Catholic Social Teaching

From the Office of Social Justice at theCatholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Catholic Social Teaching. Condensed by Steve at Catholicism, Holiness and Spirituality. There is much here that can build bridges across denominational lines. Since seminary I've been reading Catholic writers such as Thomas Merton, Hans Kung, Yves Congar, Marie-Dominique Chenu, Dean Brackley, and the papal encyclicals such as Rerum Novorum and Gaudium et Spes, and discovered a rich tradition of church teaching that confronts the destructive effects of the rampant consumerism of our western world with the power of the gospel.

Dignity of the Human Person
Human life is sacred, and the dignity of the human person is the starting point for a moral vision for society.

Common Good and Community
Human dignity can only be realized and protected in the context of relationships with the wider society. The obligation to "love our neighbor" has an individual dimension, but it also requires a broader social commitment.

Option for the Poor
The "option for the poor," is not an adversarial slogan that pits one group or class against another. Rather it states that the deprivation and powerlessness of the poor wounds the whole community.

Rights and Responsibilities
Every person has a fundamental right to life and a right to those things required for human decency. Corresponding to these rights are duties and responsibilities - to one another, to our families, and to the larger society.

Role of Government and Subsidiarity
The state has a positive moral function. The functions of government should be performed at the lowest level possible, as long as they can be performed adequately.

Economic Justice
The economy must serve people, not the other way around.

Stewardship of God's Creation
The goods of the earth are gifts from God, and they are intended by God for the benefit of everyone. We have a responsibility to care for these goods as stewards and trustees, not as mere consumers and users.

Promotion of Peace and Disarmament
In the words of Pope John Paul II, "Peace is not just the absence of war. It involves mutual respect and confidence between peoples and nations. It involves collaboration and binding agreements.”

Participation
All people have a right to participate in the economic, political, and cultural life of society.

Global Solidarity and Development
We are one human family. Our responsibilities to each other cross national, racial, economic and ideological differences.

Share a Secret

I wanted the disease to be my punishment. He kept going and I didn't tell him the condom broke.

Check out a blog dedicated to sharing secrets anonomously. Folks send in a post card with a confession/secret/longing, etc, and it is posted.

Some are heartbreaking. Some funny ("I used to pee in snowballs before I threw them at my friends"). All are achingly human.

Deeply moving. Thanks Scott

George F Will: The Christian Complex

I like George Will. I started reading his columns in high school when a very attractive and very conservative young woman tried to convert me to the right wing cause. I certainly don't always agree with Will. But he usually has a reasoned, considered opinion.

Here's an excerpt from a recent Washington Post column.

Some Christians should practice the magnanimity of the strong rather than cultivate the grievances of the weak. But many Christians are joining today's scramble for the status of victims. There is much lamentation about various "assaults" on "people of faith." Christians are indeed experiencing some petty insults and indignities concerning things such as restrictions on school Christmas observances. But their persecution complex is unbecoming because it is unrealistic.

The rest here Check it out.

Tony Blair's Big Test: Election Day in Britain

LONDON - Tony Blair is facing his toughest test since becoming British prime minister, with voters casting their ballots in a general election today.

(read the rest from cbc)

Tony Blair will probably win. But it is unclear whether it will be a minority or a thin majority. I still think this will be his last election.

If/when he wins, Blair loyalists will probably do what Chretienites did suggest that it was his leadership saavy that led the party to three consecutive victories. Forgetting that the opposition was in disarray during the 1997 and 2000 elections. Right wing vote splitting was endemic. Folks east of Manitoba couldn't buy into the Reform/Alliance vision. Stockwell Day was feared, if not loathed, in the east. The Liberals captitalized on that fear by mis-representing the Alliance's policy on health care.

In this election, the Conservatives are too far to the right to capture any new mainstream votes. The Liberal-Democrats are still too new. The Greens are just too nutty.

Also, most of Blair's opposition is coming from the anti-war left, so the progressive side of British politics may be the biggest winner in this election.

Ascension Sermon

In my last night in Halifax before moving to Lethbridge, I slept on the floor of my bedroom in a borrowed sleeping bag. Everything else was on its way to Alberta. My wife Rebekah and our daughter Sophie were staying with friends and I had to mind the dog.

