Catholic Apologetics of America

Sunday, May 04, 2008

PCED’s Card. Castrillon Hoyos: celebrate TLM in parishes even when it isn’t requested

From Fr. John Zuhlsdorf's "What Does The Prayer Really Say?" blog...

(Link to Original)-An alert WDTPRSer, our friend Henry, caught an interesting comment in an article from CNA on the new DVD being made by the FSSP - which I haven’t seen yet and therefore reserve comment about.

Let’s take a look at the comments of Card. Castrillon Hoyos. The issue of the DVD, while interesting, is just a side item compared to the meat of the Cardinal’s comments:

FSSP to distribute free copies of new Latin Mass DVD

Denton, NE, May 2, 2008 / 05:31 am (CNA).- The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), in cooperation with EWTN, will soon release an instructional video on the 1962 Latin Mass. A free copy will be available to any priest or seminarian who reserves the video on its web site.

The video includes over three hours of footage on two DVD discs, giving a step-by-step explanation and demonstration of the Low Mass in the Extraordinary Form. The production includes multiple appendices with instructions on the general principles of gesture and movement, as well as commonly encountered variations in the elements of the Mass.

Also featured is a real-time demonstration of the Mass, which is viewable from multiple camera angles on demand. A spiritual commentary on the Mass, as well as an explanation from an FSSP priest on the liturgical principles of the Extraordinary Form are also included.

Dario Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, President of the Pontifical Ecclesia Dei Commission, provides an introduction for the DVD. The Ecclesia Dei Commission is tasked with the implementation of Pope Benedict’s Motu Proprio on the 1962 Latin Mass.

In the cardinal’s introduction, he explains that Pope Benedict XVI hoped to foster a “spiritual and theological richness” by promoting wider use [NB: This says "promoting", not just permitting.] of the Mass of St. Pius V through the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.

The cardinal also emphasized that this Mass was a universal gift.

“All this liturgical richness, all this spiritual richness, and all the prayers so well-preserved during the centuries, all of this is offered by the Rome of today for all. As a gift for all, it is not a gift merely for the so-called traditionalists. No, it is a gift for the whole Catholic Church,” Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos said.

The “sacred silence” and contemplation of the ancient rite, the cardinal said, “makes present the Lord Jesus in an expression of rich liturgical beauty, as the conqueror of death and sin… this rite brought unity to the faith and became the single expression through which the Church adores God.”

The cardinal said that parishes and priests should make available the Extraordinary Form so that “everyone may have access to this treasure of the ancient liturgy of the Church.” He also stressed that, “even if it is not specifically asked for, or requested” it should be provided. [! Did you get that? Even if it is not requested?] Interestingly, he added that the Pope wants this Mass to become normal in parishes, so that “young communities can also become familiar with this rite.” [So… CNA says that Card. Castrillion, Pres. of the PCED says that the POPE wants the TLM as a normal part of parish life.]

The DVD has also been reviewed by Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli, Chairman of the Committee for Divine Worship of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

So, according to Card. Castrillion Hoyos, the Holy Father desires that the TLM be a normal part of parish life. He also says that priests should offer it in their parishes even if there is no specific request for it.

This is really huge.

Some people have contended that priests may not celebrate a public TLM in their parish unless they have first received a petition from a "stable group" (though that not a good translation of what Summorum Pontificum has in the Latin). Then some bishops, contra legem, have treid to limit the public celebrations of TLM’s even more by trying to impose a minimum number of people in such a "stable group".

Now we are getting the sense that priests should simply start using the 1962 Missale Romanum in their parishes so that people can get to know it and benefit from this gift.

Labels: Card. Castrillon Hoyos

# posted by Coemgenus @ Sunday, May 04, 2008--UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, YOU MAY E-MAIL THIS POST BY CLICKING ON THE ENVELOPE

Saturday, March 08, 2008

The Catholic Church and the New Testament Canon by Kevin D. Dello Iacono

The following term paper is one that I recently composed for a course called "Early Church History". This is a course that is taught at the graduate school level at Providence College. I am unable to provide the graded paper that includes notes from my professor (in all humility, they are mostly single-word compliments like "yes" "right" and "exactly"; etc.), but I provide the overall review that my professor wrote on the cover of my paper (I only posted it here to show proof of endorsement.)

The paper was written using the Chicago-Turabian style (the standard and recommended formatting style in Theology). Therefore, it includes a cover page along with end notes and a bibliography.

If you wish, you may use this paper for your own self-study or for apologetics purposes or for any other reason just as long as you kindly remember to cite me as the original source.

Note: the format of this "note" version appears slightly differently here compared to the original.

Pax vobiscum,

Kevin

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Semester grade 96 A.

Dear Kevin

This is an excellent paper! Your study of the Church's role in the development of the New Testament Canon is done with care and careful dialogue with the perspective and scholarship of eminent theologians. The presentation is insightful and offer excellent supporting documentation, Congratulations on a very fine paper! (Fr. Thomas McGonigle, O.P.)

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The Catholic Church and the New Testament: A Study of the Church’s Role in the Development of the New Testament Canon

Kevin D. Dello Iacono
RST-571-001
Rev. Thomas McGonigle, O.P.
14 December 2007

Dello Iacono 1

One of the most contentious and misunderstood topics in the history of religion concerns the Canon of sacred Scripture and its development and usage in the early Church. By means of a two-fold perspective, this paper will address the New Testament Canon and its formation. The first will concern the belief that the Catholic Church preceded the New Testament and the second will address the claim that this same Church either rejected or approved of certain books when compiling what would come to be known as the “New Testament”.

The Church Before the New Testament?

The Right Rev. Henry Graham, author of Where We Got the Bible: Our Debt to the Catholic Church, wrote a chapter under the heading “The Church Precedes the New Testament.” Therein, he makes mention of the fact that the Catholic Church preceded the Bible and that it was oral tradition and not the use of a complete Canon of sacred Scripture that served as the primary and efficient way for the disciples of Jesus and their successors to spread the Gospel and win souls for Christ and His one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church.1 Fr. Graham’s assertion is shared by many of his non-Catholic colleagues, including Dr. Henry Chadwick, who wrote:

In the first century the Christian Bible had simply been the Old Testament (read in the Septuagint version). Authority resided in this scripture and in the words of the Lord, which long circulated in oral tradition, as is apparent in the letter of Clement to the Corinthians. The authoritative standing of this oral tradition continued to be high even after the sayings and doings of the Lord had been written down in the ‘gospel’ according to Mark, Luke, Matthew, or John. Even as late as the time of Irenaeus (c. 185-90) this oral tradition of the words of the Lord was regarded as an authority that had not yet been wholly merged with the written gospels.2

It was long after the death and resurrection of Jesus in A.D. 33 when only five out of His twelve Apostles composed writings that have been preserved. Some scholars, including Fr. Graham, place the date of the first of the New Testament books, the Gospel of Saint Mark, around the year A.D. 45. Hence, the teaching authority that Jesus gave to His Church through the power of the Holy Spirit preceded the compilation and publication of a book called the Bible.

