Editor’s Note: J.H.T. of North Carolina, a deacon who has been a witness to the “liturgical wars” of the past half-century, has recommended an “extraordinary book” — Peter Kwasniewski’s Resurgent in the Midst of Crisis: Sacred Liturgy, the Traditional Latin Mass, and Renewal in the Church — that he says should be read by all Catholics, clergy and lay, who want to save and restore the liturgy, whether it’s in the Ordinary Form or the Extraordinary Form. The thesis of the book, he said, can be captured in this sentence from page 31: “We must stop compromising when it comes to the worship of Almighty God; we must carefully avoid, or banish from our churches, all mediocrity, banality, worldliness and modernism.”
The book is published by Angelico Press and is available at amazon.com.
Q. I have been asked to be my nephew’s sponsor for Confirmation, but when I went to a meeting with him, we were given a list of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit that were not the ones that I learned. Why the change? — E.M., via e-mail.
A. For quite a long time now, certain substitutions were made for the traditional listing of the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit (Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, Counsel, Fortitude, Piety, and Fear of the Lord). Thus, Counsel became Right Judgment, Fortitude became Courage, Piety became Reverence, and Fear of the Lord became Wonder and Awe in God’s Presence. You will be pleased to know, however, that the revised Rite of Confirmation has restored the former names to the gifts.
Here is how we have chosen to explain them at our meeting with Confirmation parents:
Wisdom — The gift of seeing things as God sees them, not as the world sees them, and acting in a way pleasing to God.
Understanding — The gift of comprehending the teachings of God and His Church and putting them into practice in our lives.
Knowledge — The gift of learning the truths that God has revealed to us and telling others about them, and forming our conscience according to what the Catholic Church teaches.
Counsel — The gift (also known as Right Judgment) of seeking advice from God, the Church, and holy persons who will help us make good decisions.
Fortitude — The gift (also known as Courage) of doing good and avoiding evil, of being a witness to Christ, of doing the right thing when it can be difficult or even dangerous.
Piety — The gift (also known as Reverence) of showing deep respect for God and for persons and things associated with God, and treating other persons as we would want them to treat us.
Fear of the Lord — The gift (also known as Wonder and Awe in God’s Presence) of avoiding any words or actions that would separate us from God and keep us from getting to Heaven. God loves us so much that He will never turn away from us, but we have the free will to turn away from Him.
Q. Some time ago, you published a list of companies that donate money to Planned Parenthood. Do you have an updated list of these companies? — K.R., Connecticut.
A. Thanks to 2nd Vote, which describes itself as a “conservative watchdog for corporate activism” and has spent considerable time investigating this matter, there is an updated list. Here are some companies that directly fund Planned Parenthood:
Adobe, Avon, Bath & Body Works, Ben & Jerry’s, Clorox, Converse, Deutsche Bank, Dockers, Energizer, Expedia, ExxonMobil, Fannie Mae, Groupon, Intuit, Johnson & Johnson, La Senza, Levi Strauss, Liberty Mutual, March of Dimes, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Nike, Oracle, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Progressive, Starbucks, Susan G. Komen, Unilever, United Way, Verizon, and Wells Fargo.
A spokesman for 2d Vote said that two companies — American Cancer Society and AT&T — that were on the list a year ago are no longer listed.
You may wish to confirm with the companies listed above that they still fund Planned Parenthood, as changes are often made.
Q. Can the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops legally file a lawsuit requesting that the abortion advocacy organization “Catholics for Choice” remove the name “Catholic” from their name? — R.J.K., Florida.
A. We don’t know, but even if they did we doubt that our courts would uphold such a suit in view of the hostility of liberal justices to the Catholic Church. USCCB officials have over the years declared that Catholics for Choice have no connection with the Church. For example, after CFC ran ads last September (“Abortion in Good Faith”) urging repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funding of abortion, Timothy Cardinal Dolan of New York reiterated that the group “is not affiliated with the Catholic Church in any way.”
Dolan, who is chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said that CFC “has no membership, and clearly does not speak for the faithful. It is funded by powerful private foundations to promote abortion as a method of population control.”
The cardinal said that “the use of the name ‘Catholic’ as a platform to promote the taking of innocent human life is offensive not only to Catholics, but to all who expect honesty and forthrightness in public discourse. The organization rejects and distorts Catholic social teaching, and actually attacks its foundation.
“As Pope Francis said this summer to leaders in Poland, ‘Life must always be welcomed and protected…from conception to natural death. All of us are called to respect life and care for it’.”
The group’s “extreme ads promote abortion as if it were a social good,” Dolan continued. “But abortion kills the most defenseless among us, harms women, and tears at the heart of families. Pushing for public funding would force all taxpaying Americans to be complicit in the violence of abortion and an industry that puts profit above the well-being of women and children…[pitting] the needs of pregnant women against those of their unborn children. This is a false choice; Catholics and all people of goodwill are called to love them both.”
Q. Can you tell me what the difference is between doctrine and dogma? — M.K., Michigan.
A. That the two terms bear some similarities is indicated by the glossary at the back of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which defines “doctrine/dogma” as “the revealed teachings of Christ which are proclaimed by the fullest extent of the exercise of the authority of the Church’s Magisterium.” In his Modern Catholic Dictionary, however, Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, explains the distinction between the two terms.
First, he defines doctrine as “any truth taught by the Church as necessary for acceptance by the faithful. The truth may be either formally revealed (as the Real Presence), or a theological conclusion (as the canonization of a saint), or part of the natural law (as the sinfulness of contraception). In any case, what makes it doctrine is that the Church authority teaches that it is to be believed. This teaching may be done either solemnly in ex cathedra pronouncements or ordinarily in the perennial exercise of the Church’s Magisterium or teaching authority.”
A dogma, says Fr. Hardon, is a “doctrine taught by the Church to be believed by all the faithful as part of divine revelation. All dogmas, therefore, are formally revealed truths and promulgated as such by the Church. They are revealed either in Scripture or tradition, either explicitly (as the Incarnation) or implicitly (as the Assumption). Moreover, their acceptance by the faithful must be proposed as necessary for salvation. They may be taught by the Church in a solemn manner, as with the definition of the Immaculate Conception, or in an ordinary way, as with the constant teaching on the malice of taking innocent human life.”
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