The Catholic Medical Association (CMA) calls upon President Obama and Congress to “hit the reset button” on health care reform

Folks, the Catholic Medical Association has published a Statement on Health Care Reform which you should read and which should receive maximum dissemination. Here's how it starts:

The Catholic Medical Association (CMA) calls upon President Obama and Congress to “hit the reset button” in their attempts to address the serious problems in the nation’s health-care financing and delivery systems. The CMA is concerned that the bills that have emerged from House and Senate Committees to date are too flawed, and the process too rushed, to provide meaningful reform.

“While health-care reform is more important than ever, existing legislation in the House and Senate—combined with President Obama’s push for hasty action—could make our current, flawed system even worse,” said Catholic Medical Association representative R. Steven White, M.D., in a statement released on July 29, 2009. “Sound reform must be based on sound ethics and economics; but so far, the House and Senate bills meet neither standard.”

The CMA is particularly concerned about two significant ethical issues (1) respect for the conscience rights of health-care providers; and (2) a mandate to finance and provide abortion.

Please continue reading here.

Commentary. I can't support this bill as it is currently written. In fact, I haven't even been able to read through the entire bill, much less propose a rewriting at this time. I am pretty sure that neither the President nor individual Congressmen have done so either.

I believe this bill has been written by every single special interest group holding a stake in this process at the expense of our common good. Its cost is prohibitive and its abandonment of subsidiarity undermines the very essence of our federal system. The lack of conscience protections is scandalous and inimical to civil rights; its funding of abortion with tax dollars is repugnant to me and an objective evil.

Prayer is essential but activism is too. Call your representative and your senator and stop this ill-conceived bill.

A few thoughts on "centering prayer"

Folks, "centering prayer" whose advocates assert is "a method of silent prayer that prepares us to receive the gift of contemplative prayer, prayer in which we experience God's presence within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than consciousness itself. This method of prayer is both a relationship with God and a discipline to foster that relationship" but whose detractors counter is "a form of self-hypnosis," is often a subject of conversation among Christians seeking to deepen their prayer life.

I consider myself a "sympathetic skeptic" when it comes to "centering prayer." Sympathetic because I've read some primary sources on it, and by that I mean the books by Fathers Pennington and Keating. Their books are Christian books and their gentle protestations that they serve Christian truth must be taken at face value. Therefore, I empathize and sympathize with its proponents.

Where I part company - and anyone feel free to correct me, please - is that "centering prayer" is a kind of technology in which "knowledge, method, or process" seem to have moved to the forefront where infused grace used to be. "Centering prayer" seems to rest more on the initiative of man than of God.

Beyond this I can't really explain it. We fall again on what can be termed the "phenomenology" of deep prayer (calm down, breath easier, pray the "Jesus Prayer" or other ejaculatory prayers, so forth) which I don't deny the advocates of "centering prayer" point to as a common departure point to "their way."

Yet, intuitively, once I shed prejudice, I perceive in "centering prayer" something "askew" and disconnected from traditional Catholic contemplative practice, perhaps because God's initiative is submerged in method, in "teknós." The "peace" that centering prayer produces seems to be at the level of the mind, the psyche, and this is confused with "spiritual peace," with the Peace of Christ. Catholic prayer is a dialogue, not a silence, or at least not a "focusing" as it is in Buddhism, which "centering prayer" seems to mimic.

I can't really put my finger on it. Perhaps I'm being unfair, may be you all can correct me or help me complete my thoughts.

Muslim Principal, School District Sued for Illegal Firing of Coach

Folks, this according to the Thomas More Law Center:

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan announced today that a federal lawsuit has been filed against a Dearborn, Michigan high school, Fordson High School, and its Muslim principal, Imad Fadlallah, over the firing of Gerald Marszalek because of Marszalek’s connection to a Christian volunteer coach.

Marszalek, who had coached wrestling for 35 years, had achieved a legendary status in the wrestling community. Earning more that 450 wins, and sending numerous wrestlers to various collegiate programs, he was elected to the Michigan High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame, named “Sportsman of the Year” by the All-American Athletic Association. Marszalek’s contract was not renewed because of his association with a Christian volunteer coach, Trey Hancock, who the principal accused of converting a Muslim student to Christianity during a summer camp not connected with the school or Coach Marszalek.

The lawsuit was filed by the Thomas More Law Center, and a private litigation firm of Cummings, McClorey, Davis & Acho, P.L.C. located in Livonia, Michigan. [Read Complaint here.]

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center commented, “We are getting a glimpse of what happens when Muslims who refuse to accept American values and principles gain political power in an American community. Failure to renew coach Marszalek’s contract had nothing to do with wrestling and everything to do with religion.”

The city of Dearborn is one of the most densely populated Muslim communities in the United States. An estimated 30,000 of its 98,000 residents are Muslims. It is estimated that 80% of the student population of Fordson High School is Arabic and most of those are Muslims. According to the lawsuit, Fadlallah has publically stated that he sees Fordson High School as a Muslim school.

Commentary. If the plaintiff prevails in court and the allegations made in the complaint made findings of fact, "this means trouble." For it would mean that Michigan state and local authorities have allowed a little Islamic fiefdom to function unmolested, long enough to tolerate a de facto union of "mosque and state" to fester and empower its officials to coerce others into Muslim belief during their exercise of their public trust.

If such an allegation had been made against a Christian principal, the ACLU and Americans United cliques, as well as every crackpot atheist controversialist in the country would have given Christians an earful. However, this time around the sound of crickets greet us from the benches usually occupied by their ilk, as a small Christian legal defense outfit takes on the principal and the school district. Where's the shock? Where are the appalling cries of protest and outrage? Doesn't the knife of church-state separation cut both ways? Apparently, not when the knife is a scimitar.

I will continue monitoring this situation and will report any new developments.

Two readings on contemplation

Folks, enough of "manah-manah" - last weekend's, lazy, place-marking, humorous post. I bet the melody is still stuck to your mind.

I want to bring your attention to a couple of fascinating articles on contemplation. The first one is by Allan Wallace and it appears to be the first chapter of his book entitled Mind in the Balance: Meditation in Science, Buddhism, and Christianity. The chapter itself is entitled Principles in Contemplative Science and I think it's worth your reading.

The second piece is by Shaul Magid, teacher of Jewish mysticism and thought, and chair of the Department of Jewish Philosophy, at the Jewish Theological Seminary. The article is entitled Monastic Liberation as a Counter-Cultural Critique in the Life and Thought of Thomas Merton.

How's that to start the week? Read them and please, let me know what you think about them.

Mahnah-Mahnah!

Folks, I am taking it easy this weekend. Let’s enjoy an old, humorous clip from last century.

 

Buddhism and Abortion: The Straight Dope (Part 2 of 2)

Continued from Part 1.

Traditional Teaching Restated

Let me share with you my considered views: the original, undistilled moral views of primitive Buddhism are strictly and unabashedly pro-life, that is, they recognize the full humanity of the gestating baby and his/her right to develop, live, and attain his/her full spiritual stature. The underlined Buddhist precepts are clear and tight: killing an unborn human being is an objective evil. Killing the unborn will visit consequences on the killer as well as on the killed; abortion poses an obstacle to enlightenment as understood in Buddhism.

The BBC team captured correctly the traditional view of Buddhism regarding abortion and also correctly termed it "the traditional view." Theravada Buddhism, the Buddhist school which its adherents see as the "Doctrine of the Elders," as as "the school of Buddhism that draws its scriptural inspiration from the Tipitaka, or Pali canon, which scholars generally agree contains the earliest surviving record of the Buddha's teachings" understands abortion as contrary to its tenets:

What were the Buddha's views on abortion? Practicing Buddhists observe the five precepts as a foundation for the moral life that spiritual progress requires. The first of these precepts is to "refrain from destroying living creatures." Because Theravada Buddhism regards human life as beginning at the moment of conception,1 killing a fetus implies killing a human being, making abortion patently incompatible with the first precept.One indication of the seriousness with which the Buddha regarded abortion is found in the Vinaya, the collection of texts that define the conduct and duties of Buddhist monastics. According to the Vinaya, if a bhikkhu or bhikkhuni should facilitate an abortion, or if a woman should get an abortion based on their recommendation, then that bhikkhu or bhikkhuni is immediately expelled from the Sangha, having broken one of the four cardinal rules of monastic conduct.2 (Source: Access to Insight)

Buddhism Before Secular Western Philosophies: A Dynamic of Compromise

Once Buddhism began to extend into the West, it was inevitable that their adherents would enter into a dialogue with Western religions and philosophies. Dialogue in earnest between Catholics and Buddhists in the West began in earnest in the 1960's, something in which the late Trappist monk Thomas Merton was something of a pioneer. But dialogue also occurred between Buddhists and adepts of various philosophical schools who pretended to have found in Buddhism a philosophy mirroring in a different manner their own very Western concerns. Some authors, like the English author Stephen Bachelor, have been able to produce a "Buddhism without Beliefs," re-presenting Buddhism to secularized, atheistic, Western audience a Buddhism understood within the framework of Existentialist philosophy. Others, like the Buddhist nun, philosopher, and neuroscientist Christine Skarda, attempt to fuse Buddhist practice with the findings of cognitive science. These attempts have been partially successful and are not without its critics.