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This does not imply, by any means whatsoever, that the four Gospels and a few Epistles were not read in some form by the early Christians in the first century and sometime thereafter. As a matter of fact, Fr. Graham mentions that some of the Gospels and Epistles were each read aloud to the faithful who attended the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass every week in order to fulfill their Sunday obligation (just as the baptized faithful do today). What must be understood is that a complete Canon was not assigned to each and every Christian community, but selected writings were occasionally dispersed to individual communities not long after they had been written in order to address specific issues. According to Fr. Graham, “One Gospel [was dispersed] here, another there; one Epistle of St. Paul in one place, another in another; all scattered about in various parts of the world where there were bodies of Christians.”3

Therefore, the scriptures that were read were “scattered” and did not represent a complete Canon. It was the sole teaching authority of the Church that proliferated these writings and as a living voice she alone interpreted and explained them during homilies or in the writings of Popes and bishops, for example, Saint Clement.4

The deposit of Catholic faith was being passed on to people via word of mouth which was a traditional custom in the ancient world.5 The work of the apostles and the missionary activity of the early Catholic Christians in numerous lands inspired the conversion of thousands of people who came to belief in the Gospel of Jesus without ever having read a published Bible as we have it today in a variety of translations. Fr. Graham explains this more clearly:

How, then, did they become Christians? In the same way, of course, that Pagans become Catholics nowadays, by hearing the truth of God from the lips of Christ's missionaries. When the twelve Apostles met together in Jerusalem, and portioned out the known world among themselves for purposes of evangelization, allotting one country to one Apostle (such as India to St Thomas), and another to another, how did they propose to evangelize these people? By presenting each one with a New Testament? Such a thing did not exist, and, we may safely say, was not even thought of. Why did Our Lord promise them the gift of the Holy Ghost, and command them to be 'witnesses' of Him? And why, in fact, did the Holy Ghost come down upon the Twelve and endow them with the power speaking in

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various languages? Why but that they might be able to 'preach the Gospel to every creature' in the tongue of every creature.6

The counter-argument that is often utilized by opponents who disregard the enduring conviction that the Church preceded sacred Scripture is that the early Church Fathers appealed to “Scripture alone” (“sola Scriptura”) as their sole rule of teaching authority on matters of faith and morals, especially when it came to dissensions within the early Christian communities and elsewhere. A careful examination of Patristic texts, however, reveals a contrary position to the one presented by the Church’s opponents. Many examples from the Patristic era clarifies this issue by making known the fact that the Fathers believed the Catholic Church preceded the New Testament. According to their mindset, the Church expressed the faith to people as a living voice of living tradition. As Saint Gregory of Nyssa (A.D. 335-394) wrote:

For it is enough for proof of our statement, that the TRADITION has come down to us from our fathers, handed on, like some inheritance, by succession from the apostles and the saints who came after them. They, on the other hand, who change their doctrines to this novelty, would need the support of arguments in abundance, if they were about to bring over to their views, not men light as dust, and unstable, but men of weight and steadiness: but so long as their statement is advanced without being established, and without being proved, who is so foolish and so brutish as to account the teaching of the evangelists and apostles, and of those who have successively shone like lights in the churches, of less force than this undemonstrated nonsense?7 (emphasis mine)

The earliest Patristic work amongst the Fathers related to this topic that is worthy of note is by Saint Irenaeus (A.D. 125-202). He believed that Scripture and Tradition represents a double dimension of the Church’s primary sources of teaching. He expressed concern over the Gnostic sect who believed knowledge was private and secretive and, consequently, they thoroughly rejected the concept of “oral tradition” as something false. St. Irenaeus countered their errors when he wrote in defense of the authority of the Church to pass on the faith by way of tradition:

Suppose there arise a dispute relative to some important question among us, should we not have recourse to the most ancient Churches with which the apostles held constant

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intercourse, and learn from them what is certain and clear in regard to the present question? For how should it be if the apostles themselves had not left us writings? Would it not be necessary, [in that case,] to follow the course of the tradition which they handed down to those to whom they did commit the Churches?8

The early Christians believed that the deposit of faith, when it is spread throughout each community and is found to be one and the same, is not the result of error. It is of tradition. It was considered “reckless” to claim that it was an error made on the part of those who handed on “the tradition”.9

The fact that the early Church represented the sole rule of teaching the faith and served as a living testimony of Jesus who is the Logos, the Word Incarnate, has been admitted by a few Protestant scholars, amongst them, Dr. John Kelly (Early Christian Doctrines)10 and Dr. William Barclay (The Making of the Bible)11. The latter opines that the most surprising aspect in the creation of the New Testament is the length of time it took before it finally became a complete Canon. He admits the first time a list of New Testament books appeared, one that accurately corresponds with today’s Canon, was the “Thirty-Ninth Easter Letter” of St. Athanasius (sometimes called the “Festal Letter”) in the fourth century, A.D. 367. This proves that the early Church, for the most part, grew in spite of not having all of the Gospels or a complete Canon of sacred Scripture. As Dr. Barclay wrote:

But for long the Christian Church had no literature of its own, and the book which was read was the Old Testament, for, when the Church began, there was no such thing as a book called the New Testament or any part of it, for the books of the New Testament had still to be written. And here we come upon another surprise. Clearly the centre of the Christian message is the life and death of Jesus, and the extraordinary thing is the long delay before the Gospels were written.12

Similar to Fr. Graham, Dr. Barclay explains the dating of the Gospels, yet he slightly differs from Fr. Graham by claiming that St. Mark’s gospel cannot be placed before A.D. 60. He dates the gospels of St. Mathew and St. Luke between A.D. 80 and 90. St. John’s gospel is dated by Dr. Barclay around A.D. 100.13 Therefore, according to a Protestant scholar, the main corpus of

Dello Iacono 5

teaching put in common practice by the early Church was not the New Testament in a complete written volume, but the teachings of Jesus and of His Apostles as expressed through oral tradition, through words and deeds, through living tradition.

