David Ancell / Thursday, November 07, 2013 / Comments(0)
You have probably noticed that I don’t post anywhere near as often as I used to. Maybe some people think I should just give up the blog. Lots of people have come to the conclusion that it was time to stop blogging. Well, I’m pretty stubborn, so I want to keep going even if I don’t publish much. After all, I’ve had a blog for over 11 years. Why stop now?
I have a few things I want to say a little about, so here goes …
Me: My biggest news is that I now have not one son but two sons. Our little Benedict was born just over a month ago. The new baby is doing well. How do I write a post with two young kids around? I type it on my iPad whole I’m watching to make sure the older one stays asleep. The big brother really is excited about his little brother. How could he not be? The little guy is awful cute!
Affordable Care Act: As a health care professional, I’m watching it closely. As someone who has insurance, I’m seeing a higher premium for less coverage. Really, I don’t mind paying if it means that others can get the health care they need. However, I don’t care to pay higher premiums so that people get free contraception. Besides that, I see plenty of places where something can go wrong. First, there isn’t a lot of support from the states. A lot have not expanded Medicaid, so some people who would have gotten Medicaid will not, and they won’t be able to get a subsidy on an exchange. So, they may not get coverage. It’s hard to say that people who do get coverage they can afford will be able to afford the cost-sharing if they had to use it. There’s not much use in getting coverage if you can’t afford to use it. Also, if the young and healthy don’t sign up, it’s going to cause premiums to skyrocket if the insurance companies want to be able to afford to do business. Finally, it seems like an awful lot of money will be needed to give all those subsidies. How is this even possible?
Medjugorje: I just read the news today about the letter from the Papal Nuncio to the US Bishops regarding Medjugorje. My thought on this is simple: if the Church hasn’t approved it, then don’t put a lot of stock in it. I wouldn’t even consider a pilgrimage there right now. Putting a lot of faith in an unapproved apparition sets one up for a potential crisis if the apparition is ruled not to be authentic.
My web page: I finally got around to adding Scepter Publishers to my list of recommended Catholic publishers. It’s about time, for I have been using their In Conversation With God series for almost three years now. I’ve just found a lot there that is highly beneficial to my spiritual life.
That’s it for now. Hopefully, I will be back here soon.
Category: News on My Life
David Ancell / Saturday, May 11, 2013 / Comments(0)
In my last post, I wrote about why I was going to raise my children to know God. However, there is one thing that deserves special attention, especially in the light of the recent shooting at the school in Newtown, Connecticut and the Boston Marathon bombing. The author to whom I was responding stated that God does not protect the innocent, and this was a reason why she didn’t believe in him. Back when the Newtown school shooting was news, I saw some Facebook postings about how the existence of such an evil was the “most deadly argument” against the existence of God. While there is no way I can make definitive statement on why God allowed any specific thing to happen, I can offer some reflections that I hope will be helpful.
First, let’s keep in mind that God created the world and everything in it. In other words, God made all of those scientific laws that it has taken man thousands of years to discover. What does this mean? It means that God is far, far, more intelligent than we are. He is infinite. We are finite. This also means that God can and will do or allow things that we won’t be able to understand. We need to be careful not to make the mistake of not believing just because our human minds cannot understand something.
Now, the world God chose to create is a real world. We are not puppets in the divine puppet show. We have the real ability to choose, and the choices have real consequences. Ultimately, God gives us the ability to choose to love him or reject him, and he will allow us to get what we choose. If we choose the good, the true, and the beautiful, we will possess it forever in his presence in Heaven. If we choose something less, then we end up separated from him in Hell. God’s judgment is nothing other than the choice we made in this life. This applies to other choices as well. If a husband and wife do not cooperate in helping him bring new life into being, it won’t happen. If we don’t do our job at work, either it won’t be done, or someone else will have to do it. The work God gave us to do in this world is real, and we have the freedom to choose to do it or not. This is also how we have the capacity to really love. We could only have this if we had the ability to choose not to do so.
