Humanae Vitae, The Coronavirus, And The Law Of Cause And Effect

By CHRISTOPHER MANION

As the Chinese Communist Party reels from the terror and chaos caused by the spread of the coronavirus, everyone is looking for someone else to blame for the deadly epidemic. Given the nature of China’s totalitarian state, it might be years, if ever, before we know the truth. In the meantime, given the law of cause and effect, we can accurately identify the foul spirit that motivated it.
In chapter two of Humanae Vitae, St. Pope Paul VI observes that a “rapid increase in population . . . has made many fear that world population is going to grow faster than available resources.” That fear can compel man to defy the Church’s teaching about marriage and the family that “is based on the natural law as illuminated and enriched by divine Revelation,” he observes. As a result, man can be tempted to assume for himself the power to regulate life.
Pope Paul wrote as the sexual revolution exploded across the West. He was not naive — yes, population controllers had already taken a firm hold on international governments and institutions. But he was also calmly and unashamedly faithful. After all, “No member of the faithful,” he wrote, “could possibly deny that the Church is competent in her Magisterium to interpret the natural moral law.”
One might observe today that such an observation renders a population of the truly “faithful” to be mighty small indeed. To look at it another way, though, there are countless men who do deny the law of God, and the Church’s right to interpret it. Absent the authority of the Church or “The Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” what state will confer on every man the power and authority to be his own lawgiver?
Not many — and not for long. The “autonomous man,” as political philosopher Gerhart Niemeyer calls him, cannot last in a lawless world. This Hobbesian condition quickly invites — even guarantees — the all-powerful Leviathan. Pope Paul saw the danger of such moral chaos, and warns of its consequences: “Finally,” he wrote, “careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law” (HV, n. 17).
The language isn’t apocalyptic, but the prediction sure is: And in today’s China, those “public authorities” are personified in the Communist Party of China (CCP) under the leadership of President Xi Jinping. … Continue Reading

The Beauty Of Holiness

By JAMES MONTI

What is it that makes us stop and pause in wonder when we read a particularly moving anecdote about a saint? What is it about a particular painting or statue of our Lady that inflames us with love for her? Why is it that news of thousands turning out to venerate the visiting relic of a famed saint or the particular story of a miraculous cure wrought through a saint’s intercession affects us so deeply? In all these circumstances the human heart is responding to something to which it is so receptive — beauty.
One of the great insights of Dietrich von Hildebrand is his identification of the practice of the virtues and the carrying out of heroic, courageous, or deeply generous deeds as manifestations of beauty — that such actions are objectively beautiful and strike us as so when we witness them in others.
An encounter with beauty on this very deep level has the power to change the course of our lives, whether it be as we are quietly reading the biography of a saint or by the Providence of God we happen to be present to witness an extraordinarily noble deed.
Yet this is true also of simpler acts of virtue as well. Many of us can attest to having been deeply touched by simple acts of piety we have witnessed while in church. We see a person walk in who upon entering not only genuflects but even bows down to kiss the floor out of reverence for the infinitely sacred presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
We see in the subdued light of the church at the foot of the sanctuary the silhouette of a person wrapt in prayer, manifestly drawn into an intense, tender, and intimate conversation with God. We observe another soul kneeling before a statue of a saint reaching up to touch the foot of the image in earnest supplication for some pressing need. Or perhaps it is a young mother or father we notice explaining in hushed whispers to a small child who it is that we come to visit in the Tabernacle. The sight of such things strengthens our own faith. And these things are truly beautiful.
The acts of piety of a child particularly move us and are especially beautiful, for they are the effusions of a young soul still largely bathed in the unsullied sunlight of purity and innocence. … Continue Reading

