Another impressive photo of the Holy Face

After I posted the photograph of His Eminence Kurt Cardinal Koch before il Volto Santo, I sent an e-mail to Paul Badde, who sent several photographs back, including this particularly striking one:

In the Gospel today we hear of the call of Matthew, of how, as Jesus passed by his customs post, Jesus said to him, "Follow me" (Matthew 9:9). When Matthew looked up to see who it was who called him, those eyes looked upon him. One day we, too, will look upon those eyes. Let us, then, this very day make the words of the Psalmist our own: "With all my heart I seek you" (Psalm 119:10).

The gift and responsibility of freedom

As we celebrate today the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the birthday of these United States of America, we would do well to recall the words His Holiness Benedict XVI spoke when he visited these shores in April of 2008, particularly the words he spoke during the welcoming ceremony on the south lawn of the White House (with my emphases):

....From the dawn of the Republic, America’s quest for freedom has been guided by the conviction that the principles governing political and social life are intimately linked to a moral order based on the dominion of God the Creator. The framers of this nation’s founding documents drew upon this conviction when they proclaimed the “self-evident truth” that all men are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights grounded in the laws of nature and of nature’s God. The course of American history demonstrates the difficulties, the struggles, and the great intellectual and moral resolve which were demanded to shape a society which faithfully embodied these noble principles. In that process, which forged the soul of the nation, religious beliefs were a constant inspiration and driving force, as for example in the struggle against slavery and in the civil rights movement. In our time too, particularly in moments of crisis, Americans continue to find their strength in a commitment to this patrimony of shared ideals and aspirations.

In the next few days, I look forward to meeting not only with America’s Catholic community, but with other Christian communities and representatives of the many religious traditions present in this country. Historically, not only Catholics, but all believers have found here the freedom to worship God in accordance with the dictates of their conscience, while at the same time being accepted as part of a commonwealth in which each individual and group can make its voice heard. As the nation faces the increasingly complex political and ethical issues of our time, I am confident that the American people will find in their religious beliefs a precious source of insight and an inspiration to pursue reasoned, responsible and respectful dialogue in the effort to build a more humane and free society.

Freedom is not only a gift, but also a summons to personal responsibility. Americans know this from experience – almost every town in this country has its monuments honoring those who sacrificed their lives in defense of freedom, both at home and abroad. The preservation of freedom calls for the cultivation of virtue, self-discipline, sacrifice for the common good and a sense of responsibility towards the less fortunate. It also demands the courage to engage in civic life and to bring one’s deepest beliefs and values to reasoned public debate. In a word, freedom is ever new. It is a challenge held out to each generation, and it must constantly be won over for the cause of good (cf. Spe Salvi, 24). Few have understood this as clearly as the late Pope John Paul II. In reflecting on the spiritual victory of freedom over totalitarianism in his native Poland and in eastern Europe, he reminded us that history shows, time and again, that “in a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation”, and a democracy without values can lose its very soul (cf. Centesimus Annus, 46). Those prophetic words in some sense echo the conviction of President Washington, expressed in his Farewell Address, that religion and morality represent “indispensable supports” of political prosperity.

The Church, for her part, wishes to contribute to building a world ever more worthy of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:26-27). She is convinced that faith sheds new light on all things, and that the Gospel reveals the noble vocation and sublime destiny of every man and woman (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 10). Faith also gives us the strength to respond to our high calling, and the hope that inspires us to work for an ever more just and fraternal society. Democracy can only flourish, as your founding fathers realized, when political leaders and those whom they represent are guided by truth and bring the wisdom born of firm moral principle to decisions affecting the life and future of the nation.

A deeply troubling set of answers in the U.S. Naturalization Self-Test

This morning Father Zuhlsdorf directs our attention to the Naturalization Self-Test 1 as found on the web site of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that posits the following four possible answers to the question, "What are two rights of everyone living in the United States?":

1. freedom of speech and freedom to run for president
2. freedom of speech and freedom of worship
3. freedom of worship and freedom to make treaties with other countries
4. freedom to petition the government and freedom to disobey traffic laws

There is one very large problem with this set of possible answers, which, if you know your history and your rights, if glaringly obvious and deeply troubling: none of the possible choices is correct.

Under the First Amendment, we enjoy both the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion, which is not the same as the freedom of worship. The freedom of worship, as was enjoyed during Communist Russia, only pertains within a building designated for worship, but does not extend beyond the walls of such a building. On the other hand, the freedom of religion extends wherever a person is because it recognizes that religious faith must, of its very nature, influence and direct every aspect of life, from work to play to study to life in the home.

If the freedom of religion can be taken away, then every other freedom can also be taken away. This is the warning the U.S. Bishops have been declaring for the past several years through the Fortnight for Freedom campaign. It is a warning we would do well to heed.

