What the Supreme Court decision does and does not do

 

G and I in 1966 on our wedding day!

I see a lot of excitement on both sides of the fence in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision which stated that laws restricting marriage to male and female were unconstitutional but there appears to be a lot of confusion as to what the decision means, practically speaking. For example, the Supreme Court decision does not allow folks to marry their dogs (sorry about that, dog lovers!)

One of the problems is that many folks drop out of High School in the third year and even if they do finish High School, they may not have been required to take a course in "Government".  And even if they did take such a course, it likely, was not the intense course we, in our High School, had back in the 1960's - G and I had the best teacher we ever had for government and both of us really learned a lot.  Our teacher also suggested a lot of supplementary reading and I, unlike many, I suppose, did do the supplementary reading - for example the book, "ADVISE AND CONSENT" and the like.

So considering all of this, here is my explanation.  The Supreme Court decision renders any federal laws restricting marriage to male and female, unconstitutional - except I found out that the specifics who can marry what, are not found on the federal level (in the 14th Amendment) but rather in the state laws.

The first couple who wishes to do a s/s marriage on the state level, will have to take the state to court to question the law against the recent Supreme Court decision.  The couple will win, of course, but this takes time and money and provides business for attorneys.  It's not a "slam dunk".  Couples following that first couple, who are s/s will then, be able to marry in that particular state.

This is only on the civil level.  Catholic priests, for example, will NOT be forced to give the Sacrament of Marriage (which is separate from civil marriage) to s/s couples - there are many rules about the Sacrament of marriage in the Catholic church - for example, priests may also not marry divorced folks unless they have had their first marriage(s) annulled and so forth.  This will not change because we do have, guaranteed, by the constitution, "freedom of religion".

I hope people in reading this blog, will relax a bit - I know in doing the research, I felt a lot better about the situation.

Pope Francis - much loved by the poor and lowly and hated by the media

Pope Francis reaching out to people

It seems that the Media hates Papa Francis - they are doing the "Sarah Palin" thing with him, ranting and raving and taking his speeches out of context etc. I would hope that Catholics would educate themselves so they can defend - sadly many believe the media more than they do the Gospel.

The following quote was taken from the article a friend on a "social networking site" provided.... The author of this article in a newspaper called "the federalist" wrote:  "The encyclical tells us much about the man who delivers it. Straightaway, it certifies the depth and span of this pope’s megalomania. A breathtaking strut into absolutism, it is addressed not simply to Catholics but, like the “Communist Manifesto,” to the whole world. "

Megalomania.... the humble character who until he was Pope, rode the city bus to work... really? "Communist Manifesto"? Notice the "author" of this article discounts Pope Francis' strong statements about how what is ruining the ecology is the widespread immorality and millions of humans aborted. That's the real bottom line - they hate his strong stand on abortion. Good going, Papa Francis... you are walking in the Footsteps of our Blessed Savior with your unpopularity with the media - afterall, we follow a man who was crucified for similar views...  I just hope people are smart enough to realize what the media is doing or trying to do - and therein lies my worry, because I know several Catholics who believe the media like it's gospel and question the Gospel like it's the media...

My wise husband's comment about this all,  was "You can imagine what CNN would have done to Jesus!" ;)  (He also, added that CNN would have had Jesus on the cross quicker than those who crucified Him did!)

Sue

Blessed Bartolo Longo

Blessed Bartolo Longo, (1841-1926) is very inspiring!  

