What the Pope really said about condoms

The world’s press is a slut when it comes to taking pot shots at the Catholic Church. Everyone wants to be the first to unravel dirt about Her, even when there isn’t any to be found. Hearsay is good enough, so long as they can spin a yarn for the world to believe the Church is nothing but an ancient relic, no longer to be held as the voice of God for the salvation and moral good of mankind.

So when Pope Benedict XVI answered a question regarding condoms in relation to someone using it to prevent the spread of Aids, his words were twisted to mean the Church has suddenly changed its teaching of over 2,000 years, which can never happen. The Church has and can never change its doctrines and, in this case, the use of contraception.

In this particular instance, L’Osservatore Romano, was the culprit. The paper self-styles itself as the Vatican newspaper but has long lost its stature as a defender of the Catholic faith as it leans more to the whims and fancies of its secular journalists and editors. In the report on Pope Benedict’s comments on condoms, it mistranslated the original German language of the interview to indicate the Church now allows the use of condoms in particular cases, especially by prostitutes in the service of their clients.

What the Pope said when asked about this:

“There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants. But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality”

The Pope never said that condoms are justified in such instances, but that its use may signal the first step in a change of heart in the prostitute that he or she could take further on the road to repentance. Needless to say L’Osservatore’s report was picked up by newspapers and television and radio news stations around the world to announce the purported change in Catholic doctrine. There is now confusion and many faithful Catholics, and men and women of goodwill faithful to God are caught in a bind on what the Church actually teaches.

To begin with, the Catholic Church has consistently taught that sex outside of marriage is always wrong and the use of contraception is in direct violation of the Divine plan in the creation of life. The only method taught by the Church is abstinence in family planning. Sex outside of marriage and prostitution is not in the natural order in the creation of life and therefore immoral. So the question of using contraception in these cases does not even come up for justification when their acts are sinful for a start.

How can there be any good in a sinful act to lessen the impact of another sinful act? Evil is evil, period.

A clear understanding of what the Pope actually said can be found in the analyses of several commentators. Among them is Father Joseph Fessio, a Jesuit priest and founder and editor of Ignatius Press in his commentary “Did the Pope justify condom use in circumstances?”. Some excerpts:

“It is important to note that there are two very serious mistranslations in the Italian version of the Pope’s remarks, upon which many early reports were based, since the embargo was broken by the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. (That’s another story.) First, the German speak of ‘ein Prostituierte’, which can only be a male prostitute. The normal German word for prostitute is ‘[eine] Prostituierte’, which is feminine and refers only to a woman. The Italian translation ‘una prostituta” simply reverses what the Pope says.

“Equally problematically, ‘giustificati’ = justified, was used in the Italian translation of ‘begründete’, and arbitrarily resolves the ambiguity one-sidedly. The Pope responded: She [the Church] does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but, in this or that case, there can be nonetheless in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality’.”

… “Here’s an example of this distinction that parallels what the Pope said. Muggers are using steel pipes to attack people and the injuries are severe. Some muggers use padded pipes to reduce the injuries, while still disabling the victim enough for the mugging. The Pope says that the intention of reducing injury (in the act of mugging) could be a first step toward greater moral responsibility. This would not justify the following headlines: ‘Pope Approves Padded Pipes for Mugging’, ‘Pope Says Use of Padded Pipes Justified in Some Circumstances’, ‘Pope Permits Use of Padded Pipes in Some Cases’.”

Read more of Fr Fessio’s analysis: Did the Pope justify condom use in circumstances?

Other commentaries:
1) Cardinal Burke: What the Pope really meant
2) Falsely quoting the pope

3) Condoms, Consistency, and the Vatican’s Crisis of (mis)Communication
4) Jimmy Akin: The Pope said what about condoms?; Understanding the Pope's dilemma on condoms; New developments on the Pope and condoms
5) Pope Benedict on condoms in “Light of the World”

ROSARY IS A BIBLICAL PRAYER: POPE BENEDICT XVI

Pope Benedict XVI, Oct 10 -- The month of October is called the month of the Rosary. This is a "spiritual intonation," so to speak, provided by the liturgical memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, which is celebrated on October 7. We are thus invited to let ourselves be guided by Mary in this ancient and ever new prayer, which is especially dear to her because it leads directly to Jesus, contemplated in his mysteries of salvation: joyous, luminous, sorrowful and glorious.

