J
jewells17
Guest
Why don’t you go to confession and spend some time before the Blessed Sacrament?
- Status
po18guy
Well-known member
neg⋅li⋅gence [neg-li-juhns]
–noun
- the quality, fact, or result of being negligent; neglect: negligence in discharging one’s responsibilities.
- an instance of being negligent: a downfall brought about by many negligences.
- Law. the failure to exercise that degree of care that, in the circumstances, the law requires for the protection of other persons or those interests of other persons that may be injuriously affected by the want of such care.
Don’t be coy! Words like “accuse”, “fear”, “conspiracy”, “arrogant” and other such buzzwords.
The meaning of words on a page can be twisted. So says Saint Peter. You have read your own narrow views into the official documents, then claim the high moral ground. Debate is useless, as only your definitions count.
But, I have noticed an almost unhealthy attachment to the USCCB by liberals on CAF. It’s almost like they are now attempting to justify a vote for O***a. Not you, of course.
po18guy
Well-known member
Tell us: Do you believe that America is the world’s policeman?
T
Tigg
Guest
So much has been written about V2 and the arguments fly on both sides. I only know one thing for certain. The resulting devastation is clear to anyone who has eyes to see. Pedophile priests, throngs leaving the religious life and priesthood, 30% of Catholics not believing in the Real Presence (the very crux of our faith) entire congregations in rebellion against Church teaching on marriage and birth control, widespread liturgical abuse, no true catechesis or united voice coming from the collective body of American bishops, (but we do get politics, don’t we?) RCIA classes teaching only a resemblance of the true faith……it goes on and on. And the thing that breaks my heart the most is the loss of the sense of the Sacred. I am no longer so naïve to think I can pray in church; the social gathering has now taken precedence and the music so loud one can barely thank our Lord and Savior after Communion. Is this the good and holy fruit coming after a Council that has been routinely criticized by large numbers of ecclesiastics and theologians?
I do not understand why the Church has capitulated to the world. I recently read one opinion that it really began with JPXXIII when he announced his intentions for V2 and “aggiornamento” – the updating. In contrast, didn’t Pius X basically condemn the progressivist agenda? It is disconcerting to think how this flies in the face of the doctrine of indefectibility, but I am comforted that despite the storm, no matter how it appears to us to be sinking the ship, the promises of our Lord will stand.
T
Tigg
Guest
It appears to me in lieu of catechesis, we now have social justice groups, who will not uphold the true faith either. How can they? By their very nature and their own admission, they are all ecumenical and interfaith based. Let’s all just become one happy **world **religion.
Perhaps I’ll pay the outrageous registration fee for JustFaith so I can read their material. I will firmly affix my propaganda filter beforehand and pray to our Blessed Mother who dispels all heresies. It is well documented that their founder, Jack Jezreel, has close ties to CTA, the most dissident group of them all. But if you go on-line and read some of the comments from those who have taken this course, they describe how wonderful it is and how it has changed their entire perception of justice and peace. I went to their webpage and it says they are partnered with “Bread for the World.” Here is the best description I could get for that group.
"Bread for the World is a non-partisan, Christian citizens’ movement in the United States to end hunger.
Bread for the World members are organized by congressional district into local networks nationwide. They write, call and visit members of the United States Congress, and generate media attention about national legislation and other efforts that address hunger. Bread for the World staff keep members up-to-date on hunger-related issues and pending decisions."
bread.org/
While feeding the hungry is certainly a noble cause, it just looks like MORE politics to me with a heavy emphasis on globalism. The first thing you will see on that webpage is a picture of the world economic summits. Now we know more than one country has been calling for a world currency during these summits. There were recent articles they were even calling for a world central bank!
(Red flags waving in my face at this moment!)
Perhaps I’ll pay the outrageous registration fee for JustFaith so I can read their material. I will firmly affix my propaganda filter beforehand and pray to our Blessed Mother who dispels all heresies. It is well documented that their founder, Jack Jezreel, has close ties to CTA, the most dissident group of them all. But if you go on-line and read some of the comments from those who have taken this course, they describe how wonderful it is and how it has changed their entire perception of justice and peace. I went to their webpage and it says they are partnered with “Bread for the World.” Here is the best description I could get for that group.
"Bread for the World is a non-partisan, Christian citizens’ movement in the United States to end hunger.
