{"id":2754,"date":"2007-03-02T10:05:46","date_gmt":"2007-03-02T10:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/bishop-vasa-speaks.html"},"modified":"2007-03-02T10:05:46","modified_gmt":"2007-03-02T10:05:46","slug":"bishop-vasa-speaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/bishop-vasa-speaks.html","title":{"rendered":"Bishop Vasa speaks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bishop Vasa is making news today because of his not-so-veiled references to a Certain Prominent Catholic Politician in a recent column.<\/a> I’ll get to the veiled reference in a moment, but I think it’s good to note the context: a column about the catechumenate process, noting what happens in the Rite of Election and beyond.<\/a> He thanks all of those involved in this ministry, reminds his readers to pray for and support those who will be initiated and entering into full Communion with the Church at the Easter Vigil, and points out:<\/p>\n

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The Candidates recite the Creed and then add their personal attestation and commitment. It is this personal commitment which constitutes the heart of their conversion to the Catholic Faith. The phrase which is added is this: \u201cI believe and profess all that the Holy Catholic Church teaches, believes and proclaims to be revealed by God.\u201d It is a moment of great freedom; a moment of abandonment of oneself into the hands of God and into the teachings of the Catholic Church. It is an unconditional \u201cyes\u201d to Jesus while at the same time recognizing that we may never completely know all that this \u201cyes\u201d entails. <\/p>\n

Nonetheless the commitment is made, the pledge is spoken and it is then sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation. This commitment recognizes that believing is a graced choice and not merely a feeling; it is a decision. It is a decision which irrevocably alters the whole of the rest of our lives. It is a decision which alters how we see the world. <\/p>\n

For example, the commitment of Faith entails certain beliefs about the Most Holy Eucharist. The Church teaches that the bread consecrated at Mass really and truly becomes the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My attestation of faith confirms that I choose, in response to the grace of Faith, to believe this. Once I make this commitment of faith, my own \u201cI believe\u201d, then it is incumbent upon me to live in a way consistent with that profession of belief. It is radically inconsistent to declare on the one hand that I believe the Eucharist is truly our Lord and at the same time to conclude that I owe no special deference or honor to that Eucharistic Lord. The conclusion belies the declaration.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yes…you see where he’s going:<\/p>\n

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Some months ago a prominent Catholic public person, described as faithful to the church, was asked if being pro-choice or pro-abortion was an issue which conflicted with the Catholic Faith. Here is what was said: \u201cTo me it isn\u2019t even a question. God has given us a free will. We\u2019re all responsible for our actions. If you don\u2019t want an abortion, you don\u2019t believe in it, then don\u2019t have one. But don\u2019t tell somebody else what they can do in terms of honoring their responsibilities.\u201d According to a close relative the choice to have an abortion or not to have an abortion had no moral component whatsoever. \u201cThey were just choices.\u201d <\/p>\n

It seems to me that there are just choices and there are unjust choices. Choices would be the preference for chocolate ice cream over vanilla ice cream or sherbet instead of ice cream. That is just a choice. <\/p>\n

A just choice would be to choose to pay a fair and living wage to employees as opposed to simply meeting the mandatory standard of minimum wage laws. An unjust choice would be to choose to terminate the life of another human being. This is not just a choice and it is not a just choice; it is an unjust choice. <\/p>\n

Furthermore it is an unjust choice which is diametrically opposed to the clear and consistent teaching of the Catholic Church as well as to the clear and consistent teaching of God Himself in the Ten Commandments. The direct, intentional taking of the life of an innocent human being is inhumane and unjust. It is not just a choice! <\/p>\n

It is categorically impossible for the same person to state that he or she believes simultaneously both what the Catholic Church teaches and that abortion is just a choice. What we believe must inform what we do. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bishop Vasa is making news today because of his not-so-veiled references to a Certain Prominent Catholic Politician in a recent column. I’ll get to the veiled reference in a moment, but I think it’s good to note the context: a column about the catechumenate process, noting what happens in the Rite of Election and beyond.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nBishop Vasa speaks - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/bishop-vasa-speaks.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bishop Vasa speaks - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bishop Vasa is making news today because of his not-so-veiled references to a Certain Prominent Catholic Politician in a recent column. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}