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elizabeth westhoff

Category Archives: Catholic

It’s November: Get Busy!

30 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by Elizabeth Westhoff in Art, Catholic, Prayer, Uncategorized

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dead, death, militant, Prayer, purgatory, suffering, triumphant

William-Adolphe_Bouguereau_(1825-1905)_-_The_Day_of_the_Dead_(1859)

We are entering into the month of November which, in the Catholic Church, is dedicated to the souls of those in Purgatory. We should all be busying ourselves with nonstop prayer for the souls of the faithful departed every time we pass a cemetery or have a spare moment to offer a quick prayer for them.

First, let’s be clear on what the Church teaches—there is a Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell and, depending on the state of your soul at death, you will spend eternity in one of two and, possibly some amount of time in the other. The Church’s teaching on this is explicit and is beautifully addressed in Lumen Gentium, n. 48,  “Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed (cf. Heb 9: 27), we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where ‘men will weep and gnash their teeth’ (Mt 22: 13 and 25: 30)’.”

The “Gentleman Saint” and Doctor of the Church, St. Francis de Sales, reminds us that during the time we are allotted on earth, we must live in a way that will prepare us for death, “Happy are they who, being always on their guard against death, find themselves always ready to die.”

We must be ready for death, because we have no idea when it will come. To enter Heaven, every single trace of sin must be eliminated, purged from the soul. As we know from what Our Lord suffered in His Passion and Crucifixion, the purging of sin is no small task.

Despite lack of popular usage, the terms “Church Triumphant, Militant, and Suffering” are still completely accurate descriptions of the different states of the Mystical Body of Christ of which we are all a part. We are brothers and sisters in the Lord, and beloved daughters and sons of the Father. Just as we pray for our earthly family, so, too, must we pray for our spiritual family as it exists in its various stages.

The Church Triumphant can be of great assistance to us in our prayers. They are already in Heaven, face-to-face with the Beatific Vision and can intercede for us, the Church Militant.

We are the Church Militant, because, as the etymology of the phrase tells us, we are the Church on earth, engaged in warfare with the devil, the flesh, and worldly powers of temptation and unrighteousness.

The Church Suffering are those souls who are being purged of any remaining attachment to sin that existed at their separation from their corporal body. It should be remembered that Purgatory is not eternal, it is the threshold to Heaven. St. Augustine of Hippo, Father and Doctor of the Church, in The City of God instructs us that “temporal punishments are suffered by some in this life only, by some after death, by some both here and hereafter, but all of them before that last and strictest judgment. But not all who suffer temporal punishments after death will come to eternal punishments, which are to follow after that judgment.”

It is our duty, privilege, and honor as Catholics to pray for those who are being purged of their last attachment to sin. We pray for their deliverance so that, as the Church Triumphant, they may pray for us.

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On children and the kingdom of God

08 Tuesday May 2018

Posted by Elizabeth Westhoff in Catholic, Faith, Mass, Pop Culture, Uncategorized

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child, children, Faith, Mass

Originally published:  May 8, 2018

The same weekend Alfie Evans passed from this life to the next, I spent the weekend at Child's Faith Christian Stock Photosmy sister’s house, babysitting my niece. My weekend was filled to the brim with all things childhood. As a single woman with no children, I found the entire weekend both utterly exhausting and spectacular. While I spent the weekend buying huge milkshakes, glow-in-the-dark punch balloons and jewelry that had strawberry scented lip-gloss hidden somewhere in its form, my thoughts occasionally returned to poor little Alfie and his parents. Like many others, I had followed the Alfie Evans story with great concern and prayers. I couldn’t help but to keep juxtaposing the facts of his case with the trappings of the culture of death in which we currently live.

In our culture, the prevailing argument is that a woman has complete control over her body as well as any life that takes root in her womb. However, that argument — which is held up as almost divinely inspired — didn’t apply in the case of Alfie Evans. Alfie’s parents had no control over his body. Fight, pray, argue and plead as they might, the government was the decision-maker when it came to what was to be done with and to little Alfie’s body.

Although they received assistance from the Italian government, the Vatican, and the pope himself, in the end, there was nothing Alfie’s parents could do for him. Alfie’s life support was turned off on April 23, after a final legal plea by his parents was rejected. Alfie died five days later on April 28. His death was a striking reminder that, young or old, we are only here temporarily. We are God’s children, and He will call us home in His own time.

