Prophets For Our Time: Pope Paul VI vs. Paul Ehrlich

In 1968, two prophets prophesied about the future. Pope Paul VI prophecies in Humanae Vitae have proven true. Paul Ehrlich the author of The Population Bomb has proved to be false prophet.

1) Pope Paul VI was prophetic in Humanae Vitae predicting that widespread use of contraception would lead to "conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality." Since the birth control Pill began to be sold in 1960, divorces have tripled, births to unwed jumped from 224,000 to 1.7 million in 2007. Nearly 40 percent of babies born in the United States in 2007 were delivered by unwed mothers. The number of abortions doubled. Cohabitation has increased from 430,000 to 4.85 million couples in 2005.

2) The Pope predicted man would lose respect for woman, considering her "as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion." The Playboy philosophy prevails today. Men often pressure their girlfriends or wives into abortions so they can remain sexually available to them. Today 40 percent of children in the United States live in homes without their fathers.

3) Pope Paul VI also prophesied that contraception would mislead human beings into thinking they had unlimited control over their own bodies. He was right. The most common form of contraception today is sterilization. People mutilate their bodies to control their fertility. In vitro fertilization which involves the production, freezing and experimenting of ‘spare embryos’ is commonplace. Human clones are created and then destroyed for spare parts. In December 2008, Montana became the third State to legalize physician assisted suicide.

4) Finally, Pope Paul VI predicted that the widespread acceptance of contraception would place a "dangerous weapon... in the hands of those public authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies." This has also proven true as governments like China have engaged in campaigns in programs of forced sterilization and abortion.

Pope Paul VI’s predictions have proved to be true, yet contraception is still proposed for the same problems that it was supposed to reduce. Every year the Federal Government spends hundreds of millions of dollars on contraception supposedly to reduce abortion and illegitimacy. Yet births to unwed mothers have risen from 4 to 40 percent. Hasn’t a generation of failure taught us a lesson?

The Pill today prevents even fewer pregnancies than it prevented 40 years ago." The Pill suppresses ovulation through a heavy dose of a synthetic estrogen, but that often causes nausea and weight gain. So drug companies reduced the amount of estrogen and added progesterone. This made it less effective.

Half of all pregnancies are still unintended. Family Planning Perspectives reports that "18 percent of couples who use condoms and 12 percent who take the Pill become pregnant within two years. " Most women seeking abortions do so because of failed contraception.

While Pope Paul VI’s predictions have proven true, Paul Ehrlich’s dire predictions in The Population Bomb have proven unfounded. Ehrlich predicted a demographic catastrophe with population growth quickly outstripping growth in the supply of food and other resources. Ehrlich predicted that the world would undergo famines and that millions of people would starve to death. There were occasional famines, but not nearly as horrific as Ehrlich predicted.

In his 1990 sequel The Population Explosion Ehrlich predicted that world grain production had already reached its peak in 1986. He was dead wrong. In 1986, about 1.8 million metric tons of cereals were produced, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Cereal production increased to 20.7 million metric tons in 2001.

In his 1974 book The End of Affluence, Ehrlich stated that, "Before 1985 mankind will enter a genuine age of scarcity ... in which the accessible supplies of many key minerals will be facing depletion."

In the journal Social Science Quarterly, Ehrlich wrote "If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000."

In 1980, Julian Simon, an economist and population expert challenged Paul Erlich to a famous wager. Simon asked Ehrlich choose five raw materials. Simon bet that the price of the resources would fall. Erlich predicted they would go up. Erlich chose the metals copper, chromium, nickel, tin and tungsten. By 1990, the prices of all five metals had gone down. Ehrlich lost the bet.

Dr. Paul Ehrlich has received many prestigious awards in science and is chief advisor to former Vice President Algore.

Ehrlich is one of a long line of false prophets who have gained fame by dire predictions of doom for the world. Long before Paul Ehrlich there was Thomas Malthus, an eighteenth century Anglican clergyman, who argued that while population increases exponentially, food production only increases arithmetically. Therefore he wrongly predicted that it would be impossible for food production to keep up with the demands of an increasing population.

It didn’t take long for Malthus to be proven wrong. He made his prediction before one of the largest expansions of farming in the history of the world in the 19th century. He didn’t count on the ingenuity of people to come up with new technologies. This ‘man of God’ did not trust in Divine Providence.

The current population of the world is approximately 6.8 billion people, but this population is not booming. It is aging and in decline. Fertility rates have fallen and people are living longer. Experts at the United Nations estimate that the population will peak between 2050 and 2075. Nicholas Eberstadt, a demographer and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute thinks it's likely to come on the earlier. He says that due to declining fertility rates "I think it's perfectly plausible that world population could peak by 2050 or even sooner and perhaps at a level below 8 billion." In 2000, the US Census Bureau reported that 83 countries and territories are now thought to be experiencing below-replacement fertility. Russia, Japan and Western Europe face the danger of population implosion. If it wasn’t for immigration, the population of the United States would also be declining.

Overpopulation is not the cause of poverty. As world population has risen, so also has the standard of living. Cities are sometimes overcrowded because people prefer living in urban centers rather than in rural areas. They cluster together in cities to trade goods and services. Bangkok, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong are overpopulated, but prosperous. Taiwan is far more densely populated than China but also far richer. New Jersey is the most densely populated State in the United States. It also has the second highest per capita income.

97 percent of the land surface of the world is empty. The entire population of the world could live comfortably in an area the size of the State of Texas.

Densely populated areas are not necessarily more polluted. Germany has more than 600 persons per square mile. The Netherlands has almost 1200 persons per square mile. Yet China with 330 persons per square mile has far more environmental problems.

All of Paul Ehrlich’s prophecies in 1968 have proved false. Yet he is still revered by elitist, radical environmental snobs on the Left. Pope Paul VI’s prophecies proved true. Yet he still despised and his words are still unheeded. The same prophets of gloom and doom now predict a global catastrophe due to global warming.

Overpopulation zealots fooled us in 1968 with their dire predictions of doom that never came to pass. Let’s not be fooled again by these misanthropic elitists who push us toward contraception, sterilization and abortion supposedly to save the planet. Killing people is not the solution to whatever problems the world faces. More human beings are not the problem. They are the solution.

Sheep, Without a Shepherd Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B, July 19, 2009 Mark 30-34

Jesus Teaching by the Seashore 1899 James Tissot (1836-1902)

Jesus takes his disciples apart for a time of rest, prayer and recreation. However, we see that Jesus is flexible when it comes to meeting a pastoral need. Pastor means shepherd. A true shepherd of souls feeds his flock with true teaching. He keeps his flock from the poisonous streams of false teaching, moral relativism and religious indifferentism. He leads by example in living a life of holiness and integrity. He also seeks out the lost and brings them safely home.

Jesus is moved because of the people’s ignorance. In the book of Hosea, God says “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). Ignorance is not the same as stupidity. Will Rogers once said “Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.” Someone may know a lot about computers and very little about cars and vice versa. Most brain surgeons know little about rocket science and you wouldn’t ask a rocket scientist to perform brain surgery.

The greatest ignorance is ignorance of the things of God. What the old Baltimore Catechism taught is still true today. God made us to know him, love him and serve him in this life and to be happy with him in the next life.Each of us should strive to know God better each day and strive to be faithful to his will. We can start by getting to know God better by reading the Bible. St. Jerome said “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”

The more we read the Bible, the more we see how are Catholic faith is solidly supported by the Word of God. For example, in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus clearly teaches us about his Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. John 21 shows Jesus instituting the Sacrament of Penance by breathing the Holy Spirit on his apostles and saying “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven, whose sins you retain are retained. ” The first words of the Hail Mary are taken from Luke 1. “Hail Mary, full of grace. The Our Lord is with you. Blessed art you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb."

The Bible also teaches us respect for human life. In the book of Jeremiah, God says to Jeremiah "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1, 5) Psalm 8 says “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:3-5)

1. The Bible teaches that human life is made in the image and likeness of God.

2. The Bible teaches that children are a blessing.

3. The Bible teaches that the child in the womb is truly a human child, who has a relationship with the Lord.

4. Scripture condemns the killing of the innocent. God gives us the commandment “Thou shall not kill.” (Exodus 20, 13)

5. The Bible teaches that God is a God of justice. Justice is an act of intervention for the helpless, to defend those who are too weak to defend themselves.

6. Jesus Christ paid special attention to the poor, the despised, and those whom the rest of society considered insignificant. Jesus said ‘Whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters you do to me.” (Matthew 25, 40)

7. Scripture teaches us to love. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus always expanded the definition of who our neighbor is.

8. The Scripture also teaches that eventually goodness will triumph over evil and that life will be victorious over death.Today we face a great conflict between a ‘culture of death’ and a ‘culture of life’.

In his Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II said “it is possible to speak in a certain sense of a war of the powerful against the weak: a life which would require greater acceptance, love and care is considered useless, or held to be an intolerable burden, and is therefore rejected in one way or another. A person who, because of illness, handicap or, more simply, just by existing, compromises the well-being or life-style of those who are more favored tends to be looked upon as an enemy to be resisted or eliminated. In this way a kind of "conspiracy against life" is unleashed.”

The culture of death thrives on ignorance. If you rely on CBS, NBC, ABC or your local newspaper for your news, you are most likely unaware of some important facts related to the abortion debate and are likely to have a negative impression of the pro-life movement. Most people are unaware that in 1973 the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision legalized abortion in all nine months of pregnancy and for practically any reason. They are unaware that one out every five pregnancies ends in the violence of abortion. The violence is hidden from the public through clever euphemisms like 'termination of pregnancy'. Birth terminates a pregnancy. Abortion terminates a pregnancy through an act of violence that kills a living, innocent, unborn child.

Many people are ignorant of the scientific fact that at the moment of fertilization, a separate, unique human being is present with a different genetic structure than either their father or mother. The sex, eye color, shoe size, intelligence is determined in the genetic code at the moment of fertilization in the 46 human chromosomes.

Many people mistakenly believe that more contraception will lead to fewer abortions. But the contraceptive mentality, that sees the child as an enemy to be avoided at all costs, has actually led to more, not fewer abortions. Most people have never heard of the newer methods of natural family planning that are just as effective as the birth control pill without the physical side effects and without the moral consequences.

Many people mistakenly believe that in vitro fertilization is pro-life and don’t know that Church teaches it is gravely immoral. In vitro fertilization is wrong not only because ‘spare’ embryos are produced that are unjustly frozen, experimented on or discarded or experimented on, but because it breaks the inseparable bond between love and life that God has designed for the marital act.

A friend of mine recently revealed that before he came back to the Church he and his future wife regularly had pre-marital sex, until he came to understand that what they were doing is condemned in the New Testament as fornication and that those who did not repent of this sin could not enter the Kingdom of God. From that point, but they decided to live chastely and reserve the gift of sex for marriage.

How many people are aware of the fact that the former Jane Roe of the Roe v. Wade decision is now a pro-life Catholic? Most people have never heard of the post-abortion healing ministries of the Catholic Church such as Project Rachel and Rachel’s Vineyard Retreats. Rachel’s Vineyard involves spiritual exercises based on Scripture that help both men and women begin the process of healing and finding peace after an abortion.

You probably haven’t heard about how abortion hurts women or that, as of 2003, 29 out 39 studies done on the subject show a link between abortion and breast cancer.