Cardinal Koch visits the Holy Face

Father Brian Jerabek kindly shared with me a wonderful picture of il Volto Santo taken during a recent visit to the Holy Face by His Eminence Kurt Cardinal Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity:

Kurt Kardinal Koch und der Schleier des Volto Santo von Manopello http://t.co/DIHCwMoJF8 pic.twitter.com/twkg6aFhS9
— Armin Schwibach  (@ASchwibach) July 3, 2014

In this photograph, you can clearly see how transparent the veil is, and yet how clearly the face of Jesus is seen in it.

Let us join His Eminence in prayer for the unity of all Christians, that we may be gathered once again into one flock with one shepherd.

The "Hobby Lobby case": What's it really about?

As part of the liberal-minded world erupts in tremendous anger over the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. et al (going so far as the encourage people to engage in sexual relations inside Hobby Lobby stores and even to burn the stores down), it might be good to take a breath and consider what is really at the heart of the matter.

Though many of those dissatisfied with the decision of the Supreme Court claim the decision restricts access to contraception and harms women's overall health, Katrina (a.k.a. the Crescat) rightly points out, "you are not going to die from not having sex." More to the point, contraception was not the issue of the case, as the decision clearly states.

Of the twenty (20!) different forms of "birth control" required under the HHS mandate (which was not passed by the Congress and is not actually part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act), Hobby Lobby willingly paid for sixteen (16!) of them.

Here we should pause to ask an important question, which Katrina brilliantly asks:

So I ask – birth control of all things?! I mean of all the drugs out there that people actually need to survive, why something as selective as birth control. No one is going to go into heart failure, kidney failure or diabetic shock without their Yaz. So what the hell, people! I seriously don’t know how anyone can legitimately think free contraception is a dandy idea and a good use of tax payer and government funds. 

I could have asked every single one of my patients what drug they would love to have for free and I can guarantee not a single one of them would’ve said, “Hook me up with some free condoms and pills, please.” Has anyone in our administration ever even met a sick person or someone suffering from a chronic disease and asked them what medications they would like Uncle Sam to foot the bill for?

The government has not yet offered to pay for my arthritis medicine, which I need to move each day. Why? No one will - or, perhaps, can - answer her question.

Back to the case in question. The four forms of contraception to which Hobby Lobby objects (one device and three medicines) do not prevent conception, but instead prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg; this is not contraception but abortion, as even the Obama administration has admitted.

N.B.: The issue before the Supreme Court was not contraception, but abortion and the free exercise of religion (even if the media and liberal politicians maintain otherwise, as only someone who has not read the decision could do).

So the rhetoric of the "war on women" goes on, despite the fact that a majority of the decisions that led to the declaration of the HHS mandate as unconstitutional were given by female judges:

All of this is irritating and frustrating because it is dishonest, immature, and illogical, but more troubling to me are arguments that go along the lines of this meme:

This is another immature and illogical argument, but one far more dangerous because of its lie and deception.

On a friend's Facebook page yesterday, I showed the error of this meme:

So far as I can tell, Islam does not accept abortion as morally licit. At the heart of the Hobby Lobby case was not contraception, but abortifacients. That being the case, inserting "Islam" in place of "Christian" - or even along side it - wouldn't actually change anything.

While it may be true that some Christians would be opposed to the above scenario, I do not think I know any of them. Certainly, the Catholic Church advocates for the free exercise of religion in general and not only of her own, as was clearly stated with the Second Vatican Council's declaration Dignitatis Humanae.

I have never before quoted anything from Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (a.k.a., the Mormons), but this quote seems especially apt here:

If it has been demonstrated that I have been willing before Heaven to die for a 'Mormon,' I am bold to declare before Heaven that I am just as ready to die in defending the rights of a Presbytarian [sic], a Baptist, or a good man of any other denomination; for the same principle which would trample upon the rights of the Latter-day Saints would trample upon the rights of the Roman Catholics, or of any other denomination who may be unpopular and too weak to defend themselves.

The issue at hand is the free exercise of religion - of any religion - as protected by the First Amendment. I am unaware of any religion that claims the use of abortifacients on religious grounds.

A quick pilgrimage to Belgium

As I watched the World Cup match this afternoon between the United States of America and Belgium, I couldn't help but recall that one week ago today I was in Belgium. I went with another priest who lived at the Casa Santa Maria to make a quick pilgrimage to Tremelo, the birthplace of Saint Damien de Veuster, and to Leuven, where he is entombed.

The day began with an early rising to catch an early flight from Rome's Ciampino airport to Brussels' Charleroi airport. My fellow pilgrim arrived in Brussels the night before from Paris, rented a car, and drove to the airport to collect me.

Because the pilgrimage was put together at rather the last minute, we didn't have anything definitely arranged. A Google search indicated that the museum is not open in the afternoon on Tuesdays. With this in mind, we decided to head to Tremelo early and head to Leuven from there after visiting Father Damien's home and museum.

Getting around Belgium was very easy, in no small part because the country is orderly and clean (in many ways it is everything Rome is not) and we soon arrived at the museum:

It turns out the museum is closed and will not reopen until sometime in 2015. With some 13,000 inhabitants, Tremelo remains a quiet town whose citizens are clearly hard workers, somewhat serious on your first encounter with him, and yet friendly in a reserved way.

Father Damien's family - which is now the museum, if I understand the situation correctly - is today surrounded by facilities for the care of the elderly. Behind the museum is the parish church of Saint Damien:

The front doors of the church are no longer accessible as nursing facilities have been built along the front of the church. The side door somewhat visible in the photo above is now - so far as we could tell - the only way into the church. Though this door was open, interior doors leading to the church were locked and we could find none of the staff. Clearly, a visit to Tremelo should be made after initial contacts have also been made.

Having exhausted our reasons for visiting Tremelo, we returned to the car and drove to Leuven (thankfully Belgium is a very small country) and made our way to the chapel of St. Anthony (of Egypt/the Desert):

 

 

When the mortal remains of Father Damien were translated from his grave on the Kalaupapa peninsula of Molokai to his home country of Belgium, he was entombed below this sanctuary:

 

We were able to offer the Holy Mass at Father Damien's tomb (there is a small altar just to the right of the photograph).

The shrine also has a room filled with small statues of Saint Damien and even a few paintings. We were given a brief tour of the museum and had a good visit with one of the staff members (many Belgians speak very good English).

My initial impressions of Belgium were very good (not least of all because you can find both bacon and chocolate milk) and I look forward to returning next year when the Damien Museum reopens in Tremelo, and maybe even before.

Reason prevails in SCOTUS decision regarding HHS mandate

Today, with the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States of America that the Health and Human Services mandate is unconstitutional, reason has prevailed.

Homily - Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul - 29 June 2014

N.B.: Were I preaching this weekend, the following homily is something along the lines of what I would preach. I'm not entirely happy with the ending yet, but I'm not sure what to do with it without making it exceedingly lengthy.

The Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

May the Lord give you peace!

As we reflect today on the two great Apostles, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, we might well ask what it was that led each of these two men to lay down their lives for Christ Jesus and for his Body, the Church, Peter by crucifixion and Paul by the sword.

A beginning to the answer we seek is found in the words of the Psalmist: “Look to him that you may be radiant with joy, and your faces may not blush with shame” (Psalm 34:6).

When do we blush with shame if not when we have not been faithful to what is required of us; when we have not lived up to our potential; or when we have not been genuine in word, deed, or thought? In a word, we could say that we blush when we are not authentic or sincere.

Standing before their persecutors, the Prince of the Apostles and the Apostle to the Gentiles both knew their lives would be required because of their fidelity to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to proclaiming the truth of Him who died and yet now lives.

Detail, painting in the church of Quo Vadis

When confronted with the cross on which he would be crucified upside down, Saint Peter surely recalled the words the Lord Jesus spoke to him when he signified the kind of death the Galilean fisherman would suffer: “Follow me” (John 21:19). By following his Master and Teacher in death, Peter knew he would also follow him in life.

Detail, doors of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls

Likewise, when confronted with the sword by which his head would be severed from his body, Saint Paul surely realized anew the words he wrote to the Church in Colossae: “He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead” and knew that his life was hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 1:18; cf. Colossians 3:3), that he, too, would live.

But, again, why this great confidence? Why did they have no shame in proclaiming Jesus no longer dead? It is because they knew the truth of what they proclaimed. If we could have looked into their eyes we might have used the words the wizard Gandalf said to the Hobbit Pippin: “There is no lie in your eyes.”[1] There was no lie in the eyes of Peter or Paul, but only the conviction of truth. Their faces did not blush with shame as they looked upon the end of their earthly lives because they knew that their faces would soon be radiant with the joy of Christ even as the face of Moses radiated the glory of the Lord God (cf. Exodus 34:29).

They both knew Jesus’ face well, even though Saint Paul did not know Jesus before his crucifixion and was not present among the disciples when the Lord appeared to them before he ascended to the Father. Saint Paul himself asks, “Have I not seen Jesus our Lord” (I Corinthians 9:1)? Jesus certainly showed himself to Saint Paul on the road to Damascus when he said to the Apostle, “Get up now, and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen [of me] and what you will be shown” (Acts 26:16). What else was Paul shown?

