society? I know Jesus was radical and all, but he did seek to maintain the social order that involved the moneychanger's "right" to transact business on the temple grounds, right? Didn't he also maintained the social order by never challenging the religious figures of the time? Oh yeah, he maintained the social order through allowing the angry mob to stone the woman accused of adultery.

Wait, sorry, I was reading the wrong gospel, the gospel seen in many American churches that says whatever we want it to say. In the Gospel that I'm versed in, Jesus challenged the social order when an injustice existed. Why are we exempt from that today?

Social and political charity is not exhausted in relationships between individuals but spreads into the network formed by these relationships, which is precisely the social and political community; it intervenes in this context seeking the greatest good for the community in its entirety. In so many aspects the neighbor to be loved is found “in society”, such that to love him concretely, assist him in his needs or in his indigence may mean something different than it means on the mere level of relationships between individuals. To love him on the social level means, depending on the situations, to make use of social mediations to improve his life or to remove social factors that cause his indigence. It is undoubtedly an act of love, the work of mercy by which one responds here and now to a real and impelling need of one's neighbor, but it is an equally indispensable act of love to strive to organize and structure society so that one's neighbor will not find himself in poverty, above all when this becomes a situation within which an immense number of people and entire populations must struggle, and when it takes on the proportions of a true worldwide social issue.

This quote, taken from the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (available as a published book or as online text) published by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace sums it up. We're called to love all in our society, not only in terms of the emotional, but also in terms of the social. We're further challenged to "love" our neighbor by working for a social order that enables them to escape the shackles of poverty.

In the case of Farmers Branch, the newly-banned illegal immigrants easily fall within the category of neighbor. For the rest of us, as we promote the new global community as the reason why our stock portfolios are looking great or celebrate new technological tools enabling the
"world to shrink", shouldn't we also look at the poor around the world as our neighbor? Shouldn't we love him or her as we're able, including sharing the Good News with them and working that their living conditions match their human dignity?

This is for another post, but chew on this. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization has stated that there is enough food in the world to fully nourish everyone on the planet. Yet, data (more data) indicates that a large portion of the global population are lacking the proper nutrition. As we get hot under the collar about our brothers and sisters from Central and South America coming to America to help provide for their livelihood, shouldn't we feel just a bit guilty for spending our time protesting migrants instead of working toward adequate nutrition for the world's population?

I'm in flight again over the States as I travel back to Texas. This time, however, I'm in a MD-80 so there are a few more people on the plane. St. Paul's College, the seminary for the Paulist Fathers, is a beautiful place. First, it is located on 4th Street in Washington, DC, right next door to the offices of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and just a bit further away from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. It is virtually surrounded by various houses of other orders and it almost like "Catholic Row", just off campus of Catholic University of America.

Since I'm in flight and I'm lacking the right cable, pictures will be uploaded later.

Inside the building, the chapel is a very simple space. It is configured in a choir setup (with the pews split in two sections facing each other across the main aisle) with an ambo near the entrance with the altar on the opposite end of the space. On the left side, there is a fixed organ and a piano complements the chapel on the right side. As you would expect with a chapel, we celebrated Mass and prayer sessions throughout the weekend. As I'll write more about later, Fr. Issac Hecker had two "mission crosses", which were crosses that Paulists kept and used as they preached missions across the country. One of his mission crosses is displayed outside of the chapel. Later, I discovered that the other cross is kept in the archives which are located in the space I'll discuss- the library.

The library was amazing. Formerly the chapel, the two-level library is adored with various stained class windows. In addition to a couple of "usual saints", there are also windows for Fr. Issac Hecker, the society's founder and another one for the Paulist Press (founded in 1868), among others. It would a nice area to study and if I had more time, I would be able to tell you more about the library, namely the book selection.

The common rooms were nice. The Paulist Fathers do not take vows of poverty, but instead seek to live a life of Gospel simplicitiy. In practice, this means they live comfortably without excess. Between the various common rooms I saw, they had nice TVs to watch movies or sporting events with the guys in the house, well-stocked fridges and plenty of little snacks. All in all, this provides a space for the priests, seminarians and novices to de-stress and build fraternity among the members.

I enjoyed the rooms at St. Paul's. Each person in the house has their own room with a wired Internet connection (wireless offered as well), a small closet, a small dresser, a desk, a bed with a bathroom and shower. I didn't look in the rooms of the men who are actually living at St. Paul's, so I'm sure it varies some. Personally, while I'm not obligated to Gospel simplicity, I should reduce some of the "stuff" I have and once I did that, the rooms would have everything I need.

The dining room is nice and open, giving itself to discussion. The adjancent reception room is where they have their weekly "community dinner"- a little nicer affair than a normal meal- appears about the same. I haven't really reflected why they have two seperate spaces except perhaps to make the weekly dinner a bit more special. If they had a large group, I did notice, the wall between the spaces can slide open making it one large space.

I didn't see the recreation space. They are currently renovating two wings to turn them into the Hecker Center for Mininstry (read: office space for non-Paulist Catholic organizations) and my assumption is that some of the rec space has been impacted by it. I saw an exercise bike in a storage hallway. Of course, let's not use this to assume the Paulists care not about the physical health of their members. From my experience, both Fr. Dave and Ed at the UCC have membership to UT Rec Sports.

For the moment, that is all I can think to write. Now, I'll move on to homework.