The problem arises because, as it often happens when secular Western philosophies enter into a dialogue with the religious traditions, profound insights such as the inalienable right to life of a gestating person are set aside in favor of "situational ethics," relativism, and nihilism. Buddhism has not been an exception to this experience and has seen, as a consequence, an erosion of its own moral nucleus. The Buddhist analysis regarding the nature of killing and its moral insight regarding volitional action are watered down and replaced by the Western constructs so much in fashion today, including this notion of abortion as a morally neutral, perhaps even necessary sovereign act of one person over another one that is incapable of mounting a defense.

The Dalai Lama "Exception"

The status of the Dalai Lama as a moral leader in the world is uncontested. His formation in Buddhism is unparalleled. That's what I find his nuanced language regarding abortion perplexing. By first stating the traditional Buddhist view and then by attaching an unexplained exception - that is, by failing to explain how his exception conformed with the five precepts and the analysis on moral volition - the Dalai Lama undermined, rather than explained, the relevance of the traditional Buddhist insight on this matter.

Some argue that such a judgment against the Dalai Lama and Buddhism reflects a Western understanding of morality and a blind application of Western analyses upon a religious-ethical system that is virtually unassailable from that perspective. I dismiss this argument as fallacious and irrational, in part because the objectors are doing the same thing by uncritically importing Western situational ethics into Buddhism to justify the unjustifiable, in part because for Buddhism to be intelligible, it must be somehow communicated and analyzed with the principle of no-contradiction in mind. The Dalai Lama equivocated and muddled the issue rather than clarifying it. Therein lies a contradiction that needs to be resolved first from the viewpoint of traditional Buddhist ethics before engaging Western philosophies in dialogue.

Abortion is in, but Buddha has left the building

As a religion, culture, and civilization, Buddhism is self-contained. Judging it within its own original philosophical framework, ethical ends, and anthropology, it is evident that Buddhism places the highest value on human life throughout all its stages of development, including gestation. The termination of a gestating human life is, according to Buddhism, an evil of the greatest order, requiring purification disciplines not unlike our Catholic understandings of conviction, repentance, confession, and reparation, aimed at healing the emotional pain and guilt of the Buddhist practitioner and redirect him or her into the dhamma or Buddhist path to enlightenment or nibbana.

Delusion occurs when the practitioner convinces him/herself that the past volitional actions that led to abortion, or that justify abortion in others, have no consequences to one's Buddhist practice. Under such circumstances, the Buddhist practitioner thinks that he or she is progressing toward increased contemplative insight, when in reality they are stuck. In this state of delusion, Buddhism becomes an act of intellectual self-eroticism in which ego-contemplation is confused with spiritual progress.

The cognitive dissonance generated by forcing a the Western ethical acceptance and even promotion of abortion into Buddhist ethics must be intolerable to every honest Buddhist practitioner. Despite efforts to "nihilize" Buddhism, the fact is that the principle of non-contradiction is as alive in Buddhism as it was in Greek philosophy. There's no reconciliation between abortion and Buddhist ethics: if abortion is "in," Buddha will leave the building.

Prospects for Catholic and Buddhist Pro-Life Cooperation

Catholics and Buddhist hold many moral convictions in common. Although these are born from independent, mindful observations of the nature of reality - "independent" because they depart from different philosophical premises and teleological expectations - there are enough commonalities that joint Pro-Life action between Buddhists and Catholics is not only possible, but also desirable.

Whether such a cooperation in Pro-Life issues has taken place I do not know, but I find nothing a priori that would preclude such cooperation in the area of policy and public health. Catholics and Buddhist can remain faithful to their traditions as they witness one another to the world the need for agape and Buddhist karuna (compassion). I believe that a common witness from both of us will go a long way to create a more humane culture where the Right to Life takes its rightful place among other rights and where every person will be respected as a being of intrinsic worth, and not as a thing to be disposed off at whim.

Buddhism and Abortion: The Straight Dope (Part 1 of 2)

Folks, as most of you know, I am student of Buddhism as I am of Judaism. Buddhism provides, in my opinion, a highly-evolved system of ethics, in many aspects the best we can find outside of revealed religion, that is, of Judaism and Christianity. I think this kind of comparative religion is worthwhile for us Catholics, as we are called to recognize how Buddhism, in its various forms, realizes the radical insufficiency of this changeable world; on how it teaches a way by which men, in a devout and confident spirit, may be able either to acquire the state of perfect liberation, or attain, by their own efforts or through higher help, supreme illumination. More importantly, we are called to be aware that

...the Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ"the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself. (Second Vatican Council: Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, NostraAetate)

In this spirit, I want to call to your attention this short backgrounder on Buddhism that the BBC team put together and which I would like to use as a jumping-board to discuss the Buddhist view on procured abortion. Of course, comments are welcome:

There is no single Buddhist view on abortion:

...Most Western and Japanese Buddhists come away believing in the permissibility of abortion, while many other Buddhists believe abortion to be murder.

Buddhists believe that life should not be destroyed, but they regard causing death as morally wrong only if the death is caused deliberately or by negligence.

Traditional Buddhism rejects abortion because it involves the deliberate destroying of a life.

Buddhists regard life as starting at conception.

Buddhism believes in rebirth and teaches that individual human life begins at conception. The new being, bearing the karmic identity of a recently deceased individual, is therefore as entitled to the same moral respect as an adult human being.

Modern Buddhists, however, are more divided about the morality of abortion.

Buddhism and killing

According to the teachings of Buddha, five conditions must be present to constitute an act of killing.

• the thing killed must be a living being


• you, the killer, must know or be aware that it is a living being


• you must have the intention to kill it


• there must be an effort to kill


• the being must be killed as the result

Here's an example of how an abortion might constitute an act of killing:

• When a baby is conceived, a living being is created and that satisfies the first condition. Although Buddhists believe that beings live in a cycle of birth death and rebirth, they regard the moment of conception as the beginning of the life of an embodied individual.


• After a few weeks the woman becomes aware of its existence and that meets the second condition.


• If she decides she wants an abortion that provides an intention to kill.


• When she seeks an abortion that meets the fourth condition of making an effort to kill.


• Finally the being is killed because of that action.

Therefore the First Precept of Buddhism - not to kill - is violated and this is tantamount to killing a human being.

Karma

While it's pretty obvious why abortion generates bad karma for the mother and the abortionist it may not be so obvious why it generates bad karma for the foetus.

The foetus suffers bad karma because its soul is deprived of the opportunities that an earthly existence would have given it to earn good karma, and is returned immediately to the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Thus abortion hinders its spiritual progress.

Lives in the balance

Buddhists face a difficulty where an abortion is medically necessary to save the life of the mother and so a life will be lost whether there is or isn't an abortion.

In such cases the moral status of an abortion will depend on the intentions of those carrying it out.

If the decision is taken compassionately, and after long and careful thought then although the action may be wrong the moral harm done will be reduced by the good intentions involved.

Abortion for the sake of the baby

There are cases where not having an abortion may result in the birth of a child with medical conditions that cause it to suffer.

Traditional Buddhist thinking does not deal with these cases, but it has been argued by some Buddhists that if the child would be so severely handicapped that it would undergo great suffering, abortion is permissible.

The Dalai Lama has said:

Of course, abortion, from a Buddhist viewpoint, is an act of killing and is negative, generally speaking. But it depends on the circumstances.

If the unborn child will be retarded or if the birth will create serious problems for the parent, these are cases where there can be an exception. I think abortion should be approved or disapproved according to each circumstance.

It's personal

Buddhists are expected to take full personal responsibility for everything they do and for the consequences that follow.

The decision to abort is therefore a highly personal one, and one that requires careful and compassionate exploration of the ethical issues involved, and a willingness to carry the burden of whatever happens as a result of the decision.

The ethical consequences of the decision will also depend on the motive and intention behind the decision, and the level of mindfulness with which it was taken.

Japan

Japanese Buddhists have had to make significant efforts to reconcile abortion with their religion, as abortion is common in Japan, and has been used as a form of birth control.

Some followers of Japanese Buddhism who have had an abortion make offerings to Jizo, the god of lost travellers and children. They believe that Jizo will steward the child until it is reborn in another incarnation.

They do this in a mizuko kuyō, a memorial service for aborted children that became popular in the 1970s. (The service can also be used in cases of miscarriage or stillbirth.) The ritual includes elements of folk religion and Shinto as well as Buddhism.

The writer William R. Lafleur has pointed out some difficulties with this tradition:

...within the Japanese Buddhist community the discussion of abortion is now limited largely to criticisms of those temples and temple-like organizations which employ the notion of 'foetal retribution' to coerce the "parents" of an aborted foetus into performing rituals that memorialize the foetus, remove its 'grudges,' and facilitate its rebirth or its Buddhahood.

Many Buddhists find repugnant such types of manipulation of parental guilt - especially when expressed in the notion that a foetus in limbo will
wreak vengeance (tatari) on parents who neglect to memorialize it.

I underlined a few sections above for added emphasis. I will continue my discussion on the second and last part of this series, which will be posted six hours from now.

Continue to Part 2.

