Family Photo Shoot

Philip's talented mom (aka "Mimi") took our pictures in late November.  Here's a sampling.  Didn't she do a great job?  I love the colors!

Janie, 21 months

 Walt, 6 months

The Whole Gang

Menu Planning and Grocery Shopping

It took me awhile to develop my current system of menu planning and grocery shopping, but I've finally settled on something that works for me.  I'd love to hear about your system. 

Choosing Recipes
1.  Search through favorite cookbooks.  A few of my favorite cookbooks include:

• The All New Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook
• Everyday Food: Great Food Fast (Martha Stewart)
• Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast (Martha Stewart)
• Cookbook compilations from local churches, businesses, etc. 

2.  Search for recipe by ingredients I already have or on favorite sites.  A few of my favorites are:

• eatingwell.com
• delish.com
• epicurious.com
• allrecipes.com  (in my experience, this one is hit or miss because the users reviewing the recipes tend to completely change the original recipe!)
• Crockin' Girls  (They have a Facebook page and a website.  I've used my crockpot more in the last six months than in my entire married life thanks to these easy, tasty recipes.)

3.  Go to my saved, loose recipes.  I'm the process of organizing my recipes.  I have several on index cards, many in a three-ring binder separated by category, and plenty bookmarked on the computer.  I'm still figuring out how to organize them.  I'm considering making my own online recipe book using Googledocs.

Making the List
Going to the grocery store is quite the outing these days.  Usually, I can get a solid half an hour of shopping in before Janie gets ants in her pants or Walt decides he needs a new diaper.  Having limited time to grab the food and go means that I had to create a system to make shopping as efficient as possible.  To do this, Philip created this handy-dandy list in Microsoft Word. 



I print off five of these at the start of each month and stick them on the fridge with a magnet.  I add to the list as we run out of items, and I use this to organize items as I make the weekly shopping list.  Having the ingredients organized helps me to be more efficient at the store.

It's also important for me to be efficient with my cart space and position of items because I have Janie buckled into the front of the cart, Walt in the basket in his infant carrier, and the diaper bag on the lower area.  I don't know what I'm going to do when I finally get Walt out of the infant carrier.  He has an inch and two pounds left before he officially has to graduate from the infant carrier.  That's a whole different story, though.  Back to making the list...

Once I got to know the stores where I buy items, I noticed myself even writing items in the order I'd encounter them in the store.  For example, my produce is organized first by fruits and then by veggies.

Creating the Menu
While making the grocery list, I write out the week's menu on some cute stationery.  Philip bought me a cute magnetic pad like this that I have on the fridge. 

I use it to make my to-do lists and write out our weekly menu.  I've found that writing out the days of the week with what we're having for dinner each night holds me accountable to making that day's dinner.  Having a plan means that we eat out less often and we waste less money on food that we don't eat.  It translates into smaller waistlines and more fun money.  I write out the main dish, any sides, where I found the recipe, and any important notes like "crockpot recipe" or "marinate meat for 6 hours before prep." 

Take Time to Edit
During or after each meal, Philip and I talk about things we'd do to change the meal for next time.  Next to or directly on the recipe, I add ingredients, cross out ingredients, adjust amounts, etc.  This ensures that we're eating the recipe exactly to our liking for next time.  Very rarely, we'll decide that the recipe isn't worth making again, so I'll write a big "X" over it if it's in a cookbook.

What do you do?
So, what's your system?  I'd love to hear it. 

Someday, my dream is to do the shopping like my mom used to.  She could go to the store with several recipes in her head, three (or more) kids in tow, and manage to get every ingredient she needed.  How do you do that?!   

