Spare the rod?

A young couple in Virginia decides that corporal punishment isn't a necessary tool in the parenthood toolkit.

Living Forever

 Kevin Clarke has an article on the America website titled "My children think tech will let them live forever. Our faith tells us why we shouldn’t try," where Katherine Nielsen and Stanley Kopacz have posted comments. Here is a fragment from the article (italics added) that caught my attention:

My church indeed helps with understanding and accepting the inevitable and not just because of the expectation of life everlasting it heralds, a belief I frankly struggle with all the time . . . 

I once asked my older sister, the most steadfast and orthodox Catholic among me and my three siblings, if she has any sense (i.e., feeling, as opposed to belief) of the continued existence of our parents, who have both long since passed away. She said no. I don't either.

I certainly don't want technology to extend my life indefinitely, but I find Catholic teaching about "eternal life" utterly vague and rather frightening. Eternal suffering, which I can't bring myself to believe in, is nevertheless easier to imagine than eternal bliss. 

Beyond Bizarre

Maybe some of you have seen this news item: 

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254362/carmelite-sisters-sue-fort-worth-bishop-over-grave-misconduct-in-chastity-investigation

'Nuns from an Arlington, Texas, Carmelite monastery are suing the Diocese of Fort Worth and the bishop for $1 million for alleged violations of privacy and harming the physical and emotional well-being of the sisters.'

'The lawsuit stems from interactions related to a diocesan investigation of the Reverend Mother Superior Teresa Agnes Gerlach. The diocese has said it was investigating “grave misconduct” based on a report that she “committed sins against the Sixth Commandment and violated her vow of chastity with a priest.”

The GOP as the "fight club" party

Conservative NY Times opinion columnist David French uses the occasion of Ron DeSantis's presidential campaign launch to explain why the Republican Party isn't a conservative political party anymore; it has become something else.

The Common Denominator

 Phyllis Zagano has a good piece on NCR re: gun violence:

Anger management and guns | National Catholic Reporter (ncronline.org)

She makes a good case that anger is the common element in shootings.

From the article:

Commissioned to go forth

 This is my homily for today*, the Ascension of the Lord, Cycle A.  Today's readings are here.

* The Chicago Archdiocese is one of many American dioceses which have transferred the solemnity of the Ascension from Thursday to the Seventh Sunday of Easter.

Gender affirming care for minors?

Should minors be able to receive the set of treatments which fall under the heading, "Gender affirming care"?

If Ye Love Me

 I love this anthem by Thomas Tallis:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1WwNSfCom8

It happens to be from today's Gospel, John 14:15.  "If ye love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may bide with you forever, even the spirit of truth."

The group is The King's Singers. It appears that it was done by means of Zoom, or something similar. Which is quite an accomplishment, to keep the harmonies and timing so well coordinated.

The piece was composed approximately 460 years ago, it is still timeless.

Ex-Marine Daniel Penny Is Not a Murderer, but Neither Is He a "Good Samaritan"

 According to an article in The Washington Post today . . . 

In the nearly two weeks since Daniel Penny was recorded killing Jordan Neely on a New York City subway with a minutes-long chokehold, the 24-year-old Marine Corps veteran has faced calls to be arrested, been denounced as a vigilante by activists and been labeled a “murderer” by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

But in the lead-up to the Manhattan district attorney’s office charging him with second-degree manslaughter, Penny has found a groundswell of financial and online support from high-profile Republicans such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Fox News personalities and conservatives on Elon Musk’s Twitter. Many of them have rallied around Penny and hailed the veteran as a “hero” and “good Samaritan.”

“We stand with Good Samaritans like Daniel Penny,” DeSantis tweeted Friday night. “Let’s show this Marine … America’s got his back.”

