^{Home | Contact Us | Diocese | Downloads | F.A.Q. | Links | Advertising | Mass Times}

Ignatius of Antioch wrote seven letters to us

Know Your Faith

This is another in a brief series about the Apostolic Fathers of the church.

Ignatius was the third Bishop of Antioch. – Peter was the first and Evodius second.

About 110 A.D., he was sentenced to the beasts in the arena at Rome. On his way to martyrdom, he wrote seven letters which have come down to us authentically. These letters are so clear about the teaching of the church in the early second century that many Protestants tried to deny their authenticity. Nowadays, all agree that they are genuine.

The letters are absolutely clear on the hierarchy of the Church: Bishops - priests - deacons. Rather than talk about the letters, let’s just see a few quotations from them:

“For Jesus Christ is the will of the Father, just as the bishops, who have been appointed throughout the world, are the will of Jesus Christ. It is fitting, therefore, that you should live in harmony with the will of the bishop.” Letter to the Ephesians 3:2

“It becomes you not to presume on the youth of the bishop, but to show him all reverence in consideration of the authority of God the Father: just as even the holy priests, so I have heard, do not take advantage of his outwardly youthful appearance, but yield to him in their godly prudence: yet not to him, but to the Father of Jesus Christ who is bishop of all.” Letter to Magnesians 3:1

“When you submit to the bishop as you would to Jesus Christ, it is clear to me that you are living not in the manner of men, but as Jesus Christ, who died for us. It is necessary – and such is your practice – that you do nothing without the bishop, and that you be subject also to the priesthood, as to the Apostles of Jesus Christ….” Letter to the Trallians 2:1

“Take note of those who hold heretical opinions…they abstain from the Eucharist because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father raised up again….” Letter to the Smyrnaeans 6:2

“You must follow the bishop as Jesus Christ follows the Father, and the priests as you would follow the apostles. Reverence the deacons as you would the command of God. Let no one do anything of concern to the Church without the bishop. Let that be considered a valid Eucharist which is celebrated by the bishop, or by one whom he appoints.

Wherever the bishop is, let the people be there; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. Nor is it permitted without the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate the agape; but whatever he approves, this too is pleasing to God, so that whatever is done will be secure and valid.” Epistle to the Smyrnaeans 8:1-2

From these few excerpts, is it any wonder that some of our friends don’t want to accept these letters as genuine?

Margaret Sanger continues her work long after her death

Life Matters

By Tama Dutton

You may recall in March I spoke about the madness that permeates this culture of death we find ourselves in. This led me to thinking about how easily human beings are fooled, me most of all!

This tendency towards error, towards foolishness, has been defined by the church as concupiscence. Don’t let this big word fool you. Concupiscence is the rebellion of the passions against reason, or to put it another way, it is a tendency of human nature towards evil.

All of us perceive this foolishness within ourselves. There are times we feel strongly drawn to do something we know would cause nothing but sorrow and regret to all concerned, but yet we are strongly tempted to act like a fool. I have always felt close to St. Paul, I see him as a kindred soul. In Romans 7:15 he wrote, I cannot understand even my own actions. I do not do what I want to do but do what I hate. Boy, can I relate to that.

The culture of death exploits the human tendency to be easily fooled, and its crowning jewel, Planned Parenthood, has built an empire upon it. Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger during the Middle Western States Birth Control Conference held in Chicago in October 1923 stated her rationale for birth control.

Sanger reminded self-supporting, self-respecting members of society of the high cost and tremendous burden placed on them by supporting the dependent. Sanger made the appealing case that it would be logical to expend public funds only on those children constitutionally (i.e. genetically) able to benefit from education; the poor, who were obviously genetically inferior could not benefit from such help and simply must be eliminated.

In her book, Pivot of Civilization in a chapter titled “The Cruelty of Charity” Sanger wrote:

“Everywhere we see poverty and large families going hand in hand. Those least fit to carry on the race are increasing most rapidly. People who cannot support their own offspring are encouraged by the Catholic Church and state to produce large families. Many of the children thus begotten are diseased, or feebleminded; many become criminals. The burden of supporting these unwanted types has to be borne by the healthy elements of the nation. Funds that should be used to raise the standards of civilization are diverted to maintenance of those who should never have been born.”

In the May 1919 issue of Birth Control Review Margaret Sanger penned the following slogans, “More children from the fit, less from the unfit-that is the aim of birth control”, and “Birth Control: to create a race of thoroughbreds”.

From the very beginning Planned Parenthood masked its real eugenic agenda and human beings were fooled into believing that birth control and abortion were the panacea for the elimination of all human suffering. Today contraception and abortion are still the mechanisms of choice used by the social elitists to keep down the numbers in the lower echelons of society.

It is no mistake that a disproportionate number of Planned Parenthood clinics are strategically located in minority neighborhoods. 35 percent of all abortions in the United States are performed on African American women, while they represent only 12 percent of the female population of the country.

On YouTube (Google YouTube, then in the search box type in Planned Parenthood) you can watch a research project on Planned Parenthood clinics. Callers masking as racists openly explain that they want to make donations in advance of the abortion of unborn minorities, particularly black babies.

Planned Parenthood did not hesitate to take this money; in fact a worker in Idaho exclaimed that she was “excited” by the donors explicitly stated desire to give the organization money to help him reduce the black population. And you thought that Planned Parenthood was a pro-family, pro-child, philanthropic organization. Fooled you!