Bread for the World members are organized by congressional district into local networks nationwide. They write, call and visit members of the United States Congress, and generate media attention about national legislation and other efforts that address hunger. Bread for the World staff keep members up-to-date on hunger-related issues and pending decisions."
bread.org/
While feeding the hungry is certainly a noble cause, it just looks like MORE politics to me with a heavy emphasis on globalism. The first thing you will see on that webpage is a picture of the world economic summits. Now we know more than one country has been calling for a world currency during these summits. There were recent articles they were even calling for a world central bank!
(Red flags waving in my face at this moment!)
S
St_Francis
Guest
After a long time of wondering about this issue, I did figure out one thing: the rot was in the Church *before *V2 or else how could so much in the Church have collapsed so quickly thereafter?
I try to remember to do this when things look bleak to me: to recall Christ on the Cross. things looked bad then, too.
po18guy
Well-known member
It now seems that, like the reformers, the SSPX have a point. However, I absolutely disagree with their “solution”. Schism only divides and weakens the Church. And to declare “by their own authority” that the chair of Peter is vacant is foolishness. But, their criticisms are appearing more and more valid.
Those of us who believe that the evil one is both real and present among us can also see that his greatest virtue is patience. We can see that he has always attacked the Church and continues to do so. Being a spirit, he is outside of time and gladly creeps into the church like rust. We must pray for a polishing.
po18guy
Well-known member
It appears that V2 was either a symptom of, a causal factor in, or a reaction to the decline of the faith. It is impossible for us to know with certainty, but we are clearly witnessing a spiritual attack against the truth.
The secular and modernist obsession with “peace and justice” is but one symptom of this attack. Peace is found in Heaven. Justice is leading souls to an eternity with their Creator. This fact has apparently fallen through the cracks in most modern programs, such as are questioned in this thread. They focus solely on this earth, which reflects a lack of faith. They concentrate on temporal comfort, and ignore the eternal. They soft pedal God and hard sell the currently fashionable definitions of justice. Their goals and aims are not dissimilar to what Marx and Engels wrote of. And God seems to be just as absent.
Who do we suppose paved the road to hell with all of those good intentions?
J
jewells17
Guest
AMEN…
L
ljpgoodwin
Guest
What makes you think I need confession? What makes you think that I don’t go everyday?
po18guy
Well-known member
This appears to need bringing up once again, as it bears directly on the lack of judgment exhibited in certain “social justice” areas:
lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/sep/09092205.html
After realizing the horror of our money being diverted to pay for murder, how can we rationalize this away? How can we fail to hold those who were negligent responsible for their negligence? How can well-meaning but mislead Catholics have any assurance whatsoever that any of their money is being correctly used by CCHD?
The evil one has more than just his foot in the Church door.
lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/sep/09092205.html
After realizing the horror of our money being diverted to pay for murder, how can we rationalize this away? How can we fail to hold those who were negligent responsible for their negligence? How can well-meaning but mislead Catholics have any assurance whatsoever that any of their money is being correctly used by CCHD?
The evil one has more than just his foot in the Church door.
L
ljpgoodwin
Guest
The truth is that the Church is actually growing in the U.S. and most of the world. It is for sure in decline among Western European cultures. I think a lot of that has to do with the Church’s inability to capture the hearts and imaginations of people who have lost a sense of sacrifice or suffering. Rich white Western Europeans, including Canadians and Americans have trouble making sense of Jesus on the cross. We have also lost the sense of the transcendent.
I think another issue at hand is that very much of the Western European Church has been co-opted by Evangelical Fundamentalists. Many Catholics have more in common with Focus on the Family then they do with Bishop Fulton Sheen. We struggle with the sacramental world view. Most Catholics today don’t have even a basic understanding of what a sacramental world view would look like. Scrupulous attendance at Mass and Reconciliation is hardly a guarantee of the reception of grace. As a matter of fact, scrupulosity can be a bar against grace. Somehow our Church has become overly identified with conservatism. Being conservative is obviously not a bad thing. However, when it is accompanied with a disregard for the liberal arts it turns legalistic and lacks the pastoral heart. I am convinced that the suspicion that many people have toward Catholic Social Teaching is rooted in this shift to the Evangelical Fundamentalism.