On Easter morning, we are told that when Saint Peter entered the tomb of our Lord, he “saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered [Jesus’] head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place” (John 20:6-7). John entered the tomb, as well, saw the cloths “and believed” (John 20:8). Saint Luke adds that Peter “went home amazed at what had happened” when he saw the cloths (Luke 24:12). He must have seen something more than simple cloths to believe in the Resurrection.

We know the burial cloth as the Shroud of Turin, which shows - in a remarkable and inexplicable fashion – Jesus in death. It is an image that has, since the invention of the photograph, taken on greater importance as photographic negatives have shown aspects of the image heretofore undetectable, aspects which have confirmed its authenticity. Seeing an image of the dead Jesus would surely not have brought Peter to faith in the Resurrection and filled him with amazement. What was that other cloth?

Two hours east of Rome, one can travel by car to a tiny village in the mountains called Manoppello. Up until the recent construction of the highways, arriving at this quiet village was no easy task. There, in a church formerly dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel, is housed il Volto Santo, the Holy Face.

PHOTO: Paul Badde

It is a cloth woven of byssus, a type of silk made from mollusks that, depending on the light, can be both transparent and opaque, and cannot be painted or dyed. The cloth contains the image of a man with long hair parted in the middle, with a broken nose, a swollen cheek, open eyes, and a half-open mouth. It is an image that cannot be reproduced or explained and that subtly changes as the light around it, in front of it, or behind it changes.

The veil, called the sudarium, arrived in Manoppello in 1506 by the hands of a stranger who entrusted it to Doctor Leonelli, who was sitting outside the church when the stranger arrived. The doctor opened the package inside the church who, when he saw the contents of the package, went immediately back outside only to find the stranger gone without a trace.

It remained in the doctor’s family until 1608 when it was sold by Marzia Leonelli to a Doctor De Fabritiis to ransom her husband from prison. Doctor De Fabritiis entrusted the veil to the Capuchin friars at Manoppello, in whose keeping it remains today for the veneration of the faithful.

The veil arrived in Manoppello from Rome, where it was called the Veronica, the true icon, and venerated as the face of Jesus. Unlike the Shroud of Turin, it is not he image of Jesus in death but Jesus alive, at the moment of the Resurrection, or very soon thereafter. This veil is that cloth that Saint Peter found “not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.” Seeing this veil with the image of Jesus not dead but alive explains why he “saw and believed” and left “amazed at had happened.” He looked upon the face of God and his face could not blush with shame. With these cloths, the Shroud and the sudarium, they had a witness to the truth of the Resurrection that Jesus was dead and yet now lives!

It is this face - so filled with love and mercy and preserved for us in the veil - that we, too, must seek. In looking upon the face of Jesus, we will look upon everything we desire. We will look upon the face of Truth Himself and he will look upon us with his discerning eyes of just judgment and abiding mercy, the same eyes that turned to look at Peter when the cock crowed (cf. Luke 22:61). Looking into his eyes, we, too, will weep bitterly for our sins even as we experience the tenderness of his mercy. We will be filled with peace and he will remove our shame.

With this confidence in the Resurrection, which so marked the preaching of Saints Peter and Paul, we, too, will know that “the Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and will bring me safe to his heavenly kingdom” there to enjoy the vision of his face forever (II Timothy 4:18). Amen.

---

[1] J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King (London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2013), 593

 

Pope Francis' simple devotion

What impresses me most about Pope Francis is his simple devotion to the saints, as often expressed by his veneration of images of the Blessed Virgin Mary and in today's customary act of reverence for Saint Peter, a kiss on the foot of his statue in the Basilica dedicated to him:

The photo was shared on the Facebook page of the Pontifical Swiss Guard.

Paul & Paul: Two Silver Trumpets

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Make thee two trumpets of beaten silver,

wherewith though mayest call together the multitude (Numbers 10:1-2).

These two Apostles are called "silver trumpets" on account of their resounding preaching, and "beaten" because of being struck in their Passion. Christ made these trumpets, that is, he chose them by grace, that with them he might call a multitude of peoples to the mountain of eternal life. And just as those former trumpets called to war, to feasting and to religious festival [cf. Numbers 10:9-10], so these called the peoples to war against sin.

- Saint Anthony of Padua

Going home

In just a few short hours I will board a plane to return home for the summer and about this prospect my heart is glad. Whether I have packed what I may need over the next two months remains to be seen (packing for two months is much more difficult than packing for a week).

Even as my heart rejoices to be going home I am saddened by the news of the death of the secretary of my boyhood parish, one of the kindest and gentlest women I have been privileged to know and always with a bright smile on her face. By God's good grace, I will arrive in Quincy the day before her funeral Mass, which I plan to concelebrate. Please join me in praying that she will now smile brightly before the face of God to rejoice forever in his love.