You might not know that, in 1997, Oregon became the first state to legalize physician assisted-suicide or that Oregon will pay to help a person to commit suicide they won’t pay for adequate pain management, living assistance or some life-saving treatments. Montana recently became the third state to legalize physician assisted-suicide.

Most people are unaware that rationed health care is already a reality in countries with socialized medicine such as Canada and Great Britain where and seriously ill people have to wait months for surgeries and treatments they need to survive and terminally ill patients are denied treatment altogether.

Pope Benedict XVI has help up St. John Vianney as a model for parish priests in this Year of the Priest. St. John Vianney said "If a parish priest doesn't want to be damned, and if there is any loose living in his parish, he must spurn the very thought of public opinion and the fear of being despised or hated by his parishioners. Even if he were certain of being lynched when he came down from the pulpit, that must not stop him from speaking out against it." Still, in many seminaries, future priests and deacons are told not to address controversial subjects or to make anyone feel uncomfortable.

I think if St. John Vianney lived in the United States in the twenty-first century he would be speak out clearly against abortion and other threats to innocent human life. He would challenge young people to live chastely. He would clearly explain why contraception, sterilization and in vitro fertilization are wrong. He would denounce pornography. He would defend marriage as a lifelong union between a man and a woman who are committed for life and open to the transmission of human life. At the same time, he would preach a message of mercy to sinners and generously make himself available to hear their confessions. He often spent up to 18 hours a day in the confessional as people came from all over France and other parts of Europe to go to confession to this holy man.

In this Year of the Priest, let’s especially pray for priests that they will imitate Christ, the Good Shepherd in speak the truth courageously with love; that they will live lives of integrity and lead by example and that they will diligently seek out the lost with a message of God’s mercy.

Homily for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel July 16, 2009

Pietro Novelli, Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Saints (Simon Stock, Angelus of Jerusalem (kneeling), Mary Magdalene de'Pazzi, Teresa of Avila), 1641 (Museo Diocesano, Palermo.)

IIn the 9th Century B.C., Israel was divided into the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The Northern Kingdom was threatened by constant war with the Philistines. King Omri arranged a marriage between his son Ahab and Jezebel. Jezebel was the daughter of the king of Sidon in Phonecia and a priestess of Baal. She introduced worship of Baal and Asherah into Israel and brought with her an entourage of false prophets. The worship of these false gods involved sexual immorality and human sacrifice. Ahab and Jezebel also sought to move the center of worship away from Jerusalem. Jezebel also had the prophets of Israel murdered.

Ahab’s reign thus far had been a time of peace and prosperity in Israel. Ahab established peace with Judah. Elijah warns Ahab that God plan to punish Israel for their sins of idolatry with a drought so severe that not even dew will fall.

There was a terrible drought for three years. Elijah approaches King Ahab who was seeking to arrest him. King Ahab calls Elijah “a disturber of Israel”. Elijah answers that Ahab is responsible for what has befallen Israel because of his idolatry. Elijah promises him that the Lord will provide rain if Ahab he turned away the worship of false gods.

To prove that the Lord is the true God Elijah challenged Ahab to assemble the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah to a contest on Mount Carmel.

Elijah implored the people of Israel "How long will you straddle the issue? If the LORD is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him." The people, however, did not answer him. (1 King 18, 21)

Elijah then challenged the false prophets to a contest. Two altars were prepared with wood and two young bulls. Elijah challenged them to call on their gods and Elijah would call on the name of the Lord. The God who answered with fire was God. Everyone agreed

The false prophets called on their god for hours, hopped around the altar, cut themselves, but Baal was silent. Elijah mocked them: "Call louder, for he is a god and may be meditating, or may have retired, or may be on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened."

Before Elijah began his prayer he told the people to drench his sacrifice three times with water. Elijah then called on the name of the Lord and the holocaust was consumed. Seeing this, all the people fell prostrate and said, "The LORD is God! The LORD is God!"

Elijah then had the prophets of Baal executed and rain began to fall. The miracle failed to inspire the people of Israel to overthrow Jezebel who wants revenge. Jezebel vows to have Elijah killed, but Elijah was able to escape.

Hermits lived on Mount Carmel since the 12th century near the Cave of Elijah. They dedicated a chapel to the Blessed Virgin Mary and became known as the “Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.” Pope Honorius approved the rule given by Saint Albert Patriarch of Jerusalem for this new order. The Carmelite Constitution of 1281 claimed that both Jewish and Christian hermits had lived holy and penitent lives there since the time of Elijah.

A Carmelite branch for women began in 1492 by the General of the Order Blessed John Soreth. In 1562, St. Theresa of Avila founded a monastery in Avila Spain from which she led a reform of the order aided by St. John of the Cross.

In 1254, St. Simon Stock was elected Superior-General of the Carmelite Order in London. As a young man he took a pilgrimage to the Holy Land where he joined the hermits on Mount Carmel. He then returned to Europe and founded Carmelite communities in University towns such as Cambridge, Oxford, Paris, and Bologna. St. Simon helped to change the Carmelites from a hermit order to one of mendicant friars.

Like the other mendicant orders, the Franciscans and Dominicans, the Carmelites were under attack as being too radical. The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Simon on July 16, 1251. As he gave him a brown scapular she said "Receive, my beloved son, this scapular of thy Order; it is the special sign of my favor, which I have obtained for thee and for thy children of Mount Carmel. He who dies clothed with this habit shall be preserved from eternal fire. It is the badge of salvation, a shield in time of danger, and a pledge of special peace and protection."

A scapular consists of two pieces of cloth, one worn on the chest, and the other on the back, which were connected by straps or strings passing over the shoulders. Over the years the Church has encouraged all Catholics to wear a scapular that is usually worn under one’s clothing. Pope John Paul II revealed that he wore one. There is an investiture ceremony that should be done by a priest.