So many people are motivated by Kantian Morality. “Just give me the right answer and I’ll do what you tell me to do”. There is scant little ability to engage in the interior dimension in our lives today. This is tragic. The sacramental and mystical dimension of Catholicism is one of our greatest gifts we have to offer the world. Fortunately the sacramental vision is alive and well in Africa, Asia and especially Latin America; all places where the Church is growing in leaps and bounds. This is also why immigration into this country is truly a gift. We are repopulating our country with Catholic families that understand the salvific nature of suffering and sacrifice.
Now of course there is the other side of the argument. It is true; there is a very active secular social justice group in our Church too. This group has also lost its ability to be transformed by suffering and sacrafice. For them, the Church has become a spiritless social service agency that is over identified with liberalism.
Our problem is how do we hold both?
I still defend CCHD however. My experience with CCHD has been one of transformation; a transformation that is marked by Jesus on the Cross. Through my work with CCHD, I have come to understand what it means to suffer and to sacrifice through my encounters with the people whose lives have been touched by the efforts of CCHD. CCHD is well founded in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The mission of CCHD is carried out by talented and passionate people who love God. I have heard it said that “sometimes the road to hell can be paved by good intentions”. This is true. But equally true is the idea that good intentions can also pave the way to salvation through Jesus Christ. I think the latter journey is true for many of those treading down the road that CCHD takes.
I think another issue at hand is that very much of the Western European Church has been co-opted by Evangelical Fundamentalists. Many Catholics have more in common with Focus on the Family then they do with Bishop Fulton Sheen. We struggle with the sacramental world view. Most Catholics today don’t have even a basic understanding of what a sacramental world view would look like. Scrupulous attendance at Mass and Reconciliation is hardly a guarantee of the reception of grace. As a matter of fact, scrupulosity can be a bar against grace. Somehow our Church has become overly identified with conservatism. Being conservative is obviously not a bad thing. However, when it is accompanied with a disregard for the liberal arts it turns legalistic and lacks the pastoral heart. I am convinced that the suspicion that many people have toward Catholic Social Teaching is rooted in this shift to the Evangelical Fundamentalism.
So many people are motivated by Kantian Morality. “Just give me the right answer and I’ll do what you tell me to do”. There is scant little ability to engage in the interior dimension in our lives today. This is tragic. The sacramental and mystical dimension of Catholicism is one of our greatest gifts we have to offer the world. Fortunately the sacramental vision is alive and well in Africa, Asia and especially Latin America; all places where the Church is growing in leaps and bounds. This is also why immigration into this country is truly a gift. We are repopulating our country with Catholic families that understand the salvific nature of suffering and sacrifice.
Now of course there is the other side of the argument. It is true; there is a very active secular social justice group in our Church too. This group has also lost its ability to be transformed by suffering and sacrafice. For them, the Church has become a spiritless social service agency that is over identified with liberalism.
Our problem is how do we hold both?
I still defend CCHD however. My experience with CCHD has been one of transformation; a transformation that is marked by Jesus on the Cross. Through my work with CCHD, I have come to understand what it means to suffer and to sacrifice through my encounters with the people whose lives have been touched by the efforts of CCHD. CCHD is well founded in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The mission of CCHD is carried out by talented and passionate people who love God. I have heard it said that “sometimes the road to hell can be paved by good intentions”. This is true. But equally true is the idea that good intentions can also pave the way to salvation through Jesus Christ. I think the latter journey is true for many of those treading down the road that CCHD takes.
po18guy
Well-known member
Very well said. However, I have been blessed to have traveled quite a bit - especially in Latin America. I have travelled through 38 states in this nation and have seen virtually no poverty that compares with our neighbors to the south. Yet, those who live in poverty that is scarcely imaginable to Americans possess a spiritual richness that is embarrassing to us.
Nevertheless, when so many (certainly not all) of the “poor” in America have some form of residence, car, food, health care, TV, cell phones, etc, I find it a genuine stretch of credulity to view them as underprivileged using a global standard. They are truly spiritually impoverished, however. As we have seen, many Somalis yearn to live in American “poverty”, because to them, it appears as a slice of Heaven. It seems that, like so much else in this world, poverty is relative.
The problems in America are primarily spiritual - yet social justice programs sacrifice far too much of the Gospel of salvation and focus instead on a man-made definition of social justice and “community empowerment”. Of course, since its founding in America in 1969, CCHD has perhaps outlived it’s usefulness. OR, maybe it just needs to refocus on the spiritual dimension of poverty.