God’s gift of free will does also mean that our choices can affect others. Let me explain that I firmly believe that God is infinite goodness. He never does evil, but he does allow it. He allows it only to because he can bring some greater good out of it. How can that be? Well, God’s perspective is eternity. He is looking for what can bring about our eternal salvation in the end. In the end, his justice will win. In the end, good will win because God, who is infinitely good, will win.
Let me give an example, but, before I do, let me qualify this by saying that this is only speculation. We cannot know for sure in this life what God has brought out of any event unless he definitively reveals it to us. In 2007, I was in a serious car wreck that could have killed me. The other driver (who slid across the median of an interstate in front of me) was killed. A priest whom I knew told me that it was possible that he was allowed to die because, if he died now, he would go to Heaven. God may have known that, if he had lived on, he would have rejected God and gone to Hell. Remember, we don’t know this for sure, but it is a possibility. Of course, there’s the humbling possibility for me that I might not have made it to Heaven if I had died then. God may have spared me only because I wasn’t ready for Heaven. It’s equally possible that God left me on this earth for some other mission. After all, the circumstances of that wreck also led to my vocation of marriage and family. So, does this mean that God caused the wreck that I was in? No, but he did allow it to happen. Then, he took it and brought good out of it.
We have to remember that this world is passing away and that our true home is with God in Heaven. God’s ultimate desire is for us all to get there. There is no suffering in this life that can be greater than the joy we will experience of seeing him face to face in Heaven.
Category: Catholic, Response, Spirituality
David Ancell / Friday, April 19, 2013 / Comment(1)
A mother of two teenagers posted this article on CNN on why she wants to raise her children without God. I read some time ago and felt that God was asking me to respond. Yeah, I’m really late with this one, but here we go. In a nutshell, this is why my wife and I will raise our son, and any future children, to know God.
The reason why I want our kids to know God can be summed up very succinctly – because he exists and is deserving of all of our love. As philosopher Peter Kreeft has said, “There is only one reason to believe anything – because it is true.” I’ve never understood why some atheists call themselves “freethinkers.” When I hear that old “think for yourself” line, it seems to me that the person is saying that “It doesn’t matter if what you think about is true or not as long as you came up with it yourself.” As for me, give me the truth.
The mother who wrote the article calls God an “inconsistent and illogical legend.” Well, imagine if I told you that this article was the result of a power surge at the data center where my site was hosted. No one would take me seriously. However, some people will take seriously anyone who thinks that the universe, with all its order and complexity, was the result of random explosions and chemical reactions. One might argue that the randomness took place over billions of years, but even then, there are way too many “chance” events that needed to happen for the universe to be a random series of events.
Even if one won’t be easily convinced that there is a God, one might consider that there is really nothing to gain by not believing. This is also known as Pascal’s Wager. If I die believing in God when he doesn’t exist, I’m never going to know. If I die refusing to accept a God who does exist, I’ve got major problems. Atheism is simply a losing proposition. Knowing God allows us to know that we are here for a purpose, and that we have hope that we are not just here for a while, for no reason, only to cease to exist.
Now, the mother I’m responding to has also made some arguments from the problem of evil (and why the innocent suffer). I’ll address those in another post.
David Ancell / Friday, March 01, 2013 / Comments(0)
Yesterday, at 1 PM Central Standard Time (8 PM in Rome), the Holy See became vacant. I have been a fan of Pope Benedict XVI ever since I started to really learn the Catholic faith (while he was still Cardinal Ratzinger). It was like a dream come true to find out in the middle of a work day that he had been elected as the new Holy Father.
I must admit that my gut feelings were giving me a hard time viewing his resignation as an act of humility or even for the good of the Church. However, I will not think otherwise of our now Pope Emeritus. He has given himself in service to the Church for many years and has done great work in defending the Catholic faith from people who would distort it. I’m sure he prayed much about the decision and knew what he was doing. The Holy Spirit will protect the Church. While Pope John Paul II would tell us that “Christ never got off the cross,” Pope Benedict XVI took a different path in believing that it will be best to have someone in better health who was better able to do the job that he was.