My niece is a bit of a precocious child, is exceedingly well-behaved and is deeply Catholic. Anyone who knows me knows I adore her. As her aunt, I make sure to always have pens, small bills and gum in my purse. As her godmother, I make sure to ask God for her protection, for her growth in the faith, and that, along with her parents, I will be a good example that will help her one day enter into the kingdom of heaven.

On Sunday, we went to Mass. My niece was, as usual, very well-behaved and participated appropriately. Twice she tugged at my arm to ask me a question about something. I kept my answers brief, indicating that, while I appreciated her questions about the faith, the middle of Mass wasn’t be the best time to ask them.

During the consecration of the host, I felt a tug, I shook my head no, but undeterred, she tugged again, “Are all the angels up there right now?” she whispered. I nodded my head in the affirmative, paraphrasing for her what St. Gregory said, “The heavens open and multitudes of angels come to assist at the Holy Sacrifice.” A sweet smile was her response. Her question, her 8-year-old faith, was an indescribably beautiful gift to me on that Sunday morning.

Since Alfie’s death, there have been many posts on social media stating that “Heaven has a new angel.” While a well-meaning sentiment, it’s untrue because humans don’t turn into angels when we die. I presume; however, that heaven does have the soul of 2-year-old Alfie Evans and that he, along with the choirs of angels, are now sharing in the Beatific Vision. I pray that the angels and Alfie will intercede on my behalf and that someday, my niece and I will share in seeing the angels she so lovingly thought of at Mass when she had the faith of a child.

The Sacrilege of the Body as a Receptacle

29 Wednesday Nov 2017

Posted by Elizabeth Westhoff in Catholic, Pop Culture, sex, Uncategorized

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Catholic, Faith, marriage, sex

 Originallysexual_revolution.png published:  11.29.2017

Since the early drops that would become the recent deluge of “outing” sexual impropriety began to fall, Malcolm Muggeridge, a British journalist and satirist who died in 1990 at age 87, has been on my mind a great deal. Muggeridge, a nearly life-long agnostic who was received into the Catholic Church at the age of 79, once wrote, “Sex…the ersatz or substitute religion of the 20th Century…is the mysticism of materialism and the only possible religion in a materialistic society.”

To take Muggeridge’s suggestion further, I would offer that, if sex has become the substitute religion of the 20th Century, then relativism has become its rule of life. Instead of emptying of ourselves in order to follow a path that will fill us with a love of God and a respect for how He has made us in His own image, the relativism rule of life has filled the culture with a deep love of itself and a conviction that there is no absolute truth.

Prior to the 1960 FDA approval of the birth control pill and the subsequent sexual revolution in the culture, the prevailing understanding was that sexual intercourse between a man and a woman led to pregnancy. With the arrival of the pill, contraception was officially divorced from the sexual act. Sex didn’t need to lead to pregnancy. Women were finally given the freedom to do with their bodies whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. With this freedom was the implicit invitation that men could do as they wished with women’s bodies, sexually, and there would be no unwanted consequences, i.e., pregnancy. It became the culture’s truth that sex was no longer marital, unitive, or procreative.

In his February 20, 1980 Theology of the Body address, Pope John Paul II stated, “The body, and it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God [God’s love for man], and thus to be a sign of it.”

Contraception, abortion, and pornography have all led to the cultural metamorphosing of women as simply receptacles to be used and discarded rather than the “spiritual and divine” as St. John Paul II discussed. When a person ceases to believe in his or her own dignity as being made in God’s likeness, then the idea that that person is simply a utilitarian sexual tool existing for the gratification of another will become a truth. In his book, Love and Responsibility, then Karol Wojtyla wrote, “A person’s rightful due is to be treated as an object of love, not as an object for use…Treating a person as a means to an end, and an end moreover which in this case is pleasure, the maximization of pleasure, will always stand in the way of love.” With the sexual liberation of women came the sexual enslavement of them.

Let me be perfectly clear, I am blaming neither women nor men for this Kafkaesque transformation. The hypersexualization of nearly every aspect of our culture is due simply to the fact that we are living a post-lapsarian existence where Adam and Eve first realized the naked human body and by which mankind has been titillated ever since. The human person and the marriage act are perceived by our post-Christian culture not as a divinely created being and an intimate, unifying act capable of producing new life, but as objects that exist for our increasingly depraved—as we see in recent studies on pornography—sexual appetites.