What on earth would be wrong with the “Catholic Campaign for Spiritual Development”? We could all throw our weight behind that.
J
jewells17
Guest
Read everything you have posted on this thread. Ask for God to shine His light on your mind, spirit and soul before you go back and read your own words. Let the Holy Spirit be your guide as you do this and God bless you.
S
St_Francis
Guest
Hey, could you double-space your paragraphs, and maybe make them shorter? It sure would help those of us older folks with bad eyes 
I seem to recall Bishop Sheen saying that people receiving the sacraments would either turn away from their sin or from the sacraments, so I can’t really agree with what you are saying here.
This is not to say that all Catholics who help the poor strike me that way. I know several (only several because I live in the Bible Belt and don’t know all that many altogether) Catholics who are very involved in helping the poor in many different ways; I am here speaking only of those Catholics who consider themselves “involved in social justice” as opposed to helping those in need. It’s very hard to describe the difference, but to me, one of the prime indicators is that the p&sj folks want to change the system, to somehow acquire “justice,” and are not focused on helping *individual people *in need. They also concentrate on material aid to the exclusion of the spiritual, and use techniques which I see as being manipulative.
A lot of times the reason however, they lack the resources to progress, and then in discouragement, they ask the most basic question they can: What should I do?
I would also say that few Catholics today are sufficiently catechized at any point in their lives. This is a problem that I believe should be taken up by the hierarchy and seriously considered.
I would agree with you here. Too many of us have bought into the naturalistic materialistic Enlightenment ideas which allow us to conceive of ourselves as the only prime movers, with no obligations to a God Whose existence we doubt or ignore.
Protestantism *is *the root of the so-called Enlightenment (I’ve heard it called the Endarkenment…).
Scrupulosity is not in and of itself a bar against grace, just the wrong view of the sacraments. And I would argue that scrupulous attendance of both sacraments would result in reception of grace; even imperfect contrition suffices for the entry of grace.
I seem to recall Bishop Sheen saying that people receiving the sacraments would either turn away from their sin or from the sacraments, so I can’t really agree with what you are saying here.
For me, the suspicion I have towards those who claim to practice Catholic social teaching is rooted in what I have seen of them–they are much more socialistic than they are Catholic. They are much more interested in the worldly benefits of being socially just than they are in helping the poor.
This is not to say that all Catholics who help the poor strike me that way. I know several (only several because I live in the Bible Belt and don’t know all that many altogether) Catholics who are very involved in helping the poor in many different ways; I am here speaking only of those Catholics who consider themselves “involved in social justice” as opposed to helping those in need. It’s very hard to describe the difference, but to me, one of the prime indicators is that the p&sj folks want to change the system, to somehow acquire “justice,” and are not focused on helping *individual people *in need. They also concentrate on material aid to the exclusion of the spiritual, and use techniques which I see as being manipulative.
One of the things that I have noticed since returning to the Church about 15 years ago is that serious Catholics tend not to be really overt about it. I have been in a roomful of Catholics and felt that none were serious Catholics, but then upon getting to know them better, I find that many of them are really serious about their faith. They really want to progress in the spiritual life.
A lot of times the reason however, they lack the resources to progress, and then in discouragement, they ask the most basic question they can: What should I do?
I would also say that few Catholics today are sufficiently catechized at any point in their lives. This is a problem that I believe should be taken up by the hierarchy and seriously considered.
The Church is doing well in Africa, but protestant missionaries and secularism are making headway in South America. Many of those who immigrate here do not participate in the sacraments and have no connection to the church where they live. This is related to what I said above about the lack of catechesis above.
Precisely. And how can the Church deal with people who are just using their apparent Catholicism as a cloak?
What do you mean by this?
Could you describe in a very general way what the nature of your experience with CCHD was? As far as I can tell, it is simply a sort of clearinghouse for grants.
L
ljpgoodwin
Guest
Ah, so we do have things in common. I’m happy to hear that. I too have lived in Latin America, Canada and about 20 cities here in the US. It’s all part of religious life I guess. Going and living in a country in which you were not born is very helpful in helping people gain perspective. As you noted, the U.S. truly is a blessed country. But on the other hand, I have noticed that many people in poorer nations have a very different set of priorities which are not centered on material things. Even in the face of great poverty I often found that there is a wonderful kind of freedom from want. I am not trying to minimize the fact that children are starving, people are not getting an education and medical attention they need, because all this is happening.
