Joe Shmoe

On Thursday, March 19, a local Catholic high school will mark the Feast of St. Joseph*, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Patron of the Universal Church, by having a Moslem author speak to its students about the "War on Error":

St. Xavier High School will host Muslim-American author, activist and attorney Melody Moezzi for a lecture and book signing at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 19, in the Chapel of the Holy Companions at the school, 600 W. North Bend Road.

Moezzi earned Georgia Author of the Year honors for her first book, War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims, which was released in the fall of 2007.

The St. X student diversity and inclusion group Hands Across Campus, St. X diversity group Parents Across Cultures and Muslim Mothers Against Violence are sponsoring the visit. There is no cost to attend.

In addition to her evening lecture and book signing, Moezzi will speak to religion and social studies students in a classroom setting during the day on March 19.

In a related development, the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry continues to ponder the question, "Will Our Kids Have Faith?"

* You can learn more about St. Joseph by reading an excellent booklet from the Knights of Columbus.

A wink is as good as a dodge

In the latest Clergy Communications newsletter, the archdiocesan worship office reprints the same evasive response to the question of whether the foot washing ritual for Holy Thursday is reserved to men from previous years. Here's the concluding paragraph:

In the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, it has been the custom of priests to wash the feet of a representative group of parishioners: men, women, children, persons with disabilities, the elderly, etc.

Lord, Have Mercy?

What is the liceity of changing the response to the intentions/general intercessions during Mass to something other than "Lord, Hear Our Prayer"? A few parishes around the archdiocese insist on doing this during Advent and Lent. Jimmy Akin took up the question of the advisability of this practice -- which is distinct from its liceity -- a couple of years ago.

Before and after 1962

A couple of weeks ago on Fr. Z's site, a priest observed, "Everyone is insisting that the SSPX accept Vatican II. Can we insist that everybody accept Trent?" Pope Benedict agrees:

The Church’s teaching authority cannot be frozen in the year 1962 -- this must be quite clear to the Society. But some of those who put themselves forward as great defenders of the Council also need to be reminded that Vatican II embraces the entire doctrinal history of the Church. Anyone who wishes to be obedient to the Council has to accept the faith professed over the centuries, and cannot sever the roots from which the tree draws its life.

A dialogue homily, in pictures

This is what a dialogue homily looks like (courtesy of the 13 March 2009 print edition of the Catholic Telegraph of Cincinnati):



Note that it features an ordained minister having an exchange with inquisitive children.

It does not feature an ordained minister giving a brief statement, sitting down in his presider's chair, and yielding the bulk of his time to a lay woman who preaches to a mixed congregation.

My Rochester readers may be under another impression.

Pilarczyk and the Pope

The new and improved online version of the Catholic Telegraph of Cincinnati features a CNS story about Pope Benedict's response to L'affaire Williamson. It closes with a reference to Archbishop Pilarczyk's laudatory statement of yesterday. The story mentions no other statements by fellow shepherds. Surely, there have been(?) God bless, Archbishop Pilarczyk. He's certainly going in style during this last year of his episcopate.

The secular tide's twin feeder streams

Today's Wall Street Journal features a column by sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox on the current double-threat to religiosity in the United States: (1) deferred marriage by males and (2) Obama's planned socialism. The marriage angle has a personal relevance. Mrs. Leonardi and I were married in 1992 when we were both 24. We were well ahead of most of our friends, but it certainly wasn't an unheard of age to get hitched. Sixteen years later, it does seem to be.

Secularism seems to be on the march in America. This week, a new study from the Program on Public Values at Trinity College found that the number of Americans claiming no religion now stands at 15%, up from 8% in 1990 and 2% in 1962.

The secular tide appears to be running strongest among young Americans. Religious attendance among those 21 to 45 years old is at its lowest level in decades, according to Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow. Only 25% of young adults now attend services regularly, compared with about one-third in the early 1970s.