One of the conditions of Our Lady for the fulfillment of the promises associated the scapular (the Sabbatine privilege) is to observe chastity according to one’s state of life. That will be different for a married person than someone who is single.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel is an antidote for the culture of death today. On Mount Carmel Elijah called the people of Israel to abandon the worship of false gods and the associated sexual immorality and human sacrifice associated with it.

In many ways the United States and Europe are like Israel in the times of Elijah. Compared to former times we live in an age of peace and prosperity, but many abandoned the worship of the true God and follow false gods of materialism, pleasure, absolute personal autonomy.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel calls us to stop straddling the issue of who is the real God. We cannot have one foot in the culture of death that tolerates the killing of unborn children by abortion and other attacks on life, chastity and the family and be a true Christian.

Please join me in praying the following to Our Lady of Mount Carmel for an end to the culture of death in the United States and throughout the world:

O most beautiful flower of Mount Carmel, fruitful vine, splendor of Heaven, blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in this my necessity. Oh, Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein that you are my Mother. O Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth, I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succor me in this necessity; there are none that can withstand your power. O show me herein that you are my Mother. Our Lady, Queen and beauty of Carmel, pray for me and obtain my requests. Sweet Mother, I place this cause into your hands.

Homily for the Feast of St. Bonaventure July 15, 2009 Gospel of Matthew 11, 25-27

The painting is The Cure of St. Bonaventure as a Child by St. Francis from the Year 1628 by Francisco de Herrera, the Elder (1585-c. 1655) Louvre Museum in Paris

St. Bonaventure, is known as "the seraphic doctor" because of his burning love for God. As a priest, St. Bonaventure was a great preacher who inspired people to share his love for God. He was also great scholar with a subtle mind who wrote extensively and was able to use reason to expose sophistry and refute erroneous opinions.
St. Bonaventure had a brilliant mind which was refined by a superb education. But he understood the message of our Gospel today that a simple child could be closer to God than the most learned theologian.

Unlike the Gnostics of yesterday and today, who believe that you can only find enlightenment by gaining access to some secret knowledge, Christ revealed his teaching to all. It is the humble who accept it. St. Bonaventure taught that the key to unlocking the treasure of the grace Christ offers is self-surrender. Whereas, worldly wisdom, pride and supposed cleverness get in the way of a relationship with God.
In the Broadway musical South Pacific one of the characters sings the following song:

You've got to be taught to hate and fear,
you've got to be taught from year to year,
it's got to be drummed in your dear little ear---
you've got to be carefully taught!

A child who looks at an ultrasound sees a baby. He must be taught that what he is seeing is not a person like himself, but a blob of tissue, something sub-human, a fetus, a threat.

A child, an uneducated but loving grandmother with a simple faith can often have greater spiritual wisdom than a learned Professor.
A person could have an IQ of 200. He could have several doctorates, but lack common sense and the wisdom that comes from faith in God. St. Bonaventure said “If there is anyone who is not enlightened by this sublime magnificence of created things, he is blind. If there is anyone who, seeing all these works of God, does not praise Him, he is dumb; if there is anyone who, from so many signs, cannot perceive God, that man is foolish.” He also said “In everything, whether it is a thing sensed or a thing known, God Himself is hidden within.”

Bonaventure was born in Tuscany circa 1221 and given the name Giovanni. According to legend, when he was about four years old he had a severe illness. The doctors who treated him couldn’t do anything for him and he was dying. In desperation his mother brought him to St. Francis of Assisi who was preaching in the area. St. Francis prayed over him and he was immediately healed. St. Francis also sensed his future greatness and prophesied "O Buona ventura" Oh blessed things to come! So when he entered the Franciscan Order, he was given the name Bonaventure. We do know for certain that St. Bonaventure claimed to have been preserved from death as a child through the intercession of St. Francis.

The University of Paris was the greatest institution of higher learning in the world at that time. Bonaventure’s parents sent him there to study under an Alexander of Hales, an Englishman and founder of the Franciscan School. When Alexander died he continued to study under John of Rochelle. He received his licentiate in 1248 which gave him the right to teach publicly at the University. He became a colleague and close friend of St. Thomas Aquinas who also taught at the University. Both saints were also friends with St. King Louis IX. Bonaventure taught there until 1256. St. Bonaventure’s days at the University were far from peaceful. Throughout his years there a controversy had been brewing which would eventually erupt into full force against the mendicant orders.

The Franciscan and Dominican Orders were new and revolutionary. They sought to imitate Christ in a radical form of poverty. They preached and begged for their living. The success of the mendicant orders was a reproof to the worldliness around them. Secular clergy previously had a monopoly of teaching posts, but now the mendicant orders had gained some prominent lecturing positions and secular clergy wanted the mendicants to be suspended. The controversy brought the University to the point of near-collapse.

Guillaume de Saint- Amour led the attack by the secular clergy. In 1254, he and five other masters petitioned Pope Innocent IV to have the mendicants suspended. The Pope intervened to limit the power of the friars and reduce the number of lecturing posts that they could occupy at the university. However, their victory was short-lived. Innocent IV died in December of that year and was replaced by Pope Alexander I who had been the cardinal protector of the Franciscans. Alexander promptly overturned the restrictions imposed by his predecessor.

Saint- Amour attacks became even more vitriolic. Pope Alexander responded by ordering an inquiry into his orthodoxy. This resulted in Saint- Amour being suspended from all teaching and administrative duties. In 1256, Saint- Amour produced De periculis novissimorum temporum (On the Dangers of the Final Days), his most vicious tirade against the friars. In it he ridiculed the more extreme speculations on the last days by of some friars who predicted that the fraternal orders would usher in the third and final age of the world, a glorious era of the Holy Spirit. De Periculis implied that the friars would help precipitate the end of the world, but only because they would facilitate the coming of the Antichrist. St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Albert the Great, both Dominican friars, answered the treatise. St. Bonaventure also responded with De Pauertate Christ (Of the Poverty of Christ).