He was a tertiary Dominican. Born on Feb 11, 1841 of wealthy parents, he was raised in a devout Catholic home and practiced his Faith until he attended the University of Naples. There, studying for a law degree, he fell in with others practicing the occult and attended many seances and the like. He became so confused, he left the Faith and was "ordained" as a "priest of Satan".  This after a long period of preparation, fasting and mortification.  When he was "ordained", he heard thunder strike.... but despite his bad experiences, he continued to talk others into leaving the Faith.  Finally, he heard a voice which told him "Return to the Church" and he went to confession and returned to the Lord.  His good friend, Vicente Pepes who helped him to return to the church, placed Bartoto in the care of a holy Dominican Friar, Alberto Radente, who helped Bartolo with the final stages of withdrawing from the occult sect.  This Friar also introduced him to a group of pious people who cared for the poor, the sick and the needy.  A member of this group was a widow, Countess Mariana de Fusco who owned a large tract of land near the ancient city of Pompeii which had been destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in the year, 79 AD and remained buried in ash for almost 2000 years.  Blessed Bartolo began helping the poor farmers who worked the fields around there.  Realizing his former error and how he had led people away from God's Truth in the church, Longo despaired and became extremely depressed and he almost committed suicide but then he was consoled by the reminder of the Friar Alberto saying that anyone who perpetuated the Devotion of the Holy Rosary will be saved so he began perpetuating devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary and this devotion, distributing Rosaries and teaching people how to pray the Rosary. He also founded a home for orphans.  He and the countess eventually got married but lived in celibacy because both had taken vows of celibacy previously.  

From his fasting and illness, Bartolo suffered with poor health and digestive problems for the rest of his life. He died in 1926 at the age of 85... and was Beatified by St John Paul II.  Blessed Bartolo was not only an attorney and talented writer but also a talented musician who played the flute!

Here are some videos about Blessed Bartolo Longo:

http://youtu.be/kLi9V9oO6ew

http://youtu.be/vAemzQDLVxo

The Sisterhood show on Lifetime TV - true Convent life?

A recent OP-ED remarked that TLC (the "learning  channel") had long deleted "Learning" from its TV shows.

I thought that was a good comment and a nice way to begin this blog. That is, TV is primarily entertainment although some shows try to disguise themselves as learning tools.

The Sisterhood is a show offered, not on the Learning Channel but rather on Lifetime TV.  Therefore, when I first watched it, I didn't expect much (to put it mildly).  Imagine my surprise when it actually seems to be not only a decent show but not anti Catholic! Perhaps that's because they involved a real Sister Order in the making of the show and some of those seen in the show are Sisters in real life.

The scenario is 5 young ladies trying to discern whether they have a vocation or not by "sampling" life in several convents.  Since they don't appear to be praying with the Sisters, I don't think I would call them "Aspirants" which usually is what they term non Postulants, living in a convent.

Additionally, the young ladies selected, while glamorous and "cute", would, I think, not pass the first interview for convent life.  Most of the young ladies seem to have little understanding of what convent life would entail for them or the commitment involved.

A bit - shall we say - unusual, is that they are sampling not only life in the convent, but participating in the ministry of the Sister Orders they are visiting.  They all, being fundamentally nice people, enjoyed that part but of course, having been in the convent myself, I can say, convent life is a lot more complex than being a volunteer in a soup kitchen.

Despite the foregoing, I must say, I find the show, entertaining enough to hold my interest and a relief from the usual hate and discontent seen in TV shows concerning Catholicism.  Watch (as is good advice with all TV) with a grain of salt i.e. if you are interested in convent life, this show is not going to tell you much about convent life.

Convent life includes a lot of praying.  The day starts in with "morning prayers" and then, the Sisters go to daily Mass.  Sometime in the late afternoon is usually time for a Rosary with the group and then, of course, evening prayers.  That is, if you don't enjoy prayer, you might not enjoy convent life.

Then too, again where the show differs from reality, having a Vocation to the Sisterhood, is a call from God and therefore, even if a young lady loves convent life and praying a lot as I certainly did, that doesn't necessarily mean she has a Vocation.  In my case, God had other plans for me - a life partner husband, a son, four grandchildren and a great granddaughter.

I saw the great granddaughter in a dream, repeatedly over a 2 week period before I was pregnant with our son... the brief message I was given was "She needs you", which alerted me to the fact that God had a child to place in my womb.

