FOOD FOR THOUGHT
January, 2010. On Health Care Reform
""We believe we are facing a crisis, not only in health-care financing and delivery, but in the health-care reform process itself. As is often noted, the word “crisis” can mean either danger or opportunity. The United States has the opportunity (and obligation) to craft effective, ethical responses to the crisis in health-care financing and delivery. But there also exists a real danger that misguided legislation could make our current problems even worse. This is a critical time for Catholics to work together to formulate solutions based upon authentic moral, social, and economic principles.“ From An Open Letter on Health Care Reform, September 21, 2009, Catholic Medical Association. FULL TEXT.November, 2009. On Catholic Health Care
"Catholic health care services rejoice in the challenge to be Christ's healing compassion in the world and see their ministry not only as an effort to restore and preserve health but also as a spiritual service and a sign of that final healing that will one day bring about the new creation that is the ultimate fruit of Jesus' ministry and God's love for us.” From the conclusion to the Ethical and Religious Directives, USCCB.September, 2009. On the Sacrament of the Sick
"The sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is given to those who are seriously ill by anointing them on the forehead and hands with duly blessed oil—pressed from olives or from other plants—saying, only once: "Through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up." ... The first grace of this sacrament is one of strengthening, peace and courage to overcome the difficulties that go with the condition of serious illness or the frailty of old age. This grace is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who renews trust and faith in God and strengthens against the temptations of the evil one, the temptation to discouragement and anguish in the face of death.135 This assistance from the Lord by the power of his Spirit is meant to lead the sick person to healing of the soul, but also of the body if such is God's will.136 Furthermore, 'if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.'" --from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1513 & 1520).August, 2009. On Bioethics
"A particularly crucial battleground in today's cultural struggle between the supremacy of technology and human moral responsibility is the field of bioethics, where the very possibility of integral human development is radically called into question. In this most delicate and critical area, the fundamental question asserts itself force-fully: is man the product of his own labors or does he depend on God?" Caritas in Veritatae, Pope Benedict XVIJuly, 2009. On a Change of Heart
“The Church of Christ, present in the midst of the anxiety of this age, does not cease to hope most firmly. She intends to propose to our age over and over again, in season and out of season, this apostolic message: "Behold, now is the acceptable time for a change of heart; behold! now is the day of salvation."” from Gaudium et spes, Vatican II.June, 2009. On the Culture of Life:
“We are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and life, the "culture of death" and the "culture of life". We find ourselves not only "faced with" but necessarily "in the midst of" this conflict: we are all involved and we all share in it, with the inescapable responsibility of choosing to be unconditionally pro-life.” Evangelium vitae; 28.May, 2009. On Citizenship:
“If our citizenship in the reign of God does not influence our citizenship in this world, we may well be holding a false passport.”From the introduction to Listening to God’s Word by award-winning
Catholic author Alice Camille
April, 2009. On Catholic Doctors:
“There cannot be a worse calamity to a Catholic people than to have its medical attendants alien or hostile to Catholicity; there cannot be a greater blessing than when they are intelligent Catholics who acknowledge the claims of religious duty, and the subordinations and limits of their own functions. No condition, no age of human life, can dispense with the presence of the doctor and the surgeon; he is the companion, for good or for evil, of the daily ministrations of religion, its most valuable support or its most grievous embarrassment, according as he professes or ignores its creed.” Cardinal John Henry Newman quoted in Essays on Catholic Education in the United States, Roy Joseph Deferrari, ed. Ayer Publishing, 1969. p271March, 2009. On Being Happy
Question: Is the Catholic happier than others?Reply: “Happiness is, of course, a multifaceted category. Just think of the fact that the Sermon on the Mount begins with the so-called Beatitudes. The Lord opens what you might call a school of happiness; he presents Christianity to humanity as a school of happiness: ‘I will show you the way.’ But if one looks again, this school of happiness contradicts what men customarily understand by happiness. We would say that the happy man is the one who has sufficient possessions. Who has the means to be able to shape a nice life for himself. We would say that someone who is cheerful and who succeeds at everything in life is happy. He says: Blessed are those who mourn. This means, in other words, that his doctrine of happiness is very paradoxical, at least compared with what we understand by that term. It is not happiness in the sense of comfort. In this respect, one can grasp quite well what conversion means. One must relinquish the customary criteria—‘happiness is wealth, possession, power.’ For precisely when one makes these things the measure, one is on the wrong path. So Catholics are not promised an ‘exterior’ happiness but rather a deep interior security [Geborgensein] through communion with the Lord. That He is an ultimate light of happiness in one’s life is in fact a part of all this.” From Salt of the Earth (an interview between Peter Seewald and then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI), Ignatius Press, 1997.