Well, you know what they say. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Catholics who support the mission of Planned Parenthood have been fooled. Realizing that these are dangerous times, and that we too can be easily fooled at any time, let us all petition the Holy Spirit to keep our minds clear and for the grace to resist the allurement of the culture of death.

Dutton is director of the diocesan Respect Life and Social Justice Office.

Know Your Faith

Jesus became man through Our Mother

Another in a series on our Blessed Mother.

The theology of Duns Scotus states that the great mystery of God is that God would have become man even if mankind had never sinned! This is almost exactly the doctrinal outlook of St. Paul.

Many people think that Paul never changed his “theology” (that is his “framework for understanding faith”); he changed his “doctrine” (his belief), but not his framework. Paul, as a Pharisaical Jew, believed that the Torah (or Law of Moses) was the ultimate, eternal, unchangeable self-revelation of God. From all eternity, God manifested his Word in the Torah.

When Paul had his great experience on the road to Damascus, he saw the risen Christ! Instantly everything fell into place. Jesus was Messiah. The hoped-for resurrection had happened (at least in one.) We were living in the last times. “This age” was ended. But where did this leave the Torah?

The implications were slow to unfold. But Paul came to realize that Jesus Christ, not the Torah, was the ultimate, unchangeable, eternal self-revelation of God. He was the model of creation and the purpose of creation. All things were made for him and unto him. In other words, Paul did not change his “theology” (framework); he merely changed his “doctrine.” He simply put Christ where he had once put the Torah.

What does this have to do with Mary? Paul says that God chose us in Christ before the world began. In other words, even in the very fact of our creation as human beings, our model was Jesus Christ. And it is not the “eternal Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity.” He is not the model. No, it is the incarnate Christ — Jesus Christ who is God-become-man. The existential Christ-in-the-flesh, Christ in the “paschal mystery” of death-resurrection! If God chose us before the world began in Christ (who was not yet incarnate), what profound implications this has! The model for our creation was God-become-man. God would have become man even if sin never existed, for he was the model of our creation. Not only in the order of “grace” but also in the order of “nature”, we were created to reflect the perfect model of mankind, Jesus Christ! All this so far is biblical. It is Pauline. It is a reflection chiefly on Colossians 1:15-20.

But the “step beyond” is this: “How did the Second Person of the Trinity become man?” The answer, of course, is through “the Woman.” Mary. A reflection on Pauline ideas of existence and creation itself as well as on redemption will indicate the profound role of Mary. In a very real sense, creation as well as redemption depended on her! She had to say “yes!” If she had not, think of the consequences: The incarnation would not have taken place. And, in Paul’s view, then creation would not have taken place —for we were modeled on the incarnate Son of God!

There is a profound theology of Mary in the New Testament. It does not explicitly give every doctrine which we believe about the Mother of Jesus, but it contains all of them in seed.

What a different world we would have without Roe

By Dr. Joseph J. Horton

A mother who has been taking medication finds that she is pregnant. She is told by her physician that the fetus has surely been irreversibly damaged. Her physician encourages her to have an abortion. Fortunately for college football fans, Pam Tebow lets her Christian faith guide her and refuses to have an abortion. Today, her son is alive and well—a college football player for the Florida Gators who was just awarded the Heisman Trophy.

Tim Tebow is the first sophomore to earn this honor, which is awarded to the person who receives the most votes for being the best college player. An articulate young man built for football at 6 feet 3 inches tall and 235 pounds, Tebow scored 22 touchdowns rushing and 29 touchdowns passing this season. While the teams that played against the Florida Gators may feel damaged, in Tebow, the “irreversible damage” is hard to spot. Had Pam Tebow followed her physician’s advice, college football fans would have missed out on watching one of the best college quarterbacks of all time.

As I pondered our potential loss of Tim Tebow to abortion, I realized that I was facing one of the hidden issues in debates about abortion. Who have we missed because they were aborted? Abortion is often presented as a very personal issue. However it is now apparent to me that we all lose with abortion. We all lose because we never get the benefits of the people who would have been born.

How many of us have fewer friends because those friends were never born? Are there children who will flounder in school because some inspiring teachers were aborted? Who will tell the inspiring stories of lives that were never lived?

It has been argued by some that abortion has reduced crime rates because the babies who are aborted would have been more likely to develop into criminals had they been born. This premise condemns people before they are born.

But even if we hypothetically accept it, we ignore the benefits that society would have gained from those who would not have become criminals. These benefits are hidden because we cannot know all that we have missed.

Perhaps one of these aborted people would have developed programs that would have reduced crime and delinquency. Have we missed people who would have created well-paying jobs in the inner city? There is a shortage of nurses in this country. How many nurses might we have had? What incredible ideas have not been thought? We do not know, but we are all poorer, having missed out on what could have been.

You may not care whether a particular football star was born or not. The winner of the Heisman may make no difference in your life. But with millions of abortions since 1973, you have missed something you care about. That you do not know what you have lost does not reduce your poverty. Whether you lost a shoulder to cry on during a difficult time or the world lost a brilliant scientist, the unmentioned tragedy of abortion is that we are all poorer, and we do not know the extent of our loss.

Had the advice of a physician been followed, Tim Tebow would never have been born. His life is a window into an unseen world. Through it we obtain a glimpse of what could have been. We can imagine a world made better through the creative, loving power of those we have never met. We cannot know what those valuable people would have given us, but we can be sure we have missed greatness.

Dr. Joseph J. Horton is an assistant professor of psychology at Grove City College and contributing scholar with the Center for Vision and Values.