It's Going to be Okay

Honestly, this whole HHS mandate regarding contraception and sterilization procedures has been almost a constant in my thoughts since I first heard about it.

This is a scary time. The idea of people being forced by the American Government to violate their consciences is something I never really imagined. In fact, it's something I could only vaguely conceptualize as a reality at all. For anyone. Anywhere.

I've always known though. I've been told of the reality of oppression at the hands of a country's leaders. The difference now is that it was always something distant from me, from the life I live. After all, I've been blessed to be a citizen of the Land of Opportunity, the Land of Promise. I've always had full access to the American Dream.

Whatever your personal beliefs are regarding the Catholic Church's teaching on matters of contraception, I think you can still admit that it is a serious violation of the Religious Liberty promised to those who live in this country.

And so, I've worried. I've worried about what else the government has the hidden ability to do. I've worried about what is going to come after this. I've worried about how people will react. I've worried about what will happen to an already misguided and disillusioned view of family and the right to life.

I worried, and then I read this.

The most reassuring thoughts provided in that blog (for me) come at the very end.

(1) "...I'm not worried because we're going to do the right thing." Oh. Right. I forgot. The Catholic Church is led by holy men who are direct successors of the apostles. They have been anointed to safeguard the teachings of the Church. They have been anointed to pass on and protect the Sacred Traditions that have been handed to us. And they will. Because for all of the falling away, all of the countless ways that human nature has tainted what we see of the Church, God will protect His Church. He has graced it, consecrated it, and founded it upon a rock that stands today: in richness and in fullness. We ARE going to do the right the thing. Not every single Catholic. But the One, Holy, and Universal Church. The gates of hell will not prevail.

(2) "Finally, more importantly than any of these human, practical, temporal things that I take hope in, the number one I find hope in is that these armies and enemies don't matter. As King Henry V says in Shakespeare's play: 'We are in God's hands, Brother, not in theirs.'"

We do not belong to this world. We do not belong to this government. We belong to God. We are His children, members of His Church. We live and move and have our being in Him. He will protect us. He will empower us with His Spirit. The gates of hell will not prevail.

He has won. And we are so blessed to have been called into His victory. By mercy we are invited into the mystery of Himself. And nestled within the grace of that mystery we know that this world cannot take away all that is glorious in Him.

Well, I AM Going to Talk About It

On Friday, the Heath and Human Services Department of the Obama Administration passed a regulation that will require employers to include coverage of contraceptives and sterilization procedures in their health care plans regardless of their moral beliefs.

In other words, the Catholic Institutions (schools, hospitals, etc.) that have employees who receive health care benefits will have to PAY for contraceptives.

THAT IS A MAJOR PROBLEM!

In case you didn't know, the Catholic Church sees the use of artificial contraceptives as grave matter. This means that their use, when combined with full-knowledge of the gravity and full-consent to the usage, puts Catholics in a state of MORTAL SIN, which completely cuts them off from GOD and His Church.

THAT IS A REALLY BIG DEAL!

Catholic Institutions, which make up the single largest charitable organizations in the world, provide medical attention to the SICK and DYING of any religion, and have pioneered the education system, CANNOT comply with this regulation.

CANNOT! Period.

So what does this mean? Well (unless I'm completely erring in my understanding of the situation) either (1) the entire Catholic Church in the United States becomes complete sell outs, sacrificing the fullness of Truth, the sacredness of Tradition, and spitting in the face of all Divine Revelation, (2) Catholic Institutions stop providing heath care to their employees (which Catholic Social Teaching would have a big issue with), or (3) these institutions courageously stand up for the Truth the Catholic Church boldly proclaims and suffer the consequences.

So you see, this is kind of a BIG DEAL. It kind of MATTERS.

Setting aside the fact this appears to be a blatant contradiction of our Constitutional rights to religious freedom, people should be talking about this. People should be fired up!

But there has been (in my humble opinion) a strange and unexpected amount of silence regarding the issue.

Well, not anymore.

I'm saying something.

Click here to read a better explanation of the situation.

Click here to see how the bishops are responding.

Click here to read who is in support of the ruling.

Click here to see what you can do about this now.

And above all else PRAY! Pray for the courage of the leaders of the Church. Pray for the lawmakers and leaders of our country. Pray for the conversion of hearts that will allow LIFE to be known as something precious to value, not something negative to prevent. Pray, pray, pray.

Slightly Confused

This video, "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus," has popped up multiple times on my facebook newsfeed. I finally watched it a few a minutes ago, and I'm going to offer a response here.

Let me start out by saying that there are points made in this video that I absolutely agree with. There are also points (namely the whole premise/title) that are not Truth.

Religion is not in and of itself evil. The problem with religion is not that it is something contrary to Jesus or something on the opposite end of the spectrum of Jesus (as it is according to the video). The "problem" with religion is that every religion is made up of HUMANS whose daily lives, decisions, and actions are influenced by FALLEN NATURE.

The logical parallel that the poet in this video attempts to draw between Christ's rebuking of the Scribes/ Pharisees with religion as a whole is faulty. Christ did NOT come to abolish the law; He came to FULFILL the law. In doing so, He INSTITUTED the One, Holy, Catholic Church. The FULLNESS of Truth -of God's plan for mankind- rests within the rich sacredness of a religion build upon Scripture and Tradition.

