January 2009 Archives

Pope John Paul II had already "rehabilitated" the astonomer, condemned by the Inquisition in 1633. But as we approach his 450th birthday on Feb. 15, the Vatican is pulling out the stops for Galileo Galilei, the Italian scientist who proved that the earth goes 'round the sun--not the other way around.

From CNS:

Galileo deserves honor, gratitude of Catholic Church, says Vatican

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Galileo Galilei, who had been condemned by the Catholic Church's Holy Office, was a genius and a man of faith who deserves the appreciation and gratitude of the church, the Vatican said.

The 17th-century astronomer was "a believer who tried, in the context of his time, to reconcile the results of his scientific research with the tenets of the Christian faith," said a written statement released by the Vatican Jan. 29.

"For this, Galileo deserves all our appreciation and our gratitude," it said.

Galileo was the first scientist to study the cosmos with a telescope, which opened up a whole new frontier for discovery and forced humanity "to reread the book of nature in a whole new light," it said.

"Therefore, the church wishes to honor the figure of Galileo -- innovative genius and son of the church," it said.

The statement was released during a Vatican press conference detailing a number of initiatives sponsored by Vatican offices during this year's International Year of Astronomy.

Not a moment too soon, indeed. But before you jump on the anti-Vatican bandwagon, it's important to recall that scientific inquiry was, until a couple centuries ago, largely due to church institutions and researchers, and that today the Catholic Church is a bulwark against "scientism" on one side and fundamentalist "literalism" on the other.

In Catholicism, faith and reason, science and meaning, can coexist, as they do, and must, in human beings--not always easily, but at least honestly. And the church does "change" as facts and faith warrant.

Or, at Galileo might have put it, "Eppur, si muove..."

Bishop Richard Williamson, one of the four newly-rehabbed Rad-Trad bishops at the heart of the furor over their anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying views and Pope Benedict's outreach to them, has apologized--sort of.

Williamson has written to Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, Benedict's point man for dialogue with the SSPX schismatics, (Rorate Caeli has the letter) saying he's sorry that his remarks saying there was really no Holocaust, no Nazi extermination policy toward Jews (not to mention his 9/11 theories). But he's also not taking them back, just saying they were "imprudent" and "all that matters is the Truth Incarnate"--which he seems to possess. Oh, and he compares himself to Jonah:

So I have only one comment, from the prophet Jonas, I, 12:

"Take me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you."

Taking the man at his word, my question is which Jonah he considers himself: The Jonah who refused to heed God and thus wound up in the whale for three days, emerging humbled and repentant? Or the Jonah who preached to a disobedient Nineveh and became known as one of the great prophets? Or the Jonah whose three days in the "great fish" prefigured Christ's three days in the tomb?

H/T: "Paul" at dotCommonweal

In the wake of Barack Obama's election victory, the pro-life movement seemed thoroughly disorganized, if not dispirited--until salvation arrived in the form of the Freedom of Choice Act, a.k.a. FOCA--a bill that would coerce Catholics into performing abortions, force the shut down of the entire Catholic health care system, and generally prove that all of the terrible things they'd said about Obama and anyone who voted for him were indisputably true. FOCA was perfect--a simple, black-and-white, good-and-evil choice that would rally the pro-life movement and put off the need for any soul-searching about their mission or tactics or effectiveness. "Better than Roe," could have been the slogan. Those who suggested--as I foolishly did here--that FOCA might not be, pardon the term, viable, were cast into outer darkness.

Well, now even some bishops seem to be following the path to perdition, as this CNS story shows:

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Internet rumors to the contrary, no Catholic hospital in the United States is in danger of closing because of the Freedom of Choice Act.

As a matter of fact, the Freedom of Choice Act died with the 110th Congress and, a week after the inauguration of President Barack Obama, has not been reintroduced.

But that hasn't kept misleading e-mails from flying around the Internet, warning of the dire consequences if Obama signs FOCA into law and promoting a "FOCA novena" in the days leading up to Inauguration Day.

The Catholic Health Association "is strongly committed to opposing FOCA and (the board) is unanimous that we would do all we could to oppose it," said Bishop Robert N. Lynch of St. Petersburg, Fla., an elected member of the CHA board of trustees since June 2006.

"But there is no plan to shut down any hospital if it passes," he added in a Jan. 26 telephone interview. "There's no sense of ominous danger threatening health care institutions."

Sister Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity who is CHA president and CEO, was equally sure that FOCA poses no threat to Catholic hospitals or to the conscience rights of those who work there.

"I don't believe that FOCA will pass, although we will continue to monitor all proposed regulations for their potential to help people in this country and for any negative assault on the life issues," she said.

As introduced in previous congresses, the legislation "has never contained anything that would force Catholic hospitals or Catholic personnel to do abortions or to participate in them," she added.

So what is, to use an unpopular reference, Plan B?

This time an Italian priest with the inimitable name of "Abrahamowicz." (As they say in the newspaper biz, you can't make this stuff up--hard as we might try.)

Indeed, Fr. Floriano Abrahamowicz, a pastor and spokesperson for the Society of St. Pius X in northeastern Italy, has said he has Jewish roots on his father's side ("some of my best relations are Jews") so he can't be anti-Semitic. But he has referred to Jews as "a people of deicide"--basically saying they killed Christ--and, as John Allen writes, "suggested that the Jewish Holocaust has been 'exalted' over what he called 'other genocides,' such as the Allied bombing of German cities and the Israeli occupation of the Gaza strip."

Nice. But the Trad movement is rife with this stuff, as noted earlier. There's no need to play "gotcha!" to prove the point, but that seems to be what it will take for folks to get the point--and the problem...

Read the full story from NCR here...

That's more or less the sense one gets from reading the latest column, "The Re-Incommunication," from the most notorious of the rehabilitated schismatic bishops, Richard Williamson. Williamson, an English-born convert from Anglicanism, has been the poster bishop for the ultra-Tradtionalist Society of St. Pius X because of his various interviews denying the Holocaust (as well as 9/11, and his views on women and "The Sound of Music," as I wrote here.)

On his blog (who doesn't have one these days?) the bishop blasts the real enemy as "conciliarism," or an ideology that a Council trumps all and can be used to somehow pervert the Faith and the Churc and--most notably--the Pope. The full text of Williamson's remarks are after the jump. But here's a taste:

It is a great step forward for the Church because if the Church's problem ever since Vatican II has been a separation of Catholic Authority from Catholic Truth, with this Decree Catholic Authority has taken a decisive step back towards their re-union. Just as after the Motu Proprio of July, 2007, nobody could any longer say that the true rite of Mass was banned by Rome, even if they can still behave as though it is, so too now nobody can any longer say that Catholics holding to Tradition are "outside the Church". Certainly a number of Conciliarists will go on behaving as though they are, but they clearly no longer have the Pope on their side only. The difference is enormous!

Of course there is still a long way to go before the neo-modernists in Rome, conscious or unconscious, realize - if ever! - how they mistake the Faith, but as the old proverb says, "Rome was not built in a day", and it will not be repaired in a day. Nevertheless "Half a loaf is better than no bread" - ask a hungry man! - so meanwhile let us know how to thank God for this major shift of the rudder of the Conciliar Church. Let us then thank the Blessed Virgin Mary whose intervention will have been decisive, thanks to the nigh on one and three quarter million rosaries offered to her for this intention, by a number of yourselves amongst others. And let us thank and pray for Benedict XVI and all his collaborators who helped to push through this Decree, despite, for instance, a media uproar orchestrated and timed to prevent it.

And who runs that media? Better not to ask...

As Reuters' Tom Heneghan asks at FaithWorld:

"Will someone like Williamson negotiate in good faith, or just stonewall now that his excommunication has been revoked? Could he drag his feet so long that the Vatican gives up demanding "the further steps needed to achieve full communion with the Church" and simply gives them a full rehabilitation on their terms?"