Ave Maria!

Using the ever-present highway signs, “Buckle-up, Its The Law,” Fr. Peter Fehlner, F.I. springs into the subject of obligation and freedom according to the teaching of Bl. John Duns Scotus. These signs demonstrate the paradox that the more independent we get from God, the more arbitrary law becomes, the more buckling-up we must do and so the very freedom we seek is lost and along with it our very personhood. Freedom, in the sense of autonomy from God, is not what makes us true persons, but rather love, and love is never more pure than when loving God. And loving God involves being thankful to God for creating us and redeeming us on the Cross. Using the old version of “thank you,” which is, “much obliged,” he makes the connection between love and obligation and thus between obligation and being a true person.

He covers law, obligation, freedom, secularity, communes, license, conscience, synderisis, pragmatism, the difference between contentment and happiness. Whew! all in less than ten minutes. So buckle-up! You’ll need it with this one…

Ave Maria!

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Face of Pro-Life #78 – ( 29min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Fra Isaac Haas, FI outlines his experience in the battle for marriage while he worked with National Organization for Marriage (NOM) before he became a friar. He covers the reason for NOM being created, how it counters the very well funded machine that is advocating for the radical changes in the definition of marriage which has far ranging consequences in regard to religious freedom and the ill effects on family and children.

Ave Maria!

Audio (MP3)

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Face of Pro-Life #88 -Corinn Dahm and Susan Boyce on CT Health Care ( 30min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Susan Boyce outlines with Corinn Dahm the health care plan for Connecticut that is very similar to the enormously unpopular plan proposed by President Obama that failed on a federal level.  The mass media is not talking about this but it is already passed by the state congress who even overrode a veto by Governor Rell. Listen as Susan itemizes the many problems of the plan including, Obesity Task Forces, more bureaucracy, more taxes, less privacy and freedom, automatic enrollment at least once a year and usually more often. And the plan does not do any of the needed improvements like law suit reform that would truly reduce medical costs.  All of these extra costs are being proposed when the state budget in has record deficits.

Ave Maria!

Audio (MP3)

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Face of Pro-Life #98 – Lorraine Hartnett with Corinn Dahm on taking care of the elderly ( 60min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Dr. Lorraine Hartnett discusses with hostess Corinn Dahm on the state of elderly care in our medical institutions relating her sad experience in dealing with nursing homes in order to take care of her father and from her profession of taking care of elderly. She discusses ways that healthcare can be provided to everyone without instituting nationwide bureaucracies which will put distance between patients and doctors and at great cost. Doctors are being over regulated and are loosing their rights to opt out of morally objectionable procedures like abortion and contraception.

She puts forward the very sensible concept of subsidiarity where the smallest group that is needed to take care of a job should be entitled to do it as opposed to larger one. Only on this basis will it be possible for us to exercise true charity which always requires the freedom that gigantic bureaucracies deny.

They discuss how current problems are related to the loss of Christian-Judaic principles which Dr. Lorraine works to remedy through prayer groups at work. And, how doctors are buried in paper work and pressure to perform financially instead of taking care of patients. This will lead to fewer doctors which is the key problem to start with.

Ave Maria!

Audio (MP3)

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Homily #100627t ( 07min) Play – Our day of “Independence” is Good Friday, do not again submit to sin. A train is most free when it’s on it’s tracks, off it’s tracks it’s a wreck.
Ave Maria! Mass readings

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The post Jun 27 – Homily – Fr Tito: Now I Am Free first appeared on AirMaria.com.

On Wednesday the Holy Father gave a catechesis on Bl. Scotus, which includes a positive assessment of his doctrine on the primary motive for the Incarnation and a clear affirmation that Scotus was not responsible for Voluntarism. This is big news, considering that:

1) while still a Cardinal, Joseph Ratzinger wrote in one of his books that he disagreed with Scotus’ doctrine on the Incarnation; now, as Pope, he seems to have changed his mind and embraced Scotus’ position.

2) in his famous Regensburg Address, the Holy Father made a comment which many people interpreted as criticizing Scotus’ doctrine on the will; in this new catechesis, however, he clearly states the opposite.

In regard to the Absolute Primacy of Christ:

In his audience, celebrated in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope dedicated his catechesis to Blessed Duns Scotus, who was born around the year 1266 in the Scottish village of Duns, entered the Friars Minor and was ordained a priest in 1291. “His intelligence earned him the traditional tile of ‘Doctor subtilis'”, said the Holy Father noting how he taught theology at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Paris. However, his faithfulness to Pope Boniface VIII in the latter’s conflict with Philip IV the Fair led to him leaving France. He returned to Paris in 1305 to teach theology then moved on to Cologne where he died in 1308.

“Because of his fame of sanctity, his cult soon spread within the Franciscan Order, and Venerable John Paul II chose to confirm him as a blessed on 20 March 1993, describing him as a ‘cantor of the incarnate Word and defender of the Immaculate Conception’. In this expression he summarized Duns Scotus’ great contribution to the history of theology”, said Pope Benedict.

He then went on to explain that, “though aware that because of original sin Christ redeemed us with His Passion, Death and Resurrection”, Duns Scotus “makes it clear that the Incarnation is the greatest and most sublime work of the history of salvation, and that it is not conditioned by any contingent circumstance.

In regard to the error of voluntarism (absolute freedom of the will):

The Pope recalled that Duns Scotus had also tackled “the subject of freedom and its relationship with the will and the intellect”. In this context he noted how “an idea of innate and absolute freedom (as developed after Scotus’ time) located in the will which precedes the intellect, both in God and in man, risks leading to the idea of a God Who is not even connected to truth and goodness”.

