New Resources
   

Editorials of Interest

I've lots to say this week, but no time to put it together. So let me make a few passing comments.

First, thanks to those of you who sent in comments about CERC. You'll see the fruit of our work, with some of those comments integrated into the final pdf formatted brochure we've put together, below.

Second, if you need to change your email address, please click the button on the right. You can unsubscribe your old address and subscribe your new one here. You don't need to email me to do this for you.

Third, if you find your finger irresistibly drifting in the direction of the "donate" button, let it drift — and God Bless you.

My friend Dave Formosa and I met with His Grace Archbishop Adam Exner of Vancouver yesterday and gave our Powerpoint presentation outlining our plans for CERC. On the basis of that we've scheduled our first public presentation for Vancouver at the Terminal City Club near the end of this month. The Catholic Doctors and Catholic Lawyers Guilds in Vancouver and others have been invited. If you'd like to attend, please email me for details as space is limited. Iain Benson, Dave Formosa, and I will be making the presentation and pitch.

If you'd like to help us out by sponsoring a similar presentation in your area please write me.

There is much wonderful material for you this update. So much so, it seems unfair to point you to anything in particular, though I can't help mention Midge Decter's contribution, which is really outstanding — well written and very clarifying — as well as the article by Reverend Peter Stravinskas.

Here in Canada you will know about a recent court decision that forced a Catholic high school in Oshawa, Ontario to allow a grade twelve boy to take his 21 year old homosexual 'boyfriend' to his graduation dance. The court also barred the school from canceling the event.

A Jewish rabbi, David Novak of the University of Toronto, addressed the issue at a recent religious freedom conference. What he said was worth noting: "The legal assault on the Catholic school board [in Ontario] is an assault on the integrity of every religious community in Canada….The Durham Catholic school board, has as much right to determine who may attend its social activities and how he or she may attend them as it has the right to teach Catholic theology in its religion classes as authoritative teaching, . . . Every activity of a Catholic school should be recognizably Catholic, just as every activity of a Jewish school should be recognizably Jewish." (Vancouver Sun, Friday June 7, 2002)

It always seems a gift to hear a vigorous and effective defence of the Church from individuals who are intelligent, articulate, bold and prudent, and even more so when those individuals don't even share our Faith.

Many of these people have so much integrity and discernment that in seeing the face of injustice, they rise on principle to our defense. As religious believers of other traditions, many of these people also realize that, when one is threatened others are soon to follow. All religious believers are in this soup together.

There are some very disturbing developments taking place in Canada. - J. Fraser Field

(View our last issue of the CERC Bi-Weekly Update )

New Resources:

• The Catholic Educator's Resource Center (Brochure) - J. Fraser Field & Fr. John Horgan - CERC Executive
• A Baker's Dozen of Obstacles to an Appreciation of the Sacraments - Rev. Peter M.J. Stravinskas - Epilogue from Understanding the Sacraments: A Guide for Prayer and Study
• The Assault on the Boy Scouts of America - Midge Decter - Imprimis
• 5 Arguments Against Priestly Celibacy and How to Refute Them - Crisis-e-letter
• A Portable Church History - Book Review - George Sim Johnston - Crisis
• The Calvary of Romania - Robert Royal - Catholic World Report
• Dorothy Sayers - Carl Olson - Catholic Exchange
• Better Off Dead? What’s Wrong with Wrongful Birth Lawsuits - Jay Webber - First Things
• The Relevance of Christopher Dawson - Book Review - Gerald Russello - First Things
• Evangelizing in a ‘Post Pagan’ Culture - Father Anthony Mastroeni - AD 2000
• Examining the Fossil Record - Robin Bernhoft, M.D. - From Is Evolution Fit to Survive?
• The Best is Always Yet to Come: A Message for the Young - Doug McManaman
• Nietzsche and the Church Scandals - Fred Martinez - Catholic Exchange
• Crisis Magazine Editor Evaluates Bush’s Relations with U.S. Catholics - Zenit
• Words are not enough - Rev. Frank A. Pavone - Priests for Life
• Mother Teresa’s Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech - Mother Teresa
• The Church and the Internet - The Pontifical Council for Social Communications
• St. Anthony of Padua: Patron of Lost Causes - Fr. William Saunders - Arlington Catholic Register
• The Confessional Seal - Grace MacKinnon - Catholic Exchange


