Catholic Replies
Q. Can you tell me if it is all right to say a scriptural rosary? That is, to begin each decade with the Our Father, then a Scripture line or two, then the ten Hail Marys with a Scripture verse after each one. — F.D., Wisconsin.
A. It certainly is all right to intersperse Bible verses in the course of reciting the rosary. After all, we are supposed to think about the particular mystery as we say the prayers. What better way to ward off distractions and focus on the event in the life of Jesus or His Mother than by meditating on a relevant passage from Scripture?
Q. How can anyone say that Judas is not in Hell when the words of Jesus definitely place him there? Jesus said, “Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. Better for him if he had never been born.” The Lord said that not one of the apostles was lost except “him who was destined to be lost.” And He called Judas “friend” in the Garden of Gethsemane and asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” I cannot judge who is in Hell, but I can’t go against the Bible and Jesus. — M.G., Alabama.
A. Actually, you are making a judgment about something that you cannot know with certainty. Sure, if anyone looks like a possible candidate for Hell, it would be Judas. But how do we know he did not repent at the last minute? He did try to return the 30 pieces of silver, telling the chief priests that “I did wrong to deliver up an innocent man.”
What prompted this regret of Judas? Was there still some spark of love for Jesus that, for the moment at least, outweighed Judas’ love for money? We won’t know the answer to that until the next life, nor will we know if Judas expressed sorrow for his betrayal as he plummeted to the ground from the tree limb on which he had hung himself.
Not possible, you say. We recall reading about St. John Vianney, who heard Confessions for many hours each day to accommodate the crowds who came to him. One day, the story goes, a woman whose brother had committed suicide by jumping off a bridge came to see the saint for consolation. After waiting for many hours, she turned to leave and heard the Curé of Ars call out, “Your brother’s in Purgatory.” How can that be, she asked. The saint replied that between the time he leaped from the bridge and landed in the water, he asked God for forgiveness.
Bottom line: Don’t worry about whether Judas, or anyone else, is in Hell. Spend your time instead making sure that you, and anyone you can influence, do not wind up there.
Q. What does it take for the Church to consider a “Catholic” school no longer Catholic? I believe that Notre Dame, Georgetown, and other colleges that claim to be Catholic, but disobey the Church’s commands not to bestow honors of any kind on pro-abortion leaders and politicians, should no longer be considered Catholic. What do you think? — R.C., Massachusetts.
A. We couldn’t agree more. So-called Catholic universities, such as the ones mentioned, are guilty of the serious sin of scandal when they honor Vice President Joe Biden (Notre Dame) or Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards (Georgetown). “Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense” (n. 2284).
The Catechism (n. 2285) goes on to say that “scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it or the weakness of those who are scandalized. It prompted our Lord to utter this curse: ‘Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea’ [Matt. 18:6; cf. 1 Cor. 8:10-13]. Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others.”
In Fort Wayne, Ind., Bishop Kevin Rhoades, in whose diocese Notre Dame is located, said that giving Biden the Laetare Medal for “outstanding service to the Church and society” is wrong because he “has not been faithful to this obligation.” Rhoades said that “this whole matter is scandal” and that “honoring a ‘pro-choice’ Catholic who also has supported the redefinition of marriage, which the Church considers harmful to the common good of society…can give the impression to people, including Catholics in political office, that one can be ‘a good Catholic’ while also supporting or advocating for positions that contradict our fundamental moral and social principles and teachings.”
Notre Dame has tried to offset the scandal of an award to Biden by giving to the Little Sisters of the Poor, at a separate event, the 2016 Evangelium Vitae Medal, which honors those who have “served to proclaim the Gospel of Life by steadfastly affirming and defending the sanctity of human life from its earliest stages.”
University officials have also sought to deflect criticism of the Biden award by giving an honorary degree at the same ceremony to Donald Cardinal Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, D.C., who recently criticized Georgetown, albeit without mentioning it by name, when he said of the Cecile Richards’ invitation that “it is neither authentically Catholic nor within the Catholic tradition for a university to provide a special platform to those voices that promote or support” abortion.
Wouldn’t a stronger statement have been more appropriate considering that during Richards’ ten-year tenure as head of Planned Parenthood, she has presided over the killing of 2.9 million babies and has defended PP’s sale of the body parts of aborted babies? And perhaps Cardinal Wuerl could support his fellow bishop’s opposition to having supposedly Catholic institutions honor pro-abortion zealots by declining the honorary degree.
And then there is Georgetown’s otherworldly statement that it “remains firmly committed to the sanctity and human dignity of every life at every stage.” Are they kidding?
But it is not enough for bishops to speak out on crucial moral issues, although we applaud Bishop Rhoades for his strong statement. What they should do is forbid these universities from advertising or promoting themselves as Catholic.
That might limit the scandal caused by their actions, as well as alert the well-meaning folks who are shelling out tens of thousands of dollars each year for what they believe is a Catholic education for their children, when it is more likely that being on those campuses will undermine the Catholic faith of these students.
Q. I graduated from a Jesuit university in the early sixties and, at that time, they provided a solid Catholic education with required courses in Catholic theology and philosophy. Now some of the things that are taking place at these same universities are scandalous if not sacrilegious. Our Holy Father is a Jesuit. Can’t he correct this situation? — L.E., Kansas.
A. We also graduated from a Jesuit university (Boston College) in the early sixties when B.C. was still Catholic. Now, says Peter Kreeft, who is on the faculty there, B.C. means “Barely Catholic.” Just like in politics, where we have RINOs (Republicans in Name Only), so in the Church we have CINOs (Catholics in Name Only).
The decline of many once-Catholic colleges can be traced back to 1967, when the presidents of some two dozen Catholic educational institutions met in Land O’Lakes, Wis., and decided to water down their Catholicism in order to attract money from the government and the foundations. As the money flowed in, authentic Catholicism flowed out, and now we are reaping the results of that sellout in the sixties, as indicated by the actions of Notre Dame and Georgetown that were discussed in the previous reply.
As the late Dr. Charles E. Rice said in his book What Happened to Notre Dame, which discusses the Land O’Lakes conference and the scandalous invitation to President Obama to speak at Notre Dame’s 2009 commencement, “The President, Fellows, and Trustees who perpetrated the honoring of Obama have forfeited their right to continue in positions of responsibility at Notre Dame.”
Unfortunately, those same university leaders have chosen to continue the deconstruction of a once-great Catholic institution.
Those leaders never paid any attention to St. John Paul II’s 1990 call for the reform of Catholic educational institutions (Ex Corde Ecclesiae), so why should we expect them to heed Pope Francis should he be inclined to issue a similar document?