The relevant passages in the New Testament that gives place of honor to Apostolic tradition (next to the authority of sacred Scripture) are the following passages: 1 Corinthians 11:1-3; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Thess.2:14; and 2 Timothy 2:2. One passage that stands out is 2 Thess. 2:14. In this letter, Saint Paul encourages the faithful to “stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle” (emphasis mine).

When a person was unable to comprehend what was passed onto them then a living voice amongst the Church’s authority was sent in order to explicate the teachings of the faith in person. To cite just one example, in Acts 8:30-31 Saint Philip, an original Apostle of Jesus, verbally explained the Book of Isaiah to the Ethiopian Eunuch.

As the previously mentioned Patristic Fathers, along with Catholic and Protestant scholars, have routinely shown, the New Testament is not a collection of books that suddenly fell from the sky or were instantly written during the life of Christ or in the immediate years following His death and resurrection. The Church preceded the Bible. A half a century elapsed from the time the Gospel of St. Matthew was written to the time St. John wrote his gospel around the end of the first century. Jesus Himself, at least as far as recorded history is concerned, never wrote a single line of Scripture and He never commissioned His Apostles to become authors but to evangelize, teach, convert and baptize new members in the faith and to do so in the name of the Blessed Trinity (Matthew 28).

Scripture is unambiguous when it mentions that Jesus instructed His disciples to “Go and teach all nations,” “preach the Gospel to every creature,” and “He that heareth you heareth Me.” Jesus was simply commanding His followers to spread the Word of God orally the way He had done, that is, through a living authoritative teaching voice. He did not command them to leave to each

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individual a book so that persons were left on their own authority to interpret a gospel or an epistle, but that they would propagate the faith orally and aid the faithful and prospective converts by vocally correcting, teaching and defending the faith on their journeys to various lands. Fr. Graham makes this same point:

What He [Jesus] commanded and meant them to do was precisely what He had done Himself, viz.—deliver the Word of God to the people by the living voice—convince , persuade, instruct, convert them by addressing themselves face to face to living men and women; not entrust their message to a dead book which might perish and be destroyed, and be misunderstood and misinterpreted and corrupted, but adopt the more safe and natural way of presenting the truth to them by word of mouth, and of training others to do the same after they themselves were gone, and so by a living tradition, preserving and handing down the Word of God as they had received it, to all generations.14

Dr. Barclay’s opinion on this subject corresponds with that of Fr. Graham. In a similar manner, Dr. Barclay defends the claim that the early Church was dominated by persons and not by a book or books. It was through holy people who were commissioned by Christ and His apostles and by their successors that the Gospel was propagated and the work of the Church was accomplished. Instead of a letter, it was Saints Peter and John who visited Samaria when the power of Christ began to grow in that area (Acts 8:14). It was Saint Barnabas, rather than a letter, who was sent to Antioch when the Gospel was first preached to the Gentiles (Acts 11:22). Although St. Paul certainly wrote letters, he often made use of St. Timothy or Titus or St. Mark along with the written Word of God in order to evangelize (1 Corinthians. 4:17; 16:10-12; 2 Cor. 7:6; 8:6; Philippians 2:19; Colossians 4:10; 1 Thess. 3:2). Dr. Barclay explains this process in a more technical manner as follows:

The very word used of the spread of the Gospel are all speaking words. To receive the Gospel and its facts is paralambanein, and to pass it on to someone else is paradidonai (1 Corinthians 11:23; 15:3), and these are the Greek words which are characteristic of and special to oral tradition. The Gospel itself is euaggelion which is good news, glad tidings, and which only later came to mean a kind of book. To preach the Gospel is expressed by the word kerissein, which literally means to proclaim as a herald. The supreme function of the Christian is marturia, which is personal witness. The Gospel itself is logos akoes, which literally means the word of hearing, the word which is heard (1 Thessalonians 2:13;

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Hebrews 4:2). Certainly in the beginning it was in terms of speech and not of writing, in terms of persons and not of books that the Church thought-and it still remains true that the best epistle of all is a living epistle known and read of all men (2 Corinthians 3:2; emphases in original).15

The Catholic Church Compiled and Approved the Canon of the New Testament?

The early Church faced several individuals and groups who promoted pseudo-Christian teachings called heresies that countered Divine Revelation. Most of these errors were Christological heresies as embodied in groups that lacked any link whatsoever to Apostolic authority and Apostolic tradition, especially the Gnostic sect. According to Dr. Patrick Reid:

During this period, and the third century, the Church fathers, in connection with the struggle with gnosticism which appealed to a secret or esoteric understanding of the Christian revelation, began to develop certain criteria for acceptance or rejection of books in the Christian canon. These were: conformity with the rule of faith, or the simple creed taught to converts at baptism, apostolic authorship or connection with the preaching of an apostle, and wide usage in most of the churches.15

How the Church compiled and approved the complete Canon of the New Testament since the fourth century is of such historical magnitude that a summary of it must be mentioned in order to visualize the claim that the Bible came from the Church. The summarization of this process is as follows:

In A.D. 382, Pope Damasus followed the Council of Rome by issuing a decree that listed the present Old and New Testaments (all 73 books) of the Holy Bible; in A.D. 393, the Council of Hippo sanctioned the 73 books of the Old and New Testaments and this list was further established in the year A.D. 397 at the Council of Carthage. Pope St. Innocent I, in the year A.D. 405, sent a letter to Bishop Exsuperius of Toulouse and confirmed these same 73 books that were officially sanctioned several years earlier by the aforementioned councils. In A.D. 419, the Second Council of Carthage also confirmed the 73 books of the Old and New Testaments. In A.D. 1441, the ecumenical Council of Florence formally defined all 73 books and in A.D. 1546, the ecumenical Council of Trent formally defined the entire Canon of the Bible thus making it, according to recent

Dello Iacono 8

scholars, a “closed canon” and this was followed in 1869 by the ecumenical First Vatican Council which reaffirmed the Tridentine list of canonical books.16

In latter times, this process was confirmed by Catholic and non-Catholic scholars, including Dr. Frederick Fyvie Bruce, who stated in respect to the fourth century Councils of Hippo and Carthage that “these appear to have been the first church councils to make a formal pronouncement on the canon.”17 Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan recently acknowledged this formerly ongoing development in his book, Whose Bible Is It? He wrote:

