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In regards to Alberto Ferreiro’s letter in your January/February 1999 issue, the implication that Protestant Christians are “part of the Redeemed Body of Christ” is nonsense as the document Mysterium ecclesiae issued by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on June 24, 1973 makes clear:
But at the same time Catholics are bound to profess that through the gift of God’s mercy they belong to that Church which Christ founded and which is governed by the successors of Peter and the other Apostles . . . . The followers of Christ are therefore not permitted to imagine that Christ’s Church is nothing more than a collection (divided, but still possessing a certain unity) of Churches and ecclesial communities.
(pg. 429, Vatican Council II: More Post Conciliar Documents, A. Flannery, O.P., general editor, Costello Publishing Co., 1st ed., 1982)
Pax Christi vobiscum,
John R. Sheffield
St. Paul, MN
Miracles and Asceticism
Regarding “More Saints for Children” by Theresa Fagan (Sept/Oct 1999). Is God frivolous? If the saints performed miracles, didn’t those miracles come from God and therefore have a reason? How very sad that a publication like “The Catholic Faith” should deliberately try to denigrate the works of the Lord. Secularism, modernism, skepticism, naturalism, rationalism, all these mock the supernatural.
What a tragedy! In a Faith that believes that the Lord God is really and truly present daily in the Holy Eucharist; that “through a mystery of time and space, we are truly present at Calvary at each Mass” (Dr. J Dominguez), that we should “foster a healthy distrust of the novel and the extraordinary.” How very bizarre that in the same issue there is an article on Our Lady of LaSalette. Surely, an extremely “novel and extraordinary” incident. How sad that it is this very attitude that causes our priests and our laity to ignore the approved apparitions of the Blessed Mother that plead for us to pray and do penance to save ourselves and the world. If God is supernatural, then His church has to be supernatural and to ignore or downplay that fact is to lose all the wonderful gifts He has given us such as the Rosary, the Scapular, the Miraculous Medal, the Divine Mercy, the devotion of the Sacred Heart, the First Fridays and Saturdays etc. etc. etc.
Ascetical struggles have no interest for my children and after working in youth ministry and Girl Scouts for a total of about 14 years, I cannot believe the “normal” child responds to behavior that is hardly “normal” in our society. But we have witnessed extraordinary healings and women who have not aborted their babies because of the monthly Stations of the Cross for the Unborn that we do and my children pray the Rosary, participate in the First Fridays and Saturdays, in Adoration etc. etc because they have “Seen” God through His extraordinary works. I have no trouble getting my children to Mass, a problem that I see with at least 90% of the teenagers we know. I wish I had known about the miracles of the saints, the books I read only covered their asceticism, which was far beyond me and totally bizarre. I knew I would never be a saint. It was only when I finally learned about the miracles, that I realized that God really existed and was part and parcel of everything in my life and that it was time to start paying attention to Him.
Sincerely,
Arline Saiki
Edmeston, New York
Theresa Fagan replies:
The role of the saints in our lives is twofold. First, they pray for us. Second, they are to be imitated. The normal person who looks to the saints would do better to imitate their life of prayer and heroic virtues, rather than focusing overly on the mystical experiences God has given to some of them. Apparitions and miracles are truly wonderful gifts of God, but gifts which the majority of us, though called to be canonizable saints, will never have. For most of us, our path to sanctity will consist of the daily struggle to overcome our laziness, selfishness, indifference, impatience, stinginess, etc. All the saints had to overcome defects and difficulties of temperament, and to face temptation. Many miraculous events may have occurred in the life of a holy person, but before Holy Mother Church will even consider beatifying that person, she first has to find clear evidence of virtues lived to a heroic degree. Only then does she proceed to consider the miracles. This by no means implies that the Church denigrates miracles.
As it appears to have terrifying connotations for some, I would like to clarify the expression “ascetical struggle.” The word ascetic comes from the Greek “ascesis,” meaning “struggle.” As used today in spiritual direction, rather than severe self-denial (for example, throwing oneself into a thicket of thorns), the expression simply refers to the daily struggle to overcome a particular defect or to acquire a particular virtue.
He Said, She Said
This letter is long overdue. I am writing regarding Mr. Martin Barrack’s article in the November/ December 1999 issue. I am very shocked and disappointed that The Catholic Faith would allow such an article to be printed.
