Thursday, June 2, 2016

Expose from a Reader : The Just Faith program is not Catholic


Occasionally I get queries about different parish programs and whether or not they are "safe" for parish use. Case in point is the JustFaith program, put on by Just Faith Ministries. Just Faith was founded in 1989 by a fellow by the name of Jack Jezreel, which is an interesting name from a Biblical standpoint; the Valley of Jezreel was where King Jehu had the apostate Queen Jezebel slain (2 Kings 9:1-10); it is also the location of the Battle of Armageddon at the end of time. But I digress. The program's website states:
JustFaith Ministries provides programs that transform people and expand their commitment to social ministry. Through these life-changing opportunities, members of a church or parish can study, explore and experience Christ’s call to care for the poor and vulnerable in a lively, challenging, multifaceted process in the context of a small faith community.
Have any of you come across the JustFaith program in your parishes or dioceses? Here is a run down of the program and some of its problems from Phyllis Sower. Mrs. Sower has practiced law for 33 years, now part-time, in Franklin County, KY. She is the co-founder and principal of Our Lady of Guadalupe Academy/Corpus Christi High School in Simpsonville, KY. and recently exposed the JustFaith program for the Los Pequenos Pepper publication in the Diocese of Santa Fe. So, is the JustFaith program Catholic? The following is from her article:
"I had already heard a little about the JustFaith program and some concerns regarding it just prior to the time that two members of our parish came to me to share their concerns. One of them had enrolled in the course and brought to me the full set of materials she purchased for the course requesting that I review it. I submit herein the results of my review in a spirit of fraternal correction and concern and to assist pastors and lay persons who lack time to read all the materials; a close examination of the program by the competent ecclesiastical authority is warranted to determine the advisability of its continued use.

In short, the program is a product of liberation theology and promotes the ordination of women, recognition of homosexual marriage, the feminization of God, extreme pacifism and environmentalism, using non-Catholic and Catholic dissenters to present “Catholic Social Teaching.” The JustFaith program is a partnership effort of Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Catholic Charities USA and Catholic Relief Services. It is billed as a ministry of the Church, “an invitation to a rich spiritual journey into compassion,” to “look more closely at the troubling issues of our times through the lens of compassion and Catholic social teaching.” According to page two of the Notes to participants, week 2, the program sets out to teach the "rich tradition of Catholic Social Teaching." However, there is little reference to the encyclicals, Catechism, conciliar documents or the Summa Theologica where the Church’s authentic social teaching is to be found. (Nota Bene: one of my sons is taking a course on Catholic Social Teaching at a Catholic University; the curriculum consists of: Rerum Novarum, Mater et Magistra, Quadragessimo Anno, Pacem in Terris, Gaudium et Spes, Popularum Progressio, Octogessima Adviens, Laborens Exercens, Sollicidudo Rei Socialis, Finitessimus Annus, section 10 of the 5th Lateran Council, and sections of the Summa on Justice and Cheating/Usury).

The very opening sessions of the JustFaith program are problematic. For example, in week 2, the opening prayer invokes 21 “witnesses of hope,” including Mohandes Gandhi–“great soul of peace,” Flannery O’Connor (note: from my acquaintance with the life and writings of this great American writer, I submit that she would strenuously object to JustFaith and being prayed to for she was a devout Catholic), Thomas Merton (much of his later work was heterodox), Martin Luther King, Jr., Joseph Bernardin, Albert Schweitzer, concluding with, “All you holy men and women, salt and light for our world, Pray for us.”Attachment B of the same week lists discussion and dialogue goals, including the search for the best “view,” incorporate varied perspectives, etc. There is no reference to seeking, teaching, or understanding the truth as taught by the Church. As Pope Benedict has reiterated, “real education is not possible without the light of truth.”

There are 4 books in the program: Cloud of Witnesses by Wallis and Hollyday, Compassion by Nouwen, et al, The Challenge and Spirituality of Catholic Teaching, by Mich, and Amazing Grace by Kozol. None of them has a Nihil Obstat or Imprimatur despite the pretensions of this course to present the “rich tradition of Catholic Social Teaching.” An examination of the content of the texts reveals significant reasons there is not and should not be an official stamp of the Church’s stamp of approval on any of these books or the program.

The Cloud of Witnesses book is most revealing of the agenda of this program and of content contrary to the authentic social teaching of the Catholic Church. It is clearly stated that, “The articles and interviews in this book have been adapted from material originally published in Sojourners magazine.” The author, Jim Wallis, was founder and executive director of Sojourners. He has written in favor of gay “marriage.” The author, Joyce Hollyday, is a minister in the United Church of Christ. Sojourners is described as non-denominational according to its website, but includes left wing Catholic peace activists and dissenters, a Masonic veterans group, favors gay/lesbian partnerships, has a policy statement in favor of recognition and legal protection for the same, including gay “marriage,” and favors ordination of women, claiming five female ordinations and female bishops. This background should constitute sufficient cause to question inclusion of the book as a source of authentic Catholic Social teaching.

In addition, out of 35 articles, only 11 appear to be about known Catholics. I say “known” because the faith of some was not identifiable. For certain, most were not Catholic at all and included a Living Waters pastor, Georgia minister, Episcopal minister, Martin Luther King, Jr., Sojourner Truth, a Presbyterian pastor, a Quaker, three Baptists, one now non-denominational former Methodist then Presbyterian, a Dutch Reformed preacher and a number of others not Catholic but whose denomination was not mentioned. Among the persons featured were a draft-dodger, proponent of the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church, one pastor and his wife imprisoned for non-payment of taxes, one whose “consciousness” came from liberation theology and another who said the truth was not the captive of any enterprise or religion.

Among the Catholics featured in the book were many known dissenters such as Father Daniel Berrigan, Sr. Joan Chittister, Father Pedro Arrupe and others who criticize the Church rather than advance her authentic teachings. Some examples will suffice:
  • Joan Chitttister’s unabashed advancement of the ordination of women is championed. She said, “There’s either something wrong with the present theology of ministry, or there is something wrong with the present theology of all the sacraments. If women qualify for baptism, confirmation, salvation, and redemption, how can they be denied the sacrament of ministry?” Her arguments that women are ignored in church language and for the feminization of God are given ample play in the text.
  • Jesuit superior general Pedro Arrupe openly rejected Humanae Vitae and his “restructuring” of the Jesuits did much harm to the Order; the circumstances of his removal are unclear to me, but Pope John Paul II passed over Arrupe’s designated successor for another.
  • Father Miguel D’Escoto is not permitted to celebrate the Eucharist in public or private.

  • Father Elias Chacour, a Catholic priest and pacifist in Israel, attacked the wealth of the Church and described his despair of the institutional Church and its hierarchy.
  • Archbishop Dom Camara, who certainly sacrificed for the poor of his native Brazil, was a devotee of Gandhi and criticized the Church for its programs and priorities; at the closing session of Vatican II, he proposed that all the bishops surrender their crosses of precious metals for meltdown and distribution of the proceeds to the poor.

  • Father George Zabelka is an extreme pacifist who accuses Christianity of seventeen hundred years of terror and slaughter.
  • Journalist Penny Lernoux had distanced herself from the Church but returned in the “awakening” of Vatican II, which she described as “set to turn the Church on its head,” while she was herself under the inspiration of liberation theology.

The magisterial authority of the Church was not recognized in this book. There was a nice article on St. Francis of Assisi, who was called the “greatest saint.” This book would be perfectly suited to a study of liberation theology, which, of course, has been soundly refuted by the Church beginning with Divini Redemptoris. Pope Pius XI stated that the Church could not cooperate with Marxists. Liberation theology would divert the Church from her mission of salvation to one of social welfare agency.

