News Briefs

Denver, Colo., Jul 24, 2018 / 04:16 pm (CNA).- This week, CNA says farewell to our summer intern, Lizzy Joslyn. In her final week at CNA this summer, Lizzy offers “The Genius of Woman,” a four-part series of interviews and profiles, based on Pope St. John Paul II’s “Letter to Women,” and interviews with seven Catholic women from very different walks of life. This is the second piece in that series:

John Paul II’s 1995 “Letter to Women” was written to praise and encourage women to embrace the beauty that God gave them – the“feminine genius”- despite social and cultural messages telling them to become something different.

In contemporary society, the pope wrote, “women’s dignity has often been unacknowledged and their prerogatives misrepresented; they have often been relegated to the margins of society and even reduced to servitude. This has prevented women from truly being themselves and it has resulted in a spiritual impoverishment of humanity.”

The pope, on the contrary, encouraged viewing, and valuing, women, from the perspective of their dignity, and the natural complementarity of men and women:“The creation of woman is thus marked from the outset by the principle of help: a help which is not one-sided but mutual. Woman complements man, just as man complements woman: men and women are complementary. Womanhood expresses the “human” as much as manhood does, but in a different and complementary way.”

Rejecting women’s instinct for nurture and self-sacrifice is a part of a modern effort that “overcorrects” gender imbalances and discrimination against women, “by either repressing men and suggesting that men are bad and pushing them down… or on the other hand by trying to treat women as men,” said Michelle La Rosa, managing editor at CNA.

Careers and vocations based in self-giving are often looked down upon by a “feminist” society. Adding a family, or focusing on motherhood, can also be the source of criticism for some women in contemporary society.

 But the Church lifts high the call for women to serve, regarding such selflessness with great respect and importance. John Paul II, speaking of Mary, wrote,“For her, ‘to reign’ is to serve! Her service is ‘to reign’!” The same can be said for every woman’s–and person’s–call, he said.

 In light of that encouragement, some Catholic women have learned that lesson- “to reign is to serve.”

“Humanity itself owes much of its survival to the fact that women are nurturing,” said Amy Shupe, a teacher at Christian Brothers High School in St. Louis, Missouri.

Their talents in this area does not necessarily restrict them to one vocation. La Rosa and Ginny Kochis, a blogger on Catholic motherhood, both mentioned the life of Saint Zélie Martin–a woman who worked and raised a family with her husband, Louis Martin, who also worked.

“If a woman doesn’t want to work full time, if she wants to be a stay-at-home-mom, if men or women want to prioritize relationships and family above work, it’s almost seen as weakness and women are looked down upon if they can’t have it all,” said YouTuber Lizzie Reezay.

Two women shared their vocation stories with CNA—they are are wildly different, but both expressions of the “feminine genius” that John Paul II celebrated.

Women educating, raising generations to come

Amy Shupe felt a calling to dedicate her life to teaching a subject she never found easy. Her early years in school, she said, involved a lot of standardized test-taking. Seeing her poor results on such tests–particularly in math–discouraged her.

Her teachers’ reactions didn’t exactly uplift her, either.

“They didn’t point-blank,” tell her she couldn’t achieve higher scores in math, she said, but teachers would place a lot of weight on their students’ scores. “You kind of get the feeling that… it’s gonna be a real struggle for you, so maybe you should think about something else,” Shupe said.

In high school, though, she began to receive greater encouragement from her teachers. That’s when she discovered that she wanted to be that same source of encouragement for students who felt like they couldn’t do math.

“I have to help other people not feel the same way that I felt,” she said.

Now, Shupe is a high school teacher at Christian Brothers High School in St. Louis, Missouri. A 2017 recipient of a prestigious teacher’s award, the Distinguished Lasallian Educator Award, she invests copious amounts of her time and energy to the growth of her students.

“I work very hard at my job. I’m constantly thinking about it,” she said.

The role of a teacher can most certainly be taken on by men or women, but there’s something to be said for the emotionally intuitive side of women that lends itself to working with children, she said.

A mother of two children, Shupe exercises similar skills at work and at home.

“My number one role…is mom,” she said. “First, I’m a mother. I have two kids and I take care of them. And so then I think it easily translates into my classroom. You know, while those boys are not my flesh and blood, but I do know that… they have parents that are looking out for them,” said Shupe. Granted the trust of her students’ parents, she said, they are “put in my care day after day after day and I’m not there just to help them with math. I’m there to help them… learn about life… and have good influence on others.”

