Ave Maria!

This thirteenth episode of Dr Mark Miravalle‘s series on Our Lady’s role of Coredemption explains why there is a current movement to have the Coredemption declared a Dogma of the Church and why it is so important. Come watch as Dr. Miravalle gives convincing evidence on how the Coredemption movement is the climax and greatest legacy of John Paul II’s Pontificate.

Ave Maria!

The post Video – Why the Dogma? – #13 Coredemptrix, Mediatrix, & Advocate – Miravalle first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Homily #080607s ( 10min) Play – Fr. Ignatius preaches on this first Saturday of June on the Immaculate Heart of Mary during this special Votive Mass. He focuses on what John Paul II wrote on the Beatification of Blessed Francesco and Jacinta of Fatima, that they were great candles in these anxious hours of moral darkness. He mentions Francesco was drawn to love of God and Jacinta to love of neighbor to save them from Hell.
Ave Maria!
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The post Jun 07 – Special Homily – Fr Ignatius: First Saturday, Immaculate Heart of Mary first appeared on AirMaria.com.

IVF:? Part Three

(Part Two here)

“The Lord called me from birth:
from my mother’s womb
he gave me my name.”? (Isaiah 49: 1-6)

What’s the big deal? Have we not advanced to the point of making babies in lab dishes, so everyone can be a proud parent? I recall reading one woman’s indignation, demanding to know why the Pope did not want her to have a baby. You know some alert theologian could have jumped in at that time and presented the rock-bottom truth of our faith that, evil may not be done, even to secure some perceived good.

Some physicians have, as noted above, ethical concerns about all of this and have decided not to implant more than four embryos. This would supposedly reduce the risk of having to abort so many. “Four is the limit recommended by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine for women aged 35 to 40, although it will accept five for women older than that.”[i] Other doctors wonder if the woman has the right to expose babies in multiple pregnancies to future medical problems (and the studies continue to mount from all over the world about fetal abnormalities from IVF: birth defects, mental retardation, behavior disorders, etc.) What a high degree of “ethics” by the society above – don’t kill more than four! As opposed to “moral”, “ethical” is a nice semantic term you can take all over the place. Others express “distaste” about “reducing;” read that: uneasy.

How in the world did we get here? We got here because God’s authority continues to be completely rejected. There is societal indifference to what goes on, a disinterest in anything which does not directly affect me and my lifestyle. Is IVF more nuclear fall-out from abortion? That is one answer but incomplete; it is not the whole story. The key element was synthetic birth prevention. And, contrary to the ardent feminist denial of the facts, from the outset abortion became “backup contraception”. I remember the 60’s. I remember the triumph when the birth control pill was introduced to the world. The “women’s liberation” movement’s first plank then and now is equality is impossible without abortion. With the pill, they were jubilant. The pill would release forever a woman’s responsibility for the conception and nurturing of offspring.

Once procreation was separated from the conjugal act, the whole bowl of wax began to unfold. Pandora’s Box was shattered, freeing the evils that would bedevil mankind. Late-term pregnancy abortions gradually were accepted and are now de rigueur in certain clinics. With IVF we have arrived in contemporary America and the new world order at, to name a few: “make your own baby”, including “fetal reduction,” delayed motherhood, surrogate mothering, embryo transfer (moved embryo from one women to another), storage problems of half a million frozen embryos (90% of which do not survive their ice age,) “extra” embryos to be harvested as extra body parts; insurance coverage in many states; support groups for mothers who reduce; designer children; sex selection of children (banned in some countries;) “money-back” guarantees (frowned on by some meds); recruiters on college campuses for eggs/sperm donors (some provide photos of donors’ eyes, ears, etc., not to omit glowing intellectual and medical histories;) anonymous (drive-by) sperm donors; sperm banks; egg banks; egg donor ads, running regularly in daily newspapers, and on the Internet (“Apply on line to become an egg donor.”); the Yellow Pages; donor marketing agencies; serious medical complications from “hyper-stimulation” of ovaries to secure eggs; screening of embryos to avoid genetic hazards; cloning; cloning of human beings with other species, and on and on ad infinitum. By the by, “donors” are usually paid handsomely for selling their bodily wares. Some profess to do this for altruistic motives, to assist the childless. However, the very real probability that embryos will die or be eliminated makes that assertion of nobility something of an oxymoron.

Less I be accused of exaggeration, the above are facts gleaned from an enormous supply of material on the whole subject of IVF. At one library I pulled up relevant book lists; there were 39 under the heading of IVF. The internet is endless in its offerings of such material. Newspapers, journals are getting into this curious and controversial story, so fraught with extremes – sensationalism at its most provocative. A sub-plot showed up recently on the television series E.R., when several children gathered to meet their slightly abashed doctor “father”. Some of the “diaries,” books/journals describing a woman’s complete IVF experience, are often crude, discouraging the reader from pursuing the story line. To draw quotes from these would render their authors more attention.