February, 2009. On Being v.s. Doing
“In our contemporary society there is a highly developed system of vocational and technical training that has increased to the utmost the possibilities of human mastery over material things. Human ability in the sense of dominating the world has reached dizzy heights. In doing things we have become very great, but when it comes to being, to the art of existence, things look very different indeed. We know what can be done with things and people, but what things and people are is something we do not talk about any longer. What we shall be concerned about in these coming days is this lost art of being able to live. In this matter we find ourselves in the same kind of situation as after a kind of multiple fracture: we must gradually learn again how to ‘move’ in faith, how to use all our inner powers.”---Excerpt from a talk given by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as part of a retreat for priests in 1986. To Look on Christ: Exercises in Faith, Hope, and Love. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Crossroad, NY, 1991, page 16.
January, 2009. On the Economic Downturn
"During times like these many Catholics, as well as others of good will, often reassess their primary values and core beliefs. For many, the opportunity exists to rediscover a life of trust in God, of simpler choices, or the blessing of family life. At this time we find ourselves in a unique position to offer the assurances of the great treasury of Christian tradition, which continues to assert what we have always believed: that our ultimate hope lies in our relationship with the Lord and that our principal virtues are faith, hope and love. This is a very timely message indeed."---Bishop Robert McManus, from his "Pastoral on the Economy", October 24, 2008. CLICK for full text.
November, 2008. On Cluttering the Spirit
“If Christian health care professionals really knew Christ or understood what Christianity asks them to believe, they would understand immediately and intimately the spiritual dimension of the their work that stares them in the face. Spirituality is not an ethical dilemma. It is the substance of what health care professionals do.” So writes, physician and Franciscan monk, Daniel Sulmasy, in his recent book, A Balm for Gilead: Meditations on Spirituality and the Healing Arts.What keeps Catholic physicians from seeing the spiritual dimension of their vocation? Dr. Sulmasy explains: "There is always a danger, especially in the 21st century Western world, that one may clutter one’s life in such a way as to dull one’s spiritual sense to God’s call. This is a particularly perilous professional liability in health care. This is how one may have the experience but miss the meaning. Classically, the only way to avoid this pitfall and keep one’s spiritual senses sharp is through prayer.”
September, 2008. On Using Our Gifts
"Let me now ask you a question. What will you leave to the next generation? Are you building your lives on firm foundations, building something that will endure? Are you living your lives in a way that opens up space for the Spirit in the midst of a world that wants to forget God, or even rejects him in the name of a falsely-conceived freedom? How are you using the gifts you have been given, the “power” which the Holy Spirit is even now prepared to release within you? What legacy will you leave to young people yet to come? What difference will you make?"---Pope Benedict XVI July 16, 2008 at World Youth Day. CLICK for more.
August, 2008. On Contraception
"If you can understand the difference between killing grandma and waiting until she dies naturally, you can understand the difference between contraception and Natural Family Planning...Natural death and infertility are acts of God, but with euthanasia and contraception, human beings take the powers of life into their own hands, trying to be God." --Christopher West on the "Theology of the Body."CLICK for more.