NARAL Endorses Sotomayor

Folks, this according to the Catholic News Agency:

Washington D.C., Jul 22, 2009 / 11:34 pm (CNA).- The pro-abortion group NARAL Pro-Choice America has announced its support for Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

NARAL president Nancy Keenan and NARAL Pro-Choice New York president Kelli Conlin issued a joint statement on Tuesday saying that President Barack Obama made a “sound choice” in nominating Sotomayor.

“From the beginning, we have said her nomination reflects the president's commitment to ensuring that justices have strong legal credentials and understand how the law affects everyday people's lives, including the need to keep politicians from interfering in our personal, private medical decisions.”

Keenan and Conlin noted that they had testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the fate of the pro-abortion Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade “hangs in the balance.” They added that they were “pleased” that Judge Sotomayor, in their view, expressed “stronger support for the established constitutional right to privacy” than either Chief Justice John Roberts or Justice Samuel Alito.

Those two previous Supreme Court nominees, they said, had “anti-choice” records before being nominated and confirmed.

According to the NARAL leaders, Judge Sotomayor had said several times in her confirmation hearing that the constitutional right to privacy includes “the right to choose.”

Keenan and Conlin explained that strong support for Sotomayor from their “pro-choice allies” contributed to their own decision to support her nomination, as did President Obama’s “consistent record” of support for Roe v. Wade and for placing likeminded individuals in “key posts.”

Soon after Sotomayor’s nomination was announced, the New York Times reported that some pro-abortion groups were “quietly expressing unease” about her reliability in upholding Roe v. Wade. At the time, Keenan released a statement saying NARAL was looking forward to learning more about Judge Sotomayor’s views on abortion.

The Denver Post reports that Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has expressed confidence that Judge Sotomayor will be confirmed by a full Senate vote in time for the Supreme Court’s first meeting on September 9.

Commentary. Receiving an endorsement from NARAL is nothing to be proud of. It's not a badge of honor, rather, a blemish on one's record. It's like receiving an endorsement from the KKK, or the Nazi or Communist Parties. It's like obtaining a seal of approval from Timothy McVeigh, Jack Kevorkian,or Al Qaida.

Abortion may be a holy work for some people who not only see themselves as "Christian," but who also represent themselves to the world as ministers of the Word but let me tell you, NARAL et al are doing the devil's work, bringing more mass murder into the world.

Judge Sotomayor was raised a Catholic. She once received sacramental grace. Let us pray that this grace grows and fructifies in her as she assumes the duties of Supreme Court Justice.

We remember today St. Mary Magdalene

The real one, not the pulp fiction other.

From today's Office of Readings

From a homily on the Gospels by Gregory the Great, pope

She longed for Christ, though she thought he had been taken away

When Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and did not find the Lord’s body, she thought it had been taken away and so informed the disciples. After they came and saw the tomb, they too believed what Mary had told them. The text then says: The disciples went back home, and it adds: but Mary wept and remained standing outside the tomb.

We should reflect on Mary’s attitude and the great love she felt for Christ; for though the disciples had left the tomb, she remained. She was still seeking the one she had not found, and while she sought she wept; burning with the fire of love, she longed for him who she thought had been taken away. And so it happened that the woman who stayed behind to seek Christ was the only one to see him. For perseverance is essential to any good deed, as the voice of truth tells us: Whoever perseveres to the end will be saved.

At first she sought but did not find, but when she persevered it happened that she found what she was looking for. When our desires are not satisfied, they grow stronger, and becoming stronger they take hold of their object. Holy desires likewise grow with anticipation, and if they do not grow they are not really desires. Anyone who succeeds in attaining the truth has burned with such a great love. As David says: My soul has thirsted for the living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God? And so also in the Song of Songs the Church says: I was wounded by love; and again: My soul is melted with love.

Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek? She is asked why she is sorrowing so that her desire might be strengthened; for when she mentions whom she is seeking, her love is kindled all the more ardently.

Jesus says to her: Mary. Jesus is not recognised when he calls her “woman”; so he calls her by name, as though he were saying: Recognise me as I recognise you; for I do not know you as I know others; I know you as yourself. And so Mary, once addressed by name, recognises who is speaking. She immediately calls him rabboni, that is to say, teacher, because the one whom she sought outwardly was the one who inwardly taught her to keep on searching.

Source: Universalis.com

New US Government Report Blasts Venezuela's Drug Control Record

Folks, two days ago the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report entitled Drug Control: U.S. Counternarcotics Cooperation with Venezuela Has Declined which you all should read. This is the summary:

Hundreds of metric tons of cocaine flow annually from South America toward the United States, threatening the security and well-being of U.S. citizens. Since 2000, the United States has provided about $8 billion to countries in the region to disrupt drug trafficking. Most of this assistance went to Colombia to reduce illicit drug production and improve security. In March 2009, the Department of State reported that Venezuela had become a major transit route for cocaine out of Colombia, with a more than fourfold increase in cocaine flow between 2004 and 2007. We determined (1) what is known about cocaine trafficking through Venezuela, (2) what is known about Venezuelan support for Colombian illegal armed groups, and (3) the status of U.S and Venezuelan counternarcotics cooperation since 2002. To address these objectives, we reviewed U.S. counternarcotics reports, assessments, and other documents regarding illicit drugs transiting Venezuela. We also traveled to Venezuela and Colombia to discuss these matters with U.S. and foreign government officials.

Every year since 1996, the President has determined that Venezuela was one of the major drug transit countries in the Western Hemisphere. Venezuela's extensive border with Colombia, covering large swaths of jungle and mountainous terrain, enables the flow of cocaine from Colombia over land and river routes and by air. After entering Venezuela, the cocaine usually leaves aboard maritime vessels that depart from Venezuela's long coastline or aboard suspicious aircraft that take off and land from hundreds of clandestine airstrips. While a majority of the cocaine transiting Venezuela is headed toward the United States, more has begun flowing toward Europe. According to U.S. and Colombian officials, Venezuela has extended a lifeline to Colombian illegal armed groups by providing significant support and safe haven along the border. As a result, these groups, which traffic in illicit drugs, remain viable threats to Colombian security. A high level of corruption within the Venezuelan government, military, and other law enforcement and security forces contributes to the permissive environment, according to U.S. officials. The United States and Venezuela cooperated closely on counternarcotics between 2002 and 2005, but this cooperation has since declined. The United States has attempted to resume cooperation through a variety of measures, but Venezuela--while initially supporting some of these efforts--has not reciprocated. In 2007, Venezuela began denying visas for U.S. officials to serve in Venezuela, which complicated efforts to cooperate. In 2008, President Chavez expelled the U.S. Ambassador and recalled his Ambassador from Washington, D.C. But in June 2009, the United States and Venezuela agreed to return their respective ambassadors. Nevertheless, the Venezuelan government claims cooperation with the United States on counternarcotics is not necessary because Venezuela has its own programs. Yet, at the time of our visit to Caracas, Venezuelan officials expressed willingness for greater technical cooperation with the United States if the government of Venezuela were to allow it.

I've added the link to this report to my ever-growing Venezuela Dossier post.

Blessed Columba Marmion: Come Away and Rest

Now prayer--the life of prayer--maintains, stimulates, quickens and perfects those feelings of faith, humility, trust, and love which together constitute the best predisposition of the soul to receive an abundance of divine grace. A soul to whom prayer is a familiar thing profits more from the sacraments and other means of salvation than does another in whom prayer, intermittent prayer, is disconnected and without vigor: A soul that is not faithfully devoted to praying can recite the Divine Office, assist at Holy Mass, receive the sacraments, hear the Word of God, but its progress will often be mediocre. Why is that? Because the principal author of our perfection and of our holiness is God himself, and prayer keeps the soul in frequent contact with God; it establishes, and having established keeps going, a fire-hearth in the soul, as it were--one where, even if it is not in action all the time, love's fire is all the time smoldering, at least. And as soon as the soul is put in direct communication with the Divine life (for instance in the sacraments) this is like a strong breath of air that sets the soul ablaze, stirs it up, fills it with a marvelous superabundance. A soul's supernatural life is measured buy its own union with God through Christ in faith and love. This love has to produce acts: but those acts, if they are to be produced in a regular and intense way, require a life of prayer. It can be established that, so far as its ordinary paths are concerned, progression forward in our love of God depends in practice on our life of prayer.

Don Bosco and the Gray Dog

Folks, as long as we are on the subject of dogs, I believe you will find this story from St. John Bosco’s life very endearing:

Although Don Bosco had no lack of resourcefulness, he often received much-needed help from an unexpected source.

Don Bosco entitled the last chapter of his Memoirs "A Mysterious Dog: Grigio." There he relates how a strange gray dog protected him from time to time. The dog came to be known as Grigio, from the Italian word for ‘gray.’ All sorts of attempts have been made to account for this animal, which always seemed to be present whenever Don Bosco needed protection but was subsequently nowhere to be found.

Those who saw it described it as a German shepherd standing about three feet high with a ferocious appearance. The first time Don Bosco’s mother set eyes on it, she cried out in alarm.

In those days the Valdocco was more isolated than it is now, and it was necessary to traverse a wide stretch of rough waste ground dotted with trees and bushes to reach the seminary. Since he had been physically attacked many times, Don Bosco was obliged to go out accompanied. One evening, however, he was returning home alone, and as he was making his way across this open area he began to feel afraid. Suddenly, a large dog bounded to his side, terrifying him even more.