One of the authors of Compassion was Henri Nouwen, who was described in Cloud of Witnesses as a Dutch priest and contributing editor to Sojourners. His funeral Mass was described in the book as a “carnival atmosphere” where actors and actresses “breathed life into the gospel reading.” In the Preface, the tone of the book is set with a quote from theologian, Gail O’Day, “Just as it is false to the richness of the Christian tradition to use father language as generic language for God, it ....” This book does more to diminish than to advance the true faith, for example:

  • The authors assert that the Gospels support reference to the “womb” of God (pp. 14-16).

  • They say we should see compassion not in moralistic terms (emphasis added; the implication is that we should disregard sin, p. 28).

  • They wrote that choosing to suffer as “an obedient response to our loving God” is, for Christians, a “false belief that in so doing they were following the way of Jesus Christ.”

  • The section on the breaking of bread omits all reference to sacrifice and the Holy Eucharist as the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ, the real presence; the sole emphasis is on community and eating bread and drinking wine as a memorial, where we become intimately connected “to the compassionate life of Christ.” (p. 111).

  • Our “bread connections” are a “call to action.” He writes that when people eat bread and drink wine in his (Christ’s) memory, "smiles appear on strained faces" (p. 132).

The Mich book has some good quotes, including some references to encyclicals and Saints, but they are interlaced with error. For example, St. Boniface’s challenge to the god Thor inspired conversions but led to the unintended consequence of “diminished awe for the sacredness of nature.” (p. 34). We are instructed that every creature, animate and inanimate, can be a “sacrament.” Life issues are discussed with no reference to the evil of contraception.

We are told that there was an early Catholic attitude, still present, that saw humans as the apex of creation and this too often led to exploitation of nature (p. 41). Quoting Sister Elizabeth Johnson, the author explains that “previous theologies would have human beings with their rational souls as superior to the natural world.” Such a ranking, he writes, easily “gives rise to arrogance, one root of the present ecological crisis.” We are told that we need ‘species humility’ (p. 43). I read this and wondered whatever happened to Genesis: man is made in the image and likeness of God and has dominion?

On pages 43-44, we read that we must “reimagine our place in creation” with these questions, each of which is directly or by implication in conflict with the truth:

  • How to preach salvation as healing and rescue for the whole world rather than as solely an individual relationship with God?

  • How to let go of contempt for matter, contempt for the body and sexuality, and how to revalue themas good and blessed?

  • How to interpret human beings as primarily “earthlings” rather than as pilgrims or tourists whose real home is elsewhere?

  • How to recognize the sacraments as symbols of divine graciousness in a universe that is itself a sacrament?

  • What kinds of new spiritualities will emerge as we become creation-centered?
The author references Familiaris Consortio, then trashes it and exposes his real agenda:
"Today, Catholic theology and spirituality does not view the love of another human being as distracting from our love of God. In fact, love of a spouse and child is viewed as participation in divine love. Sexuality is viewed in more positive terms as a gift of God to be enjoyed and celebrated within committed love and not only tolerated for the sake of procreation. These positive themes provide the starting points for a reinterpretation of marriage and family within the Catholic tradition. This revisioning is only in beginning stages. Catholicism and other Christian denominations are still working on understanding the role of women in the church and society and the meaning of committed homosexual relationships." (p. 81, emphasis added)

No sugar coating can cover the bitter taste of this poisonous error!

The Kozol book contains wrenching stories from the author’s experiences in South Bronx, significantly centered around St. Ann’s Episcopal Church with its pastor, Rev. Martha Overall, who “confesses” the children. What this book contributes to an understanding of Catholic Social Teaching is a mystery. The book is interesting private reading, although the heralding of it by Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund would have otherwise steered me clear of it.

Interestingly, both of the parishioners who brought to my attention that Just Faith was in progress at our church are converts. They are actively engaged in learning the Catholic Faith. One said to me, “Something about this (Just Faith) material is really bothering me. I don’t know why, but I am disturbed and irritated when reading it.” She wants to deepen her understanding of the true Faith; most of this material does just the opposite, leads away from it. The disturbance of the spirit is easily understandable.

We possess the truth in all its beauty, richness and wonder; we possess the authentic Magisterium. Why not use it? As the Holy Father has reminded us, real education is grounded in truth."

Click here for another great article on the danger's of Just Faith from the Restore DC Catholicism blog, which has already amply documented the issue.

Click here for a follow-up article on the Marxist tendencies of JustFaith.

17 comments:

Lee said...
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this concise work. I have also had a negative gut reaction to JF ever since it was first introduced to our parish. There are a couple of us who have written to our pastor and asked him to review the program. Recently, the new recruiting efforts for JF were cancelled. Praise God!

We must always be on guard with programs such as these. I also read their guide to a teen lesson on the environment...in part it has the teens standing in a circle around the trappings of materialism, and while they bless themselves silently, the leader is to say aloud - "in the name of the one above us, the one below us and the one around us"

GAG!

Thank you again - I pray more people will come to know this wolf in sheep's clothing and that this program will be denied access to our parishes.

Another convert -
Justin said...
At the local Novus Ordo parish here in Gainesville, Fl they use "Why Catholic" which is a RENEW program. They also used Cardinal Mahony's "We Gather Together Faithfully" to explain the Mass and the Eucharist and one of the guys running for parish council president said of Mahony "I sure hope he sticks around he is a really good catechist." When I told the group and the leaders of it that "Why Catholic" does not teach the Catholic Faith at all they sort of just stared at me dumbfounded.

It would seem that this sort of thing is everywhere today. There is a total revolution still going on in the Catholic Church and almost zero leadership on any level that is trying to stop it. Those of us who have learned the Faith in spite of the rotten catechesis are proof that grace is real. Thanks for showing this program for what it is.
Anonymous said...
Ok Boniface don't do too many things at once.
If I were you I would keep my blog and not play by ruining it all because you might have too much on your plate.
Your knowledge of the Church and its history is greatly value as a blog, just like it is now.

I would caution you not to enlist too many endevours as exciting you might think it will be you will soon find out that you cannot do it all, and on top of it do it well.

Again it is none of my business but I thought I would share my thoughts. The reality is that time is going faster and there is no time for everything, but anyhow good luck with all your plans.

God Bless!
BONIFACE said...
Haham thanks Anonymous. Don't worry, though - I just copied and pasted most of this article, so it's no trouble.

Everybody is perpetually worried that I am doing too many things!
Rose Berger said...
Wow! You guys are really out there. JustFaith is a wonderful program that is bringing people back to church. It deepens faith, teaches a living Catholicism, and encourages Catholic witness in the community. If you don't like the program, or don't find it helpful to what you want in your faith, then by all means don't join a JustFaith group. I've attended several and led a few. I found the information, books, and discussion to be a great help in strengthening my Catholicism and drawing me closer to the Eucharist.
Anonymous said...
Rose, we shouldn't confuse people just because we see some goo results out of the efforts. Truth matters and when you mic truth with lies, people end up with a poorly formed faith. There are plenty of people who have learned good things from the Koran but that doesn't make it good. We should love our faith enough to demand authentic teaching each and every time we discuss/study the faith. Our faith is precious from God and we should expect the best.
God bless an I am glad you have been brought closer to the Holy Eucharist.
Restore-DC-Catholicism said...
Just Faith is a quintessential snake in the grass. Yes, these folks surround themselves with Catholic trappings, but subtly promote liberation theology and dissent from the Church's teachings on sexuality and life. I've blogged extensively on this topic, as this Just Faith mess has infiltrated even my own parish. Please visit http://restore-dc-catholicism.blogspot.com/ and put the words "Just Faith" in that little search box. Read all the posts, as well as the links which are also useful. Thank you.
BONIFACE said...
Thanks, Restore-DC. I linked your article up at the bottom of the post!
Anonymous said...
I have taken JustFaith, and am in my second year as a volunteer facilitator. I have been participating in daily Mass for over 30 years, have gone through the formation of Disciples of Jesus and Mary, and certainly would not accept any teaching of error of our beloved Catholic Church. If there were errors, I would seek to do something about it with those responsible for the curriculum.

