Comments for “My Country, May She Always Be Right . . .” at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 5 out of 5 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:51:27 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/my-country-may-she-always-be-right.html#comment-7472 The effort is still going on with Napolitano to link terrorism with extremism in order to go after groups the administration thinks is "extreme" - stosh Fri, 22 Jul 2011 05:46:47 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/my-country-may-she-always-be-right.html#comment-7376 Thank you, Father Schall, for yet another insightful article here. You write "The rapidity with which the basic standards of civilization are being undermined in this country is obvious to everyone but the blind." Alas, it would seem that a considerable plurality, if not majority, of our countrymen have become blind. I hope and pray it were not so. - Martial Artist Mon, 11 Jul 2011 08:54:54 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/my-country-may-she-always-be-right.html#comment-7370 Civilization in the U.S. is being (has been?) ruined by legalism and materialism. This is nothing new. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, among others, made this observation in 1978, and even told graduating students at Harvard that he could not recommend the American way of life as a replacement for the Soviet one. He could not recommend swapping one form of dehumanizing materialism for another. What we need is another way to live, a moral revolution of sorts. As another Russian noted, the starting point for this revolution is the acceptance of the truth that "Save through self-restriction, there is no other true freedom for mankind." - Mark Mon, 11 Jul 2011 02:36:08 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/my-country-may-she-always-be-right.html#comment-7369 The process described in this essay is taking place within the Church as well. On the website of the Boston Globe a reader is today informed that a Mass for persons living the homosexual or lesbian lifestyle was celebrated in Boston. This event is presented as a victory over hatred and bigotry in the Church. No mention is made of the fact that "All" have always been welcome in the Catholic Church - sinners all are in attendance - those guilty of adultery, lying, slander, theft, misuse of sexual powers, were never excluded and were indeed prayed for at each and every Mass, although those who had not repented were instructed not to receive communion. This Mass - no matter how kindly the intentions of the priest who offered the Mass - is surely a source of scandal for believers and a source of great confusion for those outside the Church. Why was it allowed to happen? Certainly, again, sinners are welcome at Mass. We are all sinners. It is a matter of dire necessity that the priest, who stands in persona Christi, does not confirm us in our sins but calls us to repentance and change. I do understand the source of confusion. An intellectual web has been created. It is woven to entrap people of good will, using words such as "equality," "mercy," compassion," "respect" to confuse believers into thinking they are performing an act of kindness in encouraging disordered behavior. They call it "love" but the highest love assists others in discovering the truth of things - that which Fr. Schall would term "what is". There is no mention of any commitment to avoidance of - Ars Artium Mon, 11 Jul 2011 01:58:39 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/my-country-may-she-always-be-right.html#comment-7366 Ah, Father Schall, right as usual. Too true, too true indeed. "It is not preposterous to imagine Christians, at least those who do not capitulate to relativist standards, soon standing before judges and politicians, and declared evil for upholding standard reason and revelation about what a human being is." AND "The American regime during much of its history has been protected – largely because of its constitutional limitations and its religious and philosophical common sense – from making politics to be the defining instrument of reality. This protection no longer exists. “My country” is now quite busy itself, defining right and wrong contrary to any transcendent understanding of what man is." These are both especially distrubing! Years ago I might have said that those comments were over the top, but that was then, this is now, and they seem to be more and more plausible year by year. And given my younger age, I just may live to see an age where these kind of things really do happen. - Aeneas Sun, 10 Jul 2011 18:02:09 +0100