Posted on 04/05/2014 1:56:50 PM PDT by NYer
From The Catholic Herald:
The Dominican sister who gave a presentation on sexuality to students at Charlotte Catholic High School that sparked controversy among students and parents last month is taking a sabbatical from teaching and canceling her other speaking engagements.
The presentation March 21 by Dominican Sister Jane Dominic Laurel of Nashville, Tenn., entitled “Masculinity and Femininity: Difference and Gift,” drew the ire of hundreds of students and parents over the past two weeks, and their emotions boiled over during a parents meeting with school and diocesan leaders Wednesday night.
Sister Jane has a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, and her presentation at Charlotte Catholic was based on a series of instructional videos she created for Aquinas College in Nashville where she is an associate professor. She gave similar talks to youths and parents at St. Mark Church in Huntersville on March 23 and gave a related talk at Charlotte Catholic High School last fall.
In an April 4 statement, the president of Aquinas College defended the school’s curriculum and Sister Jane’s credentials as a theologian, but acknowledged that the portion of Sister Jane’s presentation of social science data about the alleged causes of same-sex attraction – which prompted many of the concerns from parents and students – was outside the scope of her academic background.
The statement reads in part:
“We believe it is our privilege to bring the best aspects of our faith tradition to bear on the moral and cultural questions of the present age. In her presentation, Sister Jane Dominic spoke clearly on matters of faith and morals. Her deviation into realms of sociology and anthropology was beyond the scope of her expertise. Sister is a trained theologian from a Pontifical University and has the credentials to contribute to scholarly bodies of work. This she has done in the past with distinction. The unfortunate events at Charlotte Catholic High School are not representative of the quality of Sister’s academic contributions or the positive influence that she has had on her students. The students at Charlotte Catholic were unprepared, as were their parents, for the topic that Sister was asked to deliver. The consequence was a complete misrepresentation of the school’s intention to bring a message that would enlighten and bring freedom and peace.”
Read the rest of the statement.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
A crowd protests against the Truth and presto, chango, there's an apology for the Truth causing "harm".
I'm no longer surprised that all the English Bishops save one went along with Henry the VIII essentially declaring himself Pope of a new religion. At least in the US we're doing a little better than that on the percentage of Bishops who have joined the All American "go along to get along" substitute for Christianity.
Is that her in the photo?
Racists!
I was just ranting at my husband about how infuriated I am by the way Aquinas College has treated St. Jane Dominic. I could be disturbed about the students, upset at the parents, dismayed at the invertebrate bishop --- but Aquinas College! These are the Nashville Dominicans, for God's sake! These are the "New Orthodox," Catholic with a capital C, countercultural, intellectually prepared people we were hoping would be able to carry the banners of Christ's Truth.
I have to research and write about this, and my stomach is all knots. I keep bursting into tears,
While praying for Sr. Jane Dominic (may God raise up 10,000 Jane Dominics), please spare a prayer for me.
One of the seminal books of Liberation Theology is "Marx and the Bible" by José Porfirio Miranda --- I read it in the early 70's but still remember the way he put forth his theme. In fact the Bible is FULL of concern for the poor, sometimes called just that ("the poor") and sometimes categorized as "the widow, the orphan, and the sojourners in the land." Go to a Bible search engine and give it a spin: it's a truly pervasive Biblical theme.
And it carried right through from Deuteronomy, the Prophets of Israel, the Gospels and Epistles, the Fathers of the Church, the Lives of the Saints, etc. etc.
HOWEVER. The category "the poor" has been mishandled in a Marxist-toned ideological way. There's the "interesting poor" (a distinct sociological class, the proletariat and lumpenproletariat, felons, Third Worlders, etc.) and the "unintersting poor" (dispossessed white Zimbabweans, murdered Cambodians, starving Soviet kulaks, Ukrainians, North Koreans, and oh, Down Syndrome people, your insurance-less underemployed Republican aunt and uncle, etc.)
The secular response to the poor is almost always entirely materialistic and skewed by the crudest partisanship; and it mostly centers on reducing them to, or maintaining them in, a degrading state of lifetime dependency.
All this is 100% unBiblical, unChristian, ands frankly unCatholic, if you go by the actual doctrines of the Church.
But the clerical and lay bureaucracy of the Church are very much the swarming grandchildren of Jose Porfirio Miranda.
Hard to see how to turn this around, except by God Almighty treating us with tough love like in most of the OT (famine and foreign conquest) and God Almighty raising up exemplary saints.
Oremus.
Of course you’re right. Let me put it another way. It was a shameful and dissapointing action. Steve said it better than I could.
I feel the same way. The closest I ever got to the hierarchy was being an altar boy. Over time I had no use for the professional Catholics or those who hung around the Church gladhanding and back slapping. Not my kind of Catholicism.
Thanks for your thoughtful and informative reply. You’ve obviously given this a great deal of thought over an extended period of time.
I think, however, I must still take exception with your fundamental assumption that the Bible is “full” of concern for the poor. There are places where it figures prominently, but is really very far from a dominant theme.
