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worth noting . . . ARE SOME HOSPITALS LIFE-THREATENING? . . . It seems that they are. When we think of euthanasia, we usually think of Holland and other far away places. But quiet forms of euthanasia are probably being practiced in your own home town. In this issue an experienced nurse alerts us to what is going on in many of our hospitals, including Catholic ones. Her name is Miss Mary Therese Helmueller. She recounts some of her experiences with euthanasia, especially the case of her own grandmother who went into the hospital with a broken bone, was declared to be terminally ill and was euthanatized. According to our author, this can happen to anyone over 65 (p. 10). THE SEVEN CAPITAL SINS . . . They are called “capital” because they are the head or source from which all other sins flow. This month I present for your consideration a reflection of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, written by Fr. Clyde A. Bonar. Every year we hear a sermon on this parable. Fr. Bonar offers an explanation of the parable that sees in it traces of the seven capital sins—pride, avarice, lust, sloth, gluttony, anger and envy. The two sons, dealing with a loving father, commit all seven of them. This meditation might help us to reflect on our own failings in some of these areas (p. 17). SILENCE ABOUT HUMANAE VITAE? . . . When was the last time you heard a sermon about the evils of artificial contraception and the Church’s prohibition of it? Our bishops’ conference has rarely, if ever, mentioned it since their letter of response to Humanae Vitae in 1968. In this issue Dr. John Beaumont, a professor of law in England and a convert to Catholicism, says that he has never heard a sermon on contraception since he became a Catholic in 1980. He offers a number of arguments to show that the teaching has been universal in the Church for hundreds of years, that it cannot be erroneous, and that it is infallible from the Ordinary Magisterium (p. 25). IS JESUS REALLY PRESENT? . . . As is well known, recent polls seem to show that a large percentage of Catholics no longer believe that Jesus is really and truly present, body and soul, in the Eucharist under the appearances of bread and wine. Many rationalists and Protestants ridicule the Catholic belief as being obviously contrary to reason. In this issue an experienced Catholic philosopher, Mr. John Young, who lives in Australia, argues, and I think he does so persuasively, that the objectors have a false notion of “substance.” I suggest that you put on your philosophical thinking cap when you sit down to ponder this article and his arguments (p. 45).—K.B. |