Per Christum

Humanae Vitae and John 14:26
by John F. Kippley

I saw this and it made me chuckle with memories of watching gradeschool filmstrips. It was a treat to be the one who got to advance the filmstrip to the next frame… At least I thought it was. We were a long way from today when my nieces and nephews of the age I was then have blogs with readers in other countries.

It also sounds like the voice of the narrator is computer generated. It isn’t half as fun as the records and cassette tapes that used to accompany some of the film strips.

But the fact that these sorts of educational materials were out there, helping to educate young people on the value of large families and brothers and sisters is a telling and intersting thing. How very different is this from US culture today?

Posted over at Musings of a Pertinacious Papist:

With an eye on Russia’s dismally low birth-rate, a youth movement run by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin sponsored a “procreation camp” this past summer. Held 200 miles from Moscow, the two-week camp was reportedly attended by 10,000 uniformed youngsters. Following instructions in physical fitness and exercises, couples repaired — or should we say “paired off” — to a special part of dormitory tents arranged in the shape of a heart, which was called the “Love Oasis,” where they were encouraged to start “procreating for the motherland.” The camp culminated in a mass wedding of twenty-five couples, who were ready to make the “ultimate expression of devotion to the motherland” (The Daily Mail, July 29, 2007; quoted by Michael S. Rose in “The News You May Have Missed, New Oxford Review [October 2007], p. 37).

Read more at “Hitl … I mean Putin’s Youth (Nashi): Sex for the motherland: Russian youths encouraged to procreate at camp,” by Edward Lucas (The Postnational Monitor, July 29, 2007).

Consider also: Mother Russia now sees more abortions than babies born

Russian Abortion Killing and Sterilizing Millions; Demographic Collapse Likely to be Worse than Previously Predicted

Here are 12 myths every Catholic should be able to expose.How many can you answer?

1. Christianity is no better than any other faith. All religions lead to God.
2. Why should I believe the Bible? The Old and New Testaments contradict each other countless times.
3. I don’t need to confess my sins to a priest. I can go straight to God.
4. People’s memories of their past lives prove that reincarnation is true…and that the Christian view of Heaven and Hell is not.
5. Properly interpreted, the Bible does not condemn homosexuality.
6. If the Church truly followed Jesus, they’d sell their lavish art, property, and architecture, and give the money to the poor.
7. Catholics should follow their conscience in all things…whether it’s abortion, birth control, or women’s ordination.
8. Dissent is actually a good thing, since we should all keep our minds open to new ideas.
9. There’s no such thing as absolute truth. What’s true for you may not be true for me.
10. I don’t need to go to Church. As long as I’m a good person, that’s all that really matters.
11. Natural Family Planning is just the Catholic version of birth control.
12. Someone can be pro-choice and Catholic at the same time.

[For ANSWERS from Crisis magazine's editor, Deal Hudson, click here.]

H/T: Dr. Philip Blosser’s Homepage

“The fragmentation of Islamic civilization. With birthrates in Muslim societies more than double the European average, Islamic countries are bound to put pressure on Europe and the U.S. in the years ahead. If, as is forecast, the population of Yemen will exceed that of Russia by 2050, there must be either dramatic improvements in the Middle East’s economic performance or substantial emigration from the Arab world to senescent Europe. Yet the subtle colonization of Europe’s cities by Muslims does not necessarily portend the advent of a new and menacing “Eurabia.” In fact, the Muslim world is as divided as it has ever been. This division is not merely between Sunni and Shiite. It is also between those seeking a peaceful modus vivendi with the West (embodied in Turkey’s desire to join the EU) and those drawn to the Islamic Bolshevism of the likes of Osama bin Laden. Opinion polls from Morocco to Pakistan suggest high levels of anti-American sentiment, but not unanimity. In Europe, only a minority expresses overt sympathy for terrorist organizations; most young Muslims in England clearly prefer assimilation to jihad. We are a long way from a bipolar clash of civilizations, much less the rise of a new caliphate that might pose a geopolitical threat to the U.S.

“In short, each of the obvious 21st-century hegemons — the U.S., Europe, China — seems to contain within it the seeds of decline; while Islam remains a diffuse force in world politics, lacking the resources of a superpower…”

Posted on Monday, June 21, 2004
http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/5777.html

H/T: http://pblosser.blogspot.com

Also of note: Analyst Predicts Muslim Majority in Russia Within 30 Years

If we can or will learn or observe anything from the Anglican Crisis (version 2007) it is that in the very near future, Christianity will become much more the domain of the Global South. As Russia shrinks and its citizenry is increasingly Islamic or secular, Christianity grows by leaps and bounds in Africa and Asia.

But while what may be the inevitable unfolds before us, now might be a good time for a general Western reassesment of the prevailing views on contraception and fertility. One more soul might really be what we all need to be open to recieving.

H/T: Roman Catholic Vocations Blogspot

“Church short on U.S.-born ministers”
By Erin McKeon The Facts.Com ( A Texas News website???)

Published October 7, 2007In Catholic churches nationwide, immigrants are being counted on to take on a job fewer Americans have been willing to do. (Read all…)

A fair enough article overall. Not really big news to people that have been following it for some time. The article fails to mention how very typical this is of the US situation historically - we have ALWAYS had a goodly number of priests from “the other side” (as one Melkite Bishop used to refer to his Lebanese-born priests)…
In all fainess, our current American ratio of priest to laity is darn near the same as it was 100 years ago.

In actuality, our current American ratio of clergy to faithfyl - when counting America’s 16.6K perm. deacons, it is far better than it was 100 years ago.