I experienced much spiritual growth in the weekly prayer, Scripture, the book and documentary discussion. I have seen much fruit from graduates in our parish—one starting a homeless ministry, another organizing business and community leaders for a civil discourse forum on immigration, another educating that the Church teaches that we are to respect life from conception to natural death, and the problems then with the death penalty, another going door to door in a low income neighborhood. Everyone seems to be inspired to be more involved with helping those in need on a personal level, rather than writing a check.

JustFaith is not about the teaching of sacraments of ordination or marriage, so does not discuss and does NOT promote ordination of women or homosexual marriage. The environmentalism is about stewardship of resources. Social Justice is NOT synonymous with liberation theology, and such articles I think confuse people that they are one and the same.

JustFaith is a dynamic program, and improving. There are more than 4 books in the current curriculum. Two of those criticized here (Cloud of Witnesses and Amazing Grace) have been replaced by others over a year ago. I am not impressed by Phyllis’s effort to dissect and find what she thinks was lacking, or wrong. Instead of tearing down, why is there no mention that she offered her knowledge, gifts, and talents to contribute to the program? If she went to the decision makers, and her concerns were rebuffed, and she enlisted ecclesiastical support, and that too was disregarded, then I would want to hear the concerns that went unheeded.

I invite those who want to grow in understanding, and thereby love of those less fortunate, JustFaith is a great program to facilitate that growth.

God bless,
Janet, dJM
Anonymous said...
It appears that the author and responders is more catholic than Christian. I've been through JF and no, I don't agree with everything but then I don't agree with everything in the catecism. Go back to the Scripture.

Tsid
BONIFACE said...
"More Catholic than Christian?"

To be Catholic is to be Christian in the fullest sense. Go back to the Scripture? We do. That is why we are Catholic and not wishy-washy pan-Christians. If you do not agree with the teachings of the Church, why even call yourself Catholic? Go find a Church that suits *your needs* better. Catholics are expected to follow the Catholic faith.
Kelly Nichols said...
I just went to an inquirers meeting at my Church to hear a presentation of JustFaith, held for the purpose of gaining people to join for this year. I had that FIF (funny internal feeling) as I listened and watched. Not that God was sending me vibes. But nevertheless, I felt uneasy. So I stumbled on your site. I'm going to print the article and give it to my pastor. This will be awkward, because I'm "new," and a recent convert, and may where out my welcome at this parish, since I've already submitted a paper to the pastor on "centering prayer," which he allows to be promoted at this parish also.
Thanks so much,
Kelly
BONIFACE said...
Wow, awesome Kelly. I am glad to help. There are two more posts on this blog about JustFaith - click the JustFaith label at the bottom of the post.
DeniseT said...
I just learned of this blog post yesterday and was dumbfounded. I went through the entire JustFaith program 3 years ago and had a wonderfully positive experience. Every single session included Scripture, prayer and respectful dialogue about complex issues. The members of our small group ran the gamut of the political spectrum, and every single person had a positive experience. For some it was truly life changing: 2 women in the group participated in the parish's mission to Jamaica for the first time ever, both saying it never would have occurred to them to do so before JustFaith. I, and the rest, learned about the Church's encyclicals in a way that we never did before. The average Catholic has no idea what 'Rerum Novarum' means, and this program not only introduced us to the rich aspect of Catholic teaching, but gave us the opportunity to explore it in our everyday world. And never never never was there any mention of the radical views that are described in the blog above. Never. If you are wondering if this program is good or bad, right or wrong, for you or your parish, I encourage you to give it a try and see what it is really about, rather than relying on hearsay.
BONIFACE said...
Denise,

I suppose one's experiences can be different depending on who moderates the sessions, but please note, this post is not based on hearsay, but on quotations from the actual books used by the program. Did your program not use these books?
tom bennett said...
I was exponed to The JustFaith Program as part of The Aspirancy Year for The Permanent. Diaconate in The Archdiocese of Atlanta. From the very beginning I was uneasy with the program: new age rituals, an overdose of Thomas Merton, no official church teaching and a slip of the tongue when the Deacon instructor openly questioned why his daughter could not celebrate all the Sacraments his son could. Ummm...what could he possibly mean? And then there was the film, "Portrait of a Radical," which does nothing to engender a deeper understanding of the Church's social justice doctrine. When I raised concerns about the program, I was brought in to the Archidiocese office and told quote: "You're no longer welcome in the Aspirancy Program." I was dismissed halfway through the Aspirancy Year in Aug 2013. In my opinion, this program is not in keeping with the official magisterium of the Church, is liberation theology and most importantly, not Christ-centered. 6 months later, I have to admit, I am still bothered by the way Iwas treated in a most unchristian like manner. It was shameful.
tom bennett said...
I was exponed to The JustFaith Program as part of The Aspirancy Year for The Permanent. Diaconate in The Archdiocese of Atlanta. From the very beginning I was uneasy with the program: new age rituals, an overdose of Thomas Merton, no official church teaching and a slip of the tongue when the Deacon instructor openly questioned why his daughter could not celebrate all the Sacraments his son could. Ummm...what could he possibly mean? And then there was the film, "Portrait of a Radical," which does nothing to engender a deeper understanding of the Church's social justice doctrine. When I raised concerns about the program, I was brought in to the Archidiocese office and told quote: "You're no longer welcome in the Aspirancy Program." I was dismissed halfway through the Aspirancy Year in Aug 2013. In my opinion, this program is not in keeping with the official magisterium of the Church, is liberation theology and most importantly, not Christ-centered. 6 months later, I have to admit, I am still bothered by the way Iwas treated in a most unchristian like manner. It was shameful.

Friday, May 20, 2016

Is Being Raised by a Transgender Nanny the Reason for President Obama's Recent Decisions?

The assault on Catholic morals from President Obama seem to have its beginning from his youth. This is the reason we must remember the Truth of our Creator:

"Train the young in the way they should go; even when old, they will not swerve from it." Proverbs 22:6

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2110437/Revealed-Barack-Obamas-gay-transgender-prostitute-nanny-cracked-trying-mothers-lipstick.html#ixzz49p5WC1ZF 

By Lee Moran

Barack Obama's gay transgender prostitute nanny who made him laugh by trying on his mother's lipstick
  • Evie, 66, cared for future Commander in Chief she called Barry in late 60s
  • Offered job after she impressed Obama's mother with steak and rice
  • When family left Indonesia, she became a sex worker and now lives in a slum
Barack Obama's former nanny has been revealed as a gay transgender man who made the future president laugh by trying on his mother's lipstick.

'Evie' cared for the boy she called Barry when his mother Ann Dunham moved to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta in the late 1960s.

Openly gay, she would leave the house dressed in full drag - but was very careful that Barack never saw her.

'He was so young and I never let him see me wearing women's clothes,' Evie said. 'But he did see me trying on his mother's lipstick, sometimes. That used to really crack him up.'


The nanny, who turned to prostitution after the family left and now lives in a slum, met the future commander-in-chief's mother at a cocktail party in 1969.

Dunham, who had moved to the country two years earlier with her second husband Lolo Soetoro, sampled Evie's beef steak and fried rice and was so impressed that she offered her a job.

It did not take long before she was also eight-year-old Barack's carer, playing with him and bringing him to and from school.
 
Neighbours recalled they often saw Evie, who believes she is really a woman, leave the house in the evening fully made up and dressed in drag. 
Nanny on left.

But when the family left in the early 1970s, things started going downhill. Evie moved in with a boyfriend. That relationship ended three years later, and she became a sex worker.

She said: 'I tried to get a job as a maid, but no one would hire me. I needed money to buy food, get a place to stay.'

It was a cat-and-mouse game with security guards and - because the country was still under the dictatorship of General Suharto - soldiers.


Nobody knows how many of them live in the sprawling nation of 240million, but activists estimate seven million. 

Because Indonesia is home to more Muslims than any other country in the world, the pervasiveness of men who live as women and vice versa often catches newcomers by surprise. 

They hold the occasional pageant, work as singers or at salons and include well-known celebrity talk show host Dorce Gamalama.

But societal disdain still runs deep - when transgenders act in TV comedies, they are invariably the brunt of the joke. 

They have taken a much lower profile in recent years, following a series of attacks by Muslim hard-liners. 

And the country's highest Islamic body has decreed that they are required to live as they were born because each gender has obligations to fulfil, such as reproduction.

'They must learn to accept their nature,' says Ichwan Syam, a prominent Muslim cleric at the influential Indonesian Ulema Council. 

'If they are not willing to cure themselves medically and religiously' they have 'to accept their fate to be ridiculed and harassed'.

Many transgenders turn to prostitution because jobs are hard to find and because they want to live according to what they believe is their true gender. 

In doing so, they put themselves at risk of contracting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.
The raid that changed everything came in 1985. 


Evie and her friends scattered into dark alleys to escape the swinging batons. One particularly beautiful girl, Susi, jumped into a canal strewn with garbage.

When things quieted, those who ran went back to look for her. 'We searched all night,' said Evie, who is still haunted by the memory of her friend's face. 'Finally ... we found her. It was horrible. Her body swollen, face bashed in.'

Evie decided, then and there, to live the rest of her life as a man. She ditched her tight, flowery dresses, brocade vest and bras.

Now 66, she said: 'I knew in my heart I was a woman, but I didn't want to die like that. So I decided to just accept it. I've been living like this, a man, ever since.'

Several longtime residents of Obama's old Menteng neighbourhood confirmed Turdi had worked there as Barack's nanny for two years, also caring for his baby sister Maya. 

Evie, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name, now lives in a closet-sized hovel in a tightly packed slum in an eastern corner of Jakarta, collecting and scrubbing dirty laundry to pay for food. 

She wears baggy blue jeans and a white T-shirt advertising a tranquil beach resort far away in a place she has never been. She speaks softly, politely, and a deep worry line is etched between her eyes.

As a child, Evie was often beaten by a father who could not stand having such a 'sissy' for a son. She said: 'He wanted me to act like a boy, even though I didn't feel it in my soul.'

Teased and bullied, she dropped out of school after the third grade and decided to learn how to cook.
She made her way into the kitchens of several high-ranking officials by the time she was a teenager.

And then she met Obama's mother. Evie now seeks solace in religion, going regularly to the mosque and praying five times a day. She said she is just waiting to die.

She added that she did not know the boy she helped raise won the 2008 U.S. presidential election until she saw a picture of the family in local newspapers and on TV. She blurted out that she knew him.

Her friends at first laughed and thought she was crazy, but those who live in the family's old neighbourhood confirmed it is true.

'Many neighbours would remember Turdi. She was popular here at that time,' said Rudy Yara, who still lives across the street from Obama's former house. 

'She was a nice person and was always patient and caring in keeping young Barry.'

Evie hopes her former charge will use his power to fight for people like her. Obama named Amanda Simpson, the first openly transgender appointee, as a senior technical adviser in the Commerce Department in 2010.

For Evie, who's now just trying to earn enough to survive each day on Jakarta's streets, the election victory itself was enough to give her a reason - for the first time in a long time - to feel proud.
'Now when people call me scum,' she says, 'I can just say: 'But I was the nanny for the President of the United States!'





Tuesday, May 17, 2016

56 Helpful Hints for Spiritual Spring Cleaning aka Memento Mori

 Momento Mori - 'remember you must die'          (VOCAL - Baby Steps Apply Here)

1) Resist sarcasm; it is the antithesis of mercy: “Set, O Lord, a guard over my mouth; keep watch, O Lord, at the door of my lips!” (Psalm 141:3).

2) Pare down possessions: share your things with the needy.

3) Call someone who you know is lonely, even if you understand why they’re lonely. Especially if you do.

4) Write a letter of forgiveness to someone. If you cannot send it, sprinkle it with holy water, ask Christ Jesus to have mercy on you both and then burn or bury it.

5) Learn to say this prayer: “Dear Lord, bless [annoying person’s name] and have mercy on me!”

6) Plan a mini pilgrimage to a local shrine; make an effort along the way to live the corporal work of mercy of “welcoming the stranger” as Christ.

7) Do something kind and helpful for someone who you don’t get along with, or who has wronged you.

8) Be mindful of your behavior online. Is that post designed to improve your image … and leave others feeling bad? Are you hammering people in order to serve your anger and humiliate others?

9) Have masses said for the living: friends and family members, even strangers you read/hear about, who are having a hard time.

10) Be generous enough to allow someone to help you; people need to feel needed.

11) If you didn’t mean to be a pain in the neck to someone, admit that you were and ask the person to forgive you.

12) Take a tip from Cardinal Timothy Dolan and carry around $5 Starbucks and McDonald’s gift cards for the homeless.

13) Take time in prayer to contemplate the good qualities of someone who is difficult for you. Do the same for each member of your family.

14) Send a card, flowers, gift or note to someone on the six-month anniversary of his or her loved one’s death. By then most people have stopped recognizing their grief.

15) Offer to babysit for a busy mom to go out and have a couple of hours to herself.

16) Make a meal (or buy a gift certificate) for a mom who’s just given birth or adopted a child, or for someone who’s just gone through a loss.

17) Hold. Your. Tongue.

18) Offer to run an errand (groceries, dry cleaning pick up, dog-walking) for a busy parent or home bound person.

19) If you can’t sit down beside a homeless person to talk for a while today, at least send a donation to a ministry that does do this.
.
20) If you’re sharing a treat, take the smaller portion.

21) Memorize the 14 corporal and spiritual works of mercy and show your children what they mean.

22) Instead of losing patience with someone online (or in person), try to hear their fear. Ask God for what Solomon asked for: “an understanding heart.”

23) Offer to drive an elderly person to Mass.

24) Recall a time you were not given a benefit of a doubt, and extend one to someone else.

25) Put down the phone and really listen to someone else. With eye contact.

26) Have alternative drinks, other than water, for times when those who have been struggling with alcohol come to visit.

26) Take advantage of sales to buy small toothpastes, soaps, shampoos, socks and feminine products/toiletries; donate them to parish outreach, or make gift bags and have them ready to hand out where needed.

27) Read John Paul II’s “Dives in misericordia” bit-by-bit through the year.

28) Create a short end-of-day ritual to ask for (and extend) forgiveness with those you live with. “…do not let the sun set on your anger” (Eph 4:26).