 

A Bride of Christ

A nun.

What the world sees: a humble, quiet, unsuspecting woman. Not exactly the “ideal” successful, commanding businesswoman. Mental pictures of “The Sound of Music” abound.

What Christ sees: His bride.

Sister Maria of the Capuchin Poor Clares in Denver, Colorado grew up in a strong Catholic household, but she never thought she would commit to the consecrated life.

In her younger years, Sister Maria was never a very committed practicer of the faith, she said. She attended Mass and received the Sacraments not “out of my own conviction,” she said, but more “of out of duty” to follow along with her family.

Things began to change one summer when she attended a retreat–one priest’s homily on God’s love “struck” her.

“This priest, I remember very, very clearly… he was talking about the love of God and he said, you know, ‘God loves us all the time, every moment. If he would just stop to love this one moment, we would just stop existing!”

Astounded by the gravity of this statement, Sister Maria began her search for ways to serve the God whose love, she had found, allowed her very existence. The next summer, she went on a mission to a poverty-ridden mountain town in Mexico.

There, she said, she found the poorest–yet, the richest–people.

“They were so pure and simple and giving and generous and they treated us like we were angels from God… they offered everything they had, they took us into their homes,” she remembered. “This pure life!”

Inspired after the mission, Sister Maria began to frequent a monastery near her home. The sisters, she observed, had a strangely similar poor-yet-rich complex. It took her months to admit it to herself, but Maria finally decided to discern her calling to be a nun.

A strong woman, says the world, is independent. But what if there is strength in dependence–on God?

John Paul II, in expressing his thanks for consecrated women, wrote, “Following the example of the greatest of women, the Mother of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, you open yourselves with obedience and fidelity to the gift of God’s love. You help the Church and all mankind to experience a ‘spousal’ relationship to God, one which magnificently expresses the fellowship which God wishes to establish with his creatures.”

This specific and crucial mission, to “help the Church and all mankind to experience a ‘spousal’ relationship to God” is one only women can fulfill. And, because of the world’s disdain for obedience and quietness, this noble mission is also often looked down upon.

Although Sister Maria lives behind closed doors, she lives pray for people outside those doors. “We are here for the world, for the sake of others,” she said.

To some women, a life like Sr. Clare’s might seem to impossible- too simple, too humble, not empowered.

Consecrated life, like motherhood, is sometimes regarded as less significant work than traditional employment.

“People are so afraid of permanent commitment,” said Sister Maria, adding that she has seen fewer and fewer vocations to the Poor Clares.

A strong woman, says society, is a woman who isn’t afraid to invest in herself and do what she pleases.

But a strong woman of faith, says God, is a woman who isn’t afraid to fully commit herself to Christ.

Not only do “feminists” disregard the gravity of such commitment, but they also constantly reach for ways to prove that they are not “different than men, instead of trying to compete or equal in their own way,” the nun said.

Even when it comes to roles in the Church.

“Some groups continue to demand priesthood for women,” she said, but this “doesn’t make much sense.”

Considering Mary, she said, there are many opportunities for women to have a strong influence on the church.

Mary “never claimed to be one of the apostles…. She had her own role, and continues to have it in the church,” she said. “Who can be more important… her role in salvation history… than Mary’s?”

Disclaiming that she did not encourage priesthood for women, she added, “In a way, Mary was a priest. She was the first one who carried Jesus… The body of Christ is Mary’s body. The Eucharistic Body, in a way, is Mary’s flesh.”

“Every Communion, you carry Jesus,” she said, and, quoting St. Francis, “You give birth to Jesus through your good works.”

Sister Maria referenced St. Clare’s teachings: “We can carry Jesus the same way that Mary carried him… Mary carried Jesus in her womb for nine months, but the faithful soul can carry him spiritually, always.”

Women, she said, should embrace the roles in the church that God has offered to them rather than scrambling for more roles. If man and woman were the same, she said, it wouldn’t be as beautiful.

Ultimately, each woman–and man, for that matter–is called to be vigilant of God’s wish for their life, said Sister Maria.

“It’s a journey that never ends. You will always be receiving the vocation from God every day and answering to a vocation every day,” she said. “Do not be afraid to give yourself to Christ.”

 

 

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Denver, Colo., Jul 24, 2018 / 02:57 pm (CNA).- Sex “untethered” from reproduction can mean “whatever individual men decide it means to them, even violence and power,” says law professor Helen Alvaré, adding that the #MeToo movement can learn from the wisdom expressed by Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae vitae.