Here in America the face of poverty is very different than it is in Latin America. The folks in this country who are poor do not seem to have the same sense of freedom from attachment to material things. I have seen however some very serious poverty in this country. Children starve in this country too. In the inner cities of some of our bigger cities are violent and dehumanizing places. And there are millions of people who live in these conditions here. In the US, poverty often equals violence. This is one of the differences between poverty in Latin America and poverty in the US.
You make a good observation that our brothers and sisters to the south posses a spirituality in the face of poverty that is astounding. However, I believe that the Holy Spirit is equally as busy in this country. The wonderful spirituality that we have to offer here is often found in the wonderful work done by people in service to others. CCHD is a great example of that kind of spiritual service in action. We do that well in this country. We saw it after the tsunami in 2005 and Katrina. There is a spirit of service to our poorer or suffering brothers and sisters that is astounding here in the US. I have lived in other countries, and I do mean lived, not visited, and I find the people of the US are head and shoulders above many other countries when it come to the spirit of service.
This is what I mean when I say we put flesh on the Gospels. This spirit is also found in Catholic Relief Services which does the same thing as CCHD, except it does it in other countries. CRS is the American Catholic Church’s charitable arm in 100 poor countries around the world. They also do good and holy work and transform hearts and minds of people with whom they come into contact to reflect the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I have been brought to tears by the example of people who are so dedicated to their Christian life in prayer and service. I’m not just saying that because it might sound good, it’s just the truth.
It sounds like you are generalizing the bad example of a few social justice efforts to all social justice efforts. This is the same thing that happened to our church when a few priest gave such a bad example during the sex scandal. Many people thought that all priests were bad actors because of the actions of a comparatively few.
I do not think CCHD has outlived its mission. If anything we need more programs like CCHD not less. I understand your desire to have an increase in the awareness of the spiritual and Eucharistic foundation of CCHD and programs like it. There is always room for improvement in the spiritual development and the administration of these programs; that is a given. The one thing that our liberal or left leaning brothers and sister do well is inflesh the cultural and social aspects of the Gospels. This is true when the center of their effort is the Sacred Hear of Jesus.
Our conservative or right leaning brothers and sisters do a great job of reminding us of the value of unity through prayer and penance with examples like Padre Pio. But that unity has to be for the sake of building the Kingdom of God here on Earth so that we can recognize the Kingdom of God in heaven. We need each other. The right stabilizes the Church so that the left has a foundation from which to work. This isn’t to say that some people do not have a foot in both the right and left. Rather, what I’m trying to say is that there is beauty in both.
po18guy
Well-known member
Violence follows spiritual deprivation. Violence is a spiritual problem. We can’t solve it through the law - we can only punish it after the fact.
We also want them to “show us the money” when it comes to efforts to help others. We must have results, or we are foolishly wasting time and money. To waste money is one thing, but far worse to have it diverted to cause harm. Thus, we have serious doubts about CCHD. You surely support a house cleaning at CCHD.
Unlike you, I have no personal experience with CRS other than sending money. The same with Cross International Catholic Outreach and Christian Foundation for Children and Aging.
I likely am generalizing, but I don’t want one nickel to go to abortion, or to useless “feel good” programs that ignore the spirit, when the spirit is the source of our violence against women - in fact all violence - when I can send it to another agency that is guaranteed to spend it morally and usefully.
CCHD has clearly outlived its trust factor. It has become murky and clouded. The world has changed, but CCHD still has a remnant of the 1960s hangover. Time for a house cleaning and update, don’t you think? Restore trust first. Make everything absolutely transparent. Then watch the money roll in.
The great commission sent Apostles forth to make disciples, not to empower communities. We have come way too close to abandoning the spiritual, which is the framework of our faith. Certainly caring for the poor is essential to our Christian life - it’s just that in America it has been materialized and infused with ideology. This is what keeps the cash away. Less politics is what we need, not more.
It is the heart vs. head equation all over again. We need to be neither rigid and legalistic nor naive and enabling. But, we serve the truth, which will always be hard to swallow. We will make enemies. If we are not, we are failing at our work.
I would rather err on the side of getting the poor into Heaven than making them temporally comfortable. If we can do both, great! But, there’s the rub…
A bird requires a left and a right wing to fly, but it is the heart between them that makes it possible.