A curial committee examined De Periculis. In 1257, Pope Alexander ordered it to be burned. He also excommunicated William, and exiled him from France. The Friars were reinstated. In the following year, St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas received their Doctorates of Theology together.

Perhaps he was thinking about some of the proud men he met at the University of Paris when he wrote in his Itinerarium Mentis in Deum (The Journey of the Mind to God) invites the reader to recognize the inadequacy of 'reading without repentance, knowledge without devotion, research without the impulse of wonder, prudence without the ability to surrender to joy, action divorced from religion, learning sundered from love, intelligence without humility, study unsustained by divine grace, thought without the wisdom inspired by God'"

At the age of thirty-five, he became the General of the Franciscan Order and helped to resolve some internal dissension and composed a biography of St. Francis. He took a middle path by strengthening discipline, but not going to the extremes that some of the rigorists had demanded. He’s considered the second founder of the Franciscan Order.

St. Bonaventure was known for his cheerfulness. This was a fruit of his inner peace. He himself said “A spiritual joy is the greatest sign of the divine grace dwelling in a soul.”

In 1257, Pope Clement IV asked him to become the Archbishop of York, but after St. Bonaventure begged permission not to accept this great honor and responsibility and another man was chosen. But eight years later he was chosen to be Bishop of Albano by Pope Gregory X. Castel Gandolfo, the Pope’s summer residence is currently in this area. When the papal envoys found him to give him the cardinal’s hat, St. Bonaventure was at a monastery washing dishes. Since his hands were full of grease, he asked them to leave it hanging on a tree until his hands were free to take it.
It was through his efforts that the Greeks were briefly reconciled with the Church of Rome, but they split again after his death.

He died suddenly during the night of July 14-15, 1274, during the Council of Lyons. His secretary believed he had been poisoned. He was canonized and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1482.

The key to understanding the spirituality of St. Bonaventure is surrendering your will to Christ who he called “both the way and the door” and “the staircase and the vehicle”.

When one does make this act of self-surrender you can experience, as much as possible even here on earth a taste of paradise. But he says “It cannot be comprehended by anyone unless he surrenders himself to it; nor can he surrender himself to it unless he longs for it; nor can he long for it unless the Holy Spirit, whom Christ sent into the world, should come and inflame his innermost soul.”

To do this he says we need to “seek the answer in God’s grace, not in doctrine; in the longing of the will, not in the understanding; in the sighs of prayer, not in research; seek the bridegroom not the teacher; God and not man; darkness not daylight; and look not to the light but rather to the raging fire that carries the soul to God with intense fervor and glowing love.”

“Let us die, then, and enter into the darkness, silencing our anxieties, our passions and all the fantasies of our imagination. Let us pass over with the crucified Christ from this world to the Father, so that, when the Father has shown himself to us, we can say with Philip: It is enough.” (John 14,8)

(Based on a homily given at a Mass for the Staff of Priests For Life in Staten Island, NY July 15, 2009. After Communion Jim Pinto recited the following prayer composed by St. Bonaventure.)

Pierce, O my sweet Lord Jesus, my inmost soul with the most joyous and healthful wound of your love, with true serene and most holy apostolic charity, that my soul may ever languish and melt with love and longing for you, that it may yearn for you and faint for your courts, and long to be dissolved and to be with you. Grant that my soul may hunger after you, the bread of angels, the refreshment of holy souls, our daily and supernatural bread, having all sweetness and savor and every delight of taste; let my heart hunger after and feed upon you, upon whom the angels desire to look, and may my inmost soul be filled with the sweetness of your savor; may it ever thirst after you, the fountain of life, the fountain of wisdom and knowledge, the fountain of eternal light, the torrent of pleasure, the richness of the house of God; may it ever compass you, seek you, find you, run to you, attain you, meditate upon you, speak of you and do all things to the praise and glory of your name, with humility and discretion, with love and delight, with ease and affection, and with perseverance unto the end; may you alone be ever my hope, my entire assistance, my riches, my delight, my pleasure, my joy, my rest and tranquility, my peace, my sweetness, my fragrance, my sweet savor, my food, my refreshment, my refuge, my help, my wisdom, my portion, my possession and my treasure, in whom may my mind and my heart be fixed and firm and rooted immovably, henceforth and forever. Amen.

Sheep, Without a Shepherd Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B, Mark 30-34

Jesus Teaching by the Seashore 1899 James Tissot (1836-1902)

Jesus takes his disciples apart for a time of rest, prayer and recreation. However, we see that Jesus is flexible when it comes to meeting a pastoral need. Pastor means shepherd. A true shepherd of souls feeds his flock with true teaching. He keeps his flock from the poisonous streams of false teaching, moral relativism and religious indifferentism. He leads by example in living a life of holiness and integrity. He also seeks out the lost and brings them safely home.

Jesus is moved because of the people’s ignorance. In the book of Hosea, God says “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). Ignorance is not the same as stupidity. Will Rogers once said “Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.” Someone may know a lot about computers and very little about cars and vice versa. Most brain surgeons know little about rocket science and you wouldn’t ask a rocket scientist to perform brain surgery.

The greatest ignorance is ignorance of the things of God. What the old Baltimore Catechism taught is still true today. God made us to know him, love him and serve him in this life and to be happy with him in the next life.