"Yet its attitude was not threatening," Don Bosco writes. "It was rather like a dog that had recognized its master. We quickly became friends, and it accompanied me as far as the Oratory. That was not the only time that I encountered it. On different occasions it kept me company, sometimes providentially.

"Towards the end of November, 1854, on a sleety night I was returning from the town. In order not to be alone I took the road leading from the Consolata down to the Cottolengo Institute. At one point I noticed that two men were walking a short distance in front of me, matching their pace with mine. I crossed over to the other side to avoid them but they did the same. I then tried to turn back but it was too late. They suddenly wheeled around and were on me in two steps. Without a word they threw some kind of coat over me. I struggled in vain to break loose. One of them then tried to gag me with a scarf. I wanted to shout but I hadn’t the strength.

"At that moment Grigio appeared, growling like a bear; he hurled himself at the first man with his paws at his throat while snarling at the other. They had to let go of me to deal with the dog.

" ‘Call off your dog!’ they shouted, almost paralyzed with fear.

" ‘I’m going to,’ I replied, ‘but next time leave strangers alone.’

" ‘Call him off quickly!’ they shouted.

"Grigio went on barking. The two thugs took off as fast as they could, and Grigio accompanied me to the Cottolengo where I stopped to recover for a moment. Then I returned to the seminary, this time well protected. Every evening when I went out alone I always noticed Grigio on one side of the road."

One evening, Grigio flatly refused to allow Don Bosco to leave the house by lying across the doorway and growling whenever he tried to pass. "If you won’t listen to me, listen to the dog; it has more sense than you," remarked his mother. A quarter of an hour later a neighbor ran in to say that he had heard of a plot to assault Don Bosco that night.

When attempts to harm him ceased, the dog disappeared and was not seen again, save once. In 1883, Don Bosco arrived late one night to the station at Bordighera accompanied by one of his priests. Finding no one to show him the way, he wandered through the dark, stormy night trying to find the Salesian house. Suddenly, he was welcomed by a bark, as Grigio appeared and led him to the house.

"All sorts of stories have been told about this dog," remarks Don Bosco, "but I never discovered who its master was. I only know that throughout the many dangers I encountered, this animal protected me providentially."

In fact, Don Bosco never tried to discover whose dog it was. "What does it matter? What counts is that it was my friend."

- Source: CatholicFounders.org

- Dog image courtesy of Dog Breeds Explained.com

Saint Rochus – Patron Saint of Dogs and Dog Owners

Folks, I share with you this as a curiosity, but also apropos of my best (animal) friend’s departure:

Born: 1295

Died: 1327

Canonized:

Feast Day: August 16

Patron Saint of: dog lovers, dogs, knee problems, invalids, pestilence

Also known as Rock, Rocco, Rollox, Roque and Rochus.

Saint Roch was born the son of a wealthy French nobleman. As a child and a young man, he had many advantages and privileges. Yet, as he grew, he saw the needs of the homeless, the poor, and the sick.

At age 20, he gave his fortune to the poor and renounced his nobility. Saint Roch then went on a pilgrimage to Rome where he spent his time caring for victims of a plague, curing and healing by the sign of the cross. The sign of the cross had personal meaning since a birthmark on his chest was in the form of a cross.

While ministering to the needs of the sick, Saint Roch became infected himself. It was his nature not to burden others and he stayed in a hovel. While he lay dying, a dog from a nearby villa found Saint Roch and brought a fresh roll from his master's house each day. The dog's owner noticed this strange behavior and his curiosity led him to Rochus. Touched by the sick man and his condition, the dog's owner befriended him and Saint Roch recovered.

Back in France there was a civil war. Saint Roch left for home and the dog went with him. The turbulence of war led him to be accused to spying. Saint Roch refused to identify himself as royalty and was thrown in prison along with his dog. He spent time praying and helping fellow prisoners until he died five years later. At his death a document in his possession and the distinctive birthmark revealed his true identity.

After his death, numerous miracles, especially those related to the plague and infectious diseases, were attributed to Saint Roch. He was canonized 100 years after his death. Since then, intercessions on his behalf have helped paupers, princes, priests, and popes.

- Hat tip to Prayer for Our Pets Blog and SCBorromeo.org.

- Visit also the St. Roch’s page at Saints Preserved.

The “Courage” Apostolate

Folks, in view of present trends and as an expansion of the previous post, I think it is pertinent to share with you a bit of information about the Courage Apostolate:

Persons with homosexual desires have always been with us; however, until recent times, there has been little, if any, formal outreach from the Church in the way of support groups or information for such persons.   Most were left to work out their path on their own.  As a result, they found themselves listening to and accepting the secular society's perspective and opting to act on their same-sex desires.

His Eminence, the late Terence Cardinal Cooke of New York, was aware of, and troubled by this situation.   He knew that the individual dealing with same-sex attractions truly needed to experience the freedom of interior chastity and in that freedom find the steps necessary to living a fully Christian life in communion with God and others.  He was concerned that many would not find this path and would be constantly trying to get their needs met in ways that ultimately do not satisfy the desires of the heart.

In response to this concern,  he decided to form a spiritual support system which would assist men and women with same-sex attractions in living chaste lives in fellowship, truth and love.

Knowing of Fr. John Harvey's extensive ministry experience in this field, he invited him to come to his Archdiocese.

With the help of the Rev. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R., and others, Fr. Harvey began the Courage Apostolate with its first meeting meeting in September, 1980 at the Shrine of Mother Seton in South Ferry. 

With the endorsement of the Holy See, Courage now has more than 110 Chapters and contact people world-wide, over 1500 persons participating in its ListServs, and hundreds of persons per week receiving assistance from the main office and website.  It has become a mainstream Catholic Apostolate helping thousands of men and women find peace through fellowship, prayer, and the Sacraments.

The Courage Central Office operates through the prayerful and financial support of the Archdiocese of New York as well as contributions and volunteer work from Courage members and other individuals and organizations committed to advancing its efforts.

Individual chapters throughout the world are self-supporting and exist with the permission of their diocesan Bishop.

In helping individuals gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the Church's teachings, especially in the area of chastity, Courage extends the Church's invitation to a life of peace and grace.  In chaste living, one finds the peace and grace to grow in Christian maturity.

The following five goals of Courage were created by the members themselves, when Courage was founded.   The goals are read at the start of each meeting and each member is called to practice them in daily life. 

1. Live chaste lives in accordance with the Roman Catholic Church's teaching on homosexuality.   (Chastity)
2. Dedicate ones life to Christ through service to others, spiritual reading, prayer, meditation, individual spiritual direction, frequent attendance at Mass, and the frequent reception of the sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Eucharist.   (Prayer and Dedication)
3. Foster a spirit of fellowship in which all may share thoughts and experiences, and so ensure that no one will have to face the problems of homosexuality alone.   (Fellowship)
4. Be mindful of the truth that chaste friendships are not only possible but necessary in a  chaste Christian life and in doing so provide encouragement to one another in forming and sustaining them.  (Support)
5. Live lives that may serve as good examples to others. (Good Example/Role Model)

- Click here to access a worldwide list of Courage chapters.

- Contact Courage’s Main Office here.

N.T. Wright’s View of Recent US Episcopal Church’s Body’s Endorsement of Gay Lifestyle

Folks, this according to the Catholic News Agency:

London, England, Jul 17, 2009 / 02:48 am (CNA).- Prominent biblical scholar and Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright has said the Episcopal Church’s recent decision to allow homosexuals to be ordained as bishops will mark a “clear break” with the Anglican Communion and formalizes a “schism.” He also insisted that chastity is not “optional” for Christians.

On Tuesday the General Convention of the Episcopal Church (TEC) voted by wide margins to pass a resolution allowing homosexuals to enter “any ordained ministry” in the church.

Responding to the news was Anglican Bishop of Durham Nicholas Thomas Wright, a scholar of the New Testament who has authored both scholarly works on the historicity of the Resurrection and popular works for the lay reader.

Comparing international Anglicanism to a “slow-moving train crash,” he wrote in a Wednesday column for The Times that the Episcopal Church’s vote marks “a clear break” with the rest of the Anglican Communion.

Saying the Episcopal bishops “knew exactly what they were doing,” he characterized the move as a rejection of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s and other Anglicans’ moratorium on consecrating practicing homosexuals as bishops.

“They were formalizing the schism they initiated six years ago when they consecrated as bishop a divorced man in an active same-sex relationship, against the [Anglican] Primates’ unanimous statement that this would ‘tear the fabric of the Communion at its deepest level.’”

V. Gene Robinson was installed as Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire in 2004.

Using the words of the 2004 Anglican Windsor Report on Anglican controversies, he said the Episcopal Church has chosen to “walk apart.”

He then described TEC’s claims that they are willing to remain in the Anglican Communion as “cynical double-think.”

He noted that the controversy began even before the consecration of Bishop Robinson, naming a church court’s 1996 acquittal of a bishop who had ordained active homosexuals as a key moment.

“Many in TEC have long embraced a theology in which chastity, as universally understood by the wider Christian tradition, has been optional,” Bishop Wright wrote in The Times.