“When even the very thought of children is far removed from sexual intimacy, sex struggles to serve the man and woman together. Why? Because the man and woman’s possible future — i.e., a child, a family, a marriage, extended kin, even love — is cut off from their present,” Alvaré wrote in the July issue of the Knights of Columbus’ Columbia Magazine.

“What Catholics are so concerned about when it comes to contraception,” Alvaré wrote, is “the breaking apart of what should be held together, with the result that sex loses its beautiful mutuality and becomes something else.”

Humanae vitae teaches that “a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods,” he wrote, “may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires.”

“This is more than a little relevant to the current #MeToo moment. Without descending into the detailed accusations of so many women, we can summarize #MeToo sex as a set of words and acts of a sexual nature done to project power or to gain pleasure for one person. It is the understatement of the year to say that these words and actions “lack mutuality” or a common — let alone good — end.”

Alvaré, cofounder of the movement Women Speak for Themselves, said that artificial contraception, which was expected to improve marital love and “free women,” has instead led to declining marriage rates and declining rates of happiness among women.

Because contraception separates sex from the “joint future” for husbands and wives implied by openness to conception, “sex becomes something less than it is meant to be. Perhaps our current #MeToo crisis has the potential to provoke greater sympathy for Humanae vitae‘s holistic vision of human sexuality and a second look at the Church’s age-old wisdom.”

Alvaré’s essay was featured in an issue of Columbia Magazine dedicated to the fiftieth anniversary of Humanae vitae, which was promulgated July 25, 1968. The issue also included reflections from authors Mary Eberstadt and George Weigel, lawyer Elizabeth Kirk and theologians Janet Smith and David Crawford, along with profiles of Knights of Columbus members and their families.

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Denver, Colo., Jul 24, 2018 / 01:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Ramping up to the 50th anniversary of Humanae vitae, a Catholic professor analyzed the encyclical’s guidance on responsible parenthood- discussing when a couple might be open to more children, and when they might choose to delay openness to new life.

Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical explained that “with regard to physical, economic, psychological and social conditions, responsible parenthood is exercised by those who prudently and generously decide to have more children, and by those who, for serious reasons and with due respect to moral precepts, decide not to have additional children for either a certain or an indefinite period of time.”

The encyclical said that couples may never licitly use artificial contraception, though couples may use their awareness of a woman’s natural fertility cycle to determine whether to engage in potentially procreative acts; this is ordinarily referred to as “natural family planning,” or NFP.

But what is a “serious reason?” How should couples discern when to be open to children, and when it might be prudent to wait?

Dr. Kevin Miller, a professor of Franciscan University of Steubenville and a bioethics consultant for the online NFP program of Marquette University College of Nursing Institute for Natural Family Planning, discussed Pope Paul VI’s encyclical with CNA.

Miller said that he has very rarely witnessed examples of practicing Catholics- those using natural family planning methods- abstaining selfishly from procreation. More often, he said, he has seen couples struggle with scrupulosity about openness to new life.

“I sometimes run into this idea that there is this crisis in the Church today of couples using NFP for bad reasons, for selfish reasons, or for inadequate reasons to avoid procreation. Honestly, I’m not seeing that.”

“When I’m dealing with people who are using NFP, I actually witness more cases in which there is a significant underestimation of the seriousness of a situation than I do situations in which there is a problem of overestimating the seriousness of the situation.”

“Serious reasons” for using NFP to avoid conception, Miller said, are not limited to life-and-death situations.

The professor said that years before Humanae vitae’s publication, Pope Pius XII issued two addresses: one to Italian midwives and one to an Italian family association. He said the statements, both released in 1951, further clarify the Church’s use of the word “serious” in this context.

“Humanae vitae uses that language- ‘serious reasons.’ I think it ought to be interpreted in continuity with what Pope Pius XII had said 17 years earlier.”

Pius “referred to ‘serious reasons that not rarely occur,’” said Miller.

Reasons can be “serious in the sense of not just a trivial reason…[but Pope Pius XII] indicates that that can happen commonly,” he said.

Miller also pointed to the language used by John Paul II regarding family planning. He said the late pope’s word choice leaned towards “unselfish reasons.”

“In other words, you get the idea that if a reason is an unselfish one, if it doesn’t have to do with hedonistic wishes or something like that, then it’s probably a serious reason.”

In his encyclical, Pope Paul VI gave four broad categories that qualify as serious reasons to avoid potentially procreative acts – medical, psychological, economic, and social reasons.