The #MeToo campaign seems to have been the match to the powder keg of this sexual harassment allegation explosion in which the likes of Weinstein, Spacey, and Lauer, among others have been immolated. This tag which those who had felt the effects of being perceived as simply an object of sexual gratification used to self-identify as being victims of a full-on assault to recipients of inappropriate comments, filled social media timelines across the country, including my friends, family, and even my own social media account. It was people proclaiming that enough was enough and that the culture finally had to address this sexually driven deviancy that had been allowed to fester for so long.

Unfortunately, I fear that a hash tag simply isn’t the correct weapon in this particular fight. When life in the very womb can be deemed as unworthy of respect, why should we think that our bodies, our sexuality, our relationships with one another should merit any more respect.

Muggeridge once wrote, “The orgasm has replaced the Cross as the focus of longing and the image of fulfillment.” To quote Love and Responsibility once more, “Limitation of one’s freedom might seem to be something negative and unpleasant, but love makes it a positive, joyful and creative thing. Freedom exists for the sake of love.” Until we focus our thoughts, our actions, our longings on God, we will continue to see our bodies and the bodies of others as simply the vessel of that which brings us selfish, fleeting fulfillment.

Surely not I…

12 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by Elizabeth Westhoff in Catholic, Lent, Sin, Uncategorized

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Catholic, Easter, Faith, Lent, Sin, Triduum

Today is spywedWednesday of Holy Week–Holy Wednesday, or, as I prefer, “Spy Wednesday.”

Those who know me know that Lent, and in particular Holy Week and the Triduum, are my favorite time of the Liturgical calendar. I think this is because of my tendency toward the melancholic. Also, if done correctly, it has the best, most heart-rending, beautiful music of the year…

I love “Spy Wednesday.” I’m sure it stems from my background in literature. No one could create a character like Judas Iscariot without divine inspiration. But beyond the great “character” Judas turns out to be, and beyond his “storyline,” he is also a key figure
–or should be– for each of us with regard to our own salvation.

How many times do we, post-lapsarian men and women that we are, sin and convince ourselves that what we did wasn’t all that bad, that everyone does it, that Jesusilver-coins-judas-money-450x338s loves me no matter what I do (which is true, but there are rules and consequences to sin), or that we can still receive Holy Communion with the stain of sin on our souls? How many times do we mock God, hurt Jesus, disappoint the Holy Spirit with our actions or inaction? How many times do we, like Judas, gamble with our very souls by trading what should be an overwhelming love for our Lord for whatever cheap, greasy pieces of silver the culture throws at us?

How many times does the Lord turn to us pained because of our offenses, from the wounds we have inflicted upon Him, and all we have to say is, “Surely not I!”

Tomorrow begins the Triduum, the Passion of the Lord. Reflect on it. Reflect on yourself. Make the most of this most glorious and blessed Holy Week so that when your time comes you can look at Jesus and say, “No. Not I, Lord.”

 

BRING BACK THE PIE!

03 Tuesday Jan 2017

Posted by Elizabeth Westhoff in Catholic, Holidays, Religion

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Christmas

(The following is a blog post I wrote 12.26.16, but is applicable today.)

christmaspiegirlgraphicsfairy004bThe majority of Catholics have fallen into the same mindset as the general culture when it comes to the schedule of celebrating holidays.

Easter doesn’t suffer as much as Christmas, presumably because Easter isn’t a major retail holiday season, so the stakes aren’t as high, economically speaking. Sure, McDonald’s does a big business in fish sandwiches during Lent, and Cadbury gets its share due to goo-filled chocolate eggs.

Christmastide is greatly abused and forgotten these days, to say nothing of poor Advent.

Starting today, we enter the REAL Christmas season. Just as the rest of the world is putting away their decorations and throwing their trees in ponds, Catholics are just getting started…or should be. Santa has come and gone, but our 40-day celebration of the Infant Christ and His Holy Family begin now.

