nostalgia

"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich." —John F. Kennedy, in his 1961 inaugural address.

Fer Life, Agin Common Sense

Here's something decent:

You can call yourself a “pro-conception-to-birth, indifferent-to-life conservative.” I will never refer to someone who pickets Planned Parenthood but lobbies against common-sense gun laws as “pro-life.”

From the article "Why I am Pro-life" by Thomas Friedman, NYTimes October 27, 2012  

I am the better Catholic, duh

Both Mr. Ryan and Mr. Biden are obviously serious about their Catholicism. Can anyone doubt that? They also offer a kind of Rorschach test for U.S. Catholic voters. Mr. Ryan is a Catholic who is clearly opposed to abortion and not so clearly in support of programs that would directly help the poor. Mr. Biden is not so clearly opposed to abortion and clearly in support of programs that would directly help the poor. They represent, in a sense, two distinct types of "Catholicisms" alive in our country today.

James Martin, SJ

Source: "Don't Vote for the 'Better Catholic,'" America Magazine "In All Things" blog, Friday, October 12, 2012

Secularism! Feminism! Ism-isms!

Caught wind of this radio interview (yeah, there's such a thing as Vatican Radio, who knew?) with CRS board chair Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tuscon. CRS (Catholic Relief Services) is one of the three Catholic non-profits my office represents. The interview itself is probably boring for those outside of Catholicism, but there are a few challenging bits that are sticking to my brain, as it were.

In the interview, the bishop opens the following insight:

"Despite the rise of secularism, I think every human being is going to ask the basic questions, ‘who am I, where am I going and what is the best way to live my life?' So it’s important for the Church to find ways to address those questions."

I totally dig this because it has my name written all over it! Or, more accurately, this is why I am who I am--everything from why this blog exists, to why I studied spirituality and why I do the satisfying work that I do. These questions are secular questions, they are spiritual questions, they are human questions. Being--the very fact of existence and consciousness of that existence--begs these questions, and I imagine it would be a rough go searching for a human being that hasn't in some way or other asked these questions, and come up with some sort of matrix of understanding using the interpreted answers to them. This by no means indicates a like-mindedness of all people--quite the opposite. It is in asking these questions and attempting to formulate answers and create meaning in our lives that there are such varying opinions and beliefs and values among us humans. I wonder that any two humans have ever truly come up with identical responses to the question of being.

So, that's my shtick and all on that.

There is also a definite challenge to me in the bishop's words as well. His basic message in the interview pushes the importance of justice and charity, their interconnectedness to each other and their impulsion toward action. Bishop Kicanas speaks about this within the framework of Catholic Social Teaching, saying,

Sadly I think for some people there is this tension between pro-life and pro-justice but for a true believer in the Lord there is no such distinction…so a pro-immigration Catholic has to be concerned about the unborn and a person who is concerned for the unborn has to [be] concerned about people on the margins who are living less than decent lives.

I mention this because it hit me pretty hard. Am I just a buffet-style Catholic, with black and white thinking, erring on the side of justice and failing on the side of life? That is a thorny question. My mind goes to a few different places with it.

For one thing, consider the source: this is coming from a white male who has been promoted within a patriarchal hierarchy to bishop, he's most likely "celibate" (I use that term loosely), and presumably has little to no experience with the female body or even his own sexuality. So, when it comes to the pro-life debate, I am inclined to poo-poo whatever it is this man is telling me. What does he know?

For another thing, Catholic Social Teaching on the dignity of the human person includes all of life--from birth (or pre-birth) to death--and I stand staunchly against the death penalty. If I am going to be honest here, I don't really want to get into the abortion debate. I see the real problem as being unwanted pregnancies--never mind where life begins and if it's a fetus or a baby and all of that business.

These are initial thoughts and I am still wrestling with the questions ... especially on whether a pro-immigration Catholic really does have to be concerned about the unborn? I mean, yes, of course I am concerned about the unborn--that manifests itself in what I see as the greater pandemic of unnecessary pregnancies (especially in America) that occur against the landscape of a misogynist, male-dominated culture that controls so many aspects of female power, including but not limited to money, body, esteem, sex, gender, etc. Sigh.

I've thunk myself into a pondering puddle of ambiguous grey ... again. Regardless, I can be grateful that these questions continue to form me, and that I remain engaged in the matter of being, whether that results in insight (at best) or despair (at worst) or just a toss up. I'll end here with a deferral to Albert Einstein-the-great's bit of wisdom to tie this all together:

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

Thanks Al.