In the footsteps of the venerable John Paul II (cf. Apostolic Letter "Rosarium Virginis Mariae), I would like to recall that the Rosary is a biblical prayer, completely interwoven with Sacred Scripture. It is a prayer of the heart in which the repetition of the "Hail Mary" orients one's thought and affection towards Christ, and thus one confidently supplicates his Mother and ours. It is a prayer that aids meditation on the Word of God and is likened to Eucharistic communion on the model of Mary, who carries in her heart all Jesus did and said and his presence itself.

THE ROSARY AND THE GREAT NAVAL VICTORY

In the 16th century, the little island of Malta guarded the Mediterranean passage to the Christian West from the Islamic East. The conquest of Rome, in particular, was the greatest prize sought by the Ottoman Turks led by Sultan Soleiman the Magnificent. At the heart of the Catholic Church, he wanted to transform Michelangelo's St. Peter’s Basilica into a mosque, just as his predecessors of the brutal Islamic Turks had turned Constantinople’s Hagia Sophia into one, more than a century before.

The Turks’ aspirations led to the battle of Lepanto, the most important naval contest in human history on October 7, 1571 -- between the outnumbered fleet of about 200 galleys from the Holy League raised by Pope Pius V and a far more superior Islamic armada of over 300 ships, including 230 galleys.
The man chosen by Pius V to serve as Captain General of the Holy League was 24-year-old Don John of Austria. The young captain reminded his fleet the battle they would soon engage in was as much spiritual as physical and gave every man a weapon more powerful than anything the Turks could muster: a Rosary.

The stunning victory eventually by the Christians is the background to the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary we celebrate today.

At dawn on October 7, 1571, the Holy League rowed down the west coast of Greece and turned east into the Gulf of Patras. When the morning mist cleared, the Christians, rowing directly against the wind, saw the squadrons of the larger Ottoman fleet arrayed like a crescent from shore to shore, bearing down on them under full sail.

As the fleets grew closer, the Christians could hear the gongs and cymbals, drums and cries of the Turks. The men of the Holy League quietly pulled at their oars, the soldiers stood on the decks in silent prayer. Priests holding large crucifixes marched up and down the decks exhorting the men to be brave and hearing final confessions.

Then the Blessed Virgin intervened.

The wind shifted 180 degrees. The sails of the Holy League were filled with the Divine breath, driving them into battle. Now heading directly into the wind, the Turks were forced to strike their sails. The tens of thousands of Christian galley slaves who rowed the Turkish vessels felt the sharp sting of the lash summoning them up from under their benches and demanding they take hold of their oars and pull against the wind.

Don John knelt on the prow of Real and said a final prayer. Then he stood and gave the order for the Holy League’s battle standard, a gift from Pius V, to be unfurled. Christians up and down the battle line cheered as they saw the giant blue banner bearing an image of our crucified Lord.

Read full story here

WHY THROUGH MARY

Sometimes we wonder why, sometimes we are asked why, but all the time the answers are easy. The Name used here is God, but remember Jesus Christ is God.

Through Mary God enters a door free from sin,
Through Mary God came into a sinful world to save us from death,
Through Mary God shows us His most perfect creation,
Through Mary God shows us who we ought to be,
Through Mary God sees the universe He created as it should be,
Through Mary we see God and hear His voice more clearly,
Through Mary God hears our pleadings without the noise our sins make,
Through Mary God channels His graces freely and abundantly for us,
Through Mary God showers His love and reaches for our sinful hearts,
Through Mary God shows us a door to Him that is free from sin.

WHY CATHOLICISM ISN'T A DENOMINATION

Catholicism is often called a denomination of Christianity. We hear and read it, many Catholics even use the term, but this is contrary to what Jesus Christ defined as Church, the only one He founded on Peter.