Editorials of Interest:

• A Faith Near to Heaven - L.A. Times
• Woman sues over abortion 'trauma' - The Telegraph (U.K.)
• Defectors From North Korea Tell of Prison Baby Killings - New York Times
• Kids wanted to go home - Christie Blatchford - National Post
• Bishops to Vote on Toughened Sex-Abuse Policy - Fox News
• Pornography forms French children's views on sex - Guardian Unlimited
• Catholic campuses head for showdown - CNNNews
• Bush, pope discuss sexual abuse - Associated Press
• Tiny 'miracle' baby 'had the will to live' - CNN.com
• Planned Parenthood concealing crimes? - Jon Dougherty - WorldNetDaily.com
• Don't worry, be happy! Worry, don't be happy! - Christian Science Monitor
• Scientists Put Love Under the Microscope - Christian Science Monitor
• Sex and the Single Superhero - Slate
• Lawsuit Culture - George F. Will - Washington Post
• Does political correctness kill? - Mark Steyn - National Post
• The Principle of Hope - The New Republic
• The future of mind control - The Economist
• White House Scores Pro-Life Win at U.N. - National Catholic Register
• Father's day, what's to celebrate? - Don Feder - Townhall.com

Education Matters:

• Cardinal George wants to sell Residence so "I don't have to close another Catholic School" - ACI
• Presidential History 101: Weyrich Style - Paul Weyrich
• Catholic deadline over 'mandatum' looms for teachers - Washington Times
• A Fight For The Kids - New York Post
• Honoring the Code - Christian Science Monitor
• Squalling About Pork, Forgetting the Alamo - Fox News
• Teaching Alternative To Evolution Backed - Washington Post
• A West Point Message that Works for All of Us? - Christian Science Monitor
• Who's teaching whom these days? - Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Classes in safe sex are ineffective, says study - The Independent (U.K.)
• Colorado School Teacher Campaigns Against Slavery in Sudan - CNS News
• Interview with a Nobel Laureate in Physics - Homeschool.com
• Fly-by-Night Public Schools - National Review

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Catholic Educator's Resource Center Brochure
- J. Fraser Field & Fr. John Horgan - CERC Executive

Explain what the Catholic Educator's Resource Center is all about to your friends, or else let this beautiful pdf formatted brochure explain it for you. Two members of the CERC executive board explain the CERC apostolate and answer the questions: what's the problem; what's our solution; what's our track record; and what's our next step.

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02
A Baker's Dozen of Obstacles to an Appreciation of the Sacraments
- Rev. Peter M.J. Stravinskas - Epilogue from "Understanding the Sacraments: A Guide for Prayer and Study"

We have been studying the sacraments and their place in Catholic life. To conclude, it might be a good idea to identify those elements of personal or communal life that keep us from appreciating in all their fullness these avenues of grace and holiness.

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03
The Assault on the Boy Scouts of America
- Midge Decter - Imprimis

Let us take a few minutes to think about a 12-year-old American boy living in the early twenty-first century. Now, there are a number of things to say about this boy. Chances are, for instance, that absent the requisite amount of parental pressure, he is likely to be a bit of a slob: his room piled with trash, his hands dirty, his socks sliding down into untied shoes.

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Crisis has put together a list of arguments for priestly celibacy and responses to commonly heard criticisms. We hope it helps you better prepare for the future and the role all of us must play in restoring the moral authority of our Church.

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Catholics need to know their own story but balk at opening those multi-volume Church histories. H.W. Crocker III has written a book that solves the problem. I am still scratching my head over how he did it, but in Triumph he has told 2,000 years of Catholic history in fewer than 500 highly readable pages. The book has all the virtues of a good novel while packing an enormous amount of information.

