Kresta In The Afternoon

Friday, December 21, 2012

Today on "Kresta in the Afternoon" - December 21, 2012

Talking about the "things that matter most" on Dec. 21

4:00 – Kresta Comments: Vatican Observatory Comments on Mayan Calendar / FBI: 67 hate crimes against Catholics in 2011

4:20 – My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir
In My Sisters the Saints, author Colleen Carroll Campbell blends her personal narrative of spiritual seeking, trials, stumbles, and breakthroughs with the stories of six women saints who profoundly changed her life: Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux, Faustina of Poland, Edith Stein of Germany, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and Mary of Nazareth. Drawing upon the rich writings and examples of these extraordinary women, the author reveals Christianity's liberating power for women and the relevance of the saints to the lives of contemporary Christians. She joins us today.

5:00 – The Monks of Tibhirine: Faith, Love, and Terror in Algeria
You saw the major motion picture "Of Gods and Men" and now you should READ it’s inspiration. In the spring of l996 armed men broke into a Trappist monastery in war-torn Algeria and took seven monks hostage, pawns in a murky negotiation to free imprisoned terrorists. Two months later their severed heads were found in a tree; their bodies were never recovered. The village of Tibhirine had sprung up around the monastery because it was a holy place protected by the Virgin Mary, revered by Christians and Muslims alike. But napalm, helicopters, and gunfire had become regular accompaniments to the monastic routine as the violence engulfing Algeria drew closer to the isolated cloister high in the Atlas Mountains. John Kiser is here to tell the story.

'The Hobbit' and Virtue

by Joseph Pearce, National Catholic Register Correspondent
Friday, Dec 14, 2012 7:13 AM

J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is a publishing phenomenon.

Since its initial publication almost 60 years ago, it is estimated to have registered sales in excess of 150 million copies.

In a poll organized jointly by Waterstones and BBC Channel 4 in 1996, The Lord of the Rings topped the poll in 104 of the 105 branches of the British bookstore, receiving 20% more votes than George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, its nearest rival. Perhaps its ultimate triumph in the age of the Internet was its being voted best book of the millennium by Amazon.com customers, signaling its conquest of the final frontier of cyberspace.

In the wake of the book’s phenomenal success, Peter Jackson’s movie adaptation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy became one of the most successful films of all time.

Few would predict anything other than another huge success for Jackson and his team with the Dec. 14 release of the first part of the long-awaited three-part adaptation of The Hobbit.

At its deepest level of meaning, The Hobbit is a pilgrimage of grace in which its protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, becomes grown-up in the most important sense. Throughout the course of his adventure, the hobbit develops the habit of virtue and grows in sanctity, illustrating the priceless truth that we only become wise men (homo sapiens) when we realize that we are pilgrims on a purposeful journey through life (homo viator).

Bilbo’s journey from the homely comfort of the Shire to the uncomfortable lessons learned en route to the Lonely Mountain, in parallel with Frodo’s journey from the Shire to Mount Doom in the Rings trilogy, is a mirror of every man’s journey through life. It is in this sense that Tolkien wrote in his celebrated and cerebral essay "On Fairy Stories" that "the fairy story … may be used as a mirour de l’omme" (the mirror of scorn and pity towards man).

In short, we are meant to see ourselves reflected in the character of Bilbo and our lives reflected in his journey from the Shire to the Lonely Mountain.

Indeed, and perhaps surprisingly, Bilbo bears a remarkable resemblance to many of us, his diminutive size and furry feet notwithstanding. He likes tea and toast and jam and pickles; he has wardrobes full of clothes and lots of pantries full of food; he likes the view from his own window and has little desire to see the view from distant windows. He is a creature of comfort dedicated to the creature comforts.

In Christian terms, Bilbo Baggins is dedicated to the easy life and would find the prospect of taking up his cross and following the heroic path of self-sacrifice utterly anathema.

The unexpected party at the beginning of the story, in which the hobbit’s daily habits are disrupted by the arrival of unexpected and unwelcome guests, is, therefore, a necessary disruption. It is the intervention into his cozy life of an element of inconvenience or suffering, which serves as a wake-up call and a call to action.

In losing his bourgeois respectability — the price he must pay for becoming an adventurer — he forsakes the world and the worldly in favor of the pearl of great price.

Another key component of The Hobbit, which it shares with The Lord of the Rings, is the presence of the invisible hand of Providence or grace. This presence, euphemistically labeled "luck" in the story, is not really "luck" at all.

"You don’t really suppose, do you," Gandalf tells Bilbo, "that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit?"

Contrary to the claims of Nietzsche, Hitler and other secular "progressives," there is no triumph of the will without the supernatural assistance of grace. This is the whole point of Frodo’s failure to destroy the One Ring of his own volition in The Lord of the Rings. Human will, on its own, is never enough. Grace is always necessary.

In The Hobbit, as in The Lord of the Rings, good "luck" is inextricably connected to good choices, and bad "luck" is inextricably connected to bad choices. With regard to the latter, we should recall the words of Gandalf to Pippin: "Often does hatred hurt itself" — or the words of Theoden that "oft evil will shall evil mar."

Thus, there is a supernatural dimension to the unfolding of events in Middle-earth, in which Tolkien shows the mystical balance that exists between the promptings of grace or of demonic temptation and the response of the will to such promptings and temptations. This mystical relationship plays itself out in the form of transcendent Providence, which is much more than "luck" or chance.

For a Christian, this is life as it is. It is realism.

A Christian believes in dragons, even if he can’t see them, and knows that they are perilous and potentially deadly. They are certainly not to be courted, nor is it wise to toy with them.

"The more truly we can see life as a fairy tale," said G.K. Chesterton, "the more clearly the tale resolves itself into war with the dragon who is wasting fairyland."

Grace is always available to those who seek it and ask for it, biasing "fortune" in the direction of goodness; yet, on the other hand, the fallen nature of humanity means that man’s natural tendency is towards concupiscence and its destructive consequences. If we don’t ask for help, we are bound to fall.

It is in this choice, rooted in the gift and responsibility of free will, that the struggle with evil is won or lost. The will must willingly cooperate with grace or, in its failure to do so, must inevitably fall into evil. The struggle which all of us face is a dangerous adventure in a perilous realm.

If the interplay of Providence and free will is the means by which the dynamism of virtue and its consequences drive the narrative forward, the overarching moral of The Hobbit would appear to be a cautionary meditation on Matthew 6:21 ("Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also").

The story begins with Bilbo’s desire for comfort and his unwillingness to sacrifice himself for others. His heart is essentially self-centered, surrounding itself with the treasures of his own home. His position at the outset of the story is an ironic and symbolic prefiguring of the dragon’s surrounding himself with treasure in his "home" in the Lonely Mountain.

Bilbo is, therefore, afflicted with the dragon sickness. His pilgrimage to the Lonely Mountain is the means by which he will be cured of this materialist malady. It is a via dolorosa, a path of suffering, the following of which will heal him of his self-centeredness and teach him to give himself self-sacrificially to others.