Fisheaters.com lays it out the traditional celebration very nicely for us:

The entire Christmas Cycle is a crescendo of Christ’s manifesting Himself as God and King — to the shepherds, to the Magi, at His Baptism, to Simeon and the prophetess, Anna (Luke 2). The days from the Feast of the Nativity to the Epiphany are known as “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” with Christmas itself being the first day, and Twelfthnight — 5 January — being the last of the twelve days. Christmastide liturgically ends on 13 January, the Octave of the Epiphany and the Baptism of Christ (at which time the season of Time After Epiphany begins). But Christmas doesn’t end spiritually — i.e., the celebration of the events of Christ’s life as a child don’t end, and the great Christmas Cycle doesn’t end — until Candlemas on 2 February and the beginning of the Season of Septuagesima.

Christmas: Christ is born
Feast of the Holy Innocents: Herod slaughters the baby boys in order to kill the Christ Child
The Circumcision (the Octave of Christmas): Jesus follows the Law
Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus: After He is circumcised, He is named and becomes a part of the Holy Family
Twelfth Night: The Twelve Days of Christmas as a Feast come to an end
Feast of the Epiphany: Jesus reveals His divinity to the three Magi, and during His Baptism, and at the wedding at Cana
Baptism of Our Lord/Octave of the Epiphany: Christmas liturgically ends with the Octave of the Epiphany.
Feast of the Holy Family: Jesus condescends to be subject to His parents
Feast of the Purification (Candlemas): 40 days after giving birth, Mary goes to the Temple to be purified and to “redeem” Jesus per the Old Testament Law of the firstborn. Christmas truly ends as a Season with Candlemas and the beginning of Septuagesima.

So, now that you know that we are just starting Christmas, pull out the ham, bring back the pie, return the ribbon candy, and don’t take down the tree! We have a lot to celebrate. Besides, a 40-day celebration of our eternal salvation hardly seems adequate.

Merry Christmas!

A CATHOLIC VIEW OF INVESTING

11 Sunday Sep 2016

Posted by Elizabeth Westhoff in Catholic, RADIO, Uncategorized

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RADIO

u s dollar bills pin down on the ground

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

This past week I was happy to be able to fill in for my friend, Wendy Wiese, on her radio show, “On Call with Wendy Wiese” on the Catholic station Relevant Radio.

On Thursday, September 8, 2016, I was happy to talk about what Catholics should know when investing their money.

Craig Siminski is a Certified Financial Planner® dealing with goal focused investment planning.

To listen to my interview with Craig, click here.

DEATH AND DISAPPOINTMENT…

16 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by Elizabeth Westhoff in Catholic, Prayer, Ugh..., Uncategorized

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death, Faith

11226052_10153738386664042_4360469763915551439_n

In the wake of the attacks on Paris, the social media sphere erupted with outrage, sadness, fear, check-ins, news reports, and first-hand posts from those who had experienced the slaughter first-hand.

No more than 24 hours later, the complaining started.

First it was the Catholics complaining that the use of the French tricolor flag to show support for France was unbecoming for use by any Catholic who was worth his salt.

Then it was reported that university students were complaining that the Paris bombings were stealing attention away from their protests.

Then it was those who complained that all the coverage of the attacks was giving Islam a bad rap.

Then it was the Russians, Lebanese, and Africans who complained that the recent attacks on their soil didn’t get any attention. Where were their Facebook check-ins and profile picture overlays? The New York Times quoted, “no one cares when it happens in those places, where it’s expected.”

#don't_pray_for_ParisThen a cartoonist from the recently attacked Charlie Hebdo complained via Instagram that people were praying for Paris.

Here’s something I’d like all of us to stop and consider for a moment; 132 people were massacred on Friday night. Are the above points worthy of consideration? Absolutely. However, what is correct isn’t always appropriate.