“Religious life”. You play your cards very close to the vest. Consecrated? Deacon? Brother? Monk? Priest?
S
St_Francis
Guest
Think again. (Link is to a video of children around 4 years old being taught a chant with the refrain of Barack Hussein Obama)
There’s a reason a lot of Catholics homeschool.
S
St_Francis
Guest
Oh, and just in case you were thinking that was an isolated case, here’s what’s happening on the federal level.
L
ljpgoodwin
Guest
Yes, I agree, scrupulosity cannot be a bar against the sacraments in the same way that even the most sinful priest is still able to licitly celebrate the Mass. The point I was trying to make is that scrupulosity can get in the way of the temporal effect of grace in our life. A scrupulous person might live in fear that if they don’t go to Mass every day, they will be condemned. This means that the person is not attending Mass out of freedom, a precondition to the full reception of grace; rather they are attending Mass out of fear.
One of the wonderful insights that Catholicism offers the world is the conviction that our lives are lived with concern for both the here and now and our eternal life. Scrupulosity is sinful because it renders grace less effective in our temporal life. This presents problems for our eternal life too. We need to attend to both our temporal and eternal lives.
I think your observation that “some p&j’s what to change the system” is a good one. The reason is that if we change the parts of the system that contributes to the perpetuation of poverty, we help the individuals and the community as a whole. Some people erroneously believe that poverty is only about the individual. They think that poor people are poor only as a result of their own actions. There is truth to the idea that the kid who grows up with a lazy and violent mother, will more than likely act the same way as an adult, thus perpetuating a cause of poverty. There is also truth in the idea that the only way out of poverty is for poor people to take responsibility for their actions. Again, the truth is in the tension.
This is why I like CCHD so much. It is not a hand out of cash. What CCHD does is take people who are living in poverty and teaches them how to change the systems that are keeping them poor. The money does not go to buy food or clothing. It goes to organizations that are dedicated to helping poor people get the skills they need to change their circumstances in a manner that can lift them out of poverty. It’s that old adage, “you can give a man a fish and he will eat for one day or you can teach him to fish and he will eat everyday”.
So you asked me for a brief description of what was my involvement with CCHD. I worked in a diocese where one of my jobs was CCHD diocesan director of CCHD. I came to see that one of the primary functions of CCHD was catechetical in nature. What I would do is get to know people in the community (a result of some of my other duties in the diocese) and help people organize themselves so that their children could go to good schools and safely live and grow in their communities. The focus of CCHD groups is developing healthy communities (read communities built on Catholic ideals) with the family as the benefactor of a safe and healthy community. The reason is that when families have safe and healthy communities to live in, there is fertile ground for the reception of the Gospel. It is much harder to catechize people when they are not living in a safe and healthy community. You will notice I have not said rich community. One of the conditions of receiving CCHD funding is that 50% of the funded groups have to be living in non-voluntary poverty (they can’t be priest or sisters…). So, what happens is that the relationships between the folks who are impoverished help the non poverty people keep their hearts open to suffering and sacrifice and the non poverty people help the impoverished people gain some skills that they can bring back to their families and communities. This is all done in the context of a Catholic environment and therefore people come to a better understanding of the spiritual and practical nature of the Gospel message. So my job was to meet and work with the groups and along with a team of volunteer CCHD representative who were people from all over the diocese (but not recipients of CCHD funding) we would make some decisions about what groups would get funding and how much and submit our findings to the USCCB and the local bishop who had the final say on who gets funding and who doesn’t. There was only so much money every year, so we have to be prudent. This is just a general and quick overview of my involvement with CCHD. It was in the relationships with all of the people that I have just described where I met people whose faith and dedication working to bring the Good News to a world hungry for it, catechized me and inspirited me. I’m still being catechized as I hope all of us are.
So what I mean by “holding both” is that there are people who will be more moved by and recognize Jesus in the work of CCHD and there are people who will be more moved by and see Jesus in praying a rosary outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic. What is great is when I can support both. It is real easy to demonize each other. We need CCHD and we need the rosary. The way I see it is that the work of both of these groups of people is that they both have at their core the fundamental conviction that we are all made in the image and likeness of our Creator and therefore we are essentially good.
