Thoughts and opinions from a Priest in the PNCC
A man who could have been like any other, was in many way, yet stood forth courageously. Something about being rooted in the scripture that gives us courage and sets us truly free.
Eternal rest grant onto him O Lord and may the perpetual light shine upon him.
My alma mater, Canisius College, will host the New York State Veterans Oral History Program on Tuesday-Thursday May 6th, 7th, and 8th at its archives.
Former New York Governor George Pataki established the program on Veterans’ Day 2000 to preserve the story of New York’s veterans in their own words for future generations. At the time the Governor noted, “The recollections and experiences of New York’s veterans are a precious and irreplaceable resource…(the veterans’) history is our state’s history.”
War has played an important part in the lives of many alums. This project will offer the opportunity for veterans and civilians who worked in the “war effort” of any war -World War II, Korean Conflict, Vietnam, Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq wars, as well as involvement in Kosovo or the Falkland Islands-to share their memories. Participants will receive a DVD of their oral history, which will be catalogued in the Canisius Archives, as well as the New York State Military Museum & Veterans Research Center.
Michael Russert, Military Historian, New York State Museum & Veterans Research Center will conduct the interviews.
To schedule an appointment or for more information please contact Kathleen DeLaney, Archives Coordinator, at 716-888-2530.
From the Young Fogey:
Exactly – a picture and a word that encompass the entire morass in Israel, Korea, Vietnam, the former Yugoslavia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, and just about anywhere else the U.S. decides to intervene and sacrifice its lives and wealth. While I fully decry threats to “freedom” and all other sorts of badness in the world, it is not incumbent upon us to save others from themselves. We can do charity, we can act as honest agents in negotiations, we can advocate, but we do not have to fix everything. We cannot. We have enough to take care of here at home. Being wealthy and powerful does not come with a demand that we be interventionist. It comes with a responsibility to ourselves and to charity.
Somewhere in the Middle East, Jesus Christ is strapped to a bench, his head wrapped in clingfilm. He furiously sucks against the plastic. A hole is pierced, but only so that a filthy rag can be stuffed back into his mouth. He is turned upside down and water slowly poured into the rag. The torturer whispers religious abuse. If you are God, save yourself you f***ing idiot. Fighting to pull in oxygen through the increasingly saturated rag, his lungs start to fill up with water. Someone punches him in the stomach.
Which is quoted off another site. If you read the comments attached to the article you see a kind of quibbling that misses the bigger issue. To me the bigger issue is this: When you look at the folks “over there” or imprisoned at Guantanamo or held at other “black sites” what do you see? The quick and easy answer is “the enemy” or even “my enemy.” Look closely. Jesus actually looked like these folks. Jesus spoke in dialects much like they do. Jesus ate a lot of what they eat, and kind of lived like they do to this very day. Jesus was innocent as some of them are. Jesus was tortured, although innocent, just like some of them are. Jesus was killed, although innocent, just like some of them are.
We are all created in His image – even my enemy. He also told us that what we do, even to the least of our brothers, we do to Him. In the end we have to ask ourselves, in light of what we know, do we have reason to hold these people prisoner, and even if we do – which is justifiable – why torture them? Take a breath and hold it for a couple minutes – and while doing so pray – Lord, help me to see you, even in my enemies. Help me to witness Your love and teachings even though my neighbors, village, city, state, country, and church do not want to hear it.
The image is an artist’s rendition of what Jesus may have looked like (from the BBC). Looks familiar – no?
But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake.
This will be a time for you to bear testimony.
Two recent events point to the fact that Jesus’ words ring true even in “democratic” countries that proclaim religious freedom.
From LifeSiteNews via Catholic Online: UK Catholic Bishop Brought Before Parliament for insisting on orthodoxy in Catholic Schools
LONDON (LifeSiteNews) – The Catholic Bishop of Lancaster UK today gave a spirited response to accusations by secularist MPs in a Commons Committee who accused him of trying to establish religious “fundamentalism” in his schools.
Bishop Patrick O’Donoghue told the Committee that schools in his diocese should see it as their prime duty to teach the Catholic faith and to evangelise and that this constituted neither “proselytism” nor “fundamentalism”.
Crucifixes in every classroom, “sex-education” based on the principles of chastity and the sanctity of marriage, no school fundraising for anti-life groups and religious education based firmly in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: it sounds like the dream world of most Catholic parents.
But the scenario is one that was ordered last year by the Bishop O’Donoghue in a 66-page document, “Fit for Mission? – Schools”. The document was circulated to all teachers, staff, governors and parents in the diocese.