Crudity is so common in our country we barely notice the daily bombardment and degradation. Subjects unmentionable are discussed casually on television at any hour. Disrobing has become an art form. In a doctor’s office recently, I saw the image of a full-term, pregnant, nude woman displayed on the cover of Newsweek (12/10/07). It was so blatantly bad–this image, casually available on the clinic coffee table. Such presentations utterly deprive women of any dignity whatsoever, pregnancy a public exposure of the most prurient type. There will be no reaction from our jaded culture. (Some maternity stores this season were displaying scanty bathing suits for advanced pregnancy.) To the more morally alert, it is just one more outrage, an execrable example of depraved media. It reminds you of the judge in the parable who “respected neither God nor man.” The result: We are all stricken with some kind of mental paralysis as we try to go about living in trendy America. We are numb. This is a kind of protective shield. How many shocks a day can an individual stand? We can’t – we don’t — ask anymore, what is next? There is no refuge to escape the panoply.

After spending several weeks on this essay, and reading more about IVF and affiliated horrors than I imagined at the beginning, I have come to the conclusion expressed well by Judy Brown of American Life League, the entire process must be outlawed, by legislatures, and if there is any dignity, integrity left in our courts, there too. We have created a monster, fulfilling what Pope Benedict anticipated and feared when he wrote Donum Vitae. Thank God, the church is always ahead of the movement of societal cultures – The gift to us Roman Catholics as well as to the world. On February 1, 2008, Pope Benedict said the following: “When human beings in the weakest and most defenseless state of their existence are selected, aborted, killed or used as pure ?biological material,’ how can it be denied that they are no longer… ?someone but something.'”[ii] This is food for thought in our over-hurried world – a world according to John Paul II with an over emphasis on “efficiency.”

[iii] reported an internet site which

Donor Sibling Registry Logo

Where are we going? What is next? The Fort Worth Star Telegram “connects children born from the same eggs or sperm.” In other words, the searcher endeavors to learn how many half-brothers and sisters he has out there somewhere – and their common sperm donor. A “Donor Sibling Registry” was established in 2000; about 19,000 people posted personal details; About 4,700 matches were found. People, the article tells us, are startled by the looks of strange children at the park sand lot, who look so much like their own child. In one search it was discovered that a single donor had sired more than 100 kids. I leave it to the imagination of the reader to follow this news into the future… Obviously there is a yawning distance between adopting a newborn infant, and utilizing an anonymous egg/sperm. As Abraham responded to the rich man seeking help from the poor Lazarus, between us there is a great chasm, so that we cannot cross over to your side.

In the last few months I have been removing stones from one of the flower gardens here in New England – stones tossed there by the builder, which prevent any flowers from taking real root. There are also roots to detach. It is hard work, though satisfying, but not complete because new dirt has to be inserted in the gaping holes. It reminds me of the indescribable lies, distortions and omissions thrown at our whole culture, the evils now so pronounced as to make it impossible for most to accept the truth about God and life. The garden is full of rocks, with long-running roots. It has been made infertile and must be cleansed and then replanted. Christ warned us that once evil is dismissed, care must be taken lest new and worse devils enter in. What is next?

The paucity of truth! What is it? “I AM the way, the truth and the life” says the Lord. American Heritage defines truth as “conformity to knowledge, fact or actuality; veracity.” The media appears to define truth through interviews (e.g., opinion); varied reports from random sources and those which are politically correct. Thus the opportunity for truth has been circumscribed. As evidenced by the prominence of IVF acceptance, the anti-Christ forces are masters of distortion. Dr. Leon Kass describes present day scientism as “soul-less”, which he says is an effort to reduce all questions of human life to the “purely material.”[iv]

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, now and at the hour of our death!

[ii] Life Site News: from Catholic Online International News

[iii] Fort Worth Star Telegram, 3/23/08

[iv] Life Site News; 11/7/07, from a Manhattan Institute lecture

The post The Dry Wood – Hilda Nicolosi – Paring Down the Human Race: In Vitro Breeding – Part 3/3 first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Ave Maria Meditations

I set off in search of the source of my vocation. It is beating there … in the Upper Room in Jerusalem. I thank God that during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 I was able to pray precisely there-in the Upper Room (Mark 14:15), where the Last Supper took place.

THE SOURCE OF MY VOCATION

by The Servant of God, Pope John Paul II

I transport myse1f in thought to that memorable Thursday when Christ, having loved his own to the end (Jn.13:1), instituted the Apostles as priests of the New Covenant. I see Him bending down before each of us, succesors of the Apostles, to wash our feet. I hear Him, as if He were speaking to me-to us-these words: “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call Me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the Master and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought also to wash one anothers feet. I have given you an example to follow, so that as I have done for you, you also should do” (John 13:12-16).

Together with Peter, Andrew, James, and John … let us continue to listen: “As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Remain in My love! If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. I have told you this so that My joy might be in you and your joy might be complete. This is My commandment: love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down ones life for ones friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you” (Jn 15:9-14).