“Jewish, Christian and Muslim teachers have always insisted that lifelong man-plus-woman marriage is the proper context for sexual intercourse,” he explained. “This is not (as is frequently suggested) an arbitrary rule, dualistic in overtone and killjoy in intention. It is a deep structural reflection of the belief in a creator God who has entered into covenant both with his creation and with his people (who carry forward his purposes for that creation).”

Saying that ancient and modern paganism has always found this “ridiculous and incredible,” he said the biblical witness is consistent and “the uniform teaching of the whole Bible, of Jesus himself, and of the entire Christian tradition.”

TEC supporters’ appeal to justice, he said, is misguided. “Nobody has a right to be ordained: it is always a gift of sheer and unmerited grace.” Further, justice means not “treating people the same way” but “treating people appropriately” and making distinctions.

“Justice has never meant ‘the right to give active expression to any and every sexual desire’,” he added.
Noting that everyone has “deep-rooted inclinations and desires,” he said Christians should love what God has commended and desired, rather than ask God to command what they already love and desire.

Turning to divisions within TEC, he said that while breakaway traditionalist Episcopalians’ motives can be sympathetic, Anglicans should not forget the Episcopalian bishops who voted against the resolution and worshippers who share their beliefs.

TEC is now “distancing itself” from the fellowship of the Anglican Communion, Bishop Wright warned.

“Ways must be found for all in America who want to be loyal to it, and to scripture, tradition and Jesus, to have that loyalty recognized and affirmed at the highest level.”

Commentary. Folks, I’ve already said it in Spanish, but I think it worthwhile to repeat it in English. I haven’t seen any previous event since I started tracking developments in world Anglicanism and in the American Episcopal Church (TEC) that would have a worse impact on this movement that this recent decision by the TEC’s lay body to endorse the homosexual lifestyle in that body. The decision holds in contempt 2,000 years of Christian history and moral reflection, replacing it with a pagan construct dressed in Christian loincloths. This expression of contempt illustrates once again what happens when a church is allowed to be dominated by theological technocrats lacking any sense of communion not only with the past, but with everyone else in the present. The rift that this will create in the world Anglican communion and in TEC in the USA will not be healed any time soon.

To the words of the eminent bishop N.T. Wright I can only add this: TEC has been long along the way of becoming an irrelevant, marginal sect. TEC has lost over 50% of its faithful since 1966 precisely because if a Christian denomination embraces the ethos of the world with such enthusiasm, why be Christian in the first place? This decision, when formalized by TEC’s House of Bishops, will accelerate TEC’s descent into total irrelevance.

Of Hysterics and Hummingbirds

Father Nicolas Schwizer

The world of the emotions is a world of interwovenness of the whole personality. According to Father Kentenich, the heart is the harmony between the sensitive appetite (feelings, passions, instincts) and the spiritual appetite (will)…..between the “animal” and the “angel” in us. It sets the personal equilibrium (balance). The objective of the emotions is love, surrendering to the other, the generous surrender to the human or divine “you.”

For a long time, our emotional life did not receive the place which belonged to it. It was believed that what was decisive was only the will and the intellect. It is true that these, according to the objective order, are superior and are called to enlighten and definitely rule our actions, but it is a great error to believe that they can do it without the integration of the emotional life. The fruits of that error have been and are the rationalist person and the self-willed person who deny or sacrifice the emotions.

Without the harmony of the heart and the emotions, the will can do very little. Neither is the intellect able to “objectively” know the truth. We can conclude that human conduct is largely defined and determined by the area of the emotions, by the heart.

Now, what does emotional immaturity consist of? Father Kentenich often gives various answers to this question. He mentions hysteria and the lack of firm attachments in addition to infantilism. Let us clarify somewhat two of these forms.

1. Hysteria. It is a level of immaturity, far more serious, more delicate. The hysterical person gravitates around the “I” which is possessed by the “I.” The hysterical person is so submerged in the search for self that it loses rationality. The person cannot be understood, is not crazy, but is a rare person, a neurotic.

There is something very typical of the hysterical person, and that is that it seeks attention, it always wants to be at the center by any means. To achieve this, it often invents “illnesses.”

Our “hysterics” are generally not serious. There may be hysterical persons among us who are hysterical about cleanliness… or about studying… or about order… or about punctuality… or about gaining weight… or about not growing old.

There is a type of sickly perfectionism behind it: we want things to be most perfect. Perfection is often the enemy of what is good.

2. Lack of firm attachments. This is another chapter of emotional immaturity. It is hard for the person of today to love, hard to attach himself / herself to others in a healthy way. So then, we have two extremes.

2.1 Unstable love. A person who does not have deep attachments is like a butterfly in his/her relationships: incapable of taking a stance…..incapable of penetrating…..incapable of establishing or becoming fixed (Hummingbird)… incapable of being faithful. This person tries a little bit of everything and allows itself to be guided by sensations; therefore, it is unstable in its emotions.

Fidelity is what is hard for the person of today…..committing forever…..surrendering for life. Nevertheless, the great human values are for life: love, family, marriage, religion, priesthood, sanctity. Especially love, be it between a man and a woman or between the soul and its God…..it is strong like death and until death. If it is not this way, it is not love. There are people who change it like changing one’s dress: throws away the used one and buys a new one. True love is everlasting and strong.

2.2 The other extreme is possessive love. It is like a climbing vine which does not let the “you” grow. It is not an attachment for freedom, for fullness. Instead it is an egotistical attachment, a love which suffocates. It can be a mother or a father or a possessive friend. It seems that these persons only want to receive, they have a terrible hunger for receiving. It is like a bottomless barrel. It is horrible for the children of possessive parents: they suffer with that problem throughout their entire lives.

In summary, emotional immaturity is placing the egotistical “I” on the first level and “you” on the second level. That all may adore “me” and that I may dominate the others!

Questions for reflection

1. Where is my emotional immaturity?
2. Am I a possessive person?
3. Would I be able to name one of my “hysterias?

False Positives for Trojan Virus at Vivificat

Folks, I've received two reports from two different readers in a 3-month period regarding a Trojan horse detection in Vivificat. The first one, of course, threw me into damage-control mode. But after analyzing all aspects of my operation with Norton 360 and Norton Safe Web, I've found that this is a false positive given out by some overly-sensitive antivirus software. For what I've been able to determine, these software packages "believe" that my hit counter is a virus. Do not fear, it isn't.

The Norton Safe Web threat analysis results for Vivificat are online and may be accessed here.

No worries; be safe and happy surfing.

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

Folks, better late than never. Today we remember Our Lady under the title of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. The feast is of particular importance to me because of the impact that Carmelite spirituality has had on me, and because I too have been vested with the Brown Scapular. The following information comes courtesy of EWTN:

This feast was instituted by the Carmelites between 1376 and 1386 under the title "Commemoratio B. Marif Virg. duplex" to celebrate the victory of their order over its enemies on obtaining the approbation of its name and constitution from Honorius III on 30 Jan., 1226 (see Colvenerius, "Kal. Mar.", 30 Jan. "Summa Aurea", III, 737). The feast was assigned to 16 July, because on that date in 1251, according to Carmelite traditions, the scapular was given by the Blessed Virgin to St. Simon Stock; it was first approved by Sixtus V in 1587. After Cardinal Bellarmine had examined the Carmelite traditions in 1609, it was declared the patronal feast of the order, and is now celebrated in the Carmelite calendar as a major double of the first class with a vigil and a privileged octave (like the octave of Epiphany, admitting only a double of the first class) under the title "Commemoratio solemnis B.V.M. de Monte Carmelo". By a privilege given by Clement X in 1672, some Carmelite monasteries keep the feast on the Sunday after 16 July, or on some other Sunday in July. In the seventeenth century the feast was adopted by several dioceses in the south of Italy, although its celebration, outside of Carmelite churches, was prohibited in 1628 by a decree contra abusus. On 21 Nov., 1674, however, it was first granted by Clement X to Spain and its colonies, in 1675 to Austria, in 1679 to Portugal and its colonies, and in 1725 to the Papal States of the Church, on 24 Sept., 1726, it was extended to the entire Latin Church by Benedict XIII. The lessons contain the legend of the scapular; the promise of the Sabbatine privilege was inserted into the lessons by Paul V about 1614. The Greeks of southern Italy and the Catholic Chaldeans have adopted this feast of the "Vestment of the Blessed Virgin Mary". The object of the feast is the special predilection of Mary for those who profess themselves her servants by wearing her scapular.


EWTN Document Library

Catholic Encyclopedia - Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
An article from the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913).

Fr. Christian P. Ceroke - The Scapular Devotion
The origen and history of the scapular and the Sabbatine Privilege by Fr. Christian P. Ceroke, O.Carm. Taken from 'Mariology,' by Fr. Juniper B. Carol, O.F.M.

NA - Rite of Blessing and Enrollment with the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
This is for anyone NOT previously enrolled with the Brown Scapular. Once a person has been enrolled, they are enrolled FOR LIFE. Whenever their scapular needs to be replaced, they NEVER need to be enrolled again NOR must their new scapular be blessed. It is blessed by the fact it is worn by the person already enrolled in the Confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Novena of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Feast Day: July 16th. Novena: July 7-15. O Beautiful Flower of Carmel, most fruitful vine, splendor of heaven, holy and singular, who brought forth the Son of God, still ever remaining a pure virgin, assist us in our necessity! O Star of the Sea, help and protect us! Show us that you are our Mother!