But the document that received high praise from parents, Catholic lay organizations and the Vatican, has drawn the ire of the increasingly aggressive secularist wing of the British government.
Earlier this year, the Labour MP for Huddersfield, Barry Sheerman, told the media that this new document was a worrying sign of a new “fundamentalist” direction on the part of the Church. Sheerman, the chairman of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee, called Bishop O’Donoghue to explain his intentions…
Of course there is the recent dust-up over Barak Obama’s Pastor. For example, from the NY Times: Obama Denounces Statements of His Pastor as ‘Inflammatory’.
The best line from the article was this one:
“If you’re black, it’s hard to say what you truly think and not upset white people,— said James Cone, a professor at Union Theological Seminary and the father of black liberation theology, who has known Mr. Wright since he was a seminary student.
Something easily said of Christianity ‘If you’re Christian, it’s hard to say what you truly think and not upset people.’
Opposing, and speaking against, racism, inequality, wars and insane foreign policies – spending billions per month while people starve, roads and bridges collapse, treating human beings as less than human… The sins are many – and good on Pastor Wright for speaking in witness against those sins.
—We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards,— he said. —America’s chickens are coming home to roost.— — Pastor Wright
Yes, we are guilty in our sins of commission and omission when our planes, guns, cluster bombs, and bulldozers are used against women, children, and innocent bystanders.
Thank you to the Young Fogey for some of the links in this post.
Per Reuters (and others) the body of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho has been found.
MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) – A Chaldean Catholic archbishop who was kidnapped in Iraq last month was found dead on Thursday, his body half-buried in an empty lot in the northern city of Mosul, police said.
Paulos Faraj Rahho, the archbishop of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, was abducted on February 29 after gunmen attacked his car and killed his driver and two guards…
From the Litany for the Dead:
All you holy Martyrs, Pray for the souls of the faithful departed.
All you Bishops and Confessors, Pray for the souls of the faithful departed.
That Thou would be pleased to receive him into the company of the Blessed, We beseech Thee, Hear Us!
Merciful Lord Jesus grant him everlasting rest. Amen.
Lord have mercy on us for what we have wrought in Iraq.
In the past week we learned that Louis de Cazenave, France’s second last surviving World War I veteran passed away on Sunday, January 20th.
Now we learn that Germany’s last World War I veteran predeceased France’s second last veteran by nearly 20 days. The BBC reports in Germany’s ‘last’ WWI veteran dies that Erich Kaestner died January 1st.
I just found it to be an interesting juxtaposition.
Wikipedia has an interesting page on the deaths of World War I veterans. It indicates that the last German survivor also predeceased the second last remaining Polish veteran, Stanisław Wycech who died on January 12th. Other surviving veterans are listed here.
In any event, may they all rest in peace.
There is much consternation out there over several issues that have come to the fore, seemingly simultaneously.
As I look through these events I continually ask myself – what do we as Catholics believe, what is our foundation, and why does any of this worldly stuff matter to us.
Of course our foundation – our rock – is Jesus Christ, true God, true man, the second person in the Holy Trinity. Acknowledging that, everything else becomes rather secondary. Politics – bleh. The media – huh? Sports celebrities, talking heads, pundits, actors – who they?
If that is our faith, and I am certain it is, I propose a new tactic in dealing with the idiosyncrasies of the worldly, the worldly that surround, and may indeed, outnumber us. That tactic is prayer and silence.
I will start with a few recent hot button issues.
ESPN controversy
It appears that some commentator as ESPN wishes to have intercourse with Jesus. A person by the name of Dana Jacobson went off on an anti-Christian tirade at a recent ESPN function honoring ESPN Radio personalities Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic. The vulgar speech has raised the ire of various defense and anti-defamation leagues. All the callings on the carpet, chest beating, call for apologies, and subsequent apologies do not really amount to too much. If a professional person can do something of this caliber – without thinking twice before speaking – well I am sorry for her.
Rather than react, I propose that we pray, and bear these insults in Holy silence. That tongue biting we do is our penance for the times we ourselves have spoken callously of others. In addition it is the kind of sacrifice – the kind of silence – that brings results.
Clergy bless abortion clinic
In my neck of the woods — LifeSite News reports: Pro-Abortion Clergy Bless New York Abortion Business as “Sacred Ground”
…a group of pro-abortion clergy in Schenectady held a ceremony at a local abortion business to bless it and call it “sacred ground.” Religious officials who are pro-life call the ceremony sacrilegious by blessing a place that kills the life God creates.
Rev. Larry Phillips of Schenectady’s Emmanuel-Friedens Church dedicated the ground, according to a report in the Albany Times Union.