Christ's condemnation in Scripture is a condemnation of people who did not allow God their whole beings - their whole hearts. He condemned people who used the law as a source of pride rather than a guide towards love. He condemned people who tried to hide behind the law and avoid actually LIVING mercy, grace, forgiveness, and love. And today He still condemns people who hide behind religion. He still condemns hypocrisy.

What the man in this video DOES understand is that far too many people today claim salvation and holiness because they can check church off their list of things they did this week. Far too many Catholics - and Christians as a whole - never allow their religion to guide them to the fullness of the Christian life.

However, what the man in this video DOES NOT recognize is that when Christ instituted The Church, it never ceased to be comprised of fallen people. It never ceased to exist in a fallen world. Rather, He insured that even when we do fail -even when our practice of religion falls short of the glory He has in mind - there is a religion through which we always have access to the grace of His obedience on the cross.

It is through a religion- The Catholic Church- that the grace for our salvation is made available to us.

Religion is not the summation of the hypocrisy its members. Rather, One religion is the NECESSARY path for us to our salvation.

I guess in a way I could say that he is almost right. And yet completely wrong at the same time...

Catholic Culture

This article provided my with new food for thought. The article as a whole is worth reading, but these paragraphs are the ones that have me thinking the most. "

But, in fact, they live in a different world from most American Catholics. Opposition to abortion doesn't stand at the center of Catholic theology. It doesn't even stand at the center of Catholic faith. It does stand, however, at the center of Catholic culture in this country. Opposition to abortion is the signpost at the intersection of Catholicism and American public life. And those who--by inclination or politics--fail to grasp this fact will all eventually find themselves in the situation that Fr. Jenkins has now created for himself. Culturally out of touch, they rail that the antagonism must derive from politics. But it doesn't. It derives from the sense of the faithful that abortion is important. It derives from the feeling of many ordinary Catholics that the Church ought to stand for something in public life--and that something is opposition to abortion.

Fr. Himes went on to tell the Boston Globe, "Some people have simply reduced Catholicism to the abortion issue, and, consequently, they have simply launched a crusade to bar anything from Catholic institutions that smacks of any sort of open conversation." (I cut out the remainder of this paragraph)

Still, in a peculiar way, Himes is right that "some people have simply reduced Catholicism to the abortion issue." It is a horrifying fact, in many ways, that Roe v. Wade has done more to provide Catholic identity than any other event of the last 50 years. Still, for American Catholics, the Church is a refuge and bulwark against an ambient culture that erodes morality and undermines families. Catholic culture is their counterculture, their means of upholding the dignity of the human person and the integrity of family--and, in that context, the centrality of abortion for American Catholic culture seems much less arbitrary than it first appeared.

This is what the leaders of Notre Dame need to grasp. They do not necessarily have bad theology when they equate the life issues with other concerns. They do not necessarily have bad faith just because they say that war and capital punishment outweigh the million babies killed every year in this country by abortion. But they lack the cultural marker that would make them Catholic in the minds of other Catholics. Abortion is not the only life issue, but it is the one that bears most directly on the lives of ordinary Catholics as they swim against the current to preserve family life. And until Catholic universities understand this, they will not be Catholic--in a very real, existential sense."

I've never given much thought to the role that the culture plays in Catholicism. As I ramble through some of the things I have been thinking on this topic, I want to make one point very clear. I know that abortion is wrong. I know that Church is opposed to it. I know that it is a fundamental issue because it is intrinsically evil and violates the dignity of human life. Nothing that I say here is meant, in any way, to detract from that Truth.

It is interesting to think about how the tide of popularity manifests itself in the Church. It does seem true that abortion is the "popular" issue in Catholic culture (in America) today. In a lot of ways, it also seems to be the issue that "makes or breaks" one's reputation as a "good" Catholic. Is it impossible for a whole slew of other Catholic issues to combine to be enough to override a pro-choice stance? We've all seen the bumper stickers "you can't be Catholic and Pro-Life." Does his invitation to Obama and his special recognizing of Obama with an honorary degree (ignore for a second the disobedience to the bishops) make Fr. Jenkins a bad Catholic?

At this point people are probably thinking right Melissa but here's the thing, you can't ignore the disobedience of the bishops, and you can't pretend that abortion isn't genuinely a big deal. - Fine. But the point I'm trying to make here (for which abortion is probably not the best example) is that the culture interacts with the Church in a way that gives a certain degree of power to the culture.

I frequently find myself annoyed (that is an understatement) with the Education system in the U.S. and its tendency to cater to the needs of a society that is debased and disillusioned. I would not say that the Church does the same thing. However, I would say that it has become clear to me that the world, the culture, chooses for the Church what She will battle. I'm neither saying that this is a bad thing, nor a good thing. I'm simply stating what I have come to observe. So, what does this mean for the Church? I will not propose an extended response. However, I do think, at the most basic level, it means that She must find ways to promote the wider compilation of the Catholic vision (faith and theology), because there is a real danger of Catholicism being reduced to merely its parts (in this case, it has possibly become abortion).