I won't go into the complexities of the case. However, one thing seems clear to me, which is that categorizing him a Good Samaritan is at best misguided and possible an attempt to muddy the waters. Certainly in the Bible (Luke 10:30–37) the Good Samaritan does not defend the victimized traveller from robbers by violence. He takes care of a helpless victim in the aftermath of violence. I note that in so-called Good Samaritan laws, the concept of Good Samaritan is in conformity with the parable. According to Wikipedia, "Good Samaritan laws offer legal protection to people who give reasonable assistance to those who are, or whom they believe to be injured, ill, in peril, or otherwise incapacitated. The protection is intended to reduce bystanders' hesitation to assist, for fear of being sued or prosecuted for unintentional injury or wrongful death." That definition, as I read it, cannot be stretched to apply to someone who steps up to protect strangers from a perceived threat. 

I suspect the use of "Good Samaritan" in this instance by conservative politicians is more an effort to pander to the religious right than an honest approval of what Daniel Penny did. Politically, I am a lot closer to AOC than to Ron DeSantis, but nowhere near close enough to agree with her cry of murder.

Having ridden the subway for over fifty years now, there have been many times when I have been in situations in which I have felt threatened. But feeling threatened is not quite the same as actually being threatened.  

Partaking of the cup again

With the COVID-19 public health emergency officially ending today, the Chicago Archdiocese has sent out guidance that the measures put in place during the pandemic are almost entirely being lifted now.   Among the aspects of church life now able to be restored: communicants may once again drink from the common cup.  In our archdiocese, the cup has not been on offer to the people for the last three years.  

A couple of months ago in our Worship Commission, in the course of a discussion about whether or when to resume offering the cup, our pastor asked the commission members whether we'd personally partake of it.  I confessed that I wouldn't be comfortable.

I haven't been partaking of the cup for the last three years.  When the moratorium was placed on offering it to the people, deacons were given the option of having their own chalice with consecrated wine, alongside the priest's chalice.  I declined; it didn't seem right that I should be allowed my own cup if nobody else but the priest was.

Of course, the pre-COVID practice - which can now resume - was that the deacon partakes from the priest's chalice, after the priest partakes.  So for me to be willing to partake, I have to trust that the priests alongside me are healthy.  

And obviously, we'd be asking the people in the communion line to trust, not that one prior drinker is healthy, but that 10 or 20 or 30 prior drinkers all are healthy.

At some point, I think we have to trust the science and the scientists.  If they tell us the risk of getting COVID is quite low, then I should believe them.  No matter how many willies it might give me to drink from a cup that someone else already has drunk from.

I suppose the archdiocese is not first to the party in offering the cup again; perhaps some of you have been drinking from a common cup again already?  What are your thoughts? 

Interesting article from Gallup in their series on "returning to the office".  They recommend only two or three days a week for those who can do their jobs at home.

Why the Commute?

The following is adapted from Culture Shock, Gallup’s new book about the biggest leadership challenge of our time. For more insights, preorder your copy of Culture Shock today.

Coronation as Liturgy

 On the Liturgical Press, Pray Tell Blog is the link below to a thirty minute conversation with two faculty members of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music by Teresa Berger, a contributor to Pray Tell Blog who is also a faculty member there. 

Getting married in the Cathollic church

 Two articles this week caught my attention.  As is well known, marriages in the church have plummeted in the last 25 years.  As a result, so have infant baptisms, and also adults received into the church via RCIA.  Since most converts become Catholic to please a spouse, this drop isn't anymore surprising than is the fall in the numbers of baptized infants.  In my reading during recent years, and because my children and their friends, and my Catholic friends' children, have married during this same time period, I have noted the trends.   The church has created a lot of hoops for young couples to get through before they will allow them to marry in the church. The costs of a church wedding have soared in some places, and the restrictions have tightened.

A homily from the Rev. ChatGPT [Updated]

Update May 1, 2023, 10:37 am CST: I asked ChatGPT directly to write a sermon on the Good Shepherd discourse.  At the bottom of the post, I've pasted its offering.

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Update May 1, 2023, 9:07 am CST: I've tweaked the content of the original post a bit, and I've also added a new section at the bottom.

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Has the brave new world of artificial intelligence made the homilist an endangered species?