Serra, NOT Sierra!

Today, I’m thinking about our Serra Clubs and their patron, Saint Junipero Serra (pronounced Hoo-nip-err-oh, with accent on the “nip").  First off, let me be clear, I have not misspelled “Serra.”  I’m talking about the Serra Club, NOT the Sierra Club.  Recently, I spoke to someone who presumably was a devoted Catholic.  I told him that I was a member of the Serra Club of Rochester (MN) and he responded with “Oh, the Sierra Club.”  I said, “No, Serra Club.”  I asked him if he knew what it was, and he said “no.”  I’m am writing this post as if I am responding further to him.  So here goes.

Serra is an international organization of Catholic men and women dedicated to promoting and nurturing vocations to the Catholic priesthood and religious life.  Our patron and namesake is Saint Junipero Serra (pictured), a Catholic Franciscan missionary priest who personally founded nine of the twenty-one missions that line the California coast.  These missions, including the Mission San Diego, the Mission San Juan Capistrano, the Mission San Francisco and six others were built between Father Serra’s arrival date in California, July 1, 1767, until his death on August 28, 1784.  He is known as the “Apostle of California” and his bust can be found along with other famous men and women from America’s past in the halls of Congress.  You may recall that he was canonized a saint of the Catholic Church by Pope Francis during the Pope’s visit to the United States in 2015. 

Today, “Serra International” is the name of this lay apostolate in the Catholic Church, otherwise known simply as “Serra” and the members as “Serrans.”  Serra was founded by a group of men in Seattle, Washington, in 1935 and has spread to forty-six countries on six continents.  As of 2013, there were over 20,000 members in 1,109 Serra Clubs worldwide.  The international headquarters, as well as the USA Council of Serra, are located in downtown Chicago.  We are divided into districts, each district having a governor.  Local clubs are relative small.  As examples, the Rochester club of which I am a member, has forty-eight members and the Lincoln, Nebraska, club, which was my former club, has ninety-five members.  Each club has a governing board, which includes a president, and at least seven others, including a secretary, a treasurer, a number of vice-presidents who have charge of important components, such as communications, vocations, membership, etc.  We meet usually twice a month for Mass and lunch.

Serra Clubs have a very important function if they are to live up to their mission to promote and nurture religious vocations.  Our most important task is to pray.  I mean really pray.  Rosaries, Holy Hours, Masses, retreats, group prayers, etc., etc.  The secondary task is to get to know and to befriend all priests in their local area as well as all the seminarians, religious sisters, deacons and any other religious persons.  Promoting and nurturing vocations is the name of the game.  Clubs do have a budget and do have dues.  We sponsor activities that draw from our treasury, including golf outings and dinners for priests and seminarians, promotional “contests” for local high schoolers and elementary students, and the like.

If I have rattled your cage at all and you want to check out the club that serves your parish, please talk to your pastor about who to contact.  Recent scandals among the Catholic clergy has made the job a little more difficult, but remember that our primary tool is prayer and prayer can be used under any and all circumstances.  Here is an idea!  Monday, July 1, 1767, was the day Fr. Serra arrived in California.  This coming Monday is July 1.  It is St. Junipero Serra's feast day in the Catholic Church.  Let's all go to Mass and pray for his intercession.  Saint Junipero Serra, pray for us!  Amen!

Have You Lost Something?

Last Thursday, June 13, was the feast of Saint Anthony of Padua in the Catholic Church.  I took the photograph accompanying this post in the inner courtyard of the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua, Italy, while on my pilgrimage to Italy in 2016.  Most devoted Catholics probably know the story.  Saint Anthony is the patron saint of lost things.  If you have lost something of value (think your keys, your wallet, your purse, a credit card, etc.), it is said that if you ask Saint Anthony for his intercession, you may find this lost item.  Some people will tell you that it is uncanny how such a prayer has often worked for them. 

I have an idea.  Have you lost your faith?  Or has your son, daughter, grandchild, cousin, brother or sister lost their faith?  I mean, do you know someone who was devoted to their Catholicism growing up and now they no longer believe in heaven or hell, or no longer believe that the Eucharist is the Real Presence of the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ?  Or maybe they have come to doubt in the value of the sacraments, such as confessing sins to a priest.  Or perhaps worse than all of these, do you know someone who has now come to doubt the existence of God and had become an atheist?  Do you see what I’m getting at?  Yes, Saint Anthony, the patron saint of lost things! 

Put it in the hands of Saint Anthony.  After all, something is lost, and he is the expert at finding things again.  Try it!  It may work!  And wouldn’t you be excited?  What a way to potentially give your own faith a shot in the arm!  You would have your own prodigal son success story to tell everyone about!  Saint Anthony, pray for us and for all the lost souls.  Amen!

All Human Life Has Dignity

One of the arguments that my pro-choice friends make  in favor of abortion is that they say pro-lifers only care about the life in the womb and not the life of a baby after birth.  The implication here is that couples faced with an unplanned pregnancy and who cannot or would not properly care for the baby once it is born should be allowed to abort because there would be no one to love and nurture a small child.   To the uneducated, this appears to be a sound argument.  After all, the lack of care for a small child born into a situation in which it was unwanted in the first place would be harmful and dangerous for the child.  And so the child should be denied birth and allowed to be killed and removed from the womb by an abortion provider.

In a perfect pro-life world, all human life has dignity and is wanted and respected.  But we don’t live in a perfect pro-life world.  Pre-born human life is the life we hear the most about because such life is the most vulnerable and killing this life is accepted and sought by many.  The pre-born are hidden from the rest of the world.  No one has seen a pre-born human being (except via x-rays, sonograms, and heartbeats) and some believe that they should not have the dignity nor the “wanted” and “respect” labels until their bodies appear before us in their fully dignified form on their birth day.  And so this is the form of human life that gets the most attention from the pro-life community.  But that is not to say that post-birth life is totally ignored and forgotten.  Quite the contrary. 

Pro-life communities, particularly religious communities, have social programs that give counselling and support to pregnant women, even protection from disagreeable husbands or boyfriends.  And after birth, these protections extend to the families.  Beyond this, adoption is a viable option.  I understand that there are many childless couples that have tried, but cannot conceive.  These couples are crying out for a baby and adoption agencies should be considered.  Indeed, post-birth life is important to the pro-life community and should not be falsely portrayed.

But beyond all of this is that word “dignity.”  Human life is above all animal life and plant life.  We have intelligence.  We have ingenuity.  We make amazing things happen.  We have come the farthest of all creatures through the evolutionary chain.  Even if you don’t profess a particular religious belief, it is simply beneath our dignity to be killing our pre-birth life just as much as it is beneath our dignity to be killing post-birth life.  My dream is that we will eventually all agree on these things rather than to think of ourselves as simply another animal that we can kill at will.  God help us!  Amen!

Did St. Paul Foresee Scandals in the Church?

In the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 20, Saint Paul speaks to the presbyters of his day (the forerunners of present-day priests) saying this: 

“Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, in which you tend the whole Church of God that he acquired with his own Blood.  I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock.”  (Acts 20:29-30)

Presbyters and priests throughout history have heard these words of Saint Paul via the Scriptures and found that they are the truth in different ways.  Could historical figures such as Arius, or Martin Luther, for that matter, be considered the savage wolves of their day?  That could be an interpretation of Saint Paul’s words, since these figures came from among the presbyters (priests) of their own day and did not spare the flock.  But what about today?  It seems the present-day savage wolf is taking a new form, i.e., one that has taken to sexually abusing members of the flock!

How did the presbyters of St. Paul’s day respond to his prophecy?  We read the following a few lines later in the Acts of the Apostle:

“When he had finished speaking he knelt down and prayed with all of them.  They were weeping loudly as they threw their arms around Paul and kissed him, for they were deeply distressed that he had said that they would never see his face again.”  (Acts 20:36-37)

How should we respond to our sexual abuse crisis?  Saint Paul responded to his weeping presbyters (we are weeping and are deeply distressed too) by kneeling down and praying with them!  How many of us have considered kneeling and praying for and with our priests?  Prayers for the faithful priests; prayers for the sinning priests; prayers for the bishops; prayers for the pope!  It is a stressful time for all ordained priests.  Evil forces are at work.  Let’s set our sights on a purging … not simply a purging of the sinning priests, but a purging of all sin and of the Devil.  But stay above the fray; let’s not lose our precious faith.  We are held by the embrace of our Creator God and he will not abandon us if we pray.  Amen!

Caution!

If there is one word that describes conservatism, I think it may be “caution.”  Caution about whether a new idea for change is “dangerous” or whether it is simply “progressive.”  Caution about whether a new idea for change is “moral” or whether it may be “immoral.”  Caution about whether a new idea for change is “based on truth” or whether it is “based on misinformation,” or worse, “based on lies.”  Caution about whether a new idea for change is driven by faith in God, or whether it has its origin in non-faith sources or even atheism.  

A cautious person would want to study an issue, including studying what a trusted authority may have to say about it, before rendering a personal decision on its merits.  I think that is why a conservative person is very often a person of faith while a liberal person is very often an atheist, even if he/she doesn’t like to admit it.  I consider myself a person of faith and I consider my authority on many issues to be the Catholic Church. 

Some people will tune out when they read that, immediately discounting my views on issues of the day, such as abortion, contraception, gay marriage, gender identity, and others.  They may say that the Catholic Church is out of touch with modern life.  They may say that the Catholic Church, which is itself mired in the sins of sexual misconduct and other scandals, cannot be trusted to issue judgements on morality or whether something is based on truth, citing Galileo, etc.  Speaking of caution ... I believe such thoughts are dangerous.

Some people will use science as their trusted authority on the issues.  But conclusions based on science are often revised based on newer research, and then revised again, and again.  Yes, paying attention to the conclusions of science is important, but I don’t think it can be the ultimate authority.  So I am cautious.

But if I have no authority to guide me, I very often cannot trust myself to form a correct opinion even if I am fully informed on the merits of an issue as espoused by liberals.  The Catholic Church, on the other hand, has a very long history of guiding humanity toward what is right.  This a beautiful tribute to our Creator God, who I believe is in charge and has given us a map of life to follow in the teachings of Jesus Christ.  Tune out if you want, but I believe it would be a mistake.  Rather, take the Catechism of the Catholic Church to be your guide.  It may not directly address every issue that may come up, but it is a trusted authority, a map of life.

Global Warming and Photosynthesis

I had the tree in the photograph planted in my back yard this morning.  So today, my thoughts are about global warming.  Let me explain.

I confess that I don’t know all that much about global warming, the Paris Accords (the international effort to combat global warming), the Green New Deal, or Laudato Si’, which is Pope Francis’ encyclical on the care of our common home, the Earth.  What I do know is that the increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide, a so-called greenhouse gas, in Earth’s atmosphere is said to be a major cause of global warming.  What I also know is that photosynthesis is the process by which the carbon dioxide in the air is consumed by the reaction with water from rain and the chlorophyll in green tree leaves (in the presence of sunlight) to produce oxygen.  And I have read that the destruction of our rain forests worldwide has contributed majorly to global warming because it is one factor that has caused the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air to increase – fewer trees leads to less carbon dioxide being consumed and therefore an increase in the carbon dioxide concentration in the air.  This leads me to the obvious solution:  plant more trees!

All that I have read or heard seems to suggest that the focus is on somehow lowering the carbon dioxide emissions from our vehicles and industries that burn fossil fuels and thereby produce this offending gas.  Another focus that I’ve heard about is the emissions produced by our cattle passing gas (the Green New Deal), which seems rather ludicrous to me.  The folks that oppose the curbing of the emissions idea, aside from their claim that global warming is a hoax) point to the damage that it would do to the worldwide economy.  And that is also something that seems obvious.

So … why not undergo a massive international effort to plant more trees?  Here in the United States (and in Europe, as I have seen), the federal and state governments own land that can be used for this purpose.  When I drive our interstate highway system, I think about all the wasted space in the medians and shoulder areas.  Imagine this space being filled up with trees!  I would like to see a study done to see exactly how “massive” the effort would need to be in order to have the desired effect.

But all of this aside, if the science is indeed valid, I think we need to pray.  If you are a global warming alarmist and also an atheist, maybe it is time for you to consider what a Supreme Being (God) could do for us if we would but ask.  Jesus has said time and again that He will grant what we ask if it is the Father’s will.  I have to believe that saving our planet is something that is in accord with the Father’s will.  Amen!

Going to Hell

Has anyone ever said this or something similar to you:  “You are going to Hell.”  Perhaps it’s because of some ongoing behavior, such as having an extramarital affair, living with a boyfriend or girlfriend outside of marriage, leaving the Catholic Church and practicing a different religion, missing Mass on Sundays and/or Holy Days of Obligation.  Or perhaps it’s because of having sex with a person of the same gender, or favoring abortion and supporting candidates for public office that favor abortion.  Or ... perhaps we have judged someone for doing these things.  Yes, that is sinful too!

Whatever our situation, here is what Jesus had to say about people who commit serious sins:  “If anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come into the world to condemn the world but to save the world.”  (John 12:47).  So we are not condemned, are not going to Hell!  What a relief, right?  If this is our thought process, then we need to continue reading John, Chapter 12:  “Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him:  the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day, because I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak.”  (John 12:48-49). 

So what this says to me is that we will not be judged now, no, not now, but rather on the last day.  By the Father.  So we have time on our side.  This is where the mercy of God’s comes into play.  We must stop doing what we are doing and repent of our sins.  Seek God’s mercy and forgiveness!  Confess our sins and begin anew.  No, we are not going to hell now, right this minute, but we may very well go to hell on our last day.  It's up to God, of course.  I pray that we make things right before then.  And, remember that our last day may very well be today.  So the call is urgent.  This is my understanding of the teaching of the Catholic Church.  Amen!