The paradoxical consequence of the dragon sickness is that the things possessed possess the possessor. Thus Bilbo is a slave to his possessions at the beginning of The Hobbit and is liberated from them, or from his addiction to them, by its end.

When Gandalf proclaims at the story’s end that Bilbo is no longer the hobbit that he was, we know that he is changed for the better. He no longer places his heart at the service of his worldly possessions, but seeks instead those treasures of the heart to be found in wisdom and virtue. He is healed, and he is whole — or, as Tolkien the Catholic might say, he is whole because he is holy. The hobbit had attained the habit of virtue, and, as befits the hero of any good fairy story, he now knows what is necessary to live happily ever after.

Joseph Pearce, writer in residence at Thomas More College in New Hampshire, is the author of

Tolkien: Man & Myth and editor of Tolkien: A Celebration.

His latest book is Bilbo’s Pilgrimage: The Christianity of The Hobbit (Saint Benedict’s Press).

Showtime Greenlights Vatican Drama Pilot From Paul Attanasio, Ridley Scott To Direct

By NELLIE ANDREEVA, Deadline Hollywood

Thursday December 20, 2012 @ 3:51pm PST

Ridley Scott

Paul Attanasio

In Showtime’s first pilot order for 2013, the pay cable network has greenlighted a high-profile drama from Oscar nominees Paul Attanasio and Ridley Scott. Titled The Vatican, the project is described as a provocative contemporary genre thriller about spirituality, power and politics set against the modern-day political machinations within the Catholic church. Said to evoke The Sopranos and Upstairs Downstairs, the series will explore the relationships and rivalries as well as the mysteries and miracles behind one of the world’s most hidden institutions.
The Vatican, produced by Sony Pictures TV in association with Showtime and Scott Free, has been a passion project for House executive producer Attanasio, who has been working on it for a couple of years. His script started heating up at Showtime a few weeks ago, forcing Attanasio to pull out of the Rake series adaptation starring Greg Kinnear, which Sony TV was shopping. The pay cable network then proceeded with attaching an A-list director before giving the project a green light. I hear a quartet of top feature directors circled the drama, with Ridley Scott ultimately signing on for what will be his pilot directing debut. CAA-repped Attanasio and WME-repped Scott executive produce with Scott Free’s David Zucker (The Good Wife).

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Gov. Jindal Draws Correction From Church for Contraception Op-Ed

In a Dec. 13 Wall Street Journal editorial, the Louisiana governor expresses support for over-the-counter access to birth control.

by HILLARY SENOUR/EWTN 12/17/2012, National Catholic Register

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal

– EWTN News

BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has voiced his support for over-the-counter access to birth control, a position that Church representatives say goes against Catholic teaching on contraception.
“The Archdiocese of New Orleans disagrees with Governor Jindal’s stance on this issue, as the use of birth control and contraceptives are against Catholic Church teaching,” Sarah Comiskey McDonald, communications director for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, told EWTN News Dec. 14.
Robert Tasman, associate director of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops, also echoed the archdiocese’s statement.
Jindal, a Catholic, argued in a Dec. 13 editorial for The Wall Street Journal that allowing access to artificial birth control without a prescription would remove politics from contraception while also protecting the rights of individuals who are morally opposed to paying for its coverage.
In his opinion piece, Jindal cited a recommendation from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that says birth control should be available over the counter, arguing that unintended pregnancies are a “major public-health problem” in the U.S.
Jindal said the two reasons women must visit a doctor for a prescription for a drug that “research says is safe” is “because big government says they should” and “because big pharmaceutical companies benefit from it.”
"It's time to put purchasing power back in the hands of consumers — not employers, not pharmaceutical companies and not bureaucrats in Washington," he said.
He added that this arrangement would ensure that “anyone who has a religious objection to contraception” would not be “forced by government health-care edicts to purchase it for others.”
The governor, who has been mentioned as a possible 2016 Republican presidential candidate, said making birth control available over the counter to adults would “take contraception out of the political arena” as well as help cut health-care costs.
He criticized his party, saying that it is “stupid to let the Democrats demagogue the contraceptives issue.”
While he described himself as “an unapologetic pro-life Republican” the governor said that “everyone who wants contraception should be able to purchase it.”
In his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI categorically rejected contraception as immoral. The encyclical specifies that it is morally unacceptable to engage in “any action which either before, at the moment of or after sexual intercourse is specifically intended to prevent procreation — whether as an end or as a means” (14).
Jindal’s press office did not respond to inquiries from EWTN News.

Obamacare could drive Little Sisters of the Poor out of the US

2:55 AM 12/19/2012

David Martosko

The Daily Caller

Executive Editor

A religious order of nuns is concerned about its future presence in the United States because of Obamacare’s impact on its charitable operations. The Little Sisters of the Poor told The Daily Caller that it may not qualify for a long-term exemption from Obamacare’s healthcare mandate. The law requires the order to provide government-approved health insurance to its 300 sisters who tend to the elderly in 30 U.S. cities.

The exception is needed, said Sister Constance Carolyn Veit, the Little Sisters’ communications director, because Catholic opposes teaching contraception and medical treatments that cause sterility or can cause abortions.

President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul law requires employers to include those services in qualifying health care plans they provide for their employees. Failure to comply will bring hefty fines — even for religious orders whose members have taken vows of poverty.

“[I]t could be a serious threat to our mission in the U.S.,” Constance told TheDC, “because we would never be able to afford to pay the fines involved. We have difficulty making ends meet just on a regular basis; we have no extra funding that would cover these fines.”

The crux of the matter is a religious exemption that the federal government is expected to make available to Catholic churches, but not to other Catholic institutions.

That’s because unlike Catholic parishes and dioceses, the church’s many affiliated schools, charities, religious orders and hospitals don’t discriminate in their hiring or service, often employing staff — and serving people in need — who come from other Christian denominations or from other faiths entirely.

“We are not exempt from the [Obamacare] mandate because we neither serve nor employ a predominantly Catholic population,” Constance added. ”We hire employees and serve/house the elderly regardless of race and religion, so that makes us ineligible for the exemption being granted churches.”

Those employees, she said, number in the thousands.

“We employ about 100 employees per home; many of them receive their health insurance through us,” Constance explained. “So the financial burden with fines is not primarily for our own insurance coverage, but for theirs, a much bigger dollar amount.”

The one concession the Obama administration made to religious groups like hers was a one-year extension of time before they would be expected to provide their staff with health insurance that met with the White House’s approval. That extension will expire at the end of 2013, but the sisters have only a few weeks left to make their case for an exemption beyond the end of next year.

“We just cannot not say what will happen,” Constance told TheDC. “We are continuing to pray that our backs will not be up against the wall in 2014. If we are forced to make a decision, we will seek concrete direction from the U.S. bishops.”