The most powerful force driving religious participation down is the nation's recent retreat from marriage, Mr. Wuthnow notes. Nothing brings women and especially men into the pews like marriage and parenthood, as they seek out the religious, moral and social support provided by a congregation upon starting a family of their own. But because growing numbers of young adults are now postponing or avoiding marriage and childbearing, they are also much less likely to end up in church on any given Sunday. Mr. Wuthnow estimates that America's houses of worship would have about six million more regularly attending young adults if today's young men and women started families at the rate they did three decades ago.

Now, President Barack Obama seems poised to give secularism in America another boost, however inadvertently. This may come as a surprise to some, given Mr. Obama's outreach to religious voters last fall, his strong showing among them in the election and his eagerness to cultivate the faithful since. The White House has even been opening many of Mr. Obama's public appearances with a prayer, sometimes surpassing presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton in displays of public piety.

Nevertheless, the president's audacious plans for the expansion of the government -- from the stimulus to health-care reform to a larger role in education -- are likely to spell trouble for the vitality of American religion. His $3.6 trillion budget for fiscal 2010 would bring federal, state and local spending to about 40% of the gross domestic product -- within hailing distance of Europe, where state spending runs about 46% of GDP. The European experience suggests that the growth of the welfare state goes hand in hand with declines in personal religiosity.

A recent study of 33 countries by Anthony Gill and Erik Lundsgaarde found an inverse relationship between religious observance and welfare spending. Countries with larger welfare states, such as Sweden, Norway and Denmark, had markedly lower levels of religious attendance, affiliation and trust in God than countries with a history of limited government, such as the U.S., the Philippines and Brazil. Public spending amounts to more than one half of the GDP in Sweden, where only 4% of the population regularly attends church. By contrast, public spending amounts to 18% of the Philippines' GDP, and 68% of Filipinos regularly attend church. ...

We can take partial comfort in the instincts and good sense of the American people; Obama's poll numbers are nosediving as the scope of his plans become known.

The heart of a father

From a press release issued by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati today:

The Most Rev. Daniel E. Pilarczyk, Archbishop of Cincinnati, made the following statement regarding Pope Benedict XVI's letter to the world's Roman Catholic bishops about the recent Williamson controversy:

"The letter projects the voice of a pastor and the heart of a father. It sounds like the voice of Christ to me. I am proud and grateful that Benedict XVI is our Pope."

Middle school revival

The lack of solid religious education materials for middle school-aged children has been lamented on this site and elsewhere. Fortunately, the gap is being filled. This morning on the Son Rise Morning Show, a promising new book, The Catholic Connections Handbook for Middle Schoolers, was described by one of its authors. Check out the publisher's website, which includes full color samples:

Whether middle schoolers encounter this book as part of the Catholic Connections religious education program or pick it up out of curiosity, The Catholic Connections Handbook for Middle Schoolers offers great guidance and aims to help young teens learn about all the central aspects of the Catholic faith, including God, revelation, faith, Jesus the Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Church, liturgy and sacraments, Christian morality and justice, and prayer.

The book contains many special features and sidebars, including

* Live It!: suggestions for putting faith into action
* Pray It!: short, inspiring prayers
* Did You Know?: additional information about selected topics
* Fun Facts: brief notes designed to inform and amuse
* Illustrations: 22 4-color illustrations of people of faith
* People of Faith: profiles of inspiring, faith-filled people
* Think About It!: questions to ponder or discuss with friends and family
* Liturgy Connections: articles that show the relationship between Catholic beliefs and worship
* Looking Back: insights from history

"Jesus Christ was thrown out in favor of Karl Marx"

Controversial Rochester media personality Bob Lonsberry gives his interpretation of why Christianity is declining in the United States. Here's a snippet:

Many American churches -- driven by their clergy -- betrayed the God they worship and the people they serve. It happened over the last generation as many mainline American churches went through a philosophical sea change. Wrong became right and right became wrong. Evangelism gave way to ecumenicism. Jesus Christ was thrown out in favor of Karl Marx. Faith and repentence were replaced by peace and justice.

