Catholic Spotlight

We’re a year and half away from voting, but the issues are front-and-center every day.   As Catholics, we recognize that there are many important issues that must be addressed during an election. We also recognize that some issues are objectively more important than others because they more fundamentally address the well being of our society. These issues go beyond partisan lines. They define the kind of society we live in, and the kind of people we are.

There are five major issues that Catholics should first consider, before all others, when making their voting decisions:  Abortion, Euthanasia, Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Human Cloning, and Same-Sex “Marriage.”  The Five Issues That Matter Most is an excellent booklet on this subject.

With the aging of America, more and more Catholics are seeking Bibles and prayer books in large print.  For those who love the Douay Rheims Bible, it is now available in large print, in a very nice leather-bound cover.

It was a blessing to be able to go on a pilgrimage recently, which began with spending a few days in Fatima the week of the 90th anniversary of the first apparition to three children by the Blessed Virgin.  Events such as Fatima are a gift to the Catholic church, and what makes this gift so special is the rare simplicity of these children.  We have so much at our disposal every day, and yet these children (considered poor by the world’s standards) found ways to serve God and their neighbors in amazing ways, considering they were very young children.  In reading their story, you might be reminded of what the Lord means when He said we should be childlike, in the ways of living our Faith. The three children of Fatima exemplify that call, and it seems to have come to them quite naturally.  Read about it in Sister Lucia’s own words.

I heard a comment today during a discussion on the nationally-syndicated Laura Ingraham (who happens to be Catholic) radio program about the proposed immigration legislation, and that we need these “immigrants” (legal and illegal) for all the jobs in this country.  The commentator wondered how many of those jobs we’d be able to fill if 40 million babies had not been aborted over the past thirty years.  This is one of the consequences of abortion, and the Catholic Church, being neither liberal nor conservative, Democrat nor Republican, is always on the correct side of this issue.  Here are some good titles on the subject:  Catholic Morality: The Battle for America’s Soul;  Abortion: Yes or No?;  Teresita’s Choices.

As a follow-up to Tuesday’s post, here are a few stats that show the extent of the pornography crisis in our culture, followed by some resources that address the situation.  This data is at least two years old, so we know it has grown, and probably exponentially more each successive year.  

- The pornography industry, according to conservative estimates, brings in $57 billion per year, of which the United States is responsible for $12 billion.

- In 2004, there were 4.2 million pornographic websites; 372 million pornographic pages.

- Sex is the number 1 topic searched on the Internet.

- There are 100 thousand websites offering illegal child pornography

- 70% of 18 to 24 year old men visited pornographic sites in a typical month. 66% of men in their 20s and 30s also reported being regular users of pornography.  (2005)

-  There are 40 million US adults who regularly visit internet pornography websites  

- 90% of 8-16 year olds using the Internet have viewed pornography on line (most while doing homework).   (2004) 

- Eleven years old is the average age of first Internet exposure to pornography.   (2004)

Here are some reliable resources that address the crisis:

Pornography Plague and the Path to Christian Purity (CD)

Porn - The Tragedy Exposed

Theology of the Body Made Simple

The Denver Catholic Register ran a piece in its March 21 issue about two bishops in the US who are doing some great work in the Catholic Church to combat the flood of pornography in this country. Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph, MO, and Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, KS, have used two different approaches, but with the same objective: education. Pornography isn’t just confined to the tv channels with high numbers on the cable listings, viewed by “those people” in the dark of the night. No, it’s front and center in many forms on television, radio, the internet, and mobile devices. It’s been creeping up on us incrementally for years, such that many do not even recognize it when they see it. For more information about what these fine priests are doing, you can view Bishop Finn’s pastoral letter, and Archbishop Naumann’s anti-pornography program online.

I heard a report today that this is the 30th anniversary of the release of the first Star Wars film.  So what does this have to do with the Catholic church?  In the news report, they mentioned that the film only opened in 32 theatres, because they didn’t think it was going to be that popular.  This reminded of the decisions we make to NOT do something because we believe it will not really make a difference, or that the other person involved won’t listen to us, or that our action will not be well-received, etc., etc.  This reminder I got was what some refer to as a ”signal grace” — little messages or signs from the Holy Spirit that help us to proceed in faith.  It was a message, received through the everyday means of mass communication, that we should persevere in active discipleship, and the Lord will use our small actions to do great things.  In other words, don’t presume about the outcome of our good actions.

On a recent trip to Portugal, I found a Catholic Church in the busy Lisbon neighborhood where my hotel was located.  Unlike what I’ve experienced on several trips to Italy, there are not an abundance of Catholic churches in Lisbon.  However, I was fortunate to find one close by, and so that’s where I went on the particular Sunday.  There was only one Mass scheduled for Sunday (10:30 a.m.), so I figured it would be a pretty full Mass.  Wrong.  The church was maybe at 15% capacity, and there were maybe 100 people there.  What a shame.  Although I was grateful to be able to fulfill my Sunday obligation (albeit in the Portuguese language) — an obligation I very much look forward to each week — I feel sad for the many Catholics (or former Catholics) in that city who do not participate in this Catholic celebration.  This is a terrible trend all over Europe that we pray will not happen in the U.S.

The most dominant force in the lives of most Americans is the media—the Internet, TV, radio, blackberries, ipods. The list goes on and on. Although incredibly intoxicating, the media all too often distracts us from that which is most important, and in many instances, actually fights against our good and noble goals in life.   We’ve seen and heard many debates about this recently, especially with the controversies raised by cultural icons such as Don Imus, Rosie O’Donnell and the like.  As parents, educators, and consumers of the media, we have to get our media usage—and that of our families—under control. Otherwise, the media will control us, if it isn’t doing so already. In her new book, Noise, Teresa Tomeo, a veteran broadcast journalist in both the Catholic and secular markets, makes a compelling and irrefutable case about the dangers of our dominant media culture—and the adjoining liberalism and immorality that comes with it.

Earlier in this blog was a report that the tide is turning toward Catholicism (and an excellent book that reports on the subject), but that doesn’t mean we can relax.  Far from it.  This blurb was reported by Catholic New Service recently:

HARTFORD, Conn. (CNS) — Declaring that “Catholic institutions should have a right to be Catholic,” the Connecticut bishops stepped up a campaign urging lawmakers to amend or defeat a bill that would require all Catholic hospitals in the state to provide emergency contraception to rape victims. The legislation passed the state Senate 32-3 April 25 and now heads to the House. In an April 25 letter to House and Senate leaders, Archbishop Henry J. Mansell of Hartford and Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport said the bill’s requirement that objecting hospitals hire a third party to dispense the “morning-after pill” marketed as Plan B would still “involve the hospital in a way that would violate Catholic moral principles of cooperation. It is important to repeat that Connecticut’s Catholic hospitals do provide emergency contraception when that medication can act as a contraceptive by preventing ovulation,” the letter said. “The Catholic hospitals do not provide Plan B only when the medication would act as an abortifacient and therefore contrary to Catholic religious beliefs and moral values.”