Miller said if the medical or psychological risks of pregnancy are more than trivial, they qualify as serious reasons. This could mean a physical or mental strain on the mother, he said, but also health issues for other members of the family.  

Using NFP to attempt avoiding or delaying pregnancy is acceptable “if having another child, at least for a time, is going to impose significant health risks on typically the mother, but possibly on some other family member,” he said.

“Maybe there is already a child in the family who has health problems who would be harder to afford to care for that child if you have another child,” he added.

Miller also pointed to the economic factors that could qualify as serious reasons to delay pregnancy through natural family planning, among them the likelihood that additional children would restrict a family’s basic necessities, including food, shelter, clothing, and education.

“One way I like to look at it would be to say if having another child would put the family in the sort of economic situation that if it were the result of, let’s say, a low wage would be called an unjust situation by the Church. I would say that counts as a serious economic reason for using natural family planning.”

He said the last category, social reasons, is not as clearly defined by the Church, but he said it might include those situations in which a family could better serve the common good by having a “somewhat of a smaller family.”

“Some families, in response to the teachings of the Church in places like Familaris consortio, wish to serve society in some special way, maybe like reach out to the needy in society,” said Miller.

These reasons, he said, certainly do not require couples to refrain from procreation, he said, noting there is no flowchart or algorithm for decision-making.

Rather, he said the decision should be made with honesty and prayer, using moral reasoning over moral rationalizing.

“First of all a couple has to make sure they are being honest with themselves, make sure they are reasoning honestly about their situation and not rationalizing,” he said. “Secondly, I would also say…do your moral reasoning in light of your relationship with God. It should be a prayerful as well as an intellectually honest discernment.”

Miller cautioned that couples ought “not to be scrupulous in these matters” if prayer and honesty accompany their decision. He said that unlike artificial contraception, NFP calls couples naturally to be sacrificial.

“I would also even say that, if a couple used natural family planning, the self-mastery and the discipline, that the Church has said comes with use of natural family planning, the more it is likely that as time goes by they will develop even more the virtues of generosity and selflessness.”

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Erie, Pa., Jul 24, 2018 / 12:30 pm (CNA).- Bishop Lawrence Persico of Erie has warned Catholics that the results of a Pennsylvania grand jury investigation into sexual abuse of minors will make for disturbing reading. The release of the 800-page report has been delayed by order of the state’s supreme court.

“It certainly is going to be sobering,” said Bishop Persico to news outlet Penn Live.

“The report is rather graphic, and it will be very detailed on what has occurred,” he added.

The report is the result of a two-year investigation by state authorities into the handling of clerical sexual abuse in the five Pennsylvania dioceses – Altoona-Johnstown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. The dioceses were served with wide ranging subpoenas and turned over decades’ worth of files concerning the handling of abuse allegations by Church authorities.

A former diocesan official in Pennsylvania, who was involved in developing responses to the subpoena, told CNA that complying with the court order took considerable time and effort.

“It covered everything we had, it was very broadly drawn. We handed over years’ and years’ worth of files.”

It is expected that the report will include details of instances of abuse, the handling of allegations by diocesan authorities, and also measures taken by local bishops to deal with accused clerics.

In some cases, priests who were credibly accused of sexual abuse were moved from parish to parish over a period of years, or even allowed to remain in active ministry outside the diocese. Bishop Persico alluded to this kind of behavior while speaking about the report to local media on 23 July.

“I think in looking historically at it you may see bishops named who probably in view of the way we do things now as compared to 20 or 30 years ago, it would not be considered acceptable that type of action.”

The final report was scheduled for public release at the end of June, but it has been held back following legal challenges from a number individuals named in the report, including some priests. They argue they were denied due process because they were only allowed to submit written statements, not testify in person or cross-examine other witnesses.

They also claim that their reputational rights, protected by the state constitution, were harmed by the inclusion of their names even though they were not accused of a crime.

The same former official told CNA that while he did not know anyone challenging the report’s release, those doing so may have legitimate concerns.

“There’s a feeling, at least among some people, that they are being made to carry the can for a previous generation’s misdeeds.”

Bishop Persico’s own diocese, Erie, has been unusually forthright in handling abuse allegations, publicly listing the names of all priests and lay employees against whom credible allegations have been received.

Bishop Persico said this policy has helped victims.

“It’s an opportunity for them to feel validated. To tell you the truth, ever since we started publishing names I’m really surprised at how that has been helpful to victims. I’m a firm believer in that because of what I experience in just speaking to victims.”