The Little Sisters of the Poor take care of elderly patients in 31 countries, but on Dec. 16 a representative told the congregation of Saint Raymond of Peñafort Church in Springfield, Va., that her order could conceivably be forced to pull out of the United States if paying fines and penalties is the only alternative to compromising on the doctrines of their religion.

Asked about that Sunday Mass message, Constance responded, “Essentially it sounds like what sister said was accurate.”
In a June 2012 essay appearing in The Tablet, a Catholic newspaper in Brooklyn, N.Y., she said leaving the United States entirely wouldn’t be without precedent.

“[A]s Little Sisters of the Poor, we are not strangers to religious intolerance,” she wrote. “Our foundress was born at the height of the French Revolution and established our congregation in its aftermath. Our sisters have been forced to leave numerous countries, including China, Myanmar and Hungary, because of religious intolerance. We pray that the United States will not be added to this list.”

Ultimately, it’s all a matter of numbers.

“[I]f we were to stop offering health insurance rather than comply with the mandate,” she told the National Catholic Register in October, “we would have to pay a $2,000 penalty per employee. This penalty aside, it just does not seem right to us to stop providing health insurance to our employees.”

“If we chose to offer insurance without the objectionable services,” she continued, “we would honor our consciences, but we’d have to pay $100 per day per employee. … [F]or an organization with 50 employees, that would mean almost $2 million per year.”
Constance added that Medicaid reimbursements from the government cover only half the cost of caring for elderly sick people “in the way they deserve.”
She also explained to the National Catholic Reporter that although the Catholic Church’s primary objection to Obamacare involves reproductive health care — a subject seldom associated with nuns or their elderly patients — “we are concerned about what could happen later.”

“What we fear is that, if the federal government succeeds in this case, there are other areas where they could exert pressure or enact measures that could endanger our apostolate — particularly in end-of-life care and in the possible rationing of care to the elderly as a cost-saving measure.”

For the moment, however, the Little Sisters are focused more on providing health care than on fighting health-care battles. A contentious and public battle with Washington, D.C. has made some residents of their nursing homes and assisted-living facilities all over the country anxious about whether the organization will be there in years to come.
“We wish to avoid causing them any further anxiety,” Constance said.
“They are always our first concern, our employees as well.”
This story was updated after publication to include an estimate of the number of lay employees who work in Little Sisters of the Poor homes throughout the United States.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/12/19/obamacare-could-drive-little-sisters-of-the-poor-out-of-the-us/#ixzz2FecVu9V3

Anne Marie McGowan Murphy, Rest In Peace

Thursday, December 20, 2012 - Archdiocese of New York

It was my honor to say the funeral mass for Anne Marie McGowan Murphy this morning at St. Mary of the Assumption in Katonah, I’d like to share my homily with you.

Homily

Michael, Kelly Anne, Colleen, Thomas, and Paige;
Hugh and Alice;
Hugh and Valerie;
Mary Pat and Jim;
Tom and Clare;
Peter and Toni;
Alice and Eddie;
Catherine and Thom;
dear family and close friends of Annie:
we love you very much!
With you we cry, and do not really know what to say . . .
With you, and for you, we pray hard:
thanking God for Annie’s life;
asking His mercy in bringing her to her true and eternal home of heaven, as Jesus just promised us in the gospel;
and seeking God’s strength for you, the strength mentioned by St. Paul this morning, as you continue to persevere through this tragic loss.
These sentiments of love, prayer, sympathy, and solidarity, come from all of us – - Father Connors, Father Paul, Father Dominic and the parishioners of St. Mary’s Parish, Annie’s spiritual home; from my brother priests; from so many friends and neighbors, indeed, from all over our country and our world – - as we come to Annie’s funeral.
In the wisdom of Holy Mother Church, a funeral Mass is not so much about the life and death of the person we come to bury, but primarily about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus . . .
Jesus, the divine Teacher, the greatest teacher ever;
Jesus, our divine friend, who had a favored place in His Sacred Heart for children and for people with special needs;
Jesus, who told us that, “Greater love than this no one has, than to lay down his life for his friends;”
Jesus, who brought all creation together by His own death on the cross, as He died so we could live forever;
Jesus, who, by rising from the dead, dramatically showed us that the violence, darkness, evil, and death of that Friday does not have the last word, because, when God His Father gives life, that life is forever, and cannot be destroyed.
Annie would indeed want us to make all of this about Jesus, because she was a woman of faith.
I never had the honor of meeting Annie, so I’m at a disadvantage.
Then, again, I never had the honor of physically meeting Jesus, yet my union with Him is the most important thing in my life.
And, because I know Jesus, I feel as if I know Ann Marie McGowan Murphy quite well!
Like Jesus, Annie was an excellent teacher;
Like Him, she had a favored place in her big, tender heart for children, especially those with struggles;
Like Jesus, Annie laid down her life for her friends;
Like Him, she has brought together a community, a nation, a world, now awed by her own life and death;
Like Jesus, Annie’s life and death brings light, truth, goodness, and love, to a world often shrouded in darkness, evil, selfishness, and death.
So, while this is first about Jesus, it’s also about Annie, because, simply put, she lived and died in, with, and through Him. She reminds us of Jesus.
You realize tomorrow, December 21, is the darkest day of the year, with the sun – - S – U – N – - at its lowest point;
You realize, too, that the following day the sun – - S – U – N – - begins its ascent again, as the days gradually get brighter;
You realize that we will soon celebrate the birth of the son – - S – O – N – - who came long ago at Bethlehem with the Christmas gift of eternal life for those who believe.
You realize that, as we trust in God’s mercy, Annie now has opened this supreme Christmas present.

Today on "Kresta in the Afternoon" - December 20, 2012

Talking about the "things that matter most" on Dec. 20

4:00 – Robert Bork, known for contentious Supreme Court nomination, dies at 85
Former federal judge and legal scholar Robert Bork died early yesterday at his Virginia home. He was 85. Perhaps best known for his nomination to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, Bork was rejected for the post after a vicious confirmation battle led by left-leaning groups that opposed his conservative judicial philosophies. We talk to Bork’s friend and colleague Bernard Dobranski and play portions of the interviews we had with Judge Bork over the years.

4:40 – Kresta Comments: The Newtown Massacre

5:00 – 9 Things You Need to Know About Pope Benedict's New Book About Baby Jesus
Pope Benedict has just released a new book about Jesus Christ. It's appropriate that he released it now--just before Christmas--because it deals with the birth of Jesus. It's called Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives. Apologist extraordinairre Jimmy Akin joins us to share 9 things you should know about it.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Federal Appeals Court Hands Victory to Religious Colleges, Commands HHS to Act Quickly to Fix Mandate

Washington, D.C., The Becket Fund — Today, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. handed Wheaton College and Belmont Abbey College a major victory in their challenges to the HHS mandate. Last summer, two lower courts had dismissed the Colleges’ cases as premature. Today, the appellate court reinstated those cases, and ordered the Obama Administration to report back every 60 days—starting in mid-February—until the Administration makes good on its promise to issue a new rule that protects the Colleges’ religious freedom. The new rule must be issued by March 31, 2013.