Later on, we used Natural Family Planning which I hoped God would override (I was hesitant to get pregnant again as I had developed some serious health issues over the years) but God only had planned the one son for us.

I recently heard a wonderful homily given by a local priest which included this - "Joy is conforming with the Will of God" so regardless of what a person may think he or she has planned for his or her life, God drew up that Plan long before we were born.  "I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb."  Jeremiah 1:5 tells us.  (the Photo is of the convent I was in, in the 1960's)

Do animals go to Heaven? (What the Catholic Church teaches)

This is Tina, a dog much beloved I had in my childhood

Do animals go to Heaven?  This is something that many folks wonder about.... 

 Here are a couple of interesting links on that subject:

From about.Christianity.com

http://christianity.about.com/od/whatdoesthebiblesay/f/animalsinheaven.htm

From Catholic answers:

http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/do-animals-have-souls-like-human-beings

Finally, a convert to Catholicism - Jimmy Akin's answer, : (this is a video)

http://youtu.be/DNjqQF5_UgI

Following is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

 2417    God entrusted animals to the stewardship of those whom he created in his own image.198 Hence it is legitimate to use animals for food and clothing. They may be domesticated to help man in his work and leisure. Medical and scientific experimentation on animals is a morally acceptable practice if it remains within reasonable limits and contributes to caring for or saving human lives. (2234) 2418    It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly. It is likewise unworthy to spend money on them that should as a priority go to the relief of human misery. One can love animals; one should not direct to them the affection due only to persons. (2446)

Finally, a scholarly article on the subject includes the following:

"A question that comes up frequently is whether people will see their pets in heaven. Now the Catechism of the Catholic Church does not directly address this question. But it does hold principles which lead us in the direction of an answer."

"One principle is that all living things have a soul. Here soul is defined as what makes an organic body live. Now when any living thing dies, its soul is separated from its body. In the case of plants and animals the soul goes out of existence. But in the case of man, the soul remains in existence because it is a spiritual or immaterial thing. Consequently, it differs from the souls of animals in two important respects. First, it is the seat of intelligence or reason. For this reason a man is held responsible for his actions in a way that animals are not. Secondly, the soul is immortal. A thing which has no physical parts cannot fall apart or be poisoned or be crushed or be put out of existence. For this reason the souls of the saved will always be aware of themselves as enjoying the vision of God for all eternity. This enjoyment will be the result of having chosen to act on earth in such a way that one did the will of God rather than one's own will.  And the souls of the damned will be aware of themselves as never attaining this vision of God because they have shown by their lives on earth that they did not wish this vision but instead preferred their own will."

"In the light of this essential difference between human beings and animals, it would seem that we would not see the souls of our pets in heaven for the simple reason that they do not have immortal souls and are not responsible for their actions. They do not have the intelligence which allows them to choose either God's will or their own will.  There is, then, an incomparable distance, say,  between the soul of the sorriest human being who ever lived and the most noble brute animal that ever walked the earth..."

"Now a child might be heartbroken at the thought that he will never see his pet again. He cannot yet understand this explanation about the difference between the human and the animal soul.  I suppose that one could tell the child that when he hopefully gets to heaven, he could ask God to see his old pets if he still wished to. There would be no harm in that. For we know that when a person finally sees God,  he will not be concerned with seeing old pets or favorite places but rather will be captured in the complete fulfillment of the joy of which old pets and favorite places are but little signs. We adults know that, even if the child does not."
 

Answered by Dr. Richard Geraghty, PhD*

In Summation - we can respect and love animals but must never equalize them with humans for only humans are created in the "Image and Likeness of God" and are destined for Heaven. In short, in Catholic theology: Angels are created beings who exist without a physical body, humans are created beings who can exist with or without a physical body and animals are created beings which cannot exist without a physical body.
 