Persico also said he does not know who is challenging the report’s release, but that he looks forward to it eventually being made public, even if it will be hard reading for Catholics.

“I know I did not [block publication],” he said. “I’ve been calling from the very beginning that the grand jury report be released so it can be a voice for the victims. I’m not sure who all is behind this.”

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro, whose office led the investigation, is fighting the court-imposed stay.

“The people of Pennsylvania have a right to see the report, know who is attempting to block its release and why, and to hear the voices of the victims of sexual abuse within the Church.”

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is still considering when and in what form the report will be released.  

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Denver, Colo., Jul 24, 2018 / 10:56 am (CNA).- Efforts to advance a pro-life ethic need to be “authentic, consistent and beautiful” if they are to combat the “throwaway culture” diagnosed by Pope Francis–and they must reject an… […]

Minneapolis, Minn., Jul 23, 2018 / 06:00 pm (CNA).- Bishop Andrew Cozzens, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St.Paul and Minneapolis has given a series of talks ahead of the anniversary of Humanae Vitae. He has used the talks to highlight the damage done to couples and families by artificial contraception, contrasting it with the benefits of adhering to the Church’s teaching.

In a talk to young adults at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis on June 28, he invited listeners to consider what the sexual revolution had promised and what it had actually delivered.

“Let’s just step back and ask ourselves, ‘Has it been so great?’ … This idea that sex could be no pressure, no fear of pregnancy and only amount to the expression of my love for that person — has that actually produced the results that society says?”

In an earlier address at St. Stephen’s Church, also in Minneapolis, he said that the practice of artificial contraception was directly linked to the increased divorce rates, and that couples who reject it have a higher chance of staying together. He drew the connection during a talk helping to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Humanae vitae.

St. Stephen’s is also home to the Sagrada Familia center, which provides assistance and support for couples seeking to use natural family planning. He used the occasion to reflect on how the world has changed in the half-century after the release of Blessed Pope Paul VI’s famous  encyclical which affirmed the traditional prohibition of artificial contraception.

The encyclical contains one of the Church’s “most controversial teachings, but also, in a certain way, one of her most important,” said Cozzens.

Condemning artificial contraception is something that makes Catholics “most radical,” he explained. “We stand out as Catholics by our declaration that contraception is morally evil,” while noting that most other Christian denominations no longer share this belief.

While this may be difficult for many to grapple with and follow, Cozzens said that the failure to heed Paul VI’s prophetic warning had warped the culture and ushered in an increase in various societal ills, such as abortion and unwed pregnancy, as well as marital breakdown and divorce.

“Much of what we see around us in the culture today, 50 years later, is actually the result of not following God’s plan for sexuality and marriage”.

“This is the direct result of the breaking down of the sacredness of sexuality.”

Cozzens explained how Blessed Pope Paul VI had predicted these problems when he wrote that if sex was stripped of its procreative potential and orientation, women would be treated as a “mere instruments” of satisfaction by men, who would “forget the reverence due to a woman.”

The introduction of artificial contraception into marriage has a transformative effect on the marital act, Cozzens said, one which “turns that act into something that is not a covenantal, sacramental, symbolic, total gift of self” because it excludes God’s plan along with the potential of marital fertility.

Acting against this plan has “consequences,” warned Cozzens, observing that about 50 percent of marriages in the United States now end in divorce, an increase of “several hundred percent” since Humanae Vitae was published.

Alternatively, the bishop said, couples who follow faithfully the Church’s teaching on contraception and relied on natural family planning–a Church-approved method of observing a woman’s natural cycle of fertility and abstaining from sexual relations when necessary– have a much higher success rate of staying married.

While living this teaching faithfully requires considerably more effort by married couples than does artificial contraception, Cozzens said that because it “requires discipline and sacrifice” it helps to strengthen the love and respect between husband and wife.

Statistical studies “prove that the Church is right on this teaching,” said Cozzens.

“Couples who practice this teaching of the Church have about a 98 to 99 percent success rate in marriage.”

Married couples who disregard the Church’s warnings against contraception, he warned, were depriving themselves of the vital support of God’s love, and “not experiencing the joy He desires to have and share” with them.

“Let’s pray for each other, and for our world, that our Church and our world will come to reverence this beautiful teaching about marriage, so that we might remain in Him, and His love and joy might increase.”

Humanae Vitae was published on July 25, 1968, the fiftieth anniversary of its publication is on Wednesday.

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