Comments for What Should We Do? at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 7 out of 7 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Tue, 21 May 2013 02:09:36 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/what-should-we-do.html#comment-14974 These modern political forms to which we are "subject" are not alien to us by any means, but are rather heretical forms of Christianity. The impulse to force the rich to support the poor is one that would never have been seen in a pagan society (which would usually be more inclined to worship the rich). It could only have occurred in one formed by Christianity. But those proposing such laws will not only never acknowledge this -- they will moreover accuse the Christians of being patsies to the rich by not supporting forcible wealth redistribution. They therefore assume the mantle of: "More Christian Than the Christians." They are the ones who will show Christians how to "truly" follow Christ's words, usually with state support and cushy jobs for them and their friends. Rene Girard discusses these types; they are influential in France, and beginning to gain ground in the US. When dealing with them, remind them that attempts to politicize or institutionalize charity outside of the Church has generally ended in mass murder. - Patrick Sun, 16 Dec 2012 22:06:16 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/what-should-we-do.html#comment-14970 JRW. The issue is not semantics, it is ontology. There is a real asymmetry between the persons even in terms of their names. - Fr. Bramwell Sun, 16 Dec 2012 10:41:23 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/what-should-we-do.html#comment-14969 Manfred some of your suggestions make real sense. The question is much larger than that covered by my little column. The issue there is quite simply the Truth. Do we allow a Lockean philosophy of the human being to replace what we learn from the Church? Teaching more and better is certainly a big part of the solution. We do not make as much effort as Sony for example to get Catholic attention. - Fr. Bramwell Sun, 16 Dec 2012 10:39:43 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/what-should-we-do.html#comment-14968 Thanks, Fr B. I think it is a problem of semantics in trying to describe the indescribable. If God is love, and the Father's love for the Son is perfect and complete, and the Son's love is perfect and complete, and the love between them (aka the Holy Spirit) is perfect and complete, I would think of the relations among the Trinitarian Persons as symmetric, while our relations with God are asymmetric. But this does not alter the basic point of the sacramental nature of ordered reality and of our participation in that reality, the reality of God's personal love. - JRW Sun, 16 Dec 2012 08:15:19 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/what-should-we-do.html#comment-14967 What should we do? Why don't we try what some of the bishops are recommending? 1. Meatless Fridays as a penance. 2. Daily Rosaries to ask for succor from the Mother of God 3. Masses said Ad Orientem, preferably Traditionally. 4. Return to the Sacrament of Penance. 5. Reignite a Catholic identity by teaching the TRUTH. 6. Teach moral theology as part of the TRUTH. BTW when will you review Prof. Olsen's book "Of Sodomites, Effeminates, etc....Sodomy in the Age of Peter Damien." It was Damien who wrote on numerous occasions to the pope of the rampant homosexuality in the Catholic priesthood 1,000 years ago. - Manfred Sun, 16 Dec 2012 07:33:55 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/what-should-we-do.html#comment-14966 Sure JRW, the asymmetry to which he refers shows up in terms of the relations between the persons. The Father is Father as pouring himself out eternally as Son. The Son is Son as eternally being poured out by the Father etc. etc. Does this help? - Fr. Bramwell Sun, 16 Dec 2012 06:17:19 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/what-should-we-do.html#comment-14965 Many thanks, Fr B. I suspect Olsen's arguments for concrete, traditional friendship, and yours against a state that uses coercion to enforce egalitarianism understood as dead-level equality, both in essence amount to a strong case for subsidiarity. Could you elaborate on Olsen's description of the Persons of the Trinity as "asymmetric"? I has always thought of Them, wrongly perhaps, as distinct but perfectly symmetrical. - JRW Sun, 16 Dec 2012 03:54:30 +0100