I really didn’t like staying in the house alone, even though I had the dog for company. The house was so empty. This was the house where Rebekah and I began our marriage. Where we welcomed our first daughter into the world. Where the memories of a thousand meals, conversations, fights, celebrations, and all the other stuff of life lay embedded in the wood work. The barren walls told stories of our lives; absent was the stuff, but alive were the ghosts, the dusty old memories that had been packed away.

Read the whole thing here.

Real Live Preacher is back from his time away

A wonderful story.

The Dignity of Children

I'm back. Where were we?

Oh yeah, so anyway Anna had a little trouble with the offering plate a few Sundays ago. Most people who put checks in the plate politely fold them in half. Someone didn’t make a very good crease, and one of the checks opened up and was waving in the air like a tiny sail. Anna, who takes ballet and is almost five, tends to skip and run and bounce as she goes up and down the aisle, so the check caught a little breeze and flew out of the plate. When she bent down to pick it up, a few bills fell out. When she retrieved those the check fell out again. This sequence kept repeating itself until our worship service was beginning to look like a Marx Brothers’ movie.

Read the whole thing here.

I will not speak hate...

...because, today, I saw a good, gentle, holy man, get torn down visciously because of his beliefs on a controversial issue. I will not lower myself to a level where anger trumps love.

Rebuke me if I needlessly provoke enemies; if I do not show the humility and love that Jesus calls us to.

Today, I will not live according to any other ethic than from the one who loves us, and names and claims us God's own.

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

From Calgary Grit

Paul Martin: “Let me be perfectly clear: I am going to get to the bottom of why that chicken crossed the road, come hell or high water!”

Stephen Harper: “I am going to consult with Canadians to see why they think the chicken crossed the road. Only after I have listened to Canadians will I be in a position to judge whether or not this chicken crossed the road.”

Jack Layton: “I’m not here to talk about the chicken. I’m here to talk about making Parliament work. A Kyoto plan, clean air, post-secondary education, these are the issues Canadians care about, not some chicken.”

Gilles Ducceppe: “The chicken crossing the road is a sign dat fe-dee-RAW-lism is broken.”

Scott Brison: “Let Judge Gomery report and then we will know for certain why that chicken crossed the road.”

Belinda Stronach: “It’s about growing the economy…sorry, what was the question again?”

David Herle: “Let’s call an overpriced inquiry into why the chicken crossed the road, paying particular attention to any information that could damage the Liberal brand. Then we can truly differ ourselves from our predecessor.”

Close Blair allies find their loyalty a liability as Tories target close districts

HATFIELD, England (AP) - Melanie Johnson swept into British Parliament in 1997 on a wave of enthusiasm for Tony Blair's Labour Party. With many Britons now souring on the prime minister, this may be the election one of his most loyal lieutenants loses her job.

Blair's campaign to retain his commanding House of Commons majority will be decided Thursday in hard-fought races across the country, and Johnson's is one of the tightest.

The rest here.

Tom Axworthy agrees with me.

You may recall that I wrote about how minority parliaments function. It turns out I have some support. Former Principal Secretary to Pierre Trudeau, Tom Axworthy, gives Stephen Harper a civics lesson on minority governments and historic conservatism. A great read. (From the Star. You might need to register)

Thanks, cycles2k Calgary.

My Other Blog: The Word Proclaimed

Because my sermons take up so much space here, I started another blog called The Word Proclaimed. Check it out. Don't forget to bookmark it!

Sermon: Easter 6 - Year A

In a farmhouse in Ontario, a candle burns at the centre of a makeshift altar draped with an embroidered tablecloth. Surrounding it are crystals, gems, leather pouches, a feather, a knife, tiny ivory skulls…The assembled women sit in companionable silence, trying to expand their awareness by working with occult spirit guides – angels and fairies – in the hopes of achieving [what they call] “synchronicity.” The healer explains that during her own dark night of the soul, she realized that the human world was torn and afflicted, the result of patriarchal authority which for centuries had drastically constricted the range of human experience. Now, she says, “We have to ground our energy in the earth, and restore primary nurturing communities.” And she too seeks. In Shiatsu and Reike. The human potential movement. Celtic spirituality. Goddess worship. Wicca. Path finders.

Read the rest here.