Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Umberto Eco Laments the Ignorance of Catholic Religion

This article bemoans as enthusiastically as the decadent Southern European soul can, the gap in the education of young Italians toward understanding the patrimony of what enlightened people everywhere who flock to museums on Sunday's instead of Church call "great" masterpieces, created by a disinterest in religious subjects; never mind the actual cause, professore. Three of these students he finds to his discouragement, don't know who the Three Kings are.

It demonstrates something that is painfully apparent that religious faith might be an important part of history and worthwhile in order to understand the great souls who were forced for need of bread to depict those scenes on canvas, but believing in it, that's another story.

It brings to mind Paul VI's fashionable Milanese meetings he held which drew large crowds and spawned a famous book, a dialogue between he and Umberto Eco, called Belief and Unbelief. It is a kind of model for the engagement of the Church with the modern world, often well-attended, attracting even people who would otherwise not attend Church at all. For all of the talking, which approaches the kind of chatter of inter religious dialogue and neo-ecumenism today, it's hard to say what it has done for Intellectuals like Eco.

Well, in this recent Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, he seems to be very much the same. Advocating for the kinds of things one of the post-religious heroes his novels might have advocated, a kind of areligious, religious humanism. He really shouldn't lament it too much, it's a situation men like him have encouraged and helped to create.

His half-hearted attempt to keep himself out of the camp of Catholic (even non-believing) partizans by encouraging the study of world religions is almost doctrinaire neo-Marxism. Bravo professore!


New York Times

by Umberto Eco

Almost by chance I recently happened to witness two similar scenes: a 15-year-old girl who was engrossed in a book of art reproductions, and two 15-year-old boys who were enthralled to be visiting the Louvre.

The parents of all three were nonbelievers and the teens were raised in secular countries; that lack of religious background clearly affected their ability to appreciate the art they were viewing.

The teenagers could understand that the hapless individuals in Theodore Gericault’s “The Raft of the Medusa,” had just escaped a shipwreck. And they could recognize that the characters portrayed by Francesco Hayez in “The Kiss” were lovers.

Link to original...

h/t: Against the Grain

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Christian Brothers Ordered to Pay 161m Euros

Rather than reorganizing or disbanding the order, the assets will be confiscated by the government. This is by far the most open admission of guilt on the part of a religious order that we've ever seen, unfortunately, the root problem of heterodoxy won't be addressed while the Church loses influence and property. Generally speaking, the Church has a better record in all of this than the Government, and things like this further push the Church out of Her role as the protector of the poor and the nursemaid of Christendom.

[BBC News] A Catholic religious order is to supply a 161m euros (£145m) package of measures as reparation for child abuse in Ireland.

The Christian Brothers said the decision had been taken in response to the Ryan report which revealed decades of abuse at religious institutions.

The report, published in May, laid out a picture of systematic abuse.

In a statement the order said its move followed its "shame and sorrow at the findings of the Ryan Report".

"We understand and regret that nothing we say or do can turn back the clock for those affected by abuse," the statement continued.

"Our fervent hope is that the initiatives now proposed will assist in the provision of support services to former residents of the institutions as well as the facilities, resources and scope to protect, cherish and educate present and future generations of children."

Read further...

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Handbook for Tutors of Unchastity: Seminary Guide teaches Immorality

This book will contain some familiar bromides about rigidity, but it's hard to find. Fortunately, Father Habiger gave some inside baseball about the vile methodology of demoralization starting from seminary formation and naturally filtering into the pews where unsuspecting families would be subjected to the "homilies" and "spiritual advice" of men formed by the template of immorality in the following book. It's no wonder the USCCB is so confused about these issues since many of them probably ingested and internalized many of the principles and bromides of this book which was all part of the Trojan Horse.

CNA

Fr. Mathew Habiger
mhabiger@kansasmonks.org

In 1976 the Catholic Theological Society of America endorsed the publication of a book on Catholic sexual ethics, entitled HUMAN SEXUALITY: New Directions in American Catholic Thought. It was authored by Fr. Anthony Kosnik and several others. Many seminaries used this as a text for sexual ethics during the 1980s and 1990s. You still find copies of it in rectory libraries. Notice that it received the endorsement of the CTSA, and that was taken as sufficient justification for using it in major seminaries. It helps us understand why there is such a reluctance among many of the clergy today to preach on God’s plan for marriage and spousal love. Its way of explaining Catholic sexual ethics is at great variance with what the Church teaches in her major documents. Kosnik finds the norms given in Casti Connubii, Humanae Vitae and the Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics to be too rigid and oppressive. He thinks that the Magisterium places too much emphasis upon concrete individual human acts, instead of upon the overall intentions indicated by a whole spectrum of choices and acts. Instead of using HV’s norm for the spousal act (unitive and procreative), he replaces this with a more squishy and elastic norm (creative growth and integrative).

By using the greater elasticity provided by his new norms, Kosnik is able to justify instances of deviations from just about all of the norms of the traditional Catholic sexual ethic. This includes acts of contraception, sterilization, adultery, fornication, homosexual acts, and even bestiality!

Read further...

Htip, Semper Vita

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

USCCB promises to set a new Course for Catholic Education

There was no mention of Land O'Lakes or the veritable wasteland that Catholic Education has become, but perhaps, putting an unimposing silk folding dividing screen with cranes and pastoral scenes from Chinese romances, between the laity and the public, the USCCB intends to "handle" the situation by waiting for the legion tenured heterodox to die and replacing them by enthusiastic orthodoxesque like Christopher West. Meanwhile, we perhaps can try to imagine ourselves in a kind of Gothic, ivy covered paradise where Dominicans sit with their students in gardens, explaining St. Thomas Aquinas without the usual attempts to bring things up to date with the latest in philosophical, post-post modernism.

Cardinal Newman Society

At a subsequent press conference, Cardinal George declined to name specific universities that the bishops have in mind, although he added “if any institution… calls itself Catholic,” it is the moral responsibility of a bishop to assure that it is Catholic, according to the National Catholic Reporter. Cardinal George said this offers the bishops “a chance to clarify the relationship” and see if the entity in question is operating within the bonds of Catholic communion. He said that it is the bishops’ responsibility, when institutions or organizations call themselves Catholic, to sort out what that means in each case.
Also highlighting their support for a university that became a model for reform, the bishops gave a standing ovation to Very Rev. David O’Connell, C.M., president of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Delivering a farewell report as he prepares to retire next year, Father O’Connell said that “the greatest progress the university has made in the past 12 years is in its Catholic identity.” He contrasted that to the “antagonism and cynicism that was present on the campus the day I arrived.”

Link to article...

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Argument of the Month Club Minnesota

Like the Theology on Tap, and its various iterations, the Argument of the Month, features monthly speakers throughout the fall and winter and is gaining in popularity. It's a place where men of all ages can get together and celebrate conformity and find some hope for the future as they struggle with the moral vacuity of the world while trying to raise families and protect them from without. The Star and Tribune gives a positive article. Here, Remnant Editor Michael Matt is debating the Headmaster, Dr. Kevin Ferdinandt of Providence Academy, a local Catholic K-12 on the merits and demerits of homeschooling.

There are two aspects of the Argument of the Month Club that you'll get no argument about: It's fun, and it's exploding in popularity.

The theological debates that began with six men at a back table in a St. Paul restaurant now are monthly meetings that routinely draw 300-plus people, some from as far away as Cambridge, St. Cloud and Wabasha.

"I came last month for the first time and it just blew me away," said Lyle Bowe, a West St. Paul resident who attended his second meeting Tuesday evening. "I've been telling everyone what a great evening it is. The food is great, the company is great, the arguing is great."

It's an all-male group, which is itself something of a phenomenon, said the Rev. John Echert, rector of St. Augustine Catholic Church in South St. Paul, which hosts the meetings in its basement.

"This is a very unique success story," he said. "Getting women's groups together in a church is often very easy, but getting men's groups together is tough. And to get this many men together. ... " He shook his head as he looked around the room before adding with a tinge of awe: "It's unprecedented."

It's happening almost completely by word-of-mouth. The club has a website (www.aotmclub.com) and sweatshirts (emblazoned with "What is truth?"). "That's it in terms of getting the word out," said Josh Teske, the club's webmaster. "We don't do any advertising."

The club was started by Roman Catholics and still focuses on issues that affect Catholics, but it's often done from a big-picture perspective that reaches beyond Catholicism and draws a broader crowd.

"We have people of all faiths here," Echert said, and, sometimes, even nonfaiths, he added, pointing to a debate in January between a religious studies professor and a representative of Minnesota Atheists. "He brought several of his atheist friends along for support, and we were glad to have them."

The group's growth has forced changes in format, but the basic approach remains the same, said Kent Wuchterl, the club's director and one of its half-dozen original members 10 years ago.

"We were all apologetics," he said in a reference to early Christians who defended their faith when they were criticized by outsiders. "We were looking for a way to defend our faith. So we took over a table at the St. Clair Broiler and started arguing."

Topics were picked in advance, with three men assigned to each side of the debate. Being at a restaurant, they also felt obligated to order something. Thus was set the format: food and a fight.

As the group grew, it had to keep moving to bigger venues and different approaches. Everyone was encouraged to join in the debate until attendance topped 80, at which point it became more chaotic than insightful.

The club started bringing in two speakers to hold a formal debate, which was then followed by an open-mike session in which club members could question the speakers. Once attendance reached 200, that also started getting unmanageable. Now the members submit written questions during the debate that are passed on to a moderator.

The meal is cooked by club members in St. Augustine's kitchen. It's a "manly" meal that consists heavily of meat -- heavy enough to challenge the strength of the paper plates -- followed by dessert. Tuesday's was a chocolate layer cake served in pieces only slightly smaller than a football. Even then, many went back for seconds of both courses. The cost is $12.

"Where else are you going to eat this well for $12?" Wuchterl asked. Or, he could have added, eat this much?

The crowd is eclectic. The meetings draw people as young as 8 (sons attending with their fathers) and as old as 90. Men in business suits pull up chairs next to guys in blue jeans. Their level of interest is apparent: In three hours, not a single cell phone rang, even though there were no signs asking members to turn them off.

The topics the club considers are not light; recent ones have included debates on what is a "just" war and end-of-life issues. Tuesday's debate on home schooling pitted Kevin Ferdinandt, director of Providence Academy's upper school, against Michael Matt, an ardent home schooler and the author of several books on Catholicism.

The debates can get heated, but Echert, who also serves as the de facto sergeant of arms, is ready to step in if things get nasty. That rarely happens.

"Sometimes we'll clearly line up behind one speaker or the other, but it's respectful," said Paul Notermann of Inver Grove Heights. Seated next to him was Terry Beaudry of Roseville, who added: "We're all here for a good time."

Echert estimates that about half of the regulars are there for the camaraderie and the other half for the debate. Andrew Lynch, in his third year of driving up from Owatonna for the meetings, clearly falls in the latter category. He often brings along a group of friends, and they continue the debate all the way home.

"I like to argue," he said. "I'll take either side, sometimes just to keep the discussion going. This is the highlight of my month. I wouldn't miss it."

If there's one concern for the club, it's what to do if it keeps growing. St. Augustine can handle about 100 more before the fire codes become a concern. Club officers have offered to help launch spinoff groups; a group from Alexandria came to observe an earlier meeting. Or they might have to start taking it on the road.

"We've talked about moving it around the Twin Cities, sort of a traveling argument," Wuchterl said. "I don't know what we'll do, but we'll work something out."

They can always argue about it later.

Jeff Strickler • 612-673-7392

Read further...

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Editor of Remnant defends Homeschooling at Argument of the Month

Our debaters for this month’s Debate will be Michael Matt and Dr. Kevin Ferdinandt

Mr. Matt’s central claim is that the Homeschool movement is “fighting back” in terms of serving both as an important alternate option to Catholic School education and as a safe-guard for depositing Catholic tradition and identity. Dr. Ferdinandt, though sympathetic toward homeschooling, provides a voice of opposition to Mr. Matt’s claim; Dr. Ferdinandt highlights the benefits of Catholic School education, and points out key liabilities of the homeschooling movement.

Link here...

Thursday, November 5, 2009

October 1974 Scita Et Scienda: The Dwarfing of Modern Man

This timely essay on Scientism addresses the inabillity of specialists to really think outside of their disciplines and highlights on of the critical tragedies of our education system that most people are for all intents and purposes uneducated and therefore, predisposed to be irreligious.


Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn was educated at the Theresianic Academy in Vienna and received his Ph.D. from the University of Budapest. He has taught history at Beaumont College (England), Georgetown University and Chestnut Hill College, was head of the department of history and sociology at St. Peter's College, and taught Japanese at Fordham University. Since 1947 he has devoted himself to writing, traveling, and further studies.


Imprimis Article here...

Ernst Junger: Anarch und Katholik

Alle wegen fuhrt nach Rom. bei Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn