tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-189776492024-03-23T11:18:03.664-07:00St. ChiaraComments on news in Canada and the world, Christian ethics, the Catholic Church, Church history,travel and English grammar.Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.comBlogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-29716069821722662782024-03-05T20:39:00.004-08:002024-03-05T20:55:34.802-08:00<b>Pope Pius XII: Righteous Gentile or Hitler's Pope?</b>
Controversy has arisen in the past over the role of Pope Pius XII during the holocaust. Did he speak out against the atrocities against the Jews or did he remain silent? Since there are many people in today’s world that do not know about the Holocaust and Nazism it is good to remind people what did happen.
An article in The New York Times published shortly after the death of Pope Pius XII quoted several Jewish leaders who voiced praise for the Pope. One was Rev. Dr. William F. Rosenblum, speaking at Temple Israel in New York who said, "...five hundred million Catholics the world over form a spiritual government that can always wield an influence on the side of understanding and peace. One of the most poignant examples of this was during the Hitler holocaust when Pope Pius made it possible for thousands of Jewish victims of Nazism and Fascism to be hidden away in monasteries and convents of the various Catholic orders and for Jewish children to be taken to their orphanages." (The New York Times. October 12, 1958).
In an article in Time Magazine (December, 1940) Albert Einstein, himself a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, paid tribute to the moral courage of Pope Pius. Einstein said, "Only the Catholic Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing the truth. I never had any interest in the Catholic Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised, I now praise unreservedly." (quoted in Dalin, 2001) Some claim that since Einstein left Germany before 1940 he would not have seen the worst of the holocaust.
<b>Controversy of Pius XII's Role</b>
Still Pius XII's role during World War II is not without controversy. Many trace the beginning of criticism of the Pope to the play, The Deputy, written by German left-wing Protestant Rolf Hochhuth in 1963. In the play, Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) is depicted as a Nazi collaborator guilty of cowardice in the face of rising Nazi popularity. The play ignited a storm and other writings followed, including a book by British author, John Cornwell, Hitler's Pope published in 1999. Many feel that there is overwhelming evidence that Pope Pius XII did speak out against the Nazis and their treatment of Jewish people. Why, then, does the myth of Pacelli as 'Hitler's Pope' persist?
As Cardinal, Eugenio Pacelli was sent as Vatican Nuncio (Ambassador) to several countries including Germany before World War II. Although Italian, he loved German music and culture. After he became Pope he condemned war in general and tried to promote peace in the years leading up to World War II. Did this mean that he accepted the status quo of Hitler’s rule?
During the war, it seems that the Pope hesitated to speak against the Nazi movement, not only because he felt Communism was a greater threat, but also because he felt that denunciation of the Nazis would unleash harsher treatment of the Jews. In fact, this did happen in Holland where Bishops publicly spoke out against the Nazis in July 1942. It resulted in the deportation of more Jews from Holland to death camps, the highest percentage of Jews of any country occupied by Nazis.
Some thought that the Pope should have ex-communicated Hitler, who was from a Catholic background, but others said that ex-communicating leaders in the past (Elizabeth I and Napoleon) had not changed their policies and would have had no affect on Hitler who had never been a practising Catholic and had no love for the Church in any case. Pope Pius XII thus became responsible for a balancing act in which he tried to save as many Jews as possible.
<b>The Pope's War Messages</b>
It can be shown that the Pope did, in fact, speak out against the treatment of Jews by the Nazis although perhaps not as directly as some would have hoped. In January of 1940, Vatican Radio revealed to the world the terrible cruelty that the Nazis were inflicting on Jews and Catholics in Poland. In his 1940 Easter message, the Pope condemned Nazi bombing of defenceless people.
In June 1942, he spoke against the mass deportation of Jews from France and urged the Bishops of Europe to do all they could to save Jews from Nazi persecution. After his 1941 Christmas homily, The New York Times called Pius XII a "...lonely voice of protest against Hitler...the Pope put himself squarely against Hitlerism". And even the Nazis interpreted his 1942 Christmas sermon as a condemnation of Nazism, '...he is clearly speaking on behalf of the Jews...he is virtually accusing the German people of injustice toward the Jews..." (quoted in Dalin, 2001).
In the Pope's 1942 Christmas message, he said, "Humanity owes this vow to those hundreds of thousands who, without any fault of their own, sometimes only by reason of their nationality or race, are marked down for death or gradual extinction." Detractors point out that he did not actually use the word 'Jewish' in the statement but there were others who were persecuted by the Nazis as well.
<b>Pope Pius' Role in Saving Jews</b>
In his book, Three Popes and the Jews (1967), Israeli diplomat, Pinchas Lapide says Pius XII "...was instrumental in saving at least 700,000, but probably as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands." (quoted in Dalin, Rabbi David. Pius XII and the Jews)
Rabbi David Dalin PhD a well-known scholar of the history of Christian-Jewish Relations, credits Pope Pius XII with "... saving more Jewish lives from the Holocaust than any other person; a 'righteous gentile' and true friend of the Jewish people". (Dalin, Rabbi David. Pius XII and the Jews. Weekly Standard, February 26, 2001.)
Did the Pope tell the Bishops, monasteries and priests to save Jews? One can hardly know what he said personally to individuals which would have, of necessity, been in secret.
Possibly the most revealing statement about Pacelli is what was published in the Berlin paper Morgenpost the day after his election as the new Pope in March, 1939 before the war: "The election of Cardinal Pacelli is not accepted with favor in Germany because he was always opposed to Nazism and practically determined the policies of the Vatican under his predecessor."
The vindication of Pius XII has been established principally by Jewish writers and from Israeli archives. It is now established that the Pope supervised a rescue network which saved 860,000 Jewish lives - more than all the international agencies put together. (from the Jewish Virtual Library website).
<b>Sources:</b>
Dalin, Rabbi David. Pius XII and the Jews. Weekly Standard. February 26, 2001.
Duffy, Eamon. Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 1997.
Pius is Extolled by Rabbis in City. The New York Times, October 12, 1958.
JewishVirtualLibrary.org. Accessed April 20, 2012.<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5KBV5o9Jjhp9GflfnTIxcc9bwWQYAeQlPYXAbj3t9LTK2LvWR2qM_j983EI3ZSt1pVOfFlXsVUgEddky7PBo_d4yEQWWlym9pSr5beaKpIa5jU0-tgnMmW18sMikcH9ajCWt0V2TTwGOJZYoCx-sq4ORWRYVCd0FjP8-Ewur8jQeEeJt2kjHi/s335/PiusXII12.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5KBV5o9Jjhp9GflfnTIxcc9bwWQYAeQlPYXAbj3t9LTK2LvWR2qM_j983EI3ZSt1pVOfFlXsVUgEddky7PBo_d4yEQWWlym9pSr5beaKpIa5jU0-tgnMmW18sMikcH9ajCWt0V2TTwGOJZYoCx-sq4ORWRYVCd0FjP8-Ewur8jQeEeJt2kjHi/s320/PiusXII12.jpg"/></a></div>Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-91628067141919464032022-01-12T19:50:00.001-08:002022-01-12T19:59:18.422-08:00Holy<p> <span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 26.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Hebrew word "kadosh" is translated as "holy" in the Scriptures. It is often used of God, of course, but the real meaning of "kadosh" is "set apart" or "consecrated". So we have "holy ground" (kadosh) in Exodus 3:5, "holy garments" in Exodus 28:2 and "holy things or objects" in Numbers 4:15. Protestants use "holy" only to mean "divine" or "God". They cannot say "holy Mary" because that would make Mary equal with God and she is not God but human. Catholics can say "holy Mary" because it means that Mary was "set apart" to be the mother of Jesus, who is God. Catholics can call water blessed by a priest "holy water" as it is water set apart or consecrated for special use by God. When we see that "kadosh" means set apart, we can use it to describe many ordinary things that have been consecrated or set apar</span></p>Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-17667604164885762082021-07-13T12:21:00.007-07:002021-07-14T11:06:57.775-07:00<p> </p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: #441500; color: #ffeedd; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 30px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; position: relative;">Kateri Tekakwitha: A First Nation's Saint</h3><div class="post-header" style="background-color: #441500; color: #aa9988; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.88px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-779691346609666278" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: #441500; color: #ffeedd; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.524px; line-height: 1.5; position: relative; width: 568px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSAViG7H6yHw-L_tLQEqi1vIS81tfrGHjnADwBizidT_y5uQHYDML4MJMIj7O-9KpB93NEwsOLG_1lbO2bGvyZEke1kF8kJ6LhmaF8ZfM_xBC-5zBaYSgS0hgmljP2THyuYzQb/s1600/600181-kateri-tekakwitha.jpg" style="clear: right; color: #ffcc77; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSAViG7H6yHw-L_tLQEqi1vIS81tfrGHjnADwBizidT_y5uQHYDML4MJMIj7O-9KpB93NEwsOLG_1lbO2bGvyZEke1kF8kJ6LhmaF8ZfM_xBC-5zBaYSgS0hgmljP2THyuYzQb/s200/600181-kateri-tekakwitha.jpg" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 0%; border: medium none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="200" /></a></div>On October 21, 2012, a Mohawk woman who lived in North America in the 17th century, Kateri Tekakwitha. was recognized as a Saint. Here is her story. <div><br /><b>Who is Kateri Tekakwitha?</b><br />Kateri Tekakwitha was born in 1656 in what is now New York State. Of course, at that time the territory was the Mohawk nation as the United States of America did not exist as a country. Kateri’s mother was a Christian Algonquin who had been captured by the Iroquois. Her husband saved her from the fate of a captive by marrying her.<br />When Kateri was only four years old (some sources say six), her parents died of smallpox and she, too, contracted the disease. As a result, her face was badly scarred and she was left partially blind.<br />In 1667 two Jesuit missionaries from Quebec came and stayed with Kateri’s uncle. It was from them that she first learned about Christianity and believed. She lived a life of virtue in a place where carnage and debauchery were common. Furthermore, she resisted all efforts to marriages arranged by her relatives.<br />When she was eighteen she was baptized by Father Jacques de Lamberville and afterwards faced great opposition to her faith in her village. Kateri was her baptismal name, a form of 'Caterina' and previously she had been known only as Tekakwitha. Finally, a Christian friend helped her to escape to Kahnawake on the St. Lawrence River in New France (now Quebec). There her life, which she dedicated to God, and her deeds impressed both the French and her own people.<br />Kateri worked at the Mission of St. Francis Xavier until her death at the young age of 24.<br />It is said that she scourged herself and sat on hot coals to endure the suffering that Christ had endured and that this caused her early death. Critics have commented on an 'evil institution' that would require such acts. The Catholic Church does not <i>require</i> these acts but she <i>did</i> learn about this from those around her at the Mission. It was common at this time to increase one's suffering in order to partake in Christ's suffering. One can read about these scourgings in books written at the time. In the movie, <i>Black Rob</i>e, which tells of the Jesuits in early Quebec, a priest scourges himself after being tempted. In today's world, it is difficult to understand this practice. Whether or not it hastened her death cannot be known for certain; life in those times was difficult in any case.<br />People who were present said that the scars from smallpox disappeared from her face almost immediately after her death and her skin was once again beautiful. People began to call her ‘The Lily of the Mohawks’. Devotion to her by Native Americans began shortly after her death and her grave was visited by many pilgrims. In 1884 a monument was erected to her memory by Rev. Clarence Walworth.<br />On January 3, 1943, Kateri was declared venerable by Pope Pius XII, the first step towards sainthood. On June 22, 1980, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II, the second step towards sainthood and in October 2012 she was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI raising her to ‘sainthood’. This means that the Catholic Church recognizes her as a saint - the Church does not make her a saint.<br /><b>What then is a saint?</b><br />St. Paul addresses all those who are Christians as saints, for example, “to the saints in Colossae, our faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.” (Colossians 1:2) and so all Christians are in this respect ‘saints’.<br />Early in the Christian Church, it was seen that some Christians lived lives of extraordinary virtue. These people were then venerated or honoured in their local church and eventually, the Catholic Church began a process called ‘canonization’ by which these people could be recognized in a special way by all.<br />The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that all Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life; all are called to holiness. (CCC 2013) i.e. we are all called to be saints. Saints are examples of holiness and show us the kind of life we can lead. Instead of looking to movie stars and sports heroes, who often fail us, we can look to the saints for examples of how we should live.<br />Saints are also ‘companions in prayer’. Just as we ask our friends to pray for us we can ask the saints to intercede for us. One of the requirements for being recognized as a saint is a healing or other miracle, scientifically unexplainable, attributed to the intercession of the candidate for sainthood.<br />One miracle is required for beatification and a second is required for canonization. In the case of Kateri Tekakwitha, there were reported healings after her death. One case was that of a Protestant child, Joseph Kellog, captured by Native Americans in the 18th century. After he contracted smallpox the Jesuits were asked to treat him. The Jesuits used relics from Kateri’s grave and he was reportedly healed. Another priest reported that he had been healed of deafness after prayer to Kateri and a Native woman was healed of pneumonia.<br />In 2006 a half-native child in Washington State, Jake Finkbonner, had necrotizing fasciitis commonly known as ‘flesh-eating disease’. It was not responding to treatment and his family had already called a priest for the sacrament of the sick (formerly known as ‘the last rites’) expecting that he would not live much longer. They also made arrangements to donate his organs after his death. Mortality rates for necrotizing fasciitis are reported to be very high.<br />A Catholic nun, also a Mohawk, Sister Kateri Mitchell, brought a relic - <span style="font-size: 13.524px;">a fragment of a bone from the body of Kateri Tekakwitha (</span><span style="font-size: 13.524px;">see Matt 9:20-22 and Acts 19:11-12 about relics)</span><span style="font-size: 13.524px;">.</span><span style="font-size: 13.524px;"> The Sister placed the relic on Jake’s body and prayed with his parents asking for Kateri's intercession for healing. The next day the infection stopped its progression. There is no clear scientific explanation for the abrupt change in Jake’s condition and Jake and his family believe that his healing was due to Blessed Kateri’s intercession. Miracles to be used in the 'cause of saints' are always investigated by a panel of experts in their field - they are not necessarily Catholics. In this case, the medical experts also agreed that there were no natural causes for the healing.</span></div><div> Except for scars from surgery, Jake fully recovered and became an enthusiastic basketball player when he was 12. Jake and his family and other members of the Lummi tribe attended the canonization ceremony in Rome.</div><div>A saint would be the last person to claim that a healing or other miracle was ‘performed’ by them. The miracle is always done by the power of God and not the saint. The saint only intercedes for us and leads us to Jesus, the real Healer. Neither do Catholics ‘worship’ saints; worshipping anyone or anything other than God is a sin. We have pictures of our family members in order to remember them but we do not worship the pictures. In the same way, a statue of a saint is only a representation of the saint; it is not an ‘idol’.<br /><b>Link to Residential School Abuse?</b><br />The media and commentators on some media sites suggested at the time that the Catholic Church had conveniently proclaimed Kateri Tekakwitha a saint in order to ‘pacify’ First Nations people for the abuse at Residential Schools. However, Kateri was recognized as someone with extraordinary virtue shortly after her death; schools and churches have been named for her for many years. Her sainthood cause (investigation of her life in order to see if should be declared a saint) was opened in 1932, long before residential schools were called into question and she was declared venerable in 1943. </div><div>The abuse in Residential Schools was not publicly known until 1990. It was in that year that Phil Fontaine wrote his autobiography, <i>A Knock on the Door</i>, about the sexual abuse he and schoolmates endured from priests, Indian Agents and the Mounted Police. (Fontaine, Phil. Manitoba University Press). Fontaine later became the leader of the Association of Manitoba Chiefs and he called for those involved in Residential Schools to acknowledge the abuse. A year later the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was convened by the Canadian government. The timing of Kateri's canonization indicates that it had nothing to do with the ‘abuse’ and would have gone ahead even if there had been no scandals regarding Residential Schools.<br /><b>First Nations People and Hope</b><br />An estimated 2,000 First Nations people from North America attended the canonization ceremony in Rome. Several of them were interviewed by journalists. They expressed joy that a fellow First Nation's woman was raised to such an honour and said that this gave them hope. They mentioned how their people had asked for Kateri’s prayers for many years. The fact that there are many devout Catholics amongst the First Nations people of Canada suggests that not all students of residential schools had bad experiences at the schools. This, of course, does not wipe out the wrong that was done: abusing innocent children and tearing them away from their families. However, it should caution us not to paint all who worked in the schools with the same brush.<br />Another Native woman of the Carrier Nation, <a href="http://suite101.com/article/the-story-of-rose-prince-a-future-first-nations-saint-a409430" style="color: #ffcc77; text-decoration-line: none;">Rose Prince</a>, who lived in British Columbia, may also be on the road to sainthood. When her grave had to be moved for construction, her body was found incorrupt. Relics from the gravesite have been reported in several miracles. Rose attended a Residential School in LeJac, BC and when her schooling was completed she asked to stay on and work there as she did not want to return to her home. Her cause to sainthood is being investigated.</div></div>Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-38222881432676705982021-05-31T11:26:00.002-07:002021-05-31T11:26:36.114-07:00<p> Mary - The New Ark of the Covenant Dr Brant Pitre (Catholic Productions) 22 minutes</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jmNWqLSJcJI" width="320" youtube-src-id="jmNWqLSJcJI"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-28061224529904694702020-11-17T11:27:00.012-08:002021-11-17T21:04:37.798-08:00<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b> Saint Elizabeth of Hungary </b></span><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPUriYP0IxLiWpwbBxLaqOMnTEBCByewFh1H4jEFWVpp98zPev_WYGt3qF33sV2ix5MUvnEbPNLMipdNNDqjTtxj_EXC-SGi9XgcR8Z6BJPNpMfsrVKd6NmCjZlSqvnECH2kIi/s2048/Wartburg+IMG.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1457" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPUriYP0IxLiWpwbBxLaqOMnTEBCByewFh1H4jEFWVpp98zPev_WYGt3qF33sV2ix5MUvnEbPNLMipdNNDqjTtxj_EXC-SGi9XgcR8Z6BJPNpMfsrVKd6NmCjZlSqvnECH2kIi/s320/Wartburg+IMG.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>(My visit to the Wartburg Castle)<br /><p></p><p>The Wartburg Castle, the home of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, can still be visited and is near the city of Eisenach in the eastern part of Germany. The Wartburg is also the place where Martin Luther, many years later, hid while translating the Bible after his break with the Catholic Church.<br />
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<b>Early Years</b> <br />
Princess Elizabeth of Hungary was sent to the Wartburg Castle, Thuringia, in present day Germany, when she was only four years old. Her marriage had been arranged by her parents, King Andrew II of Hungary (1205-1235) and his wife, Gertrude and the Landgrave Hermann I of Thuringia. Elizabeth was brought up at the court at the Wartburg Castle and was said to be a child who loved to pray and give her clothes and food to the poor even at a very early age. When the eldest son, her betrothed, Hermann, died she was then betrothed to the next eldest son, Ludwig (also called, Louis). His father, the Landgrave Hermann I died in 1217, and Ludwig became the new Landgrave. Elizabeth and Ludwig were married in 1221 when Ludwig was 21 and Elizabeth was only 14. Their marriage was a happy one and Ludwig supported his wife's charitable acts.<br />
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<b>Stories of Elizabeth</b><br />
In this same year as their marriage (1221) the followers of St. Francis of Assisi, known as Franciscans, came to Germany and four years later the Landgravine Elizabeth had a monastery built for them. She became a Secular Franciscan (or Third Order Franciscan) which is still an option to those who are married as well as for single persons. <br />
Elizabeth also built a hospital near the Wartburg to treat the poor and it is reported that she washed and treated the wounds of the patients herself. <br />
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The most famous story told of Elizabeth is when she took leftover bread from the Castle to the patients at the hospital. Her brother-in-law, who did not approve of her charitable acts and thought she wasted money from the royal coffers, passed nearby. The bread she was carrying appeared to him as roses so that he could not accuse her of taking bread from the tables of the Wartburg for the poor peasants. <br />
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In 1227 Ludwig started out on a Crusade with Frederick II but fell ill at Otranto, Italy and died there. When Elizabeth heard of his death she cried out, "The world with all its joys is now dead to me."<br />
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<b>Drastic Changes</b><br />
There are two accounts of what happened to Elizabeth after her husband’s death. One is that she was driven from the Castle by her brother-in-law, Heinrich Raspe, who was regent for her 5 year old son. The other account says that Elizabeth left the Wartburg because Heinrich did not allow her to continue her acts of piety and the life that she felt honoured God. She spent the remaining years of her life in a monastery although her brother-in-law tried to get her to remarry. Her children were brought up by others. The eldest and only boy, Hermann II (1222-41), died at a young age. Sophia (1224-84) married Henry II, Duke of Brabant, and was the ancestress of the Landgraves of Hesse. Gertrude (1227-97), Elizabeth's third child, was born several weeks after the death of her father; she became the abbess of the convent of Altenberg near Wetzlar. <br />
On May 28, 1235, which was Pentecost Sunday, Elizabeth of Hungary was canonized by Pope Gregory IX in a ceremony at Perugia, Italy. She has been called ‘the greatest woman of the German Middle Ages’. In the same year construction on the Gothic church of St. Elizabeth was completed at Marburg, Germany and her remains were moved to rest there. <br />
In 1539, Philip the Magnanimous, Landgrave of Hesse, who was a Protestant, put an end to the pilgrimages to the Church and removed the relics of St. Elizabeth. <br />
Since the re-unification of Germany, pilgrimages to the Wartburg at Eisenach and to the church of St. Elizabeth in Marbourg have resumed and many in Germany and Austria continue to call her the ‘dear St. Elizabeth’. <br />
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</p>Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-65209697709767255762020-04-11T11:30:00.006-07:002020-04-19T20:04:04.833-07:00Is the Resurrection of Jesus True?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Resurrection of Jesus is considered the cornerstone of belief of
all mainstream orthodox Christians. St Paul writes, “If Christ has not
been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty, too, our faith.” (I
Corinthians 15:14). In other words without the bodily resurrection of
Jesus from the dead, Christianity has no valid message. The resurrection
is the ‘good news’; Jesus has been victorious over sin and death. The
Church defines resurrection as the rising from the dead and resumption
of life and has always proclaimed its belief that three days after his
death Jesus rose from the dead.<br />
Let us examine, then, the events surrounding the resurrection, the arguments against it and the counter-arguments.<br />
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The
four Gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) all give accounts of
the death of Jesus by crucifixion, the discovery of his empty tomb and the appearances of a living Jesus after his death. The Catholic Church and other orthodox Christians believe in the historical reliability of this Scriptural account. Although the four accounts relate some different details they are basically the same and do not contradict each
other.<br />
While in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was arrested and
then brought before the Sanhedrin, the council of Jewish leaders.
Although there were other charges against him, the main charge against
Jesus was that of blasphemy. He had claimed to be the Messiah and the
Son of God (Luke 22:70,71); a very serious matter in Jewish law. The
Jewish leaders brought him before the Roman authorities as they had no
authority to execute criminals in the Roman Empire. At first, the Romans said it was not their problem. Pilate said he did not find that Jesus
had done anything illegal according to Roman Law but in the end, at the insistence of the gathered crowd, he agreed to crucify Jesus, the Roman method of capital punishment at that time.<br />
<br />
<b>Reports of the Resurrection</b><br />
After
he was taken down from the cross, Jesus was buried in the tomb of
Joseph of Arimathea, a secret follower of Jesus, and the tomb was sealed by a huge stone at the entrance. The chief priests and Pharisees asked
Pilate to place guards at the tomb because they were afraid his
disciples would come to the grave, steal the body and then claim that
Jesus had risen from the dead. Jesus had implied that he would rise from
the dead saying, ‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it
up.’ (see John 2:19-22). John says He was referring to his body and not the literal temple. The disciples, however, did not understand Jesus’
meaning until after his resurrection.<br />
<br />
In the morning,
several guards hurried to the chief priests to report that during the
night there had been an earthquake and an angel had rolled the stone
away. The guards were struck with fear. The chief priests decided that
they would pay the Temple Guards (they were not Roman soldiers) to say
that the disciples had come and stolen the body while they were sleeping
and promised them they would not be punished for the disappearance of
the body. The guards must have been well-paid for they agreed to tell
that version of the story even though it made them look very
incompetent!<br />
The disciples did not go to the tomb on Saturday which was the Jewish Sabbath and it was forbidden to travel that far.<br />
On
the first day of the week (Sunday) some women followers of Jesus went
with spices to embalm the body. When they arrived they found that the
stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty. A man in white
clothing, an angel, asked them why they sought the living among the dead. He told them that Jesus was not there but had risen from the dead.
The women hurried back to tell the disciples the news but the disciples thought it was an idle tale - as usual, the women were imagining something! But Peter and John wanted to check the story out anyway and ran to the tomb. To their surprise, they saw that Jesus’ body was no longer there.<br />
<br />
<b>Jesus Appears to His Disciples</b><br />
After
that Sunday, Jesus appeared to many of his disciples: the twelve
Apostles hiding in a locked room in Jerusalem, two believers on the road
to Emmaus, two groups of pious women and his disciples again on the shore of the Sea of Tiberius. St. Paul reports that Jesus also appeared
to Cephas and 500 believers, many of whom were still alive at the time
St. Paul wrote the letter to the Church at Corinth (see I Corinthians
15:5-7).<br />
The Church has always believed the accounts of the Gospel writers but there have been several alternate theories put forth<br />
.<br />
<b>The Stolen Body Theory</b><br />
This,
of course, was the first theory that was circulated by the Jewish
authorities of the time: the disciples of Jesus came and stole the body.
According to the Gospel accounts the guards were bribed to lie and say that this is what happened. But, if the disciples had come to steal the body, why didn’t the guards prevent the disciples from rolling away the stone? After all, that is the task they had been hired to do, they were armed and probably outnumbered any disciples who would have come. The
guards claimed that they had fallen asleep but surely guards would have
taken turns sleeping in order to prevent a theft. And even so, would they have slept so soundly as to not have heard a group of men rolling the stone away? They knew that if they had fallen asleep and had failed to prevent the theft of the body, they very likely would have been punished. In the end, money, and the promise that they would not get into trouble for their incompetence, was enough compensation for them to
tell the lie.<br />
If the disciples did indeed steal the body what did they do with it after? Anyone wanting to discredit their story of the
resurrection would just have to prove that the body of Jesus had been
buried elsewhere.<br />
The apostles spent the rest of their lives
preaching that Jesus had risen from the dead. Would they do this for
what they knew was a lie? What did they gain from it? Wouldn’t it have been better to keep a low profile and go back to what they had been
doing before they met Jesus? Instead, all but one of them (John) were killed for their faith. Would not at least one of them confessed rather than lose his life for something that was not true?<br />
<br />
<b>The Swoon Theory</b><br />
This
theory claims that Jesus did not die but was just unconscious when he was put in the tomb. When he revived, he came out of the tomb and was seen alive by his disciples.<br />
Since Jesus had been whipped before
his crucifixion and then spent agonizing hours hanging on a cross meant to kill him, it is unlikely that he survived. Before taking Jesus’ body down from the cross a soldier thrust a sword into Jesus’ side to make sure he was dead and blood and water poured out. His body was placed in a
tomb where there was little air and no food or water for three days. If
Jesus was not dead and merely revived was he able to move the heavy stone at the entrance or did someone else move it? If this theory were
true, Jesus would need a lot of care after leaving the tomb. It would have taken a long time for him to recover without a miracle. And if
this theory is true, when did he die? One day there would be a dead
Jesus and if someone discovered the body then, the game would be up!<br />
<br />
<b>The Hallucination Theory</b><br />
This
theory proposes that the followers of Jesus so much wanted to believe that he was not dead and that he had risen, that they had visions of him
after his death and burial. In their stressful mental state and knowing that Jesus said ‘he would return’ they were susceptible to having hallucinations. It is true that people have had this type of vision after the death of a family member or close friend, however, it is unusual for many people to have the same vision. As well, normally
visions do not last as long as the appearances of Jesus did. And why did
the visions end abruptly? Luke reports that Jesus ascended to heaven
and after that no one saw him again (with the exception of Paul).<br />
The
disciples had not really understood what Jesus had said about being
‘raised up in three days’ and only understood his meaning after they had
seen the resurrected Jesus. The two men on the road to Emmaus had to have it explained to them by Jesus, whom they did not recognize at first.<br />
The story of the disciple Thomas is interesting in the
light of this theory. John writes that Thomas was not in the locked room
when Jesus first appeared to the Apostles. When hearing what had
happened during his absence, Thomas, the cynic, says he will not
believe unless he sees the wounds with his own eyes. Jesus later appears
to Thomas, shows him his wounds and even allows him to touch them. If
the psychological vision theory were true it is unlikely that Thomas
would have this kind of vision. And if the resurrection were not true
for any other reason, it is unlikely that any gospel writer would
include this story of a ‘doubting’ disciple who eventually believed.<br />
<br />
<b>The Modernist or Myth Theory</b><br />
The
most recent theory is one which says that Jesus’ body remained in the
tomb and decomposed and the resurrection spoken of in Scripture is not a
literal but a spiritual or supernatural ‘resurrection’. It is meant to
portray Jesus’ spiritual victory over death or his immortality in a
spiritual sense. Some would also claim that the resurrection crept into
the Gospel accounts from ancient religions. However, the Greeks believed
in the resurrection of the soul but not the body. Other religions
(Hinduism and Buddhism, for example) believe in re-incarnation - the
soul living on in another body but not a bodily resurrection. There was a
tradition of resurrection of the body in Judaism amongst the Pharisees
whereas the Sadducees did not believe in resurrection. St. Paul, a
Pharisee, used this disagreement to his advantage when on trial, "For
the Sadducees claim that there is neither resurrection nor angels nor
spirits, while the Pharisees acknowledge all these things." (see Acts
23:8)<br />
The Modernist Theory gives rise to the same problem as those
in the other theories. Why didn’t someone produce the body of Jesus?
There would have been many who wanted to discredit the claim of the
disciples. Why has the so-called myth persisted for 2000 years? Why has
it been literally believed world-wide by people of many different
cultures, education and backgrounds?<br />
<br />
<b>Conclusion</b><br />
As
mentioned, the simplest way to disprove the resurrection would have
been to produce the body of Jesus. No one was able to do this, in spite
of the fact that many would have wanted to show that the disciples had
lied. Those who had bribed the guards would have loved to have found the
body of Jesus in order to prove that they were right.<br />
For the
remainder of their lives, the apostles put themselves in danger by preaching the death and bodily resurrection of Jesus. They were beheaded
(John the Baptizer), stoned to death (Stephen), put in jail (Peter,
Paul), and crucified (Peter, Paul). Many later believers were also killed by the Romans. In fact, worldwide there are still people being killed for their faith in a Jesus they believe rose from the dead.<br />
Christians
believe that Jesus rose from the dead and that they, too, will be
raised to everlasting life. "But Jesus said to her (Martha), "I am the
resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will
live." John 11:25<br />
<br />
<b>Sources</b><br />
Berkhof, L. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans. 1962.<br />
Hahn, Dr Scott. The Bodily Resurrection of Christ. (CD) Sycamore, Il: Lighthouse Catholic Media, NFP. 2011<br />
Catholic Encyclopedia- New Advent website. Accessed July 8, 2012.<br />
New American Bible. New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co. 1970.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-59269980912909534002019-12-28T11:00:00.000-08:002019-12-28T10:57:54.594-08:00All is Calm, All is Bright - But Not For Long<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Years ago a friend of mine was with his nephew in the card department of a store at Christmas time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The nephew (around 12 at the time) was shocked to hear a boy about his age ask his Dad, “Who is this baby on all the cards?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My friend’s nephew went to Catholic School and had been taken to Sunday Mass by his parents since he was an infant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He could not understand how someone could live in Canada and not know that the baby on Christmas cards was Jesus.</div>
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Today it is more common to find Christmas cards with Santa, Christmas trees and <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">poinsettas</span> than a picture of a baby on them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We who have grown up in families that attend church services are so used to seeing pictures of the baby Jesus and hearing carols about singing angels, shepherds and wise men, Mary, Joseph and Jesus that they seem commonplace. Silent Night, Holy Night, All is calm, all is bright - it is a <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">picture that</span> comes to our minds all through Christmas season.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it didn’t take long for things to take an ugly turn. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You might say all hell broke loose.</div>
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St. Matthew is the only Gospel writer who tells us the story of the men from the east who came to Jerusalem to find a baby born to be king of the Jews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are called ‘wise men’ by St. Matthew -some think they were astrologers possibly because they had followed a star. Traditionally there are three because they brought three gifts to the baby - gold, frankincense and myrrh - but there could have been more <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">or or</span> even less than three.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is said they were ‘wise men from the East’, <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">but</span> no one knows where they came from.</div>
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In Jerusalem, the travellers visited Herod the Great who strived to stay on the right side of the Roman rulers and was doing quite well at it, thank you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Herod had built a palace at Caesarea Maritima (in honour of Caesar Augustus) and though he maintained he was a Jew, did everything he could to stay in Caesar’s good graces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Caesar Augustus <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">claimed</span> the title ‘Son of <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">god</span>’ for himself as his stepfather, Julius Caesar was <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">worshipped by the Romans</span> as <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">god</span>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When, years later, Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was, St. Peter answered, “You are the Son of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">living</span></i> God.’ that is, not the son of a dead god, Julius Caesar.</div>
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Herod the Great was a ruthless man who murdered anyone who got in his way, including his own wife and sons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Herod heard from the <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">visitors that</span> there had been a baby born who was to be King of the <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Jews,</span> he felt his place as ‘king’ was seriously threatened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He found out that Bethlehem was the insignificant town that the prophet Micah, who had prophesied 700 years earlier, would be the birthplace of ‘...a ruler who will govern my people Israel.’ (Micah 5:2<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">).</span> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so that is where Herod advised the men to go and cunningly told them to bring him news about the baby so that he could go and worship him, too. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wise <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">men did not suspect</span> Herod’s intentions, <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">so</span> perhaps they were not all that wise after all.</div>
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<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">The men</span> did find the baby with his mother Mary and <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Joseph now</span> in a house in Bethlehem and presented him with the three gifts, gold (because he was a King), frankincense (because he was a priest) and myrrh (because he would die).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fortunately, God warned them not to return to Herod, <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">and</span> they went back to their country by a <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">different</span> route.</div>
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Joseph also had a dream that was that he should flee to Egypt with the child and his <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">mother because</span> Herod was planning to find the child and destroy him.</div>
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Herod was not happy about being tricked by the wise men and sent his soldiers to kill all the boys under two years old and under in Bethlehem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does this mean that the story of the wise men’s visit could have been up to two years after Jesus’ birth?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Bethlehem was a small <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">town,</span> there may not have been that many boys killed, <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">but</span> their mothers surely wept for them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">consoled</span> because they were no more.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are remembered as the Holy Innocents and the first martyrs.</div>
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The Holy Family stayed in Egypt until they heard that Herod the Great had died.</div>
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Jesus continued to be in danger <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">throughout</span> his life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like Herod, the Devil (or Satan or whatever you like to call the embodiment of all evil) does not like to lose his role as ‘ruler of the world’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Herod’s <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">son</span>, also King Herod, had St. John the Baptist the forerunner of the Messiah, killed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Several times people tried to kill Jesus, <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">and</span> <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">finally,</span> they did succeed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The charge was <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">blasphemy - he claimed to be God. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The joke is he <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> God, and <span style="text-underline: #28B473 thick;">it was God’s plan</span> for him to die in order to save us all along!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus conquered death by his death and resurrection.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Today, those who believe Jesus is God are often denounced, laughed at, made fun of and sometimes, also killed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, one could say, “all hell broke loose” and still is. But, in the end, the devil will have no greater success than Herod did.</span></div>
Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-71130558162453135772019-12-01T23:24:00.001-08:002021-12-05T17:09:13.276-08:00Origins of Christmas and Traditions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKB0c2OKIOq3WpzOJ6hErab2z3K0pxqj60-3kbLTaaFLUUW2lKw4YoDmK1qj9y4owKtcZXYv7dTdtz0MzIIn-YHOjziJJxNYNR6QpDPVVd5uQCLsR_8CsMMp9JpGiz0d5k7UiI/s1600/Christmas+07+%252827%2529.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKB0c2OKIOq3WpzOJ6hErab2z3K0pxqj60-3kbLTaaFLUUW2lKw4YoDmK1qj9y4owKtcZXYv7dTdtz0MzIIn-YHOjziJJxNYNR6QpDPVVd5uQCLsR_8CsMMp9JpGiz0d5k7UiI/s320/Christmas+07+%252827%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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As we approach December 25th people are seen scurrying around shopping for gifts, decorating trees and baking yummy cookies and cakes. But surprisingly, there are still many who do not know the origins of Christmas and of the traditions and customs associated with it.<br />
Over two million people world-wide celebrate Christmas. Different traditions have become part of the celebration, some are unique to specific countries. The origin of Christmas itself, however, the 'Mass of Christ' is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and is shared by all who are Christians. This sounds simple but Christians believe that Jesus is God ie The Incarnation or God taking on flesh (<i>carne</i> - flesh in Latin). So why did God become man and why is there a birth to celebrate?<br />
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<b>The Promised Messiah</b><br />
In many of the writings of the prophets in the Jewish Bible (known to Christians as the Old Testament) a Messiah is promised. 'Messiah' is from Hebrew (although Anglicized) for Anointed One and the Greek equivalent is<i> 'Christus'</i>. These prophets said that the promised Messiah would be of the line of King David Isaiah 11:1-5, (Jesse was David's father); would be born in Bethlehem, David's home city (I Samuel 16:1, Micah 5:1); and that the mother of this Promised One would be a virgin (Isaiah 7:14 ). In Isaiah the word used in Hebrew means young woman implying virginity. The Gospel writer, Matthew, records Joseph's dream encouraging him to take Mary as his wife and quotes the Isaiah passage from the Greek translation of the Jewish Bible (the Septuagint) using the more technical term for virgin. Mary and Joseph were only engaged and not yet married and so Mary was a virgin. Joseph thinking that Mary, who was now pregnant, had been unfaithful to him, was not going to marry her (following Jewish Law) but God spoke to Joseph in a dream reminding him of the prophecy in Isaiah. Joseph knew then that this child had been chosen somehow by God. Did he realize, as well, that he was the Promised Messiah? We don't know how much the young couple understood all of the implications at that time but Mary was told the child will "...be great, and will be called the son of the Most High; and the Lord will give to him the throne of His father David and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there will be no end." So it must have been clear to Mary that her Son was the Messiah. <br />
Jesus and Mary then travelled to Bethlehem, the city of their ancestors, for a census called by the Roman Emperor. Jesus was born in a cave used as a stable because all the inns were full.<br />
The first Christians were Jews who believed that Jesus fulfilled these prophecies. The name Jesus, in Hebrew,<i> Yeshua,</i> means '<i>Yhwh</i> helps' or 'God helps'. When Jesus grew up he gained the reputation of a Rabbi (or Teacher) and healer. Once, in the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus read from the prophet, Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me, to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. As he rolled up the scroll, he said, 'Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing'". Before the crowd in the synagogue, Jesus, himself, had claimed to be the Promised One that is, the Messiah.<br />
Christians believe that Jesus is the Saviour and that he died for the sins of all humanity.<br />
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<b>Star and Angels</b><br />
The story of Christ's birth (told by the Gospel writer, Matthew) says that the Wisemen (or Magi) were led to the place of Jesus' birth by following a star. These were men from somewhere in Asia and had studied and kept track of stars. It is usually thought that there were three Wisemen. This is because there are three gifts mentioned: frankincense, myrrh and gold but there may have been more or fewer men. These gifts foretell that Jesus was priest (frankincense), that he would die (myrrh) and that He was a King (gold) whose kingdom would not end. <br />
The gospel writers tell us that angels announced the birth of the Messiah to shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem. Both Wisemen and angels are used on Christmas cards and decorations at Christmas time.<br />
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<b>Date of Jesus Birth</b><br />
Of course, most Christians now know that December 25th is probably not the actual date that Jesus was born. It is unlikely that the census was held in winter and shepherds and their sheep may not have been out in the fields on 'a cold winter's night'. However, it seems that December 25th was celebrated in Rome as the Birth of Christ as early as 354 AD. (AD is Anno Dominum or The Year of Our Lord and not 'after death' as is sometimes thought). The Catholic Encyclopedia says that the solar feast, <i>Natalis Invicti</i>, in the cult of Sun worship, is the probable source of December 25th as the birthday of Jesus. The Church often took over the feasts that were celebrated by the people before their conversion to Christianity. Thus the celebration also underwent a conversion of sorts; people still celebrated on the same day, but the reason for the celebration had changed. Cyprian wrote, "O, how wonderfully acted Providence that on that day on which that Sun was born...Christ should be born". But both Tertullian and Augustine condemned this comparison with Sol Invictus asserting that the Sun should not be identified with Christ. Some believe that using the pagan feast day was syncretistic while others think it was not a bad idea. Perhaps the latter turned out to be right because today, most people in the world have heard of Christmas but not many have ever heard of <i>Natalis Invicti</i>.<br />
Another explanation comes from a quotation from St. Augustine, who writes in <i>On the Trinity </i>(c.399-419), “For he (Jesus) is believed to have been conceived on the 25th of March, upon which day he also suffered; so the womb of the Virgin, in which he was conceived, where no one of mortals was begotten, corresponds to the new grave in which he was buried, wherein was never man laid, neither before him not since. But he was born, according to tradition, upon December the 25th”. December 25th is nine months after March 25.<br />
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<b>Gift Giving</b><br />
The origin of giving gifts to friends and family at Christmas is most likely the gifts the Wisemen or Magi gave to Jesus (see story in Matthew 2). Though in the modern telling of the story, these Wisemen came to the stable shortly after the birth of Jesus, the visit was probably much later. The Gospel writer records that King Herod had all baby boys up to age 2 years killed in order to dispose of a possible threat to his throne. Having been warned in a dream, Joseph took Mary and Jesus and travelled to Egypt and so Jesus escaped what is known as 'The Slaughter of the Innocents'. Scripture is silent on the timing and, in fact, only Matthew records the visit of the Magi.<br />
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<b>Santa Claus</b><br />
Santa Claus is from the Dutch, <i>Sinterklaa</i>s, or in English, Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas was a bishop in Myra, Lycia (now Turkey) who died December 6, 345AD or 352AD. St. Nicholas' relics are now in the Church of San Nicola in Bari, Italy after being stolen (or rescued, depending on who tells it) by Italian sailors and taken there. Although very little is known about Nicholas, there are legends that during his lifetime he gave gifts to poor children and performed many miracles. He is the patron saint of mariners, bakers, travellers and children. In parts of Northern Europe (Holland and Germany, for example) art has portrayed him as giving gifts secretly to children on his feast day (December 6). In North America, he has become the red-suited Santa Claus (known to Christians and non-Christians alike) who gives gifts to children on Christmas Eve. We owe many of the ideas we have of Santa Claus today to Clement Clarke Moore who in 1823 wrote the poem 'The Night Before Christmas'. It was from this poem that the red-suited jolly man, who comes in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, originated and gained popularity in the West.<br />
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<b>The Christmas Tree</b><br />
Druids and other pre-Christian peoples in Europe used greenery, including mistletoe, to decorate their houses on festive occasions. In c.575 AD, Archbishop Martin of Braga forbade Christians to use yule logs, greenery or trees in their celebrations so as not to be identified with unbelievers. However, the Christmas tree was still used at Strasbourg in the 17th century and came to the rest of France and England in the 19th century. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's German husband, was said to have introduced the decorated Christmas tree to England. Christian advocates of the Christmas tree claim that the evergreen tree symbolizes eternal life and the resurrection and point out that Jesus died on a tree for our salvation. Today, the decorated tree is popular in many countries that do not have a Christian heritage. For example, in Thailand, a predominately Buddhist country, the decorated tree has been adopted as a decoration in stores for the New Year celebration.<br />
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<b>The Nativity Scene</b><br />
St. Francis of Assisi in the 10th century is credited for using and popularizing the creche or nativity scene with the characters of the Biblical story around the manger. These are seen in churches but also in public parks and shopping malls.<br />
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<b>Other Traditions</b><br />
There are of course other traditions associated with Christmas: carol singing, the turkey dinner (in North America), the colours of red and green for decoration are just a few. Certain countries have their own additions: Mexico has the <i>pinata</i> (a paper mache container filled with candy and gifts), the Philippines has <i>Simbang Gabi</i> (the Mass of the Rooster) and there are many more traditions that include special food, music and activities, in countries like Norway, Germany, Italy and Spain.<br />
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<b>References</b><br />
New Advent/ Catholic Encylopedia website accessed June 30 and July 1, 2011.<br />
<i>New American Bible</i>. St. Joseph Edition. New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co. 1992<br />
Seal, Jeremy. <i>Nicholas</i>. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. 2005.<br />
<br />Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-62316199397491305902019-11-19T11:40:00.000-08:002019-11-19T15:00:03.275-08:00The City of Ephesus<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAVKBGr-i_ljLQsNSHT4igis-C0ise-EVW5vue1Fdn-LckHUHrfyEyaZoyeLQ9Yp5uZy8Dm-NRoRqC5tNzrmi3eI35Bqy5N8gW58G88qd9pGNtY7F4-IObbwshJim-nGEKafM4/s1600/0565+Library+of+Celcus.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAVKBGr-i_ljLQsNSHT4igis-C0ise-EVW5vue1Fdn-LckHUHrfyEyaZoyeLQ9Yp5uZy8Dm-NRoRqC5tNzrmi3eI35Bqy5N8gW58G88qd9pGNtY7F4-IObbwshJim-nGEKafM4/s320/0565+Library+of+Celcus.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-CA"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In many historical sources,