What We See Is What We Don’t See

By JOE SIXPACK

A father gave a beautiful crucifix to his young daughter. Then he asked her, “Annie, what’s the difference between the figure of Jesus on the crucifix and the Host which the priest holds up at the consecration of the Mass?”
Annie didn’t hesitate a moment, “When I look at the figure on the cross I see Jesus, and He isn’t there. When I look at the Host, I don’t see Jesus, but He is there.”
This is the true nature of the Most Holy Eucharist in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, but how much do we really know about the Mass? Before we look a little deeper into the Mass, let’s first look at a couple of the mechanics.
Let’s look at the matter of the Mass. In case you don’t recall, the matter of any sacrament is some concrete thing or action. In this case we’re talking about the bread and wine used at the altar. For the Mass to be valid the matter has to be valid; that is, the Church telling us what type of bread and wine must be used. The bread for a valid Mass must be made of pure wheat flour and water. It can’t have other ingredients such as milk, honey, sugar, or eggs. It must also be unleavened; no yeast or baking powder.
The wine for a valid Mass must be natural grape wine of very high quality. It can’t be strawberry, watermelon, or muscadine. In other words, Boone’s Farm is out of the question. Most dioceses publish a list of wines their priests are authorized to use, and there are several religious orders that support their communities by making altar wine that is of a great enough quality to be on the altar.
There are many people today who prefer the old Latin Mass, also called the Tridentine Mass or the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. Some of those people are so devoted to the old Mass that they go so far as saying the Ordinary Form of the Mass (a/k/a Novus Ordo) isn’t a valid Mass. That attitude crept into the thinking of a larger number of Catholics than we like to think because of the disobedience of some priests in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. … Continue Reading

Headed Down The Slippery Slope . . . Dem Candidates Out Over Their Skis For Abortion

By DEXTER DUGGAN

Democratic presidential candidates are out over their skis, and not only in primary-election states with snowy mountains.
The candidates’ national pro-abortion extremism has reached the point where even pro-life Democrats who had kept wishing the hopefuls would come to their senses have started to give up about remaining faithful to that party.
New York liberal pro-life university professor Charles Camosy declared in an article posted February 6 at the New York Post, “If the party was willing to go all-in on the most volatile issue of our time with a position held by only 13 percent of the population, it was time to take no for an answer.”
Not only was Camosy turning to a political party he considered more appealing, the third-party American Solidarity Party, he wrote, but he was resigning from the board of a Democratic group that swore by pro-life principles, Democrats for Life of America (DFLA).
When Democratic leaders deigned to meet with DFLA, Camosy said, the bigwigs “didn’t take us seriously. When we showed them that pro-life Democrats would beat Republicans in certain districts, it didn’t matter….Anything even hinting that abortion is less than good now violates party orthodoxy.”
Republicans often have been urged not to “get ahead” of Americans in being pro-life, but a similar counsel to be cautious wasn’t pressed on Democrats, no matter how radical they became favoring abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court invented the imaginary right to national permissive abortion in 1973.
And Kristen Day, veteran executive director of DFLA, wrote at the Fox News site that despite her members’ longtime support for that party, “in 2020, we’ve had enough. . . .
“So,” Day added, “I’m sounding the alarm to 2020 candidates: If you want the votes of 21 million pro-life Democrats — you have to earn it. We’re not going to give it to you for free.” … Continue Reading

Maybe, Maybe Not… Could This Be The End Of Blaine?

By DEACON MIKE MANNO

The Blaine Amendments got a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court late last month, and, according to reports, Chief Justice John Roberts — splitting his time between court business and the impeachment trial — was there.
The Blaine Amendments, in case you have forgotten, are a series of state constitutional amendments that basically prohibit giving any public aid to religiously affiliated schools. They were adopted after a similar national amendment was proposed by Maine Republican Sen. James G. Blaine in 1875 during a wave of nativism and anti-Catholic bigotry that was sweeping the nation.
Sen. Blaine’s amendment was defeated in Congress, but the idea caught on and “Little Blaine” amendments were adopted in nearly 30 states by 1900. All prohibited any public aid to sectarian schools.
The Blaine Amendments have lived on and one state that still has one is Montana, which was adopted in 1889. After a constitutional revision, the 1972 version reads:
“The legislature, counties, cities, towns, school districts, and public corporations shall not make any direct or indirect appropriations or payments from any public fund or monies, or any grant of lands or other property for any sectarian purpose or to aid any church, school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled in whole or in part by any church, sect, or denomination.”
Last summer I noted that the constitutionality of Montana’s law was being challenged in the Supreme Court in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. The challenge involves a case in which scholarship funds, collected from tax credit donations, could be used to provide scholarships to either public or private schools.
Administrators from the department of revenue, however, determined that payments for tuition at religious schools violated the state’s Blaine Amendment and adopted a rule excluding the use of scholarship funds at religiously affiliated schools.
In the lawsuit that followed, the Montana Supreme Court upheld the legality of the Blaine Amendment but struck down the scholarship program. Appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court followed and the court agreed last summer to hear the case. Nearly 60 amicus — friend of the court — briefs were filed and oral argument was held January 22. … Continue Reading

