Seasons of Grace

I have this neat trick that I can do.  Sometimes I lie in bed at night and feel my brain.  That is, I experience an idea as a physical entity, leaping from left to right, pounding against my skull from the inside.  An action potential in the central nervous system:  calcium ions firing, neuro-transmitters leaping across synaptic gaps, linking the present day with a far distant memory, giving rise to new, never-before-considered solutions to the day’s problems.

This cranial super-awareness is not something that came naturally to me.  In fact it took me something like half a century to buy viagra online pharmacy become so familiar with my brain’s self-indulgent rampages, to understand the ebb and flow of feelings and ideas and emotions so fully, that I could accompany a neuron on its frenzied path, coursing through the hippocampus from left to right, replacing one ersatz thought with its logical superior.

How did I do it?

Silence. Silence. Silence.

Turning off the TV and the radio, closing the car windows, closing my office door.  The pulsating excesses of laughter, of earnest debate, of laugh tracks and pop music and car horns—all have their appointed time.  But I find that nowadays what I need is time, great gobs of time, to spend with myself.  Just me, myself, and I.

In that small, still world of the self, I can reflect on the cosmos, imagine the future, grab and squeeze a word until it’s tranquilized on paper.  I can experience God’s dynamic presence.

I think that’s what Pope Benedict is talking about in his just-released message for the 40th Annual World Day for Social Communications.  “Learning to communicate,” he writes, “is learning to listen and contemplate as well as speak.”  The world reacted with surprise to his message, entitled Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization; but on second thought, we all see the wisdom in his words.  When modern communication makes so much information available, when we can idle away our hours on Facebook and Twitter and Google+, we must stoke the furnace with periods of grace-filled quiet.

The Pope reminds us:

“…people today are frequently bombarded with answers to questions they have never asked and to needs of which they were unaware. If we are to recognize and focus upon the truly important questions, then silence is a precious commodity that enables us to exercise proper discernment in the face of the surcharge of stimuli and data that we receive.”

“Preach the Gospel always,” said Francis of Assisi. “And when necessary, use words.”

*   *   *   *

In keeping with tradition, the papal message for the World Day of Social Communications is released four months early on January 24, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron of journalists. 

The 2012 World Day for Social Communications will be held on May 20.

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Increasing numbers of Europeans are asking to be “de-baptized,” say

s a report in the Huffington Post, and Church officials are concerned.

Say what? Doesn’t Baptism change you ontologically, leaving an indelible mark on your soul, just as ordination does for the priest?

Well, yes. No matter how hard you scrub, you really can’t wash that mark off.

But apparently, people—lots of people!—are trying. Some estimate the number of “de-baptisms” requested in Europe has reached the tens of thousands. Both Protestant and Catholic churches have been affected.

There are different reasons:

• Financial Incentives – In countries like Germany, Austria and Belgium, governments levy “church taxes”; and if non-practicing Catholics claim to be “de-baptized,” they will get to keep the share of their taxes that has been levied for the Church.
• Anger Over the Church Sex Scandals – In Belgium, which has been deeply affected by the scandal of clergy sex abuse, the Brussels Federation of Friends of Secular Morality reports that there has been a sharp increase in the number of requests—with more than 2,000 people requesting “de-baptism” in 2010 in the French-speaking region of Belgium alone.
• Secularism – As many Europeans have turned away from the church, some want their disbelief to be officially recognized.

A case pending in Normandy, France, involves Rene Lebouvier, a 71-year-old retiree from Fleury, near the D-Day beaches. Lebouvier was raised by devout Catholic parents, attending Catholic schools and even considering the priesthood. As the years passed, however, Lebouvier fell away—eventually completely losing his faith in God. About ten years ago, Lebouvier contacted the parish where he was born, and requested that his name be removed from their baptismal records. The parish, in response, wrote a note in the margin, indicating that he had removed himself from membership. However, this was not satisfactory for the atheist Lebouvier; he filed suit, asking that the church remove all evidence of his ever having been initiated into the Catholic religion. The case is currently working its way through the French courts.

In Britain, tens of thousands of people downloaded a “de-baptism certificate” offered as a joke by the National Secular Society.

In countries like Germany, Austria and Belgium, the cost to the Church may be severe. Governments of those countries levy “church taxes”; and if non-practicing Catholics claim to be “de-baptized,” the churches will see a decline in tax benefits.

But more important than the financial hardship, the “de-baptism” craze warns of an increased secularism throughout the Continent. In Germany, some 181,000 Catholics left the Catholic Church in 2011. (Rather than seeking “de-baptism,” German citizens simply complete government paperwork indicating that they no longer wish to pay church taxes.)

Adding to the Church’s concern for souls is a decline in the number of children who are baptized in infancy. Fifty years ago, more than 90 percent of French children were baptized; today, roughly one in three receives the sacrament.

Focusing on the positive, some Catholics rejoice at the reduction in merely cultural Christianity, noting that those who want to be Christian really do believe in the Gospel of Christ.

I invited my husband, Deacon Jerry Schiffer, to comment on the “de-baptism” phenomenon. Here is his reflection.

Have You Ever Wished You’d Never Been Born?

A reflection by Deacon Jerry Schiffer

Encountering some of life’s more trying moments, many of us have heard (and maybe even used) the phrase “I wish I’d never been born!” I’m sure those words are not always intended to be taken literally, and yet, I’m just as sure that at times they are. While one may be uncertain of the intent of the words, one can be certain that using them cannot and will not change the circumstances or reality of one’s birth.

The same is true of baptism.

In certain parts of the world, individuals are now seeking to relieve themselves order viagra of the “burden” of ever having been baptized. At least, that is the idea that has been adopted in areas of an increasingly secularized Europe.

Many who are unhappy with their traditional initiation into the church of their parent’s choice – Catholic and Protestant alike – are apparently seeking to be “unbaptized.” A notation next to their names in church records that they have officially renounced their faith is apparently not enough. Only removal of their names from the records – a denial that the baptism had ever even occurred – will satisfy some of those who are unhappy with any connection with a church.

Fueling this anti-baptism mind-set are several factors: unhappiness with the child abuse scandals of recent years, a general rejection of religion and/or belief in God, and taxes that are levied by some European countries for the support of churches. While it is true that some advocates of “unbaptism” are no longer believers and wish to be totally “disassociated” from the church of their baptism for that reason, others remain believers but want no association with a formal church. (For more on this phenomen, click here.)

Whatever the desire of the individual seeking to be “unbaptized’” the truth must still prevail. Even a court-ordered removal of a person’s name from a church’s baptism records cannot remove the reality of that event any more than an official of Iran can erase the reality of the holocaust by saying that it never happened.

The fact is that the baptism really occurred. Those repudiating their baptisms can say “I wish I was never re-born” all they want. Wishing, however, will not make it so.” They can, however, renounce their faith and they may even be able to convince a court to require that their baptism be removed from church records.

The true tragedy in all of this is not the denial of the baptism’s existence, but the denial of its meaning – a denial of the eternal relationship, the spiritual re-birth that each baptism offers to the person receiving the sacrament. Let us pray for our brothers and sisters who have not seen this truth.

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On January 25, the Church celebrates the Conversion of the Apostle Paul.  Remember: Paul was en route to Damascus, in his quest to persecute the Christians, when he was thrown from his horse, blinded by a vision of Jesus Christ.

People turn their hearts to Christ for many reasons:  They begin to study the scriptures or apologetics, and they are led by their intellects.  Someone in their life, a very holy person, inspires them to dig deeper. They experience a health crisis, or find help in a time of need through the local parish.  Their next door neighbor invites them over for tea.

For the day, here is G.K. Chesterton’s poem “The Convert” which tells a conversion story through the eyes of Lazarus.

THE CONVERT
by G.K. Chesterton

After one moment when I bowed my head
And the whole world turned over and came upright,
And I came out where the old road shone white,
I walked the ways and heard what all men said,
Forests of tongues, like autumn leaves unshed,
Being not unlovable but strange and light;
Old riddles and new creeds, not in despite
But softly, as men smile about

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the dead.

The sages have a hundred maps to give
That trace their crawling cosmos like a tree,
They rattle reason out through many a sieve
That stores the sand and lets the gold go free:
And all these things are less than dust to me
Because my name is Lazarus and I live.

–G. K. Chesterton

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I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.

And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.
–John 17:20-23

In sixteenth century Germany, an Augustinian friar by the name of Martin Luther became concerned about things he saw happening in the Church. He saw some priests, even some bishops, who were engaged in practices which he considered to be wrong—particularly the sale of indulgences.

And there was, indeed, a moral problem at the time: Corruption had crept into the Church. Pope Leo X had authorized the sale of special “jubilee indulgences” in the cities and principalities of Germany. The indulgences were plenary, meaning that for those who purchased them, all sin and eternal and temporal punishment would be forgiven. Half of the money raised from the sale of indulgences would be used to finance the building of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome; the other half would be used by the archbishop of Mainz to pay off a loan.

Luther drafted a series of ninety-five statements in Latin—offering his reflections on indulgences, good works, repentance and other topics. The Castle Church in Wittenberg faced the main thoroughfare, and the heavy church door served as a public bulletin board, a place for posting important notices. So it was that on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his list of “Ninety-Five Theses” to the door of the Castle Church.

Unintended Consequences – The Splitting of the Christian Church

Luther had hoped that his Theses would initiate an academic discussion—not serve as the agenda for a major reform of the Catholic Church.

However, within weeks the Theses were translated into German, then reproduced using the new moveable-type printing press. They were widely circulated through Germany, and soon became a topic for discussion through all of Europe. Three years later, amid the international attention, Luther was excommunicated by the pope and declared a heretic and outlaw. The Reformation had begun.

Just as Martin Luther did not anticipate the huge response his Ninety-Five Theses would receive, he did not foresee the further splintering of Protestantism into some 38,000 Christian denominations (the number reported in the Atlas of World Christianity, published in 2010). If, as Luther’s movement proposed, there is no authority vested in the Church, then there is no reason not to break off and begin a new movement within Christianity; and in less than 500 years, the result has been the splintering of Christ’s Church into ever more movements and denominations. It is a great scandal that Christ’s high priestly prayer to the Father—that we may be one in order that the world will see—has been thwarted.

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: Reversing the Trend Toward Division

In 1908 Father Paul Wattson, founder of an Anglican religious community which later became part of the Catholic Church, established a “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity”–a week to pray with our Christian brothers and sisters of other denominations, and to celebrate those areas where we find common ground.  His initiative received the blessing of Pope St. Pius X and was later promoted by Pope Benedict XV, who encouraged its celebration throughout the Catholic Church.

The Second Vatican Council reaffirmed the importance of this quest for unity among followers of Jesus Christ.

Each year the theme of the week is chosen by an ecumenical group representing a different region of the world. This year’s theme, “All shall be changed by the victory of Jesus Christ our Lord,” was selected by representatives of the Catholic Church and the Polish Ecumenical Council. It is drawn from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians.

Wednesday, January 18 began the 2012 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  Pope Benedict XVI, addressing more than 8,000 pilgrims at the Angelus address in St. Peter’s Square on January 22, called the quest for Christian unity “a common response to the spiritual hunger of our times.” He acknowledged that the division within the community of believers is a great challenge for new evangelization, which may be more fruitful if all Christians proclaim together the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and give a joint response to the spiritual hunger of our times.

Pope Benedict reminded us that according to St. Paul,

the achievement of full unity “demands that we allow ourselves to be transformed to an ever more perfect image of Christ. The unity for which we pray requires an interior conversion, both in communion and personnel. It is not just a question of cordiality and cooperation, we must strengthen our faith in God.”

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