Catholic Encyclopedia - Carmelite Order
An article on the Carmelite Order from the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913).

Carmelites - Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm
This file provides the history, apostolate, spiritual life, formation, entrance requirements of this religious community.

Fr. William Most - The Brown Scapular
The background of the brown scapular is presented by Fr. William Most.

John of the Cross - Ascent of Mt. Carmel
This work deals mainly with the active purification of the soul by the 'night of the senses.' Published by ICS Publications, 2131 Lincoln Rd. NE, Washington, DC 20002.

Paul de la Croix - Carmelite Spirituality
Paul de la Croix's 1959 essay. From 'Some Schools of Catholic Spirituality', published by Desclee and edited by Jean Gautier.

Pope John Paul II - Message to the Carmelite Family
For the 750th anniversary of the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Holy Father sent a Message to the Prior Generals of the two Carmelite Orders (ancient and reformed) in which he spoke of the important role of devotion to Mary in Carmelite spirituality.

Father Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. - Brown Scapular: a Silent Devotion
For the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 16 July 2008, ZENIT presented an article written by Discalced Carmelite Father Kieran Kavanaugh, on the devotion of the brown Carmelite scapular. Father Kavanaugh is the English translator of the writings of both St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. He is a member of the Institute of Carmelite Studies and was the vice postulator for the canonization of St. Edith Stein.

Pending Health Reform Bill to Increase Number of Abortions Nationwide

Folks, today I wrote a letter to my Congressman, John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, about the increase in the number of abortions that will result if the health care bill currently under consideration were to become law:

Dear Congressman Murtha:

On July 13 in a Senate committee hearing, Sen. Barbara Mikulski admitted under persistent questioning by Sen. Orrin Hatch that the new health-care bill includes abortion coverage. Planned Parenthood's Guttmacher Institute estimates government funding of abortion increases abortion by 20 to 35 percent.

Let's do some math: There were 1,206,200 abortions in 2006, according to National Right Life (the last annual results available). If the health-care package currently being pushed by Obama is passed, the result will be 240,000 to 420,000 more abortions in the first year alone.

Yet, when he talked to Pope Benedict XVI last July 10, President Obama explicitly stated his commitment to "reducing the numbers of abortions and to listen to the church's concern on moral issues."

There's something rotten here, Mr. Murtha. If you must vote in favor of this massive government intrusion into health care - a separate issue on which I also have HUGE reservations - please, ensure that the bill DOES NOT fund abortions.

Sir, you once told me you were prolife and against FOCA and I believed you. We're calling this bill as it stands "the silent FOCA." Please, do whatever you must to ensure that my tax dollars don't go to finance the deaths of millions of innocent human beings.

- For more information, go to InsideCatholic.com

- Click here to e-mail your opposition to abortion funding to Congressman Murtha if you live in his district, or find and write to your representative here, or here to contact your senator.

The unforgiving arithmetic of pandemic

Author: Dr. Brian Kopp Source: L'Osservatore Romano

"The world situation, as the news in recent months amply demonstrates, continues to present serious problems and the "scandal' of glaring inequalities which have endured despite past efforts". These were the words of Pope Benedict XVI during the General Audience Catechesis outlining the fundamental messages of his recently released Encyclical Letter, Caritas in Veritate (see p. 11).

When viewing the current world situation from a Catholic perspective, the pursuit of social justice within all sectors is essential, as the Holy Father clearly expresses in his social Encyclical. This constitutes the task of securing both the physical and spiritual well-being of every human being.

For this to happen the support of the governmental, medical and philanthropic communities of first world nations is urgently needed. Thus a broader vision concerning the challenges facing the world's less developed areas is crucial. This view was also expressed at the recent G8 Summit.

In the spirit of this same kind of solidarity, Brian J. Kopp, DPM, spoke with David Fedson, MD, on 3 July about the current H1N1 swine flu pandemic and the prospects for equitable treatment alternatives in developing countries. Indeed, a testament to the importance of this particular issue was President Obama's participation from Italy via telephone link in the Influenza Preparedness Summit held at the National Institutes of Health on 9 July.

Dr. Fedson is a retired American physician living in France. He has long worked on the epidemiology of influenza and influenza vaccination, first as a Professor of Medicine at the University of Virginia and later as Director of Medical Affairs for Aventis Pasteur MSD. He has served on several American and World Health Organization (WHO) committees on influenza immunization, and was instrumental in establishing the Influenza Vaccine Supply (IVS) International Task Force and the Macroepidemiology of Influenza Vaccination (MIV) Study Group. He clearly knows the influenza vaccine industry from the inside. He also knows that the arithmetic for a pandemic is simple: you can only treat the victims of a pandemic if effective vaccines and medications are widely available. For 90% of the world's population, this won't be the case.

With the current swine H1N1 pandemic influenza virus, as with the H5N1 avian flu and 1918 pandemic viruses, deaths have been prominent among the 15- to 45-year old adults. These deaths have been associated with a severe immune reaction, often called a "cytokine storm." For more than five years, Fedson has been calling for urgent and sharply focused research to determine whether drugs that reduce inflammation or modify the host response the way that the body responds to infection or injury could be used to manage the pandemic. Focusing on inexpensive generic drugs that are readily available, even in developing countries, could address the inequity already being seen, and could save millions of lives in the current and in future pandemics.

Roche announced on 2 July that they would now sell their Tamiflu to third world nations at a reduced price. Is Tamiflu still a reliable treatment option?

Tamiflu resistant swine flu viruses have already been isolated in Denmark, Japan, and Hong Kong, and the virus that was isolated in Hong Kong came from a woman who had not taken Tamiflu. Knowing that seasonal H1N1 viruses are now almost completely resistant to Tamiflu, we should expect Tamiflu-resistant swine flu viruses to appear sooner or later. It's just a matter of time, and we're seeing it already. Yet if we're fortunate and this doesn't happen, we will still have problems. Current government stockpiles of Tamiflu in "have not' countries (countries that don't produce influenza vaccines) would be sufficient to treat only 1% of the people who live in these countries. Roche has said publicly that its capacity for producing courses of Tamiflu treatment is 400 million doses per year. That's it; they can't go beyond that.

Has vaccine production capacity improved in the last few years?

No, the situation has not changed a great deal. I keep going back to the arithmetic. Two years ago it was estimated that within 9 months of the emergence of the pandemic virus, all of the world's influenza vaccine companies could produce enough doses of a new pandemic vaccine to vaccinate with two doses approximately 750 million people. More recently, a report sponsored by the WHO estimated that 6 months after the emergence of a new pandemic virus, the companies could produce 860 million doses of vaccine. These numbers are similar to the number of people living in the nine countries that produce almost all of the world's seasonal influenza vaccines.

If you're talking only about the US and want to vaccinate everyone, you will need 300 million doses. If you need two doses per person, you'll need 600 million doses and you're not going to get 600 million doses right away unless you have an antigen sparing formulation. This requires adding an adjuvant, a chemical that boosts the immune response and allows companies to decrease the amount of virus in each dose. However, US regulatory authorities are concerned about the safety of adjuvanted vaccines. As long as the virus doesn't get more virulent and the case fatality rate among non vaccinated individuals remains very low, the social and political impact of the pandemic will be tolerable; although a huge number of infections will occur, 99.5% of those infected will survive. The choice between an adjuvanted or non adjuvanted vaccine will determine whether companies produce more or fewer doses of vaccine. Erring on the side of caution will mean that developing countries will have even less chance of obtaining supplies of pandemic vaccines.

Are there any plans to provide vaccines to developing countries?

Currently, there is no logistical plan for distributing supplies of pandemic vaccines to the "have not' countries that will not be able to produce them. These countries are home to approximately 88% of the world's population.

Whether the political leaders of the nine countries that produce almost all of the world's influenza vaccines will take an active role in the allocation of H1N1 vaccines supplies is an important question, at least in my view. Given the desire of political leaders never to make decisions unless they are absolutely unavoidable, they may view the H1N1 pandemic as being no more severe in its consequences for individuals than a seasonal H1N1 outbreak. Therefore, they may decide they don't need to take an active role in deciding where doses of vaccine will be distributed, at least after they have satisfied their domestic needs. Yet we must keep in mind that whatever WHO, companies and governments do for a mild H1N1 pandemic will establish the precedents for managing vaccine production, licensing and distribution for a more severe H5N1 pandemic. For me, this is the most fascinating aspect of what we are currently seeing. It is also the most unpredictable and consequently the most worrisome.

If there will be inadequate supplies of vaccines and Tamiflu, what other options are being pursued?

Since 2004 I have tried to persuade government agencies and foundations in the US and Europe as well as the WHO to convene one or more workshops that would bring together 25-30 scientists who work with animal models of influenza, sepsis and multi-organ failure. They would be asked to review the scientific rationale for using agents that modify the host response. The agents they should consider most strongly are those that are now produced as inexpensive generics and that are widely available in developing countries. Statins, fibrates and glitazones are, in my view, prime candidates. No one has been interested in this proposal.