Po18guy said “I would rather err on the side of getting the poor into Heaven than making them temporally comfortable. If we can do both, great! But, there’s the rub…” I say that making the world a better place to live is one of the most effective way to helping people get to heaven. That is because when we participate in building the Kingdom of God here on Earth, we are participating in what Jesus asked us to do. And in doing so, we are also working toward our own salvation. Ignoring the cry of the poor is one sure way of purchasing a one way ticket to a less desirable place.
Notice at the preparation of the Gifts the priest says: “Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life.” The Mass reflects that our salvation is the result of our cooperation in God’s goodness with the work of our hands.
One of the wonderful insights that Catholicism offers the world is the conviction that our lives are lived with concern for both the here and now and our eternal life. Scrupulosity is sinful because it renders grace less effective in our temporal life. This presents problems for our eternal life too. We need to attend to both our temporal and eternal lives.
I think your observation that “some p&j’s what to change the system” is a good one. The reason is that if we change the parts of the system that contributes to the perpetuation of poverty, we help the individuals and the community as a whole. Some people erroneously believe that poverty is only about the individual. They think that poor people are poor only as a result of their own actions. There is truth to the idea that the kid who grows up with a lazy and violent mother, will more than likely act the same way as an adult, thus perpetuating a cause of poverty. There is also truth in the idea that the only way out of poverty is for poor people to take responsibility for their actions. Again, the truth is in the tension.
This is why I like CCHD so much. It is not a hand out of cash. What CCHD does is take people who are living in poverty and teaches them how to change the systems that are keeping them poor. The money does not go to buy food or clothing. It goes to organizations that are dedicated to helping poor people get the skills they need to change their circumstances in a manner that can lift them out of poverty. It’s that old adage, “you can give a man a fish and he will eat for one day or you can teach him to fish and he will eat everyday”.
So you asked me for a brief description of what was my involvement with CCHD. I worked in a diocese where one of my jobs was CCHD diocesan director of CCHD. I came to see that one of the primary functions of CCHD was catechetical in nature. What I would do is get to know people in the community (a result of some of my other duties in the diocese) and help people organize themselves so that their children could go to good schools and safely live and grow in their communities. The focus of CCHD groups is developing healthy communities (read communities built on Catholic ideals) with the family as the benefactor of a safe and healthy community. The reason is that when families have safe and healthy communities to live in, there is fertile ground for the reception of the Gospel. It is much harder to catechize people when they are not living in a safe and healthy community. You will notice I have not said rich community. One of the conditions of receiving CCHD funding is that 50% of the funded groups have to be living in non-voluntary poverty (they can’t be priest or sisters…). So, what happens is that the relationships between the folks who are impoverished help the non poverty people keep their hearts open to suffering and sacrifice and the non poverty people help the impoverished people gain some skills that they can bring back to their families and communities. This is all done in the context of a Catholic environment and therefore people come to a better understanding of the spiritual and practical nature of the Gospel message. So my job was to meet and work with the groups and along with a team of volunteer CCHD representative who were people from all over the diocese (but not recipients of CCHD funding) we would make some decisions about what groups would get funding and how much and submit our findings to the USCCB and the local bishop who had the final say on who gets funding and who doesn’t. There was only so much money every year, so we have to be prudent. This is just a general and quick overview of my involvement with CCHD. It was in the relationships with all of the people that I have just described where I met people whose faith and dedication working to bring the Good News to a world hungry for it, catechized me and inspirited me. I’m still being catechized as I hope all of us are.
So what I mean by “holding both” is that there are people who will be more moved by and recognize Jesus in the work of CCHD and there are people who will be more moved by and see Jesus in praying a rosary outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic. What is great is when I can support both. It is real easy to demonize each other. We need CCHD and we need the rosary. The way I see it is that the work of both of these groups of people is that they both have at their core the fundamental conviction that we are all made in the image and likeness of our Creator and therefore we are essentially good.
Po18guy said “I would rather err on the side of getting the poor into Heaven than making them temporally comfortable. If we can do both, great! But, there’s the rub…” I say that making the world a better place to live is one of the most effective way to helping people get to heaven. That is because when we participate in building the Kingdom of God here on Earth, we are participating in what Jesus asked us to do. And in doing so, we are also working toward our own salvation. Ignoring the cry of the poor is one sure way of purchasing a one way ticket to a less desirable place.
Notice at the preparation of the Gifts the priest says: “Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life.” The Mass reflects that our salvation is the result of our cooperation in God’s goodness with the work of our hands.
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