“…he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth.” (IS 53:7)

Notre Dame de Paris, pray for the people of your city! Our Lady of Grace, you who showed yourself to Saint Catherine Laboure and brought miracles, who smiled upon Saint Therese of Lisieux and created a missionary, in your holy Motherhood, please intercede for your fearful and endangered people; bring your consolations to the people of Paris and all of France. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, hear us. 

web-paris-notre-dam-eiffel-mauricio-lima-cc

Saint Therese of Lisieux, Patron of France, pray for them
Saint Joan of Arc, Patron of France, pray for them.
Saint Martin of Tours, Patron of France, pray for them
Saint Remigius, Patron of France pray for them
Saint John Vianney pray for them
Saint Jeanne Jugan pray for them
Saint St Genevieve pray for them
Saint Denis pray for them
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux pray for them
Saint Germain Cousin pray for them
Saint Peter Julian Eymard pray for them
Saint Louis pray for them
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque pray for them
Saint Peter Fourier pray for them
Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat pray for them
Saints Louis and Zelie Martin pray for them
Saint Jane Frances de Chantal pray for them
Saint Catherine Laboure pray for them
Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne pray for them
Saint John Eudes pray for them
Saint Vincent de Paul pray for them
Saint Hilary of Poitiers pray for them
Saint Isaac Jogues pray for them
Saint Jane de Chantal pray for them
Saint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle pray for them
Saint Benedict Joseph Labre pray for them

Coptic Martyrs, victims of ISIS, pray for them

All you holy men and women, pray for France, and pray for us.

St. Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou,
O Prince of the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan,
and all the evil spirits,
who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Litany from Elizabeth Scalia’s post at aletiea.com

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OH THE HUMANITY…

28 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by Elizabeth Westhoff in Catholic, Church Militant, pro-life, Ugh..., Uncategorized

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abortion, Pop Culture, pro-life

The following is just my own version of the somewhat hackneyed phrase, “Oh the humanity!” that was uttered by American radio reporter, Herbert Morrison; overwhelmed at the sight of the Hindenburg exploding above his head. There is simply too much to try to process regarding the recent videos that have finally brought to light the enormity that is Planned Parenthood. So, please excuse this blog. Try as I might, I find that I cannot organize my thoughts about this topic enough to have them make much sense. –Elizabeth

 

In the last couple of weeks, videos have surfaced of Planned Parenthood “medical” officials casually discussing the harvesting and sale of body parts from aborted babies over casual lunches and matter-of-factly separating the wheat from the chaff of the tiny, harvested body parts.

Almost as soon as the videos started going viral on social media, so, too, did the rebuttals that the videos were fakes, that the means by which they were attained were unethical, that we should be careful in our approach to discuss these videos.

The fact of the matter is that we as human beings, and certainly we as Catholics, should be so horrified, so disgusted, so ashamed by what we heard discussed and what we have now seen in these videos, that we should be rendered speechless, both from terror and from tears.

We No Longer Fear

As a society, we no longer fear anything.

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There was a time when stories about and images like these here horrified and frightened man. Not quite in the same way that horror movies of today frighten us, but in a way that forced the viewer to look into his own heart and consider, even if just for a moment, whether or not what he saw within that organ was the same sort of evil he had just heard in the story or saw in the image before him.

Today we, who are ever so sophisticated, who have smugly intellectualized God right out of existence, look at these images and find them cartoonish and over the top.

We, all of us, have become anesthetized, to one degree or another, to the horrific, to the dreadful, perhaps even to evil itself.

03-Goya-Saturn-Devouring-His-Son

Francisco Goya: Saturn Devouring His Son

Now, more than ever, we should be afraid–very afraid. “Vengeance is Mine, and retribution, In due time their foot will slip; For the day of their calamity is near, And the impending things are hastening upon them.” –God

 

We are the sum of our whole and our whole is currently rotten to the core and the collective is too blind and too ignorant to see it.

Too Smart to Believe in Satan

I think I can safely say most of us don’t act upon homicidal ideation. What then of the homicidal functionaries of Planned Parenthood we see in the videos? Were they born evil? Are they possessed? Are they criminally insane? The answer I hear most often regarding the workers in this diabolic vineyard is, “No. They just don’t understand what they’re doing.”

Whether they do or do not, their actions are evil and they themselves are the purveyors of evil; carrying out their acts in the name of enlightenment, with the same cannibalistic ferocity of Saturn in the painting by Goya.

Charles Baudelaire is credited as saying, “My dear brothers, never forget, when you hear the progress of enlightenment vaunted, that the devil’s best trick is to persuade you that he doesn’t exist!” I think we can all agree, finally, that he does, indeed, exist and resides within the walls of Planned Parenthood and within the hearts of many who do its work.

“Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Pet 5:8)

Watch these videos. I implore you. Yes, they are graphic. Yes, they are upsetting. Yes, they are going to haunt you…and they should. We must do everything we can to wake ourselves and those around us from the drugged stupor in which we are walking nowadays. We must be a witness to these lost lives. We must be a voice for them. We must be a voice crying out to Heaven!

The culture in which we now live is the excrement produced when pride and arrogance gorge on too much stupidity, ignorance, indifferentism, passivity, and moral relativism. We as Catholics must heed the words of St. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein), who was witness to another great holocaust of humanity, when she tells us, “The nation doesn’t simply need what we have. It needs what we are.” Indeed.

May God have mercy on us.

Marriage Is…

26 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by Elizabeth Westhoff in Catholic, marriage, Uncategorized

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culture, marriage

As you probably know by now, this morning the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that states cannot ban same-sex marriage.

marriage-convenant-730x250The definition of marriage has been changed in the law of the land.

However, regardless of today’s SCOTUS ruling, for us Catholics, the definition of marriage as a sacramental institution of marriage remains unchanged: The union of man and woman in marriage is a way of imitating in the flesh the Creator’s generosity and fecundity: ‘Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.’ All human generations proceed from this union. ‐Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2335

In the coming days, you will, no doubt, find yourself engaged in conversation, heated debates, question and answer sessions with loved ones, friends, foes… Understand that the Church isn’t against anyone’s right to the pursuit of happiness; however, She has certain teachings that cannot change to meet the approval of the culture in which She resides and that these teachings exist in order for all God’s children to live in happiness and holiness in this life so that we can live with Him in the next.

Holy Family, pray for us.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS RULES AND EXPECTATIONS. THANK GOD.

11 Thursday Sep 2014

Posted by Elizabeth Westhoff in Catholic, Pop Culture, Religion, Right on, Uncategorized

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In 2005, the United Auto Workers issued a statement regarding Marine reservists who were using a UAW parking lot that read, in part, “While Reservists certainly have the right to drive non-union made vehicles…that doesn’t mean they have the right to park in a lot owned by the members of the UAW.”

Coke/PepsiIf you are an employee of PepsiCo. and are seen drinking a Coca-Cola product in public, you can be, and should expect to be, formally reprimanded by the company.

Last month, a Glendale police officer was fired after writing on his personal Facebook page that the protesters in Ferguson should be “put down like rabid dogs” and were “a burden on society and a blight on the community.”

Instead of outrage, protests, or letters to editors, people were pleased the officer was removed from his office. His behavior was not appropriate for his office so he was removed from it.

Imagine if a person were to interview for and accept a position at Planned Parenthood, out himself as anti-abortion and then become outraged when Planned Parenthood didn’t stop providing abortions. Would the community support him for his beliefs? Would there be public outrage that Planned Parenthood wasn’t open-minded or catering to its employee’s beliefs? Would there be media scrutiny?

Of course not.  How absurd.

If a person actively seeks out employment within a Catholic institution, he should understand and expect that the basic tenets of the Faith will be promulgated and; hopefully, upheld in that institution.

Catholic institutions and people who are employed by Catholic institutions should be held to a much higher standard. Catholics have a right to expect our institutions and employees be held to a higher standard. Catholics should be pleased that our institutions and employees are held accountable for their actions.  Catholics should support our institutions and employees for adhering to these standards.

If we as the Church do not hold firm to our beliefs and our traditions; if we do not intend to teach the Faith, to propagate the Faith, to defend the Faith, then what has been the point of the last 2000 years?

In the Archdiocese of St. Louis employees sign a Christian Witness Statement upon employment with the archdiocese. This statement reads in part: “‘IndeedQuotation-Fulton-J-Sheen
the primordial mission of the Church is to proclaim God and to be His witness before the world.’  …the following Witness Statement applies to all who serve the Archdiocese of St. Louis. All who serve in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, in the parishes, schools, offices, agencies and other ministries and apostolates will witness by their public behavior, actions, and words, a life consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church.”

If you want to park on the UAW lot in Detroit, you’d better not drive a non-union made car.  If you want to work for PepsiCo., you’d better not drink Coke.  If you want to be a police officer, you’d better not suggest anyone should be “put down”. If you want to work for the Catholic Church, you can’t live a life that publicly defies Her teachings.

 Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle.
-Saint Paul to the Thessalonians.

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