The generic agents I talk about affect the host response, and this is something that, with the exception of the immune response, influenza virologists know little about. We must enlist the support of scientists in other fields sepsis, critical care, cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases, metabolic disorders and mitochondrial function. They must tell influenza scientists what they know about the host response to infection, and how it might be useful to them in their research.

I'm worried that the H1N1 virus could get worse, that it could develop the virulence of the 1918 pandemic virus, or possibly combine with an H5N1 avian flu virus to give us a monster virus. Each of these developments is possible. Now if they're possible, we could spend perhaps 10 to 20 million dollars and get 90% of the answers we need to determine whether these generic agents could save lives. Is it worth organizing the research in such a way that we could quickly get the answers needed to manage a global pandemic? That's the big question. Why don't we do it?

Where, then, would efforts ideally be focused in the fight against this pandemic?

The focus of all of our efforts right now must be on ways to manage the pandemic throughout the world in ways that will save lives in this and any future pandemic. This will require a focus on the host response.

Several studies have suggested that prescriptions for statins are associated with a 50% reduction in pneumonia hospitalizations and deaths. If statins prove to be effective against pneumonia, they might be similarly effective against pandemic influenza. Experimental studies in mice show that gemfibrozil and pioglitazone dramatically reduce influenza-related mortality. A 2005 study of resveratrol showed a 54% decrease in mortality in a mouse model of influenza.

The practical implications of these findings for an influenza pandemic are enormous. For example, in 2008, 29 billion doses of statins were produced worldwide, 16 billion of them as generics. If only 5% of this output had been set aside, it would have been sufficient to provide five days of treatment for 160 million people. Since treatment would probably be necessary only for those patients at risk of serious complications, multi-organ failure and death, supplies sufficient to over 2-10% of an infected population would probably be sufficient (perhaps H5N1 excepted). Gemfibrozil and pioglitazone are also produced as generics, and many of the companies that produce them are located in developing countries. As generics, these agents would be far less expensive than vaccines and antiviral agents; according to 2008 prices, five days of treatment would cost less than $1.00. Thus, stockpiles would be affordable and distribution channels could be set up in advance of a pandemic.

We don't know how any of these drugs are handled in people who are already sick. That's key. However, we have a wonderful research opportunity right now to develop multi-center trials of single dose treatment in patients with severe H1N1 influenza. We could measure drug levels and cytokine changes following treatment at different times during the course of illness. It would not be difficult to recruit several hundred people for studies like this, but no one is organized to do them. We can't afford not to do this work.

The message that needs to go out to the world is that health officials everywhere have a responsibility to find ways to manage a pandemic in all countries. This means that they don't have to explain the molecular biology of everything that's going on. Instead, they must find agents that can be used to save lives. We have enough evidence from experimental work and enough suggestions from clinical observations to suggest that we could do this by modifying the host response using inexpensive generic agents that are already being produced in developing countries. Making effective therapies widely available is the key to a global response to a pandemic, whether it is caused by the current swine H1N1 virus, an H5N1 virus or something in between.

Sadly, the arithmetic for pandemic vaccines and antivirals is unforgiving. WHO is focused on vaccines and antivirals that will only be available to people who can afford them, and that's ten percent of the world's population. Consequently, it doesn't matter that arguments for their use are scientifically well grounded; in practical terms they are pointless, in the same way that it is pointless to tell a starving man he should eat if there's no food in the kitchen. For pandemic vaccines and antiviral agents, the kitchen is empty. We should stop talking about things that people in developing countries will never have, and start talking about things they've already got.

Judge Sotomayor: Roe v. Wade is “Settled Law.”

Now I can’t support her.

Folks, first of all, I would like to welcome all new visitors and subscribers to Vivificat. I am humbled that you have chosen this modest publication worthy of your occasional attention, considering the huge amount of choices that you otherwise have. I will redouble my efforts to make Vivificat a sober, – but not humorless – informative, insightful, edifying, and prayerful Catholic publication. With your prayers and participation in the comments’ section, I am confident that it will be so.

Now, to the matter at hand: according to CNN, Supreme Court Justice nominee and fellow Puerto Rican, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, has made her views regarding abortion law clear today. She stated that Roe v. Wade is “settled law,” legalese for “it’s laser-embossed in titanium” (the cliché “chiseled in stone” no longer has the same sense of eternal permanence it once enjoyed).

As I’ve stated before, although personally proud as an American born in Puerto Rico for the distinction to be bestowed on Judge Sotomayor, I cannot support anyone who considers Roe v. Wade good law, constitutional, and humane.

The Right to Life is and must be the foundation of any good positive law. Despite her qualifications and my personal sympathy and the sense of ethnic “connection” she inspires in me, I cannot support anyone who would interpret and apply an unjust law, no matter how “settled” the legal elites consider this law to be, particularly when the result would be the loss of innocent human beings precisely at the stage in their development when they are most vulnerable.

The U.S. Senate will confirm Judge Sotomayor, of this I have no doubt. But it will be a sad day for America because for all her qualifications, achievements, and warmth, Judge Sotomayor’s empathy does not extend to unborn human beings, as long as she holds that somewhere in the Constitution there is to be found an implied, absolute, and sovereign right to abort a baby.

I hope and pray that once she sits on our highest bench, that the she becomes sensitive again to the sacramental grace she once knew and then do the right thing before God and for the good of our Nation.

An Interview with a Lay Catholic Contemplative

Folks, I want to share with you an interview I conducted with a lay Catholic Contemplative Catholic person I know. The contemplative person asked me not to protect his/her anonymity for reasons that will be immediately stated. I hope you find the interview, if not edifying, at least informative.

Good morning! Please, state your name for the record.

You know, I would rather not.

Why not?

Well, because I don’t want to attract attention to myself at church or at my secular job and I want to avoid misunderstandings. My fellow parishioners, coworkers, and neighbors may not know how to react to a “mystic” in their midst. The increased attention may also tempt my vanity and Lord knows that I need to make a lot of progress cultivating the virtue of humility. So let’s leave my name out of it.

OK, I will respect that. So you are a “mystic”?

Well, I used that word because that’s both the theological technical word as well as the popular term to refer to my “thing”. But I also shy away from the word “mystic” because in our popular context it gives rise to misunderstandings. Like with the word “metaphysics,” the word “mystic” has been tied to New Age mumbo-jumbo and emptied of its rational contents. I would prefer “person of prayer” or “contemplative.” Then again, I would rather be called “a normal Christian” because this is the life we Christians are called to live, a life of prayer.

What do you mean by this connection between being a “normal Christian” and living a “life of prayer.”

I mean that all Christians are called to pray, and to pray with intensity, to engage with God in a constant conversation.

Isn’t that the exclusive job of “professional” contemplatives, such as cloistered men and women?

Without a doubt, at various times and places in the course of our Church’s history, there has been a de facto understanding that this is the case, that the contemplative life is meant solely for those who have been called and have been enabled by grace and circumstance to leave the secular world to dedicate themselves full-time to prayer. And yet, the first hermits, the Desert Fathers (and Mothers) were themselves lay people who fled the world at a time in which men in holy orders were accreting political power and wealth. These lay people, once they became organized, laid the foundation of monasticism. In fact, to this day, monasticism remains fundamentally a lay phenomenon, populated by men and women who are not in holy orders.

Isn’t that exactly why is important to leave the world, to free oneself from its entanglements?

Oh, absolutely, the vocation for total dedication to the Lord in prayer and solitude is indispensable to the life of the Church. These men and women sustain the Church with their prayers and together form the inner engine keeping the Church alive. What I am also trying to say is that lay people who live in the world and lead active lives within it, and whose religious vows are the ones pronounced upon marriage – I am married – are also called to pray and grow in familiarity with the Lord. Most people fail to link marriage vows with religious vows and yet that’s what marriage vows are, religious vows. So, there is a radical equality between the single religious man and woman living their religious vows in celibate chastity and the married couple that vows to live their lives in marital chastity, that is, to express their sexual love exclusively with each other while remaining “celibate” to everyone else. Both kinds of “vowed” religious life need prayer to sustain them. The nature of the marriage vows do not compel married Catholics to withdraw from the world, but they can choose to do so if they feel so called.

I am happy to hear that since my wife and I are considering long term plans to do embrace an eremitic lifestyle. But, must there be an opposition between the consecrated, single religious celibate life and the married life?

To consider both kinds of life as mutually exclusive is to miss the point. It’s not a matter of “either/or” but “both/and.” The Church needs both kinds of life and each actor needs to have a constant, ongoing dialogue with the Lord. Only then will we be able to actualize the Reign of God until He comes in glory. Only then can we be instrument in the sanctification of the world and of all truly human, ennobling activities.

Let me change the subject. How do you “commune” with God?

Very imperfectly because of my own limitations and faults. I remain very much “a work in progress.”

OK, granted, but what I mean is, how do you encounter Him in prayer? Is there any place, thing, or “technique” that you use to talk to God?

My principal point of encounter with God is in Jesus Christ His Son, uniquely, personally, and substantially in the Holy Eucharist. The encounter is a personal one, as personal one as this dialogue is between you and me.

Many Catholics and most Protestants will find this claim hard to accept.