“Freedom”, the Pope explained, “is authentic and helps in the construction of a truly human civilization only when reconciled with truth. If disconnected from truth, freedom tragically becomes the principle that destroys the inner harmony of human beings, a source of abuse for the strong and the violent, a cause of suffering and mourning. Freedom … grows and is perfected, said Duns Scotus, when man opens himself to God. … When we listen to the divine Revelation, to the Word of God, in order to accept it, then we receive a message which fills our lives with light and hope, and we are truly free”.

Deo Gratias!  Read the whole article here.

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Homily #110213t ( 09min) Play –

Ave Maria!

When we read the Gospel we make that little Cross on our foreheads, our lips, and our hearts. We ask that the truth of the Gospel might be in our minds, on our lips and in our hearts.

When we know the truth we become Theologians, when we speak the truth we become Prophets, but when we live the Truth we become Saints. That’s true freedom!

Ave Maria!
Mass: 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Shortened) – Form: OF
Readings:
1st: sir 15:15-20
Resp: psa 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34
2nd: 1co 2:6-10
Gsp: mat 5:20-22, 27-28, 33-34, 37

Audio (MP3)

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Thank God the bishops are using their clout against the attempt of the Obama administration to force Catholic institutions to pay for contraception. Although I do not agree with Paul Moses entirely, I believe he has a point in suggesting that the effort could backfire.  But that is a risk we have to take. Unfortunately, politics today is largely part of our sound bite culture.  So many people are more interested in the outcome of the Twitter war than they are about having an in-depth and clear understanding of the problem at hand.  Political persuasion is to a great extent about perception. Winning a debate  seems more important than dealing with the fundamental issues. Clarifying first principles often clouds the particular agenda and appeals more to the intellect than it does to the emotions. Emotional arguments work better. Partisanship is also an issue.  I am all for distinctions and hard ones when they reflect reality, but Republican vs. Democrat generally does not reflect the complex reality of peoples real interests and positions.  Certainly, neither political party represents the fundamental interests of the Catholic Church. Yet the current problem does reflect a reality that could be conveyed easily on Twitter.  It is President Obama against the Church.  The interests of the bishops relative to this issue are not political.  They are not even confessional.  It is the age old problem of the Church maintaining its liberty from incursions into relgious matters by civil authorities.  And the issue even simpler than the current debate frames it.  The real question is not whether religious institutions should be exempted from paying for something considered immoral by their confession.  The real question is why anyone at all is being forced by the government to act contrary to fundamental religious convictions rooted in natural law and in legal history of our country. During the last presidential campaign Doug Kmiec successfully convinced many Catholics that Barack Obama was the most pro-life candidate in the race.  Many of us were astounded.  Recently, Kmiec wrote to the president in respect to the present debacle.  He said:

In deciding against a reasonable accommodation of Catholic concerns in the implementation of the health care program, you lost sight of your own beliefs.  For this reason, your words this morning touched neither soul nor heart in the room. . . . Today, Sir, I ask you no longer as an Ambassador, but simply as a friend, why put the cold calculus of politics above faith and freedom?  Please respond, for friendship will not permit me to disregard duty to faith and country.  The Barack Obama I knew would never have asked me to make that choice.

I still think Kmiec is very naive–at best. Politicians, journalists, pundits and bloggers will now “soundbite” and “twitter” us with irrelevancies about women dying from a lack of birth control because Catholics don’t want to pay for it and about how the bishop’s are too conservative and partisan.  Unfortunately, many will buy it, which is very ironic, since the official voter’s guide of the USCCB is hardly a conservative or partisan representation. Another irony is Paul Moses’ suggestion that the bishops employ the methods of Saul Alinsky.  This, he says, could build consensus.  Moses counsels the bishops to garner enthusiastic support by community organizing.  Grassroots support, of course, if helpful.  However, the quintessentially alinskian element here is the way in which grassroots support is generated by the ulterior motives of radicals in order to implement a preconceived and elitist agenda.  Moses rightly points out that Obama knows all about this.  But this is not the mission of the bishops. The Church is a voluntary society.  No one has to belong to it, but those who do have an inalienable right to follow its precepts without the interference of the state.   This is not about political maneuvering.  It is about keeping the claws of the government out of religious matters. Politics is tricky.  We cannot do without consensus because politics is a matter of persuasion.  However, I can hardly think of a situation that is more simple than the present one.  The Church must not sacrifice her independence and the general principle of religious liberty for the sake of some vague measure of political coexistence and popular support. There is hardly any way to prevent those who support Obama’s agenda from casting the bishops’ position as a partisan one.  Caesar must not be conceded an inch of God’s territory even if there are political costs. Filed under: Catholic Action, Church, Culture, Politics, Pro-Life, Religion Tagged: Barack Obama, Contraception, Doug Kmiec, Paul Moses Go to Source

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Variety #197 – Peter Wolfgang in Hartford CT. ( 05min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

On January 20, 2012 the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, unveiled a new policy which has come to be known at the “HHS Mandate.”

The new Mandate would requiring nearly all private health insurance plans to include coverage for all FDA-approved prescription contraceptive drugs and devices, surgical sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs—drugs that interfere with implantation in the womb and therefore destroy the life of a human being in the earliest stage of development.

Ave Maria!

Audio (MP3)

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