And millions of Americans walked away from sermons and services wondering, "What did that have to do with God, and what did that have to do with me?"

The deconstruction of the American church seems so directed and purposeful as to have been something other than an accident. If there is a God -- and there is -- then there is a devil. And the smartest thing the devil ever did was to take over the American pulpit.

Go to adoration this week

What God "does for men" is good for you:

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 10, 2009 MARCH 10, 2009 (Zenit.org).- In this secularized era, Catholics should follow Benedict XVI's example and recover the practice of Eucharistic adoration, says a Vatican official.

Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, affirmed this to Vatican Radio, as he spoke about the plenary assembly his dicastery is holding this week.

"The liturgy is, above all, adoration," he explained. "The Church is the work of God, God's action; it is recognition of what God does for men. And the adoration that the liturgy expresses, especially the Eucharist, is the acknowledgment of God, that everything comes from him, that everything that belongs to us must find him."

My fellow Cincinnatians can find out where here.

Sundays too?

Fr. Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university, addresses whether it is fitting to continue Lenten sacrifices on Sundays. I do like his reasoning in the concluding paragraph; the human condition being what it is, a Sunday "break-fast" could weaken one's resolve.

A Michigan reader asked: "On Sundays during Lent are Catholics allowed to continue their sacrifices? For example, if someone gave up television for Lent and he did not want to watch television on Sundays either, would it be canonically incorrect for him to continue abstaining from this amusement? Or by the laws of the Church, should he make a point of watching television in order to show the observance of Sundays as not being days of fasting and penitence?"

Again we must distinguish. One thing is that historically the Church never classes Sunday as a penitential day; another thing is the range of healthy and wholesome voluntary sacrifices that many Catholics offer during Lent. Among other reasons, these sacrifices prepare for Easter, make reparation for failings and constitute an act of inner freedom from the attachments toward worldly things.

Because of the voluntary nature of sacrifices, a Catholic is under no obligation to leave them aside on Sunday and may freely observe them during the entire Lenten season.

Indeed, ascetically this is often the best thing to do, since interrupting these sacrifices can weaken the resolution to make it to the end. Some people, however, especially those imbued with a more liturgical spirituality, might find a Sunday interval to be helpful in living the spirit of Lent. It very much boils down to what each person considers as being most spiritually beneficial to his soul and for the good of others.

Benefit performance

The Little Sisters of the Poor announce a wonderful way for you to help their vital apostolate at a time when it's needed most:

Comparative totals

From the Schedule 1 expenditures of the just-released 2008 Financial Statements for the Central Offices of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati:

Office of Social Action: $252,543
Vocations Office: $133,450

Nothing could be further from the truth

I received the following email from Sherrod Brown, Ohio's Democrat senator, as a result of my participation in the USCCB's pro-life email campaign:

Dear Mr. Leonardi:

Thank you for expressing your opposition to the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA).

The Freedom of Choice Act has not been introduced in the current 111th Congress and it is not expected to be considered in the Senate's upcoming agenda.

The Freedom of Choice Act, as introduced in the previous 110th Congress, states that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child, to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability, or to terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability when necessary to protect her life or her health. The bill would prohibit federal, state, and local governments from denying or interfering with a woman's right to choose. Some have expressed concerns that FOCA would force doctors and religious hospitals to perform abortions. FOCA would not overturn “conscience clauses” in current law.

While I believe abortion procedures should be rare, they should be safe and legal. A woman's decision to terminate a pregnancy is never an easy one, but it should be a private decision between the woman and her doctor, protected by the constitutional right to privacy.

There is a misconception that being pro-choice means you are an "abortion advocate." Nothing could be further from the truth. Abortion is not desirable, but it must remain a choice. However, the best way to reduce the number of abortions is to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, and the most effective way to accomplish this goal is through access to information about human sexuality and reproductive health care services.

Should FOCA be re-introduced in the Senate, I will keep your views in mind. Thank you again for being in touch with me.


