BCatholic's Xanga

Final Post

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 02:43:15 GMT

This will be my final post here on Xanga, as I will be moving to a new site.

On the Corruption in the UGBC Senate

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 18:11:27 GMT

Today an article ran in The Heights painting the Observer in a bad light.

The Observer is just trying to bring transparency to the senate by allowing students to know who represents them and how they vote. A few senators have stated that the Observer is misrepresenting them but when asked what’s been falsely portrayed, no one has come forward to offer different facts. If Scanlon is upset that the Observer was provided with how people voted on the WLC, he needs to realize that while I had nothing to do with the editorial on how people voted, even I had more than one senator inform me of how each vote was cast. Being called to responsibility before those who elect you is not “being betrayed.” Most of the senators are not trying to hide anything but some are. They act like Casa Nostra.

Is the Church against the military?

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:35:15 GMT

Dear Mr. Fuller-Googins,

I read your piece today in the Heights and I wanted to respond to you via e-mail. Because of my position on the Observer, I'm not permitted to be printed in the Heights. I'm sure you are aware that we have different ideas but I would ask that you hear me out.

I want to begin by saying that while I would be interested in hearing the SOA side of what they think they are doing and why it is ethical, I remain fairly convinced that SOA/WHINSEC is something that should be shut down. The documentation against it at SOAWatch is extensive and if accurate, damning.

You ask why campus ministry does not support protest similar injustices and oppression and you state various examples. You ask about having ROTC and weapon's manufacturers at a career fair on our Jesuit campus. I'm not quite sure why you see both of these as opposed to the Jesuit nature of our university. The Jesuits are known as the Pope's Men, and their values include fidelity to the pope. Saint Ignatius gave rules for thinking with the Church which were given to retreatants at the end of the spiritual exercises. You should read them: http://wps.ablongman.com/long_longman_lwcdemo_1/0,9493,1532993-,00.html They are horribly unpopular here at Boston College amongst students but they represent Jesuit thought. If you want to learn more about this, I would recommend speaking with Father McNellis from the philosophy department.

Jesuit values are not different than those of the Church. Keeping this in mind, we must look to the Church and see what it says about manufacturing arms and being in the military. It would be hard to find a condemnation of either in the Catechism. While most wars are unjust, serving is something honorable. The Catechism says in paragraph 2310, "Those who are sworn to serve their country in the armed forces are servants of the security and freedom of nations. If they carry out their duty honorably, they truly contribute to the common good of the nation and the maintenance of peace." Similarly, while it says that arms races and stockpiling of weapons are illegitimate, nowhere does the Catechism condemn the making of weapons, including new weapons, on a small scale.

Now I ask you: would you rather have people who have been trained in ethics at BC doing these things of ignoring the fields? It must be those who know right and wrong who enter into these gray fields to make the right calls when situations arise. We can't universally avoid them.

As for Israel, the Arab world does not recognize the right of Israel to exist and continues to try and destroy Israel. If Israel put down its arms tomorrow, the Palestinian people would not. However, if the Palestinian people did, then Israel would as well.

Women's Ordination

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 14:36:52 GMT

Everytime I discuss women's ordination, I always ask people in favor of it how they reconcile their thoughts with Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, which declared infallibly that women can never be priests. They tell me the document says, "at the present time." I could never find the phrase until today, where it says that "at the present time" some claim this to be a discipline but it is not, and then John Paul the Great defines it infallibly (according to the ordinary Magisterium).

Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church's judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force.
Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.

Awesome Jesuit Website

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:05:15 GMT

Be sure to check this out. One of the people running it is a friend of a friend.

Picking on Priests

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 18:51:58 GMT

We all know those people who pick on priests every time they break a rubric. Now, maybe in a sense when a priest consciously chooses to do something wrong over and over again, we should correct them. But God has really opened my eyes recently to how priests can be picked on for other things. Last week I watched a priest get scolded for not having enough "wine" in the chalice so that not everyone could receive from it. The poor priest has probably also been beaten up by Traditionalists for offering the chalice.

I've become aware of this because I see it but also because I've experienced it. Since becoming the altar server at our weekly benediction, there hasn't been a single week where someone hasn't told me I could do something "better" (referring to their preferences, not to any actual rubrics). Now, no one has been mean to me about this as they were to the other priest, but I can certainly see how it could become tiring.

You should wear a cassock and surplice.

No, you shouldn't.

You're shirt underneath shows through the alb.

You're making too much incense.

You're not making enough incense.

I don't like the noise the thurible makes when you swing it.

You need a longer alb.

You need a shorter alb.

You should wear shorts so we can't see your pants on the bottom.

You should wear pants so it doesn't look like you're naked underneath the alb.

I don't like the smell of the new incense.

I prefer this new incense.

Your cinture is too long.

Your cinture is too short.

I've been doing this for only a month. How do priests put up with it?

Secretary General or Star Wars Character?

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:05:55 GMT

You've scored 91%!

You're either a complete Star Wars nerd or a complete United Nations history nerd. I don't know which is worse. Take your pick.

UN Secretary General or Star Wars character?
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Development or Reversal?

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:39:11 GMT

Today a friend of mine who happens to be the president of the GLC this year wrote a letter to the editor of The Heights. In it, he claims that the Church has reversed Church teaching before and can do so again in reference to homosexuality. He quotes a book documenting these supposed changes to prove his point. Avery Cardinal Dulles SJ wrote a review of the same book in 2005, and it can be found here.

On Others

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 23:54:00 GMT

How many times does someone strike us as a little different and we write them off? I used to do it all the time, and I'm sure I still do on occasion, but for some time, I've been aware that we may have turned out worse if we went through what they went through. Is someone shy to the point of being annoying about it? Maybe she was abused growing up. I could see that turning someone inward. Who knows?

Monday, September 03, 2007

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 22:47:07 GMT

Our God is a God of great beauty...