Is not the mysterium caritatis of our vocation contained in these sayings? These words of Christ, spo­ken at the hour for which He had come (Jn.12:27), are at the root of every vocation in the Church. From them flows the life-giving sap that nourishes every vocation: those of the Apostles and their suc­cessors, but also every other vocation, because the Son wishes to be a friend to everyone: because He gave His life for all. Here we find what is most important, most valuable, and most sacred: the love of the Father and the love of Christ for us, His and our joy, and also our friendship and fidelity, which ex­press themselves in the fulfillment of the commandments.

These words also contain the goal and the meaning of our vocation: to “go and bear fruit that will last” (Jn 15:16). The bond of love unites all things; substantially it unites the Divine Persons, but on a different level it also unites human beings and their different vocations. We have entrusted our life to Christ, who loved us first and, as the Good Shepherd, offered His life for us.

The Apostles heard Christ’s words and applied them to themselves as their personal vocation. So too we, their successors, shepherds of Christ’s Church, cannot but feel impelled to be the first to respond to this love, faithfully fulfilling the commandments and offering our life every day for the friends of our Lord. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

In the homily I preached in Saint Peter’s Square on October 16, 2003, on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of my pontificate, I said: “While Jesus was saying these words, the Apostles did not realize that He was referring to Him­self. Not even His beloved Apostle John knew it. He understood on Calvary, at the foot of the Cross, when he saw Jesus silently giving up His life for ‘His sheep.’

When the time came for John and the oth­er Apostles to assume this same mission they then remembered His words. They realized that they would be able to fulfill their mission only because he had assured them that He Himself would be work­ing among them. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will last” (Jn.15:16). Not you, but I!-says Christ. This is the foundation of the efficacy of a bishop’s pastoral mission.

“Always be faithful to an intense interior life, nourished above all by the celebration of the Holy Mass, Eucharistic devotion and daily meditation.  Only through the Eucharist is it possible to maintain the innocence of children, the purity of the young, matrimonial chastity and fidelity, priestly and religious consecration”

(Pope John Paul II, Servant of God).

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Marycast #105 ( 10min) Play – Concluding the theme of controversies during the Second Vatican Council as chronicled in the book , The Rhine Flows into the Tiber by Rev. Ralph Wiltgen, Dr. Miravalle discusses how a certain Bishop Karol Wojtyla (the future Pope John Paul II) argued against Fr. Karl Rahner, S.J. who wanted to minimalize Mary by hiding the council’s Marian teaching  in Lumen Gentium, a document about the Church. Although the final vote of where the section would be placed was narrowly in favor of Rahner and the Rhineland theologians, the content in the section was very pro Mary.

To ask questions regarding Mary, email Dr Mark Miravalle: marycast@airmaria.com

Ave Maria!

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The post Video – Our Lady Vatican II 7of7: Controversies 4, The Final Decision – Dr. Miravalle: Mcast 105 first appeared on AirMaria.com.

interviewed by Fra Roderic  ( 28min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Dawn Eden, who last year gave us the great story of her conversion through St. Maximilian Kolbe and G.K. Chesterton, recently returned to Griswold, CT, and we accosted her for another interview which she graciously granted. This time she talks about her studies for her Masters in Moral Theology at Dominican House of Studies in DC  and how they relate to current issues in our society. In particular she refers to the recent debate on Christopher West’s interpretation of Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. She relates what she has found about how morality was taught before and after the Second Vatican Council and how this compares with West’s assertion that Catholic morality was very prudish before the Council. It was this assertion that was the basis for his very controversial Nightline interview where he favorably compared John Paul II to Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy, since both, in their own way, saved us from this supposed prudery. Listen to Dawn’s fair, informative analysis of this controversy.

References: “The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality” from the the Pontifical Council for the Family

Ave Maria!

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The post Video – Roving Reporter #95: Dawn Eden on Pre-Vatican II Morality 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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Variety #94 – Bsp. Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska ( 14min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Fr. Elias Mills of our Bloomington, Indiana friary recently interviewed the renowned Bishop Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska on current issues of faith and Church in America.  We are posting them here in a five part series. In the first part, in answering Fr. Elias questions, the bishop relates his thoughts about:

• His 50 years as a priest and bishop in the Church and all the changes and events in the time.
• His visits to shrines in Europe and Rome.
• His 19 years as Bishop of Lincoln.
• The graces that are ever needed for his office
• His work with John Paul II and Benedict XVI
• What these two papacies have done for the Church especially the continuity that they reaffirmed between the post and pre-Vatican II Church
• The Moto Proprio of Pope Benedict and how it is not at all against Vatican II
• The unlikelihood of a mixture of the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms of the liturgy
• New English translation of the Ordinary Form of the Liturgy
• How well Catechisis has been carried out in the Post Vatican II era
• balance needed between doctrine and pastoral and social concerns

Listening to Bsp. Bruskewitz’s clear  insights and answers is refreshing indeed.

Ave Maria!

Audio (MP3)

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The post Video – Variety #94: Bsp. Bruskewitz on Vatican II 1/5 first appeared on AirMaria.com.