Sincerely,
Sherrod Brown

Governing is choosing

James C. Capretta of the Ethics and Public Policy Center totes up the destruction Obama has done to the culture of life in just the first two months of his presidency. He also advises the pro-life movement where to go from here.

Let’s hope the same awakening is occurring among those self-described pro-lifers who vociferously supported the Obama candidacy.

In very recent days, the president has:

— proposed to rescind HHS’s regulation aimed at protecting the conscience rights of physicians and others, especially in the context of abortion;

— permitted U.S. government funding of organizations sponsoring abortion provision around the world (i.e., rescission of the so-called “Mexico City Policy”);

— nominated an aggressively pro-choice Catholic to the Secretary of Health and Human Services; and

— opened the door to federal funding of embryo-destroying stem-cell research, claiming as he did so that the decision was carried out in the name of protecting science from politics.

Governing is choosing, as the saying goes, and no amount of words can obscure the priorities reflected in President Obama’s decisions. Less than two months into his term, it should be obvious to all concerned, including voters, that the president’s sympathies lie with a strongly liberal social-policy agenda which is completely at odds with any sensible understanding of traditional moral reasoning.

What does this mean for pro-lifers? Going forward, there should be little wasted energy on so-called “common ground” efforts. What’s needed are tactics to minimize the damage while a thoughtful game plan is put in place to use the excesses of the Obama agenda to leverage electoral victories the next time voters go to the polls.

No religion too

A version of this story from the AP's Rachel Zoll ran in the print edition of this morning's Cincinnati Enquirer:

A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that the Roman Catholic population has been shifting out of the Northeast to the Southwest, the percentage of Christians in the nation has declined and more people say they have no religion at all.

Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 14.2 percent in 2001 and 8.2 percent in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey.

Northern New England surpassed the Pacific Northwest as the least religious region, with Vermont reporting the highest share of those claiming no religion, at 34 percent. Still, the study found that the numbers of Americans with no religion rose in every state.

"No other religious bloc has kept such a pace in every state," the study's authors said.

In the Northeast, self-identified Catholics made up 36 percent of adults last year, down from 43 percent in 1990. At the same time, however, Catholics grew to about one-third of the adult population in California and Texas, and one-quarter of Floridians, largely due to Latino immigration, according to the research.

Nationally, Catholics remain the largest religious group, with 57 million people saying they belong to the church. The tradition gained 11 million followers since 1990, but its share of the population fell by about a percentage point to 25 percent. ...

Unfortunately, many Catholics who read this story will zero-in on the following nugget in the data and argue that the Church needs to "update" the liturgy with more engaging atmospherics:

Respondents who called themselves "non-denominational Christian" grew from 0.1 percent in 1990 to 3.5 percent last year. Congregations that most often use the term are megachurches considered "seeker sensitive." They use rock style music and less structured prayer to attract people who don't usually attend church. Researchers also found a small increase in those who prefer being called evangelical or born-again, rather than claim membership in a denomination.

More from the Catholic News Agency:

Hartford, Conn., Mar 10, 2009 / 03:22 am (CNA).- A new study on American religion finds that Catholicism is facing a “stunning” decline in the northeast United States as the population center of U.S. Catholics shifts towards the southwest. Secularism continues to grow in all regions, while mainline Protestant denominations face the most significant population decline.

The study, titled the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), was conducted by the Program on Public Values at Trinity College.

According to the ARIS report, Catholic numbers and percentages rose in many states in the South and West mainly due to immigration.

“Catholics increased their share in California and Texas to about one-third of the adult population and in Florida to over one-fourth. In terms of numbers they gained about 8 million adherents in these three states in the past two decades,” the report says.

In the Northeast, Catholic adherents fell from 46 percent to 36 percent of the adult population.

“New England had a net loss of one million Catholics. Big losses in both the number of Catholic adherents and their proportion occurred also in Massachusetts, and in Rhode Island, the nation’s most heavily Catholic state where the proportion of Catholics dropped from 62 percent to 46 percent. New York state lost 800,000 Catholics and they dropped from 44% to 37% of the adult population.”