Each of us should strive to know God better each day and strive to be faithful to his will. We can start by getting to know God better by reading the Bible. St. Jerome said “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”

The more we read the Bible, the more we see how are Catholic faith is solidly supported by the Word of God. For example, in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus clearly teaches us about his Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. John 21 shows Jesus instituting the Sacrament of Penance by breathing the Holy Spirit on his apostles and saying “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven, whose sins you retain are retained. ” The first words of the Hail Mary are taken from Luke 1. “Hail Mary, full of grace. The Our Lord is with you. Blessed art you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb."

The Bible also teaches us respect for human life. In the book of Jeremiah, God says to Jeremiah "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1, 5) Psalm 8 says “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:3-5)

1. The Bible teaches that human life is made in the image and likeness of God.

2. The Bible teaches that children are a blessing.

3. The Bible teaches that the child in the womb is truly a human child, who has a relationship with the Lord.

4. Scripture condemns the killing of the innocent. God gives us the commandment “Thou shall not kill.” (Exodus 20, 13)

5. The Bible teaches that God is a God of justice. Justice is an act of intervention for the helpless, to defend those who are too weak to defend themselves.

6. Jesus Christ paid special attention to the poor, the despised, and those whom the rest of society considered insignificant. Jesus said ‘Whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters you do to me.” (Matthew 25, 40)

7. Scripture teaches us to love. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus always expanded the definition of who our neighbor is.

8. The Scripture also teaches that eventually goodness will triumph over evil and that life will be victorious over death.

Today we face a great conflict between a ‘culture of death’ and a ‘culture of life’. In his Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II said “it is possible to speak in a certain sense of a war of the powerful against the weak: a life which would require greater acceptance, love and care is considered useless, or held to be an intolerable burden, and is therefore rejected in one way or another. A person who, because of illness, handicap or, more simply, just by existing, compromises the well-being or life-style of those who are more favored tends to be looked upon as an enemy to be resisted or eliminated. In this way a kind of "conspiracy against life" is unleashed.”

The culture of death thrives on ignorance. If you rely on CBS, NBC, ABC or your local newspaper for your news, you are most likely unaware of some important facts related to the abortion debate and are likely to have a negative impression of the pro-life movement. Most people are unaware that in 1973 the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision legalized abortion in all nine months of pregnancy and for practically any reason. They are unaware that one out every five pregnancies ends in the violence of abortion. Many people are ignorant of the scientific fact that at the moment of fertilization, a separate, unique human being is present with a different genetic structure than either their father or mother. The sex, eye color, shoe size, intelligence is determined in the genetic code at the moment of fertilization in the 46 human chromosomes.

Many people mistakenly believe that more contraception will lead to fewer abortions. But the contraceptive mentality, that sees the child as an enemy to be avoided at all costs, has actually led to more, not fewer abortions. Most people have never heard of the newer methods of natural family planning that are just as effective as the birth control pill without the physical side effects and without the moral consequences.

Many people mistakenly believe that in vitro fertilization is pro-life and don’t know that Church teaches it is gravely immoral. In vitro fertilization is wrong not only because ‘spare’ embryos are produced that are unjustly frozen, experimented on or discarded or experimented on, but because it breaks the inseparable bond between love and life that God has designed for the marital act.

A friend of mine recently revealed that before he came back to the Church he and his future wife regularly had pre-marital sex, until he came to understand that what they were doing is condemned in the New Testament as fornication and that those who did not repent of this sin could not enter the Kingdom of God. From that point, but they decided to live chastely and reserve the gift of sex for marriage.

How many people are aware of the fact that the former Jane Roe of the Roe v. Wade decision is now a pro-life Catholic? Most people have never heard of the post-abortion healing ministries of the Catholic Church such as Project Rachel and Rachel’s Vineyard Retreats. Rachel’s Vineyard involves spiritual exercises based on Scripture that help both men and women find healing and peace. You probably haven’t heard that, as of 2003, 29 out 39 studies done on the subject show a link between abortion and breast cancer.

You might not know that in 1997 Oregon became the first state to legalize physician assisted-suicide or that Oregon will pay to help a person to commit suicide they won’t pay for adequate pain management, living assistance or some life-saving treatments. Montana recently became the third state to legalize physician assisted-suicide. Most people are unaware that rationed health care is already a reality in countries with socialized medicine such as Canada and Great Britain where and seriously ill people have to wait months for surgeries and treatments they need to survive and terminally ill patients are denied treatment altogether.

Pope Benedict XVI has help up St. John Vianney as a model for parish priests in this Year of the Priest. St. John Vianney said "If a parish priest doesn't want to be damned, and if there is any loose living in his parish, he must spurn the very thought of public opinion and the fear of being despised or hated by his parishioners. Even if he were certain of being lynched when he came down from the pulpit, that must not stop him from speaking out against it." Still, in many seminaries, future priests and deacons are told not to address controversial subjects or to make anyone feel uncomfortable.

I think if St. John Vianney lived in the United States in the twenty-first century he would be speak out clearly against abortion and other threats to innocent human life. He would challenge young people to live chastely. He would clearly explain why contraception, sterilization and in vitro fertilization are wrong. He would denounce pornography. He would defend marriage as a lifelong union between a man and a woman who are committed for life and open to the transmission of human life. At the same time, he would preach a message of mercy to sinners and generously make himself available to hear their confessions. He often spent up to 18 hours a day in the confessional as people came from all over France and other parts of Europe to go to confession to this holy man.

In this Year of the Priest, let’s especially pray for priests that they will imitate Christ, the Good Shepherd in speak the truth courageously with love; that they will live lives of integrity and lead by example and that they will diligently seek out the lost with a message of God’s mercy.

Jesus Sends His Apostles Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B, Gospel of Mark 6, 7-13

On the left is a Byzantine fresco from Cappadocia, in modern day Turkey, of Christ sending the twelve Apostles (ca 12th century).

