casual theology

I usually start my day by checking various news websites. I often say I just want to know “if anything blew up overnight.” This morning my attention was drawn to several headlines about Pope Francis and the Church under a picture of the pope:   "Pope: You don't have to believe in God to get to heaven..." "Catholic priests may be allowed to marry amid Papal changes..." I immediately thought, “here we go again”, some statement by the pope has been taken out of context by a reporter who likely couldn’t pass a first grade catechism class. I was not disappointed. There were two “big” stories about the Church. The first alleged that Pope Francis was declaring that atheists could go to heaven without believing in God and the second focused on comments made by the incoming Vatican Secretary of State, Archbishop Pietro Parolin, on the topic of celibacy. Let's take a closer loo k...   Atheists and Agnostics Just Need to Be Good People   The ...

The readings for the next two Sundays ( 8/18/13 and 8/25/13 ) inspired me to break out an older post and re-post here as a reflection. Commentary on Hebrews 12:1-11 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God. Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons: 'My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he sc...

“You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”  – Luke 12:40 Several years ago I had a dream. It was an incredibly vivid dream. It was about the end of the world. I was in a house busy with nothing in particular. Suddenly there was a loud noise outside, almost like a siren. In fact, if you’ve seen the Tom Cruise version of War of the Worlds it was similar to the horns that the alien tripods used. I went outside to see what was going on. The house was on a hill in the middle of a green field. The sky was nearly cloudless a bright blue like a mid-summer’s day. As I went outside I looked up at the sky and suddenly I saw it being peeled back like someone peeling an orange. As the sky was being ripped open, it revealed a bright almost perfect golden light flooding in from behind it. I knew immediately that it was the Second Coming, the return of Jesus, the end of the world and Judgment Day. I felt immediate conviction and remor...

( Click here for Part 1 , Part 2 or Part 3 ) [Note: This final installment of my examination of Humanae Vitae comes on the 45 th anniversary of the encyclical’s release to the public, July 29, 1968.] Forty-five years after Paul VI issued Humanae Vitae surveys show that it has been overwhelming ignored or rejected by most Catholics, especially in the West. Study after study has shown that Catholics are no different than their Protestant or non-believing counterparts when it comes to issues of sexual morality. Just recently a poll found that 50% of US Catholics (55% of white US Catholics) support abortion on demand in “all or most” cases. According to a 2012 Gallup poll 82% of US Catholics responded that artificial birth control was morally acceptable. Does it even matter what or why the Church teaches as it does about contraception if so many don’t seem to care? Yes it does! Although I have no empirical evidence to support it, I suspect that the majority of Catholi...

 (Click here for Part 1 and Part 2 ) Within Humanae Vitae Pope Paul VI included a dire warning about the “dire consequences of artificial birth control”. He listed four specific consequences: conjugal infidelity and a general lowering of morality, loss of respect for women, possibility of governmental coercion, and the temptation for man to exercise illicit dominion over his body. To quote Mary Eberstadt from her book Adam and Eve after the Pill : “Four decades later, not only have the document’s signature predictions been ratified in empirical force, but they have been ratified as few predictions ever are: in ways its authors could not possibly have foreseen, including by information that did not exist when the document was written, by scholars and others with no interest whatever in its teaching, and indeed even inadvertently, and in more ways than one, by many proud public adversaries of the Church.” Conjugal Infidelity & Lowering of Morals Paul ...