Denomination in the religious sense describes a group that, along with others like it, forms part of a bigger, whole body. It indicates there is more than one version of a particular teaching and taken together in sum the fullness of truth can be found.

But when Christ built His Church upon Peter, He willed it to consist of believers united in one faith under His revealed truth, the Gospel. He prayed to the Father they will be one in His Mystical Body and not separated or divided by different versions of His teachings.

These disciples of Christ became known as Christians after His death and Resurrection. It was not a term they used to identify who they were, but given by others to tell them apart from other Jews who were followers of Judaism.

To make this distinction even clearer, this Church of Christians was also called Catholic (katholikos in Greek), meaning universal, because unlike Judaism which was for the Jews only, the Gospel was for all nations and races.

It is a command of Christ to his disciples in Matthew 28:19 – “Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

The term Catholic was also used to differentiate true Christians from heretics who contradicted what the Apostles taught. But the only surviving evidence of its description of the infant Church is found in the epistle of St Ignatius of Antioch (a disciple taught by the Apostle St John) to the Smyrnaeans in 107AD just before he was martyred. He wrote: “Where the bishop is, so is the Catholic Church.”

The one and only Church that Christ founded is, therefore, Catholic and if this is the case then She cannot embrace different versions of Christ’s Gospel. This means that Catholicism cannot contradict itself by saying it is only a part of the True Church and therefore a denomination of it.

But the term “denomination” can be appropriately applied to the different groups of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. It was triggered by Martin Luther who was disillusioned by the many abuses among the clergy and led others to break away from the Catholic Church.

Jean Calvin (Calvinists and Presbyterians) and Huldreich Zwingli (Anabaptists) followed him and each separately formed their own Protestant communities. King Henry the VIII was next with the Church in England (its adherents called Anglicans) breaking away from Rome and from among them John Wesley spawned the Methodist movement.

All were products of the protest against the Catholic Church, but each of them differed in various degrees to the doctrines that Martin Luther espoused. For this reason, they -- and the more than 30,000 groups that broke away from them since then, including the Baptists -- can rightly be called denominations of the Protestant Reformation.

And because they rejected many of the doctrines that Christ handed His Apostles, they possess only part of the revealed Truth.

On the other hand, despite the many difficulties with the clergy in the past, the Catholic Church handed down untainted and faithfully all that Christ taught through the successors of Peter, as He guaranteed it will be so under the Holy Spirit’s guidance until the end of time.

And since the Catholic Church is not a part of the Truth but the fullness of it, She cannot be a denomination of Christianity but, in essence and whole, Christianity itself.

GHOSTS AND DEMONS

The spiritual world we can’t see fascinates us. The beings that exist in this realm intrigue us. Apparitions of “ghosts” that manifest themselves before people arouse our curiosity.

Those that take on the form of the dead, especially of people we know, trigger our inquisitiveness and this moves some to search for séances or witchdoctors or traditional doctors to connect with these spirits or ghosts.

The reasons vary.

For some they seek the comfort their loved ones are safe in the afterlife, for others they are curious what these spirits can tell us about life beyond the grave or the future. Others are so obsessed with these ghosts that they immerse themselves totally in the subject and it takes on a central focus in their lives -- researching with a zeal and fascination that borders on addiction.

It is an increasing phenomenon among people today, especially the young including Catholics, and they don’t realise the danger they subject their souls to, with the possibility of eternal damnation.

The question foremost before us therefore is: What has the Catholic Church to say about ghosts and how are we to deal with such encounters?

The first and most important thing to remember is that Satan is the Great Liar, the Deceiver of men and his only intention is to trap our souls into suffering for all eternity. He can conjure up images of our dearest relatives to make us believe we are actually seeing our deceased loved ones and the purported messages they bring to us from beyond the grave.

The second point to note is that spirits and ghosts do exist, and whether good or evil they can only manifest themselves before us with the permission of God. The good spirits are allowed by Him if they are necessary to help us in our salvation, while demons are granted permission to test our faith just like Job in the Bible.