This man is Jewish religion in the guise of a Catholic. It is clear from his article that many of his “Jewish” cultural and religious ideas are carrying over into his idea of what the Catholic Church should be. I do not agree with his ideas. There are major flaws in his article which fortunately caught my eye, “Fishing for Men.” I will point out which I think are the most significant:
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1. The Sanctuary
Mr. Barrack states that “Every woman who wants to see more men in her parish church should seriously consider giving up her sanctuary ministry and asking her pastor to appoint a man in her place.” This statement not only shocks me, but it is unjustified for the following reasons:
- This statement is saying women should step down because some men may be too egotistical to join in a similar ministry because women are involved
- This statement is saying that it is women’s fault for being involved in the sanctuary ministry because they cause men to be detracted from the same ministry.
- This statement is saying that the Church has to relieve women of their duties they are called to by God so that it would be easier for men to join the sanctuary ministry.
- This statement is saying that getting rid of the women in the sanctuary ministry is going to be the quick fix to getting men involved.
- This statement is also saying that the Catholic Church as a whole, including the Body of Christ, is not doing its job in attracting more men to the faith.
This statement also contradicts his statement above that “Every woman who wants to see more men in her parish church should seriously consider giving up her sanctuary ministry and asking her pastor to appoint a man in her place.” Are women to give up their ministry or be recruited for ministry? Please clarify your thoughts Mr. Barrack as they seem contradictory. Has Mr. Barrack ever given it any thought that God may be calling women to this ministry because men are becoming too egotistical and/or have fallen away from the Church that they need to be humbled by the presence of women in the sanctuary ministry? Men should come forward without fear to join in parish activities regardless of whether women are involved in the ministry or not, and without having to have the women give up their place in Church ministry. I hope this makes sense to Mr. Barrack and others who think like him because if it doesn’t the Church will have even more communication and other problems. I think it is clear that there is a reason women are working in that type of ministry and Mr. Barrack has a distorted view on how to ‘fish for men.’
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2. The Bottom Line
Mr. Barrack thinks that “The smoke of feminism has entered the Catholic Church in part through the transformation of language that defaces the Word of God.” This does not mean that every woman involved in Church ministry is a feminist and therefore the Church should get rid of them and replace them with men.
I am not a feminist, but I do not believe that suppressing women from duties to which they are called is not an answer. Feminism began because women were suppressed and oppressed in the first place. Articles like this and others which make judgements on why a woman should be married younger rather than older is why I have chosen not to subscribe to The Catholic Faith.
Yours in Christ,
Kristiann Killgore, J.D.
Note: I cannot believe The Catholic Faith would allow such an article to be printed. Whoever is deciding on which articles to print in this magazine is not doing the Church or women in the Church justice.
Marty Barrack replies:
“Fishing for Men” observed that daily parish life today is so predominantly female that many men see the Church as a place for women and consequently are not receiving the sacraments and other graces that would help them realize their greatest desire in eternity. Among its proposals was that some women relinquish their sanctuary ministries and encourage their husbands to come to church and serve in the sanctuary. Other men, seeing men in the sanctuary, may come to see daily parish life as for them and participate with women in Christ’s work. Ms. Killgore has focused on two of the five areas I addressed. Jesus brought in the Jewish ideas. He told His Apostles, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt 10:6). His first Vicar declared that he had never in his life eaten anything unkosher (Acts 10:14). Saul of Tarsus, educated under Rabbi Gamaliel, using his Roman name Paul, wrote many of our Epistles.
A woman who loves her sanctuary ministry so much that she will not give it up in an effort to save a man’s soul urgently needs prayer. Jesus warned us, “Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven”(Mt 6:1).
Ms. Killgore asks me to reconcile the statements, “Every man, and every woman who loves a man, should report for duty at the parish recruiting center” and “Every woman should seriously consider giving up her sanctuary ministry.” The parish recruiting center offers many opportunities such as the Altar Society, Legion of Mary, etc. Women eager to see more men in the Church may switch to those ministries to make men more visible in the sanctuary.
