Links for 06/03/15 | National Catholic Reporter

Links for 06/03/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Steve Schneck reminds me of my life as a Catholic in Iowa, but just barely.  There were and still are ethnic parishes in Cedar Rapids and two Catholic High Schools.  To my knowledge, all the parishes are still open but there are now two middle schools in place of the high schools and a new Catholic High School.  It is interesting that the Czech parishes are farther away from the Rockwell International facility than those where ethnic festivals are unheard of.  I had the same experience in the Dayton and Fairborn, Ohio areas - there was no ethnic breakdown at all and much of the class either left before 8th grade or arrived after primary school.  Assimilation is definitely part of it, but not the forced assimilation of an Archbishop stopping ghettoism, but rather that of modern life where career takes precedent over religion and culture.  The other profound change is the new wealth that comes from that.  No one thinks up doing a new and modern high school if the donor base has not been established for a while.



The quotes Millennial chose are interesting.  Not sure whether they ignored any quotes by the Cardinal on abortion or whether the Cardinal ignored the topic.  (Good for him if he did).  I am not sure that secularism is a problem - it certainly was not one when we were in the Catholic Ghetto because it meant we were left alone (except maybe in Alabama - which has no secularism either and they firebomb Catholic Churches on occasion because they are sure the Pope is the anti-Christ - and will be more sure after the Climate Encyclical).  Secularism can be anti-religious but it can also be that zone of conscience that individuals, rather than sects, deserve - including when it disagrees with what the Church is saying (for instance getting into bed with the GOP on abortion in a relationship where the GOP benefits much more than the unborn - but just try to get most Bishops to examine our collective conscience on that little bit of fact).  I suspect that some of what the Bishops refer to as secularism is Modernism, with that Modernism being fed by sources outside the traditional ones, like modern archaeology, scripture scholarship from source materials, embryology, and evolutionary biology - not to mention civil liberties precedents.  Its time for that Catholic ghetto to go away too - as if there is any choice.  Don't worry, no one is trying to throw the Baby Jesus out with the bathwater.



If you talk to environmentalists, not just the Catholic ones, they welcome the new encyclical.  I agree with the commonalities, you have to as a Catholic and oddly agree with focusing on the human ecology.  Both God and the Earth can do without people - not the other way around.  I hope that the Pope is more cognizant of changing science, although he also needs to emphasize that things can bet worse than we think, as well as better.  The Encyclical should be applicable either way.  The economics of warming is important, but attacking all luxury and consumerism seems less important than attacking capitalism itself (both the state capitalism of China and the private capitalism of Koch Industries).  Environmental policies are best left to political leaders - with the codicil that who we elect is important - especially if environmental devastation is an intrinsic evil (that would take the wind out of the GOP Bishops sails), but I would much prefer some mention of how to get out of out capitalistic trap.



Santorum is right, the Church has gotten it wrong on science, but more on embryology that climate studies.  I look forward to the Pope's encyclical and MSW's reaction - and of course to Santorum leaving the GOP race early next year.  He needs to quit talking like a Republican candidate and more like a Catholic.