So how are we to tell what is good and evil since Satan can deceive us into believing we are seeing a good spirit? The answer is first to pray when we are confronted by them and never address spirits directly. Seek also the help of a Catholic priest immediately to determine the nature of such encounters.

It is also important to remember that any contact with the demonic poses a great and grave danger to our souls. They are masters of deceit and powerful beings. When the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, disputed about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a reviling judgment upon him, but said, “The Lord rebukes you”(Jude 9).

Never think to address some power of hell directly. Always call upon the help of your guardian angel and the saints. Above all, remember your sacramental graces from confirmation. Call upon the Holy Spirit to strengthen and defend you.


Three types of ghosts
The Catholic Church on the occult
Dabbling on the occult takes toll on youth

THREE TYPES OF GHOSTS

From Catholic theologian Peter Kreeft’s Fourteen Questions About Heaven:

First of all, Scripture strictly forbids us to call spirits up as Saul called up the ghost of the prophet Samuel by means of the Witch of Endor’s necromancy. Because of this deed, he lost his kingdom and perhaps his soul.

The reason for the stricture is probably protection against the danger of deception by evil spirits. We are out of our depth, our knowledge, and our control once we open the doors to the supernatural.

The only openings that are safe for us are the ones God has approved: revelation, prayer, His own miracles, sacraments, and primarily Christ Himself. He has made a straight and safe road for us from earth to Heaven, through the dark woods of the innumerable, unknowable, and unpredictable spiritual forces that are to us as fire to an infant or a juggernaut to an ant.

The danger is not physical but spiritual, and spiritual danger always centers on deception. The Devil is “a liar and the father of lies”. He disguises himself “as an angel of light”.

Nevertheless, without our action or invitation, the dead often do appear to the living. There is enormous evidence of “ghosts” in all cultures. What are we to make of them? Surely we should not classify the appearances of the wives of C. S. Lewis and Sheldon Vanauken, just to take two Christian examples, as demonic?

We can distinguish three kinds of ghosts, I believe.

First, the most familiar kind: the sad ones, the wispy ones. They seem to be working out some unfinished earthly business, or suffering some purgatorial purification until released from their earthly, business. These ghosts would seem to be the ones who just barely made it to Purgatory, who feel little or no joy yet and who need to learn many painful lessons about their lives on earth.

Second, there are malicious and deceptive spirits – and since they are deceptive, they hardly ever appear malicious. These are probably the ones who respond to conjurings at séances. They probably come from Hell. Even the chance of that happening should be sufficient to terrify away all temptation to necromancy.

Third, there are the bright, happy spirits of dead friends and family, especially spouses, who appear unbidden, at God’s will, not ours, with messages of hope and love. They seem to come from Heaven.

Unlike the purgatorial ghosts who come back primarily for their own sakes, these bright spirits come back for the sake of us the living, to tell us all is well. They are aped by evil spirits who say the same, who speak “peace, peace, when there is no peace”. But deception works only one way: the fake can deceive by appearing genuine, but the genuine never deceives by appearing fake.

Heavenly spirits always convince us that they are genuinely good. Even the bright spirits appear ghostlike to us because a ghost of any type is one whose substance does not belong in or come from this world. In Heaven these spirits are not ghosts but real, solid, and substantial because they are at home there. “One can’t be a ghost in one’s own country.”

That there are all three kinds of ghosts is enormously likely. Even taking into account our penchant to deceive and to be deceived, our credulity and our fakery, there remain so many trustworthy accounts of all three types of ghosts – trustworthy by every ordinary empirical and psychological standard – that only a dogmatic a priori prejudice against them could prevent us from believing they exist.

As Chesterton says, “We believe an old apple-woman when she says she ate an apple; but when she says she saw a ghost we say, ‘But she’s only an old apple-woman.’“ A most undemocratic and unscientific prejudice.

Ghosts and demons
The Catholic Church on the occult
Dabbling on the occult takes toll on youth