Ms. Killgore’s idea that God calls women into the sanctuary to humble proud men is a private speculation without support in Church teaching. God has always deliberately revealed Himself to us in masculine terms, first as our Father in heaven and second as Jesus of Nazareth, to image male headship. St. Paul wrote, “Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, His Body, and is Himself its Savior (Eph 5:22). The Lector, giving human voice to the Word of the Lord, does so more closely in a masculine voice. The Church has communication problems only when bishops, priests and deacons are less than forthright in proclaiming her teachings. A recipient who does not want to hear the authentic Word of God has a communication problem because his immortal soul depends for its eternal life on the Word. In any case, “Fishing for Men” can be summarized in contemporary terms: Men are underrepresented in the Church population. Women should take affirmative action to bring more men into the Church and encourage them to take high visibility positions. It is not good that many men now see the Church as something for women. It is for men and women.
Finally, Ms. Killgore uses the word “egotistical” three times. Pride is the original sin that drove our first parents from Eden, the first of the seven deadly sins because all other sins depend on it. These are the men and women who most need to be evangelized. The Church does not exist to make us happy, but to make us saints.
Many Martyrs
As an enthusiastic subscriber and avid reader of every issue of The Catholic Faith magazine since its charter issue, I want to take this opportunity to thank you [Father Hardon] for the great gift you have given me in the sound theology and superb erudition of your publication. God has greatly inspired you in this endeavor.
Sometimes I read your articles over several times through the course of the two months between issues, letting different parts sink in. In this case, I was rereading the Editor’s Letter in the January/February issue and had some insights that I’d like to share with you, if I may.
This past weekend, the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux were venerated at three locations in the Seattle area. I had the great privilege of being at one of those locations. Since childhood (I am now 51), I’ve had the greatest admiration for St. Therese and have read her Story of a Soul so often that I’ve lost count of how many times. So it’s not very surprising to me that I wanted to visit her relics. What was, and remains, astounding is how many others were there. Thousands and thousands of people, many of whom did not seem to have much understanding of what was going on, and most of whom seemed to have only the barest knowledge of who she was or what she taught. In fact, when her relics were brought to the cathedral downtown, whole streets were closed because of the crowds and people had to walk for up to a mile just to get in.
None of this can possibly have a human explanation. Only the Holy Spirit could inspire such fascination with this obscure French nun of the 19th century. And relics. Our previous Archbishop Hunthausen had the diocesan relics buried in the cemetery!
In such a miraculous manifestation of His Action, the Holy Spirit is surely guiding us to follow the Little Way so beautifully described and developed by this littlest of saints. A way of perfect childlike confidence in the power, mercy and goodness of God, especially as he has revealed Himself in the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ.
My point, Father Hardon, is this. In your article you write, “There is no other remedy than a counter movement that will convert millions, and I mean millions, of non-Catholics in our country to the true faith.” A little later you write, “We need martyrs, and I mean martyrs, who literally die for their profession of the true faith.”
I suggest to you that the Holy Spirit is guiding us toward a counter movement in a slightly different form than you propose—that we have martyrs, multitudes of martyrs who have died either directly or indirectly for the faith in this century. Yet except for a few, such as Maximillian Kolbe, He has not shed the light of His predilection on many of these. Rather, He has raised up to heights unimaginable this little saint, this blessed child, St. Therese.
In our times, Fr. Hardon, it seems to me that God is not stressing mighty deeds of saintly valor as the route to the salvation of millions. He is suggesting, rather, the simple faith of the little child. We are not going to convert millions or turn the tide of evil with our preaching, or our apologetics, or our heroism. God Himself is going to transform this world of ours, and each of us faithful Catholics, as humble soldiers of hidden prayer and simplicity, will be the yeast, the salt, that He uses to leaven and flavor the bread. Our actions and prayers will provide the few loaves and fishes with which He will feed the multitude. And when we see arising the new heavens and the new earth, we will not be tempted to imagine: What a great we have done. We will know beyond a doubt that only God could perform such a prodigy.
Our Holy Father is a living martyr for Christ; you, also, are living a martyr’s life in your apostolate; many are leading lives of quiet and total dedication to the service of God. These are His instruments. He is calling, in our time, for more and more of us to model the deep humility, the profound silence, the obedience to daily duty and to Christ, the faithfulness, the self-discipline, and ultimately, the inner martyrdom of the self that characterized such as St. Therese, and our Blessed Mother, the ever Virgin Mary. Although I admire your clarion call to the martyrdom of the early centuries of Christianity, I suggest the Holy Spirit is calling for us to follow The Little Way of Spiritual Childhood as the surest route to the conversion of millions and to victory in our times.
Respectfully yours,
Mary Lynn Hanley
Kirkland, Washington