CBS News "The Catholic Church: A House Divided?" (Part 2)

Here are the issues addressed in the CBS report "The Catholic Church: A House Divided?":

1. The excommunication of Sr. Margaret Mary McBride, R.S.M. in the Diocese of Phoenix, Arizona.
2. "Power-obsessed" Bishops
3. Vatican II
4. New Translation of the Roman Missal  
5. Apostolic Visitation to Religious Orders
6. Current status of St. Margaret Mary McBride and St. Joseph's Catholic Hospital  

I covered issues 1-2 in Part 1.  Here was my summary:

1. Sr. McBride automatically excommunicated herself by counseling the medical staff at St. Joseph Catholic Hospital to perform an abortion.
2. Bishop Olmsted acted charitably in acting as messenger in bringing this to Sr. McBride's attention.  
3. Bishops who work to ensure that the faithful in their area are acting in accord to the laws of the church are not "power-obsessed"; they are exercising their office in the Church that Christ created.

Now, onto issues 3-6.

Issue 3:  Vatican II 
Not surprisingly, the report tries to make the case through interviews that, "They're just trying to reverse the changes of Vatican II"  argument.


I wonder how many Catholics, let alone non-Catholics, have actually read all of the documents from Vatican II to see what we're actually talking about.  To get the "real deal," click on the above link to access the documents directly from the Vatican Website.  Don't count on the media to interpret these documents for you.



Remember in Part One how the story tried to turn the bishops into "cruel," "power-obsessed" men?  The story goes on to try drawing a connection between "these events" and Vatican II.

Some see these events - taken together - as symptomatic of a larger effort to reverse reforms set down by the 1960s advisory council that came to be known as Vatican II - reforms which, back then, were seen as an effort to bring the church closer to modern times.

Be wary of any attempts to sum up an entire Church council in a few sentences, let alone from Gary Macy.

"There was a sense that we should try to bring Catholicism up to the 20th and then the 21st century," said Gary Macy, a professor of theology at California's Jesuit Santa Clara University. "In all kinds of ways - in scholarship, how do we relate to psychology? How do we relate to political science? How do we relate to modern ethics? All of those questions were opened up. There was much more involvement of the laity in the liturgy, so people felt much more involved. There were less spectators and more participants."

A few concerns about Gary Macy:

1. He wrote this book: The Hidden History of Women's Ordination: Female Clergy in the Medieval West 
2. He is mentioned in Karl Keating's article "The Long Way Home: Can Losing Your Faith Be a Step in the Right Direction?" from Catholic Answers Magazine.  (Karl Keating is the founder of Catholic Answers)  Keating writes, "Gary Macy, who teaches theology at the University of San Diego, a nominally Catholic school, gives a similar argument.  He thinks the use of wheat bread and wine is merely a tradition, and traditions can be changed—or, at least, exceptions can be made: 'All kinds of things have been dispensed with in the history of the Church.'" 

Did I mention Gary Macy is the current chair of the Religious Studies department at Santa Clara University? 
Issue 4: New Translation of the Roman Missal
On November 27, 2011 (the first Sunday of Advent), Catholic churches across the United States started using the 3rd Edition of the Roman Missal.   

The Vatican has now directed American churches to institute a new mass featuring an English translation more faithful to the original Latin - a mass critics say is harder to understand, less English-speaker friendly.

A few things on the new translation:

1. It's just that--a new translation, not a "new mass."
2. The new translation is a more accurate translation of the original Latin.  Altogether, these changes create a more sacred language more fitting of worship, helping us to life our hearts and minds up to the Lord. 
• The older translation was created using what is called dynamic equivalence (translating with the goal of creating the same effect in the new language that the words had in the original language).
• The new translation was created using formal equivalence (translating word for word to replicate the same meaning). 
3. CBS says the "new mass" is "harder to understand, less English-speaker friendly"
• Latin's grammatical structure is different than English, so it is to be expected that there are marked differences (i.e., use of several subordinate clauses).
• The entire process creates an opportunity for the faithful to learn more about the Mass, its origins, and the words we say.
• Having to slow down as we learn the new prayers is an opportunity to reflect on what it is we are actually saying.  

Issue 5: Apostolic Visitation to Religious Orders
In yet another attempt to paint "the Vatican" as a secretive, power-hungry empire, the story moves on to the Apostolic Visitation of the Religious Orders across the United States.

And not long ago, the church in Rome exercised that control - launching what's called an apostolic visitation, a process shrouded in mystery allowing it to investigate orders of nuns here in the United States.

One need do no more than a Google search to find out basic information about the Apostolic Visitation and get in touch with those actually performing the visitation.  Here's what the official Apostolic Visitation website says about the visitation:

An Apostolic Visitation is a formal but personal process, initiated at the highest levels of the Catholic Church, to look into the welfare of a particular aspect of the Church. Cardinal Franc Rodé, C.M., Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, in a December 22, 2008 decree, initiated the Visitation of apostolic institutes of women religious in the United States and appointed Mother Clare Millea, A.S.C.J., Superior General of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to serve as the Apostolic Visitator.

Mother Clare is a Connecticut native who has served as superior general of her religious community since 2004. She has complete administrative authority of the Apostolic Visitation and will personally conduct many inquiries and visits. Mother Clare will prepare a confidential report of her findings and observations for Cardinal Rodé at the conclusion of the Visitation.

Cardinal Rodé, a Slovenian, is a member of the Congregation of the Mission, an apostolic community of men commonly called the Vincentians. He has served as prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life since 2004.

So, lo and behold, it is a woman religious sister named Mother Clare Millea, Superior General of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who is serving as the official Apostolic Visitator.  She will be the one to write and file the report of her observations of the religious orders across the country.

The Apostolic Visitation seeks to listen to and affirm the dignity of all women religious who serve the Church with exemplary love.

In addition, as Cardinal Rodé recently stated, “this Apostolic Visitation hopes to encourage vocations and assure a better future for women religious.” It offers women religious a valuable opportunity for prayerful and thoughtful self-examination to discern and foster avenues of growth and vitality in their congregations.

Do you have some questions about the visitation?  Lucky for you, there is a special FAQ site on the page.  Perhaps you want to know, "What has prompted this Visitation?"

The Congregation for Consecrated Life is aware that many new congregations have emerged in the United States while many others have decreased in membership or have an increased median age. Apostolic works have also changed significantly because of societal changes.  These and other areas need to be better understood and assessed in order to safeguard and promote consecrated life in the United States.  

Maybe you want to know, "Why are the congregations of male religious not included in this Visitation?"

Various congregations of male religious were interviewed during the recent United States Seminary Study. In addition, this Visitation is guided by the scope of the mandate given to the Visitator.

Maybe you want to know, "Where is all of the information going and with whom will it be shared?"

The Apostolic Visitator will use the data gathered to prepare her report for Cardinal Rodé, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated life and Societies of Apostolic Life.  The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) will prepare an aggregate report of the quantitative data collected from all reporting institutes in Part A of the Questionnaire. Individual Congregations will not be identified in any way. Cardinal Rodé has authorized the public release of this report (emphasis mine).

That's a lot of sound information straight from the source actually performing the Visitation.  Wouldn't someone actually conducting the Visitation be a logical source to interview on the topic?  Instead, CBS reporter Petersen says this:

We reached out to many orders of nuns across the country hoping to get their viewpoints about all of this.

In most cases someone would agree to be interviewed. But when the interview was imminent we would be called and it would be canceled.

In the end, Sister Mary Ann Hinsdale agreed to speak with us - partly, she said, out of concern that if she didn't, no one would.

CBS tries to make it sound like the sisters they contacted were somehow silenced and that Sr. Mary Hinsdale was a brave, sacrificial lamb, speaking on behalf of the mistreated female religious congregations.

Sr. Mary Ann Hinsdale has authored and co-authored several books, including:  What's Left?  Liberal American Catholics.  You can search through the book on Amazon.  That's how I found this quote:

...the experience of women with vocations [to the priesthood] and the experience of a Church with a severe priest shortage push toward changes in Church teaching.

A female religious contributing to a book like this and writing on the topic of women's ordination is not a likely candidate to be a faithful defender of the faith.  Sister Mary Ann is a member of the order of the Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She's also a professor of theology at Boston College. 

"Do you think this apostolic visitation is something that nuns like yourself, who are out there in the world, should be worried about?" asked Petersen. 


"I really don't know," she replied. "But I think the most problematic aspect of it is that we are not going to see a report, and we don't know what is going to be done with this."

Please see above.  The Visitation website says a public report of the findings of the Visitation will be made available.

"We were never told what was going to be done with this. And while we think this is, you know, a travesty, really, and insulting even about who we are in the church, because we think we're trying to be loyal to the church. We're trying to make, you know, plausible explanations where people are saying, 'Well, why is the church doing this? Why are they excommunicating people who are, you know, seem to be wanting good for the church?'"

So, Sr. Hinsdale is trying to connect the excommunication of Sr. McBride and the Apostolic Visitation of women religious orders to paint the bishops and Church hierarchy as out to get the sisters.  Let's re-summarize why this is silly:

1. Sr. McBride excommunicated herself.  Archbishop Olmsted was merely the charitable messenger.  Also, please continue reading to find out about Sr. McBride's current status in the Church.
2. The Apostolic Visitation's goal is to strengthen and protect women's religious orders in the United States.  A female religious herself (Mother Clare Millea, Superior General of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus) is the Apostolic Visitator.

Petersen decided he wanted another voice on the issue, so he returned to Gary Macy.  Remember him from above?  (The Religious Studies department chair at Santa Clara University and author of The Hidden History of Women's Ordination: Female Clergy in the Medieval West).  Gary Macy chimes in with why he thinks the Apostolic Visitation of women religious is taking place.

"Why the nuns?" asked theologian Gary Macy. "This is my suspicion: They can."

"It's interesting that they would take the women's religious order, and not the men's religious orders," Macy said. "Although, you know, for so many centuries and centuries and centuries in Christianity, women have taken a hit first."

It looks like Gary Macy needs to look at the Apostolic Visitation website as well.  Remember the Q&A quote from above?  The site says that several of the men's religious orders were examined in a recent seminary study.


The report cuts back to Sr. Mary Hinsdale after Macy's comment about women in Christianity always taking the hit first.

When asked why she stays with the Church, Sister Mary Ann Hinsdale said, "Because it's my church. I have a responsibility to speak the truth that's been given to me.

Last time I checked, the Catholic Church was Christ's Church.

"There's a lot of pain and suffering, I think, in belonging to the Catholic Church today. But I think I'm following as best I can what I think God is asking me to do today in this church as we have it."

Imagine how differently the interview would look had Petersen interviewed Mother Miriam of the Lamb of God, O.S.B., prioress of Daughters of Mary, Mother of Israel's Hope (formerly Rosalind Moss).  When asked about the charism of her community in a recent National Catholic Register article, this was her response:  

What thrills me most, apart from being signs to God in the world and the freedom people have in approaching us, is the sense they have that they “own” us, so to speak. That is, they believe that they have free access to us, that we exist for them, that they have a right to expect us to pray for them, to help them, to be God’s arms to them in their need.  It is a beautiful expectation on their part, and, to my mind, that is as it should be.

Contrast the two:  

1. Sr. Hinsdale says the Catholic Church is "my church," and that "there's a lot of pain and suffering...in belonging to the Catholic Church today."  
2. Mother Miriam says other people "have a right to expect us to pray for them, to help them, to be God's arms to them in their need."  

It comes as no surprise to me that Mother Miriam's order is flourishing with vocations and that orders that have adopted Sr. Hinsdale's attitude toward the Catholic Church are the orders that are dying out. 

Issue 6:  Current status of (1) St. Margaret Mary McBride and (2) St. Joseph's Catholic Hospital 

(1) Current Status of Sr. McBride
Sr. McBride's excommunication was lifted by Bishop Olmsted, and she resigned as member of St. Joseph's Catholic Hospital ethics committee.  This is a part of the story that deserves more attention.  Excommunication is not necessarily a permanent condition!  This is the beauty of forgiveness and reconciliation.  When a member of the Church is excommunicated, the onus is on that person to come back into communion with the Church.  To do this, the individual must repent of their sins in the sacrament of reconciliation directly to the bishop or a priest appointed by the bishop to lift the excommunication.  Like all individuals going to the sacrament of reconciliation, the sacrament does not "work" unless the individual is truly repentant of the sin.  By all outward appearances, Sr. McBride is back in communion with the Catholic Church.  Hooray!

(2) Current Status of St. Joseph's Catholic Hospital
The CBS report says,

To regain its "Catholic" status, the bishop insists that it must say the medical procedure that resulted in the abortion and saved the mother of four was in violation of religious and ethical policies, and will never happen again.

So far, the hospital has refused to do so.

It still cannot call itself Catholic.

This seems pretty straightforward to me.  An institution calling itself "Catholic" needs to operate in line with Church Teaching.  When it does not operate as a Catholic hospital by performing an abortion, why is it offensive to take this title away?  


Summing it all up:

1. Issue 3:  The Second Vatican Council
• Don't count on a secular media source like CBS to sum up an entire Church Council for you.
• Read the Council documents for yourself here.
2. Issue 4:  New Translation of the Roman Missal
• The "critics" in the new translation think it is a "new mass" and are consequently troubled by the changes
3. Issue 5:  Apostolic Visitation to Religious Orders
• The actual Visitation is being conducted by a religious sister, and a public report will be made available when the Visitation concludes 
4. Issue 6:  Current Status of Sr. Margaret Mary McBride and St. Joseph's Catholic Hospital
• Sr. McBride is, by all outward appearances, back in communion with the Catholic Church
• St. Joseph's Hospital can no longer call itself "Catholic" because:
• it refuses to admit that the abortion counseled by Sr. McBride was immoral
• St. Joseph's refuses to guarantee that another abortion will not take place at the hospital

CBS News "The Catholic Church: A House Divided?" (Part 1)

Last Sunday, the CBS News Sunday Morning show aired this "cover story" reported by Barry Petersen:  "The Catholic Church: A House Divided?"  To read the full article or watch the video, click here.   

Patrick Coffin, host of my favorite radio show Catholic Answers Live, is fond of talking about the low standards for journalists reporting on church news.  He likes to say, “If I don’t know what an RBI is, the New York Times is not going to let me write a baseball column for them.  But journalists who know nothing about Christianity are assigned to cover church news all the time.” 

The lack of fact-checking and one-sidedness of this particular story illustrates the sad reality of this truth.

Msgr. Charles Pope did a great job responding to this article in his blog, and I would like to build on his ideas.  There is so much to discuss from this 10-minute video and two-page article, that I'm tackling the issues separately and chronologically as they appear in the video and article. 

Here are the issues addressed in the report:

1. The excommunication of Sr. Margaret Mary McBride, R.S.M. in the Diocese of Phoenix, Arizona.
2. "Power-obsessed" Bishops
3. Vatican II
4. New Translation of the Roman Missal  
5. Apostolic Visitation to Religious Orders
6. Current status of St. Margaret Mary McBride and St. Joseph Catholic Hospital 

Today, I'm tackling numbers 1 and 2.

Issue 1:  Excommunication of Sr. Margaret Mary McBride, R.S.M. in the Diocese of Phoenix, Arizona

Sr. Margaret Mary McBride, R.S.M.

• CBS Report Says:  Sr. Margaret Mary McBride helped to save a woman's life and was excommunicated by a cruel, obsessed with control Bishop Olmsted.
• Reality:  Sr. Margaret Mary McBride counseled the doctors of St. Joseph's Catholic Hospital to perform a direct abortion and, consequently, excommunicated herself from the Catholic Church.  Bishop Olmsted informed her of this fact.

Examining the Catholic Moral Principles at Work in This Case

The case in question involved a female patient 11 weeks along in her pregnancy who suffered from severe pulmonary hypertension.  Fr. Tad Pacholczyk, Director of Education at the NCBC, is the author of a column called Making Sense out of Bioethics that appears in various diocesan newspapers across the country.   Fr. Tad addresses pregnancies complicated by pulmonary hypertension in his July 2010 article "Difficult Pregnancies, Precarious Choices, and the Absolute Value of Innocent Lives."   Please take the time to read the brief article in its entirety.  Fr. Tad makes this statement that cuts to the core: "Better two deaths than the direct taking of an innocent life."

When there is a complicated pregnancy, the medical staff must do everything in its power to save the mother and the baby.  

Recent advances in obstetrics and pre-natal medicine, along with so-called "expectant management" (close monitoring of a pregnancy with tailored interventions), have enabled an ever greater number of these high-risk pregnancies to be managed at least until the child reaches viability. Labor can then be induced or a C-section delivery can be scheduled. This ordinarily allows both mother and child to be saved. 

Fr. Tad concludes the article with this statement:

These challenging “life of the mother” cases allow us to begin acknowledging some of our own limitations, and the mystery of God’s greater Providence, in the realization that we may not be able to “manage” or “correct” every difficult medical situation we face.

Now, let's connect the Catholic moral principles to this case:  Sr. Margaret Mary McBride was a member of the ethics committee at St. Joseph's Catholic Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona that hears difficult medical cases and advises the medical staff how to proceed while also being faithful to Catholic Teaching.  Sr. McBride counseled the medical staff to perform a direct abortion.  As established above, the direct killing of a human being to save another is never morally permissible.  I'll touch on her excommunication below.  

How the CBS Report Paints the Case

The reporter introduces Sr. McBride by the description of "a respected nun" and member of the hospital ethics committee.  After briefly explaining the patient's medical condition, the reporter says, "Modern medicine presented two equally grim options: terminate the pregnancy and save the mother, or lose both mother and child."

The reporter interviews Dr. Charles Alfano, St. Joseph's Chief Medical Officer.  Dr. Charles Alfano claims, "And as a result, we made the difficult decision, but the decision that we had to make, to terminate the pregnancy."  Petersen glibly asks, "So, no matter what you guys had done, the child would have died?"  Dr. Charles Alfano responds, "Correct."  This quick exchange excuses the direct killing of the baby because the doctors "had to" do it because child would have likely died had the staff decided to let the pregnancy run its course.    

The report goes on to say that the excommunication of Sr. McBride created a media frenzy, and the video shows a headline that reads, "Why does saving a life merit excommunication?"  Not surprisingly, the story got it wrong.  It was the abortion that caused Sr. McBride's excommunication, not the consequential survival of the mother.

How Excommunication Works in the Context of Abortion

Canon 1398 states, "a person who procures a completed abortion incurs a latae sententiae (automatic) excommunication."  So, anyone who performs, receives, encourages, or cooperates in any way with the abortion is automatically excommunicated from the moment the abortion is completed.  A person who is excommunicated must refrain from Holy Communion until after he or she has received absolution in the Sacrament of Confession and absolution from the excommunication.

Because Sr. McBride encouraged the abortion (the direct killing of the baby) as a member of the hospital ethics committee, she incurred a latae sententiae (automatic) excommunication.  Bishop Olmsted's role was being the messenger in letting Sr. McBride know that she incurred this penalty as a result of her actions. 

What is the purpose of excommunication anyway?  The Catholic Encyclopedia explains it is a "medicinal penalty":

Being a penalty, it supposes guilt; and being the most serious penalty that the Church can inflict, it naturally supposes a very grave offence. It is also a medicinal rather than a vindictive penalty, being intended, not so much to punish the culprit, as to correct him and bring him back to the path of righteousness. It necessarily, therefore, contemplates the future, either to prevent the recurrence of certain culpable acts that have grievous external consequences, or, more especially, to induce the delinquent to satisfy the obligations incurred by his offence.

Because we believe as Catholics that our actions have eternal consequences, we are in danger of eternal damnation should be die in a state of moral sin (i.e., procuring an abortion).  Since that's the case, shouldn't we Catholics be glad that Mother Church, through its ministers, does all that it can to (1) inform its members when they are out of communion, and (2) encourage them to repent of their actions to be back in full communion?      

Issue 2: "Power-Obsessed" Bishops

The report goes on to interview Father Thomas Doyle. 

Father Thomas Doyle, who specializes in church law and once worked for the Vatican's Embassy in Washington, D.C., said, "The excommunication of the sister, I thought, was an extremely cruel act. I can't describe it in any other way."

Father Doyle is now an outspoken critic of the church, and says what happened in Phoenix points to an unfolding trend within the church.

"It tells me that within the hierarchy, there is a great deal of fear, that there is almost an obsession with control, that there's an inability, I think, to deal with the 21st century.

"The bishop in Phoenix is not unique," Father Doyle said. "There are many, many like him."

A few points here:

1. Sr. McBride automatically excommunicated herself by counseling the medical staff to perform an abortion.  Bishop Olmsted merely informed her of her status as an act of charity.
2. "what happened in Phoenix points to an unfolding trend within the church."  
• The implied trend is that the bishops across the country are going rogue, trying to squash its members and excommunicate anyone who gets in their way.  Characterizing the bishops in this way causes further division and mistrust of the Church leadership.
• Faithful Catholics should see the medicinal role of excommunication and pray that their bishops will continue to act charitably toward its members, helping them to rectify any actions that may have caused their excommunication. 

Directly following Father Thomas Doyle's critique of the U.S. bishops, the story lists two examples of U.S. bishops exercising their authority against (1) the schismatic American Catholic Council who wants the Church to ordain women and (2) Sr. Elizabeth Johnson's "Quest for the Living God" :

Take Archbishop Allen Vigneron in Detroit, who has spoken against the American Catholic Council, a group promoting change within the church, including the ordination of women.

Or the U.S. Conference of Bishops: They've critiqued and investigated the writings of Sister Elizabeth Johnson, a feminist theologian whose book "Quest for the Living God" has become popular among liberal Catholics.

A few points on these examples:

1. The American Catholic Council is a schismatic group acting under the guise of "Church renewal."  Church renewal is a beautiful thing to be embraced as Archbishop Allen Vigneron wrote in his letter to the group.  Proclaiming that changes such as the ordination of women must be made "in the spirit of Vatican II" are contrary to the Catholic faith, and Archbishop Vigneron rightly tried to put an end to their meeting in Detroit.  You can read his full letter on the Archdiocese of Detroit website.   
2. Sister Elizabeth Johnson's book is problematic because it promotes modalism.  The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' position is explained in this article by the National Catholic Reporter. 
   

Let's Sum It Up

1. Sr. McBride automatically excommunicated herself by counseling the medical staff at St. Joseph Catholic Hospital to perform an abortion.
2. Bishop Olmsted acted charitably in acting as messenger in bringing this to Sr. McBride's attention.  
3. Bishops who work to ensure that the faithful in their area are acting in accord to the laws of the church are not "power-obsessed"; they are exercising their office in the Church that Christ created.

I'll tackle the rest of the issues tomorrow!

Did You Know Thursday is Mother's Day?

Ok, so maybe we don't celebrate Mother's Day on Thursday, December 8th in the United States, but I'm going to make the case that all Catholic families should.

In the Catholic Church, we celebrate the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on December 8.  The Immaculate Conception is a Holy Day of Obligation celebrating that Mary was free from the effects of Original Sin from the moment of her conception.  Pope Pius IX elevated December 8 as a Holy Day of Obligation in 1854 when he declared the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

It should come as no surprise that December 8, The Immaculate Conception, is also a national holiday and Mother's Day (El Día de la Madre) in Panama.  Because it is a national holiday, families are free to attend Mass together in celebration of their spiritual mother, Mary, and come together to celebrate their earthly mothers as well.  Family members give moms a day off from her usual labors and honor her with a special meal that they prepare for her.  How cool is that?

Consider making December 8th Mother's Day for your family.  (I'm sure the mothers in your life wouldn't object to celebrating in May as well!)  Children and husbands, tell the mother in your life to take the day off from laundry, cooking, and cleaning.  Make her breakfast in bed.  Guys, if cooking isn't your thing, go out to dinner as a family at her favorite restaurant.  Write her a card letting her know how important she is in your life.  Encourage all of her children to do the same.  Nothing beats a handmade card or gift from a child!

Don't forget where you came from!  Write letters or give a call to Grandma and Great-Grandma as well.  Share stories of the matriarchs in the family. 

We must not forget to celebrate the other spiritual mothers in our lives.  These women are usually forgotten on Mother's Day because they may not be physical mothers.  Perhaps there is a special consecrated religious, faith-filled neighbor, old teacher, or a great friend who, by her presence in your life, draws you into a closer relationship to God.  Thank her. 

On December 8th, we should give thanks to God for the gift of our spiritual mother, Mary.  We should pray that our earthly mothers (biological, adoptive, or spiritual) will magnify the greatness of the Lord for their families, local communities, and the world.  May all women come to live out the fullness of their vocation as physical and spiritual mothers.

The hour is coming, in fact has come, when the vocation of woman is being acknowledged in its fullness, the hour in which women acquire in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved.  That is why, at this moment when the human race is undergoing so deep a transformation, women impregnated with a spirit of the Gospel can do so much to aid humanity in not falling.*

* Taken from Closing Speeches, Vatican Council II, To Women, read by Leon Cardinal Duval of Algiers, Algeria, assisted by Julius Cardinal Doepfner of Munich, Germany, and Raul Cardinal Silva of Santiago, Chile, December 8, 1965, printed by the Daughters of St. Paul, Boston, Mass., 29.

      

Feast of St. Nicholas and a Great Book

How is your Advent going?  I've been enjoying my daily Advent devotional on EWTN's website.  The daily reflection is based on a Scripture verse.  Then, there is a short reflection followed by an "Advent Action" (something you can do to put the day's lesson into action), and a closing prayer.

Philip gave me a wonderful book that I have to recommend for every Catholic home!  Fittingly, it's called The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions for Holidays, Feast Days, and Every Day by Meredith Gould, Ph.D.  (I've linked to Amazon.com, but I encourage you to purchase the book from your local Catholic bookstore if you can.) 

The book introduces the reader to the beautiful traditions available to us through the celebration of the liturgical calendar.  In addition to the liturgical seasons, there are other sections on topics such as daily devotions, honoring the sacraments, making time, Mary, essential prayers, and recommended resources.

This book has been a great resource to me.  I am learning so much, and I am loving all of the ideas I am getting for our home and family.  Next year, for example, I hope to adopt the tradition of having a Jesse Tree.   How cute is this one?!  Here's the link with directions on how to make this particular tree.

The author suggests giving Santa "a sacred makeover" by restoring St. Nicholas Eve (December 5) and St. Nicholas Day (December 6).  St. Nicholas was a fourth-century bishop of Myra (in modern-day Turkey).  Among his contributions were being present at the Council of Nicaea and condemning Arianism.  On her section about St. Nicholas, Gould says:

During the sixteenth century, the stately St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, patron saint of children in the Eastern Churches, was transformed into a boisterous, hefty old man with a long white beard.  The red getup and beard happen to have been modeled (by Dutch Protestants) on the Norse god Thor who lived in "Northland" and traveled the skies in a goat-drawn chariot.  How St. Nicholas morphed into Santa Claus is somewhat of an enigma, although Nicholas of Myra was known for comforting orphans with little gifts (20).

If you would like to honor this saint, consider adopting the tradition of writing a letter to the Christ Child like the European and Canadian Catholics do.  Be sure to leave the note on the windowsill for St. Nicholas to pick up and deliver.

If you're more hardcore (and confident in your children's religious formation), adopt the tradition of Eastern Europe and the Low Countries.  Have St. Nicholas arrive on December 6.  Rather than a red suit, he wears a white robe and the bishop mitre.  Holding his staff, he asks children to recite their Catechism or prayers.  Traditional gifts include cookies, chocolate, apples, nuts, and holy cards.  Instead of opening gifts on Christmas Day, children receive their presents on January 6th, The Feast of the Epiphany (celebration of the Magi's visit to the Christ Child).

The book says nothing about shoes, but the Feast of St. Nicholas tradition at my house will involve shoes!  My children will leave their shoes outside of their bedrooms, and St. Nicholas will fill them with gold chocolate coins, a clementine (or other fruit), and a Holy Card.  How cute are these precious little shoes??? 

Have you ever celebrated the Feast of St. Nicholas at your house?  What do you do to celebrate?