Sunday, December 4, 2011

Bravo Fordham! Bravo, Bravissimo!

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., President
Bob Howe, Director of Communications
Fordham University
441 E. Fordham Road
Bronx, NY 10458

Dear Father McShane & Mr. Howe,


Especially in light of the Obama Administration's efforts to coerce Catholic institutions to violate Catholic teaching, I was delighted to read of Fordham's adherence to the USCCB's Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services! In Fordham Students Protest Hidden Anti-Birth-Control Policy [Updated], Bob Howe is quoted as saying: "We are a Catholic university and do follow church teachings on birth control, among other issues." Permit me to digress, just slightly....

In 1929, German philosopher Dietrich Von Hildebrand published Marriage, which has been described on EWTN's web site as the "the earliest orthodox presentation of the personalistic approach to matrimony which would find its way into Vatican II's Guadium et Spes, Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae and best represented in the writings of Pope John Paul II. For this and his other writings, Pope Pius XII called von Hildebrand 'the 20th century Doctor of the Church.'" A biography of von Hildebrand even featured a forward by a Vatican cardinal, who went on to a bigger job!:



  • "Dietrich von Hildebrand was exceptional in many ways. His extensive writings on Christian philosophy, spiritual theology, and in defense of the Church's teaching, place him among the great thinkers of the twentieth century. His steadfast and determined opposition to totalitarianism, whether in the form of National Socialism or Marxist Leninism, a conviction that would cost him greatly during his life, illustrates the profound clarity of his moral vision and his willingness to suffer for what he knew was true."

After being targeted for assassination by Hitler, Von Hildebrand was hunted throughout Europe, before arriving in NYC in 1940 and teaching at a certain Jesuit school until 1960. In 1966, Von Hildebrand published Man and Woman: Love and the Meaning of Intimacy (My quote is from Sophia Institute's 1992 edition.):



  • "Every active intervention on the part of the spouses, which eliminates the possibility of conception through the conjugal act, is incompatible with the holy mystery of the superabundant relation in the incredible gift offered by God....To make use of natural family planning is not to imply the slightest irreverence or rebellion against God's institution and the wonderful link between the love union and procreation" (pp. 68 - 69).

Largely through his protegee, Dr. William Marra, von Hildebrand maintained ties with Fordham till his death in 1977 - the Spring semester of my own freshman year. Though he often seems forgotten by Fordham, I am confident that your current forthrightness has left good old Dietrich smiling!


Sincerely,

Thursday, December 1, 2011

re: "How the Pope corrects wayward bishops covertly yet publicly on moral issues - Analysis"

As per "How the Pope corrects wayward bishops covertly yet publicly on moral issues - Analysis,"



  • "if you’re not watching closely you may miss the interventions, even though they are public....

    "covert communication with faithful Catholics aware of the inside story is something seen prior to Pope Benedict’s elevation to the pontificate.

    "In 2004, during the US Bishops’ deliberation on the subject of communion for pro-abortion politicians, Cardinal Ratzinger, in his capacity as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, intervened into the debate with a document called Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion - General Principles.

    "The letter pointed out that obstinately pro-abortion Catholic politicians, after being duly instructed and warned, 'must' be denied Communion.

    "Of note however, the head of the US Bishops’ committee looking into the matter, then-Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick did not share Ratzinger’s intervention with his brother bishops on the committee. In fact, when McCarrick did make mention of the Vatican position on the matter, he mischaracterized it....

    "A couple of weeks after Cardinal McCarrick’s speech, the letter from Cardinal Ratzinger was leaked to well-known Vatican reporter Sandro Magister, who published the document in full. And then came a very surprising and tell-tale move. Cardinal Ratzinger’s office publicly confirmed the leaked document as authentic....

    "Despite the efforts of certain prelates to keep from the faithful the truth, this Pope has found a means of communications which, while it preserves the innocence of those who are peacefully unaware of the scandal, lets those affected see that he indeed knows the score and is taking steps to rectify matters" (John Henry Westin, 11/30/11).

The Beatitudes from "Jesus of Nazareth"

 

Use of Emergency So-Called Contraceptives in Catholic Hospitals for Those Reporting Rape

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