29) Make a list of your “enemies.” Then, every day, say a prayer for them.

30) Make a point to smile, greet or make conversation with someone who is not in your everyday circle.

31) Give away something of yours (that you really like) to someone you know who would enjoy it.

32) Pray a Divine Mercy Chaplet as you are traveling to or from work.

33) When mercy for others is difficult, pray Cardinal Merry del Val’s Litany of Humility.

34) Make a gratitude journal for your spouse and jot down little things he or she does that you’re
grateful for. Bite your tongue and go write in it (or at least read it) the next time you want to criticize in a moment of frustration.

35) Learn to make an Ignatian “Examen” every night. Remembering God’s mercy each night helps us to be merciful.

36) Respond to provocation with the respect you wish a person would show you.

37) Learn the Jesus Prayer and use it.

38) Take a few minutes during the week to stop at a church and sit before the Tabernacle, simply to be with Christ, the Merciful. If you cannot do that, meditate upon the crucifix.

39) Pray a novena for the good of someone you dislike.

40) Dig out your most attractive stationary and hand-write an actual letter to someone, as a means of demonstrating their importance to you.

41) Offer to read to someone who is feeling ill or is just feeling blue.

42) Ask the Holy Spirit to groan for you when you cannot bring yourself to pray for someone who has done you an injury.

43) Lead with a kind comment with friends as well as strangers.

44) When conversations devolve into “the dark joy” of gossip, help change the subject.

45) Can you play the piano, or any instrument? Can you recite poetry? Give free “concerts” to the forgotten people in nursing homes and assisted living centers


46) Visit the graves of your ancestors, or visit a local cemetery and walk around praying a rosary for all the souls buried there

47) Go On Retreat. It’s a way to be merciful to yourself and also to the people around you, who know you need to go on retreat. If you cannot do that, at least try to make a day, or evening, of recollection.
48) Admit your jealousy, both to yourself and your confessor.

49) Offer to pray with someone, even someone you encounter on the street or public transport who looks like they could use it.

50) Keep holy cards, short prayers, or blessed medals handy and give them out to people you meet as you are inspired as a blessing to others.

51) Offer hospitality in your home to someone or a group of people you would normally never invite over.

52) With a few other people at your church, plan a party and invite all those from “the highways and byways” to come.

53) If someone you know seems to lack faith, share some of yours — tell him or her how Christ has changed your life.

54) Pay the parking or toll fee for the person behind you.

55) Give the much-maligned Pope Benedict XVI a fair reading sometime. You’ll be surprised.

56) Pray every day for the souls in Purgatory. Pray for your dead.

Monday, May 9, 2016

Cardinal Burke destroys Cupich’s claim that pope’s exhortation is a ‘game changer’

April 11, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Burke’s first reaction to Pope Francis’ controversial post-synodal exhortation Amoris Laetitia takes aim at those who claim it is a “revolution” in the Church’s practices.

Featured ImageThe most notable advocate of that view in the U.S. is Chicago’s Archbishop Blase Cupich, who called the exhortation a “game changer” that could relax the Church’s approach to Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried and those in same-sex relationships.

Cupich’s take was echoed by German Cardinal Walter Kasper, the leading proponent of the practice. “There are openings there, clearly,” for Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried, Kasper said, according to the German Bishops’ official website. He called the exhortation a “remarkable document.”

In his article for the National Catholic Register today, Cardinal Burke criticizes those who see the exhortation as “a revolution in the Church, as a radical departure from the teaching and practice of the Church, up to now, regarding marriage and the family.”

He continues: “Such a view of the document is both a source of wonder and confusion to the faithful, and potentially a source of scandal not only for the faithful but for others of good will who look to Christ and his Church to teach and reflect in practice the truth regarding marriage and its fruit, family life, the first cell of the life of the Church and of every society.”

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune on Friday, Cupich argued that Amoris Laetitia could normalize his approach to those living in what the Catholic Church considers to be objectively sinful situations, such as second marriages when a first marriage hasn’t been declared null and same-sex relationships.

Cupich told the Tribune, “There's not really any doctrine as such that's changed, but there is, I think, a very fresh way that will strike Catholic people in the pews and the priests about how we pastorally deal with people, especially those people whose lives are really very complicated.”

The Tribune reported that although Amoris Laetitia doesn’t grant comprehensive permission for the divorced and remarried to receive Holy Communion, “it invites them to a conversation and discernment process with their pastors that could lead them to communion one day.”
Cupich said:
There is a mindset within the life of the church among Catholics that if in fact they do have marriage breakups and they get into a second marriage that [it’s] kind of over for them unless they can get an annulment. The pope is saying that's not the case. I do think that maybe some priests have been working with people in their own counseling. This is an official way in which we're being encouraged to stay close to those people and reach out to them.
Catholic doctrine specifically teaches that unless those who are divorced and re-married have had previous marriages annulled or are living as brother and sister with their second spouse, then they are committing adultery and should not receive Holy Communion.

The Tribune reported, “Cupich said he hopes the pope's guidelines show divorced and remarried Catholics that they do still belong in the church and give license to priests, like himself, who have been taking that approach for a while.”

Cupich implied that Amoris Laetitia should also open the door to the potential for Holy Communion for those in same-sex relationships. The Tribune writes:
Cupich said that although the pope clarifies that same-sex marriage is not analogous to the church’s definition for marriage, when it comes to inclusion in the life of the church, the same guidelines apply.
“You can’t have one particular approach for a certain group of people and not for everybody,” the archbishop said.  “Everyone has the ability to form their conscience well.”
Cupich failed to clarify that the Catholic Church teaches that, “A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself. Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed.  This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man ‘takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin.’ In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits” (CCC 1790 - 1791).

Cardinal Burke, the patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the former Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, offered a sharp contrast to Kasper’s and Cupich’s claims.

In his article at the National Catholic Register, Burke wrote that Amoris Laetitia must be read through the lens of magisterial Catholic doctrine:
With the publication of Amoris Laetitia, the task of pastors and other teachers of the faith is to present it within the context of the Church’s teaching and discipline, so that it serves to build up the Body of Christ in its first cell of life, which is marriage and the family. In other words, the post-synodal apostolic exhortation can only be correctly interpreted, as a non-magisterial document, using the key of the Magisterium as it is described in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (85-87).
Burke argued that Pope Francis’s exhortation contains the pope’s thoughts but doesn’t change Church teaching or practice. “The Catholic Church…never held that every utterance of the Successor of St. Peter should be received as part of her infallible magisterium,” he wrote.

“Pope Francis makes clear, from the beginning, that the post-synodal apostolic exhortation is not an act of the magisterium (No. 3),” Burke wrote. “The very form of the document confirms the same. It is written as a reflection of the Holy Father on the work of the last two sessions of the Synod of Bishops.”

Burke adds that the Church takes care that "a personal reflection of the Pope, while received with the respect owed to his person, is not confused with the binding faith owed to the exercise of the magisterium."

“Certain commentators confuse such respect,” which is rightly due to the Pope, “with a supposed obligation to ‘believe with divine and Catholic faith’ (Canon 750, § 1) everything contained in the document,” says Burke. “But the Catholic Church, while insisting on the respect owed to the Petrine Office as instituted by Our Lord Himself, has never held that every utterance of the Successor of St. Peter should be received as part of her infallible Magisterium.”