In the Nicene Creed we say we believe in the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church. The Church is apostolic because Christ founded it on the Twelve Apostles. Apostoloi is a Greek word meaning “those who have been sent’. The Apostles were chosen and sent forth by Christ himself.

In today’s Gospel he gives them special instructions for a specific mission. He calls them to be detached from worldly things by telling them not to bring a second tunic. However, he tells them to graciously accept hospitality when offered. He works miracles through them so that both they and the people to whom they are sent will know that they have power from God.

It is not the Apostles who chose Jesus, but he who called them (cf. John 15,16). In our first reading Amos is annoying wealthy and powerful people in Israel with his prophesying. Unlike other prophets who belonged to a guild and chose it as a career, Amos was a simple shepherd and dresser of sycamores when God called him to prophesy. He challenged Israel to moral reform and was hated for it. The guild prophets preferred no to rock the boat. They lived a comfortable life serving the King and avoided controversy.

Amos prophesied against the King of Israel at a time of unprecedented prosperity. He warns that God will punish Israel if she doesn’t mend her ways. Amaziah, a priest loyal to Jeroboam, accuses Amos of stirring up trouble and plotting against the King. He commands him to stop prophesying and to leave Israel.

Like in the times of Amos, today many want the Church to be silent about moral issues. They try to push Christians out of the public square. They unfairly accuse us of imposing our morality on people. They falsely accuse us of trying to establish a theocracy. But the Church can never be silent in the face of injustice and attacks on human life and the family. The Church maintains her right to speak on political matters, since her right and duty to speak about faith and morality often intersect with politics.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, quoting the Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes says:

The Church makes a moral judgment about economic and social matters, 'when the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls requires it.'[GS 76 #5.] In the moral order she bears a mission distinct from that of political authorities: the Church is concerned with the temporal aspects of the common good because they are ordered to the sovereign Good, our ultimate end. She strives to inspire right attitudes with respect to earthly goods and in socioeconomic relationships.” (#2420)

Jesus chooses twelve apostles, because twelve is symbolic of the twelve tribes of Israel who derive from the twelve sons of Jacob who is also called Israel.

Even though one of the twelve that Jesus chose was Judas who betrayed him, his office was not abolished. In the Acts of the Apostles, we see the remaining eleven Apostles met to choose Matthias as a successor to Judas (Acts 1, 15-26). The eleven decided that whoever was chosen had to have seen Jesus risen from the dead, but the Christ wanted the Office of the Apostle to last beyond the first generation of Christians. So the Bible shows the Apostles laying hands on other men were chosen and sent out to preach, teach, sanctify and lead the Church. In 1 Timothy 4:14:
We read "Do not neglect the gift you have, which was conferred on you through the prophetic word with the imposition of hands of the presbyterate."

Men were chosen to physically represent himself as the Bridegroom, not because Christ viewed women to be inferior. Every human being has equal dignity, although we are called to exercise different roles. The priesthood is not a path to power, but a call to self-emptying.

Today the Pope and the Bishops in communion with him are the successors of the Apostles. Episkopos is a Greek word for bishop. It literally means overseer. The Bishops choose priests to represent them and help them to carry out their role as overseers. In The Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul summons the presbyters of the Church in Ephesus. Presbyter was used to distinguish the priesthood of the New Covenant from the Jewish priesthood.

St. Paul warns them that after he leaves “savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock. And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth to draw the disciples away after them.“ (Acts 20, 29-30) So he implores them to “Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers in which you tend the church of God that he acquired with his own blood.” (Acts 20, 28)

The ministry of the Apostles and their successors is a continuation of the ministry of Christ. Jesus says to his Apostles "He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.’ (Matthew 10, 40)

In his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pastores Gregis (Shepherds of the Flock) Pope John Paul II taught:

At his episcopal ordination, each Bishop received the fundamental mission of authoritatively proclaiming the word of God. Indeed, every Bishop, by virtue of sacred ordination, is an authentic teacher who preaches to the people entrusted to his care the faith to be believed and to be put into practice in the moral life. This means that Bishops are endowed with the authority of Christ himself, and for this fundamental reason when they ''teach in communion with the Roman Pontiff they are to be revered by all as witnesses of divine and catholic truth; the faithful, for their part, are obliged to submit to their Bishop's decision, made in the name of Christ, in matters of faith and morals, and to adhere to it with a religious assent of the mind''. In this service of the truth, every Bishop is placed before the community, inasmuch as he is for the community, which is the object of his proper pastoral concern and for which he insistently lifts up his prayer to God.

Pope Benedict XVI has dedicated this year to be Year For Priests to emphasize the importance of priestly ministry. We must pray as Christ taught us that he would send us more shepherds to guide us and provide us with the sacraments (cf. Mat. 9, 38). The priesthood is not a career. It is a vocation. Pray for those who have been called by God that they will be faithful to their high vocation. Pray also for the wisdom and humility to accept the teaching of these shepherds as the teaching of Christ and to listen to the prophets in our time who call us to repent of our sins and believe in the Gospel.

Every Christian is called to share in their work of evangelization. Like St. Paul in the Letter to the Ephesians, we are to proclaim to others what God has done for us by bestowing on us in Christ every spiritual blessing in the heavens! (Ephesians 1, 3-14)

Why Does the Left Hate Sarah Palin?

Why does the Left hate Sarah Palin? The answer is very simple. She lives out her pro-life convictions. Many on the Left have unresolved guilt from their past involvement in abortions. The Palin Trig-ger: A Look Behind the Hostility makes the case for this argument

What else can explain the vitriol directed at her and her children that we see coming from many of her critics on the Left?

Jesus' Rejection at Nazareth - Homily for the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle B, Mark 6, 1-6

Above is a picture of modern day Nazareth.

Before Jesus was rejected by the people of his own home town of Nazareth he had worked a series of miracles: 1) over nature in stilling the sea 2) over evil spirits by exorcising demons 3) disease by curing a woman with a hemmorhage 4) over death by raising the daughter of Jairus. By doing so he clearly demonstrated his power as God.

Now Jesus returns to Nazareth and his fellow townspeople reject him. They were so familiar with him in his humanity that they couldn't conceive of his Divinity. They fail to perceive that Jesus is the Christ. He is Emmanuel - God with us, the fulfillment of the prophesy of Isaiah (Matthew 1, 23). He is the Divine Word who took flesh and dwelt among us (John 1,14). He is the Lamb of God, the one who was promised who would take away the sins of the world.

Jesus is more than a prophet, but part of his mission was prophetic. He proclaimed a message of moral reform, mercy and salvation. When we were baptized into Christ we were called to share in Christ's prophetic mission.

To be a prophet is difficult because the message of the Gospel is challenging and sometimes controversial, but it's a message that people need to hear whether they want to hear it or not. The prophet's message will always be countercultural. The spirit of the age is often at odds with the values of the Gospel. A minister once said "If you marry the spirit of the age, you'll be a widow in the next generation."

It is especially difficult to be a prophet in one's own hometown, in our family and among other people who know us well, yet that is what we're called to do. I don't consider myself a natural public speaker. I'm often nervous before I speak and I'm most anxious before people who know me well.

As I was discerning my call to the priesthood, I like many who eventually follow God's call resisted. I thought "No God. I'm not holy enough. I'm not eloquent enough. Send someone else." But God's call was persistent. I eventually came to believe that God could use me despite my weaknesses.

In our second reading from 2 Corinthians 12, we see St. Paul asking God to take away his weakness. But Paul comes to understand that God wants to use him, not despite his weakness, but BECAUSE of his weakness. Because of his weakness God's power can more clearly shine through him ithout being obscured by Paul's natural talents and gifts.

Another reason it is difficult to be a prophet is that noone wants to be seen as self-righteous. But the wisdom of the Gospel is not our own. We don't claim that it is the product of our own brilliant minds or vast life experience. We proclaim what we have received ourselves. Not to proclaim it would be unfaithful and ungrateful to God who revealed it to us. We need to pass on the heritage that has been passed down to us. Without a heritage, every generation has to start over.

It is difficult to be prophets because sometimes we fail to live up to the high standards of the Gospel. How many of us, for example, struggle with forgiving our enemies. But there are two ways to avoid hypocrisy. One is to lower your standards. The other is to change your behavior.

In January 2007, I preached in Juneau, Alaska. One afternoon I had lunch at the Red Dog Saloon. On the wall of the Saloon was a sign which read "If our food, drinks and service are not up to your standards, please lower your standards." Lowering our standards is not the right way to avoid hypocrisy. Instead, Jesus tells us "Repent and believe the Good News." (Mark 1, 15).

It is also difficult to be a prophet is because we're afraid of appearing to be judgmental. Anyone who wants to live an authentic Christian life will struggle against temptation and sin. We know we're not perfect people and so we must avoid casting moral judgments on persons, but we must clearly speak out against injustice. We must clearly speak up for what is right and denounce what is wrong.

This is especially so in our time when there are so many threats to human life from abortion, destructive embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, in vitro fertilization, and at the end of life physician assisted suicide and euthanasia which is really a perversion of mercy. Also related is the modern attack on chastity and God's plan for sex, marriage and family life through pornography, pre-marital sex, homosexual behavior, cohabitation, contraception and sterilization, adultery and divorce.

When a truth is denied or ignored the more people need to hear it. In our first reading from Ezekiel 2. God warns Ezekiel he is ending him to a rebellious people who probably who probably won't heed his message, nevertheless God sends him anyway an and tells him that whether they listen or not, they'll know a prophet has been among them. The prophet is not responsible for converting hardened hearts. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. The prophet's job is to be faithful in proclaiming the message God sends him to deliver.

Prophets are sometimes accused of being hateful. Again, we must always avoid judgments on persons. We must always be motivated by love and concern for a person's true welfare and salvation. We must never act out a sense of pride or superiority over others. We must always speak the truth in love, as Jesus did when he spoke to the woman who was caught in adultery. He didn't condemn her, neither did he condone her sin. Instead he said "Go and sin no more." (John 8, 11) He also spoke the truth in love to the Samaritan woman at the well as he called her to repentance. She had been married five times and was living with a man who was not her husband. (John 4, 18)

When Jesus was asked a controversial question about divorce and why Moses permitted it, Jesus responded that Moses permitted it because of the hardness of the people's hearts. He pointed to God's plan for marriage from the Book of Genesis. He pointed out that a man was called to leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two become one flesh. Therefore, he said "What God has joined, man must not divide." (Matthew 19,6)

Jesus didn't condemn the divorced, But taught clearly that divorce was not part of God's original plan. When we defend marriage as an institution between a man and a woman who are committed for life and open to the transmission of life is to hate noone. We must love and respect everyone. At the same time we must not condone immoral behavior and we must defend an institution that counless generations of people of many different faiths have seen as the best way for children to be raised with beneficial effects on society in general.

We realize that we live in a pluralistic society, but as the American Bishops say in their document Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics "Real pluralism depends on people of conviction struggling to advance their beliefs by every ethical and legal means at their disposal."

If we fail to share the prophetic message of the Gospel other louder voices will be happy to impose their godless vision of society on us.

It's not easy to prophetic. It never has and it never will be, but nevertheless that's what God calls us to be and he promises a prophet's reward for fidelity to our mission. On the other hand if we prefer not to rock the boat, as Aristotle says "To avoid criticism...say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing."