The encyclical that everyone should read
Ahead of the 25th anniversary of Veritatis Splendor (“The Splendour of Truth”), Archbishop Charles Chaput said that St John Paul II’s encyclical will endure “long after many other works of popes and politicians are forgotten”. The reason is simple: “What it says is true.”
In an essay for First Things, the archbishop argued that the encyclical freed Catholics from a “false rivalry between moral truth, on the one hand, and human freedom and fulfilment, on the other”. The idea that the Church’s moral guidance is “essentially about imposing rules” is a “radical error” and “one of the worst obstacles to spreading the faith”, he wrote.
But, as John Paul II explained, moral commandments “have value because they point to something far more profound: how to live in order to grow in virtue and attain fullness of life”. The false, legalistic approach is alive today in the form of “legalist minimalism” – that is, the idea that “Catholic moral theology can be more life-affirming to the degree that it cedes territory to our unfettered freedom”.
Veritatis Splendor, Archbishop Chaput said, was a forceful reminder that moral truths are objective, salvific, and promote authentic freedom.
“To a great extent, today’s debates within the Church – on issues of sexual identity, sexual behaviour, Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried, the nature of the family – simply exhume and reanimate the convenient ambiguities and flexible approaches to truth that Veritatis Splendor forcefully buried,” he wrote.
A skull on your desk can change your life
At aleteia.com Sister Theresa Aletheia extolled the powerful spiritual benefits of keeping a skull on your desk.
The use of memento mori – visual reminders of death – are a long-standing tradition in the Church, she said. The Rule of St Benedict included the imperative to “keep death daily before one’s eyes”. St Francis, she noted, signed a blessing with a drawing of a skull, and Pope Alexander VII had a coffin in his bedroom – along with a marble skull – to remind him of the brevity of life.
Acquiring a ceramic skull for her own desk, she said, had changed her life. It “reminds me every day that I will die and that my Saviour has transformed death into a doorway to new life.
“So, get a skull for your desk! And if anyone asks questions, tell them a nun made you do it.”
Hillary Clinton and a papal TED talk
In her book What Happened Hillary Clinton says a TED talk by Pope Francis helped her overcome her anger at losing to Donald Trump, according to Michael O’Loughlin at America magazine.
✣Meanwhile…
✣ A nun using a chainsaw to clear debris after Hurricane Irma has become an internet sensation.
Footage of Sister Margaret Ann Laechelin trimming the branches off a fallen tree became an online hit after it was shared by Miami police.
Sister Margaret Ann, a Carmelite Sister of the Most Sacred Heart and a headteacher, told CNN: “The road was blocked and we couldn’t get through, and I saw somebody spin in the mud and almost go into a wall and off the road, and so there was a need, I had the means, I wanted to help out.”
She told the Catholic News Service that she had never used a chainsaw before but had watched a how-to video on YouTube first. “Growing up in Texas, I did a lot of yardwork and my dad taught me to figure things out,” she said.
Locals had since been stopping her and asking for her autograph, she added. “People are making a big deal about the chainsaw, but I’ve already given my life to God and that’s what brings true joy.”
✣ Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ, is preparing for a new role: he will portray St Luke in a film about the life of St Paul. James Faulkner as St Paul. The film, called Paul, Apostle of Christ, is being shot in Malta this month and will be released next year.
✣The week in quotations
They are neither nostalgic nor embittered … They are full of the joy of living the life of Christ Cardinal Sarah on young traditionalists Speech marking 10 years since Summorum Pontificum
Stigmatising Aung San Suu Kyi is not a solution Cardinal Bo on the Rohingya crisis Time magazine
It is very important for leaders to pray Pope Francis Morning Mass homily
They are the cement that holds society together Archbishop Gallagher on Middle Eastern Christians Vatican Radio
✣Statistic of the week
12 Number of psychiatric patients at Brothers of Charity clinics seeking euthanasia in one year Source: CNS
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