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

"Catholic Colleges Embrace ‘Demonic’ Gender Ideology in Housing Policies"

For Catholic parents with college-bound students please take note of the changes in policy that will very much effect your child if you/or they are paying for their further education.  There are many viable alternatives if you find a college that is having an identity crisis.  VOCAL

 
The College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit, Catholic institution in Worcester, Mass., will implement a new housing policy in the 2016-2017 academic year that embraces gender ideology, which Pope Francis has called “demonic” and a threat to the family.

The updated housing policy “will allow students of different sexes to room together based on gender identity,” according to an April 29, 2016, report in the campus newspaper The Crusader.

At the University of San Francisco (USF), the gender-inclusive housing description was recently updated to indicate that students at the Jesuit-run institution should develop their own understanding about gender identity, including recognition that “human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth.”

The College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit, Catholic institution in Worcester, Mass., will implement a new housing policy in the 2016-2017 academic year that embraces gender ideology, which Pope Francis has called “demonic” and a threat to the family.

The updated housing policy “will allow students of different sexes to room together based on gender identity,” according to an April 29, 2016, report in the campus newspaper The Crusader.

At the University of San Francisco (USF), the gender-inclusive housing description was recently updated to indicate that students at the Jesuit-run institution should develop their own understanding about gender identity, including recognition that “human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth.”

Pope Francis, a Jesuit, reportedly called gender ideology “demonic” in an exchange with Austrian Bishop Andreas Laun. And the Holy Father has stated that the promotion of this ideology — which rejects the creation of human beings as male and female in the image and likeness of God — contributes to the destruction of the family.

Holy Cross says its housing of students on the basis of gender identity is “required by applicable law,” and cites Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972 in the policy section. Students who want to request housing based on gender identity are asked to contact Assistant Dean and Director of Residence Life and Housing Ed Coolbaugh.

The full section related to gender identity in the student housing agreement reads:

The College maintains separate housing for the different sexes as permitted by applicable law, including Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972. The College also assigns housing on the basis of gender identity as required by applicable law. Please contact the Assistant Dean/Director of Residence Life and Housing, Ed Coolbaugh, at (508) 793-2664 or by email at ecoolbau@holycross.edu to request a housing assignment on the basis of gender identity and to obtain further information. Requests for assignment in accordance with gender identity must be sent in advance of the applicable published housing selection deadline. The Office of Residence Life & Housing will for each housing selection process cycle establish a date in advance of the applicable housing selection deadline by which requests for assignment in accordance with gender identity must be received by that office. The deadline for the 2016-2017 academic year is April 1, 2016.

The Cardinal Newman Society asked Coolbaugh about the promotion of gender ideology with the implementation of this policy. Coolbaugh was also asked if there was any discussion at Holy Cross about requesting a religious exemption from Title IX with the U.S. Department of Education to protect the college from implementing gender identity policies. Religious colleges and schools can request exemptions from Title IX if the law’s requirements conflict with their religious tenets. No response was received by time of publication.

The Crusader reported that the policy change at Holy Cross was spearheaded by a student who was concerned about the housing policy “as someone who identifies as genderqueer, neither male nor female.” The article also revealed that the College includes a “transgender designation on housing forms” for freshmen.

Gender-Inclusive Housing at USF

Last February, the Newman Society reported on a pilot program launched for the 2015-2016 academic year at USF to offer “gender-inclusive housing” to students who “identify as transgender” or “do not wish to be identified by any sex or gender identity.” A representative of the University told the Newman Society the program was scheduled to continue in the next academic year.

USF has since updated the description of their gender-inclusive housing, calling it “a safe, affirming, and inclusive community living option for students of the following identities and lived experiences”:

-Transgender students
-Gender queer students
-Students who are currently transitioning from one gender to another (i.e. transitioning from male to female or female to male)
-Students who do not conform to society’s expectations of their assigned gender at birth
-Students who do not wish to be identified by any sex or gender identity
-Students who are in the process of discovering their gender identity
-Students who appreciate and respect people with the above identities and lived experiences, and who would prefer to live in a community comprised of such

In addition to allowing biological males to room with biological females, USF’s gender-inclusive housing encourages male and female students to use the same bathroom facilities. “The bathroom is a communal bathroom and is shared by all members of the community (regardless of gender, gender identity, gender expression, or sex).”

Among the “community standards” for the gender-inclusive housing is recognition that human beings are not created male and female, contradicting the words of Genesis and the teachings of the Church: “’God created man in his own image . . . male and female he created them.’”
The standards include:

-Modeling behavior that reflects a positive value and respect for gender as a non-binary construct (human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth)
-Openness and desire to develop one’s own understanding about gender identity, sexual orientation, and other differences
-Working to create and promote a safe, affirming, and inclusive community for all students
-Use of inclusive and socially just language and the preferred names and gender pronouns of community members
-Education of guests about the values and community expectations of the gender inclusive community

Gender Ideology and Church Teaching

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) compiled a number of Pope Francis’ statements on the harms of gender ideology in a resource document published in December 2015. The document includes excerpts from various sources citing Church teaching on gender ideology.

The resource quotes Pope Francis from an address given in March last year calling gender ideology a
“mistake of the human mind.”

“The crisis of the family is a societal fact. There are also ideological colonializations of the family, different paths and proposals in Europe and also coming from overseas.” he said. “Then, there is the mistake of the human mind — gender theory — creating so much confusion.”

The document also points to a statement made by the Holy Father in April 2015 saying the embrace of gender ideology “creates a problem, not a solution.”

He said gender theory is “an expression of frustration and resignation, which seeks to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it. Yes, we risk taking a step backwards. The removal of difference in fact creates a problem, not a solution.”

Additionally, the resource points to statements made by U.S. bishops against the embrace and promotion of gender identity.

In a July 2014 statement responding to President Obama’s executive order on “gender identity discrimination,” Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore and Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo, N.Y., speaking on behalf of the USCCB, called gender identity a “false idea that ‘gender’ is nothing more than a social construct or psychological reality that can be chosen at variance from one’s biological sex.”

The bishops added that this understanding of gender identity presented “a deeply flawed understanding of human sexuality, to which faithful Catholics and many other people of faith will not assent.”

In his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia released last month, Pope Francis used language from his 2015 encyclical letter Laudato Si’ to explain the duty of Catholic educators to teach young people about the biological realities of God’s creation:

[T]he young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created, for “thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation… An appreciation of our body as male or female is also necessary for our own self-awareness in an encounter with others different from ourselves. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment.” Only by losing the fear of being different, can we be freed of self-centredness and self-absorption. Sex education should help young people to accept their own bodies and to avoid the pretension “to cancel out sexual difference because one no longer knows how to deal with it.”

Title IX

In April 2014, the Obama administration expanded Title IX  to include “discrimination based on gender identity or failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity.” The expansion of the law was done without any action by Congress.

“Congress did not intend, when it adopted Title IX in 1972, to reach the question of gender identity. If Congress wants to change that, they can, but it’s inappropriate for an administrative branch agency to rewrite the law under the guise of interpretation,” Greg Baylor, senior counsel and director of the center for religious schools at Alliance Defending Freedom, previously told the Newman Society. He added that Congress also decided in 1972 “that if compliance with Title IX would be inconsistent with a school’s religious tenets, then the schools will be exempt from those requirements that are in conflict with their religious beliefs.”

The Department of Education published a searchable database last week of all the colleges that have requested religious exemptions to Title IX. LGBT activist groups urged the Obama administration to publish the list of colleges, which the activists claim are engaging in “discrimination.”