“The decline of Catholicism in the Northeast is nothing short of stunning,” said Barry Kosmin, a principal investigator for ARIS.

The ARIS study estimates that self-identified Catholics in 2008 numbered about 57.2 million, 25.1 percent of the population. This contrasts to about 50.9 million who made up 24.5 percent of the population in 2001, and 46 million who made up 26.2 percent of the population in 1990.

The percentage of Christians in the U.S. declined from 86.2 percent in the 1990s to 76 percent. ARIS attributes 90 percent of the decline to the non-Catholic segment of the Christian population. The mainline Protestant segment, which includes Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians/Anglicans, and the United Church of Christ, particularly declined. They constitute just 12.9 percent of the population, down from 18.7 percent in 1990 and 17.2 percent in 2001. ...

How tired is your host this morning?

I just poured the creamer for my third cup of coffee into the garbage can.

The triple-whammy of a newborn, daylight savings time, and my usual Monday morning routine is taking a bit of a toll.

Crash Course in Confirmation

To prepare our oldest for her confirmation this spring, we've been using Dora Nash's Confirmed in the Faith: A Catholic Confirmation Course. Published by the U.K.'s Gracewing, it consists of six sessions that cover core concepts like Christology, the Holy Spirit, ecclesiology, and sacramental theology. Confirmation itself is likened to a "personal Pentecost" -- a helpful term that captures the essence of the sacrament. The book's language is accessible to middle school-aged students without being contrived, and the discussion questions have a healthy mix of the cognitive and affective. (In other words, they are content-driven and aren't navel-gazing exercises.) Confirmed in the Faith also fosters a healthy spirituality, as it includes many traditional prayers with explanations of their origins. We're midway through the book and have been covering a session per week. If you're looking for a "Crash Course in Confirmation" for the next couple of months, this is the book for you. Highly recommended.

Also, we've agreed that our confirmand will memorize the "Formulas of Catholic Doctrine" found in Appendix B of the Compendium of the Catechism. (Our parish school required her to commit to memory the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit last year, and she is still able to recall them.)

What did you see and hear?

In Cincinnati, it was Buddy LaRosa before the introit.

(Hey, it beats Martin Sheen during the homily.)

“the wiener the world awaited.”

Let's hope this account of Cincinnati icon Albert "Uncle Al" Lewis' "farewell service" isn't describing a Mass:

His farewell service on Saturday morning at Saint Mary Catholic Church in Hillsboro, his home for the past 30 years, was warm and intimate – and also had a generous dose of showmanship.

Albert “Uncle Al” Lewis died on Feb. 28 last Saturday in Hillsboro. The TV legend was 84.

“Al went on the air the year I was born, and I was in his first generation of fans. I watched him three times a day,” said Jack Williams, 59, of Westwood.

Williams played Lucky the Clown on the show for 12 years.

“It was like getting up every day and going to a party. I couldn’t imagine where I was going to go after that. Yet, when the show ended for me, Al was always there,” he said. “I look at today as a celebration of a guy who found the secret of living a great life. And Al did it by just having fun.”

The small, 300-seat church was filled to overflowing with friends, family members, neighbors and a large contingent from his days at WCPO (Channel 9).

Lewis’ grandchildren began the service with singing, and then carried their grandfather’s mementos up the aisle to place at the altar, including Lewis’ banjo and his signature straw hat and bow tie.

“Al would not let a little inconvenience like death keep him from allowing the show to go on,” said Father Mike Paranuik, who officiated.

The hour-long memorial service had elements of Unlce Al’s show, such as the “Hokey Pokey,” which the congregation sang, and audio of Lewis singing and playing the accordion and banjo.

Paranuik preceded each segment of the tribute with “commercials” – for Mama’s Cookies, Barq’s Red Cream Soda, Pat and Joe’s (furniture store) and Kahn’s – “the wiener the world awaited.”