Good bye, Your Holiness, and thank you for all that you have done.
David Ancell / Friday, July 06, 2012 / Comments(0)
Whenever we hear of a bishop or pastor in the Church taking action on some doctrinal or liturgical problem, it’s not uncommon to hear someone say “why are they bothering with x when we have clergy who are abusing minors?” I’ve seen such comments attached to anything from a bishop who is addressing abnormalities in the way Mass is celebrated in some parishes to, most recently, the Vatican call for reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. With this comes the charge that the Church is more concerned about something the author wrongly believes to be trivial than about the clergy abusing young children. At best, such comments are lacking in perspective.
I do remember the scandal becoming big news in 2002. About three years prior, I was just beginning to really learn the Catholic faith. One of the things that became clear to me with the scandal was that sexual abuse committed by clergy, while indeed a serious problem, was only one aspect of a larger problem in the Church. Simply put, there was a scarcity of enforcement of almost anything. Sometimes, we just saw more norms issued when norms were being violated. For example, on the liturgy, we’ve seen Inaestimabile Donum, Redemptionis Sacramentum, and numerous other clarifications written.
The American bishops did meet and propose norms for taking care of sexual abuse by clergy, some of which were ratified by the Vatican as particular law in the US. Even before then, in 2001, Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) took on the investigation in his own office of clergy sex abuse cases (Congregation of the Doctorine of the Faith). It might be worth knowing that many of the bishops in office at the time are no longer in office today. They have been replaced by Pope Benedict XVI appointees.
Fortunately, we are seeing more bishops who are not afraid to preach the Gospel and even take action. This may take the form of anything from calling out names to actual disciplinary removal from a position. We’ve recently seen the USCCB committee on doctrine issue a statement on Sr. Elizabeth Johnson’s theology text that contains much false teaching. Archbishop Naumann has asked Kathleen Sebelius not to present herself for Communion. Bishop Braxton of Belleville, IL, has accepted the retirement of a priest who refused to say Mass according to the rubrics. Pope Benedict has even gone so far as to remove Bishop William Morris from the Diocese of Toowoomba for spreading false teaching (and later, he removed others). Of course, we are also seeing both an apostolic visitation of the women’s religious orders in this country, as well as the Vatican-ordered reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.
The sex abuse scandal is a very serious problem that is not to be taken lightly in any way. While one can argue that more needs to be done, it is being addressed. It would be just as wrong for a bishop to address doctrinal or liturgical issues while ignoring sexual abuse by clergy as it would be to promote social justice issues while being silent on abortion or even pro-abortion. Expecting the bishops not to handle other problems because of the scandal would be like asking a school to stop worrying about what the students are being taught because they found out that some of the teachers are criminals. The Church still needs to carry on her true mission. Fortunately, we have bishops who realize the full problem and aim to resolve it.
David Ancell / Wednesday, June 13, 2012 / Comments(0)
By now, readers of this blog are probably familiar with the new Health and Human Services Mandate that requires almost every employer to provide free contraception and abortifacients with their health insurance plans. Our opponents have painted this as a women’s rights issue despite the fact that any objective through process would show that contraception is not a necessity for anyone. The Church is even portrayed as trying to force people to give up contraception when, in fact, this is really about the government forcing the Church to pay for it.
Lately, I’ve seen posts on the web, including a cartoon, mocking the idea that our religious freedom is under attack. One post mentioned a congregation whose church was burned down in another country. Another cartoon depicted Jesus mocking us by saying that he needed to visit a minister in another country who is in jail and/or is being executed for preaching the Gospel.
