Jesus of Nazareth

Benedict XVI's book on Jesus Christ just came out in Italian. It is coming out in one month in English. It behooves us to read it and to perhaps challenge all those who read the DaVinci code to read it as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Nazareth-Pope-Benedict-XVI/dp/0385523416

Physics and History

From Sunday's New York Times Magazine (3/11/07): an article on developments in astronomy. It looks like our physicists are saying that in addition to black matter, there is something called black energy. It is not observable through any of the five senses, and yet we know it through its effects. It looks like physics is finally catching up with the principles of aether, as laid out by Plato,... to Aquinas. How Medieval! Maybe now we can celebrate things that are medieval rather than always decrying them. Physics, like history, can be a matter of using concepts to explain facts, sometimes knowing that the concepts, like gravity, might have many problems to their use.

Also, a book review by Tony Judt on the history of the 20th century. This particular book tried to incorporate the Church into history. In Judt's eyes, the particular historian comes off as snide, and perhaps hiding some of the facts. For example, Judt points out that some German Bishops might have been more complicit than others in Germany. Of course, Judt himself does not mention the Archbishop of Muenster, who spoke out openly and against the Nazis before, during, and after the war. My point, instead of hiding facts or being snide, we should attempt to state the facts as they were. So, at least as far as the spirit of the issue, Judt is right. If a Bishop capitulated with the Nazis or the Commies, it is a fact that we should establish or not. At the same time, one Bishop or group of Bishops acting one way or another is not necessarily an indictment on all religion.

Agents of Influence in Poland and the US 02

Just a quick follow up before I go on vacation until January 17th. Yes, the young are the most susceptible to ideologies. They feel more accutely the suffering of their time, and they are looking for something to put their hope in. They are also often stuck between the pleasures of Sodom and following the path of virtue. Those who get stuck in this way end up like a deer in the headlights, with frozen minds and frozen hearts.

Finally, as a commentor noted, only a small number of priests or people go along with false ideologies. During the French Revolution, 4 out of 300 Bishops bolted from the Church. The vast majority of French Catholics remained loyal to Rome by dying rather than denying their faith.

Agents of Influence in Poland and the US

Departing somewhat from recent entries, it would be good to review the current dilemma that Poland faces, in order to compare it to our own. If one were to read the article from the New York Times Saturday, January 6th, it seems that a young philosophy student in 1967 was recruited by the secret police to spy on Polish Catholics at a Catholic University.

Here is the link:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/06/world/europe/06poland.html?em&ex=1168232400&en=f62f8fd3ced788da&ei=5087%0A

The idea of travel was attractive to him. It would allow him to do research and meet people at other universities. Eventually, he continued collaborating with the communists because “At the time I thought I had to continue my important scientific research and acquire sound training for the good of the church.” This led to a long-term relationship. Friday the 5th, the Archbishop admitted publicly that he had, in fact, collaborated with the communist regime in keeping tabs on his fellow Catholics.

Sunday, January 7th, this Archbishop resigned. He had compromised with an anti-catholic regime, and that made him unfit to become a ruler of the Church. The Polish Church established clear guide-lines during the Soviet Era to protect from this kind of compromise. For example, no person was supposed to go alone into a room with someone from the communist secret service. If someone were alone in a room with the secret service, he should have written to his Ecclesiastical superiors about it immediately. The young priest did not follow these guidelines of prudence.

The purpose of this entry is not to ask or answer the question about what the Archbishop or the Vatican should do, instead, it is to encourage some self-reflection on our own part.

We are not living in a communist country, but doesn't the same thing happen to us? There is a War Party in this country that works through foundations to recruit Catholic students to support its cause. These students can end up ousting other students who fail to share the views of the War Party. These students who want to go on and do research or get positions of influence to help the Church will make concessions with their faith in the interests of perhaps later on helping the Church.

There are also pro-Abortionists, who also want to recruit students for their cause. These students also, in the interest of future influence, could adopt the pro-abortionist, or pro-stem cell research line, in the interest of "the good of the Church."

There are agents promoting the homosexual marriage who come to the University in the interest of supporting their cause. Students in one way or another can take the money to become attached to these groups "for the good of the Church."

Communism is an ideology. The War Party runs on an ideology. The abortion movement runs on an ideology. The homosexual movement is an ideology. They all will attempt to infiltrate the Church, to get the Church to bend to their doctrine. There are some from within the ideology who consciously do this. There are others, who in the interest of promoting "the good of the Church" will go along with the ideology in a half-hearted way, not wanting to lose their faith, and not wanting the ideology to win out in the end either. They think that, in doing so, they will keep both alive.

This is the dilemma of dealing with revolutionary ideologies. Modern secularism is a revolutionary ideology. The forms in which it appears in the US are capitalism, sexual liberation, and Empire. As we follow the way in which a Polish student made a compromise as a student with the ideology of communism, let us beware about the compromises that we could make as young people that would lead us to compromise with the other false ideologies of our age.

Jansenism

Am reading these days about Jansenism. It might be that secularized Jansenism had not a little to do with the origins of the French Revolution. As the 17th Century wanes into the 18th Century, Jansensists developed a legalistic culture of protest against authority, using all sorts of "democratic" and legalistic mechanisms to avoid obedience to the Pope and to thwart the King. The Jansenists were also looking for a sort of redemptive act that would give real physical expression to the invisible Church, which was being held in bondage by the visible Church and the King.

I know from previous research that Voltaire thought that the Jansenists would he useful allies for a time in paving the way to Revoltuion. He realized that they shared his hatred of the King and authority. Voltaire, at the same time, disliked the Jansenist. His brother got involved in some "signs and wonders" that took place in a Jansenist cemetary in the 1720s. Voltaire took this to be a sign that all Christians were interested in hokey signs and wonders. He also thought that they could be easily duped.

The Revolution Comes to Venezuela

Anyone who has looked at this blog before and is aware of the situation of religious freedom in China, could probably see that the Chinese are following a model of Church State relations that was set in France during the French Revolution. The Revolutionaries decided that the State would for all practical purposes turn the Catholic Church into the French Church and that the State would control that Church.

Now, it appears that the Chinese are not alone. The example that we see from the French Revolution is making its way to Venezuela. It actually might be more of the example set by England and the States of Northern Europe during the Reformation. It is, in the end, the nefarious ideas of Marsilius of Padua and William Ockham at work.

Here is the link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,238015,00.html