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The story of Romanian persecution and martyrdom is virtually without equal in the 20th or any other century. As L'Osservatore Romano wrote in 1948, when the persecution was only starting: "No similar story of moral violence, of persecution, of the Via Crucis of liberty, of personality, and of human dignity can be read in all the pages of history."

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In an age of skepticism, cynicism, and false "freedoms," Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) was a passionate and occasionally scathing voice of reason. Like her friends C.S. Lewis, T.S. Eliot, and Charles Williams, Sayers was a brilliant Christian thinker, an Anglo-Catholic who took doctrine seriously and bristled at the growth of "fads, schisms, heresies, and anti-Christ" within the Church of England.

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In my favorite movie, George Bailey falls under the terrible illusion that everyone around him would be better off if he had never even been born. To show him how tragically misguided he is, his guardian angel Clarence shows him what the world would be like without him, and — I don't think I'm ruining the ending for anyone — George realizes that his really has been a wonderful life. In 2002, a plaintiff's attorney might get to George quicker than an angel.

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Progress and Religion was perhaps the most influential of all Christopher Dawson's many influential books. Anthropology, sociology, philosophy, religion, and history formed the backdrop for the key idea that religion is the soul of a culture and that a society or culture which has lost its spiritual roots is a dying culture. To Dawson, a return to the Christian culture that had formed Western civilization was the only remedy for a world adrift.

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We need to have some of that sense of urgency of St Paul who said, "Woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel." The aim is not simply to win arguments, but to win hearts. The best way to conquer your "enemy" is to make him your friend.

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Is evolution scientific? Does the evidence support the theory developed and promoted by Charles Darwin and his followers? Let's start by examining the fossil record, often hailed as providing one of the strongest supports for Darwinian evolution.

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I think I speak for all teachers when I say that the most stressful part of a semester is that time when we are required to show students their final marks. This is a frustrating period because some students are quite adept at making the teacher feel entirely responsible for the mark the student has received and for the future that these students believe is theirs as a result of such an average.

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Therapeutic approaches have a basic assumption that is not Christian. Their starting point is not the Christian worldview, which is summed up in the parable of the prodigal son: a fallen and sinful world with persons needing God the Father to forgive them. Therapeutic thinkers believe there is no sin, only selves needing to reach the fullness of themselves. This denial of original sin and personal sin is, in large part, behind the headlines of the Boston catastrophe and other dioceses.

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Deal Hudson on political incrementalism, the media and the scandals.

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I recently asked a representative of a major secular news network, "Why not show the American people what an abortion is?" He was intrigued by the question, and we had a good discussion about it. He suggested I should continue asking it, privately and publicly. I intend to.

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The poor people are very great people. They can teach us so many beautiful things. The other day one of them came to thank and said: You people who have vowed chastity you are the best people to teach us family planning. Because it is nothing more than self-control out of love for each other. And I think they said a beautiful sentence. And these are people who maybe have nothing to eat, maybe they have not a home where to live, but they are great people. The poor are very wonderful people.

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Reflecting on the Internet, as upon all the other media of social communications, we recall that Christ is "the perfect communicator" - the norm and model of the Church's approach to communication, as well as the content that the Church is obliged to communicate.

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I have chosen St. Anthony as my confirmation saint, and I have to write a report about him. Why is St. Anthony the patron saint of lost things?

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Dear Grace, I have not been to confession in a very long time and there is something I would like to know. A friend told me that, under certain conditions, a priest could divulge what you tell him, even in confession. Is this true?

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A century and a half ago, French priests brought Catholicism to the Tibetan plateau. There it has endured, despite war, Maoism and rival religions.

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A woman is to sue the NHS over the psychological trauma she claims to have suffered after having an abortion. The unnamed woman said medical staff should have warned her about the adverse effects of having an abortion.

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Pregnant women in North Korean prisons routinely undergo forced abortion. If a baby manages to survive, it's smothered or left to die of exposure.

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Just three days earlier, the darling boy with the serious small face and his six siblings had been wrenched from their fundamentalist Christian home in the nearby town of Aylmer by a local children's aid society and abruptly deposited into foster care.

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America's Roman Catholic bishops were preparing to vote Friday on a toughened sex-abuse policy that will remove predator priests from parish life and kick most molesters out of the priesthood.