“The D.C. Circuit has now made it clear that government promises and press conferences are not enough to protect religious freedom,” said Kyle Duncan, General Counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, who argued the case. “The court is not going to let the government slide by on non-binding promises to fix the problem down the road.”
The court based its decision on two concessions that government lawyers made in open court. First, the government promised “it would never enforce [the mandate] in its current form” against Wheaton, Belmont Abbey or other similarly situated religious groups. Second, the government promised it would publish a proposed new rule “in the first quarter of 2013” and would finalize it by next August. The administration made both concessions under intense questioning by the appellate judges. The court deemed the concessions a “binding commitment” and has retained jurisdiction over the case to ensure the government follows through.
“This is a win not just for Belmont Abbey and Wheaton, but for all religious non-profits challenging the mandate,” said Duncan. “The government has now been forced to promise that it will never enforce the current mandate against religious employers like Wheaton and Belmont Abbey and a federal appellate court will hold the government to its word.”
While the government had previously announced plans to create a new rule, it has not yet taken the steps necessary to make that promise legally binding. Lower courts dismissed the colleges’ cases while the government contemplated a new rule, but the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decided the cases should stay alive while it scrutinizes whether the government will meet its promised deadlines. The court acted quickly, issuing Tuesday’s order just days after hearing lengthy arguments.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions—from Anglicans to Zoroastrians. For 18 years its attorneys have been recognized as experts in the field of church-state law. The Becket Fund recently won a 9-0 victory in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC, which The Wall Street Journal called one of “the most important religious liberty cases in a half century.”

###

Additional Information
D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Order (December 18, 2012)
Becket Fund’s Appeal Brief (October 5, 2012)
Wheaton College Case Page (Legal Documents, Images, Resources, FAQ’s)
Belmont Abbey College Case Page (Legal Documents, Images, Resources, FAQ’s)
HHS Information Central (all 42 HHS cases, interactive map, resources, legal documents, FAQ’s, and more)

Today on "Kresta in the Afternoon" - December 19, 2012

Talking about the "things that matter most" on Dec. 19

4:00 – 6:00 – Annual Book Recommendation Special
It’s our annual tradition: The last-minute book-buying recommendation special! We invite some of our favorite people to join us and share three books that they have read in the last year and would recommend to our listeners if they still have some shopping to do – or if you need to give yourself a gift :) Guests include Mike Aquilina, Rori Hoipkemier, Lisa Hendey, Steve Ray, Greg Popcak, Paul Kengor, Steven Greydanus, Teresa Tomeo, and more. Get out your pen and paper and be with us.

The O Antiphons: 18 December - O Adonai

From Fr. Z's blog -
LATIN: O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel, qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti, et ei in Sina legem dedisti: veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento..

ENGLISH: O Lord and Ruler the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: come, and redeem us with outstretched arms.

Listen to this chant from the Liber Usualis: mp3

Scripture Reference:

Exodus 3
Micah 5:2
Matthew 2:6
Relevant verse of Veni, Veni Emmanuel:
O come, O come, thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai's height
In ancient times didst give the law
In cloud and majesty, and awe.

The version from the Dominican antiphonarium:

REFLECTION:
O Antiphons: 18 December - O Adonai (ENGLISH: "O Lord and Ruler the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: come, and redeem us with outstretched arms.")

"Adonai" is "LORD." It was the Hebrew word that the Jews used when they found the four-lettered word for God's name which they held to be too sacred to pronounce aloud. Christ is Lord of Creation. We sang this yesterday in the antiphon "O Sapientia". Christ is also Lord of the Covenant with the People He chose. The Lord made covenants with Noah, Abraham, and Moses. He guided them and all the People. He gave them Law. He protected and feed them. The Lord delivered them from bondage to Pharaoh and unending slavery. He went before them with arm outstretched.

This was all a pre-figuring of the great work of redemptions that Christ would work on the Cross. He redeemed us His People from Satan and the eternal damnation of hell. He once appeared clothed in the burning bush that was not consumed by fire. He is about to appear again clothed in flesh in our liturgical celebration of Christmas. He will appear again one day in the future to judge the living and the dead. Each day He appears to us in the person of our neighbor.

What amazing contrasts we find in our Lord! He came in thunder and lightening to give the Law on Mt. Sinai. He comes now in swaddling clothes. He will come again in glory. He comes humbly in the appearance of Bread and Wine.

He still goes before us with outstretched arm and our foes are put to flight at the sight of His banner.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Notre Dame’s Plan for a Faithful Homosexual Outreach

The university’s administration outlines its plan for a student organization intended to address homosexual issues in an authentically Catholic manner, but some informed observers are skeptical it will respect Church teachings.

National Catholic Register

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — After years of petitions, Notre Dame, the premier Catholic university in the United States, has announced it will create an official campus support group for homosexual students and their friends.

The University of Notre Dame's Basilica of the Sacred Heart in the forefront as well as the Golden Dome in the background.

– Michael Fernandes/ Wikipedia

But Notre Dame has a more radical idea than the petitioners imagined: It plans to create a permanent student organization grounded fully in Catholic social and moral teaching.
Students and faculty at Notre Dame aggressively pressed Notre Dame’s administration and president, Holy Cross Father John Jenkins, to approve an official “gay-straight alliance” club on campus and add sexual orientation into the university’s legal protections.
AllianceND, an unofficial club for homosexual students and their allies, requested approval as an official student club on campus. The club’s proposed constitution, however, did not address Catholic teaching other than pledge the club would “not address GLBTQ issues that are in opposition to [Notre Dame’s] Catholic identity.” The GLBTQ acronym stands for “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered and Questioning.”
The Progressive Student Alliance spearheaded the campaign for AllianceND’s approval with “It needs to get better” videos spread all over social media and convinced both the student and faculty senates to vote their support.
But instead of approving or denying official recognition to AllianceND, Notre Dame’s administration came to a solution that has both surprised and excited the campus and elicited praise from the local Catholic bishop.
“I am confident that this multifaceted, pastoral approach represents the next step in advancing our efforts toward this aspiration for our GLBTQ students,” Father Jenkins said in a press release.

‘Beloved Friends’
Notre Dame’s Office of Student Affairs has developed a comprehensive plan, called “Beloved Friends and Allies: A Pastoral Plan for the Support and Holistic Development of GLBTQ and Heterosexual Students at the University of Notre Dame.”
One part of the initiative is a new student organization fully engaged in supporting GLBTQ youth with Catholic resources and within a Catholic context.
“Notre Dame’s Catholic mission grounds all of the revised structures outlined in the 'Pastoral Plan,' including the student organization,” Erin Harding, vice president for student affairs, told the Register. “These structures are designed both to continue to build an inclusive community at Notre Dame and promote students’ holistic growth and development, including their moral and spiritual formation.”
The plan calls for a permanent body that homosexual and heterosexual students may join and elect officers. The new student organization will provide peer-to-peer support, programming, service opportunities and integrate students better with the programs and formation initiatives of Notre Dame’s Gender Relations Center, Campus Ministry, the University Counseling Center and the Institute for Church Life.
But, most significantly, Notre Dame’s "Pastoral Plan" declares that its “goals and objectives, as well as its programs and initiatives, are consonant with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.” It dedicates eight paragraphs to making this point, repeatedly citing passages from the Catechism of the Catholic Church dealing with marriage, sexuality, friendship and the life of chastity.
The plan notes: “The Catholic Church states that ‘love is the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being’ (CCC, 2392) but also attests that the call to chastity is God’s invitation for all to be in loving relationship with others according to the demands of the moral virtues (CCC, 2348).”
The plan repeatedly notes that the new student organization will uphold “the challenging, even though beautiful and life-giving, call to chaste relationships” and that “Student Affairs neither condones nor supports sexual activity outside the marital relationship or any sexual activities that ‘close the sexual act to the gift of life’ (CCC, 2357).”

Skepticism
Father Jenkins approved the plan after conducting a five-month review, but some critics were skeptical about whether the university administration could effectively secure the new organization’s adherence to Church teaching.
“The school has regularly turned down these requests for the last 15 years because these clubs collide with Catholic identity,” said William Dempsey, president of the Sycamore Trust, an alumni organization dedicated to upholding Notre Dame’s Catholic identity. “The issue here is the approval of a gay student organization and then giving it the additional exalted status of a ‘student organization.’ That ranks it alongside student government, and we have no indication Father Jenkins will impose any limitations or Church doctrine.”
Dempsey expressed concern over Father Jenkins’s leadership of Notre Dame with respect to its Catholic identity and said he had no confidence Father Jenkins would restrict the student organization’s activities. He cited the university president’s decision to give President Barack Obama an honorary law degree in 2009, despite public objections from scores of U.S. bishops; the handling of the 88 pro-life protesters who were charged with criminal trespassing at the Notre Dame campus for protesting against President Obama’s being honored; and Father Jenkins’s permissions for an on-campus production of the obscene playThe V----- Monologues and sponsorship of a “Queer Film Festival.”
However, the play has not made an appearance on campus since 2008, when Father Jenkins ordered that its presentation be accompanied by panel discussions with a “sympathetic and thorough presentation of Catholic teaching” on sexuality. And Tom O’Neil, an alumnus who helped to found Notre Dame’s “Queer Film Festival” in 2004, also blamed Father Jenkins for administration moves that O’Neil said had caused the “slow, quiet strangulation” of the homosexual film festival by 2009.
Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, said Notre Dame’s attempt to address homosexual issues in an authentically Catholic way was “impressive.” However, he said, Father Jenkins must impose restrictions on the group’s activities.
“The problem comes from the students who are engaged in this issue but have a lack of catechesis and moral maturity,” Reilly said.
Notre Dame law professor Gerard Bradley, the former director of Notre Dame’s Natural Law Institute, was similarly cautious. While the "Pastoral Plan" includes “some sound elements,” it needs more specifics, he said.
“There is substantial cause for concern about the soundness of that coming implementation,” Bradley said. “For example, the plan says that Notre Dame affirms Church’s teaching, which distinguishes between homosexual acts and the homosexual condition, and that the condition itself is not sinful. But the plan nowhere affirms the Church’s teaching that the condition is itself objectively disordered.”
Holy Cross Father William Miscamble, who is a Notre Dame history professor, said his own misgiving is that the university’s good intentions might go awry.
“Much will depend on the implementation of the 'Pastoral Plan,' but such an organization seems likely to develop into an advocacy group promoting the gay lifestyle,” he said. “This will run counter to the professed goals of the plan and will be very damaging to the Catholic mission and identity of Notre Dame.”
But Holy Cross Father William Dailey, a visiting lecturer at the university’s law school and a fellow at Notre Dame’s Center of Ethics and Culture, expressed optimism that Notre Dame had seized an opportunity to engage directly in a conversation with students about living a life of holiness in the context of same-sex attraction.
“This document does not include the culture’s belief that we find our real identity in our sexual orientation or sexual identity,” Father Dailey noted. “Rather, we find our identity in Christ. I think this is an effort to minister pastorally to this group without in any way compromising our Church’s beautiful teachings, especially on chastity.”

Stronger Oversight
Student affairs vice president Harding explained in an email to the Register that the university will have much more say over the formation and direction of the student organization than would be the case if it had authorized an official student club.
“We determined that a recognized student organization provides both autonomy and accountability for our students to offer peer-to-peer support and service opportunities,” Harding said.
Harding said that clubs can “make constitutional changes at will” and change their advisors whenever they like. As a student organization, however, the university “always” appoints the advisor, and no constitutional changes can be approved without the advisor’s consent.
To fill that position, Harding said Notre Dame is looking for a full-time student development professional “who understands and embraces the university’s Catholic mission.” Students will have a voice in the hiring process, but once a candidate is selected, the plan will be fully implemented.
Eve Tushnet, an openly homosexual writer living as a faithful Catholic, said she found Notre Dame’s approach “refreshing.”
“I think the focus on friendship is perhaps more surprising and refreshing than it may seem to those outside these debates,” Tushnet said. “While young people do have questions about Catholic teaching, they also have no role model for leading a chaste gay life.”
Tushnet suggested that Notre Dame’s action could open lines of communication with homosexual youth about how to live a full Catholic life, develop friendships and find their vocation.
Tushnet said the loneliness of living silently with same-sex attraction creates a huge opening for sin: “This can lead to hooking up with the opposite sex to prove you are not gay, despair, leaving the Church and dishonesty.”

Bishop Rhoades
Bishop Kevin Rhoades of South Bend, Ind., told the Register that Notre Dame’s initiative has praiseworthy objectives and should not be dismissed beforehand.
“I believe there is a need at Catholic universities to provide pastoral care and support to persons with same-sex attraction. This is what Notre Dame’s 'Pastoral Plan' is attempting to do,” Bishop Rhoades said. “This pastoral care should help the students not to feel unwelcome or alienated in the community, but also help them to lead chaste and holy lives.”
“I think that people, especially youth, who feel isolated or alienated can be more susceptible to destructive unchaste behavior,” Rhoades said. “Isolation, alienation, insecurity, etc. can lead to pleasure-seeking in sinful behavior that ultimately brings unhappiness.”
Bishop Rhoades stressed that Christians must understand that ministry to homosexual persons is an essential element of the integral promotion of human dignity, which is critical to the success of the pro-life movement as well.
“Promoting chastity is an important part of our pro-life commitment,” Rhoades said. “The Sixth Commandment that calls to chastity follows the Fifth Commandment that calls us to respect life. It is the connection between life and love.”
Notre Dame senior Chris Damian, a philosophy major and writer for The Observer campus newspaper, told the Register that he had shared the concerns that the administration would approve a student club that could pose a similar challenge to Catholic teachings about sexuality.
But Damian said students at Notre Dame, even those with concerns like himself, welcomed the administration’s move in “Beloved Friends and Allies.”
“I’m very enthusiastic, because Notre Dame has a great opportunity to make a radical commitment to the care of these students,” Damian said.
Alex Coccia, a junior majoring in Africana studies and co-chairman of AllianceND, said he was pleased with the pastoral plan and that its initiatives were grounded in Church teaching. Although socially progressive himself, Coccia said that AllianceND would never had gained the majority support it received at Notre Dame if it had opposed Church teaching, especially on same-sex "marriage."
He said AllianceND would end its bid for club status and transfer into the new student organization.
“Ultimately, we decided that the goals of AllianceND are found in this new organization, especially the peer-to-peer support,” Coccia said.
The next key phase in the development of the student organization will be drafting its constitution, a process that will involve participation of both students and the administration. Coccia said he expected that “components of the 'Pastoral Plan'” will be part of the new constitution.

Not ‘Morally Neutral’
However, Bishop Rhoades cautioned that pastoral plans and support groups for homosexual students and their friends cannot take a “morally neutral” position on homosexuality.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, in 2357, that “homosexual acts are gravely disordered” and that “under no circumstances can they be approved.”
“They are called to be faithful to the Christian message as handed on to us through the Church,” Bishop Rhoades said of pastoral outreaches on Catholic campuses. “Such ‘moral neutrality’ does not serve the ultimate good of the students.”

Peter J. Smith writes from Rochester, N.Y.

Today on "Kresta in the Afternoon" - December 18, 2012

Talking about the "things that matter most" on Dec. 18

4:00 – Direct to My Desk: Tragedy, Culture and a Free People

4:40 – Big Labor, The Right to Work, and Catholic Social Teaching: A Debate
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder last week signed a right-to-work bill limiting union power into law in his state. Similar bills have proved brutally contentious in other states like WI and IN, and MI has been no different. We debate the issue, and particularly what Catholic Social Teaching has to say about it with David Peterson and Fr. Robert Sirico.

5:00 – Lance Armstrong's Former Friend Speaks Out About Athlete's Use of Performance Enhancing Drugs
For some of those who knew Lance Armstrong the best, his fall from grace amid doping allegations is no surprise at all. Betsy Andreu, a former family friend to Armstrong says Armstrong is the “Bernie Madoff” of the sporting world. Andreu says Armstrong played the world and the media for years while knowingly taking performance enhancing drugs. Betsy joins us to discuss how she and Armstrong had a falling out when she refused to lie about something she heard while visiting Armstrong in the hospital at the time he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

5:40 – Direct to My Desk: Tragedy, Culture and a Free People

4 Awful Reactions to Sandy Hook School Shooting - And Thoughts on a Better Response

Nick Gillespie, December 15, 2012Reason magazine

Horrific events such as the mass shooting at Newtown, Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School are terrible enough in showcasing the evil that men do.
But they also regularly bring out the worst in observers, commentators, and pundits who will never let a lack of knowledge or expertise stand in the way of making grand pronouncements.

Here's a short tour of four of the least-helpful reactions to an attack that slaughtered more than two dozen Americans - most of them kids 10 years and younger. They come courtesy of a former presidential candidate (Mike Huckabee), an international media mogul (Rupert Murdoch), an Oscar-winning filmmaker (Michael Moore), and a famous crusading journalist (Geraldo Rivera).
Following that is a discussion of the reality of gun violence in America and what might actually address some of the issues in play.

Next: God has left the building...
1. Mike Huckabee: "We have systematically removed God from our schools."
The former governor of Arkansas, Republican hopeful for president, and Fox News host says we've got no reason to be surprised when adult gunmen shoot up educational establishments.

"We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools," Huckabee said on Fox News, discussing the murder spree that took the lives of 20 children and 6 adults in Newtown, CT that morning. "Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?"

More here.
I don't doubt the governor's sincerity, but among other things, he might want to think about the declining rate of school violence. According to data compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics, schools have been getting safer and less violent at least over the past couple of decades - despite what Huckabee would doubtless consider a period of rising godlessness. During the school year of 1992-93, for instance, the number of on-location murders of students and staff at K-12 public schools was 47 (out of population of millions). In 2009-2010 (the latest year for which data is listed), the number was 25. Over the same period, the rate on victimizations per 1,000 students for theft dropped from 101 to 18. For violent crimes, the rate dropped from 53 to 14. And for "serious violent" crimes, the rate dropped from 8 to 4.

Next: It's never too late to blame George W. Bush...

O Sapientia chant

Latin lyrics sung by the Cantarte Regensburg

O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem, fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia: veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.

On December 17th we enter into that final stretch of our Advent preparation. In the Church’s solemn prayer of the hours, at Vespers, the great "O Antiphons" are sung. Today we have the first.

ENGLISH:
O Wisdom, who came from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end and ordering all things mightily and sweetly: come, and teach us the way of prudence.

Scripture References:
Proverbs 1:20; 8; 9
I Corinthians 1:30

Relevant verse of Veni, Veni Emmanuel:
O come, O Wisdom from on high,
who orders all things mightily,
to us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.

(from Fr. Z's blog)

Monday, December 17, 2012

A More Complete Wisdom

By Br. Humbert Kilanowski, O.P.

December 17, 2012

Dominicana

O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem fortiter, suaviterque disponens omnia: veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.

Tonight, with Christmas Eve only a week away, the Church’s liturgy intensifies in anticipation for the coming of the Savior. Each evening until then, at the Magnificat, the Church prays one of the O Antiphons, a series of invocations to the Lord, each beginning with one of the titles applied to Him in the Old Testament. The first one, quoted above, is sung at Vespers this evening:

O Wisdom, who hast proceeded from the mouth of the Most High, who reaches from end to end mightily and orders all things sweetly, come to teach us the way of prudence” (cf. Ws 8:1).

The idea of wisdom is not unique to the Scriptures. In fact, Aristotle wrote in his Metaphysics, “It belongs to the wise man to order,” and in the Nicomachean Ethics, “[The wise] must not only know what follows from the first principles, but must also possess truth about the first principles.” Thus, even this pagan philosopher agrees with the divinely inspired author on the nature of wisdom.
But how can this be put into practice? Can all of human knowledge be ordered?

In the first half of the last century, one school of philosophy, called the Analytic Movement, thought the answer might be “yes.” Thinkers like Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead sought to create a logical system in which every “verifiable” statement could be included. (Anything not verifiable, they said, was not worth consideration.) Using the language of symbolic logic, they undertook the ambitious task of systematizing all knowledge in that purest and most certain of fields—mathematics. They began with primitive propositions, such as “Zero is a number,” and developed rules for deriving true statements, or theorems, from these first principles. Their three-volume work, Principia Mathematica, remains influential even now, a century later.

In 1931, however, Austrian-born mathematician Kurt Gödel found a gaping hole in this system. He devised a rule of assigning a unique number to each symbol in the language, as well as to each statement that could be formed or proof that could be argued. For example, the proposition, “You can add one to any number to get another number” would be represented by the number 626,262,636,333,262,163,636,262,163,111,123,262; and more advanced statements would be mapped to even larger numbers. By effectively turning theorems into numbers and the rules of proof into mathematical relations, Gödel showed that statements about arithmetic could be expressed within arithmetic.

Using these rules, and in this language, Gödel was able to construct the sentence, ”This statement is unprovable within the system.” This presents a quandary: if you can prove it to be true, it becomes false, and vice versa. Just as with the recent popular song lyric, “You don’t know you’re beautiful, and that’s what makes you beautiful,” the sentence is true, but there is no way to know it with logical certainty. This idea, known as Gödel’s First Incompleteness Theorem, showed that Russell and Whitehead’s project had failed. In any logical system large enough to contain the rules of arithmetic, there are some statements that are intelligible and true, but not verifiable.

This principle extends beyond mathematics to other areas of thought. For example, one can understand what is meant by the statements, “There exists a unique God in three Persons,” and, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”; and Christians know these propositions to be true by the divine light of faith. Yet, they cannot be proven within the system of human reason. Even Aristotle himself could not have come up with them. These sentences, known as articles of faith, can only be known as given from a source of knowledge outside our natural reason—they must be revealed by God. St. Thomas Aquinas attests to this at the very beginning of his Summa Theologiae, as he embarks on his project to order the knowledge of God, man, and the universe: “It was necessary for the salvation of man that certain truths which exceed human reason should be made known to him by divine revelation.” St. Thomas continues,

Sacred doctrine essentially treats of God as viewed as the highest cause—not only so far as He can be known through creatures, just as philosophers knew Him . . . but also as far as He is known to Himself and revealed to others. Hence sacred doctrine is especially called wisdom.

Only by divine revelation, given to us through Scripture and Tradition and defined by the Church, can we hope to order everything that the human mind can know.
The gift of faith is what shows us the truth that lies beyond our limited power of reason. It perfects reason and brings us to a more complete wisdom. As we prepare for the coming of Jesus during this Year of Faith, let us ask Him to increase our faith, that we may know Him more closely, and know all things as ordered to Him:

To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.

About the Author:

Br. Humbert Kilanowski, O.P.

Br. Humbert Kilanowski entered the Order of Preachers in 2010. He earned a doctorate in mathematics from The Ohio State University and did his undergraduate studies at Case Western Reserve University.

St. Rose priest mourns with his flock after witnessing his parishioners’ grief

Community bands together in Newtown, Conn.

By Anne Hull, Dec 17, 2012 04:33 AM EST, Published: December 16

NEWTOWN, CONN. — As if it were any normal day, Monsignor Robert Weiss had his usual breakfast at the Sandy Hook Diner — a short stack of French toast and two strips of bacon. Waitresses call it the “Monsignor Special.”
Within hours of that hometown breakfast Friday, Weiss found himself in a room at a firehouse, with parents on folding chairs, in what would become one of the worst days in American history.

The 66-year-old priest is known as Father Bob to the 3,500 families who belong to St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church. On Sunday, what Father Bob craved — after long hours of counseling and grieving and not enough sleep — was a good Scotch and a place to let go. Half of the 20 children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary were members of Weiss’s congregation, and he had baptized many of them.
After the 10:30 a.m. Mass on Sunday, in a rectory full of law enforcement officers and priests, Weiss wept.
Nothing at seminary had trained him for this week. Nothing about his 13 years at St. Rose. Nothing about his understanding of the world.
“I thought about Paul,” said Weiss, his black clergy shirt unbuttoned and his white collar in his shirt pocket like a pen. “Paul said, ‘In my weakness I find my greatest strength.’ ”
On Friday morning, Weiss was working in his office when he received a call from authorities to lock down the school at St. Rose. There had been a school shooting. Weiss left the rectory and walked 100 yards to the church, where students were gathered for regular Friday morning Mass. Weiss interrupted the priest who was officiating and told him to stop and keep the students inside the church.
When Weiss heard that the shooting had occurred at Sandy Hook, less than a mile away, he grabbed two other priests from St. Rose, and they rode in Weiss’s BMW to the school. Three priests in clergy collars were a welcome sight.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” said the police officer who flagged them through the secured perimeter.
When Weiss pulled up, he saw teachers organizing students into lines in the parking lot. The second-grade teacher held up a sign that said two, and the third-grade teacher held up a sign that said three. And the students — who had been told to close their eyes while they evacuated the building to avoid seeing the carnage as they rushed past — obediently began forming lines.
Not every child was there. Some had run into the woods when they heard the shots. A few had run home. And some were inside the school.
Frantic parents were arriving. Children burst from their lines upon seeing their mother or father, while parents ran toward the lines.
Reunion after reunion whittled the lines down, leaving only parents, empty-handed and desperate. They were taken to the nearby firehouse where the Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company operated.
Weiss walked over, too. He knew half the parents from St. Rose. He had officiated at their weddings and the baptisms of their children, some of whom were now unaccounted for.
Inside the firehouse, parents texted relatives, called babysitters to stay late and called around to likely places where their missing children might have gone.

Elementary School Massacre ‘Not Part of God’s Plan,’ Newtown Pastor Says

Msgr. Robert Weiss accompanied police while they informed parents of their children’s deaths following the Sandy Hook School massacre.
by CNA/EWTN NEWS 12/16/2012

Msgr. Robert Weiss of St. Rose of Lima Parish in Newtown, Conn.

NEWTOWN, Conn. — The motive behind the gunman whose Dec. 14 shooting rampage took the lives of 28 people, including 20 children, is not something that can be answered, Newtown’s local Catholic parish priest said.

“This was not part of God’s plan,” Msgr. Robert Weiss of St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church told ABC News Dec. 15.

Msgr. Weiss, who accompanied police while they informed parents of their children’s deaths following the Sandy Hook School massacre, said gunman Adam Lanza’s actions show he was “a man who had serious issues in his life.”

“Why he’d want to destroy innocent children, no one can figure out.”

Archbishop Henry Mansell of Hartford, Conn., called the shooting “a senseless act of violence that claimed the lives of many innocent people” in a recent statement.

“Although we will never understand the motivation behind such a heinous act, we must turn to prayer and reflection for the victims and their families during this time of need,” he said.

“Keep them in your hearts; let them know that they are not alone in their grief and suffering, and pray that the comfort of God's love will help them through this difficult time.”