* Note: Dr. Richard Geraghty is professor of philosophy at St. Joseph’s House of Studies, the college-level facility of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word, at EWTN. Prior to coming to EWTN, Dr. Geraghty taught philosophy for 18 years at the University of Dayton, Providence College, and St. John’s College Seminary. Dr. Geraghty earned his BA in philosophy at the University of Dayton, an MA in English from Ohio State University, and his MA and PhD in philosophy from the University of Toronto, where his thesis was entitled "The Object of Moral Philosophy According to St. Thomas Aquinas."

The Long Island Medium - is she for real?

A charming, animated blond lady on TV (TLC - "the Learning Channel") named Theresa Caputo, has intrigued many of those who have cable TV. She calls herself, "The Long Island Medium".  In show's introduction, she claims that although she thinks of herself as a "typical Long Island (NY) housewife", she has a special ability - she can talk to the dead, later explaining that "spirits", presumably of dead people, come to her and she feels compelled to tell those around her about this, apparently at a decent profit to her - enough to have enabled her hubby to sell his business and become a "house husband". Truly, not many "typical Long Island housewives" earn $400,000 bucks for each TV Season and that's not counting what she gets for private readings (estimates range from $100 per to $500 per reading) for which I last heard, she's booked solid for 2 years or more in advance).  One blog estimated Theresa' net worth as over 2.4 million bucks. (ibid)

Caputo has her share of loyal, believing fans, enough to fill auditoriums on her tours even though a seat in the audience is far from inexpensive, prices ranging from $100 to 4 figures (for the "good seats in front").

She also has her share of naysayers.  She claims she doesn't care if people don't believe in "what she does" but I suspect at least according to one article, she may care more than she says - she apparently, had a naysayer removed from the auditorium in a Boston appearance... supposedly, this women claimed (rather loudly) that Theresa's reading was incorrect. I would bet this might have happened more than once.

It appeared that Theresa did not want to be wrong or she felt so strongly about the message that she seemed to almost forget about the other 2,999 people witnessing this. She overheard the woman say this is “bullsh-t” and all hell broke loose. By this time Theresa had lost her temper and requested that security physically escort the woman out of the Wang theater for disagreeing and I suppose disrespecting her. After all it is her show.

For the show, "Long Island Medium", she has been said to spend 45 minutes in private with each person who appears on the show.

People have been asking themselves if there is a way to discern the truth of her claims from the TV show.  Although the belief that dead people are readily available for visiting the living is widespread (people don't want to believe in more of a separation), it is in opposition to Christian doctrine which states that after death - we either go to a place to complete our perfection in preparation for entrance into Heaven ("Nothing imperfect shall enter Heaven") or occasionally, as in the case of a handful of saints, we go directly or almost directly to our eternity.  In any  case, people who have passed would not be easily available for "readings".

Ironically, Caputo has said more than a few times that she is Catholic - although, it is unknown whether she regularly attends Mass.  That being said, there are some Catholics who work as mediums or "soothsayers" despite the fact that this is opposed to Catholic beliefs.  Unfortunately, many Catholic people seem confused about what our church teaches and sadly, even in asking a priest about things like ESP, at least some priests will opt out of a definitive answer, by saying "well the church says it's not true but who really knows?" (a quote of an answer I got from an elderly priest).

A more pressing question in some of our minds is, is Caputo real or merely a good entertainer?

Caputo appears to believe that what she does is the real thing but if she actually believes it, is unclear.  It's clear that she's the highest paid medium or soothsayer in the USA (a fact which seems to raise a bit of ire in others in her field).  

In watching her work, even on TV which is greatly edited, it's rather clear that she is employing a method called "Cold reading" in which the "reader" throws out general statements to a large audience and allows the believers present, to fill him/her in on the details. 

Example: the medium will say to an audience, "who is the young male who passed?" and at least one person will speak up and give the details. (The chances of one person or more in an audience having suffered a recent death, are good). The medium jumps on the details and  claims to be contacting the person who passed who is giving the individual a message.  In Theresa's case, the message is usually "he/she wants you to know that she/he's at peace and watching over you!". People who want to believe, seem very consoled at the moment but whether they are really consoled after extracting themselves from Theresa and her charismatic presentation is unclear as I have not met any Caputo audience members personally to interview them about their feelings.  People who have been to other readers whom I've interviewed seem divided - most take the readings as entertainment but not something upon which to make an important life decision which is likely a good idea.

It's not clear how many people really "believe" in her but though many say that she's not doing any harm because she appears to be consoling the grieving - the question rises if consoling people with possibly false information is really consoling beyond the excitement of the moment, in the audience.

Theresa appears to cleverly read people's body language etc and she's quick witted, intelligent and charming.  She's also entertaining which actually raises serious questions about the truth of her readings - often the prominent thing on folks' minds is not the positive but a pending divorce, a recent death or even physical illness, and reading this type of thing is anything but entertaining.

It's possible that she may be using telepathy (mind reading) but the idea that dead people simply hang out around earth is contrary to most religions and doesn't make a lot of sense if you think about it. Why would people want to hang around earth rather than moving on to better things?  Could she be contacting satanic angels who are play acting the beloved dead?  If she really were contacting spirits, perhaps this would be a possibility (and a scary one - people don't want to mess with this - which is why there are warnings in the Bible etc) however I'm not convinced she's doing anything more than sizing up people, using a system of clever guessing (only positive things, of course, she assures us).

Theresa is above all, a talented, charming entertainer which is how she not only scored a high rated show on "TLC" (The Learning Channel, somewhat euphemistically named i.e. I haven't seen much there which transcends the realm of good entertainment into being truly educational!). People who don't have a strong religious belief and thus, are searching for God, readily find in people like Theresa, a good "God substitute" at least at the moment however, Theresa doesn't offer much consolation for life's rough places or as the old saying states "There are no atheists in foxholes".

The "Inside Edition blog" summed it up well - Enjoy her show but watch it with a "huge grain of salt"!

Mass Children grave near a convent

 

 

A recent story in a blog announced a "Nun Scandal" specifically, a mass grave of 800 children found close to a home for unwed mothers run by Catholic sisters.  The blogger blab-ographer, of course, ASS-U-MEd the worst - they hinted that the nuns were likely either killing the kids or encouraging the mothers to do same.

 

A mass grave sounds like death from plague or influenza rather than the onesies and twosies of abortion! The legend that nuns meet priests in the basements of convents and do improper things, then have abortions and/or encouraged unwed mothers to indulge in abortion or other, has been around forever - it is the type of dirt that the enemies of Catholicism love to dish but I have researched it and there is absolutely NO EVIDENCE of this at all in history. 

 

Additionally - also we should keep in mind that it was the Catholic church that got rid of abortion in the first place back in Apostolic days and the Catholic church which continues to take a very strong stand of respect for the sanctity of life "from the womb to the tomb"!  I was in the convent for 9 months and believe me, there was totally NO IMPROPER behavior. 

 

In the early part of the 20th century, something like 70% of children born (or more) did not make adulthood - they died of things like diphtheria, polio, typhoid fever, influenza etc. That's why birth control was never an issue in "days of yore" - a woman had to have several kids to have couple of them, survive into adulthood.

 

Bottom line, it's good to remember "garbage in - garbage out" and with the press twisting and misquoting and dishing dirt about all things Catholic, it ends up being less than a waste of time for Catholic readers - who'd be better spending their time reading the Bible and get their news from Catholic News Service or similar.

 

When I was in the convent, I didn't read news at all and found it was rather pleasant without the daily dirt dishing of the news services - the important stuff filtered down and the rest I never missed.  So upon coming out, I continued not bothering with the news and I've never regretted that decision! :)

 

 I really get weary of the media attacks but then Jesus foretold it - "Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." We follow a crucified Christ to the cross and into Heaven!!!  (Photo is of me as a postulant in the convent in 1964)