It is also worth noting that there are about two-dozen exceptionally strong formation programs in the US at the diocesan and religious level. Should they continue to grow in the ways they have and inspire likewise among the other diocese and orders around them, I EASILY foresee a lowering of the median presbyteral age significantly in the next 20 years.

But of course, there is always room for one more soul.

I used to think that we would do well to open every bed we had in near-empty and half empty seminaries here in the US for African, Asian and Latin American Seminarians. But there is a reason a lot of those joints are half or near empty - it is probably best we don’t spread their malaise to Africa, Asia or Latin America. Americans have given VERY generously for decades and decades to the missions. It is only fitting that we now become a sort of mission territory ourselves - served by the very sons and daugters of the converts we have for decades been praying and paying to support.

But could we take a moment to consider the importance and effect of population growth on vocations? Namely, the family population.

I think there is more than a casual correlation between the rise in vocational numbers outside the US where birth rates are higher and (presumably) artificial birth control is less embraced. Humanae Vitae seems to strike again.

If we could look at some of the birt rates in some of the predominately Catholic countries that are non-European.

(births per 1,000 population)
Venezuela 21.22Argentina 16.53
Ecuador 21.91 births
Brazil 16.3 births
El Salvador 26.13 births
Belize 28.34 births
Costa Rica 18.02 births
Honduras 27.59 births
Nicaragua 24.12 births
Panama 21.45 births
Bolivia 22.82 births
Chile 15.03 births
Colombia 20.16 births
Ecuador 21.91 births
Guyana 18.09 births
Paraguay 28.77 births
Peru 20.09 births
Suriname 17.31 births
Uruguay 14.41 births
Philippines 24.48 births

CIA Factbook on birthrates

In case you were wondering, these were produced by the seminarians from the Diocese of Saginaw. (Michigan)

Saginaw was formerly run by Bishop “Just Call Me Ken” Untener. ( Untener did not ordain perm deacons, BTW, as a protest against the ban on women’s ordination…) When Bishop Carlson came on board, they had 2 seminarians. Upon assuming episcopacy in the diocese, Carlson also assumed the roll of vocations director.

Then now have 24.

They just ordained two priests, five transitional deacons.

Please do keep the 5 new deacons in your prayers:

Dcn. Nicholas Coffaro
Dcn. Christopher Coman
Dcn. Denis Heames
Dcn. Daniel Roa
Dcn. William Spencer

The Catholic Diocese of Saginaw was established in 1938 and includes an estimated 132,000 faithful living in Arenac, Bay, Clare, Gladwin, Gratiot, Huron, Isabella, Midland, Saginaw, Sanilac and Tuscola counties.

What do you think?

I see beautiful children. Doing what? Making messes in nice homes - homes filled at least with “nice things”.

That nice vase would be broken by a child.

That nice wall will be made a mess of.

The sofa you spent a few grand on will get stained.

Just a burden? No.

An impediment in our incessant pursuit of the material good life?

I hope so.

Yesterday I attended the wedding of one of the first friends I made when I moved to this city some 4 years ago. A Catholic wedding between two Catholics, it was a joy to be there with them for such a special moment.

Join me in prayers for them and for all the newlyweds out there. It ain’t gonna be easy, but surely it will be worth it…

For those with the inclination, when thinking about marriage, it might be a good thing to read or re-read Arcanum The Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on Christian Marriage.

From there you may enjoy the following video from a Franciscan U. of Steubenville student. I found it a rather fun & toe-tapping little number. If this is the state of dating at FUS, I rather suspect in the future we will be finding its student body to composed of many, many children of alumni! Enjoy.

HT:http://youngfogeys.blogspot.com/

Contracepting the environment – Birth-control poisoning of streams leave U.S. environmentalists mumBy Wayne Laugesen
7/11/2007
National Catholic Register

BOULDER, Colo. (National Catholic Register) – When EPA-funded scientists at the University of Colorado studied fish in a pristine mountain stream known as Boulder Creek two years ago, they were shocked. Randomly netting 123 trout and other fish downstream from the city’s sewer plant, they found that 101 were female, 12 were male and 10 were strange “intersex” fish with male and female features.

A 2005 EPA study was among the first in the country to demonstrate that a slurry of hormones, including those from birth-control pills, and antibiotics, caffeine and steroids is coursing down the nation’s waterways, threatening fish and contaminating drinking water.

Sadly, I found out from Antonia’s World
That Dr.John Billings died….
Dr John Billings, world-renowned pioneer of natural fertility regulation, died last night aged 89 after a short illness.

John James Billings AM, KCSG, MD, FRCP, FRACP, was born in Melbourne on 5 March 1918 and educated at Xavier College and the University of Melbourne. Married to Dr Evelyn L Billings, nee Thomas in 1943, John saw service as an army doctor with the AIF during WWII in PNG. more here

I chose to study the Billings method for NFP about 6 months before I got married,(and use it now that I am married) after a friend loaned me her copy of “The Billings Method” book by Dr.Evelyn Billings. I had originally been studying NFP by Couple to Couple league, but since I was living in Australia at the time, it was easier to study something that most other couples I knew used. The Billings method is a form of Natural family planning that teaches a woman to interpret signs of fertility, and can be used to avoid or achieve pregnancy, using no drugs, devices or side effects.
Personally, I think it’s a great way for a woman to know how her body works and all the signs of change. It is scientifically proven too, no matter what stories are out there, if you use it properly it is effective.

So Dr.John Billings may have passed away, but has left women with a wonderful way, which allows us to manage our fertility without use of drugs and unnatural means.

Above is a picture of Dr.John Billings, meeting with John Paul II
The Billings Method