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THE MILLENNIAL CATHOLIC:
Despite the fact this post is coming in an election year, one may be quick to notice I have not put up who I want to win the election.
Before I explain why, let me first get into what brought this on:
In a recent episode of The Download on ChurchMilitant.com, a point was brought up about which commandments were playing the biggest role in the presidential election. Election 2012, for example, was dubbed a 6th Commandment election because of the then major issue of gay so-called "marriage". Election 2016 was called a 7th and 8th commandment-centered election because of all the socialist notions touted by one candidate and the brazen tactics of another.
While it wasn't the discussion's main topic, that had me thinking just how well any of the candidates stack up to the Commandments. Seeing as projection markets say it will come down to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, which one will I vote for?
The answer is…neither.
Between Clinton's near-obsession with abortion rights and Trump's multiple Bible gaffs, I don't see any point in voting this time.
In fact, what reasons exist to vote for either one? Let's look at some and why none of them make any sense:
"You should vote for Clinton because it's time for a female US president."
So you're saying her qualifications are based just on her gender? How is that any different than voting for someone because they're black?
"You should vote for Trump because he'll make America great again."
Since when is American greatness based on who our president is? Are you saying America was never great when we had a bad president?
"Trump will create jobs."
Jobs are created by entrepreneurs, not the government.
"Clinton has political experience."
Explain Benghazi to me then.
"Trump will only sell out to the rich."
How much is Hillary's net worth again?
"Hillary knows it's immoral to not care for the poor."
But apparently her husband didn't know it's immoral (and illegal) to lie to a grand jury.
Now the main one both sides use:
"You should vote for our candidate because (s)he is the lesser of two evils."
Allow me to point out a few things wrong with using that argument:
Besides the obvious fact you just indirectly admitted your candidate is evil, "lesser of two evils" only comes into play when all available choices are evil, there are no other choices to make, and you can't get away with not making a choice.
In the case of a presidential election, there is ALWAYS another choice to make and it's the one I'm going to do:
Not vote at all.
And don't hand me any of that "if you don't vote, you don't have a voice" bull. My 1st amendment rights are dependent on me being a citizen, not on me voting.
Besides, what if I vote for someone and they impose an immoral action on the people? Wouldn't that make me culpable, even if there was no way of foreseeing it? I would say it does.
Is it immoral to not vote? I don't think so. If you think it is, consider this: you vote every day on what you're going to buy. Is it immoral for you to not buy anything if you don't find something you believe is worth buying? Then why should it be immoral to not vote for someone you don't really believe?
And that's what it comes down to for me: I don't think either candidate believes in a power higher than themselves and neither believes that they will have to answer for more at their final judgment than an everyday citizen would.
Besides, there is only one party I'd vote for and that's the Constitution Party…too bad they don't have ballot access in my state.
“the post-Christian atheist knows God exists, but he desires He should not.”- Ven Arch Fulton Sheen
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Monday, February 29, 2016
In the Spotlight
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THE MILLENNIAL CATHOLIC:
Before we go into this topic, there are a few things I need to disclose:
-I don't live in the Boston area
-I have never lived in the Boston area
-As of this post, I have not actually seen the film in question
Having said that though, with the film Spotlight winning the Best Picture award, it's time for me to talk about a topic everyone has heard but still seems to have great misconceptions over: the priest sexual abuse scandal.
I know this whole event has lead to people either leaving the Church or (if they were never members) no longer even consider being part of the Church but this is also a topic where people have let their emotions trump the facts.
So here are some facts we've let fall to the wayside:
1. The VAST majority of priests in America have NEVER been accused of sexual abuse.
That's right: out of the total accusation numbers, only 4% of all American priests between 1950 and 2002 have ever had a mark this black on their character. This then means 96% of all priests were living their lives in holy obedience to the Church. If you think I put that statistic out of nowhere, that number came from a story from the Boston Globe…the very same newspaper that broke the scandal.
Now what about those who were accused?
2. On average, 2 out of 5 accusations against priests and as many as 3 out of 4 do NOT hold up under tough scrutiny.
In the middle of all the media hype, a study was done to look into all the accusations and it found 40% of the charges had to be thrown out because either not enough evidence existed to go to trial or the accuser later admitted to making everything up.
Damn that pesky "innocent until proven guilty" saying, eh?
Now, I know the nay-sayers will say something to the effect of "What about the priests that do have credible charges, some that go back decades? What about them?"
3. You have to look closer at the accusations.
If you did, you will find all the alleged incidents happened within the same few decades and nearly nothing after a certain point. In addition, you will further find all the incidents happen in the same few cities…namely Boston, New York City, Los Angeles and other areas notorious for their liberal leanings.
Note how none or next to no priests in politically conservative areas have ever been accused.
4.This scandal is NOT reflective of the Church as a whole
This is partially because of how few priests are accused but mostly because of the reforms implemented in problem areas, a key one being gay men are not allowed in seminaries anymore.
Furthermore, accused priests seem to also stem from certain religious orders such as the Jesuits and none at all from orders like the Dominicans or the FSSP.
"But what about all those priests who abused multiple children and all the Church did was move them to another area?"
5. The Catholic Church was following the advise of supposed experts at the time.
As part of the investigation, it has come to light Church leaders forced the accused priests to seek a therapist and every time the expert told them the priest was suited for work again.
The blame in other words falls on the therapists, not the Church.
If you think that's a cop-out, this recommendation was first printed in the Boston Globe…the same newspaper that broke the scandal.
So the message is clear: the Church should be allowed to govern themselves and not give an inch to secular-atheism: not only can they not explain how child molestation is wrong but they're a bunch of idiots too.
THE MILLENNIAL CATHOLIC:
Before we go into this topic, there are a few things I need to disclose:
-I don't live in the Boston area
-I have never lived in the Boston area
-As of this post, I have not actually seen the film in question
Having said that though, with the film Spotlight winning the Best Picture award, it's time for me to talk about a topic everyone has heard but still seems to have great misconceptions over: the priest sexual abuse scandal.
I know this whole event has lead to people either leaving the Church or (if they were never members) no longer even consider being part of the Church but this is also a topic where people have let their emotions trump the facts.
So here are some facts we've let fall to the wayside:
1. The VAST majority of priests in America have NEVER been accused of sexual abuse.
That's right: out of the total accusation numbers, only 4% of all American priests between 1950 and 2002 have ever had a mark this black on their character. This then means 96% of all priests were living their lives in holy obedience to the Church. If you think I put that statistic out of nowhere, that number came from a story from the Boston Globe…the very same newspaper that broke the scandal.
Now what about those who were accused?
2. On average, 2 out of 5 accusations against priests and as many as 3 out of 4 do NOT hold up under tough scrutiny.
In the middle of all the media hype, a study was done to look into all the accusations and it found 40% of the charges had to be thrown out because either not enough evidence existed to go to trial or the accuser later admitted to making everything up.
Damn that pesky "innocent until proven guilty" saying, eh?
Now, I know the nay-sayers will say something to the effect of "What about the priests that do have credible charges, some that go back decades? What about them?"
3. You have to look closer at the accusations.
If you did, you will find all the alleged incidents happened within the same few decades and nearly nothing after a certain point. In addition, you will further find all the incidents happen in the same few cities…namely Boston, New York City, Los Angeles and other areas notorious for their liberal leanings.
Note how none or next to no priests in politically conservative areas have ever been accused.
4.This scandal is NOT reflective of the Church as a whole
This is partially because of how few priests are accused but mostly because of the reforms implemented in problem areas, a key one being gay men are not allowed in seminaries anymore.
Furthermore, accused priests seem to also stem from certain religious orders such as the Jesuits and none at all from orders like the Dominicans or the FSSP.
"But what about all those priests who abused multiple children and all the Church did was move them to another area?"
5. The Catholic Church was following the advise of supposed experts at the time.
As part of the investigation, it has come to light Church leaders forced the accused priests to seek a therapist and every time the expert told them the priest was suited for work again.
The blame in other words falls on the therapists, not the Church.
If you think that's a cop-out, this recommendation was first printed in the Boston Globe…the same newspaper that broke the scandal.
So the message is clear: the Church should be allowed to govern themselves and not give an inch to secular-atheism: not only can they not explain how child molestation is wrong but they're a bunch of idiots too.
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Friday, February 12, 2016
Lenten Fast On a Church Level
+Ad Jeseum Per Marium+
THE MILLENNIAL CATHOLIC:
During Lent, Catholics are called to examine their lives and see how well they live according to the word of our Lord and Savior. Yet…
Can't it be also said that the Church hierarchy should do the same thing, especially when it comes to how they preach the faith? After all, the Ash Wednesday prayers tell us we will all return to dust and the clergy--regardless of rank--will have more to answer for than laypeople.
Shouldn't they start now and do the best course of action for this?
THE MILLENNIAL CATHOLIC:
During Lent, Catholics are called to examine their lives and see how well they live according to the word of our Lord and Savior. Yet…
Can't it be also said that the Church hierarchy should do the same thing, especially when it comes to how they preach the faith? After all, the Ash Wednesday prayers tell us we will all return to dust and the clergy--regardless of rank--will have more to answer for than laypeople.
Shouldn't they start now and do the best course of action for this?
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
On Ash Wednesday
+AJPM+
THE MILLENNIAL CATHOLIC:
Grant us, O Lord, to begin with holy fasts our Christian warfare: that, as we do battle with the spirits of evil, we may be protected by the help of self-denial. Through Christ our Lord. -Pre-Vatican II Ash Wednesday prayer
One quick note before we get to the article: note carefully what you are told when the ashes are placed on your head. What you should hear is "remember thou art dust and unto dust you shall return"; what you should NOT hear is "repent and believe in the Gospel [or the Good News]."
The second one is NOT the correct phrase from the Latin and diminishes the main point of the Lenten season.
Now, onto the article:
THE MILLENNIAL CATHOLIC:
Grant us, O Lord, to begin with holy fasts our Christian warfare: that, as we do battle with the spirits of evil, we may be protected by the help of self-denial. Through Christ our Lord. -Pre-Vatican II Ash Wednesday prayer
One quick note before we get to the article: note carefully what you are told when the ashes are placed on your head. What you should hear is "remember thou art dust and unto dust you shall return"; what you should NOT hear is "repent and believe in the Gospel [or the Good News]."
The second one is NOT the correct phrase from the Latin and diminishes the main point of the Lenten season.
Now, onto the article:
In Genesis 3:19 we hear God tell us "for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return," but nowadays, when someone dies, they are rushed from deathbed to funeral home to be embalmed and to be worked over by a make-up artist so that that "dusty reality" is hidden from us. Their deaths are spoken of as almost an embarrassment; "he passed," they say, or "he is no longer with us." These comforting but sterile luxuries weren't an option in the past when plagues felled so many people that there weren't enough survivors to bury them, when bodies had to be stored all winter until the ground was soft enough to dig, when most of the children a woman bore died before they were able to grow up. In our culture, with our medicines and "funeral sciences," we are afraid to look at death, and we are a poorer people because of it. No matter how long science can prolong life, no matter how much embalming fluid is pumped into a corpse, nature will have her way. This is Truth. And when nature has her way, we can either rest in the knowledge that the ultimate Victor is Christ, Our Lord, Who walked out of His tomb 2,000 years ago and offers resurrection to us, or we can believe that decay is all that is left. This is the meaning of Ash Wednesday.
Ash Wednesday is the day for being reminded of and contemplating our mortality, of which Ecclesiasticus 1 reminds us:
Ash Wednesday is the day for being reminded of and contemplating our mortality, of which Ecclesiasticus 1 reminds us:
What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh...
When a new Pope processes to St. Peter's Basilica to offer his first Mass as Pope, the procession stops three times and, at each stop, a piece of flax mounted on a reed is burned. As the flames die, the Pope hears the words, "Pater sancte, sic transit gloria mundi" ("Holy Father, thus passes the glory of the world"), to remind him not only that he is a mere man, but as a man, a mere mortal whose end is like the end of all other men. The things of this world are transient, and Christians must always keep one eye on the world to come.
Recalling this Truth is one of the principles behind the use of ashes on the forehead today: to remind us that we are mortal, subject to the rot and decay our Western culture now desperately tries to euphemize away, and that we are radically dependent on -- solely dependent on -- Jesus Christ to overcome this fate.
They are like a yearly contemplation of the tombstone inscribed with:
Recalling this Truth is one of the principles behind the use of ashes on the forehead today: to remind us that we are mortal, subject to the rot and decay our Western culture now desperately tries to euphemize away, and that we are radically dependent on -- solely dependent on -- Jesus Christ to overcome this fate.
They are like a yearly contemplation of the tombstone inscribed with:
Remember friends as you pass by,
as you are now so once was I.
As I am now so you must be.
Prepare for death and follow me.
While death should, of course, be avoided as the evil it is, we should accept the reality of it with the attitude behind the words attributed to the great Sioux warrior, Crazy Horse: "It is a good day to die" ("Hoka hey"). Death should not be feared in itself; what should be approached with trepidation is the judgment that follows -- not because God is a malicious Father who wants to inflict pain, but because He is as just as He is merciful. We need to repent, accept the reality of death, and not only consider our judgment, but be ready for it.
(For the whole article, click here)
Monday, January 25, 2016
Sunday, January 24, 2016
The Evil of Socialism
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THE MILLENNIAL CATHOLIC:
I never thought I'd have to say this in this day and age but…
Why are people thinking socialism is a good idea or have a favorable view of it? According to Reason magazine, over 35% of people in my age group like the socialist view. Oddly, enough they don't like it as much if you call it a government managed economy even though they mean THE EXACT SAME THING!!!
Worse still, some of my friends are supporting a presidential candidate that not only admits he's a socialist but makes no attempt to hide the fact his policies are socialist.
Just how bad is socialism? And by that I mean, ignoring the fact it lost the Cold War, it fails every single time it's been tried, and even those who once lived under it don't want it ever again?
THE MILLENNIAL CATHOLIC:
I never thought I'd have to say this in this day and age but…
Why are people thinking socialism is a good idea or have a favorable view of it? According to Reason magazine, over 35% of people in my age group like the socialist view. Oddly, enough they don't like it as much if you call it a government managed economy even though they mean THE EXACT SAME THING!!!
Worse still, some of my friends are supporting a presidential candidate that not only admits he's a socialist but makes no attempt to hide the fact his policies are socialist.
Just how bad is socialism? And by that I mean, ignoring the fact it lost the Cold War, it fails every single time it's been tried, and even those who once lived under it don't want it ever again?
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