Since the changes to Title IX in 2014, four Catholic colleges have been granted religious exemptions by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights: Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, N.C., St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee, Okla., and John Paul the Great Catholic University in Escondido, Calif. A waiver request made by the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas, is still pending. All five colleges are recommended as faithful Catholic institutions in The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College.  (VOCAL changed font to bold type)

Abbot Placid Solari, O.S.B., chancellor of Belmont Abbey, told the Newman Society last December that the broadening of Title IX to include gender identity threatened the College’s religious mission, and would force the College to advocate practices that are “spiritually harmful.”

“A policy which would legitimize gender identity issues … would, first of all, abdicate the responsibility of the college community as a whole to act in accord with its fundamental identity as a community which publicly identifies itself as in communion with the Catholic Church,” he said. He added that such a policy “would contradict fidelity to the Christian message as it comes through the Church” and “would abdicate responsibility to serve the transcendent goal of life by advocating practices which, according to the Church's teaching, are spiritually harmful.”

The Newman Society has called on all Catholic colleges to apply for the Title IX exemption to protect their Catholic identity.

“Catholic colleges have a duty to uphold Catholic teaching about the human person, especially in the area of residence life,” said Adam Wilson, managing editor of The Newman Guide and author of the report Visitation Policies at U.S. Catholic Colleges. “In one respect, it comes as no surprise when Catholic colleges that set no hour limits for opposite-sex visitation, such as College of the Holy Cross and USF, drift further from Catholic ethos. But by catering to trends that contradict the faith, such institutions are cheating students of precious opportunities to grow in virtue through authentic Catholic formation.”
The College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit, Catholic institution in Worcester, Mass., will implement a new housing policy in the 2016-2017 academic year that embraces gender ideology, which Pope Francis has called “demonic” and a threat to the family.
The updated housing policy “will allow students of different sexes to room together based on gender identity,” according to an April 29, 2016, report in the campus newspaper The Crusader.
At the University of San Francisco (USF), the gender-inclusive housing description was recently updated to indicate that students at the Jesuit-run institution should develop their own understanding about gender identity, including recognition that “human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth.”
Pope Francis, a Jesuit, reportedly called gender ideology “demonic” in an exchange with Austrian Bishop Andreas Laun. And the Holy Father has stated that the promotion of this ideology — which rejects the creation of human beings as male and female in the image and likeness of God — contributes to the destruction of the family.
Holy Cross says its housing of students on the basis of gender identity is “required by applicable law,” and cites Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972 in the policy section. Students who want to request housing based on gender identity are asked to contact Assistant Dean and Director of Residence Life and Housing Ed Coolbaugh.
The full section related to gender identity in the student housing agreement reads:
- See more at: http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/4880/Catholic-Colleges-Embrace-%E2%80%98Demonic%E2%80%99-Gender-Ideology-in-Housing-Policies.aspx#sthash.AfnsXIx9.dpuf