The West followed the lead of Athanasius. In 382, a synod was held at Rome under Pope Damasus, at which the influence of Jerome secured the adoption of a list of books answering to that of Athanasius. This was ratified by Pope Gelasius at the end of the fifth century. The same list was confirmed independently for the province of Africa at Hippo Regius in 393 and at Carthage in 397 and 419 under the leadership of Augustine of Hippo. The second canon of the Second Trullan Council of 692, known to canon lawyers as the Quinisext, may be taken to have formally closed the process of the formation of the New Testament canon for East and West.18

In What is the Bible?, Henri Daniel-Rops explains how this process featured two criteria used by the Church whenever she determined what books should and should not be included in the New Testament Canon. One was “catholicity” and the other “apostolic nature”. A text was approved only if it was directly associated with the traditional Christian communities as a whole. They favored certain texts due to their theological reliability, that is, they were orthodox (“right doctrine”) and were rooted in Apostolic traditions in such a way that each Christian community elicited a profound sense of orthodpraxi (“correct practice”).19 According to Daniel-Rops:

As the liturgy crystallized, the custom of reading pages from the Epistles and Gospels during Mass exposed their contents to a public test; when the Christian conscience, illuminated and guided by ecclesiastical authority, had recognized a certain number of them as bearing the mark of the Holy Spirit, the choice was made. And as in these primitive communities the apostolic connection was fundamental, those writings were retained which living testimony established as emanating directly from the disciples of Jesus.20

It is the ancient Muratorian Canon, discovered and published in 1740, that scholars generally point to in order to prove how sacred Scripture came from the Church long after the Christian era officially commenced in A.D. 33.

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This ancient work contains a list of Scriptural books that were compiled in Rome around the year A.D. 200. The Church at that time had the same canon as the Church has today, albeit one that was still considered an “open canon” as opposed to a “closed canon” which would not come to fruition until much later, especially during the fourth session at the Council of Trent in the 16th century, whose official pronouncement on the Canon of sacred Scripture was recognized over a century later by the Eastern Orthodox Christians in the year 1672!21

Conclusion

It is clear from what has been written throughout this composition that the formation of the collection of the New Testament was “informal and decentralized. A drawn-out affair that of increasing consensus which was completed only in the fourth century.”22 That is, “completed” in the sense that it was formally defined.

The overall goal of this paper was to prove the Catholic claim that the Church preceded the Bible and that she alone compiled and determined the Canon of inspired books in the New Testament. This has been ascertained by the study of sacred Scripture and Tradition and from the writings of the Patristics along with the works of Biblical and history scholars, both Catholic and non-Catholic. It would be prudent for both sides of the debate to engage in a similar study by reading the available data on this subject so that those who claim to follow the Blessed Savior, Jesus Christ, will come to the realization that the early Christians considered the Church, and not the Bible (it didn’t exist for early Christians), as the “pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).

Perhaps as a result of their investigation they will understand, as St. Augustine and Martin Luther did, that the Bible is Catholic. Luther once said that, “We are compelled to concede to the Papists [Catholics] that they have the Word of God; that we received it from them, and that without them we should have had no knowledge of it at all"23 and the former stated that he “would put no faith in the Gospels unless the authority of the Catholic Church directed me to do so.”24

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End Notes

1. The Right Rev. Henry Henry G. Graham. Where We Got the Bible: Our Debt to the Catholic Church (Rockford: Tan, 1977),17ff .

2. Dr. Henry Chadwick The Early Church (New York: Penguin, 1993), 43.

3. Graham, Where We Got The Bible, 29.

4. Chadwick, The Early Church, 42.

5. Dr. William L. Langer The Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001), 1.

6. Graham, Where We Got the Bible, 19.

7. Gregory of Nyssa, Against Eunomius, 4:6. .http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/290104.htm

8. Irenaeus Against Heresies 3, 4:1. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103304.htm

9. Tertullian Prescription Against the Heresies, 28. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0311.htm

10. Dr. John Norman Davidson “J.N.D.” Kelly Early Christine Doctrines (New York: Harper and Row, 1960), 47-48.

11. Dr. William Barclay The Making of the Bible (New York: Abingdon, 1961).

12. Ibid., 44.

13. Ibid.

14. Graham, Where We Got the Bible, 18.

15. Barclay, The Making of the Bible, 73.

16. Dr. Patrick Reid Readings in Western Religious Thought: The Ancient
World (Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1987), 285.

17. Rev. Frank Chacon and Jim Burnham Beginning Apologetics 7: How to Read the Bible-A Catholic Introduction to Interpreting and Defending Sacred Scripture (Farmington: San Juan Catholic Seminars, 2003), 14.

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18. Dr. Frederick Fyvie Bruce The Canon of Scripture (Westmont: InterVarsity, 1992), 97.

19. Dr. Jarsoslav Pelikan Whose Bible Is It? (New York: Penguin, 2005), 117.

20. Henri Daniel-Rops What Is The Bible? (New York: Hawthorn, 1958), 35.

21. Ibid., 34.

22. Dr. Williston Walker A History of the Christian Church (New York: Scribner, 1985), 73.

23.Martin Luther Commentary on Saint John Ch. 16; Quoted in Paul Whitcomb The Catholic Church Has the Answer (Rockford: TAN, 1986), 20-21 .

24.Saint Augustine of Hippo Against the Letter of Mani, 5, 6; Quoted in William A. Jurgens The Faith of the Early Fathers (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1970), Vol. 3, no. 1581.

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Bibliography

Barclay, William. The Making of the Bible. New York: Abingdon,
1961.

Bruce, Frederick Fyvie. The Canon of Scripture. Westmont:
InterVarsity, 1992.

Chacon, Rev. Frank and Jim Burnham. Beginning Apologetics 7: How to
Read the Bible-A Catholic Introduction to Interpreting and Defending Sacred Scripture. Farmingtom: San Juan Catholic Seminars, 2003.

Chadwick, Henry. The Early Church. New York: Penguin,
1993.

Davidson, John Norman “J.N.D.” Early Christine Doctrines. New York: Harper
and Row, 1960.

Douay Rheims-The Holy Bible. Fitzwilliam: Loreto,
2005.

Graham. The Right. Rev. Henry. Where We Got the Bible: Our Debt to the Catholic Church. Rockford: TAN, 1977.

Gregory of Nyssa. Against Eunomius.
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/290104.htm

Irenaeus. Against Heresies.
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103304.htm

Jurgens William A. The Faith of the Early Fathers. Collegeville: Liturgical
Press, 1970.

Kelly, John Norman Davidson. Early Christine Doctrines. New York: Harper and Row, 1960

Dello Iacono 13

Langer, William L. The Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval,
and Modern, Chronologically Arranged. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.
Pelikan, Jaroslav. Whose Bible Is It? New York: Penguin, 2005.

Reid, Patrick. Readings in Western Religious Thought: The Ancient World. Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1987.

Rops, Henri Daniel. What Is The Bible New York:
Hawthorn, 1958.

Tertullian. Prescription Against the Heresies.
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0311.htm

Whitcomb, Paul. The Catholic Church has the Answer. Rockford:
TAN, 1986.

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Copyright 2008. Kevin D. Dello Iacono. All Rights Reserved. This composition may not be published, broadcast, reposted, rewritten, or redistributed without the expressed written permission of its author.

Labels: The Catholic Church and the New Testament Canon

# posted by Coemgenus @ Saturday, March 08, 2008--UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, YOU MAY E-MAIL THIS POST BY CLICKING ON THE ENVELOPE

The Priesthood by St. John Vianney

Part One:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEUDGscemdU

Part Two:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sqAHyfB7-0

Labels: Priesthood, St. John Vianney

# posted by Coemgenus @ Saturday, March 08, 2008--UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, YOU MAY E-MAIL THIS POST BY CLICKING ON THE ENVELOPE

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

What Are the Origins of Ash Wednesday and the Use of Ashes? By Fr. William Saunders

The liturgical use of ashes originates in Old Testament times. Ashes symbolized mourning, mortality and penance. For instance, in the Book of Esther, Mordecai put on sackcloth and ashes when he heard of the decree of King Ahasuerus (or Xerxes, 485-464 B.C.) of Persia to kill all of the Jewish people in the Persian Empire (Est 4:1). Job (whose story was written between the 7th and 5th centuries B.C.) repented in sackcloth and ashes (Job 42:6). Prophesying the Babylonian captivity of Jerusalem, Daniel (c. 550 B.C.) wrote, "I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes" (Dn 9:3). In the fifth century B.C., after Jonah's preaching of conversion and repentance, the town of Ninevah proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, and the king covered himself with sackcloth and sat in the ashes (Jon 3:5-6). These Old Testament examples evidence both a recognized practice of using ashes and a common understanding of their symbolism.

Jesus Himself also made reference to ashes. Referring to towns that refused to repent of sin although they had witnessed the miracles and heard the good news, our Lord said, "If the miracles worked in you had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, they would have reformed in sackcloth and ashes long ago" (Mt 11:21).

The early Church continued the usage of ashes for the same symbolic reasons. In his book, De Poenitentia, Tertullian (c. 160-220) prescribed that the penitent must "live without joy in the roughness of sackcloth and the squalor of ashes." Eusebius (260-340), the famous early Church historian, recounted in his The History of the Church how an apostate named Natalis came to Pope Zephyrinus clothed in sackcloth and ashes begging forgiveness. Also during this time, for those who were required to do public penance, the priest sprinkled ashes on the head of the person leaving confession.

In the Middle Ages (at least by the time of the eighth century), those who were about to die were laid on the ground on top of sackcloth sprinkled with ashes. The priest would bless the dying person with holy water, saying, "Remember that thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return." After the sprinkling, the priest asked, "Art thou content with sackcloth and ashes in testimony of thy penance before the Lord in the day of judgment?" To which the dying person replied, "I am content." In all of these examples, the symbolism of mourning, mortality and penance is clear.

Eventually, the use of ashes was adapted to mark the beginning of Lent, the 40-day preparation period (not including Sundays) for Easter. The ritual for the "Day of Ashes" is found in the earliest editions of the Gregorian Sacramentary, which dates at least to the eighth century. About the year 1000, an Anglo-Saxon priest named Aelfric preached: "We read in the books, both in the Old Law and in the New, that the men who repented of their sins bestrewed themselves with ashes and clothed their bodies with sackcloth. Now let us do this little at the beginning of our Lent that we strew ashes upon our heads to signify that we ought to repent of our sins during the Lenten fast." As an aside, Aelfric reinforced his point by then telling of a man who refused to go to Church on Ash Wednesday and receive ashes; the man was killed a few days later in a boar hunt. Since this time, the Church has used ashes to mark the beginning of the penitential season of Lent, when we remember our mortality and mourn for our sins.

In our present liturgy for Ash Wednesday, we use ashes made from the burned palm branches distributed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year. The priest blesses the ashes and imposes them on the foreheads of the faithful, making the sign of the cross and saying, "Remember, man you are dust and to dust you shall return," or "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." As we begin this holy season of Lent in preparation for Easter, we must remember the significance of the ashes we have received: We mourn and do penance for our sins. We again convert our hearts to the Lord, who suffered, died and rose for our salvation. We renew the promises made at our baptism, when we died to an old life and rose to a new life with Christ. Finally, mindful that the kingdom of this world passes away, we strive to live the kingdom of God now and look forward to its fulfillment in Heaven.

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Fr. Saunders is president of the Notre Dame Institute and pastor of Queen of Apostles Parish, both in Alexandria.

This article appeared in the February 15, 1996 issue of "The Arlington Catholic Herald."

Courtesy of the "Arlington Catholic Herald" diocesan newspaper of the Arlington (VA) diocese. For subscription information, call 1-800-377-0511 or write 200 North Glebe Road, Suite 607 Arlington, VA 22203.

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Lenten Reflection

From Pope Pius XII's encyclical Mediator Dei (articles 157-158)

157. During the days of Septuagesima and Lent, our Holy Mother the Church over and over again strives to make each of us seriously consider our misery, so that we may be urged to a practical emendation of our lives, detest our sins heartily and expiate them by prayer and penance. For constant prayer and penance done for past sins obtain for us divine help, without which every work of ours is useless and unavailing.

158. In Holy Week, when the most bitter sufferings of Jesus Christ are put before us by the liturgy, the Church invites us to come to Calvary and follow in the blood-stained footsteps of the divine Redeemer, to carry the cross willingly with Him, to reproduce in our own hearts His spirit of expiation and atonement, and to die together with Him.