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By the time French children are sixteen or seventeen, most have seen XXX-rated movies. For them, as one counselor puts it, "the relationship between sex and desire no longer exists."

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A deadline looms Saturday that could ignite a smoldering conflict over academic freedom between the Roman Catholic hierarchy and theologians at the nation's 235 Catholic colleges and universities.

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President Bush raised with Pope John Paul II on Tuesday his concerns regarding the Roman Catholic Church's standing in light of the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the institution.

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A healthy 3 1/2-month-old girl who came into the world weighing just 285 grams (just under 10 ounces) spent her first full day home from the hospital Saturday, and her doctors said they believe she is the tiniest human being on record to live so long.

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A pro-life research organization says data collected as a result of an ongoing investigation into teen pregnancy show that the number of underage girls being "sexually exploited" by adult men has reached "epidemic" proportions in the U.S. and that Planned Parenthood facilities are knowingly concealing such sex-abuse crimes.

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How about a burst of fresh air to chase those pesky self-help books off the shelves? You might enjoy one of several new novels (How To Be Good, Unless, and Happiness) that parody the self-help craze.

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Proponents of the "selfish gene," watch out. A new institute has been formed to study the nature of love and altruistic acts.

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Surprisingly, a couple of summer blockbuster movies show a positive picture of celibacy.

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Americans are not losing their minds, but they are afraid of using their minds. They are afraid to exercise judgment - afraid of being sued. In 1924 Will Rogers said Americans thought they were getting smarter because "they're letting lawyers instead of their conscience be their guide."

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Here's a question: Does political correctness kill?

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A new book is making "The Case against Assisted Suicide." The book is about bringing hope — which is different from optimism — to those who are terminally ill.

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A new book is making The Case against Assisted Suicide. The book is about bringing hope — which is different from optimism — to those who are terminally ill.

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Family activists cheered as the United States delegation won major pro-life and pro-family victories at the May 8-10 U.N. Special Session for Children.

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Forget global warming. There's a daddy drought that's blighting the social landscape. The National Fatherhood Initiative has compiled some startling statistics.

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Explaining his announced desire to sell the Cardinal's residence and move to simpler quarters, Cardinal Francis George, O.M.I., Archbishop of Chicago, has written he would like to give a testimony of transparency and, at the same time, create a fund so "I don't have to close another Catholic School."

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35
Presidential History 101: Weyrich Style
- Paul Weyrich

The Texas system also offers courses on the presidency of Lyndon Johnson. "Why The Great Society Was Really Great Despite What It Did to Society" is one. "Lyndon Johnson: How Humility and Meekness Make for Good Public Policy" is another.

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A deadline looms Saturday that could ignite a smoldering conflict between the Roman Catholic Church and theologians over the teaching of theology at the nation's 235 Catholic colleges and universities.

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Despite confronting a dire budget crisis, Mayor Bloomberg has been handed a golden opportunity to begin reforming the city's dysfunctional school system.

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The University of Virginia was plagued with cheaters until one professor wrote a computer program to expose their misdeeds.

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PC Patrol: To avoid offending anyone, the New York state Education Department has redacted large chunks of prose on its English Regents exam and the authors of those texts are not happy about it, reports

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Some federal lawmakers are pressing the Ohio Board of Education to teach both sides of the evolution debate in public schools.

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President Bush exhorts cadets, our future military leaders, to "bring moral clarity" as well as technical skill to their profession.

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Now the kids are supposed to teach the teachers. That seems like a no-win situation. But I got it straight from the horse's mouth.

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Sex education classes do not reduce the number of teenagers who practise unsafe sex, according to research that suggests parents can play a more influential role.

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A typical grade-school teacher she is not. Nor is she a celebrity by choice. She's not interested in fame and has little patience for those who would portray her as a media darling.

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Wait until you read what was NOT a part of his childhood and how it influenced his future success!

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If you want to know about the problems facing public schools, here's a hint: Just listen to what public-school defenders warn could happen as a result of school choice. It turns out that their criticisms reflect problems inherent in public schools.

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