Those extremes do seem unlikely in the US . . . at least for now. However, has anyone figured out the implications if this mandate is not overturned? No Catholic institution that is truly Catholic will pay for contraception. It’s not only an act that is sinful under all circumstances, but it’s grave matter (meaning it’s a mortal sin if done knowingly and willingly). No doubt these organizations will all face fines, and you can imagine the financial impact this will have on organizations that do charitable work, publish Catholic books, or take the Gospel to the airwaves (e.g. EWTN).
Some may have to close down, leaving one less voice to teach the Catholic faith. Others may refuse the pay the fine and face jail time or other penalties. The question arises as to how much we will condone before we realize that our government has gone too far. By then, a lot of damage will have been done. We really need to take this seriously now. Don’t let those people who are mocking us stop you. We do have genuine cause to be concerned here at home.
David Ancell / Monday, June 04, 2012 / Comments(0)
I read with interest this article contrasting the “old” evangelization with the “new” evangelization of today. I’m pretty certain that the author, Joe Tremblay, isn’t referring to the new evangelization called for by Blessed Pope John Paul II. Rather, I think he is referring to the type of “evangelization” that can best be described in the Newsboys’ song Not Ashamed where we are “shrugging off sin / apologizing like we’re spreading some kind of disease.” Unfortunately, this is what takes place in many parishes.
This problem of evangelization he describes explains exactly why we need the late pontiff’s new evangelization. Many who have heard the Gospel, even some who regularly attend Mass, have lost the sense of its ultimate purpose – eternal life. The sense of sin is usually also lost. Some people in this boat may even believe that we really can’t know anything about God. Unfortunately, they seem to think they know that we can’t know anything and rarely bother to find out if God can be known.
I’ve experienced what Mr. Tremblay says about many church organizations having become mere social services. I volunteered one day at one Catholic organization’s shelter that made us sign a paper that we wouldn’t try to convert anyone. There’s a newspaper columnist whom I have seen regularly praising “religious” organizations who provide service to the poor but don’t try to preach. At a meeting of one charitable organization at a former parish, someone told us who we need to help people but should never expect their lifestyles to conform to “our way of thinking.”
I think the reason why we might not see some orthodox Catholics incorporate charity into their programs is that they orthodox are reacting against those who are trying to turn the Church into a social service organization. The unfortunate effect of this is that it is hard to find a group that can integrate the preaching of the Gospel with service to the poor. As Mr. Tremblay suggests, people in the Church are often doing one or the other.
So, this brings me back to the need for the evangelization of the baptized. I remember speaking out in an RCIA class when I was coming into the Church. I couldn’t understand why there were people who didn’t take God seriously because it was God we were talking about. We need to restore a true sense of God and the fact that what we do on this earth has implications for eternity. With this sense restored, we need to talk about what we shall do and how we shall live. This seems to be a major theme of the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, and it’s a badly needed message.
David Ancell / Thursday, May 17, 2012 / Comments(0)
Blessed John Paul II, in his talks that became known as Theology of the Body, brought forth the understanding that marriage is an image, though an imperfect one, of the Holy Trinity. The Father and the Son love each other, and that love between them is so powerful that it is actually another divine person – the Holy Spirit. As some apologists have said, the love between a man and his wife may have to be given a name nine months later.
However, I haven’t seen quite so much written that goes beyond that. It seems that this fascinating creature who now lives in our house can give us a window as to how God sees us, loves us, and longs for us. I’m not in a hurry for little Simon to grow up, but yet there are things that I long for him to be able to do. God, who is beyond time, patiently waits for us, but yet he wants for us to be able to live the abundant life he wants to give us.
There are certain things that I long for Simon to be able to do. I am looking forward to him crawling or walking to me as I come home from work. I want him to be able to talk to me and tell me what is on his mind. I am waiting for the day when he’ll give me a hug when he sees me. I’m sure he’ll also want to climb all over me and wrestle, and yes, I am excited for that as well. However, I’m perfectly willing to wait for it because seeing him grow little by little is far more fascinating that I could have imagined. Besides, I also know that, as he gains more ability, there will also be the need for more discipline. Let’s also not forget that I’ll have to be more and more careful of what I accidentally teach him.
Certainly, our Father in Heaven wants us to run to him all the time. He longs for us to talk to him in prayer. He wants us to walk with him in our daily lives as we perform the duties of our state of life. He wants us to know and love him even more, much more really, than I am longing for my son to know and love me. He waits for us with that longing. He sees us grow little by little in that love. Sometimes, he has to push us back on to the right path, and we may well “wrestle” with him. Still, he waits patiently, but with a love for us that we can’t even imagine. As I think of those things that I really long for my son to do, I just have to think that this must be how God is longing for us.
Category: Catholic, Spirituality
David Ancell / Saturday, March 31, 2012 / Comments(0)
I’ve read a quite a few articles about the new iPad. Today, I got to test one in the store right next to an iPad 2. Yes, I can tell a little more pixelation on the iPad 2 screen, but, really, I don’t see that big of a difference in the new Retina display. Now, I must say that iBooks wasn’t loaded on the device for me to try reading a book, but I did look at text on a web page. It’s not that the new iPad isn’t better, it just isn’t anything that really stood out.
I’m sure by next year my first-generation iPad won’t run a lot of what I’d like it to run. So, by then I may be in the market for the next iPad. For now, the original iPad is still working great.
Category: Technology
David Ancell / Wednesday, February 15, 2012 / Comments(0)
A secular reporter was interviewing someone at a World Youth Day who loved Blessed John Paul II. The argument she made with the interviewee was ” . . . but he’s against birth control devices.” Indeed, if you say that you are against contraception, there are plenty of people who will look at you as if you had said that eating whole wheat bread will cause spontaneous combustion.
Contraception has very widespread acceptance in our society. Now, we even have government leaders who are telling us that it is part of the basic healthcare needs of women. Somehow, it’s just so vital that women have “access” to contraception that every employer needs to provide insurance that covers it with no cost.
Does that make it right? There are plenty of people who will tell you that the Church should “get with the times.” Well, who or what are “the times,” and why should we listen to them? I don’t know about you, but I’d rather listen to God. Some people will accuse Catholics like me of blindly following church authority. In doing so, they are really insulting people like me who took the time to study and work hard for what I know. These same people will blindly follow “the times” without really being able to define exactly what it is they are following.
Because people are willing to follow “the times,” it never occurs to them that there might really be something wrong with the use of contraception. They just assume that we Catholics who believe the Church are hopelessly stuck in the past. Most such people have never bothered to read Humanae Vitae. They may not even know it exists. The Theology of the Body may also be unknown to them.
Not only is the Church’s teaching regarding contraception true, it is also a positive good. There are plenty of people out there who have heard the message presented as the good that it is and wondered “Why haven’t I heard this before?” Indeed, this time in which our government wants to trample on us and our religious freedom may well be something that God is using as our penance for our long time failure to spread the message. That failure is a failure on the part of both our clergy and laity.
The new Obama Administration mandate that requires all employers to provide contraceptive coverage at no cost is a great evil. This is true whether it’s the employer or the insurance company who has to provide. After all, where is the insurance company getting its money? The problem with the mandate goes beyond the Church and organizations run by the Church. It means that a Catholic like me can’t start his own business without being told that I have to pay for birth control for everyone. It also means that we will all pay higher premiums.
However, God permits evil to bring about a greater good. During the past few weeks, I’ve seen bishops whom I’ve never known to be great defenders of the Faith come out of the woodwork to speak against this evil. The issue is now getting more attention than I’ve ever seen it get.
Now is the perfect time to educate people, especially Catholics who for some reason don’t know or don’t accept the Church’s teaching. Let’s get out our materials and brush up so we can explain it. This would also be a great time for parishes who haven’t already done so to have a study session on Humanae Vitae, Theology of the Body, or some other resource. The mandate must be fought and ultimately overturned, but please don’t stop there. This is the perfect opportunity to tell the world about the true meaning of human sexuality.
Category: Catholic, Morality, Response