No Wonder Orange Man . . . Would Relish A Run Against Red-Loving One

By DEXTER DUGGAN

You want Russian collusion? Why settle for Donald Trump allegedly doing that when you can tremblingly visualize collusion with old, iron-fisted USSR totalitarianism?
Today’s Vladimir Putin may be a strongman, but if U.S. voters are supposed to recoil from discovering subservience toward tough guys tramping through Red Square, how about recalling when Soviet government-run food stores had nothing on the shelves while secret-police basements were well-stocked with prisoners condemned to despair if not death?
Oh, here’s why thinking of this not-so-distant history is a bad idea. That would remind us that the Soviet fist was lovingly kissed by aging U.S. left-wingers who today think they can get away with falsely denouncing Trump as a toady of post-post-Yuri Andropov Moscow.
The left’s late, fondly recalled Sen. Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.) had reached out secretly to the Soviet dictatorship, hoping to undercut anti-Communist President Ronald Reagan’s re-election in 1984.
“Kennedy’s message was simple,” former Reagan speechwriter Peter Robinson recalled for Forbes magazine in 2009. “He proposed an unabashed quid pro quo. Kennedy would lend (Soviet dictator Yuri) Andropov a hand in dealing with President Reagan. In return, the Soviet leader would lend the Democratic Party a hand in challenging Reagan in the 1984 presidential election.”
And no less than current intrepid presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, the self-proclaimed socialist U.S. senator from Vermont, who caucuses at work in D.C. with Senate Democrats, went off to honeymoon in 1988 not only starry-eyed for his bride but also for the Soviet Union, their nuptial destination.
The following year Sanders admiringly visited murderous Communist dictator Fidel Castro’s miserably enslaved Cuba. The Vermont politician praised its “very profound and very deep revolution” that was providing “free health care, free education, free housing.” … Continue Reading

USCCB Staff Reverses Bishops’ Decision On Abortion Issue

By CHRISTOPHER MANION

At the USCCB’s annual meeting last November, America’s bishops considered updating their document entitled Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizens. The text, published every four years, represents a classic in the genre of boring, meandering memos prepared by large and cumbersome committees. Nonetheless the November debate on the document exposed serious fissures in the ranks of the USCCB.
The debate centered on the content of a letter introducing this year’s version of the document. On one side, Blase Cardinal Cupich of Chicago and Bishop Robert W. McElroy of San Diego sought to remove the depiction of abortion as a “preeminent issue.” Their proposal was criticized by Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, who insisted that the term remain in the document, and Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap., who cited the views of Pope Francis in endorsing the term’s prominence in the text.
Ultimately, bishops voted 143-69 in favor of keeping the original text. It reads as follows:
“The threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself, because it takes place within the sanctuary of the family, and because of the number of lives destroyed. At the same time, we cannot dismiss or ignore other serious threats to human life and dignity such as racism, the environmental crisis, poverty, and the death penalty.”
After the vote, Archbishop Chaput complained that Bishop McElroy’s argument “sets up an artificial battle between the Bishops’ Conference of the United States and the Holy Father.”
Unfortunately, Your Excellency, it’s worse than that. What the debate really exposed was a genuine battle fomenting within the USCCB membership itself. The “Seamless Garment” legacy of Cardinals Joseph Bernardin and Theodore McCarrick lives on today, not only among the bishops but within the conference’s permanent bureaucracy as well.
And while in November the bishops voted two to one in favor of keeping abortion “preeminent” among the Church’s concerns, the conference’s Deep State employees are stacked in the other direction. Even though they represent only a minority of the bishops, their power is secure. Whatever officers the USCCB’s periodic “elections” might name, the McCarrick Machine is still firmly in charge. … Continue Reading

Chinese Churches Closed In Response To Coronavirus

WUHAN, China (CNA) — As the deadly coronavirus continued to spread in China, church services in some areas were canceled for the past weekend.
Churches in Hubei, the epicenter of the virus, were shut as of January 26. The following week, two more provinces announced a ban on church services.
In December, an outbreak of 2019-nCoV was reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Believed to be a new strain within the coronavirus family, the virus can cause fever, cough, and difficulty breathing. In some cases, it can lead to pneumonia, kidney failure, and severe acute respiratory syndrome.
The virus was first reported in Wuhan, where it is believed to have originated at a seafood market. Highly contagious, it quickly spread, and with thousands of infections reported.
With the infection rate continuing to grow, the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency on January 30. … Continue Reading

Everything Is Coming Up Trump

By NEIL PATEL

As Speaker Nancy Pelosi tore up President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech page by page, she put the finishing touches on one of the greatest political rehab jobs of all time. The Democrats have managed to turn Trump into a thoroughly sympathetic figure.
From the start, Trump has not been treated like a normal president by people on either end of the political spectrum. On the left, Trump is viewed as a fascist, un-American monster, thoroughly unprepared for and undeserving of the highest office in our land. They never accepted his election and never gave him a chance — angling for impeachment even before Trump was sworn into office. On the other side, for a big chunk of the American right, Trump is viewed more as a messianic figure than a politician. These are Trump’s core voters, people so frustrated by normal politicians that they were willing and eager to pass the reins to Trump. Their devotion to Trump is complete, and there is nothing that could erode it.
The question, as always in politics, has been what happens with the middle portion of our country — those who may not view Trump as the devil or the messiah. For the longest time, it seemed like Trump was driving these people away. With his middle-of-the-night tweet sessions, questionable comments after Charlottesville, and truly embarrassing staffing choices (remember Omarosa Manigault and Anthony Scaramucci), the more persuadable independents in our country had plenty of reasons to be leery of Trump.
In Washington — and maybe in New York and Hollywood, too — the talk is still all Trump all the time. The left has been clear that anyone even remotely friendly to Trump must be destroyed.
Nobody likes it when America is torn apart. But if you get out and speak with people in the rest of America, what you hear is very different. They see Trump as a pretty normal president, and a pretty damn good one at that. They like how our economy is performing and give Trump’s tax and regulatory policies a lot of credit for it. They see their 401(k) plans going up. New jobs are available, including manufacturing jobs. The U.S. is the world’s premier energy producer. They believe Trump’s trade deals represent the interests of average Americans, which is refreshing in a country dominated by policies pushed by the Fortune 500. … Continue Reading

A Ruined Pair Of Slacks

By JOE SIXPACK

This is a true story. I once knew a man who had three sons. All the sons were well-behaved and respected their father with a love not commonly seen. He seldom had to punish his sons, as they were eager to please their father. However, the oldest son got it into his head that he simply was not going to obey his father on one particular matter. The father spanked his son repeatedly for this chronic act of disobedience. It got to the point that the father knew he’d lose his son to the boy’s own will if he didn’t break this streak of disobedience, so he decided to get creative.
The next time the boy repeated his disobedience on the one matter, the father sent his son for the paddle. In times past, the boy would move slowly to retrieve the paddle, putting off as long as he could the coming spanking. This time, though, the boy walked quickly to get the paddle, then returned purposefully to his father, and handed the paddle over with an attitude of arrogant defiance.
The father, saddened by his son’s attitude, told his young son that he would have to give a paddling more severe than he’d ever done before. He told the boy to turn around and take what was coming to him. The boy defiantly turned, then bent over to hold his ankles while he awaited the spanking. The boy heard the swoosh of the first blow headed toward his bottom, followed by the smack of the contact. The boy jerked and shuddered. Then came the second smack, and the boy shuddered a little less. By the third smack the boy realized he wasn’t being struck at all.
On about the sixth smack, the boy looked around to see his father bring down the paddle again . . . on his own leg. He had been hitting himself so hard that blood was seeping through his trousers. The little boy stood upright and wrapped himself around his father’s leg, sobbing almost hysterically while he begged his father to stop.
The little boy began to shout, “I’m sorry, Daddy! I won’t do it again! Please stop! I’m sorry!” … Continue Reading