the city of Ephesus was described as a leading seaport of the region but <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>searches for it on the coast of Turkey proved
fruitless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then in 1860, when J Wood, an Englishman, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was building a railroad, the
ruins of a city were accidentally discovered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The river Meander or Menderes had left deposits of silt in the delta making
what had once been a seaport now about 6 miles inland from the port of Kusadasi
(now in Turkey).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Archaeologists have been
digging in Ephesus for 150 years but only 10% of the city has been excavated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-CA">The Library of Celcius is the two-story building (the front wall
only) at the end of the street. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
was supposedly a secret passage from the library to a brothel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The women went to the market and the men went
to the brothel via the library! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">A tourist city today</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-CA"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tourists today can walk down
the main street, Kuret, which leads to the Celcius Library.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The library was situated next to the
marketplace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a large theatre nearby
where the citizens of Ephesus would have been entertained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another interesting place has a row of
toilets where the men of the city would gather to gossip as they attended to
physical necessities!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">Ephesus and the Goddess
Diana </span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">Once this Greek city of Asia Minor was not only wealthy but was the
centre of the worship of the nature goddess, Diana (Roman) or Artemis (Greek)
and c. 550 B.C. a large temple for her worship was built.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">St. Paul in Ephesus</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">It was to this city that the Apostle Paul came with his friends and
fellow Christians, Prisca and Aquilla.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During
the time of St Paul, Ephesus was a city in Greece. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the first century, when
St. Paul came there were about a million people living in Ephesus and it was
the second-largest city in the Roman Empire after Rome itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was here that St. Paul was driven out of
town by the silversmiths of Ephesus who feared losing their livelihood because
of many conversions to Christianity (Acts 19).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The man who gathered the silversmiths together to riot was Demetrius and
their trade was making silver images of Artemis which the Christians refused to
buy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>St. Paul left but the Christian
community continued to grow and one of St. Paul's letters to the Church in
Ephesus is part of the New Testament today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is also mentioned by St. John as one of the Seven Churches in the
Book of Revelation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Basilica was built
in the 4th century over what is believed to be the site of St John’s burial.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7otiLmeZg6Dalq31NWJ4FwDcTtPxPybjWFZO7ZYnJGWwnINRml7LrEUf2sPgNB46tLz7g8Fa3hFczc1cEab9wZrwcDaurEOo14qBsv8givkGBTMkOUB01B3rxiVX35Bml9Kwv/s1600/0570+House+of+the+Virgin+Mary.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7otiLmeZg6Dalq31NWJ4FwDcTtPxPybjWFZO7ZYnJGWwnINRml7LrEUf2sPgNB46tLz7g8Fa3hFczc1cEab9wZrwcDaurEOo14qBsv8givkGBTMkOUB01B3rxiVX35Bml9Kwv/s320/0570+House+of+the+Virgin+Mary.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">Mary’s House</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-CA">Tradition says that St. John brought the Virgin Mary from Nazareth
to live with him near Ephesus in order to escape persecution after the death
and resurrection of Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A small
house, believed to be the house where she lived is on Mt. Coressus about 8 km
from the ruins of the city.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA">In 1824, a German nun,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824) saw
visions of Mary at this house and described it exactly and said it was near
Ephesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ephesus was not discovered until the 1860s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1951 archaeologists from Izmir excavated
the area on Mt Coressus and rebuilt the house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Some parts have been carbon dated as older.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People who lived nearby said that the story
was passed down for generations that this was the house where the Virgin Mary
the Mother of Jesus had lived.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA">Pope Paul VI was the first pope to visit
the house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pope John Paul II and
Pope Benedict have since visited. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Roman Catholic Church built the road that leads to the House. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two priests and three nuns (German) live near
the house and look after it and the property is rented from a farmer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">Council of Ephesus</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-CA">An international Church council was held in Ephesus in 431 BC. at
which the Bishop of Constantinople,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nestorius was declared a heretic because of his rejection of the divine
nature of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also rejected the
title <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">theotokos </i>(Greek: God-bearer)
for the Virgin Mary.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">References</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-CA">Travel notes of the city of Ephesus taken</span> by the author.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="EN-CA">Erdemgil, Selahattin<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ephesus</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Istanbul: Net Turistik Yayinlar A.S 2009.</span></div>
Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-58830743169636278192019-09-17T21:49:00.000-07:002020-04-21T01:09:36.396-07:00Eugenics: Forgotten History <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Charles Darwin<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When we think of <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">eugenics</span> we usually think of Hitler, perhaps the most hated man in history. We are reminded of his plan to get rid of Jews, the mentally ill, homosexuals, and others he considered sub-normal human beings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may also think of Joseph Mengele, known as the ‘angel of death', who conducted eugenic experiments at Auschwitz on twins, many of whom were children. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">apparently</span> the idea of eugenics and how to improve the human race by eliminating certain people was an idea that had been around for some time before it erupted in Nazi Germany. Darwin wrote about <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>natural selection, a process in which the best and strongest survive. If this is the case, then the human race should improve naturally. The weak bodied, the weak-minded, those with inherited <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">disabilitating</span> diseases, even homosexuals, it was thought, should naturally disappear in time. But for some in the early <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">20th-century,</span> natural selection wasn’t doing the job fast enough. What if science <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">accelerated</span> the process of improving human beings so that there would no longer be drug and alcohol addicts, the insane, and the mentally retarded? Francis Galton, Darwin’s cousin, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">coined the term ‘eugenics’ in 1883, from its Latin roots meaning ‘good in birth’ or ‘noble heredity’ and it was promoted as a science.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Some well known Americans and British jumped on the bandwagon to improve the human race by eugenics and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>backed the idea with their money and their writing. As is usual, the ideas filtered across the border into Canada as we will see. Here are a few <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of those in 20th c<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">entury America who aided the birth of the so-called ‘science</span> of eugenics’.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Charles Benedict Davenport -(1866-1944)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was a Harvard zoologist who said, “Prevent the feeble-minded, drunkards, paupers, sex offenders and the criminalistic from having children or marrying their like, or cousins or any person <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">belonging </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to a neuropathic strain.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Harry Hamilton Laughlin (1880-1943), who with Davenport founded the Eugenic Record Office on Long Island, Ne<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">w York with</span> their staff, compiled detailed records on 534,625 Americans whom they considered defective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sixty thousand of them would face <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">sterilization</span>, the males by forced castration. <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Their aim was</span> to <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">sterilize</span> fourteen million people in the United States and more worldwide to replace them with ‘pure Nordic stock’. Sound familiar? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Davenport had plenty of funds to accomplish <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">this,</span> but soon the Rockefeller Foundation poured in thousands more. In 1914, John Kellogg, brother of the Cereal King, founded the Race Betterment Foundation in Michigan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lucien <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Howe,</span> was the ophthalmologist who discovered that bathing the eyes of newborns with diluted silver nitrate would save the sight of thousands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">But</span> he was an avowed eugenicist and proposed that blind people should be <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">sterilized</span> and forbidden to marry. The state of New York voted against this so it did not become law there. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In some states, prohibitions of marriage between certain races <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">were</span> prohibited: black/white marriages in several states, white/Asian marriages in Montana, white/Native Americans in other states.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Delaware <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">criminalized</span> marriages of people on welfare!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes wrote the decision that was voted on by the United States Supreme Court to uphold <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">legalized</span> <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">sterilization</span>. In 1917 there were only 1,422 <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">sterilized</span> people in institutions in the US, but by 1941 there were 38,087. Not surprisingly, public support for <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">sterilization</span> was not strong and the</span> movement against it was aided by the Hearst newspaper which published horror <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">stories of</span> <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">sterilizations</span></div>
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<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">I</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">n 1908, Nova Scotia was home of the first ‘eugenics movement’ in Canada when the League for the Care and Protection of Feebleminded Persons was established in the province. In Quebec, Ontario, and elsewhere, academics and physicians worked to enlist others to publicly support eugenics.</span><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The most damaging sterilization program in Canadian history was afforded via the passing of the </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><i>Alberta Sterilization Act of 1928</i></span>. <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Youths, minorities, and women were sterilized in disproportionately high numbers. Indigenous people and</span> Métis<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">, regardless of age, were also targeted making up 25% of the sterilizations performed even though they represented only 2.3% of the general population in Alberta. If the persons were deemed 'mentally defective' no consent was required. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">British Columbia’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sexual Sterilization Act</i>, legislated in 1933 and repealed in 1973, closely resembled Alberta’s legislation. In BC however, the Act created a Board of Eugenics, consisting of a judge, psychiatrist, and social worker and fewer people were sterilized there. Many were inmates of Riverview or Essendale Mental Institution. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When the Nazis took power in Germany in <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">1933,</span> they patterned their program of eugenics on American legislation. As well, they received financial assistance from those in the American movement. As we know, it turned into something horrific and 10,000 Jews alone were murdered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many more who were deemed ‘undesirable’ by the Nazi regime were also killed. When the truth became known at the end of the war, the world recoiled at the very idea of forced sterilization and getting rid of so-called ‘inferior’ human beings. Instead, it turned to ‘more civilized’ methods of contraception and abortion which was supposed to rescue women from being slaves to their fertility and protect the world from over-population. Those who were deemed the undesirable segments of humanity were targeted. ‘A Woman’s Choice’ was the cry of the day and Margaret Sanger headed a new onslaught on who should be allowed to have babies. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What will the future bring? More couples are opting to not have children. Although abortion has decreased in some years, it has not disappeared by any means. Artificial contraception is now common and although it was historically forbidden by all Christian denominations, the Anglican Church was the first to say it could be used "in some situations". Now Christians from all Protestant denominations practice artificial contraception and only in the Catholic Church is it still not allowed (even though many Catholics ignore the Church's teaching). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">China brought in the "one-child policy" which has resulted in not enough women for Chinese men to marry. Will countries bring in forced laws to abort children or limit the number of children a couple can have? Pope Paul VI made some predictions in his encyclical "Humanae Vitae" and that was one of them. The suggestion that we can "decrease our carbon footprint" by not having children is a scary reminder that this may be on the horizon. </span></div>
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Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-65369599366491588762019-06-28T18:53:00.000-07:002019-06-28T21:14:38.949-07:00The True Tolkien Story <br />
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Are the stories of the Hobbits just imaginative tales based in Norse and Anglo-Saxon mythology? Or is there more to Middle Earth and the events that fascinate modern readers? The life of the author, Tolkien, gives us a hint of the source of his literary achievements.<br />
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<b>Tolkien’s Early Life</b><br />
JRR (John Ronald Reuel) Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa in 1892. His mother and father, Arnold and Mabel Tolkien, were English but had moved to South Africa where Arnold worked as a banker. The Tolkien family’s home in England had been in Warwickshire but the name ‘Tolkien’ originated in the Saxon Duchies of what later became the German Republic. Mabel Tolkien (nee Suffield), who came from a religious Anglican family, had been a missionary with her sister in Africa before her marriage. The Tolkien family attended Church of England services. Arnold and Mabel had a second son Hilary, born when Ronald, as JRR was called, was only two.<br />
As children, both boys were sickly and the parents decided that Mabel would take the boys back to England in hopes that their health would improve there. Arnold was to follow them when he could resign his post and find similar employment in England. Mabel left when JRR was only two and Hilary just a baby and they settled in Sarehole, a small, quiet village outside Birmingham. Shortly after their arrival in England they received news that Arthur had died of acute peritonitis after influenza.<br />
This was a great tragedy for the family and Mabel was left to raise the two boys by herself. She was qualified to teach and took the education of her sons upon herself teaching them Latin, Greek, literature and mathematics. Even at the age of nine Tolkien began inventing languages but this was thought by his mother to be a waste of time and was discouraged. Mabel did encourage her sons to appreciate fairy stories that were popular in Victorian times, particularly the writings of George MacDonald, Spencer and the Grimm Brothers. She also shared her enthusiasm of nature, classical mythology, pageants and parades with the boys.<br />
Around 1900, Mabel Tolkien converted to Catholicism. It is not known what led her to do this, although there was a surge of interest in Roman Catholicism in Birmingham at that time because of John Cardinal Newman’s conversion from Anglicanism to Catholicism in 1845. Newman had been accepted into the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri and established the Oratory in Birmingham in 1851. He was made a Cardinal in 1879 and died in 1890. Birmingham had traditionally been an anti-Catholic city but through the Oratorian Fathers many converted to the Catholic faith.<br />
Mabel Tolkien had depended on her relatives for moral and financial help but her family did not approve of her conversion and a strain was now placed on the relationship. During this time, Mabel came to rely on Father Francis Xavier Morgan, a priest at the Oratory, for advice, especially on the raising of the boys. He was said to have “... a firm but gentle manner, a keen intellect and an unusual sensitivity toward children.” (Grotta-Kurska, p. 33). Father Morgan was influential in the boys’ upbringing and Tolkien said later that he had been like a father to him.<br />
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<b>Tolkien and Studies</b> <br />
In 1904, Mabel Tolkien died leaving 12 year old Ronald and Hilary orphans but she had made arrangements for the boys before her death. As she wanted them to continue in the Catholic faith rather than leave them with their Protestant grandparents, Mabel had appointed Father Morgan as their legal guardian and he placed them in a boarding house where other orphans attending the Oratory school lived. Tolkien missed the quiet village of Sarole and although he hated the poverty and squalor of Birmingham he came to enjoy the museums, libraries and parks. Father Morgan took them on trips to the English countryside, to Wales and once even to the Alps for mountain climbing.<br />
Tolkien eventually outgrew the physical weaknesses he had as a child and by age 16 he was an enthusiastic athlete. It was also when he was 16 that he met Edith Bratt, who lived at the same boarding house. She was his first and only love. Edith was also an orphan and from a similar background to Tolkien’s. Because of their youth and because they were expected to concentrate on their education, they were kept apart. In fact, they were even forbidden to write to each other until Tolkien was at Oxford and Edith reached the age of majority!<br />
Tolkien studied at King Edward VI School and chose to focus on Anglo-Saxon studies rather than the usual Classics. In 1911 he was able to begin studies at Exner College at Oxford as an ‘exhibitioner’ which was similar to a scholarship that provided his tuition.<br />
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<b>Tolkien and The War </b><br />
The world was drastically changed in 1914 when the Great War began but Tolkien was determined to finish his degree before joining the army. When he did join as an Oxford graduate he was automatically given a commission. Before being sent to the front in France in 1916, he went on a short leave to Birmingham where he and Edith were married. In France he took part in the terrible Battle of the Somme where many were killed.<br />
After 1917, after suffering trench fever, Tolkien did not see active service again and later that year he and Edith had their first child, John Francis Ruel, the ‘Francis’ after Father Morgan. This first son later became a priest following in the footsteps of Father Francis. The war ended in 1918 and Tolkien worked for a time at the Ministry of Labour. He was able to join the faculty of the University of Leeds in 1921 and returned to Oxford to teach in 1925.<br />
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<b>Tolkien at Oxford </b><br />
One of Tolkien’s closest friends was C.S. Lewis, the author of Tales of Narnia, whom he met while teaching at Oxford. Lewis wrote in his autobiography, “At my first coming into the world I had been (implicitly) warned never to trust a papist, and at my first coming into the English Faculty (explicitly) never to trust a philologist. Tolkien was both.” (Lewis, p. 216) Tolkien was, of course, a major influence in the conversion of Lewis from atheism to Christianity. Tolkien told a friend, “I got him as far as the Church of England from atheism”. Lewis, who was from Belfast, never became a Catholic although his thinking fits well with Catholicism and his books are loved by Catholics. The two were part of an informal literary group, known as The Inklings, who met at the pub, The Eagle and Child, in Oxford.<br />
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<b>Tolkien The Author</b> <br />
Tolkien doesn’t mention Catholicism or Christianity in his books and many of his readers are not aware of the influence that his faith had in his writings. Tolkien once wrote to a friend, “The Lord of the Rings is fundamentally a religious and a Catholic work.” (quoted by Pierce in “Tolkien, Man and Myth: A Literary Life”)<br />
Middle Earth is created, monotheistic and fallen; the primary sin is that of pride. Evil is bound to failure and ‘God’ will bring good out of evil. The enemy, Morgoth, is like Satan. The ring (the symbol of original sin) is destroyed on March 25 which coincides to the Feast of the Annunciation, that is, the date when God became man. In medieval times people believed that this was also the date of the resurrection. Frodo is the one who ‘takes up his cross’ and follows Christ. In our world the cross is the symbol of sin, in Frodo’s world, the ring is the symbol of sin. ‘Elves bred’ is bread to help them on their way. Tolkien once said, “The only cure for sagging or fainting faith is Communion. Though always Itself, perfect and complete and inviolate, the Blessed Sacrament does not operate completely and once for all in any of us. Like the act of Faith it must be continuous and grow by exercise. Frequency is of the highest effect.” The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter to his son.<br />
Unfortunately, fans of Tolkien’s works know the background of Norse mythology and Anglo-Saxon tales but often fail to see the important connection between his Catholic faith and his literary works. The books remain popular and the movies (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and now The Hobbit) have fans of all ages but how many of those fans know the real meaning of the characters and plot?<br />
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<b>Sources</b> <br />
Grotta-Kurska, Daniel. J.R.R. Tolkien: Architect of Middle Earth. New York: Warner Books. 1976<br />
Lewis, C.S. Surprised by Joy. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1984<br />
Pierce, Joseph. Tolkien: A Catholic Worldview. EWTN television, December 15Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-88947586778479838142018-11-28T16:31:00.001-08:002018-11-28T16:34:35.972-08:00Thai priest on the way to being a Saint: Blessed Nicolas Kitbamrung<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlSZ6xGP9JcO9z-5xrp2FE_-vuhcUr_I_8wXQiNeieVIe_v20MtulGgy5VpGrh9bqwnuD8c9_iNKkHfA2ZtwJIs7Q_JoGTBv16nPhWWuht9QTaJ2SbQfg5RhK_sknL4K26caRI/s1600/26+Blessed+Nicholas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="468" data-original-width="295" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlSZ6xGP9JcO9z-5xrp2FE_-vuhcUr_I_8wXQiNeieVIe_v20MtulGgy5VpGrh9bqwnuD8c9_iNKkHfA2ZtwJIs7Q_JoGTBv16nPhWWuht9QTaJ2SbQfg5RhK_sknL4K26caRI/s320/26+Blessed+Nicholas.jpg" width="201" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Most Thai people (or others, for that matter) are not aware that there are 5 Thai martyrs and a priest who were proclaimed Blessed (the step before sainthood) by the Catholic Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is the story of the priest, Blessed Nicolas Kitbamrung. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Bunkerd Kitbamrung was born to a Catholic family in Nakon Pathom province January 11, 1895.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">His childhood was unremarkable but at sometime he felt called to be a priest. After training at the seminary in Penang, Malaysia he was ordained on January 24, 1926 at the age of 31 at Assumption Cathedral, Bangkok.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His Catholic name was 'Nicolas'.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">He served in several parishes in North and Northeast Thailand, including Chiangmai.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1927, he assisted the Salesian Order missionaries helping to teach them Thai and also training Thai seminarians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">At that time, Catholics were considered 'unpatriotic' as 'to be a Thai is to be a Buddhist'.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As well, disputes with France over borders with Laos caused Thai authorities to look with suspicion on those associated with the French, which in many cases were Catholic priests.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">On the morning of January 12, 1941, Father Nicholas rang the church bell to summon parishioners to Mass. For this simple act he was arrested and sentenced to fifteen years of imprisonment at Bang Khwang. While in prison he contracted tuberculosis and died on January 12, 1944 at the age of 49. It was said he was denied care because he was a Catholic but this has not been verified.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">While in prison he had heard confessions and administered the sacrament of baptism to his fellow prisoners. Approximately 68 persons were baptized by him while in prison. During his life Father Nicolas had a great concern for pastoral work and compassion for the poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">After a thorough examination of his life, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Fr. Nicolas Bunkerd Kitbamrung a Blessed on January 27, 2000 and the ceremony of beatification was held on March 5, 2000 at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Thai Catholics, from all parts of the Kingdom of Thailand, joyfully celebrated the beatification in Father Nicolas' home town of Sam Phran, Nakhon Pratom on that day.</span></div>
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Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-77621802719848092052018-10-15T13:11:00.000-07:002018-10-15T13:13:57.152-07:00Oscar Romero: The Unfinished Mass<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0TEp7mbqh-0Bj4ZqAz-0lpXH9cPBUbhyphenhyphenafV29-8z7C4XwdftRagcufNwrBg6iVQ-aEUlYHCUTyi2ZEnP-YytRZYZNEI41EHnhMKhxbM0p8t4roPWUe0bOEyP0gEAr-en3zrnK/s1600/images.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="152" data-original-width="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0TEp7mbqh-0Bj4ZqAz-0lpXH9cPBUbhyphenhyphenafV29-8z7C4XwdftRagcufNwrBg6iVQ-aEUlYHCUTyi2ZEnP-YytRZYZNEI41EHnhMKhxbM0p8t4roPWUe0bOEyP0gEAr-en3zrnK/s1600/images.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-CA">A
few days before he was assassinated, Romero told a reporter, “You can
tell the people that if they succeed in killing me, that I forgive and
bless those who do it. Hopefully, they will realize they are wasting
their time. A bishop will die, but the church of God, which is the
people, will never perish.”<br />
<br />Oscar Romero was born in 1917 in Cuidad Barrios, a small town in the mountains of El Salvador.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He left school at the age of twelve and became an apprentice carpenter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wished to become a priest but his family wanted him to continue studying carpentry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-CA">Romero
somehow managed to convince his parents that he wanted to study for the
priesthood. He was ordained a priest in Rome in 1942 and continued to
study there for his doctoral degree in theology. After he worked as a
parish priest in El Salvador for several years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-CA"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1975 he became the bishop of Santiago de Maria and in 1977 he was appointed the Archbishop of San Salvador. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-CA">During the 1970’s, El Salvador was wracked by Civil War stemming from a poor economy and a repressive dictatorship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This war between right-wing government and the leftist antigovernment units led to around 30,000 people being killed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The US backed the military dictatorship in spite of its human rights violations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At
that time there was a movement of priests who followed Marxist
teachings as a solution to El Salvador’s problems and they sided with
the poor against the rich landowners and elite of the country.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-CA">Romero's
fellow bishops and priests considered him to be predictable,
conservative and not concerned with political views. This was no doubt
the reason he was appointed an Archbishop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was expected that he would carry on as others had before him and would not cause any political ‘waves’.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-CA">However,
Romero let it be known that, although he did not support Liberation
Theology, he was on the side of the poor. Shortly after being elected as
bishop, a Jesuit priest, Father Rutillo Grande and two of his
parishioners were killed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One was a seven year old child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When this happened Bishop Romero truly understood what the farmers were facing and promised to be their shepherd.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-CA">Romero asked for international intervention but it fell on deaf ears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With
one exception, the Bishops of El Salvador turned their back on him and
it is said that they sent a letter to Rome accusing him of using
politics to seek popularity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
1980, Romero wrote to the President of the United States asking them to
stop sending military aid because he said it was being used to repress
the people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They did not stop. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-CA">On
March 23, 1980 he ended a broadcasted homily with, “Brother, you are
from the same people ... No soldier is obliged to obey an order that is
contrary to the will of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the name of God, in the name of the suffering people, I ask you .... in the name of God to stop the repression.”</span><br />
<span lang="EN-CA">The
day after that speech as Romero was celebrating Mass in a hospital
chapel, as he raised the chalice, he was shot by an assassin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His blood spilled over the altar mixing with the wine from the chalice.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-CA">During his funeral Mass on March 30 a bomb exploded and shots rang out. From 30 to 50 people were killed that day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From this, the people recognized the horror of all the killing and violence in El Salvador finally subsided.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-CA">In
2012, the United Nations declared the International Day of the Right to
the Truth recognizing the contribution of Archbishop Romero. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-CA">In
March 2015, Pope Francis beatified Oscar Romero bringing him one step
closer to sainthood. And on October 14, 2018, Oscar Romero was recognized as
a Saint of the Catholic Church.</span>Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-79205563279562460102018-06-02T09:36:00.002-07:002018-06-02T09:38:10.808-07:00Book Review: Glastonbury by Donna Fletcher Crowe<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32993862-glastonbury" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Glastonbury: The Novel of Christian England" border="0" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1479262218m/32993862.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32993862-glastonbury">Glastonbury: The Novel of Christian England</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/56147.Donna_Fletcher_Crow">Donna Fletcher Crow</a><br />
<br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2410881024">5 of 5 stars</a><br />
<br />
<br />
I enjoyed reading this book and learning more about the history of England, especially how Christianity came to England and the struggles over the years. It took me a long time to read but then it does cover the time of Joseph of Arimathea coming to England to the destruction of the monasteries by Henry VIII. I found it interesting how the author cleverly wove what are considered legends into the story in a way that made them entirely believable. Donna Crow did a tremendous amount of research and I found it interesting how she presented both sides of the Catholic/Protestant controversy in a non-biased way. I could not tell which side of the fence she is on.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-62822646303447678972018-03-25T10:35:00.000-07:002018-04-20T22:43:43.124-07:00Are You Really Pro-Life?To be pro-life means you want to end:<br />
<br />
the killing of babies still in the womb<br />
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the killing of children in their schools (or anywhere)<br />
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suicides of children<br />
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the legal killing of those who are depressed because they are old or in pain (so-called'euthanasia') <br />
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<br />Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-24115811472331828082017-11-01T21:11:00.001-07:002019-09-17T21:47:14.179-07:00Eugenics and Sterilization: Forgotten Chapters of History<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When we think of <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">eugenics</span> we usually think of Hitler, perhaps the most hated man in history. We are reminded of his plan to get rid of Jews, the mentally ill, homosexuals, and others he considered sub-normal human beings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may also think of Joseph Mengele, known as the ‘angel of death', who conducted eugenic experiments at Auschwitz on twins, many of whom were children. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">apparently</span> the idea of eugenics and how to improve the human race by eliminating certain people was an idea that had been around for some time before it erupted in Nazi Germany. Darwin wrote about <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>natural selection, a process in which the best and strongest survive. If this is the case, then the human race should improve naturally. The weak bodied, the weak-minded, those with inherited <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">disabilitating</span> diseases, even homosexuals, it was thought, should naturally disappear in time. But for some in the early <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">20th-century,</span> natural selection wasn’t doing the job fast enough. What if science <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">accelerated</span> the process of improving human beings so that there would no longer be drug and alcohol addicts, the insane, and the mentally retarded? Francis Galton, Darwin’s cousin, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">coined the term ‘eugenics’ in 1883, from its Latin roots meaning ‘good in birth’ or ‘noble heredity’ and it was promoted as a science.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Some well known Americans and British jumped on the bandwagon to improve the human race by eugenics and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>backed the idea with their money and their writing. As is usual, the ideas filtered across the border into Canada as we will see. Here are a few <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of those in 20th c<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">entury America who aided the birth of the so-called ‘science</span> of eugenics’.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Charles Benedict Davenport -(1866-1944)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was a Harvard zoologist who said, “Prevent the feeble-minded, drunkards, paupers, sex offenders and the criminalistic from having children or marrying their like, or cousins or any person <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">belonging </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to a neuropathic strain.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Harry Hamilton Laughlin (1880-1943), who with Davenport founded the Eugenic Record Office on Long Island, Ne<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">w York with</span> their staff, compiled detailed records on 534,625 Americans whom they considered defective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sixty thousand of them would face <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">sterilization</span>, the males by forced castration. <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Their aim was</span> to <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">sterilize</span> fourteen million people in the United States and more worldwide to replace them with ‘pure Nordic stock’. Sound familiar? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Davenport had plenty of funds to accomplish <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">this,</span> but soon the Rockefeller Foundation poured in thousands more. In 1914, John Kellogg, brother of the Cereal King, founded the Race Betterment Foundation in Michigan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lucien <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Howe,</span> was the ophthalmologist who discovered that bathing the eyes of newborns with diluted silver nitrate would save the sight of thousands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">But</span> he was an avowed eugenicist and proposed that blind people should be <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">sterilized</span> and forbidden to marry. The state of New York voted against this so it did not become law there. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In some states, prohibitions of marriage between certain races <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">were</span> prohibited: black/white marriages in several states, white/Asian marriages in Montana, white/Native Americans in other states.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Delaware <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">criminalized</span> marriages of people on welfare!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes wrote the decision that was voted on by the United States Supreme Court to uphold <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">legalized</span> <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">sterilization</span>. In 1917 there were only 1,422 <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">sterilized</span> people in institutions in the US, but by 1941 there were 38,087. Not surprisingly, public support for <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">sterilization</span> was not strong and the</span> movement against it was aided by the Hearst newspaper which published horror <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">stories of</span> <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">sterilzaitons </span></div>
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<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">I</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">n 1908, Nova Scotia was home of the first ‘eugenics movement’ in Canada when the League for the Care and Protection of Feebleminded Persons was established in the province. In Quebec, Ontario, and elsewhere, academics and physicians worked to enlist others to publicly support eugenics.</span><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The most damaging sterilization program in Canadian history was afforded via the passing of the </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><i>Alberta Sterilization Act of 1928</i></span>. <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Youths, minorities, and women were sterilized in disproportionately high numbers. Indigenous people and</span> Métis<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">, regardless of age, were also targeted making up 25% of the sterilizations performed even though they represented only 2.3% of the general population in Alberta. If the persons were deemed 'mentally defective' no consent was required. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">British Columbia’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sexual Sterilization Act</i>, legislated in 1933 and repealed in 1973, closely resembled Alberta’s legislation. In BC however, t he Act created a Board of Eugenics, consisting of a judge, psychiatrist, and social worker and less people were sterilized there. Many were inmates of Riverview or Essendale Mental Institution. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When the Nazis took power in Germany in <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">1933,</span> they patterned their program of eugenics on American legislation. As well, they received financial assistance from those in the American movement. As we know, it turned into something horrific and 10,000 Jews alone were murdered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many more who were deemed ‘undesirable’ by the Nazi regime were also killed. When the truth became known at the end of the war, the world recoiled at the very idea of forced sterilization and getting rid of so called ‘inferior’ human beings. Instead it turned to ‘more civilized’ methods of contraception and abortion which was supposed to rescue women from being slaves to their fertility and protect the world from over-population. Those who were deemed the undesirable segments of humanity were targeted. ‘A Woman’s Choice’ was the cry of the day and Margaret Sanger headed a new onslaught on who should be allowed to have babies. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What will the future bring? More coupes are opting to not have children. Although abortion has decreased in some years, it has not disappeared by any means. Artificial contraception is now common and although it was historcally forbidden by all Christian denominations, the Anglican Church was the first to say it could be used "in some situations". Now Christians from all Protestant denominations practice artificial contraception and only in the Catholic Church is it still not allowed (even though many Catholics ignore the Church's teaching). China brought in the "one-child policy" which has resulted in not enough women for the men to marry. Will countries bring in forced laws to abort children or limit the number of children a couple can have? Pope Paul VI made some predictions in his encyclical "Humanae Vitae" and that was one of them. The suggestion that we can "decrease our carbon footprint" by not having children is a scary reminder that this may be on the horizon. </span></div>
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Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-8956474349658529512017-09-18T00:03:00.003-07:002017-09-18T00:05:18.130-07:00<span style="font-size: large;">Posting your website link which is not relevent to my post is a rather rude thing to do in my opinion. It is also a waste of your time because as soon as I am notified about your post, I mark it as spam and no one sees it. Why not get readers to go to your site by other means - ones that are ethical? </span>Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-20486665811132097172016-12-11T23:17:00.001-08:002017-02-06T00:07:18.757-08:00Available in paperback and e-book. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLKC_m4l8NouYcrhPEGpVSR2Hf0HcTN7kbHKeoCbI47WhQ_kiYzOWulCiPM8A1o4mwWGuQS3DMQnmoB6Vi_jonCef9xPUVNWrCAFh28F8R_2AhRFnla4SobocIiCXJP6a1XkFT/s1600/Cover+Betel+Nut+in+My+Roses+-+mine+-+Copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLKC_m4l8NouYcrhPEGpVSR2Hf0HcTN7kbHKeoCbI47WhQ_kiYzOWulCiPM8A1o4mwWGuQS3DMQnmoB6Vi_jonCef9xPUVNWrCAFh28F8R_2AhRFnla4SobocIiCXJP6a1XkFT/s320/Cover+Betel+Nut+in+My+Roses+-+mine+-+Copy.jpg" width="271" /></a></div>
Go to book/author website or order from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com for paperback. Amazon in other countries have the e-book available.<br />
After joining a Christian missionary organization, Lorraine is sent to work at a hospital in South Thailand. Living in a small fishing village near the sea sounds like a peaceful existence but gunshots, a kidnapping and the arrival of Viet Namese refugees are challenges that she and her co-workers deal with. <br />
<a href="http://lshelstadauthor.ca/">http://lshelstadauthor.ca</a><br />
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Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-78114624851189427312016-10-14T16:39:00.002-07:002016-10-16T23:42:07.157-07:00King Bhumiphol - the Much-Loved King of Thailand<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> The Queen Mother holding Prince Bhumiphol with older brother, Prince Anand and sister, Princess Galyani. </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Early Life</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On December 5, <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">1927</span> a baby registered only as Baby Mahidol was born at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His father was studying medicine at Harvard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Few people were aware that his father was Prince Mahidol, the son of Chulalongkorn, the King of Thailand. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1928 Prince Mahidol and his wife, the beautiful Sangwan, returned to Thailand with their family of three: Princess Galyani, Prince Ananda and little Prince Bhumiphol (pronounced <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Bumipon</span></i>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prince Mahidol, now a graduate of Harvard Medical School, worked with leprosy sufferers in North Thailand at a Missionary Hospital for a while and then went on to improve public health and hospitals in Thailand. He taught preventative and social medicine to third-year medical students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prince Mahidol suffered from a chronic kidney disease and died at the young age of 37.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His wife took their three children to Switzerland where they attended school. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ascension to the throne</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When King Chulalongkorn died in 1910, his eldest son, Vajiravudh became King. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then in 1925 Prince <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Prajadhibok</span>, next in line, became King.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He abdicated in 1935 due to ill health but first granted a system of constitutional monarchy to the country after ‘The Revolution of 1932’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Prajadhibok</span> had no children, his nephew, Prince <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ananda became the King at the age of 10.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a short reign of 11 years, spent mostly studying in Switzerland, he was found dead in his room at the Royal <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Palace</span> in Bangkok, apparently of a gunshot wound.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The circumstances of his death have never <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">been discovered</span> or, at least, have never been revealed to the public except that he probably accidently shot himself while cleaning his gun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">This left</span> Prince Bhumiphol, his <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">nineteen year old</span> brother, directly in line to be King.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His mother asked permission for him to complete his education in Switzerland first and a Regent <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">was appointed</span> in his place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bhumiphol had been studying science but switched to law and political science <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">in order to</span> prepare for his new role as King.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">1946</span> the young King returned <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">to his homeland</span> to take on his royal duties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Siam’s name <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">was changed</span> to Thailand in 1949.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It remains a constitutional <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">monarchy</span> and the King was loved and revered by the Thai people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Marriage and family</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While in Switzerland, <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Bhumiphol</span> had met the beautiful <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sirikit, the daughter of the Thai ambassador to France.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was also <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">a descendent</span> of King Chulalongkorn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They fell in love and <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">were married</span> on April 28, 1950.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once when asked why he rarely smiled, the King is said to have answered that the Queen was his smile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The King and Queen had four children: Princess Ubol Ratana, Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn (who is next in line to the throne), Princess Sirindhorn and Princess Chulabhon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Princess Ubol was married to an American whom she met while studying in the US.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have since divorced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their son, Bhumi Jensen died in the tsunami that struck Thailand on December 26, <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">2004</span> while on holiday in Phuket. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Reign </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For years<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>King Bhumiphol was the longest living, reigning monarch in the world, surpassing even Queen Elizabeth II of England.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During his reign of 64 year<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">s</span>, there were <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>27 Prime Ministers in Thailand and 15 coups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although he was officially a Constitutional Monarch he played a role in politics in Thailand by showing his approval or disapproval of the government in power in his speeches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His scientific studies helped him in his work to improve agriculture and flood control in his country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The King was also a talented musician; he played the saxophone and the piano and wrote many musical compositions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In recent years, ill health limited his public duties as King but this void has been aptly filled by his children. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">King Bhumiphol died on October 13, 2016 at the age of 88.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thailand has declared a year of mourning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He will be greatly missed as one of the great and much-loved monarchs of recent times.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: #ffeedd;"> will never disappoint us</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-35388095042727271842016-09-07T19:59:00.002-07:002020-07-30T22:14:28.542-07:00Why Does the Catholic Church Have Saints?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Who are Saints?</b><br />
St Paul sent one of his letters (now part of the New Testament) to 'to the saints who are also faithful in Christ Jesus' Ephesians 1:1. They were still alive. In that way, all believers in Christ Jesus who are faithful to Him, are 'saints'. We are all called to be 'saints' even though most of us won't <span>be formally and publicly recognized</span> as Saints. Still, there are many Saints <span>canonized</span> every year; the general and non-Catholic public only hears about those who are already well-known (such as Mother Theresa and John Paul II).<br />
The Church does not 'make' a Saint but <span>recognizes</span> the person as a Saint.<span> </span><span>The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, 'But by canonizing some of the faithful, i.e. by solemnly proclaiming that they practiced heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to God's grace, the Church recognizes the power of the Spirit of holiness within him or her and sustains the hope of believers by proposing the Saints as models and intercessors."</span> Catechism of the Catholic Church 828.</div><div class="MsoNormal">In other words, the Saints are models for us to follow and also intercessors - people we can ask to pray for us, just as we ask our friends on earth to pray for us.<br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>God's Friends and Servants</b><br />
The Saints are considered God’s friends and servants and they are believed to reign with God in heaven. Their supernatural gifts have been given to them only by God<b> </b>and therefore they are honoured and given reverence (Latin, <i>dulia</i>). The Virgin Mary is given a higher form of reverence (Latin, <i>hyperdulia</i>) because she is the mother of Jesus.<br />
The Catholic Church believes that worship (Latin, <i>latria</i>) should <span>be given</span> to God alone. Of course, Jesus is believed to be God, in the Nicene Creed, “true God and true man”, and therefore he is also worshipped. The saints, martyrs and even the Virgin Mary <span>are not worshipped</span> as they are not divine beings.<br />
There is of course, “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (I Timothy 2:5) but the <span>Saints</span> are intercessors (prayer partners) and advocates (Rev 5:8, Rev 8:3,4).<span> </span>The Church does teach that you can pray directly to Jesus for healing. It does not teach that Mary and the Saints will convince Jesus to answer your prayer when He doesn't <span>really</span> want to! (Although some Catholics seem to think this, misreading the story of Jesus' first miracle at Cana.)<br />
The Saints serve as models for those of us who are still alive. Some Saints won't mean much to us personally, but the stories of others will touch our hearts.<br />
Every Sunday, Catholics say the Apostle's Creed or the Nicene Creed during the Mass. They say, "I believe in the communion of saints". The Church teaches that the Mystical Church includes: 1. The Church Militant (Christians on earth) 2. The Church Suffering (Christians in purgatory)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=18977649#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a> and 3. The Church Triumphant (those in heaven).<br />
<br />
<b>Beatification and Canonization</b><br />
A beatified person is known as "Blessed......” and a <span>canonized</span> person is known as “Saint......”<span>. Usually,</span> someone is beatified first and <span>later,</span> if the further conditions <span>are met</span> (two miracles), that person <span>is canonized</span>.<b> </b><br />
The words used in the actual canonization are: “In <span>honour of</span> ... we decree and define that <span>Blessed ....</span> is a Saint, and we inscribe his/her name in the catalogue of saints, and order that his memory <span>be</span> devoutly and piously celebrated on <span>the ...</span> day ..., his feast.” The feast day of a saint <span>is commonly celebrated</span> on the anniversary of his or her death.<br />
<br />
<b>Procedure for Beatification and Canonization</b><br />
In recent times there are strict regulations about the investigation <span>into the person's life for</span> the cause of sainthood. The person’s life <span>is examined</span> for reputation, for sanctity and for miracles that have occurred after his or her death. If the person has written diaries or books, these are examined to see if there is anything contrary to faith and morals in the writings.<br />
Mother Theresa's journey to canonization was very fast (some said she was 'fast-tracked' because so many asked for her to <span>be made</span> a Saint). And yet, it was 19 years after she died that her canonization took place! All her writings, including many private letters, were examined during that time.<br />
<span style="font-family: "" serif "" , "serif";">The miracles attributed to the intercession of Mother Theresa were the curing of cancer in a Christian Indian woman, Monica Besra and the healing of brain abscesses in Brazilian man, Marcilio Andrino.</span><br />
Cases of reported miracles are examined by the Catholic
Church's Congregation for the Causes of Saints and a committee of
medical specialists. If it can be shown the recovery fell outside the
laws of nature with no scientific explanation, it is said to pass the test to be a miracle. </div><div class="MsoNormal">If there are eyewitnesses to the <span>miracles,</span> they <span>are examined</span>. In the case of martyrs, there must be proof of the martyrdom<span style="font-family: "" serif "" , "serif";">. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "" serif "" , "serif";">When the Church was investigating miracles attributed to the intercession of Marguerite D'Youville, a French Canadian woman who began the Order of the the Sisters of Charity, they contacted</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/08/31/491937448/how-the-catholic-church-documented-mother-teresas-two-miracles"><span style="color: windowtext;"> Dr Jacalyn Duffin</span></a></span></span><span style="font-family: "" serif "" , "serif";"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">, <font color="#000000">a haematologist. They gave her slides of blood cells from a person who had leukemia. She did not know the background of the case and identified that later slides from the same patient were free from leukemia. </font></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "" serif "" , "serif";">Dr</span><span style="font-family: "" serif "" , "serif";"> Duffin later looked into other cases and was so intrigued with the material she found in the Vatican Archives that she investigated hundreds of other stories of miracles. "To admit that as a nonbeliever, you don't have to claim that it was a supernatural entity that did it," Duffin said, "You have to admit some humility and accept that there are other things that science cannot explain."</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "" serif "" , "serif";">Sources</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "" serif "" , "serif";">Catechism of the Catholic Church. New York and Toronto: Doubleday Publishing Group Inc. 1995.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "" serif "" , "serif";">Duffin, Jacalyn Pondering Miracles - Medical and Religious. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "" serif "" , "serif";">Website of the Catholic Encyclopedia/New Advent accessed January 15, 2011.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "" serif "" , "serif";">Gjelten</span><span style="font-family: "" serif "" , "serif";">, Tom. How the Catholic Church Documented Mother Teresa's Two Miracles. http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/08/31/491937448/how-the-catholic-church-documented-mother-teresas-two-miracles accessed September 6, 2016. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlrmjzMbMuyIynQL-ezcq27TcGss8_cg0EcuAAuf9l8G1ahCkEQHsIoOhnRTjsLvCGs36KWjnct-FutHNwJF_WmmbK_0wQiBaIKKuL0oXpUHo5s7er7Ok9KwKdDkcped4wXXvM/s1600/communionofsaints1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlrmjzMbMuyIynQL-ezcq27TcGss8_cg0EcuAAuf9l8G1ahCkEQHsIoOhnRTjsLvCGs36KWjnct-FutHNwJF_WmmbK_0wQiBaIKKuL0oXpUHo5s7er7Ok9KwKdDkcped4wXXvM/s320/communionofsaints1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=18977649#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span> </span>Purgatory is another topic.<span> </span>Suffice it to say that it is a place of cleansing (or purging) and everyone in purgatory will eventually be in heaven. It is not hell where those who do not believe in God or in Jesus have chosen to go.</div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=18977649#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a> <span style="font-family: "" serif "" , "serif";">Gjelten, Tom. www.npr.org "How the Catholic Church Documented Mother Teresa's Two Miracles." August 31, 2016.</span><br />
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Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-44058789862097051032016-05-15T10:20:00.000-07:002020-04-11T12:39:23.063-07:00How We Got the Bible.<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-outline-level: 1;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMEjLzrpRFiHca6fy8s89fouDH0pHzCGh7D93m_tMn9MtkeMBmpyat8F6WH1uvmU3IoZmrEYocQepQ3WbtTmXDU1AN1gEqPmq3N4IP1CNSzOo1EoMwtlFN1EOvQoqSZr9P7aRu/s1600/open+bible.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMEjLzrpRFiHca6fy8s89fouDH0pHzCGh7D93m_tMn9MtkeMBmpyat8F6WH1uvmU3IoZmrEYocQepQ3WbtTmXDU1AN1gEqPmq3N4IP1CNSzOo1EoMwtlFN1EOvQoqSZr9P7aRu/s320/open+bible.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #555555; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #555555; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">What are the origins of the Bible? When was it written? Can we believe what it says?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">Have you ever wondered how and when the Bible came to be? Of course, most of us know that the Bible didn’t drop down from heaven as a complete book, but many do not know how the Bible developed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">The Bible is made up of many books written by many authors. How were the books that make up the Bible chosen? And what were the criteria for including those books? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">The Old Testament</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">The Christian Bible is made up of two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is the Sacred Scripture of the Jewish people and, because of this, it was the only Bible that Jesus, the Apostles, and the early Christians had. Originally written in the Hebrew language, it included books of the history of Israel, the writings of the Prophets, and Wisdom literature (Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">The Jewish Diaspora began when the Assyrians conquered Israel in 722 BC, and the inhabitants were scattered across the Middle East. Later, in 597 BC, Nebuchadnezzar deported many Judeans (people living in the southern part of Israel known as Judea), although some escaped to Egypt. When the Jewish people were dispersed to other nations after these conquests, the Jews began to speak the languages of the people where they now lived. Following the conquests of Alexander the Great people in the conquered areas learned to speak Greek. Even the Jewish Scriptures were translated from Hebrew into Greek to be read in the synagogues, and this translation is known as the Septuagint. It was the Septuagint translation that was the Scripture (Old Testament) used in the time of Jesus and the early Church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">The New Testament</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">The New Testament is made up of the four Gospels (Sts. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), the Acts of the Apostles, the letters of St. Paul, St. Peter and St. John, St. James, the Revelation of St. John and a letter whose author is unknown (Letter to the Hebrews).</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;"> The Acts of the Apostles was written by St. Luke. The letters (e.g. Romans, Ephesians, Galatians, I Peter) were circulated to be read in the churches of the Mediterranean area which at that time was part of the Roman Empire. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">The canon of New Testament Scripture was set down by Iraneus, a bishop of Lyon, France at the end of the second century (between 100 and 199 AD). He accepted the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) even though two of them had not been written by Apostles (Luke and Mark). Luke was a physician who travelled with Paul. Mark was possibly a nephew of Peter. As there were other letters and gospels circulating at the time, Iraneus’ criteria for the canon were that they were “... the teachings of the churches in the earliest period, meaning whichever of these writings had actually remained in use since that time.” Therefore, the books which today are recognized by Roman Catholics, Protestant, and the Orthodox Church as Scripture, were agreed upon well before the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD (the 4th century) when they were formally declared to be part of Scripture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">The Catholic Church was responsible for the canon of Scripture (which books should be included) and the preservation of Scripture. Since it was the only Church until the 15th Century, without the Catholic Church, we would not have the Christian Bible as it exists today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">Textual Criticism</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">When scribes (usually monks) copied the manuscripts, errors inadvertently crept into the copies. Textual Criticism is a science which tries to identify and remove errors in transcription in the texts of any ancient manuscript. The objective is to produce a text which is as close as possible to the original. Often, in the case of classical manuscripts, there may be only one or two manuscripts in existence. If there are more than ten, there is a great advantage of knowing what was originally written. In the case of the New Testament, however, there are nearly five thousand manuscripts in Greek in existence as well as quotations from the books in the writings of others! Furthermore, the manuscripts of classical authors usually date only from the Middle Ages, but there are manuscripts of the New Testament Scriptures as far back as the end of the 2nd century. That is, they were written only a century after the original manuscripts had been written. This means we can trust the words of Scripture more than we can trust the words of classical writings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">What are the Gnostic Gospels?</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">The Gnostic gospels are 13 volumes that were discovered in 1945 near Nag Hammadi in Egypt. All of these books were written in the Coptic language and are probably translations from Greek. They were believed to have been written in the 2nd century (100-199 AD).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">Most Biblical scholars agree that the canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were written before AD70, although some put Matthew at 75-80AD. If this is the case, the Canonical Gospels would be more reliable accounts of the life of Jesus than the Gnostic gospels as they were written closer to the time that he lived.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">Before AD70, there would have been witnesses still alive who could have protested any errors in them. By the 2nd century (when the Gnostic gospels were written) anyone still living from the time of Jesus would have to be over 100 years old.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">Inspiration of Scripture</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">The Catholic Church, as well as the Orthodox Church and Evangelical Protestant churches, believe that the writers of Scripture were inspired by the Holy Spirit: God is the Author of Sacred Scripture: "The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit," CCC 105 and <i>Dei Verbum</i> 11.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">"To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers, that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more," <i>Dei Verbum</i> V 11.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">Scriptures in the Church</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">Before the invention of the printing press, the Scriptures were hand-copied. The pages were often beautifully decorated as well. Individuals did not own copies of the Bible and copies were often chained down in the Church, not to keep people from reading the Bible, but to ensure it would be available when someone did want to read it. In other words, like our telephone books today, 'chaining them' prevented people stealing them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">By this time, Latin was the language used amongst the educated and was the language used in the universities across Europe. Uneducated people could not read Latin and many could not read their own language, so books in English or German were not necessary in the early Middle Ages. However, there are some instances of early translations into the vernacular (common) language of the people. Two examples are: Bishop Ulfilas (318-380) who devised an alphabet for the Goths and translated the Old and New Testaments. In the 9th Century, St. Cyril and St. Methodius invented an alphabet, the Cyrillic alphabet, for the Slavic peoples and translated a Bible for them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">Quotations About Scripture</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">St. Jerome (AD340-420) said, “Not to know the Scriptures is not to know Christ.” St. Jerome translated the Scriptures from Hebrew and Greek to Latin, the language in use at that time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">A document from the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) states, “Among other things that pertain to salvation of the Christian peoples, the food of the Word of God is above all necessary, because as the body is nourished by material food, so is the soul nourished by spiritual food, since, '...not by bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.'" (Matthew 4:4).</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">And finally, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1997): “In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, ‘but as what it really is, the word of God.” (103)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">Sources:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">Catechism of the Catholic Church</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">. New York, London, Toronto: Doubleday. 1997.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">Pope Paul VI. <i>Dei Verbum: Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation</i>. The Vatican:1965.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">The Catholic Encyclopedia</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;"> at New Advent website, accessed October 15, 2010.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: 0.5pt;">The Jewish Virtual Library website, accessed October 15, 2010.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-43887474858491802112016-04-09T23:40:00.002-07:002016-09-02T00:21:31.763-07:00Are Annulments just Catholic Divorces? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjouOGU-Xds59YiVrpciTn_guXL7QA69qoT2SjjPkvF3DNXJzM9p5WBJtrKQX4_XskZzkxb0RBsVrDeOW7jb9Q_RDVH_hnNSwzESbWsFJpup2sntabRQs7ZvXBuDJs4-PYgIWzR/s1600/wedding+2009+032.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjouOGU-Xds59YiVrpciTn_guXL7QA69qoT2SjjPkvF3DNXJzM9p5WBJtrKQX4_XskZzkxb0RBsVrDeOW7jb9Q_RDVH_hnNSwzESbWsFJpup2sntabRQs7ZvXBuDJs4-PYgIWzR/s320/wedding+2009+032.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">Watch the news and you might get the impression that Pope Francis is changing the Church doctrine. Church practice can and has been changed over the years, but doctrine cannot be changed.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">Should the rules about families, marriage and divorce be changed to make the Church more compassionate? To be Catholic or universal, the 'rules' have to apply worldwide. The so-called 'rules' are not to punish but are to echo what Jesus taught about marriage. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">Here is what the Church has traditionally taught about marriage, divorce and annulments.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA">Marriage as a Sacrament<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">The Catholic Church teaches that marriage is sacred. When a baptized man and a baptized woman are joined in marriage, it is considered a sacrament. The Catholic Church considers baptisms to be valid even though they took place in a church other than the Catholic Church as long as the baptism is in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Therefore, marriage between a baptized Baptist or Presbyterian person and a Catholic is also considered a sacrament. A sacrament cannot be 'undone' and so marriage, like baptism, is considered indissoluble. Even when the persons are not baptized, a marriage is a covenant when a man and a woman freely express informed consent, with no constraints. Even though the law of a country may allow divorce, the Church does not.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA">Divorced Persons<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">A </span><span lang="EN-CA">person who obtains a divorce according to civil law is not said to have 'sinned' nor are they excommunicated from the Church. A civilly-divorced person remains a Catholic and can partake in the sacraments of Holy Communion. A problem only arises when a divorced person remarries because the Church considers the person already married, although living apart from the spouse.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">A Catholic, who is divorced in a civil court and remarries again (without obtaining an annulment), is contravening the law and plan of God. He or she is not separated from the Church but, remaining in this state, they can no longer partake of Holy Communion.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">In these cases, one can apply for an annulment. An annulment declares that the marriage in question was not valid. It is not concerned with the civil contract of the marriage, and so the children are not declared illegitimate. Of course, to declare that a marriage is not valid, a careful and thorough investigation must take place beforehand. A Marriage Tribunal is a group of people who have been chosen by that Diocese to investigate marriages and who are knowledgeable in Canon and marriage law. </span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA"> Grounds for Annulments<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">Some of the grounds for an annulment are:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">-The existence of an impediment to the marriage, such as a previous marriage that is still valid, religious vows or a close blood relationship between the couple. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">-one of the persons suffered or suffers a psychological incapacity, such as a serious mental illness, at the time of the marriage. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">-psychological immaturity which prevented one or both persons of understanding the nature of the marriage. An example would be a teenage couple who marry because the girl is pregnant and they have not thought about the seriousness of the commitment.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">-one or both persons have been coerced to marry against their will. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">-the intention of one of the couple to marry for reasons other than a lifelong commitment and intending to divorce later. One example would be a person marrying someone to obtain citizenship or a visa who is planning to obtain a divorce in the future. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">-one of the persons marrying without the intention of having children.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">If a baptized Catholic who has married outside the Church, without a priest and two witnesses, the marriage is considered invalid. No annulment is needed in this case. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">The Marriage Tribunal considers each case separately, and the above list only gives a few examples of reasons an annulment may be granted. Note that not all applications for an annulment are granted. </span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA">Steps for Obtaining an Annulment<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">1. The couple should first take all possible steps (such as counselling) to save their marriage before applying for an annulment. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">2. Contact your parish priest who will direct you to the next steps and the application process.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">3. Details about courtship, wedding, relationship and breakdown of the marriage are provided to the representative from the Marriage Tribunal in your Diocese. You will be asked to pay a fee for administrative costs, but finances should never be an obstacle to obtaining an annulment. The Diocese should offer options for financial assistance. Pope Francis has taken steps recently to simplify the application for annulments. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">4. You will be asked to provide names of two or three witnesses who can verify your information.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">5. An advocate, a cleric or layperson, will be appointed by the Tribunal to safeguard the rights of the couple in the court process. A Defender of the Bond, who defends the marriage bond, is also appointed by the Tribunal.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">6. The petition is submitted to the Tribunal and, having looked at all the information, they decide each case on its own merits. Their decision is submitted to another diocese to review before the applicant is informed. This process can take a few months or even years, and if the marriage does not contravene any of the requirements, an annulment will not be granted. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">Annulments by the Catholic Church are, therefore, quite different than a civil divorce. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">There is a move to make divorced and remarried persons feel more welcomed by the Church. However, divorced and remarried persons cannot receive Communion without first being granted an annulment. This has not changed. </span></div>
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Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-13876250204162351722016-03-24T23:39:00.000-07:002020-04-11T11:24:02.493-07:00Is the Resurrection of Jesus Really True?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Resurrection of Jesus is considered the cornerstone of belief of all mainstream orthodox Christians. St. Paul writes, “If Christ has not been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty, too, our faith.” (I Corinthians 15:14). In other words without the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead, Christianity has no valid message. The resurrection is the ‘good news’; Jesus has been victorious over sin and death. The Church defines resurrection as the rising from the dead and resumption of life and has always proclaimed its belief that three days after his death Jesus rose from the dead.<br />
Let us examine, then, the events surrounding the resurrection, the arguments against it and the counter-arguments.<br />
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The four Gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) all give accounts of the death of Jesus by crucifixion, the discovery of his empty tomb and the appearances of a living Jesus after his death. The Catholic Church and other orthodox Christians believe in the historical reliability of this Scriptural account. Although the four accounts relate some different details they are basically the same and do not contradict each other.<br />
While in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was arrested and then brought before the Sanhedrin, the council of Jewish leaders. Although there were other charges against him, the main charge against Jesus was that of blasphemy. He had claimed to be the Messiah and the Son of God (Luke 22:70,71); a very serious matter in Jewish law. The Jewish leaders brought him before the Roman authorities as they had no authority to execute criminals in the Roman Empire. At first the Romans said it was not their problem. Pilate said he did not find that Jesus had done anything illegal according to Roman Law but in the end, at the insistence of the gathered crowd, he agreed to crucify Jesus, the Roman method of capital punishment at that time.<br />
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<b>Reports of the Resurrection</b><br />
After he was taken down from the cross, Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a secret follower of Jesus, and the tomb was sealed by a huge stone at the entrance. The chief priests and Pharisees asked Pilate to place guards at the tomb because they were afraid his disciples would come to the grave, steal the body and then claim that Jesus had risen from the dead. Jesus had implied that he would rise from the dead saying, ‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.’ (see John 2:19-22). John says He was referring to his body and not the literal temple. The disciples, however, did not understand Jesus’ meaning until after his resurrection.<br />
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In the morning, several guards hurried to the chief priests to report that during the night there had been an earthquake and an angel had rolled the stone away . The guards were struck with fear. The chief priests decided that they would pay the Temple Guards (they were not Roman soldiers) to say that the disciples had come and stolen the body while they were sleeping and promised them they would not be punished for the disappearance of the body. The guards must have been well-paid for they agreed to tell that version of the story even though it made them look very incompetent!<br />
The disciples did not go to the tomb on Saturday which was the Jewish Sabbath and it was forbidden to travel that far.<br />
On the first day of the week (Sunday) some women followers of Jesus went with spices to embalm the body. When they arrived they found that the stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty. A man in white clothing, an angel, asked them why they sought the living among the dead. He told them that Jesus was not there but had risen from the dead. The women hurried back to tell the disciples the news but the disciples thought it was an idle tale - as usual the women were imagining something! But Peter and John wanted to check the story out anyway and ran to the tomb. To their surprise, they saw that Jesus’ body was no longer there.<br />
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<b>Jesus Appears to His Disciples</b><br />
After that Sunday, Jesus appeared to many of his disciples: the twelve Apostles hiding in a locked room in Jerusalem, two believers on the road to Emmaus, two groups of pious women and his disciples again on the shore of the Sea of Tiberius. St. Paul reports that Jesus also appeared to Cephas and 500 believers, many of whom were still alive at the time St. Paul wrote the letter to the Church at Corinth (see I Corinthians 15:5-7).<br />
The Church has always believed the accounts of the Gospel writers but there have been several alternate theories put forth<br />
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<b>The Stolen Body Theory</b><br />
This, of course, was the first theory that was circulated by the Jewish authorities of the time: the disciples of Jesus came and stole the body. According to the Gospel accounts the guards were bribed to lie and say that this is what happened. But, if the disciples had come to steal the body, why didn’t the guards prevent the disciples from rolling away the stone? After all, that is the task they had been hired to do, they were armed and probably outnumbered any disciples who would have come. The guards claimed that they had fallen asleep but surely guards would have taken turns sleeping in order to prevent a theft. And even so, would they have slept so soundly as to not have heard a group of men rolling the stone away? They knew that if they had fallen asleep and had failed to prevent the theft of the body, they very likely would have been punished. In the end, money, and the promise that they would not get into trouble for their incompetence, was enough compensation for them to tell the lie.<br />
If the disciples did indeed steal the body what did they do with it after? Anyone wanting to discredit their story of the resurrection would just have to prove that the body of Jesus had been buried elsewhere.<br />
The apostles spent the rest of their lives preaching that Jesus had risen from the dead. Would they do this for what they knew was a lie? What did they gain from it? Wouldn’t it have been better to keep a low profile and go back to what they had been doing before they met Jesus? Instead, all but one of them (John) were killed for their faith. Would not at least one of them confessed rather than lose his life for something that was not true?<br />
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<b>The Swoon Theory</b><br />
This theory claims that Jesus did not die but was just unconscious when he was put in the tomb. When he revived, he came out of the tomb and was seen alive by his disciples.<br />
Since Jesus had been whipped before his crucifixion and then spent agonizing hours hanging on a cross meant to kill him, it is unlikely that he survived. Before taking Jesus’ body down from the cross a soldier thrust a sword into Jesus’ side to make sure he was dead and blood and water poured out. His body was placed in a tomb where there was little air and no food or water for three days. If Jesus was not dead and merely revived was he able to move the heavy stone at the entrance or did someone else move it? If this theory were true, Jesus would need a lot of care after leaving the tomb. It would have taken a long time for him to recover without a miracle. And if this theory is true, when did he die? One day there would be a dead Jesus and if someone discovered the body then, the game would be up!<br />
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<b>The Hallucination Theory</b><br />
This theory proposes that the followers of Jesus so much wanted to believe that he was not dead and that he had risen, that they had visions of him after his death and burial. In their stressful mental state and knowing that Jesus said ‘he would return’ they were susceptible to having hallucinations. It is true that people have had this type of vision after the death of a family member or close friend, however, it is unusual for many people to have the same vision. As well, normally visions do not last as long as the appearances of Jesus did. And why did the visions end abruptly? Luke reports that Jesus ascended to heaven and after that no one saw him again (with the exception of Paul).<br />
The disciples had not really understood what Jesus had said about being ‘raised up in three days’ and only understood his meaning after they had seen the resurrected Jesus. The two men on the road to Emmaus had to have it explained to them by Jesus, whom they did not recognize at first.<br />
The story of the disciple Thomas is interesting in the light of this theory. John writes that Thomas was not in the locked room when Jesus first appeared to the Apostles. When hearing what had happened during his absence, Thomas, the cynic, says he will not believe unless he sees the wounds with his own eyes. Jesus later appears to Thomas, shows him his wounds and even allows him to touch them. If the psychological vision theory were true it is unlikely that Thomas would have this kind of vision. And if the resurrection were not true for any other reason, it is unlikely that any gospel writer would include this story of a ‘doubting’ disciple who eventually believed.<br />
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<b>The Modernist or Myth Theory</b><br />
The most recent theory is one which says that Jesus’ body remained in the tomb and decomposed and the resurrection spoken of in Scripture is not a literal but a spiritual or supernatural ‘resurrection’. It is meant to portray Jesus’ spiritual victory over death or his immortality in a spiritual sense. Some would also claim that the resurrection crept into the Gospel accounts from ancient religions. However, the Greeks believed in the resurrection of the soul but not the body. Other religions (Hinduism and Buddhism, for example) believe in re-incarnation - the soul living on in another body but not a bodily resurrection. There was a tradition of resurrection of the body in Judaism amongst the Pharisees whereas the Sadducees did not believe in resurrection. St. Paul, a Pharisee, used this disagreement to his advantage when on trial, "For the Sadducees claim that there is neither resurrection nor angels nor spirits, while the Pharisees acknowledge all these things." (see Acts 23:8)<br />
The Modernist Theory gives rise to the same problem as those in the other theories. Why didn’t someone produce the body of Jesus? There would have been many who wanted to discredit the claim of the disciples. Why has the so-called myth persisted for 2000 years? Why has it been literally believed world-wide by people of many different cultures, education and backgrounds?<br />
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<b>Conclusion</b><br />
As mentioned, the simplest way to disprove the resurrection would have been to produce the body of Jesus. No one was able to do this, in spite of the fact that many would have wanted to show that the disciples had lied. Those who had bribed the guards would have loved to have found the body of Jesus in order to prove that they were right.<br />
For the remainder of their lives, the apostles put themselves in danger by preaching the death and bodily resurrection of Jesus. They were beheaded (John the Baptizer), stoned to death (Stephen), put in jail (Peter, Paul), and crucified (Peter, Paul). Many later believers were also killed by the Romans. In fact, there are still people being killed worldwide for their faith in a Jesus they believe rose from the dead.<br />
Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead and that they, too, will be raised to everlasting life. "But Jesus said to her (Martha), "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live." John 11:25<br />
<br />
<b>Sources</b><br />
Berkhof, L. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans. 1962.<br />
Hahn, Dr Scott. The Bodily Resurrection of Christ. (CD) Sycamore, Il: Lighthouse Catholic Media, NFP. 2011<br />
Catholic Encyclopedia- New Advent website. Accessed July 8, 2012.<br />
New American Bible. New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co. 1970.<br />
<br />Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-92110297102280184612016-01-22T23:53:00.002-08:002018-02-03T00:05:00.566-08:00Viva Cristo Rey : Mexico's Cristero Rebellion<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYanyUKFfdGD2xhlAd64OHMGpSt1GZKwDYUtvmpU7d7QBAhvTqg6s0Mcqh3RgA4_mbdqHug37_hjeG4ZvNotSUuy9pKOrhszWoxlpiz5MClOLbk7PWOR7VWhV2OdUP58CyZpWU/s1600/epitacio-lamas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYanyUKFfdGD2xhlAd64OHMGpSt1GZKwDYUtvmpU7d7QBAhvTqg6s0Mcqh3RgA4_mbdqHug37_hjeG4ZvNotSUuy9pKOrhszWoxlpiz5MClOLbk7PWOR7VWhV2OdUP58CyZpWU/s320/epitacio-lamas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><br /></span> <span lang="EN-CA">Mexico has had a tumultuous history with colonization by Spain, conflicts with California and its own internal wars. Today the drug wars have devastated the population most who are peace-loving and family oriented. Poverty and corruption have played their part in the troubles of this culturally-rich country. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA">Mexico in the 19th Century<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">In<b> </b>the 19th century the philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment, after the French Revolution, had its effect on many countries. Some wanted to throw off what they thought were the shackles of monarchy and Church and promote the new gods of state and science. One of those was Benito Juarez.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">Benito Juarez is considered one of the founding fathers of Mexico. Juarez was born on March 21, 1806, in a small village in Oaxaca state to native Indian parents. His parents died when he was only three and Juarez was brought up by relatives. He later worked at various jobs on farms to support himself. When he was 12 years old, he left for the city of Oaxaca hoping to get an education, but he could not even speak Spanish, only Zapotec, the indigenous language of his parents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">While Juarez was working as a domestic servant, a lay Franciscan, Antonio Salanueva, recognized the young boy’s gifts and helped him enter the Seminary. He later decided to study law rather than become a priest and after graduation from the Seminary, he earned a law degree at the Instituto de Ciencias y Artes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"> After working in government posts, Juarez was elected President of Mexico in 1857. Napoleon III launched an intervention in Mexico in 1862, but the Mexicans defeated the French forces at Pueblo. This victory is still celebrated each year as Cinqo de Mayo. Juarez was eventually forced into exile in the north of Mexico. </span><span lang="EN-GB">In the meantime, Maximilian von Habsburg, a younger brother of the Emperor of Austria, was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico on the 20th April 1864 with the backing of Napoleon III and a group of Mexican conservatives. The Pope also backed Maximilian. </span><span lang="EN-CA">Juarez eventually returned victorious and had Maximilian executed on June 1, 1867. Juarez’ first official act was to confiscate Church property and turn it over to the Masons of which he was a member. His aim was to curtail the power of the Catholic Church in Mexico and establish a Republic modeled after the United States. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Juarez died of a heart attack on18 July 1872.</span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The Beginnings of Revolution<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Various leaders brought Mexico into the 19th century which would prove to be devastating to the country. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">President Venustiano Carranza (1914-1920) was an arch-foe of the Catholic Church. In 1915, he had 116 priests shot and curtailed the activities of all Catholic priests in Mexico. He was an atheist and a 33rd degree Mason. In spite of his atheism, he supported Protestant missionaries and schools as he thought they would help to annihilate the Catholic Church in Mexico <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10pt;">I<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">n 1924, President Plutarco Calles closed all Catholic schools and atheism was taught in the public schools. Then in1926 the Mexican government outlawed the Catholic Church and Catholics were openly persecuted</span>. </span></span></span></span><span lang="EN-CA"> Priests were not allowed to administer the sacraments, churches, seminaries and convents were shut down, and Catholic charitable works were halted. All religious orders were outlawed, and foreign priests and sisters were sent home. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">At first,</span><span lang="EN-CA"> the people resisted peacefully but eventually the peasants, known as Cristeros, took up arms and fought the government forces. Not all were holy or good people, but many were. The rebellion began in 1927, and the battle cry of the Cristeros was, ‘Viva Cristo Rey’ or ‘Long live Christ, the King’. Their Patron Saint was Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Virgin Mary, who had appeared to Juan Diego in 1531. Many women took part in the revolution by smuggling arms and supplies to the soldiers and treating the wounded. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">Most priests did not fight, but a few did, and all supported the Cristeros in some way. Father Pro, a Jesuit priest, did not take up arms but would dress up as a policeman and enter jails to give Communion to the prisoners. Once, when dressed as a policeman, he demanded to know why the police hadn’t caught ‘that priest Pro’ yet and the police hurried off to pursue him. Another time, when being chased by the police, he jumped out of the taxi that was being followed. He lit a cigar and took the arm of a surprised young woman walking down the street. He told her he was in danger and the police car sped by not suspecting the ‘happy couple'. Finally, Father Pro was caught and shot by a firing squad without trial on November 23, 1927. He was falsely implicated in an attempted assassination of a government official. His last cry before being shot was, 'Viva Cristo Rey!' <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">Before the rebellion began there were 4,500 priests in Mexico but by 1934, there were only 334 licensed priests. They had been either killed or had escaped to other countries. Graeme Greene’s book, ‘The Power and the Glory’ (published in 1940) is about a disillusioned priest, who was one of the few priests left in the country. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">The Cristeros had many victories even though the government had more men and supplies. In 1929 a truce was negotiated but even after the fighting stopped 6,000 Cristeros were killed by a government-led firing squad. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">Father Pro was beatified in 1988. Pope John Paul II canonized another twenty-five martyrs, both laymen and clergy, in May 2000. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">Today, over 90% of Mexico’s population considers itself Catholic - the Church could not be extinguished, and Tertullian’s statement once again proved true, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">Pope John Paul II visited Mexico five times during his pontificate. Pope Benedict visited in March 2012, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">‘For Greater Glory’, a film starring Andy Garcia, Peter O’Toole, and Eduardo Verastegui and produced by Pablo Barroso, tells the story of those who fought in the Cristeros War. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA">Martyrs and Saints<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">The Catholic Church has recognized some of those killed in the Cristero rebellion as martyrs including Blessed Miguel Pro. In may 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized 25 martyrs: 22 clergy and three laymen. They had not taken part in the fighting but were shot or hung for offering the sacraments. On November 20 2005 thirteen victims were declared martyrs. Among this groups was 14 year old Jose Sanchez del Rio. He was canonized in 2016 by Pope Francis.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-CA">Sources<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">Madrid, Patrick. <u>The Battle for the Faith in Mexico. </u> CD by Lighthouse Catholic Media. (www.lighthouse catholicmedia.org)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">Catholic Online website accessed March 28, 2012 (</span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.catholic.org/"><span lang="EN-CA">www.catholic.org</span></a></span><span lang="EN-CA">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">http://www.romereports.com/palio/new-film-starring-andy-garcia-aims-to-answer-who-were-the-cristeros-english-6346.html<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18977649.post-76928623423861969602015-11-05T14:57:00.002-08:002021-08-05T16:35:06.236-07:00St. Edmund Campion, Martyr<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2u988qurb_J6Uxeo6g0rv4qOch_1kQO-5KzN_IsAXitmqclJowZ94mOgQq08zjiisOoBIG3Xbj1cHg3jYX62TR_y8muVB8cV5JMBMQfYCTrJd3LqXP4KhkjBcrV0Q-1ExABOY/s1600/download.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2u988qurb_J6Uxeo6g0rv4qOch_1kQO-5KzN_IsAXitmqclJowZ94mOgQq08zjiisOoBIG3Xbj1cHg3jYX62TR_y8muVB8cV5JMBMQfYCTrJd3LqXP4KhkjBcrV0Q-1ExABOY/s1600/download.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">In 1566, Queen Elizabeth I visited the University of Oxford. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The visit lasted six days and, although she<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>had to listen to innumerable speeches in Latin, Greek and English, they were somewhat lightened by a few plays and presentation of degrees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">Edmund Campion, Student</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">On the third day, Edmund Campion, then 26 years old, spoke on the relationship of the tides and the moon – an unusual subject for a divinity student. There were strict limits to the debate topics; they were not to touch on the subject of the Queen's religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oxford,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>particularly Campion's college of St. John, was known to be pro-Catholic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In any case, Campion had taken the Oath of Supremacy which meant he regarded the Queen, and not the Pope, as the head of the English Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the Queen left Oxford, Campion had earned the patronage of the Earl of Leicester and some even looked on him as a possible future Archbishop of Canterbury.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">After receiving deacon's orders in the Anglican Church, Campion suffered a 'remorse of conscience' and returned to Catholic doctrine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He left England for Ireland in 1569 and was to be involved in the establishment of the University of Dublin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There he wrote his 'History of Ireland', now considered an English-slanted version of Irish history.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Campion's Spiritual Search</b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">His Catholic sympathies deepened and in 1571, Campion left Ireland secretly for Douai, then in the Spanish Netherlands, now in France, he was re-admitted to the Catholic Church and received the Eucharist for the first time in twelve years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was granted the Bachelor of Divinity by the University of Douai in 1573 and travelled to Rome where he entered the Jesuit novitiate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The course of his life had drastically changed.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">Edmund Campion, Jesuit and Priest</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">The Jesuit Mission to England began in 1580 for the purpose of providing English Catholics with the sacraments and Mass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was illegal to attend Mass in England and everyone who did not attend the Anglican service was fined a shilling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For those clerics and officials who refused to say an oath of submission to the Queen's spiritual supremacy, the first penalty was the loss of material goods but after the third refusal, the penalty was death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was also considered high treason to reconcile anyone to the Roman Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The enforcement of these and other rules was inconsistent and depended on informers, but clearly England was not a safe place for a Jesuit priest!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">The object of the mission was for the preservation of the Faith of the Catholics in England and the Jesuits were strictly warned not to proselytize among the Protestants. They were also forbidden by their Superiors to become involved in politics or the state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>English Catholics were encouraged to obey the Queen in civil matters but not spiritual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">The Jesuits entered England in disguise and stayed in the houses of prominent Catholic families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the houses had secret cupboards where Mass vestments, missals and Communion vessels were kept but these 'priest holes' were often large enough to hide the priest himself if there was a raid by professional priest-hunters. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">At Mass at the Yate's house in Lyford, one of the priest hunters, Mr. George Eliot, had been present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After Mass, he left the home and went for the magistrate at which time the three priests, including Campion, were hidden in the secret chamber.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Eliot returned with the authorities there was a thorough search and the Jesuits were found and charged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">Edmund Campion, Martyr</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">Campion was put in the Tower and later tortured.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the presence of the Queen, he was offered a bishopric if he renounced his Catholic faith but he adamantly refused.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Edmund Campion was charged on October 31 with having conspired to raise sedition in England and dethrone the Queen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was condemned to death as a traitor and hanged on December 1, 1581.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA">His last words were, "In condemning us, you condemn all your own ancestors, all our ancient bishops and kings, all that was once the glory of England – the island of saints, and the most devoted child of the See of Peter."</span></div>
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Lorraine Shelstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984745728686666602noreply@blogger.com1