…
Another minister prayed for safety for the abortion business and a local rabbi blew a shofar to dedicate the building as an honorable place in the community.
My gut reaction is that this is horrible. A good dressing down of the Rev. Phillips and the others involved? Outrage? Scathing criticism? Rather, prayer and Holy silence.
Jews, and Muslims, and Hindus, oh my
The Western Confucian (thanks to the Young Fogey for the link) discusses the rage of the Hebrews. Good points in the quid-pro-quo sense. This, along with events like the Episcopal Bishop of Los Angeles’ apology to the Hindus (thanks again Fogey) are issues best left to God – and beyond the value of discussion.
In the PNCC we certainly pray for the conversion of all who do not believe in Christ or for that matter believe in God at all. That includes a pretty large chunk on the world. Our neighbors in the Hindu Temple – yep, them. The Jews at Chabad House in Colonie – yep. The Muslims in Albany – yes. The Mormons in Latham – them too. Unitarians, agnostics, atheists, and anyone else who does not believe in God as He revealed Himself – One and Trinitarian.
Better yet, on Holy Saturday, after the Third Exhortation we pray:
Lord God,
You are an immovable power
and an eternal Light.
Look graciously on this mystery,
which is Your whole Church,
and the vehicle of our salvation,
with unceasing direction and sufficient assistance.
May the whole world witness
that You raise up the humble,
and make old things new.
May all humanity come to know
that all things return to their pristine existence
through Jesus Christ, Your Son…
…and after the Fourth we pray:
Almighty Eternal God,
in Jesus Christ You showed us
the best example to follow.
Grant that all nations of the world
will unite in Him with love for You…
In these, and all the prayers of the Holy Church, we acknowledge God as He is – and we really do not think anyone else has a clue or insight that can beat God’s self revelation. They may well be on the road to salvation – and they are well within God’s merciful hands – something we in the PNCC acknowledge in our Confession of Faith:
I BELIEVE that all peoples as children of one Father, God, are equal in themselves; that privileges arising from differences in rank, from possession of immense riches or from differences of faith, sex and race, are a great wrong, for they are a violation of the rights of man which he possess by his nature and the dignity of his divine origin, and are a barrier to the purposeful development of man.
…and
I BELIEVE in immortality and everlasting happiness in eternity in union with God of all people, races and ages, because I believe in the Divine power of love, mercy and justice and for nothing else do I yearn, but that it may be to me according to my faith.
But still, we do not deny our faith, or refuse to offer them our prayers, our Holy silence, and our wish that they come to Christ – because doing so is Christian charity.
We truly do believe in God. We believe that He offers all that we need. As such the vices of the world cannot harm us. Our responses to provocations and the ways of the worldly must be borne of complete charity – which is love – and that love finds its fulfillment in our prayer, our sacrifice, and most particularly the ultimate prayer – the Holy Mass.
The fact is that prayer and Holy silence will actually accomplish more than our words, protests, and blogging will ever accomplish. They are proactive in the sense of calling down grace. They place us in the experience of the Divine interlude. It is the music of the place that is between heaven and earth. It is where we stand in the breech, bringing the world to God and God to the world. Couple our prayer and Holy silence with some fasting and works of charity – and most of all love toward these sad folks – folks who are angry, hate-filled, resentful, misguided, and ultimately apart from those whom they disparage – and we will be doing the work of God.
A family member recently noted that Christians pray for the faithful. She wondered why we do not pray for those without faith – because they need the prayers. She is right. Both the faithful and the faithless need prayer – in equal amounts. The faithful so that they remain true. The faithless so that they are brought to God’s self revelation in accordance with God’s timing and God’s grace.
If we love rather than react with rage it is not capitulation. Silence is not acquiescence. Prayer is not useless. We must remind ourselves – do not volunteer yourself onto someone else’s stage, and if you are dragged there – He will give you the words. We must act on the eternal stage and bear a witness to truth that is beyond time and place. Surely we are to speak the truth, but on our stage – and on the terms set down by the Heavenly Father.
Those who hate cannot be won by argument or voices raised in protest. Only the grace of God can change their hearts. For this we pray. Lord have mercy on us. Amen.
Received this via my Christian Newswire news feed: Catholics and Protestants Urged to Come Together to Back Huckabee:
“Governor Mike Huckabee is the only candidate for President we can support with confidence,” said Douglas R. Scott, Jr., president of Life Decisions International (LDI). “I urge my Protestant brothers and sisters to join me in doing all they can to advance Mike Huckabee’s campaign.”
“We need to back a candidate who has a consistent record of supporting traditional values,” said Thomas C. Strobhar, chairman of LDI. “Mike Huckabee is that kind of candidate. I urge my Catholic brothers and sisters to join me in doing all they can to advance Mike Huckabee’s campaign.”