The more “mission-oriented” among my Protestant brethren constantly ask me if I know or have received “Jesus Christ as my Personal Savior,” and when I reply that not only I have, but that I eat Him every Sunday and that His indwelling becomes substantially, objectively real in my heart, in my soul, and in my natural senses, that doesn’t compute to them. They certainly understand that Jesus is close to the believer, but not that intimately close, and in such blatantly personal, material terms. Catholics, on the other hand, take His presence so much for granted that they conceive the reception of the Eucharist as “a right,” and many get up and join the communion line without a second thought, without asking themselves if they are prepared to receive Him, without the proper dispositions and in this manner they fail to discern His Real Presence and all that it entails. In both cases, but for different reasons, Protestants and Catholics miss the very Real Presence of Jesus Christ among us.

So, it is not a matter of saying certain words or applying certain techniques.

Heavens, no! There’s no recitation of words, there’s no “technique” that can produce “contemplation.” Contemplation is a gift freely given by God. A person can’t presume to be “ready” for communion with God after saying a set number of prayers, rosaries, chaplets, novenas, or psalms; or after mastering certain psychosomatic techniques like quieting the breath and the mind. God is certainly not obligated to increase our consciousness of His indwelling merely because we think we are ready. What we can do is to be willing to engage Him in dialogue and to humiliate ourselves before Him, something that doesn’t come easy for most of us.

Then, there’s minimal discipline involved?

The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of order; an undisciplined prayer life, like a life of work and creativity, must include a healthy amount of discipline. The discipline start with a clear act of the commitment: one commits oneself to pray regularly. The best way to do this is to pray the Liturgy of the Hours. In this way one will be praying with the Church. Commit yourself to pray at least Morning or Evening Prayer every day. If you can commit to both it would be even better. Pretty soon and with His help the practice will grow in you. You’ll learn to desire it and will find out that your day would become incomplete without those set prayer times. Use them as your “jumping board” to a deeper prayer life with God in worship, adoration, and petition.

Isn’t that time consuming?

Not at all; a person can pray the Morning or Evening prayer properly and with devotion in 10 or 15 minutes. Some people would find even that amount as excessive. I pity them, particularly those who watch TV or are in the Internet for hours at an end but can’t spare 30 minutes to talk with their Father and Creator every day. Take it from me, if I can do it, anyone can. I am nothing special in this regard.

Here’s a big question: have you heard the voice of God?

I’ve found that my ability to discern the will of God and in this sense to hear “His voice” has increased since my prayer life took off. His voice comes clearly through His Word, and through particular people and events He sends my way. A person who hasn’t learned to hear God’s voice in this way is ill-prepared to hear his voice at what I consider the next level.

Which is?

It’s short of an audible allocution. It consists of a very, very quiet “whisper” in one’s soul, easily overwhelmed by stray thoughts and one’s inner conversation and stream of consciousness. The main difficulty at this stage of one’s prayer life is to learn to discern between one’s voice and the chaotic cacophony inside one’s mind and the whispered sound of God’s voice in one’s innermost recesses. Like Scripture says, one must die to oneself. This is the stage I find myself in.

Does this “stage” you speak of correspond to the “ways” or “states” that traditional mystical theology talks about?

You speak of the purgative, illuminative, and unitive ways. Look, I speak of my own state of soul with certain reticence and I am not going to dwell much on my own state except to say that these ways or states are not like the “staging” in say, a rocket launch. It’s incorrect to think that once a stage is spent it’s gone and one is done and fully on the next stage. The ways or states of the spiritual life often overlap with more or less strength, depending upon one’s inner dispositions and the measure of grace that God has granted to that particular soul. In my particular situation, I am between the purgative and illuminative way. The Lord may choose to concede me the grace to move forward fully to the next stages, or may make me dwell in this particular level for however long it pleases Him; there’s no guarantee that I will reach the final stage in this life. He has the final word on the issue.

Then, how is “progress” in the spiritual life to be measured?

The prayerful Christian is never the final arbiter of his or her “state”. Such a judgment belongs to one’s spiritual director. That’s why complete openness to one’s spiritual director is essential for growth in the spiritual life and that’s why is so important that one’s spiritual director should be a saintly priest. Receiving direction in the context of the Sacrament of Reconciliation is invaluable and greatly strengthens one’s soul. Blessed are those who have found a saintly Spiritual Father to direct them, for they shall talk to God.

How do you respond to those who say that the mystical life – or any belief in a personal God – is a lot of “mumbo jumbo” and a product of changing brain states?

Belief in a personal God, and even more so, in the one revealed in Jesus Christ, is the definite departure point for a true and meaningful Christian prayer life. Convinced atheists and agnostics will always find a “reason” to deny God and to reduce all knowledge we may obtain of persons to certain brain states, neurotransmitter flows, and neurons firing this way or that. Yet, when atheists talk about their own interpersonal relationships, they don’t talk about brain states and such, they talk about love and friendships like everyone else. Personal relationships are irreducible: they can’t be deconstructed without emptying them of meaning. That’s how I “know” I am talking to God and that God talks to me. I have an irreducible personal relationship with him. To dismiss Christian contemplation is but a subjective phenomenon is to close oneself to the experience. It would be an attempt to lie to oneself. It’s an absurd, an insult to one’s intelligence which also is a gift from the Lord.

Buddhism is a very popular substitute for Christianity nowadays. It has a robust moral core and a demanding contemplative discipline. It has proven attractive to many who look for a “spiritual” alternative to Christianity without the trappings of Christianity. Could you comment on that?

Yes, I can. But this will take some elaboration. The core claim of Christianity derives from the one in Judaism: that the source of creation is Personal: “I am that I am” the Lord told Moses. His very Name (“YHWH,” commonly pronounced “Yahweh”) points to this reality. The Bible designates Moses as the first receiver of this revelation. We may speculate that Moses, having received the traditional belief in One God from the people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saw his understanding completed through his own contemplation of the mystery until God, in his utter freedom, revealed Himself to Moses in that Name. Moses’ contemplative journey sets an example for all of us: as all the external noise and internal cacophony quieted in Moses, he was able to hear but one voice, the One that then said “I AM.”

It is known that Buddhism denies the existence of any substantive personal core in human beings, or behind the cosmos. Their disciplines to quiet the senses and the mind conform to a relentless teaching insisting on the depersonalization of the adept’s consciousness and on its ability to become a detached observer of manifold perceptions and mental states, each one independently analyzed as to its origin, duration, and end, and labeled as such. Buddhist teachers also stress that the “Devas” (or “gods” in Hindu religion) are also subjected to this tight law of causality and the Buddhist adept is trained to observe their chatter and learn to dismiss it as part of the contingent nature of things. I posit that Buddhist contemplatives reject the existence of one personal God because they can’t tell His voice apart from their own voices; the voice of God that Moses heard would be for a Buddhist practitioner just another subjective mental state to be detached from in order to avoid suffering or dukkha.

So you are saying that, when confronted with the voice of God, Buddhist practitioners basically chose to deny the objective existence of the voice of God within and with it the relevance of a personal God.

Pretty much, yeah. They choose consciously and pretty much for the same reasons that a Western atheist denies the existence of God: any claim made in this respect is merely subjective, ultimately illusory, and the product of deluded mental states held by people attached to a wrong view of reality. This is also why so many Western agnostics and atheists embrace Buddhism because Buddhism allows them to be “spiritual” without turning to God. But, unlike Western skeptics, Buddhists don’t arrive to their convictions by mere theoretical formulations; they claim a direct insight into the nature of reality, one in which the willful denial of the existence, importance, relevance and dismissal of a personal God is central to their method. The differences between Buddhism and Christianity and between their schools of “contemplation” are as deep as they are fundamental: an honest Christian can’t be a Buddhist and an honest Buddhist can’t be a Christian. One affirms “I AM” while the other one affirms “everything is emptiness and emptiness is all.” God, being the gentleman that He is, bows before the insistent effort on the part of the Buddhist adept to dismiss Him from his inner sanctum once and for all, and so He leaves. In this tragic sense, the Buddhist contemplative experience as one without God corresponds to their claim. God remains quiet on their soul, but He never really leaves, thankfully. He awaits patiently the invitation to come back in and talk.

Wow. Well, we’re almost to the end. Any readings you want to suggest to Vivificat’s readers before we finish?

Yes, I think that reading various classical and modern authors on the issue of asceticism, prayer and contemplation is necessary to achieve a right balance and manage expectations. St. Francis de Sales’ Introduction to the Devout Life, is a good starting point for anyone willing to deepen their Catholic prayer life. The Three Ages of the Interior Life, by Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange offers an in-depth analysis on the interior life and valuable for his insistence that the contemplative life is a call open to every Christian and not only to vowed, cloistered monastics. Ralph Martin’s book, The Fulfillment of All Desire, has also been very helpful to me due to its simple language and its synthetic approach, as well as various works by the late American Trappist monk, Thomas Merton – his warts and all. There are many others I may suggest, but these will have to do for now.

This all sounds extraordinary.

And it shouldn’t be. An intimate dealing between one’s soul and God in Christ should be considered the norm and an everyday occurrence. What is really abnormal is that so many do not possess, wish, or can be bothered to even consider relating to the Lord in this way. They are the ones who are strange and abnormal.

Thank you for being with us.

Thank you for having me and thank you to your readers.