The Archdiocese of Hartford, along with Catholic Charities, has offered support for Newtown and its parish in “any way that we can.”

Msgr. Weiss said although many victim’s family members “knew in their hearts” that their child or spouse had been killed in the attack, he said in an interview with NBC that their grief was still “overwhelming” when he traveled with police to confirm that information early on the morning of Dec. 15.

When he broke the news, parents asked him what the last moments of the victims’ lives must have been like.

“Of course, no one can answer that question,” he said.

Parents of the victims recalled fond memories of their children as he consoled them late into Friday evening.

“One mother told me her daughter was going to be an angel in our Christmas pageant next Tuesday,” the priest said, “and another one told me how excited (her daughter) was getting because she was making her first holy Communion this year.”

“It was really an amazing time for parents to bring back memories,” he said.

He said the prayer vigil that packed St. Rose to capacity on the evening of Dec. 14 really showed what “kind of town Newtown is.”

“People came together to care and to support,” he said. “Hopefully, we can just keep the community together, and they can console each other.”

He shared that “many of the families” he spoke with following the shooting found consolation in the knowledge that even though their child was killed, “at least they know their child is safe; they know where they are.

“And that’s a terrible thought for any parent raising a child today to think that they might have to grow up in a world like this.”

“I pray that the Lord just lift up these families and that they know especially their children are safe,” he said.

Even in the face of such violence, Msgr. Weiss said, “If we work together, good things can happen.”

The victims of the Dec. 14 Sandy Hook School massacre have now been identified as Charlotte Bacon, 6; Daniel Barden, 7; Olivia Engel, 6; Josephine Gay, 7; Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 6; Dylan Hockley, 6; Madeleine F. Hsu, 6; Catherine V. Hubbard, 6; Chase Kowalski, 7; Jesse Lewis, 6; James Mattioli, 6; Grace McDonnell, 7; Emilie Parker, 6; Jack Pinto, 6; Noah Pozner, 6; Caroline Previdi, 6; Jessica Rekos, 6; Aviele Richman, 6; Benjamin Wheeler, 6; Allison N. Wyatt, 6; Dawn Hochsprung, 47; Rachel Davino, 29; Ann Marie Murphy, 52; Lauren Rousseau, 30; Mary Sherlach, 56; and Victoria Soto, 27.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Suspect Adam Lanza was obscure in life, now is infamous in death

School shooting in Newtown, Conn.: Shooting at a Connecticut elementary school kills 28 people, including 20 children.

By Greg Jaffe, Paul Duggan and Colum Lynch,
Dec 15, 2012 02:34 AM EST
The Washington Post

Adam Lanza was his name.
Adam P. Lanza, 20, obscure in life, infamous in death.

A really rambunctious kid, as one former neighbor in Newtown, Conn., recalled him, adding that he was on medication. He was the son of an accountant. A family member told investigators that he had a form of autism, a law enforcement official said.
And he will long be remembered.
On Friday morning, police say, he shot and killed his mother in their home. And then, carrying firearms and an abundance of ammunition, he drove to Newtown’s Sandy Hook Elementary School and started shooting. By the time he turned one of the guns on himself, police say, he had killed 20 children, many of them kindergartners, and six more adults.
Adam Peter Lanza — a new addition to a dreadful list, the roster of killers who targeted students: Seung Hui Cho at Virginia Tech (32 dead); Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold at Columbine High in Colorado (13 dead), Charles C. Roberts IV at a little Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania (five dead). The litany of massacres goes on.
As scores of investigators worked Friday to piece together what happened at the school and why, the barest details of Lanza’s life began to emerge.
His parents, Nancy and Peter Lanza, separated about a decade ago, and his mother remained in the family’s home with her sons, Adam and Ryan Lanza, according to Ryan Kraft, 25, who was a neighbor.
The separation hit the children hard, Kraft recalled.
When Nancy Lanza would go out to dinner with friends, she sometimes relied on Kraft to watch Adam Lanza, who was too boisterous for Ryan Lanza to manage. “He would have tantrums,” Kraft said. “They were much more than the average kid [had].” Yet he was not prone to violence, Kraft said.
“The kids seemed really depressed” by the breakup, Kraft said of the Lanza brothers. Ryan Lanza, 24, now lives in Hoboken, N.J. Police questioned him Friday, but law enforcement officials said he was cooperating and is not suspected of having anything to do with the shootings.
For several hours Friday, authorities and the news media misidentified the shooter as Ryan Lanza, who, like his father, is an accountant, a law enforcement official said.
The Wall Street Journal quoted a friend of Ryan Lanza’s as saying that Lanza works for Ernst & Young. “He [is] a little shy, but very nice and sweet,” the friend, Katie Colaneri, 24, of Hoboken, told the Journal.
Nancy Lanza put the best face possible on her domestic troubles, the former neighbor said. “Nancy was really pleasant,” Kraft said. “She would come by the house and have a glass of wine with my mom.” The couple’s divorce was finalized in 2009, according to court records.
Beth Israel, who lived for a time on the same street as the Lanzas, recalled Adam Lanza as withdrawn but not threatening in any way.
“Overall, I would just call him a socially awkward kid, I don’t know, shy and quiet. Didn’t really look you in the eye,” Israel said in a telephone interview Friday night. “Just kind of a weird kid, maybe. I can’t tell you any specific incidents why [I thought so],” she said.
At a vigil in Newtown, a man of about Adam Lanza’s age was visibly distraught. “I knew Adam in high school,” he said, declining to give his name. “He always seemed like a quiet type. He was never really sociable. When you try to communicate with him, he would just kind of like have one- or two-word responses.
“He was a wicked smart kid, he excelled in everything,” the man said. “He graduated high school three years early.”
The man defended Adam’s mother and objected to some reports about her. “I know her. My family knew her. She was a respectable collector [of guns]. She used them responsibly. It’s not her fault that any of this happened.”
At the vigil, Catherine Urso said her son went to high school with Adam Lanza, who “was very remote, reclusive.” Lanza and his friends, she said, “always gathered alone in a corner in the school.”
A law enforcement official — who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is far from finished — said Adam Lanza fatally shot his mother in her home, then drove in her car to Sandy Hook Elementary.
He had two semiautomatic pistols and a .223-caliber rifle, law enforcement officials said. He apparently used only the handguns, which were later found in the school. The rifle was found in the vehicle.
Peter Lanza, a vice president and tax specialist at GE Energy Financial Services, is remarried and lives in Stamford, Conn., according to the Stamford Advocate. When he arrived home Friday and was approached by a reporter, the paper reported, he appeared “surprised and horrified” and declined to comment on the massacre.
A woman who is a close friend of Peter Lanza’s became highly emotional in a brief telephone interview Friday. “His son was doing wonderfully,” she said of Adam Lanza. “This is inconceivable. Peter adores his children. His son was doing so well.”

Lynch reported from Newtown, Conn. Sari Horwitz and Alice Crites contributed to this report.