Catholic Colleges Embrace ‘Demonic’ Gender Ideology in Housing Policies

The College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit, Catholic institution in Worcester, Mass., will implement a new housing policy in the 2016-2017 academic year that embraces gender ideology, which Pope Francis has called “demonic” and a threat to the family.
The updated housing policy “will allow students of different sexes to room together based on gender identity,” according to an April 29, 2016, report in the campus newspaper The Crusader.
At the University of San Francisco (USF), the gender-inclusive housing description was recently updated to indicate that students at the Jesuit-run institution should develop their own understanding about gender identity, including recognition that “human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth.”
Pope Francis, a Jesuit, reportedly called gender ideology “demonic” in an exchange with Austrian Bishop Andreas Laun. And the Holy Father has stated that the promotion of this ideology — which rejects the creation of human beings as male and female in the image and likeness of God — contributes to the destruction of the family.
Holy Cross says its housing of students on the basis of gender identity is “required by applicable law,” and cites Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972 in the policy section. Students who want to request housing based on gender identity are asked to contact Assistant Dean and Director of Residence Life and Housing Ed Coolbaugh.
The full section related to gender identity in the student housing agreement reads:
The College maintains separate housing for the different sexes as permitted by applicable law, including Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972. The College also assigns housing on the basis of gender identity as required by applicable law. Please contact the Assistant Dean/Director of Residence Life and Housing, Ed Coolbaugh, at (508) 793-2664 or by email at ecoolbau@holycross.edu to request a housing assignment on the basis of gender identity and to obtain further information. Requests for assignment in accordance with gender identity must be sent in advance of the applicable published housing selection deadline. The Office of Residence Life & Housing will for each housing selection process cycle establish a date in advance of the applicable housing selection deadline by which requests for assignment in accordance with gender identity must be received by that office. The deadline for the 2016-2017 academic year is April 1, 2016.
The Cardinal Newman Society asked Coolbaugh about the promotion of gender ideology with the implementation of this policy. Coolbaugh was also asked if there was any discussion at Holy Cross about requesting a religious exemption from Title IX with the U.S. Department of Education to protect the college from implementing gender identity policies. Religious colleges and schools can request exemptions from Title IX if the law’s requirements conflict with their religious tenets. No response was received by time of publication.
The Crusader reported that the policy change at Holy Cross was spearheaded by a student who was concerned about the housing policy “as someone who identifies as genderqueer, neither male nor female.” The article also revealed that the College includes a “transgender designation on housing forms” for freshmen.
Gender-Inclusive Housing at USF
Last February, the Newman Society reported on a pilot program launched for the 2015-2016 academic year at USF to offer “gender-inclusive housing” to students who “identify as transgender” or “do not wish to be identified by any sex or gender identity.” A representative of the University told the Newman Society the program was scheduled to continue in the next academic year.
USF has since updated the description of their gender-inclusive housing, calling it “a safe, affirming, and inclusive community living option for students of the following identities and lived experiences”:
-Transgender students
-Gender queer students
-Students who are currently transitioning from one gender to another (i.e. transitioning from male to female or female to male)
-Students who do not conform to society’s expectations of their assigned gender at birth
-Students who do not wish to be identified by any sex or gender identity
-Students who are in the process of discovering their gender identity
-Students who appreciate and respect people with the above identities and lived experiences, and who would prefer to live in a community comprised of such
In addition to allowing biological males to room with biological females, USF’s gender-inclusive housing encourages male and female students to use the same bathroom facilities. “The bathroom is a communal bathroom and is shared by all members of the community (regardless of gender, gender identity, gender expression, or sex).”
Among the “community standards” for the gender-inclusive housing is recognition that human beings are not created male and female, contradicting the words of Genesis and the teachings of the Church: “’God created man in his own image . . . male and female he created them.’”
The standards include:
-Modeling behavior that reflects a positive value and respect for gender as a non-binary construct (human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth)
-Openness and desire to develop one’s own understanding about gender identity, sexual orientation, and other differences
-Working to create and promote a safe, affirming, and inclusive community for all students
-Use of inclusive and socially just language and the preferred names and gender pronouns of community members
-Education of guests about the values and community expectations of the gender inclusive community
Gender Ideology and Church Teaching
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) compiled a number of Pope Francis’ statements on the harms of gender ideology in a resource document published in December 2015. The document includes excerpts from various sources citing Church teaching on gender ideology.
The resource quotes Pope Francis from an address given in March last year calling gender ideology a “mistake of the human mind.”
“The crisis of the family is a societal fact. There are also ideological colonializations of the family, different paths and proposals in Europe and also coming from overseas.” he said. “Then, there is the mistake of the human mind — gender theory — creating so much confusion.”
The document also points to a statement made by the Holy Father in April 2015 saying the embrace of gender ideology “creates a problem, not a solution.”
He said gender theory is “an expression of frustration and resignation, which seeks to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it. Yes, we risk taking a step backwards. The removal of difference in fact creates a problem, not a solution.”
Additionally, the resource points to statements made by U.S. bishops against the embrace and promotion of gender identity.
In a July 2014 statement responding to President Obama’s executive order on “gender identity discrimination,” Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore and Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo, N.Y., speaking on behalf of the USCCB, called gender identity a “false idea that ‘gender’ is nothing more than a social construct or psychological reality that can be chosen at variance from one’s biological sex.”
The bishops added that this understanding of gender identity presented “a deeply flawed understanding of human sexuality, to which faithful Catholics and many other people of faith will not assent.”
In his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia released last month, Pope Francis used language from his 2015 encyclical letter Laudato Si’ to explain the duty of Catholic educators to teach young people about the biological realities of God’s creation:
[T]he young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created, for “thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation… An appreciation of our body as male or female is also necessary for our own self-awareness in an encounter with others different from ourselves. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment.” Only by losing the fear of being different, can we be freed of self-centredness and self-absorption. Sex education should help young people to accept their own bodies and to avoid the pretension “to cancel out sexual difference because one no longer knows how to deal with it.”
Title IX
In April 2014, the Obama administration expanded Title IX  to include “discrimination based on gender identity or failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity.” The expansion of the law was done without any action by Congress.
“Congress did not intend, when it adopted Title IX in 1972, to reach the question of gender identity. If Congress wants to change that, they can, but it’s inappropriate for an administrative branch agency to rewrite the law under the guise of interpretation,” Greg Baylor, senior counsel and director of the center for religious schools at Alliance Defending Freedom, previously told the Newman Society. He added that Congress also decided in 1972 “that if compliance with Title IX would be inconsistent with a school’s religious tenets, then the schools will be exempt from those requirements that are in conflict with their religious beliefs.”
The Department of Education published a searchable database last week of all the colleges that have requested religious exemptions to Title IX. LGBT activist groups urged the Obama administration to publish the list of colleges, which the activists claim are engaging in “discrimination.”
Since the changes to Title IX in 2014, four Catholic colleges have been granted religious exemptions by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights: Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, N.C., St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee, Okla., and John Paul the Great Catholic University in Escondido, Calif. A waiver request made by the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas, is still pending. All five colleges are recommended as faithful Catholic institutions in The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College.
Abbot Placid Solari, O.S.B., chancellor of Belmont Abbey, told the Newman Society last December that the broadening of Title IX to include gender identity threatened the College’s religious mission, and would force the College to advocate practices that are “spiritually harmful.”
“A policy which would legitimize gender identity issues … would, first of all, abdicate the responsibility of the college community as a whole to act in accord with its fundamental identity as a community which publicly identifies itself as in communion with the Catholic Church,” he said. He added that such a policy “would contradict fidelity to the Christian message as it comes through the Church” and “would abdicate responsibility to serve the transcendent goal of life by advocating practices which, according to the Church's teaching, are spiritually harmful.”
The Newman Society has called on all Catholic colleges to apply for the Title IX exemption to protect their Catholic identity.
“Catholic colleges have a duty to uphold Catholic teaching about the human person, especially in the area of residence life,” said Adam Wilson, managing editor of The Newman Guide and author of the report Visitation Policies at U.S. Catholic Colleges. “In one respect, it comes as no surprise when Catholic colleges that set no hour limits for opposite-sex visitation, such as College of the Holy Cross and USF, drift further from Catholic ethos. But by catering to trends that contradict the faith, such institutions are cheating students of precious opportunities to grow in virtue through authentic Catholic formation.”
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The College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit, Catholic institution in Worcester, Mass., will implement a new housing policy in the 2016-2017 academic year that embraces gender ideology, which Pope Francis has called “demonic” and a threat to the family.
The updated housing policy “will allow students of different sexes to room together based on gender identity,” according to an April 29, 2016, report in the campus newspaper The Crusader.
At the University of San Francisco (USF), the gender-inclusive housing description was recently updated to indicate that students at the Jesuit-run institution should develop their own understanding about gender identity, including recognition that “human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth.”
Pope Francis, a Jesuit, reportedly called gender ideology “demonic” in an exchange with Austrian Bishop Andreas Laun. And the Holy Father has stated that the promotion of this ideology — which rejects the creation of human beings as male and female in the image and likeness of God — contributes to the destruction of the family.
Holy Cross says its housing of students on the basis of gender identity is “required by applicable law,” and cites Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972 in the policy section. Students who want to request housing based on gender identity are asked to contact Assistant Dean and Director of Residence Life and Housing Ed Coolbaugh.
The full section related to gender identity in the student housing agreement reads:
The College maintains separate housing for the different sexes as permitted by applicable law, including Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972. The College also assigns housing on the basis of gender identity as required by applicable law. Please contact the Assistant Dean/Director of Residence Life and Housing, Ed Coolbaugh, at (508) 793-2664 or by email at ecoolbau@holycross.edu to request a housing assignment on the basis of gender identity and to obtain further information. Requests for assignment in accordance with gender identity must be sent in advance of the applicable published housing selection deadline. The Office of Residence Life & Housing will for each housing selection process cycle establish a date in advance of the applicable housing selection deadline by which requests for assignment in accordance with gender identity must be received by that office. The deadline for the 2016-2017 academic year is April 1, 2016.
The Cardinal Newman Society asked Coolbaugh about the promotion of gender ideology with the implementation of this policy. Coolbaugh was also asked if there was any discussion at Holy Cross about requesting a religious exemption from Title IX with the U.S. Department of Education to protect the college from implementing gender identity policies. Religious colleges and schools can request exemptions from Title IX if the law’s requirements conflict with their religious tenets. No response was received by time of publication.
The Crusader reported that the policy change at Holy Cross was spearheaded by a student who was concerned about the housing policy “as someone who identifies as genderqueer, neither male nor female.” The article also revealed that the College includes a “transgender designation on housing forms” for freshmen.
Gender-Inclusive Housing at USF
Last February, the Newman Society reported on a pilot program launched for the 2015-2016 academic year at USF to offer “gender-inclusive housing” to students who “identify as transgender” or “do not wish to be identified by any sex or gender identity.” A representative of the University told the Newman Society the program was scheduled to continue in the next academic year.
USF has since updated the description of their gender-inclusive housing, calling it “a safe, affirming, and inclusive community living option for students of the following identities and lived experiences”:
-Transgender students
-Gender queer students
-Students who are currently transitioning from one gender to another (i.e. transitioning from male to female or female to male)
-Students who do not conform to society’s expectations of their assigned gender at birth
-Students who do not wish to be identified by any sex or gender identity
-Students who are in the process of discovering their gender identity
-Students who appreciate and respect people with the above identities and lived experiences, and who would prefer to live in a community comprised of such
In addition to allowing biological males to room with biological females, USF’s gender-inclusive housing encourages male and female students to use the same bathroom facilities. “The bathroom is a communal bathroom and is shared by all members of the community (regardless of gender, gender identity, gender expression, or sex).”
Among the “community standards” for the gender-inclusive housing is recognition that human beings are not created male and female, contradicting the words of Genesis and the teachings of the Church: “’God created man in his own image . . . male and female he created them.’”
The standards include:
-Modeling behavior that reflects a positive value and respect for gender as a non-binary construct (human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth)
-Openness and desire to develop one’s own understanding about gender identity, sexual orientation, and other differences
-Working to create and promote a safe, affirming, and inclusive community for all students
-Use of inclusive and socially just language and the preferred names and gender pronouns of community members
-Education of guests about the values and community expectations of the gender inclusive community
Gender Ideology and Church Teaching
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