…
“I believe it is the responsibility of every pro-life/pro- family American to support a candidate that wholeheartedly supports life–without apology and without compromise,” Scott said. “While the only person I agree with on every issue is me, Mike Huckabee comes pretty close. And since his positions are faith-based, one can be sure he will not sell out the Pro-Life Movement the very lives of preborn children.”
“Pro-lifers have been used and abused by too many candidates that claim to be pro-life only at opportune times,” Strobhar said. “Mike Huckabee is not worried which way the political wind blows. He’s the real deal.”
“I am thrilled that there is a candidate I can enthusiastically endorse rather than holding my nose and supporting the ‘lesser of two evils’,” Scott said. “Mike Huckabee deeply and personally cares about these issues. He is the kind of candidate pro- family Democrats, Republicans and independents can support. The choice is clear; Mike Huckabee should be the next President of the United States.”
…
Life Decisions International (LDI) is dedicated to challenging the Culture of Death…
So I wonder if they support Mr. Huckabee’s idea of deporting all Palestinians (I guess that includes Christian Palestinians) out of Israel for points unknown in other “Arab lands.” In common terms that’s called ethnic cleansing (thanks to the Young Fogey for pointing to this).
I’m not feeling all that confident in a man who supports ethnic cleansing, deportations (and the deaths that sure accompany that sort of thing – people aren’t going voluntarily), and a continuing war in the Middle East involving our soldiers; a place we should never have gone and which we must leave forthwith.
Mr. Scott, you still have to hold your nose. The stench of death is still there – only its coming from the Middle East.
A worthy read on this day from John Guzlowski: November 11, 1918–The Day World War I Ended.
I knew these guys too, but also my father, grandfather, uncles.
They carried the scars too, but without outward travail. They flew the flag, honored the fallen veterans by placing flags and serving funeral detail. They were Legionaries, and members of the VFW.
They suffered quietly through the indignity of being forgotten in overcrowded, understaffed Veterans hospitals. My grandfather died there, interspersed with the insane, the terminal, the others long forgotten, except by the dedicated who did more than while away the time.
All in tribute to the men and women who went into the fray and withstood the neglect and wrath of their own government. Remember the treatment of the Bonus Army.
Remember all of them, living and deceased, in your prayers today. Remember too, those who are in Iraq and Afghanistan, who will come back in pain, not whole in body, spirit, or mind. Those who will come home where the expectation will be that they slip quietly into memory.
God have mercy on us.
Greetings from Iraq
My name is Chaplain Stan Jasiurkowski, and I’m endorsed to the Army Chaplaincy by the Polish National Catholic Church.
As you know, I spent a year with my Battalion in Taji, just north of Baghdad in 2005.
Now, I’ve been in Mosul for 5 months , the second largest city in Iraq. During this time I have seen a lot misfortune, for instance, the homeless, the sick, the poor, the helpless and the hopeless.
Many people in the US are not aware, but the average Iraqi child of 8, looks as if he is a child of 6. Nurses tell me this is due to the malnutrition. I myself, have seen children on the streets of Baghdad and Mosul during school hours selling things to help the family survive. I have seen empty school rooms, because there are not enough students or teachers. Piled garbage seemed to be on maximized on every intersection street corner. These children walk in the garbage and sewage, many times without shoes at all.
Therefore, along with my Battalion we would like to organize a humanitarian mission to one of the schools in our neighborhood. In order to do that, we need some help form our fellow Americans. I pray that my friends will open up their hearts and support this very important charity mission.
I am asking your help in turning this goal into a reality, and play a vital role in bringing comfort to the local Iraqi children in striking a victory against a cold and murderous insurgency. Given the unique nature of the conflict we are embroiled in, sending something as simple as shoes, clothes, or school supplies to local children will aid your Soldiers in this fight. I feel I must warn you that these people will probably never know who you are, or recognize the role you played, but I can assure you that little boys and girls like the one pictured in this letter will be profoundly grateful for even the smallest bit of help from you. Please take a moment to clean out a closet or visit a store and do your part for our cause. A single pair of shoes, a T-shirt, a toy, a notebook, or a pencil may not win a war, but the difference it will make to the one child who receives them just might help push us in that direction. Feel free to forward this information to any family, friend, classroom, or civic group who might have asked you how they can help a Soldier in Iraq. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me by E-mail.
Any and all donations are welcome. Please send them to:
CH (CPT) Stan Jasiurkowski
HHC, 87 CSSB
FOB East Marez
APO AE 09334