I read the Bible in its entirety three times in my teens and early twenties, so I am rusty but not unfamiliar with it. Just now, to refresh my memory for the sake of the point I’d like to make, I did a very quick browse through the entire Old Testament, scanning every ten pages or so, and never once did I catch the word “poor” anywhere. Literally, it was entirely about the Lord and the people of Israel, and the relationship and covenant between them, and nothing else. That’s it. The major stories of Genesis and Exodus, the Ten Commandments, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Kings, Chronicles, Job, The Psalms, the books of the prophets, etc. - although general righteousness is occasionally brought up, this is simply not a treatise on “the poor.”
Next, the New Testament? Same thing when I scanned that. The Gospels are not about “the poor,” nor is Acts, nor the letters of Paul and others, and certainly not Revelations. This is about the new covenant with the Trinity, and a correspondingly revised view of righteousness with a greater emphasis on love. But again, this love is not merely “concern for the poor,” but is tempered by a deeper, truer wisdom that prevents a merely sentimental or manipulative approach to the suffering of others.
I still maintain that, while the Bible does offer moral guidance for living a righteous life that is pleasing to God, and while our actions towards the poor (and all others as well, BTW) are part of that moral code, the Bible is so very, very far from and so infinitely greater than a Marxist treatise on “helping the poor,” that the Catholic Church should never have allowed such dangerous nonsense to even get the slightest foothold in their theology or practice.
I think you and I are probably saying the same sort of thing, just with viewpoints and emphases that, while different, are likely well within the margin of error. Again, thanks for your thoughtful reply, and the push to go back and again peruse The Bible. You might have even spurred a complete re-reading and reconsideration.
I was thinking much the same thing. Homo-facism, or mafia winning by in-timid-ation twice in one week. Some orgs and companies needs to stand up to these facists and defend the refusal to treat an immoral behavior of a perverse kind as a civil right, not bend over to them.
A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring. (Proverbs 25:26)
That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick [that affirms homosexual relations], ye fall down and worship the golden image [the flag of Sodom] that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up: (Daniel 3:5)
And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth [homosexuals are a protected elite class] shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. (Daniel 3:6)
And which also works to keep sodomites from salvation.
Within the US Catholic Church, only sporadic pockets of episcopal resistance remain. The majority of bishops are unprepared to defend the faith at the price of personal suffering.
Even within the most conservative class of Prots, there are relative few who will dare to be a Daniel, and dare to stand alone; dare to have a purpose strong, and dare to make it known. May I and all be such.
Dearest Mrs. Don-o, I will pray for your peace of Mind during this crisis, and continue to pray for Sr. Jane.
It is VERY upsetting when those “in authority”, whom we trust, show either spineless cowardice or even outright betrayal. It is a cold slap in the face to folks who have kept the faith for their whole lives, obeyed the rules, and have struggled to overcome temptation and be a Witness for Christ in a sinful world. Perhaps it is the ultimate test of our own steadfast devotion to Christ to “endure until the end”. I am reminded of the story of the Good Samaritan. It was the Religious Leaders who passed by before the Samaritan came along. The Samaritan did not complain about the previous characters who passed by. He just “Took Care of Business.”
In my own branch of the Christian Faith, I see this kind of betrayal a LOT. It seems as if even a “little” bit of spiritual authority goes right to people’s heads and makes them arrogant and self-serving. I guess it is our “JOB” (pun intended!) to endure and not lose faith.
(((((Prayers and Hugs))))))
Of course I continue to bitch about it, and I pray almost despairingly (but I then I ask God to heal the despair along with everything else) --- but I do not take one constructive action.
But then --- am I not the single individual most strategically, most ideally placed to do something powerfully effective? That is, I am a sinner on my knees!
Wrong. You encouraged your husband to nag you about this. You are to write a letter to Aquinas College and then find the highest profile Catholic media you can to publish it.
Consider yourself nagged.
xoxoxoxo
What a loss.
Sister Jane did no wrong — she only told the truth. Her source — John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body.”
Prayers for her.
You are a true “power couple”!!
Well, Amen to THAT! :-)
And being “Morally Outraged” isn’t really a fault, as it leads to Prayer, and Prayer leads to miracles.
If more people channeled their outrage into prayer, would not the whole world be a better place?
So???
What did she actually SAY???
Then will YOU leave the 'sympathizers' in power?
What will YOU do to make sure that TRUTH is not watered down?
I love the smell of brimstone in the morning!
Sounds like their little minds of mush choked over the catechism lessons!
The Health Risks of gay sex.
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/homosexuality/ho0075.html
Genesis 18:20-21
20. Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous
21. that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."
Genesis 19:4-7
4. Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom--both young and old--surrounded the house.
5. They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."
6. Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him
7. and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing.
Isaiah 3:9 The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves.
2 Peter 2:13b Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.
Ezekiel 16:49-50
49. "`Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.
50. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.
1. But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves.
2. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
3. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
4. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment;
5. if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;
6. if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;
7. and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men
8. (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)--
9. if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.
10. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings;
11. yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord.
12. But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
13. They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.
But there IS hope!!!
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
9. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:
Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
10. nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
If you could NOT change, you would be in most pitiful shape...
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