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Domine Iesu, Noverim me (Lord Jesus, Let Me Know Myself) By St. Augustine (354-430)

Lord Jesus, let me know myself and know Thee, And desire nothing save only Thee. Let me hate myself and love Thee. Let me do everything for the sake of Thee. Let me humble myself and exalt Thee. Let me think of nothing except Thee. Let me die to myself and live in Thee. Let me accept whatever happens as from Thee. Let me banish self and follow Thee, And ever desire to follow Thee. Let me fly from myself and take refuge in Thee, That I may deserve to be defended by Thee. Let me fear for myself, let me fear Thee, And let me be among those who are chosen by Thee. Let me distrust myself and put my trust in Thee. Let me be willing to obey for the sake of Thee. Let me cling to nothing save only to Thee, And let me be poor because of Thee. Look upon me, that I may love Thee. Call me that I may see Thee, And for ever enjoy Thee. Amen.
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Lenten Articles

I. The Sermons of St. Francis de Sales for Lent

http://www.oblates.org/spirituality/sundays_salesian/sermons_for_lent.php

II. Sermon XXXIX: on Lent, I By Pope St. Leo the Great

http://www.catholicculture.org/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2215

III. History of Lent By Abbot Gueranger, OSB

http://www.ewtn.com/library/LITURGY/HISTLENT.TXT

IV. Mystery of Lent By Abbot Gueranger, OSB

http://www.ewtn.com/library/LITURGY/MYSLENT.TXT

V. Practice During Lent By Abbot Gueranger, OSB

http://www.ewtn.com/library/LITURGY/PRACLENT.TXT

VI. The Practice of Lenten Practices

http://www.domestic-church.com/CONTENT.DCC/19990301/FRIDGE/expl_lent.htm

VII. Is Lent Dead? By Fr. Paul A. Duffner, O.P.

http://copiosa.org/lent/lent_dead.htm

VIII. Attrition and Contrition By Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.

Taken from REALITY—A Synthesis Of Thomistic Thought, Chapter 41

http://www.ewtn.com/library/THEOLOGY/REALITY.HTM#41

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Copiosa apud eum Redemptio (With Him There is Plentiful Redemption - Psalm 130:7)

Home Page for Lenten/Easter Season
Celebrated 6 February (Ash Wednesday)
through 11 May 2008 (Feast of Pentecost)

http://copiosa.org/lent/index.htm

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Everything You Wanted To Know About Lent

http://copiosa.org/lent/lent_everything.htm

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On the Dolors of Mary By Saint Alphonsus de Ligouri

http://copiosa.org/liguori/liguori_dolors.htm

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The Act of Perfect Contrition

http://copiosa.org/sacraments/contrition.htm

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The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation By Father Paul A. Duffner, O.P.

"....As to the fruits of this sacrament [Confession], they can hardly be summed up better than did Pope Pius XII in his Encyclical on the Mystical Body of Christ [MYSTICI CORPORIS CHRISTI]....

'We heartily recommend the pious custom introduced by the Church, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, of frequent confession. It gives us a more thorough knowledge of ourselves, stimulates Christian humility, helps us to uproot our evil habits, wages war on spiritual negligence and tepidity, purifies our consciences, strengthens our wills, encourages spiritual direction and, by virtue of the Sacrament itself, increases grace.'"

http://copiosa.org/sacraments/sacrament_reconciliation.htm

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From a letter by Saint Paul of the Cross

It is very good and holy to consider the passion of our Lord, and to meditate on it, for by this sacred path we reach union with God. In this most holy school we learn true wisdom, for it was there that all the saints learned it.

Therefore, be constant in practicing every virtue, and especially in imitating the patience of our dear Jesus, for this is the summit of pure love. Live in such a way that all may know that you bear outwardly as well as inwardly the image of Christ crucified, the model of all gentleness and mercy. For if a man is united inwardly with the Son of the living God, he also bears his likeness outwardly by his continual practice of heroic goodness, and especially through a patience reinforced by courage, which does not complain either secretly or in public. Conceal yourselves in Jesus crucified, and hope for nothing except that all men be thoroughly converted to his will.

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Saint Catherine of Bologna

Taken from "On the Seven Spiritual Weapons"

Whoever wishes to carry the cross for his sake must take up the proper weapons for the contest, especially those mentioned here. First, diligence; second, distrust of self; third, confidence in God; fourth, remembrance of Passion; fifth, mindfulness of one's own death; sixth, remembrance of God's glory; seventh, the injunctions of Sacred Scripture following the example of Jesus Christ in the desert.

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From the writings of Saint Rose of Lima

Our Lord and Savior lifted up his voice and said with incomparable majesty: "Let all men know that grace comes after tribulation. Let them know that without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. Let them know that the gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase. Let men take care not to stray and be deceived. This is the only true stairway to paradise, and without the cross they can find no road to climb to heaven."

"If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to men."
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Saint Gemma Galgani's Prayer

O my crucified God, behold me at Your feet; do not cast me out, now that I appear before You as a sinner. I have offended You exceedingly in the past, my Jesus, but it shall be so no longer.

Before You, O Lord, I place all my sins; I have now considered Your own sufferings and see how great is the worth of that Precious Blood that flows from Your veins.

O my God, at this hour close Your eyes to my want of merit, and since You have been pleased to die for my sins, grant me forgiveness for them all, that I may no longer feel the burden of my sins, for this burden, Dear Jesus, oppresses me beyond measure.

Assist me, my Jesus, for I desire to become good whatsoever it may cost; take away, destroy, utterly root out all that You find in me contrary to Your holy will. At the same time, I pray You, Lord Jesus, to enlighten me that I may be able to walk in Your holy light. Amen.

Labels: ash wednesday, ashes, lent

# posted by Coemgenus @ Wednesday, February 06, 2008--UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, YOU MAY E-MAIL THIS POST BY CLICKING ON THE ENVELOPE

Monday, January 28, 2008

Abp. Ranjith on Kneeling for Communion and Communion on the Tongue

Originally Posted by Shawn Tribe
New Liturgical Movement blog

Link to Original

Archbishop Ranjith believes that it is time to reconsider Communion in the hand

Libreria Editrice Vaticana has published a book, Dominus Est by Bishop Athansius Schnedier, where that Bishop analyzes the question of communion recieved kneeling and on the tongue.

Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith has written the foreward to this book, which the NLM is happy to present an unofficial translation here to follow. (Many thanks to a good friend of the NLM for providing the link to this, which came originally through, Associazione Luci sull'Est.

Without further adieu, the foreword of Msgr. Ranjith, Secretary to the CDW:

In the Book of Revelation, St. John tells how he had seen and heard what was revealed and prostrated [himself] in adoration at the foot of the angel of God (cf. Rev 22, 8). Prostrating, or getting down one one's knees before the majesty of the presence of God in humble adoration, was a habit of reverence that Israel brought constantly to the presence of the Lord. It says the first book of Kings, "when Solomon had finished putting this prayer to the Lord and this plea, he stood up before the altar of the Lord, where he was kneeling, with palms stretched heavenward, and blessed the whole assembly of Israel "(1 King 8, 54-55). The position of supplication of the King is clear: He was kneeling in front of the altar.

The same tradition is also visible in the New Testament where we see Peter get on his knees before Jesus (cf. Lk 5, 8); when Jairus asked him to heal her daughter (Luke 8, 41), when the Samaritan returned to thank him, and when Mary the sister of Lazarus asked for the life of her brother (John 11, 32). The same attitude of prostration before the revelation of the divine presence and is generally known in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 5, 8, 14 and 19, 4).

Closely linked to this tradition was the conviction that the Holy Temple in Jerusalem was the dwelling place of God and therefore, in the temple it was necessary to prepare one's disposition by corporal expression, a deep sense of humility and reverence in the presence of the Lord.

Even in the Church, the deep conviction that in the Eucharistic species the Lord is truly and really present, along with the growing practice of preserving the Holy Sacrament in tabernacles, contributed to practice of kneeling in an attitude of humble adoration of the Lord in the Eucharist.

[...]

...faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharistic species already belonged to the essence of the faith of the Catholic Church and was an intrinsic part of Catholicism. It was clear that we could not build up the Church if that faith was minimally affected.

Therefore, the Eucharist, bread transubstantiated in Body of Christ and wine into the Blood of Christ, God among us, is to be greeted with wonder, reverence and an immense attitude of humble adoration. Pope Benedict XVI... points out that "receiving the Eucharist means adoring him whom we receive [...] only in adoration can a profound and genuine reception mature."(Sacramentum Caritatis 66).

Following this tradition, it is clear that it became coherent and indispensable to take actions and attitudes of the body and spirit which makes it easier to [enter into] silence, recollection, and the humble acceptance of our poverty in the face of the infinite greatness and holiness of the One who comes to meet us in the Eucharistic species. The best way to express our sense of reverence to the Lord in Mass is to follow the example of Peter, who as the Gospel tells us, threw himself on his knees before the Lord and said, 'Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinner " (Luke 5, 8).

As we see in some churches now, this practice is decreasing and those responsible not only require that the faithful should receive the Holy Eucharist standing, but even eliminate all kneelers forcing the faithful to sit or stand, even during the elevation and adoration of the [Sacred] Species. It is ironic that such measures have been taken in [some] dioceses by those responsible for liturgy, or in churches, by pastors, without even the smallest amount of consultation of the faithful, even though today, more than ever, there is an environment desiring democracy in the Church.

At the same time, speaking of communion in the hand, it must be recognized that the practice was improperly and quickly introduced in some quarters of the Church shortly after the Council, changing the age-old practice and becoming regular practice for the whole Church. They justified the change saying that it better reflected the Gospel or the ancient practice of the Church... Some, to justify this practice referred to the words of Jesus: "Take and eat" (Mk 14, 22; Mt 26, 26).

Whatever the reasons for this practice, we cannot ignore what is happening worldwide where this practice has been implemented. This gesture has contributed to a gradual weakening of the attitude of reverence towards the sacred Eucharistic species whereas the previous practice had better safeguarded that sense of reverence. There instead arose an alarming lack of recollection and a general spirit of carelessness. We see communicants who often return to their seats as if nothing extraordinary has happened... In many cases, one cannot discern that sense of seriousness and inner silence that must signal the presence of God in the soul.

Then there are those who abuse takes away the sacred species to keep them as souvenirs, those who sell, or worse yet, who take them away to desecrate it in Satanic rituals. Even in large concelebrations, also in Rome, several times the sacred species has been found thrown onto the ground.

This situation not only leads us to reflect upon a serious loss of faith, but also on outrageous offenses...

The Pope speaks of the need not only to understand the true and deep meaning of the Eucharist, but also to celebrate it with dignity and reverence. He says that we must be aware of "gestures and posture, such as kneeling during the central moments of the Eucharistic Prayer." (Sacramentum Caritatis, 65). Also, speaking about the reception of the Holy Communion he invites everyone to "make every effort to ensure that this simple act preserves its importance as a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ in the sacrament." (Sacramentum Caritatis, 50).

In this vein, the book written by Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of Karaganda in Kazakhstan entitled Dominus Est is significant and appreciated. He wants to make a contribution to the current debate on the real and substantial presence of Christ in the consecrated species of bread and wine... from his experience, which aroused in him a deep faith, wonder and devotion to the Lord present in the Eucharist, he presents us with a historical-theological [consideration] clarifying how the practice of receiving Holy Communion on the tonue and kneeling has been accepted and practiced in the Church for a long period of time.

Now I think it is high time to review and re-evaluate such good practices and, if necessary, to abandon the current practice that was not called for by Sacrosanctum Concilium, nor by Fathers, but was only accepted after its illegitimate introduction in some countries. Now, more than ever, we must help the faithful to renew a deep faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharistic species in order to strengthen the life of the Church and defend it in the midst of dangerous distortions of the faith that this situation continues to cause.

The reasons for this move must be not so much academic but pastoral - spiritual as well as liturgical - in short, what builds better faith. Mons. Msgr. Schneider in this sense shows a commendable courage because he has been able to grasp the true meaning of the words of St. Paul: "but everything should be done for building up" (1 Cor 14, 26).

MALCOLM RANJITH
Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship

Labels: Communion on the Tongue, Kneeling for Communion

# posted by Coemgenus @ Monday, January 28, 2008--UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, YOU MAY E-MAIL THIS POST BY CLICKING ON THE ENVELOPE

Saturday, January 26, 2008

The Latin Mass Explained By Fr. George Moorman

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA ADVISORY
Catholic PRWire
1/26/2008 - 10:59 AM PST

CHICAGO, IL (JANUARY 26, 2008) - Everything Needed to Understand and Appreciate the Traditional Latin Mass. Fr. George Moorman. Extremely informative, but very easy to read!

The Latin Mass Explained tells the Catholic faithful what happens, prayer by prayer, in the Traditional Latin Mass (1962 Missale Romanum).

Why does the Church use Latin exclusively in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite? What is the sacred silence of the Mass? Why does the altar boy ring the bells? What vestments does the priest wear and why?

Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio opening the door to celebration of the Latin Mass.

We are happy to offer The Latin Mass Explained at the very low price of $15.00 (USD), plus shipping and handling charges.

The Latin Mass Explained
Tells the Catholic faithful what happens, prayer by prayer, in the Traditional Latin Mass (1962 Missale Romanum)
Rev. George Moorman
185 pages, paperback

Click here to order
Contact: Canons Regular of St. John Cantius
Canons Regular of St. John Cantius website
Rev. Scott Haynes - webmaster, 312-243 7373

Labels: The Latin Mass Explained

# posted by Coemgenus @ Saturday, January 26, 2008--UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, YOU MAY E-MAIL THIS POST BY CLICKING ON THE ENVELOPE

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

High Profile Abortion Activists Are Now Pro-Life

Sandra Cano, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, and Norma McCorvey...The “Doe” of Doe v. Bolton, a co-founder of NARAL who coined the phrase “pro-choice”, and the “Roe” of Roe v. Wade are all now pro-life.

Link to Original

I. DR. BERNARD NATHANSON

Dr. Bernard Nathanson was one of the original founders of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) in 1969. NARAL is the pro-abortion group currently spending $40 million to block all pro-life judges and legislation. He presided over 60,000 abortions and was one of the pioneering forces in the legalization of abortion on demand in the early 1970s.

Nathanson invented many of the political slogans that the pro-abortion movement is still using, such as “pro-choice,” “reproductive rights,” “freedom of choice,” and “a woman’s right to choose.” Through the technology of ultrasound, Nathanson saw for the first time the reality of what actually happens to the unborn child during an abortion and came to understand and support the pro-life position.

Quotes by Dr. Nathanson

! “The truth never emerged in any way, shape, or form from NARAL.”

! “One of the major functions of NARAL and its executive board was the dissemination of false statistics regarding illegal abortion and deaths from abortion.”

! “The figures that we were releasing to the press were largely dead-designed to influence American public opinion. They had very little link or nexus to reality at all.”

! “The statistics that we gave to the American public about illegal abortions annually; the statistics we fabricated regarding the number of women dying from illegal abortions annually; all of these matters were pure fabrication and still persist to this very day.”

! “We spoke of 5,000 to 10,000 deaths a year. I confess that I knew the figures were totally false. It was a useful figure, widely accepted, so why go out of our way to correct it with honest statistics?”

! “We in NARAL were in the business of coining slogans principally for the media . . . we scattered catchy slogans for them . . . to use . . . in their stories. Slogans like “reproductive rights,” “freedom of choice,” “pro-choice.” For many years we’ve known them to be hollow and meaningless. They’re just catchy and, essentially, without substance.”

! “It’s amusing to me that many of the slogans I coined . . . in those years are still being used by NARAL . . . as arguments. They were never meant to be arguments. They were only . . . slogans . . .and many other things, but never the truth.”

! For more information, Nathanson’s autobiography, The Hand of God, is available at (888) 219-4747.

II. NORMA MCCORVEY

Norma McCorvey was the “Roe” of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that legalized abortion on demand. Ironically, she never had an abortion. In 1969, when she found herself pregnant, she sought an abortion but could not get one because of strong pro-life laws in her home state of Texas. To garner sympathy for her case, McCorvey told people she had been raped. Still, she was not granted an abortion. She eventually placed the child she was carrying for adoption. In 1972 her case, Roe v. Wade, was heard by the United States Supreme Court. When the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade in January 1973, they reversed the laws banning abortion in every one of America’s 50 states. Before becoming pro-life, McCorvey worked in an abortion clinic.

Quotes by Norma McCorvey

! “The public had certain misgivings about abortion in the early seventies, but there was much greater acceptance of abortion in cases of rape, so even though I wasn’t really raped, I thought saying so would garner greater public support.”

! “This means that the abortion case that destroyed every state law protecting the unborn was based on a lie.”

! “I’ve never had an abortion, so I really wouldn’t know how it felt to have one, but I do know the faces that I’ve seen, the women I’ve talked to in the pro-life movement.”

! “A lot of the women that used to come into the abortion clinic used to tell me, . . . ‘You know why I’m doing this, don’t you?’ And I’m like, ‘No, and you don’t have to tell me, either’. . . . They said, ‘I’m just afraid I don’t know how to be a mom.’ And I thought, ‘That’s sad.’”

! “I really hadn’t been happy with anything I saw in the pro-abortion movement. . . . They don’t really care about women. All they care about is your money. If you can give them $295 plus $100 for a sonogram, then they like you, but once you’re gone, they don’t know you.”

! For more information, check McCorvey’s website: www.roenomore.org.

III. SANDRA CANO

Sandra Cano is the woman whose name was used against her will to legalize late-term, including partial birth, abortions in Doe v. Bolton, handed down by the United States Supreme Court in 1973. When Cano was pregnant with her fourth child, her children were put in foster care because her husband routinely abandoned the family. She sought legal help and, according to court documents, she sought an abortion but was turned down. Cano denies this. She tried to obtain this supposed request for an abortion from the abortion clinic, but the clinic claimed those records had disappeared. Even so, Cano’s alleged application for an abortion was used to legalize late-term abortions, and her name was the only one listed as a plaintiff in the class action suit that became known as Doe v. Bolton.

Quotes by Sandra Cano

! “I don’t think that was my signature, but I can’t be sure, because I signed a lot of papers with [my lawyer]. She did not tell me what they were, and I trusted her. Every one of those statements was false.”

! “I do not believe in abortion. I have never believed in abortion. I have always been pro-life.”

! “I’ve never believed in abortion. I’ve never had an abortion. Never would have an abortion, yet my name was used on a Supreme Court case that legalized late term abortions.”

Labels: Dr. Bernard Nathanson, Norma McCorvey, Sandra Cano

# posted by Coemgenus @ Tuesday, January 22, 2008--UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, YOU MAY E-MAIL THIS POST BY CLICKING ON THE ENVELOPE